| Biography | Mark Hussey (born 11 May 1951) is a retired English professional wrestler who competed for All-Star Wrestling as Mark "Rollerball" Rocco and as the original masked Black Tiger in New Japan Pro Wrestling during the 1970s and 80s. A fourth-generation wrestler, he is the son of British wrestler "Jumping" Jim Hussey and the father of boxer Johnathan "Rocco" Hussey.
Regularly appearing on ITV's World of Sport, he feuded with many of the top light heavyweight wrestlers of the era including Marty Jones, the Dynamite Kid, "Iron Fist" Clive Myers in England and masked Japanese wrestler Tiger Mask in Japan.
Born in Manchester, Rocco grew up in his father's gym where other local wrestlers trained. Although his father was opposed to his being a professional wrestler, going so far as to have his son banned from his gym, Rocco would receive lessons from some of the veterans while his father was out on tour.
Rocco started amateur wrestling at age 16, competing as far away as southern France and Pakistan, was definitely wrestling professionally by late 1972, being then a regular at Northern venues such as Liverpool Stadium and Blackpool Tower.] Making his debut in Dale Martin's London territory under the Joint Promotions banner, he became a rising star in the organization, defeating Bert Royal for the British Heavy Middleweight Championship on 11 June 1977 and was involved in televised high-profile matches with Marty Jones before losing the title to him on 13 September 1978.
After Jones vacated the title, Rocco regained the title after defeating then-rookie Chris Adams in a tournament final on 6 December 1978. Rocco lost the championship to Adams a few months later, and regained it towards the middle of 1979.
Touring North America the following year, he teamed with Greg Gagne and briefly competed in the World Wide Wrestling Federation, one of his opponents being Terry Bollea.
In 1981, Rocco had his first feud with Satoru Sayama, then wrestling in Britain as Sammy Lee. Rocco was scheduled to wrestle Lee for the World Heavy-Middleweight title title (recognised as vacant by Joint Promotions) at Wembley Arena that year on the undercard of the famous Big Daddy versus Giant Haystacks grudge match, but this was cancelled after Lee returned to Japan due a family bereavement. Rocco was awarded Joint Promotions recognition as champion by default that night; later that year he defeated Joel de Fremery at a TV taping in Southport for the main European version of the World Heavy Middlweight title.[3] Vacating his British title to concentrate on the World title, Rocco feuded intensely with a returning Dynamite Kid, culminating in a World title match in Lewisham, South London that ended in a double knockout.
After his series of highly regarded matches, Rocco was contacted by New Japan Pro Wrestling to wrestle a series of matches against Lee/Sayama in Japan. Wrestling under the name Black Tiger, against Sayama's Tiger Mask character, Rocco and Tiger Mask's matches were some of the highest rated in Japanese television history. The success of this series of matches between the original Black Tiger and original Tiger Mask would be followed with later incarnations of wrestlers to have competed under both the Black Tiger and Tiger Mask names in later years.
The rivalry between the two Tigers would continue throughout 1982, as the two feuded over the WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship after Rocco defeated Gran Hamada in a tournament final for the title in Fukuoka, Japan on 6 May before losing it back to Tiger Mask less than a month later in Tokyo, Japan on 26 May 1982.
Rocco would make further return vists to Japan in the late 1980s where he and Keichi Yamada would recreate their UK feud. In 1989, as Black Tiger, Rocco fought with Yamada's own superhero alter ego, Jushin Liger. He was also involved in Liger's early training.
In 1983, Rocco appeared during All Star Wrestling's national tour of Great Britain and issued an open challenge for a non-title match to any wrestler in the promotion. Accepted by Frank "Chic" Cullen, he was defeated by Rocco although they shook hands following the match.
A televised confrontation between Rocco and Yamada would come in Spring 1987, on opposite sides of a tag match. Yamada and his tag partner in Britain, "Ironfist" Clive Myers had challenged legendary masked wrestler Kendo Nagasaki to a tag team match and, having a shared rival in Yamada, Rocco volunteered. Nagasaki and Rocco defeated Yamada and Myers in the main event of a TV taping at the Fairfield Hall Croydon.
Following this match, Nagasaki and Rocco would continue to team until a year later at another televised Croydon tag match, where the team collapsed in spectacular fashion while facing Myers and Dave Taylor. Taylor was attempting, mid-match, to unmask Nagasaki and had nearly succeeded when Rocco intervened. Rocco attempted to pull the mask back down, but Taylor forearm-smashed Rocco, causing the mask to come off in his hands. As Taylor and Myers celebrated, Kendo fled to the dressing room and returned with another mask. Kendo's manager George Gillette blamed Rocco for the unmasking, igniting a major feud that would run on into the early 1990s.
In 1991, Rocco collapsed in the dressing room following a match against Fit Finlay in Worthing. Rocco, who had been suffering from pain in his back and kidneys since a match against Dave Taylor the previous night,] was taken to a nearby hospital where doctors found his heart was working at only 30% and diagnosed him with a heart condition which forced him to retire from professional wrestling.
In February 2003, he was scheduled to attended a "Legends' Reunion" event held by 'All Star Wrestling' in Croydon, England which included former alumni such as Mick McManus, Johnny Kincaid, Dave Bond, John Elijah and Wayne Bridges; however, he was unable to attend.
In August 2006, he and his father received a lifetime achievement award at the 15th Southern Wrestlers Reunion at South Darenth, Kent. During the event, Rocco also presented a lifetime achievement award to promoter Brian Dixon as well. Rollerball Rocco was the subject of the 2011 song "Inside the Restless Mind of Rollerball Rocco" by English musician Luke Haines. It is featured on Haine's psychedelic rock concept album about British wrestlers entitled "9 1/2 Psychedelic Meditations On British Wrestling Of The 1970's And Early 1980's". |