Tuesday is French Catch Day: Bibi! Bernaert! Sola! Labat! Stein! Allary!

Cheri Bibi/Pierre Bernaert vs. Ami Sola/Jo Labat 9/6/59

MD: I really enjoyed this. If it was just a tiny bit tighter and had a little more heat (not to say there wasn't heat), it'd be towards the 1959 for me. This is definitely the best Bibi match we've seen so far and the perfect role for him, a looming menacing goon in a tag match who is going to cheat any chance he gets. The cheating here actually felt quite different from the roughish and almost playful Delaporte sort. Here it was unrelenting and uncaring. Rules didn't matter. Labat and Sola are guys we've seen wrestle each other and really just a perfect team. Bernaert is a cheapshot artist himself and complemented Bibi (they even had matching prison ring jackets). After a solid technical shine, the heels took over due to Bernaert launching a sneak attack out of a handshake (his second), and they kept control for a lot of this. It was primarily when the faces could incapacitate one or both wrestlers for a time (either due to Sola's crazy jumping tombstones or wrapping them up in the ropes) that they could beat the numbers game and the blatant cheating. Otherwise even fiery moments of comeback would get cut off the second they were driven too close to the heel corner. There was definitely heat, with trash occasionally thrown in at Bibi and he drew a reaction every time he menaced in the corner and the fans were into the comebacks, but it didn't boil over like in some of the other tags we've seen. Both heel falls were due to the faces getting too into their comebacks and slipping on a banana peel. Just really solid and highly accessible tag team wrestling.

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 35 minutes. JIP, but it seems like we join right at the start. At this point, we know exactly what we are gonna get from this match up. Bibi & Bernaert are a cheating superteam, and Sola/Labat have rocked the TV screens with their technical matchups. This was very much an A+ face team against a solid C heel team. Bibi & Bernaert are pretty effective at what they do, but they aren't going to surprise you, while Sola & Labat where always mixing all kinds of neat stuff. The highlight of the 1st fall was easily Sola just randomly launching Bernaert around with an out of nowhere Giant Swing. I also liked all the evaded stomps. Evading basic moves is always cool and they always neatly time these things. The 2nd fall felt like it should've ended earlier as both Bernaert & Bibi ate some nasty piledrivers and after some pretty good selling kind of moved on to a pretty standard finish. The same can be said for the 3rd fall which had Bibi taking a pretty cool spill to the outside and things heating up good before a banana peel kind of finish, which I guess was the usual way to have a pair of heels going over on TV. That being said when they started throwing hands this got surely as fuck and everyone here is such a honest to god competent pro wrestler so despite the structural nitpickings this was another highly entertaining romp.

PAS: I am higher on the heels then Matt and Sebastian. I thought they were really nasty jerks who didn't come off as genial or roguish, but just like cheap shotting bastards. Punches to the kidney's, stomps to the head, chokes, not really stooging selling, but getting dropped and stunned when the babyface teams fired back. I loved the final run, with both heels getting flipped into the ropes and getting the heck beat out of them, just a tremendous payoff. The big dropkicks by Labat near the end looked great and the fall on the missed one felt like enough of concussive force to lose a fall.  Labat and Sola are both solid skilled wrestlers, but I thought the goons carried this.


Johnny Stein vs. Michel Allary 9/21/59

MD: Stein is a guy who does everything right but still comes off as fairly dry to me. He engages the crowd, interacts with the ref. His stuff looks brutal. He tends to have compelling holds. He'll feed into bit fiery comebacks. He draws big heat (including getting swiped at from the outside here). I think there's just a limit to the ceiling of a stalking German heel in 50s France when you had so many other different interesting heels. I liked Allary here. Some of his comebacks seemed to come out of nowhere. He just grabbed on and got a neckbreaker at one point and he took the first fall with a lightning power bomb that seemed more like luck than anything else. He was great at fighting from underneath in general though, and he had some of the best selling we've seen in the footage so far, including an extended bit of selling his back after two big corner whips and some focus by Stein at the end of the first fall, even into the break between falls, and excellent selling on the floor and the apron after a fairly low blow towards the end of the match. The finish was, I think, our first tree of woe, leading to a DQ, but the most memorable scene here was Stein going deep on a STF after pulling the hair multiple times and the ref trying to pull him off making for a mass of bodies. Unquestionably good wrestling but maybe not what I was looking for this week.

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 30 minutes. This match was like a classical painting. Michel Allary looks like a Greek statue. Johnny Stein has a brow that makes Brock Lesnar look like a normal person. Allary is loved. Stein is hated. Although Steins act has all the subtlety of an anvil dropping on your head, he is quite effective. This was quite simple with lots of tight upper body holds and Stein looking like he would just screw Allarys head off. Dug the nasty chokeholds both guys did here. Stein was a German worker and you wonder if his simplistic wrestling was the result of the language and cultural barrier or if that was simply the style he was used to. Anyway, he was a physical freak who had no problem clubbing and getting clubbed which entertains me just fine, but what do ya know, he got himself DQ'd again.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Corn! Lamare! Peruano! Labat! Straub! Mann!

Sergio Reggiori vs Guy Mercier

MD: This is the last four or five minutes of a thirty minute match. It's a shame we don't have the whole thing. Mercier had his throws with a real power behind everything he did, more leverage and oomph in his movements than most people we see (and it seems technique based as opposed to just raw strength). Reggiori is a guy we'll just get bits and pieces of, but he was a mean striker, who was outmatched and took advantages to make up for it. Every time he did, Mercier would fire back with uppercuts. There's a great fall-away slam at the end, which would have been one of the most believable finishing moves we've seen but the time runs out a little while later instead.

SR: Guy Mercier, baby. I have no idea if his uncooperative style and suplexes are due to his legit background or because he was trained in some old philosophy of Catch that was forgotten over the years, but he is awesome to watch even in his young age. There was about 6 minutes of this and it looked like a fantastic match. Reggiori was a prick and Mercier just tried smashing his head in. No idea how French guys had better elbow smashes than anyone now but they looked awesome here. Really liked how Reggiori just dumped Mercier over the top rope like a piece of shit, and the overhead suplex Mercier hit was awesome. Hell of a clip.

Jacky Corn vs Ted Lamare

MD: Just good, struggle-filled wrestling. Here, they had a lot of time and they used it to create plenty of build which got paid off at the end of long holds and at the end of the falls. That was most evident at the end of the second fall, where Corn managed to get the better of one punishing hold after the next, ending with a long short arm scissors. It was enough to frustrate Lamare and once he finally got out (by sending both of them through the ropes to force a break), he started unloading shots. This let Corn go through the legs and get a pin. In some of the other matches we'd see, that'd be the end of it, and that'd be satisfying because it felt like real storytelling. In this one though, they seemed to always take an extra couple of loops around and that led to one of the best finishing stretches to a fall we've seen full of quick counters and attempts to put each other away. The match was full of extra flourishes. Earlier in the second fall, they set up a pin > bridge > bodyscissors catch spot, that we've seen a bunch, but went around an extra time first by having Corn shoot up suddenly before landing it. Little bits of variation like that matter to me and they had to matter to an audience that regularly watched these matches. There were a few things that I can't remember seeing in 50s Catch here too, a straight up Corn powerbomb (as opposed to a flip or a catch) and great Rude Awakenings, as well as some sort of flipping thing that didn't work out for him as he got caught and powerbombed (which set up the end of the first fall), and Lamare hitting a running (walking) power slam. A big chunk of the third fall was a sort of short leg scissors, where the two were quite tied up before things escalated into bomb throwing, both some of the aforementioned moves and an amazing Lamare flurry of uppercuts, punches, and headbutts against the ropes. Good stuff.

SR: 2/3 falls going about 35 minutes. This was certainly a 35 minute long match that flew by. Jacky Corn seems to be the go to guy at this point for these type of long technical lightweight matches. We won‘t see Lamarre again until 12 years later, and he looked good here. This felt a bit like the Atlantis/Panther of lucha. Jacky Corn may have absolutely no charisma, but you can bet matches with him will have a ton of that clinical French hold for hold styled wrestling. There was a great double leg split spot. Eventually, Corn lost the advantage and the second fall, which lead to him staging this great comeback against Lamarre. Some spots were not hit clean it felt like it needed a bigger crescendo at the end, but if I was to demonstrate the quirks of a technical French bout, this would feel like one of the go-to display objects.

PAS: This was a long technical match, and it is always impressive how much more dynamic the French versions of these matches are then the US versions. This had way more flash and excitement then your average Dory Jr. or Backlund match. Matt is right about the big bomb portion of this match, that Rude Awakening looked nasty and their forearms were about average for French Catch which makes them top 10% ever. All of the rolling leg work in the third fall was really cool, and I thought they did a bunch of cool stuff with the knuckle lock and short arm scissors exchanges. 30 minute plus matches are tough for me at this point of my life, but this kept moving at a nice pace. 

Inca Peruano vs Jo Labat 

MD: I really liked this pairing. Peruano is explosiveness and creativity, marred dramatically by a penchant to hang out by the ropes and take every advantage. Labat's the perfect straight man, technically sound, bemused at every moment of cheating and quick to want revenge and often get it. Peruano manages this expertly though, slipping back to the ropes with a scalded dog expression and then, as Labat turns again, only having been able to get in about a third of the damage he wanted to do, bursting back out with a trip or a shot to the back. This was JIP as the announcer was talking to the wrestlers from the later match, but it started with such a burst of energy and abandon before settling down into the format mentioned above. Peruano had such a way of luring an opponent in, drawing him to the ropes so he could shoot him off neck first or, when he could do it, locking in that hanging headscissors, or just setting up a double knucklelock entry that he'd step through over both hands to win the advantage on. Once he got it, he'd sneak in rabbit punches. Labat, on the other hand, just had to get his hands on Peruano cleanly to hit his uppercuts, knee crushers, or everyone's favorite, that trademark shoulder blast. Peruano would just slip through his grasp before long, however. That's why the rolling leg nelson with the stomps and face-rubbing was the most satisfying thing in the world. Even that didn't last long and it ultimately opened him up to Peruano's trademark cradle, though for a nearfall. It was hard to hang on to Inca Peruano for long. Eventually, Peruano just exploded on the arm and locked in the nastiest step over armbar for the win. Peruano is the most watchable guy in all of this footage, I think. You don't want to look away for a moment.

SR: We get about 15 minutes of this 1 fall match, which is nice. Before the match, Tommy Mann and Luc Straub are interviewed, which was cool. This started with some fast smooth exchanges of monkey flips and snapmares before it became pretty much an Inca Peruano tour de force. We know Labat is a good worker, but Peruano is just busy doing things you‘ve never seen before and it‘s a spectacle. Labat sinks in some of those cool armlocks we also saw in the Sola matches, but Peruano comes back fast and completely annihilates him with some ridiculously sharp arm work of his own. The fact that arm work led to a quick ending made this feel a bit like watching an Inoki match. It‘s cool to see competitive matches but I‘m all on board for the Inca Peruano megapush. Also, we get a good look at his amazingly detailled trunks design here.

PAS: Peruano is a revelation, what a unique freaky master of a wrestler. The overall skill level in this French footage is so high, but there isn't a giant difference between someone like Labat or Corne or Sola, which can make their matches a bit dry. Peruano is a one of one. He is always attacking from odd angles grabbing legs and arms, slithering out of holds, grabbing roll ups from the bottom. He almost reminds me of a jujitsu master, like watching Demian Maia. That finish was something, he just tears up Labat's arm until trips him and and locks on a violent step over armbar. One of the most dominant finishes we have seen.

Luc Straub vs Tommy Mann

MD: Here's another look at Mann (our last) and our first look at Straub, who's listed, like half the people we encounter, as a former champion of France. The first fall was generally very even with both wrestlers quite even and neither keeping a hold for long. I liked Straub's escapes which often had him two movements ahead (he'd work the back to get the head, etc.) and Mann was very good from going from one hold to the next. After Straub went up and over (with a bit more of a headscissors than usual) Mann had enough and unloaded with great hammering forearms. That gave him the total advantage, allowed him to hit a slam and pick up the fall, angering the fans. Mann came out punching after the break, but Straub was ready for him, getting some quick revenge, right until Mann cut it off with a rabbit punch while in a hold. From there, things start to break down, with Mann focusing on the throat and doing that cardinal sin that we saw him do last time, locking in a hold too long after bodily contact. The crowd goes unglued at this and starts launching things at him, including a newspaper, with the front row hammering the ring intensely. They ratchet it up a little more but then Straub comes back with a spin kick, driving Mann to the ropes, where a fan summarily takes a whack at him. The fall continues that way, with Straub locking in triumphant holds and Mann using cheapshots and late grappling until it escalates to a full nelson exchange and roll up. The final fall was more of the same, cheapshots by Mann and big moments of comeuppance from Straub. Towards the end, a woman rushes to ringside brandishing a cigarette and hammers the mat and it sums things up as well as anything else. We all love short arm scissors around these parts so for the finish to be one that rolls back and forth was equal parts tremendous and underwhelming considering the other holds we see in most of these matches. I think that was part of the point though. Mann just got all the more heat for submitting to it and avoiding more punishment. Straub was fine and could substitute for a lot of the babyfaces we've seen, but Mann was masterful in manipulating this crowd. It was amazing how much heat he could get for just doing a basic action at a time when the crowd absolutely thought he should be keeping his distance. It's also amazing that so few other wrestlers we've seen have gone to that length. That, in part, opens the door. If every heel did it in every match, it wouldn't stand out. When you get a foreigner coming in and just stomping all over the accepted norms, that's huge heat though.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going about 23 minutes. Both men are interviewed briefly at the beginning of the episode, while standing at the bar. Luc Straub is apparently the ex-champion of France. He is another somewhat nondescript, gentleman looking French wrestler and you cann pretty much know what to expect from this. Lots of Mann handing out grizzly snake pit styled cheapshots and Straub retaliating. Mann has really great cheapshots though, so it‘s a winning formula. At one point, he even does the Terry Rudge punch with the opponents arm behind his back. Man took the 1st fall early, which added a ton to the match as the crowd got REALLY into it and began willing Straub on. Straub doesn‘t do a a ton to distuingish himself from other French babyfaces, but I loved his rolling short arm scissor and the fact that it got a submission, even.

PAS: Man oh man Tommy Mann. He is the grandfather of that British asskicker style, Finlay's great uncle, Terry Rudge's mean stepdad. Just a heat seeking asskicker. He riles up the crowd by crowning Straub with vicious uppercuts, forearms and stomps and holding every hold a bit too long. The crowd goes bat shit throwing shit into the ring and pounding the mat, I am surprised no one took a swing at him. Straub was there mostly to be an opponent, but his rolling short arm scissors was an appropriate triumph of good over evil.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Sola! Bibi! Labat! Duranton! Debusne! Asselin! MOISE BESCH!

Jo Labat vs. Ami Sola 7/31/58

PAS: This is our second Jo Labat rematch, and it is fun to see how he varies his game a bit against the same opponent. This was a little chippier then their first match, as they broke into slugfests earlier, and the matwork was similarly nasty, with some manipulations of knee joints, and Sola grinding Labat's face into the mat with a arm scissors crucifix. We had some really moments of incongruous athleticism (although at this point it isn't really incongruous anymore) headscissors, ranas, a kip up missed double dropkick spot, and even an incubatory code red. The slugfest section near the end was harrowing, there were a couple of direct forearm bone shots to the jaw which looked like they crossed eyes. Great stuff.

SR:1 Fall match going a bit over 20 minutes. We get pretty much two main events on this episode of catch, which is good. This wasn‘t as good as their first match, but that is a high bar. For most workers, going 20 minutes would be challenging, but these guys just roll it out. The wrestling wasn‘t a ton different from their first match, they didn‘t grind out the holds as much, but these guys will do enough neat stuff to keep it interesting. In this case there were some nasty kicks from unexpected angles and some back rakes that makes this kind of match different from your typical scientific context. Once again, when it was time to do the forearms they just clubbed the living hell out of eachother with some of these forearms landing square in the face. Add another neat finish to make this a really satisfying matchup.

MD: When last we saw Labat face Sola, it was a technical spectacle, with holds and escape attempts, with Labat sneaking out a win by turning Sola's running 'rana attempt into a twisting powerbomb. In 1958. This was a few months later and more of the same. Just excellent stuff. By this point, we're more than familiar with the style, but you can still be impressed by the amount of effort that goes into the holds and into the prevention of escapes. They were so equally matched here, which was evident in the holds but even more so in the bits of escalation. They'd trade dropkicks or throw them both at the same time. When things did get more heated (something only really teased in the last match and more paid off here) you never knew who'd win a strike exchange. As always, Labat had those amazing shoulder blasts out of a cravate postion while Sola had both a bit more flash and athleticism and generally was the first to get mean (much to Labat's frustration). Another great finish and another win for Labat. Is there was a third match where Sola finally gets his day, we don't have it. The next time we see these two, it'll be tagging, and that should be something to see.


Robert Duranton vs. Michel Chaisne 7/31/58

SR:1 Fall match going about 25 minutes. I get the sense Duranton was perfecting his arrogant dipshit act here. It‘s really entertaining, he is not quite flamboyant, but he will make sure to let everyone know that he thinks of his opponent as less than him, that he is very concerned with his appearance, and that he generally thinks he is above all this. This was one of those crowd pleasing romps. Not a ton of hold for hold work and a surprising amount of impact moves, made interesting by the fact that something like a backbreaker is a nearfall in 1958. Chaisne is solid at his role of fired up guy who won‘t let this snob step on him, although I would‘ve liked to see him unwind and kick ass some more. Duranton pretty much carried this for the most part, even when doing holds he kick at Chaisne like a dipshit or try to sucker Chaisne in. One of the things I like in these old french matches is that they will almost always do another basic hold right before the finish, I guess to condition the crowd to keep paying attention.

MD: So, Duranton was very effective. He was super over. He helped Chaisne get over. But compared to almost every other wrestler we've seen in this project, he wasn't smooth all the time. There was a moment right at the start where Chaisne just had to linger for a few meaningful seconds before Duranton locked headscissors on and it was like nothing we've seen in 50s Catch so far. It was the first moment where we really, really saw the strings. And you know what? It probably didn't matter in the grand scheme of things, because Duranton was so haughty, so strong, and so quick to react or look to the crowd or muss his hair or step over his opponent, that the fans were a constant buzz here. There was even a "Michel" chant which was certainly rare for the 50s, from what we've seen, with Duranton (currently in a hold) making sure to pantomime a mouth with his hand to try to tamper it down to the crowd's delight. Everyone else in France may have been on holiday but these folk got their kicks from watching Chaisne lock in a rear stranglehold and elbow Duranton on the skull. 

One thing we've seen so far is that it doesn't matter if you're a former boxer or King Kong Taverne: you had to work the style, and Duranton has to work the style, even if, on sheer effectiveness alone, he was fine without it. And he hits about 2/3rds of what he's going for smoothly enough, which is less than average, certainly, but it's enough to not lose the crowd. Chaisne wasn't the most memorable guy we've seen but in the two occasions, he had these great kneelifts, so I was waiting for them, and they came after the ref pulled Duranton off him for blatantly choking. They, followed by double sledges and uppercuts, were worth the wait. Though Duranton, in his usual style, immediately went through the legs, scored a trip, and shoved his foot in Chaisne's face; when they ended up tied up together shortly thereafter, he managed to feign sporstmanship and break it again and again until Chaisne tripped him from for a big pop. Later on, after another ref break (this time for hanging onto the ropes while on top of Chaisne), Duranton snuck in a quick kick and then decided to just leave. Chaisne caught him. Just a few examples. He may have only been partially accurate, but he was always on, and thus a perfect foil to anyone who could manage everything smoothly.

PAS: I loved Duranton in this match, he had so much sauce. At one point he slams Chaisne and steps right over him like Iverson after crossing up Ty Lue. Chaisne is a good foil for these kind of flamboyant heels, he isn't super colorful himself,  but has great fire and isn't afraid to bang on someone or choke them out. I didn't mind the lack of smoothness, in a promotion where everyone is smooth, it is good to be rough sometimes.


Cheri Bibi vs. Paul Debusne 8/16/58

SR: 1 Fall match going about 25 minutes. This was a brutal fight. Debusne wasn‘t exactly a twig, but he looked like a child next to Cheri Bibi. And what do I know, Debusne looked damn great here crafting a match around Bibi. I can‘t tell if Bibi is actually good aside from being an absolute crowbar, if his detached mannerisms are intentional or not. But Debusne looks fantastic working holds and takedowns and selling the physical challenge. He was bending the fuck out of Bibis fingers and wrist, which is exactly how you would try to fight a physical freak like this, and at one point they did a test of strength which was sold as well as any test of strength in wrestling history. By the end Debusne was trying everything to beat down the bald guy, eye gouging, throwing punches, punt kicks, ground and pound, and Bibi responded with the kind of forearms, punts and headbutts you‘d expect in FUTEN or WAR. The match ends up being thrown out, which feels like a waste as this is the last full length from Debusne we got outside of the Humez match. But damn, what a show.

MD: I always feel like they put Bibi against the wrong guys. He always needs to just be up again an Ami Sola type guy, or more accurately, a Van Buyten. Someone who can take a beating and then come back big. They just don't really have that formula (your Tito Santana style shine-heat-comeback) in 50s French Catch though, so it probably doesn't matter anyway. But, on paper, Debusne really wasn't that guy. Last we saw him, he was a mugging heel trying to survive Humez with hairpulls. Here, he started out a lot the same, though he maintained more control with finger manipuation and wristlocks. Bibi's not the most dynamic guy in the world but he did put a lot of struggle into getting out of these holds and often sold a bit afterwards which I generally credit. He'd go to cheapshots during and after. The problem for him there was that Debusne would come right back with shots of his own. Therefore, they built and built, with more meanness and more shots and both guys getting shoved out, finally building this serene, beautiful moment of Debusne on top of Bibi, giving a thumbs down to the overjoyed crowd before hitting Bibi again and again and again. Bibi returned the favor by headbutting and hairpulling and choking his way back for more. It devolved into an outright brawl at that point, with the ref getting in the way. Debusne and his reactions and high emotion drove this but Bibi, like a moving brick wall with some deep suppressed feelings, played his part as well. In the end, it was all quite entertaining.

PAS: I thought this was a pretty great opponent for Bibi, I like contrast matches a lot, but I also appreciate mean motherfuckers beating on each other, and this was almost like a French version of Killer Karl Kox versus Dick Murdoch. I loved how Debusne tried to crack and break fingers early, but eventually just had to dispense with the trickery and just come straight at him. The finish run was about as brutal and awesome as you are going to see in wrestling, and Debusne giving the thumbs down before pounding on Bibi was a pretty iconic moment, some real Stone Cold Steve Austin shit. I have no problem with the match being thrown out, what the hell was the ref supposed to do?

Rene Asselin vs Moise Besch 8/16/58

SR: 1 Fall match going something between 15 and 20 minutes. We‘ve seen Moise Besch before, and he still looks weird as hell with his big head, bony body and teeth gap. He actually has his wife and kids watching this and kisses the kids before the match. Then goes on to be a total ham in the bout. What a mad bugger. This had some of the fast exchanges you‘d associate with the French lightweights, and Moise looks like an insect when he scrambles around landing on his feet or pulling his opponent into a sleeper. Asselin looked like a competent worker here but you‘ll be too busy gawking at Beschs eye gouging, dick punching lunacy.

MD:  Besch was a real character, the sort of guy the fans obviously loved to hate. He had his kids in the crowd and kissed them before the match and then went right on to utilizing strangleholds, goozles, and hairpulls a'plenty while complaining whenever a break didn't go his way or the ref stopped him from cheating. He also really threw himself into Asselin's offense, both the forearms and the takeovers, all of which generally looked great. He was opportunist but without being quite as cowardly and craven as some others we've seen. While this match did have its share of holds and escapes, I liked how a number of the counters were preemptive, things like Asselin ducking under another stranglehold chinlock attempt or Besch hanging on to the rope to prevent a throw. Honestly, Besch looked good enough to anchor a small-late 70s territory against various cycled-in babyfaces. He was engaging the crowd, the announcer, the ref, and his opponent that much. It's a shame we don't have more of him. I honestly wouldn't mind seeing Asselin pummel and throw guys either. This is it for both though. Ships in the night on our Catch journey, but at least they beat the hell out of each other.

PAS: This was a blast. I am bummed we don't have more Besch because he feels like an all time great wrestling oddball. He looks like a War Boy in Fury Road, and shows shocking athleticism for such a mutant. I loved the huge bump he took into the ring ropes trying to dive on Asselin, and there were several escapes where he just spun around the ring like a top. Asselin was another in the line of touch guy French babyfaces and he definitely took umbrage to Besch's horseshit and kicked his ass around the ring.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Chaisne! Labat! Drapp! Amor!

Michel Chaisne vs Jo Labat 2/27/58

PAS: This is a rematch from a 57 match between the two, and it is really cool to watch these guys match up multiple times to get a sense of what their formula is. The majority of the match is lots of really tight violent mat wrestling: Hammerlocks, short arm scissors, body locks, triangles. Each hold would be applied with vein bursting pressure, and the other guy would try to find a way to force his way out of the predicament. I especially loved Chaisne's body vice, he really felt like he was squeezing toothpaste out of tube. We get some of the best strike exchanges of the project in the last couple of minutes, with Chaisne landing hard slams and backbreakers, and Labat hitting these super cool looking shoulder strikes out of a cravate. Chaisne doesn't hit his dropkick finish as cleanly in this match which is really my only quibble. Excellent stuff, I could watch these guys match up two dozen times.

MD: This is, I think the first match-up from the 50s of any length that we've seen twice. I have to admit I wasn't paying enough attention to know if it's in front of the same crowd or not, but since both were televised, it's still notable. We've seen a lot of commonality in spots and sequences, but I was very curious to see if they would do things exactly the same or not. In this, I came off satisfied. That's the word I'd use. There's always something validating about seeing Tully Blanchard hit a double axe-handle off the second ropes onto a prone opponent or being able to justify Flair getting tossed off the top rope because he won the NWA title with a flying body press, or just seeing someone actually get a trip on a drop down. It was a similar moment here when, in the midst of the same long hammerlock exchange we saw in the earlier match, Chaisne managed the same up and over flip out of a mare position, only to follow it up with a trip and a cradle. In the other match the same idea had been punctuated with mares and a vertical press. Variation. Moreover, while they worked some of the same sort of sequences or spots (like the kip up-flip over escape on the top wristlock into a trip and deathlock) here it came at a different point of the match. All of that is revelatory in how they worked these matches. The finishing sequence was basically the same (though executed a little differently and yes, without the dropkick hitting as well), but the lead-in was more heated including maybe the best single home-run shot european uppercut we've seen in the whole project from Labat after his always cool shoulder shrug shots. Anyway, this was good, in the typical style, full of struggle and determination, both in the holds and the moves (including Chaisne's great pendulum backbeakers and Labat's straining bodyslams and the one bodyslam onto a knee) with really strong points of escalation.

SR: 1 Fall match going about 30 minutes. This was extremely similiar to their 1957 match. Which means it was good, but in a „more of the same“ way. The even did a similiar finish, but didn‘t pull it off quite as good. That being said, this had a ton of technical work that they nailed. I got thele that the purpose was to give Chaisne a rub by going even longer with Labat. Chaisne looked good, landing some athletic moves for a taller guy. Much of the match was accordingly pretty which I don‘t like as much as the matches like Sola/Labat from earlier where it‘s two guys twisting each other up in hurty lookng ways. Watching Labat, I get the feel that he‘s a good technical wrestler, but he would stand out more as a heel. He certainly has that type of charisma. The match turned heated when Chaisne decided to work over Labats back and they started hammering each other with those trademark european uppercuts. Love these kind of matches.


Andre Drapp vs Yves Amor 3/27/58

MD: This was another excellent match. 1958 is a heck of a year so far. Drapp really is tremendous. He hits hard, fights hard out of holds, believably takes back offense but doesn't completely eat up his opponents, has a charismatic connection to the crowd, has some really dynamic stuff, most especially the rapid fire dropkicks and the Shiranui finisher. Incredibly credible. This was our first look at Amor and I thought he was great too. He's bigger yet as the match went on he stooged and relied upon cheating and that leg dive out of a rope break more and more. It was, in a lot of ways, the best of both worlds, because he could bump big (even on monkey flips or out over the top), hit athletic stuff (including the up and over out of a top wristlock, for instance) as well as the small guys (so this wasn't a Taverne situation), had credible offense (some big clubbers or his really cool backbreakers) yet still had that heat-garnering visual dissonance of a big guy taking shortcuts. It also meant that he could more believably keep control when he did take over that way, so when Drapp came back it meant more than in some of the other matches with more craven heels that we've seen. He was drawing heat from the second he entered the ring and demanded that Drapp switch corners.

PAS: I am all in on Drapp, one of my absolute favorite discoveries from this project. I described him as Bruno with highspots in the last review, and he keeps that up here. We see his great Shiranui, some big dropkicks, and a bunch of nifty little moments too. I loved his grapevine leg takedown, and one spot where he hit the mat and spun around a couple of times to befuddle Amor before grabbing a leg. Amor was fun, too. He seemed really tall (probably 6'1, the French aren't a tall people), and was able to both use his size, and also show plausible ass when needed. He took some fun looking bumps over the top rope, which seemed safe but looked cool. He would fly over and catch an arm or leg in the ropes and get wrapped up. He really beat the shit out of Drapp in the final minutes of the last fall before ending up airplane spinned and pinned. Cool shit, and I am excited to dig into more Drapp, and to check out the couple of other Amor matches too.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going a bit over 30 minutes. Andre Drapp was a wrestling machine. Watching this short guy who‘s built like a tank doing all this lightweight style wrestling sure is something. Amor was a bearded guy who looked like he could be either a professor or a mob henchman. He was that classic French heel type. He didn‘t do much fancy but look tough and was kicking Drapp hard between the shoulder blades when he was down. He had some great stomps and body shots too. Of course Drapp knows how to get surely. At one point he just lunged up and punched Amor in the mouth. Amor has some nice big backbreakers and goes along with Drapps more technical stuff really nicely aswell as bumping big and showing plenty of ass. I felt like the match felt a bit cut off at the end, like they had material for 45 minutes but ended up ending it a bit over 30. I wonder if TV constraints sometimes forced that. Anyways, the fact they went +30 and it felt like it wasn‘t enough speaks volumes to how good these guys were. Excellent heavyweight bout.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Inca Peruano! Jacky Corne! Jo Labat! Ami Sola!

Jose Arroyo vs. Pierre Bernaert  2/11/58

SR: JIP with about 5 minutes shown. It seems like Arroyo is getting a push, as he makes short work of Bernaert. Bernaert did his usual spiel throwing underhand punches but gets what‘s coming to him as Arroyo rains punches from mount and uncorks some jaw loosening uppercuts. Exactly what you‘d expect.

MD: We have about five minutes out of over thirty of this and what it really has me looking forward to is the Arroyo vs Peruano match from 1960 that's still a ways ahead of us. Arroyo is definitely the same guy we saw last week, in with the crowd and prone to fits of violence. The clearest moment of that here was when he took a bit of abuse from Bernaert who was trying to prevent him from exiting a hold (including a grab to his ears), finally turned him over, and just paintbrushed him brutally. There was a fun revenge spot where both guys used a full nelson to slam the other's head repeatedly into the top turnbuckle and a neat little moment of Bernaert unlacing Arroyo's boot to exit a headscissors and get an advantage afterwards. Just a taste but a good one.

Jo Labat vs. Ami Sola 2/11/58

SR: 1 Fall match going a bit under 25 minutes. This was what the announcer called a „combat de gentlemen“. Ami Sola is building a really solid rep in this style of wrestling, and what a style it is. Some ultra tight armlocks and headscissors in this, the kind of zit-popping, grinding stuff that you watch old wrestling for. I love the throws these guys do, they look just legit enough for me to appreciate their beauty, and I‘m a sucker for guys getting chucked to the mat hard for a wristlock. Labat has a cool charisma, a really rugged looking technician. The match heated up when Labat knee dropped Solas shoulder at an awkward angle and really grinded his shoulder and wrist. After that it was nasty upkicks and both guys clubbing each other with uppercuts that sounded like hammers coming down. They never got downright evil, but there was the vibe that these gentlement were damn well gonna club the snot out of each other in the name of civilized combat. Downright ridiculous finish.

MD: Very good stylist (which is even what the announcer calls them) match. Sola is spry, able to use his reach advantage, quick to kip up or occasionally dodge out of the way to get ahead. Labat is stockier, but able to dart through the legs or even occasionally overpower Sola on a top wristlock battle. It's hold and escape, with some building into spots or shots. Sola has an amazingly broad European uppercut. Labat's are shorter and closer but he also has that unique short shoulder whack too. It's a lot of hanging on to holds through counters and escapes but there's certainly a visceral sense of reaction here. The escalation comes from somewhere. It has meaning and weight. For instance, there's a great extended section which began with Labat driving a knee down onto Sola's arm to get an armbar, which became finger manipulation. Sola scored a headscissors out of it and continuously jammed Labat's head onto the mat as he tried to headstand out or otherwise escape. Therefore, when he got out, it was with uppercuts flying, until things settled back to holds once again. Just excellent wrestling.

PAS: This was tremendous, excellent hard hitting mat wrestling which even got a little nasty at the end. Really impressed with how nasty both guys made the grappling. Sola's headscissors was incredible looking. If this footage was in color I imagine we would see Labat's face turning Brock Lesnar purple. Similarly Labat twisted and torqued Sola's wrist and arm in really violent and painful looking ways. There was also a lot of flipping out of holds and spinning into things, which looked even better when the holds they were flipping out of looked so forceful. Loved when it picked up too, every French wrestler in the 1950s throws better forearms then any wrestler in the 2020s, and the finish with Sola turning a Labat rana attempt into a folding pin was a total time machine move.

ER: I don't have much to add, and my opinions don't differ from the guys. These kind of French grappling matches are so cool, a masterclass in snug holds and not letting your opponent have any openings. You won't see any daylight on anything here, and the headscissors are among the greatest I've seen. I loved all of the work around full nelsons, both men keeping each other so tight they could have had these standing exchanges inside a phone booth. The way they'd whip through full nelsons, swing into a wheelbarrow but get dragged back to their feet, spin around and wind up back in the same full nelson was spectacular. This had a lot of flipping and twisting to gain leverage, but it never felt flowery, always felt necessary to advance position. It's no shock that several things felt decades ahead of their time, as "Ahead of Its Time" is on the French Catch masthead at this point, but the finish and a couple of the pins felt like a couple more examples of execution ripe for the stealing.

Jacky Corne vs. Inca Peruano 2/21/58

SR: 2/3 Falls going about 20 minutes. This was JIP to right after the first fall, which I‘m a bit salty about as I‘m sure the opening matwork between these two was great. This was another nifty match which was largely a mix of two guys doing some nifty wrestling and also cracking each other really hard. I thought Inca Peruano stood out head and shoulders above Corne here. Not that Corne is bad as he has no problem trading holds and handing out jaw cracking uppercuts, but Peruano was doing one cool thing after another. There was some great indian deathlock work including a Negro Navarroesque submission, and when it was time do play rough he had some great uses of a hammerlock too. I also really enjoyed his headscissors which Corne initially blocked but then he did a fast crawl and threw Corne anyways. Really fun inventive work. The finish could‘ve been bigger but it worked.

MD: Of all the matches for us to only get two out of the three falls of, why this one? What we got was a total war, seeping with animosity. There was about two minutes of the match where Corn had a leglock cinched in and Peruano was kicking him in the face (and doing that clap to the knee to drive a foot into the face) every chance he had to try to get out, with Corne peppering in punches to the knee. That was what this match was all about. After every major advantage, the other wrestler made it up to uppercut the hell out of his opponent. There were big moves (our first real atomic drop, a gutbuster, a Robinson backbreaker, a rope assist headscissors takedown, knee crushers), tricked out holds (Corne with some nasty arbars, Peruano with a standing Navarro style scorpion deathlock and a great bridging leglock that he was using as a pin), but what the crowd the most into was a simple exchange where Peruano kept trying to pin Corne and Corne kept bridging up. There was even familiarity as Peruano was able to jam Corne's attempt at a catapult back onto the knees, which we've seen him use before, and Corne was able to stop Peruano's second go-behind hammerlock with the aforementioned Robinson backbreaker. Finish was great, full of build and payoff as they basically did the Bret/Piper WM8/Bret/Austin SS finish, which felt novel in 1992 let alone 1958. These two were made for each other.

PAS: This really felt like a war, even the opening shot of both guys sitting on the stools exhausted looked like something out of a 80s middleweight boxing match. Peruano is one of the most unique Catch wrestlers, and this is a cool chance to see him add those unique touches to a big time fight.  There was some really cool work around a knucklelock and bridges which still felt gritty. It is hard to do a bridge out of a knucklelock and have it look like a fight, but they did it. I also loved Peruano slipping into a full nelson and driving Corne's head into the turnbuckle before punching him in the back of the neck, only to have him try it again and get rolled up for the pin. Really looking forward to what 1958 brings, as these were a pair of classics.

ER: What a fight, a match that forced me to let out nearly a dozen guttural grunts just because of all of the brutal strikes. Corne was so punishing, coming off like Drew Gulak's bad tempered grandfather. Peruano was crafty, and Corne would put a quick stop to that craftiness by making him see stars. I loved the whole sequence around Peruano trying to slyly headscissor Corne over the top to the floor. Peruano got backed into the ropes and had his feet crossed around Corne's neck in an instant, but Corne blocks it and Peruano has to grip the ropes and accept his fate. Peruano manages to run on his hands and get an in ring headscissors, but it is a small victory as Corne bends Peruano's legs into a damn tight Indian deathlock, and fires a concussive blast down on the back of his neck. The uppercuts here are as stiff as any pro wrestling strikes you've seen, and a lot of their work would stand out as notably violent in Futen. Corne drops Peruano with an awesome short atomic drop, and Peruano's selling of it looks like a guy surprised at how badly his tailbone suddenly hurts. Everything here landed as if there was no such concept of pro wrestling, and these guys were just doing all of these moves as legitimately as possible. That legitimacy elevated this to great, memorable heights.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Chaisne!, Labat!, Couderc! Sola!

Cheri Bibi vs. Andre Cheauveau 8/2/57

MD: This was a lot of fun. The last ten minutes of an almost thirty minute match, apparently. At first glance I thought Cheauveau was a pure coward, another in the recent string of outmatched heels, and he was outmatched here, but he was more craven than cowardly, with a defiant streak that cost him. If you want to watch Bibi just maul and overpower some poor bastard, this is the match for you. I don't know what happened in the first sixteen minutes, but there's enough here to guess, and whatever it was, it certainly made the crowd WANT to see Bibi clobber him. Cheauveau would hide behind the ref, would go for those quick, desperate leg dives, would use the tights and sneak out of and engagement by dodging past Bibi in the ropes, but he also had the gall to spit in Bibi's face and to toss him out and then kick him on the way back in. When tossed out himself, he'd go for a chair. Bibi had such a credible act, between the mean, clubbering blows, the hulking, stalking presence, and those beady eyes, just a once in a generation wrestling look to him, so that every time Cheauveau showed mind-boggling hubris, you had the sense that Bibi just hungered to get his hands on him again.

SR: JIP match with about 10 minutes shown. Not that you get a ton out of this as it was the kind of bout that kept spilling but not really building. Cheauveau seems some kind of joker. He was begging off and neck chopping Bibi amongst other things. Cheri Bibi was on form here and pretty much waltzed through Cheauveau like Stone Cold and this had enough nasty forearms and head stomps for me to give this a pass.

Michel Chaisne vs. Jo Labat 8/2/57

MD: Very good technical match. Both Labat (who is new to the project) and Chaisne (who we've seen before against villains like Kasier and Bernaert) wrestled clean though things got heated in the end. Labat was smaller but had a strength advantage and took the initiative for most of the match. Chaisne was taller and imaginative in his holds and counters. They worked everything extremely hard, lots of long in and out holds including the extended short arm scissors with probably the earliest chronological "through the ropes" hang on out of a deadlift that we've seen. Things really picked up in the last few minutes after Chaisne took offense to Labat using a foot clap repeatedly to escape a hold but Labat fired back with a headbutt and these cool short shoulder bursts. It led to rope running and an amazing dropkick for the finish. I'll be happy to see Labat again (and if I'm not mistaken we have him vs Chaisne once, Sola twice, Peruano once, and with Sola in a tag against the awesome sounding team of Bernaert and Bibi). 

SR: 1 Fall match going about 25 minutes. This was a clean match. The first time we see Labat and he played nice. The technical work here won‘t blow you away if you‘ve seen a lot of French stuff but it was good. I like how rugged some of the flying headscissors felt, some would miss their targets and for others the guys would fall weirdly like in a real fight. The crowd comes alive when they finally start throwing forearms about 20 minutes in. Labat has this really cool thing where he locks on a cravate and than just rams the guy with an uppercut. Absolutely loved the finish.

PAS: Really cool slow burn match. Started on the mat, with some very cool technical wrestling. I am in the bag for cool short arm scissors spots, and they really had some neat variations on that hold including the cool spot in the ropes Matt mentioned. The last couple minutes were as heated as anything we have seen from this footage. The knee strikes by Chaisne leading into those crazy shoulder strikes, into a Meiko Satomura in GAEA Girls level dropkick. That is the way you put an exclamation point on a match, and turned it into something truly memorable.


Moise Besch vs. Jo Benardo 8/8/57

MD: Whew, this was a pretty nasty seven minutes of footage. Lots of hair pulling and cheapshots and face grinding and headbutts, with a few huge high spots (piledrivers and dropkicks, and Besch tossing Bernado over the top rope). Just a real sense of animosity that lasted even after the match ended.

SR: JIP 10 minutes in with about as much shown. These are two weird looking guys. Moise Besch was the kind of guy to make Billy Catanzarro look normal. You don‘t see people with faces and body shapes like that these days. As far as the match goes, it was some kind of lightweight contest that had a fair bit of niggle. There were some piledrivers that ended up kind of no sold which is enough to get a match on my bad side. Gotta love how tight the finishing pinfall was, though.


Jacques Couderc vs. Ami Sola 8/8/57

PAS: This was worked like a lucha maestros match, with both guys working technical exchanges to show their skill. There was a ton of skill to, with Sola continuing his run as the master of the rana, he uses the rana as less of a throw and more of application of a headscissors submission. It is cool shit and they work a bunch of cool counter spots around that rana, with Couderc trying to pin Sola's shoulders only to get flipped back around with the rana, and finally ending with Courdec hitting a powerbomb to break. Couderc also sidestepped a Sola rana, causing him to rana the referee, which is a spot I am shocked I haven't seen in lucha matches. There was also an incredibly cool spot with Sola putting Couderc in a leg stretch, and all of the ways they had to work out of that. There was a little chippiness at the end with Couderc breaking a bear hug with some chops to the ears and the ribs and big uppercut. This 1957 footage just keeps delivering huge, I love all of it.

MD: Excellent match that combined a sportsmanlike technical nature with a lot of flash, the best version of some exchanges that we've seen, and some things we hadn't seen at all yet. There was so much to see here that it's hard to pin it all down. They'd escalate into strikes (and Sola's were really good) and then bring things back down with a handshake. Despite being very sound, there's a theatricality to Sola, the kip up headbutts, the running 'ranas. They worked an extended 'rana into headscissors/pin attempt counter spot that we've seen before, but really laid into both the subsequent bridge up 'ranas, and the jamming deadlift powerbombs. Definitely the best of its type and I doubt we see better. The match was full of grinding holds and tricky counters and desperate persistence to escape. There was also an amazing comedy spot of Couderc leaping out of the way so that Sola 'rana'd the ref. Plus Couderc doing a waistlock takedown into an amazing flipping grounded crucifix that we've definitely never seen before. They nailed the small details too, those little elbow grinds to the knee or rakes to the back to stop a wrestler from getting out of a hold. Just top notch stuff that stands up to anything we've seen in the footage so far.

SR: 1 fall match with about 20 minutes shown. There seems to be some clipping, but nothing too annoying. This was like the French version of a bomb throwing sprint. I could see this exact match happening in Korakuen Hall and the crowd going bonkers for all the ultra stiff european uppercuts and upkicks they did. It also helps that Ami Sola is a gentleman looking dude with a classy mustache and Couderc is balding and cleary muscular but a long way from having visible abs. There wasn‘t a ton of hold for hold work here, but the bits they did were great and felt really fresh. There was an awesome body scissors spot, a great wrist stretch from Couderc and some nifty leg trips amongst other things. Couderc also turned a headscissor sequence into a series of deadlift powerbombs that would make Takaiwa wince. Couderc may have been the man of the match but Sola held up. He uncorked some brutal headbutts and what may very well be the nastiest leg stretch I‘ve seen in any match ever. He looked like he was about to pop Coudercs hip with that. And, I feel compelled to say that these guys were bumping hard as motherfuckers. The ending crescendo was also damn great with these guys eating upkicks and bumping around like mad. The upkick is such a basic spot that nobody remembers these days but hot damn it looks awesome in these matches and these guys will fly face first into it. It was nice to see that the crowd seemingly filled up to watch this match. True to form, Couderc does not show up again, but it‘s save to say he made his mark in this sole appearance. This was a mix of high end technical work, brutally stiff and with a sense of classy athleticism. Exactly the kind of awesome unexpected match to remind us all that French pro wrestling was fucking awesome.

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