W

We reach the letter W, for Wall, Wright and our wonderful Wrestling Heritage.

Albert Rocky Wall

Heading many a true fan's realistic wishlist for a TWC discovery, the Doncaster Panther is discussed in detail in the Shining Stars section.

Her was a man who epitomised everything that was good about post war professional wrestling......Rocky

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sonny Wallis

 

One of wrestling’s tragedies surrounds London’s Sonny Wallis. A fine wrestler he was one of the heroes who struggled to successfully revive professional wrestling after the second world war. His reward came in July, 1950, when his defeat of Charlie Fisher led to  recognition as British light heavyweight champion. Success was to be short lived as Wallis was killed in a car crash within months of taking the title.

Bob Walsh

 

He was a graduate of Wigan’s Snakepit and  one of the last Mountevans style wrestlers to quite literally rub shoulders with legends such as Bill Joyce, Jack Dempsey and Billy Riley. This trio of old masters were instrumental in training a young Bobby Walsh who had turned up at the Whelley gymnasium demanding that they teach him to wrestle. Teach him they did, and Bob was one of the minority who returned time and again to learn more about his chosen sport.  Heavyweight champion Billy Joyce took to the youngster and arranged a daily 3.45 pm rendezvous at the gym for Bob’s next  lesson in wrestling, the Wigan style. Others that had an influence were fellow Wigan masters Jack Fallon, Roy Wood, Jack Cheers and Ernie Riley. In the early days the grand master himself, Billy Riley, would sit in the corner offering advice whenever he thought it necessary, which seemed to be quite ofen. Joyce prepared Walsh for his professional debut, but so keen was the newcomer that on Sunday mornings he would travel to Ted Beckley’s gym in Warrington for a pull-around with the likes of Bernie Wright and Davey Boy Smith.  Having turned professional Bob wrestled  for both Joint Promotions and the independents, with opponents including Honey Boy Zimba, Sid Cooper , Bert Royal and John Naylor. It was Naylor in the opposite corber when Bob made his only television appearance, narrowly losing by the odd fall. A technician at the start Bob soon learned to mix it and a harder-edge found him often the object of fan’s abuse.  He is pictured at an open air show in Wigan with the legendary Billy Joyce serving as his second. Bob Walsh passed away in August,2008, following a long battle with cancer. Wrestler Steve Fury said, "Bob  was a very fit and strong wrestler who  trained with the very elite in Wigan. A nice man, another sad loss to the wrestling business."

 

 

 

Norman Walsh

 

Another of those wrestlers who combined their careers with farming. Middlesborough’s Norman Walsh was a rough, tough, mid heavyweight who was a long time holder of the British mid Heavyweight title. Like other Northerners he had an aggressive style that fans sometimes confused with villainy, and a villain he was not. A car crash in 1963 put Walsh out of action for many months but he returned to establish his supremacy once again until retiring in the mid 1960s. Royal Albert Hall wins over international stars included Ricky Waldo and Felix Gregor. Following a lomng and successful career he drifted onto the retirement circuit, working mainly in the North.

 

Tony Walsh

Two Tony Tony Walsh was the first wrestler to be profiled in the Shining Stars section, he was to us an unsung hero.

We told you there he was a bit of a hell-raiser but just look what they thought of him on home turf, right!

 

 

Johnny War Eagle

American Indian who visited Britain in 1974 to 1975 and gained victory in his sole Royal Albert Hall appearance over Johnny Yearsley.  Bearing a remarkable physical similarity to the more renowned Mohawk Billy Two Rivers, War Eagle was a harder hitting no-nonsense wrestler and we witnessed his humourless style in an angry televised clash with Johnny Czeslaw as well as live.  In view of his name hardly going down as one of the all time greats, we have to classify him as grossly under-rated - and possibly under-promoted due to the exaggerated nostalgic reverence the promoters had for Two Rivers' initial impact.   A hard-hitting 16 stoner in the Jon Cortez and Albert Wall school of very realistic fighters.

When back in the USA he drew with big name champions Dory Funk, Eduardo Carpentier and Gene Kiniski before going on to take the North American tag titles alongside Billy Two Rivers.

Roger Wells

Originally Bruno Elrington's late sixties driver and then mid-seventies full-time heavyweight.  Dale Martins told us this Portsmouth heavyweight weighed 21st 7lbs, but they had probably added 50% to the real weight.  Bronco Wells tagged a bit with Bruno, peaked in opposition to the newly unmasked Kendo Nagasaki, suffered the inglorious fate of being fodder for the Crabtrees, and settled into a refereeing role towards the end of the decade.  Later on he tagged for a while with the disgraced Sandy Scott and they feuded briefly with the Fabulous Wensors (see below).  Lacked the height to be a serious super-heavyweight but was suitably girthed to have equivalent poster inches at a regrettable time when talent was judged by the tape measure and not by true ability.

 

 

 

Ed Wensor - Mr X.

Wellingborough heavyweight  Ed Wensor first appeared on the Joint Promotions scene in about 1965 for Devereax Promotions.  He would sit track-suited in the audience and then rise to lay down a challenge to any wrestler. At the conclusion of his bout, he put the track suit back on and left without visiting the dressing rooms at any time.  At that time he was known as Mr X, and he soon started to appear fully on published bills.

He went on to appear in his own name and tagging with "brother" Gary throughout the seventies.

See the feature on Speciality Manoeuvres to find out more.

 

 

 

 

Gary Wensor

Wellingborough light-heavyweight billed as Ed's brother but in fact his son.  Scaled no heights as a pro, but was a journeyman type who put in many years of good service.  Just like his father, he failed to score a single success in his televised appearances, even featuring in a rare loss for Big Daddy when partnering him against Bruno Elrington and Giant Haystacks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jack Wentworth

Legendary in Canada as one of the country’s all time great wrestlers and trainers (he had a gym in Hamilton, Ontario), Jack Wentworth was born in Lancashire in 1907. the family moved to Canada when he was two years old. His name at birth was Alfred Hodgson, but when he turned professional wrestler he chose the name Wentworth, which was the name of the Canadian county in which he lived. His professional debut, in Canada in 1932, was quickly followed by a move to Britain by Jack and his family where he became part of the flourishing all-in scene. Jack and the family returned to Canada in 1940, where he became one of the biggest names. He returned to Britain, with a group of his protégés, in 1958.

 

 

Jan Wilko

The Johnnesburg Giant was 22-year-old Jan Wilkens from South Africa who caused quite a stir when he arrived in Britain late in 1965.  At 6'5" and 20 stones, this ex-policeman demolished French Canadian giant Paul Vachon in 8 minutes on his Royal Albert Hall début.  Unusually invited back to the next bill, he was even quicker proving it had been no fluke, disposing of Big John Cox.

 

Back home in South Africa he welcomed and wrestled visting British wrestlers down the years including Rocky Wall, Mal Kirk and, as late as 1981, Tiger Singh, in front of a national record crowd in excess of 20 thousand.

Definitely an international star we would have liked to have seen much more of.

 

The Wild Man of Borneo

Though billed at 18½ stones, this barefooted behemoth probably struggled in reality to reach the lower mid-heavyweight limit - unless all that hair was made of lead.

An important attraction on Paul Lincoln programmes in the early sixties, where his regular opponents included Bob Kirkwood and Judo Al Hayes, and see him here with colleague The Society Buy, the Wild Man became Dale Martin property from 1966 but was used rather sparingly:  just the one Royal Albert Hall appearance, against Kirkwood in 1968, and just the sole television appearance against heavy-middleweight Peter Preston.

Clad in fur anklets and leopardskin cape, he was a sight to behold and managed, in spite of the exposure restrictions mentioned, to become a household name.  By 1969 he had moved over to the independents and enjoyed a lasting run.   Paradoxically, he produced one of the most literate and legible autographs of them all.

In 1980 a new Wild Man of Borneo had appeared, much taller at 6'2" and a true super-heavyweight.  Due to the shock of hair, it was rather easy for the imitator to pull of the deception, but we shall always remember with great fondness the one and only original Wild Man of Borneo.

 

 

 

 

"Tarzan" Johnny Wilson

 

Footballer Johnny joined Dale Martins at the end of 1974.  From the hunky-dory Portsmouth/Southsea/Fareham hub of south coast wrestling, his career highlight was, no surprises, a Royal Albert Hall defeat of his trainer, Big Bruno Elrington.  Why on earth the promoters didn't bill him from the African jungle and have done with it we shall never know, it would have been far more interesting.

Pete Wilson

 

After a couple of years with independent promoters, goalkeeper Peter joined his elder brother Johnny within the Joint Promotions network in 1975.  They tagged successfully against heavyweight pairings and even against lighter weighted opposition such as McManus and Logan.  Pete also had singles matches but never struck any chord of indentity or originality.  He did his job.

 

 

Alan Wood

 

Without question Alan Wood was one of the most under rated wrestlers of the Mountevans era. A product of the Riley gymnasium, and cousin of Snakepit torchbearer Roy Wood, here was one of the best welterweights of the 1960s. Brightly coloured wrestling trunks and a striped dressing gown were the closest the Coppull wrestler came to gimmickry.  A professional debut on the Isle of Man against Dennis Rothwell led to a career in which he outwrestled the best and gained little of the credit. Either the politics of the professional wrestling business, or just a travesty of justice, saw him fail to win the British welterweight championship vacated by Jack Dempsey, or at any other time. Lack of recognition led to Alan leaving Joint Promotions  and setting up his own promotional business (C&A) in the early 1970s, though he did return to Joint Promotins towards the end of his career.

 

 

Steve Wright

 

 

The sixteen year old really did seem a “Wonderboy Wright,” as he was billed, when he hit the Northern wrestling circuit aged just sixteen years old. His first professional bout, a sensational win over veteran Romeo Joe Critchley, was a clear sign that here was a youngster with huge potential He was the forerunner of a contingency that included the likes of Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith and took wrestling to new levels of agility, athleticism and speed. Wright was trained by Ted Betley, the man who was to later bring aforementioned Kid, Smith andMarty Jones into the professional wrestling business. Later in his career Wright adopted the personae of Bull Blitzer, an alleged German villain, who defeated Marty Jones for the World Mid heavyweight title in December, 1984. His son, Alex Wright, went on to also become a successful wrestler.    

 

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