Mike Reviews ITV Wrestling (30th July 1988)

Greetings Grapple Fans!

We’re back with some more classic British Wrestling from ITV today, featuring William Regal in action in the Main Event. These reviews don’t tend to get a lot of interest, but I enjoy writing them so I’ll do one now and then. If you keep an eye on the Dream Matches feature here on the BOD then you might see a classic ITV match showing up on occasion, so add that to your regular reading lists!

ITV Wrestling is emanating from the Civic Hall in Bedworth, Warwickshire, England. The matches were taped by All Star Wrestling on the 8th of June 1988 and aired on the 30th of July 1988

Calling the action is Kent Walton

Opening Match
Lightweight Contest
Two out of Three Falls
Six Rounds of Five Minutes
“Cry Baby” Jim Breaks Vs Peter Bainbridge

Breaks was a submission expert and a habitual whiner, hence his Cry Baby nickname. Breaks was a tremendous wrestler who sadly had a tragic set of final years, which you can learn more about in this Wrestle Me video. Bainbridge was a young up and coming star, aged just 16 at the time. Wrestling getting taken off the telly dealt his burgeoning career a serious blow before it really got going. Bainbridge would end up forming the South West Wrestling promotion out of Gloucestershire, with them holding their first card in 2019. According to Cage Match, Bainbridge is still running the promotion as of this writing.

Round 1

Bainbridge shows some gumption to start by actually going for Breaks’ own Breaks Special arm lock, which Breaks of course isn’t pleased about, leading to him stomping his feet and yelling at the referee. Breaks’ act is immediately over, with the crowd booing him and cheering whenever he is foiled by the younger grappler. Bainbridge shows good poise in there for someone so young, and you can see why he was considered such a hot prospect at the time. Walton is enjoying himself on commentary, laughing whenever Breaks delivers some of his trademark complaining and whining. The match mostly sticks to the mat for the first round, and it’s well worked technical grappling, which you’d expect when a veteran like Breaks is in there.

Round 2

The official, Roger Brown from Bristol, has already had to admonish Breaks a few times in the bout and has given him a public warning. For those not familiar with the style utilised in classic British Wrestling, a public warning works in the same way that a strike does in baseball. Get three of them and you’re out of there, with the referee dishing them out should a wrestler misbehave or flagrantly ignore the rules. Surprisingly the first fall comes quite quickly into Round 2, with young Bainbridge being the one to get it as he catches Breaks in a School Boy roll-up and that’s enough for the three count.

Jim Breaks 0-1 Pete Bainbridge

Round 3

Breaks catches Bainbridge with a punch to the breadbasket between rounds that the referee misses, and he even tries to kick the ropes when ring announcer Lee Bamber leaves the ring. This of course all leads to Breaks doing another entertaining pratfall before he’s able to catch Bainbridge in the Breaks Special for the submission to tie things up.

Jim Breaks 1-1 Pete Bainbridge

Round 5

For some reason they’re saying this is Round 5 even though it feels like it should be Round 4, which makes me think a round got edited out somewhere in there? At any rate, this round sees Breaks chase Bainbridge down to get yet another submission to finish things off and pick up the win. I thought they might let Bainbridge do a bit of a comeback there, but they just had Breaks finish him off pretty quickly.

Jim Breaks 2-1 Pete Bainbridge

WINNER: JIM BREAKS
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: It felt like a relevant chunk of the bout was missing there, which lowered the rating somewhat. Bainbridge looked like he had potential but that he also needed some more seasoning at points. Breaks was his usual high level self, as he could garner a reaction from the crowd just by breathing at this stage in his career and he put his solid mat skills to work when required. The structure of this one felt like the initial fall for Bainbridge was the shine and Breaks’ fall that followed was the heat. It was all set up for a comeback for Bainbridge before he got caught, but that comeback never came and Bainbridge just got polished off in short order

Breaks does at least shake Bainbridge’s hand following that, before telling him that he has to learn every trick of the trade if he’s ever to reach his full potential. It was nice to see Breaks give the youngster a bit of a rub at the end there.

Second Match
Middleweight Contest
Two out of Three Falls
Eight Rounds of Three Minutes
“Iron Fist” Clive Myers Vs Steve “TV” Grey

Myers got his name both for his Arm Wrestling prowess and his martial artist abilities. Myers was a regular performer on ITV and regularly played his part in some cracking bouts. Grey was renowned for being a high level technician and a regular champion in the Lightweight division, although he’s put on some timber since his 1974-84 prime and is now battling at Middleweight. Grey is from Peckham in London apparently, which lovers of British situation comedies will know is the hometown of the Trotter Brothers from Only Fools and Horses. Whereas the opening contest had a clear baddie taking on a clear goodie, this one has two babyfaces (or “blue eyes” in British wrestling parlance) going at it, with Frank Casey from Liverpool as the referee.

Round 1

Grey is compared to Johnny Saint by ring announcer Lee Bamber during introductions, and you can see why once the bout starts and Grey gets a chance to show off his technical wrestling skills. Interestingly, Myers gets angry at someone in the crowd and they apparently get kicked out. Being that this is 1988, there were all kinds of unsavoury things that might have been said to Myers there. At least they were removed from the venue, but it’s a shame that something like that had to happen.

Round 3

We skip the second round and head straight to the third one, with neither wrestler holding a fall yet. Grey continues to show off his slick technical wrestling skills by finding dainty and smoothly executed counters to every hold that Myers tries. Eventually Myers tries a leap and sleep on Grey, but that leaves him wide open to a Grey pinning hold, which Grey uses to net the first fall of the contest. Myers is a good sport about getting caught out there and shakes Grey’s hand in a showing of respect.

Clive Myers 0-1 Steve Grey

Round 4

Myers and Grey trade some fantastic quick paced counters to start the round, with each wrestler being just able to wriggle out of any submission or pinning attempts before getting caught out. The action is really enjoyable to watch and the two competitors clearly have good chemistry together as opponents. Myers looks to be targeting the left arm of Grey for some kind of submission attempt, but Grey is able to keep slipping out as the round ends.

Round 5

Myers works a body scissors here, playing with Grey’s hair at points in order to try and distract him before going to a different hold, but Grey sees it coming and counters, as this enjoyable cat and mouse game continues. Myers manages to fire off a reverse Victory Roll at one stage though and Grey is unable to counter that one, leading to Myers tying things up.

Clive Myers 1-1 Steve Grey

Round 6

Each wrestler keeps going for quick pinning combinations in this one, with neither grappler being able to hold the other down. Myers attempts to flip Grey out of the corner, but Grey manages to counter that into yet one more pinning hold, and this proves to be enough to give him the decisive fall and pick up the victory. The crowd gives both wrestlers a good response here, which they have fully earned following a fun exhibition of clean wrestling

Clive Myers 1-2 Steve Grey

WINNER: STEVE GREY
RATING: ***1/2

Thoughts: This was really good stuff. You could see why they were hyping it up so much before the bout started, as these two worked at a consistently quick clip throughout and did some fantastic technical wrestling and pinning combinations in there. When people think of British Wrestling from this era their mind might automatically go towards someone like Big Daddy, and his pantomime stylings certainly had its place. However, what Myers and Grey were doing here is what many long-term fans would consider to be pure British style, and when it was done well it was top notch entertainment in my opinion

Dave Duran and Bad News Monroe cut a terrible promo backstage to hype up the next match. In fairness to them, promos weren’t really a thing in British Wrestling for a long time and it took us a while to get our heads around that aspect of the grapple game.

Main Event
Tag Team Contest
Two out of Three Falls
Three Sessions over Twenty Minutes
The Road Warriors (Dave Duran and Bad News Monroe) Vs The Golden Boys (Steve Regal and Rob Brookside)

Yes it’s another example of the UK taking a name from somewhere else in the world and repurposing it for the British scene, like how we had our own version of Greg Valentine despite him having nothing to do with the American version. This version of The Roadies has nothing in common with Hawk and Animal, and is instead made up of former rugby player Dave Duran and the rather mysterious Bad News Monroe, about whom surprisingly little information survives. The Golden Boys would both end up with coaching roles in the WWE system, but at this stage they were both youngsters climbing up the ranks. The Road Warriors are dressed more like generic thugs here, and don’t even have face paint or shoulder pads. Veteran referee Max Ward is the poor bugger assigned with refereeing this one. He was a referee who would rarely get on the mat to count and would just count falls whilst standing up like a boxing referee.

First Session

Kent is worried about The Roadies wearing gloves here, lest they be hiding illegal items in there. There might not be much of Monroe out there, but he wrestles fine here. Indeed, both of the villains look to be solid brawlers that have a decent grasp of the basics. Regal was already looking like a solid in-ring performer here, with his offence having a nice crispness to it, whilst his bumping and feeding is tightly executed. Regal gets floored by a Duran charging head butt, but he fights back and manages to catch Duran with a modified power slam for a quick three count.

Road Warriors 0-1 Golden Boys

Second Session

The Road Warriors up the deviousness in the second session, with them getting cheap shots and ignoring Max Ward’s instructions. Their work continues to be decent though, with Monroe even busting out the Curt Hennig neck snap move at one stage. Monroe follows that up with a big body slam and that’s enough for a three count on Regal to tie things up.

Road Warriors 1-1 Golden Boys

Third Session

Brookside hasn’t really got a chance to do much in this one, with Regal doing most of the work for his team. I’m not sure if that was because Brookside was carrying an injury or if it’s just how this one has worked out. Duran continues to cheat, and clocks Regal illegally from the apron at one side to net himself a public warning. However, Duran ends up accidentally drop kicking his partner at one stage during another cheating attempt, and that allows Brookside to drop a leg on Duran at one stage. Duran ends up getting his second public warning for coming into the ring illegally to clothesline Brookside, as the villains are skirting the line here. There’s one moment where Monroe shows a bit of possible inexperience by whipping Brookside into his corner whilst working him over, meaning that Regal has to pretend that he can’t tag out.

The villains continue to work Brookside over, with this essentially filling the role of the heat segment, although there is a moment where Brookside can tag out and he just doesn’t for some reason. Brookside has another occasion where he can tag out, but he decides to just climb the turnbuckles in his corner and miss a dropkick on Duran. There’s been at least three occasions where Brookside has had an opportunity to tag out here and he hasn’t done it, despite the fact he’s been taking a kicking and arguably needs to. I’d like to see how both Regal and Brookside would react to WWE trainees doing something like that in a bout in 2026. Things break down following that, with all four wrestlers going at it in the ring and the blue eyes managing to get the better of the villains thanks to speed and tandem offence. Brookside eventually catches Duran in a roll-up and that’s enough to finish things off.

Road Warriors 1-2 Golden Boys

WINNERS: THE GOLDEN BOYS
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: The wrestling itself was decent, but they didn’t seem to know whether they wanted to work a standard American styled tag team match with heat and a hot tag, or a British/Japanese styled bout where they just traded momentum and didn’t really build up a hot tag. As a result there were numerous occasions where Brookside was getting walloped and had options to tag out, but he didn’t and it kind of stretched the bounds of logic. When the Golden Boys were in there doing their version of Rockers styled tandem offence they looked like a good duo who could have probably excelled working the American style against some of the top teams over there

In Conclusion

This was a decent hour of wrestling, with the second match in particular being a lot of fun. It was good to see the likes of Bainbridge, Regal and Brookside getting some television time, as they were the future of the sport in the UK and it was important for them to get some exposure. Sadly wrestling wasn’t long for the box here in the UK, but it was good to see that the promoters were at least thinking about the future and trying to get some fresh faces on screen whilst they could.

Thanks to the websites ITV Wrestling and Wrestling Heritage for being such useful resources when it comes to writing these reviews. Go give them a look!