In British wrestling’s golden age, you had two options. Either you worked for Joint Promotions to you worked for “The Opposition”.
These were the two options, and choosing one would define your career in wrestling. Joint Promotions had the coveted weekly TV spot on ITV, headlining World of Sport every Saturday afternoon. They ran hundreds of shows a year and gave you the best chance of making a living.
However, some wrestlers opted to work outside of the syndicate. They forewent the money, fame and chance to wrestle within this closed shop for the freedom of working for “the opposition”, giving them more freedom in how and where they worked.
But what exactly was “The Opposition”?
The Opposition Promoters Were Outside Of The Joint Promotions Monopoly
The concept of an opposition promotion really came about after Joint Promotions was formed in 1952. With the Mountevans Rules coming into effect, they had the opportunity to spearhead a wrestling renaissance.
Promoters from across the country banded together to create a tight-knit band of wrestling companies in an attempt to monopolise the wrestling business.
The alliance had six promoters all working together across England and Scotland. They represented different areas of the country, keeping a stranglehold over the wrestling business.
These six promotions were:
- Woodhouse/Jack Atherton Promotions (Midlands)
- Best/Wytron Promotions (Midlands/Lancashire)
- Dale Martin Promotions (London)
- Morrell/Beresford Promotions (North)
- Paul Lincoln Management (South)
- Relwyskow and Green Promotions (Scotland)
These promotions enforced strict rules for their talent. Any wrestler who wrestled for Joint Promotions in any of their territories wasn’t allowed to wrestle for any non-affiliated promotions in the United Kingdom. If they did, they would be blacklisted from the company and not booked for any shows.
Any promotion not affiliated with Joint Promotions was known as “The Opposition”.
This was a big deal because Joint Promotions had the only TV deal in the country for most of its history. Leaving them meant forgoing national exposure, which severely impacted your ability to make a living as a full-time wrestler.
Joint Promotions were a monopoly and were threatened by the monopolies commission numerous times. However, Bill Abbey thought that it wasn’t worth their time to actually do anything about it so simply let the practise opinion.
“We were threatened by the Monopolies Commission a number of times. But we always fought it off because it was never worth their while doing anything. It was probably illegal but we stuck to it and that was that. Everyone hated us for it, especially the wrestlers.”
Brian Dixon spoke to Simon Garfield where he revealed that their philosophy was to “Keep them hungry”. Joint Promotions didn’t let the wrestlers get too successful or make too much money, or else they would no longer need to work for the syndicate to make a living.
This isn’t a morally good way to do business but it did wonders for their profits. It created the monopoly where the wrestlers needed to work for Joint Promotions, or else find another vocation entirely.
All Star Wrestling Were The Biggest Promotion In The Opposition
There were many different opposition promotions over the years that existed outside of Joint Promotions. These were mostly regional companies that rarely ran shows outside of their jurisdiction and were barely on the radar of Max Crabtree and company.
However, Brian Dixon set up All Star Wrestling in 1970 and quickly became the big challenger to Joint Promotions’ dominance.
They quickly became the biggest of the opposition promotions. Stars like Count Bartelli, Syed Saif Shah and Roy Bull Davis jumped ship to this new promotion, having found opportunities limited under Joint.
Count Bartelli had even unmasked to get on TV, as the syndicate did not want any masked wrestlers on their screens. However, this had not gone well and he found TV time wanting.
Two of the biggest stars to come out of the promotion were Tanzi Cook and Luke McMasters. If these names sound unfamiliar, you’ll probably know them better as Mitzi Mueller and Giant Haystacks.
Brian Dixon built up a strong opposition that provided more opportunities for the wrestlers. He brought in Kendo Nagaski and Gorgeous George to help run the promotion in the early days, but they returned to Joint once they realised promoting wasn’t for them.
After 17 years of toiling away as second best, All Star Wrestling found itself on equal ground. Having renamed itself from Wrestling Enterprises to All Star Wrestling in 1985, it began to share the weekly TV slot with Joint Promotions and the WWF after World of Sport was cancelled.
Wrestling was totally cancelled in 1988 and Joint Promotions were out of business less than a decade later, following the retirement and eventual death of Big Daddy in 1997.
However, Brian Dixon managed to stay in business running live shows in places like Butlins up until his death in 2022. All Star Wrestling remains alive and well under the stewardship of his grandson as “The Opposition” remains one of the longest-running promotions in wrestling history.
