David Mantell

Otto Wanz at the Bremen Stadhalle, winning his CWA title the fourth and final time. There are two different versions - this one was shot by S4C's Reslo production team and later put out on home video in Germany. The commentary was then redubbed into English by original Welsh commentators Bryn Fon and Orig Williams. It starts with the late 80s/early 90s Reslo theme and has Reslo style graphics all over it. Otto cuts a bilingual promo in German/English . Vader cuts a promo in much the same style as later in WCW, with manager Orig Williams chipping in now and again. This of course creates a problem. Since Orig is on screen as a heel manager, his dual role as a commentator is explained away by his voice being that of Paco Perez , a former All Americas champion from South America apparently. Otto is accompanied by Tony StClair and Steve Wright. The MC is Peter Wilhelm, Otto's business partner in the CWA and years later the German commentator on Eurosport New Catch. As with the Santí Rico Vs Acapulco bout on Spanish TV, there is a lot of waiting around a while while national anthems etc (Austria get played. The Star Strangled Banner GETS THE BIRD!!! Deutschland Deutscland Uber Alles gets the pyro treatment courtesy of fans with sparklers at ringside. It's very much a slug and punch affair, I'm sure @ohtani's jacket will love it. Bull Power gets most of the early action. He eventually settles down into an abdominal stretch oin the mat hen the bell lotto fights back, getting a single leg Boston Crab and pitching the soon to be Vader to ringside for a brawl. The round 2 bell saves Bull from a 10 count at 8. Watch out in Round three for A VADER DOING A SUNSET FLIP INTO DOUBLE LEG NELSON!!! Otto is bleeding badly through most of these early rounds. It's like watching a worked boxing match like Mr T versus Roddy Piper with its clear periods of dominance. Otto gets a suplex on Vader in Round 4. In Round 5 , Big Leon gets a Randy Savage axehandle on Otto. They brawl at ringside with a table involved in proceedings. Another KO count is dodged by the bell going off. Otto himself breaks up one promising g KO count to inflict more punishment but the next one he lets run its course to win the title by KNOCKOUT. The crowd go wild. Just for the record, here is the German version made apparently separately from the S4C Version:

Since we're talking Eurosport, here's a fairly important match from its run. Presented in two language options, English and German. Herodes came from Mexico. We've already seen him in tag team action against Flesh Gordon, now they go at it solo. Herodes wears a Demolition style face mask not far removed from Cybernic Machine the next decade. He has a big barrel cheered Remy Bayle/Bearman John Elijah physique. Flesh is still in shape at this stage but he's pretty much a full heavyweight who could get work in America with a build like that. In shor5, one can expect a very strength based match. So it's no surprise when Herodes gets the standing full nelson easily. Even when Flesh breaks the clamp, Herodes turns it into a rear waistlock. Flesh breaks on side and converts the other arm to a standing back hammerlock . That's two transitions already. Herodes uses his other arm to coral in Flesh's head for a side Headlock. And it doesn't stop there, Flash pulling open the headlock to mak3 a top wristlock but Herodes throwing him to the ground, assisted by a naughty hair pull. Herodes gets a wristlever and forces Flesh to the ground with it. But Flesh kips up, spins 180 degrees and armdrags Herodes - who ironically complains about a hairpull. Herodes begins knocking Flesh about, headbutts him tomthe mat, chokes him on the ropes. hammerlocks him around the top rope (a public warning offence in Britain.) Flesh rallied, trips Herodes twice, cross buttocks him and dropkicks him but misses a second one. He gets the wrist in the guard again but Flesh throws him across the ring. He hooks his feet on the ropes to prevent a fall to ringside but Flesh turns him off and his back hits the floor. Herodes sits in a ringside seat and sells it while Flesh poses for the crowd. Flesh in the ring and Herodes outside shout abuse at each other. The big Mexican makes it back, pounds on Flesh's background headbutts him, flings him out and follows him outside where the two brawl, Herodes getting an H&S in an aisleway. Gordon reversing a ringside posting, Flesh smashes Herodes head in the ring apron. Flesh, back in the ring, is the one who gets the blame, picking up an Avertisement. He gets the pinfall with a leapover into armdrag into cross press for the one required pinfall to win the match. Afterwards Herodes complains and Flesh celebrates with some young kids. Strength with some remaining agility from lighter days versus pure strength. Some good surprising moves from Herodes. And I think OJ will like the ringside brawl Funny bit- on the English commentary, Orig Williams calls Les Pieux "Les Poos".

2h 30min 10 secs in there is a mention of researchers going to Zambia a few years ago to search for Doctor Who episodes and instead finding loads of British Wrestling. ( @Dav'oh see, it WAS being sold all over Africa/Asia) I've left a comment requesting more information.

And here they go They also offer to try it out on the presenter but he sensibly wimps out.

Bejar and Adell on a TV chat show some time in the early 90s, possibly to promote the same 90s show I posted but they also discuss the old days and the fad for American wrestling at the time. A large vintage wrestling poster from the old days is put on display. It says "Catch" on it, by the way. (Although another one I shown which says Lucha.)The boys also say Catch A Cuatro a lot which is a literal French to Spanish translation of Catch À Quatre. Bejar shows off what looks like blading scars. At the end, the boys take their tops off to do some moves on each other.

Commentator does mention this in the 1986 match. The bit in the midget match where he marches round (with Puma in a headlock) singing the Laurel and Hardy theme song out of tune comes from French school playgrounds. (Grown ups do it too when very drunk.)

I'm leaning more towards the idea that the promotion itself may have been doing as you say but the wrestlers were free to accept work anywhere they darn well choosy. I base this on the point that (at least) three of the four, including one entire tag team, showed up on New Catch at one point or another.

There are only photos of Javier in this but we get a definite taste of Victoria's style. Irish whipped to the mat, he is able to pick himself upright at arm's length, an ancestor of the British-style roll through. He gets a beautiful slide into a standing Fireman's Carry takedown on one of these whips. He gets the pin by upturning a long press. Later we see him get a face bar from behind a dona front somersault into a bridge to wrench on the opponent's neck. We see more of Ochoa's proto rollout of armlever (albeit in longshot) Ochoa takes on the headbutt king. Tarres. Most of this is already featured in the Leones de Navarra clip. clip but looks out for Victorio doing a toupie out of headscissors well before Gilbert Leduc hit the scene. More source footage for the Leones de Navarra mini docu. See Ochoa neatly kip up after being forearm smashes down by his opponent. He goes for and almost gets a legdive right across the ring, corner to corner. He rolls back from an arm at on the mat to get a ground dropkick. He also gets an Indian Deathlock and a double leg nelson pin attempt.

I've been rewatching the LaCroix Vs de Lonzac bout and Orig Williams says in the English commentary that Pouzade was not Eric's manager. just his tag partner (which further fits him being Domingo Valdez) and Miss Paris being the actual manageress. I'd quite like to see in full the tag match Caradec was complaining about in that promo (there is a short snippet).

You'd love the Americanised New School promotions in Britain - always telling the same old lie that British wrestling "Died" in 1981 and that they are The Great Renaissance. Then a few months later, they keel over while All Star just goes on and on for decades. One unanswered question about New Catch is how the flame was kept alive for the concept over the course of 1989 and 1990 between the two blocks of episodes filmed. There was hardly a lack of other new wrestling shows in Europe during the period - Catch Up on RTL, Reslo on S4C, ITV's Aberdeen taping on Grampian and STV (and later Granada) and of course the above return to FR3. Yet during this glut, New Catch found its way back.

So anyway, the bout. There's about 5 min of studio preamble in a studio set with storage draws and various trophies, footballs and other bric-a-brac that make it look like a 1970s episode of British infants' TV show Play School. As Matt mentioned, the presenter goes on about the Good Old Days so presumably this is either a one-off or a first with possibilities (possibly squashed by New Catch resurfacing on Eurosport.) It's an unashamedly retro presentation like the 1990 Aberdeen ITV taping, the 1998 VDB video, Premier Promotions' merch table VHS tapes from Worthing Pier Pavillion (examples have been posted to the British thread) and perhaps most pertinently, the show in the tiny room from somewhere in Paris 2096 I posted clips from to this thread a couple of years ago. So yes, Matt. there is life after this for this sort of show. Except for the lack of cords halfway down the ropes, the ring looks like a late 70s/early 80s relic, exactly like the ones on La Dernière Manchette in fact with the red ropes and dull green mat. (If the INA ever does chroma recovery on its prints of late 60s/early 70s Channel 2 bouts. expect a lot of those rings to be that same colour combination.) The venue is a sports hall with basketball hoops and climbing bars in the background but happily the lighting rig is properly focussed on the ring. Yes, that's the same nice red sequin jacket LaMotta/Daniel is wearing as on New Catch. Michel has a nice spangly jacket too, in Cyan with matching trunks. Les Rocky's, as Méchants, are both in black. Curiously the fans give them a big pop. LaCroix is the youngest by far and very much the star turn despite his Mr Spock hairdo. He bumps around for the elderly Bons taking their side chancery throws, cross buttock throws etc. He leg throws Daniel (I must remember not to call him Tony LaMotta for this one) who spins out nicely- he hasn't lost it. Valdez does the same for Daniel. Hilariously the commentator calls a dropkick (saus chassé) a flying headscissors (Scisseaux Volees) ! Michel rolls nicely out of and up from Domingo's throws while Domingo takes a bump when the tables are turned. Michel does huracanranas - somebody has been watching Scott Steiner on WCW! At one point we see Michel go up in the air and it's in excessive close up so it looks like he's going for a reverse snapmare but he comes back down the way he went up and bulldogs Valdez down back into a side headlock on the mat. When Eric gets back, he is getting real heat, not like the cheer at the start. He flexes his biceps a lot. an odd thing for a Welterweight to do. LaCroix kicks out of a crosspress and lands Daniel on top of Monsieur L'Arbitre. The second time it happens, Daniel gets a public warning. Other than this, the referee stays away from trying to be the heel. Things slow down with Valdez in the ring, he gets an armbar in the guard and uses fouls to keep him there, eventually gets a bunch of Manchettes for his troubles. Eric carries on with the arm work on Daniel, he and Michel have a pretty good top wristlock battle. Michel and Domingo end up outside with the Spaniard giving a ringside fan a lapdance . The two brawl outside the ring. Eric headstands out of the headscissors on a second attempt and gives Daniel a hearty slap across the face. Michel makes the hot tag, throwing the heels around before scoring the opening fall with a sunset flip mm double leg nelson despite protests from Eric. Daniel does a promo while standing on the tag rope on the apron, just as Les Méchants are double legdiving Michel and kicking his knees in in stereo. Despite all this, Les Bons get a Deuxième Et Derniere Avertisement. They flirt with a DQ after making a pile of villains and ref. Michel goes for a finger Interlock but Eric snatches away like Adrian Street and pouts lie Ada too. LaCroix gets a GREAT equaliser with a long suplex. Fans give it The Bird (ouch my ears!). Michel gives a mid match promo calling it Epouvantable. Domingo kicks him in the back midway. We are past 30 mins of the clip and La Belle is only a few minutes long. Very French Catch and can aspect of match structure @ohtani's jacket complains about in the old reviews. Daniel gets a combination flying headscissors and flying headlock on both heels sending them both flying. He gets a great flying bodypress on Eric, beautifully filmed but it only gets a 2. A reverse leapfrog into front folding press finally does the job. Yup that's about 3 mins of belle. Daniel does another in ring. We get the credits over a soca track and match highlights before back to the studio and the presenter calling wrestlers Grandes Voltigeurs. (Great High Flyers.) Fast action packed bout but little in the way of chain sequences. Moves tend to be isolated spots unto themselves. I DEFINITELY feel LaCroix deserved better than putting over two old guys. Eurosport New Catch and the French Welterweight Championship gave him that opportunity and the chance to work with other rising stars like Yann Caradec and Jean Phillipe De Lonzac.

Hold your horses - I've just remembered EXACTLY who Eric Lacroix is! In which case I wonder if Domingo "No Relation To Princess Paula" Valdez is actually Theo Pouzade the manager from New Catch and he's just got comedy attachments to his moustache when in character as Pouzade? It still means at least 2, possibly 3 of these four guys were on New Catch at some stage in its existence. Incidentally, here's my review of Tony LaMotta Vs Marquis Jacky from New Catch season 1 in 1988 As the review mentions,Tony teamed with a pre-Flesh Gerard Hervé to take on the Golden Falcons. There's a review of that in the archive but you'll have to go look it up as it's less relevant to the point of this post.

Anyway. speaking of 1991: I'll have a good overview this later over dinner. I'm not doing the review now as this tablet needs putting on charge. I wouldn't swear to it but Les Rocky's Du Ring look more than a bit like Kato Bruce Lee/Kato Gypsy and Elliot Frederico Rocky Du Ring/Grims Rocker (with hair grown out - Grim was Spanish so if the one I think is him turns out to be Domingo Valdez then I'm convinced ). Tony LaMotta also appeared on New Catch -IIRC against Jacky Richard ( still a Marquis, not yet a Travesti Man.). So three of these four guys did New Catch anyway.

Okay, how about "Sampler" then? I seem to recall someone saying (possibly on here) that a few other Eurosport shows got the same treatment. It occurs to me that New Catch was always meant to in some way become an international deal, given all the CWA and British talent on board, either unknown to French audiences eg Eddie Kung Fu Hamill or dim memories eg Fit Finlay, last seen on French national TV eight years earlier claiming to be a Scotsman in a kilt.

It got filmed though and was a big story in the Magazine. The Natural Disasters win and some of the Money Inc Vs Steiners back and forth were examples of the small house shows title changes. They printed photos of one match from the latter where there was no flash photography rig so it all looked very dull compared to usual WWF magazine photography. The same thing happened with the Midnight Express Vs Tully & Arn title change in JCP although there is a fancam of that.

Ah well, I've got a REAL one! 😄 There are two sections of interest to pro wrestling fans, the biographies and "Prensas de Lucha Libre Americana (American Wrestling holds). Plus also there's a group photo of thirties wrestlers in a ring and that shit of Javier Ochoa (although this was clearly him in later life so Spain had gone catch by then.)

Simple, it was co-owned by Sky until TF1 bought it and was on the same Astra satellite as part of the same package of satellite channels as Sky. It stayed on there after the buyout. As I think I mentioned, any household in the UK capable of getting WWF (other than the bits ITV screened on the specials 1987-1988 and the small hours 1988-1989) could get New Catch too. Whereas in France you already had Canal + for the WWF. Preview run for the new revamped channel. I equate that run with the Oct 1990 Joint Promotions ITV tapings in Aberdeen.

For starters...

By the way, Say Hello To My Little Friend. I bought it in Salamanca, Spain in late 1995 during the first half of M6 year abroad before I moved to Metz, France at the end of January 1996. It was printed in about the late 50s/early 60s. It's not an exclusively pro wrestling book but it's got some interesting material I intended to scan up for this thread. Somewhere I believe Instill have another book from a bit later circa 1964 (stamped <<España - 25 años de Paz>> - the Paz in question being the Carthaginian Paz of 25 years under Franco's rule since the end of the Civil War in 1939) which has a rather funny essay about Kayfabe which concludes that anyone who is desperate to see the boys legit injure each other must be a dreadful sadist! LOL. I'll put in relevant scans from time to time from the Campo book and the other one too should it resurface.

Yes, this could possibly explain why tape traders like Adam Mumford's EWV claimed a 1991 date -just before Rocco's retirement - for the Rollerball Rocco/Danny Collins Paris World HMid title bout (We now know this was on TF1 in 1988) Some 1988 episodes rescreened on Eurosport have John Harris (the MC from the Kendo Nagasaki Vs Skull Murphy bout recently on the British thread) instead of Orig Williams as English commentator. Mainly the ones with the MAXI CUISINE ring canvas. Most of the non 1988 episodes have a Eurosport logo on the shiny blue ring canvas.

Two days as champions over here. Anything can happen. (4WIW it did get mentioned by the WWF in America, contrary to popular belief. When they went heel, WWF Magazine did a piece on how the short reign and the downslide afterwards made them bitter.) Luke Williams is now the last surviving one of the Survivor Series '94 Four Doinks.

So why do a lot of what we know to be the 1988 TF1 Episodes circulate with Eurosport idents on them? We know more episodes were made after the TF1 run because for example the Superflies did not yet exist as a tag team in 1988. Also Bull Power's vacant CWA World title win over Rambo took place December 22nd 1990, this was screened as part of a New Catch episode which I have on VHS with a Eurosport idents and English commentary by Orig Williams. (For what it's worth I saw a few of the New Japan episodes while on my ERASMUS year in Metz, France in Spring 1996.)

Okay we've had two Midget Matches. Who fancies making it a hat trick? NO??? Oh well. tough, here comes a third midget match anyway. 😛 This is from Alessio's 1970-1987 playlist - judging by its position in the playlist I'd say 1978. We see them being let to ringside by guys in tennis gear across tennis courts. A kid in a stripey shirt is taller than one midget. But don't tell any little people that. No idea which midget is which. Well say Red and Black after the colours of their trunks. The ring is set up in what looks like a school playground on a sunn6bday with practice football goalposts and hurdling barriers in the background. Red has a bad combover. Black headlocks him a good long while, trying for a cross buttock but not quite getting it. Red gets an atomic drop on Black but Black finally gets his cross buttock throw. Red counters by finally getting that cross buttock throw. They take turns getting legdives. Red gets a Planchette Japonaise and various Scisseaux Volees. Black eventually counters one of these into an Indian Deathlock of sorts. Back to more monkey flip business. Black gets a sunset flip but then gets backdropped. It commences to Manchettes, kicks and other brawling. Midget test of strength. Red backdrops black. Black does a FANTASTIC backwards roll over Black's back. Black gets crossed scissors on the Red midget. We then jump to a snippet of another match. A man in a mask - Der Henker? Not enough body hair or muscles - battles an old guy with a goatee who looks like Colonel Sanders mated with the elderly Ed the Sheik Farhat. Grey old man gets the win with a double leg nelson. Two younger guys- one might be a Corne brother or even Jacky Richard. They get ready and start and the film ends. ***†****************** Okay I posted this to equal things out after I posted the last Lukestik match because I liked the outdoor location and then posted Finlay-Turpin because I enjoyed it this morning after breakfast. Will there be another French Catch Tuesday match tomorrow night or are they all done? If no more, I'll just do a replacement then afterwards do all three at weekends. I should be starting a new job this time next week so it'll be easier to do one review of each at weekends.

This was the Cup Final blowoff in question.

Well anyway that's what that Valentin bloke wrote. I've got some other material of the Ochoa family to post as well as another video snippet from Alessio. Valentin praises Victorious as the first technical wizard of France and so does my other source, once I dig i5 out from wherever it's hiding. @ohtani's jacket any chance you could also do a review of Santí/Acapulco match?