Tuesday is French Catch Day: Bout! Stein! Leduc! LE BOURREAU de BETHUNE!!

Guy Mercier vs.  Robert le Boulch (JIP) - Leduc Profile - Robert Gastel vs. Gaby Calderon 2/5/59  

MD: This show was formatted a bit differently than usual. We came in at the very last seconds of Mercier vs le Boulch. There wasn't enough to say anything about Le Boulch but we'll see him a couple of times later. Mercier won with a clunky but still impressive float-over fall away slam. Then they were supposed to go to Leduc vs Le Bourreau de Bethune and showed us a Leduc profile piece to set it up. We've gotten a few of these so far and they're always a nice surprise. Here he was driving a small chariot of horses as part of his training and then had a little interview where he talked about his favorite authors and what not. When they cut back to the ring an impromptu Gastel vs Calderon match was going because they claimed the fans were preventing Le Bourreau from entering the ring/arena. This is what google translate is telling me at least. It's the most Memphis studio TV I've ever seen French catch. Anyway, this went just just a few minutes and was anchored by Gastel being his usual cheapshot clubbering jerk self. This was our first look at Calderon and he had no shoes and long pants and maybe had a martial arts thing going? He had one neat reversal of an arm wringer into an armbar and won with some chops and a stepover armbar which led to a great post-match moment where Calderon had to put Gastel's arm back into joint, which I'm not sure I've ever seen before. We'll see more of him later too. After the match, they asked Gastel about how he felt, which got over the hold even more, but also felt like another weird departure.

SR: We get about one minute of Mercier vs. Le Boulch. Le Boulch does a somewhat elaborate bumping and rope running routine before Mercier hits him with a nice overhead suplex.We get about 5 minutes of Gastel vs Calderon. It‘s Robert Gastel, baby, and every second of him is a treasure. Gaby Calderons barefoot look with the cut off tights is questionable, but he did seem like a competent catcheur. And young Gastel will club the shit out of anyone. It is telling how awesome he makes a simple punch to the jaw look. Calderon seemed to be doing a martial artist gimmick, which can be tough to pull off, but when it was time to chop and arm lock Gastel he did chop and armlock the shit out of him. Wouldn‘t mind seeing more of that fellow.


Gilbert Leduc vs. Le Bourreau de Bethune 2/5/59

MD: What an amazing debut. I was a little hesitant on us covering this one because it had been out there for a bit, but seeing this in context, following from L'Ange Blanc's debut, knowing LeDuc as we do by now, just having a sense of what French Catch of this period is like, this is a puzzle piece that just fits into the broader tapestry. LeDuc is masterful here, a wonderful counterpart to Villars in L'Ange Blanc's debut. There, Villars took holds and let his opponent escape. Here, LeDuc let himself get overpowered again and again, and had to really work for his escapes. When LeDuc takes a punch, he sells it like he's been hit with a hammer. I don't think we've seen anyone who wasn't a giant portrayed as such a powerhouse like this. Moreover, almost immediately after the escape Le Bourreau was right back in to try to get an unfair, bullying advantage. When LeDuc finally has him down, Le Bourreau goes to the hair to escape a hold and the crowd, ready for this moment, jeers wildly. Ultimately, Le Bourreau locks in a cobra and won't break it in the ropes, which lets him really unload with clubbering blows and headbutts. LeDuc mounts a big comeback, ducking a blow and firing back, only to get tossed over the top. He's weakened and vulnerable and this allows Le Bourreau to unleash his killer blow, a press slam gutbuster, which is definitely something we haven't seen before. LeDuc sells it like death, taking a ten count, but demands to fight on into the second round. Le Bourreau swallows him up immediately, hitting two more gutbusters for the brutal win. Great debut, following another great debut, and if I was part of that crowd, I'd have been chomping at the bit to see L'Ange Blanc vs Le Bourreau de Bethune. This may have been the most effective match we've seen so far at accomplishing what it set out to do.

SR:  2/3 falls match going a bit over 20 minutes. It‘s the Hangman of Bethune, baby. Really cool how we get masked guys who look like straight up luchadores by now. Match wise the Hangman didn‘t do much out of the extraordinary, though he did a good job looking like a menacing masked evil dude, complete with a signature pose and all. I liked how he powered out of Leducs arm holds and when it was time to deliver a beating, he got pretty violent hitting Leduc in the face with headbutts and forearms. I always enjoy watching Leduc so the match was easily enjoyable, although it ended in a rush when the Hangman finished off Leduc 2:0 with his military press into a gutbuster which is a hell of a finisher in 1959. Apparently the Hangman doesn‘t show up again, which feels like a bummer as we just got a taste of him here. 

PAS: This was a heck of debut. We have seen LeDuc eat up his opponents before, so it is was something to see him dominated like this. He tried to use his patented headspin several times but it was mostly stymied by Bethune. The hangman really wore him down with his headscissors, and cracked him with nasty headbutts and overhead forearms.  LeDuc took a big bump over the top rope and fell hard with that press slam stomach buster. It is a shame we don't have anymore Bethune, because after debut like that you really want to see how someone could stand up to him. 

ER: One of the joys of French Catch is that, nearly every week, I get to write some variation of "this was not what I was expecting, but in a good way" and mean it. LeDuc is not a site favorite, and just a few weeks ago we made LeDuc's showcase match against Rocco Lamban our MOTY for 1958. This LeDuc match is just a few months later, and it was wild seeing LeDuc massacred by this masked executioner. The early match headscissor blocks and attempts were enough to sell me on this one, as LeDuc's Santo-esque head spins have been a highlight of French Catch, and every time Bourreau would block them I could feel muscles straining and backs and necks getting tweaked. It's like when you have to crack your neck, and really lean into the attempt, but nothing actually cracks and you just end up making your neck feel worse, only times five. Bourreau was bulkier in the arms and shoulders than most men we've seen from the era, looking more like a shorter Clint Walker than any of the wrestlers we've seen, but he amusingly minces around the ring like Mil Mascaras. He takes little short steps with his toes pointing inward, butt clenched, waist sucked in. You'd expect him to stomp around, but I was endlessly entertained watching him draw heat just by walking around the ring constantly flexing, taking those little steps. He uses small heat tactics to maximum efficiency, and hearing the crowd erupt in rage after a hair pull is pure joy. His brazen cheating is something to behold, made more special when placed in context of just how uncommon it was during this era. The press slam gutbuster was a real shock, something that would absolutely hold up as a finisher 60 years later, and at the time (and with the help of LeDuc's expert selling) it must have felt like LeDuc was dying in the ring. The straight falls finish was handled brilliantly, LeDuc coming off like an ultimate babyface for demanding to continue, only to get wasted with the same gutbuster. I can only imagine how molten the rematch must have been, and we can only imagine how LeDuc would have handled that. At least we got this, but it's cruel knowing how fired up the rematch would have been. 

Johnny Stein vs. Jean Bout 2/27/59

MD: Long, but very good, albeit quite straightforward, match. Stein is the future Kurt von Stroheim and the second Kurt von Brauner. Bout is a real meat and potatoes guy for this footage. Could take a beating. Could hit a running 'rana. Expert technician. Cound mount fiery comebacks. He did all of that and more here, but it really was the Stein show. He was completely immersed in his character, a lumbering stormtrooper, one of the prototypes of a dozen post-war German heels, mixing style and substance. He had any number of holds working over the head, the arm, the back, the legs, and sometimes multiples at once, including a nasty STF. He had a way of moving from one to another after cutting off a bit of hope. On defense, he was quick to try for a rope break, though he'd never give a clean break himself. One one of the big spots of the match, Bout had enough of that and flipped him over while he was in the ropes. This had a ton of time and after a more technical beginning, flipped between holds and clubbers by Stein and big comebacks and revenge holds by Bout. Bout had a great variety of strikes, including knife-edge chops that we actually don't see a lot in this footage. And yes, as per the French way, they were trying some new things in this episode, starting by playing Witch Doctor, with some weird lighting throughout that really deemphasized the crowd (though it's hard to do that when they're chanting or throwing orange peels at Stein after a heel tactic), and with piano occasionally highlighting a moment in the background.

SR: 1 Fall Match a little over 40 minutes. For some reason, they kept playing piano solos over this. Johnny Stein is a bald headed German with a massive physique. You can tell he is hated right from the get go, and this was a niggly bout where they do some tough, simplistic hip throws and headscissors wrestling and lots of beating on eachother. It doesn‘t add anything new to this common formula of French wrestling, but I enjoyed myself. One thing that stood out is how dark this was, like the ring was basically this claustrophobic bright chamber in a dark hall. You basically never get a look at either guys face, and Steins hunched over stance gave him a sinister aura. The only time you see the audience is when Stein goes to throw Bout over the top rope and a bunch of people rise up to catch his fall. One of those examples of how invested fans were into the babyfaces then. Bout seemed to have the upper hand, being fired up and blasting away at Stein with big chops and forearm blows. The match seemed to ramp up the intensity at the 30 minute mark with Stein starting to pick apart his opponent, but after some heated back and forth (including a great rope running sequence that lead to Stein eating a sick dropkick) the match deflated with a lame DQ finish. Not a great way to end a 40 minute long match to say the least.