Tuesday is French Catch Day: Cohen! Shadow!

Georges Cohen vs Black Shadow 7/16/83

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

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

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

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: 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: Gordon! Hassouni! Marquis! Shadow! Primitiv! Jessy Texas? Cohen! Tejero! Lagache!

Flesh Gordon/Kader Hassouni vs Marquis Richard Fumolo de la Rossignolette/Black Shadow 7/14/85

MD: I'd call this one surprisingly good, pretty well put together. By this point, the good Marquis (now mentioned as Richard instead of Edouard) had figured out a better balance for the act. It was still getting a lot of heat on the valet (a Paul Butin-Fluchard; your guess is as good as mine), which involved him having to stand on the apron and go all the way to the center of the ring at every opportunity and contrived ref distraction, but he was better at knowing when to bump and feed and work rope running spots and when to slow things down and pose and preen. They were all moving pretty well in there actually, surprising for Richard since he'd been more of a lump recently and for Black Shadow because he took so many big bumps and dives to nowhere. I thought Gordon looked quite good; Hassouni probably hit things cleaner and moved faster but Gordon had more of a star's sense when to appeal to the crowd and really milk something. This followed the old structure with exchanegs and stylist dominance in the first fall, cheating leading to a straight up beating in the second, and all of the celebratory bits of comeback and humiliation in the third, including the valet getting what was coming to him. The ref leaned heel which was kind of necessary for the valet act to work but made it all a bit much but the fans were into it, the action was good save for a few flubs, and the production team certainly had a lot of fun putting quasi-blasphemous phrases up on the screen to highlight the Marquis' antics. We're deep into 1985 now and while Flash Gordon isn't Jacky Corn or Petit Prince or Gilbert LeDuc, and while he'd turn into whatever he would turn into in the years to come, you do get the sense from the footage we do have that he did do a fairly admirable job helping to anchor things in the 80-85 period.

Mambo Le Primitif vs Jessy Texas 7/21/85

MD: I have no idea who Jessy Texas is but he's around off and on through the end of he footage and after. Mambo has his drummers back. It's crazy that we have more Mambo matches than L'Ange Blanc matches, right? And over the span of a few years here. his was fairly spirited, I guess. Ol' Jessy (billed from America and with a fun shirt with his name on the back) had a lot of the tricks (dropkicks, the up and over top wristlock reversal, monkey flips, a very nice heaving back body drop type throw), and Mambo bumped all over the place, including his signature chest first miss off the ropes splaach bump. Eventually, he got biting and clubbering and despite a fiery comeback from a bloody Jessy, one big shot to the gut ended his hopes. Mambo finally more or less figued out how to do the Alabama Jam too, so good for him. This didn't have he spectacle of the handicap match or the strap match but it was probably the best darn Mambo Le Primitif match I've ever seen. Oh and since everyone needs to know this, pop star "Billy" was there for the last match and singer Francois Deguelt (who represented Monaco at Eurovision!) was sitting on commentary for this one. Important stuff.

Georges Cohen & Kader Hassouni vs Anton Tejero & Pierre Lagache 7/21/85

MD: I'm going to miss these sequences. Up and over into headscissorss. Amrdrags where they hang on and hang on. Rolling back wristlock takedowns. Cohen and Hassouni were stylists' stylists. Tejero and Lagache were expert bases, stooging and feeding and bumping out of the ring (the old Tejero special). They were all older now but the technique was the technique and they were masters. Maybe Hassouni didn't get as high up on his cartwheel. Maybe the rope running just lasted a few spots instead of a full minute, but they were able to get a lot of mileage out of teasing the wrenching of an arm or slipping a shot in to the gut or the ref preventing Cohen from getting in while Hassouni was getting double teamed. That meant when Tejero went sailing through the second and third rope to the floor on a missed charge or was tossed over the top afer Cohen's eventual hot tag, it just meant all the more. What can I tell you that I haven't already? In 1965 or 1985, these guys were good.

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

Le Primitiv vs Eliot Frederico 7/18/84

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

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

Georges Cohen vs Anton Tejero 7/18/94

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

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

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

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

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

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Sanniez! Richard! Corne! Hassouni! Shadow! Angelito! Cohen! Bordes! Gordon! MANIAK!

Jacky Richard/Albert Sanniez vs Jean Corne/Kader Hassouni 9/3/83

MD: As we close out the 1983 footage, we bid adieu to three of our stalwart friends: Richard, Sanniez, and Corne. There will be a few more Hassouni matches in the collection, which is a good thing as he looked excellent here. They all did, of course, Richard the heatseeking, clubbering, basing malcontent; Sanniez the slicker, hard-hitting, big bumping technician; and Corne the junior hero, smaller and quicker than Corn or Leduc but just as able to carry the crowd. This was a great crowd too with kids who wore their hearts on their sleeves, uppity teenagers who dared to get right up to the ring, and yes, a pro wrestling granny. Lots of chants and big elation for the stylist comebacks.

Given the four we had in there, of course they moved in and out of the holds well for the first ten minutes. The heat came in two parts and the first was a little overwrought as Saulnier had to strain all over the ring to get out of position. He was missing Sanniez's pretty blatant hairpulls (armbar, with the head between the legs, and his hand reaching around the back for the pull). It meant that the first comeback was more about him paying for his transgressions with Sanniez catapulted right into him. The second bit of heat was primarily clubbering and this had a bigger and more direct sort of comeback with Corne sneaking into the ring and through the legs to break up a double team and lead to miscommunication and the finish. As always, it was amazing that Hassouni and Sanniez were able to do some of the things that they were in quick exchanges 20+ minutes in, but that's French Catch for you.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going about 30 minutes. You will know exactly how these go by now. Long, quality face shine chock full of super quick sequences to start, before the heels take over for a beatdown. Faces come back, heels bump like mad and a quick finish happens. After this, the matches we have get pretty wacky, so I guess this is a sort of last hurrah for the classic type of Catch. It was as good as any of these matches you‘ve seen too. Everyone looked pretty old but they had no probably going hard as usual. Richard especially was the most grey and crusty looking dude here but had no problem bumping big and fast and running the ropes. Hassouni was spry and Sanniez had one of his typically good performances. There were also a bunch of rowdy kids and an elderly lady at ringside threatening to storm the ring at the heel tactics of Richard & Sanniez. Maybe for this reason referee Michel Saulnier decided not to do anything fishy here.

Black Shadow vs Angelito (JIP) 2/25/84

MD: Just the last two and a half minutes here of a match that went almost twenty. Angelito and Shadow might have lost half a step but them half a step down was still pretty good for the bits we saw here. I imagine they had started off with a bit more flash and speed. This was pretty evenly worked with holds and rope running and flips about until Angelito bounded up cleverly into a victory roll for the win. From a technological standpoint, they were experimenting with slow-motion replays.

SR: About 2 minutes shown of what looked like a preliminary affair. Angelito has some really nice moves, though.

Marquis Edouard de la Rossignolette vs Georges Cohen 2/25/84

MD: I may have spoken too soon, for the good Marquis, in his fineries, with his medals and his monocle, and his butler "Paul Bart", does have a striking resemblance to Jacky Richard, if you just take out the beard. I do give him some credit for changing his look, his expressions, the way that he moved.

That said, this is going to disappoint people who are into the quicker stuff in the footage, the more technical stuff, AND the slugfests. I'm not going to lie about that. I enjoyed it to a degree, but it was a pale shadow of some of the other examples of the sort we have. It didn't have the manic energy of Duranton and his valet and no one compares well to the size, derision, and high spots of Lasartesse. Moreover, there were just less of the chained together moves or dogged hanging on to holds that you'd get from the tags (even the ones with Richard and Cohen). I do think this would compare quite well to a lot of what was happening in the mid-cards of pro wrestling shows in the States for 1984.

Richard played his character well, got heat, was able to grind down on Cohen. When it was time for him to show ass, he did. He bumped around the ring (but just one bump at a time instead of three), got dropkicked into a hanging in the ropes (replayed nicely with the slowmo), set up some spots for the butler (including Cohen chasing him around the ring, AND a repeat of what we saw in the last 83 tag where Saulnier as ref took a similar kicked away from the ropes and into the center of the ring bump), and even had a truly funny moment: after pulling the corner protector off, Cohen reversed him into it a couple of times and he gingerly tried to put it back on with deep regret. It was funny. So, I think, objectively, this was fine; it was the sort of stuff that Eric and I would write a bunch of words about and be glad that we saw. It just doesn't compare to what was came before, even what came a year before as we had just seen. The biggest sin wasn't a slightly slower pace or less technical back and forth or a lack of rope running; it was that Cohen didn't get more of a heated comeback before the Marquis got himself dqed with a corner crotching. They were getting over the character but I think that would have gone a long way to helping the match overall.

SR: I wonder if the Marquis ever faced the little Prince. This was the first sign of the old catch maestros slowing down. Both guys could still move but they only did the most barebones stuff and there were pauses between each movement. Not good.

Walter Bordes/Flesh Gordon vs Les MANIAK 2/25/84

MD: Flesh was really leaning into the gear here, with the lightning bolt tank top and belt. The Manics had sort of an Espectro, Jr look to them, with big hair and masks, but in grey with red splotches. My gut tells me that one was better than the other but I couldn't say that for sure. This was one fall but still went quite a while. Bordes and Gordon looked good. Les Maniak had one or two big moves (a front facelock drop that was nasty, a huge press up powerbomb type drop that may or may not have been intentional). They worked over Gordon's leg for their control but I'm not sure he had any real intention to sell it. A lot of what Gordon and Bordes threw out was still their tricked out stuff, but maybe things less reliant on their opponents, especially after the early going where there was some miscommunication on fairly simple things and Bordes seemed a little hot at one of the Maniacs. For instance, there was only one extended hold sequence of in and out, but it was a nice one where he kipped up repeatedly in an armbar until he got the headscissors to a big pop. There were a few quite gifworthy sequences in here, stuff that would be more like ten seconds instead of the usual thirty, and the never lost the crowd (Bordes is undeniable and Gordon really understood how to milk a moment for the back row, like when he just hung on a Maniac's shoulders and looked left and right before falling backwards with a Rana), but overall, this definitely felt a little disjointed relative to other matches of its ilk in the collection.  

SR: LES MANIAK. France was going full Catch y Lucha at this point. Apparently, Flesh Gordon was working Mexico in the 70s, so I guess that explains the crossover. This was even more Luchaesque than anything we‘ve seen before. Unfortunately, Les Maniaks, who acted quite sane and calculating, weren‘t very good here. There were several blown spots and their beatdown section dragged on forever. I enjoyed Bordes old man performance as usual. I can‘t tell if Gordon was getting lazier or if he was toning it down due to his opponent not being familiar with him. Anyways, this was charming and entertaining, but needed better rudo bases to work.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Cohen! Boucard! Calderon! Siki! Bordes! Bouvet! Viracocha! Shadow!

Georges Cohen vs Daniel Boucard (JIP) 3/3/79 

MD: Last eight and a half minutes of a thirty minute draw here and it's good stuff and our loss that we don't have more. Cohen, is, of course, as good as anyone really. Boucard we've seen a bit more lately and he was an hard-hitting, agile, imaginative heel, able to do a Tajiri style handspring off the ropes, but also sporting an amazing one-two European Uppercut/gut shot. They worked some fun spots using more of those armdrag-into-a-slam that ended so many falls and matches on the set but here having a kickout cause the person who hit the move to crash onto the ref. They also went to the floor to brawl at one point only to have a fan try to intervene. Things built to one of those 1950s style of draw finishes where they just threw fists until the bell. Talented wrestlers, good action. Unfortunately, less than ten minutes of it.

Gaby Calderon vs Mammoth Siki 3/3/79

MD: I was kind of dreading this one. Calderon is very hit or miss throughout the footage, which isn't entirely fair to him because he's only there a few times and our first look at him was twenty years before this, but it is what it is. The judo gimmick he worked depended on the opponent. I hadn't liked Siki much at all in the last match against Schmid so this one had me worried.

I was mistaken. It was actually quite good as they worked every hold about as hard as it could be worked. Siki didn't do much fancy, but he was strong and could grind someone down. Calderon was smart working from underneath and pretty nasty when locking in holds of his own. This became a fight of strength vs skill, of precise judo vs bursting power and well-placed headbutts. It only went around twenty and there were signs in the back half that they weren't quite as sharp as they started, but in general, it was just good, solid wrestling that played to both men's strengths instead of falling into a messy contrast.

Walter Bordes & Gerard Bouvet vs Inca Viracocha & Black Shadow 3/3/79 (possibly 6/79?)

MD: Thirty minute tag that gets two falls, with some drama in the middle but a fairly celebratory last ten minutes. Bouvet is a guy who has looked great in the late 70s, one of the slickest and smoothest wrestlers we've seen in the footage, but we just don't quite have enough of him. Bordes, on the other hand, we have as much of as anyone, and he was such a complete ace by this point, a real star who could do almost everything. He might not have been quite as slick as Bouvet in his holds, but he was slick enough and here we got to see him slug and have imaginative spots, and work the apron, and play the crowd. Shadow was with Viracocha which made for a bit of an odd couple as Viracocha was usually with the Peruvians or the Spaniards and Shadow with Josef el Arz, but they worked well together, both in feeding and stooging (and Shadow bumping to the floor, a specialty) and in bullying when it was time to take over. Viracocha was such an expert in sneaking is foot in from the corner to stop a comeback attempt. This is typical for the time period in France, so there was just a bit too much heat on the ref (not wildly so, just a bit), but you could slug him and just draw a public warning and not a DQ, which Bouvet did after taking the hot tag from Bordes. Some very imaginative tandem spots at the end. Another good tag in the almost endless string 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: Cohen! Chico de Oro! Corn! LeDuc! Henker! Schmid!

Georges Cohen vs Chico de Oro 2/23/74 

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

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

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

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Lamare! Duranton! Bouvet! Cohen! Josef el Arz! Black Shadow!

Ted Lamare vs Robert Duranton 7/26/73

SR: 1 fall match going a bit over 20 minutes. We've seen so many stoic French wrestlers, that Duranton with his flamboyant mannerisms looks like The Rock in comparison. Lamare has thickened up since we last saw him, but he was still a decent wrestler. This started with Lamare outwrestling Duranton in fun ways and then builds into a slugfest. Duranton really liked his boxing stance and kept throwing punches which made him a bit more interesting than the usual heels. Loved the little punch combo he threw towards the end. I enjoyed these guys trying to take each others heads off with the uppercuts and the finish was memorable with Lamare going headfirst into the steel ringpost and bleeding. I thought Lamare needed to show a bit more fire or at least make another comeback rally to make this really good but it was a fun look at the heavyweights from the time period.

MD: Duranton did change with the times. He was 46 here and went from being a bodybuilder sort when we first saw him in 1958 to a Gorgeous George takeoff with the valet, to whatever he was now, sort of a flamboyant gladiator boxer who didn't actually do much boxing. He'd more get an advantage some other way and then do some strutting and shadow boxing. Though he was still full of antics (grabbing the ref's leg while in a hold, flailing about while getting spun around, etc), I miss the valet. I bet the crowd did too. Still, he could get heat and could still hit hard at times. Lamare was a game opponent. We hadn't seen him in a while but he reminded me here a bit of a Frank Dusek sort, meat and potatoes, no nonsense, technically sound, able to lock in a hold and keep it throughout escape attempts. He was a serious and punishing straight man, a disappointed stern uncle, to Duranton's over the top antics. Duranton received plenty of comeuppance but not the final, definitive sort, instead slamming Lamare's head into the post and winning by counting and then getting out while the getting was good. This is probably more interesting as another match in Duranton's collective works than anything that would stand on its own.

Georges Cohen/Gerard Bouvet vs Josef el Arz/Black Shadow 8/20/73

MD: This deep into the footage, we don't see too many wrestlers that we haven't seen before. That's true here but Bouvet is someone we'd only seen in a JIP singles match, so it's nice to see him in something lengthy. He paired up well with Cohen, quick and savvy, with strong, engaging selling, and some big spots with cartwheels and dropkicks. El Arz and Black Shadow are one of the more interesting bad guy pairings we've seen and I don't think I've given them enough credit so far. A Lebanese 44 year old and a black American 27 year old former football player (called, by the announcer, James Linton, who I haven't been able to find out a lot about), they were able to get a lot of heat. Some of that might have been just from who they were, but a lot of it was in how they wrestled. They had gotten down the pattern of double teaming in the corner > heel on the inside admonished by the ref > heel on the outside used the distraction to attack illegally > babyface partner tries to get in > double team again as ref is distracted by him > repeat the process. I know that doesn't sound novel but it was still a process being developed over these years and this is probably the best I've seen it in the footage overall. They also fed and bumped all over the ring and Josef especially was a great striker, with some nasty gut shots. Some of the tags were too easy but they did have to cover 30 minutes and the hot tag in the last fall did feel pretty hot and led to some satisfying crowd brawling, creative tandem spots, and the finish. This was good both as our first major look at Bouvet and maybe our best look at the Josef/Shadow team.

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 30 minutes. You won't be surprised to hear that the first fall of this had some amazing smooth exchanges and fantastic body control by Cohen and Bouvet. Not much matwork, just throws and rope running, but executed really sharply. The heels were hard nosed and tough and soon did a number on the faces cutting off the ring, but the faces kept retaliating. Same story as all these French tags, really. I liked El Arz who seemed to have some solid wrestling skill and Shadow had good stomps and stooging. It was a solid effort but there are so many amazing French tags that it takes a bit more than that to be memorable.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Leduc! Mychel! Dumez! Cohen! Montoro! Tejero!

Gilbert Leduc vs. Bert Mychel 4/16/73

MD: This is a rematch to a very good match from a couple of years earlier. Mychel was a two time Olympian in Greco-Roman wrestling. We come in late, maybe ten minutes in, but by this point, everything is gritty as hell and it never, ever lets up, not even once, over the next twenty-five plus minutes. One of the first things we see is Leduc powering Mychel over with the tightest cravat you'll ever see, just torquing his head around. As the match escalates, they'd escalate to throwing forearms, just pounding each other, both in holds and on their feet, but it never felt unsportsmanlike. It never felt craven or underhanded. It felt like exactly what they needed to do to contest each other. That was the level of skill and grit and determination and power and precision. They rolled around the ring, and it was everything Leduc could do to keep Mychel in a hold. Even with the slightly deteriorated film stock, you'd see it in his face, the exhaustion and frustration. He would catch him with a fake out, would take a leg, would snatch an arm, would get him down but there was no rest, no respite, no real control. Mychel was always grabbing for a limb, locking arms around a waist, and as the match went on, kicking or smacking, doing anything he could to escape.

Meanwhile, Leduc, even deep into his 40s, was an absolute warrior, always back up on his feet to fight, always pushing forward, giving his all to escape each hold, but sometimes not how he'd prefer. He was able to get his trademark headstand spin out of an arm puller, but for the headscissors, he couldn't manage it; they were just too tight. He had to squirm his way out through splitting the legs, through doing anything else he could. Maybe that's why he did strike first once or twice, but you never held it against him. It was what he had to do; the stakes were that high, his opponent that deadly. It was just business. Towards the end, he was the first to pick up speed, to escalate things further, but a high cross body went awry and he tumbled over the top rope. He climbed back in but was felled by three consequtive fall away slams by Mychel, able to pull himself up after the first two, but not the third. You can jump into any moment of this match and watch the two of them push each other up against the limit. Even when they were striking one another back and forth, they seemed to cut the gap so that they were almost face to face. There wasn't an inch of give there and there wasn't an inch of give anywhere else in this one. An amazing thing, maybe more so considering we've been watching Leduc go at it for almost two decades now and that he was able to create an equally exceptional but very different, gaga filled match when he teamed with Corn against Henker. What a struggle.

ER: We've seen a lot of stiff, well-executed matches in the 20 years of Catch, but this might be the match with the best fight feel we've seen. I don't think we've covered a French match like this. This felt like bad blood, but bad blood between two real entertainers. It all ended in Leduc being helped to his feet, but the 25 minutes before that sportsmanship was filled with potential hamstring injuries or broken jaws. This was Gilbert Leduc working as smooth as Santo but more violent than Finlay. Leduc's headspin escape should at minimum put him some sort of respected-in-the-right-circles Breakdancing Progenitor role. There was a real missed opportunity to have a Street Stylin Jacques Tati short feature with a Frenchman in a well tailored suit breakdancing on the L Train. Leduc could have started in a Spike Jonze video in a slightly different life. 

But in this life, he's trying to break Bert Mychel's hands by snapping at them with his strong grip (see how vice grip Leduc applies a cravat and picture that grip pinching into your hamate bone. Leduc pounds Mychel's hand into the mat, knuckles going into the soft spot of the palm. Michael takes the hand breaking in stride and sees where Leduc wants to take this, and starts colliding with him on every strike. Once we built to strikes, I'm not sure there were any strikes that only made contact in one spot. They start throwing their whole body into uppercuts, throwing a shoulder into the clavicle while throwing a forearm across a length of jaw. As the striking got more intense, the matwork got more intense. Leduc had an escape where he grapevined Mychel's leg out of a hold and rolled through so hard that it made my hamstrings sore. And the more intense the matwork gets the harder the strikes keep landing. Mychel rings Leduc's bell with one of the loudest open hand slaps, and the crowd reacts in more of a DAMN! way than with pro wrestling heat. It all builds to Mychel fallaway slamming Leduc to death repeatedly, throwing him over the top rope to the apron, then throwing him more onto the ring until the ref stops the damn match. It's pretty incredible the different ways that French Catch has continued to outdo itself, and I don't think there's another Catch match like this one. 

PAS: This was great stuff, it felt like a Billy Robinson or Terry Rudge match more than any other Catch match we have seen. We have seen other matches with great mat wrestling, and other matches with big striking, but this kind of hard gritty mat wrestling was a new thing. Every bit of grappling felt incredibly painful, and the spots with Leduc pounding Mychel's hand was iconically sick shit, it looked like he was torturing an enemy agent. Loved the finish too, with the multiple big fallaway slams. This footage just keeps delivering. 

Maurice Dumez/Georges Cohen vs. Antonio Montoro/Anton Tejero 4/30/73

MD: I think we have four matches with Montoro in the collection. This is the last. He has a rep of being one of the best Spanish workers, up there with Aledo, and he's so good and so versatile in what we have of him, especially his 70s work, that you can really see it. If someone who had lived through this period and watched these matches told me that he was the best they'd seen, I'd believe it. We just don't have enough footage to make that claim ourselves. He's taller, lankier, but can keep up with everyone in rope running and quick exchanges. He's hugely imaginative, using the conjuro backbreaker, a ripcord into a spinning tombstone, complex and intricate rope-running spots. He works those spots into callbacks, winning the first fall with a leap back body press off the top and losing the second by having Cohen catch him while attempting the same move. He has just enough personality throughout it all, raising his hands to deny cheating, sneaking in shots, having his arms flail about as he's getting punched. He bases for all sorts of offense, including a really tricked out headlock takeover exchange by Dumez, and bumps all over the ring, including a mad leap backwards on a miscommunication spot where Tejero crashed into his gut to set up the finish.

Tejero, of course, given his girth, bumps like mad as well. Dumez and Cohen were more than up to the task to face them here. I wish some of the comebacks had a little more dramatic oomph to them, as the beatings were solid and the heat was good, but when they came, they came a little too easy and didn't have that perfect flash of lightning to make them possible. Still, you watch this and marvel that Dumez and Cohen could take and hit all of Tejero and Montoro's stuff and equally that Montoro and Tejero could take and feed for all of Cohen and Dumez' stuff. You can't fault a second of the action in this one.

ER: We did not have a 1973 match on our All Time MOTY List, and none of us have seen a better contender from 1973 than Leduc/Mychel, so that match is now our 1973 champion! Peep the rest of our All Time MOTY List at the link below: 

ONGOING ALL TIME MOTY LIST

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Kamikazes! Dumez! Cohen! M'Boba! Bernaert! Cohen! Trijo!

Kamikaze 1/2 vs. Maurice Dumez/Georges Cohen 10/4/71

MD: Our list had this listed as Guy Mercier vs Kamikaze but it seems like we don't have that one, which is a shame since Mercier vs Aledo sounded pretty great. That's not to take away from this tag though. If it was just the first fall, it'd be a real classic. Even with all three and the match getting thrown out at the end for the Kamikazes brutally cheating and tossing the ref around, it's still up there. That first fall, though, had the sort of shine/heat/comeback format you often find yourself longing for when watching the French footage and four absolutely game wrestlers.

At any point, I could make at least a healthy guess on which Kamikaze was Aledo. He'd be the one who was rolling around the ring and coming off the top more while the other one leaned more into the strikes and bruising and tossing people out. That's just a guess though. Both could base for Cohen and Dumez and both could rope run when necessary; one just seemed better at the latter than the other. Cohen and Dumez had a lot of the skills you'd expect from turn of the 70s French junior heavyweights, going up and over, or down and around on holds. Dumez was spry, following recent Bordes matches by springing his legs off the ropes while holding a headlock, and having some amazing bounding escapes from headscissors for instance.

They wrestled clean for the first ten minutes or so, but once the Kamikazes started to go dirty, they were great at it. They cut off the ring, used ref distractions now and again (and the ref, who was antagonistic to the stylists, apparently had recently suffered an eye injury, which justified some of it), and came off the top frequently for double teams. Aledo (I imagine) had a great wrenching double arm submission that looked nasty, and both guys used the hangman's noose choke over the shoulder. The quick comeback in the first fall and the more extended celebratory spot-heavy one early in the third were both very good. While the finish sort of stunk, even if it let the Kamikazes keep their heat, this had pretty much everything else you would have wanted from a 71 French tag.

M'boba Les Congolais/Pierre Bernaert vs. Vasilios Mantopolous/Jean Claude Trijo (Trichet/Trigeaud) 10/18/71

MD: This got a lot of time, though it was primarily situated in the first fall. It was probably better as a total package than just one fall though since some of the biggest spots and moments were in the last few minutes. Trichet (or Trijo or Triguad, I'm not sure) was ok in his role and had this one nice little bit where he locked in a hammerlock, leapt over his opponent's head and turned around with a dropkick. Bernaert, a true veteran and master, even countered it late in the match. Otherwise, Trichet was there to get beat on a lot so Mantopolous could make big comebacks. He also had assembly line uppercuts from stooging opponents fairly late that were pretty over. Bernaert was more than happy to stooge throughout, including trying to ape Mantopolous' trademark hand-offering draw-in and turtling for instance. Mantopolous was his usual star self. By this point, he was established and his act was incredibly over with the crowd but he constantly added in new bits, or escapes, or counters. He could do these big sweeping flourishes of headscissors takeovers or bounding through his opponents' legs but also head close-up precise counters to holds. M'Boba's act had advanced quite a bit since his first appearance too. He now took a boa constrictor out to the ring and put it into his mouth repeatedly. Fransizka the handler who discovered him was now his wife. He constantly wore that put upon look on his face but also seemed as likely to be found lounging with a cigar as biting his opponent. Anyway, this had a good balance of the stylists outsmarting and out-maneuvering their opponents and the heels cutting off the ring and drawing heat by working over Trichet's legs with some of those big set piece spots with all four wrestlers at the end. Bernaert is the steadiest hand in all the footage and Mantopolous remains amazing to watch.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Boucard! Cohen! Kamikaze 1! Rene Ben! Bordes! Kamikaze 2!

Daniel Boucard vs. Georges Cohen 12/26/68

MD: Tremendous match. It had that sort of chippy 50s feel of amazing wrestling with everything eventually breaking down but with that flashier 60s sheen. The first ten-fifteen minutes was just brilliant stuff, with them starting very even in their chain wrestling and on the mat and then giving way to Boucard with the advantage with a headscissors, wristlock, and full nelson and Boucard doing everything in his power to escape, only for Boucard to hang on. There was just an extra level of athleticism in the escape attempts. Cohen's bridge was extra sharp. The way he'd whip up to his feet to try to get a beal, only for Boucard to hang on, had extra zeal. The kip up getting shut down again and again just worked. Then, despite holding the advantage, Boucard went chippy first with a brutal beat down, uppercuts and forearms and headbutts and some interesting things like a neckbreaker and head whip. 

Cohen fighting back with a headbutt to the gut out of the corner had the crowd up big for the comeback and he got plenty of revenge (though Boucard always kept swiping back when he could), before Boucard went to the leg and we got a few minutes of really strong selling and legwork that only ended with Cohen managing to kick Boucard out of the ring in desperation. Following that was more revenge and the eventual rush to the finish. They were working towards the draw but it never felt like something inevitable given the speed and intensity and the attempts at actually winning, despite both wrestlers selling massive exhaustion as they flung themselves with hammering shots at one another. We've seen enough matches end in the last minute that you just didn't know. Top notch stuff here.

SR: 1 Fall match going 30 minutes. This was the best French singles we've seen in awhile. They start with a bunch of silky smooth technical wrestling. It was like one guy would go for something spectacular, and then the other guy would do something even more spectacular to counter, and then they would cool it down for a bit with holds before repeating. It's a good way to work such a match and these two were flawless athletes. Eventually Boucard decided to batter Cohen with European uppercuts. He wasn't being a heel, but he jawed with the crowd a bit and twisted up Cohens leg. Cohen sold like a champ and they engaged in some breathtaking strike exchanges, up there with the best in the project. They also do a bunch of bonkers nearfalls and unpredictable rope running building to some huge Cohen ranas. These guys did toe to toe strike exchanges about as well as anyone in wrestling history, real edge of your seat stuff, and the nearfalls and spots were executed fast and beautifully. It would've been a good match if they had continued in the vein of the early technical wrestling but the dramatic second half completely elevates this.

PAS: Killer match which hits all of the great points of French Catch. Really fast athletic exchanges early, cool matwork and counters. I loved all the early headscissors and full nelson work, just endless cool counter wrestling. Then when it got nasty it got really nasty with both guys throwing heat. Sometimes these matches just end in draws, but here it felt like the pace got cranked up to eleven and both guys were throwing everything they had at each other to try to steal a win. Right up there with the best stuff we have watched so far, and a match which should join the pantheon of all time great wrestling.  

ER: A 30 minute draw is one of the more unsatisfying things in pro wrestling, and yet there is not one thing unsatisfying about this 30 minute draw. This was paced really well for a time limit draw, with some nice technical wrestling that kept threatening to sprawl into something more violent, then would settle back down before things got too violent to return to simple matwork. Boucard worked like a more stiff Nick Bockwinkel, able to cleanly work the mat but never waiting long before throwing his whole arm into uppercuts. Once we got into the painful snapmares and uppercuts the match kept moving to another level, with Boucard laying a vicious beating on Cohen in the corner. Boucard's uppercuts were nothing but hard contact, hooking Cohen's neck and chin with his inner arm while slamming his shoulder into Cohen's face. The uppercuts are so nasty that, in my favorite part of the match, the large referee grabs Boucard by the traps looking like Andre the Giant locking in a nerve hold, dragging Boucard out of the corner just to get him to stop all the damn uppercutting. Boucard sells the pain of the nerve hold, the ref lets go, and Boucard casually walks back to the corner and rocks Cohen with his hardest uppercut yet. 

Cohen's comeback is really fantastic, firing his best strikes of the match, punching back with his own nasty uppercuts, hard clubbing strikes to the back, and monkey flips that land Boucard as hard as suplexes. I love how often they would wind up in the ropes on every side of the ring. They weren't getting tied up in them and separated, they were getting flipped into them and falling awkwardly into them, getting thrown across the ring and seeing their limbs whip off the ropes. Things get more desperate and both men start throwing from disadvantageous positions, leaping from their knees to land headbutts to the stomach or grazing punches, and the entire run to the time limit was some of the best off balance striking ever seen in pro wrestling. We see a lot of stand and trade now, or even kneel and trade, and seeing exchanges like these really highlights how awful a lot of modern strike exchanges are. 

This was not two men voluntarily standing in one place and taking turns, this wasn't two guys pulling up chairs to have a seated punch out, this was two men getting knocked around and then throwing from wherever they wound up. Cohen knocked Boucard down to one knee with a punch, then held his jaw firmly in place while he landed another, also from his own knees. They staggered into knew spots, threw kicks to create distance, fell, leapt to their feet with offtime strikes that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't, and they made it look like all rules of proper decorum had been thrown out. The time limit draw worked because Cohen and Boucard looked like they had completely forgotten about finishing a match within the stated limits of time, they only wanted to knock each other's block off. The crowd would buzz and roar louder with each mention of time, but these men were lost in a swarm of elbows and uppercuts, and we are better for it. 

Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes vs. Kamikaze 1 and 2 12/26/68

MD: Really good tag here, with a better balance then we usually get. The smaller Kamikize was most likely Modesto Aledo, though they were masked and leaning hard into the over the top Japanese gimmick, stalking and crouching, with plenty of shots to the throat. When the Kamikazes were really going and targeting that head and throat, they looked great, going so far as to win the first fall with a spinning hangman's neckbreaker hold after what looked like a Katahajime. The match was full of things I've seen before in the footage from all parties, including Bordes using a half crab into a bow and arrow or almost a stretch muffler, and Ben Chemoul using a reverse knee crusher to the back of the head. One of the Kamikazes rolled in from the top rope to hit a chop at one point adding insult to injury, and I think we saw one of our first cross-armbreakers too. 

Very imaginative spots all around, with the best one maybe being Bordes eating a whip into a back body drop over the top rope and bumping huge. Everything clicked, with the stylists both selling and hitting their big stuff well, to big response. I'm excited to see Bordes continue to develop as he was great at grinding down holds but also launching big high spots, like just throwing out a press slam into a gutbuster when it was time to pop the crowd. Ben Chemoul hit his somersault senton and corner torpedo and worked the apron really well when his pupil was in trouble. The last ten minutes were maybe a little too celebratory for the good guys since it covered two falls, but the heat leading up to that had warranted it and no one left unhappy.

PAS: Tons of fun shit in this match. Kamikazes were clearly super skilled, and I could see Aledo under one of those masks. I loved how slickly they moved around the ring, and the fun bumping on all of the faces big moves. Bordes taking that huge bump was a real moment as well, insane stuff which feels like something that should be made into a gif. I agree that the finish was a bit wonky. Kamikaze's were really formidable until they weren't Chemoul and Bordes take 90% of the last five minutes, it was all cool offense, but it sucked all of the drama out of the match. Still enough individual coolness for me to heartily recommend.  

ER: We've decided to make Daniel Boucard/Georges Cohen our All Time MOTY for 1968, replacing an excellent young Andre (Jean Ferrer) French match. Boucard/Cohen is 30 minutes of excellence and deserves its place on our list. 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Cohen! Guisto! Genele! PETIT PRINCE~!

Georges Cohen vs. Pasquale Guisto 5/8/66

SR: 1 fall match going about 20 minutes. It’s the only appearance of Italian worker Guisto, but Cohen will show up many more times. This started with some fantastic technical exchanges. These guys had some serious body control and certainly made all their armthrows and headscissors look effortless. Guisto had some neat counters and unique things, like countering a headscissor attempt into an indian deathlock. Then, Guisto took offense to Cohen slamming him into the mat during a hold and they got really heated slapping the shit out of each other. Both men shook hands and apologized for the occurrence, except Guisto couldn’t seem to quite get over at as he proceeded to act like a jerk, letting Cohen know he considered himself to be above his opponent. Guisto started throwing European uppercuts and soon Cohen started firing back with uppercuts and nasty short kicks of his own. It’s a broken record, but the stiffness was just on another level and there were a few great exchanges were both guys were on their knees raining hell on each other. I don’t know what the deal with Guisto here was, as he suddenly started selling like he was a punch drunk Terry Funk. It gave me the feeling he was supposed to be a skilled, but coked up jerk and was trying to cue Cohen into turning up the heat more, although Cohen remained stoic. They even seemed to ring the bell early, or maybe I’m seeing things. Either ways, aside from the not quite-delivered upon promise there was some damn great wrestling and both guys raining hell on each other was awesome. Good shit.

MD: The first two thirds of this were very good, but maybe a little more cooperative than what we're used to. Some of that you could attribute to sportsmanship. There were lots of clean breaks and handshakes, even if Couistot was a little showy about it at times. Lots of holds that were hung on to and tricked out escapes and blocked escapes, and both guys going for the same thing at the same time. There was a lot of using one hold (like a full nelson) to set up another (like a mare); that sort of thing. Cohen was maybe a bit quicker and slightly more agile, Couistot had a reach advantage and maybe was just a little more skilled in his technique (from a kayfabe perspective). Despite the slight differences, they were very evenly matched. Couistot could go through the legs and Cohen could power him over. Then, after one of the many clean breaks, Couistot started the European Uppercuts and they were nasty and resoundent. Cohen fired back with a quick flurry. And they really didn't look back. There were moments where they went back to holds or spots and moments of deescalation and handshakes, but eventually it all broke down to a thousand nasty shots and the increasing exhaustion that went along with it. It reminded me a lot of the stylist vs stylist matches of the 50s, but maybe just a little more stylized. I'm not sure if it holds up to them on overall quality and competitive technique but it certainly did when it came to sheer enjoyment.

PAS: Very entertaining match, I mean this show had three guys we had never seen before and all three looked like superstar workers (and this was your first Prince match chronologically and he is an all timer). All of the exchanges here were slick and well contested and I loved the French Catch formula of technical wizardry breaking down into stiff violence. By the end of this match guys had abandoned any ideas of sportsmanship and were just unloading with hard shots. You have to love it when violence amps up like this and this match ended on a real note. 

 Le Petit Prince vs. Bobby Genele 5/22/66

SR: 1-Fall match going about 25 minutes. This is probably the earliest full match of Le Petit Prince we have, maybe even his debut since his first TV appearance was this year. It had the feel of rookie action. A few athletic moves of the Prince were there, but not everything landed clean and the match had a rugged feel to it. Of course, that may have been due to Bobby Genele, who was roughing up the Prince like nobodies business. The rugged execution of some sequences didn‘t hurt the match, and Genele, who had the look of an arrogant upper class twit compared to the fairytale like boyishness of the Prince was really vicious when it was time to deliver a beating. His head stomps looked especially brutal. He also did this neat thing where he blocked the Princes floating snapmare by holding onto the rope, which is such a simple cutoff spot that needs be stolen by every rudo worker on the planet. Genele ate the receipt savate kicks and weird electric chair spots from the Prince like a champ too so I think we can certify him as a very good rudo base. They nailed the end sequence too.

MD: It's our first look chronologically at Petit Prince and straight from the start, it doesn't disappoint. This was brilliant stuff, even if it was a little rough around the edges. Genele let himself get outwrestled maybe once before starting the bullying and inside moves and he never looked back from there. You get the sense in this early stuff that the cameramen barely know how to film Prince. Before long, Genele takes over by really going at Prince's arm and that carries a lot of the first half of the match, with Prince selling, including to the point of being too hurt to hang on to holds, which is something you rarely see in 60s France. Whenever he comes back, though, it's absolutely worth the wait. At one point he does a leap over the arm out of a wristlock and ducks a clothesline turning it into a near standing Spanish Fly. There's a real sense of anticipation in the back half, once Genele's beating becomes broader and less arm-focused; Genele's great at keeping the violence and punishment going, but everyone's learning quickly, if they didn't already know, that it's well worth your effort to see the Prince get his comeback. Each one feels a little more spectacular than the last, whether he's backflipping out of a victory roll position to lock in a takedown and a flip into a toehold, or backflipping off the top to hit a shot to the gut. The finish was as dynamic as any rope-running we've seen with Prince backflipping through the momentum of a kick up by Genele and going over and under him at high speed before hitting a sunset flip.

PAS: Goddamn is Petit Prince a revelation, every time I see him I can't believe I am watching him. Genele was a nifty base for all of Prince's insanity, and responded to getting spun on by unloading some violence, which is what you want. I loved him holding on the the hammerlock and not letting Prince flip out of it. Now, so much of wrestling is just counter, counter, counter, I liked that Genele actually made him earn it. We also had a cool short arm scissors spot and a headscissors section. However, you are waiting for Prince to flash on him, and man does he ever. His backflip out of the mule kick, right into the rope running roll up has to be one of the cooler finishing flashes I have seen. 

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