French catch

[David Mantell]

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

Quote

David Mantell said:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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