I met Big Daddy in Croydon in the early 90's. I took a man I was looking after with learning disabilities. I took the chap to ringside. After signing the photo for my gent I leant over the wheelchair and shook his hand and thanked him as it meant a lot to the bloke I was looking after. Big daddy just looked up and he said no, Thank you for what you are doing. I thought it was very humble of him.
People say things about Big Daddy not liking children, but my experience was totally different when I was a child. My grandmother and I were waiting for a lift after we had attended a wrestling show. Big Daddy came past as a passenger in the car. He got the driver to stop, and he got out of the car and came over to talk to us. My grandmother was in total awe. Big Daddy gently ruffled my hair, said some nice words, told me that at the end of the season he was going to be fighting Giant Haystacks there. He asked me for advice on how to beat him! I said he should do his Big Daddy Splash. He ruffled my hair again and said "Thanks, lad. That's good advice. Come along and watch me do it!". I think Shirley Crabtree and Martin Ruane were both really decent people.
Big Daddy was an absolute phenomenon that if you didn’t live through it is really hard to grasp now how big he was. Everybody knew the name and it was a constant of school playgrounds to hear chants of “Easy, easy”. Trying to understand why is interesting as he was an enigma - appalling wrestler, looked bizarre, didn’t really do much but he just had an aura, you just knew he was the good guy, the hero, he did seem kind and nice and he absolutely set himself as standing up for the kids against the big bad bullies. Granny’s loved him, kids I think felt a bit safer and happier knowing big daddy was in the world. An amazing cultural phenomenon that there are no parallels for now.
As an American I've always found the Big Daddy phenomenon a little bit mystifying. We had Hulk Hogan in the 80s but at least he looked physically impressive. Your comment has helped me understand a bit better why Big Daddy was so loved.
I remember seeing Crabtree wrestle in Glasgow in the early 1960's, he was billed as "The Blond Adonis" in those days. During his break from wrestling, he wasn't signing on, he became a nightclub owner in Halifax and Bradford, The three Crabtree brothers owned and ran the Marlborough dancehall in Halifax, when they sold the Marlborough it became the Halifax Y.M.C.A.
Liver and Onions makes me laugh as much now as it did on first hearing. Showed it to my dad who was 17 in 1981 and he just shook his head in painful nostalgia
That 1981 medley was a succinct and hilarious trip down memory lane. Please do more coverage of this unique period of UK wrestling there is so much curious British culture to explore.
My Dad was a Uk wrestler. He trained with Mick McManus. My dad was the bad guy. His name was Art Michael. These were great days. Down to the castle hall to watch them. Fantastic.
You forgot to mention that Big Daddy was also in the Cold stream Guards, and at one stage wrestled as "the Battling Guardsman." And that he started his second stretch in wrestling as a heel. In fact, he was in a tag-team with Giant Haystacks in 1975!
Marc Haynes "Liver and onions!" is the "We didn't start the fire" of early 80's Britain and the only performance art piece I'd willfully sit through in its entirety.
Amazing they managed a cultural history of 1981 with NO MENTION WHATSOEVER of Adam and the Ants - even when they borrow a caption slide from a documentary that Adam Ant hosted!
'81 was getting to the end of what I call the 'British stodge' period - where all the food was fried slop and slowly concretizing-on-the-plate processed foodstuffs. 🤢 Liver & Onions (and 'tater hash) would have to be an era-appropriate signature dish. (With cigarettes for dessert) even *this* is a great step up from the 70s......shudder) @__@
@@zetetick395 like I said, you can still buy a tin of Liver and Onions or Stewing Steak or Pork And Beans from your local corner shop in the North or the Midlands or Wales.
Johnny Liver and Ricky Onions in a flat share sitcom, one is an uptight office worker and the other is an unemployed tearaway that is always pulling the other into his schemes.
Oh, come on! Hogan may be unable to work in the ring, but at least he can cut a promo. Big Daddy could do neither. The bookers decided who was over and who wasn't. Give a guy a flag and a colourful costume, and put his matches at the end, and the audience - who were drunk as all Hell - are just like: "Well...this must be the main guy". They could have plucked a homeless guy off the street and made him just as popular.
I remember seeing Bomber Pat Roach in the 90s and he entered to the opening theme of Auf Wiedersehen Pet ( "Breakin' Away" )and when he won, the end theme of Auf Wiedersehen Pet played ( “That’s Livin’ Alright” ) Marvellous
Lol yeah, like the worlds most Northern analogy for a classical atomic physics tutorial (maybe the orbiting electrons could be meat pies?) - You can see even the ropes are like rubber bands to 'em, you can see them get a bit tentative when bouncing off 'em! A-mazing. '@_@'
Im 39 but when I was at school i had a job working on the market setting up the stall in the morning before school and taking it down after. On a Saturday I would set up and take down but also work all day on the stall selling rolls of material etc. It was there that I met giant haystacks sister (or maybe cousin) and she would tell me stories about him, the market was in wythenshawe Manchester and now I live in salford and haystacks's gravesite is not far away from me in agecroft cemetery.
That interview with Giant Haystacks at 8:38 is from the Late Late Show in Ireland. Before he comes out you see the host Gay Byrne sitting on the custom chair for Giant Haystacks. It makes him look like a toddler sitting on a regular chair. Also, fun fact about Giant Haystacks was that he was Paul McCartney's favourite wrestler. Another fun fact: in the PAL editions of the game Legends Of Wrestling 2, Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy were featured on the roster.
I grew up watching wrestling with my Grandfather. He loved Big Daddy. He hated it when British wrestling went off air and we started getting the American shows over here instead.
Big daddy worked as a life guard when he was younger and thinner He saved a unconscious 16 year old from dying when she went unconscious Shirley dived in swam out and saved her life,
Thanks for bringing back many happy memories. After watching the wrestling, we would clear the living room where my brothers and me would 'practice' our wrestling moves on dad. Those Saturdays during the late 70s early 80s were magical, and BD and GH were a big part of that.
I grew up watching wrestling on TV with my granny who was in her 80's at the time.! She refused to buy one of them new fangled "colour" TVs (in the 80's) & we'd watch it on her BRAND NEW black & white set that cost her nearly as much as a colour one.! 😂 😂 😂 She absolutely loved the wrestling, to most people she was a humourless, set in her ways, stubborn, old fashioned prim & proper victorion type who was involved in her church playing piano & doing other God type stuff & most people didn't think she'd ever smiled.... But to me she was fun, adventurous, kind, humorous & my wrestling watching tag team partner.! I used to spend most weekends at her house & I cherish the memories.!! Thank you for making me think of them.!!! 👍 👍 👍 Subbed & liked & best wishes from Scotland 🏴 🙏 ♥
I grew up watching Big Daddy with my Grandad. I was to young to realise it was pretend and nobody was actually being hurt. Much love to Big D and Haystacks....wherever you are...R.I.P.
I read a book that describes a meeting of many of the old uk wrestlers and after the group photo,all the wrestlers kneeling down had to be helped up...
@@moonnightbricks3948 Big Daddy was 50 years old in this vid so I am not surprised to hear that. US wrestling has come a long since the ol Big D belly flop eh...😉
@@dazuk1969I watched from the early ‘80s and watching these now realise just how old most of those wrestlers were at that point - all the big names were in their 50s, 60s or older. No wonder some like big daddy couldn’t do much
Saw Daddy fight (?) Haystacks at the Wihrina, Peterborough. Supposed to dislike each other, but were drinking together in the City Arms after the match.
This was a time when every week my mum would buy me and my sister comics. Mine were Buster and Eagle. Big Daddy I think appeared in pretty much every current comic of the day, eventually. Good times.
Never knew Big Daddy had his own strip in Buster, we got Whizzer or Beano (+ very occasionally the Dandy) - Nice to know they did (eventually) go back to the original look Dennis and Gnasher, that's like redesigning Homer Simpson, what were they even _thinking??_
The Mighty John Quinn match segments you showed here, John Quinn almost died as Daddy botched the move that secured the win for him in 2 minutes 55 seconds.
I went to school with his other nephew (Eorl's younger brother) and let me tell you that whole family are built like brick shit houses and all really bloody lovely people to be around!
@@paulpetroleum He was here in 1969. He had one TV match on World of Sport. Daddy was semi-retired at that point and didn't join up with Joint until 1972 by which time "Jean Ferre" as Andre was called was off in Montreal Canada. If he'd done a homecoming tour at that point they *might* have done Jean Ferre vs Battling Guardsman Crabtree.
@@paulpetroleum this is the wrestling territory we all grew up with. It's in better shape too in 2023 than any old school American wrestling culture (except Capitol/WWWF/New York, obv, which lives on as WWE.)
I LOVED *both* Big Daddy & Giant Haystacks when I was a kid. - ALL the superheavyweights did it for me. - King Kong Kirk, Bully Boy Ian Muir. - It’s like the Japanese sumo’s, the more gigantic they were the more popular they became. Plus size wrestlers have always drawn crowds. - Dusty Rhodes in America, Otto Vanz in Europe, both were super over. Like it’s been mentioned, Big Daddy was the British Hulk Hogan. - Not technical wrestlers but super over, nonetheless. - Their personal charisma, X-factor and animal magnetism just pulled in audiences like iron filings to an electron magnet. As great as Rollerball Rocco, Fit Finlay, Danny Collins were, they could never fill arena’s, at least not over the long term, night after night, year upon year. I saw Daddy and Haystacks live many times. - I saw Daddy in a tag match against the 42 stone Incredible Bulk and when Daddy’s theme tune “We Shall Not Be Moved” hit, the crowd erupted to a nuclear degree. - 50 years later I’ve never heard a louder more enthusiastic reaction to anyone or anything. Reactions to Hulk Hogan, The Rock or Austin are subdued in comparison. - The only thing I can compare Big Daddy’s reaction to is The Beatles Shea Stadium concert. He was super over with cherries 🍒 on top.
Rocco and Finlay could fill arenas - especially when they were on with Kendo Nagasaki. By the end of the 1980s All Star was WIPING THE FLOOR with Joint Promotions.
Personally I think the reason Big Daddy was so "over" is because he represented a living embodiment of the John Bull character. People believed in him because of the patriotic values he represented.
In an airport in Kuala Lumpur and completely lost it when the impressions came out. Trying to explain to Aussies in the same line as me why the Yorkshire Ripper scammer was funny didn’t go down well.
Guys that was an absolute classic, 81 in the states Big,Mac, Filet-O-Fish, Quarter Pounder, french fries, icy Coke, Thick Shake, Sundays, and apple pies.
Also 1981: Reagan, rancid phony TV evangelists, Motown takin a kicking from Japan, Hip Hop + breakdancing culture getting going, Viet vets getting FA help.... (what else?)
I just found this channel so I don't know your names or anything yet, so forgive me. But what I really enjoy about it is that the guy who is kind of doing the most talking really sounds like he knows what he's talking about. It doesn't sound like you are reading a Wikipedia article, it just sounds like you know the subject matter. Cheers.
I grew up in the 80's. I can remember the older kids talking about this match before I even knew or understood what wrestling was. Even here, in East Yorkshire on a council estate, enough of the kids had cable that there was always a way to find a sleepover at someones house to watch Wrestlemania or the Royal Rumble, once England went WWF crazy in the early 90's. I never really liked it that much, but it was always a spectacle. Like watching real life action figures flying through the air and landing on each others necks.
Summing up 1981 was 🤬 great had me crying with laughter 😂🤣 big daddy was a true British legion when I was a kid I did enjoy watching him on TV thank u for doing that video
saw big daddy and giant haystacks both seperatley as a child in the 70s and 80s at the assembly rooms in derby.An absolute legend but i loved the antics and wrestling style of massambula who was so sadly injured when i was only 6.My mum and dad never told me why he was no longer wrestling.always remember them saying poor massambula but i didnt realise at the time it was because he was hurt and injured so bad.If you have any footage of him to show it would be much appreciated
I was born in 1975. I remember watching the wrestling in the early 80's and because I was a kid I thought it was all real. I was genuinely afraid of Giant Haystacks and felt outrage when he used to do break the rules. I dont remember liking Big Daddy as such but I was always hoping he would beat the bad guys. Great, innocent entertainment for kids. Thankyou for posting.
About 40 years ago, on a holiday in great yarmouth, my dad took me to a matinee wrestling show, and literally all of the greats were there, including a very young william regal, i booed giant haystacks, and he growled at me, and i promply shit myself and hid behind my dad, whereupon, according to my dad, he gave my dad a big grin and a wink, then went off growling at everyone. Core memories right there.
I saw Big Daddy ‘fight’ sometime in - I think - the early-mid ‘70s(?) at our local wrestling hall, the ‘Eldorado’ in Leith, Edinburgh. If I remember correctly, Big Daddy - as real name Shirley Crabtree - performed as a wrestling ‘baddie’ originally and then became ‘the people’s champion’ Big Daddy later on. Also, his brother (a considerably smaller man) was a wrestling referee.
Chella toys (now wrestle trader owned) made some WWF Hasbro style figures of these two. Not generally into toys but had to add them to my old collection, may not have been great in ring but one of my earliest wrestling memories.
You touched on Big Daddy's comic strip in Buster, so I'd just like to say that (as somebody who wasn't even alive in Big Daddy's heyday, but does like a good licensed comic) that it was great; Big Daddy would get calls on the Daddy-Phone (hidden in his top hat, of course) and help kids out with all kinds of random problems, all while under the disapproving glower of his nameless trainer, who'd try and make sure Daddy was fighting fit and ready for his big match. Big Daddy would solve the problems, either using his vast strength or his even vaster tummy, then win his match in a manner that could only be described as "EASY!" He was also the subject of a stage play back in 2012 called "Big Daddy Vs. Giant Haystacks" and I wish I'd gotten to see it; it was a two-man show that touched on how loved Big Daddy was, but also on the toll that fame had on both Shirley Crabtree and Martin Ruane.
Absolutely loved this on a Saturday afternoon, but how the fuck did these old blokes have us entertained and convinced they were elite athletes??🇬🇧👊🏻 Great days though.
I saw Big Daddy and Kendo Nagasaki (at different events) at the Bath Pavilion in the early 1990s. Big Daddy sat at the stage and signed autographs for 20 minutes, I sent my mum up to get a signed photo as I was too shy to meet him.
They were former heel tag team partners who used to get together and squash the blue-eyes (babyfaces). They also had a BIG heel vs heels feud with Kendo Nagasaki. They also DID have a previous match on TV in November 1977. It ended in No contest after they both crashed into referee Dave Reece and left him flat as a pancake.
On TV, the feud between Daddy and Haystacks started in September 1977 when the two of them made it to the final of a 4 man tournament but Haystacks walked out seconds after the bell rang. Daddy claimed Haystacks had chickened out. This led to the match I described in my post above, two months later, and then loads of tag matches starting Xmas '77 and running through '78 where Stax would always have some ruse to get out of wrestling his former tag partner. I say "on TV" because Daddy himself told a lot of people including myself at a show in Croydon in 1990 that it all started the last time he and Stax teamed up in 1977 when Stax turned on him - "He hit me over the head with a chair - and that was the end of that!" Nobody has managed to identify when (or if) this happened; it certainly wasn't on TV.
Their first televised solo contest was in 1977 which ended in a NC. They continued to face each other periodically in solo contests up and down the halls in non televised bouts up until around 1978/9. To be fair to Shirley he did what his promoter brother Max wanted him to do where as other promoters in the joint group who wielded less power than Max wanted Shirley to wrestle more as is the case of his bout against John Elijah on RUclips. Shirley also lost to Tony St.Clair in an elimination contest for the British Heavyweight Title around 1978/9. To judge him only by his work in the 1980s is a bit unfair because as a younger man he held a version of the British Heavyweight Title and twice held a version of the European Heavyweight Title and wrestled in Europe. Shirley beat the man who defeated legendary Bert Assiratti which sent Assiratti into retirement to gain the British Title (Assiratti was getting on by this point though) .The point being not a great deal of info is known about Shirley's early days as he wrestled mainly in the North of England and Scotland for the Independent promoters where as most wrestling publications at the time concentrated on the Southern/Midlands promoters and reported little from the North. But! he must have had some degree of talent to hold 2 prestigious titles when he was younger man. Unfortunately professional wrestling is a very bitchy back stabbing business and many people including wrestlers are prepared to stick the dagger in especially when the individual concerned was popular, as passed away and cannot retaliate.
I bought a book about Big Daddy,"Who's the Daddy", not the absolute bio but a decent work anyway. I wonder if there are more books about him. I am not British, I don't live in the UK, but I always liked him very much.
It’s ironic that Shirley ‘Big Daddy’ Crabtree was the biggest babyface in British wrestling because he actually started out as a heel, and he would frequently pick up ‘public warnings’ in his matches even when he made the turn to babyface, but of course, it’s OK when the heroes do it lol LIVER AND ONIONS!!!
Love hearing British slang and wonder if others understand what you mean 🤣 "Where's he been for 15 years, yea he's been signing on" Edit - 17:30 Liver and Onions
Signing for his weekly welfare check (I think that translates for folks over the pond) .........The '70s were legit fkn BRUTAL for the working class ppl in UK, as Industrial Britain died off _all at once_ ...So millions of raging / depressed adults were thrown onto the Dole (Welfare) - it was riots, and many were burning their furniture to keep warm in winter (only 3 days a week of electricity - no binmen / garbage men for months etc) - it was proper hardcore, man.
Can't believe you didn't mention the vicar accompanying him to the ring or that Daddy and Haystacks used to be a tag team. Thing is, Daddy had incredible charisma. Haystacks wasn't even the most hated heel in British wrestling: that was Kendo Nagasaki. I've seen a video of the two of them wrestling and the crowd are cheering Haystacks.
As a kid we LOVED Kendo Nagasaki, he’s an amazing character and played so well. We knew he wasn’t the good guy but he wasn’t really a baddie either, we knew that was Haystacks
I watched the Giant Haystacks wrestle in 1991at the Southampton Guildhall. Biggest man I've ever seen. Despite the Big Daddy gimmick, Shirley Crabtree was a legit tough guy in his younger days. Ask Jim Cornette about George Hackenschmidt, who trained Crabtree. Different gear.
Went to the Goldwell rooms in Chesterfield in the 1970s and Big Daddy & Giant Haystacks were on the bill, we hung about after the show, Giant Haystacks walked to the train station and I kid you not Big Daddy got into a green Tr7, god knows how he got in
I met Big Daddy in Croydon in the early 90's. I took a man I was looking after with learning disabilities. I took the chap to ringside. After signing the photo for my gent I leant over the wheelchair and shook his hand and thanked him as it meant a lot to the bloke I was looking after. Big daddy just looked up and he said no, Thank you for what you are doing. I thought it was very humble of him.
I was always excited to see this wrestling on tv as Fairfield halls is my local theatre 😁
Man, that just made my heart happy
People say things about Big Daddy not liking children, but my experience was totally different when I was a child. My grandmother and I were waiting for a lift after we had attended a wrestling show. Big Daddy came past as a passenger in the car. He got the driver to stop, and he got out of the car and came over to talk to us. My grandmother was in total awe. Big Daddy gently ruffled my hair, said some nice words, told me that at the end of the season he was going to be fighting Giant Haystacks there. He asked me for advice on how to beat him! I said he should do his Big Daddy Splash. He ruffled my hair again and said "Thanks, lad. That's good advice. Come along and watch me do it!". I think Shirley Crabtree and Martin Ruane were both really decent people.
Nice little story that!
He truly was a great gentleman. RIP Big Daddy.
Big Daddy was an absolute phenomenon that if you didn’t live through it is really hard to grasp now how big he was. Everybody knew the name and it was a constant of school playgrounds to hear chants of “Easy, easy”. Trying to understand why is interesting as he was an enigma - appalling wrestler, looked bizarre, didn’t really do much but he just had an aura, you just knew he was the good guy, the hero, he did seem kind and nice and he absolutely set himself as standing up for the kids against the big bad bullies. Granny’s loved him, kids I think felt a bit safer and happier knowing big daddy was in the world. An amazing cultural phenomenon that there are no parallels for now.
Great comment so true
Well put sir. Saturday afternoons watching terrible wrestling was great.
Well said, Jon
True! I knew that chant from the playground way before I knew where it came from
As an American I've always found the Big Daddy phenomenon a little bit mystifying. We had Hulk Hogan in the 80s but at least he looked physically impressive. Your comment has helped me understand a bit better why Big Daddy was so loved.
Big Daddy looks like he was having the time of his life just walking to the ring.
Hope so cos he was clearly fucking knackered once it had happened
I remember seeing Crabtree wrestle in Glasgow in the early 1960's, he was billed as "The Blond Adonis" in those days. During his break from wrestling, he wasn't signing on, he became a nightclub owner in Halifax and Bradford, The three Crabtree brothers owned and ran the Marlborough dancehall in Halifax, when they sold the Marlborough it became the Halifax Y.M.C.A.
Liver and Onions makes me laugh as much now as it did on first hearing. Showed it to my dad who was 17 in 1981 and he just shook his head in painful nostalgia
That 1981 medley was a succinct and hilarious trip down memory lane. Please do more coverage of this unique period of UK wrestling there is so much curious British culture to explore.
Love it
liver and onions looked good.
@@dogsmith"meat and barely one veg please"
My Dad was a Uk wrestler. He trained with Mick McManus. My dad was the bad guy. His name was Art Michael. These were great days. Down to the castle hall to watch them. Fantastic.
You forgot to mention that Big Daddy was also in the Cold stream Guards, and at one stage wrestled as "the Battling Guardsman." And that he started his second stretch in wrestling as a heel. In fact, he was in a tag-team with Giant Haystacks in 1975!
He mentions it in the full episode, and have a pretty comprehensive overview of his career. Marc Haynes knows his shit when it comes to wrestling.
@@pmc8451 fair enough. Must check out the full episode. I didn't say he didn't know his shit, just that maybe he omitted something.
@@spudgunn8695on in u to to to to to
Marc Haynes "Liver and onions!" is the "We didn't start the fire" of early 80's Britain and the only performance art piece I'd willfully sit through in its entirety.
Amazing they managed a cultural history of 1981 with NO MENTION WHATSOEVER of Adam and the Ants - even when they borrow a caption slide from a documentary that Adam Ant hosted!
18:01 Geordie not recognising Wearside Jack lol
'81 was getting to the end of what I call the 'British stodge' period - where all the food was fried slop and slowly concretizing-on-the-plate processed foodstuffs. 🤢
Liver & Onions (and 'tater hash) would have to be an era-appropriate signature dish. (With cigarettes for dessert) even *this* is a great step up from the 70s......shudder) @__@
@@zetetick395 like I said, you can still buy a tin of Liver and Onions or Stewing Steak or Pork And Beans from your local corner shop in the North or the Midlands or Wales.
If you were posh maybe Angel Delight!@@zetetick395
These 2 are the peak of entertainment and how every podcast/RUclips video should be. Put everyone’s to shame
Seems fake to me. They make out like they were there at the time.
Mick Mcmanus' hair was predetermined.
That representation of 1981 might be one of the best things I've every seen and heard. 😂
Liver and Onions sounds like a failed ITV Sitcom probably starring Robin Askwith
Liver and onions were a brilliant sitcom on BBC ONE in the 90's
Johnny Liver and Ricky Onions in a flat share sitcom, one is an uptight office worker and the other is an unemployed tearaway that is always pulling the other into his schemes.
@@samuelwoods164i would watch that
@@samuelwoods164 retro Peep Show
Big daddy honestly truly was what Hulk Hogan always wanted to be
R.I.P. Big Daddy
Yeah,
genuinely loved by all / genuinely a nice fella, and dependable family man. 👍
@furq3995 Not by the end of his career, granted.
@Wildfox01 Your culture is being replaced.
Oh, come on! Hogan may be unable to work in the ring, but at least he can cut a promo. Big Daddy could do neither. The bookers decided who was over and who wasn't. Give a guy a flag and a colourful costume, and put his matches at the end, and the audience - who were drunk as all Hell - are just like: "Well...this must be the main guy". They could have plucked a homeless guy off the street and made him just as popular.
@@ashscott6068 Well, that's your opinion, an entire Nation however, disagrees.
Hilarious and entertaining. I could listen to these guys discuss wrestling for hours (and I do) 😂
I remember seeing Bomber Pat Roach in the 90s and he entered to the opening theme of Auf Wiedersehen Pet ( "Breakin' Away" )and when he won, the end theme of Auf Wiedersehen Pet played ( “That’s Livin’ Alright” ) Marvellous
This is what happens when an unstoppable waddle meets an unmovable girth.
Underrated comment
Lol yeah, like the worlds most Northern analogy for a classical atomic physics tutorial (maybe the orbiting electrons could be meat pies?)
- You can see even the ropes are like rubber bands to 'em, you can see them get a bit tentative when bouncing off 'em! A-mazing. '@_@'
Im 39 but when I was at school i had a job working on the market setting up the stall in the morning before school and taking it down after. On a Saturday I would set up and take down but also work all day on the stall selling rolls of material etc. It was there that I met giant haystacks sister (or maybe cousin) and she would tell me stories about him, the market was in wythenshawe Manchester and now I live in salford and haystacks's gravesite is not far away from me in agecroft cemetery.
More British wrestling edits please, they're pretty fresh ground for RUclips, even if they aren't the most view friendly
This!
I'm so glad this video has ended up being your guys first to hit 100K, guess it is more of a view grabber than I thought
That interview with Giant Haystacks at 8:38 is from the Late Late Show in Ireland. Before he comes out you see the host Gay Byrne sitting on the custom chair for Giant Haystacks. It makes him look like a toddler sitting on a regular chair.
Also, fun fact about Giant Haystacks was that he was Paul McCartney's favourite wrestler.
Another fun fact: in the PAL editions of the game Legends Of Wrestling 2, Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy were featured on the roster.
I grew up watching wrestling with my Grandfather. He loved Big Daddy. He hated it when British wrestling went off air and we started getting the American shows over here instead.
As a scouser the ‘derek Hatton just told me John Lennon is dead’ line absolutely crucified me 😂 💀
Also massive props for dropping the trivia that Yokozuna died in the Moat House Hotel in Liverpool.
Bonkers!
Big daddy worked as a life guard when he was younger and thinner
He saved a unconscious 16 year old from dying when she went unconscious Shirley dived in swam out and saved her life,
More like a life raft.
Thanks for bringing back many happy memories. After watching the wrestling, we would clear the living room where my brothers and me would 'practice' our wrestling moves on dad. Those Saturdays during the late 70s early 80s were magical, and BD and GH were a big part of that.
In the US we just called "wrestling" wrestling so I love the definite article in "the wrestling". It's seems so British.
I found this channel nine months ago, and I am glad I did. It has the best wrestling content on the internet.
" British wrestling died as Big Daddy was dying "
That's something that should be on a tshirt.
I’ve watched a million things on Big Daddy and this one is by far my favorite. Great job lads.
"I've got 5 more pages. LIVER AND ONIONS!"
I grew up watching wrestling on TV with my granny who was in her 80's at the time.!
She refused to buy one of them new fangled "colour" TVs (in the 80's) & we'd watch it on her BRAND NEW black & white set that cost her nearly as much as a colour one.! 😂 😂 😂
She absolutely loved the wrestling, to most people she was a humourless, set in her ways, stubborn, old fashioned prim & proper victorion type who was involved in her church playing piano & doing other God type stuff & most people didn't think she'd ever smiled.... But to me she was fun, adventurous, kind, humorous & my wrestling watching tag team partner.!
I used to spend most weekends at her house & I cherish the memories.!!
Thank you for making me think of them.!!! 👍 👍 👍
Subbed & liked & best wishes from Scotland 🏴 🙏 ♥
I grew up watching Big Daddy with my Grandad. I was to young to realise it was pretend and nobody was actually being hurt. Much love to Big D and Haystacks....wherever you are...R.I.P.
I read a book that describes a meeting of many of the old uk wrestlers and after the group photo,all the wrestlers kneeling down had to be helped up...
@@moonnightbricks3948 Big Daddy was 50 years old in this vid so I am not surprised to hear that. US wrestling has come a long since the ol Big D belly flop eh...😉
@@dazuk1969I watched from the early ‘80s and watching these now realise just how old most of those wrestlers were at that point - all the big names were in their 50s, 60s or older. No wonder some like big daddy couldn’t do much
Saw Daddy fight (?) Haystacks at the Wihrina, Peterborough.
Supposed to dislike each other, but were drinking together in the City Arms after the match.
I haven't met Big Daddy, but I have met Giant Haystacks. He said "Hi" and shook my hand. I was 14.
Big Daddy hated the kids apparently. Dynamite Kid mentions it in his book.
That medley at the end MURDERED me. I'm a newcomer to the channel, have Marc and Pete done anymore of these after certain videos?!
Man the athleticism, speed, technical ability. How could anybody not think this was legitimate ?
🤣🤣🤣🤣
This was a time when every week my mum would buy me and my sister comics. Mine were Buster and Eagle. Big Daddy I think appeared in pretty much every current comic of the day, eventually. Good times.
Never knew Big Daddy had his own strip in Buster, we got Whizzer or Beano (+ very occasionally the Dandy)
- Nice to know they did (eventually) go back to the original look Dennis and Gnasher, that's like redesigning Homer Simpson, what were they even _thinking??_
Dennis and Gnasher were in the Beano not Buster. Big Daddy was never in the Beano or Dandy
@@DazzasBoxing I meant as a guest star in the others.
I can also remember their first appearance on tv as a tag team introduced by the legend Kent Walton as the biggest tag team ever in a British ring.
Giant Haystacks was a lovely bloke. As a kid I once saw him in B&Q in Salford and had my picture tekan with him. RIP Martin. 🙏
The Mighty John Quinn match segments you showed here, John Quinn almost died as Daddy botched the move that secured the win for him in 2 minutes 55 seconds.
In the immortal words of Big E: big meaty men slapping MEAT
These guys are younger than Sting, Jeff Jarrett and Billy Gunn are now. Wtf.
Lol,
Pies and beer, son, PIES AND BEER! 😅
I was only a baby in 1981 but that clip show somehow brought it all back
That dig on George Oldfield is savage.
I went to school with his other nephew (Eorl's younger brother) and let me tell you that whole family are built like brick shit houses and all really bloody lovely people to be around!
9 days well spent I’d say. Love that song. Superb post guys.
Would have never happened but imagine the spectacle of Big Daddy vs Hulk Hogan
Ot better yet Big Daddy vs Andre The Giant
@@RealityMFiction that may have happened. Andre wrestled in the UK in the early 70s.
@@paulpetroleum He was here in 1969. He had one TV match on World of Sport. Daddy was semi-retired at that point and didn't join up with Joint until 1972 by which time "Jean Ferre" as Andre was called was off in Montreal Canada. If he'd done a homecoming tour at that point they *might* have done Jean Ferre vs Battling Guardsman Crabtree.
@@kurtvanderbogarde8402 great knowledge.... Loving the Adam And The Ants name reference too.
@@paulpetroleum this is the wrestling territory we all grew up with. It's in better shape too in 2023 than any old school American wrestling culture (except Capitol/WWWF/New York, obv, which lives on as WWE.)
That summation of 1981 is a thing of beauty, not since Billy Joel’s We didn’t start the fire has there been a more astute homage to an era
Loved this, loved watching wrestling on itv Saturdays before world of sport with Dickie Davis. Big daddy and giant haystacks are legends.
Bryan Danielson vs Zack Sabre Jr has got nothing on these lads, total technical masterclass... 🤣
I had no clue what made Big Daddy such a star before but deadass watching him just be such a nice fuckin dude for this whole vid I get it now
Haystacks spent time in Calgary.. He was a well travelled professional.
I LOVED *both* Big Daddy & Giant Haystacks when I was a kid. - ALL the superheavyweights did it for me. - King Kong Kirk, Bully Boy Ian Muir. - It’s like the Japanese sumo’s, the more gigantic they were the more popular they became.
Plus size wrestlers have always drawn crowds. - Dusty Rhodes in America, Otto Vanz in Europe, both were super over.
Like it’s been mentioned, Big Daddy was the British Hulk Hogan. - Not technical wrestlers but super over, nonetheless. - Their personal charisma, X-factor and animal magnetism just pulled in audiences like iron filings to an electron magnet.
As great as Rollerball Rocco, Fit Finlay, Danny Collins were, they could never fill arena’s, at least not over the long term, night after night, year upon year.
I saw Daddy and Haystacks live many times. - I saw Daddy in a tag match against the 42 stone Incredible Bulk and when Daddy’s theme tune “We Shall Not Be Moved” hit, the crowd erupted to a nuclear degree. - 50 years later I’ve never heard a louder more enthusiastic reaction to anyone or anything.
Reactions to Hulk Hogan, The Rock or Austin are subdued in comparison. - The only thing I can compare Big Daddy’s reaction to is The Beatles Shea Stadium concert.
He was super over with cherries 🍒 on top.
Rocco and Finlay could fill arenas - especially when they were on with Kendo Nagasaki. By the end of the 1980s All Star was WIPING THE FLOOR with Joint Promotions.
@Kurt Van Der Bogarde They were no where near the draw that Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks was.
@@johneastwood3039Kendo was a bigger draw than Daddy by 1989.
@@kurtvanderbogarde8402 Not Rocco or Finlay though.
They did against Kendo@@johneastwood3039
Great days. Many happy memories of Saturday afternoons as a kid. Never missed the wrestling!!
You failed to mention that Big Daddy used to be a heel and he used to be in a tag team with Giant Haystacks!
well I've mentioned it on another post.
I refuse to believe Big Daddy was ever a bad guy.
@@erikstorm8935 there are matches on RUclips of Heel IDaddy in April ‘76
Personally I think the reason Big Daddy was so "over" is because he represented a living embodiment of the John Bull character. People believed in him because of the patriotic values he represented.
Shout out to Banyabat for some top editing particularly at the end 80's montage 👍
In an airport in Kuala Lumpur and completely lost it when the impressions came out. Trying to explain to Aussies in the same line as me why the Yorkshire Ripper scammer was funny didn’t go down well.
Guys that was an absolute classic, 81 in the states Big,Mac, Filet-O-Fish, Quarter Pounder, french fries, icy Coke, Thick Shake, Sundays, and apple pies.
Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet.
@@MisterBeauJanGels hey it is Memorial day weekend!
Also 1981: Reagan, rancid phony TV evangelists, Motown takin a kicking from Japan, Hip Hop + breakdancing culture getting going, Viet vets getting FA help.... (what else?)
@@zetetick395 Hell I don't know I was 6.😉
@@GenXrecluse I was just born.
I just found this channel so I don't know your names or anything yet, so forgive me. But what I really enjoy about it is that the guy who is kind of doing the most talking really sounds like he knows what he's talking about. It doesn't sound like you are reading a Wikipedia article, it just sounds like you know the subject matter. Cheers.
I grew up in the 80's. I can remember the older kids talking about this match before I even knew or understood what wrestling was. Even here, in East Yorkshire on a council estate, enough of the kids had cable that there was always a way to find a sleepover at someones house to watch Wrestlemania or the Royal Rumble, once England went WWF crazy in the early 90's.
I never really liked it that much, but it was always a spectacle. Like watching real life action figures flying through the air and landing on each others necks.
Summing up 1981 was 🤬 great had me crying with laughter 😂🤣 big daddy was a true British legion when I was a kid I did enjoy watching him on TV thank u for doing that video
Livers and Onions - surely Mark needs to become a wrestling manager and manger the tag team of Kevin Liver and Paul Onions
saw big daddy and giant haystacks both seperatley as a child in the 70s and 80s at the assembly rooms in derby.An absolute legend but i loved the antics and wrestling style of massambula who was so sadly injured when i was only 6.My mum and dad never told me why he was no longer wrestling.always remember them saying poor massambula but i didnt realise at the time it was because he was hurt and injured so bad.If you have any footage of him to show it would be much appreciated
The greatest rivalry most Americans never knew about. Great stuff.
I was born in 1975. I remember watching the wrestling in the early 80's and because I was a kid I thought it was all real. I was genuinely afraid of Giant Haystacks and felt outrage when he used to do break the rules. I dont remember liking Big Daddy as such but I was always hoping he would beat the bad guys. Great, innocent entertainment for kids. Thankyou for posting.
i missed that back in the day because my dad was doing the fooooking littlewoods pools .....
About 40 years ago, on a holiday in great yarmouth, my dad took me to a matinee wrestling show, and literally all of the greats were there, including a very young william regal, i booed giant haystacks, and he growled at me, and i promply shit myself and hid behind my dad, whereupon, according to my dad, he gave my dad a big grin and a wink, then went off growling at everyone. Core memories right there.
I saw Big Daddy ‘fight’ sometime in - I think - the early-mid ‘70s(?) at our local wrestling hall, the ‘Eldorado’ in Leith, Edinburgh.
If I remember correctly, Big Daddy - as real name Shirley Crabtree - performed as a wrestling ‘baddie’ originally and then became ‘the people’s champion’ Big Daddy later on. Also, his brother (a considerably smaller man) was a wrestling referee.
I had my picture taken as I sat on Big Daddy's lap when I was five; my dad took me to an event at the Motherwell Civic Centre in 1992 🇬🇧
Just thinking about all the folding chairs then noticed it's WEMBLEY ARENA looks like the bell green social in Coventry
they were largely empty because people had rushed down to the front to watch the match close up. Security was nonexistent in those days
I could listen to liver n onions whole day on the positive side I could listen to you guys telling stories like this every day
Chella toys (now wrestle trader owned) made some WWF Hasbro style figures of these two. Not generally into toys but had to add them to my old collection, may not have been great in ring but one of my earliest wrestling memories.
These 2 are the greats of british wrestling ❤
Pathetic.
You touched on Big Daddy's comic strip in Buster, so I'd just like to say that (as somebody who wasn't even alive in Big Daddy's heyday, but does like a good licensed comic) that it was great; Big Daddy would get calls on the Daddy-Phone (hidden in his top hat, of course) and help kids out with all kinds of random problems, all while under the disapproving glower of his nameless trainer, who'd try and make sure Daddy was fighting fit and ready for his big match. Big Daddy would solve the problems, either using his vast strength or his even vaster tummy, then win his match in a manner that could only be described as "EASY!"
He was also the subject of a stage play back in 2012 called "Big Daddy Vs. Giant Haystacks" and I wish I'd gotten to see it; it was a two-man show that touched on how loved Big Daddy was, but also on the toll that fame had on both Shirley Crabtree and Martin Ruane.
If you like that then you should look for the Viz issue of Big Daddy vs Isis from 2002 😂
Absolutely loved this on a Saturday afternoon, but how the fuck did these old blokes have us entertained and convinced they were elite athletes??🇬🇧👊🏻
Great days though.
I saw Big Daddy and Kendo Nagasaki (at different events) at the Bath Pavilion in the early 1990s. Big Daddy sat at the stage and signed autographs for 20 minutes, I sent my mum up to get a signed photo as I was too shy to meet him.
One of the most legendary matches of all time
I found out about Haystacks and Big Daddy from legends of wrestling, glad I was able to learn about them after.
His nephew Eorl used to come into a mobile shop I worked in in Huddersfield town centre, a lovely lad
😂... The bit at the end was brilliant 😂
They were former heel tag team partners who used to get together and squash the blue-eyes (babyfaces). They also had a BIG heel vs heels feud with Kendo Nagasaki.
They also DID have a previous match on TV in November 1977. It ended in No contest after they both crashed into referee Dave Reece and left him flat as a pancake.
On TV, the feud between Daddy and Haystacks started in September 1977 when the two of them made it to the final of a 4 man tournament but Haystacks walked out seconds after the bell rang. Daddy claimed Haystacks had chickened out. This led to the match I described in my post above, two months later, and then loads of tag matches starting Xmas '77 and running through '78 where Stax would always have some ruse to get out of wrestling his former tag partner.
I say "on TV" because Daddy himself told a lot of people including myself at a show in Croydon in 1990 that it all started the last time he and Stax teamed up in 1977 when Stax turned on him - "He hit me over the head with a chair - and that was the end of that!" Nobody has managed to identify when (or if) this happened; it certainly wasn't on TV.
There was a match where Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks body slammed each other., catching the referee in the middle. He dropped like a curtain
Ah, that final montage made me feel like I was 9 all over again! 😂😂
Conrad Thompson used to wrestle?
I miss those days in wrestling, where people could actually start riots because of how invested fans were (even though it was before I was born).
Their first televised solo contest was in 1977 which ended in a NC. They continued to face each other periodically in solo contests up and down the halls in non televised bouts up until around 1978/9. To be fair to Shirley he did what his promoter brother Max wanted him to do where as other promoters in the joint group who wielded less power than Max wanted Shirley to wrestle more as is the case of his bout against John Elijah on RUclips. Shirley also lost to Tony St.Clair in an elimination contest for the British Heavyweight Title around 1978/9. To judge him only by his work in the 1980s is a bit unfair because as a younger man he held a version of the British Heavyweight Title and twice held a version of the European Heavyweight Title and wrestled in Europe. Shirley beat the man who defeated legendary Bert Assiratti which sent Assiratti into retirement to gain the British Title (Assiratti was getting on by this point though) .The point being not a great deal of info is known about Shirley's early days as he wrestled mainly in the North of England and Scotland for the Independent promoters where as most wrestling publications at the time concentrated on the Southern/Midlands promoters and reported little from the North. But! he must have had some degree of talent to hold 2 prestigious titles when he was younger man. Unfortunately professional wrestling is a very bitchy back stabbing business and many people including wrestlers are prepared to stick the dagger in especially when the individual concerned was popular, as passed away and cannot retaliate.
I worked at the Cafe Royal in the West End, and Mick MacManus worked there too, anf his hair was amazing
This was absolutely hilarious. Well done guys!
I bought a book about Big Daddy,"Who's the Daddy", not the absolute bio but a decent work anyway. I wonder if there are more books about him. I am not British, I don't live in the UK, but I always liked him very much.
It’s ironic that Shirley ‘Big Daddy’ Crabtree was the biggest babyface in British wrestling because he actually started out as a heel, and he would frequently pick up ‘public warnings’ in his matches even when he made the turn to babyface, but of course, it’s OK when the heroes do it lol
LIVER AND ONIONS!!!
We need a Wrestling Game that Unites Legends from UK, Japan, Mexico, & the American Terittories in One Roster.
Love hearing British slang and wonder if others understand what you mean 🤣
"Where's he been for 15 years, yea he's been signing on"
Edit - 17:30 Liver and Onions
Signing for his weekly welfare check (I think that translates for folks over the pond)
.........The '70s were legit fkn BRUTAL for the working class ppl in UK, as Industrial Britain died off _all at once_ ...So millions of raging / depressed adults were thrown onto the Dole (Welfare) - it was riots, and many were burning their furniture to keep warm in winter (only 3 days a week of electricity - no binmen / garbage men for months etc)
- it was proper hardcore, man.
@@zetetick395 I understood 'the dole' but only guessed what 'signing on' meant (and I guessed correctly).
Can't believe you didn't mention the vicar accompanying him to the ring or that Daddy and Haystacks used to be a tag team. Thing is, Daddy had incredible charisma. Haystacks wasn't even the most hated heel in British wrestling: that was Kendo Nagasaki. I've seen a video of the two of them wrestling and the crowd are cheering Haystacks.
I would say Mick Mcmanus was wrestlings pantomime villain.
As a kid we LOVED Kendo Nagasaki, he’s an amazing character and played so well. We knew he wasn’t the good guy but he wasn’t really a baddie either, we knew that was Haystacks
Very good video upload enjoyed watching this one thanks again 👍love the commentary about the video as well ok
I watched the Giant Haystacks wrestle in 1991at the Southampton Guildhall. Biggest man I've ever seen. Despite the Big Daddy gimmick, Shirley Crabtree was a legit tough guy in his younger days. Ask Jim Cornette about George Hackenschmidt, who trained Crabtree. Different gear.
The 1981 montage was amazing. I still have nightmares about having liver as a kid!
Went to the Goldwell rooms in Chesterfield in the 1970s and Big Daddy & Giant Haystacks were on the bill, we hung about after the show, Giant Haystacks walked to the train station and I kid you not Big Daddy got into a green Tr7, god knows how he got in
These boys are just insane, I love it!
I am from Halifax and used to live a few mins walk away from his house, used to walk past it on my way to school.
I now have "Liver and Onions" stuck in my head. Thanks. Have a nice day.