ohtani's jacket

It took me a while to find a record of that guy.

Just a heads up to folks struggling with identifying wrestlers. I finally confirmed that El Gayo is indeed El Gayo:

Bob Anthony vs. Rene Ben Chemoul (aired 7/7/61) Bob Anthony was the son of well known wrestler, Bob Archer O'Brien, and began his wrestling career as a teen idol. He made his television debut at the end of 1960 and was on television a handful of times in 1961. He then got a huge rub in 1962 with a bout against McManus. Despite his career taking off, there was a lot of unrest among the wrestlers at the time. They ended up unionizing, but they felt discriminated against so a lot of them quit and went to work for Lincoln and other indy promoters. A few years later, Anthony, Hunter, Hayes and Lincoln bought into a nightclub in London, and Anthony, who had already been doing some work promoting rock bands, was put in charge of booking bands and running the club's disco. You wouldn't think it to look at him, but his nickname at the time was The Wrestling Beatle and he ran one of the most "in" clubs of the Swinging Sixties. He was still a kid on the wrestling circuit in this footage, and not hobnobbing with the Beatles or the Rolling Stones yet, but it's an interesting side story. Rene Ben Chemoul was one of the most beloved French wrestlers of all-time. Couderc adored him and called him Le Tigre de la Lutte and Le Roi Rene. Walton raved about him and considered him one of the finest technicians to ever grace English shores. He also the son of a well-known wrestler, Albert Ben Chemoul, and I just discovered that he had actually been a prisoner of war during the Second World War. Neither man was at his best here, possibly because of fatigue. Ben Chemoul, in particular, gave many more passionate performances than this. I have a match record of them working a one night tournament on 6/30. I am not sure if this is the final from that tournament but it would explain some of the fatigue (or perceived fatigue.) There were some nice details but the tension never really built and the match ended up being nothing special.

Al Hayes & Ray Hunter vs. Roger Delaporte & Roger Guettier (aired 5/24/57) Ray Hunter was an Australian from Tasmania who began wrestling in England in the early 50s. The team of Hayes and Hunter would go on to form an important part of Paul Lincoln Promotions in the early 60s, a rebel promotion that rose to prominence after wrestlers started breaking away from Joint Promotions in the late 50s and began promoting their own shows and working on the independent circuit. Lincoln and Hunter had bought a steakhouse in Soho in '56 and turned it into a coffee shop that was considered rock 'n' roll central in the late 50s. One cool thing about Lincoln, who managed some of the early rock acts in the UK, was that he encouraged the musicians to take on stage names and gimmicks just like wrestlers. Hunter doesn't have a great reputation among old school British fans. Most of them are only familiar with his work after the merger with Joint Promotions. People who went to the Lincoln shows swear Hunter was involved in a number of memorable feuds. I thought he was okay here, but you can understand how he didn't impress in the UK given the quality of heavyweight workers at the time. Delaporte is clearly the man they love to hate in French wrestling. I'm not sure if he did anything as individually brilliant as Bollet, but I really liked his double teaming and he drew tremendous heat between falls. The match cut off before the finish, which was unfortunate as they were whipping the crowd into a frenzy. Someone threw a stool into the ring and it was getting bounced around like a beach ball. I wasn't really impressed with this bout in the beginning but it grew on me as the crowd started throwing debris at the heels. I can't wait to see Delaporte tag with Bollet. I can't imagine how they're going to find opponents worthy of that pairing.

Marcel Parmentier vs. Jean Fryziuk (aired 5/24/57) This was the closing minutes of what looked like a fun bout. We're starting to get a decent idea of all of the heel tricks that were used in French catch. What's not clear yet is who was a perennial heel or who was just adopting the role for the match. Parmentier was magnificent in this match, especially when he was trying to steal the limelight from Fryziuk at the end, but it can't have been that difficult to work a few staple heel moves. Judging by the match records we have, Parmentier could have been a heel of note, but I don't recognize any of his opponents. Fryziuk's name features more often in the match records, so I'll assume that he was reasonably popular. I don't think either man featured that much on television after this. Again, I'm theorizing, but it seems like it was difficult to get on television. This match either benefited from being right before the main event, or because the promoter wanted the audience to see Fryziuk. With ITV, there was always an element of randomness depending on what was on the card they were filming, but there were also stars who featured much more regularly than other wrestlers. And wrestling was on ITV twice a week at one point. I'm pretty sure catch was only ever on once a week. Anyhoo, this was worth watching for Parmentier's antics.

That should be interesting. I've seen every Bob Anthony match in existence but nothing from his prime. If it's the match I'm thinking of, it's a World Middleweight title bout at the Palais des Sports.

Ivan Rasputin, Chest Bernard & Fritz Von Schacht vs. Don Beitelman, Farmer Don Marlin & Pat O'Connor... I'm pretty sure I've seen this before but there were enough characters in it to entice me to watch it again. As you can imagine, a 6 man tag was quite the spectacle in 50s. This didn't have the rhythm of a great three-act trios match, but it did have a pretty great rudo lineup. Fritz Von Schacht is starting to grow on me as one of the better German heels of the era (although he doesn't really work a Nazi heel gimmick as such), and Rasputin is always good. Marlin and Von Schacht showed the same chemistry from their singles match, but the bulk of the match seemed to feature Pat O'Connor, or as Davies kept calling him, "Bud" O'Connor. I'm always kind of secretly proud to see a Kiwi on the big stage. Davies clearly knew nothing about New Zealand. At first he confused it with Australia and then it kept drawing comparisons to European wrestling. He seemed to naturally assume that New Zealanders were hot blooded and would lose their temper easily. O'Connor is the splitting imagine of some of the 50s New Zealand rugby greats, many of whom were farmers. They were more than happy to dish it out on the field and have a beer afterward and that was the vibe I got from O'Connor here. The match itself was messy, but there were enough high points to satisfy.

Since it fits within the chronology, I thought I'd go back and watch the original catch find. Gilbert Cesca vs. Billy Catanzaro (aired 5/2/57) This was unlike any match we've seen so far the collection. It was unique in that it was a pure wrestling contest. There were forearm smashes, and both guys had a rush of blood to the head, but there was no out-and-out heel performance. If there was aggression, it was because the contest was competitive. I wonder how often matches like this were on the cards and how rare it was for them to make TV. There was some great wrestling in the bout, but catch's bread and butter so far has been heels that drew incredible heat. I hope there are more wrestling contests like this to go along with the larger than life stuff. As a gateway match, it reminds me of the first time I watched Steve Grey vs. Clive Myers. Once I was hooked, an entire world unfolded with larger than life characters and TV villains. We know how good guys like Cesca and Rene Ben Chemoul are from the old Bob ALPRA footage. I'm hoping we get a showcase or two of their talents the way that ITV used to slip in one or two matches for the purist. In terms of how good Cesca vs. Catanzaro is on re-watch, I think the first half of the bout is stronger than the second. They lose a bit of steam in the final third. It's still one of the all-time great pure wrestling contests, however. It hangs with any match you care to name for pure wrestling combat. And even with the new footage, it's still a trip to see these two lightweights having such a physical wrestling contest in a 1950s Parisian hall. If wrestling had national treasures this would be one of them.

Ami Sola vs. "Cheri Bibi" Roger Trigeaud (aired 5/17/57) Cheri Bibi was a character in a series of novels written by Gaston Leroux, who also authored The Phantom of the Opera. It's the nickname of a young butcher's apprentice who is gifted with extraordinary strength. He gets framed for the murder of his boss, and later on, in a twist of fate, has his face surgically replaced with the face of the murderer for whose crime he was convicted. Over the years, the novels were adapted into several different films. There was a film in 1954 that may, or may not have been, the inspiration for Trigeuad taking on the gimmick. French promoters from this era often drew inspiration from films and literature. Off the top of my head, there's Spartacus, Batman, the French version of James Bond, and a character from The Three Musketeers. We have a few matches from Trigeaud in the 60s, but he was much leaner here. There was more mat wrestling in this than there has been in most matches so far, and Sola was a nice foil for the showcased wrestler, but this wasn't as exciting as the big heel showcases we've seen so far. It was more of a geek out for people who follow this stuff closely.

Dr. Adolph Kaiser vs. Inca Peruano (aired 5/17/57) I would have liked to have seen more of this since Inca was the first personality we've seen wrestle Kaiser. I liked that Inca was able to evade Kaiser's strangle hold a couple of times and that he was able to leave under his own steam. Perhaps I'm reading too much into it, but there seemed to be some weird psychology going on with Kaiser. The way he reacted after winning the bout was strange. It had a real Anthony Perkins vibe to it. I am pretty sure that he snaps when he chokes people out and that it's meant to be some kind of personality disorder.

Luis el Gayo vs. Rene Gerber (aired 5/11/57) This was amazing. Gerber was a Swiss wrestler and for some reason Swiss wrestlers are always heels in catch. He gets out-outmaneuvered on a hold early on and starts abusing el Gayo. And it's not in a brutish sort of way. He's clearly an accomplished wrestler who knows how turn a legit hold into a dirty one. And boy does he know how to work a crowd. We've been blessed with some great heel work in this 50s catch, but Gerber may be the best of the lot and that's saying something considering how good the rest have been. I lost count of how many fans Gerber argued with. It started off with this guy who looked like he was a train driver or a chimney sweep and ended with up half a dozen other altercations. At one point, he was down on the canvas and someone pulled his hair. And in between rounds he would threaten to throw his stool at people and flickered his water at them. He wasn't a big guy either. Really well build but short. But he really had them worked up. I was surprised when they brawled on the outside. All el Gayo had to do was be demonstrative and he would have drawn heat, but to his credit he was really good as the aggrieved babyface. His retaliatory moves were just as nasty as the holds Gerber dished out, and there were a lot of vicious strikes. I was surprised this went to a finish actually, and the post-match was incredible with el Gayo attacking Gerber with Gerber's own towel. This was one of my favorite matches in the collection so far. If you're going to have a match disintegrate into a nasty brawl then you might as well do it in the first few minutes. I loved the camerawork too. They usually have a single hard cam in the 50s. The closeup shots at ringside felt like something out of a movie. They reminded me of the cinematography from a film noir. Think Body and Soul. Great match that I think would entertain a lot of people outside of the French catch bubble.

Fritz von Schacht vs. Farmer Don Marlin was another pleasant surprise. Marlin is a barefoot yokel who gets hoppin' mad a lot and has an interesting grappling stance he calls his "mole style of wrestling." Schacht is a German. As you can imagine, there's a lot of hillbilly talk from Davis and a bad German accent, but ignoring Davis' wit, the bout is an exciting brawl. Much better than I was expecting from yokel and a poor man's Fritz von Erich. Also entertaining was Legs Langevin vs. Bobby Managoff. I've seen Legs before in matches against stars like Pat O'Connor and Edouard Carpentier but this was the first time to see him in a match that showcased his comedy heel act. It was a lot of fun and something I wouldn't mind seeing again. Not so fun was Cora Combs vs. Lorraine Johnson. I've seen a lot of good women's wrestling from the 50s but this was dull as dishwater. I also found a few clips of Hans Schmidt in the Buffalo territory, but Buffalo matches are always boring.

This sheds some light on Catanzaro's career -- http://alpra.blogspot.com/2013/05/catanzaro-billy-de-tunis-paris.html It also has a link to the Catanzaro and Lemagouroux clip.

Billy Catanzaro vs. Vasilios Mantopolous (aired 1/29/67) Billy Catanzaro is a bit of a mystery man. I know he was from Tunisia originally and settled in Paris. I know he had a match with Jim Breaks in 1964 that I'd give my left nut to see. And l know that there's a clip of him working a tag match on French TV, so there's more footage of him out there. I also know that he's sadly left us. Vasilios Mantopolous, on the other hand, was a well-known Greek light weight. He toured the UK a lot and worked against the likes of George Kidd and Jim Breaks. He was clearly the star in this match with Catanzaro playing the veteran hand. Mantopolous showed a lot of the stylistic leanings of George Kidd & Co. It was a stark contrast to the burly heavyweights we've seen so much of in the 50s footage. Light weights can be hit and miss for me as their work is often light as a feather. I'll have to watch this again but at first glance Catanzaro seemed like a solid base.

Andre Bollet vs. Henri Bury (aired 4/26/57) Henri Bury was a Belgium heavyweight champion from Liege, who was a regular fixture in England, France and Germany during the 1950s. Bollet we're well acquainted with. This wasn't the type of match that will block your socks off in isolation, but if you've been following this 50s catch then you'll appreciate it. It was the first time we've seen a match between a French wrestler and a foreigner where the Frenchman was the heel. Personally, I like Bollet. He reminds me of a cross between Mick McManus and Arn Anderson. It remains to be seen whether he is a better tag wrestler than a singles guy. This was a bit like watching Arn work a singles match in that it wasn't overtly great but you could find plenty of details to convince yourself that he might be an underrated singles wrestler. Bury was fine but not as memorable as the Oliver brothers or Pellacani. What was really good was the finish. That was a really great way to put the French guy over the Belgium guy even though the French guy was a heel. Especially since they were billing Bollet as a French champion. I loved his jacket at the end. Perhaps I should change my handle to bollet's jacket.

It's that time of the week again. Joachim La Barba vs. Roger Laroche (aired 3/7/57) This was another good match. The quality of 50s catch has been extremely high. Laroche was another no-nonsense, tough as nails French babyface. He was a World Middleweight champion during his career, but this wasn't the right match to get a look at his technique. It was a pure heel vs. face match. Even when he did work holds, they felt aggressive and retaliatory. He seemed good at his role. It's interesting how the French babyfaces are giant ass kickers. We haven't seen a lot of faces working from underneath and selling a beating yet. La Barba is proving to be charismatic and entertaining. I would have liked him to have been a bit more threatening in the ring but his theatrics were first class. I loved how he charged back into the ring at the end and got into it with the spectators. Dr. Adolf Kaiser vs. Warnia de Zarzecki (aired 3/29/57) I'm still not sold on Kaiser yet. All I've seen so far is a vaguely effeminate man who gets his ass handed to him then snaps and chokes people out. Zarzecki was a Polish wrestler whose biggest claim to fame to me is that he was on the bill of the 1963 Royal Albert Hall show that Prince Phillip attended. Inca Peruano vs. Indio Comanche (aired 3/29/57) I have no idea who Indio Comanche was, and I'm not really worried since it doesn't seem as though he appears again. He looked more like a Peruvian wrestler than a Native American. There were numerous guys working Native American gimmicks in the 50s and they all seemed more authentic than this guy. This had some weird undertones that the Segunda Caida boys alluded to, but hey, I just discovered that 70s catch had topless women's wrestling so I guess anything goes. One of the things that has been noticeable about 50s catch is how tough and hard hitting it is. This felt a bit looser. There was a lot of reaching and tumbling. It wasn't as exciting as the previous Inca Peruano match. It wasn't bad but it didn't live up to the standards of the other matches from recent weeks.

The Sheik of Araby vs. Harry Lewis... Everyone was young once, but they doesn't mean they were good. That's a bit harsh maybe, but watching the Sheik grapple isn't exactly thrilling. I got bored of Chicago and decided to watch a couple of Rikidozan fights. I watched the Rikidozan/Kimura shoot. I'd actually never seen it before. Like most shoots, it wasn't that interesting until the ending where Rikidozan unleashed on Kimura and knocked him out. Quite a surreal finish to a wrestling bout. Rikidozan vs. Don Leo Jonathan. This surprised me a lot. Jonathan was an incredible physical specimen, but I wasn't expecting him to be such a good match-up for Rikidozan. Basically, the only interesting parts of a Rikidozan fight are when he's striking his opponent. Jonathan not only brought great looking strikes to the bout, he sold extremely well for Rikidozan's blows. We've all heard the stories about what a good big man Don Leo Jonathan was, but this was the first time that I saw the proof. Cowboy Carlson vs. Vincent Lopez -- this was a total surprise. Carlson wore jean shorts and cowboy boots (if you can believe it) while Lopez was a middle-aged, irritable version of a worker whom I had previously seen in his prime during the 1930s. Together, they put on one of my favorite matches in the entire Chicago Film Archive collection. Just a really great, stiff brawl that was chock full of action and didn't outstay its welcome. So many matches tried to be like this in the 50s but few succeeded as well as this one did.

Dr. Adolf Kaiser vs. Michel Chaisne (aired 2/28/57) This was our first real look at a character wrestler from the 50s footage. Kaiser is a guy whose reputation proceeds him. Jetlag has done a lot of research into him and gave an excellent write-up of him on Segunda Caida. Personally, I found him more camp and humourous than threatening or menacing. He got his ass kicked for most of the bout. It wasn't until the end where he applied his strangling hold that he seemed remotely sinister. The finish caused quite a stir, however, so let's see how the crowd react to him going forward. The match itself reminded me of those four round matches on World of Sport that would showcase the gimmick wrestlers. The jury is still out on Kaiser, but he's a name to keep track of.

I think if we see it as the latest in a series of matches like Khan vs. Oliver and Bout vs. Pellacani then it makes sense. I’ll try to watch it again and ignore the fact that it’s a title match, which shouldn’t be hard to do as I can’t find a record of this title change taking place. Hopefully, we get some other title matches too so that we can see how they were typically worked. Some of my favorite Bert Royal stuff was when he’d get livid fighting Marc Rocco, so I think we got the best of Bert Royal here.

Bert Royal vs. Tony Oliver (aired 2/22/57) Watching a young Bert Royal is a bit like seeing a young Prince Charles. Bert Royal was on the very first episode of ITV wrestling in 1955 and was a staple of televised wrestling for almost 30 years. I've always thought of him as the Dory Funk Jr. to Vic Faulkner's Terry Funk, but the one thing he was genuinely good at was playing the fired up babyface, which he did time and time again against Jackie Pallo, Mick McManus, Chic Purvey and Steve Logan. It's no surprise then that he excels at that role against Tony Oliver. This is supposed to be a title match -- I'm guessing for the British Middleweight title (European title histories from this era are a mess) -- but it never really gets going because of Oliver's inside moves. Don't get me wrong, I think Oliver is fantastic, but Walton and his legend of purists wouldn't have enjoyed this. Bert didn't get to wrestle in this, and some of his retaliatory moves had me questioning the rules of French catch. As far as I recall, in British wrestling you couldn't strike a wrestler that was lying on the mat, but Bert struck like a cobra every time that Oliver was prone. Oliver was brilliant at working inside moves, and he had an amazing mug that looked like he'd had his face punched inside out and was still grinning, but despite the niggle and aggression, I'm not sure if this was title match worthy. That would be my only criticism, especially after Royal won with a comeuppance move. If you take title match wrestling out of the equation, or you choose not to care about the title match prestige as much as I do, then this was a great niggle-filled bout.

Gypsy Joe vs. Ashura Hara (IWE 11/7/79) Gypsy Joe vs. Ashura Hara (IWE 1/16/80) These were a pair of Texas Death matches inside a steel cage. The second match was more complete than the first and had a proper finish. They spent half the match working a clean bout, however, until Joe introduced a foreign object. My boy Hara could bleed but these were a bit slow and not as violent as I expected. Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Riki Choshu & Masa Saito (2/3/83) This was good but it reminded me more of the lead-in matches to an apuesta match than an all-time classic. The long Scorpion Deathlock sequence killed it for me. That was one of the worst sequences I've seen in a long time. It was kind of painful how long it lasted. On the plus side, this had some neat exchanges between Inoki and Saito. Antonio Inoki vs. Gorilla Monsoon (JWA 4/16/69) Jeez, Gorilla wasn't very good, was he? Gorilla the commentator would have shat all over Gorilla the wrestler. Antonio Inoki & Giant Baba vs. The Destroyer and Bull Ramos (JWA 2/26/69) Short clips. Most of the action is between Baba and The Destroyer. Antonio Inoki & Giant Baba vs. Wilbur Snyder & Danny Hodge (JWA 2/11/69) Like most people, I would have preferred to have seen Snyder and Hodge work the mat against Baba and Inoki instead of being brawling, American heels, especially since the legend of Danny Hodge is about as elusive as Ray Stevens, but I liked Snyder's work in the clips. Antonio Inoki vs. Andre the Giant (12/15/74) These guys worked so many matches together I forget which ones I've seen. This one was from Sao Paulo so I think I'd remember it if I saw it. It was all right. It was slow and in the end it was one giant stalemate (no pun intended), but if we're being honest a lot of Andre's work is like that. It's easy to marvel over his speed and agility during this period, but I'm not sure why his matches needed to be so long. Antonio Inoki vs. Stan Hansen (8/17/79) Antonio Inoki vs. Stan Hansen (1/7/77) These guys don't mesh the way that Hansen and Jumbo didn't mesh. Even in a short sprint like the one from Stampede, the pacing is uneven. The match from '77 is better but it suffers a little from "Have to work the mat against Inoki" syndrome (even if it's not your forte.) I'm pretty sure other people like the Hansen and Andre match-ups more than I do but they are two of my least favorite Inoki pairings.

Franz van Buyten vs. Bob UFO (Rocky Della Serra) (aired 7/28/84) I am pretty sure this was Rocky Della Serra, the brother of Bob Della Serra, who was the masked UFO. This wasn't bad. It felt like the best Piratenkampf match you could have on television. I don't think you can expect to see the long, gritty Piratenkampf matches from the house show handhelds. It was more like the World's Greatest Reslo match. I'm pretty sure we've seen this type of TV before as well with the staged crowd reactions and the cutaway to the folks sitting in a studio. The ones sitting in front of that painting. I've definitely seen that painting before in some of the colour footage we have. Televised catch was at death's door at this point (pardon my analogy), so just the fact that this was halfway decent was a godsend.

Thanks to the Segunda Caida guys for supplying footage of the great Franz van Buyten who passed away this week. Franz van Buyten vs. Robert Gastel (aired 7/5/71) This small masterpiece was a reminder of why I think van Buyten is one of the European greats. His opponent was the brawler, Robert Gastel. They used to call Gastel the "The Bull Of Batignolles", and "Le Matraqueur des Rings", the Bludgeoner of the Rings. A man described by one journalist as "a monument to violence." We have footage of Gastel wrestling the barefoot judoka, Gaby Calderon, but this is the first full length match we've seen. What I loved about this is that even though Gastel was clearly past his prime, van Buyten treated him entirely on his merits as a wrestler. They could have easily fucked around like we see in so many matches from the Chicago Archives and other classic wrestling sources, but van Buyten wrestled a beautiful match. Gastel was known to have some wrestling skill and van Buyten respected that. And when it came time for the bludgeoning, van Buyten sold it beautifully. The thing about van Buyten was that he was just so graceful. Even in a match like this, against a guy who abhorred poetic grace, there was something sublime about the way van Buyten wrestled. It's hard to imagine that a guy like him got old and sick. This was a wonderful bout to watch in light of his death.

The broadcasts are all archived as “Catch.” Ocassionally, the title includes the broadcast date or venue. The TV guide listings I’ve seen from the era list the show as Catch. Interestingly, they seem to give the TV director a credit. It will be interesting to see if there is a shift in tone between the late 50s stuff and the 60s footage. We haven’t seen a lot of cartoony gimmicks yet. For the first 30 years of its existence, professional catch came under the umbrella of the FFL, which I believe is the official governing body for amateur wrestling. The two parted ways in 1958, so it will be interesting to see the effect that has.

I am not sure about the television slots, but the show was always listed as "Catch" similar to how Joint Promotions was "Wrestling on ITV." During the 60s, there were seven "galas" a week in Paris at l'Elysée Montmartre, la Salle Wagram, le Stadium, le Palais des Sports de Paris, La Mutualité, le Cirque d'Hiver and Vélodrome d'Hiver de Paris. I'm assuming that the producers of the TV show taped at different venues similar to how Wrestling on ITV taped at different venues around the country. We may never get to the bottom of it and people will simply refer to it as catch just like British wrestling is referred to as World of Sport or Joint Promotions.