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Giant Haystacks
Martin Austin Ruane (10 October 1946 – 29 November 1998) was a British professional wrestler of Irish parentage, best known by the ring name Giant Haystacks. He was one of the best-known wrestlers on the British wrestling scene in the 1970s and 1980s. He also worked in Canada and the United States under the name Loch Ness Monster or simply Loch Ness.
Ruane was known for his massive physical size, billed as standing 6 ft 11 inch (2.11 m) tall and weighing from 31 stone (430 lb; 200 kg) at the beginning of his career to 48 stone (670 lb; 300 kg) by the end of it; at his heaviest, he weighed 49 stone 13 pounds (699 lb; 317 kg). In the 1970s he formed a heel team with Big Daddy.
After Big Daddy turned face and the team broke up, the two engaged in a long-running, high drawing feud. During his career, Ruane held the European Heavyweight Championship and British Heavyweight Championship in the UK, and won the Stampede International Tag Team Championship in Canada, with the Dynamite Kid.
Ruane was born in Camberwell, London, on 10 October 1946. He weighed 14 lbs and 6 oz at birth. His father was from Ballyhaunis, County Mayo, Ireland. In 1949, when he was three years old, Ruane and his family moved from London to Broughton in Salford, Lancashire, which remained his home. He attended St. Thomas' School until he left aged 14. He worked as a scraper driver building motorways, and as a nightclub bouncer before a friend suggested he take up wrestling.
Ruane began wrestling in 1967, initially for the independent WFGB as "Luke McMasters", later incorrectly reported as being his legal name. In the early 1970s, Ruane worked for Wrestling Enterprises (of Birkenhead), where he was billed as "Haystacks Calhoun", after the American wrestling star William Calhoun who had wrestled under that name in NWA: All-Star Wrestling and the World Wide Wrestling Federation. Ruane's name was subsequently modified to "Giant Haystacks".
In summer 1975, he moved to Joint Promotions, where he formed a heel tag team with Big Daddy, also a heel at this point. Haystacks' TV debut came in July 1975, when he and Daddy teamed up against the brothers Roy and Tony St. Clair, losing by disqualification. Although mainly known as brutal superheavyweight heels who crushed blue-eye opponents, they also had a major feud with masked fellow heel Kendo Nagasaki.
Daddy in particular heard cheers during this feud and eventually completed a turn to blue-eye. This was cemented when Haystacks and Daddy broke up their tag team in 1977 and feuded with each other, with Haystacks remaining as the heel, resulting in high ratings on Britain's ITV Saturday sports show World of Sport any time they battled one another, and establishing Haystacks as a household name during the 1970s and 1980s.
On television, the feud began when the two reached the finals of a September 1977 four-man knockout tournament, only for Haystacks to walk out in the opening seconds of the final match. A November rematch between the two saw Daddy score a first fall early in Round One, before Haystacks contrived to cause the referee to be crushed between himself and Daddy, resulting in a no contest. Subsequent televised tag matches at Christmas that year and through 1978 mostly resulted in Haystacks abandoning his partner to concede the losing falls to Daddy. Although on one occasion in August 1978, Haystacks returned to knock out Daddy's tag partner Gary Wensor for a rare 2–1 victory.
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Giant Haystacks
Martin Austin Ruane (10 October 1946 – 29 November 1998) was a British professional wrestler of Irish parentage, best known by the ring name Giant Haystacks. He was one of the best-known wrestlers on the British wrestling scene in the 1970s and 1980s. He also worked in Canada and the United States under the name Loch Ness Monster or simply Loch Ness.
Ruane was known for his massive physical size, billed as standing 6 ft 11 inch (2.11 m) tall and weighing from 31 stone (430 lb; 200 kg) at the beginning of his career to 48 stone (670 lb; 300 kg) by the end of it; at his heaviest, he weighed 49 stone 13 pounds (699 lb; 317 kg). In the 1970s he formed a heel team with Big Daddy.
After Big Daddy turned face and the team broke up, the two engaged in a long-running, high drawing feud. During his career, Ruane held the European Heavyweight Championship and British Heavyweight Championship in the UK, and won the Stampede International Tag Team Championship in Canada, with the Dynamite Kid.
Ruane was born in Camberwell, London, on 10 October 1946. He weighed 14 lbs and 6 oz at birth. His father was from Ballyhaunis, County Mayo, Ireland. In 1949, when he was three years old, Ruane and his family moved from London to Broughton in Salford, Lancashire, which remained his home. He attended St. Thomas' School until he left aged 14. He worked as a scraper driver building motorways, and as a nightclub bouncer before a friend suggested he take up wrestling.
Ruane began wrestling in 1967, initially for the independent WFGB as "Luke McMasters", later incorrectly reported as being his legal name. In the early 1970s, Ruane worked for Wrestling Enterprises (of Birkenhead), where he was billed as "Haystacks Calhoun", after the American wrestling star William Calhoun who had wrestled under that name in NWA: All-Star Wrestling and the World Wide Wrestling Federation. Ruane's name was subsequently modified to "Giant Haystacks".
In summer 1975, he moved to Joint Promotions, where he formed a heel tag team with Big Daddy, also a heel at this point. Haystacks' TV debut came in July 1975, when he and Daddy teamed up against the brothers Roy and Tony St. Clair, losing by disqualification. Although mainly known as brutal superheavyweight heels who crushed blue-eye opponents, they also had a major feud with masked fellow heel Kendo Nagasaki.
Daddy in particular heard cheers during this feud and eventually completed a turn to blue-eye. This was cemented when Haystacks and Daddy broke up their tag team in 1977 and feuded with each other, with Haystacks remaining as the heel, resulting in high ratings on Britain's ITV Saturday sports show World of Sport any time they battled one another, and establishing Haystacks as a household name during the 1970s and 1980s.
On television, the feud began when the two reached the finals of a September 1977 four-man knockout tournament, only for Haystacks to walk out in the opening seconds of the final match. A November rematch between the two saw Daddy score a first fall early in Round One, before Haystacks contrived to cause the referee to be crushed between himself and Daddy, resulting in a no contest. Subsequent televised tag matches at Christmas that year and through 1978 mostly resulted in Haystacks abandoning his partner to concede the losing falls to Daddy. Although on one occasion in August 1978, Haystacks returned to knock out Daddy's tag partner Gary Wensor for a rare 2–1 victory.