Wrestling Heritage

The Story of THAT Match

In The words of Peter Preston:

To understand what really happened readers have to know that Mick McManus was a very important man in Dale Martin Promotions. He was the man in the office who made the matches and booked the wrestlers. McManus saw himself as the star and would build shows around himself as top of the bill. Some of your readers will know that already, but what they might not understand is the way in which Mick worked. He could make or break a worker, and he did. It was well within his power to block wrestlers, some of whom had more talent than he had.

As you know Joint Promotions split the country up geographically and Dale Martin put on most of the shows in the south of England. There were a few exceptions, and Lime Grove Baths, where the match took place was one of them. Bradford promoter Norman Morrell was the promoter at Lime Grove due to an arrangement that went right back to the formation of Joint Promotions in 1952.

There was no complicated plan for what happened, not to my knowledge anyway. I had worked for Norman Morrell for many years. He was a good promoter, a great wrestler, and very proud of Britain’s wrestling tradition. Morrell had been an Olympic champion and was very protective of the wrestling business that he had established. He had written the Mountevans rules in 1946 and was a founder member of Joint Promotions. He was very influential, the key man in Joint Promotions; you could say that he had his fingers in many pies.

As I said, I’d worked for Norman for many years. I’d no reason for thinking he saw me as any different from any of the other workers. I knew he was pleased with the job I did as he’d sometimes slip a bit extra in my wage packet.

Although I was getting a lot of wrestling work I wasn’t wrestling full time; I had my own construction business and worked on the building site during the day. One day it was raining heavily. It had been raining for days. It was getting me down and I told the lads on the site I was heading off early for home.

I’d just got in and was about to have a shower when the phone rang. It was Norman Morrell. He said he wanted to talk to me as soon as I was ready. Norman told me that he’d booked Mike Eagers for a television show, but Mike couldn’t do it, so he wanted me to go on instead. That was fair enough, but I was surprised when he said I was on with McManus and the match was little more than a week away.

I was more surprised with what he said next.

He didn’t say a lot. All he said was, ‘Now’s your chance. Go in there and make yourself known.’

That was it.

Then he added ‘Whatever you do don’t put him out of action.’ Norman was a true professional, and a businessman, and whatever he thought of the man personally he would do nothing to harm the business.

That’s all he said. I wasn’t told to lose. Just to make myself known without hurting him. It was up to me.

I knew what he meant though, because I knew just what Norman thought of McManus. I thought the same. It was a shame that he told me not to hurt him, or I’d have kicked his knees out in the first round.

McManus usually picked his own tv opponents. I don’t know how he felt about facing me He couldn’t do anything about it though. On a Dale Martin bill he could put a pen through anybody’s name, but on a Morrell show he couldn’t do a thing about it.

I wanted to do well in wrestling but having my own business I didn’t depend on it for my livelihood, and so when Norman gave me this chance I knew straight away that I would take it. I knew how to take care of myself. I’d been taught by the best in the business, John Allan and Eric Taylor. Eric was the greatest middleweight submission wrestler of all time. Out of the ring too he was a great fellah, straightforward and honest.

So I had no doubt I could take McManus, and no doubt that I was going to do just that. I took the first fall, but there was no way I was going to go down to him. McManus knew it, and he could do nothing about it.

There was no money involved. Norman didn’t need to offer me money. I would have been quite happy to put McManus’ knees out. If he was so good why was there never a return? It was just a case of putting the man in his place for once. Mind you, although Norman didn’t pay me to do the job, and I didn’t need paying, he was obviously pleased with what I did because there was a very good bonus in my wage packet that day. I’m not telling you how much. It wasn’t the £300 you’ve just suggested, but it was a very good help towards me buying a new car the following week!

Don Branch the referee knew absolutely nothing about the conversation between Norman and myself. Even Norman wasn’t sure I would take the chance he’d given me. Don was a smashing lad. He was as shocked as everyone else with what happened but not angry. He just looked at me after the match and said, ‘This is going to cause a lot of problems Peter.‘

He was right. I was summoned to the Kirkgate Chambers headquarters of Joint Promotions to account for my actions to the full Joint Promotions board. Unrepentant I told them that if they couldn’t stand anyone who wanted to get on then they were bad promoters. Rebuked by the board I knew that Norman Morrell would still employ me, but I was surprised when George de Relwyskow was the first to pick up the phone and book me and with the offer of higher wages.

Page reviewed 27/01/2023