Tuesday is French Catch Day: Mercier! Kamikaze!

Guy Mercier vs. Kamikaze (Mitsui Dozan - Modesto Aledo) 10/4/71

MD: This is a historical match but ultimately a disappointment. At the start of the match Kamikaze unmasks. They claim this is because there are as many as 11 fake Kamikazes running around France wrestling and I believe it from some of the other things we've heard. We had seen Aledo in this get up one later time and it's striking. He was shaved bald and either had parts of his face taped back or makeup on to look unique to say the least. Mercier is a higher weight class and they note that both at the start and after the match when Mercier is interviewed and notes that this must be the real Kamikaze after all and he'd know after wrestling him. 

Either because of the weight difference or just to get over the gimmick (I think the latter), Aledo completely loses himself in the character. For such an agile, technically sound wrestler to do so is a skill of itself and worth noting and respecting but were we to get one more Aledo match, I would not want it to have been this one, historical or no. There really are no long holds, though there are a few clever takeovers. There are a lot of karate chops, a lot of cheap shots, some hair pulling, a lot of mugging. There is a taupie (I always miss the "i" I've been informed) escape by Mercier and even a very short giant swing. Mercier even does this really great press slam gutbuster, and at one point he does fire back with some big shots. Most of this, however is Kamikaze skulking around and chewing the scenery. Eventually, he hits too many throat shots and tosses the ref away and that's the match. A couple of good individual exchanges and you have to respect how intensely they wanted to establish the bankable character and push back against the fakes, but knowing what Aledo is capable of, ultimately disappointing.  

SR: There's a bit of irony in how Modesto Aledo is this legendary grappler, but most of what we have of him is him doing the Kamikaze act. It's grade A pro wrestling bullshit, but I can enjoy some bullshit pro wrestling. There's a lot of cool things about Kamikaze. The way he moves, the creepy demeanour and appearance, the throat chops and nasty chokes. That thing he does where he gets flung over the top rope and somehow holds on and slides back in through the middle rope is amazing. And Guy Mercier is a real wrestlers wrestler type who I think probably can't have a bad match. It makes for some fun unique wrestling to watch, although you do end up wishing they had archived Guy Mercier vs Modesto Aledo proper at some point. 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Kamikazes! Dumez! Cohen! M'Boba! Bernaert! Cohen! Trijo!

Kamikaze 1/2 vs. Maurice Dumez/Georges Cohen 10/4/71

MD: Our list had this listed as Guy Mercier vs Kamikaze but it seems like we don't have that one, which is a shame since Mercier vs Aledo sounded pretty great. That's not to take away from this tag though. If it was just the first fall, it'd be a real classic. Even with all three and the match getting thrown out at the end for the Kamikazes brutally cheating and tossing the ref around, it's still up there. That first fall, though, had the sort of shine/heat/comeback format you often find yourself longing for when watching the French footage and four absolutely game wrestlers.

At any point, I could make at least a healthy guess on which Kamikaze was Aledo. He'd be the one who was rolling around the ring and coming off the top more while the other one leaned more into the strikes and bruising and tossing people out. That's just a guess though. Both could base for Cohen and Dumez and both could rope run when necessary; one just seemed better at the latter than the other. Cohen and Dumez had a lot of the skills you'd expect from turn of the 70s French junior heavyweights, going up and over, or down and around on holds. Dumez was spry, following recent Bordes matches by springing his legs off the ropes while holding a headlock, and having some amazing bounding escapes from headscissors for instance.

They wrestled clean for the first ten minutes or so, but once the Kamikazes started to go dirty, they were great at it. They cut off the ring, used ref distractions now and again (and the ref, who was antagonistic to the stylists, apparently had recently suffered an eye injury, which justified some of it), and came off the top frequently for double teams. Aledo (I imagine) had a great wrenching double arm submission that looked nasty, and both guys used the hangman's noose choke over the shoulder. The quick comeback in the first fall and the more extended celebratory spot-heavy one early in the third were both very good. While the finish sort of stunk, even if it let the Kamikazes keep their heat, this had pretty much everything else you would have wanted from a 71 French tag.

M'boba Les Congolais/Pierre Bernaert vs. Vasilios Mantopolous/Jean Claude Trijo (Trichet/Trigeaud) 10/18/71

MD: This got a lot of time, though it was primarily situated in the first fall. It was probably better as a total package than just one fall though since some of the biggest spots and moments were in the last few minutes. Trichet (or Trijo or Triguad, I'm not sure) was ok in his role and had this one nice little bit where he locked in a hammerlock, leapt over his opponent's head and turned around with a dropkick. Bernaert, a true veteran and master, even countered it late in the match. Otherwise, Trichet was there to get beat on a lot so Mantopolous could make big comebacks. He also had assembly line uppercuts from stooging opponents fairly late that were pretty over. Bernaert was more than happy to stooge throughout, including trying to ape Mantopolous' trademark hand-offering draw-in and turtling for instance. Mantopolous was his usual star self. By this point, he was established and his act was incredibly over with the crowd but he constantly added in new bits, or escapes, or counters. He could do these big sweeping flourishes of headscissors takeovers or bounding through his opponents' legs but also head close-up precise counters to holds. M'Boba's act had advanced quite a bit since his first appearance too. He now took a boa constrictor out to the ring and put it into his mouth repeatedly. Fransizka the handler who discovered him was now his wife. He constantly wore that put upon look on his face but also seemed as likely to be found lounging with a cigar as biting his opponent. Anyway, this had a good balance of the stylists outsmarting and out-maneuvering their opponents and the heels cutting off the ring and drawing heat by working over Trichet's legs with some of those big set piece spots with all four wrestlers at the end. Bernaert is the steadiest hand in all the footage and Mantopolous remains amazing to watch.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Batman! Viracocha! Der Henker! Corn! Leduc! Kamikaze

Batman/Paco Ramirez vs. Inca Viracocha/Gonzalez 5/17/71

MD: A rare one-fall tag (or alternatively just the first fall of a longer one, but I don't think that's the case). Between this and the first fall of the Genele tag from last week, I think it's pretty safe to say, two years in, that most of these French tags probably would have been better if they weren't in an unbalanced 2/3 falls format. This was very good as a standalone fall. Neither of these Peruvian heels are Peruano but they're both very good in their own way. Viracocha can lean on someone and Gonzales had a wild energy with some big high spots that you'd expect out of a babyface like dropkicks and cartwheels. He also shouted Arriba! in one of his first moments in the match which popped literally everyone including the announcer. Where they really excelled was cutting off the ring and sneaking in shots to keep their opponents down in the corner. And feeding for the faces, of course. Batman looked as good here as we'd ever seen him, mixing in a couple of power moments that almost felt heroic in with his usual technical, tricked out stuff. Ramirez was a game partner, fiery at times, especially in drawing away the ref enthusiastically when his partner was getting double teamed. Just a really good, really solid tag.

Der Henker/Kamikaze vs. Jacky Corn/Gilbert Leduc 6/14/71


MD: This one felt special. First off, it was Leduc and Corn teaming together, which has been rare, just two of the biggest, best scrapping, technical babyface stars we've seen in the footage. They were greeted at the start by dancing majorettes and a marching band. Kamikaze may well have been Aledo, but it's hard to tell because he was so immersed in the gimmick. When he bumped, he bumped huge, and he was quick, but his offense was primarily chops (including high, low, high attacks), and he was way over the top with the stereotypical Japanese act. Henker was nothing if not consistent, an absolute monster. Much of the early part of the match was Henker shrugging off Corn and Leduc's technical wizardry. As none of the conventional wristlocks or up and over escapes worked, they built to Leduc's trademark headspin headscissors and that at least chipped away at him a bit. Towards the end of the first fall, they were able to get him out long enough for Corn to hit this amazing gutwrench throw on Kamikaze for the fall.

Henker became absolutely unleashed in the second fall, press slamming Leduc into a gutbuster and then just crushing him with a tombstone. Leduc ended up getting taken to the back (rare for this footage) as the heels continued to work on Corn, including another press slam gutbuster, and alternating tombstones from Henker and karate shots from Kamikaze, before a third tombstone meant that he couldn't answer the call. My favorite part of this beating was Kamikaze doing something I'd never seen before. He lifted Corn up in a Rude Awakening style over the shoulder neckbreaker and then walked him over to the ropes, slipped Corn's head under the top rope and lifted up to choke him with it while still holding the over the shoulder neckbreaker. Awesome stuff.

The third fall set things up to seem impossible for Corn. He barely recovered to meet the bell and, as the beating continued, he kept crawling to a corner with no partner. Then, suddenly the crowd erupted as Leduc somehow powered his way from the back. Corn rolled for a hot tag and Leduc started unloading on the heels (and the ref as well when he tried to get in the way). Henker would come back, but as the fall went on, Corn and Leduc would continue to get the upper hand until they could finally tie up Henker in the ropes long enough to score the win over Kamikaze. This wasn't the most technically sound match we've seen. It didn't have the highest workrate or the craziest moves or the most intense shots, but it told a hell of a story that the fans completely got behind and like I said, even in a sea of footage that gives us great wrestling week in and week out, this felt special.

PAS: This was really great stuff, wild over babyfaces mean flamboyant heels, wrestling at its best. I love LeDuc one of my favorite guys on the set, he has an almost Mr. Wrestling 2 vibe with a combo of dancing and asskicking. I loved him in the third fall, as he hit these super cool fast forearm combos, and then tying up Henker and catapulting  Kamikaze into him. Not sure if Kamikaze was Aledo, but he ruled, Aledo unmasked has less restrictions on what he could do, but Kamikaze was a tremendous evil Asian heel, cool chops big bumps, vicious and stoogy, exactly what you want.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Boucard! Cohen! Kamikaze 1! Rene Ben! Bordes! Kamikaze 2!

Daniel Boucard vs. Georges Cohen 12/26/68

MD: Tremendous match. It had that sort of chippy 50s feel of amazing wrestling with everything eventually breaking down but with that flashier 60s sheen. The first ten-fifteen minutes was just brilliant stuff, with them starting very even in their chain wrestling and on the mat and then giving way to Boucard with the advantage with a headscissors, wristlock, and full nelson and Boucard doing everything in his power to escape, only for Boucard to hang on. There was just an extra level of athleticism in the escape attempts. Cohen's bridge was extra sharp. The way he'd whip up to his feet to try to get a beal, only for Boucard to hang on, had extra zeal. The kip up getting shut down again and again just worked. Then, despite holding the advantage, Boucard went chippy first with a brutal beat down, uppercuts and forearms and headbutts and some interesting things like a neckbreaker and head whip. 

Cohen fighting back with a headbutt to the gut out of the corner had the crowd up big for the comeback and he got plenty of revenge (though Boucard always kept swiping back when he could), before Boucard went to the leg and we got a few minutes of really strong selling and legwork that only ended with Cohen managing to kick Boucard out of the ring in desperation. Following that was more revenge and the eventual rush to the finish. They were working towards the draw but it never felt like something inevitable given the speed and intensity and the attempts at actually winning, despite both wrestlers selling massive exhaustion as they flung themselves with hammering shots at one another. We've seen enough matches end in the last minute that you just didn't know. Top notch stuff here.

SR: 1 Fall match going 30 minutes. This was the best French singles we've seen in awhile. They start with a bunch of silky smooth technical wrestling. It was like one guy would go for something spectacular, and then the other guy would do something even more spectacular to counter, and then they would cool it down for a bit with holds before repeating. It's a good way to work such a match and these two were flawless athletes. Eventually Boucard decided to batter Cohen with European uppercuts. He wasn't being a heel, but he jawed with the crowd a bit and twisted up Cohens leg. Cohen sold like a champ and they engaged in some breathtaking strike exchanges, up there with the best in the project. They also do a bunch of bonkers nearfalls and unpredictable rope running building to some huge Cohen ranas. These guys did toe to toe strike exchanges about as well as anyone in wrestling history, real edge of your seat stuff, and the nearfalls and spots were executed fast and beautifully. It would've been a good match if they had continued in the vein of the early technical wrestling but the dramatic second half completely elevates this.

PAS: Killer match which hits all of the great points of French Catch. Really fast athletic exchanges early, cool matwork and counters. I loved all the early headscissors and full nelson work, just endless cool counter wrestling. Then when it got nasty it got really nasty with both guys throwing heat. Sometimes these matches just end in draws, but here it felt like the pace got cranked up to eleven and both guys were throwing everything they had at each other to try to steal a win. Right up there with the best stuff we have watched so far, and a match which should join the pantheon of all time great wrestling.  

ER: A 30 minute draw is one of the more unsatisfying things in pro wrestling, and yet there is not one thing unsatisfying about this 30 minute draw. This was paced really well for a time limit draw, with some nice technical wrestling that kept threatening to sprawl into something more violent, then would settle back down before things got too violent to return to simple matwork. Boucard worked like a more stiff Nick Bockwinkel, able to cleanly work the mat but never waiting long before throwing his whole arm into uppercuts. Once we got into the painful snapmares and uppercuts the match kept moving to another level, with Boucard laying a vicious beating on Cohen in the corner. Boucard's uppercuts were nothing but hard contact, hooking Cohen's neck and chin with his inner arm while slamming his shoulder into Cohen's face. The uppercuts are so nasty that, in my favorite part of the match, the large referee grabs Boucard by the traps looking like Andre the Giant locking in a nerve hold, dragging Boucard out of the corner just to get him to stop all the damn uppercutting. Boucard sells the pain of the nerve hold, the ref lets go, and Boucard casually walks back to the corner and rocks Cohen with his hardest uppercut yet. 

Cohen's comeback is really fantastic, firing his best strikes of the match, punching back with his own nasty uppercuts, hard clubbing strikes to the back, and monkey flips that land Boucard as hard as suplexes. I love how often they would wind up in the ropes on every side of the ring. They weren't getting tied up in them and separated, they were getting flipped into them and falling awkwardly into them, getting thrown across the ring and seeing their limbs whip off the ropes. Things get more desperate and both men start throwing from disadvantageous positions, leaping from their knees to land headbutts to the stomach or grazing punches, and the entire run to the time limit was some of the best off balance striking ever seen in pro wrestling. We see a lot of stand and trade now, or even kneel and trade, and seeing exchanges like these really highlights how awful a lot of modern strike exchanges are. 

This was not two men voluntarily standing in one place and taking turns, this wasn't two guys pulling up chairs to have a seated punch out, this was two men getting knocked around and then throwing from wherever they wound up. Cohen knocked Boucard down to one knee with a punch, then held his jaw firmly in place while he landed another, also from his own knees. They staggered into knew spots, threw kicks to create distance, fell, leapt to their feet with offtime strikes that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't, and they made it look like all rules of proper decorum had been thrown out. The time limit draw worked because Cohen and Boucard looked like they had completely forgotten about finishing a match within the stated limits of time, they only wanted to knock each other's block off. The crowd would buzz and roar louder with each mention of time, but these men were lost in a swarm of elbows and uppercuts, and we are better for it. 

Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes vs. Kamikaze 1 and 2 12/26/68

MD: Really good tag here, with a better balance then we usually get. The smaller Kamikize was most likely Modesto Aledo, though they were masked and leaning hard into the over the top Japanese gimmick, stalking and crouching, with plenty of shots to the throat. When the Kamikazes were really going and targeting that head and throat, they looked great, going so far as to win the first fall with a spinning hangman's neckbreaker hold after what looked like a Katahajime. The match was full of things I've seen before in the footage from all parties, including Bordes using a half crab into a bow and arrow or almost a stretch muffler, and Ben Chemoul using a reverse knee crusher to the back of the head. One of the Kamikazes rolled in from the top rope to hit a chop at one point adding insult to injury, and I think we saw one of our first cross-armbreakers too. 

Very imaginative spots all around, with the best one maybe being Bordes eating a whip into a back body drop over the top rope and bumping huge. Everything clicked, with the stylists both selling and hitting their big stuff well, to big response. I'm excited to see Bordes continue to develop as he was great at grinding down holds but also launching big high spots, like just throwing out a press slam into a gutbuster when it was time to pop the crowd. Ben Chemoul hit his somersault senton and corner torpedo and worked the apron really well when his pupil was in trouble. The last ten minutes were maybe a little too celebratory for the good guys since it covered two falls, but the heat leading up to that had warranted it and no one left unhappy.

PAS: Tons of fun shit in this match. Kamikazes were clearly super skilled, and I could see Aledo under one of those masks. I loved how slickly they moved around the ring, and the fun bumping on all of the faces big moves. Bordes taking that huge bump was a real moment as well, insane stuff which feels like something that should be made into a gif. I agree that the finish was a bit wonky. Kamikaze's were really formidable until they weren't Chemoul and Bordes take 90% of the last five minutes, it was all cool offense, but it sucked all of the drama out of the match. Still enough individual coolness for me to heartily recommend.  

ER: We've decided to make Daniel Boucard/Georges Cohen our All Time MOTY for 1968, replacing an excellent young Andre (Jean Ferrer) French match. Boucard/Cohen is 30 minutes of excellence and deserves its place on our list. 

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