By Andy Bryden
Wrestling Heritage welcomes memories, further information and corrections.
A dear, dear friend and well loved colleague has now left the Ring.
Whilst putting the final touches to this year’s WRS Programme during the afternoon of July 18th, I received a message I’ve been dreading for a time now. It was from the daughter of a UK Wrestling lifetime dear friend of almost sixty years, Eddie Rose, to inform me he had sadly passed away.
This mat-man was one of Manchester’s top crew. He was not only a real gentlemen, he was also a gentle man who loved all his fellow human beings and also adored our business. It started for him as a pro in 1964, until he finally hung up his well used boots 20 fun filled years later in 1984.
During this time he’d worked on all the holiday camps up and down the UK, and was also hired on regularly in and around Salford, Manchester and the greater metropolis area, quite often working twice in the one night for Promoters on different shows in different city locations, all of whom greatly appreciated both his professionalism and his versatility.
This great man was well educated and also attended several top amateur mat clubs around the area over many years before joining the ranks of the professionals. He also found time to train as a School Teacher and over the years he went on to rise through the ranks of the Education System eventually attaining a high position as a strategist for what became Greater Manchester’s forward looking, future think-tank authority.
A form of Manchesterism, long before Andy Burnham, and through all the years he pulled on his boots, black for one guise and red for another, he built a network of admirers and really good friends who, like me, adored the man. He was also very well respected for simply being honest and caring and for lending an ear if one was needed. And all this time he found time to marry a lovely lady, raise a wonderful family and use his intellect to discover both his family ancestry and his roots, which believe it or not were Scots in origin, a fact that truly filled him with great joy.
He worked on shows in Scotland for Spartan Promotions among others, in fact was so well respected he was regularly engaged by all the top Independent Promoters and also the ITV World of Sport 4pm Saturday afternoon show providers Joint Promotions as well. During which time he shared a ring as a member of two very successful “Villain” Tag Teams namely Les Diables Rouges and The Black Diamonds, where he teamed up with the legendary arch villain another Mancunian, Abe Ginsberg.
Eddie Rose has now left the building! God Bless and Keep You! Failte!
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