Quite often the M.C.would announce that a certain wrestler hadn't turned up for his bout on the bill that evening or a couple of wrestlers had'nt turned up due to unforseen circumstances,and the punters would surmise that they had probably got a better offer elsewhere or couldn't be bothered just to turn up.but in fact they had probably been involved in a road accident or their car had broken down due to having an older or unreliable vehicle,a typical week would involve probably involve 3 or 4 bouts a week or more,and probably clocking up more than a thousand miles in a average week,so the odds of letting the promoters down could be unavoidable. Regards. Les. 💪
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Nice story Frank.
On the rare occasions a Dale Martin top-of-the-biller didn't appear, I do remember a very clear poster outside the auditotium inviting punters to claim a ticket refund if they didn't want to come in. That was very fair.
And of course Mike Judd used to tease the audience magnificently into thinking McManus was an absentee.
One wrestler that i wanted to see did not turn the only chance I had to see him , this was George Kidd. Looking forward to seeing Les and the rest of the gang in Blackpool. Paul
The one I do recall with a healthy dose of scepticism is a non appearance of Jackie Pallo senior at Liverpool Stadium, due to an "unforseen motor accident" he was due to meet Alan Dennison, and was replaced by Jack Robinson.. People in the hall were somewhat scathing, my dad remarked "he probably got his finger jammed winding up the car window. But when we got home later, there was a piece in the local "Liverpool Echo" about the accident think JJ was involved too. .
The phenomenon of false advertising became more common in the 1990s making it difficult to judge if a particular wrestler was ever intended to appear
Hi Les. I know that is true about Joint sending out a monthly letter to wrestlers with their dates on.
I was with Norman Walsh one morning and he opened the letter for the following month.
Well Hack that's correct about Joint Promotions being more organised sending a confirmation letter of work for the month,but there was the odd occasion where you would have a problem with your transport. Hence that is why I was a regular at Scarborough being only 50 minutes away,I could be there for the last bout.I'll agree that on many occasions there was a lack of communication when some of the independents relied on word of mouth. Regards. Les . 💪
Quite right that you should be protective but come on Les, you're with friends here. Substitutions were pretty rare on Joint Promotions bills. They did happen, of course, because of injuries or the reasons you give but the vast majority of shows went on as advertised, well certainly up to the mid 1970s when I stopped going along.
The independents were a different matter and I went to few shows, if any, without a couple of substitutions. I'm certainly not saying that was because a wrestler couldn't be bothered or got a better offer elsewhere. Maybe that did happen, I wouldn't know, but a wrestler would have to maintain some reliability to get regular bookings so I think such unprofessional conduct would be a rarity.
The main reason I think was down to organisation and communication. Joint Promotions worked together and sent out a co-ordinated date sheet a month in advance. A wrestler knew where he had to be and when. Failure to appear would be obvious and have no excuse which could be dealt with.
Independents didn't have such a system. Bookings were made on an ad hoc basis, either verbally after a match, by telephone or through a third party. This left open many opportunities for problems, due to forgetfulness or disorganisation, accidentally rather than by intent. After a match a wrestler could forget the arrangement, a telephone call could go unrecorded or message not passed on. The biggest problem, though were block bookings. Promoter would ask wrestler A to work a show and bring wrestlers X, Y and Z with him, arranging the publicity in advance. Wrestler A would agree but would then be told by wrestler X that he'd already got a job that night and wrestler wife that his wife had told him he had already said he was taking her out that night. Not to let anyone down wrestler A would then ask P and Q if they would come along and take the job. The first the promoter knew about it was when they turned up on the night.
I guess we always speculate as to why a billed wrestler isnt there. Were they booked in the first place? Car Break down. Missed the bus/their lift, or maybe got work closer to home.