Spain
#PWHS #Results #Europe #Spain
notes on pro-wrestling: before 1940
Pro wrestling in Spain dates back to the early 20th century when Greco-Roman pro wrestling tournaments were being held all across the country. The biggest Spanish star of that era was Javier Ochoa. Catch/U.S. style pro wrestling came to Spain in the 1930s. In Barcelona in particular the first known catch show took place on October 25, 1933. The card featured wrestlers from Raoul Paoli's French promotion. The headline match saw Henri Deglane defeat Sailor Arnold. The other names on the card were Len Hall, Dan Koloff, Hardy Kruskamp, Charlie Santen, Manuel Fullaondo and Louis Loew. Later on in 1936 at one point there were two groups of wrestlers working in Barcelona for a while, at the same time. One group had Wladek Zbyszko, Karol Nowina, Abe Kaplan, Dinarli Mehmed, Felix Kersic, Martin Zikoff, Carver Doone, Kara Ali, etc. The other group had Charles Rigoulot, Mike Brendel, Douglas Clark, Francois Berthod, Romeo Bukovac, Umberto Arpino, etc. Then the Spanish Revolution of 1936 took place and wrestling was put on hold.
Pro wrestling in Spain dates back to the early 20th century when Greco-Roman pro wrestling tournaments were being held all across the country. The biggest Spanish star of that era was Javier Ochoa. Catch/U.S. style pro wrestling came to Spain in the 1930s. In Barcelona in particular the first known catch show took place on October 25, 1933. The card featured wrestlers from Raoul Paoli's French promotion. The headline match saw Henri Deglane defeat Sailor Arnold. The other names on the card were Len Hall, Dan Koloff, Hardy Kruskamp, Charlie Santen, Manuel Fullaondo and Louis Loew. Later on in 1936 at one point there were two groups of wrestlers working in Barcelona for a while, at the same time. One group had Wladek Zbyszko, Karol Nowina, Abe Kaplan, Dinarli Mehmed, Felix Kersic, Martin Zikoff, Carver Doone, Kara Ali, etc. The other group had Charles Rigoulot, Mike Brendel, Douglas Clark, Francois Berthod, Romeo Bukovac, Umberto Arpino, etc. Then the Spanish Revolution of 1936 took place and wrestling was put on hold.
Notes by Phil Lions.
notes on pro-wrestling: 1940-1949
Things picked back up in the 1940s. Sala Gran Price, which had a capacity of 4,000 to 5,000, became the main wrestling arena in Barcelona. The promoter at the time was a guy by the name of Jose Pesudo and shows were held weekly, usually on Fridays. From the mid 1940s onwards another venue, Salon Iris, hosted weekly shows as well. And thus Barcelona had two weekly cards every week. In 1949 specifically the cards went up to three per week as for a while there were shows at Fronton Novedades, and later on Sunday shows at Gran Price. Pro wrestling in Barcelona was quite popular. Heading into 1946 the most popular Spanish wrestler was Victorio Ochoa. He was the son of Javier Ochoa and was the reigning Spanish Middleweight champion.
It's possible there may have been others before it, but the earliest mention that I can find of a wrestling show at a big bullring in Barcelona were a series of summer shows by empresa O. D. A., during 1946. The main stars on those shows were "El León Navarro" Victorio Ochoa (The Lion of Navarro), "El Tigre de Cataluña" Joaquin Saludes (The Tiger of Catalonia), Tomas Grau (a former three-time light heavyweight and one-time heavyweight Spanish national champion in amateur Greco-Roman wrestling) and Francisco Grifol (one of the first Spanish catch wrestlers in the mid 1930s). Another notable name was "El Capitán Maravillas" Julio Soria (Captain Marvels).
The matches in Barcelona were wrestled in four 5-minute rounds.
There were no bullring shows in Barcelona in 1947. 1947, however, saw the rise of "Cabeza de Hierro" Jose Tarres (Iron Head). He was a headliner at Gran Price and given that he was from Catalonia he was becoming a local hero of sorts for the fans in Barcelona, but also gaining popularity elsewhere in the country too.
There had been a few foreigners on the cards in previous years and then in 1948 Barcelona saw a huge upsurge in foreign wrestlers coming to wrestle in the city. Among the foreigners who worked in Barcelona in 1948: The French Angel (Maurice Tillet), Butcher Johnson, Jack Dale, Pat Curry, Jim Pantobe, Eric Husberg, Don Carver, Paul Leteurtrois, Marcel Manuel, Alphonse Zwahlen, Henri Cogan, Jean Casi, Frank Hewitt, Jean Jourlin, Felix Clody, Brossati, Joe Luis, Kid Zamboa, Cab Cashford, Tony Hall, Jo Baratte, Antonio Fusero, etc.
The first bullring show of 1948 was a significant one. Ever since 1935 the Englishman Jack Dale had been recognized in the UK as the British Middleweight champion. Then in 1947 he made his way to France and was now being billed as European Middleweight champion. As far as I know, there's no record of him ever winning such a title, but that didn't stop him from claiming it anyway. On June 29 1947 Dale dropped his European Middleweight Title claim to the French Middleweight champion Albert Arnaud. The match was held at Stade Roland Garros in Paris. I don't know if Dale won his claim back from Arnaud, but when he arrived in Barcelona in August 1948 he was billed as the European Middleweight champion. Beating Dale for said championship was Jose Tarres' defining moment in the 1940s.
The foreigners who worked at Gran Price in Barcelona in 1949: Eric Husberg, Raymond Bukovac, Brossati, Henri Cogan, Mike Brendel, Marcel Manuel, Stan Karolyi, Lou Rudelle, Andre Drapp, Lino Ventura, Gilbert Leduc, Vick Hesselle, Karl Pirock, Marcel Pawlas, etc.
The bullring shows in Barcelona in 1949 were an interesting case. They were all promoted by empresa Balañá/Pedro Balañá. He was the owner of the two biggest bullrings in Barcelona (Las Arenas and Monumental). I'm not sure if this was the case in 1948 too, but it appears the bullring shows in 1949 were considered opposition to the local Gran Price shows and therefore both shows used a different set of wrestlers. For example, the big Spanish names such as Tarres and Ochoa only worked for the Gran Price promotion as did the popular foreign stars like Karolyi, Drapp, Ventura, Leduc, etc. Some lower level wrestlers did jump from one promotion to another and there was one high profile jump later on in the year, which I'll discuss below. The first run of bullring shows featured headliners like the popular Portuguese wrestler Joe Luis, "The Spanish Gorilla" Eugenio Gonzalez (who would become a big star in France the following year), the Argentinian Cernada, the Mexican charro Madariaga and others.
Empresa Balañá's second run of bullring shows in 1949 was built around two names: Joaquin Saludes and "The Strangler" Grailet, who was now being billed as Dr. Grailet. Grailet was dominating his opponents and it seems like this was all building up to Saludes being the one to finally defeat the dangerous strangler, but things didn't work out like that in the end.
There was a series of big matches in November and December 1949 at Gran Price. A new face on the Barcelona scene was "The Strangler" Felix Lamban, who in 1949 had grown to be one of the most popular Spanish pro wrestlers along with Tarres and Ochoa.
Things picked back up in the 1940s. Sala Gran Price, which had a capacity of 4,000 to 5,000, became the main wrestling arena in Barcelona. The promoter at the time was a guy by the name of Jose Pesudo and shows were held weekly, usually on Fridays. From the mid 1940s onwards another venue, Salon Iris, hosted weekly shows as well. And thus Barcelona had two weekly cards every week. In 1949 specifically the cards went up to three per week as for a while there were shows at Fronton Novedades, and later on Sunday shows at Gran Price. Pro wrestling in Barcelona was quite popular. Heading into 1946 the most popular Spanish wrestler was Victorio Ochoa. He was the son of Javier Ochoa and was the reigning Spanish Middleweight champion.
It's possible there may have been others before it, but the earliest mention that I can find of a wrestling show at a big bullring in Barcelona were a series of summer shows by empresa O. D. A., during 1946. The main stars on those shows were "El León Navarro" Victorio Ochoa (The Lion of Navarro), "El Tigre de Cataluña" Joaquin Saludes (The Tiger of Catalonia), Tomas Grau (a former three-time light heavyweight and one-time heavyweight Spanish national champion in amateur Greco-Roman wrestling) and Francisco Grifol (one of the first Spanish catch wrestlers in the mid 1930s). Another notable name was "El Capitán Maravillas" Julio Soria (Captain Marvels).
The matches in Barcelona were wrestled in four 5-minute rounds.
There were no bullring shows in Barcelona in 1947. 1947, however, saw the rise of "Cabeza de Hierro" Jose Tarres (Iron Head). He was a headliner at Gran Price and given that he was from Catalonia he was becoming a local hero of sorts for the fans in Barcelona, but also gaining popularity elsewhere in the country too.
There had been a few foreigners on the cards in previous years and then in 1948 Barcelona saw a huge upsurge in foreign wrestlers coming to wrestle in the city. Among the foreigners who worked in Barcelona in 1948: The French Angel (Maurice Tillet), Butcher Johnson, Jack Dale, Pat Curry, Jim Pantobe, Eric Husberg, Don Carver, Paul Leteurtrois, Marcel Manuel, Alphonse Zwahlen, Henri Cogan, Jean Casi, Frank Hewitt, Jean Jourlin, Felix Clody, Brossati, Joe Luis, Kid Zamboa, Cab Cashford, Tony Hall, Jo Baratte, Antonio Fusero, etc.
The first bullring show of 1948 was a significant one. Ever since 1935 the Englishman Jack Dale had been recognized in the UK as the British Middleweight champion. Then in 1947 he made his way to France and was now being billed as European Middleweight champion. As far as I know, there's no record of him ever winning such a title, but that didn't stop him from claiming it anyway. On June 29 1947 Dale dropped his European Middleweight Title claim to the French Middleweight champion Albert Arnaud. The match was held at Stade Roland Garros in Paris. I don't know if Dale won his claim back from Arnaud, but when he arrived in Barcelona in August 1948 he was billed as the European Middleweight champion. Beating Dale for said championship was Jose Tarres' defining moment in the 1940s.
The foreigners who worked at Gran Price in Barcelona in 1949: Eric Husberg, Raymond Bukovac, Brossati, Henri Cogan, Mike Brendel, Marcel Manuel, Stan Karolyi, Lou Rudelle, Andre Drapp, Lino Ventura, Gilbert Leduc, Vick Hesselle, Karl Pirock, Marcel Pawlas, etc.
The bullring shows in Barcelona in 1949 were an interesting case. They were all promoted by empresa Balañá/Pedro Balañá. He was the owner of the two biggest bullrings in Barcelona (Las Arenas and Monumental). I'm not sure if this was the case in 1948 too, but it appears the bullring shows in 1949 were considered opposition to the local Gran Price shows and therefore both shows used a different set of wrestlers. For example, the big Spanish names such as Tarres and Ochoa only worked for the Gran Price promotion as did the popular foreign stars like Karolyi, Drapp, Ventura, Leduc, etc. Some lower level wrestlers did jump from one promotion to another and there was one high profile jump later on in the year, which I'll discuss below. The first run of bullring shows featured headliners like the popular Portuguese wrestler Joe Luis, "The Spanish Gorilla" Eugenio Gonzalez (who would become a big star in France the following year), the Argentinian Cernada, the Mexican charro Madariaga and others.
Empresa Balañá's second run of bullring shows in 1949 was built around two names: Joaquin Saludes and "The Strangler" Grailet, who was now being billed as Dr. Grailet. Grailet was dominating his opponents and it seems like this was all building up to Saludes being the one to finally defeat the dangerous strangler, but things didn't work out like that in the end.
There was a series of big matches in November and December 1949 at Gran Price. A new face on the Barcelona scene was "The Strangler" Felix Lamban, who in 1949 had grown to be one of the most popular Spanish pro wrestlers along with Tarres and Ochoa.
Notes by Phil Lions.
notes on pro-wrestling: 1950-1956
The bullring shows of 1950 started in July. They were once again promoted by Pedro Balañá. All of the shows were at Plaza de toros de las Arenas. This run of shows did not last long. Around the same time the Gran Price promotion moved their shows from the smaller Gran Price arena to what was called Palacio de los Deportes at the time, but the following year it would become known as Pabellon del Deporte. This was not the Palacio de los Deportes arena that was opened in 1955. Rather this was an open-air racetrack that could seat anywhere between 7,000 to 10,000 depending on the event. Now for the first time in Barcelona there were two competing groups running open-air shows at the same time. The Gran Price/Palacio promotion would run their "A" shows on Thursdays and their "B" shows on Sundays. Those weren't bullring shows, but they were also big open-air shows so they're worth writing about.
1951 was a very interesting year in Barcelona for the fact that during the summer months not one, not two, but three weekly shows were being held at major venues in the city. Pedro Balañá once again promoted wrestling events at his bullrings, but this time he would have one during the week at the 14,893-seat Plaza de toros de las Arenas and a second show on Sundays at the 19,582-seat Plaza de toros Monumental. As they had done the year before the Gran Price promotion also ran big open-air events during the summer and those were held at Pabellon del Deporte, which had a capacity of 7,000 to 10,000. Unfortunately, attendance numbers are not available (beyond a few vague mentions here and there), but I would imagine business must have been pretty good for there to be so many big venue shows during the summer.
The rosters for those shows were an interesting case too. As usual, the bullring shows and the Gran Price/Pabellon shows started off with completely separate rosters. One group had Felix Lamban and Pedro Bengoechea as its Spanish headliners, while the other one had Jose Tarres, Victorio Ochoa and Jim Oliver. As of 1951 those were the five most popular pro wrestlers in Spain, Oliver and Bengoechea being the newest sensations on the scene. Each group also had its own foreign wrestlers too - Stan Karolyi, Gilbert Leduc and Bolo Hakawa being the top foreign names for the Gran Price promotion while empresa Balañá had Jos Wolbach, Roger Laroche, Claude Montourcy, Rene Bukovac, etc. But then in August wrestlers started working for both groups. I'm not sure why that was, but I found it interesting nonetheless.
The Barcelona open-air shows of 1952 followed the same pattern as in the prior years - Pedro Balañá had shows at his Las Arenas and Monumental bullrings, while the Gran Price promotion ran events at Pabellon del Deporte. Among the foreign headliners were Tommy Mann (England), Jean Benoy (Belgium) and Claude Montourcy (France), but the most notable foreigners were Black Kwango (England) and Jules Delmee (France). By all accounts Kwango was a big attraction on the Barcelona curcuit and scored wins over several of the top Spanish names, while Delmee is notable because he ended up having a short run as the European Light Heavyweight champion. In terms of the Spanish wrestlers one name I have to single out is Campo who was climbing the ranks and seems to have been right behind the big five ((Tarres, Ochoa, Bengoechea, Lamban, Oliver) Spanish stars in terms of popularity.
In early May 1953 Jose Tarres broke his leg while playing football (soccer) in Toulouse and therefore he would be out of competition for the next few months. He returned from injury in the middle of August 1953.
In 1953 the open-air shows worked the exact same way they had in the previous few years. Empresa Gran Price would ran shows at Pabellon del Deporte, while Pedro Balañá (empresa Balañá) would promote shows at his bullrings. A number of international names worked in Barcelona that summer: Gilbert Leduc, Roger Guettier, Al Hayes, Butcher Johnson, Suni War Cloud, Jacques Ducrez, Eddy Wiecz (aka Edouard Carpentier), Bolo Hakawa, Iska Khan, King Badu, Eric Husberg, etc. Out of those foreign names Leduc was probably the most important one in Barcelona, some reports even going as far as referring to him as the best wrestler in Europe.
In terms of the Spanish stars the big story of the year was the rise of Celso Sotelo. He started off by working midcard matches on the open-air shows, but got over really well with the fans and by the end of the year he had two championship belts and was a headliner for the Gran Price promotion.
Another thing I would like to point is that without question Jose Tarres was the top star in Barcelona and this had been the case for a few years now. As soon as he returned from his injury he became the main focus. At this point in Spanish pro wrestling there was a clear top five (Tarres, Oliver, Bengoechea, Lamban and Ochoa), but in Barcelona (Tarres' home province) he was the clear number one star. This was reflected in his booking in Barcelona - he would lose very rarely and often foreigners would be built up with wins only to have Tarres beat them in the end (e.g. Suni War Cloud, Andre Bollet, Andre Coutoula).
And one final note before I get to the show results. I think I might have made a mistake. I thought the Castillo who worked in Barcelona prior to 1953 was the future Quasimodo (Victor Castilla Sancha). The reason being is that the name was very similar and in comparing photos it seemed to be him, but now I'm not so sure. I found a new photo of the Castillo who worked in Barcelona and to me he looks like a different guy. Plus, someone called Castilla showed up in Barcelona in 1953 and I'm thinking this may actually be the future Quasimodo. Hopefully this becomes clear as my research goes on.
[As of 1955] The main promotion was Empresa Gran Price, which held weekly Friday cards at Sala Gran Price. Gran Price was for about 4,000 to 5,000 people. In the late 1940s the promoter's name was Jose Pesudo. I'm not sure whether he was still the promoter in 1955 (I would assume so though). Outside of the summer months, there would usually be a second weekly Gran Price show, which was their B show and was usually on Sunday. In the previous few years during the summer months Empresa Gran Price would run its main shows at the open-air Pabellon del Deporte (which had a capacity of about 10,000), but that wasn't the case in 1955.
Another venue, which had hosted weekly shows regularly for several years now, was Salon Iris. The shows there were usually on Saturday. Those were smaller cards and often featured midcard talent from the Gran Price shows as its headliners.
During the summer months Pedro Balañá, the owner of the La Monumental and Las Arenas open-air bullrings, would run weekly shows at his bullrings under the auspices of Empresa Balañá. The bullrings held up to 20,000 and 15,000 people, respectively. The bullring shows used a lot of the same talent as the Gran Price shows.
During the second half of 1955 a new promotion popped up in Barcelona - Empresa Barcino. It promoted weekly cards for a while at Sala Apolo. They weren't using the same wrestlers as all the other shows. Instead they used the veteran Francisco Grifol as one of their headliners and foreign wrestlers who had worked in Barcelona before such as Joe Luis, Kid Zamboa, Jean Loosen, etc. They also had a number of newer names, including Oscar Verdu (the future Crusher Verdu).
After the Barcino shows ended another new promotion started running weekly shows - Empresa de Deportes Colón. They used a lot of the same wrestlers as Empresa Barcino, but also a couple of Gran Price ones as well.
And then finally, every once in a while there would be some random show at a random venue as a one-off.
The point being, most weeks there would be three shows in Barcelona, sometimes even four.
Another notable venue that I have to mention is Palacio Municipal del Deporte, which opened doors in 1955. It had a capacity of about 8,000 and would become the biggest indoor arena for wrestling in Barcelona.
As of 1955 the top stars in Barcelona were still Jose Tarres, Felix Lamban, Pedro Bengoechea and Jim Oliver. Tarres, who had been without question the top star in Barcelona for a few years, had now seemingly taken a bit of a backseat and wasn't as prominently featured as he used to be in the past, but was still very popular.
1955 saw the rise of a new top star in Barcelona - Eduardo Castillo. He had been around as a midcarder since the late 1940s, but when he returned to Barcelona in early 1955 after an international tour he was given a major push, becoming both European and World Light Heavyweight champion at the same time (the first Spanish wrestler to do so). Speaking of new names, future stars like Hercules Cortez, Victor Castilla and Tony Oliver were working undercard matches in Barcelona in 1955.
1955 saw a ton of international names pass through Barcelona. Originally, my idea for this topic was to focus mostly on the big bullring shows, but so many interesting international names have been popping up on the Gran Price shows that I decided to start spotlighting them more as well. With the exception of a few shows, I won't be doing full results for the weekly Friday shows at Gran Price, but I'll be posting the outcomes of the top two or three matches. I'll also post the odd Sunday Gran Price and Salon Iris result if I feel they're noteworthy.
Notes by Phil Lions.
Notes On pro-wrestling: 1956
1956 was a very interesting and busy year in Barcelona pro wrestling. Before we get to the results let's do a quick summary of what was happening.
As always, in addition to putting on boxing fights, Empresa Gran Price was running its weekly wrestling shows at Sala Gran Price on Fridays and Sundays. Jose Pesudo was the guy in charge. In the summer months they only had the main (Friday) shows, but moved them to Thursdays for a while. The Saturday shows at Salon Iris were a fixture thoughout the year as well. In the results below I covered the main matches for all the Friday/Thursday Gran Price shows, and only select few Sunday Price shows and Iris shows, if I thought their main event was noteworthy. The top stars in the Gran Price promotion were still Pedro Bengoechea, Jose Tarres, Felix Lamban, Jim Oliver and Eduardo Castillo, but Victorio Ochoa did make his return as well toward the end of the year. A few new faces such as Gustavo, Rafael Blasco and Modesto Aledo emerged on the Barcelona scene, while others like Victor Castilla (the future Quasimodo), Tony Oliver and Willy Martin received a little bit more attention in the Gran Price promotion than they had previously. In terms of foreigners the big sensation of the year was Tupac Amaru. It was an Inca gimmick that got over really well with the fans. Noted UK shooter Billy Joyce and French villain Roger Delaporte also had runs as headlining stars at Gran Price.
From June through September 1956 there were also weekly Saturday shows at Nou Sardenya Stadium, which is an open-air football (soccer) stadium for a few thousand spectators and according to the reports the shows were usually attracting good crowds. The shows ran head-to-head with the Salon Iris shows, which is why when talking about them I've listed the headline matches for both shows, because I think it's an interesting comparison to make. There were some Nou Sardenya shows in 1955 as well, but when I was doing that research I didn't realize the venue was a small stadium so I didn't keep a record of those shows.
As mentioned before, in 1955 there was new group called Empresa de Deportes Colón, which was running weekly shows as well. Those lasted through February 1956. Featured on them were guys like Aranda, Moncho, Julio Soria, Benavent, Jean Loosen, etc. In other words, mostly talent that would be considered lowercard, midcard at most, wrestlers if they were in Gran Price.
From early June through early October 1956 Pedro Balañá promoted weekly Sunday night shows at his La Monumental bullring and as always his Empresa Balañá was using the same talent as the Gran Price promotion since the two promotions were working together. On a few occasions Balañá ran two Monumental shows in a week. It's important to note that Balañá was mainly a bullfighting promoter, the most powerful one in the whole country of Spain at one point, and would get involved in pro wrestling only during the summer while Empresa Gran Price was a year-round wrestling and boxing operation.
In 1956 a new player entered the Barcelona scene and he entered it in a big way. The former wrestler Luis Bamala had become a promoter and had promoted shows elsewhere in Spain, but this was his first time running shows in Barcelona. That happened during the summer months and he held the shows at the Las Arenas bullring. Now that is confusing to me. Las Arenas was owned by Pedro Balañá so why would he let another promoter have shows there and in effect be competition to Balañá's own shows? Maybe they were working together? But then why weren't they sharing talent like Balañá and Gran Price? I don't know. I don't fully get the backstage workings of the Barcelona scene and Spain in general. As best as I can tell you had these local, national and international governing bodies of sorts, which controlled the titles and then you had various promoters operating under them. For example, you had Federacion Catalaña de Lucha, which was the governing body in the Catalonia region, where Barcelona was. Then you had Federacion España de Lucha, which was the national organization. And then finally whenever they had to promote a World or European Championship match that had to be approved by Federacion Internacional de Lucha or at least that was the story that was presented in the press. I wish I knew more about this, but from what I can tell the backstage stuff isn't really explained in the Barcelona press so you kind of have to guess your way through it. Anyway, back to Bamala. He came to Barcelona seemingly with a very good strategy. First and foremost, he presented a brand new crop of Spanish stars. These were guys who had been making a name for themselves elsewhere in Spain, but had never worked in Barcelona. Among them were Henry Plata, Antonio Morlans, Gabriel Laguna, etc., but the two key names were Jesus Chausson and Modesto Aledo. Coming into Barcelona they held European and World Title claims, respectively. Chausson in particular was on his way to becoming one of the top Spanish stars in general. The lightweight Aledo was getting over based on his workrate. Almost every report I've seen so far from a show he was on would talk about Aledo being in the best match of the night and how great his matches were. In addition to its new Spanish stars Empresa Bamala also had an established Spanish star in Victorio Ochoa as well as two of the most respected and popular foreign stars in the history of Barcelona - Stan Karolyi and Gilbert Leduc. Then about a month into Bamala's run Felix Lamban stopped working for Balañá/Gran Price and was now working exclusively for Bamala in Barcelona. Towards the end of the bullring season Ochoa, Karolyi and Aledo did the reverse - they jumped ship from Bamala's shows to Balañá/Gran Price. Apart from presenting new stars and popular veterans, another way Bamala was trying to distinguish his shows was by presenting different match formats. Typically, the matches in Barcelona had been worked in four five-minute rounds, except for certain special matches, but Bamala's shows regularly featured matches with more rounds and matches without rounds. Also, Bamala tried out a unique one-night tournament and introduced the concept of winning matches on points (a concept probably taken from France, which is where they had been using it since 1933 when Raoul Paoli first started his promotion in Paris).
Listed below are all the champions as of the end of August 1956. Next to a couple of them I've put a question mark, because those were the champions the last time the Barcelona press mentioned the titles, but it's possible in the mean time the titles may have switched hands elsewhere in Spain. As for the World Heavyweight champion, Frank Sexton was recognized as such in Barcelona, but that was in 1954 and no one was claiming the title since then.
World Light Heavyweight: Eduardo Castillo
World Mid-Heavyweight: Stan Karolyi
World Middleweight: Roger Laroche
World Lightweight: Modesto Aledo
European Light Heavyweight: Pedro Bengoechea
European Mid-Heavyweight: Jesus Chausson
European Middleweight: Claude Montourcy
European Mid-Middleweight: Manuel Rillos
European Lightweight: Modesto Aledo
Spanish Heavyweight: Felix Lamban
Spanish Light Heavyweight: Jose Tarres
Spanish Mid-Heavyweight: Pedro Bengoechea?
Spanish Middleweight: Tony Oliver
Spanish Mid-Middleweight: Manuel Rillos?
Spanish Lightweight: Aranda
Catalonia Heavyweight: Pablo Bernaus
Catalonia Light Heavyweight: Jose Tarres
Catalonia Mid-Heavyweight: Jose Tarres
Catalonia Middleweight: Celso Sotelo
Catalonia Mid-Middleweight: Manuel Rillos
Catalonia Lightweight: Valero
1956 was a very interesting and busy year in Barcelona pro wrestling. Before we get to the results let's do a quick summary of what was happening.
As always, in addition to putting on boxing fights, Empresa Gran Price was running its weekly wrestling shows at Sala Gran Price on Fridays and Sundays. Jose Pesudo was the guy in charge. In the summer months they only had the main (Friday) shows, but moved them to Thursdays for a while. The Saturday shows at Salon Iris were a fixture thoughout the year as well. In the results below I covered the main matches for all the Friday/Thursday Gran Price shows, and only select few Sunday Price shows and Iris shows, if I thought their main event was noteworthy. The top stars in the Gran Price promotion were still Pedro Bengoechea, Jose Tarres, Felix Lamban, Jim Oliver and Eduardo Castillo, but Victorio Ochoa did make his return as well toward the end of the year. A few new faces such as Gustavo, Rafael Blasco and Modesto Aledo emerged on the Barcelona scene, while others like Victor Castilla (the future Quasimodo), Tony Oliver and Willy Martin received a little bit more attention in the Gran Price promotion than they had previously. In terms of foreigners the big sensation of the year was Tupac Amaru. It was an Inca gimmick that got over really well with the fans. Noted UK shooter Billy Joyce and French villain Roger Delaporte also had runs as headlining stars at Gran Price.
From June through September 1956 there were also weekly Saturday shows at Nou Sardenya Stadium, which is an open-air football (soccer) stadium for a few thousand spectators and according to the reports the shows were usually attracting good crowds. The shows ran head-to-head with the Salon Iris shows, which is why when talking about them I've listed the headline matches for both shows, because I think it's an interesting comparison to make. There were some Nou Sardenya shows in 1955 as well, but when I was doing that research I didn't realize the venue was a small stadium so I didn't keep a record of those shows.
As mentioned before, in 1955 there was new group called Empresa de Deportes Colón, which was running weekly shows as well. Those lasted through February 1956. Featured on them were guys like Aranda, Moncho, Julio Soria, Benavent, Jean Loosen, etc. In other words, mostly talent that would be considered lowercard, midcard at most, wrestlers if they were in Gran Price.
From early June through early October 1956 Pedro Balañá promoted weekly Sunday night shows at his La Monumental bullring and as always his Empresa Balañá was using the same talent as the Gran Price promotion since the two promotions were working together. On a few occasions Balañá ran two Monumental shows in a week. It's important to note that Balañá was mainly a bullfighting promoter, the most powerful one in the whole country of Spain at one point, and would get involved in pro wrestling only during the summer while Empresa Gran Price was a year-round wrestling and boxing operation.
In 1956 a new player entered the Barcelona scene and he entered it in a big way. The former wrestler Luis Bamala had become a promoter and had promoted shows elsewhere in Spain, but this was his first time running shows in Barcelona. That happened during the summer months and he held the shows at the Las Arenas bullring. Now that is confusing to me. Las Arenas was owned by Pedro Balañá so why would he let another promoter have shows there and in effect be competition to Balañá's own shows? Maybe they were working together? But then why weren't they sharing talent like Balañá and Gran Price? I don't know. I don't fully get the backstage workings of the Barcelona scene and Spain in general. As best as I can tell you had these local, national and international governing bodies of sorts, which controlled the titles and then you had various promoters operating under them. For example, you had Federacion Catalaña de Lucha, which was the governing body in the Catalonia region, where Barcelona was. Then you had Federacion España de Lucha, which was the national organization. And then finally whenever they had to promote a World or European Championship match that had to be approved by Federacion Internacional de Lucha or at least that was the story that was presented in the press. I wish I knew more about this, but from what I can tell the backstage stuff isn't really explained in the Barcelona press so you kind of have to guess your way through it. Anyway, back to Bamala. He came to Barcelona seemingly with a very good strategy. First and foremost, he presented a brand new crop of Spanish stars. These were guys who had been making a name for themselves elsewhere in Spain, but had never worked in Barcelona. Among them were Henry Plata, Antonio Morlans, Gabriel Laguna, etc., but the two key names were Jesus Chausson and Modesto Aledo. Coming into Barcelona they held European and World Title claims, respectively. Chausson in particular was on his way to becoming one of the top Spanish stars in general. The lightweight Aledo was getting over based on his workrate. Almost every report I've seen so far from a show he was on would talk about Aledo being in the best match of the night and how great his matches were. In addition to its new Spanish stars Empresa Bamala also had an established Spanish star in Victorio Ochoa as well as two of the most respected and popular foreign stars in the history of Barcelona - Stan Karolyi and Gilbert Leduc. Then about a month into Bamala's run Felix Lamban stopped working for Balañá/Gran Price and was now working exclusively for Bamala in Barcelona. Towards the end of the bullring season Ochoa, Karolyi and Aledo did the reverse - they jumped ship from Bamala's shows to Balañá/Gran Price. Apart from presenting new stars and popular veterans, another way Bamala was trying to distinguish his shows was by presenting different match formats. Typically, the matches in Barcelona had been worked in four five-minute rounds, except for certain special matches, but Bamala's shows regularly featured matches with more rounds and matches without rounds. Also, Bamala tried out a unique one-night tournament and introduced the concept of winning matches on points (a concept probably taken from France, which is where they had been using it since 1933 when Raoul Paoli first started his promotion in Paris).
Listed below are all the champions as of the end of August 1956. Next to a couple of them I've put a question mark, because those were the champions the last time the Barcelona press mentioned the titles, but it's possible in the mean time the titles may have switched hands elsewhere in Spain. As for the World Heavyweight champion, Frank Sexton was recognized as such in Barcelona, but that was in 1954 and no one was claiming the title since then.
World Light Heavyweight: Eduardo Castillo
World Mid-Heavyweight: Stan Karolyi
World Middleweight: Roger Laroche
World Lightweight: Modesto Aledo
European Light Heavyweight: Pedro Bengoechea
European Mid-Heavyweight: Jesus Chausson
European Middleweight: Claude Montourcy
European Mid-Middleweight: Manuel Rillos
European Lightweight: Modesto Aledo
Spanish Heavyweight: Felix Lamban
Spanish Light Heavyweight: Jose Tarres
Spanish Mid-Heavyweight: Pedro Bengoechea?
Spanish Middleweight: Tony Oliver
Spanish Mid-Middleweight: Manuel Rillos?
Spanish Lightweight: Aranda
Catalonia Heavyweight: Pablo Bernaus
Catalonia Light Heavyweight: Jose Tarres
Catalonia Mid-Heavyweight: Jose Tarres
Catalonia Middleweight: Celso Sotelo
Catalonia Mid-Middleweight: Manuel Rillos
Catalonia Lightweight: Valero
Notes by Phil Lions
Unique content strictly for the Professional Wrestling Historical Society.
All research has been completed by the Professional Wrestling Historical Society or by a trusted contributor.
Information came from contemporary newspapers unless otherwise stated.
Notes On Pro-Wrestling.
Updated: April 8, 2020.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
Unique content strictly for the Professional Wrestling Historical Society.
All research has been completed by the Professional Wrestling Historical Society or by a trusted contributor.
Information came from contemporary newspapers unless otherwise stated.
Notes On Pro-Wrestling.
Updated: April 8, 2020.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
