David Mantell

I did Spanish and French up to University level. WWF was definitely calling itself "Catch" in the early 90s. "PRESSING CATCH" it would say in the TV listings for Telecinco on Saturday/Sunday morning.

Presumably a reference to this:

This is an early 90s promotion but it looks a bit Americanised- possibly Luchadores Independents de Europa which was formed in response to the WWF's success in Spain.

Okay, I think we have enough odd bits of footage to warrant its own thread like the Greek and Egyptian ones. I'll look in depth at the Rico Vs Acapulco match later and then we can go through the clips Alessio has compiled but here is a slideshow about the times Jean Ferre took his car southwards across the Pyrenees and toured Spain.

Yes, Louis the heel Referee starts cussing out Flesh Gordon at the end. Well okay but maybe there were more local broadcasts in Picardy and elsewhere. (We know there were other production teams - ex A2 man Jean Pradinas did the March 1987 broadcast with the trumpet player and then there's the November 1987 Flesh/Zéfy Vs Jessy/Jacky bout, clearly filmed elsewhere by yet another team but with FR3 cameras.) One is a start, one is better than none.

Thanks for this. I know there were still French promoters touring Spain in the 80s and that Danny Collins (with his European Welterweight Championship) and Robbie Brookside both toured Spain in the 1980s. Thanks for the match also, although I notice (1) Acapulco is a Mexican and appears to be trying to work heel but is not getting much crowd heat. (2) the show is filmed in a TV studio emblazoned with the TVE2 logo.

You could be right but then why have a Hispanic ring name if not either Hispanic oneself or doing such a gimmick (which Puma is not obviously doing).

Well you should see how much I can extrapolate out of a serious clean scientific match. I thought they, or certainly the one without the beard (it was late last night and I don't trust myself to get the names the right way round) did the cartwheeling escapes from the throws brilliantly, almost as well as any promising British TBW, this despite their builds (they seems to have normal thickness torsos, disproportionate to their limb length). I gave just as much time to the heel ref and to it being 1986! Unless I'm very much mistaken, we now have a pro Wrestling show or segment filmed on Metropolitan French soil and broadcast on one or another of the three unscrambled French terrestrial TV channels for every calendar year 1956-1988

OK, the first thing to be said is that it's good to have SOMETHING - ANYTHING of French Catch from French terrestrial TV from calendar year 1986. It plugs that particular gap and disproves any notion of a hiatus (I'm sure there was plenty more, probably another bout with this one) but at least this is hard evidence that there was anything at all.. It's got the same miserable heel referee from the 1982 FR3 broadcast and the 1987 Jones Vs Kramer match, although it's not filmed at the nice place with the sloppy wooden ceiling, rather in somewhere with a big top tent over it. Possibly on a boat of some sort. The two little people work in much the same style as the two in the support slot for Marc Mercier Vs Albert Sanniez 1982. They can both credibly cartwheel and handspring out of throws etc. The referee does a similar reverse DQ decision to the one he did in the tag match in 1982 and ends up being squirted in silly string for his pains as "ER" mentioned. If you try ignoring the comedy aspect, it's a reasonably fast paced gymnastic sort of bout, but not intelligent enough to motivate me to try a blow by blow description. Not sure where these two were imported from but I'm guessing Mexico from the El Puma name (the Spanish CIC having shut down 11 years earlier before anyone makes that suggestion).

I remember reading that at the end of the show, after the cameras cut, Lex Luger came back out and shook hands with Sting, but I can't find a source. Does anyone have any information? Lex basically did this match as a favour to his buddy Sting and he phones it in, which is a pity as this was meant to be THE headline feud of the early 90s (as indeed Sting vs Vader was). With Harley telling him what to do in both kayfabe and real life, Luger had all the makings of a classic arrogant heel champion like Buddy Rogers or Nick Bockwinkel (and HH91 gives us a real taste of what he could have blossomed into) but sadly the We Want Flair smarks broke his spirit. If he had gone on to have all Vader's reigns, losing to and recapturing from Ron Simmons, by 1993 it would have been a whole different world.

Didn't he turn babyface and form a Dog And Cat tag team with JYD after JYD accidentally broke Hughes's shades then stopped the match to make sure he was all right? Or was that later? His last big match was tagging with Vader to lose to the Steiners at the Clash in January. That was step 1 of establishing Vader as Lex's replacement even before this here title change. (It was actually a rematch of night 3 of 3 of WCW in London the previous month but with Vader in Lex's spot.) Hughes was Lex and Harley's heat anchor. Without him, there was a real danger of the GAB 91 crowd regarding Luger and Race as the babyfaces. Lex was up til then a face, Windham had spent 3 years as the most hated Traitor Heel since Larry Zybysko. Harley was a respected legend like, say, Lou Thesz. If Lex wanted him as coach, most fans would not have begrudged him that. It took Hughes, with his existing York Foundation heel links, to get the point across - Lex was getting clearly booed by the time he got out the cage and stride up the ramp.

They were on opposite sides of a tag match in 1987 with Owen partnering Rollerball Rocco (as himself, not as Black Tiger). This was an extension of Rocco and Yamada's UK feud over the Mountevans World Heavy Middleweight Championship.

Is that the the mysterious one Vs Jessy Texas and Marquis Jacky Richard? (sorry to have to post this clip YET AGAIN, folks) And is this a different midget match than the 1986 one you mentioned?

0:18 of this 1948 clip - years before Gilbert Leduc, this guy does a perfect toupie. FAO @Phil Lions who might be able to fill in a few blanks of toupie pre-Leduc.

And here is the full match: Well nearly complete, there are a few seconds missing here and there from where shots are changed but only one of these skips any action. It's also a good scientific match and a pallette cleanser from some of the bouts we've just just recently on the three Stronghold Euro Territories threads. I'm a big fan of the Birmingham Steve Logan, it's a pity he never won any Mountevans titles but at least H3 got to spread his wings and see other territories. Round 1: Morgan gets a side headlock and takes it to the mat. Logan is not secured and attempts a handstand escape at kneeling position so Morgan takes him up and cross buttock presses him back down still in the headlock. Logan tries to push him in the further nelson position and briefly has a headscissors on but it slips off. Logan turns Morgan sideways into a folding press for th3n first pin attempt of the bout. Morgan stands up and switches to front chancery but Logan straightens his arm and gives him the high whip and bump. Morgan gets a single legdive and leg straightener, even briefly getting a 1 count, before Logan leg throws him and he spins out to land with a bump. Morgan gets an armlock, armdrags Logan with it and develops it into a ground top wristlock. Logan gets up so Morgan armdrags him down again, making it a double top wristlock. Logan again fails to get the headscissor but he turns over and gets up and, Impressively, especially for a bout between two British wrestlers, does the French style flying headscissor takedown. (Usually with the British, the flyer is thrown off to the ground whereas in France it's what they do Instead of rolling out of armbars.). Morgan gets a rear waistlock takedown into H&S (Sleeper) but modified it to a simple side chinlock. Logan tries wedging out and attacking Morgan's head, neither work. Morgan stands up in the hold and Logan breaks it open into a standing top wristlock, forcing Morgan down in the guard. Morgan somehow gets a headscissors (sadly it's too zoomed in to see how) . Logan bridges up and it forcing the headscissors open when the bell (Gong? Saucepan?) goes off. Morgan releases Round 2: Morgan tries a go-behind but Logan is too quick, so Morgan gets a nice sharp armdrags. Logan gets a standing side headlock into side chancery but Morgan twice blocks the throw. He briefly breaks the side chancery but Logan quickly reapplies and this time gets the throw and a good, sharp one it is too. Logan gets a further nelson into side folding press and gets a few 2 counts before Morgan rolls off. Sadly for no good reason we get a close up of the ref, missing vital action of how Morgan gets a double leg nelson. The two Bascule back and forth getting 1 counts and two way leg presses. Logan rolls off and they shake hands; the Hamburg audience applauds. Logan tries for a cross buttock throw but Morgan blocks and armdrags him, getting an armlock in the guard. He gets up but Morgan resists attempts by Steve to throw his way out of the hold, even with assistance of the ropes. Logan tries for another French style headscissor takedown but this time it's the more normal British outcome - Morgan throws him off and he lands in a bodyslam position. Morgan still has the arm in the guard. Logan gets up to try a throw but all his efforts fail and he is bodyslammed back down - still in the armlock. He stands again - and sadly CUT to the round break with Morgan's Corner where Morgan is limbering up. Pity, I would like to have seen the end of that round. Round 3 Morgan dodges various Logan lunges. He tries forca waistlock but Logan clamps in a front chancery first, switching to armbar, bashing Morgan in the back and flooring him with an elbowsmash to the rear of the shoulder joint. He gets a back hammerlock and drops a knee on it, then cranks it up some more. Morgan stands up in the hammerlock and tries a reverse legdive but Logan dodges. He eventually slips his free arm into Logan's armpit and gets a beautiful cross buttock throw and press for 2. He gets a side headlock into another, less spectacular cross buttock throw into mat side headlock, pressing Logan's free arm down and getting a 1 before Logan gets his other arm free. He tries pressing both arms. Sadly the ref is in the way but it looks like Logan bridges up. Morgan loads himself onto the bridge (it is indeed that, as a cut reveals). and Logan pitches him off before they go into the Monkey Climb into double knee press spot, into a Morgan double arm stretch into a Logan folding press with bridge but somehow Morgan gets his head clear at 2. BIG round of applause from the crowd. Morgan gets an armlock into front chancery, long suplex, cross press for 2. He tries again with the cross press but Logan keeps getting a pesky arm or two up. Morgan switches to sitting rear chinlock to standing side headlock to standing back hammerlock to legdive and crosspress for 2. He releases. to more applause, and gets a drop toehold just as the, er, Bell, let's call it that and have done with, goes. They shake hands. Round 4: Morgan gets a rear waistlock into standing full nelson. Logan tries powering down with his biceps and grabbing his own leg for leverage (an old Johnny Saint trick) before rearing into Morgan to break the hold and coming back off the ropes with a sunset flip and double leg Nelson for two. He goes for the left arm as a cover for a single kneelift to Morgan's chest then whips him to the ropes and. on the rebound, floors his man with a shoulderblock to the chest. Morgan is barely up in time and straight into a side chancery. He blocks two throws but after Logan releases and reapplies, he finally gets the throw, finishing it with an H&S and adjusting to a side chinlock. He switches to a long press pin attempt but Morgan double ankle chops him in the head and gets up. Morgan gets the wristlever and a hefty kick to the chest. Morgan gets an underhook and crotchhold into a fisherman's suplrx, There is a bit missing of the impact but when it cuts back in, Morgan has the cross press and manages 2 before releasing Logan who is up at 6. Morgan gets 3 forearm smashes before the referee blows his whistle to halt it. He gets in another one and an axehandle to Logan's back, flooring him. He floors him with another forearm smash the n gets an underhook into whip to the ropes but Logan comes back with a kneelift that floors Morgan. Dave grabs the ropes from the guard position but Steve pulls him clear and lets him drop, an unusual spot for a clean match. Logan goes for a leg of his downed opponent but the ref warns him off. Morgan on his back tries a legdive from the mat but apparently Logan, out of shot, dodges it. Logan is getting a little impatient, he briefly ties Morgan up in the ropes but the ref blows his whistle and warns him off. The ref frees Morgan who quickly gets an abdominal stretch. Logan tries unfastening the grapevine but the bell goes. Great round of applause from the crowd. Round 5. Cut to Morgan with a reverse grovit in the mat. Cut again and he has switched it to a reverse chancery and gets a couple of 2s. Logan struggles quite a bit, can't quite escape but disrupts and further progress to Morgan releases. Morgan gets a side chancery throw and shoulderblock but Logan drops down under the next charge, leapfrogs the one after and then gets a cross buttock throw and press for 2 before Morgan kicks out. He jabs Steve in the stomach, gets a side chancery, ignores two Logan inner forearm blows to the chest, a chop and another inner arm before finally getting the throw, but Logan leapfrogs and leg flips Morgan then dropkicks him out of the ring, flips him back in over the ropes and forearm smashes him before Morgan gets an inner arm and single kneelift to floor Logan for 4. Morgan gets a double underhook suplex and crosspress but Logan swiftly has an arm up. He keeps trying but gets no more than 1s and is looking a little frustrated when the bell goes to end it all Time limit no score draw. Another big round of applause. Both men are exhausted but shake and raise hands to a standing ovation. There, that was pretty good. Funny how the first really good scientific match lately (after the Dean/Barrett brawl and the Andre/Valois big man antics) is on the German thread, the territory that specialises more in hearty brutal brawls. Not to deny we've had a few technical classics like StClair Vs Wright 1986, Owen Vs Tony 1990, Schumann Vs Liger 1992 and Kovacs Vs Cross 1999 on here. But it's nice to see that even the drunken, sausage stuffed Oktoberfest etc revellers can appreciate the higher end of wrestling.

Saw this on the smart TV the other night - an interesting illustration of the situation with Ritchie Brooks. Four years earlier than November 1990 this would have been a simple matter - roughouse heel Rocco vs clean cut blue-eyed boy Brooks. However Rocco is getting somewhat popular due to his feud with the hated Kendo Nagasaki and Brooks is getting somewhat hated due to his feud with the popular Danny Collins so the blue-eye/heel dynamic is somewhat convoluted here. One from the same 1991 Bath show as the Rocco/Brooks match. The big headline Kendo Nagasaki Vs Skull Murphy match is also up on YouTube but I thought I'd already reviewed it. But I can't find it so maybe I didn't so I'll review it some other time. This was a hot matchup in 1991 for two reasons. (1) Barrett and the late Doc Dean were in two tag teams with a strong rivalry, especially between their respective partners. Blondie Barrett was Kendo Nagasaki's regular tag team partner while Doc was in the Liverpool Lads with Robbie Brooksiide whim Kendo had "hypnotised" on ITV in late 1988 (with Barrett tagging him) and continued to do so at various matches over the next several years. 2) Doc and "the Rock N Roll Express" (NOT Morton & Gibson!) were in the middle of a feud over the British Welterweight Championship. After Danny Collins won the British Heavy Middleweight Championship from Mal Sanders in 1989 he was forced the finally relinquish the British Welterweight Championship he had first won back in 1984 and lost/regained to Steve Grey and Cyanide Sid Cooper. Sanders, ironically, won the vacant Welterweight title but in October 1990, Doc beat Mal for the belt. Barrett challenged him for the belt and the chase was on. Bob would eventually defeat Ian for the title in December 1991 but lose it back in July 1992. At this stage however, earlier in 1991and before Rocco suddenly retired after heart trouble, the RNRX is chasing the title and the good Doctor is still on his first reign. The bout is without rounds for a 15 min time limit although the Rocco-Brooks and Nagasaki-Murphy bouts on the same bill are for rounds. Bob (nice guy. FB friend of mine!) spend a lot of the early going outside the ring working the crowd until finally getting in the ring and after locking up, forcing the back of Doc's neck against the top rope. He hauls him off and gets a snapmare into chinlock. Doc gets the face-crossing arm out and armbars it until Barrett rolls out. He applauds himself, knowing 5he fans won't, and it is a nicely done move. He gets his own armbar and develops it into a front held hammerlock. He uses the other arm to get a grovit but Doc snatched it and forces a high whip and definite bump on Blondie. Bob takes over with pressure points on Dean. Doc is almost unconscious but first back and elbows his way out. An extra kick gets a quiet word from the ref. Barrett brawls back. He snapmares and fistdrops Dean á la Jerry Lawler. This earns him a First Public Warning. He continues to do the dirty on Doc Dean including headbutting him in the stomach in the corner as his partner Kendo is wont to do. Doc eventually firsts back with double chops and a kick to the stomach.He pulls Bob's legs in the corner and drops him against th3n padding. He gets a rear snapmare with a kneedrop as part of the same move therefore allowed Bob catches Doc, rakes his face and soon has him back on the top rope, held in by a knee. He slingshots Doc to the mat before stopping for an argument with a female fan who has come up to the mat (there was no crowd security barrier in those days.). Bob posts Doc and kneedrops him using the ropes for extra power. Doc rolls out to r3 over. He tries to get back 8in but Bob blocks and obstructs. Finall6 he shoulderblocks his way in, brawls for a bit and gets a big backdrop. He whips Barrett and gets a flying ellying forearm smash a la Tito Santana. He gets another whip but misses with a dropkick. Barrett slams him and delivers another Jerry Lawler fistdrop which again earns him a (Second And Final) Public Warning. He undoes a corner pad and goes to post Doc in it, but Dean reversed the posting then beats and stomps down on RNRX. The referee allows this for retaliation, quietly warning Dean after the last slug. He wandes round the ring, getting counted and when he does return, Doc slingshots him in and posts him. He gets a snapmare and kneedrop in one move. Barrett gets a concealed illegal kidney punch in and stomps Dean down. He lifts and knocks Doc up and down a few times until it is Doc's turn to wander around the ringside. He drags Barrett by the leg out of the ring and smashes him face first into the time keeper's bell, something ITV would NEVER have allowed on screen - clearly Kendo and Rocco's influence is percolating through the entire show. Still no public warning for Dean, it is put down as retaliation. Chant by the crowd of EASY, EASY even though this is the rival promotion to the one for which Big Daddy wrestled.They both make it back. Barrett still has a foot on the middle rope, which Doc kicks, causing Barrett to fall over. He charges in but a resurgent Barrett boots him down. He drops a first and goes for the cross press but the referee refuses to count it as it was not continuous movement. He goes for a posting but Doc reversed it and goes for a monkey climb (the first good technical move in quite a while) He gets another posting and again follows in with a charg3 and is again booted down. Bob goes to the top rope. But Doc catches and powerslams him, whips him off the ropes and backdrops him, He then ties Barrett in the ropes and hits him with blatantly closed fist which finally gets him a Public Warning of his own. Barrett gets a flying clothesline and a crosspress for a 2 count. Doc dean gets a backslide but Runs Out Of Mat as Bob's feet hit the ropes. Bob chops and side chancery throws Doc and the ties him in the ropes and charges. This could have been a disqualification but Doc dodges and Barrett hooks his foot on the rope as he goes down. Doc posts, atomic drops and reverse atomic drops Bob who rolls out to ringside. He catches and floors Doc as he gets back in, then runs the ropes but Doc catches him with a left handed clothesline and gets a powerslam for the one fall required with less than a minute of time left. In the Afterbirth, Bob smashes Doc with his water bottle -lesding MC John Harris to sarcastically call him "a sporting good loser". Not a great wrestling match, but a great fight as Kent Walton would say. I think @ohtani's jacket might enjoy this one.

Have booked to see All Star at Dudley Town Hall on 28th October. Will give a show report afterwards. Steve Barker has also told me Rumble are having 3 shows filmed this month, hopefully some good old school bouts to post on here.

Okay, I've decided to farm the New Caledonia stuff off onto its own thread - any more comments about it, please go there... ...and am reviewing a replacement bout. Andre still looks a lot slimmer than the mid 70s. Under other circumstances Valois would be a fairly burly Heavyweight. Andre has him cornered at the start. He uses power rather than technique to get out of a top wristlock and a side headlock and bodychecks Valois down like Big Daddy (Andre could very well have seen Georg "Schurli" Blemenschutz by this point, maybe even fought him at the Heumarkt. Andre maintains an armbar during an armdrag thrice when Valois cross buttock or rope assisted throws him. Valois is a Canadian so he wrestled a North American style, little or no escapes or chain sequences. He soon breaks out the Manchettes and regrets it as Andre no sells. He blatantly punches Andre and it has no effect but would surely have been worth un Avertisement had it had any impact. The same ref tells Andre off for menacing Valois with a windmlliing arm. Things pause while Andre and L'Arbitre sort it out. Andre gets a bearhug, pushes Valois to the ropes, threatens to punch him, remembers himself and Valois uses the distraction to get a legdive into toe/ankle plus legspread. Andre boots him into the ropes and flips him with his feet, not a Planchette Japonaise/Monkey Climb as Valois would have collapsed under the weight! Valois gets an armlever out of a full finger Interlock and uses a hairpull to drag the Giant down into the Guard. Andre gets up and takes over, making a Japanese Stranglehold of it. He marches Valois across the ring and pushes him into the ropes. He releases and pats Valois who, angry and patronised, turns and threatens Andre with a back elbow, Andre tells him off. Andre gets a headlock but Valois gets the advantage with a jabbing thumb to the throat. He chops and Manchettes the Giant around., grovits him and turns him away from L'Arbitre so he can get in a concealed illegal punch the bigger man in the head. The crowd bay for an Avertisement and he eventually gets one. Andre gets a chinlock of his own and uses it to position Valois just right for a slug over the head. (I'm noticing this trope a lot in heavier weight European wrestling, using a hold to position an opponent just right for a clean strike.). He gets a side headlock but Valois overpowers him, ties onecsrm in the ropes and gives him a slap like Zsa Zsa Gabor. Andre pulls himself up, gets the windmilling going and gets Valois crying off and the ref reprimanding him. Andre complains that Valois pulled his hair just as Valois creeps up behind to do just that. Andre turns in time so Valois chokes and slaps him again. Andre decides to sort things out and Valois looks frightened as Andre corners him and slaps back. Not sure if he gets un Avertisement back. Valois gets Andre in a full nelson. Andre pulls the arms down easily. Valois gets a bearhug, Andre easily undresses it, pulls Valois in for a bodycheck into the ropes and ties him up The referee talks Andre out of following up and unties Valois. Andre gets a waistlock (not a squeezing bearhug) but Valois fish hooks his mouth and ties Andre in the ropes just like at WM6. He chokes and pounds the Giant until the ref pulls him off. Valois gets back in an pushes the still tied up Andres nose, picking him off the mat and carrying on the treatment. Andre recovers and lands four Manchettes, the last of which floors le Méchant. Andre gets a legdive and toe/ankle hold, Valois grabs the ropes so Andre does the old pull off and drop trick on him. Andre gets Valois by the back of the neck (the fingers in the right place could be a blood-choke) and smacks his head into the corner. He gets a rear waistlock, drops him and catches him in a rear seated bodyscissors and bashes his spine into the mat as the crowd chant" AH ...OUAIS!". Valois tries unlocking the feet but hasn't the strength and slaps them in frustration. The crowd are having great fun as they always did with this spot (there is film of it from the 1940s. Seriously.). Valois painfully turns himself into the front facing position and tries for a pin attempt - he is lucky IMHO to get that 1 count. He slugs Andre who pushes him off and threatens him with a fist. But Valois goes for the neck, possibly a similar blood choke as earlier as Andre's legs loosen and Valois walks free. Andre recovers and is up but Valois gets a side headlock on. Andre atomic drops him on one knee, lifts him up and drops him into the rear seated body scissors for some more AH OUAIS treatment. Valois eventually makes it to the ropes. Andre corners and nearly punches Valois until warned off by L'Arbitre. Valois gets a rear double wristlock. But Andre still has his other arm and he gets a crotch hold and bodyslam. Valois is up and getting a headlock, positioning himself to avoid a waistlock. He throws Valois to the ropes and gives him a big backdrop on the rebound. Valois spends too much time hanging on to the ropes and Andre complains to the ref who, for once, agrees and gives Valois his Deuxième Et Dernière Avertisement. Andre gets a rear chinlock but Valois backs him into the ropes. (The commentator mentions how the Elysée Montmartre is all nice and modern and refurbished these days.) Andre releases but such is his arm length he can legally grab Valois back in the sideways chinlock before he has gone too far. Valois again goes for the ropes and slips on a bodyscissors as he does. Andre blasts him off with a double axehandle. A brief slug and punch ends with Valois pushing Andre into the ropes - then gets a good posting on him, with Andre selling his back and a loud crack coming from the ring framework! Andre gives Valois a posting of his own. He is ready to pound him into the corner but L'Arbitre objects, Andre is ready to argue it with him but Valois gets him in the back first. Andre is determined to get some revenge and gets a side headlock and a concealed illegal punch worthy of the true Méchant he would not become (outside Japan) for another 17 years. He then tells the ref he slapped Valois's scalp like villains do. The crowd roars approval of this, the big boys is sussed to all the tricks. Valois gets his head free (but annoyingly there is a crowd shot so we don't see how he does it.) Andre gets some Manchettes and a might backhand chop like Billy Two Rivers. He gives one more blast before slamming and cross pressing Valois for the win. Despite everything, Andre still shakes Valois's hand and he accepts (it would be more than Valois's life was worth to refuse!) Another wrestler gets in the ring for his match and Andre tries to shake his hand but he angily refuses and backs off until Andre is gone. Buttonholed for a ringside promo, Andre says Valid was tough because of all his dirty wrestling tricks, before fans mob him. He mentions he has two brothers and two sisters and gives all their heights (in metric). and what he has for breakfast ! Slow and deliberate, although the brawling only gradually builds up over the course and there is the odd intelligent nugget. It says something that Andre The Bleedin' Giant was the superior technical wrestler here (student of Roy and Tony StClair) although Valois, as a North American, had a far more advanced grasp of ring psychology. Against a better technical wrestler, as OJ noted, you get better results. He still takes a lot of bumps that both Vince McMahons would be APPALLED by but stuff their "working strong" garbage anyway, I say.

General observations. They say the ring is an ex boxing ring. I thought it was a European ring but there is a gap between the top and middle ropes where a fourth rope once was. I like the white/turquoise colour scheme, it reminded me of Reslo .(or news footage of Orig Williams' BWF on tour in Ireland. The one thing that is very French Catch about this is the commentary. The commentator uses plenty of French terms like Manchette, Cagoule and Bons/Méchants. Despite it being a decent size venue, there was very sparse amounts of seating and much of that, even at ringside, was empty. I don't think this show did very well at the box office.

Each team is led to the ring by a lady in a leopardskin party frock. The babyface one looks like Olivia Newton John. I take it the older burlier looking guys will be the heels. One of them wears black and red like the pre-pink Hart Foundation. The other has an Aussie flag on his trunks with the Union Jack taking up the front. Together they look like Bulldogs Vs Harts circa 1986. Everyone in this match and on the show is very much a Heavyweight - another clear American influence. It's a very slow tag match, holds really are being used as rest holds rather than setups for a clever escape. The "ninja" if that's what he was meant to be, looks like a middle aged ring announcer in a mask and suit. He gets in the ring, gets hit by one of the heels and toddles out. As mentioned, the ring falls to bits and it ends up a mess.

Another wrestler called Scott. He came to the ring to Simply Irresistible which Jeff Jarrett was using as his music in Memphis at this time. He looks more like Blade Runner Rock than the Ultimate Warrior. He cowers outside the ring, uses the ropes as the first option to break a hold and uses the deceptive handshake trick. He's the younger and lighter man which makes it a bit counter intuitive that he's the heel. These wrestlers mostly work an American style, doing nothing to untwist armbars etc on themselves. In fact there is very little counter wrestling (other than the odd foul when in trouble by Scott.). I guess this is the lasting cultural impact of 14 years of Americanisation under Jim Barnett. It's a specifically North East US style too, without the amateur freestyle grappling sequences of Southern US wrestling and quite a lot of the space and gaps in contact of late 80s WWF. Marcello gets thrown out the ring and spends a long time wandering about outside before com8ng back to score a pin for the 2-1 win. The referee is a lot tougher than most American non-special referees, he is more like Max Ward, Roger Delaporte or Gorilla Monsoon in the 70s as special ref, roughing up and out of line heel. His name is Ian St John which was also the name of a former Scottish football (soccer) player turned TV sports pundit who had a show"Saint and Greavsie" with another ex-footballer Jimmy Greaves which was on ITV just before the wrestling on Saturday lunchtime in the mid/late 80s.

Tolios looks a lot like Roland Bock circa 1988. He was Greek, at a time when Kats Eleniki had less than two years to live. Black Scot looks like Darth Vader's kid nephew. The commentator said he was a former Scottish policeman LOL!!! I have visions of him with a British police helmet over his mask! Quite a lot of strength moves and paused for working the crowd like WWF action of the time. Tolios in a headlock complains of a hairpull. A bit of rope running, Tolios injured his shoulder on a fall outside the ring and BS starts doing the Bushwhacker March.

(goes and looks up New Caledonia on Wikipedia). Part of Oceania. Makes sense that a bunch of Aussies and New Zealanders were on the bill then. Curioser and Curioser. So even less French Catch than the WWF's French tours -in fact about as French Catch as Montreal Grand Prix wrestling -less even as some Catcheurs, most obviously Jean Ferre, used Montreal instead os Stampede as their foot in the door of North America. What was the INA doing holding a copy of this if it's not actual France? (EDIT: Apparently NC is constitutionally a part of France like Algeria once was, so that could be why. New Caledonia was a French territory, and the channel in question was created and owned by ORTF. Since this is a bit of a category error I've decided to give it its own thread rather than write about it on the French Catch thread. Reviews of individual bouts to follow.

Anyway, talking of Switzerland I just recalled that THIS took place there in the mid 90s:

(goes and looks up New Caledonia on Wikipedia). Part of Oceania. Makes sense that a bunch of Aussies and New Zealanders were on the bill then. Curioser and Curioser. So even less French Catch than the WWF's French tours -in fact about as French Catch as Montreal Grand Prix wrestling -less even as some Catcheurs, most obviously Jean Ferre, used Montreal instead os Stampede as their foot in the door of North America. What was the INA doing holding a copy of this if it's not actual France? (EDIT: Apparently NC is constitutionally a part of France like Algeria once was, so that could be why.)