David Mantell

Short snippet of Georg "Schurli" Blemenschutz in action - once again teaming with Caswell Martin to take on Indio Guajaro, but the other half this time is not Judd Harris but instead "Rasputin 1" who is neither Johnny Howard/Sean Doyle nor the Raspoutine we saw on the French Catch thread but instead appears to be none other than Wild Angus I intend to investigate that "Schurli Oh Schurli" piece of music and find out if it is actually about Blemenschutz or not.

From the same Hungarian show, Battle Royal featuring Egypt's hero Mamdouh Farag, France's answer to JYD Mammouth Siki, Crusher Verdu, Inca Viracocha, Germaz(?), Monsieur Marcel Montreal, Martinez from Colombia, Charley Verhulst, Paco Ramirez, Ray Glendening, and Bad Bull.among others. Some fairly syruppy gospel music is playing, not a million miles removed from Brother Love's theme. A loud horn instead of a bell signifies the start of the bout. People are gradually eliminated until we are down to Siki and Verdu. the latter of whom gets the win.,

Game For A Laugh was a hugely popular and utterly annoying Saturday evening light entertainment show which revolved around people playing ribs on each other and taking it in good humour, hence the title. A big ingredient of this was studio games which revolved around giggling girlies throwing custard pies at their husbands and boyfriends. (For some reason they never had men throwing custard pies at their wives/girlfriends. I wonder why not?). They also featured Candid Camera type hidden camera pranks overseen by presenter Jeremy Beadle. (He would later go solo and do his own show Beadle's About which consisted exclusively of these hidden camera stunts.) One subspecies of the hidden camera ribs involved couples going for an evening out at some public entertainment and one half excusing themselves only to suddenly reappear as part of the show. Simon Hurst (not relation to Lenny - or AFAIK Patty) was an amateur wrestler and wrestling fan who had come into contact with Marty Jones and was learning the pro game from him. Master and student decided to contact Game For A Laugh and pull a stunt where the Hursts went to a wrestling show and Mister needed to nip of to the Gents - just in time to miss a bout where Ray Steele destroyed a Masked villain and then tore off his mask to reveal it was Simon. At which point Mister Beadle came up to poor embarrassed Mrs Christine Hurst and told her it was all a glorious prank. Hahaha. You get the general idea. Anyway, in thie subsequent months, things have got more serious. Hurst has actually turned professional and is now having his first TV match and once again his missus is at ringside. We've met his opponent, another Ray, this time Ray Robinson previously in this thread, a hard no nonsense type who would later flirt with being a Heel in the post TV years. It's a tough challenge for a newbie. And yes, Christine is at ringside in her usual seat - just as a fan. not as a valet or manageress or even personal second like the young Jeanie Clark. Round 1. Robinson sportingly lets rookie Hurst armdrag him a few times before getting a side heädlock on. (Picture in picture of Christine watching). He hits the ropes and bodychecks Hurst down, side chanceries and rear chinlocks him from the seated position. Simon breaks the lock and lakes an arm for a wristlever, leaping over from arm to arm and armdragging Robinson in for a crosspress for 2. Robinson totally dominates Hurst with an up and down finger Interlock test of strength, before going for a wristlever of his own, but Hurst rolls out. Ray gets front facing pressure points, occasionally releasing and rope-a-doping Hurst back into the hold. After about 3 or 4 of these, Hurst uses the release to slip behind Robinson and roll him up in a folding press for another 2. The pair have another finger Interlock, single sided this time and it's Simon who gets the advantage, bending the arm into a back hammerlock. Robinson counters by putting his own head between Hurst's legs and backdropping him but Hurst goes for a sunset flip on the way down and nearly gets it before Robinson powers his way out. Hurst gets a single leg takedown and seated leglock from in front, changing to a standing toe and ankle before Robinson spins him out with a leg throw. Robinson gets a side chancery throw and further nelson but bridges out of the pin. He Full Nelsons Robinson who tries bending over to throw his man off like Andy Blair did to Alan Kilby in the last bout. Having weakened his attackers arms with these, Robinson reaches behind his head, unfastens Hurst's hand and steps away. Hurst gets a side headlock and takes Robinson down to the guard but Robinson wedges his head free. He gets a double underhook suplex on Hurst and cross presses him but has trouble getting the shoulders down and then the bell goes. (Contrary to what Kent says, Hurst is not saved by the bell, it doesn't get even to a 1 count.) Round 2. Robinson gets a side chancery and a good long throw across the ring with it. Hurst is up at 5, he delivers two forearm smashes which Robinson no-sells, nearly overbalancing on the second (rookie botch!). Robinson lands just the one forearm smash in return but it floors Hurst like a winning KO punch in boxing. Once he is up,, Robinson posts him and tries for another. Hurst manages to reverse it but Robinson diverts himself to the ropes and comes back with a bodycheck to floor Hurst again. He then gets a posting, a powerslam for 6, a long vertical suplex and a crosspress for the winning fall. Christine smiles sympathetically at her Man. This was Hurst's first and (despite what Kent says) last proper TV bout, despite Jones training him. He gets to show the tricks he has learned before being put away. I wonder if he had yet been smartened to the business or if this was another case of Rip Rawlinson from The Big Time, being strung along while paying his dues. Jeremy Beadle passed away of complications from leukemia in 2008 aged just 59. A nation swallowed and tried hard not to all cheer at once. Sorry, but he was an AGGRAVATING human being. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Beadle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_for_a_Laugh

What television was that? Prior to 1989 and Catch Up, there was Bock versus the bear (plus JIP tag warm-up) on ZDF Sportstudio, The Bock/Inoki and other 1978 Inoki bouts filmed by Japanese promoters for their own use on Japanese TV. Something on SWR which contained at least 4 different clips of Roland Bock's 70s matches as 16mm colour film inserts the 1986 one off RTL special headlined by the six man tag Austria Vs USA with "USA" consisting of Haystacks, Kirk and Quinn with Stax hilariously doing his "us Americans" promo in a Manchester accent. various news magazine features and earlier cinema newsreel items Otherwise Germany/Austria had home video of varying quality instead of TV from 1979 onwards.

Article on Roland Bock : https://www.patrickwreed.com/blog/ywi3yijbus8ga9w6tqlfh56isokwpp

Ah. So really it evolved separately there with the stadium shows starting the scene whereas with the rest of Europe it starts with newsreels from America and local promoters and sport wrestlers getting together to do their own live version. "Kats", I guess, is where it starts to integrate into the bigger picture of European wrestling with the annual Festival at stadiums in Athens and talent from all over the continent came to participate and have a working summer holiday.

The missing link in all this was NORMA MORICEAU https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norma_Moriceau Norma Moriceau was the costume designer on Mad Max 2. Demolition, particularly with the masks on, were based on the character of Humongous. The Road Warriors/Powers of Pain look was based on the character of Wez, Humongous' sadistic boyfriend. Norma Moriceau was an Australian (where Mad Max 2 was filmed) but lived in London in the mid 1970s and was friends with Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood who ran the formative punk clothing shop SEX where the Sex Pistols got their start. McLaren and Westwood's designs for the shop were largely based on ideas from the gay S&M underground such as the chest harnesses that ultimately inspired Humungous's and ultimately Demolition's look. Malcolm and Vivienne took the chest harnesses and other ideas previously sold secretly from the back pages of porn magazines and made them into high street fashions worn by young people to provoke and upset their elders. Soon, all of London was full of punk rockers in black spiked leather and chest harnesses. Moriceau took the ideas her friends and all the cool kids in London were into and used it for the costumes for her wild post apocalyptic film. By the time Mad Max 2 had gone mainstream and was being picked up on by wrestlers such as the Road Warriors and Demolition, chest harnesses and shiny black leather just meant futuristic and science fiction looks. It's only years after the Demolition gimmick came and went that LBGT+ culture has gone mainstream and shops like Prowler selling REAL chest harnesses - in Leather not Cloth - have started popping up in respectable High Streets and us straight folk have looked in curiously through the window and thought to ourselves "Hang about, that's DEMOLITION'S old costumes" and never thought the same way about the Demolition gimmick again!

This was from Joint's first TV taping since losing their monopoly on ITV wrestling , filmed Oldham December 1986, screened January 1987. Belgium's Jean Paul Auvert (see him on some mid 80s German VDB videos. I think I've already posted one tomthe German thread. Andy Blair from Scotland, no relation to Rusty (or Tony) was trained in 1982 as part of the same training camp that produced Superheavyweight Mac Hardimann aka Scrubber Daly. Mostly he got used as a tag partner for Big Daddy - masked duo The Spoiler &King Kendo or ex-masked duo of against Daly and his fellow former Masked Marauder Lucky Gordon (no relation to Flash.). Here, he takes a step up in the World, getting a British title shot at Light Heavyweight Champion Alan Kilby. Deaf wrestler Kilby first won the title in 1985, beating the Birmingham Steve Logan for the belt after Marty Jones vacated it, and would go on to lose/regain it four times (the first to Golden Grappler trophy winner King Ben in 1988, then to Skull Murphy in 1995, then to Dirty Dan Collins in 1996-1997, the heaviest Danny would reach before his first retirement in 2002 and finally to Mad Dog Ian Wilson in a series for WAW of Norfolk in Oct/Nov 1988. Kilby was last seen wearing the belt to RBW shows aged 59 in 2003 before retiring a year later. Round 1: Blair rolls his way out of wristlevers before using an elbow to pick away Kilby's arm force wristlever of his own. Kilby can also roll out, take an arm back and use a cross buttock throw to transition to a side headlock on the mat. Blair gets a headscissors but Kilby quickly snaps it open and kips up. Both men twice simultaneously go for a legdive, effectively blocking each other. They both times politely shake hands which fans applaud. Kilby gets a grovit into a side chancery throw but Blair rolls up nicely. Kilby sandbags to block a cross buttock throw and gets a headlock, switches arm and takes his man down with his own throw. Blair gets his headscissors again. Unable to kip out this time, Kilby turns the headscissors upright, pulls his head out and neatly slips on a ground side headlock. Andy stands up in the hold so Alan transitions to a side chancery throw but Blair rolls up nicely. Alan appears to get the better of a finger Interlock test of strength but Andy leans back into a crossed headscissors (and gets 1-counted for his pains!) but Kilby spins round 180 degrees to make a front folding press then convert to a cross press for 1. Kilby gets a single leg and drops into a leglock, Blair crossfaces him in response. The bell goes, Kilby graciously helps Blair up and they shake hands. Round 2: Blair gets a single leg and tries to turn the champion over into the mount forca Boston Crab but Kilby holds his body rigid and refuses to turn (actually quite an impressive feat of strength.) Andy gives up and Alan gets a wristlever with the palm and inner arm turning upwards. He twists backwards forcing Blair to roll and pounces-almost a Splash as his man is in the guard, but can't hold Andy's shoulder. They break and Alan goes for an arm but Andy slips in behind with a standing full nelson into side Chancery throw into further Nelson and gets a couple of 1s. Kilby gets a rear chinlock into seated side headlock. Blair stands and turns in the hold to face Kilby. Kilby regains the side headlock p on and takes it down to a kneeling position but Blair nicely handstands up to uncork his head. Blair gets another full nelson into side chancery throw but Kilby resists a bodycheck attempt, sidesteps a second one, throws Blair to the ropes, trips him on the rebound and catches him with a side folding press for the opening fall! Round 3: Blair gets a legdive into a legspread on the mat but Kilby adjusts both pairs of feet with his hands so as to reverse the legspread. Andy resists however so Alan starts over. He gets a cross buttock throw but it goes into the ropes. He gets a couple of throws which Andy doesn't roll up from so easily this time. Andy gets single and then double legs and tries again for the Boston Crab but once again Alan holds himself rigging and will not turn into the mount. Andy releases and returns the compliment from the end of Round 1 by helping Kilby up. The champion gets a full nelson, Blair is not strong enough to break by downwards bicep pulling but instead manages to lean forward so far Kilby cannot maintain his grip, so breaks the hold that way. Blair gets a single sided finger Interlock - rather than go for a wristlever Hectakes thecarm out to weaken and strain the joints. Alan follows suit but with more vigour and topping it off with a high whip forcing a somersault and bump. He gets a side chancery throw and crotchhold into bodyslam. Blair gets another full nelson into side chancery but the stronger older Kilby resists a throw. The challenger switches to the underhook position but the bell rings. Round 4: Blair straightens out a Kilby side headlock into an armbar and tries a posting but Kilby drops to the mat to resist a la Ken Joyce. Blair walks into another finger interlock overpowerment and Kent Walton is critical of this but to be fair to Blair, from the upside down position he slips his legs over Alan's shoulders and flips him over into a double leg Nelson but Alan double leg chops out. Blair gets behind and smashes the back of Alan's neck. Alan shows him how to do it properly with a knee to double him up then a powerful elbowsmash to the back of Blair's neck. Touché. They shake hands, but Blair isn't done with the power tactics, firing off four forearm smashes and a back elbow, flooring the champion for a 7 count. He goes for a rear chinlock into full nelson but Kilby hiptosses him off. For once Blair gets a finger Interlock advantage - Kent is surprised -!and he gets a double armbar, the lower on held to the mat by his foot. He gets the full double wristlock (step one towards a surfboard) Kilby tries to power round on each side but can't make it. He somersaults to the mat and Blair resists going for a double leg folding press, still maintaining the arms for the double armstretch. Kilby tries bridging to relieve the strain and looks to be trying something else when the bell goes. Round 5: Kilby shoves Blair down and posts him twice. Blair shoves him down, gets the single leg and again time turns him over into the mount for a Boston Crab but Kilby forces a wide legspread on Blair and rolls away. He sportingly lifts Blair up and shakes his hand. Kilby posts Blair who absorbs the impact well and goes for the legs but neither he nor the champion can progress from this so they reset. Kilby gives Blair a chop tomthe back of the neck but misses a double leg takedown. Blair gets behind for a waistlock into side folding press but Runs Out Of Mat (Kilby's soles brush the ropes). Blair gets a side chancery throw into further nelson for 2. Kilby gets a side chancery into posting, two more side Chancery throws and a Legdrop of Doom for 7. He gets a legdive into Indian Deathlock. Blair sits up but Kilby throws him off a couple of times. The bell goes and referee Peter Szacazs has to untwist the legs. Round 6: Challenger Blair gets in behind with a full nelson, drops for a rear double legdive and folds up Champion Kilby's legs into a Frank Gotch figure four toehold and adding a half chinlock. He tries to convert to the double rear wristlock to make a surfboard but is unable to get that first wrist, never mind the second, so settles for delivering a kneedrop to Kilby's back before releasing. Kilby jabs and twice posts the young challenger, gives him an over the knee backbreaker for 4 and collars him for a double kneelift for 5. He whips him into the ropes and catches him with a spinning kick to the torso and finally a crotchhold, bodyslam and crosspress for the second straight fall to defend his title 2-0. Blair congratulates Alan and puts the belt back around his waist. A good sporting technical contest only lacking an equalising fall by Blair which could then give him the chance to score some almost deciders to be a nearly champion before finally going down. Perhaps Kilby's pride as a shooter stood in the way of converting a fall to this relative newbie. Still it was a fine shop window for young Andy Blair's skills, a lot better than jobbing out to Richard "Red Ivan" Krupa or being rescued from monsters by Big Daddy. After Kilby retired as champion in 2004, the title was revived by All Star in the early 2010s, mostly held by Dean Allmark.

By American standards, Rick Martel was traditionally considered a scientific wrestler, even after his heel turn to the Model. Here he gets to clash style with an actual Euro technician, an Austrian/German of the post Steve Wright generation of technicians, Franz Schumann. Martel is managed by Klaus Kauroff hi They play the Star Strangled Banner for his before the contest, ignoring that he is in fact French-Canadian. (A blind woman and a Stevie Richards look alike sing the words - patriotic Americans beware, the audience WHITSLE all over it!). Kauroff wears stars and stripes jogging bottoms. Martel has his sequin jacket (Want one for night out!) and 1991 purple gear, no Arrogance nor the "Yes! I Am A Model" giant pin bage. I think Schumann is defending the CWA World Middleweight Championship. Martel's work here magnifies the difference between US Technical wrestling and European. He tends to perform all his clever moves as spots rather than chain sequence s. He can't roll out of armbars (unlike Franz who does a fair bit of rolling and kipping up out of armlocks. Martel on the other hand punches his way out. He does do one good transition - a drop toehold into riding crossface Camel Clutch.). Mostly he reminds me of Danny Collins after the heel turn in 1994 from Danny Boy to Dirty Dan. He does attempt to curl up and roll out from under a Boston Crab. He does one or two kip ups himself and snares on a headscissors once, turning it sideways and cranking it forwards only for the beeper (bell substitute) to signal the end of the round. He cartwheels out of a Schumann leg flip one time (and smirks with heelish smugness about it) which actually DOES fit the local Euro style. He also pulls his head out of a side headlock to form a back hammerlock on the mat then starts turning Schumann over into the guard for a further nelson pin attempt before the beeper again saves Franz. Mostly Martel just does a lot of roughhouse/dirty stuff that in the WWF would have counted as normal brawling done by some babyfaces. It would have been interesting to see pre- WM5 babyface Martel coping with the CWA and old school Euro wrestling culture. Schumann gets the win by rolling over on a flying bodypress á la Wendi Richter at WM10. I don't think he's wearing his infamous Bret ripoff pink and black tights but he does do a sharpshooter (Scorpion Deathlock/Chono Powerlock ) If you like a cheap laugh, look out at the end for the World 's Worst Postmatch Pyrotechnics - a shot of a single sparkler being held aloft.

Usually the idea was that the babyfaces/blue eyes/bons were just generally better technical wrestlers anyway and that's why the villains eventually resorted to brawlng and fouling. The good guys had to prove themselves against other good guy in clean matches. France didn't have a Kent Walton type commentator out to educate the viewers (Couderc often gets compared to Walton but really they were different breeds) so it's hard to say how much 1982 French fans appreciated good technical wrestling. Probably older fans who remembered bouts like LPP/Saulnier had more of a taste for it. The kids and younger fans however may, as you said just been there for the action and cheering Les Bons/booing Les Méchants.

By the way. here are Cohen and Shadow facing each other eight years earlier: And here they are two years before even that:

Other than having gone there, how much exposure to Lucha culture would Gerard Hervé have had a chance to experience? Pancho Zapata was probably a lot closer the mark than Mil Mascaras when it came to most European fans' idea of a Mexican wrestler in the 60s/70s.

Who else would Americans have heard of? Let alone the French? They tried to sell Lucha movies in Spain and they flopped - fans reared on the CIC couldn't relate to it at all. We never heard about him in Britain. I first saw him in back issue adverts in PWI in 1988.

There were a lot of other luchadors who could have been him America. Point being, if Americans were that unfamiliar with Lucha culture, what chance did a Frenchman have unless he'd seen it up close?

Was in Blackpool on Tues/Wed this week soaking up the last of the seaside summer sun - passed by (as I often do in these trips) the place where The Destroyer and Billy (Steve Regal and the late Drew McDonald) did battle nearly four decades earlier and I thought of this post.

Any chance we could see this?

Yeah, I was about 6 or 7 at the time. Weetabix did trading cards, the first of which was the scene of the green monster eating Flash. They previously did World Of Sport trading cards with sports Yes/No questions you had to scratch off to correctly answer - collect five correctly answered cards and you could send them off to be entered into a prize draw. Annoyingly none of the questions were about wrestling, at least not in any packet of Weetabix that crossed our threshold. Gordon did (in those days) look like sort of like a luchador who'd just had his mask pulled off though.

Fair point but I can see logic in the idea that he got the idea of a superhero character from Lucha culture. Bear in mind at this time most Americans thought Mil Mascaras a one-off when in reality he was a fairly generic Mexican masked babyface of the time. So it's anyone's guess how a Frenchman could have picked up on such a trope, short of actually going out there and immersing himself in the culture. You're right that he was on TV as plain old Gerard Hervé in 1979, but he may have already been doing the character for his own KMG company (the G stood for Gordon) founded in 1979 and the alleged ancestor of (I)WS(F).

There's a rather large gap in the INA tape copy between matches during which we hear an engineer introduce this next bout as Catch A Quatre even though it's just a singles bout. Black Shadow comes in wearing a gold jacket- I think we saw it before in his 70s appearances. At at time when Dave Bond and Johnny Kincaid were getting into trouble for incorporating the more antisocial elements of Afro-Carribean cuture into their heel Carribbean Sunshine Boys gimmick, alleged African American Shadow (Cazal lets slip that Shadow is actually from Morocco) was getting over as a heel in France without any hassle. Cohen, le Bon, ex one half of Les Israeliens tag team with Gass Doukhan, (they were both Algerian Sephardic Jewish- Cazal claims Cohen to be a former North African champion). gets the early upper hand, dropkicking Shadow out of the ring and leapfrogging and armdragging him, stepping over one side of a finger Interlock straight into a flying headscissors takedown. Shadow nicely flexes Cohen's legs open to not only release his head but get a two count folding press. He uses an illegal pull of the hair to take down Cohen in a top wristlock test of strength. Cohen does the classic French headscissors as counter to armbar and keeps snapping it back on each time Shadow escapes. Shadow eventually places a knee in the space where his head went, creating a modified Indian Deathlock and using illegal closed fist kidney punches (nice to see closed fists still got heat in 1983 France) whenever Cohen sits up to attempt a counter. After referee Blanc Cohen rolls forward in a finger Interlock to get another headscissors. He turns on to his front, propped up by his fists and leg-throws Shadow out of the ring, rather like Kid McCoy's Yorkshire Rope Trick minus the ropes! Another Cohen headscissor sees Shadow kicked in the face. Shadow side chancery throws Cohen and drops down with Cohen dropping down beside him in a George Kidd ball. Cohen baits Shadow with various producing limbs before catching and throwing him, securing a reverse arm hank, before high whipping him for a bump. Shadow does it back (for less of a bump) and maintains wristlever dominance even through a snapmare until he counters with a headscissors. Shadow puts his feet on the ropes and Blanc, as in the last bout, pulls Cohen off physically rather than verbally calling a break, getting himself some heat. Shadow wins a test of strength to get a double knee press but can't get Cohen's shoulders down. This then develops into Cohen bridging and, as traditional, eventually monkey climbing Shadow and a Bascule situation developing. Cohen legdives Shadow and spins him round on one foot until he collapses.. Shadow gets a H&S into pressure points on Cohen who uses a double leg chop to escape. A back and forth ropes exchange ends up with Shadow at ringside. He gets back in and gets a legdive into leglock, snapping off various attempts at a chinlock counter by Cohen. George uses his spare leg to kick Shadow in the face forcing a break. The next finger Interlock results in Shadow getting some kind of foul and Cohen in pain, selling it. It looks like Shadow is using biting on these interlocks but the ref sees nothing, standing an Aux Chiottes L'Arbitre chant for Monsieur Blanc. Cohen retaliates with a good long nip on the nose but he lacks Shadow 's practice at that kind of fouling and leaves toothmarks when earn him a premier Avertisement from Blanc. It all goes a bit American after this with rope running and bodychecks (apart from one sunset flip attempt by Cohen which Cazal gets excited over, thinking it will mark the match returning to "un Catch peut-être plus Classique" - yay. maybe he's secretly a purist like Kent Walton!) and both men miss Big Splashes on each other, winding Shadow the worst - he sells it like a stomach upset. Shadow gives Cohen some stomach trouble of his own with an illegal closed fist punch which Blanc almost sees and is suspicious enough to privately warn the Morrocan. He is more careful to conceal subsequent foul shots. Having floored Cohen for 7 he lets rip with the dirty wrestling- illegal punches, legal thumps and illegal rope-assisted stomp on his fallen man until Cohen ends up at ringside, detaching a sponsorship message from the apron in the process. Shadow continues the foul treatment when Cohen comes back, choking Cohen with the ropes which FINALLY earn him in Avertisement. Shadow continues the treatment, twice posting Cohen before dragging him outside for a ringside beatdown the IBA would never tolerate. He gets back in the ring and celebrates as the heat rains down. Fans help Cohen back but it just sets him up for more treatment. Shadow gets a full nelson and Cohen's waving arms bash into Blanc's back. earning him a Deuxieme Et Derniere Avertisement. Encouraged by this, Shadow rope chokes and stomps Cohen back out of the ring, An angry Cohen storms the ring and grovits Shadow but one illegal kidney punch and some stomps later, Cohen is back out and Shadow is further provoking the audience by making a "wiping his hands" gesture! It goes on like this, Shadow doing thecfirst on Cohen + eventually earning himself his own Deuxieme Et Derniere Avertisement. (Somewhat unfairly the crowd start an Aux Chiottes L'Arbitre chant while this is happening.) The next Avertisement will end the contest. Cohen finally makes a face comeback, he fights back with postings and a hefty series of Manchettes that leaves Shadow trussed in the ropes and Cohen flirting with disqualification as he pounds on him - and then threatens Blanc, before cooler heads prevail. The referee unties Shadow and Cohen throws him outside before climbing the top of the ring post. When Shadow returns, Cohen leapfrogs, double legdives and slingshots him - straight into Blanc who is knocked out. Cohen leads the crowd in a Knockout count over both opponent and official - it reaches 10 but Blanc waves it off. He corners Shadow who bodyscissors him Cohen chops him down and goes after Blanc but is, ironically, saved from a DQ by Shadow who grabs him from behind by the hair and corners him. This time Cohen gets the bodyscissors and bashes a heel on the heel's head. He dodges a Shadow charge and throws Le Méchant outside. Shadow regains the advantage and throws Le Bon out of the ring, doing everything he can to keep him there and continuing the dirties when he finally does get back for a while. Still no DQ even though one woman at ringside is screaming for that final Avertisement. Cohen drags him outside for a ringside brawl then throws him back in where he gets the one required fall with a flying tackle. Cohen is still annoyed at Blanc and won't let him raise his hand, raising it himself and locking his arms rigid whenever Blanc tries - in the end MC Fred Thomas (interesting name for a Frenchman) raises Cohen's hand. Classic game of two halves - fifteen minutes of mostly good scientific wrestling with Cohen frustrating Shadow by being just that bit more technical than him and fifteen minutes of Shadow getting his revenge with wild dirty brawling that would give an ECW crowd un Petit Mort. I know which half I preferred and I can guess which half OJ will prefer.

Okay, let's deal with the tag match first. (Have just this second figured out how do do accents etc on the tablet btw.) Hervé first became a wrestler while in Mexico. As OJ mentioned in his review, he came back to France in 1979, decided that the existing French scene was a bit too dry for him and decided he could remake it more the flashy world of masked and caped superheros like Mil Mascaras. He found a willing accomplice in Daniel Cazal who is commenting here (and who was gradually replacing Couderc as the voice of TV wrestling.) Villains like "Le Rocky Du Ring" Elliot and Kato were very much part of the package of Hervé's vision. Jessy Texas was another early example In time there would be Scott Rider, Micky Trash and Cybernic Machine. Not to mention the slow transformation of Jacky Richard to first Le Marquis (replacing Eduardo the original Marquis) then Travesti Man and finally Monsieur Jacky. Kato and EF le R du R would also evolve their gimmicks becoming respectively Kato Gypsy and the Grim Rocker by the time of Eurosport New Catch with the latter becoming the sidekick of Johnny South, the future Legend of Doom, which is ironic considering he has Mike Hegstrand's future haircut here. (At this stage over in America, the Road Warriors were only just formed and doing a standard biker heel gimmick no different from Les Bloussons Noirs in France) Although he gets to score the pin with a rather nice surprise flying bodypress, Walter Bordes is here as a link to the past. Flesh is the last in the line of his tag partners Including Rene Ben Chemoul and Claude Rocas. Flesh, as I mentioned, later tagged with Angelito to face Kato and Rocky/Rocker on A2 in 1985 and teamed with Prince Zéfy to face the same two Méchants on Eurosport New Catch. Here, they're very much the squash boys, sent to do a job. Flesh is very much the star, doing high flying moves throughout. It's a good display but not worthy of the blow by blow approach. Referee Andre Blanc does get a brief heel ref spot, physically breaking up Flesh's Indian Deathlock after Kato complains that supposed chops to the chest are actually chops to the throat, resulting in a brief shoving match between Flesh and L'Arbitre. Verdict - a vehicle for Flesh and a pilot for the future "Barnum Heavy Metal"

I stand corrected, I've reviewed other Flesh Vs Kato & Elliot/Grim Rocker matches but not this one with Walter Brodes, it seems. Never mind, I shall do both bouts shortly - in the meantime here is OJ's review of that first bout .

Been away from home a couple of days and this week's French Catch dropped while I was away. One of these bouts I've already reviewed on here and will just bump up the original r3view. Th3 new bout sounds interesting - Black Shadow in singles action. We've seen Shadow as a rent a heel in tag matches with everyone from Josef El Arz to Jessy Texas. Still hoping for that 1986 show, even if it is just midgets.

Blond giant Brit Dave Morgan didn't have his Maschke on and was in a good mood on this early 1983 show until a much smaller German called Gunther (not that one, he wasn't even born for another 4 years) Wagner stung him badly in this match. It's a spliced together highlights package unfortunately but let's make the most of it. Morgan wears a rather nice kimono like black satin robe and shiny gold trunks. Gunther Wagner is the smaller Dudley Moore lookalike guy. He gets a side headlock out of a referee's hold and takes Morgan down with him to the guard. The two rotate a full 360 degrees through Morgan's attempt to escape until Wagner switches to a chinlock. Morgan tried reaching up for a jawbreaker then snapmaring the smaller man, neither with much luck. Cut to Morgan in control, releasing a camel clutch like hold and going for a wristlever. Wagner rolls over and takes a mild bump rather than rotate upright. He then unspectacularly rolls backwards and gets up tomthe same bowing position he was in at the start of the wrist lever. He then stands up, slips his free arm under Morgan's armpit and gets a (slightly messy) cross buttock throw and press for 2. Morgan is still in a good mood and shakes Wagner's hand, getting a smattering of applause. Morgan gets a front chancery and takes Wagner down with it, then swivels most of the long way round, gets a side chancery on the mat,turns Wagner's head in a side chancery position so that he can only roll forward onto his back He tries for a pin but Wagner turns it over into a lengthways press then converts to an H&S. He lifts Dave up by the head, flings him to the ropes and charges in with a butt to the stomach. Morgan collapses with pain and when he gets up at 4 starts jabbing Wagner with jabs tomthe stomach and upper back but then the bell goes. Round 2 (presumably) Wagner gets a front chancery but Morgan manages to get free with an armbar. He gives a sharp upwards kick while applying the hold then, as in the previous round, drives in an arm to force Wagner down. But Wagner manages to grapevine Wagner and take him down. He tries for a pin then some sort of abdominal stretch on the mat - neither are very effective. So Wagner lifts up the bigger man in an underhook and slams him for a four count, then when he gets to his feet, shouldeblocks him. It doesn't budge Dave much but it gets under his skin on top of everything else. Thoroughly annoyed now, Morgan corners and pounds on Wagner in the corner until warned off by the referee. He then grabs Wagner in a grovit and shoves him to the mat but Wagner deftly grabs Morgan's arm as they go down, so that Morgan overshoots and land on his back next to Wagner instead of on his front on top. Still holding the arm (so continuous movement) Wagner crawl atop Morgan and gets a 1 before switching to a rear chinlock. Morgan comes out the rear exit with an armbar to show for his troubles (straighted from the chinlock bar) and starts to make a hammerlock of it. Rather than wrestle his way out, Wagner cheekily back elbows Morgan who, infuriated ,slaps him round the chops in response. Wagner bodychecks the bigger man into the ropes d side chancery throws him. Morgan gets up and legdives Wagner getting a toe and ankle hold with a legspread. The two turn round 90 degrees in this position until Wager can free his spread grounded leg and hammer Morgan in the head with it. Wagner gets a legdive of his own but Morgan uses the same leg hammer escape. Wagner falls stop the bigger man. Cut to Wagner holding Morgan in a sitting chinlock then hammering him and letting go for a count if 3. Morgan is up, he doubles Wagner over, wallops him across the back a couple of times then gets a front chancery. It ends up with Wagner on the ropes getting pounded by Morgan as the referee blows his whistle. Among all this Wagner manages to legdive Morgan but let's go, so after a count of 5 the bigger man is back.Wagner gets in a forearm smash ... Cut to Wagner with Morgan on the floorin an armbar. Hecswitches to Morgan's leg but the bell rings. Round 3 (presumably). They finger Interlock and Wagner produces a fantastic lean back dropkick. Morgan gets up and is angry, waving closed fists but Wagner legdives him, but doesn't follow up. Morgan tries for a side chancery but Wagner gets in there with a reverse waistlock suplex and press for the one required fall. (They do shake hands and make up afterwards.) Wagner is part of the same old school as Roland Bock, Axel Dieter Senior and Achim Challenge and he works the same methodical stoic style that was characteristic of German wrestling until Steve Wright changes things. The David Vs Goliath angle here spruces things up somewhat. (Even if this Goliath happens to be called David.

Then why are people like Aaron Nix, Excalibur and Mikes Tenay & Quackenbush pointedly using that term?

An example of the problem. Notorious smug git Aaron Nix on commentary here, sounding like his usual bad cross between Alex Shane and Ben Elton, says at 4min 34 secs in, "We have a Trios Match - suck it up. Internet, it's a Trios match in the modern era!". Aggravating, really. Telling his viewers what civilised modern people like him call it.