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.

[Phil Lions]

9 hours ago, David Mantell said:

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.

The Spanish wrestlers' union was linked to the artists/entertainment union (Sindicato Nacional de Espectaculo) and it had somewhere between 30 to 70 members. The wording in the article that I found about its formation in October 1969 is a bit vague. "About thirty professionals out of the seventy in Spain attended the meeting, but it is necessary to clarify that the absences were equally represented in the letters of support that those not present sent to their colleagues."

One of the main issues they wanted to fight against was the Spanish promoters hiring too many foreign wrestlers, thus limiting the work for the Spanish wrestlers.

One of the big talking points in press around the formation of the union was how the Spanish wrestlers beat the Spanish footballers to the punch since recently there had been a lot of talk of the football players unionizing too.

[David Mantell]

On 10/15/2025 at 10:43 AM, David Mantell said:

Joaquin Saludes "The Catalonian Tiger",

One of the four remaining profiles from Lino De Pablo Campo's book.

[David Mantell]

Okay, here are the remaining three

There's also a five page chapter on the rules and early Spanish history of "Lucha Libre Americana" which I shall posts here some time soon.

Other than that, some of the images illustrating particular holds and moves are in a ring, but I couldn't tell you which images are from Spain and which are from elsewhere.

[David Mantell]

From Bob Plantin's FB page  "Two Frenchmen, for a championship from the world, in Spain _GILBERT LEDUC vs RENE BEN CHEMOUL" (autotranslated)

Also on there Quasimodo/ the promoter of LCDR and the great Victorio Ochoa!

I expect "Font" was Salvador Font (see profile - and IIRC a clip or two - on page 2 of this thread).

[Phil Lions]

Yeah, I sent that to Bob. 🙂 Valencia, 1951.

In 1951 Gilbert Leduc (c) vs. Rene Ben Chemoul matches for the (FFL) World Welterweight Title took place in France, Spain, Germany, Morocco and possibly elsewhere too. The year prior Leduc had become the first Frenchman to win a catch World Title in France and by the looks of it Goldstein was using his influence to get Leduc featured as World champion in as many places as possible.

That wasn't Quasimodo (Victor Castilla). That was Eduardo Castillo, who was actually a bigger star than Victor Castilla in Spain.

Yep, Salvador Font. Also notice Cabeza de Hierro (Jose Tarres) in the semi-main.

[David Mantell]

[David Mantell]

After some consideration am posting this here rather than the French thread as it took place in Spain 2008. Yes it was for a French promotion with a French heel Vs a Belgian babyface. There was a tradition after 1975 for French promoters to take over and colonise Spain as overspill turf so it's interesting to note IWSF kept this going in Y2K8. Admittedly they had by then expanded into Switzerland and FYR Macedonia so the old wrestlers' road trip across the Pyrenees is nothing by comparison.

 

[David Mantell]

Another of the remaining Alessio clips.  From Jan' 64 in Madrid . Sadly with stupid sound effects, I fear.

 

This is a pity as there's some good serious fast paced action in there.  Pedro in black with a title belt takes on Polman in white trunks.  Polman gets a Japanese Stranglehold but Pedro drops and armdrags Polman then tries to turn out of harm but Polman follows him and   gets a hammerlock on. He then gets a wristlever and high whip and bumpb All slightly spoiled  by a kick drum for the bump and hi-hat/guirros for everything else. Cut the audience members smirking.

Pedro has Polman cornered but Polman backdrops him to ringside. Cut to a full finge4 interlock test of strength - and watz music Polman takes a bump (kick drum) and they exchange forearm  smashes,, kneelifts, chops etc (to whip sound effects.). Polman gers another Japanese Stranglehold thhen, leapfrogs and superkicks Pedro (more whip sounds.) There is some sppeeded up footage of forearm smashes then Polman redoes his Japanese strangle to leapfrog to superkick.  Pedro gets a sideways folding press but it goes into the ropes.  Pedro gets a backdrop but Pollman  counters with a sunset flip into double leg nelson for 2. He then tombstone Pedro for the KO win and Pedro's Spanish national title and win.

This was probably a pretty good match until the jokers at the Newsreel had to ruin things.

[David Mantell]

 

Tag team action from the same January 1964 Madrid show.  No idea who is who but I'm guessing the guys in black trunks who pull a double team are the heels.  Mostly a brawl, someone does a good rear crawl through legs into ground dropkick, 

Same awful sound effects as before only worse including a "Birdies" sound effect for being dazed from one too many forearm smashes. Also a "boing" spring noice like that spring your parents put on a door to stop it banging and with which you used to play when given half a chaThe aforementioned black clad heel double team consists of a standing full nelson with the illegal man coming in to administer a headbutt to the stomach.  Heels also do a simultaneous leglock on each leg and one does an over the knee backbreaker.

The audience shots reminded me a lot of the spliced in "Women's Institute" shots in Monty Python's Flying Circus. especially the "Not Amused" ones. We also get a rare shot of the panel of judges, led by a bald beardy guy who looks like Lenin.

Not clear who won but we last see one of the faces down in the mount getting a KO count.

 

[Phil Lions]

I've been doing some new research on Spain and just posted a new article on the history of luchas de apuestas (mask vs. mask, mask vs. hair, etc.) in Spanish lucha libre from 1960 to 1978. It's available here: https://phil-lions-research.blogspot.com/2026/06/luchas-de-apuestas-spain.html

Had fun putting this one together. I don't go too in-depth and it's more of a list than anything else, but it is a fun bit of wrestling history that I thought I'd share. L'Ange Blanc, the Kamikazes, Los Halcones de Oro, a masked hunchback, etc. Over 40 matches on record.

I've also been working on a big update on the various Spanish title histories. It's been a tough challenge but I've got a clearer picture now, although far from perfect, and the update should hopefully be ready very soon. Will share it here.

[David Mantell]

Most of these venues seem to have their own personal Empressa (Company) which you have translated as 'Promotion".

What exactly closed down in 1975ish if it wasn't CIC?   (The pundit on the RTVE World Welterweight championship bout even alluded to it.)

[Phil Lions]

3 hours ago, David Mantell said:

Most of these venues seem to have their own personal Empressa (Company) which you have translated as 'Promotion".

What exactly closed down in 1975ish if it wasn't CIC?   (The pundit on the RTVE World Welterweight championship bout even alluded to it.)

I put down Empresa because that's how the Spanish press always referred to the promotions. Some promotions, like Empresa del Gran Price in Barcelona, were based out of a particular arena (hence their name). That wasn't the case with all "Empresas". Some were known by the name of their promoter/owner (e.g. Empresa Bamala). In reality I don't think there were any official promotional names. There was no "WWF, "WCW", etc. Not until Colosos del Ring (Madrid) in 1975-76 and Inter-Catch (Barcelona) in 1981. 

Well, for example, Empresa Bamala (also often referred to as Organizaciones Bamala) closed shop in 1975. I'd have to doublecheck the exact year for Gran Price, but I think it ended around 1973 or so. Their venue had been torn down already by that point, but they moved to a new venue for a while. So basically the top two promotions in the history of Spain ended around the same time.

[David Mantell]

So what exactly was this cataclysmic 1975(ish) event that cleared the way for French promoters and the odd German promoter to take over the Iberian Peninsula and hold it until Vince arrived circa 1990?

[Phil Lions]

No such thing. And Spain wasn't "taken over" by anyone. There were still local promotions and shows through the mid 80s, and even some occasional small shows after that too. Obviously, not to the level of prior decades, but Spanish wrestling didn't just poof and disappear in 1975.

I know where you're getting the "there was no Spanish wrestling in the 80s" idea from and in general that is a good article on the history wrestling of Spain, but it's old and outdated. As more newspapers have become available over the past decade, that claim can easily be proven to be false.

[David Mantell]

3 hours ago, Phil Lions said:

 Spanish wrestling didn't just poof and disappear in 1975.

I know where you're getting the "there was no Spanish wrestling in the 80s" idea from .

Well there is that but I was mainly thinking of the guy who gets interviewed prior to the 1983 World Welterweight  title match on RTVE.  IIRC he gets asked when the Spanish scene all came to an end and he comes out with 1975.

[David Mantell]

On 10/15/2025 at 7:39 PM, David Mantell said:

2:25 "La Lucha Libre estuvó en plena apogea durante los años '58 hasta '75 approximamente."

[Phil Lions]

5 hours ago, David Mantell said:

2:25 "La Lucha Libre estuvó en plena apogea durante los años '58 hasta '75 approximamente."

Yep, so there you have it. "Wrestling was at its peak between 1958 and 1975 approximately" is nowhere near the same statement as "the wrestling scene ended in 1975".

Speaking of peaks... I made this new random discovery yesterday. Modesto Aledo winning the World Lightweight Championship in Valencia in August 1964 in front of 15,000 fans. This is the type of business they were doing in Spain back then. I find it especially cool in this case because it's lightweights that are reported to have drawn this level of a crowd and generally in wrestling you don't see lightweights drawing such crowds.