Tuesday is French Catch Day: ANDRE~! Le Hippy! Batman! Gilbert Bernaert! Valois!

MD: Small programming note. We've been at this for two years now, having gone from the mid 50s until 1970. We're on the downswing now, more than halfway through, but with a long way yet to go. 1971 is a big year, for instance. Thanks to everyone who's been following along, making gifs, spreading the news, getting these matches to interested parties, etc. It's been great knowing that these matches have reached family members of the participants who had never seen their fathers/grandfathers wrestle, for instance, or to hear that current wrestlers are tuned in. We've watched well over 150 matches now, probably over 200 if you count the JIP snippets, and you can count on one hand the number of matches I wouldn't consider good or well worth watching. I don't think we had any idea the sheer level of week to week quality we'd be dealing with as we started to dig in. This week is a perfect example. I suggested looking at this one fairly early on, when we were still jumping around, because it meant we could cover both Batman and a wrestling hippy but we decided against it to do more obvious gems. But Batman's a hell of a wrestler. The Hippy's really good. Their opponents are brutal and violent. It's French Catch. Even the goofy characters tend to be great. Who knew? Well, everyone does now.

 

Batman vs. Cesar Leoni 9/26/70

MD: Another shorter match by the 50s and 60s standards. I'm not sure if this will be a trend moving forward or not. Good stuff though. The announcer gave some other name for Leoni, maybe Jean Mailhot? I don't see him elsewhere in the footage with either name though. Batman, despite being British, was billed from Cleveland which strikes me as a kind of funny Jerry Lawler connection. They went clean for the first few minutes, really right up until Batman's trademark roll through headlock escape. From there Leoni showed a brilliant mean streak, just grinding down on everything and throwing in nasty inside shots. Batman would come back again and again, including a beautiful series of fake outs and twists and turns to escape a hammerlock and some real fire on the floor after he foiled a King of the Mountain attempt. Finish had Leoni pull off the corner guard and do some damage with whips until it backfired and he ate a tombstone. Nice Batman showcase against a game opponent. Oh while we're here, unless I'm off on this, Batman ended up as an opera singer and actor, is still kicking, and is married to fellow opera singer Stephanie Blythe.

PAS: This was really fun. Love all of the counterweight takeovers and counters by Batman. He is just a super fun wrestler to watch, almost like a heavyweight version of Johnny Saint. I also thought his flash Fujiwara armbar was great and easily could have been a finish. Leoni got appropriately pissy and laid it in pretty hard when he had a chance, but this was all about Batman being an elusive and slick motherfucker.

Le Hippy du Ring vs. Gilbert Bernaert 9/26/70

MD: What can I tell you about Le Hippie Du Ring? He was a big Catweazle looking fellow. He had a tendency to stroke his beard. He came to the ring with flowers and he had a valet that we saw at the end that gave them back to him. He did one of the first Boston Crabs we've seen in this as a finish. You didn't want to hit him a whole bunch of times and get anywhere near the ropes because he'd dump you over. He could land on his feet on a flipping hammerlock escape. A gentle soul but you don't want to mess with him. Well, Bernaert, who was kind of a mean jerk, did want to mess with him and it went okay for a while, right up until the point that it didn't. One of my favorite things about watching these matches is that while there are spots, so often, there's just more organic wrestling where they're constantly trying for an angle out or over or around. At one point, Le Hippie got underneath Bernaert and took him over, but Bernaert hung on and ended up hitting a sort of flipping neckbreaker. Just organically. Anyway, these two were pretty good and while I don't think it had quite the internal narrative of the Batman match, it's still well worth a look, even if only to prove once again that in France, even the gimmick wrestlers could absolutely go.

PAS: Hippy did have a really great Hippy look, you could just smell the patchouli and body odor coming off of both him and his valet. Hippy worked a bit like Batman with really great escapes and armdrags, anyone is going to pale a bit next to Batman in a direct comparison of that style though. I did love the leg pick into a nasty Boston crab for this finish. Bernaert was a game opponent, although outside of the neckbreaker counter Matt mentioned, I don't remember a ton of standout moments. Good Hippy showcase though, I hope he shows up some more

Jean Ferrer vs. Frank Valois 10/31/70 - GREAT

MD: This one slipped through the cracks as I had thought we had covered all of the Andre matches previously. This is a nice look at him at a crossroads, between the wrestler he was against Scarface or Van Buyten very early into his career and who he'd be a couple of years later in IWE as he leaned more and more into the giant aspect as opposed to just being a very large Catch wrestler. The tricky part with that is that as he became more competent and more comfortable, it was a little hard to justify the match length here. They did a good job of delaying Andre's first bit of boiling over. He started wrestling, with top wristlocks and counters for things like Valois trying a standard wristlock, and it led to Valois going first to punches out of breaks or even slaps. That didn't end well for him. Then they rationalized some more time with Valois really going inside sneaking in punches on headlocks or just mauling Andre's nose. While that chipped away at Ferre a little, it also did not go well for Valois. The most crowd pleasing stuff here was when Andre had really gained control and was working the bodyscissors and repeatedly slamming Valois onto his posterior within the hold. He also had maybe the best looking atomic drop I've ever seen to further the damage. When it ended, it felt like an inevitability and a mercy even if Valois really did do everything he could. Andre was such a force by this point that he probably did need to have matches that looked a little different than this, even if he could absolutely still work a more technical style.

PAS: 1970 Andre is a hell of a discovery. Matt is right, he is working more like classic Andre than super tall Gilbert Cesca. Of course Andre working as Andre is one of the coolest things in wrestling history. Valois is a game opponent, he had a really nice headlock and punch to the jaw. The Andre bodyscissors slam is not an Andre spot I had seen before, but feels like it should have been a classic part of his shtick. It does go a bit long for the amount of juice that Valois had, but this was still one of the earliest matches for one of the all time greats, so what a treasure to get to watch it.

ER: Valois was a really fascinating guy. There aren't many people who have shared the ring with Jean Ferre and shared the stage with Jean-Paul Belmondo. Valois was a popular Montreal wrestler who wrestled many years in Europe. He acted on the stage and in several French films, and was also instrumental in bringing Andre into pro wrestling, taking him to IWE, even acting as his business manager for Andre's first several years. There are records of their matches together from 1966 France, all the way through 1973 WWWF. These two had history and they obviously had a touring program together. There are probably few men in history who spent more time with Andre the Giant. 1970 Andre is fascinating in his own right, as he's a large man but feels like only that: A large man. He doesn't yet look like a GIANT, he doesn't move like a giant, he's more like a smaller Big John Studd at this point of his career. Valois works this by throwing cheapshots at any opportunity, always acting like the kid with glasses who can't be hit whenever Andre is about to throw strikes. He has no problem begging off and then grabbing a single leg takedown, or rubbing his palm across Andre's eyes and nose. 

But Valois also bumps great for Andre's puppy with big paws offense, like when Andre threw his butt back to break a waistlock and Valois sold it like a Cro Cop liver kick, or the impact that shook Valois' body when Andre yanked him by both arms into a chest bump. Imagine being on the receiving end of a young Andre's European uppercuts in the corner, how many things can go wrong when a young guy that size is throwing worked strikes at your neck (Andre, for his part, appears able to throw perfectly worked uppercuts that read heavy), or trusting that his atomic drop isn't going to rearrange your old man spine. Andre moved like a normal man in this match, working strong wristlock exchanges, and I loved how Andre grabbed a waistlock and rolled backward into a body scissors, a far more technically adept way for Andre to get into that body scissors than I'm used to seeing. The only time Andre really "felt" like a Giant was when he hit the turnbuckles. The sound the ring made when Andre hit those buckles is the sound of a ring almost tapping out. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE ANDRE THE GIANT

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Gastel! Williams! Remy! MODESTO ALEDO~!

Modesto Aledo vs. Bob Remy 7/29/67

SR: 1 fall match going a bit over 20 minutes. Not a superclassic like the other Aledo match we've seen, but pretty good technical work. Of course Aledo is ultra smooth and looks a step above. His standing headscissor is just insane. Remy is stocky and another solid French technician. They didn't seem to be super familiar, but most of the wrestling was slick and the gnarly bits were cool. Dug Aledos backbreakers. Remy launched a nice assault on Aledos arm, throwing him around and then locking in some tight short arm scissors. Aledo sold it pretty nicely, collapsing after hitting a forearm. It was one of the better bits of selling we've seen so far and made the ending more dramatic. Elegant finish.

MD: I thought this bit of footage was lost but it turned up and we're glad to have it. It's another look at Aledo, though one that shows a slightly different side of him than before. He still could be lightning quick, imaginative, and moved across the ring with confidence and mastery but he worked this much more from underneath, almost basing for Remy to really make him shine. That's not to say Remy wasn't bringing stuff to the table. He kept his holds interesting, including the back half where he grounded Aledo with long short arm scissors and then hammerlock exchanges with some great selling between holds. My favorite thing he did here was a neckbreaker though, where he just wrenched Aledo's face to get him into position for one of the meanest ones I've ever seen. They didn't quite take it into the gear that we knew Aledo could from our previous look at him, but it was nice to see this as contrast to really show off his range.

PAS: Aledo is one of those super maestros who you know was incredible because of reputation, and I was happy to get another surprise chance to see him. Like Matt and Sebastian said, this is an all time classic like the Teddy Boy match, but you could definitely see some of what made Aledo a legend. French Catch is a style with a lot of smooth movement, but Aledo is really on another level, just simple stuff like a armbar reversal is awesome. His deep roll up pin to win the match was about as great looking as I have ever seen that move applied. Remy was a real grinder, trying to keep Aledo bottled up with short arm scissors and hammerlocks, everything he did looked like it really hurt which is something I am always going to have a ton of time for.  

Frank Valois vs. Jacky Wiecz 8/2/67

MD: JIP, a little less than three minutes here. Valois was big and bruising, trapping the arm and sneaking in cheap shots and later tossing Wiecz out. Wiecz was billed as Carpentier's nephew and we'll see him once again in 68 in a longer match against Bollet and he was spirited and fiery with the crowd very much behind him. The big turning point was him grabbing Valois' foot to cut off the King of the Mountain and the fans went nuts for it.

Robert Gastel vs. Eddie Williams 8/2/67

MD: I liked the back half of this more than the first half, probably because Williams got to do more in the back half. That's not to say that the early stuff was bad. It was just by the books with holds, Gastel starting the inside shots early, and the ref being more of an annoyance than usual in cutting off Williams' comeback attempts. There were times where I think Gastel was even telling him to lighten up so that he didn't steal his heat, though a lot of that would pay off later on with a big collision spot with the ref that the crowd loved and then Williams just getting fed up and clocking him. Williams brought vulnerability and intensity and some strength spots and of course the headbutt towards the end. By the last few minutes there was a real sense of his momentum and the crowd, which we knew from the last match was a good one, was very much behind him. Gastel's the guy I could watch again and again though. He lives on that perfect line between mean and credible bruising and being a brilliant, reactive stooge. All of his stuff looks so good and all of his reactions and facial expressions and feeding is just so spot on. He's larger than life while just being this dumpy, nondescript lump of a guy. This might be our tenth match with him, but I feel like I know him in the ring as well as I know Dick Murdoch or Buck Robley. Just a great, great pro wrestler and I'm glad we were able to meet him through this footage. I'm also glad the ref in this one got clocked.

SR: 1 fall match going about 30 minutes. Man, Robert Gastel is such a joy to watch. Even when he is doing super simple stuff, he is supremely entertaining. This had simplistic grappling, armlocks and headscissors, but they kept it interesting. Eddie Wiliams is really athletic - super height on his dropkick - and has nice headbutts and forearms. And I just love Gastel. I'm sure if he popped up more he'd emerge as a Satanico-like superworker. This was more of a houseshowish match and a bit long here and there, but I enjoyed it. Worth watching for Gastel grimacing and punching Williams in the face.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Fake Pat! Vachon ! Togo! Delaporte! Bollet! Valois! Wiecz! Universe!

Pat O‘Connor vs. Paul Vachon 5/23/65

MD: We get a solid 15 minutes of this, enough to learn a thing or two. It's Paul Vachon vs the fake Pat O'Connor. I'm even more sure now that they tried to pull the wool over the crowd that he was the real Pat O'Connor. The commentating calls him a former world champion and while they throw out titles all the time, it just fits here. As before, he's a charismatic pot bellied folk hero styled babyface, working for the crowd with big shots. Vachon's interesting, billed as a lumberjack, but more savvy than wild, apt to hiding in the ropes to get an advantage. I'm pretty certain this is the first time I've seen (chronologically) a heel play "hide the object" in the footage, this time being a string attached to his ring gear apparently that he used to work over the wrist and choke. I wouldn't say the holds here were super compelling but they did work them and struggle in a grinding heavyweight sort of manner. If you're looking for trends, I think we're seeing more whips into the corner in the mid-60s than we have in previous years too. What got the biggest pop was O'Connor tossing him around by his beard, including out of the ring, which was your finish.

SR: JIP. We get about 12 minutes. It‘s Paul Vachon, baby. This was largely two big burly men beating on each other and perfectly solid. I especially liked when Not Pat O‘Connor popped him in the mouth. Big burly Paul Vachon flies over the 3rd rope for the finish.

Tosh Togo vs. Roger Delaporte 5/23/65

SR:1 fall match going under 20 minutes. Harold Sakata enjoyed a nice popularity surge thanks to his appearance in Goldfinger. His popularity was so great that there was even a minor scandal in Germany at the time, as Togo was wrestling as Oddjob, and another promoter had a fake Oddjob main event his own event the same night. This match was mostly Togo being the aggressor in typical carny Japanese fashion with nerve holds, toe kicks and chops. It was nice to see Delaporte in the role of a noble guy taking a beating and in turn kicking the shit out of his opponent. The match felt like two guys who were absolutely not familiar with each other just doing the most simple stuff and really wasn‘t all that great outside of the novelty of seeing Mr. Oddjob. At least we got Bollet having a go at Oddjob after the match.

MD: When the crowd's chanting "Roger" ten minutes into a Delaporte match, you know that they either did something very right or something very wrong. Here it was right. Togo is, of course, Harold Sakata, and he comes out with the full Oddjob gear and the commentary talking about Goldfinger. I think Delaporte booked himself against anyone even vaguely interesting who came through Paris whether it made sense or not. You can't really blame him too much. Here, Togo ambushed Delaporte right from the get go and didn't look back, throwing kicks, chops, and choking on the ropes. Roger's usual tactics of cowering and hiding in the corner didn't work at all, because Togo just didn't care about the rules. He couldn't pick off a leg or get in a cheapshot because Togo was simply relentless. Finally, however, he made it out of the ring, got a breather, and started to fire back. He trapped Togo's leg in the ropes and hammered and pulled at it and the fans loved it. They'd rather their villain tha n this savage interloper dressed in false finery. It was fairly back and forth from there, with big shots and big brawling (and one chinlock, which still got a huge ovation for Delaporte and another chant when he got out of it and started hammering again) until Togo hit a KO shot to end it. Post-match, Bollet saved his partner, and Togo threatened to throw his at at him, so good stuff all around. Nothing fancy here and barely a hold past some stomach claws and that chinlock, but it was fairly rollicking stuff with a foreign attraction and de facto babyface Delaporte getting honest sympathy even without doing anything to change up his act.


Andre Bollet/Frank Valois vs. Eddie Wiecz/Mr. Universe 6/6/65 pt 1, pt 2

MD Weicz/Carpentier is pretty interesting to watch. He absolutely has star power. He has this great way of organically working his athleticism (the flips and cartwheels) into what he's doing. He works these big set pieces into his matches, like fighting out of the corner and backflipping off the ropes, or the four man submission here that worked the ref in as well, but a lot of what he does seems to serve himself as much as the match, especially relative to other guys we've seen. If I'm in this crowd the images that will stick with me would be those big set pieces would be the heels cheating against the far more muscular Mr. Universe and Weicz constantly trying to get justice by getting in, and the end, where he does a great skin the cat headscissors while his partner is getting pinned. He was definitely a guy who knew how to get over. Universe had some charisma, a good look, and some big shots where he put his whole body into it, but at times you got the sense he had no idea what he was doing, too. Valois was a very good partner for Bollet and they stooged and cheated well. This had the most "ref distraction," we've seen so far and the balance between the babyface comebacks and the heels retaking the advantage by double teaming worked out pretty well. Universe wasn't great but given the nature of the match, he didn't have to do a ton but take offense and be a key player during some of the big set pieces either.

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 30 minutes. Valois looks like a bigger, fatter, more bald version of Bollet. This was fun when it was just lumpy gentlemen beating on each other. Both Bollet and Valois had some amazing bumps, and Valois threw these cool punches to guys ears. That said this was really long and had too much of guys running in and out of the ring disrupting the action with no real structure. The fans had a blast, though.

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