La Batman Had No Preconceived Notions of What to Do

La Batman vs. Teddy Boy 9/30/67 - GREAT

PAS: Much of the French Catch we have seen has been focused on impressive athletic performances. This however was a nasty brawl and was equally great. La Batman comes to the ring with a full costume, although takes the mask off to start the fight, and a heck of a fight it is. Teddy Boy is brutal, throwing hard uppercuts and forearms, and some really vicious looking stomps, he feels like he is caving in Batman's chest and throat with every shot. Teddy Boy also takes some big bumps to the floor when Batman fires back, crazy almost Jerry Estradaish falls right into the front row. Batman took the necessary beating, and had some nice aggressive comebacks.   Energetic ten minute brawl, that ends with a cool half arm drag, half powerslam by Batman. I know there is more Teddy Boy stuff out there, and I need to watch it all.

ER: I like that, this being 60s French Catch, they managed to work this super stiff brawl while also showcasing their revolutionary athleticism. It's been years since the first of these matches was unleashed on our unexpecting eyes, and I'm still kind of in disbelief at how...advanced it all is. It really wasn't that long ago that I (wrongly) assumed that every wrestling match before 1980 was just guys holding headlock takeovers for 75 minutes until either time expired or one man passed out. And now we have all this pristine footage of guys who look like young Burt Lancaster doing moves and layouts that seem modern in 2018. If you took every one of the French Catch matches we've seen so far, and recreated them today, they would still seem revolutionary. I'm a big fan of the original Batman TV series, it's one of the most brilliantly written and realized comedies ever, and I assume the French appreciated it's straight-faced goofiness. I was a late convert to Jerry Lewis, having avoided him only because of the pervasive narrative that "Jerry Lewis movies are funny, but the French love him." Once I saw The Patsy in my 20s it was clear to me that the French, in this instant, were correct. I'm unsure how great the influence of Adam West's scripted fights had on La Batman, but had these two athletes performed this battle on an episode of Batman as La Batman vs. Catwoman thug Felix, it would have blown the minds of young Americans. There's some real shock behind the stiffness of the strikes, and as someone who hates things touching my neck I practically had my knees coiled up to my chest as Teddy Boy stomped away at Batman's clavicles. These were some of the finest worked stomps I've seen. Batman has some really great headlock takeovers, the kind that need to be stolen by someone today, as he leaps with all of his weight into Teddy, forcing him to either catch all of this weight, or get drug over by the neck. It is physically easier to be drug over by your neck in this scenario, as you would either go willingly or strain every muscle in your neck while fighting it. It's a way to make a cooperative move look violent, but it still had the smooth precision that all these French workers had. I was already digging this match when Teddy Boy started taking wild, violent (yet controlled, as the VERY close front row fans never seemed in danger) bumps over the top to the floor, and outside of being a big fat guy there aren't many other things a wrestler can do to immediately worm their way into my heart. I was big a fan of early 2000s Rey Bucanero and Christian, as I was practically guaranteed a big bump to the floor in any given match. Teddy Boy takes some real beauts, and it really added to the big brawl feel. Maybe one of these days we'll see a 60s French match that doesn't deliver, but that day hasn't happened yet.
   

La Complète et Exacte French Catch