Tuesday is French Catch Day: Mantopolous! Lemagouroux! Weicz! Delaporte!

Vassilios Mantopolous vs Gilbert Lemagouroux 1/24/65

MD: As we're just on our last run (that we know of at least) of matches here, I love to look at the presentation and some of the cultural bits, even if they are still alien to me. This was another studio show. Here we have an announcement up from that conditionally, as it had not been confirmed, François Bonlieu, French alpine skier and gold medalist in the 1964 Winter Games, was going professional and would compete at the Professional Championships in the US. 

Bollet (introduced as a grand poet) was there and just nodded a long as they discussed the matches for the night. Starting with the lightweights (which were heavier than in boxing since the heavyweights were heavier). Lemagouroux was the champion of Brittany and Mantopolous the champion of Greece. When the fans got up for Mantopolous mid-match the commentary noted that this was France appreciating its Greek roots and applauding the legacy that Homer bestowed upon them. Funny stuff.

SR: Really good match. Part of me is just happy to see some wrestling after that travesty with the bull, but this was genuinely very good. I expected poor Gilbert, who didn't stand out in a big way in the tags we've seen him in, to be completely run over by Mantopolous, but he stood his ground and actually dominated quite a bit. Gilbert is really solid, goes along really well with Mantopolous stuff, really liked the ways in which he'd just yank Mantopolous down by a wrist or armlock. This was in front of a big curtain, like a theater, and it made me wonder if it was another studio match kinda deal. We don't see the audience, but we hear lots of applause, and the match was worked so simple that anyone can understand it. Textbook stuff kinda. There was a segment where Gilbert kept his opponent in a headlock, always resorting to hair pulls to maintain control, not something we've seen a ton of but it was really well done. And Mantopolous is always impeccable, really explosive and spectacular when it's time to make an escape. His flying headiscissors were just weep-inducingly beautiful. In the end Gilbert didn't stand a big chance but they topped it of with a perfect sequence. It's weird this kinda stuff doesn't stand out in a huge way in the grand scheme of French Catch but in another universe it's  like the best studio TV match ever. I'd part hard pressed to think of anything better to teach a new audience about the magic of Catch.

MD: I agree with Sebastian here. This is just perfect Intro-to-Catch, at least the lightweight style. As accessible as some of those shorter Prince vs Noced/Richard touring type matches. Like those, you could pull out any number of gifs such a Mantopolous getting out of a hamerlock by going not just up and over but through the legs to turn it into a roll up, or even the way he'd go up for a dropkick but do a headscissors takeover instead, or the multiple kip ups when he was armbarred before he escaped out of it, or the way he'd step up on Gilbert's leg to vault up and over him, and I can go on and on. But what made it all work was that he had to struggle for each of those escapes, that Gilbert sold them with frustration and meanness, coming back with enraged kicks and stomps, and that each and every one was built to in its own way. That's part of why this is perfect to show, because you see all the exclamation points, but also the meaningful, direct sentences that led to them. Just beautiful, beautiful wrestling all around.

Eddy Weicz vs Roger Delaporte

MD: Pre-show they had talked up Weicz as world champion and acknowledged as such by both Americans and Europeans. Carpentier is amazing. My appreciation has only grown and grown. He is a star. He always presented himself on TV better than his peers and this show gave him even more opportunity to do so. Maybe it doesn't always make for the best matches, but I always come out impressed by his savvy. He's always punctuating things, always getting an extra shot in, always standing up to the ref and his opponents. he has that underlying element of being a bully that fans love. Post match, when Bollet is checking on Delaporte, he dropkicks him for no reason and then hits a spin kick on the ref and the fans love it because of course they do. He's always reaching, always engaged, always putting an extra flourish on things. 

And maybe there's even an extra level of construction to the spots. If this was Delaporte vs Leduc they'd build to the toupie headscissors takeover by making Leduc really work for it. Here they do that (to a lesser degree) but then do a spot where Carpentier pumps it repeatedly and then one where Delaporte holds on to the ropes so he doesn't go over until he finally gets his comeuppance. I really do get the sense he was decades ahead of his peers in some ways and that's why his act transferred so well.

And of course, Delaporte is one of the great villains of the 20th century because he sells everything. He sells the indignity of life at every point. There's a moment towards the end where he tries for (another) cheapshot, Carpentier moves due to the crowd warning him, and then, just because he couldn't get his cheapshot, Delaporte has a fit. And it's awesome. It's selling the emotional blow of it all. That obviously resonated with both me and Sebastian as you'll read below. They'd do these bits where Carpentier would get the better of him repeatedly and he'd just lose his cool and start choking him. It was a moral victory for Carpentier even if it was Delaporte leaning down on him. And then when they got slugging, he was just so good at it. He's sort of unassuming at first and doesn't do the flashy things (even though he can) but what he does do he was as good at anyone doing, and as I said, this was just a perfect setting for these two.

SR: Well, maybe this is the perfect studio wrestling. Great mix of wrestling and bullshit. Wiecz is in a ridiculous striped shirt. Delaporte goes after him at the bell, and now the crowd seems indeed to know what's going on so maybe they aren't that unfamiliar with wrestling. Wiecz literally flips off Delaporte, cartwheels around him a bunch, does a weird hip shake, and Delaporte scurries for the hills, only to immediately try a dirty takedown through the ropes. Awesome stuff. They just keep going like this, always doing a little something to keep things engaging along with the wrestling, which is mostly Delaportes basic holds vs Wiecz more athletic stuff. A bitch slap here, a little kick in the taint there, some pretty hard looking knuckle punches etc. I love the crowd engagement. When Delaporte even tries to grab the ropes for the slightest advantage, they are immediately in on his case, alerting the referee. Later, Delaporte tries to sneak up on Carpentier from behind, but the crowd alerts him in time, allowing Carpentier to evade the assault. Of course, Delaporte cusses them out for that. Is it really such a surprise the fans were super engaged, when they could so vividly observe their engagement have an immediate effect on what happens in a match? That's what sets wrestling apart from movies and theater. You can shout at the movie all you want, the murder is still gonna happen. Not in wrestling though, you can participate. That kinda stuff is pretty much absent from modern TV matches where every move is carefully choreographed and there's little room for interactions like that. Maybe having every match go 20 minutes to allow for stuff like this really is the way to go. The finish here is cartoonishly violent as Wiecz puts the Inoki-style falling indian deathlock on Delaporte but instead of falling next to him he drops his bodyweight onto him, squashing poor Delaporte to a smear as is his rightfully comeuppance. After the match Bollet also comes in in a suit and gets a savate kick too for his troubles. Way too fun.

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

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

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

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

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

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Angelito! Alami! Roux! Cavillier! Magnier! Zarzecki! Montreal! Delaporte!

Angelito/El Alami vs. Guy Cavillier/Andre Roux 9/3/73

MD: Tons and tons to like here. We haven't seen a lot of Angelito yet but he'll be in the footage more and more. This is, apparently, our only look at Alami and Roux (Roupp? Rouchet?) and both of them were very good. Alami was Moroccan and a fiery lightweight stylist with great rope running and some tricked out spots. And Roux is one of those "greatest wrestlers we only have one match of." He could go, could hit hard and lean on his opponent, but his stooging was top notch. The announcer called him the Rudolph Valentino of the Ring or something like that and he did have that Ed Wiskowki look, lanky with the world's most pullable mustache.

The other wrinkle was Babette Carole, the female referee and much of the match was build around the heels running circles around her with illegal double teams and then running into throws or shots from her. They'd end up in sequences during comebacks when they'd tag after every punch and get hot with one another and it led to a number of miscommunication spots in the corner or the ropes, some novel ones and some old classics. My favorite bit might have been Alami dragging Roux all the way around the ring by his mustache, but Roux mocking the quick kneeling exchange opening that guys like Ben Chemoul did only to get dropkicked in the face was a classic too. The pacing on this one was a bit better than usual too: we came in JIP but the falls were broken up at ten minute intervals in a thirty minute match which felt better than the usual long first fall we get. The heels took the first fall too (which was deserved considering how well they were cheating. Add in a hot crowd you get something that was better than the sum of its parts, which isn't always the case with these tags. Very good stuff.

Warnia de Zarzecki vs. Fred Magnier 10/12/73

MD: We get the last five minutes of this one out of thirty. It's been forever since we've seen Zarzecki and if I'm reading it right, he might be the bad guy here. Magnier was billed as a former legionnaire, the Mercenary of Catch. In a lot of ways, it felt like a 50s match in the back quarter, with a lot of momentum shifts and big shots and slams, just with, you know, a swimming pool for both guys to fall into. This actually answered one of the questions I had in mind: whether or not there were whole cards for these swimming pool matches or just a featured match. It seems to be a whole card which has to explain why the fans are elated for a big heel getting his comeuppance in the matches we've seen but not quite as elated as you'd expect: they'd seen it already earlier in the show! I wish we had this whole thing because the bit we got here looked good and it is our last look at Zarzecki. We'll see a bit more Magnier later. Oh, also of note here? The referee was Duranton's old valet, Firmin, in very Dastardly Danny Davis style, though he didn't do anything outwardly heelish despite the commentary suggesting the possibility as such. That guy got more heat than anyone else in all of the footage, so good to see him still employed.  

Mr. Montreal vs. Roger Delaporte 10/12/73

MD: I sort of answered my own question on why the fans would care about multiple swimming pool matches on the same card. This went the full thirty or close to it before anyone hit the water. They only teased it a couple of times but that's plenty of time to reset the clock in the fans' minds. Anyway, this was Montreal billed with his real name as well, Marcel Chaveau and Delaporte, who was 45 going on 75 here, looking ancient and moving gingerly at times (though how much of that was an act is anyone's guess; he was quick to attack when the moment presented itself). I liked this more than I was expecting as the first half were fairly tight and close up holds and the back half more scrapping and interacting with the ref. Delaporte was such a master. You had the sense that he could really stretch someone with small and straightforward things; it was how he'd turn Montreal's bridge on the reverse headlock right back into a cravat or the torque on an armbar. Meanwhile, when they were up and scrapping or he was laying in cheapshots, he always looked to the crowd first, always set the stage, always milked out the most possible resonance and meaning. Just a master, with Montreal more than game to hang with him. The whole match here had Firmin, once a valet, now a ref, getting involved more and more but really just the poor guy doing his job. Sure, Delaporte would take advantage but that's only because Montreal was taking liberties. Still, when the time came, he hit the water first, with Delaporte not far behind him. Obviously, Delaporte was limited by this point in his career but the man could do so much with so little. One of the best heels of the 20th century no doubt.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Van Buyten! Bollet! Delaporte! Mr. Montreal! de Zarzecki!

Andre Bollet vs. Franz van Buyten 1969

MD: As we'd already covered the Andre match from 68, here's our first real look in this chronological process at Franz Van Buyten in a nice long 2/3 falls singles match with Bollet. They were doing something weird here where the commentating was for the crowd. I say this a lot with Bollet, but this felt like another iconic match-up. Van Buyten is an amazing seller, one of the best ever, maybe, at drawing sympathy, at full body selling, selling of exhaustion and damage, and drawing the crowd into his big, righteous comebacks. And Bollet, of course, portrays one of the biggest shitbag jerks ever, who despite his obvious talent, which here includes a nice up and over counter, an Indian Deathlock, the somersault senton that ends the first fall, deserves everything he gets. Unlike some of the 2/3 falls tags we've seen lately, this felt perfectly balanced, with a very hard-worked, gritty feeling out period to start, with Bollet starting to cheat and Van Buyten firing back, leading to a nice bit of heat as Bollet kept tossing Van Buyten out, one that got so heated that they brought in someone from the crowd (maybe a weird plant) who took his shirt off and brandished a cane, and then a big comeback in the second fall, with plenty of revenge spots with Bollet tied up, before they went more even (though with a clear Van Buyten advantage) towards the banana peel finish and the post-match brawling. This was a beloved hero against a terrible villain and everything you'd want along those lines.

SR: On paper this should've been good, but in practice this was really long. It seems Bollet was past it at this point. He could still hit hard, but was struggling to kill time when controlling the action. Van Buyten always sells big and makes stuff look hard fought, but in this case the match took forever to get anywhere. We eventually got the signature Van Buyten comeback. Miserable ending. At least we got to see Van Buyten slug it out with Bollet on the floor. That was more exciting than anything that came before.

PAS: I am closer to Matt than Sebastian on this one. I thought it was pretty great with Bollet being really brutal, landing senton's so nasty that Van Buyten seemed to be nearly puking, hard forearms and uppercuts. We had the wildness of a fan (or plant) running in and some really heated Van Buyten comebacks at the end. I am into the idea of a babyface getting so fired up that he crotches the heel on the top rope, only to realize he went too far. 

Andre Bollet/Roger Delaporte vs Mr. Montreal/Warnia de Zarzecki 1/25/69

MD: We'd seen this tag a few years earlier, but here everyone's a little older, and excitingly enough, the match is in color. I can't say the color adds all that much, though. Delaporte looks a little greyer, maybe. The crowd seems a little more vivid on close-ups. The ring apron is very red. And this match follows many others we've seen, a long first fall with the back half full of heat and two short falls of babyface supremacy to make up for it. Bollet and Delaporte are, of course, masters of controlling the ring and they show that here. They'll get outwrestled and outpunched by their opponents but all it'll take is one moment to get control of things in their own corner once again. They played up Delaporte's age a bit more now, though he was old when he was young, always writhing and wincing even though he'd hit like a truck. Bollet seemed as athletic as ever, able to hit those somersault sentons and go up and over to escape a hold, plus bumping and stooging all around the ring and getting in fights with random members of the crowd (and here, the camera crew as well). We know Montreal and Zarzecki were good and they seemed it here even if they didn't stand out (even in their own usual ways like Montreal's strength) relative to other stylist teams we've seen lately.

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 30 minutes. This was in color. It kind of made you wonder, where the other matches from the time period also in colour and this was just the only one that happened to get archived in color? Or were they testing the technology here? Eitherway, the match wasn't much special. Some gnarly heel beatdowns and technico control segments, but nothing you haven't seen in better tags. Warnia and Mr. Montreal seemed somewhat subdued. Bollet and Delaporte still made for a decent heel tandom, at least. The last 2 falls were microscopic and I had to wonder if the match would've been better in more evenly spread out form.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Mantopolous! Delaporte! Plantin! Louis!

Eddy Williams vs Robert Duranton 3/23/68 

MD: We miss the first 18 or so but get the last four of this and Duranton has definitely further honed his act. He was way over the top with his mannerisms, little pats and waves to the crowd, taking a shot at Williams' nose, and some fun interactions with the ref, including positioning him around the ring and hiding behind him. He was nasty and hard hitting despite that. Williams looked as good as usual here, including a cool inner nelson chicken wing hold and some great dropkicks in the post match (one crushing the valet and the crowd hates no one more than the valet). This took a turn when the valet got in a bunch of kidney shots as Duranton was distracting the ref and Duranton was able to hone in from there only to lose his cool when Williams wouldn't stay down and get dqed on his third public warning. The post match had Williams fire back only to eat some nasty cheapshots and a huge slam.


Vasilios Mantopolous vs Roger Delaporte 3/23/68

MD: I was looking forward to this one. You get the sense that Delaporte, who was a promoter after all, relished getting to have this match against a smaller but unique and very over and skilled opponent. He only took about half of it, despite the size advantage, got to do all of his huge facial muggings as Mantopolous was taking him over and twisting him up, and got to play into all of his fun trick bait spots. Meanwhile, he still got to beat him around the ring and keep control of such a skilled wrestler with his underhanded tactics and size advantage. He got to play off the ref and even trick Mantopolous into getting a public warning by keeping the ref in the corner and moving at the last second so Mantopolous dropkicked him (and he was elated by that result). He got tied up in the ropes a couple of times and did a really great job of eating a bunch of rapid fire dropkicks as he was getting up. As the match went on and the public warnings accumulated for both wrestlers, they were more than happy to keep abusing the ref. The chaos kept building until they ended up slugging it out on the floor and the ref just had enough. Pretty satisfying meeting of sizes and styles and personalities.

SR: 1 fall match going about 25 minutes. It feels like a while since we've seen Delaporte. He's greyed out now, but other than that pretty much the same old Roger. This was a basic face/heel match between two guys who just have amazing looking everything. Mantopolous just makes all his tricks look awesome and Delaporte has really good mannerisms falling for said tricks as well as some nasty kicks and punches. Just the way Delaporte flails about hen Mantopolous puts pressure on his wrist is an artform. Like with previous Mantopoulus matches we've seen he dominated most of the match although Delaporte did get to beat the shit out of him here and there. It feels a bit like there was some clipping here or they were really bold announcing a 30 minute time when about 25 minutes in the video had passed. Regardless it was another stupidly entertaining Delaporte singles against a very game opponent.

Bob Plantin vs Francis Louis 4/6/68

MD: At some point it becomes a little hard to talk about these stylist vs stylist matches, even one like this between two smaller guys. This was the usual excellent stuff. There were moments where they messed up a hold early but they were quick to recover naturally. There was a little bit of weird ref attitude towards Plantin which may pay off later down the road but it wasn't a huge part of the match. When they turned up the juice, they could really go with quick near-falls and headscissors takeovers all over the place. There was a nice extended short arm scissors, but also leg nelsons and full nelsons and plenty of other holds. Plantin had a nice neckbreaker. The last few minutes had them really getting chippy with some nasty shots as they worked towards the draw. We've seen tons of matches like this now but I'm always happy to see another.

SR:1 fall match going 30 minutes. This was largely a clean match. They wrestle it out for 20 straight minutes without throwing a forearm. The wrestling was as silky smooth and athletic as you've come to expect from two French technicians. It might as well function as a sample for the style. Plantin drew some ire from the crowd after he cranked up the viciousness when Louis dropped him with some nasty neckbreakers. Other than that the match stayed fair. Pretty beautiful stuff really.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Zapata! Castillo! Aubriot! Bayle! Bollet! Delaporte! de Zarzecki! Wiecz!

Pancho Zapata/Vicente Castillo vs. Dan Aubriot/Remy Bayle 11/28/65

PAS: Zapata is Joaquim LaBarba and Castillo is Quasimodo and that is a killer pair of grotesqueries. Twin Igors clawing at faces and slamming skulls into the mat. It is a great act, although this match needed more dynamic babyfaces to really justify it's run time. Zapata seemed to slow down his nutty bumping under this gimmick, but still had great execution, as did Castillo who hit a killer rainmaker elbow along with his stalking and looking creepy. I liked Bayle targeting the growth on the back of Castillo's head. This was good overall, but more a cool look at a pair of creeps then anything that will stand out.  

MD: What a heel side here, the unholy unification between La Barba (as Pancho Zapata) and Quasimodo (Vincente Castilla here). These are, by far, two of the most interesting bad guys in all of the footage, with La Barba able to turn on a dime from being an arch stooge to the most vicious guy in the world and Castilla absolutely fascinating in the way he moves, the way he reacts, his varied and imaginative offense, how he portrays power. Here, when they were in control, they were just a cycling wave of brutality, trading off on holds and controlling the ring. Aubriot and Bayle were spirited in their comebacks. While Aubriot had the cartwheels and more rope running, I thought Bayle looked best out of the two; his stuff was just sharper and his shots were chippier. This didn't feel quite as focused and structured as some of the tags we've seen lately, but that played well into the chaotic nature of Castilla and Zapata. Towards the end, you knew it wasn't going to end clean; I figured i t was heading towards a DQ but instead, Bayle got one last comeback only to get back body dropped over the rope as his own momentum was used against him, rendering him unable to continue. I think this is it in the footage for La Barba and Quasimodo and what an absolute shame that is.

Andre Bollet/Roger Delaporte vs. Warnia de Zarzecki/Eddie Wiecz 1/9/65

MD: The fans absolutely loved this one, and it felt heated at times, but always had sort of a party feel to it that maybe meant that it didn't have the weight you'd hope it would, especially because, for once, Delaporte and Bollet got what was coming to them. I just can't get over how canny Wiecz is here. Sometimes I think I'm reading too much into it, but there are a dozen little things. Whenever someone's getting beaten on here, it's usually Zarzecki. Zarzecki eats the first fall. Wiecz is the one rushing across the ring and allowing for the distractions. He's the one who gets to take the hot tag and clean house with big shots and dropkicks. During a key celebratory moment towards the end, he hits his back flip off the top but then runs over to get Zarzecki's guy too and sort of takes his moment, that should have been equal. Delaporte and Bollet begged off from him far more than from Zarzecki and it's not like Zarzecki was some rookie or slouch. The fans don't care because they love it but watching back, it's impossible to miss. Anyway, this was an arch Bollet and Delaporte performance, as funny as ever, maybe not quite as mean, though when they were stomping and taking liberties, they were as good as anyone. There seemed to be more girls in the crowd than usual and they were horrified by Bollet and Delaporte's middle-aged transgressions and excited for Zarzecki and Wiecz and that added to the feel. This wasn't the most balanced (wrestling and comebacks and cheating and bullshit and comedy) match we've seen, but it was very fun.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Bollet! Rouxel! Delaporte! Wiecz! de Zarzecki! Mr. Montreal!

Andre Bollet/Jack Rouxel vs.  Eddy Wiecz/Warnia de Zarzecki 11/14/65

MD: Another week, another show, another really good tag. Here Rouxel was positioned as Bollet's understudy (I think they said Delaporte was off fishing). We'd seen him even four years earlier, but whatever; it worked. He was a snippy goon who would make mistakes or get let down by Bollet and come back mean. While the last fall ended up a bit nebulous, there was a fairly clear shine/heat/comeback structure for a good chunk of this, with more of a southern tag feel than usual as Wiecz kept drawing the ref away in frustration to allow for the double-team. I've said it before, but he was a guy who really got how to get over. There was a moment where he'd been beat on for a bit and Zarzecki finally got in and tossed Rouxel out. Weicz went right after him to the floor and got revenge and then whacked Bollet when he came out for good measure. The finish of the last fall was really him just blocking a punch and firing back bit. He was endlessly flashy with the cartwheels and backflips, but also more inclined to take advantage with a cheapshot out of the corner or rushing across the ring to whack his opponent on the apron. Zarzecki was a good partner for him and Rouxel a good punching bag. Bollet was as over the top as ever and endlessly entertaining. The last fall was celebratory and lacking drama, like an old lucha match where the tercera was about the tecnicos clowning the rudos, but there was enough heat in the middle to make up for it.

PAS: I was really into Rouxel, he has such a hateable face, sneering puckered lips, you just want to see him get pounded and he really gets his comeuppance in the third fall. Wiecz (Carpentier) is the biggest legend (outside of Andre) we have in this footage and you can see why he was such a world wide draw. While he was known as a huge highspot guy in the US, he is hardly the flashy worker in France. But he has great timing, really knows how to make his flips and dropkicks mean something, and knows when to just let his hands go. He reminds me of Carlos Colon without the leaking. Bollet seems like his legendary opponent, and is such a brutal buffoon that you want to see him get his just desserts, and he goes big flying and stooging when it happens. Matt is right about the third fall lacking a bit of escalation but the entire ride was super enjoyable. 

Roger Delaporte/Andre Bollet vs. Warnia de Zarzecki/Mr. Montreal 12/12/65

MD: Last week had our last Cesca and Ben Chemoul tag and they felt like one of the best teams ever. We have a couple more with Delaporte and Bollet, including this match-up once more a few years later, and it's not exactly a tough statement to say they're one too. In 65, they were just off filming Left Handed Johnny West (or maybe the release of the movie) and they felt like stars. Bollet was as irritating as possible in every moment, a proto Buddy Rose who could go and stooge and hammer and jaw with the crowd. Delaporte moved more gingerly than any wrestler ever, like when Regal looked like he swallowed something vile, but turned up to 11. Here he seemed a little older, somehow even more toiled in his movements. As they aged, they came off like the world's most violent Statler and Waldorf. Zarzecki is a completely competent stylist and Montreal is one of the best surprises of the footage, relative to expectations. You have every reason to expect an empty musclehead but he's great just slugging it out and has a natural babyface charisma. We watch enough of these tags over the years and you can see tropes and tools develop. In late 65, we're seeing much more in the way of babyfaces trying to run and and the ref getting distracted by them than a few years earlier. When they're on top, Delaporte and Bollet control the ring well and they get real heat, even if there's always a patina of fun and the fans almost being in on the joke with them here as opposed to years earlier. The comeback in the second fall is downright celebratory, just a constant buzz and pop for one moment of comeuppance after another. And then, on a dime, the bastards can turn it right back on, with Bollet crushing Montreal at the end with a harsh slam into the corner and one of the first actual power slams we've seen.

PAS: Another really fun tag, with Montreal being the focus of the babyface team, and the killer heel squad of Bollet and Delaporte back on their bullshit. Delaporte and Bollet are like clownish hotel owners in a Tom and Jerry cartoon, you expect Delaporte to accidentally eat a hot pepper and have steam come out of his ears. As comedic as the heels were, they could switch and kick some ass too. There were some pretty nasty beatings laid on Montreal and the finishing powerslam was brutal stuff. The quality of these weekly tags is just off the charts. 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Fake Pat! Vachon ! Togo! Delaporte! Bollet! Valois! Wiecz! Universe!

Pat O‘Connor vs. Paul Vachon 5/23/65

MD: We get a solid 15 minutes of this, enough to learn a thing or two. It's Paul Vachon vs the fake Pat O'Connor. I'm even more sure now that they tried to pull the wool over the crowd that he was the real Pat O'Connor. The commentating calls him a former world champion and while they throw out titles all the time, it just fits here. As before, he's a charismatic pot bellied folk hero styled babyface, working for the crowd with big shots. Vachon's interesting, billed as a lumberjack, but more savvy than wild, apt to hiding in the ropes to get an advantage. I'm pretty certain this is the first time I've seen (chronologically) a heel play "hide the object" in the footage, this time being a string attached to his ring gear apparently that he used to work over the wrist and choke. I wouldn't say the holds here were super compelling but they did work them and struggle in a grinding heavyweight sort of manner. If you're looking for trends, I think we're seeing more whips into the corner in the mid-60s than we have in previous years too. What got the biggest pop was O'Connor tossing him around by his beard, including out of the ring, which was your finish.

SR: JIP. We get about 12 minutes. It‘s Paul Vachon, baby. This was largely two big burly men beating on each other and perfectly solid. I especially liked when Not Pat O‘Connor popped him in the mouth. Big burly Paul Vachon flies over the 3rd rope for the finish.

Tosh Togo vs. Roger Delaporte 5/23/65

SR:1 fall match going under 20 minutes. Harold Sakata enjoyed a nice popularity surge thanks to his appearance in Goldfinger. His popularity was so great that there was even a minor scandal in Germany at the time, as Togo was wrestling as Oddjob, and another promoter had a fake Oddjob main event his own event the same night. This match was mostly Togo being the aggressor in typical carny Japanese fashion with nerve holds, toe kicks and chops. It was nice to see Delaporte in the role of a noble guy taking a beating and in turn kicking the shit out of his opponent. The match felt like two guys who were absolutely not familiar with each other just doing the most simple stuff and really wasn‘t all that great outside of the novelty of seeing Mr. Oddjob. At least we got Bollet having a go at Oddjob after the match.

MD: When the crowd's chanting "Roger" ten minutes into a Delaporte match, you know that they either did something very right or something very wrong. Here it was right. Togo is, of course, Harold Sakata, and he comes out with the full Oddjob gear and the commentary talking about Goldfinger. I think Delaporte booked himself against anyone even vaguely interesting who came through Paris whether it made sense or not. You can't really blame him too much. Here, Togo ambushed Delaporte right from the get go and didn't look back, throwing kicks, chops, and choking on the ropes. Roger's usual tactics of cowering and hiding in the corner didn't work at all, because Togo just didn't care about the rules. He couldn't pick off a leg or get in a cheapshot because Togo was simply relentless. Finally, however, he made it out of the ring, got a breather, and started to fire back. He trapped Togo's leg in the ropes and hammered and pulled at it and the fans loved it. They'd rather their villain tha n this savage interloper dressed in false finery. It was fairly back and forth from there, with big shots and big brawling (and one chinlock, which still got a huge ovation for Delaporte and another chant when he got out of it and started hammering again) until Togo hit a KO shot to end it. Post-match, Bollet saved his partner, and Togo threatened to throw his at at him, so good stuff all around. Nothing fancy here and barely a hold past some stomach claws and that chinlock, but it was fairly rollicking stuff with a foreign attraction and de facto babyface Delaporte getting honest sympathy even without doing anything to change up his act.


Andre Bollet/Frank Valois vs. Eddie Wiecz/Mr. Universe 6/6/65 pt 1, pt 2

MD Weicz/Carpentier is pretty interesting to watch. He absolutely has star power. He has this great way of organically working his athleticism (the flips and cartwheels) into what he's doing. He works these big set pieces into his matches, like fighting out of the corner and backflipping off the ropes, or the four man submission here that worked the ref in as well, but a lot of what he does seems to serve himself as much as the match, especially relative to other guys we've seen. If I'm in this crowd the images that will stick with me would be those big set pieces would be the heels cheating against the far more muscular Mr. Universe and Weicz constantly trying to get justice by getting in, and the end, where he does a great skin the cat headscissors while his partner is getting pinned. He was definitely a guy who knew how to get over. Universe had some charisma, a good look, and some big shots where he put his whole body into it, but at times you got the sense he had no idea what he was doing, too. Valois was a very good partner for Bollet and they stooged and cheated well. This had the most "ref distraction," we've seen so far and the balance between the babyface comebacks and the heels retaking the advantage by double teaming worked out pretty well. Universe wasn't great but given the nature of the match, he didn't have to do a ton but take offense and be a key player during some of the big set pieces either.

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 30 minutes. Valois looks like a bigger, fatter, more bald version of Bollet. This was fun when it was just lumpy gentlemen beating on each other. Both Bollet and Valois had some amazing bumps, and Valois threw these cool punches to guys ears. That said this was really long and had too much of guys running in and out of the ring disrupting the action with no real structure. The fans had a blast, though.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Apollon! Williams! Amor! Gueret!Bibi! Montreal!Delaporte! de Zarzecki!

Ray Apollon/Eddy Williams vs. Yves Amor/George Gueret, 3/28/65

SR: 2/3 falls match going a bit under 30 minutes. Hey look, it‘s Amor and Gueret. This had one of the stiffest openings in all the project as Amor (looking shaved and quite flabby compared to his 50s appearance) and Gueret just barraged poor Williams with stiff kicks, gut shots and uppercuts while cutting off the ring. It was one of the coldest beatings we‘ve seen so far and it succeeded it creating some hype for the match as Ray Apollon didn‘t even get to tag in during the 1st fall. It settled down a bit, but all 4 of these gentlemen kept forearming and headbutting each other with serious intensity. Ray Apollon was apparently a pretty big star, a big weightlifter who looked like he was made of stone, and whenever he came in he acted nigh invincible. Williams acted as his junior partner, taking beatings and busting out the flip sentons. There was one really intense bit where Yves and Gueret drove Apollon to the corner and he was making a go at one guy while the other literally tried strangling him with the tag rope. I didn‘t mind Apollon acting so tough, and I dug his bearhug and arm work. This went a little long (some parts where guys seemed to be just latching on to leg locks to buy some time) but for heavyweight slugfest it was wholly satisfying.

PAS: This was pretty sparse stuff, but it was really hard hitting and violent. Williams is the older brother of Stampede Legend Champaign Jerry Morrow and really takes a beating in the opening fall. It was a very lucha structure, with the rudos taking every bit of the offense and Apollon never even getting to tag in. When he finally does, he throws some big shots and it is pretty much a stand and trade fest. Amor is such a unique looking guy, like a fatter shorter Giant Baba, and he slings it. It doesn't really dip and surge, just kind of worked at a single pace, but it was a fun pace.

MD: It's always good to see Amor and Gueret again. Gueret had shaved his beard which is a shame. Their act had evolved a bit with the team and they leaned even more into the ref distractions, illegal double teams, and cutting off the ring. Amor's striking seemed better than I remembered. I liked Williams a lot here. He was able to do some slick stuff while working well from underneath. It's good too because he was in there for 80% of the match. Apollon, who was past 40 at this point, came off as more of an attraction: an immobile tank with big hammering shots and headbutts. He never stayed in for long. The first fall ended with Williams getting some hope but ultimately cut off due to a cheap shot. The second had a fairly big comeback that culminated in a revenge double team with Apollon holding Amor from the apron as Williams charged in. Then some cutting off and Williams firing back and getting a slam. And then the third was primarily them trying to work over Apollon only for him to come back with a slam. There was a really hot tag to Apollon that they could have built to here and never did. This would have been a lot more effective if they had switched the second and third falls around. Apollon was obviously limited but could probably be channeled within a match to high effect given the right structure and opponent. We'll see him in another tag in 66 vs Lasartesse and I have no idea what that'll look like.

Cheri Bibi vs. Mr. Montreal 4/9/65

MD: We get the last ten minutes or so of this and it's very straightforward and pretty great. Montreal's a strength gimmick. Bibi's an absolute monster. After one King of the Mountain bit and a bump through the ropes by Bibi right towards the start of the footage, they basically just pound on each other for the rest of the time, Montreal with uppercuts, throws, and these deep, contested slams, and Bibi with upppercuts, headbutts, and these killer shots to the gut. The advantage shifts with Montreal charging in to fire away and Bibi going low. It maybe gets a little repetitive once you realize that they were working to the time limit, but it's such a clash of the titans (and one that we've yet to see despite being pretty familiar with both wrestlers by now) that you just sit back and enjoy it.

PAS: Can't help but love this. Two guys standing in front of each other throwing heat and refusing to bend to the wind. Felt like Wahoo vs. Johnny Valentine, which is about as big a compliment as I am going to give for a wrestling match. Loved how Bibi would mix in those nasty bodyshots with the uppercuts and forearms. This was the finish stretch of the match, and I would like to have seen how we got to this point, but I loved what we got. 

Roger Delaporte vs Warnia de Zarzecki, 4/9/65

SR: 1 fall match going about 25 minutes. Hey look, it‘s Warnia de Zarzecki. Haven‘t seen him in a while. And well based on this I‘d wish we‘d see him more. He was outstanding at looked like a wrestlers wrestler. This had the most grappling in any Delaporte singles in a while as they did some super smoth armdrags and headscissors type wrestling. Naturally though, the foul tactics come in, and soon you have de Zarzecki grabbing Delaporte by the  mustache. There were some really nice rope running sequences, including one where Warnia took Delaporte down with a top wristlock which was super simple but executed beautifully. De Zarzecki softens up Delaportes arm a bit and Delaporte threw some cool punch combos in the corner as a response. I was a bit underwhelmed with the finish was I felt like these two had another two falls in them. Really really fun match, though.

MD: I said the Frisuk match was the single Delaporte one to watch but maybe it's this one instead. There are funnier ones. There are ones with higher highs. There are ones with greater heat. If you want to know who this guy was in the ring though, this is a great example of it. In the back third of the match, Delaporte spends about five minutes cringing in the corner and getting his arm whacked only to show it was a ruse all along and get big heat for jumping about and waving his arm around after he took back over. Post match, he tries to boast about his win and gets absolutely clobbered by Zarzecki. At one point, he's tied up in the ropes and Zarzecki's charging in. The ref gets in the way and ends up part of the charge, so Delaporte, after the fact, while still stuck in the ropes, kicks the ref for good measure. That's Delaporte: craven, cringing, cowardly, dangerous, hard-hitting, cruel, spry. I see the criticism being that you have to be in the mood for him, but I'm always in the mood for this. At times, he's an excellent wrestler too though. I really liked the early armbar work here, where Delaporte kept control but where it also kept escalating through escape attempts and cut offs and moving in and out, with the two of them finally moving to big shots. Some of the slugging was just excellent too, especially the little bit on the floor. For a wrestler who was no physical marvel and that was very much the same thing in all of his matches, Delaporte, maybe due to the rigors and difficulty of the style, came off as an extremely complete wrestler.

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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: Carpentier! Duranton! Frisuk! Delaporte!

Edouard Carpentier vs. Robert Duranton 3/24/62

MD: First and foremost, let's put the flippy guy aside for a minute. This was an amazing Duranton performance. That's what I want to lead with. He based so well for everything Carpentier did. He was incredibly giving, especially for a guy so featured in the footage and who was used to controlling a lot of the tag matches we've seen him in. He spends basically the entire match stooging for Carpentier, never able to hold him down for long, getting out of his holds only to end up right back in them, and selling more and more frustration, whipping his hair up in a frenzy and charging at him only to get clowned again and again. The more upset he gets the more fury he shows, the bigger and more definitive his comeuppance. It's a Carpentier showcase and Duranton makes it work and makes it matter. That said, Carpentier does bring something unique to the table. He's unquestionably agile, able to hit handstands, handsprings, and cartwheels cleanly and organically for both big, dramatic escapes, and to shock Duranton (who sold the surprise of them perfectly), able to slug it out with fire, and with some big painful bombs like the flipping sentons and double stomp. He clearly knew how to look like a force and look like a star. So long as he had someone to work with him, like Duranton did here, there's no question that he was an immediate headliner.

SR: 1 fall match going about 25 minutes. Carpentier hasn‘t shown up on TV in 6 years. He hadn‘t lost a beat, though. This was outstanding and the best French match in a while. Going in I was wondering if Carpentier would be just another French face with some athletic moves and a hard European uppercut, but he was far more than that. He was tagging Duranton with punches from the get-go while mixing in some really graceful athletic moves. The match structure also seemed improved, as this had one of the best openings of all matches as they immediately turned up the heat. I wonder if they were very influenced by US wrestling at this point, with the punches being a focus. Carpentier really seemed on an athletic level here that even most modern wrestlers can‘t dream of. He was cartwheeling around while making it all look effortless, and everything made sense. All the side headlock control stuff was neat and flew by, and there was other cool stuff happening like Carpentier catching a Duranton strike into a seamless flying armdrag. Duranton had probably his best showing so far as he was thoroughly flamboyant and cocky and also really vicious working over Carpentier. By the end Carpentier was destroying Duranton with punch combos, big back breaking flip sentons and super vicious double stomps. I also swear he lifted him up purely by the neck for a sick looking body slam. Finish felt like a Super Dragon moment. This was a great TV bout.

PAS: Hell of a Carpentier showcase, with a very giving opponent. Carpentier would alternate striking athletic flips and counters, with sick looking jabs, hooks and body shots. Carpentier is a big guy for this footage which makes his agility even more striking. Duranton was back footed for this entire match, with Carpentier escaping every trap, and meeting every shot with a bigger nastier receipt. He based well for all of the takedowns, was great at harrumphing and getting more and more aggravated. He also takes a huge beating at the end of the match, Carpentier was fucking his back up with those flipping sentons, he gets a lot of credit for how world beating Carpentier ended up looking.

Jean Frisuk vs. Roger Delaporte 5/3/62

MD: If you ever wanted one match to really understand Roger Delaporte as a singles wrestler, here it is. Bollet may have higher highs but Delaporte is endlessly consistent, a craven, whinging, bullying, dangerous, opportunist villain, insincere in all the best ways. He'll take advantage of every moment of distraction, will shamelessly beg off to buy himself time or to pray forgiveness from the referee for any of his endless transgressions, including quite frequently pushing him out of the way so he can lay in another blow. He's one of the great bad guys of 20th century wrestling and thanks to this footage, we get to lay claim to him in a way that people could only do so through their memories or the memories of their parents and grandparents. He mustache twirling (figuratively, despite having the mustache) belongs to us now and our lives are the richer for it.

Frisuk (Fryziuk if you want) is a game opponent. He's been a slugger in the tag matches we've seen him in and he came off as a total package here, albeit one that got a little too cutesy with some of his between the legs escapes. The fans popped for it but maybe it was something he should have been doing when he was a little younger. They had a lot of time to kill and worked holds with the usual escapes and escalation. You got variations on a theme because of the regularity of certain moves that you wouldn't see today: one example is the Mascaras twist, that sort of cross-footed headscissors takeover from the ground on a standing opponent. Because it was so commonplace, they developed heel counters where they grabbed on to the ropes, which always got heat. The very best of this match, however, was when one guy was bullying the other, which happened often, or when they were slugging at one another, which happened even more, and the very best of that was when they were brawling on the floor. This had a little bit of everything: violence, comedy, technique, though I imagine not quite enough wrestling for the true purists watching this, though it's a shame we lose a little bit at the end of the first fall. The only other things that mar it to me would be Frisuk's scampering antics (not necessary for a guy who's otherwise Ronnie Garvin-esque) and that the finish in the third fall needed to be just a little more creative. Otherwise, it's a great Delaporte showcase against a well-matched opponent.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going 40 minutes. Yes, yes, it‘s long, but this was another hit. Delaporte is fascinating. He isn‘t very athletic, he won‘t do anything fancy, but he is insanely charismatic, he will brutalize opponents and he somehow has enough of a gas tank to work a 40 minute brawl without slowing down. This is heated from the get to as both guys tag each other with punches before Frisuk gets Delaporte in a spinning toe hold (a move we‘ve seen end matches) with Delaporte frantically fighting him off. They continue at a crazy pace, alternating between working holds and reversals before beating the hell out of each other some more. You are watching and thinking how on earth can this keep but, but they keep up, and it builds to an even bigger second half with both guys taking spills into the crowd and brawling on the floor, some hard slams, ref getting thrown around and lots of great slugging in out. All while Delaporte had the whole crowd in his palm with his antics. Eventually Frisuk was just hammering his fist at Delaportes face in the corner. Frisuk looked solid, hitting hard and getting hit back, I did like him slamming Roger into the mat repeatedly while in an armlock, but this was the Delaporte show. His antics, his crazy selling, his general despicableness all while like your shady used car salesman uncle. Too bad about the ending of the 1st fall being missing, but we get everything else, and it‘s quite great if you like heated crowd pleasing slugfests.

PAS: I actually think this was the better of the two matches we got this week. You don't look at these two guys and think that you are going to get a 40+ minute cardio fest from them, but this really pushed pace for a long time. I thought the build in the first half was very cool with Delaporte and Frisuk working holds and Delaporte heat seeking, but that finish run was all timer stuff. Just an epic slugfest, with both guys getting knocked into the crowd, getting tossed over the top rope and just standing in the pocket and pounding on each other. The end of the match felt like a Thrilla in Manilla war of attrition, where neither man was ever going to be the same. I love when a wrestling match gets to that visceral violent level, and they got there.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Drapp! Delaporte! von Chenok! von Kramer! Calderon! Straub!

Andre Drapp vs. Roger Delaporte 9/22/60

SR:1 Fall match going 30 minutes. This was the first match in the collection I was underwhelmed with. Delaporte has been entertaining so far, but his methods came across as extremely basic in this. They were wrestling in front of a large, hot crowd, you’d think they’d deliver something special, but the work up to a certain point felt rudimentary. Drapp is clearly an awesome wrestler and I want him to grapple with the likes of Blue Panther, so seeing him going along with Delaportes by the numbers heel routine was a letdown. There were still some cool holds and pin attempts from Drapp and I liked all the parts where they started beating the shit out of each other. Even though Delaportes holds weren’t up to snuff here he still throws great stomps. To complete the match, they rang the bell about 3 minutes before the actual time limit just as both guys exchanged in a heated strike exchange. All that said, the crowd loved all of this, so I guess it’s just my miserable opinion.

MD: I'm higher than Sebastian on this one. To me this was just the classic, baseline French Catch stylist vs mechant match and while nothing totally wowed, it really highlighted the style and just how good everything can be even if they travel straight down the middle. If I had to show someone one match that shows off the exact center point of everything we've been watching, this might be it. It doesn't really go far in any one direction and never spends too long doing any one thing, but it keeps things moving and is constantly entertaining, heated, and spirited. The big spots aren't as big as in other matches. The slugfest towards the end isn't as mean or focused. It just hangs out in the middle but gives you a little bit of everything. Delaporte had some sort of trophy here. He also had put his mustache on the line, I think. After some early wrestling (where he shows a bit more along those lines than we usually see out of him), it turns into the usual antics. Delaporte gets clowned for a bit. He cheats and controls for a bit with brutal credible offense, getting the ire of the ref and the crowd. Drapp comes back with some harsh but justified revenge, and repeat. He's quick to snatch a leg and take every opportunity. His facial expressions are brilliant. His tantrums and antics are entertaining. His blows are just crushing. Despite all that, my favorite thing about Delaporte is that moment of tension on a break or when he's begging off, where you just don't know when he's going to make a move. It's palpable and builds throughout the match and while we've seen it in other wrestlers both in and out of this footage, he makes it work as much as anyone. This ended in a draw and the way he sold congenial relief over his mustache with Drapp (who wanted nothing to do with it) was almost as good as anything within the match itself.

PAS: Yeah I really enjoyed this too, Delaporte is clowning for a lot of this, but he is great at that, and is obviously going to take any shortcuts he can to save that stache. Drapp had a bunch of fun babyface mat spots, really working over Delaporte's arm, doing all kinds of cool shit around a body scissors, breaking out this awesome bear hug counter. He also at one point ties Delaporte up in the ropes and just tortures him tightening the ropes on his arms, kneeing him in the spine, it would have come off sadistic if Delaporte wasn't such a bumbling oafish heel, put different music on Home Alone and it is basically Saw. I liked Delaporte getting nasty at the end, he had some big hard shots including some punishing hooks to the body. Could have used a finish, but that is par for the course. This isn't elite, but man I think we are getting spoiled if this gets criticism, I can't imagine how high this would finish on a 2020 MOTY list, but I couldn't see it landing out of the top 15.

Karl von Chenok/Karl von Kramer vs. Gaby Calderon/Luc Straub 9/29/60

MD: This was sort of a perfect storm of being not so great. You had two nerve-hold wielding bald "Germans" vs the judo stylists. It went long ~40 minutes but we don't actually have the finish. The judo guys against better stooging heels could work. The nerve pinchers vs more fiery stylists could work. This was just an unfortunate combination. Nothing was done poorly. Nothing was blown. Everything felt competitive. The Germans more or less controlled the ring well. They were able to snap that nerve hold on consistently and from a lot of different angles. Everything was logical. Calderon had some good revenge shots and Straub had some ok flashier stuff. Von Kramer is really just an excellent pro wrestler when it comes to the fundamentals and timing. Even if I didn't love this match, I can't deny that. Von Chenok is a fine single-minded stooge. They worked a nice comedy heel clowning spot or two towards the end. It was just too much of what I rarely want to watch in the best circumstances, lacking in heat, lacking conclusion.

SR: I liked this more than Matt. A pair of carny martial artists terrorizing heels with judo throws and nerve pinches is a fun change of pace, and the fake Germans are an excellent heel tandem. Calderon even busts out a proto-flying armbar. Von Chenok was solid here using his nerve holds to set up elbowing people in the backs of their heads and there was some nasty throat work. Karl von Kramer  always looks like a great, tricked out wrestler and it’s a pity another match of his ended without a finish. Really looking forward to checking out more von Kramer.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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


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

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



Antonio Montoro vs. Pierre Bernaert 2/12/60

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

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

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

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Corne! Le Boulch! Delaporte! Villars! Amor! Gueret!

 Jean Corne vs. Robert Le Boulch 9/3/59

SR: 1 Fall match going about 16 minutes. Robert Le Boulch is short, has a massive skull and is balding, and he has a funny little mustache. He decided to cheap shot Corne some, and Corne outwrestled him easily, then Robert threw some more cheapshots, and Corne unleashed a full blown retaliation that had Robert Le Boulch flying all over the place. Le Boulch was a bump machine and a fun enough discovery to carry this short match in which Jean Corne showed even less character than usual.

MD: To make sure everyone's clear on this, Corne is not Corn, though he was already middleweight champ and is announced at 22 years old. I don't think he was quite as smooth as many others we've seen so far (Corn included) especially when it came to his timing, but we have a lot of him so we'll see him come into himself later. There were some rope-running bits that seemed weird, and he didn't stay down quite long enough to draw excitement for his comebacks. At one point, le Boulch put his head down and Corne dropkicked him head on and that didn't quite seem right. Despite Le Boulch getting plenty of heat, there weren't big pops for the head twists, for instance, which was out of the norm since the French crowd loved those. I thought Le Boulch was great. He's another in the line of those Jackie Gleason looking put upon, stooging heels. He was congenial enough in the beginning, pulling hair but offering handshakes, as if it was just a job, you know? When Corne started to get fiery, he started to get mean back. He had a lot of fun stuff, like tying Corne's shoelaces to the ropes and yanking on the other leg, of having a sequence where he missed a few dropkicks in a row. Probably the most memorable bit here was Corn dropkicking him into the ropes and following it up with a monkey flip repeatedly. It wasn't that the crowd disliked Corne, but the story of this one was le Boulch, his performance, and how he got under their skin by the end.

Roger Delaporte/Paul Villars vs. Yves Amor/Georges Gueret 9/5/59

SR:2/3 falls match going about 35 minutes. You look at this match up and you know exactly what you are getting. 4 guys who have no problem being bastards and trading massive beatings, doing just that. That being said, this had a pretty clever layout. Most of these matches start like a house of fire but kind of fail to build to an epic conclusion. Here they start slow with some fun wrestling and build really well to all hell breaking lose. We‘ve seen Amor & Gueret as heels before, but they work this pretty much as straight faces. All their shots come as retaliations to heel tactics from the mustached superduo of Delaporte/Villar. They won‘t do anything athletic, but they sure knew their way around the holds. There is a fun structure with the 1st fall ending early and much of the 2nd fall being spent working face in peril sections before Gueret and Amor are able to stage their comeback. Gueret once again looks pretty great here, he is great as a tough bad guy beating the shit out of good guys, and he is great as a tough good guy beating the shit out of bad guys, and the same goes for Amor really. The 3rd fall is pretty intense with some really great Mantell/Lawler feeling exchanges, including Amor and Delaporte beating the shit out of each other on the floor with the police having to get involved, and of course these guys were hitting each other so hard they make pretty much everyone in the world right now look like pussies. Delaporte deciding to take out Amors leg was another instance of his sudden brutal assaults that he has a real knack for. Another entry in the stream of great French tags.

MD: Another high quality 50s Delaporte tag. We've seen Gueret and Amor before, but they were both heels then. I thought they brought a lot in this role. Amor was relatively giant, but able to get down and wrestle. He had a lot of presence in general. Gueret had a tough, rugged look and for the most part, he backed it up. Villars was, as always, the perfect, resonant goon for Delaporte, and Delaporte, is basically the Satanico of France, if Satanico was 10% more a coward and a stooge. Rudo numero uno, basically, able to direct traffic, to beg off and prevaricate only to come back in with an earnest, merciless brutality. This one sung the loudest when they were dismantling Amor's leg, which was both well executed and made perfect story sense. Though it led to a transition as Gueret was able to convince he ref he tagged as he was breaking it up, the tandem STF was a thing of vicious beauty. Amor's selling was excellent and lingered on to the finish where he re-damaged his leg during the great brawling on the floor. Delaporte and friends walked the balance between conniving and opportunistic and outright dangerous exactly as a lead heel carrying a territory should.

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