Tuesday is French Catch Day: Ben Chemoul! Bordes! Golden Falcons! Menard! Michel! Celts! Kamizake! Priore!

Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes vs.  Golden Falcons 5/13/72 

MD: A return match here. It starts exactly the same for the first thirty seconds or so which made me wonder, but it diverges after that. Very good as always when it comes to Ben Chemoul and Bordes, but you want just a little more heat sometimes. That's not to say that what we got in that direction wasn't good as the Falcons were excellent at controlling their corner and laying in clubbing (and clubbering) blows. All of the celebratory stylist stuff was excellent too, of course. Bordes increased his toolkit every match. There were maybe four or five new spots he did here that I'd never seen him do before, as varied as a belly to belly over head toss to more innovative tricked out rope running exchanges and even knife-edge chops which we don't often see in the footage. We have Ben Chemoul footage dating back fifteen years earlier and he could still go at such a high level here. Bordes might have outpaced him when it comes to flash but he still brought so much stylized sizzle and had such a connection with the crowd. And really, the fact that the two of them, 30 minutes into a match like this, could just shoot off 'rana after 'rana and dropkick after dropkick was just amazing.

Jean Menard/Alan Michel vs. Jean Corne/Michel Falempin (Third Fall) 5/22/72

MD: This is the last fall of a 2/3 falls match, and we get about eight minutes overall, plus the Celts celebration with a giant flag after the match. It was stylist vs stylist, mostly clean but occasionally boiling over in that 50s style. A lot of quick exchanges, some pin exchange sequences that were sharp and exciting. Usually when I see a new move in a match, I'll see it again in another with different people soon after. That was the case with the crucifix pin here, which I saw Bordes do recently for the first time in the footage. Really, by the end, this was just exchange after exchange and nothing really resonated too much. The tag setting made it hard for things to build towards a chippier finish because once they finished throwing shots, they'd tag out and go back to holds or pin attempts. The wrestling was all good though. I think we just missed out on not having the first two falls.

Kamikaze vs. Nicolas Priore 5/22/72

MD: I'm going to assume this was Aledo. He had a new deal where he took the mask off and revealed a ghastly bald head with a mustache and probably the eyebrows taped back to go full caricature. The announcer sold it as being worthy of a horror movie. Nothing incredibly spectacular out of him here, but he had a lot of stuff, going all in with the gimmick. That meant nerveholds and neck vices, throat shots and a nice punch to the cheek, chops to the head and stomach in a high/low pattern, skinning the cat by going through the second rope while getting tossed a couple of times, a bound up to the top to hit a diving chop to a prone Priore, a lot of bowing to the ref whenever he cheated, and this great bit where he sprung over the top to the floor like Savage to slam Priore's leg into the apron. He also had a way of sneaking in a quick counter to almost everything. So a lot of stuff and hoping at least some of it stuck. He had heat and they were behind Priore's comebacks so I suppose it did. Best part of this was probably when Priore came back and got his own revenge whack of the leg onto the apron. Kamikaze sold the leg well for a minute or two before deciding he had enough of it. Story of the match after that was Priore's head getting damaged from the chops and he selling the injury more and more until the ref stopped it. He had a few nice flourishes and comebacks including some brawling on the floor and a press slam gutbuster and giant swing, but it was all for naught. It's always interesting to see the Kamikaze act in full force but even with all of those affectations in offense and mannerisms, it only shows half of what we know Aledo could do.