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What makes a 'Hard Man of Wrestling'??
This comes from within, it's not how big the man is, but how big his heart is. A man who will try and avoid violence but when the chips are down, he will defend his principles. The wrestling game is full of hard nuts but they were already hard men before coming in to wrestling. There are far too many to mention on this site, it would take a book to write their exploits, but here are just the tip of the iceberg.
 Les Kellett portrayed himself as the clown of the ring, but Les was far from it. He was one of the most feared men of the modern times. He was a natural hard man, with fingers like bananas and skin like leather. He was locked up in the Military prison when a young man serving in the army and the rough treatment he received from the M.P. turned him hard and bitter. I heard a true story about Les when he first started to learn how to wrestle. He went to the gym and was put into the ring with a 'submission' wrestler. He got Les into an arm lock, bending his fingers back and shouting 'Submit' at Les. Kellett was having none of it and refused, the other wrestler told him he would break his fingers if he didn't. 'Go ahead' said Les, 'break them'. He would not give in to any man and the wrestler didn't break his fingers. He was prepared to let him do it rather than submit. He was one tough guy. However, many years later, we became great friends when one of the other wrestlers wound me up about Les and I told Les I was ready to take him on. He then told me he had great respect for me as I stood up to him. We were having dinner in a restaurant months later and I spotted someone who had upset me, Les asked what had happened and without a word said, Les got up to go to the toilet and as he passed the guy's table, he pulled his chair from under him and he landed on his back side in front of everyone. Les was a great guy to have on your side and to call a friend.
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Let's call this next hard man, Mr X. He was a northerner, small in physique, but as solid as a rock. If he needed a few extra quid, he would go to the old travelling fair grounds, where he would fight the gypsies for money, either with gloves on or bare knuckles. When he was sober, he was a great guy, but when he had a few beers, he could turn really nasty and the least little thing, would set him off. He spent a lot of time in prison due to him getting in to trouble fighting. On one spell inside prison, the Doctor examined him and found out that it was the alcohol effect on his brain that made him violent. When he got out of prison, he gave up drinking and was never in any more trouble. However, he was still a dangerous man to get on the wrong side off.
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Gordon Corbett was a gentleman, very quiet and a pleasure to be with, he wrestled a lot under a mask. Gordon was a very good boxer before he came into the wrestling ranks, and he proved it one night after he had finished his bout. Wrestling under a mask and being the villain in the ring, the punters would be very hostile towards him, but Gordon just took it in his stride. However, one night as he stepped out of the ring, this big guy runs up to Gordon shouting that he was going to rip his head off. Gordon just ignored him until the guy grabbed hold of him, quick as a flash, Gordon's fist moved only about 6 inches and caught the guy right on the chin, knocking him out for the count. Gordon then walked calmly back to the dressing room. I was sitting talking to Gordon about some wrestlers who were big and strong and who would take advantage of weaker wrestlers and hurting them just for the pleasure. 'If that ever happens' says Gordon, ' make sure you are out of the ring when the bout is finished and back in to the dressing room before the other wrestler'. I asked why and he replied, 'Well, as soon as he walks through the door, hit him across the face with a chair, he wont take advantage of you again'. Nice one Gordon.
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 Mike Marino was a hard looking man with massive cauliflower ears, a handsome but rugged face, but a true gentleman. Mike and a friend were driving through London, when a big truck cuts in front of Mike's car nearly causing an accident. Mike was fuming and decided to drive after the truck to give the driver a piece of his mind. Up ahead the truck stopped at the traffic lights and Mike jumped out of his car and ran up to the truck. When he got there, he reached up to open the drivers door, but the driver had seen Mike and as the door opened, he lifted a large heavy spanner and whacked Mike right on the top of his head and drove off leaving Mike in the middle of the road holding his head, and surrounded by traffic and his mate sitting in his car laughing at him. So, it just goes to show that not all tough guys come out on top. Mike also had a fantastic sense of humour and one night when one of the St John's ambulance men was in the dressing room, Mike took a can of talcum powder out of his bag and sprinkled it on the back of the jacket of the ambulance man who was bent over tending to a fellow wrestler.
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 Woody Waldo was only a little guy weighing about 10 stone, he reminded me of Errol Brown, the lead singer of Hot Chocolate. Woody had an argument with a well known wrestler, I wont mention his name, but let's call him Jock. Woody and Jock had been working for promoter Orig Williams in Rhyl and after the show had finished, most of the lads went for a drink in a nearby hotel. As Woody was standing at the bar having a drink, Jock came up behind him, tapped him on the shoulder and as he turned round, Jock punched him right in the face, knocking him down. The rest of the lads stepped in to break up the fight. However, Orig Williams was very annoyed that Jock caught Woody off guard and decided to have a proper fight the next day. They met up at Orig's garage at the back of his house, to supervise the fight was The Mighty Chang, Johnny Palance and Orig. As the fight was about to start, Jock tried to catch Woody off guard again, but Woody was ready for him, and knocked him to the ground. As he stood over him shouting for him to get up, Jock decided he had had enough and the fight was over. Orig got the two of them together and made them shake hands and their argument was forgotten about. Sometimes, the old ways were better for sorting out the men from the boys.
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 My old pal Johnny Palance is a hard man, as well as training in submission wrestling, he was also a good boxer. His father was also a boxer and wrestler and worked in some of the roughtest clubs in Liverpool, brought John up to be able to look after himself. John had been to a pub in Rhyl, where an old boy was singing Welsh songs, which John was enjoying when this bully of a guy goes up to the old man and told him to stop singing his rubbish songs. The old man stopped singing because he felt intimidated by the bully. John went up to him and asked why he had stopped singing and he told John that the guy had threatened him if he started singing again. John told him to sing again as he was enjoying it and that he would look after him if trouble started. No sooner had the old boy started to sing when the bully went up to him and said 'Who told you that you could sing again?', the old man pointed to John, who was sat at the bar just a few feet away. John threw a right and a left punch at him, knocking him over the tables and flat out. His mates carried the bully out of the bar and there was no more trouble again that night, and John enjoyed the rest of the singing. Don't know why John enjoyed Welsh songs so much, he couldnt understand a word of the language. All I can think is that he doesn't like bullies.
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 Roy 'Bull' Davies, who is the father of Skull Murphy, also worked as a referee in his wrestling career. A wrestler arrived in this country from the USA and called himself, 'The American Dream', but he was no dream, infact he was a nightmare. He went into the ring either drunk or high on drugs, no one liked working with him because he could be dangerous and could cause serious injury due to the state he was in. Roy was the ref that night at Sheffield Town Hall when the American Dream was off his head in the ring and making Roy look a fool in front of the punters. After the bout finished and back in the dressing room, Roy had a word with the yank over his behaviour in the ring. 'Why don't you mind your own business' said the American, 'You are only the referee'. 'Only the referee?' said Roy, 'I'll show you what kind of referee I am' and with an upper cut to the yank's chin, he knocked him over some chairs where he landed in a heap in the corner of the dressing room. Sleeping like a big baby, nobody bothered to see how he was. He was just left there to come round on his own. I bet he had a sore jaw for weeks to come and a bit more respect for the referees in future.
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Dated: 23rd October 2005.
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