225:, The French Angel who was known as Unstoppable, and had won for a span of 19 consecutive months. Tillet's final wrestling match was in Singapore on 14 February 1953, he was working for The National Wrestling Alliance Mid South Area, then known as Tri-State and owned by Leroy McGuirk, and agreed to lose to Bert Assirati because Tillet's health had begun to fail due to being diagnosed with acromegaly at the early age of 20. The condition usually caused by a benign tumor on the pituitary gland, resulting in bone overgrowth and thickening. Because of this Tillet could no longer be advertised as Unstoppable. Shortly after Tillet died on 4 September 1954, in Chicago, from cardiovascular disease. Afterwards Assirati, again, left for India and was forced to vacate the title. In 1955, he won his final championship by defeating Ernie Baldwin for the vacant British Heavyweight Championship. He was stripped of the title in 1958 by Joint Promotions, the governing body, although the British Wrestling Federation (BWF) continued to recognize him as their champion. In 1960 Assirati sustained an injury and the BWF stripped him of the title as well. The championship was awarded to
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professional wrestler, but continued to train as a weight-lifter. At his highest weight, he was one of the strongest men in the world, and could still perform such acrobatic maneuvers as the iron cross and a one-arm hand stand. After winning matches, Assirati would perform a standing back flip. In 1938, Assirati
220:
In 1950, Assirati left the
British Wrestling Association to wrestle in India. As a result, he was stripped of the British Heavyweight Championship. He returned to Europe and won back the European Heavyweight Championship in 1952 after Assirati was chosen to wrestle the long time AWA World Heavyweight
232:
Later in his life, Bert worked as doorman at the
Ebbisham Halls in Epsom, Surrey, especially on the dance nights when many of the top acts of the sixties were playing there. He used to enjoy showing a party trick of placing a metal drink cap between each of the fingers on both hands and completely
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Assirati was known as a vicious competitor. He is said to have taken pleasure in injuring his opponents, and often refused to play along with the predetermined nature of professional wrestling. Many promoters were reluctant to book him, because of his reputation for double-crossing his opponents,
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was one of the wrestlers afraid to face him. In one version of the story, Assirati challenged Thesz to a match, but Thesz refused. According to Thesz's account in his autobiography, he challenged
Assirati for a series of wrestling matches, but Assirati did not respond to his request. Wrestler
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Assirati began weight-training at the age of twelve. At the age of seventeen, Assirati formed part of the acrobatic stage duo Mello and Nello. Travelling to every port they could reach, the pair performed a variety of hand-balancing acts. At the age of twenty, Assirati began his career as a
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but did not win the title officially until 27 January 1945. Two years later, he also won the
European version of the World Heavyweight Championship by defeating Paul Yvar Martinsen in the final round of a tournament on 18 February 1947. He later
151:. He was known for displaying various feats of strength, including setting a British record in 1938 by lying on his back, and pulling over at arm's length a 200-pound barbell. At 240 pounds, Assirati was one of the heaviest men to perform the
28:
229:, later better known as Big Daddy. Disgusted with the choice of successor, Assirati began a (non-storyline and unauthorised) campaign of harassment against the new champion at shows until Crabtree retired for six years in 1966.
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Assirati won his first major championship while competing in the
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this title to
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in 1949 by defeating Felix Miquet. Miquet regained the title belt later that year, however.
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and many wrestlers were said to be afraid to wrestle him. Assirati stated that
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570:. SLAM! Wrestling. Archived from the original on 14 July 2012
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800 pounds. He trained for his career in wrestling under
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801:: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (
783:. Archived from the original on 29 January 2006
495:. American Powerlift Revolution. Archived from
139:(9 July 1908 – 31 August 1990), was an English
1697:Sportspeople from the London Borough of Camden
377:"Tribute to a Strength Athlete: Bert Assirati"
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441:. Wrestling Heritage. Archived from
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236:On 31 August 1990, Assirati died of
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640:"World Heavyweight Title (Europe)"
568:"Les Thornton: A life on the road"
303:British Heavyweight Championship (
275:British Heavyweight Championship (
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815:Online World of Wrestling profile
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566:Oliver, Greg (20 February 2005).
382:. LA84 Foundation. Archived from
318:European Heavyweight Championship
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215:European Heavyweight Championship
92:5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
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323:World Heavyweight Championship
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667:"European Heavyweight Title"
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137:Bartolomeo "Bert" Assirati
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588:: CS1 maint: unfit URL (
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163:Assirati was born in
141:professional wrestler
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1012:George Hackenschmidt
875:Johann Baptist Krebs
781:Magazine, July 1948"
1692:People from Holborn
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722:on 12 November 2015
519:"Feats of Strength"
389:on 20 November 2008
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1405:Genevieve Stebbins
1082:Clara Schlaffhorst
669:. Wrestling Titles
642:. Wrestling Titles
617:. Wrestling Titles
545:The Yorkshire Post
521:. BertAssirati.com
499:on 29 January 2006
469:Wrestling Heritage
414:. BertAssirati.com
375:Smith, Charles A.
325:(European version)
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1462:Bodybuilding
1415:Armand Tanny
1385:Tony Sansone
1370:Steve Reeves
1310:Jack LaLanne
1210:Alan Calvert
1077:Arthur Saxon
1072:Eugen Sandow
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1662:1990 deaths
1657:1908 births
1514:Chandgi Ram
1484:B. C. Ghosh
1425:John Terpak
1395:Larry Scott
1380:Joe Rollino
1290:Bob Hoffman
1275:John Grimek
1250:Mark Forest
1112:Monte Saldo
1067:Joan Rhodes
1032:Thomas Inch
977:Tony Emmott
957:Victor Dane
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449:16 December
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169:Clerkenwell
53:9 July 1908
1651:Categories
1596:Gymnastics
1504:K. V. Iyer
1435:Al Treloar
1375:Leo Robert
1365:Bill Pearl
1355:Kid Parker
1325:Gilman Low
1205:Paul Bragg
1180:Joe Bonomo
1175:Mark Berry
1042:Dan McLeod
952:Niels Bukh
757:5 December
355:References
182:deadlifted
159:Early life
153:iron cross
105:Trained by
49:1908-07-09
35:Birth name
1420:Vic Tanny
1330:Dan Lurie
1143:New World
1102:Maxalding
1037:John Lees
221:Champion
194:Lou Thesz
1635:Category
1057:Reg Park
925:European
797:cite web
779:Iron Man
751:Archived
584:cite web
474:17 April
327:(1 time)
320:(2 time)
1616:Pilates
1579:Related
1440:Turners
1255:Ed Fury
1119:Vulcana
917:Western
909:Systems
211:dropped
165:Holborn
127:Retired
1557:Tiruka
1454:Indian
1107:Maxick
305:1 time
277:1 time
263:1 time
175:Career
1529:Yogic
1087:Sokol
387:(PDF)
380:(PDF)
119:Debut
803:link
789:2009
759:2023
728:2009
698:1997
675:2009
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590:link
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43:Born
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