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Regular readers of Heritage will be aware that British wrestling shows consisted of those staged by Joint Promotion members, and those who worked indepently, known as independents or the opposition.
Most of those who enjoyed wrestling in the 1960s made similar choices and formed allegiances when young. Dinky or Corgi? Beatles or Stones? As adults choices became more fundamental. Beer or lager? Do I tell the wife or not? Many choices were made arbitrarily, but lifelong binding, decision to favour Oxford or Cambridge?
One choice made by many young wrestling fans was whether to favour Joint Promotions or the independents, many fans had a bond to one group or another. For some there was not even the luxury of choice. If they watched the wrestling on television, they watched Joint Promotions. The tiny black and white screen with a couple of channels had much to answer for
Myths evolved that the independent shows were in some way inferior, the wrestlers not as good and the shows were promoted by men whose character veered somewhere between unreliable and dishonest.
The myths were, for the most part, just that. Myths, speculation and nonsense based on a pound of rumour, a quarter of ignorance and a spoonful of truth. Admittedly there were bad eggs in every basket. Joint Promotions set the highest of standards in reliability, integrity and professionalism. Any unreliable fly-by-night merchants were invariably found amongst the independent promoters. Fortunately such businesses were few and far between and tended to have short life spans.
For the most part the independent promoters were every bit as good, and often better, than their Joint Promotion colleagues. They needed to be, because they did not have the power of television to showcase their wrestlers and attract fans to their shows.
Leicester based promoter, Jack Taylor, always claimed that television benefited the independents because it attracted fans to the sport but they then turned to the independents for something a bit more exciting.
He had a point. Independent shows tended to be a bit more glamorous in every respect. Fearsome looking characters like the Wildman of Borneo, masked marvels such as Doctor Death and the gruesome Undertaker would loom out large from colourful posters. Vivid descriptions would detail each and every weird and wonderful persona. Once the wrestling started the proceedings were much the same as that found in Joint Promotion rings, namely a balanced programme of entertaining wrestling.
When we helped with Don Robinson’s autobiography, “Don Robinson – High Flier,” there was just one piece he took very strong exception to, and insisted we change. It was a comment that of the “two ponds” in wrestling the independent promoters were the smaller pond. He insisted that the independents were the bigger of the two groups, and he too has a point. In some of the big cities the independent promoters would stage two or three shows in one night, six nights a week. Admittedly many were in clubs and small halls, but many were in large halls too. There are no official record but it is quite feasible that on any one night of the week there were more independent shows being staged than Joint Promotion shows.
Throughout the 1960s competition between the independents and Joint Promotions was intense. The number of independents mushroomed following the abolition of the Entertainments Tax in 1957. A number of disaffected Joint Promotion wrestlers, Max Crabtree, Paul Lincoln, Jack Taylor, Fred Woolley, Danny Flynn, George Kidd, Joe D’Orazio, and Eddie Capelli amongst them began promoting their own shows in opposition to Joint Promotions. These were all relibale men of integrity and staged shows every bit as good as their rivals.
Joint Promotions could not out-manoeuvre their opposition despite the overwhelming advantage of exclusive rights to the nation’s television screens. Spoiler tactics would be used by promoters, such as booking halls years in advance to keep out other promoters, or switching dates to scupper a lesser known rival.
The competition between the camps could be used to their advantage by wrestlers, particularly main eventers. Wrestlers could, and did, use the threat of a move to the independents as a bargaining tool when seeking a pay rise. The top stars knew that there were enough independent promoters around for them to continue making a good living, and that despite the inevitable threats they would most likely be welcomed back by Joint at some later date.
Even the top wrestlers needed to be careful. They too could fall victim to the minority of unscrupulous independent promoters and find their bookings cancelled at short notice only to discover later that the show had gone ahead without them.
Independent promoters were for the most part genuine, hard working, professional businessmen who wanted to provide pleasure for the public and make a bit of money along the way. Some of the best, in an effort to more effectively compete with Joint Promotions formed a loose alliance under the banner of the British Wrestling Federation, and later the Wrestling Federation of Great Britain. This never had the strength or efficiency of the Joint Promotion organisation, and there were always strains, made no easier with the increasing power of Paul Lincoln Management
Movement of wrestlers between the two camps was far more common than Joint Promotions would have us believe. Some wrestlers would work for both circuits simultaneously, which was strictly forbidden in those days, and use different names to hide the deceit.
Most of the biggest names in british wrestling wrestled for the independent promoters at some point in their career. George Kidd, Eddie Capelli, Mike Marino, Al Hayes, Ray Hunter, Paul Lincoln, Jim Lewis, Count Bartelli, Syed Saif Shah, Danny Lynch, Ricky Starr, Billy Two Rivers, Josef Zaranoff, Ken and Doug Joyce quite openly worked for the independents at the peak of their careers. Quality wrestlers that included Jimmy Devlin and Dwight J Ingleburgh refused to work for Joint Promotions despite numerous offers.
The independent promoters played a valuable role in developing young professionals. Youngsters like the Cortez brothers, Borg twins, Young Robby, and Johnny Saint were to transform wrestling in the early sixties by introducing a faster, acrobatic style. Others who were introduced to the professional ranks by the independents included Al Marquette, Wayne Bridges, Johnny South, Pat Roach, Wild Angus and Giant Haystacks
Add to these names the many wrestlers who joined the opposition towards the end of their careers and it is apparent that the real difficulty is finding those professionals who worked only for Joint Promotions.
Wrestling Heritage is a tribute site to all those decent, dedicated men and women who made wrestling the sport we loved.
Our tribute to the independent promoters is intended to re-dress the balance by addressing many of the unfound myths that surround them.
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