Tuesday is French Catch Day: Von Kramer! Jones! The Alpha and Omega of Cesca vs Catanzaro!

Karl Von Kramer vs Ted Jones 8/1/87 

MD: As there's no sign of a suspected Prince Zevy/Flesh Gordon tag, this is our last match. It's a bit of an odd one, presented in the middle of what seems to be a Wide World of Sports type show called Sports Loisors. I have no context. Jones is billed as a Belgian champion, Von Kramer the German one. Both come out with young women presumably from their nationality. Von Kramer has an old manager dressed in a suit too and at one point the Belgian women assault him. Jones gets him once too. I have more reason to believe this is the Von Kramer from 25 years prior than I have reason not to believe it. You can extrapolate the age onto the wrestler we saw in black and white and he has the same sort of robe and overall look. I can't say for certain though. He's definitely not the Karl Kramer working in the UK at the time, that's for sure.

And you know what? It's a nice little throwback to end things on. They do work the holds. They try. Von Kramer goes over quite a few times on labored bumps. Jones works from underneath. They have a couple of holds where they hang on through the armdrags and what not. There are bursts of rope running. It's certainly senior tour stuff and we're not talking Mercier vs Montreal here or anything, but the good stuff is good and the bad stuff is forgivable here at the very end of our journey. Von Kramer might have been able to manage something in a tag with Richard and up against Hassouni and Bordes a few years earlier. The finish has Jones getting some revenge on Von Kramer in the corner and the ref pulling him back, which lets Von Kramer sneak in a low blow and score the win. Comeuppance comes while the credits are rolling. Not a terrible way to spend twenty minutes between watching cycling and equestrian on a weekend afternoon. A pleasant and forgettable farewell from France.

Gilbert Cesca vs Billy Catanzaro 5/1/57

MD: Which brings us back to the very beginning, the match that opened our eyes and our first and now last gift to you. We had bypassed it when we were going through 1957 as we knew it well, but now, here at the very end, I thought to take another look. It's good that I did too, because this is an upgrade on video quality to the version that's been out there. In the story of the footage, Catanzaro, spectacular as he was, only appeared a handful of times. In the later appearances, he represented the stooging heel that we saw so much of. Here, you just get glimpses of it, when, unable to escape a hold, he resorts to desperate shots; a seed of irritability that would grow in the years to come. He calms soon after and the process repeats, all the way to the handshake post-match. Cesca, on the other hand, feels like a stylist's stylist, part of that direct line from 1957 to 1987, through the team with Ben Chemoul, which gave way to Ben Chemoul and Bordes, which led to Bordes and Gordon. It's striking how much this represents some of the best stylist vs stylist work, the incessant holds and counter holds and forward pressing and struggle. It's also striking how much it leaves out, as it was just one aspect of one aspect of French Catch, even if it contained many overlapping specifics. Having watched this years ago, we couldn't have any sense of the breadth and depth and variety of it all. It's still an amazing spectacle though and so much more of their personalities and idiosyncrasies bleeds through with the higher video quality.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Rene Ben! Bordes! Falcons! Cesca! Noirs!

Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes vs Golden Falcons 1/2/71

MD: Another notch in the belt for Ben Chemoul and Bordes. Another match with game opponents that goes 30, keeps the fans constantly entertained, and is one fun sequence after the next. Their opponents here were the Golden Falcons, billed from America and looking quite a bit like Halcon de Oro I and II. While they got clowned for most of the match, they did have some fun offense, inverted headlock backbreakers, these big whacks to the top of the head, and a nice rope running cheapshot sequence to win the first fall, plus good use of ref distraction for double teams to cut off the ring later on. They took the first fall in around ten minutes, which feels sort of rare in these matches and helped keep at least a little bit of drama while the stylists kept winning exchanges. Bordes was 24 here and continues to show more and more every match. He had these running-up-the-ropes armdrags I don't think I've seen much in the French footage so far, for instance, and they did the old waistlock-takedown-bodyscissors-posterior bump sequence in stereo which the fans loved. It's hard to explain Ben Chemoul to someone who hasn't seen him. Every movement was stylized and punctuated, with an acrobat's athleticism but this incredibly precise timing to draw the attention of every eye. He conducted the crowd and they chanted and sang for him more than any other wrestler in the footage. I'd liken it to Dusty's punches and atomic elbow except for it was just about everything Ben Chemoul did and he could do a lot. This had a few wrinkles and some very game, big bumping heels and was a good time had by all.

PAS: Really cool to see the Falcons, who maybe legendary luchadores considering how little 70s lucha footage we have. They were very solid rudos, kind of a lesser Oficial's team, who were there to serve as foils for the more spectacular babyfaces. Matt did a great job of describing Rene Ben, I think it is almost Wrestling 2ish, with just spice on every blow. Bordes is a great young babyface, a little bigger then your real juniors, but with that level of athleticism. We know what we get from these French tags at this point and it is great stuff. 


Gilber Cesca/Bruno Asquini vs Les Blousons Noirs 1/25/71

MD: Another year, some more Blousons Noirs. Top guys. Cesca and Asquini were definitely game opponents here. The Blousons looked a little older, especially Gessat but they were still great at stooging (especially Mannevau), at being absolutely mean (Gessat's face ripping in a nelson position), and especially at controlling things (love the body manipulation, especially full nelson spinouts into mares) in the second and first half of the third fall. Yeah, this actually settled down after the stylists took the first fall (long and mostly back and forth but with a definitely stylist advantage on exchanges and some clowning), into real, substantial heat. That's not always or maybe even often the case in these tags. Cesca and Asquini would get a tag and maybe a shot in but the Blousons would hammer them right down again. It wasn't until a missed double team and some chaos on the floor that Cesca and Asquini were able to comeback. Once they did, they never looked back with great looking strikes and energy down the stretch, right to the back flip off the top by Cesca and leapfrog to set up an Asquini missile dropkick that was the finish. We've seen the Blousons fairly steadily but Cesca really drops in and out of the footage. You see him back now and again with the same confidence and pin point accuracy and skill and wonder what he was up to during these gaps. This was a cut above due to the greater dedication to a more familiar structure if nothing else.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Wiecz! de Zarzecki! Saturski! Wentzel! Bibi! Cesca!

Eddie Wiecz/Warnia de Zarzecki vs Rudi Saturski/Harry Wentzel 8/29/66

MD: The idea that Carpentier isn't fascinating to watch in 60s France is just insane to me. There's no one we've seen in this footage, including guys who were both owners and incredibly protected on finishes like Delaporte, who knew how to get over and how to stay over. It's like watching Dusty Rhodes or Ultimo Guerrero or Triple H. Our pal OJ said that he wouldn't be surprised if tag matches like these didn't contribute to the decline of popularity of French Catch mainly because of the gaga, but I think that notion is sort of nuts too, as we're watching this stuff week in and week out and the gaga is entertaining and the fans are completely into it. I refuse to believe that 1960s French audiences didn't like to be entertained and were frustrated that they weren't getting seven-minute hammerlock exchanges instead (even if those seven-minute hammerlock exchanges tend to be awesome too). There was enough heat and substance here to make it all feel balanced. I'd be willing to entertain a notion that Wiecz being so dominant might have turned off audiences over time, but at this point, he's so athletic, creative, and flashy about it that it just seems doubtful too. If you're going to eat guys up and win every strike exchange, punctuating things with headstand and flip sentons or the corner punch backflip seems the way to do it. There really is a sense that in manipulating the crowd and ensuring he gets so many of the big memorable moments that everyone would be talking about on their way home, he was playing chess and everyone else was playing checkers, though.

Anyway, this was definitely enjoyable. Saturski and Wentzel are Germans and I think what other footage exists of them is from Chicago where they were babyfaces as the Bavarian Boys. Saturski was an amazing stooge who started with square Ronnie Garvin hair that got more and more disheveled as he got more and more out of sorts as the match went on. I loved their control section, which raised stakes in a way you don't always see in these matches, as it centered around a kneeling neckbreaker submission that they kept switching off on, which finally lead to a flip over and the big transition of the match. Lots of fun celebratory and comedic spots with the heels stooging and the ref getting involved before and after the neckbreaker stretches. They did the double leglock/run over your opponents spot which was the highlight of the Corne/Brown tag from a week or two ago, and it's always fun to see a new spot repeated a couple of matches later. That validates the chronological approach we're taking. Here, Weicz milked it even more with double stomps as well. The finish was basically all Weicz as he out punched, out slicked, and ultimately hit a barrage of his flipping and headstand sentons before a tricked out bridge for the win.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going about 33 minutes. Amazingly enough, this is not the only footage we have of the Germans. There is also a US tag of them from 1963. They were working as heels in this though. It‘s their only French TV appearance we have right now, but apparently they did some pretty despicable things because the crowd was really hot for them getting the shit kicked out of them. We have lots of footage of workers pretending to be German, so seeing some actual Germans from this time period is a welcome change. This was a stooge-a-ton from the Germans, pretty much them going for shenanigans right out the gate and then just flying all over the ring for 30 minutes. Very reminiscent of the tags we‘ve seen from Germany and Austria with the comedic undertones and comical amounts of referee abusing. I imagine they ran this match with the roles reversed back in the German tournaments. Saturski & Wenzel briefly cranked up the intensity when they started using a nasty hanging neck crank on the faces. That was one of like 3 or 4 bits of offense they got in and they used it as well as they could. Carpentier is just flashy enough to be really fun in this kind match and there were some great receipt spots including one of the Polish guys using the Germans as a trampoline. Not a lot of depth but extremely entertaining and gives you a good idea of the atmosphere for these kind of crowd pleasing affairs.

Cheri Bibi vs. Gilbert Cesca 9/2/66

MD: This one was out there before but I don't think we ever covered it on the blog. Ten years of footage in, if there's any wrestler we're familiar with, it's got to be Cheri Bibi. You know how it's going to go with him. He'll start out congenial and jolly, as jolly as he gets at least, with handshakes and clean breaks and pats on the shoulder. He'll show some fine wrestling, maybe even with a float over to escape a hold (not here though), and some good counters leveraging his strength in a fair way to keep his opponent down. Then he'll get outwrestled one too many times and it'll flip like a switch and the battering and mauling will begin. He'll come in with high, low, high combos and headbutts and inside moves, chokes and rabbit punches and shots in the ropes and knees in the corner, and it'll escalate until the stylist is able to fire back. It was like clockwork here, with the biggest wrinkles being Cesca's creativity in his comeback and containment (spin kicks, pressing his feet off the ropes for a headlock takedown, bounding up to the ropes for a missile dropkick, turning Bibi around with a hammerlock to toss him into the corner) and the use of the large, former wrestler Mr. Marshall as a comedically countering force and oversized prop for comedy spots. There was a real sense that it was Cesca's cleverness and speed that let him get anything on Bibi at all, and even to damage the tank as the match went on. It'd take Bibi one grab of a leg or one cheapshot out of a break to take back over, very little in the grand scheme of things, and Cesca had to do a half dozen things to bruise him, but he didn't quit and he used every moment of advantage he could, and Marshall facing off against Bibi gave him a couple of extra. Bibi, as always, portrayed his small but deep range of emotion well, appealing to the crowd after a particularly nasty (but successful) shot and getting more and more frustrated and blatant as Cesca refused to stay down for a pin until he went too far and was DQed. Cesca wasn't satisfied by that and there was rousing post match violence where Cesca used a towel as an equalizer and then was swiping in every direction as he wanted blood on the floor. This was as straightforward as could be structurally but Bibi is a unique figure in pro wrestling history and Cesca was creative and fiery enough to make his consistency interesting.

SR: 1 fall match going about 25 minutes. This was an interesting pairing. Skill vs. brute force. Bibi played nice initially, allowing Cesca to show off his wrestling a bit, but this quickly turned into an absolute slugfest. Cesca did a fair amount of technical stuff, but also wasn't afraid to hit back hard, even punching Bibi in the face and busting out savate kicks. It was basically his way of bringing the heat without his partner Ben Chemoul doing it for him, and he looked pretty great doing it. Dug his punch combos in the corner. The match needed a bit more structure but the slugging it out was quite great. Bibi escalated things when he bitch slapped Cesca in the corner and then started throwing him over the top rope. It seemed to set up a dramatic finish but then Bibi got DQd. Cesca beat Bibis ass after the match, even choking him with a towel, and I wonder if this lead to a no holds barred match or something. Some great slugging in this match, anyways.

PAS: This was a fun style clash with Cesca working a Bibi match more than Bibi trying to hang with Cesca. I am into a fist fight and that is really what this was. Love Bibi getting shown up a bit at the beginning by Cesca's flash and just cutting him off with a barfight headbutt. Cesca to his credit is perfectly willing to wallow in Bib'i's mud, and gives as good as he gets with stiff shots. It did feel like a TV bout setting up a bigger arena match, as nothing was settled and you needed to see them run it back. 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Bollet! Wiecz! Rene Ben! Cesca! Lagache! N'boa!

Andre Bollet vs. Eddy Wiecz 9/21/65

MD: This is the finals of the Salon Cup, or at least it's for the cup, and it's primal and personal and violent and fun. There's a certain familiarity here that we don't usually get in the footage. It almost feels like a big blowoff match in a feud as opposed to the sporting match of the week, which is how it usually goes. There's a little bit of wrestling to start, with Wiecz able to hang on to holds or go right back into them and Bollet, as always, able to stooge his way right out of small, skillful victories in the most entertaining fashion possible. When it starts to pick up (with Bollet throwing the first blow), it never really settles back down. They're constantly abusing the ref whenever he tries to intervene and while he gives public warnings, he's suitably bullied by them and likely afraid to throw the whole thing out considering the importance of the match. Bollet will choke and grind and hammer, but then Wiecz will come back with just huge shots mixed in with a little bit of his athleticism, like the backflip off the top, or fun moments like catching Bollet's foot in the ropes and then tying the ref up too when he tried to stop him. They do a very good job of selling the attrition as the match goes on, with Wiecz flopping on shaky legs and Bollet needing to lean on his seconds or hang on to the ref. Ultimately it spills onto the floor and they have a last thundering exchange before Wiecz is to put him away definitively in the center of the ring. Just a real classic slugfest. If you told me this was the most watched and remembered French match-up of the 60s, I'd believe you.

PAS: I agree this felt like a classic. We have had better matches in this footage, but nothing which felt bigger. Bollet is a real thumper in this, landing hard big blows through out, Wiecz (who is Eduard Carpentier) has a much more theatrical striking style, big winging hooking blows, which really land, I also liked his Anderson Silva like push kicks. When they combined to wail away at each other it really built to something special. Wiecz tying Bollet's foot into the ropes and then tying up the ref was a nice bit of table setting business before they really unloaded on each other. I really liked Wiecz, flipping sentons, he got some real snap on them and they landed with some real chest compression. 

Rene Ben Chemoul/Gilbert Cesca vs. Pierre Lagache/N'boa Le Congalais 10/3/65

MD: What to even do with this tire fire? N'boa was Bob Elandon who we saw not too long ago as a real heatseeker. Now he's a savage from the Congo with a handler (a woman dubbed Franziska Von Biesen dressed like Kim Chee without the mask and with a whip). Elsewhere, he'd come out as N'boa the Snakeman with a giant python. So, basically Kamala, right? Most of us can watch Kamala matches, no problem. What makes this one different? It's the crowd. I don't think I've ever quite seen a French crowd like this, not with Bollet and Delaporte, not with Quasimodo, not with Von Kramer or Kaiser, not even with Elandon the last time we saw him. Likewise, as good as Cesca and Ben Chemoul were (and they're just a really great team), I've never seen the crowd so behind them, not against Bibi and Bernaert or the Black Diamonds or the Teddy Boys. While the commentator was going on about how, if N'boa lost, he'd be sent back to the jungle to live in his trees, this crowd wanted their countrymen to put the savage in his place more than I've ever seen them want anything. We're ten years in now, have seen so much, and it's the comparative view that damns this so thoroughly. What else to even say? The wrestling was very good?

PAS: I guess I am the counterpoint here, which isn't really a place I am comfortable being. I mean jungle savage gimmicks in wrestling are clearly racist, but in the spectrum N'boa wasn't Kamala level of subhuman, or even as racist as something like Crime Time. Between the ropes he basically worked like he worked as Bob Elandon, big hard hitter with some athletic stooging. Lagache played the role of the wrestling foil, and Cesca and Chemoul have their tag stuff as polished and down as any tag team ever. Racial heat is clearly a thing, from Puerto Rico vs. Mexico feuds, to the Caribbean Sunshine Boys to the Gangstas, and it did seem like an especially hot crowd, but the heels were also pretty great at cheapshotting and milking the crowd. I also don't think this was the hottest crowd we have seen, we saw people swing on Lio Pellicani and pelt Cheri Bibi with garbage.  I could enjoy this as a match, and while this wasn't the tip top level of some of the Cesca and Ben Chemoul stuff, it was in the mix.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Rene Ben! Cesca! Tejero! Zapata! Kramer! Dukan

Rene Ben Chemoul/Gilbert Cesca vs Anton Tejero/Pancho Zapata 7/18/65

MD: Incredibly entertaining 30 minutes here. This is one of those matches I'd feel good about showing people new to the style. By this point, Ben Chemoul and Cesca were a well oiled machine. I'll admit to Ben Chemoul's act getting a little old. They introduce a number of new spots but you still get a bunch you've seen a lot and a little of him can go a long way. Cesca is the perfect mix of style and substance, on the other hand. The first fall had a lot of quick tags by the stylists, lots of stooging and feeding by Zapata (our old friend La Barba) and Tejano. I'd say this was the first time we really saw quick shine-like tags to this degree in the chronological footage but we've been moving and more to heels utilizing ref distractions and that was in full force. While Zapata was a brilliant stooge and vicious when he had the opportunity, it was Tejano who was just incessant, constantly going for the eyes or body shots and making the ref move back and forth as they kept a corner onslaught going. They got real heat (and some trash thrown in) but the fans seemed like they were as entertained as anything else. The transitions felt almost luchaesque here, with tags not mattering so much when the heels were in control and things building to a moment of comeback, in this case a nice little spot with Ben Chemoul kicking his way out of a hanging backslide/punch double team. The third fall was full of big complicated spots including one that ended with stereo missile dropkicks which was probably as complex as anything we've seen. It ended on a high note and everyone went home happy (save for Zapata and Tejano at least).

PAS: These Chemoul/Cesca tags are uniformly excellent, they are Rock and Roll Expressish when in comes to consistent match quality. Zapata and Tejero are tremendous foils, they are listed from Mexico and they come off like an all time rudo tag team, eating all of the fancy Cesca and Chemoul ranas perfectly, tying themselves up into ropes and utter capitulating themselves over the top rope rope. Tejero is one of the great out of the ring bumpers ever, and Zapata matches him. I enjoyed how many different ways the technico squad could time up Zapata and Tejero in the ropes. I could have used a bit more drama in the final run to extend this match to the top tier of French Catch, but man was this fun stuff. 

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 30 minutes. Pancho Zapata, what a name. Apparently, he‘s Joachim la Barba, so it‘s nice to see him again. This was another French formula tag and one of the finest entries in the genre so far. At this point you have to ask if the South Americans are actually better than the French guys. They had no problem going along with all the technical moves, then looking despicable while kicking the French guys asses, and finally bumping like maniacs, stooging and getting their own asses kicked in a big way. And Ben Chemoul and Cesca are just really reliable workhorses. At one point it seems Chemoul got a small cut in his face and Tejero does some really nasty work trying to squeeze more blood out of him. Zapata looked subdued compared to his really violent 50s performances but he had some cool headbutts and the biggest bump of the match diving off the top into nothing, and later just suicide diving into a ringside table. I also dug the knee lifts to the back. Chemoul and Cesca looked great throwing punch combos in the second half. Double missile dropkick sequence was pretty insane. It ended a bit light hearted considering things seemed to get intense in the middle of this, but these matches are so straightforwardly fun and enjoyable that that is a very very minor nitpick.


Juan Botana vs Viarmeck Wizuk 7/25/65

MD: We lose the first ten minutes of this and get the last eight and a half and that's a shame, because what we get is pretty great. They just go at it here, Wizuk rugged and hard-hitting and good at playing to the crowd and Botana wild and stooging and relentless, able to sneak in a cheapshot from his knees to retake control again and again. This had the best leg nelson we've seen in forever, with Wizuk rolling around the ring and then really stretching with it. Botana had to bite to get out. They kept building to trading hard shots with one another, with Botana not at all afraid to bump big for Wizuk. It's a shame we don't have more of these two in the footage.    


Karl von Kramer vs Gass Dukan 7/25/65

MD: Von Kramer looked like the best wrestler in the world on this night. Doukhan was Israeli and according to the announcer, spent half the year in Tel Aviv and half in Paris. He's a natural opponent for Von Kramer, and he could both hang with the matwork and be fiery when necessary, while keeping a sharp patina of being an absolute sportsman (he wanted to shake hands at the start and at the end despite it all, and there was a lot of it). This was some brilliant stuff, with every exchange having one or two extra wrinkles, or really, just never stopping in its folding. There were wristlocks which just didn't stop. Von Kramer kept trying to roll through and Doukhan kept rolling through himself or rolling von Kramer back. Von Kramer had a dozen interesting ways to take a guy down and five or six interesting ways to grind him. They started the match with a series of front facelocks reversed into arm whips, until von Kramer turned the last reversal into a dragon sleeper which Doukhan used a knee shot to get out of. The entire match was like that. Von Kramer had some takedowns he went back to again and again, like a headlock with a knee to take Doukhan over or this inner reverse gutwrench especially, until late in the match, Doukhan jammed it with a backbreaker. Von Kramer stooged up and down for Doukhan and the fans loved every second of it, but he never lost his credibility. He stayed mostly stoic, selling the indignity of it, occasionally losing his cool (and it mattered all the more when he did due to the stoicism) but going right back to the attack. He was able to give a ton but able to get a credible takedown at any moment; the fans still ooh'ed when he locked in the nerve hold because they knew just how dangerous the guy was. You got the sense that the match wasn't heading to a clean finish because it would have been pretty bad form to put the German over clean, but he also felt like a mountain that Doukhan shouldn't entirely overcome, so it ended with Von Kramer really losing his cool and creatively choking the hell out of him in the ropes for the DQ and, of course, Doukhan getting his shots in post match. Von Kramer was really an exceptional pro wrestler and we're lucky to get to see him go all out with a game Israeli in 1965 France.

PAS: This wasn't the violent brawl you would expect from an Israeli versus a German with a Swastika on his robe in 1965. I mean Doukhan had to have lost family in the holocaust, I wanted this to be more Munich then gentleman's arm drag exchanges. They were really nice armdrags though I really liked how Doukhan would roll through and stay connected to throw an arm drag of his own. I really liked von Kramers contemptuous takeovers, he would toss him with real disdain. I did like how we got some really heated fighting at the end, with Doukhan taking some revenge for his people by choking out Von Kramer with a belt.

SR: 1 fall match going about 20 minutes. I am happy we get another Von Kramer singles match, and against a fun athletic technician like Doukhan nonetheless! This was a more WoS like match. Lots of fun technical wrestling, and unpredictable bumping from von Kramer. It was a bit light hearted considering this was an Israeli wrestler taking on an evil German guy, but Doukhan kept coming up with cool stuff you don‘t expect (even after seeing a lot of unexpected stuff in this footage) including a freakish lucha armdrag and it was a really good glimpse at what a typical night of work looked like for these guys. Kramer gets himself dq‘d in a lame ending but we get Doukhan throwing him around a bit after the match.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Rene Ben! Cesca! Teddy Boys! Leduc! Montourcy! von Kramer! Gastel!

Rene Ben Chemoul/Gilbert Cesca vs. Teddy Boys (Aldophe Sevre/Robert Le Boulch) 5/9/65

MD: I get that everything is high end at this point, but this still stood out more to me than it did to Sebastian. This has been out for a few years, but it's great to see it in context now that we know these guys better. Ben Chemoul and Cesca come off as one of the great tag teams of all time in the few appearances we have of them together, certainly one one of the most talented. Ben Chemoul had such verve and timing, such showmanship, working for the back row and the front row and everyone in between. He manages to do all three up and over variations off the top wristlock in a tag match at different points, and fills the match with little moments like throwing one of those no look spin kicks to a guy just hanging out on the apron. He fills the match with entertaining stuff while never losing the plot. Cesca's just as solid as they come, hard hitting especially when it's time to get revenge, sympathetic in selling, smooth in complex spots, quick with the dropkicks and 'ranas. They'd also share spots: Ben Chemoul would stooge le Boulch by turtling early and then Cesca would outsmart le Boulch when he himself tried to do it later. It all came together. The Teddy Boys were such an ideal heel unit too, with le Boulch an opportunist coward and Sevre having the hugest chip on his shoulder imaginable, though they could also switch those roles on a dime. Sevre hit hard and jawed well with the crowd while le Boulch spent a lot of his time shadowboxing. They were able to work around the ref to endlessly stomp: when the ref shoved Sevre, he'd come back and pat the ref on the shoulder. At one point, Sevre got knocked out on one of the bevy of catapult-into-partner spots in the match so he sat down in the front row while le Boulch recovered. He tried that again later and got into a fist fight with the crowd. The ending might have felt a little abrupt, but that was the general pacing of these things as much as them maybe wanting to move things to a finish before the crowd rioted, but over all, this was high end stuff to me.

SR: 2/3 falls match going a bit over 30 minutes. This was another French lightweight tag with all that exchanges. Plenty of quick exchanges. The Teddy Boys didn‘t move me as much as other heel tandems. I mean, they were really good at making the C‘s uppercuts look great and had some nice punches and stomps, but it‘s France everyone is a GOAT, you gotta bring a bit more than that. Chemoul and Cesca as usual just had endless stuff to do. I liked Chemouls punch combo, and Cesca busting out a spinning argentine backbreaker and a back elbow combo that was like something Misawa would do. Highlight of the match was the crowd getting unruly and the police stepping in. I am probably making this match sound worse than it was, it wasn‘t top tier French stuff but there was enough entertaining stuff happening and some sickeningly stiff blows that will easily make this the best match you watch this week.

Gilbert Leduc/Claude Montourcy vs. Karl von Kramer/Robert Gastel  5/26/65

MD: Unique presentation here. I know nothing of 1965 French demographics and geography (Puteaux is in the western suburbs of Paris but I'm not about to watch 1961's The Long Absence to get a sense of it), but this felt more provincial than what we're used to. The crowd was awesome though, as much of the star of the match as the four wrestlers, as good as they were. The sound was a little off here, and it's amazing we don't see this problem more often, so it anticipated the action a bit. This was (wisely, I imagine) mostly a crowd pleaser for some sort of cup. There were moments of heat throughout, but nothing prolonged until the second fall. Even those moments felt a little perilous. The crowd absolutely hated Kramer, who looked brilliant here. He had so many interesting ways of taking someone down or keeping a hold, and just threw cartwheels around like they were nothing. I was expecting endless nerve holds (which could be fine if the heat's there, and it would have been) but he went another way with things. He stooged, but only occasionally, so when he got caught in the ropes towards the end of the long first fall, the fans went absolutely nuts. He got taken out by a catapult over the top to end the first fall, never to return. 

A stretcher job mid-match was probably the safest way to get him out of there. LeDuc more or less gave us the usual greatest hits (the headstands, the leg nelson after seeing how badly the fans wanted Montourcy to whack Kramer in a cross arm breaker, etc) but they're all great. Montourcy had a few more interesting takedowns. Gastel let Kramer do most of the heavy lifting in the first fall, but turned on the heat after he got taken out, absolutely demolishing Montourcy with headbutts, bloodying him up before crushing him with a tombstone and basically taking him out of the match. The fans were furious here. The third fall, then was just Leduc getting revenge on Gastel before they moved into a slick finishing stretch including Gastel catching a Leduc cross body block (the block itself not being something we've seen much in the footage) and planting him with a tombstone, before Leduc came back with a flip up power bomb for the win and the huge pop. I don't know if I'd feel the same about this one in a different setting, but in front of this crowd, I thought it was great. I do sort of wish they had leaned harder into Kramer getting advantages though, but they may not have lived to the next day if they did.

SR: 2/3 falls match going a bit under 30 minutes. Hey look, it‘s Karl von Kramer. Haven‘t seen him in a while. Karl looked really good here with his freak bumping and unorthodox throws. For a hard nosed evil German, he also wasn‘t afraid to make a fool out of himself and get his chest hair torn out. The first fall of this was the usual mix of fun wrestling and rough heels tactics, with von Kramer stealing the show and Leduc and Montourcy being formidable technicians. Von Kramer takes a big bump to the outside and doesn‘t make it back after that, leading to Gastel being in a 2 on 1 situation so Gastel just goes crazy with headbutts on Montourcy, bloodying him and KO‘ing with a tombstone piledriver. This leads to the 3rd  fall in which both von Kramer and Montourcey are out and Gastel and Leduc slug it out in an epic Mantel/Lawler style battle. Really cool glimpse at Gastle living up to his name and being a violent bludgeoner who ends up with his opponents blood all over him, and when Leduc hits those double elbows he‘s like Lawler doing a punch combo. Really really good match with a pretty unique layout for French wrestling.

PAS: I love how this match moved from comedy, skill and stooging to really heavy violence. It is one of the hardest transitions in wrestling to nail, and this match nailed it. The heels were masterful here, Kramer is a heat seeking pinball, getting twisted up the ropes, getting his chest hair ripped out, flying for all of the headscissors and takedowns, and hitting these deep cool looking flip throws. He gets tossed out of the ring to the floor taking a big bump and getting sent to the back. We get a Stone Cold Gastel section where he obliterates Montourcy including a fair amount of blood which is pretty rare for this era. We then got a big showdown between Gastel and LeDuc, which was pretty epic. I didn't like LeDuc basically no-selling the tombstone, it was a move which won Gastel the second fall, and LeDuc jumps right back onto offense right after taking it. Still everything else about this match was at a super high level, and while that one spot kept it from MOTY status it was still a classic. 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Rene Ben! Cesca! Inca! Tejero! Delaporte! Pat O'Conner?

Rene Ben Chemoul/Gilbert Cesca vs. Inca Peruano/Anton Tejero 3/12/65 pt1, pt2

PAS: We reviewed this back in 2014. It's still great and I thought I would add some new thoughts. We all know now that Peruano, Cesca and Chemoul are all time greats, but Tejero is a guy we have seen much less of, but really impressed me here. He had so much energy, just a crazed frantic bump machine, he must have taken 20-25 bumps to the floor in this match, and flew around the ring like a dervish. I still think in context the match is an all timer, wild workrate tag with more frenetic action then you would see 20 years later. 

MD: Phil and Eric thought highly enough of this to make it the 65 MOTY but we know a lot more now. I thought we saw a tag in the last week or two which felt evolutionary in the structure. This did not, but it took so many of the fun comeuppance spots we've seen up until now and pushed them all forward. I don't think I've ever seen a match where so many people got tossed to the floor in new and interesting ways. While Cesca and Tejero were both very good here (and Cesca probably excellent with Tejero an ideal second banana stooge), Ben Chemoul and Peruano are just transcendent wrestlers. Peruano, by this point in his career (and we've been watching him for almost ten years now), made it look so easy. I've never seen someone that could bump into being tied up into the ropes from an awkward angle on a mule kick out of a hold reversal and make it look so natural. Most of his complex spots seem like they were worked out on the fly and that they were wholly organic. Obviously they weren't, but he's a singular figure in pro wrestling in making them seem so. Ben Chemoul is just electric and elastic. He bounds around the ring with this energy that you just can't look away from. And they both bring so many interesting and creative spots and sequences and ways to move around the ring. This had a couple of firsts, like the first time we've seen someone remove the protective covering in front of the post (Peruano did it and then paid for it) and one of the first double collisions which, in this case, led to a 10 count finish. It needed a little bit more heat, probably, though the swarming double teams and tandem attacks from Peruano and Tejero were almost enough to overcome that even in their relative sparsity. In general though, it was wild, heated chaos and constantly entertaining with two of the best stylized wrestlers of French Catch. It'll be curious to see if it holds up as we have over 20 matches for the year.

SR: 2/3 falls match going a bit over 30 minutes. We've had this before, it was an incredible discovery 7 years ago, and it's still pretty incredible even after watching a load of high end French pro wrestling. These tags were clearly turning into an artform at this point. We saw the Black Diamonds put a British touch on a while before, and now we get something more luchaesque thanks to Peruano and Tejero. That means lots of high end bumping and stooging, as well as violent rudo beatdowns, and plenty cool wrestling. The bumping was just insanely high end, just an effortless, tiredless exercise in flying all over the ring, through the ropes and sometimes upside down into a tie up. The beatdowns were pretty nasty and unpredictable with both Peruvians diving off the top, tying up their opponents, throwing rough knees and punches and being generally quite spectacular dickheads. There wasn't a ton of wrestling but what we got was slick and fast. Dug those hammerlocked backbreakers the Inca busted out. Chemoul and Cesca are impeccable both throwing out fast armdrags and then punching the rudos in the face when they had enough. The fast and beautiful wrestling exchanges add some depth and the escalation throughout the match, building to the faces throwing punches and the eventual brutal finish were great. Really, still an all timer of a match.

Yasu Yoguchi vs. Mathias Sanchez  3/14/65

MD: We get the last five minutes of this. Yoguchi may be Chati Yokouchi and if so we'll see him once more. He was in the face role here and I liked his chop and nervehold offense in a short setting. He worked well from underneath, sold well (including post-match) and the fans were into him. A lot of that was probably due to Sanchez being such a character. We'll never see him again, which is a shame. He was super emotive in the nerve hold and celebratory after smaller things. Just a real colorful jerk, the sort who got at least some stuff thrown at him. Five minutes and never to be seen again.

SR: JIP with about 4 minutes shown. Yoguchi likes to throw chops. Sanchez likes to throw fists. Super simple match, but there was a nasty bump where Sanchez threw Yoguchi over the ropes with the belly to belly and Yoguchi took the nasty apron bump. I enjoyed this.

Pat O‘Connor vs. Roger Delaporte 3/14/65

MD: In some ways this felt like one of the most rudimentary matches we've seen, barely even in the French style. Obviously, that's not going to be fully true since we had Delaporte in there, but O'Connor was all punches and forearms and the occasional ear grab, really. Delaporte controlled early with his fall-away armdrags where he controls the head. He does them differently than most people and I usually enjoy them, especially when he strikes them together like this. Whenever O'Connor started to get an advantage, he'd hesitate allowing Delaporte to go low and take back over. That led into an extended period of Delaporte working over the leg (after snatching a leg from behind after O'Connor turned to break clean) including a proto STF and those bouncing leg lunches off the ropes. This was also one of the first attempts we've seen of a heel outright using the rope for leverage by putting his own feet on it. Also, plenty of kicks and stomps. It wasn't until he tossed the ref away that O'Connor found his fire and started to hammer back. O'Connor was best when beating Delaporte around the ring, as his strikes were heavy (though the leg selling obviously went away) and he wasn't hesitating like before. There were a few typical but highly enjoyable spots of Delaporte flying into the crowd or begging off by hugging the ref, right down to overselling the airplane spin after the pin. There was nothing wrong with this but it lacked some of the flair that's become absolutely commonplace in these matches. Whether or not O'Connor was actually O'Connor, they treated him that way, between billing him as a world champion, having him win clean in the center against Delaporte, and then with the handshake and hand-raising after the match. It makes me wonder if they weren't trying to work the crowd.

SR: Match goes about 20 minutes. This was another case of The Roger Delaporte Show. It's no better or worse than other Delaporte matches you've seen, so whether or not you want to watch this depends on whether you are in the mood for it. Regardless, Delaporte was at his despicable best here, and Pat O'Connor didn't do much besides be a big lug who can hit nice uppercuts and punches. Regardless of the predictable nature of the bout I thought there some lots of great strike exchanges here. yes, yes, that's not a huge standout criteria among French matches... but I enjoyed the show.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Israel! Corne! Duranton! LeDuc! Black Diamonds! Cesca! Rene Ben!

Ischa Israel vs. Jean Corne 1/15/65

PAS: We have seen these two guy as a tag team before, and this was a pretty spectacular friendly match. Just two very skilled guys working at a fast intricate pace. It was an exhibition, there was never really a sense of escalation or narrative, but it was a really cool exhibition. It felt a lot like a faster version of a lucha maestros match, or a WOS match with out a heel. This was a really fast match, even when they slowed it down with a long knuckle lock section, they were constantly doing stuff, dropping down, beeling, trying to counter. Really nifty stuff. 

MD: Hell of a match. It only went 15 and didn't wear out its welcome, with a lot of the trappings you'd want at a speed that we've rarely seen in the chronological footage so far. There isn't a huge difference between the heavyweight and the middleweight footage we've seen so far. It's just that the middleweight stuff goes faster with a bit more rope running. Here there was another wrinkle, one that we probably wouldn't have noticed so well if we had cherry picked this match, an evolution of spot where they invert the expectations of what we've seen already. Corne will do the up and over to try to get out of an armbar or top wristlock, but instead of it working or Israel jamming him, he goes all the way over but the hold's maintained. Only on the third try when he makes it into a headscissors takeover, does it work. It was the same thing with the extended bodyscissors spot that they worked out of. We've seen some real elaboration before they reenter it, but this match had the most. A flip side to that is how commonplace some of the roll up exchanges were. There was one point mid-match where Israel caught Corne on a 'rana and turned it into a powerbomb that I knew he was going to bridge up and 'rana out. We've hit the point where that feels more novel than natural. Anyway, this had a bit of everything, with Corne taking more of an aggressor's role and Israel containing him more. There were some absolutely brilliant escapes, like Corne getting both Israel and the ref to look one way so he could sneak out the other, and Israel throwing some boots while in a short leg scissors that made Corne commit to blocking, which allowed Israel to sneak a short leg-scissors of his own on, forcing the break. It wasn't quite as smooth as the best of the stuff we'll see a few years down the line, but them just barely hitting some of it only made it feel all the more organic. Just good stuff all around with an exciting finish.

SR: 1 fall match going about 18 minutes. This was compared to Clive Myers vs. Steve Grey, and it felt like a good gateway match to the French style. It also felt extremely British, more so than the stylist matches we've seen so far. Of course these guys work super fast and with a real snap to even things like spinning out of an armlock. I really liked the bodyscissor sequence they did where the guy followed his advantage by following up with a bearhug. It builds very well to an exciting little ending run that has one guy taking a big bump to the outside and some great looking rope running. There was also an obscenely beautiful backslide. I thought the match wasn't as intense as previous classics we've seen, but that is a high high bar.

Robert Duranton vs. Gilbert LeDuc 1/15/65

MD: I don't thinks this really worked. Some of that was because it had to follow Israel vs Corne, but a big chunk was on Duranton. Occasionally, they'd run a big spot or sequence that was really good, like a highly kinetic series of hanging on to a Duranton chinlock over multiple escape attempts, but more often than not, he was pretty sluggish in there. He was always a body guy sort of heel and aping the Gorgeous George act was good for him, but given his natural deficiencies, he should have leaned even more into the act. He got heat. There was a great moment where some trash was making it into the ring and he picked up a piece and tossed it at LeDuc. I don't know if we're still hanging on to the 50s when he came up, but he tried to wrestle too much, when really, the crowd would have been happier with LeDuc doing the headstand escape out of a few holds and then pummeling Duranton. At one point, it was pretty obvious Duranton was just sucking wind in a hold which you never see in this footage. The valet was a great prop, but ill-used here as well, hanging out on the apron for no reason, interfering when he should have hung back and hanging back when he should have been interfering.

SR: 1 fall match going about 20 minute. Duranton is full on the goonish bodybuilder he was in that one Louis de Funes movie here. He still hard Firmin with him. This was very similiar to Duranton/Carpentier from a while back. Meaning it was good, but it stuck to Durantons formula. That means some hold for hold wrestling, then some tantrums and short kicks, and finally Firmin getting involved. Firmin angered the folks in attendance so much someone threw a chair at him (and it was a big wooden chair), and the ref had to calm things down by throwing Firmin over the rope in a funny spot. The match felt like a very good TV bout. Maybe it's due to Durantons experience from his US work, but it seemed everything lead to another in a very organic way. And Leduc is not the most charismatic guy in this kind of spectacle match, but he is really good at doing his thing.

PAS: I thought this was kind of the French Catch version of a solid but forgettable WCW Thunder match. We got to see Duranton strut and preen, got to see the master of the headspin do a couple of headspins, some shtick with the valet, and they took it home. It's like looking back at a match list and going "Chris Adams versus Super Calo? I wonder how that is" and the answer is "It was OK".

Abe Ginsberg/John Foley vs. Rene Ben Chemoul/Gilbert Cesca 2/28/65

MD: The blog covered this one years ago but seeing it in context makes a huge difference. This felt like the next evolution in French tag team wrestling. The Black Diamonds had a similar look, with beards and dark tights, would control in the corner, would switch when the ref was distracted, would do exchanges where they switched off by doubling up submissions in order to keep control on tags. The match would build towards them doing some sort of fairly elaborate double team, only for it to fail the second time and Ben Chemoul and Cesca to do their own version of it to the crowd's delight. My favorite of this was a double cross choke, but the tandem set up for a victory roll that finished both the second and third falls were the most impressive. Cesca was great as always but there's something transcendent about Ben Chemoul. He has an extra spring to how he moves, this almost elastic charisma where the laws of physics bend just a little as he winds up and recoils. Anyway, if they could just work out how to really make hot tags happen, they'd have something, but I feel like this successfully refined the frequent heat-and-revenge structure we saw in those Hayes and Hunter tags, for instance, and made it all just a little more focused.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going about 35 minutes. I was delighted to see Abe Ginsburg, a guy who had a sole appearance in one of my favourite WoS bouts, show up in a long French tag. This was quite the tour de force from the Black Diamonds. They had lots of heel shtick, double teams, cut off spots. Lots of original stuff, some amusing, like the weird 2 on 1 hanging move they did, some a bit odd, like how one guy kept falling off the top rope. I liked them most when they laid violent punches and forearms on their opponents and worked wringing holds. Chemoul and Cesca are slick as always here. Chemoul threw some great punch combos. Finish was downright ridiculous. Good match overall.

PAS: I think I liked this more on a second look then reading my review years ago. Just head over heels for the Black Diamonds, what a pair of classic asskicker heels. Constantly cutting off the ring with cool violent double teams, including a sitting tapitia where the partner unloads with uppercuts. Serious something To Infinity and Beyond should steal, their double cross armed choke was really cool too. When it came time to bump and put over the faces they were great too, both guys too some of the best monkey flip bumps I can remember seeing from our boy Rene Ben. Loved the finish with the victory roll which ended the second fall, getting countered with a doomsday device style dropkick. I had this as a GREAT match when I first reviewed it, but would happily bump it up to an EPIC now.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Rene Ben! Cesca! Bibi! Bernaert! Delaporte! Cowboy Jack!

Rene Ben Chemoul/Gilbert Cesca vs. Cheri Bibi/Pierre Bernaert 5/6/60

SR:2/3 falls match going about 35 minutes. This matchup is kind of the French Rock’n’Roll Express vs. Anderson Brothers where you know exactly what you are getting. The predictable layout was that the Chemoul/Cesca tandem were the far superior wrestlers, so Bibi and Bernaert had to even the score by being absolute pricks. That could get tedious in such a long match, but I thought Bernaert and Bibi kept this interesting simply by continously escalating the beatings. It started with something like a forearm to the back of the head and by the end they were stomping the shit out of their opponents. Loved that big swinging bodyslam from Bibi, who may have carried the heel side. Needless to say, Chemoul and Cesca were incredibly slick. This was going along until the 3rd fall which got pretty crazy with Chemoul busting out something resembling a springboard dropkick and multiple double stamp where he planted guys hard.

MD: Fairly exceptional, if by the books, tag. The books are the books for a reason. As best as I can tell, this was out there but it was the 80s version with clipping and cut outs to a "modern" crowd watching in color and making comments. This longer version went over around 40 minutes and a few things will stick with you. This is the best Bibi and Bernaert have looked as a unit. I'm not saying I ever dreaded seeing him, but in the early Bibi appearances we had, it was much more about seeing how his opponent dealt with him and his limitations. In this setting, he shined as a bullying, mean-mugging spoiler, cutting off the ring and laying in some really nasty offense. He'd really pinball and opponent back and forth, either into the ropes or into Bernaert. Their cheating was more subtle and refined than a lot of what we've seen so far from the footage. The rest of the story was Ben Chemoul though. I know our invisible fourth, OJ, has gone deeper into the footage and has been sort of disappointed by Ben Chemoul based on his rep, but he was absolutely electric here. High energy. So much of these tags are about the big babyface revenge spots and he made them sing. At one point, he did this leap to the top followed by a twist and a tight missile dropkick which would be an awe-inspiring spot even today. All the while, he was able to balance it with that full body selling that really got across the toil of the match. I'm sure the clipped version of this was fine but the full match was excellent and you should check it out even if you'd seen the existing version previously.

PAS: Really cool stuff, Sebastian compared it to R+Rs versus Andersons, but it had way more modern offense (despite being 25 years earlier). I loved all of the hammerlock stuff with Bibi and Pierre locking in nasty hammerlocks and Cesca trying to flip his way out and failing. Very cool way to control the opening of a match. Both heels took big nasty bumps into the ropes with Bernaert getting hung by the neck as Rene Ben ran the ropes to jar him. That Chemoul top rope dropkick was awesome stuff, it felt like something you would see from a Fenix or Ricochet level flier today. An exciting babyface tag team against a pair of brutish heels, just pro-wrestling at it's finest.

Roger Delaporte vs. Cowboy Jack Bence 5/26/60

SR:2/3 falls match going about 35 minutes. Cowboy Jack Bence was a US worker who toured the globe. I don’t know if my eyes were playing tricks on me but he looked like he had ridiculously long legs and almost no upper body, like he was 3/4ths legs. We have talked about how ahead of their time the French workers were, but looking at Jack Bence here reinforces how little we actually know about what pre-80s wrestling anywhere looked like. He had no problem doing some really athletic shit, including the bridge up that I thought only European workers and certain joshi wrestlers did, and at one point he fucking backflipped out of an attempted leg trip. Bence looked quite the top flight worker here and knowing guys like him that I never even heard of before this project were this good just makes me think the greatest match of all time happened somewhere between 1950 and 1970 and had no chance of ever being taped. Delaporte was at the top of his usual underhaded, stooging game and they had quite a great old school match. Bence had really fast throws and I loved all the complex control segments through wristlocks where Bence would grab a fast takedown in the middle of an exchange. Delaporte finally got the upper hand when he was able to twist up Bences leg in the ropes badly. That usually led to a quick finish in past Delaporte matches but In this case we got this great extended selling performance from Bence building to his triumphant comeback where he near twisted Delaportes leg off in return. Seeing so many French babyfaces blow off limbwork made this feel like a distinctly American touch. After that Andre Bollet in a suit came into the ring looking to have a go at Bence and ended up getting thrown around and taking an awesome bump to the crowds delight, with Delaporte forfeitting the 3rd fall seconds later. If this was Jack Bences TV debut it was enviable as he got to look like a million bucks taking out a top heel and setting up a match with another. 

MD: This is our only look at Bence and he's got sort of a babyface Dick Murdoch (to balance Gastel's heel version) vibe to him. Maybe in another setting he'd be a heel, but it's hard to be a heel against Delaporte with his cowardice and whining and dangerous, dangerous cheapshots and advantage-taking. Bence's selling was fairly excellent throughout. I'm not sure if it's because he came from a different school of wrestling than most of those that we've been seeing, but he was good at letting the effects of Delaporte's offense linger for a bit, and, of course, for the long-term selling of the leg mid-match, especially when he went back on offense. While that faded later on, it came back to lead into the finish and there's no way that would have worked so well if he didn't put the time and effort into it. He wasn't always the smoothest when it came to some of his holds and escapes, and I think his ambition outweighed his ability, but it all sort of worked in a gritty, competitive way. There was a rustic charm to his stumbles, a yee-haw fortune seeking Amerian bootstrap ambition, maybe? Delaporte didn't surprise here, but he did delight. I'm not sure I can name a wrestler better at begging off in the corner; just amazing facial expressions as he portrays fear, pain, or pig-headed viciousness.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Robin! Rene Ben! Cesca! Saulnier! Marconville!

Guy Robin vs Al Araujo 11/27/59

MD: This show was out there but I don't think we've covered it. It's our last look at a personal favorite of this footage in Guy Robin. He didn't disappoint. Robin's constant motion in his matches, one of the most hyper wrestlers I can think of. He's always sneaking a shot in (especially a kneedrop to the throat), always arguing with the ref or the crowd, always stooging back. Pure entertainment, this guy. Araujo, who we've only seen briefly and won't see again, had this great rolling leg pick takedown, a really fun seesaw leverage submission that's hard to explain and which he turned into a catapult late in the match, and a cavernaria. He was working from underneath for a lot of this though. I'm glad that my last image of Robin is going to be him missing a knee drop off the rope and getting DQed for having a violent hissy fit over it as people throw trash at him. That's probably how he'd want to go out.

Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Gilbert Cesca 11/27/59

MD: This was out before, but no one who had watched it previously could compare it to the Arroyo vs Chaisne match from a week prior, and that is 100% the natural point of comparison. Both are stylist vs stylist. Both go about 30 minutes. The match from the week before was more clever in its spots and escalated to something that was harder hitting, but this one might have had a bit more energy and verve at times, with a few more spectacular spots and dives. Both Cesca and Ben Chemoul wiped out big at times. Ben Chemoul went sailing through the ropes to nowhere to start the last third of the match. Before that, they worked long hold sequences with frequent escape attempts (including an absolutely beautiful flying entrance into a short arm scissors from a top wristlock that I had to go back and watch three times). After that, the match really took off with some great back focus by Cesca and subsequent revenge by Ben Chemoul. The end sequence, likewise, had Cesca totally wipe out and clothesline himself on the bottom rope. Post match, Ben Chemoul talked up Cesca and the fans were very appreciative of what they just saw.

PAS: Man was this great. This wasn't at the level of Cesca vs. Cantanzarro, but it was in the neighborhood. I imagine if this was the first French singles to show up, it would have achieved a similar level of acclaim. Some of the counters and twists and turns were as cool here as anything we have seen. Cesca had some really nastiness to his attack, grinding the spine with his knuckles in a way which felt a little past the congenial level of the rest of the match. This also had two of the crazier bumps in all of the footage. Chemoul takes a bump to the floor which was functionally a tope to nowhere, and Cesca massacres himself on the bottom rope before getting pinned. These guys show up later as a cool tag team, but it is awesome we get to see them matched up in a top flight singles match. 

Cheri Bibi/Pierre Bernaert vs. Warnia de Zarzecki/Ami Sola 12/11/59

MD: We get about 11 minutes that constitutes the last fall of this match. It gives us a concise unit with a lot of action up front as de Zarzecki and Sola make quick tags and beat on the heels. Best spot in this was Bibi shrugging off a Sola dropkick only to miss a charge and go diving through the ropes and eat a bunch of dropkicks (with Bernaert eating them as well) after he made it back in. I like Bibi more in these last few appearances than in the early ones. I don't know if he's gotten better of I've just gotten more used to him. He's just a bruiser and a goon, but he has a pretty good sense of when to give and when not to. At one point, Zarzecki tried to slip behind into a hammerlock from a headlock, and Bibi just jammed him and fell backwards with a quasi-German. Despite that, he was still able to work the style and hit an up and over headscissors out of a top wristlock. He was also a looming presence with his ever-present grin and a lot of bits of interference from the outside, especially on pins. Bernaert was a cheapshot artist as always, and he and Bibi made a good unit. We'll see them again. Zarzecki seemed off once or twice but hit more than he missed, including a giant swing, and catapulting Bernaert into Bibi in the corner. Sola didn't get to do his 'rana in this fall, but he had great strikes and maybe the first 10-count punch in the corner we've seen (which in this case was just three nasty elbows but you get the idea). He also did a tombstone which seems more prolific as a move at this point than it was half a year prior. Good stuff but we miss something for not having the whole match.

Michel Saulnier vs. Jo Marconville 12/11/59

MD: It's our first chronological look at Saulnier, trainer of Petit Prince and Andre and just an excellent junior all around. It's our last match of the 50s. This feels a little transitional. I don't know if that'll play out in 60, but this match felt like an evolutionary step from French juniors wrestling being the same as the heavyweight style, just quicker, to having more of the complex spots and acrobatic flourishes we'd see later into the century. Little things chained together that we hadn't really seen earlier like following up a monkey flip with an immediate dropkick or some new bits of athleticism like Saulner's victory roll late or one of his up and over escapes having a few extra bits of mid-air hooking and turning. He was a little clunky about 10% of the time, but what he hit made it worth it and his selling, which really stood out in the era, absolutely made you look past it. There was definitely a sense of general damage and weight as the match went on. Marconville more than kept up with him but he was forced into the role of base, whether he wanted it or not, just by Saulnier's skill. It would take him three kip ups to get out of a hold (normal for the era) and Saulnier just one. Occasionally he'd get frustrated and a little violent or tease something untoward, but he never dipped far in that direction. When he got a solid advantage, he might show largess with a handshake. It all came off as very human given the situation. Good match but it felt more a preview of what was to come than anything else.

PAS:  This was full of feats of skill, but never really came together as a match, kind of like a neat Nitro match which didn't come together but had three cool Super Calo things. Saulnier was slick as seal shit in here, flying all around the ring, constantly looking for headscissors and victory rolls. The only thing which will stand the test of time here, was the finish with Saulnier kipping up directly into a vicious headbutt for the win. Totally awesome spot, and something that an indy wrestler should totally jack. We have seen and assuredly will see better Saulnier and this was a nice tease. 

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Gilbert Cesca doesn't get a Chance to take a Break this Often

Gilbert Cesca/Ben Chemoil v. Anton Tejero/Inca Peruano 3/12/65-EPIC

PAS: Just an absolute classic. Much more of a freaky lucha hybrid match then the Black Diamonds tag. The opening armdrag and rana exchanges looked like they were being shown in fast forward. Tererot and Anou, who the announcer called the Peruvians were an awesome heel team. They were great at mixing nasty violent double teams with great stooging. That balance is one of the hardest things to pull off, Daniel Stern was great at slipping on toy cars, but you never believed he was going to murder Macauley Culkin. The Peruvians would flip the switch from comic foil to violent bastards. There is a great spot where they tie Chemoil in the ropes and just mug him, beating on him with punches, flying off the top rope, all of a sudden it turns into a gang beating. They were both crazy bumpers too, flying insanely over the top rope on multiple occasions and getting thrown into a Cactus Jack hangman bump and Andre rope tie up. Cesca really feels like Truffaut Rey Mysterio. Just a tiny guy who moves at a breakneck pace and throws lunatic ranas and armdrags. Finish was great too, with one of the most credible looking double KO spots I have ever seen. Spectacular tag match, so happy this showed up

ER: WOW. My brain still isn't processing how this kind of thing is possible. Before the 80s project I had kind of a vague assumption that pre-1985 wrestling would be mostly headlocks, crowd work and punch exchanges (you know, but in a bad way). The more wrestling I watched obviously that notion got blown out of the water, but that concept of every pre-80s wrestler lying around like Dory Funk still lingered in my brain. Just slow motion forearm exchanges and endless headlocks. But then something like this existed 50 years ago and suddenly everything and anything is possible. There's so much amazing stuff to see here that my jaw was literally dropped in amazement for most of it. So many cool little moves you've never seen, and moves you've seen for years delivered in ways you've never seen. I loved Chemoil's kip up fluidly transitioned into a drop toe hold. I loved seeing honest to god actual engaging Malenko/Guerrero roll up sequences. The death knoll on those things happened sometime around Torrie Wilson doing them, and here they are done as actual believable pinfalls. You can actually see the leverage being applied, see how the legs are holding down the arms, see how a guy could get flipped and rolled over. It's done in a way that doesn't seem cooperative, and it's just mind blowing. These guys all work so fast that I can't imagine many people having the gas tank to keep up this workrate. And this is France in the '60s! So you know earlier in the day for lunch they had a whole baguette, full bottle of cabernet and a block of rich creamy cheese, then spent the rest of the afternoon until the match smoking hand-rolled cigarettes. You also get all these fascinating juxtapositions, like a man taking a mammoth high speed bump over the top to the floor, while a slender man with crossed legs and a tight turtleneck sits emotionless in the front row smoking a pipe. It's like some absurd Jacques Tati romp. Everything about this is spectacular, eye opening, and amazing. A true gift for wrestling fans.

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Like the Legend of Gilbert Cesca All Ends With Beginnings

Gilbert Cesca/Ben Chemoil v. The Black Diamonds (Abe Ginsberg/John Foley) 2/28/65-GREAT

Not a classic like our previous Cesca match, and this was worked as more of a traditional tag match. Diamonds are a british tag team and they are both pretty amusing stooging heels. Cesca is really athletic and there are some moments where he is really flying around the ring. There were a couple of really nasty uses of forearm smashes, one where Ginsberg puts Chemoli in a surfboard where Foley tags in and rips him with forearms. Both teams had some really nasty forearm exchanges too. Most of the match had the Diamonds pratfalling, and I could have used a couple of more examples of real menace and violence from them. Very enjoyable match, and fun to see what tag wrestling looked like back then.

La Complète et Exacte French Catch

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THE MOTHERFUCKING INTERNET: 60's Lutte Libre- Gilbert Cesca v. Billy Catanzarro

This is a new feature on Segunda Caida where we take a road trip down the information superhighway and find weird and awesome wrestling matches that we would never get to see without the wonders of the World Wide Web.

Gilbert Cesca v. Billy Catanzarro

PAS: Some awesome guy is uploading 60's French Wrestling and this match is legitimately spectacular. I feel like I am being a little hyperbolic, but on first watch this felt on the level of an all time classic professional wrestling match, like Cesca v. Catanzarro needs to be in the conversation with Flair v. Steamboat or Dandy v. Casas or Tenryu v. Hansen. Thanks to an info video I can tell which guy is which, I can't promise the same in future New Wave Wrestling reviews. The first 12 minutes of the match was matwork and exchanges. It felt like a combination of lucha and british wrestling, it was really fast and really intricate. One of the really unique things was they way they locked up, it was kind of mix of a collar and elbow tie up and a knuckle lock, and they both had a ton of really interesting ways to work out of it. Catanzarro was the first to mix it up, as he counters a wristlock by flipping over and blasting Cesca with a really stiff forearm, he then quickly hit almost a snap ganzo bomb for the first big throw. The match was worked like that, mostly slick counters, ranas and monkey flips, with an occasional explosion. So much cool matwork, including the Santo spinning headscissors spot by Catanzarro, which gets countered into almost an Indian deathlock. By the end of the match fraternité has broken down and they are on their knees blasting each other with really stiff forearms, it had a real Lawler v. Mantell, exhausted brawl feel. Cesca is also hitting these great half pounce half topes off the ropes where he is just running full speed and smashing his head into the side of his opponents face. FInish was really great Cesca is viciously wrenching a hammer lock, with Catanzarro attempting multiple cool counters which are cut off, until he is finally able to flip over and land in almost a flash pin postion. I am excited to watch everything on this guys channel, because if the rest is even half this good this will be a goldmine of Black Terry Jr. proportions.

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