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These are stories from Eddie's wrestling days.
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 Liverpudlians get a bad reputation for all sorts of things, but Liverpool Stadium was one of the best venues to wrestle in, and the crowd were the best anywhere in the country. I wrestled Johnny Palance there in a ladder match, the idea was that £200 in fivers was suspended in a bag from the ring light, and the only way to get to the money was to put up a large pair of step ladders, which was lying outside the ring, climb up the ladder and retrieve the money. Who ever got the money, which was put up by the promoter Brian Dixon, was the winner. The bout started with the usual wrestling, there were no falls, or submissions, there was however knockouts, probably the best way to get your opponent out of the way, so you could get the ladder. Palance would get the ladder into the ring, as he gets up the first four rungs, I would drag him back down again and vice versa. Eventually after 20 minutes of wrestling, I managed to tie Palance up in the ropes, got the ladder in and climbed up and gets the money bag. The crowd stood up cheering and clapping, and to show them that there really was £200 in the bag, I opened it up, took the money out, and fanned the notes in my hand. Out of the blue, Palance gets out of the ropes, comes up behind me and snatches the money out of my hand, jumps out of the ring and heads back to the dressing rooms. However, he only got a few yards, when the crown jumps on him, knocking him to the ground, at which, the money goes flying up in the air, and scatters all over the place. Palance dashes back to the shelter of the dressing rooms empty handed, and I make my way back empty handed as well, and a bit annoyed that I had worked hard for that money and now it was all gone. When I got back, Palance is getting a telling off from Brian Dixon, saying what a stupid thing he had done and now both of us had lost out as the money is probably on its way to the local pub, never to be seen again. Then there is a knock on the door and 3 lads are asking to see me, when I get there, they hold out their hands with all the money, saying that they had collected it all up for me. The full £200 was accounted for, so that proves what a great bunch of people they were as they could have easily kept the money and no one would have known. Thanks again, it is the one venue I miss most of all, the old Liverpool Stadium. Foot note: does anyone know what was built on the old site after it was pulled down.???
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Eddie would like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a great 2005. Thanks also for your interest in the site and for all your support over the years.
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Dated: Saturday, 18th December 2004.
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Outside the old Colosseum theatre in Rhyl is a children's' paddling pool. During the summer they had a wrestling show there every week. A wrestler from Canada had come over for a tour, and was wrestling at the theatre on a very hot night. After he finished his bout, he opened the stage door to cool down. He saw the pool but thought it was an open air swimming pool, so he asks one of the lads how deep it was. He was told it was about 6 feet deep at this end, so he takes a run at the pool, which was only a couple of yards from the stage door and dives in. Luckily he did not dive in head first, but feet first, straight on to his ass on the bottom of the pool, he screamed out in pain and storms back into the dressing room. 'You told me it was 6 feet deep', he said to the wrestler, when he finally stopped laughing, he replied 'Sorry, did I say 6 feet, I meant 6 inches'. However, all the lads knew exactly what he meant to say.
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One wrestler thought of a good way to pin his opponent to the canvas, when he was thrown out of the ring, he would lift up the apron of the canvas and crawl under the ring. While the other wrestler was leaning over the top rope looking to see where he had gone, he would appear at the other side of the ring and with great delight from the crowd, he would sneak up behind his opponent, roll him back from behind and pin him. This went quite well for a while, until one night he did the same thing again, but this time he didn't appear at the other side of the ring. The ref and opponent stood there wondering what to do, as the time was getting on, the ref jumped out and looked under the ring. The wrestler was lying face down unconscious, as he had shot under the ring, he caught his head on one of the steel supports, knocking himself out and receiving a bad cut to his head. An ambulance was called and the poor guy was taken off to hospital, where he needed 3 stitches to his head. He was released from hospital later on that night, but he never tried that trick again.
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Dated: Thursday, 25th November 2004.
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 Giant Haystacks had a habit of asking for a pot of tea whenever he arrived at a hall. This particular hall was in County Roscommon, and the hall keeper said it wasn't a problem and asked if he would like a biscuit with it. 'That would be lovely' says Stacks, 'You are very kind'. Before long, a big pot of tea and a tin of USA biscuits were delivered to the dressing room. Everybody dug in to the tea and biscuits, as wrestlers would, especially if it meant saving a few bob on supper. But, before the show was finished, an extortionate bill was produced and I have never seen a dressing room clear as quickly as it did that night. When the hall keeper came looking for his money, the only person left in the changing room was Mighty John Quinn. John refused to pay the bill saying he hadn't had any of the food, which he hadn't. However, the hall keeper wasn't having it and duly locked John in the dressing room until the bill was paid. By this time everyone else had disappeared and John was locked up for 45 minutes before he finally agreed to settle up. (story supplied by Peter Mc Nulty).
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 In the old days of wrestling there were a few wrestlers with a feared reputation, one such person was Bert Assarati. Bert was small, but had the strength of three men. He was one of the hardest and best wrestlers in the world and was frightened of no one. It has been known that some wrestlers when driving by a wrestling poster and saw that they were billed to fight Bert, would turn their car round and head back home. The promoters were having trouble finding anyone to wrestle Bert, so one night they thought they would be smart, and tell the wrestler that he was on with someone else. The wrestler walks into the ring to wait for his opponent, but to his surprise and shock, Bert came walking down the aisle and into the ring. The fear on the other wrestler's face was apparent, but the promoters didn't care, the packed hall was going to see Bert wrestle, and now that the other guy was in the ring, there was nothing he could do but fight Bert. The MC introduced the two wrestlers and the bell rang for the first round. The wrestler walks over to Bert, takes his hand and lifts it above Bert's head and shouts 'Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner' and walks out of the ring. I don't know who got the bigger shock: the crowd, Bert or the promoter. But such was the fear some wrestlers had.
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Dated: Sunday, 17th October 2004.
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Joe D' Orazio has asked the wrestlers to provide him with a poem to be included in his planned poetry book. This is the one that Eddie has given him.
My 15 Minutes Of Fame, by Eddie 'The Amazing Kung Fu' Hamill.
I have travelled all over the world, from the North, to the South, East and West.
Have fought with some rotten wrestlers, but then again, have wrestled some of the best.
Sadly, they are all disappearing, to that big ring in the sky,
Looking forward to seeing my old mates, when it comes to my turn to die.
Through all the blood and the sweat, through all the bruises and the pain,
People will always still ask me, looking back, would I do it again?
Being slammed on to the canvas every night, I'm sure, I could not have been sane,
But looking back at them golden years, it was my 15 minutes of fame.
The dressing room banter has gone, but the memories will never go.
We were the modern day Gladiators of Sport, some were characters, some were friends, few were foe.
I can't take the bumps any more, I'm now just a silly old Fu,
So it just boils down to one thing, I think I'm knackered, don't you.???
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There were some great comedians in the wrestling world, some were funny in the dressing room and others were funny in the ring. People like Les Kellett, Catweazle, Tom Thumb, and Kevin Connelly. This story is about my favourite, who shall remain nameless to save him from embarrassment. If this guy was on the bill, all the wrestlers would always go out front to watch him, you never knew what he was going to do next and had everyone in tears laughing. Before the wrestlers went into the ring, they would spray underarm deodorant all over their bodies, seems strange that they are going in to hammer six bells out of each other, but they wanted to smell nice when they were doing it. When this wrestler came to a show, he would always borrow what he needed off one of the lads. Nobody minded, it was better wrestling someone who smelt good, but one guy decided to play a trick on him. In those days, all aerosol cans had a paper wrapper that went round the can to advertise the product, not like now, where it is printed on the metal can. If you took the wrapper off, you could not tell what was inside it, it was just a plain can. This guy got a can of silver spray paint and with a razor blade, slit the wrapper and unrolled it. He then did the same to a deodorant can, and swapped the wrappers, sticking them back on with glue. So, we had a can of deodorant, that was really silver spray paint, then sat back and waited. He arrives and starts getting changed to go into the ring. Everyone in the dressing room knows what is about to happen, so just before he puts on his dressing gown, he asks if he could borrow, as we called it 'some smelly'. He takes the can and sprays it under one armpit and then the other. As it was 'free', a few more squirts over his body and says 'That smells awful', and then puts his dressing gown on and heads for the ring. Then was an enormous exodus from the dressing room to see this guy in the ring, but this time, it was not to see him wrestle. He was introduced by the MC and as he takes his dressing gown off, the lads erupt with laughter, there he stands with big silver blotches all over his body. He looks over at us all laughing, looks at his body and he knows he has been well and truly set up. Don't know what the audience made of it all, but being a true professional, he just carried on with his bout as usual. We all had a good laugh when he got back to the dressing room, and the good thing was, he never asked to borrow anything again.
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Dated: Saturday, 18th September 2004.
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 We were all going on a wrestling tour of Africa, Giant Haystacks (who I called Harry, but that is another story for another time), was with us. As we sat in the airport lounge, Stacks fell asleep, and as he started to snore, we all got up and moved to another part of the lounge, leaving him on his own. When our flight was called, we went to get him, and there he was, still fast asleep. He was surrounded by kids, who just stood there staring at this sleeping giant. And of course, there were people taking photographs of this wonderful sight. So, if anyone out there has a photo, it would be nice to have it for this story.
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 We all arrived at the airport for a tour of Sicily, there was Mark Rocco, Bert Royal, Vic Faulkner, Big Bruno Erlington, Mick Mc Manus and Mike Marino. Our flight was getting delayed time and time again, and everyone was getting fed up and tired. However, Mike kept all our spirits up, his first comment had us all laughing when he said ' I knew this flight was not going to take off when I saw the Captain walk out to the plane wearing a flat cap, donkey jacket and wellies'. Eventually we got on and started to get settled in to our seats, when Mike stood up in the aisle and announced, ' As we have been delayed for so long, we are going to have some inflight entertainment'. At that point, he put his hands together and in a flapping motion said, 'This is a bird flying'. Again with his hands, he showed the passengers a dog, a duck and a crocodile. He had everyone in fits of laughter and we all forgot about the delay. What a great man he was.
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 Jimmy Breaks and Catweazle were travelling back from a show late at night, when they were pulled over by the Police for a spot check. 'Can I have a look in your boot, sir'? said the policeman. Jimmy opens the boot and was asked what was in his case, he replied that it was his wrestling boots, trunks and dressing gown. Catweazle was asked the same question, and he replies, 'My frock (which was what he called his sack cloth dressing gown) and my frog'. 'Very funny' said the copper, 'And what is your name, sir'? 'Catweazle' came the reply. 'Look sir, you have been taking the mick too often, you either give us your real name, or we will have to sort it out down at the station' came the reply from a very fed up policeman. Catweazle gave his real name, and then they were told to follow the police car down to the station. It was all sorted out in the end, you see Catweazle's real name was 'Gary Cooper'. For those who are too young to remember, Gary Cooper was a famous Hollywood actor who won an Oscar for the movie 'High Noon'. Another great and loved man.
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Dated: Sunday, 22nd August 2004.
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 Haystacks v The Ghost. Haystacks was a huge man, he stood almost 7 ft tall and weighed in at nearly 40 stone. Nothing would frighten him you would think, but he turned white at the hands of Eddie and Ivan Penzecoff. When they went down to London, they stayed in a B&B in Brixton, which at the time, was very cheap accommodation. All the Northern lads stayed there and the place was supposed to be haunted as there had been a few strange things happening over the years. And of course, no big tough wrestler wanted to stay there on their own. One particular week, Eddie, Penzecoff and Haystacks were the only 3 down at the time, so Haystacks decided he would move into the big room with them as he didn't want to stay in the other room on his own. They didn't fancy this as Haystacks would snore all night long and boy could he snore, but anyway, they agreed to his request. Eddie and Penzecoff had been wrestling at Croydon, which was only half an hour down the road, but Stacks was at Bristol, which was a few hours away. They arrived back at 10.30, went to the pub for their usual few pints and then headed back to the digs. They came up with an idea of how to stop Stacks snoring all night and set about planning it. They got a long piece of string and tied it to the bottom of Stacks sheets, running the string along the side of his bed to Ivan's. They got into their own beds and waited. At about 1 a.m., they could hear the grunts and groans of Stacks coming up the stairs, so they pretended to be asleep. Stacks could fall asleep standing up, so within 5 minutes of his head hitting the pillow, he was fast asleep and then the snoring started. Eddie lay there with his bed clothes stuffed into his mouth to stop from laughing as Ivan starts to pull the string very slowly. As the sheets start to move off the bed, Stacks stops snoring, looks over to them and pulls the bed clothes back up again. A few minutes later, Ivan does the same again, Stacks has not gone back to sleep yet, but he knows something is going on. He sits up in bed and again looks at Eddie and Ivan, but they were both fast asleep, or so he thought. Tears were running down their faces by this time, but they had to keep still, so as not to give the game away. Stacks lay back down again, but this time he had hold of the bed clothes. Just as he is dropping off , Ivan gives an almighty tug on the string. The bed clothes come flying off and Haystacks jumps up screaming, as Eddie laughs, watching Ivan falling out of his bed unable to speak for giggling. Stacks was running around the room by this time, packing his bags to get out. They had to tell him that they had rigged it all, as it was the only way to stop him leaving. He called them all the sods under the sun, but the next day, he saw the funny side of it, but would never share a room with them again.
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Martin Conroy was an old wrestler who turned Master of Ceremonies and time keeper, when he got too old for the ring. He was on duty at the Town Hall in Newcastle one night, but this was one of the old style halls, which had a stage, and in front of the stage is where they put the ring. On that stage sat Martin with his table and chair, stop watch and bell. It was an old wooden floor and over the years, the floor boards had shrunk, leaving a gap of about a quarter of an inch. Below the stage was the dressing room for the wrestlers. The bell had gone for the first contest and Martin had returned to his table. The bout was going well, but down in the dressing room the lads were up to their old tricks again. One of them got hold of an old metal coat hanger and straightened it out. Then he stood on a table to get nearer to the stage just under Martin. He pushed the wire up through the gap in the board, catching Martin on the leg. Then very quickly pulled it down again before Martin could grab hold of it. After a few times of doing this, Martin moved his chair, but no matter where he moved to, there was a gap in the boards. Martin, by now was really fed up, so the next time the wire appeared, he grabbed hold of it and tried to pull it up. It was a tug of war, Martin pulling from above and the wrestlers pulling from below. In the end, the lads let it go and Martin bent it up and put it on his table. You would have thought that was the end of the matter, but the boys were not going to be beaten by Martin. So, they got another coat hanger, straightened it out and lit a cigarette lighter on the end of it until it became red hot and pushed it up again. Martin spots the wire coming up and grabs hold of it, there are howls of laughter from the dressing rooms as they hear the screams from Martin running around the stage ranting and raving. The whole audience were looking at him wondering what was going on, even the wrestlers in the ring stopped to look. Martin was shouting ' I will kill you lot, I will get you back for that'. But sadly, Martin never did get his own back. He went on holiday to Spain 2 weeks later and died in the shower from a heart attack. But he is sure to be planning something for them when they all get together again one day. Good luck Martin.
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 'Jumping' Jim Hussey, who is Mark 'Rollerball' Rocco's dad, was a great wrestler and a real practical joker. He had a great mind for thinking up good jokes. All the lads would picked up outside the gym in Brixton to go to Bristol. Jim was a regular at Bristol and would be there a lot, but before he left, he would go to the bank and change £5 into sixpences. On the way to the show, the lads would stop off at a transport cafe for a bite to eat, the owner of which was a grumpy old sod, but the food was good and plenty of it. When they arrived at the cafe, Jim would never eat there, he would always take a flask of tea and a sandwich. He would however go in, because there was a one armed bandit machine, the jackpot was £5, all in tanners. So, Jim would put his sixpence in the machine and pull the handle. In his other hand, he had the rest of the sixpences, and as the numbers started rolling, he would throw them into the empty tray below, which made a noise as if the machine had paid out. He would scoop up the 'winnings', stick them in his pocket and walk out without saying a word. The lads knew what he was up to but the owner thought Jim had hit the jack pot. This would happen every time they stopped at the cafe. Then one day, Jim enters the cafe with his pocket full of coins, but the owner runs out from behind the counter and shouts to Jim ' Don't come back in here any more, you don't buy a thing, and you take all my money from the slot machine'. Jim turns round, gives a little wink to the lads and walked out with a smile on his face. He knew he had eventually wound the owner up. As a foot note, the lads said that the machine was taken out the next week, apparently someone did actually win the jackpot.
date: Thursday 22nd July 2004.
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