Mark Rocco - Early Career

Early Career

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 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 June 11, 1977, and was involved in televised high-profile matches with Marty Jones before losing the title to him on September 13, 1978.

After Jones vacated the title, Rocco regained the title after defeating then-rookie Chris Adams in a tournament final on December 6, 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. 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.