Wrestling Heritage welcomes memories, further information and corrections.
We usually just launch into our countdown features, but on this occasion we think it useful to describe the role of a professional wrestling official. Googling the term brings you nowhere near to any of the many responsibilities a referee takes on.
At the obvious level the referee is the adjudicating official, laboriously counting out falls and knockouts, distributing public warnings, and occasionally being called upon to deliver a points verdict. But his role is in truth far more complex than that.
Here are just a few of his various duties:
•Applaud moves in quiet, clean bouts, when the audience are not clapping, to give them a lead.
•Keep moving around the ring so as not to block individual spectators’ views for any continued period of time.
•Stand close enough to certain wrestlers to allow them to use his shoulder for a spin out or to be leapfrogged.
•Take messages from one wrestler to the other about how the action is to unfold.
•Pass a blade to any wrestler a few moments before he is due to bleed.
•Evaluate the wrestlers’ work and report on this to the promoter.
•Give feedback to wrestlers on parts of their work that went down well, or didn’t.
•Keep out of the way and let the wrestlers keep centre stage.
•Be vigilant not to reach the count of ten too quickly when a wrestler is clearly being too slow to recover. The referee mustn’t finish a bout too early and yet he must manage affairs in a credible professional manner.
•Use full facial and hand gesturing to admonish wrongdoers, but don’t bother with too many real words since these will not be heard by the majority of the audience,
•Keep a straight face.
•Get stuck in, get physical, break the wrestlers up. A good ref mustn’t be afraid of being hands-on.
It may seem that the in-ring role of the Master of Ceremonies is rather redundant and that the programme could run itself quite nicely without one. But remove the dinner-jacketed gent from the proceedings and the whole presentation would be sadly lacking in style and importance. It is our opinion that in the Heritage Years the level of ring announcing could have been much better in general. Too many MCs just read out what was on the programme and blandly stated who had scored winning falls and verdicts. Only a very few bothered to describe the action that had led to a score. We can lay the blame for this on a hangover from the pre-war style where announcers had no microphones and had to shout. They thus developed the ability to be succinct and just get the essentials across. By the time technology had arrived, little general thought went into developing the what an announcer might have to say. On a positive note, Masters of Ceremonies were invariably turned out quite immaculately, a straightforward point but clearly the result of strict policy from the promoters, and a feature which made a professional wrestling show seem to have some competitive importance.
And now a note on eligibility for inclusion.
In our listing we consider only those considered principally as officials for an appreciable period within the Heritage Years. So we exclude the likes of Johnny Kwango, Reg Trood, Roy Bull Davis, Jeff Kaye, Ken Joyce, Spencer Churchill, Peter Szakacs, and all those who filled the role only occasionally.
So very many personalities acted as referees and Masters of Ceremonies down the years, some on an occasional or even one-off basis. Of these, some were absolutely wonderful, but we have to hone the criteria for inclusion here to ensure we include those involved seriously and inspiringly over decent periods of time. But the time involved is not everything, and we will not flinch from down scoring those who we feel could have done much better in terms of effort.
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