Tuesday is French Catch Day: Israel! Rabut! Guettier! Delaporte!

Roger Delaporte vs. Roger Guettier 5/30/59

SR: 2/3 Falls match going a bit over 30 minutes. We get a Delaporte interview and another fantastic graphic before the match. We have seen these two teaming up before, so there might be some context necessary: where they still teaming at this point? Was there a breakup? Judging by the match, it seems they were still teaming at this point, as they do the „rudos suddenly work a clean match“ bit to start, to befuddled „ahh“ and „ooh“ responses of the crowd as they work armlocks and clean breaks. Naturally though, their instincts start kicking in, and soon we have a full on rudo vs. Rudo brawl. The wrestling they did was pretty fun, but you want these guys to unleash some serious violence, and that they do. Guettier is the first to say „I‘ve had it“ when Delaporte forearms him off the apron and he lays a pretty nasty one sided beating on Delaporte. He assumes a quasi-face role here, although he also throws the referee around. They end up spilling to the outside, the police get involved, and some heated forearm and uppercut exchanges later Delaporte retakes control and is able to take out Guettiers leg. Referee gets thrown around some more, and Guettier looks quite great selling his own destruction and taking big bumps and spills. Tons of really fun fighting here, and Delaportes charisma is just unreal. He really can make the most simple things wildly entertaining.

PAS:  Really cool structure in this match, like most face vs. face matches we have a pair of heels starting the match wrestling clean, until their tempers flare up. It is cool to watch a pair of disreputable creeps try to clean their act up and fail. All of the early matwork was really cool, and I especially loved all of the work around Guettier's spinning headscissors. I imagine it's a spot he doesn't break out as a rudo, but he was spreading his tecnico wings. Loved all the different leverage moves that Delaporte would use to block going over too. Guettier's big backbreaker to win the first fall ruled, and Delaporte sold it like he just slept on a lumpy mattress. Of course the breakdown in decorum was great, both guys just laced into each other brawling in the crowd, tossing the ref to the floor wilding out. Loved the finish with Delaporte just demolishing Guettier's leg until he couldn't stand anymore and couldn't answer the bell. Super fun match which is up there with some of the best we have gotten so far.

MD: I could have used a little more context on this one. I know what's in my head. We've barely seen Guettier in the footage, but the big appearance was almost exactly two years before this when he was Delaporte's second banana against Hayes and Hunter. There's an interview segment at the start with Delaporte where he gets a lot of time to talk and it seems like Guettier just wants to get to it. And he really gets to it. Delaporte wrestles cleans right up until the point he starts to get outwrestled (relatively early on). He uses the ropes for leverage more than anyone we've seen, including on pins, which I think we haven't seen at all yet. He uses them to jam spinning grounded Mascaras headscissors, which is an interesting visual. Guettier's in control more often than not though, until about halfway through the match everything shifts. After being on the wrong end of some big headlock takeovers and a long-ish headlock sequence, Delaporte lifts Guettier over the top rope to the apron to break it and then just clobbers him to the floor. Guettier comes back with a vengeance and just unloads on him, including pressing him into the corner and pummeling him, and the ref when he gets in the way. At one point, the ref has to single-leg Guettier because he's so out of control. The fall mercifully ends with a few huge backbreakers and a power body slam into the pin (and is followed by Delaporte putting on a brilliant selling performance during the break). Guettier charges right back in to start the second fall but after getting beat on some more, Delaporte is able to reverse a push into the corner and he starts tossing Guettier around by his hair, ultimately out of the ring. Guettier grabs Delaporte's leg, however, and we get probably the best, most heated brawling into the crowd we've seen yet, and chaos as neither man can get in or stay in for long. At one point we get the visual of Delaporte tossing Guettier out by his hair and then, as the camera follows him, the referee flying into the screen as Delaporte tosses him too. Ultimately, Delaporte hones in on the leg with a series of cruel low kicks and a half crab which wins both the fall, and as Guettier is unable to answer, the match. There was a real sense of Guettier having a chip on his shoulder through out the match and Delaporte taking the utmost of offense to it and that made for a hell of a slugfest once things got going.

Isha Israel vs. Jean Rabut 6/4/59

SR: 1 Fall match going about 30 minutes. This was a technical match, and what a great one. These guys were seriously fast moving workers. Just one beautiful exchange after another. I was looking at the match time and wondering how the hell can they keep up at this speed for +30 minutes, but they do. They were executing basic stuff, like a headlock takeover or struggle over a pin from a test of strength in just a ridiculously high end manner. That pin exchange along with the muscle up may very well be the best I‘ve ever seen, and I must have seen a thousand. There were a few holds that they worked for a bit longer. There was a short arm scissor from Rabut, which was great as he had this ridiculously fast set-up and then a few different ways to prevent Israels escape. I dug how short arm scissors are consistently sold in a big way in this territory, as Israel was slow to get up, and Rabut immediately moved in for the kill. Few brilliant rope running sequences here that they move in and out of with such ease. Another lengthy hold was that straight jacket strangle hold, which was really sold like a choke by Rabut here, which is not something I‘ve seen much. You could see the pressure on his windpipe was troubling him. When he starts muscling out of it, you could see his veins popping. Israel had some ridiculously quick movements for a dumpy looking guy. Towards the end he takes a surprise bump over the top rope and comes back favoring his foot and then fighting off a number of leg hold attempts from Rabut. It doesn‘t stack up to much but it was a nice way to increase the drama for the finishing run. Crowd was really into this and rightfully so.

PAS: This was very much worked in that Cantanzaro vs. Cesca juniors style, which is the first exposure we all had to French Catch, but really isn't that representative of most of the French we have gotten. I am guessing that there were probably a couple matches per card in that style, but they rarely made television. It was cool to fall in love all over with the freaky takedowns and super fast rope running. I am a short arm scissors aficionado, and have loved all of the different variations we get to see of that spot in this footage. Rabut turning the scissors into a rolling cradle was badass, and I loved his ranas too, just whipping them off with a ton of snap. If we had gotten this match first, it would have been the legendary one. In context it is really great too.

MD: The best way to describe this was that it was much of what we've already seen, just at 1.5 speed, and a good deal we haven't seen much of on top of that. It was a lightweight title match, our first look at Israel and our first look in a match like this at Rabut and it was something. I think it was our first look at an actual title belt too (Israel was champ). There was so much work and effort put into every lock up. They slam into each other for the first and so many of the subsequent ones had little hand motions and fake outs. Rabut loved to go through the legs to set up holds. He also had a way of slapping away the hand, where Israel could be like a tornado spinning about and grabbing a limb. There was almost too much to keep track of here. They did go in and out of holds, but there was often an extra twist to them. When Israel caught Rabut in a bodyscissors off of the bridge breaking spot, he managed to fully flip him over at the same time. That sort of thing. Even a pretty lackluster long headlock early on was entered into with two huge flying headlock takeovers. That was the only lackluster thing in the match, by the way. Later on, Rabut entered into a short arm scissors off of a top wristlock takedown as quickly as I've ever seen, and then worked the hold through a half dozen escape attempts, all faster and with more oomph than we've seen. There were more nods here to limb selling than we've generally seen, but it only lasts until capitalization of it is over. Rabut stayed on the arm for a moment afterwards but Israel was able to dodge a lunge at his arm and that was it there. Later on, Israel took a back body drop out of the ring and came back with a hurt leg but Rabut could only stay on it for another move or two. There was a straightjacket choke exchange, where Israel held it and Rabut went in and out which I don't think we've seen yet and that was very good, the escape attempts and the hang ons and Rabut's selling. There was definite escalation despite it all too, with more knock downs and working of the counts towards the end before some frenetic rope running to build to a finish. Super high-end stuff here.