Tuesday is French Catch Day: Leduc! Corn! Henker! Samourai!

Gilbert Leduc/Jacky Corn vs Der Henker/Le Samourai 6/13/75

MD: Some old friends here in Corn and Henker (Remy Bayle). We're not entirely sure who Samourai was  but he was pretty good at what he did and we do have various Samourais in other 70s footage. They made sure to note that we had an Axis team on the heel side. I will say this though: the Henker gimmick was a few years in now. He's a monster, a brick wall, someone you're not going to stagger back with even a strong shot, but he's not the monster he was a few years before. Remember, he once took on both Corn and Leduc by himself. Here they needed to take out a leg or use finesse to take him down for the most part (though Leduc could manage it, eventually, with even a headlock takeover worked hard enough). And he ultimately ate a very clean pin off of a very clean slam to end the second fall in the match. Still, most of the time, they had to double team or outsmart a double team attempt to really get him down and they recovered more often than not against Samourai. 

This was probably a little long going ~40 with the introductions but every exchange was good. It just means you ended up seeing Leduc's toupie headspin 3-4 times when 1-2 would have done the trick instead. Samourai was slick, able to do the karate shtick but also keep up with all of the wrestling and feed when he had to. When he was in there against Corn they were able to turn up the speed a little bit. He also had a lot of very fun comedy bits where he slid around the ring and sometimes all the way out to the first row. The first fall was long and didn't have too much peril for the stylists. The second fall was shorter but had them working from underneath (Corn especially) a little more. I'm not saying the stakes weren't there because Henker always was a threat but again, this wasn't the Henker of a few years earlier. Lots of good individual moments and spots because Corn catching Samourai in an unlikely body scissors or Leduc torquing Henker's arm one way and then the other to get him down will always delight, but there was a moment thirty minutes in where it did feel a little much having not watched one of these long tags in a while. Still another enjoyable entry into the Henker vs Leduc/Corn feud (one of the better feuds of the 70s that we have considerable footage of) overall.

SR: I think this is the latest apearance we have of Gilbert Leduc. Cagematch says he indeed retired in 1975, so this might be a last hurray of sorts. He still does the beautiful head spinning escape. Other than that this was notably slowed down. There's some somewhat compelling work but also a lot of holds and the whole thing feels way too long. Give some credit to Le Samurai, its hard to read 'Le Samurai' and not think of Alan Deloin, but this masked guy did a few nifty things. One thing I noticed that masked heels seem less incompetent and outmatched than your typical French heels. Samurai is able to do a bit of neat wrestling, including a rope hanging choke move that was really neat and also those nifty rolling bumps and odd mannerisms, and the Henker is at least hard to get off his feet. There is some of the fun bumping and stooging that we know from the French tags and a few good moments such as a crossbody being caught into a gutwrench suplex. But yeah this was too long and slow paced overall. 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Cohen! Chico de Oro! Corn! LeDuc! Henker! Schmid!

Georges Cohen vs Chico de Oro 2/23/74 

MD: Beautiful wrestling here. Stylist vs stylist, but they're juniors. This is our only look at Chico who was billed as a champion of Spain and 25 years old (to Cohen's 30). This never even came close to boiling over, as there was sportsmanship from beginning to end. As the match went on, Chico got knocked out of the ring frequently, or both might go over, and Cohen was always quick to help him back in Andre Chaveau, the ref, got more heat than either guy as he admonished them after some late comedy kickouts where they landed on him. But the wrestling was very good. It was full of struggle but more of a scrappy sort than a gritty sort, if that makes sense. It was more about preventing holds in the first place by constantly moving and scrapping and then preventing escape attempts as opposed to hanging on through them (though there was plenty of that too). Cohen had seniority and home advantage and was the aggressor for a lot of this, and he got to kick out both the old favorites (like the long body scissors in-and-outs) as well as some more advanced things like a tapatia and this great toehold that I had to watch three times to understand how he got it on. Chico sold well and fought well from underneath and had some fun things of his own including a nice version of Leduc's "toupe" headspin (which I finally have a name for). It was nice to see Cohen really stretch in a singles match even if you always want things to boil over at least a little. I don't think there was one strike in this whole match, which while a detriment in some ways, was a huge credit in others. 

Jacky Corn & Gilbert LeDuc vs Der Henker & Daniel Schmid 3/30/74

MD: We come in JIP here, maybe as much as twenty minutes in. It still goes another 20 so that seems like a bit much. By this point, we know it's going to be great when Henker gets in with these two, and Schmid is such a great underling goon, pudgy in a way that does remind you of Buddy Rose, but with this habit of running headlong into every shot and being able to fire back fairly well on his own. It's hard to explain what makes Henker so effective. He's big and strong but not the biggest and strongest we've seen. He has the tombstone but that's a blip in a 30+ minute match. An exclamation point at the end of a paragraph where it's the paragraph itself that matters. He just has a way of making the traditional monster clubbering look more punishing and violent and dangerous than most others. It's a sort of physical charisma where he can shrug someone off of his shoulders or cut off an escape attempt and make it look like it's a monster actually doing it. It stands out. And of course LeDuc and Corn play their roles perfectly at all times. They'll fight back cleverly (LeDuc undoing the mask for a distraction, for instance) and valiantly (standing toe to toe with both opponents) and when it comes time, with fire. Schmid is the perfect guy to eat LeDuc's headstand headscissors takeover and Corn's comeback forearms. This isn't as good as the handicap match because it doesn't tell as primal a story but there's nothing about the work that is any less. And hey, there's even a random Pat Roach (the English Giant) cameo as he comes in after Henker wins the second fall to set up a match that unfortunately we do not have.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Montreal! Henker! Corn! Leduc! Schmidt! Frisuk! Viracocha! Tejero! Ben Chemoul! Bordes!

Inca Viracocha/Anton Tejero vs Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes 1/18/73

MD: This was exceptional. So many of these Ben Chemoul and Bordes tags (and Ben Chemoul and Cesca for the six matches we have of them together before Bordes) are so, so good that it's hard to rank them but this has to be towards the top of the list. Viracocha did everything well, but Tejero was just an amazing big bumping base that had the visual of being almost Brazo like to really put it over the top. This match might set some sort of record for bumps over the top and to the floor or off the apron as Tejero just went over again and again in the first third, Bordes got absolutely killed in the second, and then the heels got their comeuppance in the last. There were some absolutely amazing sequences like Bordes getting lawn darted and bouncing into the front row only to come back on the second attempt at it with cartwheels and dropkicks as he bounded around the ring and took out both opponents.

The heat was strong and meaningful, cutting off the ring and taking out first Ben Chemoul and then Bordes, who had his back just demolished with whips and creative tosses to the floor and a huge backbreaker. He had a great bit of hope in there as he fought back in but over shot on a flying body press and got stamped out. Then the comeback was fiery and full of revenge and the final fall was hugely entertaining including a great spot where they crushed the ref between the two Peruvians and a high energy finish where Bordes leaped to the top and got his flying body press. I don't really see how this could be any better considering what they were trying to accomplish.

PAS: This was really great, felt like a classic lucha match, with Viracoeha and Tejero as big bumping, big stooging rudos, and the Chemoul and Bordes iconic technicos. Bordes was bumping big and I loved his big KO right hand, and when he went wild and started cartwheeling and flipping all over the ring. Tejero spent more time flying out of the ring then in it almost, and Bordes especially just got tossed everytime he hit the floor. Totally breezy 30 minutes, really something nearly any wrestling fan can enjoy. 

Mr. Montreal vs Der Henker 2/10/73?

MD: Big time heavyweight clash here. Henker was a big powerhouse but so was Montreal. Early on they played it up with Henker jamming Montreal's mares and headlock takeovers in a way I'm not sure I've ever seen before. It took a shoulder block (also jammed) and a rushing headbutt to the gut to even get him into a position where the headlock takeover worked. This might have been methodological at times, but there was always that sense of struggle. The first half of this was really the two of them trading holds with neither getting an advantage. Eventually Henker's inside shots won out and he did take over with nerveholds and rabbit punches. Montreal came back big, dropkicking Henker out and tossing him around the ring, but he overstretched by going to the mask. That let Henker toss him out and post him and the writing was on the wall after that. While Montreal didn't bleed, he did sell it all well enough to really get over that it was the beginning of the end. The appeal in a match like this is that guys that are bigger and stronger are showing the technical prowess. There were less in-and-out escapes but they played up the power and the struggle instead, and Montreal did go up and over out of a top wristlock into a headscissors. It was just the right amount of flash to go along with the hammering blows and the just overwrought enough battling over a test of strength or full nelson.

Jacky Corn/Gilbert LeDuc vs Daniel Schmidt/Janek/Jean Frisuk 2/10/73?

MD: This is our first look at Schmidt and the first time we've seen Frisuk (Fryziuk, called Yanek here) in ten years. And this was very good. In part it almost felt like a throwback to the 50s with some of the holds, some of the spots, and the absolute slugfest that it devolved into again and again. Schmidt and Frisuk played de facto heels, Schmidt young and spry with as much energy as anyone we've seen in this footage other than Bollet maybe, and Frisuk older, a little slower on some spots, but still able to throw fists (or forearms as it was) and grind down. I say de facto because it was clean, with LeDuc and Corn helping Frisuk up after winning the second fall and all hands getting raised after the third. They had taken the first by capitalizing quite mercilessly on Corn going over the top and when the hot tag came in the second, it was very hot. Corn and Leduc were some of the best sluggers in wrestling history and they got more than their share of revenge with one big shot after the next. Down the stretch, it was all parties firing off on each other. Basically, if you enjoy watching wrestlers throw hands, this is one of the best matches in many a year from the footage for it.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Catanzaro! Bernaert! Mantopolous! Montreal! Corn! Leduc! Henker!

Billy Catanzaro/Pierre Bernaert vs. Mr. Montreal/Vasilios Mantopolous 6/5/72

MD:  I'm amazed we didn't watch this one before. It could be that we saw it was a swimming pool match and decided against it because the few pool matches we've seen so far just haven't been great. This had a few things going for it though. First, it had Billy Catanzaro who is a singular, once in a century, stooging heel. It had Bernaert who is as professional a put upon bad guy as you'll find. It had Montreal who was one of the biggest positive surprises in all of the footage because even a muscle man, in France, was excellent. And of course, it had Mantopolous, who was imaginative, creative, deft, skilled, very over, whatever word you want to use, just a marvel. Even so, what made this work was that they treated the water like a big deal. The tag setting meant that Bernaert could get knocked out relatively early due to mishaps with his own partner, but they took twenty minutes teasing the reviled Catanzaro going out with any number of close calls. It ended up being a bit like an exploding ring match where they tease it and tease it and then finally pay it off, here with Mantopolous skinning the cat and taking Billy over, except for instead of pain and destruction it was a wet humiliation that Catanzaro was trying to avoid. The tag nature meant that Bernaert could suffer repeatedly and keep the fans happy and the gimmick fulfilled while the tension for Catanzaro finally crashing into the pool rose and rose. Once that happened they were already in the second fall and they could just keep building upon it.

There wasn't going to be much heat here. Some cheapshots, some tandem cheating, but it was almost always to set up immediate comeuppance for the bad guys. This was all about keeping the crowd happy and the interplay between Bernaert and Catanzaro was perfect for that. Catanzaro was a jerk's jerk, so much so that Bernaert, a jerk himself, was getting more and more furious at him. On the other side you had Montreal's strength spots and big hammering blows and Mantopolous flying around the ring, using tricked out takedowns, and lady in the lake turtling to make fools out of his opponents. This wasn't the most dramatic match we've seen but it was wildly entertaining the whole way through.

Gilbert Leduc/Jacky Corn vs. Der Henker 7/5/72

MD: This was actually a tremendous piece of business, maybe the most emotionally resonant match we've seen in the entire set. Corn and Leduc were true stars, wrestlers' wrestlers, absolutely tops on my list of babyfaces and stylists I've seen in this footage. They were heroes. Henker was another in the line of masked headsmen but he had an aura, hard shots, big power moves, believability. We'd seen him face off against Leduc and Corn in singles matches already and I wouldn't say anything in those made it inevitable that he could take on both in a handicap match, but they leaned harder into his power and presence here and laid out a match that caused a near riot and that left everyone looking better than they came in.

Early going here was Henker's power up against Corn or Leduc's skill. They would tag in and out and never double team or cheat. Leduc obviously made good use of his headstand and the Mascaras style headscissors. Corn would go quicker into the strike exchanges. Midway through the match, Henker was able to toss Corn out, to slam his head onto the post as he was trying to come back in, and then to drop him hard with a tombstone. The crowd banded together to carry Corn to the back leaving Leduc alone. Leduc did well at first, taking over and even going for the mask, but the ref held him back allowing for a Henker cheap shot and infuriating the crowd. From there, it was Henker slowly whittling Leduc down with big blows and power moves even as the crowd occasionally tried to storm the ring. Leduc would get pops every time he tried to get up, every time he threw a futile blow but Henker was just too much, or at least he was until, minutes down the line, Corn, head taped up, rushed back to the ring. He got the tag and the tide turned with Corn (one of the best late match sluggers ever) and eventually Leduc getting revenge on both Henker and the ref. From there, it was more about Henker surviving the onslaught and making it to the time limit draw, which, as I said, left everyone looking formidable and respectable by the end. The last shot is Corn and Leduc embracing to the crowd's delight. We've seen many matches that were technically better but maybe none that had more heart.

PAS: This was a blast. Henker is a big beastly dude, and I liked how the match built from more exchanges to big bursts of violence. You don't see much blood in French Catch and to see Corn just dripping after getting smashed by those nasty elbow/forearms and the posting was pretty memorable. Also the mass of people carrying him to the back like a martyred rebel leader was awesome. They had really established Henker as so formidable that LeDuc being one on one with him felt like he was at a big disadvantage. Corn coming from the back was iconic and his fired up comeback was some Lawler Mid-South Coliseum level great stuff. After all that I would have liked a more conclusive ending then a draw, but this was very cool stuff.  

ER: I wasn't sure what to expect from this as the handicap structure felt odd. Der Henker is a big man but not so much bigger than Leduc or Corn that a handicap match feels necessary, but these men had all been feuding for a year or more and this was two of the best babyfaces teaming up to rid France of this asshole Executioner. I'm used to German words sounding more ominous than their American counterparts, but I admittedly think that Executioner sounds much cooler than Der Henker. That said, tell every person in attendance that Der Henker doesn't sound ominous and they'd find you mad, as this man is loathed. I love when a French Catch match has these simmering social situations that just keep getting hotter until they boil over, leading women in their nice coats to charge the ring and yell in Der Henker's face.

Henker did a good job of fending off the fighting babyfaces, but things went up to the next level when he tossed Corn to the floor and posted him, then dropped him with a tombstone. Up to that point it had mostly been Henker defending and clubbing in response (with these weird but also cool elbow strikes that landed the entire inside of his arm and elbow across Corn and Leduc's heads), but this was an actual outright offense! The crowd actually carried the injured Corn to the back and I thought for sure that there was going to be a riot, as Der Henker had the stones to actually get out of the ring and face the crowd, more of them pushing closer to the ring every second. A kid, 12 years old tops, even starts to climb up the ring steps to get in before an adult grabs him! 

The match had given us a lot of holds to work out of and now was the time for the uppercuts to start landing. Henker kept winning exchanges, taking a lot of damage, but not staggering or falling to his knees, into the ropes the way Leduc was. Leduc's best attack was his cool slingshot into the ropes, Der Henker falling back hard - twice! - into the points of Leduc's knees. But Der Henker's excellent press slam gutbuster (a move that might have made me flip out even more than the French acrobatics, had I been alive and in attendance) and tombstone on made it seem like that bad guy was taking this, leading to the bloody and wild Corn returning to save his partner. The finishing stretch to the (admittedly disappointing but understandable) time limit draw was pure joy. Corn threw his closed fists to the side of Henker's head and really let loose with uppercuts. Der Henker got stuck in the ropes, the referee got monkey flipped into Der Henker, total madness leading to our draw. I loved how this kept building and leapt into something huge. 

 

ALL TIME MOTY LIST

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Leduc! Henker! Siki! Masque

Gilbrt Leduc vs. Der Henker 7/31/71

As best as I can tell, this was for Leduc's Light Heavyweight Title, though I don't think Henker was at all a Light anything. I'd call it a very good title match and go further to that to say that Henker might have been the best pure wrestler of the monsters we've seen, in as he made the gimmick work while still wrestling the sort of title match you'd expect out of the footage. That meant early on Leduc couldn't get an edge on him due to Henker's superior strength but that Henker couldn't keep Leduc down in holds for long given Leduc's prowess and his amazing headstand escapes. As the match went on, there was a sense of both wrestlers wearing down. Leduc, especially, was able to pry off a hand and hammer it repeatedly, though he lost focus occasionally between feuding with the ref and trying to get Henker's mask off. At around the twenty-five minute mark, Henker really opened the match up for the first time with a huge fireman's carry gutbuster and a tombstone, but Leduc mounted a bit comeback by reversing a second tombstone and scored a pretty triumphant win. We haven't seen too many matches outright billed as title matches in the footage and while this isn't going to hold up against a Tony Oliver vs Bert Royal sort of match, it was very good for what it was.


Mammoth Siki vs. L'Homme Masque 8/21/71

MD: Often they'll present other wrestlers before the match and they'll shake hands and wave to the crowd. The most interesting of these was when we first saw Andre and Petit Prince. Here we get the Hippy and some others but actor Michel le Royer as well, who will guest commentate. I mainly mention because unless I'm mistaken, he died just a week or two ago. I've gotten the sense over the last few months that they've made a real effort to mention celebrities or athletes in the crowd. It's probably an attempt to stay relevant but I'll be honest, from a totally textual examination, things don't seem less hot in 71 than they did in 61.

I'm not sure how much we know about Siki. His name sounds more familiar than the internet record would leave you to believe. He worked in Germany and Japan in the 70s and does, in fact, feel like a pretty great Inoki opponent (they wrestled in 74). Save for his dropkicks, nothing he did was particularly spectacular, but everything was backstopped by his size, presence, and charisma. He came off as someone who was a wonderful attraction but that you wouldn't want to see every week. The first third of the match was L'Homme Masque, who was of course massive, trying various holds and Siki reversing them, driving L'Homme into the ropes. He finally found an achilles heal with a grinding leglock in the second third but Siki continued to escape and press his own advantage with a headbutt or dropkick or an arm driver. Basically, Siki had an answer to everything L'Homme could do. The last third was crowd pleasing as Siki went for the mask again and again until eventually getting it, leading to the ref being used as a ranged weapon and Siki scoring the win. The novelty here was the size and by doing simple things but making it seem like a lot of effort was going into them, the match more or less worked. I'm just not sure I needed twenty five minutes of it.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Batman! Viracocha! Der Henker! Corn! Leduc! Kamikaze

Batman/Paco Ramirez vs. Inca Viracocha/Gonzalez 5/17/71

MD: A rare one-fall tag (or alternatively just the first fall of a longer one, but I don't think that's the case). Between this and the first fall of the Genele tag from last week, I think it's pretty safe to say, two years in, that most of these French tags probably would have been better if they weren't in an unbalanced 2/3 falls format. This was very good as a standalone fall. Neither of these Peruvian heels are Peruano but they're both very good in their own way. Viracocha can lean on someone and Gonzales had a wild energy with some big high spots that you'd expect out of a babyface like dropkicks and cartwheels. He also shouted Arriba! in one of his first moments in the match which popped literally everyone including the announcer. Where they really excelled was cutting off the ring and sneaking in shots to keep their opponents down in the corner. And feeding for the faces, of course. Batman looked as good here as we'd ever seen him, mixing in a couple of power moments that almost felt heroic in with his usual technical, tricked out stuff. Ramirez was a game partner, fiery at times, especially in drawing away the ref enthusiastically when his partner was getting double teamed. Just a really good, really solid tag.

Der Henker/Kamikaze vs. Jacky Corn/Gilbert Leduc 6/14/71


MD: This one felt special. First off, it was Leduc and Corn teaming together, which has been rare, just two of the biggest, best scrapping, technical babyface stars we've seen in the footage. They were greeted at the start by dancing majorettes and a marching band. Kamikaze may well have been Aledo, but it's hard to tell because he was so immersed in the gimmick. When he bumped, he bumped huge, and he was quick, but his offense was primarily chops (including high, low, high attacks), and he was way over the top with the stereotypical Japanese act. Henker was nothing if not consistent, an absolute monster. Much of the early part of the match was Henker shrugging off Corn and Leduc's technical wizardry. As none of the conventional wristlocks or up and over escapes worked, they built to Leduc's trademark headspin headscissors and that at least chipped away at him a bit. Towards the end of the first fall, they were able to get him out long enough for Corn to hit this amazing gutwrench throw on Kamikaze for the fall.

Henker became absolutely unleashed in the second fall, press slamming Leduc into a gutbuster and then just crushing him with a tombstone. Leduc ended up getting taken to the back (rare for this footage) as the heels continued to work on Corn, including another press slam gutbuster, and alternating tombstones from Henker and karate shots from Kamikaze, before a third tombstone meant that he couldn't answer the call. My favorite part of this beating was Kamikaze doing something I'd never seen before. He lifted Corn up in a Rude Awakening style over the shoulder neckbreaker and then walked him over to the ropes, slipped Corn's head under the top rope and lifted up to choke him with it while still holding the over the shoulder neckbreaker. Awesome stuff.

The third fall set things up to seem impossible for Corn. He barely recovered to meet the bell and, as the beating continued, he kept crawling to a corner with no partner. Then, suddenly the crowd erupted as Leduc somehow powered his way from the back. Corn rolled for a hot tag and Leduc started unloading on the heels (and the ref as well when he tried to get in the way). Henker would come back, but as the fall went on, Corn and Leduc would continue to get the upper hand until they could finally tie up Henker in the ropes long enough to score the win over Kamikaze. This wasn't the most technically sound match we've seen. It didn't have the highest workrate or the craziest moves or the most intense shots, but it told a hell of a story that the fans completely got behind and like I said, even in a sea of footage that gives us great wrestling week in and week out, this felt special.

PAS: This was really great stuff, wild over babyfaces mean flamboyant heels, wrestling at its best. I love LeDuc one of my favorite guys on the set, he has an almost Mr. Wrestling 2 vibe with a combo of dancing and asskicking. I loved him in the third fall, as he hit these super cool fast forearm combos, and then tying up Henker and catapulting  Kamikaze into him. Not sure if Kamikaze was Aledo, but he ruled, Aledo unmasked has less restrictions on what he could do, but Kamikaze was a tremendous evil Asian heel, cool chops big bumps, vicious and stoogy, exactly what you want.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Corne! Falempin! Gilmour! Kaye! Der Henker! Corn! Leduc! Mychel

Jean Corne/Michel Falempin vs. Ian Gilmour/Jeff Kaye 11/14/70

SR: 1 fall match going 30 minutes. I was expecting the Brits to bring some heat, but this was a pure technico vs. technico contest. Pretty much just one exchange after another, and while it wasn't high speed athletic stuff there were some smoth cartwheels and pin exchanges. To be honest I could not tell who was who, but everyone was about on the same level. Dug all the technical trickery such as the various turn-yourself-into-a-ball-moves, there was a nifty wrist legsscissor and a cool sequence from a stepping inside pin that turned into both wrestlers turning into an amateur scramble. Things got a bit fired up here and there but the match stayed clean and never really seemed to indicate that you were about to see a finish. Great to watch if you just want to see some good wrestling though.

MD: Another week, another excellent tag. This was face vs face with the premise being that the Bretons were up against the Scots, with bagpipes and flags for everyone on the entrance. Lots of fast, tricky exchanges back and forth. They were working towards a draw but I didn't figure it out until the last third. I think this is our earliest look at Gilmour and he brought a lot of flash with his cartwheel escapes. Kaye had some stilting escapes of his own where he just snuck out of headlocks or headscissors. I wouldn't say it necessarily boiled over towards the end, but it did get more chippy, first with headbutts to the gut off the ropes and then with the forearms and uppercuts. Before that, even when they might focus hard on an arm with lifts or hammerlocked throws, they were also very quick to help when someone's throat got stuck in the ropes, very sportsmanlike. A big chunk of this was taken up by the commentator hobnobbing with people in the front row which hurt the mood a little but, but the holds, escapes, counters, rope running, and finally escalating shots as they ran out of time were all excellent.

Der Henker vs. Jacky Corn 12/12/70

MD: Hell of a debut for Henker, who was billed as a German sort of headsman (as opposed to the French one we've gotten before). He came off as something of a total package, able to lock in holds, escape from them, having superior power, able to knock Corn down with one shot and absorb multiple ones from him, able to pick up the pace a little with pin exchanges, and with a real vicious streak that came through at the end. Corn was his usual self, able to slug it out with anyone and with a fiery streak in his comebacks and when they got going in the stretch this really did become a slugfest. Henker had a way of meeting him head on right until he didn't, and the key moment towards the finish was when he went low in a strike exchange. That let him toss Corn out and then post his head on the way back in. Corn bled, which has been pretty rare in this footage overall, and Henker focused in on it, though it's worth nothing that Corn was still trying to fire back right until the end, which was a resounding tombstone and a stoppage as everyone was more than a little concerned for their longtime hero (including Mr. Lageat, Corn's father and the promoter). Good debut that put over Henker as a dangerous force but not an unstoppable one.

Gilbert Leduc vs. Bert Mychel 12/12/70

MD: In the last third of this match, the commentator sums it up better than I can (or at least the youtube translation I use did): "No Unnecessary malice but holds well worked." Mychel was a former two time Olympian in Greco-Roman wrestling and he had an amazing fall away slam, a real ability to dominate while in a hold and to turn escape attempts into slams, and even went for a really interesting gutwrench once. Leduc was 38 at this point, remained a real master at the headspin escape, could outstrike Mychel, and could hold his own in the wrestling (that gutwrench? Leduc picked a leg out and got a hold out of it). This was wrestled clean though it threatened to boil over once or twice and other than those fall away slams and some Leduc crab attempts towards the end, would have fit right in ten+ years earlier. But the struggle in holds, especially as Mychel didn't want to just go along with Leduc's headspin, was excellent throughout. Late in the match, Leduc would return the favor, eating one too many fall away slams before finding a way to jam Mychel on them. Two experts wrestling expertly for a title belt and celebrating each other's skills after the match.

SR: 1 fall match going about 25 minutes. Seems we JIP'd a couple minutes into it. This was a slow match where guys fight in and out of holds. It was enjoyable but pretty much for the purists only. If you can get into that, it was quite good. Mychels suplexes were great and there was a really cool moment from a gutwrench suplex that turned into a scramble. A bitchslap happens at one point but they kept working a technical match, though the crowd seemed willing to go unruly at Mychel. The only shade I can throw at this match is that it wasn't as good as Leducs 50s work (50s Leduc would've bitten Mychels ear off) but few things are.

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