French catch

[David Mantell]

On 6/2/2026 at 3:50 AM, Scarletlikesounds said:

So David, I know this is probably a hard question to answer given youve watched so much, but could I have some catch recs? Im relatively new to the style, but so far Inca Peruano, Gilbert Leduc & Anton Tejero have been my favorites.

My favourite bout is Le Petit Prince Vs Michel Saulnier from 1969 (even though the TV station spliced images of old paintings over bits of it.)

Some other favourites of mine include the masked Zarak (Dave Larsen) late period catcheur Prince Zéfy, sneaky heels Josef El Ars and Black Shadow, mid 70s masked wrestler Le Samourai, 60s Greek lightweight star Vasilios Montopolous early 90s young heel champion Eric Lacroix and Robert Gastel whom I just posted.  Spanish high flyer Angelito, Albert Sanniez particularly later on as a Jim Breaks style "horrid little man" heel. The best bit of Flesh Gordon's career is his tag team with the older Walter Bordes circa 1983-1985.  Oh yes and I've got a soft spot for Mammouth Siki, a sort of 70s French version of Junkyard Dog.

[Scarletlikesounds]

Thank you! That'll give me a lot to look into

[David Mantell]

You'll  find pretty much all of it on this thread.

[ohtani's jacket]

16 hours ago, David Mantell said:

My favourite bout is Le Petit Prince Vs Michel Saulnier from 1969(even though the TV station spliced images of old paintings over bits of it.

Some other favourites of mine include the masked Zarak (Dave Larsen) late period catcheur Prince Zéfy, sneaky heels Josef El Ars and Black Shadow, mid 70s masked wrestler Le Samourai, 60s Greek lightweight star Vasilios Montopolous early 90s young heel champion Eric Lacroix and Robert Gastel whom I just posted.  Spanish high flyer Angelito, Albert Sanniez particularly later on as a Jim Breaks style "horrid little man" heel. The best bit of Flesh Gordon's career is his tag team with the older Walter Bordes circa 1983-1985.  Oh yes and I've got a soft spot for Mammoth Siki, a sort of 70s French version of Junkyard Dog.

It amazes me that you bang the drum for technical wrestling over and over again and recommend a bunch of kitsch stuff. What's next, you're gonna recommend the swimming pool matches?

To the original poster, I recommend you visit https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/ where the matches were originally reviewed and follow Matt and Sebastian's reviews, along with David here. 

[David Mantell]

23 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

It amazes me that you bang the drum for technical wrestling over and over again and recommend a bunch of kitsch stuff. What's next, you're gonna recommend the swimming pool matches?

I can appreciate other stuff besides technical wrestling (although I put a technical bout at the top of my list and clearly had another good one on my mind when I mentioned Angelito and Sanniez together - viz 1977) as they tended not to televise so many of these as Britain, focusing instead on the half hour long tag matches. Most clean bouts seem to have been relegated to dark matches earlier in the night -;It's a pity we didn't get more screenings of bouts like Antonio Pereira Vs Jean Claude Bordeaux 1976.

About the only vaguely kitsch thing on that list was Siki and I left him til last as a guilty pleasure.  The bit of Gordon's career I highlighted you yourself have praised and hell even El-P circa 2014 spoke well (on the Worst Wrestler thread) of Prince Zéfy (and faux cowboy Jessy Texas).

No, I didn't mention any catch á l'eau  matches as it happens (if I had to pick one I'd go for the Mercier brothers. Vs Albert Sanniez & Mario Petrolini on 1984 La Dernière Manchette). They were just another place to do shows and the water had little impact either way on match quality.  Full swimming pools with a floating ring were as normal to the French as a ring standing atop a swimming pool boarded up for the winter was in Britain.

[David Mantell]

On 5/10/2026 at 5:43 AM, Scarletlikesounds said:

Also, weird thing I've noticed but this French stuff translates really differently culturally, because the heels often come off as the faces to me- like every match poor bollet or tejero just wants to wrestle and these gremlins keep refusing to wrestle them and constantly evading them and then they tie them up in the ropes and try to beat on them when theyre helpless before abusing their rightful anger to throw them out of the ring- such dastardly behavior! for shame Buyten, for shame.

Just noticed this.

Not really how I read it.  It starts either with Les Méchants using fouls from the start or else introducing the fouls gradually about 10 minutes in after Les Bons are shown to have the upper hand at clean scientific wrestling. At this point les Méchants get their heat and have a good long run of dominance until Les Bons score the hot tag.

So far, so American. The rope tieing etc generally occurs during the hot tag as retaliation for long persistent fouling by the heels earlier in the bout.  In Britain the ropes spot was frowned on on ITV although subtler retaliation was, according to Kent Walton, allowed for by referees up to a point. In S4C in Wales on Reslo, especially during tag matches with promoter Orig Williams as senior blue eye, it was allowed and commonly took place as a more extreme form of said retaliation.  Referees would allow a certain amount then go "OK boys (or girls) that's enough)" and the duly chastened heel would be released. 

In France or to some extent in Germany/Austria (especially Schurli Blemenschutz tag matches at the Vienna Heumarkt), the same referee who had failed to notice Les Méchants employing all sorts of dreadful Lutte Irregulière would suddenly put their Petty Officialdom hat on and read Les Bons the Riot Act for their rope related retaliation.  This on top of everything else (and starting with Michel Saulnier 8n the late 70s there would be quite a bit of Everything Else) would firmly establish Monsieur L'Arbitre as a Danny Davis style Arbitre Méchant in the minds of both  Les Bons and La Publique, resulting in Bons such as Guy Mercier applying Stone Cold-esque retribution to the wretched referee, using them as a battering ram on the hogtied heels.  Sometimes this would and still does get Les Bons disqualified, a finish which seems to play into a certain French cynicism of the lack of justice in life and The System.

Some tougher referees like Roger Delaporte, Martial in the 60s and even early 70s lady referee Babette Carol would actually administer the retribution themselves to the heels and be hugely popular amongst fans for doing so..  Other clearly honest referees like the fussy but principled Charley Bollet were generally left unmolested.  But obviously bent refs like Saulnier, Otto Weiss and the supremely heelish Louis Deblameque (on regional FR3 wrestling 1982-1987) got regular comeuppances.  One such heel referee Didier Gapp later moved to the CWA and established himself as more of a "jobsworth" referee. Hilariously, German/Austrian fans saw him as a comic icon, often cheering "Didi" 

At least that's how the logic of it all seems to me.  We really need a native French fan who grew up with all this to explain it properly.

Incidentally Andre The Giant was a BIG FAN of the tied up heels spot and often during his Bobby Heenan phase got himself tangled in the ropes, most memorably at Wrestlemanias 4:and 6.

[David Mantell]

On 5/10/2020 at 1:38 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

Le Bourreau de Bethune vs. Gilbert Leduc (aired 2/5/59)

This was already in circulation, but I hadn't seen it in years and back then I didn't have a good grasp of who Leduc was. I thought the opening of this was brilliant. Le Bourreau de Bethune was a hell of a lot better than most guys who done a mask. It was like watching Villano III compared to most of the masked wrestlers I've seen so far. Leduc was fantastic as well. Naturally, it couldn't last. I was kind of hoping that Le Bourreau de Bethune would bloody Leduc, but they did some sort of injury angle where Leduc either had an abdominal issue or some broken ribs. The match screamed to a grinding halt, but it was surreal to see Leduc laid out like that, and a testament to how big a player Le Bourreau de Bethune was during the height of catch's popularity. 

Jacques Ducrez, Le Borreau de Bethune - the Guillotine Operator of Bethune, heel nemesis of l'Ange Blanc in the Masked good guy Vs Masked bad guy feud the was French TV Catch's first major hit. Dressed in red rather than black to oppose l'Ange in white. Unlike Britain where hangmen like Albert Pierre point were celebrities who even owned their own pubs, in France -where the last public guillotining was just 20 years before this match- being part of the chop squad was seen as a lowly disreputable profession, barely one up above garbage collection. Just the sort of job for a nasty slimy Méchant who needs to hide his face.

Here he faces WON HOF nominee and inventor of the Toupie (and yes, that's him doing one in the video thumbnail) Gilbert LeDuc. This is a much younger LeDuc than we e watched on here in the past, right back in his prime.

Ducrez has a red cape to match his mask (and hide the blood stains from the day job, I guess.). He gets some good sharp amdrags but can't keep Gilbert down in the guard  fire more than a split second. He seems to be winning a double interlock test of strength until LeDuc scissors on one arm by the bicep and pulls it away. Borreau gets a top wristlock but Gilbert uses the distinctive French Scisseaux Volees takedown that in Britain just got you thrown off to the floor. Borrreau kips out and gets another double interlock. This time Gilbert picks off one side with a foot, rolls backwards to twist and arm like Steve Grey on the British thread.  He soon has BDB down in the guard armlock. Jacques bridges up and throws Gilbert off but he rolls through.  A third full Interlock sees Gilbert get upside down to to Ducrez  in a handstand with his feet up in the crossed headscissors ready for the Toupie.  The first one comes off but Follow up attempts are shrugged off.  Borreaux  gets a half interlock, twists so LeDuc has to roll through, gets an armhank on Gilbert and maintain,s it some time from Gilbert on the mat to standing. Eventually Gilbert goes up in his toupie and rolls up his arm  to get free.  Borreaux gets a couple of good long throws and Gilbert gets a spinning single legdive that commentator Maurice Durand calls "very pretty". Gilbert still has the leg, making a leglock of it.  He switches to what looks like a botched Indian Death lock with only one leg trapped.  Ducrez tries to sit up but Gilbert chops him down like Flair.   Eventually Borrreau takes a leaf out of Him Breaks' book 22 years later and hairpulls out of the hold (the same first foul by the heels in both this weekend's bouts).   He's not as good at hiding it as Jimmy Breaks and gets a ticking off from Monsieur L'Arbitre.  Durand points out that as a masked man, Le Borreaux doesn't have to worry about HIS hair getting pulled!  Unfazed, Ducrez gets a quick interlock into cross armed grovit. He soon has LeDuc on his back from the hold.  LeDuc focuses on onecstm and, kipping up, gets an armbar on it. He tries to make it into a back hammerlock but Ducrez is too powerful and sauntes away.  Now it's the masked man's turn to get a legdive - into a toe and ankle in the guard switching to a different toe/ankle hold. The crowd are on an emotional down - one calls for la Cagoule to be ripped off, another for un Manchette. Instead LeDuc spiked-boots Ducrez off by his hooded head.  The fan gets their Manchettes - c/o Le Borreau!  Gilbert returns fire and it looks like the science is over for now.  But a  top wristlock battle is decisively won by Bethune's finest beheader.  Then Gilbert gets a half interlock into forced backwards roll  into guard armlock and kneedrops the arm, twisting on the bicep.  Le Borreau curls up and gets a headscissors on Gilbert, turning him. Into the guard and breaking  the armlock.  Gilbert turns the hold upright and tries for the escape Toupie so le B de B capsizes it sideways. Gilbert gets the scissor upright again and tries again but overbalances.  Take 3 and it's definitely Ducrez's doing, he turns over and afterwards cranks on Gilbert's neck.  After that, Gilbert changes tack and more or less pulls his head out the scissors, kneels on the cross legs and gives le Borreau a good solid Manchette, with an extra one any time  the hooded man sits up.  LeDuc rolls off and comes back with Manchettes.  Eventually LeDuc hiptosses out and gets a figure four top wristlock.But Le Borreau gets the advantage and soon he has Le Dec down in the same hold, a figure four top armlock.  Le Duc gets upright.twists the arms round and ends with an armbar with which he gives a high whip and somersault bump.  After some more Manchettes, Bethune's top chopper tries crushing LeDuc on the ropes but L'Arbitre will have none of it and pulls him off.  Manchettes have LeDuc down for 5,,even 8 one time.  One blow clocks LeDuc straight over the skull.  Another time Borreaux headbutts with the head he (unlike his customers) still has. Gilbert fights back with Manchettes and a rear snapmare.  A dropkick and a double legs slingshot into the top rope. Le Borreau regains his heat by pitching LeDuc over the top rope. Battle Royals  didn't exist on this side of the Atlantic in 1959 (did America have them yet?) so that wins the masked man nothing.  Seconds scoop up LeDuc and dump him back in the ring but he's lost his momentum from his comeback.  Le Borreau gets a gorilla press to make Hellwig green with envy, then drop him stomach first on one knee. The count reaches 10 and it's a KNOCKOUT. 

Oddly enough this only counts as one fall unlike Britain. Seconds tend to LeDuc as Le Borreau marches around the ring like a brutal warrior robot.

Astonishingly with only a few minutes of clip left a second fall starts. Borreaux gets to work on LeDuc again, soon flooring him.  It's a straight up brawl if not a straight-up one sided punishment beating.   LeDuc is a fall behind and going down for counts of 5 or 6.  Finally Le Borreaux repeats his gorilla press and over knee stomachbreaker - TWICE. This time L'Arbitre ends the count early.  Ducrez puts his red cloak back on, the winner Two Knockouts to nil. Police pile into ringside to stop a riot as Le Borreau struts about.

Some good technical work for 10 to 15 minutes, then a brawl and finally - appropriately for un Borrreau - an execution. Two KOs to nil in a singles bout.

 

[Phil Lions]

4 hours ago, David Mantell said:

Jacques Ducrez, Le Borreau de Bethune - the Guillotine Operator of Bethune, heel nemesis of l'Ange Blanc in the Masked good guy Vs Masked bad guy feud the was French TV Catch's first major hit. 

Here he faces WON HOF nominee and inventor of the Toupie (and yes, that's him doing one in the video thumbnail) Gilbert LeDuc.

That narrative of Blanc and Bethune being some big TV rivals is something that often gets mentioned in French articles about catch and is complete nonsense. They worked for rival promotions (Goldstein's and Durand's respectively). Never wrestled each other on TV. L'Homme Masque was the big L'Ange Blanc rival, not Le Borreau de Bethune. As a matter of fact, Goldstein sued Durand, before Bethune ever appeared on TV, because he felt Bethune was a L'Homme Masque rip off (which he was). Eventually, when Blanc switched sides, Blanc and Bethune did work together on non-televised events, but that was after Blanc had unmasked.

That Leduc/Bethune match is a great example of how to make a new top heel - by having him dominate the top babyface of the promotion in his TV debut to a point where the babyface has to be helped to the back. It worked like a charm in that case. The network, reportedly, received more than 200 phone calls by viewers asking about Leduc's condition. The match was a real turning point for the Durand promotion (well, the Durand/Leduc/Gastel/Montourcy promotion if are to be precise since they were all business partners, which is something that I've learned only within the past few months).

I don't know about Leduc being the inventor of the toupie. May be, may be not. The earliest footage of anyone doing the move is actually of Frank Sexton in Paris in January 1950 (which is nine months earlier than the earliest footage of Leduc doing it). I haven't done a deep dive into the newspapers to see if Leduc was doing it before that though so it is possible.

Also, it's Leduc. Not LeDuc. Not sure where that spelling popped up from originally, but it's not correct.