RIP Max Crabtree

[Infinity Land]

In amongst today's news, Dave Meltzer has posted that Max Crabtree passed away. His era was before my time, probably true of many on here. Although his influence of British wrestling was respected enough to be inducted into the UKFF British & Irish Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2018. Where I lifted the bio below.

Mini Biography: English wrestler/Promoter. Took over Joint Promotions in 1975. Created a boom period in British wrestling with the creation of the Big Daddy gimmick for his brother Shirley. Promotor for the majority of the World of Sport TV shows. Company would go into decline when many stars jumped to All-Star due to the overexposure of Big Daddy. Promotion closed in 1995 two years after Daddy’s retirement.  Was Previously a Hall of Fame Finalist in 2017

Why We Voted For Him: A huge part of arguably British Wrestling’s most successful time - understood how to maximize the appeal of his brother Big Daddy and guided him to be British Wrestling’s biggest star

[David Mantell]

He was actually Booker for Joint Promotions 1975-1986 - he only finally bought the promotion in '86 from its parent company at the time, state bookmakers' William Hill.

Below is the obit I wrote for the Wrestling Heritage forum:

Condolences first and foremost to the Valentine brothers Greg and Scott (Steve and Spencer Crabtree) on the loss of their dad.

The final owner of Joint Promotions/RWS - under his watch Joint became household news with the Big Daddy boom but ultimately lost its dominance over the scene to Brian Dixon and All Star with Kendo as their flagship - with All Star still dominant in 2023. In some respects he was to Joint what Eric Bischoff was to WCW, both making and breaking the company in his charge.

 

Despite all the flack he received for Daddy, on the undercard of Joint shows he crated a safe space for serious wrestlers to show their skills without having to play to an audience. This gave room for no nonsense fine technicians like Keith Hayward, Nipper Eddie Riley and Ian McGregor to shine with no pressure to constantly make eye contact and ask the audience what to do like Robbie Brookside and Doc Dean and others later had to do for Dixon. A typical Premier Promtions show of the 21st century is basically a Max Crabtree style show minus the Daddy main event.

 

A pivotal figure in the backstage booking of major league British Wrestling. Like Mick McManus, it's a great pity he never did a Shoot interview and told his story properly.