ohtani's jacket

1952.10.26 Joachim La Barba vs. Rene Bouchoucha 1954.5.14 Roger Delaporte vs. Joachim La Barba I had forgotten how talented Joachim La Barba was. He's another guy you wish there was a cache of footage available. One of those guys who's always in motion and always doing something to draw the crowd's attention. It was amusing seeing a young, skinny Roger Delaporte. He had the physique of a young Tony St. Claiir in this bout. He was still honing his act at this point and was a lot more physical and active than the grand stooge he'd become.

I imagine he was. The clips don't make it explicit. The Rene Ben Chemoul match is hard fought and heated, but Rene raises Mann's hand at the end.

Great stories, but it doesn't really mean much if it doesn't translate to ringwork.

I don't think this lived up to the initial hype of the Samoan Submission Machine vs. Olympic Gold Medalist, but instead they went the pro-wrestling route and had Angle bleed a shit ton before finally engaging in a submission duel. It was okay but kind of lacking compared to the MMA bouts from the years presiding it. It could have been laid out better, IMO, however it received the desired result in terms of the finish and crowd reaction. Closer to a 3 star match than a 4 star one.

i didn't love this match, but I didn't hate it either. The best thing about it was the dynamic of Edge wrestling in his hometown. There was a point somewhere in the midway of the match where Cena was leaning into his heel roots, which at the same time was justified because of all of the shit Edge had done to him, but Edge kind of faded from the picture and then it became a John Cena overcomes the odds match. I thought that was the least interesting creative choice they could have made. That said, if you're going to win the title in one of these shitty matches then a FU over the top of the ladder through two tables isn't a bad way to end things. It wasn't boring but it wasn't great.

Not in the footage. I would argue that every one of his opponents looked better. That said, it was the late 40s. He may have been better earlier in his career.

What's the deal with Panther wrestling with his mask on?

I didn't realize that there is quite a bit of Deglane on YouTube. After watching some of his clips from the 30s, there's no doubt in my mind that he was one of the greatest French wrestlers of all-time. Even the clips of him training and chopping firewood are entertaining. Then you see Leduc from the early 50s and it's the next level. I've long held Leduc in high regard, but watching him when he was younger has been a revelation. What an incredible athlete.

1947.10.13 Yvar Martinson vs. Bert Assirati 1948.11.8 Yvar Martinson vs. Bert Assirati 1949.2.7 Charles Rigoulot vs. Bert Assirati 1949.10.24 Felix Miquet vs. Bert Assirati Someone needs to explain the appeal of Bert Assirati to me. I get that his strength was legendary and that he was able to legit hurt people in the ring, but I don't see a single thing about his ringwork that's remotely interesting.

1946.10.5 Henri Deglane vs. Francis St. Clair Gregory Henri Deglane is the man, who alongside his friend, Raoul Paoli, popularized French catch in the 1930s. You can read more about him in Phil's excellent work on the history of French catch. Francis St. Clair Gregory was the father of Roy and Tony St. Clair. He was a remarkable athlete and wrestler who was successful not only in the 30s but also in the Mountevans era. He had the honor of appearing in the first televised wrestling show in a bout against Mike Marino in 1955. Needless to say, for a short 90 second clip, there's a ton of history packed into this. They only show a few sequences, but the wrestlers look tough and legit. Deglane brawls a little more than you'd expect, but that's always been a part of wrestling I imagine. A nice time capsule.

This was a good match, but I preferred the blood and intensity from their No Mercy match.

This was really good. I thought it would be an abridged version of a Benoit/Regal match, but it was incredibly tight. Benoit returned after a five month sabbatical to get his head sorted, which sadly didn't work, and delivered a fantastic match. Loved the grappling at the beginning and the chops to the bleeding forehead were awesome. JBL was a bit heavy on the hyperbole, but he wasn't far off. They could have worked the finish better by giving Regal a nearfall, but mostly I was thankful for them giving us straight wrestling and no bullshit.

This was a good match, but you knew with the focus being on softening Benoit up for his match with Chavo that BS would creep its way into the bout. It was a non-title match, and unlike their May bout where they were building to a PPV match, this was just a regular TV bout. Some solid work, though. The WWE giving us three Benoit vs. Finlay matches in a year is a trip.

I don't think this was as good as their TV match, but it was a decent continuation of what they started on Smackdown.

This was a nice match. Five stars feels like a stretch, but if you're an ROH fan and you get caught up in the hype then why not... They way they decided the match was visually arresting, though it wasn't lost on me that the best wrestler in the world argument was decided with a piece of brutal violence.

This was Angle's last televised WWE match. While it was nowhere near as good as the RVD match, it was still a fresh and intriguing matchup. Angle in ECW had potential, especially with his new wrestling machine gimmick. It appeared as though they were headed towards a typical WWE style triple threat match at some point. Its a bit tiresome how the WWE felt the need to add an extra guy to every feud. I would have preferred a straight up Angle vs. RVD feud on the evidence of their TV match. They should have had the pair feud over the world title instead of putting the belt on Big Show of all people. We'll have to see how Angle's departure effects the WWE for the rest of the year. He was a top 5 guy at the time so it's likely to be a blow to the company from a match standpoint.

1954.9.24 Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Jim Lewis This was an interesting clip. Jim Lewis was a skilled welterweight , who actually rose to the top of his division in the 1950s, but chose to do a Gorgeous George style gimmick while before the likes of Adrian Street or Bobby Barnes. The clip doesn't show him doing anything overtly promiscuous, so I don't know how far he leaned into that side of the gimmick, but he threw a chair in the ring and kicked Rene in the groin after the bout, which led to Rene choking him out with his towel. A lively clip to say the least.

1950.3.1 Al Cabrol vs. Jim Hussey Jim Hussey was the father of Mark "Rollerball" Rocco. He was a bigger man than his son, with a square build, but very skillful and athletic for his size. The apple didn't fall far from the tree in terms of pace and intensity. Even in this clip, Hussey is always busy and pushing the pace. He's another guy Walton always spoke highly of, and I imagine he had some good matches on TV. 1950.10.29 Charles Rigoulot vs. Jack Pye Jack Pye was one of the biggest legends in the history of British wrestling. He was an infamous rulebreaker and one of the great heels of the pre and post-war eras, and while his tactics would have been too rough for the televised era, he set the blueprint for the heels that followed in terms of his ability to work the crowd and send them into fits of anger. He was a tough wrestler and former coalminer, which lent an air of credibility to his violence. I've only see one other clip of his which shows off more of his wrestling acumen. He was much younger and lighter than here. The focus was mostly on Rigoulot, for obvious reasons, but Pye got in some decent licks. Boy, they sure did like their big men in this era. There are some large heavyweights in this clips and a lot of meat in the ring. They were highly skillful compared to some of the larger heavyweights that came along decades later (not naming any names), though I suspect they were fitter men in their primes and had simply packed on the pounds. That said, across the continent the status of the big man seems to slowly fade as less and less heavyweights enter the sport.

Vassilios Mantopolous vs Gilbert Lemagouroux (1/24/85) Hard fought but surprisingly low key match for a studio bout. It made sense from a wrestling perspective as Lemagouroux spent the entire bout trying to ground Mantopolous, but I would have expected a bit more razzle dazzle from a stylist like Vassilios. I also thought Lemagouroux was somewhat limited in his role. When he did ground his man all he could really do to him is stomp him and throw a manchette. Eddy Wiecz vs Roger Delaporte It's been a while since I've seen Delaporte peacock around a ring. He really was one of the great pantomime heels. I've said many times before that I dislike Carpentier's work in France, but he did a good job of dishing out punishment in this bout. He overdid the savate kick, and there was too much bullshit with the ref, but overall I thought he projected a tough-as-nails image. He certainly wasn't able to take any shit from anybody. Everything felt well rehearsed, and I imagine Wiecz and Delaporte had this same match a million times, but it was well received by the studio audience and further proof of the mastery of Roger Delaporte.

It's almost been a month and nothing. I don't understand why we need approval to post new posts in the database if Wrestling Playlists has superseded it. Are we supposed to stop making new posts?

This ECW revival in 2006 is kind of a weird moment in WWE history, but I suppose there was a deep-seated desire to expand the number of brands. I wonder what Angle made of the position he was in. If he was unhappy it didn't show during the match. On paper, this seems like an awful matchup, but the bout was surprisingly good. Instead of an out and out spot fest, it was a legitimate wrestling match. As a viewer, you just want to see something hard fought with some twists and turns that don't involve outside interference, and that was what they delivered. I'm a big fan of when they save the bullshit for after the bell and they accomplished that here despite Edge being at ringside.

1951.1.19 Claude Montourcy vs. Tommy Mann 1954.4.30 Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Tommy Mann We had already gotten Tommy Mann matches from the archives, but these clips reinforced that Mann was a class performer. I would go out of my way to watch any Tommy Mann footage we can find. 1953.2.27 Gilbert Leduc vs. Jim Oliver 1956.2.15air Jim Oliver vs. Bill Howes Jim Oliver was the brother of Tony Oliver. IIRC, we have some of his matches already. He was the heavier of the two. Solid heavyweight. Skilled grappler. His brother left a huge impression on people, but this guy's more of a quiet achiever. The Howes clip was the shortest of the bunch, which was unfortunate as Howes was a hugely skilled British wrestler.

I'm glad we're on the same page over this stuff. Those Rene clips are insane. I wonder where he got the notion to do some of this stuff from. There was a lot of innovative looking stuff in the Kidd clips too, so I guess Europe was ahead of the curve at this point. I do wonder if there was any resistance towards this type of work at the time.

1950.10.6 Mike Marino vs. Marcel Manuel A young Mike Marino. Kent Walton used to rave about Marino. He was one of Walton's all-time favorites. Now whether that was because he had a close personal relationship with Marino or because Marino was the matchmaker at the time, we'll never know. As a wrestling fan, you'd like to think Walton was a wrestling connoisseur, but Walton had a public face and a private one and you can't explicitly trust everything he says on screen. Nevertheless, the footage we have of Marino is mostly from the 70s where he would work four round showcase matches that were typically dry but interesting nonetheless. Here, he was young, spry, quick on his feet and full of vigor. I don't know if this was how he was when he first appeared on British screens, but if this is the Marino that Walton was so fond of then I completely get it. Very hard-nosed and skilled.

Man, I watched Leduc vs. Dale again, and even though the clip is only 5 minutes long, it feels like one of the best fights you've ever seen. It's the gold standard for forearm smashes, that's for sure.