Tuesday is French Catch Day: Kamikazes! Dumez! Cohen! M'Boba! Bernaert! Cohen! Trijo!

Kamikaze 1/2 vs. Maurice Dumez/Georges Cohen 10/4/71

MD: Our list had this listed as Guy Mercier vs Kamikaze but it seems like we don't have that one, which is a shame since Mercier vs Aledo sounded pretty great. That's not to take away from this tag though. If it was just the first fall, it'd be a real classic. Even with all three and the match getting thrown out at the end for the Kamikazes brutally cheating and tossing the ref around, it's still up there. That first fall, though, had the sort of shine/heat/comeback format you often find yourself longing for when watching the French footage and four absolutely game wrestlers.

At any point, I could make at least a healthy guess on which Kamikaze was Aledo. He'd be the one who was rolling around the ring and coming off the top more while the other one leaned more into the strikes and bruising and tossing people out. That's just a guess though. Both could base for Cohen and Dumez and both could rope run when necessary; one just seemed better at the latter than the other. Cohen and Dumez had a lot of the skills you'd expect from turn of the 70s French junior heavyweights, going up and over, or down and around on holds. Dumez was spry, following recent Bordes matches by springing his legs off the ropes while holding a headlock, and having some amazing bounding escapes from headscissors for instance.

They wrestled clean for the first ten minutes or so, but once the Kamikazes started to go dirty, they were great at it. They cut off the ring, used ref distractions now and again (and the ref, who was antagonistic to the stylists, apparently had recently suffered an eye injury, which justified some of it), and came off the top frequently for double teams. Aledo (I imagine) had a great wrenching double arm submission that looked nasty, and both guys used the hangman's noose choke over the shoulder. The quick comeback in the first fall and the more extended celebratory spot-heavy one early in the third were both very good. While the finish sort of stunk, even if it let the Kamikazes keep their heat, this had pretty much everything else you would have wanted from a 71 French tag.

M'boba Les Congolais/Pierre Bernaert vs. Vasilios Mantopolous/Jean Claude Trijo (Trichet/Trigeaud) 10/18/71

MD: This got a lot of time, though it was primarily situated in the first fall. It was probably better as a total package than just one fall though since some of the biggest spots and moments were in the last few minutes. Trichet (or Trijo or Triguad, I'm not sure) was ok in his role and had this one nice little bit where he locked in a hammerlock, leapt over his opponent's head and turned around with a dropkick. Bernaert, a true veteran and master, even countered it late in the match. Otherwise, Trichet was there to get beat on a lot so Mantopolous could make big comebacks. He also had assembly line uppercuts from stooging opponents fairly late that were pretty over. Bernaert was more than happy to stooge throughout, including trying to ape Mantopolous' trademark hand-offering draw-in and turtling for instance. Mantopolous was his usual star self. By this point, he was established and his act was incredibly over with the crowd but he constantly added in new bits, or escapes, or counters. He could do these big sweeping flourishes of headscissors takeovers or bounding through his opponents' legs but also head close-up precise counters to holds. M'Boba's act had advanced quite a bit since his first appearance too. He now took a boa constrictor out to the ring and put it into his mouth repeatedly. Fransizka the handler who discovered him was now his wife. He constantly wore that put upon look on his face but also seemed as likely to be found lounging with a cigar as biting his opponent. Anyway, this had a good balance of the stylists outsmarting and out-maneuvering their opponents and the heels cutting off the ring and drawing heat by working over Trichet's legs with some of those big set piece spots with all four wrestlers at the end. Bernaert is the steadiest hand in all the footage and Mantopolous remains amazing to watch.