David Mantell

From the sublime to the CWA. There's not a lot to be said for this match action wise - predictable brawl WCW might have treated as something exotic. OJ will like it though. Plenty of outside the ring action, tables and that. It's interesting for Vader's intro tape which seems to consist of Leon White making asthmatic noises as he lumbers to ring. Also for being a bit of a crossroads in two NWA/WCW world champions. Fujinami having been NWA champ during the spring 1991 trial separation of the titles, before losing it back to WCW champion Flair. Vader meanwhile is just weeks away from beginning to replace Lex Luger as WCW heel champion and Harley Race's Sith Apprentice starting with the Jan 92 Clash where he and Mr Hughes lose to the Steiners in what was - Luger to Vader substitution aside - was otherwise a rerun of the main event WCW in London night 3 of 3 just days before this German bout. For winning, Vader gets a big bottle of champers and a trophy cup to drink it from. Otto Wanz also posted up to congratulate him.

Okay, I've reviewed some British and some American wrestling this weekend, now how about a French bout? How about ... I was attracted to this bout more by Mantopolous than Catanzaro as VM seems a lightweight who can fit with both the George Kidd/Johnny Saint British school and the (pre-Arbitre Chiotte) Michel Saulnier/ Le Petit Prince French school. This is my second Billy match, previously I reviewed a 1971 bout on here where Catanzaro sported the biggest greasiest gangsters' quiff this side of either Ronnie Kray or Steve Logan MK1 and a strutting temperament to match Steve Haggerty (actually I compared him to the other Dangerman, Colin Johnson. To be honest, it's more Billy's kind of bout than Vasil's. VM does a bit of prancing like Ricki Starr at the start (Catanzaro gives him a real WTF glare) and takes over nicely at the end but there's less darting around than other Mantopolous bouts - his best tricks in this is to snatch for holds at the last second out of nowhere. The main middle of the bout is mostly Billy's - big power moves and the occasional foul. There's a bit of ringside brawl involving the smashing of a table #ecw haha. Commentator decides to buttonhole Catanzaro and ask him how he feels after Vasillious pitches him out of the ring, twice. He also goes on the pull and interviews a "pretty blonde" (we don't see her) female fan who has never actually been to matches before, knows no names of holds, giggles a lot. Commentator also does a Kent Walton and tells us about the wrestlers' hobbies - Vasil paints while Billy likes "musique moderne - or what sort? Rock? (He mentions the Beatles). If so Billy is in for a good year with Sgt Pepper and The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn out in coming months. Vasil wins in the end with a Tombstone piledriver - appropriate as this reminds me of The Undertaker squashing someone like Koko B Ware.

Am astonished that I can't find an earlier review of this. Introduced by Dickie Davies's holiday cover man Fred Dineage. Part of a tournament to fill the British Heavy Middleweight title Rocco lost to Light Heavyweight champion Marty Jones but which Jones had to give up. First three rounds of this were not screened, but were presumably quite technical and clean. So is the next round that we DO get to see. Good surfboard from which zRocco uses the bottom rope to nicely tug himself free. Rocco neatly unrolls an armbar and uncorks himself from a headscissor in the guard with his knees. Royal scoots through Rocco's legs from behind to take said legs instantly for a Boston Crab. Rocco rolls out into into La Bascule back & forth pin attempts. Ironically it's Bert who triggers the breakdown of this towards the end of round 5, slapping Rocco around to provoke Rollerball into a string of closed fists punches that get him a first public warning. From there the technical bout is (mostly) over and the fight begins. Rocco gets a count of 6 with a Tombstone piledriver which softens Royal for a reverse suspended neck breaker (lengthways over shoulder backbreaker) for the opening submission. Rocco scores an excellent Randy Savage top rope axehandle, Royal is standing so it's legal but fishhooking in his mouth is not, so Rollerball gets a Second And Final Public Warning. A bite (real foul) is not spotted however. Rocco nearly gets a second straight fall with a folding press as counter to monkey climb. Royal resorts to an illegal closed fist of his own and has a double arm submission in the works by the end of round 7 Round 8 is mostly brawling and fouling apart from a neat power lock (standing figure four leglock ) by Royal. Early in round 9 he legflips, slams and shoulder presses Rocco for the equaliser. And so to the final round, more of the same as round eight with Royal fouling (closed fists) as badly as Rocco. It goes to time and Rocco wins a coin toss and eventually win the tournament and take back his British title, which he eventually cashed in for the World title in 1981.

Been a while since I did a German Catch review but just saw and enjoyed this one Signsquad put up. Berlin, Leap Years Day 1992 (same day Sting beat Luger to win his second World title). The man I credit with revolutionising German Catch in with one of the children of his revolution in a good clean scientific match. Ring looks suspiciously 1970s French, much like the one in the 70s Roland Bock Vs Beau Jack Rowlands clip, maybe it never did get transported back westwards across the Rhine. In fact the overall presentation smacks of being more the traditional VDB than the CWA. Small venue, looks like a hotel function hall. One fall match with rounds, seconds and full Mountevans rules. Long five minute lecture at the start in German from the MC and we are off, good scientific match with plenty of excellent reveals and escapes from both men. Another long lecture after round 1 seems to be about Ted Bentley training Wight. Only downside is some "comedy" from French referee Didier Gapp, doing his best to be the usual miserable SOB. Two yellow cards are dished out to Wright, the first for leaning on Gapp during a somersault (actually I saw this on WWF TV today, from 17th Dec 1988 at the LA Sports Arena, Lanny Poffo, still a babyface, pulled this one during a match Vs Boris Zukhov, the ref just rubbed his shoulder and looked on in askance at Poffo) the second time for accidentally catching Gapp in an aeroplane spin after Didi and Schumann accidentally link hands while criss crossing the ring. Schumann also gets a telling off (but no public warning) for accidentally stamping on Gapp's foot while trying to resist a snapmares. The MC talks to Didi in French. Finish comes with a neat side suplex and cross press by Wright. Then cut to an old bloke with a moustache giving a long speech, probably someone important that I've disrespected there, never mind.

They did that instead of a time code on-screen. It was put on a spare audio channel. Unfortunately modern equipment interprets the original mono audio as one side - and the speaking clock as the other side - of a stereo audio soundtrack. On the plus side it means we know what timeslots the matches were being broadcast which also means we know about the Sunday 5pm timeslot which explains why kids turned up to matches. Regarding the Franglais "le chewinggum" - I'd have to search for other examples but I recall commentators, going back to the 60s matches, saying things like "Il a le finesse, il a la force et il a le chewinggum."

At 5:24, the commentator sounds like he says what sounds like "C'est Le Chewing gum .." What word is that actually?

Heel versus heel with the crowd siding with the loudmouth heel and against the growly heel. A double disqualification and what I expected Adrian Street Vs Jim Breaks the first time I watched. A brawl which breaks down totally until the ref asserts his authority. Nice pair of pinfalls, a high backslide and shoulder press by Graham. Pallo wheeling Graham to the centre of the ring, releasing him then catching him with a folding press (the "BREAK!" gag would make more sense if Graham had Pallo in the hold and Pallo duped him into releasing it) before it all gets out of hand and they are sent back to the dressing room in disgrace. Pallo and referee Don Branch . Two expose writers in one ring.

Sigh. Okay so what is that "chewing gum" word the commentator says Guy Mercier posesses?

And more non INA matches: Go to 7m15secs in of this compilation by Bob Plantin and there is a long clip of Walter Bordes and Claude Roca Vs Anton Tejero and Albert Sanniez:

Nice scientific bout cut short due to a double knockout because the alternative was a time limit draw and they presumably needed to fill in other stuff. The first half is a shop window for Kid and his technical skills, particularly his escapes (rollouts plus bridge into toupee.) and his flying armdrags. Kung Fu takes over more in the second half, I like how he nips sideways out the way of Kid's sunset flip attempt.

Was rewatching this bout. There's a word the commentator (I think it's Cazal but I didn't check) uses that sounds like "chewing gum" to describe a certain strength in Mercier. I am loathe to tag El P on here again so does anyone else know what that word is?

More TV bouts not in the INA archive. This is from 1975, So says the date scribbled on in biro. Bear in mind: 1) TF1 (which had been "ORTF 1er Chaine" until the start of the year) was in B/W at this point in 1975. From September It repeated some TF3 broadcasts in colour but the channel did not go colour until 1977. All Catch from 1975 (when the INA was launched) onwards is on colour VT so either it was only being broadcast on Antenne 2 which this clipping seems to prove otherwise) or they were only bothering to tape the colour matches on A2 2) "Monsieur" Marcel Montreal never faced Zarak on any bout we have footage of (LPP and Noced did face each other a few times in the early 70s.) (Cutting flagrantly stolen from Bob Plantin's page.)

Sounds a lot to me like all the celebrity experts the commentators would interview about the wrestling on French TV including that actress who said she'd never seen it live before, 15 years before Kathy Lee Crosby said the same at WM2.

The Rockers, am team that were up OJ's street, team with Sid Cooper in Triple Tag (as Six Man tag was known here- you can keep your trendy "trios" too.). Mal Sanders and Steve Grey - former European Middleweight champion and the British and nearly World Lightweight champion team with current hip TBW. Steve Logan MK2. Compare Tommy Lorne to Helmut Lukestik from the German thread, you will see the similarities. All the blue eyes keep it fast and furious. Sanders breaks a full nelson on Sanders and rebounds off the ropes with a sunset flip for the opening fall. Cooper gets the equalising submission on Grey with a single leg Boston Crab. He tries for another but Grey turns 180 degrees ito crawl towards his partners Logan tags in and after absorbing some punishment uncorks a sunset flip of his own for the deciding pinfall and a definite feather in his TBW teenage boy push. Short but sweet action packed Triple Tag.

The two matches kind of overlap, Ferre/Andre is still in the ring shaking hands with the next four wrestlers. Bernaert gets on the turnbuckle to shake the Giant'hand, the big man lifts him off. Ferre then comes outside the ring for his promo and some guy with a cigarette is hanging around trying to get some attention, the Giant just shrugs him off and he walks back to his seat despondently along the way. We shall see more of this fool later. Mantopolous was definitely one of the great European lightweights like Kidd, Saint, LPP and Saulnier before he became a Chiotte Arbitre. Vasil is clearly the star attraction of this tag. Cartwheels, rolls in either direction, snapmares, feet first landings, spins on his backside like Jim Breaks. Real fast moving stuff. If any of his mid 60s ITV matches resurface, expect Kent Walton to be DROOLING over the great VM, a real Skill And Speed (What They Like) master. ... Lemagoroux is wearing a black one arm leotard. Symbol of a heel worldwide from King Kong .Kirk and Sid Cooper in Britain to Heel Andre in America 1987-1990. The match slows down whenever Camus tags in. On one occasion he holds down Bernaert so that VM can stomp him. Later Mantopolous returns the favour, standing on Lemagoroux s hands on the ropes so he can't get out of a Camus stomping. Things are also slow when the heels take over. The heels eventually catch VM and double team him for a bit til Camus pulls out Benaert and Mantopolous dropkicks both Mechants in succession. Later Camus tries again but Lemagoroux out thinks him but then Vasillious breaks fre and the heels collide like Sheik and Volkoff at WM1. Mantopolous ties up Lemagoroux in a George Kidd Ball - leaving the villain in pain every time he tries to move a muscl. (Unhooking the feet would have worked for untangling him.). Camus gets the opening pin with a slam, and splash. During the break the commentator chats to a young ladybehind him in the crowd and her boyfriend. Benaert does get a hammerlock on VM and he has trouble snapmaring out. He eventually escapes on a standing horizontal spin and skips back to his corner for the tag. Occasionally he darts in to help Camus with a Manchette or two and is back in his corner before L'Arbitre can intervene. Les Bons grab Les Mechants in a standing full nelson each and send them spinning into each other. Mantopolous does a Johnny Saint style escape from a Japanese stranglehold, loosen it then shimmying it down his body until he can step over, but he does it at top speed. Mantopolous does George Kidd's bait and retract version of the ball (see 1975 bout Vs Blackjack Mulligan ) on Bernaert . He finishes off Lemagoroux with two flying headscissors and a cross buttock & press to make it TWO STRAIGHT! Afterwards the heels attack the babyfaces during their promo but Les Bons win the ensuing brawl. In the interim, Cigarette Man reappears, desperate to be VM and Camus's pal, patting them on the shoulder but they just ignore him.

Firmin seems to have had the same heel appeal as Bobby Heenan minus the verbal humour. He bumped around, got beaten up and generally appealled to the audience's worst instincts. The spanking from Jean Ferre is probably his second most famous incident after the fight with Couderc (predating Gorilla and Bobby). The match itself, or what we see of it is basically If El Gigante And Sid Could Wrestle. Full marks for doing the "Ah Ouais" bodyscissors atomic drops on two men at once. The commentator compares the threesome to a bobsled team. Otherwise it's just Ferre unloading with Manchettes on Duranton. Andre/Jean Ferre seemsl to have enjoyed the spanking as he says in the interview. Nearly 22 years later Sherri got the same treatment from the Giant. Duranton gives his poor valet the same treatment.

Poor old Firman in trouble, again. My first glimpse of pre 90s French Catch. Duranton in in trouble . Firman tries to attack Couderc but bites off more than he can chew. Eventually Messieurs Les Flics get involved. Often misreported as a fan intervention..

Some more Lukestik. Not sure when this is from (any clues @sergeiSem ? ) but Lukestik is older heavier and has a Hot Stuff Eddie Gilbert beard. He closely resmbles the late Tommy Lorne of mid 1980s UK biker gang heel tag team the Rockers, a career sadly cut short by his fatal car accident in circa 1986. Here against a young Brian Pillman-esque babyface on a village green on a sunny day somewhere in the German speaking world. Ehm gets in a couple of monkey climbs but otherwise it's the villain all the way, being totally cocky an strutting, even doing pushups on Ehm's pinioned arm, until the face rallies in the final raid, only cut short by a foul that earns Lukestik a sudden DQ. @ohtani's jacket won't approve but the crowd does, happy to see this villain get the smug smile wiped off his face.

Local heel Lukestik back in 1980 against youthful Buddy. Mostly Helmut fouling the youngster who retaliates in mind. He does a nice overhead snapmares on the kid. Round break. Buddy gets a nice monkey climb and tries for a second one but the heel resists. Buddy looks like the young George Michael. Helmut just looks like a young snide heel in moustache and black tights. After some more fouling and posing arrogantly during the round break, Helmut gets the win, catching Buddy's flying bodypress attempt and converting to slam and cross press for the three. File under: Heel. Establishing a. P.S, okay dammit I'll admit it. I think the pretty girl at the end in the frilly 80s layered frock is a hottie.

Joined in progress, perhaps OJ saw more of the bout, apparently both had a near miss pinfall attempt each just before the start. Kid Chocolate. No more or less blaxploitative a ringname than Koko B Ware. Real name Alan Bardouille. Good dropkick. But of a grumpy old so and so backstage. Died a few years ago. Bout is going through a slow patch at the start mainly about various KC attempts to escape a side chancery not getting anywhere. The action hits up, Naylor is the more engaging of the two with his cartwheels out of trouble but Chic does get a good 2 count with a sunset flip.Another slow intense patch over a single leg Boston Naylor gets but Chocolate resists. Kid looks to be trying a toupee but instead does the double ankles smash to surprise Naylor. A run of good near bridging folding press attempts by both men gets a nice clap from the crowd. As Kent says "the speedy action stuff that the crowd like." So then we get a leg submission with Kid resists up to the bell. Round 3 and Kid catches Naylor on the run with a basic folder that becomes a bridge folding press for a 2 count. Test of strength turns into a bridge then a monkey climb.Naylor gets the winner with a Leotard Burke folding press like Davey at SS92. Naylor is the star as the more experienced man of the two Bout tended to grind to a halt every once in a while while Kid struggled out of a hold. Decent short exhibition of technical skills.

Straying away from the motherland to the former colonies, here is some footage of Giant Haystacks and Dalbir Singh in Zambia July '76 just 12 months after Stax arrived on TV tagging with a heel Big Daddy (with whom he was still tagging by this point although they were mostly getting cheers against Kendo Nagasaki. The big eyecatcher is the advertising board for the tour, with one side plastered with all the top stars from imported prints or tapes of WRESTLING FROM GREAT BRITAIN. The other half all having strong African names and prals. Trips like these were one of the career perks for a young wrestler of having one's work sold across Asia and Africa. Zambian TV info. Available in B/W at the time. Went colour 79. (Just next door to Rhodesia which would a few years later be one Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe. who would one day declare Stax an honourary citizen of his country, at this point was a rebel leader.) Anyway Singh gets brutalised by Haystacks but then rallies and KNOCKS HIM OUT with a load of forearms the does the same to Stax's manager. Also here is some rare Colour footage of Saddam's infamous state promotion in Iraq with a babyface Adnan Al Qaisi, hero of his nation, here against Bop Roop. I believe this is a fan cam, there is a more professional looking camera on a stand. I wonder where that footage is now?

Proof that the tradition of weird French gimmicks like Les Pihrannas and Les Maniaks is still alive, from 2017 I give you IGWE AND MUNGU!!! (Commentary on the first bout is in Flemish aka Belgian Dutch. It's a whole cultural MINEFIELD if you call it a separate language or a dialect of Dutch. Mainly from Dutch people in the Netherlands who don't like Flemish being called a separate language like they don't like you calling their country "Holland".) Imagine a two man cross between Saba Simba and Papa Shango and you got it. La Bete Humane or Mambo Le Primitiv for the Twitter generation. The thing is, you can imagine these two in against Walter Bordes and young Flesh Gordon back in 1983-1985. Heels dominate with irreguliere tactics, Bons try to fight back but what can they do?

The more eagle eyed among you will have spotted a URL at the start of that video. I checked it out - it's dead now and for the final few years Bernard VanDamme had the domain in the mid/late 2010s he was just using it as his personal webspace for stuff like his band, but earlier on there was quite a happening website on (I)WS(F) there. Will be investigating. https://web.archive.org/web/20161002202944/http://www.eurostars-wrestling.com/ Also going to try find out who Imagen Plus Television are/were. There's an Imagen TV in Spain, no idea if it is related though.

Fast Forward to the Noughties, - I think this was 2007. Some Eurostars footage in front of a respectably BIG house. Can't see any title belt on Zefy Bigger Balder Flesh Gordon and a matured but still in his prime Zefy take on two new heels. Zefy handles young Tribalius easily but gets himself into trouble when he complains about Mac's black belt- and, for his pains gets an Avertisement for getting the crowd excited. Never mind. Zefy gets to work on him even taking the big man down with a headscissors. Taraz looks a lot like Albert Hillbilly Hell On from the late 70s Big Daddy tag or even Daddy himself during his final t-shirt/football shirt under the leotard era. Gordon tags in. He's not the high fligher of old but he's still a decent worker at this age, taking down big Mac with a sequence of holds out of the Johnny Saint playbook. He uses a clothesline - depressingly called "Un Clothesline" (vive le Franglais) by the commentator. Mac walks out in protest (his short hair and clean shaven looks make him seem a bit young forca superheavyweight) but Walsh round to tag Tribal,ius. Gordon doesn't back somersault to reverse a top wristlock any more, he spins horizontally on his feet. Zefy tags in, gets the crowd excited with his dance and gets a public warning for it (leading the crowd in cheers was made an offence around this time). The villains double team flesh and pin him for the opening fall. Zefy gets the equaliser with a Superfly Splash off the top turnbuckle. Les Mechants double team Zefy until he tags Flesh who scores the deciding pin with a belly to belly suplex like Magnum TA. Entertaining enough Catch A Quatre with some great aerial moves from Zefy and a Gordon who has matured but is not yet past it.

From September 1987. The same month as the rather cruddy "Underground Carpark" video of the dying years of Greek Kats. On opposite sides of The Pond, world titles changed hands as Ronnie Garvin and Kendo Nagasaki won Big Goldy/ the NWA title and the Tricolore Belt/ the "WWA" title respectively from Ric Flair and Wayne Bridges respectively. (Kendo's win would be televised just days before Garvin lost his title back to Flair at Starrcade in November.) Meanwhile in Germany a young French, distinctively TBW-esque youngster called Denis Goulet was facing a potential squashing at he hands of English superheavyweight Butcher Mason. Milton Reid only ever made one ITV appearance ever, as Mighty Chang tagging with Ian "Bully Boy" Muir just a month earlier, but had a long history of appearances on Reslo, Screensport Satellite Wrestling etc various as Chang or as Crusher Mason. I even have someone's home movie from a holiday camp 1975 containing a snippet of Crusher Mason in the ring. And here he is in a German CrappyCam VHS video release. He doesn't have his weight lifting belt on but does have his black/red Mighty Chang outfit on from ITV a month earlier, with the bare feet and legs making him look like a late 80s furniture advertisement of a girl in lycra fashions of the time curled up on the sofa (couch). Mason uses a lot of power holds and some brawling and fouls to wear Goulet down. Occasionally Goulet reversed Mason's attacks an got and armbar or suchlike which it was hard for the big man to reverse out of. Goulet gets a ground toupee forces the huge Moore to spin out and take a spinning bump and near the end of round 2 Goulet managed to flop the big man to ringside as he prepared to vertically splash the kid from off the ropes. He managed a bodyslam on the second of two attempts in Round 3 Otherwise it was the big Butcher all the way. In the end he got a KNOCKOUT finish with a double underhook suplex. If this was Joint Promotions, Big Daddy would be bounding down to ringside to make the challenge. But Milton Reid seems never to have worked for Joint. All Star yes, Orig yes, German tournaments but never Daddy Land. So he was free to be a superheavy brute unpunished. As I think I said before, Mason as Chang and The Mongolian Mauler would have made a good tag team.