Phil Lions

That theory about the Exbrayat/Esbrayat name definitely makes sense. Also, thanks for that book link. Had a quick look and this I found interesting: "Dans l’imaginaire télévisuel, on les associe volontiers à des héros de séries ou de feuilletons que l’on peut retrouver régulièrement, le week-end sur le petit écran : l’Ange Blanc, l’Homme Masqué, le Bourreau de Béthune, Chéri-Bibi, René Ben Chemoul, André Bollet, Gilbert Leduc, Pancho Farina..." A lot of the same names that I mentioned. I also like how Blanc/Farina is mentioned twice. The villain L'Homme Masque is another one that slipped my mind. He was actually the first masked man attraction that Goldstein introduced and then L'Ange Blanc was introduced as the hero to battle him and other villains. Had L'Homme Masque been a flop, there likely wouldn't have been a L'Ange Blanc. And people sometimes confuse L'Homme Masque with Bourreau de Béthune. Masque was Blanc's big rival during Blanc's masked period. Bethune was working for the rival promotion at the time and was introduced as their own version of Masque, more or less. Bethune did work with Blanc later on, but Blanc had already unmasked by that point.

A few notes from me: "French TV likewise made household names of wrestling stars like L'Ange Blanc, the Bourreau de Bethune, Chéri Bibi, Robert Duranton, Le Petit Prince and Flesh Gordon" - that is an interesting selection of names. It's not who I would've went with though. Blanc, Bethune, Delaporte, Bollet, Duranton, Andre Drapp, Rene Ben Chemoul and Gilbert Leduc are the first names that come to mind first and foremost if you were to ask me who were the most prominent names of the TV era. Bibi and Prince have a case too, I think. The correct surname seems to be Esbrayat, not Exbrayat. He's a guy I've always thought about researching, but haven't yet. I've always thought the correct spelling of the name was Exbroyat (which is how prof. Edmond Desbonnet spelled it), but I did quick search last night after I read your post and realized I was wrong. In the 1830s French press and beyond the name is spelled mostly as Esbrayat. More importantly though, even though he was a wrestler too, he's definitely better known as a promoter. It seems he was active as early as 1830, and perhaps even earlier. The part about him having single-handedly developed the Greco-Roman style I have my doubts about, but I can't confirm it one way or another until I've actually done some proper research. The claim that Esbrayat called the style "flat hand wrestling" I definitely do not buy. As early as 1833 you start to see the term "lutte romaine" (Roman wrestling) being used in the French press. I've seen it used in a bunch of adverts for Esbrayat shows. Rossignol-Rollin, the top French promoter of the 1800s, used it a lot too and I believe this was the official name of the Greco-Roman style in France. It was known mostly as French wrestling elsewhere until the 1870s when the term "Graeco-Roman" was adopted in places like the UK and the USA. "Lutte à main plate" ("flat hand wrestling") was a term that was used too, but seemingly from the late 1840s onward. I'm not sure whether lutte romaine and lutte à main plate were the same style. There was also something called "lutte d'hommes" (men's wrestling) that you can see being used in conjunction with pro wrestling too. I think was a similar style, but not exactly Greco-Roman, although later it may have been also used as a term for Greco-Roman. The "lutte d'hommes" term was around as early as the late 1810s. Anyway, this is what I can say for now based on my research, but like with Esbrayat himself, I haven't spent a lot of time digging into it. This is just surface level stuff. Advert from 1839 for "lutte romaine" and "lutte d'hommes" featuring Esbrayat/Exbrayat: Charles Rigoulot and Julien Duvivier had nothing to do with pro wrestling being introduced at Velodrome d'Hiver. Here's the timeline of it all. Paoli, Deglane and Dan Koloff traveled to Paris in December 1932 and pretty much announced the plans for upcoming shows then. The other two went back to the States and Paoli stayed in Paris to lay the groundwork for the September 1933 debut of the promotion (at Velodrome d'Hiver). Rigoulot joined the promotion in December and was its number three star. Deglane was the top star while Koloff was the number two star and Koloff was also bringing in some of the talent. I've spent a good amount of time researching the Paoli promotion and I've never heard the name Duvivier in relation to it. Perhaps he may have had some role in highlights of the matches being aired in cinemas, but I can't see him being involved beyond that. Another important name in the start of the promotion was the boxing promoter Jeff Dickson, who owned Velodrome d'Hiver. He may have been a partner in the Paoli promotion. I've seen such claims, but haven't been able to verify them. The part about Delaporte having bought FFCP from Paoli in 1960 and becoming the dominant promoter then is definitely not true. Paoli was the main Paris promoter and then in 1952 he formed a partnership with Alex Goldstein, who was one of his chief rivals. Paoli had the biggest venue, but Goldstein had the most venues in Paris so this partnership was very beneficial for both. The two would co-promote for the next few weeks. By 1958 Paoli was out of the picture and Goldstein was running the show himself. At that point Delaporte was one of Goldstein's top stars. Delaporte left the Goldstein promotion in 1961, but returned in 1963. Eventually, and I'm not sure when, Delaporte took over the shows at Elysée Montmartre. Elysée Montmartre wasn't a Raoli/Goldstein venue. The promoter there, before Delaporte took over, was Henri Chausson. I can't say for sure what happened to the Paoli-turned-Goldstein promotion and how it ended. Anyway, that came to mind while reading the wiki entry. Additional details are available in articles that I've written elsewhere. Some of these articles are older and need to be updated, but here you can find additional details about French pro wrestling: Article: The pro wrestling career of the Olympic gold medalist Robert Roth (1921-1925) (talks about the beginning of regulated catch style pro wrestling in France) Results: Shows at Palais des Sports in Paris (1933-1939) Results: Shows at Palais des Sports in Paris (1944-1959) Article: The masked hero L'Ange Blanc (1959-1961) Cards: Paris (1959) (here you can really get a sense of how the Paris scene was set up back then) French title lineages: the World Heavyweight and European Heavyweight Titles (1936-1969)

I had asked Zefy some follow-up questions and he just got back to me now. After I had questioned it, he corrected himself on the year - he says the Macedonian tour was in October 1996. And he also says that they went to Macedonia on their way back from a tournament in Congo. I believe EWF used to also air on TF1. As for the TF1 / Eurosport connection, Eurosport was originally owned by Sky, but then the TF1 group took ownership of the channel in 1991.

I figured out the promotional aspect of the Macedonian tour. I don't know why I didn't make the connection earlier, but it all makes sense now. You know how I was saying the Macedonian announcer mentioned "European Federation of Catheurs" and the match being under the rules of "New Catch International"? "European Federation of Catheurs" would be Fédération Européenne de Catch (FEC), also known as European Wrestling Federation (EWF). Founded in France in the mid 1980s and, apparently, lasted until 1996. They were the same company that had a TV deal with Eurosport and they shared the timeslot with Otto Wanz's CWA in the early 1990s. The Eurosport show was called... "New Catch". By 1996 they had been off Eurosport TV for a few years but I guess they were still using the "New Catch" name to an extent.

I'm still quite intrigued by this Macedonian tour. For what it's worth, Prince Zefy finally got back to me as well and his version of events is a bit different than Bernard Vandamme's. According to Zefy the tour was in 1998 and they did two shows - Skopje (which aired lived on TV) and Pristina. Like Vandamme, he says the crowds were good, but they never returned for a second tour. I don't know if I buy that though. Kosovo (where Pristina is) was in the middle of a war in 1998-99 and I'm having a hard time buying the idea of a wrestling show there during that time. The war officially broke out at the end of February 1998 so, perhaps if the show was earlier in the year, I guess it's possible, but still I'm more inclined to believe Vandamme's version of events. I've asked Zefy some follow-up questions, but he hasn't replied back. I've also reached out to a few other people from the tour, but no response yet.

I can't answer that. All I can say is that when I asked him whether this was an IWSF or EuroStars tour, Bernard told me this tour was before either one of those promotional names. He may be misremembering, I don't know. And besides, neither one of the promotions is mentioned in the footage. In the footage the Macedonian announcer mentions only "New Catch International" and "European Catch Federation" (or European Federation of Catheurs, if I am to translate what he said more literally).

I reached out to a few people about the Macedonian show and luckily Bernard Vandamme, who also wrestled on that tour, provided some details. According to him Flesh Gordon organized a tour of Macedonia in 1996 (so this was before IWSF/WS). They did shows in Bitola, Strumica, Kumanovo and Skopje. Not sure if this was the case for all of the events, but at least one aired on local TV. There were also plans to do shows in Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, but the plans got cancelled. I think the match above is from Kumanovo, because I think I heard the Macedonian announcer mention Kumanovo at one point.

Macedonia back then doesn't strike me as a financially viable destination for an international tour, nor was it a place where I would have imagined anyone taping wrestling show. Hence my amazement at this. Yes, in the Balkan region Greece was the top spot for pro wrestling. Not always, but most of the time, and pro wrestling there lasted the longest. Yugoslavia used to have a tour-based scene into the late 1960s, maybe early 1970s. Turkey had a scene too that died around the same time. Romania's scene died out in the early 1940s while Bulgaria's lasted until the mid-to-late 1940s. In the past couple of decades there have been local indie promotions that have popped up in most of these countries as well as a few shows by international companies. Overall though, it's a very small scene today. A while back I posted a topic with a bunch of Greek footage (including the footage that you've posted). It's all here:

Thank you for bringing this to my attention, David. I would have never expected there to have been a show in Macedonia during that time frame. Greece, Turkey or Serbia - perhaps, but Macedonia - no way! That is very surprising for me to find out. It's just so random. The fact that a French promotion had a show in Macedonia and especially the fact that it was taped is kind of blowing my mind. Looks like they had a pretty good crowd too. I'm familiar with the Macedonian language so I can understand about 80% of what the announcer said. He provided no clues as to exact location or year, unfortunately. He referred to Flesh Gordon as a world champion on multiple occasions throughout the match. At one point he was alluding to the fact that the match was under the rules of New Catch International so perhaps this was the promotional name they used in Macedonia? But then a little bit later on he also mentioned the European Catch Federation. Also, fun fact: the word for pro wrestler in Macedonian is "кечер" (catcher), which is obviously almost the same as the French catcheur. I tried searching for more info on this show on Google in Macedonian pages, but nothing turned up. I've also reached out to a Macedonian contact of mine, who is from the amateur wrestling world and not too familiar with the pro stuff, but he said he'll look into it. Hopefully he manages to find some extra info, because I'm very, very intrigued this.

I just realized that I never got around to posting this article here, and I think it's a pretty interesting one. Came across it earlier this year. It's from February 1960. ---------- Phantoms and Angels. Professional Wrestling Show Hits Europe With Same Old Villain vs. Good Guy Theme. By ROBERT DALEY New York Times News Service PARIS - The pieces moving about the chessboard of European wrestling are strange and sometimes horrible. Among them are the Strangler, The Masked Hangman, The Phantom. The Phantom is entirely garbed in black except for the outline of a skeleton in white on his tunic. When the lights go out the black tunic disappears and the skeleton, iridescent, glows in the dark. The audience gasps. The opponent, an ordinary man, recoils in dread as the Phantom leaps upon him. A ferocious struggle ensues, an ordinary man wrestling in the dark with writhing glowing bones. The audience cries out its horror. Soon the lights go back on. The audience wipes its brow and releases a profound sigh. The eerie spectacle witnessed had been after all only a wrestling match. It seems relieved to realize this. Proprietor of most of these "inhuman" wrestlers is a small gentle 52-year-old Frenchman named Alex Goldstein. Goldstein today has something like 200 wrestlers and controls about 50 arenas throughout Western Europe. But until Dec 8 1958 he had been promoting wrestling for 14 years with extraordinary success. On that day a "colossus" entered the ring of an arena here, his face hidden by a black mask. He shook his fist at the crowd, growled at the referee, then leaped upon his opponent and rabbit-punched him to the canvas. Since the opponent, still wearing his bathrobe and looking the other way, had not been prepared for so unsporting an assault, the audience got the idea. This "Homme Masque" was a villain. One masked man proved so popular that Goldstein soon launched a second, this one the goodest guy Europe has ever seen - The White Angel. The first match between the two provided the biggest wrestling gage in Goldstein's long career. Goldstein needed no further encouragement. There now are about a dozen masked grapplers in the rings of Europe and they have been followed by all manner of other freaks. One of the hits of last season was the Human Beast, the man with the skin of a goat. Barefooted, tattooed all over and wearing only a goatskin, he was a pretty repulsive sight. However he has been outdone this season by Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame. Quasimodo was a miner in the Pyrenees who had done some wrestling. He had all his teeth yanked except one. He dressed in sackcloth, and came to Paris to see Goldstein. Wild-haired, his one tooth protruding over his lower lip, he is a great success now. He is identified on posters as "powerful as he is horrible". However, he does not belong to Goldstein's stable. "I turned him down", Goldstein commented. "Too repulsive. Most of your fans are women. They want to see real men. A colossus like the Homme Masque, 6 feet 4, 260 pounds. An American. I can't tell you his name. He wrestles over there under his true name without a mask". Since Dec 8 1958 Goldstein's business has quadrupled. There are four times as many spectators, four times as many matches, four times as much receipts. The more popular members of his stable now work every other night and earn more than $50,000 a year. Goldstein feels he can keep coming up with new wrinkles forever. "All it takes is a little imagination", he says. "But the presentation is only part of it. The most important thing is that the man be a good wrestler. Someone like Gorgeous George for instance. All he had was presentation. He was nearly 40 years old and he was a bad wrestler." Goldstein is bringing out a new "client" later this month who resembles Gorgeous George to some extent. He has long curly hair; he will be perfumed. He is Bobby Duranton, who won a bathing beach contest a few years ago as the handsomest man in France, a sort of Mr. Muscle. Duranton weighs 230, stands 6 feet tall and will enter the ring wearing a baroque dressing gown with lace cuffs. Goldstein can hardly wait to count the money the first time Duranton meets the Homme Masque.

I think most likely catch no longer being on national TV wasn't that big of a deal in France, because by the time it went off television it was way past its heyday, which was in the 1950s and 1960s. I don't think it was like in 1961, for example, when Maurice Herzog (the French Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports at the time) put pressure on the TV network not to air wrestling any more and there was backlash from the fans about this. In the 1980s I don't think that many people would have cared whether catch was on TV or not, because catch was nowhere near as popular as it had been previously. Even during Jean Ferre's run in the mid to late 1960s/early 1970s the popularity of catch was already down compared to what it had been earlier in the decade, which also explains why when you talk to French people of the older generation someone like L'Ange Blanc is remembered way more than someone like Andre, even though Andre was more recent and was also pushed as a big deal. On another note, expanding on what ohtani's jacket said above, it's good to point out that even during its heyday catch never aired on TV every week. The most they ever reached was 30 something weeks out of the year, I think. Also, because during the heyday it was basically four Paris promotions who shared the TV, the timeslot for catch wasn't a constant one either. Each promoter would run their show on a different day of the week and since at that point most of the shows aired live that meant the TV was on different nights, depending on which promoter's show had the TV coverage that week.

Unfortunately, the post-1952 issues of the newspaper I was using for my research got taken down so now if anyone wants to do any post-1952 French research the only way to do it is to go to a library in France in person. And I'm not in France. In short: I also do not know the answers to David's questions and currently have no way of finding out.

Bob Plantin just posted an interesting comment over on Facebook that I thought is worth sharing here. He stated that based on Bruno Asquini's, Gilbert Cesca's and his opinion (i.e. three of the last living French wrestlers from the glory years of French catch) the best European wrestlers from the middleweights (70 to 80 kg) they had ever been in the ring with were Modesto Aledo, Rene Ben Chemoul and George Kidd, while Gilbert Leduc was the best of the heavyweights. This opinion should come as no surprise given the reputations of all four, but it's always cool to hear feedback about wrestlers from their peers.

Randomly, I was watching the latest episode of WWE's Most Wanted Treasures and look what I spotted. Looks like Hunter may be a SegundaCaida reader. In all seriousness, it's so incredibly random that WWE would have a French catch poster from 64 years ago at their warehouse. This is the show in question: Date: November 2, 1959 Place: Paris, France Arena: Palais de la Mutualite Card: L'Ange Blanc (Francisco Pino) vs. The Big Chief Jose Arroyo vs. Lino Di Santo Jesus de Heredia (Jesus Chausson) vs. Jean Bout Jacky Corn vs. Antonio Morlans

Agreed. That is an almost impossible category to adequately vote in. I know when I'm voting in it I always feel like I'm not able to judge it as properly as I want to be able to judge it. More than any other category, there are huge knowledge gaps when it comes to this category and they're the type of knowledge gaps that are very hard to fill even if one wanted to fill them in and this is due to a number of reasons (lack of research, the disjointed nature of the research that is already out there, language barriers, lack of attendance information to properly judge who was a great draw and who wasn't, wrestlers from too many and too different territories having to be judged against each other, etc.). That said, I don't know what the solution is or if there can even be one. On that topic, seeing L'Ange Blanc get less than 10% of the votes and therefore drop off the ballot is very disappointing to me. Not unexpected, but definitely disappointing. If perhaps the most well-known wrestling star in the history of one of the most historically significant European territories cannot get enough votes to stay on the ballot then something isn't right, in my opinion. On the flipside, I'm glad to see Jose Tarres with a significant increase this year and I chuckled at him getting one vote more than Big Daddy. I don't feel he's trending up for the right reasons (i.e. more people actually trying to learn about him), but rather just because Dave keeps mentioning him as a no-brainer and "the third biggest draw in European history", but either way I'm glad to see him moving on up. Rocca and Perez not getting in is the other big disappointment for me.

Yes and no. Yes, in a sense that it is odd to not feature one of the top stars on TV regularly, but on the flipside no, because even at the peak of his popularity Blanc was always used as a special attraction on TV. For his entire January 1959-March 1961 big run as a masked wrestler he only had three television matches, and the third one was 18 months after the second one. Once Blanc's popularity exploded the promoters took him off TV and focused on him as a live event headliner. I don't know as much about his later years, but it seems to me he continued to be used in that way on television while other top guys like Leduc (another guy who I rank very highly and has a HOF case in my opinion, but it's a harder case to make), Chemoul, Delaporte, Bollet, etc. were featured more regularly. Also, we are for sure missing some Blanc TV matches in the footage. I know of at least two that aired but we don't have, and there must be more than two, I would assume. One of those two matches in particular was quite important/interesting. Wrestling got taken off TV for a while in 1963 and there were arguments between the various promoters, but after pressure from the viewers the network had to bring back wrestling and the network put the pressure on the promoters to put their differences aside. This all lead to wrestling's big TV return in October 1963 in a match which was essentially a relevos increibles match: L'Ange Blanc & Jack de Lasartesse vs. Gilbert Leduc & Robert Gastel. To me the fact that they went with Blanc and Leduc as the babyface stars in wrestling's big TV return tells you who the top babyfaces were at the time. Another Blanc match that aired, but we're missing, is L'Ange Blanc & Gilbert Leduc vs. Hercules Cortez & Robert Gastel from October 1964.

I wouldn't say that. Was he a draw in Greece? Yes, definitely. Was he an uber-mega draw? No. Granted, I don't have all of the numbers and never will, but based on the numbers that I do have he's more like the number 5 draw in the history of Greece after Londos, Lambrakis, Papalazarou and Karpozilos. Actually, make that potentially number 6 because Atilio (the top foreign star in the history of Greece) was a bigger deal than Arion overall. Guys like Gordienko and Megaritis have a case about being on his level too, but that's more debatable. Although to be fair to Arion, there was what seems to have been a big run of shows in 1963 with Arion being one of the keys guys and I don't have any of the numbers for that run. I suspect he drew some strong crowds during that run. And were the Greek crowds some of the biggest in Europe in the 1960s and 1970s? Probably, but since we don't have numbers for the Sportpaleis shows in Antwerp and the Spanish bullring shows especially, it's hard to say where the Greek crowds truly ranked during that era. For reference: my History of Greek Pro Wrestling article (which I see that you've quoted in your Arion article so thank you for that!) Full disclosure: If I recall correctly, I have actually voted for Arion in the past, but this year he missed my cut.

I've thought about this before, but gave it even more thought the other day, and it struck me that Big Daddy and L'Ange Blanc make for a good comparison. A very good one, actually. Both were around for a while and doing okay until they stumbled upon a gimmick to elevate them into superstardom, both became the faces of pro wrestling in their respective countries, both were big television stars, both were/are the most recognizable wrestling names to the older generations in their countries, both were pushed hard, both were very protected in terms of losses, their runs as big headline acts were about the same length, and both were still around as headliners when the business in their countries took a nosedive. There are definite similarities between the two. However, when you start making further comparisons you realize that Blanc has Daddy beat on multiple fronts: Blanc was a headliner in several different countries and not just in one, he drew a number of 10,000+ crowds (and there's very likely even more such crowds that we don't know about), he was a better in-ring worker, and his influence was felt/gimmick was copied in several countries. Anyway, just some thoughts from me as I continue pondering my ballot. With all the tag team options it's a harder ballot than last year's so I'm taking my time with it.

I wouldn't read much into much into INA's response. I think they gave you just a generic response that seemed logical to them, without realizing what the reality of the situation is. Several different promotions were airing matches of theirs on French TV and typically the promotions weren't identified by name on the air so it's hard to say which one this was, but even if you knew which one it was all of those old French promotions haven't been around for decades so there's no federation out there to ask. Also, a quick sidenote on Lola Garcia. In the mid 1970s the promoters in Spain decided to shake things up a bit and introduce something Spain had never really had before - women's professional wrestling. Lola Garcia was positioned as the face of it.

I was doing some new research these past few days and I thought I'd share some of it here, because it sheds a little bit of light on the foundations of the French catch scene and how it came to be the way it was. The later years are hard to research so some of it is speculation on my part. November 16, 1922: La Fédération Française de Lutte Professionnelle (French Professional Wrestling Federation), or FFLP for short, was formed. This FFLP wasn't a wrestling promotion - it was a governing body, which is unique in itself, because historically pro wrestling hasn't had many governing bodies on a country-level. Over time it became so that in order for someone to wrestle professionally in France they needed a license through FFLP. FFLP also sanctioned all the championships in France, which is why for a long time in France all promoters recognized the same champions, even if said champions weren't working for them per se, and that's also why there weren't multiple title claimants at the same time like there were in other places. For a long time in France there was just one European Heavyweight champion, one French Heavyweight champion, one European Light Heavyweight champion, etc. The rules of the matches in France were also based on the FFLP guidelines. If you look at any poster for a Raoul Paoli show in France in the 1930s you'll see that the shows were always billed as "Organized by Raoul Paoli and under the regulations of the FFLP". At the time there were no official promotion names. Promotional names were introduced later on - I think the late 1940s or very early 1950s is when the French promoters started giving their promotions official names. FFLP was still around in the late 1950s, which probably explains why the championships were still recognized by all promotions (as in you didn't have a European Heavyweight title claimant in one promotion and a different European Heavyweight title claimant in another promotion, for example). It could also explain the television situation. As we already know, all four Paris promotions had matches of theirs aired on TV and no single promotion controlled the TV. If the agreement to air wrestling on national television was facilitated through FFLP this could explain why the television coverage was spread even like that, especially if the Association, which I'll talk about in the next paragraph, was still around to lobby for equality. I'm not sure when FFLP stopped having influence / stopped being a thing altogether. August 1928: Syndicat des Lutteurs Professionnels Français (Syndicate of French Professional Wrestlers) was formed. In November 1930 it was renamed Association des Lutteurs Professionnels Français (Association of French Professional Wrestlers). This was essentially a professional wrestlers union, formed to defend the interests of its pro wrestler members. Again, I don't know when it stopped existing. I'm not sure exactly when this happened (either late 1910s or very early 1920s), but at one point the French government imposed a 35% tax on pro wrestling, which almost killed pro wrestling in France. Most promoters simply couldn't afford to run shows because of this high tax. The tax was in place throughout the 1920s and that's why there was very little pro wrestling in France in the 1920s. FFLP and the Syndicate/Association played an important role in lobbying to get the tax reduced. I'm not sure exactly when they succeeded in doing so (it was still there as of late 1928), but they did succeed, which allowed pro wrestling to blossom in France again. Had this big tax still been around in the 1930s I just can't see Raoul Paoli being able to promote wrestling in France as successfully as he did, if at all. And without Raoul Paoli's promotion making catch popular in France in the 1930s, and then reviving it again in the mid to late 1940s, French catch would have probably never made it to television in France and we wouldn't be talking about it today.

I'm in a writing mood so I decided to do a new write-up and expand a bit, in a more structured way, on why I feel Tarres and Pino are strong picks for the Europe/Australia/etc. region and why people shouldn't be sleeping on them. Jose Tarres = Big crowds. How many guys in the history of that region, and Europe in particular, have three or more reported crowds of 20,000+ in their record? I can only think of three wrestlers and two of them, Jim Londos and Dan Koloff, are already in the WON HOF. The third guy is Tarres, who drew at least three such crowds in Valencia. Now obviously, some territories simply did not run stadiums/arenas for that many people, but that shouldn't be held against Tarres. The fact is in Spain they were running a ton of shows at bullrings and stadiums for 10,000-20,000 people and because of that guys like Tarres could headline regularly in such big arenas, while wrestlers in most other countries in the region could not. That gives him a big advantage over most other wrestlers. Maybe a bit unfair of an advantage, but an advantage nonetheless. The number of such shows that he headlined is definitely over 100, and may even be close to 200. Almost no one else in the history of Europe did that. The unfortunate thing is that actual attendance numbers are hard to come by, which is generally an issue with European candidates, but there's plenty of newspaper reports that talk about the bullrings being full and the crowds being great to confirm the theory that Tarres very likely drew a large number of big crowds. It's also worth pointing out that unlike say England and France Spanish pro wrestling never aired on television so whatever popularity Tarres had he gained without the power of television behind him. = Wrestling boom. Pro wrestling had been gaining popularity in Spain prior to his emergence already, but not too long after Tarres came along is when wrestling really started booming in Spain. That's when running regular shows at big bullrings and stadiums throughout the whole country became a thing in Spain, and during that time it was Tarres and a few others who were the leading stars. He doesn't deserve all the credit, of course, but he had a lot to do with the popularity of wrestling exploding in Spain and Spain becoming one of the hottest territories for wrestling in Europe. = Longevity on top. How many guys started headlining shows from week three into their professional career all the way to the end of their career 20 years later? Because that was the case with Tarres. There was never a time where he wasn't considered a headline star in Spain. Super quick rise to the top too - by seven or eight months into his career he was already one of the top two stars in the country and by year a half in he was already drawing his first crowd of 20,000+. = Championships. Let me first state that Spain had a lot of different championships. A lot. But even so holding certain championships, especially in certain periods, meant that you were the top star in Spain. Over the course of his career Tarres held more championships in Spain than anyone else there and probably more belts than most other wrestlers in the region during that era. Ten different belts across three different weight classes. 19 reigns altogether. Regional, national, European and World titles. Some he held multiple times and some he held simultaneously (e.g. being the Spanish and the European champion at the same time). = Putting new stars over. Tarres was very important to his home territory, Spain, in that sense too. A lot of the guys who ended up becoming big stars in Spain (Pedro Bengoechea, Felix Lamban, Jim Oliver, Eduardo Castillo and even Hercules Cortez to name a few) were put over by Tarres when they were being elevated to the top. A win over Tarres gave you instant credibility in Spain. He was generally protected by the booking, but had no problems losing and putting new people over. = Wins over notable international stars. In Spain Tarres beat names likes Stan Karolyi, Gilbert Leduc, Andre Drapp, Andre Bollet, Roger Delaporte, Robert Duranton, Billy Robinson, Al Hayes, Billy Joyce, Bert Royal, Ray Hunter, Andreas Lambrakis, Dr. Adolf Kaiser, Axel Dieter, Tarzan Taborda, Kiyomigawa, Lucky Simunovich, Zando Zambo, Liano Pellacani and many others. = Biggest drawback? Of course the biggest knock on Tarres would have to be that he didn't have much success elsewhere. Outside of Spain he worked the most in France and he was definitely a popular star there. Most of his matches were either main events or semi-main events, and he did also work a few matches on national television when wrestling was pretty popular on TV in France. However, he worked mostly for the smaller promotions and never really worked any of the biggest shows in France. So you could say he was somewhat successful in France, but not overly so. He also wrestled briefly in England and Germany, but not a lot. In my eyes his lack of success outside of Spain definitely takes him down a peg or two, but on the flip side he was so successful in Spain that he didn't really need to work much elsewhere and he didn't. L'Ange Blanc (Francisco Pino) = Influence. When Pino became the masked L'Ange Blanc in France that was something that influenced not only the wrestling business in France, but the wrestling business in Europe as a whole. Masked wrestlers hadn't been a regular thing in Europe for quite a while. Then came L'Ange Blanc, along with a couple of prominent masked villains (L'Homme Masque and Le Bourreau de Bethune), and all of a sudden masked wrestlers started becoming prominent main event attractions on cards throughout Europe. First a ton of new masked gimmicks started popping up in France, then other top European territories like England, Spain, Greece, etc. followed suit and not only began introducing various masked characters, but they even introduced their own versions of the L'Ange Blanc character. Some of these new masked gimmicks became quite successful in their own right and this new wave of masked characters in Europe can be traced directly back to L'Ange Blanc. = Mainstream popularity. Like with a Big Daddy in the UK, if you were to ask an older French person who was alive during that era to name a wrestler from back in the day or if you were to read some French article talking about the old days of French wrestling, L'Ange Blanc is often the first name that gets brought up. And keep in mind, his peak was a long time ago - late 1950s/early 1960s. He was a legitimate mainstream star in France back in his day. Especially his initial two-year run when he still had the mask on was huge, reports indicating that his television appearances would double the usual audience for wrestling. And this was at a time when wrestling was already one of the more popular programs on television in France. And he made other television appearances as well, he wasn't just on the wrestling shows. L'Ange captured the imagination of the French audience in a major way. He was probably the biggest mainstream star in the history of French pro wrestling and given the long history of wrestling there, that says a lot. Also, with him at the forefront business in France was booming for a while and that's another feather in his cap. The business in France was already doing quite well when he came along, but he took things to a new level. = A headline star in several territories. Unlike Jose Tarres, L'Ange was a headline star in a few different places. He was most popular in France, of course, but he also had a good run in his native Spain where he headlined a number of shows at big bullrings and held a couple of important championships. He wasn't as big of a star in Spain as Tarres and a few others, but was definitely a popular and respected name, especially in the capital Madrid. Mexico is another place where he had a run as a headline star. It wasn't a long run, but it was a strong one as it included a few big crowds, two big apuestas matches (a win and a loss) and him being in the main event of the EMLL anniversary show (traditionally the biggest EMLL/CMLL show of the year). L'Ange also appeared as a headliner in England, where he got to main event a show at the Royal Albert Hall in London, among other places. = Some big crowds. L'Ange had a few big matches at the 18,000-capacity Palais des Sports in Paris before it got torn down that drew reported crowds in the neighborhood of 15,000. In Mexico his mask vs. hair match with Black Shadow drew 13,500 and there were a few other big crowds at Arena Mexico as well. And he likely had some big crowds in Spain too, but those are harder to verify. = Longevity on top. From the moment he donned the L'Ange Blanc mask in January 1959 through the end of his career there in the early 1970s he was a headline star in France. The peak of his popularity were the first two years when he still had the mask on, but even after that he remained a constant headline star and wrestled many of the top heels in France during this time. In Spain it was a similar deal - he remained among the top names from his initial appearance there as L'Ange Blanc to the end of his career in the mid 1970s. = Biggest drawback? Not sure. Maybe that he didn't get the chance the headline a lot of big shows in big arenas in France. He had a few, but not a lot. The big Paris wrestling venue got torn down a few months into his run so for that reason he doesn't have as many big French crowds to his record as he could have had, but obviously that was outside of his control. You could also say he probably could have been bigger deal in Spain than he was. To summarize, I'm in strong favor of both guys, especially in comparison to some of the other candidates on the Europe/Australia/etc. ballot. I can't decide which one of the two I feel more strongly about. Both have their pluses and minuses, but I know for sure I will be voting for one of them. Maybe even both. Depends on how the rest of my picks go when I put the final list together. ------------------------------------ And speaking of my list, so far Okada, Enrique Torres, Bobby Bruns, Bobby Davis and Morris Sigel are the names I know I'm definitely voting for. Beyond that I'm open to changing my mind about certain guys so I'm still reading up on a few potential picks and debating back and forth who to vote for. In the past I have voted for guys like Bob Ellis, Johnny Rougeau and Spiros Arion (among others), but this year there are more options to consider. One guy who I've been considering, and this is more of a controversial pick, is Mistico. Yes, he had that failed WWE run, but I think people often put too much emphasis on that and forget or overlook how huge of a star he was in his heyday in Mexico. There's more to it than just that, but in short I think he's a name more people should be looking into as well in terms of the Mexican candidates.

Great to see some new names added to the European side of the ballot. This shakes things up a bit. I was the one who suggested Jose Tarres and L'Ange Blanc to Dave so I'm really glad to see them being put on the ballot. I don't know how much support they would get as I get a feeling most voters are not well aware of them, but they're both definitely deserving of being on the ballot. Dave also took my suggestion to put Roger Delaporte and Andre Bollet on as a team, which I'm a bit surprised he decided to do. While Tarres and Blanc I'm a big supporter of, Delaporte and Bollet are borderline guys for me, but still there is a case to be made for them and they make for an interesting discussion if nothing else. I had also suggested Gilbert Leduc, but he didn't make the cut, which I'm totally fine with. He's a harder guy to make a case for. Also, this is as a good a time as any to re-post the (slightly updated) short write-ups I did on them a while back: Jose Tarres Career: mid 1940s through late 1960s Pros: One of the biggest, if not the biggest, stars in the history of Spanish pro wrestling. Had a super quick rise to fame. Three weeks into his pro career he was already headlining the weekly "B" shows in his native Barcelona (the second biggest Spanish city), by the fifth month he was headlining the weekly "A" shows, and by year and a half in he drew his first (known) crowd of 20,000+ fans. Was a top star in Spain from the beginning of his career all the way to its end 20 years later, and that was the golden age of Spanish pro wrestling when every summer there would be a lot of open-air shows at big bullrings and stadiums throughout the country. Was one of the keys stars who helped take the business in Spain into its golden age. Drew at least three 20,000+ crowds that we know of for title matches in Valencia, as well as a lot of big crowds in his home town of Barcelona (he headlined 80+ shows there in arenas for 10,000+ people) and elsewhere in Spain. Held a ton of championships in Spain, more so than anyone else in the history of the country. He held championships in three different weight classes and when you add them all together he was a one-time World champion, 7-time European champion and 4-time Spanish champion. On a couple of occasions he held three titles at the same time - one of only a handful of wrestlers to do so in the history of Spanish wrestling. Was popular in France too, where he worked quite a bit, and had some television exposure there, and this was during a time when wrestling was doing quite well on national TV in France. When he passed away the most popular sports newspaper in Barcelona, Mundo Deportivo, compared his popularity in his heyday to that of the most famous football (soccer) players, which really says a lot given how popular football is in Spain. Cons: He did wrestle a little bit elsewhere in Europe too (England, Germany, etc.), but didn't have a lot of success outside of Spain and to a lesser extent France. Other Spanish stars like Francisco Pino and Hercules Cortez (and Eugenio Gonzalez in the early 1950s) were a bigger deal than him in France so he was probably the number four or five Spanish star in the history of France. While he did work quite a few main events and semi-main events in France he never worked the really big shows there. Had a minimalistic in-ring style in a sense that usually his matches were built around him trying to knock his opponents out with his famous headbutts. It worked for him back in his era, but I could see someone looking at him today and thinking this isn't very exciting to watch and that plenty of other European wrestlers were better in-ring workers than him because of this. L'Ange Blanc (Francisco Pino) Career: early 1950s through mid 1970s Pros: Probably the biggest mainstream star in the history of French pro wrestling. I would say bigger than guys like Paul Pons and Henri Deglane on a mainstream level, because L'Ange was a star in the television era when millions of people could actually watch him perform live on TV. From the little information that we know, his TV appearances seem to have done double what the usual TV audience for wrestling would be so that right there tells you how big of a TV star he was. His first television appearance drew a reported audience of 4 million viewers, which was a very big number for 1959 France. He also made appearances on other French television shows and was very much a mainstream celebrity in France. His two-year run as a masked wrestler was huge in France and this was a time when business in France seems to have been at one of its highest levels in history. Big TV audiences for his appearances, packed weekly venues and reportedly several crowds of 10,000+ in Paris. His appearance ushered in a new wave of masked wrestlers not only in France, but in Europe too, so he was very influential in that sense. In France alone 25+ new masked wrestlers were introduced in the year after L'Ange's debut and there were a number of L'Ange Blanc imposters working throughout the country just because the demand for the masked hero L'Ange Blanc was so big. Not too long after England, Spain, Greece and other places introduced their own versions of L'Ange Blanc and in general masked characters became more prominent in Europe, which was largely inspired by L'Ange Blanc and his success in France. He wasn't as big a star in France after 1961 when he removed his mask, but he continued being a headline star there for another decade. Was also a star in his native Spain. Perhaps not as big as Tarres, Cortez, Bengoechea and some of the other local stars, but was certainly a popular name in Spain for 10+ years, especially in the capital Madrid. Was European champion in Spain and headlined some big shows in Madrid and elsewhere. Also had a solid run in England as well as a run as a headline star in Mexico in 1967, where he drew some big crowds at Arena Mexico. Cons: His run as a masked wrestler in France was huge, but it was only a little over two years. A few months into his run the big 18,000 capacity venue in Paris that had hosted all the major Paris shows since 1933 got demolished so he got to headline only a few shows there. Because of this in terms of drawing big crowds in Paris he's not anywhere close to the previous two generations of French stars (Henri Deglane, Charles Rigoulot, Yvar Martinson, Felix Miquet). He was a big television star, but in reality as a masked wrestler he only had three, four at most, matches on TV. He doesn't seem to have been as big in his native Spain as you may think an internationally renowned Spanish star would be. He was a solid in-ring technician and had a very clean style, but wasn't overly exciting to watch. There were plenty of better and more exciting European workers than him back then. Roger Delaporte & Andre Bollet Career: early 1950s through early 1970s Pros: The most high profile team in French pro wrestling history. French tag team champions and I would say the top heels of the TV era in France. Big stars of the early French television era. In fact, probably the biggest mainstream stars of the era after L'Ange Blanc. Much like him, they were two of the few French stars who crossed into the mainstream, but in a different way. Not only were they mainstays of French wrestling TV, when the TV was at its strongest, but they also made appearances on other television variety shows, did some acting (including starring in their own feature film) and also released a music album. Very entertaining characters with an in-ring style that really resonated with the French audiences. The definition of heels you love to hate. Great at stooging, cheating and drawing heat, but at the same time always bringing the comedy and bumping big time for the babyfaces to make them look good. Headlined some shows at the 18,000-capacity Palais des Sports in Paris. Both wrestled elsewhere in Europe (England, Spain, Italy, etc.) and were held in good regard as headlining stars, but overall Bollet is ahead of Delaporte on that front. If we are to look at them individually, for Bollet you could say he had a decent little run in Texas, a good one in Canada (where he headlined in front of some big crowds tagging with Edouard Carpentier) and a tour of Japan with IWE where he was in some main events. Delaporte didn't travel that much and at first he was a bigger singles star than Bollet in France, but Bollet caught up to him in later years. It's also good to point out Delaporte had a long run as promoter at Elysee Montmartre in Paris. Cons: They didn't headline a lot of big shows in France - a few, but not a lot. Again, like with L'Ange Blanc, as they were beginning to hit their stride as stars the big Paris venue got demolished. While they did have some success outside of their native France, Bollet especially, they weren't overly successful outside of France. Their in-ring style could be seen as too much clowning around by some. If anyone is interested in learning more about L'Ange Blanc's run as a masked wrestler in France I would recommend checking out this article of mine: The masked hero L'Ange Blanc (1959-1961) For Jose Tarres I haven't done a detailed article, but these two topics should give you somewhat of an idea how big of a star he used to be in Spain: Results: Barcelona (1943-1968) and Results: Jose Tarres' big title matches in Valencia (1948-1949)

I don't know that I would classify anything here as particularly great in the traditional sense. It's been a few years since I've watched these so my recollection isn't great and I think I never got around to watching all of the footage above in full, but personally I'm partial to the Souglakos comp. I wouldn't say these are the best matches as the matches are short and the quality of the work is up for debate, but it's a fascinating look at Greek catch's final headline star and perhaps best remembered star (largely due to him having some fame outside of wrestling too with various movie roles, TV appearances, and even a rap album). The crowd is really into Souglakos in some of the bouts and Pefanis does a great blade job in one of them so those were my main two takeways from the comp. At least from what I recall. I'd also throw the Tromaras match highlights in there as well just for comparison's sake as Tromaras was the other top Greek name back then. Sidenote about Souglakos. He actually headlined the first (and only) show by an American company in Greece. New York's NWF had a show there in 1991 with Abdullah the Butcher, Jules Strongbow, Wendi Richter and others. Souglakos was the only Greek on the card and took on The Russian Assassin (Johnny Grunge, supposedly) in the main event. That was the last big wrestling crowd in Greece - about 5,500 (or 15,000 according to Souglakos in interviews ). I can't remember off the top of my head, but I think that show may have aired on TV in Greece. It was definitely taped as that match was featured in the other Souglakos VHS comp that was released in the early 1990s, but sadly that one hasn't popped up on YouTube. And one final fun fact about Souglakos. Back in 1989 he got a bunch of publicity in Greece for challenging Mike Tyson to a boxing fight. He was claiming Tyson is afraid of him... If not the Souglakos comp I say go for the Siotis match. He's got a rep as being one of the better Greek workers. After that it's a toss-up. The Souglakos vs. Hristofilopoulos match is full, but I don't recall it being any good. The Bouranis/Tsikrikas tag, plus the singles and tag match with unidentified wrestlers may be better, but neither one of those is full. They're good length, just not full.

A while back I did a big article on the history of pro wrestling (or catch as they used to call it there) in Greece and in the process of doing so I came across some mid to late 1980s and early 1990s footage from Greece. It occurred to me just now that some people here might find the footage interesting so I thought I'd share it here, along with some info on the featured wrestlers. Most of the footage is handheld as local wrestling never aired on TV in Greece (apart from a couple of TV specials, I think). Some things were taped for VHS as well. Catch took off in Greece in the 1930s and reached its peak in the 1950s, 60s and 70s when during the summer months there would be several shows per week at big open-air stadiums in the capital Athens. Greece, and Athens in particular, is a very underrated territory. Catch was quite popular there and they were drawing some of the biggest crowds in Europe at the time. Sadly all of the footage below is from the tail end of Greek catch when the crowds were much smaller, the workers were generally older and the work wasn't as good anymore, but still it's kind of fascinating to take a look at wrestling from that part of the world. Just don't go in expecting French catch level of work. Since I don't have the dates for any of these matches, I'll list them by footage length, starting with the longest. All of the footage is from YouTube. ---------------------------------- A compilation of Apostolos Souglakos matches - An early 1990s VHS release. Souglakos was one of the two most popular Greek wrestlers at the time (maybe even the most popular one), and he was also an actor so that gave him some additional fame. You could say he was the last star of Greek catch. Among Souglakos' opponents in this are Thomson (a.k.a. Gigi the Greek from Canada, Souglakos' first opponent in the video), Giorgos Pefanis (the guy with the long blonde hair, the last notable Greek heel of that era, he does a great blade job in one of the matches here) and King Kong (the big masked guy in the full-body leopard-striped suit, the most popular masked gimmick in the history of Greek catch - a gimmick that lasted 30 years in Greece). Also included is a scene from the 1984 Greek movie "The Bastards" where Souglakos takes on Giorgos Tromaras (the other top Greek star of the era). Don't watch after 48:00 when the credits roll - after that it's just some of the same matches repeated again. Several matches from a show - Late 1980s or early 1990s. The video resolution is weird. Pefanis is one of the guys in the final match. I don't recognize the other wrestlers in the footage. Apostolos Souglakos vs. Panagiotis Hristofilopoulos - Early or mid 1980s. Hristofilopoulos (in the blue trunks) was a well-established name and was toward the end of his career here, while Souglakos was a headliner, but not quite the top star he would become later. Giorgos Bouranis & Soulis Tsikrikas in a tag team match + part 2 - From 1984. Some of the middle is missing. Bouranis and Tsikrikas (the second team in the video, Tsikrikas is the guy running, and Bouranis is the guy behind him) were one of the top Greek teams. They also had a run in the UK as a team. Bouranis was also a popular singles babyface star in Greece. In this match both guys are nearing the end of their careers. a tag team match - Probably late 1980s. Finish is missing. The title of the video has the name Tsamouras in it so perhaps he was one of the wrestlers in the footage. a singles match - Probably late 1980s. Finish is missing. The title of the video has the name Tsamouras in it so perhaps he was one of the wrestlers in the footage. Giorgos Siotis in a singles match - From 1987. The lightweight Siotis (the guy in the blue singlet) was considered one of the best Greek technicians. This is toward the end of his career. Highlights from a Giorgos Tromaras match - Late 1980s or early 1990s. This seems to have been taped for TV, or maybe VHS. Along with the aforementioned Souglakos, Tromaras (the guy in the yellow singlet) was the most popular Greek wrestler of the 1980s and early 1990s. He was also a famous strongman. ---------------------------------- And finally some bonus stuff. Apostolos Souglakos vs. Giorgos Tromaras - A scene from the 1984 Greek movie "The Bastards". It's included above in the Souglakos comp, but this version is a bit longer. It's the top two Greek stars of the the 1980s wrestling each while a sniper is setting up to shoot Souglakos. Apostolos Souglakos vs. King Kong - Another scene from "The Bastards". Again, it's the masked King Kong that I mentioned above in the Souglakos comp. Over the years the gimmick went through a few different names (Monster, Di Bestia, King Kong), but it was essentially always the same gimmick. Giorgos Tromaras strongman demonstration - From 1996. Giorgos Pefanis strongman demonstration P.S. It's also worth noting that catch more or less died out in the mid 1990s in Greece, but a few years back an indy company called ZMAK popped up and they are the top Greek indie promotion. There's also the Hellenic Pro Wrestling Association.

I just posted all 232 show line-ups that I have from Paris in 1959 over on Wrestling Classics. In case anyone wants to take a look, they're here: Cards: Paris, France (1959)