Tuesday is French Catch Day: Inca! Mercier! LeDuc! Portz! Aubriot! Bernaert!

Inca Peruano vs Guy Mercier 10/19/62

PAS: This is pretty JIP, but man what we get is spectacular. Peruano has got to be one of the wildest wrestlers of all time, and parts of this were like watching a leveling up spotfest for the first time (something like Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite in MSG, or Rey Jr. vs. Psicosis in ECW). Mercier was a nice dance partner, but you are watching this for Inca. Peruano has these beautiful effortless headscissors, which he hits until Mercier counters the last one with a Giant swing. Peruano also takes to crazy bumps into the ropes, one where he gets kicked into a Andre ropes trapped position, one where he gets thrown into a Cactus ear loss strangle. Not a fan of the double pin ending, but everything before that was killer.

SR: About 6 minutes are shown. And well, be happy for that, because these two do a lot of cool wrestling in 6 minutes. Mercier catches a Peruano flying headscissors and hurls him around in a giant swing in a really cool spot, and Peruano does some ridiculously on point bumping and launching himself into the ropes to get tied up. We also see someone get pinned off a surfboard hold.

MD: It's such a joy to watch Peruano. We get the last 8 minutes of this, having missed around 15 before that and they're just at it from the start. Almost immediately, he's maring Mercier to set him up for his askew angled headscissors takeovers, only for the rule of 3 to come into play and Mercier to just jam him with an elevated giant swing of all things. Then they roll right into a sequence where Peruano bumps himself way over the top and into a tangled situation in the ropes. It's one athletic, creative, innovative, and completely believable and organic spot after the next, with them trading holds or blows or dropkicks in between. This is the most interestingly I've seen a lot of Peruano's token stuff used (like the jammed headscissors). We're at the point of the footage where we're dealing with such known, experienced entities that there are counters to counters and spots that are twisted and remixed and since we're fairly familiar with the style and the specifics, we can pick up on them.

Gilbert LeDuc vs. Geoff Portz 10/19/62

SR: 1 fall match going 30 minutes. Geoff Portz is a legendary British tough guy wrestler. His status is such that he could‘ve stunk this whole match up and it would still be a super valuable find. But, he was very good here. They worked a kind of clinical contest, and I wonder if Portz was holding back slightly, but he looked super impressive just trading holds with Leduc. Portz was built like a brickhouse, and you get the sense he was a powerhouse who could move like a graceful technician. At one point he lifted Leduc straight up from the ground like a child and into a full nelson hold, and another moment involved him lifting Leduc on his shoulders up from his knees. The hold battling was really good – especially dug Portz trying to torture rack Leduc with Leduc clamping on a side headlock for dear life, and there was some great headscissor work that lead amongst other things to Leduc lifting up Portz and Portz victory rolling him. They never throw strikes but there is some rope running which is mixed well into the match. I thought the match was going to go to a 30 minute draw but then a controversial fall happens that the crowd got super mad over in one of those moments that emphasized how dear the people then held their wrestling. And why wouldn‘t they, getting bouts like this on the regular.

MD: Portz is yet another brit that we're lucky to get footage of so young. This is just a gripping heavyweight wrestling clinic, including some of the best worked side headlock sequences I've seen. That includes Portz attempting multiple times to heft Leduc up into a torture rack, which is the best headlock counter that no longer exists. He finally gets it later in the match and it feels like a quality payoff. Portz has an extra bit of power and a way of just trying to peel off limbs that made me wish we had a match with him against Spartacus. Leduc's able to hold his own and keep him from capitalizing too much on any single advantage. Unfortunately, just as it's starting to pick up and get chippy, there's a three count out of nowhere and it makes you wonder if they were going to take it a couple more minutes and pound each other into the draw.

PAS: I thought the first part of this was a little dry, Portz had a very Dory Jr. feel to him. He was going to do his headlock takeovers and it didn't matter what the crowd wanted. I started to get more and more into this as it went on though. We get a couple of cool headspin escapes from the master of the headspin, including one from an armbar. Portz was a super strong guy and at one point he just stands from a sitting position using his leg strength, and I loved all of his torture racks. I feel like the accidental fall robbed us of a really hot ending, but what we got was pretty cool.

Guy Taillieu vs Gerard Franck 11/9/62

MD: Last few minutes of a hard hitting but friendly enough match. Franck looked pretty good here with huge uppercuts and an abrupt dropkick. Tallieu was slicker with a nice cartwheel takedown and some STO style trips we haven't seen a lot of in the footage and some hammerlock assisted throws. He could hit hard too. Really though, we didn't get enough of this to get more than an impression but it was a positive one.

Dan Aubriot vs Pierre Bernaert 11/9/62    Pt2

MD: Phil and Eric covered this seven years ago and it's still MOTY for 1962 for SC. As it's the next chronological match in the collection, as we have so little from this period in the 60s, and as we know Bernaert a lot better now, we thought it was worth another look. I do think we'll have to take stock again after next week when we finish off 62's Catch offerings. That's not to say this isn't an excellent match. It is. Aubriot brought all the right attributes to the table. He was lightning fast, a wizard on the mat, sold each bit of damage in the moment, wasn't afraid to bump out of the ring, and had some very imaginative spots that stood out in a world of imaginative spots. Bernaert showed signs of competence in previous matches (though he was much more of a cheapshot artist), and has developed over the years we've seen him into an excellent tag-team wrestler, but this was the best showcase of his so far. At times, he'd completely hang with Aubriot, not simply basing but calling and raising Aubriot levels of complexity all so that Aubriot could do something even more impressive in the end. The best example of that was Bernaert dropping down for a rare heel mascaras twist only for Aubriot to cartwheel out of it and hit some brilliant ranas. There was something dogged and persistent about Bernaert actual wrestling, which we hadn't really seen from him or from most of the heels we've seen so far. They escalated to blows and Bernaert to cheapshots but it came back down to the holds again and again.

PAS: I think as of now this keeps the 1962 crown, although I don't think it would make a top 25 of the footage we have seen, although that is more a testament to the insane quality of the French Catch, then a diss of this match. Aubriot was very slick, great ranas, cool reversals and a great looking mix of a stunner and a diamond cutter. Bernaert really lays in the violence in the second half of the match, including some urine reddening knees and forearms to the kidneys. The breakdown is some of my favorite stuff in this style, and they really rock each other at the end, including some nasty forearms by Bernaert when he was trying to break Aubriot's body scissors. I thought the judo throw for the pin was cool, but didn't really feel like a finish. I am interested to see what we get next week to challenge this match, it's a hell of a match, but vulnerable.