Wrestling fans remeber Les Kellett as one of the funniest wrestlers ever.
The Clown Prince of Europe could make anyone laugh with his antics in the ring.
Whether he was drunkely stumbling around the mat or pretending to be deaf to fool his opponent, Les Kellett’s matches were never dull.
He always seemed like he was having so much fun in the ring, and was a delight for all those that watched him at 4 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon.
However, those who actually knew the man behind the scenes had a much more negative opinion of him.
The wrestlers that knew Les Kellett didn’t see him the way he acted on TV.
Instead of being the funnyman the public knew him as, Les Kellett was known as an angry, agressive and bitter man.
A number of his colleagues have told tales of his backstage conduct over the years.
These range from his incredible tolerance for pain, his dour deamenor and, frankly, a nastiness that is rarely seen.
Les Kellett Broke A Trainees Shoulder During A Tryout
One story that shows why some wrestlers didn’t like Les Kellett is how he treated up-and-coming wrestling.
He allegedly dislocated the shoulder of a trainee who was trying to make it as a professional wrestler.
This was allegedly because he found giving him a try out a “chore”, which is hardly a reason to potential end a young wrestler’s career.
“We asked [Les Kellett] to give someone a try-out at the Dale Martin gym in Brixton.” Bill Abbey told Simon Garfield for his book The Wrestling.
“He wasn’t best pleased with the chore. The new wrestler had been fighting for a rival in the South, small-time, and wanted to move up.”
Within forty seconds Kellett had dislocated his shoulder and had him screaming on the canvas, and wouldn’t let go.
“Had to be forced off. The fellow had to be taken to King’s Cross hospital by ambulance.”
Simon Garfield tried to interview Les Kellett for the book, but the Clown Prince of Europe refused to speak to him, outside of one letter of refusal.
Adrian Street Recalls Les Kellett’s Incredible High Pain Threshold
Welsh legend, “The Exotic” Adrian Street once told a story about Les Kellett and his incredible ability to withstand pain.
In his RF Video Shoot interview, Adrian Street told the tale that highlights the ridiculous pain threshold the Clown Prince of Europe had.
“Do you know the story of when Les Keleltt got his hand bit?” Adrian Street said. “He was talking to a friend of his on the farm, feeding the hogs, and this big old boar bit him on the hand.”
“He got an infection and his hand swelled up like a boxing glove.”
“Instead of going to the doctor’s like a normal person, he was wrestling that night so he went to the show.”
“In the dressing room, the guy he’s wrestling with says ‘Don’t go in the ring and wrestle like that’. Les goes ‘Yes… yes, I think you’re onto something there. I can’t go in the ring and wrestle like that. So what I’m gonna do to get rid of the poison is put my hand here, on the ground, and I want you to stamp on it.’
“’Oh, I can’t do that Les’. ‘But you’ve told me, and I agreed, that I can’t go in the ring like this. So stamp on it, or I’ll stamp on you.'”
“So this other wrestler stamps down, hard, on his hand, and all this blood and poison and pus comes shooting out of it.”
“This is in full view of the other wrestlers. He had to be the centre of attention did Les”.
In his own book, Adrian Street went on to explain that Les Kellett did these feats to always be the centre of attention, and to freak out others.
He needed everyone to know that he was the toughest man in the locker room, and events like this seemed to prove it.
Les Kellett Was Compared To Pagliacci The Clown
One of the most apt comparisons made to Les Kellett was Pagliacci The Clown, who perfectly mirrored Kellett’s own seperation between his self and his character in the ring.
Pagliacci is the clown from the Italian opera of the same name, and is the archetypical tragic clown figure.
There is a famous joke referencing this.
A man goes to the doctor suffering from depression.
The doctor tells him that the treatment is simple. “Go into town, the great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. That should cheer you up.”
The man, fighting through bursts of tears, cries, “But doctor…I am Pagliacci!”.
This joke shows the dichotomy between two sides of one person. Both the character they play in public, and the one they really are behind the scenes.
In The Wrestling, Max Crabree compared Les Kellett to Pagliacci the Clown.
“Les is a very complex man.”
“He was a bit like Pagliacci the clown. The man behind, off the scene, was not the man that was in the ring”.
“Ninety-nine percent of the lads were shit scared of him” Max Crabtree added. “Les knew that, and Les knew how to use it. [He] was the sort of fellow you wouldn’t want living next door to you.”
In the ring, Les Kellett was literally that – a clown. His job was to sell tickets and make people laugh.
He didn’t wear makeup or get his opponents to smell his flower, before squirting them with water, but the same principles remain.
With the clown, the banality of simple smelling a flower is made hilarious, when water unexepctedly squirts into the victims face.
Les Kellett did this with wrestling. When the crowd thought he would simple fall out of the ring, he launched himself back in with a ferocious headbutt.
He would set up that he was partially deaf. When the referee told him to release a hold, Les Kellett would feign that he couldn’t hear, and kept hurting his opponent.
However, as soon as bell rung, he would loudly remind his opponent that the round was over. The audience were howling.
He was a modern-day clown, but behind the scenes, he was a secluded, bitter and nasty man that others were afriad of.
Jackie Pallo Didn’t Like Wrestling Against Les Kellett
One of Les Kellett’s biggest rivals, Jackie Pallo, also had mixed things to say about him.
While he loves his in-ring work, he didn’t want to wrestle him if he was in a bad mood.
Kellett was prone to violence if he wasn’t happy. Many wrestlers outright refused to wrestle him, through fear of getting themselves hurt.
Luckily for Les Kellett, he was such a huge draw that promoters couldn’t afford to keep him off the bill.
“To watch him work in the ring, you thought ‘Oh he’s funny, isn’t he lovely?’.” ‘Mr TV’ Jackie Pallo said about Les Kellett in a 1997 documentary.
“Being there with him, I would sooner go in there with three wrestlers than wrestle Les Kellett.”
“Because if Les was in a bad mood – bye bye.”
He continued to give his view on Les Kellett in Simon Garfield’s The Wrestling.
“He won’t talk to you. He doesn’t want to know.”
“If he wanted to, he’d smash you up.”
Pallo clearly understand that Kellett was a tough man. It is clear why many wrestlers feared him backstage, and even Jackie Pallo was no different.
Explore more of Les Kellett’s wrestling career by clicking this link.
