Wrestling Heritage

The year of 1946 wasn’t just the dawn of the first full year of peace since 1938.  The year was also the dawn of realisation for the British people that the end of war did not mean the end of their worries. Those who had served their country returned home to find that jobs were few and far between, the effects of rationing were at least as great as during the war years, and the vision of the welfare state remained just that, a vision. The people had demonstrated their hunger for change on 26^th July, 1945, resulting in a surprise landslide victory for Labour in the first post war elections. The radical new Government lost little time implementing change and 1946 saw the nationalisation of the Bank of England, and plans to nationalise the railways, road haulage, the ports, and the iron and steel industries

As for leisure activities the pursuits of dancing, cinema, sport and variety, which had all played an important part in maintaining morale during wartime continued to play a major part in  the life of working people in the late 1940s. Most sports had managed to maintain a skeleton service during the war years, and wrestling was no exception. .

Wrestling promoter Athol Oakeley had been critical of wrestlers and promoters who had remained active during the war, on the grounds that a man fit to wrestle was fit to fight for his country. Whether or not these were sincere sentiments or resentment at his inability to re-establish himself after the war must remain the subject of speculation. The truth is, though, that those wrestlers and promoters who had continued during the war had played a valuable service by helping to sustain a sense of normality which was so important during the darkest days of wartime. Both venues and wrestlers had been severely limited. The bigger cities, such as Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool, and Plymouth had been able to put on regular shows throughout the war. Wrestlers on these shows were either home on leave, serving locally, or working in reserved occupations.

With the outbreak of peace those promoters who were to form the backbone of the post war revival were well placed to build on the foundations they had already laid. In 1946 Wryton Promotions were already proclaiming themselves “The World’s largest Promoters.” Exactly what they measured to justify this claim, which they were still claiming thirty years later, I don’t know. Dale Martin, Norman Morrell, Bill Best, Relwyskow & Green, Jack Atherton and Ted Beresford were promoting regularly in 1946.

Many halls that were destined to become the legendary venues of the following thirty years were featuring wrestling in 1946. Weekly shows could be seen at Blackpool Tower, Belle Vue, Willenhall Baths, New St James Hall Newcastle, and the Kings Hall Belfast amongst others.

The wrestling of 1946 was very different from that which was to subsequently gain immense popularity. The sport had fallen into disrepute during the 1930s. Ringside violence, wrestlers failing to show and extreme gimmicks such as mud wrestling had eroded the legitimacy of the sport. Urgent action was needed if it was to once again flourish. The councils of London and Glasgow banned wrestling, a consequence of some of the shambolic promotions that were taking place. The status of wrestling needed to be raised if local councils were to continue to grant licenses for wrestling shows or the London ban was to be lifted.   Remedial action was swift and of sufficiently  high profile to persuade councils around the country that professional wrestling had both value and a future. The driving force behind this important development was promoter Norman Morrell, and the result was a new set of rules, the Admiral Lord Mountevans Rules.

The wrestlers of 1946 were a combination of established stars returning from war service and younger performers who were destined to become stars of the television revolution. In the former category were the big names such as Wigan born and bred Jack Pye, reputed to be Britain’s dirtiest wrestling, Welsh Heavyweight champion Bulldog Bill Garnon, Yorkshireman Bert Mansfield, and the greatest of them all, Bert Assirati. Amongst the newcomers were a young heavyweight from Manchester, Jim Hussey, a wily Wiganite called Bill Joyce and a newcomer from Edinburgh called Les Kellett. Some, like Bolton’s Alf Cadman, returned from the services and chose wrestling as a full time career.

Masked men were well established by 1946, and one of the most successful of all during the thirties and forties was Yorkshire miner Ted Beckham, otherwise known as the Blue Mask,

Amongst overseas newcomers to our shores in 1946 was a young New Zealand heavyweight, Ernie Kingston, who was to become a force to be reckoned with for near on thirty years.

In those pre Joint Promotion days there was little regulation of championship contests, though some wrestlers were widely recognised as British champions due to their generallly acknowledged skills. In the lightweight class George de Relwyskow had been widely recognised as British champion, but injuries sustained during the war had forced him into retirement and in 1946 the lightweight title was vacant.

Supreme amongst the welterweights was Harold Angus. Harold’s professional success had been preceded by world class success as an amateur, winning a silver medal in the lightweight division of the 1930 Empire Games

Londoner Jack Dale was middleweight champion, a belt he had held since 1935. Jack was now combining his wrestling commitments with being one half of the country’s most successful wrestling promotional business.

There were no widely recognised champions at light heavyweight or mid heavyweight, but there was one acknowledged great in the heavyweight division. The Islington Hercules, Bert Assirati (pictured left), had been recognised as champion since January 1945, though he had claimed the title throughout the 1930s and 1940s. The war had removed many challengers and by 1946 there was little doubt that Assirati was the best. He defended  his title with some regularity. On 11^th May, 1946 he put the belt on the line against local boy Dave Armstrong in Newcastle. It was a closely fought bout, won by Assirati, which resulted in a return contest on 11^th June, and another win for the Islington Hercules.  At Belle Vue Assirati made two successful defences against George Gregory, on 11^th August and again on the 31^st

The winter of 1946 gave promoters the opportunity for a first full post war winter season. On the political front the cessation of hostilities throughout the world meant that world war 2 was officially declared at an end on 31^st December, 1946, whilst the exceptionally cold weather of December was just a taster of what was to come in the early months of 1947