David Mantell

Christmas 1985 at the Bremen Stadhalle on the last day of the Catch Cup and we have another misfit. Fit Finlay, back home one of the most hated villains, having watered with Marty Jones over the World Mid Heavyweight Championship and about to go into a big feud with Big Daddy climaxing in an FA Cup Final showdown, the second time he and Daddy have done this, is astonishingly on the good guys side. Now admittedly Steve Wright and Tony StClair are both long gone from Joint Promotions. Wright is over here rewriting the local style while Tony is mostly working for Orig Williams and Brian Dixon doing TV for both on S4C's Reslo and Screensport's Satellite Wrestling. But it's still pretty odd. Finlay is Irish and so is Rasputin on the other side (the proper one Johnny Howard, not the Raspoutine we saw on FR3 in 1982.) which may explain THE DJ playing old Irish drinking song No Nay Never at the start. (Howard was actually a student of Finlay's dad. ). Rasputin and Colonel Brody know Finlay only took well, all three are regulars on ITV wrestling. Guajaro is the unknown quantity, locally based his whole career. Finlay is indeed cheered by the German audience and does a Hulk Hogan style dear cupping routine as he gears up to face Brody. The Colonel had the size advantage getting some big throws on Finlay and using hairpulls. Finlay gets a great sunset flip which Brody counters by dragging him right through by the ears! Good guy Finlay is like a poodle having a fight with a Doberman. He eventually hits back with some kneedrops and Tony and Indio tag in, then Rasputin and Steve. From here it's just standard Brits in Germany. Wright dropkicks all three heels out of the ring. Rasputin goes to work on his trainer's son ith an elbowsmash, posting, slam , fistdrop and piledriver. Brody posts and butts him,But Finlay absorbs a posting, backwards leapfrogs and gets a front folding press for the opening fall. The villains work over Finlay in retribution. They triple cream him in their corner. Then they do the same to Tony and Steve. They beat Toby at ringside so badly that Rasputin gets a yellow card, but he soon pins Howard (apparently this is a best of 5 falls.). Finlay end up being ganged up on and falls to a Brody firemans carry suplrx to make the score 2-1. The heels are catching up! Finlay and Wright go to work on Indio, with Steve getting the flying tackle forces 3-1 win. Finlay, StClair and Wright leave as amigos but soon Finlay would bring Paula to Germany and became heel like in the UK. Finlay and Wright would have their CWA wars and in 1990, Finlay would win the (All Star) British Heavyweight Championship from StClair. ************** Quality is a bit ropey especially the colour signal which is mostly missing apart from a few flashes. At the end we get the introductions and opening moments of an Otto Wanz CWA title defence against Moondog Rex (which I've previously reviewed.)

By this time the Big Daddy formula was fully established although it took his war to shut Mighty John Quinn's mouth to really have Daddymania running wild. Daddy only gets involved briefly, most of this is Tony dealing with two brute heavyweight heels. Bruiser/Bully Boy Muir is a familiar enough piece of Daddy fodder. Bronco Wells had two notable headline matches, this one and earlier in '78 Kendo's first match as an unmasked wrestler in which Kendo totally dominated him (and the complained in his 2018 book that Wells was a lousy opponent..) StClair nicely levers out of a Muir headlock for starters Then when Muir gets a single leg into toe and ankle, Tony rolls out (anyone else think he was going to leg-throw Muir and make the big bald baddy somersault?). Muir gets a wristlever into armlock against the joint into hammerlock but Tony again rolls off with his arm in the hammerlock position. Disgusted, Muir tags Wells. He tries a cross armed grovit but StClair cartwheels out. Wells gets a hammerlock, takes Tony down in the mount, bars the other arm and turns Tony into the guard. and cross presses him for a pair of 1s. Tony cartwheels again beautifully from a Wells throw. Muir very reluctantly tags in (and he's not even facing Daddy.). Muir gets a wristlever but StClair rolls backwards then forward then back a bit and unpicks the hold with his foot and takes Muir's extended arm. Sadly Muir does not roll out - he goes for the ropes to force the break. Muir gets a bearhug but has to lift Tony up to get it on leaving a lot of his own back available for attack. Tony considers an elbowsmash to the shoulders but goes for pressure points and a series offour big Bionic Elbows to Muir's shaven skull. He gets his release on the third one and Muir collapses back in his corner, tagging Wells. So far, no sign of Big Daddy, but Tony is doing so well in this quasi handicap tag anyway. He gets full finger Interlock and fires a lean back dropkick off it. Wells is jumping with rage and Tony slapping him around doesn't make him feel any better. He gets dirty with a concealed illegal punch that floors Tony for four, a headlock on the ropes that has Daddy in and complaining and various illegal attacks on the prone Tony. Now StClair is fired up, he scores two mighty forearm smashes then tags Daddy. Wells tries to tag Muir who tries not to be tagged. In desperation they try a double team, each villain getting a top wristlock and for a while they do force him back into his corner, but Daddy overpowers both and sends them toppling. Wells then Muir then Wells take the bodycheck and they both flee outside. StClair tags in to lure the villains back as it looks like they will just plain vamoose. They don't fancy facing StClair either - Muir is down at ringside and Wells nearly joins him but Tony drags him back. Wells finally gets the heat back, getting in an illegal concealed punch and a legal kneelift before tagging Muir. He prematurely drags Tony off the mat and scores several blows of varying legality ending in a double team that again has Daddy complaining. Muir gets a side chancery throw then full nelson and smacks Tony's head in the corner. He gets a hairpull and another full nelson and tries another corner move but Tony reverses it and scores a dropkick. He absorbed a posting well and lunges for Muir's stomach but bounces off. Undettered, Tony gets double legs and a front folding press for the first fall! Muir avanges his "honour" with a quick concealed punch to the triumphant Tony, doubling him up. It earns him a public warning. Second fall. Tony is recovered enough to go. Muir still posts him, picks him up and posts him again so his back connects with Wells' fist in the corner pad. Wells gets a bunch of elbows against the cornered StClair which earn his team the Second And Final Public Warning. Wells continues the posting treatment but makes the mistake of posting Tony into his own corner. Tony uses Daddy's help to score a lean back dropkick then tags the big man in. A bodycheck, three postings, a side chancery throw and the Big Splash is what it takes to get the Second Straight. Daddy and StClair win 2-0. This is actually the second semifinal of a four team KO. Earlier, Giant Haystacks and Big Bruno Elrington beat Wayne Bridges and Lee Bronson to win the first semi and now it is is time for the final, but instead two towels come down. Just three months earlier Haystacks and Elrington had upset Daddy and Gary Sensor in what would be Daddy's last ever TV defeat. The big villains did face - and lose to - Daddy and StClair in December as the Xmas Big Daddy tag. Daddy's only in this for a minute or so, The rest is a rather interesting handicap tag of Tony StClair handling two big brutes.

It reeks of trendiness. It's something hip and fashionable to do in certain circles. Especially if you have other territories which have their own name for six man tag and someone calls it Trios in that context. I can understand someone saying six man tag if that's the only term they know but calling a Triple Tag Match off World of Sport or a Catch A Six off Antenne 2 in 1985 a "Trios" has a really snooty air to it.

Georges de Caunes (father of Antoine "Eurotrash" de Caunes") also did a lot of wrestling commentary for (O)RTF. You'll notice the programming titles are all French which underlines that this is RTSuisse the French language channel. All of these wre outposts of French TV wrestling rather than separate territories with separate TV shows. Northern Italy could well have gotten the RTS signal which is another example of overspill like being able to watch World Of Sporting the Netherlands or WOS and Reslo in the ROI. What's extra interesting is that Italian Catch died out in 1965 and except for occasional bursts of training school shows from those two brothers in Piedmont, stayed dark for 23 years until the WWF invaded in 1988 yet for 5 years 1965-1970 the North of Italy still had regular access TO TV wrestling.

Tele Monte Carlo had the same 819 line format as ORTF 1er Chaise by the way. It went colour SECAM in 1973. No idea what picture format RTS the Swiss French language channel used. They went colour in 1968. I think all of these TV shows should be considered offshoots of the French scene. None of these places were large enough to be wrestling territories in their own rights. Incidentally if you had a good enough TV aerial, you could watch ITV complete with World of Sport in the Benelux countries. We went on holiday to the Hague (capital of the Netherlands) in August 1984 and stayed at the Bel Air Hotel and I got a PERFECT signal for the wrestling that Saturday (5pm local time) - there was a battle royale on. So being able to get a signal, even a perfect signal, does not equate to your territory being televised. Most of Ireland could get the signal for S4C and Reslo had a big enough following in Ireland for Orig Williams to follow in with live shows (he continued touring there until 2002, the final couple of years with WWF tribute shows.). The ROI could also get the ITV signal not just from the same HTV transmitter as S4C but also from ITV in Northern Ireland. But that's not the same as if RTE had got together with Fit Finlay's dad to produce their own local TV wrestling show airing out of Dublin.

It seems to be mostly populated by talent from the French territory - even people from elsewhere like Bert Royal spent a lot of time in France and did the TV there. I'm not surprised Monaco had a TV wrestling show. In theory Monaco is an independent principality, in practice it's just a rather posh town on the South coast (I went on a French language camp holiday in Cap D'Ailles in 1990 and we would hop on a coach up the road to Monaco to use their swimming pool.) not large enough to be a culture or a wrestling territory on its own, but given the wealth there it's not surprising that they had their own private TV station covering the South of France and North of Italy. It was one big business investment rather than a public service. Private stations owners from Ted Turner to Rupert Murdoch go for wrestling as easy cheap programming. So wrestling fit the bill for TV Monte Carlo.

We dedicated a good page or so earlier in the thread to the subject of heel refs in France (apparently imported from Austria and the Heumarkt in the late 70s). The disconcerting thing is that by the 80s the entire cadre of French referees seem to be a bunch of Danny Davises except Delaporte who is promoted as the heroic last uncorrupt sheriff in town. giving Les Mechants rough justice just like Martial would do in the 60s. The French HATE petty officialdom and expect the worst from train ticket inspectors, parking wardens, Les Gendarmes (there is a BIG problem with les flics in France, most of whom are signed up to a hard right wing police union) so wrestling referees apparently fall under that same category. In Britain, the IBA (regulator of ITV and other commercial broadcasting until the 90s) would not stand for such nonsense, insisting that referees were shown to be moral authorities in central of the action at all times. This permeated through to UK audience expectations of referees. They might be gullible enough to be suckered in to looking the wrong way by heels but they were forces for justice. Puny American referees who couldn't enforce rules were unacceptable.(I remember being shocked at age 12 in 1987 when a ref in a WWF Special was knocked down and the bout just went on and was not halted until the new ref srrived. Left to their own devices away from home, British wrestlers were keen to experiment with corrupt and miserable refs - viz Dalbir Singh, in against Haystacks in Zambia 1976, beating up the referee or Tony StClair, Steve Wright, Dave Taylor and Owen Hart all ganging up on Didier Gapp for spoiling their tag match at the Heumarkt.

Ever seen the classic angry granny in that 1983 tag match? Absolutely blows her top at heel referee Michel Saulnier. Daniel Cazal absolutely loves her. "Bravo madame, vouz etes un bastion de la justice dans le catch!"

One of these things is not like the others ... Let's see, we have the Brit who pretty much revolutionised the style of wrestling in Germany, the best worker on the French scene post-1980s, the legendary brutal villain who can beat a lesson into you, all three of them World Mid Heavyweight Champions, ... and then we have Larry Cameron. aging coke & roids swilling Stampede alumunus soon to die in the ring of a heart attack. Even Mick McMichael is a better scientific wrestler with classics in his past vs Vic Faulkner. The others just have to work round Lazza and they all do with Zefy winning the prize for best effort. Wright scores the sunset flip on the big American stiff. Still, the drunk Germans enjoyed themselves.

I did a mini deep dive Tarzan Johnny Wilson a while back stretching from 1970s matches through to 1995 camcorder footage from Portsmouth. We've seen how good a match Elijah could have with Big Daddy in 1977, now let's seem him against another powerhouse but a more naturally skillful opponent. A minority of the audience give Elijah a heel reaction but he and Wilson ignore this. Both men are called John Round 1: Wilson rolls out of aln armbar into hammerlock. The two agree to a single side finger Interlock and Wilson turns horizontally to forum a top wristlock. Elijah throws his man off. Elijàh goes for a straight arm lift but switches to a high whip but Wilson takes it nicely. Elijah gets a single legdive into toe and ankle hold. He tries to legspread Wilson who turns this round on Elijah until he has to quit. Elijah gets a side chancery into front facelock. Elijah take it to the mat, straightens himself before diagonally hand standing his way out. Wilson gets a side headlock, Elijah throws him off but a bodycheck on the rebound moves neither man. Wilson gets a double finger Interlock into Japanese Stranglehold but Elijah straightens the arms into a crossed double finger Interlock. Wilson turns again and makes it an over the shoulder crossed interlock and, from there throws Elijah, a considerable feat of strength. Elijah gets an armbar into standing hammerlock and trips Wilson into the mount back hammerlock then turns him into the guard with the hammerlock underneath. He tries for a crosspress and is thrown off, landing on top of referee Peter Jay who takes it in better humour than some of his colleagues on the continent. Elijah again singles legdives Wilson who gets a crossed headscissor, held nicely with the feat. Wilson has to take care not to let his shoulders touch the mat as he throws Elijah in the scissors. Elijah gets a front chancery (not quite a grovit, as Kent points out). The Bear breaks oper the hold and again high whips Tarzan who takes it efficiently again. They lock up and Wilson gets a crank on the back of Elijah's neck as the bell goes. They shake hands. Round 2 : Elijah gets an abdominal stretch and Wilson detatches the grapevines lower leg to unmoor the hold so he can cross buttock throw and press Elijah who pushes him off easily after all that effort by Wilson to trigger the throw. Elijah gets an armbar against the joint, uses the hold to force his opponent over into the guard and slap on a headscissors. Wilson turns it upright, goes for a headstand and gracefully levers out. Elijah gets another wristlock and seems to go for a posting but then pulls his man back in and down to canvas as an arm weakener. (At first I thought Wilson had simply failed to "go with" a whip.). They half interlock with Wilson's uninjured arm involved but Elijah neatly switched to the same armbar against the joint on the hurting left arm. Elijah again uses the abortive posting arm weakener. He gets the arm a third time and develops it into a hammerlock on the mat with Wilson on his side, almost in the mount. Wilson gets up but is dragged back down so instead he gets a headscissors, occasionally twisting Elijah's neck foreward to weaken it. Elijah goes into the guard and turns the hold upside down and uncorks it with his feet. Wilson gets a standing full nelson but Elijah easily powers out. Elijah gets a side chancery. and eventually a throw to go with it, but yet again Wilson rolls up beautifully. Wilson gets a hard slap to the back of Elijah's neck which floors him . Wilson capitalizes with a snapmare and double knee press but Elijah lifts him off by the lower legs before any pinfall count can be made. They agree to a semi finger Interlock but Elijah again gets the armbar into hammerlock. The bell goes so he releases. Round 3: Wilson gets a front chancery and elbowsmashes the back of Elijah's neck. He collapses to the canvas and stays down for 8. Wilson slams and double knee presses Elijah and is again lifted off by the ankles. Wilson gets a standing side headlock. Elijah lifts him up by the folded knee and drops him on it. He is up at 4 but limping badly around the ring. They semi interlock and Elijah switches to a single legdive takedown into a single leg Boston Crab. Wilson curls up and pushes his torso out to the front then boots Elijah in the head, flooring him! In a role reversal, Wilson takes the arm and Elijah blasts him with an elbowsmash to the back of the shoulderblades. Elijah resists a posting until kicked in the stomach at which point he goes. They have a double finger Interlock and Elijah wins the initial test of strength until Wilson powers back up and scores with a lean back dropkick. He follows with a snapmare and kneedrop. Elijah gets a forearm smash in but Wilson gets a snapmare and seated reverse chinlock. Elijah eventually extracts his head leaving a hammerlock on Wilson in the mount. He stands on the hammerlock and falls backwards scissoring the arm. Wilson slowly reverses this into a Frank Gotch figure four toehold but the bell saves Elijah. Round 4: Elijàh gets a front chancery shifting to side chancery. He gets the throw but yet again Wilson rolls upright smartly. Wilson again floors Elijàh with the slap on the back of the neck. He next combineds the neck blow with a kneelift. Then a cross buttocks and press but Elijah presses out at 1. Elijah collars and forearm smashes Wilson who replies with a hefty forearm smash of his own. They exchange another two pairs of forearm smashes before shaking hands and agreeing to no more of that (much to Kent Walton's pleasure as they have too much skill to waste on a forearm smashing contest! They half interlock and as in Round 1, Wilson twists horizontally into a top wristlock. Elijah resists and overpowers Wilson, throwing him into the ropes.Wilson gets a legdive and leglock then switches to Indian Deathlock. This ends in stalemate and the referee has to unpick the tangle of feet. Elijah throws Wilson twice and he does not roll up so easily these two times, in fact on the second throw he ends up at ringside. Wilson comes back and likewise throws Elijah to force him to ringside. Now they are even. Back in the ring, Elijah gets a single legdive and leglock and Wilson counters with a legspread. Elijah still has the toehold but releases. They single interlock and Wilson takes the arm and makes a back hammerlock of it. The bell goes before he can get a submission. Round 5: Wilson throws Elijah for a bump and count of 7 then gets two postings before Elijah comes back with a forearm smash. Elijah gets his own posting, Wilson takes it well but is caught on the rebound with a kneelift which floors him. Elijah gets the bodyslam and crosspress for the opening fall. Round 6: Elijah forces a bump with a throw then gets a good long side Chancery throw then an over the shoulder backbreaker. Wilson unclamps himself and hits the ropes but come back straight into a kneelift for 6. Elijah gets an underhook and whips Wilson to the ropes but he comes back with a sunset flip into double leg nelson for the equaliser! Round 7: Elijah tries his forearm to the back of the shoulders but Wilson kind of no-sells it this time round. Elijah gets an arm and scores a posting. Single interlock and Wilson gets an armlock then reverse double arms. It takes two attempts but Elijah reverses the hold. Wilson, as early in the contest, throws the big Bear over his shoulder. He is up at 7 and applies his speciality bearhug. He weathers a forearm smash in the hold easily and bounces him off the ropes to catch him and get a better grip. Wilson turns to almost a front facing position (rear waistlock in effect) that Elijah releases and blasts Wilson with his back of the neck forearm smash. Elijah soon regains the hold. Wilson turns sideways in the hold and tries a snapmare but can't get it. Instead he gets his arms and head through and lifts Elijah in a Fireman's carry. But he can't get the takedown and Elijah can't get a crucifix into further nelson, so Wilson puts him down and they shake hands. Elijah gets the legdive and toehold but Wilson turns and spins him out. Wilson gets a posting, it doesn't affect Elijah but something out there comes crashing down - Elijah looks around innocently, LOL. Back to the serious stuff. Elijah gets a front chancery into side chancery throw for 3. Wilson gets double legs sand JUMPS into a Frank Gotch figure 4 toehold. He gets in one more yank on the leg before the bell goes. Round 8: Elijah counters a Wilson side headlock with an atomic drop. He gets his long side chancery throw then a double legdive and tries for a Boston Crab but Wilson again spins him out for a bump landing for 7, then posts him. Wilson rebounds from a throw into a flying tackle but Elijah catches and bodyslams him. Wilson however gets an almost vertical ground dropkick and cross buttock press for 2. Elijah gets the wristlever but Wilson turns 90 degrees and slides in both feet for a legspread that floors Elijàh. Wilson gets a kneelift, slam and crosspress but is easily thrown off. Wilson gets reverse double leg takedown into double leg nelson but Elijah sits up at 2. To, Kent Walton's disappointed hey have another exchange of forearm smashes but to his relief they just as quickly abandon the bludgeoning contest - they have far too much skill to rely on that. Wilson gets a posting but Elijah doesn't sell it much. Elijah gets an inverted rear waistlock on Wilson, trying and failing to get the over the shoulder backbreaker but still smashing him down quite viciously on his knees. Elijah gets another slam and crosspress for 2, he himself takes 7 to recover from being thrown off only to once again take the smash to the back of the neck. He comes back with an elbow to Wilson's stomach and another long side chancery throw. He gets the single leg and this time gets the single leg Boston Crab he was after earlier. Again. Wilson comes through the front of the hold and boots Elijah down. Elijah is up at 7 for a cross buttock throw and press but he rolls his man off at 2. He gets in one last long side chancery throw but Wilson is up and the two men are circulating when the bell rings for the 1-1 Broadway draw. Skill and Power rather than Skill and Speed is the watchword of this Heavyweight contest. A lot of intelligent use of power, for more so than Elijah's bout with Daddy. I particularly enjoyed Wilson taking the roll ups from throws by Elijah and coming out upright. Some stuff tended to be repeated a bit to fill out the eight rounds. These two were not Move Like Lightweights type of Heavyweights but they were mobile and adaptable and had clever ideas for using their power. There were guys their size in the WWF at the time who could learn a thing or two from this pair.

Ah well, it's just one of those things like Rocco being in a dark match on a 1978 TV taping, it's just too bad his bout wasn't televised. I wonder if Danny Collins ever made it onto Sports Loisirs on FR3 circa 1986-1987?

Now this would be REALLY great to see. Any chance it's in among the new finds? Of course if it was on TF1 it would still be in B/W - it seems INA never bothered to buy an 819 line video recorder for TF1's output - the question is whether they went back and bought more overseas sales prints for TF1 content from the breakup of ORTF in early 1975 to TF1 going full time colour in spring 1997. (From September 2975 they broadcast a few hours colour every day but it was mostly repeats of FR3 programming.) Hmmm, looks like it was on TF1. In B&W and apparently not taped by the INA. Whether they hold it depends on whether they bought up further overseas sales kinescope stock.

Now this would be REALLY great to see. Any chance it's in among the new finds? Of course if it was on TF1 it would still be in B/W - it seems INA never bothered to buy an 819 line video recorder for TF1's output - the question is whether they went back and bought more overseas sales prints for TF1 content from the breakup of ORTF in early 1975 to TF1 going full time colour in spring 1997. (From September 2975 they broadcast a few hours colour every day but it was mostly repeats of FR3 programming.)

Harmless yeah. Just aggravating.

I don't think Khan himself popularised it, but Excalibur saying it and it catching on with their viewers makes sense.