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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Roberts! Bond! Bordes! Doukhan! Viracocha! Ramirez! Ben Chemoul! Plantin! Lagache! Caballec!

Pete Roberts vs Dave Bond (JIP) 2/27/78

MD: We get the last nine minutes of this draw. Roberts and Bond were both in from the UK though Bond was billed as American. This was a mix of gritty cravats, rope running, and a lot of trading of Roberts' forearms and Bond's headbutts, which were a nice piece of business. They were sportsmanlike but really went at it, and Roberts wasn't afraid to bump out. Good stuff with a nice nearfall or two. It's a shame we don't have more of them in France. 

Gass Doukhan/Walter Bordes vs Inca Viracocha/Paco Ramirez 2/27/78

MD: Lots to love here. Very fun tag with double heat and some new tricks from Doukhan and Bordes, even if the heels never picked up a fall. Doukhan is a great partner for Bordes. Bordes is a little tallier and lankier and his stuff is clean but a little stilted and Doukhan is smaller but very smooth. Viracocha is, of course, an ideal base, who can take everything with a put upon stooging face. Ramirez was leaning into his strength on certain spots and was excellent at interjecting himself from the outside but that just made him getting his comeuppance when they went wrong all the better. Bordes took some nasty catapults to the floor to justify the heel control in the middle. They did the RnR spot of the partner blocking an irish whip into the corner by putting his body in the way, which I'd never seen before in France (or, I think, in the States before 78?) and the second fall, while short had some fun build up and payoff with the heels lifting up Bordes in a double drop until he landed on his feet to flip and make the hot tag and then some heel miscommunication to set up the finish and send everyone home. These tags don't often reach the slugging or pure mat wrestling levels of the ones from twenty years earlier but they really had a good, compelling, crowd pleasing act down. Like Ben Chemoul, you can't really question that Bordes, a guy who felt almost completely unknown in our circles before we'd picked up this footage, who still doesn't have a cagematch entry, was one of the best tag workers ever.

Rene Ben Chemoul/Bob Plantin vs Pierre Lagache/Rene Caballec 4/4/78

MD: A lot to cover here. This was in Coubertin handball stadium, with the ring right in the middle of the court, so it was a bit of an odd look with maybe some strange acoustics. The Mamadou singing worked its way in midway through the match but it was never as loud as you'd expect. This is the first match which had some slow motion instant replays too, so technology marches forward. This match was in part to celebrate fire fighters based on some previous heroics in France. It has friend to all followers of French Catch, Bob Plantin, and he stated in the bits and pieces of this one that had been on youtube that both Ben Chemoul and Caballec had been former fire fighters.

Caballec very likely might have worked as a stylist otherwise, and he had those skills, a backflip off the top, a body press, the headspin headscissors takeover, as well as some big power moves when on top like a backbreaker and a signature slam out of a suplex position (remember, we've still never seen a standing vertical suplex in the footage by 78!).

This is it for Ben Chemoul, a swan song to an amazing career, and even in a 40+ minute match, albeit a tag where Plantin could come in a lot, he could still go. He knew all the tricks, could execute them so smoothly. Something like a rolling legpick or a flip through on a full nelson to bring up his mule kick looked so good and so smooth. He'd go up to the top for a missile dropkick and turtle so he could duck in and out to enrage Lagache until he could grab an arm.

Lagache was called "the striker" here, and he lived up to that with stomps and cheapshots mainly. He fed into all of the stylists spots and came back with mean shots but he was there for contrast mainly. Plantin had a lot of youthful energy and exuberance, and while some of his stuff wasn't as precise as Ben Chemoul's, the way he through himself into everything brought a lot of value, and he garnered plenty of sympathy working from underneath.

Like I said, this went 40 and the structure is, as I'd said recently, something I've finally learned to live with. About half of the match was fairly even exchanges, good wrestling, holds, rope running, with a slight stylist advantage. At right around that halfway point, Lagache took over with a hairpull in the corner, beating on first Ben Chemoul and then Plantin; in this it's a bit like an All Japan tag match (or lucha in general) where they make the tag but the momentum stays with the team that had been dominant. Not a hot tag then, but one that doesn't change the plot. The second fall had a big comeback, revenge, and bombs from the stylists and then the third, quite short, had a brief tease of the heels taking over before Ben Chemoul rushed them from the outside and we got a series of celebratory high spots and tandem bits with the stylists firmly in charge and the heels getting clowned. It might not maximize drama but it really is wonderful in its own way and Ben Chemoul was as good as anyone at it.

He, more than anyone except for maybe Delaporte and Bollet, is simply the perfect French Catch wrestler. The ideal. He carried with him technique, mirth, cleverness, innovation, a deep, deep connection with the crowd and the ability to conduct them. There was elements of the theater or the circus to him, but such deep athleticism and that extra gear that he could take it to when he was getting revenge. He could draw sympathy and could elicit deep belly laughs. He's not going to come off as quite as tough and hard hitting as someone like Corn or LeDuc. he's not as spectacular as Petit Prince or as technical as Saulnier or Mantopolous, but he encompasses the glitz and the glamour and the sheer showmanship of it all, while still possessing all of the skill.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Don! Tejero! Mansour! Fryziuk! Bordes! Doukhan! Viracocha! Trujillo!

Juan Guil Don vs Anton Tejero 4/18/76

MD: Personally, I feel that some of the weaker matches in the set so far were those from around the turn of the 60s with the judoka guys: Calderon and Straub. There were a couple that overall worked and specific spots that worked, but it just didn't click. By the mid 70s though, things were a bit looser and maybe more allowing of entertainment, and Don was leaning hard into the Karate trend, like Sammy Lee or Ironfist Clive Myers (the real answer is very much like Eddie Hammel, who he teamed with in the UK, as opposed to let's say Kung Fu Jimmy Valiant) and this was a lot of fun.

Here, he had a thousand monkey flip variations, spin kicks, bounds through legs, handsprings; all sorts of fun stuff, plus all of this unique positioning and footwork bits and some ridiculous moments of tying Tejero up so he could whack him in the face with his foot. He also had maybe the first tope suicida we've seen? Plus he had that crazy twisting flying mare that we've only seen once or twice in all of wrestling history, I think. Tejero was as game as could be, such an amazing stooge and base, taking all of this stuff, occasionally plucking him out of mid-air into a backbreaker or laying in things when it was time to get some heat, but mostly just flying around the ring and feeding for his opponent. At times he'd mock the karate stance, and it'd be pretty funny given his look and mannerisms but then he'd walk right into a jumping double knee for his trouble. And he somehow managed to do the spot where he catches his throat in the ropes, but also had his foot caught as well. Pretty advanced stuff. Great base and a fun match even if it was entirely a showcase. People should check it out for something different though.

SR: Jon Guil Don was pretty unique. Wearing a gi, moving like a luchador and hitting spin kicks. He even hit what may have been the earliest suicide dive on film in this. This kind of made you feel like nobody would have given a shit about Tiger Mask if he was just a south american guy in a gi. The match was a Guil Don tour de force with Tejero bumping his ass off, getting almost no offense. Guil Don had enough fun, unique and highly athletic spots to make it work. Even winning the match with a martial arts kick off the top rope. There is something impressive about Don just having 10 minutes worth of stuff to run through, all smoothly. Modern wrestlers don‘t have that much. And Tejero bumped like a pro.

Emir Mansour vs Janek/Jean Fryziuk/Frisuk 4/18/76

MD: Daniel Schmid came in to see the crowd before this one with a ton of stitches on his head. Let's not focus too much on that as this was remarkable. I've never seen a wrestler quite as flexible as Manour. The things he did here were just remarkable. The first time you really see it is with a double handspring and some bridges, but it's his crazy pop ups out of strike exchanges or his matrix style dodges that are downright breathtaking. With his mustache and amiable attitude, he comes off like the promise of Leaping Lanny Poffo fulfilled. He also had a bunch of the old trips in keeping a hold or switching from one to another and even brought out the rolling leg nelson. He'd have some of Petit Prince's stepover armdrags and things too (and a rare 'rana and straight up German Suplex for the finish), but it was the rubber man ups and downs that will make you look twice, no matter how much wrestling you've seen.

Fryziuk was old and grizzled by now though a sportsman, and you can watch him get more and more frustrated. You keep hoping for it to really boil over but it's almost impossible to with Mansour popping up midway through the exchange to clobber Fryziuk. It left him looking around bewildered. He was such a game vet to take all of this and play straight man to what was going on, occasionally mean or vicious but ultimately clowned and in over his head. It was always with a twinkle though, like when he ate a dropkick out of the ring in sat in the front row or had enough and started with the ref only to get back body dropped by him. Just a fascinating piece of pro wrestling that should launch a dozen gifs. Between this and the match that proceeded it, the fans certainly got some real stylized action on this night.

PAS: Yeah this wasn't an all time great match, but it is one of those cool spectacles that French Catch delivers as well, like the Spaceman match. Mansour should become a twitter gif favorite after this match, he is really wild. I loved the spot where he just powered up to a standing position after a full bridge, and he has one of the coolest kip ups I have ever seen. Weird is cool, and he is totally unique

SR: We‘ve seen Frisuk since the 50s, so that‘s actually cool. He was a lot older and lumpier here, but he could still pretty good bumping around and working holds, considering how old and lumpy he looked. Emir was the star of this with his freaky bridge spots. The guy was built like Jerry Lawler but lord those bridge ups and weird rubber kip ups were spectacular. He didn‘t always land perfectly but he a lot of things up his sleeve. Plenty of good hold for hold work in this. Add some fun European uppercuts and a good finish and you have yourself a crackin heavyweight bout.

Gass Doukhan & Walter Bordes vs Inca Viracocha and Tomas Trujillo 5/15/76

MD: I love the notion of introducing old wrestlers before matches. Here we got Jacky Corn. More importantly, we had Bordes' amazing robe, now in color. In this post Ben Chemoul era, he's trying out different partners and Doukhan is a solid choice, playing a bit more of a trickster than usual (he also threw what I thought might be the first spear I've ever seen in this footage, but I think it was more of a spearing headbutt to the gut, which is both common in the 70s and something that needs to be used more today). This was our first look at Trujillo and he spent a lot of the time bumping and stooging about, but also had some cool stuff like step up armdrags and backbreaker out of a reverse headlock

Bordes and Viracocha matched up so well in this one, both in an initial exchange where Bordes escaped headlocks again and again and then, later on, in some great rope running, and even later Bordes threw a number of huge flying headlock takeovers. In general, he seemed to have more wild energy than I'm used to, almost to the point where he got ahead of himself sometimes. When it was time for the match to shift gears, Viracocha started whipping Bordes around by his arm with these huge sweeping throws and then the heels took over in the corner on Doukhan. Unfortunately the big comeback moment in the second fall had Bordes a bit too over-exuberant and throw a catapult too soon. Still, the fans were happy for the comeback and Bordes destroying everyone and really for all of the subsequent clowning of the bad guys as they were tossed into one another over and over. Yet another crowd pleasing tag match as part of what seems like an endless list of them.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Cohen! Doukhan! Shadow! El Arz! More Mystery Wrestlers! One is Walter Bordes!

Arpad Weber vs Josef el Arz (JIP) 11/29/75

MD: We get the last 14 minutes of this. I'm though the guy in red was Guy Mercier, just from the way he looks and moves and hits and his fall away slam at the end, but I seem to be wrong. (We were told later that he was Arpad Weber) I'm not sure who the guy in blue is but I'm hoping we can crowd source it off of the announced public warning if nothing else. (And this was Josef el Arz which I should have spotted). It's a really good 14 minutes. The first few aren't super inspiring as Blue chokes and lays in nerveholds on Red, but once the comeback starts, they don't stop, just laying in big blow after big blow with some big bumps to the outside. Blue had great headbutts and wasn't afraid to throw them. Red had heavy heavy clubbering shots. This had more of a Red advantage in revenge, but Blue wasn't afraid to stand up to him and fire back. They were fighting to a draw but they were FIGHTING to it which is so much of what we want from this footage.

By the way, the date on this isn't incorrect. We have almost nothing at all in 1975. It'll pick up again in 76 somewhat at least. There still is footage to go.

Walter Bordes vs El Demonio Rojo(?) 11/29/75

MD: Somewhere in the last month or two of watching, we saw our last Rene Ben Chemoul match and I'm sad to see him go. He was such an interesting, unique wrestler, but Bordes is the legacy he leaves behind and we have more of his matches to go. Here he was up against a masked man who served well as a bruising base. Nothing was particularly novel in this match but it was cool to see certain things, like the fast rope running or Bordes bumping to the floor, or his endless cartwheels towards the finish, in color. The masked man had some mean shots, a step on the face, big corner whips, a fireman's carry drop straight to the floor, but nothing that overly stood out. He was simply good at his job. It was actually a little funny in the finishing stretch after all those cartwheels and dropkicks to see Bordes stop to play to the crowd instead of moving on with it and eating a little punch to his gut (not quite registered) for his trouble. Between that and the masked man not exactly selling a hard whip into the corner a minute or so before, there was just a slight undertone that they weren't 100% on the same page. In general though, this was a nice little Bordes showcase match, but in color.

Georges Cohen & Gass Doukhan vs Black Shadow & Josef el Arz 1/3/76

MD: I really wonder about these episodes with crowd noise but no commentary. Maybe what was kept was a different feed? The biggest advantage of color so far is definitely the ring jackets Black Shadow had a pretty amazing gold deal and then red tights. You'd think for how often they'd tagged, he and El Arz would match more but nope. On the other hand Doukhan and Cohen did match with blue jackets and white tights. Thankfully, we know all these guys and they're announced clearly. The downside is that we're already into 1976, having had almost no shows at all in 75. At least it'll stabilize a bit now again.

People ask about the quality dropping as the years go on but it really doesn't. This was just as good a tag as most that we'd see in the 50s or 60s, maybe not as hard hitting or technical, but with more actual heat than you'd get fifteen years earlier. In fact, there was too much heat here! The first fall ended with around eight minutes of Josef and Shadow doing what they did best: one would take liberties with stomps or shots and draw the ref so that the other could do it which would then draw the ref allowing for the first to take over again. This lasted through a tag but they had the numbers and momentum advantage, ultimately taking that fall. When the second fall started, Shadow immediately used a hairpull from the outside and a fan ran out of the crowd to throw wild kicks at him on the apron. Crazy scene.

Before and after that, everyone got to show off. For Josef, that meant hard shots and tossing his weight around. For Shadow it was bumping out of the ring over and over again, especially after getting dropkicked. The fans were so into the comeback towards the end that they started chanting Mamadou Mémé as if Doukhan was Rene Ben Chemoul or something. I've never heard them do it for anyone but him or Bordes. After the riot scene they let the stylists take over for most of the rest of the match, including some big double teams and heel miscommunication that led to catapults and the like, and a nice tandem finishing moment of Doukhan and Cohen hitting different things at the same time which I haven't seen to much of in the footage.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Corn! Doukhan! Les Blousons Noirs! Petit Prince! Saulnier! Genele! Renault!

Jacky Corn/Gass Doukhan vs. Blousons Noirs 10/18/71

MD: Really good match that oscillated between heat and comebacks. I think at one point the Blousons got too deep down the rabbit hole after an extended period of cutting off the ring and sneaking in cheapshots because a fan started to go after the ref. They let the stylists have some more control after that, including some feel good stooging from the heels. Gessat might have looked a bit older and couldn't quite rock the black jacket the same way he did a decade before, but they were picture perfect in the ring. Manneveau had this great belly to belly toss over the top and wasn't afraid to bump into the second row either. I loved this bit they did where Manneveau had Doukhan in a grounded armbar in the corner and Gessat kept stepping on his other hand from the outside. The finish involved the Noirs begging off from some celebrity to the delight of the crowd but by that point Corn had already beaten everyone around the ring in his final comeback so it was fine.

Petit Prince/Michel Saulnier vs. Bobby Genele/Guy Renault 12/14/71

MD: The usual good stuff from d'Éricourt and Saulnier with Renault and Genele serving as bases and bruisers depending on what the moment called for. The VQ here was a bit rougher than usual but with a bit of work you can tell the difference between everyone. The first ten minutes, before the heels started to cheat, was as good as you'd expect but maybe not novel in any particular way. The most interesting holds actually came in the back third, with a long short arm scissors bit by Prince and subsequently a hammerlock he had to work out of. His act where he gets knocked out of the ring repeatedly and has to fight his way back was compelling and over. Saulnier was very effective as a hot that that would rush in and hammer everyone, despite his relatively diminutive size. There was always a sense of struggle here despite the complexity and sharpness of spots. There was a moment where d'Éricourt came in low on Genele and he just jammed him and power bombed him and it came off as incredibly uncooperative. In general, we're quite used to matches like this, but it's like watching a magician manage to repeat a difficult trick: it reaffirms what we know about the greatness of these juniors.

PAS: Prince is really a special talent, really all of these guys are, but he is so unique and incredible to watch. It is crazy that we discovered this guy, and get to watch him perform his magic in so many different ways. I am a huge short arm scissors fan, and this had one of the cooler short arm scissors spots ever. Saulnier is great too, and is a bit shortchanged by tagging with the Prince, it is like that WCW Nitro dark match where Blitzkrieg did all of the same spots as Super Dragon, just higher and faster, if Blitzkrieg wasn't their Super Dragon would have gotten his spot, Saulneir is also a transcendently talented athletic technico, it's just that he isn't the Prince

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Duranton! Williams! Cohen! Doukhan! M'Boaba! von Kramer!

 Pierre Bernaert vs. Mr. Montreal 9/7/68

MD: I liked how the announcer likened this to a beautiful body (Montreal) vs a beautiful mind (Bernaert). We only had the last 7:30 or so of this, but that's ok. These two were unquestionably good, great even, but it feels like we've seen it before, so just getting a taste was fine. There was a nice little callback spot where Montreal hit a shoulder throw the first time and when he tried it later, Bernaert came in with a knee. Bernaert was full of inside moves after ambushing on a handshake, but he was happy to pal around with Montreal after they went to a draw. Last couple of minutes of this was Bernaert just surviving a last barrage by Montreal and the bell rang during the airplane spin.

Robert Duranton vs. Eddie Williams 9/7/68

MD: Duranton definitely had the act worked out by this point. He had a great physique, could slug well, could stooge well, was technically sound if no marvel, but it was all about the valet. The last quarter of the match had the fans really just waiting for the next spot with the valet. It was too much of a good thing and akin to looking to the back and waiting for a run-in. In that regard, the match peaked in the middle when Williams finally got both Duranton and the valet tied up and got to unload on both of them, or maybe, maybe with the spot later on when he gave them a big double noggin-knocker. Otherwise, the valet was pretty brazen in his interference and the fans loved to hate him. Williams looked as good as always, with good shots, good wrestling, and good timing. We probably would have gotten a better set of matches if we had Montreal vs Duranton and Williams vs Bernaert on this one, but it's not like this wasn't hugely entertaining for the most part. There was just a little too much of it maybe.

SR: 1 fall match going a bit over 20 minutes. This had some excellent stuff in it, but it was a bit long and restholdy, and didn't seem to go anywhere special. Still Duranton threw some great punches, and was looking quite vicious making simple holds look violent and hitting some nasty stomps. Williams doesn't have much charisma but he is solid enough doing some nice wrestling and hitting good looking uppercuts. Dug the bit where he threatened to stab Durantons eyes and then just headbutted him. Durantons valet got involved as usual, I dug how he pretended to be cleaning the ring after choking Williams, then later he just got straight in the ring. Made me wonder what it takes to get DQd in a French ring. Heat was good and that's all that matters.

Georges Cohen/Gass Doukhan vs. M'Boaba Les Congolais/Karl von Kramer 9/14/68

MD: Once this got good, it got really good. Incredible heat for the second fall as Cohen kept trying to come in to help Doukhan only to make things worse for him and the heat became elation in the third fall when Cohen did get the tag and they just humiliated the heels. M'Boaba still seems pretty egregious even in the history of egregious racial gimmicks with the fans enjoying him getting tossed by his hair or having his hair tied to the ropes. In general, he looked good though, including whipping out his own up and over reversal and having mean looking headbutts and what have you. Von Kramer is one of the best technical heels we've seen but he was in there against two Israelis and was sure as hell going to bump over the top and stooge all over the place for them. His two standard takeovers, the headlock trip and his sort of headlock mare both looked great and he did them so smoothly. He also had some awesome extended exchanges where he was stuck in a wristlock. His killer move was a fireman's carry dropping his opponent throat-first onto the top rope and he used it well. It was all maybe a little too loose and fun for a guy as vile as Von Kramer wrestling two Israelis for the first fall, but the off the chart heat for the last ten minutes of this was just awesome. By the end of it, Von Kramer was threatening fisticuffs with about twenty people in the front row and if they hadn't gone so over the top celebratory for the stylists, an all out riot might have ensued. 

SR: 2/3 falls match going 30 minutes. M'Boaba and the bald headed nazi von Kramer are quite the team. Of course they are facing a pair of jews, too. Aside from the gimmicks there was some good wrestling here. M'Boaba is a servicable heel at best, but von Kramer meshes really well with his light footed technician opponents. It got a bit more heated than usual when von Kramer kept using the ropes. I still thought the match didn't really stand out in the plethora of great light weight tags we've had.

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