Back before the Hulk Hogan Era of wrestling, us here in little ol England across the pond had a large wrestling industry of our own that used to regularly pull in audiences of over 10 million. Not bad for a small island. The point of this article is to prove the influence of our British Wrestling’s gimmicks on the more recent / past gimmicks, describe some of the lesser known wrestlers that we have had in our country long before we had heard of the WWE, and finally take a look at the wrestlers that this era produced for the WWE WCW etc product. BIG DADDY? The Hulk Hogan of British wrestling, he was Big, Blond had roughly 3 moves - Body Check, Splash and Double Elbows. Back stage politics made sure he rarely if ever lost. Sound familiar? Hard to believe that his brother used to referee matches and no one thought to themselves that it was rigged. The first match I ever saw was Big Daddy against Giant Haystacks, and was watched by 18 million people in 1981 (a huge amount for a British TV Program). Another match saw the two Gut Barge each other and knock the Ref out in the first move of the match. He was also the Queen and then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Favorite Wrestler. His finishing move was the Daddy Splash and at the end of his career spent most of his time in tag matches with William Regal and Davey Boy Smith doing very little on the apron until he was tagged in to win the match.

GIANT HAYSTACKS? You may have heard of this 6’11” 625 plus pound Behemoth as he was going to run a program with Hulk Hogan as a gimmick called the Loch Ness Monster in 1995. He was a cross between Earthquake and Hillbilly Jim but meaner than both of them. His moves consisted of Body Splashes, Elbow Drop,s and a Grab Suplex that no on ever got up from. One of Britain’s most successful wrestlers, he had matches all over the world and even wrestled for Stu Harts Promotion in Calgary.

LES KELLETT- Britain’s most Hardcore Wrestler, a pig farmer by trade and one of the meanest wrestlers ever to have set foot in a ring. It was common Knowledge that a reporter asked him a dodgy question and he burnt the reporters face on the metal rungs on the front of his electric heater back stage. Without the law suits in America this is the sort of stunt I would imagine Stone Cold pulling, but I liken Less Kellett more to Terry Funk. Once a particularly nasty pig from his farm bit him on the hand and left it horrible and swollen being in a bad mood, he wrestled later on in the day and asked his opponent “either you stamp on my hand or I will stamp on you” his opponent duly obliged leaving puss and blood all over the ring. Now that’s a Hardcore legend.

KENDO NAGASAKI? The masked martial arts warrior from the Far East. Big Daddy did finally illegally unmask him in December 1975, and in 1977 he had his official unmasking ceremony complete with novelty contact lenses. He clearly wasn’t Oriental, as he looked like he was from Romford. Kendo Nagasaki is one of the true greats of British wrestling and the Ricky “the dragon” Steamboat of his day.

MICK MCMANUS- The Queen of England’s most hated wrestler, he was one of the masters of the Heel tradition. His look and gimmick very similar to that of the Honky Tonk Man and bought just as much heat. He only ever lost twice on TV and the second loss came when he was 50 years old.

KID CHOCOLATE- The token black wrestler who was a pioneer in the long line of stereo typical race gimmicks ? Bad News Brown, Booker T etc. Although his wrestling technique was quick and unorthodox, I will liken him too Haku and Tama, The Islanders, as his favorite move was yep you guessed it the Head Butt; no stereo types there then.

THE BRITISH BULLDOGS? There is probably not much I can say that you don’t already know about this tag team so I will give my opinion for what its worth. I have never been a particular fan of the Bulldogs - Matilda was always my favorite. Dynamite Kid was my pick of the two. His Head Butt off the top turnbuckle and power moves were definitely his strength. Davey Boy Smith I always thought was overrated; limited mic skills and the most unconvincing dreadlocked hair cut for a supposed British Bulldog. One of my most vivid memories of the Bulldog was when he did a promotion in London’s HMV record Store on Oxford Street around the time of WrestleMania 7. I was at the back with no money for the DVD/Video he was promoting, shouting “Bring on the Warlord” that about sums it up really.

WILLIAM REGAL? Without a doubt my favorite and greatest of all the British Wrestlers.. He is also the British Wrestler I have seen the most footage of from his WCW days as Lord Steven Regal to the WWE Commissioner and beyond. Once again there is not much I can say about him that you don’t already know but I admire his personality, mic skills and left handed unorthodox “European Uppercut” style of matt wrestling, not to mention the cheating. I’m going to concentrate on my favorite match of the modern Era. The Duchess of Queensbury rules match from Backlash 2001, Chicago - William Regal against Jericho. Even the matches' build up back stage had its moments of controversy with Regal intercepting the Coach before he could speak to the Duchess regarding the rules. I believed the rules to be were something to do with boxing (the Marquis of Queensbury invented new boxing rules at the turn of the century) but I was wrong. This was what initially intrigued me as I like everyone else including Jericho didn’t know what the Rules were.

The match starts as Jericho, Regal and The Duchess made her way to the ring with hilarious commentary from JR and Paul Heyman “C’mon JR, the poor woman is still mourning the loss of lady Di.” When the match starts, it's clear this is just a normal wrestling match. Until, that is, Jericho pins Regal easily with the Lion Sault off the Ropes but NO! The Fink is consulting the Duchess and the bell has actually sounded for the end of round one.

Round Two - Regal gains the upper hand, desperately trying to get Jericho to submit to the Regal stretch the next thing you know he is in the Walls of Jericho and he taps out immediately, and once again the bell sounds The Duchess gets Fink to call “a no submission match ” the crowd and J.R at the announcer table cant believe it but Paul Heyman continues to support Regals actions - “look J.R he’s waving to the Duchess”

Jericho is forced to go on, and later Regal hits Jericho with a foreign object. Again the bell sounds but this time its “the Duchess states that it is a No disqualification match”. It's obvious now that the Duchess of Queensbury rules are being made up to protect Regal from losing. Jericho then goes livid and attacks the Duchess and puts her in the Walls of Jericho, with Regal making the save by giving Jericho enough chair shots to put the soon to be undisputed heavyweight champion over for the pin a most dishonorable and unjust victory. I love it. J.R “I have never seen shafting like that in all my life.”.

Although Regal has never been WWE Champion his impressive protégé Paul Burchill looks a major talent and will hopefully become the first British WWE Champion and that would be something to live up to the legacy of his wrestling influences from the past like Big Daddy or Giant Haystacks and maybe us here in Britain will be kings of World Wrestling once more. Thanks for reading this article any feedback; comments, e-mails etc will be greatly appreciated by Joe Poulton ..