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Another reminder of our age is that it is over fifty years ago since we celebrated a popular young middleweight from Stockport. In August, 1971, we wrote, “Claimed by some to be the finest middleweight in the North Golden Boy Ian Wilson brings together the attributes of speed, skill and determination to form a professional sportsman of outstanding qualities.” At the time he was thrilled to tell us of being totally outclassed in the gym by Bill Robinson but in awe of sharing a mat with the great wrestler.
We remember a chubby, cherub like middleweight dashing around the independent rings of the 1960s with his friend (though we didn’t know that at the time) Pete Lindberg. He hadn’t been a professional for long, having joined the paid ranks on 2nd October, 1966, beating Vic Durham at Failsworth, Manchester.
We would never have imagined our cherub was going to turn into Mad Dog, a name we have been told was given to him following a hard fought match with Skull Murphy. Mad Dog was a world apart from the teenager we had watched in the early days. Ian knew how to work a crowd and his Mad Dog persona made the most of those talents.
Fellow wrestler and long time friend Eddie Rose said: “I wrestled Ian many times in a 20 year span and he was one of the very best wrestlers in the UK and would stand comparison with any middleweight.”
Ian and Eddie went back many years, back to their training days. They wrestled each other many times and tagged together as the villainous Les Diables Rouges, Pete Lindberg was a third member of the team.
Ian became interested in wrestling whilst at school in Stockport. He regularly went along to watch the wrestling at Belle Vue, Manchester, where he especially enjoyed watching Jack Pye in action.
When he was thirteen years old Ian joined the Hollywood Amateur Wrestling Club, where he came under the guidance of Bob Francini. He was later a contemporary of Eddie Rose at Grant Foderingham’s gym in Openshaw, Manchester. This was a club that produced so many of great wrestlers in the 1960s, among them Johnny Saint, Johnny South, Paul Mitchell, JIm Moser, Al Marquette, Pete Curry and Eddie Rose.
In 1969 Ian joined Joint Promotions, working mostly for Wryton Promotions, though most of his career was spent working for the independents. It was a long career. From that 1966 debut he worked regularly into the 1990s and sporadically until well into the 21st century, as late as 2008 – making him an active wrestler for well over 40 years!
It’s over fifty years Ian. Maybe time for you to get in touch again.
Page added 23/10/2022
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