Tuesday is French Catch Day: INCA PERUANO! Araujo! Corne! Laroche! Czernieski! Guguliemetti!

Jacky Corne/Roger Laroche vs. Jo Czernieski/Giacomo Guguliemetti 12/9/60

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 35 minutes. Jo Czierneski & Giacomo Guguliemetti, now those are names. The Corne/Laroche had a bit of a feeling of a junior partnered with a heavyweight. Corne was working some impressive smooth takeovers early on and Laroche kept it a little bit more solid. I’d say Czernieski's beatdown was easily the highlight of the match. He would ground people with nerve holds and then work over their kidneys with stiff blows and stomp on their hands. I also totally didn’t expect Laroche to take a big spill between the ropes and basically suicide diving into nowhere to set up a further heat segment on him. As usual, there was a ton of asskicking going and I thought it built to a very good match overall.

MD: Another strong, long tag. There were a few structural things that we've seen a lot lately, like the heels utilizing consistent and repeated holds and the faces firing back or a comeuppance spot with the heels tied up in the ropes including a catapult where one's tossed into the other. That's interesting to me because Corne hasn't been on the scene for a while. Hearing the announcer say he hadn't been on TV for 18 months when we don't have him in our footage for that exact period of time is a real reminder just how complete this footage is and makes me feel closer to the crowd and the scene in general. I wouldn't say that Guguliemetti and Czierneski stood out in the sea of foreign bad guys we've seen, though the former, an Italian, had a memorable lanky appearance. They used a stranglehold and a nerve hold respectively and stooged as appropriate. The best stuff here was after Laroche wiped out to the floor on a running tackle in the second fall and how relentless they were in demolishing his back. Corne managed to get back in at the start of the last fall (though again, they just haven't figured out the timing of a really good hot tag; I think sometimes we've seen visiting Brits manage it, but not the natives) and he really is a great total package of wrestling and fiery slugging. I liked how Laroche did get some revenge here, but just for a minute or so, in and out, as he was still selling. He never put himself at great risk and because of that, Corne was able to secure the win.

ER: The Italian/Polish team is already one of my most hated heel teams, just because I hate having to type Guglielmetti and Czernieski several times just to describe what they are doing. Czernieski works maybe the most active and engaging nerve hold I've seen, really wearing Laroche down to his knees, digging hard into both traps, and every time one of Laroche's hands would hit the mat Czernieski would throw down a quick stomp. It really forced Laroche to expend way more energy while locked into a hold, not being allowed to conserve any breath with Czernieski showing he was going to keep pain front and center. Czernieski was a real asshole, and had a lot of great stuff around the ropes. He would hold Laroche in a full nelson and walk him over so Guglielmetti could land a stiff shoulder shrug into his gut, and then Czernieski would do some other asshole thing like throw a double chop into Laroche's sides. Czernieski was generous feeding into Laroche and Corne's comeback, taking big exaggerated belly flop bumps on kicks to the stomach, getting tied up in the ropes and bumping to the floor when Guglielmetti gets thrown into him, getting thrown even harder into the bottom rope to bump Guglielmetti to the floor. Corne and Laroche take the two most insane bumps of the match, with Corne taking a really disgusting backward Harley Race bump to the floor onto his head, and Laroche basically doing a tope suicida to nothing. This tag took a nice amount of time to logically build from heel control to face comeuppance, working a long match that never once felt long, which is kind of an unheralded gift of French Catch. 

Inca Peruano vs. Al Araujo 12/30/60

SR: 1 Fall Match going about 25 minutes. Al Araujo may be Spanish or Portuguese, who knows. Gotta love France for giving away matchups like this. This was pretty much a sprint with both guys doing a mix of cool wrestling, unique bumping and beating the living shit out of each other. I would‘ve liked to see these two hit the mat a little longer, as they had some super swank stuff going on, but soon Peruano was stomping on Araujos face and punching his stomach. One might call this a 1960s spotfest as they move really fast from one thing to another, but I can tolerate a spotfest when the spots are fresh and there is a ton of gritty fighting as seen here. Al Araujo looked pretty fantastic here, his wrestling was spot on and when he took a beating his retaliations were violent as hell, and I loved all the backbreakers and holds he broke out. He also had this great vertical arm lift into dropping the Inca straight on his wrist. I really dug how both guys kept kicking the wrists from a standing position, and of course Inca Peruano was whipping out cool stuff left and right, including some really swank headscissor work. There was also a nice sense of progression, as some things would be repeated and then countered. This is our last lengthy singles match appearance from Inca Peruano and the only real match we have from Al Araujo, it‘s sad but this match certainly serves as a good highlight reel for their stuff.

MD: Peruano is nothing short of amazing. Obviously, we've seen him a few times now, but without the context of everything we've seen so far, I think it's hard to fully appreciate him. When we first started watching this footage, everything seemed amazing. Now that we've gotten a sense of it all, everything continues to seem excellent but Peruano, himself, continues to seem extraordinary. He's probably the single most talented person in the footage, or at the least up there with Catanzaro and Ben Chemoul and Pellacani and Le Petit Prince (and.. and... I know). He almost reminds me of Negro Casas with his combination of heatseeking and innovation and drawing outside of the standard box while being able to hit hard and stooge well and do all of the fundamental things well.

I thought we were out of Aruajo matches but this one had been mislabeled. Aruajo is a great foil for Peruano, almost a mirror image in some ways, though he'd probably stand out more against a less innovative opponent. He hits as hard as anyone and has maybe the best 'rana we've seen, but Peruano is simply impossible to keep down for long. He's almost too good at escaping holds and grinding down on Aruajo from every angle. Aruajo locks in some great stuff like a cavernaria and a tapitaia but Peruano is just too slippery and he's back to being dominant again, sneaking in cheaty counters and cheapshots on pinfalls before long. Peruano makes up for that by stooging dramatically in the most-crowd pleasing manner possible. The total package makes for pure entertainment.

PAS: This was incredible, what a performance by Inca, and Aruajo being there every step. Inca does five impossible things before breakfast, attacking at odd angles, finding a dozens ways to roll someone up you have never seen, throwing big shots and taking a bunch of bumps to the floor. All of the attacks on the wrist where super nasty, and I have never seen that wrist lift slam before, what a nutty spot that is. This felt like a tremendous lucha title match, all the skill of  Negro Casas vs. Atlantis,  but 15% stiffer, which is all you can ask for in a wrestling match. All of the opening exchanges were great, and all of the final run bombs exploded the way you wanted them to. Another stone cold all timer from French Catch.

ER: I loved this! Peruano is like a compact Regal, but Araujo has as many cool tricks and reversals as Peruano, and works as an excellent canvas for some of Peruano's best work. I loved all of Araujo's focus on the ankles, some of the coolest ankle spots I've seen. He is really great at totally tying up Peruano's ankles, like how he trapped and tucked them early, then built off that later by pinning Peruano's ankles to his butt and lifting him. He had really tight work around the ankles, knees, and thighs, getting these great leveraged grips that would lend themselves well to nasty crabs and deathlocks. Peruano is a master at tying someone up with leg scissors, and I appreciated the energy that Araujo used to fight out of a snug grounded headscissors. The best leg scissors in the match was this all time great fun spot, where Peruano had both of Araujo's ankles tied up in a scissors, and Araujo kept trying to roll through it to escape, only to continually finding himself back on his feet, ankles still wrapped up in Peruano's legs. Peruano had a bunch of nasty wrist work, and I really loved one spot he did a couple times where he broke a wrist lock with a quick downward thrust kick. One of the most impressive things about guys like Peruano and Araujo is how they do so many pieces of offense that could feel like exhibition exchanges, but their stiffness always makes it come off like a part of a bigger match, not just guys running through spots and then shifting back into place. The pace they kept for 25 minutes was insane, and after Peruano gets the pin he just can't help himself, and throws a couple nasty kicks into Araujo's ribs. This was one of my very favorite French Catch experiences.