David Mantell

Happens all the time with the TV Licence over here. ORTF started screening adverts in the late 50s. To be fair, it's been pretty difficult working out when the last match was because there was no real French version of Greg Dyke who made quite a production number of killing off ITV Wrestling, holding a big press conference at a Swiss media fair to announce it. New Catch started with some preview episodes in 1988 on TF1 the former Channel 1 which was privatised 1987. New Catch moving to Eurosport in 1988>1989 was the French equivalent of The Final Bell on ITV December 1988. However, Old Catch as such ended quietly on the FR3 networki n November 1987.

Clwyd never got another ITV match but was a staple of Reslo going through the late 80s and early 90s (before splitting his time between heel Gary B Ware and clown Dunk). He was often the blue eyed boy in peril tagging with heavier good guys like Boston Blackie and promoter Orig "El Bandito" Williams against top heels like Finlay or even The Superflies with Saraya (Senior) managing (I've already posted them facing Clwyd and visiting French mega- Bon Flesh Gordon), but here he is taking on Tony Stewart, seen on the last page against Danny Collins and later holder of the British Lightweight title holder and delivered of a strange quasi shoot interview about his training regime involving digging up the sand with a plank of wood. "Boy wrestling" was just an accepted staple of the UK and probably the entire European business and remains so today in promotions like Rumble. It's Wales Vs Ireland so Ireland, in the form of Stewart, gets some crowd heat at the start from the partisan Welsh crowd, but still keeps it clean in a nice fast paced little bout. Some excellent folding presses here. Bout gets cut short when Clwyd gets caught by the neck in the ropes. The tape cuts out but presumably Stewart refused the TKO and it was a no contest (which won't make OJ happy) but the two shake hands which makes the crowd happy and ready to forgive Stewart. On other occasions, the two would tag up. The S4C signal could be easily received in Southern and Eastern Republic of Ireland, so we'll that Orig regularly toured with the stars of Reslo, even beyond 1995 and into the early Noughties with a WWF tribute bill until he took ill and had to retire in about 2002. No idea what Irish viewers made of the anti-Tony faction in the audience. Clwyd seems to have been content with his Young Welsh National Hero big fish in small pond status. He clocked up some 14 Reslo appearances. Maybe if the show had continued beyond 1995 he might have replaced Orig himself as top blue eye. Apparently he had a good long career retiring in 2010. Bainbridge's last recorded bout was November 1990.

Bainbridge at 16 in the middle of his first title feud with Jim Breaks. As I mentioned earlier, Bainbridge actually took that European Lightweight title from Breaks a couple of times. Against Clwyd, PB only had to (jointly) put on an exhibition of skill - here he has to take on some psychology as hero to Breaks's villain. He gets the crowd on his side early putting a Breaks Special on Breaks himself, even leading them in a clap as the crowd get excited, selling and getting tortured by Breaks, being the poor boy in trouble against the hated villain, then coming back with a neat pinfall by reversing a standing full nelson and rear body checking Breaks into the ropes then tripping and folding him for the opener and nearly getting a straight second while Breaks is distracted in a row with a young Lee Bamber (a familiar face on more modern clips I've posted here). All the more traditional functions of a blue eye/babyface. Kent Walton sums it up "Bainbridge has learned a heck of a lot about this business since we saw him last year." Breaks got his heat back by illegally tangling Bainbridge's arm in the ropes to soften it for a Breaks Special equaliser and again (after a desperate defensive burst by Bainbridge) again for a decider and a heat-seeking taunt from Breaks. Other times it was Bainbridge who was successful - he won and lost that title from Breaks on three occasions 1987-1988. Middle of the bill bout on next was one of Clive Myers and Steve Grey's many clean matches over the years(I think I've alre Ady reviewed one), which underscores what I was saying about the role of clean matches to create a scientific utopia for heels to be the serpents in. Bainbridge only got one other match in front of ITV cameras and it didn't air - a no contest (possibly another double knockout like with Clwyd) in December 1987 in West Bromwich against Peter Collins, at this point the "College Boy" big brother of Danny Boy, but later a mega heel of the late 90s early 00s as Mr Vain. From what I can see on 1987 posters, PB and PC were quite frequent opponents in 1987. Bainbridge has been promoting his own shows as South West Wrestling (SWW) in, as the same suggests, the South West of England. He's a bigger burlier guy with a long biker-type beard these days.

Whose definition of "not ready" is that? They had both mastered one specific element of the overall package and could give a good show of that element, in a territory where that element was particularly valued. They were capable of having a serious sporting bout and impressing with their technical skills. They served their purpose in that regard. They weren't main eventing, but they weren't an amusement like midget wrestling either. They were a calm section of the overall package that underscored the sporting nature of the overall presentation. Like any other clean match.it provided a blue eye/babyface Utopia which it would be up to the (minority in the UK of) heels to then disrupt, later in the evening.

New young talent was always part of the solution. Everyone across Europe was saying that in the 70s/80s/90s. See Roger Delaporte's comments in that book on the French Catch thread. That's why Fin Martin of Powerslam was so keen on Hammerlock in 1993/1994, he wanted to divert young kids away from the Traditional British Wrestling scene in the hope it would kill it off. The mid/late 80s was a blossom period for teenage whizzkids rookies in the UK. At the time the only two breakout rookies in France were Prince Zefy and Yann Caradec. There was a few years' gap in the late 90s for young talent. You had Darren Walsh, Tony Stewart, the "three Js" - James Mason, Jason Cross, Justin Hansford/Starr. Then a quiet period for a few years until 2001 when the Hanley crowd- Dean Allmark, Robbie Dynamite (Berzins), Mikey Whiplash (Gilbert), Playboy Johnny Midnight, Kid Cool - all pop up on the scene in the fallout from the dodgy New School "Great British Hardcore" promotion which Hanley Council banned, and the veterans retrained them into Traditional British wrestlers and they became the backbone of All Star in the 2000s and 2010s.

Well yes, I get the context because I lived through it. And I can safely say that in Britain in 1987 bouts like Bainbridge Vs Clwyd were not considered the problem. Big Daddy tags were considered the problem, if anything was. Obviously for Greg Dyke, any and all wrestling was the problem, including Hulk Hogan. Purists were out there and their numbers supplemented by people whom Kent Walton made feel kind of guilty about themselves for not being purists.

Another point about Kent Walton - the clean technical British style is a play by play commentator's dream come true and it gave him plenty of scope to be analytical and scrutinizing in a way that a typical WWF match would not and that even most US territories would struggle to match. Being the quasi-serious sportscaster was a preferable alternative to poking snooty intellectual fun like French commentators did or lower brow pub comedian fun like the two commentators on Screensport 1985-1986 did or just being a shill like the American commentators (or like some modern UK commentators like Alex Shane or Aaron Nix who comment in the general style of Ben Elton). The purist crowd, especially in earlier times, also included those fans and practitioners of legit Lancashire Catch Wrestling who watched - and sought gainful employment from - show wrestling as a second best option to legit Prize Grappling. As I've said in the past, when Kent was on his pulpit like the "Beware Too Much Showmanship Could Ruin Wrestling" article in World Of Sport annual 1979, he was singing from basically the same hymn sheet as no nonsense Wigan Snakepit alumni like Ernie Riley (son of Billy) and Tommy "Jack Dempsey" Moore in the 1989 First Tuesday The Wigan Hold docu on Riley's Gym.

The purists existed (and all three of Kendo, Rocco and Finlay knew how to work purist if need be) and like I said Teenage Boy Wrestling was enough of A Thing to have survived to 2024. TBW was solely clean sporting matches, there were never really any TBW heels. Occasionally a promising TBWer would be put up against someone like Johnny Saint and make a good impression getting a consolation fall before going down 2-1 and Saint and the TBWer would shake hands. (See also Danny Collins Vs Tony Stewart further up this page, with an early twenty something Collins now graduated to the role of veteran helping give the rub to the young star.) Even if it wasn't most fans' preferred tipple, it was considered necessary to have these bouts for the sake of sporting credibility. In any case, the existence of TBW didn't in any way assist Greg Dyke in his quest to eliminate all Saturday afternoon wrestling and put something more yuppie-friendly on to make American advertising execs happy to pay for advert spots for expensive cars during those timeslots. Otherwise there would have been a Black Saturday type situation instead of the wholesale pulling of wrestling from ITV (apart from non syndicated 4am weekday screenings of year old WWF tapes that fell below Dyke's radar).

I did specify "in pure terms of scientific technical skill" and I would stand by it being self-obvious that even at that young age Clwyd and Bainbridge's respective repertoires of clever escapes/reversals/counters were vastly in advance of Hogan's or even Orton's just as Hulk and Bob's knowledge of crowd psychology were light years ahead of what Peter or Geraint's would ever be (and as for TV promos, I doubt either GC or PB ever cut one in their lives.) Also even if fans really preferred seeing Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks or earlier on McManus and Pallo, they were subjected - and pretty receptive - to the message pumped by Kent Walton that they should learn to appreciate clean scientific bouts and would be better more cultured more sophisticated wrestling fans if they did learn. Like tuning in to the late John Peel 's radio show and hearing him play some eclectic art-rock record and be lectured by him that this was proper good music even if all the casual listeners wanted was to hear the current pop hits.

I think there's a difference between reactions to that bout. British fans steeped in the traditional British style don't malreact to bouts like that. It's a different, not a defective, way of doing the business, made for different societies with different expectations of what a wrestler should be. (Even Jim Cornette is generally careful to include disclaimers over geography and history when criticising lighter wrestlers like Marko Stunt.) Matches like Clwyd vs Bainbridge here or 1978 Davey Boy Smith Vs Bernie Wright or Nipper Eddie Riley Vs Ian McGregor 1984 or Kid McCoy Vs Ritchie Brooks 1988 or even 1984 Owen Hart Vs Steve Logan MK2 are still a thing to this day- check out any number of modern bouts involving the Bryant brothers from Rumble that I've posted on here. Also the concept of work rate is predicated on the idea of rest holds and the hold designated "rest holds" in American Wrestling lore do not serve this purpose in British Wrestling, instead being set ups for the next clever/graceful escape or reversal. Traditionally the round breaks provided he rest element - nowadays when wrestlers want a breather they start cheerleading the crowd. In France Saulnier and Prince did have to pause in side headlocks on the mat because they did not have round breaks.

Personally I think that in pure terms of scientific technical skill it's self evident that even at that early age Clwyd and Bainbridge could wipe the floor with Orton let alone Hogan. And for fans like me who were educated by Kent Walton on what our wrestling tastes should be, that was the deciding factor. Also the overall look of WWF matches like Hogan Vs Orton was a relatively recent development due to Dick Ebersol's work on SNME, and late period ITV still could run rings around most Studio Wrestling from most US territories at the time and the five years or so before. Also to be honest the phrase "teenage boy wrestling" seems to imply that there was something perverse about bouts like that. I'm sure they had their share of gay male fans - and certainly hetero female fans - but nobody even remotely thought of bouts like that as some sort of twisted erotic novelty. They were just fine sporting contests between promising young stars getting their first push. Bouts like that were the most thoroughly sports-presentation pro wrestling I've ever seen. They happen in 2024 and older fans remember 1980s bouts like this are pleased to see that it is still a thing nowadays and the six year old kids learn from their elders how to react to this sort of match and clap along to the good moves and good sportsmanship.

Montopolos really is growing on me, a fast nimble lightweight of a type common to 60s France - see also P.Prince and M. Saulnier (although all three also visited Britain and appeared on ITV 1965-1970, as indeed did Andre). Duranton 's "valet" (in the Virgil sense, not the Missy Hyatt sense) is called Firmin, he's basically Marquis Jacky Richard's butler Paul Butard 15 years ahead of time. I recall seeing a spectator invade the ring and Andre/Ferre give him a jolly good spanking. I guess it was this bout I saw. Duranton and Ferre both get buttonholed by the commentator after their match with Ferre's voice instantly recognisable as the same man from WWF promos two decades later, you can almost hear him Surrender The World World Tag Team Championship To Ted DiBiase. France was a tag team territory and it stayed a tag team territory into the modern era. I have spoken to a couple of older French friends, neither of them especially wrestling fans.yet the phrase Catch A Quatre with the C and the Q made to sound alliterative, rolls off tongue and mind as neatly as Two Falls, Two Submissions Or A Knockout does for most older Brits.

I think I've already reviewed this bout a little further up, but this is the same Steve Haggerty from Canada who appeared on World Of Sport tagging with Colin Joynson as the Dangermen and was also cruelly tortured and humiliated by Les Kellet around the same time, if that's what you meant by "the Real Steve Haggerty."

Battle of the whizzkids - Peter Bainbridge not long afterwards having a couple of short European Lightweight title wins at Jim Breaks's expense - one of the last few youngsters he jobbed to in their first title win. I thought he had been a flash in the pan at that time but apparently he wrestled for many years and is now a promoter. Gary Clwyd or Gwraint Clwyd as viewers of S4C's Reslo knew him, seemed to have a bright future until the late 90s when times were hard and he had to share a Dunk The Clown tribute gimmick with Blondie Barrett. Later on in the Noughties he reinvented himself as the heel Gary B Ware. Some good pinfalls even if Bainbridge messes up on his victory roll equaliser and has to go for a second try. Lovely folding press pin attempts. Another double knockout like Dynamite/Rocco 1981 or Sanniez Vs Cavillier 1969 on the French Catch thread. Not as much pathos as the finish of Dyno/Rocco but still a bit bittersweet that a fine scientific contest between two promising youngsters was cut short. (In reality it helped keep both strong for future appearances.) Hogan/Orton comes from a WWF Special from late 87. Possibly someone didn't like the bout and taped over it. @ohtani's jacket What point exactly were you making at the end there? Apart from Greg Dyke being a cheap two bit Jamie Kellner who (unlike Kellner) couldn't even kill the territory properly, the usual cited weakness of the late 80s British scene is the superheavies like Big Daddy. Young fresh faced skillful white meat babyfaces blue-eyes were very much the solution not the problem. Their kind coming in and Daddy and Stax fading out was a positive step forwards like Bret and Shawn replacing Hogan, Warrior and the Steroids Brigade.

Actually Fred Magnier also gets a good kicking in that last bout from Roger Delaporte (French fans hated referees but they LOVED Delaporte) but it isn't enough to save young Bob Plantin from getting carried out unconscious. Great moment when a disgusted Delaporte has no choice but to declare Magnier the winner, the look on his face says it all "Yeah, darn it, that slime all is the ****ING winner."

Lady Blossom on World Of Sport Bobby Barnes Vs Chris Adams with his the girlfriend Jeannie Clarke seconding him. Next time she appeared on a Wrestling TV show was 11 years later in Texas when she was not nearly so affectionate to Chris. Is it just me or did she already look a bit heelish in 1979?

Who were Don and Eddy? Anyone recognise them?! I concede they could be "American" only as much as Tommy Mann, the Black Diamonds, Dave Bond and Rollerball Rocco all were. (or as much as "Alan McGregor" or "Marc O'Connor" were Scottish or ditto Fit Finlay and Ian Gilmour) Gastel is a big bull of a heel. A French version of Bill Watts after he turned heel on Bruno in the 60s. Wears a skull and crossbones on his jacket just like the pirate flag that the World Riot Squad carried with them on All Star shows in the 2010s. Interesting to see the young Fred Magnier as I'm mainly used to him as the old codger heel in street clothes who sticks his nose into Michel DiSanto Vs Michel Chaisne clean match and gets a good kicking frm the elder Michel before being sent packing: To be fair he still looked pretty decent in the other bout on this non INA show from Bob ALPRA's channel: I think this is actually a colour kinescope rather than a VT copy. It has that filmy look to it.

As promised on the British wrestling thread. here is the caption slide from the French overseas sales prints to Arabic speaking countries : No prizes for guessing what the Arabic word translates as (except it 's got the definite article al- on the front of it)

Found a clip on Alessio's channel which Phil had something to do with of Spanish wrestling with "Kamikaze 2" (presumably Benny not Modesto Aledo) in CIC action in Barcelona 1964 (four years before the above French TV bout) against Catechara. Benny does the same low centre of gravity movement and squatting in the corner as .Les Kamikazes but he has a very different look, black nylon mask with possibly red face, ears visible under the fabric. He does what I assume is the famous flip back in the ring after being thrown out, quicker and snappier than, say. Rick Steamboat's version of said move.

Sanniez actually became a French Jim Breaks in more ways than one. By 1978 he had adopted a similar "horrid little man" heel persona to Breaks minus the temper tantrums. Not sure what your problem is with the double knockout - it's the exact same finish as the much-lauded World title match between Rollerball Rocco Vs Dynamite Kid in December 1981 (transmitted after the New Year of 1982). Those ring ropes look rather slack - I wonder if this was deliberate to set up the finish. Notice the commentator mentions Sanniez's green trunks which indicates a colour Channel 2 broadcast.

The FFCP (not to be confused with the CCPR) was also still providing the FR3 network with TV bouts at this time and would continue to do so until November that year. Most of the top stars on those TV shows would become the main talent pool for New Catch and the IWSF which eventually became Wrestling Stars. (There's a lot we still don't know about WS's origins. English Wikipedia says (I)WS(F) was founded 1979 in Montereau-Fault-Yonne.)

Sounds to me like this CCPR could be the French equivalent of Premier Promotions in the UK. Although if the Association Beauvaisienne de Catch et d'Athlétisme in Beauvais is still going that could be a rival candidate.

From 1990, tapings done in Aberdeen Scotland for late evening screening on the Grampian/STV regions of ITV, later rescreened in a graveyard slot o. Granada TV in 1991. (The French equivalent would be New Catch's brief return to TF1 in 1991 which El P saw and which that Sturry guy is being quite sneery about in his vlogs.) Another good technical match with Danny, like Steve Logan mk2 n the above 1984 match with Owen Hart now in the role of the seasoned veteran getting the 2-1 win but conceding a fall to the young whizzkids and making him look like a bright young prospect. (Kent Walton mentions Danny having his eye on some heavier championships - in fact Danny had been British Heavyweight Middleweight champion and possibly was champ for the second time by this point - he beat Finlay the previous year before his infamous DQ loss of the title to Richie Brooks in 1990 but I'm not sure if this bout was taped before or after Daddy regained the belt. Probably before otherwise Danny would have worn the belt to the ring, Walton would have noticed and made a rather different comment.) Stewart uses Kid McCoy's Yorkshire Rope trick (also a fave of Owen Hart especially during the Blue Blazer phase) to good effect a couple of times including one setting up the equalising pinfall following a hiptoss into cross press. Some good folding press attempts too including Danny's opening fall in round two and a couple that Stewart crawls out of.neatly. Stewart also uses a crucifix (flying further nelson). Collins gets the decider after deftly converting another hiptoss attempt into a backslide. Speaking of McCoy and Stewart, 1990 would see some bad luck for the former beget some good luck for the latter in 1991. McCoy vacated his British Lightweight title he won on stoppage from Steve Grey on ITV in 1987, after a falling out with Brian Dixon over his and father King Ben's match with Kendo Nagasaki and Blondie Barrett in Chelmsford The following September Stewart would win the title off Jimmy Ocean and hold it for 22 months.

Interesting. I wonder if Tony stays clean as I remember one early 70s Clay match on YT where Kent Walton remarked how all Clay's opponents resorted to dirty wrestling against him. Whether this was something Thomson insisted on backstage I have no idea. Having said that, I have never heard of Tony ever being anything other than a blue-eye/babyface. At worst one who might be driven to extreme measures by a particularly dastardly villain such as Mighty John Quinn but even then look thoroughly ashamed of himself once he'd calmed down (viz. St Clair & Sands Vs Quinn & Nagasaki, Lewisham 1987 as previously posted on this forum.)

The first time I ever saw or even heard of a Handicap tag was the above match on TV in 1985. It was pretty much like one of those WWWF TV matches where Andre would be fed two jobbers in one sitting. Rumble recently did an update on that match: The Bryants will already be familiar figures to readers of this thread, I have raved plenty about Nino on here. I discussed the Henchmen on here sometime back as an example along with the UK Pitbulls of the survival of the Superheavyweight type from the Big Daddy boom era (along with earlier examples like the Klondyke brothers and Docker Don Steadman. Don't worry about the decidedly non Old School rung - it was on loan from another Promotion, SOS Wrestling as the regular Rumble ring was in use at another show Rumble was running that same night. To make up for it, the MC is the legendary Lee Bamber and the venue is the building known formerly as the Orchards in Dartford, former 1980s ITV venue. See earlier in the thread for more details on both.