Tuesday is French Catch Day: Mantopoulous! Zarpa! Bernaert! N'Boa! Gastel! Delaporte! Zarecki! Guguliemetti

Vasilios Mantopoulos/Armand Zarpa vs Pierre Bernaert/N'Boa Le Congolais 4/5/69

MD: Super enjoyable tag, endlessly entertaining. Bob Elandon was in the (yes, super racist) gimmick of N'Boa for at least four years now and there's much more of a sense that he's in on the joke now than in earlier matches we've seen. He seems to turn it on and off as the situation calls for, doesn't have his German handler with him, and spends a chunk of this looking surly as can be. When he turns it on, the crowd goes absolutely nuts, though, both with the blatant biting and getting outsmarted and outquicked and turned around by Zarpa and Mantopolous. They didn't start with the biting either. They really build to it as Elandon could bump and stooge and work technical spots as well. This one's very creative, with a lot of the double team comedy bits we've seen up til now and some we haven't. They even have the ref miss a hot tag, though they haven't quite worked out the value of actually paying it off with a tag that is hot yet. Zarpa's good, but Mantopolous is one of the best. There's a bit in here where he blocks a bodyslam with his leg that I don't think I've ever seen before and his turtling exchange with both heels popped the crowd huge. Bernaert and N'boa had a great act here. Bernaert was used to working with oddball characters as he spent a chunk of years teaming with Bibi. There's a moment half way where Mantopolis dropkicks N'boa to the floor and dives after him and they fight on top of the crowd more than in it and that represents the wild energy and imagination of this tag in a nutshell.

SR: 2/3 falls match going a bit over 30 minutes.This was the usual fun junior tag. Fast exchanges and bumping tour the force to start, heels cheat and faces get increasingly enraged. As usual with Mantopolous, it seemed there was never a real extended heat section, so the whole thing felt light hearted. I mean, there was still some really impressive stuff going on. Bernaert looked age, but he still looked like an expert stooge and he and N'Boa (Embaba? M'Baba?) bumped extremely well for Mantopolous magic. There was also a crazy bit where Mantopolous jumped on one of the guys when he was outside the ring. Overall, it was a good bout.

PAS: I thought this was a blast. Mantopolous is such a wizard at turning people inside out, and both N'Boa and Bernaert are great at getting flustered. I loved Mantopolous flummoxing N'Boa by curling up into a ball, and his half monkey flip where he drops his opponent on his belly is a very cool spot. We also get the first dive of the footage as Mantopolous jumps off the ring apron onto N'Boa. So much fun to watch a trickster play tricks. 

Robert Gastel/Roger Delaporte vs Warnia de Zarecki/Giacomo Guguliemetti 4/19/69

MD: We come in somewhat JIP here. I doubt it's too much so but we lose some of the early feeling out process. We have that 1961 tag between Delaporte/Bollet and Leduc/Gastel which was some sort of interpromotional battle. I'm not sure how Delaporte and Gastel ended up here together, but I'm happy for it. They make a pretty perfect pair. Most of the first fall is spent with the stylists in control with holds and Delaporte menacing from the outside, doing everything he can to interfere and just blatantly come in. Eventually, they catch on and do a blind switch while the ref is distracted by him. It's all pretty entertaining stuff where Gastel didn't have to do a lot from underneath since Delaporte was creating all of the interest  and excitement. Gastel might have been the best at all time of getting a single leg from a kneeling position, that old mainstay of 50s French bad guys. It wasn't enough here as Zarzecki managed a slick escape from a full nelson into a pin. The second fall was Gastel and Delaporte at their offensive best, as they trapped Guguliemetti in their corner and just mauled him: big, massive forearms and uppercuts from Delaporte and clubbering blasts from Gastel. As much as these two were mugging stooges, they could absolutely crush someone with their strikes. The third fall was pretty academic with Zarzecki and Guguliemetti pinballing Delaporte around the ring with harsh shots to the fans' delight, until Gastel was able to get a shot in out of nowhere as he was getting whipped back and forth across the ring to sneak out the infuriating (for the crowd) win. Constantly entertaining with two absolute master villains and a couple of game good guys. As we've already covered the Van Buyten match and the Williams/Barreto match which are chronologically after this one, I think that's it for us and Gastel, and I'll miss the flat-faced, grisly, clubbering lout. He was a real discovery of this footage.

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 30 minutes. Am I seeing things, or was Delaportes mustache shaved for this!? This is joined in progress about 15 minutes in. The first fall still had some impressively quick worked sequences. I also really liked Zarzecki beating the shit out of Gastel in the corner with fast european uppercuts. This was the stuff as all these tags, fun back and forth in the first fall, then the heels turn up the intensity, in this case by beating the shit out of the faces in the corner. Eventually the faces make their big comeback and all hell breaks lose. I'd say this executed the formula in a fun way, the energy was good and the heat was big. I liked the part where they stuck a mic in Gastels face after he got thrown over the rope.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Bibi! Husberg! Gugliemetti! Crapez! Kopa! Marquez

Cheri Bibi/Eric Husberg vs Giacomi Gugliemetti/Philippe Crapez 3/6/66

MD: This was a crowd-pleaser tag but lacked the sort of heat generated by the heels being in charge for any sort of extended period that would make it more than simple fun. There was never really any emotion or drama to this one. It almost felt like the worst part of the Hayes/Hunter tags where Hunter could simply come in and crush guys with his size and reach. That was absolutely Gugliemetti's gimmick here, more so than when we'd seen him previously. He had huge reach and would just slap and whack the heels in the face repeatedly and there was nothing they could do. It was played for laughs with Bibi trying to get a hand to block it, managing it for one or two but then getting slapped. The whole match was like this, interspersed with the heels trying to get control with chinlocks and double teaming, but the tags coming too quick and too easy from the stylist side. Occasionally, Bibi would get riled and would throw a great headbutt but it was never really followed up with the right sort and the right amount of heel brutality to make this balanced. There were a couple of fun (and again crowd-pleasing) set pieces with the heels in the ropes, and the finish was clever with Gugliemetti using his size to hold down the ropes as Bibi was trying to bounce off of them to get Crapez who was held across the ring by Husberg, but it was all too lopsided for the fans to feel it all warranted, except for on the basis of previous matches. I liked Husberg as always. He had a way of preening that was absolutely heatseeking and larger than life while never seeming entirely bufoonish or cartoonish. Crapez looked pretty good here, with some nice shots, a few nice dropkicks, and a very cool and novel roll through on one of those arm drag slams that end so many falls, where he was able to pick up Bibi for a backbreaker. This just needed more real heat to compare positively to a lot of the other tags we've been seeing lately.

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 30 minutes. Another night of gentlemen in various stages of balding forearming the hell out of each other. I really liked Guguglielemetti constantly throwing hands and slapping the shit out of people. Bibi and Husberg played fair initially, but the crowd already hated them thoroughly and wanted to see them get put on their asses. So Bibi and Husberg switched to the tactic of cheapshotting and isolating their opponents in the corner quickly. Crapez was a bear of a man and had this insane backbreaker lifted from the floor at one point. This was decent.

Tito Kopa vs. Pepe Marquez 3/20/66

PAS: Kopa is a Argentinian wrestler who had a pretty long run in the US in the 50s and 60s. He was short, really hairy and built like a block of wood. Lots of the early part of the match had Marquez trying and failing to grab a headlock on Kopa's slick bald head. It was a nice bit of business and it really felt like a triumph when Marquez got a headlock takeover in the end of the match. Nothing super flashy here, Marquez had a spot where he spun off of the ref's back to escape something which was neat, but this was mostly basic. Kopa hit hard, and I really liked his bear hug finish where he drove his gross little head into Marquez's chest, but I didn't think this had 35 minutes worth of stuff to really recommend it as a match. Still Kopa is a cool historical character and it is neat we get to see what he brought to the table. 

MD: I enjoyed this one a lot. It's our second and last look at Marques. We'd seen him in a really good stylist vs stylist match vs Sola previously. I wish we had twenty more matches with him. He's very good, with a lot of interesting escapes, some novel holds (like the Gagne deathlock), a tendency to flip over the ref while escaping things, and an explosiveness with strikes and dropkicks and just ramming Kopa's head into the corner repeatedly. Plus he had some narrative driven arm-selling in the first half of the match that let him work some comebacks without transitions which is still rare for French wrestling. Kopa was an interesting guy to watch, just a fireplug tank, dogged, tough, mean. He wrenched holds and had a lot of fairly simple ways to hurt you, with believable stoic no-selling and a bevy of inside moves (hidden chokes and punches and what have you). For much of the match, Kopa would keep control with a hold as Marques found interesting ways to escape and fire back only to get dragged back down. I liked how in the last third, Marques got an extended revenge headlock section that in other matches would have been in the first third instead, but it worked as a sort of celebratory comeuppance here. Kopa ultimately won with Quasimodo's tombstone-position repeated body lift, which was a pretty good move for Kopa's size and shape. Marques seemed to be someone who could work anyone anywhere and have a good match but I imagine Kopa shined best with the right opponent.

SR: 1 fall match going about 30 minutes. Kopa is one of those US style wrestlers who only have a few simple holds. Other than that he would try to inside shot his opponent, but everything he did was extremely basic. I liked his head first corner bumps to accentuate his shortness. Marquez looked quite good here. Really sold those simple armlocks like hell, and had nice retaliations in the form of cool dropkicks and uppercuts. I really liked how he strangled Kopa and then stomped on his throat. That said this was about 10-15 minutes too long so it's only for the completists.

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Tuesday is French Catch: Khan! Gasparini! Voinet! Kasbarian!Straub! Gugliementi!

Iska Khan vs. Jean Gasparini 7/11/65

MD: We haven't seen Gasparini since 57, when he was thoroughly trounced by Hayes. He's still the game guy, a complete Italian stereotype (the commentator was talking about the crowd throwing tomatoes at him that he'd use for sauce later post match). He reminds me of Jason Schwartzman from the most recent season of Fargo. That makes him a better foil for Khan than Hayes, probably, and this was fun for what it was. Khan's quasi Charlie Chan act, with lots of bowing and chopping and clever foot usage to get out of holds, was definitely over. He also always has a bit more of an edge than you'd expect. At one point, after Gasparini was working nerve holds in and out of the ropes (including recoiling Khan neck first off of them in that old French way that's no longer used now), Khan repositioned to send him sailing out and then charged after him with some brawling on the floor. Gasparini had to resort to cheapshots and stalling for the most part, but he was good at it. Khan's got mad at the end as Gasparini tried to keep him out of the ring and fired back with chops and a final sequence which apparently used secret ancient marital arts to completely paralyze his opponent. He had to undo it after the match. Entertaining stuff with just a bit of an edge.

SR: 1 fall match going about 15 minutes. Gasparini is a rugged looking heel with a mustache who likes to hit shots to the body. This started as a fun tour of Khans spots before Gasparini decided to crank up the violence, even brawling Khan on the floor and swinging the ring steps at him. In turn, Khan started busting out the chops. Felt a little short (Gasparini went down pretty fast) but I enjoyed it.

PAS: I really enjoy watching Khan, he has a bunch of fun chops and eye pokes. Gasparini is a fun pasta and red sauce stereotype Italian, I just wish he hit a little hard. He was throwing body shots and I wanted a little more marinara on them. It did end up getting pretty heated at the end with Khan and Gasparini throwing bigger shots before Khan dropped him for good. I dug this, love Khan, but it was pretty unremarkable overall

Gil Voinet vs. Georges Kasbarian 7/11/65

SR:1 fall match going about 15 minutes. These are two guys with excellent build. Match-wise there was nothing outstanding they grappled a little and Kasbarian started cheapshotting and Voinet fired back and then they took it home. It felt like a match between two body guys.

MD: Like what we often see, but bigger. Both of these guys were definitely heavyweights and they still worked things with holds and escapes. Everything just had more oomph behind it, more shoulder blocks, more slams. Kasparian was quick to go to shortcuts and quick to complain when legitimate escapes got cut off. When Voiney ultimately got mad, his fiery blows were massive and the crowd well knew it. The technical bits weren't as smooth (even when Voiney would do something really impressive like cartwheel out or when Kasparian would try a huge flying headscissors out of an armbar only to get jammed and shrugged off) but they still absolutely worked. Voiney won with an airplane spin but his fireman's carry gutbuster was probably the most impressive single thing in the match.

Vasilios Mantopolous vs. Daniel Noced 7/16/65

SR: About 3 minutes are shown. This was an episode were the pre match on paper looked more exciting than the main event, but it seems these guys weren‘t that familiar with each other to produce a match similiar to Noced/Prince. They hit some hard uppercuts and fast rope running and I enjoyed that.

MD: This is kind of a weird few minutes. It had a few good spots and an ok energy, and maybe it's just because we didn't get the majority of the match, but at times they seemed to match up oddly. There were some starts and stops and some of the acrobatics (like Noced trying to land on his feet out of a monkey flip) weren't at all hit clean. I imagine if we had the longer holds earlier in the match, this would have still been pretty good though.

Luc Straub vs. Giacomo Gugliemetti 7/16/65

SR: 1 fall match going 30 minutes. Matt was wary about this going in, but I thought it was decent catch. They worked simple holds, with enough resistance and intensity that I got into the match. I dug Guguliemetti here, liked how he worked a chinlock, liked how he sold Straubs first chop as if his eardrum was shattered, really liked how he clutched his own arm after hitting Straub to put over how hard he was hitting. Straub didn‘t do any goofy stuff, no judo either though. Bit long match and needed more escalation but I enjoyed myself.

MD: I have to admit, I was sort of dreading this one, and that's before I knew it was going to be a draw. I did know it went around 30 minutes and I knew that Straub's been pretty tough to watch in tags lately. The judo thing only takes you so far, especially in tags where there's a lot of shtick and comedy. This was wrestled straight, though, and it was solid. I'm not sure I needed thirty minutes of it, but it was solid. They would build to blows (with Guguliemetti losing his cool) and then take it back down. It never really boiled over, though, as Straub would fire back but then want a handshake and reset into holds again. What worked was the struggle of the holds, the selling in the moment and immediately thereafter, and the variety that Straub, especially, brought to the table. They didn't really do long working in and out of holds, but instead used a wide variety: a rolling leg nelson, cobra clutch, a short arm scissors, the Mascaras headscissors (which we now know predates him), a body scissors, hammerlocks, Gugulimetti's arm-switch stranglehold, etc. With a couple of fun escapes and dropkicks by Straub here and there and the strike exchanges fun even if, like I said, it never boiled over. If we were beggars and not choosers with this footage, we'd probably rank this fairly high. As it is, it's a half hour of very competent wrestling that never quite feels great.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Falaux! Elandon! Caballec! Puydebat! Charles! Guguliemetti! Brown! Kiyomigawa!

Albert Falaux/Bob Elandon vs. Rene Caballec/Gilbert Puydebat, 2/22/63

MD: Welcome, friends, to what feels like the end of our golden age of footage. Today we're covering February and March 1963, having just covered November and December 1962. After this point, we'll have one show in May 1964 before skipping to a silver age, beginning in January 1965. More on why that gap exists next week (and really, it goes back to 61 relative to the years prior, though not nearly as dramatically as this) and some of the scant stuff that we might be missing from 1964, thanks to what we've learned from Phil Lions's research.

This was another nice, long tag, with some guys we haven't seen much of before. Elandon is the person you'll remember the most here, as he alternated between cowardly and blustering, quick to attack, quick to retreat, quick to kick the ropes in frustration or jaw with the crowd, and well served in a setting where he could tag out at the first sign of danger. Definitely a heatseeker. The other three brought a lot of more conventional wrestling to the table, though all of them had a number of tricks we haven't seen much of before in the footage, if at all. That could vary from Falaux's bulldogs or missed dropkick that let him flip off the ropes to set up the finish or Caballec's flying cravate mare or neckbreaker twist or the victory rolls the stylists were throwing around. Puydebat had a real energy and verve to his work that made me want to see him more. Unfortunately, this is it for him, I think. Even Caballec we won't see again until the late 70s. This all came together well with Falaux playing along with Elandon's antics and heeling it up as well and the faces firing back with one interesting exchange after another.

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 35 minutes. This was another solid solid long French tag. Plenty of athleticism and asskicking here. These guys are like springs the way they would bounce around the ring while looking tough. Falaux and Elandon were the rudos. Elandon was this straight forward asskicker, who had a cool section working a strangle hold at one point where he would yank the other guys chin. Falaux was interesting as he could do some athletic and technical moves of his own. He wrestled like he once was a technico himself but took a liking to sneaking in inside shots. It made for a cool dynamic and there were some quality exchanges. The finish with Falaux doing some Psychosis like leap into the ropes only to bounce back and land on his feet was baffling even by French standards.

PAS: I thought this was really excellent stuff, four completely new guys all of them really impressive. Liked the rudo team a lot, and the technicos had some really flash. One thing I especially liked about this were good finishes for each fall. Even the best French matches don't always have great finishes, but this one really did. Callabec and Falaux face off and Callabec gets totally rocked with a knee to the back of his head. He tries to shake it off several times but goes to a knee, only to finally get his bearings, rock Falaux with some uppercuts and a crazy neckbreaker. Falaux is able to bound off the mat with a leaping forearm, hits this great flip rope fake into a jumping tope for the three count, spectacular finish for an excellent match. 

Tony Charles vs. Giacomo Guguliemetti 3/29/63

SR: We get about 8 minutes of this. Tony Charles we have seen on World of Sport and in Memphis, making this a cool sighting. He doesn‘t show off his technical skill here, instead we join right into the asskicking portion of this match. These two just smacked the shit out of each other. Not pretty but heated and very intense. Wish we had the whole thing.

MD: We come to this one 12 minutes in and get the last nine minutes of it. Charles is in his late 20s, which is fun to see. He's pretty go-go-go here, spending a lot of the match just tossing himself around the ring and it's really on Guguliemetti to just try ground him. He's never able to do it for long. He'll redirect Charles out over the top in a big bump and Charles will just rush back in and fly at him again. He'll hit a huge forearm off the ropes and Charles will kip up and ram him with a driving headbutt. He'll stomp Charles in the face and keep him down for a minute, only for Charles to rush back up with a backbreaker and flip him about in the ropes. Definitely not one of the best selling performances we've ever seen but it's exciting and not quite what I was expecting from young Charles. This ends with a nice dropkick, a back handspring celebration, and a fairly happy crowd. Good action and hard hitting but given Charles' penchant to pop right back up, I think nine minutes of this was the about the right amount to have.

James Brown vs. Kiyomigawa 3/29/63

SR: 1 fall match going about 25 minutes. Kiyomigawa was a Japanese ex-sumo. He co-founded one of the first Japanese promotions, All Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance, and trained some joshi legends. He wrestled in Europe and the German speaking countries a lot. Having him on film is neat, especially against a German trained US guy. And well this was a really good match. Brown is clearly a pretty great pro wrestler. Just a classy athlete, and really good at selling holds, struggling, eating offense and firing back. Lots of nifty work here where they work in and out of holds and into strikes. Kiyomigawa was this lanky guy who liked to throw chops to the neck and sometimes throat. I wouldn‘t say he was great, but he was a breath of fresh air to the generic clobbering heels you usually see in France. He also knew how to use a nerve hold in interesting ways. Lots of cool european uppercut vs. Chops battles here. Kiyomigawa ends up bloodied after a series of nasty headbutts and we got some cool exhausted strike exchanges before the match is thrown out due to Kiyomigawa not breaking a stranglehold. Disappointing finish but Kiyomigawa shaking Browns hand after the match was cool. Quality work here.

MD: Interesting look at two figures we don't have much, if any footage of, in James Brown and Kiyomigawa. Brown was a multi-level threat, able to wrestle with some interesting holds like a bow and arrow and this lifting vertical STF that felt like one of those lucha holds that seem devastating but that they can only hold for a few seconds; powerful enough to wrench out of holds and lock in backbreakers and bulldogs (two show in a row, which it seem like the new hot move of 1963); to strike, including great forearms and his awesome headbutt; and some athleticism, including standing dropkicks out nowhere. Kiyomigawa was persistent, with a lot of nerve holds and chops, slaps, and throat attacks. In some ways, I thought they were matched up well. They worked their holds and escapes snug and their shots stiff, with wicked slaps followed up almost immediately by jarring receipts; the battles between chops and headbutts were actually quite compelling, more so than I expected. In other ways, though, you kind of wish they were up against different opponents. Brown had an answer to everything and Kiyomigawa might have been served better by a LeDuc or Drapp or Corn; Brown on the other hand would have been better off with a heel that stooged more. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the match-up we got though.

PAS: This was a battle of racial stereotype offense, with Kiyomigawa hitting chops and nerve holds and Brown landing big headbutts. Kiyomigawa had great looking chops though, hard nasty shots right to the side of Browns neck, and Brown laid in those headbutts too. Brown seemed to have some real mat skill including a crazy STF which he lifted off the ground, felt like a Hechicero spot. I thought the finish was a bit wonky, felt like the ref wasn't clued in or something. This was hard hitting stuff though, enjoyed it a bunch

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: INCA PERUANO! Araujo! Corne! Laroche! Czernieski! Guguliemetti!

Jacky Corne/Roger Laroche vs. Jo Czernieski/Giacomo Guguliemetti 12/9/60

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 35 minutes. Jo Czierneski & Giacomo Guguliemetti, now those are names. The Corne/Laroche had a bit of a feeling of a junior partnered with a heavyweight. Corne was working some impressive smooth takeovers early on and Laroche kept it a little bit more solid. I’d say Czernieski's beatdown was easily the highlight of the match. He would ground people with nerve holds and then work over their kidneys with stiff blows and stomp on their hands. I also totally didn’t expect Laroche to take a big spill between the ropes and basically suicide diving into nowhere to set up a further heat segment on him. As usual, there was a ton of asskicking going and I thought it built to a very good match overall.

MD: Another strong, long tag. There were a few structural things that we've seen a lot lately, like the heels utilizing consistent and repeated holds and the faces firing back or a comeuppance spot with the heels tied up in the ropes including a catapult where one's tossed into the other. That's interesting to me because Corne hasn't been on the scene for a while. Hearing the announcer say he hadn't been on TV for 18 months when we don't have him in our footage for that exact period of time is a real reminder just how complete this footage is and makes me feel closer to the crowd and the scene in general. I wouldn't say that Guguliemetti and Czierneski stood out in the sea of foreign bad guys we've seen, though the former, an Italian, had a memorable lanky appearance. They used a stranglehold and a nerve hold respectively and stooged as appropriate. The best stuff here was after Laroche wiped out to the floor on a running tackle in the second fall and how relentless they were in demolishing his back. Corne managed to get back in at the start of the last fall (though again, they just haven't figured out the timing of a really good hot tag; I think sometimes we've seen visiting Brits manage it, but not the natives) and he really is a great total package of wrestling and fiery slugging. I liked how Laroche did get some revenge here, but just for a minute or so, in and out, as he was still selling. He never put himself at great risk and because of that, Corne was able to secure the win.

ER: The Italian/Polish team is already one of my most hated heel teams, just because I hate having to type Guglielmetti and Czernieski several times just to describe what they are doing. Czernieski works maybe the most active and engaging nerve hold I've seen, really wearing Laroche down to his knees, digging hard into both traps, and every time one of Laroche's hands would hit the mat Czernieski would throw down a quick stomp. It really forced Laroche to expend way more energy while locked into a hold, not being allowed to conserve any breath with Czernieski showing he was going to keep pain front and center. Czernieski was a real asshole, and had a lot of great stuff around the ropes. He would hold Laroche in a full nelson and walk him over so Guglielmetti could land a stiff shoulder shrug into his gut, and then Czernieski would do some other asshole thing like throw a double chop into Laroche's sides. Czernieski was generous feeding into Laroche and Corne's comeback, taking big exaggerated belly flop bumps on kicks to the stomach, getting tied up in the ropes and bumping to the floor when Guglielmetti gets thrown into him, getting thrown even harder into the bottom rope to bump Guglielmetti to the floor. Corne and Laroche take the two most insane bumps of the match, with Corne taking a really disgusting backward Harley Race bump to the floor onto his head, and Laroche basically doing a tope suicida to nothing. This tag took a nice amount of time to logically build from heel control to face comeuppance, working a long match that never once felt long, which is kind of an unheralded gift of French Catch. 

Inca Peruano vs. Al Araujo 12/30/60

SR: 1 Fall Match going about 25 minutes. Al Araujo may be Spanish or Portuguese, who knows. Gotta love France for giving away matchups like this. This was pretty much a sprint with both guys doing a mix of cool wrestling, unique bumping and beating the living shit out of each other. I would‘ve liked to see these two hit the mat a little longer, as they had some super swank stuff going on, but soon Peruano was stomping on Araujos face and punching his stomach. One might call this a 1960s spotfest as they move really fast from one thing to another, but I can tolerate a spotfest when the spots are fresh and there is a ton of gritty fighting as seen here. Al Araujo looked pretty fantastic here, his wrestling was spot on and when he took a beating his retaliations were violent as hell, and I loved all the backbreakers and holds he broke out. He also had this great vertical arm lift into dropping the Inca straight on his wrist. I really dug how both guys kept kicking the wrists from a standing position, and of course Inca Peruano was whipping out cool stuff left and right, including some really swank headscissor work. There was also a nice sense of progression, as some things would be repeated and then countered. This is our last lengthy singles match appearance from Inca Peruano and the only real match we have from Al Araujo, it‘s sad but this match certainly serves as a good highlight reel for their stuff.

MD: Peruano is nothing short of amazing. Obviously, we've seen him a few times now, but without the context of everything we've seen so far, I think it's hard to fully appreciate him. When we first started watching this footage, everything seemed amazing. Now that we've gotten a sense of it all, everything continues to seem excellent but Peruano, himself, continues to seem extraordinary. He's probably the single most talented person in the footage, or at the least up there with Catanzaro and Ben Chemoul and Pellacani and Le Petit Prince (and.. and... I know). He almost reminds me of Negro Casas with his combination of heatseeking and innovation and drawing outside of the standard box while being able to hit hard and stooge well and do all of the fundamental things well.

I thought we were out of Aruajo matches but this one had been mislabeled. Aruajo is a great foil for Peruano, almost a mirror image in some ways, though he'd probably stand out more against a less innovative opponent. He hits as hard as anyone and has maybe the best 'rana we've seen, but Peruano is simply impossible to keep down for long. He's almost too good at escaping holds and grinding down on Aruajo from every angle. Aruajo locks in some great stuff like a cavernaria and a tapitaia but Peruano is just too slippery and he's back to being dominant again, sneaking in cheaty counters and cheapshots on pinfalls before long. Peruano makes up for that by stooging dramatically in the most-crowd pleasing manner possible. The total package makes for pure entertainment.

PAS: This was incredible, what a performance by Inca, and Aruajo being there every step. Inca does five impossible things before breakfast, attacking at odd angles, finding a dozens ways to roll someone up you have never seen, throwing big shots and taking a bunch of bumps to the floor. All of the attacks on the wrist where super nasty, and I have never seen that wrist lift slam before, what a nutty spot that is. This felt like a tremendous lucha title match, all the skill of  Negro Casas vs. Atlantis,  but 15% stiffer, which is all you can ask for in a wrestling match. All of the opening exchanges were great, and all of the final run bombs exploded the way you wanted them to. Another stone cold all timer from French Catch.

ER: I loved this! Peruano is like a compact Regal, but Araujo has as many cool tricks and reversals as Peruano, and works as an excellent canvas for some of Peruano's best work. I loved all of Araujo's focus on the ankles, some of the coolest ankle spots I've seen. He is really great at totally tying up Peruano's ankles, like how he trapped and tucked them early, then built off that later by pinning Peruano's ankles to his butt and lifting him. He had really tight work around the ankles, knees, and thighs, getting these great leveraged grips that would lend themselves well to nasty crabs and deathlocks. Peruano is a master at tying someone up with leg scissors, and I appreciated the energy that Araujo used to fight out of a snug grounded headscissors. The best leg scissors in the match was this all time great fun spot, where Peruano had both of Araujo's ankles tied up in a scissors, and Araujo kept trying to roll through it to escape, only to continually finding himself back on his feet, ankles still wrapped up in Peruano's legs. Peruano had a bunch of nasty wrist work, and I really loved one spot he did a couple times where he broke a wrist lock with a quick downward thrust kick. One of the most impressive things about guys like Peruano and Araujo is how they do so many pieces of offense that could feel like exhibition exchanges, but their stiffness always makes it come off like a part of a bigger match, not just guys running through spots and then shifting back into place. The pace they kept for 25 minutes was insane, and after Peruano gets the pin he just can't help himself, and throws a couple nasty kicks into Araujo's ribs. This was one of my very favorite French Catch experiences. 

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