Mike Reviews Professional Wrestling on ITV World of Sport – 14.03.81

Greetings Grapple Fans!

We’re back today with some more Professional Wrestling on ITV World of Sport. Big Daddy is in tag team action, Alan Dennison is in the opener and the Main Event sees Dalibar Singh and Ray Steele going at it. We’ve also got score updates from all the big football matches of the day, with Aston Villa and Man United being the focus

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

Dickie Davies is our host in the studio

Kent Walton is calling the action at the venue

These matches were taped on the 24th of February 1981 from Derby in Yorkshire, and then aired on the 14th March 1981 episode of World of Sport

Dickie Davies opens our broadcast letting us know that Joe Jordan just pulled one back for Manchester United, making the overall score 2-1 to Aston Villa at Villa Park. Davies then runs down our matches for this week and sends us to Derby for the first match, which is joined in Round 3 with Pete LaPaque a fall to the good

Opening Match
Alan Dennison Vs Pete LaPaque

Dennison was a blue eye until the 1960’s, when he switched to being a snarling villain. Dennison was a regular on television and became one of the villains that people used to look forward to seeing. LaPaque was from Leicester and used to tag with his brother, where they’d usually get DQ’ed in matches.

Round 3

LaPaque is working over Dennison’s leg as we join the match. Dennison looks to be the crowd favourite in this one, even though he gets Hot Shot at one stage, which is very illegal in classic British Wrestling rules. LaPaque attacks Dennison whilst Dennison is down by the ropes, which leads to LaPaque getting a public warning from the referee. Three of those and you get DQ’ed. Round 3 ends with no further falls, although Dennison is getting progressively more merked off by LaPaque’s behaviour

Round 4

LaPaque cheap shots Dennison on a handshake attempt at the start of the round, which causes Dennison to get progressively more angry, leading to LaPaque having to use an illegal closed fist in order to get his second public warning. Dennison keeps coming though and gets a 1981 World of Sport version of a Sunset Flip, which is enough to get Dennison a three count to tie things up at 1-1

Round 5

LaPaque keeps attacking Dennison whilst he’s down on the mat, which isn’t legal in British Wrestling from this time as when you knock a wrestler down the referee starts counting to 10 and interrupting the count with a stomp or elbow drop is considered a breach of the rules. LaPaque gives Dennison a hard Irish Whip into the corner, but Dennison no sells it to pop the crowd and then locks LaPaque in a Double Chickenwing ala Ricky Steamboat against Ric Flair from 1989, and that’s enough for the submission and deciding fall at 2-1

WINNER: ALAN DENNISON
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was totally fine British Wrestling, with LaPaque clearly there in order to be a nuisance that the crowd could enjoy watching get beaten up by the surly Dennison, and that’s ultimately what we got to see

Match Two
Wild Angus Campbell and Bull Pratt Vs Big Daddy and Bobby Bold Eagle

Wild Angus is a mean looking bearded big man, which made him a natural foil for Big Daddy. Bull Pratt is a generic big bloke, the likes of which would pop up during this era so that Big Daddy could have cannon-fodder that he could squish. Bobby is a protégé of Argentina Rocca and wrestled for the WWWF and NWA in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Big Daddy is the almost impossibly over big lug brother of promoter Max Crabtree (who also happens to be the ring announcer for this one) and he gets a proper entrance with “We Shall Not Be Moved” as his entrance music, which wasn’t common in British Wrestling at the time. Big Daddy also has some cub scouts from Derby with him as part of his entourage.

Eagle looks alright in there, mostly doing chops and arm drags. Pratt is pretty lousy, and can’t even run the ropes properly as he hits them with his arms down by his side whilst hunched over. Wild Angus seems like a reasonable big man worker, whilst Big Daddy is his usual self. There’s a comedy spot where Big Daddy starts pulling on Angus’ beard and the referee pratfalls whilst trying to break it up, leading to both Big Daddy and Wild Angus getting given a public warning. For those of you interested in the match at Villa Park; Man United manage to make it 2-2 only for Villa to then take a 3-2 lead all whilst this tag match goes on. Angus looks to be doing some questionable wrestling on the mat to Bold Eagle, such as choking or gouging, and it leads to Angus getting an Underhook Suplex on Eagle for the first fall.

Wild Angus and Pratt 1 – 0 Big Daddy and Bobby Bold Eagle

Eagle continues getting worked over by Angus, which was SOP for Big Daddy tag matches, where the partner would get destroyed and then Big Daddy would come in to do a couple of moves before getting a pin. In this case, Bobby manages to sneak over and tag in Big Daddy, leading to Big Daddy slowly falling over onto Wild Angus in what was supposed to be a Splash to tie things up

Wild Angus and Pratt 1 – 1 Big Daddy and Bobby Bold Eagle

Angus takes a pretty impressive Sgt Slaughter styled corner bump out to the floor following that, leading to Pratt coming in and taking a Big Daddy slam of some kind for the knock out

Wild Angus and Pratt 1 – 2 Big Daddy and Bobby Bold Eagle

WINNERS: BIG DADDY & BOBBY BOLD EAGLE
RATING: *

Thoughts: Pratt could barely do anything and was hardly in the ring for the most part. Angus looked like a decent worker for a guy his size and took some impressive bumps. Bobby Bold Eagle did a few chops and arm drags, but then spent most of the match getting beaten up, so I couldn’t really say how good he was. Big Daddy did about 30 seconds of actual wrestling and won the match almost single handed. So standard Big Daddy Tag stuff really. Leicester City were apparently skelping poor Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 whilst this was going on and I bet Spurs still got to do more in that match than Bobby Bald Eagle got to do here

Dickie Davies sets the stage for our Main Event, noting that it’s still 0-0 as we enter the third round

Main Event
Dalibar Singh Vs Ray Steele

Singh was a regular featured guy in Max Crabtree’s promotion, with some folk uncharitably musing that Singh was pushed to the level he was because he didn’t have the charisma to ever rival Big Daddy as the top star so he was a “safe” choice as the top wrestler who was secondary under Big Daddy. Steele is not to be confused with the American wrestler of the same name. Steele would eventually get to become the British Heavyweight Champion as the 1980’s wore on.

Round 3

Kent on commentary is appalled at the thought of this becoming more of a strike trade as opposed to just straight wrestling. Don’t let him watch an All Japan match, I think the poor fellow’s head might explode. Ray Steele manages to catch Singh with a Backslide to take a 1-0 lead, as we see that the Lord Mayor has come to the wrestling today.

Dalibar Singh 0 – 1 Ray Steele

Round 4

Things continue to be intense here, as each wrestler is happy to throw in some strikes to go along with the application of holds. Steele has been cut above the right eye somehow, which Kent thinks might have come from a stray Singh headbutt. Singh tries to kick his way out of a Steele hold, with Kent commending Singh for trying to escape out of the hold under his own power rather than grabbing the rope to break the hold the easy way. Interestingly they share a handshake at the end of the round, showing that there is still respect between them even though they’re wrestling hard.

Round 5

Kent’s dismissiveness about the cut on Steele’s head because he’s such a tough wrestler is very much in line with the British way of thinking, not unlike in Shaun of the Dead where Bill Nye’s character informs his wife that he ran his zombie bite under a cold tap. Steele tries to catch Singh with the backslide again, but Singh is able to kick out this time and the bout continues. Singh manages to catch Steele with a hip toss OUTTA NOWHERE and turns it into a pinning hold in one fluid motion in order to level things up.

Dalibar Singh 1 – 1 Ray Steele

Round 6

This is the final round, so either someone gets a fall here to win it or it’s ending in a draw. Speaking of draws; somehow Man United have levelled it AGAIN at Villa Park, with the score now being Villa 3-3 Man United. Steele does a great bit here where he has Singh down on the mat from a knuckle-lock and just keeps trying multiple different ways to get Singh’s shoulders down but Singh just keeps stubbornly getting one up, to the point that Kent is even somewhat amused by it. Each wrestler collides head first in the middle of the ring, with Steele seemingly getting the better of it but Singh catching Steele with a bodyslam for two in a good near fall. In a nice touch, Steele tries the backslide again, for two and then Singh tries the hip toss again, for two, so each wrestler has tried the hold/move that won them a fall but this time their opponent has survived it. The time limit eventually ends with neither wrestler being able to get another fall, meaning this will be a draw.

1-1 DRAW
RATING: ***

Thoughts: This was good fun, as they wrestled with a solid mixture of intensity and technique, leading to some snug strikes, some well applied technical holds and some quick paced rope running segments as well. If Big Daddy’s match was example of this style done poorly, then this match was an example of it being done well. Serious wrestling, good commentary from Kent and a nice round of applause for both competitors at the end (possibly followed by a cup of tea and a biccie)

Oh, and Villa Vs United ended 3-3, for those that care

In Conclusion:

All about the Main Event this week, and it was a suitably good match to close on. Big Daddy was bringing in the casual fans, but the likes of Dennison, Singh and Steele were keeping the hardcore fans coming back for more

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