WCW should have brought in Pat Roach.

[returner82]

46 minutes ago, Dean Ayass said:

Yes, he wrestled in California in the 70s as Lord Patrick Roach. I believe he was in at least one of the big San Francisco battle royals. I'll have a look to see if I can find any records.

EDIT: Just seen, he's listed as a competitor in the 1975 Cow Palace Battle Royal:
18 Man 12.000 Dollar Battle Royal: Pat Patterson defeats Andre The Giant and Angelo Mosca and Dennis Stamp and Dutch Savage and Haystacks Calhoun and Karl von Brauner and Kinji Shibuya and Kurt von Brauner and Lord Patrick Roach and Manny Cruz and Moondog Mayne and Mr. Wrestling and Pepper Martin and Peter Maivia and Raul Mata and The Brute and Victor Rivera

As well as the people listed above, there were a number of travelling wrestlers who passed through the UK in the TV era. Before Liger (who was called Fuji Yamada here) and Maeda (Kwik Kik Lee), there was Satoru Sayama, the original Tiger Mask, who had an extensive run here as Sammy Lee, doing fast paced offence that had never been seen here before.

Some Americans who became reliable journeymen also worked here, such as Rick Hunter, Bill Pearl (who became perennial Wrestling Challenge jobber Brian Walsh), as well as Daryl Karolet, better known as actor Tyler Mane, who actually faced Pat Roach on TV under the name Sky Walker. He had a brief run in WCW in 1989/1990 as Woman's bodyguard Nitron.

Lenny Hurst was a British star who regularly worked in America, including working for the WWWF and WWF, and he wrestled many times at Madison Square Garden.

In the post TV era, Satoshi Kojima had a one year long stay in the UK as the Japanese Mean Machine or Lion Satoshi before he returned to Japan. Togi Makabe also spent time over here in the early 2000s I think.

Big Daddy, to my knowledge, never worked abroad. He didn't like to venture far from home and always tried to return to his house in Halifax after a show where possible.

Marty Jones wrestled extensively in Japan and also had a run in the 70s where he had a huge hair vs hair match against Perro Aguayo. Pete Roberts was a regular for years in All Japan (which was where he got his Super Destroyer nickname). Wayne Bridges also made many tours of Japan and competed in the annual tag tournaments, including tagging with Andre the Giant and facing Hulk Hogan. I think Colin Joynson did several tours of Japan in the 70s as well. Tony St Clair worked for years and years in New Japan but was never a headliner.

Dave Finlay was a regular participant in the NJPW Best of the Super Juniors tournaments in the 90s. and Robby Brookside and the late Doc Dean also competed in one tournament, where the Doc beat Jushin Liger and Brookside faced a young Chris Jericho. 

And of course Bryan Danielson had a long tour over here in the mid 2000s as the masked American Dragon. 

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

Tenzan wrestled over here in about 1993 or '94 (as Moto), as did Takayuki Iizuka in 1991. I saw them both in person.

 

Dave Taylor talked on his Highspots shoot about working in Mexico as a young man (as well as India and Germany, amongst other place).

[Carbomb]

I have a DVD of The Best Of Premier Promotions; one of the matches on it is Kendo Ka Shin vs. Robbie Brookside. Until then, I didn't know he'd been to the UK, but the friend who introduced me to BritWres said he did a few tours.

[BomberPat]

There was also the Michinoku Pro guys who did a UK tour in 1996.

More historically, King Curtis Iauekea ("The Master" from the Dungeon of Doom) worked the UK as, I believe, did Peter Maivia.
On the other side of the coin, Drew McDonald and King Kong Kirk worked Stampede, Giant Haystacks fought Andre The Giant in Australia, and John Quinn (who, while American, I tend to think of as a "World of Sport guy", and a foil to Big Daddy) worked just about everywhere, including the WWWF and NJPW. 

Just looking through results and bills for old shows it can sometimes be difficult to tell who the genuine imports were - between gimmicked "foreigners" and the British habit of "borrowing" names from American wrestlers, it can get confusing. 

Big Daddy definitely worked Germany before the Daddy gimmick, though I'm not sure he ever worked further afield than that, or after taking on the gimmick.

 

Does anyone know if Antonio Inoki or Masahiro Chono ever worked the UK? Chono worked Germany in '87 (and ended up marrying Alpha Female's mum!), and again a couple of times in the '90s, and Inoki promoted and wrestled in a couple of European Catch Tournaments in Germany and the Netherlands, but I don't think they ever made it this far.

[Carbomb]

15 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

John Quinn (who, while American, I tend to think of as a "World of Sport guy", and a foil to Big Daddy) worked just about everywhere, including the WWWF and NJPW. 

John Quinn was Canadian; makes sense that he would've been everywhere, with the Commonwealth link getting him easily to the UK, and being next door to the US getting him to the WWWF (and those connections in turn getting him to Japan).

[HarmonicGenerator]

Marty Jones was in the WWWF as well, wasn't he? I'm sure I've read before that he won a light heavyweight title or something under Vince Sr.

[BomberPat]

I was sure Marty Jones had worked Madison Square Garden, via the NJPW working relationship, but I'm struggling to find any evidence of it. I'm not sure about a title reign, but otherwise I'm sure you're right.

[PBWFan]

It was Rocco I’m sure who held the title 

[Porkchopcash]

“Yous belong to Bomber”

[BomberPat]

Rocco held the "WWF Junior Heavyweight Title" (which was really more of a NJPW belt than a WWF one at that point) for a couple of weeks, but under the Black Tiger gimmick. He did work at least one WWF show under that gimmick, but I'm not aware of him having worked any other US dates, or any under the Rollerball gimmick.

Edited October 5, 2018 by BomberPat