Tuesday is French Catch Day: Bollet! Weicz! Cabrera! Sanniez! Martino! Caclard!

Jack de Lasartesse vs Bernard Vignal 8/24/68

MD: Just two minutes here and a chunk is taken up talking in the crowd. A shame as Vignal probably matched up well against Lasartesse. He's doing well here until he misses a drop kick. Anyway, we don't get to see much before the bombs away and Lasartesse tying him up for shots in the corner until he shoves the ref in the most casual, irritating way possible to draw the DQ.

Andre Bollet vs Jacky Weicz 8/24/68

MD: The last six or seven minutes of this were really good. Bollet was laying it in, leading to Weicz coming back big. It all built to a perfect block of a punch and Weicz firing out of the corner and getting satisfying revenge by tying Bollet up in the corner. Bollet's a crafy one though and things ended with him getting legs up and hitting a big flip senton and slam. Unfortunately, the twenty+ minutes before that went on a bit too long. Weicz wasn't his uncle ("uncle?") who was apparently back in America at this point, but he was a capable enough stylist. Bollet's expressions while being choked were spot on, and his reactions after eating something as simple as an armdrag are all-time-great, but this just didn't have the manic energy and vileness I've come to expect out of him. It picked up now and again but for too long it was them trading holds, with Bollet using whacks and hairpulls to keep Weicz down and Weicz coming up with solid and sometimes creative counters. Either chalk this up as a perfectly fine match with some diminishing returns on a personal level or trust me that if you chipped ten minutes off of this in bits and pieces, it'd be a really great one. Still, if you're going to spend a solid 30 minutes with someone, Bollet, with his expressions, isn't at all the worst pick.

Pedro Cabrera/Albert Sanniez vs Tony Martino/Bernard Caclard 8/31/68

MD: This was more of a slugfest than the last Martino/Caclard vs Sanniez/Partner match we saw. Just a ton of great shots all around. That said, this had both less energy and less heat. The heels were excellent here but they just had too much of a tendency to knock Sanniez and Cabrera into the wrong corner, leading to all-too-easy tags and comebacks before any real heat could register. There were a lot of great individual exchanges, spots, and performances though. Caclard had a great headlock suplex and was a good base and stooge all around and we'll see him again. This is our second and last look at Martino who was just a tremendous cruiserweight bully and one of those guys we unfortunately only get two looks at like Tony Oliver. He must have bumped to the floor six times and had an interesting bodyslam variation which went up and over differently. So good action but kind of goofy structure. Caclard and Martino got heat whenever they tried to cut off the ring or especially drag someone back to their corner because you're not supposed to touch a guy before he gets up, but ultimately, they got clowned a lot, and the third fall was really all comedy where they'd get a spot or two but have it reversed in a big way on the repeated attempt and crowd-pleasing miscommunication, especially after a giant swing. Sanniez feels like an all-timer with amazing bridges and crazy handsprings and big spots and big shots and we'll see him again. Cabrera was young but hung well for the most part. The match would have been better served with them really beating on him for a while though.

SR: 2/3 Falls contest over a little over 30 minutes. The elusive Tony Martino shows up again! His presence in this match, along with Sanniez also being there and Sanniez & Caclard later becoming a heel team themselves, it makes me wonder whether Tony Martino was their maestro. His and Caclards tendency to not outright cheat and instead proving their wrestling ability without the typical overt cheating certainly stands out. This was in the same style as the fantastic Martino/Caclard vs. Sanniez/Sullivan match from years earlier. The first fall of this had some beautiful, beautiful work. I loved the basic throws Martino whips out and  there were some awesome flexibility spots. Of course, there were some beautiful ranas and dropkicks as well. The match soon became european uppercut city though and turned into the fiery hot mix of hard hitting blows, heel roughhouse tactics and athletic babyface moves that was clearly these guys speciality. Martino is so clearly an awesome worker that it‘s hard not to be sour over his lack of tape appearances. He basically turns into a more nimble Terry Rudge with a boxing stance when he puts on those hammerlocks and starts clubbing away. Cabrera is said to be another Spaniard, and while he is cleary less interesting than Sanniez he does fine in this. He certainly ate a lot of stiff looking uppercuts which made me think a bit that he was paying young boy dues here, but who knows. Another great match that falls just slightly short of being classic due to the finishes coming a bit abrupt, but I‘m not complaining. Any chance to see these guys go to work is awesome and the fact that they probably had dozens of matches with this kind of workrate is amazing.