Tuesday is French Catch Day: Van Buyten! Verhaugue! Firmin! Raspoutine! Peducci! Goude!

Franz Van Buyten vs Luc Verhaugue 10/2/82

MD: Van Buyten is just amazing. This was a joy to watch. He's one of the greatest babyfaces of all time. I watched this and I was more sure of it than ever. Certainly one of the best sellers. This went around twenty and was for a European title. They mentioned how Van Buyten was a former world champion. Verhaugue was French but I don't know a ton else about him. Part of the crowd was for him just because he was France but his actions turned most of the rest (along with Van Buyten's selling and the early exchanges).

Verhaugue was the aggressor from the get go with the initial holds, but Van Buyten, after working his way through them, had technical reversals and answers, be it a monkey flip or an up and over headscissors. That frustrated Verhaugue and he went dirty, never really looking back. Van Buyten sold and sold and sold until he finally tried to get up on the ropes to escape. The ref (apparently a work football ref who was going to become more and more of a mess as the night went on) had admonished Verhaugue up to this point with warnings but he hadn't done quite enough and here he tried to get Van Buyten off the ropes. That infuriated the crowd and some of them started to yell at the ref at ringside. That actually distracted the ref allowing for more cheating by Verhaugue which is something I've never seen before.

Van Buyten was finally able to use one of his trademark transitions, pulling Verhaugue over the top while he had him in a hold and started firing back. When the ref got in his way, he made him join in on it, getting both in the corner and doing his running charge to set up a ten punch. The ref stayed on him and he pulled the ref's shirt off and got DQed. But overall it was a great babyface performance by Van Buyten with Verhaugue doing his part as the aggravated aggressor.  

SR: I'm used to seeing Van Buyten wrestling against monsters, so it's almost odd to see him wrestling someone who looks like a regular person. Verhague was tall, but other than that looked like a regular guy. This was bread and butter Van Buyten stuff - some simple, tight wrestling, before Verhague quickly starts working him over. If you've seen your share of van Buyten matches you can probably guess exactly what happens along the way. Verhague looked good clubbering someone with basic blows but didn't have a very deep skillset. When you are fighting who sells as good as van Buyten you don't really need much more. It worked on the crowd, as once again a big woman got mad at the heel ref and wanted to have a go at him, with only a much skinnier side referee there to hold her back. Van Buyten ends up making his signature comeback and then beats up the ref for the DQ. We get an angry Van Buyten yelling into a mic after the match. Feels odd regular of an occurance this was for Van Buyten. You really get the sense he probably had this exact match with 500 different local bad guys, and everytime it ended with a big woman getting out of her chair and a referee having his shirt torn. 

Raspoutine/Firmin vs Johnny Goude/Rino Peducci 10/2/82

MD: Second match on the show. It was a lot. Exhausting in the amount of stuff here. Very fun to see Firmin (the butler) in this role. He was acknowledged for who he was and he did ok really. Obviously we knew he could bump but he was a good underhanded heel. This version of a Rasputin was a light heavyweight and could move and bump as well. Lots of cheating in the corner with the tag rope too. That sort of thing. and lots and lots of help from the ref who now was totally out to get the crowd and the stylists. 

It was a bit much because Goude (a Belgian) and Peducci (Italian) seemed quite skilled and part of me did, in fact, want to see them in a more conventional match. But it was hard to fault just how entertaining this was for almost every second, even if so much of the heat was on the ref. They'd do bits where they tied up the heels and charged at them in the ropes and he'd get in the way on the third attempt and do a little strut in his purple jacket (for his shirt had been destroyed). Some other really fun comedy bits like grabbing both Firmin's mustache and Raspoutine's beard and then having the partner come off the top with a double stomp on them. Goude even did some dives. It got pretty wild overall with the fans furious at the ref and them doing spot after spot after spot. At one point Raspoutine took ten headscissor takeovers in a minute span and then sold like he was dead and the ref had to bring him back to life. It's the most "spot monkeys" clip outside of luna catch and I don't think I can ever let anyone see it. This ended more or less like you'd expect with all the heels and the ref piled up on each other as the stylists counted and then with them getting the actual win but the ref throwing it out only to end up as a battering ram to be used on the heels. The last image is the stylists whacking everyone with the victory flowers. Madcap and worth watching once but I'm glad not every match in the footage was like this. 

SR: Firmin, is it the same guy who was with Robert Duranton like 20 years earlier? How odd to see a noble valet tagging with the rugged Rasputin. Looking at the guys in this, you'd think it might turn out to be some local shitshow because who on earth has ever heard of the likes of Johnny Goude, Rino Peducci and the French version of Rasputin? But somehow French TV never disappoints and this is another really good match. Someone must've done a remarkable job to keep enforcing the quality even way into the 80s, because these guys did complicated, athletic, fast paced exchanges as well as pretty much anyone else we have seen so far. In, fact things veered outside of the standard stuff and into interesting territory here and there. Such as the way Goude would use the leapfrog to set up a dropkick over the ropes, or Firmins slick body scissor counter to a slingshot splash of all things. Goude even ended up hitting a plancha to the outside. And Peducci, for his pasty look, had a no-hands kip up that was as good as anyones. So they start with a bunch of fun wrestling, and then things veered into the usual heatseeking to pad the time to 30 minutes. Heels weren't mindblowing but good enough. Once again the ref is evil, and he has this goofy disco shirt and would do a Fargo strut everytime he foiled something the babyfaces tried. It was just goofy enough to be entertaining as usual. At one point Goude hit like 10 huracanranas to Raspoutine, who sold this as a KO. It seems Raspoutine is counted out but they revive him and the match continues for more simple crowd pleasing stuff. Johnny Goude, whereever you are, you convinced me with your one TV appearance that you were a fine fine wrestler. This was a lot of fun, although it played out in the usual. You notice that these euro guys always did the same crowd pleasing spots and rarely ventured into new territory. Maybe it's because this show was a touring act, maybe they just didn't think to try new things, but it is noticable that they would do some of the same spots that you'd see 10 years earlier. 

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Found Footage Friday: DANIELSON~! SUWA~! PIRATENKAMPF~! VAN BUYTEN~! LASARTESSE~! VERNE~!

Verne Gagne vs. Bobby Nelson NWA Chicago 1955

MD: Another @pwoloss unearthing we're just getting to. Always nice to see a new match with young Verne, and he was his usual dynamic self here, feigning headlocks for quick decisive hammerlocks, hitting (and dramatically missing) that signature dropkick, ready to fire back against Nelson's shenanigans. 

And Nelson was full of them. I really liked how he moved in general. If he was going to eat a Gagne shot, he did it by getting caught up in the ropes for a second and then sold it with a full spin. Just full effort before, during, after. When he took a mare, he almost went flying out of the ring. Likewise, when he went for a front facelock, he kept putting his foot on the bottom rope to push off and send things back to the middle of the ring. Little things like that when it came to positioning and trickiness. Lots of sneaking in punches, but he'd sneak them in right in the eye in the nastiest way. 

It meant that when Verne did come back, the clobbering he could put on and the technique he used was more than warranted and the fans went up big for it. The old Gagne sleeper that he used to end it was at a slight angle and looked particularly nasty. Just a good short match up with enough contrast to make things work.

Franz Van Buyten vs. Rene Lasartesse (Piratenkampf) Germany 10/84

MD: Another month, another uncovered classic that Richard Land (@maskedwrestlers) dropped on his patreon from the German haul. We only had a few minutes of this previously, and what we had before was blurry and gripping, a fight for every inch in the corner midway through the match. The whole thing is a far more minamalist affair, with some really great high points surrounding the climbs in the corner and Van Buyten especially putting his entire body into halting them. 

It still has the sort of grueling mood that you'd expect from these matches, with a lot of wrenching at the face with the chain, scraping it against teeth with a yank from behind, but the video quality is almost too crisp for such an affair and the blood doesn't flow quite as freely as one might like. It's still tremendous how much they accomplish just by making every small movement matter as much as possible and Van Buyten's comeback is all around brutal. He's one of the greatest babyfaces of all time for a reason; his body language is as good as anyone's ever, and unique on top of that. No one moves like him, the way he throws limbs and frame into everything he does. That's especially present in the comeback. The finish is cheap as can be with Lasartesse escaping the chain and capturing the flag while getting pummeled in the ropes, but in the ensuing, heated chaos, order is restored and no matter what was written on paper, the fans at least got to leave feeling like Van Buyten was the victor.

Bryan Danielson vs. SUWA 1PW 8/19/06

MD: We don't talk a lot about SUWA. This is less known then their ROH match which happened a few days earlier but it was a lot of fun. I didn't love the opening stretch, if only because I didn't feel like they were entirely in sync. Everything was clean but SUWA was messing with the cameraman and the timekeeper and Danielson didn't really play off of it. He took a really nasty double snot rocket just by reversing a whip and hitting his next few spots; yeah one of them was a dive but I wanted a little more. He did throw some toilet paper back at SUWA after he chucked it from outside the ring towards Danielson, so that was well appreciated.

When they got into the heat and the comeback and went down the stretch, I liked it a lot more. SUWA had extra oomph to everything he did. If he took Danielson up and over for a backbreaker, he went way up and over with him. Everything looked good. Danielson, on the other hand, had a really nice looking twisting European uppercut off the second ropes and a tight chicken wing. When they went to strikes and headbutts, everything felt impactful and was sold as such. When Danielson finally locked in the Cattle Mutilation in the center of the ring, it really, truly felt like there was nothing SUWA could do. That's how you want it to feel. I'm glad @aspiranteanegro sent this our way (via Tom).

ER: Matt says we don't talk a lot about SUWA but I think it's more that we don't write about SUWA enough. That's what he meant, but I think the difference is important enough to note. Because, even though we've only written about a few SUWA matches over our existence, SUWA is one of my very favorite wrestlers. He was my favorite Toryumon guy and a completely unique presence in NOAH, and then he was gone. An always eventful 10 years and then he was out. He was one of our last great punchers and last great heels. Nobody else in NOAH was a heel the way he was, with a truly heel face that everyone wanted to see punched. He has pock marks and could have worked any US territory in the 80s and been a legend. There were so many incredible SUWA matches that we did not get to see, but now we have tape of the other SUWA/Danielson match. 

SUWA worked so well with Danielson, fully understanding what the other was capable of. The match had a great build, making it feel like a really complete match. I was surprised that it was "only" 11 minutes long. It felt longer, in a good way, because the nearfalls down the finishing stretch felt well earned. SUWA comes off so authentic. He's tough, but a great stooge. He has no interest in winking as part of his heel routine. He does not ever show any interest in people liking him. He is committed to being a heel and has a moveset that fits him perfectly. There's a great bit where he toe kicks Danielson in the balls and then does full pantomime for the ref, hitting the inside of his leg and doing one of the best ball sells I've seen in showing the ref Danielson was just faking it. SUWA has great kicks. He is not a kicker, but he has great kicks. Nobody wrestling today has better stomach kicks than SUWA, and his John Woo dropkick to Danielson's stomach looked like it caused the bump Danielson took into the buckles. SUWA has a finisher worthy clothesline and throws an overhand chop across Danielson's face, his quebradora looked fully controlled and violent, and he's so good at kickouts that he made it look like Danielson could still beat him four different ways. I don't know why we don't write more about SUWA. I've wasted so much time. I haven't seen any 2013 NOAH SUWA. There are 2000s NOAH SUWA matches I have not seen. I should write a lot more about SUWA matches.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Van Buyten Brothers! Vladimir! Strogoff! Mercier! Asquini! Taysse! Viracocha! Gonzales! Trujillo!

Guy Mercier/Bruno Asquini/Gerard Taysse vs Inca Viracocha/Jo Gonzales/Tomas Trujillo 8/7/78

MD: On paper, this one may not seem so special. Some stylists (French and Italian) against the Peruvians or Spaniards. This is, however, our first real trios match. We had one previously back in 74 but that had been more of a penalty box match where the third wrestler on the stylist side didn't join until halfway in. At a glance, it doesn't seem to catch on like it did in Mexico around this time, as I don't see more of these upcoming in the footage.

That's a shame as the style was so suited for the ins and outs of traditional trios matches. There was an extra flow to the pairings in the first third, wrestlers cycling in and out, with an underlying story of Gonzales (who was wonderfully over the top here and I'm not sure I've given him enough credit overall) sort of ducking Mercier. They felt like de facto captains in the narratives. Things shifted to a fairly clear heat where Asquini and Taysse would fight back but get trapped back into the heel corner. They'd cycle in and out but the advantage stayed with the heels. Mercier got knocked off the apron a few times but didn't get in. The only real move of note here was a Trujillo slam where he fell too, landing sort of in a suplex (We still haven't seen a standing vertical one. This was more like a Snow Plow). Most of it was shots and stomps but it was all effective and drew heat.

After the first fall, they ramped the heat up more, putting a lot of it on Saulnier (being the diminutive ref, who we know well by now both as a wrestler and a ref) including him missing a hot tag to Mercier before Asquini rolled so he could make it. Mercier subsequently destroyed everyone, including Saulnier, whipping him into the corner repeatedly as he was tossing Gonzales around. The third fall had some elaborate spots including the six person at once headlock, set
up beautifully at the end by Saulnier getting in Mercier's face not to do it. They even did a spot where they pressed Mercier into a heel and counted a pin with him. Fun stuff all around, good performances, with Mercier and Gonzales standing out, and a taste of what French trios wrestling might have been if it developed further that way into the 80s. One last note, while there hasn't been a lot of week to week build in the French footage, it has happened occasionally and it looks to be happening again soon as I see the August 21, 1978 show is Asquini vs Trujillo and Gonzales vs Mercier. We should cover that next week.

Ivan Strogoff/Le Grand Vladimir vs Franz van Buyten/Daniel van Buyten 8/14/78

MD: More sound issues on this one, sorry. Unsurprisingly, it's worth watching though. Daniel is Franz' brother and works very similarly to him, including the same huge babyface comeback spot, one of the best of all time, that lunge across the ring up to the top rope to fire fists into his opponent's face. That's for the end though. This was fun with a different structure than usual. Strogoff and Vladimir were a formidable team, clubbing and leaning with armbars. The first third or so had them trying just that and Franz and Daniel out wrestling them. Ultimately though, they cut of Daniel and Strogoff put him down with a prototype of a Tiger Drive ('78 I guess).

Second fall had a pretty awesome comeback early on with Franz putting on maybe the tightest cravat I've ever seen, but Daniel ended up back in and beat upon. Delaporte was equally a jerk to everyone in this one, keeping Franz out but also pulling on Vladimir's beard when he went too far. Eventually hot tags were made and fiery comebacks were had. It eventually spilled out to the floor for a big brawl and got thrown out. These guys all matched up extremely well.

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

Either 5/17/78 or 7/15/78 

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

Le Grand Vladimir vs Franz Van Buyten

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

Lola Garcia vs Brigette Borne

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

Jean Menard/Jicky Richard vs Kader Hassouni/Angelito

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

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

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

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Van Buyten! Schneider! Corne! Richard! Strogoff!

MD: More sound issues. We know they do resolve at some point but not yet. Just use one earbud. Thanks for the help on identifying Michel Di Santo and Vanberg.

Franz van Buyten vs Karl Schneider 8/7/77

MD: We get the last five or six minutes of this, a swimming pool match, and it's reaffirming what we already knew: Franz van Buyten was an exceptional babyface. He was constantly driving forward, constantly fighting from underneath, constantly punishing his opponent, standing up to the ref at every point. It was all Schneider could do to try to snatch a headlock or get some shots in and he could never hold Van Buyten for long. This built to a schoolboy trip off the ropes and a catapult into the drink. When the ref complained, van Buyten picked him up in a fireman's carry and hefted him out too, drawing a DQ. Van Buyten was an absolute folk hero.

Jean Corne vs Jacky Richard 8/7/77

MD: Speaking of folk heroes, Delaporte, as iconic as Dusty Rhodes or Hijo Del Santo in his own, villainous way, was the ref here. I learned something about myself watching this one. I'd probably have paid to see Delaporte ref a match in the 70s. He was that entertaining as a draw. Usually a special ref is there to further a story or provide a kayfabe level of enforcement if things boil over or just provide a sheen of celebrity, but Delaporte was as entertaining a wrestler as ever existed and this utilized him fairly perfectly. For the most part this was a standard match, Richard basing for Corne and bullying him with underhanded shots and moments of comeuppance, but when they really introduced Delaporte as a key figure, it was brilliant. That could be Richard retreating to him on his knees and Delaporte patting his head or far more complex things. The spot of the match had Richard tied up in the ropes and Corne charging him. After the first charge, Delaporte got in the way and Richard, in frustrating kicked forward, hitting our beloved ref from behind. Delaporte was incensed and got out of the way, coaching Corne on to hit him over and over with running shots to the crowd's delight. Legitimately funny stuff. The finish was almsot over the top in showing who the star was, with Richard dominating and finally knocking Corne into the water repeatedly, only for Delaporte to have enough of him not listening (and going so far as to hit him) and knocking Richard out too. If Corne had then come in and gotten a quick pin, it would have been better than the DQ on Richard that we ended up getting. Still, this was all great fun and another great Delaporte performance.

Michel Di Santo vs Vanberg 8/8/77

MD: Not a ton to say here. We have audio so I'm sure we'll figure out who these guys are (and we did, thanks! It's Lino Di Santo's son), but it's just the last few minutes. Delaporte is the ref and brings the star power. The heel leans hard early until he cheats a bit too much and Delaporte grabs his mustache. From there the stylist starts to work back with uppercuts again against the clubbering shots of his opponent, really getting an advantage towards the end as the time runs out. Delaporte still proclaims him the winner and everyone's happy but the bad guy.

Franz van Buyten vs Ivan Strogoff 8/8/77

MD: The finish of this was tremendous. We have a Van Buyten vs Strogoff match from Hanover from a few years later but it's got pretty rough VQ and felt a little slight, maybe? This was a very complete match, with two huge comebacks by Van Buyten, the last after the ref had already thrown it out because Strogoff assaulted him. I just can't say enough great things about Van Buyten as a babyface. He's legitimately one of the best ever and this match is a great example of that. He's so into every moment, makes everything matter so much, draws the fans in. You see every bit of agony when he's being assaulted, every iota of strain as he's trying to find the strength to come back, an absolutely electric level of fury as he's getting revenge. His bound across the ring to leap onto the top rope so he can throw fists down into the face of his opponent is just one of the best, most gripping babyface spots ever.

This match had Strogoff controlling early with dirty tactics and strength but Van Buyten out wrestling him and even, at times, showing crowd-rousing strength of his own, making it look more like unstoppable will power than strength itself. Strogoff primarily used open hand chops to the throat and outright chokes but he painted an imposing figure. They ran through an extended short arm scissors sequence which was full of gritty, ugly struggle, none of the precision and beauty of Petit Prince working the sequence with a solid base, but just as effective nonetheless. Ultimately, Strogoff took over by choking him repeatedly in the ropes, putting his head under the second rope and pulling up as he choked him, making for an amazing visual image. That made Van Buyten's comeback as he worked him forward and out of the ring a little more and a little more before sending him (and the referee) tumbling all the more potent. Just an all time fight for a comeback out of a hold followed by him laying it in and beating him (and at times the ref) around the ring.

That finish had everything break down wild, with Strogoff abusing the ref, including just sizing him up and clocking him for all the world to see, and then Van Buyten firing back on him due to the distraction. Strogoff would go back to the ref, pulling his shirt apart. After the match was called, Van Buyten tied Strogoff into the ropes and catapulted the ref head first into him. The ref would stumble up and toss another headbutt in for good measure even as Delaporte tried desperately to get control. Just a great crazy mob scene as Strogoff wouldn't stop and Van Buyten kept firing back on him. There were some points that were somewhat plodding here, but overall, Van Buyten's presence made this great.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Van Buyten! Bollet! Delaporte! Mr. Montreal! de Zarzecki!

Andre Bollet vs. Franz van Buyten 1969

MD: As we'd already covered the Andre match from 68, here's our first real look in this chronological process at Franz Van Buyten in a nice long 2/3 falls singles match with Bollet. They were doing something weird here where the commentating was for the crowd. I say this a lot with Bollet, but this felt like another iconic match-up. Van Buyten is an amazing seller, one of the best ever, maybe, at drawing sympathy, at full body selling, selling of exhaustion and damage, and drawing the crowd into his big, righteous comebacks. And Bollet, of course, portrays one of the biggest shitbag jerks ever, who despite his obvious talent, which here includes a nice up and over counter, an Indian Deathlock, the somersault senton that ends the first fall, deserves everything he gets. Unlike some of the 2/3 falls tags we've seen lately, this felt perfectly balanced, with a very hard-worked, gritty feeling out period to start, with Bollet starting to cheat and Van Buyten firing back, leading to a nice bit of heat as Bollet kept tossing Van Buyten out, one that got so heated that they brought in someone from the crowd (maybe a weird plant) who took his shirt off and brandished a cane, and then a big comeback in the second fall, with plenty of revenge spots with Bollet tied up, before they went more even (though with a clear Van Buyten advantage) towards the banana peel finish and the post-match brawling. This was a beloved hero against a terrible villain and everything you'd want along those lines.

SR: On paper this should've been good, but in practice this was really long. It seems Bollet was past it at this point. He could still hit hard, but was struggling to kill time when controlling the action. Van Buyten always sells big and makes stuff look hard fought, but in this case the match took forever to get anywhere. We eventually got the signature Van Buyten comeback. Miserable ending. At least we got to see Van Buyten slug it out with Bollet on the floor. That was more exciting than anything that came before.

PAS: I am closer to Matt than Sebastian on this one. I thought it was pretty great with Bollet being really brutal, landing senton's so nasty that Van Buyten seemed to be nearly puking, hard forearms and uppercuts. We had the wildness of a fan (or plant) running in and some really heated Van Buyten comebacks at the end. I am into the idea of a babyface getting so fired up that he crotches the heel on the top rope, only to realize he went too far. 

Andre Bollet/Roger Delaporte vs Mr. Montreal/Warnia de Zarzecki 1/25/69

MD: We'd seen this tag a few years earlier, but here everyone's a little older, and excitingly enough, the match is in color. I can't say the color adds all that much, though. Delaporte looks a little greyer, maybe. The crowd seems a little more vivid on close-ups. The ring apron is very red. And this match follows many others we've seen, a long first fall with the back half full of heat and two short falls of babyface supremacy to make up for it. Bollet and Delaporte are, of course, masters of controlling the ring and they show that here. They'll get outwrestled and outpunched by their opponents but all it'll take is one moment to get control of things in their own corner once again. They played up Delaporte's age a bit more now, though he was old when he was young, always writhing and wincing even though he'd hit like a truck. Bollet seemed as athletic as ever, able to hit those somersault sentons and go up and over to escape a hold, plus bumping and stooging all around the ring and getting in fights with random members of the crowd (and here, the camera crew as well). We know Montreal and Zarzecki were good and they seemed it here even if they didn't stand out (even in their own usual ways like Montreal's strength) relative to other stylist teams we've seen lately.

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 30 minutes. This was in color. It kind of made you wonder, where the other matches from the time period also in colour and this was just the only one that happened to get archived in color? Or were they testing the technology here? Eitherway, the match wasn't much special. Some gnarly heel beatdowns and technico control segments, but nothing you haven't seen in better tags. Warnia and Mr. Montreal seemed somewhat subdued. Bollet and Delaporte still made for a decent heel tandom, at least. The last 2 falls were microscopic and I had to wonder if the match would've been better in more evenly spread out form.

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New Footage Friday: HAMBURG!! LASARTESSE! VAN BUYTEN! REGAL! RUDGE! ANACONDA?

Rene Lasartesse vs. Franz van Buyten Hamburg 9/19/84

MD: It's the contrast that makes these matches. Lasartesse is stagnation and Van Buyten is motion. Lasartesse is the immovable object controlling the center of the ring and Van Buyten is a dervish of momentum leaping in with blows. Lasartesse is entropy, the old regime drawing heat just by taking off his cape, reminiscent of death with his odd physique and how you can almost see his spine as he moves. He lumbers forward with measured steps and a certain inevitability. Van Buyten is energy, a representation of life and its perseverance, renewing and regrowing even in the face of unimaginable oppression. There is a cost to all things and thus Van Buyten is also prone to over-exuberance: Lasartesse is able to take over mid-match, turning a vaulting leap across the ring into a bump to the outside. Subsequently, he dissolves the ring itself, turning the corner into a weapon to pick apart Van Buyten's back. Even the bell calling for the end of a round can't stop his creeping assault. Van Buyten's comeback is spurred by a reversal to a tombstone, energy flowing through his body to emit almost spasmatic kicks to break the hold. His resurgence, even in the face of the healthier Lasartesse's consistent clubbering blows is the triumph of chaos and rebirth over unchanging order. The finish, where an out of control Van Buyten drives his body into Lasartesse, knocking him over the top and drawing the DQ, is yet another manifestation of its ultimate consequence.

SR: We had this before, but the version we had was black and white and like 20 minutes worth of clips. This gives a much more complete image of the match, and it‘s nice to have that. These two, at least in the 80s, had damn great chemistry together. This also has the advantage that it‘s 1984. While Lasartesse was already crusty and looking like your grandad, Franz was still a stud rather than an aging maestro. Aging maestro is cool, but stud is really compelling. This was fast paced but also had a lot of gravitas, with Lasartesse leaning in on nasty chokes and Van Buyten decking him almost immediately with resounding uppercuts. Van Buyten is incredibly compelling doing basic stuff. He makes the spot where he struggles for a snapmare to Lasartesse awesome like it‘s a real sport. He is also predicably great selling the inevitable beatdown where Lasartesse jabs him in the throat a bunch. One of the cool things that happens in these small arena 80s Euro matches is when the heel removes the turnbuckle pad, the fans will try to put it back up to protect the face. Lasartesse sure had people made as hell at him. We also get Lasartesse working over van Buytens back resulting in a typically great selling performance and some really fun Tombstone reversals.

PAS: Nifty match. I loved the early snapmare fight, Lasartesse is a great stonewall, refusing to go over and barreling forward like a Rhino. Van Buyten was at his prime and moving like a dervish. I loved the multiple in ring topes leading to the huge for an old dude Lasartesse bump. It is really cool that this feud has been unearthed in the last couple of years, and we get to see so many versions of it. This was one of the oldest versions and it was great to see Van Buyten with a fresh face.

Rene Lasartesse vs. Franz van Buyten Hamburg 1991

MD: Familiarity and expertise drives this match. These two are old rivals, old enemies, archetypes. Lasartesse is the villain, a hamming, hammering Snidely Whiplash in the twilight of his years, still smug, still prideful. Van Buyten is evergreen, ever noble. Lasartesse is a master of utilizing space, of using the ring as a palette, always framed in the right place as he lays in his punches and chokes and stomps. Van Buyten is a master of using his own body, sweeping blows from every angle, throwing his full self into a dropkick or a bound back off the ropes, assisting the overall effect even with his prone form in a drag across the ring, arching his body either to invest the crowd in his attempt at the flag or attempt to pull Lasartesse off. And they're with him all the way. It all sort of devolves into an unsatisfying chaos in the end, but what we had before that was pure and distilled, a type of wrestling familiar and primal yet also alien to what many of us grew up with. We're fortunate that the world eventually became small enough that we were gifted it as well.

SR: Lasartesse was 63 years old here. Van Buyten is 50. You see a corpse-like Rene Lasartesse entering the ring and then you notice that this goes 30 minutes. But this was, honest to god, the best Piratenkampf I‘ve seen from 1991 so far. That is not to disparage the South and Wallace matches, but this simply stepped up to a different level of intensity. Lasartesse despite being barely mobile was still really over and to make up for his state van Buyten was super fired up. Lord knows why van Buyten was beating the shit out of Lasartesse worse than anyone else in 1991 so far, but I guess having a 2 decade long rivalry will make you do that as you really get the sense Van Buyten was going to finally put the pillow on his evil old bastards face. Van Buyten was smart enough not to sell a ton for his corpselike opponent and instead beat the shit out of him while scrambling away from any possible chain related awrygoings. Needless to say that didn‘t work out the whole match as Lasartesse acted very savvy and soon found his openings. Lasartesse did some cool chain related shit – raking the chain across the back, chain punching the kidney, but mostly he was about working over Franz with nasty punches and stomps. He throws his punches like a guy with no hip, just straight fists and uppercuts, he looks like his knuckles are hard as stone, and Van Buyten sells getting unexpectedly punched in the eye extremely well. I have no idea how but it builds to a really great crescendo with head stomping galore and some Kill Bill level nasty chain choking, and Lasartesse takes an incredible „I just blew the entirety of my legs out“ bump off the top. For some reason this one has a time limit and they do one entire damn minute of tugging on the chain with Franz balancing on the rope before the time runs out which feels like one of the definite excruciating spots in wrestling ever. After the match Lasartesse challenges van Buyten to another Piratenkampf and van Buytens response is to jump him and beat the shit out of him some more. There actually is the beginning of another Piratenkampf between these two at the end of the video so keep your fingers crossed that will drop eventually as I‘m totally on board for another 30 minute match between a 63 year old Lasartesse and a 50 year old Van Buyten because these guys are the absolute masters of this stip and they showed here that age won‘t stop them from killing each other.

Dave Morgan/Steve Regal vs. Anaconda/Terry Rudge Hamburg 5/6/91

MD: Chaotic southern style tag with clear roles that didn't settle in like it should have, in part because of the ref. Regal was the quick, technical youngster (a veteran in years but still around 21). Morgan was the tough veteran mentor babyface. Rudge was the grizzled veteran heel directing traffic. Anaconda was the traffic. They inverted it a bit by having Morgan play face-in-peril while Regal kept getting missed tags and coming in to allow for double teams, but the ref was consistently out of place which forced people to stand around too much. All the action was good and all the roles were played well. There were some good spots, comedy and otherwise, but it was all a bit too chaotic to make sense of at times. I'd be all for a Morgan vs Rudge match though. Those two seemed almost to be made for each other.

SR: It‘s a pleasure to see Terry Rudge go to work. Unfortunately, his partner was a pretty dull kick and punch type of guy and this match was marred by some confusing clipping going in. Thankfully, Rudge did almost all the ring work. Him vs. Regal is known quality and we also get to see him tear up Morgans leg a bit. That is about the one thing this had going for it as it even ends in a confusing fashion.

PAS: Regal and Rudge are two of the all time greats, and any bit of new footage from either of them is a blessing. We got a couple of fun Regal vs. Rudge exchanges, although much of the match was the heels working over Morgan. Anaconda was a big guy in overalls, possibly a lost WWF Hillbilly and kind of wrestled like that. Had some moments, but never really came together.

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New Footage Friday: VAN BUYTEN! GUJARADO! MORGAN! LOGAN!

Dave Morgan vs. Steve Logan Hamburg 1984

SR: Dave Morgan was a British worker who travelled the work and made a name for himself everywhere except Britain. I‘ve always enjoyed the little scraps and bits I‘ve seen of him, as he has that kind of subtle charisma of a rugged technician, like Osamu Kido or Shunji Kosugi. He won‘t do any of the fancier dancy bits of British wrestling, instead he‘ll throw a side suplex that looks like it requires zero cooperation and earn himself the respect of any audience he was working for without any theatrics. This was a clean match. I think Steve Logan was some young boy just starting out and making his way working the German tournaments and getting the rub by going long with a veteran here. The grappling here won‘t blow you away if you‘ve seen a lot of Euro stuff but there were some beautiful arm lock takeovers and suplexes especially from Morgan.

MD: I'd call this an excellent Morgan showcase. I don't get the sense we have a ton of matches of his but if we were trying to judge him for a Greatest Ever list, this is the sort of match we'd use to check off "carrying an able young wrestler to a multi-round draw." It was pretty clear he was directing traffic in there but he also managed to show a lot of depth and variety in what he did. The first half contained simplified versions of some of the catch holds/exchange we've been seeing lately, hanging on to an arm through multiple escape attempts, including the up and over headscissors and a second attempt at such being jammed. Logan, working from underneath, put a lot of struggle and effort into everything he attempted. There were a number of quick pin attempts and reversals here and the crowd was appreciative of everything. The match turned somewhat midway when Logan fooled Morgan on a series of cravates into a snap mare by slapping him on the shoulder. Morgan responded by this amazing stepthrough wind-up back kick to the ribs and turned up the brutalization. He had a few good suplexes and throws: a floatover, a butterfly, and a fall-away slam. He was able to flawlessly segue into some subtle comedy, getting caught up in the ropes or missing leg dives, and then into one big bump over the top off a dropkick for Logan's last flourish, before taking back over with a frustrated last attempt to put the youngster away before the time ran out. The crowd was up for everything and seemed very appreciative of the draw. Logan showed promise but this was Morgan's match.

PAS: Logan had a nice leapfrog, but as Matt and Sebastian said this was a Morgan showcase. He wasn't breaking out the super fancy mat wrestling, but everything he did looked tight and meaningful. I loved his big takedowns, really put his hips into the throws. It didn't really build to a big finish, but it was a fun chance to see what Morgan delivered.


Franz Van Buyten vs. Indio Guajaro Hamburg 1984

SR: 1980s Hamburg was a charming territory. Since we are probably going to review a lot of Hamburg stuff, I‘m going to have to state some disclaimers – not all German wrestling in the 1980s and before was run by CWA. In fact, CWA didn‘t even exist properly at this point. Hamburg was promoted by a guy named Sven Hansen and Rene Lasartesse, and it has a vibe that is slightly sleazier and raunchier than the stuff from Bremen, Hannover and Austria. Supposedly, the tent that they were running these shows in was really old and gritty, and a sizable chunk of the audience were pimps and their associates, not just from Hamburg. The crowds were pretty rowdy too, basically always yelling things like „Bash his face in!“ or „Rip off his balls!“. This was the kind of formula match that got these crowds really going, every single time. The face is the superior wrestler, the heel cheats a bit, and through lots of foul tactics it builds to a segment where the face is finally able to blow the bad guy away. Guajaro is a solid enough Colombian rudo, spitting at the audience, yelling Spanish into the mic, beating his chest and saying „I am the best!“ in German. Van Buyten must have had this exact match 500 times, but he is too brilliant to scorn him. Both guys were pretty lively here and there were some movements like rope running and leapfrogs that they didn‘t do later. The match had a good pace and an interesting finish were Franz took a big bump to the outside then Guajaro earned himself a DQ for bodyslamming van Buyten outside. Franz, of course, wants to continue fighting and we get Rene Lasartesse coming in wearing a sweater and throwing the Piratenkampf bracelets and chain into the ring and I‘ll bet the place was filled up for when Van Buyten accepted that challenge.

PAS: I enjoyed the griminess of this brawl. It started deliberately, but really picked up, with Guajardo landing hard forearms to Van Buyten's back, he really moved him with each shot. Van Buyten fired back by hitting these really cool diving bodypresses into Guajaro while Guajaro was tied in the ropes. Eventually they just spill into the crowd and wail on each other on the floor. Guajaro doesn't seem like a hidden great worker or anything, but he looks cool and brings some energy to a brawl like this. Did its job to get me excited about the Piratekamf.

MD: The more Van Buyten I see, the more I wonder if he isn't one of the greatest sellers ever. Guajaro was there to use his strength and ferocity, to take advantages and stomp and clubber, to refuse to break clean and maul Van Buyten on the outside. In the first third, Van Buyten would seize an advantage with flash and style. The middle was launched by Guajaro hitting a cheapshot double-thrust on a rope break and knocking Van Buyten over the top, following up with a slam into the post and a series of shots to the back and rib. The comeback was triumphant as usual, with Van Buyten playing chicken with the ref to dive at Guajaro before everything broke down and cards were bandied about. Guajaro didn't have to do a lot here, just be a looming dangerous presence and let Van Buyten do his thing from underneath. That was probably a good thing, but the final effect was a fun match in front of a game crowd.


Franz Van Buyten vs. Indio Guajaro Hamburg 1986

SR: We didn‘t get a new 1984 Piratenkampf, but I guess we can pretend the previous match set up this exact match. This is a match stip where even unspectacular workers like Dave Taylor or Frank Merckx can produce something pretty great. Unfortunately, that didn‘t quite happen with Guajaro here. Guajaro is a guy who is more suited for energetic, heat mongering affairs. Unfortunately, he didn‘t know to do much with this stip besides choking Franz a lot. The chokes looked nasty especially those where he dragged the chain across the mouth, but it needed a bit more inventiveness that Guajaro doesn‘t quite show here. There was some cool chain grappling early on built around gnarly endurance spots, and we DO get a great van Buyten comeback where he locks in a nasty chain choke himself before booting Guajaro in the face a bunch, even hitting a chain clad dropkick. The crowd wasn‘t into the choke-heavy body of the match but they got into it big time as they do when the fight for the flag started. Guajaro didn‘t do much in this section either so van Buyten just kind of bags the win. Still, it gets the full Piratenkampf point.

PAS: These Hamburg Piratekamf's have a specific rhythm to them, a filthy violent grinding rythm and this delivered that. Guajaro was dominant early, rubbing the chain into Van Buyten's mouth using it to pull his throat into the bottom rope, slowly torturing him. We had some great moments of leverage with Van Buyten tensing and pulling as hard as he could to keep Guajaro from the flag, and then an awesome Van Buyten comeback, with big hard shots from the wrist brace and chain and a great dropkick. Van Buyten is a really great comeback wrestler, works well with the crowd, times his spots well. He is up there with Colon and Dusty and Lawler in that 80s comeback babyface. I wanted maybe one more big exchange before Van Buyten got the flag, but otherwise this was great, and I am really happy we get to watch a bunch more of these types of unique cool matches.

MD: From my limited experience, there are different sorts of piratenkampf matches. For instance, there are the ones where the wrestlers are constantly going for the flag and then there are the ones with a lot of punishment and a big comeback. This was much more of the latter, which, on principle, I prefer. Ultimately, this was very similar to their other singles match, just enhanced by the chain. It had a lot of similar beats, with Van Buyten out-finessing Guajaro early on, getting leaned upon for the middle section, and then mounting a bit fiery comeback. I think, ultimately, the chain helped. It meant less motion but often times more viciousness. It meant that the hope spots were primarily Van Buyten pulling Guajaro off the pole, generally losing his own balance in the process so he couldn't capitalize. The comeback was a barrage of forearms by Van Buyten that were almost better than whatever he could have done with the chain and the crowd was absolutely up for it. Guajaro was much more inclined to choke with the chain than strike with it, which made for solid visuals given Van Buyten's selling, but no color of note. The finish could have used maybe a bit more oomph but again, the fans were wholly into it whenever anyone even got close to winning.

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New Footage Friday: LASARTESSE! VAN BUYTEN! AMERICAN ALPHA! REVIVAL! CAIFAN! HECHICERO!

Rene Lasartesse/ Double Trouble vs. Franz Van Buyten/Scott Casey/Boston Blackie CWA 1992

PAS: Lasartesse vs. Van Buyten is an all time legendary feud and this maybe one of their last matches opposite each other. This is a really fun house show style six man tag. Van Buyten kind of reminds me of the Bullet as he has some really fun old man dancing, monkey flipping and armdragging. Lasartesse struts around the ring like a total dipshit and stooges great. Really enjoyed Double Trouble, they were a totally ok roidy tag team, sort of a heel High Voltage and they should have had a solid WCW Pro run. They even hit an assisted flip senton, which is a pretty big highspot in 1992. Lots of jazz and misdirection and hot tags, exactly the way you want to see legends showcased in their declining years.

MD: Watching this, I'm not sure what I'd rather see, late 92 Lasartesse vs Lawler, with both of them letting every little moment sink in or 92 van Buyten doing that headscissors (or step over) counter to the armlock vs old man Nick Bockwinkel. We've hit a point where we've seen that counter so many times that it doesn't quite have the same zing it did before, but if it was really so commonplace, why aren't people using it in matches today? Anyway, this was a tale of two matches. About midway through, with a lot of heat and antics, Van Buyten (who had played FIP very well for a lot of the first ten minutes, so well that the camera angle/video quality really wasn't a problem at all) and Lasartesse (who had played a chickenshit old heel during that time) both got tossed and it settled down into a 2 on 2 with Casey as FIP. It was still perfectly fine, with everyone playing their roles well, but we were here for the old guys so it was a shame to see them gone. It built to a pretty amusing spot with one Trouble tied up and the second one used as a battering ram, before the heels overdid it and everything got thrown out.

ER: When I saw the name Double Trouble I thought we were getting the two big fatties who worked WWF house shows in exchange for selling the Undertaker name rights. That said, I really liked them and yes they definitely seem like a team that should have showed up somewhere. They broke out fistdrops and flying headbutts and high legdrops, each took big bumps over the top to the floor, an unexpected Drive-By, set up a great spot where one of them got tied in the ropes and the other gets rammed HARD into his gut battering ram style and yeah these are probably the actual better Double Trouble team. I liked how the first half played as the old man Van Buyten vs. Lasartesse showdown, and the second half was our Double Trouble showcase (or at least a showcase for me). Van Buyten was still super spry in his early 50s and his early headscissors is downright majestic. Van Buyten had wonderful babyface energy and I adored all the mincing and posturing from Lasartesse, the whole thing was satisfying.

Caifan Rockero vs. Hechicero Poder y Honor 1/31/09

PAS: This is the earliest Hechicero match we have on video and we get to see him against probably his greatest rival in Caifan. This was really a treat, you could tell that they had kind of a touring match worked out, and this had all of the little beats you want from these two.  They had an opening llave section with a lot of very cool twisting leg locks, the rolling leglock submissions is a Hechicero trademark, and he breaks out a bunch of cool ones here. It build to a bigger near fall section with some cool arm trap slams, a big armlock triangle submission near fall by Hechicero and a nifty top rope springboard rana by Caifan. You could see that both guys hadn't fully developed their personas yet, there was a lot of mirroring that was cool, but didn't allow then to differentiate themselves, the way they would in later matches. It felt like what it was, two super talented young guys in a garage figuring their stuff out, our boy Rob Bihari dug this one out of his crate and it was really cool to see.

MD: This is a great little piece of history and I'm glad Rob posted it. We don't have a ton of pre-2010 Hechicero online. I wrote up their 2010 match almost five years ago when I was still figuring out lucha. That was a hair vs mask match with more intensity. This had a very different feel given the sparse crowd. Hechicero didn't forget they were there certainly, but this did feel a bit like a match in a bubble or an exhibition. They had all the time in the world and a thousand things to try. It made for one tricked out hold or interesting spot after the next. I think I preferred it once they picked up the pace because they were more actively trying to foil and counter each other there. Honestly, I think my favorite thing in the whole match was Hechicero feigning not knowing that Caifan had landed on the apron after getting hoisted over the top so that he could try to launch a sneak attack. It failed, of course, letting Caifan fly in, but the set up with Hechicero tapping his head and really milking it before going for the sneak attack turned a normal spot into something with extra wrinkles just like one of his tricked out submissions.

24. American Alpha vs. The Revival WWE 4/23/16

MD: It's a little bit hard to remember just how special those first run of NXT house shows were. They didn't get around to my part of the country until Fall of 2016, and by then, a lot of the match-ups and moments I had wanted to see before had been cycled out. Top of the list was probably American Alpha vs Revival. We obviously have a number of big matches between them, southern tags turned up to 11 style, but it's nice to see one on a smaller stage.

The first fall was basically all shine, super athletic with well coordinated, complex spots and reversals, with AA looking world class and Revival being just competitive enough to make it seem like Alpha earned it. There was a transition tease at the end (with Dawson swatting down Wilder's feet from the apron to prevent a German) which really stood out.

The transition was also the end of the second fall, a set up for a shatter effect so elaborate that it could have served as a finish in and of itself. The structure of 2/3 falls tags is always interesting to look at. We have so many from Portland specifically that there are great examples. I think my ideal is when the heels takeover at the end of the first fall and the babyfaces come back at the end of the second, with a reset and second bit of heat into the third, but having an extended shine through most of the first two falls and lean into the heat for the third was a fun (and very WWF/E) house show variation here. Alpha has enough stuff and Revival stooges well enough that it worked. There were a lot of little things to like too. Dash is underrated at working the apron. Dawson doing a twenty second set up for a slingshot suplex in 2016 is how you make a move matter. I don't care whether they were just playing along or not, the fan reaction to the ref missing the tag was just what you wanted, as was the Gable chant that followed and the pop for Jordan pulling down the strap (even if maybe you wanted a bit more for the actual hot tag pop). The crowd knew that what they were getting was special and unique. Glad it popped up now.

PAS:  This was a lot of fun, I could totally see going to an NXT house show and just being engrossed with what they were doing. I was really impressed by Jason Jordan in this match, what a bummer the ending of his career ended up being. He was totally explosive, almost like Doug Furnas with better amateur takedowns, some of the better popped hips on suplexes, a total treat to watch. The Revival have their shtick down, and are really good at filling time, which is a real skill for a heel tag team in a southern tag style.

ER: I have been to three NXT house shows and all of them have been great experiences, real high bang for my buck while being set in nice smaller venues (including a gorgeous old rock venue in the middle of downtown Sacramento). By the time I got to see my first NXT house show in 2016, neither of these teams was on the tour, and this match was better than any match I saw across three shows (with a War Raiders vs. Strong/O'Reilly match from 2018 being the closest competition). This felt like an actually fleshed out (and better) version of the fondly remembered Brain Busters/Rockers tags from 30 years earlier, without ever feeling like they were aping those matches. AA just felt like such a timeless classic babyface team, a team who moved so explosively that it felt like they could be responsible for getting casual fans excited about high dropkicks and tight armdrags and classic Morton/Jannetty style headscissors (that Gable himself doesn't even do anymore). Both of them - especially Jordan - had such pop in everything they did, and this is the kind of go go go I wish had caught on as a house style instead of the learned behavior horseshit we got instead. Gable was charismatic as hell, loved him hitting an axehandle off the middle rope on Dawson, rolling through and coming up swinging at Dawson on the other side of the ring; also loved him hitting a second headscissors on Dawson right near the opposite side of the ring and pointing at Wilder on the apron while before taking Dawson over. It was like he was waving to his buddy from the top of a rollercoaster. Both teams spent their time in control wisely, and Revival particularly feel like a team that can work an interesting 5 minute or 45 minute tag match on any given night. Down the stretch we even get a perfectly timed moment of Jordan finally getting a hot tag only for the ref to send him back to the apron and admonish him for not using the tag rope. This was such a good tag, and it felt like they had material they hadn't even worked through yet. These teams worked a ton of matches throughout the Carolinas, I have no doubt that all of them ruled.


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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New Footage Friday: FRENCH CATCH!! RIP FRANZ VAN BUYTEN!!!

PAS: The great Franz Van Buyten died this week, so we decided to dig into our French Catch archives and review some of his matches.

MD: I've always had a soft spot for Van Buyten. I think most people in our circle first became aware of him from the Lasartesse series and other 80s German footage, but I first encountered him in the IWE Andre six man from 1972. There he was an amazing stooge, with his interactions with Andre being one of my favorite comedic performances of all time. I don't think I've seen another match where he took on quite that role, but it's always in the back of my head when I see him. Knowing that somewhere inside this triumphant, sympathetic babyface is that performative sense of humor, always made me look (and usually find) a certain mischief even in his his straightest matches. It's just so obvious he got "it" and that he could back it up.

Franz Van Buyten vs. Robert Gastel 7/5/71

SR: 1 fall match that goes about 30 minutes. AHH I LOVE THIS MATCHUP!! Franz is basically the guy who started the madness when I first got my hands on his Piratenkampf against Dave Taylor. Robert Gastel is someone I never even heard of before this project, but I fell in love basically looking at him. And they are a natural matchup, Gastel being balding, pudgy, skull jacket wearing and exuding the miserable tough charisma of a guy who feels like an amalgation of a slimy used car salesman, a grumpy construction worker and a smelly truck driver, and Franz being classy and a stud. Despite it being transparent where this was going to go from a mile away, there is lots of really fun, really solid wrestling. These guys do extremely basic holds, but find all sorts of neat little touches to work around them, and everything is super tight. I also really liked Franz angrily responding to Gastel throwing the first shot by trying to snap his wrist. Gastel is a real treasure trying to get in on Franz with cheapshots and leg picks, and Franz of course is an all time great when it comes to making basic stuff look really painful and draining. Not that Gastel has a hard time looking like a bastard, dropping big forearms on Franzs face and throwing body shots and headbutts. As soon as Franz had enough there was a tangible asymmetry in this match though, as Gastel despite trying his best soon found himself blown away by van Buytens onslaught. Really liked Gastels stoic selling performance as van Buyten tried to uppercut his jaw out. Time limit comes into play and feeds into the story of the match with Gastel having to survive his fitter, more athletic opponent.

PAS: Gastel has a really great look, he is bald and dumpy looking and looks like Stathams cop friend in the Transporter. This is a bit more deliberate then the other Catch stuff we have seen, but it is a cool deliberation.  The first part of the match is all Gastel working an arm lock while Van Buyten flips and spins his way out of it, only for Gastel to grind right back down on it. It is impressive how well these guys get across the basic idea of professional wrestling, "this is hard painful violence" this is more ground bound then a lot of Catch stuff, but even the wildest shit still has struggle and fight at it's base. Van Buyten grinding this tight reverse choke looks like some Gracie shit and Gastel fires back with some teeth loosening shots. Gastel looks like a thug and wrestles like a thug and it is super fun to watch Van Buyten overcome that.

MD: This felt extremely familiar in the best way. The opening had such a sense of inevitability as Gastel gave way to his darker tendencies. It was basically the Tully (and so many others) formula, where he comes out wrestling evenly with the babyface, but after losing a few exchanges goes dirty, but you got the sense that it wasn't just feigned reluctance out of Gastel, but instead that once he was so committed, there was no looking back.

They went in and out of things early, first with Gastel armdrags and an armbar he hung onto. Despite his bulk, he just melted away on the armdrags, which were the smoothest things you'd see. Van Buyten finally shifted it with a headscissors takeover and they went in out of that a bit. That's when Gastel lost his cool the first time and hit some blows out of the corner. Van Buyten shifted to the arm and you could see Gastel's cracks deepening: instinctively going for the hair when an escape got cut off, being positioned to use the rope when he had advantage on leglock and the crowd getting on his case for it. Van Buyten's constant struggle from underneath is excellent here, leading to an eventual escape and Gastel going past the point of no return.

When he finally does unload, it's with peppering shots and headbutts. Gastel has this sort of high/low combo style which keeps things interesting. It's very compelling and you never quite know what angle he'll take the attack from next. Van Buyten's comeback came a little early, maybe, though it's plenty fiery and full of righteousness with Gastel's selling giving everything even more weight. They shift to more of a back and forth after that, including Gastel utilizing a dragon sleeper and Van Buyten building to a big mare reversal of it. The finish has Van Buyten switching up Gastel's advantage by catching him with a slam off the ropes. It was sudden and effective, though maybe not entirely memorable. The video fades with Gastel walking forward to shake Van Buyten's hand, which fits with the overall feel I had. Gastel was no villain; he was just a passionate man who let his frustration take him over.


Franz Van Buyten vs. Bob UFO 7/28/84

SR: It‘s a Piratenkampf baby. There is a joke about a Piratenkampf happening in France and the flag on the pole instead of being either guys national flag is just a white flag. Maybe they didn‘t want to emphasize van Buyten being Belgian too much. European chain matches are weird in the sense that they are less about guys hitting each other with the chain and instead about chain grappling, and also really long, but I enjoy them a lot. Lots of tight, inventive grappling that comes across as grueling, with guys getting tangled in the chain while trying to wrestle. I especially liked Franz hitting a bodyslam only to find himself being strangled with the chain around his neck the next moment, and Bob Ufo(??) tangling his arm behind his back so he could hit him. The turnbuckle climbing/chain tugging is something that could potentially feel lame in these match but they had a ton of different ways to make it compelling here, including both guys taking a nasty spill to the outside and frightening balancing on these really loose ropes. The one thing that left me sour is that they clipped 10 minutes from this, I mean these matches are supposed to be really long. Not as heated as previous matches in this style we have seen, presumably due to the crowd not being familiar with the gimmick (or maybe Bob Ufo not being a super charismatic heel, though he does a solid job here) which is about the sole thing keeping this from being a minor classic.

MD: Given the clipping and the random shots to a random crowd, this did feel a little bit lacking. What stood out were particular moments (Van Buyten's comeback rush of forearms to push Bob away from the flag, the way he leapt across the ring to take both of them over the top). Just from a guess, what we missed on here was a longer period of heat, but that's what I wanted the most. I liked the heel jawing in English, though he was sufficiently brutal and dogged, but what you really want out of these matches is a long bloody beatdown that leads to a violent comeback, and we missed that here. I don't know how many of these Van Buyten had been in at this point, but he has such a great sense of the chain. He knows when to bring it into play, either as a way to dramatically control the distance between the two wrestlers or as a bludgeon. The former is particularly impressive.

PAS: Not sure who Bob UFO is, they mention he is Canadian which made me think about Bob Della Serra, but it looks more like Rocky Della Serra. This isn't a high level Piratekampf match but has a bunch of the fun things which make this such an interesting gimmick. Van Buyten is clearly a master of this match, I love all of the little ways he leverages the chain to keep UFO from ascending, at one point he just presses his foot against the chain so his opponent couldn't get the slack to get up the pole. I would have liked to see a bit more of a dramatic ending and a a little more of the violence, but this is a nice look at Van Buyten bringing his signature gimmick match to a different place.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Inca Peruano! Joachim La Barba! Lasartesse! Van Buyten!

Joachim La Barba vs. Inca Peruano 1/17/57 - EPIC

SR: A 30 minute contest 2/3 falls contest, JIP about 7 minutes into it and both guys are already at each others throats. It‘s a battle between rather mysterious figures. We‘ve seen Inca Peruano before as a bumping rudo, although he is in the tecnico role here. Joachim La Barba is mentioned as „The terrible champion of Mexico“ on a fanpage. Genickbruch.com lists him wrestling in Germany as „Abdul Khan“ and in Mexico as „Pancho Zapata“. No guarantee about these facts since there was also another luchador named Pancho Zapata. I really wonder about the background of Inca Peruano – is he actually Peruvian? A Mexican worker with an Inca gimmick? Was he trained in France? No matter where he came from, he shows up a lot in this footage and is clearly a great worker.

This was an absolute slugfest. The kind of match you‘d never see on British or German TV at this point. But here, the announcer was cackling like a madman at these two trying to put some serious hurt on each other. Both guys were really laying in those trademark European uppercuts, cracking each others ribs with thudding kicks and using holds so they could hit the other guy from a safe position. Joachim La Barba was an absolute beast here, throwing punches to the back of the head, constantly stepping on his opponent, walloping him with kicks. At one point, he was driving knees into Inca while holding on to the ropes like a PRIDE fight. He came across as a guy it really sucks to fight, and Peruano's stoic selling performance enhanced the grittiness of the match. Between beating on each other, they work the mat (usually leading to more shots on the ground) and other nifty spots. One of the things they do that you can‘t just do in modern wrestling anymore is the use of the ropes, which were really loose to allow for tying up spots. The „tie up the other guy as revenge“ spot is a staple of German wrestling, but they did some pretty unique shit here. Peruano takes the horrifying looking spill into the ropes where he gets his head tied up and is nearly strangled, later he uses the ropes to hit several Toyota style dropkicks to Joachim's chest, there is also a really swank and well timed head scissor over the ropes. I am absolutely amazed how workers from nearly 70 years ago find unique twists on spots we‘ve seen plenty of times in other matches, such as said rope trickery or La Barba unexpectedly landing on the rope when they went through the classic „pull them off his torso-armbar“ sequence. Also, there is a real sense of bomb throwing towards the end of the match. Both guys hit some flying moves off the top rope which set up the finishes to the falls, and one guy takes a big missed back bump that is put over in a big way. I especially liked how they seemingly improvised Inca Peruano who was slow to get to the rope working a fun cutoff before Barba could catch him.

Even though this was by far the least pretty of all the matches from France we‘ve seen so far, this was a baffling and amazing match, great mix of a violent fight and some pretty unique wrestling, with state of the art finishes.

PAS: I thought this was a real discovery, Peruano had a very lucha style breaking out some headscissors and even a Romero Special. This had a lot of really unique stuff with the ropes, including Peruano getting hung Foley style in the ropes, and then paying La Barba back by locking him in the ropes and putting on a leg stretch, and then later spinning him up in the ropes and hitting some stiff dropkicks. La Barba had some fun stooging, but when he got nasty, he got nasty. He had some of the grossest backbreakers I can remember seeing, really bending Peruano over his knee, and some really great looking uppercuts and cheap shots too. I loved how he landed a bunch of body shots on Inca after he pinned him (with a great looking top rope dropkick).

TKG: Jose Fernandez shared a thing on the history of wrestling in Spain fucking ages ago…and both of these guys were regulars on the Spain scene and who fucking knows this may have been their Marek Brave v Tyler Black touring match. Barba is a real blast as the heel that keeps on getting outsmarted in first fall. He’s always sadistic in his rule breaking while Peruano is always kind of Dusty having fun with his. A bunch of the rope stuff has already been mentioned but I also liked Peruano’s series of arm drags into essentially a monkey flip onto corner ropes, Peruano’s using full nelson to slam and scrape Barba’s face in ropes, and Barba’s knees into Peruano’s back that shoved Peruano into ropes. Barba also does a bunch of landing in the ropes bumps. There was just this real 90’s singles match Bobby Eaton feel of you always knew those ropes are their for Bobby to scrape opponent’s eyes against.

MD: It's funny how we can all see these and get something slightly different from them. From me, the first fall that we have here is something of a comedy match, where Peruano consistently out-slicks La Barba and La Barba completely overcompensates for his humiliation by being a mean bastard. It's an overreaction because it basically doesn't work. He goes too mean, too hard, too brutish, and he gets taken over or down or tied up again. Where it starts to work and where the tide turns is when Peruano gets upset himself, loses his cool and the higher ground, and starts slugging with him. He can't outslug La Barba and he loses the advantage. That's what ultimately lets La Barba hit his downright cruel backbreakers and the missile dropkick to take what has to be the second fall. Peruono shortly thereafter gets over the top and gets his revenge with La Barba tied up in the ropes. After that, things are a bit more even, though La Barba always has this sense of anxious desperation to what he does. You see plenty of novel spots, not just the Romero Special, but a sort of go behind groin lift or a victory roll take over. I might have read a bit too much into the narrative, but I felt it in the moment and it felt pretty novel from a storytelling perspective even compared to even the technically sound and exciting matches we've been watching.


Rene Lasartesse vs. Franz Van Buyten 1/17/72 - FUN

PAS: This was in the middle of a swimming pool for some reason which was a really fun atmosphere. Lasartesse falls out of the rowboat to start which was a fun bit of heel shtick. There was a lot of tight nasty wrestling in this match, but it was clearly building to Lasartesse taking the big Nestea plunge into the pool, which was followed by Van Buyten tossing the ref in as well. Lasartesse had some great looking uppercuts and a big bombs away knee drop off the top which landed right into Van Buyten's throat. This felt more like a traditionally worked match then the other French stuff we have seen (outside of the swimming pool of course) I'll be interested to see when we get more into the 70s whether the style becomes less unique, or that is just related to the guys and the setting.

SR: I got stupidly excited when I saw this match in the archives. Two guys who had an awesome match series in the 1980s (when Franz was nearing 50 and had recovered from a paralyzing back injury, while Lasartesse was looking like a corpse) fighting each other in their prime, what could go wrong? However, the match was lacking focus, and didn‘t play to either guys strength. They were noticeably struggling to kill time, so I guess they did get wiser with age. Still, there was plenty to be enjoyed here: the match takes place in a ring that is floating in a swimming pool, and they send the wrestlers there in tiny little boats while a young Atsushi Onita was furiously taking notes at ringside. Of course the whole match was building to someone getting thrown into the water. For something that could have been a light hearted spectacle, the match was quite violent. After some initial feeling out, Lasartesse quickly took over the match and started working over van Buyten's throat with nasty stomps and elbows. He also busted out plenty of offense, too much offense really, he uncorked like 5 Tombstone Piledrivers on Franz which no matter how much they tried to cover up the following pinfalls should have ended the match. Also, Lasartesse is notorious for not being very good at the actual wrestling and his suplexes looked like shit. Once Franz made his comeback, a heel ref got involved to kill more time. Even when Lasartesse hit the dreaded diving knee to Franz, he couldn‘t end the match. It‘s very strange for a match between two guys who stood out before working no frills story driven matches to suffer from 2019isms such as too many finishers, but here we were. At least we got to see Franz hitting his cool in-ring topes and throwing the evil referee headfirst into the shallow pool.

MD: I wonder how much of the drama of this was taken away by Lasartesse bumping out of the boat on the way in? He started out already wet. It'd be like getting color on the way to the ring? This is obviously a fascinating spectacle, and I wish we had Van Buyten's boat ride too. There's just a weird feeling of dueling in the canals of Venice or some such to this setting. There were about five minutes of Lasartesse being in control, what with stalking around the ring and the tombstones and contentiously dropping Van Buyten too close to the ropes and I absolutely loved that. As much as I like tricked out matwork or the rope running escalation and elaborate comedy spots and everything else we've seen, the most primal element of pro wrestling is the build and payoff of a beatdown and comeback; this was a pretty glorious beatdown, with Lasartesse serving as an amazing looming presence and Van Buyten (who, might I add, we have three scant months later in Japan having an all time comedy six-man interacting with Andre) drawing tons of sympathy, but the comeback didn't reach the level it had to.

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New Footage Friday: Outlaws, Ladd, Piratenkampf, Kawada, Ishikawa, Shinzaki, Watts, Andersons, Thunderbolt

Dick Murdoch/Dusty Rhodes vs. Sailor Art Thomas/Ernie Ladd AWA 12/16/72

MD: This was on the Luce footage that was out there, but I haven't seen it and it's a classic match/angle. I'm pretty sure there's a reality where we talk about Dusty Rhodes as one of the great heatseeking heels up there with Buddy Rose and Negro Casas and Tully and Piper and whoever else. You watch a match like this and you can't help but feeling robbed of hundreds of matches where Dusty was just pissing off the crowd. He had this way of bobbing in and out, of taking up space and real estate in parts of the ring he shouldn't be in, only to dash back out to the apron. He was a disruptive force. Murdoch's great here too, but we've seen more of that. Maybe he spits a little more here, but he's the Murdoch we know already. Ladd was an amazing monster face. Thomas was pretty much all bearhugs but he was just about fifty at this point. I assume it worked for the crowd. As good at the turn at the end was and as great as conniving heel Ladd ultimately is, it's a bit like Dusty. It's a shame we don't have years and years more to see the other side.

PAS: The match was clipped up enough that it was hard to get a sense of it as a whole (we jump right to Thomas and Ladd arguing, without getting a sense why for example), but we did get to see a bunch of cool moments and performances. It is a real trip to see Dusty do all of his Dusty mannerisms as a heel, and it works just as well. Lots of bearhugs and headlock punches by the face team, but these are a great pair of stooging heels to be placed in headlocks and bearhugs. Man I wish I had a time machine and video camera to capture everything for all four guys.


Ole/Gene Anderson vs. Bill Watts/Thunderbolt Patterson GCW 6/24/77

MD: So here's something. We've gotten our hands on a lot of 70s territory wrestling over the last five years, be it Houston or what the Network has dropped, or new Memphis or dusted off CWF or what. As such, we're always able to reevaluate certain notions. One notion I always had was that old school traditional tag team wrestling was all the Arn/Tully mode: cutting off the ring, grabbing a hold, working a limb, distracting the ref, doubleteaming, the grindier version of the Southern tag, I guess. I think we've found that hasn't always been the case. It wasn't usually quite so locked down. With the Andersons, however, it was, and it's telling, then, how much they manage to stand out in that regard. I'm not going to go out on a limb and say 100% that they were more the exception than the rule, but relative to a lot of what I've seen lately, they felt exceptional here. There's not a lot else to say about this. Thunderbolt looked better than he would a few years down the line. Watts was Watts, portraying himself as tough as nails John Wayne and getting over for it. The finish was such BS that you could see the cops getting into position before it happened. They could have gone with the visual pin counted by Watts and just had it be a DQ after that, but instead they let the heels go over. The sound on this was virtually non-existent but I bet the heat would have been amazing.


Franz van Buyten vs. Frank Merckx (Belgium 1984)

MD: Sometimes you watch a wrestler for the first time and that ends up just being your image of him forever. That was the case with van Buyten. I love the Andre/Van Buyten/Ali Bey vs Isamu Teranishi/Rusher Kimura/Thunder Sugiyama IWE match from 72. It's just this amazing lengthy comedy match where van Buyten comes across as the most put upon guy in the world, a Belgian Basil Fawlty of pro wrestling. I've seen spatterings of matches with him since, usually from at least ten years later, and they're much more on brand Segunda Caida fare.

This is right down our alley. A Piratenkampf match (which if you're not familiar is a combination flag/chain match, something pretty unique to Europe). A huge chunk of this is Merckx choking or decimating van Buyten's face with the chain with Franz mounting heated comebacks only to end up back in that spot. If you're going to work hope spots in and out of a hold, having the hold be your face getting torn apart by a chain is pretty compelling. They have time to really let this build and lots of "outs" for believable comebacks as Merckx needs to allow distance to get the flag. It means when the actual comeback comes and van Buyten gets to bloody Merckx, the fans are more than ready for it.

I have no idea how much of this exists, waiting to be uncovered, but it does feel like one of those underexposed troves.

ER: Ah yes, the guy in 1984 Belgium who was taping an old man pirate battle. I love the feel of all this, tons of real grappling struggle, with the big bonus of a heavy chain being raked across eyeballs, noses, and gums. The crowd is absolutely on fire for this, and I really loved the cutaways to the crowd, filled with Belgian children and teenagers all going wild for two older guys bloodying each other up with a chain. It's so wonderful to me that this idea of pro wrestling is a form of entertainment that somehow was picked up and accepted all across the world, a real touchstone that people of all upbringings could respond to and get excited for. It's 25 minutes of two guys choking each other with a chain in a violent capture the flag battle, and boys and girls of all ages are hot for it. Merckx is a guy I've never seen before and for all I know I'm being tricked into spelling his name wrong. But he sure knows how to rearrange van Buyten's face with a chain, and we get some great handheld closeups of the chain smashing across the bridge of van Buyten's nose, ripping across his mouth, and great shots of Merckx throwing hammerfist blows with that chain wrapped around his fist. A lot of this match is basically in a phone booth, two guys locked together trying to choke each other to death with a chain. There aren't even many bumps, with one notably big one that sends van Buyten over the ropes to the floor, and I do wish we got more striking, as the blood and strikes don't really come until we're 20 minutes in. But that final visual was fantastic pro wrestling, with van Buyten climbing the buckles and reaching for that flag, holding the flag pole in a pose like he was planting the flag at Iwo Jima, while Merckx lies on the mat trying to pull him down off the top. I absolutely adore these snapshots into a pro wrestling culture that I didn't know existed.

PAS: There is something so grimy about a chain being raked across someones eyes with this yellowed film quality. The whole thing is kind of icky in the best possible way. Merkx is a burly barrel chested guy and makes this whole thing feel like a fist fight, this is van Buyten's match, and he has a bunch of interesting ways to work within the oddball gimmick. Actually climbing a pole with a chain is cooler visually then trying to touch turnbuckles, and I really liked how van Buyten used leverage and the finish was really exciting. Loved this, and Europe is really an undiscovered mine.


Toshiaki Kawada/Maunakea Mossman vs. Jinsei Shinzaki/Yuki Ishikawa AJPW 7/11/00

PAS: This is the only time Ishikawa and Kawada ever faced off, and you get the sense in an alternate universe this would be an all time legendary match up. It is really fun to see the indy team slotted into an All Japan tag, Shinzaki toned down a bunch of flourishes and really went in on uppercuts and leg whips, he and Kawada have some really fun exchanges, including Shinzaki doing his praying top rope shoulder block directly into a Kawada face kick. Shinzaki and Ishikawa sensibly tried to keep Mossman in the ring and went after his knee, Ishikawa had some very cool leglocks, although he left himself open to a Kawada jumping kneedrop so nasty that I imagine it made him nostalgic for Ikeda. I would have liked to see a bit more of an aggro finishing run to make it a real classic, but what a fun treat to show up randomly like this.

ER: Man, Phil is really underselling that this is the only time Ishikawa and Mossman ever faced off. I think a bunch of us were aware this match happened, because Ishikawa really only worked All Japan a handful of times, and knowing there was potentially a match opposite Kawada was just a cruel tease. And now we have it and it's still kind of a cruel tease. It's a long match (nearly 25 minutes, even with some clipping in a couple spots) but doesn't really ramp up to much, with the last few minutes not really feeling any different than things that happened in the first 10 minutes; and there were some odd stumbles or miscommunications or power plays, like Kawada popping right up from a Shinzaki powerbomb, causing Shinzaki to start selling giving a powerbomb, and then Kawada notices Shinzaki is selling for some reason so then kinda just sits down. So there were some awkward moments. And, Yuki Ishikawa is in this thing far less than the other three guys, including a really long stretch at the finish where he was just kinda watching from the floor after getting dumped there by Kawada minutes before. So, the match has issues, it isn't great, but I still would have watched it with a smile had I known all of those things ahead of time. It was totally worth it to see the moments of Kawada and Ishikawa squaring off and rattling jawbones. Ishikawa has such powerful elbow strikes, these short unwavering blows right to the jaw, and Kawada is a guy who is going to react great after getting his jaw rattled. I liked Team Indy working over Mossman's leg, though I wish it would have gone somewhere more interesting. Mossman is a guy with some cool kicks, and clearly those kicks were going to happen no matter what, and I loved Ishikawa eventually catching one at chest level and dropping down into a kneebar. Kawada had several fun bits with Shinzaki, my favorite being him doing an absolutely all time Kawada sell after taking an enziguiri and then stumbling slowly backwards halfway across the ring before plopping on his butt. It's my favorite Kawada sell, and this is one of the best ways I've seen him utilize it.

MD: Coming in behind Phil and Eric here, this was NOT the only time that Shinzaki and Kawada faced each other. That said, what's going to stick with me on this one months from now, past Shinzaki and Ishikawa absolutely demolishing Mossman's leg, are the interactions between the two. Yeah, that's not why we looked forward to this. That's not why we put this at the top of the list. There was just this amazing dissonance to it, as if the existed in a slightly different reality. Kawada had this tendency of just stopping before Shinzaki was about to land something. With Kawada, you have to suspend disbelief far less than with other wrestlers (that's true with Ishikawa too, for instance, which was part of the appeal). That's the long and short of it, right? That's one reason we all love these guys. That's why I sort of get short circuited by the mid-late 90s AJPW when it gets just a little too kickout/excess heavy. With Shinzaki on the other hand, there's an additional level of suspension necessary. Everything is a bit more stylized and affectated. That, in and of itself, is fine. It can be great. If you're willing to go along for the ride, it can be a hell of a ride. Kawada rightfully wasn't willing to go along for the ride and that made for a bunch of great little spots of him just accepting no nonsense, even as Shinzaki kept going back to the well. That part ended up way more enjoyable than you'd think.

Overall though, the match itself was problematic at times. It was a lot of the same, even with the limbwork. The clips meant that we lost a transition, which is the truest sin of all clips. I don't feel like the finishing stretch had enough to it. It was feels like a great find, just maybe one that wasn't as great for the reasons we were hoping for.

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1968 Match of Year

Jean Ferrer vs. Franz Van Buyten French Catch 1/20/68

PAS: This is the earliest Andre match we have, and just showed up on the internet. Agility of Young Andre is off the charts, Buyten actually takes him over with a pair of hurricanrana's and Andre bumps like a monstrous Juventud Guerrera. He also really is ferocious, his bear hug looks like he is squeezing human juice out of a toothpaste tube, and I loved his huge press stomach breaker. Buyten looked good too, some really fun grappling takeovers, and some stinging uppercuts, and the reversal of the stomach breaker was an awesome spot. Nothing I love more then a unearthed gem and this was a flawless one.

ER: This is probably the most important historic wrestling "find" of the last several years, maybe since the first batch of French Catch showed up and we were all awakened to what was happening in France 50 years ago. This is by far the youngest Andre we've seen, and he has the posture and Army jacket of a shy quiet high schooler. Watch how bashful he looks kissing a lady on the cheek before the match! Van Buyten would look strapping and powerful against most other wrestlers (especially 50 years ago) but here is lean, toned, muscular Andre making him look tiny. Andre is gigantic but does not move like a giant at this point. He moves like a normal man, making Van Buyten just look like a tiny man. There is no lumbering Andre yet, he's just a normal man who happens to be gigantic.

It's wild to see someone working takedowns with Andre, but Van Buyten looks super credible, and his leg work looks like he was trying to snap Andre's legs in multiple spots. I want to see Sabre or Thatcher steal some of his legwork, it looks just as painful if not more. With Andre on his back, Van Buyten straightens Andre's leg vertically, begins twisting at his ankle, then starts putting all his weight on the sole of Andre's foot, forcing his one leg to hold up all his weight. It really looked like something that could immediately cause a leg to hyperextend or buckle, really dangerous looking. He works a couple early calf crusher variations, really bending Andre's calf around. The rana takeovers were really cool, as they weren't smooth at all, there was struggle, and you don't often see a rana snapped off with the guy taking it fighting against it. Here the fight was because Andre towered over him, so he couldn't just hop up and flip Andre over. Van Buyten basically had to scale Andre's body like a climbing wall and then whip him over, and Andre get rana'd into the ropes made it look like it shifted the entire ring. Not a sight I ever thought I would see. Once Andre starts getting his mitts on Van Buyten, we get a ton of awesome Andre offense that we've never seen: these huge press slam gutbusters and backbreakers that seem like they should snap a man in half, a bearhug that looks like he is entirely engulfing Van Buyten, and my favorite, a couple European uppercuts that seem like they should be outlawed. Andre hits that first uppercut and I realized "I have no idea who Van Buyten is, this match may be the cause of his death". Andre hits this picture perfect European, as fine as any you've seen from any of the modern masters like Regal or Finlay, except thrown by a man twice their size. The fact this match got discovered and brought to the masses is a treat in and of itself; the fact the match is as great as it is, is just a true gift to wrestling fans.


ALL TIME MOTY MASTER LIST

La Complète et Exacte French Catch

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE ANDRE THE GIANT

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