David Mantell

In case I'm giving the impression that Premier are clean matches all the way, here are a couple of their takes on the heat fueled blue-eyes Vs villains 2KO tag match. Both from 2012, both featuring old fashioned South Coast veteran good guy Barry Cooper (no relation to Sid AFAIK). The first is in ITV-grade Redhill Assembly Hall, the second in the garden of a hotel in nearby Lancing: Also for good measure, here's a battle royal from 2017. Okay they call it a Rumble but (a) there's a promotion called that (b) at least they didn't call it a ROYAl Rumble after the WWF PPV or have that event's gradual entry:

This bout I posted earlier in the thread of Flesh Gordon in his later years has a similarly big house although the venue looks more like the sort of big town theare venue All Star in the UK would go for in the C21st.

I haven't yet watched this bout through all the way but it's from 2006 and features a similar building to Mercier-Cybernic and Prince Zéfy still in his athletic prime.

I thought I'd already posted this match but it seems I hadn't (EDIT: have since found out that I did post it, but never mind) so here goes: Marc Mercier three years before relaunching FFCP, in an IWSF (the future Wrestling Stars) ring against masked heel Cybernic Machine with Jacky Richard refereeing. It's from 2003 but there's still a good big house and quite a flashy venue too, like some modern art version of a catherdral. It's actually a considerable size larger than the sort of former TV venue you get in the UK or France, more like something that would be used in Germany/Austria for an Otto Wanz CWA title defence like the Stadhalle in Bremen. Ring is very New Catch looking, still with the long cornerpads, the individual-rope blue cornerpads were not a part of it yet. Anyone know - or can spot any clues that flew over my head - why this was filmed TV or video? It looks very good quality for straight to video by 2003. Perhaps it is for the TV contract I recall Eurostars having based out of Belgium.

Had a positive review for the Wikipedia article on the French Wikipedia wrestling project page: "Thank you very much for this article. It's really great. I don't necessarily have time to translate articles anymore, but I may do so in the future." (CoffeeEngineer) https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discussion_Projet:Catch#en:Professional_wrestling_in_France

Pretty good piece here (except for making a pig's ear of their British commercial television history - ITV was the entire network, ABC merged with Redifusion to become Thames TV in 1968. ATV continued as Midlands TV region until being replaced by Central TV at the start of 1982.) It does acknowledge the rise of All Star and its survival to this day (a refreshing change from these usual "Oh it died in 1988 when it came off TV and that was the end of it" lies.)

Marc Mercier posted on the FFCP's Facebook page to say that his autobiog is out. Someone asked him if there would be an English language edition for all the many British/American/etc fans of Catch Francais - he replied "Yeah, maybe". The same Someone also posted a link to the "Professional Wrestling in France" wikipedia page Wot I Wrote. https://www.facebook.com/ffcatch/posts/pfbid02zeHzaahLKAF9oMb7yqNMzi6TDQW7TYmqs8hrzBdqTqyQ3iuvX2ugvSzbqAz4FhWnl

Just posted this October 2019 bout to the French Catch thread, at the start the MC says Match d'Equippe. Mind you recently on Rumble's YouTube the commentator said "Trios" instead of the traditional UK term Triple Tag Match:

Came across this October 2019 (just 6 months before the Pandemic) bout from WS. MC says match d'Equippe at the start rather than Catch A Quatre. See my discussion with Sir Edgar on the "Why is America always assumed to be the centre of the wrestling universe?" thread. Old school legend Prince Zefy in action- he's bulked up quite a bit since his prime but has been working out and turned it into muscle. Looks a lot like Rufus R Jones circa 1983 in Mid Atlantic. Incipient bald patch. Not so much of a high flyer as he was in the late Eighties/Nineties/Noughties Nice big venue, very echoey like a cheap indoor council swimming baths. Apparently those turnbuckle pads are serious heavy duty weapons that can knock a man unconscious. What are they loaded with? The adversarial relationship between Les Bons and Monsieur L'Arbitre was alive and well in 2019 with Zefy walloping out the ref, counting his own pinfall and then being shocked when the ref wakes up, reverses the decision and makes it a DQ win for Les Mechants (as happened in the 2022 clip I posted some time back.) Talking of refs, I think that might be Monsieur Jacky Richard himself that comes in at the end to support the official ref. Neither of them get the aux Chiottes chant.

Have discovered that my two young favourites Jordan Breaks and British Lightweight champion Nino Bryant have had a match a few months ago, albeit for a New School promotion (Purpose Wrestling) and therefore under American rules and containing some very un Trad Brit material such as closed fist punches treated as clean, a lot of atacking a grounded opponent and an extended brawl outside the ring at about the 18 minute mark. Ah well, would like to see them get it on for Rumble or Premier or All Star under full Mountevans Rules - in the meantime there's several good minutes of what these guys could do together in here.

Thought - could Satoru Sayama have gone over in America as a babyface as Sammy Lee rather than as Tiger Mask? c.f. a certain Mr S. Stain's* comments about Japanese and Mexican wrestlers not getting over in America because Americans like himself only want to see other Americans. * © Jim Cornette

Even the venue for that VDB venue looks like the same sort of place ITV would pick for a TV taping 10-15 years earlier. There was still plenty of technical wrestling in Britain on All Star shows even if the UK Undertaker and Big Red Machine were hogging the main event.* *(disclaimer - yes I know that kept people in work and kept things ticking over until the new generation of Dean Allmark, Robbie "Dynamite" Berzins, Mikey "Whiplash" Gilbert, Kid Cool, Playboy Johnny Midnight etc came through.)

What we really could have done with in the Noughties was a pan-European version of Kayfabe Memories to fully piece together the history of the different Old School scenes in Europe. I did suggest the idea on there at the time. Of course the multiple language barriers would have been a big issue and simply running a British Wrestling forum at the time meant being under siege from FWA New School fans who were programmed by Fin Martin of PowerSlam to hate all things Trad Brit - I have "happy" memories of all the trolls on 1stopwrestling.co.uk forum ...

I've found these matches on YouTube, credited to the VDB and allegedly from 1998 although given the VDB shut in 1997 and looking at the general state of Marty Jones and Danny Collins and the fact they are both getting cheered and neither are committing any real fouls I would guess 1993 as a more accurate date. It looks nothing like the CWA, if anything it looks and feels like a Joint Promotions/WOS taping from circa 1983. There's a bout I was watching between the older Achim Chall and Louise (sic!) Laurence from Hanover 1980 and young Louise reminds me of kids in England from that time like Steve Logan MK2 and John Savage. Refreshingly given the horror stories we hear of Axel Dieter demanding wins at gunpoint and Bret Hart complaining of having to job for old men, young Lou gets the win.EDITno, sadly he doesn't he has to put over bald old Chall. The picture quality is interesting, one fixed camera with a non interlaced image that looks like 16mm film rather than videotape. If it was film, I wonder if it ever got screened anywhere?

Two. Puerto Rico is limping along but still around. Done some reading up on Puerto Rican wrestling (WWC et al) - am increasingly convinced that it belongs in a separate genre - along with Mexican Lucha Libre, Brazilian Telecatch, Dominican wrestling, pre-revolutionary Cuban wrestling (did it continue under Castro?) from US/Canadian "American Wrestling"- maybe call it "Latin American Wrestling" ?

By the way, if anyone hasn't seen it there's already a very good thread about British wrestling on here which covers a lot of the specific points from the last two pages of this thread: There's also a similar thread about French wrestling:

Another thing about technical knockouts (not 10 count KOs) - it might be the mark of a sportsmanly blue-eye that they refuse such a win (even a title) leaving the match a No Contest, but it's also the mark of a dastardly heel that they not only accept such a win but CROW over it:

One thing I can't help noticiing about wrestling in Quebec and France is they seem to have a different french name for just about EVERYTHING eg tag matches are Lutte D'Equippe in Quebec and Catch-Á-Quatre in France. Even wrestling itself has different names (lutte/catch - I gather in France's case this along with the change from GR to CACC was an attempt to sidestep a tax on Lutte in the 1930s by rebranding as a different sport).

Wrestling Madness. An episode of S4C's Welsh language wrestling show Reslo with English commentary by Lee Bamber. Includes Bull Power (Vader)'s win of the vacant CWA title over Luc "Rambo" Poirier from Quebec. Also has Princess Paula doing a quasi shoot interview with British Lightweight champion Tony Stewart about his workout routine and an intro and outro by ITV boxing commentator (and cousin of Jackie Pallo) Reg Gutteridge.

By the way there was another home video I forgot to mention. Ex wrestler turned independent promoter Jackie Pallo filmed his own show at the Great Yarmouth Hippodrome (scene of Mal Kirk's death six years later) in 1981 as an audition tape in a failed attempt to get a share of ITV coverage (ITV controversially renewed Joint's exclusive contract for another 5 years.) This got put out on video to recoup costs. The main event saw Pallo and son JJ (also commentators/hosts) take on Steve Kelly and a bearded Adrian Street just before he went off to America where he trimmed it down to the muttonchops you all remember. Another bout saw Fit Finlay's wife & future manager Paula Valdez team with Blackfoot Sue, the future Miss Linda. (Finlay was also on the tape, the second earliest footage of him after he and Ian Gilmour teamed as faux-Scotsmen on French TV Aug 1980 and before his 1982 ITV debut, but this isn't on YouTube AFAIK.)

Check out the deciding fall of the Nagasaki/Quinn Vs StClair/Sands tag match I just posted.. Kendo gets Neil in the Kamikaze Crash (diving fireman's carry takedown) leaving Sands ironed out on the mat. Referee counts him out to 10 on the mat. That was called a Knock Out (as in "Two Falls, Two Submissions Or A Knockout Will Decide The Winner") and yes, it was considered a slightly more emphatic way to win than two falls/subs. Quite a lot of KOs were out of the ring but they were considered definite because the knocked out opponent was pretty much destroyed by that point. Aged 14 in 1988 I was FLABBERGASTED to learn that in America you could keep a title after falling victim to that. There was one KO artist in the WWF as I recall, the Beserker John Nord who specialized in knocking opponents to ringside for a countout after clotheslining them over the top rope. Bear in mind that because of the no follow down rule in Britain (and France back then) you couldn't simply drape yourself across your opponent for a pin. You stood back while the ref started to count your opponent down and out. Like in boxing.

Add finishes - bear in mind that a countout was called a Knockout and was actually considered a more prestigious and thorough way to win than two falls or submissions. Titles would be changed and masked men made to unmask on a knockout. In a 2/3 singles match it was two falls instantly, ditto in a one knockout tag match. In a two knockout tag match, it was one fall, the knocked out person had to retire from the match (and if under an unmask-if-lose vow would have to unmask) but their partner could contend for the remaining falls under handicap tag conditions. The same rules applied to DQs in a two knockouts match (excpet that masked men could keep their mask on a DQ- titles changed on DQs certainly) leadling to a situation like this where a tag match got cut down to a singles match after the two guys in the ring got out of hand:

It kicked in just as it was coming off TV. There was a straight to video TV taping from Croydon in 1988 which came out in '89 as The Mick McManus World Of Wrestling with McManus and Lee Bamber in place of Kent Walson (and a whole different set of camera angles from TV tapings there in the past). Then came clips of All Star ITV bouts from 1987-1988, compilations of Reslo (again with English commentary by Lee Bamber), at least one CWA tape of Otto Wanz's retirement match with Bull Power (Vader) with English commentary and quite a few Brits on the bill including Tony StClair vs Giant Haystacks. The Crabtrees did their own straight to video effort in 1992 Battle of the Brits which years later got reissued as a two volume DVD series: Also to top it off, Rumble Promotions in their original lifetime did a video in 1996 which has also been reissued on DVD. Mainly notable for James Mason's coming of age moment winning a one night tournament for the World Middleweight title left vacant by Danny Collins: *********************** This is of course quite distinct from the situation with the CWA in Germany/Austria where an intensive - and incredibly early - straight to video release programme was what they had INSTEAD of television.

As for DQs, done the right way it can be very satisfying to see the heel sent packing in disgrace on a third public warning: Current MC Laetitia Dixon-Allmark is particularly good at this - I have seen her lead All Star audiences in chants of "OUT! OUT! OUT!" at DQ'd and protesting heels.

I honestly don't find the No Contest finish a problem if it's a good bout and it gets cut short that way This still goes on in 2023 - earlier this year a Mountevans British title change was aborted on this finish: Of course, this sportsmanly finish has a long history going back over a century - see John Olin refusing the World Heavyweight title after a TKO win over Joe Stecher in 1916 (only to then lose to Ed Lewis who laid claim to the title).