The family of wrestling legend Mark 'Rollerball' Rocco - who died aged 69 after being struck down by dementia in his last years - is organising a glitzy charity evening to raise funds to help kids with the childhood form of the devastating disease.
His family, friends and stars of the wrestling world paid tribute to him after he died at a car home in Warrington in 2020. He had been suffering with vascular dementia for the last three years of his life.
Now - delayed by the pandemic - his family is organising an evening to remember Mark and to raise money for the Batten Disease Family Association (BDFA) - Batten disease is a devastating degenerative condition known as the childhood form of dementia. Up to 150 children in the UK are thought to be living with the disease.
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Raised in Simister near Prestwich, Mark, real name Mark Hussey, became a wrestling legend and a Saturday afternoon TV star - the baddie grapple fans loved to hate. He is credited with paving the way for the the mega-bucks entertainment behemoth that is WWE.
He turned professional in 1969 and became a huge star in Japan, the first to adopt the Black Tiger character whose ring feud with Tiger Mask made him a household name in the Far East.
Hussey went on to become a household name here in the UK too, fighting as Mark 'Rollerball' Rocco every Saturday lunchtime on ITV's World of Sport hosted by Dickie Davies. His ring nemeses were Oldham wrestler Marty Jones and Wigan fighter, Dynamite Kid - and their TV duels made him a star.
Long before WWE in the US made world stars of wrestlers like Dwayne Johnson and Mark's good friend Hulk Hogan, he helped bring wrestling to the masses. Without Mark, WWE could not have happened.
To celebrate his life, his family is holding a charity event in his honour at the Cresta Court Hotel in Altrincham on Saturday September 17, hosted by George King and with comics Stu Francis and Jack Ryan also lined up. The centrepiece of the night will be a charity auction.
Mark's son Jono, 39, said the family wanted to raise as much money for the BDFA as possible.
"It's a really upsetting disease that affects young children. It's a form of Alzheimer's and dementia which obviously my dad had so we hold it quite close to our hearts as a family," said Jono, who works at Amazon and also as a boxing personal trainer.
"We want to raise as much as we can and also have a good evening as well, just remembering the good guy that my dad was. He was always about the charity."
Mark and wife and Ann raised their two sons Rich and Jono at their home in Timperley where wrestlers like Giant Haystacks would be regular baby-sitters. The family moved to Tenerife where Mark became a pillar of the community - he ran a number of businesses and was president of Lions Club International on the island, raising thousands for charitable causes.
The couple returned to Manchester seven years ago but Mark's last three years were blighted by ill-health. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
Jono said: "It's an awful disease that affects so many families. The last few years were very difficult. He didn't know where he was. He didn't know who he was."
Perhaps Mark's greatest achievement in the ring was winning the WWF junior heavyweight title at Madison Square Garden in New York 1982, fighting as Black Tiger against The Cobra.
Rollerball Rocco won a string of world and British wrestling titles until he retired in 1990 at the age of 39. He was taken to hospital after what turned out to be his final bout. Doctors found an abnormal heart-beat and they urged him to stop. He had a pace-maker fitted.
After his death, US wrestling legend Hulk Hogan led the tributes. He tweeted a picture of the pair and wrote: "RIP ROLLERBALL ROCCO, what a good man, our last handshake and laugh was at Wembley, we both rocked that place many times, I always loved going out at night to find the old school fish houses after the matches with Rocco, we would laugh, drink Ichiban beer for hours me, him, and Andre HH."
Tickets for September's charity evening are £40 per head and anyone interested can contact Jono at jonorocco@hotmail.com or on 07709 257820.
