For me,Rollerball Rocco was definately a wrestler who changed wrestling for the better.With that fast,relentless,all action style which eventually led to some fantastic bouts,many still on YouTube.Which wrestlers changed wresting for other members?
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What about Jackie Pallo? he brought colour and personality at a time other wrestlers were dull.
Jeanie showed up on T.V. in 1978.
I would have thought that Dave Finlay, accompanied by Princess Paula, pre-dated that Howard, maybe I am wrong with my timeline on that.
Chris Adams being accompanied by a valet, the lovely Jeannie Clark.
Bert Royal was undoubtedly a great singles wrestler but there were plenty of other non pot bellied wrestlers throughout the ITV era and before and since
Great Post Greaham!
Bert Royal, right from the very start in televised action on our screens in 1955. In singles matches, or reaching the top in tag team action with his brother Vic Faulkner. Bert smashed the image, that wrestlers had to be pot bellied with cauliflower ears ready to wade into anyone. Bert brought his own style to the sport of wrestling, and in that changed it in a positive way.
Unfortunately Shirley Crabtree waddling round the ring as a overweight circus clown changed Professional Wrestling from a sport that many casual fans were prepared to give the benefit of the doubt to something perceived as nothing more than entertainment for the under eight year olds and an equivalent mental age
Fair point Anglo another factor that changed wrestling was the crowd ie who is was made up of and what they were eager to see or in latter years of joint put up with.the audience for a Albert wall fight differed greatly from the crowd watching pantomime antics of an ageing Crabtree and two fat lads who Max found and gave them USA names and produced a poundland WWE version
Maybe the question is wrong. Maybe wrestlers didn't change wrestling, but promoters did.
Too much credit goes to too few.
Wrestling always had originality.
Each guy proposed as a trail blazer still had to have collaboration.
Not if anyone actually’changed’ wrestling but many took it to a new or different level. Dynamite kid comes to mind, also Kendo.
Jackie Pallo with his flamboyant attire and banter broke down the barriers especially on tv of wrestlers looking uniform on black and white tv, he certainly drew the fans across the country on the back of his antics on his tv appearances.
The Outlaw appearing regularly on tv 1965-67 taught us the ongoing rule about a masked man unmasking when defeated. Seems obvious now, but someone had to bang home the message to the "uninitiated", as Kent called them.
The first time I saw Wonderboy Wright I remember thinking I'd never seen anyone that fast.
The coming of the Cortez brothers and Borg twins around 1960 seemed to move us into a faster pace.