David Mantell

He and Johnny B Badd came over here in 1992 for a WCW publicity tour There were other videos of the two of them out and about around the sights of London.

Maybe not private sector (although TMC certainly was/is). but definitely from outside the confines of French governmental regulatory reach.

Kasbarian is wearing a single arm black leotard as worn but many a heel from Cyanide Sid Cooper to Heenan-era Andre. He is the bon while early badling Bruno is the méchannt. Martial the big no nonsense Arbitre turns up in a nice smart blazer. All coats are off ready for action. GK gets the rope advantage. Bruno gets an armdrag and a whip/bump top wristlock After trying a go behind, George gets a headscissors. Rocco kips up out but is dragged back in. He uses the same power escape Harris did on Dave Taylor. George throws him off after a couple of tries. GK gets full nelson into snapmare.Cut to Rocco getting scissors of his own. When George likewise momentarily frees himself, Rocco reels him in with a figure four headscissors. GK turns him into the guard and makes a Gotch toehold in the mount. He elbows Rocco's back to stop him arching up then leans across his torso to put an end to all that. He then turns him into the cross leg seating leglock, dropping a knee on it. Rocco gets GK's head and suplexes him off but George lands on his feet while Rocco still sells knee pain from earlier. Rocco gets a legdive and leglock like Harris did early on in both his bouts. Georges reverses the dominance so Rocco kicks him off. Rocco gets top wristlock but GK throws him off. Double interlock into a GK Figure four top wristlock. He keeps hold of it in a standing position and takes him back to the guard , twice. Bruno uses a hairpull to get out but only gets un Avertisement Privée from Martial. Double interlock into WM6 test of strength, George gets first blood making the Italian kneel. He gets up and has George in a guard wristlock. It goes into the ropes. Rocco gets a snapmare then pressure points in into the mount. They get up again, Rocco keeping the pressure points. Georges slips out backwards between the legs, gets a rear leg and slams the knee down (Johnny Saint would force a stand up when the leg is pulled up but luckily for Kasbarian he is not facing Johnny Saint here.). Some more kneecap drops, one loaded with a boot in the inside of the joint. At this point les Manchettes break out s in the two Harris bouts. Martial won't have GK cornering le Méchant so quietly earns him off. GK reluctantly complies. Rocco gets a headlock into rear hammerlock into rear double leg takedown into pressure points, allowing his man into a seated position. He moves from position to position and the hands move to double claw with the odd bit of illegal fish hooking to annoy the crowd. GK eventually gets a rear hammerlock in the mount from it . H3 moves to front kneeling position and works the hammerlock as the Paris crowd chant "ah Ouais" as they normally do for bodyscissor atomic drops. Rocco gets to his knees and gets a rope break. He gets a rear top wristlock into armbars taking it down into an armscissor and side chinlock into half nelson. It would take a LOT of turning to get a further nelson press. Rocco gets a naughy eye poke before trying that turnover + the long way and it ends up in the ropes. George tries to comply with the rope break but Bruno chokes him on the middle cord. Martial finally gets tough and prises him off unfazed Bruno gets a snapmare into pressure points. Georges gets the ropes but Buronjumps on him then slingshots him off, getting in single kneelifts and a snapmare then some more pressure points. Georges fights back flooring BR with Manchettes. He ties him in the ropes to batter him before Martial intervenes. They lock up and Rocco gets armbar into armhank. He narrowly keeps Georges from the ropes with a full nelson into bodyscissors. It does eventually hit the ropes so they break. Georges gets a kneelift and a cheeky finger stomp. They interlock and Georges gets a whip and bump and finger stomp. He tries a top wristlock but Rocco replies with an illegal kidney punch. Another whip, bump and finger stomp and Kasbarian gets the Manchettes going. He keeps it going on the ropes and while arguing with Martial, Bruno strikes cornering and jabbing GK, until Martial orders him to his corner. GK gets a whip/bump into kneeling top double wristlock. He adds an armscissor on top. Bruno turns it slowly round trying to get Georges in the mount to make a Gotch toehold but Georges drags him back. He now has a seated armscissor. Again Rocco tries and fails with the turn. He finally gets the turn but Georges goes with it to make a full 360 but they Run Out Of Mat as Bruno's legs hit the ropes. Bruno plays possum, kneeling down to restart the count and insisting GK step back. Georges swiftly gets the seated armscissor back. He turns himself (nearly risking being folding pressed) and gain just enough far from the ropes. Bruno gets a leg outside and demands a break which Martial grants. The Italian gets rough leading up to a kneelift and kicks the falling ex Homme Masqué on the mat. More kneelifts (Vocabulary - Coups de Genou - "knee blows"). Some vicious Rocco fish hooking settles into pressure points then back and forth. Kasbarian gets up and the Bruno pressure points/fouls become a cross-arm grovit. George is corned and Bruno lifts one leg of his but Bruno bashed him with the other heel. He helps him up then down with a Manchette and headbutt. Bruno punches his way out of a bodyslam attempt. They trade Manchettes and Coups de Genou, one of the latter flooring Bruno. A snapmare into coup de genou from GK, then Rocco fires back and gives Kasbarian two hefty postings. A sling into the ropes and big Georges comes back with a flying body lock into cross press for the winning fall! Probably the best of this weekend's three bouts for me. (The combination of science and a slower speed made it easy work for myself, plenty to write about while not having to stop and rewind so much to catch every little nuance. Even more than Harris/Taylor this shows heavyweights doing what they can understand the handicap of their size and make one wish they had been lower down the weight spectrum .

Hurricane Harris again billed from Australia even here in the UK. I just debunked Hebden Boy's Aussiness on the German thread. Dave is from a family of technical legends but also a big man equal to Judd. Maybe he can make him behave himself .. Round 1 As with against Johnny South in Germany a year later, here Judd starts by crushing Dave on the ropes. Conscious that perhaps S4C might be a bit more regulated than a single camcorder, he releases getting in a quick shove. Harris gets a front chancery but Taylor extracts an arm, forcing a high whip and bump for the bigger man. Harris gets the same leglock as against South. He switches to toehold but Taylor spins him off, an impressive feat for two men their size. Harris up at 4 gets a top wristlock down into the guard. Taylor is up and down - the audience claim hairpulling. Taylor gets a French Catch style Scisseaux Volees takedown. (Normally this doesn't work in Britain the victim lifts the flyer off and tosses them casually away.). Judd turns upright and forces Dave's knees apart through sheer slow power. He has a powerlock on and Dave is having to curl his shoulders to avoid a pin count. Harris witches to single bar to the knee. Again Dave spins him off (Not a toupie, he goes over on his hands not his skull). Harris gets in behind with a facebar forcing Dave to his knees. He switches to pressure points and drives a knee in, then a kneedrop and facelock. The audience aren't happy but the ref lets it go as all one move. Harris finally gets a bit dirtier with a hairpull and some kneedrops that were clearly not continuous motion from earlier. He forearms Dave and pounds him on the ropes, hits him in a headlock and follows down. Very much more British fouling than the South bout. The ref mainly tells him (in English) to "let the man get up". The bell goes, Judd basks in his own heat before getting a swig of water. Round 2. A more even forearm smashing contest sees Taylor floor Judd. Harris fires back and snapmares and foot drops Dave. Judd gets pressure points and a chinlock. He roughs his man up some more but Taylor reverses a posting and gives Judd a backdrop. Harris could really bump spectacularly for a man his size! Taylor, the blue eye, lets Judd up fairly, villain or no, before dropping a descending forearm on the back of the neck. More bursts of forearms including one in a chinlock to steady his man.Harris corners Taylor who reverses this but the ref does not allow much retaliation. Taylor complains but unlike some late 70s/early 80s French Bons we could mention he complies and would not dream of beating up Monsieur L'Arbitre. Harris chokes Taylor on the ropes but Dave rear snapmares him to ringside (whereas South just bucked him over.). The bell goes as Harris climbs in. Harris gets Taylor in a war of words, something he says is too much and Taylor flips him in and gets a public warning. Round 3. Harris gets a headlock and some fouls. They exchange forearms then Dave ties up his man in the ropes and flying tackles him.n He tries a second but is met with a Harris inner forearm (hey even in America they weren't yet called clotheslines in 1983). After some more forearms he gets a splash and an opening pinfall. Round 4 Taylor leaps across and goes for a monkey climb on the cornered Judd. It doesn't come off but does trap him untill he shakes Dave off and goes back to brawling. Taylor gets a dropkick, posting and a this time successful monkey climb (yes Harris could bump!). Dave dropkicks Judd out almost on the laps of those two gorgeous Welsh lasses OJ mentions (probably in their sixties by now, sadly) where he stays down for a KNOCKOUT. Or maybe Judd figured he'd pulled and threw the match to hang out where the action was. Obligingly after the match Dave dropkicks Judd who has got back in the ring back out to be with the girls. It's at this point I seriously think that was on purpose! Two superheavies of WWF size, one of whom later made it in WCW, trying to do a match for two lighter guys. Give them credit for trying, it was far better than the Harris South bout on the German thread.

Okay, on to 1984. Johnny South with thinning hair, moustache and bushy sideburns, the Legend Of Doom many years into the future, actually looks the perfect part of the German working class babyface here. Like beardy Roland Bock, you half expect him to be smoking a pipe and out walking a large dog. Here he takes on fellow Brit Gunboat Judd Harris. Except Harris gets listed in the captions as being from Australia so often I had to go double check. He was born in Plymouth and raised in Hebden, Yorks. So yes, a fellow Brit and no more Aussie than Al Hayes and Ray Hunter in 50s France. Glad to have that settled. Runde 1 sees Harris set out his heel credentials backwards choking South on the ropes. Judd gets a leglock and holds it some time till South bashes the heel with a heel over the head. Judd gets a top wristlock and they go up and down on it. South gets a headlock. Cut to Judd being counted for something then bludgeoning South down for various counts. South gets brawling, slams Judd's head in the corner and gets forearmed and fouled in return, choked on the ropes as the bell goes. It takes him a goodwhile to release and he is soon back at it. DJ plays something discoey. Runde 2 South gets forearms, Judd gets a foul to the throat. Jud comes South on the ropes. South tries bucking him over the tope rope. No luck, maybe later? Cut to South having apparently succeeded and getting a pop. Now he's doing the dirty to keep Harris out- or failing that, down - but being cheered. Nice kneelift from South. He puts Harris's legs in the ropes in the corner but Harris undies himself before he can be charged. South gets double legs but the bell goes. H3 gets a special ovation. Runde 3 South gets two monkey climbs! He dropkicks Harris out of the ring. Noticeably he obeys the rules and does not follow Harris out. South gets the winning pin with a flying tackle! Afterbirth: Harris throws one helluva stroppy to all sides until South dropkicks him out the ring from behind. Most of the best action in this is in Runde 3 with South's charge for victory. The first two Runden were fairly standard tournament brawls. It would be interesting to see what Harris could do with an opponent who made him work more scientifically. Over on the British thread. I may have the answer ...

Short TV feature from early 2014 of Axel Diter and son and a lady choreographer with whom they were working on a project. No mention of there of Only One Shooter Here or dog food pie. Some good shots of the 60s including a Ringerparade. Also camcorder footage of Axel Vs Grand Vladimir, possibly poached from @sergeiSem's YouTube channel, already up and running back then.

Since this has popped up from out of nowhere, I may as well post this here also - the Iron Sheik as a BABYFACE (shock, horror) in Kuwait 1982

A little known fact is that Hossein Arab appeared in Kuwait 1982 as an upstanding clean wrestling clean living Allah-fearing BABYFACE!!!

Quick TV feature circa 2011 on Prince Zéfy including snippets of a tag match and him training backstage with what looks like Bernard Van Damme

In a French speaking zone right up on the border. On 819 line. Mostly acting as an alternative to RTF. Fits the pattern. And, as you say yourself, it was French Catch they were broadcasting. Not VDB, not the German/Austrian tournaments and not the ancestry of the stuff we cover on the German catch thread. Not that whole territory.

Dave Viking has passed away recently. So I don't want to be too negative about thim but after the Holy Grail Young George Kidd clips on the French Catch thread and the Caswell Martin- Lenny Hurst scientific masterclass from 1979 i.expectbthis Will be a bit of a comedown. But it's the last 1983 bout and Eddie Stein lock (also deceased I believe) has the look of young 80s Barry Windham to him. So let's give it a go. Runde 1 Dead Dave is dirty from the off, uses a hairpull to switch from hammerlock to headlock.Lots of slow power holds of varied cleanness by Viking. which Eddie struggles to escape. He does get a snapmare and a long running headlock. Mostly Dave is in charge and stalling. Tutti Frutti by Little Richard in the interval. Runde 2. Eddie gets an armbar and armhank but switched to blows. Anytime it might get scientific, brawling starts Viking attacke Steinblock after the bell Runde 3 Dave carries on with a before the bell attack. Beats down on Eddie. Beats him on the ropes, neck first. More post bell stomping from Dave Runde 4 Eddy fights back. Scissor chops. Ties in the ropes quite a bit. Dave has a bad time of it but he regains control and Eddie ends the round slumped in a corner Runde 5 Dave is the heel offering the babyface a handshake while the audience advice NO!. Eddie gets a rear snapmare and kneedrop. He has Andy cornered but the. ref orders him off so Dave pitches Eddie to ringside an goes out to join him. Dave beats him up outside the ring til, the Ref orders him back. Dave eventually has Eddie in the Tree of Woe in the corner and beats him til DQd, then some more after. Well what did you expect? Big monster bullies kid is DQd and disgraced , still doesn't learn. Still I suppose it's all good for building a monster heel. On with 1984 next week.

Found this last week after watching Hurst Vs Hayward. A technical clinic although obviously the finish was not OJ's cup of tea. (My recommendation for best Caswell bout is Vs Marty Jones at the Royal Albert Hall - I think we've covered that one on here in the past.) This was taped at what in later life became a local venue of mine, the Royal Spa Centre in Leamington. All Star still ran shows here into the late 2010s and I've definitely posted at least one tag match from spring 2010 on here. The headline bout for both the taping and that week's screening was Big Daddy and Young David defeating The South London Hardmen (Mick McManus and Steve Logan MK1), a match Davey Boy Smith later claimed as an early landmark in his career. We join the action where WOS viewers presumably did, with no score at the start of ... Round 3. Hurst gets three side chanceries but Hurst is up each time at 3. He goes for a fourth but Martin gets on a side headlock then slips round behind to make it a standing hammerlock Cas then trip him forward into the mount and secure a double leg nelson. He goes to bridge back but Hurst secures a bodyscissors then turns onto his front to use the scissors to hold Martin in a folding press for 3. Hurst gets the opening pin. 1-0 to Lenny. Round 4 . Fresh off.scoring, Hurst rolls right up to Cas but it shoved down for 6. Hurst gets a single standing right ankle but Martin cartwheels out much the same as H3 might to untwist an armbar. Beautiful execution and it gets a round of applause so Hurst tries again and gets the same escape from Cas and the same crowd reaction. They double interlock and Cas puts his boot up on Hurst's chin and hammers his knee, driving the leg in and getting 7. Even Kent admits it's "a new one"Hurst can use his legs too, after sidestepping a lo kip he fires off a dropkick and dives on the fallen Martin all in one move for a front folding press but this time it's Cas who locks on a bodyscissors, bridging to hold Hurst in a kneeling position. Hurst counters by getting an underhook and standing up in the scissors. He reaches in for a crotch old and gets a body slam on Martin for 4. Hurst gets a toe and ankle in a kneeling position, Martin again twice tries to use his legs as a peg to shove Hurst away but this time to no effect. A third time he shoves Hurst off and into the ropes but Hurst cartwheels away to avoid rebounding into something nasty. Another double interlock and Hurst leans back and slaps on a crossed headscissors, possibly looking for a to7pibut Martin folds one leg to make a standing figure four leglock, holding the toe of the top foot down with his own floor and the straight underneath leg up by the heel. In return, Hurst pulls out Martin's own leg so he collapses sitting, then applies a leg spread. Cas can do the splits fine, butit does forc3 him to drop his leglock. Stalemate,. They double interlock and hit the ropes so Martin backrolls out of trouble. Another double interlock and Martin gets a fireman's carry, gorilla press and stomach breaker. He gets a 9 count - almost a knockout - and a single right leg but Hurst is on the ropes. Break. Hurst is still selling the stomachbreaker but he himself buts Martin in the stomach for 3, shoves him down for 2 and gets a backslide for 1 before Martin headstands out - a novel escape from a backslide if ever I saw one! Hurst gets a single interlock , twists on it to make a top wristlock and drags Cas down into a guard armlock but Martin rolls with the takedown so his legs pop up and clamp a headscissors on Hurst. Then he drags him down in the figure four headscissors and cranks forward with Hurst sell8ng the pain before dropping down. The bell saves Hurst. Round 5.- Martin reaches in and takes a single leg, (risking a front facelock there, it has to be said). Hurst counters with a one legged monkey climb but Martin lands feet first. Hurst gets two side chanceries for 2 each and a cross buttock throw for 3. They cross cross and Martin goes over with a leapfrog, under with a drop down and then he gets the trip into a reverse double leg nelson into folding press with a bridge he tried for in round 3 - and this time he gets the fall! 1-1 the score. Martin exuberantly backrolls out and the two shake hands again . Round 6 - they lock up and Martin gets a cross buttock throw into the guard and then switches to an ankle and putting it through several weakeners culminating in a bodily drop down on the crossed legs. Hurst is nearly KOd but makes it up after 8. Martin is clearly still after the legs. He gets a legdive but Hurst turns him into the ropes forcing a break. Hurst gets an arm, twists it good and then does a high forward whip forcing Cas to bump. and take a 7 count. A second go gets 6. Martin gets a rear waistlock but Hurst uses his own wristlock to break it open, sling Cas into the ropes and mett him with a bodycheck on the rebound. A second time H3 is caught and slammed but catches Cas with a quick ground dropkick before Martin can get upright. Martin kips up quickly though and leaps over Hurst into a sunset flip with Hurst again doing "Aloha Arn" as he goes down into a double leg nelson He is up quickly (as the ref trips on the ropes!) but spun off with a headscissors by Cas - almost a toupie - and not up until 8. He is soon back, dropping for a legdive into seated double anklelock. He leans back a bit too far as Martin tries various crossface and chi holds on him but holds firm on the leg until Martin uses his own other leg to pull Hurst off momentarily but he soon gets the hold back and Martin is reduced to th3 chin attacks. They are enough of a nuisance that Hurst finishes up with a mighty standing dropping leg weakener for 7. Both men legdive each other to form a standing H. Stalemate and so is a simultaneous legdive/arm taken. Hurst gets a dropkick and double legs and tries for a Boston Crab. But he can't get his man turned over and Cas goes up on his head. For a moment it looks like a toupie until Martin crawl on through Hurst's legs and huaracanranas him over then hooks booth legs as Hurst rolls back, for a rear folding press but Hurst bascules it into a front double leg Nelson. Martin tries a folding press but is spun off out of the ring onto the apron. They shake hands. Martin gets a side chancery throw and legdrop of doom for 8, another side chancery throw and walk over for 7. Hurst gets a rear snapmare and twisting stomp for 7 also. The two get locked up in a corner, the ref tells them to break and on top of all else the bell goes. This makes Hurst back off and the two shake hands. Round 7 -Hurst gets a wristlever, drives a knee in, forces a bump on a turn over knee height and rolls back and forth each way, delivering two legdrops to the bicep, scissoring the wrist and turning it into a guard top wrist scissors. He switches to basic wristlock as Hurst gets up, tries a headbutt but comes off the worst. Hurst gets a wrist, is thrown to the ropes but rebounds with a bodycheck. Martin kips up and takes his man down to the mount in a back hammerlock, turning him into seated and kneeling positions before making it a bar-hammerlock, still in the mount. Hurst tries to get up but Martin tightens the angle on the hammerlock. So Hurst tries the French Catch style reverse snapmare and goes over backwards - over the ropes to ringside, landing badly. Martin, the referee, MC Brian Crabtree and some St John's Ambulance personnel go to help but the contest is over. Cas is offered the TKO win but sportingly refuses. In consideration of the two falls, the ref calls it a 1-1 draw, not a no contest. Five good rounds of agile inventive athletic technical wrestling with two sophisticated and beautifully executed pinfalls. What more can you wish for on a Saturday? The first two rounds perhaps.

The Borgs were wrestling in London the day I was born 21st March 1974. I have a copy of the Evening News for that evening with the bill advertised.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telesaar There you go. Another private sector competitor to (O)RTF operating from just across the border, screening Le Catch, the one hit French TV show of which they can make their own version. Interesting no one set one of these operations up from the Channel Islands. Although of course viewers in some parts of France would have been able to watch World Of Sport and other ITV Wrestling, albeit only in b/w, 1969-1988 from either the Channel or Southern/TVS ITV regions, (likewise British viewers in parts of Kent with a new fangled 625 line BBC2-ready set might have been able to watch Le Catch on 2eme Chaine/A2 right from the start, TF1 from 1976 and FR3 from 1982 albeit also with no colour)

Sounds like a familiar situation. Presumably broadcasting from just outside the country to compete with (O)RTF while not being covered by French government regulations.