When I was a little’un I distinctly remember spending Saturday afternoons watching the wrestling on ITV. Yes, it’s showing my age a bit but some of you may remember the likes of Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy slapping each other around in an almost panto-like way.
It was nothing at all like todays’ WWE crap and although it pioneered the “we’re not really hurting each other” wrestling style there was never any glamour or panache. You’d get events held in Walsall Working Mens Club with old ladies hitting the “nasty” wrestlers over the heads with their handbags. There’d be blokes in string vests drinking a pint of mild shouting..
“Come on yow stupid fot prat”
Ah those were the days. Although Margaret Thatcher was in power and riots were a common occurance, Dickie Davies would introduce the only TV show (apart from Bullseye) to give hope and joy to the British public. Even the Duke of Edinburgh had front row tickets at the Royal Albert Hall show. Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks were widely known and the crowd loved them. Big Daddy would play the good guy and came into the ring to a fanfare and shouts of “Easy!” from grannies and kids.
But wait – thanks to yet another Sky TV channel popping up you can relive these classic TV moments tonight on channel 442. The channel, from ESPN, is called “Dead Good Sport” – errrmm… not such a good name considering both Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks have passed away. Click here for their site. They’re featuring all these classic wrestling matches every Thursday and Friday at 11.30pm and it’s presented by Sid Waddell.
Link – deadgoodsport.co.uk