Elsewhere we have recently mentioned:
manchette = forearm smash
avertissement = public warning
arbitre = referee (referred to as Mr)
un combat = a match
une cagoule = a mask
projection = cross buttock, mare, throw of any kind
étranglement = stranglehold
se dégager = to escape
manche = .... do we have a word?
Since French bouts had no rounds, the first part of the bout was the first "manche"; after a score, they started the second "manche". It's something like leg, or session, but I can't find the right word in English. Any ideas?
This thread becomes interesting because so many of us are now enjoying BW French bouts on youtube, and grasping some of the commentary is part of the fun. Make sure you turn on the subtitles, though these are often mangled where the writer doesn't seem to know the terminology.
Can anyone add to the list?
Oh là là! = Ai ai ai ai Aih!
Assome-knocked out
Frappe dehors-thrown outside(the ring)
There's a very good thread about the French scene on this other forum here: https://forums.prowrestlingonly.com/topic/16764-french-catch/
Coup de boule=headbutt
I just watched another bout and noticed:
une clé aux jambes = a leg lock
une constatée/plongeant = drop kick (uncertain)
un renversement = a counter
un retournement = a twist or back hammer
un serpent/ciseau = body scissors
un ciseau volé = flying head scissors
figure géométrique = figure four
le tapis = the canvas
les cordes = the ropes
une prise = a hold
Manche = a fall (as opposed to a pin - un tombée)
One English term used"Double Nelson"
Yep. By the 80s you could hear them 'creaking' as they eased themselves through the ropes! I believe that's also why before the commencement of the evenings' entertainment, there would be cries of 'wheel 'em in'!
Some of the wrestlers from the 1950s continued until the early 1980s
Hi Anglo. There's many a 60s bout, many put up by Bob Platin a 60s wrestler himself and they are mostly action. I can recall all those times when 'our' wrestling would be viewed in hush tones by the audience, who would then clap politely at the end of the round. On the other hand, it's almost impossible to sit still and stay quiet when two guys are dropkicking, body slamming, whipping and arm dragging all over the ring as the French guys do in those contests. I remember so well a match I witnessed at Brighton between Billy Torontos and Erich Froelich. After six rounds, the match ended in a draw, each having used an arm or shoulder lock on the other for the duration of the one-one draw. I enjoyed it as I did most of the other chess-like matches I watched, however in hindsight I do also remember that I would think it was clever that a guy in a hold, could rest in the hold for a minute, try a series of manoeuvres to escape, but then find himself still locked up in the same hold, another rest and then he'd go again. Sometimes this scene would play over again and again for maybe two rounds without realising I'd been watching one guy caught in the same hold for ten minutes! I think it preferable that the agile guys put on the speed, the guile, the moves, while the heavier boys dish out the expected slower, tough stuff as a counterpoint to the scientific, flying squad of smaller men. The French wrestlers, the smaller guys in particular probably 'burnt' out more quickly than their British counterparts, many of the Japanese workers were 'done' in their early thirties, such was their 'hard' style in the Inoki, Baba days. In the wash-up 'it's all grist to mill'.
p.s. did your furniture get to its destination?
Yes, John, but those are 1950s bouts we're watching in France. If you look at the 1950s Vic Hessle bouts on Pathe News, he's just as frantic.
Charlie Fisher is totally dynamic throughout his 1958 tag bout.
By the sixties, Le Bourreau de Béthune is just as lugubrious as many a UK heavyweight.
I can't see much difference in it really. Just style changing over time.
Good point John, the only wrestling I can't really watch is Lucha Libre, because it is overly choreographed.
Hi Anglo! I’m happy to hear that Heritage readers are enjoying our French cousins wrestling, as when some years ago I advised on several occasions how entertaining it was and suggesting everyone should give it a look, the silence was deafening ! Maybe now is the time for me to admit I’ve been holding back, that I believe Jackie Pallo and a couple of other workers were being a touch precious when they said that the French with their non-stop movement, gymnastics and free-flowing grappling were somehow doing the game a disservice and needed to ‘slow down’ and always ‘build a story’. Then you had one of my favorites, Joe Cornelius writing, that if the crowd were getting restless and started booing or cat-calling, he and his partner would ‘sit’ on a hold until the crowd had learnt their lesson. I feel that the French wrestlers, especially the lighter ones felt they were duty bound to entertain their paying audience and give their all. I really admire Street, Woods, Grey, Royal and Faulkner, Kidd, Breaks, Maxine, Thompson, Charles and many others, but I feel the French boys were just as entertaining. And then there’s the Japanese.....
c o n t r o v e r s I a l ????????????????
My French is very poor but I know that "ma petite chose" translates as "my fly is undone" and "charabanc" is French for a cleaning lady with a shotgun. "Coup de grace" is French for "lawnmower".
Hi Anglo. I think that in clothes it means a sleeve, but in games etc it is a leg.
So as you say, a part or a round.