David Mantell

LOL are you actually British yourself, then? I've already detailed how Big Daddy was an aberation- mainly the trailblazers in terms of style evolution were the younger kids people aren't happy about later on this thread (I'll get to that as and when) who found new and flamboyant ways to do things like untwist an armbar. Obviously as American wrestling became more accesible from the mid 80s (bootleg tapes of territories, WWF on pre=Astra Sky Channel, getting to see American visitors in Germany) this had an influence on peoples' style in terms of them copying moves (Brookside and Regal doing the Hart Attack on Kendo Nagasaki in late '88) and more generally in terms of what Ohtani later describes as the internationalisation of the style in Britain. A tag match pitching two heel non regular partner heavyweights against two blue-eye non regular partners - even where the lead blue-eye is someone other than Daddy - say, Pat Roach as it was in quite a few early 90s situations - is not the greatest place to show off agility nor skill so inevitably it will come to resemble an American match of the same concept. (Case in point Haystacks & Drew McDonald vs Pat Roach and Robbie Brookside. Put Robbie in against Danny Collins or his Liverpool Lads partner Doc Dean and it was a quite different story. Roach too could have a reasonably streamlined scientific match with someone like Ray Steele.)

But can anyone else provide anymore insight into the dispute? It's no good asking either side directly - all they seem to do is froth at the mouth about how the other lot are an evil bunch of sleazy crooks. Which is not really helpful to making sense of it all.

What I know so far about this ^^^ : https://www.vice.com/fr/article/z4jm59/le-catch-francais-tente-de-ressusciter FRENCH ORIGINAL: A l'époque donc, les catcheurs ont une culture 100% sportive, dont ils vont peu à peu s'éloigner lorsque les managers réalisent qu'il y a plus d'argent à se faire en créant des personnages, sur le modèle du catch actuel. C'est à ce moment que les « Bourreau de Béthune » et autres « Ange Blanc » commencent à faire rêver les foules sous la férule de plusieurs promoteurs fortunés. Marc Mercier démythifie l'époque à sa manière : cash et directe. « Les matchmakers travaillaient au noir et s'en mettaient plein les poches. Ils se faisaient des milliards au black, on les appelait la mafia du catch, balance l'ancien athlète. Mon père a mené 8 ans de lutte sociale de 1968 à 1976 pour que les catcheurs aient enfin un statut et soient déclarés. Il a obtenu qu'on soit rattachés au régime des intermittents en 1976. Les matchmakers ont écopé d'amendes énormes, de 800 millions à 5 milliards de francs selon les cas. » « Après la guerre contre les télés, ils ont arrêté de nous diffuser, c'est là qu'on s'est cassé la gueule » - Marc Mercier, président de la FFCP Toujours selon Marc Mercier, cette avancée sociale a malheureusement contribué à faire plonger le catch français : « Mon père a aussi lancé une guerre contre Georges de Caunes et les télés qui payaient au black. Ils ont arrêté de nous diffuser, c'est là qu'on s'est cassé la gueule. A ce moment, le catch français a baissé pavillon, les Etats-Unis et la WWE ont repris le flambeau et la Wrestling Stars (WS) a récupéré le reste », déplore-t-il sans rien regretter de l'action menée par Mercier père. Et c'est là que les choses se compliquent, puisqu'entre Marc Mercier et la WS, ce n'est pas vraiment l'histoire d'amour puisqu'elle concurrence sérieusement la FFCP de Mercier fils. Sérieusement, et illégalement à en croire Marc Mercier : « Ils déclarent quedalle, ils acceptent des galas à moindre frais pour gagner quelques centaines d'euros. C'est ce genre d'institution qui tue la profession. Un catcheur doit donc avoir un contrat de travail, une fiche de paye, une retraite, comme tout le monde. Mais eux, ils jouent sur leur statut associatif de la loi de 1901 pour contourner ça. » Concrètement, Marc Mercier accuse certains promoteurs d'enfreindre la loi poussée par son père, qui définit les catcheurs comme des artistes souscrivant au régime des intermittents. Cette loi « stipule que le catch ne peut être organisé sous le couvert d'une association dépendante de la loi de 1901 », affirme-t-il, et c'est bien par là qu'il compte passer pour permettre au catch de se développer à nouveau. Mais rien n'est gagné : « Je suis le seul à gueuler ! J'ai été reçu par le gouvernement sous Sarkozy, mais sous le quinquennat de Hollande, personne ne m'a écouté, ils n'en avaient rien à foutre. Je vais faire bouger les choses, entamer un deuxième mouvement social dans la lignée de celui initié par mon père. Il faut qu'on arrête d'accepter le proxénétisme, parce que là, c'est ni plus ni moins que ça. » De fait, le catch français est embarqué dans une spirale négative qui l'éloigne toujours plus de sa gloire passée : aucun revenu télé et un financement toujours plus maigre qui poussent les acteurs du milieu à accepter des tarifs très bas pour des spectacles à la qualité toujours plus discutable, parfois sans assurance en cas de blessure ou sans cotiser pour leur retraite. Fatalement, les structures plus sérieuses, qui déclarent leur activité et facturent leur prestation, sont bien plus chères que les autres et perdent tous leurs marchés. Ce que Marc Mercier résume d'une autre manière : « On est en train de mourir à peut feu à cause de petits esprits qui ne voient pas plus loin que le bout de leur bite et qui lèchent le cul des proxénètes. Quand on est jeune, on ne pense jamais qu'on sera vieux un jour. On s'en branle de cotiser pour sa retraite du moment qu'on peut toucher un billet supplémentaire au black pour flamber le samedi soir. » Si Marc Mercier ne cache pas son amertume, c'est qu'il a l'impression de se battre pour l'ensemble de la profession, alors qu'il ne reçoit pas un accueil très favorable du côté de la WS. C'est le moins qu'on puisse dire, puisqu'entre les deux, le dialogue est rompu depuis bien longtemps. Pire, impossible de parler à une partie sans se mettre l'autre à dos. Ainsi, lorsque nous avons tenté de contacter "Flesh Gordon", directeur sportif de la WS et son bras droit, l'ancien catcheur "Monsieur Jacky", reconverti arbitre et entraîneur à l'école de Faremoutiers (école de catch affiliée à la WS, ndlr), chacun a eu une réponse bien à lui. Le premier s'est montré étonné, surpris de découvrir les critiques de Mercier : « Je le connais depuis les années 80, on s'entendait bien. Ça doit faire douze ans que je ne l'ai pas vu, je n'ai jamais entendu parler de toute ces histoires. Je suis un catcheur, pas un homme d'institutions. » « En France, le catch, on a l'impression que c'est la fête du slip et de la saucisse. » Célian Varini, commentateur sportif et spécialiste du catch Le second s'est montré plus véhément, voire lapidaire : « On m'a dit de ne pas vous parler puisque vous êtes allés voir la FFCP. Mercier, c'est un escroc, un voyou, tout ce qu'on veut. Il balance tout le monde, il a que ça à faire. Son père et lui ils nous ont balancés aux impôts pendant 40 ans. Moi je dis les choses, je mens pas, il nous empêche de vivre de notre métier avec ses conneries. » A ces accusations, Marc Mercier répond volontiers : « Jacky Richard, c'est un fraudeur de première catégorie qui touche sa retraite grâce à la lutte engagée par mon père et qui me chie dans les bottes aujourd'hui. Il me déverse des cuvettes de merde sur la tête tous les matins. Ce sont des accusations en l'air faites par des mecs qui perdent leurs procès. » Insultes, accusations et petites phrases, le monde du catch français n'a pas perdu l'habitude du trash-talking et de la catchphrase. Malheureusement, tout ceci ne se déroule pas sur un ring, et reste en petit comité. C'est bien ce qui attriste Célian Varini, un autre observateur avisé du catch français. A 35 ans, après être passé par une flopée de chaînes télé, il est devenu l'un des commentateurs les plus calés sur ce sport qu'il a découvert pendant son enfance passée en Floride, émerveillé par les exploits de Hulk Hogan et les premières éditions de Wrestlemania. Autant dire que le retour en France a été un choc, qui le pousse à dresser un bilan sans concession de la situation actuelle : « Je me souviens de la première fois que j'ai vu du catch français, ça devait être en 1992, sur Télématin. J'avais l'habitude du décorum américain, des mecs très musclés, de jolies gonzesses, un spectacle son et lumière devant des milliers de personnes… Là j'ai vu deux grassouillets de l'âge de mon grand-père en train de se chamailler dans un gymnase vide. C'était le truc le plus triste du monde. En France, le catch, on a l'impression que c'est la fête du slip ou de la saucisse. 95% du temps, ce sont des gens à la condition physique et au niveau athlétique pitoyable qui se produisent devant 40 personnes. Vu qu'il n'y a aucun contrôle ni aucune régulation, il y a des dizaines et des dizaines de structures. Parmi elles, il n'y en a même pas dix qui sont sérieuses, et encore, quand je dis sérieuses, je veux dire qu'elles arrivent à organiser plus de deux galas par an. Quand ils voient ça, je comprends que des anciens comme Mercier soient énervés. » Face à la guerre des chefs qui déchire le catch français, Célian est partagée entre la tristesse de voir la discipline qu'il aime tant toucher le fond, et l'amusement, tant la situation touche parfois presque au comique : « Le catch c'est un milieu tout petit où tout le monde se bouffe le nez. Ce qui est vraiment triste là-dedans, c'est qu'ils se battent pour très peu de gloire et très peu d'argent. Ils s'écharpent pour être le numéro un de la fête du village, ça a un côté presque pathétique. Les Mercier, Flesh Gordon et autres, ce sont des anciens amis devenus meilleurs ennemis. Monsieur Jacky par exemple, il est là-dedans depuis ses 12 ans et demi. Il a jamais rien connu d'autre. Si vous lui enlevez sa petite aura de catcheur, vous lui enlevez tout vous comprenez ? » Dans ce marigot où s'entremêlent guerres d'égos, luttes symboliques et frustrations,... ************************************* AUTO TRANSLATION TO ENGLISH: At the time, therefore, wrestlers had a 100% sporting culture, from which they gradually moved away when managers realized that there was more money to be made by creating characters, on the model of wrestling. current. It was at this time that the "Bourreau de Béthune" and other "White Angels" began to make the crowds dream under the rule of several wealthy promoters. Marc Mercier demystifies the era in his own way: cash and direct. “The matchmakers were moonlighting and filling their pockets. They made billions black, they were called the wrestling mafia, balances the former athlete.My father led 8 years of social struggle from 1968 to 1976 so that wrestlers finally had a status and were declared. He obtained that we be attached to the intermittent regime in 1976. The matchmakers were fined huge, from 800 million to 5 billion francs depending on the case. » "After the war against TVs, they stopped broadcasting us, that's when we broke our necks" - Marc Mercier, president of the FFCP Still according to Marc Mercier, this social advance unfortunately contributed to sinking French wrestling: “ My father also launched a war against Georges de Caunes and the TVs which paid black. They stopped broadcasting us, that's where we broke our necks. At that time, French wrestling lowered its flag, the United States and WWE took up the torch and Wrestling Stars (WS) recovered the rest, "he laments without regretting the action taken by Mercier. father. And that's where things get complicated, since between Marc Mercier and the WS, it's not really the love story since it seriously competes with the FFCP of Mercier son. Seriously, and illegally according to Marc Mercier: “They declare quedalle, they accept galas at a lower cost to earn a few hundred euros. It is this kind of institution that kills the profession. A wrestler must therefore have a work contract, a pay slip, a pension, like everyone else. But them, they play on their associative status of the law of 1901 to circumvent that. Concretely , Marc Mercier accuses certain promoters of breaking the law pushed by his father, which defines wrestlers as artists subscribing to the intermittent regime. This law “stipulates that wrestling cannot be organized under the cover of an association dependent on the law of 1901”, he says, and it is through this that he intends to go to allow wrestling to develop again. But nothing is won: " I'm the only one yelling!" I was received by the government under Sarkozy, but under Hollande's five-year term, no one listened to me, they didn't give a damn. I'm going to shake things up, start a second social movement in line with the one initiated by my father. We have to stop accepting pimping, because there, it's neither more nor less than that. » In fact, French wrestling is embarked on a negative spiral which keeps it further and further away from its past glory: no television income and ever more meager funding which pushes the players in the field to accept very low prices for quality shows. always more questionable, sometimes without insurance in the event of injury or without contributing to their retirement. Inevitably, the more serious structures, which declare their activity and invoice their service, are much more expensive than the others and lose all their markets. What Marc Mercier sums up in another way: "We are dying fast because of little minds who see no further than the tip of their dick and who lick pimps' ass. When you're young, you never think you'll ever be old. You don't give a damn about contributing to your retirement as long as you can get an extra black ticket to burn on Saturday night. » If Marc Mercier does not hide his bitterness, it is because he has the impression of fighting for the whole of the profession, whereas he does not receive a very favorable welcome from the side of the WS. It's the least we can say, since between the two, the dialogue has been broken for a long time. Worse, impossible to talk to one party without alienating the other. Thus, when we tried to contact "Flesh Gordon", sports director of the WS and his right arm, the former wrestler "Monsieur Jacky", reconverted referee and coach at the school of Faremoutiers (wrestling school affiliated to the WS , editor's note) , everyone had their own answer. The first was astonished, surprised to discover Mercier's criticisms:"I've known him since the 80s, we got along well. It must be twelve years since I've seen him, I've never heard of all these stories. I'm a wrestler, not a man of institutions. » “In France, wrestling feels like it's a celebration of underpants and sausage. »Célian Varini , sports commentator and wrestling specialist The second was more vehement, even lapidary: “I was told not to speak to you since you went to see the FFCP. Mercier is a crook, a thug, whatever you want. He rocks everyone, he has that to do. He and his dad taxed us for 40 years. I say things, I don't lie, he prevents us from living from our profession with his bullshit. “ To these accusations, Marc Mercier responds willingly: “Jacky Richard is a first-class fraudster who receives his retirement thanks to the fight started by my father and who shits in my boots today. He dumps bowls of shit on my head every morning. These are empty accusations made by guys who lose their cases. »Insults, accusations and little phrases, the French wrestling world has not lost the habit of trash-talking and catchphrase. Unfortunately, all this does not take place in a ring, and remains in a small committee. This is what saddens Célian Varini, another wise observer of French wrestling. At 35, after going through a slew of TV channels, he has become one of the most savvy commentators on the sport he discovered during his childhood spent in Florida, amazed by the exploits of Hulk Hogan and the first editions of Wrestlemania. Suffice to say that the return to France was a shock, which pushes him to draw up an uncompromising assessment of the current situation:“I remember the first time I saw French wrestling, it must have been in 1992, on Télématin. I was used to American decorum, very muscular guys, pretty chicks, a sound and light show in front of thousands of people... There I saw two plump guys my grandfather's age bickering in an empty gymnasium. It was the saddest thing in the world. In France, wrestling feels like it's a panty or sausage party. 95% of the time it's people of pitiful physical condition and athleticism performing in front of 40 people. Since there is no control or regulation, there are dozens and dozens of structures. Among them, there are not even ten who are serious, and again, when I say serious, I mean they manage to organize more than two galas a year. When they see that, I understand that veterans like Mercier are upset. » Faced with the war of bosses that is tearing French wrestling apart, Célian is torn between sadness at seeing the discipline he loves so much hit rock bottom, and amusement, as the situation sometimes almost borders on comedy: "Le wrestling is is a very small environment where everyone puffs their noses. What's really sad about this is that they're fighting for very little fame and very little money. They tear themselves apart to be the number one of the village festival, it has an almost pathetic side. The Merciers, Flesh Gordons and others are old friends turned arch-enemies. Mr Jacky for example, he has been in there since he was 12 and a half years old. He never knew anything else. If you take away his little aura of a wrestler, you take everything away from him, you understand? » In this backwater where ego wars, symbolic struggles and frustrations intertwine, ... (goes on to profile Tom LaRuffa)

This might help - it's a special one from November 1980 for a 25th anniversary trophy. Kent Walton actually speaks to camera at the start which is unusual. At 39:54 it goes on to the second week of the tournament. I remember the TVTimes special for this from 1980 (well I don't need to remember it, I've got it all nicely photocopied from Birmingham Central Library.) with a group of four wrestlers' partners (including a young Jeanie "Lady Blossom" Clark) taking tea at the Ritz and talking about their husbands. Also here's a nearly full episode of the standalone wrestling show from "Season One" Sept 1985 up to the end of 1986 while Joint was playing out the last of its exclusive contract and before All Star and WWF got let in the door:

(Add snobbery against wrestling - of course America is a far worse place even than France for this, with wrestling having been seen for decades as irredeemable prolefeed- hence the attitude of people like Kevin Dunn and even some of Vince's hangups about even the word "wrestling" etc.)

Some more thoughts on the Herzog episode - it shows the different attitudes between the UK and France to their respective working classes and their culture. Britain celebrates its prole culture and puts it all over TV and exports it to the rest of the world while the French try to hid theirs out of site, living in the HLMs out in the distant banlieus, out of sight and out of mind of the cultured world of wine and art and phlosophy France likes to project to the rest of the world. (And out of sight and out of mind they stay, at least until they start having a riot ... ) So maybe it's not a surprise that a former mountaineer turned Gaullist sports minister would turn round and demand "what is this vulgar (expletive) doing on our Television?" whereas in Britain it was seen as a more salt of the earth thing - until the mid 80s when ITV started rebranding to yuppies with an East Coast US idea of what the good life was-and even then they had to put a lot of time and effort into sabotaging the viewing figures to get away with the cancellation (and if the WWF boom had occured a year earlier or the contracts run a year longer, that would have been all blown out of the water.)

British wrestling was also off air during the summer until World Of Sport came along with the bigger stars heading off to the German tournaments and the smaller fry and indie wrestlers heading to the holiday camps (as they still do to this day.) It tended to have quite a few off weeks around the year particularly in summer even after WOS came along. The Maurice Herzog episode is interesting because British Wrestling had already hit that crisis point in the late 1930s when Slam Bang Western Style proved just too much for the London County Council and other authorities and All In Wrestling got banned. I talked on the British Wrestling thread about Kent Walton pushing the idea of high-end pro wrestling with a classy upmarket product with only a few heels as the serpents in this paradise, and much of that was as much to do with countering any potential Maurice Herzogs out there as it was getting lofty booking such as the Royal Albert Hall and regular ITV coverage for Joint Promotions.

CWA matches were also included as inserts in Eurosport New Catch and Reslo. At least one episode of Reslo was done entirely on location at a CWA show in Germany with Orig Williams down at ringside (he was already a familiar figure to the German fans as Bull Power Leon White's coach for his loss to Otto Wanz in Wanz's retirement match and his win over Luc Rambo Porier for the CWA title Wanz left vacant.)

The final three years of standalone bouts are more like American wrestling shows of the period with no jumps back to a studio and from the Jan '87 revamp onwards, even promo interviews - which was awkward as hardcore trash-talking doesn't come as naturally to Brits as it does to Americans.

Incidentally, they changed the theme music (and the wrestling advert break music) about two and a half years ebfore the end. (Only wrestling in this is a shot of Big Daddy bodychecking Barry Douglas as the masked Battle Star in the titles plus a plug for an Alan Kilby bout which gets cut out but it gives you an idea of the general context. And yes, they'd moved wrestling from the teatime slot to the lunchtime slot some months before WoS came off air).

It's what at least some of the public wanted and what many others sort of swallowed - the idea that they were better, more cultured people for being able to get into this more highbrow sort of wrestling. Also legitimate Lancashire wrestling was still a big folk sport in the 50s/60s and there was a crossover element between fans of that and the more purist element of the Pro wrestling fans. Having said that, there were clearly times when the fans reacted like Kent wanted them to and he was happy to draw attention to that fact and that Skill and Speed quote was a particular case in point. LOL yes it would be enlightening sitting through a FULL FIVE HOURS of On The Ball with "Saint & Greavsie" (former footballers turned pundits Ian St John and Jimmy Greaves) a bunch of horse races, some other unusual sport, FINALLY the matches and then the football results. Seriously I obviously did watch the wrestling section as a full "episode" many a time in my youth and basically it was part of a complete programme with the same anchor man Dickie Davis who had been introducing all the other sport all afternoon and did so even on Saturdays when there was no wrestling, doing a brief introductory spiel to each match then handing over to Kent Walton and then at the end of the match popping back to the studio for a bit for Davies to wrap up the match and then intro the next one then hand back to Kent at the venue. Sometimes there might be an advert break just before the main event or even between rounds in a particularly epic match and this had its own distinct music from the rest of the show. Here's a trailer on a Friday night for the next afternoon's WOS - including some wrestling of course! - which might give you some insight into the general context in which matches were present.

Getting slightly ahead of myself here but Big Daddy was an abberation in that although he was a MASSIVE mainstream attraction with the family audiences, he also alienated such vaste swathes of both the talent base and the adult fandom that all that was needed was an enterprising promoter to cash in and create a RED HOT product both in terms of content and the box office that would rival Joint to the point where it was indefensible for it not to have a slice of TV. Enter Brian Dixon and utlimately his time with Kendo Nagasaki as lead heel which blew Joint out of the water and established All Star as the biggest UK promotion right up to the present. Joint continued to traipse round the halls as the Big Daddy Roadshow and then in 1994 the Davey Boy Smith Roadshow but once it no longer had a household name to build itself around, it plummeted (although with Max ready to retire and neither of his sons interested in taking over, it made little difference.) The biggest failure of the whole Big Daddy strategy was that it created a serious gap in the marketplace for an alternative.

"Skill and speed is what they (the public) really like" - Kent Walton (during Saint vs Faulkner 1981 IIRC)

If you grow up with a style like this, then you develop enough of an appreciation of the tehcnical skill involved not to need any storytelling, you can just watch it as a sporting contest. The same probably held true for the pro wrestling of the early C20th. THIS doesn't have any storytelling in it either, but does it really matter? Storytelling wasn't completely uknown in Britain however - Jackie Pallo talks about it in his book in 1983 but it mainly relates to blue-eye (babyface) vs heel matches which were not the overwhelming majority in Britain that they were in other territories. Well you have the clever escapes from the submissions instead of the 2 counts. Not sure what you find "uniformly horrible" about the finishes - I like all the folding presses. One detail I pick up on is that in order to escape the folding presses - and thus create near falls! - is for the wrestler being pinned to start moving to get out BEFORE the folding press is completely in position. The British style - especially the clean matches - was a play-by-play man's dream as it gave a LOT of scope not just for calling holds/reversals/escapes but also analysing them and this is something Kent Walton not only threw himself into with gusto but also encouraged his viewers to do. I compare him to the DJ John Peel as both of them were public service broadcasters who set out to teach their audiences to appreciate a particular artform - be it the technical wrestling match or Rock music (and other pop music forms).

Ah, that would make sense. It seems a bit odd releasing commercial videotapes of wrestling as early as 1980 but then the Pallos put out their videotape in 1981 (albeit probably also as a demo tape for ITV to see what they could do. )

This might explain why it became "Catch" to get round the tax. Presumably prior to this point, the Lutte in question was Greco Roman (Professional GR was a BIG deal in France in the 1800 and the GR-based pro wrestling in the Soviet Union's circuses was built on this model - in both cases with circus strongmen doubling as wrestlers) so by moving to Catch (as Catch Can, following the example of the launch of All In Wrestling in Britain in 1930) promoters were able to claim that this was a different sport and therefore exempt from the tax.

What we really need is someone who is - y'know - actually FRENCH and who grew up with this territory and whose foundation ideas about what pro wrestling should be came from this (like mine did from old British Wrestling). They could give us chapter and verse about it because the final disappearance of local wrestling from French television would have been a big and traumatic moment in their lives. We know that there was at least *some* more transmitted than the INA holds- obvious example the ending of Mambo Le Primativ vs Los Halcones De Oro handicap tag from 1983. It also appears that wrestling gets farmed off from Antenne 2 to the FR3 network of local stations (similar to ITV but state run and with much less syndication of stuff) in 1985, in which case any 1985-1987 bout may only have received screening in their local areas and then - maybe - got wider airing at a later date. In which case 1985-1987 may have been the French equivalent of the Relwyskow TV tapings for Grampian/STV in 1990 and 1993 and the real equivalent of the end of ITV wrestling was the 1985 A2 > FR3 move. It's interesting to ruminate on where INA seem to be getting a lot of their footage from. Some of the earlier prints from the 1950s start with a caption in Arabic which suggests that the kinescope negatives were produced for overseas distribution, particularly to stations in Algeria and other former French colonies (just as ITV was selling kinescope prints to about 30-odd overseas stations according to a piece of paper Pat Roach said he had been shown in Simon Garfield's book- I suspect the b/w 1972 Vic Faulkner vs Mick McMichael bout was one of these) and were running off surplus positive prints to send to the INA. The later colour editions appear to have simply been recorded off air with a VCR (with the speaking clock added instead of an onscreen time code). In between this we have the sharper cleaner late 60s/early 70s stuff, most of which INA possibly kinescoped themselves (using a b/w kinescope - some mid 70s bouts like Petit Prince vs Albert Sanniez from 1977 look a lot like colour kinescopes.) Probably by the late 60s ORTF were pre-taping some matches (as ITV did) and then re-using the tapes, with the Jan '69 Delaporte & Bollet vs Montreal and Warnia de la Z being a lucky survivor that slipped through the net and then got handed over to INA years later.

> I wish we had more footage from Spain and Greece. We've got video of a rough and ready looking couple of Greek shows from September 1987 filmed in what look like a converted underground carpark with a spectacularly shabby ring. It's only where in one match where the camera turns round to reveal a rostrum of about 300 fans that you realise it's actually a "theatre" and not just a garage gym.

> a Barbie falling headbutt gets the win for a big pop. Heel turn in progress This is the spot where it goes slightly wrong - the pacing of Barb's finish is far too babyface and upbeat in tone for what was intended. Headbutt 1-2-3 Aaand BOOM into the perky POP babyface music. Up til then it was proceeding quite nicely- Ax and Smash got their babyface pop for beating up and walking out on Fuji, the POP suddently and spookily stop wrestling the Conquistadors, turn away and drop down to ringside to pick Fuji up and dust him down as the crowd HOOTS its displeasure at the one time two-man Next Hulk Hogan's odd behaviour towards the infamous heel. But with the big upbeat face-like finish the crowd just reacts like Pavlov's dog and cheers the Powers win- and then go silent during Demolition's revenge beat-down and let out a great GRUNT of disgusted heat once it's clear that (to quote Jesse) "something stunk here tonight". Ax and Smash try to retrieve the situation, raising their hands and going down ringside to give fives to the front row. Still it was all sorted over the next few house shows when the Powers brutally beat down on Paul Roma etc for trying to shut Fuji's taunting mouth with a dropkick. The WWF didn't even need to reinforce it by having Ax and Smash come down to rescue Roma each night

Pity - if someone had all the dates, they could get together with JNLister and do a French equivalent of itvwrestling.co.uk . That would be cool.

I definitely think INA should check its stock of Channel 2/Antenne 2 b/w kinescopes for chroma dots for possible colour recovery. If wrestling was already on 2er Chaine then any of the bouts from Oct '1967 to 1974 could be restored to colour. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_dots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_recovery#From_chroma_crawl

Was the cancellation not big news in France? Our one in the UK made headlines in all the newspapers and TV news - heck even Pro Wrestling Illustrated ran a piece about it in the Media Report section and Wrestling Enquirer in the June '88 edition (cover story "Win a phone call from Sting").

Joint in the late 80s is a schism between the Daddy tags on the one hand and very serious technical wrestling on the undercard - Premier Promotions in the 21st Century is basically like a 1980s Joint show minus the Daddy tag main event. Before it got on TV, All Star (like Reslo and French wrestling) was somewhat pushing the boat out in terms of entertainment and American influences - in restrospect the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA)'s restrictions were a good restraint, cutting out a lot of the wilder out-of-the-ring/weapons/brawling of the Screensport shows, while retaining Brian Dixon's good eye for creating storylines and angles that he would continue to exploit several years after the end of ITV coverage.

The rounds remove the need for rest holds during the match. This doesn't mean that you do away with headlocks etc but that they instead become links in the chain. Without rounds, old school British wrestlers have to resort to other things to create gaps, such as leading the family audiences in clapping etc. Originally though, it came from the periods in Olympic Freestyle wrestling which in turn got the tradition from old Greco Roman pro wrestling in the 1800s. The tiny rings would be actually more realistsic for bouncing off the ropes, except that running the ropes is used a lot more sparingly in the British style. Reslo had a slightly larger ring (which Orig Williams loaned to WCW for the December 1991 Roar Power tour) and so did the Royal Albert Hall shows. Come to that, so did the EWF shows in France for Eurosport New Catch (and obviously the CWA rings).

1. What exactly was the purpose of professionally filming these matches, given that they didn't have a TV show? 2 This was something Germany had in common with the USA which again links back to what I said about it being the most American-friendly Euro territory. In the UK, George Kidd is generally credited with overturning the whole "bees do the work/drones get the honey/lightweights have the skill/heavyweights get the money" (actual 40s/50s UK backtage proverb) attitude and managing to suceed as a main event act, and then passing that tradition on to Johnny Saint. Still, when Saint gets used as something better than a squash cushion for people like Colonel De Beers, the German audiences respond positively to him as they also do to the Birmingham Steve Logan. (Why and how America became so heavyweight-centric is a good question - we hear how Frank Gotch and Strangler Lewis were mainstream sports stars in their day, but were George Bothner, Benny Sherman and Ad Santel given that treatment?) 5 Yes, I like rounds too, the gaps between give natural rest periods for the wrestlers to focus their energies on the action during the round (as well as giving a TV commetator like Kent Walton some space to talk about background colour details such as a wretler's track record or outside the ring life. In 2023 Premier Promotions still use rounds for everything but All Star and Rumble use them mainly for certain formal occasions (in Rumble's case for Nino Bryant's British Lightweight title defences which are held under full blown Mountevans rules.) New SChool/Americanised promotions do it occasionally as a gimmick match and when they do, they usually call it "World Of Sport Rules" or somesuch. 6) This reminds me-what is the current status of German/Austrian Old School Wrestling? I know EWP replaced CWA but are they still going? If not, - who if anybody - has taken over the Traditional German/Austrian scene?