New Footage Friday: FRENCH CATCH!! RIP FRANZ VAN BUYTEN!!!

PAS: The great Franz Van Buyten died this week, so we decided to dig into our French Catch archives and review some of his matches.

MD: I've always had a soft spot for Van Buyten. I think most people in our circle first became aware of him from the Lasartesse series and other 80s German footage, but I first encountered him in the IWE Andre six man from 1972. There he was an amazing stooge, with his interactions with Andre being one of my favorite comedic performances of all time. I don't think I've seen another match where he took on quite that role, but it's always in the back of my head when I see him. Knowing that somewhere inside this triumphant, sympathetic babyface is that performative sense of humor, always made me look (and usually find) a certain mischief even in his his straightest matches. It's just so obvious he got "it" and that he could back it up.

Franz Van Buyten vs. Robert Gastel 7/5/71

SR: 1 fall match that goes about 30 minutes. AHH I LOVE THIS MATCHUP!! Franz is basically the guy who started the madness when I first got my hands on his Piratenkampf against Dave Taylor. Robert Gastel is someone I never even heard of before this project, but I fell in love basically looking at him. And they are a natural matchup, Gastel being balding, pudgy, skull jacket wearing and exuding the miserable tough charisma of a guy who feels like an amalgation of a slimy used car salesman, a grumpy construction worker and a smelly truck driver, and Franz being classy and a stud. Despite it being transparent where this was going to go from a mile away, there is lots of really fun, really solid wrestling. These guys do extremely basic holds, but find all sorts of neat little touches to work around them, and everything is super tight. I also really liked Franz angrily responding to Gastel throwing the first shot by trying to snap his wrist. Gastel is a real treasure trying to get in on Franz with cheapshots and leg picks, and Franz of course is an all time great when it comes to making basic stuff look really painful and draining. Not that Gastel has a hard time looking like a bastard, dropping big forearms on Franzs face and throwing body shots and headbutts. As soon as Franz had enough there was a tangible asymmetry in this match though, as Gastel despite trying his best soon found himself blown away by van Buytens onslaught. Really liked Gastels stoic selling performance as van Buyten tried to uppercut his jaw out. Time limit comes into play and feeds into the story of the match with Gastel having to survive his fitter, more athletic opponent.

PAS: Gastel has a really great look, he is bald and dumpy looking and looks like Stathams cop friend in the Transporter. This is a bit more deliberate then the other Catch stuff we have seen, but it is a cool deliberation.  The first part of the match is all Gastel working an arm lock while Van Buyten flips and spins his way out of it, only for Gastel to grind right back down on it. It is impressive how well these guys get across the basic idea of professional wrestling, "this is hard painful violence" this is more ground bound then a lot of Catch stuff, but even the wildest shit still has struggle and fight at it's base. Van Buyten grinding this tight reverse choke looks like some Gracie shit and Gastel fires back with some teeth loosening shots. Gastel looks like a thug and wrestles like a thug and it is super fun to watch Van Buyten overcome that.

MD: This felt extremely familiar in the best way. The opening had such a sense of inevitability as Gastel gave way to his darker tendencies. It was basically the Tully (and so many others) formula, where he comes out wrestling evenly with the babyface, but after losing a few exchanges goes dirty, but you got the sense that it wasn't just feigned reluctance out of Gastel, but instead that once he was so committed, there was no looking back.

They went in and out of things early, first with Gastel armdrags and an armbar he hung onto. Despite his bulk, he just melted away on the armdrags, which were the smoothest things you'd see. Van Buyten finally shifted it with a headscissors takeover and they went in out of that a bit. That's when Gastel lost his cool the first time and hit some blows out of the corner. Van Buyten shifted to the arm and you could see Gastel's cracks deepening: instinctively going for the hair when an escape got cut off, being positioned to use the rope when he had advantage on leglock and the crowd getting on his case for it. Van Buyten's constant struggle from underneath is excellent here, leading to an eventual escape and Gastel going past the point of no return.

When he finally does unload, it's with peppering shots and headbutts. Gastel has this sort of high/low combo style which keeps things interesting. It's very compelling and you never quite know what angle he'll take the attack from next. Van Buyten's comeback came a little early, maybe, though it's plenty fiery and full of righteousness with Gastel's selling giving everything even more weight. They shift to more of a back and forth after that, including Gastel utilizing a dragon sleeper and Van Buyten building to a big mare reversal of it. The finish has Van Buyten switching up Gastel's advantage by catching him with a slam off the ropes. It was sudden and effective, though maybe not entirely memorable. The video fades with Gastel walking forward to shake Van Buyten's hand, which fits with the overall feel I had. Gastel was no villain; he was just a passionate man who let his frustration take him over.


Franz Van Buyten vs. Bob UFO 7/28/84

SR: It‘s a Piratenkampf baby. There is a joke about a Piratenkampf happening in France and the flag on the pole instead of being either guys national flag is just a white flag. Maybe they didn‘t want to emphasize van Buyten being Belgian too much. European chain matches are weird in the sense that they are less about guys hitting each other with the chain and instead about chain grappling, and also really long, but I enjoy them a lot. Lots of tight, inventive grappling that comes across as grueling, with guys getting tangled in the chain while trying to wrestle. I especially liked Franz hitting a bodyslam only to find himself being strangled with the chain around his neck the next moment, and Bob Ufo(??) tangling his arm behind his back so he could hit him. The turnbuckle climbing/chain tugging is something that could potentially feel lame in these match but they had a ton of different ways to make it compelling here, including both guys taking a nasty spill to the outside and frightening balancing on these really loose ropes. The one thing that left me sour is that they clipped 10 minutes from this, I mean these matches are supposed to be really long. Not as heated as previous matches in this style we have seen, presumably due to the crowd not being familiar with the gimmick (or maybe Bob Ufo not being a super charismatic heel, though he does a solid job here) which is about the sole thing keeping this from being a minor classic.

MD: Given the clipping and the random shots to a random crowd, this did feel a little bit lacking. What stood out were particular moments (Van Buyten's comeback rush of forearms to push Bob away from the flag, the way he leapt across the ring to take both of them over the top). Just from a guess, what we missed on here was a longer period of heat, but that's what I wanted the most. I liked the heel jawing in English, though he was sufficiently brutal and dogged, but what you really want out of these matches is a long bloody beatdown that leads to a violent comeback, and we missed that here. I don't know how many of these Van Buyten had been in at this point, but he has such a great sense of the chain. He knows when to bring it into play, either as a way to dramatically control the distance between the two wrestlers or as a bludgeon. The former is particularly impressive.

PAS: Not sure who Bob UFO is, they mention he is Canadian which made me think about Bob Della Serra, but it looks more like Rocky Della Serra. This isn't a high level Piratekampf match but has a bunch of the fun things which make this such an interesting gimmick. Van Buyten is clearly a master of this match, I love all of the little ways he leverages the chain to keep UFO from ascending, at one point he just presses his foot against the chain so his opponent couldn't get the slack to get up the pole. I would have liked to see a bit more of a dramatic ending and a a little more of the violence, but this is a nice look at Van Buyten bringing his signature gimmick match to a different place.