One of my all-time favorites. RIP.

FYI, there's one more match to come.

I'm not sure if this is Haggetty. That was a guess on my part. I don't think Falempin is Corne's son.

The Portz match will make it onto YouTube when they get to 1962. There has already been an Eric Taylor match posted.

Thesz or Gagne. There is plenty of Carpentier footage from France, but I prefer his US work.

There is a Geoff Portz match from 1962. A few other British wrestlers appear but none of the names you mentioned. The Paris venues were Palais des Sports, Salle Wagram, Elysee Montmartre, Cirque d'Hiver, Central, Stadium, Palais de la Mutualite, Lancry Arena, and Salle des fetes de Clichy. The TV featured matches from different promoters and different venues. Unfortunately, there was a bunch of controversy over Catch and it only aired sporadically after 1959.

This is not quite accurate. Catch was increasingly viewed as a spectacle in the late 50s, and the Minister of Sports ended up being pressure on the network not to air it anymore. There are a few years in the early 60s where they were only a handful of broadcasts. Most of the matches that air in full are long. Sometimes the matches go off the air before they're finished because of the live broadcast. I haven't seen any match wrap up quickly.

Ivan Penzecoff wasn't a pig farmer.

Phil Lions has done some research of French newspapers from this era, and interestingly reporters were able to uncover and publish the identity of L'Ange Blanc and Le Bourreau de Béthune immediately after their debuts, but L'Homme Masque took longer and initially they had the wrong man. It is indeed Gil Voiney, who went on to have a run in the WWWF. He was a successful amateur and we have another match of him unmasked where he shows his true ability. As L'Homme Masque he would eventually unmask L'Ange Blanc.

Karl von Kramer has been in other matches and was identified as Michel Laurent on a Facebook page.

Just a note on the tag -- these shows were broadcast live. The show goes off the air before the end of the first fall.

Roberts may not have been the most charismatic, but he was one of the best workers of the 80s. Here is a list of my recommended matches: Pete Roberts vs. Caswell Martin (4/4/73) Kung Fu/Pete Roberts vs. Johnny Kincaid/Dave Bond (10/4/77) Pete Roberts vs. Pat Roach (2/13/80) Mark Rocco vs. Pete Roberts (5/28/80) Pete Roberts vs. Wayne Bridges (5/11/82) Terry Rudge vs. Pete Roberts (3/21/83) Ray Steele vs. Pete Roberts (9/3/85) Pete Roberts vs. Indio Guajaro (11/13/85)

Viedor toured Japan in '75 with Tony Charles, Peter Kaiser and Charly Verhulst.

Actually, the footage of him is from 1959 so it should be uploaded in the coming weeks.

I don't know when the McTiffen stuff will be uploaded. I can get it to you privately if there is some way for you to contact me.

There is German footage from 1895.

For some reason, Davies wrestles as McTiffen in the French catch footage. He comes to the ring in a kilt accompanied by a bagpipes player. This is circa 1962.

They charge the same rates for 70s and 80s matches in their archive. The real question is why The Wrestling Channel didn't air any footage from the 60s. It's possible that they withheld that footage, I'm not sure if it was catalogued at that stage. You'd have to hear from the people who worked with TWC.

I really like the Marty Jones & Clive Myers vs. Fit Finlay & Skull Murphy tag matches. I could imagine Rocco slotting in for either Myers or Murphy. I really liked the Rocco & Banger Walsh tag team, fwiw.

It's a matter of whether they want to make money off their footage (wrestling or otherwise.) We know they are digitizing the footage, but right now their focus is on licensing it for academic or commercial purposes. There are some private sales, but mostly that is their focus. Perhaps they don't see a market for a subscription service, or perhaps it's not cost effective. It's a small team (only a handful of people.) About five years ago, the Chicago Film Archive put a 100 or so matches on YouTube and recently people have been sponsoring additional uploads. I am sure people here would pay money to have the digitized footage put on a YouTube channel or offered through some other platform. I think the cheapest transfer option was 40 pounds per hour (plus expenses.) That's still a lot, but people could chip in. If you allow people to pay for access to the archive then yes, some folks will rip the matches and share them illegally, but the sponsorship method could work if they are willing to set up a platform.