Tuesday is French Catch Day: Al Hayes x2! Jean Casi! King Kong Taverne! Ray Hunter Julio Gasparrini!

Al Hayes vs. Jean Casi 12/7/57

MD: Hayes stands out as unique. We have other technical, fiery, stiff-upper-lip Brits that we've seen, but Hayes takes it to a different level. First off, he's a stylist. In this match, he has an escape for everything, to the point where when Casi turns up the heat here, you can't really blame him. It's almost too much. It's overwhelming. Unfair. Hayes looks to be the most accomplished, unbeatable wrestler of all time here. Second, though, is that sheer sense of offense and surprise when his opponent does resort to cheapshots. He's more than willing to shove the referee in fury or just lay in the kicks in response. It's not about revenge. It's about furiously meted out punishment, as if sparing the rod would leave the older Casi sans a proper and required lesson. It's interesting to watch Casi get increasingly desperate with his holds, but the more he leaves convention, the easier it is for Hayes to escape. The slugfests are heated and spirited, driven by the mutual frustration, Casi for having to endure Hayes' inevitability and Hayes for being disappointed and offended by Casi's fall from grace.

PAS: We have seen other slick mat workers in this project, but Hayes is at another level in this match. He found cool new ways to escape everything Casi threw at him, lots of spins and relocations of body parts in that uniquely British way. Hayes would be locked in a hold, and then just adjust Casi's knee slightly to the left, or give a small twist to his ankle and then he would be free. Of course Casi lost his cool and started to throw and we get a classic Catch slug fest at the end, and Hayes could throw on his feet as well as he worked on the mat. So cool we get a nice look at such an iconic guy.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going a little over 20 minutes. Jean Casi sure has a weird figure. Huge, upper body, and spindly arms and legs. He came across as bony. He came across as a sort of old style fighter here. He sure was trying, but Hayes with his flashy technique gave him not much breathing room. Casi wasn‘t lost in the contest, but Hayes wasn‘t backing down. Casi got in a few good licks, but the deceisive manner in which Hayes ended the contest drove the point home that Casi wasn‘t on Hayes level at all.


King Kong Taverne vs. Ray Hunter 12/12/57

MD: Interesting, entertaining match. I think this was probably a better/more typical look at Taverne. He brought a lot to the table but hasn't been used how I'd like him. He could be, at times, amazingly quick and agile, able to do a lot of the moves of the day, just slower and bulkier. Here, against a clear, towering babyface, it was played for laughs for the most part, like when he does the headscissors escape on a top wristlock only to get dumped over the ropes. When he's in control, he's able to really sit on Hunter, using a combination of his girth (both to grind down and hide from the ref) and cheapshots (thus the hiding). What's most impressive, however, is how quickly he can bound across the ring for a rolling leg pick. He doesn't bump as big as we saw previously, but does get bodyslammed up and over once. All the while, he manages this really great character actor put upon mentality. You really believe that this monster is who he portrays. This was a lot of Hunter getting the best of him though, using his height and his reach, holds and counters and brave shots. Multiple times, he tells the ref to stop admonishing Taverne because he'd rather deal with it with his own two hands. There was a mini-story here, with Taverne going for the legs so much, sometimes getting the dive, sometimes having it blocked or dodged or countered, but Hunter ultimately selling. That led to Hunter catching him with bodyscissors out of one attempt and Taverne doing perhaps the greatest move of the 50s, that cradling lift-up and a massive forearm to knock him down. There was a decent amount of gamesmanship and dodging. Early on, especially, Hunter was getting Taverne riled and then capitalizing it. And there were a few nice bits of revenge where Hunter looked to the crowd before landing some sneaky cheapshots of his own. Ultimately, this built to Taverne getting rougher and meaner but getting outfinesseed for a really great counter into an airplane spin finish. I don't think the match did a great job protecting Taverne, but he probably wasn't the sort of wrestler who needed much protection. Hunter is pretty much an ideal Al Hayes partner and we'll get that at least once more. This is our last look at Taverne, however, so I guess we won't get that one great match of his against the right opponent I was hoping for, but this was fun for what it was.

SR: 1 Fall match going a bit over 20 minutes. Last time we saw Taverne, he a quasi-face going after Delaporte. Now, he is fighting tall, handsome Ray Hunter. Taverne being shorter than Hunter kind of makes the King Kong name pointless. This was more of a standard heel/face heatmongering match. With Taverne doing a convincing job looking mishappen and evil. He had some pretty fast takedowns and dropkicks for a big guy. This was also the most I‘ve enjoyed Hunter. He ditched the Baba chops and just kept retaliating against Taverne, who made him eat some nasty boots in return. Houseshow-ish match, but I had fun.

PAS: I really enjoyed this, kind of a WARish heavyweight fight full of cheap shots and grinding. I wasn't a big Taverne fan last time we saw him, but I dug him here, lots of cool sugar holds, where he would grind down Hunter with a choke or an armbar. Hunter landed some fun hammerfists and forearms. There were a couple of awesome counters too, Taverne's lift out of the bodyscissors into a forearm should really be stolen by ever indy power wrestler, and Hunter flipping out of a wristlock to an airplane spin. Really cool stuff.


Al Hayes vs. Julio Gaspirrini 12/12/57

MD: This was a great piece of business. Gasparrini was no match for Hayes, not really, and had to take most of his advantages by going to the eyes or going low, but ultimately, he stayed in it a lot better than Casi did. He was another emotive Italian with great expressions on selling. He was more aggressive with his chain wrestling, however, and that made the first few minutes a joy. Instead of just locking in a hold and having Hayes escape, he kept on him, trying to counter and move to the next and Hayes still managed to win most of the exchanges, but he had to work for it a lot more. That, of course, showed us something in Hayes. He wasn't just an escape artist but could really take it up a notch against an opponent that was going to go with him. Maybe it's because we have such a personal connection to him, or because the other two versions/memories we have of him are so different (the one 70s match against Veidor where he is an arch heel and as a pompous but lovable announcer), but I've found him really remarkable to watch. The Casi match might have been more theatrical and more of a slugfest with cleaner lines and deeper frustration, but this was just as good and differently nuanced, as Gasparrini brought different things to the table and Hayes responded accordingly. There were so many things to see, not just his quick powerbomb, but step up monkeyflips or hooking a throat with his own foot to escape a hold, or how he'd work three positions to ultimately criss-cross his legs around an arm to escape, or the closing legwork, with a wrenching single leg crab and the water pump drop down that finished Gasparrini off (maybe the first actual submission we've seen?). Al Hayes, the unstoppable force, was not something I expected in watching these matches but he's pretty undeniable.

SR: 1 Fall match going a little under 20 minutes. I didn‘t expect to see so many Hayes matches in 2020. Gasparrini managed to mount a bit more offense than someone like Jean Casi. It still wasn‘t a ton, though. You can tell Hayes was a class above most wrestlers and liked to sho off. Who can blame him. I like that his style is distinctly British while retaining a judo touch. He had some ridiculously smooth movements here. Gasparrini was game to go along, but didn‘t do a ton more. He even quit the match just before he could get something going against Hayes near the end

PAS: Gasparrini had the mustache and manarisims of a quasi racist Italian stereotype in a fifties Ragu commercial "Who-a burned all a the meatballs."  He was mostly a foil for Hayes to show off, and he show off he did. I loved his fast snap mares and how he would flip out of Gasparrini's attempted receipts, the finishing submission was total class as well. I would like to see Hayes in something a bit more competitive then these two matches, but it is fun to watch him dominate too.