Tuesday is French Catch Day: Mostly Australians? Tolios! Scott! Williams! Marcello!

12/3/89 

MD: We're deep in the wilderness here, 1989. The presentation is very different. They start with clips of Wrestlemania, mainly the Can-Am Connection. Both wrestlers in the first match come out to Turn Back Time. I'm pretty sure they have a boxing ring they're repurposing. It's all just odd.

John Tolios vs Black Scott

MD: Tolios was greek and competent even if he adjusted for the time. Scott had a mask and came out in a black kilt too which was a nice touch. He also had a dagger in his kneepad that the ref had to take away from him. We have footage of them wrestling against each other in 85 Australia I think? And this was... kind of strange. Chinlocks. Clotheslines. It was nominally 2/3 falls with Tolios winning the first one after coming back with an eyepoke and locking in an airplane spin. They went into a second fall with a nice atomic drop over the top. Scott came back by pulling down the top turnbuckle pad but didn't get too far with it. Tolios ended up doing the corner shoulder first bump, going out to the floor and getting counted out, so I guess a countout ends the match automatically? While there were some holds and some technique this didn't feel like something we'd see even earlier in the decade. Just seeing a clothesline, or some rope running where one was dodged was a little unsettling honestly. Between that and the fact the opening montage was all from the WWF, it's clear the infection has set in. But of course, maybe there wouldn't have been wrestling on TV at all without it and you can't say this wasn't competent. It just didn't feel right.

Lou Marcello vs Gary Scott

MD: Ok, this wasn't a fluke. They've got an Australian/New Zealand touring group here for some reason. The ref is Australian too. Gary Scott is billed from New Zealand as the Kiwi Kid. We're far away from the licensed French wrestlers of the 50s - mid-80s. Kiwi played the heel here. He had facepaint and I was expecting more of an Ultimate Warrior thing, I think. Instead he stooged, played into the three hiptosses then gets hiptossed himself and going for a handshake to try to take over, etc. That sort of stuff. 

The first fall was a lot of Marcello in charge and it was simple but effective stuff. The most unique thing was that rear legsplitter where you headbutt the butt which probably should stay in the 80s.  Scott would try things and Marcello would just overcome and generally take back over on the arm. Still, Scott was able to get the fall off of a body press. He controlled a bit more in the second fall and then played king of the mountain in the third, letting Marcello come back. All of this was perfectly fine and I'd probably enjoy the exact same match a lot in 2025 but you have to compare it to even the early 80s Catch stuff.

Eddie Williams/Bruce Davis vs Vic Murray/Kenny Meglin

MD: Eddie Williams is billed from Martinique. Which means he is in fact the Eddie Williams from the 60s, also being Eddie Morrow. Apparently. He could still do a cartwheel. He didn't work a ton of this though. He was mainly there for hot tags. This is another one which was competent and maybe even more than that, because this was the match that got the kids in the crowd going. They'd occasionally cut to them in the other matches and they'd be sitting there bored as could be. This one, they got really into the heat. 

Said heat followed a shine where the babyfaces (and that feels more appropriate than stylists here) did quick tags and worked the arm and some ones when the ref wasn't looking (though he turned around too soon). Murray and Meglin took over with sheer brutishness and worked over Davis. He'd get comebacks and tag in Williams who would be dynamic for a short period and then Davis would get dragged back down to chicanery. They cut off the ring and distracted the ref and as noted, the kids really didn't like it in the best way, getting out of their seats and complaining, especially when the ref missed a tag. 

Things really broke down in the second fall, literally, as a corner whip destroyed the boxing ring. They tried to fix it but it was hopeless and more double teaming happened while the ref was distracted. They sent out a guy in a black ninja get up to cause even more chaos and things really just fell apart. Overall it was solid stuff while it lasted, just again lacking a lot of the hallmarks of Catch as we knew it.