Catch TV in Switzerland, Luxembourg and Monaco (1950s-1960s)

[Phil Lions]

So here’s an interesting fact that many are not aware of. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, the UK and France were not the only European countries that had pro wrestling on TV. Switzerland, Luxembourg and Monaco did as well. In fact, at times more wrestling was airing on TV in those countries than it was in France.

I was aware of catch (pro wrestling) being on TV in those three countries, but had never looked into it, because I was under the assumption the stuff that aired there might’ve just been repeats of the French catch TV. Well, now having searched the TV listings from that period, I can say that my assumption was wrong. Most of the advertised matches that I found, to follow below, in fact did not air in France.

So how did these broadcasts work? Where were they filmed? I can’t say for sure. I asked Bob Plantin about it and he seemed pretty sure some matches were filmed in France for distribution in Switzerland, Luxembourg and Monaco. I believe that and can definitely see it being the case. However, looking at the matches I found below, some I do not think came from France as I don’t have a record of certain guys working in France that particular year. I also think it’s possible a few of the matches may have been repeats of French catch TV matches.

Typically, the broadcasts were 20 to 30 minutes long. Keep in mind, the matches mentioned below were the advertised matches, but for sure there were some instances where something else aired instead of what was being advertised. Some of the TV listings specifically mentioned the commentator for the broadcast so where that was the case I’ve listed him too.

--------------

Now let’s look at Switzerland first. Below are all the broadcasts that I could find in the Swiss TV listings. All the broadcasts were on Télévision Suisse Romande.

- August 5, 1959 (at 21:45): advertised but did not air
- August 22, 1959 (at 21:45): no specific match advertised
- September 24, 1959 (at 21:30): Black Salem vs. Pierre Boss
- October 8, 1959 (at 21:35): no specific match advertised
- October 22, 1959 (at 21:40): Jacky Corn vs. Paul Debusne
- November 5, 1959 (at 21:45): Gaby Dumas vs. Andre Poulain
- November 25, 1959 (at 21:45): no specific match advertised
- December 3, 1959 (at 22:00): Billy Catanzaro vs. Guy Robin
- December 17, 1959 (at 21:35): a tag team match
- January 14, 1960 (at 21:45): no specific match advertised
- January 28, 1960 (at 21:55): no specific match advertised
- February 11, 1960 (at 22:00): Billy Catanzaro vs. Marcel Bordes
- March 3, 1960 (at 22:10): Butcher Johnson vs. Roger Delaporte
- April 7, 1960 (at 22:10): Masahiko Kimura vs. Karl von Kramer
- April 21, 1960 (at 21:55): no specific match advertised
- May 4, 1960 (at 22:15): a tag team match
- May 19, 1960 (at 22:00): no specific match advertised
- May 25, 1960 (at 22:05): no specific match advertised
- June 2, 1960 (at 22:00): no specific match advertised
- June 23, 1960 (at 22:00): Frank Orlik vs. Jose Tarres
- June 30, 1960 (at 22:00): Roger Guettier vs. Masahiko Kimura
- July 7, 1960 (at 22:05): Roger Gaillot vs. Ferdinand Bauer
- July 15, 1960 (at 22:15): no specific match advertised
- July 22, 1960 (at 22:05): no specific match advertised
- July 28, 1960 (at 21:35): Bert Royal vs. Karl von Kramer
- August 4, 1960 (at 21:40): Lino di Santo vs. Hercules Cortez
- August 12, 1960 (at 21:50): no specific match advertised
- November 24, 1960 (at 21:40): Jack Bence vs. Roger Delaporte
- December 4, 1960 (at 21:35): L’Ange Blanc vs. Mario Matassa
- December 7, 1960 (at 21:35): L’Ange Blanc vs. Mario Matassa
- December 12, 1960 (at 21:55): no specific match advertised
- December 16, 1960 (at 21:30): no specific match advertised
- January 4, 1961 (at 21:30): no specific match advertised
- February 1, 1961 (at 21:45): a tag team match
- February 16, 1961 (at 22:00): no specific match advertised
- February 23, 1961 (at 22:00): no specific match advertised
- March 23, 1961 (at 22:00): no specific match advertised
- March 29, 1961 (at 21:40): no specific match advertised
- April 13, 1961 (at 21:45): no specific match advertised
- April 26, 1961 (at 21:45): Jose Arroyo vs. Dr. Adolf Kaiser with commentary by Georges de Caunes
- May 4, 1961 (at 21:25): no specific match advertised
- May 25, 1961 (at 21:25): no specific match advertised
- June 1, 1961 (at 21:45): no specific match advertised
- June 8, 1961 (at 21:35): no specific match advertised
- June 21, 1961 (at 21:30): no specific match advertised
- July 6, 1961 (at 21:30): Eric Wasberg vs. Mic Charre
- July 27, 1961 (at 21:50): a tag team match with commentary by Jean Renaux
- August 17, 1961 (at 21:45): no specific match advertised
- September 28, 1961 (at 22:05): no specific match advertised
- October 12, 1961 (at 21:40): no specific match advertised
- October 26, 1961 (at 21:55): no specific match advertised
- November 9, 1961 (at 21:40): no specific match advertised
- November 16, 1961 (at 21:40): no specific match advertised
- December 14, 1961 (at 21:50): no specific match advertised
- January 4, 1962 (at 21:30): Iska Khan & Serge Gentilly vs. Yves Amor & Georges Gueret
- February 8, 1962 (at 21:45): Jacques Bernieres vs. Jean Martin
- March 22, 1962 (at 22:00): no specific match advertised
- April 12, 1962 (at 22:00): L’Ange Blanc vs. Jim Oliver with commentary by Jean Renaux
- May 10, 1962 (at 21:50): Eric Husberg vs. Bob Elandon with commentary by Jean Renaux
- June 7, 1962 (at 21:55): Inca Peruano vs. Antonio Montoro with commentary by Jean Renaux
- September 27, 1962 (at 21:45): Jean Martin vs. Sadi el Mansour with commentary by Jean Renaux
- October 18, 1962 (at 21:45): Bobby Duranton vs. Andre Drapp with commentary by Jean Renaux
- November 15, 1962 (at 21:40): Bobby Duranton vs. Andre Drapp
- January 11, 1963 (at 21:20): Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Antonio Montoro with commentary by Jean Renaux
- January 31, 1963 (at 22:00): no specific match advertised
- February 14, 1963 (at 22:05): Jimmy Dula & Jean Martin vs. Iska Khan & Serge Gentilly
- February 20, 1963 (at 21:45): Comte de Daidone vs. Warnia de Zarzecki with commentary by Georges de Caunes
- March 21, 1963 (at 22:10): L’Homme Masque & Ski Hi Lee vs. Gil Voiney & Bernard Vignal with commentary by Jean Renaux
- April 19, 1963 (at 21:50): Gil Voiney vs. Jimmy Dula
- May 9, 1963 (at 22:00): Bob Elandon & Antonio Montoro vs. Bobby Duranton & Jean Debuf
- June 26, 1963 (at 21:35): Warnia de Zarzecki vs. Jimmy Dula with commentary by Jean Renaux
- August 10, 1963 (at 21:50): Rene Ben Chemoul & Gilbert Cesca vs. Paul Debusne & Pierre Bernaert with commentary by Jean Renaux
- September 4, 1963 (at 21:50): Antonio Montoro vs. Jose Arroyo with commentary by Jean Renaux
- January 23, 1964 (at 22:00): no specific match advertised
- March 12, 1964 (at 22:00): Pepe Marques & Jose Arroyo vs. Jimmy Dula & Jean Martin with commentary by Jean Renaux
- March 19, 1964 (at 22:00): no specific match advertised
- June 25, 1964 (at 21:40): Pierre Lagache vs. Mic Charre with commentary by Jean Renaux
- July 9, 1964 (at 22:20): Gil Voiney vs. Josef Kovacs with commentary by Jean Renaux
- July 16, 1964 (at 21:05): Mic Charre vs. Paul Debusne
- July 22, 1964 (at 22:00): Taied Said vs. Andre Bombardier + Iska Khan vs. Pierre Rouanet with commentary by Jean Renaux
- July 27, 1964 (at 20:55): Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Bob Elandon
- August 13, 1964 (at 22:10): no specific match advertised
- August 24, 1964 (at 21:45): Pierre Grange vs. Jose Gonzales + Cesar Colavecchi vs. Jean Gasparrini
- November 12, 1964 (at 22:00): Pierre Lagache vs. Bob Plantin with commentary by Jean Renaux
- November 19, 1964 (at 22:00): Rene Ben Chemoul & Gilbert Cesca vs. Antonio Morlans & Inca Wiracocha
- January 14, 1965 (at 22:05): no specific match advertised
- January 21, 1965 (at 21:45): no specific match advertised
- February 11, 1965 (at 22:10): L’Ours de l’Oural (Tony Olivas) vs. Bernard Vignal
- February 25, 1965 (at 22:10): Paul Debusne vs. Emile Rolland
- March 18, 1965 (at 22:00): Rene Ben Chemoul & Gilbert Cesca vs. Antonio Morlans & Inca Wiracocha
- March 25, 1965 (at 22:00): Andre Bollet vs. Spartacus
- April 8, 1965 (at 22:00): no specific match advertised
- May 13, 1965 (at 21:55): Mr. Montreal vs. Bob Elandon
- June 10, 1965 (at 22:10): Tumo Kyawaishi vs. Antonio Morlans
- June 24, 1965 (at 22:00): Iska Khan & Cesar Colavecchi vs. Antonio Morlans & Inca Wiracocha
- July 15, 1965 (at 22:05): Iska Khan vs. L’Ours de l’Oural (Tony Olivas) + Antonio Morlans vs. Akio Yoshiara
- August 5, 1965 (at 22:10): Teizo Okada vs. Pierre Lagache
- August 12, 1965 (at 22:00): L’Homme Masque vs. Spartacus
- September 3, 1965 (at 21:25): Rene Ben Chemoul & Remy Bayle vs. Karl von Kramer & Eric Muller
- September 16, 1965 (at 22:05): no specific match advertised
- November 10, 1965 (at 22:20): Georges Heber vs. Edouard Pawlak with commentary by Jean Renaux + Jorani Abraham vs. Spartacus with commentary by Henri Cochan
- November 25, 1965 (at 22:15): Hercules Cortez vs. Iska Khan
- December 20, 1965 (at 22:05): Teizo Okada vs. Antonio Morlans
- January 13, 1966 (at 22:05): Andre Bollet vs. Hercules Cortez + L’Ours de l’Oural (Tony Olivas) vs. Roger Delaporte
- January 19, 1966 (at 22:05): Paul Debusne vs. Dan Aubriot
- February 14, 1966 (at 22:15): Dan Aubriot vs. Inca Peruano
- February 24, 1966 (at 22:00): no specific match advertised
- March 17, 1966 (at 22:15): Alan Dennison vs. Vassilios Mantopoulos
- March 21, 1966 (at 22:15): Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Jean Martin
- April 6, 1966 (at 22:10): Moise Besh vs. Etienne Goby
- April 21, 1966 (at 22:10): Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Jean Martin
- May 10, 1966 (at 22:15): Iska Khan vs. Jean Gasparrini
- June 23, 1966 (at 22:10): Mic Charre vs. Gino Morandi
- July 12, 1966 (at 22:05): Serge Gentilly vs. Jean Gasparrini
- August 4, 1966 (at 22:05): Rene Ben Chemoul & Gilbert Cesca vs. Antonio Morlans & Inca Wiracocha
- September 22, 1966 (at 22:20): Remy Bayle vs. Inca Wiracocha
- September 28, 1966 (at 22:05): Rene Ben Chemoul & Gilbert Cesca vs. Karl von Kramer & Eric Muller
- October 13, 1966 (at 22:05): Andre Drapp vs. L’Ours de l’Oural (Tony Olivas) with commentary by Jean Renaux
- October 19, 1966 (at 22:10): Tibor Szakacs vs. Roger Delaporte
- October 27, 1966 (at 22:00): Iska Khan vs. Antonio Morlans
- November 3, 1966 (at 22:00): no specific match advertised
- November 16, 1966 (at 22:20): M’Boaba vs. Daniel Boucard
- December 8, 1966 (at 22:10): Georges Cohen vs. Pierra Lagache + Rocco Frere vs. Iska Ketoni with commentary by Jean Renaux
- January 4, 1967 (at 22:15): Bruno Asquini vs. Jean Gasparrini
- January 19, 1967 (at 22:00): Janos Vadkerti vs. Serge Garnotel + El Greco vs. Pierre Lagache
- January 26, 1967 (at 22:05): Tibor Szakacs vs. Leon Minissini
- February 2, 1967 (at 22:00): Rene Ben Chemoul & Gilbert Cesca vs. Les Black Diamonds (Abe Ginsberg & John Foley) with commentary by Jean Renaux
- February 16, 1967 (at 22:00): no specific match advertised
- March 9, 1967 (at 22:15): Walter Bordes vs. Pierre Lagache
- April 6, 1967 (at 22:05): Jorani Abraham vs. Antonio Morlans
- April 18, 1967 (at 22:00): Giulio Pietranoni vs. Claude Dreyfus + Ken Armstrong vs. Jean Gasparrini
- July 24, 1967 (at 22:10): M’Boaba vs. Remy Bayle
- August 7, 1967 (at 22:10): Rene Ben Chemoul & Gilbert Cesca vs. The Flying Scots (Jim McKenzie & Bill Ross)
- August 31, 1967 (at 22:05): Remy Bayle vs. Jean Gasparrini
- October 26, 1967 (at 22:10): no specific match advertised
- November 23, 1967 (at 22:25): Georges Cohen vs. Teddy Boy
- January 30, 1968 (at 22:10): no specific match advertised
- February 9, 1968 (at 22:00): Jorani Abraham vs. Benito Rocco
- February 22, 1968 (at 22:15): no specific match advertised
- May 31, 1968 (at 22:00): Gerard Bouvet vs. Serge Garnotel + Jorani Abraham vs. Bruno Rocco
- June 4, 1968 (at 22:00): Pasquale Giusto vs. Georges Cohen + Janos Vadkerti vs. Pierre Lagache with commentary by Jean Renaux
- June 11, 1968 (at 22:00): Angelo Giusto vs. Pancho Zapata with commentary by Jean Renaux
- June 18, 1968 (at 22:20): no specific match advertised
- June 24, 1968 (at 22:05): no specific match advertised
- October 8, 1968 (at 21:45): Teddy Boy vs. Alan Mitchell
- November 19, 1968 (at 22:10): Moise Besch vs. Fergen Said
- December 10, 1968 (at 22:10): Tibor Szakacs vs. Jimmy Dula
- February 18, 1969 (at 22:00): Jimmy Dula vs. Apollo Estevez
- March 20, 1969 (at 22:05): Tibor Szakacs & Iska Khan vs. Antonio Morlans & Inca Wiracocha
- November 3, 1969 (at 22:15): Josef Kovacs vs. Al Gamain
- April 7, 1970 (at 22:05): Lucky Simonovich vs. Rabbi Rafael Halperin + Rene Ben Chemoul & Gilbert Cesca vs. Paul Debusne & Pierre Bernaert
- July 11, 1970 (at 22:20): Jimmy Dula vs. Albert Lafeuille
- July 18, 1970 (at 22:25): Ski Hi Lee vs. Gil Voiney
- July 25, 1970 (at 23:05): Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Gilbert Cesca [at 22:50 that same night a Chemoul tag was airing in France so there was a brief moment where Chemoul would have been on French TV and Swiss TV at the same time]
- August 8, 1970 (at 22:55): Karl von Kramer vs. Angel Ramiro
- September 16, 1970 (at 22:20): Vassilios Mantopoulos vs. Moise Besch

--------------

Next we have Luxembourg. For there and Monaco I don’t have access to detailed TV listings. At the moment I only have the TV listings for about a dozen or so weeks, from several different years. Therefore, my information is very limited. Still, it’s enough to notice that at times catch was airing on TV in Luxembourg twice a week. All the broadcasts were on Télé Luxembourg.

- September 6, 1957 (at 20:36): no specific match advertised
- March 21, 1958 (at 21:40): match with commentary by Andre Bourillon
- February 17, 1959 (at 21:15): no specific match advertised
- February 20, 1959 (at 21:30): no specific match advertised
- June 30, 1959 (at 21:15): no specific match advertised
- July 3, 1959 (at 21:30): no specific match advertised
- March 1, 1960 (at 21:20): no specific match advertised
- March 4, 1960 (at 21:40): no specific match advertised
- July 1, 1960 (at 21:40): Bert Royal vs. Georges Gueret
- June 28, 1960 (at 21:15): Bill Verna vs. Bernard Vignal
- April 25, 1961 (at 21:30): no specific match advertised
- April 28, 1961 (at 21:40): no specific match advertised
- May 5, 1961 (at 21:40): no specific match advertised
- July 4, 1961 (at 21:40): no specific match advertised
- July 7, 1961 (at 21:40): no specific match advertised
- July 20, 1962 (at 21:35): no specific match advertised

--------------

And finally, there’s Monaco. Same as Luxembourg, information is very limited, but enough to see that catch was sometimes on TV twice a week. All the broadcasts were on Télé Monte-Carlo.

- March 20, 1958 (at 20:15): match with commentary by Jean Claude Laplaud
- February 19, 1959 (at 20:40): match with commentary by Andre Bourrillon
- March 1, 1960 (at 20:35): no specific match advertised
- June 28, 1960 (at 20:40): no specific match advertised
- July 1, 1960 (at 20:40): no specific match advertised
- April 28, 1961 (at 20:35): no specific match advertised
- May 2, 1961 (at 20:35): no specific match advertised
- May 5, 1961 (at 20:35): no specific match advertised
- July 4, 1961 (at 20:40): no specific match advertised
- July 7, 1961 (at 20:40): no specific match advertised
- July 17, 1962 (at 20:30): no specific match advertised
- July 20, 1962 (at 20:30): no specific match advertised

[Phil Lions]

And while I'm at it, here's a 34-minute Swiss documentary on wrestling from January 1968, called "Le monde du catch":

https://www.rts.ch/archives/1968/video/le-monde-du-catch-26954997.html

There's a bunch of familiar faces in it.

[David Mantell]

It seems to be mostly populated by talent from the French territory - even people from elsewhere like Bert Royal spent a lot of time in France and did the TV there. 

I'm not surprised Monaco had a TV wrestling show.  In theory Monaco is an independent principality, in practice it's just a rather posh town on the South coast (I went on a French language camp holiday in Cap D'Ailles in 1990 and we would hop on a coach up the road to Monaco to use their swimming pool.) not large enough to be a culture or a wrestling territory on its own, but given the wealth there it's not surprising that they had their own private TV station covering the South of France and North of Italy.  It was one big business investment rather than a public service.  Private stations owners from Ted Turner to Rupert Murdoch go for wrestling as easy cheap programming.  So wrestling fit the bill for TV Monte Carlo.

[David Mantell]

Tele Monte Carlo had the same 819 line format as ORTF 1er Chaise by the way.  It went colour SECAM in 1973.

No idea what picture format RTS the Swiss French language channel used. They went colour in 1968.

I think all of these TV shows  should be considered offshoots of the French scene.  None of these places were large enough to be wrestling territories in their own rights.

Incidentally if you had a good enough TV aerial, you could watch ITV complete with World of Sport in the Benelux countries.    We went on holiday to the Hague (capital of the Netherlands) in August 1984 and stayed at the Bel Air Hotel and I  got a PERFECT signal for the wrestling that Saturday (5pm local time) - there was a battle royale on.  So being able to get a signal, even a perfect signal, does not equate to your territory being televised. Most of Ireland could get the signal for S4C and Reslo had a big enough following in Ireland for Orig Williams to follow in with live shows (he continued touring there until 2002, the final couple of years with WWF tribute shows.). The ROI could also get the ITV signal not just from the same HTV transmitter as S4C but also from ITV in Northern Ireland. But that's not the same as if RTE had got together with Fit Finlay's dad to produce their own local TV wrestling show airing out of Dublin.

[David Mantell]

Georges de Caunes (father of Antoine "Eurotrash" de Caunes) also did a lot of wrestling commentary for (O)RTF.

You'll notice the programming titles are all French which underlines that this is RTSuisse the French language channel.  All of these wre outposts of French TV wrestling rather than separate territories with separate TV shows.

Northern Italy could well have gotten the RTS signal which is another example of overspill like being able to watch World Of Sport in the Netherlands or WOS and Reslo in the ROI. What's extra interesting is that Italian Catch died out in 1965 and except for occasional bursts of training school shows from those two brothers in  Piedmont, stayed dark for 23 years until the WWF invaded in 1988 yet for 5 years 1965-1970 the North of Italy still had regular access TO TV wrestling.

[ohtani's jacket]

Look at all those Tibor Szakacs matches teasing us. 

[David Mantell]

1 hour ago, ohtani's jacket said:

Look at all those Tibor Szakacs matches teasing us. 

Four of them,all in the late 60s on the RTS show.

[David Mantell]

On 9/14/2025 at 12:09 PM, Phil Lions said:

All the broadcasts were on Télévision Suisse Romande.

 

This was RTS1's name up until 1997.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTS_1_(Swiss_TV_channel)

[David Mantell]

On 9/14/2025 at 12:11 PM, Phil Lions said:

And while I'm at it, here's a 34-minute Swiss documentary on wrestling from January 1968, called "Le monde du catch":

https://www.rts.ch/archives/1968/video/le-monde-du-catch-26954997.html

There's a bunch of familiar faces in it.

Benn watching this. Very good. Interviews with Delaporte, Andre Bollet (showing his paintings), Vassilios Montopolous with Mrs Montopolous and their son and even footage of Peter Maivia.  Also Rene "Jack" de Lataserre who says that there was no wrestling scene in Switzerland so he had to go to Germany to get his start)

They've also got a version of this on their site. (Which explains why Swiss TV did the below docu.)

Plus there are a couple of pieces on there.

This one from 1960- it includes Lataserre tagging with Robert Duranton (complete with Firmin)  and Duranton in fine form giving an interview in front of a bar crowd.  There's a fault near the end but if you can get past it there's a bit about the melancholy beauty of a ring after the show (!):

https://www.rts.ch/archives/1960/video/un-match-de-catch-26385496.html

And this one from 1968 - This is a bunch of film inserts for a live magazine show called Carrefour (Crossroads - no not the old British  soap opera in a Birmingham motel!). The wrestling clip is near the end and does have audio unlike some of the earlier film.  Vassilios Montopolous and -I think- Jean Corner- are training in a ring in Geneva when two blokes come out, stop them and start talking about their aesthetic qualities in front of them. They then try the same trick ona young  Andre Rousimoff who sorts them out by picking one of them up and giving him a scare!

https://www.rts.ch/archives/1968/video/carrefour-10-10-68-26184882.html 

 

[Jetlag]

Amazing research. It would be sick to have these, some killer match ups. Masahiko Kimura? I did not expect him at all. Definitely holy grail material. I remember hearing about a match between Achim Chall and Rene Ben Chemoul taking place in Luxemburg, so I think that country had wrestling.

[Phil Lions]

1 hour ago, Jetlag said:

I remember hearing about a match between Achim Chall and Rene Ben Chemoul taking place in Luxemburg, so I think that country had wrestling.

For sure, they did have some wrestling. In fact, I don't know how this had escaped my memory, but you bringing up wrestling in Luxembourg just reminded me that it's actually possible to do some research on Luxembourg (their national library has an online newspaper archive). Just had a quick look. Primo Carnera, Felix Miquet, L'Ange Blanc, Roger Delaporte, Andre Drapp, Tibor Szakacs, Rene Ben Chemoul, etc. I can see they all passed through there at one time or another.

Anyway, I'll try to look more into the Luxembourg TV stuff next week. At first glance, most of the TV listings don't seem to mention what matches were supposed to air, unfortunately.

[David Mantell]

6 hours ago, Jetlag said:

Amazing research. It would be sick to have these, some killer match ups. Masahiko Kimura? I did not expect him at all. Definitely holy grail material. I remember hearing about a match between Achim Chall and Rene Ben Chemoul taking place in Luxemburg, so I think that country had wrestling.

I'm not saying they didn't have shows, I'm saying it wouldn't have had its own scene.

[ohtani's jacket]

So, what are the Swiss TV archives like? Any chance some of this stuff exists?

[Phil Lions]

2 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

So, what are the Swiss TV archives like? Any chance some of this stuff exists?

It doesn't look like there's anything available.

[ohtani's jacket]

4 minutes ago, Phil Lions said:

It doesn't look like there's anything available.

That's too bad. Makes you grateful for what we do have from the INA. 

[David Mantell]

2 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

That's too bad. Makes you grateful for what we do have from the INA. 

With Britain 1955-1969 we've had more joy with private film collectors (viz Clay Thompson Vs Tony StClair) than with the official Granada TV Archive.

(And I bet they've got all the Granada Cinemas films of Paul Lincoln shows too, which would be like having a 60s version of Reslo or Screensport.  And again consider how we do have that Wild Man Of Borneo match. From a private collector.)

Perhaps the same is true of Television Suisse Romandy and there are editions laying around in various old boys' sheds and attics across Europe.

Interesting also how the French language service seems to be the only Swiss TV channel to do wrestling - broadcasting it to the language group whose state broadcaster already covers the sport.

[Robert S]

12 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

So, what are the Swiss TV archives like? Any chance some of this stuff exists?

Public European TV stations usually were very good with archiving their stuff so if the SRF (RTS) produced it, they very likely have the tapes somewhere in a vault. If they only got the tapes from the French promoters and aired them unedited then I guess the stuff is gone.

Re. Lasartesse: I remember that he went to some trainings and maybe shows promoted by the scene that Claudio Castagnoli came from. He talked there a bit about his attempts to run shows in the German-speaking (Germans would argue that this is not really German, as a guy living less than 2 km away from the Swiss border, I obviously have a different opinion ;-)) parts of Switzerland (covering about 2/3 of the Swiss population) and drawing poorly. His conclusion was that Switzerland was (at least at that time) just not the right place for wrestling.

Cagematch has some results for shows in Switzerland pre 1990. The 80ies stuff looks to be CWA-affiliated, there is a 78 card that has an Inoki vs. Lasartesse main event where I think David Mantell posted some clips of, the 60ies cards look to be Lasartesse-run shows filled with French talent, the 40ies and 50ies cards might actually have been run by promoters in Switzerland (maybe promoted by Paul Berger as he pops on most cards and is the only Swiss regular from what I can tell).

And on why only the French station in Switzerland had wrestling: that's probably just simple geographics. I guess back then it was already possible for most people in the French-speaking part of Switzerland to receive French TV and probably wrestling on those stations was popular enough that it got coverage in newspapers and someone got the idea to air wrestling themselves, buying tapes from French promoters. You did not have that for the German-speaking side. I don't think there was (apart from clips here and there) regular wrestling on German or Austrian TV (and considering geographics, it would have had been German TV) that could have swept over.

[ohtani's jacket]

7 hours ago, David Mantell said:

With Britain 1955-1969 we've had more joy with private film collectors (viz Clay Thompson Vs Tony StClair) than with the official Granada TV Archive.

(And I bet they've got all the Granada Cinemas films of Paul Lincoln shows too, which would be like having a 60s version of Reslo or Screensport.  And again consider how we do have that Wild Man Of Borneo match. From a private collector.)

Perhaps the same is true of Television Suisse Romandy and there are editions laying around in various old boys' sheds and attics across Europe.

Interesting also how the French language service seems to be the only Swiss TV channel to do wrestling - broadcasting it to the language group whose state broadcaster already covers the sport.

If you didn't have to mortgage your soul to get anything out of the Archive, we'd have more 60s footage available. They keep changing the rules about who can access the stuff, too. For a while, they allowed private use, but now it's back to business use only.  A few years back, you had to pay an exorbitant fee just to get them to search for a match. It's probably better now that they've digitalized a lot of the reels, but a single match generally costs hundreds of pounds to acquire. Who wants to pay that much for a match of unknown quality or length?

[Phil Lions]

9 hours ago, Robert S said:

Re. Lasartesse: I remember that he went to some trainings and maybe shows promoted by the scene that Claudio Castagnoli came from. He talked there a bit about his attempts to run shows in the German-speaking (Germans would argue that this is not really German, as a guy living less than 2 km away from the Swiss border, I obviously have a different opinion ;-)) parts of Switzerland (covering about 2/3 of the Swiss population) and drawing poorly. His conclusion was that Switzerland was (at least at that time) just not the right place for wrestling.

Cagematch has some results for shows in Switzerland pre 1990. The 80ies stuff looks to be CWA-affiliated, there is a 78 card that has an Inoki vs. Lasartesse main event where I think David Mantell posted some clips of, the 60ies cards look to be Lasartesse-run shows filled with French talent, the 40ies and 50ies cards might actually have been run by promoters in Switzerland (maybe promoted by Paul Berger as he pops on most cards and is the only Swiss regular from what I can tell).

Switzerland used to have a pretty solid pro wrestling scene going - first in the mid 1930s when a bunch of tournaments were taking place there and then especially in the post-WWII years when catch became popular and the French booking offices were sending in talent. The Raoul Paoli office even did a World Heavyweight Title switch there in 1951 when they had Frank Sexton drop the title to Felix Miquet in Zurich. The big arena for wrestling in Switzerland was Hallenstadion in Zurich, which was for about 11,000 people. There were many shows in that arena from the late 1940s all the way to the mid 1980s.

Check out Ronald Großpietsch's Switzerland archive. It doesn't have everything, but it covers a lot.

[Jetlag]

You can actually find a bit of Catch related videos in the RTS archive website if you just search for Catch, but it's just short newsreel/documentary type stuff starring the usual suspects:

https://www.rts.ch/archives/recherche/?q=catch

Apparenlty the Luxembourg archive is going through some work this year to make it more accesible and won't be open to requests until next year, so there is a faint glimmer of hope that whatever they still have might become available. The Monaco archive actually also has an on-demand streaming page but they only have a few videos there, nothing wrestling related.

[David Mantell]

3 hours ago, Jetlag said:

You can actually find a bit of Catch related videos in the RTS archive website if you just search for Catch, but it's just short newsreel/documentary type stuff starring the usual suspects:

https://www.rts.ch/archives/recherche/?q=catch

Apparenlty the Luxembourg archive is going through some work this year to make it more accesible and won't be open to requests until next year, so there is a faint glimmer of hope that whatever they still have might become available. The Monaco archive actually also has an on-demand streaming page but they only have a few videos there, nothing wrestling related.

Yes, I posted four of those seven just above.

Two of the other three are also about the French scene -a women's match plus interview with one combatant similar in character to TV items Mitzi Mueller would do in the UK in the 70s plus a feature on a Paris theatre director who had to crawl to Delaporte to use the Elysée Montmartre for his productions after he let May 68 students use his own theatre and they trashed it. A snippet of a tag match involving Rene Ben Chemoul and Robert Duranton (with Firmin being thrown over the ropes) and some good contextual shots of Elysée Montmartre helpful for visualising how TV Catch bouts looked in the flesh.

The one non French feature being a trawl through Hamburg's red light district where among the sex shows etc they came across a womens'mud wrestling show.

**********

It seems to me that the underlying point is that all of these stations are in French speaking enclaves just outside France itself - Monaco, Luxembourg, Romandy - and probably much of their viewership was across the border in France itself so I would suggest part of these stations' reason for existence was to compete with French national TV. 

With France's then two national channels having pretty successful Catch coverage -a hit show indeed- and since (O)RTF could not copyright the concept of French Catch or the French scene, it is quite natural that they should produce their own wrestling shows.

[David Mantell]

5 hours ago, Phil Lions said:

Switzerland used to have a pretty solid pro wrestling scene going - first in the mid 1930s when a bunch of tournaments were taking place there and then especially in the post-WWII years when catch became popular and the French booking offices were sending in talent. The Raoul Paoli office even did a World Heavyweight Title switch there in 1951 when they had Frank Sexton drop the title to Felix Miquet in Zurich. The big arena for wrestling in Switzerland was Hallenstadion in Zurich, which was for about 11,000 people. There were many shows in that arena from the late 1940s all the way to the mid 1980s.

Check out Ronald Großpietsch's Switzerland archive. It doesn't have everything, but it covers a lot.

They had shows but Switzerland was never its own territory much less its own wrestling culture or wrestling style.  I'm sure they had shows in Monaco too but it was just another stop on the French house show circuit.

[David Mantell]

14 hours ago, Robert S said:

The 80ies stuff looks to be CWA-affiliated, there is a 78 card that has an Inoki vs. Lasartesse main event where I think David Mantell posted some clips of,

Yes, Switzerland did become CWA overspill territory.  Until Catch Up on RTL in 1989 (mostly WCW with some CWA thrown in) and until shows like Reslo and New Catch started splicing in CWA footage (or in Reslo's case getting an S4C outside broadcast unit to take the North Sea ferry to the tournaments to film their own footage) Germany/Austria did not have its own Wrestling TV per se - instead they went for the Home Video market, selling tapes ranging in quality from broadcast grade professional multicam OB unit productions of Otto Wanz's CWA World title defences available from high street rental stores down to cheapo single handheld camcorder efforts sold via the merch table.

Apparently the "Killer" Inoki 1978 tour was shot by the Japanese promoters whose camera crews accompanied him to Europe. The legendary Roland Bock match was shot on VT and we have the entire thing on YouTube  A couple of earlier bouts including Lasartesse were shot on film and we just have snipers in focus on YT.

[David Mantell]

14 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

If you didn't have to mortgage your soul to get anything out of the Archive, we'd have more 60s footage available. They keep changing the rules about who can access the stuff, too. For a while, they allowed private use, but now it's back to business use only.  A few years back, you had to pay an exorbitant fee just to get them to search for a match. It's probably better now that they've digitalized a lot of the reels, but a single match generally costs hundreds of pounds to acquire. Who wants to pay that much for a match of unknown quality or length?

Yes, it's going to come down to either a commercial release or else a TWC type deal to bulk-liberate footage.