Wrestling was in a state of flux in 1987 and Kendo Nagasaki had a slightly faulty vision for how All-Star Wrestling could compete with the glitz and glamour of the WWE.
If one word could describe Joint Promotions’s presentation, it might be ‘traditionalist’. Indeed, its conservative approach saw few real characters, white meat goodies take on black trunk baddies and a heavy focus on the grappling component.
With this in mind, the infamous All-Star Wrestling’s Disco Ladder match, the main event of their first TV slot in 1987, looked positively otherworldly!
Kendo Nagasaki Led All-Star Wrestling’s First Attempt At Making A TV Show
In 1985, after two decades on air, ITV’s World of Sport was cancelled.
The main way many fans would see wrestling, WOS’s folding meant that although wrestling got its own programme, it suffered from the lack of mainstream exposure and was often relegated from its time slot by other shows.
1987 was even worse for Joint Promotions as their long-standing monopoly was utterly shattered after their contract went up for renewal. Their slot now moved into a weekly rotation with both America’s World Wrestling Federation and Brian Dixon’s new All-Star Wrestling outfit.
These are the circumstances under which All-Star made had their first televised card in January 1987.
Comeback Kendo
All-Star made one man the focus of their company: Kendo Nagasaki.
Kendo was a massive coup for the promotion considering he had been largely out of wrestling spotlight for nearly a decade.
He did not come alone, again flanked by long-time manager “Gorgeous” George Gillette, now adorning a fetching bowler hat and brolly.
As well as his return bout, he grappled with beloved football pundit Jimmy Greaves in a segment aired on Saint and Greavsie.
Although their top star, he was far from their only marquee performer, with their first TV card also featuring elite performers like Mark “Rollerball” Rocco, “Flying” Fuji Yamada (the future Jushin “Thunder” Liger), and his Disco Ladder match opponent “Ironfist” Clive Myers.
The Disco Ladder Match Concept
A first for British audiences, it is thought the ladder match was brought over by Nagasaki, who had wrestled in Canada’s Stampede Wrestling at the same time as the first-known ladder match.
This took place in 1972 between former American Wrestling Association star Tor Kamata and Dan Kroffat (although not the wrestler with the same name who would also perform as Phil LaFon in the 1990s).
In this sense, Britain outdid America, which did not have a nationally televised ladder match until WrestleMania X in 1994.
The ladder match in Britain was more limited, with the wrestlers using a one-sided step ladder and thus ruling out fights atop of the ladder. Both men would try to retrieve a charity golden record.
As it was Christmas time, the golden record was secured with gold tinsel. Notably, the match would not air until January 3rd – well after Christmas Day – and was recorded on the 27th.
An addition to the ladder concept was the disco element in which a light and music show would accompany the action in the ring.
As we know, Joint Promotions was outdone by the WWF, whose slick presentation, vibrant bombast, and deeper pockets left British wrestling in the dust.
As British wrestling historian John Lister writes in Slamathon, the rhetoric promotors felt was “What chance did an ageing Joint roster stand when young viewers had seen Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage in a wild lumberjack match before 20,000 Madison Square Garden fans?”
Perhaps knowing this, Brian Dixon booked an added disco stipulation, attempting to show that Britain too could replicate the glitz and razzmatazz of the WWF.
A Match To Remember
The match made full use of the light show at the London Hippodrome, then owned by Peter Stringfellow. Some camera shots panned to the hands of the operator flicking the fader dials to flash the green and red LEDs.
As WrestleCrap – the site that takes an affectionate look at some of the most ‘out-there’ ideas in wrestling – noted: “between the super-wide shots…and the close-ups of the lighting guy twiddling his knob…the match was near-impossible to follow, with viewers constantly bombarded with distractions.”
At the same time, classical music blared from the venue’s speakers. One would like to point out that The Nutcracker and 1812 Overture are quite far from what you could classify as ‘disco’ but even the sounds of Boney M. would have been quite passe by 1986!
The sound of the music blaring through the arena was an odd thing for a wrestling match. It is something that worked beautifully for New Jack during his days in ECW, but in the Hippodrome it felt rather out of place.
As it turns out, that wasn’t a creative choice but a big mistake from the people running the show. As Kendo Nagasaki noted in his book “Kendo Nagasaki and the Man Behind The Mask”, the plan was for the music and lights to only start once the winning wrestler had grabbed the record hanging from the ceiling.
“The plan for the Disco Challenge Match was that at the moment the winning wrestling actually got hold of disc, that’s when the lights show would begin and music would play, right at the climax of the headline match.” Kendo Nagasaki wrote.
“The lights show started forty seconds after the match began, accompanied by loud fanfare-style music – that wasn’t supposed to happen until the winner grabbed the disc.”
Three and a half minutes in, the music thankfully stopped, only to start again soon after. It was not the idea atmosphere for a wrestling match whatsover.
The only move of note was towards the end when Clive Myers, on about the seventh rung, had the ladder whipped away from him. The spectacular fall that forced Myers to crumple into the mat is undoubtedly one of the most devastating bumps in British wrestling.
After this, Kendo grabbed the disc to end the bout after seven-and-a-half minutes.
George Gillette adds that fans should get used to the sight of the man he called “the world’s most invincible wrestler.”
The Legacy Of The Disco Challenge Match
The Disco challenge was certainly a hell of a way to kick off the first televised All-Star card. Whether you liked it or not, it was certainly a spectacle and one that would have blown the minds of fans used to seeing modest exhibitions and earnest grappling.
Wrestling Heritage wrote that, considering the two talented performers involved, “it would have been better if it was just a normal match, this “Disco Ladder Match” didn’t impress anyone.” Elsewhere, respected wrestling journalist David Bixenspan added: “I’m not sure if anyone knows how Brian Dixon’s brain decided to book this, but it’s one of the strangest matches in the history of wrestling and a lot of fun to watch.”
In a bizarre twist, this is not the only ladder match where a gold disc was the prize as in 2000, WCW hosted a similar bout between the Yung Dragons and 3 Count. You will no doubt be sad to discover that the match featured minimal Tchaikovsky. Disc-graceful and Pathétique.
