Tuesday is French Catch Day
SR: 2/3 Falls match going about 30 minutes. We are JIP‘d so far into the 1st fall that we see Dr. Kaiser putting Tarres away with the nerve hold. It rules that we still get about 30 minutes of these two wrestling each other. And this was expectedly really good. We‘ve seen Tarres , the man with the iron head, get a really good match of von Chenok, and Dr. Kaiser can do so much more than that guy. This was super simple, Tarres headbutts vs. Dr. Kaisers nerve holds, with both guys having a variety of ways to both hit their signatures and avoid the others. There was some pretty neat work around clinches, with Tarres trying to clinch and fire away with the headbutts and Kaiser having ways to get out of the clinch. We see Kaiser doing a lot of wrestling here including some pretty whacky submission holds and the announcer calls him an artist, which adds another neat dimension to this eccentric evil guy. His clawing and hair pulling was pretty insane, he looks like he is trying to pull the other guys scalp or face off. And with his strategic behaviour, including trying to work over Tarres‘ indestructible head, he reminded me a bit of Billy Robinson. Tarres was there to sell and headbutt the shit out of the evil Doctor, and that he did. Those headbutts to the back of the head are pretty crazy, he connected them with an audible thud too. We also get a good look at a deformity Tarres has on his forehead, so either the metal plate story was legit or he developed that from headbutting people for a living. Dr. Kaiser trying to methodically destroy this heavy hitter was pretty great. He also looked damn great selling the near Kos. The finish was logical but drew a lot of boos from the audience as everyone was eager to see Tarres KO the Doctor.
MD: This was very similar to Von Chenok vs Tarres, the nerve hold vs the headbutt, but where Von Chenok was more apt to dive every which way, Kaiser was inclined to try to tie Tarres up into knots. While Tarres had a range advantage, he was slow to get those hands up to grab Kaiser for the headbutt, and Kaiser was quick to grab and armbar or go low with a jab, so it was a more even contest. That made for a better match but maybe not as frenetic and entertaining as one. That's not to say there weren't fun spots, because there were (like Kaiser hurting his hand on Tarres' head or slamming him into the turnbuckle to no effect) and he was quick to writhe and spasm after the headbutts did hit. I thought they might be protecting the dragon sleeper in the match (Kaiser really only goes for it once as he took the first fall with a nerve hold with his legs inside Tarres' arm) but it petered out with a disappointing DQ finish instead.
PAS: I really enjoyed this, although with two such great characters I wanted a bit more. Tarres' scarred and lumpy head was a nice contrast to the Doctor's sniveling evil. Wrestling is so much cooler when it is populated by freaks and weirdos. I love how intent the Doctor is to get his sleeper, really cool focused attack, although he is going to get knocked off his plan by that gross head smashing him. A wilder finish would have brought this to next level, but the finish we got kind of dragged it down a bit. Still I love both of these guys and would watch anything they did.
Juan Botana vs Paul Villars 1/1/59
MD: When you watch these matches, you look for patterns. That's how you really start to figure out a style. I'm at the point, after more than a half a year doing this, where I get a sense at what at least a good chunk of the spots will be before they happen. I'm sure almost anyone who reads this could watch a WWE match right now and do the same thing. You start figuring out the crowd's reactions too. I didn't think they entirely knew what to make of Dula vs Duranton, for instance, even compared to another heel vs heel match like Taverne vs Delaporte. It was striking, for instance, how much heat Mann received relative to other people that had to work for it more. I think one element of that was when he laid his cheapshots in. Lots of guys will hit after their opponent is down, but Mann got the heat for going after his opponent right when he was about to get up but before he got there. Here, Villars definitely gets heat for the unclean stomps after the opponent is down, but when he starts to lay in the kneelifts as Botana is trying to get up, the crowd really gets after him. Some of it might simply be cumulative, but after the Mann matches, I think there might be something to this. The former is about being unsportsmanlike, but the latter is outright cheating; it's preventing an opponent from even having the slightest chance at coming back when he's supposed to have a clean path to his feet. Botana has to finally get an opening by kicking up repeatedly out of a headscissors, and then Villars takes advantage of the ref trying to hold back his revenge. By that point, though, the crowd is booming Botana's name. They went a little back and forth after that, but ultimately (after a nice bit of struggle where Villars jammed it) ended up in maybe the best leg nelson that we've seen so far with Botana just paintbrushing Villars with his leg and foot. The last few minutes had Villars dumping Botana a couple of times (the second being a counter that really took the fight out of Botana), which gave him quality time with the jeering crowd, before absolutely crushing him with a tombstone and ultimately adding insult to injury for the win and the crowd's absolute wrath and fury.
SR:1 fall match going about 15 minutes. Not a very happy new year for Botana, as he eats a pretty nasty one sided beating from Villars in this. Villars is great as he just mauls Botana with violent kicks, stomps and forearms. It seemed Botana was used to working as the rudo, as he threw the first shot, and later worked Villar with some nasty looking punches of his own. He also had the neckbreaker and a neat move where he turns his opponent around and knees him in the back of the head. There was some good work around the double leg nelson, but after that Stone Cold Paul Villar just destroyed Botana, nasty piledriver and all. It‘s rare we see a heel just stomp a guy like this and the crowd didn‘t like it at all.
PAS: I will always dig an asskicking and Villars was Finlayesque in this match. Just a brutal stomping, including a couple of gross knees to the back of Botana's head. I loved the leg nelson by Botana, it was a great little moment of offense and is something that could easily be stolen today. Outside of that flurry this was an ass stomping. Villars showed no protection on the tombstone and thumped every shot. Not sure why he hated Botana but this was a great set up for next week, what a badass.
L‘Ange Blanc vs. Paul Villars 1/9/59
MD: Well, here's our first look at L'Ange Blanc, top superhero babyface of France. As later footage of him has him unmasked, this feels a bit like us getting a rare Santo match. This seems to be his debut, and it's a rare 50s French match with a clear angle behind it. The idea is that L'Ange Blanc challenged Villars due to Villars' brutality vs Botana the week before. There's a pre-match promo where Villars says that he's not afraid as L'Ange Blanc is a man like any other with two arms and two legs.
L'Ange Blanc, here, comes off a bit more like an Atlantis than El Hijo Del Santo. What stood out the most to me was how much he gave to Villars and how thoroughly he sold. This was even before Villars started cheating. Early on, Villars took most of the holds, with L'Ange Blanc fighting out each time and then usually getting some sort of move back before Villars locked in another. For the first portion of the match, Villars had a hard time keeping him down because he couldn't figure out how to pull the mask instead of nonexistent hair. Later on, he figured that out though. Once the cheating starting, there was a lot of selling and fighting from underneath. Where L'Ange Blanc really shone was in his comebacks with big uppercuts and dropkicks. Nothing flashy but everything mostly clean and crisp and resounding. Clearly flashy, however, were his finishes: a power bomb out of the corner to end the first fall, and this great two-fingers-right-under-the-ears sleeper/nerve hold to win the match. While he wrestled clean (if tough) for most of the match, there was that tiny bit of folk hero vibe in the end when he poked Villars in the eyes twice, which the fans loved. This wasn't spectacular, but it certainly did the job.
SR: 2/3 Falls match a little over 30 minutes. Our first sighting of L‘Ange Blanc, a masked wrestler who was said to be immensely popular. With this being France and you watching a masked megastar looking like a luchador, you have good reason to expect some trippy shit. But this was a rather clinical, technical match aside from a few athletic moments from the angel. All the throws and holds looked tough and L‘Ange Blanc certainly had a palpable aura about him. Villars was quite great here. He was taking shortcuts and being vicious, but not turning the match into an all out brawl. He came across as being really determined to not lose to this masked joker. The first fall was going swell until the intensity turned up when a basic sequence of holds lead to both guys trading painful looking bodyshots and L‘Ange Blanc hitting some fantastic dropkicks which Villar sold huge. Villar soon cranked up the intensity by handling the angel by his mask and doing some nasty as hell knuckle grinding. Villars efforts were soon vanquished however when the angel put him to sleep with a weird ear nerve hold. In the 1950s nerve holds were really hot shit. I was hoping Villar would push L‘Ange Blanc a little more to the limit, although he gave it his best shot.
Juan Botana vs Paul Villars 1/1/59
MD: When you watch these matches, you look for patterns. That's how you really start to figure out a style. I'm at the point, after more than a half a year doing this, where I get a sense at what at least a good chunk of the spots will be before they happen. I'm sure almost anyone who reads this could watch a WWE match right now and do the same thing. You start figuring out the crowd's reactions too. I didn't think they entirely knew what to make of Dula vs Duranton, for instance, even compared to another heel vs heel match like Taverne vs Delaporte. It was striking, for instance, how much heat Mann received relative to other people that had to work for it more. I think one element of that was when he laid his cheapshots in. Lots of guys will hit after their opponent is down, but Mann got the heat for going after his opponent right when he was about to get up but before he got there. Here, Villars definitely gets heat for the unclean stomps after the opponent is down, but when he starts to lay in the kneelifts as Botana is trying to get up, the crowd really gets after him. Some of it might simply be cumulative, but after the Mann matches, I think there might be something to this. The former is about being unsportsmanlike, but the latter is outright cheating; it's preventing an opponent from even having the slightest chance at coming back when he's supposed to have a clean path to his feet. Botana has to finally get an opening by kicking up repeatedly out of a headscissors, and then Villars takes advantage of the ref trying to hold back his revenge. By that point, though, the crowd is booming Botana's name. They went a little back and forth after that, but ultimately (after a nice bit of struggle where Villars jammed it) ended up in maybe the best leg nelson that we've seen so far with Botana just paintbrushing Villars with his leg and foot. The last few minutes had Villars dumping Botana a couple of times (the second being a counter that really took the fight out of Botana), which gave him quality time with the jeering crowd, before absolutely crushing him with a tombstone and ultimately adding insult to injury for the win and the crowd's absolute wrath and fury.
SR:1 fall match going about 15 minutes. Not a very happy new year for Botana, as he eats a pretty nasty one sided beating from Villars in this. Villars is great as he just mauls Botana with violent kicks, stomps and forearms. It seemed Botana was used to working as the rudo, as he threw the first shot, and later worked Villar with some nasty looking punches of his own. He also had the neckbreaker and a neat move where he turns his opponent around and knees him in the back of the head. There was some good work around the double leg nelson, but after that Stone Cold Paul Villar just destroyed Botana, nasty piledriver and all. It‘s rare we see a heel just stomp a guy like this and the crowd didn‘t like it at all.
PAS: I will always dig an asskicking and Villars was Finlayesque in this match. Just a brutal stomping, including a couple of gross knees to the back of Botana's head. I loved the leg nelson by Botana, it was a great little moment of offense and is something that could easily be stolen today. Outside of that flurry this was an ass stomping. Villars showed no protection on the tombstone and thumped every shot. Not sure why he hated Botana but this was a great set up for next week, what a badass.
L‘Ange Blanc vs. Paul Villars 1/9/59
MD: Well, here's our first look at L'Ange Blanc, top superhero babyface of France. As later footage of him has him unmasked, this feels a bit like us getting a rare Santo match. This seems to be his debut, and it's a rare 50s French match with a clear angle behind it. The idea is that L'Ange Blanc challenged Villars due to Villars' brutality vs Botana the week before. There's a pre-match promo where Villars says that he's not afraid as L'Ange Blanc is a man like any other with two arms and two legs.
L'Ange Blanc, here, comes off a bit more like an Atlantis than El Hijo Del Santo. What stood out the most to me was how much he gave to Villars and how thoroughly he sold. This was even before Villars started cheating. Early on, Villars took most of the holds, with L'Ange Blanc fighting out each time and then usually getting some sort of move back before Villars locked in another. For the first portion of the match, Villars had a hard time keeping him down because he couldn't figure out how to pull the mask instead of nonexistent hair. Later on, he figured that out though. Once the cheating starting, there was a lot of selling and fighting from underneath. Where L'Ange Blanc really shone was in his comebacks with big uppercuts and dropkicks. Nothing flashy but everything mostly clean and crisp and resounding. Clearly flashy, however, were his finishes: a power bomb out of the corner to end the first fall, and this great two-fingers-right-under-the-ears sleeper/nerve hold to win the match. While he wrestled clean (if tough) for most of the match, there was that tiny bit of folk hero vibe in the end when he poked Villars in the eyes twice, which the fans loved. This wasn't spectacular, but it certainly did the job.
PAS: Amazing discovery, which works more as a piece of history then a high end match. After Villars was so dominant the previous week, he gets beat pretty soundly here. Blanc has a regal barring, moving with real ramrod grace. Great looking dropkicks and takeover and that jaw hold he finished with was brutal. He wasn't nearly the technician of the guys we have seen before, but he did have something about him, a physical charisma. I can see why ended up such a big star.
Labels: Dr. Adolf Kaiser, French Catch, Jose Tarres, Juan Botana, L'Ange Blanc, Paul Villars
posted by Phil @ 11:00 PM
1 Comments:
Villars on fine form versus Botana. Gets his face grinded as Botana tries to rearrange his looks but then puts the fucking boot in for sustained punishment. Great fight crowd atmosphere
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