Wrestler Laxness

Matey Dave has written:

I believe John Yearsley had a period in a H.M. holiday camp for being a very naughty boy but was kept on by promoters when he came out of prison.

Was rumoured that mick mcmanus was seen a couple of nights running across a field with a long ladder to give johnny some jelly babies and basset liquorice allsorts as he missed them

I don't think Inoki would have classed himself as world class but he fought all over the world as you say Alan, and was respected worldwide, Dynamite was very good but again he like Rocco was a heavy hitter and at times was a reckless wrestler which could impact on his opponent but most of all it impacted on himself.

Dynamite did refer to Honeyboy Zimba in his book and also a brief mention of Mal Kirk too which i found hard to belief as many have said how professional and careful Kirk was in the ring. I do think that there have been (still are) over zealous even clumsy wrestlers at times, perhaps some get carried away in the moment more than deliberately setting out to hurt someone which then leads to accidents. Which is still no excuse as the injured party is deprived of a living. I must've read the same or similar articles as Frank because the names he mentions i too remember.

I always thought that Dynamite Kid sounded bitter in his autobiography and some of his comments odd. One being that he never rated Antonio Inoki as a wrestler. Considering Inoki wrestled world wide and faced tough opposition (apart from The Great Antonio & Those Superheavyweight Twins 😀) he justly deserved some respect and recognition.

Unless your name is Les Kellet, who beat up just about everyone ans scared the living daylights out of every wrestler.

Rocco was accused of being reckless. Iron fist accused of going in too hard, same with Sammy Lee and Nagasaki.

Sometimes your face just didnt fit, Ive heard that was the case with Bobby Barnes which I'll never understand. Bobby should have been a champion.

Thanks Powerlock

I know in the WWE guys we're taken off the roster for being clumsy or dangerous, when wrestlers are getting unnecessarily injured and missing dates it impacts on future shows, I remember Dynamite Kid said Honey Boy Zimba was a big clumsy bugger in the ring in his book so you had to be careful. I would think promoters would tend to use the guys who could wrestle safely, if your roster are being injured and a certain wrestler is the cause then his bookings are going to become fewer and possibly dry up. He's bad for business and other wrestlers wouldn't want to work with them.

May we have some examples please Powerlock

Being a dangerous opponent, continuously injuring opponents through clumsiness , carelessness or malice.

Now this is a complete guess but !!!!!! continuously walking out of contests?

All very intriguing stuff.

Ok, back to the question, rephrased as i am struggling to express myself clearly:

What sort of behaviour on a wrestler's part was enough to get them the push?

And you too my friend. 😊

Thanks for explaining that Alan. Always something new to learn on here. Johnny Kincaid was another who should have been a bigger star than he was, great wrestler. I remember him and Dave Bond causing absolute mayhem at Croydon with the great CSB tag team. Maybe they should have faced the Hells Angels! Johnny's book is well worth a read if you or anyone else is interested, he had a tough start in life.

Apologies. Ive taken this thread down a different route.

I didnt realise that. I thought they fell out over a woman.

Adrian was an absolute top draw wrestler. For me only just behind my two favorate (Rocco and Nagasaki) but his books are just embellished from start to finish which make me doubt the other claims he makes. I dont doubt he earned good money but not THAT good. George Best was on £90 per week at Manchester utd in the early 70s and Adrian claims he was on £800. I doubt even the Prime Minister was earnig that!

A

I just checked and £800 in 1972 would be the equivalent of £11.200 today. So thats what Adrian was earning is it?

As much as I love Adrian Street he sure knows how to tell em.

Spinner McKenzie told me to always go with the promoters who got you the most work, rather than grab the occasional higher paid jobs. I suppose it is the "don't bite the hand that feeds" principle.

In an interview Adrian Street states that he played promoters off one another for greater pay deals, he claims he was making £800 a week which is a fortune in the early 1970s and was able to buy property with his proceeds in various areas of the North. Eventually though it came to an end when the promoters got wise to him. In saying that bill topper of not there's only so much cash to go round. Street states that's when he began promoting (i think with Orig).

Didn’t we discuss quite a while back how Marty Jones ended up on Dixon shows? I believe he was down to 1-2 nights work a week, and either Dixon got wind that he wasnt happy or Marty reached out to him. In any event, JP realised that if they sacked him, they’d be cutting off their nose to spite their face and some sort of “deal” was reached.

I think Adrian left Joint of his accord, because he made more money working the indie circuit.

You mentioned Les Kellet, Adrian Street and Albert Wall, they were making the company good money for a long time, obviously they thought they should have more money or dates, I know Adrian preferred working in the North as he got a higher nightly paycheck up North. You have to wonder if it was a mixture of turning down Joint dates for Independent dates as they could make more. This would have been tolerated with bill toppers such as the three mentioned for so long before cutting them free. You don't cut free moneymakers but sometimes this is done to keep others inline, in otherwords no-one was to big to be sacked (eventually).

Hi Powerlock

"@Anglo Italian If they kept people coming through the doors they would keep them. If they were good for business they were good for Joint."

Can you name some names to indicate who you mean here?