Wrestling Heritage

These are our shorter Biographical portraits which we would like to extend if you can provide information or memories.

Jean Rabut

Erstwhile French and European lightweight champion Jean Rabut visited Britain in the early 1960s. Opponents  included the welterweights big three of McManus, Pallo and Dempsey, alongside a Royal Albert Hall victory over Bernard Murray, which a decade later was said by Bernard to be one of his most memorable contests. 

Radak

Masked heavyweight wrestler appeared in the north and midlands of England and Scotland 1957-58. Said to be a Hungarian refugee, which may or may not have been true as he was never unmasked. Heritage members considered the possibility that he could be Tibor Szakacs, but a debut in January 1957 makes this unlikely.

Ragnor the Viking (Also known as David Cross, Ox Brody, The North Man, Dave Viking) 

Heavily tattooed and well endowed in the facial hair department the variously named  1970s/80s  heavyweight villain from Merseyside worked for both the independent and Joint Promotions. 

A massive man who usually towered over his opponents Ragnor was an imposing figure in the ring.  Ragnor would challenge opponents to an “Axe match” in which each contestant carried an axe; and we wonder why we went off wrestling!  Following a grounding on the independent circuit Dave Cross made the transition to Joint Promotions, where he made television appearances, in various guises, against Wayne Bridges, Tiger Gil Singh and Ray Steele. Ragnor wrestled extensively in Germany, Austria and South Africa, using the name Dave Viking. He liked Germany and, Gernot Freiberger tells us,.moved to Germany as an organic farmer, and part time street entertainer.

Guy Rainer

Eddie Burton learned the business at the St Lukes Club and at the gymnasium at the Alexander Pub, Middlesbrough, working for independent promoters in the 1970s as Guy Rainer. An electrician by trade Guy Rainer retired from wrestling in his mid twenties.

Angelo Ramon

The powerful Spanish heavyweight from Barcelona visited Britain in 1965. A mixed bag of results including wins over Gerry DeJager, Earl Maynard  and Ramon Napolitano alongside losses to Danny Lynch and a draw with the  lighter Johnny Czeslaw. In the photo he is about to post Roy Bull Davis. 

Leif Rasmussen

Leif Rasmussed was the blond heavyweight from Copenhagen who was dubbed the “King of the Vikings” when he visited Britain in 1954  and returned for an extensive tour of southern England during the winter months of 1964- 1965.  Reality was that the Nordic Viking was Austrian, born in Vienna, with the birth name of Franz Vorhemus.

A six year amateur career led to a professional debut when he was eighteen years old.  A liberal interpretation of the rules meant that the King of the Vikings was not exactly cheered by the fans, and disqualification losses were not unknown. 

Amongst losses against the best of the natives he was able to claim a surprising Royal Albert Hall win over Steve Veidor. He was one of the many colourful characters who graced British and European rings in the 1950s and  1960s.

Rasputin

The name most often associated with the name Rasputin is that of the wild Irishman Johnny Howard, who is listed under the letter H. Another famed Rasputin, outside of the UK was Frank Hoy, otherwise known as Wild Angus Campbell. We have a couple of other masked Rasputin’s for you. Manchester’s Harold Wrigley and Leeds’ Jim Armstrong took the name in the independent rings of the 1960s, the latter a masked version.

Jack Ratcliffe

1950s heavyweight Jack Ratcliffe, from Bingley in Yorkshire, turned to wrestling after completing his national service. We have no further information, other than his father collapsed and died at a wrestling tournament in Keighley having just watched his son wrestle.

Ripper Raven  (Also known as Iska Khan)

A great 1960s –  1980s villain on both the independent and Joint Promotions circuit, and a man who could rouse the emotions of fans. We first saw him on an independent bill  around 1970, when he used the pseudonym Iska Khan.

Said to have been Mongolian, but Blackpool was closer to the truth for the  fearsome, shaven headed (apart from a pony tail) heavyweight. John Raven was was a very believable Iska Khan, from Fleetwood in Lancashire. Working for Joint Promotions he assumed the name Ripper Raven, and was good heavyweight toughie.  In half a dozen or so televised contests in the 1980s he was matched with quality opponents that included Andy Robin and Tiger Gil Singh.

Eddie Rose:

“I worked with Ripper Raven in his previous existence as Iska Khan from Mongolia – and very good he looked, too. He was accompanied into the ring by a beautiful oriental girl second. As we know, all was not quite as it seemed. Iska was a local lad and he told me the girl was on loan from a Chinese restaurant in Blackpool. 

He described to me his trips as a deep sea trawlerman; both of them. He said the first one was so horrendous, to Icelandic waters that he felt he had to try again but the second trip was worse than the first. So he stuck to wrestling and became a real crowd pleaser both as the exotic Khan and as General Ripper Raven. Wrestling’s gain and Bird Eye’s loss.”

The character changed and the ponytail was lost in the 1980s when he transformed into General Ripper Raven.

Keith Rawlinson

Surely a hero of all us ageing wrestling fans? Do we sympathise or do we celebrate a man who lived his dream? Keith Rawlinson was a Burnley schoolteacher who had his ambition fulfilled in a British television programme by training as a professional wrestler. Months of training from Sid Cooper and Peter Kaye were not enough to save Keith from a good hiding from one of the hardest of the 1970s wrestlers, John Naylor. Keith retired at the end of the fourth round, never to set foot in the wrestling ring again. If you’re reading this Keith, do get in touch and tell us your story.

Red Ivan

Billed in Britain as a Ukrainian with a Polish mother, Red Ivan was brought in as cannon fodder for Big Daddy in one of the more pitiful storylines that the latter days of British wrestling had to offer.  Ivan appeared on television and vastly outweighed his first opponent Andy Blair.  A further demolition job ensued on Burly Barry Douglas, who again gave away over two stones in weight.  Just when Red Ivan seemed to be establishing his reputation as a formidable likely opponent for full blown British heavies such as Davies or Roach or Bartelli he was required to succumb most unbelievably to the out of condition “Mams and Dads Favourite”.  Fans were left wondering about what might have been, and a good showman and fine athlete let his entire reputation go up in smithereens. SaxonWolf has told us “Red Ivan was Richard Krupa, who wrestled under various names, such as Vladimir Krupoff, a Canadian with Russian born parents who had begun his wrestling career for Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling.

Rudy Redvern

The blond haired tiger from Yorkshire appears to have been around for only a short time, between 1950 and 1952 working for Atholl Oakeley. Appeared in high profile contests at Harringay and other halls that used Oakeley’s Twentieth Century Catch rules. Won Oakeley’s Junior heavyweight championship, a title open to under 25 year olds. Seemingly disappeared when Oakely stopped promoting. Did he assume another wrestling identity?

Trevor Rees

Wrestling promoters would have you believe he was Welsh, the country’s middleweight champion no less, but Trevor Rees was known to everyone else as Charles Lawless, the rent collector who worked for Runcorn Council. Charles James Lawless was born in Runcorn on 11th July, 1920. We have found him working from 1958 until 1971. In 1958 he would be 38 years old so we can guess he had already been around for a few years. He worked for independent promoters with matches mostly in the North West, personal family commitments restricted his travelling. He told the Runcorn Weekly News his parents lived a mile from George Harrison and he knew George well. We just hope George returned the compliment in his biography. Trevor Rees died in Warrington in 1992.

Danny Regan

There was an active wrestling scene in the east of England around 1970. Bill and Ron Clarke, Brian Trevors, John L Hagar and dozens of other local wrestlers entertained wrestling enthusiasts on a regular basis. This was the environment that enthused a young twenty year old to get involved in the sport. All that and encouragement from his father in law who wrestled locally as Gypsy Bonito and taught him the rudiments of the business.  Danny Regan turned professional in 1971. For fourteen years he entertained the fans, working mostly for Le Royale Promotions. Danny enjoyed his time in the business and told us that Downham Market Town Hall was the best of the lot!

Serge Reggiori

French welterweight spent a week or so in Britain during the winter of 1958-59. Opponents included Mick McManus, Bert Royal, Jack Dempsey and a Royal Albert Hall defeat by Johnny Kwango.

Jim Reid

Leigh’s Jim Reid didn’t achieve the fame of his older brother, Joe, and his career did not extend so long. He was, nonetheless, a genuine Lancashire catch wrestler who continued to work the professional rings of northern England from 1935 until around 1950.

Herman Reiss

Billed as a heavyweight from Munich, Germany, Reiss visited Britain in 1947 and again in the 1950s, unsuccessfully challenging Frank Sexton for a version of the World Heavyweight Championship in 1954. Faced many of Britain’s top heavyweights, and in most cases dutifully went down to them. 

Tony Renaldo

Curly haired Tony Renaldo emerged from the Second World War, in which he was captured and held as a prisoner of war, to become one of the promising post war middleweights. We came across him for the first time in 1949, a match  between Tony and Archer O’Brien at Plymouth reported to have been  “The most skilful fight of the evening.” By 1959 he had clearly put on a few pounds, billed as Heavyweight Champion of Italy against Hans Streiger. Opponents included Mick McManus, Jack Beaumont, Arthur Fisher and Johnny Kwango. He was a busy worker until 1953 when he disappeared from our sight, only to return for independent promoters in 1958. Often billed as an Anglo Italian Tony Renaldo was actually Henry Cushway. In 1951 he gave evidence in court that led to an East End gang leader being imprisoned for eight years. We would like to learn more.

Gordon Renton (Also known as The Farmer’s Boy)

There have been various Farmer’s Boys over the years (George and Harry Broadfield, Pete Ross, Greg Valentine, Jeff Hunt) but none to match the sheer presence of Gordon Renton, only 5’9″ tall but weighing well above twenty stones. Gordon was born in Scotland but lived much of his life in Catterick village,  North Yorkshire. He came from an agricultural family and worked on the land as a youth, hence the name. Gordon  was a 1970s villain around Britain and overseas, wrestling in Europe and Pakistan often in the unenviable role of enhancing the reputations of Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks. Fans would jeer as The Farmer’s Boy entered the ring resplendent in his  cape with the bull’s head motif on the back. Outside of the ring he was a fanatical soccer fan, working behind the scenes for Northallerton Football Club and supporting  Sunderland, filling his home with soccer memorabilia. Farmer’s Boy Gordon Renton died on 27th April, 2008.

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