Steve Grey...yes just as good, his matches with Jim Breaks had us all wincing when the wrist cracked !

At King's Lynn Corn Exchange in late 80s/early 90s, a punter jumped into the ring and smashed Psycho Shane Stevens in the face, before leaping out and dashing out of the back door. Psycho was left with a genuinely black swollen eye and cheek. Definitely a real unscripted moment. Another similar event that I have mentioned before came at the same venue. 4 man KO tournament - Fit Finlay, Rocco, Danny Collins and Steve Regal. Rocco beats Collins in one of their usual hard hitting high flying matches. Finlay takes on Regal and is giving him a hammering when a big and renowned King's Lynn hard nut enters the ring. At that moment Finlay has Regal in a head lock so is unaware of the new addition to the ring. He side swipes Finlay in the face with a helluva punch. Finlay looks shaken momentarily and lets go of a bemused looking Regal, and rocks back into the ropes before unleashing a fearsome one-two punch combination and leaving the big fella swaying and then falling out through the ropes. Finlay looks unphased and beckons him to come back but the big chap looking battered and shaken shouts he will be back 'with others' before leaving through the side door. The bout continues, Finlay wins and then its time for the match everyone wants to see Finlay v Rocco. I'm pretty sure Finlay took the decision after another brutal match up. We all wanted to see it, but I don't know, it lacked something. Two villains, no poor brutalised blue eye to cheer on. Both had been so hated it obviously left all the punters unsure of who to will on. Rocco was definitely the less hated of the two on this occasion and for once became the unlikely hero of the day. I don't think I ever saw Finlay in that role, he was always the bad guy, a role he excelled in like no other. Great memories from a time when every punter in that packed hall believed every hold, punch, kick and throw were for real...and for one unfortunate chap from King's Lynn on that night they were every bit the real thing !

For the brief 6 years I wrestled in late 80s/ early 90s I was told not to swear. Whether this was the same for the bigger names I dont know, but I d imagine so as anyone who took the mic in those days never swore either

Theres a couple of bouts between Jones and Wright on Youtube. One I recall from watching back in the 80s when Wright was knocked out...Wright took some amount of punishment and high bumps that look brutal and real even to this day. The knockout dropkick from Jones looks devestating and very real. Was it a knockout for real ? .Interesting that nephew Alex who wrestled for WWE and WCW in the States at one time sported the same mohawk hairstyle as Uncle Bernie when he came back to Britain as a Canadian rule breaking villain.

Karl Gotch and Billy Robinson....the bout everyone wanted to see in the 60s. There is a latter day match (1980s) on Youtube ftom Japan

I used to think Tally Ho Kaye was up there with Breaks, Rocco, McManus etc in the mid 70s on TV wrestling. Great interactions with the crowd and loved it when he blew his hunting horn when they were announcing the opponents. Showmanship aside he always did the business and often displayed great ability sometimes with an array of unorthodox holds that showed he really did know the job.I have seen he used to tag with Rocco occasionally, but they would have made a great permanent combination.

6 years from 1986/87 for small East Anglian promotions (Brian Trevors, Trevor Denny, Dave Daring) and regular stand ins for All Star at Norwich/King's Lynn. Also a belated comeback in 2008 for WAW...Met and wrestled some great chaps Best bouts - Ivan Trevors (lots of times and always great, he should have gone further than his one TV appearance which never really showcased his abilities), King Ben and the Irish lad Tony Stewart (Billy Reid also) - what a fantastic lightweight he was !

More sad news, a good capable heavyweight mostly for All Star Promotions when I saw him although he did some work for Joints too. Always thought he ' d have been greatin a tag team with Caswell Martin. Their style and build were very similar. Did they ever tag ?

I wonder if this was a case of a non Tv bout in a venue where the reports never made it back to the mainstream....such things happened with other wrestlers; champions losing but back with the belt in bigger venues and in more high profile bouts ?

Thats interesting in the respect it reports Billy beating Gagne twice to win the win the AWA World title - in all the old magazines and the AWA documented online history there is no reference to this ever happening ? Was that widely documented or something that was kept under wraps ?

I m curious too about all the controversy surrounding this bout. To my eyes it looks just like a heavy worked bout certainly not a shoot. Some in the States call them 'squash' matches. Surely there are loads of similar matches out there. Finlay went through a series of similar bouts in a build up to making him.'superman' Fit Finlay and a feud with Big Daddy. See his bouts against Grasshopper, Jackie Turpin and a young Danny Collins. He pulverised the latter as much he did Black Prince. If you wanted to see an equally brutal match watch Marty Jones v Bernie Wright. A heavy 'work' but was it a real knock out?

Those adverts were from Eastern Daily Press 1980. Modern wresting has changed so much, its really a completely different 'sport' to what it used to be. I cant take too much of it either but I can appreciate how much the WAW has changed with the times and produced some great performers. I would love to see many of todays current stars from all promotions go back to the WOS styled matches, rounds, rules and moves. There woud be some great matches and competitors for sure!

Into the late 1980s and 1990s it was Steve Quintain, the welterweight wrestler from Lowestoft who promoted. He produced good lively shows using a mixture of local wrestlers from East Anglia with bigger names from the Independent shows much as Goodrum had before. I m sure he used Rocco and Finlay amongst others. Steve still wrestles occasionally to this day for Ricky Knight's WAW. From what I was told when the old pier was demolished Steve's ring was still in the building and went the same way. Don't know how true that is mind. It makes for good wrestling folklore though, perhaps Kellet and Kovacs were still in there bashing each other apart in their no time limit fight to a finish????

Mal Stuart probaby came with Danny Lynch you'd imagine. I think Dynamite was home round about Christmas as he was wresting Rocco on TV about then? But I would say its another Goodrum billing scam. I cant imagine who it would have been though. Frank Cullen in his early years went as Kid Cullen and sometimes Dynamite Kid Cullen but can't imagine that was him either. The Kung Fu was most likely to have been Stefan French rather than Eddie Hammel maybe.

I wonder who the Dynamite Kid was in these bills ? Not the original I'd imagine ? Who was Taro Sakata ?

Here's a load of advertisements from 1980 going into 1981 from the Eastern Daily Press. Promotions were Trevor Denny of Norwich and Terry Goodrum - he of the King Kendo court case fame, and also wrestled himself as Sandon or Sandor Kovacs. Some interesting match ups from this hotbed of the then thriving independent scene

I can recall seeing a Cocky Ken Knight about this time wrestling for Brian Dixon at King's Lynn. Seemed like a good young villain with a future ahead of him. Wonder why he did nt go further. Anyone with any memories of him ?

I always looked forward to watching Jimmy Breaks wrestle on the TV. In the lighter weights he was always in the thick of it, titles, controversies and constant TV exposure. His arguements with Kent Walton (particularly in one particular Jon Cortez bout) added to the rage he created. For me he was one of our greatest villains ever in British wrestling, In his peak he was up there alongside the latter work of Rocco and Finlay. But before they reached their peak and kick started real interest in the upper middle weights, it was Breaks in the lighter weights that always held my interest. His opposition of course in the time I watched it were all first class; Johnny Saint, Jon Cortez, Vic Faulkner, Zoltan Boscik and of course Steve Grey whom I think he had some of his best matches with. I missed out on his 1960s days. Jim was also so reliable due to his hated reputation for beating up the young newcomers. Yet he was so good at putting over all the new youngsters coming through the ranks. Bobby Ryan, Dynamite, Young Dave Boy Smith and then in later years Danny Collins and Peter Bainbridge. Breaks played his part in making them all stars. Looking back on his style it could be said his way of getting the crowd baying for his blood was simple yet it was very clever. He was hated due to his great skill, that everyone secretly admired, yet mixed up with his cocky demenour, his stone faced sneers, his fantastic scathing one liners he frequently shouted to the audience in quiet lulls, his behind the ref punches and his vicious wrist locks and overhead suspension submission all added to becoming the ultimate villain and gaining the extreme heat. His reading the audience and his timing was impeccable. Watching him on the TV I'm sure the whole nation used to wince in unison when he did those snapping wrist locks, combined with his little 'eee' shrieks he uttered as he did them. At the time no one sussed how the snap noise was made, yet it created even more sympathy for whichever hapless blue eye who was on the receiving end. Everyone was convinced that wrists would be broken. For good wrestling to be even better we now know how it always takes two to tango, and the 'selling' his opponents did was everybit as intergral to the way Breaks was portrayed. For me he will always be remembered as the one to watch on the TV, the man we all wanted to see beaten. I rank him much higher than McManus and Logan and definately up there with Quinn, Rocco and Finlay as one of the greatest bad boys on the TV golden era. Its a shame things ended as they did for him, not a lot we can add to that, so we should remember him for being a truly great wrestler and well deserved champion. Happy New year all !

The Dave Larkin on the poster was Brian Trevors son Dave, who wrestled as Dave Larkin, is it the same person who has passed away ?

and Mike Bennet turned out to be a great villain !