Tuesday is French Catch Day: Le Primitiv! Gordon! Falcons! Hassouni! DeBruyne! Piranhas!

Kader Hassouni & John DeBruyne vs Les Piranhas 5/11/85

MD: Totally solid tag here. The highs weren't quite as high as they could be but the floor was high enough that you didn't mind much. Hassouni was older, a bit slower, able to move with bursts and then take things back down or to have the heel make the motion for him but he was still quite the pro. DeBruyne was mainly in there to get a few youthful, agile flurries of his own and then to take a beating. The Piranhas had their act down, a lot of ref distraction and hairpulling and clubbering and they had a game target in DeBruyne, who'd charge right in only to get nailed. This had a couple of hot tags and big comebacks by Hassouni and they kept cutting to a very happy crowd that was very into it, with a large number of kids present. The wrestling wasn't quite as complex, the action not quite as heated or spirited, and I'm not sure this ever reached the triumph of good vs evil of classic tags of years prior. It was still probably a love way to spend an afternoon however. It's also important everyone knows that the trumpeter Jean-Claude Borelly was a special guest announcer. 

Flesh Gordon vs Mambo le Primitif (Strap Match) 5/11/85

MD: There had been a tease of a strap match with Bordes and a monster back five years earlier but here's the payoff we get, and it's late era Catch with Flesh Gordon and Mambo Le Primitif. No crown, no drummers for Mambo here. Instead he had a couple of village people looking handlers. This went over twenty and there was probably a great twelve minute match in there. Conceptually, some things really worked and some things didn't. For a good chunk of the match, Gordon used the strap as a way of keeping distance on Mambo and moving him around the ring. He'd whip the ground to keep Mambo back more than he'd whip Mambo himself. Gordon was slightly older, a little rougher around the edges in appearance, but whatever he might become later, he was still spry at this point: able to do the up and over and move and hit big dropkicks and bump around the ring and sell emotively. Mambo would catch him, beat him down, and Gordon would come back as Mambo was posing.

Midway through there was a glorious minute where Mambo took the metal strap connector and dug it into Gordon's eye and if the match had more of that it'd have been many degrees better. Instead, it was all more back and forth. Gordon certainly knew how to present himself as a star and Mambo was constant motion, constantly entertaining, even if there wasn't always substance behind it. Eventually he did take over, including a big dive off the apron to the floor, so that the end of the match was Gordon coming back big by catching him on the top and choking him with the strap to give him a visual win but a DQ loss. 

Mambo le Primif vs Golden Falcons 7/7/85

MD: We get 15 of this and then it cuts off and, I mean, look, Mambo is trained, right? He's agile. He's capable of basing for some complex spots from the Falcons. If I could track down Gerard Herve/Flesh Gordon, the only thing I'd probably ask him would be who Mambo was. He had some staying power when you think about it. He wasn't giant compared to other big masked men or at least the costume made it seem like he wasn't but they sold for him like he was late-era Andre at times. This was more or less what you'd expect. They'd use their numbers game to bump him around. He'd isolate one and take over. Strength spots, falls out of the ring, just grinding down. You can imagine how it would end considering he beat both Angelito and Gordon at the same time previously. I don't know. The world's probably richer and more insane for the existence of Mambo and him leaping throat first onto the top rope so they can run text across the screen saying SPLAACH!!!"