Mark Rocco, also known as Black Tiger, was a wrestling star of the 70s and 80s of the 20th century. He was a four-time world heavy middleweight, two-time British heavy middleweight and one-time British light heavyweight champion. Fans remember Rocco as a wrestler who entered the ring in the World of Sport programme, which was shown every Saturday. His fierce and expressive fights were always greeted with applause from the crowd of spectators.
Few people know that Mark’s father opposed his son’s decision to become a ring wrestler, although the father himself devoted his life to this sport. However, Mark Rocco went against his father’s will and decided that wrestling was his vocation, notes imanchester.info.
Early years and the beginning of the career
Mark Hussey Rocco was born in Manchester on May 11, 1951. Rocco is a wrestler in the fourth generation. His father, Jim Hussey, nicknamed Jumping, was also a professional wrestler. Jim Hussey’s father and grandfather wrestled as well.
As a child, Mark Hussey was interested in equestrian sports. His father spared no expense and provided his son with everything necessary to succeed in this sport. For some reason, Jim Hussey didn’t want his child to follow his path and become a wrestler. However, that was what Mark wanted.
Therefore, the teenager trained in the gym with experienced wrestlers only when his father went to competitions. As a young man, Mark Hussey participated in amateur fights. He debuted as a professional fighter in 1969. After that, the sports career of the young wrestler quickly went up.
International success
The peak of Mark’s popularity occurred in the 70s and 80s of the 20th century. In June 1977, he defeated Bert Royal, and thus, won the British Heavy Middleweight Championship. In total, the wrestler became the British heavy middleweight champion twice and once the light-heavyweight one.
Subsequently, Mark Rocco focused on winning the title of World Heavy Middleweight Champion. In June 1981, he defeated Sammy Lee (real name Satoru Sayama) and got that coveted title for the first time.
Rocco’s next successful fights for the title of world champion took place in 1985, 1986 and 1987.
The wrestling legend also starred on World of Sport, which previously aired on ITV on Saturdays. Although that was a night programme, it was extremely popular. Many people wanted to see the Manchester wrestler in action.
The famous professional wrestler and promoter Max Crabtree recalled that Rocco was very expressive in the ring. According to him, he was even crazy sometimes. Mark believed that if you want to be a good wrestler, you need to almost blow up the ring, throw the opponent into the audience and even hit the referee. Crabtree recalled that channel representatives had to ban the show due to too violent fights between wrestlers.
“So I kept on having to pacify the television people who said they didn’t want him on no more, and I had to go back to Mark and say, ‘Silly fella, you’re off for three months,’” the promoter recalled.
Black Tiger
At one time, Mark Rocco was the highest-paid wrestler not only in Great Britain but also in Japan. In the early 1980s, the athlete joined New Japan Pro-Wrestling, the main professional wrestling federation in that country.
In Japan, Mark Rocco took the image of Black Tiger, a Japanese anime character. Under that nickname, he faced opponents who embodied another anime character, Tiger Mask.
It is interesting that initially, Mark refused to wrestle in Japan as Black Tiger. At that time, his name was known throughout Great Britain and Europe. However, later, the athlete agreed because of the huge fee. In the early 1980s, Rocco received £10,000 without taxes for his first wrestle in Japan.
The legendary Rocco retired due to health problems in the early 1990s. In 1991, the wrestler from Manchester fainted in the locker room after one of the fights. Doctors diagnosed him with serious heart disease and insisted on ending his sports career.
Since his retirement, Rocco has starred in the ring and on TV as a professional coach to young wrestlers.
Mark Rocco died at a nursing home in Warrington on July 30, 2020. In the last years of his life, the athlete suffered from vascular dementia. He was 69 years old at the time of his death.