French catch

[ohtani's jacket]

The promotion names is something that's always confused me. My understanding is that the promotion names weren't that important and that most people referred to the promoter or the venue rather than the promotion. The promotion names were all so similar that I've mostly forgotten which was which. 

James Brown & Ray Apollon vs. Jack de Lasartesse & Hans Hess (aired 2/11/66)

This was a few months before James Brown's tragic death. It wasn't really anything remotely like French Catch. It was more of a beatdown, but if you're gonna have a match where the heels beat down the faces then there are few better at the delivering a beating than Lasartesse. I believe Hess was the same guy who worked in the UK as the "King of the Vikings", Leif Rasmussen. He was an Austrian wrestler, and pretty fun. But really this is about Lasartesse beating on Brown, who did a pretty solid job of taking a beating and working from underneath. Again, not really Catch, but solid enough. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Guy Mercier/Claude Montourcy vs. Chati Yokouchi/Kiyomigawa (aired 2/20/66)

This was like watching paint dry. They keep having these guys on TV who aren't true catcheurs. Surely, there was something better they could have shown us than this. Mercier and Montourcy were decent workers, but Kiyomigawa and Yokouchi were part of that first generation of Japanese wrestlers who were boring hands. If they'd cheated here with more conviction, and thrown manchettes with a bit more gusto, this would have been all right, but as it was, they only exciting parts were the finishes to each fall. You can go ahead and skip this. 

[ohtani's jacket]

L‘Homme Masque vs. Andre Drapp (aired 3/4/66)

I thought I'd seen this already but apparently not. I'm not going to try to guess who was under the hood at this point. The main attraction here is seeing an older Drapp in action. They tumble about and do some fun stuff, but they don't take is as seriously as something like Leduc vs. Le Bourreau de Bethune. I'm not gonna lie, I would have preferred a more serious wrestling match to the crowd pleasing shtick they ran with, but it was more entertaining than 30 minutes of Kiyomigawa. I'm not sure how regularly Drapp was working in France at this point, but the bout did leave me curious as to how good he might have been against a better worker. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Cheri Bibi vs. Gilbert Cesca (aired 9/2/66)

One of the questions that has bugged me the most about this Catch footage has been, "What type of worker was Gilbert Cesca?" Was he a super worker who looked good against anyone? Was he a foil for better workers? Or a guy who looked good against the right opponent? I don't think I'm any closer to answering the question, but I'm pretty sure I liked this a lot more now than I did when it first dropped. Back then I was like a junkie looking for my next hit of pure Catch. This was a brawler vs. stylist match, and far removed from the pure Catch of Catanzaro vs. Cesca, but as we've learned, matches like this were fairly common in French Catch and well received by the audience. This started with some fun cat and mouse stuff before Bibi took over and began taking Cesca apart. Cesca launched into a babyface rage, and the match ended with them brawling outside the ring with the cops and a spectator getting involved, a real flashback to late 50s Catch. Bibi looked a lot better than usual. I'm not sure if it was because he was trying harder or Cesca sold well. Probably six of one, half a dozen of the other. I've always said that so long as Bibi is moving forward and attacking his opponent, he's watchable. I thought he did a good job of varying the point of attack here and delivering different types of body blows. He even threw in some kicks. Cesca was playing the plucky underdog archetype, so we didn't get the full repertoire from him, but he deserves points for making this entertaining. It wasn't as exciting as Bibi vs. Jacky Corn, but it was definitely one of Bibi's best. And to be honest, probably one of the better matches from '66. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes vs. Blousons Noirs (Manuel Manneveau/Claude Gessat) (aired 9/6/66)

This is the quintessential French tag. It would have bee nice to see a longer heat segment from the Blouson Noirs, but the Ben Chemoul/Bordes tandem was the most pure distillery of French Catch you're likely to see. Ben Chemoul excelled at two things -- hot tags and cocky babyface wrestling. Given that I hate cocky babyfaces, it's no surprise that I can't stand Ben Chemoul. 

Daniel Boucard vs. Francis Ragot (Le Legionnaire) (aired 9/20/66)

This was a total surprise. Ragot was a tall, lanky worker who looked like he had no business being in the ring, and at first glance this seemed like it was going to be a loose mess, but man, these guys could scrap. And they stayed on each other the entire bout. I totally overlooked this when I devoured the archives the first time, as I kind of figured Le Legionnaire would be some kind of crappy gimmick and Boucard wasn't on my radar. One of the most pleasant discoveries from the archive.

Robert Gastel vs. Lino Di Santo (aired 10/9/66)

This was dull. I like both these guys, and I was keen as shit to see a great Robert Gastel performance from the 60s, but this was a slow, plodding affair that never got out of second gear.

Le Vicomte Joel de de Noirbreuil & Pierre Lagache vs. Abraham Edery & Georges Cohen (aired 10/16/66)

This was a match that could have taken place any night of the week in Paris, but it was highly entertaining largely because Georges Cohen is lowkey one of the best babyfaces in the archives. The heels were nondescript here. With a name like Le Vicomte Joel de de Noirbreuil, you'd expect something a little flamboyant, but nope, it was all black tights and standard heel work, but Cohen was good enough to carry the entire bout by himself. I wish enough people watched French Catch to make controversial statements about it, so I'll put one out there. Georges Cohen > Rene Ben Chemoul. There, I said it. 

[Pulici76]

On 3/28/2020 at 10:38 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

Tony Oliver vs. Serge Gentilly (aired 1/1/59)

We get another Tony Oliver match, which is a treat. This isn't as good as the Bert Royal match, but it's still a solid performance from Oliver. He isn't quite as imposing a heel as he was against Royal, but you get to see him wrestle a bit more and he does have some grouchy moments. Gentilly is another one of those youngish French talents that have been popping up. He's not bad, but he doesn't have a strong personality. The main thing is that we have another Oliver match on tape, which is a bonus. 

Kamikaze vs. Nicolas Priore (aired 5/22/71)

I'm pretty sure that this is the original Kamikaze, Modesto Aledo. It certainly looks like him. Kamikaze was basically a gimmick like Black Man or Great Sasuke. He was dressed completely in black with an oriental looking mask, and wrestled in Valentin Maldonado's words: "a very violent and unorthodox style, mixing cheating, martial arts, mat wrestling and an incredible aerial ability," which, to me, sounds pretty revolutionary for the 1960s. He lost the mask in 1965, but he wore it to the ring here as part of his entrance. When he took it off, there was something strange about his face. I couldn't quite figure out how he did it, but he looked as though he was deformed. Now according to the Wrestling Heritage guys, the way the gimmick was pushed in the UK was that Kamikaze refused to take his mask off even if he lost because his face had been badly burned in the Korean War. I'm not sure of the validity of that, and the Wrestling Heritage guys seem to have all sorts of theories about who was behind the mask (more than likely some UK imitators), but in any event, the Kamikaze here looked creepy as fuck, especially with the grainy footage. Nicolas Priore was a well-built Italian guy, but that doesn't really matter. I spent most of this bout trying to get a better look at Kamikaze's face. He didn't really do the athletic spots he was famed for, but he was aggressive. He kept bowing to the ref whenever he was cautioned and was a pretty odd customer in general. There was a second Kamikaze as well, and the two tag together in some of the footage we have, so I guess we will learn more about him as time goes by.

George Cohen & Gass Doukhan vs. M'Boaba & Karl von Kramer (aired 9/14/68)

Sticking with the gimmick wrestlers, this was a brief, incomplete clip of M'Boaba, or N'Boa the Snakeman, as he was billed in the UK. He was billed from deepest, darkest Africa and had a handler with him that was dressed a bit like Kim Chee. He used to bring a python to the ring with him in the UK but sadly there was no snake here. He was actually Bob Elandon, a wrestler from the Belgium Congo, and I've gotta tell you, I've seen better wild man acts. There was a Karl von Kramer in the UK who's real name was Jack Land, but I am pretty sure that the Jack von Kramer here was a guy named Michel Laurent. I want to say they say they billed him as Swiss. George Cohen and Gass Doukhan were French based Israeli wrestlers, I believe. These wrestled together as an Israeli tag team. The crowd was wild for this. They gathered around the ring and shook the bottom rope to spur the Israelis on and they wanted a piece of Kramer. There was a really cool surfboard type spot in the corner where Kramer was bounced up and down like a trampoline. 

Has the Nicolas Priore match ever been uploaded anywhere? I spoke to the man for an hour today, class act, would love to see him in action

[Matt D]

17 minutes ago, Pulici76 said:

Has the Nicolas Priore match ever been uploaded anywhere? I spoke to the man for an hour today, class act, would love to see him in action

Here you go. Feel free to share it. Even better if you can get it back to him and/or his family.

 

[ohtani's jacket]

Modesto Aledo vs. Bob Remy (aired 7/29/67)

This wasn't as exciting as the first Aledo match, largely because it didn't descend into manchettes and crowd brawling, but we did get to see some of the mechanics of Aledo's wrestling. He definitely looks like he was a great worker. It's a little difficult to tell which mold of worker, but I'm glad this match wasn't missing as originally thought. 

Frank Valois vs. Jacky Wiecz (aired 8/2/67)

Jesus, Valois was a big unit. This isn't my preferred style of wrestling, but they joined during the heated part so it wasn't too bad. I was surprised to see Wiecz take the win. 

Robert Gastel vs. Eddie Williams (aired 8/2/67)

This restored my faith in Robert Gastel. I was kind of down on him after the boring Di Santo match, and was beginning to have my doubts about him, but he was much better here. Williams was a good looking, athletic type, but didn't offer much outside of his physique. Gastel totally carried this. The ref was truly awful and almost ruined things with his cornball act, but even his BS couldn't detract from Gastel's crafty performance. 

Anton Tejero vs. Walter Bordes (aired 8/29/67)

This match was available back in the old days when every piece of Catch footage was like mana from heaven. Tejero is a fabulous worker, but I wasn't really feeling this. I wanted to see Bordes shine, but Tejero was up to his tricks all bout long and Bordes didn't cut loose until the finishing stretch. I'd probably like this more on a different day where I haven't just watched an entire run of similar matches. 

Teddy Boy vs Gerard Bouvet (aired 12/16/67)

Final few minutes. Looked like they drew good heat. Bouvet was jacked for a smaller guy. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Le Petit Prince vs. Bobby Genele (aired 1/22/68)

Early TV match from the Prince. He was still a bit raw and didn't string his moves together as well as he would he in the future, and Genele wasn't anywhere near the base that Michel Saulnier was, but man, getting on the ground floor here with the Prince is an experience only rivalled by fans who saw early Tiger Mask or Rey Mysterio Jr. 

Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes vs. Inca Peruano/Anton Tejero (aired 3/9/68)

If you like dominant babyface tag teams then Ben Chemoul and Bordes are your bag. I swear the only time Ben Chemoul sells is when the heels need to win a fall. The heels were good in this, but Peruano was practically invisible compared to his 50s heydays and that was largely because no one gets to shine against Ben Chemoul.

Eddie Williams vs. Robert Duranton (aired 3/23/68)

A bunch of worthless shtick from Duranton. Mercifully the JIP match. Very poor compared to Gastel's match with Williams, and that annoying ref was at it again.

Bob Plantin vs. Francis Louis (aired 4/6/68)

Don't sleep on this one just because it's two lesser names. This was a very good stylists match with a lot of good technique. Some awkward moments at times, but pure Catch. Plantin is our friend Bob ALPRA and deserves our support.

Jack de Lasartesse vs. Bernard Vignal (aired 8/24/68)

I wish this had aired in full as Rene Lasartesse was probably the best heel in Europe at this point. 

Andre Bollet vs. Jacky Weicz (aired 8/24/68)

I must be in an agreeable mood 'cos  I didn't hate this like I thought I would. It was more needling than Catch, but I thought it was pretty tight. Bollet was less sluggish than in other matches from this time frame, and Weicz had plenty of fire. I could live with this. 

Pedro Cabrera/Albert Sanniez vs. Tony Martino/Bernard Caclard (aired 8/31/68)

God bless the light weights. Best French match I've seen in a while. Great action, crisp pacing, good character work. No real crazy heat or fights in the crowd, but a proper Catch match that looks like a tag form of the gateway drug that was Catanzaro vs Cesca, and it features the great Albert Sanniez early in his career, and the great Tony Martino, whose name needs to be on more lips. Fab.

[ohtani's jacket]

Pierre Bernaert vs. Mr. Montreal (aired 9/7/68)

Last few minutes. I've never been that partial to Mr. Montreal and we've seen better from Bernaert.

Robert Duranton vs. Eddie Williams (aired 9/7/68)

Slow moving. If you like wrestling shtick then the stuff with Duranton's valet is okay, but the match itself is deathly dull. I wonder if Duranton picked that valet shit up working in the States. 

Pierre Bernaert/Gilbert Le Magouroux vs. Armand Zarpa/Henri Le Mao (aired 11/23/68)

Lovely bit of Catch. Henri Le Mao is one of the best guys in the entire archive. He worked this match like a British babyface, constantly outdueling his opponent with flashy counters, but he wasn't obnoxious about it. And the heels weren't allowed to get their licks in. They worked extremely well together with Le Magouroux looking better than in his tag matches with Catanzaro. 

L‘Ange Blanc vs. Scarface Le Balafre (aired 12/7/68)

This was so boring. I don't know how Matt always finds something nice to say about each match. Such a nice guy. Scarface used his strength and clubbing blows to wear L'Ange Blanc down. Blanc was a decent Lawler style babyface, but aside from being historically interesting, he does very little for me as a performer. The match would have been much better if it had been a sprint. The post-match was wild and more entertaining than the match. 

I don't know when the trend began, but I'm seeing a pattern where every now and again you get a decent tag match between the lighter weight guys, but they're peppered between boring heavyweight matches. I can only imagine what awesome lightweight and stylist matches were on the undercards of these shows but never made it on TV. Ah well, beggars and choosers, and all that. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Andre Bollet/Roger Delaporte vs. Mr. Montreal/Warnia de Zarzecki (aired 1/25/69)

This was broadcast in colour, and man, I forgot how bright the ring is. I wonder if they used a similar canvas for all of the promotions or it it was unique to Delaporte. I'm not gonna lie and pretend I was looking forward to this, but it wasn't too bad. It was kind of like watching an Arn Anderson and Ric Flair tag match from the mid-90s while knowing what an Arn Anderson and Ric Flair tag match from the 80s looked like.

Abdel Kader Bousaada vs. Jean Luc (aired 2/1/69)

I'm not sure about Abdel Kader's ring name here. There was a Moroccan worker based out of France who was billed as Abdel Kader Kabache, who I'm assuming was the same person. He may or may not have been the same guy who worked as Abdul Kader Hassouini in England, who, IIRC, features later on in the footage. In any event, this was a solid undercard bout. Mostly manchettes and both guys jostling for the win.

Robert Gastel/Fred Magnier vs. Don Barreto/Eddie Williams (aired 3/8/69)

Fred Magnier was perfectly cast as Gastel's tag partner. They looked as though they could have been related, or at the very least, business partners outside the ring. Gastel reminded me of a French Dick Murdoch in this bout. It was standard heel schtick, but more entertaining than Duranton vs. Williams. Don Barreto was Luc Barreto, a Cuban born wrestler based out of Spain. He suffered a career-ending injury in Germany not long after this match and began a successful singing career, releasing thirty records. I actually listened to a few of them while watching the bout. Not bad.

I don't know if Eddie Williams took James Brown's spot after Brown died, but it sure feels that way. Props to the French promoters for largely pushing the black wrestlers as athletes and not billing them from deepest darkest Africa or the Caribbean, like they did in the UK.

[ohtani's jacket]

Vassilio Mantopoulos/Armand Zarpa vs. Pierre Bernaert/M'Boaba (aired 4/5/69)

I spoke too soon when I talked about how black wrestlers were treated in France. I clearly forgot about M'Boaba. For those of you who've never seen M'Boaba, or N'Boa the Snake Man as he was called in the UK, he's basically a wild man from the Congo who occasionally brought a python to the ring. It was a popular gimmick in the UK the same as The Wild Man of Borneo and other outlandish gimmicks, and I guess it appealed to Parisian audiences too. Bob Elandon was a great worker and didn't need the gimmick to get over. He did a good job of playing M'Boaba, largely because of how good he was in the ring, not that it justifies the gimmick in any way. That said, it's a good bout. Bernaert and M'Boaba make for strange bedfellows, Zarpa is typically solid, and as much as I usually dislike Mantopoulous' George Kidd shtick, it's a lot of fun when he's working circles around M'Boaba. 

Robert Gastel/Roger Delaporte vs. Warnia de Zarecki/Giacomo Guglielmetti (aired 4/19/69)

This was tidy enough. I'm beyond expecting anything amazing from Delaporte this late in his career.

Inca Peruano/Anton Tejero vs. Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes (aired 4/21/69)

From my recollection, Ben Chemoul and Bordes gave the heels a bit more offense in this one, and sold for them a tad more The heel work is solid, but it's still kind of weird seeing Inca Perunao as just another guy in a heel tag team. I swear, if I were a French heel and Ben Chemoul and Bordes did that Mamadou Meme shit to me, I'd want to beat the tar out of them, 

Jean Ferre vs. Robert Duranton  (aired 10/4/69)

This could have been a fun bout if it had gone longer, or we'd seen more of it, simply for the novelty of Andre and Duranton trading blows, but of course there's all the shit with Duranton's valet to contend with.

Pierre Bernaert/Gilbert Le Magouroux vs. Vasilious Mantopolous/Robert Camus (aired 10/4/69)

I'm fairly certain that this is another pairing of Bernaert and Le Magouroux. It should come as no surprise that this was my type of Catch. Classic heel work, exciting stylists, no egos. These midcard gems are the best thing about late 60s Catch.

Jean Corne/Michel Falempin vs. Inca Viracocha/Steve Haggerty (aired 10/8/69)

I'm not sure if this was really Steve Haggerty. It was just a guess on my part. I'm a huge fan of Jean Corne, and I did the Celts tag team. This was another example of a vibrant midcard gem. Pure catch. No strings.

L'Ange Blanc vs. L'Homme Masque (aired 12/13/69)

I'm not even gonna hazard a guess to who L'Homme Masque was here. Whomever it was, they knew how to cinch on a hold and could throw the odd punch or manchette. I'm not a fan of matches where the babyface gets beat up repeatedly and barely has a chance to retaliate. You have to give a pretty incredible babyface performance to make that type of match work, and L'Ange Blanc was no Gilbert Leduc in that respect. L'Homme Masque did some cool shit grounding him at times, and I really liked the finishing stretch where L'Ange Blanc finally cut loose, but the BS finish made me wonder what the point of the match was. Better than the Scarface match, but I'm still not sold on L'Ange as a worker. The pelican at ringside was weird, but still not as weird as the martian. 

[Phil Lions]

Randomly, I was watching the latest episode of WWE's Most Wanted Treasures and look what I spotted. Looks like Hunter may be a SegundaCaida reader.

In all seriousness, it's so incredibly random that WWE would have a French catch poster from 64 years ago at their warehouse.

This is the show in question:

Date: November 2, 1959
Place: Paris, France
Arena: Palais de la Mutualite
Card:
L'Ange Blanc (Francisco Pino) vs. The Big Chief
Jose Arroyo vs. Lino Di Santo
Jesus de Heredia (Jesus Chausson) vs. Jean Bout
Jacky Corn vs. Antonio Morlans

[Phil Lions]

Bob Plantin just posted an interesting comment over on Facebook that I thought is worth sharing here. He stated that based on Bruno Asquini's, Gilbert Cesca's and his opinion (i.e. three of the last living French wrestlers from the glory years of French catch) the best European wrestlers from the middleweights (70 to 80 kg) they had ever been in the ring with were Modesto Aledo, Rene Ben Chemoul and George Kidd, while Gilbert Leduc was the best of the heavyweights. This opinion should come as no surprise given the reputations of all four, but it's always cool to hear feedback about wrestlers from their peers.

 

[David Mantell]

Got into old school French wrestling quite heavily a few years ago as a close relative of the old school British wrestling I grew up with.  and have taken a much deeper dive since finding Matt D's channel.

A few general questions I'd like to clear up first:

• What year did French Wrestling actully get cancelled from French TV and who was the Greg Dyke/Jamie Kellner of France?  Also what was the story behind the move from A2 to FR3 in 1985 (as appears to have happened judging from Matt D's uploads)
• What year did wrestling move to 2er Chaine/Antenne2?  I'm particularly interested because of the Jan '69 Delaporte & Bollet vs Montreal & Warnia de Z match which is on colour videotape.  If the move was when 2er Chaine started in '64 (a few days before BBC2 in the UK) then it is reasonabe to suppose that all the bouts from October 1967 (when 2er went colour) up to 1974 in b/w on Matt D's channel were originally in colour - and more excitingly could be restored to colour using chroma dot recovery.  (come to that, all the old film prints could be VidFIREd to get a VT picture look.)
• Can someone explain to me - clearly and from a neutral perspective - what the current venemous feud between FFCP/Marc Mercier and Wrestling Stars/FleshGodon/Jacky Richard  is actually all about?  Promotional rivalries are one thing but neither Max Crabtree and Brian Dixon nor Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff ever took things this far  - refusing to speak to journalists who talk to the other side and each acusing the other of being conmen and crooks.

[ohtani's jacket]

I don't have the answers to your questions, but I can tell you that Phil was able to match listings for the television broadcasts from old newspapers, IIRC, so the info about TV channel switches may attainable somehow. 

[Phil Lions]

5 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

I don't have the answers to your questions, but I can tell you that Phil was able to match listings for the television broadcasts from old newspapers, IIRC, so the info about TV channel switches may attainable somehow. 

Unfortunately, the post-1952 issues of the newspaper I was using for my research got taken down so now if anyone wants to do any post-1952 French research the only way to do it is to go to a library in France in person. And I'm not in France.

In short: I also do not know the answers to David's questions and currently have no way of finding out.

[David Mantell]

Was the cancellation not big news in France?  Our one in the UK made headlines in all the newspapers and TV news - heck even Pro Wrestling Illustrated ran a piece about it in the Media Report section and Wrestling Enquirer in the June '88 edition (cover story "Win a phone call from Sting").

[David Mantell]

I definitely think INA should check its stock of Channel 2/Antenne 2 b/w kinescopes for chroma dots for possible colour recovery.  If wrestling was already on 2er Chaine then any of the bouts from Oct '1967 to 1974 could be restored to colour.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_dots
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_recovery#From_chroma_crawl

[David Mantell]

On 7/30/2023 at 9:03 AM, Phil Lions said:

Unfortunately, the post-1952 issues of the newspaper I was using for my research got taken down so now if anyone wants to do any post-1952 French research the only way to do it is to go to a library in France in person. And I'm not in France.

Pity - if someone had all the dates, they could get together with JNLister and do a French equivalent of itvwrestling.co.uk .  That would be cool.

[ohtani's jacket]

29 minutes ago, David Mantell said:

Was the cancellation not big news in France?  Our one in the UK made headlines in all the newspapers and TV news - heck even Pro Wrestling Illustrated ran a piece about it in the Media Report section and Wrestling Enquirer in the June '88 edition (cover story "Win a phone call from Sting").

We don't have the details about this sort of thing. I'm not sure if we know what the final match was that broadcast on terrestrial television. As far as I know, it petered out sometime around 1987. It's difficult to draw parallels to the UK as it wasn't one promotion being continuously broadcast for 30 + years (including the years where they shared the timeslot with All-Star.) During its heyday in the 50s and 60s, it was different promotions in the time slot. At a certain point, it becomes predominantly Delaporte's promotion. It's unclear whether Catch was continuously on the air during the 70s and 80s or if it would disappear and reappear depending on whether a promoter managed to get TV time. The footage gets pretty random towards the end and some years have little to no footage available. That suggests, to me, that Catch wasn't broadcast continuously and appeared sporadically after the 60s ended. It stands to reason that If it had been on the air weekly throughout the 70s and 80s then there would be far more preserved footage from that era. 

[David Mantell]

What we really need is someone who is - y'know - actually FRENCH and who grew up with this territory and whose foundation ideas about what pro wrestling should be came from this (like mine did from old British Wrestling).  They could give us chapter and verse about it because the final disappearance of local wrestling from French television would have been a big and traumatic moment in their lives.

We know that there was at least *some*  more transmitted than the INA holds- obvious example the ending of Mambo Le Primativ vs Los Halcones De Oro handicap tag from 1983.  It also appears that wrestling gets farmed off from Antenne 2 to the FR3 network of local stations (similar to ITV but state run and with much less syndication of stuff) in 1985, in which case any 1985-1987 bout may only have received screening in their local areas and then - maybe - got wider airing at a later date.  In which case 1985-1987 may have been the French equivalent of the Relwyskow TV tapings for Grampian/STV in 1990 and 1993 and the real equivalent of the end of ITV wrestling was the 1985 A2 > FR3 move.

It's interesting to ruminate on where INA seem to be getting a lot of their footage from.  Some of the earlier prints from the 1950s start with a caption in Arabic which suggests that the kinescope negatives were produced for overseas distribution, particularly to stations in Algeria and other former French colonies (just as ITV was selling kinescope prints to about 30-odd overseas stations according to a piece of paper Pat Roach said he had been shown in Simon Garfield's book- I suspect the b/w 1972 Vic Faulkner vs Mick McMichael bout was one of these)  and were running off surplus positive prints to send to the INA.  The later colour editions appear to have simply been recorded off air with a VCR (with the speaking clock added instead of an onscreen time code).  In between this we have the sharper cleaner late 60s/early 70s stuff, most of which INA possibly kinescoped themselves (using a b/w kinescope - some mid 70s bouts like Petit Prince vs Albert Sanniez from 1977 look a lot like colour kinescopes.)  Probably by the late 60s ORTF were pre-taping some matches (as ITV did) and then re-using the tapes, with the Jan '69 Delaporte & Bollet vs Montreal and Warnia de la Z being a lucky survivor that slipped through the net and then got handed over to INA years later.

[David Mantell]

On 3/13/2022 at 11:57 AM, Phil Lions said:

I'm not sure exactly when this happened (either late 1910s or very early 1920s), but at one point the French government imposed a 35% tax on pro wrestling, which almost killed pro wrestling in France. Most promoters simply couldn't afford to run shows because of this high tax. The tax was in place throughout the 1920s and that's why there was very little pro wrestling in France in the 1920s. FFLP and the Syndicate/Association played an important role in lobbying to get the tax reduced. I'm not sure exactly when they succeeded in doing so (it was still there as of late 1928), but they did succeed, which allowed pro wrestling to blossom in France again. Had this big tax still been around in the 1930s I just can't see Raoul Paoli being able to promote wrestling in France as successfully as he did, if at all. And without Raoul Paoli's promotion making catch popular in France in the 1930s, and then reviving it again in the mid to late 1940s, French catch would have probably never made it to television in France and we wouldn't be talking about it today.

 

This might explain why it became "Catch" to get round the tax.  Presumably prior to this point, the Lutte in question was Greco Roman (Professional GR was a BIG deal in France in the 1800 and the GR-based pro wrestling in the Soviet Union's circuses was built on this model - in both cases with circus strongmen doubling as wrestlers) so by moving to Catch (as Catch Can, following the example of the launch of All In Wrestling in Britain in 1930) promoters were able to claim that this was a different sport and therefore exempt from the tax.

[Phil Lions]

I think most likely catch no longer being on national TV wasn't that big of a deal in France, because by the time it went off television it was way past its heyday, which was in the 1950s and 1960s. I don't think it was like in 1961, for example, when Maurice Herzog (the French Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports at the time) put pressure on the TV network not to air wrestling any more and there was backlash from the fans about this. In the 1980s I don't think that many people would have cared whether catch was on TV or not, because catch was nowhere near as popular as it had been previously. Even during Jean Ferre's run in the mid to late 1960s/early 1970s the popularity of catch was already down compared to what it had been earlier in the decade, which also explains why when you talk to French people of the older generation someone like L'Ange Blanc is remembered way more than someone like Andre, even though Andre was more recent and was also pushed as a big deal.

On another note, expanding on what ohtani's jacket said above, it's good to point out that even during its heyday catch never aired on TV every week. The most they ever reached was 30 something weeks out of the year, I think. Also, because during the heyday it was basically four Paris promotions who shared the TV, the timeslot for catch wasn't a constant one either. Each promoter would run their show on a different day of the week and since at that point most of the shows aired live that meant the TV was on different nights, depending on which promoter's show had the TV coverage that week.

[David Mantell]

British wrestling was also off air during the summer until World Of Sport came along with the bigger stars heading off to the German tournaments and the smaller fry and indie wrestlers heading to the holiday camps (as they still do to this day.)  It tended to have quite a few off weeks around the year particularly in summer even after WOS came along.

The Maurice Herzog episode is interesting because British Wrestling had already hit that crisis point in the late 1930s when Slam Bang Western Style proved just too much for the London County Council and other authorities and All In Wrestling got banned.  I talked on the British Wrestling thread about Kent Walton pushing the idea of high-end pro wrestling with a classy upmarket product with only a few heels as the serpents in this paradise, and much of that was as much to do with countering any potential Maurice Herzogs out there as it was getting lofty booking such as the Royal Albert Hall and regular ITV coverage for Joint Promotions.