Tuesday is French Catch Day: Cohen! Guisto! Genele! PETIT PRINCE~!

Georges Cohen vs. Pasquale Guisto 5/8/66

SR: 1 fall match going about 20 minutes. It’s the only appearance of Italian worker Guisto, but Cohen will show up many more times. This started with some fantastic technical exchanges. These guys had some serious body control and certainly made all their armthrows and headscissors look effortless. Guisto had some neat counters and unique things, like countering a headscissor attempt into an indian deathlock. Then, Guisto took offense to Cohen slamming him into the mat during a hold and they got really heated slapping the shit out of each other. Both men shook hands and apologized for the occurrence, except Guisto couldn’t seem to quite get over at as he proceeded to act like a jerk, letting Cohen know he considered himself to be above his opponent. Guisto started throwing European uppercuts and soon Cohen started firing back with uppercuts and nasty short kicks of his own. It’s a broken record, but the stiffness was just on another level and there were a few great exchanges were both guys were on their knees raining hell on each other. I don’t know what the deal with Guisto here was, as he suddenly started selling like he was a punch drunk Terry Funk. It gave me the feeling he was supposed to be a skilled, but coked up jerk and was trying to cue Cohen into turning up the heat more, although Cohen remained stoic. They even seemed to ring the bell early, or maybe I’m seeing things. Either ways, aside from the not quite-delivered upon promise there was some damn great wrestling and both guys raining hell on each other was awesome. Good shit.

MD: The first two thirds of this were very good, but maybe a little more cooperative than what we're used to. Some of that you could attribute to sportsmanship. There were lots of clean breaks and handshakes, even if Couistot was a little showy about it at times. Lots of holds that were hung on to and tricked out escapes and blocked escapes, and both guys going for the same thing at the same time. There was a lot of using one hold (like a full nelson) to set up another (like a mare); that sort of thing. Cohen was maybe a bit quicker and slightly more agile, Couistot had a reach advantage and maybe was just a little more skilled in his technique (from a kayfabe perspective). Despite the slight differences, they were very evenly matched. Couistot could go through the legs and Cohen could power him over. Then, after one of the many clean breaks, Couistot started the European Uppercuts and they were nasty and resoundent. Cohen fired back with a quick flurry. And they really didn't look back. There were moments where they went back to holds or spots and moments of deescalation and handshakes, but eventually it all broke down to a thousand nasty shots and the increasing exhaustion that went along with it. It reminded me a lot of the stylist vs stylist matches of the 50s, but maybe just a little more stylized. I'm not sure if it holds up to them on overall quality and competitive technique but it certainly did when it came to sheer enjoyment.

PAS: Very entertaining match, I mean this show had three guys we had never seen before and all three looked like superstar workers (and this was your first Prince match chronologically and he is an all timer). All of the exchanges here were slick and well contested and I loved the French Catch formula of technical wizardry breaking down into stiff violence. By the end of this match guys had abandoned any ideas of sportsmanship and were just unloading with hard shots. You have to love it when violence amps up like this and this match ended on a real note. 

 Le Petit Prince vs. Bobby Genele 5/22/66

SR: 1-Fall match going about 25 minutes. This is probably the earliest full match of Le Petit Prince we have, maybe even his debut since his first TV appearance was this year. It had the feel of rookie action. A few athletic moves of the Prince were there, but not everything landed clean and the match had a rugged feel to it. Of course, that may have been due to Bobby Genele, who was roughing up the Prince like nobodies business. The rugged execution of some sequences didn‘t hurt the match, and Genele, who had the look of an arrogant upper class twit compared to the fairytale like boyishness of the Prince was really vicious when it was time to deliver a beating. His head stomps looked especially brutal. He also did this neat thing where he blocked the Princes floating snapmare by holding onto the rope, which is such a simple cutoff spot that needs be stolen by every rudo worker on the planet. Genele ate the receipt savate kicks and weird electric chair spots from the Prince like a champ too so I think we can certify him as a very good rudo base. They nailed the end sequence too.

MD: It's our first look chronologically at Petit Prince and straight from the start, it doesn't disappoint. This was brilliant stuff, even if it was a little rough around the edges. Genele let himself get outwrestled maybe once before starting the bullying and inside moves and he never looked back from there. You get the sense in this early stuff that the cameramen barely know how to film Prince. Before long, Genele takes over by really going at Prince's arm and that carries a lot of the first half of the match, with Prince selling, including to the point of being too hurt to hang on to holds, which is something you rarely see in 60s France. Whenever he comes back, though, it's absolutely worth the wait. At one point he does a leap over the arm out of a wristlock and ducks a clothesline turning it into a near standing Spanish Fly. There's a real sense of anticipation in the back half, once Genele's beating becomes broader and less arm-focused; Genele's great at keeping the violence and punishment going, but everyone's learning quickly, if they didn't already know, that it's well worth your effort to see the Prince get his comeback. Each one feels a little more spectacular than the last, whether he's backflipping out of a victory roll position to lock in a takedown and a flip into a toehold, or backflipping off the top to hit a shot to the gut. The finish was as dynamic as any rope-running we've seen with Prince backflipping through the momentum of a kick up by Genele and going over and under him at high speed before hitting a sunset flip.

PAS: Goddamn is Petit Prince a revelation, every time I see him I can't believe I am watching him. Genele was a nifty base for all of Prince's insanity, and responded to getting spun on by unloading some violence, which is what you want. I loved him holding on the the hammerlock and not letting Prince flip out of it. Now, so much of wrestling is just counter, counter, counter, I liked that Genele actually made him earn it. We also had a cool short arm scissors spot and a headscissors section. However, you are waiting for Prince to flash on him, and man does he ever. His backflip out of the mule kick, right into the rope running roll up has to be one of the cooler finishing flashes I have seen.