Tuesday is French Catch Day: Rocco! Gasparian! Le Mao! Israel!

Henri Le Mao vs. Isha Israel 8/22/65

SR: 1 fall match going 30 minutes. Holy shit this was great. A technical match with a serious violent streak. It‘s not about the things they do, but the intensity at which they do them. They did the usual French style hold for hold work, but in a grinding fashion. At one point, Israel put this hold on Le Mao where just pushed his knee into his eye. There are a few chinlocks and headlocks in the match, and while these are not normally exciting moves, they were here as these guys just tried strangling the shit out of each other. During one hold exchange Israel really wrenched Le Mao with a headlock, then dragged him up and dropped him with a sick neckbreaker. Le Mao looked rough after that and it got the crowd buzzing. Israel put another headlock on Le Mao, and it looked painful to break out of. The whole match was like that, hold exchanges building to explosions, and really great at that. Later Le Mao reverses a throw, tossing Israel into the ropes where he almost got strangled in another sick spot. Israel came back groggy but was able to sink into another sleeper hold which looked as deep as any other sleeper in history. It looked like he was about to pop Le Maos head off. By the end both guys were engaging in some strike exchanges that were up there with anything else in this footage. Israel popped Le Mao with some Futen level headbutts, bloodying him. Both guys seemed punch drunk and Le Mao carried on with the stoic determination of a true catcheur as the blood streamed from his brow. His big comeback forearms were awesome. Some rough as hell turnbuckle bumps come into play, too, and they have the crowd by the balls working narrow nearfalls. Really an ultra physical match, and while the match didn‘t have the most tricked out technical moves it felt up there with the best in this style due to sheer intensity.

PAS: This was right up there with the very best stuff we have seen from this footage. Israel was a complete fucker in this, reminded me of Tony Oliver. He really took most of the early part of this match with really punishing holds, tight chokes, nasty armlocks including one where he drove the point of his knee into Le Mao's eye. Le Mao had some fun escapes, but was mostly getting violently steamrolled. He was able to get back into the match when he tossed Israel into the ropes and Israel flips into a Foley loses his ear strangle hold. We get some hyper violent strike exchanges including Le Mao getting split with some gross headbutts and Israel driving his forearm right into the cut. This ends in a draw but I have no problem with a match ending with both guys trying to rip each others heads off with uppercuts.

MD: About halfway through this one, and knowing it was heading to a draw, I had a write-up in mind talking about the sheer, overall quality of the footage. This seemed like just another match. I'd never heard of Le Mao before and while Israel seemed to have put on a little mass, it was a lot of what we'd seen before: excellent holds hung on to, deep struggle, clever (and as the years go on more elaborate counters), a real testament to just how good any random match in the collection seems to be as we're a year and a half into the project and around ten years into the footage. Le Mao was definitely able to hang, no question there. There were some fun specifics like Israel's neckbreakers or the fact that the chinlock, which I really swear I haven't seen much before 65, was treated the same way the rear naked choke was treated when it first got used in pro wrestling, a sort of mean and a nasty move to be feared, as opposed to something we're so complacent about now (I'd argue that it' s the single move we take the most for granted in pro wrestling having watched a thousand 80s WWF matches). Usually with a draw like this, they'll build to the slugging over the last few minutes, or they'll take it up a few times earlier and bring it back down and let it start to boil over as the bell was about to ring. Here, though, they shifted gears with around ten minutes to go and it became a much fiercer, more contentious bout for the whole way in, only slowed down in the last few minutes due to exhaustion and selling the damage already done. Ultimately, it ended up one of my favorite stylist vs stylist draws in the footage.

Bruno Rocco vs. Gasparian 9/5/65

SR: 1 fall match going about 20 minutes. This wasn't bad, but not all that good either. They just had about a regular catch bout. Lots of technical work for two heavyweights. Rocco was this Italian guy and acted like quite the ass. He really liked the nerve hold and kicked the shit out of Gasparian here or there, but the match never turned into an all out brawl. Bit repetitive, but all in all decent catch that suffers from the match the week before being a whole magnitude above.

MD: When you get a match between heavyweights, you really want a lot of hard hitting and big thumping and you get that in the last couple of minutes here, but the twenty or so minutes before that doesn't quite live up to what you'd want. Of the rest that we do get, the best of it is Rocco cheating, a lot of nerveholds turned into eyeraking, and Gasparian mounting spirited comebacks, be it stepping on the hand or tying him in the ropes. There's a couple of fun short arm scissors moments and a few spirited headbutts here and there throughout, but in general, I left this thinking I would have rather seen Rocco bully someone smaller or maybe get flummoxed by someone like Ben Chemoul or even one of the judo guys.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Corne! Isreal! Les Blousons Noir! Husberg! Spartacus!!

Jean Corne & Ischa Israel vs. Marcel Mannevau & Claude Gessat 4/21/60 pt1 pt2

SR: 2/3 falls match going 45 minutes. It‘s Les Blousons Noir, venerable rudo team made up of Mannevau and Gessat. This was probably the first in very specific brand of French pro wrestling, a very fast paced light weight tag mixing high end wrestling with high end heel work. And it didn‘t even seem like something particularily new to this crowd. The workrate these guys had was just insane, going 45 minutes without really letting up, all while running the ropes so fast, bumping hard, working ultra tight pin attempts and hitting the worlds greatest european uppercuts. While Mannevau and Gessat were clearly indulging in outrageous heel antics they also came to wrestle, there are some slick takedowns and Gessat busts out a sick spinning jacknife bomb that felt like it belonged in a 90s New Japan match. Mannevau is the more animated of the two Blousons and he really looks like a cheapshot king here and I loved all his silent film antics with the tag rope, he was like Regal on speed. Most of this the Blousons backing the faces to their corner or locking in holds before raining down punches and kicks, before some violent retaliations and while mixing in fast rope running exchanges and straight wrestling. It is a really effective formula and these guys are kings at it. There were also well integrated ref spots including Mannevau stepping on the referee, and there is a deceptive near-finish where the referee uppercuts one of the faces.  Israel is the more animated of the faces and he has a real knack for infusing simple things with energy, at one point he comes in and does this neat spinning takedown and then some nasty knuckle grinding. The knuckle grinding really wasn‘t anything super difficult athletic-wise, something any random yokel wrestler could do, but the way he executed it he made it look like he was about to rip a guys leg off. The ending is a bit weird, they are 1:1 and resting in the corners after a fall while the announcer talks about Cognac or something, I am going to pretend it simply ended in a 45 minute draw, even though they delivered two great finishes and showed no signs of fatigue, this was a metric ton of high end wrestling although probably not that special considering they likely did this match 3 times a week.

MD: We get about 45 of this, two clear falls before they run out of TV time. There seemed to be some confusion up front on them getting the time when they did to begin with. This is our first look at Les Blousons Noirs, and while this one has been out there before, I don't think it is now and it's well worth watching. The commentator has no idea which is Gessat and which is Manneveau, but if I have it right, Maneveau is an amazing cheapshot artist, just a manic cheater of the sort that seems get cheapshots in at every opportunity, even when it'd be more effective to not antagonize the referee. Gessat really impressed me, bumping big, looking credible and tough, hanging with Corne and Israel. Just a really dynamic heel and the two of them together made a good unit. We'd seen Corne once in 59 and we'll see him a lot more, but I thought he looked a lot better here, already fulfilling the promise from the previous year. Lots of cleanly hit, dynamic spots, good fire (though not as good as Israel) and plenty of charisma. There was one moment where he bumped himself into being choked between the ropes that seemed to defy physics. Despite the length, between the quickness of the action, the frequent shifts between heat and revenge, and a healthy dose of comedy with the ref, who became more unkempt and unclothed as the match went on, the time passed quickly and enjoyably. We have another tag with these heels and one Gessat singles match I'm particularly interested in.

Robert Le Boulch vs. Jean Martin 4/29/60

SR: We get about 30 seconds of this before Le Boulch taps out to a spinning toe hold from Martin. No real sense of the match but I dig a spinning toe hold finish.

MD: There was something to see here but we didn't get to see it unfortunately. This starts with a guy on the floor and ends a minute later with him selling a leg and eating a spinning toe-hold. We didn't even get the bump. Ah well. In between matches they show three cartoon drawing which really do sum up French Catch, a guy getting monkey flipped with one foot, that bridging, cross-legged headscissors (like Mil Mascaras), and a forearm right to the face. That's 57-60 French Catch in a nutshell.

Spartacus vs. Eric Husberg 4/29/60

MD: Spartacus is exactly what you'd expect at first sight, a muscular guy dressed like a Gladiator. It's funny because Bernaert was working the Kirk Douglas resemblance, but I imagine this was the other promotion? Still, you'd think there would be money with these two facing off. Husberg, we've seen before, and he's dark-haired with occasionally beady eyes and a smugness when he escapes a hold or gets one over on his opponent, but after seeing so much Bernaert, I still somehow thought he'd be the face in this. I was wrong. Spartacus brought a lot to the table, legitimately good wrestling on the mat, intensity in key moments, power moves (the flipping cradle release power bomb we haven't seen in a while, along with slams and a backbreaker), and some real stylist escapes, half of which looked amazing and half of which looked unsteady. Whether it was true or not, you got the sense that neither man could keep the other down for long. Husberg would use more inside shots or cheap takedowns out of the ropes, but it wasn't until he really took liberties that Spartacus fired back with KO shots. We'll see him one more time and that should be interesting. Oh, and just in case neither Sebastian or Phil tell you, since I'm getting this review in first, Spartacus was Jacques Pêcheur. Go and google him and Gaston Glock together. You'll get a good story out of it.

SR: 1 fall match going about 20 minutes. It‘s Spartacus, baby. Spartacus really had a movie star look and very good build not to mention his amazing entrance gear. Also, about 37 years after this, he was a hitman and arrested after he tried bashing in the face of a famous gunmaker. Husberg looks about like if a middle aged investment banker randomly decided to get in the ring, and to my knowledge, never tried murdering anyone. This was a bout in a small venue in front of a receptive crowd. It was effective but also a bit minimalist and I felt Spartacus belonged on a bigger stage, something like a stadium if you will. Spartacus had some very stylized grappling and a unique way to do  things and I got the sense he could be a fantastic worker in the vein of a Franz van Buyten. Husberg was one of these violent heels who didn‘t do much fancy  but throw hard fists and forearms to his opponent. The bout escalated early with Husberg throwing some hard shots including a cool knee to the ribs while he held Spartacus in a keylock, but they slowed down, and I didn‘t get the sense Husberg was that great an opponent to showcase Spartacuses grappling. It was a good matchup though.

PAS: Spartcus was a bunch of fun to watch, I loved how he kept flipping onto his feet whenever Husberg tried to beal him, or monkey flip him. It was a great bit of shtick which never got tired or had diminishing returns. Spartacus also had some nifty counters on the mat, and he felt a little like a lucha maestro in a trios match where he wouldn't be able to really show his goods, but you could tell they were there. Finish was pretty awesome as Spartacus got tired of Husberg's shit and hit him with forearms including a hooking forearm which dropped him like a Joe Frazier left. Fun stuff, and I hope we get to see more Spartacus.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Israel! Rabut! Guettier! Delaporte!

Roger Delaporte vs. Roger Guettier 5/30/59

SR: 2/3 Falls match going a bit over 30 minutes. We get a Delaporte interview and another fantastic graphic before the match. We have seen these two teaming up before, so there might be some context necessary: where they still teaming at this point? Was there a breakup? Judging by the match, it seems they were still teaming at this point, as they do the „rudos suddenly work a clean match“ bit to start, to befuddled „ahh“ and „ooh“ responses of the crowd as they work armlocks and clean breaks. Naturally though, their instincts start kicking in, and soon we have a full on rudo vs. Rudo brawl. The wrestling they did was pretty fun, but you want these guys to unleash some serious violence, and that they do. Guettier is the first to say „I‘ve had it“ when Delaporte forearms him off the apron and he lays a pretty nasty one sided beating on Delaporte. He assumes a quasi-face role here, although he also throws the referee around. They end up spilling to the outside, the police get involved, and some heated forearm and uppercut exchanges later Delaporte retakes control and is able to take out Guettiers leg. Referee gets thrown around some more, and Guettier looks quite great selling his own destruction and taking big bumps and spills. Tons of really fun fighting here, and Delaportes charisma is just unreal. He really can make the most simple things wildly entertaining.

PAS:  Really cool structure in this match, like most face vs. face matches we have a pair of heels starting the match wrestling clean, until their tempers flare up. It is cool to watch a pair of disreputable creeps try to clean their act up and fail. All of the early matwork was really cool, and I especially loved all of the work around Guettier's spinning headscissors. I imagine it's a spot he doesn't break out as a rudo, but he was spreading his tecnico wings. Loved all the different leverage moves that Delaporte would use to block going over too. Guettier's big backbreaker to win the first fall ruled, and Delaporte sold it like he just slept on a lumpy mattress. Of course the breakdown in decorum was great, both guys just laced into each other brawling in the crowd, tossing the ref to the floor wilding out. Loved the finish with Delaporte just demolishing Guettier's leg until he couldn't stand anymore and couldn't answer the bell. Super fun match which is up there with some of the best we have gotten so far.

MD: I could have used a little more context on this one. I know what's in my head. We've barely seen Guettier in the footage, but the big appearance was almost exactly two years before this when he was Delaporte's second banana against Hayes and Hunter. There's an interview segment at the start with Delaporte where he gets a lot of time to talk and it seems like Guettier just wants to get to it. And he really gets to it. Delaporte wrestles cleans right up until the point he starts to get outwrestled (relatively early on). He uses the ropes for leverage more than anyone we've seen, including on pins, which I think we haven't seen at all yet. He uses them to jam spinning grounded Mascaras headscissors, which is an interesting visual. Guettier's in control more often than not though, until about halfway through the match everything shifts. After being on the wrong end of some big headlock takeovers and a long-ish headlock sequence, Delaporte lifts Guettier over the top rope to the apron to break it and then just clobbers him to the floor. Guettier comes back with a vengeance and just unloads on him, including pressing him into the corner and pummeling him, and the ref when he gets in the way. At one point, the ref has to single-leg Guettier because he's so out of control. The fall mercifully ends with a few huge backbreakers and a power body slam into the pin (and is followed by Delaporte putting on a brilliant selling performance during the break). Guettier charges right back in to start the second fall but after getting beat on some more, Delaporte is able to reverse a push into the corner and he starts tossing Guettier around by his hair, ultimately out of the ring. Guettier grabs Delaporte's leg, however, and we get probably the best, most heated brawling into the crowd we've seen yet, and chaos as neither man can get in or stay in for long. At one point we get the visual of Delaporte tossing Guettier out by his hair and then, as the camera follows him, the referee flying into the screen as Delaporte tosses him too. Ultimately, Delaporte hones in on the leg with a series of cruel low kicks and a half crab which wins both the fall, and as Guettier is unable to answer, the match. There was a real sense of Guettier having a chip on his shoulder through out the match and Delaporte taking the utmost of offense to it and that made for a hell of a slugfest once things got going.

Isha Israel vs. Jean Rabut 6/4/59

SR: 1 Fall match going about 30 minutes. This was a technical match, and what a great one. These guys were seriously fast moving workers. Just one beautiful exchange after another. I was looking at the match time and wondering how the hell can they keep up at this speed for +30 minutes, but they do. They were executing basic stuff, like a headlock takeover or struggle over a pin from a test of strength in just a ridiculously high end manner. That pin exchange along with the muscle up may very well be the best I‘ve ever seen, and I must have seen a thousand. There were a few holds that they worked for a bit longer. There was a short arm scissor from Rabut, which was great as he had this ridiculously fast set-up and then a few different ways to prevent Israels escape. I dug how short arm scissors are consistently sold in a big way in this territory, as Israel was slow to get up, and Rabut immediately moved in for the kill. Few brilliant rope running sequences here that they move in and out of with such ease. Another lengthy hold was that straight jacket strangle hold, which was really sold like a choke by Rabut here, which is not something I‘ve seen much. You could see the pressure on his windpipe was troubling him. When he starts muscling out of it, you could see his veins popping. Israel had some ridiculously quick movements for a dumpy looking guy. Towards the end he takes a surprise bump over the top rope and comes back favoring his foot and then fighting off a number of leg hold attempts from Rabut. It doesn‘t stack up to much but it was a nice way to increase the drama for the finishing run. Crowd was really into this and rightfully so.

PAS: This was very much worked in that Cantanzaro vs. Cesca juniors style, which is the first exposure we all had to French Catch, but really isn't that representative of most of the French we have gotten. I am guessing that there were probably a couple matches per card in that style, but they rarely made television. It was cool to fall in love all over with the freaky takedowns and super fast rope running. I am a short arm scissors aficionado, and have loved all of the different variations we get to see of that spot in this footage. Rabut turning the scissors into a rolling cradle was badass, and I loved his ranas too, just whipping them off with a ton of snap. If we had gotten this match first, it would have been the legendary one. In context it is really great too.

MD: The best way to describe this was that it was much of what we've already seen, just at 1.5 speed, and a good deal we haven't seen much of on top of that. It was a lightweight title match, our first look at Israel and our first look in a match like this at Rabut and it was something. I think it was our first look at an actual title belt too (Israel was champ). There was so much work and effort put into every lock up. They slam into each other for the first and so many of the subsequent ones had little hand motions and fake outs. Rabut loved to go through the legs to set up holds. He also had a way of slapping away the hand, where Israel could be like a tornado spinning about and grabbing a limb. There was almost too much to keep track of here. They did go in and out of holds, but there was often an extra twist to them. When Israel caught Rabut in a bodyscissors off of the bridge breaking spot, he managed to fully flip him over at the same time. That sort of thing. Even a pretty lackluster long headlock early on was entered into with two huge flying headlock takeovers. That was the only lackluster thing in the match, by the way. Later on, Rabut entered into a short arm scissors off of a top wristlock takedown as quickly as I've ever seen, and then worked the hold through a half dozen escape attempts, all faster and with more oomph than we've seen. There were more nods here to limb selling than we've generally seen, but it only lasts until capitalization of it is over. Rabut stayed on the arm for a moment afterwards but Israel was able to dodge a lunge at his arm and that was it there. Later on, Israel took a back body drop out of the ring and came back with a hurt leg but Rabut could only stay on it for another move or two. There was a straightjacket choke exchange, where Israel held it and Rabut went in and out which I don't think we've seen yet and that was very good, the escape attempts and the hang ons and Rabut's selling. There was definite escalation despite it all too, with more knock downs and working of the counts towards the end before some frenetic rope running to build to a finish. Super high-end stuff here.

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