ohtani's jacket

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.

Henri Lambert vs. Roger Laroche (aired 4/30/59) This was an excellent contest. It followed the same formula that we've seen other wrestlers use, but what I liked about it was that both guys kept the match interesting while on top. This match could have easily descended into two French guys work a stalemate, throw a bunch of forearms and fail to get a result, but they were different enough in their approach that they were able to create a stronger dynamic than that. I particularly liked the way Lambert pushed the match forward, but both guys were strong on top and showed each other plenty of respect when underneath. The forearm smashes were great. They generally always are, but they're even better when they're on the back of some great work. This kind of match has been the winning formula in catch thus far. Some folks may prefer the showmen and the charismatic heels, but for me, this is the type of bout I hoped we would find in the archives. Excellent catch. Don't overlook this one.

Gil Voiney vs. Georges Kasbarian (aired 7/11/65) As suspected, Voiney could work. He was on the French national team, but turned professional after France decided not to take any heavyweights to the '56 Olympics (a common theme among a lot of the guys we're watching now is not making the '56 Olympics.) This was a nifty bout for a couple of heavyweights. The finish was a bit silly, but the work was good. The only problem with Voiney is that he's pretty big for this era and it looks like they needed to match him against other big men, so I'm not sure that he had the best opponents. He seems like a guy who would have been better off overseas. NB: I'm not sure if Gasparian is the right name, but that's what I'm rolling with for the time being. EDIT: I'm pretty sure it's Georges Kasbarian.

Al Hayes/Ray Hunter vs. Karl von Kramer/Dr. Adolf Kaiser (aired 3/6/59) Now that we know this 50s matches were broadcast live, it makes sense that we only got part of this. Presumably, after the cameras stop rolling the rest of the match is dark. If I'm not mistaken, they usually gave the result of the match on the following week's broadcast. In any event, it's the live broadcast footage that's archived. It doesn't appear as though there are any master tapes from this time. Which is a shame because this was a fun premiere manche. von Kramer and Kaiser were a two man comedy show bumping and stooging for the Aussies. They were so much fun the camera guy even bust out kaleidoscope cam. It's funny how Hayes doing basic British spots seems so exotic. I guess an Aussie catcheur doing those spots is pretty exotic. I thought Hunter looked better than normal, which is a testament to how good the heels were. All in all, it was a solid opening act, but the fact that we didn't get a finish speaks to the issues French tags have with rhythm and pacing. French tags tend to go long (often for the sake of going long.) There were clear points in this opening fall where they could have finished it on a high, but they reset and started over. I guess if you do that enough times, you create a certain rhythm, but if I'm the director of this show, I want to go out on the Aussies taking a fall. I'm guessing that was the general idea, since we've seen it in other broadcasts, so it's possible that they went too long in the opening fall, or maybe the bout wound up as a DQ and didn't go the distance. Either way, something to think about.

This was really good. I liked the role reversal from the kind of matches Kobashi had against Jumbo in the early 90s. Marufuji hits some sweet moves from the top and catches Kobashi flush. I don't like that finisher of his, but he's a great high flyer. Personally. I thought they should have ended this with the lariat, but I guess they wanted to give Marufuji a little more rub. I can definitely see the appeal of this bout.

L'Homme Masque vs. Roger Delaporte (aired 3/6/59) L'Homme Masque was a monster and moved around the ring like Frankenstein, but I can't understand why they booked him against Delaporte. Surely, it would have made more sense for him to maul a babyface for a couple of minutes than have this uneven bout against Delaporte. Voiney was playing a character here, but I kind of wish we had footage of him unmasked to compare it to. Believe it or not, he was actually a successful amateur, and as a professional he had a run in WWWF where he fought Bruno Sammartino and wrestled tag matches against Jerry and Luke Graham.