Wrestling Heritage welcomes memories, further information and corrections.
Yesterday, the 11th June, I took an early flight from Hanover to Heathrow in order to attend the internment ceremony of Mick McManus. As the only flight I could get on arrived in London at 6:30 am I think I was one of, if not the, first to get to Woking Crematorium.
As I sat there waiting for the service to begin I had plenty of time to recall of my time with Mick. A Legend, a Star, an Icon, all these words had been used in the past to describe him, and I must say, he was ALL of them. Mick could hold his own in any company, regardless if it was Royalty, press, fans or wrestlers. He was an intelligent man, but loved to play a game of rummy in the dressing room. He could eat in the finest eating houses in London, but was equally at home when travelling at `Greasy Lil’s when on the road.
I remember when I went to South Africa in 1975 for a year I got a message from him that he was going to be in Cape Town for three weeks and that we could maybe get together sometime. As it happened my wife was singing at the Crazy Horse nightclub in Cape Town so one day I went to meet Mick, who was staying with a member of the Royal Family ( Lord ,,,,,,,) and invited them to come and see my wife sing. They came and we had a great night. The next day they invited my wife to the Lord’s house for a BBQ and we had a great time. Mick was so relaxed and having a great time, `This is the life Legs `he said to me `wonder how the lads are doing on the road to Torquay !!!! `and we both laughed.
After I left J.P. s I didn’t have a lot of contact to him any more, I was travelling a lot in Germany and Japan, and then working for Orig and Brian, but every now and again I would get a message from him through one of the boys, but when I found out his 90th birthday was at the time of the Reunion a couple of years ago I knew I had to make the effort to go and see him again. I was SO glad I had the chance to see and talk to him one last time.
Now the service is over, the Crematorium was packed full with Family, press, wrestlers and fans. Mick would have loved it, another sell out ! and the words from Wayne Bridges and Frank Rimmer I will always remember, Thank you Wayne, Thank you Frank !!!!
Also Mick’s son Tony brought tears to a lot of eyes as he spoke about his dearly beloved father
Now it´s time to fly back to Germany, and I´m still making notes on how to put this all together as a tribute to this legend, star, icon, when it suddenly struck me from that last time I saw him at the the Reunion. He was all those things and something more. He came to the Reunion because wrestling was his life. At the time of his fame `the man you loved to hate `he couldn’t be seen chatting with fans, it wasn’t his ìmage`, but after he retired it was different and as I watched him, he had time for everyone, the wrestlers, the fans, he wanted to give something back to the game that had given him so much and he was enjoying every minute of it. I don’t think we will EVER see anybody mean as much to a sport as Mick did to wrestling and it´s a tragedy he never got a award from his land for all that he did, but that’s a different thing, I´m just happy – and proud that I was fortunate enough to be a small part of it,.
God Bless Mick
Page added 17/06/2012
27927
Wrestling Heritage 