Wrestling Heritage

Eddie Rose reflects on his long wrestling career.

Wrestling Heritage welcomes memories, further information and corrections.

Tag wrestling was an important part of my wrestling career and checking my diaries I counted just over five hundred tag bouts in which I took part with various partners. I must admit I did not like the whole idea of tag, that is until I took part in it myself. I had always liked the one versus one aspects of two men in the ring pitting their skill, speed and strength against each other.

This changed when Alec Burton, a fellow Manchester wrestler, came up to me one evening at Panther’s Gym in the early ’60s with an idea: would I like to join him in a tag team? Alec was always an innovator and he had recently watched the Royals on TV and decided he would like to perform as part of a tag team. He had the whole scenario planned we were called “The Masked Baron and his Henchman” with me getting the lesser role! Alec had worked with Lord Bertie Topham as his faithful valet, Ponsonby, and often “assisted” his Lordship in some dubious blind side activities during the bouts.

THE RED DEVILS aka LES DIABLES ROUGES

After some twelve months I received a phone call from promoter Jack Atherton. He wanted a new tag team for his shows and he came up with the idea of a masked duo called Les Diables Rouges, a supposedly French team, to spice up the domestic scene and he teamed me up with Peter Lindberg, the Stockport Strongman. We had our red and black outfits, including masks, specially tailored by a firm of theatrical costume makers and the effect was excellent, both stylish and menacing. We were put to work on his shows and some of those of other members of Joint Promotions. It was the start of a tag team that lasted for nearly twenty years and toured venues all over England, Scotland and Wales.

A CHANGE OF PERSONNEL

Peter had to leave the team after only a few months due to injury and his place was taken by a good friend, Ian Wilson, another mate from Sunday morning sessions at Wryton Stadium. We formed a partnership that lasted almost twenty years and appeared at halls all over the UK and met some of the very best tag team combinations.

OUR OPPONENTS

The most famous (and so popular) were Bert Royal and his brother Vic Faulkner. They were exceptionally good: fast movers with a wide array of moves and holds. It was difficult to keep up with them. We never bested them nor they us. Most of the bouts finished controversially; we were either disqualified or a “no contest” declared by a frustrated referee. They were good and we respected them for it but we were always determined to remain unbeaten.

We fought the extrovert team of Street and Barnes on several occasions and these bouts usually ended in chaos with us back in the changing rooms after an eventful battle with these two fine wrestlers. The Borg Brothers were another very agile and speedy team that the public loved and we had several memorable bouts with this duo: again we were undefeated as we were versus the LaPaques, two tough brothers from the Midlands.

Others we met included Dave Reynolds and Danny Clough from Burnley: always a tough task but another storm we weathered. Two really difficult teams were the West Indian pairing of Jumping Jim Moser and Sugar Ray Francis. They were aggressive and tough. Especially so with their punishing head butts. For a different reason, an unusual combination of Mel Riss and Ian St John. They were so clever and experienced that we had to make our weight advantage and devious methods pay to get our winning dividends. The Cadman brother also caused us some anxiety but Ian’s sleight of hand on the referee’s blind side gave us a narrow victory.

Two others who gave us problems were Pedro the Gipsy and Stoker Brooks with their own brand of unusual tactics and the combination of strength and experience blended by Dale Storm and Bruce Welch encouraged by a home audience in Scotland ended in a “no contest” ; not an unusual ending in many of our bouts.

Other partners I had from time to time, not as the Red Devils, included Roy Paul as the Skinheads at Liverpool and Hanley although I must own up and confess that I never had a skin head haircut. I was subbing for Roy’s regular partner, absent due to injury. I also appeared as one of the Masked Assassins in a couple of bouts at Liverpool Stadium where one of our opponents was the legendary Count Bartelli, a wrestler for whom I had the utmost respect. I also remember partnering such rugged characters as Cowboy Jack Cassidy, the unconventional Buddy Ward and the athletic and very clever Michael “Flash” Jordan.

There were two unusual twists towards the end of my career. The first one was a two versus one contest at Rhyl, the “one” being Klondike Bill who outweighed us by about ten stone. I only survived some three minutes before he flattened me with his big splash! I really cannot remember the final result but it ended in chaos with both men out of the ring and ignoring the referee’s instructions. The second twist was an invitation to become Abe Ginsberg’s partner for a dozen or so bouts in the famous Black Diamonds tag team. It was all a bit hectic and I clearly remember that if I gave a fall away, Ginsy used fall out with me and whack me as hard as I ever experienced a forearm smash! The Good Old Days!