David Mantell

Been pottering around on the FFCP YouTube channel and found all sorts of stuff. This is an older grey haired Marc having a comeback fight in 2004 against a masked man called "Der Hunker" - no relation to Oscar "Der Hunker" Versus. Marc is older, he had a career ending injury in 1989. He can still take bumps including one hefty backdrop but can't somersault on flip much. Hunker lives up to his name by wearing sexy rockstar leather trousers (with a dodgy looking belt buckle) but lacks the countering skills, he does absolutely nothing about a wrist lever applied. Public including little kiddies are happy to see Marc win. Not sure what promotion this is. FFCP did not come back until 2006. Could be IWSF- at some point Mercier fell out with Flesh and Jacky and went to the Americanised ICWA for a couple of years, so it could be them too. Bout is timed in rounds with a round card girl who spends her time between rounds sat at the timekeeper's table looking bored.

To balance things out here is WS's rival FFCP with their boss Marc Mercier at last year's Unit des Champions. Posted in the last couple of months, so presumably things are still going there since Marc announced his retirement from being president of the FFCP in January.

Same promotion, same venue, same YouTube channel three years later. Spring 2022 - you can tell it's the period just after the pandemic from the face masks ringsiders are wearing. Not sure about Micha's trunks, they look like bikini briefs. Thanatos dresses as the Undertaker minus the hat. He leaves his shirt on to wrestle. Thanatos beats up, ragdolls and overpowers Micha. Micha fights back with hope spots that get longer and longer before Thanatos gets a pin with a tombstone piledriver - see it's not just the clothes! Verdict: another American TV Wrestling squash match. Thanatos gotten over as a dominant heel. Long bit of blank clip 3-4 min) at the end,

Mick McManus: "NO!!! NOT THE EARS!!!! AGGHHH!!!!"

Another one from the same show. Jacky Richard is not refereeing although I did spot him wandering about at ringside at the end. Also Flesh Gordon (the tubby bald middle aged moustachioed version of him) is on a poster near the ring entrance. Good Bons Vs Mechants match with les Mechants getting a clean win. Les Bons have high flying moves including that French stalwart the cisseaux Volees, but two shaven headed bearded spitting images of Le Grande Vladimir coming down to Nursery Metal music tell you this isn't your father's Bons. Nice dealing of the old cliché of heels "posing for a photo" to get hit with a fling move - the two heels actually catch the babyface only to get dropkicked down by his partner.

From the Pallos '1981 video at Great Yarmouth Hippodrome. Joined in the third, a fall apiece in rounds 4 and 5, time runs out in round 6. Pallo Senior oddly says that heavyweights might look slow on TV but not live! Two guys with pasts on the heel side behaving themselves. Kincaid doing a lot of brawly leg weakeners before switching to legholds Kowalski spins out and Kincaid takes quite a bump but carries on with the leg. Kowalski limps back to his corner for the round break. Fights back with elbows and throws. Kincaid does a great French style flying headscissors takedown from a wrist lever. Unexpectedly Kowalski scores the opener with a cross buttock/cross press. Pallo comes up with old fashioned remark about "coloured boys" having hard heads. Kincaid finally capitalises on all that legwork by diving in forca trip and folding press equaliser. Cut to some way into the sixth. Kincaid has Kowalski in a crossface when the final bell goes. Solid but not spectacular clean match.

48 years on from being slapped around by lady referee Babette Carol and 28 years after putting some slap in himself as Le Travesti Man, here is what Jacky Richard does with himself nowadays. Well okay this is March 2019 but as far as I know Monsieur Jacky is still at this today five years later as is his old nemesis and business partner Flesh Gordon as special enforcer bad cop/good cop Arbiters. Although Jacky seems to be happy to get tough with les Mechants in this six person (two male four females) mixed tag match. I dimly recognise the name of the male Bon Benselam or something - maybe he was in the 2023 clip I posted? And IIRC one of the two female bons Pauline was one of Hugo Perez's students in the earlier training school footage.. MC says something about lots of testosterone coming up which is funny for a 66%female bout. Mechant females are very Dump Girls types. Bon females are both great young athletes although Calypso comes across as a bit sickly-sweet. Basha the Mechant bloke looks like a Glam Rock Giant Haystacks in those Green satin trousers.Bout ends when Calypso pins Basha and one of the two females after which the audience,, particularly children, storm the ring in force.

Had a full watch of this this evening planning to write this review, only to find I've already posted the video yonks earlier, still never mind. The YouTube channel seems to be about adverts and weather broadcasts and suchlike. Show is taped in Blois on the Loire. Good packed hall but the venue is painted bight green which looks odd for a wrestling venue and clashes with the light blue New Catch ring. White MC Undertaker was Psycho Shane Stevens. At this point the "real" Undertaker was still a heel in the WWF (he had headlined Wembley Arena with the Ultimate Warrior and back in America was about to challenge Hogan for the World title at Survivor Series 91.). Flesh makes short work of him in an action packed bout, not so much science but plenty of acrobatic stuff like hiptosses. Rather sweet promo from Stevens threatening all manner of revenge, doing Undie in a Northern accent.(with French subtitles as done later for StClair and Hart Le B.) Ladies match between old bag heel Valerie Wonder and the still popular Old Catch survivor (and sometimes Toto to heel "cowboy" Jesse Texas) Gabby Lailee. Referee is Chico Roberts from Wales. Lailee is the more interesting wrestler doing similar agile stuff to the boys. Wonder spends a lot of time choking her out but when Gabby retaliates by garotting the older woman with the tag rope, Chico gives her a summary DQ. and gets an Aux Chiottes L'Arbitre chant for his pains. Clearly that was taking retaliation too far. Tony StClair takes on Hart La Barbare (The Equaliser in PNW. Dave/Evad Sullivan in WCW, Barbarian in the CWA and American Hawkwind in England for All Star.) Referee is Andre Bollet's less imposing brother Charley. A Brit versus an American with a French referee. StClair bamboozles Hart with his skills like Steve Wright did to Moondog Rex in the CWA 1989. He rope a ropes away from a charging HLB to get in behind for a folding press for a 2 before getting the 3 with a flying bodypress. Yann Caradec, after Prince Zefy the next great TBW hope of France circa the 80s/90s turn, come to the ring to Breton pipe music (such as was played by the pipers at the 1978 TV taping in a gym featuring Daniel Schmidt Vs Mammouth Siki.). Set to face bratty young heel Eric Lacrouix for his French Welterweight title and medal (not a belt. A medal like the Mid South TV title that Ted DiBiase pocketed one time and Eddie Gilbert eventually threw in a river.). Nice history package of how Yann made the challenge after being screwed in a Tag Team match. First half is great French style lighterweight action, shades of Saulnier Vs LPP. Gets a bit brawly later. Yann gets trapped in the ropes but fights on. Eric's manager Theo with the big comedy moustache pulls a rope down, Yann falls out and is KOd. He protests like Kwango after the loss to Alan Dennison in 1972, but Chico Roberts holds up 10 fingers. Main event is an all English Catch A Quatre. Danny Collins was MASSIVELY over in France at this time. After beating Jorg "Baron Von" Chenok on ITV on FA Cup Final Day 1985 to win the European Welterweight title he trekked over every summer of the late 80s to tour for Roger Delaporte's FFCP defending the title across France and Northern Spain. This French audience are quite doolally for him. Partner was John Harvey a part time wrestler, part time conjurer and part time circus fire eater - think Rick Steamboat in the WWF 1991 crossed with Phantasio a few years later. Probably the least exciting of the four. Heels are an odd couple. Jimmy Ocean and Doc Dean. Not only is nice kid next door Doc a heel in a pair of Bret Hart shades, he is teaming with one half of the Liverpool Lads' archenemies back home, the Superflies. Jimmy Ocean had beaten Steve Grey for the British Lightweight title but lost it to Tony Stewart, Doc had beaten Mal Sanders for the British Welterweight Championship (formerly held by Danny) before losing it to Blondie Barrett. Both would regain the titles before losing them to Grey and Soldier Boy Steve Prince. Danny starts off in top form, all kips ups, cartwheels, scoots through the legs. Honestly @ohtani's jacket I don't get your problem with the guy, he was an incredible mover, taking all Dynamite Kid's stuff to the next level. Harvey tags in and is FIP before Collins makes it back in to score the win. Heels try to attack Danny with a chair, Danny challenges them to a rematch which gets massive pops from the crowd despite being in English, they bang on the ring apron like the South London Hellcrew. They love their Danny Boy. On another bout, Orig Williams on the English language commentary says of Danny "When I see this man's name on the card I go see him." And promote him on a lot of your shows too, Orig. Clip ends with a trailer for some boxing - one of the venues looks suspiciously like the outdoor Heumarket in Vienna.

You're welcome. There seems to be a myth that the move from teatime to lunchtime coincided with the end of World of Sport. In fact they were already experimenting with the earlier timeslots during those final five months or so of WOS.

Fit Finlay Vs Terry Funk would have been a WCW Vs British Wrestling childhood dream match of mine in 1989 when I was 15 and they were both red hot heels on either side of the Atlantic. Neither were doing the best technical work of their careers - 1989 Funk was all about branding irons, plastic bags and piledrivers onto tables, 1989 Finlay was at the height of his Bully run. Both had comeuppances in 1989- Funk said I Quit to Flair, Finlay lost the British Heavy Middleweight title to his one time whipping boy Danny Collins (a payoff sadly too late for TV). They ever looked facially similar back then with their long dark hair and goatees. So in 1996 shortly after Finlay's abortive first WCW run which might have seen him (and Haystacks) back on ITV had not WCW been lured away by Superchannel at the end of 1995, they finally meet up. The clip starts with a Piper's Pit type segment with an old Blassie-esque guy guy interviewing Funk about the Schumann bout. Funk calls out Finlay and the two have to be held apart. So, cut, to some time later and the match for who is Craziest Wrestler. Finlay is the sympathetic heel here. Funk is carrying the flaming torch for his branding iron. Sadly the tape is severely knacky.but we shall struggle through. They start with collar and elbow but are soon fighting at ringside and ignoring the bell. The MC is constantly blowing a fuse barking orders on the referee's behalf. Suddenly in round 2 they are in the ring making pinfall attempts. Finlay is no respecter of the bell any more than Funk and gets some stomps in between rounds 2 and 3. In round 3 Funk piledrives Finlay ringside (in silhouette) Yet another round break is ignored. Round 4 Funk DDTs Finlay but he twice kicks out and again after a piledriver. Funk's sidekick in these matches Klaus Kauroff threatens to join in. The two men disappear deep into the crowd and have to be dragged back by referee Didier Gapp. They are soon back outside. Finlay gets a knockout win after crawling back in during a double countout. Funk throws a chair in the ring before disappearing off. So that's Finlay the winner and still CWA Intercontinental Champion. Shortly afterwards, he headed back to WCW.

Probably a bit later than 1980. Dunno which is which. Blond TBWish babyface Vs heel with a mullet/pudding bowl haircut and I think a tache. Hells kicks and fouls babyface. Referee gets in the way of the camera. Face gets one good monkey climb in but heel dominates, garottes babyface on ropes despite MC repeatedly telling us Ng him to Stop. Camera relocates so we never do find out how face escaped but still in big trouble. Heel taunts fans during round break. Face tries for a flying bodypress but heel catches him and slams him for the pin. We still don't find out who is who. Anyone know? Verdict: would make decent American TV squash match to get mid level heel over. Lady in audience walking around in very 1980s layer skirt. If this was WCW at Disney MGM I'd say she was a plant.

Hansi Rooks - 350 pounds, blond hair and able to hold his own with King Kong Kirk but can actually work. Like what Big Daddy Vs KKKmight have been like in 1976 before Max C ordered his brother to work strong. Talking of Terry Funk, Kirk comes to the ring to Funk's 1989 WCW music. Round : Kirk gets a full nelson. Hansi tries to throw him off before breaking it with arm power then knocks Kirk out of the ring. Same principle again-; Kirk bearhug, Hansi tries cross buttock throws, undresses hold with force, floors Kirk with series of forearms. Hansi has Kirk in an Indian Deathlock. Round 2: Kirk going for fouls during collar and elbow lockup. Headbutting Hansindown for 6 or 7 counts. Hansinsnapmares Kirk and does Chinese Burns on his bald scalp. Round 3: Hansi has Kirk strched awkwardly across the top rope, referee Mick McMichael warns him off a nut shot. Hansi has a loose standing hammerlock. kirk frees himself by running fast so Hansi can't keep up with the hold. Kirk bouncing off the ropes and running back and forth is a sight to behold- he can move! Hansi catches him with a cross buttock throws and press but only gets a 2 count. Kirk blows Hansi in the gut and they have a kneeling forearm smash contest. Kent Walton once said that referees do not tolerate that, but McMichael just flaps around powerlessly. Hansi eventually floors Kirk for an 8 counts then ties him in the ropes, gets one shot in before the bell. Before the bell for Round 4 Kirk charges into Hansi's corner and batters him. Gets a severe private warning from McMichael but no card. Kirk corners Hansi again but Hansi clops Kirk over the head with a heel and fights his way out with forearms. Three postings and a cross buttock and press only gets a 2 count. Kirk misses his trademark guillotine elbowdrop and Hansinhits a flying tackle for the one fall required. Kirk looks dejected. Picks himself up. Crowd shout something sarcastic at him. Kirk Vs Big Daddy was probably a lot like this in 1976 before Max Crabtree spoiled things. (Kirk teamed with Kendo against Stax and Daddy a few times that )year). Not a technical bout but a good fight and the sort of battle of the giants the German audiences liked.

Done so, he's got a belt on, the same one he gets back at the end, and the ring announcer says he's a champion. The flags thing was used for international title match in Britain and France, even in the 80s. (When Rocco regained the World H Mid title in Catford 87, he had a Union Jack and Fuji Yamada had a Rising Sun flag but the South London Hellcrew crowd still cheered for Yamada.). In the 2020s, Rumble Promotions plays God Save The King (formerly Queen) before Nino Bryant's British Lightweight Championship defences. Eight years after this, I saw Terry live at Coventry SkyDome for the FWA.

So did Schumann make a successful defence then? I shall have to recheck the start of the video. I've not studied German although I did French and Spanish up to degree level so have no problems with the French Catch commentary. Mind you I've never studied Welsh either but that's never been an obstacle with Reslo.

Here is the CWA World Middleweight title history. No mention of Terry Funk though: https://www.wrestling-titles.com/europe/germany/cwa/eu-cwa-m.html Also here are the British and Spanish versions which Hisa used to display all on one page: https://www.wrestling-titles.com/europe/uk/uk-world-m.html https://www.wrestling-titles.com/europe/spain/sp-world-m.html

McHoy was the son of Wild Angus (that's Black Angus Campbell to all you old time Los Angeles fans.). We join just at the end of Round 2. McHoy was (still is) a big man like his dad so not really TBW material. He worked live the heavyweight he was (see also Steve Regal). Moser was more the action man. Uncorking a headbutt, dropkick and flying bodytackle for the round 3 opener. Moser spends most of round 4 knocking down McHoy for 7 or 8 counts but he does get a couple of near straight second falls, one with a further nelson, the other with a mid ring sunset flip. McHoy fights back with a near pin of his own with a flying bodypress (I love the quick ascent he does of the turnbuckles, none of this climb up to the top malarkey, just one quick motion.) then gets a fireman's carry backdrop (Fit Finlay 's speciality) for a 10 count Knockout. For some reason Welsh commentator Bryn Fon gets the giggles over this. Steve was fed to Haystacks around this time as a set up for more Big Daddy feud before going off to Stampede for a while. When he got back to Britain in the late 80s he worked as Steve Casey for All Star. Not a mind blower but some good little moments for its ten minutes.

Quite a few people from America had the CWA World Middleweight title during its 1985-2000 lifetime, see also Eddie Gilbert and Paul Roma. It wasn't the sole World Middleweight title active in Europe at the time either. Danny Collins had won a claim on the title in 1991 after beating Owen Hart in Bath, England. He renounced the title in 1995 to focus on light heavyweight (Dirty Dan would go on to beat Alan Kilby in 1996 but lose it back in 1997) and Rumble Promotions set up a tournament to crown a replacement (released on video and up on YouTube) won by James Mason. Over the coming months Mason lost it to Mal Sanders who lost it to Steve Grey who then resigned to focus on his British and European Lightweight Championships leaving the CWA as Unified Euro version. The World Middleweight Championship came from Joint Promotions in the UK but was transplanted to Spain's CIC in the sixties. The CIC shut down in 1975 and two years later Brian Dixon set up a version for Wrestling Enterprises Of Birkenhead (as All Star was then known) which Adrian Street and Jon Cortez traded back and forth- this is the "amateur ranks" version Gordon Solie would refer to Adrian having held, I'm sure Dixon was really happy about his organisation being called the amateur ranks." When Adrian went off to America the title was abandoned. Mal Sanders and Keith Myatt briefly feuded over a version in South Africa at Sun City but that was that for the title until (1) the CWA title in 1985 (2) Danny Vs Owen in 1991

Terry Funk around the peak of his ECW World title. He was 52 - the same age as Kendo Nagasaki when he retired the second time in late 1993 and was the toast of internet smarks. Fin Martin was praising him to the hilt while at the same time calling the younger and far less shopworn Kendo Nagasaki old and stale in his 2020 compilation book. Hypocrite. The Funkster comes to the ring to Bruce Springsteen's Born In The USA, also used by the squeaky clean US Express of Mike Rotunda and Barry Windham, Franz comes to the ring to 2 Unlimited's No Limits, continuing CWA babyfaces' Dance & Wrestling Connection (see Taylor, Dave andd Wright. Alex.) Some German fans cheer Funk can you imagine him dancing?). Lots of standing around with US and Austrian flags. Tony St Clair is in the ring too., I think as Frank's second. Funk getting out the ring a lot but "Franzi" plays cat and mouse with him. Just starting to get technical with a wrist lever when the bell goes for the end of Round. Plenty of brawling and out the ring action in Round 2 to make @ohtani's jacket happy. A fatter than ever Otto Wanz at ringside. Funk DDT's Franzi just as the bell goes on another round! Round 3 Funk goes for a piledriver. Franz turns it Into a huracanrana. More out of ring brawling including the branding iron. 24 min into a 31 min video Terry Funk finally gets a yellow card (public warning.) Schumann juicing heavily. Between rounds Funk stagers around at ringside as the DJ plays We Will Rock You by Queen favourite ring entry music for heels facing Big Daddy circa 1990. It all ends with Funk cornering Franz, striking referee Mick McMichael, throwing a chair in the ring, attacking StClair and anyone else. Funk cuts a promo saying that Schumann and the German people can drink his piss. Schumann gets presented with a title belt, not sure whose it was to begin with.

Both @ohtani's jacket and myself have talked about this one, but never properly reviewed it. So here goes: Le Hippie du Ring pays a visit prior to the match and shakes hands with both participants. Bear in mind in America at this time, hippies were heels like The Love Brothers or Captain Lou Albano. In France he's a harmless Hillbilly Jim type. Angelito is Spanish and masked and being touted as the new Ange Blanc. Jacky Richard is decades away from being a big fat bald man in a shirt and tie, here he's a spry earl/mid career heel. Female referee decades before Aubrey Edwards and even years before Rina Chatterton -Babette Carole, no nonsense matriarchal type, former lady wrestler of the sixties now laying down the law on the men. Angelito as Le Bon takes throws better than Richard Le Mechant and does a great Jim Breaks horizontal spinout from a wristlock. Richard puts a knee across Angelito's chest to prevent him kipping up in an armlock. Angelito levers out but JR replies. Angelito does the Kid McCoy/Owen Hart rope trick to try and untwist his arm but Richard maintains control. Angelito finally breaks the hold by dumping Jacky over the ropes. Richard switches to a hammerlock. Angelito tries to reverse snapmares out of it but JaR blocks it and lands him back on the mat sort of like Arn Anderson did with his gourdbuster. Some more good escapes by Angelito including a trip from behind and another rope-assisted backflip, but yet again Jacky keeps the hold. Fast paced back and forth but gets a nice round of applause from the crowd and I think they even bow to each other like judokas. Jacky finally gets dirty and starts stomping Angelito on the mat, Babette restrains him and starts a ten count, attacking on the mat was heat in France just like in Britain, but in America it was just good clean wrestling. Crowd "gives the bird" (annoying high pitched whistle sound) to Richard to express their heat- German fans go for this a lot too, I've noticed. Babette finally physically pulls Richard off and gives him his first Avertisement- crowd really warm to her. Richard still up to his tricks, nearly earns un Seconde et Dernier. Angelito fires a dropkick then Hulks up by tearing off his own mask like it's a Hogan t-shirt. Babbette, flips it to ringside, commentator says it's the first time he's ever seen that done. At this point Angelito, like Jacky, has a full head of hair. Angelito goes quite wild with dropkicks and les Manchettes. Angelito appears to be flying out of the ropes but does a Rick Steamboat/Modesto "Kamikaze" Aledo slingshot back in, headscissors Richard and drags him out with him. Angelito gets a neat British style cross buttock into cross press but only gets a 2 count. Richard back to controlling Angelito on the mat. Angelito reverse flips from off a standing wristlock then manages to throw Richard a couple of times. Richard eventually boots Angelito out of the ring Babette gives Richard a severe talking. Richard goes to wallop her with a Manchette but she ducks and judo throws him out of the ring and gets a good pop from the crowd. Definitely NOT Aux Chiottes with this Arbitrice. Richard gets a standing Double-nelson but Angelito breaks it with force and backwards dropkicks Richard, goes for a pin but only gets a two count. Angelito moves neatly from a back hammerlock to a headscissor on the mat. Jacky eventually pries it open and kips up. Angelito has a neat cartwheel on one hand years before Dynamite Kid. He eventually springs off the top turnbuckle for the flying bodypress and pin. Angelito and Jacky are very sporting and hug afterwards despite the Bon/Mechants divide. Afterwards the commentator buttonhiles Babette for an interview - she mentions her own former wrestling career. She's single, prefers it that way (hence the dumpy crop hair and black trouser suit I guess) and works as an Archiviste for her day job. Good fast paced French style face/heel match. These two had a bright future. Indeed .... Proof if need be that New Catch was the heir to Old Catch. Richard is now lev Travesti Man, mutant love child of Big Daddy, Adorable Adrian and WWF Dusty Rhodes, still with his butler Paul Butin now repackaged as "Best Boy" Jean Claude Blanchet (no relation to Kate) still being allowed to stand on the ring apron which not even American managers could do. Angelito is rocking a Big Bossman/Mountie/The Trooper Del Wilkes style law enforcement officer gimmick. He has an Alsatian and Richard has a Yorkshire Terrier and the bigger dog desperately wants to maul the smaller yappier one. This could have ended very badly indeed. Twenty years on both men are now bald. Angelito is a bit haggard by now but isn't fat like Richard is by this point (and will get fatter in later years.) Richard has a green boa and jazzy entry music. The two have a bit of a dance off. Trav swivelling his hips and Angelito doing that cowboy shuffle dancing that Sam Houston did in the WWF. Sadly Babette is not part of the reunion, instead we get Welsh ref Chico Roberts on loan from Reslo. Richard gets a start, cross buttocking Angelito but Ang kips up. Blanchet has to pamper Trav/Jacky quite a bit, often running in the ring to do so. Angelito reverses one hiptoss into a Planchet Japonais (monkey climb). The big man bumps around a lot. Angelito does another ,monkey climb then a feet first landing from a backdrop into a dropkick. He snapmares the big man. Commentstor Orig Williams reckon an Angelito Vs Johnny Saint match would be good. Travesti Man finish. You're a promoter Orig, put it on! I wonder if he ever did. Travesti goes all Warrior for the finish with a gorilla press and slam and splash for the pin. Nothing like as athletic as 20 years earlier, a product of a newer more cartoony era, but good enough fun.

@JNLister Have been to Birmingham Library yesterday and looked through 1985 TVTimes and researched the move of the timeslot from 4pm to lunchtime. It started in April just before the FA CUP, they moved wrestling to 14h-15h one week then moved at further back to lunchtime, then moved back to teatime.. The FA Cup was done at its usual times, lunchtime for Danny Collins' title win and 1410h for the Daddy tag. Then a couple of weeks later in late May they again moved in two stages to 1455h then 1230h and it stayed that way most of the summer, occasionally going back to 1550h, but by August it was firmly relocated to lunchtime. When World of Sport finished in September 1985 and the standalone show commenced, it was pretty much anchored to various lunchtime slots until the end in December 1988. When WCW moved to Sat daytime in summer 1992 it started at lunchtime but quickly moved to teatime, the first regular Sat teatime ITV slot in 7.5 years.

Surprised @ohtani's jacket hasn't already reviewed this one, but I see you like Martinelli, OJ, so you should like this one. Fantastic scientific match, too much to pick out any specific details. This was before Saint won the belt, Kent says Saint would like a shot at George Kidd. Well in 1976 he got the belt but not the champion - shades of Lex Luger in 1991 and We Want Flair and all that. Keith gets the opener in penultimate round 5 but Saint takes mere seconds into the sixth and final round to get a reverse bridge folding press and make it a final round equaliser ana a 1-1 Broadway.

Some links: https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/Γιώργος_Τρομάρας Greek Wikipedia article on Tromaras https://greekreporter.com/2022/01/24/tromaras-modern-day-hercules/ English language Greek news website obituary for Tromaras Apparently he visited Saudi Arabia in 1990, I have added this to the English Wikipedia "WWE in Saudi Arabia" article

Since I posted a Zefy match from a CWA tournament on the German Catch thread some time back, here to balance things out is Ulf Herman taking the trip the other way across the Rhine for a Eurosport New Catch TV taping in the early 90s. Billed as the medieval sounding Ulf The Cruel and sporting a Ritchie Brooks mullet, bit of a goatee and jazzy early 90s leotard. The Grim Rocker is in his corner and one Danny Gardinier is in Zefy's and gets beaten up by Ulf and Grim pre match. Cut to several minutes into the bout. Ulf dominates Zefy with big late 80s/early 90s power moves like Kellus did. Zefy mounts a comeback and goes for the Superfly Splash but Grim Rocker pushes him off the top rope and he crashes and goes down to a 10 count Knockout on the mat.

Current French star Hugo Perez El General running a wrestling school in the 2010s. Gannon Gray from this clip appears tagging with Hugo in the below 2023 Wrestling Stars match previously posted and reviewed on here: Notice how this was still a thing in France 2023, just like Catch A Quatre itself.

Prince Zefy title defence of uncertain vintage, possibly late 90s but more likely at some point in the 00s. I'm guessing Zefy's march to the ring here was inspired by watching Goldberg which would put this no earlier than 1998. I think the ring announcer says Kellus is Canadian . Oddly filmed - a good well anchored hard cam and a horribly shaky and lopsided looking handheld roving cam spliced together. Huge crowd - was this before 2007!and France's second American Wrestling boom when houses shot up across l'industrie du Catch, including the IWSF? Talking of Dark as a first name - I have a French Star Wars (A New Hope) story book my grandma bought from a jumble sale in the 80s in which the dark lord of the Sith is called "Dark Vader" which may have been what he was called in France and from where this guy got his ringname. It's a rather French thing I guess, it's hard to think of too many people in the English-speaking wrestling world called Dark, maybe mid 80s valet Dark Journey. I guess it's just one of those faux-English names C21st French promoters go for, like Bad Mask or Cybernic Machine. Kellus wrestles his very North American style and Zefy bumps around for his big late 80s/early 90s power moves before taking over with plenty of action stuff like leapfrogs and a flying tackle. And so it alternates. Zefy misses with the traditional French flying headscissor counter but makes up for it with a neat Planchet Japonais. Kallus removes the corner pads from two corners, MC goes ape excrement about it but the Percy Pringle-esque referee pays him not one jot of attention. Eventually he gives Kallus a public warning and sorts out the pads but by that point Le Mechant has dragged Le Bon outside and is busy whipping him into the crowd barriers - I say Aux Chiottes L'Arbitre! La publique shows it's disapproval by pelting the ring with balls of scrunched up paper- did they take notepads to the show especially to do this? Kellus undoes another corner pad and tries to whip Zefy into it but ends up hitting the metal hooks himself. Zefy goes on one final counter attack culminating in a big Superfly splash 3/4 of the way across the ring for the pin, the win and the successful title defence. Not a patch on Saulnier Vs Renault or even Vs LPP but Zefy makes it worthwhile with some neat agile moves, his high flying finisher being the highlight of the bout.