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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Duranton! Williams! Cohen! Doukhan! M'Boaba! von Kramer!

 Pierre Bernaert vs. Mr. Montreal 9/7/68

MD: I liked how the announcer likened this to a beautiful body (Montreal) vs a beautiful mind (Bernaert). We only had the last 7:30 or so of this, but that's ok. These two were unquestionably good, great even, but it feels like we've seen it before, so just getting a taste was fine. There was a nice little callback spot where Montreal hit a shoulder throw the first time and when he tried it later, Bernaert came in with a knee. Bernaert was full of inside moves after ambushing on a handshake, but he was happy to pal around with Montreal after they went to a draw. Last couple of minutes of this was Bernaert just surviving a last barrage by Montreal and the bell rang during the airplane spin.

Robert Duranton vs. Eddie Williams 9/7/68

MD: Duranton definitely had the act worked out by this point. He had a great physique, could slug well, could stooge well, was technically sound if no marvel, but it was all about the valet. The last quarter of the match had the fans really just waiting for the next spot with the valet. It was too much of a good thing and akin to looking to the back and waiting for a run-in. In that regard, the match peaked in the middle when Williams finally got both Duranton and the valet tied up and got to unload on both of them, or maybe, maybe with the spot later on when he gave them a big double noggin-knocker. Otherwise, the valet was pretty brazen in his interference and the fans loved to hate him. Williams looked as good as always, with good shots, good wrestling, and good timing. We probably would have gotten a better set of matches if we had Montreal vs Duranton and Williams vs Bernaert on this one, but it's not like this wasn't hugely entertaining for the most part. There was just a little too much of it maybe.

SR: 1 fall match going a bit over 20 minutes. This had some excellent stuff in it, but it was a bit long and restholdy, and didn't seem to go anywhere special. Still Duranton threw some great punches, and was looking quite vicious making simple holds look violent and hitting some nasty stomps. Williams doesn't have much charisma but he is solid enough doing some nice wrestling and hitting good looking uppercuts. Dug the bit where he threatened to stab Durantons eyes and then just headbutted him. Durantons valet got involved as usual, I dug how he pretended to be cleaning the ring after choking Williams, then later he just got straight in the ring. Made me wonder what it takes to get DQd in a French ring. Heat was good and that's all that matters.

Georges Cohen/Gass Doukhan vs. M'Boaba Les Congolais/Karl von Kramer 9/14/68

MD: Once this got good, it got really good. Incredible heat for the second fall as Cohen kept trying to come in to help Doukhan only to make things worse for him and the heat became elation in the third fall when Cohen did get the tag and they just humiliated the heels. M'Boaba still seems pretty egregious even in the history of egregious racial gimmicks with the fans enjoying him getting tossed by his hair or having his hair tied to the ropes. In general, he looked good though, including whipping out his own up and over reversal and having mean looking headbutts and what have you. Von Kramer is one of the best technical heels we've seen but he was in there against two Israelis and was sure as hell going to bump over the top and stooge all over the place for them. His two standard takeovers, the headlock trip and his sort of headlock mare both looked great and he did them so smoothly. He also had some awesome extended exchanges where he was stuck in a wristlock. His killer move was a fireman's carry dropping his opponent throat-first onto the top rope and he used it well. It was all maybe a little too loose and fun for a guy as vile as Von Kramer wrestling two Israelis for the first fall, but the off the chart heat for the last ten minutes of this was just awesome. By the end of it, Von Kramer was threatening fisticuffs with about twenty people in the front row and if they hadn't gone so over the top celebratory for the stylists, an all out riot might have ensued. 

SR: 2/3 falls match going 30 minutes. M'Boaba and the bald headed nazi von Kramer are quite the team. Of course they are facing a pair of jews, too. Aside from the gimmicks there was some good wrestling here. M'Boaba is a servicable heel at best, but von Kramer meshes really well with his light footed technician opponents. It got a bit more heated than usual when von Kramer kept using the ropes. I still thought the match didn't really stand out in the plethora of great light weight tags we've had.

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