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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1948-03-28)28 March 1948 (age 77)[1][2] |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name | Tony St. Clair |
| Billed height | 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)[1] |
| Billed weight | 111 kg (245 lb)[1] |
| Trained by | Roy St. Clair Terry Downes[1] |
| Debut | 1966[1] |
| Retired | 2006[1] |
Tony St. Clair (born 28 March 1948) is an English retiredprofessional wrestler. He is well known for his stints inJoint Promotions andAll Star Wrestling in the United Kingdom,Catch Wrestling Association in Austria and Germany, andNew Japan Pro-Wrestling. He is also known as a trainer, with his trainees including"Gentleman" Chris Adams andOsamu Nishimura.
Tony St. Clair was bornAnthony St. Clair–Gregory in Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, on 28 March 1948. He grew up on professional wrestling, as his father wasFrancis Gregory. His older brother,Roy St. Clair, alongside Terry Downes, trained Tony, to follow in his father's footsteps.
Tony St. Clair made his debut forJoint Promotions in 1966. At the time, he teamed with his brother Roy St. Clair as The Magnificent Saints. When his brother retired in the late 1970s, he moved into singles competition, and in May 1977, he defeated Gwynn Davies to win his first championship, theBritish Heavyweight Championship. He held the championship for more than a year, until losing it toGiant Haystacks in November 1978. St. Clair would retaliate by regaining the title for the second time, as Giant Haystacks was disqualified. During his second reign as champion, St. Clair transferred toAll Star Wrestling with the championship in 1982.
In 1982, St. Clair moved from Joint Promotions toAll Star Wrestling with the British Heavyweight Championship. During that reign, he would hold the (Mountevans Rules) World Heavyweight Championship between 1982 and 1984, winning from and losing back toMighty John Quinn. Along the way engaging in several inconclusive unification matches withWayne Bridges who had won a vacant Joint Promotions splinter claim after Quinn's move to All Star in 1981 and later followed Quinn across to the rival promotion, confronting St. Clair in the ring before a match onS4C's Welsh language wrestling TV showReslo in 1983.
St. Clair finally lost the British Heavyweight Championship toKendo Nagasaki after reigning as champion for nearly a decade. He regained the title from Nagasaki later that year. St Clair's British title claim had remained undisputed until 1985 when - three years after his departure - Joint Promotions, with recognition from ITV - set up an alternative version. In 1989, there were plans to unify All Star Wrestling and Joint Promotions' British Heavyweight titles, pitting St. Clair against Dalbir Singh after the latter joined All Star Wrestling, but Singh renounced his claim to the title, making St. Clair the undisputed British Heavyweight Champion once again. He reigned as champion until February 1990, when he lost the title toFit Finlay. During April and May 1991, St. Clair wrestled on theWorld Wrestling Federation's tour in England. In May 1993, he won the British Heavyweight Championship for the fourth and final time, but vacated the title in 1995. He remained in All Star until 2000.
St. Clair made his debut in Germany in 1974. He spent a decade wrestling for various promotions in Germany, until he metOtto Wanz, who offered him a chance to join his promotionCatch Wrestling Association.
St. Clair debuted forCatch Wrestling Association in June 1984, and toured Germany and Austria with the promotion. In December 1984, he became the firstCWA Middleweight Champion, but vacated the title the following year. In November 1988, he and CroatianMile Zrno defeated Fit Finlay andMark Rocco to become the firstCWA World Tag Team Champions. They reigned for nearly a year and a half, before losing the titles to Finlay andMarty Jones. In October 1992, St. Clair was awarded theCWA British Commonwealth Championship, before losing it that night toJimmy Snuka. He bounced back and regained the British Commonwealth title back from Snuka in December 1992, in which he held for over a year before losing it to Fit Finlay. In July 1994, he teamed withSteve Casey to defeat Finlay andJohn Hawk to win the vacant CWA World Tag Team Championship. They lost the championship two weeks later to The Wrecking Crew. In August 1994, St. Clair regained the British Commonwealth Championship from Finlay. He reigned as champion for eleven months before losing the title toFranz Schumann in July 1995, although he regained the title later that year. In December 1995, he teamed withAugust Smisl to defeat Hawk andCannonball Grizzly to win the CWA World Tag Team Championship, but they vacated the championship two days later when Smisl suffered an injury. In July 1997, he teamed withUlf Hermann to win his fourth and final CWA World Tag Team Championship, defeatingRobbie Brookside and Mark The Hunter to win the vacant championship. They reigned for more than three months, before losing the belts toJean-Pierre LaFitte andRhino Richards. In October 1998, St. Clair won theCWA Submission Shootfighting Championship. After reigning three years on his fourth reign as CWA British Commonwealth Champion, he finally lost the title to Robbie Brookside, although he regained the title from him one week later, as well as winning theCWA Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship. The CWA would fold in December 1999 with St. Clair holding three championship at once.
St. Clair made his Japanese debut in January 1979 forNew Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). He would become one of the top gaijin superstars in Japan. Starting out in their junior heavyweight division, St. Clair had a shot at theWWF Junior Heavyweight Championship in May 1985, but lost to championHiro Saito. He also participated in the inauguralTop of the Super Juniors tournament in 1988; he placed in ninth place with 14 points. He wrestled for NJPW until 1995.
In 1997, St. Clair began competing for various promotions throughout Europe, includingVerband Der Berufsringer, Independent Wrestling World, European Wrestling Promotion, German Wrestling Alliance, Deutsche Wrestling Allianz, and Professional Wrestling Alliance. In 2001 and 2002, he returned to NJPW as part ofOsamu Nishimura'sMUGA. In 2001 and 2002, Tony worked as a referee for theWorld Wrestling All-Stars tours. In 2006, he was planning to join MUGA in August as a wrestler and trainer, but on 5 July he suffered astroke and had to pull out. Shortly afterward, he retired after 40 years in the business. In 2018 St Clair was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the British Wrestlers Reunion at The Bridges Public House in Kent. St Clair was a special guest at Cheltenham Town Hall on February 19 for World Pro Wrestling at ALL-Star Extravaganza.