Why did Romany Riley never
become a big name bill topper in professional wrestling? Why the question?
The Romany Baron pops up
with regularity on The Wrestling Channel these days, affording an opportunity
for full retrospective evaluation of his work.
The compelling overall assessment is of a hard hitting athletic
heavyweight who had the versatilty to assume
various roles, but always to deliver with a very believable edge.
Coming to this verdict is
one of the most enjoyable parts of writing these reviews of the televised
bouts, for we remember with great clarity the slow and hesitant heavyweight of the
early seventies, attired in ill-fitting trunks that crawled up his girth, and
certainly never featured in small screen action. In fact, the most notable aspect of his
presence on a bill was the racket that was made by his seemingly endless family
members who accompanied him to the halls.
Everybody has to
learn, and wow, what a metamorphosis to behold in these bouts that took place
in an era beyond that under general discussion on The Wrestling Hertiage
site. A few more wrestlers like the
leotarded Basil and our faith in eighties wrestling could almost have been
restored!
In opposing the imposing
but unadventurous John Kowalski, the Man of Kent is seen as many will remember
him: a quiet under-achieving undercarder,
clean wrestling but never ever seen to smile.
This was one of his very early tv appearances and the mutton chop
sideburns were still there. Oh, of
course we can look at the result, an entirely predictable single fall victory
for the Hampshire farmer. But look at
the technique through the bout, watch those rolls and the forward planning –
Riley was so far ahead of Kowalski that he left the more experienced pro flat
footed and foundering. In the end he
carried the bigger man to the end result.
The winning pin-fall was, incidentally, mischievously and mysteriously
zoomed in on to reveal a Riley shoulder high high off the canvas as referee
Mancelli hurriedly counted to three. Kent Walton seemed not to enjoy the fayre, but Kentish Man Charlie Fisher seemed far more appreciative as he called for applause.
Facing Len Hurst
must have been quite a challenge.
Regardless of varying hair and trunk styles and initial leaps suggesting
a spectacular performance to come, Hurst made a career of delivering the same
performance night after night. All those
U.S. tours and bulking up did nothing to develop the style of yet another
unsmiling product of 313 Brixton Road, and he remained the very junior Honey
Boy we remember from 1968.
Good match-making
and thoughtful role development from Romany Riley made this encounter a real treat. Note the words role development. So many wrestlers had their attitudes
established before they entered the ring, only to embark upon meaningless
unprovoked rule-breaking. Not Romany
Riley. He started clean, lost a fall in
the first round, and that provided the impetus for a mini heel-turn. Nothing exaggerated, just understandable
frustration at potentially being outwrestled.
One other who springs to mind for this thoughtful developmental style is Bruno
Elrington, but they were few and far between.
True, that
opening fall was rather sloppily executed
but it was more than made up for by the cross-ring arm roll and joint
exit over the top rope that led to the double knockout. This finish is the most commonly used route
to a dko but is rarely executed in a smooth, single flowing action to make it
look believable rather than forced. Here
they hooked up and rolled out as one in flowing unison. The landing looked hard. It was surprising to see Joe D’Orazio almost
embarrassed into not reaching the ten as both wrestlers had felt they needed to
be seen to be getting back in fairly quickly.
In between, we
saw Riley marvellously selling drop-kicks galore, surviving an aeroplane spin
in which he unusually maintained a wristhold, taking a believably heavy head
posting and gradually turning to foul play.
It was noticeable how quick the audience was to express its dislike of
the man billed from the Romney Marshes, which Kent Walton decided needed to be
deglamourised from a plausible gipsy caravan location to the rather mundane
Ashford. Hurst played his role well, but unmemorably.
Perhaps we
witness the very best of the mature Romany Riley in an explosive match as he
gave away four stones to “Iron Fist” Clive Myers. While Bobby Palmer introduced this
heavyweight bout (sic.) with all the fireworks for colourful Clive, as usual
the most exciting description available for Baz was that he was from very
uncolourful Staplehurst. Myers was a
very tricky opponent for most pros in various respects, but Riley proved the
perfect foil. And Riley’s own
performance shows a whole variety of technique and strategy with very little
repetition, marking him as one of the game’s great thinkers.
Once again, with
his trademark clean start, we were able to see the heavyweight displaying his
speed and agility but then, gradually and according to plot, being outwitted by
the lighter man. By the time he has
conceded the first fall in round two his patience snaps and he delivers a
blatantly illegal mid-round posting. A
delightful Waltonism of questionable taste attributed this aberration to the
fact Romany had recently lost his mother.
So from the third
onwards we see Riley the out-and-out villain – and what a great job he made of
it. One of our very first articles considered
the unsung hero that was Tony Walsh, a villain we have since acknowledged as a
very skilful grappler. In Romany Riley
we have another unsung hero. Little
acknowledged for undoubted technical expertise, and equally unheralded as a
rogue of the very nastiest type. Once
again the crowd were only too willing to turn on him, here understandably, and
we can only surmise this could be due to his appearance as one of those
tattooed unlicensed boxers that abounded in the Garden of England
at that time.
The baddie gained
an equaliser. Then he selflessly put up
with Myers unbelievably showing his invincibility, a spot that blighted most of
Iron Fist’s bouts, before making his own glorious exit to being knocked out by
virtue of a nasty looking bump on the ring apron.
After the
wrestling bout Bobby Palmer redeemed himself by very believably setting up an
impromptu arm wrestling challenge, issued even more believably by Romany
Riley. We have all witnessed some
pitiful exhibitions of the elbow game, Big Daddy versus the Mississippi Mauler
striking a particularly raw nerve, but this was well executed and the champion
dutifully strung it out before claiming an inevitable victory. Whilst the plaudits were for Myers, it was Bad
Loser Baz who stole the show for this viewer, predictably overturning the table
but then rather satisfyingly having a real go at the Magyar referee, before
departing, all gob and spit, taking pot-shots at angry fans on his way.
Such is Romany
Riley’s lack of stature in the paid ranks that it would be and invariably is
all too easy to overlook his contributions.
But pause and analyse awhile and you may well discover a hidden gem that
has been before your very eyes all these years.
Romany Riley versus John Kowalksi, Walthamstow, 18th
April 1974.
Romany Riley versus Lenny Hurst, Southend, 13th
February 1980.
Romany Riley versus Clive Myers, Woking,
13th September 1978.
