Billy Robinson | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Birth name | William Alfred Robinson | |||||||||||
Born | [1] Manchester, Lancashire, England [1] | 18 September 1938 |||||||||||
Died | 27 February 2014 75) [1] Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S. [1] | (aged|||||||||||
Professional wrestling career | ||||||||||||
Ring name(s) | Billy Robinson [2] | |||||||||||
Billed height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) [2] | |||||||||||
Billed weight | 240 lb (110 kg; 17 st) [2] | |||||||||||
Trained by | Billy Riley [2] Billy Joyce [3] | |||||||||||
Debut | 1958 | |||||||||||
Retired | May 8, 1992 | |||||||||||
Sports career | ||||||||||||
Medal record
|
William Alfred Robinson (18 September 1938 – 27 February 2014) [1] was an English professional wrestler, amateur wrestler, and coach. Having trained at Riley's Gym, better known as "the Snake Pit", Robinson was one of the leading practitioners of catch wrestling, a national champion in freestyle wrestling, and a professional wrestling world champion. He had a successful career in Britain and internationally, especially in Japan. He was known for training professional wrestlers and mixed martial artists in the catch wrestling style, including Josh Barnett, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kiyoshi Tamura, and Shayna Baszler. His favourite saying as a coach was "do it again", which came from his trainer Billy Riley. Robinson acted in several movies including The Wrestler and inspired the fictional manga/anime character Robin Mask. [1] [5]
Robinson was born in Manchester on September 18, 1938 to William James Robinson and Frances Hester Exley Robinson. [1] The men in the Robinson family were boxers and Billy began boxing between four and five years of age. Robinson also worked in his family's grocery store, where an eye injury between eleven and twelve years of age required hospitalization for five months and disqualified him from ever getting a boxing licence. [3] [5]
Robinson began amateur wrestling at fourteen. After a year, Robinson's father introduced him to Billy Riley, a legendary catch wrestling trainer who ran a gym in Wigan. Riley's Gym (later dubbed "The Snake Pit") was one of the most respected catch wrestling training schools in the world. Riley's had a rough training environment and produced legends such as Karl Gotch, Bert Assirati, Jack Dempsey, and Billy Joyce. [5] [3] At the 1957 British Senior Championships, Robinson became the freestyle wrestling light heavyweight champion. [4] It has often been repeated that Robinson was also a "European Open Champion in the light heavyweight class, beating an Olympic bronze medal winner in the finals" in 1958. [3] [5] [6] [7] However, FILA did not hold the European Wrestling Championships between 1949 and 1966, and despite records going back to the first "unofficial European Championships" in 1898, United World Wrestling (FILA's successor) has no records of a "European Open Championship" taking place or anyone with Robinson's name competing for Britain, England, or any other nation. [8]
As a professional wrestler, Robinson became a double-crown British and European Heavyweight Champion for Joint Promotions. In 1963, Robinson wrestled in a match at the Royal Albert Hall that was attended by Prince Philip. [9] He defeated fellow Riley's wrestler and mentor Billy Joyce for the European title on 12 June 1965 [10] and then beat Joyce again for the British title on 18 January 1967, [11] vacating both titles in 1970 when he went off to America. [10] [11] He also had a high-profile feud with masked wrestler Kendo Nagasaki. [12] In 1978, Robinson made a brief homecoming tour of the UK including a televised win over Lee Bronson. [13]
Robinson traveled to North America in 1969 for Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling where he defeated Archie "The Stomper" Gouldie to earn a title shot at NWA World Heavyweight champion Dory Funk Jr. Soon afterwards, he began wrestling for Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association. He was one of the most successful wrestlers of the American promotion known for hiring the "Real Deals" in wrestling. Billy Robinson was also the AWA British Empire Heavyweight Champion; he defended the title in both the United States and Canada, winning on 3 occasions. On 12 October 1974, Robinson's image as a legitimate wrestler landed him a role in the film The Wrestler alongside Verne Gagne and Ed Asner. He wrestled in Montreal in 1982 and 1983 becoming the International Champion beating Dino Bravo and was also International Tag Team champions with Pierre Mad Dog Lefebvre. He wrestled to a 60-minutes time-limit draw against then WWF Champion Bob Backlund in 1982 as well in Montreal.[ citation needed ]
Robinson traveled to Japan where he became immensely popular as a legitimate wrestler versed in submission holds. Robinson had a series of matches with Canadian George Gordienko. The pair had a notable match in 1968 as part of a "world championship tournament" where the pair wrestled to a draw in Sapporo. [5] He participated in a professional wrestling match against legendary Antonio Inoki in 1975. The match was billed as "The Match Between the World's Top Two Technicians" by the Japanese press. Japanese professional wrestlers learned the art of "hooking" and "shooting" from other catch wrestling icons including Karl Gotch and Lou Thesz. The new movement led to the formation of the Universal Wrestling Federation. The UWF wrestlers like Yoshiaki Fujiwara had also been to the Snake Pit in Wigan. In his last match, Robinson became a part of the shoot-style movement when he wrestled in an exhibition match for the UWFi against fellow AWA legend Nick Bockwinkel on 8 May 1992.[ citation needed ]
Robinson, having previously trained wrestlers in England including Marty Jones and Johnny Saint, began training wrestlers in catch wrestling at the UWF Snake Pit Japan, including James Maritato, Kazushi Sakuraba and El Signo. [14] He also managed a convenience store and was a security guard at the Gold Coast Hotel and Casino for a time. [5] [3] Robinson moved to Little Rock, Arkansas in 2001 to be closer to his son's family. [1] Robinson's autobiography, Physical Chess: My Life in Catch-as-Catch-Can Wrestling, was published in June 2012. [15] Robinson continued to coach catch wrestling into his final years, in his adopted home of Arkansas along with seminars in the United States, Japan, Britain, and Canada. [3] [16]
Robinson died peacefully in his sleep on February 27, 2014 at the age of 75. [1]
Aloysius Martin Thesz, known by the ring name Lou Thesz, was an American professional wrestler. Considered to be one of the last true shooters in professional wrestling and described as the "quintessential athlete" and a "polished warrior who could break a man in two if pushed the wrong way", Thesz is widely regarded as one of the greatest wrestlers and wrestling world champions in history, and possibly the last globally accepted world champion.
Harley Leland Race was an American professional wrestler, promoter, and trainer.
Don Muraco is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation from 1981 to 1988, where he held the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship on two occasions and was crowned the inaugural winner of the King of the Ring tournament in 1985. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2004 and the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2014.
Lawrence Robert Shreve, better known by the ring name Abdullah the Butcher, is a Canadian retired professional wrestler. He has a reputation for being involved in some of the most violent and bloody hardcore wrestling matches of all time. Over his time in wrestling he was given the moniker of "Madman from Sudan".
Lawrence Whistler, better known by the ring name Larry Zbyszko, is an American retired professional wrestler. He is perhaps best known for his feud with his mentor, Bruno Sammartino, during the early 1980s as well as his work as a wrestler and color commentator for World Championship Wrestling. Among other accolades, he is a two-time world champion having twice held the AWA World Heavyweight Championship. Zbyszko was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on March 28, 2015, by Sammartino.
Dorrance Earnest Funk, known professionally as Dory Funk Jr., is an American retired professional wrestler and wrestling trainer. The son of Dory Funk and brother of Terry Funk, he was the promoter of the Amarillo, Texas-based Western States Sports promotion.
Jack Barton Adkisson Sr., better known by his ring name Fritz Von Erich, was an American professional wrestler, wrestling promoter, and the patriarch of the Von Erich family. He was a 3-time world champion and a 6-time NWA United States Champion. He was the owner of World Class Championship Wrestling.
John Stanley Hansen II, best known as Stan "The Lariat" Hansen, is an American retired professional wrestler.
Delbert Alexander "Del" Wilkes, Jr. was an American professional wrestler and college football player, better known by his ring names, The Trooper and The Patriot. Over the course of his ten-year career, Wilkes wrestled for the American Wrestling Association, the Global Wrestling Federation, All Japan Pro Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling, and the World Wrestling Federation.
Nicholas Warren Francis Bockwinkel was an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with the American Wrestling Association (AWA) in the 1970s and 1980s.
Patrick John O'Connor, was a New Zealand/American amateur wrestler and professional wrestler. Regarded as one of the premier workers of his era, O'Connor held the AWA World Heavyweight Championship and NWA World Heavyweight Championship simultaneously, the latter of which he held for approximately two years. He was also the inaugural AWA World Heavyweight Champion. He is an overall two-time world champion.
Hiroshi Hase is a Japanese politician and semi-retired professional wrestler who is currently the governor of Ishikawa Prefecture. As a professional wrestler, Hase primarily worked for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), and also for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and Stampede Wrestling. During his affiliation with AJPW, he also served as the chairman for the Pacific Wrestling Federation (PWF), which is the governing body for all championships in the promotion. Among his numerous title wins, Hase held the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship once, making him a one-time world champion.
Tomomi "Tommy" Tsuruta, better known by his ring name Jumbo Tsuruta, was a Japanese professional wrestler who wrestled for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) for most of his career, and is well known for being the first ever Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, having won the PWF Heavyweight Championship, the NWA United National Championship, and the NWA International Heavyweight Championship, and unifying the three titles. He is also known for being one-half of the first World Tag Team Champions with Yoshiaki Yatsu, having won the NWA International Tag Team Championship and the PWF Tag Team Championship, and unifying the two titles.
Douglas Albert Baker Sr. was an American professional wrestler and actor, better known professionally as Ox Baker. He was famous for his distinctive eyebrows and finishing move, the Heart Punch, sometimes called the "Hurt Punch", after Baker's famous catchphrase "I love to hurt people!". He appeared in several films including Blood Circus and Escape from New York.
Archibald Edward Gouldie was a Canadian professional wrestler. He wrestled for Stampede Wrestling for decades as Archie "The Stomper" Gouldie, with the nickname coming from the wrestler's reputation of "stomping" on his opponents, when they were down, with his black cowboy boots. He was also known by the ring name The Mongolian Stomper.
Kazuo Sakurada, better known as Mr. Sakurada, The Dragonmaster, and as the Japanese version of Kendo Nagasaki (ケンドー・ナガサキ), was a Japanese professional wrestler. He was best known for his work in Stampede Wrestling, National Wrestling Alliance, and World Championship Wrestling. Sakurada was also highly regarded by Bret Hart as one of his most significant trainers alongside Katsui Adachi or Mr. Hito, with whom he taught extensively in Hart Dungeon.
Les Thornton was a British professional wrestler who competed in Great Britain, Japan, European and North American regional promotions throughout the 1970s and 1980s including Joint Promotions, Stampede Wrestling, the World Wrestling Federation and the National Wrestling Alliance.
McRonald Kamaka was an American-Canadian professional wrestler known by the ring name Tor Kamata. He won several heavyweight and tag team championships, most notably the PWF World Heavyweight Championship in All Japan Pro Wrestling and the AWA World Tag Team Championship in the American Wrestling Association. He was a classic heel, reviled for dirty tricks in the ring, included rubbing salt in his opponent's eyes.
Katsuyori Shibata is a Japanese professional wrestler, mixed martial artist and professional wrestling trainer currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He also makes appearances for AEW's sister promotion Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is a former ROH Pure Champion. In professional wrestling, he is known for his hard hitting offense. He spent most of his career with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as both a wrestler and trainer. In NJPW, he is a former three-time NEVER Openweight Champion, a one-time IWGP Tag Team Champion, and the winner of the 2017 New Japan Cup. He is also a former holder of Revolution Pro Wrestling's RPW British Heavyweight Championship. From March 2018 to July 2023, Shibata served as the head coach of NJPW's dojo in Los Angeles.
Larry Cameron was an American professional football player and wrestler.