"Good afternoon, Grapple fans..." Those immortal words from the late, great Kent Walton and which started every WoS wrestling programme at 4 o'clock on a Saturday afternoon. Halcyon days indeed. R.I.P., Kent and wrestlers too many to mention.
Mid eighties Yorkshire TV....Saturday 12:45 Knight Rider, 13:45 world of sport..Big Daddy belly bouncing a couple of mincers....all washed down with a soggy burger and coke....Nice!!!!
please do not let this extensive clarification distract you from the fact that in 1998, The Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell In A Cell, and plummeted 16 ft through an announcer’s table.
I absolutely loved watching this at home with my dad!! It brings back sooooo many good memories for me. I was taken in by all the moves and kicks! I thought it was for real...😃😂
cassiesmum Me too my Nana loved the wrestling on a Saturday afternoon, great memories. My dad hated it and used to wind her up that it was fake but she wouldn't have it.😂
Cheers for the upload! Classic nostalgic stuff! Never used to miss it back in the day. Watching this in 2024 - omg, it's so quaint! It has such an innocence to it! Very British and very polite!
Yeah British wrestling always had its own unique style which was completely different to what the WWF/E did, to what WCW did, to what New Japan did, to what Mexican lucha libre feds did, and so on. There is currently no British wrestling company that does British style wrestling, like the heydays of World of Sport in the UK. Instead, in all the British wrestling companies that currently exist, they all seem to do Ring of Honor style indie wrestling, which is distinctly not British. Probably because every good British wrestler has wrestled in ROH at some point anyway. And that's perfectly fine, it's a good and entertaining type of wrestling too just like British style wrestling is and WWE style wrestling is. But it's just a shame that the British style of wrestling has completely died out and it's extremely doubtful that it'll ever get revived, because it's so alien to what every current British wrestler knows how to do.
Nobody believed me when I told them we had a robot on TV called Metal Mickey, a TV presenting Rat called Roland, and a Bin on legs called Dusty Bin. We lived in strange times.
I miss those Saturday afternoon s . Wrestling followed by the football results and the switching over to the BBC for doctor who and the generation game simple days but truly happy days.
Soo many happy memories as a young child watching the wrestling bouts on telly with my Dad!. Even then I knew it was 'fixed', but! they were entertainers! Happy days!. Nuff said. 🙂
Went to the wrestling in early 80,Serving in the army,big daddy Vs a big Canadian.He was about 2mins in the ring.Then left the kids waiting for his autograph and did one.Adrian Street,and the big Canadian and others were superb in the bar after,nice guys👍🇬🇧🏵️
So I guess this was what Regal was talking about when he referred to as "Daddy Fodder" when talking about the guys that Max Crabtree found on the street
@@hiddensword9387 Well yeah that's fair, a guy that big isn't going to be able to go through the ropes and to the ground like that without some training. Falling out of the ring properly is way harder than it looks!
Incredible entertainment and sadly missed. Has anyone got a copy of the great Big Daddy vs The Iron Greek which was shown twice due to a strike at ITV?
You can keep your American wrestling. This is real showmanship! It's about as convincing as a primary school play. I enjoyed it back in the day though.
Nah as a modern wrestling fan this is incredibly boring and cringe worthy compared to modern British wrestling like Progress. Don’t understand why anyone would watch this over say Jimmy Havoc vs Will Ospreay no dq 2 out of 3 falls match from the last chapter show
@@PlayboiCommie Even then it was pretty cringeworthy. The other stuff that WOS had to offer like Johnny Saint, Fit Finlay, Rollerball Mark Rocco et al had some semblance of a genuine athletic competition. Daddy and Haystacks were more about the freak show. You can no more use a Big Daddy match to judge what British wrestling was about in the 80s than you can use the Fingerpoke of Doom stuff to judge what American wrestling in the late 90s was about - this was when British wrestling started to decline, once the novelty had worn off from the Daddy/Haystacks stuff and they were too old/immobile to be remotely convincing anymore, and it took away from the much stronger stuff elsewhere on the card. People like Will Ospreay and Zack Sabre Jr have huge influence from the WOS stuff, but it's the stuff like Johnny Saint. Just as late 90s WCW still had great stuff like the Guerrero/Mysterio matches, Malenko and Jericho in the mid-card and so on, but the main events included some hokey shit like Hogan/Warrior II, the super heavyweights in the UK scene were a special attraction full of 2-3 minute matches of, really, nonsense compared to the technical undercard.
That`s pretty much spot-on! My neighbour was a wrestler in Britain during the 70/80`s. He said behind closed doors, Shirley(Big Daddy) wasnt a nice guy to be around and yes, he hated kids. But as soon as it was time to perform, he could turn the Big Daddy character on. Ironicially, his arch-nemesis Giant Haystacks was the complete opposite. A really nice, approachable guy
@@criticalbill2090 I don’t believe Big Daddy wasn’t a nice guy. - He was friends with Haystacks and they used to sit down for fish n chips together in cafes after the bouts.
That was bloody pathetic even for a Big Daddy "fight". The guys who really used to train hard for their matches must have been shaking their heads forlornly.
I'm seeing a lot of comments about how Big Daddy couldn't wrestle on here. Admittedly at this point of his career he probably couldn't do a lot but at one time he was pretty good. Big Daddy was actually trained in part by the great George Hackenschmit who was the first recognised World Heavyweight Champion in professional wrestling.
MrMetalover666Thanks mate. Good to see someone knows their wrestling, which is a rarity on CZcams. The Russian Hackenschmidt, revolutionised the wrestling game. Early on in Shirley's career, he became popular as the blue-eyed "Blond Adonis Shirley Crabtree, where he learnt his ring craft. Whether people liked him or not, the Big Daddy gimmick put bums on seats and generated a lot of revenue for up and coming wrestling superstars. It's a shame people feel the need to berate the poor guy, who brought nothing but positivity and joy into people's lives. Growing up as a kid on a council estate, we didn't have fancy holidays in the Sun nor could we avoid expensive gifts. Every Saturday afternoon watching the wrestling as a kid was the highlight of my week.
@@Aerojet01 ,Shirley Crantree was a very accomplished wtestler and was British heavyweight champion long before the Guardsman/Big Daddy days.He was also a weightlifter and lifeguard.Really annoys me when people think he was all about belly butts and splashes.
I’m making a scale model of this ring and it seems to be 10 feet wide. Anyone out there that might have some details about the ring construction or where it may have ended up? To adventure!
mostly all televised wrestling is a pantomime these days same as most was back in the day..........but had to love big daddy when I was a kid and didn't know any better......GO BIG DADDY
I grew up in America on Piper, Hart, WrestleMania, Andre, Road Warriors, Flair, and Rhodes. I have to admit that in these times 2018, we need us another Big Daddy. No Way Jose and New Day are close but still how could anyone not love this guy? Not a model but a heart as big as his size!
Ok, thank you for replying. What I meant was the fact that at this point he was too old. I agree that he didn,t need to wrestle, much like Hogan rarely did suplex and abdominal stretch like early 80,s Japan. In those days, pro wrestlers came from amateur and I believe in UK catch as catch can and hooking background, so everyone could wrestle. Not like former football players and bodybuilders who just want to be on TV. I agree with your statement, he could wrestle but didn,t need to.
I’ve seen interviews where wrestlers say at this point big daddy was actually the match maker so decided who won and lost that night , hence why he was unbeatable
@@benp5528 The Cratered controlled much of wrestling the usual script had Daddy letting his tag team partner take most of the "punishment" then tag Daddy to come into the ring for about 5 minutes and do his splash, meaning lights out for his opponent.
Really, this is so different from what we had in north america in that time lol! Everything in style, the music, the mannerism, the crowd, the announcing. It's so foreign to me! But that's why it's so interesting as well!
OMG, did he just introduce Big Daddy as "friend of the children"? Haha different more innocent times. Used to love this as a little kid, now watching it I can't believe that any adults (like my mother!) used to enjoy it too.
Nice to see two elite athletes at the peak of fitness putting on an amazingly technical performance. Bravo!
This match was the sole inspiration for the Tiger Mask and Dynamite Kid matches, but could never quite match up to Big Daddy.
Marty disagree. He was fat and slow and kept at the top of the card because his brother ran the federation.
@@GroverJ83I guess all jokes go straight over your head?! 🤣
Big Daddy...And don't call him Shirley
Hey, he was over.
Saturday afternoons in a happy little country called 1970s england .
I've literally just said that to my Dad 💕
Yea I think the probs started when we forgot about GOD... Jesus Christ is the way
Michael Stay - Well said Michael. Some of us would love to go back.
sounds like a good time
Kent Walton commentating as if it wasn't all staged and Dickie Davies in the studio. Those were the days ... I remember it well.
People take the piss now, with their internet videos and their gear, but Britain genuinely used to be like this and they loved it.
Im gettin bus back to these harmless times who comin
"Good afternoon, Grapple fans..." Those immortal words from the late, great Kent Walton and which started every WoS wrestling programme at 4 o'clock on a Saturday afternoon. Halcyon days indeed. R.I.P., Kent and wrestlers too many to mention.
Here, here!
Those were the days my friends
this was the highlight of saturday afternoons ,,, loved it
Mid eighties Yorkshire TV....Saturday 12:45 Knight Rider, 13:45 world of sport..Big Daddy belly bouncing a couple of mincers....all washed down with a soggy burger and coke....Nice!!!!
My search for that elusive clip of big daddy performing a Missile dropkick continues...
I loved his Swanton bomb
He did a shooting star press against napper wainwright. Unfortunately the footage disintegrated over the course of history .
I was there in '81 when he did a 630 Splash through a burning table to finish the match. Sadly I didn't get footage of it, but trust me bro.
please do not let this extensive clarification distract you from the fact that in 1998, The Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell In A Cell, and plummeted 16 ft through an announcer’s table.
I have a similar fruitless search looking for people who have had the corona virus
I absolutely loved watching this at home with my dad!! It brings back sooooo many good memories for me. I was taken in by all the moves and kicks! I thought it was for real...😃😂
cassiesmum Me too my Nana loved the wrestling on a Saturday afternoon, great memories. My dad hated it and used to wind her up that it was fake but she wouldn't have it.😂
Incontinetia Buttocks she sounds like my Papa
what do you mean thought? .... it is real
No way that was real alright I used to go in and see it in the Kelvin hall Glasgow 😂
@@pe2333 reminds me of my granda winding me up about it accept I was 7 watching the ruthless aggression era haha
Big Daddy was blowing even before the bell went
Used to watch this in the 70's with my Great Grandmother ... Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks ... Andre the Giant ... great days! Now long gone ...
And don't forget Jackie Paulo
How did you see Andre ? He didn’t wrestle on World of Sport.
The original "Rockers" , Kendo Nagasaki, Mighty John Quinn....
Can't remember seeing Andre.
Cheers for the upload! Classic nostalgic stuff! Never used to miss it back in the day.
Watching this in 2024 - omg, it's so quaint! It has such an innocence to it! Very British and very polite!
I wish they still had a show like this on. I wasn’t around when it first aired but it’s good fun to go back and watch these matches anyway
They still do bro. It's called WWE now 😆.
Not as entertaining or skilful though.
Yeah British wrestling always had its own unique style which was completely different to what the WWF/E did, to what WCW did, to what New Japan did, to what Mexican lucha libre feds did, and so on. There is currently no British wrestling company that does British style wrestling, like the heydays of World of Sport in the UK.
Instead, in all the British wrestling companies that currently exist, they all seem to do Ring of Honor style indie wrestling, which is distinctly not British. Probably because every good British wrestler has wrestled in ROH at some point anyway. And that's perfectly fine, it's a good and entertaining type of wrestling too just like British style wrestling is and WWE style wrestling is. But it's just a shame that the British style of wrestling has completely died out and it's extremely doubtful that it'll ever get revived, because it's so alien to what every current British wrestler knows how to do.
Thank you for this footage. Nobody believed me when I used to tell them that there was a wrestler named, "Big Daddy"
Real name was Shirley crabtree
@@dnf-dead Thank you, I actually didn't know this.
Nobody believed me when I told them we had a robot on TV called Metal Mickey, a TV presenting Rat called Roland, and a Bin on legs called Dusty Bin. We lived in strange times.
@@davidmccann9811 Don't forget Danger Mouse and M.A.SK.
@@FharishAhmed
A detective mouse in a white polo neck. Almost as bizarre as Super Ted and Banana Man.
I miss those Saturday afternoon s . Wrestling followed by the football results and the switching over to the BBC for doctor who and the generation game simple days but truly happy days.
Soo many happy memories as a young child watching the wrestling bouts on telly with my Dad!. Even then I knew it was 'fixed', but! they were entertainers! Happy days!. Nuff said. 🙂
Not surprised he could not find Big Daddy with his hair covering his eyes.
Bloody brilliant,
This is amazing , scrubber had a great haircut .we shall not be moved scrubber
If cousin it and Jerry Blackwell had a love child it would be Scrubber Daly
Amazed at the small rings, brings back good memories.
Went to the wrestling in early 80,Serving in the army,big daddy Vs a big Canadian.He was about 2mins in the ring.Then left the kids waiting for his autograph and did one.Adrian Street,and the big Canadian and others were superb in the bar after,nice guys👍🇬🇧🏵️
Mighty John Quinn
There's no entertainment like this anymore - and the bout only lasted 1 minute 15 seconds. Lol.
One Christmas when I was a kid I was given a 'Big Daddy' annual. Yes, he actually had his own annual.
This was my childhood
When your entrance lasts longer than the match 🤔😬
like WWE today 😂
Used to love this at my Grans Saturday afternoon.
cliche city Arizona
I used to sleep with your gran
Rest in peace King❤️
Im baked watching this video and it’s fascinating
So I guess this was what Regal was talking about when he referred to as "Daddy Fodder" when talking about the guys that Max Crabtree found on the street
Bingo. Just find the biggest fattest dudes they could and throw them in there with just enough training to know how to get in the ring.
@@JackgarPrime judging by the bump he took out the ring i doubt he was some joe off the street.
@@hiddensword9387 Well yeah that's fair, a guy that big isn't going to be able to go through the ropes and to the ground like that without some training. Falling out of the ring properly is way harder than it looks!
"Powerhouse from the Midlands!" Lol
You can keep your mma, these men were real warriors! ; )
🤣🤣🤣 warriors? big daddy is like 60 and 500 pounds. This is pathetic. Glad I grew up in America. And didn't have to watch this as wrestling
@@joshkennedy2868 Agreed, this old fraud was a joke but there were some really good UK wrestlers. Honest there was.
That is the most British crowd I've ever seen.
Incredible entertainment and sadly missed. Has anyone got a copy of the great Big Daddy vs The Iron Greek which was shown twice due to a strike at ITV?
He's like a mini giant haystacks.
That smile on Your face!!!
I have the same.
Big daddy was my great great uncle
That's awesome,
he ate three dozen chickens daily and 2 hogs for breakfast and drank a gallon of cooking oil every hour and for dinner half a cow and two lambs
Uncle Shirley?
Scrubber Daly? i thought it was Bill Oddie with a long hairdoo
😂😂😂
Basic move set, kids loved him, power guy, rarely lost...Totally the Hulkster of Britain.
Except wasnt a fat ass that could have a match longer than 2 minutes. I hated hulk but he was nothing like hulk except for popularity
Scrubber Daly ......
Now that's a name and a half.....
You can keep your American wrestling. This is real showmanship!
It's about as convincing as a primary school play.
I enjoyed it back in the day though.
These guys look like they could have a coronary at any moment, how about they hit the gym and stay away from the fridge.
m6jdb exactly. U,s wrestling has gotten like a bad soap opera
Nah as a modern wrestling fan this is incredibly boring and cringe worthy compared to modern British wrestling like Progress.
Don’t understand why anyone would watch this over say Jimmy Havoc vs Will Ospreay no dq 2 out of 3 falls match from the last chapter show
@@PlayboiCommie Even then it was pretty cringeworthy. The other stuff that WOS had to offer like Johnny Saint, Fit Finlay, Rollerball Mark Rocco et al had some semblance of a genuine athletic competition. Daddy and Haystacks were more about the freak show. You can no more use a Big Daddy match to judge what British wrestling was about in the 80s than you can use the Fingerpoke of Doom stuff to judge what American wrestling in the late 90s was about - this was when British wrestling started to decline, once the novelty had worn off from the Daddy/Haystacks stuff and they were too old/immobile to be remotely convincing anymore, and it took away from the much stronger stuff elsewhere on the card. People like Will Ospreay and Zack Sabre Jr have huge influence from the WOS stuff, but it's the stuff like Johnny Saint. Just as late 90s WCW still had great stuff like the Guerrero/Mysterio matches, Malenko and Jericho in the mid-card and so on, but the main events included some hokey shit like Hogan/Warrior II, the super heavyweights in the UK scene were a special attraction full of 2-3 minute matches of, really, nonsense compared to the technical undercard.
You would watch this over wwe. Lmao this match was trash
6 rounds of 5 minutes each? Yeah, something told me it wouldn’t quite last that long. 😂
You could hear someone in the audience laugh when he announced the rounds
the 6 minute video length was perhaps a good barometer of that :)
But also Big Daddy reminds me of the kind of guy who would smile and pat the kids heads,but behind the scenes he couldn't stand them!😂
That's what dynamite kid said about to him. Who knows though....
That`s pretty much spot-on! My neighbour was a wrestler in Britain during the 70/80`s. He said behind closed doors, Shirley(Big Daddy) wasnt a nice guy to be around and yes, he hated kids. But as soon as it was time to perform, he could turn the Big Daddy character on. Ironicially, his arch-nemesis Giant Haystacks was the complete opposite. A really nice, approachable guy
@@criticalbill2090 I don’t believe Big Daddy wasn’t a nice guy. - He was friends with Haystacks and they used to sit down for fish n chips together in cafes after the bouts.
@@neilclark1681 Im just going on what people who have met/knew him have said
Remember when sport was about entertainment and not money and politics
this isnt a sport lol
That was bloody pathetic even for a Big Daddy "fight". The guys who really used to train hard for their matches must have been shaking their heads forlornly.
He just seems like a great guy. beloved
I'm seeing a lot of comments about how Big Daddy couldn't wrestle on here. Admittedly at this point of his career he probably couldn't do a lot but at one time he was pretty good. Big Daddy was actually trained in part by the great George Hackenschmit who was the first recognised World Heavyweight Champion in professional wrestling.
he didn't really need to, he just flattened them
MrMetalover666Thanks mate. Good to see someone knows their wrestling, which is a rarity on CZcams. The Russian Hackenschmidt, revolutionised the wrestling game. Early on in Shirley's career, he became popular as the blue-eyed "Blond Adonis Shirley Crabtree, where he learnt his ring craft. Whether people liked him or not, the Big Daddy gimmick put bums on seats and generated a lot of revenue for up and coming wrestling superstars. It's a shame people feel the need to berate the poor guy, who brought nothing but positivity and joy into people's lives. Growing up as a kid on a council estate, we didn't have fancy holidays in the Sun nor could we avoid expensive gifts. Every Saturday afternoon watching the wrestling as a kid was the highlight of my week.
@@Aerojet01 ,Shirley Crantree was a very accomplished wtestler and was British heavyweight champion long before the Guardsman/Big Daddy days.He was also a weightlifter and lifeguard.Really annoys me when people think he was all about belly butts and splashes.
If you watch his match against John Elijah, people will see he could wrestle. He just didn't need to. Like Hulk Hogan.
“Easeh! Easeh!”
fenomenale.!!!
A lot of WW2 veterans in the audience
It's 4pm it's time for wrestling from Huddersfield and you're commentator at ring side is Kent Walton
You can really see where Bret Hart, AJ Styles and the Hardy Boyz didn’t get their inspiration from
scrubber daly the poor mans giant haystacks
We shall NOT be moved!
I’m making a scale model of this ring and it seems to be 10 feet wide. Anyone out there that might have some details about the ring construction or where it may have ended up? To adventure!
A massively overweight guy in a gold top hat versus a massively overweight turnip. I'd could watch this nonsense all day long. Totally hilarious.
Easy,Easy... win for Big Daddy... Great stuff a what..
bellissimo
Big Daddy,the one only wrestler to not lose a fight and have them fixed
Nagasaki says hello…
William Regal used to call people "scrubbers" on WWF TV, now I see why haha
Well that was the fastest ten count I've ever seen.
mostly all televised wrestling is a pantomime these days same as most was back in the day..........but had to love big daddy when I was a kid and didn't know any better......GO BIG DADDY
This isn't rassling.
I grew up in America on Piper, Hart, WrestleMania, Andre, Road Warriors, Flair, and Rhodes. I have to admit that in these times 2018, we need us another Big Daddy. No Way Jose and New Day are close but still how could anyone not love this guy? Not a model but a heart as big as his size!
Another big daddy? You mean a big fat dude that cant wrestle and have 2 minute matches. No wrestling doesn't need anyone like him
Thank God for WWF
Was this a set up right?
man, that would be a weird crowd to sit in for a wrestling event.
Well there’s a health warning right there kids. Easyyyyyyyy
No steroids were harmed in the making of this video
Big daddy had his own entrance theme before they were cool
Sang with the survivors of the titanic, released as a single.
2 super fit athletes
Ok, thank you for replying. What I meant was the fact that at this point he was too old. I agree that he didn,t need to wrestle, much like Hogan rarely did suplex and abdominal stretch like early 80,s Japan. In those days, pro wrestlers came from amateur and I believe in UK catch as catch can and hooking background, so everyone could wrestle. Not like former football players and bodybuilders who just want to be on TV. I agree with your statement, he could wrestle but didn,t need to.
scrubber looks like a "thinned" down version of the wwf earthquake.RIGHT NOW IS WHERE MY TUNA AND CUCUMBER SANDWICH?
Friend of the children lol.
scrubber is a beaut!!!
Battle of the pensioners
Sport at its finest hahahahahaha
The ring has the Screensport logo on it.
How big is that ring, 12 feet?
I wrestled Scrubber in 1993 at Frieston near Boston. I lasted four minutes before he squashed, slammed and splashed me.
Why Referee count fast?????
Wrestling turned into slapstick, knockabout fun, no one ever really got hurt, and they obviously knew who was gonna win before they started.
I’ve seen interviews where wrestlers say at this point big daddy was actually the match maker so decided who won and lost that night , hence why he was unbeatable
@@benp5528 The Cratered controlled much of wrestling the usual script had Daddy letting his tag team partner take most of the "punishment" then tag Daddy to come into the ring for about 5 minutes and do his splash, meaning lights out for his opponent.
why is the announcer quiet
the hell was the ring so small
Big Daddy: Britain's Hulk Hogan.
I used to watch with my mum
Really, this is so different from what we had in north america in that time lol! Everything in style, the music, the mannerism, the crowd, the announcing. It's so foreign to me!
But that's why it's so interesting as well!
Am likewise surprised to hear a Sunday school 🎵
Im british born and bred but much prefer American wrestling.. Jesus Christ is the way
All fixed but brilliant
Great acting
Is scrubber related to Arthur
Scrubber Daly! *Crazy name, crazy guy!*
Go on, Big Daddy,!! Belly bounce that scrubber!!!
Waiting for Dusty Rhodes to pop out
Lovely gunt on Big Daddy
British Sumo
It was comedy but great tv great characters
oh dear Shirley crabbtree.
OMG, did he just introduce Big Daddy as "friend of the children"? Haha different more innocent times. Used to love this as a little kid, now watching it I can't believe that any adults (like my mother!) used to enjoy it too.
This is cute local British wrestling
Big daddy deserve WWE hall of fame.
They have to make action figures of these guys
They do big daddy and haystacks figures, look for chella toys, now called epic