Brighton Sports Stadium, known locally as SS Brighton was the home of professional wrestling in Brighton for just fourteen years.
But what glorious years they were.
October 8th, 1951, was the night of the very first wrestling presentation, and almost spot on fourteen years later, October, 10th 1965, grapple fans went home from the Stadium for the last time.
Bert Assirati knocked out the French champion Robert Herland in the main event of the first tournament. It was a battle of the giants, with both men weighing over 18 stones and Assirati putting his European championship belt on the line. The supporting bill was just as appealing to the fans, featuring the Blackfriars Thunderbolt Tony Mancelli, Mustapha the Turk and the Australian Bill Verna.
The one figure common to both those shows was the Managing Director of the Sports Stadium, Benny Green. Benny Green had taken up the role of manager at the beginning of 1951, and he was responsible for introducing wrestling to the stadium.
When the Stadium was built, on the site of a Public House, in 1934, it’s function was that of a covered swimming baths, the largest indoor seawater pool in the world. The pool found little favour amongst the public and the following year was converted into an Ice Rink.
The opening of the Ice Rink in the autumn of 1935 brought about a rapid change of fortune, mostly a result of the success of the Brighton Tigers Ice Hockey team who used it as their home venue until the stadium was demolished in 1965. Apart from wrestling and ice hockey the venue also hosted a wide variety of other events, including boxing, wrestling, ice shows, and swimming.
Between the first and last wrestling show the SS Brighton featured most of the big names in wrestling. The legendary American heavyweight, Lou Thesz, defended his world championship belt against Bill Verna on 14th December, 1957. A capacity crowd of 4.500 were said to have packed the venue on April 18th, 1964, when Alan Garfield was disqualified in his contest with Ricky Starr. In May 1965 wrestling was televised from the Stadium, when the BBC showed the match between the French heavyweight Edouard Carpentier and Jim Armstrong of Leeds.
Most popular wrestler at the hall was the local heavyweight Dropkick Johnny Peters, especially when he was partnered in the early 1960s by his tag partner, Dazzler Joe Cornelius. McManus, Pallo, Maurice, Dempsey, Carnera ….. they all stepped through the ropes of the SS Empire ring until the shock announcement that the building was to be demolished in 1965.
Fourteen years later when the bell rang for the last time some of the biggest names of the time were again present: Peter Maivia defeated Tibor Szakacs, Yuri Brienko beat Tim Geoghegan, whilst in the supporting contests were Masambula, Johnny Yearsley and Charlie Fisher.
Wrestling Heritage 