Tuesday is French Catch Day: Luis El Gayo! Rene Gerber! Inca Peruano! DR. ADOLF KAISER! Cheri Bibi!

Luis El Gayo vs. Rene Gerber 5/11/57

SR:2/3 Falls match over about 25 minutes. We see Luis El Gayo again. Rene Gerber is introduced as Swiss, but not a champion. After using some foul tactics against Jacky Corne, Luis El Gayo gets to play face in this match as Gerber pretty much foregoes the usual hold for hold work and goes for brawling almost immediately, landing tough looking kicks and knees and it‘s a big hit and get hit contest from there. The bar for heels working France in 1957 was pretty high, Gerber had nice kneelifts and I liked the spot where he did a chinlock and kept switching around so he could punch Luis in the kidney, and he also does the amazing „pretend to tie your shoelaces but go for the attack“ spot. Luis is veritable in the babyface role and provides some slick wrestling moves. Most notable here were the fan reactions with excited teenagers and working class joes threatening to storm the ring when Gerber got too cute. We understand this kind of match is bread and butter French material by now, although it is really fun to watch, basically a 25 minute sprint with lots of violent shots and moments.

MD:  My compatriots rightly noted that Tony Oliver was one of the best one-off match heels that we might have on tape. I'd argue that Gerber's another. We have a JIP match later, but this is basically it. El Gayo, he of the cool Rainmaker set up into moves, we saw earlier as a heel. When you get foreigner vs foreigner, a guy who might be a heel vs a Frenchman can go face. There's a lot going on with this one, but the general premise, like a lot of what we've seen so far, is that Gerber gets outwrestled early and goes dirty, very dirty. El Gayo manages to come back by outslicking and outquicking him and fires back with a ton of big shots until Gerber does something else unexpected and then they repeat. The most memorable moment here is Gerber hitting a foul punt out of a double knucklelock set up, and the crowd just absolutely going nuts. We're talking first-row trying to fight him and getting some shots in nuts. I watched a recent match the other day, one of the very few I've seen as I'm neck deep in this footage, and it had a great little heel-takes-over-due-to-shoelace shenanigans transition would have absolutely fit into 1957 France (hell, in this very match, Gerber gets a leg dive out of pretending to mess with his own laces). How do the 2019 fans respond? They cheer for the heel. The past is lost to us, yet this book has been pried open for us once again. How lucky are we. Anyway, what made the riot even better in the moment? It's the distraction of fighting with the fans that lets el Gayo come back with a fury here. Wrestling does not get better than that.

El Gayo has some really slick stuff early, including an escape where he detatched Gerber's arm from a hold, brought his own legs up to encase it, and then rolled forward. Gerber's heeling was so good once showed his true colors. On a handshake, he dove forward and tackled el Gayo, rushing in after with stomps and kicks and never looking back. It was the sort of multifaceted, giving and taking heeling that had him both almost getting into fisticuffs with the ref because he wanted to stomp el Gayo instead of breaking clean and happily trying to ambush el Gayo, only to dive headlong into a shoulder throw (that happened a few times).

El Gayo has lots of great-looking, potent offense whenever he took back over, solid forearms and uppercuts and knees, all coming from fun directions. He'd flip Gerber over and trap him in the ropes so he could wallop him. He'd tap him on the shoulder and nail him when he turned around. He picked up Gerber's hand and drove it into his knee. And sometimes he'd just wail away and look to the crowd for support. There's a little late match arm-bar work that seemed a little out of place, but you're not going to remember that. You'll remember Gerber tossing el Gayo around by his ears, the close-ups of el Gayo's revenge-laden forearms, the fact that towards the end of the match, Gerber was ballsy enough to brawl with el Gayo on the floor right in the midst of that riotous crowd, and yeah, the 1957 slingshot-from-the-outside finish. In a crystal sea of matches with great heels and fiery, super technical babyfaces, this one stood out to me.

PAS: You have to love a guy like Gerber who can walk into a ring and within five minutes have people in the crowd trying to jump him. Most of the matches we have seen will start with the heel trying to wrestle with the babyface before losing their cool and going to shortcuts. Gerber forgoes the preface and just starts banging away. El Gayo is a really great expressive babyface too and they match up perfectly. I loved the spot where Gerber ties up El Gayo in the ropes and goes to jump on the turnbuckles to crank in the hold, only to get waylaid by a freed up El Gayo. Felt like an unseen Midnight Express spot. Gerber seemed to get such joy in the fury of the fans, he wanted to fight the entire arena and that totally made this one stand out


Dr. Adolf Kaiser vs. Inca Peruano 5/17/57

SR:JIP with 6 minutes shown. I would‘ve liked to see this in full, because these are two of the more unique workers showing up on French TV at the time. Inca Peruano has been a heel in other matches but easily becomes the babyface against the nefarious Doctor of Philosophy, Adolf Kaiser. This was a fun match up with Kaiser having cool ways to lock in his dreaded Dragon Sleeper and Inca having cool ways to escape from it. Peruano works some submission nearfalls of his own, and there are some cool hold escapes. I also really like Kaiser diving all over the ring trying to catch his opponent like an animal, and Peruano really gives him the business with fast uppercuts and kicks.

MD: Now without me understanding a lick of French and thus potentially lacking context, this felt straight on heel vs heel. For the six minutes we get, these two beat the crap out of each other with full on abandon. What was striking about this was how much it felt like a modern finishing stretch. Kaiser tried to lock in his dragon sleeper choke out multiple times; Peruano had clever escapes that would have seemed novel in a 1997 Ultino Dragon match, flipping over or climbing up the ropes, to lock in a hold of his own. Meanwhile, Peruano actually hit the elaborate arm-trap sunset flip (without the flip) pin he used to beat Comache but too close to the ropes, and a lot of the last couple of minutes were centered around his attempts to hit Kaiser with a monkey flip. Once he finally hit it (and a superkick for good measure), he went back to the well once too often, got jammed and meanly concussed for his trouble, and Kaiser choked the life out of him. If we're just going to get a 6 minute burst of action, this is the stuff we want.

PAS: I adore both of these guys, and was pretty bummed we didn't get more of this. The bit we get is pretty great though. I agree with Matt that the finish run did feel super modern, with multiple finisher teases before Kaiser finally locked on his Dragon sleeper. The rope assisted flip up by Peruano was especially cool, this is the first time Kaiser didn't lay his opponent completely out, although he remains unbeaten, I wonder if we get the match where he receives his commupance.


Ami Sola vs. "Cheri Bibi" Roger Trigeaud 5/17/57

SR: Roger Trigeaud is Cheri Bibi. A stumpy legged bald guy with a massive upper body. Roland Barthes was right when he wrote that at most 1 in 5 wrestling matches is „fair“. This followed the same formula as usual, wrestling to start, Cheri Bibi would start throwing, and they would keep the heat up until the finish, but it was a very good match with both guys adding to it. Ami Sola is a bulky looking guy with a mustache and wrestles similar to what we saw Gilbert Cesca and Billy Catanzaro do – cool flying headscissors, solid european uppercuts and kip-up headbutts. Cheri Bibi would do a spot where Solas dropkicks were bouncing off of his massive chest, and he also found an answer to some of the stuff Sola did. They didn‘t go for an all out european uppercutfest and went back to the wrestling. At about 20 minutes, this was pretty lean as well with a neat finish.

MD:  It's tricky to talk about this the same week we have Gerber vs el Gayo. In a different week, I think this would stand out more. It had a few things going for it. Bibi (and we'll go with that name since we'll be seeing a lot of him in this project) was more clearly defined than a lot of the heels we'd been seeing, deeper instead of wider. He was a big muscleman goon, the sort that can shrug off two of Sola's dropkicks like they were nothing but that would still turn to jaw with the crowd afterwards so that Sola could dropkick him a third time from behind and knock him out of the ring. I'd say he felt a little more like a base than we're used to in this footage. We do have a good deal more Sola and I'm glad for that; I'd like to see him more. He had some fun tricked out takedowns and a great 'rana which he followed with an even more novel bridge up sort of 'rana. There were some memorable callbacks in the match, the sort that again, makes the narrative feel more complete and meaningful: Bibi has this front facelock necktwist that we don't really see come to fruition because Sola pops back up with a headbutt the two times he tries it; the second time though, Bibi's ready and he clocks him. Then, the finish is all about the dropkicks, with Bibi catching Sola again in yet another really good finish. It should be noted that as opposed to a lot of the other heels we've seen Bibi raises Sola's hand after the match. You get the sense that he, like Bollet, will be more of a lovable scamp to the crowd over the years than some of the foreign heels we've seen.

PAS: I just love this stuff, I don't think this is high end French Catch but the floor on this footage is so high. Bibi is a blast, I loved how he used his barrel chest as a weapon, the spot that Matt described where he shrugged off the dropkicks, only to stooge on the third was great, but he also used it as a battering ram to Sola's face. There was some super nifty mat exchanged here too, one long section built around a short arm scissors, including some real wrenching of the arm, and one section built around a reverse leg stretch. Sola had some fun arial stuff including a cool rana, which he hung onto almost a triangle choke and some nice drop kicks (which Bibi bumped huge for) and was perfectly game when it got time to start throwing. Cool finish too, with Bibi hitting a nasty powerbomb out of a rana attempt. If this was the first Catch thing we ever saw, we would be losing our shit, but after seeing a bunch, it is just an example of how great the baseline was.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Di Santo, van Dooren, Corne, El Gayo

We have unearthed possibly the greatest find in the history of wrestling footage scrounging. 300+ French Catch matches from the 50s-80s. Every Tuesday from now until we all die, we are going to be digging in and reviewing the motherload. We are bringing on Euro wrestling footage king Sebastian R. (aka Jetlag) to help us dig through this all, along with Matt, Eric, Phil and maybe Tomk.


Lino Di Santo vs. Jack van Dooren 1/11/57

SR: JIP with about 12 minutes shown. This kind of bout probably won‘t stand out in the long run of French watching, but it‘s really cool to check out. Both guys did some neat stuff. Di Santo had some Billy Robinson esque offense, nasty neckbreaker and the big backbreaker. I think of Billy Robinson as someone who had pretty advanced offense for 1970s AJPW, so seeing a guy bust out that kind of offense in 1957 is pretty wild. Both guys took some nasty bumps, especially Di Santo flying into the ropes trying a pin. Both guys had some cool ways to work around the greco roman knucklelock pin, Di Santo bridging out of the with van Dooren on top was pretty freaky. This is our first time seeing van Dooren and he looked good, busting out a cool luchaesque pin and uncorking some nasty looking headbutts that got a big reaction inicluding one from a full running charge, and Di Santo fires back with straight elbow smashes. Pretty cool to see how evolved this style was in 1957 already. Van Dooren keeps finding ways to reverse Di Santos counter attempt, and the finish sticks with this time. Nice stuff.

PAS: I agree that this probably won't stand out with all we have to watch, but this was still really good. Short arm scissors spots and knucklelock spots are two of my favorite time filler spots in wrestling, and they had some really cool variations on both, especially the knucklelock. This had a progression which seems pretty standard in these matches where we start with grappling and lead to big nasty strikes. van Dooren's headbutts looked great, and I loved his running in ring tope. The elbow smashes were pretty nasty, and looked more like a fight then a lot of the tired elbow exchanges in todays wrestling.

MD:  This is JIP and we're still getting our bearings to a degree (though less so Sebastian who can run circles around us in this specific area), but this was still a very complete experience. There are a lot of counters, both in and of themselves, and counters to counters, or counters that are attempted but blocked. There's never a sense of cooperativeness though, even with hammerlock go-behinds or complex double knucklelock or full nelson spots that should come off as more cooperative. Some of that is the setting and the effort that they put into it, but some, I think, is that because all of this is so new to me, you never know exactly what's going to happen.

Eventually the match settles into a really satisfying pattern. Van Doreen holds a slight grappling advantage. Di Santo will try a counter, get blocked. Di Santo will then get something to work, be it a back elbow or a hammering clothesline out of a hold; then he'll try it again only for Van Doreen to expect it and crush him. Whenever he gets frustrated and leans towards fisticuffs, Van Doreen shuts him down immediately with a headbutt and the crowd goes nuts. The match shifts towards the finish after Van Doreen goes for two running, leaping headbutts in a row and Di Santo's able to reverse the second. From there it's more back and forth and plenty exciting, with both strikes leading to more of that headbutting and Di Santo hitting an awesome 1950s frankensteiner. Every lateral press feels like a possible finish here but what we ultimately get of a really snug reversal sunset flip is satisfying.


Jacky Corne vs. Luis El Gayo 1/11/57

SR: A 23 minute contest in 2/3 falls. Luis El Gayo may also be „El Gayo“ or „El Gallo“ (it would fit his hair) or El Galio since the announcer keeps calling him something like that. One of the cool aspects to the old French footage is that there are a ton of Spanish wrestlers featured, so getting to a glimpse at that is really something special and something I never would have hoped to see, since the Spanish scene ended in the 1970s with a few later revival attempts failing. Jacky Corne is someone who shows up in matches all the way to the 1970s and 1980s, so it‘ll be cool to watch him for a nearly 30 year period.

This was the 60s lutte libre style that we saw in Cesca/Cantanzarro, both guys working holds while mixing in cool arm whips and headscissors. It wasn‘t quite at the transcendent level of Cesca/Catanzarro, as they didn‘t seem to have some things fully worked out, but they knew not to expose the business when a spot wasn‘t hit perfectly. El Gayo was right there working the French style, he had some graceful escapes, a cool headwringing snapmare and he did these awesome BattlARTS style 8 count near KOs when Corne started dropping the bombs on him. He also launched Corne to the outside with a cool throw from the ground in a nasty moment, then later took a big bump himself flying over the rope. Both guys were moving fast and really making their hip tosses and body slams look good. The first fall was going nice until Corne caught El Gayo with an awesomely timed powerbomb and then took him to town dropping him with some more before El Gayo would seemingly come back only to be caught. The second fall gets chippy with both guys really cracking each others jaws with thudding european uppercuts and elbows, the high quality audio and video that the French preserved really adding to each exchange. One of the cool things El Gayo does is he will move in like a Greco wrestler, grab a hammerlock behind the other guys back and use that to set up a move, in one case he uses it to drill Corne with a nasty tombstone piledriver which was pretty mindblowing even by 1957 French standards, unfortunately Corne didn‘t go to the Spanish school of selling and just kind of moved on in the match. I liked the feel that El Gayo was pushed to the limit and had to resort to making things chippy. After Corne threw him to the outside in a heated moment that lead to several cigarette smoking fans helping El Gayo back in the ring, both guys shook hands only for El Gayo to start throwing elbows and knees the next moment. Seconds later the Spanish wrestler had to resort to throwing a punch to the mid section, seemingly apologizing to the audience and being frustrated with himself for having to resort to such tactics. Once again, I really liked the rope running sequences and the finishes were good although I was hoping for the match to go a little deeper, I thought El Gayo was done a little dirty here although he did a great job telling the story of the match. Still, good shit and a treat to see.

MD: There's so much to digest in every single one of these matches, especially as, in most cases, this is the first time we're seeing these wrestlers. It reminds me of when I was trying to work out lucha to a good degree, though the narratives are a little more of what we're used to here. It's just being dropped into a strange land with a different language, different wrestlers, a different crowd, and the trappings of a different era all at once. That said, you can tell just how good all of this is easily. I love the amount of positioning. They'll do a complicated flip or twist or throw just to set up a second move. They create openings and they also take any repositioning or grinding by their opponent to work their way out.

Story here, as best as I can see is that Corn has a slight advantage and De Gayo keeps edging towards taking liberties, first with a bit kneelift out of a cravat, and then increasingly so. The crowd reacts accordingly. The finish of the first fall keeps it building with Corn turning a flip up rana into a powerbomb and then hitting two cradle release powerbombs. Every time, however, they defuse things with a handshake. It ultimately comes to a head in the second fall with De Gayo launching Corn between the ropes and out of the ring with a tricked out flipping armbar monkey flip (sic) thing. Corn rushes back in and almost immediately pitches De Gayo over the top rope. When De Gayo comes back in, he lands a cheapshot and as the crowd boos, gives a resigned shrug and a curtsy and it's a great bit of character that's well-received.

From there, they roll into the finish, with De Gayo not looking back. He has this tendency of wrapping his opponent up like the Rainmaker, but then doing awesome things instead, be it his bearhug-Robinson backbreaker or a nasty forearm or an actual Tombstone. The selling in these matches are interesting. They're letting things sink in, but a Tombstone (or a Rude Awakening as in the Di Santo match) stagger more than keep someone down. The traded blows come quick and heavy and the cost tends to be delayed as the crowd comes unglued. That happens here as Corn comes back in a big way. They bring things back down for another minute or so with holds, before bringing them back up for another round of uppercut trading and then finally, a slip through takedown into a bridging pin from Corn. He helps de Gayo up post-match and they hug and you get the sense that all's fair and fiery in the heat of combat.

If all the matches are like these, we've got a hell of a road ahead of us.

PAS: Watching these two matches, you can see the stylistic differences between French juniors wrestling and heavyweight wrestling. This was the same juniors style we saw in Petit Prince vs. Saulnier and Cesca vs. Cantanzaro, it was a little less mindblowingly athletic then those matches but this is a really fun style to watch, and these guys have a bunch of really cool unique stuff.

De Gayo was the guy I most impressed with, his bump to the floor was really crazy, and all of the rainmaker offense was way cooler then anything Okada has ever done. Matt made a good point about the big moves, that tombstone you figure would be at least a near fall, but instead it is usually roll ups that end matches, and big forearms and uppercuts which really lay some one down. I really like uppercuts and stiff forearms though and so I am perfectly OK with that

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