Round One - The Introduction

Far be it from me to try and hitch my latest idea onto the bandwagon which carried this site over its three and a bit years of e-life but the comparison I’m planning to make is a valid one. People occasionally remark that "The Tomorrow People" was ITV’s equivalent to Doctor Who. This is not the case. Yes, it was a vaguely childish sci fi serial with bad CSO and wobbly things on strings but it was just another children’s show, albeit one with a new lease of life thanks to some irreverent DVD commentaries. When one actually boils down what Doctor Who was we find it to be a Saturday afternoon tradition, laughed at by a lot of people but still pulling in millions of viewers. Those who didn’t watch it couldn’t understand its popularity, those who did watch it never felt the need to explain why. It wasn’t the glitziest programme on TV, it wasn’t something you’d want to cite to a potential mate as evidence that you were a sophisticated person but you watched it and you loved it and you tuned in every week because there was nothing else on telly with the same je ne say… jeux neux sais… the same "I don’t know what". The icons of the series were larger than life – they were ingrained into popular culture and everyone, whether they watched the show or not, knew who and what they were. They became a short hand in the tabloids, they opened super markets, they appeared in adverts, they were everywhere.

The obvious answer then is that ITV’s equivalent to Doctor Who was the wrestling. The cheap and cheerful Saturday afternoon spectacle which defied all attempts to explain its popularity. Millions tuned in to see battles of good verses evil, suspending their disbelief just enough to really care about the outcome. Instead of Daleks they had Giant Haystacks, the Master was Mick McManus, the Cybermen were Kendo Nagasaki and the hero who would eventually overcome all the odds to win was of course Big Daddy. Along for the ride were glamorous, exciting, one might even say pretty, good guys who were whiter than white and would fight the good fight. Against them were ugly, nasty, sneaky, dirty bad guys. The sort of men you loved to hate, the sort of foe which in his own strange way was more popular than the good guy he opposed.

Between them, Doctor Who and the wrestling (for it had no other name) ran for sixty two years. They were axed within a few months of each other right at the end of the 1980s, both series victims of channel controllers who let person distaste override sound business decisions. Both shows were looking cheap and tired compared with the big budget alternatives from the USA. Doctor Who could no more compete with the special effects of Star Trek TNG than Big Daddy could compete with the tanned and oiled bodybuilders of the WWF. What was more, these expensive American spectaculars were cheaper for British TV networks to buy in than their home-grown alternatives were to make. This fatal combination was to prove the end of the line for two British institutions as television shows but both lived on in the real world. Even with a tiny audience of hard core fans, wrestling shows continued at Britiain’s town halls and Doctor Who novels and videos kept the brand alive.

I started watching wrestling in 1986, a mere two years before the cancellation, so the heyday of the sport happened a long time before I came on the scene. Much like the Pertwee/Baker heyday of Doctor Who. Thanks to UKGold and the miracle of video cassette tapes I was able to see that golden age, albeit belatedly. But it has taken a good deal longer for British wrestling to be given a new lease of life. It wasn’t until Granada Ventures decided to release a DVD of highlights and The Wrestling Channel bought the rights to the World of Sport broadcasts that British wrestling was once more accessible in all its glory. My cable company doesn’t carry TWC but with the help of britishwrestlingdvds I’ve now got the chance to see the best of what’s left of (to steal a phrase) the golden age of British wrestling. My plan for this column is to watch some DVDs and offer up a mix of nostalgia, commentary, comedy and trivia as I try to appreciate and understand just what made British wrestling pound-for-pound more popular in its day than just about any other wrestling promotion in the world.

I hope that it will prove interesting and entertaining for fans and non-fans alike. I’ll certainly be pitching it at a general readership rather than the more specialist audience of my other column. Heck, there might even be a few anecdotes from my own childhood thrown into the mix.

We’ll be kicking off with General Raven (no, not that one), a man who calls himself "Banger" and Big Daddy crushing one of the most famous monks in history.

See you next time, grapple fans.