Also known as Pete Lindop
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The Iron Man of Marple
Here at Heritage we are always reminding readers the biggest names were not necessarily the best. Well, here’s the proof.
The wrestling audience looked on in wonder. The noise level dropped until there was almost silence, pierced only by a solitary witticism. The hot water bottle fastened to the lips of wrestler Peter Lindberg grew, grew and grew ever bigger until ….. BANG! The crowd erupted. Once again they found their voices with a huge cheer for the king of the hot water bottle bursters, Pete Lindberg.
Here was a real mighty atom; a very powerful man inside his thirteen stone frame. One of the hard men and best wrestlers on the northern circuit. Pete claimed to be Britain’s strongest middleweight, and entertained fans prior to his matches by blowing up hot water bottles until they burst. The anticipation of waiting for the bottle to burst was incredible, but burst it did and we all jumped.
When we first interviewed Pete, back in October, 1970, he was billed as Austrian. When asked why? he said he’d no idea with utterances that this was the sort of things promoters did. Then he bent an iron bar and broke a few six inch nails. Bending nails and tearing telephone directories in half was something he’d already astounded television viewers with when he appeared on the David Frost Show. Short of another party trick? How about Pete’s ability to pull a car with his teeth?
With Pete on the bill we got value for money; a strong man act and a proper wrestler. Pete (and to be fair most of his contemporaries at the time) demonstrated the depth of the wrestling skill seam in the 1960s. After training as an amateur at the Manco Club, Manchester, he turned professional at Rochdale, losing to Colin McDonald.
In terms of style Pete could take the role of blue-eye or villain, but in either case was a hard wrestler with a short fuse that could easily ignite a contest and the fans.
During the 1960s Pete was very busy working the northern independent circuit where the industrial conglomerates of Lancashire and Cheshire called for wrestlers to work two, and occasionally more, venues in one night. In the 1970s Pete worked for Joint Promotions, particularly Best Wryton, where he entertained the fans but never reached top of the bill status.
In tag contests Pete could often be seen in partnership with Eddie Rose or Ian Wilson, both mask less or as one half of the notorious masked Les Diables Rouges tag team..Notoriety is not misplaced with the pairing being disqualified whilst wrestling the Hells Angels; on that occasion aided by their minder, The Avenger, a role played by Jack Mawdsley.
His favourite move, the pile driver, led to victories over some of Britain’s top wrestlers, including Jim Moser, Al Marquette, Ted Heath and the much heavier Steve Veidor.
Following wrestling Pete continued to break nails, destroy hot water bottles, pull vehicles with his teeth and earn a living as a decorator.
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