David Mantell

From May 1981 in a ring with red ropes, possibly the same or a relative of the one from the late 1970s Roland Bock Vs Beau Jack Rowlands film insert. The big bad Swiss mostly does the expected demolition job except for a couple of hope spots and the referee is no help to Gaetano either.

Clip is 15 min but only 7 mins of actual match (JIP too) and 8 mins of Zefy's victory party. The former is easy, Zefy absorbs Karsten's slow WWF style attack while the Publique fill the ring with paper balls before the good Prince starts going on the warpath with 2 min of high flying stuff to get the win. Zefy's mates and manager celebrate, Zefy cuts an exhausted post match promo during which it is confirmed this is for some sort of TV, the freshly dethroned Karsten from Germany stands around looking envious before disappearing off as an official in a checked clown jacket comes in and presents Zefy with his new title belt. Zefy goes on a long tour of the entire arena so tout la peuple can see him and his new belt backstage. Then cut backstage for another promo by Zefy and his manager who reckons Zefy is the best thing since sliced bread to have happened to French Catch and how he started out at Elysee Montmartre . Ring looks very New Catch but I reckon it's just an old ring .

Current day Mechant Hugo Perez takes on Jr Jaguar with an elderly obese Monsieur Jacky Richard as Evil troubleshooter referee. (Flesh Gordon being the Good Troubleshooting referee.) They spend some time posing for the crowd before Perez fires a dropkick "Et c'est parti!"shouts the MC and indeed off they go. Perez foils most of Jaguar's early moves except a pair of victory rolls for a 2 each. When he gets the chance Jaguar shows he can flip and somersault like the best of the old timers. "Oui. Oui. Ouiiiiiiiiiiiis" goes the MC. Jag does an outside tope on Hugo and both men disappear into the shadows. The MC says if they don't beat the 10 count they are Disqualified. Not counted or KOd but DQ'd. Harsh. To prove it, Perez gets an Avertisement for wanting time out. Thankfully "exciter la Publique" is no longer an offence like it was in 2007 for Flesh Vs Horatio. Perez takes over and beats Jaguar down. He works him over and gets a second and final (or is it final?) Avertisement. Perez Thesz presses, chokeslams and dropkicks his lighter foe. Jag makes hicimebacknbut misses a Superly splash and Perez gets a dtomacbreaker and covers his opponent for the win. Jacky Richard is kept well employed in his senior citizen years.

I reviewed the below match quite recently and missed this post: Well yes that's kind of the point. (Goes back to page 49 and checks. Actually OJ reviewed this match twice and I quoted the other one.)

Luckily Matt uploaded the full bout: One definite negative about this bout is the Venue. It's quite a nice posh sports hall with painted lines on the floor, the sort at which New Catch would often be filmed 10-15 years later. Possibly an indoor tennis court or suchlike Unfortunately they've decided they don't want the spectators and chairs all over their nice playing surfaces so they are all confined to the upper levels. This gives a feeling of detachment to La Publique, like at Shea Stadium 1980 where the same was done. For much of the first 15 mins the dominant sound is crashes and bangs of the ring absorbing everyone's bumps, and springs straining like your next door neighbours getting frisky. When the crowd do get excited they dimly remember than RBC used to tag with Bordes and shout Pappa Doux Mais Mais at him (as happened to Flesh Gordon on a New Catch episode. They also, like German fans, prefer to whistle "the bird" rather than boo Les Mechants and it gets annoying like a badly tuned short wave radio. Rene Ben Chemoul is an old man, distinguishable only from his old rival George Kidd in 1975 by having dyed his hair black. He's a skinnier version of Arnie Skaaland putting on the tights one last time on a mid 80s WWF house show. Yet he is clearly the star performer. He's still capable of doing the headscissors takedown and the backflip from the underside of a top wristlock strength battle. He still does the ball like Kidd - I winder which did it first? and he can come off the top turnbuckle with ease to deliver a missile dropkick -ot viciously land on Lagache's leg and get his Premier Avertisement. (Lagache having previously got an Avertisement for going wild and stomping both Bons. Cabellec is the gentleman heel here. He can pull off the Gilbert LeDuc handstanding toupee and actually gets a nice round of applause for it from the crowd. Plantin tries to block it for a while but let's the old dear have his fun. Lagache is the devil. Like Guy Renault five years earlier he sports a Lee"Doctor Feelgood" Brilleaux hairdo and long black tights like Joe Stecher and Earl Caddock nearly 60 years earlier. He gets most of the crowd hate and the least sympathy when the Bons retaliate on him (the above mention drop on kneecap and some nose work earlier on. Plantin looks halfway between 1983 grinning heel Jack Briscos and a wrestling Mr Spock. He is there for all the FIP stuff. He conceded the first fall to Cabellec after a. Bodyslam then gets his own back with a double leg nelson folding press before RBC gets the decider with the same move. Not the classic TV Catch a Quatre but if this was indeed RBC's final match a respectable send off.

Am wondering if @sergeiSem read that last post as he's just gone andd uploaded ANOTHER bout of South as a heel LOD in Germany 1994. What's odd about this one is that it shows South was a vastly better worker and wrestler than the man he was impersonating. In a heel sort of way, the Legend of Doom has a good mat based bout that the real Mike Hegstrand could never have. (See also Demolition actually being better workers than the Road Warriors.) Schumann also has a bad rep for impersonations due to his pink/black outfit which made him look like Bret Hart (Bret in his book mentions being shown a photo by German fans and not being a happy bunny.)

I'm surprised this bout hasn't been reviewed before. Two TBWs having a fine scientific contest. You'd think there would be a glowing account from me or a hatchet job from OJ. Ring mat is also a surprise, they've dug out an early 80s design with the World of Sport emblem for a 1986 TV Taping for the standalone show. Round 1: Ian side chancery throws Brooks (who looks a LOT like Ricky Morton here) who snaps right up, cheekily tapping McGregor's wrist as he does so. McGregor gets two 1 counts from side takedown folding press. Both very sharp off the button with their moves Brooks gets an underarm wristlock switching to standing arm lever by pulling it over his head. Ian cuffs it open and snapmares his man forward into a chinlock on the mat. Brooks equally snaps out pulling the arm straight into a standing wristlever. McGregor gets up on his feet and side chancery throws Brooks but the latter stil has the hold. McGregor turns into the guard and stands up from there to work on the armlock upright and front facing. Hecreaches down and gets a crotch hold and slam but Brooks still has the hold and pulls his man back down with him. He gives the wrist a wrench. McGregor tries the standing position again and throws Brooks from there. McGregor cross presses Brooks but can't get the shoulders and anyway Brooks STILL has that arm! Brooks slips out and kips up, once again in the standing armbar which Brooks converts to a hammerlock in the bowing position. McGregor kneels back down to relieve the pressure so Brooks kneels down with him. McGregor gets back up and straightens the arm back into a wrist lever overhead. McGregor tries the crotchhold again and this time employs more of a throwing kind of slam to finally break that wristlock. Brooks is up at four, McGregor gets a standing side headlock and Brooks pushes him off the ropes, drops as he rebounds off the opposite ropes and is leaped over then up and fires a dropkick. McGregor is down but gets a leg and a leglock to take his man down with him. The leglock becomes an ankle scissor but Brooks regains his wristlock from earlier forcing Ian to release. They get up and Brooks side chanceries McGregor. He snapmares and rear chinlocks McGregor then converts the chinlock to a backwards neck crank. McGregor reaches up to try prise it open. Brooks stands up and converts the crank to a side headlock then switches arms. McGregor breaks it open into a top wristlock and throws Brooks in it., result in a figure four top wristlock on the mat. Brooks rolls backwards so McGregor stands up and passes the arm over his head to make a standing wristlever then cranks it, making Brooks cry out. He fires off a forearm smash and McGregor slips into the pre standing armlift position. Brooks fires a second forearm and McGregor drops the hold to retaliate (and pull up his srmpad). He lunges at Richie's stomach, throws him off the ropes and leapfrogs him and underhook for a cross buttock throw but Brooks spins round with the momentum and gets him into a backslide and kneels and leans forward to secure the opening fall in just Round 1!!! Round 2: McGregor gets an underarm armlock. Brooks tries to join hands to throw him but McGregor shrugs it off. Brooks backflips and takes Ian down in the hold which is now his armlock but the Scots lad gets a headscissors. Brooks snaps out but has to give up the arm to do so. They lock up and Ian twice underarm throws Richie. McGregor double legs and gets a folding press and bridge but Brooks easily crawls out. McGregor gets full nelson into side chancery into further nelson and gets four successive two counts, keeping the arm portion even after Richie rolls out to make a half nelson in the mount, switching to a grovit then whipping his man off the ropes and back elbowing him on the rebound. He throws him again off the ropes but Richie comes off with a flying tackle for a 2 count. This gets a lot of applause. McGregor gets a single leg and toe & ankle hold but Brooks boots him off sending him spinning until he takes a hefty bump on the mat. They stand and Ian gets an arm roll into double locked arm lever. He stans and throws his man in the hold. He puts a knee in the shoulder joint and gets a one handed chinlokmwith inecsrm while still gripping the wrist with the other arm, gets him upright and high whips hard and forwards on the stretched shoulder, wrenching the joint as well as getting the bump. Finger interlock and Ian starts going for the straight armlift again before scoring another high whip and bump (but without the shoulder wrenching forwards motion this time.) Another one handed finger interlock and Brooks goes for a front chancery but Ian makes it into an armhank. Brooks pulls through the legs to flip him man over and sticks on a bridging foot press on the folding press but only gets 2. Nice Round of applause. McGregor gets a waistlock takedown into a folding press but Brooks crawls away. Brooks posts Ian and bodyslams him for 9 then double legs and gets a Boston Crab but drops a leg to make it a single leg crab. McGregor crawls through the leg, puts a foot on Richie's head and slaps down on the knee to transmit the impact then gets a grovit on the mat from there roll his man into a small package but the bell stops him getting the equaliser. There then follows a decidedly buzz killing trailer for Samoa Joe on ROH with annoying Nu Metal music that really dates this. There then follows some adverts including a really disturbing one for the NSPC . You have been warned. (You might also consider donating!) But anyway, back to the good stuff. Round 3: McGregor takes a headlock but Brooks bounces him off the ropes. Ian is ready with a shoulderblock and then gets the side headlock back. Again Brooks throws him off into the ropes and then catches him with another fine dropkick for 8. Brooks posts McGregor and slam him. He whips him again to the ropes and throws him for a bump. Then another posting and a side slam onto a knee. He tries for an atomic drop but McGregor rolls through, gets a leg but can't get the shoulders down for an equaliser, but does get a headscissors out of it. It takes a while but eventually Brooks gets McGregor in the upright position andd kips up out. Brooks whips McGregor into the ropes again but tis time Ian comes back with a sunset flip and FINALLY gets the equaliser. Mostly he is applauded despite a few hostile En-Ger-Land type Brooks fans. Round 4: Brooks lunges and side chancery throws McGregor. He underhooks him and ties for a DDT but McGregor blocks the impact so Brooks works on the arm. McGregor stands, kicks off the armlock and whips Brooks into the ropes and gets a hard boot to the stomach for eight. Then another posting but Brooks backward leapfrogs his man and gets a folding press from behind leaning back for 2. Brooks tries the atomic drop from earlier but again McGregor counters with the hook leg and headscissors.He gets 2 and Brooks has to snap out of the scissors but Brooks stays down on his knees to pull McGregor into a backslide. McGregor tries rolling through but can't and Richie Brooks has the 2-1 win in round 4. A great fast paced match with a definite build towards the ending in that final round. Despite this, both men would end up as villains in notorious heel tag teams. Ian was already flirting with heelish on TV in 1987 and by 1993 was in the Wild Jocks with Drew McDonald. "Golden Apollon" Richie Books gradually lost his shine during his feud with Danny Collins (including the infamous DQ win for the British Heavy Middleweight title in Croydon 1990, avenged a few months later) and by 1993 he and Sheffield Boys partner Tarzan Boy Darren Ward were heeling it up against the likes of The Liverpool Lads and Dynamite Kid & Animal Legend of Doom (Dave Duran). But that was in the future. This time, the two kids put on a scientific masterclass.

Some more Evil Legend of Doom, again from Germany 1994. This time he's announced as The Destroyer Johnny South. Paired with Dirty Dan Collins (Danny having turned heel on the Liverpool Lads in Croydon earlier that year,) they take on two of Germany/Austria's best young good guys, score and concede a fall each (Ulf backslides South, South DDTs and pins Ulf) before Collins goes wild and bludgeons both opposition with a ball shaped weapon of some sort that South throws him and so gets DQd. It's heartening to see that German fans in 1994 gave heat for breaking up a promising technical exchange by going for a rope break. Danny and John/Hawk (not to be confused with John Hawk the future JBL who appears on some of these CWA matches) would be on opposite sides on Reslo's elimination triple tag match in 1995. Ulf would be in that match too as the Hollywood Blond. Given that a year before this, Dave Duran was Animal Legend of Doom teaming with Kendo Nagasaki possibly South as Hawk Legend was a full time heel at this point.

One thing that was taken very seriously in classic British Wrestling was ref bumps. They were rare enough to start with and when it was an honest accident the match would be halted while a substitute referee was brought down eg the first Haystacks & Kirk Vs Jones and Logan bout in 1987. Attacking a referee on purpose was shocking stuff unlike America where heels did it with impunity or France where Les Bons cheerfully slapped around the miserable and suspect referees. This was partly down to the IBA ruling that the referee had to be seen to be in charge at all times. Sometimes as with Jeff Kaye against Mike Bennett a referee who was an ex wrestler would put the tights back on to sort out the miscreant heel. Other times as here the ref would just throw the book at the heel. With cricket and with clean British wrestling the hushed tones get broken when a good piece of play is pulled. So it is with anything that's just not cricket, people go into shock at the sheer foulness then they form lynch mobs to redress the wrong. At least OJ isn't complaining about THIS one having a screwy finish!

Here we are. Preceded by a GLORIOUS promo with Haystacks talking about how tough "Us Americans" are. in a broad Manchester accent!!! Although to be fair, third team-mate Mighty John Quinn once cut an in ring "gee" on ITV about how his "Congressman" told him to beat up Big Daddy. Quinn was a Canadian, Canada has MPs not Congressmen Something I've noticed about this 1986 bout. There were quite a few RTL logos about. Was this a one off TV broadcast rather than a home video?

An oddity. Johnny South had been a regular visitor to the German/Austrian tournaments scene going back to the 1970s. Here in 1994 he turns up in his full tribute Legend of Doom gear. Since the Real Mike Hegstrand had visited the CWA and beaten Rambo here for the World title less than two years earlier, here the Legend becomes "British LOD" a slightly cowardly heel wannabe who runs away from the man the real Hawk beat for the biggest prize in European Wrestling not so long ago. British LOD is presented as having some front but covering and covering up whenever Rambo gets aggressive. It takes careful listening to get that German fans are giving British LOD "the bird" not cheering him, but it's the same whistling noise they gave Indio Guajaro against Dave Morgan 11 years earlier. Rambo mostly easily breaks South's holds and overpowers him. It's like comparing Tony StClair Vs Kendo Nagasaki to Tony Vs Bill Clarke as King Kendo. Rambo of course wins with a flying forearm. The footage quality and production incidentally are very good, almost the professional TV quality of the home videos of Otto's biggest 1980s title defences such as July 1980 Vs Don Leo or the final defence against Bull Power. There's also a commentator present. I believe there are videos on this channel of the rest of Hanover 1994 in similar condition. This is the year before South filmed his Reslo appearances as the Legend (singles bout Vs Paul "Raging Bull" Neu, elimination triple tag, Rumble) By 1999 he would be popular enough to be the man who ended Marty Jones's final World Mid Heavyweight Championship reign in April that year in Bristol. By 2002 he was gone from All Star as part of a clean out of tribute characters and a renewed focus on young talent such as Dean Allmark. Robbie Dynamite Berzins, Mikey Whiplash Gilbert etc etc.

As promised to @ohtani's jacket, here it is. ^^^

Just a quick one to bring the German thread level with the British and French threads in the last couple of days(two bouts each, one long one short) Heel Vs heel with Kauroff as the sympathetic heel getting the "KAU-ROFF!!! KAU-ROFF!!!" chants. Just highlights including KK totally dominating Brody in a finger interlock and easily breaking a full nelson then flipping the Colonel around. Brody and Klaus have a fairly slambang cartoon brawl winBridy doing his fall over the top rope spot from his Owen Hart match on New Catch. Q. What does VIEDERKOMPF mean? All I know is that German/Austrian fans like to sing it at heels.

Grand Prix Belt seminfinal. TThwn current TBW Vs twenty something ex TBW. Logan is by now a sharp operator, his rolls out of Ian's armbarcarecsharpmand swift, so is his pushing up from arm presses on the mat. Ian keeps the arm while Steve tries all sorts of tricks to escape or reverse it, none of which quite come off for hiim until Logan gets headscissors and Ian has tofree his hand release to snap open the scissorhold. Logan gets a full nelson into snapmares into further nelson press for two one counts- his transitions are really sharp and snappy. McGregor gets the arm back in a top wristlock, trying for a grapevine. Logan rolls then gets a fireman's carry but Ian starts putting on an armlock up there so Logan dumps him on a top turnbuckle. Logan gets a rear waistlock into kneeling front chancery into side chancery into cross press for some 1 counts. McGregor gets loans arms then strikes with a lean back dropkick. Ian gets a snapmare into headlock. Logan breaks it up then curls the arm back again into a hammerlock into double wristlock, riding his man to the mat. He switches to shoulder press for 2. McGregor gets a side chancery and chop to the neck, then a monkey climb., but somewhere in this Logan gets a wrist lever which he keeps until the bell. Round 2 Logan gets a standing full nelson into armlock. He throws Ian to the mat but Ian stands so Logan come off the middle rope to throw Logan. Ian tries positioning but Logan throws him again. Logan has McGregor in the armbar, the knee holding it in place. Ian gets a great cross buttock press but McGregor still has the hold. Logan again gets the headscissors and twists with it. Logan turns into the upright and uses a foot to power his roll forward out of the scissors and straight into a side headlock, but Logan scissors him again. He lets go as McGregor exerts more pressure with thecside headlock - "He MUST keep his head away" notes Kent. Ian still has the headlock until Logan jams him in the stomach. Logan posts him to the corner, catches him on the rebound with a rear chancery throw and bodycheck. He backs out of a full nelson and comes off the ropes with a sunset flip into double leg nelson folding press for the first fall. Round 3., Ian gets a legdive and leglock. Logan tries grabs to the head, widening Ian's legs, going for the wrist and the head again, but the leglock stays. He turns himself into the Gotch toehold position but Ian manages to get it on securely and go for the arms for a surfboard but gives up the leglock to focus on the double arms. Putting a knee in the shoulder blades. He switches to a single arm and gets a posting. (a mistake, reckons Kent Walton.) Logan forearms him and knees him in the stomach. McGregor gets a headlock, Logan lifts him up but Ian while up there gets a headscissor and takes his man down. Logan turns into the upright then the other side position. McGregor still has the headscissor. Logan tries a bridge plus snapout. Then he tries a headscissor of his own which finally does the trick. They agree to stalemate. Logan gets a chest headbutt and forearm smash, side chancery into side headlock and bodycheck. He gets a rear chancery throw into double knees press for three one counts. He gets a legdive, flying elbowsmash and ground double top wristlock. McGregor straightens it into an armbar and rolls to tighten the hold. He forces a high whip and gets a bodyscissors. . Logan tries for three pin attempts, on the third using a foot to pull the bodyscissors down and off! He grapevines each leg. McGregor tries some prelim escapes but the bell goes. Round 4. McGregor takes a side headlock, Logan throws him off. He rebounds with a not very powerful bodycheck. Logan feigns a full nelson and dishes out a heel of hand to stomach. a headbutt and a knee then one more butt to the stomach which floors McGregor for 9. Logan delivers a rear snapmare an elbowdrop and a crosspress for two. They collide in the ring. Ian is up before, he whips Logan into the ropes. As before Logan comes back with a sunset flip but McGregor crawls through and flips it over into a bridging folding press for the equaliser - and a beauty it is! Round 5. McGregor gets a heädlock, Logan grabs an inverted side waistlock for an over the knee backbreaker. Ian gets double legs and a folding press but Logan crawls out. Logan gets a wristlever, whips McGregor into the ropes and catches him with a dropkick, reverses a posting and catches him again on the rebound with a forearm smash. He gets a side chancery and bodycheck but McGregor gets a cross buttock and press for 2. Logan gets a loose throw for 5, McGregor tries the same double legs into folding press but again Logan crawls out. Logan gets side headlock into side chancery I to low power hiptoss into armlock - a transition sequence of four moves in under a second! - and twists the Arn into a semi Japanese Stranglehold (the Million Dollar Dream). McGregor forces upright and so Logan loosens the cold, gets in two mighty shoulderblocks and turns his man into a back hammerlock on the mat. He resists long enough so Logan releases and Ian is up at 8. Logan elbowsmashes Ian's arm and further weakens it with a high forward Whip that not only makes Ian take a bump but also stretches the arm further. Logan goes sfor the arm again with a lean back dropkick straight on the bicep itself! He gets a stomach jab and McGregor gets double knees to Logan's head. Logan gets side heädlock into an armbar, driving his free arm into the joint. He lands an elbow on the back tricep where his free arm was sawing away. He yanks the arm and fires a forearm smash at Ian. The bell goes. Round 6 and final. Quick handshake. McGregor gets the wristlock, slingshot into ropes - and catches his man with a neat dropkick. McGregor gets a front chancery, Logan reaches for the knee counter but cannot get the grip. He gets the knee finally, lifts and drops to break the hold. Finger Interlock and McGregor gets an arm and a posting but Logan springs up in the corner, back leapfrogs Ian but is taken down behind in a folding press for a pin attempt but Logan crawls out. He throws McGregor into the ropes and young Ian comes back with a flying tackle but .Logan gets the better of it, secures a bodyslam and cross press for the three. That gives him the 2-1 win and a place in the final against Marvellous Mike Bennett. Bennett would win the tournament and belt, the final payoff of his 1985-1986 heel push. A belt, not the belt he was after a year and a half earlier when he started his pursuit of Danny Collins and the British Welterweight Championship. Good technical bout, only flaw is a certain amount of pausing and hesitation while thinking what to do next by both men. The falls were all great with McGregor's bridging folding press consolation equaliser the absolute gem of the match.

Father and son team up, like the Boothmans and the Kilbys back home in Blighty. Alex and Steve both share the same attack skills (technical plus acrobatic) and they even get in the ring the same cartwheeling way. Generally it's Alex that does the FIP stuff and Steve that makes the save - until dad goes down to a Yamamoto leg drop for the opening fall. When Steve makes a tag, Alex takes a while to get going before going on the attack, hecsoin enough tags Dad back who gets the equaliser on Yamamoto. Alex does come back but ends up getting caught in a folding press by Finlay - his first good move of the match - for the decider. There's not a lot to be said about the heels. Yamamoto is your standard German Wrestling Surly Tokyo Street Thug heel and Finlay is just his regular early 90s bully boy self, here against Alex mostly. Great shot at the start where fans are singing songs about Finlay and he just stares DAGGERS at them. Some good moves from the Wrights but basically your standard face Vs heel match, there to make the fans happy - until it makes them unhappy, natch.

(@ohtani's jacket there is 8mm colour fancam of Hell's Angels Vs Dennisons and I've posted it to the British thread long ago. I can bump it up if you like) We arrived at the Elysee Montmartre and get a potted history of its roots as a dancehall. Roger Delaporte who owned the place is in the front row. First off we get a few minutes of the end of Monsieur Montreal Vs Inca Viracocha. In the 1960s Montreal was a French version of Tarzan Johnny Wilson, same sort of handsome muscleman. Apparently Montreal 's real name is Marcel Cherot and Monsieur Montreal is an old bodybuilding title he won. It's the last few mins of a strength match. Sanniez gets cheered while Caclard (or Calgar according to the INA official YT) gets booed, like the split reaction for Savage and Elizabeth in the mid 80s. Caclard has a similar crewcut/goatee look to heel Bernie Wright in 1985 Germany. He and Sanniez can do all the characteristics French "Vaultigeur" stuff as well as Les Bons. Things really speed up when Khader is tagged in against Sanniez. Sanniez makes no attempt to tone things down so as not to upstage Les Bons - in many respects he is still a Bon at this point and he and Caclard are a Pareja Incredible. The first time Caclard tries to reverse snapmares himself out of a Hassouni hammerlock, Khader just releases the hold and lets him crash but he pulls off the counter a few minutes later. Roca can do the Scisseaux Volees counter to armbars. So far no sin of the back somersault response to a top wristlock. Les Mechants double get nastier, both of them including Sanniez stomping Rocas and Hassouni dropkicking the pair of them out the ring, one foot each. Caclard seems to be the nastier of the two. Roca's gets a surfboard on Sanniez, the announcer calls it "un Pippon.". Les Bons double team Sanniez in their corner and even try tying the tag rope to his foot but he pulls out of it. The heels eventually strike a hot tag inasmuch as heels can. Hassouni still dominates Caclard but Caclard fight back better. Rocas gets the opener on Sanniez with a sunset flip despite Caclard's attempt at interference. Les Mechants get an extended period of dominance over Rocas with Sanniez stinging away with repeated dropkicks. While not tagged in he leaps the ropes to dropkick Roca's who is recovering from a posting, then holds the top rope to spring back outside to the ring apron. Caclard quickly drapes himself across Roca's for the equaliser and the crowd are FURIOUS. Caclard has a vicious heel Dynamite Kid look to him. The heels have some great double teams, Caclard holding Roca's in a full nelson for a Sanniez dropkick. Later when Hassouni has made the hot tag. Caclard gets dropkicked to ringside and gets into a fight with Delaporte and some other ringsiders who throw him in, lumberjack match style. Hassouni gets posted by Caclard but he backwards leapfrogs him and rolls him up in a folding press for the decider. It is, as OJ Says a very fast paced engaging bout, although it loses some shine as the heels take over and gain their heat. A good exhibition of the French style.

Bit of a quickie. Probably the first case of All Star putting on ex W(W)WF talent. Irish Pat Barratt was a star on ITV in the Sixties before going to America in the Seventies for some years, a sojourn that involved replacing Victor Rivera mid reign in 1975 as Dominic DeNucci's WWWF World Tag Team Championship partner. Here he makes a splash on ASW's Sattelite Wrestling show, putting out John Kowalski (by now minus the blond hair) in a few minutes with a sleeper.

Sixteen years earlier in Bremen... As with the Terry Funk match that year, Finlay is the Quasi babyface sympathetic heel, although not as emphatically the good guy as in 2012. The Rapmaster is anything but. Looking like a cross between an unmasked Kendo Nagasaki and Nasty Boy Jerry Sags with a shaved head, ponytail and black leather tailcoat and hard rock ring entry music. Only the pink and black ring gear really makes him recognisably PN News from WCW. He also does the odd basic scientific move like a fireman's carry, or trying for a single leg Boston Crab before Finley kicks him off. Referee is Didier Gapp, the referee so miserable that Germans think of him as a comedy hero. He doesn't do much of note, just gets on with the job. He manages to lure Finlay back from an out of the ring brawl, even if he then kicks Neu off the ring apron. Eventually they go at it outside the ring, with Neu backdropping Finlay on the floor and Finlay dashing back at the last second to turn a double knockout into a knockout win. Sorry OJ. P.S. the 2012 bout has just come on my smart TV. Didier refereed that too. By then he was totally bald and quite tubby.

Speaking of Dave Morgan, here is another match where he comes out from behind his Maschke and is the good guy. That time, which I must have seen but didn't review apparently, but I mention it in the bowels of the British thread on page 19 in July 23: That time was a clean match, this is blue eye versus villain, the villain in question that loveable old rogue with the Afro hairdo Indio Guajaro. According to a personality profile at the end, Indio is from Colombia and Morgan is heavyweight champion of something called the NWF (no idea if there is any connection to the early 70s promotion that Pedro Martinez ran out of Buffalo NY - more likely it's a mishmash of NWA and WWF dreamed up by a promoter who has been reading American wrestling magazines.) It's March 1983 so in a yellow roped ring just like that Roland Bock clip against Don joni El Coral. We get a long voiceover during the intro but this doesn't become a commentary, just an explanatory voice that PPS up now and then. Good guy Dave is a mild mannered heavyweight. He and Indio exchange basic technical stuff in the early rounds, more like a British heavyweight bout that a German bout of the time, with Dave getting the best of it. Dave does a good French style headscissors takedown counter to armbars. Indio puts up his hands in victory and the crowd give him the bird (the whistling noise, not finger gestures.) He can also cartwheel like Danny Collins (making his pro debut around this time.) Bad guy Indio sells a lot of Dave's offence, takes bumps, gets hit with double ankles and dropkicks, sells holds and is utterly humiliated so the audience are laughing mockingly at him. Eventually he gets some heat bashing Dave around with forearm smashes. It looks like Indio either can't roll out of an armbar or doesn't want to upstage good guy Dave who gets bored waiting for the roll and boots Indio in the stomach. Indio gets darker heat when he starts choking Dave out on the ropes. He puts his hands up and gets actual boos because this time he is winning. He pitches Dave to ringside just as the round ends. The MC has to shout SCHTOP!! SCHTOP!! as he chokes Morgan. Morgan makes his comeback headscissoring Indio around and dropkicking his out the ring. Then he goes too far and ties up Indio and charges him and gets a Yellow Card. The German fans have no equivalent of Aux Chiottes L'Arbitre, they just give the ref The Bird (see above). Indio soon gets his heat back but Morgan suddenly gets a side folding press roll up for the win.

This clip is 9.5 mins long but we only get about 5 minutes of match. Chenok may have been a Baron when he jobbed the European Welterweight Championship to Danny Collins as part of the 1985 FA Cup Final coverage earlier that year (or is it next year? As you can see from the thumbnail it says 1984! @sergeiSem can you explain ) but here he is the German working class babyface, a mixture of Roland Bock, Mick McMichael with a moustache and C21st Flesh Gordon with a combover. Denis Goulet we've seen on here in the past, upcoming French TBW of the period. Indio is kind of like N'Boa with a dead snake. We saw him and Bernie team years later with Indio (with Steve on the other side!) and it didn't make much sense, but here it does - Bernie is kind of it Bearcat mode here with a crewcut and short beard looking like Syd Cooper's kid brother, not Steve Wright's. Anyway, five mins action and it ends awkwardly. Indio and Bernie clean the ring of everyone - it took me two attempts to pick up that they were DISQUALIFIED and they decide they've won the fight and are making their exit when Chenok gives Indio a smack in the mouth on the way out. We are then treated to an audio profile piece with Chenok and an audio promo with the man, both in German. In between we get a shot of Chenok flying bodypressing Bernie and highlights of what looks like the Birmingham Steve Logan versus Dave Morgan plus a mini tribute piece to Rene Lataserre.. Who is this Wener Bendig? Is he on here?

Triple tag matches, they were called over here.

Talking of both McMichael and a bald Mulligan, here they both are with Daddy and Mel Stuart who also went bald after previously sporting a Daddy-esque blond crop top in the early 70s. It's Daddy and Mick's warmup for The Rockers (Pete Lapaque and Tommy Lorne) on Cup Final Day a couple of months later. THhhe Rockers manager Charlie McGee is in the villains corner and frankly looks like a bigger scarier heel than either principal heels. Typical Daddy fodder with Mick as the FIP getting rescued by Daddy. Daddy briefly comes in and has both heels grovelling and prostrating themselves. Mick gets an advantage over Mulligan and scores the first fall with a bodyslam. Mick eventually gets into hideous trouble finishing in a Boston Crab but slowly, pulling the canvas up excruciatingly McMichael claws his way back to Daddy who tags Daddy to splash and pin Stuart.

I'd been interested to see the Liverpool Skinheads as they had been involved in some prototype Big Daddy tag matches in 1976 in the Best/Wryton area (at a time when some Joint members were still trying to put on Haystacks and Daddy as a heel tag team (They would resolve this on the night by having the two big men fall out as Daddy was no longer able to accept Stax's heel tactics. No they are not bald but skins in the 60s 70s generally weren't - they had short hair (Terry's is pushing it a bit. Paul looks the part, like Slade drummer Don Powell circa 1970's album Play .It Loud) and the braces and Doc Marten boots were more indicators of the skin style. Mulligan was no skinhead, he was just balding and would soon ditch the rest of it. It's not a great environment to show off the blue eyes but at least they score two good falls, Faulkner getting the rear rolling double shouldepress on Mulligan.Kung Fu then gets a Straight Second with a rear kick on the top turnbuckle and snapmare into folding press with bridge. Two nice bits afterwards - Paul quietly walks up and unheelishly shakes Faulkner's hand and Faulkner gets absolutely MOBBED by three young girls in 70s street fasion- yay. Ring Rats on World of Sport!

I'm currently watching this match and not reached the Manchette stage, so thanks for warning me in advance OJ otherwise I might have been tempted to try a blow by blow account. So far it's great technical bout with plenty ofl the characteristic French moves. At ringside is Rene Ben Chemoul's old dad and a 70 year old lady megafan of le catch who was presumably born 1897 and perhaps saw Hackenschmidt in his prime as a little girl. UPDATE, the Manchettes have started and the crowd get grumpy. Fortunately it's gone technical again. about a rolling figure four armlock, and la Publique are clapping again. Thee are further bursts of it in the final five minutes interspersed with better stuff- Scisseaux Volees and suchlike.. Bordes gets the winner with a sunset flip.

We were discussing a page or two back the mysterious Eurostars TV show of the Nineties/Noughties and possibility Tenties which gave the world such treats as the FYR Macedonia TV taping. Here is a match from that show 's peak period circa 2007 taped in a large and very modern arena before a packed house (allegedly due to a WWE/John Cena boom in France at the time). There is a Eurostars watermark on the footage Flesh is now in his bald tubby moustachioed phase, looking like Terry Rudge dressed as Sean Waltman for Halloween. He has two young TBWish tag partners, White Thunder and Jimmy Gavroche. Scott Ryder by this point has graduated to be Flesh's nemesis, a Giant Haystacks to Flesh's Big Daddy. The irony being that Scott is not actually very tall. He has two monster Highlanders with him Collosus and Mark McGibbon (sic) who totally dwarf him in term of size. Together they are The Scottish connection. Flesh early in gets an Avertisement for choking Ryder on the ropes. then a second one for not going back to his corner. Apparently by this point the rules have changed so you need FIVE Avertisements, not three, to get DQd (which clears up a mystery from Flesh's match with Horatio Le Pirate from around this time.) Flesh gets TOTALLY overpowered by Collosus and tags White Storm while Ryder tags in for the Connection and soon clocks up two Avertisements of his own for squishing one of the youngsters continuously in the corner. Both the lighter Bons are good high flyers but only Jimmy really hints at the classic French "Vaultigeur" style (RBC, Prince, Saulnier, Angelito, young Flesh, Zefy) we discussed previously. He gets some good moves on Ryder (who plays the Uncle Ivan of the Scottish Connection) but loses the equaliser when Scotty counters a sunset flip attempt with an Earthquake splash. The big Scotsmen triple team Gavroche until they blow a trick and he makes the hot tag. I missed who to and anyway Flesh and Thunder (no relation to Darren Walsh's heel alter ego) double dropkick and double clothesline various Mechants before Jimmy ends up legal man in the ring and turns a backflip/Kid McCoy Yorkshire Rope Trick in a hold into a shoulder press. RBC would be impressed. He gets a pin to make it 2-1. I check the time on my video, there are still another seven minutes left. Turns out it's best if five falls, I must have missed this being explained at the start. Thunder tags in and drops a flying axehandle on funky McGibbon's arm held up by Gavroche. The two youngsters swap places to do the same spot then all three bons in succession Stinger Splash Mark McG. He ends up at ringside as Colossus manhandles both youngsters until they roll away and then joined by Flesh, double and triple dropkick another Scottish Superheavyweight to ringside. That just leaves Scott Ryder. Flesh holds him down before getting out of the way at the last second from a White Thunder top rope splash for the winner. It's fun, there was a good house and hopefully the two young guys have gone onto more good stuff in the 18 years since. Healthy looking scene.