Tuesday is French Catch Day: Rene Ben! Cesca! Tejero! Zapata! Kramer! Dukan

Rene Ben Chemoul/Gilbert Cesca vs Anton Tejero/Pancho Zapata 7/18/65

MD: Incredibly entertaining 30 minutes here. This is one of those matches I'd feel good about showing people new to the style. By this point, Ben Chemoul and Cesca were a well oiled machine. I'll admit to Ben Chemoul's act getting a little old. They introduce a number of new spots but you still get a bunch you've seen a lot and a little of him can go a long way. Cesca is the perfect mix of style and substance, on the other hand. The first fall had a lot of quick tags by the stylists, lots of stooging and feeding by Zapata (our old friend La Barba) and Tejano. I'd say this was the first time we really saw quick shine-like tags to this degree in the chronological footage but we've been moving and more to heels utilizing ref distractions and that was in full force. While Zapata was a brilliant stooge and vicious when he had the opportunity, it was Tejano who was just incessant, constantly going for the eyes or body shots and making the ref move back and forth as they kept a corner onslaught going. They got real heat (and some trash thrown in) but the fans seemed like they were as entertained as anything else. The transitions felt almost luchaesque here, with tags not mattering so much when the heels were in control and things building to a moment of comeback, in this case a nice little spot with Ben Chemoul kicking his way out of a hanging backslide/punch double team. The third fall was full of big complicated spots including one that ended with stereo missile dropkicks which was probably as complex as anything we've seen. It ended on a high note and everyone went home happy (save for Zapata and Tejano at least).

PAS: These Chemoul/Cesca tags are uniformly excellent, they are Rock and Roll Expressish when in comes to consistent match quality. Zapata and Tejero are tremendous foils, they are listed from Mexico and they come off like an all time rudo tag team, eating all of the fancy Cesca and Chemoul ranas perfectly, tying themselves up into ropes and utter capitulating themselves over the top rope rope. Tejero is one of the great out of the ring bumpers ever, and Zapata matches him. I enjoyed how many different ways the technico squad could time up Zapata and Tejero in the ropes. I could have used a bit more drama in the final run to extend this match to the top tier of French Catch, but man was this fun stuff. 

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 30 minutes. Pancho Zapata, what a name. Apparently, he‘s Joachim la Barba, so it‘s nice to see him again. This was another French formula tag and one of the finest entries in the genre so far. At this point you have to ask if the South Americans are actually better than the French guys. They had no problem going along with all the technical moves, then looking despicable while kicking the French guys asses, and finally bumping like maniacs, stooging and getting their own asses kicked in a big way. And Ben Chemoul and Cesca are just really reliable workhorses. At one point it seems Chemoul got a small cut in his face and Tejero does some really nasty work trying to squeeze more blood out of him. Zapata looked subdued compared to his really violent 50s performances but he had some cool headbutts and the biggest bump of the match diving off the top into nothing, and later just suicide diving into a ringside table. I also dug the knee lifts to the back. Chemoul and Cesca looked great throwing punch combos in the second half. Double missile dropkick sequence was pretty insane. It ended a bit light hearted considering things seemed to get intense in the middle of this, but these matches are so straightforwardly fun and enjoyable that that is a very very minor nitpick.


Juan Botana vs Viarmeck Wizuk 7/25/65

MD: We lose the first ten minutes of this and get the last eight and a half and that's a shame, because what we get is pretty great. They just go at it here, Wizuk rugged and hard-hitting and good at playing to the crowd and Botana wild and stooging and relentless, able to sneak in a cheapshot from his knees to retake control again and again. This had the best leg nelson we've seen in forever, with Wizuk rolling around the ring and then really stretching with it. Botana had to bite to get out. They kept building to trading hard shots with one another, with Botana not at all afraid to bump big for Wizuk. It's a shame we don't have more of these two in the footage.    


Karl von Kramer vs Gass Dukan 7/25/65

MD: Von Kramer looked like the best wrestler in the world on this night. Doukhan was Israeli and according to the announcer, spent half the year in Tel Aviv and half in Paris. He's a natural opponent for Von Kramer, and he could both hang with the matwork and be fiery when necessary, while keeping a sharp patina of being an absolute sportsman (he wanted to shake hands at the start and at the end despite it all, and there was a lot of it). This was some brilliant stuff, with every exchange having one or two extra wrinkles, or really, just never stopping in its folding. There were wristlocks which just didn't stop. Von Kramer kept trying to roll through and Doukhan kept rolling through himself or rolling von Kramer back. Von Kramer had a dozen interesting ways to take a guy down and five or six interesting ways to grind him. They started the match with a series of front facelocks reversed into arm whips, until von Kramer turned the last reversal into a dragon sleeper which Doukhan used a knee shot to get out of. The entire match was like that. Von Kramer had some takedowns he went back to again and again, like a headlock with a knee to take Doukhan over or this inner reverse gutwrench especially, until late in the match, Doukhan jammed it with a backbreaker. Von Kramer stooged up and down for Doukhan and the fans loved every second of it, but he never lost his credibility. He stayed mostly stoic, selling the indignity of it, occasionally losing his cool (and it mattered all the more when he did due to the stoicism) but going right back to the attack. He was able to give a ton but able to get a credible takedown at any moment; the fans still ooh'ed when he locked in the nerve hold because they knew just how dangerous the guy was. You got the sense that the match wasn't heading to a clean finish because it would have been pretty bad form to put the German over clean, but he also felt like a mountain that Doukhan shouldn't entirely overcome, so it ended with Von Kramer really losing his cool and creatively choking the hell out of him in the ropes for the DQ and, of course, Doukhan getting his shots in post match. Von Kramer was really an exceptional pro wrestler and we're lucky to get to see him go all out with a game Israeli in 1965 France.

PAS: This wasn't the violent brawl you would expect from an Israeli versus a German with a Swastika on his robe in 1965. I mean Doukhan had to have lost family in the holocaust, I wanted this to be more Munich then gentleman's arm drag exchanges. They were really nice armdrags though I really liked how Doukhan would roll through and stay connected to throw an arm drag of his own. I really liked von Kramers contemptuous takeovers, he would toss him with real disdain. I did like how we got some really heated fighting at the end, with Doukhan taking some revenge for his people by choking out Von Kramer with a belt.

SR: 1 fall match going about 20 minutes. I am happy we get another Von Kramer singles match, and against a fun athletic technician like Doukhan nonetheless! This was a more WoS like match. Lots of fun technical wrestling, and unpredictable bumping from von Kramer. It was a bit light hearted considering this was an Israeli wrestler taking on an evil German guy, but Doukhan kept coming up with cool stuff you don‘t expect (even after seeing a lot of unexpected stuff in this footage) including a freakish lucha armdrag and it was a really good glimpse at what a typical night of work looked like for these guys. Kramer gets himself dq‘d in a lame ending but we get Doukhan throwing him around a bit after the match.