Billy Robinson knocking out Peter Maivia is one of the most infamous street fights in wrestling history, although the truth has been shrouded in mystery…until now.
Usually in professional wrestling, the fights in the ring are the second most interesting part of the show.
The most exciting is the behind-the-scenes fighting between the wrestling, which is what makes the confrontation between Billy Robinson and Peter Maivia in the streets of Japan so interesting.
The pair were chalk and cheese and completely different in every way. Maivia was a “High Chief”, a Samoan wrestler who was the head of his family and a legend in the wrestling business.
Nowadays, he is most famous for being the Grandfather of WWE Legend Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. However, he had an incredible career in his own right, earning WWE Hall of Fame status in 2008 (he even wrestled in the UK for four years in the 1960s!).
While he had some huge matches in his time, his most infamous encounter came against a famed English “shooter” called Billy Robinson.
Trained in the famous “Snake Pit” in Wigan, Billy Robinson was one of the toughest men in the wrestling business. He was a champion in Catch-as-catch-can wrestling, an Olympic hopeful and the inspiration for the shoot-style wrestling promotions, like UWFi, in Japan.
Both men were feared but for different reasons.
Maivia loved a drink, and when he drank, he loved a fight. He was wild and dangerous in a scrap, carrying the same notoriety that someone like Haku does today. He was big and unpredictable which made him a wrestler you did not want to cross.
Meanwhile, Billy Robinson was a much different fighter. He was tall, around six foot one, and very stocky. Peter Maivia may have had the height and weight advantage over him, but twelve years training under Bill Riley at the Snake Pit taught him one or two things.
Ric Flair once said “He wanted us to know he could kick our ass. And he could” about Robinson, while also calling him a “tough guy”. If the Nature Boy thinks he was a dangerous man, then you know he was tough.
A fight between these two behemoths could’ve made big money, even though their most famous encounter happened out in the streets with no fans in attendance.
Billy Robinson vs Peter Maivia: The Legendary Fight
The relationship between Billy Robinson and Peter Maivia was very good before their vicious, bloody fight in the streets of Japan.
According to Robinson, he and Maivia were friends. The Samoan had come to the UK in the 1960s, wrestling for four years until leaving abruptly in 1967.
The Englishman even got him, alongside George Gordienko, booked on the tour with the JWA. The fight took place on one of their tours in 1969. This was three years before the formation of All Japan Pro Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling, and six years after the tragic murder of Rikidozan.
The fight was caused, according to Billy Robinson, by Peter Maivia’s antics during a dinner out with a group of wrestlers.
Robinson, Maivia, Gordienko, John da Silva, Frank Valois and a few other wrestlers were out having dinner together in an unnamed Japanese town.
The Samoan wrestler was drinking and was getting irate at one of the Japanese customs. Unlike in other countries, they traditionally have a set menu in restaurants, not allowing you to make changes to your dish by swapping out one food for another.
After over an hour of complaining, Billy Robinson claimed he told Peter Maivia “Keep your big mouth shut. Let everybody order, Let’s get our food and then go our separate ways.”
Peter and George left and the rest of the wrestlers ordered their food. The two groups split but eventually met back at their hotel, unknowingly having booked to stay at the same establishment.
In his book, “Physical Chess”, Billy Robinson recalled the fight following the argument in the restaurant.
“I walk up and say ‘Peter, George, what’s happening?’. Peter starts screaming at me and pushing me. I say, ‘Peter, you’re drunk. You messed everybody up’. But he wants to fight.”
“He throws a couple of punches, which I block easily.” Billy Robinson boasts. “ I grab him and hold him around the waist. I say, ‘Peter, stop it. I mean, I don’t really want to hurt you.’ He then tries to bite me on the neck. Luckily, I pull my jaw down because I’ve been trained. However, he bites me straight through my cheek. I have four or five holes in my face where his teeth went through. Blood is spurting out.”
After the bite, Robinson claims he knocked Maivia out within 15 seconds and put him to sleep for the next twenty minutes. He took a trip to the hospital to get stitches and confronted Peter Maivia and George Gordienko the next day. Neither wanted to fight him, but it soon came out that Gordienko instigated the fight.
However, a different tale was told on an episode of Tales From The Territories. A group of legends claimed Billy Robinson was jealous of Peter Maivia’s charisma and popularity and commented on the Samoan using his fingers to eat with, instead of cutlery.
The wrestlers claimed that Peter Maivia exploded, biting Robinson’s eye out of its socket and throwing him through the window of the restaurant the pair were dining in and causing the Englishman to have a crooked eye for the rest of his life.
The part about the eyeball has been repeated constantly since that day in Japan in 1969, with The Rock even repeating the story on talk shows all over the world.
Now, not being there, we cannot tell which story is true, but the part about the crooked eye has been denied by Billy Robinson. He was very forthright in his book about having an eye operation as a child, which forced him to switch from boxing to professional wrestling.
While he did have his face bitten by the Samoan, Robinson categorically denied having his eye bitten out during his fight with Peter Maivia.
Billy Robinson’s version does sound slightly embellished to make him look like the valiant hero against the savage Samoan. If you were booking a match between a pure white babyface and an evil heel then this would be a perfect way to do so.
It’s almost too perfect to be true, although the Englishman maintained this version of the tale up until his death.
As they say, there are always three sides to every story. The truth about what happened between Peter Maivia and Billy Robinson may never come out, although what we do have is pretty great already.
George Gordienko Tells His Version Of The Story
However, the testimony of George Gordienko may help clear up the truth.
Historian Koji Miyamoto spoke to George Gordienko about the 1969 scrap between the two wrestling legends. He was there for the bout and was said to be the instigator, so has first-hand knowledge of what happened.
“I was there. Me and Gil Vonie. Peter started that fight. Billy was trying to stop him, but Billy likes to fight , you know. So it ended up a fight. Billy tried to twist Peter’s arms.”
“Peter was just defensive. So he bite! Billy’s cheek bleed ! Then me and Gil tried them apart right away.”
So it seems the “biting a man’s eye out” was quite a big embellishment from Peter Maivia and his family. Gordienko’s version lines up with most of what Billy Robinson said and had no mention of being thrown through a restaurant window.
Robinson also wrestled the rest of that tour in Japan while holding the IWE World Champion. I doubt he’d be competing in the ring with his eye hanging out of his socket.
