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I can't see how you can praise Ospreay and then damn Omega at the same time. He is essentially just baby-Omega, but with less sense of match structure or pacing. He is every bit as "pretentious" as Omega, just with less presentation skills. It's interesting you say he'll be number one in a decade, because unless he learns to actually work a match on something other than his freakish athleticism, I think he will decline rapidly and people will sour on him.

Willkommen!

AWA TV @ The Hammond Center 5-9-90 Larry Nelson: Hello everybody and welcome to AWA Major League Wrestling. Tonight's huge and I literally mean huge main event will be El Canek taking on King Kong Bundy. JW Storm clashes with current rival Steve Disalvo. We'll also be talking about next week's big Title Night card. All that and so much more, so let's get to the ring. AWA World Tag Team Champs The Rock n Roll Express vs. Cal Robins and Carl Kellerman The fans are up and cheering as RnR hit the double dropkick for the win. Nelson: Ok, at Title Night you guys will be defending against Good Vibrations. I also have to ask if you've heard about the so called target the Enforcers put on your back. Gibson: Ricky and I always focus on the task at hand. Right now that's Title Night and Good Vibrations. RnR is here to stay and we're taking Good Vibrations to tag team school. Now tell them about the Enforcers, Ricky. Morton: Arn Anderson, Larry Zbyszko! Don't think for one second we're intimidated by your empty threats. Any time you wanna go, bring it on! But right now, it's all about us retaining at Title Night. Vin Man, I hope your boys are ready because the Rock n Roll Express are always ready! Commercial Break The Renegade Warriors vs. Neil Jordan and Franklin Simms The Warriors put Jordan down with a double chop, then follow with a double suplex for the win. It's announced that at WrestleRock, the Renegade Warriors will face the debuting Can Am Express (Doug Furnas and Phil Lafon) Commercial Break The Snowman vs. Winston Thorpe Snowman swings Thorpe to the ropes and nails him with a running double axe handle smash for the win. During the match, Nell was standing at the aisle observing the Snowman. Snowman gives Nell a look. Nell gives a slight smile and walks away. Commercial Break 'The Mighty Yankee' Steve Disalvo vs. 'The Future' JW Storm These guys have been hammering on each other for months and the pounding continues tonight. It's a back and forth power match with each man really showcasing their strength. Disalvo gets the upper hand and puts Storm down with a flying shoulder tackle. The Destruction Crew hit the ring and attack Disalvo! They stomp down on him, pick him up and double slam him down. Storm gets up and joins the attack. The Ref is signaling for the DQ but the beating continues. Storm swings Disalvo to the ropes and puts him down with a spear! The Destruction Crew finish things off with the Wrecking Ball. The three men go to ringside. Nelson: Hold on a minute! Just what was that all about? Three on one? Really? Storm: Hey, a man needs friends around here. You're looking at the future of the AWA. JW Storm and the Destruction Crew are serving notice and that dope Disalvo was the example! Commercial Break We see Military drills going on in a desert scene. Col. Debeers walks up to the camera. Debeers: I said from the beginning that I was on a mission in the AWA. A mission is all about strategy and planning. Rest assure I will accomplish my mission. Now, there have been casualties. The Commission have been released of their duties. They were not up to the task. At Champagne Slam, I was very close to accomplishing my mission, but thanks to that untouchable Carlos Colon, my mission hit a snag. Colon! You better be on high alert because I will do whatever it takes to get the job done. King Kahlua vs. Todd Rooney Kahlua hits an elbow drop from the top rope for the win. Kahlua cuts a vicious promo on how he's going to take the AWA TV title away from David Sammartino at Title Night. Commercial Break AWA National Tag Team Champs The Mavericks vs. Vic Dutro and Willie Lopez The Mavericks hit a double running bulldog for the win. Nelson: At Title Night, you guys will defend against the Jive Tones. Latin Desire is also making a lot of noise for a rematch. Mavericks talk about how the Jive Tones always take the coward's way out and they're ready to take them down once and for all. They also say they'll be more than happy to beat Latin Desire again. Commercial Break 'The Universal Heartthrob' Austin Idol vs. Ray Glader Idol flexes and showboats throughout the match before finishing things off with the Las Vegas Leglock. Nelson: Ok Idol, at Title Night it's you and Ric Flair. If you win, you get the WrestleRock world title shot, BUT, if he wins, you will be banned from using the figure four for life. Idol: It's called the Las Vegas Leglock and it's MY move! Mine! Ric Flair, oh darling, you fell right into my trap daddy. You think you're going to beat me with my move. HA! Not a chance brother! You're going to be the one screaming in pain and begging for mercy when I clamp my Las Vegas Leglock on you. And when that's all over, I'm going to WrestleRock and I'm going to win the AWA world title. Flair, you've been an Austin Idol wannabe long enough. It's time for the real Austin Idol to shine. Idol flexes, then struts away Commercial Break Nelson: Fans, before we get to our main event. I... Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys plays as Vinnie leads his team out. All 3 men are wearing Hawaiian shirts and sunglasses. Nelson: Come on Vinnie, what gives? Vin: Relax and hang loose Larbo. You know, we heard those outdated goofs earlier talking and we thought we should come out and give this show a shot of charisma. My team Good Vibrations are going to kick sand in the champs faces and then take their titles back to the beach. You can count on that! Stay cool Larbo. Nelson rolls his eyes and says the main event is next. Commercial Break El Canek vs. King Kong Bundy w/Greg Gagne The bell rings and Gagne gets out of there quick as Canek and Bundy trade big blows. Bundy gets the upper hand and swings Canek to the ropes but misses a clothesline, Canek swings back and hits a flying press 1..2..Kick Out. Canek goes to town on Bundy. Canek swings off the ropes but Gagne trips him. Canek stumbles but turns around, sprints and takes Gagne out with a suicide dive through the ropes (BIG POP)! As Canek gets back in the ring, Bundy clotheslines him down. Bundy drops several knees on Canek, picks him up and slams him down. Bundy picks up Canek and powerslams him over 1..2..Kick Out. Bundy continues to work Canek over. Bundy slams Canek, swings off the ropes and goes for a big splash but Canek moves. Canek staggers up and regroups. Bundy staggers up. Canek swings off the ropes and puts Bundy down with a flying forearm blast. Canek hops on the middle ropes and crashes down with a knee drop 1..2..Kick Out. Canek backs up into the corner. Gagne staggers up, hops on the apron and clamps the sleeper on Canek. Gagne's standing on the apron with the sleeper hold clamped on as Canek is against the turnbuckles fighting it. The Ref has enough and signals for the DQ. Bundy gets up, runs to the turnbuckles and Avalanches Canek! Gagne keeps the sleeper clamped on. Bundy backs up to the opposite corner and charges in with another avalanche! Gagne releases the sleeper as Canek just slides down the turnbuckles. Bundy drags Canek to the center of the ring. Gagne smiles and gives him the thumbs up. Bundy swings off the ropes and hits the BIG SPLASH! Officials and prelim wrestlers run in to stop this madness. Commercial Break Nelson: My goodness! I can't believe what we just saw. Canek was helped out of here and looked to be in very bad shape. We'll hope to have an update on his condition soon. (pauses) well, switching gears. At Title Night, Hulk Hogan will defend the AWA world title against Stan Hansen inside the steel cage. Right now we're going to take a special look at their violent and chaotic history. AC/DC's Highway to Hell plays as we see a video of Hogan and Hansen's altercations, Champagne Slam double c.o. and clips from their intense promos.

He's still my number 1 and not even Danielson's last run could change that. He's the one pro wrestler who makes me FEEL the most. Like, wrestling nowadays is full of guys pretending to farm aura and look like the best ever. They all look to achieve what Kobashi didn't even inted to achieve: he just worked harder than any other pro wrestler ever, he believed in pro wrestling as strongly as possible, gave everything he had in any and every match, not because he wanted to look badass and godly, but because his job was to make us believe he was fucking trying to win that damn match! And, therefore, he looks like the best ever. But's he's a natural at it. His passion for fighting no matter what is trascendent. I believe he's the overall favorite Pillar today (what are people's feelings about this? I know, same old debate, but it's unavoidable specially with GWE coming up), and as such has strong chances of being #1. If I were a betting man, I would say he'll end up #3 this time, behind Danielson and Funk.

He'll probably be the overall #1 by 2036 GWE. I won't vote for him this time, because he's still in the middle if his career and he keeps adding to his case. The AEW setting and turning babyface again gave him the keys to reaching his peak, and he's delivering time and time again, even with some of his permanent issues still there. Yeah, he still has a lot to learn, but his consistency and his instant classics from 2023 onwards are undeniable to me. Watching him live at Wembley against Jericho (of all people) really made me *get* why he's special and how he's learning to make his stuff matter more while still doing a lot. But please, stop spamming the Styles Clash for a false finish.

He won't make my list. Omega is the cleareast example of "believing he's better than he actually is", perhaps more than any other wrestler (and my god, think the ground that covers). He legitimately believes he's the GOAT and tries so hard to be perceived as such, in a way I almost never get to buy him in an honest way. As "one of the best ever", he feels so unnatural, so manufactured, even more than other "fake-GOATC" names like Jericho or HHH or Okada. Which is a shame, because if he never had that over-the-top ambition and Meltzer never gave him 6*, there's a great wrestler there, whenever he holds his annoying tendencies back. Some of my favourite matches of him are the ones where he is either out of his comfort zone (vs Jericho at WK, the hardcore stuff vs Moxley) or directed by a better big bombs guy than him (the Naito trilogy). But he always has to go for too much overacting and "cinema" on most of his big matches; he's a wrestler that does a lot of things, and he does them beautifully and brutally, but he's one of those guys that always, and I mean *always*, has to put every single one of his moves on every match. Most of the times, in the same order. For a guy as maximalist as he is, that often means a lot of pacing issues, and that combined with his annoying mannerisms and cringey selling, tend to irritate me. I enjoy him a lot at his best. The first two Naito matches are among my favourites ever. But most of his other super acclaimed stuff, like the Okada series, the Danielson match, all the Elite melodrama, or recently the Gabe Kidd match, I don't like it as much. He's more worried about performing greatly than serving to the match's purpose, and the Kidd match is one of the best examples: the crowd wanted to boo him and he initially leaned into it, but since it was his return match and he was going over in the end, he wanted to do the diverticulitis selling and *be the highlight*, therefore the match feels uncohesive and a bit lackluster as a result, totally disconnected from the crowd and the story. Also, for a guy who loves to lean into cinematic matches and moments, his acting kinda sucks. Like, hilariously. I never understood why more people don't have an issue with that part of his game. He's a good wrestler most of the time, great even, but he feels like the sum of the parts of other wrestlers who are better than him at his stuff. His acting is way worse than Shawn Michaels', he doesn't give his explosive offense as much meaning behind it as Kurt Angle does, he lacks genuine character traits and works more like a caricature of what a great wrestler is. He's pretentious, that's the one word to describe him.

The '50s U.S. footage is almost all (partially) televised house shows, similar to catch (it seems World of Sport/JP could be afford to be a bit more choosy in what aired from where, whereas the U.S. shows just showed whatever was happening at the Olympic Auditorium or Marigold Arena in Chicago that week, depending on the network). The rise of "studio wrestling" was pretty much post-national-TV boom and that's where what we perceive as the modern territorial TV format began. (Of course, even within that there were exceptions--Portland and Dallas continued with the same televised-house-show format for their almost their entire existence).

In America's case any decline was a lot more sudden. The bursting of the TV Wrestling Boom bubble, particularly the closure of DuMont, was more of a cliff edge moment in American Wrestling history, comparable to what The Final Bell in the UK could have been if not for (1) All Star being a red hot promotion that just carried on under its own sheer momentum for the next five years (2) an American Wrestling boom starting mere weeks later that by 1992 resulted in a rerun of WM3 on British soil. By 1973 Joe Jares, commencing work on Whatever Happened To Gorgeous George? found himself asked by friends and colleagues who remembered their wrestling-brssoted late grandmothers, "Do they still have wrestling?" From what I've read about American TV wrestling 1945-1955 it sounds a lot closer to the British/French model of serious sports coverage of all the big matchups rather than the later American model of it all being one big commercial for the live product.

Fun show with the misdirection of Ricky Steamboat. El Gigante is an interesting choice with his size and all. It is a great short term gimmick but I do wonder when Ricky gets involved.

I don't know that I'll be the high man on Ospreay, but won't complain if it happens. He will do very, very well on my ballot.

Hell Yeah great promo! Right to beat arms, the right to assemble (with Four Finger Salute) and right to hospitalize is something I have always remembered with the WOOOO great shit! Arn explaining that Flair has no friends because he alienated everyone by his actions and now he alienated the one person he couldn’t afford to: The Enforcer. You almost have to wonder what if they tried to recreate the Horsemen without Flair how that would have went with these two as the nucleus.

Great fake-out by JJ using the arrival of a major star like Ricky Steamboat to cover for the arrival of El Gigante. Gary Hart looks to have his monsters make an impact on the Tag Title match at Capital Combat. Next week's tag match makes for a great opportunity for Tatanka to get back in the US title picture. Luger finds some quality backup against the Dangerous Alliance. I'm sure Ventura was excited hearing the Diamond Stud is getting a TV title shot.

World Championship Wrestling - We see footage of JJ Dillon arriving to the arena today and he gets out of his towncar and he has got… none other than RICKY THE DRAGON STEAMBOAT WITH HIM! Steamboat goes over and shakes the hands of the crowd. The fans are going wild for this huge development! Jim Ross & Jesse Ventura bring us in and put over a huge night of action. They can’t believe that Ricky Steamboat is here and wonder just what his plan is…. JR thinks he’s teaming up with JJ Dillon but Jesse says that he knows JJ too well and doesn’t think he will saddle with him. We’ll see how that shakes off. Adam Bomb comes out and almost kills Lt. James Earl. The Samoans are out here with Gary Hart and they hit a double superkick on some poor turd and he looks to have broken his jaw. We get a good promo from the Rockers who put over their big challenge for the World Tag Team Titles at the Capital Combat. The Road Warriors come out and we get a face off… but then we find out that next week they are going to team up in an eight-man tag against The Samoans, One Man Gang, & Abdullah! Nikita Koloff w/ Ivan gets a handicap match win. He holds up the US title and says he’s coming for Luger! Tatanka w/ Wahoo gets a nice win… he continues to say he wants tocome back and challenge Nikita! We hear we’ll get a tag team match with the four of them next week! Lex Luger comes out to a great ovation - he puts over the world title situation and says that even though Muta got his hand raised… he didn’t beat him. Luger says he has got one goal on his mind and that is to end Muta once and for all. He offers him to put up the International Championship as well and we unify both titles! Paul E comes out… with Chono and Sasuke… they threaten Luger but Lex says he isn’t scared of them… here comes Davey Boy and Owen… oh my… Paul E has to back up… Owen & Davey Boy with a good win after that issue… lines are being drawn in the sand here in WCW! Savio Vega gets a win with his buddies outside the ring. JJ Dillon comes out and he welcomes out his special guest… former WCW Champion, Ricky the Dragon Steamboat! Steamboat comes out and he works the fans but it doesn’t last long because out comes Tully Blanchard! Tully gets right in Steamboat’s face… Tully: So you’re the big surprise huh? Well I am not surprised… to be honest Steamboat I am wondering how you can even show your face around here!? I mean… you are one of the most disgraced wrestlers in the history of WCW and you come out here to some fanfare like you’ve done something… you couldn’t event lace my boots! To be 100% honest with you… this makes me a little happy because I know you’re not here to wrestle me because your career would be over in a heartbeat if you were… Steamboat: Well Tully… I don’t agree with very much of anything that comes out of your mouth… but you are right… I am not here to wrestle you… I am here to watch some of the great WCW action with guys like Lex Luger… Sting… Flyin Brian… the Z-Man… and others… in fact… I am the one who called JJ to see if I could come to the show… he said I will be a special guest at Capital Combat… Tully: Well who in the hell do you got to come out here then… JJ Dillon: Turn around and look… up! Tully turns around and OMG… HE’S 7 FEET 7 INCHES TALL! From Argentina… EL GIGANTE! We have heard about rumors of this man… Tully sells it like crazy as he bumps into Steamboat who turns him around and chops him a couple of times before throwing him into Gigante who throws one of the worst punches of all time and barely hits Tully but he sells it! The crowd is going wild for El Gigante and Steamboat who shake hands and work the fans! We get Jesse and JR putting this over in the biggest way… El Gigante… 7’7”! Tully is going to have his hands full. They announce that next week we’ll see Tatanka and Wahoo taking on the Koloffs… the Road Warriors & Rockers take on Gary Hart’s Army… plus the final touches on the Capital Combat card… let’s take a look…. Luger vs Muta for the now UNIFIED World Title… Nikita defends the US title against Flyin Brian with Sting in his corner and Robocop will be here… the Tag Titles on the line when the Road Warriors defend against the Rockers… the Nasty Boys take on the Skyscrapers… Davey Boy and Owen take on Chono & Sasuke… plus the Diamond Studd Scott Hall gets his shot at the TV Title… but is it going to be the Z-Man or Mike Rotundo… let’s find out! TV Title - Zenk vs Rotundo w/ Sullivan ends up being a very mechanical contest… two men are good workers and get the crowd going. Zenk looks like he’s coming into his own but Rotundo and Sullivan have got their Varsity Club vibes running here. These two go around 12-minutes and give it everything they’ve got out there. The finish sees Rotundo try to finish… a couple of big shots and then he goes for a big fireman’s carry but Zenk with the roll through and the crucifix for the 3-count out of nowhere! Zenk retains the title and rolls out of the ring before Sullivan caan come in and try to get him… Johnny Ace is out there as “backup.” Zenk is still the champion but now it sounds like he’s got a Diamond Studd problem to deal with in the near future!

I really like Kenny Omega, I think part of his charm is hes a goofy. I think Omega's career gets unfairly looked at only from the time from when he the G1 semifinals to current. He has some fun PWG and DDT stuff (still hoping he'll bring back the Hadouken). Hoping to check the AJPW champion run. I'm also part of that problem exciting to watch and talk more about it. I think he's such a great Tokyo Dome wrestler too, I some wrestling gets feels less impact full in big arenas but, Kenny just fits there. He had great matches with wrestlers I'm unsure about in the Dome. He's been really since he has came back. Having one of my favorite matches of the year so far with Will Ospreay vs. Kyle Fletcher and Konosuke Takeshita (Here's the match with Japanese commentary from AEW Japan YouTube channel). I also got to watch him live in maybe one of the best face performances of his career live vs. Konosuke Takeshita at Revolution. I can see Omega currently making my 50-80 range with a great he'll go even higher.

Interested to watch more of him but, be he feels he'll make my list. He will seems likely to make my list. His wrestling arc seems interesting too a karate guy. Liked Atsushi Onita & Tarzan Goto vs. Jerry Blayman & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga in a barbed wire match. Over the next ten years he becomes less karate more bitter and more deathmatchy. He turns to he tries to return the favor becoming the deathmatch wrestler to try to take mma inspired wrestlers out of their depths in Battlarrts. He has one a match that will proabably make my GWE vs. Alexander Otsuka (recommend watching the full show version for promos and more conrext). He is also in the great and one of the greatest visual matches ever in the fire car match that is Jun Kasai & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga vs. Nick Gage & Zandig. If still haven't watched the Stop The Matsunaga story yet and he more. If he delivers like he has so far he'll make my list.

I'm sure it did play a role. Things were never the same after 68, and feminism played a part in it, although there was still a long way to go.

You would know better than I would. Thank you for sharing this context. All I can say is that I've seen several articles pointing to "the cult of the strong man", as they would put it, fading away as one of the main reasons for boxing's decline in the 1960s and 1970s. So that's what I was basing my writing above on. Not my area of expertise so I can't say how correct it is, but I have come across this claim several times.

I would not say NJPW is in a dark ages period again. It's not even close to being comparable to the early 00's Inoki shit, which is akin to WCW 00's in term of destructive booking and awful product overall. The younger generation is plenty promising. However the global landscape has changed, which makes it a lot more difficult than it was in the 2010's, with so much money that can be made in the US for both foreigners and native workers. But yeah, Takeshita is just way above anyone they have in term of, well, everything. He's easily a top 5 wrestler in the world today, at worst probably top 3. He's charismatic as fuck to boot, he had the credibility. He's absolutely the guy NJPW should build around, that is if he wasn't basically an AEW guy, despite the dual contract. He needs to get that IWGP title reign at one point soon though, and a real, meaningful one too, not just a token "company exchange" reign like Mox last time.

I really wouldn't go that far. There is a before/after 68, but to say traditional masculinity was challenged in mainstream culture to this extent, not really. There had been changes thanks to the wave of feminist movement that went alongside 68, but I don't think it shook society that much on the regard of pop culture. Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo's movies were still super popular in the 70's. However, as far as society as a whole, and especially in term of media, there is quite a difference between the 60's and the 70's, and mostly after 1974 when Giscard d'Estaing became president. As absurd as it may seem now, Giscard's vision was one of a modernized country. He's the one who killed off the old ORTF system which had been very much a vestige of the old pompidolian France which was seen as so boring, hasbeen and passé by then. The catch culture on TV was very much a product of the post-war De Gaulle/Pompidou era. Giscard was much younger, he was much more progressive on social issues (although still a man from the right, but not the same as the previous generation) and France changed quite a bit in the second half of the 70's.

I'm no expert on French TV either, but I believe the decline of catch coincided with the rise of football (soccer) and some other sports. Because catch was easy and cheap to broadcast, it was adopted by television relatively early on while sports such as football were more difficult/expensive to air so they didn't become a regular fixture on French TV until the 1960s-1970s, and by the 1980s football was without question the most popular sport in the country. And this actually ties with another factor that I'm far from an expert on, but I believe it too played a role in the decline of catch. In the 1960s French society was changing, resulting in the large-scale May 1968 protests and strikes. One aspect of these societal changes was that the so-called "cult of the strong man" was going away. In other words, the views toward masculinity were changing and the traditional male values (strength, toughness, competitiveness, etc.) were no longer valued as much. Boxing, which used to be one of the most popular sports in France for decades, had a big dip in its popularity in the 1960s and especially in the 1970s, and I don't think it's recovered since. I've seen a number of mentions that the societal changes that were taking place back then, particularly the views toward masculinity, had a big hand in boxing's loss of popularity. I would imagine these societal changes impacted catch in a similar way as boxing. Also, talking about there not being that many televisions, you reminded me to mention these interesting stats that I found. As of January 31, 1958, there were only about 700,000 registered television sets in France (and I'm guessing there were also a number of unregistered ones too). As of December 31, 1960, the number of registered TV sets was up to about 2 million, which comparatively speaking was a big rise and I've actually seen a couple of mentions that partially credited catch for this rise. Overall though with RTF being around since 1949 and France having a population of about 45 million people, that's definitely a slow TV penetration rate. For sure slower than the US or the UK. That said, it should be pointed out that back then watching TV had a social aspect to it as not only would the whole family gather together to watch TV, but neighbors or friends might come over as well to watch certain shows, if they didn't have a TV of their own. Some bars and pubs also had TVs and people would go there to watch (and catch being on TV was a strong draw for the pub/bar owners back then). So, despite there being only 2 million registered TV sets, the potential viewing audience was larger than what that number suggests at first glance.

Yeah, that entire Ricochet-Gowen angle was hilarious, in a good way. My only critique is Ricochet should have beaten up Gowen with that prosthetic leg

The decline is noticeable in the footage itself. The average bout from the late 60s pales in comparison to the late 50s with regard to just about everything from the quality of the work to the overall atmosphere and level of crowd engagement. I don't think France was unique in this regard. I think you can drew parallels to the US and the state of wrestling in the 60s compared to the 50s. In both cases, wrestling was a huge draw during the early years of television but gradually faded. Japan was a little different because it took longer for post-war to recover and televisions weren't widely owned until the 1960s. They also benefitted from two next-generation superstars in Baba and Inoki. A deeper dive into the topic would look into what replaced catch as popular TV programming. I'm not sure what happened with US television, and I know next to zero about French TV. I'm simply assuming that catch gave way to something else the way that wrestling did in Japan.

As I keep digging into the history of French catch, I keep finding new stuff. Today's discovery is this neat little summary of the state of catch on TV in August 1970. "Once the king of TV, catch is now just the red-headed stepchild Catch, the magic word that once delighted countless viewers, seems to have lost a significant amount of its appeal today. Of course, there are still catch matches on the small screen, but they are now broadcast at a rate of once per month, delayed [taped in advance], late in the evening, most often on Saturdays, after Télé-Nuit. This late-night programming now only attracts the last fanatics of a show that, ten years ago, fascinated the whole of France... or almost*. Although it has little to do with real sport, catch still depends, on television, on the Sports Department, which decides which matches to record." And this matches everything else I've found so far. By the end of the 1960s catch had lost a lot of its appeal to the general public. It still had a solid fanbase and among the late-night TV programming it was a top performer viewership-wise, but overall it was nowhere near as popular as it used to be and it was no longer relevant on a mainstream level. It's no coincidence Delaporte got out of catch promotion in 1970... (he did return several years later when the other genres he was promoting stopped making him money). * Here's an interesting little tidbit about the "whole of France... or almost" bit. Back in the day the "TV Guide" type of magazines in France used to do reader polls. In the annual 1960 reader poll of one of the magazines, close to 80% of the 30,000 respondents said that they watched catch. Obviously, the opinions of thirty thousand people are not a great representation of the 45 million population of France back then, but this does give you some idea how relevant catch used to be among the general public back in its heyday.

TK pulling Zach Gowen out to give Ricochet more reasons to be a dickhead is so great. I wonder how that even came about

Also, Excalibur dropping a Gus Macker reference popped me on a core level I could never have expected.