Tuesday is French Catch: Khan! Gasparini! Voinet! Kasbarian!Straub! Gugliementi!

Iska Khan vs. Jean Gasparini 7/11/65

MD: We haven't seen Gasparini since 57, when he was thoroughly trounced by Hayes. He's still the game guy, a complete Italian stereotype (the commentator was talking about the crowd throwing tomatoes at him that he'd use for sauce later post match). He reminds me of Jason Schwartzman from the most recent season of Fargo. That makes him a better foil for Khan than Hayes, probably, and this was fun for what it was. Khan's quasi Charlie Chan act, with lots of bowing and chopping and clever foot usage to get out of holds, was definitely over. He also always has a bit more of an edge than you'd expect. At one point, after Gasparini was working nerve holds in and out of the ropes (including recoiling Khan neck first off of them in that old French way that's no longer used now), Khan repositioned to send him sailing out and then charged after him with some brawling on the floor. Gasparini had to resort to cheapshots and stalling for the most part, but he was good at it. Khan's got mad at the end as Gasparini tried to keep him out of the ring and fired back with chops and a final sequence which apparently used secret ancient marital arts to completely paralyze his opponent. He had to undo it after the match. Entertaining stuff with just a bit of an edge.

SR: 1 fall match going about 15 minutes. Gasparini is a rugged looking heel with a mustache who likes to hit shots to the body. This started as a fun tour of Khans spots before Gasparini decided to crank up the violence, even brawling Khan on the floor and swinging the ring steps at him. In turn, Khan started busting out the chops. Felt a little short (Gasparini went down pretty fast) but I enjoyed it.

PAS: I really enjoy watching Khan, he has a bunch of fun chops and eye pokes. Gasparini is a fun pasta and red sauce stereotype Italian, I just wish he hit a little hard. He was throwing body shots and I wanted a little more marinara on them. It did end up getting pretty heated at the end with Khan and Gasparini throwing bigger shots before Khan dropped him for good. I dug this, love Khan, but it was pretty unremarkable overall

Gil Voinet vs. Georges Kasbarian 7/11/65

SR:1 fall match going about 15 minutes. These are two guys with excellent build. Match-wise there was nothing outstanding they grappled a little and Kasbarian started cheapshotting and Voinet fired back and then they took it home. It felt like a match between two body guys.

MD: Like what we often see, but bigger. Both of these guys were definitely heavyweights and they still worked things with holds and escapes. Everything just had more oomph behind it, more shoulder blocks, more slams. Kasparian was quick to go to shortcuts and quick to complain when legitimate escapes got cut off. When Voiney ultimately got mad, his fiery blows were massive and the crowd well knew it. The technical bits weren't as smooth (even when Voiney would do something really impressive like cartwheel out or when Kasparian would try a huge flying headscissors out of an armbar only to get jammed and shrugged off) but they still absolutely worked. Voiney won with an airplane spin but his fireman's carry gutbuster was probably the most impressive single thing in the match.

Vasilios Mantopolous vs. Daniel Noced 7/16/65

SR: About 3 minutes are shown. This was an episode were the pre match on paper looked more exciting than the main event, but it seems these guys weren‘t that familiar with each other to produce a match similiar to Noced/Prince. They hit some hard uppercuts and fast rope running and I enjoyed that.

MD: This is kind of a weird few minutes. It had a few good spots and an ok energy, and maybe it's just because we didn't get the majority of the match, but at times they seemed to match up oddly. There were some starts and stops and some of the acrobatics (like Noced trying to land on his feet out of a monkey flip) weren't at all hit clean. I imagine if we had the longer holds earlier in the match, this would have still been pretty good though.

Luc Straub vs. Giacomo Gugliemetti 7/16/65

SR: 1 fall match going 30 minutes. Matt was wary about this going in, but I thought it was decent catch. They worked simple holds, with enough resistance and intensity that I got into the match. I dug Guguliemetti here, liked how he worked a chinlock, liked how he sold Straubs first chop as if his eardrum was shattered, really liked how he clutched his own arm after hitting Straub to put over how hard he was hitting. Straub didn‘t do any goofy stuff, no judo either though. Bit long match and needed more escalation but I enjoyed myself.

MD: I have to admit, I was sort of dreading this one, and that's before I knew it was going to be a draw. I did know it went around 30 minutes and I knew that Straub's been pretty tough to watch in tags lately. The judo thing only takes you so far, especially in tags where there's a lot of shtick and comedy. This was wrestled straight, though, and it was solid. I'm not sure I needed thirty minutes of it, but it was solid. They would build to blows (with Guguliemetti losing his cool) and then take it back down. It never really boiled over, though, as Straub would fire back but then want a handshake and reset into holds again. What worked was the struggle of the holds, the selling in the moment and immediately thereafter, and the variety that Straub, especially, brought to the table. They didn't really do long working in and out of holds, but instead used a wide variety: a rolling leg nelson, cobra clutch, a short arm scissors, the Mascaras headscissors (which we now know predates him), a body scissors, hammerlocks, Gugulimetti's arm-switch stranglehold, etc. With a couple of fun escapes and dropkicks by Straub here and there and the strike exchanges fun even if, like I said, it never boiled over. If we were beggars and not choosers with this footage, we'd probably rank this fairly high. As it is, it's a half hour of very competent wrestling that never quite feels great.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Saulnier! Rabut! Manneveau! Bernaert! Zarpa! Straub!

Michel Saulnier vs. Jean Rabut 6/20/65

SR: 1 fall match going a bit under 30 minutes. There was some blindingly fast wrestling in this match. The kind of French Catch you can show to someone who has never seen French Catch before and just watch their jaw drop. There was a nice hard-fought feeling to it too thanks to both guys never letting their guard down and struggling fierce over the holds. Both guys getting upset and shoving each other around made the match, but they kept it clean and we even got a finish. Depending where you stand those animosities not boiling over into a full scale war may or may not have detracted from the match. One thing is for certain: these two put on a high end technical match which we haven‘t seen in a while.

MD: A real masterpiece of a juniors match. The announcer starts by calling them "Lilliputian," when comparing their heights, but there's not a single person in the crowd that holds that against them as the match moves forward. Rabut was pushing 40 here and Saulnier maybe around eight years younger and that played into the match, both for the chip on Saulnier's shoulder and, as the announcer speculated late into the match, the idea that Rabut might be tiring out first. The holds were very much what we've been used to in these settings, but faster, sharper, full of more oomph, with an additional twist or two at the end, one more escape reversal than we would have gotten a couple of years earlier, one sure tight reversal cut off and reversed itself. As the match went on, they got more mileage out of the casual shoulder slap to signify a release of a rope break than any match in history. It started congenial, but built to one or the other returning the favor and, generally, Saulnier getting hot over it. They ran parallel spots around it. At one point, Saulnier annoyed Rabut, who immediately put him down with a headbutt to the gut off the ropes (one of the first actual shots in the match) only for Saulnier throw one back the first chance he had. 

There was an excellent extended headlock sequence mid-match which felt driven by Rabut wanting to cool off Saulnier whose shoulder chip was becoming a fiery chasm. Later on, when Saulnier took it a little too far and Rabut was unleashing stuff on him, he too went for a headlock to try to cool things back down, driven by a sense that maybe he took it all too far. It never quite went over the top. They'd throw uppercuts and forearms and unleash knee crusher, but they always took it back down to holds or to the side for rope running and pin exchanges. The close-up work was brilliant throughout, little manual repositionings of one's foot in order to get leverage to escape a hold, a fake up high to set up a rolling leg pick (when Saulnier got really hot towards the end he outright swiped at Rabut's head to drop down for the leg), Rabut's tendency to slap away a hand to get the advantage on a lock up. They worked every hold, constantly looking for an escape or some way to keep it on. I imagine by the twenty-minute mark, the crowd envisioned a 45 minute draw with the two swiping at each other or going for fast pin attempts as the bell rang, but around 30, Rabut missed his opportunity to get a pin off the ropes and Saulnier came back with a deep (and deeply worked) jackknife pin for the win. Post match, despite the emotions that flared throughout the match, Rabut seemed pretty pleased with what they accomplished. As wrestling-as-sport goes, this was top notch, believable, emotional stuff. We'll see Saulnier switch roles over the next few years and Petit Prince enters the equation, but he was excellent here as the fiery upstart, with Rabut the skilled journeyman steering the ship.

PAS: This was really skilled impressive stuff. What really struck me watching it was the speed in which they would get up on their feet after taking ranas and armdrags, it was like watching a glitch in the Matrix. The actual grappling was also really class, with both guys doing minor tweaks and adjustments to holds which were a couple of degrees off from what you are used to watching in pro-wrestling. I kept waiting for this to break down into rough and tumble violence, and the uppercuts which were thrown here had really meat behind them, it never really got there though and thus didn't have the escalation of the truly tip top catch matches. That keeps it out of 1965 MOTY for me, although it was really breathtaking high end stuff for sure.

ER: I do think the greatest strength of this match is that it makes a really great primer for new French Catch fans. I think we've covered plenty of French Catch matches that could be described similarly, but this is the French style that might pop out more to a casual viewer due to its speed and pace. The French Catch style is one that rewards all levels of audience engagement, and this is one that has enough eye popping moments to catch the attention of someone focused more on their phone than the match, but also has enough micro-aggression build leading to bigger stuff that will pay off for a more focused viewer. It didn't escalate as violently as the great Catch, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a banging juniors match. The speed was really the highlight for me, as it's one of those French matches where you think you're watching something in an entirely different framerate, defying physics with oddly timed kip ups and headscissors and the type of Catch armdrags that wind up in a different direction than the one you expected. The grappling was strong and had several cool leverage moments, and the match also had several bizarre moments. I've said since we started reviewing Catch that there is always at least one thing that stands out as original in every match, and the moment that jumped out most to me was Saulnier faceplanting (intentionally?) himself into the mat after swiping at Rabut, just swinging himself face first into the mat, only to grab an ankle pick while he was down there. I genuinely have no idea if that was the plan, or the cover up for the failed plan, but I love that Catch is always making me ask questions like that. 

Armand Zarpa/ Luc Straub vs. Marcel Manneveau/Pierre Bernaert 7/2/65

SR: 2/3 falls match going a bit under 30 minutes. This was your typical French tag with lots of rudos beating on faces and faces making a fool of rudos. Manneveau was quite the vicious bastard here, and Bernaert did his thing. I thought the match needed better tecnicos. Straub, the judoka, didn‘t even do any judo moves and instead did a bunch of foot attack bullshit and Zarpa was technically competent but not very charismatic. As a result the match felt a bit dragging und unspectacular, although the crowd was hollering. Bernaert and Manneveau were pretty violent, but that‘s nothing outstanding.

MD: This isn't my favorite tag that we've seen, but it had some things working for it. First and foremost, there was a throughstory of Manneveau being afraid of Straub. He'd refuse to be in the ring with him at any point, would refuse to tag in if he was there, etc. Manneveau is such a wormy, emotive stooge that he absolutely made it work, and thankfully, mercifully even, they made it pay off in the final fall when, upon being tagged in, Straub immediately knocks Bernaert off the apron so Manneveau can't tag out. He then gets thoroughly trounced in a satisfying manner for a couple of minutes. Past that, Zafar, while not being spectacular, was solid, technical and fiery when needed. The judo guys are probably my least favorite French stylists and Straub may be my least favorite of all of them. I swear this match had the most chinlocks we've seen too, which is a trend for 65 maybe? Chinlocks can be great if the crowd knows how to get behind a babyface in them, but that wasn't the case yet here. The second fall also ended with the old "face puts his head down for a back body drop and gets kicked" spot, which I don't remember seeing in this footage so far, no matter how rote a cut off/transition it is for us in 2021. There were two great tag spots, the first being Manneveau charging in to interfere only to accidentally put Bernaert in a headlock, and the second being Straub and Zarpa hitting simultaneous armdrag slams as the heels rushed them, but the match probably needed a few more given its length. There was nothing technically wrong about this, and the underlying story was fun, but we've seen a lot of more compelling tags.

ER: I liked this more than the other guys, even if it didn't reach the levels of our best tags. This had a great heel performance from Marcel Manneveau, a posturing buffoon who only wanted to avoid Luc Straub, a story that lasted 30 minutes and was paid off in the final minute. Manneveau carries himself like a French David Young, and cheats from the apron the entire match. I love a good apron cheat, and Manneveau was always quick to run in with an eye rake or the most blatant chokes (I'm not sure how much control the ref had over this match), and him flexing at Straub after the second fall was my favorite part of this. Bernaert often was left to pay for Manneveau's cheating, but I also loved all of Bernaert's attacks on Zarpa. Bernaert's knees had a homing device aimed squarely at Zarpa's forehead, and I loved how he made them connect. I thought Straub was fun, a large guy who perhaps worked a bit too small (felt like he was always working as undersized against the smaller Bernaert) but had some unique attacks and kept them moving. I didn't get the same slow down vibes, I thought he was smart at moving from a chinlock to something new, my favorite being the way he locked Bernaert's arm behind his back before hooking Bernaert's arm in his knee crook, moving him into an excellent pin. He did a couple things I haven't seen, like getting out of a headscissors by running in place on Bernaert's chest. The finish payoff of Straub finally getting his hands on Manneveau, elbowing Bernaert off the apron to prevent a tag, doing a kind of kappo kick after tying Manneveau in the ropes, all of it was great. The only crime this tag committed was maybe being a bit too long and then kind of rushing through the three falls, but I liked all of the work we got. 

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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: 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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