Wrestling Heritage welcomes memories, further information and corrections.
We know very little about Angelo Papini, but the little we do know suggests he was a hard man, reputed to be a difficult opponent who was hard to handle. Always billed as Italian we cannot confirm this and neither can we find any records of an Angelo Papini in the UK birth records of the appropriate period. So whether or not he was Italian, or whether or not that was his birth name we don’t know.
We first come across him in 1951, wrestling the Golden Arrow, who we believe was Lou Ravelle. Appearances became more frequent the following year and suggest a capable wrestler meeting the usual cross section of lighter heavyweights like Mike Demitre, Count Bartelli, Spencer Churchill and Dennis Mitchell.
Reports suggest a very rugged wrestler who had considerable skill but often with a disregard to the rules that led to his description as “The most hated man in the ring.”
He was a good friend of Bert Assirati and it may well be that Assirati trained him to wrestle. In 1953 he travelled to India with Assirati, and we have found reports of him wrestling there. We don’t find him back in Britain again until 1957, this time working for independent promoters. Angelo Papini was last seen wrestling in 1961, his opponent Shirley Crabtree. We would welcome more information.
Page added 20/03/2024
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