Tuesday is French Catch Day: Batman! Inca! LeDuc, Gonzalez! Mercier! Lemarre! Marsalo!

3 on 3 series: Batman vs. Inca Viracocha, Gilbert LeDuc vs. Jo Gonzales, Jean Corne vs ??? 12/20/69

La Batman vs. Inca Viracocha

MD: This was a three on three event where they drew names (or threw names) and then went one-on-one. The announcer claimed this was a brand new thing they were trying. This was the first pairing and it was very good. Batman isn't the very best stylist we've seen but he had some size and charisma and could really hit a lot of stuff effortlessly. He had some signature spots no one else did, like his up and over to get out of a headlock. Viracocha, as we're quickly learning, may not have Peruano's flair but he was a quality cheapshot artist and stooge who could hit an extra gear on rope running and feed into all of Batman's offense. Lots of little counters and jockeying for positioning. This went a little shorter than normal given the format and ended with very rare interference from Gonzales to explain how Viracocha could take the first fall for his team.

Gilbert LeDuc vs. Jo Gonzales

MD: Gonzales (who I think was Jo) was dressed like Viracocha with the pancho and similar pants. I feel like we haven't seen LeDuc for a while, but he still knew how to work from underneath exceptionally well and had the trademark headspins. They worked some long holds where Gonzales held on well, and Gonzales certainly stooged like a champ, including teasing a hand behind his back like Mantopolous only to get kicked in the face by LeDuc who was too old for that crap. LeDuc was a real crowd pleaser, especially when he put on a leglock, whacked the knee to bring Gonzales to a seated position and then chopped him as he sat up. Repeating that a couple of times got the crowd chanting. He had all of the older French spots (like the repeated body scissors drop) and the leg whacks on the rolling leg nelson and they were all used to high effect. He took the second fall, but unfortunately we ran out of time before we could get the third: Corne vs whoever he was lined up against (which was some guy with a top hat that I never caught the name of).

Jacky Corn/Guy Mercier vs. Ted Lamarre/Jo Marsalo ?/?/70

MD: Excellent, excellent wrestling here. This was nominally stylist vs stylist with guys who were very experienced. We haven't seen too many stylist vs stylist tags. It's usually singles, and that gave this an interesting dynamic where it got heated, especially towards the end, but would lead more to holds than hard shots throughout the match. Lamarre and Marsalo were more the aggressors maybe, quicker to go mean if not dirty, with Mercier and Corn doing more of the firing back. Lots of great sequences. I thought Mercier had plenty of fun stuff, lots of leverage throws and takeovers. Lamarre kept up with his opponents and worked some of the best chinlocks I've ever seen, amazingly tight, amazingly competitive. In general, they spent a lot of the match rolling all over the place jockeying for position. Marsalo was more of a bruiser, bigger and stockier with a slam to Corn over the top rope or bearhug attempts, but the tag nature of this meant that it kept moving. Instead of Corn's usual big comeback, he built to a hot tag after the second fall and a very quick third fall which was Mercier cleaning house. Top notch match of its style and now I wish we had more stylist vs stylist tags.

PAS: Yeah this was nifty stuff, this didn't have the lighting fast exchanges of the lighter weight wrestlers, but lots of cool technical wrestling including lots of cool spots working out of Lamarre's chinlocks, and an extended short arm scissors section which is one of my favorite things in wrestling. We got some solid clubbing when it broke down a bit as well. The pacing of this was a bit weird with the long first and second falls, and the 90 second third fall, but the actual work was top notch