Obituary: Mick McManus, wrestler and entertainer

Born: 11 January, 1920, in London. Died: 22 May, 2013, in Twickenham, aged 93

Known as “the man You love to hate” and “The Dulwich Destroyer”, Mick McManus was one of those sporting characters whose fame as a “villain” meant that he became a much loved celebrity.

Instantly recognisable, McManus soared to fame as the “baddie” with the black dyed hair wearing black trunks in countless televised wrestling matches in the 1960s and 70s when the sport was at its height.

That he won all but three of those televised matches – and he disputed the result of one of those losses for the rest of his life – proved that McManus took his wrestling seriously. Indeed, in an era when the star wrestlers often ignored championships and titles, McManus acquired legitimate belts such as the British Welterweight Championship which he held twice.

Though he was not in the class of Dundee’s world lightweight wrestling champion, the late George Kidd, McManus also won the European middleweight title on four separate occasions, as well as the British middleweight title.

Born William George Matthews of Anglo-Irish ancestry, McManus was a teenage apprentice printer when he took up wrestling at the John Ruskin Club at Southwark. At 5ft 6ins (1.77m) he was never going to be a heavyweight, but his hobby helped him become a physical training instructor in the RAF during the war. He started wrestling professionally after the war and as a champion, he was one of the first to be signed up when ITV started broadcasting the sport in the late 1950s.

Like the World Wrestling Federation circus of today, British wrestling’s popularity was driven by television, and Saturday afternoons at 4pm were sacrosanct in many homes as wrestling was guaranteed to be shown on ITV’s World of Sport just before the football results.

Commentator Kent Walton’s voice was one of the most familiar on television and his enthusiasm for a pursuit which, to say the least, was more theatre than genuine competitive sport, helped make national stars of men like McManus, who early in his career decided that being the nasty hard man – known in wrestling as the “heel” – suited him best.

His almost pantomime villainy, bending the rules as he wished and risking disqualification, made McManus’s name. It also helped that he was a hugely important man behind the scenes as the matchmaker with the Dale Martin agency who promoted most televised wrestling.

Were fights “fixed”? Of course they were, but the genuine skill of the professional wrestlers was in how they performed and avoided injury. The results were rarely in doubt, but the manner in which a bout ended often was – Yorkshire’s Les Kellett, for  example, was always on the brink of defeat until he recovered to win.

McManus’ catch phrase, “not the ears, not the ears” sprang from his genuine concern about his cauliflower ears being further damaged, and heaven help any wrestler who tweaked them – it would be cue for the infamous McManus forearm smash and the killer Boston Crab with which he won many a contest.

At its peak in the 1960s, ITV wrestling regularly drew audiences of seven million or more. The Royal Family were fans, the Duke of Edinburgh attending one bill at the Royal Albert Hall. Princess Anne once told McManus: “I didn’t recognise you with your clothes on.”

McManus famously enjoyed a long feud with Jackie Pallo, whose real name was Gutteridge and who was known as “Mr TV” as he was a colourful character who had been a ringside pundit as well as a competitor.

The feud did their careers a power of good – millions tuned in to watch their encounters staged on FA Cup Final day, and continued for years in tag team wrestling, McManus teaming up with Steve “Iron Man” Logan while Pallo’s partner was his son, Jackie Pallo Jnr.

In the 1970s, having passed his 50th birthday, McManus’s fame still transcended that of his contemporaries and successors such as Kendo Nagasaki (Peter Thornley), Catweazle (Gary Cooper), Big Daddy (Shirley Crabtree), Giant Haystacks (Martin Ruane), and the Mighty John Quinn.

McManus made the transition from famous grappler to genuine celebrity, appearing on television chat shows and programmes like It’s a Knockout and Ready, Steady, Go! He also received television’s ultimate accolade at the time by guesting on the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show.

He had a roster of famous friends and acquaintances ranging from the Rolling Stones and Tommy Cooper to prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major – McManus raised funds for the Conservatives from time to time, and was a tireless worker for charities.

Though he had been out of the public eye for decades, his name was still hugely recognised by the public – when footballer Stephen McManus emerged as a player for Celtic in 2003, the fans immediately nicknamed him Mick.

Having worked in sports promotion and the licensed trade after he retired from the ring in 1982, latterly McManus lived in Camberwell not far from where he was born.

McManus’s wife Barbara, to whom he was devoted, pre-deceased him in January of this year, after which he moved into Brinsworth House, the retirement home for entertainment artistes – most fitting, as McManus was an entertainer of the first rank. He is survived by his son Tony.

MARTIN HANNAN