By The Main Mask
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When Australian wrestler Paul Lincoln broke away from his Dale Martin paymasters in 1958 and set up the rival Paul Lincoln Management it was always going to be an uphill task. The Dale Martin organisation had a near twenty year head start, held exclusivity contracts with all the well known names, showcased their matches and stars on television and had well established contacts and contracts with wrestling halls from roughly Coventry south.
Overcoming the odds required courage, creativity and energy. Fortunately Lincoln had bagfuls of all three. In his mission to challenge the might of Dale Martin Promotions he was supported initially by a small band of novice wrestlers, a few more experienced men who already worked for independent promoters and largely unknown wrestlers tempted over from the Continent. The influx of more well known names from Joint Promotions was some time away.
Scotland’s George Kidd had already given Lincoln the idea of creating an instant star by putting a mask on a run of the mill wrestler. That is exactly what he did. According to Lincoln’s good friend, wrestler and editor of the Wrestling World magazine, Lou Ravelle, Paul Lincoln was a very ordinary wrestler until he pulled on the black hood and was transformed Doctor Death. It worked. A star was born and Paul Lincoln Management had a new top of the bill star from early 1958.
The story of the showdown between Doctor Death and The White Angel is documented elsewhere on Wrestling Heritage, culminating in the unmasking of Judo Al Hayes by the Doctor on 4th April, 1962. The match was a sell out, and one that Lincoln was keen to repeat in halls around the country.
Yet this sensational contest was not Lincoln (or the Doctor’s) venture into Mask v Mask territory. A blueprint for the 1962 Match of the Year had taken place the year before.
It involved a good for nothing masked man going by the name Doctor Blood. Doctor Blood had been unleashed on the wrestling public at the end of 1960. With a lower profile than his boss, Doctor Death, the alternative Doctor had not so quietly destroyed opponents that included Dai Sullivan, Bobo Matu and Billy Fogg. Doctor Death was apparently incensed that his name and credentials had been de-valued by the attempt to usurp his name. Doctor Death challenged the newcomer, who not surprisingly obliged (from a box office point of view) by ignoring the challenge. After a suitably lengthy build-up of public challenges the mask v mask contest took place in the winter of 1961.
Reports tell us that it was the sort of hard, well fought tussle that we would expect, with near victory to-ing and fro-ing from one combatant to the other. Eight rounds it went before victory was grasped by Death! Naturally.
The fans awaited the unmasking. Beneath the hood was Terry O’Neill, a man who coincidentally had appeared a year earlier on the White Angel v Doctor Death bill.
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