Two cities, two hundred miles apart, and two footprints on the historical map of wrestling in Britain. London, the capital city of the land, and Manchester the self proclaimed capital of the north, though the inhabitants of Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffield might well have something to say about that.
In the early 1960s television and cinema were making those outside of the industrial north begrudgingly aware that there was a culture and heritage other than their own. The grainy black and white screenings of the first Coronation Street (1960), and films such as “A Taste of Honey” (1961), “A Kind of Loving” (1962), and “This Sporting Life” (1963), showed that there was life, of sorts, north of Watford. Britain was a divided land, and this division manifested itself in the realm of wrestling as it did elsewhere in people’s lives.
Dale Martin Promotions dominated the wrestling halls of London and the south, with the occasional peculiarity such as Norman Morrell’s Promotions at Lime Grove Baths, a throwback to an even earlier age. It was Lime Grove that was to epitomise the tensions amongst the northern and southern Joint Promotion members with the infamous Peter Preston conquest of Mick McManus in baffling circumstances that would extend the deductive powers of Miss Marple until way beyond her bedtime.
Whilst the London fans had little choice but to queue up and pay their shillings to Dale Martin Promotions the Manchester fans, within a small geographical area, had the choice of Wryton Promotions, Morrell & Beresford, Billy Best, and Relwyskow & Green. Following promoters Henri Irslinger and Kathleen Look Belle Vue had a unique arrangement where the northern promoters took turns to present shows on a rotational basis.
This assortment of promoters at Belle Vue created a variety that was unheard of in the south, where imagination and creativity was restricted by the near monopoly of Dale Martin Promotions. At least that’s what the northerners said. Whilst we accept that the northerners opinion was well-founded it cannot be denied that the professionalism and quality of Dale Martin Promotions was a standard to which the northern promoters aspired.
The variety for Manchester fans was enhanced by the proliferation of independent promoters. Fred Woolley, Danny Flynn, Jack Cassidy, Grant Fotheringham, Shaun O’Shea and Pete Lindop were amongst the many Manchester based independent promoters of the 1960s. With the exception of the short-lived Paul Lincoln period, and the 1970s Independent Joint Promotions, the independent promotions in London lacked continuity and provided little competition to Dale Martin.
Apart from the Royal Albert Hall, which attracted visiting Continentals for the sole purpose of 
laying down their careers for the sake of our domestic stars, the Manchester fan was more likely to watch overseas visitors than the London fan. For some reason the Northern promoters seemed able to dominate the booking lists of touring stars including, Ricky Starr, Jean Ferre. Red Ivan, L’Ange Blanc, and Jose Rodrigues Questa.
There were, of course, numerous similarities as many wrestlers worked nationally and the major promoters co-operated as part of the Joint Promotions organisation. This meant that Londoners and Mancunians were both assured of first-rate tournaments featuring experienced and skilful wrestlers in quality surroundings.
Delve beneath the high standard ring, professional presentation, and dinner jacketed Master of Ceremonies, figuratively speaking, and the differences begin to emerge.
The style of London and Manchester shows was likely to provide a stark contrast. Despite the Mancunian’s view that Lancashire was the home of real wrestlers it was the southern shows that boasted a greater proportion of technical matches. Our mythical London fan might well have watched shows with three technical matches on a four bout bill. Such match making would be unimaginable to the Manchester fan. Northern shows tended to be more violent affairs, where fans demanded a good helping of guts and glory in their evening’s entertainment.
Wigan’s Jack Dempsey, the embodiment of northern tenaciousness, spoke the unspeakable when he said,
“The audiences in the south are better. They are much more appreciative of scientific wrestling, more sophisticated. In the north ‘rough and tumble’ wrestling is demanded by most audiences” (The Wrestler, October 1963).
Such differences stemmed from the heritage of our sport. The northern tradition was of wrestlers from working class backgrounds, where Sunday afternoons were likely to be spent outdoors scrapping for a few shillings sidestakes honing the skills that would provide their ticket out of the pits, the factories and those dark, satanic mills. These surroundings gave the northern wrestlers, and their fans, a harder edge than could usually be found in the south.
The Mancunian fan was more likely to see blood than his (or her) London counterpart. Not a lot of it, mind you, but with shows in the north and midlands tending to be that much rougher than those in the south occasionally wrestlers would be cut. Wrestling outside the ring was also a far more common occurrence in the Manchester than in London. Dale Martin Promotions took a dim view of such antics, but some of Manchester promoters found it acceptable. Blood and outside of the ring activities were few and far between, but they did happen.
The London fan was likely to believe that he (or she) watched the most polished, professional shows in the country. The Manchester fans just believed they had the best wrestlers. Northern bills certainly appeared to have more big names, but this may have been a consequence of a more conservative approach to marketing by Dale Martin Promotions. Another possibility is that as Dale Martin promoted far more shows on any one evening than any other promoter they simply had to spread the talent around much more thinly.
