Tuesday is French Catch Day: Chaisne!, Labat!, Couderc! Sola!

Cheri Bibi vs. Andre Cheauveau 8/2/57

MD: This was a lot of fun. The last ten minutes of an almost thirty minute match, apparently. At first glance I thought Cheauveau was a pure coward, another in the recent string of outmatched heels, and he was outmatched here, but he was more craven than cowardly, with a defiant streak that cost him. If you want to watch Bibi just maul and overpower some poor bastard, this is the match for you. I don't know what happened in the first sixteen minutes, but there's enough here to guess, and whatever it was, it certainly made the crowd WANT to see Bibi clobber him. Cheauveau would hide behind the ref, would go for those quick, desperate leg dives, would use the tights and sneak out of and engagement by dodging past Bibi in the ropes, but he also had the gall to spit in Bibi's face and to toss him out and then kick him on the way back in. When tossed out himself, he'd go for a chair. Bibi had such a credible act, between the mean, clubbering blows, the hulking, stalking presence, and those beady eyes, just a once in a generation wrestling look to him, so that every time Cheauveau showed mind-boggling hubris, you had the sense that Bibi just hungered to get his hands on him again.

SR: JIP match with about 10 minutes shown. Not that you get a ton out of this as it was the kind of bout that kept spilling but not really building. Cheauveau seems some kind of joker. He was begging off and neck chopping Bibi amongst other things. Cheri Bibi was on form here and pretty much waltzed through Cheauveau like Stone Cold and this had enough nasty forearms and head stomps for me to give this a pass.

Michel Chaisne vs. Jo Labat 8/2/57

MD: Very good technical match. Both Labat (who is new to the project) and Chaisne (who we've seen before against villains like Kasier and Bernaert) wrestled clean though things got heated in the end. Labat was smaller but had a strength advantage and took the initiative for most of the match. Chaisne was taller and imaginative in his holds and counters. They worked everything extremely hard, lots of long in and out holds including the extended short arm scissors with probably the earliest chronological "through the ropes" hang on out of a deadlift that we've seen. Things really picked up in the last few minutes after Chaisne took offense to Labat using a foot clap repeatedly to escape a hold but Labat fired back with a headbutt and these cool short shoulder bursts. It led to rope running and an amazing dropkick for the finish. I'll be happy to see Labat again (and if I'm not mistaken we have him vs Chaisne once, Sola twice, Peruano once, and with Sola in a tag against the awesome sounding team of Bernaert and Bibi). 

SR: 1 Fall match going about 25 minutes. This was a clean match. The first time we see Labat and he played nice. The technical work here won‘t blow you away if you‘ve seen a lot of French stuff but it was good. I like how rugged some of the flying headscissors felt, some would miss their targets and for others the guys would fall weirdly like in a real fight. The crowd comes alive when they finally start throwing forearms about 20 minutes in. Labat has this really cool thing where he locks on a cravate and than just rams the guy with an uppercut. Absolutely loved the finish.

PAS: Really cool slow burn match. Started on the mat, with some very cool technical wrestling. I am in the bag for cool short arm scissors spots, and they really had some neat variations on that hold including the cool spot in the ropes Matt mentioned. The last couple minutes were as heated as anything we have seen from this footage. The knee strikes by Chaisne leading into those crazy shoulder strikes, into a Meiko Satomura in GAEA Girls level dropkick. That is the way you put an exclamation point on a match, and turned it into something truly memorable.


Moise Besch vs. Jo Benardo 8/8/57

MD: Whew, this was a pretty nasty seven minutes of footage. Lots of hair pulling and cheapshots and face grinding and headbutts, with a few huge high spots (piledrivers and dropkicks, and Besch tossing Bernado over the top rope). Just a real sense of animosity that lasted even after the match ended.

SR: JIP 10 minutes in with about as much shown. These are two weird looking guys. Moise Besch was the kind of guy to make Billy Catanzarro look normal. You don‘t see people with faces and body shapes like that these days. As far as the match goes, it was some kind of lightweight contest that had a fair bit of niggle. There were some piledrivers that ended up kind of no sold which is enough to get a match on my bad side. Gotta love how tight the finishing pinfall was, though.


Jacques Couderc vs. Ami Sola 8/8/57

PAS: This was worked like a lucha maestros match, with both guys working technical exchanges to show their skill. There was a ton of skill to, with Sola continuing his run as the master of the rana, he uses the rana as less of a throw and more of application of a headscissors submission. It is cool shit and they work a bunch of cool counter spots around that rana, with Couderc trying to pin Sola's shoulders only to get flipped back around with the rana, and finally ending with Courdec hitting a powerbomb to break. Couderc also sidestepped a Sola rana, causing him to rana the referee, which is a spot I am shocked I haven't seen in lucha matches. There was also an incredibly cool spot with Sola putting Couderc in a leg stretch, and all of the ways they had to work out of that. There was a little chippiness at the end with Couderc breaking a bear hug with some chops to the ears and the ribs and big uppercut. This 1957 footage just keeps delivering huge, I love all of it.

MD: Excellent match that combined a sportsmanlike technical nature with a lot of flash, the best version of some exchanges that we've seen, and some things we hadn't seen at all yet. There was so much to see here that it's hard to pin it all down. They'd escalate into strikes (and Sola's were really good) and then bring things back down with a handshake. Despite being very sound, there's a theatricality to Sola, the kip up headbutts, the running 'ranas. They worked an extended 'rana into headscissors/pin attempt counter spot that we've seen before, but really laid into both the subsequent bridge up 'ranas, and the jamming deadlift powerbombs. Definitely the best of its type and I doubt we see better. The match was full of grinding holds and tricky counters and desperate persistence to escape. There was also an amazing comedy spot of Couderc leaping out of the way so that Sola 'rana'd the ref. Plus Couderc doing a waistlock takedown into an amazing flipping grounded crucifix that we've definitely never seen before. They nailed the small details too, those little elbow grinds to the knee or rakes to the back to stop a wrestler from getting out of a hold. Just top notch stuff that stands up to anything we've seen in the footage so far.

SR: 1 fall match with about 20 minutes shown. There seems to be some clipping, but nothing too annoying. This was like the French version of a bomb throwing sprint. I could see this exact match happening in Korakuen Hall and the crowd going bonkers for all the ultra stiff european uppercuts and upkicks they did. It also helps that Ami Sola is a gentleman looking dude with a classy mustache and Couderc is balding and cleary muscular but a long way from having visible abs. There wasn‘t a ton of hold for hold work here, but the bits they did were great and felt really fresh. There was an awesome body scissors spot, a great wrist stretch from Couderc and some nifty leg trips amongst other things. Couderc also turned a headscissor sequence into a series of deadlift powerbombs that would make Takaiwa wince. Couderc may have been the man of the match but Sola held up. He uncorked some brutal headbutts and what may very well be the nastiest leg stretch I‘ve seen in any match ever. He looked like he was about to pop Coudercs hip with that. And, I feel compelled to say that these guys were bumping hard as motherfuckers. The ending crescendo was also damn great with these guys eating upkicks and bumping around like mad. The upkick is such a basic spot that nobody remembers these days but hot damn it looks awesome in these matches and these guys will fly face first into it. It was nice to see that the crowd seemingly filled up to watch this match. True to form, Couderc does not show up again, but it‘s save to say he made his mark in this sole appearance. This was a mix of high end technical work, brutally stiff and with a sense of classy athleticism. Exactly the kind of awesome unexpected match to remind us all that French pro wrestling was fucking awesome.