Mike Reviews Professional Wrestling on ITV World of Sport – FA Cup Final Day – 22.05.82

Greetings Grapple Fans!

We’re heading back to 1982 for some Classic British Wrestling today, as we take a look at the match that aired on the same day as the 1982 FA Cup Final. This was a regular event for a while, where the ITV coverage of the FA Cup Final on World of Sport would have one or two wrestling matches attached to it as well. These matches actually helped ITV win the ratings battle against the BBC sometimes, as both channels treated the FA Cup Final as one of the TV events of the entire year (it was kind of like the Superbowl or Stanley Cup Finals for you American and Canadian readers who would like a comparison). This did lead to a bit of a myth that the wrestling beat the FA Cup Final coverage in the ratings one year, but in reality ITV just beat the BBC that year. Wrestling was part of ITV’s World of Sport coverage on the day, so it was part of the overall package but really it was the football match itself that was getting folks to tune in to World of Sport and the wrestling was just the garnish on the side

The ITV Wrestling website is a good place to visit if you’d both like more info on British Wrestling and also a place to watch some of the matches as they have links to quite a few of them

Cheers to Conor for the cracking feature image

This match was taped in Croydon on 11th May 1982

Dickie Davies is our host

Kent Walton is calling the action

Dickie Davies is at Wembley Stadium, where Spurs and QPR shall do battle for the FA Cup trophy later on World of Sport, and introduces the match to us, noting that Big Daddy has enlisted his “Oriental friend” Kwik-Kik Lee as his partner whilst Tony Walsh is filling for Skull Murphy to team up with “Yank” Crusher Brannigan

Crusher Brannigan and Tony “Banger” Walsh Vs Big Daddy and Kwik-Kik Lee

Brannigan is a big lad from New Jersey who worked for both WWE and the NWA back in the states before coming over and doing some tours of the UK in the 1980’s, where he was of course matched up against Big Daddy, as most of the big villains usually were. Walsh got a lot of work as a foil for Big Daddy, as Daddy liked working with him so Walsh usually ended up as the lackey for the actual big bad that Daddy was fighting with, and he made a decent career of it. Lee would become a much bigger star in Japan under his real name of Akira Maeda, but he was on excursion in the UK at the time. Kwik-Kik was presented as the brother of Sammy Lee, which was the name Tiger Mask used when he wrestled in the UK during his excursion. Big Daddy is the brother of the promoter, Max Crabtree, and wasn’t a particularly good wrestler at all, but he was still shockingly over. I like the theory that the Wrestle Me lads had that Big Daddy was so popular with the grannies in the crowd because they knew they could never fill him up if he came over for tea, which is deep down every grannies’ dream.

This follows the usual formula of a Big Daddy tag match from this timeframe, with Big Daddy mostly dominating whenever he’s in there whilst Lee sells a lot more, especially when against Brannigan, so that they can build-up to Big Daddy getting back in there and wrecking house. Lee looks decent when he gets a chance to actually do some wrestling, with Walsh taking some bumps for the Japanese grappler, whilst Brannigan kind of just mauls Lee whenever he’s in there. Lee does manage to get the first fall of the contest after about 5 minutes, when he gives Walsh a Vertical Suplex and makes the pin for the three count. Yes, a simple Vertical Suplex was a high spot in 1982 British Wrestling that was capable of netting a three count. It was a different time.

Big Daddy and Kwik-Kik Lee 1-0 Crusher Brannigan and Tony Walsh

Brannigan quickly comes in and rams Lee into the corner a few times and then gets some kind of a Spine Buster following that, which seems to be enough for the equalising fall after about 6 minutes of total match time. Even by 1982 standards, that “move” by Brannigan didn’t look like it would be capable of pinning the old lady selling the tickets for the half-time Tombola, let alone a tough professional wrestler like Akira Maeda.

Big Daddy and Kwik-Kik Lee 1-1 Crusher Brannigan and Tony Walsh

The referee doesn’t care for the tactics of the villainous team, and eventually gives them two public warnings, which is basically a British Wrestling version of the three strikes and your out rule. If the referee gives a third warning then it will lead to a DQ for the villains. Big Daddy ends up getting a blind tag and quickly splashes Brannigan for the three count after around 9 minutes total match time. I say “splash”, but Big Daddy kind of just slowly fell to the floor and Brannigan happened to be down on the mat when it happened

WINNERS: BIG DADDY & LEE
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: Lee was good, Walsh was passable and the two really big lads were both pretty cack, which combined for a pretty meh match in all honesty. I actually don’t particularly dislike Big Daddy that much. Yeah, he was awful, but the crowd didn’t care and it meant that his matches were entertaining from a fan interaction perspective at least. This was kind of a waste of Lee, and I’m not sure he was really learning anything useful for his return to New Japan in this one, but he got to win at least, so there’s that

Big Daddy beats up Walsh post match as well, just on general principle I guess

As for the FA Cup Final itself; Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers played out a 1-1 draw, meaning that they had to come back 5 days later and do it all over again, this time with Spurs winning 1-0 to retain the cup after winning it in 1981. So basically both games had the two finishes that US sports fans hate the most, a tie and a low scoring victory. The combined attendance for both games was an astonishing 190,000

If you’d like some more classic British Wrestling to read about then here’s a review I did about a show in Crawley back in 1975