Greek catch

[Phil Lions]

A while back I did a big article on the history of pro wrestling (or catch as they used to call it there) in Greece and in the process of doing so I came across some mid to late 1980s and early 1990s footage from Greece. It occurred to me just now that some people here might find the footage interesting so I thought I'd share it here, along with some info on the featured wrestlers. Most of the footage is handheld as local wrestling never aired on TV in Greece (apart from a couple of TV specials, I think). Some things were taped for VHS as well.

Catch took off in Greece in the 1930s and reached its peak in the 1950s, 60s and 70s when during the summer months there would be several shows per week at big open-air stadiums in the capital Athens. Greece, and Athens in particular, is a very underrated territory. Catch was quite popular there and they were drawing some of the biggest crowds in Europe at the time. Sadly all of the footage below is from the tail end of Greek catch when the crowds were much smaller, the workers were generally older and the work wasn't as good anymore, but still it's kind of fascinating to take a look at wrestling from that part of the world. Just don't go in expecting French catch level of work.

Since I don't have the dates for any of these matches, I'll list them by footage length, starting with the longest. All of the footage is from YouTube.

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A compilation of Apostolos Souglakos matches - An early 1990s VHS release. Souglakos was one of the two most popular Greek wrestlers at the time (maybe even the most popular one), and he was also an actor so that gave him some additional fame. You could say he was the last star of Greek catch. Among Souglakos' opponents in this are Thomson (a.k.a. Gigi the Greek from Canada, Souglakos' first opponent in the video), Giorgos Pefanis (the guy with the long blonde hair, the last notable Greek heel of that era, he does a great blade job in one of the matches here) and King Kong (the big masked guy in the full-body leopard-striped suit, the most popular masked gimmick in the history of Greek catch - a gimmick that lasted 30 years in Greece). Also included is a scene from the 1984 Greek movie "The Bastards" where Souglakos takes on Giorgos Tromaras (the other top Greek star of the era). Don't watch after 48:00 when the credits roll - after that it's just some of the same matches repeated again.

Several matches from a show  - Late 1980s or early 1990s. The video resolution is weird. Pefanis is one of the guys in the final match. I don't recognize the other wrestlers in the footage.

Apostolos Souglakos vs. Panagiotis Hristofilopoulos - Early or mid 1980s. Hristofilopoulos (in the blue trunks) was a well-established name and was toward the end of his career here, while Souglakos was a headliner, but not quite the top star he would become later.

Giorgos Bouranis & Soulis Tsikrikas in a tag team match + part 2 - From 1984. Some of the middle is missing. Bouranis and Tsikrikas (the second team in the video, Tsikrikas is the guy running, and Bouranis is the guy behind him) were one of the top Greek teams. They also had a run in the UK as a team. Bouranis was also a popular singles babyface star in Greece. In this match both guys are nearing the end of their careers.

a tag team match - Probably late 1980s. Finish is missing. The title of the video has the name Tsamouras in it so perhaps he was one of the wrestlers in the footage.

a singles match - Probably late 1980s. Finish is missing. The title of the video has the name Tsamouras in it so perhaps he was one of the wrestlers in the footage.

Giorgos Siotis in a singles match - From 1987. The lightweight Siotis (the guy in the blue singlet) was considered one of the best Greek technicians. This is toward the end of his career.

Highlights from a Giorgos Tromaras match - Late 1980s or early 1990s. This seems to have been taped for TV, or maybe VHS. Along with the aforementioned Souglakos, Tromaras (the guy in the yellow singlet) was the most popular Greek wrestler of the 1980s and early 1990s. He was also a famous strongman.

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And finally some bonus stuff.

Apostolos Souglakos vs. Giorgos Tromaras - A scene from the 1984 Greek movie "The Bastards". It's included above in the Souglakos comp, but this version is a bit longer. It's the top two Greek stars of the the 1980s wrestling each while a sniper is setting up to shoot Souglakos.

Apostolos Souglakos vs. King Kong - Another scene from "The Bastards". Again, it's the masked King Kong that I mentioned above in the Souglakos comp. Over the years the gimmick went through a few different names (Monster, Di Bestia, King Kong), but it was essentially always the same gimmick.

Giorgos Tromaras strongman demonstration - From 1996.

Giorgos Pefanis strongman demonstration

P.S. It's also worth noting that catch more or less died out in the mid 1990s in Greece, but a few years back an indy company called ZMAK popped up and they are the top Greek indie promotion. There's also the Hellenic Pro Wrestling Association.
 

[Phil Schneider]

Ok we clearly need to review some of this for New Footage Friday on Segunda Caida, what is the best match of this bunch (closest to complete as well)

[elliott]

Quote

 King Kong (the big masked guy in the full-body leopard-striped suit, the most popular masked gimmick in the history of Greek catch - a gimmick that lasted 30 years in Greece).

I was skipping around that first video just to see what things looked like and I got excited when I saw this hahahah! 

Thanks for sharing. This is really cool info. Wild that this stuff has been on youtube for a decade. Cant help but wonder what else is out there that we could easily find on youtube right now but don't know about because we don't know what names to search and which languages. 

[Phil Lions]

2 hours ago, Phil Schneider said:

Ok we clearly need to review some of this for New Footage Friday on Segunda Caida, what is the best match of this bunch (closest to complete as well)

I don't know that I would classify anything here as particularly great in the traditional sense. It's been a few years since I've watched these so my recollection isn't great and I think I never got around to watching all of the footage above in full, but personally I'm partial to the Souglakos comp. I wouldn't say these are the best matches as the matches are short and the quality of the work is up for debate, but it's a fascinating look at Greek catch's final headline star and perhaps best remembered star (largely due to him having some fame outside of wrestling too with various movie roles, TV appearances, and even a rap album). The crowd is really into Souglakos in some of the bouts and Pefanis does a great blade job in one of them so those were my main two takeways from the comp. At least from what I recall. I'd also throw the Tromaras match highlights in there as well just for comparison's sake as Tromaras was the other top Greek name back then.

Sidenote about Souglakos. He actually headlined the first (and only) show by an American company in Greece. New York's NWF had a show there in 1991 with Abdullah the Butcher, Jules Strongbow, Wendi Richter and others. Souglakos was the only Greek on the card and took on The Russian Assassin (Johnny Grunge, supposedly) in the main event. That was the last big wrestling crowd in Greece - about 5,500 (or 15,000 according to Souglakos in interviews ). I can't remember off the top of my head, but I think that show may have aired on TV in Greece. It was definitely taped as that match was featured in the other Souglakos VHS comp that was released in the early 1990s, but sadly that one hasn't popped up on YouTube. And one final fun fact about Souglakos. Back in 1989 he got a bunch of publicity in Greece for challenging Mike Tyson to a boxing fight. He was claiming Tyson is afraid of him...

If not the Souglakos comp I say go for the Siotis match. He's got a rep as being one of the better Greek workers.

After that it's a toss-up. The Souglakos vs. Hristofilopoulos match is full, but I don't recall it being any good. The Bouranis/Tsikrikas tag, plus the singles and tag match with unidentified wrestlers may be better, but neither one of those is full. They're good length, just not full.