PWP Nation’s Bruce Hart talks about the differences of weight classes in professional wrestling.
Greetings.
I had an interesting and illuminating chat on my Hart Beat Radio show this week with renowned British wrestler Exotic Adrian Street. Adrian was a major star in the UK back in the 70’s and early 80’s, doing an androgynous early day Golddust type character, but regretted that he was unable to find work in the States during his prime, because of his relatively small size (5’ 6” tall and weighing 180 lbs.).
He pointed out that there were countless other awesome wrestlers in England and Europe at that time, including names like Georgie Kidd, Les Kellett, Jimmy Breaks, Mark Rocco, Steve Grey, Steve Logan and Mal Sanders, who were similarly denied because of their size, which was a shame, because he felt that any of them were every bit as talented as similarly under-sized present day superstars, such as Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio and CM Punk.
I tend to agree with Adrian. I know that when my brothers Bret, Keith and I were breaking into the business back in the 70’s, even though we were “over” with the fans, we were still perceived to be too small to be pushed or given any kind of serious push. I can recall how most of the top heels back then, including guys like John Quinn, King Curtis, Big Bad John, Kasavubu, Big Daddy Ritter and Seiji Sekigawa were all big, hulking three hundred pounders and we were all under two hundred – as a result, most of them were reluctant to even take bumps for us, much less do a job. As such, our careers were pretty much stuck in neutral, because of our size. Because I wasn’t making much headway in North America, myself, because of the size issue, I accepted an offer to wrestle in England in 1977, if only because that was one of the few places that even used non-heavyweights. That trip would prove to be a revelation and a career changing initiative for me.
Over there, they had weight divisions, such as lightweights, welterweights, middleweights, light-heavyweights and whatnot – just like in boxing. At that time, the heavyweight division in boxing – which featured underwhelming supposed stars, such as Leon Spinks, Gerry Cooney, Joe Bugner and Larry Holmes had taken a back seat to the lighter weight divisions, such as middleweights, welterweights and lightweights, with guys like Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler and Roberto Duran becoming the main attractions.
In England, it was the same, the heavyweight champion was this sedentary, overweight old guy named Big Daddy and most of the other heavyweights, such as Giant Haystacks, Butcher Bond, Ray Steele and Kojak Kirk were uninspiring plodders. The lighter weight divisions, however, were teeming with talent, including guys like Georgie Kidd, Mark Rocco, Jimmy Breaks, Steve Grey, John Naylor, Cyanide Sid Cooper, Pete Roberts, Roy St. Clair and Satoru Sayama – any of whom would be comparable to present day WWE superstar, Daniel Bryan. Even though those guys were incredible talents, because of their size, none of them were even considered for work in the States.
It was during my trip to England that this old trainer named Ted Betley introduced me to two kids he was training, named Thomas Billington and Young David, and asked me if I could get them booked in Canada. At the time, neither of them weighed much more than a hundred fifty pounds and were skinny, zit-faced teenagers. Initially, I was kind of dubious about whether Betley was pulling my leg, but I agreed to check them out and was blown away at their raw talent, their innate grasp of wrestling psychology and the cocky, swagger they both seemed to possess.
I immediately called my dad and, almost to my own surprise, found myself telling him that I’d met these two scrawny teenagers – neither of whom weighed a hundred sixty pounds at the time, who were capable of setting our territory on fire. My dad, as you might expect, was justifiably skeptical and initially declined to book them. I persisted, however, and he finally agreed to bring them over.
The two skinny teenagers, who were re-named the Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith, would, indeed, go on to become two of the biggest stars in the history of our promotion. In time, their cutting edge style would revolutionize the style in Japan as well – with smaller, faster wrestlers, like Tiger Mask, Kawada, Kobayashi and Jushin Liger, all adopting their style and supplanting bigger, slower heavyweights, such as Sakaguchi, Baba and Inoki. After that, as you probably already know, they would go on to become one of the greatest tag teams in WWF history, as the iconic British Bulldogs.
The thing that made Dynamite and Davey Boy so great was their athleticism, agility and unmatched explosiveness, but when they went to the WWF, they figured that they needed to get bigger, in order to fit in with the prevailing mode at the time – which was guys like Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Legion of Doom and Tony Atlas. As such, they got a lot bigger (reportedly due to steroids), but were never anywhere near as good as they had been before.
It’s funny that they refer to ‘roids as “performance enhancing” substances, but they sure as hell didn’t enhance the performance of the Bulldogs. Ultimately, going down that road ended up costing them their careers, their health and, in Davey Boy’s case, his life – which was a hell of a price to pay. Hopefully some of the young, up and coming wrestlers out there, who are contemplating whether to go down that road, might take note. As well, here’s hoping that the guys pulling the strings in promotions like the WWE will also see fit to put more emphasis on wrestling and athleticism rather than mere size and appearance, because, as they say, looks can be deceiving.
On that note, I’ll call this a wrap, but will look forward to hooking up with you all again next week. In the meantime, take care.
To hear Bruce Hart’s episode with Adrian Street, you can LISTEN below: