Rocky grabs a world title on home ground

wrestler Clinton "Rocky" Steele (left) with New York's Rampage Brown at the Queen Elizabeth Hall

OLDHAM wrestler Clinton “Rocky” Steele was crowned international heavyweight champion of the world in front of a home crowd at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

The popular American Wrestling night resulted in Clinton, a former Saddleworth School pupil, defeating New York’s Rampage Brown in a night dedicated to the man dubbed Britain’s greatest-ever wrestler, Billy Robinson, who died last week aged 74.

Referee Ian McGregor said it was a perfect setting to pay tribute to a wrestling legend, who once ran a gym in Failsworth

The annual American Wrestling night at the Queen Elizabeth Hall has moved with the times over recent years and has seen a previously adult male-dominated fanbase become a family night out.

Mr McGregor said: “Our nights have really developed over the years. Our wrestlers are not just wrestlers anymore. To a lot of the children who come they are almost like superheroes.”