I recently saw a bout where the ending surprised me. Two heavyweights had been battling it out a good 28 to 30 minutes...back and forth good exciting match at the end they were exchanging forearm smashes pummelling each other. After a while one was definitely getting the upper hand knocking his opponent down every time he got up. At the end the referee stood in and STOPPED THE BOUT. As the commentary was in french I did not fully understand what was happening at first. I mean there was no submission the other wrestler had not given up and no pin. I have seen fights stopped in professional boxing when one boxer could no longer defend himself and in films etc where dramatically a second would throw in a towel but not in wrestling. In the UK we have all seen throws out the ring ending in bad landings and or a wrestler in agony caught up in ropes and the referee stop the bout but I can’t remember seeing a stoppage because one wrestler is getting hammered? Can any of you? And it made me mull over the role of referee and his responsibility and duty. Perhaps I was surprised because you get use to seeing miraculously wrestlers like Lazarus suddenly rejuvenated and taking revenge on their attacker. But the referee can see things close up and more clearly and it is a right decision if he can see one is clearly struggling and unable to defend himself. Do you think the best referees are ex wrestlers who clearly understand the sport fully? And can also as wrestlers not be intimidated by the combatant? Also a good referee as to have exceptional ring awareness see as the wrestlers see it and not get caught up in the action or stop it by being in the way etc so anticipation is very important. And again, for the punters they don’t want to see the referee blocking their view so he has to consider that too...it made me think not an easy job at all!

What memories do you have of wrestlers appearing on tv programmes? I know recently there was Giant Haystacks and Johnny Wilson appearing on Runaround. I think wrestlers occasionally turned up on game shows and things like the Generation Game. I remember seeing Brian Maxine in a seventies comedy called THE FENN STREET GANG he did not have a speaking part was just one of a gang of heavies belonging to superb actor the late George Baker. I also remember Adrian Street appearing in a wrestling play in 1973 the BBC they did a series of six plays on sporting subjects Cricket, Football, and one was wrestling. My dad insisted on watching the bloody news and when it finished I quickly turned to BBC2 to see the last two minutes GRRR..... Perhaps most famous is the AVENGERS featuring Jackie Pallo this is still repeated on itv3 or 4? Anyway he does speak and there is a fight scene at the end I think in a graveyard involving Pallo and Honor Blackman. The newspapers made a big thing of it, claimed she had knocked him out! LOL! Possibly he did get injured in rehearsals I have no idea but it became one of those urban myths. Put it this way....to my knowledge neother Jackie Pallo or Honor ever confirmed or denied it, no doubt it was great publicity for the show

I understand the logistics involved for the promoter.....if you have four of five bouts on your bill there have to be time restrictions otherwise you could be there till midnight. But who decides them and on what basis ? And best of three falls or just one fall or submission? I love looking at all the old posters you guys put up and I always check the number of rounds etc. It is fascinating one caught. My eye yesterday that was for FOUR rounds of TEN minutes duration them are long rounds. I remember reading on this site that Julian Maurice. felt if he had done 20 minutes in the ring that was his lot, I was not impressed. Towards the end of ITV coverage in the eighties even title bouts time limit became less and less........so they would be 12 or 10 rounds of three minutes duration when you take into consideration falls that occur they rarely went over 25 minutes. If you look on you tube at world of sport bouts even complete ones are rarely much more than this. What do you all think? I confess sometimes I feel short changed particularly as falls mainly occurred in the first minute or so of a round ( why was Kent eternally surprised at this?). I am watching a lot of the wrestling now from the late fifties early sixties from across the channel. A lot of them are ONE FALL and a lot DO NOT EVEN HAVE ROUNDS. What you get is continual mat wrestling uninterrupted. Personally I think this is much better there is a constant flow, the wrestlers themselves seem more into it as do the audience the atmosphere appears ....no it IS much more intense without rhe action stopping every three minutes sometimes in the middle of an hold. Most I have seen go 30 minutes sometimes even longer really exciting and tremendous value.

Does any one remember a GRANADA TV documentary presented by Bill Grundy in the mid sixties? I think it was most likely 1965 or 1966 but my memory could be wrong, and it might have only been shown in the Granada region. At the time wrestling was at its height of popularity and I remember it was very quickly repeated. I think it appeared in the 6.30 slot after the news. All I can now remember is Bill Grundy talking about the wrestling and the tv crew going to i assume famous NW wrestling gyms. I remember you heard the lads talking about their ambitions and saw them training and wrestling. Not dis similar to that ROLL ON FOUR O CLOCK does anyone else remember anything?

Just re watched an old bout from 1986 or 1987 Danny Collins defending his European Welterweight title against I think Jean Jacques. It raised for me many queriesd, which as this is almost 34 years ago might be impossible to answer its so long ago, but maybe one of you might remember something. Kent was saying that Danny was going to get a crack at the WORLD welterweight title. In typical Kent fashion the information was a tad vague, it was on the cards and he knew the reigning champion was a Mexican but he did not appear to know his name. It made me wonder did this ever happen and was not on tv? Danny could not have been successful or we would have heard. I know Kent can be a bit fanciful but this does not strike me as something he imagined. Rather him asking for info and being told this by a promoter? Just seems to off field for him to make up. Does anyone have any records of this bout taking place? My second question is no easier again due to the 30 plus time span. Does anyone have any information they can share on his european challenger this Jacques? We had seen him a few weeks earlier against a Reg Crawley on tv and he demolished him easy. Does any one have any records of him wrestling elsewhere on his visit to the uk? Or did he just do the two tv bouts. Kent tells us he is french and comes from Paris. Does anyone have any info on this guy? He looked a very useful wrestler would have been interesting to see him against Alan Dennison, Steve Grey etc was he well known on the french circuit? Or did he disappear like the phantom of the opera after his two uk bouts? Surely not. To me with his odd get up he did not even look french he looked more North American! I know this is a cold case but even a snippet of info will be appreciated.

TWO TOMMY MANN BOUTS ON YOU TUBE....VIVA LA FRANCE! Sorry it’s no use asking me to provide a link I struggle getting into Wrestling Heritage. Two to appear so recently is amazing. I had never seen a Tommy Mann bout before. But the french have provided us with a Al Hayes bout, as well as a very early Bert Royal bout and one with him tag teaming with his dad. Tommy is interviewed looks at a bar before his first bout and he appears fluent in French. I was very excited about these Tommy Mann bouts, my knowledge of him is shaky I had only ever seen a few photos of him but I knew he was a top name from the nineteen fifties well into the nineteen sixties., was a British champion too! so it’s wonderful to see him in action. Whilst he is defeated in both bouts, this is a France, and he is against local favourites probably would have been a different verdict in the UK, But still it’s great to see one of the greats of the past and it gives me hope! Maybe thanks to french tv we might get to see George Kidd, Jack Dempsey, Alan Colbeck, Billy Joyce etc that would be awesome. Anyone any idea of the time of these Mann bouts are they late nineteen fifties?

I use to buy wrestling dvds from anywhere I could get them. One day something intrigued me in a pirate dvd I had purchase. It started with the end of the six o clock news on tv. MASAMBULA came on the screen his face was contorted in agony. This was not fake. And whilst you saw the referee kneeling over him Alan Colbeck, and his opponent Pete Roberts you could see this was serious. The newscaster was saying something on the lines that the cushioned post had comedown and MASAMBULA had slammed hard into the post injuring himself. As the news reader continued his commentary you heard him say the trial is still continuing and he was suing the promoter for negligence. Poor MASAMBULA his lawyer was obviously insisting they go for the jugular. He claimed he was in constant pain could not sleep and that it was even effecting his sex drive! My last memory was him coming down town hall steps to face the public. I don’t mean this frivolous but with a bowler hat and a smart suit and a cane to help him walk he reminded me of Chris Eubank. And of course all the reporters wanted to know was is it fixed. I like MASAMBULA a lot he added to the mystery in the sixties with his witch doctor routine I have a lot of sympathy for him. The newsreader said MASAMBULA refused to answer any of the fixed questions, good for him! But he was caught between a rock and a hard place, as anyone any idea how this trial ended for him?

I swear I am NOT making this up. One day travelling to Manchester in the mid seventies as the bus was stationary I saw a wrestling poster advertised, a welterweight contest. Do not remember who is opponent was....what intrigued me was it described Eddie Rose as the Jewish champion. Nothing wrong with that except I had never seen a wrestler defined by his religion?

TV TIMES I THINK 1968. Does anyone remember the GRANADA TV TIMES FROM 1968? What I remember is that in two or three small pictures we had a wrestling hold demonstrated. The two wrestlers involved were Barry Douglas black trunks and Billy Robinson light coloured trunks demonstrating Boston Crab hold etc it went on for about six months. I also remember Douglas was always on the receiving end of the hold. My dates maybe hazy I am 65 now and was 12 or 13 at the time