This is being shown on FORCES TV anyway yesterday was episode 14 with guest star ALFIE BASS as a wrestling promoter. One of his wrestlers in JACKIE PALLO you see him in a few scenes as a few lines to say, this was filmed circa 1978. It’s quite amusing you see Bass giving Pallo a pep talk who is the good guy wrestler and you see him apply a few holds. Did not recognise the other wrestler but probably an actor. I am sure it is repeated at weekend if any of you are interested. This series is interesting as it is filmed on location mainly London, Rome and it’s fascinating to see just from a historical view of life way back then.

I am sure some did have influence and some only little And YES it could make a lot of difference to any wrestlers career. And there are so many aspects to consider. Like Big Daddy in the mid eighties as we limped towards the end of the tv coverage......did nepotism rear it’s head with some promoters. It is obvious that Mick McManus was a wrestler with a lot of influence, perhaps, in some circles too much? I am thinking of the notorious McManus v Preston TV bout it would appear one promoter at least wanted to put McManus back in his box. If a promoter liked a wrestler for any reason it could be a big push for the wrestler concerned. What if a promoter did not like a wrestler perhaps they found them unreliable or simply human nature did not like the look of their face! at the very least it could mean no work from that source. I was intrigued with HACK’s comments on Jack Dempsey who he felt by early seventies was past his best. Could well be true I assume he was approaching or already early fifties in age. And he had been a champ a long, long time through the fifties to the mid sixties. I understand he was ill for a period and a tournament arranged for the new welterweight champion. And yet Dempsey was back wrestling himself ( and still calling himself a champion). Other wrestlers are off for long periods injuries illness etc but not stripped of their titles? I am not disputing the rights or wrongs of the Dempsey position, just wondering if maybe Dempsey did not have much clout with promoters. And the Mike Marino v Billy Howes regarding the European mid heavyweight title with promoters supporting different wrestlers, again being in with the promoter counts. For some wrestlers it must have been vexing thinking when do I get a chance....Any thoughts anyone?

And I am sorry if as usual this is vague (and your only getting part of the picture and you have to put the puzzle together!) An American wrestling magazine, can’t remember its name. But, at the back the last few pages featured in very small print as not a great interest to a lot of the USA fans columns under the banner WRESTLING ROUND THE WORLD. It would feature CANADA, AUSTRALIA etc and of course the UK BRITISH SCENE this from the fifties. It use to rate the wrestlers in the countries too and rank them rated first to tenth. I seem to remember the UK column was written by a guy with a welsh sounding name Bill tregorden or some name like that. What interested me was it gave details of important wrestling results in the uk at the time. But also ( and this is true even at the time I thought crikey!) it not only RATED THE UK WRESTLERS BUT GAVE THEM A SCORE %BASED ON THEIR RESULTS THAT MONTH TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THEIR WIN to LOSS ratio. Very similar to a school report 😁. How they can be so accurate I have no idea I doubt they actually were! For example you would see FIRST ......FRANCIS ST CLAIR GREGORY 97% ( it might have recorded 20 bouts 19 wins) second ....and so forth is this ringing any bells with anyone?

At last we can enjoy this 1962 bout on the french blog just been put on, everyone enjoy

This as literally just finished ARE YOU BEING SERVED circa 1979 with guest billed as Jackie Mr Tv Pallo ( I swear I was not watching just HAPPENNED to switch tv on and it was on the drama channel only saw last five minutes the grudge bout between the two. Typical sea side postcard , carry on humour holding John Inman in a loose headlock Pallo whispers in Inman’s ear let’s make this look good have you ever seen a flying buttocks? Inman reply not for a few weeks.....

I follow avidly both tennis and athletics, and you can see in some countries they have very strong traditional links and are steeped in certain sport activities for example in sprinting Jamaica to them it’s a very big deal and for Kenya middle to long distance running. In tennis Czech Republic have produced outstanding players Martina Navratilova, Ivan Lendl present ones include Petra Kitova a Wimbledon champ and there are many more, Spain is the same I know Nadal is the outstanding one but they have great in depth strength probably ten men in the top 100 they are no one trick pony, even Andy Murray trained their as a youngster. And this made me mull over the Hungarian wrestlers who featured so prominently in Western Europe wrestling scene from the fifties onwards. Even the world champ Lou Thesz his parents came from Austria- Hungarian empire and I understand Lou’s dad was a champion himself back in Hungary. We were fortunate in the UK to enjoy our own Hungarians......Tibor and Peter Szacks as well as one of my favourites Zoltan Boschik but there were others( whatever happened to Kalmen Gaston?). They all seemed very sound technically the Boschik v John Naylor bout is great. It’s so long ago....when did these guys arrive? Was it connected to the quashed 1956 Budapest uprising? I seem to think they were out of the country at the time on some wrestling tournament and never returned to Hungary not sure where I picked that up or if it’s even true! Their loss was the UK gain that’s for sure. But we were not the only beneficiaries Europe got some as well, Molnar, Kovacs, Gida all brilliant matmen it turns out my personal favourite the German baddie Doctor Adolf Kaiser was actually.......an Hungarian! And I know there were more! Hungary is not a big country nor does it have a big population. I know little about it, but it made me wonder is it a country that as a tradition in certain sports and wrestling is one of them?

Am I the only one who can see a physical resemblance between the sublime British actor and this wrestler? Doctor Adolf must be smart it’s quite psychological you dislike him before you even see him! Doctor ( probably bogus) Adolf ( reference to Hitler this only a decade after the Second World War) Kaiser ( again another Germanic name from history Kaiser Wilhelm who was a main perpetrator of WW1)When he steps in the ring there is a physical likeness to Leonard Rossiter the narrow face and features the hawk like nose the shifty ( but always intelligent)darting eyes . I smile as soon as I see him. Then his crouched furtive wrestling stance creepy and sly to watch! When under attack by his wrestling opponent who may be reigning down blows on him his expressions are comical both facially and hands raised in supplication Almost begging his opponent to stop.....but as soon as their guard his down he is on attack striking like a cobra going for the jugular. And more often than not I imagine he is successful and wins a lot of his bouts. It is no surprise to me that after his wrestling career finished he became an actor he would have made a terrific Captain Hook. Leonard Rossiter was an outstanding actor who died in his fifties if he had lived to a good age would no doubt have won many awards probably a knighthood. Very adept at comedy he also pulled lots of comedic faces Doctor Adolf would have been proud of. Interestingly he was not first choice for his most famous role of Rigsby in the comedy RISING DAMP. It was first offered to Wilfred Brambell ( Steptoe senior the dirty old man character) And he turned it down because he did not want to play another seedy character. The rest of course is history. Leonard was also brilliant at straight drama and he played to rave reviews a Hitler type character in the Brecht play THE RESITABLE RISE OF ARTURO UI and died on stage playing to packed out audiences in the farce LOOT which was completely sold out for its full run. I see Doctor Kaiser off some wrestling posters did come to the uk did anyone see him live?

If this has been brought up before I apologise and please direct me to the relevant sections. My biggest wrestling pleasure ar present is without a doubt the french site and I am awaiting the new wrestling bouts being posted on it on Wednesdays as much as Iuse to wait for the wrestling at four pm on Saturday. And it made me wonder ( sourly) what ITV had locked away in their vaults. And it also made me think.......I read somewhere a Mr Lister said they had lots certainly all their midweek televised wrestling as much as TEN YEARS worth. Most of this will be sixties and black and white. Does it not make you wonder what possible commercial value this as to ITV? I mean who would want to see it in 2021 except people like ourselves? And would it be possible to approach them collectively maybe as the Wrestling Heritage group to see if a deal could be done? The Wrestling Heritage site is fantastic and full of information of people who are dedicated to the history and social documentation of wrestling in the fifties, sixties etc. Hopefully we could set out our stall on that basis that wrestling heritage seeks to preserve this wrestling history and can we have copies of their recordings. In the past we know they have sold batches to cable channels but these have been more modern colour tv recordings. Hopefully we can appeal to them and they will understand. If they want shed loads of money then obviously this is a no go we don’t have it. But who knows? They might be willing to release them to us for an amount we could afford if we clubbed together? Or save up for if we have a target to aim for we could do it under a central wrestling a Heritage account. I know I would be willing to contribute. I know lots of you are very knowledgable and passionate about the subject is it not worth a try? You know if those recordings are deleted/ destroyed all we have left is memory which is not always the most reliable. Think about it, if my idea is pie in the sky please say I will not take personally. You know the BBC are notorious liars and are constantly when questioned say old programmes are deleted just to shut the public up. Done this with LOADS of series when the public have requested to see again, and did it with a 1971 series called SUNSET SONG by the famous Scottish author LEWIS GRASSIC GIBBON. But eventually the Lewis Grassic Gibbon Society approached the BBC and asked could they have a copy for their society and low and behold they were given it after denying it even existed any more! Now I don’t think ITV will just give the Wrestling Heritage copies but seeing this is a serious committed site might look on a request favourably and price it at somewhere we can aim to buy collectively between us anyone any thoughts?