IMMORTAL HEEL: The Bizarre Final Act of a British Wrestling Legend!! - Wrestle Me Review

Hear the FULL EPISODE AND MANY MORE at / wrestleme
Marc & Pete stock up on garlic cloves, holy water, and black shoe polish as they chronicle the bizarre post-wrestling career of MICK MCMANUS!!!
Hosted by Marc Haynes & Pete Donaldson; Edited by BanyaBat
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Follow Marc Haynes at: / marchaynes
Follow Pete Donaldson at: / petedonaldson
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wrestling, wwe, wwf, wcw, vince mcmahon, wrestle me, podcast, review, commentary, tnt, lord alfred hayes, raw, monday night wars, world championship wrestling, world wrestling entertainment, world wrestling federation, 90s, undertaker, paul bearer, wrestlemania, hogan, hulk, hulk hogan, 1986, roddy piper, hulkamania, jesse ventura, shoot match, shoot, wrestling shoot, rick rude, mark starr, ravishing rick rude, wcw champion, secret, secret shoot, 90's wrestling, goldberg, streak, 1997, 1998, wcw monday nitro, spiros arion, colin joynson, bruno sammartino, world of sport, british wrestling, itv, big daddy, wwwf, loch ness, giant haystacks, shirley crabtree, wembley, british wrestling, wembley, mississippi mauler, jim harris, big jim harris, kamala, memphis wrestling, mick mcmanus, jackie pallo, mr tv, fa cup final, mal sanders

[@irljesus9396]

Ah yes, youtube knows I'm on the mick mcmanus algorithm now 😄

[@Jesusisafriendofmine]

Imagine how much better the world would be if he was trending on twitter.

[@WrestleMe]

A WONDERFUL PLACE TO BE!

[@LuminalSpoon]

Ooh Chimpanzee that MONKEY NEWS ya ffffffff...

[@tboland728]

Same bro😂😂😂😂😂

[@ifgwelf]

Mick McManus would make a great Castlevania boss.

[@Kaltagstar96]

"What is a man, a miserable pile of secrets, well, enough talk, have at you!?" (proceeds to put Simon Belmont in a Boston Crab)

[@amirpourghoureiyan1637]

need to do the Konami code to defeat him (Simon grabs his ears)

[@Rhapsodies_In_Red]

Micter Belmont

[@Kaltagstar96]

God, the idea of McManus being into antiques just had me thinking "we could've had Mick McManus as an expert on Bargain Hunt or on the Antiques Roadshow" and the idea of him there, just in his gear and evaluating antiques has me dying laughing.

[@add2914]

"I'd just like to say, for the record, my grandad did NOT eat human shit!" I haven't laughed that much since the Tony Atlas bit in the Legends house video. Wrestle Me is one of the few things that can make laugh out loud now-a-days.

[@jensjesfjeld6238]

Please keep doing more on British wrestling legends. We know so little of them here across the Pond and appreciate all your efforts to inform us. Thanks guys.

[@gashmcnash3537]

How do you like Catweezle?

[@jensjesfjeld6238]

@@gashmcnash3537 From what little I've seen of him he was unique, even for American wrestlers. I could see him having a great run in the Carolinas, like 'Handsome' Jimmy 'Boogie Woogie Man' Valiant.

[@stephenhoy7286]

Had the pleasure of wrestling Mick circa 1982, real gentleman.

[@andrewnagavelli1215]

“Absolutely wonderful. I love it when you treat yourself.” 😂😂

[@TheTVsTim]

Of all their videos, this one may be the most undeniably British.

[@s4squatch1]

When this fight started...I thought Mick McManus was wrestling Paddy Pimblett

[@Anthony-fk7yn]

McManus has Elvis Presley's sideburns and Steven Segal's hairline.

[@Blandalorian]

And a Lego man’s hair 😅

[@speedygonzales378]

In the sitcom 'time gentleman please',their is a character called uncle barry with jet black hair,evertime his hair gets wet a load of black dye comes out,the character must of been inspired by mick McManus.

[@alanthomson1227]

Or Rudy Guilluiano

[@Ceej_MM]

Mick McManus working into his 60s and dying in his 90s... it's almost like not doing steroids and working a mat-based style that doesn't require you to jump through tables every night is good for your long-term health or something.

[@ThePerks2010]

Someone needs to tell Pete's dad those ladies all appeared in a recent series of never mind the buzzcocks 😂

[@bombjack1984]

Please tell me that when Dennis got in as Mayor, the headline was 'Cockshutt In The Door'.

[@MrCaptainStuff]

Yeah Mick McManus in Legends of Wrestling 2 with Big Daddy, Kendo Nagasaki, and Giant Haystacks. However, they were only available in PAL regions. So here in North America and in Japan we did not get to do the dream match of McManus vs Sabu.

[@veximmortalis8622]

Really?? I did not know that, thanks.

[@ShredderLivesOn]

It really is an absolute shame that most of McManus' work has been lost to time. I think the reason that he got to the level that he did, was because in the early days of television he set the bar for what a heel should be, and how they should carry themselves in the ring and on camera. Dickie Davis put it best when he said that if Jackie Pallo was the original showman of British wrestling, then without doubt Mick McManus was the original hardman of the sport. Don't get me wrong. The fact that he was invovled in the booking most certainly did help. But having the look he did, and the ability to play to the audience both in the arena and at home when wrestling came to TV instantly made him connect with audiences. Especially when he would bend the rules as far as he could without being disqualified. And he looked like he could actually legitmately beat up his opponents. Something he did once when Peter Preston decided that he wouldn't sell for McManus, so McManus started to legitimately punch him and got disqualified. While McManus would not take pinfall losses on TV, that made it so much more special when a babyface would either wrestle him to a draw, or McManus would get himself disqualified in frustration. One of the best instances of this is available on KZbin, when he faced Johnny Saint (who for my money is probably the best ever babyface of British wrestling) and after McManus received his final public warning in the fourth round, Saint went into the middle of the ring and lay down while McManus' back was turned, and the referee was informing the announcer to tell the crowd about the final warning. The referee turns round and sees Saint down with McManus standing over him, and immediately assumes that McManus has punched him. Which results in a disqualification which the crowd lapped up, as Saint had outsmarted McManus. What made it even better was that McManus got on the microphone and protested his innocence. But he was so hated and had cheated so many times in his career that it was almost him receiving the perfect comeuppance. This was the kind of thing we would see Eddie Guerrero do magnificently on a weekly basis before his tragic passing. So it's really special to go back to a match from the 1970s and see a spot like that. But if McManus hadn't built the reputation that he had, then great moments like that for top or up and coming babyfaces couldn't have happened. Even better would be the non-televised shows where the wrestler he got disqualified against, or was held to a draw by, would be a guaranteed sell-out because people paid for the chance to see McManus lose. That in itself is something truly special and unique in wrestling. Not paying to go and watch a show because you love the babyface and want to see them win. But because you hated someone so much that you want to see them lose. There's few in wrestling that ever met that criteria. Which made McManus one of the best of all time.

[@benwinter5295]

Who knew that Legends of Wrestling 2 could lay claim to having the most realistic hair in a video game 😂

[@ChagrinElectric]

I like how the song rendition was in no way "Tiptoe through the Tulips"😂

[@Makeadifferencedavid]

That’s the a-side of the 45 . The b-side is When We All Go In the Ring based on “When the Saints Go Marching In”

[@ChagrinElectric]

@@Makeadifferencedavid That makes a lot more sense, I was wondering if they had intentionally swerved as a gag🤣

[@krowochron]

A million pounds for a whole building in 1976... that's a small flat today, isn't it?

[@bigenglish22]

This is the best 23 minutes of wrestling content I´ve ever watched. So many cultural touchstones, riotously funny and a pure joy to listen to. It might be niche subject, but if we had our own library of congress, this would go in. Since we don´t, I will petition the British Library on your behalf.

[@WrestleMe]

Thank you, very kind! Here's a whole playlist of all our British wrestling vids to date, just in case you've missed any! : kzbin.info/aero/PL93jVozsrkRmLJJ1rThmDp36r6A4RxyVY

[@chriswarfield7520]

Oh for the love of god you gotta start writing the McManus and Wife sitcom. Mcmanus and McWife maybe.

[@IfYouAintBalsac]

Mick McWife

[@MrLukeH]

Partners in Porcerlain

[@AllegoricalPseudonym]

McManus and McWomanus

[@WrestleMe]

@@AllegoricalPseudonym BARKING WITH LAUGHTER AT THIS

[@daroofa]

The floor markings @ 3:09 look like they're for badminton.

[@josephchaparro1037]

Courtesy of Def Jam Records 🤣😂🤣

[@kevinmccaighy8380]

I really enjoyed that "Rod Hull & Emu" gag!!!

[@henrysellers9348]

His hair ..its the funniest , Christopher Lee dracula style ....shoe polish as well 😂

[@SmashBrosOdyssey64]

When Marc and Pete start lampooning the lives of British wrestlers, that's the part that brings me the most joy, thanks lads! Edit: The next episode should be about Pete's dad holy fucking shit.

[@SheepsMcgill]

For 3 weeks now I have been getting reccomended an absurd amount of Mcmanus content, im all for it

[@Mike-m4c]

You will find that a little of McManus goes a long way ,not as bad as Breaks but a one trick pony ,Wins first fall then loses then cheats into winning third .

[@mekugi]

I couldn't stop laughing

[@Rydonattelo]

My dad reads an incredible amount of historical fiction about things like Romans, Greeks etc. All British working class men of a certain age do I think.

[@fattiger6957]

If I learned anything from movies about Rome and Greece, its that they all spoke in a English accent.

[@msmith42001]

“Keith Richards cannot be killed by conventional weapons.” Del Preston

[@gashmcnash3537]

That mayor hotdogging and grandstanding.

[@MichaelCampin]

I met both Mick McManus and Steve Logan, they were real gentlemen and we had a really good chat. RIP Mick

[@Rhapsodies_In_Red]

The Gladiators should have went on tour with The Wrestling Boot Band.

[@pendafen7405]

Absolutely buzzing for more McMantent

[@mvgsports]

You guys are hilarious...great stuff...my new favorite wrestling channel on the KZbin!!!1

[@pendafen7405]

5:05-6:36 free serotonin

[@krenwregget7667]

23:07 having Mick McManus and whoever that pink giant is pull TOTAL ELIMINATION is pure fucking gold.

[@christopherwall2121]

That was Loch Ness!

[@stephengibbons4771]

great episode lads, the banter was on fire.

[@MagicMartin666]

Have you chaps done a deep dive into Kendo Nagasaki yet? He is a fascinating character who has made something of a comeback over the past few years.

[@razorsitch9882]

They have indeed, check their video lists

[@hooksncrosses3419]

I remember the crappy British wrestling show on L!ve TV in 1999. Mick McManus was the president/commissioner of the promotion. It didn't last long. I remember Christopher Daniels appearing on the shows. Feels like a fever dream now.😂

[@LeslieMorris]

The episodes are incredible please keep them up. I've been addicted to watching Big Daddy matches. Last night I found one with a guy named Fatty Thomas - OMFG?!!

[@GodLovesYou828]

Hahahhaha guys i loved it. Where can i get in contact with you? RIP my favorite uncle!!

[@StillABigKid]

I have now just googled the models from the addicted to love video. Damn it, Mr Donaldson!

[@rodpanhard]

Not the ears, no, not the ears....

[@danjohnson8138]

This amongst the Mt Rushmore of wrestling channels. Thank you for such great content. 😇

[@fatseaturtle]

When we all, go in the Ring! We do our best to entertain you! When we all, go in the Ring!

[@eshep71]

Apparently I've been waiting for this

[@FurQ69]

I want the current WWE roster to re release that "go in the ring" song.

[@dansonthunderbolt3503]

14:58 to McManus’ left is a very young Phil Powers…

[@MrLukeH]

I just imagine anyone not from England wondering what the hell is going on with that post golf impression medley par excellence. XD

[@fattiger6957]

This is my number one learning resource for UK culture and history.

[@DavysFlicks]

Sadly, Mick was only in the Euro version of Legends Of Wrestling II. So friends in the US and Japan? No McManus for you! Nor can you have Kendo, Daddy or Haystacks.

[@WrestleMe]

What a great fact, Davy, did not know that! It's also amazing that anyone thought that McManus would help sales of a video game in the UK in the 2000s

[@waterloggedwatermark4591]

I’m in Pete paradise right now!

[@pendafen7405]

Right now we need a playalong Wrestle Me episode of LOW II

[@Dirkus17]

Well played with the Bray Hull gag, BanyaBat. Well played.

[@horgh_japan]

The McManus videos were arguably some of your best work. You missed the time he rode a bus with Haystack and drew something inappropriate on the foggy window. Well, they had that scene in that short movie World of Wrestling. So it must have happened right?

[@WrestleMe]

Thanks! But all credit to BanyaBat, his edits really do the heavy lifting here!

[@UnpluggedIndividualYT]

So mick mcmanus' hair was indeed a work?

[@samspurgeon4222]

Finally...the Count McManus I've been waiting on....cue the organ!!!

[@pendafen7405]

13:13 my internet guncles taught me long ago about the Prep H facelift trick

[@onewinged_joker]

I know its kinda outta the usual British timeline for you guys but would love to see some FWA covered!

[@markgriffin9230]

Oh me too, I loved the FWA back in the day :')

[@thehighlander8407]

Mick McManus now my favourite ever classic British Wrestler 🎉

[@BaronFodrie]

His hair does look like the horrible Dracula wig I had for Halloween as a kid. Thank you guys, Maybe some Mad Monk In the future?

[@BaronFodrie]

I like battles

[@ifgwelf]

Dennis.... WHAT SHOT?

[@Anthony-fk7yn]

What a surname lol

[@samspurgeon4222]

No Way.....that's just.... I...... I can't...... it's too easy.....😂

[@waynedoyle5584]

you guys are FANTASTIC. and soooo funny.... i love every show .....i salute you in every way ....kissing 2 fingers with every vid ....you are beautiful .....PLEASE MORE , NEED MORE !!!

[@CaptainCalculus]

That escalated quickly, I mean that really got out of hand fast!

[@BuJammy]

I'm something of an authority on porcelain. I have irritable bowel syndrome.

[@redkev81]

F***k me The old vamp is in there bumping around likenprime rey mysterio when he is bye on 60 years old!!! What a guy

[@chriswarfield7520]

Yeah!!! Been waiting for this!

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

The turning point in Sanders career was in about 1986 when he turned heel and became The Mouth Of The South (as in South London or Southern England, not as in the American South like Jimmy Hart) and in one match attacks Kent Walton and roughs him up.

[@Toracube]

MacMaus vs Sabu!!!! Lol

[@JosephJamesScott]

Before he worked as a porcelain McManus enjoyed a brief career in sports entertainment.

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

2:00 Most of Sanders/Grey/Maxine's matches from this period were for Old School promotions like All Star, Premier, Rumble (before its long shutdown) and the late lamented TWA. Sanders and James Mason were having a BIG British Middleweight title feud in 2002 for TWA when they fell out with All Star, it was one of the factors that encouraged All Star to invest in a new young generation of wrestlers like Dean Allmark, Robbie Dynamite and Mikey Whiplash. Of course if the only UK wrestling you follow is the likes of FWA, you will get the impression that most of Sanders etc's matches were Legends bouts.

[@chriswarfield7520]

Turnbuckles look wild....never seen any like those.

[@ken.f.c.1977]

Their boxing turnbuckles

[@pendafen7405]

This is how I learn that The S*n once had a dedicated wrestling column. And that The Rolling Stones were middle-class.

[@celtic69]

jagger was a huge thatcherite

[@GeordieJamie84]

It's that time again love these vids 😊

[@LuminalSpoon]

I wish you were able to do a review of Jimmy Tarbuck's Full Swing, it is appallingly bad. 😂

[@aaronkirk5904]

What an interesting character! :)

[@dixienormus6941]

I know where I know his fucking name from now It was the celebrity pro am golf It was driving me crazy

[@chairmanofthebored7391]

Amazing the WWE haven't marketed Preparation Triple H...

[@joesalyers]

1:37 Superstar Mal Sanders the Tim Storm of the UK. Now thats a lumpy legends match no one needs to see LOL!!!

[@chriswarfield7520]

Id like an episode about Mcmanus' arch rival in the previous episode.

[@WrestleMe]

Pallo is on the list, never fear!

[@wellesradio]

Rod Hull and Emu 😂

[@rwsmith38]

Saw Mal Saunders vs ‘Clever’ Carl Jason ‘The Southport Psyco’ at Victoria Hall, Hanley , think it was 1987

[@TheDrFunkenstein]

Mick McManus wrestled so Dracula Flow could run

[@derekshropshire2513]

Please cover in detail Mick McManus vs Cat Weasel.

[@chriswright4679]

©️ Def Jam Records 12:09

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

3:00 Yes they had some very good rings which looked good on camera during this time.

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

Better, dare I say, than the rings in most US territories back then. Memphis rings were especially grotty.

[@NegotiableHemingway]

Mick “The Count” McManus

[@thethairishsun]

Looks like the floor of a gym, badminton or volleyball lines.

[@s4squatch1]

At 13 mins 30 sec the referee's hair makes Mick's hair look blonde.

[@ggenie7489]

I still have my mums teasmade, thanks for reminding me, must try it before I throw it to see if it still works.

[@TheGraveyShow]

Heelio , wrestlerz paradise

[@thethairishsun]

For the past month of so ive been subbed to a channel called Scotties Retro Channel and its uploading loads of old British Wrestling. Worth checking out 👍

[@jonavr1]

Wrong Corbett!

[@pistolpetehurley]

(C) def jam records !!!

[@gianniyuma8852]

WHERE ARE THE MODELS NOW?

[@Stonehopper1067HMG]

12:14 copyright strike from UMG

[@davidlevy706]

3:42: *Denis (not Dennis) *Elmbridge (not Elmsbridge)

[@johnnydropkicks]

10:19 What the hell is this?

[@MrLukeH]

Tommy Cooper lad, don't tell me you've never 'eard of ol' Tommy!

[@johnnydropkicks]

@@MrLukeH I’ve ain’t ever ‘eard of ‘im. 🙂 But my question was more like "what the hell are they doing" as opposed to "who’s that smiling dude holding Mick McManus’ legs while he’s upside-down in a starfish looking position?"

[@christopherwall2121]

​@@johnnydropkicks I think it's the Muscle Docking

[@vdd]

Mal Sanders always struck me as a solid competitor but not a top guy