Bottie Wrestling

Bottie Wrestling

Bottie Wrestling (hereafter BW) was a little-known professional wrestling organisation created by two brothers, Edward Clarke and Charles Clarke. It was a popular local wrestling organisation around the English city of Leeds, but it never reached the same level of popularity outside of the city. The idea of the business originally was to provide good wrestling action but with a light-hearted angle. It was different in the sense that just two people played every character, fictional or not, in the business. Charles played the heels and Edward played the babyfaces. The business promoted obesity and, more specifically, big backsides.(i.e. botties). It was an improvement to the older Misslethweite Manor Wrestling (MMW) which had not gone public. All the characters, except True Bottie Man (heel) and Bottie Man (face),formerly The Fashion Man and The Sadman respectively) were inspired by real life characters that the brothers had come into contact with on their travels. Wrestlers such as the Fat Loner of Wales (who, as a result of a Redfearn Driver from Michael Redfearn, broke his neck) and Big Woman of Telford, England (who was allegedly 7 feet tall and was well known for her enormous Chokeslam manouevre) were some of the more notable ones. Tom, known previously as Colm, joined after being heard saying "I'm gonna moon over Miami"(a phrase later used more commonly by True Bottie Man). As a fan of the Harry Potter series, his finishing move was the Book End, in which he would use a book to assault the opponent with. This of course was a parody of WWE performer Booker Huffman’s finisher.) All the wrestlers had their own entrance music and catchphrases, and all characters were assigned various signature moves, such as Bottie Man's 'Bottie Man Bottielock' (a variation of the Shamrock Anklelock designed by WWE wrestler Ken Shamrock) and the 'Botties of Bottieland' (again, a variation of WWE's Chris Jericho's 'Walls of Jericho'.

The shows BottieSmack and Sore Botties aired alternately every week., and once a month a Poo-Per-View event (referred to by other wresting businesses as Pay-Per-View) took place, usually named a parody of a recent or up-coming WWE event. For example, The Bottie Bumble was named after the Royal Rumble.

The occasional 'Real But It's Fake' match was a firm favourite with the local fans. It was a match devised by the two brothers. The idea of it was that it was the ultimate face-off between True Bottie Man and Bottie Man to end an on-going disagreement once and for all. The idea was that True Bottie Man and Bottie Man would fight against each other in an unplanned contest and with no stage acting involved. In other words, the battle would be a real life, no holds barred fisticuffs, but would still be performed in a light hearted manner, making sure that nobody involved got too seriously hurt. The winner was the wrestler who had inflicted enough pain on the opponent to make them say 'I don’t want to play anymore'. The easiest way of doing this was to wear the opponent down first, and finish with a long submission move to make them quit. In the weeks building up to the match, the two fighters would prepare their strategies and weapons for the battle. Weapons such as chicken wire on a block of wood and handcuffs were one of the most famous of all the RBIF matches. True Bottie Man was considered the master of these matches, due to his more muscular build than Bottie Man’s. He was therefore always favourite to win, although it was clear that everyone outside the ring was rooting for the underdog. In the history of the match, Edward (Bottie Man) only ever won one of these matches, with the final RBIF one resulting in Bottie Man leaving the ring in tears after all the effort put in was not enough in the end. This particular RBIF was widely regarded by fans as their favourite, partly due to the stipulation that the loser would be recognised as a severe “Cummings’ disease” (Gastric torsion). This stipulation was enforced by Special Guest Referee, one Miss Cummings.

Michael Redfearn, a firm heel, infamously collapsed the business temporarily, although this was only a storyline. In reality, BW had been banned from its regular venue for events, the unfittingly named Jilly's Room (named by David Clarke, the owner of the venue who's daughter had once stayed in). The reason for the ban remains undisclosed.

True Bottie Man and Bottie Man were well known for battling it out outside the ring in their respective magazines, the True Bottie Magazine and the Bottie Magazine. These evolved from the original MMW magazines.

A few years since starting BW, Charles took the business public and began creating videos of all Poo-Per-Views in the year and, once a year, a 'Best Of' video of BottieSmack and Sore Botties shows. Previously, BW had not been taped and it was merely a hobby for both members. But the introduction of a camera crew was expected to progress this weekly hobby to a serious business. The videos were a huge success for the company, with many people from the local area buying the tapes for their own home use. The videos were professionally made and included all the certificates and licenses needed to sell them. The business never sold merchandise through shops for financial reasons, rather through the now-defunct www.bottiewrestling.com (which had profiles of BW wrestlers and the latest BW magazine previews), by e-mail and occasionally by telephone.

After many years of wrestling, Edward and Charles decided to gradually lessen the Bottie Wrestling events every week, slowly letting the business fade away rather than come to an abrupt halt. There was no official declaration that Bottie Wrestling was over, but both founding members knew that the end of an era was beckoning.

Charles and Edward have since stopped the sale of BW videos following the demise of the small business.


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