Tuesday is French Catch Day: Borne! Dewerdt!

Brigitte Borne vs Leo Dewerdt 8/11/84

MD: A swimming pool match where no one actually ends up in the water. This was actually more of a river match or a lake match. It's probably identifiable but there was a train going by at times which added to the ambiance. I got so many annoying comments begging for more such matches the last time I put a Borne match as public that I don't think I'll do that here. You guys can see it because you check the blog. This was clipped. They call a twenty minute mark at the 10:43 point, give or take, but you do get enough of this to make sense of it. They cut in to the studio and Delaporte commenting to cover the breaks. 

And hey, it's pretty good for what we get. They wrestle for the first ten minutes or so, do one spot where they tease the ref going over (a pretty smooth one actually where Borne navigates Dewerdt to be tied up in the ropes quite well), and then move in to more wrestling, a short beatdown, and the finish. De Werdt was Belgian apparently, mother of three, and a bit of a bruiser. Borne did quite a bit well, including how she engaged the crowd. She was excellent at that. There was a nice rolling armscissors in here.

There was also a spot I'm not going to clip where Dewerdt had her legs split, did a headbutt to her butt, and then tried it again and got caught in headscissors. Some things can stay in 1984 maybe? They cut to Delaporte to talk about it because of course they did. I imagine this was part of a broader card where people did end up in the drink, but this was a little anticlimactic without that I suppose?  

SR: The prayers have been answered - it's another Brigitte Borne match. Oh, and it's a swimming pool match, of course. And it seems to be part of Le Dernier Manchette, so they are interviewing Roger Delaporte, pretending to watch the match at a studio even though this was clearly filmed outdoors. As far as the match goes, it was good. Definitely proved their salt once again. They mostly worked holds. Tight simple stuff, with a few cool escapes and moments. I thought the match would end early when Borne already went for the body checks in the ropes at the 9 minute mark, but they went back and wrestled a bit more. A very young Didier Gapp was the referee here (later the referee at EWP in Hannover) and he was great at teasing himself being thrown over the ropes and landing in the water. Leo Dewerdt was billed as the champion of Belgium. She did some heel stuff like going for the eyes and not too much. Nothing outstanding from her but solid wrestling skill was displayed here. It's not a revelation like the other Brigitte Borne match we saw but it's a fun time and I'm glad I watched it. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Van Buyten! Vladimir! Lola! Brigette! Angelito! Hassouni! Richard! Menard!

Either 5/17/78 or 7/15/78 

MD: The poster below was in the footage itself. I have no idea who Rocco and Zorba are here (Claude Rocca maybe?). I'm also not sure on the date. I've seen both. Note that the second match in the footage is our first women's match, for those who might be curious at what the quality was there (high; the quality of "Combat Feminin" was high).

Le Grand Vladimir vs Franz Van Buyten

MD: The footage starts around twenty minutes in. Delaporte's the ref. There's no commentary but it sure seems like Van Buyten to me. There's no babyface in the history of wrestling quite like him. We get the last ten or so and they're fighting to a draw, though Van Buyten is almost constantly going for the win once he comes back. Lots of hard shots, especially off the ropes from Van Buyten, as well as slams, with Vladimir clubbering as well as anyone ever and using his knee a lot (knee lifts, knee crushers, knees to the gut). Van Buyten was constantly scrambling, avoiding chinlocks after mares with a quick roll out so he can rush to his feet to fire back some more. Delaporte calls him the winner on points at the end. Lots of empty seats relative to previous weeks. I'm not sure if that's just because we're earlier into the card than usual (this was the second match of the night) or what, but they missed some good action here.

Lola Garcia vs Brigette Borne

MD: This was excellent. It stands well next to a lot of the action we've seen in the 70s. It was very much more of the same, long holds well worked, building to big counters, big shots, and transitions into the next hold. Garcia looked to be the more seasoned of the two. Borne was working the stylist role and something of an underdog as well. Garcia had some amazing bridges, including one where she kept a toehold even after Borne had gotten an arm around her chin to try to counter. They were just constantly working for escapes, constantly driving for the next thing. There were moments I wish that they almost let things breathe just a little more, that's how hard they were wrestling. Some of what they did was incredibly slick too, like when Borne shot her into the ropes and followed in to tie her up, I've never seen it done so quickly and smoothly. The ref seemed to be favoring Garcia, and there was a tecnico/rudo sense that we do get sometimes, where the bad guy is expected to take some liberties but the stylist is held to a higher standard. It culminated in the one big comedy spot of the match where Borne kicked the ref into Garcia causing both to tumble over and the ref to go flying out of the ring. Hard-worked, entertaining, full of character. It's a shame we don't have another half dozen Garcia matches.

Jean Menard/Jicky Richard vs Kader Hassouni/Angelito

MD: I keep waiting for the quality to drop. It never does. I'm not sure how many people have been watching these from the start and following along week to week for the last few years during the pandemic, but I know it's been a few of you at least. This stuff is just still really, really good. Another great tag that goes long. It loses a little bit of focus in the second fall during the protracted comeback, but always with very good individual exchanges. Every time these guys lock up, it's just good wrestling.

Here, you had Angelito really showing off. He was able to pause in midair on hold escapes or monkey flips and really let things sink in. His bumps were huge. He just sailed across the ring on slams or biels and the occasional crazy, crazy bump to the floor. The ultimate finish is him not able to meet the ten count after missing a run up twisting moonsault. He had some really fun offense too including a repeated attempt at an elevated half crab and a doctor bomb just for the hell of it. Hassouni was a game partner, with a lot of quick pin exchanges with both Menard and Richard, trading holds with Menard, rope running with Richard. He had a flair for entertaining too, turtling into a lady of the lake for instance, and getting the crowd to sing Mamadou to his bouncing.

The announcer spent the whole match thinking Richard was Menard and vice versa but I at least know the former by sight by now (and you could tell from the public warnings, for instance), though I never know if it's Ricard or Richard. Regardless, Richard is an amazing base and clobberer that could still go when needed. He was announced as the "#1 Bludgeon" which is accurate. He also added press slams (into a gut buster and just a military press forward) into his arsenal. Richard was a clear bad guy here, constantly arguing with Delaporte, but Menard was mostly playing fair. He had endless amounts of cool stuff, slams from a suplex position, a Robinson backbreaker, a conjuro type spin out into a slam. Just a very interesting wrestler to watch. This followed the usual format for the late 70s, long feeling out, cheating leading to heat and a pin, a comeback in the second fall, and then a more entertaining third fall, with the entertainment less about comedy (save for Richard and Delaporte getting into it) than just all out action. The finish was abrupt and striking and a very cool spot for the time. Another great match, even if we know these wrestlers better than the announcer does now.

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