Tuesday is French Catch Day: Bollet! Bernaert! Di Santo! Zarpa!

Andre Bollet/Pierre Bernaert vs Lino Di Santo/Armand Zarpa Intervilles 8/27/64

MD: Disclaimer up front. This isn't exactly a match per se, but it does involve some of the names we've seen the most and it gives us a different cultural look at things and maybe a bit more about how Catch fit into the national consciousness by the mid 60s. If you didn't see the clips on Twitter that Phil Lions posted a couple of weeks back, go watch the video first and then come back and read this. This is sixty years old and a historical relic and like everything else, we will treat it as such.

Intervilles was a competition show where they pitted two different towns against each other. It had a cow/bull theme. They had four of the best wrestling on a mat in a field of sorts against each other in a tag with each representing one of the two towns. I always get the impression Bollet was a bit of a break out star but his movie appearances don't really kick off until 65. The Bollet/Delaporte album was 63 though. Regardless, he's not treated as more of a star here than the other three. In the early introductions, Di Santo has a very deep voice. Good to know.

We just get a few minutes of action before everything breaks down but it is interesting. They didn't have a lot of room to work with and whenever Zarpa and Di Santo got too close to the heels, they'd liberally throw shots without tagging and get yelled at by the ref. Even just a few minutes of this is worth watching to see what they do without ropes, when they just have a few feet this way or that to move in, what holds and throws they choose to do. I wouldn't want it to be someone's introduction to French Catch but it makes you wonder if they trained or practiced with a mat like this, etc. 

And of course, a few minutes in, it all comes to naught as they release the bull. The wrestlers retreat to the walls. The bull gets distracted by the rodeo clown (or what not). The wrestlers go back and wrestle a bit more. The bull comes back. The wrestlers retreat. It's treated as great comedy by the production even as the host basically calls the whole thing off.

Then he asks the wrestlers to help wrangle the bull and if you know anything about these four, you know that Andre Bollet is going to bump at least once for the bull, and after playing matador with some cloth or another, he does just that. Meanwhile, Bernaert (who had a close call himself) pulls the bull's tail. Anyway, they can't get the bull down despite their best effort and everything just disintegrates from there. So not a lot of actual wrestling to talk about but as we have more matches to come, it was worth sharing and spending a few minutes on. We do have another episode of Intervilles later (a swimming pool match), but YouTube isn't letting me share that so I did clip some of it on Twitter. 

SR: Well, they decide to put a mat in bullfighting arena and hold a wrestling match there. I didn't know France had bullfighting. They actually wrestle normally for about 2 minutes with things looking good as usual and then they let an actual bull in the arena and it all goes haywire because everyone's running for safety. They keep trying to restart the match and the bull keeps interrupting. At one point Bernaert gets tackled by the bull and the referee also narrowly dodges a charging bull while they wrestlers have to abandon the hold they were working. Eventually the seconds (people more experienced with bullfighting I assume) get into wrestling the bull with a few guys getting run over. Eventually they all try teaming up on the bull, with Bernaert pulling his tail and kicking, probably trying to pin him to the mat but they don't succeed. Well this was certainly the most animal cruelty I've probably seen in a wrestling match outside of Japan.

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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: Swimming Pool Matches! Lamarre! Montreal! Mantopolous? Hassouni! Mystery Wrestlers!

3/22/74 (All Matches) - Thanks to the community for helping us identify some of the wrestlers here.

Pierre Bernaert vs Gilbert Wherle

MD: I have to admit, I'm not sure who we're looking at here. If this is a card with three matches televised (even over multiple shows) then this is third from the top which seems to be something we rarely see? There's no announcer. This is a draw with 9 minutes left when we come in. The heel kind of reminds me of Bernaert with his hair and cheating and confidence in movements, but he's a little bit too short (Edit: It was!). Hopefully we can crowdsource some answers. Anyway, they were working towards a draw here, in this swimming pool match, so it was very back and forth. The crowd seemed younger (teenagers and twenty-somethings) than what we usually see. The heel would get mean shots in, the face would come back with some revenge shots of his own. There was a pretty good chinlock in here and the face had great arm-wrenching holds, including something akin to the first cross armbreaker we've seen. The heel's attempts to cheat varied from nefarious to absurd (repeatedly grabbing the ropes on a pin as the ref kicked it off). We've seen in draws that the ref will just decide for someone, generally the face, and when that happened here, the heel complained to the point where the ref just pushed him off of the apron into the water. Any ideas on who these two are?

Ted Lamarre vs Mr. Montreal

MD: This got a decent amount of time, but was overall quite good, especially for a swimming pool match. Lamarre, in some ways, mainly the mustache and the tactics, comes off as a less whinging Delaporte, and I do think this was Delaporte's promotion since last time we saw Montreal, he was up against him. But it was a solid act, especially for this crowd. Montreal controlled with his strength early. It wasn't just tossing Lamarre around either. H

e used the strength to make the holds look great and to counter every escape attempt definitively. They were able to move in and out of things well. When Lamarre took over, it was with a lot of cheating and cheap shots, especially draping Montreal's neck over the top and pulling the rope back. Montreal would try to hammer back at times but Lamarre was quick to get the next bit of cheating in. When Montreal did come back, he often took things too far and the warnings started to pile up. Everything came to a head in the celebratory last five minutes when Lamarre (who had skinned the cat once or twice) finally hit the pool on a huge back body drop. At first Montreal wouldn't let him back in. Then he tied him up in the ropes and kept running into him head first. On the third one, the ref got in the way and ultimately, really got in the way and Montreal picked him up to almost drop him in the pool as well. All this lead to a DQ win for Lamarre but the fans hardly cared. Past the ref getting soaked, they got pretty much everything they wanted out of this one.

Kader Hassouni/Vasilious Mantopolous? vs Bernard Caclard/Albert Sanniez

MD: I wish I could do better on this one. I did a little cross checking. One of the heels is an Elisha Cook Jr. looking guy who I'm sure I've seen before. The other one has a goatee and a buzzcut and I'd believe could be either eastern European or Le Vicomte Joel de Norbreuil by looks alone. Unfortunately, he doesn't actually look like him but he looks like someone he could be NAMED him, monocle and all. If I had time, I'd go back through some more matches to cross-check but hopefully you guys can come through. One of the stylists is definitely Kader Hassouni. The other wrestles like Mantopolous, with the hand behind the back feints and spin kicks and a great roll up at the end, and that confidence that was despite his size but I never get a good enough look to be 100% sure.

The match itself is good though. We come in during the second fall, I think, and the heels manage to do a great job cutting off the ring in between fast exchanges. Someone asked me the other day if the quality of the footage has dropped off yet and I said no, but that it was different. One element of that is that they got better at getting heat in tag matches in a more "southern" style. It didn't always pay off well but it was better than just giving up tags whenever. I wouldn't say we had a lot of long holds here either but all of the ins and outs were good, and when things really picked up in the third fall, there were some great pool bumps that the fans absolutely loved, first Hassouni launching a tope suicida right in and then the heels ending up one after the next, ending with the ref. They did a ton of these shows and the fans really did seem to love them.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Sanniez! Hassoni! Bernaert! Calcard! Prince! Noced!

Albert Sanniez/Kader Hassouni vs Bernard Caclard/Pierre Bernaert 2/15/73

MD: Another swimming pool match. We've seen some of these that were fairly weak but the last one we saw was pretty funny (though Catanzaro being in it stacked the deck) and this one had some great action, but then again, it had Sanniez who is one of the best juniors we've seen out of France. Bernaert, by this point, was an incredibly experienced tag team worker, a great stooge, and here, actually wrestled a bit more than we'd seen him in a while since much of the action was kept to the center of the ring given the water surrounding them. That said, and while Bernaert took most of the bumps into the pool throughout the match (Calcard's saved for the post match own goal), I'd say it was Caclard who created much of the motion on the heel side, as he was able to base and keep up for Hassouni and Sanniez's quickness. Calcard had a great front chancery suplex throw too. Sanniez' reverse bridging headscissors escape remains amazing to watch and he did it twice here. When it came time for the heels to take over (after Sanniez went flying through the ropes on a tope to nowhere due to a missed move), they were sufficiently vicious as you'd expect. Honestly, the pool didn't limit the action much at all, even when the ring was bobbing violently towards the end given how fast and hard they were going. Maybe this would have been slightly better as a conventional match but it was still very good overall.

Petit Prince vs Daniel Noced 3/16/73

MD: Every Petit Prince match we haven't covered is a treasure and this is no difference. I wouldn't call it the most impressive or spectacular match we've seen, but it's one of my favorite performances of his. He seemed more mature as a wrestler when it came to selling a limb, to squaring up to build anticipation for a move, in knowing when to go all out with speed and when to milk something for the crowd. Noced was exceptional too, both as a base, and as a stooging, bullying jerk, a real contrast to the Prince. There was just a little more stalling out of him than we've seen lately, a little more of that focus on his nose towards the end of the match when you'd expect things to be picking up, but it worked because the fans were emotionally invested and because the Prince played a long, one way to take them down one last time before the finish.

After some quick chain wrestling to start, they settled into around fifteen minutes of holds here, Noced controlling to start, first with a wristlock and then a hammerlock before the Prince took over with a short arm scissors. All of it was brilliant. What people will ultimately know about this match will probably come from the gifs of the escapes and escape attempts, and there'll be yuking it up about how wrestlers are spot monkeys or whatever else, but it's the set ups that make all of this really resonate. It's like chess, with each attempt at an escape built up with three bits of motion to even create that opening, and then multiple escape attempts being necessary before slipping out can occur, and then it's usually right back in so that they can take it back down and build it back up again. Without having two or three minutes to work the hold and slowly escalate upwards, the ultimate bursts of motion and acrobatics wouldn't mean nearly as much. Taken as a total whole, it creates the illusion of believable counters on top of counters, with Noced often not sure which way the Prince will go next and trying to adapt during and after the fact. Looked at as just a gif in isolation, it's going to be an amazing spot, but taken as a whole, there's an underlying struggle that creates the environment for which it can exist. But please, gif this stuff anyway; people should see it. And if it takes them back to the source, all the better.  But without the long dedication to a hold, the ultimate flash would feel far, far more empty.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Catanzaro! Bernaert! Mantopolous! Montreal! Corn! Leduc! Henker!

Billy Catanzaro/Pierre Bernaert vs. Mr. Montreal/Vasilios Mantopolous 6/5/72

MD:  I'm amazed we didn't watch this one before. It could be that we saw it was a swimming pool match and decided against it because the few pool matches we've seen so far just haven't been great. This had a few things going for it though. First, it had Billy Catanzaro who is a singular, once in a century, stooging heel. It had Bernaert who is as professional a put upon bad guy as you'll find. It had Montreal who was one of the biggest positive surprises in all of the footage because even a muscle man, in France, was excellent. And of course, it had Mantopolous, who was imaginative, creative, deft, skilled, very over, whatever word you want to use, just a marvel. Even so, what made this work was that they treated the water like a big deal. The tag setting meant that Bernaert could get knocked out relatively early due to mishaps with his own partner, but they took twenty minutes teasing the reviled Catanzaro going out with any number of close calls. It ended up being a bit like an exploding ring match where they tease it and tease it and then finally pay it off, here with Mantopolous skinning the cat and taking Billy over, except for instead of pain and destruction it was a wet humiliation that Catanzaro was trying to avoid. The tag nature meant that Bernaert could suffer repeatedly and keep the fans happy and the gimmick fulfilled while the tension for Catanzaro finally crashing into the pool rose and rose. Once that happened they were already in the second fall and they could just keep building upon it.

There wasn't going to be much heat here. Some cheapshots, some tandem cheating, but it was almost always to set up immediate comeuppance for the bad guys. This was all about keeping the crowd happy and the interplay between Bernaert and Catanzaro was perfect for that. Catanzaro was a jerk's jerk, so much so that Bernaert, a jerk himself, was getting more and more furious at him. On the other side you had Montreal's strength spots and big hammering blows and Mantopolous flying around the ring, using tricked out takedowns, and lady in the lake turtling to make fools out of his opponents. This wasn't the most dramatic match we've seen but it was wildly entertaining the whole way through.

Gilbert Leduc/Jacky Corn vs. Der Henker 7/5/72

MD: This was actually a tremendous piece of business, maybe the most emotionally resonant match we've seen in the entire set. Corn and Leduc were true stars, wrestlers' wrestlers, absolutely tops on my list of babyfaces and stylists I've seen in this footage. They were heroes. Henker was another in the line of masked headsmen but he had an aura, hard shots, big power moves, believability. We'd seen him face off against Leduc and Corn in singles matches already and I wouldn't say anything in those made it inevitable that he could take on both in a handicap match, but they leaned harder into his power and presence here and laid out a match that caused a near riot and that left everyone looking better than they came in.

Early going here was Henker's power up against Corn or Leduc's skill. They would tag in and out and never double team or cheat. Leduc obviously made good use of his headstand and the Mascaras style headscissors. Corn would go quicker into the strike exchanges. Midway through the match, Henker was able to toss Corn out, to slam his head onto the post as he was trying to come back in, and then to drop him hard with a tombstone. The crowd banded together to carry Corn to the back leaving Leduc alone. Leduc did well at first, taking over and even going for the mask, but the ref held him back allowing for a Henker cheap shot and infuriating the crowd. From there, it was Henker slowly whittling Leduc down with big blows and power moves even as the crowd occasionally tried to storm the ring. Leduc would get pops every time he tried to get up, every time he threw a futile blow but Henker was just too much, or at least he was until, minutes down the line, Corn, head taped up, rushed back to the ring. He got the tag and the tide turned with Corn (one of the best late match sluggers ever) and eventually Leduc getting revenge on both Henker and the ref. From there, it was more about Henker surviving the onslaught and making it to the time limit draw, which, as I said, left everyone looking formidable and respectable by the end. The last shot is Corn and Leduc embracing to the crowd's delight. We've seen many matches that were technically better but maybe none that had more heart.

PAS: This was a blast. Henker is a big beastly dude, and I liked how the match built from more exchanges to big bursts of violence. You don't see much blood in French Catch and to see Corn just dripping after getting smashed by those nasty elbow/forearms and the posting was pretty memorable. Also the mass of people carrying him to the back like a martyred rebel leader was awesome. They had really established Henker as so formidable that LeDuc being one on one with him felt like he was at a big disadvantage. Corn coming from the back was iconic and his fired up comeback was some Lawler Mid-South Coliseum level great stuff. After all that I would have liked a more conclusive ending then a draw, but this was very cool stuff.  

ER: I wasn't sure what to expect from this as the handicap structure felt odd. Der Henker is a big man but not so much bigger than Leduc or Corn that a handicap match feels necessary, but these men had all been feuding for a year or more and this was two of the best babyfaces teaming up to rid France of this asshole Executioner. I'm used to German words sounding more ominous than their American counterparts, but I admittedly think that Executioner sounds much cooler than Der Henker. That said, tell every person in attendance that Der Henker doesn't sound ominous and they'd find you mad, as this man is loathed. I love when a French Catch match has these simmering social situations that just keep getting hotter until they boil over, leading women in their nice coats to charge the ring and yell in Der Henker's face.

Henker did a good job of fending off the fighting babyfaces, but things went up to the next level when he tossed Corn to the floor and posted him, then dropped him with a tombstone. Up to that point it had mostly been Henker defending and clubbing in response (with these weird but also cool elbow strikes that landed the entire inside of his arm and elbow across Corn and Leduc's heads), but this was an actual outright offense! The crowd actually carried the injured Corn to the back and I thought for sure that there was going to be a riot, as Der Henker had the stones to actually get out of the ring and face the crowd, more of them pushing closer to the ring every second. A kid, 12 years old tops, even starts to climb up the ring steps to get in before an adult grabs him! 

The match had given us a lot of holds to work out of and now was the time for the uppercuts to start landing. Henker kept winning exchanges, taking a lot of damage, but not staggering or falling to his knees, into the ropes the way Leduc was. Leduc's best attack was his cool slingshot into the ropes, Der Henker falling back hard - twice! - into the points of Leduc's knees. But Der Henker's excellent press slam gutbuster (a move that might have made me flip out even more than the French acrobatics, had I been alive and in attendance) and tombstone on made it seem like that bad guy was taking this, leading to the bloody and wild Corn returning to save his partner. The finishing stretch to the (admittedly disappointing but understandable) time limit draw was pure joy. Corn threw his closed fists to the side of Henker's head and really let loose with uppercuts. Der Henker got stuck in the ropes, the referee got monkey flipped into Der Henker, total madness leading to our draw. I loved how this kept building and leapt into something huge. 

 

ALL TIME MOTY LIST

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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: Peruvians! Chemoul! Bordes! Mantopolous! Bernaert! Lamagoru! Camus! Little bit of Andre!!

Inca Peruano/Anton Tejero vs Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes 4/12/69

MD: Another great tag between these two teams, albeit one where the reffing was just ridiculous lax. I think the only actual public warning here was after the end of the first fall when Bordes and Ben Chemoul were dancing along to the fan's mocking chants and refused to actually engage. Peruano could well be the very best minute to minute wrestler in the entire collection. He was imaginative, inhabited a dodgy, sullen, wry character at all times, had a bunch of great spots and exchanges, and here utilized the best strikes we've ever seen out of him, including these really nice flurries. The first half of this had just a ton of heat, a lot of it obtained by blatantly cheating in front of the ref, but a lot more by drawing him away or riling the other babyface. The tags were generally earned and comebacks, when scored, were fiery crowd-pleasers, though full of plenty of blatant cheating too. By this point, Ben Chemoul and Bordes were a well oiled machine and the back half of this had tons of big bumps and stooging by the heels. It was one moment to pop the crowd after the next. Chemoul seemed as athletic as ever, especially as he flew across the ring onto a leg Bordes was holding and Bordes bumped huge early and plenty of interesting, complex spots later. You wished that maybe they had cashed in on that heat for a little more drama, but what they bought with it instead was an entertained, happy crowd.

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 30 minutes. The opening exchange of this were just ridiculous - insanely fast. Chemoul was acting hyperactive as if he was on cocaine. He seemed a bit like the Terry to the calmer Bordes' Dory Jr. This had the usual tag structure - faces shine, heels do short isolation segments before faces shine some more leading to a big pay off - but worked at a ridiculously high level. Pretty much as good as you expect from these teams at this point. There were a couple breathtaking sequences and they never let up. Peruvians were great stooging heels, as usual. Especially loved the Incas punch combos. I didn't think it added up to an epic match - perhaps because the faces took it 2:0, although there was some serious peril for a bit when the Peruvians busted out a tombstone piledriver - but it was good shit and went by in a breeze.

PAS: I absolutely loved this, and think it is at the level of the best stuff in this collection. Peruano and Tejero are one of my favorite tags teams in history. Just a masterful pair of bases, bumpers and vicious fuckers. If Peruano wasn't cool enough  he is apparently a Satanico level puncher. Tejero has one of the highest bumps to ring time ratio's in wrestling history, he is just constantly flying violently to the floor or getting thrown high into the air in the ring. Chemoul is a dynamo, he has a couple of exchanges in this match which were as remarkable as the first time you saw Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid or Rey Jr. vs. Psicosis. I thought the finishes to both falls were pretty great, and have no problem with the technicos winning two straight hard fought falls. 


Jean Ferre vs Robert Duranton  10/4/69


MD: Four and a half glorious minutes of Andre humiliating Duranton and his valet. The valet was the single most over heel in 1960s France so obviously the fans loved this. Duranton may have been flamboyant but he was also a hard hitter, and he threw what he had at Andre, but Andre would take it and floor him with one shot and go right back after the valet. He ended up bodyscissoring (and giving the subsequent whack) to both at once and slamming one on the other before pinning both. By this point, he knew how to play to the crowd and milk his moments, an attraction in the making.

SR: JIP. We get about 4 minutes of this. Andre was clearly coming into his own at this stage. He engaged in some nice strike exchanges. Dug Durantons punches. A good chunk of this was about Andre going after Firmin, though. Andre wins quite easily, proving Durantons stardom was nothing to this mythical giant.


Pierre Bernaert/Pierre Lamagoru vs Vasilious Mantopolous/Robert Camus 10/4/69


MD: Another celebratory performance by Mantpolous giving the crowd everything they wanted. There was some real heat from Bernaert and Lamagrou in the first fall, where the controlled the corner with the leg and stomped away and then a ghost of it towards the end with some tandem stuff, but the first was ultimately turned around on them with endless stomps in the face corner as the fans chanted along and the second got reversed quickly, imaginatively but quickly. So the stakes were never high even if the action was quick-moving and full of fun flourishes. Bernaert was a seasoned tag wrestler, of course, and played hard into Mantpolous' act, bounding himself in a mocking way, trying to turtle to draw him in (unsuccessfully), playing to the crowd. Lamagoru was there to get clowned, but I liked how he sold the aftereffects of things more than most wrestlers of this era. Camus held up his end but a lot of times, that was to set the stage for Mantopolous to come in and make fools of everyone around him with is wizardry and verve.

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 30 minutes.Mantopoulos seems like the Golden Boy of French Catch at this point. He always brings a ton of energy and explosiveness to matches and stands out above everyone else. Camus seemed like a young boy. He was solid but didn't add much flash. Heels were solid, too. This was entertaining largely due to the Greek just bouncing around and doing his stuff at a highly energetic level, but was a bit overshadowed by the above tag. Still pretty decent action though.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Mantopoulous! Zarpa! Bernaert! N'Boa! Gastel! Delaporte! Zarecki! Guguliemetti

Vasilios Mantopoulos/Armand Zarpa vs Pierre Bernaert/N'Boa Le Congolais 4/5/69

MD: Super enjoyable tag, endlessly entertaining. Bob Elandon was in the (yes, super racist) gimmick of N'Boa for at least four years now and there's much more of a sense that he's in on the joke now than in earlier matches we've seen. He seems to turn it on and off as the situation calls for, doesn't have his German handler with him, and spends a chunk of this looking surly as can be. When he turns it on, the crowd goes absolutely nuts, though, both with the blatant biting and getting outsmarted and outquicked and turned around by Zarpa and Mantopolous. They didn't start with the biting either. They really build to it as Elandon could bump and stooge and work technical spots as well. This one's very creative, with a lot of the double team comedy bits we've seen up til now and some we haven't. They even have the ref miss a hot tag, though they haven't quite worked out the value of actually paying it off with a tag that is hot yet. Zarpa's good, but Mantopolous is one of the best. There's a bit in here where he blocks a bodyslam with his leg that I don't think I've ever seen before and his turtling exchange with both heels popped the crowd huge. Bernaert and N'boa had a great act here. Bernaert was used to working with oddball characters as he spent a chunk of years teaming with Bibi. There's a moment half way where Mantopolis dropkicks N'boa to the floor and dives after him and they fight on top of the crowd more than in it and that represents the wild energy and imagination of this tag in a nutshell.

SR: 2/3 falls match going a bit over 30 minutes.This was the usual fun junior tag. Fast exchanges and bumping tour the force to start, heels cheat and faces get increasingly enraged. As usual with Mantopolous, it seemed there was never a real extended heat section, so the whole thing felt light hearted. I mean, there was still some really impressive stuff going on. Bernaert looked age, but he still looked like an expert stooge and he and N'Boa (Embaba? M'Baba?) bumped extremely well for Mantopolous magic. There was also a crazy bit where Mantopolous jumped on one of the guys when he was outside the ring. Overall, it was a good bout.

PAS: I thought this was a blast. Mantopolous is such a wizard at turning people inside out, and both N'Boa and Bernaert are great at getting flustered. I loved Mantopolous flummoxing N'Boa by curling up into a ball, and his half monkey flip where he drops his opponent on his belly is a very cool spot. We also get the first dive of the footage as Mantopolous jumps off the ring apron onto N'Boa. So much fun to watch a trickster play tricks. 

Robert Gastel/Roger Delaporte vs Warnia de Zarecki/Giacomo Guguliemetti 4/19/69

MD: We come in somewhat JIP here. I doubt it's too much so but we lose some of the early feeling out process. We have that 1961 tag between Delaporte/Bollet and Leduc/Gastel which was some sort of interpromotional battle. I'm not sure how Delaporte and Gastel ended up here together, but I'm happy for it. They make a pretty perfect pair. Most of the first fall is spent with the stylists in control with holds and Delaporte menacing from the outside, doing everything he can to interfere and just blatantly come in. Eventually, they catch on and do a blind switch while the ref is distracted by him. It's all pretty entertaining stuff where Gastel didn't have to do a lot from underneath since Delaporte was creating all of the interest  and excitement. Gastel might have been the best at all time of getting a single leg from a kneeling position, that old mainstay of 50s French bad guys. It wasn't enough here as Zarzecki managed a slick escape from a full nelson into a pin. The second fall was Gastel and Delaporte at their offensive best, as they trapped Guguliemetti in their corner and just mauled him: big, massive forearms and uppercuts from Delaporte and clubbering blasts from Gastel. As much as these two were mugging stooges, they could absolutely crush someone with their strikes. The third fall was pretty academic with Zarzecki and Guguliemetti pinballing Delaporte around the ring with harsh shots to the fans' delight, until Gastel was able to get a shot in out of nowhere as he was getting whipped back and forth across the ring to sneak out the infuriating (for the crowd) win. Constantly entertaining with two absolute master villains and a couple of game good guys. As we've already covered the Van Buyten match and the Williams/Barreto match which are chronologically after this one, I think that's it for us and Gastel, and I'll miss the flat-faced, grisly, clubbering lout. He was a real discovery of this footage.

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 30 minutes. Am I seeing things, or was Delaportes mustache shaved for this!? This is joined in progress about 15 minutes in. The first fall still had some impressively quick worked sequences. I also really liked Zarzecki beating the shit out of Gastel in the corner with fast european uppercuts. This was the stuff as all these tags, fun back and forth in the first fall, then the heels turn up the intensity, in this case by beating the shit out of the faces in the corner. Eventually the faces make their big comeback and all hell breaks lose. I'd say this executed the formula in a fun way, the energy was good and the heat was big. I liked the part where they stuck a mic in Gastels face after he got thrown over the rope.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Ange Blanc! Scarface! Bernaert! Le Magouro! Zafar! Le Mao!

Pierre Bernaert/Pierre Le Magouro vs. Armand Zafar/Henri Le Mao 11/23/68

MD: Very good, well worked tag, with strong wrestling and some big shots. It suffered from the same structural issues that all of these tags tend to suffer from (too much shine, not enough heat, too many resets and easy babyface tags, too long a first fall, too short second and third), though the wrestling was more even for the first ten minutes which helped. On the other hand, the heels never picked up a fall, which both helped and hurt. It probably cut five or ten minutes off the match which let it all flow better but it still falls away from my ideal narrative balance. Thankfully, the heat that we did get was strong, with Bernaert an all-time cheater with great looking shots and Le Magourou another in the long line of second banana stooges. Le Mao is just excellent and I wish we had a dozen more matches with him. This is it though. Just amazing headbutts from him here, too. Zafar had a nice, sweeping way of moving and putting on. While it built to a few crowd-pleasing spots, my favorite bits here (past the headbutts) were probably the announcer menacing the heels by trying to get soundbytes during the worst moments.

PAS: Le Mao is kind of a French Fujiwara, so of course I adore him. He isn't doing the shoot matwork, but is a great old man escape artist and is amazing at evading a move and absolutely open up the skull of his opponent with a headbuttt.  I am a guy who loves a good headbutt and he is up there with the greatest ever coconut clankers. Everyone else in the match was fine, slick wrestling and thumping with shots, but this was a Le Mao show and every time he was in I was engrossed. Too bad we only have three matches of his, he feels like an all time great and with four more matches I would make that argument.   


L‘Ange Blanc vs. Scarface Le Balafre 12/7/68

MD: Yeah, I'm high on this. It won't be for everyone but it's really straightforward, fundamental, primal, well-worked stuff. After so many matches that were worked evenly or with a lot of shine, I love how Scarface spent so much time leaning on L'Ange. He was a good goon, maybe not the best at sneaking in cheapshots behind the ref's back but how blatant he was just got him more heat. He switched it up too, a chinlock, a cobra clutch, a hammerlock, and so on. All the tricks like holding the rope to block the flying mare. L'ange was excellent fighting from underneath and on his comebacks would come back with a few big shots or spots and then it'd be right back into the next hold. They managed this pretty successfully for twenty five minutes or so with the heat building and the comebacks escalating until we got into the finish. Scarface tossed him out in desperation and started a King of the Mountain sequence and a nasty one at that. When L'Ange came back, he just hit dropkick after dropkick to knock him off the apron, drawing the eventual DQ since he just wouldn't stop. That started about six minutes of near-riot as he kept going after Scarface to the elation of the crowd. Eventually, things calmed down to a degree, long enough for the ref to raise Scarface's hand, but the crowd continued to be animated, seething with the same pent up energy that L'Ange, true folk hero, was radiating. I wouldn't want to be Scarface trying to get out of that building that night.

PAS: L'Ange is on the WON Hall of Fame ballot, and he certainly looked like a hall of fame level performer this night. I really enjoy big babyface performance, Bruno, Colon,  Lawler, and Blanc was clearly at that level. Scarface was a fun jerk, ugly hard hitting cheap shotting. The finish with Blanc constantly hitting dropkicks until getting DQed was a fun way for a big star to loose and the post match really did feel a little out of control. Much of the talk about the French stuff is how futuristic it all is, this is classic though nothing fancy, but very effective. 

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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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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: Bernaert! Zarpa! Bayle! Montreal! Bibi! Husberg!

Joachim La Barba vs Dan Aubriot 4/11/65

MD: Our last little look at La Barba. About five minutes. It's great for what we get. They're able to go at a high speed, full of hard hitting shots and tons of character. They'll go from a quick roll up/armbar exchange, to a double stomp, to uppercuts and forearms, to big tosses out of (and back into) the ring, right into the antics. At one point, La Barba fast counted himself on a pin, left the ring, and put his robe back on, only for Aubriot to pull him back in and trounce him. Great stuff. The finish was 1965 nuts with a really close up missile dropkick (more of just a missile kick) and then top rope splash from La Barba. What a shame we didn't have more La Barba in the footage. Ah well.

Pierre Bernaert vs Armand Zarpa 4/11/65

MD: Other than the cross body finish and slight elaboration in some of the in-and-out hold sequences, this could have been six or seven years earlier. There's nothing wrong with that but it felt like a bit of a throwback to the classic stylist vs mechant stuff we've seen a ton of so far. Bernaert is, of course a pro at this. Zarpa was either Armenia or Greek (here billed as Armenian) and he could hang. Some of the sequences looked a little off but they were all worked so competitively that things being off ended up additive anyway. Sometimes Zarpa, despite being the stylist, went to a kick or a shot to get out and the fans seemed unsure about that early. Halfway through the match, though, Bernaert got mean and they were behind Zarpa when he fired back. There probably wasn't quite enough of that and maybe a bit too much of taking the crowd back down with holds. There was a relatively late headscissors which probably wasn't the crowd needed in that moment, for instance. In general, though, it was good, baseline stuff.

Remy Bayle/Mr Montreal vs Cheri Bibi/Eric Husberg 4/25/65

MD: We've seen our share of Bibi and Bernaert but this was our first look at Bibi and Husberg and it was great. Maybe with Bernaert there was more heel chicanery, but while Pierre's hard hitting, Husberg seems to be more of a relentless, dogged, and varied striker with a craven stooging streak and interesting combos. Add in Bibi's brutal shots and tendency to be able to cut off an opponent believably at a moment's notice and they were a high bar to defeat. The more I see Montreal, the more I like him. He had a body gimmick for a babyface, but he hit hard and threw great slams and sold well, just really having a deep connection to the crowd. He was lead babyface material and a fiery hot tag or mauling worker from underneath. It helped that Bibi leaned into his every shot. You got the sense he really liked to work with Montreal, which is quite the claim for me to be making from watching a few matches, but I call it like I see it. Bayle was able to work in these cool little karate chops giving his combos some welcome variety. This was fairly back and forth, with some standout sequences like a progressive (for the time) and well worked arm control bit on Bibi that ended with Bibi rolling to Husberg and Husberg mocking his opponents for losing control only to get almost immediately blasted for his trouble. There was also a great moment where Montreal held the ropes open as Bibi went to bound off them for an illegal double team so that he just went sailing. At times they got big heat (with trash being thrown in and Husberg kicking it out) and the fans were up for all the comebacks. The finish, while not satisfying, was at least amusing and both teams could realistically claim some form of victory. It made me want to see them go at it again.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day:Les Copains! Blousons Noir! Said! Kader! Bernaert! Double Dip of Manneveau!

MD: As promised, let's talk quickly about 1963 and 1964, and really, why we have so little from 61 on. Over at PWO, Phil Lions stopped by and told us the following:

"How come there were so few shows in 1961, you may ask? Well, in April of 1961 Maurice Herzog (the French Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports at the time) put pressure on the network not to air catch anymore, because he considered it a "degrading spectacle" and wanted them to focus on other "more noble" sports such as athletics, boxing, skiing, volleyball, and basketball. Despite catch being one of its most viewed sports broadcasts, the network could no longer air it regularly so they'd only do a handful of broadcasts per year. So that explains why there's so little footage from 1961 and onward."

So we're suffering here, 60 years later, from a cultural backlash. Phil also looked through French newspapers in 1964 and found about ten TV listings for Catch, including a couple of Rikki Starr matches (including one vs Gastel), but we don't seem to have those from the archives. Hope springs eternal that they might one day show up.

If you haven't already seen Phil's article on L'Ange Blanc, go check it out. It's phenomenal: http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=10&t=005393

Le Grand Vladimir vs. Bernard Vignal 5/16/64

MD: We'll take whatever we can get in 64, obviously, but this might not have been my first choice. It's 9 minutes JIP and fine. Vladimir is a guy who we have British footage of decades later but seeing him young is new. He hits hard (including slaps/chops at the neck), had the sort of chokes and nerve holds you'd expect, some nice throat-based offense using the ropes, and an interesting entry into a cobra clutch off the ropes I haven't seen before. Vignal is someone we've seen before, an older scrapper with the fans behind him, but this never really escalates into the slugfest you'd want it to, and it ends on a pretty lame low kick DQ. Certainly ok stuff, and we're beggers and not choosers for this year but nothing high end.

Les Copains (Dan Aubriot/Bob Plantin) vs. Blousons Noirs (Manuel Manneveau/Claude Gessat) 5/16/64

MD: If we're only going to have one full match from 64, this isn't a bad one to have. Manneveau and Gessat are such a great unit and I'm glad we get at least a few more matches with them upcoming. They are such a well-oiled machine, constantly drawing heat, constantly cheating, constantly looking for an advantage or a double team, and when it's time, feeding and stooging. We know how good Aubriot was and he lived up to that here, with flashy offense, sympathetic selling during the long FIP stretches, and fiery comebacks when he had the chance (though always cut off in the back half due to the backwork; even after he snuck the fall on a bridge, he couldn't get out of the bridge without Plantin's help). Plantin showed a lot of fire here, especially being great on the apron. After the super fast, tricked out opening exchanges and some great hold exchanges, the rest of the match was heat and more heat, with some southern tag tricks, that heavy back focus on Aubriot, and some hot tags. Finish could use just a little more weight to it, but at that point, you got the sense that the Copains were just worn down from the constant assault.

SR:2/3 falls match going about 35 minutes. The French love their tag matches. This started out as a fantastically athletic match, with guys busting out sick looking kip ups and working holds with fantastic resistance. Then it turned into a total asskicking. That was due to Manneveau and Gessat, who cut off the ring and beat their opponents like they owed them money. Aubriot and Plantin fired back like any French babyface would, with massive european uppercuts and throwing their opponents around the ring with blindingly fast headscissors. The Blousons ruled the show though, with those nasty short kicks, stomps, kneedrops to the face, and throwing hands. While Aubriot and Plantin were supposed to bring the spectacular, the Blousons had some big moves of their own, including probably the highlight of the match, a crazy headscissor counter into a huge backbreaker. The 3rd fall was just a house of fire with Aubriot and Plantin having enough and just stomping their opponents on their face. It‘s not hard to see from performances like this that the Blousons Noirs act is up there with the Anderson Bros, Misioneros de la Muerte, Ikeda and Ono etc. as an incredible heel unit.

PAS: This was killer stuff, a fine 1964 MOTY representative, even if we only have one match. Noirs have shown signs of it in the other stuff we have, but man was this a master class of showing out for the babyfaces and when given a turn just unleashing a bruising. The opening section was really fast and elaborate, reminding me of a great opening Caida in a lucha match. When it got down and dirty in got down and dirty with the babyface landing big shots and being matched with even bigger stuff Manneveau almost leaps into his uppercuts spinning the babyfaces around with them when they land. He also hit almost a springboard jumping roll up for the for the second fall. The third fall was furious stuff ending with an assault with Manneveau stomping and punching Plantin right on the throat,  he landed a disgusting knee which looked like it crushed his windpipe. The final big bodyslam almost felt like a respite. 

Arabet Said/Abdel Kader vs. Pierre Bernaert/Marcel Manneveau 1/10/65

MD: This was extremely heel-in-peril, with very few periods of extended heat, despite Bernaert and Manneveau sure trying their best and taking every opportunity. In some ways, that's a shame, because you could tell from the get go, this was a really game crowd and they would have near-rioted if there was any actual heat. At one point, some lady swipes Manneveau's leg from the outside and he barely even deserved it at that point. That's a lie. He always deserves it. What a pest. He's almost like a combination of Delaporte's mustache and smugness and willingness to show ass with Bollet's manic energy. He threw himself into everything, including bumping out of the ring repeatedly and hitting a crazy fast spinning and twisting sunset flip to win the first fall. Bernaert was more than happy to play along. He's always a great slugger and so good at being smarmy with the ref and his opponent. Said looked great here, with one extended short arm scissors bit where he kept getting each guy into it and a lot of legitimately funny stuff worked around his hard head. Kader could garner sympathy and had solid striking but he was in there to lose the advantage so Said could get it back. They built to some fun and elaborate heel miscommunication spots late. Bernaert's come a long way and Manneveau is just one of the most entertaining guys in all of the footage.

SR:2/3 falls match going about 38 minutes. This was another good match although slightly overshadowed by the above tag. Bernaert and Manneveau, the heel team, didn‘t fully let loose like the Blousons did above. There was still plenty of asskicking going on, with Arabet Said doing some fun hard head work, and we got treated to some quality wrestling from the faces including some great short arm scissors work. There was a genius moment where Mannevau from the apron tripped somebody up, who fell perfectly into a Bernaert front headlock and set him up for Manneveau to come in with several flying stomps. That is high end heel work just thrown out casually in a match that is basically a fun house show main event by the standards of this stuff.

PAS: Fun match and a look at a slightly different shade of Mannevau. He was much more of a goof here, getting caught in the ropes, spun around by armdrags, stooging for Said hard head. We never got to see him unleash the brutality he showed in the previous match, but he was great in a more overtly comedic role, as was Bernaert who just got angrier and angrier the more he got flummoxed. Love a hard skull gimmick and Said did it well, including Baernert basically breaking his arm trying to forearm him. Great week with two different but hyper enjoyable tag matches. 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Inca! Mercier! LeDuc! Portz! Aubriot! Bernaert!

Inca Peruano vs Guy Mercier 10/19/62

PAS: This is pretty JIP, but man what we get is spectacular. Peruano has got to be one of the wildest wrestlers of all time, and parts of this were like watching a leveling up spotfest for the first time (something like Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite in MSG, or Rey Jr. vs. Psicosis in ECW). Mercier was a nice dance partner, but you are watching this for Inca. Peruano has these beautiful effortless headscissors, which he hits until Mercier counters the last one with a Giant swing. Peruano also takes to crazy bumps into the ropes, one where he gets kicked into a Andre ropes trapped position, one where he gets thrown into a Cactus ear loss strangle. Not a fan of the double pin ending, but everything before that was killer.

SR: About 6 minutes are shown. And well, be happy for that, because these two do a lot of cool wrestling in 6 minutes. Mercier catches a Peruano flying headscissors and hurls him around in a giant swing in a really cool spot, and Peruano does some ridiculously on point bumping and launching himself into the ropes to get tied up. We also see someone get pinned off a surfboard hold.

MD: It's such a joy to watch Peruano. We get the last 8 minutes of this, having missed around 15 before that and they're just at it from the start. Almost immediately, he's maring Mercier to set him up for his askew angled headscissors takeovers, only for the rule of 3 to come into play and Mercier to just jam him with an elevated giant swing of all things. Then they roll right into a sequence where Peruano bumps himself way over the top and into a tangled situation in the ropes. It's one athletic, creative, innovative, and completely believable and organic spot after the next, with them trading holds or blows or dropkicks in between. This is the most interestingly I've seen a lot of Peruano's token stuff used (like the jammed headscissors). We're at the point of the footage where we're dealing with such known, experienced entities that there are counters to counters and spots that are twisted and remixed and since we're fairly familiar with the style and the specifics, we can pick up on them.

Gilbert LeDuc vs. Geoff Portz 10/19/62

SR: 1 fall match going 30 minutes. Geoff Portz is a legendary British tough guy wrestler. His status is such that he could‘ve stunk this whole match up and it would still be a super valuable find. But, he was very good here. They worked a kind of clinical contest, and I wonder if Portz was holding back slightly, but he looked super impressive just trading holds with Leduc. Portz was built like a brickhouse, and you get the sense he was a powerhouse who could move like a graceful technician. At one point he lifted Leduc straight up from the ground like a child and into a full nelson hold, and another moment involved him lifting Leduc on his shoulders up from his knees. The hold battling was really good – especially dug Portz trying to torture rack Leduc with Leduc clamping on a side headlock for dear life, and there was some great headscissor work that lead amongst other things to Leduc lifting up Portz and Portz victory rolling him. They never throw strikes but there is some rope running which is mixed well into the match. I thought the match was going to go to a 30 minute draw but then a controversial fall happens that the crowd got super mad over in one of those moments that emphasized how dear the people then held their wrestling. And why wouldn‘t they, getting bouts like this on the regular.

MD: Portz is yet another brit that we're lucky to get footage of so young. This is just a gripping heavyweight wrestling clinic, including some of the best worked side headlock sequences I've seen. That includes Portz attempting multiple times to heft Leduc up into a torture rack, which is the best headlock counter that no longer exists. He finally gets it later in the match and it feels like a quality payoff. Portz has an extra bit of power and a way of just trying to peel off limbs that made me wish we had a match with him against Spartacus. Leduc's able to hold his own and keep him from capitalizing too much on any single advantage. Unfortunately, just as it's starting to pick up and get chippy, there's a three count out of nowhere and it makes you wonder if they were going to take it a couple more minutes and pound each other into the draw.

PAS: I thought the first part of this was a little dry, Portz had a very Dory Jr. feel to him. He was going to do his headlock takeovers and it didn't matter what the crowd wanted. I started to get more and more into this as it went on though. We get a couple of cool headspin escapes from the master of the headspin, including one from an armbar. Portz was a super strong guy and at one point he just stands from a sitting position using his leg strength, and I loved all of his torture racks. I feel like the accidental fall robbed us of a really hot ending, but what we got was pretty cool.

Guy Taillieu vs Gerard Franck 11/9/62

MD: Last few minutes of a hard hitting but friendly enough match. Franck looked pretty good here with huge uppercuts and an abrupt dropkick. Tallieu was slicker with a nice cartwheel takedown and some STO style trips we haven't seen a lot of in the footage and some hammerlock assisted throws. He could hit hard too. Really though, we didn't get enough of this to get more than an impression but it was a positive one.

Dan Aubriot vs Pierre Bernaert 11/9/62    Pt2

MD: Phil and Eric covered this seven years ago and it's still MOTY for 1962 for SC. As it's the next chronological match in the collection, as we have so little from this period in the 60s, and as we know Bernaert a lot better now, we thought it was worth another look. I do think we'll have to take stock again after next week when we finish off 62's Catch offerings. That's not to say this isn't an excellent match. It is. Aubriot brought all the right attributes to the table. He was lightning fast, a wizard on the mat, sold each bit of damage in the moment, wasn't afraid to bump out of the ring, and had some very imaginative spots that stood out in a world of imaginative spots. Bernaert showed signs of competence in previous matches (though he was much more of a cheapshot artist), and has developed over the years we've seen him into an excellent tag-team wrestler, but this was the best showcase of his so far. At times, he'd completely hang with Aubriot, not simply basing but calling and raising Aubriot levels of complexity all so that Aubriot could do something even more impressive in the end. The best example of that was Bernaert dropping down for a rare heel mascaras twist only for Aubriot to cartwheel out of it and hit some brilliant ranas. There was something dogged and persistent about Bernaert actual wrestling, which we hadn't really seen from him or from most of the heels we've seen so far. They escalated to blows and Bernaert to cheapshots but it came back down to the holds again and again.

PAS: I think as of now this keeps the 1962 crown, although I don't think it would make a top 25 of the footage we have seen, although that is more a testament to the insane quality of the French Catch, then a diss of this match. Aubriot was very slick, great ranas, cool reversals and a great looking mix of a stunner and a diamond cutter. Bernaert really lays in the violence in the second half of the match, including some urine reddening knees and forearms to the kidneys. The breakdown is some of my favorite stuff in this style, and they really rock each other at the end, including some nasty forearms by Bernaert when he was trying to break Aubriot's body scissors. I thought the judo throw for the pin was cool, but didn't really feel like a finish. I am interested to see what we get next week to challenge this match, it's a hell of a match, but vulnerable. 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Delaporte! Bollet! LeDuc! Gastel! Montreal! Sola! Bernaert! Rouxel!

Roger Delaporte/Andre Bollet vs Gilbert Leduc/Robert Gastel 12/14/61

MD: Great tag with four great guys. I have no idea why Gastel was on the side of the angels here but he came off as a folk hero and the fans loved to cheer for him. He would just mow everyone down with forearms and headbutts and the crowd ate it up. Leduc took a nasty bump on a fireman's carry into the heel turnbuckle early on and they just unleashed the most brutal, long beating on him with quick tags, slams and backbreakers, stomps, and even a somersault senton by Bollet that spelled his doom in the first fall. Eventually, in the second, Gastel had enough (they had done a good job goading him while in control) and rushed in to a big pop. From there it was fairly back and forth. Leduc sold his back for the rest of the match but had moments of fire. They built to a few big comeuppance spots like usual. Gastel had a way of taking the crowd back down after comebacks to set up the heels taking back over which were well and fine but he held one armbar for over four minutes without them working in and out of it and that was a bit much. Still, past that, these guys were masters and the match was masterful.

SR: 2/3 falls match. We JIP about 20 minutes into a 60 match. This is one of those matches which is heated as we join, and it stays heated for almost a full 40 minutes from that point forward. This was all about Delaporte and Bollet throwing hard punches and stomps, and our man Gastel being a real one and helping poor gentleman Leduc through the match by fighting fire with fire. Gastel being excepted wholly as a babyface by the audience is heartwarming. Bollet was doing those flip sentons to peoples backs like Tenryu being in a funny mood. This had quite a bit of back work, which didn‘t pay off in a major way. In fact the match had some unusual restholds and may have suffered a bit from being nothing but all these guys beating the hell out of eachother for 40 minutes, but these guys are great at beating the hell out of each other. The last 10 minutes or so are great though with Gastel throwing some awesome looking headbutts. I would‘ve liked to see the full thing, as these kinda heatfests suffer a bit when you don‘t get the early build. But knowing these guys, they may have gone for full on heat from the get go.

PAS: This was great stuff, it is really impressive the pace these guys can set in a 60 minute draw, we tend to mentally think of 20th century 60 minutes draws having long rest hold sections, but this was a go go pace. All of what we got were hard exchanges. Liked the contrast on the face team, with Gastel working like a third heel, and LeDuc being more of a technician (although in French catch even the technicians throw heat). We got two classic LeDuc headspins,  one the Santo style headscissors, one a spin out of a arm stretch, which was especially awesome. I loved Gastel's final heat segment, tying both heels up in the ropes and wailing on them with forearms. No real finish, and long matches suffer if they don't build to anything, although the work her was super strong. 

Monsieur Montreal/Ami Sola vs Pierre Bernaert/Jack Rouxel 1/12/62

MD: Another week, another show, another great tag. This is our second or third match with Rouxel and I really like him so far. He had this upstart attitude in how he'd disengage or lay shots in or interact with the ref or the crowd. Montreal leaned hard into the strongman gimmick (using the bear hug and a lot of his opponents making him look good by flying around the ring on normal exchanges) and at one point, he picked up Rouxel out of a headlock, deposited him on the apron, and knocked him off. Rouxel made sure to land in a woman's lap which popped her and the crowd. I like the guy. Bernaert (who wasn't teaming with Bibi here since Cheri was in training for another match apparently) was a perfect partner, a smarmy mentor in cheating and underhandedness. Yes, he managed a fake handshake into a forearm once here. Sola was as savvy as we've ever seen him, delighting in Montreal's strength spots, working the apron well, orchestrating a lot of the revenge spots; the best of those was probably a series of arm stretchers in the heel corner where they kept kicking Sola down when he tried to work to his feet. When he got an arm of his own, he yanked it back to the face corner and they repeated the spot on the heels in an over the top manner. It's interesting to watch things develop over the years. By this stage, limbwork/bodypart work is 100% a thing. It really wasn't a couple of years earlier. The first fall ended with the heels really targeting Sola's back. That led to a fun little moment (again showing Sola's presence and experience) when he rushed in to touch his opponent so that he could immediately tag back out to start the second fall, as you can't tag until you touched at least once. Good moment in a match full of good moments. Everything really came together here to make for yet another good tag. Others might disagree with me but I think the overall quality of the tag scene is better than a few years earlier, where there would be heat and intensity and big moments, but less tricks and narrative shortcuts, like the heels cutting off the ring or stopping babyface reversals from the apron or using the ref being distracted. In 61-62, there was just a great balance of the two elements.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going about 35 minutes. The Montreal/Sola team is pretty fun. Sola is pure technique, and Montreal is all about strength. Rouxel on the other hand looked like a slightly less blonde version of Bernaert. A classy guy who could wrestle but was simply more interested in cheapshotting guys. This built for quite a bit and there was some nice skill on display from Rouxel and Bernaert. Of course, their bread and butter is cheapshotting guys hard, and when it got to that they looked great. Especially liked Beraneaert loosening Solas jaw with a knee only to get giant swung seconds later. And well, Mr. Montreal and Ami Sola are great pair of faces to play off those vicious tactics. This wasn‘t as heated as the other tag but it felt more complete (not just in terms of how much we got to see) and well rounded.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Rene Ben! Jarret! Bibi! Bernaert! Cowboy Jack! Guettier!

Rene Ben Chemoul/Michel Jarret vs. Cheri Bibi/Pierre Bernaert 7/22/60

MD:I am floored by how good the Bibi/Bernaert team have gotten by this point. They're just a mauling, stooging, cheating, heat-seeking unit, totally on the same page, garnering reactions, well-balanced as they each bring different things to the table but wholly focused in that both of them can do a ton of damage. Ben Chemoul remains very impressive. Some of his big spots are becoming a little more familiar now but most of them hit with a lot of flash and plenty of substance. This is our first look at Charret (I think we get one more) and he was okay, standing out the most for punch flurries in the corner and the way he twisted his body back and forth to escape from holds. He did do a triple up and over on a top wristlock which was more elaborate than I've usually seen that spot.

Bibi and Bernaert's heel antics were great. They had a long stretch of controlling Ben Chemoul and Charret with hammerlocks, either grabbing onto the rope or each other in order to stop the flying mare counter attempts. All of their stuff looked brutal. Bibi has gone from being an immobile clod in the middle of a style he couldn't keep up with to a center of gravity that lines guys up and knocks them down, with Bernaert there to creation more motion when need be. Bibi doesn't sell much, but when he does, towards the end of the match, it means all the more. Just knocking him down and getting the best of him means something because he's presented as so strong. And all the while, the crowd is jeering him and, at times, swiping at him and trying to trip him. The momentum shifts here were pretty good, with the faces getting solid revenge at times only for the heels to cheat and scheme and take back over. The finishing stretch felt more like an old lucha trios where everything reset and the tecnicos got to clown the rudos. Here, the fans loved it and everything ended on a high energy note. Just another super entertaining 40 minute tag match from 60s France that looked absolutely effortless.

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 35 minutes. This was, naturally, extremely similar to Chemoul/Cesca vs. Bibi/Bernaert we reviewed a couple weeks ago. It followed the same structure as usual, faces shine, heels start cheating, rinse and repeat till all hell breaks loose. I was theorizing that I was getting bored of these guys because I didn’t find the first 20 minutes or so not terribly engaging, but then Bibi and Bernaert started salvaging the match by dishing out some big damn beatings. The faces retaliated in kind and suddenly you had Chemoul trying to break peoples arms and Michel Jarret throwing headbutts and punch combos. The intensity turned up to as the falls kept dropping and it felt like the ending really delivered. I shouldn’t doubt this crew.

PAS: I thought this was dope, Chemoul is such a fun tag worker. Great at using his athleticism to wrong foot the heels, takes a monster beating, and has big exciting comebacks. His leap frog mule kick owned, popped Bernaert in the jaw. Bernaert was a monster in this, totally vicious and frantic. At one point he stops Jarret from countering a hammerlock and just starts smashing the side of his head on the mat, what a mean fucker. We get a big build towards the end with the babyfaces matching the violence of the heels. Chemoul and partner versus Bibi and Bernaert seem like a total guarantee.

Roger Guettier vs. Cowboy Jack Bence 9/15/60

PAS: Really not sure what the hell was going on here. The ring is covered in trash as we join the footage before the entrances even happen, and throughout the match every time Guettier does even a basic bit of heeling he is pelted by garbage. Weird atmosphere which kind of fucks up the match. Bence has some fun escapes, including a backflip, which was less Ricochet and more Jimmy Valient. They do some cool stuff working out of a leg lock, take some big spills to the floor and tee off on each other. Still it has to be weird to try to wrestle like that, and it was more like watching a skilled standup deal with a blackout drunk bachelorette party, then an all time memorable match. 

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 25 minutes. This was good solid pro wrestling, and I continue to be impressed by Bences ability to match the French athleticism, but there was something rather disturbing going as there was a group of snotnosed kids ringside that kept throwing trash into the ring. Normally that’s an excellent sign of someone getting great heat, but in this case the stuff just came flying with no relation to what was going on in the ring. Not that Guettier is not a good heel. It approached some kind of surrealist theater as referee and wrestlers were trying hard to ignore the fact that the ring was starting to look like a trash bin and newspapers kept flying at their heads. If you can get over that, there were some pretty sweet European uppercuts vs. punches exchanges in this match.

MD: So far, between 57-60, we've seen very little sign of kids in the audience. Here, there's nothing but kids, a legion of rowdy newspaper boys who make their presence felt like you'd not believe. They spend the entirety of the match, the entirety, tossing paper into the ring. That's not to say they're not reacting or, if Guettier does something whiny and scummy in his babyfaced heel (as in a heel who has a pudgy, baby faced look) manner, the intensity of the paper doesn't increase, but it's a constant. Mid-way through the match, they're really tying each other up in tricked out holds and wrenching and it's just in a sea of paper as they roll around. Bence is even more a showman here than the last time we saw him, coming off like the old rodeo star traveling through Europe with trick lasso moves that he might have been able to pull off twenty years before but full of so much gumption that you wouldn't dare tell him to stop now. I'm not sure they entirely adapt the match enough to the crowd they're in front of, though the end of the first fall was absolutely perfect. See, Guettier ends up on the floor. That's not where you want to be on this day as dozens of kids rush up to pelt him over and over and he doesn't make it back into the ring before the count. The wrestling is good, with Guettier mean and sneaky and Bence getting plenty of revenge, but it's the paper flying into the ring and the kids revolting against societal norms that are the real stars (maybe the real heels?) here.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Rene Ben! Cesca! Bibi! Bernaert! Delaporte! Cowboy Jack!

Rene Ben Chemoul/Gilbert Cesca vs. Cheri Bibi/Pierre Bernaert 5/6/60

SR:2/3 falls match going about 35 minutes. This matchup is kind of the French Rock’n’Roll Express vs. Anderson Brothers where you know exactly what you are getting. The predictable layout was that the Chemoul/Cesca tandem were the far superior wrestlers, so Bibi and Bernaert had to even the score by being absolute pricks. That could get tedious in such a long match, but I thought Bernaert and Bibi kept this interesting simply by continously escalating the beatings. It started with something like a forearm to the back of the head and by the end they were stomping the shit out of their opponents. Loved that big swinging bodyslam from Bibi, who may have carried the heel side. Needless to say, Chemoul and Cesca were incredibly slick. This was going along until the 3rd fall which got pretty crazy with Chemoul busting out something resembling a springboard dropkick and multiple double stamp where he planted guys hard.

MD: Fairly exceptional, if by the books, tag. The books are the books for a reason. As best as I can tell, this was out there but it was the 80s version with clipping and cut outs to a "modern" crowd watching in color and making comments. This longer version went over around 40 minutes and a few things will stick with you. This is the best Bibi and Bernaert have looked as a unit. I'm not saying I ever dreaded seeing him, but in the early Bibi appearances we had, it was much more about seeing how his opponent dealt with him and his limitations. In this setting, he shined as a bullying, mean-mugging spoiler, cutting off the ring and laying in some really nasty offense. He'd really pinball and opponent back and forth, either into the ropes or into Bernaert. Their cheating was more subtle and refined than a lot of what we've seen so far from the footage. The rest of the story was Ben Chemoul though. I know our invisible fourth, OJ, has gone deeper into the footage and has been sort of disappointed by Ben Chemoul based on his rep, but he was absolutely electric here. High energy. So much of these tags are about the big babyface revenge spots and he made them sing. At one point, he did this leap to the top followed by a twist and a tight missile dropkick which would be an awe-inspiring spot even today. All the while, he was able to balance it with that full body selling that really got across the toil of the match. I'm sure the clipped version of this was fine but the full match was excellent and you should check it out even if you'd seen the existing version previously.

PAS: Really cool stuff, Sebastian compared it to R+Rs versus Andersons, but it had way more modern offense (despite being 25 years earlier). I loved all of the hammerlock stuff with Bibi and Pierre locking in nasty hammerlocks and Cesca trying to flip his way out and failing. Very cool way to control the opening of a match. Both heels took big nasty bumps into the ropes with Bernaert getting hung by the neck as Rene Ben ran the ropes to jar him. That Chemoul top rope dropkick was awesome stuff, it felt like something you would see from a Fenix or Ricochet level flier today. An exciting babyface tag team against a pair of brutish heels, just pro-wrestling at it's finest.

Roger Delaporte vs. Cowboy Jack Bence 5/26/60

SR:2/3 falls match going about 35 minutes. Cowboy Jack Bence was a US worker who toured the globe. I don’t know if my eyes were playing tricks on me but he looked like he had ridiculously long legs and almost no upper body, like he was 3/4ths legs. We have talked about how ahead of their time the French workers were, but looking at Jack Bence here reinforces how little we actually know about what pre-80s wrestling anywhere looked like. He had no problem doing some really athletic shit, including the bridge up that I thought only European workers and certain joshi wrestlers did, and at one point he fucking backflipped out of an attempted leg trip. Bence looked quite the top flight worker here and knowing guys like him that I never even heard of before this project were this good just makes me think the greatest match of all time happened somewhere between 1950 and 1970 and had no chance of ever being taped. Delaporte was at the top of his usual underhaded, stooging game and they had quite a great old school match. Bence had really fast throws and I loved all the complex control segments through wristlocks where Bence would grab a fast takedown in the middle of an exchange. Delaporte finally got the upper hand when he was able to twist up Bences leg in the ropes badly. That usually led to a quick finish in past Delaporte matches but In this case we got this great extended selling performance from Bence building to his triumphant comeback where he near twisted Delaportes leg off in return. Seeing so many French babyfaces blow off limbwork made this feel like a distinctly American touch. After that Andre Bollet in a suit came into the ring looking to have a go at Bence and ended up getting thrown around and taking an awesome bump to the crowds delight, with Delaporte forfeitting the 3rd fall seconds later. If this was Jack Bences TV debut it was enviable as he got to look like a million bucks taking out a top heel and setting up a match with another. 

MD: This is our only look at Bence and he's got sort of a babyface Dick Murdoch (to balance Gastel's heel version) vibe to him. Maybe in another setting he'd be a heel, but it's hard to be a heel against Delaporte with his cowardice and whining and dangerous, dangerous cheapshots and advantage-taking. Bence's selling was fairly excellent throughout. I'm not sure if it's because he came from a different school of wrestling than most of those that we've been seeing, but he was good at letting the effects of Delaporte's offense linger for a bit, and, of course, for the long-term selling of the leg mid-match, especially when he went back on offense. While that faded later on, it came back to lead into the finish and there's no way that would have worked so well if he didn't put the time and effort into it. He wasn't always the smoothest when it came to some of his holds and escapes, and I think his ambition outweighed his ability, but it all sort of worked in a gritty, competitive way. There was a rustic charm to his stumbles, a yee-haw fortune seeking Amerian bootstrap ambition, maybe? Delaporte didn't surprise here, but he did delight. I'm not sure I can name a wrestler better at begging off in the corner; just amazing facial expressions as he portrays fear, pain, or pig-headed viciousness.

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