Did MICK McMANUS Have His Gimmick Stolen? - Wrestle Me Review

[@PatrickRain0512]

Can't get enough of you guys talking about British Wrestling History!

[@davidpoole5595]

I never knew I needed British wrestling stories until I found this channel All the videos are great but these British wrestling vids are awesome

[@longjohnbaldry7360]

As someone with a "labourers body" I can concur; thick torso, strong forearms, average to skinny legs, healthy hard gut.

[@amazinghayes1]

As a man who runs an offies and does the stock intakes, my partner either true or false-ly confirms this body type.

[@gregc7699]

I'm honestly surprised that you guys only have 27k subscribers I love your content and look forward to each upload every one is hilarious it's a good change so many of the other wrestling channels on here are to bloody serious your work is awesome and you deserve way more subscribers

[@BATM_Media]

It's probably becausebtheybget so.many DCMA take downs that youtubes got them in the naughty corner. I love their commentary on everything. There's been maybe 1 or 2 episodes that I didn't care for. Otherwise it's great stuff.

[@benthomason1926]

Same, this isn’t just one of my favorite wrestling KZbin channels; it’s one of my favorite period.

[@jondiblasi700]

28k now

[@benthomas1885]

Yeah, this and OSW are the only two I look out for.

[@jasonlloyd3335]

Well said.

[@willdobson7351]

This is so good. Three episodes just for Mick McManus. Thank you!

[@ChrisHopkinsBass]

To be fair to Kent, a lot of people still had Black and White sets back in the early 70s

[@frankthomas4253]

Mick McMichael's Birth Name Was Actually Michael Gale... He was billed under his birth name early in his career...

[@GodLovesYou828]

I gotta get that footage to you guys

[@oceancycloneblue5356]

I kind of dig the moveset, couple gut punches and a few chokes and headlocks. Just jacking people up like a back alley mugger.

[@couldabeenanything]

Regarding the well warranted 'no leg day' comment.... To paraphrase Steve Austin, quoting Rick Rude, "It's an upper body business kid!' Legs.... pfft

[@MrFox-wn5jt]

Best wrestling channel on YT bar none, you guys make me 'n the wife crack up, and she's not really into wrestling.

[@mysticx0]

idk if mcmanus had "His Gimmick Stolen" but dr spock sure had his hair cut stolen!

[@BATM_Media]

CATWEAZLE!!!

[@differentdreamer7317]

You guys make my day !! Can you do some more of the wrestling secrets. I was 10 in 1990 and I just love the stories. The one about dynamite kid made me laugh so hard !! So good. Shout out to the old man in the wrestle me team The one and only.....

[@CriticalDispatches]

Calling someone a Mick Mac sounds like an anti-Irish slur.

[@Anthony-fk7yn]

Sounds like something McDonald's would do for st Paddy's day. Yeah I'll have the Mick mac and a large coke please.

[@CriticalDispatches]

@@Anthony-fk7yn Indeed, tis a fine line between a novelty cheeseburger and xenophobic hate.

[@greva2904]

@@CriticalDispatchesMick McManus vs a xenomorph. I’d pay to see that match!

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

McMichael' was Big Daddy's tag partner against The Rockers (Pete Lapaque and Tommy Lorne, not Shawn Michaels and Marty Janetty) on Cup Final Day 1985.

[@KingOfWinter]

Did Pete really say Jerry Lawler wasn’t a great wrestler? I mean he’s not a gymnast but when it comes to wrestling there’s hardly anyone better. How many wrestlers could throw some punches, drop the strap do a slam and drop a fist off the second rope and have an Arena full of people lose their minds.

[@OliveMule]

I hope theo vonn interviews you two someday

[@Vast3.14]

Wrestle me!

[@TheJohno95]

We are in dire need of more Catweasel!

[@danielcraig4974]

Rishi Nutsak is done.

[@SherdogCreep]

Thank God we have “LAbOuR” as an alternative 🥴

[@danielcraig4974]

​@@SherdogCreepAnything is better than your beloved corrupt Tories flower.

[@SherdogCreep]

@@danielcraig4974 cool story groomer. Go milk a migrant

[@SherdogCreep]

@@danielcraig4974 What..someone who openly said that “women can have penises” 🥴😂. You clown 🤡

[@Dr.JeremyDunks]

'Ello boys!

[@arthurj.downeyjr_2013]

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@SpaceAgeMark]

I met Mick McManus with my Dad at Highbury in the mid 90s. I couldn't understand why my Dad was awe struck with this tiny old man with weird hair, but now I can see why. He was also extremely nice and spoke to my Dad and his mate like he'd known them for years.

[@SmashiusClay]

Okay, my interest was piqued so I did a little Googling and according to the bbc there were 17 and a half million tvs in 1974 and only 5.5 million of them were colour. So two thirds of the audience would have been watching the broadcast in black and white.

[@greva2904]

We didn’t get our first colour tv in our house till 1984. And even then it was a portable!

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

Colour TV was officially classified as a luxury item until 1977 in the UK. The UK's ITV and France's ORTF in the early 70s were still selling 16mm B/W films of wrestling bouts originally in colour to TV stations in the Third World which didn't have colour TV technology. One of the McMichael-Faulkner bouts I posted on here is from a B/W film print from 1972. So are most of the French bouts 1967-1974 taken from France's national archive.

[@tardiscommand1812]

You two chaps know that Big Daddy’s ashes hold a mystery eh? No one knows where his ashes were spread, supposedly near a bush but it’s super cryptic. Please investigate this cause I’m in Canada and can’t get there. The most famous British Wrestler and is now missing.

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

He was buried.

[@HorrorGirlNat]

My Granddad went to watch McManus in the early 70s and the only thing he could say about him was 'He was a bit of a fanny'.

[@LeslieMorris]

Granddad gets it.

[@TrainerCTZ]

Maximum fanny

[@markwrenn5965]

Smoked that fanny pack

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

9:45 This is because in the 50s/60s Lancashire Catch wrestling was a big legit sport especially up North and a lot of Lancashire Wrestlers and fans of the sport got into pro wrestling as a second best option when there were no Lancashire Wrestling meets going on. So the crowds in Britain (unlike America) largely knew a serious submission hold when they saw one. They didn't think it was cowardly to submit. They knew it was either a submission or a serious injury.

[@jonavr1]

I'm can say very confidently without any evidence whatsoever that McManus smoked Lambert & Butler

[@BuddsyMalone]

Nah mate ...REGAL KING SIZE

[@pendafen7405]

Can conjure the exact smell in my mind

[@themodelrailwayman5470]

Will Ospreay's Hidden Blade walked, so Mick McManus' little rabbit punch to the back could run

[@Dr.JeremyDunks]

McManus is getting hair advice from Frank Reynolds

[@thethairishsun]

Not everyone would have had a colour set at the time. Snooker commentators did the same until well into the 80s

[@BenBebbington]

For those of you watching in black and white, the Catweazle is behind the bins.

[@robfinlay8058]

Plus a lot of women would be watching wrestling on a small black and white TV in the kitchen if their husband was watching Grandstand on the main colour TV in the living room.

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

Colour TV was classed as a luxury item until 1977. Also Kent Walton used b/W monitors on his table as you can see on old 70s bouts.

[@michaellee8816]

The KZbin algorithm guiding me from watching Klondyke Kate win a match while the Eurosport commentator encouraged a hand for "the brave Scottish lass" she beat to Mick McManus being ripped off, Fake Undertaker style....god knows what's next......Robbie Brookside on Grandstand or summat

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

He wasn't ripped of - it was his real name. If you watch Eurosport New Catch, you will know McMichael from later in life when he became a referee on the Continent and used to wear a kilt despite coming from Doncaster.

[@AldershotDave]

Robbie Brookside won't have been on Grandstand!

[@shock_n_Aweful]

The reason old wrestlers could get over with less flashy stuff was because everyone still thought it was legit back then.

[@leonconnelly5303]

When people thought wrestling was a sport it could be as boring as it liked

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

@@leonconnelly5303 They didn't find it "boring", they had acquired the taste. If you're don't into boxing it's two guys dancing around a ring together and the odd dodged punch them one that lans. If you're not into football the it's 23 people running around for an hour and a half oh yes and some ball gets kicked around too and 1 to 3 times during proceedings it goes in the big net at one end and one lot of the men start making love to each other.

[@PeterDraper108]

I was Entertainments manager at the Woodville Halls Gravesend in the late 70's. They had just switched from Dale Martin to Jackie Pallo Enterprises. It wasn't good, the crowd hated it and at every event I had the handbag brigade chasing me down to switch back to Dale Martin. The council also put open air wrestling on at The Fort Gardens in Gravesend when I was a kid. Names that come to mind are Bruno Elrington, Bert Royal and Vic Faulkner, Peter Rand, Johnny Kwango and of course Pallo and McManus. I still remember one Pallo match, a little old lady was giving him a ton of verbal. Finally Pallo yelled, "Have you got a budgie? I bet it talks..."

[@Rocketboy1313]

The thing about submissions, in real life they are crippling and agonizing. The idea that wrestlers can wiggle around in pain till they figure how to slip out is the far more absurd concept. I recall the Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair match where the figure 8 leg lock is seen as a true win condition for Flair so Rhea has to avoid it desperately and rope break before it can damage her. That is the more realistic presentation of that sort of move and it is not used enough.

[@CyrusCageSCWS]

True but not every hold is an armbar. Chinlocks exist.

[@BiggieTrismegistus]

You can hold on until the fighter just lets go. Mikey Musumeci heel hooked Bayanduuren Gantumur, tearing Gantumur's MCL, LCL, meniscus and breaking his ankle. Gabtumur didn't tap and lost on points. At UFC 302 Kevin Holland got Michał Oleksiejczuk in an armbar and the ref had to step in and stop it after Oleksiejczuk's arm started bending in a very disturbing manner. The only thing you can't just tough out is a choke that's sunk in. You either tap or you're going out.

[@charlesbaker7505]

Literally been watching all your episodes to help me finish my law degree

[@jimbo_1312]

Dudes got Lego hair

[@AshRiot81]

World of Sport x Lego collab when?

[@ozzythecats]

Stop pandering to the teenagers with your Tosh Lyons references.

[@Hundeputzmunter]

Tosh Lines....good god, what a cultural reference!

[@StruggleoftheOutsider]

The Paul Weller granny helmet.. lol 😆

[@jennybates]

Mick McManus hated anyone pulling his ears because they were "cauliflowered" from his 🏉 days.

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

Most serious sport wrestlers have cauliflower ears unless they wear headgear like Rick Steiner did.

[@BaronFodrie]

Thank you for introducing me to these great British wrestlers.

[@danielgallagher3270]

Respect to McManus and all the overlooked greats of British wrestling. Thanks for shining a spotlight on these guys and giving us folk cause to reevaluate their work.

[@nebwachamp]

I dont want a clean and safe neighborhood so i dont discriminate. ......lol jk NEIGHBOURHOOD

[@SuperFunkmachine]

He was billed as 5'6 an 12st 7lb, i'm bigger then that, theirs a bigger man then that on every street corner, and that was part of his heel gimmick.

[@chriswarfield7520]

Well done, love the British episodes.

[@redheadbandanna1973]

I don't really care about wrestling but you guys are so entertaining that I watch anything you do

[@GeordieJamie84]

I wish submissions would go back to instant tap or close to it No1 wins with a Boston crap and they should 😂

[@samspurgeon4222]

I got a feeling they'd have trouble getting that moved past the censors..... although that might be Vince McMahon's new finishing move 😂

[@chrisbuek]

I estimate that I spend about 40% of my life with your theme song stuck in my head, so thanks I guess?

[@TheBigbadbeef]

McMichael looks like King (posted this just ad Pete said the same thing)

[@TrainerCTZ]

Might be too obscure. Bit of a fanny if you asked.

[@shock_n_Aweful]

even if they were broadcasting in color most of the people watching likely had a black and white TV at this point

[@powermasterjazz]

Those Brit wrestlers didn't fuck around, did they.

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

The two Mick's also had loads of other bouts together going back to 1965

[@differentdreamer7317]

I've got an ant and dec thing going on. Can someone tell me which one is which

[@greva2904]

Well, Dec is the one that looks like Dec. And Ant is the one that looks like Ant. Hope that helps!

[@Troytotheworld]

I really like the intro music what is it

[@NEILAMALONE]

Ironic seeing this when a wrestling friend of mine, who uses the nickname "The Infamous" (for about 5 years) has been copied by another guy who is calling himself the same! #cheapimitation LOL

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

4:12. To be fair, Territories-era American Wrestling at that same time was much the same minus all the clever escaping/reversing/countering moves.

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

You guys went to the1991 WCW Roar Power UK Tour so you saw Larry Zybysko. His appeal was similar to Mick McManus - the slimy mouthy "Crumb" Heel the fans all hated. 1970's American wrestling had lots of heels like that - Pat Patterson & Ray Stevens, Bulldog Brower, Johnny Valentine (and son Greg in the 80s), so it wasn't just a British thing.

[@LordJuzzie]

Did you seriously say Jerry Lawler was not a great wrestler.... ok. Its kind of hard to take anything else you say seriously then

[@Stonehopper1067HMG]

He was great at picking up high school girls at the mall

[@LordJuzzie]

@@Stonehopper1067HMG Oh Awful human being. Great wrestler though.

[@WrestleMe]

Ah, that was us just skirting over - we've talked in a lot of our audio pods about Lawler being an incredible wrestler without having what you might class as anything approaching stellar in-ring technical ability, and that not being a handicap. I knew what Pete meant (we've covered Lawler a lot over the years) so we didn't explain it, but yep, it sounded like we were saying that he wasn't a great professional wrestler, which he is thanks to the other things he brings to the performance (and those punches are the best)

[@LordJuzzie]

@@WrestleMe Ah apologies for jumping to a hasty judgement.

[@WrestleMe]

@@LordJuzzie No worries Juzzie, it was us, not you!

[@eddiecatflap3838]

Oi,,, McManus was my favorite wrestler lol