Tony Francis was a familiar face around the north of England and especially in Blackpool where he lived. He was a prime mover in all things wrestling;: wrestler and promoter. His wrestling shows included piers and ball rooms, halls and clubs. He employed many Manchester based wrestlers on his shows and he wrestled on many of them himself, He was a pleasant and friendly man but this could change once he got in the ring. He was a hard and skilled wrestler as I know from personal experience having wrestled him about a dozen times over the years.
This month is the anniversary of his death. I think of him with a sad smile and remember how much he contributed to wrestling as a wrestler and a promoter but mostly as a kind nd generous man and a good friend.
Eddie Rose (Manchester).
I have mixed feelings about Tony Francis. It would have been better if contact with him had stopped in 1987 when he stopped wrestling for me and had not been renewed when I started contributing to this site some five or so years ago. Bobby Barron was wrestling for me and I was refereeing for him, particularly on his two shows in Pontin's, Prestatyn, where I had a caravan. It was whilst doing these shows that I encountered Tony. As Eddie states, he was a pleasant and friendly man and he gave me much useful advice at the time. He usually wrestled villain on the shows where I encountered him, either as Tony Francis or in the bonnet under a variety of monickers.
The whole point of contributing to this site is to have fun; to reminisce about times past. Not to get into unpleasant slanging matches and arguments. But this is what happened with Tony. He would challenge my various postings and contradict me and, to underline his point, to type it out in large angry capitals.
An example which completely baffled me was a post I contributed about a booking I gave him in the ballroom of The Dixon Arms in Chelford (now luxury flats). I booked him against Abe Ginsberg who, due to his work on Radio Piccadilly as a DJ and his frequent visits to The Rovers Return where he could be seen playing darts with Bobo Matu amongst others, had become something of a blue eye, and was intending to bill him (Tony) as The Masked Destroyer, a monicker I had billed him under previously. He asked me however to consider billing him as Black Jack Milligan. I forget the full explanation for this but I recall him telling me that the surname Milligan was in the family history and that Barron had started billing him as Milligan. The obvious intention was to fool the casual punter into thinking it was Black Jack Mulligan (Larry Coulton) who was making regular TV appearances for Max Crabtree at the time. I did as he requested. It was the first time Francis and Ginsberg had met and they had a good bout together. In later years they were to become very friendly indeed. The only complaint on the night came from Ginsberg (it would have been unusual to put him on a show where there wasn't a complaint!) who was playing blue eye and felt that that task would have been much easier had his opponent been masked.
A harmless mention of this bout on here brought forth a tirade of anger from Tony Francis who, employing his block capitals liberally, raged that he hated being billed as Black Jack Milligan and had never asked to be billed under this name. Why such a polite man who always thanked me profusely for the booking at the end of the show should have posted with such bile regarding a bout which, some forty or so years previously, went off without a hitch and was enjoyed by myself, by both participants, and by those in attendance, is a complete mystery. It was accompanied by questions regarding my suitability to be a promoter, questions which were never raised at the time!
So, fond memories of the Tony Francis who wrestled for me but less fond memories of the later Tony Francis who shared his memories on here. To end on a friendly note, he was also a very good snooker player. With time to spare between the two shows at Prestatyn, he and Mickey Gold played a frame of snooker at the camp's snooker hall which Francis easily won. He had virtually no positional play but a sharp eye and sank some excellent long shots.