Phil Lions

Here's a fun fact about this one. This wasn't a professional wrestling (catch) match, technically. This was an "amateur catch" match. But as you saw there was nothing amateur about it - dropkicks, flips, cheating behind the ref's back, etc. Amateur catch was such an odd, yet historically important, phenomenon in France back then. It was clearly pro guys doing pro matches, but the French amateur wrestling federation, and others, were passing off these matches as "amateur" in order to avoid taxes... until the French tax authorities caught on (thanks to a tip from Robert Lageat and company) and sued successfully for tax evasion.

Historically the non-heavyweight guys have always been the ones innovating the most in terms of moves and acrobatics. By the 1950s the lightweights/welterweights/middleweights were no longer as featured in the States, but were all over the European scene, so in that aspect it makes perfect sense that Europe would be ahead of the curve. In terms of Chemoul, it's difficult to say with certainty how innovative he really was. He comes off as very innovative compared to most of the other guys in the footage but most of the other guys featured in the footage were from the heavier classes. So it could be that the stuff that Chemoul was doing were standard fare for the lightweights, but we don't have enough footage of other lightweights to compare. Either way, based on the footage that we have, he certainly stands out in that regard and my gut feeling is that he really was one of the most innovative guys around back then. And as you said yourself, he's all over the footage. He made his pro debut in May 1948 and by 1950 he was already one of the most featured guys on TV, as was Leduc. Leduc and Chemoul were two of the guys Goldstein was pushing heavily at the time. I haven't come across any push back against this type of work. I'd imagine there must've been some, particularly by some of the older school guys, but I haven't seen any of it myself. The press always talks well of the "voltigeurs" (acrobats), which is what guys like Chemoul were labeled as back then. Speaking of innovation, another guy who caught my eye was Joachim La Barba, particularly for his top rope dropkick. A top rope dropkick in 1952. Imagine that! Here it is though: https://x.com/Phil_Lions/status/1883647945326972991 And one final note about innovating moves. Leduc was famous for his toupie (spinning top) and I can't say for sure who did it first, but in terms of footage Frank Sexton, of all people, is the earliest one we have on film doing a toupie. Although his version was slower and with less rotations: https://x.com/Phil_Lions/status/1940866938038898973 ----- @El-P Thanks for the context on bullfighting/Intervilles. @Matt D shared clips of that Invervilles match on the lake recently on Twitter.

Not available publicly. Only over at INA as it stands right now. I've shared some Kidd clips from the matches in question in this Twitter thread: https://x.com/Phil_Lions/status/1742250661205680175 Yes! Dale has been a revelation. His selling was absolutely outstanding. I shared the Leduc/Dale finish over on Twitter a while back: https://x.com/Phil_Lions/status/1926638762051698936 Great execution from both guys, but Dale's selling is what really made this finish. In the highlight footage Rene stands out to me as one of the most innovate guys of those years. For example, here's him casually busting out a Frankensteiner in 1954: https://x.com/Phil_Lions/status/1934244007971811786 And he was also more or less doing huracarranas as early as 1950, which actually may predate the invention of the move in Mexico.

All of it.

Just finished putting this together and figured I'd share it. A list of matches from Paris (1945-1965) that aired in highlight form either on French television or in French cinemas (99% of the post-1949 ones were on TV). When I say highlight form that means anywhere from a minute to seven minutes of the match. All of this footage exists. I still have a few matches left to figure out, but I'll leave them as they are for now. year.month.day (all dates are the tape dates except for the ones with "air" next to them - for those I only know the air date) 1946.1.9 Harry Brooks vs. Mano Melas 1946.4.27 Butcher Johnson vs. Martin Butch 1946.10.5 Henri Deglane vs. Francis St. Clair Gregory 1946.11.5 Charles Rigoulot vs. Bill Garnon 1946.11.15 Henri Cogan vs. Charlie Fisher 1946.12.18 Louis Loew vs. Butcher Johnson 1947.1.15 Henri Deglane vs. Yvar Martinson 1947.2.10 Henri Deglane vs. Charles Rigoulot 1947.3.3 Yvar Martinson vs. Bert Healion 1947.3.6air Butcher Johnson vs. Lew Roseby 1947.3.19 Al Cabrol vs. Phil Siki 1947.5.19 Henri Deglane vs. Yvar Martinson 1947.10.3 Henri Cogan vs. Charlie Fisher 1947.10.13 Yvar Martinson vs. Bert Assirati 1947.10.29 Andre Amerel vs. Savelian (?) 1947.11.3 Henri Deglane vs. Hans Buesing 1947.11.5 Rene Bukovac vs. Butcher Johnson 1948.1.9 Marcel Manuel vs. Jim Anderson 1948.2.2 Yvar Martinson vs. Stan Karolyi 1948.3.15 Yvar Martinson vs. Yvon Robert 1948.10.8 Louis Loew vs. Rex Gable 1948.11.8 Yvar Martinson vs. Bert Assirati 1948.12.6 Henri Deglane vs. Jim Burnett 1948.12.15 Al Cabrol vs. Big Benny 1949.1.24 Charles Rigoulot vs. Jim Burnett 1949.2.4 Al Cabrol vs. Rex Gable 1949.2.7 Charles Rigoulot vs. Bert Assirati 1949.3.7 Charles Rigoulot vs. Michael Ujevic 1949.10.19 Stan Karolyi vs. Sandy Orford 1949.10.24 Felix Miquet vs. Bert Assirati 1949.11.2 Jean Jourlin vs. Butcher Johnson 1949.11.7 Felix Miquet vs. Yvar Martinson 1949.11.21 Henri Deglane vs. Frank Valois 1949.12.5 Yvar Martinson vs. Frank Valois 1949.12.19 Felix Miquet vs. Frank Valois 1950.1.9 Frank Sexton vs. Yvar Martinson 1950.1.20or1950.11.10 Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Andre Chauveau 1950.1.23 Frank Sexton vs. Henri Deglane 1950.1.27 Ray Bukovac vs. Marcel Nonest 1950.2.3 Marcel Manuel vs. Paul Leteurtrois 1950.2.10 Ray Bukovac vs. Jack Dale 1950.2.15 Butcher Johnson vs. Jef Labrosse 1950.2.17 Jean Jourlin vs. Vic Hessle 1950.2.20 Frank Sexton vs. Frank Valois 1950.2.24 Cesario Brossati vs. David Jons 1950.3.1 Al Cabrol vs. Jim Hussey 1950.3.3 Jean Jourlin vs. Vic Hessle 1950.3.10 Gilbert Leduc vs. Cab Cashford 1950.3.17 Henri Cogan vs. Henri Renault 1950.3.24 Ray Bukovac vs. Pat Curry 1950.3.24 Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Johnny Peters 1950.4.28 Ray Bukovac vs. Georges Freymond 1950.4.28 Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Andre Gasnier 1950.5.5 Marcel Nonest vs. Robert Joyeux 1950.5.5 Pat Curry vs. Charlie Fisher 1950.5.12 Gilbert Leduc vs. Dick Falls 1950.5.12 Henri Cogan vs. Kid Pittman 1950.5.12 Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Henri Moreau 1950.5.19 Ray Bukovac vs. Marcel Nonest 1950.5.19 Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Andre Coquard 1950.5.28air Guy Robin vs. Robert Joyeux 1950.6.28 Stan Karolyi vs. Big Benny 1950.9.23air Marcel Manuel vs. ? 1950.9.24 Georges Huard vs. Felix Frey 1950.9.24 Henri Deglane vs. Al Cabrol 1950.10.6 Mike Marino vs. Marcel Manuel 1950.10.13 Cesario Brossati vs. Mike Mazurki (not the original) 1950.10.13 Georges Freymond vs. Rex Gable 1950.10.20 Andre Chauveau vs. Gilbert Naudin 1950.10.20 Gilbert Leduc vs. Bill Hunter 1950.10.20 Vic Hessle vs. Jean Jourlin 1950.10.23 Frank Valois vs. Rene Florent 1950.10.27 Guy Robin vs. Guy Laroche 1950.10.29 Charles Rigoulot vs. Jack Pye 1950.11.10 Gilbert Leduc vs. Lee Stent 1950.11.20 Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Guy Robin 1950.11.20 Yvar Martinson vs. Frank Valois 1950.11.24 Gilbert Leduc vs. Dick Falls 1950.12.4 Charles Rigoulot vs. Frank Valois 1950.12.4 Eugenio Gonzalez vs. Henri Bury 1950.12.15 Jean Jourlin vs. Jacques Ducrez 1950.12.18 Felix Miquet vs. Eugenio Gonzalez 1950air Jean Jourlin vs. ? 1950air Rene Ben Chemoul vs. ? 1951.1.2 Maurice Heros vs. Michel Gonthier 1951.1.5 Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Guy Laroche 1951.1.8 Frank Sexton vs. Yvar Martinson 1951.1.12 Felix Lamban vs. Vic Hessle 1951.1.15 Eugenio Gonzalez vs. Frank Valois 1951.1.19 Claude Montourcy vs. Tommy Mann 1951.1.22 Frank Sexton vs. Felix Miquet 1951.1.22 Mickey Gold vs. Jean Jourlin 1951.1.26 Bolo Hakawa vs. Lou Rudelle 1951.1.26 Gilbert Leduc vs. Red Harrison 1951.2.2 Bolo Hakawa vs. Jean Jourlin 1951.2.16 Marcel Manuel vs. Pierre Boss 1951.2.16 Vic Hessle vs. Georges Freymond 1951.2.19 Felix Miquet vs. Yvar Martinson 1951.2.19 Yvar Martinson vs. Felix Miquet 1951.2.23 Bolo Hakawa vs. Marcel Manuel 1951.3.9 Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Harry Fields 1951.3.16 Bolo Hakawa vs. Deo Crasti 1951.3.25air Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Harris (?) 1951.3.30 Vic Hessle vs. Jack LaRue 1951.4.6 Gilbert Leduc vs. Jacky Williams 1951.4.6 Pat Curry vs. Cesario Brossati 1951.4.14 Pat Curry vs. Guy Biados 1951.4.20 Guy Laroche vs. Kid Dickson 1951.4.25 Georges Freymond vs. Milo Popocopolis 1951.4.27 Gilbert Leduc vs. Marcel Manuel 1951.5.18 Marcel Manuel vs. John Swenski 1951.5.18 Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Harry Fields 1951.5.25 Bolo Hakawa vs. Deo Crasti 1951.5.25 Claude Montourcy vs. Andre Gasnier 1951.9.21 Bolo Hakawa vs. Jack Dale 1951.9.21 Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Jack Cunningham 1951.9.28 Roger Guettier vs. Gilles Wacklis 1951.10.5 Guy Laroche vs. Robert le Boulch 1951.10.5 Vic Hessle vs. Deo Crasti 1951.10.11 Robert Charron vs. Jean Casi 1951.10.15 Primo Carnera vs. Frank Valois 1951.10.17 Bolo Hakawa vs. Cesario Brossati 1951.10.17 Michel Chaisne vs. Nick van Dyck 1951.10.19 Gilbert Leduc vs. Marcel Manuel 1951.10.29 Primo Carnera vs. Felix Miquet 1951.11.5 Yvar Martinson vs. Adolf Porizek 1951.11.8 Andre Chauveau vs. Felix Frey 1951.11.9 Felix Lamban vs. Jacques Ducrez 1951.11.16 Guy Laroche vs. Jorge Calvo 1951.11.23 Andre Chauveau vs. Ray Belzic 1952.1.7 Felix Miquet vs. Larry Moquin 1952.1.11 Jules Delmee vs. Albert Albisson 1952.1.18 Guy Laroche vs. Guy Robin 1952.2.4 Frank Sexton vs. Eugenio Gonzalez 1952.2.29 Claude Montourcy vs. Pierre Boss 1952.2.29 Eric Husberg vs. Ray Belzic 1952.3.6 Robert Charron vs. Robert Gastel 1952.4.28 Bolo Hakawa vs. Edmond Liehn 1952.5.12 Frank Sexton vs. Primo Carnera 1952.5.23 Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Cliff Taylor 1952.6.25air Deo Crasti vs. Ray Munsten (?) 1952.9.21 Louis Thierry vs. Antonio Salinas 1952.9.26 Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Jim Londos (not the original) 1952.10.10 Bolo Hakawa vs. Tony Mancelli 1952.10.17 Guy Robin vs. Georges Huard 1952.10.17 Marcel Manuel vs. Black Kwango 1952.10.24 George Kidd vs. Guy Laroche 1952.10.26 Joachim La Barba vs. Rene Bouchoucha 1952.11.7 George Kidd vs. Rene Ben Chemoul 1952.11.10 Karl von Schober vs. Timothy Geohagen 1952.11.10 Roger Ruaux vs. Edmond Liehn 1952.11.24 Francois Miquet vs. Timothy Geohagen 1952.11.24 Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Cliff Taylor 1952.11.30 Robert Charron vs. Robert Gastel 1952.11.30 Al Cabrol vs. Lino Di Santo 1952.11.30or1952.1.20 Max Renaud (Roger Delaporte) vs. Henri Viez 1952.12.8 Bolo Hakawa vs. Deo Crasti 1952.12.8 Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Jack Dale 1952.12.19 Gilbert Leduc vs. Marcel Manuel 1953.1.4air Guy Laroche vs. Guy Robin 1953.1.9 Gaby Calderon vs. Gilles Wacklis 1953.1.11 Jim Oliver vs. Pat Curry 1953.1.17 Suni War Cloud vs. Karl von Schober 1953.1.30 Albert Falaux vs. Guy Robin 1953.2.13 Jim Oliver vs. Tony Mancelli 1953.2.13 Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Nick van Dyck 1953.2.27 Charlie Fisher vs. Marcel Manuel 1953.2.27 Gilbert Leduc vs. Jim Oliver 1953.3.7 Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Jack Quesick 1953.3.9 Francois Miquet vs. Suni War Cloud 1953.3.20 Jim Oliver vs. Vic Hessle 1953.3.20 Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Dick Falls 1953.3.27 Felix Lamban vs. Bolo Hakawa 1953.4.12air Ray Belzic vs. Crosnier (?) 1953.4.17 George Kidd vs. Andre Chauveau 1953.4.17 Jean Jourlin vs. Charlie Fisher 1953.5.15 Bolo Hakawa vs. Pat Curry 1953.5.15 Gilbert Leduc vs. Jack Dale 1953.5.15 Rene Asselin vs. Roland Deconninck 1953.10.30 Roger Delaporte vs. Roger Laroche 1953.11.23 Robert Duranton vs. Charlie Green 1953.11.29 Stan Karolyi vs. Mohamed Djaber 1953.12.13 King Kong Taverne vs. Pat Curry 1953.12.13 Laurent Dauthuille vs. Paul Debusne 1953.12.13air Hoyos vs. Bosson 1954.1.3air Andre Poulain vs. Jean Casi 1954.1.17 Al Cabrol vs. Pat Curry 1954.1.17 Felix Miquet vs. King Kong Taverne 1954.1.24 Stan Karolyi vs. Pat Curry 1954.1.31 Laurent Dauthuille vs. Paul Villars 1954.2.14 Stan Karolyi vs. Lino Di Santo 1954.2.14air Lino Di Santo vs. Mohamed Djaber 1954.2.15 Frank Sexton vs. Hermann Reiss 1954.3.7 Al Cabrol vs. King Kong Taverne 1954.3.21 Laurent Dauthuille vs. Andre Chauveau 1954.3.21 Pat Curry vs. Liano Pellacani 1954.3.31 Laurent Dauthuille vs. Andre Chauveau 1954.4.16 Don Beitelman vs. Vic Hessle 1954.4.16 Guy Laroche vs. Peter Jones 1954.4.30 Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Tommy Mann 1954.4.30 Robert Gastel vs. Buddy Jackson 1954.5.14 Gilbert Leduc vs. Robert Charron 1954.5.14 Roger Delaporte vs. Joachim La Barba 1954.5.21 Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Claude Montourcy 1954.5.21 Roger Laroche vs. Guy Robin 1954.6.20 Lino Di Santo vs. Pat Curry 1954.9.24 Michel Chaisne vs. Jack Dale 1954.9.24 Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Jim Lewis 1954.10.17 Al Cabrol vs. Adolf Kaiser 1954.11.1 Francois Miquet & Felix Miquet vs. Eddie Brush & Jack Wentworth 1954.11.1 Mario Lotario vs. Leon Minissini 1954.11.15 Francois Miquet & Yvar Martinson vs. Eddie Brush & Jack Wentworth 1954.11.26 Felix Lamban vs. Cowboy Cassidy 1954.12.3 King Badu vs. Gaby Dumas 1954.12.3 Roger Delaporte vs. Eddy Wiecz 1954.12.13 Axel Cadier vs. Roger Guettier 1954.12.13 Francois Miquet & The Great Zorro vs. Eddie Brush & Jack Wentworth 1954.12.20 Robert Charron vs. Laurent Dauthuille 1955.1.10 Felix Miquet & Francois Miquet vs. Frank Valois & Larry Moquin 1955.2.9air Lino Di Santo vs. Jacques van Dooren 1955.2.20air Roger Delaporte vs. Eddy Koparanian 1955.2.27air Jean Rabut vs. Catourcy (?) 1955.3.20air Vic Hessle vs. Roger Guettier 1955.10.31 Edy Wiecz & Felix Miquet vs. Frank Valois & Legs Wilson 1956.1.24 Sky Low Low & La Panthere Noire vs. Lord Clayton Littlebrook & Tito Infante 1956.2.15air Jim Oliver vs. Bill Howes 1959.2.2 L'Ange Blanc vs. Roger Delaporte 1959.5.4 L'Ange Blanc vs. L'Homme Masque 1961.3.13 L'Ange Blanc vs. L'Homme Masque 1961.11.5 Jack de Lasartesse & Hermann Iffland vs. Horst Hoffman & Micha Nador 1963.2.6air Jack de Lasartesse vs. ? 1963.5.7air Gilbert Leduc & Jacky Corn vs. Kamikaze I & Kamikaze II 1963.10.13 L'Ange Blanc vs. Conde Maximiliano 1965.3.29 Eddy Wiecz vs. The Great Togo 1965.11.29 Eddy Wiecz, Warnia de Zarzecki & Josef Zaranoff vs. Andre Bollet, Rudi Saturski & Harry Wenzel Also, a fun fact that I uncovered only recently. In 1943 the Germans were briefly running a television network out of Paris and at the end of November 1943 a pair of exhibition matches aired on the network. The matches took place at the Magic-City studio. Seems like they aired only highlights, or at least the existing footage is only about three minutes long. This German-run network had a very, very limited reach, but technically this would be the first (known) time that pro wrestling aired on TV in France. P.S. If you pay close attention to the list of matches above, you might also spot an extra interesting tidbit in there - the alias under which one of French catch's biggest stars started his career. Little known fact. 🙂

They absolutely had bullfighting in France, and in fact it is still happening to this day in some parts of Southern France. There used to be bullrings for 10,000+ people such as Arenes du Bouscat in Bordeaux and Arenes du Prado in Marseille where some of the biggest bullfighting events would take place. There's also the large Amphitheatre of Nimes which hosts bullfighting even now. All three arenas that I mentioned above have also hosted of pro wrestling cards over the decades.

I appreciate the sentiment, but I wouldn't have been of that much use then so you have nothing to regret. I mean, I knew stuff then too, but it was only within the last year or so that I dug in really deep into the history of French catch and its various personalities. The information was always out there, scattered all over the place, but I just hadn't worked on gathering it and systematizing it so that it becomes useful. Still a work in progress.

Not his last televised match, nor did he retire that year (cagematch has the wrong year). His last televised match that we have, although it's not complete, is Gilbert Leduc & Walter Bordes vs. Paco Ramirez & Daniel Boucard 7/25/77. And as far as retirement goes, I can't confirm the exact year, but it was either 1982 or shortly thereafter. The latest date I have for him is 5/30/82 as it stands.

Yes, that's Mitsui "Kamikaze" Dozan (Modesto Aledo).

Same! Could be some sort of a mask. Or some super elaborate face prosthetic. Hard to say.

It's Aledo. He was tubbier in his later years. Plus, and more importantly, Aledo being Dozan is also referenced in the archives of the French catch historian Michel Bezy (who was working for the same promotion as Dozan back then).

Thanks for pointing this one out, @David Mantell. I had somehow missed it in my latest sweep of the archive. Just looked it up. January 2, 1966: Marcel Manneveau & Claude Gessat vs. Remy Bayle & Dan Aubriot This is missing from Bob's video of the match, but the segment starts with Laurent Couderc (Roger Couderc's son) introducing his father. Roger takes over from there, introduces the wrestlers and does the commentary. And indeed, as @ohtani's jacket said, this aired as part of "Télé dimanche". That particular episode of the show was a total of 4 hours and 40 minutes so they had some time to fill, to say the least! And speaking of time, I now realize why I had missed this one. I hadn't noticed this before, but INA, apparently, splits some of the longer videos into parts, and only the first part shows up in the search so if you want to see the other parts you have to manually switch to them from a dropdown menu above the video, which means... there might be some other stuff that I've missed because of this. I doubt it will be much, but there might be something there. I'll need to take a closer look.

Thank you for taking time out to listen to it! 1) There was a lot of ground to cover and focusing on a move wasn't part of my plan heading in. In fact, had Ryan not brought it up I probably wouldn't have even thought to talk about it. By the way, the correct French spelling is "toupie". 2) Absolutely. The French model was similar to the UK one (intense touring), which is why I compared the two briefly at one point. However, unlike the UK, in France they did also run big 10,000+ buildings too such as the regular shows at Palais des Sports in Paris (up to 1959) and the occasional summer events at the bullrings in Marseille/Bordeaux/Beziers, the Amphitheatre in Nimes, etc. 4) French catch's run as regular standalone series on national television was 1954-1985. Everything after that I consider to be part of a different era in catch's history. There was no catch on national TV in 1986 at all so 1985 really is the best cut-off point between the original run and everything else that might've followed. Thanks! 🙂 It used to be better, but I'm a bit out of practice. Hadn't really talked in English at length in a few years.

Mantopoulos is correct. I've seen Lemagourou spelled a few different ways on posters and in articles. To be honest I've never given it much thought as to what the correct spelling might be. Now that I think about it, I'd guess Le Magouroux. Just follow the weekly French catch posts on Tuesdays at the Segunda Caida blog. New matches have been and will continue to get posted there over the next several weeks. Perhaps the most notable example of European studio wrestling is the short lived "Los héroes del X'ondo" show (a.k.a. Spain's "Titanes en el Ring" knock off from the late 1970s).

If you have ever wanted to listen to someone speaking for two hours on the topics of French catch history, Gilbert Leduc in particular and what makes Leduc a strong candidate on the 2025 WON HOF ballot, well, you're in luck. I just did a podcast about that. Available here, on YouTube and the usual podcasting platforms. I don't do podcasts often, if ever, but this particular topic was just too interesting for me to say no to. Plus, Ryan is an excellent host, who does his own research and comes in prepared. Definitely recommend checking out other episodes of his "The Ballot" podcast if you're into detailed WON HOF talk.

Somehow I wasn't aware of this until very recently, but apparently there was a Robert Lageat autobiography published in 1993. Given that behind the scenes Lageat was one of the most important figures in the history of French catch, I had to check it out as soon as I found out about this book. It's pretty good if you want to learn more about Lageat and his life story and it comes across as fairly honest, but in terms of learning about catch outside of a few fun stories there isn't much new information in there. A few notes: - The thing that probably caught my attention the most is how much Lageat, a guy who was involved in catch for over 40 years, gushes over Modesto Aledo. More so than any other wrestler mentioned in the book. "A Spanish wrestler of immense talent", "one of the most amazing wrestlers I have ever met" and "the astonishing, the phenomenal Aledo". - He says Jacky Corn had aspirations of the going to the Olympics, but Jacky's wife got pregnant so instead Jacky turned professional because he needed the money. - In the 1970s Lageat and Corn took over the management of the "Le Balajo" dance club in Paris and ran it for many years after that. Daniel Schmid, Remy Bayle and Jack Meurs worked for them there. One of the reasons why Corn quit the ring is because he had developed arthritis, and he was also fed up with the business. - And finally, if you're wondering what Lageat's opinion of catch/WWF in 1993 was... well, as you might expect it wasn't positive. "Today, 1993, catch is dead in France... By going along with the public who were always demanding more, some have killed the goose that lays the golden eggs. From spectacle we have gone to farce, and from farce to nothing. Amateur wrestling, the natural reservoir of catch, no longer feeds the specialty. And for good reason! There are no more schools, no more shows, no more tournaments... From time to time, Bercy welcomes the Americans, phenomena, monstrous followers of body building, American-style physical culture enhanced by hormones... Their performance is more like a fair than real catch. Apart from the cuffs, flying arms, a few jumps, and their movies, they don't do much... Most of them haven't learned to wrestle, you don't need to be an Olympic champion to realize that. Too bad because the Americans are the strongest in freestyle wrestling... Catch should stick to a kind of professional freestyle wrestling without this clowning around... Barnum catch, not for me!"

Yes, about a dozen or so new ones. Well, not so much new ones but rather ones that had been missed in the original sweep of the archive so they're new in that sense, including a few that aired on regional TV only. Yes, Duranton was great in that bit. Promos weren't really a regular thing in French catch, but I'd imagine Duranton was one of the best at them.

Guy Mercier/James Brown vs Les Gorilles (Lou/Geo Marsallon) 7/1/65 I figured I would comment along with some of the new catch matches as they're being rolled out. Various thoughts: - This is the date INA lists the match under, but it's possible that was the tape date and not the air date. - The Marsallon brothers, aka Les Gorilles, were all over the French scene in the 1960s, and did some work outside of France too, but they were never really featured consistently by any promotion as a top act and bounced around to different promotions. They were "Fryziuk boys" as in they came from Jean Fryziuk's wrestling school along with Dan Aubriot and some others. When Delaporte & Bollet joined forces with Fryziuk in 1962 to try and establish a new top promotion/booking office in France, the Marsallons were among the first to be part of it. Later in 1968 when Mercier, Bibi, Calderon, Saulnier, etc. formed their cooperative and started classifying wrestlers as employees (as opposed to independent contractors) the Marsallons were part of that too. In other words, they were part of two of the most significant attempts to disrupt the French catch establishment in the 1960s, albeit in a lesser role. Outside of the ring Lou (or Loulou as he was nicknamed) worked as a carpenter and specialized in making coffins while Jo/Geo worked for Air France for a long time (not sure in what capacity exactly). - I had always wanted to see the Marsallons in action, because they sounded like an interesting team to me. They did not disappoint and lived up to their Les Gorilles moniker. Enjoyed their shtick and it felt like they weren't even working it to the fullest. Wish we had more footage of them teaming to see how they would've fared against other teams and whether they would've amped up their shtick more in other matches. Oh well. - I enjoyed this match overall. Not great, but definitely fun to watch. It was a crowd-pleasing match with a lot of babyface shine. It was good for what it was - the babyfaces shining and the heels bumping for them. That said, I wish the Marsallons would've gotten more opportunity to be in control. I really wanted to see more of them on offense, but alas that wasn't in the cards. - The babyface team, as expected, was excellent. Both of those guys could go, no doubt about it. Loved them tagging in and out to hit backbreakers on Lou. I really like Mercier's dropkicks, but I think I dig Brown's even more. Mercier's were more explosive while Brown's were smooth as silk. Mercier also demonstrated a few slick techniques, which I always appreciate. Brown moving to avoid Lou's headbutt and Lou almost diving through the ropes was pretty neat. - Another thing that struck me while I was watching the match was Roger Couderc. It had been a while since I had watched a match with him on commentary and it just reminded me how great he was. You don't even need to know French to appreciate him. You can just feel the enjoyment and enthusiasm in his voice. You can just tell he's having a blast out there and that type of energy elevates the matches, especially for casual viewers I would imagine.

Having looked a bit more closely at this, I now notice that the source this article was based on was... WS's official website. That's a bit like writing an article about the history of WWE by watching WWE-made documentaries. Not a good idea. Some of the stuff in it may be true, but there are plenty of inaccuracies too.

And now here's another promoter saying the same thing as Delaporte and Durand. Today's discovery. Promoter Alex Goldstein talking about, among other things, the adverse effect catch being on television had had on the live gates in the provinces. This is from April 1961, right before catch was about to be pulled from TV by Raymond Janot (the general director of RTF). - Interviewer: Do the catch organizers want catch to continue to be televised? - Alex Goldstein: I'll give you my personal opinion. I think that television has done considerable harm to my show, while catch did a lot for TV. Catch sold a large number of receivers. That provided work for the workers who make the sets! But if tomorrow, in the current state of affairs, catch matches were banned from television, I would shout: "Bravo, Mr. Janot! Keep your paltry little fees, I'm going to have many more customers in my theaters!" - Interviewer: So the influence of televised catch on your revenue is so great? - Goldstein: It is very great, and sometimes catastrophic in the provinces. You know that there can be six or seven catch shows organized in the provinces on the same evening. Now, if that evening L'Ange Blanc, for example, is on television, half the people will stay at home in front of the screen! So, you understand that the organizers are right to complain. - Interviewer: So you think that television doesn't pay you enough, in relation to the loss of customers suffered? - Goldstein: We receive a ridiculous fee: 200,000 francs for two-person catch, 225,000 to 250,000 francs for four-person catch. While our show reaches several million people! If each viewer who likes catch gave us just 50 francs, admit it wouldn't be much, the viewer would surely agree, and our accounts would be fine! - Interviewer: So you no longer want to work with TV? - Goldstein: I think the question is to be reviewed with the launch of the second channel. But in any case, the number one problem to be resolved are the financial conditions. - Interviewer: In your opinion, how often should television broadcasts be? - Goldstein: This question is linked to the previous one. To be reviewed, depending on the conditions. - Interviewer: We know that the majority of viewers demand catch. But you tell us that televised public meetings take away from your audience. Wouldn't it be possible, and would it be a way to satisfy everyone, if catch matches are staged in a studio, exclusively for the small screen? - Goldstein: No, I answer absolutely no! Wrestlers need the atmosphere of the room, the reactions of the audience. If you deprive them of that, the quality of the matches will suffer. They are like theater or music hall artists! They need contact with the spectators. The more atmosphere, the better! And on that final topic of studio wrestling, there was actually a one-off studio match that aired in 1966: Vassilios Mantopoulos & Ischa Israel vs. Billy Catanzaro & Gilbert Lemagourou with the popular music star Johnny Hallyday as guest commentator. It aired as part of the popular weekend show "Télé Dimanche" and was broadcast from the show's studio. Overall though the French promoters themselves were always against the idea of studio wrestling so that's why French catch never went that route.

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'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.

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.

Interesting articles. I hadn't seen them before. Thanks! That said, I can spot several mistakes right away. A couple of examples below. No. The 1987 magazine show was "Sports loisirs" and it was an afternoon show on the weekend. "Minuit sport" was the magazine show (Mondays at midnight) that New Catch was part of in 1988. The part in the article about FEC going on hiatus in 1996 is definitely not true either. Flesh continued to have an active schedule after that too and was using the FEC name as late as October 1998. Here's a fun fact. IWSF and WS were actually created as associations (i.e non-profit organizations) on the exact same day... in June 2002. One in Othis, the other in Paris. And later WS was also created as a company (i.e. business entity for profit) in 2008, and terminated in 2013. This is all traceable in the archives dealing with French associations and companies. Anyway, this is where I'll stop discussing all of these various names further. They're inconsequential and not worth discussing in detail, IMO. That's Marc Mercier's version of the story, and I don't know if I believe it. When Mercier talks about FFCP he always talks about it as if it used to be a wrestling promotion (it was not), says that it was founded in 1931 (not true) by Raoul Paoli (not true) with Alex Goldstein being the second FFCP president (not true) and Delaporte being the third (not true). In other words, he always tries to paint his FFCP as some sort of official continuation of French catch's greatest promoters/promotions from the past and that's just not true. So yeah, I very much doubt that he bought anything from Delaporte, who to the best of my knowledge was never part of the original FFCP in an official capacity anyway.

I went down into the Flesh Gordon rabbit hole yesterday, trying to piece together more of the history of his promotion. And having looked at over 100 posters/programs/flyers for shows of his promotion (from the 1986-2025 period) I can honestly say I have never seen a promotion go through so many promotional names as Flesh's company did. So many, it can make your head spin! At one point or another he used: New Catch / Federation Europeenne de Catch / European Wrestling Federation / NewCatch France / Federation Internationale de Catch Amateurs et Professionnels / Euro-Catch / International Wrestling Stars Federation (IWSF) / Wrestling Stars (WS) / Catch WS / Les Maitres du Ring (which is what it's going by currently). And in looking into the promotion I was reminded of something I had forgotten about. Back in 2009 and 2010 Flesh Gordon teamed up with a production company and they ran three shows at Cirque d'Hiver in Paris, which of course has a long history of catch since it was Alex Goldstein's base of operations for many years. Those were the first catch shows at the venue, I believe, since 1980 or so when the Goldstein promotion closed shop (well, actually, by that point it was more so the Rene Ben Chemoul promotion because Goldstein had stepped away a few years prior). The Flesh Gordon shows at Cirque d'Hiver were billed as "Les Virtuoses des Rings Europeens" and the first one was actually filmed as a TV pilot with the idea to use it as proof of concept and try to land a national television deal. PCO worked the taping as one of the headline attractions and his opponent ended up being Brodie Lee. Very random! Of course this was happening right as catch was experiencing a big resurgence in its popularity in France due to WWE airing on free-to-air TV, which is why Gordon was hopeful he might be able to land a TV deal somewhere. He did not. The show in question does exist somewhere as a DVD, but online you can only find a short highlight video from it and this match below, which I'd say looks pretty good production-wise. In November 2008 the W9 network in France aired a one-off show by the touring Irish company American Wrestling Rampage, which was a success in terms of viewership so they followed it up with a second show the following year. And if you compare the AWR production with the match above, the Flesh Gordon show looks better, but obviously AWR featured ex-WWE names so that made it more appealing from a television perspective. In December 2008 W9 did actually announce their intent to air some FFCP content the following year, but ultimately they did not and instead ended up signing a deal with TNA. In general Marc Mercier had been shopping around a FFCP reality show concept, similar to "Star Academy", but it never got off the ground. In 2010 even ROH managed to get a TV deal in France, albeit a very short-lived one (they got canceled after only two months). Long story short, 2008-2010 was probably French catch's last chance of getting back to national television in France as interest in wrestling was way up, but despite Gordon and Mercier's attempts obviously things didn't work out and clearly French television networks were more interested in American wrestling content than they were in French wrestling content.