1976 in sensational Solihull

Mick McManus - the legendary 1960s and 70s bad guy. All Bryl Cream, cauliflower ears and sly punches to the stomach. He was the man everyone loved to hate.

Johnny Saint - by the late 1980s Johnny Saint was best known for four things - his incredibly smooth wrestling style, his bumble bee trunks, being very skinny and looking very old. By the 1990s he was still wrestling but was generally referred to as Johnny "Yes, THAT Johnny" Saint. But in the 1970s he was just skinny and incredibly smooth in the ring. It barely even counted as wrestling - this was limb poetry. I don't think I've ever seen a more graceful catch-as-catch-can wrestler.

Hang on, what's that round his waist? It looks like he's won several prizes at Crufts.

Apparently it is the world lightweight title belt.

McManus was his usual rule-bending self and with every infringement the crowd was more and more behind Saint. They wanted nothing more than for McManus to get his comeuppance. They shared the first two falls despite McManus outweighing Saint considerably. I knew McManus wouldn't be losing because he famously only lost two televised matches in his entire career (and those were in his latter years when he was willing to give some young blood the rub) but equally I knew that they protected their champions in those days. In modern wrestling, they think nothing of letting their cruiserweight champion or tag team champions be utterly destroyed by the heavyweight champion because the bigger man is by definition the better man (in management's eyes at least). But in the 1970s the promoters knew which side of their toast was buttered and champions were a draw whatever their weight as long as they were presented as champions. Thus the bout became more interesting because neither man could logically lose and yet the match would have to have an ending. Hmm - interesting...

With the referee's back turned, Saint lay down and played dead. When the ref turned round and saw McManus on his feet and his opponent unconscious, he concluded that McManus must've knocked Saint out using an illegal punch. He wasted no time in disqualifying the (for once) blameless McManus.

The crowd - McManus haters to a man (or, in this case, woman) - are delighted that the wily rule breaker has been outwitted. They are torn whether to laugh and cheer in his face or just carry on booing as normal. Above you can see a cross section of booers and cheerers.

Good had to stoop to a dirty trick or two to overcome evil this time but does the Bible not say that an eye for an eye is just as valid as a tooth for a tooth? Probably. It doesn't mention Mick McManus by name but I think the gist is there.

Good 3-3 Evil

Broadcast in December 1976, this bout fell between the end of "The Deadly Assassin" and the start of "The Face of Evil".