David Mantell

Because at that point Eurosport launches on Astra and New Catch takes up residence in its appointed new home, starting with reruns of the 1988 TF1 bouts but soon moving to footage especially shot for Eurosport complete with fancy big ring with a giant Eurosport logo on the canvas. Accessible to any UK TV set that can get any of the WWF (other than year old WWF Challenge at 4am and the six Specials broadcast 1987-1988 while they lasted) and full of all sorts of familiar faces from ITV. Actually a week and a half AFTER The Final Bell !!!! And with several months Catch Americain either side of the run to cushion the blow, the start of which was just 5 months after the last Old Catch on FR3. Yes, Catch went on but it was mostly regionally scattergun scheduled or fully regional rather than syndicated and therefore (1) went under INA's RADAR (2) was often not in their offices' region. Except when it was reasonably syndicated and we got a 1987 archiving or two.

After 1977 bouts go down but there was definitely some non archived bouts and quite a lot more back in 1975. It's worth repeating that French Catch TV coverage was even less like an American weekly TV wrestling show than the World Of Sport slot was. It was more like The Big Fight Live boxing coverage with .Gary Newbon on 1990s ITV. You can never have an objective answer to when traditional Catch Francais (or traditional British Wrestling) last "mattered". It mattered to those considerable crowds. I only wish we had some of them on here to give the firsthand fan view like I do on the British thread.

Okay I'll just get a review in while I'm about it. Not a lot to review of the bout - as with the Hannover '85 Stax Vs Klaus Wallas match (just three years earlier) it's a typical Haystacks squash with an atypical finish - in this case Le Bon (not Simon LOL) going wild with a chair and getting DQd. This leads into the traditional French Good Guy Wiz Robbed finish, Franz threatens to throttle and whack Charley Bollet and I think there's even the odd shout of Aux Chiottes L'Arbitre. Original TF1 transmission was as Phil says October 88, the same months as the big Paris show which Rocking Robin winning the women's title, tag champs Demolition cleanly beating the British Bulldogs without need of the absent Master Fuji's help, and most pertinently Randy Savage (with Liz) defending the World belt against Akeem (with Slick). English commentator Orig Williams says Stax is challenging World champion Hulk Hogan! I was going to put the boot in until I remembered this is the Eurosport repeat and probably Orig said those words post WM5. It is rumoured that Stax was at one point indeed lined up to be Earthquake before the role was recast for John Tenta. We do get a bit of Stax interview but it's the usual thing "you've got to be INSANE to fight me" etc etc. Caption says Stax is from the USA like captions in France and Germany have been saying about him and others going back to Tommy Mann in the 1950s. Orig says Stax is Irish which is another fib (his parents were, but he himself was London born and Manchester raised) but one which probably made noted Hibernophile Martin Ruane a very happy man. Nice crowd shot at the end. Full looking house. Business was obviously doing well at the time.

A lot of these bouts claim on their credits to be broadcast on the FR3 network. FR3 operated as a network of (IIRC) 15 regional stations, rather like ITV except it was state owned. As with ITV there was a lot of regional only programming and opting out, so a lot of stuff didn't get syndicated and would not have been recorded by the INA if not in in their area.. Nonetheless we have a few FR3 bouts from 1987 - the March 87 one with Gaby Lailee and Flesh Vs Jessy Texas, the August 1987 Ted Jones Vs Karl Von Kramer match and the mysterious Flesh & Zefy Vs Marquis Jacky and Jessy match. It's been reported on here the last 1987 FR3 broadcast was in November that year. INA going forward from 1975 made usually timestamped off air videos of programming to update its content. So surely anything untransmitted would just have been wiped or stored in some separate archive without finding its way to INA, although admittedly that lucky surviving colour bout tape from Jan 69 did. Then we get New Catch's first run in 1988 on TF1 (privatised the previous year instead of FR3 as originally planned) , the cyclical equivalent point to The Final Bell in Britain. Speaking of TF1 New Catch 88 season: Ah, that explains why there was no mention of New Catch on e.g. Matt D's channel. I'll review the match later. I'd love to hear what Stax has to say to the French people. That's pretty good going seeing as the British equivalent, the first Aberdeen taping in October 1990 (Kent Walton's last commentary work) is about 3 hours footage total IIRC. All the 1991 run was repeated from Eurosport. TF1's parent company had bought Eurosport from Sky so they wanted to showcase their new acquisition's content.

Some sad news this Easter Sunday morning - RIP Scott Conway, boss of the TWA - The Wrestling Alliance UK an Old School British promotion that ran 1989-2003. After the closure of Ring Wrestling Stars, the former Joint Promotions in 1995, TWA became All Star's biggest rival, expanding to become a national promotion. For most of the late 90s the two promotions got along nicely but in the early Noughties, fed up with various issues including the appearance of tribute show characters like the UK Undertaker and the Big Red Machine, Conway declared a promotional war, presenting the TWA as the more serious grown up alternative featuring feuds such as Superstar Mal Sanders Vs James Mason for the British Middleweight title and Robbie Brookside Vs Drew McDonald. He also reactivated the British Welterweight title for matches between Johnny Storm and Jodie Fleisch and ran a splinter branch of the British Heavyweight Championship around the Millennium, details of which are listed on the title's Wikipedia page. This is turn prompted All Star to up its game, dumping the tribute acts, focussing on pushing its young talent especially the crowd from Stoke On Trent that included Dean Allmark, Robbie The Body Dynamite (Berzins) Mikey Whiplash (Gilbert), Kid Cool, Playboy Johnny Midnight and others, as well as arranging a 2003 tournament for Rollerball Rocco's old World Heavy Middleweight Championship (whose last holder Frank Chic Cullen had retired in 2002, ten years into a second run with the belt) which was won by Bryan Danielson under his masked American Dragon persona. In 2003, Conway relocated to Thailand. He had plans to transplant the company to his new home as the Thai Wrestling Alliance but this never came off. (French Catch fans please note, Le Petit Prince was also living there until his untimely death in 2005 but Scott told me they never crossed paths.). Eighteen years later in 2021 he returned to Britain planning to revive the TWA just as his friend Steve Barker was reviving Rumble at the time after a gap since 2001. I guess the TWA comeback is off permanently now. Never mind - that war with All Star Wrestling U.K in 2002 saved All Star in the end. Some TWA resources. TWA Facebook page for the comeback that never was: https://www.facebook.com/twawrestlinguk Interview with Scott Conway at the height of his promotional powers Part 1: https://web.archive.org/web/20031211105514/http://www.wrestle-zone.co.uk/interviews/scott_conway.htm Part 2: https://web.archive.org/web/20031127031249/http://www.wrestle-zone.co.uk/interviews/scott_conway2.htm RIP SCOTT CONWAY

Yes, that's what I said. But in 1985 you suddenly get non-LDM broadcasts in consecutive weeks. We don't know what - if any - role LDM played in (1) the upswing (2) the move of Daniel Cazal, Jean Pradinas and the crew to FR3 in summer 85. It did flip back and forth between A2 and FR3 over those weeks (just like in Britain during WOS's final months the timeslot moved back and forth between the old 4pm and the new lunchtime slots for a bit before settling down in lunchtime once WOS ended and it became its own show.)

It wasn't a series, more a run of sports specials. Looking at the dates on @Matt D's videos, they were fairly spread out over a few months, probably regarded as Sports Specials or somesuch. Apart from LDM it isn't until 1985 that we get any consecutive weekly dates. I guess there's a connection between the dip in quantity of broadcasts from 1978 and this vague "decline" spoken of by all media articles on French Catch which ended with the WWF's arrival on Canal Plus in 1984 or 1985 (sources differ as to the launch date.)

Don't worry @ohtani's jacket Haystacks matches are much of a muchness. He aged and put on extra weight and lost mobility but was the same raging monster 1975-1995 who feared no man except Big Daddy, oh yes and Pat Roach later on, and who was a sadistic monster loathed against blue eyes, the bigger heel against any one except Kendo Nagasaki and King Kendo and for some reason one night his tag partner Scrubber Daly when they were put on together. So it was from Britain to Germany to Japan to South Africa to Calgary to WCW. The Grumpy Garden Gnome crushes another "midget". Klaus Wallas is first seen caught in a bearhug, ideal hold for a big slow man.He gets another one which hits the ropes then a single throttle which Wallas, himself a bit of a heel punches out of. A foul each, Wallas lands more closed fist punches. Which Stax barely acknowledges. The bell goes. Stax waddles to his corner. Cut to round two and Stax has Wallas down on his knees in a rear crossface. Bash over the head puts Klaus on the mat, illegal kicks keep him there. He gets up but Stax double underhooks and bashed Klaus down. He gets up and fires illegal punches. No good. MC warns Stax for hair pulling. Klaus gets more punches and a dropkick but Stax no sells. Cut to more stx roughing up Klaus, choking him. Referee -I think it's Jeff Kaye - gives Stax a public Warning, Round break, dunno who the DJ is playing but it sounds like it could be the Eurythmics or Depeche Mode. Klaus has been for a walk outside. New round carries on with Stax still brutalising Klaus. Hope spots- Klaus goes for some legdives and floors Stax on the the third. He has Stax hanging over the top rope for a long time but doesn't get him to ringside. End of Hope spot, only 87 secs of clip left. Wallas is still trying illegal punches. A dropkick does more damage than the earlier one and -SHOCK- Wallas gets a flying tackle and cross press for the three count! Stax shoves him off too late. Even so I've seen Stax concede a fall in the first April 1976 match with heel Daddy against Steve Viedor and Tibor Szacazs so it's not a total bolt from the blue. Usually Stax either got the win with a splash or guillotine elbowsmash or he was DQd and send packing as a disgrace to the sport (how he lost the British Heavyweight Championship back to Tony StClair in 1979). This is the usual Stax squash with a surprise finish.

See also the Road Warriors in Georgia before they went Cyberpunk and the Rockers (Pete Lapaque and Tommy Lorne, not Shawn and Marty!!!) in Britain this same year. Biker Gang and Hells Angels (not in the Street/Barnes sense) heel gimmicks have been part of wrestling for decades.

Talking of the new age of gimmicks... This is just after the jump to FR3, the taping is in Dijon. Mambo Vs Jessy, the Gorillagram versus the Kayfabe Kowboy (I assume they have cattle herders in the French countryside but they dress nothing like in American Westerns) with the gorilla again as Le Bon. He starts of well with a top wristlock but Jessy is soon outsmarting him. Jessy looks like a younger version of Orig Williams prior to and in the early days of Reslo when El Bandito had Harley Race side handlebars instead of a beard. He pulls off a neat monkey climb (the irony is diluted by it being called a Planchette Japonaise in French). Mambo has a neat wristlock he maintains., not as skilfully as the kids in Britain. Great spot where Mambo takes the corner pad off like George Steele and tries to whip Texas into the exposed buckles. Texas reverses but Mambo avoids the Steele links by jumping up on to the second turnbuckle so Jessy dropkicks Le Primitiv right over the pole to the floor. The Mambo band are playing in the background, one of the drummers has invested in drumsticks, making it sound like a Dave Barbarossa drum solo on a Bow Wow Wow record. Jessy gets another good Planchette Japonaise and dropkick out the ring. Mambo throws some steps in the ring which referee Charley Bollet quietly and urbanely places outside again. Mambo gets a sustained advantage with some holds and some brawling, Jessy fights back but ends up headbutted to the stomach, pitched out the ring and carried back and thrown back in Warrior style. Texas has bladed outside the ring and takes a couple of Alabama Jams off the top rope before Bollet gives Mambo the TKO win. Le Primitiv and his band have a ringside victory parade. JT is carried out by two seconds. The guest commentator is François Degeuelt, singer and former Eurovision contestant for Monaco. That's him in the thumbnail with the red YouTube logo on his nose like a clown. Lagache has grown back his hair since the tag team with Jacky Richard. Tejeris older and tubbier but the two make a good pair of Mechants en Noir against George and Khader Hassouni Les Bons En Blanc, a tag team of a Jewish Algerian and a Muslim Algerian. Cohen can roll and kip up as well as any British blue eye (and this being 1985 there were some promising ones coming along.) Neat trick from Cohen, leaning into a standing hammerlock converting to wristlever so Lagache's head is down and Cohen can do a conveniently low flying Sciseax Volees all as one swift move. The sort of trick I would expect from Danny Collins, but Cohen is a veteran. Tejero gets in and bumps around, taking a snapmare, two Scisseaux Volees and a dropkick which fails to connect but still knocks him onto the ringside table. Cohen takes a double finger Interlock and rolls into a Japanese stranglehold. With effort Tejero reverses but Cohen steps out and over to reverse back, releases and leapfrogs Tejero then bounces back with a scissor chop. Lagache tags back in and gets a top wristlock into mat wristlock, letting him up to smash him back down. Cohen eventually forces a whip with a bump and tags Husseini, still looking good eight years on from his 1977 cup final shot at Johnny Saint's World Lightweight Championship. It hits the ropes but fails to become a brawl when Khader takes an arm meant for a Manchette and gets an armbar. He keeps the hold riding through a hiptoss or two. He dumps Lagache on the apron, no sells a foul and goes armbar into standing rear hammerlock, then survives another throw to make it an armbar on the mat. Cut to Lagache getting back in the ring and Khader getting a ground based cross headscissor on Lagache, who is up against the ropes trying to make it a folding press while KH alternately tries for a toupee and complains to Bollet about the ropes being used for pin attempts. Lagache turns it round but Khader hammers with a foot to send Lagache sprawling and tagging in Anton. Tejero gets a snapmare and throws Khader to the ropes but, - in a nice fast sequence - he comes back with an under leg crawl into double leg takedown in reply to which Tejero goes for bodyscissors but Khader spins out and gets two successive Scisseaux Volees and a dropkick out of the ring! Khader leads the crowd in the knockout count, displaying it with his fingers, all the way up to ten. Crowd is on a high thinking there has been a KNOCKOUT but it's a false finish, Tejero is up on the apron and Bollet tells Khader it's not his business to make counts. We get a slow mo replay of the nice fast sequence that impressed me so much then cut to Lagache and Cohen tagged in. He gets a Manchette, George gets a dropkick and cross press for two then slings Pierre outside and tags Khader back. Neither of Les Mechants want to get in and face him, like he's Big Daddy or something. Lagache comes back and gets his arm taken down and weakened with a kneedrop. A wristlever and sudden jerk further weakens Lagache's arm then another one, but Bollet doesn't like the jerking in the hold and tells Hassouni off. Tejero tags in and gets taken down in the same mat armlock. He tries for the hair but Charley stops him. Lagache comes in to break it up but Khader soon has the armbar on again, this time held with a knee in the bicep. Tejero powers up leaving Khader holding the wrist through his legs. Khader flips over, releases the hold, flips back and gets a reverse headscissor and flying scissors Tejero over! George tags in, comes off the ropes through Tejero's legs and off the ropes with a flying bodypress for a 2 count which Lagache breaks up. Tejero shouldeblocks Cohen who ducks underneath the running Tejero and scores with a fine Scisseaux Volees then ducks a Tejero charge to send him crashing outside. Lagache helps his partner back then regains his heat with a stomach punch (Irreuliere) Manchette (Reguliere) and kicks to the fallen Cohen (Irreguliere and Bollet ticks him off for it so Tejero gets some stomps in too.) Lagache continues the dirty treatment and Tejero comes in with a powerful manchette. Hassouni come in to complain but this just results in a shoving match with Bollet. Khader briefly collars Bollet and nearly gets an Avertisement for his pains before finally stepping out. Tejero delivers another powerful Manchette but Khader lands in his corner and makes the hot tag to George who wallops both villains out of the ring. Another shoving match between Bollet and a Bonnends with George making fist and asking the audience if he should throw it but winding up with Le premier Avertisement for his pains. Lagache tags in and gets a snapmare and shoulderblock on George but he trips le Mechant with a nice side folding press for 3'and the one fall required for victory! Now that match was a surprise, a real action packed tag. I wasn't planning to drill down into details but couldn't resist. Mercifully short @ohtani's jacket? I would love to have seen an equalising and deciding fall of this.

1983 is when Gerard Herve becomes Flesh Gordon. I'm not saying his personal popularity helped bring about the recovery but more likely it was the more gimmicky cartoony style he as lead bon exemplified that either tempted execs to put more on or else stimulated demand for catch among a younger audience. Some of the other characters like Kato Bruce Lee and Eliot Frederico (Le Rocky Du Ring) start to pop up around that time. So do more outlandish masked characters like Mambo Le Primitiv, Les Pihranas and Les Maniaks. Gordon has said that commentator Daniel Cazal was a willing collaborator of himself in trying to make le Cstch more "colourful" so perhaps the revamp of style and the revival in broadcasts were connected.

Also might be a good idea to check for Sunday evenings at around 1700h. We know there were such broadcasts from the time codes on the INA tapes.

And lo and behold they're all A2. Which clears up one mystery about the INA collection all going colour in 1975. The INA just didn't bother with the B/W bouts on TF1 when there were enough colour bouts on Antenne 2 to fulfill the quota.

I'm pretty sure there is a LDM with Brigitte on it on @Matt D's channel. Will go and check. LDM wasn't really a wrestling TV show as such, more a docu series taking a wry look at wrestling. It clearly did pave the way for the move of the proper TV wrestling coverage to FR3 the following summer. Well there's this one that we've already discussed. No sign of Leo Derwedrt/ Derweeri though.

This matchup is mentioned in the 1991 listing but may be a 1988 bout seeing as it's a smaller ring with no giant Eurosport logo on it.

The above was an episode from the 1991 TF1 run but if the date is correct it's two weeks later - presumably also a Monday night..

Off topic slightly but regarding Swimming Pool Matches - I expect you all already knew this but it turns out WCW did one on Nitro once: https://www.facebook.com/reel/979964607591567 (Only slightly different as the floating ring has an attached ringside but Ric Flair still takes a water bump.) Is that what you hated so much about those matches, OJ?

The brief return of New Catch to TF1 that year. I think these bouts may have posted here by me in the past. They've certainly been talked about - El P saw them. TF1 got privatised in 1987 so possibly the 1988 and 1991 broadcasts were outside the INA's remit. I take it they've been checked for on the INA's database? The British equivalent was Joint Promotion's first Aberdeen taping in late 1990 screened a few weeks later on Grampian/STV and then on Granada in early 1991, which were Kent Walton's last ever commentary work.

I'm pretty sure there is a LDM with Brigitte on it on @Matt D's channel. Will go and check. LDM wasn't really a wrestling TV show as such, more a docu series taking a wry look at wrestling. It clearly did pave the way for the move of the proper TV wrestling coverage to FR3 the following summer.

Yes, I thought this had already been reviewed:

Matt has handily edited off the news broadcast. Even so, the match takes 4 mins to start as Charley Bollet has problems getting Mambo to prepare for the match. Mechant Vs Mechants but Mambo is the crowd favourite like a nonplussed babyface George Steele. Comedy captions on screen such as "BUOWW!!" and "SPLASCH!!" and even "CRAACK!!" for of all things a Mambo full nelson. I think I reviewed another match with this. (with the Marquis Jacky Richard in it as I recall.) Daniel Cazal's guest colour commentator is a singer called Billy. I think this is the same Gonesse TV taping as Flesh Gordon and Khader Hassouni Vs Marquis Jacky .Richard and Black Shadow. The INA recording abruptly cuts out after 10 mins so unless we can make contact with original French fans who made video recordings of their own we shall never find out how this ended. Mambo was back against another heel opponent Jessy Texas just a few weeks later- and he had the band with him.

Three years earlier, another Otto defence, the same year as his first Sgt Slaughter match. I'm not really familiar with Duncum other than that he was in the AWA Heenan Family and his outside interference caused the only AWA World Championship title change of the 1970s seven years earlier making Nick Bockwinkel champion the first time and ending Verne Gagne's seven year penultimate title reign. Half an hour of good quality professionally filmed footage with two fixed cameras, one high up , the other for close ups. Fairly straight up American brawl. This is the year Otto got his few weeks with the AWA title himself. By now he looks more Wahoo McDaniel than Colin Joynson. (Afterwards I watched the 1984 Ed Leslie bout and Wanz is A LOT. fatter there). Duncum's fluffy blond hair makes him look like a heel Dusty Rhodes. Most of the disco between rounds sou ds like old Brill Building girl group songs or early 80s knockoffs thereof. At one point fans start singing the same song for Otto that they sang for Roland Bock against "Killer" Antonio Inoki in 1978. Early in round 3 Otto has a headscissors on and it looks interesting to see how Duncum will get out (especially after the referee refuses a rope break) but disappointingly I think Otto just releases. Similarly, early in round 1, Duncum impressively knows how to undress a headlock into a straight arm and slip underneath to create an arm around. The two carry on brawling though the round gap between rounds 5 and 6 although Duncum does grab a quick swig of water. Just both continuing to stomp each other. I don't think Otto makes it back to his corner. Duncum gets dumped out of the ring at the end of round six and his seconds in their white "We are Yanks" baseball caps troop round to sort him out as he rolls around on the mat outside. He makes it back for round 7. Otto finishes off Duncum with two guillotine elbows, a rolling splash and a final suplex. Otto versus the Americans is what German/Austrian Catch is best known for, but we have seen StClair Vs Wright and Liger vs Schumann and know that the German speaking audiences were capable of appreciating so much better.

Rare video of 3 wrestling matches in Lusaka, Zambia. 0:00 Kid Chocolate (dark trunks) vs Alan Bardoville (yellow trunks) 0:24 John Mwale (green trunks) vs Johnny Kwango (orange trunks) 1:20 Masamboula (spotted trunks) vs Prince Kumali (red trunks) Source : Reuters archives Descritption from the source : "A team of top black international wrestlers came to Lusaka, Zambia's capital, for the first time on Thursday (7 November) night. Wrestling is a popular sport in the country and the crowd was well pleased with he evening's programme. The evening opened with a close-fought battle between Kid Chocolate, Jamaica's Lightweight Champion, and the Dominican Republic's Middleweight Champion, Alan Bardoville. The result was a draw. Next on the programme, a contest between the local Middleweight Champion, John Mwale, and Johnny Kwango of the Central African Republic. Kwango is a leading television personality in Baaing, but he could not match the Zambian's skill and determination and lost after a knock-out. The high spot of the evening was a bout between Masamboula, the Heavyweight Champion of Gambia, and Prince Kumali, the Guyanan Heavyweight Champion, who is called (with geographic licence) the 'Lion of Africa'. After six hard-fought rounds, Kumali gained the winning pinfall." The odd thing about this is that "Kid Chocolate" was usually Alan Bardouile's ring name in Britain. Not sure who this one is. Possibly George Burgess aka Jamaica Kid (1970s)/ Jamaica George (1980s)/ Cool Cat Jackson (Reslo early 1990s). Notice they all very much work a British style here. Clearly Zambian TV was screening "Wrestling From Great Britain" (repackaged World Of Sport footage sold overseas by ITC). See especially the line "Kwango is a leading television personality in Baaing" The four corner pads are all white but red and blue corners are indicated by the metal ring posts.

A rather spirited heel Vs babyface undercard from 1985 in Poysdorf, Mittelbach, lower Austria. Babyface Franz Schlederer from Yugoslavia in the orange trunks was later nicknamed "der Soldner" - the mercenary - is up against burly Swiss heel Franz Schlenz, who has some kind of title and some kind of attitude. Schlenz attacks Schlederer before the bell and goes on that way as carpenter heel Schlenz generally reacts to the Austrian's technical moves with fouls rather than have a scientific bout. The Swiss wins this way.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_surviving_professional_wrestlers#Oldest_wrestlers_to_ever_perform_70_and_over