Admiral-Lord Mountevans rules

Admiral-Lord Mountevans rules are a set of professional wrestling rules mainly used in British wrestling. They were named after Edward Evans, 1st Baron Mountevans who ordered a unified set of rules written up for professional wrestling in the British Isles.

History

Professional wrestling in the United Kingdom, under the All In rules, had been popular in the 1930s. However, as a result of an shift in focus away from technical skill and towards violence including usage of weapons, it was banned towards the end of the decade by the London County Council.[1]

After a failed attempt to relaunch the sport with a show at Harringay Arena, Middlesex in 1947 was condemned by journalists as being "fake",[2] Admiral-Lord Mountevans along with radio personality "Commander" Archibald Bruce Campbell, Maurice Webb MP and Norman Morell, an Amateur wrestling champion and professional wrestling promoter, formed a committee to formalise professional wrestling in the United Kingdom and write up a set of unified rules.[1]

Once the rules were written, they were almost universally accepted with 95% of promotions in the United Kingdom adopting them.[3] In 1952, the rules were adopted by the newly formed Joint Promotions, officially as a way to uphold the committee's ideology but was also considered to be a way for Joint Promotions to effectively control British wrestling.[1]

In London, the new rules led to the ban on professional wrestling being lifted however a by-law authorised by the Home Office and the Metropolitan Police kept female wrestling banned within the Greater London area until 1987.[4]

Weight divisions

The rules set out a number of weight divisions with maximum weight limits and called for champions to be crowned of each limit. The weight divisions were; Lightweight (154 lb or ~70 kg), Welterweight (165 lb or ~75 kg), Heavy Middleweight (187 lb or ~85 kg), Light Heavyweight (198 lb or ~90 kg), Mid-Heavyweight (209 lb or ~95 kg) and Heavyweight for all weights above 210 lb (95 kg).[2] In the early days, the champions of these weight divisions were also known as Mountevans Champions as the Championships also included Mountevans in their official names.[5]

Rules

The Admiral-Lord Mountevans rules defined what holds were legal[6] and how a fall could be scored:[7]

A fall could be awarded by the following means:

In singles matches for the best of three falls, a win was immediately awarded in the event of a knockout or disqualification, regardless of whether or not falls had previously been scored. Later when Tag Team wrestling was introduced to Britain, generally the disqualified or knocked-out wrestler was eliminated and a single fall awarded to the opposing team. The partner of the eliminated wrestler would then continue the match for any remaining falls under handicap tag conditions.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Listner, John (2005). Slamthology: Collected Wrestling Writings 1991-2004. Lulu.com. p. 255. ISBN 1411653297.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "The History of British Wrestling: Part One". Bleacher Report. 2010-06-10. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
  3. ↑ "(1946) The Rules Governing Professional Wrestling & All the Techniques to go Along With Them". Scribd.com. 2012-04-20. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
  4. ↑ "Historic Bouts". Geocities (archived). 2010-06-10. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
  5. ↑ "No Angel of Islington". Wrestling Heritage. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
  6. ↑ "The Wrestling Furnace Picture Gallery - Wrestling Holds". Wrestling Furnace. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
  7. ↑ "The Wrestling Furnace Picture Gallery - Wrestling Rules". Wrestling Furnace. Retrieved 2012-07-09.