Tuesday is French Catch Day: Andre Drapp! Jack Laskin! Pierre Bernaert! Laurent Dauthuille!

MD: A couple of programming notes. I was on the Winter Palace podcast last week, a rare appearance from me, where I stumbled over french names for twenty minutes: https://winterpalacepodcast.squarespace.com/podcast/2020/4/8/episode-eighty-three-splendid-isolation-number-2

Also, I don't think we ever promoted it, but Phil was on Wrestling is Gross last month talking at length with them about a few of the matches in depth, and people should listen to that: http://wrestlingisgross.libsyn.com/wrestling-is-gross-31-moon-wrestling


Andre Drapp vs. Jack Laskin 6/21/57

SR: JIP 2/3 falls match with about 25 minutes shown. Jack Laskin wrote a pretty interesting book on his experiences as a wrestler. He also told a somewhat disturbing story about befriending a wrestler who worked in a death camp during the war. So, having him on film is a nice historic achievement. And this was a really cool match. Drapp was another really formidable wrestler. He came around quite a bit, one or two of his US matches are even online already. Drapp was a physical specimen with a bodybuilder look, but he could go like a motherfucker. He did one escape out of a leglock that was like something Virus would do. Later he dodged an attack from Laskin and dove underneath fast as lightning for a freestyle takedown. It‘s that kind of wrestling ability I really appreciate. Laskin looked like a fun US pro. His US style made for a nice stylistic difference compared to the euro heels. He was throwing punches and had some fun ways to hurt his opponent, such as scraping his knees across his face, or throwing weird high kicks. Of course, Laskin would also bump and stooge, and show ass in just a slightly more comical way than what we saw from most of the euro guys. Drapp had some freaky moves, such as a like a standing shiranui into a pin. Finish was pretty spectacular as well with Drapp busting out several bulldogs which Laskin takes right on his head before eating a big piledriver for the KO.

PAS: I thought this was tremendous. Drapp reminded me of a super skilled Bruno Sammartino, he had that same swarthy body builder look, and hard charging style, but then he breaks out a crazy leg lock reversal or those flying snap mares and standing Shiranui. We get a bunch more of him, and I am very excited. Laskin was fun too, kind of reminded me of John Tatum, really over the top, but in credible way. He had some cool offense too, I loved this headlock he put on where he grabbed the back of his thigh to put on more pressure, the piledriver he finished the first fall with was really nasty too, and he took a bunch of Drapp's offense right on the top of his head. He bumped for those bulldogs like he was Jack Evans. Some of these matches have had a bunch of cool stuff in them, but weak or unsatisfying finishes, this had all of the killer shit in the body and great endings to all three falls.

MD: I agree that this one felt very, very complete. Fun heeling who got his comeuppance. An electric babyface with a lot of neat stuff. Some moves (and bumps) that were ages before their time. The Martian! And yes, good finishes to all three falls. From what I've read about Laskin, it sounded like he worked babyface more in the states, but he seemed to be reveling his heel role here, utilizing a prototype version of the Mongolian Stomper gimmick of the boos hurting his ears (which he really leaned into after the Shiranui). We've seen different volume of the heels, and where a guy like Gerber was able to get a lot more heat out of slightly less stooging and volume and Oliver was just constant, constant cheating, Laskin was a lot of fun to watch. The revenge piledriver at the end was a picture perfect way to end this, especially combined with Laskin complaining about not understanding the count.

Laskin sounds like a very interesting guy and I should make an effort to track down his book. You sort of wish this footage could have appeared ten or fifteen years earlier so he would have been able to have this one. I hope it somehow ends up on his family's radar.

ER: Loved his. I got the same vibes as Phil from Drapp, a wildly athletic Bruno Sammartino. If you look at Hollywood and athletes at the time, outside of some incredible hulk like Clint Walker, the muscular guys were lean gymnast or acrobat types like Burt Lancaster. Drapp looked like an acrobatic Don Muraco. I was flipping for the ways he would use his limb crooks to crank in a hold, someone today really needs to steal bouncing a guys head like a bobble while it's trapped in their knee pit. Later he had Laskin in a kind of rear naked choke and vigorously rubs his forearm across Laskin's face. The matwork from both was real right, a bunch of cool escapes that felt like modern US catch grapplers like Thatcher or Ohno than the more Euro stuff we've seen from catch. There were also several sharp kicks, and big US pro moves like the two perfect piledrivers that win a fall for each man. Drapp also had a bunch of really innovative things, like what has to be the earliest version of the shiranui. Either Marufuji or Spanky started using this 20 odd years ago, and people flipped for it at the time, and here's some guy doing it over 60 years ago in its best possible form. It didn't even look like Laskin was throwing him with any weight, just looked like Drapp used leg springs to fly up and over him, showing off that he could not only do a wonderful snapmare, but he could hit rewind and do the same thing backwards. The bulldog into piledriver finish was spectacular, and Laskin looked like he was aiming to break his own face on the mat. Another classic.


Paul Debusne vs. Ami Sola 6/21/57

SR: We get about 7 minutes shown from a time limit draw. Looked to be bread and butter european stuff as they worked some pin attempts and then got chippy, although there were some nice looking strike exchanges.

MD: I'd use the word catty instead of chippy maybe, but either works. You got the sense of familiarity and disdain. I liked some of the specific spots, especially the exchange where Debusne ran Sola into the corner, Sola bulldoged Debusne into the corner in revenge, and then finally, Debusne got shrugged off and bumped himself hard when he attempted to get him back with the same move. That Sola followed it up with a straight up foul sort of spoke to the nature of this though. Fun but not enough there to really grab on to.


Pierre Bernaert vs. Laurent Dauthuille 6/26/57

SR: 2/3 Falls match at about 20 minutes. Pierre Bernaert is a heel we are going to a see a lot from now on. Laurent Dauthuille is a former world class boxer whose most famous achievement is getting knocked out in the 15th round of a world title match by Jake La Motta. It wasn‘t unusual for boxers to become catchers at this time. Instead of the „Which martial art is stronger?“ theme that would be exploited in mixed fights, these matches were more about how the boxer was going to adapt to wrestling. Dauthuille did the usual French holds and moves, but also made it clear that he damn well was gonna punch Bernaert if he was gonna get too cute, which made Dauthuille a bit more interesting than your usual French babyfaces. The whole match had this Memphisesque 20 minute long build to Dauthuille throwing the first punch. Meanwhile was Bernaert was throwing cheapshots and taking shortcuts like mad. It builds to the eventual explosion when Bernaert gets cocky open hand striking Dauthuille and the boxer fires back with a flury of punches. With Bernaert kneeing his opponent in the balls a bunch and Dauthuille really taking him to the pay window this felt really intense. The problem was that it ended almost too early with the match ending on a technicality instead of the epic showdown that it deserved. That setup def feels like something Mexican or US territory workers would‘ve turned into an amazing last round. Still, it‘s to these guys credit that they could work a 20 minute match and it still was far from enough.

MD: Dauthuille's end of life seemed pretty sad. After losing to La Motta, he fell into Catch and then ultimately circuses reliving his loss, before dying destitute at 47. This was a fun performance though. He came off as more than a puncher here, including landing on his feet with the monkey flip. Bernaert was very competent, stalling more than what we're used to, earning his licks by being a jerk off handshakes, and constantly going to a leg dive in order to avoid having to stand toe-to-toe with Dauthuille. It was very believable as the heel version of Inoki-kicks-the-puncher-in-the-leg-repeatedly. When Dauthuille had enough and did trap him in the corner, the blows, forearms and punches both, were great. This ended up feeling like a first encounter that would lead to a match where the heel couldn't escape so easily, but I don't think they were doing that sort of thing in 1957 France. Dauthuille is a guy known outside of our circles (he scored a New York Times obituary, for instance) so this was historically important.

PAS: I thought this was dope. I love a mixed match, and Dauthuille has got to be up there with the greatest boxer turned wrestler ever. I mean could you imagine FMW Leon Spinks landing on his feet on a monkey flip like that? It is also really hard for legitimate punchers to throw good looking worked punches, but I thought Dauthuille's looked great.  Bernaert is a guy we saw in an awesome match agains Dan Aubriot in the pre motherload footage, and was great here too. Just a nasty cheap shot artist I really enjoyed him punching Dauthuille in the kidneys and showing his open hand. I actually liked the finish, with Bernaert getting pounded around the ring and just deciding to fire back with nutshots and cheapshots, getting DQed and bailing out. Feels like the appropriate response to getting pounded on by a world class boxer.