Why is America always assumed to be the centre of the wrestling universe?

[Dav'oh]

Most work available for the most workers on any given night? I'd put the U.S over Europe. If one were to narrow "Europe" to the U.K or France and apply "per capita", I still feel the U.S would be ahead.

I feel this is a more pertinent metric than NTSC, TV time-slots, heel-bayface ratios, etc. Where could the most people earn a quid/buck/shekel?

[David Mantell]

22 hours ago, Dav'oh said:

Where could the most people earn a quid/buck/shekel?

Funnily enough for a good deal of the C21st the UK has commonly been cited as the only place on the planet where anyone outside of a WWE contract could earn a full time living from pro wrestling.

 

22 hours ago, Dav'oh said:

a more pertinent metric than NTSC

The different TV systems in Europe was a barrier for British, French and all the CWA/VdB home video releases from Germany/Austria to get a foothold in the already crowded American tape trading market.  More so than it was a barrier for the imported PWI/WWF on Sky devouring UK cult of Wild Crazy American Wrestling to get someone's American penpal to send some tapes over which could then be transferred and duplicated and passed around.  (American territory clips on Reslo and Screensport were another way for footage of American territories to reach Britain.)

On 1/25/2024 at 12:56 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

Being shunted around in late night TV slots is not really my idea of high profile.

It was still better than anything any American promotion had for 30 years until SNME came along just four months before the move from Antenne 2 to FR3 (and slightly better than SNME which IIRC began at 2300 and carried into the doze-off hours of graveyard slot land.) Randomday Night's Main Event in France seems to have had a slightly earlier slot.  At the time of the move from A2 to FR3, wrestling definitely was being broadcast weekly as we have recordings for consecutive weeks.

 

On 1/25/2024 at 12:56 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

If it was, the archives are missing plenty of episodes.

We know there are other bouts which were screened which people like Bob Alpra have posted but Matt D didn't post.  INA, once it was set up and had taken in prints of about 20 years of overseas sales stock, recorded episodes off air (mostly timecoded with the French speaking clock) to fulfill its quota.  Meanwhile the real tape archives could well still be with France 2 and France 3 (as A2 and FR3 are known nowadays) just as the BBC and ITV gave some programmes to the National Film Archive in Britain but not the whole of their stock

 

On 1/25/2024 at 12:56 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

It doesn't pass the eye test either, as the drop off in quality from the 50s & 60s to the 70s and 80s is striking. Was there a US territory with television that was worse than French Catch at the time? 

It got very cartoony (like Memphis) and the cartooniness has remained a staple of French wrestling to this day in both WS and the revived FFCP but the quality of the action remained fantastic - particularly as a tag team territory.  Gordon & Bordes vs Les Maniaks - if you can keep a straight face at the Maniaks' costumes - is a really good fast paced tag match that would have held up well in the WWF's late 80s hot period of tag wrestling (the Rockers vs the Rougeaus etc).

France did have a problem with lighting the venues which look dark and dingy on screen sometimes.  Darker gaudy colour schemes for the rings didn't help (this is why the WWF and AWA both ditched the navy blue canvases).   The early 80s single camera footage of Axel Dieter's shows in Germany illustrate this point even more.  Mike Archer did a much better job in Britain especially from 1985 onwards in terms of lighting and camerawork, especially some very on-point close up roving camerawork at ringside.

The quality of French TV production shot up a long way with Eurosport coming into the picture and the big blue rings and brighter lighting on New Catch.

In terms of sheer grottiness of the rings etc, however, Memphis and Stampede were both light years further down the tubes than France during that period.  Even on the poor quality copies we have nowadays, that grubby old canvas at the Mid South Colosseum looks horrific, like diahorrea-soiled bed linen from a hospital during a cholera outbreak!  

On 1/25/2024 at 12:56 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

I have no problem calling European wrestling one of the major centres of pro-wrestling along with Japan, Mexico and the US, especially with the research that Phil has been doing into other European countries like Greece and Spain, but not the centre. 

I'd put it forward as a rival candidate for the centre to the US.  Certainly enough of a rival to query the blank Hacksaw Dugganesque ASSUMPTION that the US is where it all revolves around.  I'd agree that Japan was another good rival - enough to make that quote in the Aptermags about Terry Gordy in 1989 look incredibly stupid and short sighted.