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Owls of various colours appeared in the twentieth century wrestling rings of Britain. But just one name, two wrestlers, stand out as a figure of note.
Dark Owl appeared on the British wrestling scene in 1939, defeating a run of opponents and finally unmasking his nemesis, Red Mask, to reveal Wigan’s Bob Silcock. The Dark Owl displayed a great deal of wrestling skill as he defeated the likes of Tony Mancelli, Dave Armstrong, Francis Gregory and Wild Tarzan. Not surprising really because beneath the mask was Wigan’s Billy Riley. Riley continued wrestling as Dark Owl until around 1946. We did find Dark Owl in 1950, but the referee for that match was Billy Riley, which was obviously problematic.
The name Dark Owl was taken over by Billy’s son, Ernie Riley in the 1950s. Dark Owl was very busy in the 1950s, mostly in Hanley, which would allow Ernie to be the regular masked man. Opponents included Dai Sullivan, Black Butcher Johnson, Mike Marino, Dennis Mitchell, Al Hayes and Ray Apollon. in Hanley.
Ron Historyo believes he has identified the beginning of Ernie’s Dark Owl role in September 1954. This could well be right as the 1950 Dark Owl appears a bit early as Ernie only turned professional in January of that year. Dark Owl Mark 2 had a good run until his unmasking by Count Bartelli on 14th April, 1956.
But this is wrestling and news did not travel from Hall to Hall or make national papers very often. And so in January 1958 they did it all again in Kings Lynn.
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