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Turn back the clock to the 1970’s when Saturday afternoon meant one thing and that was Wrestling. With the chants of “Easy, easy” and commentary by an over excited Kent Walton, this was British sport at is best. Now for the first time on DVD the heady mixture of bizarrely named characters watched by a hysterical , audience of handbag yielding beer swigging grannies in local town halls the length and breadth of the UK, is captured in over 80 minutes of non stop action.. Presented by Dickie Davies , ITV’s World of Sport’s long running presenter (1965 – 1985) the DVD features an array of familiar names and bouts. Wrestlers such as Big Daddy (real name Shirley Crabtree) who bounced off his stomach his long time enemy Giant Haystacks who at 6ft 11inches tall and 45 stone was not most peoples idea of an athlete. The masked man of mystery Kendo Nagasaki, a trained samurai who would stalk the ring brandishing a sword and re-enact an ancient ceremony. A combination of pantomime and farce with heroes and villains enthralled the nation for over a decade with a regular TV audience of over 10 million. The DVD includes all the classic bouts including the final grudge match between Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks, the unmasking of Kendo and much more. Tag team action from the man in the big black pants (and hair to match) Mick McManus and Steve Logan versus Kendo and Gorgeous George and the late Pat Roach who went onto star in 4 series of TV's Auf Weidersehen Pet and Leon Arris (the great late actor Brian Glover) plus Jackie Pallo the pony tailed hero the girls loved to hate. The DVD will also include more tag team action plus Jimmy Savile relives his time as a wrestler plus a featurette on the wrestlers views on Les Kellett the hardest man in wrestling and Ricky Starr the ballerina wrestler. Full programme line up includes highlights of the following matches: THE MAIN EVENT BIG DADDY BOUTS KENDO NAGASAKI BOUTS
GIANT HAYSTACKS BOUTS TAG TEAM BOUTS Release Date: 6th June 2005
DVD REVIEW: Rob Cope casts his eye over the much anticipated Best Of ITV Wrestling DVD: Judging from the amount of emails and letters to kendonagasaki.org over the past few years, a DVD release of ITV’s wrestling archive has been high on the wish list of every grapple fan. So it is to be applauded that Granada Ventures have enticed Dickie Davies back into the studio, 20 years since he last hosted an edition of World Of Sport, to present a glorious 50 minute stroll down memory lane focusing on the handful of names that have truly achieved legendary status. Perhaps wisely, it isn’t aimed at the hardcore wrestling aficionado preferring to present a series of lengthy highlights of matches rather than the Full blow by blow encounters. Perfectly suited to the armchair enthusiast. The main compilation kicks off with the earliest clip of Jackie “Mr. TV” Pallo up against Ian Gilmore (Leicester, 1970). I have to admit that I have seen very few Pallo bouts and this one underwhelms me somewhat. Pallo’s performance is rather lacklustre and it is generally a slow, low key affair. Next up though is the mighty Mick McManus, the pace hots up considerably with fine displays against Catweazle (Westcliff, 1975) and Tony St. Clair (Southend, 1976). At first the match against St. Clair looks like some bizarre midget wrestling novelty as they are clearly very different physically but McManus always knows how to deliver and the brawling reaches crescendo level. The infamous Les Kellett and Leon Arras match up (Gravesend, 1974) shows the more comical side of wrestling, Arras alias actor Brian Glover hops about, shouting the odds whilst a cool Kellett puts him in his place time and again. Terrifically entertaining from two of the greatest grappling entertainers. The late, great Bomber himself Pat Roach is celebrated with bouts against Magnificent Maurice (Aylesbury, 1983) and Blackpool’s Rex Strong (Woking, 1977). In my book, Roach was a fine wrestler, ironically for a man who made his name as an actor he was never much of a showman but this didn’t stop him delivering some outstanding contests and he is seen here in peak form. Nagasaki’s fans are rewarded with his tussle opposite Mike Marino in the final of a four-man knockout tournament (Blackburn, 1975). This is followed by the now legendary unmasking ceremony (Wolverhampton, 1977). On both occasions the much missed Gorgeous George Gillett is on hand providing his stalwart support for his charge over the microphone. Truly two of the greatest characters ever to step into a wrestling ring. The arrival of the giant himself is next on the menu, 40 stones plus of Haystacks is remembered with something of a mis-match with Japanese star Kwik Kick Lee (Walthamstow, 1983) and a classic encounter with stalwart jobber Tarzan Johnny Wilson (Leicester, 1981). Then it’s onto the man who would take wrestling to it’s most popular peak and yet at the same time be responsible for some of it’s worst indulgences. Yes, Big Daddy himself. Shirley Crabtree is seen in the only two complete bouts on the tape, his Wembley Arena clashes with John Quinn (1979) and his solo showdown with Haystacks (1981). Both are over in the blink of an eye but particularly the Quinn match is worth watching if only for the quite incredible heat generated from ringside, the like of which has never been witnessed before or since. The disc boasts a number of extra features. Compilation featurettes of action involving Daddy, Haystacks and Kendo are perhaps the best of these. Daddy displays again his limited repertoire (body check, splash and double elbows) against the likes of Anaconda, Wild Angus and big Jim Harris – otherwise known as Kamala from the WWE. Eagle eyed viewers will also be able to spot ‘British Bulldog’ Davey Boy Smith as a skinny 15 year old sharing Daddy’s tag rope. Kendo is featured against Lee Bronson, and two separate matches with Big Daddy, including the moment when Daddy illegally unmasks Kendo for the first time on telly. Incidentally these matches were thought lost until a batch of master tapes were discovered at Central (formerly ATV) studios and returned to ITV Sport a couple of years ago, so it is good to see them included here. Haystacks is less well served with two tags both as a partner, then against, big Shirl. A separate tag section gives us our first and last glimpses of men who should have been featured more heavily in my opinion: Mark Rocco, Marty Jones and Fit Finlay. Finally we have an ‘Out Of The Ring’ featurette which basically steals clips from the excellent 1998 documentary Everything Stopped At 4 O’Clock featuring Jimmy Savile and perhaps most notably the last TV appearance of the immortal Les Kellett.Putting my ‘whinger’ head on for a moment I would argue that an over reliance on clips featuring Big Daddy throughout the material should have been cut back in favour of a host of other familiar figures who are either not represented at all or, as in the tag section, are seen all too briefly. Similarly the mis-spelling of some names on the captions means that attention to detail might have been overlooked at various points. And I would have loved to have had the disc start with the classic World Of Sport theme rather than the later ITV Wrestling boom version of the ‘1812 Overture’ (I suspect though this is more to do with the 1812 being out of copyright thus avoiding paying Don Harper any royalties for using his classic theme tune…) Despite a small number of reservations, The Best Of ITV Wrestling Is a wonderful romp through a time when British wrestling ruled the world. The characters and action speak for themselves. They might not have had the hype and the glamour of the WWE but certainly for this unashamedly nostalgic grapple fan they will always be heroes of the highest order. “Will we ever see their like again?” Kent Walton once asked. No we won’t, so revel in this slice of action when truly everything did stop at 4 o’clock.
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