David Mantell

Triple tag team time. Best of five falls Brody and Taylor work well together., Taylor gets the first fall on him. When not tagged in, Brody gets very mouthy on the ring apron. N bombs are banned but F bombs are fair game. Which is lucky as Boyd is black and we all know what Brody said about Billy Samson two years earlier in VDB. Boyd pins Polanski for the equaliser, I like Polanski he reminds me of a roided up Ole Anderson. I hope I see more of him. Hashimoto is a bit too tubby for the Kojima style martial artist role. Taylor scores a second one of Brody to make it 2-1 then Schumann gets the 3-1 winner on Hashimoto. (I shall have to read up about him, I've heard the name but don't really know what the big deal is.) Passable fun end of the night Triple Tag spiced up by some good technical work from the two Brits.

Gastel a lot younger and slimmer than the burly Bill Watts-esque Taureau de Batignol of the early 70s but just as much a Mechant. Gastel uses almost a punch to get out of a hold rather than a clever escapes, it gets heat but not quite as much as in England Brown uses a great leg extension submission attempt. Gastel puts up more of a fight than OJ suggests but Brown's technical work is more eye catching. Gastel gets an Avertisement for stomping Brown. The win comes suddenly, as the two are bouncing off the ropes Brown uncorks a huracanrana into a cross press for the one fall required and he feels good, he knew that he could.... Second bout starts off as strength match with Q using the odd foul to even up what shout have advantages the bigger Kovacs. Who looks like a giant version of Zoltan Boscik, same balding scalp and everything. Q gets extended advantage with a single leg Boston Crab which Kovacs has to work hard to power out of. Slow moving bout comes to a sudden end when Kovacs gets an aeroplane spin for the pin. Q has to be carried back to his corner. He tries a sneak attack and nearly gets pummeled until Kovacs calms down. Commentator (Couderc?) calls both Bon wins "la justice". Ring has no corner pads, not even turnbuckles.

How to do disqualifications well, as demonstrated in German Catch. Wouldn't you know it it's the future PN News And he gets Roy StClair's bro to do a whole lotta Juice Til the referee decides that he just gotta stop So disqualifies him and he throws a BIG OL' STROP yo baby yo baby yo Match builds Grizzly nicely as the despicable disgraceful heel who just uses wrestling as an excuse to beat up on people and really earns his DQ. Neu goes quite postal over it, almost as good as Sgt Slaughter at Survivor Series 1990 and the German MC seems to have fun taunting him over it.

Possibly an antecedent to all this monkey business. Commentator makes a lot of Beauty and the Beast jokes, Montallier being Beauty apparently. Actually LBH (Willy Wesley) is a pretty decent mover. A huracanrana near the start and two move near the end, plenty of back rolls and kip ups. This beast can go. And go berserk too., as he throws Montallier and the referee out of the ring, doing a female spectator a mischief in the process.

http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=005024;p=0 @Phil Lions Been skimming through your wrestling classics thread on Kats Eleniki. Was reading about Di Bestie and King Kong. Apart from the question if one of them is in the movie clip (or the Italian Clip), do you think such "GorillaGram" gimmicks might have been a precedent for (getting back on topic! ) Mambo Le Primitiv on 1980s French TV? P.S. WWE did finally make it on to Greek TV in 2019 https://www.wwe.com/worldwide/article/wwe-skai-partner-to-televise-raw-smackdown-in-greece

It's a very Euro thing. You get it on ITV too, especially a hotly contested title match in the late 80s such as Marty Jones's title defences or Kendo's title win over Wayne Bridges (also in 1987) There was a lot of it at Summerslam 92- Park, Park, Parp-parp-parp, Parp-parp-parp-parp, BULL-DOG! Like a lot of UK and French fans chants (ea-SAY ea-SAY, allez Les Verts/blues/rouges, Anux Chiottes L'Arbitre) it originally came from the football stadiums. It seems to annoy Americans a lot more, I guess we're more immunised to it over here. Barry Darsow had one as Blacktop Bully in the crowd on WCW Worldwide in 1994 Maybe Max Crabtree WAS in with a chance after all!

I think the problem was more Max Crabtree not wanting Daddy to be seen as anything less than an indestructible force of nature, so making Shirley take "working strong" to insane paranoid levels. Wanz was more of a Dusty character, struggling on blood and sweat to a hard fought victory. I'll agree it could have been All Star just as easily by 1987, particularly as Quinn was one of Dixon's top stars. One thing is certain, Naggers - ex Riley's Gym, ex regular training partner of Billy Robinson - could DEFINITELY handle Vader in a shoot!

He nonetheless came back to the CWA 1989-1991 and had two more reigns as World Champion before WCW, having tried him out in 1990, brought him back in early 1992 to replace a disillusioned Lex Luger in the combined roles of heel World champion, Sith apprentice to Harley Race and archenemy of Sting.

I think in 1987, 56 year old Big Daddy could reasonably keep up with 32 year old Bull Power. Bear in mind White was still quite green in 1987, he'd had one significant push in the AWA as a nice kid NFL alumnus who posed a comparable threat to Stan Hansen's World title to fellow ex gridironer Lex Luger's threat in 1986 Florida to Ric Flair's NWA World title until co-opted into the Four Horsemen. White had instead beaten visiting ex AWA champion Otto Wanz for his CWA title in March 1987 and earned himself a trip to Europe to job the title back. Having done the job in July, he was free to accept offers and would have been checked out by any number of Joint Promotions stars working the '87 summer season who would have passed the message back to Max Crabtree about this new big American monster. Had things worked out with Jim Hellwig to become Vader as per plan A and White not been approached, he might have taken any number of next steps and Britain, as a scary North American monster following in the footsteps of John Quinn and Jim Harris, to be built up for a showdown with Daddy, might have been one option.

This really belongs on the British thread, but when it comes to Big Daddy's overall fitness I think you have to differentiate between what aggrieved wrestlers bitched about him and the hard evidence of how he kept himself in shape. I could post some scans of images from the 1983 Big Daddy Annual of him working out in the weights room and the swimming pool at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre (which, incidentally I lived near to as a teenager and went training there myself when I was into such things) I could also post testimony from fellow wrestlers like Dave Bond who witnessed Daddy work out (in Bond's case at the NSC). There is also TV footage (from news coverage of Mal Kirk 's death) of him working out with an Olympic wrestling dummy in his home gym. Physically he took a lot better care of himself than, say, Vader did. He WAS a big Endomorph and that does have a vast negative impact on health and conditioning but as 350+ pound Endomorphs come and go, he was one of the better-kept ones. Certainly much better than Vader even when Vader was a much younger age. Big Daddy's real weakness in the ring was how underdeveloped he was as a shooter in what way very much a shooter's territory. In that respect he was in the same boat as legendary "Tankers" such as Wayne Munn. Gus Sonnenburg, Danno O'Mahoney, Buddy Rogers, Superstar Graham and the entire generation of steroid freaks that came in Graham's wake. However since Vader had no legitimate Catch Wrestling skill whatsoever, even worse than Daddy, that is not an issue in their case.

The only comments I've ever heard about Daddy's cardio are cynical asides rather than sober assessments. He trained and worked out regularly. He was a non-smoking teetotaler whereas Vader had real problems with the sauce later on. He lived four years longer than Vader and wrestled his last bout at the same age as Vader was when he died (63 years 1 month.) Most Brits worked relatively stiff anyway so Shirley could take more than a few bangs.

It's weird to hear the German fans chant JOHNNY JOHNNY for him. Vader had the same attitude and demeanor as Bert Assirati but unlike him was not a top Wigan Snakepit hooker/Ripper or indeed a shooter at all. Big Daddy would have been deep in the scheiss against a shooter who wasn't prepared to do biz but if it came to a straight up scrap, he could probably handle himself. Shirley and Eunice Crabtree's working honeymoon in c.1970 (during his semi retired period between leaving the Paul Lincoln BWF in 1966 and joining Joint in 1972) was a wrestling tour of Germany/Austria. Apparently they had to do a 5am bunk out of a window of one Vienna hotel due to being unable to pay the bill.

Have bought a ticket to All Star's next Dudley Town Hall show on Sat 26th October. Will post a report. If anyone can make it and wishes to join me, here are tickets: https://www.boroughhalls.co.uk/all-star-superslam-wrestling.html

Some more Kojima in the UK, this time on Reslo February 1995 as a blue-eye in Great Muta style Kabuki paint. Not much technical work but he does some good acrobatic stuff, including some sharp dropkicks and a fantastic ground launched flying elbowsmash although he comes a cropper when he goes up on the top turnbuckle. Commentators mention judo and taekwondo, presumably martial arts Karimoto/Kojima is good at- Orig also says something about George Kidd. Referee Jack Flash Davey (he was interviewed in one of the Irish TV clips I posted a couple of pages back) seems not to be bothered by the no follow downs rule and let's both of them throw it out of the window. Drew trimmed himself down and grew out his hair for the Ultimate Chippendale gimmick in 1992 (you can see him in the title sequence as he was). but is still doing it despite having ballooned quite a bit and looking like early 70s French heel Robert Gastel. No long body shaming speech tho, possibly because he would have had to do it in Welsh. Drew gets the win with a reverse piledriver (the Tombstone if you insist.)

A more amenable opponent for Wilson (who carried on into the Noughties) was Satoshi Kojima who worked for All Star in the mid 90s as heel Japan's Mean Machine, occasionally accompanying his hosts on the ferry trip across the North Sea to CWA Land. Lighter and more agile than Muir, he and Wilson have a far more dynamic bout, more watchable despite the wandering fan cam. Note Wilson getting the same back submission hold on Kojima a lot more easily than on bulky old Muir. Referee is Mick McMichael, minus the kilt. When Kojima met Simon Garfield...

Tarzan Johnny Wilson with his muscles and leopardskin trunks was a crowd favourite despite being something of a strength wrestler. He was clearly taller than brutal monster heel Bully Boy Muir and his better physique than flabby Muir offset any wight disadvantage. Muir tended to get DQd a lot and portrayed himself as being in the game more to beat people up than actually win. This time Wilson really had Muir on the run by the deciding fall and Muir's earning himself a third and final public warning was a face-saving exercise rather than lose by 2-1. Nearest American equivalent would be Ken Patera Vs King Kong Bundy circa 1987.

Veteran comedy heel Mansfield isn't really the right opponent for Breaks but he does get his moments including perfectly running through Johnny Saint's "Lady Of The Lake" sequence. You'll notice the crowd has built up a bit since the earlier Hakan Vs O'Reilly match too. It built up even more on the next few matches.

What did you reckon to Quinn as a Babyface? I wonder if Max Crabtree ever tried to lure Leon White to Britain to be fed to Big Daddy?

A couple more EWP 2011 snippets from the same YouTube channel: Fit Finlay Vs Big Van Walter, now Gunther in WWE. The UK Hooligans (Roy and Zak Knight, sons of Ricky Knight and Saraya Senior, brothers of Saraya/Paige) Vs two German babyfaces whose names I can't catch.

Still a part of EWP shows in 2011

Some more early 90s Dynamite Kid, this time headlining for All Star against Skull Murphy. Murphy (Peter Northey) was older than Tommy B and had been wrestling back to the 60s, yet not only did he continue into the Noughties but he had a British Light Heavyweight Championship run ahead of him in 1995. Here is one of their main events: .Skull attacks Kid before the bell and gets a lot of early damage in on Dyno. Tommy fights back and when Skull tries to stop him with a foul, he gets a public warning for his efforts By halfway through it's been more of a brawl than a technical match with Skull mostly dominating with his Skull duggery. Dynamite gets in a slide dropkick but Skull takes the action outside and ends up getting a Second and Final PW. Skull tries to apply his Gator hold but Dynamite finally rallies, does one of his trademark flying headbutts then a flying tackle off the ropes for the only required fall and the win. Would have liked to see this match - or Dynamite Vs Finlay- back in 82/83. This bout is slower than the tags but there are still some flashes of the old genius.

YAY! Another good scientific match. And this time between two actual Germans/Austrians rather than it taking a Brit to get things going on the technical front. From VdB's brief dabble with good broadcast-quality TV/Video production in January 1998 in Berlin in a nice hotel dining room. Franz Schumann is already a familiar figure, Karsten Kretschner an unfamiliar face. Although like the old generation of Chall, Dieter senior etc they work and sell holds over longer periods, these guys do know their escapes, especially very British inspired ones like rollout from wrist levers ( both KK and Franz who goes over on his head like Owen Hart.). When Franz falls out of the ring, KK sportingly holds the ropes open for him to get back in. Franz uses a neat trip into Gotch toehold at the start of Round 2, developing it into a surfboard. He nearly gets a pin with a double underhook suplex and cross press. KK gets a DDT but due to the no follow down rule has to stand back for a knockout count, Franz is up at 8. KK reapplies the initial front facelock of the DDT but Franz turns himself round so it becomes a standing chin lock. He then reverse snapmares himself behind KK, comes off the ropes, leaps into a crucifix and takes down KK in a further nelson for the one required pinfall. A real tonic this match and an antidote to Otto. Bull Power and CG/Neu.

At least, a clean scientific match after all these American monster heels coming to the CWA to take on big Otto. Bearcat Wright has switched back to being plain Bernie and grown his hair out. In long thunderbolt tights and curly hair, he resembles Brian Adidas in World Class around this time. Back home he takes on opposition like Marty Jones, Ray Robinson, Steve Casey (McHoy) and a maturing Ian McGregor. In Germany he does the same with Rolo Brasil, a far more agile and imaginative wrestler than the old ball generation of Dieter, Chall etc. Rolo and Bernie reverse each others writers nearly with Rolo showing he can go over from cross buttocks throws. on double hand spring ups to get upright just as well as Wright can! Rolo legspreads Bernie but Wright cartwheels out of being knocked down The round ends with the ref having to untangle an Indian Deathlock. Rolo gets in behind and uses his head and a shoulder to take down Wright for a leglock. Rolo has a look of puzzled innocence at times, no doubt some people might mistake for being a comedy worker. Start of round 4: Rolo puts on an interesting reverse surfboard backbreaker but it doesn't work. Another good move is a backbreaker draping Wright behind him over his shoulders by the knees. It weakens Bernie that once dropped he has to take most of a knockout count. Next up is a cal clutch. Then a full nelson, Wright really selling his back. Round 5 and Wright gets in some back weakness of his own and goes for a folding press but only gets a two count. Wright still selling his back. They end up going over the ropes onto the timekeeper's table for a double TKO. Probably my favourite German match so far. Nice to see the VDB fans appreciating the skilll and sportsmanship. Some people round here won't like the finish but c'est la vie. I would have liked to see these two have a 1-1 Broadway but it was a busy tournament and they had a lot to fit in that day.

Fan cam of an IBV/CWA tournament. Starts off with one of those Parades of Gladiators they always went in for with German Catch. Salvatore Bellomo already turning into the Wildman (see New Catch bout on the French Catch thread) shadow boxing exuberantly and looking a bit mid. Plenty of Brits here- ironically this was filmed the same day as The Final Bell, the Brits are hours into the post TV Era. Steve Wright gets some nice bunches of flowers (a common accolade in Europe and Japan but Americans must think "WTF?") Long shots of the venue are amazing. No small town halls or theatres in Germany. Dave Taylor Vs Cannonball Grizzly played by Paul Neu, the future PN News. At this point not so much a rapper as a punk rocker, sporting a magnificent blond mohican. Taylor can have good scientific matches (as you would expect from the legendary Eric Taylor's nephew) - check him out against Johnny South in 1987, but what can you do with Neu? Have brawls with him mostly. Taylor actually has the height advantage over Neu. He lets the Cannonball be the dominant monster heel early on, but Taylor gives as good as he gets and eventually scores a KO win after Grizzly takes a table bump outside.

TBWs are still 'a thing' in 2024. I'm not sure if feeding young Raymond to aggressive arrogant villain Hakan (in the same lineage as Tally Ho Kaye and the heel Alan Dennison but with added dirty wrestling tactics beyond even those two). There's some good technical wrestling at the start and young Ray gets in some good two counts midway through (although he slightly botches a further nelson/crucifix takedown and a forwards folding press) before going down. I'd like to see the kid in with one of the two younger Bryant brothers or even with a veteran like Nino himself or Jordan Breaks.