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 I have told a few stories about Ivan Penzecoff, but I feel I could write a whole book about him and all the crazy things he got up to. He was a hard drinker, but it never got in the way of his wrestling, and I never ever saw him drunk. We would go to the Colston Hall in Bristol every week where the Management would lay on a free bar for all the wrestlers, the only other venue that I knew did this was The Fairfield Halls in Croydon. Penzie was always on first at Bristol, and as soon as he had a shower, he has straight into the bar and started drinking until the show had finished. After a few months the Manager complained to Dale Martin Promotions that Penzie was drinking the bar dry. So Dale Martin came up with a plan, they would put Penzie on last, that way he could only have a few pints. That didn't stop Penzie however, when he arrived at Bristol he headed straight to the bar and started drinking until it was time for him to go into the ring. Being a true professional, he did a great wrestling bout with not a hint that he had been drinking. What a real professional and I heard a few months later that the Manager closed the free bar.
(I would like to dedicate this story to Penzecoff's daughter Tanya.)
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 The Villa Marina in Douglas on the Isle of Man was a venue that we worked twice a week for the summer season. Unlike the summer seasons now that only last about 6 weeks, back then the first show of the season was Easter weekend and continued to the end of September. Douglas was a terrific place in those days but I believe it's more like a ghost town now. We always stayed at the same hotel and never got much sleep while we were there. All our sleeping was done on the ferry back to Liverpool the next morning. The bar never closed and some of the guys came straight from the bar to the dining room for breakfast. A great time was had by all but very few of us brought home any money. That is except Steve Taylor. He always went to the Casino and very often came out on top - especially when he was wearing his lucky white suit. There are loads of stories to tell about the Isle of Man but unfortunately very few of them could be repeated here. Even on the ferry going to and from Liverpool we would get up to tricks. Frank Casey from Liverpool used to wrestle as The Convict. He would come to the ring in a convicts outfit with a ball and chain attached to his ankles and handcuffs on his wrists. One day on the way home we got Frank to dress up in the gear and we handcuffed him to the rail on the deck of the ferry. Many people believed that he was a real criminal and when his 'prison guard' pretended to fall asleep, Frank would ask passengers to help him escape. He offered them money and said they would be 'looked after' when we docked. One guy tried to open the handcuffs only for the 'prison guard' to wake up and arrest him for helping a prisoner to escape. This guy nearly soiled himself when he thought he was being arrested.
 Very often there was as much fun on the ferry as there was on the Island. Those of us who tried to get some sleep on the ferry could wake up to find their shoe laces tied together or their shoe laces missing or even their shoes missing. One young referee who shall remain nameless - but his initials are Tony Griffiths - was even stripped by the girls one day (Klondyke Kate being the ring leader) and had to leave the ferry wearing nothing but a black bin liner with his face made up with makeup and lipstick. (Not a pretty sight).
Story courtesy of Peter Mc Nulty.
Updated: 18th December 2005.
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 At one time in Ireland, every town, village and crossroads had a ballroom or Parish Hall. Very often these were run by the local clergy who were great men for squeezing a few bob out of the parishioners. They ran bingo sessions and dances in these halls and were always very strict about dancers getting a bit too close. We worked in some of these ballrooms and parish halls. Sometimes if we had girls on the bill the priest would blacken out any pictures on the poster that showed a bit of cleavage or some times they banned the girls from working altogether. At one such hall in a County Carlow town, the priest wouldn't let the girls appear on the show. It seems that one of the priests of the parish had recently run away with a married woman from the town and they didn't want any more scandal. But we were already a man short on the night due to an injury. So we came up with the idea of putting a mask on Klondyke Kate. We strapped down her bosom with bandages and put a rolled up sock down the front of her costume. The match lasted for four rounds before Kate had to call a halt. She was unable to breathe under the mask. When she came back to the dressing room after the match, there was an enormous nipple peeping through the bandages and the rolled up sock had worked it's way around the back somewhere. But I think we got away with it.
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 In the early 80's we booked two midget wrestlers for a week to appear at the Holiday camps in North Wales. But on the day, only one of them arrived. I went down to the railway station to meet him. He had already arrived when I got there and he was sitting outside the station with his head in his hands on a little case no bigger than the box a pair of wrestling boots would come in. After the introductions I brought him back to the flat to meet some of the other lads who were staying there. This guy was very shy and very quiet and it took a while for him to come out of his shell. I took the ladder from the top bunk bed and put it on the bottom bunk for him which he thought was funny and eventually he started to join in the joking saying things like "I'm going to be huge in this business". Every night we took him out to all our regular haunts. He turned out to be a great character and late one night while he was sitting on the counter of the ninth pub of our pub crawl he said to me "You know when you came down to the station to meet me, how did you know it was me?" Wherever you are Brian, I hope you are fit and well.
Story courtesy of Peter Mc Nulty.
Updated: 27th November 2005.
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 'Romeo' Joe Critchley was from the old school of wrestling. Joe was a good shooter in his day and a great professional as well, but he found fame doing comedy wrestling in the ring, if you dropped Joe on his back side, his false teeth would drop out. However, his best show was to wrestle The Invisible Man, it was billed as a show bout just purely for fun only. Joe would enter the ring and the bout was introduced as usual, 'In the red corner, The Invisible Man and in the blue corner is Joe Critchley'. Of course there was only Joe in the ring along with the referee. He would 'shake' hands with his 'opponent' and the bell would sound. Off Joe would go, throwing the Invisible Man off the ropes, giving him a fore arm smash and drop kicking him, but then The Invisible Man would turn on Joe, and you would watch as Joe threw himself all over the ring, getting thrown in to the corner post and being thrown out of the ring. Of course, Joe was doing all this by himself. The end of the bout was when The Invisible Man dived across Joe and pinned him to the canvas and the M.C. holding up the hand of The Invisible Man, the winner. It was a very funny bout to watch but it took a lot of skill and Joe was the only man I knew who did this bout. What a great professional.
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 When wrestling fans remember Tony St Clair, they remember him as being the quintessential blue eye of the ring. Not many wrestlers could work a crowd the way Tony did. He knew exactly when to bring them up and when to bring them down again - something that today's wrestlers wouldn't know anything about. Yet there are old wrestling fans out there who can only remember Tony as an out and out villain. Yes, in some parts of Ireland Tony was the most hated man ever to step inside the ropes - especially if he was on with Johnny 'Rasputin' Howard in Johnny's local area. When we ran Kingscourt in County Cavan on a regular basis in the 80's, Tony had some fantastic matches with Howard in singles matches and on one occasion he even teamed up with Mark 'Rollerball' Rocco for a tag match against the local hero. But it was a match that Tony wasn't involved in that he will be forever remembered. On that occasion Howard was facing Mighty John Quinn with the World Championship at stake. Quinn had taken the first fall but Howard was fighting back and gained an equaliser. But with Howard on the verge of victory, St Clair ran to the ring and tripped him. This gave Quinn an advantage and he was able to pin Howard before he knew what was happening. And Tony didn't hang about. He ran as fast as he could through the crowd and out into the car park where a car was waiting to whisk him away from the baying mob. If he had stayed by the ring to do a gee or anything like that, I am sure he would have been seriously injured by the crowd. The following morning while walking along the Main Street in Carrickmacross (Howard's home town), two sisters confronted him about the goings on the previous night. Their language couldn't be repeated here but I remember it had a lot of f's and b's in it. And they spat in his face before walking away. The following night in Northern Ireland, Tony was back to being the blue eye hero again against the villainous Howard. It's a funny old game.
Stroy courtesy of Peter Mc Nulty.
(Foot note to this story. For many years I used to wind up Tony by saying that when I was a young boy I used to run home from school to watch him on TV. This of course infuriated Tony as I am only just a few years older than him. Still makes me laugh after all these years). (Eddie).
Updated: 23rd October 2005.
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Since this update coincided with the competition to win a copy of Kendo’s book, I thought it was a good time to put this one on the site.
 I wrestled Kendo Nagasaki many times all over the country. At every show, Kendo had his army of fans and I had mine. Both the teams could get quite rowdy, calling us names and running up to the ring. This did not bother us as it was all part of wrestling, at least we knew we had got them excited. The only thing wrestlers don’t like is when we get assaulted by fans. It has only ever happened to me once, and that was when I was up against Kendo. We were both in the ring ready to be introduced to the crowd, when Kendo’s fans start giving me a lot of stick. I walked over to the ropes and just stood there looking at them without saying a word, when this big guy comes up to the ring mouthing off, and without any warning, slammed his fist onto my bare foot, although the pain shot up my foot, I didn’t flinch an inch, in fact I just laughed and put the other foot out for him to punch, after all, I was supposed to have feet of steel. He must have believed the story as he backed off. I continued my bout with Kendo as if nothing had happened, but within two days, my toes had turned black. I never got that close to the ropes again.
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 Myself, (Johnny Palance), Monty Swann and a team of other wrestlers went on a tour of Sierra Leone for promoter Orig Williams. As we did not wrestle until night time, we had all day to laze about on the beach. One day, me, Monty Swann and a few of the lads went for a walk along the beach. Monty and I walked on to the little jetty that went about 20 yards out to sea, as the two of us stood there looking into the beautiful clear water, Monty shouted, ‘Look down there John, it’s a shark’. I looked down and said, ‘Look at the size of it, that monster must be at least 18 feet long, it’s probably a tiger shark’. The rest of the lads heard us shouting and ran on to the jetty to have a look at what all the fuss was about. One of the younger lads on the team asked where the shark was. ‘It has gone under the jetty, lean over and have a look, you might see it’s fin’. As he leaned over the edge, one of the lads pushed him into the sea. Well, have you ever seen someone trying to get out of the water before they even get in it, it was something you might see in a Tom and Jerry cartoon, clutching at air, his face full of panic. As soon as he hits the water, he starts screaming, ‘Get me out, get me out’. As we pulled him back up on to the jetty, we all burst into fits of laughter. It was only then that he realised it was a wind up. You see, there was no shark, it was just another rib by the lads. However, it did teach the young lad a few things, he had more to learn about the wrestling business than just being able to wrestle.
Story courtesy of Johnny Palance.
Updated 23rd September 2005.
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Hanley's Victoria Hall was a regular Saturday night wrestling show, all the big names in wrestling had worked there, and like any town, there was always a tough guy who wanted to fight the wrestlers, or wanted to be one. This one guy worked in a pub in Stoke on Trent and was at the show every week shouting that he could do better than the wrestlers, in fact he would have loved to be one. So Max Crabtreee, brother of Big Daddy, and the top promoter in the country, decided he would teach this guy a lesson and invited him into the dressing room. 'Right' said Max, 'you want to be a wrestler, well to start with we need to give you a good gimmick, and I have thought of one. We will get you to jump into the ring next week and challenge Big Daddy, but to make you look big and strong, you are going to smash a plank of wood with your head'. 'Oh, I would never be able to do that' says the guy. 'Don't worry' says Max 'I have a piece of wood here which I have drilled little holes in it, and when you hit it with your head, it will smash into pieces, it will make you look a right hard man, have a go now'. So two of the lads holds the wood up and the guys charges at it and whacks it with his head and sure enough, the wood shatters into bits. 'Right, you come next week and we will do the same in the ring in front of the punters and you will look good'. Next week comes and we all stand out front watching this guy jump into the ring when Big Daddy has finished his bout. The MC made a big thing about him, who by the way was never in a ring in his life. Max gets into the ring and starts saying how strong this guy is and to prove his strength, he was going to smash this plank of wood with his head. Max waves two of the lads in to the ring to hold the wood. This guy is now getting carried away saying he could smash Big Daddy up as easy as this plank of wood. The lads stand in one corner of the ring holding the wood up, as this nutter charges from the other side and whacks the wood with his head. Wham!!!! He reels back dazed, not even a crack appeared in the wood. 'Do it again', whispers Max, 'it is starting to crack, but hit it as hard as you can this time'. He is really fired up now and takes another run and a big dive at the wood. Next thing, he is flat on his back, blood spurting from his head and the crowd are laughing their heads off. He was carried out of the ring and advised to go the hospital. When we all got in to the dressing room, Max was there. 'How come he didn't break the wood Max'?. Max gave a little smile and said that he had changed the wood and replaced it with a piece of hard wood which he said the guy would never have broken even with a sledge hammer. The guy must have got the message as we never saw him back at Hanley.
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 The late Brian 'Crusher' Mason was a lovely man, a bit of an old woman really, but a gentle giant who just loved the business. He told me once that for his very first appearance in the ring, the promoter gave him £5 and a copy of the poster with his name on it. 'Little did the promoter know', said Brian, 'that I would have done it just for the poster'. Brian was known under three different names in the ring, in some areas, he was Crusher Mason, in others he was Butch Lynch and in others he was The Mighty Chang. As the Mighty Chang, he had a gimmick where he invited 4 or 5 'big strong men' to come up from the audience and into the ring to aim a punch as hard as they could into his midriff. He promised to pay anyone who was successful in dropping him to his knees, the sum of £500, but no one ever came close. Despite his big belly, he had very strong stomach muscles and opponents often jumped off the top of the corner post onto his belly during a match without causing any damage. One night in Navan, County Meath, during one of The Mighty Chang's matches, while held in a side head lock, his opponent decided to whack him in the belly with the flat of his hand. He winced and the crowd cheered. He did it again, but this time a bit harder and Chang let out a groan, which had the crowd screaming. This time the opponent (who shall remain nameless), drew back and hit him again as hard as he possibly could. Chang released the hold immediately and the match continued. Later in the dressing room, Chang said he didn't mind being punched or kicked during a match, but, 'please don't slap me'. This was from a man who was billed as 'The Strongest Wrestler in the World'. He was really just a big softie.
Story courtesy of Peter Mc Nulty.
Updated: 28th August 2005.
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The story will not name the wrestlers involved.
This particular wrestler ( we shall call him Mr A) was a big guy, not very tall, but wide, he was always playing tricks on people but his tricks were cruel, like the one he played on his mate, who was also a wrestler ( Mr B). Mr B decided to dye his hair blond, to attract the birds he said, so Mr A said he had a good hair dye which he would put on for him the next day before his wrestling bout that night. They both arrived at the hall a few hours before the show and got to work, Mr A sat Mr B down and started to apply the cream to his head, then after rubbing it in well, he put a plastic cap over his head and said to leave it on for an hour, to make sure that it takes. When the time was up, they took the cap off but it didn't look very blond. Mr B went to the showers to wash it off and within a couple of minutes started shouting, and came out with big lumps of hair in his hands, with still more falling out. He was starting to panic as he was due in the ring within the hour and Mr A told him something must have gone wrong and the best option was to shave it all off. They got an old razor from somewhere and started to shave his head, but it must have been quite blunt because his head was covered in blood and looked a right mess. He tidied it up the best he could and went into the ring with his head as red as a beetroot. After the show had finished there were only a few of us left in the dressing room and we had a look at the empty packet of hair dye which was lying in the bin. It wasn't dye at all, it was Immac Hair Removing Cream, that is what I would call a dirty trick.
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 This story goes back to the Tallaght Community School Sports Hall in 1979, it was a show that featured just Irish wrestlers, of which, there was many at the time. Wrestlers like Diamond Shondell, Rocky Hunter, Johnny 'Rasputin' Howard, Bruce Mc Donald, 'Man Mountain' Benny Sands etc and they appeared regularly against the top TV stars of the time, mostly in Northern Ireland, but this night, it was an all Irish show. Our usual MC wasn't available so I got another guy who was a big wrestling fan, ran his own business, spoke very well, and best of all, had a dress suit. He looked immaculate on the night and because he wasn't familiar with the wrestlers on the bill, I had his 'script' typed out for him, all he had to do was read it out. At 8 o'clock it was showtime. The music played and he walked out to the ring followed by me - the ref for the night. The music stopped and the MC looked at me and looked at the sheet of paper and then looked at me again. I walked over to him and told him to relax and not to be nervous, and to just read out exactly what was typed on the sheet of paper. I went back to my corner and waited, while he looked at the paper again, looked at me and back to the script. I walked back to him and asked what the problem was. It was only then that he admitted that he couldn't read. For the rest of the show, I had to stand beside him and tell him who was in the red corner and who was in the blue corner. He just repeated it. This was his first and last time to be involved in the wrestling business.
Story courtesy of Peter Mc Nulty.
Updated: 22nd July 2005.
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 Steve Logan was one of my favourite people, although Steve played the villain in the ring, outside it, he was a very funny man with a dry sense of humour. With his deep gravelly voice and straight face, you could never tell if he was joking or not. One day we had to meet at Dale Martins office in Brixton to get the mini bus to go to Bristol. The driver was Ivan Penzecoff, and we had Vic Faulkner and Bert Royal sitting at the back doing crosswords from their newspapers, Mark Rocco was shifting from one seat to another and John 'The Bear' Elijah was in the back, singing to himself, and sat beside me, was Steve Logan. It was a nice day as we travelled along through the countryside, everyone was in a world of their own, Steve was sucking on his pipe, when Rocco leans over the seat and says 'Look at those little lambs in the field Steve, aren't the nice'? Steve takes another suck on his pipe and without even looking at the lambs, he says 'Yeah, with mint sauce'. That memory still makes me laugh to this day. A man very much missed.
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With all that is written about cocky young wrestlers on varies wrestling websites, I thought this would be a good time to put this story on the site.
There is nothing as annoying as a cocky young 'wrestler' who might know a couple of holds, but thinks he knows it all. The well established wrestlers like nothing better than to put someone like that in their place. Some years ago we had a weekly show in Blackpool, and a few 'local lads' used to come in the afternoon to help us set up. When the ring was up, they would do a bit of training. Like most kids, because they could do a somersault off the top of the corner post, they thought they were wrestlers. From time to time we put them on the show, usually in a Rumble or a tag match where they wouldn't have to do too much. On one occasion, we told them we would put them on with each other in a singles match the following week. Well, the following week they turned up and told us they were doing a championship match and produced a belt. They were told to keep the championship match for their back yard when they got home. Later in the evening they were in the Rumble and because the 'champion' was so cocky, two of the other wrestlers decided it was time he was taught a lesson. So during the Rumble, they tied him upside down in the ropes, hanging by his foot, for the duration of the match. How humiliating for him. He disappeared for a while but came back months later with a different attitude, lost his 'big head' and changed his name. He is now one of the nicest guys you could meet and has become an excellent wrestler. If I was running regular shows, he would be on every one of them.
(Story courtesy of Peter Mc Nulty.)
Dated: 24th June 2005.
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 Eddie mentions on his site that there was a lot of wrestlers who took snuff, and a few were addicted to it, snuff is really ground down tobacco with a few added ingredients to give it a smell. A tin of snuff is like smoking 40 cigarettes a day and a tin would normally last about 4 weeks. However, this particular wrestler would go through 2 tins a day, when you travelled with him in his car, he would be snorting snuff all day, even when driving and of course his car was full of dirty tissues. We were going to a show down in London and I was to meet him at a pick up point, but before I went, I called into a joke shop and bought a packet of sneezing powder and a tube of super glue. We met up and set off for the show, when we arrived we found that he was on first and I was on third. He got ready and when it was time, off he goes in to the ring. Straight away I went in to his bag, got out an opened tin of snuff, I took out half of the contents and replaces it with the sneezing powder. I found an unopened tin and managed to undo the wrapping, very carefully, unscrewed the cap and covered it with super glue, screwed the cap back on again and replaced the wrapping. After his bout had finished, he came back in to the dressing room and headed straight for the shower and then gets dressed. He then opened his bag and takes out the snuff, as he is coming down the corridor, we could hear him sneezing his head off. Now you may think that snuff makes you sneeze anyway, but a hardened snuff taker never sneezes, they would just get a buzz from it. He could not understand why he was sneezing so much, his eyes and nose were running. 'I don't know what is wrong with this snuff, it must be dried out' and then he threw the tin in the bin and went into his bag and unwraps the new tin and tries to unscrew it. Obviously it wouldn't open as I had super glued the lid down, he jammed it in the door frame and hit it with his shoe but it still wouldn't budge. He was in a right state and I suppose it was like a 60 a day smoker dying for a cigarette and not being able to open the packet. In the end, he threw this tin in the bin as well. He had to wait until he got home to get another tin, but it never did put him off the stuff.
Many thanks to Johnny Saint for his contribution.
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 The Sudan in Africa was a very poor country, it always amazed me why anyone would want to put on wrestling shows over there, although the people were warm and friendly. They were very poor, so I could not see how they could afford to come to the show, but they did and in their hundreds. When we stayed in Khartoum, we stayed in the best hotel with great food and drinks and a nice swimming pool, but when we moved out into the sticks, it was a very different story. Not only was there no good hotels, but in some towns there was no hotels at all. There was one place where we were put up in which I can only describe as a doss house, the only air conditioning was a large slow moving fan in the middle of the ceiling. Our beds were placed under the fan and there was always a fight to get the best bed under it as it was very hot. As for the food, it was awful, rice, dried up chicken and fruit. If you wanted a drink of water ,a sterilising tablet was put in the glass of water before you could drink it, otherwise it was like drinking out of a swimming pool. We were starting to get fed up with this and complained that we needed proper food, so we were told that we were going to get some. Myself and Billy Finlay (uncle of Fit Finlay) were sunning ourselves outside in an old orchard, when 2 guys walked up with a goat on a piece of rope. As we sat to watch, one guy straddled the goat forcing it's head back and slits it's throat with a knife. With blood spurting everywhere, they hung it from a tree and gut it's belly open and removed it's insides. They then skinned it and chopped it up. Later that day they arrived with parcels of the cooked goat, but after we told the lads the story, no one was very hungry any more, and no one ate the goat. It did however put us off from complaining about the food again.
Dated: 28th May 2005.
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 Aslam, Ackram, Bholu, Goga and Azam , all brothers, were Asian wrestlers with fearsome reputations back in their own country, but were not well known in the UK, apart from in the Asian Community. They were tough super heavyweights who would wrestle in sand pits. They were brought over to this country by Promoter Orig Williams, and I wrestled at all of the venues where they were billed. I remember one show in Bradford, it was packed to the rafters, almost all Asians. Gonga Singh, who wrestled as The Wild Man Of Borneo was asked to wrestle Aslam, but with Aslam's reputation, he would not entertain it. He was persuaded in the end by accepting double wages and an understanding that Aslam would not hurt him in any way. Both parties agreed and the bout was billed. The hall was packed, mainly because Aslam and Gonga were of different religious sects. Both wrestlers entered the ring with all the pomp and ceremony and you could feel the excitement in the crowd. As the bell went for the first round, Aslam rushed across, grabbed Gonga's legs and turned him over into a back breaker and put the force of his 18 stone frame onto Gonga's back. Without hesitation, Gonga screams out in pain and the bout is finished, so much for Aslam looking after Gonga. It didn't matter to the crowd that the bout had only lasted a minute, the Bholu Brothers were like Gods to the Asian community. Although I have to say that Aslam took liberties with Gonga that night. If you give someone your body, you expect them to look after it. Gonga never worked on any of the Asian shows again, and I dont blame him.
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 Most wrestling fans will know the name James Mason. He has been delighting audiences up and down the country for man than a decade. A good solid wrestler who can go toe to toe with just about anyone in this business. It doesn't matter if it is a seven foot American heavyweight or a 12 stone bundle of energy like Steve Grey, Mason is a match for them all. However, when he went across to Ireland on his first tour outside of the UK as a 16 year old, he tried to go drink for drink with some of the wrestling's seasoned campaigners. Seasoned campaigners at holding up a bar that is. Unfortunately he failed miserably and had to be carried to bed, but not before one of his eyebrows had been shaved off. He was a sight when he came down for breakfast the next morning.
Many thanks for Peter Mc Nulty for the story and for James allowing us to use his name.
Dated: 23rd April 2005.
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 Giant Haystacks, Jim Breaks and myself, Johnny Saint, went on a tour of Zambia. Working out of the big cities, there were not many good hotels, so you would be put up for the night in whatever could be found. On this occasion we stayed in a complex which was more like a holiday camp chalet, but as we had no choice, we decided to make the best of it. Each one of us had our own tiny room, as we were getting settled in, Jimmy comes into my room, and asked if I could go into his to get a spider out because he was terrified of them. I went in to the room and to be fair, it was good size, but I scooped it up in a cup and threw it outside. About an hour later, I was sitting having a chat with Haystacks, when Jimmy comes in again saying there was another one and could I go and get it out. I asked why he couldn't do it himself and he said it was too big. We all went in and I asked where it was, Jimmy said it was behind the curtain and to be careful as it might bite, I told him it was a spider, not a crocodile. I pulled the curtain open and all 3 of us jumped back, it was giant spider, the size of a saucer and this one could give you a nasty nip. It started to run up the wall and all we could do was head for the door. However, Stacks and myself hit the door at the same time and got stuck in the door frame, leaving Jimmy in the room with the spider, which looked even bigger now. Jimmy was trying to get through our legs, pushing and shoving, until eventually we all collapsed on the floor. We all ran in to Haystacks room, where Jim stayed for the rest of the night.
many thanks to Johnny Saint for his contribution.
Dated: 26th March 2005.
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In 1986, we got a new Mercedes ring van that was big enough to take the full crew. This saved a lot of money on petrol expenses when on tour in Ireland or if we were going to Scotland for a week, or down south to Cornwall or to Germany. The wagon was immaculate and even had a card table and later on, beds in the back. One day while on tour in Ireland, we were on our way to a small town near Drogheda, which wasn't easy to find. We came to a crossroads with no road signs and while arguing which way to go, along came an old man wheeling a bicycle. He pointed us in the right direction and we asked how far it was. He said, 'It is about four miles, but Jaysus in a fine machine like that, you'll probably do it in two'. (story by Peter Mc Nulty).
Dated: 23rd February 2005.
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 Johnnie Palance and myself set off from Rhyl to do a show in Amloch, John was billed to go on second and I was to go on third, so there was no rush to get there. However, half way there, my car broke down, in fact the gear stick came out in my hand. We spent the next hour in the dark trying to get it back in again, but in the end we were able to jam it into four gear and set off for the show. When we arrived, the third bout had already started, so the promoter told us to get changed and that we would have to go on together. As we started to get changed, we noticed that our hands were covered in grease and oil from fixing the car, we tried to wash it off, but it was still there when we entered the ring. I was wearing one of my white suits and everytime John put his hand on me there was a big black mark on my suit, and of course, John's body was covered in black oil as well. I don't know what the audience thought, we had a job ourselves to stop laughing. At the end of the show we got back into the car, jammed it into fourth gear again and drove the whole way home without stopping once. When ever I meet up with John, we always relive that tale again, it still brings a smile to our faces, even after all these years.
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 On our tour of the Sudan, all the wrestling shows were held out of doors because of the hot weather. They were mostly held in football stadiums or outdoor sports arenas and the ring was in the middle, and seats were brought in to fill the four corners. As it was just getting dark, the third bout was already in full swing, myself and Mark Rocco had finished our bout and were sitting in the back row of the empty seats cooling down. We were leaning back on the seats with our legs up on the seats in front, nice and relaxed and enjoying the cool air. Mark shouts 'look, there is a bird under the seats a few rows down, running back and forth, it must be injured'. Due to the bad light we could not make out what sort of bird it was, as we sat there watching it, all of a sudden it turns and starts running towards us. As it getting nearer, we started to make out what it was, it was not a bird like we thought, it was one of the biggest spiders I have ever seen in my life. It had big hairy legs that lifted it four inches off the ground, and it was heading straight for us. We panicked to get out of it's way and the two of us fell backwards over the chairs, landing in a heap on the ground with chairs around us falling like a pack of cards. The noise attracted the attention of the crowd who were local anyway, and the sight of a giant spider was an every day thing in the Sudan. But I bet they thought to themselves 'Look at those two tough wrestlers being frightened of a spider'. There is another story about a giant spider, involving Johnny Saint, Haystacks and Jim Breaks, but I will let Johnny tell you the story at a later date.
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Regina in Canada was a long haul job from our base in Calgary, it was roughly about a six hour journey. After the show had finished, eight of us piled into the mini bus and headed for our first stop which was the off licence for a crate of beer and then up to KFC for a bucket of chicken, this was to keep us going for the long journey home. We set off along the long road across the prairies, it was 20 degrees below, the snow was everywhere and pitch black apart from the glow from a very large moon. As the beer started to flow, we had to make our usual toilet stop, at one of these stops, Ivan Penzecoff, who was now well tanked up with beer, saw cows on the top of the little embankment, and putting on an American accent shouts 'I'm gonna wrestle one of them God damn steers' and heads up the embankment. At that, we all jumped back into the mini bus and drove a few hundred yards down the road, leaving Penzecoff on his own. As we looked back, we could see him running down the road after us, he gets to the van and jumped in shouting at the driver to get a move on. We asked what the panic was and were the cows too big for him. 'Cows' he shouted, 'they were not cows, they were wild moose and they were ready to charge me'. We never stopped laughing for hours, it made the journey go a lot quicker. This was one fight that Penzecoff was not going to win. R.I.P Ivan.
Dated: 23rd January 2005.
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