David Mantell

As an example of how far the Gospel According to Kent Walton and Joint Promotions had spread in mainstream British society, I below present that paragon of solid British middle class education The Modern Encyclopedia For Children, Odhams Books (imprint of Hamlyn Publishing, published 1966 revised 1969, copy bought by my grandma at a 1980s jumble sale: I refer you particularly to subsection IV of the encyclopedia entry.

Salvatore just beginning the transition to Wildman Bellomo. He's still a Bon here but sporting longer hair, a beard and some new weight, looking like a younger trimmer Lou Albano. Commando (with a name like that, he should NEVER do a match with Harry "Phantasio" Del Rios) has a similar gimmick to current WS talent Hugo Perez and is probably about as American as Giant Haystacks was in mainland Europe. The match goes about five minutes an most revolves around an out of the ring brawl involving trophies. Prior to which it was proceeding as what would have passed for a scientific match in the WWF at the time (say, Greg Valentine Vs Jimmy Snuka).

Was that the first one of the two in my review? The weirdest thing about that series is Mighty John Quinn as the blue-eye/ babyface. Considering (1) he was a MASSIVE heel in All Star Wrestling on ITV right around this time (2) Bull Power had been a white meat babyface in the AWA as "Baby Bull" Leon White. Or as close to being one as a 300+ pound former American Football player can be. ******************** (Cultural tip. Study that phrase "American Football". Imagine how glitzy and glamorous it would have sounded to impressionable youth in post WW2 Britain and, allowing for translation, across The Continent. {Bowie, it is said, went through a brief teenage phase of affecting to be an NFL fan despite, at that point in his young life, never yet having actually seen a game.} Then consider the phrase "American Wrestling" in the same context. This was key to the marketing of the American Wrestling boom from 1989 onwards. And is also why at various points in its history, All Star has billed itself as American Wrestling despite being as British as boiled beef.)

One more bite of Stax Vs StClair. This is from 1978 not the 80s despite the video title. Stax and Elrington were coming off a run of success against Daddy and StClair. The duo had bean Daddy and Gary Wensor 2-1 in Daddy's last ever TV loss before Max Crabtree banned such things and Stax (rumoured to have been a replacement for the abruptly retired Kendo Nagasaki) had taken StClair's British Heavyweight title at the Royal Albert Hall by TKO after splashing him in the legs. You all know the score with a Big Daddy tag (although Tony and Bruno do have a couple of nice technical bits) so I'll keep the focus on Tony and the Giant. Stax uses the same splash to the legs as at the RAH to soften him for a single leg Boston Crab equaliser submission. He then dominated until Daddy interferes twice to help Tony get the deciding fall (the first time is spotted and disallowed, the second not.). Tony would soon regain the title by DQ then clear off to Orig and Brian Dixon with his title which lives on today as zAll Star's Supslam title, currently held by Joel Redman aka Oliver Grey.

Pretty much the same story as the German fights. Haystacks dominates, StClair fights back (this time a round bell stops Stax going over the rope) but gets too confident when he tries a flying tackle - Stacks catches, slams an guillotine elbowsmashes Tony for a Knockout win. As a lap of honour he boots StClair out of the ring which Tony sells masterfully, rolling out like a football kicked in a playground.

Et Voila. I believe the other commentator is Reslo's Bryn Fon doing a rare English commentary. This was on a VHS release from the early 90s when there was a wrestling video boom and the shelves of HMV and Virgin Megastore were stuffed to the brim with "WILD CRAZY NO HOLDS BARRED AMERICAN WRESTLING" consisting anything from IWA 1975 to Crockett NWA Worldwide to Memphis 1985 to the latest WWF WrestleMania or WCW Starrcade (These days you can pick up all these old tapes for £2 a throw from memorabilia fairs or even charity shops now and then). And as ITV and plenty of British and Welsh TV footage and yea verily even the odd spot of CWA. (No Catch Francais tho, although see the Noughties online advert linked to in the France thread.) Pretty straight Stax squash like the last one with the one BIG hope spot before Stax gets his revenge. Points of interest: referee Mick McMichael in his kilt, an electronic BEEP instead of a bell for timekeeping, the fact that Haystacks was a Salford lad who no more came from Kilmashar than he did from the United States of America. Oh yes and 120K spectators in Iraq. Both Stax and Orig were given to exaggeration so I'm not too interested in the figure but the Iraq booking gives a clue to the state of Saddam's state run promotion after Adnan Al Qaisi bottled the country in the mid 70s - the other reference we have to the Iraqi scene circa 1990 is from PWI's Around The World column on its Wrestling Enquirer pages where Bad New Brown lost to another American (I forget who) in Baghdad December 1990 and the American was quoted as saying his family had been worried but he had no regrets making the trip. I've turned up a Reslo match of Stax Vs StClair which I shall post to the British Thread.

Stax and StClair had previously wrestled each other a lot 1975-1980 when they were both in Joint Promotions. From tag bouts with Big Daddy - teaming with either man against the other - to hot potatoing the Mountevans British Heavyweight Championship. Now in another time another place, they meet again. This bout was filmed for the CWA's home video series but spliced into an episode of Eurosport New Catch. English language New Catch Commentator Orig Williams comes up with a crafty explanation for Stax being from the USA - apparently he is on Special Licence. I guess Kirk was too in 1986. Stax gets in with his usual demolition job early. StClair fights back hard, knocking Stax down a few times (I have another CWA bout of theirs on tape from around the same time where StClair hauls Stax out of the ring and silly old Orig says he's never seen that done before like he never saw Stax Vs Daddy at Wembley 1981) and eventually gets a DQ win like he did to regain the British Heavyweight title from Stax in 1979. Otto Wanz comes down to ringside to confront Haystacks. Nobody's technical bout but enough of a clash of the titans to keep a German/ Austrian audience full of beer and sausage meat (or equally a WWF audience) happy.

I wasn't on so much about the spectator talking heads, I was on about the alternating crowd shots/action sections which alternate between particularly outlandish high spots and crowds marking out to them. It's a sneery style of narrative about wrestling used by documentaries, newsreels and TV shows the world over for articles on wrestling which the producers feel is below them. The "Let's Have A Good Old Laugh At These Crazy Wrestlers And The Sad Lunatics Who Go See Them!" style of documentary about wrestling. That said I enjoyed seeing what the German scene was like back then. That old B/W film was to 1980s IBV/CWA and VDB home video releases what b/w kinescope prints of 1960s British or French TV matches are to colour VT format recordings (be they off air or surviving master tapes) of 1980s British or French TV matches. (Likewise if we had more of Paul Lincoln's 1960s BWF cinema films like that Wild Man Of Borneo bout, that would have a similar relationship to 1980s British opposition promotions TV/Video footage like Screensport, Reslo and the Pallos' 1981 home video release)

Stax in France! Accompanied by an attractive and very excited-looking female valet (did Rita Ruane know?) and doing promos in a Manc accent while a screen caption proclaims him to be from the USA. Van B dodges the usual execution by bringing a chair into the ring and getting himself DQd.

Two Old Catch veterans going at it on New Catch in 1989. By now Gerard Bouvet is an old boy and Jacky Richard is a Marquis De Fumolo in full 1700s get up. Paul Butin Fluchard the butler does A LOT of interference for his master which is a pity because there is a LOT of good old fashioned mat technical wrestling on display too when it gets the chance.

It's interesting to see this particular wrestling culture that far back, back in the days when all the world was black and white film. With French Wrestling we can easily follow its evolution from the mid 1959s to the early 90s across 3 channels and then Eurosport. With British Wrestling If the Granada TV archives are ever opened up we could do the same and at least we do have ample TV footage from the early 70s onwards. Germany/Austria we only have large quantities from 1980 onwards so it's good to be able to relate the world of IBV/CWA and VBD back to that same sixties era. If the videos went back that far (or more realistically if they had replaced some Paul Lincoln style cinema based distribution, this is how the footage would look. Unfortunately the documentary makers have gone the usual freakshow narrative of their kind, mixing the most outlandish OTT match spots they could find with shots of marks marking out with a sneery "haha look at these strange people who like this stuff" narrative rather than showing wrestling at its best for what a fine skilled sport it can be.

Tony did his fair share of brawls with Haystacks in both the UK and Germany/ Austria going back to the Saints Vs Stax. & Daddy in '75 and a couple of British Heavyweight Championship changes circa 1979

Ian McGregor was a TBW (who shared his name with the chairman of the National Coal Board at the time, during or just after the 1984-1985 Miners Strike.) Steve Logan MK2, the clean cut Birmingham one (not the by then retired South London Iron Man) was an ex TBW now in his early twenties and going places. Never held a Mountevans title (he and Caswell Martin should have), ended up decades later as heel authority figure for his own K Star promotion and owner of a sister chain of Muay Thai/martial arts gyms in the Midlands. First semifinal of the Grand Prix Belt, Joint Promotions' answer to the IWGP title which was also won in an annual tournament rather than being held and defended. One of two big annual televised trophy tournaments in the mid/late 80s along with the Golden Grappler trophy. Logan is the more experienced of the two and it shows in the work as well as the kayfabe with Steve coming out with the better moves. McGregor does execute a nifty counter to headscissors, rolling out towards into a side headlock and does a SPLENDID Folding press held with Bridge for his consolation fall. Logan's falls are a sunset flip into a double leg nelson and a deft Powerslam as a counter to as flying tackle attempt as they criss cross off the ropes. Not as good a McGregor performance than as against Nipper Riley in 1984 (see earlier in thread) but a fine technical clean bout that's right up my street even if not up OJs. You won't find a more sports based presentation of pro wrestling than this sort of bout and that's how us purists like it! McGregor about a year later would start flirting with heel tactics. By 1993 he and Drew McDonald would be the Wild Jocks and feuding with Big Daddy in the final months of his career. Logan MK2, as I say. never got a title but not for want of chances. He faced World Mid Heavyweight champion Fit Finlay for his title with ex and future champ Marty Jones at ringside, "FINLAY IS A FAKE" sign in hand. He made it to a couple of vacant British tournament finals. Sadly he was no more successful with the 1986 Grand Prix Belt final, losing to Marvelous Mike Bennett, the breakout lighter heel of 1986 in a red hot feud with Danny Collins over the British Welterweight title.

Battle Royal, August 1988. On ITV, Battle Royals were capped at eight men. This one appears to be twelve. Reslo in the 90s got up to 15 but that's still lower than the 20 at WM2 and WM4. Plenty of Brits in here, Tony St.Clair, Steve Wright, Dave Taylor, Colonel Brody plus Mick McMichael in his kilt is refereeing. At one point he hauls Dave Taylor out by the legs after an eliminated Dave goes back in. It ends I with a Kerry Von Erich esque babyface (possiblyTom Magee) and s heel in black tights who moves out of the way to trick the "Kerry" wrestler to eliminate himself over the ropes. I though Otto (clad in black and white, looking like a crossword puzzle or maybe a 1960s TV test pattern) might win but nope.

Normally Boscik was an uppity heel going back to the early 60s - he liked to brag about how as a Former British champion he deserved respect but against Cry Baby Jim Breaks the crowd were on Zolly's side if only to watch Breaks stew. The former and then-current British Lightweight Champions (current champ is still Nino Bryant) going at it nearly 52 years ago. Solid scientific bout spiced up with Breaks'usual antics. Zoltan gets a fall lead lead before Breaks class back and equaliser and decider in the final two rounds, the second with the Breaks special.

See if you recognize Farag's opponent - we were talking about him just a few posts back!

How German Catch Begat Egyptian Wrestling: Before the Egyptian Revolution there had been occasional tours of Egypt by foreign promotions. In 1981 just after the Camp David agreement brought Egypt back in from the cold, a young Egyptian wrestler called Mamdouh Farag was wrestling in Germany for the VDB. That's him above against 60s France's answer to Sid, Rene Lasartesse. Quite a slow moving first round, after some collar and elbow. RL gets a front chancery with it but is unable to push Farag around. Farag dumps Rene over the ropes and gets him down in arm arm extension. The bell saves Lasartesse after he fails to get to the ropes. Rene gets things together in round 2, repeatedly chopping Farag down and leaving him to be counted before missing a kneedrop. Farag attacks the blond Frenchman on the mat and gets a yellow card (Public Warning.). At one point Farag appears to have a Knockout win but the referee disagrees. The bell goes, Rene hits Farag after the bell and Farag forearms him out of the ring and gets a private warning. Rene gets his heat back again in round 3 but then misses a top turnbuckle move. Farag punishes the Frenchman so much that he walks out for a while before coming back in time for the break. Rene is reluctant to get up until dragged up by Farag but gets his heat back and this time hits the flying kneedrop to get a Knockout. Farag feeling that Rene should have got some earlier counts, indulges in French style ref bashing, pitching the official over the ropes to the cheers of the crowd. Not long after this the VDB would tour Germany with a troupe involving Farag and Tony StClair and then help Farag set up his own scene in Egypt with himself as leady babyface - "Egypt's own Rocky story" When he got older, Farag moved in 1997 from wrestling Stardom to TV stardom as a presenter. He provided unauthorized Arabic commentary for WWE tapes which- Cairo being a major media hub of the Arab world - spread all over the Middle East. Thoroughly annoyed, the WWF banned Farag from the building when WWE came to Cairo for three nights in October 2012. Farag died two years later in 2014 aged 64. https://cairoscene.com/Buzz/The-Death-of-a-Wrestling-Legend

If Kent Walton in 1985 was to be belied. Jorg Chenok was European Welterweight Champion at this point, having won it off Wolfgang Saturski in 1981. What can be validated is that he turned up as champion in 1985 (seven years after Dynamite Kid cleared off to Stampede) to lose it to Danny Collins in a match screened on ITV on FA Cup Final Day, leading to Collins spending long hot summers in the late 80s driving round France and Northern Spain defending his title on FFCP shows. Back home in Germany Chenok was the form but fair hard nosed blue eye and here he faces bratty young strutting heel Wallas. Jorg reminds me of Mike Flash Jordan before he went "funny" on Johnny Saint during their 1988 World title feud. Wallas reminds me of Ritchie Brooks in the early 90s or his heavier Leeds Boys tag partner Tarzan Boy Darren Ward once he took went heel (although facially he is more like Erik Watts.). Maybe an evil version of pre-WCW Steve Regal- I guess that sounds odd to you Americans who only know him as Lord Steven or William, but Wallas/Regal about 5 years later would have been a great match. Not really much chain wrestling, more big moves to try to get knockout counts from the start, something in Britain one doesn't usually do until later on in the match. The odd bit of dirty from Wallas. Chenok makes his blue-eye comeback with forearms, dropkicks and a quick wrenching arm scissor before Wallas gets the one submission required with a straight arm lift. Music between rounds includes infamous 80s wedding party/holiday disco favourite Agadoo by Black Lace (later satirised by Spitting Image's The Chicken Song.)

Where is this venue? It looks like a communal space in the middle of a housing estate. I guess residents can watch for free from the comfort of their windows. It's also broad daylight. (the Quinn Vs Kauroff bout was the same place after dark.) A very elderly Peter Wilhelm (Otto's business partner and a couple of years later German commentator on Eurosport New Catch) comes down to be referee. Leon White comes out to Born in the USA, just 2 years after the US Express were using it in the WWF. A little over a year earlier "Babyface Bull" was a white meat babyface challenger to then AWA World Champion Stan Hansen. Now look at him, fresh from having accepted the role of Big Van Vader in New Japan after Jim Hellwig turned it down. Sporting a Road Warrior Hawk haircut and dog collar. He's also sporting the CWA World title belt which he won off Wanz back home in Colorado and has come to Europe to defend.. Quinn as later that day is the babyface - "Johnny! Johnny!" - coming down to THAT song by Manfred Mann which he also used a lot in England (including Wembley Arena 1979.) Bull Power has all the same moves as Big Daddy - bodychecks, slam. splash. Quinn has learned since the Daddy feud and blocks the splash with his knees. Quinn takes over. Another back and forth slug and punch. Bull attacks Quinn between rounds, Quinn knocks Bull Power out of the ring. Peter's t-shirt gets ripped up revealing one out of shape body. Female fan can be heard getting the giggles. Normally I would take offence but she actually sounds quite sexy and it's not like she's laughing at classic scientific wrestling. Vader turns on Wilhelm and beas him up viciously. I guess that got him DQd. It certainly got him a rematch ... Later that afternoon with a different referee, sky is darker now. More strength match than a brawl. Bull slaps MJQ who looks like he can't believe someone did that to him. Forearm smashes and clotheslines exchanged. Quinn gets a leg, Bull goes for the ropes. Quinn gets a Big Daddy splash for the first fall and first actual pin of the match series. They brawl outside the ring. Bull Power apparently gets a second straight fall. Another wrestler comes to help Quinn but Bull wallops him and leaves with arms raised. What Daddy Vs Quinn 1979 would have been if Max Crabtree had allowed Quinn to get any offence in on his big brother. Otto would regain the title in July. Bull Power would win it again in 1989 and a third time in 1990 beating Rambo to win the vacant title then dropping it to Rambo one last time in 1991 before going to WCW full time as Big Van Vader to replace Lex Luger as Harley Race 's Sith apprentice and Sting's heel nemesis.

If Mighty John Quinn told the British people on television that they were cowards in World War IIB- in January 1979 at the peak of the Winter of Discontent and after a few years of pop culture assault to their way of life from Punk and Rasta - then I shudder to think what he said to the German public to get cheap heat about their part in said conflict. He's up against a fellow heel here and one of the more screamingly pantomime heels in Klaus Kauroff, a man who .if he came to Britain more often (he had the odd Reslo appearance) would be regular Big Daddy Tag Match fodder. Kauroff is wearing a big white cotton dressing gown - halfway between something from a posh spa and a maternity smock - instead of his usual canary yellow cape with sticks to hold it up - maybe he didn't yet have that? Actually the crowd seem to be on Quinn's side - maybe they heard about All Limeys Are Cowards and thought it cool. Quinn spend a lot of time putting headlocks/chinlocks on Kauroff. KK takes over and it becomes more of a WWF slug and punch brawl. Plenty of stomping on the mat and the bottom rope.Not too much Wrestling as Kent Walton would say.Very WWF but then Quinn was the Kentucky Butcher in the WWWF so no surprise. Quinn follows down with multiple elbowsmash in the way that would earn him heat and public warnings (this year he teamed with Kendo Nagasaki on ITV and at the Royal Albert Hall and was also DQd on ITV from Croydon against old nemesis Wayne Bridges.) Referee only gives him mild reproves but draws the line at giving a three count on a drape-across pin cover, orders Quinn off and starts a knockout count on Kauroff as per the rulebook but Quinn quickly interrupts with a stomp. Quinn powerslams Kauroff, gets several two counts.Ksuroff backdrops Quinn, gets a two count. Kicks him disgustedly. Crowd still cheers Quinn even when he cancels closed fist from the referee. Quinn gets a couple more pin attempts, with a rather clumsy folding press attempt. Clip cuts off. Oh dear, now we shall never know how that ended

Is this Steve or Bernie? IIRC Bernie wrestled Rasputin on ITV.

We did Wanz Vs Ed Leslie a couple of pages back. What vintage of Haystacks are we talking? Stax 1975-1976 teaming with a heel Daddy was a long way (and two decades) from Stax as Loch Ness in WCW 1996. I'm not expert on time periods for later Germans/Austrians. Growing up, Eddie Steinblock, Franz Schuman, Christian "Ecki" Eckstein, Ulf Herman and Michael Kovacs seemed all one generation but I guess they were spread over nearly 15 years from the mid 80s to the end of the 90s. The Aptermags were starting to wake up to the CWA, their titles were included in Inside Wrestling's roll call of champions. You would go to an All Star show, buy the glossy colour programme and inside it would say someone on the bill, say. Robbie Brookside, had recently been over to Germany and faced one or another of the above-listed.

The CWA's answer to "If Only You Knew" from the WWF Slammys:

Here is Auvert being cruel and making fans cheer for Johnny "Mister Naughty Nicky Monroe " South years before he became kiddy hero and Mike Hegstrand impersonator the Legend of Doom. Lengthy work with a "headlock and strangle" (sleeper) Auvert keeps reapplying it. Still working on it by the end of Round One. And beyond into the round break. When South makes his comeback throwing Auvert out of the ring (check out that look of RAGE from Auvert) and slams and batters him the crowd are ROARING with delight and unhappy with the referee for restraining him. Auvert's muscleman pose angers the crowd. He's a less vocal Belgian version of Heel Alan Dennison. Crowd get quietly worried when South is down for a knockout count but overjoyed when South gets the one required fall. Auvert protests and flexes his cast iron biceps but to no avail. Three years later after Blitzer dethroned Jones, to get is rematch he first had to fight Auvert on ITV. TVTimes spoke of his Iron Man reputation. Jones won and then beat Owen Hart instead of Bull to take back the belt. South meanwhile ended Jones's final reign in Bristol May 1999.

Bull Blitzer, Bearcat Wright and Berlyn. It ran in the family as did being a Wonderboy/Wunderkind. By the 2010s the three of them were training kids for the pro ring in Germany and I saw a couple of their students in action in Leamington Spa at the Royal Spa Centre for All Star and they tended to flit between both personas. I get the point of the Jones/Bull Blitzer match but would much rather have seen Jones and Wright have an epic scientific battle. Steve Wright was about the top guy of the third generation of Wigan Snakepit students. Jones was a former schoolboy student of Billy Robinson (as documented in Granada TV's The Wrestlers from 1967) who also did some -much shorter - time at Riley's in the early 70s. Marty had his own later heel stint 1992-2000 for All Star. But both of them at that point could have had a mind blower of a technical match. One problem with Marty is that he tended to play the patriotic card against "foreign" opponents regardless of their style. As Bull was a heel character anyway this didn't matter so much, and it was fine with someone like Jean Paul Auvert who was the same nasty villain on both sides of the North Sea, but it did tend to grate when he encouraged fans to do the whole "ENG-ER-LAND!!!" thing with obviously classy opponents like Owen Hart or Marc Mercier who then had to wok extra hard to get themselves across as good guys here for a fine sporting contest. Mercier in particular did not need to be booed for a round or two until he had wowed the crowd with his fine skills (like Steamboat had to do in his 1989 matches Vs Flair after Bonnie had rubbed crowds up the wrong way.)