“A hundred thousand watch Giant Haystacks in a Bombay fight” – Manic Street Preachers

If you say the name Big Daddy to a British person of a certain age, their immediate response would be Giant Haystacks. Such was the appeal of Haystacks, he has appeared in films and was a lyric in a Manic Street Preachers song.

Although Daddy and Haystacks are known as bitter enemies it didn’t start off that way; they originally teamed together for two years in the mid 1970s and were an imposing super heavyweight tag team who were often more than double the weight of their ill-fated opponents. After Daddy turned babyface, Haystacks focused his attention on winning gold and became the British Heavyweight Champion in Royal Albert Hall after defeating Tony St. Clair.

In the early 1980s there was a regular talent exchange between the UK and Canada, seeing Haystacks end up in Calgary to compete in Stampede. Long before the British Bulldogs found fame, Haystacks found himself with an unusual tag team partner in The Dynamite Kid. The ultimate high flyer and super heavyweight tag team, they found success winning the Stampede International Tag Team Championships from Keith and Bret Hart. It was a short lived reign however, as Dynamite explains in his book Pure Dynamite: “Haystacks had to go home after two weeks, though, after he ate too many strawberries and came out in a rash.”

The Daddy versus Haystacks feud is for many the most iconic in British wrestling history. The majority of the feud took place over tag matches, Daddy having a much smaller partner and Haystacks having another heavyweight alongside him. Although the two out of three falls tag matches were predictable, millions across the nation watched World of Sport and sensed the peril as Haystacks’ team gained the first fall only to ultimately end up defeated.

As well as wresting in Canada, Haystacks wrestled across the world. In 1985 he enjoyed a tour of All Japan, teaming with Gypsy Joe and taking part in the All Star Wars tag tournament. Although not successful in the tournament, Haystacks had a number of big singles victories during the tour and a mini feud with the fearsome Killer Khan.

Post World of Sport ending, Haystacks had try-outs in WCW in 1991 and in WWF in 1992. My wrestling fandom worlds really collided in 1996 though, when one of the biggest stars of British wrestling ended up alongside Hogan, Flair and Savage in WCW. Going back to the name Loch Ness he dominated Marcus Alexander Bagwell, Scotty Riggs and Alex Wright, before coming up short in a TV Championship match against Lex Luger. Watching these matches back it seems surreal to see the most feared wrestler of my childhood competing where the ‘big boys play’.

The final match of his run in WCW was his only pay-per-view appearance, competing at Uncensored against The Giant. Lasting less than three minutes, The Giant took an incredible bump outside the ring as Haystacks avoided a running charge. The Giant recovered to hit a leg-drop for the one, two, three.

Outside of the ring Haystacks appeared in a few films, most notably Give My Regards to Broad Street with Paul McCartney. Haystacks explained how the role came about to Simon Garfield for his book The Wrestling: “When Paul was in the Mull of Kintyre he was quite an enthusiastic artist. He’d watched me on TV and drew me in as one of the main characters for a video. Then 20th Century Fox wanted to get involved and made a feature length film, and Paul approached me himself and said he wanted me to play a part on the movie.”

Haystacks went on to share more details about his friendship with McCartney: “We were quite close, Paul and I. He would sit with me on and off the set. He used to watch wrestling regularly. He came to see me many times when I wrestled in Sussex.”

As well as a number of TV appearances Haystacks also released three songs. Long before Double J, no lip-syncing was required as wrestling had it’s own country music singer. Dubbed as “The World’s Biggest Recording Artist”, the most famous release was Baby I Need You.

Haystacks truly was larger than life and it’s hard to underestimate the impact he had on British pop culture over a number of years. Walking down the street, you don’t tend to meet people who are 6ft 11 and over 600 lbs – Haystacks size was jaw dropping. In an interview with Fighting Spirit Magazine, Haystacks’ son Noel shared the moment he realised his dad was different to other people.

“The day he picked up a car and flipped it over.”

William Regal shared his thoughts about Haystacks on the Talk Is Jericho podcast: “In his prime, if you go back and look, he was a big monster”.

That is how I will remember Haystacks; the biggest of big monsters who terrified me as a child, the perfect foil for the ultimate hero.