Post by CW .org .info .net on Mar 28, 2023 13:56:09 GMT -6
We Shall Not be Moved!
The Story of Shirley Crabtree, Big Daddy
By Steve Wareing
No name is more synonymous with British Wrestling than Big Daddy. Whether you love him or loathe him he was the quintessential babyface of British wrestling in the 70’s, 80’s and into the 90’s. His huge frame would waddle to the ring sporting his glittering cape, top hat and his ‘Big D’ leotard. He could start chants of “Easy, easy!” to a packed town hall as effortlessly as Jim Duggan could with his “USA!” battle cry.
Shirley Crabtree (Daddy) was one of three brothers, Max and Brian being the others. Max was the promoter, Brian the ring announcer and Shirley the main-event wrestler. All shows were built around Daddy and to his credit he had great charisma. He was extremely popular with the public and young children flocked to him in droves. On the down side he was a poor worker, sometimes truly atrocious. At the peak of success he would use moves such as backdrops and body slams but once his health started to deteriorate he used simple moves such as shoulder charges, belly butts and his big splash.
Shirley Crabtree was born on 14th November 1929 in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. The Crabtree’s father (Shirley Crabtree Senior) was a rugby league player and wrestler. Shirley fondly remembered wrestling with his father from a young age. This inspired him to get into the grappling game.
Shirley started off his wrestling career aged around 17, at Saint James’s Hall in Newcastle against Welsh heavyweight, Sandy Orford. Shirley didn’t’t win his first match but losing would not be a regular occurrence later in his career. He went through various wrestling names such as The Battling Guardsman, The Blonde Adonis and Mr Universe before settling on Big Daddy. Shirley had tried to emulate his father as a rugby league player, playing for Bradford Northern. However due to his fiery temper he never made the first team. He had stints working as a coal miner and as a Cold Stream Guard in the British Army. But ultimately it was wrestling that won him over. He won two British Wrestling Federation titles but then quit in frustration and was out of wrestling for around 15 years.
Due to the rising popularity of wrestling on TV, Shirley’s brother, Max who was one of the most powerful promoters brought Shirley back and repackaged him as Big Daddy under the All Star Joint Promotions banner in the 1970’s. The Big Daddy name was actually taken from the play and film, ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ after Max saw the film at the cinema. Shirley’s wife, Eunice designed his first leotard from their chintz sofa, sewing a large letter ‘D’ onto it. Shirley lived on a farm in Halifax with his wife and six children.
Through his career he fought opponents such as ‘The Mighty’ John Quinn, Kendo Nagasaki, Tony Walsh, ‘King Kong’ Mal Kirk, the Masked Crusaders, Yasu Fuji, ‘Cry Baby’ Syd Cooper and of course his main rival, Giant Haystacks.
The Big Daddy versus Giant Haystacks matches was probably the most talked about feud in British Wrestling. Although it was quite the spectacle to see the two big men squaring up, the bouts were awful. They fought at Wembley Arena on one occasion with Daddy knocking Haystacks out of the ring for a count out victory (called a knockout in the UK). The bouts were usually a variety of shoulder charges and poor offence usually ending with Daddy scoring the pin. The pair appeared on ‘Tiswas’ once (a popular kids TV show in the 70’s and 80’s) hyping up an upcoming match. Daddy played the kiddie friendly jovial big man whereas Haystacks did his grumpy giant persona who hated everyone. They sat either side of co-presenter Sally James (the other host being Chris Tarrant of ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ fame) and shouted back and forth with James looking slightly concerned.
Daddy faced the legendary masked wrestler, Kendo Nagasaki in two TV bouts in 1975. The matches were noticeable for two incidents, neither being the wrestling quality. In the first match Daddy attempted to remove Nagasaki’s mask. He managed to pull it half way up Nagasaki’s face before Kendo delivered a Flair-like chop to the throat. Kendo pinned Daddy after this very weak finish. It is surprising in the sense that Daddy lost here as he rarely ever lost and secondly that he lost to such a poor finish, even for British finishing standards. This would be like Hogan losing in his heyday to Randy Savage with a thumb to the throat. In the second televised match, Daddy succeeded in pulling Kendo’s mask off revealing a tattooed, shaved head with a ponytail. Again Daddy was pinned after a series of thrusts to the throat but he celebrated his unmasking of Nagasaki by waving around the mask to the crowd.
Big Daddy teamed up with a variety of well-known British wrestlers such as the deaf and dumb star, Alan Kilby and at various points both British Bulldogs in their younger years Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith as well as Steve (William) Regal. He even tagged with his nemesis, Giant Haystacks in the 70’s before they began feuding. Daddy also helped start out the wrestling career of future World Class star, Chris Adams in the late 70’s.
In 1979 at Wembley Arena, Big Daddy fought Canadian, ‘The Mighty’ John Quinn in a grudge match. Giant Haystacks seconded Quinn to the ring. Despite the huge build up, Daddy did a Goldberg and destroyed Quinn. Several shoulder barges; three body slams and a backdrop gave Daddy the win in only 1 minute and 42 seconds. The crowd of 10,000 set British Wrestling’s largest indoor attendance record.
Daddy and the British wrestlers had many famous fans. The Queen and Margaret Thatcher were both noted fans as was Sir Paul McCartney. Thatcher once asked Big Daddy for six autographed photos for Downing Street and said it was an honor to meet him. The Royal family were reportedly huge fans of Daddy as well.
Big Daddy became so popular he crossed over into the mainstream media. He appeared on ‘Tiswas’ several times and ‘This is your Life’ with Eamonn Andrews. ‘This is your Life’ was a very popular at the time and it was considered a great honor to be on the show. As was the case each time, the celebrity was always caught out at an unsuspecting moment. Eamon Andrews walked into a TV studio next door to his own studios where Daddy thought he was filming a segment with a group of wrestlers. To his great surprise Eamon Andrews walked in wearing a wrestling mask and presented Daddy with the recognizable, ‘This is your Life’ book. Daddy looked extremely shocked but very pleased at the same time. One by one, wrestlers, family and friends paraded out recalling events of Shirley Crabtree’s life. Daddy and Haystacks stayed in character snarling at each other across the set.
Daddy also recorded a song, entitled ‘We shall not be moved’ that became his theme music. This was an old American folk song that was out of copyright and it seemed fitting to Daddy’s character. He put his name to a brand of tomato sauce (ketchup) called ‘Big Daddy’s Sauce’. The sauce is still found in supermarkets to this day although it is simply now known as ‘Daddy’s Sauce’.
Big Daddy even had his own one page comic strip in popular children’s comic at the time, ‘Buster’. Each week Daddy would use his robust frame to help out people (e.g., act as a bouncy castle for kids or a landing crash mat for parachute jumpers). ‘Buster’ was a very popular comic, probably only third to the still ongoing ‘Beano’ and ‘Dandy’. ‘Buster’ ran from 1960 to 1990. Daddy’s strip lasted around two years.
He also appeared in ‘Tiger’ (boys adventure) comic in a more serious wrestling strip, ‘Johnny Cougar’. He was an opponent for the Seminole Indian wrestler and Daddy preceded to give Cougar his toughest test to date.
When ‘Tiswas’ was cancelled a pilot was shot for ‘The Big Daddy show’ to go out on primetime Saturday morning for kids. However Crabtree pulled out at the last minute due to illness and a hastily put together show was put on its place.
Daddy was proud to be asked to attend the first ‘Royal Command Performance for Children’ organized by Princess Margaret. At another time he was presented with a medal proclaiming him ‘The People’s Champion’ in Leicester beating the Rock to the same moniker by many years.
A fateful night in Daddy’s career was in 1987 at the Hippodrome in Great Yarmouth, when he fought ‘King Kong’ Mal Kirk. Daddy went through his usual routine, ending with his Big Daddy splash. Kirk didn’t look very good at all after receiving the move. He had already begun dieing in the ring and was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival. Daddy was cleared of any responsibility as it came out Kirk had a serious heart condition. Although cleared of any liability Crabtree was devastated and wrestled infrequently afterwards.
After thirty-three years on ITV, new ITV Director, Greg Dyke in 1988, canceled Saturday afternoon wrestling. He decided wrestling was too stuck in the past and wasn’t the sort of product he wanted on his network. Max Crabtree blamed it on the wrestlers slagging off the product to the producers who then sent word back to Dyke. But the wrestlers probably had a valid complaint that Daddy was the only star being pushed and that he was fat and old, giving wrestling a bad reputation. Another problem was WWF had started selling its old ‘All American Wrestling’ tapes to ITV for £700 a show. In comparison, to produce two weeks of TV tapings, ITV would have to shell out £35,000. WWF tapes required no production costs so it was a simple business decision. For a while Saturday afternoon wrestling alternated each week between British and American before Dyke finally pulled the plug. WWF then moved to a late night slot until Sky bought the rights.
The Crabtree’s tried to strike a deal with Sky TV for British Wrestling. Max Crabtree had worked out to produce three, forty minute shows would cost £20,000 but Sky were only offering him £500. To make matters worse the man they were trying to strike a deal with at Sky was Australian and had no idea who Daddy was. Max knew this was the end with no way back.
A combination of no TV and the Kirk death saw Daddy wrestle less frequently. The Crabtree’s’ ran weekly shows on Sunday nights at the Sandcastle (a swimming complex) in Blackpool (a favorite holiday destination of Daddy and a lot of Scottish people) in the summer of 1992. I attended these shows each week. They were around two hours long and had four matches on the card.
Big Daddy would appear before the interval and always wrestle in a tag match. As always the matches were very formulaic. Daddy would team up with a talented youngster such as Tony Stewart, Johnny Angel or Andy Strong. The best two out of three fall bouts would always see the youngster pinned by whatever combination of heels were put together for that particular week. Daddy would then get mad and usually whack the heels with his corner bucket. Daddy would then make a hot tag and clear house with shoulder charges and his comedic belly butt. He would then deliver his Big Daddy splash for the equalizing fall. The youngster would then tag back in and gain his revenge winning with a high cross body or some other aerial maneuver.
Well known wrestlers were few and far between on the shows although Giant Haystacks, Alan Kilby and Pat Roach would occasionally appear. Daddy would then spend the interval signing photos for fans. The shows only ever drew around a hundred or so every week.
Around 1993 Big Daddy was wrestling in Hornsey when he suffered a bad blow to the head. After the match his brother Max stated that he couldn’t even lift his cup of tea. This had caused a form of paralysis that gave him a slight limp.
Daddy’s health gradually declined and on 2nd December 1997 he died in Halifax General Hospital from a stroke.
I personally think that Big Daddy should be in the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame for his influence on British Wrestling. He was instrumental in the surge in popularity of wrestling in Britain just as Hulk Hogan was in America. He was also a major part of the decline in wrestling due to the image of fat old men prancing about. Daddy did make the product stale by staying on top for too long but how many times have we seen this happen before? On the plus side, even to this day his name is almost instantly recognizable to anyone over thirty years old. He may have turned people away at the end but he undoubtedly brought more in at the beginning who only had a passing interest in wrestling. Even though he was a poor worker due to age and weight issues he will be remembered in Britain for being its most popular wrestler. The only wrestler who may surpass him in popularity due to his American exposure would be Davey Boy Smith. Daddy was the working class hero, similar to Dusty Rhodes. The people saw something British and inspirational in him, this made people look over his faults in the ring. He simply did too much to not be recognized for the impact he made in British wrestling.
The Story of Shirley Crabtree, Big Daddy
By Steve Wareing
No name is more synonymous with British Wrestling than Big Daddy. Whether you love him or loathe him he was the quintessential babyface of British wrestling in the 70’s, 80’s and into the 90’s. His huge frame would waddle to the ring sporting his glittering cape, top hat and his ‘Big D’ leotard. He could start chants of “Easy, easy!” to a packed town hall as effortlessly as Jim Duggan could with his “USA!” battle cry.
Shirley Crabtree (Daddy) was one of three brothers, Max and Brian being the others. Max was the promoter, Brian the ring announcer and Shirley the main-event wrestler. All shows were built around Daddy and to his credit he had great charisma. He was extremely popular with the public and young children flocked to him in droves. On the down side he was a poor worker, sometimes truly atrocious. At the peak of success he would use moves such as backdrops and body slams but once his health started to deteriorate he used simple moves such as shoulder charges, belly butts and his big splash.
Shirley Crabtree was born on 14th November 1929 in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. The Crabtree’s father (Shirley Crabtree Senior) was a rugby league player and wrestler. Shirley fondly remembered wrestling with his father from a young age. This inspired him to get into the grappling game.
Shirley started off his wrestling career aged around 17, at Saint James’s Hall in Newcastle against Welsh heavyweight, Sandy Orford. Shirley didn’t’t win his first match but losing would not be a regular occurrence later in his career. He went through various wrestling names such as The Battling Guardsman, The Blonde Adonis and Mr Universe before settling on Big Daddy. Shirley had tried to emulate his father as a rugby league player, playing for Bradford Northern. However due to his fiery temper he never made the first team. He had stints working as a coal miner and as a Cold Stream Guard in the British Army. But ultimately it was wrestling that won him over. He won two British Wrestling Federation titles but then quit in frustration and was out of wrestling for around 15 years.
Due to the rising popularity of wrestling on TV, Shirley’s brother, Max who was one of the most powerful promoters brought Shirley back and repackaged him as Big Daddy under the All Star Joint Promotions banner in the 1970’s. The Big Daddy name was actually taken from the play and film, ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ after Max saw the film at the cinema. Shirley’s wife, Eunice designed his first leotard from their chintz sofa, sewing a large letter ‘D’ onto it. Shirley lived on a farm in Halifax with his wife and six children.
Through his career he fought opponents such as ‘The Mighty’ John Quinn, Kendo Nagasaki, Tony Walsh, ‘King Kong’ Mal Kirk, the Masked Crusaders, Yasu Fuji, ‘Cry Baby’ Syd Cooper and of course his main rival, Giant Haystacks.
The Big Daddy versus Giant Haystacks matches was probably the most talked about feud in British Wrestling. Although it was quite the spectacle to see the two big men squaring up, the bouts were awful. They fought at Wembley Arena on one occasion with Daddy knocking Haystacks out of the ring for a count out victory (called a knockout in the UK). The bouts were usually a variety of shoulder charges and poor offence usually ending with Daddy scoring the pin. The pair appeared on ‘Tiswas’ once (a popular kids TV show in the 70’s and 80’s) hyping up an upcoming match. Daddy played the kiddie friendly jovial big man whereas Haystacks did his grumpy giant persona who hated everyone. They sat either side of co-presenter Sally James (the other host being Chris Tarrant of ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ fame) and shouted back and forth with James looking slightly concerned.
Daddy faced the legendary masked wrestler, Kendo Nagasaki in two TV bouts in 1975. The matches were noticeable for two incidents, neither being the wrestling quality. In the first match Daddy attempted to remove Nagasaki’s mask. He managed to pull it half way up Nagasaki’s face before Kendo delivered a Flair-like chop to the throat. Kendo pinned Daddy after this very weak finish. It is surprising in the sense that Daddy lost here as he rarely ever lost and secondly that he lost to such a poor finish, even for British finishing standards. This would be like Hogan losing in his heyday to Randy Savage with a thumb to the throat. In the second televised match, Daddy succeeded in pulling Kendo’s mask off revealing a tattooed, shaved head with a ponytail. Again Daddy was pinned after a series of thrusts to the throat but he celebrated his unmasking of Nagasaki by waving around the mask to the crowd.
Big Daddy teamed up with a variety of well-known British wrestlers such as the deaf and dumb star, Alan Kilby and at various points both British Bulldogs in their younger years Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith as well as Steve (William) Regal. He even tagged with his nemesis, Giant Haystacks in the 70’s before they began feuding. Daddy also helped start out the wrestling career of future World Class star, Chris Adams in the late 70’s.
In 1979 at Wembley Arena, Big Daddy fought Canadian, ‘The Mighty’ John Quinn in a grudge match. Giant Haystacks seconded Quinn to the ring. Despite the huge build up, Daddy did a Goldberg and destroyed Quinn. Several shoulder barges; three body slams and a backdrop gave Daddy the win in only 1 minute and 42 seconds. The crowd of 10,000 set British Wrestling’s largest indoor attendance record.
Daddy and the British wrestlers had many famous fans. The Queen and Margaret Thatcher were both noted fans as was Sir Paul McCartney. Thatcher once asked Big Daddy for six autographed photos for Downing Street and said it was an honor to meet him. The Royal family were reportedly huge fans of Daddy as well.
Big Daddy became so popular he crossed over into the mainstream media. He appeared on ‘Tiswas’ several times and ‘This is your Life’ with Eamonn Andrews. ‘This is your Life’ was a very popular at the time and it was considered a great honor to be on the show. As was the case each time, the celebrity was always caught out at an unsuspecting moment. Eamon Andrews walked into a TV studio next door to his own studios where Daddy thought he was filming a segment with a group of wrestlers. To his great surprise Eamon Andrews walked in wearing a wrestling mask and presented Daddy with the recognizable, ‘This is your Life’ book. Daddy looked extremely shocked but very pleased at the same time. One by one, wrestlers, family and friends paraded out recalling events of Shirley Crabtree’s life. Daddy and Haystacks stayed in character snarling at each other across the set.
Daddy also recorded a song, entitled ‘We shall not be moved’ that became his theme music. This was an old American folk song that was out of copyright and it seemed fitting to Daddy’s character. He put his name to a brand of tomato sauce (ketchup) called ‘Big Daddy’s Sauce’. The sauce is still found in supermarkets to this day although it is simply now known as ‘Daddy’s Sauce’.
Big Daddy even had his own one page comic strip in popular children’s comic at the time, ‘Buster’. Each week Daddy would use his robust frame to help out people (e.g., act as a bouncy castle for kids or a landing crash mat for parachute jumpers). ‘Buster’ was a very popular comic, probably only third to the still ongoing ‘Beano’ and ‘Dandy’. ‘Buster’ ran from 1960 to 1990. Daddy’s strip lasted around two years.
He also appeared in ‘Tiger’ (boys adventure) comic in a more serious wrestling strip, ‘Johnny Cougar’. He was an opponent for the Seminole Indian wrestler and Daddy preceded to give Cougar his toughest test to date.
When ‘Tiswas’ was cancelled a pilot was shot for ‘The Big Daddy show’ to go out on primetime Saturday morning for kids. However Crabtree pulled out at the last minute due to illness and a hastily put together show was put on its place.
Daddy was proud to be asked to attend the first ‘Royal Command Performance for Children’ organized by Princess Margaret. At another time he was presented with a medal proclaiming him ‘The People’s Champion’ in Leicester beating the Rock to the same moniker by many years.
A fateful night in Daddy’s career was in 1987 at the Hippodrome in Great Yarmouth, when he fought ‘King Kong’ Mal Kirk. Daddy went through his usual routine, ending with his Big Daddy splash. Kirk didn’t look very good at all after receiving the move. He had already begun dieing in the ring and was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival. Daddy was cleared of any responsibility as it came out Kirk had a serious heart condition. Although cleared of any liability Crabtree was devastated and wrestled infrequently afterwards.
After thirty-three years on ITV, new ITV Director, Greg Dyke in 1988, canceled Saturday afternoon wrestling. He decided wrestling was too stuck in the past and wasn’t the sort of product he wanted on his network. Max Crabtree blamed it on the wrestlers slagging off the product to the producers who then sent word back to Dyke. But the wrestlers probably had a valid complaint that Daddy was the only star being pushed and that he was fat and old, giving wrestling a bad reputation. Another problem was WWF had started selling its old ‘All American Wrestling’ tapes to ITV for £700 a show. In comparison, to produce two weeks of TV tapings, ITV would have to shell out £35,000. WWF tapes required no production costs so it was a simple business decision. For a while Saturday afternoon wrestling alternated each week between British and American before Dyke finally pulled the plug. WWF then moved to a late night slot until Sky bought the rights.
The Crabtree’s tried to strike a deal with Sky TV for British Wrestling. Max Crabtree had worked out to produce three, forty minute shows would cost £20,000 but Sky were only offering him £500. To make matters worse the man they were trying to strike a deal with at Sky was Australian and had no idea who Daddy was. Max knew this was the end with no way back.
A combination of no TV and the Kirk death saw Daddy wrestle less frequently. The Crabtree’s’ ran weekly shows on Sunday nights at the Sandcastle (a swimming complex) in Blackpool (a favorite holiday destination of Daddy and a lot of Scottish people) in the summer of 1992. I attended these shows each week. They were around two hours long and had four matches on the card.
Big Daddy would appear before the interval and always wrestle in a tag match. As always the matches were very formulaic. Daddy would team up with a talented youngster such as Tony Stewart, Johnny Angel or Andy Strong. The best two out of three fall bouts would always see the youngster pinned by whatever combination of heels were put together for that particular week. Daddy would then get mad and usually whack the heels with his corner bucket. Daddy would then make a hot tag and clear house with shoulder charges and his comedic belly butt. He would then deliver his Big Daddy splash for the equalizing fall. The youngster would then tag back in and gain his revenge winning with a high cross body or some other aerial maneuver.
Well known wrestlers were few and far between on the shows although Giant Haystacks, Alan Kilby and Pat Roach would occasionally appear. Daddy would then spend the interval signing photos for fans. The shows only ever drew around a hundred or so every week.
Around 1993 Big Daddy was wrestling in Hornsey when he suffered a bad blow to the head. After the match his brother Max stated that he couldn’t even lift his cup of tea. This had caused a form of paralysis that gave him a slight limp.
Daddy’s health gradually declined and on 2nd December 1997 he died in Halifax General Hospital from a stroke.
I personally think that Big Daddy should be in the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame for his influence on British Wrestling. He was instrumental in the surge in popularity of wrestling in Britain just as Hulk Hogan was in America. He was also a major part of the decline in wrestling due to the image of fat old men prancing about. Daddy did make the product stale by staying on top for too long but how many times have we seen this happen before? On the plus side, even to this day his name is almost instantly recognizable to anyone over thirty years old. He may have turned people away at the end but he undoubtedly brought more in at the beginning who only had a passing interest in wrestling. Even though he was a poor worker due to age and weight issues he will be remembered in Britain for being its most popular wrestler. The only wrestler who may surpass him in popularity due to his American exposure would be Davey Boy Smith. Daddy was the working class hero, similar to Dusty Rhodes. The people saw something British and inspirational in him, this made people look over his faults in the ring. He simply did too much to not be recognized for the impact he made in British wrestling.