Wrestling Heritage

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B

 

Jim Breaks was one of the greatest post war lightweights and rightly features in this section.

 

Ten more names to remember from the Mountevans era.

 

These are our chosen ten beginning with the letter B.

 

Tell us who you would have included, and we’ll update the selection. 

 

Con Balassis

 

In November, 1948 when promoter Athol Oakeley promoted a wrestling spectacular at Earls Court with Bert Assirati and The Angel main evening a young Australian heavyweight called Con Balassis wrestled on the supporting programme. With this being a promotion where Oakeley put on the biggest names  available it is a sign of the significance of Con Balassis in the post war heavyweight scene. Balassis came to Britain before the Second World War and remained a familiar figure until well into the 1950s. Despite being a regular main eventer Balassis sometimes resorted to donning a mask and calling himself The Red Shadow and was ceremoniously unmasked by Mike Demitre in 1949.

Ernie Baldwin

 

Frequent heavyweight campaigner from the 1940s to 1960s before turning his hand to refereeing. He turned professional in 1939, when he lost to the Farmer (George Broadfield) in Leeds, and took it up  full time in 1947. For a short period in the 1940s Baldwin was one of many wrestlers who donned a mask and became the Masked Marvel. Three times during his career Baldwin was recognised as British heavyweight champion. He wrestled the best on offer, including an unsuccessful championship tilt with  world title holder Lou Thesz when he visited Britain in 1957.

 

 

Bobby Barnes

 

The peacock strutted his stuff. All he needed to do was pose in the ring, sneer at the crowd and arrogance simply seeped from Bobby Barnes’ pores. There he stood in all his glory, and the fans booed and jeered. This was just the start of the ritual as he carefully removed his gold coloured gown , only to toss it away, and receive more jeers from the fans.  He was derided by fans throughout the land. Barnes was a 5’7” middleweight from Lewisham who learned the business at the Symbric Wrestling Club, Lewisham.  Owner of  a ladies hairdressing salon Bobby was famous for his blond locks, of which he took great care. After turning professional in 1958 each year seemed to see Bobby’s hair grow longer and blonder, his cloaks and boots more colourful. His character became even more larger than life when he teamed with Adrian Street as the Hells Angels tag team.   Rather sadly and abruptly Street departed Joint promotions about 1974 and Bobby never really regained his same confidence or status, contenting himself with sprayed on hair colouring and even growing a moustache.  Let’s remember him as the real blond bombshell of 1971!

 

 

Robby Baron

 

When he joined the professional ranks this teenager was billed as Young Robby, for obvious reasons. His speed, skill and looks made him an immediate favourite throughout the south. To be honest, he never ventured far north, but he did transfer his talent successfully from Paul Lincoln, the independent promoter, to Dale Martin Promotions. Changing his name to Robby Baron (his real name was Tapsell) Robby soon became a 1960s and 1970s favourite throughout the south, and the rest of the country via the miracle of television.  He was closely associated with Mick McManus throughout his career, driving the main eventer around in his heyday, with recompense of an appearance on the day’s number one tv show, the Generation Game, as usual with McManus.  Seemed set to develop into a heavyweight contender, but Young Robby rather drifted away unheralded about 1975.

Count Bartelli

 

The short neck and slightly hunched movement were two of the hallmarks of Count Bartelli. The other hallmarks were all the ones that we would naturally associate with one of the finest and most successful post war heavyweights.  Having turned professional in 1939 Geoff Condliffe donned a mask and became known as Count Bartelli. Even as a masked man Bartelli was a crowd favourite. He stayed within the rules, but could be ruthless. Many is the opponent who has fallen foul of a Bartelli’s habit of aborting a posting at the last moment to dislocate his shoulder. Over twenty years he remained practically undefeated and became one of the biggest names in British wrestling, despite never appearing on television. Following a 1966 defeat and unmasking by Kendo Nagasaki Count Bartelli’s career went into an almost equally successful second phase. He became a television regular and Commonwealth Heavyweight Champion.   For more details read his semi autobiography, They Called Him The Count. 

 

Man Mountain  Bill Benny

 

In pre war days when fan rage too frequently resulted in crowd violence one of the men who often caused the mayhem was a Mancunian by the name of  Man Mountain Bill Benny. The beard and the girth made Benny a fearsome sight. He would stand centre ring, taunt the audience, roar at his opponent and then dart across the ring to seize his luckless opponent. If a smaller object, such as a referee, was to get in the way then that was just unfortunate. The fans were incensed but always went home feeling that it had been a good night out.  If this gives the impression that Benny had little to offer in terms of wrestling skill then that is far from the truth. The man was a villain of the first order, but he was respected by his compatriots and I remember Accrington’s Jack Taylor reminiscing longingly about the contribution that Benny made to wrestling. Belle Vue was Benny’s local venue and he encountered fellow villains like Jack Pye and Black Butcher Johnson on his local turf. Following a wrestling career spanning the best part of thirty  years, and concluding in 1960, Benny went into club management and wrestling promoting. It was he that encouraged a young judo expert named Al Marquette to enter the world of professional wrestling. On occasions the bearded giant pulled on a mask and entered the ring as the Vampire.

 

 

Jan (Lord James) Blears

 

The Manchester heavyweight Jan Blears came from a decidedly working class background. His UK success took him to California where he was transformed into the villainous Lord James Blears, usually accompanied by his valet who wore a white tie and coat.  Danish-Canadian light heavyweight Carl van Wurden encouraged Jan to take up wrestling, and he trained at the Manchester YMCA. His wrestling career was interrupted by service in the merchant navy  as a radio operator during WW2. Following the war he moved to the USA, living initially in California, and later Hawaii. Following his long and successful career Blears found new fans in a new career as a television wrestling commentator.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Blue Angel

 

There was no shortage of masked wrestlers on the independent shows of the 1960s. One that stood out from the crowd was the villainous Blue Angel. Even before he entered the ring fans were in no doubt that here was a scoundrel of the first order. The costume and body language conveyed the message of skulduggery as he moved little by little towards the ring.  A sombre, scruffy, full length cloak made the heavyweight easy to place in the first class villain division. If that wasn’t enough there was always the bell that he rang out aloud like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. For good measure The Blue Angel would drag his leg, allegedly the result of an horrific accident that had somehow resulted in the acquisition of superhuman powers. Fans would jeer him as he unhurriedly made his way towards the ring and the forlorn figure would stop to return the compliment with a snarl.  Unbeknown to fans the man beneath the mask was the popular Stockton wrestler Jim Stockdale who was nothing like his mysterious masked persona. In the poster shown we are able to note that Stockdale kept himself particularly busy on this night with both a masked outing against Dai Sullivan and an unmasked contest against Toma Hansom.

 

 

 

Zoltan Boscik

 

The scowl and hardened features of Hungarian born Zoltan Boscik made him a wrestler easy to dislike. Here was a man with considerable skill who usually stayed just on the right side of the rules,but looked the part of an out and out villain. He relentlessly applied punishing submisission holds with a frequency rarely seen amongst lighter men. The result ws a thoroughly entertaining, talented wrestler who travelled the journey from novice Hungarian amateur in 1954 to one of the  top British

lightweights of the 1970s.

 

 

 

 

Jim Breaks

 

As he climbed into the ring and sneered at the crowd arrogance visibly oozed from every pore of Jim Breaks’ body. A master of dubious, and sometimes not so dubious rule bending tactics Breaks was very unpopular  The crowd disliked him, and their dislike became more vocal as he relentlessly punished his opponent. Invariably jeers turned to cheers as Breaks' opponent temporarily turned the tables and Jim turned to tears and tantrums. One or more of the audience would throw a baby's dummy into the ring and chants of "Cry Baby" would begin to echo around the hall. Breaks' tantrum would become even more emphasised before he demonstrated genuine wrestling ability to be declared winner yet again. He  was one of the greatest post war British lightweights. His professional career followed a successful amateur career in which he was Yorkshire and Northern Counties Featherweight Champion. Trained by Bradford wrestler Bernard Murray he turned professional in 1958, losing to Bernard in that first professional  contest at Eltham.   His speciality was a punishing submission hold called the Jim Breaks Special. The man was special in other ways also as he was one of the greatest post war lightweight professional wrestlers.On 16th October, 1963 he gained the first of many British lightweight championship victories. Other title successes followed with the British welterweight championship and the European lightweight title.  Read more..... 

 

Wayne Bridges

 

Boy next door turns wrestler. Wayne Bridges seemed the sort of man every parent would like their daughter to bring home. This popular heavyweight from Gillingham,Kent, began wrestling professionally for Paul Lincoln Promotions in 1964 after a five year amateur career at the Ashdown Club. When Lincoln merged with Joint Promotions in 1965 Bridges quickly established himself as a television favourite and became the Heavyweight Champion of Kent. His flying head butt speciality, agilty and technical ability led to wins over many top heavyweights, though appearances were usually limited to the South. Despite his popularity it was still a surprise to UK fans when Bridges lifted a European version of the World Heavyweight Title. There is no doubt. Though, that Bridges lived up to every expectation that fans could reasonably have of a World Heavyweight Champion.  His proud championship defences and bloody losses kept alive the glory days of British pro wrestling in the early 80s, as he repelled and succumbed to foreign baddies such as John Quinn and Spiros Arion, and in-the-know fans rate Bridges’ heel turn as one of the finest ever seen. Another nail in the coffin of professional wrestling when Bridges retired in 1989.