Tuesday is French Catch Day: Mantopolous! Lemagouroux! Weicz! Delaporte!

Vassilios Mantopolous vs Gilbert Lemagouroux 1/24/65

MD: As we're just on our last run (that we know of at least) of matches here, I love to look at the presentation and some of the cultural bits, even if they are still alien to me. This was another studio show. Here we have an announcement up from that conditionally, as it had not been confirmed, François Bonlieu, French alpine skier and gold medalist in the 1964 Winter Games, was going professional and would compete at the Professional Championships in the US. 

Bollet (introduced as a grand poet) was there and just nodded a long as they discussed the matches for the night. Starting with the lightweights (which were heavier than in boxing since the heavyweights were heavier). Lemagouroux was the champion of Brittany and Mantopolous the champion of Greece. When the fans got up for Mantopolous mid-match the commentary noted that this was France appreciating its Greek roots and applauding the legacy that Homer bestowed upon them. Funny stuff.

SR: Really good match. Part of me is just happy to see some wrestling after that travesty with the bull, but this was genuinely very good. I expected poor Gilbert, who didn't stand out in a big way in the tags we've seen him in, to be completely run over by Mantopolous, but he stood his ground and actually dominated quite a bit. Gilbert is really solid, goes along really well with Mantopolous stuff, really liked the ways in which he'd just yank Mantopolous down by a wrist or armlock. This was in front of a big curtain, like a theater, and it made me wonder if it was another studio match kinda deal. We don't see the audience, but we hear lots of applause, and the match was worked so simple that anyone can understand it. Textbook stuff kinda. There was a segment where Gilbert kept his opponent in a headlock, always resorting to hair pulls to maintain control, not something we've seen a ton of but it was really well done. And Mantopolous is always impeccable, really explosive and spectacular when it's time to make an escape. His flying headiscissors were just weep-inducingly beautiful. In the end Gilbert didn't stand a big chance but they topped it of with a perfect sequence. It's weird this kinda stuff doesn't stand out in a huge way in the grand scheme of French Catch but in another universe it's  like the best studio TV match ever. I'd part hard pressed to think of anything better to teach a new audience about the magic of Catch.

MD: I agree with Sebastian here. This is just perfect Intro-to-Catch, at least the lightweight style. As accessible as some of those shorter Prince vs Noced/Richard touring type matches. Like those, you could pull out any number of gifs such a Mantopolous getting out of a hamerlock by going not just up and over but through the legs to turn it into a roll up, or even the way he'd go up for a dropkick but do a headscissors takeover instead, or the multiple kip ups when he was armbarred before he escaped out of it, or the way he'd step up on Gilbert's leg to vault up and over him, and I can go on and on. But what made it all work was that he had to struggle for each of those escapes, that Gilbert sold them with frustration and meanness, coming back with enraged kicks and stomps, and that each and every one was built to in its own way. That's part of why this is perfect to show, because you see all the exclamation points, but also the meaningful, direct sentences that led to them. Just beautiful, beautiful wrestling all around.

Eddy Weicz vs Roger Delaporte

MD: Pre-show they had talked up Weicz as world champion and acknowledged as such by both Americans and Europeans. Carpentier is amazing. My appreciation has only grown and grown. He is a star. He always presented himself on TV better than his peers and this show gave him even more opportunity to do so. Maybe it doesn't always make for the best matches, but I always come out impressed by his savvy. He's always punctuating things, always getting an extra shot in, always standing up to the ref and his opponents. he has that underlying element of being a bully that fans love. Post match, when Bollet is checking on Delaporte, he dropkicks him for no reason and then hits a spin kick on the ref and the fans love it because of course they do. He's always reaching, always engaged, always putting an extra flourish on things. 

And maybe there's even an extra level of construction to the spots. If this was Delaporte vs Leduc they'd build to the toupie headscissors takeover by making Leduc really work for it. Here they do that (to a lesser degree) but then do a spot where Carpentier pumps it repeatedly and then one where Delaporte holds on to the ropes so he doesn't go over until he finally gets his comeuppance. I really do get the sense he was decades ahead of his peers in some ways and that's why his act transferred so well.

And of course, Delaporte is one of the great villains of the 20th century because he sells everything. He sells the indignity of life at every point. There's a moment towards the end where he tries for (another) cheapshot, Carpentier moves due to the crowd warning him, and then, just because he couldn't get his cheapshot, Delaporte has a fit. And it's awesome. It's selling the emotional blow of it all. That obviously resonated with both me and Sebastian as you'll read below. They'd do these bits where Carpentier would get the better of him repeatedly and he'd just lose his cool and start choking him. It was a moral victory for Carpentier even if it was Delaporte leaning down on him. And then when they got slugging, he was just so good at it. He's sort of unassuming at first and doesn't do the flashy things (even though he can) but what he does do he was as good at anyone doing, and as I said, this was just a perfect setting for these two.

SR: Well, maybe this is the perfect studio wrestling. Great mix of wrestling and bullshit. Wiecz is in a ridiculous striped shirt. Delaporte goes after him at the bell, and now the crowd seems indeed to know what's going on so maybe they aren't that unfamiliar with wrestling. Wiecz literally flips off Delaporte, cartwheels around him a bunch, does a weird hip shake, and Delaporte scurries for the hills, only to immediately try a dirty takedown through the ropes. Awesome stuff. They just keep going like this, always doing a little something to keep things engaging along with the wrestling, which is mostly Delaportes basic holds vs Wiecz more athletic stuff. A bitch slap here, a little kick in the taint there, some pretty hard looking knuckle punches etc. I love the crowd engagement. When Delaporte even tries to grab the ropes for the slightest advantage, they are immediately in on his case, alerting the referee. Later, Delaporte tries to sneak up on Carpentier from behind, but the crowd alerts him in time, allowing Carpentier to evade the assault. Of course, Delaporte cusses them out for that. Is it really such a surprise the fans were super engaged, when they could so vividly observe their engagement have an immediate effect on what happens in a match? That's what sets wrestling apart from movies and theater. You can shout at the movie all you want, the murder is still gonna happen. Not in wrestling though, you can participate. That kinda stuff is pretty much absent from modern TV matches where every move is carefully choreographed and there's little room for interactions like that. Maybe having every match go 20 minutes to allow for stuff like this really is the way to go. The finish here is cartoonishly violent as Wiecz puts the Inoki-style falling indian deathlock on Delaporte but instead of falling next to him he drops his bodyweight onto him, squashing poor Delaporte to a smear as is his rightfully comeuppance. After the match Bollet also comes in in a suit and gets a savate kick too for his troubles. Way too fun.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Mantopolous! Israel! Catanzaro! Lemagourou!

Vassilios Mantopolous/Ischa Israel vs Billy Catanzaro/Gilbert Lemagourou 6/19/66

MD:  This was part of "Télé Dimanche", which was a popular variety show, and it took place in the show's studio. There's a white backdrop behind them and the crowd is all facing them from one side. There's a musical artist (Johnny Hallyday) sitting in on commentary at times and, interestingly enough, Catanzaro's wife and two kids were there as well. They ask her questions now and again but she doesn't seem particularly bothered or interested in any of this, even when he's getting routed. She's used to it. She does note he's also a delivery driver and does weight training every Thursday. His kids don't seem to think he'll win. Considering how often we've seen the stylist win these matches (most of the time really) that doesn't surprise me.

It's a fun setting and there's maybe a slight but only slight exhibition-y feel to it. In general you get the real deal and in 1966 I'm not sure if there were two wrestlers as good in the world as Mantopolous and Catanzaro. It's a welcome blast just seeing Mantopolous scrunch down as he entered the ring before pouncing forth and Catanzaro met him in kind. They did so many acts, so many bits, all sorts of little moments of trickery where Mantopolous would draw him in. It's not just that some of the bits are things I'd never seen before, but it's that they perform it so well. Mantopolous ties up Lemagourou towards the end and while Catanzaro breaks it up, it was the most believable I've ever seen the spot done. Likewise some of the Lady in the Lake bits. 

Lemagourou played his part well, a bit more of an oaf or a stooge. The straight man to Catanzaro's inflamed and put upon character actor. He'll walk right into Mantopololus' traps (or Israel's European Uppercuts) while Catanzaro charges into them, though he was also more apt to take big bumps over the top (including right into the judges which everyone loved). And Israel did well too, hitting hard when it was his turn and getting swept under by illegal doubleteams by the heels, though he was overshadowed by Mantopolous, but then most people would be.

There was real familiarity between Mantopolous and Catanzaro which let them do the bit at the end of the first fall where Catanzaro hit a tombstone position press-up facebuster only for Mantanpolous to reverse the second attempt for a tombstone or when Catanzaro hit his spinout backbreakers twice on Israel only for Israel to tag out and Mantopolous to hit Robinson and Conjuro backbreakers. There was once or twice where things seemed to get off the rails just a bit, but in general, this was meant to entertain and it absolutely did.

SR: Well, it's another 25 minutes of pretty amazing popcorn wrestling from maybe the most reliable crew in all of wrestling when it comes to this stuff. Seeing all these guys again so suddenly after we only got a few glimpses at them a few years ago is kind of a crazy occurrance. But here they are, doing their thing. They probably had this match like 500 times, that's how seamless and never lost they go about their wrestling. This had a cool setup being in a TV studio with a white background, tall referee in a smoking, you just can't have this stuff anymore. This had the typical formula, lots shine from your technicos, some rough moves from the heels, an absolute crap ton of sometimes comedic stooging and bumping to entertain the audience. You get the sense that this was probably a deliberate kind of TV psychology, give the audience something joyful to have a romp with. 

And these guys have endless shit they can do to fill the 25 minutes time. Mantopoulos with his endless bag of George Kidd style tricks, and Catanzaro and Lemagourou with their stooging, bumping and muggig. Catanzaro actually did some brief work reminiscent of his classic with Gilbert Cesca and it was cool to see that he could still do the crazy bridging. You can tell he lived this shit, both the classy gymnastic wrestling and the part when it was time to grab someone by the hair and stomp on their face. Mantopoulos is always made to look nigh invulnerable in these matches and its doesn't annoy me because he is so convincing, amazing how he still appears to treat the match a 100% serious with his body language, he never turns into a grinning clown like some of the british technicians will. I dug Israel as the more straight forward counterpart of Vasilios, he had this really great wrist takedown at one point and threw a sneaky punch that looked great. As far as the wrestling goes there wasn't a ton that we haven't seen in other French tags, but there was one piledriver sequence that was really crazy, and the stuff that lead into the finish was downright insane. 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Le Bete Humaine~! Catanzaro~!Lemagourou~! Sanniez~! Remy~!

Jacky Montalier vs La Bete Humaine 2/8/71

MD: Young Jacky Montalier had a few things going for him. He really laid in his shots. He had any number of holds mastered and could hang on to them when needed. He had a cheering section of young ladies in the audience in a way we hadn't really seen. He even had a cool jacket with JAKY on the back (no C). Unfortunately, he was up against Willy the Shepherd, recently from Texas, also known as the deranged masked creature, La Bete Humaine, the human beast. We've seen pretty out there characters: Quasimodo, multiple headsmen, a hippy, a cannibal, even the Martian on the outside, but this might be the strangest. I had rushed this one out a couple of years ago and I called him a cross between Tom Magee, the Missing Link, and the Ultimate Warrior, and I'm still sort of feeling that. La Bete, despite being huge, could do a lot of the more athletic stuff you'd expect: leap to the top rope, hit ranas, do the over the top backflip out of a cravat, hit lunging dropkicks. And he was certainly full of out of control antics: pulling the ref's shirt off or tossing him over the top, tossing Montalier out repeatedly, tossing a fan over the top post-match. Mainly he liked to toss people out of the ring. So there was some skill here and Montalier tried to stay in it, but one thing La Bete didn't like doing a whole lot was sell, and that made this a few minutes of real curiosity and awe, and a lot more of awkward gawking at whatever the heck they were trying to accomplish in there.

Billy Catanzaro/Gilbert Lemagourou vs Albert Sanniez/Bob Remy 3/12/71

MD: Kind of amazed we haven't already done this one. Sanniez is someone I'm really looking forward to as we still have a half dozen matches with him remaining and he's been great so far. Lemagourou was a solid stooge here, hitting hard when in control and taking everything with enthusiasm, but it's impossible to stand next to the dynamo of energy that was Catanzaro. He just swallows up all the air around him, like a Jim Breaks on speed. He complained about every shot he took, only to run right into the next. He took every advantage like it was the most natural thing in the world. He fed every spot. He'd eat a dropkick right in the face, but not until scrambling around like a madman for positioning first. When they took over around the middle of the match, they controlled the ring well, drawing in their opponent and distracting the ref and put on a very credible beating. Catanzaro's tombstone set up facebuster and then the tombstone itself led the commentator to speak about crushed vertebrae, which is always what you're looking for in such a move. This never reached the level of the most insanely quick lightweight tags of this era, but they did pick up the pace well and then made things resonate with the character work so it was a good balance. Sanniez had some great escapes but Remy was able to hold his own too. I think we have one Catanzaro match left to go in 72.

PAS: Cantanzaro really has the feel of a guy, that if we had five more matches we could make a top 20 of all time argument. He has the Cesca classic, nothing for over a decade and then a couple of tags where he is working as a manic athletic heel and he is just mesmerizing. In perfect position for every big spot, bumping feeding heeling. Everyone else was good in this too, but man what a talent. 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: BILLY CATANZARO! Duranton! Chaisne! Le Magorou! Mantopoulos! Louis!

 Michel Saulnier vs. Jetty Coster 06/03/60

SR: JIP match where get the last 8 minutes of a time limit draw. Jetty Coster, what a name. Saulnier was young and lean at 24 years old. Coster was bigger, but Saulnier was relentless and seemed to be tiring him out. Some quite amazing fast moving sequences here, including Saulnier backflipping and then popping up with a headbutt, and some neat pin attempts. This about served the point of being a fun scientific wrestling exhibition while folks sat there waiting to throw cigarettes at Robert Duranton.

MD: We get around 8 minutes of this. They'd already gone 22 or so. It's good action with a clever callback or two even in what we have. There's were a couple of great bursts of speed and complex spots, including Saulnier hitting a leap up to a victor roll though he had to grab the rope to do so. My favorite bit was a little later when Coster dodged another Victory roll but sort of shifting himself between the raindrops so Saulnier had nothing to hang on to. I've never quite seen that before. Otherwise, this could have used a little bit more focus. As it went towards the time-limit draw, there was a little bit of escalation with forearms but it was mostly Saulnier containing Coster by hanging onto an arm. This was our first look at Coster and he definitely hung with and based for Saulnier. We won't see him again so that's going to be my only impression of him.

Robert Duranton vs. Michel Chaisne 06/03/60

SR: 1 fall match going about 25 minutes. Last time we saw Duranton he was flamboyant. Now, he has returned with a bleach blonde head, a robe and an equally arrogant male valent. I would say it feels novel compared to his earlier appearance if we hadn‘t seen a murderers row of whacky characters ranging from masked hangmen to literal Quasimodo and motherfucking Spartacus on TV in the last few months. This was another heated match with Chaisne bringing the wrestling and Duranton bringing the cheapshots and swaggering. There were some interesting moments around his valet who had a few audience members going at him and even got into the ring to get thrown around by Chaisne one time. There was also one well executed ref spots that stood out because I am used to ref spots coming across as really fakey. Really liked the backbreakers Duranton would hit followed by those nasty short kicks. Chaisne doesn‘t sell on the level to make this an epic match but we get Duranton finishing him off in a quite brutal way. France sure wasn‘t afraid of having nasty bomb throwing for a finish.

MD: We've seen this exact match up back in 58 and at that point, it was entertaining but Duranton hadn't quite worked it all out. Here, his act was complete. He now had a valet in a tuxedo that he worked into his match as a prop. He was haughty before, but it was turned up a notch or two. And maybe most important of all, the wrestling was smoother and he didn't do anything outside of his physical limits. Chaisne is just an excellent stylist: right place, right time, right moves. He also had a familiarity with Duranton and played into his opponents gimmick: escaping holds by mussing his hair, going tit for tat with revenge spots mimicking Duranton's cheapshots or backbreakers, coming back from Duranton's peppering kicks with a big face twister. This was over 25 minutes over the two falls and through a mix of familiar spots and new ones, through working in the valet and the ref, through Duranton's reactions and general meanness and Chaisne's superior prowess and perseverance, it's entertaining the whole way through. You almost can't imagine it not being so. When the valet is finally most fully involved, as Chaisne whips him into a tied-in-the-ropes Duranton, you can see the delight on the faces of the fans. Duranton gets a lucky reversal towards the end of the first fall, dumping Chaisne over the top on a third monkey flip attempt, and that's basically the match, but it was fun while it lasted.

PAS: Chaisne is a bit Vanilla but a really skilled wrestler who can deliver some pop, which really makes him the perfect opponent for over the top characters like Kaiser or Duranton. Duranton was so great in this match, he was like Adrian Street's daddy, a flamboyant prancer who could turn into a vicious killer at the drop of a bow. There was some great stooge spots, Duranton walking away from a dropkick attempt to pose, only to get dropkicked in the mush, and some really nasty stuff like Duranton sitting on Chaisne's face and smashing him with body shots. I thought the finish felt a bit flat, we have seen some vicious beatdown finishes, and while the exchanges were great the actually moves which put Chaisne down weren't at the level I expect for French Catch KO blows. Still this had a ton to love, and I am all in on Duranton. 

Billy Catanzaro/Gilbert Le Magorou vs. Vasilios Mantopoulos/Francis Louis 8/19/66

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 35 minutes. Billy Catanzaro, baby. Regrettably we only got about 4 more matches of the man who started the craze in the French archive, but Billy Catanzaro is really making every single one count so far. This was right on the awesome match train. It was basically the worlds greatest IWE juniors tag with a bunch of elegant arm lock throws and takeovers interspersed with guys kicking the shit out of each other. Catanzaro was already a grimacing veteran heel here and while you’d love to see him work more straight matches like the Cesca bout, he is fantastic in the Finlay role. He does about a 100 awesome things in this match. The nasty face stomps, the stiff short kicks, the unexpected bitchslaps, a super fast spinning armlock that looked like it would pop your shoulder, some nasty face grinding, the way he got his foot stuck in the ropes when he tried breaking up a pinfall... at one point he just went and punched Louis in the face to break up a pinfall, which is a sure mark of an all time great. I also loved his missed european uppercuts. Gilbert Le Magorou felt a bit like he was Catanzaros trainee, as he looked a bit younger and did similar things to Catanzaro but a bit less extravagant. That said he was extremely solid and never a let up, but this was the Catanzarro show through and through. He looked just great at both the actual wrestling as well as the stooging and bumping for his opponents. 

Mantopoulos and Louis on the other were a great pair of tecnicos. Mantopoulos is of course someone with a million tricks, but I also really liked his elegant wristlock reversals early on. That kind of opening wristlock work is is hard to make compelling when you’ve seen geeks like Zack Sabre Jr. doing it to death but it looked classy here. Mantopoulos also has some of the more esoteric moves you’ll see in this project including that awesome swinging backbreaker that Julien Morice did in a World of Sport match once and  the GIF of it became semi-famous on certain image boards. Francis Louis was the more straight forward side of the technico team and while not as flashy as his partner I really appreciated his dedication to just wrestle and throw brutal European uppercuts when it was needed. The match had a few heat sections that were extremely well done, particularly all the interference spots from Catanzaro/Le Magouru, and a great moment where Catanzaro took a fall with a tombstone piledriver, immediately going for the same move in the next fall with his opponent barely escaping. The match built to some brilliant quick rope running exchanges, and most importantly there was a ton of asskicking going on. I have no idea how these guys just clubbed each other with thudding European uppercuts straight to the jaw and nasty short kicks for +30 minutes and never slowed down but I loved every second. For a fast workrate-like match it got pretty nasty towards the end with Gilbert looking like he was about to get KO’d by Louis. I would’ve liked Louis to finish the match as he was looking like the toughest skinny lightweight on earth as he kept smashing dudes with those uppercuts. But instead he tagged in Mantopoulos and the match ended in a pretty esoteric way. That said the journey is the destination when it comes to European wrestling and this match was a 35 minute monolith of brilliant wrestling. Which begs the question, excluding BattlArts and Futen is France the greatest place for junior tag wrestling of all?

PAS: Damn did this rule. It is such a bummer we have so little of Catanzaro, with almost a decade in between appearances. He is a very different wrestler here, much more of a trick veteran than an athletic marvel, but he is tremendous in every variation we have seen him. Mantopoulos is a fancy dude, his spinning wrist lock reversals, actually looked fast and violent, and that back breaker variation Sebastian mentioned was totally dope looking. Both rudo were great at feeding for the fancy tecnico offense, and would unload when they got a chance.  I loved the different ways the heels would get tied up in the ropes,  great bit of stooging stuff and a great way to for the faces to get their revenge. We get our traditional violent uppercut exchanges, with Le Magouru especially really getting great torque with his hips before throwing them, it was like a Joe Frazier left hook. Finish was a bit silly for a match with such violence with both heels getting tied up in balls and counted out, but this was still an all timer. 

MD: Thirty-five minutes of brilliant pro wrestling. At times, this had some of the fastest, most consistent, most elaborate chained spots we've seen as the heels keep feeding for Mantopoulos and Louis' takedowns and holds. It was often so quick and creative that the camera didn't know what to follow. That sums up the match as well as anything else. The heels weren't in charge much but they made the most of it when they were. Catanzaro was such an amazing jerk, one of the greatest characters in wrestling history, dancing and prancing around with excitement, making elated faces, as he laid in forearms, kicks, and stomps (immediately to beg off if he lost the advantage). He could go from sheer brutality to getting his foot caught in the rope on a dime. Le Magorou had a slightly out of shape junior goon look to him and he made for a great whipping boy for Catanzaro whenever they get foiled or clowned. They hit enough of their cheating and double-teaming to make it all credible and to make it matter all the more when it didn't work out for them. Louis always looks good, but Mantopoulos just goes above and beyond. He possessed great physical awareness in how he ducked a forearm or spun out before a takedown. It's as if the world moved half a step slower than him, which worked not just for wild spots but for seizing a normal advantage. Honestly though, they all went so fast when it was warranted that most exchanges started with a believable little fake out attempt. They went little with the fake-outs or Catanzaro's mean mugging, but they went big too, whether it was Catanzaro hitting two full nelson spins into backbreakers only for Mantopoulos to tag in and reverse the third with a Robinson backbreaker and then hit conjuro style spinning trapping backbreakers on both guys or when they trap both heels in the ropes and hit multiple alley oop body splashes on them. The back half of the match contained more of those elaborate set pieces and the crowd loved all of it, building finally to one of the more unique finishes you'll ever see.

ER: I loved this, and how could you not!? This is just the pinnacle of athleticism and personality through pro wrestling. I genuinely don't think there is any acrobatic wrestling better than this, nothing today compares to this. There are great athletes today, but none of them can work with the unpredictability and creativity of the men here. The unpredictability is the key, as you just never have any real idea of where some of these guys are going with their material, and yet nobody ever seems lost, nobody ever seems to be waiting too long in position, nobody does anything with their face or body to indicate they know what is happening next. Their misdirection skills are incredible, nothing in sight is telegraphed. It's incredible. 

This was such a thrill, with an excellent rudo team and two incredibly fun and capable tecnicos. Catanzaro is a legend of ours at this point, and it's great we now have two matches of his, a decade apart, with such different aspects of his abilities on display. This was like a hyperdrive William Regal house show performance from him, stooging around while throwing uppercuts so hard they looked like Louis and Mantopoulos weren't leaping to sell them, instead being lifted by force. He and Gilbert Le Magorou are such an excellent team of single strap stooges, and it feels like Catanzaro is so magnetic that he kept outshining the also excellent Magorou. Magorou looked and wrestled like the best possible Oliver Platt in Ready to Rumble. He had a belly and great floppy hair and Catanzaro knew a ton of different ways to fall into the ropes. Each seemed like they had cool ways to fall on the bottom, middle, and top rope, and knew a few ways to get tangled in the ropes (two heels both tangled by their ankles in the ropes is the kind of thing I picture a John Tatum/Buddy Rose team doing). Mantopoulos is a tecnico who is impossible to take your eyes off of, with some of the most beautiful step up headscissors, hardest dropkicks, has a few of these incredible pendulum backbreakers (like Norman Smiley's pendulum bodyslam, but ending on a backbreaker), and a killer spot where he vaults off Mantopoulos's knee, kicks over his head, and lands in front of him on his back just to hit a wicked upkick. We haven't really had a disappointing batch of French Catch yet, but getting brilliance like this match is rare. 

Unsurprisingly, we are adding this tag match as the 1966 representative on our All Time MOTY List. 

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