David Mantell

Its purpose was to hype a non televised Big Daddy tag topping the bill at a major arena show. Veidor and Bronson were in the role of American style jobbers although they got in their own offence. He probably wasn't clueless about Arion's belt being a creation of Joint Promotions but he was probably clueless about the American world title scene beyond what wrestlers who came back from America for a visit like Robinson, Hayes, Adams etc told him. In the event, Bridges vs Kendo in 1987 was billed as the WWAlliance title which was nothing to do with Dick The Bruiser in Indianapolis, just a mishmash of WWF and NWA, probably by Brian Dixon, at the behest of ITV, to distinguish from Hulk Hogan's title from the special American editions.

The oddity in all that is the well meaning but weak American referees. There's something very unlike America's preferred self image about them. Tommy Young meant well but made decisions that ended up helping Flair retain his title (eventually making up for it when he endorsed Steamboat's pin on Flair.) American referees forever taking bumps and missing crucial stuff. Meanwhile in Britain the referees - whom the Independent Broadcasting Authority demanded be seen to be in control at all times - were tough fearless John Wayne types determined to maintain order. When the wrestlers were two sportsmanly blue-eyes playing nice together, the refs played nice too, even sharing laughs with them. When wrestlers broke rules, refs were like angry army sergeants or old fashioned schoolteachers, unafraid to tear a strip off miscreants. You never see anything like that in American or French wrestling Gorilla Monsoon as a special ref in late 70s WWWF and Roger Delaporte as a ref in late 70s/80s France are the two comparable exceptions. You'd expect America to have the tough Presidential/Movie Hero referees, tough Sheriffs of the ring. It seems like Britain and America should be the other way around from how they each are and If the IBA hadn't kept such a tight leash on the content of British TV wrestling then things might have evolved differently as British wrestlers wanted to do more stuff that their American counterparts do.. As it is, the tighter no nonsense refereeing added to the air of serious sporting competition (Big Daddy and a few other things notwithstanding) that traditional British Wrestling aspired to provide ever since the near banning of All In in the late 1930s and the respectability drive that came with the Mountevans Rules.

Thanks Matt, you've been a great help in this. Many years ago I wanted to get into all the diferent European territories and see how they compared to the British Wrestling I grew up with. France - and Germany from 1979ish - seem to be the two territories with a comparably large amount of circulating footage. There was a small amount uploaded by people like Bob Alpra but being able to do a deep dive like this has been a dream come true. Flesh clearly had a long career and he became the French Big Daddy in time (he's nearly 70 now) and without knowing a person's background and motivation it's hard to distinguish what is legitmate criticism of him from what is wrestling business politics stemming from: a) the promotional-cum-blood feud between FFCP/Marc Mercier and Wrestling Stars/Gordon/Jacky Richard which seems to be tearing the C21st French Old School scene apart. b) supporters of ICWA and other Americanised promotions as well as French fans of WWE who use Gordon negatively as a stick to beat al old school French wrestling (like many British "new school" promotions/fans and British fans of American wrestling who hate traditional-style British Wrestling and want it wiped out and so use Big Daddy as a stick to beat it.) He was a decent worker early on and his deterioration into a fat old man as the figurehead of a scene took several decades as it might well be expected to do with anyone. (I'm not exactly svelte myself at age 49) He makes a less obvious whipping boy than Daddy or even Otto Wanz and it's harder to put a finger on what French non-fans of his dislike about him. Some time around the end of the 1960s gimmicks like Jean Ferre and Le Petit Prince (with all due respect to both Andre Rousimoff and Daniel Dubail) started to really gather pace with La Bete Humaine. By the 1980s France had really become the Memphis of Europe with stuff like Mambo Le Primativ, Jesse Texas, this week's Masked Wierdos (les Pihrannas, les Maniaks etc) Jacky Richard reinventing himself as the Marquis with his butler allowed to stand on the ring apron (which even American managers can't do) and Flesh Gordon as lead babyface gets the sharp end of the stick for being the frontman of all that. This carries on in the 90s and into the 00s with more characters like Travesti Man (with another manservant standing on the ring apron! ), Prince Zéfy (although a good worker) and Scott Ryder, plus an aging bald fat Gordon in the starring role and things have carried on like this ever since (with an obvious break for the pandemic). Like All Star in Britain since the mid '90s Wrestling Stars continues as the dominant promotion touring with its family orientated show and may well carry on forever. Unlike Wrestling Stars, All Star is not in an incomprehensible blood feud with Premier or Rumble - it had a bit of a spat with TWA in the early Noughties over various issues which resulted in All Star improving its product and it had some competition over venues with LDN in the early 2010s but none of this was as embittered or as abusive as the current FFCP vs WS war. Meanwhile as they try to destroy each other, local American-style indies and the WWE try to finish them both off and focus on Gordon as a target point.

The story here was basically Charlie McGee, poor man's Captain Lou Albano, one year into a doomed mission to defeat Big Daddy (doomed that is except the one time Haytacks, Marauder and McGee scored a triple tag win at Xmas '83 well away from the TV cameras and avenged the following month.). McGee had been the manager of the Masked Marauders (the other being Lucky Gordon) who went down in the FA Cup Final match to Daddy and Kid Chocolate and then the lumberjack match and finally the above, all of which I posted on the previous page. Then he tried with all bald team The Terrible Two (Mal Kirk and Ian Muir). the Rockers (Lapaque and Lorne) and various other combinations before finally getting blown off in that Xmas '86 Triple Tag the week before the reboot where All Star got their feet in the door. And then from '87 he got replaced by Tony Francis in much the same role.... There is one match missing from all this, Tiny Callaghan's first attempt at beating Daddy, teaming with Lucky Gordon to lose to Daddy and Roy Scott. You won't like it any better than the above matches, but I'll post it here for two reasons - Tiny Callaghan's facepaint, only the second one on British TV after Jim Harris's early attempt at Kamala paint for his 1982 match with Tom Tyrone (which I missed at the time, making TC my first ever face painted wrestler.) and for a sudden turn to technical at the end where Scott pins Gordon.

This bout I like a lot and have said so to Riley on the Wrestling Heritage forum (he said thank you) Just for the sheer variety of technical work involved (reversals, counters etc) and the fact that it was two relative youngsters that were coming out with this rather than two obvious top of the gamers like Saint and Faulkener. I'll make a list of some of my favourite bits: Round 1 * the folding presses reversed into more folding presses * the Steve Grey style use of the leg to unpick the wristlever and McGregor getting it back, twice Round 2 * McGregor keeping hold of the wristlever so Riley stays within headscissoring distance. * Three escapes and reengagements in a row, then Riley finally reverses the roll throwing McGregor out of his rhythm and getting a wrist lever of his own into a whip which he yanks upwards forcing McGregor to spin and land badly so Riley can escape. * The legtrip to behind and then the (much misunderstood!) cartwheel to avoid a monkey flip trap. Round 3 * Weakeners by McGregor to Riley's arm - two upward yanking whips that force Riley this time to land badly. *McGregor moves quickly enough to get out of a folding press before he's in it *Riley goes into Johnny Saint's "Russ Abbot" sequence then on the go behind swivels himself upside down into a sunset position for the opening pin! Round 4 * Riley uses the finger interlock (aka test of strength/Greco Roman knucklelock) to pull McGregor down into the folding press attempt (which ends in stalemate with first the bascule then the two way double leg nelson - still a popular spot to this day) * Riley avoids the hiptoss and comes back with a sunset flip attempt from RIGHT ACROSS THE RING! * McGregor, caught in the figure four toehold (aka Indian deathlock/pedigree - Kent Walton calls it the figure four with bar here) grabs a bearhug. Riley has to release his grip on McGregor's legs to push McGregor off - and out of the hold which was what McGregor wanted! Round 5 * Riley catches McGregor doubled up and gets a quick snapmare on him * McGregor's equaliser with a sharp hiptoss into cross press, turning his back on him just in time to scoop the arm with his own arm (very cute and it worked, says Walton of the move). Round 6 * McGregor switches from a hammerlock to a snapmare then moves in behind for a couple of further-nelson pin attempts. * A couple more interesting pin attempts - an attempt to repeat the equaliser from the last round and a backslide caught while Riley was bouncing off the ropes. Round 7 * McGregor is weakend by bad landings but suddenly goes behind for a side folding press, Riley only narrowly gets out and McGregot has a couple more attempts at holdiing him down. * Several more attempted pins then a dropick that turns into a flying headscissors attempt that Riley only just in time spins out of. * Riley clamps down on McGregors monkey flip trap with a double leg nelson to get the pin

Weblinks for the Big Two present day old school French promoters: Wrestling Stars: https://catch.fr/ FFCP (Marc Mercier version): http://ffcatch.fr/ I'm leaving the ICWA out of this as they are basically an "Americanised" (their own words) New School promotion like Hammerlock/ UWA/ FWA/ LDN/ WOSW etc in the UK or the GWF in Germany.

By the way I think Flesh Gordon may be due an apology from people who called him the worst worker. How about this guy?

Yes, Neil Sands got quite upset when the notoriously volative Croydon crowd cheered him being knocked out in 1988 (Mal would joke about that incident years later, especially if someone like me brought the McManus tape along for wrestlers to sign at All Star's "backstage pass" meet & greets - "Oh yes I remember THAT one - I got knocked out! (He still signed the tape regardless.) But les Bons in le Catch seem to take the whole thing to another level, behaving like the worst American heels (even British heels would think twice about bumping a ref deliberately.) Wayne Bridges never laid a finger on Peter Baines after he lost the title to Kendo. Big Daddy would get a second and final public warning for clubbing the smaller heel over the head with the bucket of water and he would bow his head in solemn repentence and sometimes shake the ref's hand to show he was taking his punishement like a man. AS early as 1978 Guy Mercier was repeatedly striking referees and throwing them around the ring - Kent Walton would have been balistic and said that he thought the Guy (no pun intended) would be suspended and all sorts. Les arbitres, for their part, seem to have gone along with this booking by expecting the worst from Les Bons and giving them public warnings left right and centre, often for things that were actually the fault of Le Méchant. When fans shout Ho Cette Arbitre at Saulnier, he goes BALLISTIC and jumps up on the corner pad screaming at the fans to STFU. (I think there's one match on the ABC Catch channel where the fans start chanting something a bit more below-the-belt than ho cette arbitre at Saulnier, but I've not quite worked out what it was.) So really the whole storyline by the late Noughties with Monsieur Jacky running the scene after a life of ring crime and referees giving out Avertisments for leading the fans in chants (that would be every blue-eye in C21st All Star in the UK DQ'd in record time then.) seems a logical conclusion to this whole situation. Like I said, what we need is a French fan who grew up with this to explain the philososphy and the context properly like I am doinig on the British Wrestling thread right now. (Not quite clear what nationality Ohtani's Jacket is.)

Just seen this match on Serje1's Youtube When abouts it this from? Flesh Gordon looks older and heavier than his final 1987 appearance on Matt D's channel but not as much as he does in say Reslo in '92. Serje has it down as being Eurosport/EWF but there is nothing on here to back this up other than all four appeared on said show and went on to careers in IWSF/Wrestling Stars in the C21st. If this bout is as late as it looks, it throws a curveball into the timeline of when Le Catch Francais finally disappeared from French Terestrial Television.

They're not heels in the Danny Davis/Teddy Long/NWO Nick Patrick sense of a corrupt official who makes outrageously pro-heel calls. They're portrayed as untrustworthy petty officials who do come through for Les Bons in the end most times, ususally because they have no choice, but they spend the match arguing with Les Bons and giving them Avertisments (equivalent of Public Warnings a la British Wrestling and yellow/red cards in the CWA and Stampede) on top of the usual being blind sided by Les Méchants. (The one honest referee in all of this is, ironically, former heel Roger Delaporte. By contrast, the worst of the worst seems to be former squeaky clean lightweight Michel Saulnier who as a referee comes across as a horrid little man) The chant of "Ho Ho Cette Arbitre" rings out on many of these old Catch matches. It's seen as acceptable for even the most cleancut popular scientific Bons like Guy Mercier or Gerard Hervé both before and after he became Flesh Gordon, to beat up the referee pretty badly. In America this sort of thing would be just about okay for a heel on the rampage. In Britain, anyone deliberately beating up on a referee would cause a major heat incident. In France it is seen as good sportsmanly behaviour worthy of a babyface. I suppose this could be something to do with a traditional hatred by the French for petty officials. (France has a VERY dodgy right wing police force whose union has been known to protect them from investigation into abuse of power as well as any attempt at reform by successive French governments. In France, the good guys seem to be outlaws like Stone Cold Steve Austin fighting against an oppressive system. It starts in the late 1970s and builds momentum during the 80s. By the 21st century, longtime heel Jacky Richard had installed himself as heel commisioner Monsieur Jacky, modelled in clear part on Mr McMahon One ruling he made in around 2007 was to ban Les Bons from deliberately encouraging the fans to cheer for them during matches, with good guys like the elderly tubby bald Flesh Gordon getting the worst of this.

Any thoughts on the frankly ODD attitude to referees in French Catch.? In America the referees are well meaning buffons who get KOd and generally screw up on decisions. In Britain they are tough hard-nosed enforcess whom the IBA demanded be shown to be in control all the time. In France, they are portrayed as petty heel figures who help out the bad guy constantly until just at the end when they rnf up letting him down. It is deemed acceptable for the babyface to regularly beat up the ref. Even refs with exemplary past ring creditially like Michel Saulnier are considered only on step higher than, say Danny Davis in the WWF.

I think this bout was actually 1983, from the same Basildon, Essex TV taping as that years's cup final day match pitting Charlie McGee's Masked Marauders. I think it was Moran's TV debut and he hadn't yet grown the mullet or got the heel identitiy established (consider Fit Finlay wrestling cleanly in the title eliminator against Davey Boy in 1982) so just came across as an amiable sort of guy, resembling your local postman. Good solid scientific match

There were one or two rather strange prizes up for grabs in KO tournaments over the years. No washing machines or yachts or anything else you might get off some TV quiz show, mind. But there was one tournament, screeened on an Easter Monday, where a giant chocolate Easter Egg was up for grabs. Jim Breaks was the lucky winner who got his championship diet screwed up with cocoa beans, fats and sugars. Also the Jolly Fisherman trophy - a pottery figure of a character from an old 1930s poster/magazine advert for ralway trips to seaside resort Skegness, praising its notoroiously bad weather as an actual major selling point: In fairness, the Golden Gown would not have really suited scowly Crumb Heel Syd Cooper.

Princess Paula is the main thing that comes to mind when older people in this country think of Fit Finlay. Mention how Finlay once had a sidekick and they won't make the link to Hornswoggle, they'll think of bossy old Paula who used to tell her husband off and get angry with him if he lost a fal. They especially remember her at her most flamboyant with the headress. (The Fabulous Finlays were also big as a double act in Germany/Austria for the CWA.) First time I ever saw Randy Savage and Elizabeth on a WWF special I instantly thought they were the American version of Finlay and Paula. Mick McMichael spent a lot of his career as a jobber to the stars despite his skills. One rare actual win for him on TV was his teaming with Bid Daddy against The Rockers (Pete Lapaque and Tommy Lorne) but generally he wrestled worthy serious bouts with he then generally lost albeit not as a pushover. Doesn't seem to have won a title ever (add him to the same list as Caswell Martin and Steve Logan mk2 as wrestlers wo should have won titles but didn't. The obvious knockoff ring name (from Mick McManus) perhaps didn't help. In Germany,he is best remembered as a kilt-wearing referee.

You're welcome. Brings back childhood memories - running round the house telling everyone and everything that Mighty John Quinn and Giant Haystacks had won the Olympic Wrestling!

How come they had Teds in France? The Edwardian era isn't even called that in France, it's called "La Belle Epoque".

I was mistaken. I had a crafty flash forwards and itt wasn't there. So here it is now: Like I said, this bout is a flashback to earlier styles of British wrestling. Haward is a top amateur champion (Commonweatlh Games silver medalist, no less) and no nonsense gym boy. "Kerry Leprechaun" Tim Fitzmaurice is a student of the legendary Bert Assirati. Pretty quickly from the start, Haward is snapping off quick fireman's carry takedowns from a wristlock and drawing on his GR background to go for rear waistlock takedowns and suplexes. Notice how once he throws Fitzmaurice he puts a leg out in front to create disance. between himself and his opponent. Fitzmaurice does a lot of moves down on the mat that most wrestlers by 1980 would do standing up like the backdrop at 8:03 and the rolls done down on the mat at 5:40 , 5:45 , 7:22, 15:07 and 15:22 when from the mid 60s to the mid 80s people like Petit Prince, Bobby Ryan,, Dynamite Kid and Danny Collins were using cartwheels to achieve the same result (although he does also a standing roll at 7:05. Incidentally another wrestler I've seen doing this old fashioned roll from a kneeling position was Kendo Nagasaki against Colin Joynson in Solihull 1976 - Kendo actually switching directions on the roll a couple of times to - as Kent Walton would say "undress" the arm lever and spring free. ) Haward has a great escape from legdive attempts, spinning horizontally in a standing position to wrench the leg free. Fitzmaurice flips and flops a lot to resist Haward's rear waistlock suplex pin attempt before Keith eventually succeeds in getting the move in and polishing it off with a bridge for his first fall. (He gets the second fall with the same move but with less resistance from Tim and after a few softening suplexes.) Fave moment of the match: 14:36 - 14:50 of the match where Fitzmaurice has the stepover toehold on Haward and Keith pushes himself upwards into a seating position so that Tim's hand is caught in a neat arm scissor. (Yes I know Tim has a confused look in response to this but DON'T YOU DARE call that a comedy spot!!! ) I would love to have seen Haward develop this into a submission attempt but instead he moves into an arm lever. Maybe re-use that one another time for a finish? An old fashioned - even for the era - but good bout, probably has gained a lot in retrospect as we haven't seen too many 40s/50s bouts with a previous generation working this style. Kent Walton talks of Haward challenging Brian Maxine for the British Middleweight title - in the event he skipped the British title and took Mal Sanders' European title and the two of them would pass a World title back - apparently filling the vacancy caused by Adrian Street going to North America - and forth at Sun City in South Africa in 1982.

British wrestling doing a big arena show at the Royal Albert Hall - note the slightly larger ring. Bromley, the future masked Emperor in a rare clean match from early on in his TV career before he found his real direction. His change in style was startling: Well this is just it - the "trickery and tomfoolery" was what we Brits would have seen as serious scientific wrestling and the countering/reversing/escaping as a vital part of the game which we couldn't undertand why Americans - even the likes of Flair and Steamboat - never did. Jordan later took Saint's World Lightweight title in 1987 and I believe still had it at the end of the ITV era in Dec '88. He also turned heel as part of that run. He grew it long in the first couple of years after TV. It came in handy doing reruns of the hypnosis angle with Kendo as he would turn into a shuffling zombie with hair hanging down in front of his face. He kept this look for several decades before getting it cut for his backstage WWE job.

There would be another punk rock wrestler later in the mid 80s: Meanwhile actual real life punk rock fan Robbie Brookside had quite the squeaky clean white meat image:

Punk rock. That was the fashion at the time. It fit his "Bad Boy" tag. Barnes was a hairdresser by day job anyway, so he was actutely aware of what was going on in the street.

Nice docu on Thumb here: He later had a stint as European Lightweight Champion in 1985. Neil Evans later became a promoter in the 1990s.

add Kendo - one guy I've compared his late 80s/early 90s work to quite a bit is the just deceased Terry Funk - not only in that both were "autumn crocuses" who went through hot periods late in their careers but also as guys who made their names as technical wrestlers but who were best known for wild extreme violence by the end. Kendo is about 2 years 8 months older than Funk was so his early 90s time as top star of All Star was his equivalent of Funk as USWA champion, ECW World Champion and WWF World Tag Team Champion (as Chainsaw Charlie) - although Thornley had a lot less wear and tear on his body from having taken most of late 1978-late 1986 out.

Quite a few of the spots from that match became hardy perrenials in Britain. Mitzi Mueller liked to do the "referee pins/gets pinned" spot - you can see her do it on both the clips I posted previously. The double leg nelson multiple double pin attempts seems to be a big fave among the young Traditional British crowd at All Star and Rumble - guys like James Mason, Dean Allmark and Tony Spitfire tend to do this spot a lot. I'll do a deeper dive into all that once I've caught up with myself and got back round to page 19 where I came in.

Was quite surpised with this review - especially the "pure comedy"quote, given the excellent 1972 bout between two on b/w kinescope fim and both mens' inclusion on Kent Walton's potted list in World Of Sport Annual of serious skilled wrestlers who were the antidote to excess showmanship. So I watched it. There's still a bedrock of skilled wrestling there. The trouble is that it gets cut short in round 2 with a TKO/No contest, so Vic Faulkener tries to get in all his usual spots of cheekiness in one solid blast in the short amount of time available. In the 1972 bout the banter is more spaced out between longer fast paced technical segments and it serves its purpose of showing two friends having a fine sporting match with some added banter that adds to the general bonhomie (with McMichael as mock-grumpy whereas a heel or even a more temperamental blue-eye like Johnny Cxeslaw might kayfabe-genuinely get the hump.) or rather in the case of the 1982 bout three friends including referee Jeff Kaye. In the 1982 bout you get it in one sudden sugary gulplike drinking concentrated orange squash. I supect that Max Crabtree asked them to get all Vic's mischief spots in which is why Kent hypes the bout as comedy even though, as I said, it's between two guys he previously cited as the respectable serious side of the sport.

I think I dealt with this subject earlier and recommended some bouts (Pete Roberts, Rex Strong). A lot of it is to do with his persona and his way of always being the centre of attention even when in trouble. He could be a gifted technical wrestler when he wanted to and his best 1960s/1970s matches were games of two halves with a fine scientific first round or two then an ultraviolent second half (which generally had to be toned down for TV) before getting into finishers and the Kamikaze Crash. He also had a neat standing grapevine/crossface for getting a submission ("the torture rack) and another finisher where he would do a quick backdrop and splash, flinging the opponent over one shoulder then spinning round and pouncing on them like a bird of prey for the cross press pin - doing it extra fast to get round the no follow-down rule by making it all one move. He was still doing this in the 1990s (he was still pulling off the Kamikaze Crash in May 2000 eg against Darren Walsh during the Wrestler Of The Millenium angle at Victoria Hall Hanley.)