MASKED KENDO: I HID MY SEXUALITY

WRESTLING’S BAD BOY REVEALS SECRET AT 76

MASKED wrestling legend Kendo Nagasaki today reveals his secret double life – living as a bisexual while whipping grapple fans into a frenzy with his macho antics in the ring.

The bad boy fighter and stars like Big Daddy, Mick McManus, Rollerball Rocco and Giant Haystacks helped ITV’s World of Sport win audiences of 14million in the sport’s 1970s and 1980s heyday.

But as they cheered him on – or screamed abuse – fans had no idea that the man in the sinister martial arts mask Peter Thornley, who later married, was having flings with men.

Peter, now 76, says: “I knew about my sexuality as early as 17 but it wasn’t until I was 26 that I started to be really me.

“By the time I became a TV star back in 1972 I’d had flings with other men.

“But there was no way Kendo Nagasaki – the macho bad boy of wrestling – could tell his story back then.

“People would never have accepted it – thank goodness we live in different times now.

“I just hope my story helps others be the best they can be – like I’ve always tried to be – and that my fans understand and stick by me, because they mean the world to me.”

MILLIONAIRE

Peter is now a multi-millionaire from property deals and owns a gay hotel and bar in Blackpool, Lancs – as well as teaching Zen spiritualism at his 50-room manor house home.

He reveals his secret in an autobiography raising money for the Lee Rigby Foundation. He is a major benefactor of the charity set up by Lyn Rigby, 51, after her son

Fusilier Lee, 25, was murdered by terrorists in Woolwich,

South East London, in 2013.

In the book – Kendo Nagasaki and the Man Behind the

Mask – Peter reveals he has been with a male partner since wife Yvette died aged 80 in 1993.

And he tells how his life changed in 1967 when he stopped to eat at a Wimpy Bar in London’s Earl’s Court after a bout, and met future manger “Gorgeous” George Gillett.

“Unknown to me it was a notorious gay hangout,” he says. “George came over for a chat. It was a watershed moment. Being brought up in Crewe I’d never met anyone like him before.

“He was outrageously camp. We never slept together but I know he fancied me.

“But he introduced me to a whole new world and became my manager and rabblerouser-in-chief at all my shows.

“George was an extraordinary character and became a lifelong friend.

George died of Aids in 1988 aged just 48. “I looked after him and took him to hospital and gave as much support as I could. I was a difficult time for me because people were terrified of Aids and HIV.

“There were all kinds of stories such as you could catch it from soap or from a toilet seat.

“I was tested and thankfully I was fine but I realised that my career would have been over if people had known what George died of.”

The other major influence on Peter’s life was Japanese judo master Kenshiro Abbe. Peter – who was dyslexic and

whose mum died when he was seven – was branded a loner and trouble maker at school, but discovered the sport of judo aged 17 and aimed to be in Britain’s 1964 Olympic team.

But an accident working as a coachbuilding apprentice cost him half his left index finger – making judo holds impossible.

A car dealer friend Geoff Condliffe – wrestling champ Count Bartelli – introduced him to the sport.

Peter says: “I knew when I turned to wrestling I needed a gimmick.

“So I combined Kenshiro’s teachings about the Samurai with the showmanship of Count Bartelli. But the spiritual side was always real. That wasn’t a show. I saw that combat sport was more than fighting. There was a spiritualism which gave me peace and continues to do so today.

MEDITATION

“The ability to step outside oneself and find peace has always been my secret. Millions practise it today as mindfulness. It is the secret to life.

“Kenshiro gave me a path through life through meditation. I owe so much to Kenshiro. Without him there would have been no Kendo.”

His wrestling career brought fame worldwide – as well as fury from fans who hated his savage style – including his Kamikaze Crash where he threw an opponent to the canvas then rolled over them with his shoulder.

His feuds with popular stars like Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks led one fan to stab him in the back with a pen.

Another fan packed a house brick in her handbag and walloped him on the head with it.

And at one show a woman was heard screaming: “You’re f ***** g evil, Nagasaki! You’re a f ***** g animal! You’re nothing but a monster!”

His years in the ring have a taken a toll on his body. He has had ops on three damaged neck vertebrae and his left knee, has arthritic hips, a steel pin in a toe and a “dodgy” left shoulder.

But he still rises at 6am, meditates for an hour, takes a long walk around his nine-acre estate in Staffordshire, works, then meditates again.

He says meditation and a diet of porridge, fish, fresh fruit and vegetables has kept him healthy and strong.

Peter now plans to recreate one of TV wrestling’s greatest moments – when he was unmasked in the ring by

George Gillett in 1977 at the

Civic Hall, Wolverhampton.

On The Man Behind the Mask Mini-Tour, Lyn Rigby will recreate the unmasking at five venues this month – the Beck Theatre, Hayes, Middlesex, on October 22, the Princes Hall, Aldershot, Surrey, on the 23rd, Woodville Halls, Gravesend, Kent, on the 24th, King’s Theatre, Hanley, Staffs, on the 26th and Dudley Town Hall, West Midlands, on the 27th.