Part of the Colour and Theatre of British Professional Wrestling were the Weird,Wonderful
and sometimes Sinister Characters!!
One such Character came along in the 1950's-a 'self-confessed Student and Proponent'
of Voodoo!!-An African Witch Doctor-His Name was MASAMBULA!
Bedecked in a Cheetah's Head and Skin Cloak-from the early 1950's-He went on quite
a long 'Unbeaten Run'!!
Did he REALLY Cast a Spell on his Luckless Opponents?-as SABU once tried to do on
DOCTOR DEATH from the top of the turnbuckle-He would never say!
But having seen this Guy Live Myself in the 1960's-I can definitely confirm those WIDE
OPEN STARING EYES that NEVER seemed to BLINK and that LOLLOPING MOTION
round the Ring was Scary and Disturbing!
And there were the Bouts against the Weird and Sinister Bell Ringer-QUASIMODO!!
Worth the Entrance Money alone!- Who else saw MASAMBULA Live?
Picture-Poster-Programme to follow!
MAIN MASK
I always loved Masambula. From Trinidad.
I have written on here before, that I saw Masambula when he first started wrestling.
For 2 or 3 weeks prior to his first appearance at Newcastle, the programme just had the wide open staring eyes on the front page and a caption saying the Witchdoctor is coming soon.
The night that he first came, Norman Morrell brought him and 2 other wrestlers up from Leeds in his huge Lincoln convertible, which was pearl green, with a really large boot. As usual I was waiting outside the hall to see the wrestlers come in.
Masambula carried in his bag and another smallbox and one of other wrestlers carried in a very large tea chest.
When Masambula entered the ring he was wearing what looked like a grass skirt and a huge carnival head, probably paper mache. He fought Lew Roseby that night and although looking a bit short on ideas he won by a knockout.
The interesting thing was that the next time he came, the carnival head was nowhere to be seen.
One of the wrestlers that I knew a little, said that the idea had been dropped as no-one had a car with a boot big enough to hold the head and all the other gear.
Later as we know he went over to a leopard skin outfit.
Interesting man from deepest West Africa (Leeds).
Masambula was on the first show I ever went to as a wide eyed 6 year old at St James Hall He is the only wrestler I remember from that show. I thought he was excellent when I was a youngster wathing on tv but seeing him live it was a completely different experience there was colour,atmosphere it was an occasion.