Tuesday is French Catch Day: Ben Chemoul! Bordes! El Arz! Black Shadow! Mercier! Falempin! Viracocha! Gonzalez!

Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes vs. Les Libanese (Josef el Arz) & Black Shadow 2/12/72

MD: I forget if I declared it or not, but if so, let me do it again. Ben Chemoul and Bordes are up there with the Blousons Noirs as unquestionably one of the best teams in the history of French Catch. We have enough footage, which is always the tricky part. This was in two falls, one long and one short, with something akin to shine/heat/comeback in both falls. By not forcing the heels to win a second fall, the pacing felt better and less stilted. Bordes felt at the very height of his power here, incredibly athletic but also hard-hitting, with Ben Chemoul not quite as spry as he once was but an absolute master of timing and popping the crowd. El Arz was very impressive, having a distinctive way of taking shots, having a cruel lifting choke toss, just laying it in. Black Shadow based well and took stuff but he was less memorable in general. Where he shined the most was in controlling the corner and cutting off babyface comeback attempts. They built to triumphant crowd pleasing stuff as you'd expect and everyone left happy.  

Guy Mercier/Michele Falempin vs. Inca Viracocha/Jo Gonzalez 2/28/72

MD: A rare one-fall tag. If I'm not mistaken, Falempin recently passed away and he was a very solid talent and a good partner for the beloved Mercier, who was a slugger and a wrestler's wrestler both. Falempin brought the rope running and energy and big escape attempts. Viracocha remains a bit heavier and he almost has a Brazo feel to him as a heel, way smoother than you'd expect from looking at him while still hitting hard and stooging big. Not as big as Gonzales though (billed as a gypsy by the way), who really does feel like a special talent, able to cartwheel and leap back off the top rope, but also having such a canny sleaziness to his act, luring his opponent in by selling too big or begging off and constantly going for cheapshots from the outside. Very much a total package sort of wrestler. This went back and forth with frequent moments of heat but always leading to big comebacks and crowd pleasing spots, none of which were new but all of which were executed to perfection.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Batman! Viracocha! Der Henker! Corn! Leduc! Kamikaze

Batman/Paco Ramirez vs. Inca Viracocha/Gonzalez 5/17/71

MD: A rare one-fall tag (or alternatively just the first fall of a longer one, but I don't think that's the case). Between this and the first fall of the Genele tag from last week, I think it's pretty safe to say, two years in, that most of these French tags probably would have been better if they weren't in an unbalanced 2/3 falls format. This was very good as a standalone fall. Neither of these Peruvian heels are Peruano but they're both very good in their own way. Viracocha can lean on someone and Gonzales had a wild energy with some big high spots that you'd expect out of a babyface like dropkicks and cartwheels. He also shouted Arriba! in one of his first moments in the match which popped literally everyone including the announcer. Where they really excelled was cutting off the ring and sneaking in shots to keep their opponents down in the corner. And feeding for the faces, of course. Batman looked as good here as we'd ever seen him, mixing in a couple of power moments that almost felt heroic in with his usual technical, tricked out stuff. Ramirez was a game partner, fiery at times, especially in drawing away the ref enthusiastically when his partner was getting double teamed. Just a really good, really solid tag.

Der Henker/Kamikaze vs. Jacky Corn/Gilbert Leduc 6/14/71


MD: This one felt special. First off, it was Leduc and Corn teaming together, which has been rare, just two of the biggest, best scrapping, technical babyface stars we've seen in the footage. They were greeted at the start by dancing majorettes and a marching band. Kamikaze may well have been Aledo, but it's hard to tell because he was so immersed in the gimmick. When he bumped, he bumped huge, and he was quick, but his offense was primarily chops (including high, low, high attacks), and he was way over the top with the stereotypical Japanese act. Henker was nothing if not consistent, an absolute monster. Much of the early part of the match was Henker shrugging off Corn and Leduc's technical wizardry. As none of the conventional wristlocks or up and over escapes worked, they built to Leduc's trademark headspin headscissors and that at least chipped away at him a bit. Towards the end of the first fall, they were able to get him out long enough for Corn to hit this amazing gutwrench throw on Kamikaze for the fall.

Henker became absolutely unleashed in the second fall, press slamming Leduc into a gutbuster and then just crushing him with a tombstone. Leduc ended up getting taken to the back (rare for this footage) as the heels continued to work on Corn, including another press slam gutbuster, and alternating tombstones from Henker and karate shots from Kamikaze, before a third tombstone meant that he couldn't answer the call. My favorite part of this beating was Kamikaze doing something I'd never seen before. He lifted Corn up in a Rude Awakening style over the shoulder neckbreaker and then walked him over to the ropes, slipped Corn's head under the top rope and lifted up to choke him with it while still holding the over the shoulder neckbreaker. Awesome stuff.

The third fall set things up to seem impossible for Corn. He barely recovered to meet the bell and, as the beating continued, he kept crawling to a corner with no partner. Then, suddenly the crowd erupted as Leduc somehow powered his way from the back. Corn rolled for a hot tag and Leduc started unloading on the heels (and the ref as well when he tried to get in the way). Henker would come back, but as the fall went on, Corn and Leduc would continue to get the upper hand until they could finally tie up Henker in the ropes long enough to score the win over Kamikaze. This wasn't the most technically sound match we've seen. It didn't have the highest workrate or the craziest moves or the most intense shots, but it told a hell of a story that the fans completely got behind and like I said, even in a sea of footage that gives us great wrestling week in and week out, this felt special.

PAS: This was really great stuff, wild over babyfaces mean flamboyant heels, wrestling at its best. I love LeDuc one of my favorite guys on the set, he has an almost Mr. Wrestling 2 vibe with a combo of dancing and asskicking. I loved him in the third fall, as he hit these super cool fast forearm combos, and then tying up Henker and catapulting  Kamikaze into him. Not sure if Kamikaze was Aledo, but he ruled, Aledo unmasked has less restrictions on what he could do, but Kamikaze was a tremendous evil Asian heel, cool chops big bumps, vicious and stoogy, exactly what you want.

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