David Mantell

OK here it is, under full Mountevans rules complete with (female) seconds, with legendary former champion Steve Grey as special referee (as he was supposed to be a third of a decade ago when Nino beat Lewis Mayhew for the revived title). Remarkably, Round One consists mostly of a series of near pins, mostly Nino but sometimes Leland getting 2 counts with an impressive collection of folding presses, victory rolls and other false finishes. This continues into Round 2 with some good headscissors and a back and forth "Bascule" as the French commentators called it, before Nino gets the opening fall, clamping down as Leland tries to crawl over him. Round 3, a great escape from a headscissors by Nino gets countered by a final twist from Leland that leaves Nino with a banged arm. Nino escapes a Leland headlock on the mat with the old Mike Marino style pullout of the head but then changes his mind and puts his head back in (perhaps the escape was actually a blown spot) and starts working for a backslide when the bell goes. Round 4. Nino was selling the arm bump during the interval and Leland zooms in with an armlock. Leland applies the Zoltan Boscik 3 in 1 special! Nino cross buttock presses out but Leland uses the arm to flip over Nino into a side folding press for 2. Nino uses Ken Joyce's stalking on a posting tactic. Round 5 Leland nearly gets an equaliser with a huaracanrana plus folding press. He gets two Zolly specials, the second left handedly, and then an armscissors. Nino looks to be submitting when the bell rings and for a moment it looks like the challenger has the equaliser. Round 6, Nino gets a fireman's carry, Leland breaks open one end to convert to a victory roll attempt but Nino regains the fireman's carry for a Death Valley driver for 2. Since Round 3, Nino has been selling the arm injury and Leland has been trying to capitalise and he finally gets the equalising submission with an armbar on the mat. During the interval, Nino is still heavily selling his arm Round 7 , Nino is still desperately trying to protect the arm. It starts to get a bit brawly, even needly, and in fact Grey gives Leland a quick private warning. Leland twice nearly gets the decider and the title with a folding press and then a karate kick. Nino however catches Leland with a superkick as he comes of the top turnbuckle, puts him in a reverse fireman's carry backbreaker then launches from there into a powerbomb for the pin. Nino gets the belt and the bouquet of flowers and seems to be very conscious of what a match they've had,his slight cockiness melting into just plain exuberance. As for Leland, he still has his 2024 Bob Bartholomew shield. Some of it was possibly a bit more high flying and "flippy" than the British style in its pure form and I might have hoped for a few more technical escapes than this, but this was definitely a fast paced exciting 20 minute match. I think this would have gone down well on a French Catch show, there are definite elements of Michel Saulnier Vs Petit Prince at work here (and not just because Grey here looks a bit like Saulnier in his 1980s " Aux Chiottes Arbitre" phase.)

Okay, let's have a proper look at these bouts in the cold light of morning. Labat Vs Sola is quite a deceptively fast paced affair, despite being down on the mat, both men are constantly trying for holds and escapes, shifting from one drive to another. Nothing too spectacular apart from the one toupee. Lots of small conversions on the mat, up for a quick slam or low distance hiptoss. Guys roll either way out of armbars,. It gets a bit manchetteux towards the end before Labat gets the win with a neat sunset flip. Duranton not only has no Firmin but no furs and shorter hair and a leaner build. He''s quite the arrogant young heel. The bigger size of these guys after watching Labat Vs Sola is really striking. The bigger bodies give scope for bigger throws etc. Crowd are really itching for Duranton to do the dirty so they can heel him. They love it when he takes a bump! Duranton really sells a sleeper/strangle, lips gibbering all over the place. He's not so much the great arrogant bodybuilder of later, more a snooty Heel David Von Erich in Florida type. He struts around like Adrian Street or Buddy Rogers, then in his prime, whom Duranton probably got a lot of it from ... Chaisne is just the straight man in this, like Mick McMichael against both Street and Bobby Barnes. When the referee warns Duranton not to follow down on Chaisne, he threatens to walk out but Michel recovers and comes after le Mechant with a vengeance. Chaisne gets the pin, catching Duranton off the ropes with a belly to belly suplex and Duranton is FUMING. Apparently that was just the first fall and they have to cut back to the studio as the timeslot is up - WTBS would becso PROUD ...

Another surprise sporting contest. Not because Kauroff had metamorphosed into a technical genius but because one of the most notorious villains of das Deutscher Catchen is all of a sudden Mr Nice Guy. Same old bald head, beard, gut and canary yellow cape with sticks, but Kauroff is suddenly a babyface for no apparent reason, coming out to the tune of Dire Staits' "Walk Of Life" getting cheers from the crowd, shaking Mile Zrno's hand ... No, he's not a scientific wrestler per se, rather more a firm-but fair power wrestler similar to Bearman John Elijah, relying on strength moves and a hefty forearm smash. But it's a good sporting contest with Kauroff even pleading for clemency for Zrno when Zrno uses referee Mick McMichael's shoulder fit support for a backflip (Mick's heart melts over it) that when Klaus suffers a leg injury and has to retire from the contest, Zrno refuses the TKO and it ends up with one of those No Contests we all know @ohtani's jacket just loves! Being a nice guy might not make Klaus Kauroff a Winner but at least it saves him from being a Loser.

Glad to read that OJ was acquiring a taste for these - clean cut TBW puts up a good show Vs clean cut veteran. Ritchie later on became a heel. got a dubious British Heavy Middleweight title run off Danny Collins in 1990 and can be seen earlier in the thread heeling it up with Darren Ward, but here he's the nice respectful kid versus the great Steve Grey. The early rounds are mostly Grey except l Brooks gets a folding press opener held in place with a headstand in round 2. So Steve goes to work with forced bumps from jerked armlevers. Brooks nearly makes it 2-0 with another folding press. He withstands a Boston Crab and is saved by the round 4 bell from a surfboard. Grey finally gets his equaliser in round 5 with another surfboard making the back weakeners pay off. He becomes obsessed with another surfboard in round 6, failing three times, missing a dropkick and taking a 7 counts and getting caught in some arm weakeners until time runs out and the kid has earned a 1-1 draw with the legendary Grey. A step up the ladder for the younger man.

Mid 80s. Older Zolly and three TBWs in a four man KO tournament. At least two - Kid McCoy and his semifinal opponent here Johnny Kidd (to be fair a twentysomething by this point. - went on to bigger things, the other was Jeff Kerry. God technical first round, Kidd forces a bump landing, Zolly makes had work on a headscissors, Kidd gets a chicken wing on which Boscik escapes the first time but uses the ropes the second time. Bit of needle in round two, Zolly using some fine legweakerners, tries his 3-in-1(Kidd sort of hiptosses out but hasn't the power to properly break) Zolly uses the ropes to break a Boston (seen as a cowardly heelish way out) Zolly gets the opener with another special leglock of his off the back of earlier legwork. Round 3 Zolly tries for another leg submission but Kidd equalises with a neat backslide. Zoltan carries on the leg strategy with ankle locks and legspreads. Kid dropkicks Boscik out a couple of times.uses a slingshot into the corner and backdrop. Boscik tries to step out of the ring but gets a second public warning for passivity. By round 6 it's getting heated, Kidd mises a flying tackle, injures his arm and goes down to Zolly's 3 in 1. Nice bout with something for everyone. Plenty of technical work for me, plenty of heel heat for you Americans.

Been watching these two in a half asleep way after having a sofa night after dozing off in front of the telly after finishing dinner. Don't get a long enough view to write a coherent review of my own other than concurring with what OJ said. Duranton looking very young here, no sign of Firmin the Valet either. The Labat Vs Sola match has an oddly VT look to the footage - I wonder ...

I'd be interested to see how the French reacted to Johnny Saint Petit Prince vs either Saint or George Kidd would have been magnificent.

Turns out I've already written a piece about this match so I'll go a different approach and go for the blow by blow description instead. You all know the story, Mark Boothman aka Kid McCoy in 1987 was TBW of the year, holder of what is now Nino Bryant's British Lightweight title, winner of the first annual Golden Grappler trophy. His dad, Phil aka King Ben, was a strength grappler who had made a few title tournament finals but never bagged a belt. This year, still champion, the younger Boothman again made it to the final - to face his dad.. ********†* Round one and after briefly hitting the ropes, Ben gets a wristlever on McCoy. Kid rolls out and goes for a grapevine but King maintains the hold and takes him to the mat. Kid tries again, this time rolls forward, cartwheels back. and then horizontally rotates out, leapfrogs dad and finishes with a neat snapmares, but dad is on his feet. Dad tries again, this time Kid turns over on his head using a bridge, then picks off the hold with his foot and grabs a wrist of his own and jerks upward. Dad has to jump and take a bump on his back and now Kid has the hold. Kid switches from wrist to wrist including leaping over dad's back. Dad goes for a roll of his own to reverse the wrist, tries for a grapevine then gets Kid up in a fireman's carry. He puts Kid on the ring apron, but Kid, sensing a trap, leaps over the ropes instead. Kid snapmares Ben on the mat for 3 of a 10 count. Ben gets another wrist but Kid is climbing up to try something when the bell goes. Round 2: King Ben gets a wrist and goes in behind for a waist lock takedown but McCoy gets on top, almost with a waistlock of his own. Ben does the same the swivels round into a front chancery position then steps over his son and out Kid goes for a leg, takes dad down and folds the leg up before switching to a wrist, dad who stands up and horizontally spins then snapmares Kid who yakes it well and is right back on his feet. Kid forces dad to the ropes but Ben has an armlock on. Kid tries to throw Ben but Ben rolls through and is on top with the armlock. Kid gets up one hold and tries the ropes again but KB maintains the hold. He tries a third time, gives Ben quite the bump with the resulting throw but Ben STILL has that arm! Ben stands up and McCoy tries a French Catch style flying headscissors takedown but Ben (as is usual in Britain) throws him off. Kid leaps over dad but dad pulls him back over and adds a headscissor but loses the arm and Kid easily gets his head out and kips up. Ben twice snapmares Kid, both times the son goes over on his hand. Kid goes for a folding press but dad's legs are in the ropes. Bell goes. Round 3 : Ben nails McCoy in the stomach, McCoy overshoots on a sunset flip and lands on his back. Dad gets kid in a hiptoss into a side headlock on the mat. Kid forces back up so Ben comes off the ropes with a bodycheck. Ben gets a full nelson but McCoy slides out and through dad's legs. Ben gets the better of a flying tackle attempt by Kid, puts him down but when Kid hits the ropes again, gets a cross buttock and press for the first fall! Round 4 and Ben has his son on the mat with another wristlever. Kid gets up but Ben twists and jerks his arm up to make Kid jump and take a bump like he made his father do in round 1. Ben switches to a finger interlock, but McCoy climbs the ropes, standing spins horizontally then backdrops dad. Ben gets both legs on his son from behind but Kid goes between his legs to roll him in a folding press then hook both legs for the equaliser. Round 5: Ben snapmares and chinlocks his son He changes tack on posts Kid but McCoy bounces off the pad and rocks his dad with a dropkick. As they lock up, McCoy fires off the ropes but Ben stymies it, gets a side chancery on Kid, snapmares and bodychecks him. They hit the ropes again and Kid gets a cross buttock and press on Ben for a Two. He gets it again but Ben kicks out. Kid tries forcing down the King's shoulders but hasn't got the strength so sportingly helps his dad up. (Sorry, Americans, but no major heel turn angle commences here.). Ben goes for a double leg folding press but Kid crawls out the back way and gets up. They finger interlock and Kid drops down, reaches up with his legs and gets dad in a cross headscissor like he was going to do the toupee. But first he crawls to the corner, claims up the rope with his arms and then finally does the toupee spin to throw dad. Kent Walton identifies this as the Yorkshire Rope trick although usually that means him climbing with ropes with his legs to flip over backwards over an opponent (also a favourite trick of Owen Hart around this time.) They lock up but Ben is backed into a corner and referee Max Ward calls for a break. McCoy gets a leg but cannot turn Dad for a single leg Boston Crab. He switches from one wrist to another but Ben stands up and slips on the standing full nelson Kid beaks it by blasting backwards at Dad and comes of the ropes but gets and elbow in the chest. They hit the ropes again and Kid catches dad with a knee to the chest but the bell rings. Round 6 and they shake hands. Ben gets a waistlock then Kid reverses then Ben reverses it back. Kid turns himself into the bearhug position (some wags in the audience joke "aah!" at dad and son hugging) and goes for Ben's head, then leans back in a bridge and slips through Ben's legs and takes his legs out under him. He hits the ropes and comes back with a flying tackle but dad kicks out a 2 putting Kid on the ring apron . He is back up at 5 and King Ben backs him into the ropes and sends him running but Kid comes back with a "inside forearm" as Walton calls a clothesline. Ben posts his son but McCoy comes off the middle rope to take Ben down with a sunset flip but Ben gets a leg free, spins round, drops both knees on McCoy's shoulder and hooks the legs for the deciding fall! ******* A fine technical masterpiece and one which ran about twice the length of Bryant Vs Bryant. Like Leland getting his title shot at Nino, Ben was reported by TVTimes to be due a crack at the British Light Heavyweight title. He did indeed beat Alan Kilby (the man who once beat him in the tournament final to win his first title) for he belt, but lost it back on the 90 day clause return match later that year

Bob Bartholomew was a long time supporter of the UK wrestling scene. Fan, second, timekeeper, publicist, he worked in many roles, particularly alongside Rumble promoter Steve Barker whom he met when the latter was still at school. He was also a nice guy to chat to on Facebook groups about British Wrestling and last summer he added me on Facebook as a friend - only to sadly pass away the very next day aged 72. A four man KO tournament was held in his memory on the same Ditton show as the Jordan Vs Sid match I just posted. The semis are up on YouTube - they pitted British Tag Team Champions Mark Trew and Kieron Lacey (who before he turned heel had a great clean match in 2022 on a New School show versus the same Jordan Breaks, which I posted to this thread last year) versus brothers and two faves of mine whom I've raved about on here, British Lightweight Champion Nino Bryant and his 16 year old kid brother Leland. Both Bryants beat a tag champ each, leaving us with an all brothers final. And quite the British technical masterpiece it is, particularly between two guys both born after the millennium. There are a couple of obligatory high flying spots off the top turn buckle and down to ringside where those wretched new fangled crowd barriers are, but for the most part it's technical work all the way. Nino goes from being impressed but cocky at what his brother can do to being seriously worried until a little after ten minutes into the match, Leland uses a victory roll to pin his older brother for the win. The two defeated heel semifinalists come to the ring- mercifully not for a beatdown but to receive runner up mini trophies along with Nino. Leland, as winner, gets a full dinner plate sized shield Heels mostly behave themselves as Bob's son (I believe) dishes out the prizes. With Leland Bryant over the past several months on here, we've watched the stages of the traditional TBW push from vulnerable newcomer to apprentice scoring wins to getting a bit win. In this case a trophy tournament. It isn't on the clip, but afterwards Leland put in a challenge for big brother Nina's British Lightweight title. The match has already taken place, it reportedly got filmed and I'm looking forward to sharing that match with you when I see it, so I won't spoiler you with the result. Instead, let's have a look back in time at another tournament final between a British Lightweight Champion and a blood relative - in this case his dad ...

I'll leave it to a French version of me to answer @ohtani's jacket's question but bear in mind (1) Guy at the time had two young sons Marc and Pierre coming up in the business and if you had asked him in 1983 if Le Catch was coming to an end, he would have pointed at his two boys then bitten your head off (2) a lot of the old crowd continued to make appearances even into the Noughties - viz Le Petit Prince putting in one last 2002 match before heading off to Thailand (and prematurely dying there in 2005) who IIRC still had a pretty busy schedule in 1983 and well through the 80s. (3) Guy and referee here Michel Saulnier were pioneers together in the whole Bon Beats up Arbitre Chiotte And The Crowd Cheers Him angle which we see an example of in this bout and which became a staple part of the final years of Le Catch Sur La Tele and the decades since the end of French Catch on terrestrial TV in France through to the 2020s, so that makes old man Guy one of the architects of the direction in which French Catch evolved.. Marcel Montreal still in great shape and looking like a French version of Tarzan Johnny Wilson here. Commentator Daniel Cazal says Montreal's real name is Marcel Chevaux, apparently A lot of the early minutes of this revolve around him getting an armlock on Mercier and hanging on. Apparently Mercier's name puns with the standard French phrase for asking if a wrestler wants to submit ("Vouz abandonnez, Monsieur?") although I'm sure Guy and his two sons must have run into that bad dozens of times before and since. Later, Guy takes control with an Indian Deathlock much like a Ric Flair Figure Four Leglock bent at 90 degrees. Marcel ties some interesting counters including turning the hold over into a leg scissors to hold in place a folding press pin attempt. He gets a Two before Guy reasserts himself. Things carry on that way with a headlock. Then it moves on to knockout attempts - slams, guillotine elbowsmashes, that sort of thing. One time Mercier follows down too quickly and gets a roasting from Saulnier. The crowd start an Aux Chiottes chant but before things can get really hairy, Montreal takes Guy back in the match. Later when Guy is knocked down, Saulnier tries to hurry to the end of the count but is warned off by Montreal and counts him properly. The wrestlers trade uppercuts, slam and Montreal takes o e hell of a bump from a Mercier backdrop. The crowd are still unhappy with Saulnier, completely ignoring Montreal's hammerlock on Mercier to shout abuse at the referee instead. Saulnier's instruction to break as the contest hits the ropes gets ignored by everyone else especially the crowd who are chewing him out. This is a pity as there is some good action in the ring at this point- Montreal has an arm extension which he widens his legs on occasionally to stop Mercier toupeeing out - I recall Bert Mychel doing this same trick against Gilbert LeDuc (on page 40 of this thread.). The bout goes to a time limit draw. Mercier and Montreal are both sporting to each other but Mercier still has needle with Saulnier and refuses to shake his hand. A good strength match rather than a technical classic. I don't think this was the end of an era any more than LeDuc or Rene Ben Chemouel's early 70s bouts were, or Michel Falempin turning up on Eurosport New Catch. They were however bouts where some of the old boys were having their last flashes. Two years before this, Ken Joyce put up a spirited performance before going down 2-0 to Johnny Saint, which shows yo that even at that stage of their careers, some people can keep the speed going.

Continuing from Prince Zefy Vs Colonel Brody on the German thread, here is another good technical bout that I didn't think was going to be one. Sid, as mentioned in the commentary, did a heel turn on Breaks at one of Rumble's outdoor shows at the Oval bandstand in Cliftonville, Kent this past summer. I don't think I posted it here, but it's up on Rumble's YouTube channel (same source as this video) if you want to go have a look. However both Sid and the promotion have since got cold feet on the turn, with Sid behaving himself at every TV match since. Even so, I expected there to still be some needle between these guys. In the event they have a good classy technical matchup with Sid showing a great deal of mastery of Breaks' trademark ankle scissor, first applying the hold himself and being able to twist Breaks up and down at will and then being able to simply step out of the hold when applied to him. Manelli is also much improved with regard to rolling escapes from armbars, previously his lack of use of this tactic has dissuaded me from singing his praises but here he has that area of the British style nailed. There's also a good section involving reversing standing Japanese strangleholds.It gets a little forearm smashes towards the end but Manelli scores a neat folding press for the winner. Breaks looks stunned and for a moment teases a heel turn of his own before shaking Manelli's hand. Presumably this is the last we shall see of the heel turn angle. I am reminded of Dean Allmark and James Mason's matches together. The earliest James/Dean (see what I did there?) match on video is from 2003 when James was doing an experimental heel stint for a year as Bad Boy James Mason, just as Danny Collins and Robbie Brookside both did in the mid 90s. Fast forward to 2010 and James is back as a good guy but at the start of All Star's residency in Birkenhead James flirts with heelishness and gets a public warning against Deano before being TKOd. Deano seems ready to decline the victory but a dazed Mason goes wild and attacks Allmark with a bunch of other wrestlers holding them apart. Deano the challenges James to a rematch where James is the heel throughout (apart from a blue-eye ring entry). This leads to them being on opposite sides of a six man elimination tag match with James, swapping his red/blue ring gear for heelish black/white, on the bad guys side. Versions of this were then redone on various holiday camp locations including one in which James appeared to have cheated to regain the British Heavyweight Championship from Deano only for guest dignitary Johnny Saint at ringside to alert the referee and get it reversed. However, when they met for said title at Fairfield Hall Croydon in November 2013 (one of the last shows in the Concert Hall before things moved to the smaller Ashcroft Theatre room in 2014) they had a FANTASTIC technical bout which I've previously posted on here and ends with a Deano win and a sportsmanly response from James and talk in the ring of a title rematch under full Mountevans rules. This never materialised but I still love to post that bout 11 years later as evidence of the survival of Traditional British Wrestling in the C21st. It's also two guys having a great clean match despite having a history of rivalry. Like this Breaks-Manelli match. (One thing I'm NOT happy about however is the addition of American style crowd barriers which make the crowd look smaller and remove the connection where fans eg old grannies could go right up to the ring apron to make their feelings known.)

Footnote to the above stories, All Star are due to return to the Victoria Hall Hanley 24th January 2025, 22 years after Dean Allmark Vs Mikey Whiplash, 24 years after Nagasaki & Powers Vs Jones and Walsh and nearly 39 years after Mighty John Quinn Vs Tony StClair on Screensport. Wrestling underwent a brief break at the Victoria Hall when it was closed for redecoration 1996-1998, an event Simon Garfield latches on to in his book as a symptom of an "end" which in truth has still never come. (He quotes Klondyke Kate says that her friend she used to go to shows with was getting very emotional about it). Nonetheless life went on and wrestling resumed in the redecorated venue as you can see in the 2000 and 2003 bouts. In the late 2010s a new manager took over who wanted to move the venue more upmarket so did a Greg Dyke job on the wrestling. This spurred plenty of protest and did score the one minor concession of a WOSW tour date at the venue in early 2019 before the pandemic put the mufflers on things generally. Now in the mid 2020s All Star returns to the Victoria Hall Hanley. Hallelujah

Saw this advertised on my Smart TV YouTube app last night, as I settled down to a TV pizza dinner, and thought it sounded like trouble. If you're a regular on this thread, you'll know that Colonel Brody as featured on ITV was a very watered down version of the "South African Military Man" character - in mid 80s Germany where the local handheld camcorders were not regulated by the IBA, he was an altogether nastier piece of work, an openly racist Boer (probably the inspiration for John Wisonski's "Colonel DeBeers" in America rather than the other way round) dropping N bombs left right and centre and using verbage that would have shamed even neo Nazi skinhead band Skrewdriver and this led to a fairly vicious feud with Billy Samson. So there was a certain amount of trepidation as to how he would respond to late 80s/early 90s French Catch's number two Bon, a man who, like the number one Bon, Flesh Gordon, has gone on to be a legend and family friendly hero in his country. Fortunately Brody keeps his trap shut and the two have a most scientific bout- Zefy interestingly using British style rolls on the mat rather than traditional French counters like the flying headscissor, reverse snapmare or backflip in top wristlock. Brody does get some hair pulling in and is warned by Mick McMichael (Brody Vs McMichael incidentally sounds like the most generic ITV matchup circa 1985 one could imagine but here they both are in somewhat different contexts) but otherwise keeps it clean and Zefy fires back with some dropkicks. Brody gets the win with his version of the Kamikaze Crash (diving fireman's carry) albeit for a pin, not a knockout, and gets himself back to the locker room without a single word spoken about the Prince's ethnicity. Not the messy, politically incorrect heat-fest I was expecting but a tidy little Heavyweights Who Can Move bout instead. Pleasant surprise.

Which reminds me - @Matt D did the INA keep records or videos of that first season of New Catch on TF1 in 1988? (Or the later Eurosport stuff, come to that? ) If not, possibly TF1 was no longer under the INA's remit after its 1987 privatisation. ( think I asked before but got no reply - apologies if you did reply and I missed or forgot it.)

Two more familiar British names on a French poster - Johnny Saint and Zolly Boscik Actually, everyone in that tag match was on ITV at one point or another 1970-1978. This was 1980 and It says "All the Stars of TF1" on it, so maybe TF1 was still broadcasting the odd episode by this point, about eight years before New Catch.

Rather nice little piece from the INA including promo from mask-era Ange Blanc. Roland Barthes on a chat show and plenty of action. Unfortunately it goes a bit haywire near the end and declares that everything went downhill from the 70s until Marc Mercier revived the FFCP in 2006- illustrated by footage of John Cena !!! Promotion al consideration paid for by MM - or was it by Vince McMahon?

Solitary Kamikazes were popping up on TV during the in between years like the one teaming with Der Henker in 1971 on the previous page against Jacky Corne and Gilbert LeDuc. We still don't know who the French Kamikazes were and even if Modesto was one, that still leaves the other. It's possible that some time in the late 60s, Modesto and "Benny" invested in some nicer gear and masks then hopped in the car and drove northwards across the Pyrenees hoping to make money and TV Stardom in the land of food, wine and an only slightly less oppressive military dictator (De Gaulle Vs Franco)

What channel were these? If they were channel 1, perhaps the INA only bothered to record colour bouts on channel 2. Otherwise we should have several bout from 1975-1977 in B/w but with a "Video-type motion" interlaced picture with no sign of film-related issues. One possibility is that the INA could not be bothered to invest much in the soon to be redundant 819 line video technology (and VHF signal) on which Channel 1 ran. Another is that by 1975, possibly earlier, promoters simply wanted all, or as many as possible , of their bouts in colour so were avoiding channel 1 like the plague. Which leads back to the question - what channel were these on?

https://www.facebook.com/groups/BritishWrestlingRemembered/permalink/8717283868309545/ Highlights of McManus Vs Pallo 1960s. Sadly someone decided to add music which was in copyright so half the soundtrack is missing. This, Thompson Vs StClair, the bits of Kaye Vs Zapata 1969 and Starr Vs Capello 1964 from The Final Bell 1988 and about 2 secs of Kellet Vs Hussey from 1967 in The Wrestler (camera converted from a shop window TV and spliced into the documentary makers'own footage of said bout) are the only pre-1970 ITV footage in wide circulation - unless people are prepared to share some earlier bouts featuring Ernie Riley etc mentioned elsewhere on this thread.

Firmin, the sixties' answer to Paul Butard the Butler

Looks like the French had the same business model as the British, intensive touring rather than big individual houses.

A dream clean match for early 60s Catch Francais - but taking place on the other side of the Pyrenees down in Madrid, Spain. Eleven years before the CIC's closure and one year before it cut back to just Madrid and Barcelona, leaving Southern Spain and Portugal "Dark" just as Italy went Dark too. (The North of Spain would be fought over by French and German promoters up to he late 80s before Vince properly reactivated Spain and Italy- but left Greece to wither and die). It's a cinema newsreel snippet, mainly focussing on one particular female fan. Action shown is mainly high spottd, fortunately including two of Gilbert's famous toupees ( one escape from headscissors and one headscissor throw. Also a brief Manchette battle with Ange doing a nifty scissor chop. Would love to see this bout in full, I wonder if the raw footage is out there.

Kendo Nagasaki has recently been in action in Croydon. At age 83, natch

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1188513425037928/posts/1617675022121764/ I've sent Lilia a link to this thread. Perhaps we can help.

Okay here goes. No sign of any previous review on here. The man in the mask meets the man with the belt. Not too clear at the start of this was a title match - if so there would be a bit more pomp and ceremony, see Jean Ferre's title win over Franz Van Buyten, or the end of Gilbert Vs Mychel. This starts with a Gilbert promo but don't get too excited, it's a down to Earth Bon getting buttonholed on his way into the ring, hecsays he thinks he has what it takes to win. We shall see. Gilbert is a lot spryer than he seemed in the Mychel bout. He undoes wrist levers turning this way and that. He does get caught in an overhead double wristlock and rolls between mat and standing, looking for an escape. Eventually he does the very French Scisseax Volees takedown but Henker easily escapes. Henker actually has quite a style of his own, blocking throws and attempts at holds quite a lot, it is hard work for Le Duc to get a rear chancery snapmares on him, Henker arrests the momentum pushing down hard on his knee. He prevents Gilbert escaping a straight arm scissor by moving one foot further down LeDuc's chest. LecDuc does his toupee to escape the hold. In the past I have used the term toupee to refer purely to the Édouard Carpentier crossed headscissor version. I stand corrected. That is Gilbert's next move and he does pull it off twice despite Henker grasping his knees. Henker slides this down into an unlocked figure 4 then into the sitting leglock before finally dumping the science and getting out the Mechant style of Henry Penny (sorry) with some closed fist punches to get the crowd angry. Gilbert gets an Indian Deathlock. Agrees stalemate. Gilbert accidentally knocks over the ref while making his point. He gets an Avertisement but takes it in his stride. Henker gets another top double wristlock, illegal throttle and legal pressure points hold. Glbert gets more like the Mychel bout now. Side healocks etc. Hener gets in a slam which Gilbert sells heavily. Twelve minutes from the end Gilbert goes for the mask but the ref saves it. Henker lands hard from an Irish whip and Gilbert follows in with an armlock.securedcwith an armscissors. Henker replies with a headscissors. LecDuc twice tries his corkscrew toupee escape but to no avail, Henker turns the scissors over and applies pressure. Third time, he pulls his head out. He tries the mask but L'Arbitre will have none of it. Henker gets back his armlock. He puts his foot on Le Duc 's head to secure the arm. He gets a slam in then goes back to the arm. Le Duc overpowes with an armlock of his own into a hiptoss. Henker holds on and gets in a slam. LeDuc gets another hiptoss. Henker throws off a LeDud headscissor like a Brit. Henker gets two forearms, an overhead press slam and drop. He goes a bit wild pulling hair and L'Arbitre tells him off. Henker gets a 2 count and Manchettes Gilbert around. Le Duc retaliates and it becomes what Kent Walton would decry as a Forearm Smashing Contest.(Cornette is no fan of these either, although these two do at least sell the effects, falling down from the blows. Gilbert gets a cross press and pinto win the belt and gets the belt put on him. No flowers so probably not a championship match. No attempt is made to get the defeated Henker to unmask, he just mills around with other officials. He'll live to fight another day, complete with his Cagoule. Yes, I like this and I'm getting into LeDuc although I guess these are his later years.