Even more matches from France that are so great you should see them

 

Michel Saulnier vs. Ricardo Torres, France 5/2/1970

 This was the 15 minute or so intensely worked lightweight sprint your brain craves. Insanely nimble, beautiful work. Saulnier worked this very much the same way he‘d work his matches against Le Petit Prince. Torres is no Petit Prince but he is quite athletic and a pretty cool wrestler. Seriously, these two just blow all other junior wrestling away, has wrestling ever been greater? Match was built around guys trying to catch basic headlocks and armlocks, with the most stupidly great escapes and transitions you‘ve ever seen to spice it up. The opening was just Saulnier working an arm lock and then a headlock and then Torres works a leglock for a bit but it was seriously brilliant. The second half was textbook stuff with flaring tempers and stiff european uppercut exchanges, plus some more convincing nearfalls than you expect. I adore how tenacious Saulnier is, doing things like spinning around to grab a leg after taking a bump. It wasn‘t some kind of epic overarching match but those are kind of the best when you have two guys who go this hard. Really really good stuff.

Guy Mercier vs. Peter Kayser, France 5/2/1970

This was very simple but insanely well worked. Kaiser was a big bald German and a physical specimen. What he did was extremely simple, but it worked. When he bodyslammed Mercier, it was like a bomb dropping. Mercier once again looked like the real deal. The guy just makes everything look awesome. This won‘t turn many peoples heads as there‘s not anything mind blowing, but it‘s just a bunch of insanely tight holds and throws with real weight in them. The opening move were Mercier snatches a cravate hold and Kaiser lifts him around was pretty crazy though. Then you had Mercier taking a crazy bump suicide diving into nothing. This was a good piece of TV to set up another match between them.

Guy Mercier vs. Peter Kayser, France 8/22/1970

Kayser got a pin over Mercier, so Mercier was out for blood here. This match was fantastically heated, with the fans being so firmly behind Mercier popping just about anytime he did anything. Kayser was more evil here, not as evil as other Germans named Kaiser that we‘ve seen on TV, but bad enough that people were getting up and looking like they wanted to jump into the ring. Kayser was pretty much a slobberknocker here beating down Mercier, while Mercier went for leg dives and sleepers to catch his breath, but eventually he engages in a full on slugfest with Kayser. Those bodyslams sounded massive, that ring must have been hard as concrete. Mercier wasn‘t the most charismatic but he was a fervent hero in this. Loved the little smirks he gave when Kayser started mugging to get into another strike exchange. Of course, when they traded uppercuts and chops they just leathered the hell out of each other. This was a good piece of business.

Daniel Schmid vs. Rocky James (4/13/1975)

1 Fall match going a bit under 25 minutes. This was a match between two guys with fantastic physique. I love that Schmid was like a mini Greg Valentine while Rocky James looked like a more stocky Jerry Lawler. The first 10 minutes of this were pretty much a study of upper body holds and throws which these guys executed at blinding speed. After that Schmid tags James with a punch to the jaw and the match turns into a potatoefest. Schmid looked grizzly here, bowling James out of the ring when he tried a leg stretch and then putting on a nasty Fuchi stretch of his own while stepping on James face. The crowd seemed confused about who the face was, so James made sure to be a bastard and clubbed Schmid hard with nasty forearms and punt kicks. I loved all the body shots that were thrown and the back and forth european uppercuts were some of the funniest we‘ve seen with both guys aiming at the jaw. Basically a mix of really fun wrestling and hard hitting by two barrel chested dudes who look like truck drivers.

Speaking of the noose in the country of the hangman

Der Henker vs. Jacky Corn,  12/12/1970

Really solid match that shows the wrestling ability of DER HENKER. Quite a lot of good wrestling here, and I really liked how Henker basically worked like a Greco roman wrestler with a touch of evil. Really liked how he snatched a bear hug into greco roman slam at one point. As usual with French wrestling both guys throw really stiff, great looking European uppercut. Until the hangman started working Corn over with elbows to the face. Corn ended up with a nasty cut and the drama turned up huge before Henker hit a Tombstone Piledriver and Corns second threw in the towel, a finish that should be more common for when a masked evil guy slays a fan favourite in pro wrestling.

Der Henker vs. Gilbert Leduc, 7/31/1971

Wonderful title match which was all about Leducs beautiful technique vs. the imposing force of the hangman, building to an excellent blood drenched finale. Leduc works some great escapes and holds with Henker occasionally powering out of holds and going for nerve holds and chokes, retaining his status as a mysterious powerful evil guy. It seemed to be Leducs match until the Henker started bombing him with some high impact power moves and beating Leducs head into the mat. Leduc came up bleeding and it seemed like a matter of time until the towel would have to be thrown in, but with a last ditch effort Leduc escaped the dreaded piledriver and made a valiant and dramatic comeback throwing his awesome looking left-right elbows and european uppercuts. Really classy but also gritty stuff and just a beautiful match.

Der Henker vs. Gilbert Leduc & Jacky Corn, 7/5/1972

Der Henker has left both these men a bloody mess before, so it is not far fetched that a handicap match would be in order. Both Leduc and Corn worked some energetic exchanges with the hangman to begin. Der Henker is just great as this unrelenting evil force, though and you buy that he can beat two men at once with how he would roll with their shots and keep coming back. Soon enough he has rammed Corn into the ringpost, bloodying him and giving him a piledriver in the center of the ring. Corn barely got out and had to be carried to the back, and now this place is really coming unruly. Intense moment when the Henker fell outside the ring and a huge crowd started ganging up on him. Leduc does an awesome job trying to batter the evil masked man with his elbows and uppercuts, but soon the hangman got the upper hand back demolishing him with big forearms of his own. Leduc ends up bloody and dropped on his head and it seems all hope is lost until Corn comes back to make the hottest of tags. Corn throwing punches andlaunching the ref around was great, as it felt like he was done with the straight wrestling and just tried to combat this monster with all he had. We get a hot ending run with Leduc and Corn finally inching closer to making a dent into the Henker but in true European weirdo fashion the match goes to a time limit draw. I guess that was supposed to get people to come to a follow up match, and I must say I am now thoroughly invested in this feud. Leduc and Corn looked like heroes and DER HENKER is great as an evil monster that won't quit.

French Catch Catch-Up

 Batman vs. Cesar Leoni, 9/26/1970

Man, it never ceases to be funny that they had a Batman running around in the French wrestling scene. The fact he doesn't wear a mask makes it even weirder. Batman is a great worker though and Leoni looked like a really good rudo too. These guys have really fast armdrags that they bump hard for, really good arm hold work that looks good even after you've seen a million workers do arm hold work. Batman is such a fun technician, he will do a whacky escape and then suddenly bust out a fast Fujiwara armbar. Leoni is clearly a really good wrestler too, and then suddenly he just increases the violence by smacking Batman hard in the jaw and following up with really nasty stomps and kicks. They keep wrestling but Leoni would always try to cheapshot Batman and punch him in painful places. He even removed the corner pads but it ended up costing him and he ate a nice decisive tombstone for the finish. Really nice 15 or so highlight reel of what made French wrestling so cool.

Le Hippie du Ring vs. Gilbert Bernaert, 9/26/1970

It's the Hippy of the Ring, baby. And well I did not expect this to have a bunch of awesome greco roman work, but it did! Bernaert just grabs and shoot suplexes the Hippie and they scramble to the ropes right at the start, and it's clear that Bernaert is not much on board with peace and love. But the Hippie could grapple too and they had an intense contest with some great greco roman throws. Eventually Bernaert starts brutalizing him with cheapshots, really lighting him up with kicks to the back, the chest... Bernaert was quite the stocky baby faced fucker here. Add a cool boston crab finish and a big bump and you have yourself one hell of a match. This ruled, honestly.

Guy Cavillier vs. Albert Sanniez, 2/1/1969

1 Fall match going about 18 minutes. It‘s Cavilliers second match on TV in about 12 years (that we have). Weird how that happens. Cavillier seems to have filled out a bit and was rocking a singlet here. This was the kind of smooth, beautiful lightweight style we‘ve come to associate initially with French pro wrestling. Cavillier drew some boos when he threw the first european uppercut, but they kept the bout in a light hearted direction, even doing some ref comedy (which, thankfully, did not derail the contest). Sanniez was stunning here, doing some excellent bridging work. Cavallier looked more secure too than he did 12 years earlier (shocker!), bouncing around in agile fashion. Like many of these friendly European matches where the referee becomes the butt of jokes there was no winner, so keep in mind that the journey is more important than the destination here. And there was some quite excellent wrestling on that journey.