French catch

[David Mantell]

On 8/7/2024 at 11:01 PM, David Mantell said:

  On 4/2/2020 at 11:59 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

Zarak vs. Walter Bordes (aired 3/12/77)

Zarak was one of the many alter-egos of British wrestler, Dave Larsen. Larsen was part of the Lincoln stable of wrestlers, and if you've been following my posts you'll know that the Lincoln wrestlers (Hayes, Hunter, Anthony, Larsen) had a direct pathway to Paris. This was well after the Lincoln merger with Joint Promotions, and Larsen had apparently disappeared from the British scene at this point. Zarak was, without a doubt, the cockiest masked wrestler I have ever seen. The swagger was amazing. He actually made Bordes crack up during the intros. The match played out exactly as you'd expect. It wasn't bad but it wasn't the most authentic catch. You may notice the chant "Mamadou Meme" during Bordes' matches. Mamaodu Meme was a popular song by Nino Ferrer. I'm not sure how it became a rallying fall for Bordes but you hear it a lot.

 

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Zarak was in a simpler red/orange costume/mask in 77 but still the same strutting arrogant masked man The commentator admits that he is a British living in Paris because he likes the air of the place.  Fast action packed bout suddenly ends in a draw. For some reason  the audience and Bordes think he's won it and get stroppy when it is indeed a draw.

 

RIP Dave "Zarak" Larsen 1941-2024

[David Mantell]

On 8/3/2014 at 10:46 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

Jean Ménard vs. Pierre Mercier

 

Colour footage of a house show match. Pierre Mercier was a skinny young fella and this was like the catch equivalent of those 1980s World of Sport bouts where veterans would wrestle the "boy apprentices" such as Kid McCoy or Richie Brooks. Menard showed his class once again, but it was a fairly straight forward match and not a particularly great carry or anything like that.

 

Camcorder footage. Pierre, brother of Marc, second son of Guy, TBW contemporary of Danny Collins.  I've already posted a swimming pool tag matchi of him and brother Marc from FR3's La Dernier Manchette in 1984, filmed somewhere outdoors in the Mediterranean sunset. Now here he is in solo action against Jean Menard, now fully grey haired. Normally at this point Mean Old Menard was a Mechant but here he was on his best behaviour as le gosse completely dominated him with every kind of acrobatic move imaginable in the 20th century.  One key difference between veteran Vs TBW matches in Britain and this is that the TBW wins hands down.

At the start we get to see some other legends like Mammouth Siki in their dotage too.

[David Mantell]

On 5/26/2015 at 4:52 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

Jean Corne/Michel Falempin vs. Jean Menard/Jacky Richard (8/2/77)

 

You know when you get to the 70s colour footage that wrestling at the Elysée Montmartre is dying, but there's still something cool about this maestros era. The only way I can describe it is that it's similar to BattlARTS in terms of being a hybrid style with a constant flow of exchanges. I wasn't enamoured with the falls in this, but the individual match ups were great. Corne and Falempin were still plying their Les Celtes gimmick (with visibly green trunks this time) and Menard and Richard were right bastards. Throw in the old man, Delaporte, and Couderc cackling away on commentary, and you've got another unique French pro-wrestling experience.

 

Around this time Menard was turning heel and tagging with the hated Jacky Richard. In time he would become quite the vieux pontoufle grumpy old man heel. It's also the match where Roger Delaporte comes into his own as the good guy Arbitre who takes no faesces from Les Mechants. Action wise it's pretty much the Acme of faced paced Catch A Quatre, Les Celts are a great Bon team and there are lots of monkey climbs, throws, bump landings from spinouts, reverse snapmares and back somersaults off a top wristlock abounding.

Delaporte owned this building, the Elysée Montmartre, and the other Roger, Couderc, regales the viewer with it's long star studded history (Rabeles, Toulouse Lautrec etc) plus just the really rub it in there is a display of classic wrestling posters on the stagecas Rumble Promotions in 2020s England are also wont to do.

Nine months after this, Corne would pop up on World of Sport, on the 1978 FA Cup Final edition no less, to job the European Welterweight Championship to Dynamite Kid just as Jorg "Baron Von" Chenok would do for Danny Collins on the 1985 edition.

 

[David Mantell]

On 7/27/2014 at 12:54 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

Marcel Montreal vs. Jean Menard

Another great catch video. This time it was a pair of veterans doing the French take on the rule-bender versus the blue eye. Marcel Montreal was a big thick set guy and a heavy hitter, and Menard was a great heel, a real Cien Caras type right down to the silver hair. The match was a brawl basically with Menard doing a bunch of dirty shit and Montreal retaliating. The parts where they went toe-to-toe were the kind of shit you'd love if you love Fit Finlay. Just real hard-arsed brawling. Menard threw in a chair at the end, which isn't the type of behaviour you usually associate with the Euro style, but I've heard in the halls there was a lot of blood, brawling and gimmick matches away from the prying eye of television censors. Lots of fun this.

I posted this video before, in response to that French blogger Sturky or whatever he's called's post about tuning in in the early 90s and seeing two fat old men.  An eternity earlier in January 1969 Marcel Montreal was teaming with Warnia de Zarzecki against Delaporte and Bollet in the one surviving colour VT pre-1975 (unless the INA are ever prepared to put French taxpayers' money into VidFIRE and Chroma Dot Restoration of late 60s/early 70s content.)  By this point he's a French version of late 80s Wayne Bridges or mid 90s Tarzan Johnny Wilson.  

Menard meanwhile is at his meanest, grey of hair and grieved of attitude, right from the start refusing a handshake.  It's hard to reconcile him with the guy who let Guy Mercier's kid walk all over him.  He must be male menopausal too as he completely ignores the two ring girls, a blonde one in his corner doing a vamp thing with a cigarette holder. the other dark haired, settling into the opposite corner like SHE'S the opponent!  

As OJ says it's a bit of a brawl, dirty wrestling from Menard, big beefy Manchettes from Montreal.  Menard throws the chair in (after dropping it!) and aims it at Montreal but it misses and bounces off the top rope. Referee Charley Bollet throws the chair out and DQs Menard. I've seen a few chair spots like this on Reslo and even on KTV and aggrieved Giant Haystacks throw chairs around. Menard throws one of the best tantrums ever, worthy of Jim Breaks, now THAT'S a heel disqualification finish!  Menard and Bollet have a screaming argument then Menard stomps off backstage. 

Cameraman comes across the dark haired ring girl, falls in love with her and starts panning up and down her frame - fortunately she's the vain sort and enjoys posing for the camera.

Talking of throwing chairs, I once saw Blond Sting and Davey Boy Smith face Vader and Steve Austin when WCW came to Birmingham 1993. Vader threw in a chair, Sting just sat in it, cool as you please.

 

[David Mantell]

@Matt D, this was posted to Facebook by Bob Plantin.  It does not appear to be on your YouTube as far as I can see and therefore has to be presumed to not be in the INA archive.  The nearest match is a bout transmitted 10th February 1973 pitting Corne and Leduc against Schmidt and Janek/Jean Frisuk in place of Gonec Zeishuc. 

There is a similar looking long shot to the still on the document at around 23:30 of the video.

If it's not the same bout, I would present this as another example of TV bouts not included in the INA archive and that therefore there are more (possibly considerably more) broadcasts than the INA archive list would indicate.

[ohtani's jacket]

I did a search for it and found it in the INA archives. 

[David Mantell]

1 hour ago, ohtani's jacket said:

I did a search for it and found it in the INA archives. 

Does it mention Zeishuc or Frisuk?

Jacky Corne does get thrown from the ring in the Frisuk bout but so does Schmidt.

[ohtani's jacket]

It’s the same info that Bob shared but in a slightly different format. 

[Jetlag]

That match is in Loss' google drive. It may be unlisted on Matt Ds channel but I can't find a link right now.

[ohtani's jacket]

Matt didn't review the match so perhaps the INA mislabeled it. 

[David Mantell]

36 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

perhaps the INA mislabeled it.

Probably the best bet. Was there a wrestler called Gonec Zeishuc? Was that Frisuk's real name or something?

[David Mantell]

On 6/5/2020 at 11:34 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

Flesh Gordon & Kader Hassouni vs. Le Marquis Richard Fumolo de la Rossignolette & Black Shadow (aired 7/14/85)

The Marquis has changed his name from Eduardo to Richard and shaved his beard. He looks like a totally different person. In fact, I'm not convinced it's the same worker. This guy looks like Jacky Richard. The gimmick still sucks and his wrestling is awful, so that hasn't changed. This has some decent stuff at the beginning between Gordon and Shadow before breaking down into the usual bore. The ring apron says Gilbert Leclerc in big letters. Is he the man responsible for this shit show?

July 1985. The month of Live Aid, the first ever Great American Bash and my last day at primary school.  Two months earlier SNME was launched, syndicated on NBC and the first American wrestling timeslot truly comparable to the British or French coverage since the DuMont network In 1955.  In a month's time Valentine and Beefcake will capture the WWF World Tag Team Championship, On this side of The Pond meanwhile, World of Sport has two months to live and is already experimenting with lunchtime wrestling slots, All Star runs its first Fairfield Hall Croydon show and will launch its Satellite Wrestling show on Screensport in two months.  And most pertinently there are just weeks to go before the migration of French Catch from Antenne 2 to FR3. 

One thing that definitely does suck is the venue lighting which looks dark and shadowy - keep in mind all the above historical context.  It would take Eurosport to sort out the French Catch TV lighting. Also Jean Pradinas's production team are having all sorts of fun with the on screen captions, putting up stuff like BOUM!! and Ventre Saint Gris, more for their own amusement than the audience, rather like WCW era Jim Ross going on about Craig The Sound Guy or whatever. Daniel Cazal has a white meat manufactured pop star, name of Billy, riding shotgun in the grand French trading of celeb experts (either intellectuals or show us stars) being hired in as guest analysts that Vince McMahon would copy for WM2 with disastrous results (Susan StJames, Cathy Lee Crosby).

Yup @ohtani's jacket that's Jacky Richard replacing Eduardo as the new Marquis, still with the same old Paul Butin Frangipan in his corner with a feather duster to hand.  He's come a long way since the no nonsense heel of the 70s (and has a long way yet to go as Travesti Man and Monsieur Jacky.) Thinning on top - maybe why those two later alter egos were bald. He hasn't piled on the kilos yet and can still move and get heat.

Flesh is still young and skinny and he and KH are a good fast moving Bon team. His folding press opening pin on Richard after a dazed Marquis is knocked into the ropes sparks a back and forth raising of hands to claim victory.  The Bons have their own counter to Paul in the shape of some guy in a yellow/black tracksuit top, apparently their coach. Between him and Paul, there is no need for seconds so the bucket and towels guys get the night off.

Black Shadow is the real revelation here, a real thug heel, like Bad News Brown trapped in Rufus R Jones's body.  He was active several years either side of Bond and Kincaid's Carribbean Sunshine Boys without any issues, going back to the early 70s and the INA's b/w film print stock and I think he last showed up on New Catch.  I particularly liked the splash he did off the top turnbuckle to get the pin.  Hassouni, Shadow and referee Otto Weiss get into a 3 way argument about the pin count speed which ends with Hassouni stomping on Otto's hand.

There's also a good spot where Gordon monkey-climbs Shadow then tries for a second one but is deposited on the corner post. Shadows truts to the middle of the ring poking his head like Buddy Rogers but Gordon fires a missile dropkick from behind.  Gordon gets a neat flying tackle into cross press deciding pin on Shadow for the winner, after which Monsieur yellow jacket grabs a trophy and hands it to Les Bons which sets off Richard.

Fast paced if generic Catch A Quatre Francais. Not as bad as OJ says. Except for the lighting.

 

 

[David Mantell]

Continuing my Black Shadow kick, rewinding 12 years to 1973 and the days before INA was set up, on which we are reliant on B/W export film prints. This bout was not reviewed on here previously although Shadow and Arz did team previously in 1973 and that has been reviewed. I'll get back to that one later.

An "Arz" if you don't know, is Arabic for a pimp.  (The Modern Hebrew term "Arsim" for the subculture of young working class Sephardic Jews into sportswear an hip hop culture - the Israeli equivalent of "Chavs" in the UK - was derived from this word.). J el A made quite a few French TV appearances running up to about 1976, the last of which INA made it's own colour video recordings. Josef sports a goatee, shadow an arrogant sheer worthy of the greatest Rene Lasertasse. Shadow may be a faux American, or even a real one, the commentator says he played American Football. More clean wrestling 

Five minutes in, Shadow is mostly clean wrestling Les Bons, taking bump landings from their wrist levers and Irish Whips. Fast paced but the audience are quiet, making them them of body on canvas stand out.  Shadow pulls his head out of a headscissor but is kicked into the ropes and leg-flipped on the rebound. Tags Arz. More clean wrestling. Shadow finally gets nasty with some punches on the ring apron. Arz holds Cohen for some Shadow stomps. Bouvet does a hope spot with flying scissors/bulldog headlock combo on both Mechants. Before long Shadow is in, Arz is out but still the double team. Pithy remark from commentator "La festival d'Iregularite continue".  Soon Les Bons are turning the table on Josef, camera zooms in on him selling an arm scissors.   Shadow reaches in with a stomp to regain heat. Referee is an old long white haired guy. Not Delaporte, he was still in tranks and a Mechant in August 1973. 

Both heels take an ankle each on the fallen Cohen, causing Bouvet to come in an split leg dropkick the pair.  Soon he is diving on Arz repeatedly.  Later Chiottes Arbitres like Saulnier and Weizz would be handing out Avertisements by now to the naughty Bons.  Shadow gets one for beating down on a cornered Cohen.  Commentator is getting fed up of still being in la Premier Manchester after all this time. Cohen rolls out of a beat down and scores the hot tag to Bouvet.  He gets to work dropkicking Shadow out the ring and getting a victory roll on Arz for the opener.  Crowd taunts the heels "ou est, ou est?" But they are soon back double teaming Cohen. Shadow briefly gets his head in the ropes but gets back out.  Cohen end up staggering at ringside, he gets in but Arz gets his in a piledriver position before switching to a bodyslam for the equaliser.  Shadow doesa suitable victory strut. Yes, apparently he is an American says the commentator.

Shadow forearms Cohen in the chest and Bouvet gets hot tagged in. Goes to work with dropkicks. Has both bad guys on the floor and follows them out for a four man ringside brawl.  IAt this point in 1973 the IBA's predecessor the ITA would have banned this from British TV.  Good guys double dropkick and whip bad guys into each other before Cohen gets the cross press on Arz for the decider.

Very much a dirty wrestling fest with the heels getting their comeuppance eventually. If you like the somersault escapes of Catch Francais then this is not much for you, but if you Kong to see an American style brawling heel team, Arz and Shadow really give it some Arn and Tully.

 

 

[David Mantell]

2 minutes ago, David Mantell said:

Shadow and Arz did team previously in 1973 and that has been reviewed. I'll get back to that one later.

 

On 7/26/2020 at 1:07 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

Rene Ben Chemoul & Walter Bordes vs. Black Shadow & El Arz (aired 7/25/70)

This is the last bit of footage from 1970. I think we have 13 matches in total. Holy crap, it's a young Black Shadow! That won't mean much to most of you, but if you've gone through the 80s catch, you'll be familiar with a middle-aged Shadow, who was one of the better workers left in the business. His partner, Josef El Arz was a Lebanese wrestler, apparently. This started with Ben Chemoul and Bordes dancing, carrying on and having a good time. Then El Arz started cheating. Then Ben Chemoul and Bordes taught the heels a lesson and danced some more. A bit one-sided but it wasn't boring. 

Good guys are throwing leaflets to ringsiders at the start. Arz has a long kafiyyeh on his head.  Crowd get the good guys going with papa doux  he he chant.  Top babyface team Bordes and RBC are completely wiping the floor with the heels. Apparently Shadow is from Washington and plays baseball. Nice surfboard on Arz. Halfway in it calms down to armlocks on the mat with only one or two flips out. Past halfway, Les Mechants start their double teaming on Rene. Both heels caught by the neck in the ropes on opposite sides of the ring.  Good guys get the opening fall with a Rick Martel slingshot bodypress. This isn't the night for the heels but Shadow mocks the fans doing a mouth-sign at them with his hand.  Good guys take it too far when one holds Arz's leg for the other to dive on it, ref tells them off. Fans give it the bird (a bad habit of Continental fans) and one old man waddles to ringside to complain but no Avertisement for Les Bons. Apparently Shadow was a parachuteist too, says the commentator.  One bon slingshots Shadow into Arz who is trapped in a full nelson. Six minutes to go, the good guys are one up and Les Mechants have still had no significant heat.  It never comes. Second straight fall with a flying bodypress. Bordes and RBC dance to what the commentator calls a "cabaret du Ring."

VERY lopsided good guy win. A private warning from the ref for one double team too many is as bad as it got for Les Bons. I'm surprised @ohtani's jacket didn't complain about the lack of tag match structure.

[David Mantell]

France and Britain Vs France and Britain.  

Jacky Richard as the Travesti Man you all know, no sign of Jean Claude the Best Boy (formerly Paul the butler. Patric Lopez doing his zRugby player gimmick, a surprisingly good mover well verse at British rolls out of armbars and even does toupees. Murdoch is not Duthty's old tag partner but Dick Harrison aka Ron Clarke formerly of the Lincolnshire Poachers with Bill "King Kendo" Clarke. Steve Prince. a soldier boy, is on his best behaviour as a good guy for once!  Lopez gets the one fall required with a Powerslam.

[David Mantell]

Short clip from the same 1978 TV taping in the same sports hall with the same Breton bagpipe band as Mammouth Siki Vs Daniel Schmidt. Joined in progress, some spectators are in traditional Breton costume. Lateif is the younger guy in the white. Latif seems to be the bratty cocky young heel, the crowds side with older balding Momo in black.  Some good action moves and so e Manchettes. Latif gets an Avertisement for a low blow. He wins cleanly with a suplex and cross press and the .two shake hands. Last minute or so is about the pipe band who are on some sort of charity bagpipes marathon, apparently.

 

[David Mantell]

Arz and Shadow team again, this time in surviving colour, yet again at the Cirque d'Hiver. Shadow in a gold ring jacket, Arz in the red/white plus Cedar Tree colours/emblem of the Lebanese flag. Robert Duranton drops in to say hello and snog the elderly male MC, dressed in black and looking every inch the movie star he was by this time.

The bad guys still lose but they put on their strongest performance yet, getting an opening fall about 10 mins in. It's all too much for one old boy who attacks Shadow and gets VICIOUSLY booted for his pains.  Les Bons finally catch up and get their equaliser and decider in the last few minutes. Fans chant Mama Doux Mais Mais despite the lack of Walter Bordes.

 

 

[David Mantell]

Dream match: Emil Mansour Vs Josef El Arz - Lebanese Bon Vs Lebanese Mechant.

They were both on French TV around the same time, beginning of 1976, so it is plausible.

[David Mantell]

On 6/7/2020 at 12:57 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

Walter Bordes, Flesh Gordon & Angelito vs.  Le Marquis Richard Fumolo de la Rossignolette, Jessy Texas & Eliott Le Rocky (aired 8/11/85)

Time for some Catch A Six action. Jessy Texas is dressed like a cowboy and rides a horse to the ring. And for some reason, Frederico is doing a boxer gimmick. This should have been exciting but structurally it was a mess. I'm not sure why it was so hard for European guys to lay out a tag match. Oftentimes, the action can be good but the timing of the falls is baffling. Gordon and Angelito did some flashy moves, and Frederico held up his side of things, but the match lacked rhythm and excitement.

Afterward, there is a documentary about the French jazz pianist, Michel Petrucciani, who suffered from brittle bone disease. 

A landmark moment, August 11th 1985. The last wrestling broadcast on Antenne2 formerly 2eme Chaine after 21 years when some wrestling broadcasts were diverted to the new channel on its 1964 launch. The very next week Flesh and Bordes would be over on FR3 battling Les Maniaks in the first of three changes of channel which was what France had instead of the end of World Of Sport and the termination of ITV's subsequent standalone Wrestling show.

Jessy, as mentioned, comes in on horseback led by Gaby Lailee as Tonto in about the nearest AFAIK that she ever walked down a Heel path. Then again, maybe the horse was a closet babyface. Luckily apart from one kid patting it on the nose, the crowd leave the horse alone.  It's all a bit Jerry Lawler.  Someone called Charles Levesque is guest commentator. Elliot is wearing a fancy red peaked hat, Richard is doing the Marquis gimmick but honestly just looks like 70s Jacky.

Better lit than usual, the Tricolore ropes and grey mat make it look like a cross between World Of Sport of that point and the WWF circa 1983. Good fast paced triple tag, Paul the butler making it a seven man handicap tag, running in to break up holds and participating in four on one beatdowns.

Elliot comes up with one great move early on, leaping backward as Angelito goes for a headlock then sharing his arm.  Flesh is still in his young agile phase firing a backwards dropkick at Elliot.  Jacky despite his new title inherited from Eduardo is still the same surly heel as earlier, there's a touch of Ron "Damn" Simmons to him. A mass ringside brawl breaks out and a blonde dolly bird in beauty pageant gear gets involved. Walter still gets the old Papa Doux Mais Mais. Jessy Texas is more of a stomper and brawler. Angelito is still the same high flyer from the 70s.

Les Bons seem to be picking up Avertisements a lot from Charley Bollet. Flying Flesh gets a cross press opening pin on Eliot Frederico.  Jessy pulls down a rope and Walter falls out, Jessy and Elliot give Walter quite a kicking at ringside, Flesh and a second have to help him up. Elliot is fouling Walter in the corner and Bollet hauls him off by the moustache. (Elliot I believe is the same guy as Grim Rocker on New Catch later on.). 

Lovely teamwork spot less than three minutes from the end, Flesh has Elliot on the mat, but the other two heels are sneaking up on Flesh from behind, Angelito then vaults Flesh to flying tackle Richard and Texas. Flesh has had to release Eliot who gets to his feet to be nailed down by a Flesh dropkick. Only 2min 40sec of clip left and the heels are still leading 1-0. Will Les Mechants get an equaliser?

Nope. Elliot and Le Marquis are tied in the ropes and Paul dumped to ringside while Walter who has been recovering on his tag rope, scores a flying bodypress on Jessy Texas to make it two straight falls. @ohtani's jacket I'm guessing this was the underlying issue with your"lack of structure", the lack of a heel consolation fall. Still it's not lopsided like Bordes and RBC Vs Shadow and Arz 1970, the heels do get some good heat spots and French fans seem to have been accustomed to the falls all coming in one big rush at the end, so who are we to impose our standards on them?

The dolly bird from earlier and another identically dressed one gets in the ring to celebrate with Les Bons - were they the prize? No sign of the documentary, I guess @Matt D must have trimmed it off.

Typical fast paced French tag match from what had became very much a tag team territory.

[David Mantell]

Some English commentary versions of videos I've already posted.

On 10/1/2024 at 11:28 PM, David Mantell said:

I'm tempted to post this to the British thread as these are two Brits and two ITV veterans to boot but this took place in France for a French promoter so according to my rules this counts as French wrestling, the same as the French TV bouts of Bert Royal Vs Tony Oliver in the early 60s and Pete Roberts Vs Dave Bond in 1978 also both count as French.  Also because it follows on a theme I recently brought up of TBWs being sacrificed to bigger nastier heels -  Raymond O'Reilly Vs Hakan in Rumble recently (how's that for alliteration?) or Ian McGregor Vs Skull Murphy on mid 80s ITV. Here is another example.

McCoy was still considered the next Johnny Saint at this point although he had resigned his British Lightweight Championship and left All Star under a cloud after his dad King Ben was sacked after a tag match against Kendo Nagasaki and Blondie Barrett in July 1990 (long story going back to the sixties and animosity between Kendo and Benn's trainer Ernie Baldwin.). He got some World title matches with Johnny Saint on Reslo (with his ex boss Brian Dixon refereeing) and had he not quit in 1993 to go into the roofing trade (just as Kendo was retiring the second time) might well have become the new World champion in the late 90s some time.

He does get to do a lot of his counters and reversals on Scrubber but Daly just sandbags it all before going for a Knockout win after a splash.  If Kid could have tripped Daly and got him down on the mat, things could have got really interesting.

Add Knockouts - To anyone who STILL doesn't believe they were considered more prestigious than pins or submissions in Britain/Europe, please note that Daly could have stayed put after the splash and got a three count but instead stood up and got a ten count because a Knockout win made a more emphatic statement of DESTROYING an opponent than a pinfall win.

 

On 9/27/2024 at 10:33 PM, David Mantell said:

Main event is an all English Catch A Quatre.  Danny Collins was MASSIVELY over in France at this time. After beating Jorg "Baron Von" Chenok on ITV on FA Cup Final Day 1985 to win the European Welterweight title he trekked over every summer of the late 80s to tour for Roger Delaporte's FFCP defending the title across France and Northern Spain. This French audience are quite doolally for him. Partner was John Harvey a part time wrestler, part time conjurer and part time circus fire eater - think Rick Steamboat in the WWF 1991 crossed with Phantasio a few years later. Probably the least exciting of the four. Heels are an odd couple. Jimmy Ocean and Doc Dean. Not only is nice kid next door Doc a heel in a pair of Bret Hart shades, he is teaming with one half of the Liverpool Lads' archenemies back home, the Superflies. Jimmy Ocean had beaten Steve Grey for the British Lightweight title but lost it to Tony Stewart, Doc had beaten Mal Sanders for the British Welterweight Championship (formerly held by Danny) before losing it to Blondie Barrett. Both would regain the titles before losing them to Grey and Soldier Boy Steve Prince.  Danny starts off in top form, all kips ups, cartwheels, scoots through the legs. Honestly @ohtani's jacket  I don't get your problem with the guy, he was an incredible mover, taking all Dynamite Kid's stuff to the next level.  Harvey tags in and is FIP before Collins makes it back in to score the win. Heels try to attack Danny with a chair, Danny challenges them to a rematch which gets massive pops from the crowd despite being in English, they bang on the ring apron like the South London Hellcrew. They love their Danny Boy.   On another bout, Orig Williams on the English language commentary says of Danny "When I see this man's name on the card I go see him." And promote him on a lot of your shows too, Orig.

 

On 9/27/2024 at 10:33 PM, David Mantell said:

White MC Undertaker was Psycho Shane Stevens.  At this point the "real" Undertaker was still a heel in the WWF (he had headlined Wembley Arena with the Ultimate Warrior and back in America was about to challenge Hogan for the World title at Survivor Series 91.). Flesh makes short work of him in an action packed bout, not so much science but plenty of acrobatic stuff like hiptosses. Rather sweet promo from Stevens threatening all manner of revenge, doing Undie in a Northern accent.(with French subtitles as done later for StClair and Hart Le B.)

 

 

[David Mantell]

On the subject of Collins and Harvey Vs Dean and Ocean, Collins got hat revenge match he was clamouring for - and gave Ocean a darn good hiding:

 

[David Mantell]

New Catch does clean wrestling just like ITV. Reslo, Screensport and Old Catch!

Heavyweight clean wrestling but clean wrestling all the same. Franz Van B, everyone's favourite Belgian, takes on Boston Blackie, the then touted hot challenger to Fit Finlay's British Heavyweight Championship and eventual tribute show version of The Rock. Orig's commentary clumsily dubbed over Flesh Gordon 's French commentary (credited as Gerard Herve, his real name.) Blackie is profiled as "Blaky" - for those of you not familiar with classic British sitcoms and  who don't get what's unintentionally hilarious about that, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Buses And just to rub it in, Herve says something about "titre de passenger" LOL

Blackie uses strength holds, Van B lots of traditional "Couple" French Catch vaults and somersaults, culminating in a magnificent Scisseaux Volees takedown. Orig reckons that rather than get technical, Blackie should just use his strength to bash away at Franz which he does with a couple of clotheslines and some follow up strikes once Van B is up off the mat. Blackie showing off his physique but not in an arrogant hellish way, more putting on a show. He doesn't get heat for it anyway.

 Van B reciprocates and a Manchette Contest breaks out. Unlike the forearm contests Jim Cornette has complained about on his shows, these two do actually sell it and fall down. Blackie does an Ivan Koloff flying kneedrop and poses with his knee across Frank's neck but comes across as smiley and likeable so the crowd cheer him regardless. Blackie goes for another flyer but Franz picks him off and goes for a slam.

They shake hands and it goes more technical, Blackie landing badly from a whip and Franz follows in with a stomp. Van Buyten throws Blackie out of the ring and on his return catches him with a rather clumsy flying tackle, almost a vertical cross bodyblock, for the pin.

Just in case you thought this Clean Match was just an incompetent attempt at working heel on Blackie 's part, the two men shake hands and embrace after the contest and get a nice ovation for it from the crowd.

 

 

[David Mantell]

On 11/12/2023 at 4:00 PM, David Mantell said:

Been watching his other VOD of Travesti Man 

Actually I have to admit that until that point not only had I not realised Travesti Man was actually Jacky Richard but that "Best Boy" Jean Claude Blanchet was actually the same person as Paul "The Butler" Butard whom Jacky the 2nd Marquis de Fumolo inherited from beardy  Eduardo the 1st Marquis.  Well that explains how he put on the weight and dumped the horseshoe hairdo for Monsieur Jacky later on.

Actually the opponent in that video Jean Phillipe de Lonzac was quite a revelation, good young wrestler doing all the classic French counters/reversals like the Scisseaux Volees takedown, the backflip off the top wristlock etc. Twenty years old, another young lion of the era along with Zefy and Caradec. I wonder what became of him.

[David Mantell]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_Handed_Johnny_West

Apparently Delaporte and Bollet were not just heel wrestlers and French pop chanteurs but Movie Star actors too!

[Phil Lions]

6 hours ago, David Mantell said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_Handed_Johnny_West

Apparently Delaporte and Bollet were not just heel wrestlers and French pop chanteurs but Movie Star actors too!

Indeed they were. Here's a newspaper advert for the movie (its title in France was "Les Frères Dynamite"):

And here they are as their characters in the movie: