Catching up with French Catch

 

Gilbert Leduc vs. Bert Mychel 4/16/73

Gritty as hell grappling match between two guys who look like dock workers or pup owners. That is kind of the best kind of old school match, and this was a really great version of that. Mychel is a Belgian greco olympian. He‘s built like a bear and looks a bit like Dick Murdoch, with a mean scowl. I think I‘ve yet to see a Belgian wrestler who wasn‘t awesome and Mychel did his country proud. This was low on flash but high on slow, gruelling struggling in and out of holds. Sometimes smooth and slick can be cool but there‘s an art form to working a slow headscissor or headlock that makes these kind of matches really engrossing. Both guys legit skill came into play too, as there were some cool quarter nelsons and some more uncooperative than usual scrambles over pins and holds. Highlights include some really painful looking handwork, Leduc deciding to hit lightning fast takedowns 20+ minutes into the match and one of the most painful looking, shoulder popping struggles over a butterfly suplex attempt that i‘ve ever seen. The fallaway slam over the rope was also totally unexpected an an absolutely insane bump that really ramped up the drama for the finish. Also, while the match never broke out into a complete slugfest, but they do slug it out here and there, and when they do they just smash the shit out of each other like it‘s France or something. Insanely skillful match that was real engrossing and one hell of a match overall.

Maurice Dumez/Georges Cohen vs. Antonio Montoro/Anton Tejero 4/30/73

Another absolutely beautiful match from France. Chock full of wonderful exchanges. Yes, you‘ve heard it before, but the match had a few outstanding moments. I think Cohen is one of the best technicos on the French scene, but Dumez completely stole the show from him here. Dumez was this lithe, athletic stud who had amazing grace on all his stuff and threw the most brilliant armdrags in the universe. He threw one hell of a suplex, too. The Spaniards were excellent stooges as usual. They did a good 10 minutes of straight wrestling to open this which is always nice, and went back to competitive wrestling even after trying heel shenanigans. Montoro was this aged technico who wrestled like an old bastard who still knew a few nifty technical moves, which is a really cool character, and he threatened to steal the technicos thunder with some of his moves. He‘d come flying off the tope, even leaping at people, and busted out some ridiculously elaborate throws and a great version of that spinning backbreaker we all love. Tejero had grown out his hair at this point making him look pompous and he bumped and stooged as hard as he always does, what a truely dedicated professional wrestler. All falls had really good finishes and the ending was a hoot with Montoro getting pounced across the ring by a miscommunicated move and then Cohen doing a feverish exchange and just darting outside the ring. Another gem from the French trove, if you ask me.

Billy Catanzaro/Pierre Bernaert vs. Mr. Montreal/Vasilios Mantopolous 6/5/72

This was a swimming pool match. All these guys displayed some amazing footwork and timing considering they were wrestling in a shaky, floating ring. This was pretty much a 30 minute comedy squash, wrestled at the highest possible level, like you are watching a couple gods taking a night off and making jokes to put some smiles on their audiences faces. Can you imagine if All Japan had undercard comedy matches like this?! With this kind of obscene workrate and athleticism?!? I really enjoyed the contrast of the Montreal/Mantopolous team, having Mr. Montreal a big body builder type who specializes in freakish strength spots and Mantopolous who is a lightning quick junior. Heels were amazing stooges as you expect, with Catanzaro being brilliant as usual. The man really had all time chemistry with Mantopolous and they breezed through one brilliant exchanges after another. Mantopolous George Kidd style technical trickery looked good in this kind of match. I also really enjoyed how Catanzaro kept teasing the falls into the water, like he was really a master of just barely hanging on to the ropes by his toe, he teases that plunge for 20+ minutes while Bernaert just kept falling into it through miscommunication spots, these two had a fun dynamic. There were a few vicious bits of Catanzaro on offense but they made less than 10% of the match. Jokes were funny, and the match stayed interesting through out as they kept mixing up things to do. If you want to lean back and watch a light hearted 30+ minute workrate sprint, check this out.

Kamikaze vs. Nicolas Priore 5/22/72

Kamikaze (possibly Modesto Aledo, or some imitator) is a really cool character. The creepy look that kind of reminds me of Fantomas, the strange mannerisms coupled with the esoteric martial arts bullshit and unorthodox athletic moves, it makes for a really compelling package. I love martial arts bullshit, and this was some high grade martial arts bullshit. Loved his re-entry into the ring, as well as how quickly he would dive to and over the top rope to attack his opponent. Priore was a good straight man to this weird monster, and they got tremendous heat and drama for their stuff. Kamikaze took a huge bump to the ring apron and seemed done but Priore apparently ended up bleeding from Kamiakzes karate chop assault and the referee ended up stopping the match which is always a memorable ending. Nice introduction to the Kamikaze character.

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.