Week Beginning 28th June
28 June 1958
Joyce Stays Heavyweight King
Billy Joyce knocked out Norman Walsh in the sixth round at the New St James Hall in Newcastle to retain the British heavyweight title.
28 June 1965
A Local Affair
In Bradford Alan Colbeck beat Alan Dennison to retain the European welterweight title.
28 June 1983
Kilby Champion
Alan Kilby defended the British heavy middleweight title against Rocky Moran at Woking
29 June 1936
Had Better Days
Former heavyweight boxer Reggie Meen had had better days. Promoter Kathleen Look matched him with Jack Sherry at the Granby Halls, Leicester. £500 was at stake for those daft enough to believe it. The rules were that Sherry would wrestle while Meen, wearing gloves, would box. To be fair to Miss Look she gave Reggie the option of removing the gloves at any time he wanted. This was little consolation as Sherry had previously beaten Meen in a straight wrestling contest in under a minute.
Only a few minutes into the contest with Meen unable to escape from Sherry holding his arms to his side he asked for the gloves to be removed. The contest continued with fans given 17 minutes of entertainment before Meen submitted and Sherry declared the winner.
30 June 1931
Temptation for Boxing Promoter
Six months after the introduction to Britain of the new style wrestling, now termed “All In” it was gaining popularity and notoriety around the country. Dismissed as barbaric by some, and fake by others, large numbers of the public were willing to part with their cash to watch the spectacle. Certainly enough fans to worry the boxing promoters, many of whom were considering promoting wrestling instead of boxing. One of them was Derby boxing promoter Frank Woodhouse who told the local press he had been approached by wrestler Little Hackenschmidt and was considering putting on wrestling shows at the Highfield Boxing Club.
30 June 1938
A Happy Event.
The soap drama continued as Princess Baba, wife of wrestler Bob Gregory, announced she was expecting a baby. The couple had married in November. Following the wedding Baba’s father, Sir Charles Brook, stopped her £600 allowance but had restored it in February.
30 June 1945
Empire Clash In Newcastle
In Newcastle Bert Assirati defeated Mitchell Gill to win the British Empire Heavyweight Title. Gill took the lead with a Boston crab submission in round seven. When Assirati equalised, also with a Boston crab in the eighth, Gill was unable to continue and retired injured.
30 June 1979
The Ghost of Billy Riley?
An (unnamed) pub in Rugeley, Staffordshire, claimed it was haunted by the spirit of wrestler Billy Riley. The idea was instantly dismissed by Billy’s widow,
02 July 1904
A Triumph for Hack
Four thousand fans watched George Hackenschmidt defeat American Tom Jenkins in 27 minutes by two straight falls. Hackenschmidt was billed as European champion, Jenkins as American Champion and the match for the World Heavyweight Championship.
02 July 1931
Proud Preston
Wrestling made its debut in Preston. At a speedway show in Farringdon Park Karchinski defeated Strangler Warr in the seventh minute of the third round. Complaints were made from the crowd as they were too far away from the action.
02 July 1932
This Wrestler Flies
The wrestler in question was Heinrich Froehner, who arrived at Hanworth Aerodrome on board the Graf Zeppelin for a match against Robert Adams, The Black Eagle. He must have felt he was on a piece of elastic because Froehner had previously arrived in Britain on Thursday 30th June, beat Atholl Oakeley at The Ring, Blackfriars, returned to Germany on Friday, and was now back in Britain on the Saturday.
02 July 1938
Angus of The Empire
Harold Angus retained the British Empire welterweight title against Rashid Anwar in Newcastle.
02 July 1964
Wrestling and Apartheid
On his return from a wrestling visit to South Africa Ian Campbell said that many of his bouts had been cancelled in retaliation against the anti-apartheid campaign in Britain.
02 July 1965
The Old Master
In Glasgow British heavyweight champion Billy Joyce retained his title against challenger Billy Robinson.
02 July 1976
Ali Hospitalised
World heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali was admitted to St John’s Hospital in Los Angeles with severe muscle damage and a suspected blood clot in his left leg following his match with wrestler Antonio Inoki. Test results indicated no sign of a blood clot but that he was suffering from an accumalation of fluid and bleeding into the left leg from the damaged muscle.
03 July 1933
A Mountain Too High for Clark
Read the story of the match between Laurent Gerstmans and Douglas Clark in this week’s newsletter
03 July 1954
Dempsey Overcomes Capelli
In Newcastle British welterweight title Jack Dempsey defeated Eddie Capelli by two falls to one over eleven rounds to retain the British welterweight title.
03 July 1965
Grunts and Groans of Another Kind
Wrestlers aren’t the only ones guilty of grunting and groaning. Yest, it was time for
03 July 1976
Davies Too Strong for Mancunian
Gwyn Davies retained the British heavyweight title when his match against Roy St Clair ended in a No Contest result.
03 July 1976
Ali And Inoki Are Just Not Good Enough
ITV chose to cut short their planned coverage of the boxer v wrestler match between Muhammad Ali and Antonio Inoki and show only highlights. The match was described as a farce after Inoki had spent the entire match low on the mat kicking at Ali’s legs.
03 July 1986
Grey Still Champion
Steve Grey defeated Richie Brooks by two falls to one in Bridlington to retain the British lightweight title in Bridlington.
04 July 1932
Championship Shenanigans?
A British heavyweight champion arrived in Nottingham. Three weeks earlier Douglas Clark had appeared in the same ring and defended his British title against Johnafesson. Newspapers described this as an All-In match and recalled Clark beating Atholl Oakeley for the title. Now, three weeks later, it was Atholl Oakeley stepping into the Nottingham ring as British champion and Clark would, from this time on, be dismissed by Oakeley and his promoters as Catch as Catch Can champion.
04 July 1965
Summer 1965 and Wrestling Feels the Heat
Read how The People newspaper exposed the fakery of professional wrestling in this week’s newspaper.
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