Spanish catch

[David Mantell]

Quote

By the way, Say Hello To My Little Friend.

I bought it in Salamanca, Spain in late 1995 during the first half of M6 year abroad before I moved to Metz, France at the end of January 1996. It was printed in about the late 50s/early 60s.  It's not an exclusively pro wrestling book but it's got some interesting material I intended to scan up for this thread.

Somewhere I believe Instill have another book from a bit later circa 1964 (stamped <<España - 25 años de Paz>> - the Paz in question being the Carthaginian Paz of 25 years under Franco's rule since the end of the Civil War in 1939) which has a rather funny essay about Kayfabe which concludes that anyone who is desperate to see the boys legit injure each other must be a dreadful sadist! LOL.

I'll put in relevant scans from time to time from the Campo book and the other one too should it resurface.

For starters...

9 hours ago, David Mantell said:

Victorio Ochoa , the Navarrese lion, was born on 1919. His father, Javier Ochoa was a great amateur wrestler, and was one of the wrestlers that introduced wrestler to Mexico. Victorio was a very technical wrestler and won the World and European HW titles, but in the prime of his career, he was killed in a familiar quarrel.

9 hours ago, David Mantell said:

8 hours ago, Phil Lions said:

Javier Ochoa was no amateur - he was the most popular Spanish pro wrestler in the Greco-Roman style and was a big star in Spain. Spain was one of the top European territories for that style for a while, in the 1920s especially.

8 hours ago, David Mantell said:

Well anyway that's what that Valentin bloke wrote.  I've got some other material of the Ochoa family to post as well as another video snippet from Alessio.

Valentin praises Victorious as the first technical wizard of France and so does my other source, once I dig it out from wherever it's hiding.

[Phil Lions]

8 hours ago, David Mantell said:

By the way, Say Hello To My Little Friend.

I bought it in Salamanca, Spain in late 1995 during the first half of M6 year abroad before I moved to Metz, France at the end of January 1996. It was printed in about the late 50s/early 60s.

This book is from 1947. I have a scanned copy of it.

[David Mantell]

5 hours ago, Phil Lions said:

This book is from 1947. I have a scanned copy of it.

Ah well, I've got a REAL one! 😄

There are two sections of interest to pro wrestling fans, the biographies and "Prensas de Lucha Libre Americana (American Wrestling holds).

Plus also there's a group photo of thirties wrestlers in a ring and that shit of Javier Ochoa (although this was clearly him in later life so Spain had gone catch by then.)

[David Mantell]

On 10/20/2025 at 12:49 PM, David Mantell said:

Quote

Victorio Ochoa , the Navarrese lion, was born on 1919. His father, Javier Ochoa was a great amateur wrestler, and was one of the wrestlers that introduced wrestler to Mexico. Victorio was a very technical wrestler and won the World and European HW titles, but in the prime of his career, he was killed in a familiar quarrel.

There are only photos of Javier in this but we get a definite taste of Victoria's style. Irish whipped to the mat, he is able to pick himself upright at arm's length, an ancestor of the British-style roll through. He gets a beautiful slide into a standing Fireman's Carry takedown on one of these whips.  He gets the pin by upturning a long press.  Later we see him get a face bar from behind a dona front somersault into a bridge to wrench on the opponent's neck.

We see more of Ochoa's proto rollout of armlever (albeit in longshot) 

 

Ochoa takes on the headbutt king.  Tarres.  Most of this is already featured in the Leones de Navarra clip. clip but looks out for Victorio doing a toupie out of headscissors well before Gilbert Leduc hit the scene.

 

More source footage for the Leones de Navarra mini docu.

 

See Ochoa neatly kip up after being forearm smashes down by his opponent. He goes for and almost gets a legdive right across the ring, corner to corner.  He rolls back from an arm at on the mat to get a ground dropkick.  He also gets an Indian Deathlock and a double leg nelson pin attempt.

 

[David Mantell]

On 10/15/2025 at 11:25 PM, David Mantell said:

Only wrestler I knew at all was Luc Bejar who MIGHT be the same one who was European Heavy Middleweight Champion in 1973 (but I wouldn't swear to it)

P.S. apparently Joe Adell was also a survivor of early 70s Spain

Bejar and Adell on a TV chat show some time in the early 90s, possibly to promote the same 90s show I posted but they also discuss the old days and the fad for American wrestling at the time.

A large vintage wrestling poster from the old days is put on display. It says "Catch" on it, by the way. (Although another one I shown which says Lucha.)The boys also say Catch A Cuatro a lot which is a literal French to Spanish translation of Catch À Quatre.

Bejar shows off what looks like blading scars.

At the end, the boys take their tops off to do some moves on each other.

[David Mantell]

4 minutes ago, David Mantell said:

At the end, the boys take their tops off to do some moves on each other.

And here they go

They also offer to try it out on the presenter but he sensibly wimps out.