ohtani's jacket

Le Petit Prince vs. Michel Saulnier (aired 10/4/69) This wasn't wholly satisfying for me. The constant interruption of the paintings and music was irritating for me and I struggled to get into the rhythm of the match. I watched this twice and it reminded me of the old Rey Mysterio Jr vs. Dean Malenko chestnut where it makes perfect sense for the wrestler to ground the high flyer but you're denying the audience the most exciting part of the match. This was great whenever they did rope spots, and the final 10 minutes were exciting, but I didn't really appreciate Saulnier cutting off the Prince early on and would have preferred a grittier struggle on the mat. Then again, we may have gotten that and I didn't notice because of those overlays. Zarak vs. Walter Bordes (aired 3/12/77) Zarak was one of the many alter-egos of British wrestler, Dave Larsen. Larsen was part of the Lincoln stable of wrestlers, and if you've been following my posts you'll know that the Lincoln wrestlers (Hayes, Hunter, Anthony, Larsen) had a direct pathway to Paris. This was well after the Lincoln merger with Joint Promotions, and Larsen had apparently disappeared from the British scene at this point. Zarak was, without a doubt, the cockiest masked wrestler I have ever seen. The swagger was amazing. He actually made Bordes crack up during the intros. The match played out exactly as you'd expect. It wasn't bad but it wasn't the most authentic catch. You may notice the chant "Mamadou Meme" during Bordes' matches. Mamaodu Meme was a popular song by Nino Ferrer. I'm not sure how it became a rallying fall for Bordes but you hear it a lot. Billy Catanzaro & Gilbert Lemagouroux vs. Albert Sanniez & Bob Remy (aired 3/12/71) Catanzaro as a comedy heel? I'm guessing most people aren't familiar with this part of his career. This was disappointing for me on a number of levels. IInteres guess if you can accept Catanzaro playing the buffoon you may enjoy it more than I do, but I was really looking forward to see Catanzaro vs. Sanniez, and while they had some fun exchanges together, it was built around Sanniez making Catanzaro looking foolish instead of two great workers squaring off. And Gilbert Lemagouroux (or Le Magouroux, however it's written) wasn't anything like I expected. I had this impression that he would be awesome because he was Catanzaro's partner and because he looked good in pictures. Not the case in this match. Catanzaro was pretty old here, and others may find more value in his comedy routine than I did, but this wasn't the bout I was hoping for at all. Interestingly, the TV listing for this match screwed the pairings up: re Roger Delaporte & Paul Villars vs. Gordon Nelson & Bud Cody (aired 7/25/58) This was really early on in Nelson's career. He qualified for the 1952 and 1956 Olympics but lack a lack of funds prevented the Canadian Olympic team from taking freestyle wrestlers to the Games. He needed to find sponsorship for '56 but wasn't able to. Frustrated, he turned his attention to pro-wrestling and began his training in Winnipeg. He sent a letter to Jack Dale of Dale Martin Promotions and made his start in England. He worked in England for the better part of 12 years (as himself and the masked Outlaw) before moving to the States and becoming Mr. Wrestling. I'm 99% sure that his partner is fellow Canadian, Bud Cody, for the following reasons: the commentator keeps calling him Cody, he was working the German tournaments that year, and more importantly, it looks like him. This was a brawl and didn't resemble catch as such, but I'm sure that suited Delaporte and Villars more than a technical match would. We didn't get to see much of Nelson's technical acumen, except for one cool pinning maneuver, but it was hugely entertaining and the most fun of any of the bouts I watched today. Cody was the star of the show for his side. He took the fight to the Frenchman and they obliged by stooging as well as any heels you care to name. Delaporte had this skit between rounds where he had a go with his second. This delighted me as I'd never seen it done before and I've seen a shit ton of European wrestling. The match was 40 minutes long but the action never let up and the match just whizzed by. The finish was a glorious bit of cheating and the heels' selling at the end was sublime. Delaporte and Villars' stock shot up in my book, and after sitting through a lot of mediocre tag matches from the 50s, this set a new bar for me for how good these 50s tag matches can be.

Le Petit Prince vs. Michel Saulnier (aired 1/1/68) This was the final 10 minutes of a draw. It was interesting to see the contrast in styles between Le Petit Prince and his tricked out moves and the legit amateur champion and base, Saulnier. Jacky Corn vs. Pierre Rouanet (aired 1/1/68) I'm pretty sure this is Pierre Rouanet. This was match was going nowhere until Rouanet gave Corn a hard shot and Corn gave Rouanet a receipt. After that it was pretty intense. I couldn't figure out if they were being intentionally stiff or if there was some bad feeling between them. Rouanet looked pretty sore at the end and his selling seemed too good for a run-of-the-mill match like this. I've never seen a catch bout where this stiff, and Corn featured twice already in the footage Segunda Caida has reviewed and no mention was made of him being stiff. At least it made for an intriguing bout.

Le Petit Prince vs. Bobby Genele (aired 5/22/66) This was an early television appearance by Le Petit Prince. Apparently, his first televised match was against Jean Ferre (Andre the Giant.) The Prince was from Audincourt in Eastern France. His father was Swiss and his mother was Italian. He came from a background in gymnastics. From all accounts, he won many gymnastics titles and was selected to represent France at the Olympics but was forced to withdraw due to injury. Fortunately, he also had a passion for Greco-Roman wrestling, and together with his younger brothers, he developed a style of artistic wrestling that mixed wrestling with acrobatics. The brothers would try their luck at so-called "wrestling huts" at patronal feasts in the Franche-Comte area where they grew up and later in the Paris region. I don't really know what these wrestling huts were. I'm not sure if they involved taking on a hooker of if they involved some type of worked wrestling performance. In any event, that was where the Prince was discovered. As I mentioned the other day, he was discovered by the manager, Robert Lageat, who was one of the big matchmakers in Paris along with Étienne Siry and Maurice Durand. Originally, he took the stage name Alberic d'Ericourt. You can hear the commentator and ring announcer refer to him by that name during the match. Le Petit Prince was a nickname that Couderc gave him. Bobby Genele was a skinny-looking kid who didn't like being made fun of by d'Ericourt's fancy moves. So he started beating on him. The Prince was in his first year as a pro, so he wasn't as polished as he'd become. But this was still entertaining. Guy Renault vs. Michel Saulnier (aired 10/9/72) This was late in Saulnier's career, You could see he was starting to lose his hair a bit. I've been reading into Saulnier and he was a really good amateur. He was almost selected for the 1956 Olympics but lost out to Andre Zoete, who ended up representing France in three straight Olympics ('56, '60 and '64.) I've noticed that one of the reasons why France seems to have so many "champions" is that they like to herald the amateur successes of their wrestlers. There are a lot of wrestlers during this era who "almost" made the Olympics, but Saulnier seems to have made the French team. Injuries forced him to retire from catch in the 70s. He ended up becoming a referee and dabbling in promoting and training. Renault was working a Teddy Boy gimmick here. He ended up forming a successful tag team with Bobby Genele that were a Teddy Boys for the 70s. The match wasn't bad but Saulnier was a bit long in the tooth. Inca Peruano vs. Jose Arroyo (aired 12/30/60) Inca Peruano gets lost in the shuffle during the 60s but what an excellent worker. I wanted to check this out because Jose Arroyo is a name that appears a lot and I wanted to see if he was another great Spanish worker. He was solid, but it was Inca Peruano who stole the show. He could not only work a storyline to rile the Parisians up, but he could wrestle too. Not necessarily in the amateur sense, but in the professional sense. He knew holds -- how to counter them, how to bump for them, how to sell for them, what to do and when to do it. As far as I can see, he was a consummate pro. Spartacus vs. Hans Schnabel (aired 1/7/61) I created some confusion when I talked about Spartacus' arrest. The story happened in 1999 when Pecheur was 67 years old. Here is the Forbes story if you anyone is interested -- https://www.forbes.com/global/2003/0331/020.html#99a46bb3eb5d This wasn't the Hans Schnabel who wrestled in the US at the time. I think this was a German guy. He was TKO'ed in this bout and jobbed hard.

Guy Mercier vs. Peter Kayser (aired 8/22/70) This was a return match from their May bout. More of a straight heel vs. face affair, which was less interesting (to me, anyway.) Mercier looks like he was heavily influenced by Leduc. He does the same headspin but it doesn't look as good. I'm not at the stage yet where I can recognize the venues they're working by name, but I can distinguish them visually, and I wonder if they work differently depending on the venue. This had some bruising moments but the first match was better. Michel Saulnier vs. Ricardo Torres (aired 8/14/71) Another neat performance from Saulnier. Torres was supposedly the son of L'Ange Blanc, Since Saulnier was a trainer, I kind of saw this as Saulnier putting young Torres through his paces. The match had a lot of pure wrestling sequences without any arc or build, and there was no real narrative, but the wrestling was cool. Le Petit Prince vs. Daniel Noced (aired 3/16/73) This was an important match-up for me. Up until now we've seen the Prince take on great workers like Saulnier and Sanniez. This time he was taking on a larger opponent who wasn't as quick or as talented. It seemed like a good litmus test for the Prince's skills. Noced was game. A bit like Rouxel only a better performer. He gave a big man performance that I think a lot of people will like, and I probably did him wrong by underselling his ability, but the Prince really shone here. He was lightning quick and did incredible moves, but he could also wrestle and sell a beating. There have been plenty of phenoms over the years who could do one thing or the other, but rarely has there been a total package like the Prince. History hasn't been kind to the Prince. He's not that well remembered outside of France. Hopefully we can change that. If you enjoy lightweight action, you owe it to yourself to check him out.

Spartacus vs Jack Van Dooren (aired 7/1/60) This wasn't as exciting as the Husberg match since Van Dooren was a bigger man and not as quick, but it was solid and continued the rather unique babyface run of our Roman gladiator inspired Frenchman. Quasimodo vs. Josef Kovacs (aired 1/14/60) I always impresses me how committed Victor Castilla was to the Quasimodo gimmick. He was almost like wrestling's version of a character actor. Personally, I couldn't understand the matchmaking here. Why book the smaller Quasimodo against the huge Hungarian wrestler, Kovacs? Kovacs himself was often a heel billed as the "Butcher from Budapest" and had an impressive airplane spin hold where he threw his opponent at the end. Quasimodo had the advantage here for a while before Kovacs swatted him away. Rene Ben Chemoul & Walter Bordes vs. Kamikaze I & Kamikaze II (aired 12/26/68) Well, this is confusing. I'm pretty sure that Les Kamikazes were the Spanish versions but neither guy removed their mask. I guess we don't have an accurate timeline on when Kamikaze I lost his mask, or perhaps he kept using it in France. In any event, the match was more about Chemoul and Bordes than it was the Kamikazes. This felt like a better reflection of what made Chemoul so beloved. He gave a fiery and passionate performance. He danced salsa when he was winning and shed tears when his prodigy was in trouble. I was surprised by how good Bordes was. I didn't expect him to be be so smooth. The match was formulaic but entertaining. Les Kamikazes were strange and exotic and shifty enough to make decent foils for the babyfaces, and the team of Chemoul and Bordes shone.

Michel Saulnier vs. Jean Rabut (aired 6/20/65) Ladies and gentlemen, do we have a new super worker? I know the Segunda Caida guys are planning to do a spotlight on Saulnier vs. Le Petit Prince this week so I don't want to steal too much of their thunder, but Saulnier seems like he was an amazing talent. He was a small man, barely five foot tall, but fast and incredibly skilled. He had a strong amateur background in Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling and was a class act. It was actually Saulnier who was assigned to train Le Petit Prince after the Prince was discovered by Parisian manager, Robert Lageat. This was a neat showcase for his skills, and fortunately there is more to come. Guy Mercier vs. Peter Kayser (aired 5/2/70) Kayser looked like an intimidating prospect. He was a nasty looking German with a shaved head who reminded me of a bigger Steve Wright. He was the nephew of the German wrestler and promoter, Gustl Kaiser, and a German amateur champion. In Billy Robinson's book, he says Kayser challenged him to a private match and Billy pinned or submitted him 13 times while Kayser pinned him once, but I figure if Kayser could pin Robinson once he can't have been too bad. Mercier looked like the real deal too, but I need to see more of him. He had a bit of Marty Jones about him. In fact, this match reminded me of that episode of WoS where Steve Wright randomly appears as Bull Blitzer and has a barn burner with Jones. Jacky Montalier vs. La Bete Humaine (aired 2/8/71) This has to be seen to be believed (or maybe not since it's not that good.)

James Brown vs. Robert Gastel (aired 1/14/60) I'd love to make some James Brown jokes, but it seems that was this cat's real name. Brown was an American who came over to Europe as part of the Armed Forces. He was based in Frankfurt and began wrestling there. Later, he moved to Paris. He was a super athletic guy and had a nice flying head scissors. It's said he died in a car crash in 1965, but we have footage of him from 1966 so he must have died some time later. This was a decent bout but a tad pedestrian. Everyone's favourite bludgeoner, Gastel, never really got his motor running. I finally got to see James Brown in action, however, after his name sticking on match lists like a sore thumb. Spartacus vs. Eric Husberg (aired 4/29/60) Spartacus was French wrestler, Jacques Pecheur. Spartacus wasn't just a nickname either. He came to the ring with an awesome gladiator costume, pretty much the splitting image of Kirk Douglas. And he could wrestle too. I was quite impressed with this bout. His opponent was Finnish wrestler, Eric Husberg, who at one time was nicknamed "The Nordic Marvel" but is mostly remembered these days as Cheri Bibi's tag partner. As far as I'm concerned, this was a bit of a gem. Unbelievably, Pecheur ended up becoming a killer for hire. He was hired to murder, Gaston Glock, the Austrian gun maker, to cover up embezzlement of Glock's firm, but Glock was able to beat Pecheur into unconsciousness, and our Spartacus was sentenced to 17 years in prison. James Brown vs. Kiyomigawa (aired 3/29/63) Kiyomigawa is an interesting story. He was a former sumo wrestler who became one of the early Japanese pro-wrestlers in the 1950s. The early promotions all folded due to mismanagement and for whatever reasons Kiyomigawa, divorced and separated from his family, headed overseas and wrestled his way around the world. He traveled to Mexico, South America, Africa, Europe, the States, and other parts of the world. He finally returned to Japan in 1970 and was involved in the wrestling business in various different aspects. He helped book Japanese wrestlers in the German tournaments, was the referee for the big Inoki vs Strong Kobayashi bout in '74 and became a trainer for All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling. He was actually one of the trainers of the Beauty Pair, Jackie Sato and Maki Ueda. I can't honestly say he was very good. Most of the early Japanese wrestlers weren't that great. He had a weird physique and his wrestling style was reminiscent of Baba. But he's another guy whose story isn't well known.

Tony Oliver vs. Serge Gentilly (aired 1/1/59) We get another Tony Oliver match, which is a treat. This isn't as good as the Bert Royal match, but it's still a solid performance from Oliver. He isn't quite as imposing a heel as he was against Royal, but you get to see him wrestle a bit more and he does have some grouchy moments. Gentilly is another one of those youngish French talents that have been popping up. He's not bad, but he doesn't have a strong personality. The main thing is that we have another Oliver match on tape, which is a bonus. Kamikaze vs. Nicolas Priore (aired 5/22/71) I'm pretty sure that this is the original Kamikaze, Modesto Aledo. It certainly looks like him. Kamikaze was basically a gimmick like Black Man or Great Sasuke. He was dressed completely in black with an oriental looking mask, and wrestled in Valentin Maldonado's words: "a very violent and unorthodox style, mixing cheating, martial arts, mat wrestling and an incredible aerial ability," which, to me, sounds pretty revolutionary for the 1960s. He lost the mask in 1965, but he wore it to the ring here as part of his entrance. When he took it off, there was something strange about his face. I couldn't quite figure out how he did it, but he looked as though he was deformed. Now according to the Wrestling Heritage guys, the way the gimmick was pushed in the UK was that Kamikaze refused to take his mask off even if he lost because his face had been badly burned in the Korean War. I'm not sure of the validity of that, and the Wrestling Heritage guys seem to have all sorts of theories about who was behind the mask (more than likely some UK imitators), but in any event, the Kamikaze here looked creepy as fuck, especially with the grainy footage. Nicolas Priore was a well-built Italian guy, but that doesn't really matter. I spent most of this bout trying to get a better look at Kamikaze's face. He didn't really do the athletic spots he was famed for, but he was aggressive. He kept bowing to the ref whenever he was cautioned and was a pretty odd customer in general. There was a second Kamikaze as well, and the two tag together in some of the footage we have, so I guess we will learn more about him as time goes by. George Cohen & Gass Doukhan vs. M'Boaba & Karl von Kramer (aired 9/14/68) Sticking with the gimmick wrestlers, this was a brief, incomplete clip of M'Boaba, or N'Boa the Snakeman, as he was billed in the UK. He was billed from deepest, darkest Africa and had a handler with him that was dressed a bit like Kim Chee. He used to bring a python to the ring with him in the UK but sadly there was no snake here. He was actually Bob Elandon, a wrestler from the Belgium Congo, and I've gotta tell you, I've seen better wild man acts. There was a Karl von Kramer in the UK who's real name was Jack Land, but I am pretty sure that the Jack von Kramer here was a guy named Michel Laurent. I want to say they say they billed him as Swiss. George Cohen and Gass Doukhan were French based Israeli wrestlers, I believe. These wrestled together as an Israeli tag team. The crowd was wild for this. They gathered around the ring and shook the bottom rope to spur the Israelis on and they wanted a piece of Kramer. There was a really cool surfboard type spot in the corner where Kramer was bounced up and down like a trampoline.

Antonio Montoro vs. Inca Peruano (aired 11/18/60) We only get a few minutes of this, which is a shame because it looked like a much more exciting bout than Montoro's other match. And he looked a shit ton better. L'Ange Blanc vs. Andre Bollet '(aired 11/18/60) This was disappointing. Bollet's act is starting to wear a bit thin with me. L'Ange Blanc was a passenger in this when really he should have been blazing his way across the screen. Bollet's matches tend to be long and drawn out and don't offer much in the way of wrestling. I would have loved to have seen a really intense, heated encounter but the action only picked up when Bollet and Delaporte attacked L'Ange after the bout. Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Comte de Diadone (Guiseppe Diadone) (aired 3/10/67) I'm still waiting for a match where Chemoul lives up to his reputation but this was closer to what you'd expect. The only trouble was that his opponent was average. I'm not sure how Diadone was billed here. He was one of those workers who used different variations of his ring name. It sounded like the commentator called him Comte de Guiseppe Diadone. I just went with Comte de Diadone since that was the name he most commonly used. He was a bearded Italian who worked an aristocratic gimmick. Vassilios Mantopoulos vs. Jack Rouxel (aired 6/29/67) This was a catchweight contest. It was a bit ho-hum in the beginning. Mantopoulous danced around a lot while Rouxel appeared to be one of the least talented guys in the footage to date. But little by little the action improved and I began to appreciate the effort Rouxel was making to bump and sell for the smaller star. In the end, it was a decent contest. The finish was fun. Rouxel was locked in the George Kidd ball, and for a big man he sold it extremely well.

Albert Sanniez vs. Guy Cavillier (aired 2/1/69) This was another brilliant performance from Sanniez. I'm just about ready to anoint him at the same level as Jim Breaks, Steve Grey and Jon Cortez. Here he was wrestling that goofy looking bugger from Tuesday's Segunda Caida review and he made him look totally credible. The only downer with this was the no contest injury finish. Aside from that it was a terrific contest. Gilbert Leduc vs. Geoff Portz (aired 10/19/62) Geoff Portz was one of the great British heavyweights of this era. It may not seem like it but this footage is almost the same as getting a Georges Gordienko match or some early Billy Robinson. Everything they say about Portz is true. Just a pure wrestler through and through. He's the first guy I've seen give Leduc a run for his money in terms of how legit he seemed. This was a wonderful exhibition of catch. The finish was a bit soft but the wrestling wasn't. Andre Bollet vs. Franz van Buyten (aired 1/1/69) Catch was getting all experimental at this stage. This had the commentary broadcast throughout the area. The bout featured a lot of cheap shots from Bollet and angry responses from van Buyten. I'm not a fan of this type of wrestling, and personally I think it's a waste of van Buyten's talents, but I did enjoy Bollet's bag of tricks.

Yeah, you can find some information about his US career here -- http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=002139

Edouard Carpentier vs. Robert Duranton (aired 3/24/62) I couldn't get into this one. I'm not the biggest fan of Carpentier to begin with, and this is one of those bouts where the face pretty much picks on the heel and humiliates him for the entire bout. They never really engage in any wrestling, but Couderc laughed his ass off. It might have been better if Duranton was more outrageous but he kind of plays it straight (not sure if that's a pun.) Also, this is 60s Carpentier and I have yet to see anyone from the 50s Chicago footage that looked as good in the 60s.

Le Petit Prince vs. Albert Sanniez (aired 10/15/77) Robert Duranton appeared at the beginning of this in a giant fur coat. Then he took his coat and shirt off and posed for the crowd. God knows why you'd have Duranton do that before a lightweight bout. It was like an NWO wrestler doing a run-in during a cruiser weight contest. He sat next to the commentator for the entire bout but didn't have much to say. The Prince wore glasses as part of his ring attire but they weren't cool. The match, on the other hand, was outstanding. Sanniez is one of my favourite guys in the entire collection and one of the real bright spots during catch's decline. Great worker, great wrestler, and great heel. He was a tremendous base for the Prince, a wrestler who could have felt really played out in 1977 but felt fresh again thanks to Sanniez. There was some bullshit with the ref (an element that seemed to creep into a lot of the later catch), but it built to an exciting flurry at the end. The crowd was really into this. They brought back the outside brawling spot from the 50s. This was definitely make my list of recommended matches. Dave Bond vs. Pete Roberts (aired 2/27/78) Imagine my surprise seeing Pete Roberts and Dave Bond wrestle on French TV in 1978. We get less than 10 minutes of this but the action is good. Roberts is one of my favorite British wrestlers and one of the most overlooked/underrated workers of all-time. Any time we some action from him in his prime it's a good day. The crowd actually gave them an ovation at the end so it must have been a pretty good bout. Couderc tried to speak to Roberts in English when he tumbled to the floor. I love it when Couderc does that.

Lino di Santo vs. Michel Allary (aired 6/7/57) This was a nice little match. Allary was a young prospect who we saw a lot of in the ALPRA footage. Lino di Santo was the European champion guiding him through his paces. Again we saw a lot of focus on leg strength. Leg scissors and head scissors work is quickly becoming a staple of 50s catch. There's been a lot of talk about the Spaniards in this footage but don't overlook the Italians. Pellacani and di Santo have both been solid thus far.

Gaston Maujean vs. Guy Cavillier (aired 5/30/57) Match labeling let the side down this week. The guy in the leopard skin trunks is actually Guy Cavillier. The bald guy who beats the snot out of him is Gaston Maujean. I thought the match was all right even if Cavillier did seem a bit off. Gilbert Leduc vs. Warnia de Zarzecki (aired 5/30/57) This was a fantastic wrestling match. I'm totally sold on the idea of Leduc being The Guy. He was in his prime here, the World Champion and Prince de la Lutte Professionnelle. He carried himself as well as anyone I've seen from the 50s and that includes Thesz and Gagne. Note the tape over the eye. That's a side of Leduc I haven't explored yet -- the sympathetic babyface being savaged by cruel and brutal men. ] This was as good a wrestling contest as I've seen in a while, and de Zarzecki played his part. I thought it might be a bit of a golf clap bout, but it was hard fought and physical. A lot of great strength holds. Leduc looked a cut above de Zarzecki, but I feel like Leduc respected the Pole. I don't want to burn through all the Leduc we have, but it sure is tempting.

Gilbert Leduc vs. Bert Mychel (aired 12/12/70 or 4/12/71) Gilbert Leduc vs. Bert Mychel (aired 4/16/73) Gilbert Leduc was one of the greatest wrestlers that France has known. Nicknamed "The Gentleman of the Ring," he was a long time European and World Champion. I guess he was comparable to a guy like Mike Marino, who was a perennial champion and a cornerstone of the professional game. His specialty was "La Toupie," which was a vertical escape from a heads scissors. Apparently, he could get nine rotations on his head spin, with legend having it that no other wrestler could get close to that number. Bert Mychel was an amateur wrestler who competed at the 1960 and 1964 Olympics. You can imagine the catch that these two put on. The first match was a gentlemanly bout of catch with both men saluting each other. The second bout was a nitty, gritty affair that showed a rougher side to the gentleman's game. There was some sort of nitrate decomposition on the film that made it looked like both men were burning up in flames. I enjoyed the contrast between bouts. Catch was one life support at this point but nobody told these guys. This is the only Mychel we get, sadly, but Leduc is featured in plenty more matches.

L'Ange Blanc vs. Paul Villars (aired 1/9/59) Watching this match was surreal. It was a bit like having footage of the original El Santo. Up until now we've only had clips of L'Ange Blanc just like we only have footage of Santo from his movies. Because of that, he hasn't really been on my catch radar. I've been aware of his existence but my catch journey has been in pursuit of more matches like Cesca vs. Catanzaro. The idea behind L'Ange Blanc was that he was an avenger against the hoard of French villains. Couderc claims that he came up with the gimmick and the costume design. Like all masked men, his identity remained shrouded in mystery. He was billed as South American but rumours had it he was the son of a French diplomat. In reality, he was a wrestler from Madrid who really did get his start in South America. In fact, I believe he moved to France after the Venezuelan coup in 1958 but that information is loosely scraped together. In any event, he took off in 1959. I'm not sure if this is his debut match or not. Legend has it that his debut drew a crowd of 15,000 to the Palais des Sports and that the TV station's phones rang off the hook. He grew so popular that he was part of the 1959 Tour de France, wrestling a match each night at the stopover towns. He also had imitators throughout the country on a nightly basis. It was a similar story to other superhero success stories in wrestling. The same mythos of good vs. evil that resonated strongly to a post-war generation, articulated by the passionate cries of Roger Couderc. Despite the fact that he looked like a luchador, the French venues, and the artwork for the bills he appeared on, almost gave it a gothic or expressionist feel to me. As for his wrestling, it's important to remember that he was a heavyweight and a welterweight or middleweight like the great workers of the day, but if this is your number one babyface you could do worse. He wasn't a master technician but he was definitely a decent one. He put Villars to sleep at the end of the match then revived him after the bout much to the crowd's delight. It's impossible to say enough about Paul Villars' moustache. Possibly the greatest moustache in wrestling history. Definitely the most villainous. He cut a promo with Couderc before the bout, which was something I hadn't seen before. This was definitely an important piece of footage. We only have one more match with L'Ange Blanc in the mask and nothing from his legendary feud with Le Bourreau de Bethune, which was considered to be the McManus vs. Pallo of French catch. The rest of the footage is after he unmasked. So an important document, for sure. And a whole new chapter in the narrative that we're trying to piece together.