David Mantell

Pancho Zapata is already a familiar figure to me from his 1969 match on World of Sport against Jeff Kaye (also a frequent traveller to France as was his Barons tag partner Ian Gilmour) which was featured in The Final Bell in December 1988. This is him four years earlier teamed with Anton Tejero (a name which would take on unfortunate connotations on 23rd February 1981 when a Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero staged an attempted military coup in the Spanish parliament.) French wrestling seems to be littered with heels wearing loud colourful Gypsy, Latin American or Spanish culture (hats, colourful coats, big moustaches, swarthiness etc. Roger Couderc tells us Tejero plays guitar.) The French would have HATED Hector, Mando and Chavo Guerrero. So a bald Mexican and burly Spaniard, both with Kong thick taches, are quite the heat generating dream team. Rene is a technical legend and he and Cesca make straight up Bons against these dodgy foreigners. Rene's constant barrage of throws to both heels has a similar effect to a Big Daddy tag where Daddy starts the match, both heels getting utterly blitzed early on. (In American Wrestling this usually serves to soften the blow for a BIG heel win such as both Sgt Slaughter and the Undertaker's respective 1991 interim heel title wins.). Couderc drops references to French pop culture such as Poupee De Cire Poupee De Son (that year's Serge Gainsborg penned, France Gall sung Eurovision Song Contest winner albeit for Luxembourg) and Le Manege Enchante, the a French original of classic stop animation children's TV show The Magic Roundabout. Perhaps Couderc was inspired to make the remark about Tejero being a guitarist based on Flappy, the lazy Spanish rabbit from the show which for the English version morphed into Dylan, a stoned beatnik American rabbit! Actually Couderc , the supposed dean of French wrestling commentary, seems to be mostly playing it for laughs in this bout. Referee Martial seems to be the tough Delaporte/Max Ward/Gorilla Monsoon type, physically the biggest of the five men in the ring and willing to use that power to enforce law and order in the ring, at one point lifting Pancho up by the waist and carrying him out of mischief and clamping his hands over Tejero 's eyes to drag him back to his corner (Terry Funk would have potatoed anyone who tried that, something Tejero clearly briefly contemplates then think better of). That said the heels still manage to run a couple of rings around him, getting the dirty in while the ref manhandles their partner. And they even get to administer unto the legendary RBC some of the slapstick usually reserved for faces to administer to heels later on in the bout, trapping him in the ropes and leapfrogging each other to land on him. And when the heels beat down on Cesca leading to Tejero pinning him for the opener, it is really an emotional low point after Les Bons earlier hi jinks. The heels seem to say "You're not laughing now!" as they taunt the crowd. RBC equalises and then gets Zapata neatly in a surfboard which overbalanced leaving both men's shoulders down. Rather than count them both, Martial just pushes the whole surfboard sidewards. Rene gets some great flyers in like headscissors and Huracanrana, as well as doing a kind of Fargo Strut, playfully aiming backwards kicks at both opponents. Les bons get a measure of revenge on Les Mechants for earlier antics which were more a Boy's prerogative anyway. After slamming the heels into each other and hitting them with synchronised missile dropkick which earns them a second and final Avertisement. Zapata ends up garroted in the ropes like Collins against Rocco. Tejero comes off the ropes but trips for reasons we don't see why and is splashed and pinned for the win. Technical point, the film has several jumps indicating sections of frames removed due to film damage, possibly from a faulty projector. OJ and myself have reviewed the bout in the past.

Technical matches are more my thing (and something they're both good at and they're not going to get much scope for that in a Piratenkampf. I get that some other people's tastes are different from mine.

It's the next door neighbour territory to the one I grew up with so most of French Catch clicks for me except the ref-battering. But I'd still love the insight of French fans who grew up with this (and later) Zapata had a match on World of Sport in 1969 Vs Jeff Kaye (who also appears on French TV and who I knew as a referee growing up) clips of which appeared in The Final Bell in December 1988 on ITV.

Both of them ripoffs of someone earlier too. Hulk Hogan was to Superstar Graham as Big Daddy was to Georg "Schurli" Blemenschutz over in Vienna at the Heumarkt. As a 12 year old though, I just saw them both as lead good guys who were shoved down my throat and I longer for that upset defeat for either one.

Yeah. Hulk was protected (mainly by his own politicing) but it never reached the point of him hever being shown in any serious peril that Max C booked his brother into. Still, both were pompous lead good guy characters that made you long to see the bad guys win for once. I remember learning about Hogan as a heel with Blassie and thinking it kind of made sense since Daddy had been a villain teaming with Haystacks in 1975-1977 and before that as "Battling Guardsman" Crabtree 1972-1974.

Happened in a few places eg Israel circa 1995, shut down by local moral guardian Dafna Lemish. Not in Britain though, AFAIK Mary Whitehouse left wrestling alone. The Mae Young/puppies incident was after her time anyway.

It's a Piratenkampf (Chain Flag Match) so I'm not coming in with great expectations. Chain as weapon and chain tug of war take the place of most technical work, all the usual spots. Nothing that would inspire me to write a blow by blow account. The wrestlers, the chain and Mick McMichael twice disappear into the crowd for a bit. Schumann dropkicks Brookside off the corner to grab the, er, polythene disposable shopping bag? off the pole. Would rather see these two have a regular match, they both have the ability Euro Cliche # 26547 - No Limits by 2 Unlimited as blue eye/babyface music. Still used by All Star in the 2020s for the exciting young blue-eye. Robbie the heel - well he does a good arrogant strut at the start but with these gimmick matches they're dirty all the way anyway.

I can see that was a lot of fans' experience. I had (still have) a territorial scene to which to attach . I turned on Big Daddy at about six years old after even cool villains I liked such as Yasu Fuji and Grand Vladimir lost to him. Perhaps if I'd been part of the Hulkamania generation I'd have pretty soon defected to a good interesting heel like Savage or Hennig. I would definitely have cheered if Ax and Smash with Fuji had worked him over. Even at 16 I kind of thought Warrior did a public service by winning WM6!

Heel Robbie takes on a North American. Unlike Owen Hart or Brian Danielson, Mike has no apparent knowledge of the European style so even the "technical" round 1 of the match isn't very technical- Robbie works a side headlock on the mat. Mike trying for pins in the hold now and then and pitching Brookside out to a big pop. From round 2 it's more brawling and Mike working the crowd while maintaining a wristlever. Mike repeatedly breaking open and Robbie reapplying side chanceries. Robbie being pitched to ringside and Mike joining him. Robbie gets an Indian Deathlock on at the end of Round 3 from which it takes the bell and referee McMichael to extricate him (Mick doesn't muck about either.just gets it gone quick.). Round 4 picked up a bit with a Robbie STF and Mike sunset flip before reverting back to brawling. Robbie got a scorpion Deathlock which Mike went for the ropes on again. To be fair he had to struggle to get there so the audience didn't turn on Mike (except for one female fan. The bell again saved Mike from an American figure four.Round five sees Robbie retreating from some dropkicks before suddenly being DQd for something I couldn't make out unless it was one attack on the grounded opponent too many getting a third public warning. Very American bout. You can tell it's not much of a technical match by the fact that I've got through it so quickly. Robbie and ref Mick tried their best but they could only work with what they had. If you don't like DQ Finishes you won't like this one and for once neither do I.mainly because I don't get whynit happened. Blue Monday by New Order gets played between rounds 2 and 3.. Rude on Time by Black Box in the next round break. You Give Love A Bad Name in the one after that.

He got a movie done, sure,but his main order of business at that time was changing Brooke's diapers* for Linda. Same with Warrior's reign and Nick's diapers*. And yup he got a movie done that time too. Savage reign #1 and Warrior were both basically Paternity Leave Cover champions. . . (* we call them "nappies" over here)

Yes, 60 year olds would already have been 16 in 1981 when Hogan went babyface in the AWA. I'm 51 and was 12 going on 13 when I first saw Hogan (Jan 87, the MSG lumberjack match Vs Savage from 9 months earlier). Like I think I've already said. I just thought he was an American version of Big Daddy.

*Shrug* all I did was post a video then all hell broke loose. But yeah, I'm for getting back on topic -Hogan being dead. This was his funeral: Some unintentional humour from the AI commentary. Not sure either how many "little Hulkamaniacs" are 60 in 2025.

Some more of the Wildcat being Evil in Austria, the Vienna Heumarkt in 1997. . Here he actually teams with Fit Finlay, against Michael Kovacs and Osamu Nishimura. From the start the British Islanders do a Road Warrior Pearl Harbour. They send the babyfaces outside and slingshot them into each other. Brookside roars at the crowd like Demolition Ax circa 1988. He tortures Osamu with a camel clutch/front face lock combo until Finlay stomps the Japanese babyface. Brookside dives in to rescue Finlay from Kovacs. This is a "streetfight" and Robbie proves it by taking Nishimura taking turns to bludgeon the babyfaces. He superplexes Kovacs as Finlay cheers. Kovacs fights back with elbowsmashes on Brookside but Brookside still the long term advantage. Finlay chokes with a tag rope and puts out Kovacsxwithba submission but only after Didier Gapp intervenes. To top it of, Brookside does an in ring promo where he says that technical or Street style, hemand Finlay can beat 'em all .

Le Rocky du Ring/Grim Rocker? I thought that was just a biker gimmick with some face paint thrown in.

@JNLister you might want to add this clip to the Other Channels page on the ITV wrestling site as the bout is not represented (Quinn Vs Johnny South, Hanley, February 1986. South is no jobber but the future Legend of Doom takes quite a pounding here. Referee and future British Bushwhacker Frank Casey is about to start a one month suspension for poor refereeing. Quinn power dominates South who only occasionally gets retaliation such as attacking Quinn's beard. Quinn gets a public warning, or does he? Chuckle Brothers make a stupid joke about Quinn being from Massachusetts (he's actually from Vancouver.) South does take over with some strength holds of his own but it doesn't last. Irish Pat Barrett, ex WWWF World Tag Team Champion, comes out to encourage Quin on. South fights back and slams Quinn. Quinn gets the vein with a guillotine elbowsmash. WWF TV match basically.

Another clip from the same time period Five minutes of match. left without ending but good solid stuff regardless: The old guy is called Nils Roland. No idea who the other guy is, I'll just call him Young. I assume it's the same 2006 show as the other clips or a show from around that time by the same promotion. They slap hands in sportsmanship then exchange throws with Nils taking a bit of a bump. Young dropkicks, Manchettes, snapmares and three times huracanranas Nils before going for a kneeling shoulder press, getting only one. Nils rolls his legs back and Young hooks them for a folding press but Nils has the power to force a Bascule and get a leg nelson of his own.Cut to Young firing a dropkick and picking up his man for an unspecified folloup but Nils gets a couple kf kneelifts first. Cut to Nild snap-maring Young. He gets an arm weakener. Cut to L'Arbitre telling Nils off for something or other "It's when I say it is!". Nils kneels (geddit?) on Young and heelishly uses the rope for leverage. Nils puts a headlock on Young, drapes his neck on the middle rope, puts a knee on it and flails away. He then uses the rope to slingshot Young on to his back. This gets him an Avertisement. Young land four Manchettes, Nils rope a dopes them before falling forward on his face. Young gets a front chancery, snapmares and dropkick on Nils. He slings Nils, catches and cross presses him but Nils rolls him off. Young gets three long vertical suplexes, but Nils rolls him off again - and the clip ends. Most solid technical work with some Manchettes and some dirty thrown in. Would like to see more.

There is nothing unusual about feelings of dark rage over those who mock, abuse and bring into disrepute over something one loves - especially if the mockers happen to gain their employment from the thing one loves.That is still a long way from actually going out and doing something stupid - when some fool tried to bomb (or whatever) an AEW show in his name, he rightly denounced the guy. I'm guessing you don't actually listen to his podcasts, he does sometimes praise AEW and even current WWE matches.

Anyway, I need a replacement bout to review: I've talked about this bout, mainly Pat popping up between falls, in the past but never really reviewed it. Screened nine days after I was born. Premier Manche: Matt's clip starts in action with Leduc and Henker locking up. Henker takes control, diving Leduc into the mat (Reguliere) and into the ropes (Irreguliere) and landing a chop for good measure. About 30 seconds in, the commentator has finished parking his car and gets down to work. Hooded Remy continues the treatment with a side chancery throw into rear seated chinlock, puling up and chopping down his man before tagging Schmidt who follows suit but using manchettes instead of chops. He gets a neck crank and a knee in the back of the neck for added nastiness but soon gets bored and stands up to deliver more manchettes. Leduc fires on back and tags Corne. Jacky gets two Manchettes of his own and he and Gilbert pull a double team on Daniel that has L'Arbitre Jacques Rouxel complaining. Corne folds his man into a folding press double leg nelson but Daniel makes it a stalemate Bascule. Corne headscissor throws him (not on his head so not a toupie). Schmidt gives the good guy two Manchettes and tags Henker. He gets a top double wristlock on Corne who counters with a front face lock which Henker counters with a slam., all the while maintaining the arm. Corne start untying knows in Bayle's Cagoule then tries to take him down with a classic French style headscissor counter (still undoing knots while up in the air!) but Henker does what British wrestlers did in that situation and throws him off. And yes he's still got that arm. Rouxel does up the knots again and the fans are FURIOUS, giving him the bird like a particularly annoying car alarm. So Jacky pulls himself up and undoes the knots as Schmidt complains. He tries to pull it off in the course of a a side chancery throw but Henker lands over by Daniel who tags in looking angry but promptly ends up eating Manchettes. He fires back but Corne is ahead on points then tags Gilbert to continue the treatment until Schmidt tags Henker who gets a butt to the chest and a sunset flip double leg nelson with Daniel making the save at 2. Henker gets pressure points, absorbs a manchette, gets a standing full nelson, neutralises a drop and roll escape. takes a rear out and gets a cross buttock throw. Cornebridges up and rear snapmares his man. They enhance snapmares and Jacky misses something off the ropes (Botch?). He gets another Manchette but screws up again on whatever comes next and tags Gilbert in legit disgust. Henker tags Daniel and it becomes a Manchette contest. Corne tags in an teases a superkick but it stays quite slug and punch until Schmidt gets a side chancery throw into headlock. Henker tags and continues the Manchettes. He tries for a cross buttock but Corne turns it into a backslide for the opening tombee. A fan jumps up on the apron to congratulate Les Bons, Corne gives him a handshake before he is dragged off. Other more restrained patrons reach up for a handshake. Corne's dad Robert Legeat is at ringside and says he is impressed with Der Henker's power. Deuxieme Manche. Henker slugs Cornebwho tags Gilbert. Back to the interview with old Robert. Back to the ring, Gilbert has a top wristlock on the masked man who throws him off like Big Daddy would do. They finger Interlock then Gilbert let's go one side and backrolls to win up a Henker arm. Henker forces ha whip, somersault and bump and slaps an arm hank on top. Gilbert tries to handstand for his trademark toupie but Henker keeps kicking him over. The last time he tries, Henker just releases and tags Schmidt leaving Gilbert to topple over. Daniel twirls his finger mocking the toupie. They double finger Interlock and Gilbert drops backward, gets the crossed headscissor on an toupie throws Daniel from there, landing with the cross scissor still on. Schmidt turns Leduc into the guard and bars down the legs., but Leduc gets up on his cranium and does another toupie takedown. Schmidt tries standing again but Gilbert hammers his knee to boot Daniel in the head and tags Corne. Schmidt gets a waistlock then breaks out the manchettes: Les Mechants tie up Corne in the ropes. Schmidt pummels him until ordered off by Rouxel. Corne slams him and stomps him a few times as retaliation. Henker ties Corne up again, Gilbert comes over to intervene but gets thc same so now both Bons are hogtied. Schmidt lands a couple more blows then cannons off the ropes but Les Bons get free and Henker gets potted to ringside like a billiard ball, while Schmitt is down taking the count. Henker saunters back into the ring and takes over. He manchettes Corne down and follows with an axehandle. Corne is down at eight but Henker pulls him up and slaps him around and down, then dives in to get pressure points on him. Corne starts to rise so Henker uppercuts and axehandles him some more then tags Daniel who drags Corne up for more. Schmidt tries to side chancery throw Corne who resists so Daniel corns and pummels him and chokes him with the tag rope. Gilbert objects so Henker sneaks in fists being Rouxel's back. Henker tags in with more blows. Then Schmidt. The heels get an Avertisement but continue regardless. Henker then Schmidt are in, battering Gilbert until the announcer pronounces him Completment Groggy. Daniel snapmares him and tags Henker who finishes Corne with a face first piledriver for the equalising fall. "The English Giant" Pat Roach arrives in the ring to protest the heels tactics and challenges all French wrestlers while he's about it. Crowd started an Aux Chiottes L'Arbitre chant while THEY'RE about it. La Belle: Pat clears off. Henker gets stuck in with a snapmare and chops. Schmidt gets the odd one in from the apron. Corne fights back with Manchettes of his own, chops both Mechants and rolls off to tag Gilbert. It's a hot but not very scientific tag, Gilbert just carries on the Manchettes like everyone else. He throws Schmidt to ringside and dropkicks He Ker out to join him. Schmidt gets in and Henker on the apron but Leduc just brawls on. He tries it with an incoming Henker who floors and axehandles him then Schmidt carries it on. Rouxel is not happy, not are La Publique. Gilbert fights back with a headbutt to make Johnny Kwango proud and pummels his man in a half chinlock. Corne takes over on Schmidt but it's all still just Manchettes. Gilbert knocks Henker down to ringside and gets a double leg slingshot on Schmidt first into the ropes then back into his waiting knees. Henker barely gets back when Gilbert tags in and chops him all the way into the front row's laps as Schmidt continues the brawling in the ring. Gilbert meanwhile gets are cross buttock throw and press on Schmidt for the decider. As they cut back to the studio we last see Daniel being helped up by Les Bons, nomidea if this triggered an Afterbirth or not. Action packed brawl. What science there was too place early on. Good to see Pat on French TV, sadly he had no actual bout on the small screen over there.

In France? (apart from Demolition on that 1988 Bercy Stadium show against the Bulldogs.)

Also I think that for something to die off you need a cut out period when it stops and there was none for French Catch. The old just bled DEEP into the new - even the likes of Michel Falempin, Tony LaMotta, Angelito and Franz Van Buyten showing up on Eurosport New Catch, greyed but still going.

I wouldn't argue with the Barnum part. It's the Heavy Metal reference that stumps me. Maybe he had Cybernic Machine in mind.

Funny way to talk of Gordon/Zefy/Jacky/Ryder etc. Or indeed the Gordon /Bordes tag team. (The French original is "un barnum heavy metal" incidentally.)

When French wrestling was in its glory days By Adrien Franque January 18, 2017, 5:00am In “The World Where We Catch,” one of the chapters of his landmark work Mythologies , Roland Barthes examines the popularity of wrestling, this “excessive spectacle” that filled gymnasiums and ORTF television slots at the time. It was the semiotic exuberance of wrestling that seemed to fascinate him at the time, these “characters from the Italian Comedy who displayed in advance, in their costumes and attitudes, the future content of their roles.” The fact that Roland Barthes was interested in wrestling at the time, in 1957, is not insignificant: it was a popular form of entertainment spread throughout France, whether through television or in various performance halls, in Paris and the provinces. The 1950s and 1960s were the high point of this sporting spectacle: Roger Couderc on commentary, The White Angel, the executioner of Béthune or Roger Delaporte in the ring, wrestling was everywhere. The spectators knew that they were witnessing perfectly orchestrated fights but ignored them; the whole point was to observe the virile ballet between the robust bodies of these “Michelangelos” of the ring. This era is the golden age of wrestling, the period described by Christian-Louis Eclimont, author of novels and books on cycling and French song. In Catch – The Golden Age 1920-1975 , published by Huginn & Muninn, he looks back at the discipline that saw the birth of masked heroes and bastards that the public loved to hate, at the memory of Saturday nights watching Chéri-Bibi deliver headlines to René Ben Chemoul live from the Elysée Montmartre, at the spectacle of the “Série Noire and Audiard films” years that gave birth to future movie stars like Lino Ventura and André the Giant. Elegantly laid out and illustrated with the precious archives of collector Jean-Marie Donat , The Golden Age of Wrestling offers a pleasantly nostalgic glimpse of a bygone era when choreographed combat drew crowds. We asked Christian-Louis Eclimont a few questions to find out a little more about French wrestling in those years. VICE Sports: How did wrestling appear in France? Christian-Louis Eclimont : In the beginning, it was actually the extension of the fairground exhibition sports of the 19th century. Wrestling was born in the United States at the end of the 19th century. In the US, wrestling owes its fame in the 1920s to the Gold Dust Trio, three former wrestlers who built the circuit. It was a bit mafia-like and rigged, but that was inherent to this kind of event. In fact, since amateur wrestling didn't pay, wrestling arrived. In the 1930s, three French heroes, Henri Deglane, a former wrestler; Raoul Paoli, a mind-blowing guy with Olympic titles in several disciplines; and Charles Rigoulot, who at the time was considered "the strongest man in the world," would outline a wrestling circuit in France. If wrestling in France had to be born, it would be around the 1930s. Henri Deglane, on the ground, trying to escape a hold from Charles Rigoulot. Where did these French wrestlers come from? We see that they often have athletic backgrounds, sometimes in several disciplines. Was this always the case? From the 1930s onwards, we can say that all French wrestlers came from wrestling. Some would come from judo later. But, they were mostly wrestlers of an excellent level who did not earn their living practicing this demanding sport. So they all switched to wrestling. From 1930 onwards, all these wrestlers were accomplished athletes. We are no longer in the Apollo culture of 19th-century fairs. Was it a sporting spectacle that developed everywhere, or was it predominantly Parisian? It was necessarily national once the TV network was established. There were wrestling galas all over France until the years 1975-1980. Very quickly, we see that French wrestlers adopt well-defined characters, a bit like current wrestlers, even if there are also big names in wrestling with fairly traditional ring names... There were several waves in fact. Among wrestlers such as “Mustapha Shikhane the extraordinary Turkish champion”, “M'Boaba the formidable Congolese champion” or the butcher of Budapest, there was a certain bluff with, sometimes, the use of superlatives in their names. While on the other hand, if we think of Roger Delaporte, Walter Bordes or André Bollet, it is true that we fall back into a certain normality. But, let's say that there were several entrances into wrestling: a more totemic aspect and a more normal aspect. All of this stems from the very Manichean storyline found in wrestling: good versus evil. We're in the substance of the superhero with an extremely childish storyline but one that worked well at the time, because May '68 hadn't yet passed, and the cult of the super-strong male was still very effective. It crumbled afterward. Has this ambiguity between spectacle and sport always been present in French wrestling? Or was it seen as a sport in its own right at one time? It's always been somewhere between the two, between spectacle and sport. The sporting aspect was contained within the notion of a professional wrestling federation, but it was all very fragmented. It was a spectacle sport, inexorably. It was featured in the sports pages of Les Echos at the time, but it wasn't taken seriously as such. It's always been a sport-entertainment. As we can read in the book, France even broadcast wrestling on television before the United States, which seems absurd given the difference in popularity of the discipline between the two countries today. Yes, in terms of television, this is the only aspect where France was ahead of the United States. It was broadcast simply because it was popular; it was the fighting culture, the Clochemerle culture, the myth of the strongest man in the world. It was broadcast on TV on Wednesdays or Saturdays, sometimes twice a week. People were sensitive to this spectacle, which was full of twists and turns. The matches were extremely scripted, staged like plays. No one cared much about whether it was a sport with precise rules. Roger Delaporte had a rather wonderful saying: he called wrestling “the ignoble art.” So we can clearly see the circus element behind all this, but a circus where the athletes do the work. When did French wrestling disappear, at least in that form? In the collective imagination, the myth of the strong man who slaps everyone declined after 1968. Society had profoundly changed, and the means of entertainment were multiplying. And this wrestling, the one I talk about in the book, died out around 1975-1980. Afterwards, there was a renaissance with a heavy metal circus that interests me less. I wanted to keep, with this book, a childhood memory of that golden age, when everyone followed the matches on television.

In the meantime here is another press article. Nice scary picture of Bayle as Der Henker. https://www.vice.com/fr/article/quand-le-catch-francais-vivait-ses-heures-de-gloire/ Incidentally, I expect most of the French public didn't realise it was him either or cat least not until decades later. Was he ever officially unmasked? (I don't mean one of those ones where they lay down flat on their fronts covering their head with their arms until Monsieur L'Arbitre comes and puts le Cagoule back on them before anyone can get a good look and the crowd start up AUX CHIOTTES L'ARBITRE.)

Hold it. HOOOOLD IT!!!! We've already had this bout on here! I like the extra bit at the start with Couderc's son. Hopefully he's still out there. I guess I'll have to find something else to make up the numbers on this thread, then.