Mark Rocco
| Birth name | Mark Hussey |
|---|---|
| Born |
11 May 1951 Manchester, England |
| Residence | Tenerife, Canary Islands |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Mark Rocco Black Tiger |
| Billed height | 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) |
| Billed weight | 195 lb (88 kg) |
| Trained by | Colin Joynson |
| Debut | 1972 |
| Retired | 1991 |
Mark Hussey (born 11 May 1951) is a retired English professional wrestler who competed for All-Star Wrestling as Mark "Rollerball" Rocco and as the original masked Black Tiger in New Japan Pro Wrestling during the 1970s and 80s. A fourth-generation wrestler, he is the son of British wrestler Jim Hussey and the father of boxer Johnathan "Rocco" Hussey.
Regularly appearing on ITV's World of Sport, he feuded with many of the top light heavyweight wrestlers of the era including Marty Jones, the Dynamite Kid, "Iron Fist" Clive Myers in England and masked Japanese wrestler Tiger Mask in Japan.
Born in Manchester, Rocco grew up in his father's gym where other local wrestlers trained. Although his father was opposed to his being a professional wrestler, going so far as to have his son banned from his gym, Rocco would receive lessons from some of the veterans while his father was out on tour.
Rocco started amateur wrestling at age 16, competing as far away as southern France and Pakistan, was definitely wrestling professionally by late 1972, being then a regular at Northern venues such as Liverpool Stadium and Blackpool Tower. Making his debut in Dale Martin's London territory under the Joint Promotions banner, he became a rising star in the organization, defeating Bert Royal for the British Heavy Middleweight Championship on 11 June 1977 and was involved in televised high-profile matches with Marty Jones before losing the title to him on 13 September 1978.
After Jones vacated the title, Rocco regained the title after defeating then-rookie Chris Adams in a tournament final on 6 December 1978. Rocco lost the championship to Adams a few months later, and regained it towards the middle of 1979.
Touring North America the following year, he teamed with Greg Gagne and briefly competed in the World Wide Wrestling Federation, one of his opponents being Terry Bollea.
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