French catch

[Phil Lions]

New Catch/EWF on Eurosport. I had always had a rough idea, but I had never really looked into the exact timeline of when New Catch/EWF was airing on Eurosport. So today I dug through the TV listings and pieced together the history of pro wrestling on Eurosport until the mid 1990s*. It goes like this:

- WWF: November 1989 through May 1991
- New Catch/EWF: September or October 1991 through May 1992**
- WWF: September 1994 through early November 1994
- NJPW: November 1994 through December 1996***

* This is based on TV listings from Continental Europe.
** The September listings just say "Wrestling", but don't specify what wrestling (I'm guessing it was New Catch/EWF but can't confirm). The ones from October specifically say "Wrestling from Europe" and then from December onward it's "New Catch".
*** The New Japan shows were originally branded as "World Superstars of Wrestling" and then rebranded to "Ring Warriors" in May 1995.

So yeah, that was the New Catch/EWF run on Eurosport TV in Europe. Not even a year. The show aired at various times: 1 pm, 6 pm, 10 pm, 11:00 pm, etc.

[David Mantell]

So why do a lot of what we know to be the 1988 TF1 Episodes circulate with Eurosport idents on them?

We know more episodes were made after the TF1 run because for example the Superflies did not yet exist as a tag team in 1988.

Also Bull Power's vacant CWA World title win over Rambo took place December 22nd 1990, this was screened as part of a New Catch episode which I have on VHS with a Eurosport idents and English commentary by Orig Williams.

(For what it's worth I saw a few of the New Japan episodes while on my ERASMUS year in Metz, France in Spring 1996.)

[Phil Lions]

TF1 wasn't co-owner of Eurosport until mid 1991. It doesn't make sense for their New Catch show to be airing on Eurosport before that. The TV listings back that too - the last mention of WWF on Eurosport is exactly May 1991 when the co-ownership was about to switch to TF1, and then later in the year TF1 brings on New Catch.

I'd guess some of the 1988 New Catch stuff was re-aired in 1991/1992. Yes, some CWA matches were for sure aired on Eurosport as part of New Catch.

[David Mantell]

Yes, this could possibly explain why tape traders like Adam Mumford's EWV claimed a 1991 date -just before Rocco's retirement - for the Rollerball Rocco/Danny Collins Paris World HMid title bout (We now know this was on TF1 in 1988)

Some 1988 episodes rescreened on Eurosport have John Harris (the MC from the Kendo Nagasaki Vs Skull Murphy bout recently on the British thread) instead of Orig Williams as A English commentary. Mainly the ones with the MAXI CUISINE ring canvas.

Most of the non 1988 episodes have a Eurosport logo on the shiny blue ring canvas.

[Phil Lions]

Speaking of the midget wrestlers, I just randomly stumbled upon this information while looking for something else. Hassan, apparently, used to be the mascot for the AS Saint-Etienne football club. Saw this mentioned in a 1988 article for a FEC show. Then I googled it and the second photo below popped up. It's said to be from 1976 and lists him as Hassam Handami (it's probably Hassan and they misspelled it).

[El-P]

16 hours ago, Phil Lions said:

- WWF: November 1989 through May 1991
- New Catch/EWF: September or October 1991 through May 1992**
- WWF: September 1994 through early November 1994
- NJPW: November 1994 through December 1996***

No idea how in the hell some WWF episodes ended up on Eurosport. I don't remember, did Canal + owned a part too ? They must have, since they had the WWF rights until the end of 1997 (then switched to WCW). 

Fascinating to finally have dates for the NJPW run, which was my very first taste of Japanese wrestling (and really, major non WWF wrestling). I thought it lasted longer than this, but then again. I'm pretty sure parts of the Super J Cup were showed. I absolutely remember watching Benoit and Malenko there before they got to ECW/WCW.

As far as New Catch goes, yeah, after two or three ill-fated weeks on TF1, they just dumped that stuff on Eurosport until they didn't. Needless to say, nobody watched that stuff.

[David Mantell]

49 minutes ago, El-P said:

No idea how in the hell some WWF episodes ended up on Eurosport.

Simple, it was co-owned by Sky until TF1 bought it and was on the same Astra satellite as part of the same package of satellite channels as Sky. It stayed on there after the buyout.

As I think I mentioned, any household in the UK capable of getting WWF (other than the bits ITV screened on the specials 1987-1988 and the small hours 1988-1989) could get New Catch too. Whereas in France you already had Canal + for the WWF.

49 minutes ago, El-P said:

As far as New Catch goes, yeah, after two or three ill-fated weeks on TF1, they just dumped that stuff on Eurosport until they didn't.

Preview run for the new revamped channel.

I equate that run with the Oct 1990 Joint Promotions ITV tapings in Aberdeen.