Steve Veidor | |
---|---|
Birth name | Steve Bell |
Born | Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England | 10 January 1938
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | Steve Veidor Hermann Veidor Kurtz Kurtz Veidor Steve Bell |
Billed height | 6 ft 1.5 in (1.87 m) |
Billed weight | 220 lb (100 kg; 16 st) |
Debut | 1960s |
Retired | 1970s |
Steve Bell (born 10 January 1938), better known by the ring name Steve Veidor, is a former British heavyweight professional wrestler of the 1960s and 1970s, usually billed as The Handsome Heart Throb.
Bell was born in Ellesmere Port, a port in Cheshire, England. After service as a corporal in the Royal Air Force as a Physical Training Instructor, Veidor took up amateur wrestling. After turning professional, he initially wrestled as Hermann Veidor and Steve Bell. He won the Royal Albert Hall Tournament Trophy on three occasions. [1] On 15 September 1978 Veidor won the European Heavyweight Championship at Liverpool, Great Britain.
Veidor made many appearances on ITV's World of Sport , and has wrestled across Europe, worked in films, television game shows and commercials. He appeared alongside other wrestlers in the 1968 cult film The Touchables , directed by Robert Freeman, and as Muscles in Derek Ford's 1973 film Keep It Up, Jack .
Between the months of February and March 1975, Veidor toured New Japan Pro-Wrestling, taking on such Japanese professional wrestling legends Antonio Inoki, Seiji Sakaguchi and Strong Kobayashi. [2]
David Smith was an English professional wrestler best known for his appearances in the United States with the World Wrestling Federation under the ring names Davey Boy Smith and The British Bulldog.
Leon Allen White, better known by his ring names Big Van Vader or simply Vader, was an American professional wrestler and professional football player. Throughout his career, he performed for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), and Pro Wrestling Noah (NOAH) during the 1990s and 2000s. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest super-heavyweight professional wrestlers of all time.
Christopher Adams, best known as "Gentleman" Chris Adams, was an English professional wrestler, promoter, coach, and judoka.
Masahiro Chono is a Japanese-American retired professional wrestler and actor best known for his 26-year stint with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). As the leader of nWo Japan, Team 2000 and Black New Japan, he was the promotion's top heel for much of his career, beginning in 1994 when he adopted a yakuza inspired gimmick.
Dorrance Earnest Funk, known professionally as Dory Funk Jr., is an American 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.
Steven Franklin Williams, best known under the ring name "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, was an American collegiate and professional wrestler and collegiate football player. He was known for his tenures in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), and is a three-time professional wrestling world heavyweight champion, having won both the Herb Abrams and Bill Watts versions of the UWF World Heavyweight Championship and the AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship.
Kensuke Sasaki is a Japanese retired professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, and founder of the now-defunct wrestling promotion Diamond Ring.
John Robert Hindley is an English retired professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Johnny Smith. He is best known for his appearances with All Japan Pro Wrestling.
Michael K. Cariglio is an American professional wrestler, better known by his stage name, Michael Modest. Modest ran the promotion Pro Wrestling IRON with tag partner Donovan Morgan and Frank Murdoch until its closure in 2005. Modest has also wrestled in Japan for Pro Wrestling Noah, winning the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship after defeating Yoshinobu Kanemaru. He has also wrestled in Canada, Mexico and Ireland. He is perhaps best known for his appearances in the wrestling documentary Beyond the Mat, the film Ready to Rumble, and the TV special Exposed! Pro Wrestling's Greatest Secrets.
Robert Edward Brooks, better known by his ring name Robbie Brookside, is a retired English professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he works as a trainer/producer for the NXT brand. He has toured all over the world during his career, wrestling in the United States, Japan, Germany, and Mexico. He was a regular tag partner of Steve Regal in the United Kingdom and has competed in the New Japan Pro-Wrestling's annual tournament, the Super J Cup, in 1997, where he picked up a victory over Chris Jericho.
Mitsuo Yoshida, better known by his ring name Riki Choshu, is a South Korean-Japanese retired professional wrestler who is best known for his longtime work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as both a wrestler and a booker. He is considered one of Japan’s most influential wrestlers for his work in the 1980s and 1990s and is known as the first wrestler to popularize the Sasori-Gatame, better known in English as the Scorpion Deathlock or Sharpshooter. After leaving NJPW in 2002, he formed Fighting World of Japan Pro Wrestling (WJ), but eventually returned to New Japan in October 2005 as a site foreman, booker and part-time wrestler. Choshu once again left NJPW in 2010 and primarily worked in Tatsumi Fujinami’s Dradition, as well as his own self-produced Power Hall events as a freelancer. Choshu was a second generation Zainichi Korean until his naturalization in 2016.
William Alfred Robinson 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.
The British Heavyweight Championship is a top British wrestling championship found throughout the country's circuit. The championship was recognised and defended on matches screened by UK national television network ITV as part of the professional wrestling slot on World of Sport as well as standalone broadcasts. Pre-publicity for these championship match broadcasts was given in ITV's nationally published listings magazine TVTimes.
Michael Verdi, best known by his ring name Trent Acid, was an American professional wrestler.
Daniel "Boy" Collins is an English professional wrestler. Noted for his agile, gymnastic style in the ring, he has toured successfully across Europe and Japan and held British, European and World titles in five different weight divisions.
Luke James Uggles Eatwell, known by his ring name Zack Sabre Jr. and its abbreviated form ZSJ, is an English-born professional wrestler currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). In NJPW, he is the current second leader of the group The Mighty Don't Kneel (TMDK) and is a former two-time and inaugural NJPW World Television Champion. He also makes sporadic appearances for partner promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and its sister promotion Ring of Honor (ROH).
Lawrence Michael "Mike" Rotunda is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling in the 1980s and 1990s under the ring names Mike Rotunda, Mike Rotundo, Michael Wallstreet, Irwin R. Schyster, and V.K. Wallstreet.
Zak Harley Bevis is an English professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs under the ring name Zak Knight and a member of The Outcasts stable. He also performs for AEW's sister promotion Ring of Honor (ROH).
Chris Raaber is an Austrian professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Bambikiller. He runs his own promotion European Wrestling Association.
Bruno Elrington was an English professional wrestler and actor. Known for his work in Joint Promotions in the United Kingdom in the 1960s. His physical appearance at 6"6 and a big bushy beard.