By the Caretaker
Heritage member Richard Pyke described this piece as “dinosaur stuff.”
Not to us Richard; and we know that others too will enjoy this flavour of wrestling around the 1980s, written by Richard in early 2003 before his knowledge of wrestling’s rich history had developed. Richard went on to
review WAW shows for Ricky Knight, who became a good friend after Richard wrote his first and none too flattering review of a WAW show.
SATURDAY NIGHTS’ FOR WRESTLING
A PERSONAL VIEW OF THE NORWICH WRESTLING SCENE
It’s a dark, freezing Saturday night in December, sometime in the late 1980’s. The queue outside the Norwich Corn Exchange at Harford stretches from the entrance, down the concrete steps and snakes through the skeletons of the market traders’ stalls. The silhouette of a figure carrying a large leather holdall appears to our left appears, backlit by the car park lighting. As the figure approaches, the conversation from behind us in the queue goes something like this
”Hello Marty, had a good trip ? “
” Aye lad, thanks”
” Best of luck tonight mate, give him one from us”
“Cheers.” He walks on and into the Corn Exchange.
“Who was that?”
“Marty Jones”
“But Marty Jones doesn’t wear glasses!”
“Shut up you stupid *#?%*&** !!!!”
For as long as I can remember Saturday nights (or at least every other Saturday night) has traditionally been Norwich’s Wrestling Night. To follow are some of my personal recollections of the Golden Era of the sport in this Fine City. This is not a history lesson, so don’t expect any dates, ‘cos I can’t remember them.
Like millions of other armchair fans, 4 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon tuned to ITV was essential viewing. Having been told by those older and wiser than me that ‘it’s better live’ I finally ventured to the Corn Exchange for the first time on a warm Saturday night sometime in 1965. It was a Dale Martin promotion and top of the bill was the clown prince of wrestling, Les Kellett. He was wrestling against Steve Haggerty, a wild hot-headed Irish – Canadian star. Kellett was the recipient of a ferocious punch to the undercarriage which poleaxed him ! Haggerty was disqualified and Kellett was carried out of the ring by the seconds ( remember them?) to the dressing room. You didn’t see action like that on ITV – I was hooked, and spent the next 27 years at most of the shows at the Corn Exchange. This large brick walled shed had an asbestos and glazed northlight roof; it was a bit of a dump to be perfectly honest, but the atmosphere generated was the best of any wrestling venue I’ve ever been to, and the crowd were the greatest ! I made many good friends at the Corn Exchange down the years.
Dale Martin Promotions were the premier promoter in Norwich during the ‘boom’ years of TV wrestling, through the 1960’s through to the early 1980’s ( I think, but stand to be corrected.) The MC was Fred Downes, who hailed from the Wymondham/Attleborough area and often appeared on TV, refereeing duties were primarily carried out by the legendary Max Ward, with assistance from ex-wrestler Bernard Murray. Their shows were primarily family orientated with the occasional controversy to spice up the proceedings. The quality of wrestling was always high though. All the big stars came to Norwich, such as Pat Roach, Mike Marino, Roy and Tony St Clair, Tibor Szakacs, ’Jumping’ Jim Hussey (Rocco’s Father), Roy ’Bull’ Davis ( Skull Murphy’s father), Jim Breaks, ’Iron Man’ Steve Logan and Jackie Pallo to name just a few. Dale’s also had a terrific roster of tag teams – Hells Angels ( Adrian Street and Bobby Barnes ), The Borg Twins, the Shamrocks ( Joe Murphy and Jim Fitzmaurice).
In fact, there were too many stars to mention here. Even wrestlers on the undercard were household names thanks to the TV exposure, such as Sid Cooper, Zoltan Boscik, Alan Sergeant, and Peter Szakacs. The one wrestler, however, that was truly awesome was the pre-retirement ( 1st time) Kendo Nagasaki. Those who only remember him in his last incarnation where he was carrying a bit of excess weight can only imagine what a supreme athlete and demolition machine he was in his prime years. He was as fast as most middleweights and his mastery of the art of pro-wrestling was, in my opinion, unsurpassed. I am convinced to this day that many of the top heavyweights either refused to step into the ring with him, or demanded danger-money ! Nagasaki’s battles with Mal Kirk, Mike Marino and Pat Roach were classics of that era.
When Dale’s announced that they were pulling out of Norwich there was concern amongst us regulars that Norwich was losing wrestling for good. Dale’s had the TV monopoly at the time and we were unaware of other promotion companies. However, with that degree in hindsight that we all possess we should have been thankful that we didn’t have the Fat Fraud inflicted on us, as was the case elsewhere when the Crabtree’s took control of Dale Martin.
A few weeks later ads appeared in the press for Wrestling at the Corn Exchange, this time promoted by Wrestling Enterprises of Birkenhead ( later to be All Star ). Obviously we all had to investigate, and the opening night saw a good crowd turn out to have a look at a new roster of stars, most of whom we had never heard of. A scruffy herbert called Brian Dixon climbed into the ring and announced the evening’s programme. The opening show included Dangerous Danny Lynch, Johnnie Kincaid and a rather large individual called Haystacks. During the course of events ‘Stacks and Lynch had a ‘disagreement’ and challenges were issued for the following fortnight’s show. The resulting contest was literally a bloodbath!
A new style of high flying, technical and at times very rugged wrestling had been introduced to Norwich, and the fans loved it. The crowds increased and as far as I’m concerned this new breed of wrestlers started the Golden Era of wrestling in Norwich, despite few big star names and no TV coverage. As Dale’s fortunes plummeted more of their top names joined All-Star and began to reappear at Norwich. Marty Jones, Rollerball Rocco, Fit Finlay, Tony St Clair, Kendo Nagasaki, Wayne Bridges, Johnny Saint etc.etc. Brian Dixon also brought us the top foreign stars such as Fuji Yamada (Jushin Liger), Mighty John Quinn, American Dream Machine and the unforgettable Mongolian Mauler. Controversy and ‘feuds’ were happening all the time, and as real fans we couldn’t get enough of it. There was nothing to beat finishing a crap fortnight at work with two to three hours of action at the Corn Exchange. There were too many highlights to list, but the one’s that immediately spring to mind are –
Adrian Street – v – Johnnie Kincaid
Mighty John Quinn -v- Wayne Bridges
Kendo Nagasaki -v- Bonecrusher Pat Barrett ( they demolished the ring )
Mark Rocco -v- Marty Jones
Mark Rocco -v- Fit Finlay
Danny Collins -v- Rockhard Ritchie Brooks
Brian Dixon also introduced us to the joys of Ladies Wrestling including Mitzi Mueller, Klondike Kate, Rusty Blair, Hellcat Hagetty and Paula Valdez ( later known as Princess Paula).
He also gave a certain member of the Corn Exchange security team his first big opportunity in the ring – Ricky Knight (the ’Rowdy’ bit came later ). I can honestly say that Ricky earned his wrestling ’spurs’ the hard way. It was a baptism of fire and he took a great many knocks from the established names of that time before beginning to hold his own against far more experienced grapplers. No one seemed to want to give the new boy an easy ride. At this point it should be noted that Ricky put his own son, the Zebra Kid, through the same treatment during his early wrestling days, thus ensuring that he has turned out to be one of the most technically proficient wrestlers on the scene today.
Jimmy Ocean, at this time, was an established star who, despite his rule-bending tactics, never failed to win the respect of the real fans with his mastery of the wrestling art. When Ricky Knight teamed up with him to form the ‘Superflys’ and issued a challenge to all the established teams the wrestling world took note. From their running battles with The Liverpool Lads ( Rob Brookside and Doc Dean ) to the capturing of the British Tag Team Title at a time when only one such belt existed, the Superflys firmly put Norwich on the wrestling map.
I moved away from Norwich in 1991, but continued to visit the Corn Exchange on an irregular basis until 1993, but the crowd then was beginning to decline due to the lack of TV coverage and the mess made by the Crabtree/Fat Fraud circus. The last big sellout show I remember there was The Superflys’ challenge to Giant Haystacks. A great contest, but Haystacks was too much for the local lads.
Apart from a few scattered shows, including a WAW promotion at Holbeach Village Hall featuring Danny Collins and Steve Quintain ( with hair!) I hadn’t been to an important wrestling promotion until WAW October Outrage 2002.This came as a complete culture shock to me, the scene as I remembered it had changed totally. It was, however, reassuring to note that Ricky and Julia Knight had schooled the WAW roster stars in wrestling technique and not just the ‘acrobatic’ side of the game which, I am told, proliferates in some of the other promoters’ shows. It’s reassuring to see that the scene in Norfolk and the surrounding districts is more vibrant than I had imagined, thanks in no small measure to the dedication of the people behind the Norwich-based World Association of Wrestling.
As far as wrestling is concerned I still have a lot of memories to be laid to rest, but seeing the commitment of the young stars today I’ve come a long way towards understanding the current scene . My thoughts on that subject are for another time ( if anyone’s interested that is ).
Wrestling Heritage 