We Shall Not Be Moved - Wrestling 1975-79

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Back on topic. I too had overlooked Tony's first book as I thought it would be too Big Daddy focused for my liking. I've just looked at the preview for the second volume and it does look interesting and well written. As the forum has promoted your book Tony maybe you would like to join us in some of the other topics.

Matey Dave has asked us to post for him

SaxonWolf wrote: "A couple of things cropped up which really surprised me; the first being a mention of King Ben and Kid McCoy teaming against Kendo Nagasaki and Blondie Bob Barratt, and the book says that something is said by Kendo, back stage, and King Ben extracted revenge in the ring? Without me having to get my Kendo autobiography out, does anyone know what happened? I know King Ben had a reputation for being able to look after himself, but so did Nagasaki?"

As is fairly common knowledge I believe that Peter Thornley was over rated but many believed he was for real and he put bums on seats earning promotors their new cars.

All his bouts would have been skilfully choreographed to preserve the image and hype. Many of the wrestlers, large and small could have taken him down any time they wanted to.

A highly compact wrestler like King Ben would have giving Thornley a hiding. It would have been a walk in the park for him.

1978 Kid: "Spinner McKenzie talks about the Kendo/Ben fall out in one of the episodes of the podcast interview he did with Carl Conroy/Stewart. Basically he says that Kendo said something Ben didn't like so Ben roughed him up in the ring. Kendo then went to Brian Dixon and demanded Ben be sacked from All Star. Brian Dixon complied with Kendo's wishes and as a result Kid Mc Coy (Ben's son, Mark) also resigned from All Star in support of his Dad......I'm not claiming the above to be true, just repeating what was said on the podcast."

What did Thornley expect to happen when he sad the wrong thing to the King's son? He was lucky he was not carried out the ring.

Tony is a phenomenal researcher!!! Simply the best, peerless!!! He knows his stuff A to Z.

Thanks for that, I'll have a look for the pod. Hard to see Ben roughing up Kendo, but hey, who knows.

Spinner McKenzie talks about the Kendo/Ben fall out in one of the episodes of the podcast interview he did with Carl Conroy/Stewart.

Basically he says that Kendo said something Ben didn't like so Ben roughed him up in the ring. Kendo then went to Brian Dixon and demanded Ben be sacked from All Star. Brian Dixon complied with Kendo's wishes and as a result Kid Mc Coy (Ben's son, Mark) also resigned from All Star in support of his Dad.

Apparently that is why Kid McCoy retired from wrestling at a time when he was still a relatively young, up and coming star.

I'm not claiming the above to be true, just repeating what was said on the podcast

Read both and not impressed. His mind set is stuck about 1968. The number of rounds matches go are totally wrong. The number of NC's is also untrue. Its an interesting vision back to past years, but i do question a lot of the authenticity.

This sounds interesting as it was the era I started going to wrestling. To be honest I was put off buying the first book as it was littered with Big Daddy posters and I assumed it would be full of tales about him which would interest me about as much as watching paint dry. If that's not the case I think I'll buy both.

So... The King Ben/Nagasaki spat. Anyone have anymore info? Can't see too many roughing up Kendo!

I've recently read "Saturday Afternoon Wars", by Tony Earnshaw, which covers the 1980's and the end of the Saturday afternoon TV era.

I found it be fascinating and a real insight into an era where many of us had moved away from watching wrestling, live and on TV.

By 1980, I was spending most Saturday afternoons at football matches or shopping for records and clothes, with my pals, so I didn't see that much TV Wrestling, but the bits I did see were brought back to life via this book.

Just to be clear, while the book does concentrate on what matches were shown on TV, it does cover the non-TV side of the business, with All-Star events covered, and has some interesting background information.

I hadn't realised how predictable it had all gotten, in the halls and on TV, for Joint Promotions at least. It seems that the set pattern was that Big Daddy won the tag matches (we all knew that), but there seem to be a lot of matches where one wrestler is injured, and can't continue, the other wrestler is awarded the bout, but in true sportsman fashion, declines it, so it is ruled a no-contest. Now, I remember this happening, but not with the frequency that it appears in this book! Lot's of disqualifications and lots where the villain (single or tag team) refuse to carry on and walk back to the dressing room. It's almost as if Max Crabtree had a checklist, and each of these had to happen at each venue.

I also hadn't realised how big a push Greg Valentine had been given. Now I know he was the bosses son, so you expect it, but it did seem excessive.

I hadn't realised that even in the early 80's, ITV/World of Sport would find any excuse not to show Wrestling, even preferring to show England vs Scotland school boy football or ice figure skating.

A couple of things cropped up which really surprised me; the first being a mention of King Ben and Kid McCoy teaming against Kendo Nagasaki and Blondie Bob Barratt, and the book says that something is said by Kendo, back stage, and King Ben extracted revenge in the ring? Without me having to get my Kendo autobiography out, does anyone know what happened? I know King Ben had a reputation for being able to look after himself, but so did Nagasaki?

But the biggest surprise of all, was that loyal company man, Mick McManus, would often no-show for bouts where he was booked for Saturday night!, it's mentioned that he let many people know that he preferred to take his wife out, dancing, on Saturday evenings, and the book mentions a car travel conversation, between McManus and (I think) Johnny Kidd, where McManus (while chatting) tells Kidd that he is booked in to wrestle in Bournemouth on Saturday night, but he isn't going to show up!

Last, but not least, if you have a kindle or any type of e-Reader, you can buy this on Amazon for less than the price of a pint of beer, and you can't say fairer than that!

The lad's done good "AGAIN." Finished reading it last night and brought back a lot of happy memories. Lots of strange bouts, management shuffles, and myths laid to rest. Including the finish to the Arion/Bridges world title contest. Surprise surprise it's not how Mr. Street described it! Roll on book number 3 Tony.

Thoroughly enjoyed Tony's first book so i'm really looking forward to the follow up.

I bought the first book and still not got around to reading it yet, I need to get my skates on!

It is an excellent book. Many thanks to Tony for all his hard work.