Tuesday is French Catch Day: Manneveau! Gessat! Aubriot! Bayle!

Les Blousons Noirs (Marcel Manneveau/Claude Gessat) vs Remy Bayle/Dan Aubriot 1/2/66

MD: More studio catch. We have this match in a different setting but I don't remember it well. I think, at the time, I didn't realize Bayle became Der Henker either and I imagine this is shorter which probably is a positive overall. As a slice of life thing, they have Couderc's grown up (or close to it) son introduce him, which I thought was a nice touch.

Match itself was a very good tag of its kind. Bayle had strength and technique. Aubriot had speed and technique. The Blousons pulled hair, came in illegally, controlled the ring, double teamed when they could. Thus there was a balance. Everyone worked into everyone else's spots well. It's a testament to Bayle that he could do both this and the Henker act. 

The stooging spots were all entertaining. The dogged offense by the Blousons was properly nasty and hit just the right note of enhanced reality (one pulling the rope up while the other draped the neck of his opponent over it). Gessat would miss a punch and bump on it but Manneveau was the one who would go way over the top with his reactions. Everything went wild midway through as a Blouson took a bump over the top from the ref (after tossing his opponent out) and they went towards the stands putting the cameras in danger. Just nice use of the studio. 

Great finishing stretch too as Aubriot really flexed his speed with rope running and ranas and what not. They did a double ko where they crashed into each other but Aubriot just beat the ten count (a finish I've rarely seen in any French Catch, let alone a tag) and there was much celebrating. Very fun stuff. 

SR: This was another match in that studio setting. A lot of quietness early on with no fans in sight, and they kind of wrestled in a suitable manner. A bit subdued but with plenty of neat wrestling going on. It never ceases to amaze me how many cool touches these guys would seamlessly work into an exchange, such as the blocked hammerlock that lead into a slick backslide. Even modern worker rarely think of things like that. They moved more towards the stooging, bumping and heel shenanigans that we associate with French tags and at that point the crowd came alive. Ridiculously well executed, down to even minute details such as Mannevau's headlock aiming the face perfectly at the camera. Things got more unruly with one of the babyfaces using the referee to flip out the ring and then the fight spilling into the audience ranks, which is not something we had quite seen like that before I think. They wrapped it up with some slick exchanges for a somewhat (18 minutes) match. A good match, not mega outstanding but definitely worth watching just for the clear look at the wrestling alone.

Read more!

Tuesday is French Catch Day: Aubriot! La Bête Humaine! Ben Chemoul! Bordes! Tejero! Montoro!

La Bete Humaine vs. Dan Aubriot 9/3/71

MD: In general, this went better than the last Bete Humaine match. I'd say there were specific periods of it which were actually quite good, most especially the first five minutes or so when Aubriot was trying to contain him in holds and was using every wrestling trick he had to stay in it. There was real and compelling struggle there. And of course, what La Bete could do here was considerably impressive. His cartwheels were impressive. How he jumped to the top rope (not to actually do anything, but...) was impressive. His flips back up and over Aubriot, including out of a hammerlock, definitely impressive. And some amazing dropkicks. Throughout the back two-thirds of the match he just didn't sell anything and with that in mind, it probably went on too long. The big spots where the ref jumped on when La Bete had Aubriot up in a fireman's carry and where both of them got dumped over the top were big crowd-pleasers. In general, La Bete was incredibly athletic and portrayed a wild monster well, and Aubriot held up his end in getting him over, but we have two matches of build and no payoff in the footage against someone who could stand to him so he'll end up as little more than a bizarre footnote of French Catch.

Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes vs. Anton Tejero/Antonio Montoro 9/20/71

MD: Ben Chemoul and Bordes vs Tejero/Anyone has been a pretty wonderful formula so far. Here, though, Montoro was very impressive. Tejero had put on some more weight but could still bump around and had big hammering shots and really a great look, but Montoro came off like an all timer. He could not only keep up with Bordes (whose stuff was more and more tricked out each time we see him) but managed an actual handspring off the ropes during one fast exchange (a gif of which went pro wrestling twitter viral over the weekend actually, thanks Allan and Emil). He had some cool stuff too including a conjuro (arm hooked spinning backbreaker) and really, just his ins and outs with Bordes had a lot of satisfying wrinkles and counters. Ben Chemoul and Bordes debuted a sweeping headlock series on top of their repeated headscissors and dropkick spots down the stretch. Tejero and Montoro bumped and stooged all over the ring and out of it and Bordes had one amazing bump over the top on a catapult. Structurally, they started fast and leaned into holds before picking things back up in the long first fall. The second was mostly heat, cutting off the ring and quick exchanges by the heels until the faces made the comeback, and then things were pretty celebratory in the last fall. Nothing groundbreaking but the fans loved every second of it and the action was good throughout with Montoro doing everything you could possibly want him to.

Read more!

Tuesday is French Catch Day: Blousons Noir! Aubriot! Bayle! LeMao! Kocheski!

 Dan Aubriot/Remy Bayle vs. Le Blousons Noirs (Manuel Manneveau/Claude Gessat) 4/9/66

MD: Excellent tag, but there's no reason to expect less from Les Blousons Noirs. By this point they have the balance down perfect, especially relative to their peers, losing even, fair (but quick and stylish) exchanges, but going quick to the cheating and double teaming and controlling most of the match by controlling the ring. The comebacks were big and spectacular. The match was full of big spots like Manneveau launching Bayle out of the ring with a belly to belly or Aubriot doing this amazing sequence of hitting a handspring, headbutting one guy off the apron and then putting the other into a tapitia or the finish to the first fall where they invert the revenge spot of tying a heel up in the ropes. Once the tide turned in the second fall, it was all but over which is the big issue with some of these: long first fall, much smaller second, and tiny third, but it was still pretty satisfying. Manneveau is an all time stooge and Gessat is an absolute pitbull but they can both go and give and take it equally well. Good stuff all around.

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 25 minutes. A nice mix of Aubriot and Bayle doing some pretty outstanding wrestling and the Blousons being vicious pricks. Licked the opening tumbling a lot. Marcel Manneveau looked great as usual. Mostly because he is an absolute fucker, but also because he really knows how to pick his spots. He attacked the fingers and wrist, suplexed people over the ropes, and did about everything a ghastly French heel needs to do. This didn't turn into some brilliant frenzy like the best French tags but there was plenty of violence, plenty of quick exchanges and it was pretty lean at only about 25 minutes.

PAS: Blousons are just incredibly entertaining, vicious killers, big bumpers, goofy stooges, everything you would want from a heel team. I loved the nastiest of their arm work stomping on the elbow in a over hand wristlocks, kicking faces, landing uppercuts. Aubriot and Bayle had some really slick shit too, the Aubriot finishing run to the first fall is the kind of thing which should be giffed and sent around the internet. The bar for French Catch tags is impossibly high, but this was a real treat even if it wasn't the super high end. 

Henri LeMao vs Zadi Kocheski 4/17/66

MD: Another look at the great Henri LeMao. If the world was just we'd have another dozen of his matches. We don't. He was a wizard and with excellent takedowns, holds, counters, striking. Kochecki was a loudmouth and while it was fun to watch him get more and more frustrated as the match went on, he never came across as particularly dangerous except for the very end when he tossed LeMao out and was playing King of the Mountain.  My favorite bit was an exchange where LeMao got Kocheski caught in the ropes only to graciously let him go; Kocheski immediately followed suit by trapping LeMao in the ropes and hammering him; so, of course, LeMao got revenge by trapping him again and hitting the charging headbutts to the crowd's delight. All in all, it felt a little like a fairly equal Zoltan Boscik vs poor man's Jim Breaks. It's not that I didn't like Kocheski; he was emotive and engaged and active and really got under the crowd's skin but I think I would have rather seen both of these guys against different opponents, LeMao against someone who could hang more and Kocheski against someone who was more of a scrapper like Jacky Corn.

SR: 1 fall match going a bit over 20 minutes. This was like the prototypical face/heel match. LeMao is a balding gentleman and a brilliant technician. And Kocheski was pretty much throwing inside shots from the go. LeMao had some great technical moves and escapes and Kocheski kicked the shit out of him. The crowd got really heated, LeMao fired back in kind and a good time was had. That's about all I have to say here, but both guys looked really good.

PAS: I was into this. Really fun to watch LeMao have an answer for everything Kocheski threw at him, before Kocheski lost his temper. I especially loved LeMao's headscissors into a neck crank cool vicious twist on a spot we have seen a lot. We get a solid slugfest finish with big uppercuts and LeMao dropkicks right to Kocheski's face. Not as good as the previous LeMao match, but I am glad we got another look at him, really fun talent. 

Read more!

Tuesday is French Catch Day: Zapata! Castillo! Aubriot! Bayle! Bollet! Delaporte! de Zarzecki! Wiecz!

Pancho Zapata/Vicente Castillo vs. Dan Aubriot/Remy Bayle 11/28/65

PAS: Zapata is Joaquim LaBarba and Castillo is Quasimodo and that is a killer pair of grotesqueries. Twin Igors clawing at faces and slamming skulls into the mat. It is a great act, although this match needed more dynamic babyfaces to really justify it's run time. Zapata seemed to slow down his nutty bumping under this gimmick, but still had great execution, as did Castillo who hit a killer rainmaker elbow along with his stalking and looking creepy. I liked Bayle targeting the growth on the back of Castillo's head. This was good overall, but more a cool look at a pair of creeps then anything that will stand out.  

MD: What a heel side here, the unholy unification between La Barba (as Pancho Zapata) and Quasimodo (Vincente Castilla here). These are, by far, two of the most interesting bad guys in all of the footage, with La Barba able to turn on a dime from being an arch stooge to the most vicious guy in the world and Castilla absolutely fascinating in the way he moves, the way he reacts, his varied and imaginative offense, how he portrays power. Here, when they were in control, they were just a cycling wave of brutality, trading off on holds and controlling the ring. Aubriot and Bayle were spirited in their comebacks. While Aubriot had the cartwheels and more rope running, I thought Bayle looked best out of the two; his stuff was just sharper and his shots were chippier. This didn't feel quite as focused and structured as some of the tags we've seen lately, but that played well into the chaotic nature of Castilla and Zapata. Towards the end, you knew it wasn't going to end clean; I figured i t was heading towards a DQ but instead, Bayle got one last comeback only to get back body dropped over the rope as his own momentum was used against him, rendering him unable to continue. I think this is it in the footage for La Barba and Quasimodo and what an absolute shame that is.

Andre Bollet/Roger Delaporte vs. Warnia de Zarzecki/Eddie Wiecz 1/9/65

MD: The fans absolutely loved this one, and it felt heated at times, but always had sort of a party feel to it that maybe meant that it didn't have the weight you'd hope it would, especially because, for once, Delaporte and Bollet got what was coming to them. I just can't get over how canny Wiecz is here. Sometimes I think I'm reading too much into it, but there are a dozen little things. Whenever someone's getting beaten on here, it's usually Zarzecki. Zarzecki eats the first fall. Wiecz is the one rushing across the ring and allowing for the distractions. He's the one who gets to take the hot tag and clean house with big shots and dropkicks. During a key celebratory moment towards the end, he hits his back flip off the top but then runs over to get Zarzecki's guy too and sort of takes his moment, that should have been equal. Delaporte and Bollet begged off from him far more than from Zarzecki and it's not like Zarzecki was some rookie or slouch. The fans don't care because they love it but watching back, it's impossible to miss. Anyway, this was an arch Bollet and Delaporte performance, as funny as ever, maybe not quite as mean, though when they were stomping and taking liberties, they were as good as anyone. There seemed to be more girls in the crowd than usual and they were horrified by Bollet and Delaporte's middle-aged transgressions and excited for Zarzecki and Wiecz and that added to the feel. This wasn't the most balanced (wrestling and comebacks and cheating and bullshit and comedy) match we've seen, but it was very fun.

Read more!

Tuesday is French Catch Day: Bernaert! Zarpa! Bayle! Montreal! Bibi! Husberg!

Joachim La Barba vs Dan Aubriot 4/11/65

MD: Our last little look at La Barba. About five minutes. It's great for what we get. They're able to go at a high speed, full of hard hitting shots and tons of character. They'll go from a quick roll up/armbar exchange, to a double stomp, to uppercuts and forearms, to big tosses out of (and back into) the ring, right into the antics. At one point, La Barba fast counted himself on a pin, left the ring, and put his robe back on, only for Aubriot to pull him back in and trounce him. Great stuff. The finish was 1965 nuts with a really close up missile dropkick (more of just a missile kick) and then top rope splash from La Barba. What a shame we didn't have more La Barba in the footage. Ah well.

Pierre Bernaert vs Armand Zarpa 4/11/65

MD: Other than the cross body finish and slight elaboration in some of the in-and-out hold sequences, this could have been six or seven years earlier. There's nothing wrong with that but it felt like a bit of a throwback to the classic stylist vs mechant stuff we've seen a ton of so far. Bernaert is, of course a pro at this. Zarpa was either Armenia or Greek (here billed as Armenian) and he could hang. Some of the sequences looked a little off but they were all worked so competitively that things being off ended up additive anyway. Sometimes Zarpa, despite being the stylist, went to a kick or a shot to get out and the fans seemed unsure about that early. Halfway through the match, though, Bernaert got mean and they were behind Zarpa when he fired back. There probably wasn't quite enough of that and maybe a bit too much of taking the crowd back down with holds. There was a relatively late headscissors which probably wasn't the crowd needed in that moment, for instance. In general, though, it was good, baseline stuff.

Remy Bayle/Mr Montreal vs Cheri Bibi/Eric Husberg 4/25/65

MD: We've seen our share of Bibi and Bernaert but this was our first look at Bibi and Husberg and it was great. Maybe with Bernaert there was more heel chicanery, but while Pierre's hard hitting, Husberg seems to be more of a relentless, dogged, and varied striker with a craven stooging streak and interesting combos. Add in Bibi's brutal shots and tendency to be able to cut off an opponent believably at a moment's notice and they were a high bar to defeat. The more I see Montreal, the more I like him. He had a body gimmick for a babyface, but he hit hard and threw great slams and sold well, just really having a deep connection to the crowd. He was lead babyface material and a fiery hot tag or mauling worker from underneath. It helped that Bibi leaned into his every shot. You got the sense he really liked to work with Montreal, which is quite the claim for me to be making from watching a few matches, but I call it like I see it. Bayle was able to work in these cool little karate chops giving his combos some welcome variety. This was fairly back and forth, with some standout sequences like a progressive (for the time) and well worked arm control bit on Bibi that ended with Bibi rolling to Husberg and Husberg mocking his opponents for losing control only to get almost immediately blasted for his trouble. There was also a great moment where Montreal held the ropes open as Bibi went to bound off them for an illegal double team so that he just went sailing. At times they got big heat (with trash being thrown in and Husberg kicking it out) and the fans were up for all the comebacks. The finish, while not satisfying, was at least amusing and both teams could realistically claim some form of victory. It made me want to see them go at it again.

Read more!

Tuesday is French Catch Day:Les Copains! Blousons Noir! Said! Kader! Bernaert! Double Dip of Manneveau!

MD: As promised, let's talk quickly about 1963 and 1964, and really, why we have so little from 61 on. Over at PWO, Phil Lions stopped by and told us the following:

"How come there were so few shows in 1961, you may ask? Well, in April of 1961 Maurice Herzog (the French Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports at the time) put pressure on the network not to air catch anymore, because he considered it a "degrading spectacle" and wanted them to focus on other "more noble" sports such as athletics, boxing, skiing, volleyball, and basketball. Despite catch being one of its most viewed sports broadcasts, the network could no longer air it regularly so they'd only do a handful of broadcasts per year. So that explains why there's so little footage from 1961 and onward."

So we're suffering here, 60 years later, from a cultural backlash. Phil also looked through French newspapers in 1964 and found about ten TV listings for Catch, including a couple of Rikki Starr matches (including one vs Gastel), but we don't seem to have those from the archives. Hope springs eternal that they might one day show up.

If you haven't already seen Phil's article on L'Ange Blanc, go check it out. It's phenomenal: http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=10&t=005393

Le Grand Vladimir vs. Bernard Vignal 5/16/64

MD: We'll take whatever we can get in 64, obviously, but this might not have been my first choice. It's 9 minutes JIP and fine. Vladimir is a guy who we have British footage of decades later but seeing him young is new. He hits hard (including slaps/chops at the neck), had the sort of chokes and nerve holds you'd expect, some nice throat-based offense using the ropes, and an interesting entry into a cobra clutch off the ropes I haven't seen before. Vignal is someone we've seen before, an older scrapper with the fans behind him, but this never really escalates into the slugfest you'd want it to, and it ends on a pretty lame low kick DQ. Certainly ok stuff, and we're beggers and not choosers for this year but nothing high end.

Les Copains (Dan Aubriot/Bob Plantin) vs. Blousons Noirs (Manuel Manneveau/Claude Gessat) 5/16/64

MD: If we're only going to have one full match from 64, this isn't a bad one to have. Manneveau and Gessat are such a great unit and I'm glad we get at least a few more matches with them upcoming. They are such a well-oiled machine, constantly drawing heat, constantly cheating, constantly looking for an advantage or a double team, and when it's time, feeding and stooging. We know how good Aubriot was and he lived up to that here, with flashy offense, sympathetic selling during the long FIP stretches, and fiery comebacks when he had the chance (though always cut off in the back half due to the backwork; even after he snuck the fall on a bridge, he couldn't get out of the bridge without Plantin's help). Plantin showed a lot of fire here, especially being great on the apron. After the super fast, tricked out opening exchanges and some great hold exchanges, the rest of the match was heat and more heat, with some southern tag tricks, that heavy back focus on Aubriot, and some hot tags. Finish could use just a little more weight to it, but at that point, you got the sense that the Copains were just worn down from the constant assault.

SR:2/3 falls match going about 35 minutes. The French love their tag matches. This started out as a fantastically athletic match, with guys busting out sick looking kip ups and working holds with fantastic resistance. Then it turned into a total asskicking. That was due to Manneveau and Gessat, who cut off the ring and beat their opponents like they owed them money. Aubriot and Plantin fired back like any French babyface would, with massive european uppercuts and throwing their opponents around the ring with blindingly fast headscissors. The Blousons ruled the show though, with those nasty short kicks, stomps, kneedrops to the face, and throwing hands. While Aubriot and Plantin were supposed to bring the spectacular, the Blousons had some big moves of their own, including probably the highlight of the match, a crazy headscissor counter into a huge backbreaker. The 3rd fall was just a house of fire with Aubriot and Plantin having enough and just stomping their opponents on their face. It‘s not hard to see from performances like this that the Blousons Noirs act is up there with the Anderson Bros, Misioneros de la Muerte, Ikeda and Ono etc. as an incredible heel unit.

PAS: This was killer stuff, a fine 1964 MOTY representative, even if we only have one match. Noirs have shown signs of it in the other stuff we have, but man was this a master class of showing out for the babyfaces and when given a turn just unleashing a bruising. The opening section was really fast and elaborate, reminding me of a great opening Caida in a lucha match. When it got down and dirty in got down and dirty with the babyface landing big shots and being matched with even bigger stuff Manneveau almost leaps into his uppercuts spinning the babyfaces around with them when they land. He also hit almost a springboard jumping roll up for the for the second fall. The third fall was furious stuff ending with an assault with Manneveau stomping and punching Plantin right on the throat,  he landed a disgusting knee which looked like it crushed his windpipe. The final big bodyslam almost felt like a respite. 

Arabet Said/Abdel Kader vs. Pierre Bernaert/Marcel Manneveau 1/10/65

MD: This was extremely heel-in-peril, with very few periods of extended heat, despite Bernaert and Manneveau sure trying their best and taking every opportunity. In some ways, that's a shame, because you could tell from the get go, this was a really game crowd and they would have near-rioted if there was any actual heat. At one point, some lady swipes Manneveau's leg from the outside and he barely even deserved it at that point. That's a lie. He always deserves it. What a pest. He's almost like a combination of Delaporte's mustache and smugness and willingness to show ass with Bollet's manic energy. He threw himself into everything, including bumping out of the ring repeatedly and hitting a crazy fast spinning and twisting sunset flip to win the first fall. Bernaert was more than happy to play along. He's always a great slugger and so good at being smarmy with the ref and his opponent. Said looked great here, with one extended short arm scissors bit where he kept getting each guy into it and a lot of legitimately funny stuff worked around his hard head. Kader could garner sympathy and had solid striking but he was in there to lose the advantage so Said could get it back. They built to some fun and elaborate heel miscommunication spots late. Bernaert's come a long way and Manneveau is just one of the most entertaining guys in all of the footage.

SR:2/3 falls match going about 38 minutes. This was another good match although slightly overshadowed by the above tag. Bernaert and Manneveau, the heel team, didn‘t fully let loose like the Blousons did above. There was still plenty of asskicking going on, with Arabet Said doing some fun hard head work, and we got treated to some quality wrestling from the faces including some great short arm scissors work. There was a genius moment where Mannevau from the apron tripped somebody up, who fell perfectly into a Bernaert front headlock and set him up for Manneveau to come in with several flying stomps. That is high end heel work just thrown out casually in a match that is basically a fun house show main event by the standards of this stuff.

PAS: Fun match and a look at a slightly different shade of Mannevau. He was much more of a goof here, getting caught in the ropes, spun around by armdrags, stooging for Said hard head. We never got to see him unleash the brutality he showed in the previous match, but he was great in a more overtly comedic role, as was Bernaert who just got angrier and angrier the more he got flummoxed. Love a hard skull gimmick and Said did it well, including Baernert basically breaking his arm trying to forearm him. Great week with two different but hyper enjoyable tag matches. 

Read more!

Tuesday is French Catch Day: Inca! Mercier! LeDuc! Portz! Aubriot! Bernaert!

Inca Peruano vs Guy Mercier 10/19/62

PAS: This is pretty JIP, but man what we get is spectacular. Peruano has got to be one of the wildest wrestlers of all time, and parts of this were like watching a leveling up spotfest for the first time (something like Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite in MSG, or Rey Jr. vs. Psicosis in ECW). Mercier was a nice dance partner, but you are watching this for Inca. Peruano has these beautiful effortless headscissors, which he hits until Mercier counters the last one with a Giant swing. Peruano also takes to crazy bumps into the ropes, one where he gets kicked into a Andre ropes trapped position, one where he gets thrown into a Cactus ear loss strangle. Not a fan of the double pin ending, but everything before that was killer.

SR: About 6 minutes are shown. And well, be happy for that, because these two do a lot of cool wrestling in 6 minutes. Mercier catches a Peruano flying headscissors and hurls him around in a giant swing in a really cool spot, and Peruano does some ridiculously on point bumping and launching himself into the ropes to get tied up. We also see someone get pinned off a surfboard hold.

MD: It's such a joy to watch Peruano. We get the last 8 minutes of this, having missed around 15 before that and they're just at it from the start. Almost immediately, he's maring Mercier to set him up for his askew angled headscissors takeovers, only for the rule of 3 to come into play and Mercier to just jam him with an elevated giant swing of all things. Then they roll right into a sequence where Peruano bumps himself way over the top and into a tangled situation in the ropes. It's one athletic, creative, innovative, and completely believable and organic spot after the next, with them trading holds or blows or dropkicks in between. This is the most interestingly I've seen a lot of Peruano's token stuff used (like the jammed headscissors). We're at the point of the footage where we're dealing with such known, experienced entities that there are counters to counters and spots that are twisted and remixed and since we're fairly familiar with the style and the specifics, we can pick up on them.

Gilbert LeDuc vs. Geoff Portz 10/19/62

SR: 1 fall match going 30 minutes. Geoff Portz is a legendary British tough guy wrestler. His status is such that he could‘ve stunk this whole match up and it would still be a super valuable find. But, he was very good here. They worked a kind of clinical contest, and I wonder if Portz was holding back slightly, but he looked super impressive just trading holds with Leduc. Portz was built like a brickhouse, and you get the sense he was a powerhouse who could move like a graceful technician. At one point he lifted Leduc straight up from the ground like a child and into a full nelson hold, and another moment involved him lifting Leduc on his shoulders up from his knees. The hold battling was really good – especially dug Portz trying to torture rack Leduc with Leduc clamping on a side headlock for dear life, and there was some great headscissor work that lead amongst other things to Leduc lifting up Portz and Portz victory rolling him. They never throw strikes but there is some rope running which is mixed well into the match. I thought the match was going to go to a 30 minute draw but then a controversial fall happens that the crowd got super mad over in one of those moments that emphasized how dear the people then held their wrestling. And why wouldn‘t they, getting bouts like this on the regular.

MD: Portz is yet another brit that we're lucky to get footage of so young. This is just a gripping heavyweight wrestling clinic, including some of the best worked side headlock sequences I've seen. That includes Portz attempting multiple times to heft Leduc up into a torture rack, which is the best headlock counter that no longer exists. He finally gets it later in the match and it feels like a quality payoff. Portz has an extra bit of power and a way of just trying to peel off limbs that made me wish we had a match with him against Spartacus. Leduc's able to hold his own and keep him from capitalizing too much on any single advantage. Unfortunately, just as it's starting to pick up and get chippy, there's a three count out of nowhere and it makes you wonder if they were going to take it a couple more minutes and pound each other into the draw.

PAS: I thought the first part of this was a little dry, Portz had a very Dory Jr. feel to him. He was going to do his headlock takeovers and it didn't matter what the crowd wanted. I started to get more and more into this as it went on though. We get a couple of cool headspin escapes from the master of the headspin, including one from an armbar. Portz was a super strong guy and at one point he just stands from a sitting position using his leg strength, and I loved all of his torture racks. I feel like the accidental fall robbed us of a really hot ending, but what we got was pretty cool.

Guy Taillieu vs Gerard Franck 11/9/62

MD: Last few minutes of a hard hitting but friendly enough match. Franck looked pretty good here with huge uppercuts and an abrupt dropkick. Tallieu was slicker with a nice cartwheel takedown and some STO style trips we haven't seen a lot of in the footage and some hammerlock assisted throws. He could hit hard too. Really though, we didn't get enough of this to get more than an impression but it was a positive one.

Dan Aubriot vs Pierre Bernaert 11/9/62    Pt2

MD: Phil and Eric covered this seven years ago and it's still MOTY for 1962 for SC. As it's the next chronological match in the collection, as we have so little from this period in the 60s, and as we know Bernaert a lot better now, we thought it was worth another look. I do think we'll have to take stock again after next week when we finish off 62's Catch offerings. That's not to say this isn't an excellent match. It is. Aubriot brought all the right attributes to the table. He was lightning fast, a wizard on the mat, sold each bit of damage in the moment, wasn't afraid to bump out of the ring, and had some very imaginative spots that stood out in a world of imaginative spots. Bernaert showed signs of competence in previous matches (though he was much more of a cheapshot artist), and has developed over the years we've seen him into an excellent tag-team wrestler, but this was the best showcase of his so far. At times, he'd completely hang with Aubriot, not simply basing but calling and raising Aubriot levels of complexity all so that Aubriot could do something even more impressive in the end. The best example of that was Bernaert dropping down for a rare heel mascaras twist only for Aubriot to cartwheel out of it and hit some brilliant ranas. There was something dogged and persistent about Bernaert actual wrestling, which we hadn't really seen from him or from most of the heels we've seen so far. They escalated to blows and Bernaert to cheapshots but it came back down to the holds again and again.

PAS: I think as of now this keeps the 1962 crown, although I don't think it would make a top 25 of the footage we have seen, although that is more a testament to the insane quality of the French Catch, then a diss of this match. Aubriot was very slick, great ranas, cool reversals and a great looking mix of a stunner and a diamond cutter. Bernaert really lays in the violence in the second half of the match, including some urine reddening knees and forearms to the kidneys. The breakdown is some of my favorite stuff in this style, and they really rock each other at the end, including some nasty forearms by Bernaert when he was trying to break Aubriot's body scissors. I thought the judo throw for the pin was cool, but didn't really feel like a finish. I am interested to see what we get next week to challenge this match, it's a hell of a match, but vulnerable. 

Read more!

Dan Aubriot is the Brainwasher

Dan Aubriot v. Pierre Bernaert 9/11/62-EPIC

PAS: This project just keeps churning out classics with guys I have never heard of. Aubriot is the flashier of these two guys, he moves really quickly, super fast ranas, headscissors and the quickest spinning toe hold I have seen. Sometime I think the video might be a bit sped up things are so fast. He also takes a crazy bump getting slammed into the turnbuckle pad and flying over. Bernaert really starts shining when things break down and get nasty, he ends an uppercut exchange with a straight forearm which dims Aubriot's running lights, and as things get chippier he sneaks in nasty stiff cheapshots, by then end he almost feels like a proto-Terry Rudge or Finlay. I still haven't gotten a sense of how these matches end, as it felt a bit abrupt, but the work here was off the charts and we get to add two names to the list of forgotten French maestros. 

ER: This stuff is just impossibly cool. The ref looks like Michel from Breathless, and all the matwork looks like stuff Jackie Chan could have stolen and milked for several more movies. The headscissor reversals at the 4 minute mark alone are worth the price of admission. Seeing these two skinny French guys throw knees makes me realize how poorly the modern knee lift has been appropriated. Aubriot throws a couple quick variations to the side of Bernaert's face, and Bernaert throws one short and fast to the stomach that looked better than any Mr. Wrestling kneelift I've seen. The stiffness of these guys continually surprised me as they throw finer uppercuts and forearms than any of the modern tiny overcompensating indy guys. This whole match had a different feel to the others that had popped up so far, as it still had all the cool ranas and armdrags and reversals that you've never seen before, but by the end had devolved into a real slugfest. Soak these up while we got 'em, people!

La Complète et Exacte French Catch

Read more!