David Mantell

They're not heels in the Danny Davis/Teddy Long/NWO Nick Patrick sense of a corrupt official who makes outrageously pro-heel calls. They're portrayed as untrustworthy petty officials who do come through for Les Bons in the end most times, ususally because they have no choice, but they spend the match arguing with Les Bons and giving them Avertisments (equivalent of Public Warnings a la British Wrestling and yellow/red cards in the CWA and Stampede) on top of the usual being blind sided by Les Méchants. (The one honest referee in all of this is, ironically, former heel Roger Delaporte. By contrast, the worst of the worst seems to be former squeaky clean lightweight Michel Saulnier who as a referee comes across as a horrid little man) The chant of "Ho Ho Cette Arbitre" rings out on many of these old Catch matches. It's seen as acceptable for even the most cleancut popular scientific Bons like Guy Mercier or Gerard Hervé both before and after he became Flesh Gordon, to beat up the referee pretty badly. In America this sort of thing would be just about okay for a heel on the rampage. In Britain, anyone deliberately beating up on a referee would cause a major heat incident. In France it is seen as good sportsmanly behaviour worthy of a babyface. I suppose this could be something to do with a traditional hatred by the French for petty officials. (France has a VERY dodgy right wing police force whose union has been known to protect them from investigation into abuse of power as well as any attempt at reform by successive French governments. In France, the good guys seem to be outlaws like Stone Cold Steve Austin fighting against an oppressive system. It starts in the late 1970s and builds momentum during the 80s. By the 21st century, longtime heel Jacky Richard had installed himself as heel commisioner Monsieur Jacky, modelled in clear part on Mr McMahon One ruling he made in around 2007 was to ban Les Bons from deliberately encouraging the fans to cheer for them during matches, with good guys like the elderly tubby bald Flesh Gordon getting the worst of this.

Any thoughts on the frankly ODD attitude to referees in French Catch.? In America the referees are well meaning buffons who get KOd and generally screw up on decisions. In Britain they are tough hard-nosed enforcess whom the IBA demanded be shown to be in control all the time. In France, they are portrayed as petty heel figures who help out the bad guy constantly until just at the end when they rnf up letting him down. It is deemed acceptable for the babyface to regularly beat up the ref. Even refs with exemplary past ring creditially like Michel Saulnier are considered only on step higher than, say Danny Davis in the WWF.

I think this bout was actually 1983, from the same Basildon, Essex TV taping as that years's cup final day match pitting Charlie McGee's Masked Marauders. I think it was Moran's TV debut and he hadn't yet grown the mullet or got the heel identitiy established (consider Fit Finlay wrestling cleanly in the title eliminator against Davey Boy in 1982) so just came across as an amiable sort of guy, resembling your local postman. Good solid scientific match

There were one or two rather strange prizes up for grabs in KO tournaments over the years. No washing machines or yachts or anything else you might get off some TV quiz show, mind. But there was one tournament, screeened on an Easter Monday, where a giant chocolate Easter Egg was up for grabs. Jim Breaks was the lucky winner who got his championship diet screwed up with cocoa beans, fats and sugars. Also the Jolly Fisherman trophy - a pottery figure of a character from an old 1930s poster/magazine advert for ralway trips to seaside resort Skegness, praising its notoroiously bad weather as an actual major selling point: In fairness, the Golden Gown would not have really suited scowly Crumb Heel Syd Cooper.

Princess Paula is the main thing that comes to mind when older people in this country think of Fit Finlay. Mention how Finlay once had a sidekick and they won't make the link to Hornswoggle, they'll think of bossy old Paula who used to tell her husband off and get angry with him if he lost a fal. They especially remember her at her most flamboyant with the headress. (The Fabulous Finlays were also big as a double act in Germany/Austria for the CWA.) First time I ever saw Randy Savage and Elizabeth on a WWF special I instantly thought they were the American version of Finlay and Paula. Mick McMichael spent a lot of his career as a jobber to the stars despite his skills. One rare actual win for him on TV was his teaming with Bid Daddy against The Rockers (Pete Lapaque and Tommy Lorne) but generally he wrestled worthy serious bouts with he then generally lost albeit not as a pushover. Doesn't seem to have won a title ever (add him to the same list as Caswell Martin and Steve Logan mk2 as wrestlers wo should have won titles but didn't. The obvious knockoff ring name (from Mick McManus) perhaps didn't help. In Germany,he is best remembered as a kilt-wearing referee.

You're welcome. Brings back childhood memories - running round the house telling everyone and everything that Mighty John Quinn and Giant Haystacks had won the Olympic Wrestling!

How come they had Teds in France? The Edwardian era isn't even called that in France, it's called "La Belle Epoque".

I was mistaken. I had a crafty flash forwards and itt wasn't there. So here it is now: Like I said, this bout is a flashback to earlier styles of British wrestling. Haward is a top amateur champion (Commonweatlh Games silver medalist, no less) and no nonsense gym boy. "Kerry Leprechaun" Tim Fitzmaurice is a student of the legendary Bert Assirati. Pretty quickly from the start, Haward is snapping off quick fireman's carry takedowns from a wristlock and drawing on his GR background to go for rear waistlock takedowns and suplexes. Notice how once he throws Fitzmaurice he puts a leg out in front to create disance. between himself and his opponent. Fitzmaurice does a lot of moves down on the mat that most wrestlers by 1980 would do standing up like the backdrop at 8:03 and the rolls done down on the mat at 5:40 , 5:45 , 7:22, 15:07 and 15:22 when from the mid 60s to the mid 80s people like Petit Prince, Bobby Ryan,, Dynamite Kid and Danny Collins were using cartwheels to achieve the same result (although he does also a standing roll at 7:05. Incidentally another wrestler I've seen doing this old fashioned roll from a kneeling position was Kendo Nagasaki against Colin Joynson in Solihull 1976 - Kendo actually switching directions on the roll a couple of times to - as Kent Walton would say "undress" the arm lever and spring free. ) Haward has a great escape from legdive attempts, spinning horizontally in a standing position to wrench the leg free. Fitzmaurice flips and flops a lot to resist Haward's rear waistlock suplex pin attempt before Keith eventually succeeds in getting the move in and polishing it off with a bridge for his first fall. (He gets the second fall with the same move but with less resistance from Tim and after a few softening suplexes.) Fave moment of the match: 14:36 - 14:50 of the match where Fitzmaurice has the stepover toehold on Haward and Keith pushes himself upwards into a seating position so that Tim's hand is caught in a neat arm scissor. (Yes I know Tim has a confused look in response to this but DON'T YOU DARE call that a comedy spot!!! ) I would love to have seen Haward develop this into a submission attempt but instead he moves into an arm lever. Maybe re-use that one another time for a finish? An old fashioned - even for the era - but good bout, probably has gained a lot in retrospect as we haven't seen too many 40s/50s bouts with a previous generation working this style. Kent Walton talks of Haward challenging Brian Maxine for the British Middleweight title - in the event he skipped the British title and took Mal Sanders' European title and the two of them would pass a World title back - apparently filling the vacancy caused by Adrian Street going to North America - and forth at Sun City in South Africa in 1982.

British wrestling doing a big arena show at the Royal Albert Hall - note the slightly larger ring. Bromley, the future masked Emperor in a rare clean match from early on in his TV career before he found his real direction. His change in style was startling: Well this is just it - the "trickery and tomfoolery" was what we Brits would have seen as serious scientific wrestling and the countering/reversing/escaping as a vital part of the game which we couldn't undertand why Americans - even the likes of Flair and Steamboat - never did. Jordan later took Saint's World Lightweight title in 1987 and I believe still had it at the end of the ITV era in Dec '88. He also turned heel as part of that run. He grew it long in the first couple of years after TV. It came in handy doing reruns of the hypnosis angle with Kendo as he would turn into a shuffling zombie with hair hanging down in front of his face. He kept this look for several decades before getting it cut for his backstage WWE job.

There would be another punk rock wrestler later in the mid 80s: Meanwhile actual real life punk rock fan Robbie Brookside had quite the squeaky clean white meat image:

Punk rock. That was the fashion at the time. It fit his "Bad Boy" tag. Barnes was a hairdresser by day job anyway, so he was actutely aware of what was going on in the street.

Nice docu on Thumb here: He later had a stint as European Lightweight Champion in 1985. Neil Evans later became a promoter in the 1990s.

add Kendo - one guy I've compared his late 80s/early 90s work to quite a bit is the just deceased Terry Funk - not only in that both were "autumn crocuses" who went through hot periods late in their careers but also as guys who made their names as technical wrestlers but who were best known for wild extreme violence by the end. Kendo is about 2 years 8 months older than Funk was so his early 90s time as top star of All Star was his equivalent of Funk as USWA champion, ECW World Champion and WWF World Tag Team Champion (as Chainsaw Charlie) - although Thornley had a lot less wear and tear on his body from having taken most of late 1978-late 1986 out.

Quite a few of the spots from that match became hardy perrenials in Britain. Mitzi Mueller liked to do the "referee pins/gets pinned" spot - you can see her do it on both the clips I posted previously. The double leg nelson multiple double pin attempts seems to be a big fave among the young Traditional British crowd at All Star and Rumble - guys like James Mason, Dean Allmark and Tony Spitfire tend to do this spot a lot. I'll do a deeper dive into all that once I've caught up with myself and got back round to page 19 where I came in.

Was quite surpised with this review - especially the "pure comedy"quote, given the excellent 1972 bout between two on b/w kinescope fim and both mens' inclusion on Kent Walton's potted list in World Of Sport Annual of serious skilled wrestlers who were the antidote to excess showmanship. So I watched it. There's still a bedrock of skilled wrestling there. The trouble is that it gets cut short in round 2 with a TKO/No contest, so Vic Faulkener tries to get in all his usual spots of cheekiness in one solid blast in the short amount of time available. In the 1972 bout the banter is more spaced out between longer fast paced technical segments and it serves its purpose of showing two friends having a fine sporting match with some added banter that adds to the general bonhomie (with McMichael as mock-grumpy whereas a heel or even a more temperamental blue-eye like Johnny Cxeslaw might kayfabe-genuinely get the hump.) or rather in the case of the 1982 bout three friends including referee Jeff Kaye. In the 1982 bout you get it in one sudden sugary gulplike drinking concentrated orange squash. I supect that Max Crabtree asked them to get all Vic's mischief spots in which is why Kent hypes the bout as comedy even though, as I said, it's between two guys he previously cited as the respectable serious side of the sport.

I think I dealt with this subject earlier and recommended some bouts (Pete Roberts, Rex Strong). A lot of it is to do with his persona and his way of always being the centre of attention even when in trouble. He could be a gifted technical wrestler when he wanted to and his best 1960s/1970s matches were games of two halves with a fine scientific first round or two then an ultraviolent second half (which generally had to be toned down for TV) before getting into finishers and the Kamikaze Crash. He also had a neat standing grapevine/crossface for getting a submission ("the torture rack) and another finisher where he would do a quick backdrop and splash, flinging the opponent over one shoulder then spinning round and pouncing on them like a bird of prey for the cross press pin - doing it extra fast to get round the no follow-down rule by making it all one move. He was still doing this in the 1990s (he was still pulling off the Kamikaze Crash in May 2000 eg against Darren Walsh during the Wrestler Of The Millenium angle at Victoria Hall Hanley.)

Talking of Daddy Tags: It's difficult to underestimate just how OVER as a blue-eye Sammy Lee was in Britain in 1980/1981. I missed his first TV match from Croydon against Sid Cooper because my dad dragged us all out swimming that Sat afternoon, but my grandad came round that evening and was absolutely frothing at the mouth. "SAMMY LEE!!! WHOAH!!! HE'S FANTASTIC!!!" Lee and his fast moves and flying kicks were starting to eclipse even Big Daddy in terms of popularity, even the Crabtrees themselves were reportedly in awe of the young lad. Perhaps that's why they let him upstage Daddy somewhat in this match, even scoring the deciding fall. Vladimir was a favourite of mine, he had been on a winning streak up til this, so I was rather upset as a kid to see he would be wrestling TWO unbeatable opponents. The "illegal" sleeper is the only real offence either heel gets in as they slink to a 2-0 loss. At least Fuji & Quinn vs Daddy and Bridges was not on TV so I was spared having to watch Fuji go down to defeat. Getting back to Sammy Lee, I remember reading once how Vince Russo or it may have been Vince McMahon - Some fool called Vince anyway - thought that it was impossible for a Japanese to be a straight babyface (which is why they lumbered Kaentai with that stupid "indeed" gimmick.) They should watch this match - especially the end when MrMuscles Johnny England flees from the ring and Sammy just shrugs his shoulders modestly and comes across as really likeable. Perfect blue-eye.

I guess it's just a matter of overcoming the need for an American style structure to a tag match. Athough like I said, the Big Daddy tag is pretty much the ultimate manifestation of the FIP >>>HOT TAG story. I remember one time in the 90s watching a WWF tape, probably WM4 with Strike Force vs Demolition and pondering how the Big Daddy Tags In spot actually must have pre-dated Big Daddy by ages - only with the two faces in interchangable roles. (I believe it was Toods Mondt who originally invented FIP/Hot Tag spots in the 1920s.)

Barnes and Cooper were each one half of legendary heel teams the Royals had feuded with going back to the 60s (Barnes in the Hells Angels with Adrian Street, now just about to head off to North America starting with Stampede, Cooper with Strongman Alan Dennison in the Dennisons, by now a reformed character who had his soul saved in 1976 by the Dynamite Kid and who ended up as British Welterweight Champion.) Indeed there is footage of the Hells Angels and the Dennisons against each other. Not sure if I already posted it but what the heck, I'll post it again Bert Royal had a severe injury not too long after this match which put the Royals to an end more or less although he came back for some singles bouts later on. Vic Faulkner later formed a new tag team with John Savage (John Hindley, later Johnny Smith, evil heel cousin of Davey Boy, in Stampede and Japan.)

Murphy had quite a long career ahead of and behind him. He was the son of 1950s/1960s heel Roy Bull Davies who wrestles Billy Robinson in The Wrestlers from 1967. As Steve Young, he'd been quite the promising clean youngster in the late '60s even getting some TV appearances in, before defecting off to the independents. Some time in the 70s he turned heel and became Bad Boy Steve Young and in 1979ish he lost a hair vs hair match (I did know against who but have forgotten.) before returning to Joint and reappearing on TV as Skull Murphy in 1982. He was due to have been in the 1982 FA Cup Final match with American heel Crusher Brannigan (a low rent Mighty John Quinn - General/Ripper John Raven was another one.) but had some sort of issue in a previous Daddy tag a few nights earlier and was either banned from working with Daddy by Max C or else refused to work with him again. Possbly he got rough with Daddy and didn't go along wiht the no selling. Finlay and Murphy formed a tag team wnning the 1982 Top Tag Team tournaments and being presented with the only set of tag team title belts I can remember from before the WWF invaded (there was no British Tag Team Title until 1989, a year after TV). They reunited after TV, appeared on Reslo and even had a heel vs heel match with Kendo Nagasaki and Blondie Barrett one night (as part of an ongoing Kendo/Murphy feud.) Murph's greatest moment came in 1995 when he won the British Light Heavyweight title off Alan Kilby altbough Kiilby got it back later that year. He also had a big feud with Robbie Brookside for both All Star and TWA in 1999 which involved TWA's - and possibly All Star's - versions of the British Heavyweight title. Murphy continued into the C21st and had an enthusiastic fan called Patti J who would get into fights online with anyone who said anything untowards about her man. In fact now I've written this, she'll probably turn up on here, so hiya Patti !

Something else worth mentioning - after this and the previous week's wrestling they ran a trailer for the new look show with its WWF and All Star tapes. This was the first time I ever saw Hulk Hogan - I instinctively knew he was the American Big Daddy and hated him for that. They also showed a clip of the British Bulldogs and this is my earliest memory of the bigger American ring with the individual corner pads. Also a lot of talent who had defected to All Star were reintroduced as "some familiar faces coming back to TV - Quinn, St Clair, Rocco ("Johnny Saint, JUST YOU WATCH OUT!") - "and it all starts with the return of The Great KENDO NAGASAKI" (the only "familiar face" who was legitimately coming out of retirement.)

Zimba trained at Riley's Gym and had a reputation for working stiff (cf Dynamite Kid's comment in Pure Dynamite that Zimba "was a big old bgger who didn't care if he hurt you.") He was personable and fans liked seeing him do his headbutt on heels and could work a solid strenght match. (Oh yes and he liked goat for his Xmas dinner, even if it was in rigor mortis.) Dave Bond seems to have been getting out of his heel phase by this point. Stax and Quinn had a much bigger TV match that summer against Pete Roberts and Johnny Wilson FAO John Lister, correction to the 1980 page on ITV Wrestling, this WAS the only match transmitted that week. Regular World Of Sport was pre-empted in favour of special wall-to-wall coverage of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow but this one match was inserted in to keep the wrestling public happy a la the FA Cup coverage. There was no actual Olympic wrestling on ITV but this match's screening prompted six year old me to loudly proclaim that the bout was "Olympic Wrestling" which led to a lengthy argument with my dad! At the end of the above match Wayne Bridges runs in to demand his contractual return match for the title loss to Quinn. He would finally get it in 1984 I recall watching this one as a child too. After the 1979 FA Cup Final Daddy & Rigby vs Quinn and Rocco bout and the late 1979 Big Daddy and Mal Sanders vs Giant Haystacks and Rocco match, this was the third Daddy vs Rocco match I had seen in my young life. To be honest, the photo op bit was generally expected of top stars and it was probably more the mayor's photo opportunity with Daddy rather than the other way round. "Easy" was something invented by football fans (see also a lot of the chants in Catch Francais such as "Ho Ho Cette Arbitre" and "Allez les rouges/verts/bleus/etc".) which wrestling fans picked up on and which became a big part of the Daddy shtick. Together with "we shall not be moved", "Easy" became a slogan for Daddymania as a force like Hulkamania, albeit a force with no name, just an emotional expression of Daddy on the attack. The most obvious articulation of this was Daddy's speech after his win over Haystacks at Wembley "AND REMEMBER, HAYSTACKS, WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED!!! EASY! EASY!" as young Jane Crabtree stomped along to the chant and waved her cheerleader baton, but clearly Daddy trying to pump up Kid Chocolate here was another example. BD and KC would have a future together, they would be in the 1983 FA Cup Final match against Charlie McGee's marvellous magical Masked Marauders. After defeating Fireman Colin Bennett and Nipper Eddie Riley, this is what went down on Cup Final day: Marauder Minor, played by Lucky Gordon, disappeared fromTV after aving his carcass dragged out of the ring to safety at the end of this match (clearly Bret Hart had a point about that backdrop) while the bigger Marauder went on to not one but TWO TV unmaskings by Big Daddy: Banger Walsh in that second match is the incident I referered to above where Walsh actuall did get injured onscreen by the Double Elbow backdrop.

I suspect some of the surviving late '70s Catch Francais we've got was colour kinescope too:

As discussed a couple of pages back in examples of juice on World Of Sport. The sympathy factor made Joynson, once the brutal boot droog of The Dangermen with Steve Haggerty, unable to work as a heel again.

Yes, he transformed from Beautiful Bobby to Bad Boy Bobby. He would later have the blond hair dyed various colours punk-style. Kent Walton adored Marino-mainly because he gave Kent some wrestling training in the gym early on as research for his role. Kendo has in recent years complained about Marino's tendency to keep taking a step back all the time. His big escape from a headlock was just to yank his head clear suddenly - clearly there was a time before the bandstanding escape was invented. At one time he was reportedly quite the handsome blue-eye until Bert Assirati badly mauled him in the ring one night. Still, The Golden Boy got his revenge on Assirati in this photoshoot: Both Marino and Kirk are sadly remembered for their respective premature deaths - Marino collapsing from leukaemia and dying by a roadside in the arms of his student Mal Sanders, Kirk for his death in the ring in a 1987 Daddy tag.