Tuesday is French Catch Day: Primitiv! Gordon! Angelito! Mercier Brothers! Sanniez! Petrolini!

Le Primitiv vs Flesh Gordon & Angelito 8/22/84

SR: The image of Le Primitiv entering the ring with the crown has to be prime surreal wrestling material. They tried, but it was clear they had no idea where to go with this character. And of all people, it‘s the Primitive who gets the monster push?! It all feels like a strange fever dream.

MD: I repeat that I would have been pretty glad to see this mania in person as a ticket-paying customer. The band playing. The two top stylists. A bunch of top rope moves, missed and hit, and some big dives even. Just a wild scene. This was not LeDuc/Corn vs Henker, but it was full of showcase moments for Gordon and Angelito, and as much as I hate to say it, if you can even begin to believe that this kind of wiry and agile monkey man also has incredible strength, Angelito and Gordon were doing everything in their power to get that notion over. There were some clever/imaginative bits of them getting knocked out of the ring or knocking Mombo out and some unique double teams, and the way the finish worked was way over the top: Angelito had an arm. Gordon rushed in to get the other. Mombo choked them both, rose to his feet, shoved them over the top. They pulled him out. Angelito tried for a huge apron leap and got pressed over Mombo's head; the cameras totally missed it. Gordon went out to check on him. Mombo hit a massive tope. He rolled Angelito back in and hit his finisher (Congo Jam, which has gotten better). That left Gordon vs him and Gordon tried valiantly for a minute but ate a headbutt and the legdrop for the 10 count finish. Everyone came in to celebrate and put the crown back on him. I don't know. I had fun and they really did try. The best proto-CHIKARA that 1984 France has to offer.

Marc Mercier/Pierre Mercier vs Albert Sanniez/Mario Petrolini 8/25/84 

MD: Guy's kids were definitely promising. Marc was established by this point, but Pierre came off like a young lion. He reminded me a bit of early 80s Curt Hennig, yet somehow lankier and more flexible. The way he was able to bound to his feet on throws was as impressive as anyone as I've seen in the footage. He had a lot of sweeping kicks and seemed just very loose in there. Plus he was able to draw a ton of sympathy from underneath. You got the impression Sanniez, old pro that he was, was leading him through things, maybe (as tight as Pierre was loose). Petrolini was an Italian and kept up, with a lot of leg dives using the ref as a distraction and a splash onto the leg. The heat here was very good, with a missed tag. It was a swimming pool match and maybe the biggest bit of heat was when Marc was trying to get in there by climbing to the top and the ref pushed him off. He got his after the match was over. In the meantime, the heels worked well together, Sanniez leaping up to kick or just moving the corner guard out of the way, as Petrolini tossed Pierre in, that sort of thing. The comeback was Pierre reversing one of those whips leading to heel miscommunication and Marc destroying everyone and a bunch of stooging into the water that lasted through the quick third fall. We're nearing the end of the footage but if you told me now there was five more solid years of the Mercier brothers, Gordon, Angelito, Malpard, and at least a few game bad guys like Frederico, Black Shadow, Tejero, I'd be on board for that.

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

Linda Blaire vs Nicky McDonald 7/21/84

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

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

Le Primitiv vs Patrick Lopez 8/1/84

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Le Primitiv vs Eliot Frederico 7/18/84

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

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

Georges Cohen vs Anton Tejero 7/18/94

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

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

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

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

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

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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: Bordes! Gordon! Falcons! Mercier! Montreal!

Walter Bordes/Flesh Gordon vs. Golden Falcons 8/13/83

SR: 2/3 Falls match going about 25 minutes. I am totally fine with young Flesh Gordon and an ancient Walter Bordes carrying French TV at this point. Gordon is really spry doing these luchariffic exchanges and I am loving Bordes in these matches, just bouncing around and mixing in all this cool shit while being old enough to be everyone's grandpa. This also had a nifty heel beatdown where Flesh Gordon was laid out like an All Japan tag and Bordes took a big beating. In a nifty moment, the Falcons even stole the "wrestler gets catapulted into his own partner“ spot which is usually reserved for babyfaces. Gordon comes back in the 3rd fall wearing a bandage and just uppercuts everyone a lot, and all is right in the world.

MD: Yeah, this was just chugging along like any other match, with some great bridges by Gordon and Bordes blocking some throws in cool ways and having really nice hanging-on arm holds. Some of the spots seemed a bit recycled from the last time we saw these two teaming but it was all good stuff that they were continuing to build upon so that was ok. The Falcons took all of it and had a certain bit of cheek that you appreciated in heels (also a diving headbutt which is also appreciated in hold footage). Then, after Gordon won the first fall with his spin around mare thing that people need to steal, everything got wild in the second fall.

One Falcon catapulted Bordes into Gordon (held by the hair by his partner) and Flesh (said with a possibly straight face to be a distant cousin of Flash, by the announcer) did a human stretcher job from the bump off the apron. After that they leaned hard into the heat. Bordes would fight back but the numbers game was too much. He'd get knocked off the apron or tossed into the crowd. The Falcons had some strong stuff here, including this punch that knocked Bordes off the ropes and right back into a back elbow. After they took the second fall they hit a double team, one Falcon holding Bordes in a full nelson and the other coming off the second rope with a headbutt to the gut. They went for it again, but Bordes moved and Gordon flew back in, his bloodied head bandaged, and it was a big iconic moment as they fired back and took the win and won a tiny little trophy as the crowd went wild. 1983 French Catch? Still rousing stuff.

 

Guy Mercier vs. Mr. Montreal 8/27/83

MD: Three or four big, long, incredibly well worked holds in, halfway through the match, Montreal was hanging on to a headlock so tightly that I thought Mercier's head was going to pop off. Then Mercier started to slam him, uppercut him, drop elbows (rare for the footage) and knees and slam him some more. Montreal dodged one and came back with huge whips and huge shots and slams. They end up slugging one another, until they crash into one other and both hit the mat hard. And there's still ten minutes to go!

There are a spattering of matches like this in the footage, especially once we got into the 60s, but they were always something absolutely exceptional. The holds are so tight, so mean, so thoroughly worked. There's not an armbar here which also doesn't have a shin grinding onto the cheek. There's always motion, always an attempt to escape, but it takes three or four motions to even get to the escape attempt and then that gets cut off, and then it's that many until the next, and that gets cut off, and so on and so forth, so expertly worked, until the opening finally is earned, as is everything else in a match like this (And when what is earned is Mercier's headstand spinout? It's as good as it gets). And the shots? The shots hit so hard and resonate so deeply. They're not the end, but instead a response to the last affront and a prelude to the next hold. During the stretch as time was going out, three, four hard forearms or uppercuts would lead to a headlock takeover or a body slam or even Mercier's fallaway slam, but all to no avail. You could say that this was Montreal's strength against Mercier's leverage and skill, but it was really just two aging masters putting everything out there and it stands up to just about anything we've seen during this entire journey.

SR: 1 Fall match going a bit under 30 minutes. This was a clean technical match, a rare occurrence by 1983. The fact they still had matches like this at that time made me wish there was more 80s French TV around. This was super minimalist, two guys struggling over basic holds for 30 minutes without a fall. It was something you‘d expect out of the 60s. The holds were simple, but they were really cranking them. The whole match felt clinical and the fact Montreal was squeezing Mercier so hard with those headlocks his veins seemed about to pop emphasized that. I imagine this kind of contest was more Mercier's specialty than the heatmongering face/heel style. His suplexes ruled. Both guys seemed to get increasingly agitated towards the end, really cracking each others jaws with the uppercuts. I‘ve seen a lot of 80s Euro draws like this, but seeing this go 25+ without rounds or falls was impressive. I could see most people finding this boring, but I enjoyed the show.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Prince! Rocca! Tejero! Remy! Golden Falcons! Herve! Lamotta!

Gerard Herve/Tony Lamotta vs Golden Falcons 8/11/80

MD: Herve and Lamotta had matching tights. Saulnier was the ref. I read an article that may or may not have been BS where Herve said Jean Corne discovered him in the mid-70s and he was a Celt for a while. I saw no evidence of that but hey, it's possible. The Falcons were billed as Peruvian here, one larger who could hang a bit more with the faster rope running and spots and one who was smaller who hit a bit harder. Saulnier was the ref, which means Saulnier made his diminutive presence known.  

First third of this had Herve and Lamotta not necessarily control, but escape out of one hold after the next. There were some pretty elaborate exchanges out of wristlocks, but I'm not sure the technique was quite as tight as things we'd seen in years past. Herve's problem was that he was working big and loose for the back row but the back row really wasn't that far away in 1980. They could have brought him in as the French Von Erich cousin and he would have done very well in Texas. Most of the rest of the match was the Falcons controlling by doing nasty things behind the ref's back as Saulnier admonished the other stylist or yelled at the crowd. Not direct heat on Saulnier but certainly indirect. Lamotta, who was super agile and able to kip up a million times in a row, scored a quick roll up to win the first fall but either through Herve going to the mask foolishly or Saulnier intervening, the Falcons took back over. They won the second fall after a double team kick and back body drop which we haven't seen a ton of in the footage. Herve worked well from underneath, firing back to keep the fans in it and selling broadly. There were a couple of sufficiently hot tags here too but it maybe didn't come together as much as some of the other recent tags. Finish was yet one more hot tag to Herve and that amazing twisting armdrag thing we've seen a couple of the Panamanians and maybe Juan Guil Don use. I badly wish someone would steal it. Overall this was still well on the good side but there were some things I wouldn't have mind a bit tightened up.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going about 30 minutes. French pro wrestling was nearing the end, but tag team wrestling could still deliver, and this delivered. Fast intricate exchanges, a pair of masked guys who can stooge and deliver a beating... yeah, this is pretty much Lucha. Also, both teams wore matching outfits, so they understood the crucial parts of tag team wrestling. Gerard Herve is some young stud and a quite polished technico. Lamotta is balding and grey, but still really athletic with great looking ranas and flips, although he wisely leaves the bulk of the work to his partner. I didn‘t know what to expect from the Falcons (what kind of heel persona is that, anyways?) but they were ready to wrestle and bump and had good heel timing. There were some heel ref shenanigans with Michel Saulnier again, but to be honest he may have carried the heel beatdown section with his amusing ways to sabotage Herve. The european uppercuts landed loudly and the crowd was into this. The last fall is really short but the ending move is a good one.

Petit Prince/Claude Rocca vs Anton Tejero/Bob Remy 8/18/80

MD: This was as good as you'd expect. Some bonus heat to start as Tejero walked across the ring pre-match and ripped Prince's spectacles off his face. Once they got going there was a lot of Prince finding ways to fling Tejero to the floor, as he was always willing to get there the hard way, so revenge was had. More little bits of sputtering heat here in the first fall with a lot of comebacks, sometimes at the expense of the ref but often by simply stooging the heels. Prince really understood how to get sympathy and build to moments by this point. Remy and Rocca matched up well, Rocca with a lot of slick stuff and Remy more of a brusier where as Tejero could do everything under the sun. Towards the end of the first fall they really turned up the heat on Prince, with him, at one point, bumping into the third row. It wasn't until the ref missed the tag, a worthless moral victory for the stylists, did they actually pin him. Second fall had a molten hot tag which saw the ref get nailed as well, and then they soared into all of the fun celebratory stuff for the last fall. So it was a lot of what we've seen lately, but more of it, and with four excellent, excellent wrestlers working as hard as humanly possible. French Catch, still great in 1980, just in case anyone was confused about that.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going a little over 30 minutes. The guys were still absolutely killing it. It‘s the same formula as any of these late period French tags, two good guys who will armdrag hard, 2 rudos who will bump like crazy, and an incompetent referee who is made the butt of many a joke. It‘s really nice that we have footage of Tejero from the 1960s up to here. He was getting lumpier and greying, but still an insanely dedicated bumper. He flung himself out and across the ring like 20 times in this. I have no idea what kind of money these guys were getting to work this hard, but it‘s a trip. Rocca looked awesome just running the ropes and the Prince hadn‘t slowed down much since the 60s. I also really liked Bob Remy who was a real fucker tagging guys with punches and stiff punt kicks. This was all action until a pretty intense rudo beatdown kicked in with the Prince taking a beating,even getting flung into the crowd and carried back by a second who didn‘t bother removing his cigarette. The 3rd fall wasn‘t as intense as the first two, but this was a romp.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Corne! Hassouni! Angelito! Richard! Herve! Ramirez!

Kader Hassouni/Jean Corne vs Jacky Richard/Angelito 3/11/79


MD: We've got one more match after this in the decade, but this was a beautiful way to end the 70s. It was a swimming pool match. Delaporte was the special ref. Corne and Hassouni are two of the great medium-sized wrestlers of the period. Angelito is flashy and entertaining. Richard is one of the best stooging, bullying heels and bases.

For the first quarter or so, Angelito plays stylist too, which made Richard a bit of the odd man out. He would clap and bow. They had a fun bit where everyone was rolling safely on mares and throws except for Richard, who was getting increasingly more frustrated. Things started to turn a bit after a series of very long, complex, entertaining and very skilled wristlock sequences with both Hassouni and Corne controlling Angelito who was doing everything he could to escape. Shortly thereafter, he went full bad guy and seemed to revel in the role, posing and preening, doing flips just to taunt, teasing getting tossed into the water only to catch himself at the last second. Eventually he took it too far and Corne gave him an outright jackknife power bomb for his trouble.

The combo of Angelito and Richard controlled much of this. Hassouni scored a roll up in the midst of a beating for the first fall but ultimately misstepped (literally) and knocked Corne off the apron and into the water, leaving him open for a slam (and Richard had huge slams) to be pinned. The third fall was all the heels until they took it too far, knocking Hassouni out, then Corne when he was checking on him, and then Delaporte himself! He came back in leading the charge for the final comeback and after the heels were vanquished, he got his pound of flesh on them in a pretty wonderful celebratory moment with the old gruff grump standing tall. Pretty good all around here. Obviously you have to accept Delaporte's role in the finish but Richard and Angelito both made excellent and very different foils for the stylists.

Gerard Herve vs Paco Ramirez 11/18/79 

MD: An incomplete 18 minutes or so but we get the gist of this one. It's very fitting that the last two matches of the 70s focused on Delaporte the ref in a swimming pool match and had Gerard Herve's debut (and with Saulnier as ref). For good or ill, we'll be spending a lot with Gerard in the 80s, as he becomes Flesh Gordon. Here, I get the sense that Ramirez was driving the ship but that Herve was a game passenger. He took a beating, was fiery in his comebacks, could be in the right place at the right time for holds and counters, which were fairly even, was overall athletic and coordinated, and had some charisma as he looked to the crowd for shots that would never come as Saulnier cut him off. Sometimes he took two moves to get to a certain point when one would be smoother, but in general, there was plenty of potential. Ramirez was excellent here, combining a matador flair and some big cutoffs like a flying tope headbutt, and mean, controlled shots. He's not afraid to bump and stooge towards the end when Herve has a comeback. We miss the end but you can pretty much figure it out as Saulnier is losing his cool and Herve is tying Ramirez up in the ropes. This is the first time we see names on the screen when introducing the wrestlers (even if they're in the wrong place) and it reminds me how far we've come through the years of the Martian and classic art and music interspersed and Luna Catch 2000.

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