Tuesday is French Catch Day: Roberts! Bond! Bordes! Doukhan! Viracocha! Ramirez! Ben Chemoul! Plantin! Lagache! Caballec!

Pete Roberts vs Dave Bond (JIP) 2/27/78

MD: We get the last nine minutes of this draw. Roberts and Bond were both in from the UK though Bond was billed as American. This was a mix of gritty cravats, rope running, and a lot of trading of Roberts' forearms and Bond's headbutts, which were a nice piece of business. They were sportsmanlike but really went at it, and Roberts wasn't afraid to bump out. Good stuff with a nice nearfall or two. It's a shame we don't have more of them in France. 

Gass Doukhan/Walter Bordes vs Inca Viracocha/Paco Ramirez 2/27/78

MD: Lots to love here. Very fun tag with double heat and some new tricks from Doukhan and Bordes, even if the heels never picked up a fall. Doukhan is a great partner for Bordes. Bordes is a little tallier and lankier and his stuff is clean but a little stilted and Doukhan is smaller but very smooth. Viracocha is, of course, an ideal base, who can take everything with a put upon stooging face. Ramirez was leaning into his strength on certain spots and was excellent at interjecting himself from the outside but that just made him getting his comeuppance when they went wrong all the better. Bordes took some nasty catapults to the floor to justify the heel control in the middle. They did the RnR spot of the partner blocking an irish whip into the corner by putting his body in the way, which I'd never seen before in France (or, I think, in the States before 78?) and the second fall, while short had some fun build up and payoff with the heels lifting up Bordes in a double drop until he landed on his feet to flip and make the hot tag and then some heel miscommunication to set up the finish and send everyone home. These tags don't often reach the slugging or pure mat wrestling levels of the ones from twenty years earlier but they really had a good, compelling, crowd pleasing act down. Like Ben Chemoul, you can't really question that Bordes, a guy who felt almost completely unknown in our circles before we'd picked up this footage, who still doesn't have a cagematch entry, was one of the best tag workers ever.

Rene Ben Chemoul/Bob Plantin vs Pierre Lagache/Rene Caballec 4/4/78

MD: A lot to cover here. This was in Coubertin handball stadium, with the ring right in the middle of the court, so it was a bit of an odd look with maybe some strange acoustics. The Mamadou singing worked its way in midway through the match but it was never as loud as you'd expect. This is the first match which had some slow motion instant replays too, so technology marches forward. This match was in part to celebrate fire fighters based on some previous heroics in France. It has friend to all followers of French Catch, Bob Plantin, and he stated in the bits and pieces of this one that had been on youtube that both Ben Chemoul and Caballec had been former fire fighters.

Caballec very likely might have worked as a stylist otherwise, and he had those skills, a backflip off the top, a body press, the headspin headscissors takeover, as well as some big power moves when on top like a backbreaker and a signature slam out of a suplex position (remember, we've still never seen a standing vertical suplex in the footage by 78!).

This is it for Ben Chemoul, a swan song to an amazing career, and even in a 40+ minute match, albeit a tag where Plantin could come in a lot, he could still go. He knew all the tricks, could execute them so smoothly. Something like a rolling legpick or a flip through on a full nelson to bring up his mule kick looked so good and so smooth. He'd go up to the top for a missile dropkick and turtle so he could duck in and out to enrage Lagache until he could grab an arm.

Lagache was called "the striker" here, and he lived up to that with stomps and cheapshots mainly. He fed into all of the stylists spots and came back with mean shots but he was there for contrast mainly. Plantin had a lot of youthful energy and exuberance, and while some of his stuff wasn't as precise as Ben Chemoul's, the way he through himself into everything brought a lot of value, and he garnered plenty of sympathy working from underneath.

Like I said, this went 40 and the structure is, as I'd said recently, something I've finally learned to live with. About half of the match was fairly even exchanges, good wrestling, holds, rope running, with a slight stylist advantage. At right around that halfway point, Lagache took over with a hairpull in the corner, beating on first Ben Chemoul and then Plantin; in this it's a bit like an All Japan tag match (or lucha in general) where they make the tag but the momentum stays with the team that had been dominant. Not a hot tag then, but one that doesn't change the plot. The second fall had a big comeback, revenge, and bombs from the stylists and then the third, quite short, had a brief tease of the heels taking over before Ben Chemoul rushed them from the outside and we got a series of celebratory high spots and tandem bits with the stylists firmly in charge and the heels getting clowned. It might not maximize drama but it really is wonderful in its own way and Ben Chemoul was as good as anyone at it.

He, more than anyone except for maybe Delaporte and Bollet, is simply the perfect French Catch wrestler. The ideal. He carried with him technique, mirth, cleverness, innovation, a deep, deep connection with the crowd and the ability to conduct them. There was elements of the theater or the circus to him, but such deep athleticism and that extra gear that he could take it to when he was getting revenge. He could draw sympathy and could elicit deep belly laughs. He's not going to come off as quite as tough and hard hitting as someone like Corn or LeDuc. he's not as spectacular as Petit Prince or as technical as Saulnier or Mantopolous, but he encompasses the glitz and the glamour and the sheer showmanship of it all, while still possessing all of the skill.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Corn! Malmoa! Ben Chemoul! Bordes! Asquini! Lagache!

Jacky Corn vs. Frank Malmoa 11/9/73

MD: The good thing about being this deep into the footage is that we really do know some of the wrestlers. I can write a lot about Gilbert LeDuc or Rene Ben Chemoul, and yes, about Jacky Corn. He's the sort of guy who will outwrestle you to start, that will dive you to nasty tactics, will survive them, and then will forearm you in the face three times, toss you out of the ring, and get you in a hold just so he can stomp on your fingers. He did that here. He also elbowed Malmoa's skull repeatedly while holding him in a Fujiwara arm bar. I liked Malmoa but I don't know if I need to see him more than this. He had a way of getting ahead by doing something dirty, appealing to the crowd, and then getting annoyed and admonishing him when they didn't give him the credit he deserved. It's a simple act but an effective one. I liked how they could do similar exchanges, primarily things like top wristlocks into headscissors into headstand escape attempts and have them feel different and mean something different at the three minute point and then the eighteen minute point of the match because of what had transpired in between. My favorite Corn matches are probably the ones where he's beat down for a while and then comes back in a big way and this was more of smaller slights that were quickly avenged, with the idea that Malmoa was never a huge threat, but it was still fun to see him fire back and to see Malmoa get what was coming to him.

Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes vs. Bruno Asquini/Pierre Lagache 12/7/73

MD: Asquini had previously been a stylist and he had some clunkier than usual exchanges with Bordes and Ben Chemoul though they were still quick and effective. When it was time for them to take over, primarily through cheating and controlling things in the corner, he did a lot better. He could put on a competent beating. Lagache stood out more for stooging and complaining and it was great to see his carefully coifed hair become more and more wild as the match went worse and worse for him. There was extended heat on the end of the first fall through a tag between Ben Chemoul and Bordes and Bordes really took a mauling getting tossed over the top repeatedly and then kept out of the ring with kicks and hard shots. The comeback came a little too easy in the second fall, but Bordes' finishing sequence of the three cartwheels, the two headscissors takeover, and the leap up victory roll remains one of the best trademark sequences in all the footage. The third fall had some more beatdown and another comeback which was just a little too easy, but it all felt more balanced and maybe a little less celebratory than usual. It was still nice to see Bordes and Ben Chemoul against some new opponents.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Montreal! Henker! Corn! Leduc! Schmidt! Frisuk! Viracocha! Tejero! Ben Chemoul! Bordes!

Inca Viracocha/Anton Tejero vs Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes 1/18/73

MD: This was exceptional. So many of these Ben Chemoul and Bordes tags (and Ben Chemoul and Cesca for the six matches we have of them together before Bordes) are so, so good that it's hard to rank them but this has to be towards the top of the list. Viracocha did everything well, but Tejero was just an amazing big bumping base that had the visual of being almost Brazo like to really put it over the top. This match might set some sort of record for bumps over the top and to the floor or off the apron as Tejero just went over again and again in the first third, Bordes got absolutely killed in the second, and then the heels got their comeuppance in the last. There were some absolutely amazing sequences like Bordes getting lawn darted and bouncing into the front row only to come back on the second attempt at it with cartwheels and dropkicks as he bounded around the ring and took out both opponents.

The heat was strong and meaningful, cutting off the ring and taking out first Ben Chemoul and then Bordes, who had his back just demolished with whips and creative tosses to the floor and a huge backbreaker. He had a great bit of hope in there as he fought back in but over shot on a flying body press and got stamped out. Then the comeback was fiery and full of revenge and the final fall was hugely entertaining including a great spot where they crushed the ref between the two Peruvians and a high energy finish where Bordes leaped to the top and got his flying body press. I don't really see how this could be any better considering what they were trying to accomplish.

PAS: This was really great, felt like a classic lucha match, with Viracoeha and Tejero as big bumping, big stooging rudos, and the Chemoul and Bordes iconic technicos. Bordes was bumping big and I loved his big KO right hand, and when he went wild and started cartwheeling and flipping all over the ring. Tejero spent more time flying out of the ring then in it almost, and Bordes especially just got tossed everytime he hit the floor. Totally breezy 30 minutes, really something nearly any wrestling fan can enjoy. 

Mr. Montreal vs Der Henker 2/10/73?

MD: Big time heavyweight clash here. Henker was a big powerhouse but so was Montreal. Early on they played it up with Henker jamming Montreal's mares and headlock takeovers in a way I'm not sure I've ever seen before. It took a shoulder block (also jammed) and a rushing headbutt to the gut to even get him into a position where the headlock takeover worked. This might have been methodological at times, but there was always that sense of struggle. The first half of this was really the two of them trading holds with neither getting an advantage. Eventually Henker's inside shots won out and he did take over with nerveholds and rabbit punches. Montreal came back big, dropkicking Henker out and tossing him around the ring, but he overstretched by going to the mask. That let Henker toss him out and post him and the writing was on the wall after that. While Montreal didn't bleed, he did sell it all well enough to really get over that it was the beginning of the end. The appeal in a match like this is that guys that are bigger and stronger are showing the technical prowess. There were less in-and-out escapes but they played up the power and the struggle instead, and Montreal did go up and over out of a top wristlock into a headscissors. It was just the right amount of flash to go along with the hammering blows and the just overwrought enough battling over a test of strength or full nelson.

Jacky Corn/Gilbert LeDuc vs Daniel Schmidt/Janek/Jean Frisuk 2/10/73?

MD: This is our first look at Schmidt and the first time we've seen Frisuk (Fryziuk, called Yanek here) in ten years. And this was very good. In part it almost felt like a throwback to the 50s with some of the holds, some of the spots, and the absolute slugfest that it devolved into again and again. Schmidt and Frisuk played de facto heels, Schmidt young and spry with as much energy as anyone we've seen in this footage other than Bollet maybe, and Frisuk older, a little slower on some spots, but still able to throw fists (or forearms as it was) and grind down. I say de facto because it was clean, with LeDuc and Corn helping Frisuk up after winning the second fall and all hands getting raised after the third. They had taken the first by capitalizing quite mercilessly on Corn going over the top and when the hot tag came in the second, it was very hot. Corn and Leduc were some of the best sluggers in wrestling history and they got more than their share of revenge with one big shot after the next. Down the stretch, it was all parties firing off on each other. Basically, if you enjoy watching wrestlers throw hands, this is one of the best matches in many a year from the footage for it.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Ben Chemoul! Bordes! Lagache! Grelha! Saulnier! Renault!

Brief programming note: I've updated the Master List. It should be easier to search for a wrestler, or, once we get past the first year or so, to see things mostly chronologically. Feel free to share it widely and reply if you think we have any name or date or anything else wildly wrong.

Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes vs Pierre Lagache/Grelha Le Portugais 7/17/72 

MD: This isn't my favorite Ben Chemoul/Bordes match. It was one fall, which is often a plus but this was a long fall without a lot of drama and having the heels take a fall might have actually helped here. You can't judge these French matches against southern tags. It's a different thing in a different place from a different time in front of a different crowd with a different style. It becomes less about transitions and the tension between hope spots and cutoffs and the build to comeback then and more about ebbs and flows and how compelling the action is. It's about the engagement of the wrestlers with one another, the engagement of the crowd, the struggle of the holds, the cleverness of the spots, the personalities and skill and snugness.

Some of that worked out here, but some of it didn't. Lagache comes off as a smaller Bernaert to me, capable, able to base during fast action and for acrobatic escapes to holds, with the right put upon and sour attitude, especially in how he interacts with his partner and the crowd. He was fine. I wasn't overly impressed with Grelha (Maybe Grella?) though. He had the look right, a sort of caveman Mocho Cota (not quite Barbaro Cavernario unless he was the drunken mall Santa version of him). He'd bump over the top eagerly, would stooge well, occasionally had some good clubbering or stomping, but it just wasn't enough. The commitment wasn't fully there, the offense wasn't interesting enough, and he was too low on the overall weirdness scale. I've seen Lagache team with N'Boa against Ben Chemoul and Cesca and Grelha here was no N'Boa, at least not on this night. He paired better with Ben Chemoul who had a bit more theatricality in what he did and there were a couple of fun and unique spots like a catapult into the ref or Ben Chemoul and Bordes tying his hair into the ropes to trap him. In the end though, the stylists probably took too much of this and were never quite in enough danger. The one time the bad guys took over was due to drawing a public warning with blatant cheating and I liked that, and in some ways, it did set up them getting DQed at the end for running out of chances, but this either needed more drama or more shtick over all.

Michel Saulnier vs Guy Renault 10/9/72

SR: 1 fall match going about 25 minutes. They wrestled for a big golden trophy in this, and damn the wrestling here deserved a trophy. Beautiful beautiful match. Saulnier is certainly making an amazing case for himself with every appearance. The wrestling didn‘t have the kind of flips or whackiness like the more attention-drawing catch, but their movements were poetry in motion, each throw and running sequence executed to perfection. It‘s really amazing what you can do with armdrags, headlock takeovers and headscissors and varying them slightly. They worked all these really fast throws and ran the ropes, then settled it working control segments building to more elaborate counter sequences, then back to throws and rope running, all seamless. Just the kind of ebb and flow structure you want from a mat classic. Saulnier seemed to overwhelm the taller Guy Renault initially, so Renault worked a segment controlling him with a headlock which has to be one of the greatest headlock control segments I‘ve seen in a long time, maybe ever. Renault started hitting Saulnier with these flying headbutts and drew some boos from the crowd, then Saulnier fired back with a tope of his own that knocked both guys down and felt truly epic. Saulnier made beautiful comebacks and went for broke when it was time to hit european uppercuts. Tempers flare a bit with guys ending up in stalemates and in the ropes and taking offense, but they kept working a clean match but amping the stakes building to the eventual conclusion. These two really looked like masters of the style here, never a slip up in anything they did and they worked this with such a pace that I have serious doubts any two workers in the world right now could rival them. Great great match, every once in a while I go back to check in on French Catch and end up being immeasurably happy that we have this stuff.

MD: This was a title match for a European Super Lightweight title. It felt more special for it and for the fact that Renault's wife and kids were at ringside. They cut to them a few times, though the kids didn't seem super interested and the wife was spoken to fairly deep into the match when Saulnier was grinding his face into Renault's cheek on a hammerlock. Renault was billed a Teddy Boy and was bigger, but he wrestled this more cleanly than we'd seen him in the past. While it got intense at times, it did have that traditional title match feel.

And for the first half of it, I got a little worried we jumped the gun on the 1972 MOTY as it was really sharp action, holds worked in and out of, just excellent stuff. They'd build to faster and faster spots and more and more complex escapes and then fall right back into the hold. That included a lot of fast pin exchanges and rope running, high level stuff of the sort that felt novel with Savage vs Steamboat if only because people hadn't seen Saulnier vs Renault. Some of these were put together with clever and meaningful bookends that utilized repetition in a way you don't usually see in this footage. They may have actually overdid it a bit because it was somewhat evident that they were low on gas by the midway point. At that point, there were some leglocks by Renault that weren't nearly as compelling as what they had lead with. They both picked the pace back up and got a lot chippier in their shots by the end but it was a title match worked clean and it never quite boiled over, instead ending on a series of quick pin attempts. Still this was very, very good and fairly different to what we've been seeing at this point in the early 70s.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Ben Chemoul! Bordes! Golden Falcons! Menard! Michel! Celts! Kamizake! Priore!

Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes vs.  Golden Falcons 5/13/72 

MD: A return match here. It starts exactly the same for the first thirty seconds or so which made me wonder, but it diverges after that. Very good as always when it comes to Ben Chemoul and Bordes, but you want just a little more heat sometimes. That's not to say that what we got in that direction wasn't good as the Falcons were excellent at controlling their corner and laying in clubbing (and clubbering) blows. All of the celebratory stylist stuff was excellent too, of course. Bordes increased his toolkit every match. There were maybe four or five new spots he did here that I'd never seen him do before, as varied as a belly to belly over head toss to more innovative tricked out rope running exchanges and even knife-edge chops which we don't often see in the footage. We have Ben Chemoul footage dating back fifteen years earlier and he could still go at such a high level here. Bordes might have outpaced him when it comes to flash but he still brought so much stylized sizzle and had such a connection with the crowd. And really, the fact that the two of them, 30 minutes into a match like this, could just shoot off 'rana after 'rana and dropkick after dropkick was just amazing.

Jean Menard/Alan Michel vs. Jean Corne/Michel Falempin (Third Fall) 5/22/72

MD: This is the last fall of a 2/3 falls match, and we get about eight minutes overall, plus the Celts celebration with a giant flag after the match. It was stylist vs stylist, mostly clean but occasionally boiling over in that 50s style. A lot of quick exchanges, some pin exchange sequences that were sharp and exciting. Usually when I see a new move in a match, I'll see it again in another with different people soon after. That was the case with the crucifix pin here, which I saw Bordes do recently for the first time in the footage. Really, by the end, this was just exchange after exchange and nothing really resonated too much. The tag setting made it hard for things to build towards a chippier finish because once they finished throwing shots, they'd tag out and go back to holds or pin attempts. The wrestling was all good though. I think we just missed out on not having the first two falls.

Kamikaze vs. Nicolas Priore 5/22/72

MD: I'm going to assume this was Aledo. He had a new deal where he took the mask off and revealed a ghastly bald head with a mustache and probably the eyebrows taped back to go full caricature. The announcer sold it as being worthy of a horror movie. Nothing incredibly spectacular out of him here, but he had a lot of stuff, going all in with the gimmick. That meant nerveholds and neck vices, throat shots and a nice punch to the cheek, chops to the head and stomach in a high/low pattern, skinning the cat by going through the second rope while getting tossed a couple of times, a bound up to the top to hit a diving chop to a prone Priore, a lot of bowing to the ref whenever he cheated, and this great bit where he sprung over the top to the floor like Savage to slam Priore's leg into the apron. He also had a way of sneaking in a quick counter to almost everything. So a lot of stuff and hoping at least some of it stuck. He had heat and they were behind Priore's comebacks so I suppose it did. Best part of this was probably when Priore came back and got his own revenge whack of the leg onto the apron. Kamikaze sold the leg well for a minute or two before deciding he had enough of it. Story of the match after that was Priore's head getting damaged from the chops and he selling the injury more and more until the ref stopped it. He had a few nice flourishes and comebacks including some brawling on the floor and a press slam gutbuster and giant swing, but it was all for naught. It's always interesting to see the Kamikaze act in full force but even with all of those affectations in offense and mannerisms, it only shows half of what we know Aledo could do.

 

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

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

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

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

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

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Aubriot! La Bête Humaine! Ben Chemoul! Bordes! Tejero! Montoro!

La Bete Humaine vs. Dan Aubriot 9/3/71

MD: In general, this went better than the last Bete Humaine match. I'd say there were specific periods of it which were actually quite good, most especially the first five minutes or so when Aubriot was trying to contain him in holds and was using every wrestling trick he had to stay in it. There was real and compelling struggle there. And of course, what La Bete could do here was considerably impressive. His cartwheels were impressive. How he jumped to the top rope (not to actually do anything, but...) was impressive. His flips back up and over Aubriot, including out of a hammerlock, definitely impressive. And some amazing dropkicks. Throughout the back two-thirds of the match he just didn't sell anything and with that in mind, it probably went on too long. The big spots where the ref jumped on when La Bete had Aubriot up in a fireman's carry and where both of them got dumped over the top were big crowd-pleasers. In general, La Bete was incredibly athletic and portrayed a wild monster well, and Aubriot held up his end in getting him over, but we have two matches of build and no payoff in the footage against someone who could stand to him so he'll end up as little more than a bizarre footnote of French Catch.

Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes vs. Anton Tejero/Antonio Montoro 9/20/71

MD: Ben Chemoul and Bordes vs Tejero/Anyone has been a pretty wonderful formula so far. Here, though, Montoro was very impressive. Tejero had put on some more weight but could still bump around and had big hammering shots and really a great look, but Montoro came off like an all timer. He could not only keep up with Bordes (whose stuff was more and more tricked out each time we see him) but managed an actual handspring off the ropes during one fast exchange (a gif of which went pro wrestling twitter viral over the weekend actually, thanks Allan and Emil). He had some cool stuff too including a conjuro (arm hooked spinning backbreaker) and really, just his ins and outs with Bordes had a lot of satisfying wrinkles and counters. Ben Chemoul and Bordes debuted a sweeping headlock series on top of their repeated headscissors and dropkick spots down the stretch. Tejero and Montoro bumped and stooged all over the ring and out of it and Bordes had one amazing bump over the top on a catapult. Structurally, they started fast and leaned into holds before picking things back up in the long first fall. The second was mostly heat, cutting off the ring and quick exchanges by the heels until the faces made the comeback, and then things were pretty celebratory in the last fall. Nothing groundbreaking but the fans loved every second of it and the action was good throughout with Montoro doing everything you could possibly want him to.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Rene Ben! Bordes! Falcons! Cesca! Noirs!

Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes vs Golden Falcons 1/2/71

MD: Another notch in the belt for Ben Chemoul and Bordes. Another match with game opponents that goes 30, keeps the fans constantly entertained, and is one fun sequence after the next. Their opponents here were the Golden Falcons, billed from America and looking quite a bit like Halcon de Oro I and II. While they got clowned for most of the match, they did have some fun offense, inverted headlock backbreakers, these big whacks to the top of the head, and a nice rope running cheapshot sequence to win the first fall, plus good use of ref distraction for double teams to cut off the ring later on. They took the first fall in around ten minutes, which feels sort of rare in these matches and helped keep at least a little bit of drama while the stylists kept winning exchanges. Bordes was 24 here and continues to show more and more every match. He had these running-up-the-ropes armdrags I don't think I've seen much in the French footage so far, for instance, and they did the old waistlock-takedown-bodyscissors-posterior bump sequence in stereo which the fans loved. It's hard to explain Ben Chemoul to someone who hasn't seen him. Every movement was stylized and punctuated, with an acrobat's athleticism but this incredibly precise timing to draw the attention of every eye. He conducted the crowd and they chanted and sang for him more than any other wrestler in the footage. I'd liken it to Dusty's punches and atomic elbow except for it was just about everything Ben Chemoul did and he could do a lot. This had a few wrinkles and some very game, big bumping heels and was a good time had by all.

PAS: Really cool to see the Falcons, who maybe legendary luchadores considering how little 70s lucha footage we have. They were very solid rudos, kind of a lesser Oficial's team, who were there to serve as foils for the more spectacular babyfaces. Matt did a great job of describing Rene Ben, I think it is almost Wrestling 2ish, with just spice on every blow. Bordes is a great young babyface, a little bigger then your real juniors, but with that level of athleticism. We know what we get from these French tags at this point and it is great stuff. 


Gilber Cesca/Bruno Asquini vs Les Blousons Noirs 1/25/71

MD: Another year, some more Blousons Noirs. Top guys. Cesca and Asquini were definitely game opponents here. The Blousons looked a little older, especially Gessat but they were still great at stooging (especially Mannevau), at being absolutely mean (Gessat's face ripping in a nelson position), and especially at controlling things (love the body manipulation, especially full nelson spinouts into mares) in the second and first half of the third fall. Yeah, this actually settled down after the stylists took the first fall (long and mostly back and forth but with a definitely stylist advantage on exchanges and some clowning), into real, substantial heat. That's not always or maybe even often the case in these tags. Cesca and Asquini would get a tag and maybe a shot in but the Blousons would hammer them right down again. It wasn't until a missed double team and some chaos on the floor that Cesca and Asquini were able to comeback. Once they did, they never looked back with great looking strikes and energy down the stretch, right to the back flip off the top by Cesca and leapfrog to set up an Asquini missile dropkick that was the finish. We've seen the Blousons fairly steadily but Cesca really drops in and out of the footage. You see him back now and again with the same confidence and pin point accuracy and skill and wonder what he was up to during these gaps. This was a cut above due to the greater dedication to a more familiar structure if nothing else.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Rene Ben! Bordes! Shadow! El Arz! Kayser! Mercier!

Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes vs Black Shadow/Josef El Arz 7/25/70

MD: Ok, we've now seen enough to say that Ben Chemoul and Bordes are probably up there with the best stylist tag teams in the archives (in the 60s, the competition would be Ben Chemoul and Cesca or some combination of Wiecz/de Zarzecki/Montreal) if not the very best. We'll have a few more matches with them but they've already come quite a ways. Or at least it's safe to say that Bordes did. He'd expanded his act and bound it even further with Ben Chemoul. The match was more of a celebratory stylist showcase, full of tandem bits of offense, dancing taunts that drew some of the biggest chants and singing we've heard from the crowd and some really imaginative stuff from Bordes. Josef and Shadow hit hard and were persistent but they were mainly there to feed and feed and feed and they did an excellent job keeping up and going up for everything. Bordes did have a number of new moves, suplexes into slams, fireman's carry gutbusters, and some of the most amazing cartwheel spots you'll ever see to go along with his double knee and dropkicks and technical moves. Unless the matches are duplicates, we'll see them against Shadow and Josef again and hopefully the heels get a bit more in those matches to add some drama, but as a showcase, this was really great stuff.

Peter Kayser vs Guy Mercier 8/22/70

MD: This was the finals of what I think was a one night tournament. At the least, they did the semi-finals that night too. What it meant was that the crowd was very much familiar and very much behind Mercier and against Kaiser. They were up for everything, to the point of someone grabbing at Kaiser's leg from the crowd during the first lock up. The first lock up! There was a sense of fatigue from the get go with Mercier looking exhausted even when controlling things, but that didn't stop them from really laying it in. Mercier has a great spinning fake out leg pick, which at one point, led to him dropping down on the leg and and a hold. While in the hold, he probably threw the meanest, hardest chops we've seen in all the footage. Why? Just because he could. Kaiser would come back with nerve holds and just blatant chokes. Mercier would fire back with huge shots. Kaiser would return suit. Due to its nature and the other times they worked that night, this was shorter than a lot of the matches we've seen, and maybe it was lacking a little bit of the complex technical prowess, but everything, down to Kaiser's chokes and Mercier's chinlock, looked as nasty as could be.

PAS: This is my type of shit, two mean guys hammering the shit out each other. It almost felt like a heel versus heel match do to how nasty Mercier got, even ripping out Kayser's under arm hair. The forearms and chops were really nice and I liked how Mercier worked the Indian Deathlock as a wear down hold, and all the ways Kayser tried to get out of it, the finish was a bit of anti-climax, but the work in the match was hard and violent.

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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: Boucard! Cohen! Kamikaze 1! Rene Ben! Bordes! Kamikaze 2!

Daniel Boucard vs. Georges Cohen 12/26/68

MD: Tremendous match. It had that sort of chippy 50s feel of amazing wrestling with everything eventually breaking down but with that flashier 60s sheen. The first ten-fifteen minutes was just brilliant stuff, with them starting very even in their chain wrestling and on the mat and then giving way to Boucard with the advantage with a headscissors, wristlock, and full nelson and Boucard doing everything in his power to escape, only for Boucard to hang on. There was just an extra level of athleticism in the escape attempts. Cohen's bridge was extra sharp. The way he'd whip up to his feet to try to get a beal, only for Boucard to hang on, had extra zeal. The kip up getting shut down again and again just worked. Then, despite holding the advantage, Boucard went chippy first with a brutal beat down, uppercuts and forearms and headbutts and some interesting things like a neckbreaker and head whip. 

Cohen fighting back with a headbutt to the gut out of the corner had the crowd up big for the comeback and he got plenty of revenge (though Boucard always kept swiping back when he could), before Boucard went to the leg and we got a few minutes of really strong selling and legwork that only ended with Cohen managing to kick Boucard out of the ring in desperation. Following that was more revenge and the eventual rush to the finish. They were working towards the draw but it never felt like something inevitable given the speed and intensity and the attempts at actually winning, despite both wrestlers selling massive exhaustion as they flung themselves with hammering shots at one another. We've seen enough matches end in the last minute that you just didn't know. Top notch stuff here.

SR: 1 Fall match going 30 minutes. This was the best French singles we've seen in awhile. They start with a bunch of silky smooth technical wrestling. It was like one guy would go for something spectacular, and then the other guy would do something even more spectacular to counter, and then they would cool it down for a bit with holds before repeating. It's a good way to work such a match and these two were flawless athletes. Eventually Boucard decided to batter Cohen with European uppercuts. He wasn't being a heel, but he jawed with the crowd a bit and twisted up Cohens leg. Cohen sold like a champ and they engaged in some breathtaking strike exchanges, up there with the best in the project. They also do a bunch of bonkers nearfalls and unpredictable rope running building to some huge Cohen ranas. These guys did toe to toe strike exchanges about as well as anyone in wrestling history, real edge of your seat stuff, and the nearfalls and spots were executed fast and beautifully. It would've been a good match if they had continued in the vein of the early technical wrestling but the dramatic second half completely elevates this.

PAS: Killer match which hits all of the great points of French Catch. Really fast athletic exchanges early, cool matwork and counters. I loved all the early headscissors and full nelson work, just endless cool counter wrestling. Then when it got nasty it got really nasty with both guys throwing heat. Sometimes these matches just end in draws, but here it felt like the pace got cranked up to eleven and both guys were throwing everything they had at each other to try to steal a win. Right up there with the best stuff we have watched so far, and a match which should join the pantheon of all time great wrestling.  

ER: A 30 minute draw is one of the more unsatisfying things in pro wrestling, and yet there is not one thing unsatisfying about this 30 minute draw. This was paced really well for a time limit draw, with some nice technical wrestling that kept threatening to sprawl into something more violent, then would settle back down before things got too violent to return to simple matwork. Boucard worked like a more stiff Nick Bockwinkel, able to cleanly work the mat but never waiting long before throwing his whole arm into uppercuts. Once we got into the painful snapmares and uppercuts the match kept moving to another level, with Boucard laying a vicious beating on Cohen in the corner. Boucard's uppercuts were nothing but hard contact, hooking Cohen's neck and chin with his inner arm while slamming his shoulder into Cohen's face. The uppercuts are so nasty that, in my favorite part of the match, the large referee grabs Boucard by the traps looking like Andre the Giant locking in a nerve hold, dragging Boucard out of the corner just to get him to stop all the damn uppercutting. Boucard sells the pain of the nerve hold, the ref lets go, and Boucard casually walks back to the corner and rocks Cohen with his hardest uppercut yet. 

Cohen's comeback is really fantastic, firing his best strikes of the match, punching back with his own nasty uppercuts, hard clubbing strikes to the back, and monkey flips that land Boucard as hard as suplexes. I love how often they would wind up in the ropes on every side of the ring. They weren't getting tied up in them and separated, they were getting flipped into them and falling awkwardly into them, getting thrown across the ring and seeing their limbs whip off the ropes. Things get more desperate and both men start throwing from disadvantageous positions, leaping from their knees to land headbutts to the stomach or grazing punches, and the entire run to the time limit was some of the best off balance striking ever seen in pro wrestling. We see a lot of stand and trade now, or even kneel and trade, and seeing exchanges like these really highlights how awful a lot of modern strike exchanges are. 

This was not two men voluntarily standing in one place and taking turns, this wasn't two guys pulling up chairs to have a seated punch out, this was two men getting knocked around and then throwing from wherever they wound up. Cohen knocked Boucard down to one knee with a punch, then held his jaw firmly in place while he landed another, also from his own knees. They staggered into knew spots, threw kicks to create distance, fell, leapt to their feet with offtime strikes that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't, and they made it look like all rules of proper decorum had been thrown out. The time limit draw worked because Cohen and Boucard looked like they had completely forgotten about finishing a match within the stated limits of time, they only wanted to knock each other's block off. The crowd would buzz and roar louder with each mention of time, but these men were lost in a swarm of elbows and uppercuts, and we are better for it. 

Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes vs. Kamikaze 1 and 2 12/26/68

MD: Really good tag here, with a better balance then we usually get. The smaller Kamikize was most likely Modesto Aledo, though they were masked and leaning hard into the over the top Japanese gimmick, stalking and crouching, with plenty of shots to the throat. When the Kamikazes were really going and targeting that head and throat, they looked great, going so far as to win the first fall with a spinning hangman's neckbreaker hold after what looked like a Katahajime. The match was full of things I've seen before in the footage from all parties, including Bordes using a half crab into a bow and arrow or almost a stretch muffler, and Ben Chemoul using a reverse knee crusher to the back of the head. One of the Kamikazes rolled in from the top rope to hit a chop at one point adding insult to injury, and I think we saw one of our first cross-armbreakers too. 

Very imaginative spots all around, with the best one maybe being Bordes eating a whip into a back body drop over the top rope and bumping huge. Everything clicked, with the stylists both selling and hitting their big stuff well, to big response. I'm excited to see Bordes continue to develop as he was great at grinding down holds but also launching big high spots, like just throwing out a press slam into a gutbuster when it was time to pop the crowd. Ben Chemoul hit his somersault senton and corner torpedo and worked the apron really well when his pupil was in trouble. The last ten minutes were maybe a little too celebratory for the good guys since it covered two falls, but the heat leading up to that had warranted it and no one left unhappy.

PAS: Tons of fun shit in this match. Kamikazes were clearly super skilled, and I could see Aledo under one of those masks. I loved how slickly they moved around the ring, and the fun bumping on all of the faces big moves. Bordes taking that huge bump was a real moment as well, insane stuff which feels like something that should be made into a gif. I agree that the finish was a bit wonky. Kamikaze's were really formidable until they weren't Chemoul and Bordes take 90% of the last five minutes, it was all cool offense, but it sucked all of the drama out of the match. Still enough individual coolness for me to heartily recommend.  

ER: We've decided to make Daniel Boucard/Georges Cohen our All Time MOTY for 1968, replacing an excellent young Andre (Jean Ferrer) French match. Boucard/Cohen is 30 minutes of excellence and deserves its place on our list. 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Rene Ben! Peruvians! Bordes! Petit Prince! Von Chenok! Mercier

Teddy Boy vs Gerard Bouvet 12/16/67


MD: We get the last six minutes of this after they'd been going for a while and going hard. Teddy Boy is such a glorious jerk and he hits as hard as anyone we've seen. Bouvet might have been a half step slow compared to some of the smaller wrestlers we've been watching lately but he had some slick stuff, including a dive over a shoulder throw right into a cartwheel followed by a dropkick and the usual sort of stylist revenge spots like stomping on the hands and tying Teddy Boy up in the ropes for the rushing headbutt. This was building some momentum as a slugfest when Bouvet tossed Teddy Boy way over the top to end it.


Guy Mercier vs Karl Von Chenok 12/16/67

MD: The thing you need to know about Karl von Chenok is that he's not Karl von Kramer. You'd rather have Karl von Kramer. I'm also not sure I've ever seen a Karl von Chenok match that wouldn't benefit from being ten minutes shorter. There was nothing bad about this and a lot that was pretty good. Mercier, by this point, had developed an awesome array of back crushing offense, most specifically his bearhug swing into a backbreaker. He had a way of holding someone in a leglock and just beating the tar out of them with chops. He worked hard to get the headstand headscissors (Mascaras) spin going and made it seem like real effort. Chenok did one thing, his knuckles-in nervehold, but he did it exceptionally well. He had a way of sidestepping a punch and slipping it on that was as smooth as you could imagine. The match was full of struggle and at some points they were going from shot to nervehold back and forth again and again as Chenok remained dogged and Mercier unyielding. That was pretty novel actually. There was just too much of it. They never lost the crowd. It always felt competitive, even if Chenok was more of an oozing persistent presence than an electric, charismatic one. There was just too much of it.

SR: 1 Fall match over about 25 minutes. This was nerve hold city from Chenok. He had figured out a way to actually counter the european uppercut, so he was basically using that advantage to nerve lock his way through the whole match. Despite von Chenok bringing almost nothing to the table  besides some nice bumping, I‘d still call this a pretty good match simply due to Mercier being an absolute machine. The guy has these awesome greco roman moves, and even when he‘s doing a simple hold he looks like he‘s trying to twist something off. He also just started punching Chenok in the face at a few points and he did a tremendous job selling the nerve holds and chokes like his life was being drained out of him. And, his big backbreaker from a greco roman throw is just awesome and my new favourite move. He was ragdolling von Chenok like nobodies business with that. So yeah, that‘s how you good a good 25 minute match out of a guy as limited as Karl von Chenok. 


Petit Prince vs Bobby Genele 1/22/68

MD: We get the last six minutes of this as well and it's easy for people to miss as it was on the same video as Andre vs Van Buyten which we had covered independently. By this point, the Prince had really developed into a more complete package. His selling here is exceptional. There's a King of the Mountain in the middle where Genele keeps smashing or kicking him off the apron and the way he flies into the crowd and just milks it is Ricky Morton level. It's the same with his comebacks. He's more apt to have a real hope spot and then have it cut off than most people in the footage and because he's so small and so spectacular on offense, the crowd eats it up. That said, sometimes he'll do a backflip off of someone's shoulder to go through his legs and get a mare. There's a lot of wasted motion and the first time he does it, you're blown away but by the fourth or fifth time you see it, you wonder if maybe he couldn't create some more powerful effect at the end, like he does with the backflip off the top after hammering on his opponent in the corner to charge in hard with a headbutt to the gut. I think that's a criticism we'd have of him if he was a modern wrestlers. You can do six spectacular things to set up a move, things spectacular enough to overshadow the move, if you can rationalize it being about positioning, but maybe that move shouldn't be a mare? But in the end, we're just glad to have more footage of it. It's a shame we don't have the start of this as Genele was a great, chip on his shoulder rival for the Prince and what we got here was, on whole, very good.

Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes vs Inca Peruano/Anton Tejero 3/9/68

MD: Tremendous tag. You could have probably peeled a couple of minutes off the first fall and a couple off the third, and me sitting here in 2021 would have been okay with that, but I'm sure the 1968 fans would have felt robbed. Those two falls were what they were there to see, Bordes and Ben Chemoul triumphant again and again while Peruano and Tejero tried every move and trick in their arsenal to contain the stylists. I thought that maybe, just maybe Ben Chemoul was starting to slow a bit as he was aging, but then he'd fly so high on a top wristlock up and over escape that I felt almost embarrassed for doubting him. Bordes was right there with him with complex chain wrestling escapes that stood up to almost any we've seen so far. Tejero is as good as any heel we've seen in basing and stooging and getting mean shots in, but Peruano is a wonder, one of the most creative and interesting wrestling minds we've ever seen. Here he introduced some awesome headbutts to the back of the head (one into the corner) and an amazing sequence where he turned a full nelson into a whip around and a go under to drive Ben Chemoul's head into the corner. The second fall gave weight to the proceedings as Tejero and Peruano tossed Bordes out over the top again and again. The fans tried to help him, and later Ben Chemoul as he was getting tossed through the ropes, back in but the heels were unrelenting and Tejero ended it with a huge tombstone. The stylists were able to come back in the last fall and not just come back but hit a series of satisfying revenge spots. Peruano had gotten Bordes up in a fireman's carry and chucked him across the ring into a gutbuster onto Tejero's knee, so Bordes did a one man version of the move. They made sure to toss the heels out plenty as well and the fans were not at all quick to help. Ben Chemoul set up up a few celebratory set pieces with the heels tied up in the ropes and the fans loved it, though when the ref dared to give him a public warning for one in the first fall, his overdramatic misery for the injustice of it all brought forth the loudest sympathetic crowd chant we've heard in the footage maybe. Brilliant wrestlers doing brilliant things, with skill and struggle and intensity. Just about everything you want from late 60s French Catch.

PAS: Damn do I love the Peruvians, fell like a team which would get over huge now with their combination of wild innovative offense and crazy bumps to the floor. I can imagine how great Santana/Ortiz versus the Peruvians would be. The Bordes has to have the highest ratio of bumps to the floor per match minute of any wrestler ever, that guy spends a huge percentage of this match eating concrete. I love the use of the hammerlock spins by Peruano, so many cool ways working out of that set up. Rene Ben and Bordes are super athletic babyfaces who spend much of the match flying into cool headscissors and take downs, and take a thumping from the Peruvians when it is their turn. They really knew how to send the crowd home happy too. Loved both heels getting fed into big dropkicks for the dramatic finish.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Blouson Noirs! Rene Ben! Bordes! Ragot! Boucard!

 Rene Ben Chemoul/Walter Bordes vs Blousons Noirs  9/6/66

MD: This isn't the best match we've seen, but it was still so, so, so good. Exceptionally good. Great. Exceptional, except for that it wasn't at all an exception. This is just how good the high end tag matches in this footage get. But it is so good. It has less prolonged heat, maybe, but that's not replaced by meaningless excess but instead by a constant pressure. The Blousons Noirs never stop trying to get an advantage, never hesitate to cheat, always work towards their side of the ring and the cheapshot, complain about low blows, try to sneak in a grab or a trip out of nowhere, even use the ring rope as a battering weapon. Ben Chemoul and Bordes are always trying to escape and press an advantage and get revenge. There's not a moment in the entire match where it feels like they're just killing time or not somehow actively competing with each other, and that's insane considering some of the great, imaginative comeuppance spots. They called Ben Chemoul the acrobat of the ring, but he feels more like a jester, not just in how he amuses, and his agility and humor, but in how he shows the the heels to be frauds and fools under their swagger, as dangerous as they might be. He did a double turtle draw-in spot that I've never seen before and it felt like exactly what these characters would do. We've seen enough footage by this point to call the Blousons Noirs one of the best heel units of all time. Bordes was young and game (willing to bump hard out of the ring and to fire back from underneath) and the match might have been a little hotter if there was a few more minutes of him being beaten upon somewhere in there, but the fans still went up for whenever he came back, just like there was a buzz whenever Ben Chemoul came in and did his little initial bound to one knee to intimidate an opponent. Matches like this are just pure joy to watch.

PAS: This was tremendous stuff, on the level of the best Midnight Express vs. Rock and Roll Express tags, really an all time classic. Love the Noirs, they have the entire package, viciousness, stooging, bumping, basing, truly a five tool heel tag team. Borders and Chemoul are a great face team too, Chemoul was so slippery and would draw the heels in and evaded them with such skill. Bordes was great too he takes a huge head first bump into the crowd which really need to be giffed, and had one of the nastiest front face locks I have ever seen, one of the great things about all of this footage is how incredible the little things looked, which makes the big things look even better.

Daniel Boucard vs Francis Ragot (Le Legionnaire) 9/20/66

MD: This was a fun look at a couple of guys we haven't seen or haven't seen much of. Ragot was thin as a rail, tattooed, goateed, mean, scrappy, stoogy. Boucard was young and game, though a little rough around the edges at times. His comebacks were fun, full of chops and forearms and nice dropkicks. The first half of the match had Ragot grinding him down with holds and Bouchard building to big escapes but there was a more prolonged beatdown later on and it ended fairly back-and-forth with some big spots (like Boucard lifting Ragot out of a hold by his goatee). It seemed like they were building to a draw, including a top wristlock that came way too late in the match if they weren't, but they twisted it for a nice finish. Nothing hugely memorable in the grand scheme of the footage but definitely a fun little match. 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Bollet! Wiecz! Rene Ben! Cesca! Lagache! N'boa!

Andre Bollet vs. Eddy Wiecz 9/21/65

MD: This is the finals of the Salon Cup, or at least it's for the cup, and it's primal and personal and violent and fun. There's a certain familiarity here that we don't usually get in the footage. It almost feels like a big blowoff match in a feud as opposed to the sporting match of the week, which is how it usually goes. There's a little bit of wrestling to start, with Wiecz able to hang on to holds or go right back into them and Bollet, as always, able to stooge his way right out of small, skillful victories in the most entertaining fashion possible. When it starts to pick up (with Bollet throwing the first blow), it never really settles back down. They're constantly abusing the ref whenever he tries to intervene and while he gives public warnings, he's suitably bullied by them and likely afraid to throw the whole thing out considering the importance of the match. Bollet will choke and grind and hammer, but then Wiecz will come back with just huge shots mixed in with a little bit of his athleticism, like the backflip off the top, or fun moments like catching Bollet's foot in the ropes and then tying the ref up too when he tried to stop him. They do a very good job of selling the attrition as the match goes on, with Wiecz flopping on shaky legs and Bollet needing to lean on his seconds or hang on to the ref. Ultimately it spills onto the floor and they have a last thundering exchange before Wiecz is to put him away definitively in the center of the ring. Just a real classic slugfest. If you told me this was the most watched and remembered French match-up of the 60s, I'd believe you.

PAS: I agree this felt like a classic. We have had better matches in this footage, but nothing which felt bigger. Bollet is a real thumper in this, landing hard big blows through out, Wiecz (who is Eduard Carpentier) has a much more theatrical striking style, big winging hooking blows, which really land, I also liked his Anderson Silva like push kicks. When they combined to wail away at each other it really built to something special. Wiecz tying Bollet's foot into the ropes and then tying up the ref was a nice bit of table setting business before they really unloaded on each other. I really liked Wiecz, flipping sentons, he got some real snap on them and they landed with some real chest compression. 

Rene Ben Chemoul/Gilbert Cesca vs. Pierre Lagache/N'boa Le Congalais 10/3/65

MD: What to even do with this tire fire? N'boa was Bob Elandon who we saw not too long ago as a real heatseeker. Now he's a savage from the Congo with a handler (a woman dubbed Franziska Von Biesen dressed like Kim Chee without the mask and with a whip). Elsewhere, he'd come out as N'boa the Snakeman with a giant python. So, basically Kamala, right? Most of us can watch Kamala matches, no problem. What makes this one different? It's the crowd. I don't think I've ever quite seen a French crowd like this, not with Bollet and Delaporte, not with Quasimodo, not with Von Kramer or Kaiser, not even with Elandon the last time we saw him. Likewise, as good as Cesca and Ben Chemoul were (and they're just a really great team), I've never seen the crowd so behind them, not against Bibi and Bernaert or the Black Diamonds or the Teddy Boys. While the commentator was going on about how, if N'boa lost, he'd be sent back to the jungle to live in his trees, this crowd wanted their countrymen to put the savage in his place more than I've ever seen them want anything. We're ten years in now, have seen so much, and it's the comparative view that damns this so thoroughly. What else to even say? The wrestling was very good?

PAS: I guess I am the counterpoint here, which isn't really a place I am comfortable being. I mean jungle savage gimmicks in wrestling are clearly racist, but in the spectrum N'boa wasn't Kamala level of subhuman, or even as racist as something like Crime Time. Between the ropes he basically worked like he worked as Bob Elandon, big hard hitter with some athletic stooging. Lagache played the role of the wrestling foil, and Cesca and Chemoul have their tag stuff as polished and down as any tag team ever. Racial heat is clearly a thing, from Puerto Rico vs. Mexico feuds, to the Caribbean Sunshine Boys to the Gangstas, and it did seem like an especially hot crowd, but the heels were also pretty great at cheapshotting and milking the crowd. I also don't think this was the hottest crowd we have seen, we saw people swing on Lio Pellicani and pelt Cheri Bibi with garbage.  I could enjoy this as a match, and while this wasn't the tip top level of some of the Cesca and Ben Chemoul stuff, it was in the mix.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Rene Ben! Cesca! Tejero! Zapata! Kramer! Dukan

Rene Ben Chemoul/Gilbert Cesca vs Anton Tejero/Pancho Zapata 7/18/65

MD: Incredibly entertaining 30 minutes here. This is one of those matches I'd feel good about showing people new to the style. By this point, Ben Chemoul and Cesca were a well oiled machine. I'll admit to Ben Chemoul's act getting a little old. They introduce a number of new spots but you still get a bunch you've seen a lot and a little of him can go a long way. Cesca is the perfect mix of style and substance, on the other hand. The first fall had a lot of quick tags by the stylists, lots of stooging and feeding by Zapata (our old friend La Barba) and Tejano. I'd say this was the first time we really saw quick shine-like tags to this degree in the chronological footage but we've been moving and more to heels utilizing ref distractions and that was in full force. While Zapata was a brilliant stooge and vicious when he had the opportunity, it was Tejano who was just incessant, constantly going for the eyes or body shots and making the ref move back and forth as they kept a corner onslaught going. They got real heat (and some trash thrown in) but the fans seemed like they were as entertained as anything else. The transitions felt almost luchaesque here, with tags not mattering so much when the heels were in control and things building to a moment of comeback, in this case a nice little spot with Ben Chemoul kicking his way out of a hanging backslide/punch double team. The third fall was full of big complicated spots including one that ended with stereo missile dropkicks which was probably as complex as anything we've seen. It ended on a high note and everyone went home happy (save for Zapata and Tejano at least).

PAS: These Chemoul/Cesca tags are uniformly excellent, they are Rock and Roll Expressish when in comes to consistent match quality. Zapata and Tejero are tremendous foils, they are listed from Mexico and they come off like an all time rudo tag team, eating all of the fancy Cesca and Chemoul ranas perfectly, tying themselves up into ropes and utter capitulating themselves over the top rope rope. Tejero is one of the great out of the ring bumpers ever, and Zapata matches him. I enjoyed how many different ways the technico squad could time up Zapata and Tejero in the ropes. I could have used a bit more drama in the final run to extend this match to the top tier of French Catch, but man was this fun stuff. 

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 30 minutes. Pancho Zapata, what a name. Apparently, he‘s Joachim la Barba, so it‘s nice to see him again. This was another French formula tag and one of the finest entries in the genre so far. At this point you have to ask if the South Americans are actually better than the French guys. They had no problem going along with all the technical moves, then looking despicable while kicking the French guys asses, and finally bumping like maniacs, stooging and getting their own asses kicked in a big way. And Ben Chemoul and Cesca are just really reliable workhorses. At one point it seems Chemoul got a small cut in his face and Tejero does some really nasty work trying to squeeze more blood out of him. Zapata looked subdued compared to his really violent 50s performances but he had some cool headbutts and the biggest bump of the match diving off the top into nothing, and later just suicide diving into a ringside table. I also dug the knee lifts to the back. Chemoul and Cesca looked great throwing punch combos in the second half. Double missile dropkick sequence was pretty insane. It ended a bit light hearted considering things seemed to get intense in the middle of this, but these matches are so straightforwardly fun and enjoyable that that is a very very minor nitpick.


Juan Botana vs Viarmeck Wizuk 7/25/65

MD: We lose the first ten minutes of this and get the last eight and a half and that's a shame, because what we get is pretty great. They just go at it here, Wizuk rugged and hard-hitting and good at playing to the crowd and Botana wild and stooging and relentless, able to sneak in a cheapshot from his knees to retake control again and again. This had the best leg nelson we've seen in forever, with Wizuk rolling around the ring and then really stretching with it. Botana had to bite to get out. They kept building to trading hard shots with one another, with Botana not at all afraid to bump big for Wizuk. It's a shame we don't have more of these two in the footage.    


Karl von Kramer vs Gass Dukan 7/25/65

MD: Von Kramer looked like the best wrestler in the world on this night. Doukhan was Israeli and according to the announcer, spent half the year in Tel Aviv and half in Paris. He's a natural opponent for Von Kramer, and he could both hang with the matwork and be fiery when necessary, while keeping a sharp patina of being an absolute sportsman (he wanted to shake hands at the start and at the end despite it all, and there was a lot of it). This was some brilliant stuff, with every exchange having one or two extra wrinkles, or really, just never stopping in its folding. There were wristlocks which just didn't stop. Von Kramer kept trying to roll through and Doukhan kept rolling through himself or rolling von Kramer back. Von Kramer had a dozen interesting ways to take a guy down and five or six interesting ways to grind him. They started the match with a series of front facelocks reversed into arm whips, until von Kramer turned the last reversal into a dragon sleeper which Doukhan used a knee shot to get out of. The entire match was like that. Von Kramer had some takedowns he went back to again and again, like a headlock with a knee to take Doukhan over or this inner reverse gutwrench especially, until late in the match, Doukhan jammed it with a backbreaker. Von Kramer stooged up and down for Doukhan and the fans loved every second of it, but he never lost his credibility. He stayed mostly stoic, selling the indignity of it, occasionally losing his cool (and it mattered all the more when he did due to the stoicism) but going right back to the attack. He was able to give a ton but able to get a credible takedown at any moment; the fans still ooh'ed when he locked in the nerve hold because they knew just how dangerous the guy was. You got the sense that the match wasn't heading to a clean finish because it would have been pretty bad form to put the German over clean, but he also felt like a mountain that Doukhan shouldn't entirely overcome, so it ended with Von Kramer really losing his cool and creatively choking the hell out of him in the ropes for the DQ and, of course, Doukhan getting his shots in post match. Von Kramer was really an exceptional pro wrestler and we're lucky to get to see him go all out with a game Israeli in 1965 France.

PAS: This wasn't the violent brawl you would expect from an Israeli versus a German with a Swastika on his robe in 1965. I mean Doukhan had to have lost family in the holocaust, I wanted this to be more Munich then gentleman's arm drag exchanges. They were really nice armdrags though I really liked how Doukhan would roll through and stay connected to throw an arm drag of his own. I really liked von Kramers contemptuous takeovers, he would toss him with real disdain. I did like how we got some really heated fighting at the end, with Doukhan taking some revenge for his people by choking out Von Kramer with a belt.

SR: 1 fall match going about 20 minutes. I am happy we get another Von Kramer singles match, and against a fun athletic technician like Doukhan nonetheless! This was a more WoS like match. Lots of fun technical wrestling, and unpredictable bumping from von Kramer. It was a bit light hearted considering this was an Israeli wrestler taking on an evil German guy, but Doukhan kept coming up with cool stuff you don‘t expect (even after seeing a lot of unexpected stuff in this footage) including a freakish lucha armdrag and it was a really good glimpse at what a typical night of work looked like for these guys. Kramer gets himself dq‘d in a lame ending but we get Doukhan throwing him around a bit after the match.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Rene Ben! Cesca! Teddy Boys! Leduc! Montourcy! von Kramer! Gastel!

Rene Ben Chemoul/Gilbert Cesca vs. Teddy Boys (Aldophe Sevre/Robert Le Boulch) 5/9/65

MD: I get that everything is high end at this point, but this still stood out more to me than it did to Sebastian. This has been out for a few years, but it's great to see it in context now that we know these guys better. Ben Chemoul and Cesca come off as one of the great tag teams of all time in the few appearances we have of them together, certainly one one of the most talented. Ben Chemoul had such verve and timing, such showmanship, working for the back row and the front row and everyone in between. He manages to do all three up and over variations off the top wristlock in a tag match at different points, and fills the match with little moments like throwing one of those no look spin kicks to a guy just hanging out on the apron. He fills the match with entertaining stuff while never losing the plot. Cesca's just as solid as they come, hard hitting especially when it's time to get revenge, sympathetic in selling, smooth in complex spots, quick with the dropkicks and 'ranas. They'd also share spots: Ben Chemoul would stooge le Boulch by turtling early and then Cesca would outsmart le Boulch when he himself tried to do it later. It all came together. The Teddy Boys were such an ideal heel unit too, with le Boulch an opportunist coward and Sevre having the hugest chip on his shoulder imaginable, though they could also switch those roles on a dime. Sevre hit hard and jawed well with the crowd while le Boulch spent a lot of his time shadowboxing. They were able to work around the ref to endlessly stomp: when the ref shoved Sevre, he'd come back and pat the ref on the shoulder. At one point, Sevre got knocked out on one of the bevy of catapult-into-partner spots in the match so he sat down in the front row while le Boulch recovered. He tried that again later and got into a fist fight with the crowd. The ending might have felt a little abrupt, but that was the general pacing of these things as much as them maybe wanting to move things to a finish before the crowd rioted, but over all, this was high end stuff to me.

SR: 2/3 falls match going a bit over 30 minutes. This was another French lightweight tag with all that exchanges. Plenty of quick exchanges. The Teddy Boys didn‘t move me as much as other heel tandems. I mean, they were really good at making the C‘s uppercuts look great and had some nice punches and stomps, but it‘s France everyone is a GOAT, you gotta bring a bit more than that. Chemoul and Cesca as usual just had endless stuff to do. I liked Chemouls punch combo, and Cesca busting out a spinning argentine backbreaker and a back elbow combo that was like something Misawa would do. Highlight of the match was the crowd getting unruly and the police stepping in. I am probably making this match sound worse than it was, it wasn‘t top tier French stuff but there was enough entertaining stuff happening and some sickeningly stiff blows that will easily make this the best match you watch this week.

Gilbert Leduc/Claude Montourcy vs. Karl von Kramer/Robert Gastel  5/26/65

MD: Unique presentation here. I know nothing of 1965 French demographics and geography (Puteaux is in the western suburbs of Paris but I'm not about to watch 1961's The Long Absence to get a sense of it), but this felt more provincial than what we're used to. The crowd was awesome though, as much of the star of the match as the four wrestlers, as good as they were. The sound was a little off here, and it's amazing we don't see this problem more often, so it anticipated the action a bit. This was (wisely, I imagine) mostly a crowd pleaser for some sort of cup. There were moments of heat throughout, but nothing prolonged until the second fall. Even those moments felt a little perilous. The crowd absolutely hated Kramer, who looked brilliant here. He had so many interesting ways of taking someone down or keeping a hold, and just threw cartwheels around like they were nothing. I was expecting endless nerve holds (which could be fine if the heat's there, and it would have been) but he went another way with things. He stooged, but only occasionally, so when he got caught in the ropes towards the end of the long first fall, the fans went absolutely nuts. He got taken out by a catapult over the top to end the first fall, never to return. 

A stretcher job mid-match was probably the safest way to get him out of there. LeDuc more or less gave us the usual greatest hits (the headstands, the leg nelson after seeing how badly the fans wanted Montourcy to whack Kramer in a cross arm breaker, etc) but they're all great. Montourcy had a few more interesting takedowns. Gastel let Kramer do most of the heavy lifting in the first fall, but turned on the heat after he got taken out, absolutely demolishing Montourcy with headbutts, bloodying him up before crushing him with a tombstone and basically taking him out of the match. The fans were furious here. The third fall, then was just Leduc getting revenge on Gastel before they moved into a slick finishing stretch including Gastel catching a Leduc cross body block (the block itself not being something we've seen much in the footage) and planting him with a tombstone, before Leduc came back with a flip up power bomb for the win and the huge pop. I don't know if I'd feel the same about this one in a different setting, but in front of this crowd, I thought it was great. I do sort of wish they had leaned harder into Kramer getting advantages though, but they may not have lived to the next day if they did.

SR: 2/3 falls match going a bit under 30 minutes. Hey look, it‘s Karl von Kramer. Haven‘t seen him in a while. Karl looked really good here with his freak bumping and unorthodox throws. For a hard nosed evil German, he also wasn‘t afraid to make a fool out of himself and get his chest hair torn out. The first fall of this was the usual mix of fun wrestling and rough heels tactics, with von Kramer stealing the show and Leduc and Montourcy being formidable technicians. Von Kramer takes a big bump to the outside and doesn‘t make it back after that, leading to Gastel being in a 2 on 1 situation so Gastel just goes crazy with headbutts on Montourcy, bloodying him and KO‘ing with a tombstone piledriver. This leads to the 3rd  fall in which both von Kramer and Montourcey are out and Gastel and Leduc slug it out in an epic Mantel/Lawler style battle. Really cool glimpse at Gastle living up to his name and being a violent bludgeoner who ends up with his opponents blood all over him, and when Leduc hits those double elbows he‘s like Lawler doing a punch combo. Really really good match with a pretty unique layout for French wrestling.

PAS: I love how this match moved from comedy, skill and stooging to really heavy violence. It is one of the hardest transitions in wrestling to nail, and this match nailed it. The heels were masterful here, Kramer is a heat seeking pinball, getting twisted up the ropes, getting his chest hair ripped out, flying for all of the headscissors and takedowns, and hitting these deep cool looking flip throws. He gets tossed out of the ring to the floor taking a big bump and getting sent to the back. We get a Stone Cold Gastel section where he obliterates Montourcy including a fair amount of blood which is pretty rare for this era. We then got a big showdown between Gastel and LeDuc, which was pretty epic. I didn't like LeDuc basically no-selling the tombstone, it was a move which won Gastel the second fall, and LeDuc jumps right back onto offense right after taking it. Still everything else about this match was at a super high level, and while that one spot kept it from MOTY status it was still a classic. 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Rene Ben! Cesca! Inca! Tejero! Delaporte! Pat O'Conner?

Rene Ben Chemoul/Gilbert Cesca vs. Inca Peruano/Anton Tejero 3/12/65 pt1, pt2

PAS: We reviewed this back in 2014. It's still great and I thought I would add some new thoughts. We all know now that Peruano, Cesca and Chemoul are all time greats, but Tejero is a guy we have seen much less of, but really impressed me here. He had so much energy, just a crazed frantic bump machine, he must have taken 20-25 bumps to the floor in this match, and flew around the ring like a dervish. I still think in context the match is an all timer, wild workrate tag with more frenetic action then you would see 20 years later. 

MD: Phil and Eric thought highly enough of this to make it the 65 MOTY but we know a lot more now. I thought we saw a tag in the last week or two which felt evolutionary in the structure. This did not, but it took so many of the fun comeuppance spots we've seen up until now and pushed them all forward. I don't think I've ever seen a match where so many people got tossed to the floor in new and interesting ways. While Cesca and Tejero were both very good here (and Cesca probably excellent with Tejero an ideal second banana stooge), Ben Chemoul and Peruano are just transcendent wrestlers. Peruano, by this point in his career (and we've been watching him for almost ten years now), made it look so easy. I've never seen someone that could bump into being tied up into the ropes from an awkward angle on a mule kick out of a hold reversal and make it look so natural. Most of his complex spots seem like they were worked out on the fly and that they were wholly organic. Obviously they weren't, but he's a singular figure in pro wrestling in making them seem so. Ben Chemoul is just electric and elastic. He bounds around the ring with this energy that you just can't look away from. And they both bring so many interesting and creative spots and sequences and ways to move around the ring. This had a couple of firsts, like the first time we've seen someone remove the protective covering in front of the post (Peruano did it and then paid for it) and one of the first double collisions which, in this case, led to a 10 count finish. It needed a little bit more heat, probably, though the swarming double teams and tandem attacks from Peruano and Tejero were almost enough to overcome that even in their relative sparsity. In general though, it was wild, heated chaos and constantly entertaining with two of the best stylized wrestlers of French Catch. It'll be curious to see if it holds up as we have over 20 matches for the year.

SR: 2/3 falls match going a bit over 30 minutes. We've had this before, it was an incredible discovery 7 years ago, and it's still pretty incredible even after watching a load of high end French pro wrestling. These tags were clearly turning into an artform at this point. We saw the Black Diamonds put a British touch on a while before, and now we get something more luchaesque thanks to Peruano and Tejero. That means lots of high end bumping and stooging, as well as violent rudo beatdowns, and plenty cool wrestling. The bumping was just insanely high end, just an effortless, tiredless exercise in flying all over the ring, through the ropes and sometimes upside down into a tie up. The beatdowns were pretty nasty and unpredictable with both Peruvians diving off the top, tying up their opponents, throwing rough knees and punches and being generally quite spectacular dickheads. There wasn't a ton of wrestling but what we got was slick and fast. Dug those hammerlocked backbreakers the Inca busted out. Chemoul and Cesca are impeccable both throwing out fast armdrags and then punching the rudos in the face when they had enough. The fast and beautiful wrestling exchanges add some depth and the escalation throughout the match, building to the faces throwing punches and the eventual brutal finish were great. Really, still an all timer of a match.

Yasu Yoguchi vs. Mathias Sanchez  3/14/65

MD: We get the last five minutes of this. Yoguchi may be Chati Yokouchi and if so we'll see him once more. He was in the face role here and I liked his chop and nervehold offense in a short setting. He worked well from underneath, sold well (including post-match) and the fans were into him. A lot of that was probably due to Sanchez being such a character. We'll never see him again, which is a shame. He was super emotive in the nerve hold and celebratory after smaller things. Just a real colorful jerk, the sort who got at least some stuff thrown at him. Five minutes and never to be seen again.

SR: JIP with about 4 minutes shown. Yoguchi likes to throw chops. Sanchez likes to throw fists. Super simple match, but there was a nasty bump where Sanchez threw Yoguchi over the ropes with the belly to belly and Yoguchi took the nasty apron bump. I enjoyed this.

Pat O‘Connor vs. Roger Delaporte 3/14/65

MD: In some ways this felt like one of the most rudimentary matches we've seen, barely even in the French style. Obviously, that's not going to be fully true since we had Delaporte in there, but O'Connor was all punches and forearms and the occasional ear grab, really. Delaporte controlled early with his fall-away armdrags where he controls the head. He does them differently than most people and I usually enjoy them, especially when he strikes them together like this. Whenever O'Connor started to get an advantage, he'd hesitate allowing Delaporte to go low and take back over. That led into an extended period of Delaporte working over the leg (after snatching a leg from behind after O'Connor turned to break clean) including a proto STF and those bouncing leg lunches off the ropes. This was also one of the first attempts we've seen of a heel outright using the rope for leverage by putting his own feet on it. Also, plenty of kicks and stomps. It wasn't until he tossed the ref away that O'Connor found his fire and started to hammer back. O'Connor was best when beating Delaporte around the ring, as his strikes were heavy (though the leg selling obviously went away) and he wasn't hesitating like before. There were a few typical but highly enjoyable spots of Delaporte flying into the crowd or begging off by hugging the ref, right down to overselling the airplane spin after the pin. There was nothing wrong with this but it lacked some of the flair that's become absolutely commonplace in these matches. Whether or not O'Connor was actually O'Connor, they treated him that way, between billing him as a world champion, having him win clean in the center against Delaporte, and then with the handshake and hand-raising after the match. It makes me wonder if they weren't trying to work the crowd.

SR: Match goes about 20 minutes. This was another case of The Roger Delaporte Show. It's no better or worse than other Delaporte matches you've seen, so whether or not you want to watch this depends on whether you are in the mood for it. Regardless, Delaporte was at his despicable best here, and Pat O'Connor didn't do much besides be a big lug who can hit nice uppercuts and punches. Regardless of the predictable nature of the bout I thought there some lots of great strike exchanges here. yes, yes, that's not a huge standout criteria among French matches... but I enjoyed the show.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Israel! Corne! Duranton! LeDuc! Black Diamonds! Cesca! Rene Ben!

Ischa Israel vs. Jean Corne 1/15/65

PAS: We have seen these two guy as a tag team before, and this was a pretty spectacular friendly match. Just two very skilled guys working at a fast intricate pace. It was an exhibition, there was never really a sense of escalation or narrative, but it was a really cool exhibition. It felt a lot like a faster version of a lucha maestros match, or a WOS match with out a heel. This was a really fast match, even when they slowed it down with a long knuckle lock section, they were constantly doing stuff, dropping down, beeling, trying to counter. Really nifty stuff. 

MD: Hell of a match. It only went 15 and didn't wear out its welcome, with a lot of the trappings you'd want at a speed that we've rarely seen in the chronological footage so far. There isn't a huge difference between the heavyweight and the middleweight footage we've seen so far. It's just that the middleweight stuff goes faster with a bit more rope running. Here there was another wrinkle, one that we probably wouldn't have noticed so well if we had cherry picked this match, an evolution of spot where they invert the expectations of what we've seen already. Corne will do the up and over to try to get out of an armbar or top wristlock, but instead of it working or Israel jamming him, he goes all the way over but the hold's maintained. Only on the third try when he makes it into a headscissors takeover, does it work. It was the same thing with the extended bodyscissors spot that they worked out of. We've seen some real elaboration before they reenter it, but this match had the most. A flip side to that is how commonplace some of the roll up exchanges were. There was one point mid-match where Israel caught Corne on a 'rana and turned it into a powerbomb that I knew he was going to bridge up and 'rana out. We've hit the point where that feels more novel than natural. Anyway, this had a bit of everything, with Corne taking more of an aggressor's role and Israel containing him more. There were some absolutely brilliant escapes, like Corne getting both Israel and the ref to look one way so he could sneak out the other, and Israel throwing some boots while in a short leg scissors that made Corne commit to blocking, which allowed Israel to sneak a short leg-scissors of his own on, forcing the break. It wasn't quite as smooth as the best of the stuff we'll see a few years down the line, but them just barely hitting some of it only made it feel all the more organic. Just good stuff all around with an exciting finish.

SR: 1 fall match going about 18 minutes. This was compared to Clive Myers vs. Steve Grey, and it felt like a good gateway match to the French style. It also felt extremely British, more so than the stylist matches we've seen so far. Of course these guys work super fast and with a real snap to even things like spinning out of an armlock. I really liked the bodyscissor sequence they did where the guy followed his advantage by following up with a bearhug. It builds very well to an exciting little ending run that has one guy taking a big bump to the outside and some great looking rope running. There was also an obscenely beautiful backslide. I thought the match wasn't as intense as previous classics we've seen, but that is a high high bar.

Robert Duranton vs. Gilbert LeDuc 1/15/65

MD: I don't thinks this really worked. Some of that was because it had to follow Israel vs Corne, but a big chunk was on Duranton. Occasionally, they'd run a big spot or sequence that was really good, like a highly kinetic series of hanging on to a Duranton chinlock over multiple escape attempts, but more often than not, he was pretty sluggish in there. He was always a body guy sort of heel and aping the Gorgeous George act was good for him, but given his natural deficiencies, he should have leaned even more into the act. He got heat. There was a great moment where some trash was making it into the ring and he picked up a piece and tossed it at LeDuc. I don't know if we're still hanging on to the 50s when he came up, but he tried to wrestle too much, when really, the crowd would have been happier with LeDuc doing the headstand escape out of a few holds and then pummeling Duranton. At one point, it was pretty obvious Duranton was just sucking wind in a hold which you never see in this footage. The valet was a great prop, but ill-used here as well, hanging out on the apron for no reason, interfering when he should have hung back and hanging back when he should have been interfering.

SR: 1 fall match going about 20 minute. Duranton is full on the goonish bodybuilder he was in that one Louis de Funes movie here. He still hard Firmin with him. This was very similiar to Duranton/Carpentier from a while back. Meaning it was good, but it stuck to Durantons formula. That means some hold for hold wrestling, then some tantrums and short kicks, and finally Firmin getting involved. Firmin angered the folks in attendance so much someone threw a chair at him (and it was a big wooden chair), and the ref had to calm things down by throwing Firmin over the rope in a funny spot. The match felt like a very good TV bout. Maybe it's due to Durantons experience from his US work, but it seemed everything lead to another in a very organic way. And Leduc is not the most charismatic guy in this kind of spectacle match, but he is really good at doing his thing.

PAS: I thought this was kind of the French Catch version of a solid but forgettable WCW Thunder match. We got to see Duranton strut and preen, got to see the master of the headspin do a couple of headspins, some shtick with the valet, and they took it home. It's like looking back at a match list and going "Chris Adams versus Super Calo? I wonder how that is" and the answer is "It was OK".

Abe Ginsberg/John Foley vs. Rene Ben Chemoul/Gilbert Cesca 2/28/65

MD: The blog covered this one years ago but seeing it in context makes a huge difference. This felt like the next evolution in French tag team wrestling. The Black Diamonds had a similar look, with beards and dark tights, would control in the corner, would switch when the ref was distracted, would do exchanges where they switched off by doubling up submissions in order to keep control on tags. The match would build towards them doing some sort of fairly elaborate double team, only for it to fail the second time and Ben Chemoul and Cesca to do their own version of it to the crowd's delight. My favorite of this was a double cross choke, but the tandem set up for a victory roll that finished both the second and third falls were the most impressive. Cesca was great as always but there's something transcendent about Ben Chemoul. He has an extra spring to how he moves, this almost elastic charisma where the laws of physics bend just a little as he winds up and recoils. Anyway, if they could just work out how to really make hot tags happen, they'd have something, but I feel like this successfully refined the frequent heat-and-revenge structure we saw in those Hayes and Hunter tags, for instance, and made it all just a little more focused.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going about 35 minutes. I was delighted to see Abe Ginsburg, a guy who had a sole appearance in one of my favourite WoS bouts, show up in a long French tag. This was quite the tour de force from the Black Diamonds. They had lots of heel shtick, double teams, cut off spots. Lots of original stuff, some amusing, like the weird 2 on 1 hanging move they did, some a bit odd, like how one guy kept falling off the top rope. I liked them most when they laid violent punches and forearms on their opponents and worked wringing holds. Chemoul and Cesca are slick as always here. Chemoul threw some great punch combos. Finish was downright ridiculous. Good match overall.

PAS: I think I liked this more on a second look then reading my review years ago. Just head over heels for the Black Diamonds, what a pair of classic asskicker heels. Constantly cutting off the ring with cool violent double teams, including a sitting tapitia where the partner unloads with uppercuts. Serious something To Infinity and Beyond should steal, their double cross armed choke was really cool too. When it came time to bump and put over the faces they were great too, both guys too some of the best monkey flip bumps I can remember seeing from our boy Rene Ben. Loved the finish with the victory roll which ended the second fall, getting countered with a doomsday device style dropkick. I had this as a GREAT match when I first reviewed it, but would happily bump it up to an EPIC now.

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