Also known as The Great Bula
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Terror On Tyneside
Anyone who remembers Big Boy Charlie Scott is likely to recall a rugged heavyweight with a demonic streak. That is only part of the story. When Charlie set out on his professional wrestling career in wartime Britain he was a lighter, agile wrestler who saw combat with the likes of Joe Hill, Jack Alker, Jim Lewis and Jack Harris. Without doubt behind the dubious tactics of later years was a foundation of a highly skilled wrestler.
Charlie could be seen regularly on wrestling bills of north-east England during the war, Private Charlie Scott of the Durham Light Infantry. Wartime service maintained and increased his level of fitness and on leaving service at the end of the war in 1946 Charlie was already a more powerful wrestler. With greater experience came a more rumbustious style that made him a greater crowd-puller and earned him the nickname of The Tyneside Terror.
whilst simultaneously extending his area of activity to include much of southern England. With his muscular body growing to around twenty stones he was now a top contender working against the best heavyweights in the business; Chick Knight, Bomber Bates, Alan Garfield and Bill Verna amongst them.
Add to that list Bert Assirati. Legend has it that Charlie faced Bert Assirati more often than any other opponent, and we can confirm the two were frequent foes. We don’t know the accuracy of this claim, but its very existence is an indication of the stature of the man. Bear in mind there are tales of wrestlers refusing to get into the ring with Assirati, let alone repeat the experience night after night.
The masked man Count Bartelli was another frequent opponent. Indeed over fifty years ago Geoff Condliffe told us that Charlie Scott was his first opponent when he returned to Britain from the Far East and adopted the Count Bartelli persona. Wrestling rarely got good press coverage but Charlie made the front page of the Manchester Evening News for the right reason in 1949 when he donated £5, more than the average worker’s weekly wage (as mentioned in Hansard) to Brandlesholme House Children’s Home, after he failed to unmask Bartelli. Another act of generosity; when Charlie substituted for Sonny Wallis, who had been killed in a car crash, he gave his pay to Mrs Wallis.
Charlie was a firm favourite at Belle Vue and Blackpool Tower , wrestling frequently at the hall in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
With the formation of Joint Promotions in 1952 Charlie was signed up to work for the syndicate, and did so until 1957 when he moved across to the independents. This opened a new chapter of the Charlie Scott career. Whilst continuing to work under his own name he created a new persona, the Great Bula. Bula became a well know masked man on the independent circuit with exciting clashes against the Hans Streiger, Don Stedman and Bill Coverdale, as well as a tag partnership with The Monster.
His son, Andrew, has memories of watching his father both in Britain and in Austria and meeting Shirley and Max Crabtree, George Kidd, Red Callaghan, Stefan Milla, Johnny Peters, Eddie Capelli, Bill Benny, and Bert Assiratti. That gave him a few stories to tell at school the next day.
Charlie Scott retired from wrestling in 1962. By then he had a well established business to fall back on, owning La Roma Fashions in Hornsey.
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