Tuesday is French Catch Day: Wasberg! Reggiori! van Dooren! Spartacus! Drapp! Bollet!

Eric Wasberg vs. Serge Reggiori 7/1/60

MD: This was 12 minutes JIP and we get the last ten minutes of it, and all I can say is that it was awesome. The VQ isn't quite as good as it could be. Both guys have very similar body types, similar enough haircuts. There were times that I could figure out which was which and times I couldn't, so I can't really do this thing justice. Maybe Sebastian can give you some better analysis here. Here's what you have to know from my perspective though. This was a middlweight match. The fans were very into it. While there wasn't a lot you'd call outright heeling or a severe lack of sportsmanship, it was incredibly aggressive. Everything felt turned up a notch. Explosive tight quarters dropkicks. Completely dislocating arm drivers. Every throw and every hold. And that's before they start the uppercuts halfway through. That begins with maybe the loudest single shot we've seen in this footage and it doesn't let up from there, all the way to the completely uncooperative looking press slam into a gutbuster that ends this. We've only gotten these guys in JIP matches and we won't see them again, so even though this was honestly exceptional, it's probably best to chalk this up as yet another sign of what every day French Catch could be like in this period

SR: JIP. We get about 10 minutes. Looked like a really good match mostly because these guys were doing some tight wrestling and also they really beat the shit out of eachother. Some of the stiffest uppercuts in this whole project, golly gee. Some amazing looking dropkicks too. Match was pretty heated and Reggiori drew a share of boos even though he was gentlemanly enough to help up Wasberg after finishing him off with a nasty military press into gutbuster.

PAS: This was some nice small space fist fight stuff. Both guys were just trying to decapitate each other with uppercuts, and the shots were so hard they actually sounded sweetened. The press slam gutbuster by Reggiori was a hell of a finisher.

ER: I wish we had the first half of this to see how their matwork advanced, but I love the slugfest we did get. Who knows, maybe they were kicking each other's ass like that from the bell? I have so very little interest for modern Japan forearm porn, but the passion in this and the variation in degree of contact and escalating bumps show how to do a great stand and trade. This is mostly Reggiori destroying Wasberg with heavier and heavier uppercuts. It felt like one of those great battles where one guy was refusing to die, making things worse for himself. I love how he kept ramping up his bumps, rocking back into the ropes, using them to stay on his feet, and how Reggiori kept after him. Wasberg shows he has life a couple times by rushing in with these cool shoulderblocks live I've not really seen. They were kind of like shoulder shrugs a boxer might use to create some space, only these shrugs packed legitimate power, knocking Reggiori back on his heels. The match ending KO gutbuster was wild, like the most violent version of Nikolai Volkoff's trunks yanking overhead backbreaker, like something the villain does to lose a point but cripple the hero in a fighting tournament movie. 

Spartacus vs. Jack van Dooren 7/1/60

SR: 1 fall contest over about 20 minutes. After the heated brawl in the previous match, we now watch Spartacus engage in some serious scientific wrestling. You’d think a gladiator would be more prone to having gruesome bloodbaths in the ring, but maybe those just didn’t make TV. Anyways Spartacus is a pretty elegant technician and there were lots of fun wrestling exchanges throughout. I especially liked a luchariffic crucifix pin attempt from van Dooren which Spartacus turned into a freaky deadlift and arm throw. Van Dooren eventually started working Spartacus over with nasty headbutts and kicks. The whole match kept building to the escalation for when Spartacus would return fire and when he did he just straight knocked van Dooren out with a massive elbow to the jaw. We’ve seen faces putting on extended revenge beatdowns on heels before that it almost felt like an abrupt finish but the build to it was so good that it paid off for me.

MD: Not quite as exciting as the last Spartacus match, but maybe harder hitting. Van Doreen was bigger, bigger than Spartacus actually. This was primarily set up to showcase Spartacus' many tools. Lots of escapes using bridges, cartwheels, and pure strength, all made the more compelling because he was visibly shorter. Van Doreen heeled it up more and more as the match went on, with the highlights being taking advantage during a handshake after a short arm scissors that Sparactus powered up and over the top rope. It was a hot crowd and they probably should have leaned into it more to get some more heat. There were moments in the last third which were a little flat. Van Dooren's headbutts always stand out when we see them. He can use them to punish a guy but also as a quick flash at the start of an exchange to give him an advantage. Spartacus had a good act, marrying the strength and athleticism with solid selling and a match-finishing fury.

PAS: I thought this was badass. Spartacus is such an odd quirky wrestler. He is this stocky escape artist with a wild counter for ever move put on him, crazy bridges, cartwheels, flips, he cannot be held down. van Dooren eventually stops trying to trap him and starts trying to stomp and headbutt him into oblivion. Spartacus then shows why he survived all of those lion fights in the Coliseum, by absolutely beating van Dooren down with elbows to the ribs, and a knock out elbow to the side of van Dooren's jaw which drops him face first to the mat. So many cool spots in this match, with Spartacus being one of the most fun guys in history to watch and van Dooren being a fine dance partner. 

ER: This was so good, and I actually thought it would fit in well with the very best French Catch we've watched. Spartacus has so many great escape tricks, a guy you really have to fight to take off his feet, and luckily for us van Dooren is a fighter. The Spartacus escapes are really fantastic, and I love how stubborn he comes off. It never looks like he's sandbagging spots, just that his opponent is working extra hard to make any headway. That struggle really peaked for me when van Dooren went for a big headscissors takedown, and by the time he leg strangled Spartacus to the mat it felt like a giant had been felled. Watching Spartacus not panic, shift his heels closer to the butt on his bridge, work his head out of the headscissors and get to his feet in one motion was super impressive. Plus, it never made van Dooren look weak, as the headscissors looked great and it came off like only a man with freakish body control could have escaped it. van Dooren moves the fight to throwing a ton of headbutts at Spartacus, crowd hissing and jeering, and the frustration the headbutts came from really landed. van Dooren tried to play Spartacus's game, but it's pretty understandable once he moves into landing headbutts and kicking Spartacus between the shoulder blades. I liked how those shots exposed some holes in the Spartacus armor, and his big elbow strikes during his comeback felt earned and victorious. 

Andre Drapp vs. Andre Bollet 7/15/60

MD: Classic match up here between an expert stylist and the worst rogue in Paris. The first fall was a showcase of Bollet's facial expressions as Drapp twisted him from one position to another impressively. There was more shifting from one hold to the next than we've seen much in the footage. Bollet would come back with inside moves: hair-pulling, leg grabbing off a rope break, shots to the throat, which he doubled down on when briefly on top. The second fall showed something we really haven't seen much of, delayed gratification for the fans. Bollet really worked to avoid Drapp getting his hands on him, using rope breaks and tossing his body at Drapp (both to set up headlocks and beales and also a battering ram) to avoid it at all costs. It was masterful stuff, balancing desperation and underhandedness and it paid off with the end of the fall. In the third fall they reset back to some stooging and comedy before building to a revenge-driven finish that still more or less protected Bollet. We have Drapp vs Delaporte from later in the year as well, and I'm curious how that is in comparison.

SR: 2/3 falls contest going about 35 minutes. We seem to be JIP’d slightly, which means we unfortunately don’t any Bollet pre match antics. This was very predictable but extremely high end executed predictable. Andre Drapp does some amazing wrestling and Bollet beats on him with nasty punches and stomps. I am totally fascinated with how this bodybuilder guy Drapp just wrestles like he’s El Solar. And I think Bollet threw more punches here than anyone else we’ve seen so far, it was like he just came back from a tour in Memphis. At one point he was giving Drapp the business in the rope and a lady got up and tried to pull Drapp out of harms way. I guess she just wanted to grab ahold of his leg one time. This was a bit long and had a kind of underwhelming banana peel ending but I still thought it was a strong showing for both these men.

ER: Matt's description of Bollet as the worst rogue in Paris made me laugh, and it's a great description of him. He kept the fans riled by sneaking in several cheapshots, which also made his genuinely great selling come off as crybaby-ish without actually being crybaby selling. Drapp would counter much of Bollet's cheapshots with punches right to the mouth, which Bollet would understandably sell as a man who got punched in the mouth. But the crowd would respond as if he was "drawing a foul" or overreacting! Bollet had some cool tricks, my favorite possibly being when he stood up while in a snug bodyscissors, and punched Drapp into releasing the hold. Drapp had really strong punches, and I loved how he sold Bollet's (first fall finishing) atomic drops, taking a back bump when the knee made contact with the spine. A lot of people sell it as a recoil, but Drapp's selling made it look like his legs had gone numb from the impact to the coccyx. The crowd was already treating Bollet like a coward, but his true cowardice came out in the second fall: clutching the ropes to avoid confrontation, turtling up to avoid strikes, clearly avoiding Drapp now that he was up a fall. Both Bollet and Drapp take big cartwheeling bumps to the floor here, and I dug how Bollet came out in the third throwing big closed fists, knowing the time for games was over, leading to a big moment where Drapp dropkicked him from behind to send Bollet flying super fast over the top to the floor. 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Bout! Van Dooren! Montourcy! LeDuc! von Chenok! Gastel!

Jean Bout vs. Jack van Dooren 5/7/59

SR: 2/3 Falls match going a bit over 30 minutes. We get some nice graphics before the match and a strange segment that appeared to feature van Dooren between the falls. The outstanding thing about this was its discernible structure. The 1st fall is straight wrestling, wherein van Dooren gets the advantage and is able to catch his opponent in a powerbomb for the win. The 2nd fall sees Bout starting to fight dirty, throwing punches, before grabbing a surprise spinning toe hold for the tap. The 3rd fall has more dirty fighting and Bout going for takedowns with van Dooren desperately fighting off that dreadful toe hold. It was pretty close to what we have seen from US workers, plus this had the French touch where they move through the holds much faster. There wasn‘t much in terms of athleticism, but van Dooren looked like quite the tank retaliating with big headbutts and Bout adapts to working as a bastard quite well. Van Dooren liked to go for a cross choke, and Bout had a few nifty ways to work out of it, there was also another short arm scissor that was sold in a significant way. Also, that toe hold was about as deep as you can work a move like that.

MD: Van Dooren is a bit snakebitten with this footage. He was in one of the first matches we saw (vs Di Santo) but then two of the only listed matches from the archive that turned out to be not there were Van Dooren matches (vs Allary and Tarres, the latter of which probably would have been really interesting). Ah well. Maybe they turn up some day. Bout, on the other hand, is a guy that I'm liking more and more. Which means, of course, this is the last we see him. Important note: Van Dooren's day job is real estate and we get a profile skit in the middle when he tries to sell houses. Amazing stuff.

The first ten minutes of this is Bout completely eating Van Dooren alive. Van Dooren will try holds and escapes but nothing works. There's a slight mean undertone between the two of them even early. Right before the ten minute mark, Van Dooren tries an armlock and Bout just clobbers him. I really felt for the poor guy. That leads to a nice transition however, as they repeat the spot, but this time, Van Dooren ducks it and is able to put on a short arm scissors that lasts a good three minutes, in and out. Van Dooren can't capitalize on it however, and when Bout's back up, it's with some brutal shots. Van Dooren fires back with two great headbutts, and they build to rope running, a killer dropkick and more Bout mauling. He ultimately slips on a banana peel, unable to get the flip up 'rana cleanly and gets power bombed to end the first fall. The second two falls devolved repeatedly into a slugfest, with more great Van Dooren headbutts, and some awesome low kicks to the legs by Bout. The best part was when they went out to the floor and brawled like total madmen. While it wasn't his sole focus, Bout did go for the legs when he could, and ultimately took both remaining falls with a spinning toehold. Considering that Bout caught him with gut shots or kick ups during certain attempts to go low, it felt natural and opportunistic. Ultimately, yet another really good match.

Claude Montourcy/Gilbert LeDuc vs. Karl von Chenok/Robert Gastel 5/23/59

SR: 1 Fall Match going 60 minutes. Yes, you got that right, it‘s a broadway. Gotta admit, even though I know how great the wrestlers at the time were and matches going 30-40 minutes not being unusual, I was a bit skeptical whether they could pull it off. And well I‘m a damned fool, because they just do. The heat for this was insane. It seemed like a big crowd and the folks were super engaged from the beginning. It only took von Chenok & Gastel 1 cheapshot to have people threatening to jump them. The heat is a big part of why the match works, but also all 4 guys were absolutely on that night. Gastel had fully transformed into a stooging, grimacing prick heel here, and he was absolutely fantastic. He really struck me as Murdochian again, knowing exactly what to do when, having all these fantastic exaggerated bits of selling, and looking like an asskicker when it was time to crank up the violence. Von Chenok is a bit weird, as his sole intent is to nervehold guys which should normally be off-throwing, but I have no problem calling his performance here great. The man had no problem taking some insane punishment and bumping his ass off. His bump for the european uppercuts was like the 1950s version of the Rikishi clothesline bump. I also loved his Ohtani like crybaby selling when his hands got stomped. He also went absolutely savage at times, including a bit where he went straight for an eye gouge and then dished out several knees to the balls. He did go for the nerve hold a lot, but for the first half of the match, the hold was pretty much broken immediately, so when he finally got to sink it in later, it felt like a big deal. Also, undoubtedly he worked great with Gastel in cutting off the ring.

Leduc and Montourcy were fantastic as well. We‘ve seen how great Leduc can be, but Montourcy really stood out as well. He had ton of slick moves, including a great roll through into a boston crab, and something that was like a grapevine atomic drop that Hechicero should steal. Both he and Leduc also had a variety of ways to escape von Chenoks nerve hold, which kept things fresh. Of course the main job of Leduc and Montourcy was to hit explosive dropkicks, punch combos and forearms, and they do that rather well, my god. At some point in the 30 minute mark, the match just turned into a frenzy and all 4 guys were dishing out serious punishment. It wasn‘t exactly Holy Demon Army level structure (save for Leduc hitting multiple powerbombs as the time was running out) and the match may have peaked with the initial heel beatdown on Montourcy (culminating in an insane tombstone piledriver followed by some BattlARTS level near-10 counts and nerve hold nearfalls), you could tell they ran out of ideas towards the end and just kept repeating their stuff, but with a match this great I‘m not complaining. These guys just beat the shit out of each other and in between that you had shit like von Chenok stomping someone in the back of the head or Leduc trying to bite someones ear off again. Also, Gastel refusing to go down and just getting hammered towards the end was awesome, as was his bump over the top that landed him in the audience. Also loved that they only started going for pinfalls like 55 minutes into the match and before that it was all 10 counts with the crowd counting along and the wrestlers being awesome selling near Kos. I could go on and on but I will just say that everyone in this match ruled and it was really great.

PAS: I have very little interest in watching a 60 minute match these days. Give me a solid 16 and take it home. This, however, was fantastic, and in the discussion for the best 60+ minute matches ever. All four guys are great in this, with a bunch of individually awesome moments and also a weaved together structure. I loved what von Chenok brought to this. A lot of the great French Catch guys are stylistically similar, which can bring a bit of sameness to even incredible matches, having a bald weirdo just trying constantly for nerve holds was awesome. I really came away from this wanting to see a LeDuc master of the headspin versus von Chenok master of nerve hold singles match. Gastel was a total package too on the heel side, vicious mean prick, who when it came time to bump and stooge went for it. Those piledrivers were gross and he really threw then with disdain. You can tell a great French Catch match if I am sending Daniel Makabe DM's about moves to steal and that Montourcy octopus thing got the DM treatment for sure. This is standing as our 1959 MOTY and we will be truly blessed if anything outdoes it.

MD: Sebastian covered this so well that it's actually hard to add a lot, which is crazy when you think about a 60 minute broadway. Let me reiterate a few things and try to add something though. The level of difficulty on this one was extremely high. It's one thing to structure a long match, a long tag match, when you have some fall breaks to build to. Here they didn't have one single fall and more over, like he said, they didn't even really go into the pinfalls until the last ten minutes. They had the crowd (announced mid match at around 2387) into it the whole time, booing, cheering, chanting! There was a moment where Leduc was able to time the grinding of his toehold with the chants even as Von Chenok kept grabbing at his head. There were underlying themes both in general (like the heels controlling the ring with VERY quick tags and the babyfaces able to fall dramatically towards their corner for tags with bruising forearms and uppercuts to follow) and specific (such as Von Chenok going for the nerve hold, or Leduc getting justice with the catapult), and maybe they ran them a bit into the ground, but the crowd never cared and it's hard to care too. Instead of falls, they built to big moments of babyface comeback and fire. Then they brought things back down either with the heels controlling or some longer, excellent holds around the 40 minute mark.

Everyone brought something to the table: Von Chenok's begging off, cruel and desperate attacks at the eyes, selling of his hand, and the single-minded cross-choking and nerve holds; Gastel's stooging and bumping, his bullying chops and great cut-off headbutts, those tombstones, the way he'd constantly try to cheat or get frustrated with the crowd; Montourcy's jumping knee attack, his dropkicks, his backbreakers late in the game, the way he'd cheer on Leduc from the apron or pull the rope back to give extra oomph to those catapults, and yes, that Canadian maple leaf style crab and the amazingly cool stretch drop into the rolling cradle; and Leduc being Leduc, headstands and forerams, the leg nelson, those crazy power bombs at the end (the angle on one being insane), the vicious elbows to stop the nerve hold, and just both babyfaces' selling when in peril around the 35 minute mark, which is some of the best we've seen in all of the French footage.

There were times where I was wondering if this was going to hold together, but ultimately it did, driven by the constant struggle, the quick tags and heel cutting off of the ring, by the triumphant babyface comebacks and revenge punishment, by taking the crowd down and then bringing them back up, and then by escalating things towards the finish by introducing pins and bombs. Then with all of the small details that tick past along with the minutes. Truly an accomplishment of a match.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Di Santo, van Dooren, Corne, El Gayo

We have unearthed possibly the greatest find in the history of wrestling footage scrounging. 300+ French Catch matches from the 50s-80s. Every Tuesday from now until we all die, we are going to be digging in and reviewing the motherload. We are bringing on Euro wrestling footage king Sebastian R. (aka Jetlag) to help us dig through this all, along with Matt, Eric, Phil and maybe Tomk.


Lino Di Santo vs. Jack van Dooren 1/11/57

SR: JIP with about 12 minutes shown. This kind of bout probably won‘t stand out in the long run of French watching, but it‘s really cool to check out. Both guys did some neat stuff. Di Santo had some Billy Robinson esque offense, nasty neckbreaker and the big backbreaker. I think of Billy Robinson as someone who had pretty advanced offense for 1970s AJPW, so seeing a guy bust out that kind of offense in 1957 is pretty wild. Both guys took some nasty bumps, especially Di Santo flying into the ropes trying a pin. Both guys had some cool ways to work around the greco roman knucklelock pin, Di Santo bridging out of the with van Dooren on top was pretty freaky. This is our first time seeing van Dooren and he looked good, busting out a cool luchaesque pin and uncorking some nasty looking headbutts that got a big reaction inicluding one from a full running charge, and Di Santo fires back with straight elbow smashes. Pretty cool to see how evolved this style was in 1957 already. Van Dooren keeps finding ways to reverse Di Santos counter attempt, and the finish sticks with this time. Nice stuff.

PAS: I agree that this probably won't stand out with all we have to watch, but this was still really good. Short arm scissors spots and knucklelock spots are two of my favorite time filler spots in wrestling, and they had some really cool variations on both, especially the knucklelock. This had a progression which seems pretty standard in these matches where we start with grappling and lead to big nasty strikes. van Dooren's headbutts looked great, and I loved his running in ring tope. The elbow smashes were pretty nasty, and looked more like a fight then a lot of the tired elbow exchanges in todays wrestling.

MD:  This is JIP and we're still getting our bearings to a degree (though less so Sebastian who can run circles around us in this specific area), but this was still a very complete experience. There are a lot of counters, both in and of themselves, and counters to counters, or counters that are attempted but blocked. There's never a sense of cooperativeness though, even with hammerlock go-behinds or complex double knucklelock or full nelson spots that should come off as more cooperative. Some of that is the setting and the effort that they put into it, but some, I think, is that because all of this is so new to me, you never know exactly what's going to happen.

Eventually the match settles into a really satisfying pattern. Van Doreen holds a slight grappling advantage. Di Santo will try a counter, get blocked. Di Santo will then get something to work, be it a back elbow or a hammering clothesline out of a hold; then he'll try it again only for Van Doreen to expect it and crush him. Whenever he gets frustrated and leans towards fisticuffs, Van Doreen shuts him down immediately with a headbutt and the crowd goes nuts. The match shifts towards the finish after Van Doreen goes for two running, leaping headbutts in a row and Di Santo's able to reverse the second. From there it's more back and forth and plenty exciting, with both strikes leading to more of that headbutting and Di Santo hitting an awesome 1950s frankensteiner. Every lateral press feels like a possible finish here but what we ultimately get of a really snug reversal sunset flip is satisfying.


Jacky Corne vs. Luis El Gayo 1/11/57

SR: A 23 minute contest in 2/3 falls. Luis El Gayo may also be „El Gayo“ or „El Gallo“ (it would fit his hair) or El Galio since the announcer keeps calling him something like that. One of the cool aspects to the old French footage is that there are a ton of Spanish wrestlers featured, so getting to a glimpse at that is really something special and something I never would have hoped to see, since the Spanish scene ended in the 1970s with a few later revival attempts failing. Jacky Corne is someone who shows up in matches all the way to the 1970s and 1980s, so it‘ll be cool to watch him for a nearly 30 year period.

This was the 60s lutte libre style that we saw in Cesca/Cantanzarro, both guys working holds while mixing in cool arm whips and headscissors. It wasn‘t quite at the transcendent level of Cesca/Catanzarro, as they didn‘t seem to have some things fully worked out, but they knew not to expose the business when a spot wasn‘t hit perfectly. El Gayo was right there working the French style, he had some graceful escapes, a cool headwringing snapmare and he did these awesome BattlARTS style 8 count near KOs when Corne started dropping the bombs on him. He also launched Corne to the outside with a cool throw from the ground in a nasty moment, then later took a big bump himself flying over the rope. Both guys were moving fast and really making their hip tosses and body slams look good. The first fall was going nice until Corne caught El Gayo with an awesomely timed powerbomb and then took him to town dropping him with some more before El Gayo would seemingly come back only to be caught. The second fall gets chippy with both guys really cracking each others jaws with thudding european uppercuts and elbows, the high quality audio and video that the French preserved really adding to each exchange. One of the cool things El Gayo does is he will move in like a Greco wrestler, grab a hammerlock behind the other guys back and use that to set up a move, in one case he uses it to drill Corne with a nasty tombstone piledriver which was pretty mindblowing even by 1957 French standards, unfortunately Corne didn‘t go to the Spanish school of selling and just kind of moved on in the match. I liked the feel that El Gayo was pushed to the limit and had to resort to making things chippy. After Corne threw him to the outside in a heated moment that lead to several cigarette smoking fans helping El Gayo back in the ring, both guys shook hands only for El Gayo to start throwing elbows and knees the next moment. Seconds later the Spanish wrestler had to resort to throwing a punch to the mid section, seemingly apologizing to the audience and being frustrated with himself for having to resort to such tactics. Once again, I really liked the rope running sequences and the finishes were good although I was hoping for the match to go a little deeper, I thought El Gayo was done a little dirty here although he did a great job telling the story of the match. Still, good shit and a treat to see.

MD: There's so much to digest in every single one of these matches, especially as, in most cases, this is the first time we're seeing these wrestlers. It reminds me of when I was trying to work out lucha to a good degree, though the narratives are a little more of what we're used to here. It's just being dropped into a strange land with a different language, different wrestlers, a different crowd, and the trappings of a different era all at once. That said, you can tell just how good all of this is easily. I love the amount of positioning. They'll do a complicated flip or twist or throw just to set up a second move. They create openings and they also take any repositioning or grinding by their opponent to work their way out.

Story here, as best as I can see is that Corn has a slight advantage and De Gayo keeps edging towards taking liberties, first with a bit kneelift out of a cravat, and then increasingly so. The crowd reacts accordingly. The finish of the first fall keeps it building with Corn turning a flip up rana into a powerbomb and then hitting two cradle release powerbombs. Every time, however, they defuse things with a handshake. It ultimately comes to a head in the second fall with De Gayo launching Corn between the ropes and out of the ring with a tricked out flipping armbar monkey flip (sic) thing. Corn rushes back in and almost immediately pitches De Gayo over the top rope. When De Gayo comes back in, he lands a cheapshot and as the crowd boos, gives a resigned shrug and a curtsy and it's a great bit of character that's well-received.

From there, they roll into the finish, with De Gayo not looking back. He has this tendency of wrapping his opponent up like the Rainmaker, but then doing awesome things instead, be it his bearhug-Robinson backbreaker or a nasty forearm or an actual Tombstone. The selling in these matches are interesting. They're letting things sink in, but a Tombstone (or a Rude Awakening as in the Di Santo match) stagger more than keep someone down. The traded blows come quick and heavy and the cost tends to be delayed as the crowd comes unglued. That happens here as Corn comes back in a big way. They bring things back down for another minute or so with holds, before bringing them back up for another round of uppercut trading and then finally, a slip through takedown into a bridging pin from Corn. He helps de Gayo up post-match and they hug and you get the sense that all's fair and fiery in the heat of combat.

If all the matches are like these, we've got a hell of a road ahead of us.

PAS: Watching these two matches, you can see the stylistic differences between French juniors wrestling and heavyweight wrestling. This was the same juniors style we saw in Petit Prince vs. Saulnier and Cesca vs. Cantanzaro, it was a little less mindblowingly athletic then those matches but this is a really fun style to watch, and these guys have a bunch of really cool unique stuff.

De Gayo was the guy I most impressed with, his bump to the floor was really crazy, and all of the rainmaker offense was way cooler then anything Okada has ever done. Matt made a good point about the big moves, that tombstone you figure would be at least a near fall, but instead it is usually roll ups that end matches, and big forearms and uppercuts which really lay some one down. I really like uppercuts and stiff forearms though and so I am perfectly OK with that

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