ohtani's jacket

The only doubt I have over Kasbarian being the original L'Homme Masque is that it appears that you can see some hair sticking out of the bottom of the mask, and the hair appears to be blonde. L'Homme Masque vs. L'Ange Blanc (aired 12/13/69) This was better than I expected. I'm pretty sure this was Voiney as he had a huge build. Voiney was shorter than Kasbarian but he had a bigger build, especially his legs. I spent an absurd amount of time comparing their calf muscles. The next thing you know, I'm gonna be reading bodybuilding magazines. The real reason I think this is Voiney is that L'Homme Masque was surprisingly good at working working holds. That's something I've seen from Voiney before, but not Kasbarian. L'Homme Masque flat out dominated this match. He took maybe 80% of it. It was kind of weird because L'Ange Blanc was all smiles and waves, but he got his ass pinned to the mat. A balding, happy-to-lucky L'Ange Blanc is not really my idea of some avenging angel, but this match was weird in general. Some dude showed up half way through with a pelican. I kid you not. I have no idea why he brought a pelican to ringside, but I kind of felt sorry for the poor thing as he was grasping it by the neck and it's head was flailing about. Despite there being a pelican at ringside, L'Ange Blanc couldn't seem to draw any inspiration. L'Homme Masque beat on his ass until finally he got himself disqualified. Then L'Ange Blanc actually celebrated and bowed to the audience like he'd accomplished something. A fitting idea to a surreal bout. Mammouth Siki vs. L'Homme Masque (aired 8/21/71) This was pretty damn good, and I never thought I'd catch myself saying that about a Mammouth Siki match. It was mostly strength holds with barely any movement except for two guys trying to hold each other down, but with the right sort of intensity you can get a contest out of that. Shit, I'd rather see two guys pin each other to the mat than waste my time doing shitty wear down holds. Again, this had to be Voiney because Kasbarian wasn't this good a worker. I usually hate ref involvement in a match, but this had one of the best ref spots I've seen in a while as Siki absolutely flung the ref into L'Homme Masque. That dude was like a torpedo. I should probably add that L'Homme Masque had his mask removed at one point, and it looked for all money like it was Voiney under the hood. I think it's definitely Voiney in these two bouts. I'm leaning towards it being Voiney in the '59 match, but the L'Homme Masque in that match is nowhere near as good a worker as in these two bouts. I have my doubts over the L'Homme Masque in the '62 match against Drapp. He seems taller and his legs are skinnier. Another masked wrestler: Daniel Boucard vs. Red Demon (aired 2/6/66) Man, Red Demon had some shitty ring attire. He had this weird gimmick where he would stop and freeze every time he landed a move. it seemed like he was some kind of Kamikaze ripoff, but every time he tried something athletic he was unbelievably awkward. I mean, he could barely get any height on the athletic spots he tried and almost fell on every landing. It just goes to show you the sheer athleticism that Kamikaze possessed, but Christ, who wants to be Kamikaze with lead feet? Apparently, a poor wrestler named Francis Bertin, that's who.

Thanks for the info, Phil. Voiney could have done double duty on that card. It wouldn't surprise me if there was more than one wrestler who played L'Homme Masque, but the 1959 version was a lot more muscular than Kasbarian. There is a L'Homme Masque match from later on where I thought he resembled Kasbarian. Perhaps the match against Drapp. Now I have to check out all of the L'Homme Masque matches.

I didn't have a problem with Marufuji vs. KENTA up until the suplex duel. After that, the rest of the match felt stupid. Not a match worth hating on, though. Just a really ill-advised sequence.

Vassilios Montopoulos vs. Anton Terejo (aired 10/21/67) This was all right. Terejo was a decent foil for Montopoulos' style of wrestling, but I would rather watch straight catch than lightweight wrestling at this point in time. Pat O'Connor vs. Paul Vachon (aired 5/23/65) No, Pat O'Connor is not that Pat O'Connor. It's the Belgian Pat O'Connor that no-one's ever heard of. Yes, Paul Vachon is that Paul Vachon. Hard to take anything away from this. Pretty typical heavyweight scrap. O'Connor wasn't a great opponent for showcasing how good Vachon may have been. Guy Mercier vs. Karl von Chenok (aired 12/16/67) There are times when Guy Mercier looks like a poor man's Gilbert Leduc, and then there are times when he looks like the second coming. This was definitely one of those matches where he looked like our savior. Karl von Chenok was an extremely limited worker, but he had a relentless, single-minded focus on that one nerve hold, and in this match, Mercier just keep hitting him in the face over and over again to break the hold. Every time he hit von Chenok, Chenok would dig in just a little bit more. These are the kind of minimalist bouts I love to watch. Simple execution, but beautiful to watch. It loosened up a bit toward the end, but if this isn't the best Mercier fight in the collection then I'd like to see one that's better. Francis Sullivan & Albert Sanniez vs. Bernard Caclard & Tony Martino (aired 10/21/67) This match was already available thanks to Bob ALPRA. I actually had no memory of watching this, but it's nice to see I sang its praises a few years ago and still liked it on the rewatch. I'm not sure how well it stands up now that we have so much footage to compare it to, but in the context of the late 60s, it's one of the better matches to make TV. The action is good, the heels are solid, and Sanniez is involved. The faces were a bit too peppy perhaps. I kind of prefer those stoic ones that get pissed and throw a dozen manchettes, but that's a small gripe.

Marcel Parmentier vs. Bob Plantin (aired 6/19/59) Serge Reggiori vs, Jacques Bernieres (aired 6/19/59) Look, it's a French catch tradition: the finish to a Marcel Parmentier match. If I'm not mistaken, Bob Plantin is our old friend, Bob ALPRA. This was a strange broadcast. I guess the promoters thought Davies would be a draw due to his size. I think I'd rather have seen Reggiori vs Bernieres in full, or better yet, L'Ange Blanc vs. Johnny Stein. It's odd that they kept L'Ange Blanc off TV for so long. I know there was a lot of trouble with imitators, but all of a sudden the TV feels dead. Claude Montourcy vs. Robert Gastel (aired 6/26/59) For some reason, Montourcy is doing a judoka gimmick here. I think it had something to do with Calderon wrestling von Chenok on the same card. Generally speaking, I'm a fan of wrestlers using judo in their matches, but not as a gimmick. This was kind of drab. Montourcy dislocated Gastel's shoulder at the end, and Calderon popped it back in for him, which was the same finish they used in the Calderon/Gastel match. They even did the same ringside interview afterward.

The SUWA match turned into a decent fight in the end, but I hate restarts so that soured me on it. Takayama is an absolute beast. I feel like I should be watching more Takayama fights than KENTA matches. Some of the offense KENTA was allowed to get in was unrealistic, but it's Japan. The Kobashi match was decent. I have a new appreciation for 2004 Kobashi. Nothing really grabbed me like the Danielson match.

Eddy Wiecz vs. Andre Bollet (aired 9/21/65) Aside from Andre, Edouard Carpentier is probably the most famous guy in the collection. You'd think it would be a major coup getting all of these matches of his, but it's not. For starters, he barely wrestled anything like the way he did in the States. In fact, he's barely recognizable as Edouard Carpentier. You could easily mistake him for another wrestler. A generic US heavy, too, not one of those cool, stoic French baby faces from the 1950s. This match was pure nonsense. A slow ass brawl with endless stalling and shitty ref spots. Bollet has been such a disappointment after my early pimping of him. Strictly a tag guy. His late 60s singles work is boring as shit. There was some good stuff here and there but a bunch of crap in between. I disliked this so much they put it in the collection twice. Andre Bollet & Jack Rouxel vs. Eddy Wiecz & Warnia de Zarzecki (aired 11/14/65) This was a massive improvement over the Bollet vs. Carpentier singles matches. Hide them in tag matches and cut the bullshit. What really helped here was that Rouxel was a straight mechant who didn't chew up the scenery like Bollet or Delaporte. I can't begin to explain how much I appreciated the lack of bullshit in this match. Andre Bollet & Roger Delaporte vs. Eddy Wiecz & Warnia de Zarzecki (aired 1/9/66) This swapped Rouxel for Delaporte, so there was more bullshit by default, but it was still better than the singles nightmare. Delaporte's act was a bit stale by this point. His late 50s tags are like watching Fats Domino whale away on a piano. They were rollicking joints. This had a bunch of ref bullshit, and I'm not fond of the ref or the bullshit. Bollet plays off Delaporte better than anything he does on his own, though.

Roger Delaporte vs. Roger Guettier (aired 5/30/59) My take on this was that with Delaporte renouncing his evil ways, Guettier was looking to beat some sense back into him and goad him into a heel-like response. Delaporte battled with his inner rage throughout and it damn near tore him part. Not a bad little sideshow, but more fuel for the fire in the sport vs. spectacle debate. Isha Israel vs. Jean Rabut (aired 6/4/59) Isha Israel was a heck of a wrestler and owned it as World Lightweight champ, though European title histories being the mess they are, it's difficult to know if this was the Spanish version of the belt, or the Italian, or the French, or just some random belt. Rabut was quick. I mean really quick. This was wrestled in front of a tiny crowd in an empty Elysee Montmartre, but they put on a classic. Definitely the "sport" to Delaporte's "spectacle." Not sure if the crowd was telling, but one of the best matches in the collection for sure.

Hopefully, Phil can shed more light on it, but this blog alludes to some trouble between the promoters and the TV producer, Raymond Marcillac. http://nostalgiecatch.blogspot.com/ I've also read that the promoters had an issue with Claude Darget, who was constantly "demystifying" catch during the broadcasts and in print.

It's a shame we didn't get that Dieter bout. That would have been a find.

I must have seen this before at some point, but I honestly can't remember. Ikeda was so fucking great. The match up here with Hashi was awesome. Great match from bell to bell. That concludes my walk through of your list. There were a couple of matches I couldn't find online. It may seem like I shat on a few of your picks, but that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy the list. It was eclectic, it was unique, and most importantly, it was never boring. Thanks for sharing it. I'll be sure to get to the KENTA recs soon.

Maybe. That was my take on it watching the match with a few beers last night. The next time I watch it I may think it's perfect.

Claude Montourcy/Gilbert Leduc vs. Karl von Chenok/Robert Gastel (aired 5/23/59) Interesting that we got the full match here. If this aired live, you'd expect it to go off the air before the finish. Thanks to Phil, we now know that the venue with the martini sign is in Drancy, a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris. The reason I mention that is because the crowd was hot for the entire bout. They really made this match, in my opinion. It was a good match, but I didn't really get a feel for it as a great match (at least on my first watch.) It was mostly guys working standard holds. The reason it didn't lag was because they were getting more heat than they deserved. Gastel and von Chenok seem like they were a regular tag team given their matching jackets. This was the first time that Gastel resembled the worker we first came across in the van Buyten bout. Montourcy and Leduc were an elite level stylistes team, so the chemistry was there between the two teams, but you could have cut this to the final 25 minutes and I would have gotten the gist. It was admirable watching them go broadway without a fall, but at the same time there was nothing advantageous about not having any falls. In fact, a one-all draw might have carried more weight than a time limit draw (though they seemed to announce Montourcy and Leduc as the winners regardless.) I guess it was impressive that neither team could score a fall, but they didn't really try until the end. I don't mean to sound as down on the match as I do. I just lean more toward it being a fun look at a group of wrestlers who we now know were a crew for the Salle Wagram promoters.

We have another sponsored match from the Russ Davis Collection -- Jean Noble vs. Joan Ballard (no sound.) Noble was the girl who did the Yulie Brynner gimmick. Nice action. Loved the takedowns and mat wrestling, as well as the brawling.

Thanks for the research, Phil, it's been a huge help. It no longer feels like we're prodding about in the dark looking for clues. Jean Bout vs. Jack van Dooren (aired 5/7/59) This was right up my alley. I'm always going to appreciate straight catch, and to me, Jean Bout is catch. This is the type of match that ends up disappearing from TV, so you should enjoy it while it lasts. I called it straight catch, but it turns into a heck of a fight. Frustrated real estate agent, Jack van Dooren, takes out his anger on his opponent. Unfortunately for van Dooren, his opponent is a wrestler. These guys worked through to at least the early 60s, but I guess they weren't gimmicky enough for what catch evolved into. I wonder if we can pin point the emergence of the masked wrestlers as the beginning of the gimmick flourish.

This was a great match. I know there have been folks pushing it as an overlooked classic in recent years. They're not wrong. This was Inoki at his best and Antonio Inoki ain't no joke. He was 45 years-old here and the talk was that he would retire if he couldn't win the title. The crowd was incredibly hot for the first 25 minutes or so. You'll rarely hear a crowd as split as this one. When Inoki was on offense, they wanted him to have one last run as champ. When Fujinami was on offense, they wanted him to finally prove himself as Inoki's successor. The draw was bittersweet, but it was a good bittersweet. Inoki was in tears and had the crowd urging him to continue. Fujinami was disappointed, but Inoki strapping the belt around his waist was a clear sign that the torch had been passed. They went hard in the first 25-30 minutes and barely took a moment's rest. The second half slowed a bit, and some people say they ran out of steam in last 10 minutes, but that's pretty realistic when you consider how hard they fought. Inoki looked like he trained hard for this fight. He may have even shed a bit of weight to increase his stamina. It was a tremendous performance from him. Fujinami was still in his prime right before the back injury. but Inoki was 45. C'mon, how many 45 year-old wrestlers have had a match this good?

What was the deal with the KENTA match? I have come away from this thread wanting to see more of his stuff.

I thought this was easily the best of the TNA matches that have been voted for in this project. A tag match inside a steel cage is a recipe for overkill, but this is exceptionally well worked. You can argue that they overdo it towards the end, but on a first watch that nearly-botched, tight rope walk hurricanrana was an insane spot, especially for a dude like me who hates heights. They probably could have ended it better than the 'turnabout is fair play' handcuffing and AMW doing Triple X's own move on them, but you can see the poeticism they were going for. The best thing about this was the blend of violence, blood and the stip. Not the cage match, but the losing team disbanding. That was a great stip.

Jean Corne vs. Jacky Richard (aired 8/7/77) The other night I was combing through the match lists looking for something interesting to watch. The first thing I found was a Marcel Montreal vs. Ted Lamar match. Sounds pretty good, right? Turns out it's a swimming pool match. Then I found a match labeled Jacky Corn vs. Jacky Richard. I like both guys, so I fired it up, but it was another swimming pool match. Ah well, I thought. I've never seen Jacky Corn in colour, I might as well give it a go. Turns out it was Jean Corne instead. Corne is one of the best to do it, so I decided it watch it anyway. Bad idea. Total house show match and not worth watching. Why are there so many swimming pool matches? Who promoted these? Why did they go out to the suburbs instead of using an inner city venue? If you've seen one of these matches, how can you enjoy more? The only good thing I've ever seen in a swimming pool ring is Fred Magnier's bumps. Crazy. Ivan Strogoff & Le Grand Vladmir vs. Franz van Buyten & Daniel van Buyten (aired 8/14/78) Daniel van Buyten is Franz van Buyten's brother and wrestles exactly like him, which isn't a bad thing. You know exactly what you're getting with Strogoff and Vladmir, but they're good workers and excel at their bruiser roles. There's a really nice dynamic in this match between the van Buyten's razzmatazz and the heels' clubbering. Solid tag that ends with both teams brawling. Lola Garcia vs. Brigitte Borne (aired 7/15/78) Man, these girls were so quick and everything they did was tricked out. This was easily one of the best matches of the 70s as far as I'm concerned. Garcia ended up playing the heel and working Borne over a bit when I could have easily lived with more tricked out shit, but it was still an excellent contest. Georges Cohen vs. Chico de Oro (aired 2/23/74) Beautiful match. Cohen is one of the masters of the style and has risen immeasurably in my opinion from the Bob ALPA footage. The name Chico de Oro sounds like some fantastic luchador, but he's more like a golden haired type. I'm not sure if he was a South American or not, but he wrestled the light heavyweight style with flair and panache. This was as good as anything on WoS in '74 and that definitely hasn't been the case with the rest of the early 70s footage.

Is it just me or do Marufuji's hairstyle and ring gear improve the more established he becomes? This was a bit of a slow burner that turned into a pretty good match, but the most notable thing about it was the result. It was a bit of a shock to me since I basically didn't follow Japanese wrestling in the 00s. Didn't see that coming at all. Was it a surprise at the time?

Phil, if there are newspaper listings of what we're missing from the 60s, that would be great. I realize it's not the priority right now with the research you're doing. I'm curious whether catch had a straight run on TV through the 60s or if the decline in popularity affected how often it aired.

Talk about a match that won me over. At the beginning of this match, I was thinking about how I just don't get Honda and maybe I'm expecting too much from him because he was a legit amateur but his shit doesn't look that good to me, and how I have a new found respect for Kobashi after watching his 00s matches, but this wasn't one of the better ones. Then Honda went after Kobashi's injured arm and the rest of the bout was amazing. Honda as a shoot style brawler in a pro-style promotion worked perfectly, and every move he did on the arm looked insane. Kobashi switched into big match mode, and without sounding like I'm preaching to the choir, he has to be in the upper echelon of big match workers. There might have been a slight miscue with a no sell in the finishing stretch, but I was so happy that he finished it with the lariat. Kobashi's lariat at this stage was the heir apparent to Hansen, and obviously there is history there. I don't know how to rate this as a match, but the hook of Honda going after the arm was something special for me. I know the hook for the audience was supposed to be the earlier ramp spot, but I was hating on the match at that point. I hope there is more shoot-brawl stuff from Honda.

This was an intriguing pick. It was a decent fight, but they spent a hell of a lot of time hiding foreign objects in their masks or trunks to the bemusement of the Japanese fans. It wasn't much of a showcase for how great Beyer was, either. The Spirit cut a dodgy as fuck promo afterward. Not sure how that slipped under the radar all these years.

Some stuff from '73: Robert Duranton vs. Ted Lamar (aired 7/26/73) Duranton is doing a gladiator gimmick in this. Lamar keeps him honest throughout and tries to mat wrestle, but Duranton's skills haven't improved much from the 50s footage. In fact, they may have regressed. At least the shtick is kept to a minimum. Jacky Corn vs. Frank Malmoa (aired 11/20/73) Frank Malmoa was a Sweden-born heel who wrestled in the UK a bit in the early 70s. I'd love to say he was a major discovery, but he wasn't all that good. I was kind of hoping for a sleeper Jacky Corn match, but this wasn't one of them. Roger Delaporte vs. Marcel Montreal (aired 12/10/73) This was a swimming pool match, which is just about the pits when it comes to French catch. For the majority of the match, they ignore the pool, but it's only worth watching for the sake of an older Delaporte, not because of anything they do in the ring. Delaporte takes a dip in the pool, woo-hoo. Warnia de Zarzecki vs. Fred Magnier (aired 12/10/73) We get about 5 minutes of this. de Zarzecki is still going strong in the 70s. I've gotta give Magnier props as he has more entertaining bumps into the pool than most wrestlers.