Peter William Thornley (born 19 October 1941) is an English retired

professional wrestler Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

who was best known for the ring character Kendo Nagasaki. The character of Nagasaki was a Japanese

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They ...

with a mysterious past and reputed powers of

healing With physical trauma or disease suffered by an organism, healing involves the repairing of damaged tissue(s), organs and the biological system as a whole and resumption of (normal) functioning. Medicine includes the process by which the cells ...

and

hypnosis Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...

. He was one of the biggest draws of all time in British wrestling, especially in the mid-1970s and the turn of the 1980s – 1990s. Thornley wore a

mask A mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance, or entertainment and often they have been employed for rituals and rights. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and pra ...

for most of his career, the one significant exception being several months following a December 1977 televised voluntary unmasking ceremony. He had originally retired in 1978 but returned to competition briefly in 1981 and then again from 1986 to 1993. Thereafter he made sporadic wrestling appearances. Thornley gave occasional interviews as Kendo Nagasaki, usually photographed fully masked or with his face hidden, and often speaking through a representative. The character's voice was never heard in public. His identity as the man behind Kendo Nagasaki was first revealed publicly by a plumber who visited his house in the 1970s. His identity became more widely known after a 2002 court case over a land dispute with his neighbour. Thornley never spoke publicly about being Kendo Nagasaki until the publication of his autobiography in 2018. Away from the ring, Thornley has been a successful business entrepreneur and also had a career in rock management for around a decade from the late 1970s to the late 1980s, managing Cuddly Toys and Laura Pallas.

Relationship with character of Kendo Nagasaki

Until the publication of his autobiography in 2018, Thornley and his close associates frowned on the use of his legal name, preferring that his out-of-character self be referred to as "Yogensha" (Japanese for seer). According to his official website, the Nagasaki character is "in fact, a spirit guide and

sensei Sensei, Seonsaeng, Tiên sinh or Xiansheng, corresponding to Chinese characters , is an East Asian honorific term shared in Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese; it is literally translated as "person born before another" or "one who c ...

... who appears by being channelled through an otherwise ordinary man" i.e. Thornley/Yogensha At the height of his career, Thornley discussed the relationship with his character in an interview for '' TVTimes'' in 1976 in which he claimed that the Nagasaki character was "the spirit of a samurai warrior who, 300 years ago, lived in the place that is now called

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...

" which he had contacted while in "a trance state" during meditation.

Professional wrestling career

Early career

In November 1964 Thornley had his first professional contest against "Jumping" Jim Hussey at

Willenhall Willenhall is a market town situated in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands, England, with a population taken at the 2011 census of 28,480. It is situated between Wolverhampton and Walsall, historically in the county of ...

Baths. Nagasaki's most notable achievement during the 1960s was in March 1966 when he defeated and unmasked Count Bartelli (

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...

-born Geoff Condliffe) at the Victoria Hall in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. Bartelli had been Nagasaki's mentor and tag team partner until they had a storyline falling out over Nagasaki's rough tactics in the ring. During the late 1960s, Nagasaki would feud with Billy Robinson and also with a young Jean Ferre. In 1968, Thornley toured Japan where he was billed under the alternative name Mr Guillotine (but still with the same visual image).

''World of Sport''

Kendo Nagasaki made his ITV debut in May 1971 with a victory over

Wayne Bridges William Woodbridge (5 July 1936 – 8 March 2020) known professionally as Wayne Bridges was a British professional wrestler who was most well known for wrestling for Joint Promotions in the 1960s-80 and All Star Wrestling in the 1980s. He held the ...

. During July 1971, in what was said to be a sensational TV contest with Billy Howes, his mask came off in the heat of the battle. Howes spent a great deal of effort in pounding Nagasaki's head and dragging his tight-fitting mask up, almost covering Nagasaki's eyes, and tried to untie the straps holding it on, before under his relentless efforts it came loose. Howes showed little sign of actually wrestling in the end stages, and was solely intent on removing the mask, which he finally did and Nagasaki quickly left the ring covering his face. In December 1971, he appeared for the first time with manager "Gorgeous" George Gillette at

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from t ...

. He then went on to tour Canada and the United States during 1972 working for wrestling legend Stu Hart. Nagasaki was renowned for his strength; in one televised match he lifted the "The Battling Guardsman" Shirley Crabtree later known as 'Big Daddy', up on to his shoulders, then calmly walked to a corner carrying him and finished the bout with his famous Kamikaze Crash, walking out the ring as Crabtree was being counted out. In December 1975, again facing Big Daddy (as he was by then only named) on television, Nagasaki was successfully unmasked (although he nonetheless went on to win the bout), starting a violent feud between the two. The unmasking occurred two years before he had an official ceremonial unmasking ceremony at the Civic Hall,

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunians ...

in what was one of the most anticipated and most viewed moments in ITV's '' World of Sport''. In April the following year (1978), he appeared as an unmasked wrestler for the first time; in a contest at

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an exten ...

against Bronco Wells. Following an August 1978 Nagasaki win on television over Colin Joynson, British Heavyweight champion

Tony St. Clair Tony St. Clair (born 28 March 1948) is an English retired professional wrestler. He is well known for his stints in Joint Promotions and All Star Wrestling in the United Kingdom, Catch Wrestling Association in Austria and Germany, and New Japan ...

entered the ring and announced he was accepting a title challenge from the now unmasked and therefore eligible Nagasaki. However, before the match could take place, in September 1978 he retired on doctor's orders from the ring and began a new career in rock management. Nagasaki returned in 1981-82 in a few appearances for Brian Dixon, in which the real Nagasaki feuded with notorious Nagasaki impersonator King Kendo (Bill Clarke) in a series of loser-lose-mask matches which saw Clarke defeated and unmasked night after night.

All Star Wrestling

In December 1986, Thornley made his masked return to the ring at the

London Hippodrome The Hippodrome is a building on the corner of Cranbourn Street and Charing Cross Road in the City of Westminster, London. The name was used for many different theatres and music halls, of which the London Hippodrome is one of only a few s ...

in a

ladder match A ladder match is a type of match in professional wrestling, most commonly one in which an item (usually a title belt) is hung above the ring, and the winner is the contestant who climbs a ladder and retrieves the item. The ladder itself becom ...

with Clive Myers transmitted on ITV shortly after the New Year as the main event of the first ever edition of ITV wrestling taped at an

All Star Wrestling All Star Wrestling (ASW) is a British professional wrestling promotion operated by Brian Dixon and based in Birkenhead, England. Founded as Wrestling Enterprises of Birkenhead in October 1970, it has also been known over the years as All Star P ...

show, and by September 1987 he went on to become the WWA World Heavyweight Champion after defeating

. He also formed a tag team with Mark 'Rollerball' Rocco but this fell apart after a televised match in early 1988 resulting in a lengthy and violent feud between the two which would rage on at live shows during the first few years after the end of British Wrestling on TV. Another tag team with Blondie Barrett would run for several years. During his final ITV appearance, Nagasaki and Barrett defeated the 'Golden Boys' tag team of

Robbie Brookside Robert Edward Brooks (born 11 March 1966), better known by his ring name Robbie Brookside, is an English retired professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he works as a trainer/producer for the NXT brand. He has toured all ov ...

and Steve Regal when the masked man hypnotised (

kayfabe In professional wrestling, kayfabe, as a noun, is the portrayal of staged events within the industry as "real" or "true", specifically the portrayal of competition, rivalries, and relationships between participants as being genuine and not staged. ...

) Brookside to attack Regal. This too would lead to a long running storyline with Nagasaki regularly using his 'powers' to turn Brookside over to his side at live shows. In January 1989, George Gillette died of

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ma ...

and Lloyd Ryan officially became Kendo's new manager. In October 1991, he feuded with

Giant Haystacks Martin Austin Ruane (10 October 1946 – 29 November 1998) was an English 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 at one point was robbed of a World title (said to be the CWA World Heavyweight Championship, actually held at the time by

Rambo Rambo is a surname with Norwegian (Vestfold) and Swedish origins. It possibly originated with '' ramn'' + '' bo'', meaning "raven's nest". It has variants in French (''Rambeau'', ''Rambaut'', and ''Rimbaud'') and German (''Rambow''). It is now best ...

) after Haystacks deliberately pulled off his mask "forcing" him to abandon the match. Footage from this match was featured in the BBC2 documentary on Nagasaki ''

Arena An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectator ...

: Masters of the Canvas''. In 1993, Nagasaki and Ryan fell out (

) and were set to feud with Nagasaki now managed by his personal assistant Lawrence Stevens and Ryan recruiting King Kendo for a fresh battle of the Kendos. This storyline was soon aborted when Nagasaki retired once more to concentrate on his role in

commerce Commerce is the large-scale organized system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions directly and indirectly related to the exchange (buying and selling) of goods and services among two or more parties within local, regional, natio ...

. Over the next few years, Ryan continued to manage King Kendo (with Dale Preston taking over the role from Clarke who had also retired in 1993) in feuds with various old enemies of the real Nagasaki.

Millennium comeback

He returned in May 2000 to accept the ''Wrestler of the Millennium'' trophy in a ceremony at

Hanley Hanley is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Fenton, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. Hanley is the ''de facto'' city centre, having long been the ...

's Victoria Hall. This began a "Millennium Comeback" campaign for Nagasaki as a month later he returned to the venue teamed with Vic Powers to face Darren Walsh and Marty Jones who had objected (kayfabe) to Nagasaki winning the award. Over the next eighteen months he would appear on various All Star shows, sometimes teamed with Drew McDonald. In March 2001 he again partnered Vic Powers in a charity tag ladder match against

James Mason James Neville Mason (; 15 May 190927 July 1984) was an English actor. He achieved considerable success in British cinema before becoming a star in Hollywood. He was the top box-office attraction in the UK in 1944 and 1945; his British films inc ...

and Walsh. This run ended in December 2001 with a formal retirement match, a Four Corners bout, again at the Victoria Hall, in which he faced and defeated Mason, Doug Williams and Dean Allmark.

LDN

Since then, he was said to be looking for a young wrestler to pass his "powers" on to. In June 2007, he signed a deal with London-based LDN wrestling. In November 2007 he appeared at LDN "Legends Showdown" in Broxbourne. He represented a team in a match against a team represented by his former manager Lloyd Ryan who had again (kayfabe) fallen out with his charge, this time over Ryan's son, young wrestler Damian Ryan. This event kicked off a storyline which saw him return to wrestling. Working exclusively for LDN Wrestling he feuded with

over The Sword of Excellence. In May 2008 his old tag team partner Blondie Barratt teamed with him, along with a handpicked LDN Wrestler named Gregory Cortez in a 6 Man Tag Team match to take on Powers, Brookside and Hakan, who replaced Yorghos who he refused to wrestle. He then began feuding with Yorghos. Barratt wrestled against Yorghos and Hakan in a Ladder match in Hanley in September 2008. Then in October he was scheduled to wrestle Yorghos in a singles match in Wolverhampton, but refused to face him again, instead teaming with Blondie Barratt to defeat Hakan and Travis to win the LDN Tag Team Championship. Following this match, Nagasaki left LDN and the Sword of Excellence storyline was concluded without him. He has not wrestled since that time.

Post-retirement appearances

Nagasaki appeared with Lyn Rigby (see below) at several of All Star's wrestling events in 2018 to promote his autobiography. At these shows he performed a reenactment of the 1977 unmasking ceremony with Rigby in Gillette's role. Following each unmasking Nagasaki would revert to being Thornley for the rest of the evening. On 16 October 2022, Nagasaki, fully masked and in character, attended an All Star show at the Floral Pavilion Theatre, New Brighton and was a ringside judge at Oliver Grey's defence of his All Star British Heavyweight Championship (which Nagasaki himself had held in 1988) against former champion Niwa from

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

. During the match, Niwa attempted to grab the title belt to use as a weapon but Nagasaki used his "powers" to make Niwa keep his hands off the belt. Grey went on to pin Niwa to successfully defend the title and was presented with the belt by Nagasaki.

Other media work

The artist Peter Blake was once asked by a magazine what he would have liked to have been had he not been an artist, and he answered a wrestler, and more specifically Kendo Nagasaki. Kendo agreed to sit for a Blake portrait for the BBC ''Arena'' programme, ''Masters of the Canvas'' in January 1992. In December 2012, Kendo Nagasaki appeared in the BBC documentary "Timeshift — When Wrestling Was Golden: Grapples, Grunts and Grannies". He remained silent, and the programme also featured clips of him wrestling and the famous "unmasking" ceremony in Wolverhampton, 1977. The programme was repeated on

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

on 15 July 2013 and 10 June 2015.

Championships and accomplishments

*School sports **Schoolboy Boxing Champion of Ludford Street School 1955/56 **Junior Waterpolo champion 1957 *Weightlifting **Society of Amateur Weightlifters **Olympic Style Weightlifting; which was Clean and Press, Snatch and Clean and Jerk Heavyweight champion 1961 and 1962 *Judo **British Judo Council Northwest area heavyweight champion and National Champion 1961/62 and finalist Northwest area 1962/63 * British wrestling ** All Star Wrestling British Heavyweight Champion (1 time) **LDN Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Blondie Barratt **WWA World Heavyweight Championship (UK version) (1 time) **''Wrestler of the Millennium'' trophy winner (2000) *

Stampede Wrestling Stampede Wrestling was a Canadian professional wrestling promotion based in Calgary, Alberta. For nearly 50 years, it was one of the main promotions in western Canada and the Canadian Prairies. Originally established by Stu Hart in 1948, the pro ...

** Stampede North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

Personal life

Thornley's autobiography ''Kendo Nagasaki and the Man Behind the Mask'' was published in 2018, in which he discussed for the first time publicly about being the person behind the Kendo Nagasaki persona. His identity had previously been publicly revealed during a 2002 court case over a land dispute with his neighbour. In his autobiography, Thornley says that he is bisexual, and he has spoken in related interviews about the issues faced by gay and bisexual sportsmen of his era. He married, and his wife Yvette died in 1990. In his autobiography he says he is now in a new relationship with a man, his longtime personal assistant Lawrence Stevens. Thornley is a believer in

Zen Buddhism Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), an ...

. At his private estate, Moor Court Hall, near

Cheadle, Staffordshire Cheadle is a market town and civil parish in the Staffordshire Moorlands District of Staffordshire, England, with a population of 12,165 at the 2011 census. It is located between Uttoxeter, Leek, Ashbourne and Stoke-on-Trent. History Cheadle ...

he established

Lee Rigby On the afternoon of 22 May 2013, a British Army soldier, Fusilier Lee Rigby of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was attacked and killed by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, southeast London. ...

House as a retreat for families coping with bereavement. The house was named in honour of Lee Rigby, who was murdered by Jihadists in 2013, with Lee's mother Lyn helping to run the retreat. However, Thornley later faced legal issues with the estate (relating to the above-mentioned land dispute) which threatened its forced sale, as a result of which he asked Lyn Rigby, who was a permanent resident in the House, either to buy or to rent the site. Unable to afford either option, Rigby and the charity moved out of the estate

Filmography

Acting

*''Send in the Girls'' series 1, episode 1 ''The Wild Bunch'' 1978 as Death Angel

Wrestling as Kendo Nagasaki

*''World of Sport'' 1971-1978 including unmasking ceremony 1977 *''Professional Wrestling'' (late night/lunchtime ITV wrestling) 1971-74 *''Stampede Wrestling'' ( CHCT, Calgary, Canada, hosted by Ed Whalen) 1972 *''Wrestling'' (standalone ITV wrestling broadcast) 1987-1988 *''

's Video Diary'',

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...

1993 *''Best of ITV Wrestling'', ITV Studios, ASIN: B0009B0FGE (DVD compilation of ITV wrestling footage) 2005 *''Best of ITV Wrestling: A-Z'', ITV Studios, ASIN: B000EMGHD8 (DVD compilation of ITV wrestling footage) 2006 *''LDN Legends Showdown I'' 2008

Personal appearances as Kendo Nagasaki

*''

This Is Your Life This Is Your Life may refer to: Television * ''This Is Your Life'' (American franchise), an American radio and television documentary biography series hosted by Ralph Edwards * ''This Is Your Life'' (Australian TV series), the Australian versio ...

'' featuring Big Daddy,

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broa ...

1979 *''The Funny Side'' ITV 1987 *''Gamesmaster''

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

1992 * ''Arena'' - ''Masters of the Canvas'' BBC2 1992 (featuring Peter Blake, by Irish director Paul Yates.) *''People Today'' 1992 *''The

Danny Baker Danny Baker (born 22 June 1957) is an English comedy writer, journalist, radio DJ and screenwriter. Throughout his career he has largely presented for London's regional radio and television. Baker was born in Deptford to a working-class fami ...

Show'' BBC1 1994 *''Everything Stopped at 4 O'Clock'' ITV

Granada Granada (,, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the c ...

1998 *''Images of Nagasaki'' (short art video by Irish director Paul Yates) 1998 *''Kendo at Fans Meet

2001'' *''

They Think It's All Over "They think it's all over" is a quote from Kenneth Wolstenholme's BBC TV commentary in the closing moments of the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final, when England beat West Germany 4–2 after extra time to win the FIFA World Cup. In the final few seco ...

'' BBC One 2003 *''Honourable Mention'' *'' Midlands Today'' BBC One Midlands region 2008 *''I Love Kung Fu'' BBC Two *''Timeshift — When Wrestling Was Golden: Grapples, Grunts and Grannies''

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

2012

Personal appearances as Peter Thornley

1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqZNHxes_UM
3
An Audience with Peter Thornley (2018)
Sky News
(2018)

Portrayals by others

*''Genesis in Portrait'' (animated film) *''World of Wrestling'' (short comedy film) *''Darts'' (interview featuring Thornley as Kendo Nagasaki,

Roger Moore Sir Roger George Moore (14 October 192723 May 2017) was an English actor. He was the third actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions film series, playing the character in seven feature films between 1 ...

and

Carla Bruni Carla Bruni-Sarkozy

)

Radio interviews

BBC World Service InterviewMen's Radio Station

References

External links

*

article on Thornley/Kendo
Wrestling Heritage with many related articles and reviews

The Immortal Legends of British Professional Wrestling from the BBC

British Wrestling Archive
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thornley, Peter 1941 births Living people English male professional wrestlers English Zen Buddhists Faux Japanese professional wrestlers LGBT professional wrestlers Masked wrestlers Sportspeople from Stoke-on-Trent Stampede Wrestling alumni People from Wellington, Shropshire LGBT sportspeople from England Stampede Wrestling North American Heavyweight Champions