During the golden age of British wrestling, a cacophony of larger-than-life characters found their way into our living rooms and local venues. Wrestlers like Big daddy, Giant Haystack, Kendo Nagasaki and more. But one stood out to me more than most. IronFist Clive Myers. It was only recently that I discovered Clive Myers after my brother showed me a match. It was Iron Fist Clive Myers Vs, Fit Finlay, from 1986 in a hard-hitting match which Clive lost but directly afterwards they had an arm-wrestling match of which Clive won. Fantastic match and theatrics that follow it. So today let’s discuss a trailblazer of Black wrestlers in the UK that you might not have heard about… Iron Fist Clive Myers.
It is not all that unusual for a pro-wrestler to become more successful and famous by playing a more over-the-top character after years of playing a more low-key one. Iron Fist Clive Myers was a talented wrestler of Jamaican heritage who became the cartoonish “Iron Fist” and elevated himself to one of the last stars of The British wrestling boom of the time.
Myers Moved to the UK as a teenager from Jamacia his athleticism immediately allowed him to excel in a plethora of different sporting activities such as weightlifting, martial arts, arm wrestling and, of course, Professional wrestling, On the wrestling scene, Myers was able to combine his incredible physical tools and strong personality to become an excellent in-ring performer.
By the 1980s the British wrestling scene was evolving into a brand-new animal. What with the influence of the Americans loud and bright bravado style of professional wrestling pushed wrestling in a whole new direction this caused people like Clive to reinvent themselves., with the prominent ITV Wrestling / World of Sport era.
Although the classic British wrestling crop of wrestlers was still working at a high-level fans were starting to gravitate more towards the character-based flashy style, so Myers saw an opening. so, he added some Bruce lee inspired moves to his professional wrestling arsenal. Kicks, strikes etc. Some flashy attire and creatively throwing all his eggs into the “Iron Fist” basket and running with it, it got over.
Fans gravitated to this new Clive Myers making him a household favourite! Myers was an incredibly talented middleweight competitor but truly excelled in tag team matches which allowed him to spread his wings creatively when it came to the gimmick he was trying to put forward. He had some fantastic matches teams with people like Marty Jones, Fuji Yamada (a young Jushin liger on an excursion from New Japan Pro wrestling) and “Kung Fu” Eddie Hamill to name just three.
Myers also began competing in arm wrestling and was very accomplished, coming in second place in the 176-pound class left-handers in 1985, and he helped bring the event to London a couple of years later. Seemingly Clive only wrestled 48 matches but from what I can tell 48 fun and incredibly entertaining matches, with his last match being in 2015 at the age of 69 years old against another British wrestling legend in Johnny Kidd of which he won. This was 23 years after his last match in 1992.
In the end, Clive retired and returned to Jamaica. I believe that Clive Myers leaves a strong legacy on British professional wrestling a young man hungry to prove himself amongst his peers during a time when the focus was on mostly white strait-laced wrestlers. He thrived with a bold and different character and made it work. If you do anything after reading this article look up some of his matches, and enjoy yourself… well to be honest you won’t have much of a choice.