Tommy the Demon

Tommy Mack, Tommy Hooton, with a Blue Flash and a Black Knight thrown in for good measure.

Wrestling Heritage welcomes memories, further information and corrections.

Tommy the Demon was a familiar name in the 1930s and 1940s though like so often in wrestling familiarity often fails to satisfy a pursuance for knowledge. There were two Tommy the Demons of any significance, though in the search uncovers a few other names.

It’s a name we come across for the first time in 1934, described as The Hurricane He Man” from Doncaster. He weighed around 10 stones and was said to be a bit of a whirlwind, a friend and training partner of Jack Pye.

Who was he? We introduce our first Demon.

Tommy Mack
By 1935 the identity of Tommy the Demon was revealed as Doncaster’s Tommy Mack. Tommy was a real old time villain who by all accounts lived up to his description as Tommy The Demon. The Demon name was confirmed by various promoters. We first came across Tommy Mack in 1932, taking part in a sports display organised by wrestler Douglas Clark. On that day Tommy was boxing, not wrestling, but his association with Clark may well have led to him wrestling in professional rings just two years later.

Tommy Mack featured regularly on wrestling programmes in Lancashire and Yorkshire, with the Tommy the Demon label attached, until the outbreak of war. In 1940 the name Tommy Mack disappeared but the name Tommy the Demon continued until December, 1940, now billed from London or Wigan. Was this the Tommy Mack? Initially we presumed it was the same man, promoters are always changing places of abode. Doubts will set in when we introduce our second Demon who was to emerge twelve years later.

In 1944 we found Tommy Mack organising a wrestling show as part of the Holidays at Home scheme in Rochdale. The consistency of 1930s billing leads us to conclude that pre war the role was filled only by Tommy Mack.

All seemed simple until …. a flurry of Tommy the Demon appearances in Newcastle in 1945 (where Tommy Mack had been a pre war regular) begged the question of whether this was the same Tommy again? The name disappeared until it resurfaced around Manchester in 1950.

The Blue Flash
In September, 1949 a new masked man emerged, seen for the first time at the Drill Hall in Crewe. Danny Flynn, Grant Foderingham, and Alf Cadman were amongst those that went down to the masked man.

We have no report of the Blue Flash’s match with the Black Panther on Easter Monday, 10th April, 1950, but less than two weeks later in the same hall there is a surprise on the advertisement. On 22nd April there is no Blue Flash, but we have Tommy the Demon described as the “ex Blue Flash.” In all truth that added little as the Blue Flash appeared sporadically in Cheshire until 1954 and his identity remained concealed. For now, anyway. We will return to him towards the end.

A new Tommy the Demon was identified in 1953, again via the appearance of a masked wrestler.

The Black Knight
In September 1951 a new masked man appeared on the wrestling scene, The Black Knight, described on the posters as “the notorious hooded terror.” The masked man defeated all before him, and promoters even partnered him in tag matches with the established northern masked wrestler Count Bartelli. A goodie and a baddie together, it was a partnership sure to end in tears. A creation of Wryton Promotions it was most likely planned from the start that the two would eventually meet in combat with the Black Knight going down to enhance the reputation of their established star Count Bartelli.

The match eventually took place on 13th December, the venue was Liverpool Stadium. Well, that’s what we have evidence of, but we can tell you that according to Ray Plunkett’s unofficial listings this was a repeat of a match that had taken place at Warrington three days earlier. It was a match over an unlimited number of rounds with the first fall or knock out to win, loser to unmask. The loser, of course, was the Black Knight, and the mask was removed.

Beneath the hood was a wrestler who had been away since shortly after the war, Tommy Hooton. End of story? Of course not, this is professional wrestling. The mask was quickly pulled back on and at the Drill Hall in Chester the whole thing was repeated all over again. Yes we do have evidence of that one, but goodness knows how many other times the match was repeated.

Tommy Hooton
In January 1953 it was announced that the ex Black Knight, Tommy Hooton, would continue to wrestle as Tommy the Demon. It wasn’t a clean break but at some time during 1953 Hooton did eventually relinquish the mask. The name on the posters was now Tommy the Demon, Tommy Hooton or Bob Hooton.

Tommy Hooton was not a nationally known wrestler but was highly respected amongst his colleagues, he beat Jack Alker, which took some doing, said Jimmy Lewis. We discovered him in the Isle of Man in 1948, billed from Bolton, and then no more about him until his Black Knight unmasking.

His presence in any guise was short lived with Hooton and Demon disappearing at the end of 1953.

The name Tommy the Demon resurfaced again in 1958. Whether this was Tommy Hooton we are unlikely to ever know. Initially we thought it unlikely, but in view of his connection with the likes of Lewis, Black Panther, Flynn and Woolley who were starting out as promoters and on the look-out for reliable workers it remains a possibiity. Maybe there is a relative out there who can get in touch?

Now let's get back to the Blue Flash.

In July, 1963 the Manchester Evening News reported the death of Tommy Houlton (sic), who had wrestled as the Blue Flash. It was reported that he had been born in Wigan and trained by Pop Charnock. Jim Lewis organised a charity show for the benefit of Tommy's widow and three children. Jim Lewis said that although he had retired from wrestling and taken up refereeing duties some years ago Tommy was always willing to help out. So maybe this was Tommy working for the fledgling northern independents in from 1958 to 1960.  Two months before his death he had been asked to wrestle, was thrown from the ring, taken to hospital where two kidney operations were carried out but failed to save his life.

More Demons?
The name was revived again by promoter Max Crabtree for wrestler Tommy Stewart in the 1980s.

Page added 22/12/2023