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#Post#: 21292--------------------------------------------------
The Five; Lancastrians
By: SheriffLonestar Date: December 2, 2013, 4:06 pm
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A new occasional series where I will put up five things for
discussion. This is a not a best of list, its just five related
things and is no way borrowed/stolen/plagiarized from The
Guardian's Joy of Six Blog which is awesome;
HTML http://www.theguardian.com/sport/series/joyofsix
This five concerns a county in Northern England that has had a
disproportionate amount of success in the world of Professional
Wrestling. When you make a list of the greatest wrestlers ever
to come out of the UK you would have to include these names;
William Regal, Johnny Saint, The Dynamite Kid, Davey Boy Smith,
Marty Jones and Mark Rollerball Rocco. All had international
acclaim. All went to Japan and North America. All where the
biggest of the big stars and all of them changed the way we
thought about Pro Wrestling and all of them came from that strip
of land between the Irish Sea and The Peninnes.
1. Billy Riley
Where do you start but the zenith of everything? Shoot wrestling
began in the UK out of the older forms of folk wrestling.
Grappling was popular in the Northern Mining towns in the late
19th and early 20th century as a spectator sport and for the
purposes of gambling. It became popular as a shoot sport, ie
real fighting, because well there isn't much to do in Wigan on
Friday night (until they invented Northern Soul) and the hardest
of the hard lived their. Miners, farmers people who lived hard
and played very hard indeed. The reason why Lancastrians became
proficient shooters was basically down to the fact that their
fights where for cash and where bet on heavily. Pinfalls where
no good in that situation because a disputed pin could cause
arguments and riots, so the rule became that an opponent had to
tap out. They became so good at the shoot style they produced a
world renown gym; The Snake Pit. Below is a documentary clip
showing the legend Billy Riley, own and founder of The Snake
Pit, putting some lads through their paces in the early 60s. The
Snakepit is world famous, Japanese wrestlers such as Yoshiaki
Fujiwara have been known to take trips to it just to pay homage,
and even though it was no more than a glorified shed, the New
Snakepit stands today and you can still go and train there (in a
homage to the egalitarian nature of the day children and women
are now allowed)
HTML http://www.snakepitwigan.com/.
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqq_LWudBek
2. Billy Robinson
If you watch closely in the above clip and towards the end you
will notice a quiet well spoken young man who became the
Snakepit's greatest graduate. Billy Robinson was a excellent
shooter and hooker who had a sense of flair and story telling
that made him very believable and um an interesting personality
to do business with.; The Dynamite Kid tells the story of Billy
wrestling Archie Gouldy in Stampede, the winner to get a shot at
the NWA Champion Harley Race who was coming into town the
following week. Dynamite heard Archie say "fuck this" after
about five minutes when he realised Billy had decided he wanted
to wrestle Harley Race. Billy Graham also tells the story of
the night he was scheduled to wrestle Billy in the AWA and he
started staring down Billy before the match started while taping
strips of razor blades to his fingers and telling Billy that "if
you start any of that scientific shit on me I'll start using
these". They had an understanding after that, and perhaps that
is the way Billy wanted it. As hard as nails, its told that the
only guys who could handle him in his day where Peter Maivia and
Harley Race. But he knew how to put a show together. With that
in mind he became the first gaijin to win the PWF World Title in
All Japan where he was treated as about one step down from a
God.
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3EyQut4WqE
3. Marty Jones
The man I idolized on Saturday afternoons in the eighties was
from Oldham and was a classic Lancastrian shooter. A student of
Billy Robinson himself. Marty had an incredible amateur record
that turned into professional gold. In his personal life he has
been known to be a bit gruff. His protégé William Regal once
said "I don't know why he liked me but I am glad he did because
he really didn't like anyone else", his personal friends seemed
to amount to Mark Rocco, The Dynamite Kid and Skull Murphy,
three guys he spent a lot of time knocking lumps out of. His
feud with Rocco over the British Mid Heavyweight title in the
late seventies set the standard and ring style for Europe for
the next twenty years. Grapplers like April Davids and Jenny
Sjodin are still taken with it to this day. Fast paced,
realistic and stiff with plenty of talk to keep people in their
seats. I can still remember their last televised bout; Rocco
bleeding profusely, The ref stops the match, Marty grabs the mic
and says "If I didn't split you now I'd have split you in the
bloody car park" they fought out the back door to a riotous
crowd reaction. By that time in their careers they had calmed
down.
Marty never really left the UK, for a start he was always the
main event, and secondly he had a job at Manchester Market and
didn't fancy leaving it for extended periods of time, he liked
his job security, and so his international performances where
looked forward to when they came. Being one of Billy Robinson's
students didn't harm his draw in Japan one bit and when Tiger
Mask was looking for a replacement for his new mat based shoot
heavy UWF when The Dynamite Kid wouldn't leave NJPW, there was
only one man for the job;
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqztYovSqZQ
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxK5Fn9tuvg
4. Mark Rocco
The obvious thing to show next would be William Regal, or as I
have mentioned him so much Dynamite, or Davey Boy, however The
Five is about the forgotten or at least the under appreciated.
So let us take one long hard look, as he looked at everyone
else, at Mark Rollerball Rocco. Named after a seventies film
that showed a dystopian violent future for sports, Rocco was the
perfect heel for the times. Full of flair and a shooters mat
instinct, he was a different act compared to everyone else. The
sedate pace of Mick Macmanus though wonderful, where put into
shame by the all action, always mouthing, uber heel that was
Rocco. He was just that damned good. When he did eventually
turn face in the late eighties, it was like the world came
undone. The people who had been dying to cheer him for years
finally could and he filled houses for All Star promotions until
his sadly retirement due to a medical issues. His work did not
go un-noticed internationally either. His work in the early 90's
in the CWA in Austria as a tag team with Dave Finlay drew great
reviews but his most famous run was as Black Tiger in NJPW and
the WWF, taking the vacant WWF Junior Heavyweight Title. The
belt he is most famously associated with though is the World
Heavy Middleweight title that feulled his feuds with The
Dynmaite Kid and Chic Cullen. Today though I chose Black Tiger
for a couple of reasons. It is in Madison Square Garden, an all
time classic venue for an all time classic wrestler, and to
remind you that the only person deemed worthy of taking the
Black Tiger gimmick after Mark was Eddie Geurerro. That is
tribute enough;
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOy5vrQWS68
5. The Blossom Twins
The current keepers of the flame in the international sense are
TNA's own The Blossom Twins. Coming out of Stockport, you may
question my choice after all these legends. Well. Here is the
thing. They are dedicated, hard working, crisp and professional,
all the hall marks of the above gentleman. When I was watching
TNA Bootcamp I noticed a throw away line from Al Snow "You
wrestle like guys with tits" Well Al, what did you expect? They
are from Lancashire. It's where pain comes from.
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oShCxei84SY
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