"In Pakistan he was stoned by the crowd at a packed Lahore Cticket Stadium and had to flee for his life. In Turkey the crowd burnt down the stadium where he'd been performing. Wherever Orig Williams, or El Bandito (as he was known in the ring) took his wrestling shows abroad there were always complications and tribulations"
This is a book I picked up on a whim and I'm glad I did. Orig Williams was definitely one of wrestling's characters. Born in a small, fiercely Welsh town full of hardcases, Williams was conscripted into the RAF, spent a lively career as a pro footballer, culminating in becoming chieftain of a football team that terrorised Welsh football , then moved into Pro Wrestling as a performer and promoter. All the while being an ardent champion of Wales and Welsh culture.
So there's plenty of interest here: Orig Williams comes across as a smart man with no time for fools, especially fools in suits, as well as a man who made a career in wrestling the hard way.: wrestling and promoting where
other men feared to tread. If that meant touring Ireland at the height of The Troubles, recruiting lady wrestlers and wrestling in a ring overrun with giant insects, so be it.
My one criticism is that this is quite a slim book and there must have been hundreds of stories left out.
If you fancy a look at the old days of British Wrestling - the days of tent shows, village halls and old-school hard-nuts - you might want to give this a go.
If you fancy a look at the old days of British Wrestling - the days of tent shows, village halls and old-school hard-nuts - you might want to give this a go.
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