John Shelvey got this topic going back in 2014 with this post
Hi Guys and Gals! I spend a lot of my valuable spare time pouring over the wrestling history research of our North American cousins and lamenting our own lesser efforts in that endevour. We all have great memories and recollections and it all adds to the rich wrestling tapestry but we sadly lag far behind when it comes to recording the facts and figures and the nitty as well as the gritty of days long past at home.
Now, I am not criticising the efforts of our home grown historians, after all the Yanks had and have a huge population, wrestling was part of the way of life with many, many workers travelling around and across the vast lands. Many more cities, fastly more towns large and small, along with acess to hundreds of libraries and film stock. It is simply a question of the weight of numbers, we just don't have the same numbers of people dedicated to the job of collecting, researching, sorting and filing of the matmen who plied their trade on this small (but mighty) part of the (mat) world.
With the foregoing in mind can I be so bold as to propose the following (as a starter) WE commence to register the names of every foreign wrestler WE can find that set foot in a British ring. Rather than just have everyone send in long lists of workers from all over, which could become unwieldley and hard to keep track of, I suggest we commence with say ,French wrestlers. This would be a marathon rather than a sprint, similar to our best posted subjects, the Alan Garfield and the Count Bartelli posts which were long, arduous, enthraling and ultimately satisfying.Thus, there is no rush, once the French connection seem to be exhausted we could move on to the German visitors, then the Spanish, etc. working through the Europeans, on to the Japanese, South and Central Americans and everyone in between finally finishing with the Canadians and the Yanks.
Perhaps we can share the spoils and not try to hog the limelite with one exhaustive list, perhaps repeating another's efforts. With that in mind I'll kick off with just three of the French boy'os, Andre Drapp, Robert Duranton and Roger Delaporte. Over to you.....
Cheers, John.
During the weeks that followed Heritage members compiled the following list. We certainly don't want to lose it and now seems a good enough time to see if we can add to it or amend. I'll hand it back to John to referee, maintain and amend
The French Imports 11/11/18
Andre Bollet
Andre Drapp
Andre Du Barry
Andre Gasnier
Bernard Vignal
Bob Gastel
Bruno Asquini
Charles Humez
Charles Ulsemer
Cheri Bibi
Claude Gessat.
Claude Montourcy
Edouardo Carpentier
Emile Poilve
Felix Miquet
Gaby Calderon (Adiwasser)
Georges Gueret
Gil Cesca
Gil Voiney
Gilbert LeDuc
Grand Vladimir
Guy LaRoche
Jacques Lageat
Jacques Pecheur
Jean Bout
Jean Corne
Jean Ferre
Jean Morandi
Jean Rabut
Jimmy Dula.
Joe Gueret
Joel de Fremery
Joel De Noirbruell
Judah Ischa Israel
Julien Maurice
Le Bourreau de Béthune.
Le Petit Prince
Les Blousons Noirs
Luc Straud
Marcel Douvinet
Marcel Manneveau
Martin Schultz
Max Dejomme.
Michel Allary
Michel Chaisne
Michel Saulnier
Paul Lorti
Pierre Boss
Ray Bukovac
Ray Cabellec
Rene Ben Chemoul
Rene Bukovac
Robert Duranton
Roger Bollett
Roger Delaporte
Roger Trigeaud
Scarface Laval
The Angel (Maurice Tillett)
Walter Bordes
Jean Menard, who was over in the UK mid-1960's
Daniel Aubriot appeared on World of Sport, mid 60's, tagging with Gil Cesca and being billed as French, but whether he was or not, no idea.
Georges' brother Joe Gueret also came early seventies.
Main Mask pops in another. Henri Le Mao came over 1960/61 for the independents, wrestled Kidd in a title match.
Jean Paul Auevaret was Belgian
Marc Mercier - who faced Marty Jones on TV for the World Mid-Heavyweight Title (1988)
Jean Paul Auevaert - who faced Marty Jones on TV in a World Mid-Heavyweight Title Eliminator in 1987
Jacques Le Jacques (great name!) - faced Danny Collins for the European Welterweight Titles in 85/86
Another one added by Main Mask
Maurice Jung aka "The French Hippy" Jacky Rickard
Alexander Poizat
There was also a Donald DuBarry but the billings i've seen for him were London & Australia!
I wouldn't claim to know with any certainty Mad Mac, but in the A-Z we wrote "Born in Paris and mentored by Georges Cohen, he was trained for the ring by Albert Ben Chemoul, father of the European Middleweight Champion ...." We would have been confident at the time to write that, but as always with wrestling things are only true until proved to be untrue.
Possibly mistake, but i thought Joel De Fremery was Belgian? What about Bobby Gaetano?