David Mantell

This appears to have been filmed in the same location as the Mantopolous tag match above. No sign of the drumkit from the other match although at the end I spy a grand piano with a pianist all ready to go. It's the same plain white backdrop. Actually I think it's a cinema rather than a TV studio and that is the screen. (Over in Britain, Granada Cinemas had Paul Lincoln promotions shows at their cinemas which were then filmed and the prints bicycled round the country - there's even an example on the British Wrestling thread, the Wild Man of Borneo bout). Gessard (no moustache) and Bayle start off. Good fast technical start Manneuvaux (moustache - Couderc makes a silly remark about the tache's lone weight). tags in and gets kicked out of the ring. Gessard in, keeps Bayle in a headscissors. Manneuvaux takes down the other Bon (I think it's Dan Aubriot). with a knee to the base of the spine and applies a headlock. He really looks sinister with his moustache, thick eyebrows and slicked black hair like a 1920s Hollywood heavy. (Think early Oliver Hardy before he became Stan Laurel's comic foil) Aubriot wedges out so Marcel pulls hair to regain the headlock. What a Mechant! He gets Bayle (who tags in after a failed Aubriot folding press pin attempt ) in a headlock on the ropes and L'Arbitre pulls him off by the nose! Gessard tags in and stomps on Remy's leg and gets heat. Bayle twice slingshots Gessard acrossthe ring Dan tags in and grabs Gessard by the ears (Mick McManus's least favourite place to be grabbed) and knocks him down. Manneuvaux helps by headlocking Dan from behind and the villains double team him. Manneuvaux cuts off Dan's air as L'Arbitre escorts Gessard out but this does not get the same heat it would in England even though Aubriot is thrashing away with his legs to get the ref's attention. Dan gets shoved out the ring and the ref backdrops Manneuvaux out to join him. They have quite the ringside brawl, the hardcam catches the ringside camera swinging round to keep focused on the action. All four guys end up in the front row seats with spectators fleeing for their lives (luckily no braver souls make a bid for TV fame and pitch in.) Les Bons make it back to the ring first while Couderc begins leading the audience in the most godawful drunken singalong. The hardcam actually captures him dancing around in his own little world! Les Mechants stumble back and a tag team brawl ensues. Couderc is still singing and so are la Publique. Gessard works Remy over with an armbar (he does nothing to escape) then tags Manneuvaux. Bayle gets a fireman's carry then an overhead press slam (Couderc sadly starts the bloody singing again!) the tags Aubriot. Manneuvaux gets a bodyscissors in the corner but Dan knocks his hands off he ropes and he lands in a heap and the fans laugh at him. He gets a figure four top wristlock on the mat, Dan kips up to make it a standing top wristlock. Manneuvaux tries to get the advantage pulling hair again but the ref flings him off to the ropes. Aubriot gets a Manchette and a side chancery throw into front chinlock (more drunken Couderc singing). He takes Marcel's face (the ref ignores this or puts it down to retaliation) and switches arms on the chinlock then gets a crosspress for 2. Manneuvaux gets headscissors but Aubriot kips out and tags Bayle. Manneuvaux gets a sleeper (and crafty eyerake) The heels double team Bayle as they tag and get their first Avertisement. Aubriot gets the hot tag and we get so evof Couderc:s infamous pro Bon bias "Allez Aubriot! Vas y Aubriot" and more singing. Manneuvaux ends up tangled in the ropes as Bayle tags back in. It gets fast with ground dropkicks and missed splashes from both sides. Gessard tags in Aubriot throws him with headscissors. and Bayle throws him with a rear snapmare. Gessard gets some throws of his own. Bayle gets a powerslam for 2. They knock heads and Bayle gets up but the villain is counted out for 10 - KNOCKOUT!!! Not a technical classic, a simple Bon Vs Mechant brawl with a happy ending.

We've talked about this match a fair bit. Broadcast on Sports Loisirs, a sports package show. The only other bout we have from this slot is Flesh and Zefy Vs Jacky Richard & Jessy Texas, but this in the only INA match although reportedly they broadcast quite a few more going up to November 1987. This was a Saturday and the speaking clock says just after 1530h. Ted Jones sou ds like he should be Welsh but is actually Belgian - with a German flag to prove it. Karl Von Kramer is most certainly not Carl "Barbarian Karl Kramer" Davies (who made his one and only ITV appearance 5 months later teaming with brother Wolf to job to Big Daddy and Marty Jones) but I don't think he's the 50s/60s one either - I think someone told me it was his son. Funny looking venue with wooden pillars and matching ceiling beams. There is a potted palm plant. Ring has a shiny skirt like it's going out nightclubbing after the matches. The corners are covered by pillowcase things saying "OFFOY". Kramer has an old male manager in a Panama hat - we later learn that his name is "FRITZ VON ERICH". Someone's been reading their American magazines. He undies the turnbuckle cover and a little bit tries to stop him. Jones has two dolly birds. Maybe I imagined it but I'm sure on a previous viewing I saw the two naughty girlies pull poor old Fritz's chair out from under him. International referee Louis De Flamenca is in a red jacket like a circus ringmaster. Most of the bout is slow strength holds and dirtied. Not inspiring to write a blow by blow account. A Continental version of Bully Boy Muir Vs Collin Joynson. Jones gets some good cross buttock throws on the bigger Kramer. He dumps him on the ringside. He uses a neat swinging motion to break open a seated chinlock into a standing top wristlock. He uses an over the shoulder slam to counter an inverted front chancery. At one point Kramer is pounding him on the ropes and he takes Kramer over one shoulder and Arbitre Louis over the other and throws them both out with him. A spectator tries to pull Jones out of the ring, Jones goes out and wallops him. They don't throw him out, just sit him down, so maybe this was an angle like Fred Magnier running in during the late 70s Michel Di Santo Vs Michel Chaidne bout and getting a kicking from DiSanto and Delaporte. Karl gets the win and a Euro championship after taking advantage while Jones is being pulled off the ropes. Afterwards we get what Jim Cornette calls an Afterbirth while Jones is beating up both Kramer and L'Arbitre. Not the most inspiring end to Alessio's last playlist (he needs to add Flesh/Zefy Vs Richard/Jessy.) but New Catch would see better moments.

Only seven minutes long, sounds like this is going to be an execution. Stax is in full Grumpy Garden Gnome mode, refusing a handshake. Wright ducks past Stax as he will need to keep distance and use speed to even survive a few respectable minutes. Cut tonStax with his hands round Steve's throat - he caught him in the end. Stax floors Steve with an overhead blow for 5. then with a bodycheck for 2. Wright goes for a leg but after a bit Stax shakes him off. Cut to the Giant again choking and bodychecking Steve, this time in the corner. Wright dodges a Stax charge, dropkicks him onto the ropes and begins the process of hauling him over to ringside despite Mick McMichael's objections. Stax recovers and slaps Steve out of the ring like a goofball. On the way back he headbutts the Giant and launches a missile dropkick off the top corner, flooring the big man. He stomps him and jumps off the opposite top corner bouncing off the Gian's stomach, earning himself a first Yellow Card. He gets two more stomps and another feet first corner jump as Doncaster Mick warns him and refuses to count a pinfall where Steve just covered him American style. He continues to attack the downed Stax with a chinlock and what looks like tying his hair to the top rope. Stax makes it to his feet but is soon on the ropes from two dropkicks and a double handed shove. The bell goes but Wright continues to charge Stax again and again. He finally retreats to his corner with a naughty smirk on his face. Round 2 Wright nearly sneaks up behind Haystacks to jump him on his shoulders off his own corner but Stax throws him to ringside and goes outside himself to continue the treatment. He ponds away at Wright until he is DQd. McMichael goes out to stop him doing any morecdamage. Not the execution I expected, more a Stax disgraces himself to establish himself as a vile heel. Another variant I was used to as a child. Sadly Daddy did not come to Germany to sort big nasty Stax out.

Ten months earlier in Hanley for Screensport. This is just the highlights of the three falls and a minute or two each leading up to each one. Referee is Frank Casey - no he's not Fit Finlay's dad either. Round 3. Cortez falls victim to a back hammerlock from Robinson and stupid jokes about his moustache making him look like Charles Bronson from Miller and Beezely. Oh dear. The Chuckle Brothers are at their worst here. He turns s him into the guard with thecarm in hammerlock position for a couple of two counts, then into the mount. Cortez stands, gets a French style reverse snapmares to behind Jackie, rear double legs takedown and turns him over into a folding press but Jackie's feet hit the ropes. The Hanley crowd applaud and even the Chuckles call it beautiful. Jackie gets a front chancery (not a side one, commentator!) Cortez tries turning sideways then stands up to get a sideways folding press for the opening fall. They shake hands. So far so clean. Round 5. Cortez turns a front chancery into the standing neckbreaker, almost a Rude Awakening, but Robinson rolls up his back and, still in the front chancery, grabs a leg. gets kicked off, comes back off the ropes with the same further folding press from the Lewisham ITV bout but this time gets the equaliser. Round 7. Somewhere in between, things have gone nasty. Cortez and Casey are having a shoving match. Robinson isn't happy either, getting a forearm and an attempted rear snapmare in before the bell. He gets the snapmare successfully once he bell is gone, then another front chancery but Cortez slips in what might be a concealed punch (the Chuckles don't notice) followed by a crotch hold, bodyslam and kneedrop right in the throat. Cortez gets a forearm, rear snapmare and forces a leg down on Robinson's throat (anything that cut off the breathing was MAJOR heat in Britain - Kent Walton had seen to that!) Casey - eventually - sees what's wrong, orders Jon off and he - eventually - releases. Robinson is angry, contemplating a closed fist punch but instead goes for a side chancery. Cortez resists but when Robinson switches to rear snapmare he goes over. Robinson gets a crotchhold and slam but goes for a double arm stretch hoping for Cortez to roll backwards and fall for a folding press. Cortez seems to almost fall for it but rolls way in the Nick of time. He gets a whip of the ropes and a cross buttock throw and press for the deciding fall. Robinson is unhappy and protesting although it looks fair enough to me. Okay. You want dirty wrestling? You want blue eyed boy versus villain? You got it in that final round. Personally I preferred the later Lewisham clean bout and I'm glad they buried the storyline hatchet and had that later bout. But if you prefer round 7 of this, we'll there's no accounting for taste ...

Erm, @ohtani's jacket Billy Finlay is NOT Dave Fit Finlay's dad. Fit Finlay's dad is Dave Finlay Senior https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Finlay_Sr. Anyway, they lock up but hit the ropes. , Robinson gets a hammerlock but Jackie kips up, straightens the arms back into a referee's hold. Robinson gets in a rear snapmare and comes out of it with a wristlever. Cortez rolls out, spins on his behind to wind up Cortez in an armlock of his own then switches to leg. Robinson counters with a monkey climb but Cortez lands feet first. Jon gets the leg again but Jackie backs into the ropes. Jackie gets a side chancery, takes Cortez down . Cortez looks to handstand out but instead grabs a front chancery and Robinson grabs one of his own. Like Le Petit Prince and Jack Richard in 1966 on the French Catch thread they roll on the mat in stalemate.. unlike Richard and Dubail they roll into the ropes and have to break up. Cortez gets a side headlock into cross buttock throw into forward neck crank and back to side headlock. Robinson tries handstanding out but no joy. Cortez switches to a cross press but can't get the shoulders down so switches back to the headlock. Robinson tries an atomic drop but Cortez rolls through on a cross buttock thrown to keep the headlock. Jackie got Cortez down in the mount and managed his headstand escape (Cortez's arm was in the hammerlock position - a missed opportunity?) Cortez gets a front chancery but backs into the ropes. Referee Billy "Not Princes Paula's Father In Law" Finlay stops Jackie getting a wristlock on the ropes but the two shake hands. Cortez gets a legdive and toe & ankle hold, looking to develop an ankle scissor. Robinson tries for the chin the gets an armhank counter in full position before a heel smash for a 7 count. Robinson gets a side chancery and takes his man down. Cortez gets one of his own and briefly they log rol again but Robinson flips Cortez in front for a front headlock but Cortez's feet hit the ropes on the flipover forcing a break. Pity. A case of Running Out Of Mat. Robinson gets an armbar into rear arm hank but Cortez pulls the arm through forcing Robinson to flip over, then pounces on him for the cross press and a 2 count. Cortez tries for shoulder press but Robinson bridges out. Cortez tries to break the bridge but Robinson gets his knees in for a monkey climb. Cortez rolls back on impact but rather than go for the folding press >a Robinson soars over him. Cortez tries a monkey climb of his own, Robinson rolls back and this time Cortez gets the folding press but Robinson unfurls and we get a brief Bascule before Cortez tries another folding press and Robinson crawls out. Robinson whips Cortez who does not go with it and has his arm badly wrenched. He is up and ready at 8 but Robinson gets thecarm and delivers a further weakening blow on it for 7. Cortez goes for a wristlock into figure four top armlock of his own and whips Robinson who takes the bump then rolls back upright. Cortez gets a standing back hammerlock, Jackie reaches for a rear snapmare but can't get the head. He instead gets a foot through his own legs. Cortez boots him in the behind and drops into a flip position but Robinson deliberately overshoots a flyer off the ropes catching Cortez's legs with his own for a further folding press - a trademark of his and a BEAUTY it is - but it only gets him a 2 count. Robinson gets a standing full nelson but Cortez gets an arm free, pulls himself up into the Crucifix takedown position and gets his man down in the further nelson for the one fall required. Handshakes and sportsmanship all round. (And there it cuts just before the one and only onscreen backstage angle in ITV wrestling history - Clive Myers and Fuji Yamada making a challenge to Kendo Nagasaki and George Gillette for a tag match with a fourth man of Kendo's choice. Rocco volunteered, leading to a year of teaming and then a red hot feud.) Dunno about meandering. I thought this bout was a pretty good technical exhibition. Even the forearms and other blows were kept to a minimum. My sort of match all round. Clearly the crowd's cup of tea too despite this being one of the most notoriously violent crowds of the 80s/90s UK. (A legendary Johnny Saint Vs Robbie Brookside match was filmed there a few months later and the Catford Crazies liked that too.). But hey, if that's not your cuppa, try the earlier Cortez/Robinson bout I planned to review...

I'll do a proper British match review later (I've already got France and Germany in the bag but need to get out the house now) but here's as n intering snippet from Corny about wrestling on the BBC in the 1930s.

Erik Watts used to be a highly touted youngster until his daddy was fired from. WCW. Danny was another until he decided to morph into Dirty Dan. This is a Final Four and the ring announcer says something about different types of gimmick match. Erik has finally succumbed to Alex Wright/Dave Taylor dancing. Danny makes his entrance to FGTH's Two Tribes. Both men have come on a long way, Danny brawling an bumping, Reiki ducking and dodging deftly. Erik can even do a decent roll from an armbar - did he get to work with Regal in WCW? The voices cheering for Erik are young, high pitched and female. 90s house music in the round gap. Round 2. Lots of either man outside. McMichael refuses Danny a rope break. .Nice sunset flip by Erik. Danny getting a lot of heat. Erik has a neat waistlock snap suplex. Dance mix of Also Sprach Zarusthrea during the break. Round 3. More heat from Danny. Erik doing big slingshot and jumping hope spots. Danny ironically goes for a flip and Erik stomps him. Danny using kneelifts rather than dropkicks to be less flashily babyface. Erik gets his arm hurt and Danny goes to work on it. He eventually gets a first yellow card. Spanish pop hit Tengo De La Noche in the break. Round 4. Danny does some old blue eye moves and shows off to the crowd he is. Erik gets a flying bodypress, botches it slightly and gets Danny in the knee but scores the pin anyway. Erik celebrates to Depeche Mode's I Just can't get enough. Two guys both learning new tricks in from if an away crowd.. Danny how to sell as a heel. Erik how to be more skillful and athletic.

Portrait of the Monsieur/Marquis/Travesti Man as a young Jacky, going up against late 60s and 70s France's most attractive babyface. Sneery commentator calls the bout a cultural and educational experience (a less laboured version of the paintings thing 3 years later. Both are in capes which makes the into a bit confusing. Apparently Dubail has a day job as an "industrial designer". Plenty of TV wrestlers on both sides of La Manche had day jobs, sometimes middle class ones. Richard has trunks instead of his later tight. LPP established as the star early on - Richard knees him over but he rolls backwards into upright and fires a dropkick - all in one motion. Both men can reverse inverted front chancery presses on the mat but Richard has to resort to a blow to break a Prince bridge. The two way inverted front chancery being reversed and surviving snapmares is the story of the early part of the bout. Eventually Jacky gets a leglock and it's the same story - the submission hold version of La Bascule,, the same hold both way but dominance flipping back and forth. Even after Dubail boots Richard from behind he comes right back with the same single leglock. Both of them try to convert to a single leg Boston Crab at the same moments leaving themselves standing in a back to back standing tug of war for the two intertwined legs. At one point Dubail sells his right knee but Richard takes the left. This might not be a botch as he traps the leg in the ropes - perhaps his gameplay is to work on both knees. After some heelish stomping on the grounded Prince, he is freed from the ropes and Richard goes for the right knee while holding the other leg bent with his foot. On the second attempt LPP monkey climbs out, slips through Richard's legs and dropkicks him. He snapmares Richard, goes through the legs, does a half cartwheel half vault over Richard who is tryingf or a backdrop and headscissors and throws him twice, goes up into the Victory Roll position but flips backwards behind Richard, nips forward through his legs and rear snapmares him and gets a rear chinlock into side headlock. WHEW!!! Tough to do, even tougher to note it all down! Richard tries for an atomic drop but Prince rolls through to keep the side headlock. He tries again. Same result. Prince transitions to armbars to double rear leg takedown to flip into bridge so as to cross the legs into a Gotch toehold the roll round the leg end of maximum leverage. Even the sneery commentator is impressed "Elle est belle ce prise du Petit Prince!". Dubail presses down to stop a pushup escape and uses his feet to keep his toehold while escaping an over the shoulder chancery attempt. LPP turns it over into an Indian Death lock. He uses a Manchette so avoid sit up counter attacks. Richard finally mat suplexes out and fires off a couple of angry Manchettes and some kicks which put Prince out of the ring. It's mostly stomps and Manchettes other than one good over the knee backbreaker. Clean versus dirty has replaced two way hold stalemate as the dominant theme, Prince gets pitched DEEP in the crowd onto the lap of some lucky lady who starts mothering him like mad. Bouncers stop her from putting him in her handbag to take home and he gets back on the ring apron then knocked into the next door seat to the said Lucky Lady. Crowd are now spitting heat, besieging the ring South London Hellcrew style. Arbitre holds Richard back. One angry hold man calls the ref a "Salopard.". Look it up if you don't know! Prince gets back to the ring for more Manchettes, kicks and another fine over the knee backbreaker. Prince gets his hope spot with Manchettes of his own and a series of 3 dropkicks. He ties Richard in the ropes (with difficulty and fires off superkicks as well as more Manchettes. A dropkick catches Jacky just as he frees himself. Prince gets a wristlever and reverse cartwheels and reverse somersaults on it to make it tighter. He then clamps on a headscissors. Twice Richard snaps out but is taken back down with the headscissor reapplied. He switches back to wristlever and Richard rolls back to untwist the arm but Prince catches him in a front chancery. He then somersaults sideways mid air into the flying headscissors position taking his man down in the scissorhold once more. He convers to an armhank (sadly a crowd shot conceals all of how this was done) and turns Richard over in the hold, rubbing away on the shoulder muscles. Richard eventually stands up in the hold and dumps Prince to ringside. besieging him on his return with stomps and Manchettes. Prince does a Steve Grey horizontal spin on the mat to turn a wristlock into a more powerful hammerlock. He fires a dropkick, forearm, two monkey climbs, the second converting into a sunset flip and double leg nelson for 2. This becomes a Bascules of back and forth leg press pin attempts. Prince eventually gets a flying headscissor throw. Richard fights back with the dirty stuff sending Prince out of the ring and the crowd whistles the bird at him ("a concert of music provided by the public' says the sneery commentator.) . Prince seems to miss a flying tackle into the ring but catches Richard with a ground dropkick as he follows in and splashes him for the one fall required. Richard looks disgusted, puts his hands up vainly then quits. Vehicle for the Prince, his skills as a technical wrestler and his skills as a crowd sympathiable babyface. Young Jacky was the heel jobber reminding me a lot of Psycho Shane Stevens two decades later, young, spiky and angry.

YAY! I was hoping Travis Heckel would draw Jim as the older tubbier Herve of the C21st.

Am posting this one (1) to make it three videos each of Britain, France and Germany. (2) Because there's an interesting Ron Simmons connection - his former WCW protégé fresh from the Power Plant. whom he turned back to heel against versus his future Acolytes partner, the future JBL. Pretty generic late 80s American Muscleman bout. JBL gets the win with a clothesline.

Some more Erik, same venue Stadhalle in Bremen, four days earlier he takes on Destroyer Johnny South aka British LOD aka (Hawk) Legend Of Doom. Mick McMichael refereeing complete with kilt. Wonder what the lad from Oklahoma made of that? South and McMichael get into the ring to some truly AWFUL screechy thrash metal sung by some fool who thinks he's Robert Plant. Erik comes down to "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" by C+C Music Factory, another classic piece of early 90s kitsch. I'm pretty sure someone or other used that music in All Star around the same time. At least Erik doesn't dance to it a la Dave Taylor/Alex Wright. You can tell it's not the real Mike Hegstrand cos Johnny South can WRESTLE, going from collar and elbow to inner arm to outer wristlever and takedown. Erik too has been going native and can roll up to untwist an armbar. He's also learned the transition from armbars to rear folding press takedown which he pulls off snappily. After that things revert back to type with South pulling old British heel tricks and Erik doing a Thesz Press. By Round 2 the bout is all American spots with only a basic adherence to No Follow Downs the only reminder that this is Europe. Very WCW Worldwide fodder. That Whigfield track again during the round interval, it had only just been a hit at that time. Round 3', Erik works on a lot of arm weakeners - double wristlock s, arm hanks etc. Between Rounds 3'and 4:we get New Order's How Does It Feel? Pretty bad for South, even worse when Erik gets the one fall required with a backslide.

Erik Watts heads to Germany to get away from the accusations of nepotism. Here he faces thuggish young Japanese heel Hiro Yamamoto. Erik of course was a familiar figure to German fans as his WCW matches were broadcast on RTL's Catch Up. He takes quite a beating from Hiro before coming back with a sunset flip pin attempt only for Hiro to becsa ed by the bell. Interim music "Saturday Night" by Whigfield. VERY 1994!!! Erik soon battles back to get the one fall required with a flying bodypress. No sign of the STF Daddy allegedly paid Masa Chono to teach him.

Just to show you all that French Catch of that era was not ALL kiddy fun with Flesh, here is a more serious title bout with then recently crowned European Heavyweight Champion Erik Isaksen of Norway giving his predecessor Bernard Van Damme a return match. Okay we'll get Monsieur L'Arbitre out the way quickly. Long hair. red satin shirt, looks like a cheesy cabaret piano player. Never mind him. I've done some looking up of Isaksen, I can't find this IWSF version of the title but Erik has held a good few other versions - by the ICWA (the French FWA) a year earlier in 2006 and by the UEWA in 2015 at a time when All Star Wrestling in Britain may have been a member. The belt looks like the WWF Flags belt from WM2 and WM3. Erik spends a long time after the start at ringside antagonising the (rather youthful looking and gender balanced) Publique, to the point where once he got back in after the ref threatened him with an Avertisement I sighed with relief. Once up and running, Erik was by far the more interesting wrestler, a real smug git of a heel with a touch of Brian "Leon Arras" Glover about him. He angers the crowd so much the MC has to quietly and gently persuade them to kindly NOT throw paper balls! He does Kendo Nagasaki's Kamikaze Crash (diving fireman's carry) as well as a fireman's carry side slam with which he nearly gets a fall and might have got it if not for his arrogant pin cover, kneeling on his opponent while flexing his biceps. Bernard, despite his name, is nothing like Rob or indeed Jean Claude. His gimmick is kind of Warrior meets Jimmy Snuka. He tries for a headscissors at one point but Erik turns it into a powerbomb. BVD does get the Scisseaux Volees later after picking Erik off the top turnbuckle and slamming him. He finally gets the win with a flying bodypress to regain his title.

Well done to @Phil Lions for acknowledging the Modern Era and the 2007 boom in Catch in France, by the way. To underscore the point here are those two loveable rascals Flesh and Zefy, 20 years after beating Marquis Jacky Richard and Jessy Texas on FR3, taking on Horacio the pirate whom we've met before (in a frilly sailor top that looks suspiciously like a ladies' blouse) and a new heel from Italy Kaio - not to be confused with Kato Bruce Lee from circa 1983 but a young Italian heel with his country's tricolore painted as a stripe across one eye, on whatever channel this was on. We join the action in progress, each side takes a fall then celebrates by knocking the opposition to ringside and getting a yellow card/Avertisement for their efforts. Zefy gets round the no exciting the public rule by doing a Walter Bordes style war dance which is just to rev himself up, honest guv. The crowd get their Aux Chiottes L'Arbitre chant in after the ref refuses Zefy's rope break for a posting. There's a fairly long section where Zefy does a giant swing on Kaio then keeps the double legs and it's not clear if he's going for another swing, a slingshot or a Boston Crab. The finish has Gordon at ringside using someone's crutch to immobilise Horacio snake handler style while Zefy, after some effort, does a top rope superplex on Kaio for the win. Zefy doesn't otherwise do much of his high flying stuff. The odd dropkick and that's it. We've seen this venue with its big and red hot crowd before. Yes Phil, this was definitely the good times.

Just found out that the French phrase was originally a literary reference. https://www.bdtheque.com/series/19039/deux-manches-et-la-belle Or maybe the book title was a Lutte Grecoromain reference and they were already doing best of three falls even before Catch.

There are two Cullen-Hamill bouts filmed but @ohtani's jacket only seems to have reviewed one and I presume he was watching the other one (correct me if I'm wrong OJ.) This one was in Wales, the other was in Crewe, a town in Cheshire with an inordinately large and complicated railway station. We join the action near the end of Round 2 with Hammill winning a test of strength by putting his feet on Cullen's hands. Cullen can't slide them out so Kung Fu agrees to release but then jumps on them. behaviour which could have turned a lesser mortal heel on the spot. Cullen gets a cross armed shoulder grip, boots his man slowly but firmly in the chest to set him on his knees and switches to rear pressure points but the bell goes before he can get any revenge for having his hands stomped on. That referee looks downright ancient, like he was dug up from somewhere. Round 3. Kung Fu VERY QUICKLY gets a snapmare and double knees press. But Cullen inprone guard position fires a knee into Kung Fu's ribs then bucks him off like a bronco. Cullen grand the waist and Kung Fu gets the shoulders which he switches to a wristlever and posting with a superkick on the rebound. Kung Fu gets a snapmare and kneedrop, a posting and flying headscissor throw, pressure points on the kneeling Cullen and double knees to the head as he tries to get up. He gets a scissor chop then off the top turnbuckle for a magnificent sunset flip and double leg nelson opening pin. I like those nice golden brown stage curtains by the was, very plush theatre. Round 4. Collar and elbow lockup, Cullen gets a posting and then on the rebound he delivers - yes you've guessed it - a back elbow. Then a forearm and flying tackle but Hammill gets the advantage with a slam and double knees press but Cullen throws him off. Kung Fu tries his own flying bodypress but makes no impact and falls to the mat. Cullen gets a legscissor takedown, Eddie goes for pressure points. Frank pushes him off then switches to standing toehold and delivers leg weakeners. Kung Fu makes it up at 9, really selling the knee. Chic whips Kung Fu off the ropes and shouldeblocks his knee on the rebound, sending Hammill flying for quite a bump! He leivers a kick to the Achilles tendon which again floors Eddie. He blasts the back of the knee and takes the leg to do damage with a hold. This turns out to be the double foothold start of a surfboard but Cullen fails to get the arms and falls backwards as Kung Fu gets to his feet. Cullen floors Hammill again with a kick to the thigh. Odd he's doing these kinds of moves as his opponent is the one with the martial arts gimmick. He gets another superkick and an over the shoulder kneebreaker but with Hammill still in the corner so the referee demands a break. Cullen complies - he is still a blue-eye. Cullen again gets the legdives, leg weakeners and a basic leglock. The bell goes and Cullen sportingly helps his man up. Round 5. (A baby in the audience is not enjoying it! Probably middle aged by now.). They lock up, Kung Fu gets a side chancery throw and bodycheck but misses with a second one and Cullen pitches him to ringside. A little kid offers to help him up but Kung Fu gets back on his own power. He gets shit into the ropes but rebounds with a flying forearm. He gets a flying tackle which takes both of them over the ropes to ringside - the same little kid is encouraging them to get up - and they both make it back, Cullen via a showy jump over the ropes. If it was to avoid an ambush it fails, Hammill gets a karate kick, shoulderblock and over the shoulder armdrag. Cullen on the mat kicks Hamill in the back of the knee, fells him and gets a leglock into single leg Boston Crab then a straight leg bar against the chest ( a leg spread variant in fact.) Not getting a submission he stands and yanks the leg straight as a final weakener. Kung Fu is up and gets a wristlever augmented by a foot on the underside of Cullen's neck, he asks the ancient referee (Tiny Clarke is his name) to check for a submission. Not getting it, he switches to a standing arm scissor. Cullen lifts him up in the hold and Kung Fu gets a victory roll and folding press with bridge but Cullen crawls out. This is the same spot as in the Screensport match but it's done rather better here and gets a fantastic and well deserved round of applause from the crowd. (The baby from earlier still isn't impressed though!) Cullen gets a low flying bodyscissors on Kung Fu and takes him down with Hammill on top and himself in guard. Kung Fu tries a shoulder press and gets a 1. He briefly considers an elbow to the chest but Cullen swiped it away before Hammill can do any damage. Cullen tightens his bodyscissors making Hammill cry out. Kung Fu tries getting his arms inside the bodyscissors but to no avail. He tries for another shoulder press, gets a 1 but more importantly uses Johnny Saint's old trick of using his heel to pull the bodyscissors down until it is around his knees. The bell goes before he can capitalise. Tiny Ancient Clarke undies the feet and gets a clap for his efforts. Round 6. Final round, a good naturedly distrustful handshake, the crowd chuckles a bit. Cullen shoves Hamill into the ropes and Hamill briefly gets hooked up but quickly unties himself, no in the ropes antics you might expect from a blue eye Vs heel match on Reslo or in France or Germany. Cullen gets the head and chops down with an elbowsmash. He backs Eddie into the ropes, gets a wristlever, yanks it straight, knees the bent over Kung Fu in the chest, flooring him for 5. Cullen side chancery throws Hammill and dropkicks him out of the ring, hanging by his toes from the top rope. Cullen sporting lyb helps him back. He goes for a throw but Hammill stops him with a headlock, changes arms, goes for the ropes and a Kid McCoy Yorkshire Rope Trick MK2, turns 180 into a sunset flip position and takes his man down into a side folding press (instead of the usual double leg nelson) but disappointingly only gets a 2. (With only 70 seconds of clip left, I really thought that would be the second straight fall.) He tries again and gets a couple of 1s and a heel smash over the skull which keeps him down for 8. Kung Fu again stymies a throw off the ropes and this time gets a shoulderblock. He tries another but Cullen ducks the first pass,leapfrogs the second and gets a belly to belly suplex for the final round equaliser which is almost as good a finish as the sunset flip would have been 1-1 draw. They shake hands and Kung Fu gestures the 1-1 score to Cullen. A better and slicker bout than the Screensport one, the victory roll spot done better, the near second straight and the final equaliser were both joys to watch. Better filmed too - S4C had top notch camera crews from HTV/BBC Wales backgrounds whereas Screensport's cameramen probably had graduated up from filming wedding videos and the like. A good technical match and a good appreciative crowd (except the baby!).

Nice short clean match and a good reminder that even in the wild excesses of Screensport Satellite Wrestling there was still room for the purist matches just as with Reslo, just as with All Star and Rumble to the present day. Chuckle Brothers Miller and Beezely seemed more into said wild excesses , talking more about their ongoing angle than the match, but never mind. Scotland versus Northern Ireland, the battle of the blonds. Cullen tries for a leg but Hammill dodges him and gets a headlock, breaking off for a bodycheck before reapplying, then getting another bodycheck. Cullen gets a rear elbow and headlock of his own but Kung Fu straightens the arm and transitions to his own headlock into a front chancery, but Cullen gets a quick sharp slam. Kung Fu gets a wristlever into hammerlock takedown. He turns him into a crosspress for four two counts then back to the hammerlock. Cullen stands up in the hold and scores a back elbow. He drags Kung Fu down with a wrist lever. Kung Fu uses his Vicks to get a leg spread that floors Cullen and breaks the hold.Cullen gets a rear waistlock takedown. From there, he grabs one leg, scissors the other and makes a Frank Gotch toehold of it.Hanill straightens himself and rolls over a couple of times to get to the ropes(no heat as he had to struggle for them.) Kung Fu posts Cullen and superkicks him on the rebound. Another posting and flying headscissors. He misses a whip off the ropes and is whipped himself but goes over and rotates into a sunset flip to get the double leg nelson opening fall. Bezely loses himself with excitement "To Kung Fu, King of ... of ... Of Those Moves!" Round 2 (I think).Cullen gets a back elbow, a knee to an arm, another back elbow, a posting, a suplex and cross press for 2, a rear chinlock, one handed chinlock with armbar and lean-back neck crank. Kung Fu breaks it open leaving Cullen with rear double wrists. Unable to get a surfboard, he shoves Hamill down from behind. The Irishman comes back with straight fingers and two postings. Cullen gets a back elbow but Kung Fu takes him down with a single leg. He gets the other and is ready to go for a legspread but referee Frank Casey won't have it so he sportingly releases. Cullen gets an arm and axehandles it. He picks his man up over one shoulder, slams him in the corner and posts him in the opposite corner then gets a slam and an over the shoulder backbreaker but Kung Fu wriggles out. Cullen gets a kick, tries for a tombstone piledriver and settles for a powerslam for the equalising fall. Round 3 (if there are rounds, it's not really clear. The caption slide says it's a session.) Cullen corners and posts Kung Fu who headbutts him down. Cullen dodges a charge and gets a belly to belly suplex for a 2. He follows with a side chancery throw and guillotine elbowsmash. He tries for a piledriver but Hammill backdrops him. He tries for a splash but Casey refuses the count as Cullen was down. Kung Fu gets a slingshot into the ropes but Cullen catches him with that back elbow again. Cullen gets a fireman's carry into cross body suplex (a la Finlay.) Kung Fu is up at 9 with a chop, side chancery throw and ground victory roll into bridging folding press but Cullen crawls out. He gets a wrist (actually more of a gi sleeve) but Kung Fu gets a wrist of his own and escalated into a crucifix takedown into further nelson pin attempt but the bell goes. 1-1 draw. On the whole I think Kung Fu came up with the best moves, Cullen had his moments but a little too over reliant on that back elbow for my taste. Still nice to see respect for the pure from even on Screensport. I gather these two also met on Reslo, perhaps I shall check that out too.

Been a while since we checked out the current scene. Rumble have overcome some recent technical difficulties with their YouTube channel, now fixed and are clearing off the backlog. I thought I'd reviewed a Ted Sabin bout before on here but seems I was mistaken. Here he is the latest challenger to British Lightweight Champion Nino Bryant, last seen on here defending against his own kid brother Leland. Not only the title is familiar to ITV viewers but the venue (the Woodville in Gravesend) and the referee Steve Grey, himself a former holder of this title and longtime dormant champion until its reactivation upon his 2021 retirement. Indeed we saw the same Steve lose the same title controversially to Jim Breaks a couple of posts above in 1979. It starts technical and goes on to stay that way with the odd forearm battle and flying move thrown in. Nino has a good headscissors and Ted a good kip up escape. A lot more rear waistlock manipulation than crafty counter moves which gives the bout a bit of a 30s-50s feel. The action moves like monkey climbs and huracanranas break out halfway through. Challenger Sabin gets the opener with a backslide and the story thereafter is Nino's chase to defend versus all the opportunities Sabin gets for another, potentially belt winning fall. Good near fall from Nino with a small package as counter to suplex. Nino gets the equaliser with a folding press but the bell fails to go leaving the commentator confused. Round 6 starts with that one forearm battle, not the hardest hitting one either. Fortunately it goes technical again with a bascule sequence. Nino gets the decider with a top rope splash, I'm a bit surprised Grey of all people let that go as continuous movement. Fuji Yamada got away with a moonsault in 1987 for a one required fall on Rocky Moran, but Mark Rocco frequently got public warnings for following down for moves like that. It's a tough call. Good title defence. Nino has grown up into the role of lightweight kingpin. Maybe some day he will hold Johnny Saint's old World title.

There's something very inevitable about Johnny Halliday popping up on any piece of 60s French pop culture. They were enormously proud of the guy, no one else gets why. Madame Catanzaro et Les Gosses are also on commentary - they would repeat this thing of humanising the heel by introducing you to his family with Pierre Lagache one time in the early 70s we've already seen. Apart from a few curtains, the ring is set up in front of a big, brightly lit backcloth which looks like a sun or a gas giant planet blazing away in the background. Vassilios is totally the star, constantly spinning around, s original g both straight falls, tying one heel up in the ball position. His only jeopardy moment is when he crashes into the tuxedo clad lounge lizard referee and gets an Avertisement for his troubles. Les Mechants are mostly there to be Vas's comedy stooges - like twin Cyanide Syd Coopers at an Elvis convention. They look oddly small - it's hard to relate Catanzaro to the hardened Steve Logan mk1-esque quiffed thug I saw in a 1971 bout. I.I. meanwhile seems to be an afterthought - he tags in, the heels get some mild heat, he makes the hot tag, the heels lose it again. Vassilios Mantopolous is fantastic but this is as much a vehicle for him as a Big Daddy tag is for Big Daddy. I would rather prefer to see him in a competent clean match against one of the top lightweight stars of the era like George Kidd, Le Petit Prince, Rene Ben Chemoul, Michel Saulnier - indeed just across La Manche in 66 there was a kid called Johnny Saint who was making waves around now (and who we know later wrestled in France albeit not in TV.)

I've had a skim view of the match. I'll do a full review soon. The bits I saw looked good and fast. I guess this wasn't a dedicated pro wrestling show. There were a bunch of musical instruments set up at ringside including a full drumkit. On a modern wrestling TV show that would be ASKING for trouble. I guess they had other stuff on that show like bands and it was just a variety/entertainment show that had a wrestling match on one week.

1) IThe toupie (thanks for the spelling correction) is one of those little things that French people of a certain age can be triggered by into nostalgic introversion (like "No, not the ears!" would do for similarly aged Brits). In a similar vein I would propose "Two falls, two submissions or a knockout" and "Deux Manches et une Belle s'il y a eu" as being idiomatic equivalents. We British still use the former phrase metaphorically, I would not be surprised if the equivalent is true in France. 2) One particular issue I've had with American fans when discussing the cultural magnitude of pro wrestling on either side of the pond, is that they do harp on about live attendance as the sole barometer (other than how much money made!) of legit success at pro wrestling. 4) Okay. I tend to equate the channel move more with the end of World Of Sport that summer. It does seem logical that if that new TF1/Eurosport show was New Catch, then FR3 broadcasts 1985-1987 must be part of Old Catch, so to speak.

Thanks Phil, I enjoyed that. Listened to it in installments through the night. A few points: 1) The toupee needed further discussion. I know you mentioned headscissors and therefore escape from headscissors but both forms of the toupee - the corkscrew escape from headscissors and the headscissor throw using the skull as a fulcrum - were big parts of Leduc's arsenal. I was watching a 1983 Flesh Gordon bout last night and commentator Daniel Cazal was on about LeDuc being a toupee specialist, all those years afterwards. 2) I suspect that France, like Britain, focussed on intensity of touring rather than individual giant houses. For the Wikipedia article "List of professional wrestling attendance records in the United Kingdom" I addressed the issue thus: "In its heyday, British-based Joint Promotions and its independent rivals generally relied on intensive touring rather than major individual shows - by the mid 1960s Joint had an annual touring schedule of between 4000 and 5000 house shows including weekly residencies in over thirty cities". I expect there may be some similar statistic relating to French Catch. 3) I liked the bit about Le Petit Prince - he would have been a more natural choice to get a Catcheur into the WO HOF. Probably - as with this thread - the voting panel could do with an influx of older French fans who grew up with Le Catch and have instinctive natural reactions to some of its (to the rest of us) more alien aspects. I was quite interested in the guy who was a fan who became a ring announcer who had a large archive of research. Maybe he has a JN Lister style archive of TV broadcast info. 4) erm, TV wrestling in France* didn't end in 1985, it just decamped to FR3 that summer where it stayed until the end of 1987 - with the 1988 TF1 preview run of New Catch as a coda (taking things up to ten days after The Final Bell.) *(as in unscrambled, terrestrial analogue broadcasts of indigenous wrestling)

Then there was the time Big Daddy and a little kid teamed up to beat Giant Haystacks and I forget who - possibly another little kid - at BBC Studios for Jimmy Saville's "Jim'll Fix It."

Heavy gimmick for a country under Nazi occupation just 26 years earlier. Astonishing as it may sound. Kayser actually did his gimmick in Germany - Peter "Kaiser" faced Roland Bock in one of four 16mm colour pre-filmed insert clips of Bock in action (the other three being Donjon El Coral, Michael Nador and Beau Jack Rowlands.). Then again James "Baron Von" Raschke did HIS goose stepping gimmick in front of real Germans in 1984 for the IBV. Both trap each other on the ropes. Guy gets a side chancery but Kayser slips out so he reapplies and, with a struggle gets a throw but Peter rises up and slams him. Very much a strength bout with both getting wrapped up and not listening. Mercier gets a headscissors out of a headstand (it's not exactly a Gilbert LeDuc toupee as OJ claims but I can see the similarity.) Kayser fold them down and chops Mercier who ground suplexes Peter. Mercier gets a throw from the initial lockup. Spinning legdive and weakener. Mercier slaps his man stound. Grabs Kayser by the nose. The German is still in the leglock, until he throttles Mercier. Warned of by the ref, he switches to pressure points and a choke on the ropes. He finally gets his First Avertisement. Nearly a second for chopping Guy on the mat. Big Manchette for 5 stopped by Peter following down with axehandles. Three more forearms and a kick on the mat and more admonition from L'Arbitre. He tries pressure points but Mercier gets up and a Manchette battle ensues. Kayser gets a rear chin but Guy gets a knee. They break. Mercier takes his man down with a rear chinlock, briefly switching to a sleeper. Hec releases with one final Manchette. Kayser is up at 6 and another Manchette battle, the German cowering in the corner at one point. Mercier gets legdives into leglock.Mercier gets his own First Avertisement for reasons unclear. Mercier gets a front chancery, Kayser goes for the ropes. More manchettes and Mercier gets a slam and cross press for 2. Spinning leglock, Kayser gets the ropes, Mercier pulls him in and gets a leglock. Forces the legs open. They try each others threads then Mercier goes for the armpit, ref doesn't like it. They exchange chops in the hold, Kayser turns his man over in the hold.Kayser goes for fingers, ref slaps him off. When Mercier ties his man in the ropes, the ref tries to stop himm. Guy, years before his Saulnier-manhandling antics, gently lifts L'Arbitre out of the way. Kayser escapes, throttles his man down to the canvas and gets a second and final Avertisement while Mercier's seconds tends to him. Kaiser gets two postings for counts of 6 to 8.Hecslams and cross presses Guy for 2. Guy gets Manchettes, two postings, an aeroplane spin, slam and double knees press for the one fall required and a trophy. Afterwards Mercier cuts a rather rambling promo about how Kayser is An Athlete and says something I can't quite catch about all the Manchettes in the bout. It pains me to say it as a technical purist but the forearm smash battles were the best thing about this. The holds were slow and seemed to be used as American rest holds rather than lead to transitions orcreversals. There was something lacking in the cerebral department about this bout. Two nice details at the end - despite being a dirty villain Kayser is a good sport after the match, hugging and congratulating Mercier who reciprocates. Also at the end the camera pans up to a rather magnificent roof supported by all sorts of cool wooden beams etc.

Well properly it would have been in Greek script anyway. Maybe @Phil Lions could post a Kats Eleniki poster with his name on.