Wrestling Heritage

A serious car crash almost put paid to the career, and life of Mexican Joachim La Barba.

With the looks that only a mother could love the Mexican middleweight made quite an impression with fans who disliked his rough tactics when he tangled with  the likes of Jack Dempsey, Cliff Belshaw, Tommy Mann and a 1958 Royal Albert Hall clash with Johnny Kwango. 

On television he lost a November, 1961, contest when he was knocked out by Mick McManus. This was on the  same bill that the American Luther Lindsay knocked out Joe Zaranoff in his historic sole British television appearance.

Joachim La Barba went on to re-emerge in later years as the Mexican villain Pancho Zapatta.

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The dark haired muscular Frenchman, erstwhile European mid heavyweight champion, will be forever remembered by British fans for the titianic struggle in which he defended and lost his championship belt to Briton Billy Howes at Wembley Town Hall in May, 1962.

It was a heave-ho struggle, super-human powers displayed by both wrestlers all the way through until the ninth round when Howes body slammed the French man and fell on to him for the winning pin.

The same bill included one of the famous grudge matches between Jackie Pallo and Mick McManus, which ended in a draw. 

Lageat was the son of French promoter Roger Lageat.

He chose not to capitalise on his fathers credentials and was known in his native France as Jacky Corn, which was his mother's maiden name.

Jacques Lageat also appeared in a couple of French films.

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The original Spanish White Angel who wrestled in Britain in the early sixties and appeared on ITV one Thursday lunctime in  1974. 

Extremely popular in French rings, tagging also with Michel Chaisne.

In Britain he was first unmasked in January 1962 at the Queen's hall, Leeds, by The Black Mask, and revealed to be Francisco Pino Farina, father of Ricardo Torres (q.v.).   

Won his Royal Albert Hall match against John Carlo but knocked out by Kendo Nagasaki at Belle Vue Manchester in September 1975.

In the early 1960s independent promoters promised that the allegedly Anglo Italian Leno would be the man to take over from Mike Marino.

A little on the optimistic side to say the least, but Leno did go on to work as popular light heavyweight Bob Abbott and found greatest success as half of the masked Undertakers tag team.

Battersea born, Kent based,  middleweight wrestler Billy La Rue turned professional in 1969 following a stint in the merchant navy.

He was trained by former wrestler Frank Price at his Canterbury gym before undergoing his wrestling apprenticeship on the independent circuit.

He went on to work for Joint Promotions and throughout the rings of Europe.

Stamping Jack Lasar, the arrogant strutting villain of the 1960s had something of an identity crisis.

Here was a man of many names and almost as many nationalities. We think we've got it sorted! 

In Britain Stamping Jack Lasar was billed as the American villain who would taunt his opponent, mercillesly punishing him to antagonise the crowds.

In America he would equally enrage fans but was known as Ludwig Van Krupp. To the Germans he was Frenchman Rene Lasartesse, whilst to the French fans he was a German.

None of these names or nationalities bore any resemblance to the truth. 

He was actually Edouard Probst, born in Basel, Switzerland, in 1928.

His career spanned thirty  five years, beginning in 1953 and concluding in 1988 as he neared his sixtieth birthday.

International success came in 1958 when he worked in the United States.

Known mostly by the name College Boy Charlie Law started out as a lightweight, (he wrestled Harry Rabin for the British lightweight title in1943) moved through the ranks and was still entertaining the fans  as a heavyweight on Paul Lincoln shows in the early 1960s. Born in Dulwich, living in Peckham and later Surrey, Law worked mostly in the south, and was especially popular at Wimbledon Palais. Whilst the name College Boy may have been used by others most fans of the golden days consider Charlie to be the College Boy. He passed away far too early, aged just 55, in 1969.

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Following the second world war Larry "Whiskers" Laycock left the Royal Marines to take up chicken farming in Doncaster and professional wrestling. He was a regular on the bills of the midlands, northern England and Scotland until the mid 1950s and wrestled the big names of the day such as Dave Armstrong, Ken Davies and Jack Pye.

Heavyweight Dean Lee visited Britain in 1971, though he was apparently just returning home as we were told at the time that he had been born in Britain and moved to New Zealand in 1963.

Trained by John Da Silva in New Zealand he had wrestled in Australia and Japan before being encouraged to wrestle in Britain by British wrestlers visiting New Zealand. 

He returned later in the decade working mainly for the independent promoters.

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Not as acrobatic as his namesake, Sammy, young Kwik Kick (Akira Maeda)  came to Britain in 1982 and 1983 where his not inconsiderable skill was placed on the back burner in matches against  Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy. 

After taking the bumps against the biggest and baddest of Britain's big and bad Lee returned to Japan where he established himself as one of the country's top wrestlers and promoters.

He allegedly fell out of favour with Japanese promoters when he began to take the combative element of the sport just a little bit too seriously!

A young lightweight who worked in the north and Scotland during the late sixties and 1970s.

Trained by Leon Arras he worked for the independent promoters before being signed up by George deRelwyskow for Joint Promotions.

Tagged with Tom Jowett as The Dons, with reference to their home town of Doncaster.

Sammy Lee was unknown to ritish fans when he came to our shores but his speed and agility led to an immediate acceptance by the UK fans. 

Flying head scissors, dropkicks and a succession of leg executed throws following one after the other at bewildering speed  made the young Japanese wrestler unique in British rings. 

Sammy Lee was trained by Karl Gotch, the American based Belgian who had learned his trade from the Wigan wrestlers in the 1950s. Unsurprisingly Lee was chosen as a frequent tag partner of Big Daddy, but we won't hold that against him. 

The name Lee was bestowed on him, real name Satoru Sayama, to capitalise on the martial arts film star BruceLee.

On returning to Japan Lee took to wearing a mask and became Tiger Mask, going on to become a legend of Japanese professional wrestling.

Born in 1921 as Robert E Leedy, Ski Hi Lee had been a two-time NWA Canadian Heavyweight champion in the early fifties before coming to Britain.  Tagged occasionally with Swiss Rene Lasartesse. 

A former circus strongman and rancher, bewhiskered and bewhiskyed Lee featured regularly on Paul Lincoln bills, as well as in The Man From Uncle. Fans were intrigued by his height, emphasised by his leanness, but never failed to boo and jeer him in epic battles with the likes of Mike Marino and Judo Al Hayes.

When not eating razor blades and letting his back be used as a dartboard, it was out of character Lee who represented the wrestling fraternity at West End charity gala nights.

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Mysterious French tag team that appeared on Joint Promotions bills in the early seventies.

In their full-length red outfits and cloaks it was very hard for fans to gain any inkling as to their identities and they were well weighted at light-heavyweight to take on the best teams from lighter and heavier ranks.

Later anglicised their names to The Red Devils and added a third member to the team to allow full flexibility to make the greatest number of appearances.  37 years later we would learn the identity of this Manchester-based trio:  Eddie Rose, Pete Lindberg and Tug Wilson.  That's Eddie, standing, with Pete, right.

The accomplished Australian born wrestler  worked for Joint Promotions in the 1950s before his disillusionment led to an attempt to change the face of wrestling for ever.

The story of how he set himself up as  the most successful of all independent promoters and took on the mighty Dale Martin organisation for the best part of a decade is told throughout this site.

From humble beginnings in 1959 Lincoln promoted shows throughout the UK and introduced to wrestling newcomers such as Jon Cortez  Dave Larsen and the Borg twins, attracted established stars Mike Marino and Ray Hunter, and gave a new lease of life to the Wildman of Borneo and others.

Not to forget, as if we could, that Lincoln was also the man behind the mask of Doctor Death.

Eventually his success became too great a threat to the establishment and in 1996 Lincoln was made an offer he could not refuse,  which resulted in the Dale Martin organisation swallowing their colourful rival on 1st January, 1967.

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Stockport’s Pete Lindop usually adopted the name Lindberg in the professional ring. After training as an amateur at the Manco Club, Manchester, he turned professional at Rochdale, losing to Colin McDonald.

One of the hard men and best wrestlers on the northern circuit. Pete claimed to be Britain’s strongest middlweight, and entertained fans prior to his matches by blowing up hot water bottles until they burst.

His favourite move, the pile driver, led to victories over some of Britain’s top wrestlers, including the much heavier Steve Veidor.

One short 1961 visit to the UK was sufficient for us to select American Luther Lindsay for our A-Z.  Few visitors, if any, could

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Popular Jamaican born, Birmingham based mid heavyweight who made his way onto the British wrestling scene through the independent ranks in the 1960s.

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 Dennis Lord (he's the one on the right in the picture on the left)  has swapped the world of weird and colourful characters of the wrestling ring with the equally weird and colourful characters of his 007 roadshow, which features Bond movie lookalikes available for hire.

Dennis hadn’t planned a life as a professional wrestler, nor as the lookalike Bond villain Jaws come to that. Events just seemed to transpire which brought him to work in Ron Taylor’s wrestling booth. It was a demanding start to a wrestling career, taking on challengers from around the country, numerous bouts a night and never being quite sure what lay around the corner.

He was in good company, learning the trade alongside Big Pat Roach amongst others, and has many happy memories of those early days. With experience under his belt Dennis was persuaded to try his hand in the professional ring, a career that was to last the best part of a decade. He was an immediate success and soon began to gain regular work on the independent circuit. Fans loved him in fast, technical bouts, but seemed to like it even more when he gave away weight to tackle some of the best villains on the independent circuit, the Wildman of Borneo, Klondyke Bill and Doctor Death amongst them. Stardom always seemed on the horizon, but Dennis’ aspirations were shattered when a serious road accident in 1976 brought a sudden end to his wrestling career. By now wrestling was in his blood and when Dennis recovered he returned to the business as a promoter, putting on quality shows around the country. Invariably crowds began to fall away, a sign of the times, and Dennis re-considered his business opportunities. He decided to move further into the entertainment business, assembling a group of characters you’d probably prefer not to meet on a dark night, and started an 007 roadshow of Bond lookalikes. 

The bruising 1960s Yorkshire heavyweight could work a crowd, regularly wrestled throughout Britain and Europe but never made it to the top of the bill status. 

We remember the blond haired leotarded grappler as a good villain who specialised in skulduggery and thuggery, much to the delight of the fans.  

He capitalised on his wrestling fame and successfully found roles in television sitcoms and films, mostly remembered for his role of Nobby Garside in the "Love Thy Neighbour" comedy.

In a moment of fiction turning into reality the promoter Max Crabtree had the bright idea of re-naming wrestler Luty as Nobby Garside, his fictional television character.