Wrestling all over Europe was on the demise in 1980s. Max kept it going in uk... but in the end its popularity fell away. Quinn left ... then st Clair... the daddy success papered over the cracks. Banger went to the sun ....Kirk died .. then itv decided they didnt want the content as it was keeping them down market. Daddy attracted new fans... but they didnt keep coming... while real fans got fed up with the daddy pantomime. In the end when daddy couldn't go on... there was a summer with dave boy smith and then that was about it for max. So, could max have done the daddy thing along side more authentic bill's? Could he have avoided the itv cancellation? IMO it's yes and no. A more forward looking guy could have seen the signs and taken action earlier.

Does anyone know if max's wife beryl is still alive?

Do these belts come up often? Are they collected?

@j_shelvey that is dedication to the

Here is the copy I found somewhere... Westling giant Big Daddy foretold his death eight months ago and planned his own funeral in secret notes to his family. The 25-stone legend died yesterday aged 67, weeks after a massive stroke. Wife Eunice found the poignant notes as Daddy slipped into his final coma. Bizarrely, he showed no signs of illness when he wrote them. His family said he was "like health on a stick". "He obviously had some sort of premonition," Eunice said. One note read: "I've not got long to live. Everything I have .... does not amount to much .... I'd be delighted if you would look after mum." In another, he wrote: "God bless you all. No doctors, hospitals, no public funeral, no public ceremony." It was signed "Daddy xxxxx". Daddy - real name Shirley Crabtree - hid one note in the teapot where he kept his household bills. Another was stashed under his karaoke machine. In a third note to Eunice, he said: "If you ever run short of money, please sell my gym equipment." Eunice said last night: "We started finding the notes in the most stupid places while he was in hospital. "They were places you'd never think of looking, but where he knew they would reappear in time. "It is rather spooky that he had these predictions so early. But it's typical of him to think about what we are going to do when he has gone." Daddy will be cremated on Friday in his home village of Millbank, Yorkshire.

Did you see the story about his wife eumice saying that he had left notes around the house?

Ok I see. And max did have a good summer when he toured davey boy smith around before he went back to the us. But after that there seemed to be nothing. I just wondered if max could have done both the daddy roadshow ....and still retained a more authentic wrestling circuit that might have continued into the 90s and beyond

Once WOS finished joint shared the tv spot with all star and even WWf Tapes I saw a story where Max and Shirley went to Sky... to see if they could provide 10 tapes... but Sky said WWF were sending over tapes for just £500. I think Max said it would cost him 20k to make 10. So they knew they could not compete. Their own promotions were no longer full hence Max letting Shirley fight on dixon's bills in return for a commission. And they wound joint up.

Yes... I watched it last . He explained the need for change and was pretty straightforward I thought.

I obtained a second hand copy of banger Walsh's "minding my own business"... he says he got 20quid a night but 70 if it was for tv (1985 ish)

@Powerlock what would the ticket price be back then? If they lost £2000 they could have just phoned 80 people up and given the £25 each

After Shirley died there seems to be no interviews with Max Crabtree. He spoke out in the Garfield book.. in 95. But subsequently there was silence. Does anyone know if he gave any further quotes on how things turned out? There is so little I wonder if the right to erase yourself from the internet may have be invoked.

Ps. The screen name defaulted to my phone email address... named after a character in book. Pronounced aka jan ... like aka bilk !

Hi, I am Simon Grindrod (1959) and I live in Leicester. I am a big Leicester City fan....What a rollercoaster that is. I grew up watching wrestling on WOS (with football scores flashing on the screen). Both my grans lived in manchester and were big grapple fans... "macmanus is a shammer" (meaning he would pretend to be hurt and then suddenly win). I liked the pre glam rock adrian street and bobby barnes... st Clair and Rocco were good wrestlers. My grans both liked Les Kellet. I recently read Garfield's book "The Wrestling " and I loved the social history of it. These were all tough guys earning a hard living... travelling for 15 quid. I am older dad with younger kids. My lad was Wwe crazy and I took him to the NEC to see them... the production values were great. It made me start to wonder why, if the ratings were good, that no one invested to make uk wrestling a better product that might have survived on tv. ITV wanted to move up market... yet wwe had wide appeal. Given the low of the 1990s, I wondered if wrestlers and promoters were bitter. This is a great site with lots of info... and I appreciate the explanations from those with more knowledge than I.

@Powerlock that must have been a choker for max

@Hack I will but my membership is still pending

I read last night that towards the end (early nighties) max arranged for daddy to wrestle on others promotions and took a commission... driving shirley to the halls and back home. Anyone know which promotions? Size of fee ? Max was living on his farm... where was shirley living?

@Powerlock what year ish?

@john thats a good return... but as you show it slid down hill by 70s. I understood that as they rolled up more promoters, many retired leaving the secretaries... ie there was a loss of know how. Hence by 1975 they reached out to get max to run first the north and then the whole thing. It would be good to know how it performed from 1975 to when max bought it in 86?

I expect max will have made money before moving to run joint first in the north and then nationally. From the mid 70s he probably had a big slice of the daddy based revenues too. Yet the daddy cards were too predictable and many fans missed the more athletic wrestlers... who left joint in the early 80s. Unless I am wrong, wrestling declined in the 80s... world of sport got cancelled in 85 and max bought joint promotions in 86... I expect for a song. The Banger Walsh exposé made things worse... followed by the death of Mal Kirk. Leaving the daddy road show to parade round until the fans were sick of it. By the early 90s joint had a last hurrah with Davey Smith for 6mths and then folded. I wonder if Max reflected on what went wrong or just felt it "was what it was"... nothing he could have done. That was the impression I got from the garfield book. I expect he grew up in small House and by the 90s had a farm. There is little on the net about him... or the transactions of joint. Some of the replies here say the crabtrees may have lost money in the 80s and 90s... it would be interesting if there is any info about that.