David Higgins

David Higgins became a huge wrestling fan whilst growing up in Liverpool in the 1970s. He regularly attended fights at Liverpool Stadium, Bixteth Street with his dad Kenneth.

The now demolished stadium was a major 6,000 seat venue attracting Friday night full house audiences for it's "Every Friday Night is Fight Night". David was eleven years old when they first started going to matches, always sitting in the middle on the front seats, and never missing a Friday night.

David remembers that the build up for the night started with the seven mile journey into Liverpool from Kirkby where they lived. This involved getting the bus and then the train into Moorfields station.

"It was all part of the event really which me and my dad looked forward to - him probably even more than me!"

Collecting souvenirs

As part of his hobby David collected many posters, wrestling reviews and pro-wrestling books.

He took these particular posters from around the side of the stadium ring around 1978, which wasn't as easy it would seem as David explains:

"Really you had to be there at least half an hour to an hour before the start in front of your poster - the one you really wanted. They were all sellotaped to the ropes around the ring. Once the music started for the wrestlers to come on your dad would quickly hoist you up there and you would have to fight the other kids to get your poster first.

Posters were put up all across Liverpool but if you tried to take them off the wall they would rip. A few were also in a case outside the stadium. You could put your name down for them but really you had no chance. You couldn't buy them in any shops either, so you had to be really serious if you wanted to get one."

These particular posters show some of the top liners including Adrian Street and Amazing Kung Fu. Local Liverpool lads, Jack Martin - 'The Hairy Chested Ex-Liverpool Docker!', The Liverpool Skinheads O'Neil and Paul, and Kevin Conneely the Liverpool Irishman.

David was a massive fan of Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks, and a certain blonde lady wrestler in a pink leotard also caught his eye! Later he became a fan of Belfast Bruiser, who personally signed the special Christmas Extravaganza poster, "To Dave, Best wishes Belfast Bruiser".

The Cross Keys pub

Bruiser signed the poster in the Cross Keys pub just outside of the stadium. The pub also played a central role in the weekly event;

"At the interval everyone rushed over there. All the dads loved it of course, whilst the kids got a glass of coke and a bag of crisps. They let kids go in specially every Friday night. I always remember it was the first time I ever went in a pub. You saw the same people regularly and we made good friends with a lot of them. I particularly remember a lad called Peter who was also from Kirkby, our Dads went drinking together as well. In fact we started to go to the disco on a Saturday afternoon on the Royal Iris Ferry down at the Pier Head.

After the matches finished all the wrestlers would come over for a drink too and that's where I got my photo taken with them.

Come to think of it there was also a hot dog seller outside the stadium as well - the kind of thing you wouldn't touch nowadays looking back on it!"

The end of an era

After a few years David and his dad stopped going to the wrestling;

"I don't remember specifically why. Maybe I had just grown out of it, or it might have had something to do with it becoming quieter once the big named wrestlers went to TV. They didn't really come back to Liverpool after that. Or it might just have been that they stopped the wrestling".

David still remembers the tremendous atmosphere and good times he had there. But what does he think of modern wrestling today?

"Well it's a bit pathetic now isn't it - no I'm defiantly not a fan. The old school wrestling was much more authentic, and the names and costumes much more outrageous!"

David, who now lives in Blackpool, donated these posters to help record the glory days of Liverpool's wrestling past.

Accession numbers for the posters MMM.2004.1-4.