David Mantell

Pious Alan Dennison. Bear in mind most older British fans say they vastly prefer Dennison as he was in bouts like the 1972 Kwango bout and regard this version as a let down. As a technician Dennison is, if not inventive, then at least a smooth operator, elegantly sliding into holds. I love the double arm submission he used to get both his scores and his neat roll outs on the mat (not as good as Billington's but nothing to be sneezed at either as their 1976 bout showed.) The trouble is when he gets into righteous anger against a fouling heel. As I recall from childhood he came across like a smarmy self righteous school teacher and I felt sympathy for his cheeky schoolboy rival Jim Breaks. Kent Walton says that Dennison has an angry face on that viewers can't see (how he can tell, sat on the same side of the ring as the hard cam, is anyone's guess.) It gets to the point where this saintly man does a serious foul at the end of Round 3 and only gets a private warning due to retaliation. To squash one myth in passing, THK is not doing an aristocratic gimmick. He is a huntsman and in rural areas a lot of common folk would join the hunt (still do with drag hunts.) To further prove he's not a toff, he speaks with a Yorkshire accent just like Leon Arras. He has a similar bragging personality to Arras which is why I don't count Arras as a comedy performer, I see him as an arrogant heel who so happens to speak broad Yorkshire, same as Kaye. After winning this match, Dennison went on to lose a clean final to Alan Kirby. I was watching this week in 1980 aged 6, I don't recall this semifinal but I do remember after Kilby's tournament win Alan made a speech about being glad that the deaf and dumb Kilby won. Talk about patronising the physically challenged.

After thought on having a rep: The following had negligible or NO rep whatsoever in Britain - Dory Funk Junior, Terry Funk, Bruno Sammartino, Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes, Verne Gagne, Nick Bockwinkel. My grandad 1902-1988 was a lifelong wrestling fan. His brother in law my Great Uncle Jack was a shooter in the gyms of the East End of London prior to WW1. I can safely say that he went to his grave never having heard of ANY of the above except just possibly Bruno whose 1976 Shea Stadium match with Stan Hansen (inexplicably billed as German heel Hors Hoffman) was shown as an appetiser at UK closed circuit broadcasts of Ali/Inoki but not in the ITV coverage and who was listed as World Heavyweight Champion in a sidebar to a 1977 TVTimes interview with George Kidd. Had my grandad lived a few weeks longer he would have seen Harley Race's UK TV debut on ITV's 4th American Special of 6, dressed in a silly King getup (just like that Brian Maxine) and being steamrolled by the Ultimate Warrior. He would not have been impressed. Certainly not to the point of giving Harley Race a rep over here.

I'd caution against confusing "having a rep" with having an American career. Boston Blackie and Geraint Clwyd each had reps in early 90s Wales and Southern ROI where the S4C signal could be received and Orig followed in with shows. They also would both have been familiar figures to regular attendees of the then booming All Star shows across the UK. Finlay and Murphy clearly had a rep in early 80s Britain and there was enough rep in the tank for their early 90s reunion to be a big draw for both Dixon and Orig. Finlay was incumbent British Heavyweight Champion at this time and Murphy would go on to take the British Light Heavyweight title for a spell in 1995 from Alan Kilby. Very few of the millions of ITV (and S4C) viewers who knew and hated Murphy were even remotely aware of the original Canadian Joseph "Skull" Murphy who teamed with Brute Bernard (a few like myself saw a photo in Graeme Kent's book and wondered how he could be that old if indeed he was the same man.)

In Britain, Finlay and Murphy were certainly NOT under-rated, they were a respected heel team and this whole reunion run was a big deal. ( Regarding the Blue Bloods, I think you're confusing having a rep with having had an American career.) Finlay took Tony StClair's British Heavyweight title around this time and Blackie was being touted as a hot challenger. Clwyd as we've discussed got an extended push as a promising young Welsh lad and TV star in Wales and Southern ROI through Reslo. He clocked up some 14 Reslo appearances, often as a lighter partner in peril to the stars - Blackie here, Orig The Promoter, Flesh Gordon, possibly even Pat Roach. Had Big Daddy done more than the one Reslo bout (and not brought his own in house tag partner Scot Valentine and in house heels Dr Death and Count Von Zuppi). The Squad get the 2-1 win here. I'm reminded how Kent Walton said tag matches could be either a great technical match or a great fight. This was one of the latter. Murphy gets a gator hold for a submission but otherwise it's the villains beating down on Clwyd and occasionally get hit back by Blackie. One of the lightweight plastic crowd barriers becomes a weapon of retaliation by Blackie and I don't blame the referee for not responding, it ranks alongside Big Daddy wielding a plastic bucket for an ineffective comedy weapon and the bucket was light relief. I believe Finlay and Murphy went on to have a heel Vs heel match with Kendo Nagasaki and Blondie Barrett which sounds fun.

How also NOT to use Johnny Saint. On paper a Euro international dream matchup British Wrestling Vs Catch Francais on a German Catch show back in the day. In practice and elderly pot bellied version of the guy from old Le Catch does a Sid Vicious style destruction job. Saint gets 30 seconds to do his Lady Of The Lake and a couple of other offensive moves (including a closed fist punch to the chin possibly, as Kent Walton would say, allowed for retaliation. Otherwise it's Rene destroying Saint. No wonder Americans loved working this territory. At least the big man with the slumped abs gets a DQ at the end which is some compensation for Saint. Latasserre could have got down and exchanged counters with Saint and put on a real show instead of this extended 90s US TV squash match.

Not sure if Billy Samson is the same wrestler as Samson Ubo who appeared a few times on ITV circa 1987. He's big and muscular and not very skilled, Vince McMahon would have loved him. In Britain Terry Rudge is a skilled scientific heel who pulls a few sly tricks now and then. In Germany he is a more consistently brawling and aggressive heel. He seems to get fired up by the fans' chants for Billy - is his German that good? Not a great scientific battle. Plenty of holds from Rudge but Samson doesn't seem to know any escapes. Rudge gets quietly placed on the ring apron at one point by Samson which leaves him with an emasculated look on his face. Rudge does try a toupee and a fireman's carry suplex. Slow and solid but the crowd seem to like Billy. Rudge is down for the count at 7 when the time limit goes. But they thought it was close enough so they give Samson the win anyway. Or something - my German isn't good enough to make it out but BS seems happy and raising his hands.

The next night at the same venue. August Smisl's traditional Ethnic beer music as babyface has them dancing in the front row, while heel Brookside comes to the ring to his legit musical tipple of thrash metal. Smisl comes to the ring in floppy hat and farmer clothes like a Central European version of Hillbilly Jim. Referee Didier Gapp is a veteran of New Catch and I think mid 80s Old Catch on French TV. The audience is very pro Smisl, doing the American style chant "Go August go" in their local accent. Smisl is a big strapping guy specialising in powerful backdrops. When Robbie isn't shouting abuse at the Crowd he's begging Smisl to tone it down. Robbie gets very annoyed with the pops for August, at one point digging out the old British reversals and rolls to show Smisl and the German crowd what he can do. In fact the bout remains scientific if heated - with Smisl at one point pulling off a nifty French style headscissors takedown - until 3/4 of the way through when Robbie drags out some dirty tactics involving the ring apron and corner post, mainly focused on weakening Smisl's knee. This gets him a public warning but he continues to work with a mixture of dirty stomps and clean leglocks, even a stomp between rounds behind Gapp's back. Smsl rallies in the final round with American power moves culminating in a powerslam ("Rrrunungslam" says the MC) for the one pinfall required.

In 1995 Croydon Robbie Brookside turned heel on his Liverpool Lads tag partner Doc Dean and became an angry surly heel, his first heel run apart from under Kendo hypnosis. Although they buried the hatchet and went to do some jobs in WCW 1997, the Liverpool Lads fallout was just a taster for the HATED villain Wildcat Robbie Brookside would become in the CWA/EWP in the late 90s/00s as mentioned by Daniel/Bryan/Danielson above. Here he is teaming with Fit Finlay against Tony StClair and Franz Schumann. himself no stranger to Britain - Simon Garfield describes him being beaten unconscious by Giant Haystacks at an All Star show in Tunbridge Wells 1992. A few years earlier Brookside Vs StClair would have made a nice catchweight clean match on Reslo. Here it's like a heated heels Vs blue eye All Star tag of the early 90s involving the Superflies or Task Force One. StClair and Schumann are just as happy to throw the rulebook out as the villains. Unfortunately it's hard to tell what the finish was as a bunch of fans stood up and blocked the camera view.

@sergeiSem has it down as 3rd April, not 4th March. I've posted this occasionally as an example of what VDB was like as opposed to iBV/CWA but not really reviewed it. Unfortunately the audio is badly out of sync by about a minutr Definitely those early rounds show off what Wright could do and Morgan also (plenty of neat spring ups including out of headscissors.) At one point the referee trips up over the two competitors and gets rolled over by them as they struggle over a chin lock. Things go sour when Morgan offers his hand as he did at the start but this time suckers Wright in for some forearm smashes and a lot of rope related fouling. Consequently there is a lot of Wright fighting fire with fire and the referee going a bit far with the "allowing for retaliation" as Kent Walton would say. One good bit where Wright catapults Morgan over the ropes to ringside. Most of it is Steve just lowering himself to the masked villains's level. In Britain many blue eye Vs heel matchups were structured like this. A clean first half and dirty second half. Kendo Nagasaki did this a lot with skill opponents in the 60s/70s.

Apart from Prince Zefy (who was already around for the tail end of Old Catch on FR3), Yann Caradec seems to have been the other breakout star of the Eurosport New Catch era at least with regard to the French home team. From Brittany in the North (if you liked the Breton pipes at that 1978 sports hall TV taping, here are some more with Caradec's ring entry music) and unusually for the era of French Wrestling, no significant gimmick other than his regional heritage. Legendary heel Jacky Richard in the years between Marquis Richard de Fumulo and Monsieur Jacky was doing this odd mix of Adrian Adonis, mid 70s heel Big Daddy and WWF Dusty Rhodes. The idea was to push a homophobic button but bear in mind that in WCW around this time this backfired with fans cheering for the equally colourful and upbeat Johnny B Badd until he had to be turned face. Travesti Man's baldness and blubberiness was his defence against that eventuality. Former butler to the Marquis, Paul Butard is back as "best boy" Jean Claude Blanchard and still allowed to stand on the ring apron for some reason. Caradec has some great moves including the traditional French Scisseaux Volees takedown, a backwards flip and some fine dropkicks. Richard is not the worker he was in the 70s/80s but still an effective villain. He clocks up two public warnings, the second with a low blow, before scoring a pin by applying a clawhold to Caradec's already injured crotch, out of sight of referee Charley Bollet but in sight of the audience and cameras. Richard's in ring nemesis and outside the ring business partner Flesh Gordon provided French commentary for the broadcast under his real name Gerard Herve, although this clip has good old Orig commenting in English. Overall. Monster heel Vs babyface who might but doesn't in the end, like Haystacks or Kirk squashing a lighter man like Steve McHoy or Tom Tyrone.

Franz Schumann interviewed an working out in an empty prefab glass roof venue with a couple of other youngsters. Franz does a nifty French style flying headscissor takedown, a trainee does British style rollout/kip up.

German news item on an open air show in a public square. Check out he the footage of what nice family guys evil villains Haystacks, Quinn and Klaus Kauroff all were, hanging out with their kids on a campsite, picnicking with them and Karloff's eldest can already do a nifty back bridge.

It's occurring to me that Reslo was just as much a melting pot as New Catch. Big Daddy was on it, Flesh Gordon was on it and here to complete the set of national babyface superheroes is Big Otto defending the CWA title. Drew is still sporting his shaved head from the hair match with Daddy (no sign of Doctor Monika Kaiser- imagine her and Otto jawing away in German at each other) while the referee is none other than Brian Dixon (aka Brian George) Strength match like a goody Vs baddy version of Big Daddy's match with John Elijah in 1977 Otto is reluctant to release holds so Dixon has to be equal with Drew. Too scores the pin to keep his title, the final shot is a closeup of the belt. From a distance Otto looks like he's written several months worth of supermarket shopping lists on his lime green leotard but close ups reveal it's actually a pattern like the tail fins of international passenger aircraft.

A promising young kid versus one of VDB's Bald Old Boys brigade (see also Axel senior). Entry of the Gladiators is an odd choice of theme music. I know Joint Promotions used it at the Royal Albert Hall but most of the World still associates it with the Clowns coming on at the circus. Maybe Les Maniaks in mid 80s France should have used it. As with other German clean matches they work holds for longer rather than going straight for the counter like in Britain or France. Cf Kent Walton 's comment one time about Skill and Speed combined - Germany tends to neglect the speed side of the equation. LL has a great version of the Steve Grey use of the leg to unpluck a wrist lever although his is more of a kick. Chall gets an overhead snapmare while LL has him kneeling down in a chin lock. D I S C O by Ottowan during the round break really dates the video, in Britain it reached #2 about a month after this match, I remember kids singing it in the school cloakroom when it was originally a hit. The September 1980 Hanover Cup (the same month as the final International Festival of Kat's in Athens Greece) seems to have been VdB's starting point for filming matches like Otto's defence against Don Leo two months earlier in July was the start of the IBV/CWA filming its matches for home video. Chall rather boringly buttock bashes his way out of a standing full nelson but then fires of a great blindside rear dropkick at his younger opponent. LL tries to handstand his way out of a headscissor but Chall gives him a mini piledriver then turns to the referee with a look that says "See I'm not so daft!" but then LL quickly springs up to his top end for an side headlock. Chall has a standing hammerlock but LL reaches through his own legs to grab and pull through a leg of Chall's and maintains the leglock through a few twists and turns, getting a nice clap from the audience for his efforts until Chall reverses it into a Gotch toehold and it developing it into a surfboard when the bell goes. Laurent is still selling it as he limps back to his corner and early in round 3 Chall looks like he might get the winning submission with a single leg Boston only for LL to toupee his way out. Chall gets the one required fall with a double underhook suplex and handshakes all round.

Swimming pool time. Jean Menard was still a Bon at this point although not long after this he turned into mean old Menard the vieux pontoufle heel, allied to Jacky Richard. Commentator Daniel Cazal tells us everything we already know about the Bollet Brothers- Charley the ref here is a lot smaller than Andre who used to tag up with Delaporte. Ramirez quickly mops up public warnings and gets DQd for knocking Bollet down, at one point it looks like he will do a sit-in protest until Zorba talks him out of it. For a moment it looks like we will get Ramirez Vs Michel DiSanto Zorba Le Greque does look magnificent in his blue-red satin mask and outfit even if Cazal does say so sarcastically. powerful body and I guess he's been reading magazines about Superstar Graham or Mil Mascaras. He would have made a great opponent for Flesh Gordon in the late 80s/90s/00s. Takes off his cape at poolside before boarding the dinghy to the ring. See, the French did Knockout finishes too! DiSanto gets counted out on the mat from a face first piledriver after several minutes being overpowered then Zorba pitches him and Bollet into the water like the nasty cruel heel he is. DiSanto has some trouble in the water, I think he swallows some and has to be rescued and resuscitated poolside. Not a good idea to do that to a KOd man. Zorba does his best Superstar Graham posedown and ends the night standing majestically in his dinghy as it travels back to poolside. All he needed was his cape back and a pole and he would have looked like the perfect evil gondolier punting his way urbanely away from the scene of the crime. It's a pity we saw no more of Zorba (is that Dave "Zarak" Larsen?) as this was a good build-the-heel-up-strong exercise.

I gather these two had an earlier match Xmas 68. This is March 1979, the final minutes - apart from a couple of good sunset flips, hip tosses into cross press pin attempts and toupees - of what Kent Walton would call a bout becoming a hell of a fight (by which he would mean it was a brawl and not quite his cup of tea.) Any time either comes up with something good, it is done as an isolated spot in among forests of Manchettes. They go at it at ringside at one point with an elderly gentleman managing to separate them (a few months after this Iron Greek Spiros Arion triggers a riot on TV by seriously hard way juicing Colin Joynson.) Despite this, they shake hands at the end (time limit draw). Boucard the heel is rather chummy with Couderc in his post match interview.

ALBERT Sanniez was going heel at this time and turning into a Jim Breaks style Horrid Little Man. Mercier was 20 years old and still had a TBWvibe to him, his kid brother Pierre even more so There's a definite feel of Jim Breaks Vs Danny Collins here with Mercier as the spectacular young whizzkid- all scisseax Volees, crucifix/further nelson takedowns, reverse snapmare s and other flashy tricks - and Sanniez as the increasingly stroppy dirty wrestler getting shown up by the kid. I guess the clip you watched cuts off the same point as this does.

Siki was a kind of French version of WWF era Junkyard Dog and I'm not just saying that because they were both black but because they both drew on a similar babyface funkster street tough/street smart vibe. Babyface Iceman Parsons projected a similar vibe. He seems to be acting quite heelishly here, choking Schmidt out on the ropes and kicking the fallen referee around, earning himself a DQ. I have a soft spot for the sports hall used for this 1978 TV taping with its bright lighting (a line of light-tubing runs along the spine of the roof) and the big wall sized window running the entire length of the wall, swimming pool style ,opposite the hardcam, its rather thick framing giving it's age away, presumably built in the sixties. I think I've seen a similar, possibly the same room in some 1971 bouts. In case you're wondering what's with the bagpipes, les cornemuses are not just a Scottish thing, they are played in other areas of Europe. In this case they are Breton pipes from Brittany on the northern tip of France. They are also played in Galicia in Northwest Spain (the bit just above Portugal.)

Ah this is more like it! Clay in a good scientific bout against Alan Sarjeant. master of the bridge and of swiveling bridges using his head as a fulcrum. Also the best escape ever from a Boston Crab, out the front of the hold, head last, pushing against his opponents ankles for power. Clay also coming up many great moves from the 1967 bout. Ends on a refused TKO no contest after Alan bangs his shin on the edge of the ring flipping out of a hold, sorry OJ. A palate cleanser after the last few bouts. Would have loved to see these two former Mountevans British champions have a 1-1 Broadway. Clay had one other bout as the Exorcist against Caswell Martin which is a bit of a waste as Clay and Cas could have had a darn fine clean match.

Okay, let's really go out on a limb with Clay as he moonlights as a psycho masked heel. Only the fourth masked wrestler in ITV history after Black Mask in 1960, The Outlaw (Gordon Corbett) in the late sixties, Kendo from 1971 onwards and Kung Fu debuting just a few weeks earlier. Clay trying to be as unrecognisable as possible, not using his technical skill, using a clawhold and plenty of dirty wrestling while using rope breaks a lot - a great way to get heat from an audience who like their technical wrestling. Kirkwood does a few good escapes and rollouts. Eventually he goes wild with forearms and chops, even ignoring the bell - and the fans cheer him for it! Clay regains the advantage with neck attacks and in the only real clue as to his identity, pins Kirkwood with the same double legdive press as in theTrood bout and the crowd are fuming. A new heel monster has been created. Clay did one more TV match under the hood against Caswell Martin before handing the gimmick over to Corbett who did it on the indies, accompanied by manageress Miss Jamie Barrington.

Slightly disappointing bout. If anything it's Clay that loses his cool in this one- after a couple of rounds of various sleeper holds being put on him (including a headscissor sleeper) he snaps and starts refusing to release holds. eventually getting a public warning. He calms down after this but holds are worked longer with hardly any reversing. Clay gets the one fall required with a bog standard double legdive press. He and Trood shake hands but referee Max Ward is shooting daggers at Clay and a significant minority of the audience are in no mood to forgive either. The video contains a lengthy advert break for financial services products. You may wish to FFWD from 12:00 to 16:00

I decided to rewatch this after the recent 1967 find.. A good technical bout until it stops being one, which as Kent says was becoming something of a running issue with Clay's opponents. I should think it's clearer now from the StClair bout what Kent saw in Clay. I wonder if my present day fave Jordan Breaks is a fan, Clay does what became Jordan's ankle scissor trip. It's a one fall bout so I assume you meant the first two rounds, OJ. Mildly amusing spot near the end when all three men including referee Tony Mancelli (same as the 1967 bout) go over the top rope together in one bundle. Personally I quite like the pinfall - Thompson turns himself over in a side chancery, does a French Catch style reverse snapmare over the top of Macra then lands behind him to get a folding press. Even if it comes out of nowhere, it's still an ingenious piece of work.

https://wrestlingheritage.co.uk/alan-dennison/

I've checked one results source and found at least two rematches already, both of them tag contests where Alan was teamed with his regular Dennisons tag partner Cyanide Sid Cooper. WALTHAMSTOW – 20/4/72. …..Lennie Hurst and Johnny Kwango beat The Dennisons. BELLE VUE – 29/4/72. The Dennisons beat Honey Boy Zimba and Johnny Kwango. Bear in mind the source in question is very incomplete and doesn't seem to include the TV taping that produced the Kwango/Dennison bout. So I expect there were plenty more. Dennison's heat came from his surly growling sadistic psychotic performance all through the bout. Having him celebrate a tainted win like it was some kind of triumph simply topped it off.

Caswell Martin had one of my all time favourite bouts this same year at the Royal Albert Hall with Marty Jones. Along with the Birmingham Steve Logan, he is one of my two picks for wrestlers who were never champions but frankly should have been. Achim Chall, an aging contemporary of Axel Dieter was not as skilled an opponent as Jones but he lets Cas show all his tricks to the German audience and they like it. Like the Jones match, this ends on a refused-TKO no contest(after Martin suffers an arm injury.) He German audiences appreciate the spor.tsmanship like British audiences do. Two odd things. 1) During the break after round 1 the DJ puts on 1978 Christmas hit Mary's Boy Child by Boney M even though it is early September. 2) The seconds wear red and blue V necked shirts as per their corner. The red corner second looks like a Star Trek redshirt!