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.

Assorted Rare NJPW TV

 This channel is uploading old AJPW and NJPW TV material, most of which is pretty rare. It seems that he takes all NJPW videos offline after a few hours, so download everything as soon as you can.

Antonio Inoki vs. Bearcat Wright, NJPW 10/31/1975

The legendary Bearcat Wright was quite old and past his prime here, although he still was able to look like a menacing dude. He had great looking headbutts, and his choking actually looked really vicious. This felt more like an introduction to the character of Bearcat which sets up a bigger rematch - the brawling after the bell may have been more exciting than anything in the match. Still, footage of Bearcat Wright is a treasure.

Steve Wright vs. Kengo Kimura 12/5/1977

Only about 4 minutes show, but lots of fun, tight wrestling in those 4 minutes. You get the sense Wright had no problem going even against opponents who weren’t familiar with European style wrestling. Wright wins with a super cool kip up into a pin combo.

Tatsumi Fujinami & Osamu Kido vs. Tony Rocco & Chavo Guerrero NJPW 10/13/1978

Real gem of a match. +20 minutes of high end 70s junior wrestling. The 70s style really was awesome, basically a mix of carny matwork, cool suplexes and occasional neat highspots. Really loved Tony Rocco in this, who is such a great carny grappler. Also really dug young spry Chavo, and the Japanese guys are super solid too. We start with about 10 minutes of cool grappling, basically a lot of cool armwhips and pin attempts with some neat scrambling takedowns and blocked moves. Fujinami looks sharp as hell here and throws some great dropkicks. This is 2/3 falls and every fall has a good finish. Loved the crazy 70s dives and big bump at the end. This pretty much rocked.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Antonio Inoki NJPW 3/16/1989

Didn’t even know this match happened in 1989. It wasn’t an epic, but a nice slice of super enjoyable pro wrestling as you expect from these two. Inoki has great chemistry with Fujiwara on the mat, and he has such a great aura and feel of danger to him, even compared to a guy like Fujiwara. Some very nice matwork here before Fujiwara decides to punch Inoki in the face. These guys continue to throw hands, and when these guys do it it’s way compelling because they actually look like they don’t want to get hit. Fujiwara ends up trying to cut down Inoki using some rough tactics and his hard head, only for Inoki to destroy him very quickly in Inoki-like fashion. Inokis Worlds Biggest Badass shtick matches up really well against Fujiwaras tricky counter artist act.