French catch

[David Mantell]

On 6/10/2026 at 7:03 PM, Phil Lions said:

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David Mantell said:

So anyway, the two knockouts finish.  I'm on holiday in Jerusalem in Israel and I had a think about this in the Inbal Hotel Pool today.

I'm guessing the French rules had some American influence (see also no rounds). Two straight count outs in an American best of three falls would be unremarkable except they would not change a title on that (In America knockout moves are validated with a pin instead of a standing 10 count as followdowns are legal in America but banned in traditional European wrestling).

There's no need to guess about that. The French rules were definitely based on the American rules. That was the intention from the very start. They did have some slight differences initially though, for example being able to win the match on points (if there was no winner within the time limit), but that was eventually dropped (I wanna say at some point in the mid 1950s but I'd have to doublecheck).

FFL, the major governing body for wrestling (amateur and pro) in France at the time, actually officially changed the format of the French catch matches to 5-minute rounds in September 1952, but there was a lot of pushback and the decision was quickly reversed.

They definitely had three public warnings (Avertisements), seconds in each corner,  no follow downs, knockouts being a big deal like in Britain, 10 counts given the same cadence as pinfall counts etc. It was a sort of hybrid system, like All Star and Rumble in Britain for most of their bouts in the C21st.

In IWSF in the Noughties, the number of Avertisements appears to have been raised to five along with the prohibition on cheerleading ("exiter la publique '). I believe the kayfabe explanation was that it was a bunch of Méchant-friendly measures introduced by evil commissioner Monsieur Jacky Richard. (presumably Marc Mercier kept the older rules for his revived FFCP).

Talking about DQs, does all this mean that if you were 0-0 or leading 1-0 and you got a third Avertisement and Disqualifié, instead of being sent back to the locker room in disgrace as The Loser, you just conceded a fall and had your Avertisement counter reset to zero for the new Manche? 

[David Mantell]

HOLIDAY SPECIAL 

Okay for the third and final Holiday Special, I'm going to go through all the bits of FR3's La Dernière Manchette on @Matt D's channel. Snag: I've done one or two bits already in the past so I'll paste in quotes when we get to those bits.

First video.

We get the nice jazzy theme, an intro and two rather older wrestlers (one of whom I think is Marcel Montreal but I wouldn't swear to it) squaring off in the ring, including a rather nifty rear snapmare. Pan away to the crowd and presenter who is supposed to look 1950s but looks more like one of  the Specials if the 2 Tone movement wore blue/white instead of black/White.  He's got a sidekick in a ghastly Hawaiian shirt.  There's a couple sat behind them, a blonde lady and her husband with a big moustache who looks a lot like Popov Le Gitane.  

René Ben Chemouel & Gilbert Cesca Vs Christmas Bibi & "Jules" Bernaert.

At least the presenter Michel says it's Jules, the only Bernaert family member I know of who wrestled was Pierre.  Couderc is commenting, perhaps he will give us clues.  Bibi does his ex convict gimmick.  It sure was heck looks like Pierre B. Les Méchants use fouls, Les Bons wrestle clean but aren't in with the right opponents .for a scientific match. Which is frustrating when you remember of these bons is the great RBC.  Bibi reminds me of Ian Muir back home in Britain.  Big bald Superheavyweight. He gets the first fall on René with a running powerslam.  RBC slingshot Bernaert into a rope tied Bernaert and Couderc is in hysterics.  Cesca gets a front folding press on Bernaert for the equaliser.  La Belle goes to RBC over Cesca with a victory roll.  Look out for a shot of a younger dark haired Couderc at the end.

The sort of face Vs heel match that Americans prefer over technical matches.  Back in the studio the two wrestlers are still at it in the ring  and the presenters are joined bythe other Roger, Delaporte, in a checked sports jacket apparently bought from the same boutique as frequented by Harley Race in the early 90s.

The guy in the Hawaiian shirt tries to Manchette the two wrestlers but has nomjoy until he changes into wrestling gear and a long yellow cape.  We get some old newsreel footage of various sporting attractions other than wrestling (apart from some sumo).  We cut back to the studio, the wrestlers do their thing (nice scissor chop) in front of a rowdy but strangely silent crowd while Hawaiian Shirt Man interviews Delaporte.

Linda Blair Vs Nicki Mc Donald

OJ wrote:

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Linda Blair vs. Nicky McDonald (aired 7/21/84)

These were a couple of British girls. I think Nicky McDonald may have been Nicky Monroe. If I'm not mistaken this was the first time women's wrestling had been shown on TV. It was pretty basic but better than piranhas and primitives. But it was another of those matches that kept cutting to a fake studio interview with Delaporte, and that bald-headed guy with the moustache arguing with his girlfriend at ringside. I think we saw him before in the Franz van Buyten vs. Bob UFO match from the same show. 

Not sure about Lena, I do  recall Leather Lena and I think an actual Linda Blair.  McDonald is of course Naughy Nicky Monroe aka Mrs Nicole South, wife of Jonny South. You'll have seen her on Reslo, on the Raging Belles BBC2 documentary or on Facebook getting into arguments with people.   Blair is wearing some spiked gloves which lead to a big argument with L'Arbitre Didier Gapp until he makes her take them off. Nicki wears the same red leotard as on Reslo.  Unlike the tag, they managed to have a heel Vs blue eye (hey they're Brits) match with plenty of scientific wrestling throwing between the fouls. Does that make Blair a "Wrestling Heel". Wel whatever.  Nicki was mostly playing the heel on Reslo at this time, even tagging with Klondyke Kate on Reslo.  So it's a bit funny to see her as La Bonne here. Nicki shows she can wrestle dirty too, pulling Blair up by the hair.  Blair nearly walks out after one argument with Didi but he is counting and she finally remembers OJ is watching and so they can't have that finish.  An outside the ring brawl sees Nicki smash  Linda's head into the ring apron and get an Advertisement. She gets another for tying Blair up in the ropes (Blair already has two so it's sudden death for Avertisements.  A good section about countering backdrops with sunset flips into double leg nelson pin attempts. Blair gets the win with a double knee press. Afterwards the two brawl and Linda hits Nicki with a stool.  She stays the winner.

Michel has changed into a light blue suit. bow tie and hat. He chats to Hawaiian shirt man behind Delaporte's back.  Montreal if it's him wins the studio match,  Jazzy theme.

Bob Dellassera Vs Franz Van Buyten (Piratenkampf.)

We've seen enough of these on the German thread plus on the British thread from Reslo to know the limitations of a Piratenkampf.  So let's not raise our expectations .

Both guys sport magnificent moustaches. So does assistant Arbitre Delaporte We get a shot of the "bell" which looks like a brass sculpture of a turd hanging on a chain. They actually do some holds early on including a headscissors counter to headlock, guard armlocks and finger interlocks on the mat. Little real chains or chain wrestling action.    Plenty of static form hold like the guard armlock.  The chain spots are in the last couple of minutes, both men pull each other off near flag collections.  FYB in the end gets the flag before Bob can pull him down. 

Marginally better than expectation, some actual wrestling (albeit of the ponderous pre Steve Wright German variety) rather than just a chain tug of war.

Brigitte Boone Vs Leo Dewerdt

Previously reviewed on here:

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Segunda Caida wrote:

MD: A swimming pool match where no one actually ends up in the water. This was actually more of a river match or a lake match. It's probably identifiable but there was a train going by at times which added to the ambiance. I got so many annoying comments begging for more such matches the last time I put a Borne match as public that I don't think I'll do that here. You guys can see it because you check the blog. This was clipped. They call a twenty minute mark at the 10:43 point, give or take, but you do get enough of this to make sense of it. They cut in to the studio and Delaporte commenting to cover the breaks. 

And hey, it's pretty good for what we get. They wrestle for the first ten minutes or so, do one spot where they tease the ref going over (a pretty smooth one actually where Borne navigates Dewerdt to be tied up in the ropes quite well), and then move in to more wrestling, a short beatdown, and the finish. De Werdt was Belgian apparently, mother of three, and a bit of a bruiser. Borne did quite a bit well, including how she engaged the crowd. She was excellent at that. There was a nice rolling armscissors in here.

There was also a spot I'm not going to clip where Dewerdt had her legs split, did a headbutt to her butt, and then tried it again and got caught in headscissors. Some things can stay in 1984 maybe? They cut to Delaporte to talk about it because of course they did. I imagine this was part of a broader card where people did end up in the drink, but this was a little anticlimactic without that I suppose?  

SR: The prayers have been answered - it's another Brigitte Borne match. Oh, and it's a swimming pool match, of course. And it seems to be part of Le Dernier Manchette, so they are interviewing Roger Delaporte, pretending to watch the match at a studio even though this was clearly filmed outdoors. As far as the match goes, it was good. Definitely proved their salt once again. They mostly worked holds. Tight simple stuff, with a few cool escapes and moments. I thought the match would end early when Borne already went for the body checks in the ropes at the 9 minute mark, but they went back and wrestled a bit more. A very young Didier Gapp was the referee here (later the referee at EWP in Hannover) and he was great at teasing himself being thrown over the ropes and landing in the water. Leo Dewerdt was billed as the champion of Belgium. She did some heel stuff like going for the eyes and not too much. Nothing outstanding from her but solid wrestling skill was displayed here. It's not a revelation like the other Brigitte Borne match we saw but it's a fun time and I'm glad I watched it. 

Not just any old swimming pool either. It's the very same pool where the Mercier Brothers faced Albert Sanniez and Mario Petrolini. With the same evening commuter train passing by in the background.  If you recall the missus of the arguing ringside couple got thrown in the pool, nice red dress and all, so if neither female wrestler took an aqua bump here, it's nothing to do with the kind of politically correct chivalry-in-slapstick that gave us the one sided pie throwing games on Game for a Laugh that I mentioned on the British thread review of Simon Hurst Vs Ray Robinson recently. Or that bit in the AWA WrestleRock Rumble video where Da Laydeez push Scott Hall and Curt Hennig in a pool and have a  giggle.  Otherwise we might see both wrestlers here pitch the poor old ref in the drink and disappear of into the night together as girly mates for life.

And speaking of Monsieur L'Arbitre - So that's Didier Gapp with hair.  The same Didier Gapp who tried his damnedest to upstage a bunch of British (and one honorary Brit Owen) at the Heumarkt in the early 90s.  The same Didier Gapp whose whole miserable petty official persona actually made him a comedy cult hero among 90s CWA fandom and, as SR mentions, continued being a fixture of old school German/Austrian wrestling into the 21st Century with the EWP.  

I like the cool video fault at the start by the way.  Very David Bowie Ashes to Ashes video.

Oh and that IS a swimming pool, it just seems to be next door to a harbour.  This could get messy on a bad weather day with chlorine ending up in the sea and mucky sea water ending up in the pool.

Leo is pretty roughhouse with the bodychecks and high whips at the start. Gapp stops Borne booting Leo off, or was she going for a headscissors? Leo easily breaks Borne's bridge with a good old elbow to the stomach. She armdrags Borne back down when the latter gets up to sling her in the ropes and again in response to a hiptoss, but Borne finally gets that headscissors (see I was right!) Leo loses the arm and takes forever to snap out and kip up only to be scissored back down several times.  She tries the roll out escape but Brigitte tickles her (!) to make her lose balance. Finally she concertinas Borne's legs to bend them open and ends up with double legs but Borne is twisting back and forth to get out. She does get pin counted to 2 a couple of times but in the end flips Leo off. Some lecherous cameraman has climbed onto some nearby scaffolding and we get his longshots of back and forth armdrags and armbands and throws before cutting to the presenter and Delaporte eager for someone to fall in.  Brigitte pulls Leo off the ropes and applies a single toehold which she improves to a Gotch toehold. She turns Leo over and Manchettes her in the back when Leo sits up to attempt a counter. Leo uses a manchette of her own to get out and proceeds to an argument with Didi over it. Leo gets a bearhug which Borne escapes by bashing her sides, then manchettes her down. Leo gets the bearhug back then rope a dopes Borne to try get a better grip but Brigitte boots her down and splashes her (not in La Piscine sense.) but Leo does get a bodyscissors. Brigitte does get the odd 2 count out of it as does Leo with the help of a couple of illegal throttles. Borne, fighting fire with fire, pulls her up by the hair and Manchettes her off, Leo side chancery throws and chinlocks her. Brigitte elbows her in the stomach to break it, but Leo is back with the side Chancery throw to chinlock soon enough. Brigitte uses the same elbow escape then totally loses her cool, stomping Leo.  When Didi tries to interfere she nearly throws both of them in the water and get an Avertisement for her pains. Chastened, she opts for a lot of snapmares and the odd lariat before getting Leo on the top rope, tying her up and charging her.  Didi again narrowly avoids a soaking - he could show Modesto "Kamikaze" Aledo or even Ricky Steamboat a few tricks slingshotting himself back in the ring) and give Borne her Deuxieme Et Derniere Avertisement. He manages to eventually free Dewerdt (as the driver of a passing train honks his horn in appreciation - was he a Catch fan? We'll never know.) Leo plays possum on the canvas but it's a ploy to legdive and legspread Borne. As @Matt D mentioned she did the butts (to the stomach not the crotch) and upgraded the legspread to a standing toe and ankle legspread combo. She pulls Borne away and gets the headbutt in to the behind but Borne pushes up and gets into a pre victory roll position -not quite a headscissors.  (I'm not sure what Matt's issue with this is, it all seems clean enough stuff the guys could do without attracting comment.)  Leo gets up and Brigitte indeed does the victory roll. getting a few armstretch press pins for 1 out of it and even Leo getting 2 with a folding press attempt. Leo eventually gets rear double arms - if she had a surfboard in mind it doesn't come off as Brigitte somersaults out, catches Leo with a couple of ground position dropkicks and dodges a Big Splash. She gets a hammerlock , throws Brigitte into the ropes, trips her neatly and might have got a folding press only Borne rolls out of the way, nearly into the water. She tries the same hammerlock/ropes/trip sequence but Borne sidesteps and boots her in the behind.  Borne gets a waistlock, atomic drop and seated rear bodyscissors. She then lifts and dumps Leo a few times, the old Ah Ouais spot although the crowd don't chant it.  Leo tries unlocking the feet and leaning back for a pin attempt; neither succeed.  Leo turns in the hold to face Borne, possibly trying for a pin, in the end getting a back weakener and the chopping Borne down off the ropes.  She boots and Manchettes Borne down, slams her, hair drags her twice and gets in another few Manchettes.  More side chancery throws until Borne surprises her with a folding press from behind for the one fall required. Nice happy pop from the crowd.

Quite a slow methodical bout, very like German/Austrian Catch before Steve Wright revolutionised their style.  Although to be fair a lot of the space it the bout is used wisely for crowd working and psychology, this being very much a La Bonne Vs La Méchante match.

The tag match in question is next up.

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 I particularly liked the outdoor pool for the Mercier brothers Vs Albert Sanniez/Mario Petrolini from La Derniere Manchette 1984 with the sun setting in the background, very picturesque. 

Oh.  I could have sworn I did a proper review of this one time.  Never mind:

The Mercier brothers, Marc and aTBW Pierre are fantastIC young wrestlers who remind me a lot of the Bryant brothers in 2020s Rumble Promotions.  Sanniez is in fine form as France's answer to horrid little man Jimmy Breaks.  Everyone takes a water bump including referee Didier Gapp plus the blonde girlfriend of moustache man, soaked in a red mini party frock, to the delight of the poolside audience, while trying to fish Didi our of the water. If you've not prejudiced against Catch Á L'Eau, it's a great faced paced Catch Á Quatre.

We see the same finish for the two studio wrestlers and an end title sequence with all the retro costumed audience leaving including one guy in 50s American GI gear looking like Bryan Ferry circa 1975. And rol the credits which include "Jean Pierre POUZADE" - see I was right, that IS Popov Le Gitane as the boyfriend. 

But before that we get some build up for next week's episode, the two matches on this next video:

 

Roger Delaporte Vs L'Homme Masqué.

"It's not often you get the crowd going for McManus and Logan but today is the exception - they want that mask off!"  Thus spake Kent Walton at the Royal Albert Hall 1976, commenting on the South London Hard Men Vs Kendo Nagasaki and George .Gillette having a match.  

The same applies here, heel Vs masked heel, crowd gets behind non masked heel.But not before we meet hat wearing Michel again plus a lady in a green jacket who discuss holds.  

Sneakiness Vs Brute Force. Delaporte has fun shuffling away from HM's charges but when he charges the masked man he bounces off HARD. Delaporte tries a belly to belly suplex but can't get the lift.  A leg-dive similarly fails.  The masked man stays in control with top wristlocks on the mat.  He ultimately wins with a sleeper hold.  Delaporte survived as he is in the studio chatting to Green Jacket Lady.  He ultimately takes her into the ring an teaches her to apply a headlock to o one of the two wrestlers (after himself giving the poor stooge a snapmare into headlock himself.)

Some more newsreel footage of dubious relevance.And then ...

Linda Blair & "Magnifique" Manetry Gowart Vs Nicky McDonald & Brigitte Borne

Previously reviewed on here:

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OJ wrote:

Linda Blair & Magnifico (?) vs. Nicky McDonald & Brigitte Borne (aired 8/25/84)

This was okay. At least they treated women's wrestling seriously. I'm pretty sure that Linda Blair is the British wrestler, Lena Blair. I couldn't make out her partner's name, but it sounded like they were calling her "Magnifico." Borne was a French wrestler who was prominent in the 70s along with a number of other women. Actually, it looks like we have one of her 70s matches against Lola Garcia. 

Actually Matt D has them labelled the other way round. Blair and McDonald Vs Borne and Magnifique Manetry Gowart. However I've checked and the short haired girl is indeed Brigitte, she was on TV in 1978 against Lola Garcia.

Nicki MacDonald should be a familiar face for readers of the British thread - Naughty Nicky Monroe, dubbed a "Soho Sex Kitten" by Orig Williams in the middle of a Reslo Welsh language commentary, former heel tag partner of Klondyke Kate, they wrestled Mitzi in her 1987 Royal Albert Hall retirement bout before Nicky turned blue-eye on Kate and ended up facing her for Mitzi's vacated British title on BBC2's Raging Belles docu (where we saw her other life caring for the elderly) only to be injured by the victorious Kate and put out of wrestling for a couple of years to win the title. Reslo stayed around long enough to catch her reconciling with Kate and reforming their heel team in 1995 but Nicky truly found her calling in life as Mrs Nichole South, wife of Johnny South and hardened keyboard warrior keen to stick her claws into anybody with a bad word about her husband and his Legend of Doom gimmick or else coming to Kendo Nagasaki's defence when the old boys are bitching about him on Facebook.

...

The two Blonde women have a bad biker babe thing going on in UK Rockers/Bloussons Noirs/early Road Warriors peaked cap. There is a hint of Leilani Kai and Judy Martin's heel WWF Glamour Girls tag team. The two biker blondes have a power advantage over their opponents, short haired minidresses Blair looks like a little girl doing ballet. Nicki certainly knows her British style escapes and kip -ups as well as attacking moves including a nice Frank Gotch figure four leglock. Les Bomnes get an easy first fall

The Bad Blondes restate their dominance early on with front chanceries and side headlocks on Brigitte til she escapes, converting a side headlock into a hammerlock. The bad girls get a public warning but soon get an equalising pinfall. They continue the work on both Bonnes and eventually get the decider. The actor playing the beardy spectator gets so wound up he has to be restrained but he female celeb pundit is quite impressed with her first Ladies Wrestling match.

 

Final video:

 

 

Paul Villars Vs L'Ange Blanc

This is a return match after Ange handed Villars his first defeat. The show starts with a promo where the interviewer asks if Villars is scared of Ange? Paul quietly replies to the effect of no, he's not scared, he's trained and ready for any challenge. (An American heel would have lamped the interviewer for a question like that!)

Disappointingly, Ange does not wear his long cape on camera, we join the action just at the opening bell.  Villars is you stereotypical French thug with a moustache.  It's scientific but with Le Bon ahead of Le Méchant.  Ange uses the flying headscissor takedown as counter to armbar. Very French for a Spaniard.  Plenty of good interesting matwork.  No serious fouls from Villars that I've noticed.  So far this would have made a  great blow by blow.  Ange does a crossed legscissor throw.  He also does the low range seated Piledriver that some people get excited over during Bock- Inoki in 1978 "he's killing him! It's a shoot etc)". Inevitably Villars breaks out the Manchettes, illegal closed fists. and the stomps on fallen Ange.  In response, Ange starts dropkicks.  Finish of la première manche comes when Ange gets a front chancery into inverted front facing, waistlock into front folding press.   One up to the masked man. La Deuxième starts with a long headlock from Villars, possibly an unmaskîng attempt.  Ange botches a flying tackle, falling short of Villars but makes the pin cover regardless with a crosspress, but Villars keeps getting one shoulder up.  Plus his temper is up and he front chanceries Ange, delivering illegal kidney punch after illegal kidney punch until L'Arbitre gives his un Avertisement. It's more of a brawl by now.  Ange give Villars heel of hand punches to the nose which amuse Roger Couderc and keep Villars down for a good length of a knockout count. He puts Villars out with pressure points and scores a KNOCKOUT. Oh yes.,  Ange revives Villars after the match and puts his cape on.  Villars want to go on but it's 2-0 to Ange.

Back in the studio Poujade/Popov breaks character and demonstrates the pressure points move on Hawaiian Shirt Man and Delaporte waxes nostalgic about Ange's debut in Paris. We get another newsreel bit.  All sorts of sports, no wrestling other than a boxer becoming a wrestler but we don't see him wrestling. Some folk wrestling from Africa.

John Harris & Bob Dellassera Vs Franz Van Buyten & Marcel Montreal.

I've got a feeling I reviewed this before during the FYB Deep Dive but some time back can't find it.
Harris is billed as a Canadian and is a fair but younger looking than British Judd Harris.  So not him.  Bob Dellassera was Canadian also so it's Canada versus France and Belgium.  This is about the oldest professionally shot footage of Marcel Montreal we've got (excluding camcordings from the mid/late 80s.  All four are heavyweights and it's very much a heavyweight sort of match to begin with,  scientific but built for power not speed. Canadians get heat when they double team FYB on the ropes.  Montreal gets the hot tag and slugs away like Wayne Bridges, ends up going OTT and getting an Avertisement, the Canadians get one also (so is this one DQ or two DQs?) Dellassera gets a slam and crosspress on Montreal for the first fall. Cut to more ruminations of Delaporte. Marcel is ready to slug and lands plenty of Manchettes sending Bob to ringside.  Popov/Pouzade, blonde Mrs Popov/Pouzade and some fans have a ringside brawl just as Montreal nearly gets a fall or two with a flying tackle.. Harris gets a second straight, a submission with an over the knee backbreaker.  Even more crowd riot. Pouzade  ( the announcer calls him that so I suppose we can conclude that c'est lui) gets bopped by Blonde Mrs Pouzade with her bag.  

Overall the INA's collection of La Dernière Manchette is a pretty mixed bag from a show which could never quite make up it's mind if it was celebrating or mocking Le Catch.  The ,arches are at least average to good but you have to sit through all the frills like the comedy with the crowd, the non wrestling celebrity analysts and the almost totally irrelevant newsreels. FR3 had started broadcasting local matches in 1982 and this apparently was its first shot at broadcasting le Catch nationally.  By 1985 some of the last A2 broadcasts will have FR3 production credits (were they repeats of local broadcasts?)  and FR3 would keep the flag flying until November 1987 before the baton was passed to Minuit Sport on TF1 and FR3 got a brief one bout encore in Feb 1991.

Okay.that's the last of the Holiday specials. I fly back Monday afternoon and the weekend after I go back to my regular schedule of one bout per week for this thread, the British thread and the German thread.

[David Mantell]

On 2/15/2020 at 12:59 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

The broadcasts are all archived as “Catch.” Ocassionally, the title includes the broadcast date or venue. The TV guide listings I’ve seen from the era list the show as Catch. Interestingly, they seem to give the TV director a credit. . 

TVTimes did that too for ITV broadcasts.  And they were on the end credits for the late period standalone Wrestling, the midweek wrestling and if you sat around for 30-45min after the wrestling slot had finished, the end credits of World of Sport

Getting back to France, commentators were giving Jean Pradinas a name check as far back as the mid 60s. Twenty years later he was the main maestro of directing Catch on A2.  The last credit we have for him was March 1987 on FR3 (the broadcast with the trumpet player.)