Tuesday is French Catch Day: Cohen! Shadow!

Georges Cohen vs Black Shadow 7/16/83

MD: This is part of a show with a Flesh Gordon/Walter Bordes vs Eliot Fredrico/Kato Bruce Lee match from the previous week too and I kept that because the version we had before and covered here. This doesn't have the audio timecode issue though so it's an improvement. The Cohen vs Shadow match is new to us.

SR: Cohen has had one of the best singles matches of all the French matches that we've seen in 1968. 15 years later, he sure is aged, but still quite on top of the game. By 1983 these matches had approximated the rhythm closer to a lucha match. Less extensive working of holds, more complicated rope running and snappy armdrags with a rudo bumping a lot. It's a fascinating evolution. Cohen showed he was definitely not coasting by his old skillset. He could do all that. And Black Shadow was an excellent bumper. There may be an argument that the guys working France may have been better rudos than the Mexicans. I mean, Black Shadow had no problem bumping around for Cohen for like 10 minutes straight here, flinging himself into armdrags and outside of the ring. They would work some holds for a bit, and then go back the bumping and stooging. It's really fun to watch. Shadow actually ends up taking up the match working over Cohen with some mean stomps and punches. Nothing mindblowing, it does the job. Shadow actually put up a bit of a fight here but ended up falling to Cohens skill anyways. Perhaps they were a bit long in the tooth here going 20 minutes with the rudo beatdown being a bit much but it was a good match.

MD: Cohen sure was good. The first ten minute had him totally in control and some of his stuff was so slick. He'd torque the arm and then vault over for the headscissors takeover or bump himself with a front flip to set up the bridging headcissors roll over. The rope running was very good. The fans were into it. Shadow did a great job of feeding and running into it all, really bumping all over the place for Cohen. Very entertaining stuff and like I said, slick, just slick. There were two bits of heel control here. Both were quite similar, with a lot of stomps and punches, slamming the head into the turnbuckle, and tossing Cohen out. In the first, Cohen was able to mount a comeback because the ref was getting in the way of Shadow. Cohen went too big on his comeback an the ref got in his way though, letting Shadow take back over. The second, which got over big, had Shadow toss him out one too many times and Cohen yank him out from the floor. Cohen was able to catapult him into the ref too, satisfying everyone. You had the sense (and the footage might justify having this sense) that these two had worked together for years. It showed here. It's late in the game for the French Catch footage, but from a skill standpoint alone, this really does stand up to almost anything in the world in 1983.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Marquis! Shadow! Motta! Angelito! Lailee! Acesnsy! Gordon! Frederico!

Marquis Richard/Black Shadow vs. Marcello Motta/Angelito 8/25/85

MD: We're leaning on INA's youtube site for this one. It's next on the list as it is, and I might have skipped it (especially because we covered it for NFF back in 2019; look at how little we knew!) but this is the second to last week so... well, let's lean on them outright. Anyway, this stands on a strong foundation. Most of these 80s tags do. There were all the elements. Angelito was the heir to Le Petit Prince and he was flashy as could be, with things I've rarely ever seen like a body press into an armdrag or using the ropes to slingshot up and over on a hammerlock escape. He was a special talent and should be thought of as much. There are the other hits. Black Shadow still likes to get tossed out of the ring. Richard had the valet and he got heat (more on that later). The heel-leaning ref was annoying but in a way that got the job done. Motta was fiery and had the crowd behind him. They ran holds and sequences for the first two thirds, with a little bit of heat, broken up, in the middle. Then they leaned hard into it, due to the valet turning the tide, with endless stomps and clubbering, everything looking credible, Angelito selling huge. And finally, there was the comeback, probably one of the best actual comebacks we've seen in quite a while, with Richard tossing Angelito into the ropes, likely so the valet could sneak in another shot, only for Angelito to turn it into a massive, high octane dropkick, knocking the valet off the apron. The finish was sloppy but the fans didn't care. Hell, there was even a Martian type mascot on the outside, a dog named Alberic. I know this isn't the tight work of the 60s, but there was still a lot to enjoy in this faded reflection of grander times. And look at the difference between our 2019 review and this one. We had no idea what wonders were ahead of us!

Gaby Lailee vs. Acensy Del Oro 3/8/87

MD: Ok, so, welcome to 1987. We're just about done here. Here's what you need to know. The program opening has the wrestlers come out with synth music in the background and someone playing a trumpet. It's the whole promotion including Flesh in his 1987 singlet with one strap look and some guy with a K themed mask/outfit with a cape that we'll probably never learn about. Gaby has a Native American gimmick with a headdress she was gifted after she came back from the states. She came out with a huge guy with an Ivan Drago/Terminator type thing who was "the champion of Yugoslavia" and being trained by Flesh Gordon. Acensy is "a former champion of Spain" like every other Spanish wrestler we've ever seen in France. This was the worst of combinations to start: openly collaborative and sloppy all at once; Acensy was pretty clearly basing and helping Gaby do thing cartwheels and they badly blew a sunset flip. Once things got a little more heated and they went away from the wrestling, things settled dow a bit, but outside of one heated moment where Gaby chased her out into the crowd, it wasn't particualrly memorable. Definitely a far cry from what we saw with Lola Garcia at the end of the 70s.

Eliot Frederico vs. Flesh Gordon 3/8/87

MD: This entire episode feels like an attempt to force a revival in 87 to me. They talk on commentary about L'Ange Blanc and Le Borreau and Duranton and Firmin. They say that Flesh Gordon is the hope to lead them into the future. He's bill as a star all around the world. And, it's a last gasp, right? I don't think this match was bad. It was a fine sprint but it had none of the real art or flair. I think it would have matched well to a Prime Time Wrestling match from 87, but it also doesn't seem quite as distinct from that. Gordon didn't do any of his tribute spots. No headstand, no up and over, not even his flying flipping armdrag finish. You know what he did? Three matches before I'm done with this whole project? The first ever clothesline I've seen in French Catch. If that's not symbolic that the end has come, I don't know what is. Frederico remains a solid heel who hits hard and Gordon even hit hard at times too but this wasn't even a reflection, or if it was, it was maybe a reflection of something else that was happening across the Atlantic.

 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Angelito! Bordes! Gordon! Marquis! Texas! Frederico! Maniaks!

Angelito/Flesh Gordon/Walter Bordes vs Marquis Richard/Jessy Texas/Eliot Frederico 8/11/85

MD: Some high level takeaways on this one. First, I've been doing this for three years and I'm nearing the end, just a few more weeks to go, so to hear the crowd chant Mamadou Meme again for Walter Bordes struck an emotional chord. Second, it's such a shame that we didn't get more trios matches. There are only two or three in the footage and it's such a natural, logical extension for French Catch. The style and action and constant motion plays into it so well. This was three of the last stalwart hero stylists of the last decade (or at least two thirds of a decade) of Catch: Bordes, Gordon, Angelito, up against some game heels. Texas came out on a horse. Frederico was dubbed "Le Rocky". Richard had his valet. They all did admirably here basing for the first third, bullying for the middle third, stooging for the last third.

As such, I thought the structure worked. Exchanges and pairings to begin. Bordes had entered middle age but could still go. Gordon was starting to show cracks, maybe, but still worked broadly and his spots, when they hit, had star power. Angelito was a marvel; they were calling him the new petit prince, basically, and it's not like it wasn't fair. 

The match broke open on the outside with some pretty visceral brawling, ending back in the ring with Bordes trapped in the heel corner. He took a huge beating (including some valet-assisted hidden object nonsense), and they really should have pinned him after a great tandem move where Texas and Richard held him up by his limbs so Frederico could hit a driving headbutt off the top on his elevated form. Still, eventually he did come back with a big set piece of turning the table on the heels that Ben Chemoul would have proud of. They worked a mini heat on Angelito after the hot tag but he fought back too and Gordon scored the first pin with his twisting armdrag slam. The third fall was almost entirely celebratory with Frederico getting his mustache pulled and the heels tied up. There was a blip of Bordes having the rope pulled down on him and eating a nasty bump but it was all so he could come back with the big reverse body press off the top for the win. A nice look at what had been, what was, and what might have been all at once.

Flesh Gordon/Walter Bordes vs Les Maniaks 8/18/85 

MD: One last look at our friend Walter Bordes, as we now just have a few matches ahead of us. This was a great performance out of him too, smooth as anything in his exchanges in the first half. There was a point where Maniak #2, who was more of the showman, went for a catapult into the corner and Bordes just flew towards the ropes and casually ducked between them and right back in. It was a slick little piece of business which if done poorly might have exposed one of the more dubious moves in a wrestler's arsenal, but overall looked great. Then, for the back half, after a Maniak caught him out of nowhere with a Tombstone, he sold and sold and sold, starting at comatose and coming back just a little more and more until he was able to utilize a leg clap to break up a second tombstone attempt and make the tag.

Gordon was fine. You really get the sense that he had taken all the moves of his predecessors (even using Jon Guil Don's crazy  360 armdrag as his finisher) and had a definite connection to the crowd, but wasn't quite as smooth and slick with any of it. Here he did a headstand to escape an armbar but sort of just fell over with it instead of doing the spin out, that sort of thing. Still, you can't say he wasn't a solid babyface even if he was just a reflection of the stylists of old, especially when he was in there teaming with Bordes who was still the real deal, even with his middle aged hairline. So the first half of this was just ok, with one Maniak trying more than he could manage and the other solid with some nice cravats but not much more than that. Once the heat started and the fans really got into it all the way through the big comeback and comeuppance for the heels, you could see the glimpse of years' past once again.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Angelito! Gordon! KBL! Frederico! Cohen! Doukhan! Shadow!

Angelito/Flesh Gordon vs Kato Bruce Lee/Eliot Frederico 7/28/85

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pZGPE7J7QQ&ab_channel=MattD

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL2SebLfXGQ&ab_channel=MattD

MD: This was a very good match with a very bad finish. It's a shame because even if this had a typical last fall/finish, it would have been one of the best matches we have from France in the 80s. Frederico is a guy that I wish had come along twenty years earlier. They gave him a big entrance here with a motorcycle and the full leatherman gimmick (with Kato playing along). He's one of the absolute best punchers we've seen in the footage but also a pretty great base in taking Angelito and Gordon's stuff, and some of Angelito's stuff was pretty complex and out there. Kato Bruce Lee is more of a goof. He did more fake karate here, but he was mainly a punch/kick kind of guy who could hold his own on exchanges and stooge well. Part of what made this work was that it had a slightly different structure, with the early even exchanges/stylist showcase giving way to heat after Frederico opened up with the fists and Angelito missed a senton bomb. They took the first fall which is usually a good sign for these matches. Then, they survived a pretty robust comeback to take over with a lot of cheating and misdirection to force a second bit of heat before a second comeback and the end to the second fall. If the last fall had been celebratory and full of heel miscommunication and flashy ref comeuppance spots, everything would have been fine. They only did a bit of that before the ref got fed up with Angelito and Gordon's clowning of the heels and DQed them after Angelito went down to count a pin of Gordon's. The heels took the trophies and no one left satisfied. Otherwise, it was a good one with plenty of slick individual moments though. 

Georges Cohen/Gass Doukhan vs Black Shadow/Kato Bruce Lee 8/10/85

MD: Another skilled tag from some aging heroes and villains. Well, and Kato Bruce Lee, who is most likely younger and coming into his own, a real over the top shitheel. You get kind of an undercard mid 80s WWF guy feel from him, like an Iron Mike Sharpe, but he's really throwing his all into it, bellowing and putting on a fit when things don't go his way but more than happy get bumped over the top too. Black Shadow, up in years now, was more likely to get knocked out between the top two ropes, or, occasionally, dive to nowhere during a rope running sequence.

If absolutely pressed, I'd probably tell you that the French tags would have been more enjoyable total packages if they became one-fall matches in the 60s like the singles matches did. We'd probably lose some nice long mat sequences, but there's a very good first fall in here and then some additional stuff which isn't bad on its own, that's quite good on its own really, but that might have been better served packed into that first fall. The exchanges were good. The cheating was fine (thought he heel-leaning ref was a bit much in this one, especially as he never got his comeuppance). We've been watching Cohen for twenty years and he's a great face-in-peril, especially here when they were beating him around the crowd, right in front of a bunch of kids. Doukhan was more of a Ben Chemoul sort, unique in appearance, stylized in movement, now greying in the hair but still able to go. They were true pros. Again, the first fall had the usual ten minutes of exchanges and ten minutes of heat and a proper quick comeback. But they went back to the cheating for the second fall, had another quick comeback in the third. It was spirited with the heels run around the ring, but it all could have been a tighter one-fall package. It's far too late in the game to be complaining about structure. I've learned to live with it and learned to love it. It's been three decades and hundreds of tags like this. They never conformed into what I wanted but I learned to find the joy in it regardless.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Blaire! McDonald! Primitiv! Lopez! Malpard! Marquis! Angelito! Gordon! Shadow! Frederico!

Linda Blaire vs Nicky McDonald 7/21/84

SR: It‘s a womens match. This was better than other 80s womens matches I‘ve seen from Europe, but that‘s not a high bar given that women were traditionally discriminated against in European wrestling. There was some decent stuff in here but not the super athletic shit you are used to see from French wrestlers. The annoying thing about the match was that it was part of that Le Dernier Manchette show where they kept cutting to certain members of the crowd and Roger Delaporte commentating. I have no idea if they still ran actual wrestling in the Elysee Montemartre at this stage or if these matches were just basically exhibitions for this documentary type TV show.

MD: The whole episode is here but it's timestamped to the start of the match. What I can say safely is that there's connection. The bald fan with mutton chops from the studio show is there in the crowd and causing antics. They focus on him (and a female fan) quite a bit, and do "cut back" to the studio where they're obviously not watching this live as the extra were just told to wave their hand randomly to some imaginary action. That means we miss a bit here and there but never much. The match itself felt like the middle ground between Moolah-ism and the French style. They hit hard. There were holds and takeovers. There were also hairpulls/tosses. It couldn't hold a candle even to the 70s Lola Garcia match we saw. That said, I think it would have held up pretty well to any comparable women's match in the States in the 80s and they filled the time well. Blaire was the heel and I liked her antics and in-between moments. She'd clap for herself after a front chancery takeover or scream a bit "Yeah!" as she was doing a slam. Big clubbering shots too, that sort of thing. And blatant low blows that you just kind of had to go with (she got a public warning for one). McDonald had some huge fiery comebacks the sort that drew public warnings. Her best was when she slammed McDonald onto the apron repeatedly after pulling her out. Objectively solid, but harder to watch in context.

Le Primitiv vs Patrick Lopez 8/1/84

MD: Look, if Mombo was coming to my town in 1984, I'd go and see him. Granted, I was a toddler in 1984, but still. The automatic translation on youtube called him a "real frenzied Mongolian plush toy" and that seems as accurate as anything else. Honestly, he was developing the act from the last time we saw him! There was more dancing to the tribal band's constant drumming now. He still hit the crazy tope and the top rope legdrop. This was just a wild scene. Lopez looked right out of the late 50s. He did all the up and overs and handstand ranas and cartwheels and rolls. He bumped big out of the ring and bumped Mombo big out of the ring. If we had him against Pellacani or Peruano or even Bernaert, it'd be another thing. Against Mombo, it ended up looking like some of the loosest work we've seen in the footage. They were playing at it instead of doing it. It was entertaining and didn't wear out its welcome but it felt more like parody than anything else.

SR: Bless Patrick Lopez, because god damn he tried. This would‘ve been a fun match on New Catch. Although the logic of the primitive monkey man knowing knuckle locks and tope suicidas eludes me.

Gerald Malpard vs. Marquis Edouard Fumolo de la Rossignolette 8/1/84

SR: More old man catch. I could see people digging the Marquis and his act, especially with him having a valet and all that, but the workrate isn‘t winning me over.

MD: Again, it's all relative. Richard in this role has completely changed his act and he's still developing it week to week and adding little flourishes. Some of the bits of the valet coming in and dusting the opponent while he's in a hold or just the way the match started with him jamming Malpard three or four times before getting his comeuppance was wonderful BS. He still hit hard. He wasn't afraid to bump. He was a full step slow and a little ginger in his movement, half for the gimmick, half not. Would I have rather seen him instead of the Rene Goulets of the world on a 1984 WWF undercard? Absolutely. Could he have had a great few week run against Jerry Lawler or Austin Idol in 1984 Memphis? Absolutely. He worked the gimmick into every moment and got full mileage out of the valet. Would we have gotten a better match if we had 20 minutes of stylist-vs-stylist worked to a draw Lopez vs Malpard (who was game here, bumping big, getting sympathy and having a way of just tossing himself recklessly at the Marquis)? Yeah, we would had. This was fun bullshit, entertaining. I'd say, given the length, it's absolutely worth watching! It just lacked the actual wrestling underpinning we even got from classic Duranton. And for those who have been following along, you know exactly what that means.

Angelito/Flesh Gordon vs Black Shadow/Eliot Frederico 8/1/84

SR: 2/3 Falls match going roughly 25 minutes. You know, these late period French tags may not be as good as the classic stuff, but I‘m really enjoying them. A big part of that is Angelito, who has really great body control and just moves so gracefully around. In this match, Frederico was also part of that. I don‘t know what got into him, but he decided to beat the shit out of Flesh Gordon with great looking punch combos. This match also had some blatantly Lucha spots. There was even a sunset flip powerbomb to the floor (!!) and Frederico launching Angelito with a military press onto Gordon who was busy outside. This was not just a spots match, though. Angelito ended up taking a big bump in the 2nd fall and spent much of the fall laid out All Japan style while Flesh was in peril. It didn‘t build to a kind of amazing conclusion but it was a neat choice of structure. It‘s cool that they were trying new things while sticking to the old rhythm even in the dying days of the territory.

MD: Sebastian hit this one pretty well. Angelito was very impressive, though there were times where he'd do one extra flip to turn something already impressive into something just a little over the top or not quite as smooth as it had been up until then. Gordon looked better here than the last time we saw him. He really understood how to work from underneath and had just enough flashy stuff to get by, including that up and over flip mare driver thing that he hits multiple times in this one (but each one was a killshot basically). Shadow was solid as ever, just a real pro at taking stuff and bumping big. Frederico is a guy I badly wish we had five years earlier, because while he doesn't keep up quite as well, his puncher's gimmick is just great. We've had so few boxing gimmicks in the footage, and I think this might be the first heel with it and it's perfect for the way these tags work. You mainly want the heels to be able to clobber and smash and grind the stylists down and he can just unload on someone in the corner. Angelito's big catapult bump over the top gave it all real drama even if they couldn't give the heels even one pinfall and the finish seemed just a bit wonky with the double sunset flips seeming to finish it but not quite, but overall, this was another good tag even deep into 1984.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Primitiv! Frederico! Cohen! Tejero! Angelito! Gordon! Piranhas!

Le Primitiv vs Eliot Frederico 7/18/84

SR: Mombo Le Primitif is among the most surreal things I've ever seen in wrestling. It looks like he got lost on his way to fighting Survival Tobita. OJ didn't even mentioned that they subtitled some of the wrestling moves in that match like it was a comic book. E.g. Mombo would do a kneedrop to the arm and it would display CRAAAAACK! on the screen, or ONK! when he got thrown outside. The guy playing Mombo seemed like a capable wrestler but had no idea how to portray this character. He did all kinds of shit, like a plancha or cartwheeling on the ropes. The crowd has no idea what to make of this and treats Frederico as a de facto face. Frederico actually throws some really nice punches here and I want to see him in a match that wasn‘t a confusing mess.

MD: Let's start with the basic facts. Primitiv was in a monkey suit of sorts. He had tribal drummers with him. They played the whole match and chanted "Mombo". Frederico was "the Rocky of the Ring" with a combo boxer gimmick and leather guy gimmick. This was pretty wild stuff. Narratively, Le Primitiv was able to control the arm early, wildly tossing him around the ring. He had some fun stuff in slamming it over the top rope or whipping him into the corner but somehow hanging on to the arm at the same time. Whenever Frederico was able to knock him out of the ring with a punch or a dropkick, he just bounded right back in like he was Brody or something. Big bump, no sell. Eventually, though, Frederico really got him with a back body drop to the floor and he didn't bounce right back in. Primitiv responded animalistically by leaping to the top and trying to cartwheel off the ropes but kept getting caught by Frederico. So things were going well until Primitiv got him out and crushed him with a dive we barely got to see and just pounded him into the seats. After that, it was basically over. He tried to do a top rope legdrop and it ended up more of a stomp and he did a standing one instead. I'm giving all of this way too much credit but it was still pretty compelling. The crazy gimmicks were almost all super athletic in one way or another and this was no exception. Wasn't as offputting as a La Bete Humaine match but it was still pretty out there. And like Sebastian says, they kept flashing words like "AUGH!" on the screen after spots. Or "SPLAT!" and Batman wasn't even in this one.

Georges Cohen vs Anton Tejero 7/18/94

SR: Fun little match that was basically a showcase for the tricks Cohen still had up in his sleeve, and the fact that even old as dirt Anton Tejero was still a bump freak. Tejero got in maybe 1 minute of offense which makes this pretty much a squash though.

MD: Thirteen minutes of pure entertainment. I'm not sure I'd call this a squash necessarily, so much as an exhibition of Cohen's counter-wrestling. Tejero was the aggressor the whole way through. It's just that Cohen had an answer for literally everything he tried except for that one minute where he was flexing his weight and tossing him about. Even then, the answer was to pull him out of the ring, beat him around the ring as he scrambled back, head back in and beat him. Both of these guys were absolute masters. Tejero was an amazing base, stooge, heavy, and maybe the best bumper-out-of-the-ring in history. They fit so many different spots and exchanges and sequences into every minute of this. They're getting up there but they can still go so fast and wrestle so smooth and bump so big. There was no drama here but everything made sense and had weight and skill to it and the crowd was happy for every second.

Flesh Gordon/Angelito vs Piranhas 3/30/84 or 7/18/84

MD: This was a fun one. The Piranhas were Sleestak looking guys with "tails" around their necks. They'd take them off and use them to choke, leading to an early first fall win as one held Angelito down and the other splashed him off the turnbuckles. One of them was a top notch clubberer and they weren't afraid to bump around the ring and take all of the stylists stuff. Gordon doesn't seem quite as slick and smooth as he was a couple of years earlier but he still does most of the spots expected of him and had a great dropkick. There was a hot tag towards the end of the last fall and he really did a great job cleaning with uppercuts, Bordes' jumping knees, and even Drapp's shoulder shrug attack. Angelito took it even further, using all of the greatest hits of the last thirty years of Catch. He hit the up and over into an armbar out of a top wristlock, had Batman's floatover headlock escape, really just all the stuff. The crowd was feeling this too, with rare chants for a public warning after a pin got broken up (after Gordon's cool flying twisting mare finisher), one fan trying to interfere as the ref was distracted, and fans slamming the mat pissed off after the stylists got DQed for using the Piranhas' rope things against them.

SR: Really entertaining cross between Catch and Monterrey. Angelito looked pretty fantastic here working as a technico. He may have been one of the better lightweights still going in Europe at this point, at least when it comes to athleticism. Gordon wasn‘t half bad here either. The Piranhas won‘t exactly set your world on fire (I think they may have been played by the same guys as Les Maniaks) but they are good enough bases here. They had this amusing shtick where they would use a piece of their attire as a foreign object. Also, the announcer kept calling them „The little fishes“ and you have to love that. Match also had good structure with the rudos taking a pinfall early to increase pressure on the technicos,

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