French catch

[David Mantell]

By 1978 TF1 was in colour and the INA does have some TF1 bouts from that period including that Oct 15th 1977 broadcast which I've reviewed before.

Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems there was only one TF1 broadcast in 1976.  It was taped in colour presumably as a test but only aired as 819 line B&W -and the colour tape got sent to INA like that one lucky unwiped colour tape from January 1969 (Delaporte &Bollet Vs Montreal & Zarzecki) was.

 

In which case the four 1975 TF1 bouts were the very last bouts to be shot only in 819 line B&W and since the INA probably didn't have an 819 line video recorder, they didn't record those bouts. 

They probably were kinescoped and sold as 16mm b&w film like all the 1956-1974 footage we have but the INA probably didn't bother going back to the former ORTF's overseas sales department (or however it was organised after the ORTF breakup) to buy an update on the stock they had onboarded upon the INAs formation in early 1975.  Or if they did, those bout got filed separately under some funny indexing.

If the INA don't have those bouts, there are still three possibilities for finding them;

1) They are in an archive somewhere in the world gathering dust.

2) Prints got nabbed and taken home by staff either at the last station in a bicycling chain or else back home in France, and are now in the hands of some elderly film collector

3) A very rich French fan bought an 819 line machine.years earlier when the format still had a future and was still routinely taping bouts in 1975 (or else worked in the VT engineering department and was routinely knocking off their own copies of stuff like the person at ITV who made their own copy of Johnny Saint Vs Keith Martinelli that same year 1975.)

 

[Phil Lions]

24 minutes ago, David Mantell said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems there was only one TF1 broadcast in 1976.

Three:

- March 20, 1976: Kader Hassouni & Claude Roca vs. Bernard Caclard & Albert Sanniez + Mr. Montreal vs. Inca Wiracocha
- April 30, 1976: no specific matches advertised
- August 7, 1976: Bob Plantin vs. Fred Magnier + Antonio Pereira vs. Jean-Claude Bordeaux + Michel Chaisne vs. Michel Di Santo

[David Mantell]

And that last one is in colour too.  Possibly another test. Perhaps by that stage they may have advanced from just filming stuff in colour to doing test run transmissions. 

By way of comparison, here in Britain, BBC1 and ITV both went colour Saturday 15th November 1969  (the first official ITV broadcast being World of Sport. indeed including some Wrestling although not as the first item of the show) but the colour UHF signal was switched on in August and certain programmes -famously including the first 8 or so episodes of Monty Python - were simulcast on the colour frequency as tests , usually only at a few minutes notice. Some older fans report that both World of Sport and the midweek wrestling were beneficiaries of the colour testing.

Another possibility is that some of this wrestling was part of the few hours per day colour broadcasting TF1 did between September 1975 and Spring 1977 although most of this was reportedly recycled FR3 programming.

By contrast, all the 1975 bouts were before September so could only possibly have been in 819 line monochrome.  If they are ever recovered, it will be as 16mm b/w kinescopes, same as all bar one match of everything we have 1956-1974.

Incidentally, Bob Plantin's copy of the August 1976 broadcast and the late Albert Sanniez's silent copy of his 1977 bout with Angelito both look very much like colour kinescope films, which ITV was also doing by the mid/late 70s (apparently someone has a print of one of the Marty Jones-Rollerball Rocco matches that had been used on a plane as in-flight entertainment.)

[David Mantell]

On 8/10/2020 at 12:18 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

Batman vs. Klondyke BIll (aired 6/6/74)

I'm pretty sure this was the British Klondyke Bill and not the Canadian wrestler with the panties fetish that Tony Schiavone likes to talk about. What an amazing gut. That has to be one of the mightiest guts in the history of professional wrestling. And he knew how to use it too. The tiny little rake thin ref took the hugest bumps off Klondyke's gut. You'd have to be crazy to expect this to be any good, but Batman did go to the top rope to try to put the big man away. 

I reviewed the original Prince/Noced match some time back and mentioned this rematch at the end.  It gets off to a fast start. Prince gets in two armdrags, a double legdive and a neat cartwheel out of a leg throw, ducks under a Noced inner arm and lands a saus-chassé. A few seconds breather and they double interlock then Prince drops to one half and cartwheels to twist the arm, rolls horizontally across Noced's back and armdrags him. Noced gets dirty - as I said in my review he is Savage to Prince's Steamboat in the same white long tights as WM3. The two plus L'Arbitre Charley Bollet stop to have a good point and shout at each other then Noced gets a snapmare, a throw which Prince rolls up from then a second which he cartwheels out of, a Manchette across th3 back and a leg spin which Prince again cartwheels out of. He ducks a Prince Manchette but then falls for a Prince folding press attempt into trow out of the ring .  Charley asks Prince if he HAD to do that. Noced is threatening to exit the room, Charley intermittently counts and holds LPP back.  It's the audience who bring Noced back - sick of their giving him th3 bird, here turns to chide them, especially the commentator.  Finally deciding that there is only one honourable way out, Noced returns to the ring (getting a first Avertisement on the way in) where Dubail intercepts him.. Daniel throws Daniel (sorry) back into the ring over the top rope   LPP gets an armlock, spins to twist it, goes behind and takes Noced down with a flying armscissor . Noced rolls himself over on top and with Prince as a human glove, throws his man out, but Prince's bodyweight, such as it is, is enough to drag Noced over the ropes with him.  They land on the ring apron and duffle in with Prince still holding the armscissors from earlier.  Prince slaps his man's limb, Noced grabs his man's hair.  Four times Prince rolls Noced in the hold.  Noced stands but still had a human glove on his hand. He lifts and places Prince on the ropes - then rains illegal punches on him, pulls him down and stomps him repeatedly on the deck (just as the commentator tells us Noced's old Mum is in the audience - I only hope her son smartened her up beforehand! Bollet forces Noced back and starts a count on Prince.  Dubail is up at 4 when Noced back hammerlocks him down and smashes his head in the canvas repeatedly..  Noced apparently gets a Second And Final  Avertisement - the MC mentions disqualification but none is applied just yet.  Noced puts Prince's arm in the hammerlock position then throws him so he lands bent arm first. He stomps the Prince out of the ring and Manchettes him back down as he is about to get back in (a second catches him and helps him upright.) and aims a kick at him from inside the ring. Bollet starts a count which reaches six when Noced goes to knock Prince down but Dubail drags him out side by the leg to join him.  The two trade forearms at ringside then Prince rolls himself back in with Noced following.  Prince butts Noced in the stomach then takes a side chancery but dodged being jumped upon and crawls away, gets up and  dropkicks Noced in the back.  Angry and fire up by the crowd, he picks up Noced and floors him in the corner with two Manchettes, flips off his shoulders and  flying stomach butts him. Prince gets a headlock then ducks down and comes up in front with a hiptoss and a spin on Noced's nose.  He gets another headlock and lands one blow on Noced's skull and lets him drop.  He gets another headlock and - as Noced grabs for the hair - smacks him in the stomach with the heel of the hand.  He gets a side chancery but Noced uses an actual illegal punch and Prince rolls away outside.  Noced tries to keep Dubail out but he flying tackles Noced from outside and gets a 2 count.  No ed backdrops him but is caught by a ground dropkick. Prince then handstand splashes him for a pin.  He offers Noced a handshake but Noced tells him where to go!  Prince puts on his spectacles and leaves the ring, stopping by for a brief peck on the cheek with a female fan who had been injured during the match. (He is married with 2 kids, the commentator told us at the start, so no hanky panky!).  I'm not quite clear if it was her, but some woman gets in the ring and is introduced to the crowd. 

Meanwhile the next two wrestlers make their entrance.  Batman looking like any normal balding caped crusader who'd lost his mask and a 30 stone bearded monster. Klondyke Bill, the senior of the two Klondyke Brothers, never made it onto ITV unlike Klondyke Jake although the brothers did make it onto that BBC2 documentary later used as stock footage in an episode of Til Death Us Do Part where Alf Garnett was watching wrestling on TV, to avoid paying any rights money for ITV footage. He did turn up at the end of Prince and Noced's previous singles match a year earlier to congratulate le Prince.  I doubt Dubail wanted any more of his friendship after what follows.

If you look at Bill and think Giant Haystacks, you're not far off. The real Martin Ruane was working for Brian Dixon at this point and after moving to Joint would make his ITV debut 13 months later tagging with Big Daddy to disqualification against Roy and Tony StClair. Big Bill meanwhile, despite his similar gimmick, only ever gets this one complete bout on TV anywhere in the world, against a fellow Brit dressed for closing time at a Halloween disco. He is Canadian just like Haystacks was American in Austria 1986. Shapewise he is the size of Haystacks in WCW 1996, mercifully Martin unlike Bill here did not wrestle topless. 

Bill works like later period Haystacks - slow and dirty. He bodychecks his man like Big .Daddy.   He uses pressure points (a puff of cigarette smoke hilariously passes by Batman's behind like he's just done a Batfart.) He no sells butts and elbows. He can be leapt over to obtain superiority in a top wristlock battle but brushed his Batman off like Big Daddy does to Kendo 17 months later in Solihull. He abused refs like Stax do, throwing poor Charley out of the way and getting an Avertisement. Bat gets an armbar on but Bill uses the bounce of the ropes to shrug him off.  He tries again, same counter. Finally he opts for high kicks/knees to the head and chest, flooring Bill on the seventh. Angry, the big man slaps on a rear chinlock - his first scientific move of this bout. After a couple of minutes, Bat hiptosses Bill off!  Angry, Bill ragdolls Bat a fair amount then posts him. Bat respond with a Bat Saus Chassé leaving Bill tied in the ropes like the last days of Andre.  Despite Charley's pleas as he works to untie the giant, Bat hits Bill with a flying tackle. Bill bearhugs Bat and delivers that most British of fouls, the concealed illegal punch to the lower stomach, shrugging off Charley's admonitions.  Another dodgy lunch gets an 8 count then applies his second scientific move, a standing single toehold  Bat tries to break the hold a few times with his other leg but it is swept away; finally he uses it to widen Bill's legs and cause him to fall backwards, then gets a toehold of his own. Charley refuses Bill's rope break attempts and even gives him the odd 1 count and helps Bat drag his man to the centre of the ring.  Bat applies weakeners but Bill backcrawls back to the ropes and grabs with both arms and this time Charley reckons he's earned his rope break! Limping, the big man gets a rear waistlock into chinlock into H&S into side headlock.  Twice  Bat straightens it into a top wristlock but Bill reels him in, using the hair (such as Larsen had) the second time. Bill eventually bodychecks Bat and sits on his shoulders like he was going for a Victory roll. He bounces in the hold. Somehow Bat escapes and boots Bill in the behind causing him to fall forward.  Bill gets pressure points but Bat drops him neck first on the top rope from outside. Bill gets a chinlock into rear chancery, shoving Charley away as he checks for air supply, before finishing Bat with a bodycheck.  He twice gets waistlocks into concealed illegal punches.  Bat hiptosses Bill by the beard out of the ring  He pulls him back in over the top rope and posts him but Bill catches him in the corner and bodychecks him against the turnbuckles. Bill posts and splashes and posts Bat who then dodges a splash and flying bodypresses  Bill for 2.  Bill does something between Hulking Up and a Tugboat impersonation 16 years ahead of time then resumes squashing Bat in a corner.  Bollet tries to intervene but is thrown off and finally splashed Bat goes to help Bollet but Bill throws him off but then misses a splash.  This earns Bill a DQ. He gripes a promo about it but Bolet says Bat A Battu Bill.

Prince Vs Noced  was less than half the length but I found about twice as much to write about it. A case of from the sublime to the ridiculous. Haystacks - at least the young 29 year-old Haystacks of 1976 - deserves an apology. (Plus that's two bouts so I'll have to do another British and German bout each to make up numbers).