Tuesday is French Catch Day: Rene Ben! Peruvians! Bordes! Petit Prince! Von Chenok! Mercier

Teddy Boy vs Gerard Bouvet 12/16/67


MD: We get the last six minutes of this after they'd been going for a while and going hard. Teddy Boy is such a glorious jerk and he hits as hard as anyone we've seen. Bouvet might have been a half step slow compared to some of the smaller wrestlers we've been watching lately but he had some slick stuff, including a dive over a shoulder throw right into a cartwheel followed by a dropkick and the usual sort of stylist revenge spots like stomping on the hands and tying Teddy Boy up in the ropes for the rushing headbutt. This was building some momentum as a slugfest when Bouvet tossed Teddy Boy way over the top to end it.


Guy Mercier vs Karl Von Chenok 12/16/67

MD: The thing you need to know about Karl von Chenok is that he's not Karl von Kramer. You'd rather have Karl von Kramer. I'm also not sure I've ever seen a Karl von Chenok match that wouldn't benefit from being ten minutes shorter. There was nothing bad about this and a lot that was pretty good. Mercier, by this point, had developed an awesome array of back crushing offense, most specifically his bearhug swing into a backbreaker. He had a way of holding someone in a leglock and just beating the tar out of them with chops. He worked hard to get the headstand headscissors (Mascaras) spin going and made it seem like real effort. Chenok did one thing, his knuckles-in nervehold, but he did it exceptionally well. He had a way of sidestepping a punch and slipping it on that was as smooth as you could imagine. The match was full of struggle and at some points they were going from shot to nervehold back and forth again and again as Chenok remained dogged and Mercier unyielding. That was pretty novel actually. There was just too much of it. They never lost the crowd. It always felt competitive, even if Chenok was more of an oozing persistent presence than an electric, charismatic one. There was just too much of it.

SR: 1 Fall match over about 25 minutes. This was nerve hold city from Chenok. He had figured out a way to actually counter the european uppercut, so he was basically using that advantage to nerve lock his way through the whole match. Despite von Chenok bringing almost nothing to the table  besides some nice bumping, I‘d still call this a pretty good match simply due to Mercier being an absolute machine. The guy has these awesome greco roman moves, and even when he‘s doing a simple hold he looks like he‘s trying to twist something off. He also just started punching Chenok in the face at a few points and he did a tremendous job selling the nerve holds and chokes like his life was being drained out of him. And, his big backbreaker from a greco roman throw is just awesome and my new favourite move. He was ragdolling von Chenok like nobodies business with that. So yeah, that‘s how you good a good 25 minute match out of a guy as limited as Karl von Chenok. 


Petit Prince vs Bobby Genele 1/22/68

MD: We get the last six minutes of this as well and it's easy for people to miss as it was on the same video as Andre vs Van Buyten which we had covered independently. By this point, the Prince had really developed into a more complete package. His selling here is exceptional. There's a King of the Mountain in the middle where Genele keeps smashing or kicking him off the apron and the way he flies into the crowd and just milks it is Ricky Morton level. It's the same with his comebacks. He's more apt to have a real hope spot and then have it cut off than most people in the footage and because he's so small and so spectacular on offense, the crowd eats it up. That said, sometimes he'll do a backflip off of someone's shoulder to go through his legs and get a mare. There's a lot of wasted motion and the first time he does it, you're blown away but by the fourth or fifth time you see it, you wonder if maybe he couldn't create some more powerful effect at the end, like he does with the backflip off the top after hammering on his opponent in the corner to charge in hard with a headbutt to the gut. I think that's a criticism we'd have of him if he was a modern wrestlers. You can do six spectacular things to set up a move, things spectacular enough to overshadow the move, if you can rationalize it being about positioning, but maybe that move shouldn't be a mare? But in the end, we're just glad to have more footage of it. It's a shame we don't have the start of this as Genele was a great, chip on his shoulder rival for the Prince and what we got here was, on whole, very good.

Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes vs Inca Peruano/Anton Tejero 3/9/68

MD: Tremendous tag. You could have probably peeled a couple of minutes off the first fall and a couple off the third, and me sitting here in 2021 would have been okay with that, but I'm sure the 1968 fans would have felt robbed. Those two falls were what they were there to see, Bordes and Ben Chemoul triumphant again and again while Peruano and Tejero tried every move and trick in their arsenal to contain the stylists. I thought that maybe, just maybe Ben Chemoul was starting to slow a bit as he was aging, but then he'd fly so high on a top wristlock up and over escape that I felt almost embarrassed for doubting him. Bordes was right there with him with complex chain wrestling escapes that stood up to almost any we've seen so far. Tejero is as good as any heel we've seen in basing and stooging and getting mean shots in, but Peruano is a wonder, one of the most creative and interesting wrestling minds we've ever seen. Here he introduced some awesome headbutts to the back of the head (one into the corner) and an amazing sequence where he turned a full nelson into a whip around and a go under to drive Ben Chemoul's head into the corner. The second fall gave weight to the proceedings as Tejero and Peruano tossed Bordes out over the top again and again. The fans tried to help him, and later Ben Chemoul as he was getting tossed through the ropes, back in but the heels were unrelenting and Tejero ended it with a huge tombstone. The stylists were able to come back in the last fall and not just come back but hit a series of satisfying revenge spots. Peruano had gotten Bordes up in a fireman's carry and chucked him across the ring into a gutbuster onto Tejero's knee, so Bordes did a one man version of the move. They made sure to toss the heels out plenty as well and the fans were not at all quick to help. Ben Chemoul set up up a few celebratory set pieces with the heels tied up in the ropes and the fans loved it, though when the ref dared to give him a public warning for one in the first fall, his overdramatic misery for the injustice of it all brought forth the loudest sympathetic crowd chant we've heard in the footage maybe. Brilliant wrestlers doing brilliant things, with skill and struggle and intensity. Just about everything you want from late 60s French Catch.

PAS: Damn do I love the Peruvians, fell like a team which would get over huge now with their combination of wild innovative offense and crazy bumps to the floor. I can imagine how great Santana/Ortiz versus the Peruvians would be. The Bordes has to have the highest ratio of bumps to the floor per match minute of any wrestler ever, that guy spends a huge percentage of this match eating concrete. I love the use of the hammerlock spins by Peruano, so many cool ways working out of that set up. Rene Ben and Bordes are super athletic babyfaces who spend much of the match flying into cool headscissors and take downs, and take a thumping from the Peruvians when it is their turn. They really knew how to send the crowd home happy too. Loved both heels getting fed into big dropkicks for the dramatic finish.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Drapp! Delaporte! von Chenok! von Kramer! Calderon! Straub!

Andre Drapp vs. Roger Delaporte 9/22/60

SR:1 Fall match going 30 minutes. This was the first match in the collection I was underwhelmed with. Delaporte has been entertaining so far, but his methods came across as extremely basic in this. They were wrestling in front of a large, hot crowd, you’d think they’d deliver something special, but the work up to a certain point felt rudimentary. Drapp is clearly an awesome wrestler and I want him to grapple with the likes of Blue Panther, so seeing him going along with Delaportes by the numbers heel routine was a letdown. There were still some cool holds and pin attempts from Drapp and I liked all the parts where they started beating the shit out of each other. Even though Delaportes holds weren’t up to snuff here he still throws great stomps. To complete the match, they rang the bell about 3 minutes before the actual time limit just as both guys exchanged in a heated strike exchange. All that said, the crowd loved all of this, so I guess it’s just my miserable opinion.

MD: I'm higher than Sebastian on this one. To me this was just the classic, baseline French Catch stylist vs mechant match and while nothing totally wowed, it really highlighted the style and just how good everything can be even if they travel straight down the middle. If I had to show someone one match that shows off the exact center point of everything we've been watching, this might be it. It doesn't really go far in any one direction and never spends too long doing any one thing, but it keeps things moving and is constantly entertaining, heated, and spirited. The big spots aren't as big as in other matches. The slugfest towards the end isn't as mean or focused. It just hangs out in the middle but gives you a little bit of everything. Delaporte had some sort of trophy here. He also had put his mustache on the line, I think. After some early wrestling (where he shows a bit more along those lines than we usually see out of him), it turns into the usual antics. Delaporte gets clowned for a bit. He cheats and controls for a bit with brutal credible offense, getting the ire of the ref and the crowd. Drapp comes back with some harsh but justified revenge, and repeat. He's quick to snatch a leg and take every opportunity. His facial expressions are brilliant. His tantrums and antics are entertaining. His blows are just crushing. Despite all that, my favorite thing about Delaporte is that moment of tension on a break or when he's begging off, where you just don't know when he's going to make a move. It's palpable and builds throughout the match and while we've seen it in other wrestlers both in and out of this footage, he makes it work as much as anyone. This ended in a draw and the way he sold congenial relief over his mustache with Drapp (who wanted nothing to do with it) was almost as good as anything within the match itself.

PAS: Yeah I really enjoyed this too, Delaporte is clowning for a lot of this, but he is great at that, and is obviously going to take any shortcuts he can to save that stache. Drapp had a bunch of fun babyface mat spots, really working over Delaporte's arm, doing all kinds of cool shit around a body scissors, breaking out this awesome bear hug counter. He also at one point ties Delaporte up in the ropes and just tortures him tightening the ropes on his arms, kneeing him in the spine, it would have come off sadistic if Delaporte wasn't such a bumbling oafish heel, put different music on Home Alone and it is basically Saw. I liked Delaporte getting nasty at the end, he had some big hard shots including some punishing hooks to the body. Could have used a finish, but that is par for the course. This isn't elite, but man I think we are getting spoiled if this gets criticism, I can't imagine how high this would finish on a 2020 MOTY list, but I couldn't see it landing out of the top 15.

Karl von Chenok/Karl von Kramer vs. Gaby Calderon/Luc Straub 9/29/60

MD: This was sort of a perfect storm of being not so great. You had two nerve-hold wielding bald "Germans" vs the judo stylists. It went long ~40 minutes but we don't actually have the finish. The judo guys against better stooging heels could work. The nerve pinchers vs more fiery stylists could work. This was just an unfortunate combination. Nothing was done poorly. Nothing was blown. Everything felt competitive. The Germans more or less controlled the ring well. They were able to snap that nerve hold on consistently and from a lot of different angles. Everything was logical. Calderon had some good revenge shots and Straub had some ok flashier stuff. Von Kramer is really just an excellent pro wrestler when it comes to the fundamentals and timing. Even if I didn't love this match, I can't deny that. Von Chenok is a fine single-minded stooge. They worked a nice comedy heel clowning spot or two towards the end. It was just too much of what I rarely want to watch in the best circumstances, lacking in heat, lacking conclusion.

SR: I liked this more than Matt. A pair of carny martial artists terrorizing heels with judo throws and nerve pinches is a fun change of pace, and the fake Germans are an excellent heel tandem. Calderon even busts out a proto-flying armbar. Von Chenok was solid here using his nerve holds to set up elbowing people in the backs of their heads and there was some nasty throat work. Karl von Kramer  always looks like a great, tricked out wrestler and it’s a pity another match of his ended without a finish. Really looking forward to checking out more von Kramer.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Delaporte! King Kong! Tarres! von Chenok! Humez! Debusne!

Al Arajo vs. ? 7/26/57

SR: JIP with about 4 minutes shown. Very mysterious match. The fact that these guys look alike doesn't make it easier. This was a technical affair. There was a nice Solar esque pin attempt, cool double leg nelson and a great looking arm throw, but there was also stuff that looked quite blown. The winner takes it with a nice looking victory roll.

MD: Two Spaniards here, as best as I can tell. We just get a few minutes of this and it's not quite as smooth as we're used to. There's a good leg nelson spot full of the usual whacks and a full rotation armdrag which someone should be doing now, plus what I think was our first victory roll pin for a finish, but this wasn't enough to get a real opinion on either guy.

Roger Delaporte vs. King Kong Taverne 7/26/57 - GREAT

PAS: This was an odd match to rate. Taverne had a lot of charisma, and a great look but wasn't very good. He kind of reminded me of Bugsy McGraw, his shots had a lot of windup but not a ton of force, which was disappointing. He looks like a guy who hits hard, and everyone in France hits hard. He did take some fun showy bumps, including one over the top rope. He was a good punching bag for Delaporte though, who kept getting nastier and nastier, until the finish where he just starts punching him in the neck and back of the head, and even smashes the referee. Delaporte is a great heel, and this was a fun performance around a guy who was pretty limited. Kind of what I imagine a Bockwinkle vs. Baron Von Rashke title match might look like.

MD: Very interesting thirty plus minutes of footage. This is our first look at Taverne and he's remarkable. He's a huge lumbering presence, like a George Steele, but somehow more solid. I kept picturing the world's biggest and baddest Ed Asner, just from the put upon looks he'd give Delaporte and the ref (there's a certain Mr. Belvedere thing to Delaporte by the way, but I'll let Eric delve into that someday). Yes, he's lumbering. Yes, he's stocky. He hammers and swipes and bull rushes, but he's also able to do a lot of the typical spots we've seen so far. He's able to headstand out of headscissors, and hit a headscissors takeover out of an armbar. They did a lot of snatching at legs, both a single leg takedown and a double leg from behind, and at one point he was lightning fast at getting his leg around and escaping. One of the biggest spots of the match was them trading dropkicks and doing the big double miss.

Much of this was Delaporte trying to deal with the intellectual problem of King Kong Taverne, which is always a build I love. It meant for a lot of running away and going for cheapshots, of trying a hold, be it a headlock or armbar, and Taverne just out powering (or sometimes as noted, out finessing him). Delaporte would try something cheap and Taverne would respond in kind, twice as hard, and Delaporte would stooge and sell and run. There were some really funny exchanges, like both of them going after the ears at the same time. At one point, after Taverne picked him up and crotched him on the top rope, I was pretty certain the fans were going to get behind Delaporte, but he knew how toxic even a little bit of the fans' adulation could be for his lead heel role and he leaned even harder into being despicable. He had his chance after a dodged Taverne bull charge in the second fall and biggest spot of the match, a huge back body drop bump onto the floor. That led to a nasty king of the mountain segment with some more big Taverne bumps to the floor and Delaporte going all in on Taverne's eyes. The ref repeatedly tried to stop him and Delaporte clocked him for his troubles, drawing a DQ. So far DQs have been very rare (this might be the first we've seen?) and this left both guys looking good (and nasty/vile/bad, of course). Entertaining stuff.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going roughly 25 minutes. Holy lord, King Kong Taverne is a massive, massive man. Big, bald, hairy, built like a gorilla, he had the quintessential look of a guy you don‘t want to piss off. Delaporte, in the span of 7 days, goes from hated prick to almost a comical babyface as he tries not to get squished by the mighty Taverne. Some really amusing cat and mouse play and Delaporte going for clean wrestling holds ensue. This is our first taste of Delaporte in a singles match and he looks like a really good character worker allowing both his charisma and ability to shine. Taverne, despite his size, is quite good both at scurrying out of positions aswell as stooging and working sequences. He also just runs over Delaporte when he tries to get cute and throw punches, then makes sure to forearm him in the face in the ropes. Delaporte soon gets what‘s coming to him as Taverne locks on the mother of all bearhugs before throwing Delaporte like he was 20 pounds for the fall. The match took a drastic turn in the 2nd fall, as an overzealous Taverne misses a few charges, banging his head against the steel post and flying out of the ring. Before soon Delaporte is at him just trying to rip his eye out, biting and attacking a blinded King Kong with nasty forearms and punches to the face. Quite a return to form for Delaporte to go back to being such a violent prick. Before soon he has forearmed the referee and the match is thrown out. I am going to assume that French wrestling was booked like US studio wrestling except the matches were longer, because I can see this setting up the most epic arena brawl ever for Taverne to get his revenge on Delaporte. We don‘t have such a match, and Taverne only shows up once more which seems to be the theme of this French footage, we have hundreds of matches of great forgotten workers going 20-30 minutes and it‘s still not enough. Atleast we‘ll have plenty more Delaporte, maybe we‘ll see him meeting the guy to give him his comeuppance on TV for once. The ultra vicious streak he showed in this match was some of the most intense wrestling I‘ve seen in a while for sure.

Jose Tarres vs. Karl von Chenok 4/2/59 - GREAT

SR: 2/3 Falls match going roughly 30 minutes. Karl von Chenok was another Hungarian wrestler, although he was billed as „the German strangler“ here. His son, Jörg Chenok, was a decent middleweight working the German scene in the 1980s and early 90s adn appeared on British TV at least one time. As far as evil fake-German guys with strangler gimmicks go, von Chenok sure was no Dr. Adolf Kaiser, as he reeeally liked the nerve hold, but he looked a decent grappler and his european uppercuts sure were stiff as hell. Tarres was a Spanish worker with the legend saying he had metal plates implanted in his head, giving him the nickname „Iron Head“. His headbutts in this were tremendous. This was even further removed from typically beautiful French style pro wrestling than the previous match between Debusne and Humez. It was basically scrappy and uncooperative the whole way through and built around von Chenoks nerve hold vs. Tarres‘ headbutts, with both guys having good ways to avoid the other signature moves. Tarres was really brutalizing von Chenok with those, including a spot where he had him in a surfboard and rammed into the back of his head. Tarres also did a great job fighting out of von Chenoks nerve holds and tossing him around by his bald head. Von Chenok ended up busted open and KO‘d losing the first fall. Through this we learn that unlike in a British wrestling, in France a KO doesn‘t end a 2/3 falls match immediately. If the match had continued in the vein of that 1st fall I could have seen this being really great, but instead we were subjected to a lengthy nerve hold routine from von Chenok. Tarres sold like an absolute champ and you could tell he was a superstar quality worker though. If he had mounted some kind of epic comeback against von Chenoks tactics this really would‘ve been awesome, but I guess it wasn‘t in the books that night. At least we get some more matches of Tarres, including one against Dr. Adolf Kaiser who is the rich mans evil German strangler, so that is something to look forward to.

MD: This gives us a look at some of the diversity in late 50s French wrestling. Von Chenok feels a bit like Kaiser with his nerve holds, but with a sense of survival that would make Bernaert jealous. Tarres is a relatively huge guy with an iron skull who spends the entire match going for headbutts. Chenok spends the entire first fall diving to the mat to try to avoid them and then trying to grab a limb or lock in the nervehold. Tarres is just too strong and has too long a reach advantage, however. He can elbow out of the nerveholds, or even grab poor Chenok's ears and just pull him over. Every time Tarres does get a headbutt in, it's a lot of fun, especially if he strings together a combo with one to the gut and one up high or a few to the back before turning Chenok around and Chenok's sense of desperation is palpable. He was very emotive on close-ups, especially when he did lock in the nervehold for more than a second. We haven't seen an act in this footage quite as singularly focused as Tarres and his headbutts; he seemed limited but strong and spry. He used his size and strength well, including throwing some deadlift headlock suplexes. His selling in the nervelocks during the second and third falls when Chenok did manage an advantage was pretty solid too, giving us a sense of cumulative damage. You end up wishing this went the other way with some fireworks at the end. Ultimately, I imagine Tarres would be a great foil to all of the brilliant heels of the day. We have him in another 59 match against Kaiser and I'm looking forward to that as Kaiser is more of a stooge than Chenok.

PAS: I thought this was a blast. It was guy with an iron head (literally) versus a master of the nerve hold. For this kind of simplistic match to work, you need a guy with a great headbutt and a guy with a really nasty nerve hold, and we check both boxes here. Tarres, has a bunch of different cool ways to set up his headbutts, and Chenok was really fun trying to avoid getting cracked, only to fail and eventually get busted up. I also loved those deadlift suplexes, looks like Chenok wasn't feeding him at all and instead Tarres just yanked him over by his neck. Surprised at the finish, as Chenok just nerved him down until the match ended, I kept expecting Tarres to get one more big headbutt flurry, but instead he got put down.

Charles Humez vs. Paul Debusne 4/2/59 - GREAT

MD: Humez was a famous french boxer and Debusne a stooging heel, but this was very different than the Dauthuille match. In that, it was Dauthuille going for punches and Bernaert doing anything he could to avoid them. Here, the goal seemed to be to get Humez over as a capable wrestler. He wasn't nearly as smooth as most of the other technicians we've seen but he had a counter for everything Debusne attempted and the only way Debusne could get one over on him was with a hair pull, generally. Whenever he tried anything else, Humez would put on a full nelson and turn it into a cobra clutch. That's where we saw Debusne's real strength, sticking his tongue out and mugging. Eventually, he had enough and started to lay in cheapshot knees and even a straight on foul, which was when Humez decided that he too had enough and started to unleash forearms, jabs and uppercuts that just demolished Debusne. I'm almost certain I liked the Dauthuille match more but he came out of that feeling more like an attraction that might get old quickly while Humez came out of this looking like a solid wrestler who had a secret weapon in his pocket if you pushed him enough that he'd have to use it. That was an act with more legs.

SR: 1 Fall match going about 15 minutes. Humez is one of the great French boxers. OJ theorized that this may be his debut match, and it had the feel of a debut match. It felt like French pro wrestling, but there was no overlay elaborate stuff. Feels weird to see a middle aged guy with bald spots working a rookie match. Instead the match just turns into this nasty fight with Humez reacting to Debusne's shenanigans by tagging him and Debusne trying to gouge Humez eyes. It wasn‘t a Roger Delaporte level eye gouging, but it served to get Humez sufficiently fired up. Debusne ends up busted open and Humez takes him to the pay window. Humez has these cool left-right european uppercuts and Debusne was really good doing some noodle legged selling. It wasn‘t an epic spectacle, more like a fun way to debut Humez as this no-nonsense hitter, but it was really enjoyable and not having more Humez feels like a big miss.

PAS: It was odd to watch a different style fight where the Boxer is also such a superior wrestler. These matches are cool when they are a clash of styles,  here Humez doesn't even use much boxing until the end of the match, he is too bust tooling Debusne on the mat. I did like Debusne eye gouging and ball kicking to get an advantage, and Humez unloading on him at the end was awesome. I really liked the way he would use footwork and angles to unleash those uppercuts, he would shift his feet and to get perfect position and evade anything firing back, and really twist his waste to get full torque on the shots. Last couple minutes of this were as cool as anything we have seen from this footage, I just wished Humez had shown a little more vulnerability in what should have been Debusne's strength.

ER: Most of this didn't feel like a Different Style fight at all, but I liked it for what it was. Debusne really made this with his pratfall bumps and his endless bag of nasty cheapshots, and it's fun when a guy can be so in charge and shape a match while also getting maybe 5% of the offense. This was Humez beating Debusne at every single skill, never being on his ass for long, coming back and always dominating. He lands every shot, and every fair shot that Debusne tries for sees him whiff by several feet and bump halfway across the ring. I like Debusne's missed punch bump, as it feels like the kind of bump Burt Reynolds would take in movies when his character was drunk. Bandit standing up and doing a forward roll over the corner of the bed is done with a very similar motion as Debusne striking air and power flopping onto his back. The cheapshots are what really sold me on all of this, as the whole thing has been dominated by Humez until Debusne realizes he has another in. There were a few great ones that I've never seen, with my absolute favorite being his single leg takedown followed immediately up with a kick to the hamstring of that same leg. That feels like such a natural progression and so almost obvious for a heel to do, but it felt entirely fresh here. There were some not very sportsmanlike knees and I love how the nut shot was his undoing, stepping too far over that line that leads to his drubbing at the humorless hands of Humez. The Humez final punch out would have been great on its own, but Debusne took it like a man who knew he deserved this punishment, gettin rocked by every uppercut and finishing his extremely generous role in making Humez look like a star.


La Complète et Exacte French Catch

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