Tuesday is French Catch Day: Tom! Lang! Mercier! Sanniez!

Tiny Tom vs Cowboy Lang 7/3/82

MD: This is one we thought we had at some point and that might be out there but we never did find it until now. We come in 10 minutes JIP and go another 10 and it was quite good actually. Delaporte is the ref and of course he was perfect for this scenario. What i liked about it though is that there was a decent amount of wrestling between the comedy spots. They went hand to hand repeatedly and Lang especially had some nice stuff including a roll back wristlock takedown and a roll through double arm where he tied Tom up. Tom was more apt to use roughneck tactics, step on the toes or toss Lang out. I bet if we had the first ten there'd be even more wrestling and this would be even better.

The comedy absolutely hit. A lot of it are spots you've seen before like Delaporte catching Tom out of a pin attempt kick out or Tom being pushed off on a figure four and crotching Delaporte. High class stuff but Delaporte's reactions pushed it all over the top. Right at the twenty minute announcement they went home with it with Lang winning on an airplane spin (though making sure to dizzily wave to Delaporte before falling on Tom). And everyone was happy with what they got.

Marc Mercier vs Albert Sanniez 7/3/82

MD: How good is even old Sanniez? Let me put it this way. If this had been the first Catch match we came across, instead of Cesca vs Catanzaro, we would have thought that young Marc Mercier was one of the best wrestlers in the world. Sanniez is just that good. We had a few matches of his throughout the footage but not nearly as many as we would have liked so it's great to see him here, even if a lot of the goal was to put a spotlight on Guy's 20-21 year old kid. 

The first ten minutes of this was Sanniez really putting him through his paces with a lot of great wrestling, hold after hold, with Mercier having all the counters you'd want, including up and overs and everything else. At the ten minute mark, Mercier did a cartwheel out of a throw and Sanniez got annoyed and clocked him and the match opened up. Lots of little moments of personality here where he'd feign that he didn't use a closed fist. Mercier was rough around the edges but he had a wild sort of abandon which made some things look better and some worse. Sanniez went for a flip bomb at one point and Mercier didn't make it over and landed in a nasty way. 

They'd ground things back down with quick pin exchanges or other bits of wrestling before going back to the moves and it was all quite good. Mercier took a nasty bump over the top and sold it big until his comeback, which didn't quite connect for me. Just lack of experience and an unwillingness to look vulnerable. If he had gotten leaned on just a bit longer it would have meant all the more. But in general, this was good and I'm putting most of that on Sanniez.

SR: It's a look at late career Albert Sanniez and young Marc Mercier. God what a size mismatch this was. Mercier towered over the old veteran. But all that be damned, they did some really good wrestling here. Mercier is a perfectly competent young athletic guy and Sanniez is too much of a master to not go hard into some slick exchanges. Some really good stuff early on. For some reason we haven't seen many highly technical matches in the colour footage, maybe they didn't make TV, maybe they weren't archived, maybe no one could do them anymore, so this was a bit of a flashback to the glory days of lightweight catch. Sanniez ended up dropping Mercier on his head with an ill fated attempt at a powerbomb and it seemed they lost their way a bit at that time. The bout fizzled along with Sanniez being seemingly too proud to let Mercier outwrestle him and the bout failed to build steam. There were some sick manchettes and both guys threw punches, so it's not like it was a bad bout or anything, but it made me want to go back and check out the matches from the glory days. This had a good ending though with Mercier hitting a missile dropkick of all things and then at least getting a good win over the old coot.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Primitiv! Gordon! Angelito! Mercier Brothers! Sanniez! Petrolini!

Le Primitiv vs Flesh Gordon & Angelito 8/22/84

SR: The image of Le Primitiv entering the ring with the crown has to be prime surreal wrestling material. They tried, but it was clear they had no idea where to go with this character. And of all people, it‘s the Primitive who gets the monster push?! It all feels like a strange fever dream.

MD: I repeat that I would have been pretty glad to see this mania in person as a ticket-paying customer. The band playing. The two top stylists. A bunch of top rope moves, missed and hit, and some big dives even. Just a wild scene. This was not LeDuc/Corn vs Henker, but it was full of showcase moments for Gordon and Angelito, and as much as I hate to say it, if you can even begin to believe that this kind of wiry and agile monkey man also has incredible strength, Angelito and Gordon were doing everything in their power to get that notion over. There were some clever/imaginative bits of them getting knocked out of the ring or knocking Mombo out and some unique double teams, and the way the finish worked was way over the top: Angelito had an arm. Gordon rushed in to get the other. Mombo choked them both, rose to his feet, shoved them over the top. They pulled him out. Angelito tried for a huge apron leap and got pressed over Mombo's head; the cameras totally missed it. Gordon went out to check on him. Mombo hit a massive tope. He rolled Angelito back in and hit his finisher (Congo Jam, which has gotten better). That left Gordon vs him and Gordon tried valiantly for a minute but ate a headbutt and the legdrop for the 10 count finish. Everyone came in to celebrate and put the crown back on him. I don't know. I had fun and they really did try. The best proto-CHIKARA that 1984 France has to offer.

Marc Mercier/Pierre Mercier vs Albert Sanniez/Mario Petrolini 8/25/84 

MD: Guy's kids were definitely promising. Marc was established by this point, but Pierre came off like a young lion. He reminded me a bit of early 80s Curt Hennig, yet somehow lankier and more flexible. The way he was able to bound to his feet on throws was as impressive as anyone as I've seen in the footage. He had a lot of sweeping kicks and seemed just very loose in there. Plus he was able to draw a ton of sympathy from underneath. You got the impression Sanniez, old pro that he was, was leading him through things, maybe (as tight as Pierre was loose). Petrolini was an Italian and kept up, with a lot of leg dives using the ref as a distraction and a splash onto the leg. The heat here was very good, with a missed tag. It was a swimming pool match and maybe the biggest bit of heat was when Marc was trying to get in there by climbing to the top and the ref pushed him off. He got his after the match was over. In the meantime, the heels worked well together, Sanniez leaping up to kick or just moving the corner guard out of the way, as Petrolini tossed Pierre in, that sort of thing. The comeback was Pierre reversing one of those whips leading to heel miscommunication and Marc destroying everyone and a bunch of stooging into the water that lasted through the quick third fall. We're nearing the end of the footage but if you told me now there was five more solid years of the Mercier brothers, Gordon, Angelito, Malpard, and at least a few game bad guys like Frederico, Black Shadow, Tejero, I'd be on board for that.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Sanniez! Richard! Corne! Hassouni! Shadow! Angelito! Cohen! Bordes! Gordon! MANIAK!

Jacky Richard/Albert Sanniez vs Jean Corne/Kader Hassouni 9/3/83

MD: As we close out the 1983 footage, we bid adieu to three of our stalwart friends: Richard, Sanniez, and Corne. There will be a few more Hassouni matches in the collection, which is a good thing as he looked excellent here. They all did, of course, Richard the heatseeking, clubbering, basing malcontent; Sanniez the slicker, hard-hitting, big bumping technician; and Corne the junior hero, smaller and quicker than Corn or Leduc but just as able to carry the crowd. This was a great crowd too with kids who wore their hearts on their sleeves, uppity teenagers who dared to get right up to the ring, and yes, a pro wrestling granny. Lots of chants and big elation for the stylist comebacks.

Given the four we had in there, of course they moved in and out of the holds well for the first ten minutes. The heat came in two parts and the first was a little overwrought as Saulnier had to strain all over the ring to get out of position. He was missing Sanniez's pretty blatant hairpulls (armbar, with the head between the legs, and his hand reaching around the back for the pull). It meant that the first comeback was more about him paying for his transgressions with Sanniez catapulted right into him. The second bit of heat was primarily clubbering and this had a bigger and more direct sort of comeback with Corne sneaking into the ring and through the legs to break up a double team and lead to miscommunication and the finish. As always, it was amazing that Hassouni and Sanniez were able to do some of the things that they were in quick exchanges 20+ minutes in, but that's French Catch for you.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going about 30 minutes. You will know exactly how these go by now. Long, quality face shine chock full of super quick sequences to start, before the heels take over for a beatdown. Faces come back, heels bump like mad and a quick finish happens. After this, the matches we have get pretty wacky, so I guess this is a sort of last hurrah for the classic type of Catch. It was as good as any of these matches you‘ve seen too. Everyone looked pretty old but they had no probably going hard as usual. Richard especially was the most grey and crusty looking dude here but had no problem bumping big and fast and running the ropes. Hassouni was spry and Sanniez had one of his typically good performances. There were also a bunch of rowdy kids and an elderly lady at ringside threatening to storm the ring at the heel tactics of Richard & Sanniez. Maybe for this reason referee Michel Saulnier decided not to do anything fishy here.

Black Shadow vs Angelito (JIP) 2/25/84

MD: Just the last two and a half minutes here of a match that went almost twenty. Angelito and Shadow might have lost half a step but them half a step down was still pretty good for the bits we saw here. I imagine they had started off with a bit more flash and speed. This was pretty evenly worked with holds and rope running and flips about until Angelito bounded up cleverly into a victory roll for the win. From a technological standpoint, they were experimenting with slow-motion replays.

SR: About 2 minutes shown of what looked like a preliminary affair. Angelito has some really nice moves, though.

Marquis Edouard de la Rossignolette vs Georges Cohen 2/25/84

MD: I may have spoken too soon, for the good Marquis, in his fineries, with his medals and his monocle, and his butler "Paul Bart", does have a striking resemblance to Jacky Richard, if you just take out the beard. I do give him some credit for changing his look, his expressions, the way that he moved.

That said, this is going to disappoint people who are into the quicker stuff in the footage, the more technical stuff, AND the slugfests. I'm not going to lie about that. I enjoyed it to a degree, but it was a pale shadow of some of the other examples of the sort we have. It didn't have the manic energy of Duranton and his valet and no one compares well to the size, derision, and high spots of Lasartesse. Moreover, there were just less of the chained together moves or dogged hanging on to holds that you'd get from the tags (even the ones with Richard and Cohen). I do think this would compare quite well to a lot of what was happening in the mid-cards of pro wrestling shows in the States for 1984.

Richard played his character well, got heat, was able to grind down on Cohen. When it was time for him to show ass, he did. He bumped around the ring (but just one bump at a time instead of three), got dropkicked into a hanging in the ropes (replayed nicely with the slowmo), set up some spots for the butler (including Cohen chasing him around the ring, AND a repeat of what we saw in the last 83 tag where Saulnier as ref took a similar kicked away from the ropes and into the center of the ring bump), and even had a truly funny moment: after pulling the corner protector off, Cohen reversed him into it a couple of times and he gingerly tried to put it back on with deep regret. It was funny. So, I think, objectively, this was fine; it was the sort of stuff that Eric and I would write a bunch of words about and be glad that we saw. It just doesn't compare to what was came before, even what came a year before as we had just seen. The biggest sin wasn't a slightly slower pace or less technical back and forth or a lack of rope running; it was that Cohen didn't get more of a heated comeback before the Marquis got himself dqed with a corner crotching. They were getting over the character but I think that would have gone a long way to helping the match overall.

SR: I wonder if the Marquis ever faced the little Prince. This was the first sign of the old catch maestros slowing down. Both guys could still move but they only did the most barebones stuff and there were pauses between each movement. Not good.

Walter Bordes/Flesh Gordon vs Les MANIAK 2/25/84

MD: Flesh was really leaning into the gear here, with the lightning bolt tank top and belt. The Manics had sort of an Espectro, Jr look to them, with big hair and masks, but in grey with red splotches. My gut tells me that one was better than the other but I couldn't say that for sure. This was one fall but still went quite a while. Bordes and Gordon looked good. Les Maniak had one or two big moves (a front facelock drop that was nasty, a huge press up powerbomb type drop that may or may not have been intentional). They worked over Gordon's leg for their control but I'm not sure he had any real intention to sell it. A lot of what Gordon and Bordes threw out was still their tricked out stuff, but maybe things less reliant on their opponents, especially after the early going where there was some miscommunication on fairly simple things and Bordes seemed a little hot at one of the Maniacs. For instance, there was only one extended hold sequence of in and out, but it was a nice one where he kipped up repeatedly in an armbar until he got the headscissors to a big pop. There were a few quite gifworthy sequences in here, stuff that would be more like ten seconds instead of the usual thirty, and the never lost the crowd (Bordes is undeniable and Gordon really understood how to milk a moment for the back row, like when he just hung on a Maniac's shoulders and looked left and right before falling backwards with a Rana), but overall, this definitely felt a little disjointed relative to other matches of its ilk in the collection.  

SR: LES MANIAK. France was going full Catch y Lucha at this point. Apparently, Flesh Gordon was working Mexico in the 70s, so I guess that explains the crossover. This was even more Luchaesque than anything we‘ve seen before. Unfortunately, Les Maniaks, who acted quite sane and calculating, weren‘t very good here. There were several blown spots and their beatdown section dragged on forever. I enjoyed Bordes old man performance as usual. I can‘t tell if Gordon was getting lazier or if he was toning it down due to his opponent not being familiar with him. Anyways, this was charming and entertaining, but needed better rudo bases to work.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Corne! Caballec! Richard! Renault! Prince! Bouvet! Sanniez! Tejero!

Jean Corne & Rene Caballec vs Jacky Richard & Guy Renault 10/12/81

MD: This was just go go and more go but everything was mean and nasty at the same time. We've been watching Corne and Richard for years and years now with Renault and Caballec coming in and out of the footage but could they ever still go. You'd get Richard or Renault just feeding and feeding and feeding, bounding off the ropes, bumping around the ring while in holds, in and out and in again. Even when they slowed down, they didn't let up. It'd be Richard grinding on a chinlock and just punching someone right in the cheek and putting it back on or Caballec snatching a bridging headscissors to a standing Renault and the working of it just constant motion and struggle. And they'd move right into an armbar with Renault scooting around the ring and Richard bumping in trying to get a tag. Or Richard would have an arm puller on Corne with Renault continuously whacking him from the outside, eventually Corne would manage to knock him off the apron but they'd work right back into the hold until Corne could roll around into a headlock and kick Richard in the face. They just kept going and going, constant motion. Just one sequence after the next, constantly interesting and engaging and violent.

There were differences. Richard and Renault were the next version of the Blousons Noirs, I guess, now fitting for the early 80s, by way of Adrian Adonis and studded leather everything. I mean, it was still Jacky Richard. He had to be an old friend to most of these fans. There was a quick and out of nowhere first fall where Corne got clocked by him off the ropes, though. Even Delaporte seemed confused by it, but it did add a bit more drama, yes. The only time the match settled down were the real periods of heat where the heels were controlling the pace and beating down the stylists, and there Delaporte helped to bring the motion as ref as he bristled about. That didn't give the crowd any rest. It just ramped up the pressure for the comeback more and more. And that paid off with some big house cleaning moments from Caballec and clowning revenge by Corne. All of the turmoil boiled over into a short third fall as they worked towards the time limit with pin attempt after pin attempt before Delaporte got to partake in his favorite indulgence and declare the stylists the winners. Just a wonderful middle ground between working hard and working harsh.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going 30 minutes. Richard & Renault were donning the leatherman gear here. There were some structural choices here that may confuse people, but the work was undeniable. This kind of insane cardio show from a bunch of crusty old men is just befuddling. I liked the early pinfall to increase tension throughout most of the match, and there was just one entertaining exchange after another. Richard & Renault weren‘t bumping as big as other rudos we‘ve seen, but had no problem going along and looked considerably scummy. The crowd absolutely loved this and folks were jumping up and down anytime Les Celts got the upper hand.

Petit Prince & Gerard Bouvet vs Anton Tejero & Albert Sanniez 7/24/82 

MD: There's some question on whether this is 79 or 82, but given the technological advances (the names on the screen for instance), I'm thinking the 82 date is right. It's strange being in 82 as opposed to, let's say, the mid 60s where we actually have so little footage from the rest of the world. We have a great idea what wrestling looks like all over in 82 and it doesn't look much of anything like this. This was all the hits, once again, but it's amazing that Prince (and his bases, and Bouvet in his own way) were still able to do them 16 years after we first saw him. You can't help but wonder what it'd look like if Sanniez got to team with 82 Dynamite or Tejero with 82 Buddy Rose or with the potential 1980 Prince vs Fujinami match would have looked like.

It's the hits but the hits are so good, crazy wristlock exchanges early where a wrestler will hang on through everything, all of Prince's headlock sequences where you, and his opponent have no idea which direction he'll dart next as he twists around and through and over, so many cartwheels, Tejero bumping out the ring again and again, Sanniez with a chip on his shoulder, Bouvet being slick as can be. There's even the short arm scissors sequences with the Gotch lift and stumble over the top and right back in, with the actual heat in the match starting with Tejero cutting Prince off when he tries to go up and over the second time. That's the big difference between 66 and 82, that they're able to work the heat to a comeback better, with missed tags and distracted refs and everything else. That bit was probably just a bit too short to really inspire hearts and souls to rage though. It all still ends in a celebratory third fall with a lot of stooging, but even in 82 the action here more than holds up against anything in the world at the time.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going a bit under 30 minutes. This exact same match is also uploaded as being aired on 1/1/1979, so it‘s another mysterious case. This was a "more of the same" match with some sequences being replicated exactly as in the previous Prince/Rocca match. That is to be expected, I guess, and there were still like 10 sequences that would have most luchadors drop their jaws with envy. The man bringing something fresh to the table was Bouvet, doing some more technical stuff and even a skin the cat spot. Tejero was a bit more subdued here, so Sanniez stepped up being the
master of the hair pull. There was no intense heat segment like in other French tags and the faces handily bagged this one 2:0, so I guess that disqualifies it from a Best Of list anyways.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Corne! Caballec! Richard! Sanniez! Lasartesse! Mercier!

Jacky Richard/Albert Sanniez vs Jean Corne/Rene Caballec 9/8/80

MD: Caballec is someone we've seen a few times in the footage, going all the way back to the early 60s. Last time we saw him, he was positioned as a bad guy but I noted that he seemed to have stylist skills. He certainly showed them off here. Sanniez, of course, had been an arch stylist but he'd worked out how to be a bad guy in his time in a role. He and Richard were perfectly balanced, the stooging, bruising, slamming, jawing Jacky and the slick, bumping, technical, rope running, and constantly trying to interject from the outside Sanniez. Between the two of them, you had just about everything you could want two stylists to go up against. And of course, Corne was one of the very best at what he did; by this point, it feels like the Celts were as iconic and as much of a staple as the Rock'n'Roll Express, even if Corne was the constant and partners moved around him. In between them was that old walrus, Delaporte, gruff and even more aged than we last saw him, but beloved and one of a kind in his reactions.

Richard comes off again and again as one of the best wrestlers in the entire footage. He's not going to be one that casuals who drop in for trampolines and Petit Prince headlock spots are going to notice, but he's a base's base and a stooge's stooge and a mauler's mauler. He's the glue. He's the reaction that gives meaning to the action. He's the consequence ready to strike and capitalize on an opportunity. Here he's gotten even better at working with Delaporte, working with the crowd (and hating the music from the Celts' fan club), while still being able to take everything and keep up enough to make it all work. They work this to a draw, though that doesn't really make the first twenty minutes much different than what we'd be used to in a long 2/3 falls tag. What it means, as much as anything else, is that Richard and Sanniez are quick to rush into break up pinfalls and earn Delaporte's ire. At one point, after Richard snuck something and the fans called him on it, he pointed to him with the most perfect "J'accuse!" imaginable. They got the heat that they did did by running circles around him, attacking a downed opponent while he was stuck admonishing the other. He got the last laugh as after the time ended, he declared the stylists the winner anyway; he's the promoter so he can do that.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going 30 minutes. If all 80s French wrestling is just gonna be quality workrate tags like this involving lumpy maestros, I‘d be fine with that. The opening exchanges were just ridiculously fast and intricate. It was like watching Navarro/Solar on speed. I also enjoyed Albert Sanniez a lot here, who may be the best of the French rudos. He just makes everything look great. The structure was a bit weaker than in the previous tags as it seemed like the faces were never really in trouble and there wasn‘t an extended heat segment. Roger Delaporte was the referee here and for some reason he keeps this in order. Being a legendary TV villain and then turning around to be a good guy referee is weird. The time limit ran out, but Delaporte declares Corne & Caballec the winners anyways. The work here was very good, but I could see some people being annoyed or confused with the match layout.

Guy Mercier vs Jack de Lasartesse 10/5/81

MD: And suddenly we're in October 1981. The wrestling in 1980 was good! So it's a shame that we're basically a year later without much to show for it. This is our lot though. We shall meet it with dignity. There's still quite a bit left after all. They say it's been thirteen years since we've seen Lasartesse and the footage bears out at least 11, I think. Delaporte is the ref. I'm with Sebastian that the big issue on this one was that Mercier's comeback just wasn't hot enough. Lasartesse had taken over fairly early by working the back and he did it well, with hard shots, pulling the corner protector down for whips, backbreakers, butterfly suplexes. When it came time for the comeback, it was sort of an eyerake out of the bearhug, which led to legwork and the duel selling of the leg and Lasartesse's ears as I think he was doing the Mongolian Stomper gimmick of the crowd noise hurting him. He's such a unique character, with his lanky limbs and gum chewing and the way that he always sells and strikes while he's just constantly walking, like a shark who can never stop. When he sells late in the match by writhing and not walking, having lost his swagger, that's when the fans know he's in trouble. Before that, he's always a long-reached hairpull away from escaping any hold. Mercier does a good job selling the back and then coming back with leglock after leglock and Lasartesse does take back over later, leading to a fairly fiery comeback and strike exchanges towards the bell, but it's just not as primal as a Van Buyten (or Jacky Corn for that matter) match would have been. Great build, but the payoff sputtered too much.  

SR: 1 Fall match going 30 minutes. Lasartesse was sporting blonde hair here and hadn‘t fully morphed into the evil grandpa looking guy yet. This had the weird Lasartesse match problem where he did a ton of offense, but the match wasn‘t as smartly laid out as his better matches. His offense looked good, especially the knee drops and throat jabs, but Mercier wasn‘t able to stage some kind of epic comeback against that like a Van Buyten type worker would have. I thought Mercier was too small to fight Lasartesse (seems there was a lack of big guys on the French scene), and while he does fine, he doesn‘t do a ton of interesting things here either. He was mostly hogging Lasartesses leg which
didn‘t lead anywhere. There was also the thing where Lasartesse hits his sick ass knee drop off the top rope followed by the tombstone piledriver which is a finish if I‘ve ever seen a finish in French catch, but Mercier just kind of gets up and they move on with the match. Guys will get pinned following a bodyslam or hip throw, but for some reason everyone survives the Tombstone Piledriver. This also goes to a draw and again, referee Delaporte declares the face the winner which feels like it completely eliminates the purpose of a draw. I‘m probably making this match sound worse than it was, the work was good and especially Lasartesse had a good showing, but the baffling layout choices prevented this from being more than that.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Corne! Falempin! Richard! Menard! Bordes! Rocca! Sanniez! Bernaert!

Jean Corne/Michel Falempin vs Jacky Richard/Jean Menard 8/22/77

MD: I wouldn't call this one balanced, but the actual wrestling was just excellent. They went around twenty minutes of a first fall in and out of holds, with rope running, quick exchanges, some fiery slugging, certain things that were somewhat innovative for the times, like crabs and a backslide takedown and even a doctor bomb sort of takedown. Menard was able to do quicker and more elaborate exchange but Richard had a way of falling like a tree and stooging more and really could keep up on the rope running. Delaporte (announced as the "former licensed villain of wrestling"), as ref, was a non factor for the first fall, just the guy with the best seat in the house. The second fall had the heels cheat to take over, with Delaporte getting frustrated and admonishing one while the other made cheapshots. The last fall had a fairly quick hot tag and both guys tied up with another spot of Delaporte getting stepped on and encouraging the stylists to keep it going. Quick and celebratory. It's not how I'd want this match to have been balanced, but it's the style, and as a match in the style, it was excellent. Just great wrestling all around.  

Walter Bordes/Claude Rocca vs Albert Sanniez/Pierre Bernaert 8/29/77

MD: This was a tale of two matches, or at least of two falls. The first fall felt very complete, had some really nice exchanges, fresh ones too because it wasn't just Bordes but also Sanniez and Rocca, who we've not been able to see much of. Bernaert was a surprise. It'd been a while since we'd seen him and he was certainly up there in age, but he wrestled early on like someone with something left to prove. By this point, Delaporte was old hat as ref. The matches and spots were not based around him. He was able to bluster about when the heels were cheating and worked into the comedy at the end (more on that in a second) but he felt almost like an expectation instead of an attraction. Still, it was nice to see Bernaert in there with him as they knew how to play off of one another. After a lot of wrestling, the heat based on double teaming, and a rousing comeback, the second fall was entirely shtick. Sanniez bumped all over the ring for it, Bernaert begged off like a champ, and Delaporte fed people into the next spots when applicable, but it wasn't quite as imaginative as you might have hoped with the pieces at play. Still, overall this was a good one, a comfortable one. By now we're well aware of the ebbs and the flows and pacing of late 70s tags and matches like this feel right in a way that they might not if you weren't awash in them.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Prince! Hassouni! Tejero! Remy! Angelito! Sanniez! Bordes! Zarak!

MD: Unfortunately, this has more audio issues, but you can watch it without problem with headphones, only using your left earbud and not the right. It's a good week of matches though, so tough it out.

Kader Hassouni/Petit Prince vs. Anton Tejero/Bob Remy 1/7/77

MD: This one is for some cup and well worth watching. Tejero's one of the best bases and bumpers in the footage so having him paired up against Petit Prince is pretty special. Hassouni was slick as could be and Remy was a meat and potatoes slugger bad guy so all of the pieces were right here.

Structurally, this is probably the most perfect tag in the set. Yes, there are some Blousons Noirs (and others) matches with more (or longer) heat, but this was balanced just right for the style and had, finally and I don't say this lightly, the hot tag we've been waiting on for so long. It gets around 35 minutes with the first 15-20 the wrestling we'd expect from these guys, lots of holds and escapes and the stylists looking great at the expense of the heels. The heat really kicks in with Hassouni getting knocked to the floor, with the crowd moving to help him but he ultimately unable to make it back in. From there, even after a tag to Prince, they really dig in, distracting the ref, laying in mean shots, and ultimately getting the ringpost guards off to the point where Prince gives us that rare, rare French Catch blood.

This segment isn't long, but between the blood, Prince's selling, and the fact that they cut off the tag a couple of times, including one where the ref misses it, it really ramps things up so that when Prince monkey flips both heels and bounds back for the tag, the place comes unglued. Hassouni makes quick work of them on the comeback to take the second fall and the third, as you'd expect, is all celebratory stooging double teams to the crowd's delight. This is the style but it's got incredible talents with great personalities and is tightened up to make things mean even more than usual. If you've been following these tags at all, you should put on some headphones, listen with one ear, and watch this one.

Angelito vs. Albert Sanniez (JIP) 2/19/77

MD: We get the last ten minutes of this and it's just wild action. Stylist vs stylist. Juniors. They just really go at it. Counters to counters, big shots, huge spots. Some fun parallel stuff (be it both guys going for a drop down at the same time or later on when Sanniez hits a press slam into a gut buster and Angelito follows with a fireman's carry into one). Sanniez is smoother but Angelito is pretty imaginative. The thing is, Sanniez has to take all of this stuff and make it look good! The absolute craziest thing is a sunset flip bomb off the apron by Angelito to Sanniez. In 1977. Just nuts. Sanniez hits a bomb later in the ring, which I don't think we've seen too much in a while. They're working towards the draw, but they're working exceptionally hard. Sanniez looks like an all-timer here and in a vacuum this is probably some of the most action-packed ten minutes of footage in the whole set. 

Walter Bordes vs. Zarak 3/12/77

MD: Sorry guys, switch to the right earbud on this one until around the 15:30 mark and then go left. Anyway, Bordes had an absolutely undeniable connection with the crowd. It may have been inherited but you watch a match like this, you see him get fiery and just take one swipe at an opponent, not even landing, and you hear the crowd start singing Mamadou and it's beyond doubt. They go even more nuts with the singing when he tosses out Zarak later. He knew it, knew how to play into it, and here, he had an opponent who understood it just as well, for Zarak was our old friend Batman, David Smith-Larsen.

Larsen, here wrestled completely differently but with the same sort of theatricality he brought to Batman. Here he was a strutting, masked strong man with big power moves and mean clubbering blows. He overpowered Bordes' early attempts but ultimately got outwrestled, the first fifteen minutes or so being very entertaining along these lines. Eventually though, Bordes missed a top rope headbutt (or splash) and Zarak really took over with huge power moves, a press slam into a gut buster, a fireman's carry into a slam, Quasimodo's tombstone position press up move. Ultimately, he catapulted Bordes out and forced him to take some really nasty bumps to the outside. But Bordes was a hero true and he came back and tried for pin after pin after pin as the clock ticked down. This was probably the best push to a draw that we've seen, really gripping stuff with Bordes trying everything and Zarak slipping out again and again. It's not the best match we've seen but it truly felt iconic and really gives you a sense of the skill, flash, and attitude of mid 70s French Catch.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Swimming Pool Matches! Lamarre! Montreal! Mantopolous? Hassouni! Mystery Wrestlers!

3/22/74 (All Matches) - Thanks to the community for helping us identify some of the wrestlers here.

Pierre Bernaert vs Gilbert Wherle

MD: I have to admit, I'm not sure who we're looking at here. If this is a card with three matches televised (even over multiple shows) then this is third from the top which seems to be something we rarely see? There's no announcer. This is a draw with 9 minutes left when we come in. The heel kind of reminds me of Bernaert with his hair and cheating and confidence in movements, but he's a little bit too short (Edit: It was!). Hopefully we can crowdsource some answers. Anyway, they were working towards a draw here, in this swimming pool match, so it was very back and forth. The crowd seemed younger (teenagers and twenty-somethings) than what we usually see. The heel would get mean shots in, the face would come back with some revenge shots of his own. There was a pretty good chinlock in here and the face had great arm-wrenching holds, including something akin to the first cross armbreaker we've seen. The heel's attempts to cheat varied from nefarious to absurd (repeatedly grabbing the ropes on a pin as the ref kicked it off). We've seen in draws that the ref will just decide for someone, generally the face, and when that happened here, the heel complained to the point where the ref just pushed him off of the apron into the water. Any ideas on who these two are?

Ted Lamarre vs Mr. Montreal

MD: This got a decent amount of time, but was overall quite good, especially for a swimming pool match. Lamarre, in some ways, mainly the mustache and the tactics, comes off as a less whinging Delaporte, and I do think this was Delaporte's promotion since last time we saw Montreal, he was up against him. But it was a solid act, especially for this crowd. Montreal controlled with his strength early. It wasn't just tossing Lamarre around either. H

e used the strength to make the holds look great and to counter every escape attempt definitively. They were able to move in and out of things well. When Lamarre took over, it was with a lot of cheating and cheap shots, especially draping Montreal's neck over the top and pulling the rope back. Montreal would try to hammer back at times but Lamarre was quick to get the next bit of cheating in. When Montreal did come back, he often took things too far and the warnings started to pile up. Everything came to a head in the celebratory last five minutes when Lamarre (who had skinned the cat once or twice) finally hit the pool on a huge back body drop. At first Montreal wouldn't let him back in. Then he tied him up in the ropes and kept running into him head first. On the third one, the ref got in the way and ultimately, really got in the way and Montreal picked him up to almost drop him in the pool as well. All this lead to a DQ win for Lamarre but the fans hardly cared. Past the ref getting soaked, they got pretty much everything they wanted out of this one.

Kader Hassouni/Vasilious Mantopolous? vs Bernard Caclard/Albert Sanniez

MD: I wish I could do better on this one. I did a little cross checking. One of the heels is an Elisha Cook Jr. looking guy who I'm sure I've seen before. The other one has a goatee and a buzzcut and I'd believe could be either eastern European or Le Vicomte Joel de Norbreuil by looks alone. Unfortunately, he doesn't actually look like him but he looks like someone he could be NAMED him, monocle and all. If I had time, I'd go back through some more matches to cross-check but hopefully you guys can come through. One of the stylists is definitely Kader Hassouni. The other wrestles like Mantopolous, with the hand behind the back feints and spin kicks and a great roll up at the end, and that confidence that was despite his size but I never get a good enough look to be 100% sure.

The match itself is good though. We come in during the second fall, I think, and the heels manage to do a great job cutting off the ring in between fast exchanges. Someone asked me the other day if the quality of the footage has dropped off yet and I said no, but that it was different. One element of that is that they got better at getting heat in tag matches in a more "southern" style. It didn't always pay off well but it was better than just giving up tags whenever. I wouldn't say we had a lot of long holds here either but all of the ins and outs were good, and when things really picked up in the third fall, there were some great pool bumps that the fans absolutely loved, first Hassouni launching a tope suicida right in and then the heels ending up one after the next, ending with the ref. They did a ton of these shows and the fans really did seem to love them.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Sanniez! Hassoni! Bernaert! Calcard! Prince! Noced!

Albert Sanniez/Kader Hassouni vs Bernard Caclard/Pierre Bernaert 2/15/73

MD: Another swimming pool match. We've seen some of these that were fairly weak but the last one we saw was pretty funny (though Catanzaro being in it stacked the deck) and this one had some great action, but then again, it had Sanniez who is one of the best juniors we've seen out of France. Bernaert, by this point, was an incredibly experienced tag team worker, a great stooge, and here, actually wrestled a bit more than we'd seen him in a while since much of the action was kept to the center of the ring given the water surrounding them. That said, and while Bernaert took most of the bumps into the pool throughout the match (Calcard's saved for the post match own goal), I'd say it was Caclard who created much of the motion on the heel side, as he was able to base and keep up for Hassouni and Sanniez's quickness. Calcard had a great front chancery suplex throw too. Sanniez' reverse bridging headscissors escape remains amazing to watch and he did it twice here. When it came time for the heels to take over (after Sanniez went flying through the ropes on a tope to nowhere due to a missed move), they were sufficiently vicious as you'd expect. Honestly, the pool didn't limit the action much at all, even when the ring was bobbing violently towards the end given how fast and hard they were going. Maybe this would have been slightly better as a conventional match but it was still very good overall.

Petit Prince vs Daniel Noced 3/16/73

MD: Every Petit Prince match we haven't covered is a treasure and this is no difference. I wouldn't call it the most impressive or spectacular match we've seen, but it's one of my favorite performances of his. He seemed more mature as a wrestler when it came to selling a limb, to squaring up to build anticipation for a move, in knowing when to go all out with speed and when to milk something for the crowd. Noced was exceptional too, both as a base, and as a stooging, bullying jerk, a real contrast to the Prince. There was just a little more stalling out of him than we've seen lately, a little more of that focus on his nose towards the end of the match when you'd expect things to be picking up, but it worked because the fans were emotionally invested and because the Prince played a long, one way to take them down one last time before the finish.

After some quick chain wrestling to start, they settled into around fifteen minutes of holds here, Noced controlling to start, first with a wristlock and then a hammerlock before the Prince took over with a short arm scissors. All of it was brilliant. What people will ultimately know about this match will probably come from the gifs of the escapes and escape attempts, and there'll be yuking it up about how wrestlers are spot monkeys or whatever else, but it's the set ups that make all of this really resonate. It's like chess, with each attempt at an escape built up with three bits of motion to even create that opening, and then multiple escape attempts being necessary before slipping out can occur, and then it's usually right back in so that they can take it back down and build it back up again. Without having two or three minutes to work the hold and slowly escalate upwards, the ultimate bursts of motion and acrobatics wouldn't mean nearly as much. Taken as a total whole, it creates the illusion of believable counters on top of counters, with Noced often not sure which way the Prince will go next and trying to adapt during and after the fact. Looked at as just a gif in isolation, it's going to be an amazing spot, but taken as a whole, there's an underlying struggle that creates the environment for which it can exist. But please, gif this stuff anyway; people should see it. And if it takes them back to the source, all the better.  But without the long dedication to a hold, the ultimate flash would feel far, far more empty.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Le Bete Humaine~! Catanzaro~!Lemagourou~! Sanniez~! Remy~!

Jacky Montalier vs La Bete Humaine 2/8/71

MD: Young Jacky Montalier had a few things going for him. He really laid in his shots. He had any number of holds mastered and could hang on to them when needed. He had a cheering section of young ladies in the audience in a way we hadn't really seen. He even had a cool jacket with JAKY on the back (no C). Unfortunately, he was up against Willy the Shepherd, recently from Texas, also known as the deranged masked creature, La Bete Humaine, the human beast. We've seen pretty out there characters: Quasimodo, multiple headsmen, a hippy, a cannibal, even the Martian on the outside, but this might be the strangest. I had rushed this one out a couple of years ago and I called him a cross between Tom Magee, the Missing Link, and the Ultimate Warrior, and I'm still sort of feeling that. La Bete, despite being huge, could do a lot of the more athletic stuff you'd expect: leap to the top rope, hit ranas, do the over the top backflip out of a cravat, hit lunging dropkicks. And he was certainly full of out of control antics: pulling the ref's shirt off or tossing him over the top, tossing Montalier out repeatedly, tossing a fan over the top post-match. Mainly he liked to toss people out of the ring. So there was some skill here and Montalier tried to stay in it, but one thing La Bete didn't like doing a whole lot was sell, and that made this a few minutes of real curiosity and awe, and a lot more of awkward gawking at whatever the heck they were trying to accomplish in there.

Billy Catanzaro/Gilbert Lemagourou vs Albert Sanniez/Bob Remy 3/12/71

MD: Kind of amazed we haven't already done this one. Sanniez is someone I'm really looking forward to as we still have a half dozen matches with him remaining and he's been great so far. Lemagourou was a solid stooge here, hitting hard when in control and taking everything with enthusiasm, but it's impossible to stand next to the dynamo of energy that was Catanzaro. He just swallows up all the air around him, like a Jim Breaks on speed. He complained about every shot he took, only to run right into the next. He took every advantage like it was the most natural thing in the world. He fed every spot. He'd eat a dropkick right in the face, but not until scrambling around like a madman for positioning first. When they took over around the middle of the match, they controlled the ring well, drawing in their opponent and distracting the ref and put on a very credible beating. Catanzaro's tombstone set up facebuster and then the tombstone itself led the commentator to speak about crushed vertebrae, which is always what you're looking for in such a move. This never reached the level of the most insanely quick lightweight tags of this era, but they did pick up the pace well and then made things resonate with the character work so it was a good balance. Sanniez had some great escapes but Remy was able to hold his own too. I think we have one Catanzaro match left to go in 72.

PAS: Cantanzaro really has the feel of a guy, that if we had five more matches we could make a top 20 of all time argument. He has the Cesca classic, nothing for over a decade and then a couple of tags where he is working as a manic athletic heel and he is just mesmerizing. In perfect position for every big spot, bumping feeding heeling. Everyone else was good in this too, but man what a talent. 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Gastel! Magnier! Barreto! Williams!

Abdel Kader Boussada vs. Jean Luc 2/1/69

MD: We get maybe nine minutes of this, which is probably around half, and it's pretty good if a bit formless. Jean Luc's a fairly nasty bad guy with solid forearms and brazen stomps. Boussada comes back with headscissors takeovers and dropkicks but gets cut off with some rudimentary but solid legwork. Eventually they pick up the pace for a rope running finish. Either of these guys would probably put on a strong showing against a different opponent but this never rose above a certain level.

Guy Cavillier vs. Albert Sanniez 2/1/69

MD: Twenty minutes of pure forward motion. Sanniez is excellent and has maybe the best bridge in wrestling history and a great ability to land on his feet. This is our only look at Cavillier and he could more than hang with Sanniez. This built but never stopped, beginning with a wristlock that Sanniez did everything possible to try to escape to holds and shots, finally culminating with Sanniez with an athletic advantage, but both wrestlers sailing to the floor for an unsatisfying double countout. At times, they were almost flowing one forearm into the next, back and forth. The best part was probably a bridge so deep out of a chinlock that it first looked like Cavillier was going to break Sanniez in two until it became obvious that his trained flexibility actually gave him an edge in the exchange, ending with both guys roll into the ropes and the ref. Good stuff but it mainly left me wanting to see more.

Robert Gastel/Fred Magnier vs. Don Barreto/Eddy Williams 3/8/69

MD: Williams and Gastel are two of my absolute favorite guys in the footage. I wouldn't say they always end up in the best matches, but their performances are always excellent. Williams is smooth, has the crowd behind him, hits hard on comebacks. Gastel is a mean mug, a clubbering, stooging beast, one of the most distinct personalities we've seen, endlessly memorable. They're not always partnered with the best wrestlers, especially Williams who ends up with attractions who can't always carry their weight. Here though, they have perfect partners. I can't find much about Barreto but he could hang with Williams, able to do what was expected in France like the up and over headscissors escape, had some great shots, including an amazing corner flurry to the gut towards the end, and had a great jumping headbutt that was exactly what the crowd wanted. Magnier looked like Gastel's little brother, same body type, same mugging expression, same hard shots and mean stomps. Their favored means of assault in this one were hidden chokes while holding their opponent up, Magnier using a fireman's carry and Gastel a rib-breaker position, and then dropping them neck first over the top rope.

The heat was accordingly great, especially since the fans really wanted to get behind Williams and Barreto in the first place. While this was structured like a normal French tag (long first fall with plenty of heat, a hot tag or two, and the heels ultimately winning, a second fall where the faces come back and win fairly quickly and a third fall which is just as quick where the faces continue their advantage and either slip on a banana peel or pick up a win), the crowd was up for everything and everything worked. Towards the end of the first fall, the fans were absolutely going after Gastel and at one point, the heels rolled back in the ring just so the crowd would stop swiping at them. All the while, the low lighting gave this a fairly unique mood. The finish let the stylists keep the momentum going while still protecting the heels even if it wasn't exactly satisfying. Still, overall this was a great tag.

PAS: This was really cool, I love that we have a cool black tag team in 1969 France, I can just see Eddy Williams hanging with Josephine Baker or  James Baldwin in a Parisian cafe or nightclub. I loved how this whole fight escalated, with the heels choking and slugging and cheapshotting until the babyfaces exploded and laid them out. The spot where they were bouncing Gastel back and forth with uppercuts was awesome as was Barreto's combo punching in the corner, it really felt Lawlerish. We didn't really get a super satisfying finish, which is often the way these tags work, but I loved all of the meat. 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Bollet! Weicz! Cabrera! Sanniez! Martino! Caclard!

Jack de Lasartesse vs Bernard Vignal 8/24/68

MD: Just two minutes here and a chunk is taken up talking in the crowd. A shame as Vignal probably matched up well against Lasartesse. He's doing well here until he misses a drop kick. Anyway, we don't get to see much before the bombs away and Lasartesse tying him up for shots in the corner until he shoves the ref in the most casual, irritating way possible to draw the DQ.

Andre Bollet vs Jacky Weicz 8/24/68

MD: The last six or seven minutes of this were really good. Bollet was laying it in, leading to Weicz coming back big. It all built to a perfect block of a punch and Weicz firing out of the corner and getting satisfying revenge by tying Bollet up in the corner. Bollet's a crafy one though and things ended with him getting legs up and hitting a big flip senton and slam. Unfortunately, the twenty+ minutes before that went on a bit too long. Weicz wasn't his uncle ("uncle?") who was apparently back in America at this point, but he was a capable enough stylist. Bollet's expressions while being choked were spot on, and his reactions after eating something as simple as an armdrag are all-time-great, but this just didn't have the manic energy and vileness I've come to expect out of him. It picked up now and again but for too long it was them trading holds, with Bollet using whacks and hairpulls to keep Weicz down and Weicz coming up with solid and sometimes creative counters. Either chalk this up as a perfectly fine match with some diminishing returns on a personal level or trust me that if you chipped ten minutes off of this in bits and pieces, it'd be a really great one. Still, if you're going to spend a solid 30 minutes with someone, Bollet, with his expressions, isn't at all the worst pick.

Pedro Cabrera/Albert Sanniez vs Tony Martino/Bernard Caclard 8/31/68

MD: This was more of a slugfest than the last Martino/Caclard vs Sanniez/Partner match we saw. Just a ton of great shots all around. That said, this had both less energy and less heat. The heels were excellent here but they just had too much of a tendency to knock Sanniez and Cabrera into the wrong corner, leading to all-too-easy tags and comebacks before any real heat could register. There were a lot of great individual exchanges, spots, and performances though. Caclard had a great headlock suplex and was a good base and stooge all around and we'll see him again. This is our second and last look at Martino who was just a tremendous cruiserweight bully and one of those guys we unfortunately only get two looks at like Tony Oliver. He must have bumped to the floor six times and had an interesting bodyslam variation which went up and over differently. So good action but kind of goofy structure. Caclard and Martino got heat whenever they tried to cut off the ring or especially drag someone back to their corner because you're not supposed to touch a guy before he gets up, but ultimately, they got clowned a lot, and the third fall was really all comedy where they'd get a spot or two but have it reversed in a big way on the repeated attempt and crowd-pleasing miscommunication, especially after a giant swing. Sanniez feels like an all-timer with amazing bridges and crazy handsprings and big spots and big shots and we'll see him again. Cabrera was young but hung well for the most part. The match would have been better served with them really beating on him for a while though.

SR: 2/3 Falls contest over a little over 30 minutes. The elusive Tony Martino shows up again! His presence in this match, along with Sanniez also being there and Sanniez & Caclard later becoming a heel team themselves, it makes me wonder whether Tony Martino was their maestro. His and Caclards tendency to not outright cheat and instead proving their wrestling ability without the typical overt cheating certainly stands out. This was in the same style as the fantastic Martino/Caclard vs. Sanniez/Sullivan match from years earlier. The first fall of this had some beautiful, beautiful work. I loved the basic throws Martino whips out and  there were some awesome flexibility spots. Of course, there were some beautiful ranas and dropkicks as well. The match soon became european uppercut city though and turned into the fiery hot mix of hard hitting blows, heel roughhouse tactics and athletic babyface moves that was clearly these guys speciality. Martino is so clearly an awesome worker that it‘s hard not to be sour over his lack of tape appearances. He basically turns into a more nimble Terry Rudge with a boxing stance when he puts on those hammerlocks and starts clubbing away. Cabrera is said to be another Spaniard, and while he is cleary less interesting than Sanniez he does fine in this. He certainly ate a lot of stiff looking uppercuts which made me think a bit that he was paying young boy dues here, but who knows. Another great match that falls just slightly short of being classic due to the finishes coming a bit abrupt, but I‘m not complaining. Any chance to see these guys go to work is awesome and the fact that they probably had dozens of matches with this kind of workrate is amazing.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Sanniez! Sullivan! Martino! Caclard! Noirs! LeDuc! BATMAN! BATMAN! BATMAN!

Albert Sanniez/Francis Sullivan vs. Tony Martino/Bernard Caclard 10/21/67

MD: At some point in this one, you just need to stop and sit back and relax and watch the thing. We've seen some very, very good middleweight tags over the last few months and this is where I wonder if they didn't go just a little too far, well on their way to the trampoline space catch match where you know they got too far. This was full of absolutely spectacular and amazing spots, spots that we hadn't seen yet in the footage chronologically, as best as I can tell. Sanniez had a way of contorting himself upside down and back to his feet that he used to high effect. Sullivan, past his great headbutts, was a tiny burst of terror able to fly around. Martino and Calcard kept up, certainly, and based and stooged and whatever else. At times, I think it felt too cooperative which is not something I've felt about almost any match too far, though everything had oomph behind it. They were countering counters, cartwheeling, headcissoring, rana'ing and blocking 'ranas. While the fans were appreciative throughout, everything shifted somewhat around the fifteen minute mark when the heels started to act that way. Martino especially was nasty. Now, the comebacks felt more earned and the big spots felt like they were worth something. There was a bit too much of the ref asserting himself (which made things feel almost like a midget match towards the end) but the moments of triumph came to feel triumphant. This match was at its best when it felt like a match instead of an exhibition, but at least the exhibition that we got for the first half was absolutely spectacular.

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 30 minutes. This was one of my absolute favourite French matches when I first saw it, and even so much more French catch being unearthed, it still stands out head and shoulders as one of the absolute top tier tags. What made this stand out among the dozens of French face vs. Heel tags was the technical skillset of Martino and Caclard. The opening minutes were just some beautiful wrestling, just basic throws and holds executed with a unique touch, such as the guys being dragged all the way over the back on snapmares as if they were judo throws, or guys being prevented from making headscissor escapes. Martino and Caclard largely stood their ground, and the first fall was basically 20 minutes of edge of your seat lightweight wrestling with a serious competitive streak. Eventually Caclard and Martino wanted to start roughing their opponents up and tried cutting off the ring, but Sullivan and Sanniez wouldn‘t let it happen. Eventually they just let loose and start beating the shit out of their opponents. 

Sullivan was awesome, like a mini Tenryu who could also do acrobatic moves, and during the heat segments he would just explode kicking the shit out of opponents with nasty kicks to the mid section, punches and those explosive dropkicks. Caclard looked snotnosed but was quite the fucker too, and you get the sense the heels were really trying to bruise up the faces kidneys. I also really dug the use of the hammerlocks and chickenwing. So the 2nd fall has the rudos evening the score through rough methods and the 3rd fall was all out with the faces having to step up to those foul moves. The athleticism in the match was just amazing, even by the standards of French wrestling. I think both Sanniez and Sullivan had an acrobatics background and it showed as they both busted out beautiful athletic counters, dropkicks and ranas left and right. They weren‘t afraid to throw hard shots too, and so the match just became a frenzy of beautifully executed and timed sequences and brutal strike exchanges. At one point Sanniez was bouncing around hitting like a dozen dropkicks to the left and right, something that would even make most athletes throw up. They went about all this in such an elegant and seamless way as if doing this kind of match was natural for them. Total classic, and still a stone cold contender for the best of all the French tags which would pretty much make it a contender for the greatest tag of all time. Just 30 minutes of the most beautiful and violent pro wrestling ever filmed.

PAS: Wild stuff. The match was worked at a incredible pace throughout, but there were spots when they would amp it up to 11, which were some of the fastest things I have ever seen in a wrestling match. Sanniez especially could flip out of anything and land on his feet. I also really liked how it broke down into something more violent at the end, with some really sharp and nasty punches and kicks. That ability to get down and fist fight was something that really separated the magnificent French Catch lightweights with those that followed them. They were brilliant acrobats, but it wasn't just acrobatics wrestling needs that grit to really make it work. 

Gilbert Leduc/Batman vs. Blousons Noirs 12/1/67

MD: Our first hair match and maybe the most iconic Blousons match possible, with some interesting structural flourishes we just haven't seen much of. After a bit of even wrestling and babyface shine (with some unforced errors as the stylists miss a kneedrop here or there), the Blousons undo the corner protection and toss Leduc in to start the heat that'll extend past the surprisingly short first fall into the second. Just amazing tag work here as they cut off the ring and make sure to follow up every kick out or but of hope with a nasty kick to the back. As always, Manneveau is the stooge, constantly grabbing from outside and mugging and cheapshotting and Gessat is the meanest guy in the world with his shots. By taking the early fall, it means that the next twenty or so minutes has Leduc and Batman at risk of losing their hair. Ultimately, though, Leduc is able to counter an attempt at a double team and we get one of the hottest tags we've seen in all the footage. 

The second fall is very long, with Batman and Leduc having to come back from a severe disadvantage due to the beating in the first one. They'll get one up on the Blousons but then fall to cheating and double teaming until something ultimately backfires again. Here, Leduc gets to do all of his headstand spots and Batman gets to get in plenty of cartwheeling, but they almost always end up in the wrong corner and have to fight back from underneath once more. Ultimately, after the third big spot where they knock both guys out of the ring, they are able to tie up Manneveau which allows for the pin. After that, the third fall is academic and the only question is eliminating the other Blouson so the pin can actually happen. Therefore, the crowd goes nuts when Leduc runs around the ring to grab Gessat's legs from the outside preventing him from coming into break up the pin and leading to Manneveau getting shaved. There were a few moments in the second fall where it dragged just a little and they didn't quite press hard enough into the peril of the faces losing their hair, but in general, this was excellent, just an amazing, classic heel tag team performance by Manneveau and Gessat with the good guys more than holding up their end. There was more thought put into this one than normal too and it showed.

PAS: So cool to see an apuestas match from this time and this country, wager matches are one of my favorite things in wrestling history, and it is cool to see how the concept is adjusted in France. Fun dynamic with the Noirs being this killer heel tag team, nasty cheapshotters and hard hitters who have a bozo side as well. Both Batman and Leduc are escape artists, and much of the match was the Noirs trying to corral them, only to see Leduc and Batman slip out. I am a mark for LeDuc's master of the headspin spots, and he has some cool ones here, Batman is a bigger guy and he also has some very cool escapes along with some great looking dropkicks. I am used to hair matches in Mexico building to a violent climax, and this had a much more standard French Catch tag ending, with Gessat getting tripped up an Manneveau getting cradled. I would have liked to see it break down a bit more, but the work we got was very cool. 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Le Big Chief! di Santo! Zarak! Lecomte! Le Petit Prince! Sanniez!

Jose Arroyo vs. Georges Gueret 10/15/59

JIP with about 5 minutes shown. These two totally have a long awesome main even in them. This was more of a preliminary bout, but we got to see an awesome Arroyo punch combo and Gueret kicking some ass.

MD: We get about six minutes of this, JIP. It's a good showcase of Gueret who's a heel again. A long headscissors by him to start, but he works the crowd in his cutoffs in it. At one point he does that thing where you put your thumb on your nose and wiggle your fingers. Arroyo doesn't get a comeback here after this, because Gueret goes to the eyes and immediately chokes Arroyo in the ropes, tying him in them and jumping on the ring ropes from the other corner which isn't something you see often. When Arroyo comes back it's with flurries of strikes and lots of begging off by Gueret. They go back and forth for the last minute or two, with Gueret launching nice cheapshots and clubbering blows, before ultimately having his leg taken out once or twice and eating the fall on a failed bodyslam. We didn't see a ton of Arroyo here but Gueret came off as well-rounded as ever.

Lino di Santo vs. Le Big Chief 10/15/59

SR: 1 Fall match going about 25 minutes. „Le Big Chief“ has to be the greatest previously forgotten name in this entire project. He was this guy built like a tank who came in wearing a Native American head dress. I‘ve grown to expect war dances and chops from guys like that, but that was not the case for Le Big Chief. Instead Le Big Chief was this absolute violent menace. Boy oh boy. Lino Di Santo can get surely, but the Chief was beating the bricks off of him in a way few other heels in this territory or anywhere else could. Fish hooking, head stomps, nasty kicks and knees, the Chief was dishing out the kind of beating you‘d expect in a Tenryu match. After watching this I‘d say the Chief belongs with Hashimoto in the dome. The Chief had really great looking bumps for Di Santos uppercuts and dropkicks and a neat spot where he flung backwards over the top rope, plus a really amusing moment where he did a no water in the pool dive into the ring, so there was style to the madness. Di Santo gets to have some moments but mostly he is there to take an uninterrupted 20 minute asskicking and then win on a shady DQ. You know they must have had bigger things in mind for this Big Chief, but this is the last we see of him. Talk about abject and inexplicable violence.

PAS: The Big Chief is certainly in the tradition of Wahoo McDaniel as far as American Indians who will kick the piss out of you. One of the craziest things about this project is seeing guys like this, totally awesome wrestlers who feel like all time greats and just pop up once or twice. I would gleefully watch an old school 8 hour comp tape of Big Chief matches, but this is what we have. No big chops, but punches to the back of the head, fishhooks, this kind of downward eye poke strike which looks like it would dislocate retinas. Really felt like Kurisu's mom must have visited a Reservation. The no water in the pool dive was a great high spot and let to di Santo getting in some licks, and I always love the Dragon sleeper stoppage finish. French Catch can be both spectacularly smooth and violently rough, often in the same match. This was more on the gritty side, and I love gritty.

MD: I enjoyed this. Le Big Chief reminded me a lot of Iron Sheik in his prime, just from his body type and bluster. I wouldn't say his stuff looked smooth by any means. A lot of it was clunky and unfocused, but he was relentless on offense and kept things moving. He'd brutally swarm Di Santo again and again and again. It meant that instead of being back and forth, this was built towards a lot of smaller Di Santo comebacks, most of which could be quite memorable with dropkicks and forearms and plenty of revenge. Chief was more than happy to stooge huge in these moments. He'd whip Di Santo's head to the ground backwards twice, but when it was his turn to take it, he'd get whipped all the way over the top. Never giving Di Santo a moment to recover got him plenty of heat, as did the usual bevy of low blows and a fake handshake. Past the missed top rope dive attempt (which is exceptionally rare in this footage, especially for the 50s), the most interesting thing about Chief was the way he moved Di Santo around. He'd whip him off the ropes by his head, or get under him to pick him up and move him and even used a bum's rush type redirection once. He set up his dragon sleeper finish by lifting him with a choke and tossing him into the corner. Everything's so polished and trained and spot-based now that you rarely get something that feels so rough and natural. It added to things. That sleeper ended the first fall and Di Santo couldn't answer for the second. When Chief went after him anyway, he almost caused a riot. There wasn't a lot pretty about this one but it got the job done.

ER: I like Matt's Iron Sheik comparison for Le Big Chief, and I see it. I watched this and saw a Bad News Allen who actually delivered on his coolness potential. A lot of credit is rightly given to Big Chief's stiff ring work, but I came away impressed with his unique bumping and the way he would lean into all of Santo's strikes. di Santo didn't exactly need help making his strikes look good; when you elbow a man squarely on the chin, you are elbowing a man squarely on the chin. But I think we underestimate how uninteresting the fast flat back bump has made wrestling, and how that might be an actual contender for worst WWE stylistic change to make into an industry norm. di Santo brought the strikes, but I don't think they would have been anywhere near as interesting without some of Big Chief's spills. My favorite saw him take a forward bump and fall chest and shoulder across the bottom rope, but not linger on it for comedic purposes. I think that it's important he doesn't treat his bumps as comedic overexaggerated flourishes, as it's a very different vibe to take stooge bumps as stooge bumps while still treating the strikes as authentic. He pulls it off marvelously, utilizing the ropes in his bumps several times, finding neat ways to get his body to the mat after another gorgeous sky high di Santo dropkick catches him in the collarbones.    


Zarak vs. Jean-Pierre Lecomte 10/15/77

SR:1 Fall match going a bit over 10 minutes. Zarak was a British wrestler under a mask. It seems he was popular as he showed up on TV a lot, but he didn‘t quite have the same snap as the masked stars we‘ve seen in the 50s. That being said, he was a solid rudo in the vein of a Fit Finlay. Stepping on fingers and hitting a nasty piledriver. Lecomte was a balding guy with a mustache who was amazingly lithe and agile. He totally looked like dynamite cartwheeling around and running the ropes super fast. I dig any wrestler who looks like a PE teacher and is really athletic and Lecomte in this made me excited to check out his other sole appearance. At this length this was like a Nitro squash but it pushed all the right buttons for the time given.

MD: We're here for the Prince vs Sanniez match, but as a rule we watch whole shows. This is our first look at Zarak, who was a British wrestler under a mask. He's got an amazing heel swagger and strutting nature, and can base pretty well to boot. I'm not 100% sure about Lecomte but he might be the guy who played Der Henker (and maybe even Le Borreau) without a mask and as a spry, older Nick Kozak looking babyface. These guys were not small, but he launched into four or five cartwheels in the match, including one where he reversed course to dodge and grabbed a leg out of it which was really slick. There were definitely some marginal differences from what we were used to. There were more whips, maybe more ref intervention against the babyface (especially when he went for the mask), some of the armdrags felt different than what you'd see in the 50s, but the ebb and flow of Zarak getting ahead with cheapshots and Lecomte firing back big felt familiar. Pre-match, Zarak had taunted Lecomte with the universal, hands clenched up-and-down signal for the pile driver to Lecomte, and after some nice rope running (including that hip toss power slam that ends so many 50s falls), he hit a flip-up tombstone off the ropes for the win. Post match, he strutted and Lecomte got carted out on a stretcher. Wholly entertaining stuff.


Le Petit Prince vs. Albert Sanniez 10/15/77

SR: 1 Fall match going about 25 minutes. The Little Prince was 10 years into it at this point, but he could still seriously go. Sanniez was an athletic tecnico himself a few years earlier, it‘s quite interesting that he went from stellar tecnico to being a stellar rudo. This was like the worlds most athletic crowd pleasing house show main event you‘ve ever seen. It followed a predictable structure and had the old heel ref spots and what not, but the exchanges were so fast and intricate, the bumps so dedicated that you won‘t care. Sanniez was working this like Fuerza Guerrera, cheating from the get-go and coming across as pretty bumbling as he missed backhands and bumped like a maniac. He did show some glimpses of his past skillful persona and those exchanges were the highlights of the match. There was one exchange that lead into a flying short arm scissor that no one in the world now could pull off. It‘s been said before, but the speed that the Prince got on his stuff is a league of its own. Despite the mostly light hearted nature of the match the Prince ended up taking a big beating and being flung around (with a second in a blue jumpsuit who was also looking like a PE teacher and probably working the opening match that night catching him) before taking the finish in a classy fashion.

MD: Great showcase match for Prince. Sanniez was an admirable foil, quick with the cheapshots and hair pulls and bluster, able to mostly hang but always a half step behind in speed and finesse which only served to make Prince look better especially as he had to spend more than half the match working from underneath. Sanniez was able to cut him off effectively, often times having help from the ref. When it was time for Prince to get revenge, he got it big and entertaining. Lots of his flip-around go-behind up-and-over armdrags, some huge monkey flips, a tapatia, and probably my favorite spot of the match where he tied Sanniez up in the ropes and hit two charging headbutts, where on the second one, the ref who was trying to play interference got bumped dramatically over the top. Tail end of the match had some effective king of the mountain heeling by Sanniez, leading to Prince's final comeback and one of the best visual pins in a sunset flip you'll ever see as Sanniez was practically vertical. Huge spectacle with just enough substance to make it work.

PAS: This was maybe the most lucha match we have seen in this footage. We have the super athletic babyface flyer facing off with a bumping, stooging heel with a bit of Tirantes style ref worked mixed in. Prince is one of the most dynamic wrestlers of all time. He's remarkably fast and smooth with everything he does, but Sanniez is a hell of an opponent, getting huge height on all of his monkey flip bumps and eating all of the armdrags and headscissors perfectly. I really liked all of the king of the hill stuff near the end of the match, great way for the match to break down and add some nastiness to the proceedings. Cool stuff and any chance to see the Prince is a blessing.

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New Footage Friday: French Catch, Rollerball Rocco, Marty Jones, Choshu, Saito, Inoki

Kader Hassouni/Claude Rocca vs. Bernard Caclard/Albert Sanniez French Catch 3/20/76

MD: There's so much here that I'm not sure how you can talk about it except for as anything but generalities. It honestly reminds me a little of when I was trying to get into lucha and I'd watch one of those long, straightforward trios form the 80s where you'd get so dazzled by the exchanges and the tricked out matwork and the rote spots and the comedy and how they shifted gear that there's no way you could find the forest for the trees. I wish we had a hundred of these matches, not just because they're so spectacular, but beacuse it'd make patterns easier to find. I do think that's the best sort of comparison. I've seen our pal Jetlag harken this to some other athletic peaks of pro wrestling, and I can see that, but to me there's just an undertone of ritual and craft here and that's what stands out the most. I just haven't worked out all of the ritual yet. It's remarkable how they're able to shift from acrobatics to comedy to pummelling one another on a dime.

Some stuff is universal though. It just takes a little bit to get there. When they finally start registering what's going on (and they take their time to do so, but that's fine in such a long match with the ability to tag frequently). All of the reversals feel so fluid and natural while being complex; all it takes is just one touch, one grasp, one connection between one body and another to create a flip or a twist or a throw, but due to the speed, the way they throw themselves into it, the lack of hesitation and the immediate follow up, it feels like it's exactly how reality should be. Once things begin to settle, the heels start to play into some great repetition and oneupsmanship spots (two powerbomb like flips only to get back body dropped on the third, a face giving a body part to clown the heel only to have the heel try it and again get clowned).

Finally, things settled down even further as the heels take over with frustrated hairpulling and roughousing and doubleteaming. The faces come back with a big ring-rope shaking spot and a big miss dived, and start a whole new section with them using creative double teaming out of the corner (mainly trips) until they get a fall. The rudos comeback with tight offense out of their corner for the second fall. Then, with some miscommunication, it goes into a big rousing comeback including table bumps, brawling on the outside, crazy rope running, and more clowning. You know the old adage that a wrestling card should be like a circus? That it should have a little of everything. This match had a lot of everything.

PAS: This was pretty incredible, a lot of the French Catch stuff I have seen has had incredible exchanges, but doesn't build to a coherent finish. This is really a spectacular match which works as a standard tag match. It is pretty crazy that INA just puts up a random show on youtube and the match is of this quality. Calcard and Sanniez look like an all time tag team, nasty forearms and kicks, incredible basing for all of the tricked out takedowns and headscissors, killer bumping and stooging (there was a spot where Sanniez just dives off the rope and belly flops right on the mat), we even get an angle with Calcard shoving Roger Delaporte the promoter and getting clocked and thrown into the ring. I really liked Rocco throwing these cross armed chops to the throat and Hasssouni had some really fun WOS style mat reversals. As always with French Catch there was a dozen crazy flips and take downs which look like they are from 20 years in the future not 40 years in the past. I can just imagine the quality of the stuff sitting in their archives, hopefully it keeps dribbling out.


Rollerball Rocco vs. Marty Jones WOS 12/30/80

MD: We get the last few rounds of this. Jones is, of course, the ultimate opponent for Rocco. Rocco's over the top, stooging, complaining, endlessly abrupt and endlessly dangerous. Jones is the most "solid" wrestler in history, maybe, endlessly sounded, a stable presence in all of our lives, dynamic but never garish, a true hero of Brittania. While not rising to the level of some of the other footage we have of them, this actually dodged a lot of my major Rocco criticism, which is that he's so go-go-go that nothing ever sets in or has meaning, that he only ever pauses to sell meaning instead of stopping to do so. Here, he was really leaning into the post-exchange stalling and then letting it transition forward to him getting an advantage. This is good stuff, but it'd obviously be better served if we had the feeling out from the early rounds. It's almost all the payoff here. As always, I love how suddenly a fall can end in this style, that sort of sport over cinematic story feel. Rocco's menacing presence on the ropes is absolutely iconic (and hey, he hits a grounded double axe-handle which is always good to see in a world of people getting their feet up every single time), and Jones' missile dropkick is one of the best moves in the world in 1980. The ring falls apart as they're careening towards the brawl, so they just stay on their knees and punch one another, which is a perfectly fine way to end a wrestling match.

PAS: This was a juniors sprint, without much selling but it was a pretty dope one. If you are going to do a match full of spots, have them be cool spots. Rocco is the guy with the rep as a before his time spot guy, but I thought Jones had cooler shit. He was decapitating Rocco with dropkicks, they looked like Gaea Girls level, it wouldn't have shocked me to see Rocco spitting out teeth. Jones also hit an absolutely flattening flip senton, he landed full force on Rocco's ribs. I loved the finish, as the ring starts to break apart because of the force of Rocco's bumps, so they just wail away on each other, with punches and short forearms, great way to finish off a time limit draw. We miss the opening rounds, so this may have been more of a meal in complete, but it was a hell of a snack.

ER: Man I thought Rocco ruled here. I know we're supposed to act like he's British Kurt Angle, but that's starting to feel like pretty reductive criticism the more matches like this we see. Rocco feels like the perfect opponent for Jones, and I don't think Angle was a perfect opponent for anyone. I think Jones looked great here, but I don't think the match would have been nearly as interesting without Rocco leaning in to every single thing Jones threw at him, while coming back every single time with cheapshots. And Rocco's cheapshots were all nasty strikes, a headbutt to the gut, a close range shoulderblock to the collarbone, and all those awesome short rushing punches. I loved all of it. There's no way Angle would have made those dropkicks or huge senton mean as much as Rocco did here, leaning chin first into a running dropkick and stooging for all the fans at ringside after getting spatchcocked by that brutal senton. Amusingly, their end run was nearly identical to a 1978 Jones/Rocco match I watched earlier today, Rocco trying to run Jones into the turnbuckle from the apron, getting punched instead, getting nailed with a Jones missile dropkick, and then getting thrown vertically into the turnbuckle (I love that vertical hands free corner bump of Rocco's so damn much). The ring literally falls apart which robbed us of a decent ending, and we already missed the first part of this one, but damn was what we got killer.

Antonio Inoki/Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Masa Saito/Riki Choshu NJPW 8/2/83

MD: This felt big and epic, all the way from the Inoki chants as he was coming out to the post match lariats. It was full of grit and struggle. I really liked how Saito and Choshu worked together. They were constantly driving their opponent back into their corner. They had some fun tandem moves. Everything looked good. Everything looked dangerous, from the backbreaker/second rope shot to something as simple as Saito coming in to stomp Inoki so that Choshu could turn him into the Scorpion Deathlock.

Basically, every momentum shift in their favor was thought out and meaningful. The first few in Inoki/Fujinami's favor were fickle. Saito would hit his suplex, get a two count, and Fujinami would be up first to dropkick him twice in the face before making the tag. It was a great dropkick, and there's the ever-present sense of toughness in refusing to stay down, but man do they just wilfully refuse to tap into the everpresent emotion existant in tag team wrestling by not building to actual comebacks.

The counter argument is that when Inoki finally gets to fight back, he gets a little build. A sunset flip gives him the space to hit the back brain kick out of nowhere, then he has to reverse a posting on the outside (immediately thereafter) before hitting another one for the win. I don't think that moment was made any larger for it being the first meaningful comeback in the match though. I get that you just have to accept it as part of the style and appreciate the good (and there was plenty of that) but they always leave such good stuff on the table when there's no reason they can't have their cake and eat it too.

PAS: I liked how uncooperative the early grappling looked, no one was letting anyone grab anything, ever throw or grip was contested. Choshu and Saito were really rough and rugged throwing hard punishing chops and stomps, and some pretty cool double teams. I am an Inoki and Fujinami fan, but I had some issues with them in this match. Fujinami popping up after the Saito suplexes was pretty bad, Saito has amazing suplexes and Fujinami basically no-selling them was bush league it felt like indy wrestling shit. Inoki did his thing where he just decides to end a match. Saito beats on him and stretches him and Inoki just decides to hit a couple of enzigiris and get the pin. Choshu and Saito are a hell of a heel tag team, and it is cool to see them in a big star tag, and there were some real moments here, just don't think it totally came together.

ER: This was one of those cool as hell tag matches where it looked like the file was sped up, everybody moving at 1.5x asskicking speed. I dug everyone in this to some degree, but especially loved the viciousness of Saito and Choshu. Saito especially was so spry, so quick, and looking at all times as if he'd be able to lift and throw all three men in the match at once. He had a couple suplexes here that looked like we should be able to gif him throwing Inoki and Fujinami out of the building. I loved Saito and Choshu picking apart Fujinami, hanging him upside down in the corner and kicking at him, suplexing him, and I liked how they treated Inoki with total disregard. But yeah, gotta concur with everyone, seeing Fujinami pop up after one of those vicious Saito suplexes made me want to see Saito just suplex him over and over and over until he couldn't hit a dropkick. 

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