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.

80s Europe #2

Jim Breaks vs. Young David (Davey Boy Smith), 2/23/1980

  This was a great piece of pro wrestling. Breaks in his bumblebee trunks just carrying a barely in puberty Davey Boy like it's nothing. To be fair, David looked good in parts here, doing a decent job struggling out of Breaks holds and taking a big unexpected bump in the last round, but it  was plainly obvious that he could only do a handful of things. Most of his comebacks are just him bodyslamming Breaks over and over. He did however do a great job palm striking his way out of a submission and bloodying Breaks nose. Breaks was great here at first playing a more subtle version of his usual character before turning it up to 11. His submissions were just ridiculous, trying to sprain Davids ankle at first and then zoning in on the arm and bending it as far as humanly possible. This just lead out in a great way. Fun post match too with Davids mentor Alan Dennison coming in to smash things over Breaks head. 

Pat Roach vs. Pete Roberts, 2/13/1980

Pat Roach always looks like the hardest man on the planet to me. This was a pretty excellent contest with some nifty heavyweight grappling. Roachs judo throws rule, as well as his overhead arm suplex. Roach was playing nice early on, and Roberts was doing a really neat Fujiwara-ish performance trying to crack the giant. Once Roach was outsmarted, he just went beast mode and ragdolled Roberts about the ring. In the 3rd fall, Roberts made excellent use of ring positioning to chop Roach down. I liked the finish more than OJ as Roach was limping and in trouble only to launch an overzealous Roberts over the top rope, taking an insane bump on the outside. The smart player Pete Roberts being outsmarted himself was neat.  

Jeff Kaye vs. Tony "Banger" Walsh, 1/28/1980

This was a battle between two great looking wrestlers. Walsh is pasty with a bowlcut and Kaye has kind of medieval mid length hair and is dumpy looking. Kaye is super fired up here cartwheeling around and Banger Walsh was looking to give it to him, throwing shots and grinding Kaye down  with basic moves.  Walsh has really good basic stomps and clubs. If you are familiar with these type of European give and give back face/heel matches you won't be surprised by the structure here but they worked in so many high end exchanges that it stayed entertaining. Unique finish too. Really really fun sprint. 

Fit Finlay/Ian Gilmour vs Guy Mercier/Alan Mitchells 9/25/80

2/3 Falls match over about 25 minutes. Browsing through hundreds of French matches, and just out of nowhere a 22 year old Dave Finlay pops up in what is maybe his first ever televised match working like a seasoned veteran heel. Pretty cool. The saying about European tag wrestling is that they didn‘t quite know how to do it, but this match had pretty much the kind of structure you want: Fun babyface shine segment, followed by a heel beatdown before a series of cut offs before a comeback succeeds and then a finish. They fool you a bit here by doing a really long shine with the heels making several attempts at starting the beatdown and being cut off, but in the end the structure is there and even the 2/3 Falls formula is integrated well. This was a bit more holds and takedowns based and less about armdrags and ranas, similiar to what we know from British wrestling, but don‘t be fooled the pace in this match was lightning fast. These guys really do an absurd amount of stuff even in a long match, but everything is executed effortlessly. Guy Mercier is a former European champion and legit Greco roman wrestler with a look and aura that just screams tough old man, and while there wasn‘t a ton of extended wrestling in this match he looked like a classy worker. It speaks for the creativity of these old workers just how much they could do with moves like a body slam or hip throw. Finlay also did this cool thing where he misses a big splash in about the first minute of the bout and spends the next few minutes scurrying away while the faces twisted up his leg and launched him into the ropes. It didn‘t pay off in the long run, but it was a fun bit of selling to make the opening minutes more interesting. Once the heels got something going after what felt like 15 minutes of highly entertaining bumping and stooging, they basically focussed on getting the faces to the corner and stomping the crap out of them. Really simple and effective stuff that made me wish modern workers paid more attention to making simple things like a stomp look good, because Finlay had damn great looking stomps here. Another layer to the match was Michel Saulnier, who was grey and a referee by now. The match had some heel ref antics and comical amounts of babyface retaliation against Saulnier, while that is something that can ruin a lot of these Euro matches it was actually executed in a really fun manner here. The thing I loved most how delighted the fans were at the trick the heels used to get a pin here. No hard feelings, it‘s all good fun in France.

1980s EURO COMPENDIUM