David Mantell

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

He was 19. As I said, a TBW.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When Big Otto couldn't get famous Americans he would get completely unknown ones. Apparently Barbed was a jobber in the WWF the next year but that's all anyone knows about him. http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=9;t=038699;p=0 Match is generic 80s American power match. Germany/Austria, specifically the IBV/CWA, was the gateway Euro territory for North Americans just as Stampede in Calgary was the gateway territory for Europeans, especially the British. (Some French Catchers like Jean Ferre, Edouard Carpentier and Rene Toilet used the conveniently Francophone Montreal as an entry point.)

Eventually in 2012 Collins got his revenge for all the beatings Finlay gave him and bashed his son in Croydon. This led to the Finlays taking on Dirty Dan and Wildcat Brookside Xmas 2012 in Dad's retirement match in Germany: I know about all the intervening years but it's still a bit surreal to see them both as evil villains after remembering them both as nice young scientific sportsmanly kids. A bit like seeing Sting and Lex Luger as WCW lead heels in late '99 and remembering them winning the Crockett Cup 11 years earlier.

You're basically right except he basically reinvented himself as Dirty Dan in 1994 during a triple tag (that's a six man tag across the pond) where he fell out with partners the Liverpool Lads and basically did a Zybysko 79/ Windham 88 heel turn that was probably 1994's biggest storyline - such a hit that Robbie Brookside similarly turned on Doc Dean in 1995 (Robbie's first non-hypnotised heel stint and a first go at the Wildcat who would be a MASSIVE heel in Noughties Germany as Bryan Danielson mentions in his YES! book.) Although I have seen footage from December 1993 where Danny is clearly experimenting with the character. As Dirty Dan he went on to win his highest weight title the British Light Heavyweight championship from Alan Kirby in 1996 before losing it back in 1997. He stayed heel all the way up to his first retirement in 2002. Here he is in the CWA's successor the EWP in 2001, tagging with Drew McDonald the man Big Daddy helped him pin in 1987: as well as in solo action with James (who himself went heel for a year after this 2002-2003 and still sometimes gets a bit 'funny' against fellow blue eyes like Dean Allmark and Joel Redman/Oliver Grey) : He did turn back to good on Orig Williams's (non WWF tribute) shows in 2000 to feud with brother Pete who had gone from being a College Boy to being Mr Vain, an vn nastier heel than Dirty Dan. He also started out on his 2007 return to All Star as a blue eye teaming with Dean Allmark but later returned to his Dirty ways. becoming World Heavyweight Champion for the Knight family's WAW in Norfolk. These days he has a backstage role as one of several Lord Protectors (along with Laetitia Dixon) to Joe Allmark, boy king of British Wrestling promoters until he can fill out his grandfather Brian the Guvnor Dixon's shoes. (Getting this back to Germany, Dixon refereed as Brian George on quite a lot of CWA shows.)

Clean wrestling between local Austrian star Michael Kovacs and European Middleweight Champion Jason Cross (he still technically is dormant champion in 2024 after 29 years but would have to drop 5 stone to defend it.) here wins another title. - the inaugural IWW* Jr Heavyweight Championship. This I believe wasin about 98/99. Good technical wrestling and some bad broken English from the commentators. * not to be confused with Irish Whip Wrestling, an Americanised promotion in Noughties Republic of Ireland.

The great Austrian outdoors - mulletted babyface versus Lawler esque heel who outweighs him. Babyface (looks like Tom McGee, ironic as Germany was gripped with BretMania at this time) gets a couple of Yellow cards, comes up with some clever escapes including a neat scoot through the legs and even a counter to being stomped dirty in the throat on the bottom rope- pushing the offending legup to send the heel over the top rope.) and ultimately gets the pin.

Pure unadulterated German Catch tag match all locals, VdB spot shown in a barn somewhere although the raised camera makes it look like WTBS Techwood Drive Studios. Shiny black ring canvas to give any professional camera crew kittens. Babyface winners get presented with a cup like it's France or something.

From just before Christmas 1985, Baron Von Rashcke, taking time out from fighting the good fight against Jimmy Valiant for Paul Jones's army.does his goose stepping Nazi gimmick in front of some real Germans. You can tell Raschke's an American , he goes for the ropes, (this was MAJOR heat in Britain.) and powers his way upwards out of holds. Billy Samson actually does one or two reversals. There's a long bit with Samson doing a single leg Boston Crab on the Baron driving a knee into the base of the spine and Charles iRaschke just sells it. A repeat application gets Samison the opening fall. After that it kind of descends into an American Wrestling match, lots of stomping on the mat that should have earned both men a couple of Yellow cards each I think Baron gets an equaliser with his Claw and Sampson gets a deciding pin after a series of dropkicks. .No colour signal or audio. I think this is down to low generation copy rather than the camera - @sergeiSem might know and if he does THEN THAT IS ALL THE PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW.

To give you some idea of what Saint had to deal with in that match, here is Prince in Task .Force action with regular tag partner Vic Powers. As both the MC in the clip and myself in the quote mentioned, Task Force were former British Tag Champions and accidental ones at that - vas shown in Robbie Brookside 's Video Diary (screened just a few months earlier) the referee was forced to call an audible after Brookside and Doc Dean legitimately clashed heads drawing hard way juice and knocking themselves silly. On top of being part of the only British Tag team champions to win the belts on TV, PArince was also reigning British Welterweight Champion at this time, having beaten Dean also for that title in 1993. This bout is from 1994, the next year after Kendo Nagasaki retired the second time, bringing All Star's post-TV boom period to a close (although they tried to milk it further with Dale Preston as King Kendo, managed by Lloyd Ryan.) Nonetheless they still knew how to entertain the punters and send them home happy (although I think the MC says British Bushwhacker Frank Casey is on afterwards. It's not one for the purists, it's not the .Royals Vs the StClair brothers from 1971 or even Brookside and Regal Vs Danny and Pete Collins from 1988. But if you thought Brookside and Regal Vs the UK Road Warriors from 1988 or Marty Jones and Steve Regal Vs Skull Murphy and Johnny South that same year were good fun, you')) probably like this. The Premier Promotions blue-eye Vs heel tags I posted some pages back from the C21st aren't dissimilar either. Frankie Sloan is Robbie Brookside 's cousin and looks it with the long hair . He retired a few years ago and these days is a referee. Darren Walsh, the son of Banger Tony Walsh would later ditch the Dustin Rhodes lookalike image, shave his head, pile on the pounds, buy a The Warlord style eye ask and some contact lenses and become monster heels Thunder all across Europe except in Leamington Spa where in 2003-2006 he was local good guy challenger to visiting British Heavyweight Champion Robbie Brookside who like the travelling NWA champs of old, went heel to take on the younger local contender. Similar confusion with how DQs work in a 2DQ tag to the Murphy/South Vs Jones/Taylor - With the good guys one fall up, Powers is DQd. This should be the second fall but instead Prince is offered to wrestle onunder handicap conditions - he refuses so the good guys get the win. A year or two earlier, Sloan and Walsh would next have faced Kendo Nagasaki and Blondie Barrett, like Brookside and Regal did, but with Naggers retired, that main event was out of the window. All the same, Prince, nice guy that he was and still is, was really not the right opponent for Johnny Saint.

Das Deutscher Catchen as people expect it. The IBV looking very CWA. Big Otto in the ring against the man who in a few months time, sans peroxide and goatee, would be Brutus Beefcake, star of WWF vignettes as wannabe Chippendale in front of real female punters. Here he's still basically Dizzy Hogan, the Dave Sullivan of early 80s AWA. (the same Dave Sullivan who also popped up as Barbarian in CWA eight years later and as American Hawkwind in Britain.) Leslie is billed on the opening graphic as being from New York , the territory he would next head to. Not exactly a scientific contest, this is what Germans/Austrians had instead of Big Daddy. From the French Catch thread: This happened sometimes in Britain, particularly at holiday camp shows where a redcoat or somebody would give the audience (casual holidaymakers rather than more serious wrestling fans from the Town Shows) a running commentary and basically get them to mark out properly. This has continued into the C21st and ended in tears a few years back when an Israeli Arab wrestler playing an Arab heel (as is traditional in Israeli pro wrestling) ended up getting called "the Muslim" by a redcoat, causing an offended holidaymaker to write to complain to the Guardian newspaper about Butlins promoting Islamophobia! The end result saw Butlins and All Star amicably part company after decades with All Star getting a replacement deal with rival holiday camp company Pontins while Butlins signed with some new school promotion - an arrangement that was meant to last until the smoke blew over but seems to have endured. There was also an amusing camcorder clip from 1986 of Robbie Brookside versus a heel Chic Cullen where Cullen was using a closed fist punch and the Redcoat encouraged the kids in the audience to alert the referee by shouting "FIST!" which, as one wag put it, resembled a disturbing juvenile version of the infamous Mineshaft nightclub. This is another example. The German MC shouts quite a lot of orders at Leslie, often in English. at one point calling him Sir like he is a customer in a department store. Are you being served Mr Beefcake? MC relays a lot of the referee's commands as well as the pinfall and knockout counts. When Otto and Bruti get brawling outside the ring, the MC gets really panicky - "Stop! Don't do that!" like he's from the IBA in England.He actually says "back in the ring, please" in English! "SCHTOP HERREN!!!" Otto rolls up Leslie for what seems like ages before getting a rather slow three count for the win after both men had tried pile drivers and backdrops and got near knockout counts on each other. If the VdB appealed to wrestling connoisseurs that Kent Walton might have seen eye to eye with, the IBV/CWA was appealing to festival revellers drunk and stuffed on beer and sausage meat who just wanted a slug and punch between their hero Big Otto and the visiting arrogant Americans. This was in the middle of July in Graz so I'm guessing it was on the same bill as one night of a multi night tournament. Kind of like a Flair title defence or a Dusty Rhodes Vs Bubba Rogers bunkhouse match or Midnight Rider Vs JJ Dillon bullrope match in the middle of one night of the Crockett Cup.