Roy Wood, founder and owner of Aspull Olympic Wrestling Club – the biggest in the town – is responsible for putting Wigan grapplers on the map worldwide.
The 63-year-old was the youngest ever professional in the country at the tender age of 16 and helped get the careers of the British Bulldog Davey 'Boy' Smith and the Dynamite Kid (Tommy Billington) off the ground.

And as we chat in his Whelley bungalow, Roy reveals the sport would have been dead and buried in the borough years ago without his intervention.
"There was a time in Wigan when wrestling was dead – it had finished," says Roy. "There wasn't one single wrestler training.
"Now wrestling in Wigan has never been stronger.
"Wigan wrestling is well respected all over the world – they know all about us, except for in this town.
"We're known in Belgium, Germany, France, Bulgaria, Japan and America.

"We've never tried to get any recognition. But they know more about us in Scotland and London than they do in Wigan.
"We've got 95 members – that's much bigger than any club around here.
"Our members range from the age of six up to 30 – we've got some who could really go a long way and take part in the Olympics in 2012."
Whisper it quietly, but Roy is so highly respected in his field, he's been working with St Helens rugby league club for the last three years.
His effective wrestling techniques, demonstrating ways to take a man off his feet with minimum effort and energy, were certainly worth their weight in gold last year as the Knowsley Road club made a clean-sweep of trophies.

And to think Wigan Warriors passed up the chance to take him on board last year!
Roy was born in Highfield Grove, Aspull, brought up in Ephraim's Fold and educated at Aspull Methodist.
He started his working life at Leyland Motors before opening up a cigarette machine business at the age of 23.
When he sold out to Rothmans, Roy Wood Bar Supplies and Roy Wood Automatics, which supplies fruit machines and pool tables all over the country, was established. The two business are still running today.

And while Roy was putting in the hard graft to earn a living, he was also sweating buckets behind the scenes as well. He quickly built up a reputation of a man not to be messed with, thanks to the tuition of Wigan's most famous wrestling guru.
Roy said: "I just went down to Billy Riley's gym one day when I was 15, had a go and I was hooked straight away.
"I went along every week and got better and better.
"I was brought up in a boxing family – both my dad Charlie and my brother Alan boxed – he was a runner-up in the ABA.
"But I was more into the wrestling. Billy told me my head was for thinking with, not for getting knocked about.
"I was 16 when I took it up professionally – I was the youngest professional in the country.
"It helped me get work as well – I was the first bouncer at Wigan

Casino when I was 19. Then I went working on the door at the Monaco Ballroom."
Roy soon became a popular figure at the gym. And with his natural ability, it became obvious he had lots to offer to up and coming grapplers – two in particular who would go on to make their name across the pond.
"Billy was getting on a bit and became ill – that's when I started to coach for him," says Roy, who names Billy Joyce as the best wrestler to come out of Wigan.
"I trained Dave Smith when he was nine-years-old. He was only with me for about 12 months and to be honest he wasn't that outstanding.
"It was a surprise when I saw how far he actually did go and became a big name in America in the WWF.
"I also trained his cousin Tommy Billington when he was a similar age. He was a very good wrestler."
But it wasn't all rosy for Roy.

"As time went on we got a visit from the Sports Council and they said the premises in Whelley were not fit for wrestling," he says.
"They said they would give us a grant to help build the place up. But it didn't happen.
"We came out of there and then the gym ended up falling down – the roof collapsed. It had been like that for a few years to be honest.
"Me and a fella called Tommy Heyes decided to build it back up, about 30 years ago.
"Tommy masterminded it all. He drew up the plans and we doubled the size of the building.
"We acro-jacked the roof back up, a farmer from Longton gave us some fresh timber and we wheel-barrowed all the hard core we needed from the George and Dragon pub. It took about 12 months to build back up.

"We were there for about 10 years before I bought the Aspull Boys Club in the mid-80s.
"Everyone who was at Riley's at the time came with me – there was about 15 wrestlers and I was the only coach.
"We gradually built the place up to what it is today."
And it wasn't just in his home town where Roy, who had his last bout at the age of 47, was working his magic and one opportunity could have been life changing.
He said: "I went over to Japan to do some coaching.
"Over there they've got a company called New Japan – it's bigger than the WWE in America.
"They did offer me a job and I would have accepted their offer, but I had my two businesses back at home so I had to turn them down."
Roy lives alone with his tropical birds – his wife died from motor neurone disease three years ago.
His daughter Andrea, 31, has provided a great help, coaching youngsters at his club.

"Andrea is running a lot of it – she was brought up to do it," he said.
"I train at the club on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. I really do love it."
Son Darren, 37, now runs the automatics business, while grandson Charlie, aged two, may soon be groomed to step inside the ring.
So when will Roy call it a day?
"I don't know," he says. "But I do know if I called it a day now the club would carry on going from strength to strength.
"That wouldn't have been the case seven or eight years ago – the club would have folded.
"We've now got seven registered coaches working for us.
"The biggest Open competition is held in Belgium with more than 20 teams from 15 different counties that enter.
"We've managed to be the top team there on four occasions. If you manage it once you've done well."