All right, since people have expressed an interest in watching more World of Sport and the Veidor/Davies match got some pretty positive feedback, I decided that instead of nominating a bunch of workers no-one's ever heard of, I would choose an intro match for each of the stars and if you like the wrestler you can watch more of their matches and nominate them yourselves.

 

In order not to break anyone's heart, I will try not to pick workers whom we only have one or two matches of.

 

Let's start with the perennial villain Mick McManus, who maintained that hair of his through a forty year career. Here's a vintage McManus performance from 1976 against a then masked Kung Fu:

 

 

The Hungarian heavyweight wizard, Tibor Szakacs, who is the closest thing to a WoS Volk Han that you'll get. Watch for his back handed chop:

 

Les Kellett, total comedy act that disguised the fact he was the hardest bastard in the business and probably the meanest too:

"Gold Belt" Brian Maxine, wrestling's Country and Western recording star and self-proclaimed King of Wrestling:

Possibly Kent Walton's favourite wrestler of all-time and one of the great technicians of the post-war era, Mike Marino:

Exciting, fast paced heavyweight Tony St. Clair, here embroiled in a heated feud with one half of the infamous Caribbean Sunshine Boys, Dave Bond:

Excellent idea for a thread! Looking forward to Tony St. Clair match as not really viewed much of his footage for some reason.

Thanks OJ, looking to dive into this stuff soon.

OJ this is such a smart idea.

Tony St. Clair was one of those guys who I struggle to get in to, though that can be applied to a lot of the WOS Heavies.

It took me a while to get into St. Clair as well since I was predisposed to thinking he sucked, but the CSB feud as well as the McManus matches changed my mind on Tony. The heavyweights are more difficult to get into than the lightweights and middleweights, but stick with them. They're all part of the WoS family.

Excited to watch some of this stuff. Thanks for this OJ.

I'm sure I'll get there eventually, but I just find it tough with the Heavyweights after the sheer abundance of great lightweight stuff that there is available. Even guys like Ray Steele, Pete Roberts, Pat Roach and Wayne Bridges do little for me. The Bridges' loss to John Quinn (where there is a rare bit of blood, although surely a blade job) looked decent on fast forward whilst doing my listings, but on the other hand there is a match he has against Nagasaki from towards the end of the WOS coverage on ITV that looks absolute horse shit.

I'm sure I'll get there eventually, but I just find it tough with the Heavyweights after the sheer abundance of great lightweight stuff that there is available. Even guys like Ray Steele, Pete Roberts, Pat Roach and Wayne Bridges do little for me. The Bridges' loss to John Quinn (where there is a rare bit of blood, although surely a blade job) looked decent on fast forward whilst doing my listings, but on the other hand there is a match he has against Nagasaki from towards the end of the WOS coverage on ITV that looks absolute horse shit.

 

I'm not a fan of Bridges, but I may be the only person in the world who likes that Nagasaki match. I thought it was goofy and a ton of fun. It's Nagasaki so you shouldn't expect too much. Steele I have a soft spot for, but I can see him boring the pants off most folks. Roach and Roberts are gods among men. I know Pete doesn't like Dalibar Singh, but for me the worst is Count Bartelli.

The Nagasaki match with Bridges just seemed completely out of place, and as if they were trying to 'Americanize' things to an extent. From the interviews before the match where George Gillette says that they are coming for Hulk Hogan, to the ref bump finish, to all the T-shirt wearing Nagasaki fans and the kid dressed up as Kendo, maybe it was a last ditch attempt at changing things up, just not for me.

 

I've seen two Bartelli bouts and they were both awful. The first was against Roger Wells from November '76, where I thought Wells was even worse than Bartelli and the other was against John Kowalski which I described as 'terrible, and a pair of OAP's going through the motions'.

 

On a complete aside, Roach was laid to rest in the cemetary in the town where I live.

Can we also have a Catweazle match just for fun?

Every match on this list that OJ did should be a must watch

http://z11.invisionfree.com/wrestling_ko/index.php?showtopic=2555&st=0

But most probably don't have the time to dig through all of that now. But I've been checking out OJs recommendations for years now and I don't regret it. WoS rules

Cheers, Jetlag.

 

Catweazle, 11th century time traveling wizard or guy who looks a lot like him. This is the only Catweazle match I have ever liked. Colt Cabana shat on it once saying McManus wouldn't give Catweazle anything. Regal agreed with him momentarily lowering my opinion of Lord Steven Regal.

 

Vic Faulkner -- would probably be your mum's favourite WoS wrestler. For heel fans, the biggest smart arse to ever grace a ring. Just look at that shit eating grin. Was a bit of a prankster and loved to pull tricks on opponents. Would get fired up if the tables were turned.

 

 

Bomber Pat Roach, for my money one of the best big men ever. Also had one of the more interesting acting careers of any wrestler, starring in the classic television series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and appearing in everything from Indiana Jones to Stanley Kubrick.

 

 

Sid Cooper, long time television heel personality. Always reminds me of a heel Ringo Starr. Very similar to Breaks though more of a natural brawler.

 

 

Zoltan Boscik, another Hungarian mat wizard with a name that sounds like an Ian Fleming villain. Turned into an excellent heel by the late 70s.

 

Bobby Barnes -- former tag partner of Adrian Street who carried on their gimmick after Street had left for the independents. A very good performer in his own right with an uncanny ability to keep a straight face.

 

 

Tony "Banger" Walsh -- rarely has so much been made from so little. Average worker who turned himself into a heat merchant. Unfortunately, he was so hot he ended up facing Big Daddy more than any other worker, depriving us of better bouts.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgTnsd9cfEU

Perhaps the only world class wrestler to ever wrestle cross-eyed, Marty Jones. Here in one of his classic matches against Mark Rocco:

 

 

One of the finest lightweights to ever grace a ring, the incomparable Jon Cortez:

 

The mat genius, Alan Sarjeant:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyLWeyqcIN8

 

The wrestling machine, Keith Haward:

 

The "deaf and dumb star" Alan Kilby. Yes, he really was deaf, and a fantastic wrestler too.

 

 

Bert Royal, brother of Vic Faulkner and one half or the Royals tag team which were the Rock 'n' Roll Express of their day. Another contender for Walton's favourite wrestler of all time. This is a 2-1 as it also has McManus' long time partner in crime, Steve Logan. See if you can spot his neck.

 

Steve Logan looked like such a hard bastard who you wouldn't want to mess with in the slightest. Nice to see he's sporting the moustache in the match with Bert Royal above, though I was always kind of surprised when another Steve Logan emerged in the 80s. Anyway, here's a great photo from Mick McManus' obituary in the Daily Telegraph.

 

Super Destroyer Pete Roberts, like everyone I was put off by his lack of charisma at first, but keep working at it and you'll find he was one of the best workers of his generation. Here he is in a feud with top face Wayne Bridges, who turned not-so-subtle heel for the duration:

 

The brilliant Caswell Martin, as fine a wrestler as you'll see in a WoS ring, but overlooked by promoters in the UK:

 

Mark "Rollerball" Rocco, a man who needs no introduction. This to me is one of his finest performances. It was supposed to be a Royal Albert Hall match against Kung Fu, which they'd built to on television for several weeks, but Kung Fu bailed on the promoters at the last moment and went to work for Stu Hart. Steve McHoy may have been the standby guy for the show, I'm not sure, but he was an unknown and far from the level of Rocco's billed opponent. But just watch what Rocco does with him and the heat he gets. It's phenomenal.

 

 

Another two birds with one stone -- Dave Bond and Johnny Kincaid, the Caribbean Sunshine Boys. Near riots at each show caused the promoters to break up this racially charged tag team, but we have this gem on tape. Bond is one of the most lovable WoS wrestlers around -- a real trier whose performance level goes up and down with his weight. Kincaid had a pretty solid run in the late 70s. I recommend all of the Tony St. Clair matches that tie into the CSB run as that was the actual focus of the heel run not Roberts and Kung Fu.

 

I would watch some WoS if Childs ever returned my DVDs