David Mantell

Anyway, getting back to what I was originally going to post about: Owen Hart- Honorary British Wrestler? Many of you by now will have seen Owen's classic World title matches with Marty .Jones on ITV in 1987 and Danny Collins on camcorder in 1991 What doesn't get mentioned so much is that Owen basically did his apprenticeship over here in the mid 80s. Here he in early 84 against Steve Logan (MK2 the Birmingham blue-eye) who at 20 going 21 gets to be the veteran in control for one of the first times in his career. The bout is joined in progress just before Logan scores the opening fall. We get one round of Owen battling back to equalise, then they go to a draw. Kent Walton forsees the Blue Blazer with his comment about how Owen is doing well with "the acrobatic stuff" and should do more of it. (Owen incidentally has his light blue trunks on- these would later become light blue long tights in Japan etc in 1987 before becoming the Blazer's preferred shade of blue in the WWF.)

By the way, Wrestling From Great Britain was indeed the title under which ITV Wrestling kinescopes were marketed to overseas TV stations (as discussed on the "Why is America assumed to be the centre of the wrestling universe?" thread. Some of the INA French Catch kinescope prints have a similar slide in Arabic which I intend to decipher and post my findings to the French Catch thread. It does underline my point from several months back that ITV and (O)RTF had considerably greater outreach for their wrestling programming than the average NWA member in the US/Canada. They certainly would not have to face down some angry Ole Anderson type at the next NWA convention growling threats at them for their show being accessible to his audience.

800ft = 240,000mm. 16mmx25fps=400mmps 240,000/400= 2400/4=600secs=10 mins footage

Is that George Kidd? He looks very much like he's doing the famous Ball there.

Put it up on YouTube some time please.

Something else I've spotted - Jean Pradinas, later the director of most 1980s TV wrestling in France, gets a namecheck in this December 1968 kinescope.

Been looking for the second 1968 match for some time, I saw it before but lost it because I didn't realise it was from as early as 1968. Love the Kamikazes intro with them squatting on the mat like alien insects waiting to pounce. They have quite an interesting attacking style to, squatting down to jockey for position like creepy scuttling critters. No shouts of Hey Hey Pappa Doux for Bordes yet in 1968 And no shouts of Hey Hey La Cagoule for an unmasking or two reither, Bordes had a long career doing tag matches with a formula like this, from matches with Chemouel Vs les Kamikazes in 1968 to matches with Flesh Gordon vs les Maniaks in 1985. RBC to FG - how's that for a historical spread of talent to have worked with? Chemouel's reputation in the 50s was mostly based on him being a technical wrestler (not to mention a shooter- George Kidd in 1952 was prepared to at least temporarily job away his Mountevans/NWA World Lightweight title to FFCP champion RBC before getting his win back and a triple crown of titles). This and into the early 70s were really his dotage years. Not extreme dotage like George Kidd in 1975 or Johnny Saint in 2011 but getting on a bit. Perhaps like Martel and Santana doing the pretty boy thing in Strike Force well into their thirties Context.:At this point Benny, the second Spanish Kamikaze was still active in Spain's CIC. Stuff to watch out for. One of Les Bons (I forget which) is thrown outside and a middle aged bloke in a peak cap keeps on helping him up when he is desperately trying to sell. So he tries desperately to avoid being helped up. Also RBC's dad Albert is att ringside to check on his son after he goes down a fall. He makes another few in this bout saying how the Kamikazes masks hide their charming smiles and nicknaming one of them Mitzu.

As I've mentioned, we know from the speaking clock time signatures that some bouts were broadcast Sunday 5pm, which may account for kids in the audience at shows (which were otherwise screened past their bedtimes) - possibly these were repeats of an earlier late evening broadcast (like London Weekend Television in November 1991 for several Sunday lunchtimes rescreening a match from the previous night's WCW Pro Wrestling as part of Pat Sharp's Funday in the run up to WCW's three nights in Dec 1991 at the Olympia in Kensington.) Of course if these were repeats, that would explain why INA didn't bother taping them. They filled out their quote on late evening master screenings of bouts.

Actually check out Farag's second. Tony StClair, no less, in the green T shirt. Late 80s StClair by the looks of him. Announcer mentions him at the start. I like where the MC tells off Vallas in a thick cackling Cairo accent. ( Actually I forgot he was German and thought he was American because of the MC addressing him in English, hence my calling him "the American" on an earlier edit of this post.) Arabic vocabulary: Shoderfest= shoulderblock. Sidering= Whip into the ropes Bodehslam= go on, guess! Elboh = ditto Dropkick= ditto Nice pin too, Vallas does a cross-buutock throw into a crosspress but Farag rolls through and upturns it into a pin of his own. I've seen Pete Roberts do this. Anyway, getting back on topic to the subject of France ...

Was he the commentator who got sacked for breaking kayfabe and got key back all the other commentators threatened to go on strike for him? Even Couderc tended to make sarcastic jokes - during several bouts including Mammouth Siki Vs Daniel Schmidt from 1978 for example, he referred to a wooden chair used as makeshift ring steps as "L'Escalier Du Service"

This was the business model in England, intestive touring rather than one off giant houses.

It's only a pity his European Welterweight title loss to Dynamite Kid (on WOS March 1978) is not apparently in circulation.

A common problem with masked wrestlers. Eddie "Kung Fu" Hamill ditched his hood for this very reason. Kendo Nagasaki had the same problem - one imposter, Bill "King Kendo" Clarke, managed to build a solid if unspectacular career as a journeyman heel. Ange Blanc and Le Borreau de Bethune obviously inspired their share of ripoffs, most obviously Al "White Angel" Hayes and Paul "Doctor Death" Lincoln (although AB Vs BdB was itself nicked off El Santo Vs Blue Demon in Mexico.

British wrestlers had similar complaints in TVTimes articles from the 1970s. Big Daddy seems to have been the commercial antidote for the business. Daddy in the UK, Flesh Gordon And The Cartoon Characters in France and Otto The TV Strongman And The American Imports in Germany/Austria seem to have served the same purpose in all three territories as the quick fix commercial escapes from an early 1970s pan European dip period in wrestling that caused the deaths of Spanish and Italian Wrestling and a lingering decline in Greek Wrestling.

I rather gathered that from that 1982 Swiss TV documentary. Probably the nearest British equivalent would be The Sportsviewers' Guide To Wrestling. Or else Mick McManus' Wrestling Book from 1970.

Two moves in particular - pulling yourself up into a flying head scissors from a top wristlock and getting a behind the back chancery into reverse overhead flip as a counter to a standing headlock- are as crucial to French Catch as rolling on the mat to untwist a wrist lever is to British Wrestling. (Both do exist in the British style - in one 1980 British Welterweight Championship match, challenger Young David aka Davey Boy Smith attempts to use thie overhead flip counter to Hammerlock on champion Jim Breaks, only for Breaks to arrest the momentum and drop Young David on his behind rather like an Arn Anderson spine buster.) 1960s French Lightweights like Le Petit Prince and Michel Saulnier would backwards somersault from a top wristlock British wrestlers would leap into a somersault if their arm was suddenly wrenched upwards doing a wrist lever. I have even seen the odd American do this, such as Barry Darsow during Demolition vs the British Bulldogs . The aim was to force a bad landing but some wrestlers such as Pete Roberts could actually make a feet first landing.

Found some more Greek footage. Really the territory needs its own separate thread. The last clip seems to be the same "ATV" footage as included in the previous Tromaras highlights video, but I think it may be a setting on someone's video recorder, not a station ident. It turns out to be in colour after all and rather less grand than the previous snippet indicated - a nice sports hall but nearly empty with just a few fans in the high seats and only officials down on the stadium floor. The first clip the ring looks every bit as shabby as the 1987 footage but it sounds like there was quite a big audience. A fan comment on the video indicates it was 1980. Perhaps the final Kats festival? There was another clip about 9 minutes long which appeared to be an outdoor show from the thumbnail but it's vanished now. I'll add it if it reappears.

Although to be honest, my last couple of posts have been about a 1971 bout and a 1969 bout so I'm not quite sure what the problem is.

Actually I see all three surviving Euro wrestling territories - UK, France and Germany/Austria - as each being a single continuity from the 1930s to the 2020s and hopefully beyond. The same goes for the three defunct territories Italy (died 1965, the corpse periodically revived thereafter by two brothers from somewhere beginning with P) Spain (died 1975, the corpse thereafter fought over by France and Germany for 15 years before the WWF gobbled it up and Italy too) and Greece (finally passed away 1991 after a long illness dating back to the end of the Athens International Kats Festival in 1980, corpse totally ignored by the WWF.) AFTERTHOUGHT 1: Is territory the correct word in this context? AFTERTHOUGHT 2: I do NOT consider Americanised/New School promotions in any of these six territories to count, they are just an extension of US indie wrestling. All Star, Rumble, Premier, FFCP, Wrestling Stars and the CWP (formerly EWP) are the six relevant living companies in 2024. Add ABCA in Beauvais if it is still going- I'm not clear.

Interesting how the commentator keeps calling "Steve Hagg" "un Britannique". For once an honest mistake I think. Peruvians, Hispanics, Gypsies and anyone in stripey colourful gear was usually a heel in France. Bob Plantin got very upset with me when I pointed this out recently. Charley Bollet, brother of Andre Bollet, was still refereeing in the early 90s on New Catch. No indication what channel it was on so far but hopefully the slight smudginess means chroma dots on the print. In which case, channel 2.

Jordan Breaks and Hakan in a rematch from a bout last year (not sure if I posted it.) spoiled slightly by a long fighting in the stands section (although it does give you a good view of the Oval.) Plenty of good British technical skill from Jordan and some good technical skill from Hakan too.

I didn't think he was doing comedy in that tag, I just thought he was being a good heel. He reminded me a bit of the original Steve Logan (the South London Iron Man, not the Birmingham Nice Kid later on who now runs the K-Star gym chain). There's something of the heel Colin Joynson in him too. Like I said, Steve Haggerty also wrestled in France during that period: Maybe Billy Catanzaro could have been the third Dangerman.

Not especially a classic Traditional British bout, but of interest because of the historic outdoor venue, The Oval bandstand in seaside town Cliftonville. A regular wrestling venue going back to the 1930s. It was never used for ITV and the sound issues caused by the blowy wind on an otherwise nice sunny English summer's day may be a clue why. (If you look through Rumble's channel you will find videos of their last taping there, in a downpour! This time they got a respectable 400 (some WOS taping houses were half that many) although you only get a few shots of the bulk of them as they were mostly behind the cameras.

Just found out - that's the same Sturry who was quoted in that column I answered back to a few weeks ago. Maybe we should invite him on here.

*shrug* Well he posted that so my question is directed at him. I like a good straight match if the technical skill is there. Even if it's a strength based bout like the 1977 John Elijah Vs Big Daddy showing what he could do if allowed, it can be interesting. Nice to see Tele Guide was as comprehensive as TVTimes. It raises my hopes that somewhere out there is a French @JNLister who could revolutionise our knowledge of the broadcast history, especially during the 1985-1987 FR3 years when many broadcasts may he been unsyndicated, partly syndicated or bicycled around the network.