David Mantell

I get the distinct impression Haystacks was having quite a laugh with that "Us Americans" thing. Like Liam Gallagher going "Thass right La, I'm from Alabama me and Our Kid Noel and so's Our Mam, yeah, honest la.". I doubt too many Americans know the difference between different regional English accents - I've heard reports of the Manc woman out of Friends/Frasier/whatever being called a Cockney in the American media. I can tell Spanish and Latin American accents apart (the former is sharp, staccato and cawing, the latter more sing-song and they don't do the lisp.) , I know the growly Parisian speak that is the French equivalent of (actual) Cockney in Britain or Bronx-speak in America. (You'll hear a lot of growly Parisian on the French Catch matches)

Apart from a few little glimpses of an early 60s McManus/Pallo bout and about 2 seconds of Les Kellet Vs Jim Hussey on a shop TV screen in Granada TV's The Wrestlers, the below two are the only other pre-1970 ITV Wrestling footage in circulation. Taken from The Final Bell, December 1988 Jeff Kaye Vs Pancho Zapata 1969 Ricki Star Vs Pietro Capello, 1964 in the distinctive Belle Vue ring, Peter Cockburn (pronounced Co-burn) providing commentary: It's hard to be certain but I think the first clip might be VT not kinescope.

It used to be quite common although there has been a backlash against it in recent years. We call your football "American Football" by the way. Bear that in mind when you hear British fans talk of "American Wrestling" especially in the late 80s circa the ITV WWF Specials, when American Wrestling felt like an exotic novelty.

Here we are. Preceded by a GLORIOUS promo with Haystacks talking about how tough "Us Americans" are. in a broad Manchester accent!!! Although to be fair, third team-mate Mighty John Quinn once cut an in ring "gee" on ITV about how his "Congressman" told him to beat up Big Daddy. Quinn was a Canadian, Canada has MPs not Congressmen

OK, but Judo Al Hayes wasn't.

Here is the entry in the Midlands magazine TV World (due to a dispute the Midlands opted out of TVTimes 1963-1968) for the bout. One detail I got wrong, WOS wasn't hosted by Eamonn Andrews, it will was already taken over by Dickie Davies. Or rather Richard Davies as he was then known, before his wife persuaded him to change his professional name, grow an "Anchor Man" moustache and for a few years wear trendy flowery shirts before fashions changed and he reverted back to a suit and tie. (EDIT: it says in the small print he was relief presenter for a holidaying Andrews. Some time later, Dickie Davies took over permanently and became a national institution.)

Yes I was going to dig out a triple tag where not only Haystacks but King Kong Kirk were billed as Americans. Kirk was from Pontefract in West Yorkshire. I doubt too many Americans know about Pontefract or Pontefract cakes. (See also Rollerball Rocco, Tommy Mann. the Black Diamonds and Dave Bond being called Americans - and Judo Al Hayes and Rebel Ray Hunter being call Australians - on French TV over the years.) (Also to be fair.big Stax liked to kid himself he was Irish.)

Fair catch. Wikipedia says "Wurzel" (© OSW YouTube) was billed from Nice, France. Possibly I read something kayfabe somewhere.

P.S. have taken the liberty of saving the match to hard drive on this tablet (and feeling very proud too, I've never done that on anything less than a laptop before) and copying it to a memory stick which lives plugged into the back of my Smart TV so now I can just watch the bout in style on a proper TV screen at just a few clicks on the remote control. If it can be done on a tablet then it probably can be done on a smartphone too.

Well we know where it started out from. ITC made a kinescope of World of Sport one afternoon back in the Summer of Love and, like they did for many others from the mid 50s to the mid 70s, spliced on an opening caption and passed it on to an overseas sales agent who put it on their catalogue for overseas sales to TV stations in foreign countries, most likely former British colonies in Africa (Egypt and all sorts of Central and sub-Saharan African nations) and former post-WW1 British Mandate territory in the Middle East (which by that point had become the present day states of Israel, Jordan and Iraq.) Most likely a queue of such stations was lined up, the print (one of about saying three made) sent out to the first station and then bicycled by (snail) mail to each subsequent station. Once the can of film reached the last station the procedure was for the station to either send it back to point of origin for destruction or destroy it themselves and send back a certificate of destruction. In practice, sometimes at the TV station abroad and sometimes back home in Britain, staff would take films home that were due to be destroyed. They survived that way and would end up in the collection of some film collector. In this case, said collector must have put a film up for sale online and it got bought. Luckily a lot of the overseas sales film stock ended up preserved at Granada, although less luckily they are very tight fisted about letting anyone see it. Essentially the same process would have happened in France with RTF/ORTF except their target markets would have been former French colonies in North Africa (eg Algeria, Tunisia) and France's post WW1 mandates (modern Syria and Lebanon.) When the INA was set up in 1975, ORTF's overseas sales division presumably had a large stock of b/w kinescopes which was handed over to the INA- as was one lucky surviving colour transmission master (Jan 69 Delaporte & Bollet vs Montreal vs Zarzecki). From 1975-1987 the INA then recorded Catch transmissions off air with cheap VCRs, probably to fulfil a quota. If people on here fancy taking the law into their own hands and tracking down old British/French wrestling overseas sales kinescopes, their best bet is to make contact with film collectors. There is quite a good documentary about them here:

He was 19. As I said, a TBW.

I think it came down to issues of timing on the night or on the transmission date. With two wrestlers at the same level of skill and/or prominence, they would go to some sort of draw. If it was a big enough deal they would go to a 1-1 Broadway, if it was a low priority item they would cut it short as a no contest TKO refusal or in the case of Bainbridge Vs Clwyd 1987 a double KO. In this case Thompson was by far the more experienced man and a Mountevans British Champion to boot, while Tony StClair was still a TBW (albeit a particularly tall well built one.) So there was no question Clay was going to run roughshod over young Tony for a two-straight win. Maybe the only criticism I could make of the match was that it would have been nice to see Tony get a consolation fall, but it was not to be.

That was great! Good clean match, plenty of excellent reversals, I'd have to watch it again to pick out the best bits.. Interesting that Clay got the first submission with an American figure four leglock and Kent actually called it a figure four leglock - he normally used that term for a Frank Gotch (stepover) toehold. Production wise it looked just like a 1970s ITV match with a novelty Old Film video effect stuck over it. If cleaned up and VidFIREd, it would look like a 70s/early 80s bout on a TV set with the colour turned down to zero(which you can't actually do on these modern TVs.) Filmed nice and square on to the ring (unlike French TV where they just made do with whatever angle they could find to film in the venue. Full taping results: Interestingly 19th August 1967 was a Saturday so this is part of an episode of (late Eamonn Andrews era) World of Sport! Which is curious as @JNLister said the Granada TV archive was all midweek broadcasts! Kent Walton confirms it's a Saturday when he says "this afternoon". It's been taken from the actual broadcast by the looks of it - there is a cue dot in the top right hand corner during the final minute. I guess the big "WRESTLING" screen caption was how World Of Sport went into advert breaks in those days. (23rd August 1967 was a Wednesday night.) Also something I'd not noticed from the previous stills - Wrestling From Great Britain was sold overseas by ITC - generally better known for selling film series, often in colour, such as The Prisoner, late period The Avengers and Gerry Anderson puppet shows like Thunderbirds particularly to the American market. I imagine the WfGB title card was spliced onto the master negative before duplication.

Alessio's playlist on YouTube has Bob ALPRA's copy of this sorted to January 1970 and Matt D's copy in the correct place. Commentator says it's Le Cirque and it does look like the Cirque d'Hiver as it looks in the first INA colour off air tapes from 1975/1976. The picture on Bob's copy looks odd, almost like video rather than a kinescope. There's a camera with a big 2 on it so either that was camera number 2 or this is channel 2 which is why the commentator mentions what colour trunks everyone has on. I think this is the Cirque d'Hiver too as I seem to recognise the tasseled (red) velvet curtains. Nice French headscissors counter to armbar early in the match and quite a lot of out of the ring stuff. Commentator says Asquini is getting done over by the BNs as retribution for something someone said about the director's hair. One BN neatly escapes a headscissor by turning levBon over and lifting the scissor off, then turning it into a Frank Gotch toehold. A BN fishhooks a Bon with both hands in both corners of the mouth, turning him away from L'Arbitre to make it look like a standing full nelson. Crowd shots include a granny eating sweets and some young Parisians dressed in fab groovy swinging 60s gear possibly brought back from a cross channel ferry visit to Carnaby Street. One of the BNs apparently gets into some argy with a fan on the way out but it's over before the cameras can pick it up.

@Matt D has this down on the YouTube page as being 21st Feb, not 2nd Jan @ohtani's jacket @Phil Lions see, the French also know how to do a three public warnings DQ that gradually builds to the climax of the referee throwing out the heel for Trop Lutte Irreguliere. Lasartesse is a great heel, like what Sid might have been if he'd come to Britain and learned to wrestle technically. I would love to have seen a Lasartesse/Robert Duranton tag team- did they ever do one? Incidentally the fatal third Avertisement (for the exact move Ivan Koloff would use to bag the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship in MSG just eleven months later) is not for jumping of the top but for landing on a fallen opponent (so a flying bodypress or a Randy Savage-style flying axe handle onto a standing opponent would be clean wrestling in France, the UK and any other European territories that had the no follow down rule). In the late 1980s as I mentioned on the German Catch thread, Rollerball Rocco would take care to use his off the top rope jump he brought back from Japan earlier in the bout so he only got a first or second Public Warning. Lasartesse doesn't throw a strop though, in an interview afterwards he is quite philosophical about his DQ, satisfied that he beat up Calderon and saying that the other guy is welcome to the win. He then does a Hulk Hogan/Superstar Graham posedown with a bit of Buddy Rogers strut thrown in for good measure (he probably saw Rogers in America, the commentator tells us at the start how well travelled he is) to the disgust of the crowd. Calderon was known in Britain as the Professor Adi Wasser. Wasser wassa heel over here. His last visit to the UK was in 1980 when he wore a mask because he was paranoid about how "they" would get him, or something, and got himself disqualified for using a sleeper/choke. We were out somewhere that Sat afternoon but my grandad saw it and told me afterwards about this masked wrestler from France whose big move was putting his thumb on his opponent's throat. There's another bout at the start of the clip but it's a squash, big bald German villain Kurt Kaiser taking out Remy Beyle in three minutes and then soaking up the heat. Since this is France 1970 and not early eighties Britain, Big Daddy does not come down to challenge the big bully.

From Xmas 1993, while Big Daddy was busy finishing up his career in Margate, All Star were also unseasonably at the seaside at the other end of the country. Semifinal and final of a four team knockout trophy tournament. Leeds Boys are two former nice kids gone sour, Richie Brooks and Tarzan Boy Darren Ward. Both teams get polite cheers from the Blackpool audience. The Leeds Boys finally kick the heeling in gear about 30 secs in, Brooks telling the audience to Shut Your Face, refusing some kid's autograph and begging for mercy from Duran then double teaming him. This sets up Dyno and Animal Legend as blue eyes. LOD does all the selling with Dynamite striking the hot tag at the end. The good guys beat up Ward at ringside in a very un blue-eye like manner before Dynamite gets the winner with his snap suplex. In the final the Liverpool Lads are announced as British tag team champions although the Superflies are on record as having the title at this point. Dynamite gets a polite cheer, "Animal Legend Of Doom" some distrustful heat, odd considering Hawk Legend Of Doom (Johnny South) soon became the most popular UK blue eye of the mid to late decade. Perhaps fans remembered him in the UK Road Warriors with Jimmy Monroe only too well or perhaps they'd seen him team with Nagasaki recently. Good clean match other than some kicks by Dynamite to his floored opponent for which he gets a private warning. Polite handshakes all round afterwards. Match ends after about 10 min and the rest of the clip is a menu for a Dynamite Kid DVD

Interesting how heavily matured with British wrestlers the German/Austrian scene was. A trip on the ferry across the North Sea to Germany to make good tournament money was and possibly still is a staple of British wrestler life. It pops up in Robbie Brookside's video diary filmed in 1993, in Simon Garfield's book The Wrestling writing in 1995 and in Bryan Danielson's book YES recalling 2003. The trope may even have inspired Pat Roach's TV comedy series Auf Wiedersein Pet about a bunch of British bricklayers who go to work in Germany.

I can't find this on YouTube. Pity.it sounds good. Ritchie Brooks (not to be confused with Robbie Brookside whose real name is Robert Brooks) started life as a TBW, having nice clean matches with the likes of Ian McGregor, Nipper Eddie Riley and Kid McCoy whom he was due to face in the Golden Grappler final before bowing out due to injury. He was the third man on Daddy and "Roy" Regal's side in the main event triple tag match of the final show of Joint's exclusive contract at Xmas '86. He later became somewhat heelish in his feud with Danny Collins, controversially winning the British Heavy Middleweight Championship from him by DQ in 1990 after Danny went berserk after taking a bang to the head falling out the ring in Croydon. Collins got the title back a few months later but the feud raged on. He also formed a smarmy heel tag team The Leeds Boys with Darren Ward. I've just posted a match of them against Dynamite Kid and "Animal Legend Of Doom" (Dave Duran) to the British Wrestling thread. Brooks had a reputation for being stiff in the ring which landed him in hot water one night when he tried it on with Finlay. Wright had also been a TBW back in 1978 and was maturing into a classic clean wrestler until he came back from a trip to Calgary calling himself Bearcat Wright with a Mr T haircut and a new dirty wrestling skillset. After getting the Big Daddy treatment, he reverted back to his old self Bernie, a hard nosed heavyweight who took on similar, such as Ray Robinson. Obviously by this stage brother Steve was a fixture in both German promotions.

VdB tapes are the amateur single hand-held badly lit ones filmed from the ring apron below the bottom rope. CWA/IBV official (not 90s bootleg) footage is quite well oroduced stuff - multicamera, well lit, looks like a TV station shot it. Shows like New Catch, Reslo and Screensport Satellite Wrestling actually broadcast some of these matches and eventually there was an actual CWA TV show for a brief while in the early 90s.

Rudge is a lot more overt a heel here than he was back home in Britain. On ITV he was a heel too (at least in the 80s) but more a serious wrestler who worked in a few sly tricks in among mostly clean wrestling. Here he has as much heat as someone like Fit Finlay. Possibly Goulet was a particular crowd favourite in Germany. They actually do quite a few chain sequences but slowed down so that they form clear period of heel/blue-eye dominance. I'm guessing Goulet is French, he does the characteristic flying headscissor as counter to armbar that is a staple of Catch Francais. Was the No Follow Downs rule in force? I'm sure Germany/Austria had it the same as Britain and France. This referee is very lenient about what constitutes All One Move. British audiences would have EXPLODED with rage over Rudge stomping on a fallen opponent like that. Rocco on ITV 1987-1988 used to have to ration all the flying tricks he learned in Japan as Black Tiger because they would land him a public warning apiece.

https://web.archive.org/web/20030303192121/http://www.catch.fr/cgi-bin/merchant/merchant.cgi?cart_id=1422569.11747&itemnumber=93 My first attempt to get my hands on classic French Catch. I remember seeing this on sale on Wrestling Stars' website in the early/Mid Noughties. I'm not sure if I tried ordering it- it would have been in SECAM anyway so I don't know if my TV and video could have coped.

Backlund just needed another Backlund to have lengthy chain sequences with, imaginatively and gracefully reversing each others holds. You try doing that with people like Jesse Ventura and Killer Khan. Now if only he had Tony StClair or Pete Roberts. Bobby was wasted on New York. Otto would be absolutely murdered like Dusty by people like Bull Power (Vader) before valiantly battling back for the win.

Chris Eubank - the top heel in 1990s British boxing - used that as his theme too.

Actually when 2 Cold debuted in 1992, Danny Boy Collins would have been just the opponent my 18 year old self would have booked if I were booking a WCW versus Britain supershow.

Here is the 1983 rematch in colour. I believe the storyline was that Slaughter claimed he was robbed in the 1982 match because he was confused by the Euro rules, so he and Wanz met in an American rules rematch. I think the 1982 bout was professionally shot, it has a multicamera setup similar to other big Otto matches of the time. I imagine @sergeiSem just had a low generation copy of the footage, or maybe he had watched it a lot. I'm struggling to grasp the comparison between Bob Backlund - technician, about the only American to really master complex folding presses - and Otto Wanz - burly bordering on obese power wrestler, like a cross between Big Daddy circa the 1977 John Elijah bout (before Max Crabtree made him work strong) and Dusty Rhodes minus the white funkster showmanship.