Wrestling Heritage

Decades before the name was taken up by the Americans British wrestling fans booed and jeered The Undertaker, a villain of the independent circuit in the 1960s.. A bearded, fearsome looking character, dressed in frock coat and top hat as the stereotypical undertaker of days gone by, would walk unhurriedly to the ring to the accompaniment of the Funeral March. With him was an equally sombre companion and aid. On their shoulders they carried a coffin, albeit one that did look decidedly on the small side. The coffin would be ceremoniously lifted into the ring and propped against the corner post. The aid would produce a tape measure and attempt to “measure up” the opponent, obviously without success. Gestures and words, drowned by the jeers of the crowd,  indicated to the opponent where he was going to end up. Of course, he never did, despite the aid pushing the coffin back into the ring at opportune moments for The Undertaker to try once again to get the luckless wrestler inside.

Two masked men, top hated and black jacketed, emerged on to the mid sixties independent circuit, billed from Chicago.

They were so-called brothers Jonathan and Nathaniel, The Undertakers. It goes without saying they were villains of the first order, and unlike most masked men seem not to have a perfect record.

During the early and mid 1960s they were regulars on the independent circuit but were amongst the few masked wrestlers, Doctor Death being another, to transfer to the Joint Promotions circuit.

The Undertakers became regular figures on the bills of Bill Best and  Wryton Promotions. The original Undertakers are believed to have been Vince Apollo and Bob Abbot, though various others took the role during the 1970s.

Would you buy a used car off this man? Maybe, as  wrestler John Ure combined his wrestling career with that of car salesman. 

Born of Scottish parents, the muscular heavyweight from Halifax, a regular trainer with weights, turned professional in 1961. He was nineteen years old at the time and his debut in November 1961, saw him lose to Don Branch at Grantham. This professional baptism followed two years training by the former Greek professional, Andre Nicola.

After a promising start, and a couple of television appearances against Norman Walsh and Ken Cadman the popular Yorkshireman disappeared from the scene in 1964.

The bushy bearded French Canadian Paul Vachon stormed into Britain in September, 1964, knocking out both Dazzler Joe Cornelius and Gerry de Jaegar on the same night before coming in second to Peter Maivia in an eight man knock out tournament at the Colston Hall Bristol.

Almost half a century later those fans who watched the unruly Canadian on grainy black and white television screens have full colour memories of the self-styled butcher of Montreal. 1960s fan Beancounter told us:
"The bout which stands out in my mind was the occasion he was billed in the 'T V Times' to wrestle Francis Sullivan. However, on the day Joe Cornelius was substituted and won 2 - 1. The final fall was effected by the considerably lighter Cornelius lifting up Vachon and executing a perfect body slam and cross press. "

Right from the start of his British visit, if eighteen months in the country constitutes a visit, Butcher Paul was a top of the bill performer. Maybe as one of thirteen children Paul was used to fighting his way to the top.
John Shelvey said:
"He went in with just about any heavyweight available at that time. Among those he hooked up with were Cornelius, Campbell, Billy Joyce, Kumuli, Lees, Pierlot, Portz, Rawlings, Reagan, Streiger, Szakacs, Veidor, Wall, to name a few of the 'home' boys and Gordienko, Kuti, Maivia, Kingston, Napolitano, Simonovitch, Manousakis, and Nelson to name some of the 'visitors.' "

Whilst victories over most of  the top heavyweights are easily found throughout his record, losses via the disqualification route are in equal abundance, including his Royal Albert Hall debut against Gordon Nelson.  Fortune was no kinder on subsequent Royal Albert Hall outings against Joe Cornelius, Billy Two Rivers and Jan Wilko.

To dwell on such misfortune does the Canadian an injustice as we were genuinely surprised when reviewing his record at the consistent quality of his opponent during his time in Britain. On his eventual return to Canada Paul formed a successful tag team with his brother, Mad Dog Maurice Vachon. and the pair twice won the AWA World heavyweight title. In 2008 Paul was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Cauliflower Alley Club.

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Professional wrestling has never been short of colourful characters and just the wonderful name of Izzy Van Dutz  was enough to make him one of the most colourful.

The alleged Dutchman, though east end of London would have been a more accurate description of his place of origin, had been introduced into the wrestling business by Athol Oakeley (as the Dutch Heavyweight Champion) in 1932.

In 1936, at the start of the Spanish Civil War  posters even proclaimed that  Izzy had “Just escaped from Spain,” which we find rather suspect as he had been wrestling the best in Britain in Britain for the previous four years.

During his career the dastardly Izzy wrestled every big name of the period from Athol Oakeley to World Champion Jack Sherry and Golden Boy Mike Marino. Indeed, it was Izzy Van Dutz that finally ended the career, through a shoulder injury, of the esteemed Athol Oakeley.

Most definitely rooted in the pre war years Izzy’s career continued post war and our final recorded appearance is 1952, at Bury St Edmunds against Don Stedman. The poster is from 1946 and contains quite a few names you will read about elsewhere on Wrestling Heritage.

Born in Cape Town, in 1934, this South African middleweight first came to Britain in 1959, and became a regular feature in Southern rings for the following few years.

From his home in Cape Town Fred had worked as a professional photographer and crew member on a tuna vessel before taking up professional wrestling.

He had been professional for less than a year, having made his debut in South Africa against lightweight champion Billy Meyer at Gordon’s Bay only a few months earlier, when he set out on the journey north to Britain.

His rough-house style found him few fans amongst the British wrestling enthusiasts but made him an ideal tag partner for Iron Jaw Joe Murphy. The pair annexed the European welterweight tag team title from Ken Joyce and Eddie Capelli for a short time.

Wrestling in his native Canada pre war Van Wurden was holder of both the Canadian Middleweight and Light heavyweight titles.  His standing in pro wrestling circles can be seen by his three times defeat of Henri Irslinger when the Austrian visited Canada in the summer of 1932. By that time he had already been working professioanlly for more than a decade. He came to Britain in 1937 and was based in Britain during the Second World War. By then he was already a champion, having won the British Empire light heavyweight title in 1938 at the Royal Albert Hall. The blond haired Canadian wrestled in the World Heavyweight Championship tournament held at Haringey in 1947. He was unfortunate enough to meet the eventual tournament winner in the opening round, with the inevitable result. His wrestling career continued until the early 1950s. Carl led a long retirement at his home in Manchester, becoming yet another ex wrestler (and one of the first) to be seen in Coronation Street. Carl also appeared in the 1953 British comedy, "It's A Grand Life."

The magnicient specimen on the left, one early sixties Rick Ferraro billed out of Chicago,  managed to metamorphose into the ponderous ball of lard, right, that "dis"graced British rings over several visits in the sixties, initially with Paul Lincoln Promotions in 1964 and 65, and later on with Dale Martin Promotions up to the end of the decade.

Billed from Columbus, Ohio, Crusher Verdu spent excessive periods not engaged in combat and not doing his job, under the guise of preening. Years later Giant Haystacks would make a habit of spending a couple of opening minutes on the prowl, but we didn't want such disengagement from someone half his size ten years earlier.

Allegedly a master of the bearhug, and allegedly beat Bruno Sammartino at Madison Square Garden to claim the World Heavyweight Championship  on 15th June 1970.  He in fact never did gain that title and after a stopped bout against Bruno Sammartino was firmly put in his place in a return shortly afterwards.  Thanks to stateside Heritage browser Derek Bush for his confirmation of New York events.

Just goes to show what status a wrestler of limited ability could achieve in the USA if he could point to a lengthy British stay on his curriculum.

Factually again, Verdu lost to Rebel Ray Hunter at the Royal Albert Hall.

Resurfaced in European rings eight years later with a run in the German tournaments, where he often tagged alongside Mal Kirk.

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The Popular heavyweight wrestler from Liege, Belgium was just twenty-four when he visited the UK in 1962 and periodically through the decade.

He was a popular and skilful wrestler who met the best but had a record that was at best mixed. Draws against Al Hayes and Kendo Nagasaki were more than offset when he surely reached an all time low with a 2-0 loss to Crusher Verdu at Southampton in March, 1969.

Worked extensively throughout Europe in the 1970s and Japan in 1985, where he used the name Johnny Londos. 

When he came to the UK from Australia in 1950 Bill Verna weighed just sixteen stones, but our memories of him as a 1960s wrestler are of a 21 strong villain.

Bill Verna was born in Perth, in 1929, and following a short interest in boxing turned to wrestling and made his professional debut aged eighteen.

After a couple of years working around the rings of Australia he made his way to Europe where he quickly established himself in the German tournaments and in British rings . Following a short period in England in 1950 Bill wrestled in the Far East and returned to Europe in 1954. Amongst his opponents during this visit was the American world champion claimant Frank Sexton, who he held to a draw.

Over the next fifteen years he wrestled all over the world but always returned to the UK, where he was one of those popular villains the fans loved to boo. His status as a top class professional was confirmed when Bill was selected as one of the few to oppose World champion Lou Thesz on his British visit.  

Uncomfortably billed as the Handsome Heart Throb from Ellesemere Port, we prefer to remember the aerial skills of this three-time Royal Albert Hall Tournament Trophy winner and, once domiciled in Croydon, Southern England Heavyweight Champion. 

Few wrestlers can have sought to vary the holds so much in their wrestling and this blue eye gave masterful performances throughout his career, a snifter of which can be seen in Crowd Control of the Purest Kind in Armchair Corner. 

Wrestled initially as Hermann Viedor and Steve Bell, losing 0-2 to Masambula on his 1962 Morecambe debut, by any name an absolute favourite of Kent Walton and winner also of the coveted Golden Gown award. 

Chalked up a rare televised defeat of Gwyn Davies.  A challenger for national honours too, and a skilled tagster on rare appearances alongside Mike Marino and Tibor Szakacs. 

That final Royal Albert Hall trophy was the Viewsport trophy and this can show the way in terms of spelling the wrestler's name.  Viewsport not Veiwsport!

His greatest challenges were indeed getting his surname spelt consistently, and you'll see the other way even on this Heritage site, ... as well as fighting off predatory number one fan, The Duchess Pandora Verrukalian.

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Globe trotting French heavyweight who was a regular British visitor in the 1950s and 1960s. He also wrestled in the USA and Canada, which in the 1950s was fairly uncommon.

Whilst in Canada he tagged with Whipper Billy Watson to claim the Canadian tag team title.

The Welsh and Great Britain international rugby player moved north and played for Oldham, St Helens and  Wakefield Trinity, appearing in four rugby league cup finals at Wembley.

All that was before he became one of the biggest, in more ways than one, villains of the 1960s (mainly) Northern wrestling rings. Frequently seen in the rings of Morrell-Beresford and Relwyskow & Green.

Weighing eighteen stones and standing over six feet tall Don was most definitely one of the villains of the ring whose combination of rule bending and arrogance made him unpopular with fans.

Appeared in the 1960s film "This Sporting Life."  After wrestling Don became a debt collector for a furniture company in Wakefield.