Tuesday is French Catch Day: Corne! Falempin! Richard! Menard! Bordes! Rocca! Sanniez! Bernaert!

Jean Corne/Michel Falempin vs Jacky Richard/Jean Menard 8/22/77

MD: I wouldn't call this one balanced, but the actual wrestling was just excellent. They went around twenty minutes of a first fall in and out of holds, with rope running, quick exchanges, some fiery slugging, certain things that were somewhat innovative for the times, like crabs and a backslide takedown and even a doctor bomb sort of takedown. Menard was able to do quicker and more elaborate exchange but Richard had a way of falling like a tree and stooging more and really could keep up on the rope running. Delaporte (announced as the "former licensed villain of wrestling"), as ref, was a non factor for the first fall, just the guy with the best seat in the house. The second fall had the heels cheat to take over, with Delaporte getting frustrated and admonishing one while the other made cheapshots. The last fall had a fairly quick hot tag and both guys tied up with another spot of Delaporte getting stepped on and encouraging the stylists to keep it going. Quick and celebratory. It's not how I'd want this match to have been balanced, but it's the style, and as a match in the style, it was excellent. Just great wrestling all around.  

Walter Bordes/Claude Rocca vs Albert Sanniez/Pierre Bernaert 8/29/77

MD: This was a tale of two matches, or at least of two falls. The first fall felt very complete, had some really nice exchanges, fresh ones too because it wasn't just Bordes but also Sanniez and Rocca, who we've not been able to see much of. Bernaert was a surprise. It'd been a while since we'd seen him and he was certainly up there in age, but he wrestled early on like someone with something left to prove. By this point, Delaporte was old hat as ref. The matches and spots were not based around him. He was able to bluster about when the heels were cheating and worked into the comedy at the end (more on that in a second) but he felt almost like an expectation instead of an attraction. Still, it was nice to see Bernaert in there with him as they knew how to play off of one another. After a lot of wrestling, the heat based on double teaming, and a rousing comeback, the second fall was entirely shtick. Sanniez bumped all over the ring for it, Bernaert begged off like a champ, and Delaporte fed people into the next spots when applicable, but it wasn't quite as imaginative as you might have hoped with the pieces at play. Still, overall this was a good one, a comfortable one. By now we're well aware of the ebbs and the flows and pacing of late 70s tags and matches like this feel right in a way that they might not if you weren't awash in them.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Saulnier! Cabrera! Renaud! Genele! Falempin! Ramirez! Batman! Gonzalez!

Michel Saulnier/Pedro Cabrera vs. Teddy Boys (Guy Renaud/Bobby Genele) 6/7/73

MD: This is a runback of a match we saw and loved in 71, and it was still certainly top notch juniors tag action. This time it was in more of a studio style setting and just one fall. Genele was an all time jerk and Renault could work super smooth, very fast, very complex exchanges with Cabrera and Saulnier, the sort of stuff that makes you look at Malenko and Guerrero and realize that things weren't all that novel, just forgotten. They wrestle pretty clean for the first ten minutes and then less than clean but with the stylists coming out on top again and again for the next ten. Every time it starts to really pick up on a heat level, they come back. The last ten has more considerable periods of control by Renault and Genele, including some great tombstones by Renault and just as good, if not entirely different, cheapshots by Genele. The hot tag, therefore, does feel rather hot and the comeback fiery. It's all good stuff, but it's stuff we've seen a chunk of. This is one of those matches where if you'd never seen any French footage, you'd be absolutely blown away but it serves here more now as just more evidence of what we already know: the standard quality of the work in French juniors tags was absolutely exceptional.

Michel Falempin vs. Paco Ramirez 7/19/73

MD: We get the last four and a half minutes out of an almost 25 minutes match. Good action with plenty of heat. Ramirez was billed as Andalusian, unless I'm mistaken, and had a gimmick where he wanted to be a matador but ended up wrestling instead. We'd seen him team with Batman before but he was working rougher here. He hit hard with some big corner whips, using his size. Falempin, of course, was one of the Celts with Jean Corne, and the crowd was behind him and his comebacks. There were a couple of near-falls I bought but they were primarily to make sure someone landed on the ref in the kickout before a quick rope running sequence led to the actual finish. We haven't seen a ton of high cross body blocks in the footage and Falempin put a bit of extra oomph into his here. Shame we didn't get this whole one.

La Batman vs. Jose Gonzalez 7/19/73

MD: We've seen Gonzalez a few times now, but it's been hard to place him alongside guys like Peruano/Montoro/Tejero/Viracocha. I'm not saying they're all interchangeable, but we usually see them in tags so it takes a few matches for a guy to stand out. Gonzalez, however, does stand out. He's one of the best stooges we've seen in the footage, up there with Delaporte and Bollet, with Bollet's energy when it counts. Early on, when Batman was winning holds, he'd whine and wheedle and retreat to sell. He's the sort of guy who'd ask for a handshake and then kick you in the face twenty seconds later and then go to show off a bicep to the crowd like he had performed a feat of strength. He also had a high dropkick and some good rope running and, in the last big comeback spot missed a charge towards the ropes and ended up choking himself in them. Batman looked a bit smoother than last time I saw him, hitting cartwheels and dropkicks clean. He had a great sense of timing, of playing to the crowd, of knowing when to make a big comeback shot matter, of getting tit-for-tat revenge spots that would lead to a big pop. He was technically sound but a big showman as well, probably up there with Wiecz/Carpentier and Ben Chemoul towards the top of the stylists we've seen along those lines. This match was good on its own but important personally in solidifying Gonzalez' strengths to me. We'll see him a few more times before the end. 

ER: Gonzalez is great. He has the straight posture of Richard Harris with the face and hairline and mustache of John Astin going on 70s game shows without his piece. We've gone through a lot of hairstyle phases in the last 50 years, but the one that doesn't appear to be coming back is for balding dudes to just grow their remaining hair long. Watch any cop drama from the 70s and you'll find a dozen different example of male pattern baldness with every one of them coping with it in different, increasingly wild, ways. Combover ridicule no doubt lead to bald men mostly accepting their fate, but few bald men are brave enough to let their remaining strands grow and fall where they may. Maybe the acceptance is more of a French thing, as the Rick Rubins of the world are hard to find, and Jose Gonzalez understands that. He has a kind of combover but his attempts are not serious. He is not Charles Nelson Reilly or George Kennedy, starting his part just above his ear. No, Gonzalez just kind of sweeps his remaining top strands to the side and lets the rest of it hang long to his shirt collar. I think his hair really adds to the smug buffoonish way that he takes bumps, and he bumps great for Batman. Gonzalez took a big bump over the top after getting dropkicked in the back, and took a phenomenal bump when he missed a torpedo charge and wound up trapping his own neck in the ropes. Batman had one of the coolest cartwheels I've seen, done with Gonzalez at point blank range. Alex Wright used to kick guys in the head all the time when he did a short arm cartwheel, and Batman just defies physics as he avoids Gonzalez. I enjoyed watching this in the bathroom at work. 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Batman! Khan! Mammoth Siki! Mr. X! Corne! Falempin! Viracocha! Gonzalez!

Batman vs. Abdul Khan 3/27/72

MD: Batman was Batman, of course, maybe a little older, a little less spry, a little slower, but still able to cartwheel and leapfrog and dropkick and with that theatrical flair to milk a moment. Khan was playing the stereotypical oriental gimmick with chops and nerveholds, but he fed well enough and I liked the look of the overhand chop. He also had some interesting stuff in between the knee drops and gut shots like a backslide lifting choke under the ropes (previously we've seen a Rude awakening version) and a nice double chop off the top. It was on his second attempt at the latter that Batman was able to catch it and come back. Finish had Khan remove the corner guard and Batman tease to a reversal of a whip. Again, he could milk the moment as well as a lot of the people we've seen in the footage, which enhanced everything else he did.

Mammoth Siki vs. Mr. X 3/27/72

MD: This was a straightforward heavyweight clash with a straightforward story, well enough worked, didn't outlive its welcome. The first third was Mr. X (a huge guy in a purple mask with the backstory of being disfigured) trying strength holds and Siki overpowering him and flipping him about. Mr. X went over for everything well and Siki had good timing and clear charisma and when he threw a shot or headbutt, it looked very good. Middle third was a lot of choking and nerve holds but Siki sold well from underneath and Mr. X contested with the ref well. Big comeback spot was out of a full nelson and after that Siki kept going for the mask with the ref trying to stop him. He had a nice double arm hold out of an arm drive into a Fujiwara armbar that let him really go for it. Finish was very unique and it sets up a match that I wish we had maybe. Mr. X had Siki tied up in the ropes and Petit Prince came into fly around and get his mask off which let Siki get the win. Mr. X was definitely competent and I would have to see what a Prince vs giant match would have looked like but alas, it's not to be in the footage we have.

Jean Corne/Michele Falempin vs. Inca Viracocha/Jose Gonzalez 3/27/72

MD: This one fell through the cracks of the footage, but it came immediately after the Siki vs Mr. X match and starts with the announcer wearing X's mask. It's another one fall tag and it's hard to fault the pacing of these so far. Likewise, it's hard to find fault in the talent of any of these four. Viracocha is unquestionable good, able to lean on his opponent with big shots, able to credibly work holds, able to pick up the pace for key moments of rope running, able to feed for all the big spots and set pieces, but Gonzalez remains the find. He has this over-the-top energy with an agility to match, even as he looks like a real scuzzy goon and stooges even more than that. Falempin and Corne were as good as always, quick with armdrags and dropkicks. Falempin had a great escape out of the corner to end a long bit of heat where he monkey flipped both opponents at once. Corne came in hot a couple of times with armdrags and dropkicks. But it was Gonzalez that really drew the eye from early stalling to end-of-match mugging at the camera even as his partner was losing the match, and all of the quick, exuberant work in between.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Ben Chemoul! Bordes! El Arz! Black Shadow! Mercier! Falempin! Viracocha! Gonzalez!

Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes vs. Les Libanese (Josef el Arz) & Black Shadow 2/12/72

MD: I forget if I declared it or not, but if so, let me do it again. Ben Chemoul and Bordes are up there with the Blousons Noirs as unquestionably one of the best teams in the history of French Catch. We have enough footage, which is always the tricky part. This was in two falls, one long and one short, with something akin to shine/heat/comeback in both falls. By not forcing the heels to win a second fall, the pacing felt better and less stilted. Bordes felt at the very height of his power here, incredibly athletic but also hard-hitting, with Ben Chemoul not quite as spry as he once was but an absolute master of timing and popping the crowd. El Arz was very impressive, having a distinctive way of taking shots, having a cruel lifting choke toss, just laying it in. Black Shadow based well and took stuff but he was less memorable in general. Where he shined the most was in controlling the corner and cutting off babyface comeback attempts. They built to triumphant crowd pleasing stuff as you'd expect and everyone left happy.  

Guy Mercier/Michele Falempin vs. Inca Viracocha/Jo Gonzalez 2/28/72

MD: A rare one-fall tag. If I'm not mistaken, Falempin recently passed away and he was a very solid talent and a good partner for the beloved Mercier, who was a slugger and a wrestler's wrestler both. Falempin brought the rope running and energy and big escape attempts. Viracocha remains a bit heavier and he almost has a Brazo feel to him as a heel, way smoother than you'd expect from looking at him while still hitting hard and stooging big. Not as big as Gonzales though (billed as a gypsy by the way), who really does feel like a special talent, able to cartwheel and leap back off the top rope, but also having such a canny sleaziness to his act, luring his opponent in by selling too big or begging off and constantly going for cheapshots from the outside. Very much a total package sort of wrestler. This went back and forth with frequent moments of heat but always leading to big comebacks and crowd pleasing spots, none of which were new but all of which were executed to perfection.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Corne! Falempin! Gilmour! Kaye! Der Henker! Corn! Leduc! Mychel

Jean Corne/Michel Falempin vs. Ian Gilmour/Jeff Kaye 11/14/70

SR: 1 fall match going 30 minutes. I was expecting the Brits to bring some heat, but this was a pure technico vs. technico contest. Pretty much just one exchange after another, and while it wasn't high speed athletic stuff there were some smoth cartwheels and pin exchanges. To be honest I could not tell who was who, but everyone was about on the same level. Dug all the technical trickery such as the various turn-yourself-into-a-ball-moves, there was a nifty wrist legsscissor and a cool sequence from a stepping inside pin that turned into both wrestlers turning into an amateur scramble. Things got a bit fired up here and there but the match stayed clean and never really seemed to indicate that you were about to see a finish. Great to watch if you just want to see some good wrestling though.

MD: Another week, another excellent tag. This was face vs face with the premise being that the Bretons were up against the Scots, with bagpipes and flags for everyone on the entrance. Lots of fast, tricky exchanges back and forth. They were working towards a draw but I didn't figure it out until the last third. I think this is our earliest look at Gilmour and he brought a lot of flash with his cartwheel escapes. Kaye had some stilting escapes of his own where he just snuck out of headlocks or headscissors. I wouldn't say it necessarily boiled over towards the end, but it did get more chippy, first with headbutts to the gut off the ropes and then with the forearms and uppercuts. Before that, even when they might focus hard on an arm with lifts or hammerlocked throws, they were also very quick to help when someone's throat got stuck in the ropes, very sportsmanlike. A big chunk of this was taken up by the commentator hobnobbing with people in the front row which hurt the mood a little but, but the holds, escapes, counters, rope running, and finally escalating shots as they ran out of time were all excellent.

Der Henker vs. Jacky Corn 12/12/70

MD: Hell of a debut for Henker, who was billed as a German sort of headsman (as opposed to the French one we've gotten before). He came off as something of a total package, able to lock in holds, escape from them, having superior power, able to knock Corn down with one shot and absorb multiple ones from him, able to pick up the pace a little with pin exchanges, and with a real vicious streak that came through at the end. Corn was his usual self, able to slug it out with anyone and with a fiery streak in his comebacks and when they got going in the stretch this really did become a slugfest. Henker had a way of meeting him head on right until he didn't, and the key moment towards the finish was when he went low in a strike exchange. That let him toss Corn out and then post his head on the way back in. Corn bled, which has been pretty rare in this footage overall, and Henker focused in on it, though it's worth nothing that Corn was still trying to fire back right until the end, which was a resounding tombstone and a stoppage as everyone was more than a little concerned for their longtime hero (including Mr. Lageat, Corn's father and the promoter). Good debut that put over Henker as a dangerous force but not an unstoppable one.

Gilbert Leduc vs. Bert Mychel 12/12/70

MD: In the last third of this match, the commentator sums it up better than I can (or at least the youtube translation I use did): "No Unnecessary malice but holds well worked." Mychel was a former two time Olympian in Greco-Roman wrestling and he had an amazing fall away slam, a real ability to dominate while in a hold and to turn escape attempts into slams, and even went for a really interesting gutwrench once. Leduc was 38 at this point, remained a real master at the headspin escape, could outstrike Mychel, and could hold his own in the wrestling (that gutwrench? Leduc picked a leg out and got a hold out of it). This was wrestled clean though it threatened to boil over once or twice and other than those fall away slams and some Leduc crab attempts towards the end, would have fit right in ten+ years earlier. But the struggle in holds, especially as Mychel didn't want to just go along with Leduc's headspin, was excellent throughout. Late in the match, Leduc would return the favor, eating one too many fall away slams before finding a way to jam Mychel on them. Two experts wrestling expertly for a title belt and celebrating each other's skills after the match.

SR: 1 fall match going about 25 minutes. Seems we JIP'd a couple minutes into it. This was a slow match where guys fight in and out of holds. It was enjoyable but pretty much for the purists only. If you can get into that, it was quite good. Mychels suplexes were great and there was a really cool moment from a gutwrench suplex that turned into a scramble. A bitchslap happens at one point but they kept working a technical match, though the crowd seemed willing to go unruly at Mychel. The only shade I can throw at this match is that it wasn't as good as Leducs 50s work (50s Leduc would've bitten Mychels ear off) but few things are.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Corne! Falempin! Viracocha! Haggerty! L'Ange Blanc! L'homme Masque

Jean Corne/Michel Falempin vs. Inca Viracocha/Steve Haggerty 10/8/69

MD: Energetic tag as the Celts got to shine. Corne hits hard and throws hard and sells sympathetically. There's an extra bit of oomph to what he does. I liked the heel side. They were quick to cheat, used the ref's being distracted well, really laid in shots, and stooged huge when it was time. I thought the match built to big tags and comebacks better than most French tags of the era do. The quick tags and rope running in the last few minutes was chaotic in the best way, but the fans were into this the whole way through. Haggerty fit right in as a blustery loudmouth scrapper.

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 25 minutes. I wonder if they did some clipping at some point because there were some suspicious interviews of audience members. This was another junior tag with a fast, fast pace. I think this is the first time we see Inca Viracocha and while he doesn't do any neat moves like the other Inca he is another true rudo. This had the same layout as all these other tags, they work hard and fast exchange, faces shine, occasionally heels will beat the shit out of the faces in their corner. Once again, the faces didn't seem to have much trouble outside a few patches. Falempin at one point took a super nasty bump to the ring apron. It was followed up with some mean stomps to the back and I thought we were actually gonna get some limbwork but instead he hit a flying headbutt and tagged out. I prefer the exchanges these guys are working to Dragon Gate and the heels in this kicked ass stomping and punching people and bumping a ton so it was another good quality match overall.

L'ange Blanc vs. L'homme Masque 12/13/69

MD: Ok, so about halfway through the match, there's a pelican, and I don't know why there's a pelican, but it hangs out with the announcer. It's maybe the weirdest thing I've seen since the Martian was there. This is too late for L'Ange Blanc to be under further WON HOF consideration but I'm not sure it tells us a ton. He was not under the mask here. He spent a good chunk of the match getting put into a cobra by L'Homme Masque and getting out. He spent a good chunk of the match trying to cheat or get a cheapshot in or mess with L'Homme's mask to the crowd's delight, only to get chastised by the ref. That was part of the story, I guess, that when the ref chastised him, he'd stop. When he chastised L'Homme, L'Homme wouldn't. While I can't say we've seen L'Ange Blanc's star power in the footage so far, not relative in any major way to someone like Ben Chemoul or Corn or LeDuc or Weicz, I will say that the crowd was very much up for everything he did. A tecnico/rudo ref double standard is one of the more irritating ways to build a match (it can be an element, but if it's the one that drives absolutely everything, that's problematic). I will say that L'Homme Masque is entirely credible. If all he does for the first half is drive L'Ange down with a cobra hold and choke him when he can, he's so big and menacing and persistent that you buy the threat of it. In the back half, he does a little more, even if it's stomp and clubber or hit a huge tombstone. Eventually he goes to the well twice on a drop onto the top rope and L'Ange punches his way out and gets some big offense. Unfortunately, that enrages L'Homme who picks him up in an interesting way and drapes him onto the top but ends up drawing the DQ. I'm not going to say this was wildly illuminating but you did get more of a sense of what the unmasked White Angel looked like as a folk hero. 

SR: 1 fall match going about 30 minutes. The angel lost his mask. He's no longer the mysterious avenger, but he's still a formidable worker. This was WORK to the max. Everything they do in this match, they do with a purpose and to milk reactions. They work around the masked mans mask. They work around Blanc wanting to throw punches but being too valiant to do so. They work around a heel ref. Everything here is done for reaction, and they succeeded. It was the kind of work that would put tears in Tracy Smothers eye. Aside from all the bullshittery, there was some cool wrestling. Blanc still moves very fast and has really beautiful dropkicks, and the masked man really torques him with some cool upper body holds and chokes. Really trying to pop the Angels neck. He also works some nerve holds, and it was some of that trademark French "actually compelling" nerve hold work with Angel Blanc showing some impressive facial expressions (really embracing the mask loss for the better) and fighting hard to get out. Most of this was L'Homme kicking ass too, so it never felt like other French matches where the face is seemingly never in trouble for long. This stuff won't win workrate awards to those who look for super high end matches, and the shitty DQ finish underlines that, but both guys looked like wrestlers wrestlers, and it was an entertaining romp.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Petit Prince! Bibi! Husberg! Falempin!James Brown! Corne!

 Le Petit Prince vs. Michel Falempin 5/27/66

MD: Seeing d'Ericourt twice in such close succession definitely exposes him a bit at this very early stage in his career. While it wasn't the same match as the Genele one, a lot of the biggest spots were move-for-move repeats of that match. It was a different arena and the fans ate them up, but even more than that, with a different opponent, it was a different match with the spots layered in different places. While Falempin bullied him, more of this was about him containing Prince with hammerlocks and armbar sequences, and that was probably for good reason. The sheer momentum that he had on with his float overs and back flips had him crashing into the ropes in pretty dangerous ways. He overshot about half of what he was going for here recklessly, but that energy and enthusiasm was just electric. No one was going to look away. Certainly, he made it worth it when he battled back and got to get some revenge. This, more than anything else, shows me his progression into a complete, contained, controlled, wrestler in the years that would follow, as he learned to channel his acrobatics and intensity into a far more honed and polished act. At this point, though, he was like lightning bursting onto the scene.

PAS: I am not holding having signature spots against the Prince, he is electric to watch, and just because Santo does his senton tope in every match, doesn't mean I don't want to see that over and over again. I liked Falempin here too, he really wrenched in the hammerlocks and armbars, and made the fancy flipping counters really count. There definitely is a progression later, and the difference between Prince then and Prince in a couple of years is like 93 Rey Jr. and 97 Rey Jr. Still 93 Rey Jr. is fucking awesome as is 1966 Petit Prince. I liked that some of his stuff threw him into the ropes in weird ways, it added to the level of difficulty of the stuff, it was almost like Olympic diving where the flawed dives are as compelling as the perfect ones. 

SR: 1 fall match going a bit over 20 minutes. The Prince is clearly becoming a TV mainstay. No surprise. This was another beautiful match. Smooth exchanges beyond belief. Falempin seemed a bit nondescript, but he was a great dance partner for the Prince. Look at how fast he moves behind the  Prince when he goes for a hammerlock, or the way both guys would bump. The devil is in the details, and they had them down pat. Falempin found himself outshone and decided to lay some brutal stomps into the Princes head. He took a big bump, too. Seems he would go on to be a technico later but it was a nice solid non descript rudo performance from him here. And they pulled the more beautiful stuff of like magic.

Cheri Bibi/Eric Husberg vs. James Brown/Jean Corne 6/16/66

MD: Fun tag that goes maybe a bit too long at 40 minutes. Bibi and Husberg were a well oiled machine and much better at controlling the ring but save for a moment at the end of the first fall, it never felt like Brown and Corne couldn't just come back at any moment. Of course, Bibi could also retake control at any moment since he was such a bruiser. I liked the organic transition out of that, by the way. Corne had just eaten a fall after being double-teamed for a while and he had to start the second fall since those were the rules. He's trapped in the corner again but escapes when a fan grabs Husberg's leg. It wasn't quite as smooth as that but it was a nice bit of presence that you'd never see happen today. They built to some of those big triumphant babyface moments, my favorite of which was Corne helping Brown get both guys in leg locks simultaneously before running right over them repeatedly. Someone needs to steal it. I really like Brown in these matches. Yes, he has the headbutt like you'd expect, but he can also slug it out and he's very crisp with most things he does and has some big power moves like a one-armed back breaker and the torture rack lift up out of a chinlock and the airplane spin on Bibi (no small feat) that he finally ended things with.

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 35 minutes. Nothing much to see or say here. I'm always happy to see James Brown since his style is a bit different from the regular French guys. He had some nice Fujiwara Armbars here. Other than that this was a house show ish effort. The match hinged on the heel act of Bibi and Husberg and didn't really bring the violence in a big way like in their better matches. Okay stuff but skippable.

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