Tuesday is French Catch Day: Carpentier! Duranton! Frisuk! Delaporte!

Edouard Carpentier vs. Robert Duranton 3/24/62

MD: First and foremost, let's put the flippy guy aside for a minute. This was an amazing Duranton performance. That's what I want to lead with. He based so well for everything Carpentier did. He was incredibly giving, especially for a guy so featured in the footage and who was used to controlling a lot of the tag matches we've seen him in. He spends basically the entire match stooging for Carpentier, never able to hold him down for long, getting out of his holds only to end up right back in them, and selling more and more frustration, whipping his hair up in a frenzy and charging at him only to get clowned again and again. The more upset he gets the more fury he shows, the bigger and more definitive his comeuppance. It's a Carpentier showcase and Duranton makes it work and makes it matter. That said, Carpentier does bring something unique to the table. He's unquestionably agile, able to hit handstands, handsprings, and cartwheels cleanly and organically for both big, dramatic escapes, and to shock Duranton (who sold the surprise of them perfectly), able to slug it out with fire, and with some big painful bombs like the flipping sentons and double stomp. He clearly knew how to look like a force and look like a star. So long as he had someone to work with him, like Duranton did here, there's no question that he was an immediate headliner.

SR: 1 fall match going about 25 minutes. Carpentier hasn‘t shown up on TV in 6 years. He hadn‘t lost a beat, though. This was outstanding and the best French match in a while. Going in I was wondering if Carpentier would be just another French face with some athletic moves and a hard European uppercut, but he was far more than that. He was tagging Duranton with punches from the get-go while mixing in some really graceful athletic moves. The match structure also seemed improved, as this had one of the best openings of all matches as they immediately turned up the heat. I wonder if they were very influenced by US wrestling at this point, with the punches being a focus. Carpentier really seemed on an athletic level here that even most modern wrestlers can‘t dream of. He was cartwheeling around while making it all look effortless, and everything made sense. All the side headlock control stuff was neat and flew by, and there was other cool stuff happening like Carpentier catching a Duranton strike into a seamless flying armdrag. Duranton had probably his best showing so far as he was thoroughly flamboyant and cocky and also really vicious working over Carpentier. By the end Carpentier was destroying Duranton with punch combos, big back breaking flip sentons and super vicious double stomps. I also swear he lifted him up purely by the neck for a sick looking body slam. Finish felt like a Super Dragon moment. This was a great TV bout.

PAS: Hell of a Carpentier showcase, with a very giving opponent. Carpentier would alternate striking athletic flips and counters, with sick looking jabs, hooks and body shots. Carpentier is a big guy for this footage which makes his agility even more striking. Duranton was back footed for this entire match, with Carpentier escaping every trap, and meeting every shot with a bigger nastier receipt. He based well for all of the takedowns, was great at harrumphing and getting more and more aggravated. He also takes a huge beating at the end of the match, Carpentier was fucking his back up with those flipping sentons, he gets a lot of credit for how world beating Carpentier ended up looking.

Jean Frisuk vs. Roger Delaporte 5/3/62

MD: If you ever wanted one match to really understand Roger Delaporte as a singles wrestler, here it is. Bollet may have higher highs but Delaporte is endlessly consistent, a craven, whinging, bullying, dangerous, opportunist villain, insincere in all the best ways. He'll take advantage of every moment of distraction, will shamelessly beg off to buy himself time or to pray forgiveness from the referee for any of his endless transgressions, including quite frequently pushing him out of the way so he can lay in another blow. He's one of the great bad guys of 20th century wrestling and thanks to this footage, we get to lay claim to him in a way that people could only do so through their memories or the memories of their parents and grandparents. He mustache twirling (figuratively, despite having the mustache) belongs to us now and our lives are the richer for it.

Frisuk (Fryziuk if you want) is a game opponent. He's been a slugger in the tag matches we've seen him in and he came off as a total package here, albeit one that got a little too cutesy with some of his between the legs escapes. The fans popped for it but maybe it was something he should have been doing when he was a little younger. They had a lot of time to kill and worked holds with the usual escapes and escalation. You got variations on a theme because of the regularity of certain moves that you wouldn't see today: one example is the Mascaras twist, that sort of cross-footed headscissors takeover from the ground on a standing opponent. Because it was so commonplace, they developed heel counters where they grabbed on to the ropes, which always got heat. The very best of this match, however, was when one guy was bullying the other, which happened often, or when they were slugging at one another, which happened even more, and the very best of that was when they were brawling on the floor. This had a little bit of everything: violence, comedy, technique, though I imagine not quite enough wrestling for the true purists watching this, though it's a shame we lose a little bit at the end of the first fall. The only other things that mar it to me would be Frisuk's scampering antics (not necessary for a guy who's otherwise Ronnie Garvin-esque) and that the finish in the third fall needed to be just a little more creative. Otherwise, it's a great Delaporte showcase against a well-matched opponent.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going 40 minutes. Yes, yes, it‘s long, but this was another hit. Delaporte is fascinating. He isn‘t very athletic, he won‘t do anything fancy, but he is insanely charismatic, he will brutalize opponents and he somehow has enough of a gas tank to work a 40 minute brawl without slowing down. This is heated from the get to as both guys tag each other with punches before Frisuk gets Delaporte in a spinning toe hold (a move we‘ve seen end matches) with Delaporte frantically fighting him off. They continue at a crazy pace, alternating between working holds and reversals before beating the hell out of each other some more. You are watching and thinking how on earth can this keep but, but they keep up, and it builds to an even bigger second half with both guys taking spills into the crowd and brawling on the floor, some hard slams, ref getting thrown around and lots of great slugging in out. All while Delaporte had the whole crowd in his palm with his antics. Eventually Frisuk was just hammering his fist at Delaportes face in the corner. Frisuk looked solid, hitting hard and getting hit back, I did like him slamming Roger into the mat repeatedly while in an armlock, but this was the Delaporte show. His antics, his crazy selling, his general despicableness all while like your shady used car salesman uncle. Too bad about the ending of the 1st fall being missing, but we get everything else, and it‘s quite great if you like heated crowd pleasing slugfests.

PAS: I actually think this was the better of the two matches we got this week. You don't look at these two guys and think that you are going to get a 40+ minute cardio fest from them, but this really pushed pace for a long time. I thought the build in the first half was very cool with Delaporte and Frisuk working holds and Delaporte heat seeking, but that finish run was all timer stuff. Just an epic slugfest, with both guys getting knocked into the crowd, getting tossed over the top rope and just standing in the pocket and pounding on each other. The end of the match felt like a Thrilla in Manilla war of attrition, where neither man was ever going to be the same. I love when a wrestling match gets to that visceral violent level, and they got there.