British people have a peculiar habit – call it a race memory if you will. They thing, almost to a man, that Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks were great. There is nothing in the wrestling world today that can match those two behemoths. Of this they are convinced. It isn’t even the equivalent of saying that Wayne Rooney isn’t as good as Stanley Matthews – it would be like saying Wayne Rooney wasn’t as good as Michael Caine in "Escape to Victory". But British wrestling was damn popular in its day. The highest viewing figures were generally achieved on Cup Final day when ITV would put on marquee matches to try and hook viewers and keep them away from the BBC’s match coverage but throughout the year it was an incredible performer. Now, some seventeen years after it left our screens, a DVD of highlights has been released by Granada and is hosted by World of Sport’s one and only Dickie Davies. With the exception of Kent Walton, Davies is probably the best remembered fixture of The Wrestling despite hating it intruding on his show. That it outlived World of Sport by several years must’ve rubbed salt into the wound.

The product on display differs from the American style we are familiar with today. Obvious differences are the bouts are fought in three-minute rounds (the number of rounds varied from bout to bout). The matches were usually two out of three falls instead of the sudden death single fall used in WWE. The referee had greater authority too as he could issue "public warnings" – a sort of yellow card – a third public warning meant disqualification. Stylistically there are too many differences to mention but the almost total lack of kick-outs is noticeable. If wrestler A covered wrestler B for a pinfall, no matter how weak the set up, wrestler A scored the fall. This sucked much of the drama out of the matches but it obviously worked for them. They lasted 33-years after all.

The DVD begins with a well tanned Dickie Davies introducing highlights of the two biggest pre-behemoth era – Jackie "Mr TV" Pallo and Mick McManus. Their feud, which lasted for years and headlined at least one Cup Final show, was wildly successful considering it was between two heels. I would love to know how it worked and who the fans cheered for. Maybe they just wanted to see them beat each other up. According to Simon Garfield’s book, the two weren’t fond of each other and their matches often degenerated into real fights. Wherever you go in the world you’ll always find old wrestlers who claim their matches regularly became real fights. Pallo wears the ugliest trunks in the history of sports entertainment during his match and to be honest it is hard to see why he was such a big star. McManus, his hair still jet black despite his age, was a little better but was in his declining years and similarly unimpressive. It’s likely that both men’s primes no longer exist on tape and will never been seen.

A major change in gear next as Les Kellet met Leon Arris. Arris, who was originally billed as being from Paris (Arris and Paris rhyming - they thought their gimmicks through in those days), was the actor Brian Glover. His French gimmick was dropped after his Yorkshire accent gave the game away. Kellet was considered the funniest wrestler on the circuit despite everyone in Garfield’s book saying he was a right miserable bastard behind the scenes. This bout was comedy from start to finish and, because it was performed by two consummate performers, it was great entertainment. The problem with most wrestling comedy isn’t that it is there but that it isn’t funny. I first saw clips from this match on the final ITV wrestling show – a tribute to thirty three years on the air – and it isn’t a coincidence it was picked for this compilation too. Easily the best thing on the DVD and well worth watching. I've seen exactly one person in the WWE/F who understood comedy as well as these two - that was Rico shortly before he was released.

The disc then changes direction once again and we go to the greatest gimmick wrestler Britain ever saw – Kendo Nagasaki. It would be fair to say that Kendo is the British equivalent of the Undertaker – a character which everyone remembers, a character that no one bettered and which never outstayed its welcome. Over the years there was only ever one man under the mask – Peter Thornley – despite rumours to the contrary. The DVD features the legendary angle where he removed his mask before a shocked crowd. As you can see, the payoff wasn’t disappointing. He still lives his gimmick every bit as much as he did in his 1970s prime and he comes across as paradoxically being an integral part of the history of wrestling in this country and seeming completely out of place in the dry and rather plain sport on offer.

And so we come to the giants – literally – of ITV wrestling. First is Giant Haystacks, the forty stone Mancunian with the wild beard and the three-move repertoire. We see him in action (if you can call it action) against a young Japanese wrestler called Kwik Kick Lee. Lee would return to his native Japan and achieve incredible fame under his real name Akira Maeda. He didn’t last long against Haystacks as the big man couldn’t go much beyond five minutes. A surprisingly muscular Brit received similar treatment from the Giant. American fans know Haystacks for his short run as "Loch Ness" (or "The Loch Ness Monster" - this was WCW where the organisation was so lax that they didn't even have consistancy in wrestlers names let alone their storylines). Haystacks was about a hundred times better in the ring than his big rival. Sure, he didn't have much stamina or actual ability but at least he tried. He even sold on occasions and had enough skill to make the crowd believe there was just a chance he'd lose.

Finally we saw Big Daddy – the absurdly popular brother of the promoter and endless main event fixture. It is fair to say that Big Daddy is a leading contender for the title of worst wrestler the world has ever seen. We see two full and unedited Big Daddy matches – both taped at Wembley Arena and both before huge crowds. The first was against John Quinn and is reported to have attracted ten thousand fans. Daddy won in one minute and forty seconds. The other match was against Haystacks and lasted two minutes and fifty seconds. Amazingly, the crowd cheered rather than being pissed off at paying to see sub-three minute main events. They didn’t get many big crowds after that and Daddy moved to tag team matches so someone else could do the work. What his matches lacked in athleticism and he lacked in ability, his interviews lacked in psychology and common sense. His catchphrase – "Easy, easy, easy" – broke the rule that you at least try to convince your audience that they’ve seen a titanic battle.

Over all it is a programme which shows the good, the bad and the ugly in British wrestling. In some ways it is radically different from the WWF product which replaced it and yet in others the difference is only superficial. No matter where you are in the world or in history there are certain things that remain the same. Pinfalls and submissions don’t change, the nepotism doesn’t change and the emphasis on entertainment remains the key to success. It isn’t a DVD that will convert anyone to British wrestling but it is a great nostalgia trip for those who were converted twenty-plus years ago.

The audience, as you can see, loved every minute of it.