Kent Walton RIP

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*The* voice of wrestling died the other day, which saddened me more than I thought it would.

Goodnight grapple fans

― chris (chris), Thursday, 28 August 2003 07:32 (twenty-two years ago)

His voice always reminded me of gravy, as it was about that time in World of Sport that my Dad would start making gravy for Saturday dinner.

― Dave B (daveb), Thursday, 28 August 2003 09:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I had the small joy of subtitling that brown, stocky voice recently (ITV wrestling showing on telly during The Fourth Protocol).

"Technically, his real name is Akiro. Getting the worst of it at the moment."

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 28 August 2003 09:21 (twenty-two years ago)

It is posts like that which make me love ILE.

― Dave B (daveb), Thursday, 28 August 2003 09:29 (twenty-two years ago)

The British Gordon Solie, and I can give to greater accolade than that.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 28 August 2003 16:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I really liked him as a commentator, but the occasional time when someone would ask him about whether it was a real sport he would always go on about how involved he'd been in it for decades and he was 100% convinced it was all real. Either he was phenomenally stupid or a liar, neither of which go much to his credit.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 28 August 2003 19:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Nobody broke Kayfabe back in the 70s though, Martin, and even if someone was to break Kayfabe, I can't imagine a setting less conductive to it than the Crabtree promotions back in the 70s (Inoki-ran feds excluded, obviously).

I mean, when did wrestling personalties finally break Kayfabe and admit that it was all scripted? I can't believe it was any time before 1998, to be honest. Even the Faking It on pro-wrestling referred to it as a shoot (which was just embarassing, really).

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 28 August 2003 19:53 (twenty-two years ago)

It was all exposed long before then - Jackie Pallo's autobiography, dated 1985, says that he never entered the ring without knowing who was going to win, with what move, in what round. Was Kent Walton emplyed by Crabtree, then?

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 28 August 2003 20:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually, you know, I'm not sure. Nowadays, commentators are obviously employed by the promotions that they commentate for (the ones who serve as anchors for show also tend to have some sort of backstage role, qf Jim Ross, Joey Styles). However, back in the 70s, it may have been different. Did Crabtree Promotions (I forget the real name of the company. Empire? Elite? Something like that) actually produce the program, or did ITV just go down there and cover it in the same way that they would football?

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 28 August 2003 20:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought the latter, really, but I'm not sure. I thought Kent was an ITV employee.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 28 August 2003 20:27 (twenty-two years ago)

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