Tuesday is French Catch Day: Corne! Falempin! Gilmour! Kaye! Der Henker! Corn! Leduc! Mychel

Jean Corne/Michel Falempin vs. Ian Gilmour/Jeff Kaye 11/14/70

SR: 1 fall match going 30 minutes. I was expecting the Brits to bring some heat, but this was a pure technico vs. technico contest. Pretty much just one exchange after another, and while it wasn't high speed athletic stuff there were some smoth cartwheels and pin exchanges. To be honest I could not tell who was who, but everyone was about on the same level. Dug all the technical trickery such as the various turn-yourself-into-a-ball-moves, there was a nifty wrist legsscissor and a cool sequence from a stepping inside pin that turned into both wrestlers turning into an amateur scramble. Things got a bit fired up here and there but the match stayed clean and never really seemed to indicate that you were about to see a finish. Great to watch if you just want to see some good wrestling though.

MD: Another week, another excellent tag. This was face vs face with the premise being that the Bretons were up against the Scots, with bagpipes and flags for everyone on the entrance. Lots of fast, tricky exchanges back and forth. They were working towards a draw but I didn't figure it out until the last third. I think this is our earliest look at Gilmour and he brought a lot of flash with his cartwheel escapes. Kaye had some stilting escapes of his own where he just snuck out of headlocks or headscissors. I wouldn't say it necessarily boiled over towards the end, but it did get more chippy, first with headbutts to the gut off the ropes and then with the forearms and uppercuts. Before that, even when they might focus hard on an arm with lifts or hammerlocked throws, they were also very quick to help when someone's throat got stuck in the ropes, very sportsmanlike. A big chunk of this was taken up by the commentator hobnobbing with people in the front row which hurt the mood a little but, but the holds, escapes, counters, rope running, and finally escalating shots as they ran out of time were all excellent.

Der Henker vs. Jacky Corn 12/12/70

MD: Hell of a debut for Henker, who was billed as a German sort of headsman (as opposed to the French one we've gotten before). He came off as something of a total package, able to lock in holds, escape from them, having superior power, able to knock Corn down with one shot and absorb multiple ones from him, able to pick up the pace a little with pin exchanges, and with a real vicious streak that came through at the end. Corn was his usual self, able to slug it out with anyone and with a fiery streak in his comebacks and when they got going in the stretch this really did become a slugfest. Henker had a way of meeting him head on right until he didn't, and the key moment towards the finish was when he went low in a strike exchange. That let him toss Corn out and then post his head on the way back in. Corn bled, which has been pretty rare in this footage overall, and Henker focused in on it, though it's worth nothing that Corn was still trying to fire back right until the end, which was a resounding tombstone and a stoppage as everyone was more than a little concerned for their longtime hero (including Mr. Lageat, Corn's father and the promoter). Good debut that put over Henker as a dangerous force but not an unstoppable one.

Gilbert Leduc vs. Bert Mychel 12/12/70

MD: In the last third of this match, the commentator sums it up better than I can (or at least the youtube translation I use did): "No Unnecessary malice but holds well worked." Mychel was a former two time Olympian in Greco-Roman wrestling and he had an amazing fall away slam, a real ability to dominate while in a hold and to turn escape attempts into slams, and even went for a really interesting gutwrench once. Leduc was 38 at this point, remained a real master at the headspin escape, could outstrike Mychel, and could hold his own in the wrestling (that gutwrench? Leduc picked a leg out and got a hold out of it). This was wrestled clean though it threatened to boil over once or twice and other than those fall away slams and some Leduc crab attempts towards the end, would have fit right in ten+ years earlier. But the struggle in holds, especially as Mychel didn't want to just go along with Leduc's headspin, was excellent throughout. Late in the match, Leduc would return the favor, eating one too many fall away slams before finding a way to jam Mychel on them. Two experts wrestling expertly for a title belt and celebrating each other's skills after the match.

SR: 1 fall match going about 25 minutes. Seems we JIP'd a couple minutes into it. This was a slow match where guys fight in and out of holds. It was enjoyable but pretty much for the purists only. If you can get into that, it was quite good. Mychels suplexes were great and there was a really cool moment from a gutwrench suplex that turned into a scramble. A bitchslap happens at one point but they kept working a technical match, though the crowd seemed willing to go unruly at Mychel. The only shade I can throw at this match is that it wasn't as good as Leducs 50s work (50s Leduc would've bitten Mychels ear off) but few things are.