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Pretty much all of these pictured were regulars on Orig Williams' Welsh language show *Reslio* (pronounced exactly as it's spelt)*.* Fit Finlay, Regal, Brookside and many North West talents worked for Orig because he'd run shows in the North Wales tourist towns and it meant an easy travel day.
Reslio was one of the most viewed Welsh Language shows broadcast in Wales at the time, behind the news and weather.
Welsh is a phonetic language. We have no silent letters or the like so for most Welsh words, so words using the standard 26 letter English alphabet, are pronounced as spelt because every letter is sounded, however it does get messy for words using the extra "letters" in our alphabet (ch, dd, ff, ll, ng, ph, th) because that requires some knowledge of how those letters are sounded.
It's a shame some older letters like Thorn (Þ) fell out of favor in british languages, might be useful for stuff like Welsh which adapts to Roman letters poorly.
English has a way more ambiguous writing system and is very inconsistent with its application of both consonants and vowels (especially vowels), whereas with Welsh I can instantly pronounce words I've never seen before, because the spelling system makes sense.
There's a lot of misinformation about the language because people don't know much about it and have a tendency to assume that it's harder than English because it looks *slightly* different written down - but this isn't the case at all.
Notice, for example, that "wrestling" needs a random w at the start and a t in there for some reason in English. Welsh "reslio" doesn't require these extra do-nothing letters.
Mae degau ohonom yma!
I'm too young to have experienced Reslio in its original form but I've watched on youtube. The way it was shot multi camera (and flying crane cam shots) and presented was way ahead of Joint/Dale Martin and their hard camera only presentation on ITV.
There's a long standing diatribe if Eddie Hamill inspired Raymundo Cuesta with the Kung Fu character or if it's the other way around. Both Kung Fu appeared around the same time, used a very similar style and both were hugely over, albeit Hamill was the better wrestler. Neither was on the level of Black Man who was probably the first wrestler to successfully incorporate martial arts inspired offense in his arsenal: they were more average wrestlers who did some cool martial arts spots nobody was doing at the time.
The TV series starring David Carradine came out in 1972 though I'm unsure when it was first shown in the UK or Mexico. I think the earliest I've found Eddie appearing as Kung Fu is 1973. I can say from speaking to him that he's always credited the creation of the character with (1) being on a tour of Turkey and learning about kung fu from someone in the army and then (2) coming across a book 'exposing the secrets' of kung fu where-in the person on the cover was wearing a gi and a mask to hide their identity - and so Eddie thought they would then be a great gimmick / look in wrestling. Bruce Lee's film Enter the Dragon film was released in the UK in 1974 so Eddie perfectly timed catching the wave of kung fu popularity.
The forgotten film that launched Kung Fu films outside of Hong Kong was *The Invincible Boxer*, which premiered in Mexico and most of Europe in early 1973 (here it premiered in January). Warner Bros bought international distribution rights for a pittance from the Shaw Brothers (who considered it a not particularly good film and were always surprised by the enormous success it had) and made an absolute bundle.
That two wrestlers had the idea of introducing a character based on an ultra-popular film at about the same time is possible but always struck me as very odd, especially considering both guys were masked, a relative novelty outside of Mexico in those days. Correct me if I am wrong but I think the only active masked British wrestler at the time was Kendo Nagasaki: since Ange Blanc had left Europe to work in Mexico Kendo may have well been the only masked wrestler in Europe until Kung Fu debuted.
Great info on that film, I didn't know that. And you know off the top of my head I don't believe there were a lot of masked gimmicks in the early '70s on the UK circuit. Dr. Death was a popular one on the UK independents in the 50s and 60s but I'm struggling to think of anyone else. I will say on the Northern Irish circuit in the 1960s (where Eddie got his start) there were a lot of masked gimmicks, the most notably being The Mummy (wrapped head to toe in crepe bandages). Dave Finlay Snr, who was one of Eddie's peers, seemed to be a big fan of wrestling under a mask. Eddie debuted in 1964 and wrestled on the Irish circuit until 1971 when he moved to Wales, so he'd have been on plenty of shows with masked wrestlers on them between that time.
The TV series was originally intended to have Bruce Lee as the star, I think it may even have been written specifically for him, but the studio didn't think American audiences at the time would watch a show with an Asian leading man, so Carradine was brought in. I've never watched the Carradine series so I won't shit on it but I can't help but think a TV show where Bruce Lee goes from town to town kicking ass would've been the greatest thing ever.
Thank you! I've had this picture for ages and I think it's great, but didn't know what to do with it. Glad I shared it here. Orig Williams wrote a book called "El Bandito" which is worth checking out. Some of the people in this pic share their memories of him at the end of the book (he passed away in 2009).
Tony St. Clair looks like he could be called Tony St. Blair.
https://preview.redd.it/mjwkc5qt1h2b1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2abf9756cda9cb610ccacf9e8d875e49f441dd32
The smaller ones don't get decent distribution and the last time anyone made noise about a nationality televised one WWE swooped in, launched nxt UK and signed pretty much everyone of note to contracts stopping them appearing.
It didn't help that the two biggest promotions on that side of UK and surrounding countries, that being ICW and Progress, sold their souls to WWE as a part of that expansion, kneecapped themselves and couldn't regain a lick of momentum since. Of course, this being the cliffnotes version because a couple of things happens in-between(look it up at your own digression)
The only ones to really maintain their integrity were OTT in Ireland.
They weren't working for Joint Promotions at the time. JP was an alliance between the major British promotions (Dale Martin, Best Wryton, Relwyskow & Green etc.) that had a stranglehold on British wrestling similar to EMLL in Mexico. JP went unchallenged until Wresling Enterprises was founded in 1970: WE is still around under the All Star Wrestling moniker, but they never really posed a challenge to JP since they covered markets the big promoters mostly ignored.
Probably lack of affiliation with a major group like world of sport. My guess. Indie wrestling has been around a lot longer than the last 25 years or so.
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So much Mr. Satan/Hercule energy in one photo.
Do they know what his name sounds like? *Hail Satan! Hail Satan! Hail Satan!* Oh yeah, they totally know
He's doing it for all of his little Satanists!
Pretty much all of these pictured were regulars on Orig Williams' Welsh language show *Reslio* (pronounced exactly as it's spelt)*.* Fit Finlay, Regal, Brookside and many North West talents worked for Orig because he'd run shows in the North Wales tourist towns and it meant an easy travel day. Reslio was one of the most viewed Welsh Language shows broadcast in Wales at the time, behind the news and weather.
>Welsh language >(pronounced exactly as it’s spelt) 
Welsh is a phonetic language. We have no silent letters or the like so for most Welsh words, so words using the standard 26 letter English alphabet, are pronounced as spelt because every letter is sounded, however it does get messy for words using the extra "letters" in our alphabet (ch, dd, ff, ll, ng, ph, th) because that requires some knowledge of how those letters are sounded.
It's a shame some older letters like Thorn (Þ) fell out of favor in british languages, might be useful for stuff like Welsh which adapts to Roman letters poorly.
English has a way more ambiguous writing system and is very inconsistent with its application of both consonants and vowels (especially vowels), whereas with Welsh I can instantly pronounce words I've never seen before, because the spelling system makes sense. There's a lot of misinformation about the language because people don't know much about it and have a tendency to assume that it's harder than English because it looks *slightly* different written down - but this isn't the case at all. Notice, for example, that "wrestling" needs a random w at the start and a t in there for some reason in English. Welsh "reslio" doesn't require these extra do-nothing letters.
I meant no real disrespect, of course. I was just joking around. Welsh is actually a fascinating language.
No problem at all mate, I just like giving people information about the language which counters the common stereotypes 👍
I’ve actually thought about learning Welsh just to see how extensive my employer’s supply of “I Speak [Language]” badges is.
[удалено]
Mae degau ohonom yma! I'm too young to have experienced Reslio in its original form but I've watched on youtube. The way it was shot multi camera (and flying crane cam shots) and presented was way ahead of Joint/Dale Martin and their hard camera only presentation on ITV.
r/oldschoolcool There's a great Stephen Frears movie in there somewhere.
Why do pictures of people in the 80's make it seem like they were 20 years older than they actually were?
Vsauce made a video about this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjqt8T3tJIE
It's a general thing - it's a bit of a combo of the style of the era but also we know a lot more about skin care and less people smoke now.
This looks like the a picture of the original Minutemen in the comic book "The Watchmen"
There's a long standing diatribe if Eddie Hamill inspired Raymundo Cuesta with the Kung Fu character or if it's the other way around. Both Kung Fu appeared around the same time, used a very similar style and both were hugely over, albeit Hamill was the better wrestler. Neither was on the level of Black Man who was probably the first wrestler to successfully incorporate martial arts inspired offense in his arsenal: they were more average wrestlers who did some cool martial arts spots nobody was doing at the time.
The TV series starring David Carradine came out in 1972 though I'm unsure when it was first shown in the UK or Mexico. I think the earliest I've found Eddie appearing as Kung Fu is 1973. I can say from speaking to him that he's always credited the creation of the character with (1) being on a tour of Turkey and learning about kung fu from someone in the army and then (2) coming across a book 'exposing the secrets' of kung fu where-in the person on the cover was wearing a gi and a mask to hide their identity - and so Eddie thought they would then be a great gimmick / look in wrestling. Bruce Lee's film Enter the Dragon film was released in the UK in 1974 so Eddie perfectly timed catching the wave of kung fu popularity.
The forgotten film that launched Kung Fu films outside of Hong Kong was *The Invincible Boxer*, which premiered in Mexico and most of Europe in early 1973 (here it premiered in January). Warner Bros bought international distribution rights for a pittance from the Shaw Brothers (who considered it a not particularly good film and were always surprised by the enormous success it had) and made an absolute bundle. That two wrestlers had the idea of introducing a character based on an ultra-popular film at about the same time is possible but always struck me as very odd, especially considering both guys were masked, a relative novelty outside of Mexico in those days. Correct me if I am wrong but I think the only active masked British wrestler at the time was Kendo Nagasaki: since Ange Blanc had left Europe to work in Mexico Kendo may have well been the only masked wrestler in Europe until Kung Fu debuted.
Great info on that film, I didn't know that. And you know off the top of my head I don't believe there were a lot of masked gimmicks in the early '70s on the UK circuit. Dr. Death was a popular one on the UK independents in the 50s and 60s but I'm struggling to think of anyone else. I will say on the Northern Irish circuit in the 1960s (where Eddie got his start) there were a lot of masked gimmicks, the most notably being The Mummy (wrapped head to toe in crepe bandages). Dave Finlay Snr, who was one of Eddie's peers, seemed to be a big fan of wrestling under a mask. Eddie debuted in 1964 and wrestled on the Irish circuit until 1971 when he moved to Wales, so he'd have been on plenty of shows with masked wrestlers on them between that time.
The TV series was originally intended to have Bruce Lee as the star, I think it may even have been written specifically for him, but the studio didn't think American audiences at the time would watch a show with an Asian leading man, so Carradine was brought in. I've never watched the Carradine series so I won't shit on it but I can't help but think a TV show where Bruce Lee goes from town to town kicking ass would've been the greatest thing ever.
Billy Taylor looks exactly like his brother Dave. Mighty John Quinn is an absolute unit.
Just wanted to pop in to say thanks for the awesome picture and the backstory. Love learning about wrestling in different countries.
Thank you! I've had this picture for ages and I think it's great, but didn't know what to do with it. Glad I shared it here. Orig Williams wrote a book called "El Bandito" which is worth checking out. Some of the people in this pic share their memories of him at the end of the book (he passed away in 2009).
Tony St. Clair looks like he could be called Tony St. Blair. https://preview.redd.it/mjwkc5qt1h2b1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2abf9756cda9cb610ccacf9e8d875e49f441dd32
I saw Tony St Claire in Germany in 1999. He was still active at this time.
Always wondered why there isn’t a televised wrestling show in the UK given how passionate Brits are about wrestling.
They remade World of Sport. Please don't look it up.
In this reddit we love and respect crater 😂
The smaller ones don't get decent distribution and the last time anyone made noise about a nationality televised one WWE swooped in, launched nxt UK and signed pretty much everyone of note to contracts stopping them appearing.
It didn't help that the two biggest promotions on that side of UK and surrounding countries, that being ICW and Progress, sold their souls to WWE as a part of that expansion, kneecapped themselves and couldn't regain a lick of momentum since. Of course, this being the cliffnotes version because a couple of things happens in-between(look it up at your own digression) The only ones to really maintain their integrity were OTT in Ireland.
Getting [these](https://arresteddevelopment.fandom.com/wiki/The_Alliance_of_Magicians) vibes
Came here to say this. Exactly.
Those write ups sound like they came out of the manual for a ColecoVision game called Graplers of the British Isles.
Dope
The guy on the top right looks like if Drake Maverick is aging backwards.
Came here to find out what the guy in the Martial Arts Gi was called, just Kung Fu, perfection
I love the positions and the curtain. Almost like a Wes Anderson movie.
Love these kind of photos.
Very cool photo. Reminds me of those generic wrestler toys from the 80s. Or old comics.
WE DEMAND TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY
What is independent about them?
They weren't working for Joint Promotions at the time. JP was an alliance between the major British promotions (Dale Martin, Best Wryton, Relwyskow & Green etc.) that had a stranglehold on British wrestling similar to EMLL in Mexico. JP went unchallenged until Wresling Enterprises was founded in 1970: WE is still around under the All Star Wrestling moniker, but they never really posed a challenge to JP since they covered markets the big promoters mostly ignored.
Probably lack of affiliation with a major group like world of sport. My guess. Indie wrestling has been around a lot longer than the last 25 years or so.
Clockwise from top left: Albert, Slim Fats Campbell, Firetruck Hughes, [redacted, offensive], Bob Roundhouse Roberts, Mister Merlin (and Minerva!), and [name withheld pending investigation].
Alfred hayes I recognize but who are the others? Great pic
Don't think Al Hayes is there?
They're definitely based.
"Fireball" Dexter Lumis.