‘One Fall To A Finish’ finishes trilogy on British wrestling
“Harry Potter!”
That’s what I remember first about Greg Lambert. The chant that rang around the sports hall every time Greg “The Truth” Lambert appeared, fresh-faced and sporting a pair of round glasses.
This was the early 2000s at Horwich Leisure Centre near Bolton, North West of the UK and FWA were delivering the wrestling. Greg Lambert was a heel, a mouthpiece, a cowardly manager and we loved to hate him.
That was FWA and for a time, it was brilliant. Frontier Wrestling Alliance delivered over and over again with such brilliances as Jody Fleisch, Alex Shane, Johnny Storm and Robbie Brookside, plus so many more.
They were aspirational too; they booked the Coventry Skydome for International Showdown in 2005, along with great talents like Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley, Samoa Joe and CM Punk, Raven, Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles.
I didn’t see the last match as I wasn’t staying over and the last train was around 10. And my abiding memory of the evening? Refusing to buy Terry Funk’s last ‘Funk U’ t-shirt because it was a small and I’m… not. I should have bought it.
When it closed, the XWA kind of took over, running shows out of Morecambe, the home town of… Greg Lambert.
A BritWres Believer
Greg Lambert is steeped in British Wrestling. It could even be said that he can’t keep away. He’s been a wrestling on air talent, a ring announcer, show writer, magazine writer, training center supremo, owner and general helpmate for 20 years.
And he’s previously written two books: Holy Grail: The True Story Of British Wrestling’s Revival and Ropes And Glory: The Emotional Rise Of British Wrestling in 2012 and 2017 respectively. Both of these books don’t put Greg at the center of the story; guess what’s there instead.
A Wrestling Love Story
And so to the recently-released One Fall to a Finish: Inside the British Wrestling Boom Years and Beyond.
Sounds final, doesn’t it? It might well be.
And this book is sad, but never downhearted. It is a tale of hope halted and dreams dashed, as owner after owner seeks for the Holy Grail.
That TV deal.
There’s a common thread here and that’s the ITV (mainstream UK TV channels being BBC1 and 2, ITV, Channels 4 and 5) Wrestling show, World Of Sport Wrestling, a look back at British Wrestling of the 1970s (oh, it was popular, the Queen Mother was even a fan) and the home of promises and pilots made, even a first series in the can but no sustaining.
That happens a lot in the six years of the book, and yet Brit Wrestling carries on, casting a wistful, even jealous, eye at the big deal, and salivating as an even bigger one arrived.
WWE became involved.
It was as if the World Of Sport Wrestling deal had woken the slumbering giant who looked at the landscape and thought “I like the look of that” and created NXTUK.
Yet, even with the specter of wrestlers being lured away, unable to wrestle, pulling out, the wrestling shows continued and so did Lambert.
It’s never about fame of fortune here – who is going to become rich and famous with wrestling if they stay in Britain – this is Greg Lambert loving the wrestlers, yes, the wrestling, sure, but actually the storytelling, the manipulation of the fans, the laughing, crying, living and, yes, dying.
Because this book is prefaced by a tribute to Adrian “Lionheart” McCallum, a wrestler who Greg knew well and who took his life whilst still an active grappler. It just shows the relationship of people working with people who pay to watch, the absolute humanity in this book shines through.
And yes, this is a love story. How else to explain the stress whilst working with Five Star, the very Icarus of promotions, with its TV deal and huge arena aspirations, plus holes you could drive an 18-wheeler though and his struggles and glories working as writer and booker of PCW out of North West UK city Preston.
He just lives wrestling, the just loves wrestling, he just longs for wrestling. But a big theme here is that as wrestling hurts him and dumps him over and over, will the love last?
The most sustained paid work Greg received from wrestling was when working for Alex Shane’s company – Alex always had a business eye and working holiday camps for holiday makers as part of their week’s break gave the wrestlers regular money, a well-organized production and a hot crowd; this is the closest we get in the book to the sweet spot of family Wrestling from the 1970s.
And this is also a fascinating section because a pre-YouTube Greg encounters the phenomenon that was/is the video work of WrestleTalk, which at that time had transcended wrestling, the presenters becoming stars in their own right. This ability to embrace new wrestling moments, even with a ling-armed hug, is a strength of the book, as he explains the other podcast and YouTube successes which allowed one to even run its own promotion.
Another strength here is the way Greg roots for the wrestlers, the delight he has when his storylines raise their fortunes, when they make Wrestling their sole income, when they rise with the promotion.
As an Amazon reader, Mr. G Pearce tells us:
This book is a fascinating read. Greg Lambert is an incredible storyteller who has lived through and been right in the middle of the highs and lows of British Wrestling over the last 20 years.
Mr. Pearce is right.
The End, My Friend?
After all these years. After such upset and triumph. After such a long affair. Greg Lambert may be finished with wrestling
He now works with Beyond Radio and seems to have found a new place to use his talents. But this is a book about Wrestling and that clearly remains a love he can’t spurn. This third release squares the circle, appropriately; whether he can leave it like that, only time will tell.
