Tuesday is French Catch Day: Van Buyten! Montreal! Ufo! Harris! Blair! McDonald! Borne! Gowart!

Linda Blair/Nicki McDonald vs Brigitte Borne/"Magnifique" Manetry Gowart 8/25/84

MD: I think there maybe, just maybe, could be an ok Borne vs Blair singles match. Borne was older here but we have her in the Garcia match from the 70s and she could hold her own. Blair had her own sort of style, a trash talking, hard hitting heel, even if those shots sometimes looked a little... askew. They stooged a bit, tried to get heat with distracted switches. But there were times where the match just broke down entirely in a manner that you wouldn't even imagine from any match in the 60s or 70s. When it came to McDonald and Gowart, sometimes things would go right. More often, they wouldn't. I honestly thing Blair could have had a career as the third, lesser Glamour Girl, as a Moolah-trainee styled wrestler, she had positives. Overall, though, this was pretty painful.

Franz van Buyten/Mr. Montreal vs. Bob Ufo/John Harris 9/1/84

SR: Well, this could‘ve been worse, but also could‘ve been better. John Harris is a big muscular guy with a kid face. He actually had some fun power spots in this. Van Buyten meshes well with both opponents and Mr. Montreal is decent, but there was some annoying clipping going on and the faces for some reason jobbed hard in this, losing 2-0.

MD: Definitely some structural issues here. I don't think Ufo earned the first fall necessarily. Montreal had been just a bit too dominant the moment before. Overall the clipping wasn't too bad. It's the devil we have to deal with for the variety show. The worst one is towards the end as you sort of lose just how badly they were portraying Montreal's leg as hurt because of it. He had to be carried off. After that, despite his usual fiery comeback (though no charging leap across the ring), the heels made short enough work of Van Buyten. I liked the actual action though, and watching this in context, that's not a small thing. Van Buyten was masterful, some of the best facial expressions ever as he sells and huge sweeping shots on his comeback. Plus, he could work holds with Ufo and the escalating strength spots with Harris, until he finally chipped him down. The crowd was eager to see Montreal (a strongman himself) get in there with Ufo and I don't think he disappointed. If anything we just got it a little too early into the match. Harris was surprisingly huge; he didn't look it due to the babyface, but when he was up there against Montreal, he towered over him. It's interesting we've been seeing heels win so much as of late when they almost never won in the entirety of the 70s.