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: Wiecz! de Zarzecki! Saturski! Wentzel! Bibi! Cesca!

Eddie Wiecz/Warnia de Zarzecki vs Rudi Saturski/Harry Wentzel 8/29/66

MD: The idea that Carpentier isn't fascinating to watch in 60s France is just insane to me. There's no one we've seen in this footage, including guys who were both owners and incredibly protected on finishes like Delaporte, who knew how to get over and how to stay over. It's like watching Dusty Rhodes or Ultimo Guerrero or Triple H. Our pal OJ said that he wouldn't be surprised if tag matches like these didn't contribute to the decline of popularity of French Catch mainly because of the gaga, but I think that notion is sort of nuts too, as we're watching this stuff week in and week out and the gaga is entertaining and the fans are completely into it. I refuse to believe that 1960s French audiences didn't like to be entertained and were frustrated that they weren't getting seven-minute hammerlock exchanges instead (even if those seven-minute hammerlock exchanges tend to be awesome too). There was enough heat and substance here to make it all feel balanced. I'd be willing to entertain a notion that Wiecz being so dominant might have turned off audiences over time, but at this point, he's so athletic, creative, and flashy about it that it just seems doubtful too. If you're going to eat guys up and win every strike exchange, punctuating things with headstand and flip sentons or the corner punch backflip seems the way to do it. There really is a sense that in manipulating the crowd and ensuring he gets so many of the big memorable moments that everyone would be talking about on their way home, he was playing chess and everyone else was playing checkers, though.

Anyway, this was definitely enjoyable. Saturski and Wentzel are Germans and I think what other footage exists of them is from Chicago where they were babyfaces as the Bavarian Boys. Saturski was an amazing stooge who started with square Ronnie Garvin hair that got more and more disheveled as he got more and more out of sorts as the match went on. I loved their control section, which raised stakes in a way you don't always see in these matches, as it centered around a kneeling neckbreaker submission that they kept switching off on, which finally lead to a flip over and the big transition of the match. Lots of fun celebratory and comedic spots with the heels stooging and the ref getting involved before and after the neckbreaker stretches. They did the double leglock/run over your opponents spot which was the highlight of the Corne/Brown tag from a week or two ago, and it's always fun to see a new spot repeated a couple of matches later. That validates the chronological approach we're taking. Here, Weicz milked it even more with double stomps as well. The finish was basically all Weicz as he out punched, out slicked, and ultimately hit a barrage of his flipping and headstand sentons before a tricked out bridge for the win.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going about 33 minutes. Amazingly enough, this is not the only footage we have of the Germans. There is also a US tag of them from 1963. They were working as heels in this though. It‘s their only French TV appearance we have right now, but apparently they did some pretty despicable things because the crowd was really hot for them getting the shit kicked out of them. We have lots of footage of workers pretending to be German, so seeing some actual Germans from this time period is a welcome change. This was a stooge-a-ton from the Germans, pretty much them going for shenanigans right out the gate and then just flying all over the ring for 30 minutes. Very reminiscent of the tags we‘ve seen from Germany and Austria with the comedic undertones and comical amounts of referee abusing. I imagine they ran this match with the roles reversed back in the German tournaments. Saturski & Wenzel briefly cranked up the intensity when they started using a nasty hanging neck crank on the faces. That was one of like 3 or 4 bits of offense they got in and they used it as well as they could. Carpentier is just flashy enough to be really fun in this kind match and there were some great receipt spots including one of the Polish guys using the Germans as a trampoline. Not a lot of depth but extremely entertaining and gives you a good idea of the atmosphere for these kind of crowd pleasing affairs.

Cheri Bibi vs. Gilbert Cesca 9/2/66

MD: This one was out there before but I don't think we ever covered it on the blog. Ten years of footage in, if there's any wrestler we're familiar with, it's got to be Cheri Bibi. You know how it's going to go with him. He'll start out congenial and jolly, as jolly as he gets at least, with handshakes and clean breaks and pats on the shoulder. He'll show some fine wrestling, maybe even with a float over to escape a hold (not here though), and some good counters leveraging his strength in a fair way to keep his opponent down. Then he'll get outwrestled one too many times and it'll flip like a switch and the battering and mauling will begin. He'll come in with high, low, high combos and headbutts and inside moves, chokes and rabbit punches and shots in the ropes and knees in the corner, and it'll escalate until the stylist is able to fire back. It was like clockwork here, with the biggest wrinkles being Cesca's creativity in his comeback and containment (spin kicks, pressing his feet off the ropes for a headlock takedown, bounding up to the ropes for a missile dropkick, turning Bibi around with a hammerlock to toss him into the corner) and the use of the large, former wrestler Mr. Marshall as a comedically countering force and oversized prop for comedy spots. There was a real sense that it was Cesca's cleverness and speed that let him get anything on Bibi at all, and even to damage the tank as the match went on. It'd take Bibi one grab of a leg or one cheapshot out of a break to take back over, very little in the grand scheme of things, and Cesca had to do a half dozen things to bruise him, but he didn't quit and he used every moment of advantage he could, and Marshall facing off against Bibi gave him a couple of extra. Bibi, as always, portrayed his small but deep range of emotion well, appealing to the crowd after a particularly nasty (but successful) shot and getting more and more frustrated and blatant as Cesca refused to stay down for a pin until he went too far and was DQed. Cesca wasn't satisfied by that and there was rousing post match violence where Cesca used a towel as an equalizer and then was swiping in every direction as he wanted blood on the floor. This was as straightforward as could be structurally but Bibi is a unique figure in pro wrestling history and Cesca was creative and fiery enough to make his consistency interesting.

SR: 1 fall match going about 25 minutes. This was an interesting pairing. Skill vs. brute force. Bibi played nice initially, allowing Cesca to show off his wrestling a bit, but this quickly turned into an absolute slugfest. Cesca did a fair amount of technical stuff, but also wasn't afraid to hit back hard, even punching Bibi in the face and busting out savate kicks. It was basically his way of bringing the heat without his partner Ben Chemoul doing it for him, and he looked pretty great doing it. Dug his punch combos in the corner. The match needed a bit more structure but the slugging it out was quite great. Bibi escalated things when he bitch slapped Cesca in the corner and then started throwing him over the top rope. It seemed to set up a dramatic finish but then Bibi got DQd. Cesca beat Bibis ass after the match, even choking him with a towel, and I wonder if this lead to a no holds barred match or something. Some great slugging in this match, anyways.

PAS: This was a fun style clash with Cesca working a Bibi match more than Bibi trying to hang with Cesca. I am into a fist fight and that is really what this was. Love Bibi getting shown up a bit at the beginning by Cesca's flash and just cutting him off with a barfight headbutt. Cesca to his credit is perfectly willing to wallow in Bib'i's mud, and gives as good as he gets with stiff shots. It did feel like a TV bout setting up a bigger arena match, as nothing was settled and you needed to see them run it back. 

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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: 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: Robin! Rene Ben! Cesca! Saulnier! Marconville!

Guy Robin vs Al Araujo 11/27/59

MD: This show was out there but I don't think we've covered it. It's our last look at a personal favorite of this footage in Guy Robin. He didn't disappoint. Robin's constant motion in his matches, one of the most hyper wrestlers I can think of. He's always sneaking a shot in (especially a kneedrop to the throat), always arguing with the ref or the crowd, always stooging back. Pure entertainment, this guy. Araujo, who we've only seen briefly and won't see again, had this great rolling leg pick takedown, a really fun seesaw leverage submission that's hard to explain and which he turned into a catapult late in the match, and a cavernaria. He was working from underneath for a lot of this though. I'm glad that my last image of Robin is going to be him missing a knee drop off the rope and getting DQed for having a violent hissy fit over it as people throw trash at him. That's probably how he'd want to go out.

Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Gilbert Cesca 11/27/59

MD: This was out before, but no one who had watched it previously could compare it to the Arroyo vs Chaisne match from a week prior, and that is 100% the natural point of comparison. Both are stylist vs stylist. Both go about 30 minutes. The match from the week before was more clever in its spots and escalated to something that was harder hitting, but this one might have had a bit more energy and verve at times, with a few more spectacular spots and dives. Both Cesca and Ben Chemoul wiped out big at times. Ben Chemoul went sailing through the ropes to nowhere to start the last third of the match. Before that, they worked long hold sequences with frequent escape attempts (including an absolutely beautiful flying entrance into a short arm scissors from a top wristlock that I had to go back and watch three times). After that, the match really took off with some great back focus by Cesca and subsequent revenge by Ben Chemoul. The end sequence, likewise, had Cesca totally wipe out and clothesline himself on the bottom rope. Post match, Ben Chemoul talked up Cesca and the fans were very appreciative of what they just saw.

PAS: Man was this great. This wasn't at the level of Cesca vs. Cantanzarro, but it was in the neighborhood. I imagine if this was the first French singles to show up, it would have achieved a similar level of acclaim. Some of the counters and twists and turns were as cool here as anything we have seen. Cesca had some really nastiness to his attack, grinding the spine with his knuckles in a way which felt a little past the congenial level of the rest of the match. This also had two of the crazier bumps in all of the footage. Chemoul takes a bump to the floor which was functionally a tope to nowhere, and Cesca massacres himself on the bottom rope before getting pinned. These guys show up later as a cool tag team, but it is awesome we get to see them matched up in a top flight singles match. 

Cheri Bibi/Pierre Bernaert vs. Warnia de Zarzecki/Ami Sola 12/11/59

MD: We get about 11 minutes that constitutes the last fall of this match. It gives us a concise unit with a lot of action up front as de Zarzecki and Sola make quick tags and beat on the heels. Best spot in this was Bibi shrugging off a Sola dropkick only to miss a charge and go diving through the ropes and eat a bunch of dropkicks (with Bernaert eating them as well) after he made it back in. I like Bibi more in these last few appearances than in the early ones. I don't know if he's gotten better of I've just gotten more used to him. He's just a bruiser and a goon, but he has a pretty good sense of when to give and when not to. At one point, Zarzecki tried to slip behind into a hammerlock from a headlock, and Bibi just jammed him and fell backwards with a quasi-German. Despite that, he was still able to work the style and hit an up and over headscissors out of a top wristlock. He was also a looming presence with his ever-present grin and a lot of bits of interference from the outside, especially on pins. Bernaert was a cheapshot artist as always, and he and Bibi made a good unit. We'll see them again. Zarzecki seemed off once or twice but hit more than he missed, including a giant swing, and catapulting Bernaert into Bibi in the corner. Sola didn't get to do his 'rana in this fall, but he had great strikes and maybe the first 10-count punch in the corner we've seen (which in this case was just three nasty elbows but you get the idea). He also did a tombstone which seems more prolific as a move at this point than it was half a year prior. Good stuff but we miss something for not having the whole match.

Michel Saulnier vs. Jo Marconville 12/11/59

MD: It's our first chronological look at Saulnier, trainer of Petit Prince and Andre and just an excellent junior all around. It's our last match of the 50s. This feels a little transitional. I don't know if that'll play out in 60, but this match felt like an evolutionary step from French juniors wrestling being the same as the heavyweight style, just quicker, to having more of the complex spots and acrobatic flourishes we'd see later into the century. Little things chained together that we hadn't really seen earlier like following up a monkey flip with an immediate dropkick or some new bits of athleticism like Saulner's victory roll late or one of his up and over escapes having a few extra bits of mid-air hooking and turning. He was a little clunky about 10% of the time, but what he hit made it worth it and his selling, which really stood out in the era, absolutely made you look past it. There was definitely a sense of general damage and weight as the match went on. Marconville more than kept up with him but he was forced into the role of base, whether he wanted it or not, just by Saulnier's skill. It would take him three kip ups to get out of a hold (normal for the era) and Saulnier just one. Occasionally he'd get frustrated and a little violent or tease something untoward, but he never dipped far in that direction. When he got a solid advantage, he might show largess with a handshake. It all came off as very human given the situation. Good match but it felt more a preview of what was to come than anything else.

PAS:  This was full of feats of skill, but never really came together as a match, kind of like a neat Nitro match which didn't come together but had three cool Super Calo things. Saulnier was slick as seal shit in here, flying all around the ring, constantly looking for headscissors and victory rolls. The only thing which will stand the test of time here, was the finish with Saulnier kipping up directly into a vicious headbutt for the win. Totally awesome spot, and something that an indy wrestler should totally jack. We have seen and assuredly will see better Saulnier and this was a nice tease. 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Gilbert Leduc! Zarzecki! Di Santo! Allary!

Gaston Maujean vs. Guy Cavillier 5/30/57

SR: JIP with about 6 and a half minutes show. Cavillier is a weird looking guy in leopard trunks. He seems to have a freakish wingspan and a big head. The much shorter Maujen mostly beats the piss out of him. It almost has the flair of a rookie beat down because Maujean kind of blows off Cavillier's attempts at offense and continues to slap and stomp him like a bug. Cavillier had one really cool armlock takeover. Despite mostly taking a beating here, he manages to secure the win when Maujean eats a nasty upkick.

MD: At first glance, and this was admittedly not much of one, Cavillier was the least impressive guy we've seen so far. At the very least he had the worst uppercuts. Good wild clubbers though, and some strikes that were actually unique in a positive way. Some. A lot of what he did seemed like trudging through molasses, and when Maujean took over, he really brutalized him, to the point where you have to wonder a bit (which at worst is just good believable wrestling, right?). Even the iffier of the matches we've seen so far had some cool stuff, like Cavillier's takedown where he trapped Robin's arm with his leg off the ropes, or the finish which had a dire back body drop into a kick off and deep pin. I'd have to see more of Cavillier to really tell, but I don't think we have more to see.


Gilbert LeDuc vs. Warnia de Zarzecki 5/30/57 - EPIC

SR: 1 fall match that goes a little over 30 minutes. This was face vs. Face, not something that you saw on TV much. It felt a bit like something you‘d see in 70s AJPW, two guys doing some nice stuff in a long quality contest. Because it‘s France they do really try to take each others heads off with european uppercuts here and there and once in a while a guy will eat a nasty kick or elbow in the middle of an exchange, but they play nice all the way through. The wrestling was classy with both heavyweight looking guys busting out cool flying headscissors and working hard. Leduc is introduced as a world champion, while he didn‘t show a ton of charisma, he looked like a classy worker, and his escape where he headspins out of an armlock is spectacular. There was some excellent bodyscissors work and a handful of fantastic rope running exchanges that you would‘ve bought as plausibly ending the match. One of my favourite spots in old euro matches is the hip throw where the other guy has his arm behind his back and lands on his shoulder in nasty fashion, it‘s so simple but brutal looking. The match also had some of the more elaborate double leg nelson work I‘ve seen, which is one of the coolest old school holds. Great finish, too.

MD: This was excellent. It was a hard hitting technical match with a number of holds worked in and out of with extended "hanging on" spots. LeDuc was the de facto favorite as the Frenchman (my favorite bit of applause was when he hung on to a leglock while de Zarzecki was taking his face off with his foot repeatedly) but the match was worked cleanly and they'd begrudgingly give de Zarzecki applause for a solid counter.

The mid-match bodyscissors by de Zarzecki was one of the best sequences of its kind that you'll see (and we'll have a direct comparison in this week's other match too). The struggle as Leduc tried to escape and was slammed around the ring was perfect and they completely got me on a 'hope spot' out only for de Zarzecki to catch him again on a leaping pin attempt. And how he got out? It was that same sort of cradling lift up that we've seen previously, but this time instead of turning it into a slap, LeDuc just clobbered his skull with a forearm.

They then followed it with a bunch of mean strikes and a kip up that was reversed by an 85% complete Code Red. This is the sort of stuff that just happens in these matches, almost as commonplace. To great effect too. Here's a sign of how into this the crowd was: they count along with the ref to the ten count after LeDuc clobbers de Zarzecki with an Andre the Giant style knee to head crusher. I don't think we've quite seen that in any of this French footage so far. The match keeps building and building, escalating to this really cool LeDuc waistlock pick up into a submission with a leg behind the head that he seasons by peppering de Zarzecki's skull with lightning fast kicks and rubbing his face on the mat. The inevitable escape gave us our first French footage Boston crab. Then the whole thing finishes with an amazing flip up 'rana-attempt-into-an accordion powerbomb finish. Just top notch stuff. I feel like we get to say this every other week but this is one of the best matches we've seen.

PAS: Apparently LeDuc was the master of a La Toupie which is his headspin counter out of a headscissors, and it was awesome to see him break that out a couple of times to big acclaim. He also broke out the headspin when he put on the headscissors, and there was this great moment early when Zarzecki brick walled the attempt only to get smashed with an upkick. So many cool counters and reversals in this match, and also more chippiness then we see in the match next week. It breaks down multiple times including some really nasty forearms as ways to counter out of holds, and LeDuc doing some nasty smashing of Zarzecki's wrist and grinding into his face. Felt like Zarzecki was a bit of a dance partner in the LeDuc show,  but man is it a great show, and I am excited to watch much more of him in this footage.


Lino Di Santo vs. Michel Allary 6/7/57 - GREAT

SR: 1 Fall match going about 27 minutes. Well, seems we have hit a friendly stride in the French TV year, because this was another clean, fair contest. Maybe even the friendliest match so far, because not a single forearm smash or European uppercut was thrown until about 25 minutes into the match. This wasn‘t as good as the match between Leduc and Zarzecki the week before, but it was a neat match in it‘s own right: you had the theme of grizzled, older looking Lino di Santo trying to deal with his young, athletic opponent. Lots of good technical work throughout as we know it from the French grapplers. The key moment came when Allary locked in the short arm scissor and Di Santo, after trying several one armed deadlifts was unable to escape. Di Santo looked mentally defeated at that point, he tries to hit some uppercuts, but is too worn out. One of the coolest uses of such a simple hold I‘ve ever seen. Di Santo narrowly avoids defeat, sinking in a double leg nelson and hitting his brutal neckbreaker, but Allary has him on the ropes soon. In the end, Di Santo was able to survive just long enough until the time limit runs out. I‘m not sure whether this match had a 27 minute time limit or something, but it seems complete enough. This kind of „young, good looking guy gets the rub by going to a draw against a veteran“ is a staple of European wrestling, and Di Santos performance made it very worthwhile.

MD: Weirdly similar to the last match, worked friendly, with another long bodyscissors spot with a similar, but not as good, rope-running escape, and that same waistlock pick up into a submission with a leg behind the head but without some of the cool flourishes LeDuc utilized. Some of this was just too similar to be a coincidence even if I can't figure out exactly what was going on. This one suffered from LeDuc vs de Zarzecki being so good and so comparable, but picked up big in the last few minutes, with some great dead-arm selling by Di Santo (even as he was trying to throw forearms) and some big spots like a leaping 'rana and two killer Rude Awakenings.

PAS: I am a huge fan of the short arm scissors, and this had some of the niftiest short arm scissor work I can remember, with Allary really locking in this super tight scissors and DiSanto trying multiple methods of counter before finally maneuvering Allary into the ropes,  his arm is so numb that he can't even hit forearms which was a cool bit of selling. Much of this was solid technical wrestling although I don't think either guy did much to distinguish themselves amongst the pool of great French technical wrestlers (it's a great pool though, that is no dis). I did love the jumping rana into a kind of triangle. So much of this French footage has been on the shoulders of great heels, so naturally a face versus face match like this is going to miss a bit of spark, although the work was still very good.

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: La Barba! Inca Perano! Laroche! DR. ADOLF KAISER

Joachim La Barba vs Roger Laroche 3/7/57

MD: This was very good. You watch these matches and you get a sense that they were just mass producing absolute masters like Bout and Laroche off of some assembly line in 50s France. He was able to present this immense control over his body and his opponent's (obviously that's half on La Barba but the total effect was very convincing). One of my favorite bits was when he launched a spin-move feint out of nowhere to grab a leg. He had absolutely crushing blows too, including some pretty novel strikes like proto-Kawada kicks and a cravat-held kneelift. We'd seen La Barba as a mean, mugging heel before and that's exactly what he was here, getting whatever cheapshots he could and going for things like a double stomp at every opportunity, even if he mostly missed. His missed haymakers, for instance, were things of beauty. A lot of the narrative of the match, like we've seen elsewhere, was how he kept pushing the ref's buttons, taking advantage by cheating but losing it by the ref getting fed up and intervening. La Barba also brought excellent bumping, memorable facial expressions, and a tendency to go flying out of the ring in the most interesting ways, like when Laroche reversed a cross-arm puller and heaved him up and out of the ring with it. Everything came together nicely as they worked that theme into the finish with a brutal over the top bump onto a table leading to the count out. La Barba rushing back in after the bell only to get dropped was a perfect, giving crowd-pleasing ending.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going a bit over 30 minutes. This is a match with lots of wrestling that‘s gonna stay in your mind because of the parts where they beat the hell out of each other. Not that the wrestling was bad, Laroche looked like a classy worker, but it just wasn‘t that exceptional and as soon as Joachim kicked him in the kidney you wanted more where that came from. It‘s like you slotted Tenryu or Takashi Ishikawa into a European style grappling affair. Most of the first 10 minutes are built around Laroche evading the Mexican, with Joachim La Barba attempting some double stomps which was rather interesting. As soon as Joachim found his opening he wasn‘t letting go of the chance to beat the crap out of Laroche. He also took the chance to bump all over the place once again. It all builds to an especially big bump to the outside. Little hard to rate for me, it‘s clear that this was good shit and smokes most 2020 pro wrestling in a cakewalk, on the other hand the baseline for this French stuff is getting really high.

PAS: I loved this, I think I am higher then Sebastian and Matt. My god La Barba, he is listed from Mexico, and if he is actually a luchador, he must have been Satanico's illegitimate father. He has the whole rudo package, sickingly violent, great stooging, huge Jerry Estrada style bumps to the floor, and even some Un Foul's. I loved all of his missed moves, he was really great at whiffing at double stomps and splashes, and those big missed uppercuts were great looking, everything looked like it was thrown full force but still had this great silent comedy feel. Laroche was really good too, great hard charging foil to La Barba's wild performance, really brought the violence, and I dug all of his early grappling too. Loved the finish with La Barba getting pressed over the top rope landing hard on a table. He gets counted out, helped to the back, but reverses course and tries to jump Laroche and takes another stooging bump, what a man. 

Dr. Adolf Kaiser vs. Warnia de Zarzecki 3/29/57

MD: This was an even better Kaiser showcase than the last match. In just a couple of matches, it's clear how good he was at walking a fine line between precision violence and a sort of manic desperation. You'll get a carefully set up arm-trap headbutt, a rolling short armscissors, and Kaiser going for the ears to get out of a hold all in the span of a minute or two. He hits a 1957 Full Nelson Slam too, in case anyone was wondering. The crowd was distracted early on by some police activity in the crowd but they recovered well. Zarzecki was competent in his role. He came off as younger and square-jawed, though ready to dole out revenge for Kaiser's cheapshots. He had the Andre the Giant kneecrushes too though I'm not sure how sound they are coming from a guy that's not a giant. It does hit home that we've seen a lot of variation of strikes in all of these matches though. I probably read way too much into the finish, but to me, there was real emotion to it: Kaiser finally was able to lock in his nerve hold that he had used with such verve in the previous match, but Zarzecki slammed his own head straight back into Kaiser's to break it. Distraught and furious, Kaiser yanked him into a 1957 Dragon Sleeper, cinched it up to a ridiculous degree and choked him out.

SR: JIP, but we get about 10 minutes. Mostly Zarzecki taking the Doctor to the pay window. Zarzecki wasn‘t kidding, he hit some pretty violent looking kneelifts and stomps. The Dr. is really fun at sneaking in cheapshots and his calculating behaviour is entertaining, he also busted out another cool double armlock. The finish has Warnia escaping the dreaded nerve hold with a nasty headbutt, only for Kaiser to spin him into a Dragon Sleeper in the middle of the ring. I didn‘t think they meshed quite that well and the match could‘ve picked up the pace a little, but it was a nice reminder that the Dr.s chokeholds will put anyones lights out.

PAS: I am the high voter on this match too, I thought it was fucking great. This match was full of really violent in fighting, with guys latching in holds, and then the other guy throwing short nasty shots, or stomps or headbutts. I am assuming Zarzecki is billed as Polish, and a Polish guy certainly has some incentive to want to stomp the shit out of a German doctor, and stomp the shit out him he does. Kaiser is being built up so great here, he gives his opponent a lot of stuff, but always has this aura of sadistic shocking violence looming. God that finish was incredible, Kaiser is able to grab his dreaded nerve hold, and Zarzecki breaks in by throwing the back of his head into Kaisers face, that back headbutt is a barfight move I can only ever remember seeing once in wrestling, when Chris Hero and Eddie Kingston started shooting on each other in PWG. Kaiser snaps and locks in this violent Dragon Sleeper, and they basically have to give Zarzecki CPR in the ring after. Kaiser continues to leave bodies strewn at his feet, I can't wait to watch more. 

Inca Peruano vs Comanche Indian 3/29/57

MD: I'm pretty certain that some of the people I went to grad school with could have used this match as a valid and loving case study for veiled homoeroticism in 50s French popular culture. They start with the rare-for-a-reason double grounded headscissors spot, go a bit overboard with the sitting-on-your-opponent stuff out of victory rolls and what have you, and even some of the positions Peruano gets punches in from were either ill-conceived or expertly conceived depending on what they were going for. Comache was fun, with a very unique way of stalking around his opponent that popped the announcer and that Peruano even mocked during a moment of his advantage. He really leaned deep into his hip tosses (utilizing the leg trip) which always looks so great in this footage and Peruano, who we saw as a face in the previous match, was a bullying heel with a bunch of flashy stuff, including the really cool handwalk headscissors spot. Not to go to deep onto the theme, but there was a sense of a lover's quarrel here, just that sort of animosity, from the initial stalking all the way to Peruano's post match cheapshot and it kept things interesting, at least.

SR: When you see a matchup with names like this, you expect everything. We ended up getting some really swank stuff. Lots of nifty throws, swank headscissors and smooth matwork, at one point both guys exchange fast leg trips. Comanche is a spindly guy with some eccentric mannerisms, and his physique adds to his matwork allowing for some cool escapes. Peruano continues to look like the real deal, at one point he does this transition where he hooks Comanches legs with his own legs and spins around almost like a double leg nelson, and his headscissor from the ropes – which he does slick and out of nowhere like a shootstylist – is one of my new favourite moves. He also busts out the Octopus Hold. Peruano eventually starts sneaking in inside shots and the bout gets chippy, with Peruano throwing punches to Comanches skinny body and Comanche firing back with neck chops. Comanche also has some cool looking non-standard dropkicks and a great victory roll. Once again, there were some intense pin attempts. Could‘ve built to a bigger crescendo, but what a neat match to watch in itself.

PAS: I thought this was weird and cool, although I am not sure if it totally nailed it as a match. There are a lot of nuts right in faces in this match, and that rolling double headscissors looked like porn. There was so much cool shit too though, that walk up headscissors was great as was a later spinning headscissors.  The whole thing felt pitched to a slightly different frequency, like this is what Peruvian wrestling in the 50s looked like, rather then a traditional French match. As always I loved the chippiness, although it never evolved into the pure wars that a lot of these matches get to. Lots of stuff here for wrestlers to steal, including a bunch of thing for Effy or Cassandro to take. 

La Complète et Exacte French Catch

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