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john
Mar 06, 2024
In Memories of the Old Days
Just added about 80 matches to https://youtube.com/jnlister and embedded them at https://itvwrestling.co.uk. Pleased to say that for the first time the site has every match from a calendar year, namely 1988. (The only exception is the WWF broadcasts which it's not viable to put on YouTube.) While the pre-1977 "Heritage era" is still patchy for obvious reasons, it's now down to a handful of matches missing from about 1981 onwards.
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john
Jan 15, 2024
In Memories of the Old Days
A Twitter user has come across this image, sparking a mystery: Naturally it raised suspicion: the wrestlers (US version of Zebra Kid and Destroyer) were not in the UK in 1983, they aren't named, the poster dimensions are unusual, and this show only has three listed bouts. Tony Earnshaw's records have confirmed there was a show at Maidenhead that day but without any of these matches. Meanwhile both Murphy and Finlay were working shows elsewhere in the country that day that would have been virtually impossible to let them "do a double." So it's clear this is not a real poster but instead mocked up/pasted together from other parts (likely the date/venue from one poster, the matches from another, and the big photos dropped in.) That leaves the question of where this comes from. My assumption is a prop for a TV show or film, but nothing springs to mind for the timescale. Any ideas on this mystery?
Mocked-up poster, but from where? content media
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john
Jan 20, 2023
In Memories of the Old Days
Might be an addition for the https://www.wrestlingheritage.com/wrestlingcommentatorsa-z Just come across a listing for Cavalcade of Sport from 27 December 1955 which included wrestling from Lime Grove. The commentator for the wrestling section is listed as Alan Morris. I can't find any other mention of him online.
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john
Feb 19, 2022
In Memories of the Old Days
I’ve updated the ITV wrestling site to add YouTube video links for a whole bunch of British stuff other than the main ITV slot. http://itvwrestling.co.uk/post88.html has Jackie Pallo’s WAW, a taping from Scotland and the Transatlantic Wrestling Challenge. http://itvwrestling.co.uk/other.html has near complete runs of Satellite Wrestling from Screensport and Reslo from S4C.
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john
Sep 14, 2021
In Memories of the Old Days
Talking Pictures TV had an episode of the Look At Life short documentary series about "muscle men" which included a couple of minutes of Szakacs-Stein. I believe it was from the 21 September 1960 show at the Royal Albert Hall, so is very likely the earliest colour footage of UK wrestling that still survives. Unfortunately it doesn't look like any repeat showings are scheduled and I suspect it wouldn't last long on YouTube before it was taken down.
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john
Apr 27, 2021
In Memories of the Old Days
Hope nobody minds a cheeky shill. I've just finished a big update to the match videos embedded at itvwrestling.co.uk to replace any outdated links and add links to any new matches other people have uploaded. I've also been through my recordings from the reruns on The Wrestling Channel (and a few other tapes/DVDs of original recordings I've acquired) and uploaded around 160 matches which weren't on YouTube. I may have missed a few, but in theory any ITV match (1955-1988, non-WWF) that's on YouTube should be available as a video in the relevant part of the match listings pages on the itvwrestling site.
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john
Apr 26, 2021
In Memories of the Old Days
Just come across the unusual titles at the start of this match. As it says "Wrestling From Britain" I'm assuming this is from ITV selling the tapes to an overseas station, but this is certainly an unusual choice of music!
ITV wrestling with the Match Of The Day Theme?! content media
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john
Mar 13, 2021
In Memories of the Old Days
Just did a 15 minute interview about my book and ITV era British wrestling which appears to have had a good response from listeners. If you start listening at the 3hr 16 minute mark on this link, there's a fun story from a caller just before I come on: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p098cjjf?fbclid=IwAR1Lhj9XXw-rVcBmqU0iQguYkYvoWK3yWIeQFpyGiN_X7s-ifWCEF1CSnJo
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john
Mar 02, 2021
In Memories of the Old Days
I was going through a lot of DVDs of the old ITV matches recently and noticed something odd, which got me checking through a lot of YouTube clips to make sure and... ...I can't find any example of Kent Walton actually introducing the show with "Greetings, grapple fans." It's always "Hello again, grapple fans" or the odd "Good afternoon, grapple fans." Am I just not finding the shows where he said it, or is it just something we've all misremembered, probably because the alliteration would have made sense?
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john
Mar 02, 2019
In Memories of the Old Days
Just come across this blog from somebody who is researching wrestling in New Cross in the late 19th/early 20th century. (No, Mick McManus doesn't appear!) https://grapplingwithhistory.com/
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john

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