David Mantell

In France? (apart from Demolition on that 1988 Bercy Stadium show against the Bulldogs.)

Also I think that for something to die off you need a cut out period when it stops and there was none for French Catch. The old just bled DEEP into the new - even the likes of Michel Falempin, Tony LaMotta, Angelito and Franz Van Buyten showing up on Eurosport New Catch, greyed but still going.

I wouldn't argue with the Barnum part. It's the Heavy Metal reference that stumps me. Maybe he had Cybernic Machine in mind.

Funny way to talk of Gordon/Zefy/Jacky/Ryder etc. Or indeed the Gordon /Bordes tag team. (The French original is "un barnum heavy metal" incidentally.)

When French wrestling was in its glory days By Adrien Franque January 18, 2017, 5:00am In “The World Where We Catch,” one of the chapters of his landmark work Mythologies , Roland Barthes examines the popularity of wrestling, this “excessive spectacle” that filled gymnasiums and ORTF television slots at the time. It was the semiotic exuberance of wrestling that seemed to fascinate him at the time, these “characters from the Italian Comedy who displayed in advance, in their costumes and attitudes, the future content of their roles.” The fact that Roland Barthes was interested in wrestling at the time, in 1957, is not insignificant: it was a popular form of entertainment spread throughout France, whether through television or in various performance halls, in Paris and the provinces. The 1950s and 1960s were the high point of this sporting spectacle: Roger Couderc on commentary, The White Angel, the executioner of Béthune or Roger Delaporte in the ring, wrestling was everywhere. The spectators knew that they were witnessing perfectly orchestrated fights but ignored them; the whole point was to observe the virile ballet between the robust bodies of these “Michelangelos” of the ring. This era is the golden age of wrestling, the period described by Christian-Louis Eclimont, author of novels and books on cycling and French song. In Catch – The Golden Age 1920-1975 , published by Huginn & Muninn, he looks back at the discipline that saw the birth of masked heroes and bastards that the public loved to hate, at the memory of Saturday nights watching Chéri-Bibi deliver headlines to René Ben Chemoul live from the Elysée Montmartre, at the spectacle of the “Série Noire and Audiard films” years that gave birth to future movie stars like Lino Ventura and André the Giant. Elegantly laid out and illustrated with the precious archives of collector Jean-Marie Donat , The Golden Age of Wrestling offers a pleasantly nostalgic glimpse of a bygone era when choreographed combat drew crowds. We asked Christian-Louis Eclimont a few questions to find out a little more about French wrestling in those years. VICE Sports: How did wrestling appear in France? Christian-Louis Eclimont : In the beginning, it was actually the extension of the fairground exhibition sports of the 19th century. Wrestling was born in the United States at the end of the 19th century. In the US, wrestling owes its fame in the 1920s to the Gold Dust Trio, three former wrestlers who built the circuit. It was a bit mafia-like and rigged, but that was inherent to this kind of event. In fact, since amateur wrestling didn't pay, wrestling arrived. In the 1930s, three French heroes, Henri Deglane, a former wrestler; Raoul Paoli, a mind-blowing guy with Olympic titles in several disciplines; and Charles Rigoulot, who at the time was considered "the strongest man in the world," would outline a wrestling circuit in France. If wrestling in France had to be born, it would be around the 1930s. Henri Deglane, on the ground, trying to escape a hold from Charles Rigoulot. Where did these French wrestlers come from? We see that they often have athletic backgrounds, sometimes in several disciplines. Was this always the case? From the 1930s onwards, we can say that all French wrestlers came from wrestling. Some would come from judo later. But, they were mostly wrestlers of an excellent level who did not earn their living practicing this demanding sport. So they all switched to wrestling. From 1930 onwards, all these wrestlers were accomplished athletes. We are no longer in the Apollo culture of 19th-century fairs. Was it a sporting spectacle that developed everywhere, or was it predominantly Parisian? It was necessarily national once the TV network was established. There were wrestling galas all over France until the years 1975-1980. Very quickly, we see that French wrestlers adopt well-defined characters, a bit like current wrestlers, even if there are also big names in wrestling with fairly traditional ring names... There were several waves in fact. Among wrestlers such as “Mustapha Shikhane the extraordinary Turkish champion”, “M'Boaba the formidable Congolese champion” or the butcher of Budapest, there was a certain bluff with, sometimes, the use of superlatives in their names. While on the other hand, if we think of Roger Delaporte, Walter Bordes or André Bollet, it is true that we fall back into a certain normality. But, let's say that there were several entrances into wrestling: a more totemic aspect and a more normal aspect. All of this stems from the very Manichean storyline found in wrestling: good versus evil. We're in the substance of the superhero with an extremely childish storyline but one that worked well at the time, because May '68 hadn't yet passed, and the cult of the super-strong male was still very effective. It crumbled afterward. Has this ambiguity between spectacle and sport always been present in French wrestling? Or was it seen as a sport in its own right at one time? It's always been somewhere between the two, between spectacle and sport. The sporting aspect was contained within the notion of a professional wrestling federation, but it was all very fragmented. It was a spectacle sport, inexorably. It was featured in the sports pages of Les Echos at the time, but it wasn't taken seriously as such. It's always been a sport-entertainment. As we can read in the book, France even broadcast wrestling on television before the United States, which seems absurd given the difference in popularity of the discipline between the two countries today. Yes, in terms of television, this is the only aspect where France was ahead of the United States. It was broadcast simply because it was popular; it was the fighting culture, the Clochemerle culture, the myth of the strongest man in the world. It was broadcast on TV on Wednesdays or Saturdays, sometimes twice a week. People were sensitive to this spectacle, which was full of twists and turns. The matches were extremely scripted, staged like plays. No one cared much about whether it was a sport with precise rules. Roger Delaporte had a rather wonderful saying: he called wrestling “the ignoble art.” So we can clearly see the circus element behind all this, but a circus where the athletes do the work. When did French wrestling disappear, at least in that form? In the collective imagination, the myth of the strong man who slaps everyone declined after 1968. Society had profoundly changed, and the means of entertainment were multiplying. And this wrestling, the one I talk about in the book, died out around 1975-1980. Afterwards, there was a renaissance with a heavy metal circus that interests me less. I wanted to keep, with this book, a childhood memory of that golden age, when everyone followed the matches on television.

In the meantime here is another press article. Nice scary picture of Bayle as Der Henker. https://www.vice.com/fr/article/quand-le-catch-francais-vivait-ses-heures-de-gloire/ Incidentally, I expect most of the French public didn't realise it was him either or cat least not until decades later. Was he ever officially unmasked? (I don't mean one of those ones where they lay down flat on their fronts covering their head with their arms until Monsieur L'Arbitre comes and puts le Cagoule back on them before anyone can get a good look and the crowd start up AUX CHIOTTES L'ARBITRE.)

Hold it. HOOOOLD IT!!!! We've already had this bout on here! I like the extra bit at the start with Couderc's son. Hopefully he's still out there. I guess I'll have to find something else to make up the numbers on this thread, then.

From German TV, some broadcast footage of the Otto-Rex fight with a backstage interview with Colley. Randy doesn't totally break kayfabe, he still talks of his match with Otto as a contest but he is very much his out of ring personality and seems rather a nice guy. A far cry from some slobbering bone-obsessed werewolf that Captain Lou dug up somewhere. Not even a heel. Baron Von Raschke also pops up momentarily in a tracksuit, once again doing his faux German gimmick in front of an audience of the real deal. The German female fans are also spotlit. They really are quite something - fur coats, make up that could get you a job with Barnum and Bailey ...

Steve Fury these days is British Wrestling tape trader called Peter something or other (Dogget, I'm think) who thinks Masked Marauder Minor on TV was Black Jack Mulligan even though Max Hardimann and others have confirmed it was Lucky Gordon. (Mulligan was later that year when the Marauders gimmick was revisited in late 83/ early 84. Here, he's a TBW getting squashed on Screensport by Rollerball rRocvo at that Staffordshire garden festival thing in the blue/white tent. Fury gets an arm and the beginnings of a back hammerlock before Rocco, like Brookside in 1997, gets the ropes and then adds a quick foul shot to regain control. Side chancery throw and kneedrop and Rocco gets busy brawling. A Finlay style fireman's carry suplex and a slam aside. Rocco is fighting and fouling, fish-hooklng his way out of a legdive. Steve takes Rocco outside for an ITV-unfriendly head smash to the apron and Rocco runs away to the other side of the ring. Back in the ring, Rocco concealed punches his way out of another Fury armlock and garottes his man in the ropes. He finishes off his man with a face first piledriver and The Master Of Disaster has mastered another disaster for Fury and we last see him on the mic, pouring oil on the flames.

A rainy evening in Vienna 1997 (umbrellas are up) either the twilight or atmospheric purple lighting is making the Heumarkt look like a Prince gig and the Wildcat faces Christian "Ecki" Eckstein in what the commentator calls a shoot fight. Now I'd be the first to object to the word Shoot being used in the context of kayfabe but this does come out in translation as a decent mat based scientific match for most of it. At this time Robbie was back from his stint in WCW where he and Doc Dean were used as jobbers. Doc went native and took up indie wrestling and plumbing in Florida but Robbie returned to the UK and Germany/Austria to try his further luck there. Brookside 's complaining streak is like that of Ron Simmons in WCW. s blue eyes/ babyfaces it's unamused righteous indignation, as heels it's out and out belligerence. And there goes Robbie cussing out the Austrian crowd at the start. But he can technically wrestle too and gets in a quick half nelson into rearc waistlock takedown at the start, riding Ecki into the guard, clamping on a headlock, switching to Frank Gotch figure four toehold and adding a one arm neck crank. He goes back to the chinlock but Eckstein straightens out the arm into a wristlever. Robbie gets the chinlock back and moves back to the Gotch toehold. But Ecki does not quit and a frustrated Brookside stomps him in the back heelishly before quitting. .,He gets another chinlock and tries to develop that into a sleeper, when Ecki breaks that open he goes for onecside of pressure points. Ecki still controls thecarm, passes it overhead and makes a back hammerlock of it but Robbie reaches the ropes. He legdives and switches to mat side headlock then guard position double wristlock. The commentator is rattling off Heumarkt heritage like a German speaking Gordon Solie, even name checking Schurli Blemenschutz. Ecki bridges up to counter any cross press and gets a headscissor. Again Robbie gets the ropes break - traditionally heat in Europe if not done sparingly and referee Mick McMichael Of Doncaster, kilt and all looks heatful about it. He has his problems with Danny Collins around this time and now here is another tarnished golden boy. The two wrestlers link hands and Ecki gets a wristlever and is tightening it up when the bell goes. Robbie provokes a shoving match before Mick breaks it up. Round 2: Robbie gets the same rear waistlock into a single leg Boston Crab, switching to Gotch Toehold after a while with a chinlock and armbar thrown in, becoming a Chono STF before signing off with a heelish stomp. Robbie gets an Indian Deathlock before his man is up, adding a grovit. Ecki reaches up and overhead chinlocks Robbie stands up in the hold and Ecki slips down into a legspread into single toehold and elbowdrop on the knee, legscissor and sit up Marty Jones Powerlock. Panicked, Brookside reaches round for the ropes, can't quite make it and has to struggle for them (a more honourable less heelish way out than a quick grab). Robbie takes his time selling the hurt on the mat before getting up and getting a side chancery into sitting rear chinlock. But Ecki undresses thecarm and turns into a back hammerlock plus quarter nelson into an armhank in the guard. Brookside goes for the ropes more quickly and heelishly this time, adding to his heel credentials with another last quick stomp before the bell. Robbie has found a "friend" in the audience, a fat moustachioed man, and the two exchanged barbs between rounds. He has something nasty to say in his Scouse accent to the camera too Round 3. Single side finger Interlock and Robbie develops into standing back hammerlock into chicken wing, just a couple of years after Mr Backlund made this the most feared move in American Wrestling. He doesn't quite lock it off and switches to a Wigan Grovit. Once again Ecki undresses it into an armbar, once again Robbie gets the ropes break. The message is clear - this Wildcat may know all the cruel submission holds but when faced with a taste of them for himself, he takes the coward's way out. Double finger Interlock but Ecki gets a kick to the chest and armbar. Somehow (the cameras don't catch it) Robbie gets Ecki to release, smashes him in the back, rear wIstlock s him and smashes his head face first into the mat. Robbie gets the Gotch toehold and twin wristlocks and pulls back for a surfboard. He doesn't get Eckstein all the way up so releases. He pulls Ecki up, moves from a hoist position to yet another Gotch toehold. Ecki thumps down and Robbie gets the wrists again, hoists up the surfboard and adds a reverse front face lock to top it all off for the one required submission. Robbie celebrates by returning to trading insults with his fat friend while Ecki is seen to by McMichael. We get an outro of clips featuring the likes of Paul Neu. Mongolian Mauler and Rasta The Voodoo Mon. Match was a good vehicle for Brookside the heel. A good skilled and cruel implementer of submission holds who resorts to the ropes or fouls when the tables are turned on him. Perfect material for a heel.

For some reason this elimination triple tag was broadcast on Reslo in Wales with, of course Welsh commentary by Orig Williams and Nick parry.. From 1992, three Hispanic Mechants take on the two biggest Bons of the late 80s/90s/00s and the most happening TBW of the New Catch era in an elimination Catch A Six. Charley Bollet, human looking brother of mighty merchant of the sixties Andre Bollet is refereeing. The villains zoom in on young Yann and give him quite the treatment.. Flesh tries leaning way over the ropes to tag but Bollet will not have it. Soon Caradec is in no state to continue and things grind to a halt while he is revived (by Flesh slapping him around!) carried out. Zefy takes over, dazzles the heavier Carlos Plata and knocks him outside for a 10 count knockout leaving us with a regular Catch A Quatre. Hectags Gordon who gets double teamed by the remaining heels, determined to send him to join Yann. Eventually they hit each other and Flesh makes the hot tag to Zefy who gets to work with dropkicks galore even holding up against an attempted double team. He missile dropkicks on Herodes and Sgt Mendieta makes the save just at 2. The good Sarge throws Zef bto ringside. Gordon helps Zefy up but Les Mechants boot him back down and Bollet finishes his count despite Les Bons' protests. (Interestingly Orig calls Les Mechants "Dai Dihiryn" - two villains, which you may recall was the Welsh team name of masked duo Martin "Count Von Zuppin" Warren and Johnny "Dr Death" Adams when they fought Big Daddy and Scot Valentine on the show) Finally they turn their attention to Gordon, superhero of France. The give him the same treatment as his partners but Sarge accidentally hits Herodes. Sarge charges Flesh who dodges and Sarge pitches himself over the ropes. He is left dressing like a cross between Kamikaze and Les Kellett before Flesh knocks him to ringside for the 10 count. That just leaves Herodes and the Flesh. Herodes tries to get to work on Flesh who brushes off the attacks. Sarge tries to interfere but gets hit by his partner again Bollet firmly removes him. Flesh gets a side chancery into underhook into long suplex, then a flying tackle into awkward armdrags and press for the final pin to leave himself winner and sole survivor. Apart from some great dropkicks by Zefy, not a lot of real skill on show here but good family fun like Big Daddy was. Maybe that's why there are so many kids in the audience.

Sandy Orford trained the Crabtree brothers as wrestlers and ended up on Big Daddy's episode of This Is Your Life in 1979. Orford told the audience of millions that young Shirley was more interested in drinking milk to put on muscle mass than learning holds. Video is somewhere on the British thread.

HeIn the meantime there is these:

Been wanting to post some of Wildcat Robbie Brookside's heel work in Germany from the late 90s and 00s. Found this 2009 EWP tag for a start. Apart from a few spells as Kendo Nagasaki's hypno-slave, Brookside first got into rule bending in 1995 in Croydon when he turned heel on Liverpool Lads tag partner Doc Dean. The two later reconciled but the angry shouting heel Robbie was the foundation for The Wildcat persona which angered German so much that when an unknown Bryan Danielson beat him for a German title in 2003 it made Bryan an instant star over there. Thunder is Darren Walsh, son of Tony Badger Walsh. He and Robbie Brookside had a major feud for the British Heavyweight title in Leamington Spa 2003-2006 continuing even after Robbie lost the title to Drew McDonald in 2005, with Robbie still as Wildcat heel with his whispy goatee and Darren as the local kid, the same nice lad who teamed with Marty Jones in Hanley to take on Kendo Nagasaki and Vic Powers in Hanley, June 2000. Everywhere else in the UK at that point, Robbie was blue eye and Darren was Thunder, evil bald cyborg heel with the Warlord/Phantom Of The Opera metal mask. Here they take on Leon van Gasteren and Karsten Kretschmer two local babyfaces. Apparently Leon is in the white, Karsten in the orange. Thunder gets to work on Karsten. cross buttock throwing him but he rolls out of the throw and away from danger. Another cross buttock throw is more impactful. The good guy gets a headlock but Thunder throws him off and bodychecks him down on the rebound. Leon tags in and gets bodychecked down but dodges a second one as both babyfaces shoulder tackle him down and double team Brookside, sending both Bad Brits out of the ring. They eventually find their way back with Robbie complaining to the referee about continuing the count when they are both back No doubt in the same tone of voice and Scouse accent as the Hey Referee That Man's Just Done Something To Me speech in ITV in 1988. Robbie offers Leon a handshake but he will have none of it. Robbie shakes the ref's hand but then changes his mind on Leon who gets that crowd going with an anti Liverpool chant ("Liverpool Liverpool ha ha ha" in a strong Teutonic accent.) Robbie is angry. Robbie gets an armbar, giving it extra twists and weakeners. Leon like the good little scholar of Steve Wright that he is, rolls out and when Brookside takes him down with a top wristlock, goes into a bridge, pivots round on his head and gets a wristlever of his own. Good technical work in the middle of a heated tag. Karsten tags in and drops and axehandle on Robbie's outstretched arm (Max Ward would not have stood for this - see Lapaques Vs Myers & Kwango on the British thread.) Thunder tags in and gets a back hammerlock, slam and guillotine elbowsmash. He drops a knee and gets a front face lock on Karsten then a forearm smash before running out of shot to do something nasty to Leon that the camera misses. Leon complains as Thunder gets Karsten in the corner in a tree of woe and Robbie comes in to deliver a sliding ground dropkick.. Thunder crushes Karsten on the ropes, Leon comes in to complain but the ref sends him out. Thunder gets another grovit. He snapmares Karsten into the heel corner, runs a Ross and bionic elbows Leon then keeps the ref occupied while Robbie kicks Karsten. Thunder gets the front face lock again but Karsten is forcing towards tagging range. Thunder tries a posting but Karsten reverses it then backdrops Thunder. With the big man's back weakened, Leon tags in, they double team Thunder but in the confusion Leon falls to ringside. Karsten is working over Thunder who responds with punches and forearms. He whip Karsten into the ropes but Karsten slides between his legs (more Steve Wright influence!) then bounces off the top rope with a flying forearm. He delivers a spinning kick and armdrags but Robbie breaks up the resulting cover. Leon follows him over to the heel corner but the ref sends him out and Thunder gets his heat back with a powerful clothesline. Thunder gets an over the shoulder backbreaker but Karsten wriggles free, nails Brookside and dodges a Thunder elbowsmash that lands on Brookside. Karsten gets a side folding press on Thunder but only for two. He tags Leon who cloth lines and dropkicks both the Bad Brits. The Good Germans double dropkick Thunder (a move Brookside and Regal did to Kendo Nagasaki on ITV in 1988 which Kent Walton treated with amused bewilderment. The ref orders Karsten out and Thunder powerbombs Leon for the one required fall. Victory for the heel Brits. Some good technical work from the youngsters especially Leon and Robbie heels it up while Darren Thunder Walsh is the monster. I'll try find some more heel Wildcat soon.

Here's an old snippet of Phil Powers versus Robbie Brooksiide from 2008: Mostly a finger interlock strength battle. Found while looking for some footage of "The Wildcat as a mega Heel in Germany/Austria in the late 90s and 00s for the German Catch thread.

One unfortunate aspect for the wrestling industry in Greece is that for some reason the WWF/WWE would not touch the country- they only got a Greek TV deal in 2019. WWF in Greece and the local circuit, even if in its death throes - could have fed off each other as in Northwest Europe and maybe the Greek scene would have survived - perhaps to the present. All it would then have needed was a decently large stock of footage and Greek Kats could have been the fourth Stronghold Euro Territory (alongside British Wrestling, French Catch and German/Austrian Catch) instead of the third Extinct Euro Territory (alongside Spanish Catch - died 1975 - and Italian Catch - died 1965.)

These three clips were from two shows a week apart at the same venue in September 1987. (Elsewhere in the wrestling world that month Ric Flair and Wayne Bridges lost World Heavyweight titles to Ronnie Garvin and the original British Kendo Nagasaki respectively.). The last International Kats Festival was in 1980 but this house show circuit continued for just over another decade. The ramshackle conditions - the jerry-built ring and the venue which looks suspiciously like a converted underground car park - to medium up the dying state of Greek Wrestling at the time although they always did go for those sloppy sandbag turnbuckle covers. In fact until I Shaw shots in one clip showing the ring to be on a stage with an auditorium of about 200 people watching sat on wooden chairs, I was never too sure if this was a show or just something shot in a concrete basement somewhere. I've long been intrigued by the ritual of wrestlers arriving at ringside and countersigning an official document before climbing into the ring and would love to know more.

Linguistic point - they called it KATS (spelled Kappa Alpha Tau Sigma - ΚΑΤΣ / Κατς). So that is what it should be called. Kats Eleniki. Kappa covers all K and hard C sounds in transliteration. Greek does not have a Sh/Ch sound so since ancient times these have always been rendered with a Sigma - a whole swathe of Hebrew names from the Bible were Hellenized in both the Septuagint and the original Greek text of the New Testament and this impacted on their English names: Moses (Moshe) Solomon (Shlomo) Simon (Simon) even Jesus (Yeshua, short form of Yehoshua). So cats, Kats is what it should be for this territory.

Might be a good idea to embed Phil's clips so we know which are which and can add any missing ones. Dead video

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Star_Wrestling All Star Wrestling Acronym ASW Founded October 1970 Style British wrestling (Mountevans rules) Headquarters Birkenhead, England Founder(s) Brian Dixon Owner(s) Joseph Dixon Formerly All Star Promotions Big Time Wrestling Super Slam Wrestling Wrestling Enterprises of Birkenhead Website linktr.ee/allstarwrestlinguk All Star Wrestling (ASW), also known as Super Slam Wrestling (SSW), is a British professional wrestling promotion founded by Brian Dixon in 1970 and based in Birkenhead, England. Founded as Wrestling Enterprises of Birkenhead in October 1970, it has also been known over the years as All Star Promotions and Big Time Wrestling. ASW tours theatres, leisure centres, town halls, holiday camps, and similar venues, many of which are the same locations that were used for televised wrestling in the UK from the 1950s to the 1980s. ASW is the oldest active wrestling promotion in the UK and the longest-running British promotion in history,[1] a record it has held since September 2013 when it eclipsed the 42 years and 11 months tenure of Joint Promotions (1952–1995). It is also the fourth oldest professional wrestling promotion still in existence in the world, after the Mexican promotion CMLL (founded 1933), WWE (founded 1963)[1] and longtime US independent ECWA (founded 1967).[2] ASW contributed to the final two years of ITV's regular televised wrestling programme in the UK in (1987 and 1988)[3][4] and some ASW matches were included on VHS and DVD compilations and repeated as part of the World of Sport programming on The Fight Network until it stopped transmission in 2008.[5] They were then repeated on the now defunct Men & Movies channel. In July 2022, Dixon bequeathed all road management duties to his grandson Joseph Dixon (aka Joseph Allmark,the son of wrestler Dean Allmark), while continuing to lead the company in a purely office based capacity. The elder Dixon died 27 May 2023, leaving his grandson as sole proprietor. Brian Dixon's office duties were taken up by Laetitia and veteran wrestler Danny Collins. History 1970s Brian Dixon, a referee and former head of the Jim Breaks Fan Club, established Wrestling Enterprises in Birkenhead during October 1970 initially as a vehicle for his girlfriend (and later wife) Mitzi Mueller, who was the British Ladies' Champion but had difficulty getting bookings from Joint Promotions.[6] One of the company's earliest claims to fame was rebranding the wrestler Martin Ruane, formerly known as Luke McMasters, as new character Giant Haystacks. Originally called "Haystacks Calhoun", he was patterned after the similar American wrestler of the same name, about whom Dixon had read in imported American wrestling magazines.[7] Haystacks would go on to achieve household fame in the UK after he moved to Joint Promotions in 1975 as the tag team partner - and later the archenemy - of Big Daddy. During the late 1970s, Wrestling Enterprises held regular major shows at the Liverpool Stadium and organised a version of the World Middleweight Title after the previous version became extinct with the collapse of the Spanish wrestling scene c. 1975.[8][9] This title continued until champion Adrian Street emigrated to America in 1981.[9][10] Wrestling Enterprises also collaborated heavily with another independent promoter, former middleweight star Jackie Pallo. Neither promoter was able to gain a slice of ITV coverage however, as the 1981 contract renewal negotiations resulted in a five-year extension on Joint Promotions' exclusive monopoly of ITV wrestling.[11] 1980s By the early 1980s there was increasing dissatisfaction among both fans and wrestlers with the direction of Joint Promotions (which was increasingly centred on Big Daddy), which resulted in a steady flow of top UK talent into All Star Wrestling (as it was by then renamed) and away from Joint and the TV spotlight. Title-holders such as World Heavyweight Champion Mighty John Quinn, rival claimant Wayne Bridges, British Heavyweight Champion Tony St Clair, World Heavy-Middleweight Champion Mark Rocco, British Heavy-Middleweight Champion Frank 'Chic' Cullen and World Lightweight Champion Johnny Saint all defected to All Star taking their titles with them, as did many non-titleholders.[11] By the mid-1980s All Star was running shows head-to-head with Joint Promotions and had its own TV show on satellite channel Screensport.[12] When Joint's five-year extension on its monopoly of ITV wrestling expired at the end of 1986, All Star, along with the WWF, was also given a share of the televised wrestling shows for the two years 1987–88.[11] The beginning of this period coincided with the return to full-time action for legendary masked wrestler Kendo Nagasaki under the All Star banner. At the end of 1988, Greg Dyke cancelled wrestling on ITV after 33 years. Whereas Joint dwindled downwards as a touring vehicle for Big Daddy (and later Davey Boy Smith) before finally folding in 1995,[11] All Star had played its cards well with regard to its two years of TV exposure, using the time in particular to build up the returning Nagasaki as its lead heel and establishing such storylines as his tag team-cum-feud with Rollerball Rocco and his "hypnotism" of Robbie Brookside.[13] 1990s The end of TV coverage left many of these storylines at a cliffhanger and consequently All Star underwent a box office boom as hardcore fans turned up to live shows to see what happened next, and kept coming for several years due to careful use of show-to-show storylines.[11] Headline matches frequently pitted Nagasaki in violent heel vs heel battles against the likes of Rocco, Dave 'Fit' Finlay, Skull Murphy and even Giant Haystacks or at smaller venues teaming with regular partner "Blondie" Bob Barrett to usually defeat blue-eye opposition.[14][15][16][17][18] All Star's post-television boom wore off after 1993 when Nagasaki retired for a second time. However, the promotion kept afloat on live shows at certain established venues and particularly on the holiday camp circuit. Since the mid-1990s, the promotion has mainly been focussed on family entertainment. After the demise of Joint/RWS, All Star's chief rival on the live circuit was Scott Conway's TWA (The Wrestling Alliance) promotion, founded as the Southeastern Wrestling Alliance in 1989.[19] By the late 1990s, many smaller British promoters were increasingly abandoning their British identity in favour of "WWF Tribute" shows, with British performers crudely imitating World Wrestling Federation stars.[11] 2000s Although All Star never descended into a full-fledged 'tribute show', by the turn of the millennium, many of these tribute acts such as the "UK Undertaker" and "Big Red Machine" were nonetheless headlining All Star shows.[11] Disaffected with this and other matters (such as the inclusion of former WWF World Champion Yokozuna on advertising posters over a year after he had died, the continued advertising of Davey Boy Smith months after his planned tour fell through and the use of a photo of the original WWF Kane to depict the tribute performer "Big Red Machine"), Conway cut his links with All Star and declared a promotional war.[20] He began to promote his TWA as an alternative, featuring more serious wrestling (in much the same way as All Star had previously targeted Joint fans disaffected with Big Daddy). All Star duly adapted to meet the challenge, recruiting a new generation of wrestlers such as Dean Allmark and Robbie Dynamite[21] and signing up such stars as "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson. The promotional war came to an abrupt end in 2003 when Conway relocated to Thailand, closing down the TWA (which he briefly tried to transplant to his new country as the "Thai Wrestling Alliance"). Conway returned to the UK 2021 planning to revive TWA, but ill health curtailed this and he died 20 April 2025. During this period, All Star's touring schedule generally consisted of monthly residencies at the Fairfield Hall in Croydon, the Victoria Hall in Hanley and the Colston Hall in Bristol as well as one or two tour stops each year in various town centre venues and a summer season at various Butlins resorts. A major storyline during these years was a long running feud between former tag partners Allmark and Dynamite, mostly over the British Mid-Heavyweight Championship which the promotion revived in 2002, 21 years after the death of previous champion Mike Marino. As the 2000s wore on, All Star reached new heights of activity not seen since the post-television boom of the early 1990s, reactivating many more old TV venues, and in the summer 2008 season revived the old tradition of wrestling shows at Blackpool Tower, with a Friday night residency there. All Star re-established old links with promoters in France, Germany, Japan and Calgary. All Star wrestlers were widely used to represent Britain by major American promoters, for example the Team UK in TNA's 2004 X Cup which featured four All Star Wrestling regulars James Mason, Dean Allmark, Robbie Dynamite and Frankie Sloan. Mason would also guest on WWE Smackdown in 2008, defeating MVP. 2010s / 2020s On April 24, 2010, ASW joined the Union of European Wrestling Alliances and recognised the European Heavyweight Championship.[22] They hosted two title changes with Mikey Whiplash defeating Rampage Brown and James Mason defeating Whiplash.[23] ASW hosted several of Mason's title defences[24] before leaving the UEWA on 30 November 2013.[22] In April 2014, ASW established a relationship with Japanese promotion Wrestle-1.[25] Throughout the 2010s, ASW would continue to bring in younger talent from popular UK promotions (Insane Championship Wrestling, PROGRESS Wrestling, Revolution Pro Wrestling) as well as veterans and international talent, such as Zack Sabre Jr., Fit Finlay Junior, Dave Mastiff, Jack Gallagher, Noam Dar, Andy Wild, Kris Travis, Marty Scurll, Sweet Saraya, El Ligero, BT Gunn, Shinya Ishikawa, Harlem Bravado, Mark Haskins, Xia Brookside, Kay Lee Ray, Gangrel and Jay White.[26][27][28][29][30] The promotion runs a school in Birkenhead, originally with Allmark and Dynamite as chief trainers, replaced in 2023 with Joel Redman. Redman also runs an affiliated wrestling school in Salisbury which runs its own trainee shows, both of these operating under the banner "ASW South". Dixon's daughter Laetitia is a popular ring announcer for the promotion and was married to Allmark until January 2022. In July 2022 the company announced that their elder son, referee Joseph Allmark, would be taking over day-to-day operations on the road, while the elder Dixon moved to a back seat role from the company's Birkenhead office until his death in 2023, at which point Joseph Allmark took over full control of the company. Since 2024 he has been known as Joseph Dixon.

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It all depends on what contemporary wrestling is like by that future stage. I'm surprised WWE still has matches. I thought they would have donecaway with them by now and just have non-stop angles.

Can I just point out that his ring name at this point was STEVE Regal, not Steven. Until he started the Lord gimmick, he was always Steve except for: 1) his first two ITV matches for Joint Promotions in late 1986 as Roy Regal 2) appearances on S4C's Welsh language wrestling show Reslo as Steve Jones 3) a one off appearance as masked heel Hellraiser on Eurosport New Catch, filmed in France.

Mamdouh Farag on Arabic Wikipedia: https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/ممدوح_فرج