Phil Lions

Not his last televised match, nor did he retire that year (cagematch has the wrong year). His last televised match that we have, although it's not complete, is Gilbert Leduc & Walter Bordes vs. Paco Ramirez & Daniel Boucard 7/25/77. And as far as retirement goes, I can't confirm the exact year, but it was either 1982 or shortly thereafter. The latest date I have for him is 5/30/82 as it stands.

Yes, that's Mitsui "Kamikaze" Dozan (Modesto Aledo).

Same! Could be some sort of a mask. Or some super elaborate face prosthetic. Hard to say.

It's Aledo. He was tubbier in his later years. Plus, and more importantly, Aledo being Dozan is also referenced in the archives of the French catch historian Michel Bezy (who was working for the same promotion as Dozan back then).

Thanks for pointing this one out, @David Mantell. I had somehow missed it in my latest sweep of the archive. Just looked it up. January 2, 1966: Marcel Manneveau & Claude Gessat vs. Remy Bayle & Dan Aubriot This is missing from Bob's video of the match, but the segment starts with Laurent Couderc (Roger Couderc's son) introducing his father. Roger takes over from there, introduces the wrestlers and does the commentary. And indeed, as @ohtani's jacket said, this aired as part of "Télé dimanche". That particular episode of the show was a total of 4 hours and 40 minutes so they had some time to fill, to say the least! And speaking of time, I now realize why I had missed this one. I hadn't noticed this before, but INA, apparently, splits some of the longer videos into parts, and only the first part shows up in the search so if you want to see the other parts you have to manually switch to them from a dropdown menu above the video, which means... there might be some other stuff that I've missed because of this. I doubt it will be much, but there might be something there. I'll need to take a closer look.

Thank you for taking time out to listen to it! 1) There was a lot of ground to cover and focusing on a move wasn't part of my plan heading in. In fact, had Ryan not brought it up I probably wouldn't have even thought to talk about it. By the way, the correct French spelling is "toupie". 2) Absolutely. The French model was similar to the UK one (intense touring), which is why I compared the two briefly at one point. However, unlike the UK, in France they did also run big 10,000+ buildings too such as the regular shows at Palais des Sports in Paris (up to 1959) and the occasional summer events at the bullrings in Marseille/Bordeaux/Beziers, the Amphitheatre in Nimes, etc. 4) French catch's run as regular standalone series on national television was 1954-1985. Everything after that I consider to be part of a different era in catch's history. There was no catch on national TV in 1986 at all so 1985 really is the best cut-off point between the original run and everything else that might've followed. Thanks! ? It used to be better, but I'm a bit out of practice. Hadn't really talked in English at length in a few years.

Mantopoulos is correct. I've seen Lemagourou spelled a few different ways on posters and in articles. To be honest I've never given it much thought as to what the correct spelling might be. Now that I think about it, I'd guess Le Magouroux. Just follow the weekly French catch posts on Tuesdays at the Segunda Caida blog. New matches have been and will continue to get posted there over the next several weeks. Perhaps the most notable example of European studio wrestling is the short lived "Los héroes del X'ondo" show (a.k.a. Spain's "Titanes en el Ring" knock off from the late 1970s).

If you have ever wanted to listen to someone speaking for two hours on the topics of French catch history, Gilbert Leduc in particular and what makes Leduc a strong candidate on the 2025 WON HOF ballot, well, you're in luck. I just did a podcast about that. Available here, on YouTube and the usual podcasting platforms. I don't do podcasts often, if ever, but this particular topic was just too interesting for me to say no to. Plus, Ryan is an excellent host, who does his own research and comes in prepared. Definitely recommend checking out other episodes of his "The Ballot" podcast if you're into detailed WON HOF talk.

Somehow I wasn't aware of this until very recently, but apparently there was a Robert Lageat autobiography published in 1993. Given that behind the scenes Lageat was one of the most important figures in the history of French catch, I had to check it out as soon as I found out about this book. It's pretty good if you want to learn more about Lageat and his life story and it comes across as fairly honest, but in terms of learning about catch outside of a few fun stories there isn't much new information in there. A few notes: - The thing that probably caught my attention the most is how much Lageat, a guy who was involved in catch for over 40 years, gushes over Modesto Aledo. More so than any other wrestler mentioned in the book. "A Spanish wrestler of immense talent", "one of the most amazing wrestlers I have ever met" and "the astonishing, the phenomenal Aledo". - He says Jacky Corn had aspirations of the going to the Olympics, but Jacky's wife got pregnant so instead Jacky turned professional because he needed the money. - In the 1970s Lageat and Corn took over the management of the "Le Balajo" dance club in Paris and ran it for many years after that. Daniel Schmid, Remy Bayle and Jack Meurs worked for them there. One of the reasons why Corn quit the ring is because he had developed arthritis, and he was also fed up with the business. - And finally, if you're wondering what Lageat's opinion of catch/WWF in 1993 was... well, as you might expect it wasn't positive. "Today, 1993, catch is dead in France... By going along with the public who were always demanding more, some have killed the goose that lays the golden eggs. From spectacle we have gone to farce, and from farce to nothing. Amateur wrestling, the natural reservoir of catch, no longer feeds the specialty. And for good reason! There are no more schools, no more shows, no more tournaments... From time to time, Bercy welcomes the Americans, phenomena, monstrous followers of body building, American-style physical culture enhanced by hormones... Their performance is more like a fair than real catch. Apart from the cuffs, flying arms, a few jumps, and their movies, they don't do much... Most of them haven't learned to wrestle, you don't need to be an Olympic champion to realize that. Too bad because the Americans are the strongest in freestyle wrestling... Catch should stick to a kind of professional freestyle wrestling without this clowning around... Barnum catch, not for me!"

Yes, about a dozen or so new ones. Well, not so much new ones but rather ones that had been missed in the original sweep of the archive so they're new in that sense, including a few that aired on regional TV only. Yes, Duranton was great in that bit. Promos weren't really a regular thing in French catch, but I'd imagine Duranton was one of the best at them.

Guy Mercier/James Brown vs Les Gorilles (Lou/Geo Marsallon) 7/1/65 I figured I would comment along with some of the new catch matches as they're being rolled out. Various thoughts: - This is the date INA lists the match under, but it's possible that was the tape date and not the air date. - The Marsallon brothers, aka Les Gorilles, were all over the French scene in the 1960s, and did some work outside of France too, but they were never really featured consistently by any promotion as a top act and bounced around to different promotions. They were "Fryziuk boys" as in they came from Jean Fryziuk's wrestling school along with Dan Aubriot and some others. When Delaporte & Bollet joined forces with Fryziuk in 1962 to try and establish a new top promotion/booking office in France, the Marsallons were among the first to be part of it. Later in 1968 when Mercier, Bibi, Calderon, Saulnier, etc. formed their cooperative and started classifying wrestlers as employees (as opposed to independent contractors) the Marsallons were part of that too. In other words, they were part of two of the most significant attempts to disrupt the French catch establishment in the 1960s, albeit in a lesser role. Outside of the ring Lou (or Loulou as he was nicknamed) worked as a carpenter and specialized in making coffins while Jo/Geo worked for Air France for a long time (not sure in what capacity exactly). - I had always wanted to see the Marsallons in action, because they sounded like an interesting team to me. They did not disappoint and lived up to their Les Gorilles moniker. Enjoyed their shtick and it felt like they weren't even working it to the fullest. Wish we had more footage of them teaming to see how they would've fared against other teams and whether they would've amped up their shtick more in other matches. Oh well. - I enjoyed this match overall. Not great, but definitely fun to watch. It was a crowd-pleasing match with a lot of babyface shine. It was good for what it was - the babyfaces shining and the heels bumping for them. That said, I wish the Marsallons would've gotten more opportunity to be in control. I really wanted to see more of them on offense, but alas that wasn't in the cards. - The babyface team, as expected, was excellent. Both of those guys could go, no doubt about it. Loved them tagging in and out to hit backbreakers on Lou. I really like Mercier's dropkicks, but I think I dig Brown's even more. Mercier's were more explosive while Brown's were smooth as silk. Mercier also demonstrated a few slick techniques, which I always appreciate. Brown moving to avoid Lou's headbutt and Lou almost diving through the ropes was pretty neat. - Another thing that struck me while I was watching the match was Roger Couderc. It had been a while since I had watched a match with him on commentary and it just reminded me how great he was. You don't even need to know French to appreciate him. You can just feel the enjoyment and enthusiasm in his voice. You can just tell he's having a blast out there and that type of energy elevates the matches, especially for casual viewers I would imagine.

Having looked a bit more closely at this, I now notice that the source this article was based on was... WS's official website. That's a bit like writing an article about the history of WWE by watching WWE-made documentaries. Not a good idea. Some of the stuff in it may be true, but there are plenty of inaccuracies too.

And now here's another promoter saying the same thing as Delaporte and Durand. Today's discovery. Promoter Alex Goldstein talking about, among other things, the adverse effect catch being on television had had on the live gates in the provinces. This is from April 1961, right before catch was about to be pulled from TV by Raymond Janot (the general director of RTF). - Interviewer: Do the catch organizers want catch to continue to be televised? - Alex Goldstein: I'll give you my personal opinion. I think that television has done considerable harm to my show, while catch did a lot for TV. Catch sold a large number of receivers. That provided work for the workers who make the sets! But if tomorrow, in the current state of affairs, catch matches were banned from television, I would shout: "Bravo, Mr. Janot! Keep your paltry little fees, I'm going to have many more customers in my theaters!" - Interviewer: So the influence of televised catch on your revenue is so great? - Goldstein: It is very great, and sometimes catastrophic in the provinces. You know that there can be six or seven catch shows organized in the provinces on the same evening. Now, if that evening L'Ange Blanc, for example, is on television, half the people will stay at home in front of the screen! So, you understand that the organizers are right to complain. - Interviewer: So you think that television doesn't pay you enough, in relation to the loss of customers suffered? - Goldstein: We receive a ridiculous fee: 200,000 francs for two-person catch, 225,000 to 250,000 francs for four-person catch. While our show reaches several million people! If each viewer who likes catch gave us just 50 francs, admit it wouldn't be much, the viewer would surely agree, and our accounts would be fine! - Interviewer: So you no longer want to work with TV? - Goldstein: I think the question is to be reviewed with the launch of the second channel. But in any case, the number one problem to be resolved are the financial conditions. - Interviewer: In your opinion, how often should television broadcasts be? - Goldstein: This question is linked to the previous one. To be reviewed, depending on the conditions. - Interviewer: We know that the majority of viewers demand catch. But you tell us that televised public meetings take away from your audience. Wouldn't it be possible, and would it be a way to satisfy everyone, if catch matches are staged in a studio, exclusively for the small screen? - Goldstein: No, I answer absolutely no! Wrestlers need the atmosphere of the room, the reactions of the audience. If you deprive them of that, the quality of the matches will suffer. They are like theater or music hall artists! They need contact with the spectators. The more atmosphere, the better! And on that final topic of studio wrestling, there was actually a one-off studio match that aired in 1966: Vassilios Mantopoulos & Ischa Israel vs. Billy Catanzaro & Gilbert Lemagourou with the popular music star Johnny Hallyday as guest commentator. It aired as part of the popular weekend show "Télé Dimanche" and was broadcast from the show's studio. Overall though the French promoters themselves were always against the idea of studio wrestling so that's why French catch never went that route.

You would know better than I would. Thank you for sharing this context. All I can say is that I've seen several articles pointing to "the cult of the strong man", as they would put it, fading away as one of the main reasons for boxing's decline in the 1960s and 1970s. So that's what I was basing my writing above on. Not my area of expertise so I can't say how correct it is, but I have come across this claim several times.

I'm no expert on French TV either, but I believe the decline of catch coincided with the rise of football (soccer) and some other sports. Because catch was easy and cheap to broadcast, it was adopted by television relatively early on while sports such as football were more difficult/expensive to air so they didn't become a regular fixture on French TV until the 1960s-1970s, and by the 1980s football was without question the most popular sport in the country. And this actually ties with another factor that I'm far from an expert on, but I believe it too played a role in the decline of catch. In the 1960s French society was changing, resulting in the large-scale May 1968 protests and strikes. One aspect of these societal changes was that the so-called "cult of the strong man" was going away. In other words, the views toward masculinity were changing and the traditional male values (strength, toughness, competitiveness, etc.) were no longer valued as much. Boxing, which used to be one of the most popular sports in France for decades, had a big dip in its popularity in the 1960s and especially in the 1970s, and I don't think it's recovered since. I've seen a number of mentions that the societal changes that were taking place back then, particularly the views toward masculinity, had a big hand in boxing's loss of popularity. I would imagine these societal changes impacted catch in a similar way as boxing. Also, talking about there not being that many televisions, you reminded me to mention these interesting stats that I found. As of January 31, 1958, there were only about 700,000 registered television sets in France (and I'm guessing there were also a number of unregistered ones too). As of December 31, 1960, the number of registered TV sets was up to about 2 million, which comparatively speaking was a big rise and I've actually seen a couple of mentions that partially credited catch for this rise. Overall though with RTF being around since 1949 and France having a population of about 45 million people, that's definitely a slow TV penetration rate. For sure slower than the US or the UK. That said, it should be pointed out that back then watching TV had a social aspect to it as not only would the whole family gather together to watch TV, but neighbors or friends might come over as well to watch certain shows, if they didn't have a TV of their own. Some bars and pubs also had TVs and people would go there to watch (and catch being on TV was a strong draw for the pub/bar owners back then). So, despite there being only 2 million registered TV sets, the potential viewing audience was larger than what that number suggests at first glance.

As I keep digging into the history of French catch, I keep finding new stuff. Today's discovery is this neat little summary of the state of catch on TV in August 1970. "Once the king of TV, catch is now just the red-headed stepchild Catch, the magic word that once delighted countless viewers, seems to have lost a significant amount of its appeal today. Of course, there are still catch matches on the small screen, but they are now broadcast at a rate of once per month, delayed [taped in advance], late in the evening, most often on Saturdays, after Télé-Nuit. This late-night programming now only attracts the last fanatics of a show that, ten years ago, fascinated the whole of France... or almost*. Although it has little to do with real sport, catch still depends, on television, on the Sports Department, which decides which matches to record." And this matches everything else I've found so far. By the end of the 1960s catch had lost a lot of its appeal to the general public. It still had a solid fanbase and among the late-night TV programming it was a top performer viewership-wise, but overall it was nowhere near as popular as it used to be and it was no longer relevant on a mainstream level. It's no coincidence Delaporte got out of catch promotion in 1970... (he did return several years later when the other genres he was promoting stopped making him money). * Here's an interesting little tidbit about the "whole of France... or almost" bit. Back in the day the "TV Guide" type of magazines in France used to do reader polls. In the annual 1960 reader poll of one of the magazines, close to 80% of the 30,000 respondents said that they watched catch. Obviously, the opinions of thirty thousand people are not a great representation of the 45 million population of France back then, but this does give you some idea how relevant catch used to be among the general public back in its heyday.

Interesting articles. I hadn't seen them before. Thanks! That said, I can spot several mistakes right away. A couple of examples below. No. The 1987 magazine show was "Sports loisirs" and it was an afternoon show on the weekend. "Minuit sport" was the magazine show (Mondays at midnight) that New Catch was part of in 1988. The part in the article about FEC going on hiatus in 1996 is definitely not true either. Flesh continued to have an active schedule after that too and was using the FEC name as late as October 1998. Here's a fun fact. IWSF and WS were actually created as associations (i.e non-profit organizations) on the exact same day... in June 2002. One in Othis, the other in Paris. And later WS was also created as a company (i.e. business entity for profit) in 2008, and terminated in 2013. This is all traceable in the archives dealing with French associations and companies. Anyway, this is where I'll stop discussing all of these various names further. They're inconsequential and not worth discussing in detail, IMO. That's Marc Mercier's version of the story, and I don't know if I believe it. When Mercier talks about FFCP he always talks about it as if it used to be a wrestling promotion (it was not), says that it was founded in 1931 (not true) by Raoul Paoli (not true) with Alex Goldstein being the second FFCP president (not true) and Delaporte being the third (not true). In other words, he always tries to paint his FFCP as some sort of official continuation of French catch's greatest promoters/promotions from the past and that's just not true. So yeah, I very much doubt that he bought anything from Delaporte, who to the best of my knowledge was never part of the original FFCP in an official capacity anyway.

I went down into the Flesh Gordon rabbit hole yesterday, trying to piece together more of the history of his promotion. And having looked at over 100 posters/programs/flyers for shows of his promotion (from the 1986-2025 period) I can honestly say I have never seen a promotion go through so many promotional names as Flesh's company did. So many, it can make your head spin! At one point or another he used: New Catch / Federation Europeenne de Catch / European Wrestling Federation / NewCatch France / Federation Internationale de Catch Amateurs et Professionnels / Euro-Catch / International Wrestling Stars Federation (IWSF) / Wrestling Stars (WS) / Catch WS / Les Maitres du Ring (which is what it's going by currently). And in looking into the promotion I was reminded of something I had forgotten about. Back in 2009 and 2010 Flesh Gordon teamed up with a production company and they ran three shows at Cirque d'Hiver in Paris, which of course has a long history of catch since it was Alex Goldstein's base of operations for many years. Those were the first catch shows at the venue, I believe, since 1980 or so when the Goldstein promotion closed shop (well, actually, by that point it was more so the Rene Ben Chemoul promotion because Goldstein had stepped away a few years prior). The Flesh Gordon shows at Cirque d'Hiver were billed as "Les Virtuoses des Rings Europeens" and the first one was actually filmed as a TV pilot with the idea to use it as proof of concept and try to land a national television deal. PCO worked the taping as one of the headline attractions and his opponent ended up being Brodie Lee. Very random! Of course this was happening right as catch was experiencing a big resurgence in its popularity in France due to WWE airing on free-to-air TV, which is why Gordon was hopeful he might be able to land a TV deal somewhere. He did not. The show in question does exist somewhere as a DVD, but online you can only find a short highlight video from it and this match below, which I'd say looks pretty good production-wise. In November 2008 the W9 network in France aired a one-off show by the touring Irish company American Wrestling Rampage, which was a success in terms of viewership so they followed it up with a second show the following year. And if you compare the AWR production with the match above, the Flesh Gordon show looks better, but obviously AWR featured ex-WWE names so that made it more appealing from a television perspective. In December 2008 W9 did actually announce their intent to air some FFCP content the following year, but ultimately they did not and instead ended up signing a deal with TNA. In general Marc Mercier had been shopping around a FFCP reality show concept, similar to "Star Academy", but it never got off the ground. In 2010 even ROH managed to get a TV deal in France, albeit a very short-lived one (they got canceled after only two months). Long story short, 2008-2010 was probably French catch's last chance of getting back to national television in France as interest in wrestling was way up, but despite Gordon and Mercier's attempts obviously things didn't work out and clearly French television networks were more interested in American wrestling content than they were in French wrestling content.

^ Olivia Mongho and Olga Diennesch are two of the women in the match footage. Yes, until 1977. Before that women's wrestling in Paris was only allowed at night clubs, cabarets, etc.

^

That would've been the case only if the networks cared about house shows, which they didn't. Not their business. They wouldn't rearrange their TV schedule because of some catch promoter's house show. And besides, I don't think there were many regional catch broadcasts anyway. Certainly not enough for them to be a big factor in the catch business.

By the way, a bunch of people talked about this issue. It wasn't just Delaporte. It was an issue even at the peak of French catch. For example, here's a quote by Maurice Durand from April 1961, right after catch had been taken off TV: Question: So you are in favor of completely eliminating catch from TV? Maurice Durand: No, I just think that we shouldn't overdo it, and that we should be careful about the quality of the show. One session per month would seem perfect to me. When catch was shown every week, it was catastrophic for the catch organizers in the provinces. The announcement of televised catch demolishes the other sessions, which barely attract half-full audiences... And that's a big reason why when catch returned to TV later in the year it was with a more reduced schedule.

Alright, here's the New Catch run in 1988. If you were to go by the TV listings alone you wouldn't even know New Catch was on TF1. I found zero mentions of it (at least in the TV listings as they were in the newspaper I searched through). The reason for that is because New Catch wasn't a standalone series. It was part of a sports magazine show along with a bunch of other sports so the TV listings would mention only the name of that show. New Catch was airing on Monday nights, always after midnight and on a couple of occasions even after 1 am so less than ideal time slot, to say the least, especially for a show that was clearly targeting a younger audience. New Catch was typically about 25 minutes or so. INA has all of the matches I've mentioned below [except for the last two which are not complete]. They don't seem to have the October 17 broadcast of the magazine show, which likely had New Catch on it. They're also missing some of the September episodes of the magazine show so I can't confirm if October 3 was the start date of New Catch, but I think it most probably was (it definitely hadn't started yet as of September 1 and it wasn't part of the September 19 episode either). New Catch on TF1 definitely wrapped up on December 26, because from the next week onward TF1 started airing a different wrestling show, but I'll leave that interesting tidbit for a bit further below. ----------- New Catch on TF1: October 3, 1988: Otto Wanz vs. Rocky Montana (Luc Poirier) Flesh Gordon & Prince Zefy vs. Eliot Frederico & Kato Gipsy October 10, 1988: Johnny Mantell vs. Last Warrior (Boris Cervankovic) Le Marquis Richard de Fumollo vs. Gerard Bouvet Salvatore Bellomo vs. Le Commando October 24, 1988: Drew McDonald vs. Billy Samson Mark Rocco vs. Danny Boy Collins October 31, 1988: Giant Haystacks vs. Franz van Buyten Flesh Gordon & Prince Zefy vs. Pat O’Hara & Jessy Texas New Catch was off TV for two weeks and when it returned it had a pair of new sponsors (which are prominently displayed on the ring and in the arena) November 21, 1988: Fit Finlay vs. Jimmy Kung Fu (Ed Hammill) Prince Zefy vs. Dick Murdoch (Alain Lesage) November 28, 1988: Flesh Gordon vs. Dick Murdoch (Alain Lesage) Le Marquis Richard de Fumollo vs. Claude Rocca Tony Lamotta vs. Eric Lacroix December 5, 1988: Marty Jones vs. John Harris Yann Caradec vs. Black Shadow December 12, 1988: Dave Taylor vs. David Morgan Mister Kong vs. Giro de la Monica Le Marquis Richard de Fumollo vs. Tony Lamotta December 19, 1988: Otto Wanz vs. Dave Taylor + at least one more match [INA doesn't seem to have the full broadcast] December 26, 1988: Mister Kong vs. Danny Garnier + at least one more match [INA doesn't seem to have the full broadcast] ----------- So, get this. The sports magazine show on TF1 that New Catch was part of was actually first spotlighting AWA from Las Vegas. Just like New Catch, 25 minutes or so of it every week. AWA was on TF1 as early as late April 1988 or at least that's the earliest mention that I found. AWA aired for sure through September 1 and then obviously in October they went with New Catch instead. And then from the first week of 1989 they replaced New Catch with WCCW. After that INA's records get very thin and the TV listings are of no use either, but it seems like catch was still part of the sports magazine show as late as August 1989. And I know that in March they were showing Memphis Wrestling. Yes, there were some regional repeats of matches on various France 3 regional channels, but more interestingly than that there were also some matches that were broadcast only regionally. Came across a few (in 1982-1991). The 1987 matches were part of a sports magazine show on FR3. Just occasional filler content. Nothing significant. ----------- On a final note, INA also has a couple of random regional broadcasts from places like New Caledonia and Guadeloupe. I mean, Rocky Johnson teaming with Joe Gomez to take on Dennis Knight and Chris Markoff in Guadeloupe in 1992 is as random as it gets. They only have highlights from that one though, and pre-match promos, but they do have a 40-minute Gomez vs. Knight match that preceded the tag match. There's also a 1989 show in New Caledonia with what seems to be a crew from Australia (John Tolios, the masked Black Scott, Lou Marcello, Gary Scott, Eddie Williams and Vic Murray were the names I could recognize the announcer mentioning).

Another note. The original broadcast date of this match was October 31, 1988 (well, November 1 technically since it was on after midnight). It aired on TF1. The INA version includes the full Haystacks interview and a van Buyten interview before it. EDIT - In fact, turns out INA has most of the 1988 New Catch footage, but apart from the Haystacks/Buyten match above the rest of the footage is not labeled with "catch" so it doesn't show up if you search for catch (hence why no one had really spotted it before).

Here's what catch aired on TV in France in 1984 and 1985. INA has all of the footage, but a few of their listed air dates are not correct. Here is the correct info: In 1984* on A2: - July 4: Black Shadow vs. Angelito + Marquis Edouard Fumolo vs. Georges Cohen [taped on February 25] - July 18: Flesh Gordon & Walter Bordes vs. Les Maniaks [taped on February 25] - July 25: Mongo le Primitif vs. Patrick Lopez + Marquis Edouard vs. Gerald Malpard - August 8: Mongo le Primitif vs. Eliot Frederico + Georges Cohen vs. Anton Tejero - August 15: Angelito & Flesh Gordon vs. Black Shadow & Eliot Frederico - August 22: Mambo le Primitif vs. Flesh Gordon & Angelito - August 29: Georges Cohen & Gass Dhoukan vs. Eliot Frederico & Mano Negra * INA has an additional match (Flesh Gordon & Angelito vs. Les Piranhas) listed as having aired on July 18 along with another two matches that for sure aired on other dates so that date is clearly wrong. And I think there's a decent chance this match ended up not airing. La Derniere Manchette in 1984 on FR3 (the current-day matches only): - July 21: Linda Blair vs. Nicky McDonald - July 28: Franz van Buyten vs. Bob Ufo - August 11: Brigitte Borne vs. Leo Dewerdt - August 18: Marc Mercier & Pierre Mercier vs. Albert Sanniez & Mario Petrolini - August 25: Linda Blair & Nicky McDonald vs. Brigitte Borne & Martine Gowart - September 1: Franz van Buyten & Mr. Montreal vs. Bob Ufo & John Harris In 1985** on A2: - July 7: Mambo le Primitif vs. Les Golden Falcons - July 14: Flesh Gordon & Kader Hassouni vs. Marquis Richard & Black Shadow - July 21: Mambo le Primitif vs. Jessy Texas + Georges Cohen & Kader Hassouni vs. Anton Tejero & Pierre Lagache - July 28: Angelito & Flesh Gordon vs. Kato Bruce Lee & Eliot Frederico - August 4: Georges Cohen & Gass Doukhan vs. Black Shadow & Kato Bruce Lee - August 11: Angelito, Flesh Gordon & Walter Bordes vs. Marquis Richard, Jessy Texas & Eliot Frederico - August 18: Flesh Gordon & Walter Bordes vs. Les Maniaks [taped on March 2] - August 25: Marquis Richard & Black Shadow vs. Marcello Motta & Angelito [taped March 2] - September 1: Flesh Gordon vs. Mambo le Primitif [taped on May 11] ** INA has an additional match (Kader Hassouni & John DeBruyne vs. Les Piranhas), which was taped on May 11, that I'm pretty certain never aired. And that 1985 summer run on A2 ended catch's streak of airing on national television for 31 consecutive years (1954-1985), albeit not always regularly. On an another interesting catch TV note, looks like FEC/EWF's run on TF1 in 1991 lasted only four weeks (November 11-December 3). Catch is not mentioned in the TV listings before and after those dates.