Normy thanks for your post. There is no mistake here, Shirley Crabtree was the holder of the British and European Heavyweight Titles and throughout the early part of the 1960s Assirati did challenge him to a match for the belt which Crabtree declined (this may have something to do with the fact that Crabtree had wrestling Assirati in Germany when he was 19 and got a good hiding). Crabtree for this and other reasons, mainly financial, retired from the wrestling business for approximately 15 years. When Max Crabtree became a big player in the match maker stakes in the 1970s he was looking for a 'super hero' type of wrestler who would appeal to fans of all ages and persuaded his brother Shirley to come out of retirement and thus the character of Big Daddy was born. Fans must remember than by this time Shirley was in his mid/late 40s and had gained a lot of weight so was not the same type of wrestler he had been in the 1960s. However, few can argue that at the time the Big Daddy charactor took off in a big way making the name one of the most famous in British wrestling history.
