Tuesday is French Catch Day: Cohen! Doukhan! Shadow! El Arz! More Mystery Wrestlers! One is Walter Bordes!

Arpad Weber vs Josef el Arz (JIP) 11/29/75

MD: We get the last 14 minutes of this. I'm though the guy in red was Guy Mercier, just from the way he looks and moves and hits and his fall away slam at the end, but I seem to be wrong. (We were told later that he was Arpad Weber) I'm not sure who the guy in blue is but I'm hoping we can crowd source it off of the announced public warning if nothing else. (And this was Josef el Arz which I should have spotted). It's a really good 14 minutes. The first few aren't super inspiring as Blue chokes and lays in nerveholds on Red, but once the comeback starts, they don't stop, just laying in big blow after big blow with some big bumps to the outside. Blue had great headbutts and wasn't afraid to throw them. Red had heavy heavy clubbering shots. This had more of a Red advantage in revenge, but Blue wasn't afraid to stand up to him and fire back. They were fighting to a draw but they were FIGHTING to it which is so much of what we want from this footage.

By the way, the date on this isn't incorrect. We have almost nothing at all in 1975. It'll pick up again in 76 somewhat at least. There still is footage to go.

Walter Bordes vs El Demonio Rojo(?) 11/29/75

MD: Somewhere in the last month or two of watching, we saw our last Rene Ben Chemoul match and I'm sad to see him go. He was such an interesting, unique wrestler, but Bordes is the legacy he leaves behind and we have more of his matches to go. Here he was up against a masked man who served well as a bruising base. Nothing was particularly novel in this match but it was cool to see certain things, like the fast rope running or Bordes bumping to the floor, or his endless cartwheels towards the finish, in color. The masked man had some mean shots, a step on the face, big corner whips, a fireman's carry drop straight to the floor, but nothing that overly stood out. He was simply good at his job. It was actually a little funny in the finishing stretch after all those cartwheels and dropkicks to see Bordes stop to play to the crowd instead of moving on with it and eating a little punch to his gut (not quite registered) for his trouble. Between that and the masked man not exactly selling a hard whip into the corner a minute or so before, there was just a slight undertone that they weren't 100% on the same page. In general though, this was a nice little Bordes showcase match, but in color.

Georges Cohen & Gass Doukhan vs Black Shadow & Josef el Arz 1/3/76

MD: I really wonder about these episodes with crowd noise but no commentary. Maybe what was kept was a different feed? The biggest advantage of color so far is definitely the ring jackets Black Shadow had a pretty amazing gold deal and then red tights. You'd think for how often they'd tagged, he and El Arz would match more but nope. On the other hand Doukhan and Cohen did match with blue jackets and white tights. Thankfully, we know all these guys and they're announced clearly. The downside is that we're already into 1976, having had almost no shows at all in 75. At least it'll stabilize a bit now again.

People ask about the quality dropping as the years go on but it really doesn't. This was just as good a tag as most that we'd see in the 50s or 60s, maybe not as hard hitting or technical, but with more actual heat than you'd get fifteen years earlier. In fact, there was too much heat here! The first fall ended with around eight minutes of Josef and Shadow doing what they did best: one would take liberties with stomps or shots and draw the ref so that the other could do it which would then draw the ref allowing for the first to take over again. This lasted through a tag but they had the numbers and momentum advantage, ultimately taking that fall. When the second fall started, Shadow immediately used a hairpull from the outside and a fan ran out of the crowd to throw wild kicks at him on the apron. Crazy scene.

Before and after that, everyone got to show off. For Josef, that meant hard shots and tossing his weight around. For Shadow it was bumping out of the ring over and over again, especially after getting dropkicked. The fans were so into the comeback towards the end that they started chanting Mamadou Mémé as if Doukhan was Rene Ben Chemoul or something. I've never heard them do it for anyone but him or Bordes. After the riot scene they let the stylists take over for most of the rest of the match, including some big double teams and heel miscommunication that led to catapults and the like, and a nice tandem finishing moment of Doukhan and Cohen hitting different things at the same time which I haven't seen to much of in the footage.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Lamare! Duranton! Bouvet! Cohen! Josef el Arz! Black Shadow!

Ted Lamare vs Robert Duranton 7/26/73

SR: 1 fall match going a bit over 20 minutes. We've seen so many stoic French wrestlers, that Duranton with his flamboyant mannerisms looks like The Rock in comparison. Lamare has thickened up since we last saw him, but he was still a decent wrestler. This started with Lamare outwrestling Duranton in fun ways and then builds into a slugfest. Duranton really liked his boxing stance and kept throwing punches which made him a bit more interesting than the usual heels. Loved the little punch combo he threw towards the end. I enjoyed these guys trying to take each others heads off with the uppercuts and the finish was memorable with Lamare going headfirst into the steel ringpost and bleeding. I thought Lamare needed to show a bit more fire or at least make another comeback rally to make this really good but it was a fun look at the heavyweights from the time period.

MD: Duranton did change with the times. He was 46 here and went from being a bodybuilder sort when we first saw him in 1958 to a Gorgeous George takeoff with the valet, to whatever he was now, sort of a flamboyant gladiator boxer who didn't actually do much boxing. He'd more get an advantage some other way and then do some strutting and shadow boxing. Though he was still full of antics (grabbing the ref's leg while in a hold, flailing about while getting spun around, etc), I miss the valet. I bet the crowd did too. Still, he could get heat and could still hit hard at times. Lamare was a game opponent. We hadn't seen him in a while but he reminded me here a bit of a Frank Dusek sort, meat and potatoes, no nonsense, technically sound, able to lock in a hold and keep it throughout escape attempts. He was a serious and punishing straight man, a disappointed stern uncle, to Duranton's over the top antics. Duranton received plenty of comeuppance but not the final, definitive sort, instead slamming Lamare's head into the post and winning by counting and then getting out while the getting was good. This is probably more interesting as another match in Duranton's collective works than anything that would stand on its own.

Georges Cohen/Gerard Bouvet vs Josef el Arz/Black Shadow 8/20/73

MD: This deep into the footage, we don't see too many wrestlers that we haven't seen before. That's true here but Bouvet is someone we'd only seen in a JIP singles match, so it's nice to see him in something lengthy. He paired up well with Cohen, quick and savvy, with strong, engaging selling, and some big spots with cartwheels and dropkicks. El Arz and Black Shadow are one of the more interesting bad guy pairings we've seen and I don't think I've given them enough credit so far. A Lebanese 44 year old and a black American 27 year old former football player (called, by the announcer, James Linton, who I haven't been able to find out a lot about), they were able to get a lot of heat. Some of that might have been just from who they were, but a lot of it was in how they wrestled. They had gotten down the pattern of double teaming in the corner > heel on the inside admonished by the ref > heel on the outside used the distraction to attack illegally > babyface partner tries to get in > double team again as ref is distracted by him > repeat the process. I know that doesn't sound novel but it was still a process being developed over these years and this is probably the best I've seen it in the footage overall. They also fed and bumped all over the ring and Josef especially was a great striker, with some nasty gut shots. Some of the tags were too easy but they did have to cover 30 minutes and the hot tag in the last fall did feel pretty hot and led to some satisfying crowd brawling, creative tandem spots, and the finish. This was good both as our first major look at Bouvet and maybe our best look at the Josef/Shadow team.

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 30 minutes. You won't be surprised to hear that the first fall of this had some amazing smooth exchanges and fantastic body control by Cohen and Bouvet. Not much matwork, just throws and rope running, but executed really sharply. The heels were hard nosed and tough and soon did a number on the faces cutting off the ring, but the faces kept retaliating. Same story as all these French tags, really. I liked El Arz who seemed to have some solid wrestling skill and Shadow had good stomps and stooging. It was a solid effort but there are so many amazing French tags that it takes a bit more than that to be memorable.

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

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

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

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

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

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Rene Ben! Bordes! Shadow! El Arz! Kayser! Mercier!

Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes vs Black Shadow/Josef El Arz 7/25/70

MD: Ok, we've now seen enough to say that Ben Chemoul and Bordes are probably up there with the best stylist tag teams in the archives (in the 60s, the competition would be Ben Chemoul and Cesca or some combination of Wiecz/de Zarzecki/Montreal) if not the very best. We'll have a few more matches with them but they've already come quite a ways. Or at least it's safe to say that Bordes did. He'd expanded his act and bound it even further with Ben Chemoul. The match was more of a celebratory stylist showcase, full of tandem bits of offense, dancing taunts that drew some of the biggest chants and singing we've heard from the crowd and some really imaginative stuff from Bordes. Josef and Shadow hit hard and were persistent but they were mainly there to feed and feed and feed and they did an excellent job keeping up and going up for everything. Bordes did have a number of new moves, suplexes into slams, fireman's carry gutbusters, and some of the most amazing cartwheel spots you'll ever see to go along with his double knee and dropkicks and technical moves. Unless the matches are duplicates, we'll see them against Shadow and Josef again and hopefully the heels get a bit more in those matches to add some drama, but as a showcase, this was really great stuff.

Peter Kayser vs Guy Mercier 8/22/70

MD: This was the finals of what I think was a one night tournament. At the least, they did the semi-finals that night too. What it meant was that the crowd was very much familiar and very much behind Mercier and against Kaiser. They were up for everything, to the point of someone grabbing at Kaiser's leg from the crowd during the first lock up. The first lock up! There was a sense of fatigue from the get go with Mercier looking exhausted even when controlling things, but that didn't stop them from really laying it in. Mercier has a great spinning fake out leg pick, which at one point, led to him dropping down on the leg and and a hold. While in the hold, he probably threw the meanest, hardest chops we've seen in all the footage. Why? Just because he could. Kaiser would come back with nerve holds and just blatant chokes. Mercier would fire back with huge shots. Kaiser would return suit. Due to its nature and the other times they worked that night, this was shorter than a lot of the matches we've seen, and maybe it was lacking a little bit of the complex technical prowess, but everything, down to Kaiser's chokes and Mercier's chinlock, looked as nasty as could be.

PAS: This is my type of shit, two mean guys hammering the shit out each other. It almost felt like a heel versus heel match do to how nasty Mercier got, even ripping out Kayser's under arm hair. The forearms and chops were really nice and I liked how Mercier worked the Indian Deathlock as a wear down hold, and all the ways Kayser tried to get out of it, the finish was a bit of anti-climax, but the work in the match was hard and violent.

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