Spanish catch

[Phil Lions]

47 minutes ago, David Mantell said:

From @Matt D.  

Ah, okay. I see. I thought you meant that was his real name (which it wasn't). Yeah, he dropped the Quasimodo gimmick in France and went by Vicente Castilla in 1964-1966.

[David Mantell]

Is he the same guy as the promoter?

[Phil Lions]

3 hours ago, David Mantell said:

Is he the same guy as the promoter?

Yes. Quasimodo (Victor Castilla Sancha) and the Argentine wrestler Gran Jacobo (Jacobo Rossi Sarrat) ran the "Los Colosos del Ring" promotion in Spain. It was in operation from 1974 to 1986. A few years before that Castilla served as vice-president of the first Spanish pro wrestler union (which was formed in 1969).

Here are Castilla and Rossi posing with a few of their wrestlers at their wrestling school in Fuenlabrada in 1984:

[David Mantell]

So 1986 was the end date of Spanish Wrestling?

(until LIE in the early 90s which was fairly Americanised anyway. )

[Phil Lions]

There was the odd show here and there after that too, but more or less yes - you could say that 1986 was the end of the "lucha libre americana" era in Spain since that's when the last notable Spanish promotion closed shop.

Although funnily enough, when WWF came to Spanish TV and the "Pressing Catch" branding was introduced, in the TV listings they'd still make sure to list it as "lucha libre americana" too since that was the most common name for pro wrestling in Spain up to that point. This is from September 1990:

[David Mantell]

35 minutes ago, Phil Lions said:

There was the odd show here and there after that too, but more or less yes - you could say that 1986 was the end of the "lucha libre americana" era in Spain since that's when the last notable Spanish promotion closed shop.

Although funnily enough, when WWF came to Spanish TV and the "Pressing Catch" branding was introduced, in the TV listings they'd still make sure to list it as "lucha libre americana" too since that was the most common name for pro wrestling in Spain up to that point. This is from September 1990:

Yes I remember that in the TV guide magazine.  I wouldn't have known what "Pressing Catch" meant if it hadn't said " Lucha libre Americana" underneath.  Although from what you're saying it was just chance that it literally was "americana" (the WWF).

Of course there were French promoters visiting as well so Spain never really "went dark" unlike Italy for stretches  1965-1988  or Greece after 1991

[Matt D]

On 11/13/2025 at 4:52 AM, Phil Lions said:

I had a hunch the popular radio personality Bobby Deglané, the commentator for this match, had to have some connection to wrestling. He was just too good at wrestling commentary here. But I hadn't really looked into it. Today I randomly found the connection. Turns out back in the mid 1930s Deglané got his start in Spanish radio by specializing in the broadcast of wrestling matches and was reportedly the first one to do wrestling commentary on Spanish radio. These were the early days of Spanish lucha libre (known as catch in the 1930s in Spain but later they switched to lucha libre americana as the most common name for it) and he did reports on wrestling matches for the radio in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.

cc: @Matt D

He had stood out the most to me from that footage if I remember correctly. I wish we had more radio broadcasts in general. That'd be a fascinating project for someone to do even with what English language recordings we might have. To examine the experience and what we can get out of matches from that.

[David Mantell]

11 hours ago, Phil Lions said:

A few years before that Castilla served as vice-president of the first Spanish pro wrestler union (which was formed in 1969).

Just been remembering a load of stuff I read up at university about trade unionism under the Franco regime:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Syndical_Organization

How did Castillo's organisation fit in with that? Were they "vertical" too?  It's plausible if he was a promoter.