By David Mantell
Wrestling Heritage welcomes memories, further information and corrections.
Since becoming the top blue eye in British Wrestling, Big Daddy had taken on and beaten all kinds of foes – foreign Britain-hating fiends such as Mighty John Quinn, Yasu Fuji, Missisippi Mauler and Spiros Arion, giant monsters such as Giant Haystacks, The Bulk and King Kong Kirk, masked men like Mr X and the Red Devil (having originally made his name as The Man Who Tore Off Kendo Nagasaki’s Mask) and smaller stingers such as Rollerball Rocco and Banger Walsh. And he defeated them all in much the same style – body checks, postings and in the end a Big Splash (or maybe a Double Elbow backdrop for variety). The combination of efficient mowing down of heels and colourful spangly popularity with children had even made him ideal for an annual (the first of two) featuring galleries of heels being knocked off their feet, top 10s of blue-eye sacrificial victim tag partners and even his favourite sportsmen (unfortunately including the dreaded Jimmy Saville) as well as cartoons based on jokes about Daddy’s side which somewhat exaggerated things (using Southend Pier as a waterski?)
In 1983, Daddy faced a whole new kind of adversary, a tubby goatee-wearing former circus clown in a silly tinfoil crown. “Gentleman” Charlie McGee (or “McGeen” according to some sources) had first appeared around halls and on TV in 1981 as manager of the masked Black Baron, but this was the year when he emerged from the shadows as the evil mastermind behind the entire heel crusade to get Big Daddy to even so much as lose a match. His persona of a fat beardy loud slob was largely copied from American heel manager Captain Lou Albano (a deranged hippy heel manager) – both men being past masters at playing the dirty disgusting lump of lard. Along with his crown, McGee often wore black and red clothes with a crown emblem across his front For the next three years, almost any heel who was any heel in Joint Promotions would have this man in his corner when he and partner tried to put a dent in Daddy’s winning streak.
McGee’s first major recruits to his war remain the most memorable and would be one of my biggest childhood memories. Over the years in America, all-masked tag teams with a shared identity were commonplace. ITV viewers had been given a taste of this set-up in 1976 when Albano’s “Executioners” tag team were seen on World Of Sport defending their title against Jay Strongbow and Billy White Wolf. By 1979, a masked tag team called The Masked crusaders had challenged Big Daddy and come unglued, with one of them (according to the above annual) being unmasked as Phil Rowe. 1983 was the one time such a set-up – two men called “The Masked…” in similar back gear sporting the emblem of a white Maltese Cross. Introducing The Masked Marauders, supposedly from Belgium (so said Kent Walsh, but then he got it from posters so fair enough.) One was a big blobby jellyman of a superheavyweight: Marauder Major in black bodysuit and black mask with a shiny red plastic face. The other a lighter skinnier fellow with some technical skill in a red/orange mask with black trim around the face holes, devil horns poking up from the corner of the eyes and some sort of white cap underneath the mask that filled out the eye holes giving him the appearance of scary white eyes, not a million miles from Kamikaze’s look the previous year.
Charlie and his Marauders (Charlie was very possessive about “My Marauders” incidentally) made their TV debut that spring squashing the opposition of Fireman Colin Bennett (brother of Marvellous Mike) and “Nipper” Eddie Riley. With FA Cup Final day fast approaching, Charlie brought out his team, touted as the men to beat Big Daddy and once they had dispensed of their opponents, Daddy and partner Kid Chocolate came out and challenged the Marauders to a Cup Final showdown. Come the big day, Daddy made his entrance in the bearskin just like his old Battling Guardsman days, while Charlie and his cherished all masked team stood in the ring with Marauder Minor wearing a World War I tin helmet. When the bell rang however, it quickly became apparent that Daddy could handle both Marauders, sending them sprawling (“If the big one can’t handle (Daddy), the little one’s got NO chance!” remarked Kent.) and even getting Charlie to stagger and topple backwards in his futile attempts at outside interference. Getting the message, the masked men decided to focus their effots on Chocolate, with Minor having some good scientific exchanges and Major squashing him down for a first submission with a Boston crab and then an attempted second submission – until Kid managed to pull himself to the corner and tag in Daddy for the standard bodycheck down and splash for a pin. In the final fall, Major fled the ring to avoid an unmasking attempt from Daddy as Minor tried to come off the top rope for a flying bodypress but was intercepted and backdropped by Daddy for a KO win.
Pulled to safety and the ringside floor, Minor staggered away back to the dressing room, never again to be seen on TV, but Major (now just The Masked Marauder single tense) and Charlie were to be seen again a couple of months later facing Daddy in an arm wrestling challenge (Daddy won and then beat Charlie arm wrestling too.) and then a solo lumberjack match. (German Hans Streiger tried to legitimately disrupt this by coming to the ring to make a protest about some backstage matter. In a sequence censored from the TV broadcast, he was headlocked by Daddy and dragged backstage.) Daddy then easily dealt with the Marauder and Charlie before giving him too the backdrop KO. Pinioned to the mat by all the lumberjacks, the Marauder was unhooded by referee Jeff Kaye, but covered up and escaped before anyone could get a good look. That autumn, the Marauder would return to non-TV shows, sometime with a smaller Marauder, other times just as the Marauder with a generic partner, as regular fodder for Big Daddy. The gimmick was finally put to bed when the Marauder returned to TV one last time teamed with Banger Walsh against Daddy and Pat Patton, voluntarily unmasking after his loss to reveal Scrubber Daly – more about the aftermath of this match in next year’s article. (The identity of Marauder Minor, incidentally remains an issue of dispute. It is known that during the later matches he was played by Black Jack Mulligan, but the man seen in the two TV matches is generally believed to be Irish heel Lucky Gordon, who later teamed with Daly as The Gruesome Twosome and, tellingly, The Marauders with no mention of masks. One man who disputes this is Blackpool based former wrestler and wrestling video purveyor Steve Fury who insists that it was ALWAYS Mulligan. You be the judge.)
The demise of The Masked Marauders didn’t quench Charlie’s zeal to get Big Daddy to lose on TV however. On Cup Final day, King Kong Kirk came to the ring to issue a challenge to Daddy, tongue hanging out, clad in a grey boiler suit and slapping his hands over his head to show just how smooth it was. Both Kirk and Charlie were dumped over the top rope by Daddy. Things didn’t get any better with Charlie’s next TV appearance after the lumberjack match when his men Kirk and Walsh went down to Daddy and Patton. Undeterred, Kirk and charlie recruited another bald superheavyweight, Bully Boy Muir. Recycling Kirk and Walsh’s team name of The Terrible Two, Kirk and Muir were an All-Bald tag team to match the Marauders’ All-Masked tag team. Fine in theory, but a few years earlier, Daddy had smacked both of their bald heads together (“That’s what you do with a couple of dummies like that!” my grandfather claimed at the time.) and a few years before that, Muir had bolted out of facing Daddy and Kendo in a heel vs heel tag match, leaving good guy Dalbir singh to form an unlikely team with Kirk. This time, Daddy and Alan kilby dealt with Kirk and Muir neatly, beating them in two straight falls from Crewe.
Anyway, so much for the crowd grabbing headline storyline of 1983 (not a big enough storyline for the season of Royal Albert Hall shows to be cancelled halfway through). There was still plenty for the purist this year. Akira Maeda aka Kwick Kick Lee, qualified for a shot at the European Heavyweight title, native that he was of the famous European nation of Japan!) and duly won the belt, setting something of a precedent for how, some 25 years later the British Heavyweight title would be won by American Brody Steele in 2008. Despite the ethnic illogicality, Maeda, who mostly defended the belt in Germany, was a fine wrestler and martial arts legend. Another fine wrestler who came of age this year was Dave Fit Finlay, now managed by his screaming, Native American Head-dress clad wife Paula. He and Marty Jones feuded over the World Mid Heavyweight title which Finlay won from Jones then lost back before winning a second time on television with a technical knockout in the eleventh round of an epic World title clash. (Finlay and Jones also battled over the British Light Heavyweight title that year which Jones beat Finlay’s Riot Squad partner Murphy for the World Light Heavyweight title, later vacated once he permanently regained his Mid Heavyweight title.) Jones had something of a major war on with the riot squad following one particularly blood-soaked World Mid Heavyweight title defence. Jones and Clive Myers also battled Finlay and Murphy in a seies of repeat finals for the World Of Sport Tag Team belts, going through a few draws and rematches before Myers and Jones finally took the straps. (A consolation for Myers, who lost his European Middleweight title back to Keith Haward that year.)
Another Jones opponent this year was The Dynamite Kid, now displaying to his British fans the more heelish attitude he ahd become notorious for in Calgary and Japan. Dynamite was here with Hart brothers Owen and Ross, plus “Cowboy” Bruce in his corner for the Jones match. Jones got a cheer from the crowd after making a comment calling all cowboys cowards. Jones went on to win 2-1 despite the foul tactics from Dynamite never before seen from him in this country. His tag partner and future WWF Tag Team co-champion in the British Bulldogs Davey Boy Smith also heeled it up for a hometown visit defeating Bernie Wright on TV and complaining to the referee throughout. The next time these men were seen on the small screen was on the very first match of the very first WWF special in 1987 and the next time they worked for a UK promotion was in the early 90s by which time, both men were in the same Superstar pay bracket as the likes of Daddy, Haystacks and Kendo.
Further down the weights, Jim Breaks had a few short runs with lighter belts, briefly taking the British Lightweight title from Steve Grey and the Welterweight title from nemesis Alan Dennison later that spring and more permanently at the end of the year. The European Lightweight title was passed the parcel from Jon Cortez to Jackie Robinson to World champion Johnny Saint to his future World title conqueror Mike Flash Jordan. Other titles stayed static this year – Saint and his World Lightweight title, St Clair and his British and World Heavyweight titles, Bridges and his rival World title claim, even World Heavy middleweight champion Rollerball Rocco who challenged everyone on a Wrestling Enterprises tour that year to take him on. Only one man, Frank Chic Cullen managed to beat him, prompting an uncharacteristic handshake from Rocco. By the end of spring, Cullen had taken the British title from Finlay (who had won it back once again from Cullen.) and would later take the world title off Rocco for a spell before spending the last decade of his career in an epic 10 year world title reign.
Finally a couple of new talent from this year to mention. Rocky Moran, a stocky moustachioed fellow from Belfast with the air of an aimiable postman started out as quite the clean wrestler when he faced the Birmingham Steve Logan in a clean match on the undercard of the Cup Final TV taping in Basildon but before long sported a 1980s mullet and bad attitude as he teamed with Dave Fit Finlay as the Belfast Bruisers. Another young man needing a change of haircut was Danny Collins who made his nervous TV debut sporting the kind of comb-across and side parting usually associated with balding older men. Still, he managed to give opponent Breaks a scare, scoring a consolation pinfall on him during a 2-1 defeat. Next year, that same Danny Boy would have matured into a capable young star who had Breaks’ number and would beat him again and again and again. But that is another story…
Rasit Huseyin Joins In
Catweazle made his last appearance on TV for Dale Martin against Mel Stuart at Haslingden. The Dynamite Kid returns for a last time, as a heel against Marty Jones at Walthamstow.
The bloodied Jones won the match 2-1. Young David also returned as a heel at Leamignton Spa, enraging the crowd as he overpowered the much lighter Bernie Wright to a victory. Fit Finlay wins the British Light-Heavyweight Title defeating Ringo Rigby at Oldham.
Marty Jones successfully defends his World Mid-heavyweight title against Skull Murphy, with Murphy getting disqualified in a gory contest. At the end of the match, Jones declares war on Murphy and his partner Fit Finlay.
Steve Grey wins the British Lightweight title defeating Jim Breaks in his own backyard, Bradford, via a disqualification verdict. At Bradford, a Fit Finlay/Skull Murphy v Marty Jones/Clive Myers trilogy begins, the match ending a draw. At Derby a few weeks later, the two teams reach the final of the World of Sport tag team belts, where the ended a draw again. In the re-match at Swadlincote, where Jones/Myers deposed Finlay and Murphy as holders of the belts. Finlay, however, defeats Jones for his World-Mid-Heavyweight title, after Jones suffers an injury in the 11th round at Leeds Town Hall and just a few weeks later successfully defends the title against Chic Cullen at Macclesfield.
The Hart brothers Owen and Ross also make their debut at Macclesfield in the last show of that year.
Tony added:
1983 – Dale Martin dropping the Albert Hall bills halfway through the scheduled 82/83 was the significant event as it showed which way the game was going.
Frank Thomas added:
I remember charlie the gent appearing in a programme “So you think you’re funny,” where people were training in the art of stand up comedy. He was managing The Outlaw then, and unwisely chose his first stand up gig at a venue where he had appeared with The Outlaw a week or two before, thereby encouraging a mixed response to say the least! He “died” on stage, and was never heard of as a comic again, but I remember him being interviewed on local radio later, and he was a member of a circus troupe, so he stayed on the fringes of entertainment as it were!!!”
Eddie Rose added:
I was invited to a wrestling show by promoter Ian McGregor, an ex-opponent many years ago. Several other “old boys” were invited, too. Charlie the Gent – with whom I had many a tussle when he “managed” The Outlaw and then a solo bout in the very same hall (Radcliffe Civic Suite, Bury) 33 years ago. It was good to see him and his wife. Charlie’s a bit knackered physically (aren’t we all) but in good form all the same.
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