April 2025:
Welcome to the new, improved Wrestling Furnace website. The old site had become unwieldy and neglected. My limited computer programming capabilities struggled to keep up with evolving internet innovations. This new site uses the website builder "Webador" - its templates and tools not requiring knowledge of computing. It will take time to transfer content from the old site, but once this process is complete, many more wrestlers and other notable characters of British Professional Wrestling will be added, and existing pages expanded with more photographs.
The previous domain wrestlingfurnace.site will expire on 20th December 2025. Please ensure you bookmark this new address before then
www.wrestlingfurnace.co.uk
Introduction
This site is a celebration of the days when British Professional Wrestling was a highly skilled and athletic sport, supported by thousands of spectators every week in clubs and halls around the country. In its heyday from the 1950s to the 1980s, British Professional Wrestling was enjoyed by millions on television every Saturday afternoon on ITV's "World of Sport".
This is a free-to-view, non-commercial website, put together in my spare time. It is by no means complete - there is still lots of work to be done to include everyone worthy of a mention. The aim is to create a fitting tribute to all those who helped bring about "The Golden Years" of British Professional Wrestling.
The site started around the year 2000 when there was a shortage of good quality British wrestling sites on the internet. Emails to this site from around the world confirm there is still great respect for 'classic' British Professional Wrestling. Over the years, I have been loaned wrestling magazines, been sent scanned pictures and even been entrusted with original photographs by wrestlers and their families. Best of all, despite the fact that I am not from a wrestling background, I was welcomed into the "wrestling fraternity" and attended reunions where wrestlers meet to reminisce about escapades both in and out of the ring. It has been my good fortune to meet them, and others behind the scenes, discovering the warm friendship of this very special group of comrades.
As wrestlers' families and friends discover this site, I hope they will be inspired to thumb through family albums, search attics, and send in material to enable their role in the history of British Professional Wrestling to be acknowledged here. Meanwhile, I will continue to scan photographs and articles from "The Wrestler" and other vintage wrestling magazines for you to enjoy.
Ideally, there will be regular site updates, but as this is a one-man operation, I can only update "as and when". Gathering information and scanning photographs takes time. My apologies if updates aren't as frequent as on other websites and emails aren't answered promptly. I can't keep the site updated with the latest news of the "wrestling fraternity" but, fortunately, there are other websites with news, interviews, discussion forums and much more. Check out the excellent Wrestling Heritage site and also groups on Facebook (see the FAQ section) where 'classic' British Professional Wrestling is discussed and celebrated.
Happy browsing !
Chris