Dear Friends,
wanted to share this old French poster. It is a perfect example of wrong terminology!
The style of pro wrestling it shows is definitely not catch as catch can, but All-in wrestling for which a proper French term would be: LUTTE DE COMBAT.
But since in UK in the 1930s there was an All-in pro wrestling promotion and the brand called The XX Century Catch-as-catch-can in Continental Europe they started calling any All-in pro-wrestling match Catch! That is why nowadays many people are so confused about what actually Catch is, or better say was! And you hear all kind of nonsense about the 1930s, 40s, 50s and even 60s and 70s catch wrestlers from UK and other countries, lol. Hahahah!
GRECO-ROMAN PRO WRESTLING.
CATCH PRO WRESTLING (lol). - ALL IN WRESTLING/LUTTE DE COMBAT.
The term Catch was used in Germany and Austria until comparatively recently
A great post Russian! When you view the two pieces of artwork, you still see the ‘crossover’ between the two styles. The All In extra holds / moves added to the interest and (sometimes) excitement and then the biff and barge was an extra ingredient, maybe as a nod to the way fights were carried out on the street.
An example of the latter, would be the later American preponderance to (pretend) to use the closed fist to the face. Very few practitioners could do that believably and yet they still insist on showcasing that today. Wrestling, it’s a funny old game.
Great vintage posters, really captures the essence of the Grappling Game.
Such serious images were essential in creating the belief/illusion that the professional wrestling we witnessed was a real, refined, traditional ...sport. Only for McManus to start punching blindside and Bruno to get caught up in the ropes.
Without the serious, embedding context, it all meant nothing. Hence the opening clean bout with handshakes all round.
It was finely tuned theatre. So finely tuned that we must take our hats off still now to the ringmasters.