Dear Friends, the bill below is from 1958, the JOE COATES PROMOTION, under the BWBC, I assume they mean Mount Evans (JP). Is that right? J. Beaumont is called a champ J. Foley is a former champ. Would love to hear everyone's opinion on this back and forth title change. Foley belonged to the RILEY's, and Beaumont was Charnock's right? Very interesting. And how the above correlates with this passage on Tommy Mann from A-Z (Wrestlers): "His remarkable success started to reach a climax in 1952, when he beat the great Jack Dale to become the first holder of the Lord Mount Evans British middleweight title." Now that we know that Jack Dale had his own middleweight champ in the 50s in the person of HARRY FIELDS. And by the way T. Mann appears on the famous CHAMPIONS photo as the middleweight title holder. Thank You.

Serious subject. Serious question. To everyone who considers themselves pro wrestling history researchers - what is the main subject, main focus of your studies, and why? A little of pre history. I found this website around 2017, and quickly emailed Ron asking my questions about the British pro wrestling and what is the best way to approach this subject in a way that will help me to better understand the historical processes and evolution of this game. I always prefer calling wrestling a game. For me it is. Ron suggested not to spend all my time on collecting the pro wrestling results from different eras, because that is what I was pretty much doing, my collection of wrestling results related to English wrestling history is arguably the biggest in the world (no kidding) it goes back all the way to 1600s, the times of last Stuart kings of England. Back then I argued with Ron, because to me personally the results was the only thing that did matter, the only thing that will actually stay in history forever and not only that, this is the way it's here in America, the wrestling researchers just collect the results, that is what we do. Precisely. Because that is how we believe we are preserving the wrestling history I suppose. Long story short, back then I wasn't capable to understand what Ron was teaching and preaching to me. It took years of personal evolution as a researcher and years spent here on this forum of old school British wrestling fans, learning a lot from you guys, that nowadays I can claim that yes I do agree with Ron, fully and completely, and yes follow his fashion of studies. Yes, I still do research certain things very specific, but the way I approach events has changed. When I see a wrestling programme a bill with names on it...I no longer am concerned about the results that much, someone won someone lost those bouts from the past. I see something that does look like a sports advertisement a programme in front of me, but as a matter of fact is nothing but a THEATRE AFICHE (I have to address it in French, for a stronger accent, and to add an additional meaning to it) and should be treated as such. It is like those old theatre posters which show us the names of great actors and actresses of the past, and we only can judge the performance, accepting their era's norms and standards for the quality acting. So my main focus switched from the "results" to such things as what was their pro wrestling like, what they did in the ring to entertain crowds of spectators, what the fans considered fun about this whole thing called pro wrestling and why they were willing to come and watch it, what was behind the theatrical curtains of pro wrestling stage. The evolution of performance became my new subject, the language wrestling artists spoke to their fans and everything about it. This teaches me more about wrestling history than anything has ever did in the past. This new approach truly enriched my researcher's world and I am very thankful to Ron, Hack, Anglo and all of you my dear friends. Thank You All!

I decided to start this subject with this...strange image, I was lucky to find online several years ago. At the end I will share with you, my friends, why I called this image strange, lol. These our recent discussions re baked beans brands of professional wrestling and various other subjects of similar entertaining nature (at least for me personally) made me want to share this with you, my dear friends. In the 1800s there was a London based newspaper called BELL'S LIFE IN LONDON, it was a major British sporting paper published between 1820s and 1880s. They covered all kinds of sports and that of professional wrestling as well. Back then there were quite a few very local, regional brands of pro wrestling in England. I said that word the "brands" again. I think I am making a legitimate case out of this nonsense, lol. Did I just call pro wrestling history nonsense. I have to be more accurate with what I say...Morell's descendants are probably still around and they can sure can attempt to take me to the court for this "nonsense". Anyways. We are back to my favorite 40s, no not the 1940s, the very Victorian, the 1840s. Once upon a time Someone, we don't know who that person were since they haven't introduced themselves properly mailed the Bell's Life editor a question, simple, general, very basic question: WHO CURRENTLY IS A PROFESSIONAL CHAMPION WRESTLER OF ENGLAND. The answer was a pure knockout. Such thing as Championship of England in professional (read prize) wrestling DOES NOT REALLY EXIST. And then there was provided a brief explanation why according to the editor we should not addressing this kind of question in such uninformed manner. In the 1840s there were at least three brands of pro wrestling in England: CORNISH AND DEVON, as a matter of fact the oldest of all and the most common of all, because it was a jacket style, traditional English kind of wrestling. It outgrew the area of its origins and was the most common style all around the country and not only that the bosses (sorry patrons) of that sport were running annual championship matches and tourneys in London the capital of the country a place where the real moneys were! And yes, this style (traditional English jackets style) existed for centuries and had many regional variations too. CUMBERLAND AND WESTMORLAND, relatively a new style, popular only since late 1780s early 1790s, originally it was unknown outside the area of its birth. It was still unknown to many London wrestling fans even in the early 1800s. LANCASHIRE, a newborn style which emerged in the late 1820s in South Lancashire. It was also called the Manchester rossle. The Ashton-under-Lyne beersellers gave birth to this very unorthodox style of wrestling. And no one in England knew what it actually was outside the City of Manchester and a handful of neighbor mill towns. The editor made it clear each of these brands has its own champion wrestler of England and they will never wrestle each other first of all because they are unfamiliar with each others wrestling fashions, secondly it will be a poor show to match unmatchables, lol and of course simply because that kind of titles unification would mean for them nothing but losing their main income. Those who run these sports (brands of wrestling) are NOT interested in having such thing as UNIFIED WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP OF ENGLAND, he stressed. Now I have a question, do we learn anything from HISTORY, it supposed to be there to educate us....saying educate I do specifically mean to be smarter when we approach this and similar subject. And back to the provided image. The pic clearly shows English jacket style of wrestling, I stress English because the men are wearing tight perfectly fit fustian (or flannel we don't know for a fact) jackets. Cornish wrestling jackets didn't look anything like this. And the provided names of the two competitors, the wrestlers called GRAHAM and BEEBY tell us that they were Cumberland-Westmorland practitioners and obviously never competed in jackets. Another nonsense, oops I said it again! So much nonsense lately. The printing office had only this old visualization for wrestling...and probably didn't even know that there are some other brands of wrestling in England except the one he was familiar with...the Old English Jackets Wrestling. Thank you for reading this. And enjoy your WRESTLING.

And this is exactly why I suggest to all my friends who research and study this era when they put together the "title lineages" to do it in this particular order: PRO WRESTLING COMPANY PRO WRESTLING BRAND & RULES CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE WRESTLER YEARS

Not wrestling related, but important, I think. During my stay in England, I used to live and work there in my early twenties, I was lucky to attend a fantastic performance by some phenomenal actors at the Shakespeare's Globe in London, based on a play The Tragedy of Richard the Third by Wm Shakespeare. The last Plantagenet King was a colorful individual. Even charming in his very own unique way. He truly was. "10th ANNIVERSARY 26th March 2015 - King Richard reburied On 26th March 2015, King Richard was reburied in Leicester Cathedral in a service led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and in the presence of TRH The Countess of Wessex (now Duchess of Edinburgh) and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. A poem, written for the occasion by Carol Ann Duffy, the Poet Laureate, was read at the service by the actor Benedict Cumberbatch, a distant relative of the King."

Dear Friends, to the best of my understanding this Dale Martin match which was billed for the British Heavyweight title was NOT conducted under the Lord Mount Evans Rules of professional wrestling, hence cannot be considered as title change. By the way after this match Baldwin still had his Lord Mount Evans silver championship belt and yes he still was the reigning British heavyweight champion according to the Lord Mount Evans Rules. Thanks.

Recently on Wigan and Leigh Archives I found a photo of Billy Joyce and THIS PARTICULAR BELT. This is the same belt which I have tried to trace for many years now. The oldest image of it is dated back to 1908 and it is a photo of the Lancashire wrestling legend called Tom Connor. In the early 1970s this belt was used by Ted Betley for his short lived promotion called "British Open Championship" a title designed for his protege young Steve Wright. Steve wrestled Tony St Clair to win this precious historical trophy. I am trying to figure out where/when Billy Joyce won this belt, and what title it represented when Joyce held it. Any help om this matter will be highly appreciated. Thanks, R.

Dear Friends, please help me to sort this out. I am looking for a good quality images of either Baldwin, Busfield or Colbeck with THIS PARTICULAR TYPE of British champion wrestler belts. This is what the original (circa 1950) Lord Mount Evans British Wrestling Championship Belt looked like. The only difference between these three belts is their size. The biggest belt was designed to fit the heavyweight champion's waist. I am positive on the existence of Johnny Stead image with this belt as well, same as held by Colbeck, because in the early 1950s these two were top contenders for the British championship in lightweight division. Any help will be highly appreciated. Thanks. R

Kind of FUN TO WATCH! kushti 2.mp4

Dear Friends, wanted to share this old French poster. It is a perfect example of wrong terminology! The style of pro wrestling it shows is definitely not catch as catch can, but All-in wrestling for which a proper French term would be: LUTTE DE COMBAT. But since in UK in the 1930s there was an All-in pro wrestling promotion and the brand called The XX Century Catch-as-catch-can in Continental Europe they started calling any All-in pro-wrestling match Catch! That is why nowadays many people are so confused about what actually Catch is, or better say was! And you hear all kind of nonsense about the 1930s, 40s, 50s and even 60s and 70s catch wrestlers from UK and other countries, lol. Hahahah! GRECO-ROMAN PRO WRESTLING. CATCH PRO WRESTLING (lol). - ALL IN WRESTLING/LUTTE DE COMBAT.

Apparently to most dangerous and most vicious submissions belonged to the Greco Roman style of wrestling?!

The old school Olympic wrestling was so much fun because it actually was the Lancashire style of wrestling known as catch as catch can. "In Lancashire, where the Lancashire or catch-as-catch-can game, as it is called, originated, all falls count when the shoulders touch the mat together. It makes no difference whether you throw a fellow over your head and let go of him, or whether you press him down with a hammerlock or roll him: it is a fall every time the shoulders strike together". (Jim Parr of Wigan, Lancs, the world's champion wrestler).

Finally this is not a question anymore. His name is MIJAIN LOPEZ. It is obvious now that no one ever will surpass his achievement his success, undefeated for what, for 5 back to back Olympiades, in what, in the toughest form of wrestling, the Greco-Roman wrestling. It is not just wow, it is WOW for decades, decades if not for hundreds years to come!

The Reckoning is a 1969 British drama film released by Columbia Pictures directed by Jack Gold and starring Nicol Williamson, Ann Bell, Rachel Roberts and Zena Walker. The movie features a couple of pro wrestling scenes. Do you recognize the wrestling professionals in this video? Thanks, R reckoningwrestlingoriginal_compressed-ezgif.com-mute-video.mp4

Saw this video of Indian Dangal and was confused. The Dangal is usually advertised as being a genuine sport, the true wrestling contest. But does this particular video show a contest or what we see here is rather a predetermined finish match, the wrestling showcase...decide for yourself, and ENJOY! Indian WWE.mp4

"...was an English sculptor, artist, film actor, art teacher, singer, boxer, wrestler and a 1928 Olympic bronze medalist in Middleweight wrestling." "He also had a spell in the movies, and in 1933 wrestled with Charles Laughton (as Henry VIII) in “The Private Life of Henry VIII”. HENRY VIII WRESTLING.mp4