French catch

[David Mantell]

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 .

[David Mantell]

On 8/12/2014 at 3:55 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

Walter Bordes/Michel Falempin vs. Jean Menard/Gerald Bouvet

This looks like it might possibly be from the 80s, which makes it their maestros match. And it's a pretty cool maestros match. It's not a technical showcase as such, but more of a maestros version of those heel vs. face tag matches from the 60s where they'd do the slingshot into the guy caught in the ropes and other crowd pleasing spots. Menard continues to look great. Really an accomplished rudo. I'd love to see something from his prime.

TV was not totally finished with Bouvet and Falempin, they would pop up again on New Catch. Meanwhile, Menard had become a Vieux Pontoufle heel in his later years. Bordes by now has had Flesh Gordon quietly dump him for a younger model.

This was shot on camcorder and uploaded by Bob Plantin. Maybe he knows the date. Wanna try asking him?My guess is late 80 The ring looks quite modern, one of the ones used for Walter and Flesh TV tags 1983-1985.

Everyone can do their old moves but with much less grace and agility than before. Most of them still have a decent cartwheel. Lots of hiptosses but no back somersaults off top wristlock s so far. Menard clearly tries one about 2/ 3of the way through . He looks like an elderly Mr Spock here. Bouvet is the one with the greying beehive.  The odd fan breaks out into Pappa Doux Mais Mais for Bordes who looks like Lou Thesz in later years. Falempin has a moustache. . . 

The video occasionally jump cuts a bit -consider it's already 26min, almost long enough for a full length TV match up to 1985.  Towards the end. Menard and Bouvet get more heelish, stomping opponents and getting an equaliser. Bouvet scores an opening pin. I can't see on who or how but it gets them a lot of heat. We don't see the equaliser but Falempin gets the decider on Bouvet with a great flying bodypress. The winners get a nice trophy, the losers get a nosy cameraman follow them back to the dressing room!  

 

 

 

 

[Phil Lions]

Guy Mercier/James Brown vs Les Gorilles (Lou/Geo Marsallon) 7/1/65

I figured I would comment along with some of the new catch matches as they're being rolled out. Various thoughts:
- This is the date INA lists the match under, but it's possible that was the tape date and not the air date.
- The Marsallon brothers, aka Les Gorilles, were all over the French scene in the 1960s, and did some work outside of France too, but they were never really featured consistently by any promotion as a top act and bounced around to different promotions. They were "Fryziuk boys" as in they came from Jean Fryziuk's wrestling school along with Dan Aubriot and some others. When Delaporte & Bollet joined forces with Fryziuk in 1962 to try and establish a new top promotion/booking office in France, the Marsallons were among the first to be part of it. Later in 1968 when Mercier, Bibi, Calderon, Saulnier, etc. formed their cooperative and started classifying wrestlers as employees (as opposed to independent contractors) the Marsallons were part of that too. In other words, they were part of two of the most significant attempts to disrupt the French catch establishment in the 1960s, albeit in a lesser role. Outside of the ring Lou (or Loulou as he was nicknamed) worked as a carpenter and specialized in making coffins while Jo/Geo worked for Air France for a long time (not sure in what capacity exactly).
- I had always wanted to see the Marsallons in action, because they sounded like an interesting team to me. They did not disappoint and lived up to their Les Gorilles moniker. Enjoyed their shtick and it felt like they weren't even working it to the fullest. Wish we had more footage of them teaming to see how they would've fared against other teams and whether they would've amped up their shtick more in other matches. Oh well.
- I enjoyed this match overall. Not great, but definitely fun to watch. It was a crowd-pleasing match with a lot of babyface shine. It was good for what it was - the babyfaces shining and the heels bumping for them. That said, I wish the Marsallons would've gotten more opportunity to be in control. I really wanted to see more of them on offense, but alas that wasn't in the cards.
- The babyface team, as expected, was excellent. Both of those guys could go, no doubt about it. Loved them tagging in and out to hit backbreakers on Lou. I really like Mercier's dropkicks, but I think I dig Brown's even more. Mercier's were more explosive while Brown's were smooth as silk. Mercier also demonstrated a few slick techniques, which I always appreciate. Brown moving to avoid Lou's headbutt and Lou almost diving through the ropes was pretty neat.
- Another thing that struck me while I was watching the match was Roger Couderc. It had been a while since I had watched a match with him on commentary and it just reminded me how great he was. You don't even need to know French to appreciate him. You can just feel the enjoyment and enthusiasm in his voice. You can just tell he's having a blast out there and that type of energy elevates the matches, especially for casual viewers I would imagine.

[David Mantell]

This may possibly be another of the new matches. It's never been reviewed on here before.

We've discussed in the past how the 1980s generation of gimmick performers - Flesh Gordon, Jessy Texas, Mambo Le Primitiv, both Marquises de Fumulo (the second of whom became the Travesti Man) may have had their roots in an early 70s clutter of bad gimmicks - La Bete Humane, Le Hippie Du Ring, Le Batman (Dave Larsen) ...

Now meet another of their number - Grelha Le Portugais. Imagine Bruiser Brody dressed in one of Big Daddy's leotards from 1975-1976 when he was still a heel. Portugal at this time along with Morocco was overspill for the dying Spanish scene of the CIC. After that collapsed, Spain itself (and possibly Portugal too)  became overspill for Spanish wrestling. If this is what the French thought the Portuguese were like, it's no wonder Portugal didn't join the EEC until 1986.

Three familiar figures in the ring. We saw Lagache recently as the nasty half of at 1977 tag team with gentlemen Mechant Albert Sanniez. We have also seen RBC and Bordes in their respective dotages. Here they are still in their primes or at least in RBC's case not in career senility. Walter Bordes gets his usual chant of Pappa Doux Mais Mais.  RBC gets a similar cheer. Both Bons are as agile as ever. Grelha doesn't fair too well against them at first apart from a good headscissors on the mst.  Grelha mostly just does kicks and stomps. Manchettes too. Apparently he used to be a footballer but got sent off too much for Lutte Ireguliere.  In a football match. natch.  A couple of minutes before the end, Grelha puts on a leglock and the commentator says it's Grehla's first hold of the match- co Monsieur L'Arbitre is constantly on his case.

The end comes when Grelha and Lagache tie up both Bons in the ropes by the F3 deck, refuse to release Les Bons and are DISQUALIFIED. This after Les Bons have done a whole load of similar moves (especially Beard pulling.)  The good guys are untrussed and celebrate their victory.

[David Mantell]

Talking of Portugal, here is some film footage (probably a film insert from a TV broadcast) of the Ringerparade at the start of a May 1980 trophy tournament in the capital Lisbon.  

Since Portugal was CIC overspill and Spain became French overspill, it is reasonable to suppose that a French promoter put the show on, so this is the correct thread just as much as the IWSF TV taping in late 90s FYR Macedonia also counts as French Wrestling.

[David Mantell]

3 hours ago, Phil Lions said:

Guy Mercier/James Brown vs Les Gorilles (Lou/Geo Marsallon) 7/1/65

I figured I would comment along with some of the new catch matches as they're being rolled out. Various thoughts:
- This is the date INA lists the match under, but it's possible that was the tape date and not the air date.
- The Marsallon brothers, aka Les Gorilles, were all over the French scene in the 1960s, and did some work outside of France too, but they were never really featured consistently by any promotion as a top act and bounced around to different promotions. They were "Fryziuk boys" as in they came from Jean Fryziuk's wrestling school along with Dan Aubriot and some others. When Delaporte & Bollet joined forces with Fryziuk in 1962 to try and establish a new top promotion/booking office in France, the Marsallons were among the first to be part of it. Later in 1968 when Mercier, Bibi, Calderon, Saulnier, etc. formed their cooperative and started classifying wrestlers as employees (as opposed to independent contractors) the Marsallons were part of that too. In other words, they were part of two of the most significant attempts to disrupt the French catch establishment in the 1960s, albeit in a lesser role. Outside of the ring Lou (or Loulou as he was nicknamed) worked as a carpenter and specialized in making coffins while Jo/Geo worked for Air France for a long time (not sure in what capacity exactly).
- I had always wanted to see the Marsallons in action, because they sounded like an interesting team to me. They did not disappoint and lived up to their Les Gorilles moniker. Enjoyed their shtick and it felt like they weren't even working it to the fullest. Wish we had more footage of them teaming to see how they would've fared against other teams and whether they would've amped up their shtick more in other matches. Oh well.
- I enjoyed this match overall. Not great, but definitely fun to watch. It was a crowd-pleasing match with a lot of babyface shine. It was good for what it was - the babyfaces shining and the heels bumping for them. That said, I wish the Marsallons would've gotten more opportunity to be in control. I really wanted to see more of them on offense, but alas that wasn't in the cards.
- The babyface team, as expected, was excellent. Both of those guys could go, no doubt about it. Loved them tagging in and out to hit backbreakers on Lou. I really like Mercier's dropkicks, but I think I dig Brown's even more. Mercier's were more explosive while Brown's were smooth as silk. Mercier also demonstrated a few slick techniques, which I always appreciate. Brown moving to avoid Lou's headbutt and Lou almost diving through the ropes was pretty neat.
- Another thing that struck me while I was watching the match was Roger Coderc. It had been a while since I had watched a match with him on commentary and it just reminded me how great he was. You don't even need to know French to appreciate him. You can just feel the enjoyment and enthusiasm in his voice. You can just tell he's having a blast out there and that type of energy elevates the matches, especially for more casual viewers I would imagine.

Good review Phil

One detail you missed was the angle at the start where Robert Duranton buttonholes Couderc and reads him the Riot Act over some slight.

Lou is a very impressive monster heel, he reminds me of the young Andre Bollet in the late 50s.

The episode of the cooperative was still making waves in recent years, you may remember it was an issue of heat between Marc Mercier's FFCP and WS head honchos Jacky Richard and Flesh Gordon.

[ohtani's jacket]

Whooa, there are new catch matches?

[Phil Lions]

5 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

Whooa, there are new catch matches?

Yes, about a dozen or so new ones. Well, not so much new ones but rather ones that had been missed in the original sweep of the archive so they're new in that sense, including a few that aired on regional TV only.
 

13 hours ago, David Mantell said:

One detail you missed was the angle at the start where Robert Duranton buttonholes Couderc and reads him the Riot Act over some slight.

Yes, Duranton was great in that bit. Promos weren't really a regular thing in French catch, but I'd imagine Duranton was one of the best at them.

[David Mantell]

On 6/5/2025 at 2:48 PM, Phil Lions said:

Promos weren't really a regular thing in French catch,

No more than on ITV until 1987 but they did do a lot of buttonholing exhausted wrestlers for comment after a match or between falls. This could range from the disappointing (Duranton being uncharacteristically philosophical about a DQ Loss) to red hot (Delaporte and Bollet on that one surviving Jan 69 colour tape threatening to beat up the commentator who confronts them about cheating to get that opening fall.)

ITV's 90s boxing show The Big Fight Live had similar post match interviews ringside.  One time, after Chris Eubank KOd Michael Watson - and put him in a coma for months - a himself somewhat punch-drunk Eubank suggested Watson should take a urine test, he was so strong. This made Eubank into an even bigger heel than ever and led to calls for post bout interviews with boxers in a possible state of diminished responsibility to be banned.

[Phil Lions]

Somehow I wasn't aware of this until very recently, but apparently there was a Robert Lageat autobiography published in 1993. Given that behind the scenes Lageat was one of the most important figures in the history of French catch, I had to check it out as soon as I found out about this book. It's pretty good if you want to learn more about Lageat and his life story and it comes across as fairly honest, but in terms of learning about catch outside of a few fun stories there isn't much new information in there. A few notes:

- The thing that probably caught my attention the most is how much Lageat, a guy who was involved in catch for over 40 years, gushes over Modesto Aledo. More so than any other wrestler mentioned in the book. "A Spanish wrestler of immense talent", "one of the most amazing wrestlers I have ever met" and "the astonishing, the phenomenal Aledo".
- He says Jacky Corn had aspirations of the going to the Olympics, but Jacky's wife got pregnant so instead Jacky turned professional because he needed the money.
- In the 1970s Lageat and Corn took over the management of the "Le Balajo" dance club in Paris and ran it for many years after that. Daniel Schmid, Remy Bayle and Jack Meurs worked for them there. One of the reasons why Corn quit the ring is because he had developed arthritis, and he was also fed up with the business.
- And finally, if you're wondering what Lageat's opinion of catch/WWF in 1993 was... well, as you might expect it wasn't positive. "Today, 1993, catch is dead in France... By going along with the public who were always demanding more, some have killed the goose that lays the golden eggs. From spectacle we have gone to farce, and from farce to nothing. Amateur wrestling, the natural reservoir of catch, no longer feeds the specialty. And for good reason! There are no more schools, no more shows, no more tournaments... From time to time, Bercy welcomes the Americans, phenomena, monstrous followers of body building, American-style physical culture enhanced by hormones... Their performance is more like a fair than real catch. Apart from the cuffs, flying arms, a few jumps, and their movies, they don't do much... Most of them haven't learned to wrestle, you don't need to be an Olympic champion to realize that. Too bad because the Americans are the strongest in freestyle wrestling... Catch should stick to a kind of professional freestyle wrestling without this clowning around... Barnum catch, not for me!"

[David Mantell]

Flesh Gordon got discussed at length on the Jim Cornette's Drive Thru edition 395.   My Wikipedia article on him got read out at length by Brian Last, I'm feeling rather pleased with myself.

Videos as soon as they are posted. Hopefully Travis Heckel wil do some photo research.  I expect we will get old bald tubby moustachioed Flesh as that is on the article but you never know we might get late 80s/early 90s Flesh with the long hair and in good shape.  I doubt we will get the young boyish Flesh from the tag team with Walter Bordes (Jim made a joke about him.)

[Matt D]

On 6/4/2025 at 8:39 PM, David Mantell said:

Another thing that struck me while I was watching the match was Roger Coderc. It had been a while since I had watched a match with him on commentary and it just reminded me how great he was. You don't even need to know French to appreciate him. You can just feel the enjoyment and enthusiasm in his voice. You can just tell he's having a blast out there and that type of energy elevates the matches, especially for more casual viewers I would imagine.

This is absolutely true. It was like being back with an old friend.

[David Mantell]

(Phil wrote that bit you quoted, not me)

I like him better than Daniel Cazal.  Unfortunately like his colleagues he does feel the need to poke for at proceedings eg calling a chair used for entering the ring "l'escalier de Service". This trend among all the commentators to make light of proceedings seems to be a gesture of solidarity with Darget after his suspension, upholding a journalistic freedom.

His rugby commentary on Swiss Radio was notorious pro France and he is similarly militantly pro Bon on Catch.

[ohtani's jacket]

Guy Mercier/James Brown vs. Les Gorilles (Lou/Geo Marsallon) 7/1/65

I thought this was decent. It was clear from the get go that Mercer and Brown were the physically stronger team and that the Marsallons would have to resort to dirty tricks to make it a level playing field. That was pretty much how it played out. They didn't take it to any great extremes, but the match didn't suffer from too many lulls. The Marsallons were more workmanlike than super charismatic, but it was fun to see another tag combo from the era. It's always eerie watching James Brown so close to the accident. 

[David Mantell]

Hypothesis:

Quite a few Spanish stars appeared on French TV - Modesto Aledo, Jose Tarres, Quasimodo, Jose Arroyo, Los Halcones De Oro,  ... Also remember that Spain's CIC regularly toured Morocco.

I wonder if ORTF was bicycling prints of Le Catch through Morocco and so they were screening these Spanish stars there? If so, before sending its stars to Morocco, CIC could send them to France to be televised and the matches kinescoped and once the kinescopes were screened in Morocco (before being mailed on to, say Tunisia and/or Algeria) the CIC could promote its top talent in Morocco as Stars Of Television.

We saw from the 1976 Zambia film on the British thread how a visiting tourload of British Wrestlers were hyped as "TV Stars" on the strength of local screenings of ITC's Wrestling From Great Britain (repackaged World Of Sport footage.).  The same principle could  be at work here.

[David Mantell]

On 6/8/2025 at 8:40 PM, David Mantell said:

Flesh Gordon got discussed at length on the Jim Cornette's Drive Thru edition 395.   My Wikipedia article on him got read out at length by Brian Last, I'm feeling rather pleased with myself.

Videos as soon as they are posted. Hopefully Travis Heckel wil do some photo research.  I expect we will get old bald tubby moustachioed Flesh as that is on the article but you never know we might get late 80s/early 90s Flesh with the long hair and in good shape.  I doubt we will get the young boyish Flesh from the tag team with Walter Bordes (Jim made a joke about him.)

Discussion is at 1:26:32.

1:26:32

well Jim I have a a couple emails here before we get to the roster want to ask about this one cuz uh

1:26:38

it made me laugh this was sent to cornydgmail.com from Brian in Wal

1:26:44

England hope you guys are well i have a three-part question for Jim in relation

1:26:51

to Flesh Gordon who had several tryyout matches

1:26:56

in the WWE back in the early 2000s did he say Flesh Gordon that's what he said

1:27:03

was Jim ever aware of this guy in WWE developmental did he spend time in OBVW

1:27:10

have you seen his dark match on Smackdown versus Sin Bodi among other

1:27:15

matches thank you do you remember a wrestler named I my first thought was he's confusing

1:27:22

flesh with Flash but then I was like did Flash Flanigan do this no no

1:27:28

and there was a Flash Gordon movie that was I think in the late 70s it was when

1:27:34

they were still shooting porn on 35 millimeter it was a big budget oh my god flash Gordon takeoff there's a there is

1:27:41

a wrestler named Flesh Gordon okay flesh Gordon i'm afraid to ask what

1:27:48

his gimmick is well Flesh Gordon who uh is a French wrestler his real name is

1:27:53

Gerard Hurvey he has been a dominant fan favorite is he a brother of Jason Hervey

1:28:02

he's he's been a Why did that get me he's been a dominant fan favorite in

1:28:07

France since the 1980s when his matches began airing on national television since the 1980s how old is this [ __ ]

1:28:14

guy he was born June of 53 he's 71 now jesus Christ did this does this guy just

1:28:21

asking if we was in OBVW or something what did he say in the early 2000s uh let me see if it says anything here

1:28:26

about WWE having practiced boxing from the age of 14 as well as

1:28:32

pancration in the 1970s he went to Mexico and discovered lucha libre he started wrestling as super

1:28:40

flesh by 1979 he returned home and made his debut on French TV wrestling

1:28:45

initially under his real name but soon adopting the flesh Gordon identity he wrestled for the

1:28:53

FFCP regularly teaming with Walter Bours with Oh well if he he's okay with

1:29:00

Walter he's okay with me with whom he held the FCP French tag team championship later in the decade he

1:29:06

would team with Prince Zephy he became a regular on Euro Sports New Catch program

1:29:12

also appearing in Wales for Welsh Channel

1:29:17

S4C's Reslo Wrestling Show and home video releases by German CWA now I know

1:29:24

them the point is if this guy was born in 1953 what [ __ ] how old was he did

1:29:30

they think he was going to be in OBVW or get a try out or be in

1:29:35

developmental or whatever the [ __ ] and he was in his 50s he became the European champion in 1988 the world light

1:29:40

heavyweight champion in '92 and then created a wrestling school in '95 the Belgian TV show Strip Tease devoted an

1:29:48

episode to him entitled Flesh Gordon and the Firemen he has been wrestling for French

1:29:54

wrestling promotion wrestling stars since its creation in 2001 and holds the position of national

1:30:01

technical director so you don't remember flesh in this

1:30:10

no I I do not remember old fleshy if I Google flesh is he is is he still

1:30:17

wrestling or is now is he's just a technical director also it says here Flesh Gordon is a 1974 American

1:30:24

superhero sex comedy which is a spoof of the Universal Pictures Flash Gordon serial films of the

1:30:30

30s all right I've not seen that smut i'll see if we can find the copy of that but uh no knowledge of Flesh Gordon what

1:30:38

do you think of the name Flesh Gordon well for a porn movie I think it's pretty [ __ ] neat for a wrestler not

1:30:45

so much I don't think because again what how would you go out and portray

1:30:52

that you'd be dressed up as a space traveler except that you're [ __ ] thrusting your dick in people's face i

1:30:58

don't know what flesh Gordon

[David Mantell]

On 6/8/2025 at 8:40 PM, David Mantell said:

Videos as soon as they are posted. Hopefully Travis Heckel wil do some photo research.

Travis has posted a comment on YouTube.  Apparently it's Brian Last who uploads the clips and decides what gets its own video

[Phil Lions]

If you have ever wanted to listen to someone speaking for two hours on the topics of French catch history, Gilbert Leduc in particular and what makes Leduc a strong candidate on the 2025 WON HOF ballot, well, you're in luck. I just did a podcast about that. Available here, on YouTube and the usual podcasting platforms.

I don't do podcasts often, if ever, but this particular topic was just too interesting for me to say no to. Plus, Ryan is an excellent host, who does his own research and comes in prepared. Definitely recommend checking out other episodes of his "The Ballot" podcast if you're into detailed WON HOF talk.

[ohtani's jacket]

Vassilios Mantopoulos/Ischa Israel vs. Billy Catanzaro/Gilbert Lemagourou, 6/19/66

Did we ever figure out how to spell Mantopoulos and Lemagourou's names correctly? That type of shit used to bother me all the time when I was writing up these reviews. 

This was the type of catch that I fell in love with. Just a bunch of tricked out matwork. You could argue that it was form over substance, but I thought they did a decent job of shaping the match for the studio audience. There was some stooging and brawling that I could have done without, but I realized that it was necessary for the spectators. It was great to see Catanzaro working some holds. Like so many others, Catanzaro was my gateway to catch back when we really only had the one match available. It's cool that he's part of this new haul, and I liked this match a lot better than the other tags he had with Lemagourou. Props to Israel, too. One of the most underrated guys in catch. I'm not as big a fan of Mantopoulos as I probably should be, but I thought having a rock solid guy like israel in his corner helped him do his stylist thing without seeming like he was off on his own island somewhere. Fun match within the confines of the setting.