Tuesday is French Catch Day: Angelito! Alami! Roux! Cavillier! Magnier! Zarzecki! Montreal! Delaporte!

Angelito/El Alami vs. Guy Cavillier/Andre Roux 9/3/73

MD: Tons and tons to like here. We haven't seen a lot of Angelito yet but he'll be in the footage more and more. This is, apparently, our only look at Alami and Roux (Roupp? Rouchet?) and both of them were very good. Alami was Moroccan and a fiery lightweight stylist with great rope running and some tricked out spots. And Roux is one of those "greatest wrestlers we only have one match of." He could go, could hit hard and lean on his opponent, but his stooging was top notch. The announcer called him the Rudolph Valentino of the Ring or something like that and he did have that Ed Wiskowki look, lanky with the world's most pullable mustache.

The other wrinkle was Babette Carole, the female referee and much of the match was build around the heels running circles around her with illegal double teams and then running into throws or shots from her. They'd end up in sequences during comebacks when they'd tag after every punch and get hot with one another and it led to a number of miscommunication spots in the corner or the ropes, some novel ones and some old classics. My favorite bit might have been Alami dragging Roux all the way around the ring by his mustache, but Roux mocking the quick kneeling exchange opening that guys like Ben Chemoul did only to get dropkicked in the face was a classic too. The pacing on this one was a bit better than usual too: we came in JIP but the falls were broken up at ten minute intervals in a thirty minute match which felt better than the usual long first fall we get. The heels took the first fall too (which was deserved considering how well they were cheating. Add in a hot crowd you get something that was better than the sum of its parts, which isn't always the case with these tags. Very good stuff.

Warnia de Zarzecki vs. Fred Magnier 10/12/73

MD: We get the last five minutes of this one out of thirty. It's been forever since we've seen Zarzecki and if I'm reading it right, he might be the bad guy here. Magnier was billed as a former legionnaire, the Mercenary of Catch. In a lot of ways, it felt like a 50s match in the back quarter, with a lot of momentum shifts and big shots and slams, just with, you know, a swimming pool for both guys to fall into. This actually answered one of the questions I had in mind: whether or not there were whole cards for these swimming pool matches or just a featured match. It seems to be a whole card which has to explain why the fans are elated for a big heel getting his comeuppance in the matches we've seen but not quite as elated as you'd expect: they'd seen it already earlier in the show! I wish we had this whole thing because the bit we got here looked good and it is our last look at Zarzecki. We'll see a bit more Magnier later. Oh, also of note here? The referee was Duranton's old valet, Firmin, in very Dastardly Danny Davis style, though he didn't do anything outwardly heelish despite the commentary suggesting the possibility as such. That guy got more heat than anyone else in all of the footage, so good to see him still employed.  

Mr. Montreal vs. Roger Delaporte 10/12/73

MD: I sort of answered my own question on why the fans would care about multiple swimming pool matches on the same card. This went the full thirty or close to it before anyone hit the water. They only teased it a couple of times but that's plenty of time to reset the clock in the fans' minds. Anyway, this was Montreal billed with his real name as well, Marcel Chaveau and Delaporte, who was 45 going on 75 here, looking ancient and moving gingerly at times (though how much of that was an act is anyone's guess; he was quick to attack when the moment presented itself). I liked this more than I was expecting as the first half were fairly tight and close up holds and the back half more scrapping and interacting with the ref. Delaporte was such a master. You had the sense that he could really stretch someone with small and straightforward things; it was how he'd turn Montreal's bridge on the reverse headlock right back into a cravat or the torque on an armbar. Meanwhile, when they were up and scrapping or he was laying in cheapshots, he always looked to the crowd first, always set the stage, always milked out the most possible resonance and meaning. Just a master, with Montreal more than game to hang with him. The whole match here had Firmin, once a valet, now a ref, getting involved more and more but really just the poor guy doing his job. Sure, Delaporte would take advantage but that's only because Montreal was taking liberties. Still, when the time came, he hit the water first, with Delaporte not far behind him. Obviously, Delaporte was limited by this point in his career but the man could do so much with so little. One of the best heels of the 20th century no doubt.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Manneveau! Le Samurai! More Luna Catch 2000! Cavilliers! Fontaine!

Guy Cavilliers vs. Alain Fontaine 1/3/72

MD: This is a rare episode that seems to be joined well in progress. We only have about ten minutes of this, with no entrances and some talk with Fontaine's family at the end. I do think we've only come in a few minutes late though. The first few minutes of this are the two of them tossing each other out, with  Fontaine getting the better of it and his younger opponent coming back. Once they get going there are a lot of headscissors takeovers and dropkicks though it's a little disjointed relative to what we're used to maybe. The finish has both of them missing dropkicks and then kipping up to crash into one another, a way for the younger wrestler to earn a draw and a novel finish even if one that you don't want to repeat too much. 

Marcel Manneveau vs. Le Samurai 1/31/72

MD: Interesting match. I have no idea who Le Samurai was. Apparently he had red gear with a red and yellow mask. Some of the things he did, like the bowing and chops, and most notably the hangman's neckbreaker where he carries his opponent to the ropes and presses up into them from underneath neck-first were parts of the Kamikazes' game, but other things weren't, and the general style of wrestling seemed different. The first ten minutes, before he devolved into the chops and nerve-holds, had some really good mat wrestling, a lot of wrist control and counters to counters. Occasionally they got overambitious and lost something. Samurai had one absolutely brilliant escape from a headscissors where he brought up his own legs to hold one of Manneveau's. As such, this was a great showcase for just how good Manneveau was on the mat, which we often don't get to see in dirty Blousons matches. Once the match opened up, both guys played the heel, though the fans were more against Samurai than they were for Manneveau. My favorite bits here were Samurai's killer double leg stump pullers, but also some of the abrupt grabbing of limbs that almost made it seem like a 1970s proto-shoot style. The finish was kind of gnarly as Samurai had Manneveau trapped in a sunset flip pin and scored the three despite Manneveau repeatedly slamming his heel against Samurai's head to try to escape. Good match even with the affectations.  

Antonio Pereira/Mota Dos Santos vs. Francis Louis/Jean Claude Bordeaux 1/31/72

MD: Yes, this is more Luna Catch 2000, where wrestler are shot into the ring off platforms with compressed air. I'm fairly certain that this 6 minutes or so that we get (more like 10 with the pomp and circumstance to begin) is actually the debut as the full match that has gotten more attention than maybe anything else we've posted is from April and we're at the end of January here. They started this with the klaxon and the cosmic bowling lights, with wrestlers dressed in silver jumpsuits but no helmets this time and with a countdown to launch them into the ring which was different. The commentator likened it to a scene from a Kubrick movie. We've got the same wrestlers as before, but I think they had the act down just a bit more in April as they were better at both not bumping on their own backs on the way in and also catching themselves then. I don't know what else to tell you. Having seen the week after week quality of the footage, this stuff is a fun novelty but if I had to choose, I'm glad we got the full Manneveau vs Samurai match and just a few minutes of watching these guys soar into the ring, land, pause and then armdrag or slam each other. Basically, while it's cool Bryan Danielson is talking about this sort of thing on a podcast, I'd rather see (and would rather he see!) another Louis/Bordeaux vs Dos Santos/Pereira match without the compressed air and ten foot high bumps than this, as they are pretty spectacular when they get to put together an actual match.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Gastel! Magnier! Barreto! Williams!

Abdel Kader Boussada vs. Jean Luc 2/1/69

MD: We get maybe nine minutes of this, which is probably around half, and it's pretty good if a bit formless. Jean Luc's a fairly nasty bad guy with solid forearms and brazen stomps. Boussada comes back with headscissors takeovers and dropkicks but gets cut off with some rudimentary but solid legwork. Eventually they pick up the pace for a rope running finish. Either of these guys would probably put on a strong showing against a different opponent but this never rose above a certain level.

Guy Cavillier vs. Albert Sanniez 2/1/69

MD: Twenty minutes of pure forward motion. Sanniez is excellent and has maybe the best bridge in wrestling history and a great ability to land on his feet. This is our only look at Cavillier and he could more than hang with Sanniez. This built but never stopped, beginning with a wristlock that Sanniez did everything possible to try to escape to holds and shots, finally culminating with Sanniez with an athletic advantage, but both wrestlers sailing to the floor for an unsatisfying double countout. At times, they were almost flowing one forearm into the next, back and forth. The best part was probably a bridge so deep out of a chinlock that it first looked like Cavillier was going to break Sanniez in two until it became obvious that his trained flexibility actually gave him an edge in the exchange, ending with both guys roll into the ropes and the ref. Good stuff but it mainly left me wanting to see more.

Robert Gastel/Fred Magnier vs. Don Barreto/Eddy Williams 3/8/69

MD: Williams and Gastel are two of my absolute favorite guys in the footage. I wouldn't say they always end up in the best matches, but their performances are always excellent. Williams is smooth, has the crowd behind him, hits hard on comebacks. Gastel is a mean mug, a clubbering, stooging beast, one of the most distinct personalities we've seen, endlessly memorable. They're not always partnered with the best wrestlers, especially Williams who ends up with attractions who can't always carry their weight. Here though, they have perfect partners. I can't find much about Barreto but he could hang with Williams, able to do what was expected in France like the up and over headscissors escape, had some great shots, including an amazing corner flurry to the gut towards the end, and had a great jumping headbutt that was exactly what the crowd wanted. Magnier looked like Gastel's little brother, same body type, same mugging expression, same hard shots and mean stomps. Their favored means of assault in this one were hidden chokes while holding their opponent up, Magnier using a fireman's carry and Gastel a rib-breaker position, and then dropping them neck first over the top rope.

The heat was accordingly great, especially since the fans really wanted to get behind Williams and Barreto in the first place. While this was structured like a normal French tag (long first fall with plenty of heat, a hot tag or two, and the heels ultimately winning, a second fall where the faces come back and win fairly quickly and a third fall which is just as quick where the faces continue their advantage and either slip on a banana peel or pick up a win), the crowd was up for everything and everything worked. Towards the end of the first fall, the fans were absolutely going after Gastel and at one point, the heels rolled back in the ring just so the crowd would stop swiping at them. All the while, the low lighting gave this a fairly unique mood. The finish let the stylists keep the momentum going while still protecting the heels even if it wasn't exactly satisfying. Still, overall this was a great tag.

PAS: This was really cool, I love that we have a cool black tag team in 1969 France, I can just see Eddy Williams hanging with Josephine Baker or  James Baldwin in a Parisian cafe or nightclub. I loved how this whole fight escalated, with the heels choking and slugging and cheapshotting until the babyfaces exploded and laid them out. The spot where they were bouncing Gastel back and forth with uppercuts was awesome as was Barreto's combo punching in the corner, it really felt Lawlerish. We didn't really get a super satisfying finish, which is often the way these tags work, but I loved all of the meat. 

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