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10th January 1947
Planning For Peace
War in Europe may have ended but cessation of hostilities between wrestlers and wrestling promoters would prove more challenging. The illusion of respectability created by a Governing Body was not a new idea foisted upon a susceptible public in the 1950s. The announcement of a Governing Body had been made more than twenty years earlier, in 1931, and repeatedly through the decade as each previous one was revealed for what it was – wrestling codology.
Maybe the post war agreement of 1946 would prove different.
Following on from the inaugural meeting of the British Wrestling Board of Control on 21 November 1946 a meeting of the Board members and a group of leading wrestling promoters met at the Midland Hotel in Manchester on 10th January, 1947. Bradford M.P. Maurice Webb presided over the meeting with the objective of the adoption of the Board’s Constitution and Mountevans rules by the promoters. The meeting closed with an issue of this statement: “The promoters present express their willingness to approve the constitutional draft and that the rules outlined become operative. Each promoter, however, is to send in his own suggestions which will be investigated by three independent members of the Board – Lord Mountevans, Mr Maurice Webb M.P. and Commander A.B. Campbell with a view to submission and ratification at a further meeting of promoters to be held in three months time.”
Lord Mountevans was elected President of the Board and Maurice Webb as Vic Presidents. Two technical advisers were appointed, Norman Morrell on representing the promoters and George Broadfield representing the wrestlers
Legal adviser to the Board, Ralph C. Yablon, stressed the Board did not want control of wrestling but to give service to existing promoters and close the doors to spurious newcomers.
Annual fees for Board of Control licences were set: Promoters £50; Matchmakers £10; Referees £5; Wrestlers 5 shillings; Timekeepers, Whips, Seconds and M.Cs 2 shillings and sixpence.
It was said that there were around 200 full time professional wrestlers and 100,000 weekly spectators.
Weight divisions were agreed as follows:
Flyweight Up to 8st 12lbs
Bantamweight Up to 9st 0lb
Featherweight Up to 9st 11lbs
Lightweight Up to 10st 3lbs
Welterweight Up to 11st 5lbs
Middleweight Up to 12st 2lbs
Light heavyweight Up to 12st 13lbs
Heavyweight Any weight
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