Tuesday is French Catch Day: Blouson Noirs! Rene Ben! Bordes! Ragot! Boucard!

 Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes vs Blousons Noirs  9/6/66

MD: This isn't the best match we've seen, but it was still so, so, so good. Exceptionally good. Great. Exceptional, except for that it wasn't at all an exception. This is just how good the high end tag matches in this footage get. But it is so good. It has less prolonged heat, maybe, but that's not replaced by meaningless excess but instead by a constant pressure. The Blousons Noirs never stop trying to get an advantage, never hesitate to cheat, always work towards their side of the ring and the cheapshot, complain about low blows, try to sneak in a grab or a trip out of nowhere, even use the ring rope as a battering weapon. Ben Chemoul and Bordes are always trying to escape and press an advantage and get revenge. There's not a moment in the entire match where it feels like they're just killing time or not somehow actively competing with each other, and that's insane considering some of the great, imaginative comeuppance spots. They called Ben Chemoul the acrobat of the ring, but he feels more like a jester, not just in how he amuses, and his agility and humor, but in how he shows the the heels to be frauds and fools under their swagger, as dangerous as they might be. He did a double turtle draw-in spot that I've never seen before and it felt like exactly what these characters would do. We've seen enough footage by this point to call the Blousons Noirs one of the best heel units of all time. Bordes was young and game (willing to bump hard out of the ring and to fire back from underneath) and the match might have been a little hotter if there was a few more minutes of him being beaten upon somewhere in there, but the fans still went up for whenever he came back, just like there was a buzz whenever Ben Chemoul came in and did his little initial bound to one knee to intimidate an opponent. Matches like this are just pure joy to watch.

PAS: This was tremendous stuff, on the level of the best Midnight Express vs. Rock and Roll Express tags, really an all time classic. Love the Noirs, they have the entire package, viciousness, stooging, bumping, basing, truly a five tool heel tag team. Borders and Chemoul are a great face team too, Chemoul was so slippery and would draw the heels in and evaded them with such skill. Bordes was great too he takes a huge head first bump into the crowd which really need to be giffed, and had one of the nastiest front face locks I have ever seen, one of the great things about all of this footage is how incredible the little things looked, which makes the big things look even better.

Daniel Boucard vs Francis Ragot (Le Legionnaire) 9/20/66

MD: This was a fun look at a couple of guys we haven't seen or haven't seen much of. Ragot was thin as a rail, tattooed, goateed, mean, scrappy, stoogy. Boucard was young and game, though a little rough around the edges at times. His comebacks were fun, full of chops and forearms and nice dropkicks. The first half of the match had Ragot grinding him down with holds and Bouchard building to big escapes but there was a more prolonged beatdown later on and it ended fairly back-and-forth with some big spots (like Boucard lifting Ragot out of a hold by his goatee). It seemed like they were building to a draw, including a top wristlock that came way too late in the match if they weren't, but they twisted it for a nice finish. Nothing hugely memorable in the grand scheme of the footage but definitely a fun little match.