French catch

[David Mantell]

On 7/10/2024 at 12:14 AM, Phil Lions said:

To give you an idea of its popularity, know that in London for example, there is no less than one hall per neighborhood which presents two or three wrestling cards per week.

This was the business model in England, intestive touring rather than one off giant houses.

[David Mantell]

On 7/10/2024 at 12:14 AM, Phil Lions said:

Corne on Claude Darget:
“Despite his complete ignorance of our sport, he was, it is certain, favored by some of the viewers. But his acidic, not to say mean, jokes attracted the animosity of all the wrestlers. Darget is our pet peeve. One evening, Michel Falempin having heard one of his derogatory remarks, jumped from the ring and chased him into the locker room. Without the intervention of some of our colleagues, Claude Darget would have had a bad time!”

Was he the commentator who got sacked for breaking kayfabe and got key back all the other commentators threatened to go on strike for him?

Even Couderc tended to make sarcastic jokes - during several bouts including Mammouth Siki Vs Daniel Schmidt from 1978 for example, he referred to a wooden chair used as makeshift ring steps as "L'Escalier Du Service"

[Phil Lions]

23 hours ago, David Mantell said:

Was he the commentator who got sacked for breaking kayfabe and got key back all the other commentators threatened to go on strike for him?

Yes, Darget is the one who broke kayfabe during a Hayes vs. Casi match. The promoters and the wrestlers hated him, but Raymond Marcillac (the head of sports at the network) liked him so he kept pushing and pushing until the promoters agreed to let Darget come back.

------
 

I just checked the commentators section in the book again and noticed something interesting I must've skipped over before. While talking about the commentator for the match (Georges de Caunes) Corne mentions that his tag match with Ischa Israel against Les Blousons Noirs, which we have as April 21 1960, was broadcast on TV three times. "This is, I believe, proof that the show was good.", says Corne. I know in later years they were showing some retro matches on TV so perhaps this is where the other two broadcasts come into play? I have no idea, but I found this claim interesting.

[David Mantell]

On 6/24/2024 at 2:06 PM, David Mantell said:

Here's some more Egyptian footage - the great Egyptian National Hero Mamdouh Farag Vs visiting Westerner Klaus Vallas (?):

 

 

Actually check out Farag's second.  Tony StClair, no less, in the green T shirt.  Late 80s StClair by the looks of him. Announcer mentions him at the start.

I like where the MC tells off Vallas in a thick cackling Cairo accent. ( Actually I forgot he was German and thought he was American because of the MC addressing him in English, hence my calling him "the American" on an earlier edit of this post.)

Arabic vocabulary:

Shoderfest= shoulderblock.

Sidering= Whip into the ropes

Bodehslam= go on, guess!

Elboh = ditto

Dropkick= ditto

 

Nice pin too, Vallas does a cross-buutock throw into a crosspress but Farag rolls through and upturns it into a pin of his own. I've seen Pete Roberts do this.

 

Anyway, getting back on topic to the subject of France ...

[David Mantell]

On 7/13/2024 at 11:29 PM, Phil Lions said:

I just checked the commentators section in the book again and noticed something interesting I must've skipped over before. While talking about the commentator for the match (Georges de Caunes) Corne mentions that his tag match with Ischa Israel against Les Blousons Noirs, which we have as April 21 1960, was broadcast on TV three times. "This is, I believe, proof that the show was good.", says Corne. I know in later years they were showing some retro matches on TV so perhaps this is where the other two broadcasts come into play? I have no idea, but I found this claim interesting.

As I've mentioned, we know from the speaking clock time signatures that some bouts were broadcast Sunday 5pm, which may account for kids in the audience at shows (which were otherwise screened past their bedtimes) - possibly these were repeats of an earlier late evening broadcast (like  London Weekend Television in November 1991 for several Sunday lunchtimes rescreening  a match from the previous night's WCW Pro Wrestling as part of Pat Sharp's Funday in the run up to WCW's three nights in Dec 1991 at the Olympia in Kensington.)

Of course if these were repeats, that would explain why INA didn't bother taping them. They filled out their quote on late evening master screenings of bouts.

[David Mantell]

 

Quote

On 3/29/2020 at 11:30 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

Rene Ben Chemoul & Walter Bordes vs. Kamikaze I & Kamikaze II (aired 12/26/68)

Well, this is confusing. I'm pretty sure that Les Kamikazes were the Spanish versions but neither guy removed their mask. I guess we don't have an accurate timeline on when Kamikaze I lost his mask, or perhaps he kept using it in France. In any event, the match was more about Chemoul and Bordes than it was the Kamikazes. This felt like a better reflection of what made Chemoul so beloved. He gave a fiery and passionate performance. He danced salsa when he was winning and shed tears when his prodigy was in trouble. I was surprised by how good Bordes was. I didn't expect him to be be so smooth. The match was formulaic but entertaining. Les Kamikazes were strange and exotic and shifty enough to make decent foils for the babyfaces, and the team of Chemoul and Bordes shone. 

Quote

 

Was looking for reviews of the 1971 bout in my last post and came up with this from 1968, I suppose I shall have to check this match out too. I don't think these were Modesto Aledo or Benny, the reportedly wore all black like 80s gimmick wrestler Mambo Le Primitiv (or like Brutus Beefcake and Arn Anderson as hired hitmen for Ric Flair in WCW 1994). Neither of these two do the slingshots with the ropes that the two Spanish Kamikazes do. (Incidentally, why call a masked villain in 60s Spain Kamikaze anyway? Spain. although officially neutral in WW2 was in practice sympathetic to the Axis powers and its fascist dictatorship under Franco continued until 1975.)

 

I think the French Kamikazes were ripoff versions. And it didn't stop there - in 1971 Ian Gilmour was on both World of Sport Wrestling and French TV Catch with Jeff Kaye as The Barons. Gilmour must have seen Les Kamikazes and been inspired to do this blue eye/babyface gimmick:

 

 

 

There was a SIXTH Kamikaze in the early 90s on the Relwskow Promotions TV taping for Grampian/STV in Scotland - the British equivalent of the 1991 run of New Catch episodes on TF1 in France. He was a heel like the first four before Gilmour and more of a ninja than a Kamikaze to be honest.

 

 

 

 

Been looking for the second 1968 match for some time, I saw it before but lost it because I didn't realise it was from as early as 1968.

Love the Kamikazes intro with them squatting on the mat like alien insects waiting to pounce.  They have quite an interesting attacking style to, squatting down to jockey for position like creepy scuttling critters.

No shouts of Hey Hey Pappa Doux for Bordes yet in 1968   And no shouts of Hey Hey La Cagoule for an unmasking or two reither,  Bordes had a long career doing tag matches with a formula like this, from matches with Chemouel Vs les Kamikazes in 1968 to matches with Flesh Gordon vs les Maniaks in 1985. RBC to FG - how's that for a historical spread of talent to have worked with?

Chemouel's reputation in the 50s was mostly based on him being a technical wrestler (not to mention a shooter- George Kidd in 1952 was prepared to at least temporarily job away his Mountevans/NWA World Lightweight title to FFCP champion RBC before getting his win back and a triple crown of titles). This and into the early 70s were really his dotage years. Not extreme dotage like George Kidd in 1975 or Johnny Saint in 2011 but getting on a bit. Perhaps like Martel and Santana doing  the pretty boy thing in Strike Force well into their thirties

Context.:At this point Benny, the second Spanish Kamikaze was still active in Spain's CIC.

Stuff to watch out for. One of Les Bons (I forget which) is thrown outside and a middle aged bloke in a peak cap keeps on helping him up when he is desperately trying to sell. So he tries desperately to avoid being helped up.  Also RBC's dad Albert is att ringside to check on his son after he goes down a fall.

On 7/13/2024 at 12:01 AM, David Mantell said:

Even Couderc tended to make sarcastic jokes - during several bouts including Mammouth Siki Vs Daniel Schmidt from 1978 for example, he referred to a wooden chair used as makeshift ring steps as "L'Escalier Du Service"

He makes another few in this bout saying how the Kamikazes masks hide their charming smiles and nicknaming one of them Mitzu.

[David Mantell]

Something else I've spotted - Jean Pradinas, later the director of most 1980s TV wrestling in France, gets a namecheck in this December 1968 kinescope.

[Phil Lions]

I ended up reading through another French book about catch - Christophe Lamoureux’s “La grande parade du catch” from 1993. It’s an interesting and well-researched book for sure, but I skipped around a lot and only focused on the parts that interested me the most. I may come back to it again in the future and read it more thoroughly. The book is a mixture of all sorts of topics - the general nature and appeal of pro wrestling, the inner workings of the business (lots of quotes from the Strangler Jew book), the history of pro wrestling in France, a look at a small local indie company in Nantes, WWF, and more. Here’s a few things that I thought are worth sharing.

 

Quotes from a Roger Delaporte interview in January 1987:
[Note - At this point Delaporte was still running Élysée Montmartre in Paris and had his own troupe of wrestlers, which he was booking out to local promoters.]

“In 1953, I wrestled the first televised match against Jean Casi, a former boxing champion. It was live from Vincennes. Georges De Caunes commentated and Pierre Sabbagh directed. Three days later, the producers received whole bags of letters! So TV did two live broadcasts every two weeks for five or six years. Until 1957, Claude Darget commented and Roger Couderc took over.”

“Between 1950 and 1970 France had 300 professional wrestlers. In 1960, the city of Paris alone offered up to 10 shows per week in the now famous Élysée Montmartre, Cirque d'Hiver, Wagram, Velodrome d'Hiver, Central, Stadium and other suburban venues. In the 1960s, only high-level professional wrestlers were able to make a living from their art, at the cost of tough training and numerous bone and muscle accidents. In 1960, a professional wrestler received 150 francs for a curtain-raising match and 500 francs for a featured match.”

“Some journalists repeated so much that the matches were ‘bogus’, that they were a scam, that they ended up killing wrestling. Too bad because now, to live, wrestlers are transformed into acrobats. To please, the women wrestle topless. At one point, I had around twenty girls, women who wrestled like real julots. But now we make them wrestle topless. It’s turned into a joke.”

“Today wrestlers are isolated. No sports federation recognizes them anymore. Even if you have to endure the three hours of daily training and endure injuries, bruises and fractures.”

“Today, the promoters have aged and the good wrestlers have gone abroad. There is no more relief. I have the impression that these days the guys aren't sweating too much. You have to find 20-year-olds who impress. Heavyweights. You have to show sores and bumps! You know, you just have to look in the street: when two guys fight, there will always be 200 watching.”

Roger Delaporte on Andre the Giant (from a different interview):
“In 1961, a wholesaler in the Les Halles district presented me with 'the rare bird', which, fifteen years later, made Hulk Hogan tremble: You had to see the beautiful baby! Dédé was 16 years old, 2.15 metres tall and weighed 160 kg. He was a lumberjack, like his two brothers and his father, and he wanted to become a wrestler. He was called the ‘Grand Ferré’, because of the hero of the time of ‘Jean sans Peur’, who massacred the English. He worked for me until 1970. He quickly became a big star because he had titanic strength. But I had to bring wrestlers from Spain, England, America. When he wasn't wrestling, he worked on the farm with his parents. A good, kind guy. He drank a hundred beers a day and ate five steaks at each meal. I even saw him devour twenty chops in a small bistro. We had to have custom gloves sewn, his paws were so huge. In training, he burst sandbags. In 1968, I sent the giant to wrestle overseas. In South Africa he won his first big sum: four thousand francs. Afterwards things went very quickly: Spain the same year, Saudi Arabia where he met an Arab wrestler in a stadium in front of one hundred and twenty thousand people. Finally, in 1970, I sent him to Canada, and he never came back. In America, the ‘Grand Férré’ changed its name. We called him Dédé, ‘The Giant’. He became a billionaire and when he faced Hulk Hogan in Pontiac, there were ninety-three thousand spectators in the building.”

The author of the book on the decline of pro wrestling:
“The period of the 70s heralded the decline of French wrestling even if a handful of wrestlers tried, at all costs, to ensure succession. Unlike the United States, Great Britain or Germany, France no longer has wrestling masters capable of training a new generation. The best have left the circuits and gone abroad where the remuneration is more substantial. To explain this disaffection, the most ‘addicted’ trainers often cite the extreme physical discipline required to engage in this form of spectacle. You have to train for a long time and the results are slow to come. New generations of wrestlers prefer boxing or judo."

Bernard Caclard on the decline of pro wrestling (January 1987 interview):
[Note - In addition to being a veteran of the ring, the Briouze-based Caclard was also running his own troupe of wrestlers and booking out shows.]
“If there is a clear reduction in numbers in wrestling, it is because it is a thankless sport. From the start, you have to train in wrestling, take blows and always train for results that take a long time to come. In any case, there is no more spectacle. The last show with my wrestlers in Chartres did not draw more than 300 people. Even with the participation of two attractive female wrestlers…”

—--------
 

According to the book, Lino Ventura (the popular wrestler turned even more popular actor) was a matchmaker [booker] at Salle Wagram at one point. It reads like this was before Maurice Durand was running things, but the exact timeline is not mentioned.

There’s a section in the book on women’s wrestling and there are quotes from Chris Sherdo and Nicole Corman - two full-time female French professional wrestlers. Chris’ husband was also a pro wrestler [his name is not mentioned] and according to her they were still able to make a good living just from wrestling, but things used to be better, and I quote directly here, “before the crisis”. Chris also mentions that a while ago she had done a three-month tour of Germany, which paid quite well, but such tours were rare. Supposedly, at the time there were only 10 female pro wrestlers on the French circuit.

According to the book, up to 1951 in France it was possible for a wrestler to wrestle professionally while still being classified as an amateur and competing in amateur tournaments. Also, in January of 1954 the Ministry of National Education issued an order that recognized freestyle, Greco-Roman and Breton wrestling as the only forms of wrestling that could be considered a sport and strictly forbade any other forms of wrestling (i.e. pro wrestling) to be advertised as a sporting event.

The first edition of WWF Magazine in France was published in March 1993.

—--------

There’s a big section in the book where the author talks about and is interviewing various wrestlers from Catch Club du Pays de Retz (CCPR). He always refers to CCPR as “an amateur catch club”, but don’t let the word amateur fool you - this was (and still is?) a small indie pro wrestling promotion. Here's what Lamoureux wrote about CCPR:

“The club was founded in 1970, but it did not have legal recognition before 1983. For thirteen years it therefore operated willy-nilly, illicitly, like a small informal structure composed of around ten wrestlers responding to the requests of fair promoters…This group of friends gave itself the name ‘Catch Club Nantais’. In 1983, the club was renamed ‘Catch Club du Pays de Retz’, named after the region between Basse-Loire and Vendée where small-time circus already has its traditions and where spectator sports are often invited to liven up the fairs. The acquisition of associative status turned a page in the history of the club, giving another dimension to its organization, and thereby to the quality of the services offered. The increase in resources in men and materials led the club to perform more often, which gave it more local fame. The workforce thus increased from 10 to 20 wrestlers, some of whom were trained by the club.”

“According to the manager, the wrestling club's order book is relatively full. Over the course of a year, all activities cover around ten shows, more than half of which are organized during the summer, during special times for village or Sunday festivals. The president of the club has also made a habit of approaching potential customers. Shortly before this period, word of mouth sometimes opened new markets. Let us recall here that most of the signed contracts are with festival committees, sports associations, charities which find through this entertainment a means of financing their various actions. The earnings obtained from paying tickets (never more than 30 francs for 3 hours of show) are not only used to pay wrestlers and managers (they are mainly reimbursed for costs incurred by transport and repairs), the revenue is also used to feed the deficit funds of voluntary associations. Created and run free of charge by the most dedicated members, the stands, the refreshment bar (it is not uncommon for there to be two), the fries or sandwich stand and the various hampers provide opportunity for the most substantial profits.”

And the most fascinating thing to me is that CCPR, which dates back to 1970, was still promoting shows as late as last year. It doesn’t seem like they’ve run any shows this year, however. Or at least my quick Google search didn’t turn up any.

[David Mantell]

Sounds to me like this CCPR could be the French equivalent of Premier Promotions in the UK.  Although if the Association Beauvaisienne de Catch et d'Athlétisme in Beauvais is still going that could be a rival candidate.

[David Mantell]

13 hours ago, Phil Lions said:

[Note - At this point Delaporte was still running Élysée Montmartre in Paris and had his own troupe of wrestlers, which he was booking out to local promoters.]

The FFCP (not to be confused with the CCPR) was also still providing the FR3 network with TV bouts at this time and would continue to do so until November that year. Most of the top stars on those TV shows would become the main talent pool for New Catch and the IWSF which eventually became Wrestling Stars.  (There's a lot we still don't know about WS's origins.  English Wikipedia says (I)WS(F) was founded 1979 in Montereau-Fault-Yonne.)

[David Mantell]

On 3/27/2020 at 4:06 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

Albert Sanniez vs. Guy Cavillier (aired 2/1/69)

This was another brilliant performance from Sanniez. I'm just about ready to anoint him at the same level as Jim Breaks, Steve Grey and Jon Cortez. Here he was wrestling that goofy looking bugger from Tuesday's Segunda Caida review and he made him look totally credible. The only downer with this was the no contest injury finish. Aside from that it was a terrific contest.

Sanniez actually became a French Jim Breaks in more ways than one. By 1978 he had adopted a similar "horrid little man" heel persona to Breaks minus the temper tantrums.

Not sure what your problem is with the double knockout - it's the exact same finish as the much-lauded World title match between Rollerball Rocco Vs Dynamite Kid in December 1981 (transmitted after the New Year of 1982). Those ring ropes look rather slack - I wonder if this was deliberate to set up the finish.

Notice the commentator mentions Sanniez's green trunks which indicates a colour Channel 2 broadcast.

 

[David Mantell]

On 7/14/2024 at 11:12 PM, David Mantell said:

 

 

Been looking for the second 1968 match for some time, I saw it before but lost it because I didn't realise it was from as early as 1968.

Love the Kamikazes intro with them squatting on the mat like alien insects waiting to pounce.  They have quite an interesting attacking style to, squatting down to jockey for position like creepy scuttling critters.

Context.:At this point Benny, the second Spanish Kamikaze was still active in Spain's CIC.

He makes another few in this bout saying how the Kamikazes masks hide their charming smiles and nicknaming one of them Mitzu.

Found a clip on Alessio's channel which Phil had something to do with of Spanish wrestling with "Kamikaze 2" (presumably Benny not Modesto Aledo) in CIC action in Barcelona 1964 (four years before the above French TV bout) against Catechara.  Benny does the same low centre of gravity movement and squatting in the corner as .Les Kamikazes but he has a very different look, black nylon mask with possibly red face, ears visible under the fabric.  He does what I assume is the famous  flip back in the ring after being thrown out, quicker and snappier than, say. Rick Steamboat's version of said move.

 

 

[David Mantell]

Quote

 

 

By the way, Wrestling From Great Britain was indeed the title under which ITV Wrestling kinescopes were marketed to overseas TV stations (as discussed on the "Why is America assumed to be the centre of the wrestling universe?" thread.

Some of the INA French Catch kinescope prints have a similar slide in Arabic which I intend to decipher and post my findings to the French Catch thread.  It does underline my point from several months back that ITV and (O)RTF had considerably greater outreach for their wrestling programming than the average NWA member in the US/Canada. They certainly would not have to face down some angry Ole Anderson type at the next NWA convention growling threats at them for their show being accessible to his audience.

 

 

As promised on the British wrestling thread. here is the caption slide from the French overseas sales prints to Arabic speaking countries :

No prizes for guessing what the Arabic word translates as (except it 's got the definite article al- on the front of it)

[David Mantell]

 

 

Who were Don and Eddy? Anyone recognise them?! I concede they could be "American" only as much as Tommy Mann, the Black Diamonds, Dave Bond and Rollerball Rocco all were. (or as much as "Alan McGregor" or "Marc O'Connor" were Scottish or ditto Fit Finlay and Ian Gilmour)

Gastel is a big bull of a heel. A French version of Bill Watts after he turned heel on Bruno in the 60s. Wears a skull and crossbones on his jacket just like the pirate flag that the World Riot Squad carried with them on All Star shows in the 2010s.

Interesting to see the young Fred Magnier as I'm mainly used to him as the old codger heel in street clothes who sticks his nose into Michel DiSanto Vs Michel Chaisne clean match  and gets a good kicking frm the elder Michel before being sent packing:

To be fair he still looked pretty decent in the other bout on this non INA show from Bob ALPRA's channel:

I think this is actually a colour kinescope rather than a VT copy. It has that filmy look to it.

 

[David Mantell]

Actually Fred Magnier also gets a good kicking in that last bout from Roger Delaporte (French fans hated referees but they LOVED Delaporte)  but it isn't enough to save young Bob Plantin from getting carried out unconscious. Great moment when a disgusted Delaporte has no choice but to declare Magnier the winner, the look on his face says it all "Yeah, darn it, that slime all is the ****ING winner."

[David Mantell]

On 1/30/2023 at 2:11 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

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.

I think I've already reviewed this bout a little further up, but this is the same Steve Haggerty from Canada who appeared on World Of Sport tagging with Colin Joynson as the Dangermen and was also cruelly tortured and humiliated by Les Kellet around the same time, if that's what you meant by "the Real Steve Haggerty." 

[David Mantell]

On 1/30/2023 at 2:11 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

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.

 

Montopolos really is growing on me, a fast nimble lightweight of a type common to 60s France - see also P.Prince and M. Saulnier (although all three also visited Britain and appeared on ITV 1965-1970, as indeed did Andre). Duranton 's "valet" (in the Virgil sense, not the Missy Hyatt sense) is called Firmin, he's basically Marquis Jacky Richard's butler Paul Butard 15 years ahead of time. I recall seeing a spectator invade the ring and Andre/Ferre give him a jolly good spanking. I guess it was this bout I saw. Duranton and Ferre both get buttonholed by the commentator after their match with Ferre's voice instantly recognisable as the same man from WWF promos two decades later, you can almost hear him Surrender The World World Tag Team Championship To Ted DiBiase.

France was a tag team territory and it stayed a tag team territory into the modern era. I have spoken to a couple of older French friends, neither of them especially wrestling fans.yet the phrase Catch A Quatre with the C and the Q made to sound alliterative, rolls off tongue and mind as neatly as Two Falls, Two Submissions Or A Knockout does for most older Brits.

[Phil Lions]

On 7/21/2024 at 8:30 PM, Phil Lions said:

“In 1953, I wrestled the first televised match against Jean Casi, a former boxing champion. It was live from Vincennes. Georges De Caunes commentated and Pierre Sabbagh directed.”

I've never been able to pin down the first match that aired on French TV and this Delaporte quote piqued my interest so I took another crack at it.

As we already knew, the earliest full match in INA's archive is the February 23, 1956, Wiecz/Koparanian vs. Bollet/Gueret match, but now here we have Roger Delaporte claiming it was a match of his in 1953. So, which one was it? What was the first full match to air on TV in France? Well, I still don't know.  Currently I don't have access to post-1953 French newspapers and I couldn't find any mentions of full matches airing on TV up to the end of 1953.

Bob Plantin has always said the first match to air on TV, in highlight form, was Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Johnny Peters - about four minutes of which were broadcast on March 26, 1950. I don't believe that to be the case though. In INA the earliest match that is listed as having aired on TV is Henri Deglane vs. Frank Valois from Palais des Sport. It took place on November 21, 1949, and about 7 minutes of highlights aired on TV the following day. Of course, it's possible INA is missing something, but as of right now that looks to be first one. The highlights were airing as part of the TV News broadcasts. Everything else in the archive before Deglane/Valois is listed as shown in the cinema or filmed but not used anywhere.

And now here's an interesting quote that I found in a December 12, 1952, article: "I'm not saying that catch shows aren't telephotogenic. They are. But it would be advisable for the TV News not to abuse them. Don't you think? Three in eight days is a lot."

A journalist complaining that the TV News were airing catch highlights too often... A quick look at the TV schedule for December 1952 tells me that back then the News was on TV three times per day - 1:20 PM, 6:30 PM and 8:30 PM. And indeed, if you look at INA there's quite a few match highlights which are listed as having aired on TV as part of the TV News.

This is not directly related to catch, but I found it interesting. According to a report from November 4, 1953, the radio tax in France got raised to 1,550 francs and therefore the television tax, which was mandated to be three times the radio tax, was raised to 4,650 francs.

[David Mantell]

13 hours ago, Phil Lions said:

This is not directly related to catch, but I found it interesting. According to a report from November 4, 1953, the radio tax in France got raised to 1,550 francs and therefore the television tax, which was mandated to be three times the radio tax, was raised to 4,650 francs.

Happens all the time with the TV Licence over here.  ORTF started screening adverts in the late 50s.

13 hours ago, Phil Lions said:

I've never been able to pin down the first match that aired on French TV and this Delaporte quote piqued my interest so I took another crack at it.

To be fair, it's been pretty difficult working out when the last match was because there was no real French version of Greg Dyke who made quite a production number of killing off ITV Wrestling, holding a big press conference at a Swiss media fair to announce it.   New Catch started with some preview episodes in 1988 on TF1 the former Channel 1 which was privatised 1987.  New Catch moving to Eurosport in 1988>1989 was the French equivalent of The Final Bell on ITV December 1988. However, Old Catch as such ended quietly on the FR3 networki n November 1987.

 

 

[Phil Lions]

8 hours ago, David Mantell said:

ORTF started screening adverts in the late 50s.

I don't think that's the case or if it was it was only briefly. Here's part of an article from April 1961 where the idea of advertising being allowed on TV is discussed. There are quotes by Raymond Janot (at the time the Assistant Director-General of RTF and, technically, the guy who made the final decision to take catch off TV in April 1961 until public pressure forced him to bring it back albeit with a very reduced schedule) and Pierre Lazareff (another one of the RTF head honchos). The discussion is about how the introduction of a second TV channel in France has overstretched RTF and its unions and has resulted in the lowering of the quality of the broadcasts. The RTF guys argue that allowing advertising on TV would bring in negligible revenue and it wouldn't be enough to cover the increased expenses that having two channels had brought on. There's also a note about how the press was actively opposed to advertising being allowed on TV because it would be, as they put it, "a fatal blow to newspapers" (and the author of the article disputes that notion).

[David Mantell]

There have been similar debates in Britain for decades about whether the BBC should have adverts. BBC News 24 does have them outside the UK - here in Britain while they are on we get a whirring countdown clock over corporate news footage of BBC jounos out in the field.  Also many 1960s shows like Doctor Who and Steptoe And Son have two or three fades to black in them where overseas broadcaster showing bicycled 16mm kinescopes of the shows could pause playback to run an advert break or two.

Two channels meant wrestling in colour from at least December 1967 with the hair match (possibly October, the show with Peter Maivia was on channel 1 but there might have been some unknown broadcast on 2 between times) which for us means just the one colour bout January 1969 but the possibility of chroma dot restoration some day for dozens of other bouts Dec 1967-1974 if INA will spend the money.

[David Mantell]

Okay, I've been a good boy long enough, time for some Eurosport New Catch! 

Featuring a survivor of the days before INA opened its doors in 1975 and started taping matches in colour off air, plus a future WWF superstar with a glittering Gold future ahead of him.

Audience seems pretty darn good for a supposedly dying territory, interesting to see the use of coloured light on the crowd, a thing WWE goes in for nowadays.  Nice reminder from Franz Van Buyten at just past six minutes when he does that most Catch Francais of reversals, the Scisseaux Volees takedown in response to an armbar. Brits would just use a simple roll on the mat to untwist an armbar - or maybe a cartwheel for real showoffs like Dynamite Kid or Danny Boy Collins, (who was a BIG favourite with  French crowds at this time as there is New Catch footage to prove, just a pity we don't have some Old Catch 1986/1987 FR3 footage of him defending his European Welterweight title on Delaporte shows.)

Double trouble are no more scientific than most roided Americans of the period but looks impressive. Somewhere out there Max Crabtree was watching on a Sky Astra box or a naughty VHS copy, licking his chops at the idea of booking these two for Ring Wrestling Stars and letting Big Daddy loose on them. By contrast Flesh (bulkier than his high flying whippersnapper days with Walter "Pappa Doux" Bordes but not yet the tubby bald moustachioed Flesh of the Noughties/Tenties) is prepared to sell for Double Trouble and take some bumos unlike Daddy. There's a hint of Aux Chiottes L'Arbitre from the crowd when he gets a yellow card and also of his latterday DQ losses when he and Franz are counted out, although rather than beat up Double Trouble, the ref and anyone else in sight, F and F crouch down and wail about their loss like a pair of bluesmen.

[David Mantell]

On 2/15/2020 at 1:32 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

Franz van Buyten vs. Robert Gastel (aired 7/5/71)

This small masterpiece was a reminder of why I think van Buyten is one of the European greats. His opponent was the brawler, Robert Gastel. They used to call Gastel the "The Bull Of Batignolles", and "Le Matraqueur des Rings", the Bludgeoner of the Rings. A man described by one journalist as "a monument to violence." We have footage of Gastel wrestling the barefoot judoka, Gaby Calderon, but this is the first full length match we've seen. What I loved about this is that even though Gastel was clearly past his prime, van Buyten treated him entirely on his merits as a wrestler. They could have easily fucked around like we see in so many matches from the Chicago Archives and other classic wrestling sources, but van Buyten wrestled a beautiful match. Gastel was known to have some wrestling skill and van Buyten respected that. And when it came time for the bludgeoning, van Buyten sold it beautifully. The thing about van Buyten was that he was just so graceful. Even in a match like this, against a guy who abhorred poetic grace, there was something sublime about the way van Buyten wrestled. It's hard to imagine that a guy like him got old and sick. This was a wonderful bout to watch in light of his death. 

 Worth examining the subject of continuity in France as a pro wrestling territory by winding back to this 1971 bout from INA's stock of overseas sales films.  It's got another familiar face in here, Robert Gastel "Le Bourreau de  Batignol" ( the. Batignol Beheader) the big badass heel we saw tagging with Fred Magnier before.

It's a very American friendly matchup - handsome muscular babyface Vs big hulking brute heel, again in his skull/crossbones jacket that would make the World Riot Squad proud. With his tache and physique. Van Buyten reminds me of the young babyface Don Muraco in the AWA around this time. The commentators actually call Gastel the smaller and more "effete" man!!!

FVB is already doing the same Scisseaux Volees takedown he did 20 years later with Double Trouble., leading into quite a long sequence of headscissors. Gastel does a brave job resisting the takedown, briefly out of it like a lighter man and briefly hints and levering out from underneath before eventually going for the rope escape (this does not get the mind of HEAT it would get in England if a heel used he cheap way and  bottled out of escaping/reversing/countering a hold that way.)  Buyten gets the scissor back on again (the commentator claims the headscissors is a Belgian speciality LOL.)  Gastel tried for a pint and Van Buyten uses an amazingly high bridge to avoid it.  A real strength bout. The crowd seem to like this chanting "Ahhhh OUI Ahhhh OUI "for Van Buyten to tighten up the hold and make Le Merchant scream.  Gastel DOES get to rope-related hear when he uses them for leverage.

Gastel the former army boxing champion eventually cuts loose with closed fist punches asnd the odd headbutt, earning himself his first Avertisement (public warning.) Van Buyten has had enough, Hulks up and delivers a long string of postings and four body slams (the first of which he visibly struggles with) and several near knockout counts before getting the cross press for the win.

Initial verdict, this would have made a solid late 80s WWF match, say Dino Bravo and Ken Patera.  Further reflection- there is an odd continuity between Gastel and Double Trouble as opponents - big bulking brawling Mechants all three of them.

 

[David Mantell]

On 8/31/2020 at 12:55 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

Ivan Strogoff & Le Grand Vladmir vs. Franz van Buyten & Daniel van Buyten (aired 8/14/78)

Daniel van Buyten is Franz van Buyten's brother and wrestles exactly like him, which isn't a bad thing. You know exactly what you're getting with Strogoff and Vladmir, but they're good workers and excel at their bruiser roles. There's a really nice dynamic in this match between the van Buyten's razzmatazz and the heels' clubbering. Solid tag that ends with both teams brawling.

Okay another Van Buyten match to bridge the gap between  1971 and 1991ish.   It's got a childhood favourite heel of mine Lev Grand Vladimir whom I remember seeing on World of Sport aged 6 in 1990.  The YouTube clip gets off to a bad start with a smirky looking female continuity  announcer. When I was 14 in 1988 and would sneak out to the lounge at 4am Thursday night/Friday morning to watch WWF Challenge, nothing made me go more postal than the female nighttime continuity announcer who took the urine and assumed her audience were just watching for cheap laughs.  The mark of a network licking its chops at kicking wrestling off air in a few months. Anyway I digress ..

Strogoff and Vladimir together mind me of Vladimir's tag team with Mal Stuart in Blighty two years later, which went down in defeat to Big Daddy and Sammy Lee with the future Tiger Mask getting most of the limelight for once. Franz and Ivan had a rather brawly previous singles bouts about a year earlier. Daniel his no moustache and a fringe haircut, he reminds me a bit of Tarzan Johnny Wilson's less colourful brother and tag partner in the Flying Wilson Brothers, Peter Wilson. Oh yes and it's Les Bons' lucky day, referee is Roger Delaporte.

Vladimir is a lot more agile than his partner - or Gastel or the DTs - and really bumps around the ring. Daniel handles the one and only flying scissors of the. match. He goes a bit wild stomping his opponent in retribution for earlier beating down on Franz, which Delaporte treats compassionately " allowing for retaliation" as Kent Walton would say.. It all ends, as OJ says, with a brawl outside the ring and a DDQ although Delaporte changes his mind in the end and gives the brothers the win.

It seems that the Van Buytens had a definite type of opponent over the decades, big lurking Mechants for them to be the heroes against. A flip through Alessio's 1970-1987 playlist seems to confirm this, singles bouts with Vladimir and Strogoff, another bruier heel in Karl Schneider, then in the 1980s Bob "UFO" Dellaserra Frank Merckx (who reminds me of Randy Colley)  and John Harris. (Canadians UFO and Harris were almost an earlier version of fellow Canadians Double Trouble.). Only aging arrogant heel Jacques Latasserre stands out from the pack.

At the end it cuts straight to the main evening news bulletin showing again why I think the 10:30pm timeslot wasn't all that bad.

[David Mantell]

On 7/26/2024 at 12:12 PM, Phil Lions said:

I've never been able to pin down the first match that aired on French TV and this Delaporte quote piqued my interest so I took another crack at it.

As we already knew, the earliest full match in INA's archive is the February 23, 1956, Wiecz/Koparanian vs. Bollet/Gueret match, but now here we have Roger Delaporte claiming it was a match of his in 1953. So, which one was it? What was the first full match to air on TV in France? Well, I still don't know.  Currently I don't have access to post-1953 French newspapers and I couldn't find any mentions of full matches airing on TV up to the end of 1953.

Bob Plantin has always said the first match to air on TV, in highlight form, was Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Johnny Peters - about four minutes of which were broadcast on March 26, 1950. I don't believe that to be the case though. In INA the earliest match that is listed as having aired on TV is Henri Deglane vs. Frank Valois from Palais des Sport. It took place on November 21, 1949, and about 7 minutes of highlights aired on TV the following day. Of course, it's possible INA is missing something, but as of right now that looks to be first one. The highlights were airing as part of the TV News broadcasts. Everything else in the archive before Deglane/Valois is listed as shown in the cinema or filmed but not used anywhere.

Like I've said before. what we need is a French version of @JNLister.  There probably is one- fans there like fans everywhere else doubtless kept records and lists. Possibly one made it online and just needs to make it across the language barrier.