David Mantell

With all this talk of both Der Henker and Gilbert LeDuc, I fancy watching this 1971 bout. It doesn't seem to have been reviewed before so why not now? Der Henker has help from one of the Kamikazes to keep safe against the man he TKOd months earlier, looking for revenge. Gilbert hasn't the option to get all serious like in the Mychel bout. A masked "German" and a masked "Japanese". Reminds me of the Spoiler (Drew McDonald) and King Kendo (Bill Clarke) on ITV in 1987. When a drum majorette comes out.I half expect Big Daddy to be in tow until I remember this is France 1971. (These majorettes are a slightly slinkier more post pubescent bunch than Daddy's marching girlies, swinging their long legs all over the place.) They play the same trumpet tune as the majorettes at one or two early 80s Daddy matches. LeDuc is down in ar armbars but flying scissors Henker and tags a vengeful Corne. Henker doesn't fancy it and tags Kamikaze. He remembers what he did. Nice bit of storyline there from a territory not known for such things. Les Bons tag in and out on Kamikaze and Henker gets a good solid wristlock on LeDuc - Henker is not bothered by LeDuc for all his legend. LeDuc's lengthy selling reminds me a lot of the Mychel match. Jacky returns but Henker takes him down then hands him over to Kamikaze. Le Duc tries out his toupees on Henker. Corne bodyscissors Kami a fair bit. Kami is actually a pretty decent technical wrestler who can do folding presses and cartwheels with the best of 'em. Gilbert is FIP against the masked men before coming back against both together with a scissor/bulldog combination and gets the opening fall from Kamikaze. The masked men regain control. Henker has a great press slam. dropping Le Duc stomach first onto one knee. Henker strikes Gilbert with the same piledriver he injured Corne with before. Gilbert is carted away, an enraged Corner goes Henker but soon the masked men are back in charge. Henker gets THAT SAME PILEDRIVER on Corne but he is up at eight this time. A second one gets a 9 count and a third gets a KNOCKOUT. But wait , there are still 10 mins of the YouTube video left. Henker does a Hulk and poses in the ring. HENKER MUST POSE! Kamikaze simpers round him like Brutus Beefcake . For some reason, Corne is allowed to fight on for the deciding fall. LevDuc comes back and strikes the hot tag a minutes later, hammers on both and leglocks Henker but then goes wild and attacks the referee getting an Avertisement. It gets back down to Corne armlocking Henker. Henker is trapped in the ropes while Le Duc pins Kamikaze to make it a 2-1 win. Kami tries an after bell attack but gets nothing from it.

Is that ALL you have to say about this absolute MASTERPIECE? This is a match with the one missing ingredient of Gilbert LeDuc Vs Bert Mychel - speed. From the start they are moving for position in Roberts ' headlock which Martin makes a straight arm and Roberts rolls out. son the situation is reversed with Martin rolling out of Roberts' armbars. They both go for folding presses with Pete cartwheeling out. Round 2 and Martin kips out of a headscissor. He gets Roberts in an interesting leglock, scissoring an ankle while gripping under the knee. Roberts undresses it my pulling out one atm and folding it into a double wristlock into hammerlock into overhead wristlock, adapting as Martin changed position. He started to regain the double wristlock but Martin reversed and dropped a leg on it. Martin tried an Irish whip but Pete landed on his feet. Martin got a front chancery, Roberts reversed it into a headlock but too near the ropes. Martin slipped out of a standing side headlock, folded Pete's legs into a Gotch toehold, turned the whole package over and dropped his weight on it. The final secs saw Roberts use a front chancery to fend off legdives from Martin. The Third saw Cas get that leg and bend it on his knee. Pete snared a free arm , hammerlocked the other and wrenched. More arm weakeners and a throw. He tries for a folding press but Cas spins himout. Cas downed Pete with a chancery and his special standing cross scissor weakener. Roberts got a sidehealock but Cas unwrapped the arm and tried a double knee then folding press but Pete rolled away. Roberts gets a leg plus face bar, Cas turns himself over, but Roberts retained the ankle scissor. He eventually released and Martin was setting up victory roll when the bell went. Halfway through. Cas started round 4'with a rear waist lock but Pete scrambled out. He got a leg from behind and lifted it to bash down the knee but Martin sprang upright. He went from standing full nelson to rear wristlock but Roberts got an arm and built it into a front chancery. Cas threw him but Roberts went over on one hand into upright and caught Martin with a backslide for a 2 count. He then got a hammerlock into further nelson on the mat but Martin bridged then kipped up into a test of strength, getting Roberts on his shoulders briefly. Roberts powered up and bodychecked free, hiptoosed and posted and slammed Martin, tried for the double knees twice. Martin snapmares and dropped an elbow on it. Roberts tried a piledriver but it wasn't vertical enough and went into the ropes. He next got a leglock but Martin got double arm s and a knee in for the start of a surfboard. Roberts stood up into a test of strength when the bell went. Round 5 and Cas powered Roberts down on his back from a top wristlock. Things kick off, Martin boots Roberts into the ropes but Roberts cartwheels back and goes for a sunset flip but Martin double ankles mashes him. Roberts snapmares into a cross press but Martin bridges up. Gets a wristlever and protects it against a snapmares and grapevine and even a flying headscissor attempt before converting to a leglock, Martin turns it over to force a stalemate. He gets a standing octopus, Roberts slowly but surely throws him for a five count. Martin goes for a rear waist lock but Pete takes him down into a headscissors. Martin turns it into the front kneeling position then gets his knees in to pull the scissor off and dive straight in for a side headlock! Roberts stands up in it, reverses it into a grovit, Martin throws him but again he goes over on one hand into a stand. Roberts chanceries and throws Martin but he cartwheels into upright. He gets a legdive and is about to step over into something when the bell goes- not the first time he has been cut short. Final round and Martin gets a long distance throw that keeps Roberts down until the seven count. Roberts went headlock into snapmares with a kneedrop on top for 4. A throw of his own also got 4, another got him headlocked, a knee off the ropes set up a backslide attempt for two, Martin gets a side head chancery, Roberts pushes him off the ropes, shoulders him but gets nothing for it. He tries another piledriver, better than the last, then gets double arms, but it hits the ropes. Martin snapmares and puts on his trademark standing cross scissor. Roberts grabs the calf muscle to block it but Martin falls forward to wrench on the scissor. Both backdrop each other. Roberts gets a sunset flip for 2 then a headscissor throw for six. Martin cartwheels out of a legdive and into one of his own, taking down Roberts and folding the legs underneath. He oddly puts himself in a headscissor (a blown spot?) then uncorks it with his feet. Roberts shoulder blocks, Martin gets a leg scissor. Roberts turns it over into a Gotch toehold but Cas rolls out. They have a two way side chancery and are still grappling on the mat when the bell goes. Absolutely perfect. Beautiful scientific nil nil draw. The crowd love it too and roar their appreciation.

The above recent British Heavyweight Championship title change with Mickey Long beating Oliver Grey was in Gravesend. Rumble also has (or has just had) a house show there.

It seems to have actually happened in 1969: S 22/3/69, Trowell (taped 18/3/69) Mick McManus (RSF) v Ted Heath Dory Dixon (W) v Steve Haggetty Bert Mychel (1) v Barry Douglas (1) *************************************************** In other news - SCROLL BACK UP to the 1991 Nagasaki and Blondie Barrett Vs Giant Haystacks and Johnny South match - it is now on YouTube!!!

Me recently on the French thread: Okay. Here it is. The crowd give Mychell a polite response and a mixture of cheers and jeers to Bruno (whose hair and beard are not yet blond.). Apparently he was previously on ITV in 1971 but I can't find any record of it on @JNLister's site. They shake hands. Bert works on escaping Bruno's armlocks including rollouts, a headscissor and a double cross of a test of strength, If anything Mychell is being more provocative, using a forearm to floor Bruno for a headlock.Bruno coverts it neatly to a hammerlock, Mychell tries to scissor but Bruno folds his legs up. However down on the mat, Bert upturns itt into a cross press. Bruno rolls over but it goes to the ropes. Bert has another armbars but Bruno converts it to top wristlock then a wristlever of his own. Bruno forearms Bert into the ropes then tries to hammerlock Jim round a rope, which gets him heat. He gets a headlock into cross buttock throw but Bert uncorks his head in gradual pulls a la Johnny Saint. Mychell gets Bruno with a foream as the bell rings then starts a wrist lever but ref Tony Mancelli stops it. Kent tells us Bert wrestled for Belgium at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, coming Fourth, turned pro 1966 and has represented Belgium internationally at Judo and GR. Round 2 and Bert gets a single leg Boston Crab which Bruno powers down to a toehold by Bert. Mychell gets the leg again, drops an elbow, stands back for a count, gets caught in a front chancery but breaks out to get the leg again then the other keg then a sit down splash. Bruno gets up and tries bodychecks. Mychell goes for a dropkick. He goes for the beard but the ref stops him, they shake hands. Bruno uses firearms to get counts. Bert is thrown from the ring. Bruno uses forearms and tries to hold down Bert but the bell goes. Round 3 starts with forearms and tests of strength. Bruno uses closed fists on the ropes and gets a public warning. Bert has Bruno in the ropes but Mancelli stops it. Bruno repeatedly flooring Bert with forearms. Bert gets a double arm but Bruno goes for the ropes. A Bert armbars takes Bruno over and Bert has an extra twist on just. Bruno gets headscissors, they roll in to the ropes. The bell goes but they brawl on. Round 4 -Bert gets a backbreaker and hammerlock on the mat. A snapmares and spinning foot follow up. Ellington gets a backslide for the only required fall. No, they didn't shake hand at the end heedless of all the fouls Elrington did to Mychell. This ain't France. An old school wrestler deals with a giant with some skill.

No. My new research has confirmed that this is definitely not correct and it's something that people often get wrong (Mercier gets it wrong in his book too). FFCP was started by Etienne Siry and Robert Lageat in 1950 and at first it was just a governing body for catch (a rival governing body to the one Paoli, Goldstein and others were working with). At that point there were still no promotional names. FFCP later became the name of the Siry/Lageat promotion. I'm not clear on the timeline after this, but I guess later Delaporte ended up with the FFCP name and then in 2006 Mercier bought it from him. Sounds like a "The NWA World title was set up in 1905" situation. What did DeGlane and Paoli set up, then?

Told you all so. Mercier vs Albert Sanniez 1978 isn't on @Matt D's list of videos for example. My guess is that INA, once they had opened up for biz in 1975 and imported two decades worth of overseas kinescopes and the one lucky surviving Jan '69 colour transmission tape, had to tape a certain amount of matches as a quota. Probably less many after the move to FR3 in 1985 with matches given a first screen in one area then getting passed round other FR3 regions to a non-synchronised schedule.

I've sung the praises of Benjamin Stone on here in the past. Here he truly gets put to the test. Nearly three decades ago. James Mason was a nervous young blond TBW when Simon Garfield interviewed him for his book. A year or so later he was World Middleweight champion for Rumble Promotions. Since then he's been a double crown British and European Heavyweight Champion, represented Britain in Michinoku Pro, TNA and WWE from whom he beat MVP in 2008. Stone comes in with a heel attitude and does at one point do a foul tangling a hammerlock in the ropes. Otherwise it's very much a technical match with some complex reversal sequences involving reversing Japanese strangle holds, including forming a surfboard . Despite Stone's attitude the two shake hands after the bout despite some needle therein. Very much like 60s/70s French Catch where Les Bons et Les Mechants showed similar interaction, often despite tactics which had just been usedin the ring. Good modern classic.

This seems to be my understanding of the chronology of Le Catch Sur La Télé: 1933 - FFCP set up by Raoul Paoli and Henri DeGlane 1944 - Paris is liberated and the Nazis TV transmitter at the Eiffel Tower is captured and used for the new ORTF TV service 1952 - Wrestling highlights start popping up as part of the sports sections of TV News. 1956 - The first proper standalone broadcasts begin. 1959 - Commentator Claude Darget is fired after breaking kayfabe on air, only to be reinstated after his colleagues threaten to go on strike. Unfortunately this established the idea of it being a point of freedom of speech and journalist integrity to take a cynical mocking tone to pro wrestling. 1961 ORTF TV chief Raymond Jamot, under pressure from sports minister Maurice Herzog, cancels TV wrestling but it is soon brought back after a public outcry. 1964 ORTF Channel 2 is launched and some wrestling bouts are transplanted to the new channel. Later in 1964 : ORTF becomes RTF 1967 : Channel 2 goes colour and so does any wrestling on it. Next earliest bout we know was on Channel 2 is a December 1967 hair Vs hair tag. 1969 January 25th - a rare surviving colour tape of Roger Delaporte and Andre Bollet Vs Marcel Montreal and Warnia Zarzecki escapes wiping, ending up at the INA (see below). Other bouts on Channel 2 from December 1967 to June 1974 only survive on B/W film but may contain chroma dots for future colour recovery. Channel One remains in black and white for several more years as do any wrestling bouts on it (see also below) 1972 December 31st, Channel 3 is launched as a network of regions but does not have any wrestling until 1984. 1975, January, RTF is abolished and the three TV channels become TF1, A(ntenne) 2 and FR3. 1975 later. The INA is established. It takes on board 18 years of Kinescopes 1956-1974, the one surviving colour videotape from 1969 and starts making off air recordings of wrestling shows going forward. 1975 September - TF1, up to this point still B/W, starts screening some colour shows, mostly repeats of old FR3. All wrestling from 1975-1976 is in colour labelledwhich suggests it was all broadcast on Antenne 2 at this point. 1977 - TF1 finally goes full colour. A couple of colour bouts are on TF1 1977-1979ish. but after this, all bouts until 1984 are on A2. 1979 An early incarnation of the IWSF opens in Montereau-Fault-Yonne 1979 also - Gerard Hervé, a Frenchman trained and wrestling in Mexico, moved back to his native country and make his TV debut. Within a year, he renames himself Flesh Gordon and starts making a name for himself as Walter Bordes's last great tag partner. 1984 - La Derniere Manchette appears on FR3. 1984/1985 WWF starts screening on Canal + 1985 Summer, wrestling is moved from Antenna 2 to FR3, transmission is staggered across the network. 1987 TF1 is privatised 1987 circa November, Catch on FR3 quietly comes to an end. 1988 An initial run of New Catch is screened on TF1. The end of this run is the end, for the time being, of French wrestling on analogue terrestrial TV after 32+years and the equivalent of the Final Bell on ITV in the UK. 1989 February - New Catch resumes on Eurosport, available across Europe on Astra. 1989 later, Delaporte retires from promoting. 1991 - A further run of New Catch on TF1 Early 1990s, end of New Catch. Shortly thereafter, Bernard Van Damme's Eurostars promotion gets a TV show somewhere, some how which goes on TV and stays into the 2000s. 2006 Marc Mercier revives the FFCP with Delaporte as adviser. 2007 a WWF boom in France produces an upswing in attendance for all French promotions including WS and FFCP 2009 Delaporte dies. 2012 IWSF renamed Wrestling Stars 2024 Marc Mercier retires from wrestling and the FFCP.

Needless to say I am of the opinion that the survival to the present of Old School British Wrestling, Old School French Catch and Old School German/Austrian Catch (certainly they are in better condition than any mainland US/Canadian scene except New York). is a defining feature of all three "Stronghold" Euro territories as much as the abundance of footage of all three scenes. An interesting issue is how badly French TV execs were scarred by the 1961 failed cancellation and how whereas in Britain, Greg Dyke made a big song and dance in 1988 about cancelling ITV wrestling, in France, the moved to Eurosport on Astra at the start was presented to the French public as merely the latest of a series of recent channel moves. In reality, the end of the preview run of New Catch on TF1 In late 1988 was the equivalent point in the cycle of The Final Bell on ITV mere weeks earlier/later.

Just spotted this. Nope, you can lay all that at Delaporte's door. As I've discussed before, the likes of Le Batman, Le Bete Humane and Le Hippie Du Ring were the root of it and it continued into the 21st Century with the likes of Cybernic Machine and Bad Mask. All that was the French equivalent of Big Daddy vs Giant Haystacks or Otto Wanz vs the American Superstars.

https://www.facebook.com/bobbyandkeef/videos/1237645530840673 UPDATE: NOW ON YOUTUBE!!! From the height of All Star's Kendo-led post TV boom - Wolverhampton 12th February 1991, Kendo Nagasaki and regular partner Blondie Barrett face Giant Haystacks and The Headhunter who I thought was Skull Murphy but turns out to have been future Legend Of Doom Johnny South, nominally still a heel at this point. Indeed Stax and South earned their place in this bout as heels beating Tony StClair and Steve Regal, while Kendo and Bob beat Steve Adonis and Robbie Brookside in the other semifinal of this four team knockout tournament, possibly by hypnotizing Robbie again. Stax HATED being the blue eye but against Nagasaki he had very little choice. Stax starts off against Barrett but flicks him out of the ring and advances slowly and menacingly on Kendo on the ring apron. Kendo gets down to help his partner, Stax taunts them before challenging South. Blondie and South is a pretty even match but South is in trouble when Naggers tags in and worse when Kendo and Barrett start the double teaming. Haystacks makes several failed attempts to tag in. When he succeeds, Blondie goes out on the apron and he and Kendo look at each other as if to say "Well it's not my go, is it yours?" An infuriated Stax drags in legal man Barrett for a good working over before tagging back South who after a few attempts (mostly broken up by Kendo) pins Barrett for the opener with a long vertical suplex a la Ric Flair. Nagasaki and Barrett only finally regain the advantage when Kendo attacks South with The Bell on the timekeeper's table. This was about as hardcore as British Wrestling got back then and @ohtani's jacket is an example of what was NOT allowed on TV although Kendo often did this spot on untelevised shows and even on the Mick McManus VHS. It earns the team a second and final public warning (this being a 1KO match, PWs and DQs applied to a whole team.) but softens up South for Kendo to cross press him for the equaliser. After loads of false starts, Stax gets the tag but then goes on the rampage, hits the referee and blasts Kendo with his own salt to get himself and South DQd and leave Kendo and Barrett the winners. Stax guillotines Barrett and challenges Nagasaki to a singles match as the crowd roar their RAGE that top hel Kendo got away with it again. Months later in Croydon we got Stax and Kendo solo - on TV! Again OJ, note the DQ finish and how it leaves the fans in ENRAGED heat just like the TKO with Der Henker in 1970. No dissatisfaction with the "cheap" finish, just pure unadulterated HEAT!!! How It Should Be Done.

Two more thoughts on Henker versus Jacky. 1) The commentator does say that Der Henker has recently come back from a successful run in the USA. 2) The TKO finish certainly gets heat.Nobody is complaining about it being a screw job finish however- if anything the crowd's gripe is that Henker should be DQ'd for his brutality. See my new post on p39 of the British thread for another example of this from 1991, two decades after this.

Der Henker (German for "The Hangman") was supposedly a German who had come West of the Rhine. In fact he was a Spaniard who have come north of three Pyrenees after travelling a fair bit else of the World - Oscar Verdu, aka Crusher Verdu, formerly in the WWWF under both Lou Albano and Tony Angelo. Still under his Henker hood, he would have a French Heavyweight title win in the early 80s. This run would last until 1974 at least, with Par Roach confronting him and Daniel Schmidt after an ill gotten consolation pin. Back in 1970, it's a slow moving bout with lots of waiting around in holds until Jacky's dad throws in lhe towel after a reverse piledriver. Jacky gets carried off, Pere Corne is interviewed (and refuses to face the camera) says his son was in no state to continue, blames the referee. Crowd are spitting heat at Der Henker, the Chiotte Arbitre and any other poor soul. Bout 2 is joined in progress, some selling noises and a knockout count and we fade up to the bout. Le Dec spends a long time on an arm extension on Mychell. LeDuc uses his toupee to get out of the hold. Mychell offers his hand but has an angry expression, or is that just his rest face? LeDuc does the toupee again twice in the more conventional cross scissor form that everyone else in France (and even a few Brits) did. Bert works Gilbert over with a bodyscissors. LeDuc tries a pin attempt and wristlock in the scissors but to no avail. He eventually drags his way out inch by inch like Johnny Saint. They then exchange Manchettes. Mychell gets a headscissors. Three times Le Duc tries to toupee out, The fourth and fifth times, he lands on his knees and escapes but Bert just puts the scissor back on. On the sixth go, Bert starts to pull him back, but Gilbert spins round into a cross press for a 2 count and they agree to try something else. Similar situations involving a standing full nelson, a Boston Crab and another bodyscissors which Mychell counters into a single leg toehold. That sort of thing. Skill but not speed. Audience claps respectfully. Action picks up a bit including three neat blockbuster supleex from Bert. A fourth is countered by a Le Duc side chancery. He goes for a pin but it ends up in the ropes and a Manchette battle breaks out. Bert flips LeDuc neck first into the ropes but he gets up at 4., puls out one more Manchette, goes for a slam and cross press for the pin. They hug and LeDuc offers Mychell a swig of his Perrier bottle. He partakes heavily. Apparently this was a World Light Heavyweight title bout, champion LeDuc is presented with the belt and a bouquet of flowers just like in title matches in Britain. Two fairly solid if not action packed bouts. Lutte Academique as the commentator on the Bert-Gilbert bout put it. Modern fans would probably slag these bouts off for their "lack of work rate." In theory I say to hell with them but in practice there were skil-and-speed merchants out their who leave the American "booo-ring" smart mark brigade without a leg to stand on. At least with these bouts the long running hols accusation does have some basic validity. I seem to recall Mychell was on World Of Sport a couple of years later, I shall have to look it up. Print news story about a Le Duc Vs Mychell bout supported by a Der Hunker Vs Jacky Corne combat, presumably the same show:

Actually @Matt D has them labelled the other way round. Blair and McDonald Vs Borne and Magnifique Manetry Gowart. However I've checked and the short haired girl is indeed Brigitte, she was on TV in 1978 against Lola Garcia This should auto Fast Foward to 35:53, I've written it into the URL This was part of La Derniere Manchette, that strange TV production FR3 put on in 1984 a year before taking over Catch coverage from Antenne 2, part of its odd mixture of current bouts, archive footage and crowd skits set at a pretend house show (actually shot in a TV studio) with opinions from Roger Delaporte and the inevitable French TV celebrity guest opinions. If you want to watch earlier in the clip, they've got Roger's heel Vs heel bout with L'Homme Masque from the 50s on. Nicki MacDonald should be a familiar face for readers of the British thread - Naughty Nicky Monroe, dubbed a "Soho Sex Kitten" by Orig Williams in the middle of a Reslo Welsh language commentary, former heel tag partner of Klondyke Kate, they wrestled Mitzi in her 1987 Royal Albert Hall retirement bout before Nicky turned blue-eye on Kate and ended up facing her for Mitzi's vacated British title on BBC2's Raging Belles docu (where we saw her other life caring for the elderly) only to be injured by the victorious Kate and put out of wrestling for a couple of years to win the title. Reslo stayed around long enough to catch her reconciling with Kate and reforming their heel team in 1995 but Nicky truly found her calling in life as Mrs Nichole South, wife of Johnny South and hardened keyboard warrior keen to stick her claws into anybody with a bad word about her husband and his Legend of Doom gimmick or else coming to Kendo Nagasaki's defence when the old boys are bitching about him on Facebook. The two Blonde women have a bad biker babe thing going on in UK Rockers/Bloussons Noirs/early Road Warriors peaked cap. There is a hint of Leilani Kai and Judy Martin's heel WWF Glamour Girls tag team. The two biker blondes have a power advantage over their opponents, short haired minidresses Blair looks like a little girl doing ballet. Nicki certainly knows her British style escapes and kip -ups as well as attacking moves including a nice Frank Gotch figure four leglock. Les Bomnes get an easy first fall The Bad Blondes restate their dominance early on with front chanceries and side headlocks on Brigitte til she escapes, converting a side headlock into a hammerlock. The bad girls get a public warning but soon get an equalising pinfall. They continue the work on both Bonnes and eventually get the decider. The actor playing the beardy spectator gets so wound up he has to be restrained but he female celeb pundit is quite impressed with her first Ladies Wrestling match.

Poor old Oliver Grey isn't having much luck lately. While I was in Dudley watching Mickey Long in action. to whom Grey would lose his "Superslam" (Mountevans British Heavyweight) Championship on Monday Oct 28th, Grey himself that same Sat night, under his alias Joel Redman, also lost the semifinal for a British title for his Salisbury based ASW South training school promotion for All Star to former student gone heel Brandon Lee who apparently wrestles for OVW as EC3. Not a particularly technical bout (something Grey/Redman is good at) but pretty action packed for the eight minutes it lasts. Ring announcer is old time legend Lee Bamber, the guy in the golden jacket from ITV In 1988.

I watched this too last night. I think they call him Dynamite Smith (I recall reading about this somewhere). I think he worked heel and Benoit worked face in order to stay consistent with Stampede. Smith does do some fouling including hair pulling. Smith's original ring name was John Savage which was actually quite a good name for a heel, but at that stage (1983) he was a nice kid TBW. He was Ted Betley's nephew John Hindley. Betley retired from his Wigan gym to his family in the Isle of Man (this was worked into Joint Promotions storyline with Alan Dennison taking over Young David mentorship and eventually himself feuding with Jim Breaks for the British Welterweight Championship.) But Hindley wanted to be a wrestler too so Betley made him his very last student.

I was going to mention, the announcer makes a fuss about his mask being Red, so much so that I suspect this bout was originally in colour on channel 2 It can happen - Peter Thornley > Bill Clarke > Dale Preston. Or indeed 1960s Spanish Kamikaze (Modesto Aledo/Benny) > 1970s French TV Kamikazes 1 & 2 > Ian Gilmour as a good guy Kamikaze on ITV in the early 80s.

Hisaru Tenabe seems to think otherwise: https://www.wrestling-titles.com/europe/france/fr-h.html

July 1980. Same month, same Graz tournament as Otto vs Don Leo professionally filmed, same grotty handheld as Wright vs Zrno (same corner-on angle). Fresh off the back of losing a Big Daddy Tag before several thousand at Wembley Arena, Mister Yasu Fuji the Hater of Brits, Good Buddy Of Might John Quinn, pulls into Graz, Austria. If Kent Walton in 1985 is to be believed, the man facing him, Wolfgang Saturski, son of Walter, held the European Welterweight title (last confirmed sighting, being handed back to Max Crabtree by Dynamite Kid along with the British title before he caught the plane to Calgary) some time around now before losing it to Jorg Chenok in 1981 who, after four other defences, turned up to defend against new young British Welterweight Champion Danny Collins (next confirmed sighting of the title) and duly lost the belt. I've posted this match before as an example of Fuji in action in all three "stronghold" territories but now I'm going to give it a proper watch - generational murk, dilapidated colour signal and all. So far, so tough. It seems to be patched together snippets of the two taking turns to put headscissors and bodyscissors on each other. Saturski starts with a nice flying headscissor and Fuji does a neat figure four scissor but we don't see how they got in and out. Fuji was from SoCal (he held Gene LeBell's LA version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship in the early 70s) so he worked American style so don't expect much defensive work off him. He relies on HEAT. Weeks earlier he was the number three villain in Britain after Stax and Quinn. Here he is in Austria which was on the same side as Japan in WW2. He goes and gets him some heat by beating down on Saturski and parading in victory, arms aloft. We next see young Wolf with a sleeper on Fuji, releasing he downward pressure so as to bang on his skull with his hand. Then he has a Japanese Stranglehold on the Japanese (to be fair, it was Kent Walton that named the hold that.) He put a knee in but doesn't go for a surfboard. Just let's his man drop to the mat. Then cut to them brawling. Kind of them to put this bit in for OJ. In the first transition of holds in the footage, Fuji has an armbar on but Wolf snaps a headscissors on him. Impressively, Fuji turns it upright to the rollout position then rolls him over into the unhook position - then rolls again and again until he reaches the ropes. In Britain this would have got him massive heat but Les Autres Chiens aren't too bothered. So Fuji gets his heeling boots on (yes he is wearing boots after having taped feet in Britain) and chokes out Wolf on the bottom rope. Fuji pounds Wolf, Wolf headrams Fuji. Two postings. Wolf gets a top wristlock on Fuji, no selling punch from Fuji. Fuji bends Wolfs arm over the ropes and bites it, Wolf pitches Fuji to ringside. More Fuji chopping and choking Wolf o the bottom rope, stomping him on the mat, chopping him, applying nerve holds. Wolf tries to snapmares Fuji on the top rope. Fuji fetches something from his corner, hits Wolf with it and gets a formal telling off. Fuji has a Camel Clutch on Saturski who gets out from behind as the bell rings and Fuji rings his bell with between rounds. He catches WS again between rounds, uses the ropes to help a Boston crab and goes for a slow standing ankle lock. Wolf kicks Fuji in the face but then rolls over to get up allowing Fuji to retake the hold. This happens again so Fuji sits down in the hold. Wolf bashes Fuji with the heel of his boot and puts a single leg Boston on, bashing at Fuji's kneecap, gives up and switched to thumping him around the ring. Wolfgang then goes really mad, he has Fuji down in a leglock with the other leg trapped in the ropes. The bell goes but Saturski ignores it. The referee tries to pull him off but he just bundles in into the package too. Finally Wolfgang gets up as does the referee who reprimands him. Fuji's leg is still stuck in the ropes and Saturski steps on another rope to tighten it. Still with the new round not started, he attacks Fuji in the corner, folding up his legs. The two star afresh with only 4:13 of clip left. They take turns to pound and grovit each other in the corner. The cameraman is distracted by an excited woman in the crowd. When he cuts back we see Wolf karate kick then dropkicks Fuji out of the ring. Fuji is back at 8 but Saturski ties him up in the ropes like they do on Reslo, Old Catch in fact anywhere except ITV. He holds a finger aloft "look what I'm going to do" then pulls Fuji's goatee good and hard. It mostly stays on so Wolf puts a knee in The referee unties Fuji . Wolfgang grabs him in a neck breaker submission. Fuji flails around and rolls out so Wolf drops hi on his knee. He's up at six so Wolf hurls him into the corner and starts headbutting. There are 78 seconds of clip left. Fuji turns it round in the corner for some chops. Wolf rolls him along the ropes.again points and again yanks on the beard. Comes off the opposite ropes for a flying forearm. The bell goes with Fuji in the ropes. That was the last round. Time limit draw. Saturski sits on the top rope and despondently argues with the referee. We see the ref walk across the ring. End of clip. A rather messy brawl, the edits didn't help. Fuji tried to get dirty as a heel but Wolfgang acting equally dirty didn't making him look like the avenging hero, just a hypocrite. By the end of this, I was rooting for Yasu Fuji although to be fair, six year old me thought he was cool too.

Standard pitch the heels to ringside only with added wetness. Apart from their boots, the wrestlers are dressed for a swim anyway. Most swimming pool matches are just like normal matches only with a floating rather than a secured ring. *Shrug*

Der Henker (German for "The Hangman") was supposedly a German who had come West of the Rhine. In fact he was a Spaniard who have come north of three Pyrenees after travelling a fair bit else of the World - Oscar Verdu, aka Crusher Verdu, formerly in the WWWF under both Lou Albano and Tony Angelo. Still under his Henker hood, he would have a French Heavyweight title win in the early 80s. This run would last until 1974 at least, with Par Roach confronting him and Daniel Schmidt after an ill gotten consolation pin. Back in 1970, it's a slow moving bout with lots of waiting around in holds until Jacky's dad throws in lhe towel after a reverse piledriver. Jacky gets carried off, Pere Corne is interviewed (and refuses to face the camera) says his son was in no state to continue, blames the referee. Crowd are spitting heat at Der Henker, the Chiotte Arbitre and any other poor soul. Bout 2 is joined in progress, some selling noises and a knockout count and we fade up to the bout. Le Dec spends a long time on an arm extension on Mychell. LeDuc uses his toupee to get out of the hold. Mychell offers his hand but has an angry expression, or is that just his rest face? LeDuc does the toupee again twice in the more conventional cross scissor form that everyone else in France (and even a few Brits) did. Bert works Gilbert over with a bodyscissors. LeDuc tries a pin attempt and wristlock in the scissors but to no avail. He eventually drags his way out inch by inch like Johnny Saint. They then exchange Manchettes. Mychell gets a headscissors. Three times Le Duc tries to toupee out, The fourth and fifth times, he lands on his knees and escapes but Bert just puts the scissor back on. On the sixth go, Bert starts to pull him back, but Gilbert spins round into a cross press for a 2 count and they agree to try something else. Similar situations involving a standing full nelson, a Boston Crab and another bodyscissors which Mychell counters into a single leg toehold. That sort of thing. Skill but not speed. Audience claps respectfully. Action picks up a bit including three neat blockbuster supleex from Bert. A fourth is countered by a Le Duc side chancery. He goes for a pin but it ends up in the ropes and a Manchette battle breaks out. Bert flips LeDuc neck first into the ropes but he gets up at 4., puls out one more Manchette, goes for a slam and cross press for the pin. They hug and LeDuc offers Mychell a swig of his Perrier bottle. He partakes heavily. Apparently this was a World Light Heavyweight title bout, champion LeDuc is presented with the belt and a bouquet of flowers just like in title matches in Britain. Two fairly solid if not action packed bouts. Lutte Academique as the commentator on the Bert-Gilbert bout put it. Modern fans would probably slag these bouts off for their "lack of work rate." In theory I say to hell with them but in practice there were skil-and-speed merchants out their who leave the American "booo-ring" smart mark brigade without a leg to stand on. At least with these bouts the long running hols accusation does have some basic validity. I seem to recall Mychell was on World Of Sport a couple of years later, I shall have to look it up.

Four Brits, one German and one American. Wright. Taylor and StClair, as we know, have previous with Diddier Gapp and decide to start winding him up. Wright starts dancing with him during inspection of fingernails, StClair actually gooses him! Gapp gets it worse from the heels however who trip him up and later on give him a painful looking crotch shot. Fast past but stylistically unremarkable five falls Triple Tag. Wright has the two most memorable moments - he gets the middle fall on Colonel Brody while Brody is distracted by a ringside fight and he also does a version of Vic Faulkner's "Cease!" distraction trick.

I get the impression it was just something fans and the general public in France took for granted. I wonder if they also did boxing in floating rings?

Bob says "faut savoir nager" ("Must know how to swim") I've mentioned to him your dislike of swimming pool matches. We'll see if he gives any insights.