Big_Daddy

Real Name: Shirley Crabtree

Stage Name: Big Daddy

Date of Birth: 14 Novemeber 1937 Home Town:

Height: Weight:

Titles: British Wrestling Federation British Heavyweight Title (4-10-60, defeats Ed Bright in Leicester, England) ; British Wrestling Federation European Heavyweight Title (1960, defeats Yvar Martinson in Leicester; 1961, defeats Milo Popocopolis) ; Joint Promotions Mythical Champion of all Mankind (late 70s through late 80s)

Died: December 2, 1997 (Heart attack, age 67)

Brief Bio:

As the most popular wrestler in British history, the lessons learned by his story, which see one man go from the heights of the world to the lowest depths, are lessons that men like Eric Bischoff, Kevin Nash, and Hulk Hogan would be wise to learn.

"Big Daddy" was born Shirley Crabtree on November 14, 1937. It was said that his mother wanted a girl so bad, that she was going to name the child Shirley no matter what. His father was likewise named Shirley. Legend has it that Crabtree learned how to defend himself at a young age due to what other children put him through due to the name.

He became a lifeguard as a teenager and became interested in bodybuilding. The legendary George Hackenschmidt (first ever pro-wrestling world champion in 1905) became an influence on him in terms of both body building and wrestling. He and his brothers Brian and Max began wrestling at age 16; their father had been a sporadic pro-wrestler in the decades prior. The three brothers all wrestled different styles; Shirley was the muscle-type while Brian did acrobatic moves. Adrian Street called Max "the only one I admired", as he was the only one that was any good as a worker. As luck would have it, Shirley would be the only one that'd stick to straight wrestling. Brian became a referee, and Max eventually became the most powerful promoter in British history.

Shirley became a big hit in the late 50s and early 60s with heel gimmicks, called "The Blonde Adonis" or "Mr. Universe". He won two titles in the British Wrestling Federation (BWF) before he soured on the business and quit for what he thought would be forever. Money wasn't so good for him in BWF (Joint Promotions (JP), the British NWA, had a virtual monopoly on wrestling) plus he had to suffer the ridicule of Bert Assirati, famous, legit, tough-guy champion in Britain who was always on the outs with every promoter since he could double cross anyone in the ring. On one BWF card Shirley was announced as British champion while in the ring. According to legend, Assirati stood up in the crowd and mocked Crabtree's ability, causing Shirley to hustle out of the ring and away from Assirati's barrage.

For roughly fifteen years, from the early 60s to mid 70s, Shirley was on the "dole", to to speak. In the mean time, Max usurped more power within Joint Promotions and Brian became one of the more well known referees in the federation. When Max pulled a "Jim Crockett" and grabbed most of the power base of JP, he asked Shirley to come back. He'd seen the play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", and believed the "Big Daddy" character would be a huge hit in pro-wrestling. He thought his brother could play it to the point; so in 1976, Shirley Crabtree made his comeback. Not as the tanned, muscled heel he played 15 years prior, but as an obese, pasty white baby face.

True enough, Big Daddy, with his top hat and vintage tights, became the biggest hit in Britain. Max immediately put his brother over all the established heels. Longtime legendary heels like Mick McManus met their match with Daddy. Daddy's biggest rival was the even larder Giant Haystacks. Haystacks was probably a legit 475 pounds or so, and dwarfed the legit 350 pound Daddy. Even though their matches have been called contenders for worst of all time in any country, the match up allegedly drew up to 18 million fans at its peak. Considering that Britain�s population was not yet even 60 million at the time, that represents almost 33 percent of the population tuning in on a Saturday afternoon to watch. Compare that to the largest pro-wrestling audience of all time in America (Andre vs Hogan on NBC in 1988 at somewhere around 35 million viewers in a country with around 260 million at the time), and it appears even more impressive. At its height, Joint Promotions and Big Daddy routinely brought in audiences of 10 million plus each Saturday.

The standard Big Daddy match was the tag match. There was a snidely heel (i.e. McManus) and a monster heel (ie. Giant Haystacks) vs some young runt and Big Daddy. Various wrestlers played runt over the years, including young Dynamite Kid, Davey Boy Smith, and Steven Regal. The heels would demolish the runt for the majority of the match before Daddy would get tagged in, do a few belly bumps (not even feigning clotheslines or anything, mind you, this was the extent of his working ability), and the big splash for the win. The formulaic, disrespectful style was a big hit for a while, but its easy to see why it began turning away fans at some point. Maybe Kevin Nash should know about this?

ITV (a major network in Britain) even crafted several television shows to showcase Daddy, in addition to the Queen of England being publicly linked to being a fan of Daddy's. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was another fan. It has been argued that Big Daddy may have been the most over pro-wrestler ever within one's country although I would say both Rikidozan and El Santo dwarf his popularity within Japan and Mexico, respectively. Never the less, no wrestler in American history... not Hulk Hogan, not Gorgeous George, Ed Lewis, or Frank Gotch, has ever achieved the sustained and peak popularity within their own country that Big Daddy did in England.

Despite his huge stardom in the United Kingdom, a frequent knock on Daddy was that he never attained any success internationally. Many historians today like to cite Assirati, Billy Robinson, and even Haystacks (Loch Ness in WCW) as bigger British stars simply because they made names for themselves elsewhere in the world. While it's true Big Daddy was never a draw outside of his country, he did have influence elsewhere. While scouting for talent in Britian for Stampede, Bruce Hart witnessed Big Daddy's gimmick first hand. Although he had no intention of bringing the giant Englishman back to Canada (he was more interested in Dynamite Kid), he decided to give the future Junkyard Dog the same gimmick back home, "Big Daddy" Ritter.

Alas, the 80s brought to an end the Crabtree era of wrestling in England, just as it had begun only a decade before. Brian Dixon's "All Star Promotions" began seriously challenging Max Crabtree's Joint Promotions for superiority in England. In 1985, Tony Banger Walsh of "The Sun" newspaper vehemently criticized Big Daddy and pro-wrestling in general for being fixed and grotesque. In August, 1987 Mal "King Kong" Kirk died after receiving a splash by Big Daddy. The incident was said to have completely demolished Daddy. The coroner ruled that Kirk had a serious heart condition which was worsened by the splash. Perhaps regulation of pro-wrestling could have saved Kirk's life? As this was all happening, WWF was gaining steam, with their tanned steroid bodies that made all the top stars in Britain look like idiots. There was Big Daddy, Mal Kirk, and Giant Haystacks, these utterly obese fellows. Then there was Mick McManus, Jackie Pallo, and others that were cryptically old. The stereotyped pro-wrestling fan, interestingly enough, became the "old grandma", and old people in general.

Greg Dyke took over ITV in 1988 whilst it was in the midst of getting hammered by the BBC in terms of overall viewership, including the vaunted teenage and young-adult demographic. Dyke decided to take all wrestling off ITV, which for all intents and purposes, signaled the end of strong, home-grown pro-wrestling in the UK. No British-bred pro-wrestling aired on network TV for over a decade. WWF, and to a lesser extent WCW, came to dominate the UK just as much as they did the US.

In 1989, Max and Shirley made a last ditch effort to get their product on Sky Television, since WWF was a big hit on that channel. The head of programming was Australian and wasn't familiar with Big Daddy, plus the networks in general felt sour about Daddy's demographic, so nothing came of it. For better or for worse, the Crabtrees' domination of British Professional Wrestling had come to an end.

Max continued promoting smaller indy shows into the 90s, while Shirley retired into relative obscurity. He suffered a stroke in 1993, and died on December 2nd, 1997. Crabtree received a full scale obit in the London Times, a feat few pro-wrestlers, if any at all, had ever achieved. He was married twice, had four daughters, and two sons. To this day in England, if you ask an adult who Big Daddy is, chances are they know. The mistakes Max and Shirley made in the 80s are especially interesting when you look at WCW's situation. You can almost pluck out Hulk Hogan, and insert Big Daddy. You can almost see Max Crabtree in Eric Bischoff's place. Big Daddy was once one of the more respected, loved, and popular guys in England. Now he's a laughingstock amongst pro-wrestling fans, and almost solely blamed for British wrestling's downfall. Heavy stuff.

Sources: http://www.times-archive.co.uk ; The Wrestling by Simon Garfield ; Pure Dynamite by Tom Billington ; Wrestling Title Histories 4th Edition by Gary Will and Royal Duncan ; Gareth Thomas

Links:

http://www.neowrestling.com/bios/daddy.shtml