Tuesday is French Catch Day: Falaux! Elandon! Caballec! Puydebat! Charles! Guguliemetti! Brown! Kiyomigawa!

Albert Falaux/Bob Elandon vs. Rene Caballec/Gilbert Puydebat, 2/22/63

MD: Welcome, friends, to what feels like the end of our golden age of footage. Today we're covering February and March 1963, having just covered November and December 1962. After this point, we'll have one show in May 1964 before skipping to a silver age, beginning in January 1965. More on why that gap exists next week (and really, it goes back to 61 relative to the years prior, though not nearly as dramatically as this) and some of the scant stuff that we might be missing from 1964, thanks to what we've learned from Phil Lions's research.

This was another nice, long tag, with some guys we haven't seen much of before. Elandon is the person you'll remember the most here, as he alternated between cowardly and blustering, quick to attack, quick to retreat, quick to kick the ropes in frustration or jaw with the crowd, and well served in a setting where he could tag out at the first sign of danger. Definitely a heatseeker. The other three brought a lot of more conventional wrestling to the table, though all of them had a number of tricks we haven't seen much of before in the footage, if at all. That could vary from Falaux's bulldogs or missed dropkick that let him flip off the ropes to set up the finish or Caballec's flying cravate mare or neckbreaker twist or the victory rolls the stylists were throwing around. Puydebat had a real energy and verve to his work that made me want to see him more. Unfortunately, this is it for him, I think. Even Caballec we won't see again until the late 70s. This all came together well with Falaux playing along with Elandon's antics and heeling it up as well and the faces firing back with one interesting exchange after another.

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 35 minutes. This was another solid solid long French tag. Plenty of athleticism and asskicking here. These guys are like springs the way they would bounce around the ring while looking tough. Falaux and Elandon were the rudos. Elandon was this straight forward asskicker, who had a cool section working a strangle hold at one point where he would yank the other guys chin. Falaux was interesting as he could do some athletic and technical moves of his own. He wrestled like he once was a technico himself but took a liking to sneaking in inside shots. It made for a cool dynamic and there were some quality exchanges. The finish with Falaux doing some Psychosis like leap into the ropes only to bounce back and land on his feet was baffling even by French standards.

PAS: I thought this was really excellent stuff, four completely new guys all of them really impressive. Liked the rudo team a lot, and the technicos had some really flash. One thing I especially liked about this were good finishes for each fall. Even the best French matches don't always have great finishes, but this one really did. Callabec and Falaux face off and Callabec gets totally rocked with a knee to the back of his head. He tries to shake it off several times but goes to a knee, only to finally get his bearings, rock Falaux with some uppercuts and a crazy neckbreaker. Falaux is able to bound off the mat with a leaping forearm, hits this great flip rope fake into a jumping tope for the three count, spectacular finish for an excellent match. 

Tony Charles vs. Giacomo Guguliemetti 3/29/63

SR: We get about 8 minutes of this. Tony Charles we have seen on World of Sport and in Memphis, making this a cool sighting. He doesn‘t show off his technical skill here, instead we join right into the asskicking portion of this match. These two just smacked the shit out of each other. Not pretty but heated and very intense. Wish we had the whole thing.

MD: We come to this one 12 minutes in and get the last nine minutes of it. Charles is in his late 20s, which is fun to see. He's pretty go-go-go here, spending a lot of the match just tossing himself around the ring and it's really on Guguliemetti to just try ground him. He's never able to do it for long. He'll redirect Charles out over the top in a big bump and Charles will just rush back in and fly at him again. He'll hit a huge forearm off the ropes and Charles will kip up and ram him with a driving headbutt. He'll stomp Charles in the face and keep him down for a minute, only for Charles to rush back up with a backbreaker and flip him about in the ropes. Definitely not one of the best selling performances we've ever seen but it's exciting and not quite what I was expecting from young Charles. This ends with a nice dropkick, a back handspring celebration, and a fairly happy crowd. Good action and hard hitting but given Charles' penchant to pop right back up, I think nine minutes of this was the about the right amount to have.

James Brown vs. Kiyomigawa 3/29/63

SR: 1 fall match going about 25 minutes. Kiyomigawa was a Japanese ex-sumo. He co-founded one of the first Japanese promotions, All Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance, and trained some joshi legends. He wrestled in Europe and the German speaking countries a lot. Having him on film is neat, especially against a German trained US guy. And well this was a really good match. Brown is clearly a pretty great pro wrestler. Just a classy athlete, and really good at selling holds, struggling, eating offense and firing back. Lots of nifty work here where they work in and out of holds and into strikes. Kiyomigawa was this lanky guy who liked to throw chops to the neck and sometimes throat. I wouldn‘t say he was great, but he was a breath of fresh air to the generic clobbering heels you usually see in France. He also knew how to use a nerve hold in interesting ways. Lots of cool european uppercut vs. Chops battles here. Kiyomigawa ends up bloodied after a series of nasty headbutts and we got some cool exhausted strike exchanges before the match is thrown out due to Kiyomigawa not breaking a stranglehold. Disappointing finish but Kiyomigawa shaking Browns hand after the match was cool. Quality work here.

MD: Interesting look at two figures we don't have much, if any footage of, in James Brown and Kiyomigawa. Brown was a multi-level threat, able to wrestle with some interesting holds like a bow and arrow and this lifting vertical STF that felt like one of those lucha holds that seem devastating but that they can only hold for a few seconds; powerful enough to wrench out of holds and lock in backbreakers and bulldogs (two show in a row, which it seem like the new hot move of 1963); to strike, including great forearms and his awesome headbutt; and some athleticism, including standing dropkicks out nowhere. Kiyomigawa was persistent, with a lot of nerve holds and chops, slaps, and throat attacks. In some ways, I thought they were matched up well. They worked their holds and escapes snug and their shots stiff, with wicked slaps followed up almost immediately by jarring receipts; the battles between chops and headbutts were actually quite compelling, more so than I expected. In other ways, though, you kind of wish they were up against different opponents. Brown had an answer to everything and Kiyomigawa might have been served better by a LeDuc or Drapp or Corn; Brown on the other hand would have been better off with a heel that stooged more. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the match-up we got though.

PAS: This was a battle of racial stereotype offense, with Kiyomigawa hitting chops and nerve holds and Brown landing big headbutts. Kiyomigawa had great looking chops though, hard nasty shots right to the side of Browns neck, and Brown laid in those headbutts too. Brown seemed to have some real mat skill including a crazy STF which he lifted off the ground, felt like a Hechicero spot. I thought the finish was a bit wonky, felt like the ref wasn't clued in or something. This was hard hitting stuff though, enjoyed it a bunch