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21 November 1944
Wrestling On The Ropes London Set to Ban Wrestling
Officialdom’s attitude towards professional wrestling in wartime Britain was illogical to put it kindly. On the one hand wrestling was valued as a sign that life in wartime Britain was going on with some normality. Organisations that included the services willingly benefited from the many charity tournaments arranged, Promoters that included Ted Beresford and Arthur Wright were encouraged financially through the Holidays At Home scheme. On the other hand some local councils publicly frowned upon the sport and devoted much hot air debating whether it was something they wanted in their own back yard.
After years of dilly-dally and delay the scene was finally set for London County Council to take the extraordinary decision to prohibit wrestling in halls licensed by them. With a nation still in the throes of war the Council found time to debate and bar an entertainment that had benefited the war effort through countless fund raising events and helping to maintain a normality of wartime life. The Council accepted the Public Control Committee recommendation, “In our view all-in wrestling cannot be regarded as true wrestling in any sense. We do not consider that it contains any element of sport, and we regard it as a degrading and unhealthy form of entertainment.”
The decision was to come into effect on 1st January, 1945, over-ruling a previous review in November, 1938, when women’s wrestling had been banned..
Norman Morrell, a promoter in Blackburn, Newcastle, Middlesbrough and other towns in the north of England said that the ban would have no impact in the rest of the country where interest was high. Furthermore, he said that plans were in place for promoters to build their own wrestling stadiums after the war ended.
Heavyweight wrestler Bert Assirati spoke out against the ban, saying that the council misunderstood that “All In” meant that it allowed all styles of wrestling to be included, not that any sort of dirty play was allowed.
The short lived ban that came into force six weeks later had little, if any, impact on the development of professional wrestling in Britain.
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