Wayne Bridges

William Woodbridge (5 July 1936 – 8 March 2020) known professionally as Wayne Bridges was a British professional wrestler who was most well known for wrestling for Joint Promotions in the 1960s-80 and All Star Wrestling in the 1980s. He held the British wrestling version of the World Heavyweight Championship for most of the period 1979–1989, winning either of two branches of the title a total of three times. One of his championship wins, both of his championship defeats and several defences of his title were broadcast on ITV, on either standalone wrestling programmes or as part of the World of Sport package show. These bouts were publicised in the nationally distributed TVTimes magazine.

Biography Bridges started his career in wrestling in 1964. During his career, he became half of the NWA Vancouver Canadian Tag Team Champions with his tag team partner, Dan Kroffat. He was also an international wrestler travelling around the World. In 1979 he won the Mountevans Rules version of the World Heavyweight Wrestling title by defeating "Iron Greek" Spiros Arion at the Royal Albert Hall, London. but Bridges earned a second title match after defeating Baron Von Schultz (Judd Harris) at a Croydon TV taping and won back the title from Nagasaki by disqualification in Cheltenham. Bridges retired as champion in 1988.

In 2016 Wayne Bridges was inducted into the British Wrestlers Reunion Hall of Fame at the 25th Annual Reunion receiving the award from Roy St Clair. His wife Sarah Bridges was the final ever inductee into the Hall of Fame (posthumously) in January 2022 shortly before the Reunion ended after thirty years.

After wrestling In retirement he became the host of the British Wrestlers Reunion, a role he held for 25 years until his death. Bridges' wife Sarah was a professional bodybuilder and competed around the world, winning many titles before retiring and becoming a judge, most notably of the Arnold Classic in the USA. Sarah Bridges died on 22 November 2021 aged 53. Wayne Bridges died on 8 March 2020 at the age of 83.

Links

http://www.britishwrestlersreunion.com

http://www.wrestlingheritage.co.uk