David Mantell

Without brother Max booking him as a totally impregnable juggernaut, Daddy could have surprisingly decent strength-based matches.

It's not that they're comparable as workers. But they are comparable as two highly overblown lead babyfaces.

There's plenty of colour TV footage from the start of 1975 and that one bout from January 1969. A lot of bouts Oct '67 - Dec '74 were originally in colour on France's Channel 2 and could be restored to colour some time by chroma dot recovery.

It was his one little party trick that he was rather proud of. Notably, he used it in his first WCW World title win from Flair, because he felt the "rasslin'" folks down South would demand it from him as a matter of credibility. You do get these people on Facebook who go "All you people who say Hulk can't wrestle, watch THIS" and then post a video of the blessed drop toehold into chinlock.

No dispute there although taken individually the Andre of 1987-1990 was probably the worst of them. Daddymania may have reversed the 1970s UK decline but it also set in train the path of the rise of All Star until it took over the territory and still dominates today in 2025. The drop toehold into crossface is the move Hogan fans all point to as "evidence " of him actually being some technical wizard LOL. When I come across these people on Facebook I post them Johnny Saint Vs Vic Faulkner 1981 and tell them " Could Hulk do THAT"?

Okay, this is the last of the Robbie Brookside Scourge of Germany/Austria deep dive videos as it's the last relevant clip I can find. It's set in the beer garden of a pub a year before the IWW bout and for once Robbie and Franz are not lumbered with a match gimmick. It's a lot more scientific - like a longer more developed version of the in ring but of the Falls Count Anywhere match. Robbie puts a lot of energy into taunting and growling abuse at the audience but goes down in two straight falls, firstly from a cross chest backbreaker then from a further nelson folding press. Didier Gapp is trying to do his comedy thing, at one point falling over while refusing a rope break.

Daddy was restrained by Max Crabtree. Without that he could have been a British version of Hansi Rooks in Germany. A lot of fuss is made over Hogan "wrestling technically" in Japan although this boiled down to just that drop toehold into crossface. Until Graham turned up as Karate Man in late 82, Vince's Plan A was reportedly for him to get his revenge and later in 83 turn babyface. Poaching Hulk back from the AWA was apparently Plan C (poaching Kerry being Plan B.) Or so the story goes.

This time it's a Falls Count Anywhere match so they say over the ropes and ECW around the room and briefly outside in the car park, occasionally getting the odd submission hold in passing before just short of halfway when they get in them ring and Schumann gets a drop toehold and Gotch toehold on Brookside. Franz adds double wrists and tries to make it a surfboard but Brookside resists and a frustrated Schumann releases and drops a guillotine elbowsmash. From there it's back to ringside for some table antics. then back in for some near falls and a grovit by Robbie, into Robbie's by now trademark camel clutch/reverse front chancery combination. Franz breaks it open into a wristlock on the mat into double arms from behind with Robbie in the mount. Schumann gets a slam and Superfly splash, then a rear chinlock, putting the knees in the back for good measure. Brookside fouls his way out and Tree Of Woes and low flying dropkicks Franz. Referee Didier Gapp unties him and Robbie guillotine elbowsmashes him for 2. Franz gets a headlock and bodycheck of his own but Paul Neu shows up at ringside and trips him. It heads back outside with Franz topping Neu and being axehandled by Brookside. Robbie gets the pin on the floor and returns to to the ring for the sameme taunting routine as the Ecki bout. The bit in the ring with holds that I quite liked probably had the German wannabe ECW fans tearing their hair out.

Another Eckstein-Brookside match, this from 1998 for IWW. Nice venue, either a gym or a converted pool. Someone in a black t-shirt cuts a promo at the start. Brookside gets a headlock which Eckstein breaks into a top wristlock. Brookside lets himself be powered down then catches Ecki in a headscissors plus armlock. ZEcki gets headscissors of his own and pulls his own head free, Robbie goes into the upright position and pulls his head out then gets an Indian Deathlock. He adds a front chancery but Ecki pounds his way out. After this it gets brawly for a bitty until Ecki gets a monkey climb, sending a Robbie scurrying to the floor outside. When they finally get back to the ring and - after some finger pointy verbals - reconnect and after somee running clotheslines get technical again, Ecki drops under Brookside's charge, leapfrogs over, backdrops and dropkicks him. Robbie heads outside but Ecki follows him and shoved him into a bunch of wooden chairs as their occupants scatter like startled pigeons. Ecki makes it back to the ring but Robbie drags him out and to the wall of the room. Where he dumps him and throttles him with some ribbon. Brookside gets back to ringside, crowing over his actions but Ecki gets back too and they brawl at ringside. Ecki dropkicks Brookside and smashes him into one of the chairs from earlier. Brookside grabs the chair and hits Ecki. Referee Didier Gapp isn't intervening much - is this a Hardcore match? Gapp makes it back second, has a quick word with Robbie and orders Ecki back to the ring (but does not count him.). Robbie repeatedly shoved Ecki out. Ecki drags Robbie almost out by the leg and smashes the limb into the corner post. He throws Robbie into some chairs and works on the knee with one. Now it's Ecki's turn to be king if he castle in the ring. Finally Robbie is back. Ecki goes to work on the leg with a legdive and toehold-legspread. He drops his weight on the knee. Robbie pounds his way out, crotch holds Ecki and drapes him Tree Of Woe style in the corner and lands a sliding dropkick on his head on the mat. Gapp releases Ecki but Robbie gets in with a stomp and posting. Ecki reverse leapfrogs and dropkicks Robbie in the corner. He gets a folding press pin attempt but the black t shirted shouty man from the start runs in and breaks it up. Ecki follows him out and pounds him at ringside but Robbie follows him out and kicks Ecki down. He piledrives Eckstein on a convenient orange mat. Robbie thoughtfully provides his black t-shirt shirted mate with a comfy chair to rest Brookside and Gapp march back into the ring for an argument. Brookside suplexes Eckstein back into the ring. He gets his camel clutch/reverse front face lock combination. Eventually he converts to a rear chinlock.Ecki brawls his way out. Robbie gets a belly to belly suplex. He tries for a suplex but Eckstein reverses it and gets a 2 count. Ecki posts and backwards vertical splashes Robbie, rear snapmares him and lands a low dropkick before cross pressing him for 2. They brawl on . Brookside gets a middle rope superplex. Both lay on the mat. Ecki gets a backslide for 2. Brookside throws Ecki out. Ecki comes back with a missile dropkick, double underhook suplex for a 2 count, reverse top turnbuckle shoulderblock for one when Robbie grabs the bottom rope. Robbie gets a reverse DDT and uses the rope to get a pin. It seems to have been a hardcore match so fair enough. Brookside jeers in victory a d cuts a taunting promo. Some good technical bits in between the out of ring brawling. Far more than possible in a Piratenkampf or any other chain match. Robbie does know how to antagonize a crowd. ******** There's also a short 4min highlight package on YouTube with English commentary by the same German commentators. They are rather pithy and sarcastic to each other ("I'm impressed by your wrestling knowledge!" etc.). Worth a quick watch just for that dry humour.

Pancho Zapata is already a familiar figure to me from his 1969 match on World of Sport against Jeff Kaye (also a frequent traveller to France as was his Barons tag partner Ian Gilmour) which was featured in The Final Bell in December 1988. This is him four years earlier teamed with Anton Tejero (a name which would take on unfortunate connotations on 23rd February 1981 when a Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero staged an attempted military coup in the Spanish parliament.) French wrestling seems to be littered with heels wearing loud colourful Gypsy, Latin American or Spanish culture (hats, colourful coats, big moustaches, swarthiness etc. Roger Couderc tells us Tejero plays guitar.) The French would have HATED Hector, Mando and Chavo Guerrero. So a bald Mexican and burly Spaniard, both with Kong thick taches, are quite the heat generating dream team. Rene is a technical legend and he and Cesca make straight up Bons against these dodgy foreigners. Rene's constant barrage of throws to both heels has a similar effect to a Big Daddy tag where Daddy starts the match, both heels getting utterly blitzed early on. (In American Wrestling this usually serves to soften the blow for a BIG heel win such as both Sgt Slaughter and the Undertaker's respective 1991 interim heel title wins.). Couderc drops references to French pop culture such as Poupee De Cire Poupee De Son (that year's Serge Gainsborg penned, France Gall sung Eurovision Song Contest winner albeit for Luxembourg) and Le Manege Enchante, the a French original of classic stop animation children's TV show The Magic Roundabout. Perhaps Couderc was inspired to make the remark about Tejero being a guitarist based on Flappy, the lazy Spanish rabbit from the show which for the English version morphed into Dylan, a stoned beatnik American rabbit! Actually Couderc , the supposed dean of French wrestling commentary, seems to be mostly playing it for laughs in this bout. Referee Martial seems to be the tough Delaporte/Max Ward/Gorilla Monsoon type, physically the biggest of the five men in the ring and willing to use that power to enforce law and order in the ring, at one point lifting Pancho up by the waist and carrying him out of mischief and clamping his hands over Tejero 's eyes to drag him back to his corner (Terry Funk would have potatoed anyone who tried that, something Tejero clearly briefly contemplates then think better of). That said the heels still manage to run a couple of rings around him, getting the dirty in while the ref manhandles their partner. And they even get to administer unto the legendary RBC some of the slapstick usually reserved for faces to administer to heels later on in the bout, trapping him in the ropes and leapfrogging each other to land on him. And when the heels beat down on Cesca leading to Tejero pinning him for the opener, it is really an emotional low point after Les Bons earlier hi jinks. The heels seem to say "You're not laughing now!" as they taunt the crowd. RBC equalises and then gets Zapata neatly in a surfboard which overbalanced leaving both men's shoulders down. Rather than count them both, Martial just pushes the whole surfboard sidewards. Rene gets some great flyers in like headscissors and Huracanrana, as well as doing a kind of Fargo Strut, playfully aiming backwards kicks at both opponents. Les bons get a measure of revenge on Les Mechants for earlier antics which were more a Boy's prerogative anyway. After slamming the heels into each other and hitting them with synchronised missile dropkick which earns them a second and final Avertisement. Zapata ends up garroted in the ropes like Collins against Rocco. Tejero comes off the ropes but trips for reasons we don't see why and is splashed and pinned for the win. Technical point, the film has several jumps indicating sections of frames removed due to film damage, possibly from a faulty projector. OJ and myself have reviewed the bout in the past.

Technical matches are more my thing (and something they're both good at and they're not going to get much scope for that in a Piratenkampf. I get that some other people's tastes are different from mine.

It's the next door neighbour territory to the one I grew up with so most of French Catch clicks for me except the ref-battering. But I'd still love the insight of French fans who grew up with this (and later) Zapata had a match on World of Sport in 1969 Vs Jeff Kaye (who also appears on French TV and who I knew as a referee growing up) clips of which appeared in The Final Bell in December 1988 on ITV.

Both of them ripoffs of someone earlier too. Hulk Hogan was to Superstar Graham as Big Daddy was to Georg "Schurli" Blemenschutz over in Vienna at the Heumarkt. As a 12 year old though, I just saw them both as lead good guys who were shoved down my throat and I longer for that upset defeat for either one.

Yeah. Hulk was protected (mainly by his own politicing) but it never reached the point of him hever being shown in any serious peril that Max C booked his brother into. Still, both were pompous lead good guy characters that made you long to see the bad guys win for once. I remember learning about Hogan as a heel with Blassie and thinking it kind of made sense since Daddy had been a villain teaming with Haystacks in 1975-1977 and before that as "Battling Guardsman" Crabtree 1972-1974.

Happened in a few places eg Israel circa 1995, shut down by local moral guardian Dafna Lemish. Not in Britain though, AFAIK Mary Whitehouse left wrestling alone. The Mae Young/puppies incident was after her time anyway.

It's a Piratenkampf (Chain Flag Match) so I'm not coming in with great expectations. Chain as weapon and chain tug of war take the place of most technical work, all the usual spots. Nothing that would inspire me to write a blow by blow account. The wrestlers, the chain and Mick McMichael twice disappear into the crowd for a bit. Schumann dropkicks Brookside off the corner to grab the, er, polythene disposable shopping bag? off the pole. Would rather see these two have a regular match, they both have the ability Euro Cliche # 26547 - No Limits by 2 Unlimited as blue eye/babyface music. Still used by All Star in the 2020s for the exciting young blue-eye. Robbie the heel - well he does a good arrogant strut at the start but with these gimmick matches they're dirty all the way anyway.

I can see that was a lot of fans' experience. I had (still have) a territorial scene to which to attach . I turned on Big Daddy at about six years old after even cool villains I liked such as Yasu Fuji and Grand Vladimir lost to him. Perhaps if I'd been part of the Hulkamania generation I'd have pretty soon defected to a good interesting heel like Savage or Hennig. I would definitely have cheered if Ax and Smash with Fuji had worked him over. Even at 16 I kind of thought Warrior did a public service by winning WM6!

Heel Robbie takes on a North American. Unlike Owen Hart or Brian Danielson, Mike has no apparent knowledge of the European style so even the "technical" round 1 of the match isn't very technical- Robbie works a side headlock on the mat. Mike trying for pins in the hold now and then and pitching Brookside out to a big pop. From round 2 it's more brawling and Mike working the crowd while maintaining a wristlever. Mike repeatedly breaking open and Robbie reapplying side chanceries. Robbie being pitched to ringside and Mike joining him. Robbie gets an Indian Deathlock on at the end of Round 3 from which it takes the bell and referee McMichael to extricate him (Mick doesn't muck about either.just gets it gone quick.). Round 4 picked up a bit with a Robbie STF and Mike sunset flip before reverting back to brawling. Robbie got a scorpion Deathlock which Mike went for the ropes on again. To be fair he had to struggle to get there so the audience didn't turn on Mike (except for one female fan. The bell again saved Mike from an American figure four.Round five sees Robbie retreating from some dropkicks before suddenly being DQd for something I couldn't make out unless it was one attack on the grounded opponent too many getting a third public warning. Very American bout. You can tell it's not much of a technical match by the fact that I've got through it so quickly. Robbie and ref Mick tried their best but they could only work with what they had. If you don't like DQ Finishes you won't like this one and for once neither do I.mainly because I don't get whynit happened. Blue Monday by New Order gets played between rounds 2 and 3.. Rude on Time by Black Box in the next round break. You Give Love A Bad Name in the one after that.

He got a movie done, sure,but his main order of business at that time was changing Brooke's diapers* for Linda. Same with Warrior's reign and Nick's diapers*. And yup he got a movie done that time too. Savage reign #1 and Warrior were both basically Paternity Leave Cover champions. . . (* we call them "nappies" over here)

Yes, 60 year olds would already have been 16 in 1981 when Hogan went babyface in the AWA. I'm 51 and was 12 going on 13 when I first saw Hogan (Jan 87, the MSG lumberjack match Vs Savage from 9 months earlier). Like I think I've already said. I just thought he was an American version of Big Daddy.

*Shrug* all I did was post a video then all hell broke loose. But yeah, I'm for getting back on topic -Hogan being dead. This was his funeral: Some unintentional humour from the AI commentary. Not sure either how many "little Hulkamaniacs" are 60 in 2025.

Some more of the Wildcat being Evil in Austria, the Vienna Heumarkt in 1997. . Here he actually teams with Fit Finlay, against Michael Kovacs and Osamu Nishimura. From the start the British Islanders do a Road Warrior Pearl Harbour. They send the babyfaces outside and slingshot them into each other. Brookside roars at the crowd like Demolition Ax circa 1988. He tortures Osamu with a camel clutch/front face lock combo until Finlay stomps the Japanese babyface. Brookside dives in to rescue Finlay from Kovacs. This is a "streetfight" and Robbie proves it by taking Nishimura taking turns to bludgeon the babyfaces. He superplexes Kovacs as Finlay cheers. Kovacs fights back with elbowsmashes on Brookside but Brookside still the long term advantage. Finlay chokes with a tag rope and puts out Kovacsxwithba submission but only after Didier Gapp intervenes. To top it of, Brookside does an in ring promo where he says that technical or Street style, hemand Finlay can beat 'em all .

Le Rocky du Ring/Grim Rocker? I thought that was just a biker gimmick with some face paint thrown in.

@JNLister you might want to add this clip to the Other Channels page on the ITV wrestling site as the bout is not represented (Quinn Vs Johnny South, Hanley, February 1986. South is no jobber but the future Legend of Doom takes quite a pounding here. Referee and future British Bushwhacker Frank Casey is about to start a one month suspension for poor refereeing. Quinn power dominates South who only occasionally gets retaliation such as attacking Quinn's beard. Quinn gets a public warning, or does he? Chuckle Brothers make a stupid joke about Quinn being from Massachusetts (he's actually from Vancouver.) South does take over with some strength holds of his own but it doesn't last. Irish Pat Barrett, ex WWWF World Tag Team Champion, comes out to encourage Quin on. South fights back and slams Quinn. Quinn gets the vein with a guillotine elbowsmash. WWF TV match basically.

Another clip from the same time period Five minutes of match. left without ending but good solid stuff regardless: The old guy is called Nils Roland. No idea who the other guy is, I'll just call him Young. I assume it's the same 2006 show as the other clips or a show from around that time by the same promotion. They slap hands in sportsmanship then exchange throws with Nils taking a bit of a bump. Young dropkicks, Manchettes, snapmares and three times huracanranas Nils before going for a kneeling shoulder press, getting only one. Nils rolls his legs back and Young hooks them for a folding press but Nils has the power to force a Bascule and get a leg nelson of his own.Cut to Young firing a dropkick and picking up his man for an unspecified folloup but Nils gets a couple kf kneelifts first. Cut to Nild snap-maring Young. He gets an arm weakener. Cut to L'Arbitre telling Nils off for something or other "It's when I say it is!". Nils kneels (geddit?) on Young and heelishly uses the rope for leverage. Nils puts a headlock on Young, drapes his neck on the middle rope, puts a knee on it and flails away. He then uses the rope to slingshot Young on to his back. This gets him an Avertisement. Young land four Manchettes, Nils rope a dopes them before falling forward on his face. Young gets a front chancery, snapmares and dropkick on Nils. He slings Nils, catches and cross presses him but Nils rolls him off. Young gets three long vertical suplexes, but Nils rolls him off again - and the clip ends. Most solid technical work with some Manchettes and some dirty thrown in. Would like to see more.