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UKFF British and Irish Wrestling Hall of Fame - Stage One


AJSTYLES

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Done. Tried to pick a good historical mix - had to include Mark Sloan because (arguably) without him the current scene wouldn't exist.

By that reckoning I trust you also included Alex Shane.

Without Alex Shane we wouldn't have Skirmish, a military based quiz show on TV channel UK conquest.

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So after roughly 24 hours of the voting time period, over 60 candidates have received at least one nomination. No one has featured on every ballot. Votes have come in for people from every era and not just in ring workers.  Some surprising names have received zero nominations including two who were big time names during the World of Sport era. Still a long way to go yet. Thank you everyone who has voted so far and keep them coming in

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The Iceman? The strong style superman, Im sure hes been around 20 years and competed on a national level and abroad against some top stars. He was I believe the first hardcore wrestler to really get over were ever he worked here in the UK.

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The Iceman? The strong style superman, Im sure hes been around 20 years and competed on a national level and abroad against some top stars. He was I believe the first hardcore wrestler to really get over were ever he worked here in the UK.

 

In regards to Iceman he was on my shortlist but I struggled to find his year of debut and the oldest mention of a match I could find online was 2002 so I had no choice but to omit him this year.  But if someone is able to confirm the year Iceman started I will happily add him to the list next year as it would be too late to add him to this year's list due to the number of votes already cast.  

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Great thread. The combination of only being 15 names and not having specific criteria (like the Observer one) made it incredibly hard. Here's the list I sent over and the rationale why. I mainly stuck to the TV era because the stuff before isn't really documented independently enough to know who really did have the significance, and the stuff since hasn't yet reached that peak and it's harder to pick up the people most responsible. While it's a selection of 15 top names, I also put some emphasis on representing different aspects of the business.

 

I started with the household names/literal "fame". For that you have to have Big Daddy and in turn Giant Haystacks, and you also have to have Mick McManus and in turn Jackie Pallo. I also put in Kendo Nagasaki because he's one of the biggest names and also the most successful masked man/gimmick.

 

I then turned to non-wrestlers. Norman Morrell was the obvious first pick -- he's the architect of Joint Promotions, which is the key to the whole business. I then went for Max Crabtree (who did pick up a declining business and was also running the whole deal by himself once he started buying people out) and then Brian Dixon for having been promoting close to 50 years (longer than the whole Joint run) and arguably being the biggest promoter over a good 20 year period. Finally I went for Kent Walton because he was the key to wrestling being able to retain its wacky appeal while still being plausible as part of World of Sport.

 

That left six spots with more emphasis on ability and influence in the ring. I started with Johnny Saint because if you ask somebody to describe "the British style" (no matter how reductive that is), he's the person they think of. Then comes Jim Breaks who was not only one of the longest-running stars (30 years on TV) but arguably the best at doing the lightweight style but putting it into a storytelling/heel vs face context. I also picked George Kidd who was not only the forerunner of the "tricks" style, but also by far the biggest star and a genuine mainstream figure in Scotland.

 

Moving up the weight divisions I went for Mark Rocco and Dynamite Kid, both for their sheer impact/ability on the British scene and for taking it overseas and helping establish the modern form of junior-heavyweight wrestling in Japan. Finally I picked Billy Robinson as the most successful British heavyweight internationally, as well as representing the Wigan shoot/catch heritage and being involved in the development of the shoot style in Japan.

 

Some of the key ones who just missed the list:

 

Orig Williams (both for representing Wales and the outlaw/independent promotional style) was on the 15 I picked in my head before reviewing the post here, at which point I dropped him for Walton.

 

Marty Jones was probably the closest to the list among wrestlers: there's an argument that Rocco may have been better in terms of his best matches, but Jones was better when it came to working with a wide range of opponents. 

 

One of the original Dale Martin crew (probably John or Jack) could/maybe should go on the list, but at the peak there was never one of them who was obviously "the man".

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Great thread. The combination of only being 15 names and not having specific criteria (like the Observer one) made it incredibly hard. Here's the list I sent over and the rationale why. I mainly stuck to the TV era because the stuff before isn't really documented independently enough to know who really did have the significance, and the stuff since hasn't yet reached that peak and it's harder to pick up the people most responsible. While it's a selection of 15 top names, I also put some emphasis on representing different aspects of the business.

 

I started with the household names/literal "fame". For that you have to have Big Daddy and in turn Giant Haystacks, and you also have to have Mick McManus and in turn Jackie Pallo. I also put in Kendo Nagasaki because he's one of the biggest names and also the most successful masked man/gimmick.

 

I then turned to non-wrestlers. Norman Morrell was the obvious first pick -- he's the architect of Joint Promotions, which is the key to the whole business. I then went for Max Crabtree (who did pick up a declining business and was also running the whole deal by himself once he started buying people out) and then Brian Dixon for having been promoting close to 50 years (longer than the whole Joint run) and arguably being the biggest promoter over a good 20 year period. Finally I went for Kent Walton because he was the key to wrestling being able to retain its wacky appeal while still being plausible as part of World of Sport.

 

That left six spots with more emphasis on ability and influence in the ring. I started with Johnny Saint because if you ask somebody to describe "the British style" (no matter how reductive that is), he's the person they think of. Then comes Jim Breaks who was not only one of the longest-running stars (30 years on TV) but arguably the best at doing the lightweight style but putting it into a storytelling/heel vs face context. I also picked George Kidd who was not only the forerunner of the "tricks" style, but also by far the biggest star and a genuine mainstream figure in Scotland.

 

Moving up the weight divisions I went for Mark Rocco and Dynamite Kid, both for their sheer impact/ability on the British scene and for taking it overseas and helping establish the modern form of junior-heavyweight wrestling in Japan. Finally I picked Billy Robinson as the most successful British heavyweight internationally, as well as representing the Wigan shoot/catch heritage and being involved in the development of the shoot style in Japan.

 

Some of the key ones who just missed the list:

 

Orig Williams (both for representing Wales and the outlaw/independent promotional style) was on the 15 I picked in my head before reviewing the post here, at which point I dropped him for Walton.

 

Marty Jones was probably the closest to the list among wrestlers: there's an argument that Rocco may have been better in terms of his best matches, but Jones was better when it came to working with a wide range of opponents. 

 

One of the original Dale Martin crew (probably John or Jack) could/maybe should go on the list, but at the peak there was never one of them who was obviously "the man".

Of the non wrestlers I'd say Russell Plummer is a huge omission, Mr 'Wrestlecall' did all the publicity stuff , programmes, magazines etc for Joint Promotions whilst simultaneously doing the same for Dixon under another name

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Great thread. The combination of only being 15 names and not having specific criteria (like the Observer one) made it incredibly hard. Here's the list I sent over and the rationale why. I mainly stuck to the TV era because the stuff before isn't really documented independently enough to know who really did have the significance, and the stuff since hasn't yet reached that peak and it's harder to pick up the people most responsible. While it's a selection of 15 top names, I also put some emphasis on representing different aspects of the business.

 

I started with the household names/literal "fame". For that you have to have Big Daddy and in turn Giant Haystacks, and you also have to have Mick McManus and in turn Jackie Pallo. I also put in Kendo Nagasaki because he's one of the biggest names and also the most successful masked man/gimmick.

 

I then turned to non-wrestlers. Norman Morrell was the obvious first pick -- he's the architect of Joint Promotions, which is the key to the whole business. I then went for Max Crabtree (who did pick up a declining business and was also running the whole deal by himself once he started buying people out) and then Brian Dixon for having been promoting close to 50 years (longer than the whole Joint run) and arguably being the biggest promoter over a good 20 year period. Finally I went for Kent Walton because he was the key to wrestling being able to retain its wacky appeal while still being plausible as part of World of Sport.

 

That left six spots with more emphasis on ability and influence in the ring. I started with Johnny Saint because if you ask somebody to describe "the British style" (no matter how reductive that is), he's the person they think of. Then comes Jim Breaks who was not only one of the longest-running stars (30 years on TV) but arguably the best at doing the lightweight style but putting it into a storytelling/heel vs face context. I also picked George Kidd who was not only the forerunner of the "tricks" style, but also by far the biggest star and a genuine mainstream figure in Scotland.

 

Moving up the weight divisions I went for Mark Rocco and Dynamite Kid, both for their sheer impact/ability on the British scene and for taking it overseas and helping establish the modern form of junior-heavyweight wrestling in Japan. Finally I picked Billy Robinson as the most successful British heavyweight internationally, as well as representing the Wigan shoot/catch heritage and being involved in the development of the shoot style in Japan.

 

Some of the key ones who just missed the list:

 

Orig Williams (both for representing Wales and the outlaw/independent promotional style) was on the 15 I picked in my head before reviewing the post here, at which point I dropped him for Walton.

 

Marty Jones was probably the closest to the list among wrestlers: there's an argument that Rocco may have been better in terms of his best matches, but Jones was better when it came to working with a wide range of opponents. 

 

One of the original Dale Martin crew (probably John or Jack) could/maybe should go on the list, but at the peak there was never one of them who was obviously "the man".

Of the non wrestlers I'd say Russell Plummer is a huge omission, Mr 'Wrestlecall' did all the publicity stuff , programmes, magazines etc for Joint Promotions whilst simultaneously doing the same for Dixon under another name

 

Thank you! I will certainly add him to the list for next year!

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