Tuesday is French Catch Day: Al Hayes! Hunter! Delaporte! Bollet! Montoro! Bernaert!

Al Hayes/Ray Hunter vs. Roger Delaporte/Andre Bollet 12/1/60

MD: This is the back thirty of what's billed as a 60 minute draw. We get what I imagine to be most of the second fall and all of the third. It's a shame we don't have the whole thing because it means we miss the early Hayes wrestling and enough control for the heels to win at least one fall but what we get is, of course, absolutely iconic. This is going to be our last look at Hayes and Hunter and they feel like the best team in the world, with Delaporte and Bollet maybe a close and very different second. We still get a brilliant stretch of Delaporte and Bollet controlling their half of the ring to contain and punish Hayes. We get lots of heel comeuppance and stooging, just endless amounts of it, each bit hugely entertaining. I'm not sure there's a better stooge heel pairing in the history of wrestling than these two and Hunter and Hayes were the perfect straight man babyfaces, between Hunter's size and Hayes' sheer skill and presence. I could have done without the ref letting Hunter score the win in the second fall when he clearly wasn't the legal man (though I had no real problem with him coming in after all of the heel cheating, though, of course, there was a better way to do it), but other than that, my only complaint here was that we didn't have more of it. You knew exactly what you were going to get coming in and it was everything you could possibly want from a 1960 French tag match.


SR: JIP into the 2nd fall, but we get 30 minutes of this match, which is 30 minutes more good wrestling than you are likely to see in any given week in 2020. This was another bullshit tour de force from the superduo of Bollet and Delaporte. They will bump like mad, they will get bitchslapped, they will commit every single buffoonish mishap in the book, they will miscommunicate, they will grimace their way through the match in a way that makes mid 90s Shinjiro Otani look stoic, and then they will stomp the crap out of you. There was a nasty beatdown section involving Hayes taking lots of nasty flying stomps and knees to the gut while in a surfboard, which is a spot that modern indy guys could steal but they would inevitably make it look too much like a choreographed spot compared to the raw asskicking that we got here. This is the last appearance of Hayes & Hunter, and they had another good night doing almost nothing but uppercutting the shit out of their opponents. Hayes also looked good selling an asskicking, there was a moment where he ate an uppercut and whipped his head back into the ringpost, eyes rolling into his skull, it was like something out of a FUTEN match. Hunter also got to have a good night hitting a really fast airplane spin. Wild ending that saw Delaporte doing his usually great "Where the fuck am I" selling.


Arabet Said/Serge Gentilly vs. Yves Amor/Georges Gueret 2/12/60


SR: JIP match. We get about 10 minutes of what could have been a great TV main event. Yves Amor & Georges Gueret are a welcome change of pace compared to the crazy antics of Delaporte and Bollet. These guy will focus on just straight up ass kicking. It rules that about every other heel team we see in catch is another awesome version of the Anderson Bros. This didn‘t reinvent the wheel, but I could watch these guys waste each other with forearms and stiff body shots all day. Gentilly threw some crazy elbows for a skinny guy. There was a chaotic ending with Amor waltzing in to blast guys like a bearded Taue. It ended in some controversy and I could see these guys having an epic feud, but this was the only time either of these men was seen on French TV that year.

MD: We only get part of the third fall here but it's basically nine minutes of guys hitting each other as hard as possible in meaningful ways and we're always going to be for that. Past a bit of darting around and one funny spot where Gentilly waves his hands all around to try to fake out Guerret who complains loudly, we didn't see a lot of the babyfaces' speed or skill, just tenacity. Amor really used his size in interesting ways, able to get to the ropes easily or having the reach to get out of holds but also a giant canvas when he was getting whacked. Just tangible noise for forearms and uppercuts. He ate some atomic drops too, which looked sort of small but he sold huge. The finishing stretch was chaotic as Amor, as the illegal man, kept charging across the ring like a giant bullet to attack Said on the apron while Gueret beat on Gentilly, but the babyfaces came back big and it all devolved into violence and got thrown out. I thought, at times, Amor and Gueret worked a little too even with Said and Gentilly but when the end result was guys beating the crap out of each other, you don't complain too much.



Antonio Montoro vs. Pierre Bernaert 2/12/60

PAS: This is our first glance and Montoro who is a Spanish wrestler who had a mid to late 60s run in EMLL working all of the top stars (Karloff Lagarde, Humberto Garza, Blue Demon, Cavernario Galindo etc.). Man I hope there is a Spanish motherlode out there somewhere, because every time we get a Spanish wrestler in France they absolutely rule. Bernaert keeps it pretty scientific for most of this match, as Montoro does a lot of athletic takedowns and bumps big for all of Bernaert's offense. I especially liked the section where they exchange funky looking monkey flip which both guys took big bumps off of. Montoro also has a spot later in the match where he dives on Bernaert and eats a boot to the face. Finish came on a really graceful victory roll. Not at the level of the absolute best stuff in the footage, but a cool look at a guy we hadn't seen before

MD: Whew, so this was hit or miss at best. Montoro is one of the best regarded Spanish wrestlers of this period and this is our first look at him. Bernaert is a cheapshot artist who looks like Kirk Douglas and we've seen him plenty. While there were a number of innovative spots and plenty of athleticism, this worked better as selected gifs than a match. There were more moments of miscommunication or flubbed attempts at things than in any other match in the footage so far. Some of that was because Montoro was going for so many tricky things, but sometimes they just crashed into each other and sort of went over oddly. It wasn't just one time either. That can create a feeling of competitiveness but here it made things seem somehow more cooperative and you could tell by the hush and occasional groan from the crowd that they were used to something more visceral. Montoro is the first guy in this footage that would do an extra flip or flourish when he probably didn't need to and it was often simply not additive. Bernaert started playing to his strengths two-thirds through, going dirty, but he probably should have led with it instead. The novel stuff that hit was legitimately cool but the match wasn't.

SR: 1 fall match going about 20 minutes. Montoro was another Spanish wrestler. I‘ve branded Bernaert as a bit of a one trick pony before, but I thought he redeemed himself a bit here, opening the match with a good 15 minutes of straight wrestling which I always appreciate. That alone made this bout worth watching. Montoro was a lightweight and significantly smaller than Bernaert. He looked pretty slick at times, but there were a few moments where they blew their spots. Montoro also landed awkwardly a few times when he was seemingly controlling himself at times, so I‘ll blame him. On the other hand, Montoro probably had a touring match with a more familiar rudo where he looked like dynamite. Montoro also did some of those Johnny Saint style escapes that looked like dance moves so I guess it was interesting to see someone do that kind of stuff as earl as 1960. Bernaert eventually went to his cheap shot routine (as he should) and there were some nasty bumps including Montoro flying face first into an upkick which looked nastier than it was probably intended to be.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: L'Homme Masque! Delaporte! Al Hayes! DR. ADOLF KAISER! Lambert! Laroche!

L'Homme Masque vs. Roger Delaporte 3/6/59

MD: So far, 1959 has been the year of the masked wrestler. This is the third we've seen and not L'Homme Masque's debut, but he'd only been around for a bit, apparently, even if he was the first. They bill him from Texas, with 3 wives who had all ran away. If he ever loses, he would unmask. He was presented in the announcing, more so than than Le Bourreau (who worked for another promoter) as the opposite of L'Ange Blanc and we do have a match with them but not for another ten years! This was a match in three parts, with some amazing comedic performing from Delaporte to start. The first five or six minutes were all him ducking away from L'Homme and trying one thing after another: top wristlocks, headlocks, a bearhug. Each time he was shrugged off, or with the bearhug, put into a giant headlock causing his arms to crumble. Each time his reactions were hilarious. L'Homme didn't do much here, but he didn't have to. He, given his massive size, was a perfect prop for a stooge like Delaporte. If Delaporte even got touched, he'd sell it huge. Eventually he got caught and things were a little disappointing for this middle section. You'd hope he'd get tossed around and really it was fairly disappointing, just a grounded wristlock with Delaporte flailing about a bit. I did like the knees to the kidneys L'Homme utilized in taking him down though. The last third was far better though. L'Homme kept going to the ropes, wrenching Delaporte's arm around it, and there was nothing he or the ref could do. It was a great visual and, expanded to include a few arm-trapped beales, played up as brutal. Delaporte would get a comeback or two (and did drop the arm selling but that's 50s French wrestling for you; selling tended to be immediate), really slamming L'Homme's head into the turnbuckle. That just made him angrier though and L'Homme jammed him with the most amazing monster spot, the thing we'd been waiting for the entire match: he picked him up over his shoulder with a gutwrench and just slammed the back of his head over and over into the turnbuckle, before dropping him and locking in a sleeper (which he wouldn't break) for the win. Ultimately, he had presence, but this was Delaporte directing traffic. It's a testament to the talent in the 50s that they were able to put these masked attractions against guys like Villars, LeDuc, and Delaporte to give them real credibility and entertaining matches. I think this would have been better if L'Homme had tossed him about or clubbered him the first time he really caught him instead of just sitting in a hold, but otherwise, it definitely did the job.

SR: It's... the masked man. This was a complete squash at 18 minutes length. Poor Delaporte, although the crowd took quite the delight in his demise. He really is the Louis De Funes of wrestling. What a weird character to be Frances major heel star, although I guess it speaks to their culture. It's so strange to see him going from being a vicious bastard brutalizing faces to stooging around as he is himself brutalized by this comical giant. Did Louis De Funes ever do serious movies where he is a corrupt cop breaking fingers? This was a good 7 minutes of Delaporte bouncing off of L'Homme Masque in such a comical fashion that John Tatum looks like Lance Storm in comparison. Followed by 7 minutes of the masked man hanging on to an arm lock with the referee getting increasingly involved. And then, a 2 minute section where the masked man uncorks the repeated turnbuckle powerbombs before wringing Delaporte to sleep. The masked man certainly had a menacing physique, looking like something out of a comic book, but his control section aside from the insane repeated drops to the turnbuckle wasn't super hot. Will be interesting to see him going against the likes of L'Ange Blanc, though.

PAS: Delaporte certainly met his match here. I agree with Matt and Jetlag about how Masque's armbar was a bit dull, although I did appreciate the dominance. I think this would have been better served just cutting the middle part entirely, and just had the match be Delaporte's stooging and that crazy turnbuckle powerbomb combo. I am mixed about the masked invasion, I appreciate the changes in style they bring, but I just wish they were all more compelling workers.  It is a bummer we don't have any footage of Tony Oliver or Karl Gotch's masked characters, I imagine they would be more compelling

Al Hayes/Ray Hunter vs. Karl von Kramer/Dr. Adolf Kaiser 3/6/59

MD: We have about 17 minutes of this before they run out of time and I lament the loss of the other 20+ that the match would have probably contained. We have one lone Hayes/Hunter match left, but it's against the Delaporte/Bollet combo, which should be quite the show. We have one more look at Kaiser (tagging with El Strangulador Lamban) and two or three more Von Kramer matches. So no need to say goodbye to anyone now. I do, however, lament that we don't get to see more of Von Kramer and especially Kaiser against Hayes. The last times we saw Judo Al, he really ate up his opponents and the first few minutes are Kaiser and Von Kramer putting their foot down to the best of their ability to prevent that. It doesn't meant they can stop Hayes but it does make for some great, extremely high end struggle. Hayes is very interesting as he will sell, unquestionably, and he will give, but you have to cheat to get up on him. He'll drop for a cheapshot or sell an extended cheating sequence (as he does here where he limps around the ring after they work his leg over using the rope and ref distractions), but if you wrestle him straight up, he's going to not give an inch. In some ways, it's a little unfortunate he's paired with Hunter, who has such a size and reach advantage against almost everyone he wrestles that he's nigh impossible to move. You try for a hold and he'll just bonk you on the head and there's very little you can do about it. That means that Kaiser and Von Kramer are stooging and bounding across the ring and trying and failing to cheat for a lot of this. Hayes and Hunter are also a little more apt to cheat here themselves than we've seen before, which I attest to the fact they're wrestling Germans. All good but not enough; never enough.

SR: We get about 20 minutes of this. No finish, and it appears that was only the 1st fall. That is pretty bitter, as the von Kramer/Dr. Kaiser duo is about the most high end when it comes to monocle wearing fake Germans in wrestling. Here they had matching outfits, they were bumping, stooging, cheating, miscommunicating, doing some pretty fun wrestling, along with their eccentric demeanour, they had everything you want from an entertaining heel team. There was an especially funny bit where the Dr. did his spider walk only to accidentally end up running into von Kramers boot. You get the sense either of them (but especially von Kramer, god what a freaky wrestler that guy was) against Hayes in a singles would've been dynamite. "Rebel" Ray Hunter is probably the least of the faces we have seen, when everyone else is uppercutting the shit out of the bad guys, a tall guy lightly tapping people in the head with chops isn't quite doing it. Still, maybe the full thing is laying around somewhere.

PAS: Yeah this is a real tease of a match, on paper this is a total gem, but we get to see the foreplay with none of the climax. Hayes is always worth watching, he is so skilled and I loved the whole section of him trying to bridge out of a face lock while von Kramer kept punching him in the kidneys. Dr. Kaiser was a little subdued here, we got all of the stooging with none of the maniacal evil. When we are all done with what got, I think we are planning on checking back with the archive, maybe the full version of this is still in the vault.


Henri Lambert vs. Roger Laroche 4/30/59

MD: This one took me by surprise. We had seen Laroche in one of our very first matches in this project and that was primarily to get beat upon by La Barba. I think a commenter previously said that Lambert was the ref in the Mann vs Montourcy so I wasn't sure what to expect here. However, this was, yet again, one of those matches, that if we had nothing else from 50s France, would have blown our collective minds. I wouldn't say that either of these two were dynamic and memorable characters, but there was a real contrast, both in their physical attributes and how they wrestled. Lambert seemed younger, was incredibly athletic, very spirited, quite dynamic. Laroche was (as i said last time we saw him) off that unassuming French maestro assembly line. He seemed older, more reserved. At many points in the match, he stayed low and took the count in order to slow Lambert down and recover, which is not a tactic we've seen much in the footage so far. There was a real but subtle sense of him trying to absorb punishment at times to blow Lambert up so he could take over with a hold, or to draw Lambert out so that he'd get impassioned and make a mistake.

The first few minutes of this had Lambert eating Laroche up with holds, and Laroche's response was to step on the foot. The first time he did it, Lambert brushed it off. The second time, he returned the favor and followed up with a clubbering blow. Taking Lambert off his game allowed for Laroche to get an arm, headbutt the wrist, and use the knee to drive him down, leading into almost SEVEN (7) minutes of Lambert dynamically trying to escape an armbar. We've seen this, of course, with the person in control holding on through armdrags and bodyslams and hip tosses, and blocking headscissors, but this was remarkable both for the length of it and for the fluctuating desperation from Lambert. He'd sell the hand within the hold more and more, trying to keep feeling in it, but he'd also launch lightning quick combinations of hip tosses, only for Laroche to hang on and Lambert to wear himself out. It was seven minutes and it was never boring, in part due to the energy of Lambert and in part due to the sheer audacity of length.

Much of the rest of the match pitted Lambert's athleticism against Laroche's skill, with a lot of great bridges and quick bits of punishment from Lambert and reversals upon reversals. Increasingly, Lambert, in frustration, would go into blows, more emotional than underhand. Laroche on the other hand, would be the sneakier of the two, dropping down and cutting off with a grab of the leg. Lambert, an actor on the side, had a lot of stuff but could also sell very well, and as the match went on both wrestlers really portrayed the weight of what they'd been through and the sheer exhaustion they were facing. There's a long strike exchange towards the end where they're barely standing by the end of it. They were ultimately working to a draw here, though given the tenor of French matches, you can't always tell. This could have had a finish just as easily. It didn't really need one though as the draw was both escalated to and completely earned.

SR: 1 Fall match going 30 minutes. This was a stiff technical match built around armlocks and european uppercuts peppered with some athleticism. It's kind of the French house style, but after weeks of seeing masked dudes running wild on French TV, it felt like a breath of fresh air. Laroche is balding and stocky, while Lambert has a mustache and looks like someone out of a squashbuckling movie. Sometimes, you just want to watch two gentlemen forearm the shit out of each other for 30 minutes, and this delivered in spades. Laroche was a real punisher here, not an outright villain, but taking his shortcuts when they appeared and thus heating up the match. I can't emphasize enough how hard these guys were peppering each other, big kneedrops, kicking their way out of holds, hard shots to the ribs, at one point Laroche blocks an escape attempt so he eats a knee to the head for his troubles. There was a lengthy section built around Laroche keeping an armlock, twisting and throwing Lambert to the mat over and over, often making him land awkwardly on his shoulder. When Lambert gets out, he is slow to get up, clearly favouring that arm, then, when Laroche tried to go back to that same arm hold, he kneed him right in the face. The match was full of "fuck you, you are not doing that spot" which always helps keeping these matches fresh, and enough cool athleticism thrown in at the right moments to keep this from being a sheer slugfest. Still, it's all about them rolling out those forearms and uppercuts. Last couple of strikes exchanges were downright crazy.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Al Hayes x2! Jean Casi! King Kong Taverne! Ray Hunter Julio Gasparrini!

Al Hayes vs. Jean Casi 12/7/57

MD: Hayes stands out as unique. We have other technical, fiery, stiff-upper-lip Brits that we've seen, but Hayes takes it to a different level. First off, he's a stylist. In this match, he has an escape for everything, to the point where when Casi turns up the heat here, you can't really blame him. It's almost too much. It's overwhelming. Unfair. Hayes looks to be the most accomplished, unbeatable wrestler of all time here. Second, though, is that sheer sense of offense and surprise when his opponent does resort to cheapshots. He's more than willing to shove the referee in fury or just lay in the kicks in response. It's not about revenge. It's about furiously meted out punishment, as if sparing the rod would leave the older Casi sans a proper and required lesson. It's interesting to watch Casi get increasingly desperate with his holds, but the more he leaves convention, the easier it is for Hayes to escape. The slugfests are heated and spirited, driven by the mutual frustration, Casi for having to endure Hayes' inevitability and Hayes for being disappointed and offended by Casi's fall from grace.

PAS: We have seen other slick mat workers in this project, but Hayes is at another level in this match. He found cool new ways to escape everything Casi threw at him, lots of spins and relocations of body parts in that uniquely British way. Hayes would be locked in a hold, and then just adjust Casi's knee slightly to the left, or give a small twist to his ankle and then he would be free. Of course Casi lost his cool and started to throw and we get a classic Catch slug fest at the end, and Hayes could throw on his feet as well as he worked on the mat. So cool we get a nice look at such an iconic guy.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going a little over 20 minutes. Jean Casi sure has a weird figure. Huge, upper body, and spindly arms and legs. He came across as bony. He came across as a sort of old style fighter here. He sure was trying, but Hayes with his flashy technique gave him not much breathing room. Casi wasn‘t lost in the contest, but Hayes wasn‘t backing down. Casi got in a few good licks, but the deceisive manner in which Hayes ended the contest drove the point home that Casi wasn‘t on Hayes level at all.


King Kong Taverne vs. Ray Hunter 12/12/57

MD: Interesting, entertaining match. I think this was probably a better/more typical look at Taverne. He brought a lot to the table but hasn't been used how I'd like him. He could be, at times, amazingly quick and agile, able to do a lot of the moves of the day, just slower and bulkier. Here, against a clear, towering babyface, it was played for laughs for the most part, like when he does the headscissors escape on a top wristlock only to get dumped over the ropes. When he's in control, he's able to really sit on Hunter, using a combination of his girth (both to grind down and hide from the ref) and cheapshots (thus the hiding). What's most impressive, however, is how quickly he can bound across the ring for a rolling leg pick. He doesn't bump as big as we saw previously, but does get bodyslammed up and over once. All the while, he manages this really great character actor put upon mentality. You really believe that this monster is who he portrays. This was a lot of Hunter getting the best of him though, using his height and his reach, holds and counters and brave shots. Multiple times, he tells the ref to stop admonishing Taverne because he'd rather deal with it with his own two hands. There was a mini-story here, with Taverne going for the legs so much, sometimes getting the dive, sometimes having it blocked or dodged or countered, but Hunter ultimately selling. That led to Hunter catching him with bodyscissors out of one attempt and Taverne doing perhaps the greatest move of the 50s, that cradling lift-up and a massive forearm to knock him down. There was a decent amount of gamesmanship and dodging. Early on, especially, Hunter was getting Taverne riled and then capitalizing it. And there were a few nice bits of revenge where Hunter looked to the crowd before landing some sneaky cheapshots of his own. Ultimately, this built to Taverne getting rougher and meaner but getting outfinesseed for a really great counter into an airplane spin finish. I don't think the match did a great job protecting Taverne, but he probably wasn't the sort of wrestler who needed much protection. Hunter is pretty much an ideal Al Hayes partner and we'll get that at least once more. This is our last look at Taverne, however, so I guess we won't get that one great match of his against the right opponent I was hoping for, but this was fun for what it was.

SR: 1 Fall match going a bit over 20 minutes. Last time we saw Taverne, he a quasi-face going after Delaporte. Now, he is fighting tall, handsome Ray Hunter. Taverne being shorter than Hunter kind of makes the King Kong name pointless. This was more of a standard heel/face heatmongering match. With Taverne doing a convincing job looking mishappen and evil. He had some pretty fast takedowns and dropkicks for a big guy. This was also the most I‘ve enjoyed Hunter. He ditched the Baba chops and just kept retaliating against Taverne, who made him eat some nasty boots in return. Houseshow-ish match, but I had fun.

PAS: I really enjoyed this, kind of a WARish heavyweight fight full of cheap shots and grinding. I wasn't a big Taverne fan last time we saw him, but I dug him here, lots of cool sugar holds, where he would grind down Hunter with a choke or an armbar. Hunter landed some fun hammerfists and forearms. There were a couple of awesome counters too, Taverne's lift out of the bodyscissors into a forearm should really be stolen by ever indy power wrestler, and Hunter flipping out of a wristlock to an airplane spin. Really cool stuff.


Al Hayes vs. Julio Gaspirrini 12/12/57

MD: This was a great piece of business. Gasparrini was no match for Hayes, not really, and had to take most of his advantages by going to the eyes or going low, but ultimately, he stayed in it a lot better than Casi did. He was another emotive Italian with great expressions on selling. He was more aggressive with his chain wrestling, however, and that made the first few minutes a joy. Instead of just locking in a hold and having Hayes escape, he kept on him, trying to counter and move to the next and Hayes still managed to win most of the exchanges, but he had to work for it a lot more. That, of course, showed us something in Hayes. He wasn't just an escape artist but could really take it up a notch against an opponent that was going to go with him. Maybe it's because we have such a personal connection to him, or because the other two versions/memories we have of him are so different (the one 70s match against Veidor where he is an arch heel and as a pompous but lovable announcer), but I've found him really remarkable to watch. The Casi match might have been more theatrical and more of a slugfest with cleaner lines and deeper frustration, but this was just as good and differently nuanced, as Gasparrini brought different things to the table and Hayes responded accordingly. There were so many things to see, not just his quick powerbomb, but step up monkeyflips or hooking a throat with his own foot to escape a hold, or how he'd work three positions to ultimately criss-cross his legs around an arm to escape, or the closing legwork, with a wrenching single leg crab and the water pump drop down that finished Gasparrini off (maybe the first actual submission we've seen?). Al Hayes, the unstoppable force, was not something I expected in watching these matches but he's pretty undeniable.

SR: 1 Fall match going a little under 20 minutes. I didn‘t expect to see so many Hayes matches in 2020. Gasparrini managed to mount a bit more offense than someone like Jean Casi. It still wasn‘t a ton, though. You can tell Hayes was a class above most wrestlers and liked to sho off. Who can blame him. I like that his style is distinctly British while retaining a judo touch. He had some ridiculously smooth movements here. Gasparrini was game to go along, but didn‘t do a ton more. He even quit the match just before he could get something going against Hayes near the end

PAS: Gasparrini had the mustache and manarisims of a quasi racist Italian stereotype in a fifties Ragu commercial "Who-a burned all a the meatballs."  He was mostly a foil for Hayes to show off, and he show off he did. I loved his fast snap mares and how he would flip out of Gasparrini's attempted receipts, the finishing submission was total class as well. I would like to see Hayes in something a bit more competitive then these two matches, but it is fun to watch him dominate too.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Marcel Parmentier! Al Hayes! Rogers! Rene Ben Chemoul! Bob Anthony!

Marcel Parmentier vs. Jean Frisuk 5/24/57

SR: JIP with about 8 minutes shown. Not getting a full match of Parmentier is probably among the biggest misses in this footage, but at least we now know he existed. Frisuk is a good looking babyface and has good fire. I imagine if we had the build up this would be a really good match because they were both happily dishing out receipts and inside shots. I am still getting used to how violent French wrestling is compared to the British stuffs. I mean British heels are nasty but they won‘t full on running punt a downed opponent like Parmentier does here. Love Parmentiers rugged aura and these two guys killing each other with massive elbows was awesome to watch briefly.

MD: It's a crime we don't have a full Parmentier match. They beat the heck out of each other here and we can only ever assume why. It's not hard to assume, mind you, given how scummy Parmentier is, though. He was the absolute master of the leg dive out of nowhere, just throwing his body at Frisuk's legs almost every time he gets knocked down (Well, at least three). You have to love how he plays to the crowd here, when he gets the better of Frisuk (through hook or crook) and especially after he eats the loss. After that punt Sebastian mentioned, Frisuk does the absolute meanest thing we've seen yet, just ripping at Parmentier's hair and clubbing at his skull, alternating between one and the other.

PAS: What we got of this was really great, Parmentier was a scuzzy creep, and Frisuk was throwing heat at him for sure. I really liked Frisuk's headscissors takedowns, before it just broke down. Parmentier has amazing looking elbows, he just throws his whole body into each shot and land the point right on the upper jaw and ear, elbow smashes are one of the most trite things in wrestling these days, and it is cool to see them throw so well and so nastily. If we got more of this I imagine it might be in the upper tier of stuff in this footage.

Al Hayes/Ray Hunter vs. Roger Delaporte/Roger Guettier 5/24/57

SR:2/3 falls match over 30 minutes. Hayes & fellow Englishman Ray Hunter are apparently introduced as „Australians“. There is also a giant robot watching the match from the crowd whom the announcer calls a „martian“. And the French team of Delaporte (champion of France, even!) and Guettier gets a big heel reaction. All the absurdities aside, this was a very good match. The last time Hayes showed up he was a real highlight, and he is really fun here again coming up with fun counters to all the holds. It‘s funny how you can watch a ton of old French/British wrestling and still see new things. Hunter is really tall and likes to upside down chop people, so he‘s basically Baba in this match. The two Rogers won‘t blow you away if you‘ve been keeping track of all the awesome heel workers we‘ve seen in this project so far, but they did a good job working over Hayes back with Fuchi-like rope stretches, big backbreaker moves and knee drops to the spine. It builds to a pretty hot 3rd fall with the Brits masquerading as Australian going for near finish after near finish with the Frenchmen breaking up pinfalls as much as they could. I‘m not sure whether it cut off before the finish or if the deciding pinfall simply came out weird, but since that‘s all there is of this match we‘ll have to go with „came out weird“.

MD: Great tag match. Hayes did everything right here, super technical at the beginning, standing on the ropes and working the apron, being the recipient a hot tag where he got to clear house to set up the end of the first fall (more on that later), then playing face-in-peril for the rest of the match, with escalating limb-focused selling. Very complete performance. Hunter was larger than life, just towering over his opponents, especially Guettier (who was portrayed, even by the commentator, as Delaporte's little crony). We got a clear picture of Delaporte as a heel's heel here, but maybe not a complete one. There will be time for that. I really liked the bouncing leg lock off the ropes when they cut Hunter down to size, and the double teaming that followed. The heels cut off the ring well when in charge and the backwork on Hayes in the second and third falls was just picture perfect. We have a lot of tags ahead of us and the later ones we've seen haven't been so pinpoint focused. Lots of backbreakers and kneedrops and grinding over the top turnbuckle. A little more variation might have been nice but they were only developing it, so you forgive it. It's just a shame we don't get a finish (unless Delaporte running out of "public warnings" on pinfall breaks was the finish). I'm looking forward to the handfull of Bollet and Delaporte tags we get later.

PAS: Really enjoyed the Rogers here, frantic focused attack which isn't something I have seen a lot of in wrestling. They really key in on the back and work it over really well, but execute that attack with wild intensity, they were a mix of the Sheepherders and the Andersons. Loved their bouncing rope step over toe holds and all of the jamming of Hayes back into the turbuckle bolt. Hunter reminded me of Baba too, and I loved how impassioned he got going after the heels. Feels like were are missing the last minute or two, which is a shame, but what we got is really class stuff.

Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Bob Anthony 4/7/61

SR: 1 Fall match that is a little over 30 minutes long. Bob Anthony is someone we saw before in the twilight years of his career working World of Sport, and here he is in his mid 20s only a few years after making his debut. Although he didn‘t look green at all here and was doing many of the same spots as 19 years later, so I guess back then in European wrestling things changed slowly. This was a clean contest for the purists with no unfair tactics from Anthony. I‘ve noticed that while the athleticism is quite high end, French wrestling didn‘t get as brainy as the British stuff when it came to matwork. That is minor complaint though when you get 30 minutes of classy back and forth technical work. Ben Chemoul is probably at his best when he is being charismatic and uppercutting the fuck out of a stooging heel, but of course he is also a maestro and this type of match fits him like a glove. This didn‘t really kick into next gear and the finish looked a little too easy but I enjoyed it greatly.

MD: This was Sebastian's pick and it's the best AWA face vs face match you're going to see this month. Lots of working in and out of holds. The more we watch, the more familiar some things get, like using a step-over flying headscissors to get out of a long armbar. The first time we saw it, it was like lightning, now it's a familiar and welcome part of the syntax and diction of their storytelling. That said, these two had a bunch of stuff that was cool and novel, like Anthony's rolling bodyscissors and the amazing deadlift cradle slam that Ben Chemoul used to get out of it. Or Ben Chemoul's backflip out of a backhammer right into a roll up, or his escape from another one where he got his foot behind Anthony's leg and just tripped him. So simple. So good. And yeah, then there was the rolling cradle stretch. While things never got too fiery, they did escalate into strikes. Anthony as a faux Australian had this great jumping kangaroo double knee, whereas Ben Chemoul would throw these crazy combos from every angle. You wish it would have went over the top for the finish but ultimately it was just a great, hard hitting, cleanly worked technical match with more than enough sights to see along the way.

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