British Wrestling’s Glory Days: Surprising Foreign Stars in British Rings

Griffin Kaye

British wrestling, perhaps unsurprisingly, is something that is inherently British. After all, Big Daddy was brimming with Halifax charm, Mick McManus had the oeuvre of a southern spiv, and Mark Rocco was an uncompromising machine of Mancunian fury. 

That said, during British wrestling’s heyday, it was not afraid to also introduce its fans to foreign faces from across the globe. Here are some of the most surprising of those names…

Jushin Liger

British wrestling was no stranger to Japanese performers, with performers such as Sammy Lee (Satoru Sayama, the future Tiger Mask) and kayfabe brother Kwik-Kik Lee (Akira Maeda) becoming regular faces in squared-circles across the country. 

One surprising pre-fame British performer was Fuji Yamada, the future Jushin “Thunder” Liger. 

While in America, promotors played off post-Pearl Harbour prejudices, British bookers were far more progressives, with fans encouraged to cheer for its honourable, earnest Japanese competitors. 

The fresh-faced “Flying” Fuji Yamada is best remembered for his feud with Mark “Rollerball” Rocco. Across 1986 and 1987, Yamada twice picked up the World Heavy Middleweight belt, trading it back and forth with Rocco. The final title loss, filmed at the Lewisham Theatre in Catford, was aired on World of Sport in June 1987. 

One tag bout saw Yamada team with “Ironfist” Clive Myers against Rocco and Kendo Nagasaki in a star-studded bout featuring arguably the promotion’s four biggest stars. 

In January 1987, Yamada competed in the opening bout of the first televised All Star Wrestling card, emerging victorious over John Wilkie. 

He would return to Britain on a few excursions, including some televised matches for Welsh chanel S4C’s Reslo, a promotion run by outlaw independent Orig Williams. Here, he once again battled “Rollerball” Rocco. 

In 2013, he would return to Britain for the first time in 26 years, returning to All Star for one match the following year. In the years since, he has competed against some of the nation’s finest performers including Zack Sabre Jr and Marty Scurll. 

Kamala

Before cultivating his “Ugandan Giant” persona, Jim Harris was known to British fans as “The Mississippi Mauler”.  

In his most high-profile encounter, “Big Jim” Harris wrestled Wayne Bridges in the finals of a tournament to crown the World Heavyweight championship held at Wembley Arena. Bridges scored the first pinfall in short order after a crossbody, Harris would equalise with a backbreaker before Bridges emerged triumphant after a successful schoolboy roll-up on his far bigger opponent. It was the second most marquee match of the night after a long-anticipated Big Daddy versus Giant Haystacks clash.  

That same year, he was scheduled to face top star Mike Marino at Leas Cliff Hall in Folkestone. However, the ill Marino was rushed to hospital for a swollen tongue. After having discharged himself, he suffered a convulsive attack as they drove down the M20, killing the long-time headliner.  

In 1982, during a match with the aforementioned Kwik-Kick Lee, Harris broke his ankle. 

Perhaps his most notable contribution however was experimenting with a character not dissimilar to that of the African headhunter. Once a trash-talking heavy, it was in Britain that he shaved his head and – more importantly – started decorating himself with face paint. 

Wrestling Heritage noted: “A significant and powerful presence on the British scene developing some of the characteristics that were to take him on to greater fame when he returned to the United States as Kamala, the Ugandan cannibal.” While that may sound like hyperbole, as Harris noted: “A lot of people don’t know I was painting my face and stuff like that before I came back to the United States…It was painted just a little different from the way the Kamala image is.” 

A final interesting piece of trivia is that Kamala and Bret Hart – two of the most colourful characters of the Golden Era WWF – met for the first time in Croydon when working for Max Crabtree. Talking of which… 

Owen Hart

Britain had a long-working relationship with the Canadian wrestling scene, namely Stu Hart’s Stampede promotion. For example, The British Bulldogs, Billy Robinson, and Kendo Nagasaki all were world champions in the Great White North company, while Canadian wrestlers cropped up on British TV, whether permanent fixtures like “The Mighty” John Quinn or sent out for brief excursions. 

One such visitor were the Hart Brothers, who worked in Britain prior to their national breakthrough, with the most surprising being the teenage Owen. 

Owen, alongside older brother Ross, first stepped inside a British ring in 1983 in Macclesfield.  

The next year, Owen had his first televised bouts, performing both as a singles and tag competitor. 

In 1987, Hart made a grand return, by which point British fans could have seen brother Bret wrestling on WWF TV.  Owen fought Marty Jones for the World Mid-Heavyweight championship in what Fighting Spirit Magazine ranked as one of the top 50 greatest matches to ever take place in old Blighty. Occuring in Bradford, Hart won the first fall with a spectacular hurricanrana in the fifth round, while Jones equalised in the eighth after performing a victory roll jackknife. In the tenth round, Jones clinched victory, catching Owen by surprise with an inside cradle. That year, Hart won the Pro Wrestling Illustrated “Rookie of the Year” Award.  

Four years later, in his final match before departing for the WWF, the future “Rocket” competed for All Star Wrestling on a charity card in Bath. He lost to Danny Boy Collins in a match for the vacated World Middleweight Title match. 

Spiros Arion

Though not as famous as Stan Hansen or Larry Zbyszko, Spiros Arion was one of WWWF champion Bruno Sammartino’s greatest in-ring rivals during the Italian’s illustrious reign.   

Once the WWWF United States tag champions, “The Golden Greek” would turn heel, aligning with “Classy” Freddie Blassie chastising Sammartino for desiring the world title over their tag team belts. 

Their feud would include three sell-out bouts at the iconic Madison Square Garden. Their March Texas Deathmatch was awarded the PWI Match of the Year.  

Even after the feud, Arion continued to be a top challenger to subsequent world champion Bob Backlund. He would remain near the top of the card, battling headliners such as Dusty Rhodes, Chief Jay Strongbow, and Andre The Giant.  

Though he had briefed competed in Britain (under the name Arion Manousakis) in the mid-60s, he returned in the late 1970s. In the intervening period, he had regularly performed in front of thousands – if not, tens of thousands – of fans but his leap to Britain now meant performing to dozens of the middle-aged middle-class up and down the country.  

Obtaining Arion was quite a coup for British fans, with the wrestling press hyping him as the sport’s answer to Muhammad Ali. He entered the nation billing himself as the Mountevans Rules champion, the first foreign world champion to transition to in-ring action in the UK since Lou Thesz in the 1950s.  

“The Iron Greek” came in as an overly arrogant, savvy, and ruthless foreign heel, devoted to proving his superiority over all British countrymen. 

In one memorable encounter, he caused a near-riot when he kept continuously using illegal kicks and punches in a match with Colin Joynson. Arios was kept strong; even when facing stars such as Giant Haystacks and “Bomber” Pat Roach, he only lost by count out. 

In front of a sold-out Royal Albert Hall crowd, Arion dropped his title belt to Wayne Bridges. 

One account by the often-outspoken Adrian Street states that Arion was supposed to lose to Big Daddy but was so appalled by Shirley Crabtree’s wrestling ability that he refused. He then reportedly went against the script and let Bridges unexpectedly beat him before leaving the country, though this narrative contradicts with that of Tony Earnshaw in his book We Shall Not Be Moved. There are rumours he held up promotor Crabtree for more money before departing.  

Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie

Though never a standalone star, Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie’s career is a fascinating story. 

Born in Baghdad, Al-Kaissie was a childhood friend of Saddam Hussein. In his early day, he Arabian star reportedly performed up to crowds of 100,000; one match saw him defeat Andre The Giants after Hussein threatened to shoot the 7-foot Frenchman if he refused. 

This was a few years after his first televised match in Britain, which was aired on Boxing Day 1969 in which he clashed with Jim Hussey, father of future star “Rollerball” Rocco. At the time, he wrestled under the guise of native American Billy White Wolf, a gimmick that would give him stateside success when teaming with Chief Jay Strongbow, winning the WWWF World Tag Team straps. 

 A January 1970 edition of The Wrestler noted: “Since the departure of Billy Two Rivers, visits to Britain by Red Indian wrestlers have been rare indeed. Possibly, Oklahoma’s Billy White Wolf, a fine heavyweight, was memorable for several wins in this country, but his run was quickly halted by Mike Marino, who defeated the Red Indian decisively at the Royal Albert Hall.” 

In 1979, he would make a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it return to the country. In his only recorded bout, he faced Jamaican star Lenny Hurst in Catford, though the ITV wrestling archive notes it was not broadcast. After knocking his opponent unconscious with his highly controversial and much-hyped sleeper hold, the timekeeper announced an open verdict, declaring the referee was “leaving the decision open until such times as the authorities decide whether or not [the sleeper] is a legal hold.” He also had bouts, though untelevised, against opponents like Mal Sanders and Dynamite Kid. 

We Shall Overcome notes how The Sheik, as he was often billed, was unreliable and left many of his appearances unfulfilled.  

Nonetheless, he went on the up and up, having a high-profile role in the AWA in the US, before jumping to the WWF as General Adnan, a manager of WWF champion Sgt Slaughter. In this capacity, he was part of one of WrestleMania VII’s major storylines and would main event SummerSlam at Madison Square Garden.