David Mantell

No kidding. Have a listen to this nasty little tale from the 1890s Paris music halls. later an international hit in the 1930s

Swimming pool matches were just a part of French wrestling culture and have to be accepted for what they were, just as the use of "baths halls" (local council pools temporary boarded up during winter months) was part of the furniture in 50s/60s Britain. Pools stayed in use all the year round in France so floating rings were were a good way to adapt these venues to host wrestling shows. This one goes back far enough to predate the INA's video recorder and only be preserved on B/W overseas sales print, which shows you how long running a "gimmick" they were. Whatever else, they were not some kind of barrel-scraping gimmick match like mud wrestling. I'm not just biased because of my childhood dream about "water wrestling" which turns out to have been conceptually identical to Catch A L'Eau About 5 years before Angelito and Richard had their fun pitching no nonsense referee Roger Delaporte into the pool before being made to pay for it, here he is getting the same treatment in his old capacity as France's number one Mechant. Andre Bollet had retired from a car accident a year or two earlier otherwise this would be a two singles rematch of that Jan 1969 surviving colour tape bout; instead we get Magnier in Andre's place. (The commentator mentions that these days Delaporte is that teaming with Cheri Bibi.) Referee is Firmin, valet of Roger Duranton, sixties answer to Paul "the Butler" Butin/Claude "Best Boy" Blanchard. Apart from the aforementioned water bumps by Magnier, it's just the generic brawling final minutes of a match where they just Manchette each other while waiting for the seconds to count down. Delaporte is old and grey and nearly ready to turn Arbitre but pulls off a good turn as a grumpy old Vieux Pontoufle (the French HATE old men.). He hunches up to oversell pain from bumps and cowers out the way of Manchette bursts. At one point the commentator speculates if Delaporte has rheumatism from his old age. Quite the opposite of the Sheriff Roger Delaporte we would soon come to know. Muscleman Montreal has the strength advantage. As Montreal is a power wrestler and Delaporte an old guy, there isn't much (any?) in the way of flipping and somersaulting out of holds, armbars and later front chanceries and hammerlocks and a long running rear headlock are worked on the mat for long periods. Montreal 's face comeback curiously consists of chokes on the ropes and suchlike di to ty wrestling. Warned by Firman Montreal eventogets fed up and throws the ex stooge into the drink, followed by Delaporte, spitting water like a Dolphin. Montreal claims victory but is DQ'd. In retribution he throws Firmin back in the pool. Delaporte takes the float back but staggers and falls off. Actually there seems to be a lot of tropes at work here involving the Chiottes Arbitres and it being IK for last Bons to beat up on them. Al this four years before Guy Mercier and horrid little man Michel Saulnier started doing that routine. Imagine if the WWF had held a swimming pool show in 1988 and Miss Elizabeth had been thrown in the pool - or better still had sportingly jumped in in her best frock. Then again, remember the 1986 SNME sketch with Savage and Jesse where Randy announces "I'm gonna teach this woman how to swim!" then pitches her off a bridge into his pool.

Again from Victoria Hall, Hanley 16th June 2000. Three years before Dean Allmark Vs Mikey Whiplash and 14 years after Mighty John Quinn Vs Tony StClair. Kendo Nagasaki's "Millennium Comeback" was one of the bright spots of All Star's 1997-2001 dip period when Brian Dixon was supplementing his income with a sideline in male stripshows (the behaviour of female punters at which he later described as "the biggest education [he] ever had in [his] life.") and the shows were mostly headlined by the UK Undertaker and the Big Red Machine. A dead giveaway about the historical context is the signs saying "JABRONI" and "SUCK IT!" betraying that, somewhere else in the world, the WWF Attitude Era is in full throttle mode. A month earlier, longtime traditional British wrestling phoneline Wrestlecall held a poll for Wrestler Of The Millennium which Naggers duly won. A trophy ceremony took place at the same Victoria Hall Hanley. For starters, Kendo was late according to manager Lloyd Ryan, then Tony Walsh's son Darren turned up with a note from former World Mid Heavyweight Champion Marty Jones protesting Kendo's poll win. This ended in an argument between Walsh and Ryan and eventual fisticuffs , at which point Kendo finally turned up, salt-bombed and Kamikaze Crashed Walsh and then finally got presented with his trophy. Fast forward to this evening. There was originally a whole long bit at the start (which I've got on VHS) where Lloyd Ryan was supposed to be the Tag Partner but his arm was supposedly broken so MC Gordon Prior had to go back to the dressing room to find another tag partner. Vic Powers got the gig. Cue the start of this video. The first fall goes by without Kendo tagging in - Powers (whose brother Phil I saw live in Dudley back in the spring) has an even time with Walsh but is completely dominated by Jones. The crowd have completely forgiven Jones for his past eight years since 1992 as a heel (road tested in Germany 1990 as we have seen on the German Catch thread.). Jones taunts Naggers to tag in to no avail. Eventually Walsh gets the opening pin on Powers. Lloyd Ryan is furious claiming that there has been an illegal tag but the referee has none of it. A brief ringside brawl starts and the heels retreat to the dressing room but are coaxed back. Kendo gets a public warning for a weapon used in the brawl. Walsh misses an aerial spot and after stomping him on the mat. Powers finally tags in Naggers. Kendo kicks Walsh around on the mat.flings him to ringside, VICIOUSLY whacks him with a chair and coffee table and whips him with a tag rope. The referee, for reasons out of camera shot, gives Jones a public warning. Walsh is dragged back in the ring and double teamed. Even Lloyd joins in with his cast. Kendo finishes off Walsh for the equaliser with an old time combination of his, a backdrop and splash cross press pin. Jones finally has enough, knocking out the ref (he's still a heel at heart.) attacks Kendo from behind, gets him on the floor and has a go at the mask. He pitches Powers out of the ring and beats down on an interfering Lloyd Ryan. While he is outside doing this. Kendo revives the referee then locks up with Walsh, at which point the ring collapses! Kendo does a sort of belly to belly suplex and a slam on Walsh for the decider. Needless to say Jones is unhappy, he and Kendo throw furniture at each other before Kendo leaves, chased away by Jones with a corner pad. Jones, aggrieved, demands a singles bout with Kendo where if he doesn't beat and unask Kendo, hecwill burn his boots and retire. No idea what happened next, but the Millennium Comeback continued another 18 months until December 2001 and Kendo's third retirement and only formal retirement match. It's not very scientific but if @ohtani's jacket likes a good brawl, he'll love this one. Very cod ECW hardcore of its time (Kendo was a fan).

Marc Mercier's Memoirs published:

Joined in progress, so perhaps Saint did more of his trademarks earlier on. However we quickly get a decent Johnny Saint ball with an arm offered that turns into a cross buttock throw and a feet first landing from a throw of Fu's. Hamill does a great side headlock bounce of the ropes into a sunset flip for a 2 count, Saint rolls out backwards and goes for a folding press but Kung F double ankles him and Saint cartwheels back upright. It ends when Saint is thrown and rolls back in a folding press predicament. Hamill takes the bait and grabs his legs but it turns out to be a trap for Saint to score the folding press with bridge pinfall of his own.

I sang the praises of McGregor and Riley's classic clean bout from 1984 and I believe they had another just as good in about 1987. Here they tag up as sacrificial lambs to @ohtani's jacket's favourite UK heel team, The Rockers, doing a British version of Les Blousons Noirs with Charlie McGee dressed as a fat Hells Angel (in the tradition of his inspiration Captain Lou Albano dressing up a a Samoan/Moondogs/Japanese etc). The Rockers were being prepped at the time for a big FA Cup Final downfall against Big Daddy (partnered by Mick McMichael) so Nipper and the TBW with the same name as the chairman of the National Coal Board during the Miners Strike at this time were cast as jobbers to the stars. Even so, they put up a great fight, get an opening fall lead until the bad guys start dropping their weight on McGregor's knee a lot to earn themselves an equalising submission (single leg Boston Crab), some public warnings and work in progress on a deciding fall. McGregor fights back with a double monkey climb, but the villains double slam him, leaving them both on second and final public warning. Riley shouts out for McGregor to tag but another leg submission finishes him. Crowd are furious, singing "what a load of rubbish" (another one from the football stands). McGee barks out a challenge to Daddy and McMichael - the clip cuts out but I believe they did come to ringside. A week later Daddy got his win although Danny Collins' European title win over Jorg Chenok was the real story that day. Sadly not long after, the Rockers were returning from a bout when they had a car crash in which Tommy Lorne died. LaPaque would later form a New Rockers with Hit Man Hobbs who were still together in the early 90s - I saw them on All Star shows in Croydon at the time.

Drew is moving into his Ultimate Chippendale phase with hair grown back and no sign of Doctor Monika. No idea who Brian Walsh is, presumably another Brit who came over on the North Sea ferry. Show is set inside an ice rink set up for a dinner party, as Drew comes to the ring the camera fails to track him but instead focuses on a fat middle aged woman with a dangly earring. Match is mostly slow and power based, lots of selling of holds, which seems to be what Germans went for traditional, rather than speedy reversals. Mostly Drew in charge although Walsh does get his shots in. Drew attacks Walsh between rounds and gets a public warning for his pains. Walsh ends up staggering around at ringside for a bit. He comes back on fire for a bit until a posting cuts him short. They are both knocked down but McDonald is up at about 3 or 4 whereas Walsh stays down for 9 and then is picked off by Drew with a slam and cross press @PeteF3 - another example of one of those finishes we talked about, blue eye narrowly survives a knockout but gets picked off for a pin.

It is fascinating to witness Richard and Angelito joining forces. Back in 1971, each of them had at least one remarkable fight that left a lasting impression. Their collaboration now promises to bring the same level of excitement and skill that marked their individual battles in the past. Angelito's one night stand (or swim) as a Mechant and as tag partner of regular archenemy over 20+ years "Blouson Noir/Marquis/Travesti Man/Monsieur" Jacky Richard back when he was plain heelJacky Richard in trunks and boots. What sort of heel does Angelito make and how do he and JR fare as a team? To answer the second question, not too badly considering they lose 2-1, they get on with the job and there is no real acknowledgement of their more normal antipathy. As for the first, Angelito is your extravagant cocky Lanny Poffo heel who has the skill and grace but rubs your nose in it. He has all his regular technical moves which he exchanges with Les Bleus. He also uses his skill with the ropes to avoid ending up in the water, slingshotting himself back in the ring. Richard meanwhile plays the roughhouse heel mainly reliant on brawling. Angelito gradually factors in more dirty wrestling as the match wears on. At one point Khader Hassouni, who has obviously been studying the George Kidd/Johnny Saint style since his world title match with Saint on 1977 FA Cup Final World Of Sport, does the Kidd/Saint(/Vasilis Montopoulis) ball. Poking out extremities for Richard to grab. Angelito who knows this trick tags in and does a ball of his own, only for Hassouni to kick him in the pants (which should actually have got him an Avertisement but it's Sherrif Delaporte reffing.) Angelito concedes a neat folding press opening fall to Hassouni and Corne gets knocked in the water while Richard pins Hassouni. The bad guys go on a dunking rampage, throwing both Bons and Delaporte in. Delaporte is a strong swimmer but a fierce man and he deals out justice his own way, first working with Les Bons to get Richard pinned for a decider then press slamming Angelito in the drink before collaring Richard and chucking him in too then repeatedly knocking both back in as they try to reboard the ring. Good guys and Good guy ref raise hands in victory.

Something I didn't notice before - Flesh Gordon leads fans in chants of Papa Doux Mais Mais, the chant synonymous with his tag partner nearly a decade earlier, Walter Bordes. Clearly Pappa Doux Mais Mais was just becoming a generic thing to shout at wrestling shows. There were people in Dudley last Saturday chanting "easy easy" 17 years after Big Daddy died.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_Handed_Johnny_West Apparently Delaporte and Bollet were not just heel wrestlers and French pop chanteurs but Movie Star actors too!

Congrats to new All Star Superslam- and therefore Mountevans British Heavyweight - Champion Mickey Long who beat Oliver Grey for the title at The Woodville in Gravesend on Monday night Oct 28th (just two days after I saw him wrestle in Dudley.)

From the same venue 17 years earlier before Health And Safety banned fans from sitting on the stage leaving it free for the promoter to project nice swirly lighting patterns on it. Some background - in early '86 Wayne Bridges had a real life disagreement with Brian Dixon and walked from All Star, taking his ball - or rather his red/white/blue World Heavyweight title belt he beat Jim Harris to win at Wembley '81- with him. All Star still had the original black belt first claimed by Spiros Arion in 1979 so held a tournament on All Star's TV show on Screensport (their audition forca share of ITV coverage.). StClair beat notorious Kendo Nagasaki impersonator Bill King Kendo Clarke, Quinn beat Johnny South and we were left with this final. We join in progress. Quinn doesn't particularly work the British style, he is soon getting a public warning from referee Frank Casey (recently kayfabe-suspended due to complaints from viewers about him being too lenient on villains.). StClair gets a 2 count with a missile dropkick. Quinn throws him out but rather than try taking to KO win, follows him out and hits him with a (rather comfy-looking plush) chair. A heavily juiced StClair stumbles back into the ring but Quinn works on him with closed fist punches. What with that and the chairshot, I'm beginning to think the anti Frank Casey letter writers had a point. StClair fights back a bit but Quinn nails him with a Duthty bionic elbow and undoes a corner pad and bangs StClair into it. Chuckle Brothers on commentary are going crazy and so is the crowd. StClair still fights back, brother Roy is in his corner and he slams and cross presses Quinn for two. Quinn kicks StClair down, Casey inspects the cut and awards the bout and the belt to Quinn on a TKO. Quinn and StClair continue to have potshots at each other as Roy and a second (in green) tend to Tony. The ring is under siege from fans as Quinn puts the belt on. Chuckle Brother #1 Max Beezely, later an MC on ITV's All Star bouts gets in the ring for a French Catch style post match interview which cuts off before it starts. Apparently this was the kind of envelope pushing stuff supporters of the Indies loved but the IBA would have blown a fuse over. Quinn and StClair did have their wild brawl on ITV a year later when they were both DDQ'd and left Kendo Nagasaki and Neil Sands to finish a tag bout as a solo contest, but at least that time, the referee was able to assert control. Clearly Brian Dixon needed a good filter if he was going to stay on ITV once he got a slice of it.

From 2003 at the Victoria Hall in Hanley. Mike Gilbert aka Mikey Whiplash Vs Dean Allmark - future World Heavy Middleweight Champion versus future British champion in all three top weight divisions (Heavyweight, Mid Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight). Two of the then new generation of All Star talent rescued from the wreckage of Staffordshire garbage promotion GBH (shut down by the local council in 2000) and retrained as old school British wrestlers alongside Robbie Dynamite (Berzins), Kid Cool and Playboy Johnny Midnight. Deano is also the dad of current All Star proprietor Joseph Dixon (grandson of Brian) . This is also some of the earliest footage available of Allmark's then wife Laetitia (daughter of Brian and Mitzi Mueller, child star of various TV news items on Mitzi, see earlier in thread) as an MC. Whiplash has a crewcut and is not yet doing his Chippendale gimmick. Bout starts off technical, both men reversing each others armbars, Whiplash using a cartwheel for one escape and eventually a nifty suplex to take things to the mat. Deano as blue eye works the crowd like James Mason before him and Robbie Brookside & Doc Dean even before that. Round ends with Whiplash working and ankle lock. Round 2, Allmark works over Whiplash's arm, whiplash gets to ankle lock from round 1 but Allmark spins him off. Round 3 and Allmark fires off some kickboxing kicks and a monkey climb. Whiplash gets some 2 counts with a fireman's carry takedown Whiplash uses the ropes to pin Allmark but the referee spots it so he fall is disallowed and Whiplash gets a public warning. Round 4 Whiplash tries a powerbomb but Allmark converts it into a reverse victory roll and folding press opening pin! He nearly gets a second straight with a roll up from behind as Whiplash is arguing with fans. Dean tries a sunset flip but Whiplash puts his knees down and holds the ropes for a second dodgy pinfall, but again the ref sees him and he now has two public warnings instead of two pinfalls. Round 6 Whiplash gets a leg caught in the ropes and Allmark bounces him on the rope. Allmark gets a reverse top rope splash but only a 2 count. Same again with an inverted flying bodypress. The two clash heads, Deano stays down, Mikey struggles but fails to get up, bout is declared a Double Knockout. The referee declared Dean winner 2-1 on account of his earlier fall in Round 4. Whiplash protests but the ref, Laetitia and the crowd are emphatic. Allmark offers Whiplash one more round for a £50 side stake. Whiplash goes to get some cash, but doesn't return so Allmark's music plays and he steps out onto the stage. Whiplash turns up with the money just as Deano is at the back of the stage, the bell rings and Deano scores a running dive across the stage and over the ropes to pin a furious Whiplash and take the cash. Good blue-eye versus heel action bout from a time when rounds were just about hanging on in there. A war with rival Scot Conway's TWA had forced Brian Dixon to regenerate his product from the dark days of 1997-2001 with the UK Undertaker and Big Red Machine into a hot new home for new stars.

THHEEEE MOTHERSHIP? Jim Cornette's sidekick, I presume.

Actually the opponent in that video Jean Phillipe de Lonzac was quite a revelation, good young wrestler doing all the classic French counters/reversals like the Scisseaux Volees takedown, the backflip off the top wristlock etc. Twenty years old, another young lion of the era along with Zefy and Caradec. I wonder what became of him.

Talking of TBWs, here's a nice piece on Gary Welsh aka Gary Clwyd, at the time of his Reslo peak and a TV Star in Wales (and southern/eastern Ireland.)

Paul Neu from the same magazine, a year before he took up rapping in WCW (yo baby yo baby yo). Signed for me by nice guy Mr Neu at an All Star show in Bedworth England in the early 2010s, where he was working as American Avalanche, teaming with Joe E Legend and Brody Steele whom I saw last night in Dudley.

From Orig Williams' BWF official magazine Main Event Wrestling, 1990

An American dirtsheet writer in 1990 singing the praises of British Wrestling of the immediate post TvV era. A couple of your favourite TBWs like Danny Collins, Kid McCoy and Tony Stewart (Billy Reid) get singled out for particular high praise. So who was this Tom Burke guy? A rival for Melzer?

This isn't last night in Dudley. But it's the new ring apron as mentioned above:

Pretty good show. Highlight for me was the clean match, in its traditional Bout 4 slot, between Ethan Stone whom we've seen at Dudley before and Mo Talal, a newcomer who looked like World Class era Al Perez and seemed to have a fair chunk of his family at the event in the same section as me. main event was a ten man Royal Rumble, first three bouts before the interval were all blue-eye versus heel, two singles and a tag. Johnny Storm and Frankie Sloane were on the bill looking a lot older (a tubby middle aged Johnny Storm is quite a sight.) Brody Steele was over from America and there was another good heel Sheik El Shabwho had a fantastic costume. Hope to find some pics and even video online to share. Crowd was about 250. Tony Spitfire was MC, Joe Allmark, introduced as Joseph Dixon, was the referee. The ring has some rather nice new Star Wars style ring aprons, depicting flying through space, stars rushing past. All Star are due back at the venue February 2025, LDN have also been running shows there.

I've discussed this before on the French thread due to Orig's claim on the English commentary that Zrno's trainer was Charley Verhulst. Finlay had been pushed by Joint as a Bully heel partly to lead to his 1986 FA CAup Final tag confrontation with Big Daddy, partly to sow the seed of one of his victims Dany Collins eventually taking a title from Finlay (in 1989, too late for ITV. Yes there is plenty of mat wrestling although it's not chain sequences (check the 1982 Finlay Vs Davey Boy match for that), it's more horizontal top wristlocks down on the mat and Zrno bridging out. Finlay does get some nice legdives and well applied leglocks and toe holds from nowhere, as well as one rollout.. Finlay gets a double wristlock and Zrno lifts him in it into a fireman's carry takedown. Zrno topes and monkey climbs Finlay. Paula as much of a heat machine in Germany as back home. Here on CWA Video as on Reslo she is able to do her husband slapping faux-botch (banned on ITV.) Like how Finlay strikes a pose as Paula fans him down with the towel Olympic style. Finlay comes to the ring to Belfast by Boney M. Later during a round break Everything Counts by Depeche Mode is played. End comes when Zrno misses a cross body off the top rope and Finlay gets a face first piledriver for the pin. As on the French thread, here is a version with English commentary by Orig Williams: Apart from the claim that Charley Verhulst trained Zrno, there is the classic lineup to look out for - "WE KNOW THIS MAN AND WE KNOW HIS WIFE!!!"

Here is the match and the promo in question:

New Catch does clean wrestling just like ITV. Reslo, Screensport and Old Catch! Heavyweight clean wrestling but clean wrestling all the same. Franz Van B, everyone's favourite Belgian, takes on Boston Blackie, the then touted hot challenger to Fit Finlay's British Heavyweight Championship and eventual tribute show version of The Rock. Orig's commentary clumsily dubbed over Flesh Gordon 's French commentary (credited as Gerard Herve, his real name.) Blackie is profiled as "Blaky" - for those of you not familiar with classic British sitcoms and who don't get what's unintentionally hilarious about that, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Buses And just to rub it in, Herve says something about "titre de passenger" LOL Blackie uses strength holds, Van B lots of traditional "Couple" French Catch vaults and somersaults, culminating in a magnificent Scisseaux Volees takedown. Orig reckons that rather than get technical, Blackie should just use his strength to bash away at Franz which he does with a couple of clotheslines and some follow up strikes once Van B is up off the mat. Blackie showing off his physique but not in an arrogant hellish way, more putting on a show. He doesn't get heat for it anyway. Van B reciprocates and a Manchette Contest breaks out. Unlike the forearm contests Jim Cornette has complained about on his shows, these two do actually sell it and fall down. Blackie does an Ivan Koloff flying kneedrop and poses with his knee across Frank's neck but comes across as smiley and likeable so the crowd cheer him regardless. Blackie goes for another flyer but Franz picks him off and goes for a slam. They shake hands and it goes more technical, Blackie landing badly from a whip and Franz follows in with a stomp. Van Buyten throws Blackie out of the ring and on his return catches him with a rather clumsy flying tackle, almost a vertical cross bodyblock, for the pin. Just in case you thought this Clean Match was just an incompetent attempt at working heel on Blackie 's part, the two men shake hands and embrace after the contest and get a nice ovation for it from the crowd.

On the subject of Collins and Harvey Vs Dean and Ocean, Collins got hat revenge match he was clamouring for - and gave Ocean a darn good hiding: