French catch

[ohtani's jacket]

Monsieur Montreal vs. Jack Meurs

 

Fun maestros match that will test your patience if you don't like watching old guys fighting over basic holds while delivering headbutts and forearm smashes. If you do then it's a purist's heaven. Be warned though that a decent amount of clipping hurts the flow.

[ohtani's jacket]

Le Vicomte Joël de Noirbreuil & Pierre Lagache vs. Georges Cohen & Abraham Edery (10/16/66)

 

This followed a pretty standard 60s French tag formula of the heels cheating a lot, but who really cares if you've seen it all before when it's this entertaining? Joël de Noirbreuil was doing a "L'Aristocrate du Ring" gimmick and had this smug looking, entitled face that looked as though he'd learnt wrestling from the best private tutors in Europe and expected nothing less than a victory. Lagache naturally did the lion's share of the work and what a vicious piece of work he was. This was a sterling parade of heel cheating, ref confusion and generic French babyface comebacks. I love the way the heels brawl into the commentators' row and give the men calling the action a good whack upside the head, and how later on when Noirbreuil took a spill to the outside, the commentator was in his face with a mic like the Televisa commentators. Lots of great shtick in this. Thoroughly entertaining romp.

[ohtani's jacket]

Claude Roca & Walter Bordes vs. Albert Sanniez & Pierre Bernaert (8/29/77)

 

Great maestros tag. One of my favourite catch bouts to show up online. The contrast between the teams made this fight. You had two smaller, zippy guys in Roca and Sanniez, a bruiser in Bernaert, who still knew some holds, and the super athletic showman in Bordes. Add to that Roger Delaporte in a patriarchal ref role and an aging Roger Couderc on commentary and you had all the ingredients of a great catch bout the way it used to be. Now that I'm used to the tropes it was particularly warming to see them done in a maestros style. As with all matches of this type, you shouldn't expect a bout that builds to a dramatic climax. Instead, it's about the simple pleasure of a well executed move or a fun exchange. If you love shoot style, lucha matwork, or the maestros style, you should be onto this in a flash. It's basically European BattlARTS meets lucha through a French lens, while remaining distinctly catch.

[ohtani's jacket]

Bruno Asquini/Gilbert Leduc vs. Les Blousons Noirs (Claude Gessat/Marcel Mannevau) (5/6/67)

 

Another fun Les Blousons Noirs bout. Not overly spectacular, but once again ahead of the game compared with British tag wrestling. This had quite a modern feel to it as Leduc went down with a knee injury, which the Blousons Noirs took full advantage of, leaving the big man Bruno Asquini to fend for himself two against one. There was no stretcher, so the catch folk made do by carrying Leduc away. In a modern day bout, the Blousons Noirs would take Asquini apart while the commentator screamed "good gawd almighty!", but Asquini fared fairly well and it wasn't overly dramatic. Then Batman hit the ring and started tagging with him. Who's Batman, you ask? He's a guy in a Batman outfit, that's who. Minus the cape and mask, unfortunately, but he has the bat signal on his chest. The match was either incomplete or Alpra chose not to show the ending, but it wasn't a match where I desperately wanted to see the finish.

 

Albert Falaux vs. Guy Robin (1953)

 

Brief clip of a cool looking bout between lightweights. Falaux went to the '48 Olympics and was apparently the last Olympian to turn pro. The ref is René Ben Chemoul's father.

[conker8]

Jack de Lassartesse/Robert Duranton vs. Andre Drapp/Bernard Vignal (1/20/61)

 

Another gem in the treasure trove.

 

Lassartesse was so young here it was almost like watching Christopher Lee's Dracula compared to the 200 year-old version from the 1980s. He was this lanky, amazingly long-limbed brawler who just seemed to swallow people up like a spider. His partner was the famous Robert Duranton, a bodybuilder turned wrestler who worked a subtle exotico gimmick. As far as bodybuilders-turned-wrestlers go, his work was superlative, but it was his valet Firmin that made the act special. The heels had cool, detached personas, and sauntered about the ring while Firmin dialed up the heat at ringside. French crowds weren't afraid to have altercations with the performers, and Firmin was grabbed a few times at ringside, but the place came unhinged when he had a go at Roger Couderc. The usually good humoured and jovial Couderc dropped his mic and socked Firmin, forcing a policeman to drag Firmin away. Couderc went back to calling the match and was later shown holding a shoe and asking if anyone had lost it in the melee. The faces for their part were fine. Drapp was another guy with a tremendous bodybuilding physique. I believe he wrestled in the US as well, and was a member of the French Resistance, which is pretty cool. After all the commotion at ringside, the heels took the opening fall thanks to the world's boniest knee drop from Lassartesse, then the video cut out just as the second fall began. Obviously, I would've liked to have seen the entire thing, but if this is all that exists (which I kind of doubt), then it's still a valuable historical document, especially when you consider you've got Lassartesse, Duranton and Drapp all together in the same ring.

End of the match :

[ohtani's jacket]

Must have missed that when it was uploaded. Couderc getting into fights with people never gets old. Neither does Lassartesse dropping the knee.

[Strand Peanut]

I've really enjoyed diving into these matches the last couple of weeks.

 

People seemed pretty versed in some of the history as well. Is there a good site for reading up more on wrestling's history in France ?

[ohtani's jacket]

Most of the info is in French. You kind of have to piece it together.

[Strand Peanut]

My French isn't good, but I figured wrestling results are wrestling results, heh.

 

I'll have to improve my searching I guess. I was hoping there might be some French message board with pages of results or some sort of pipe dream 😏

[ohtani's jacket]

Bob ALPRA has a blog connected to his channel. There are some results in English, but nothing comprehensive.

[ohtani's jacket]

Albert Falaux/Bob Elandon vs. Rene Cabellec/Gilbert Puydebat

 

This was a bit confusing at times. It wasn't clear whether Elandon was a heel or simply prone to losing his cool. He'd start using inside moves on his opponents, and it seemed like there was going to be a problem between him and Falaux, but nothing came of it. 60s matches have really long opening falls. That ensures you get plenty of action, but it also makes the matches somewhat rhythmless, making it hard to get sucked into the bout. French babyfaces are also hard to get a grip on. They have excellent technique, but the lack of context makes them seem bland. Even the ones we have an increasing amount of footage of such as Chemoul and Cesca have failed to make an impression on me. I do love the style, though.

[ohtani's jacket]

Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Gilbert Cesca

 

Remember how I said French babyfaces where bland and difficult to get a grip on? Of course this masterpiece would be the next match I watch. This was the 60s French version of that 1980 Saint vs. Grey match, or whatever the 1960s British equivalent was. It started off with a heavyweight coming out and posing while wearing some Roman tunic, which I thought was an odd curtain raiser for a pair of 75-80 kilo guys, but once they got down to wrestling it was fantastic athletic, dramatic stuff. This is gateway drug stuff, but for some reason ALPRA left off the finish. He promised to upload it soon, but he's been known to take a while.

[ohtani's jacket]

Teddy Boys (Jean-Claude Bourson/Robert Le Boulch) vs. Gilbert Cesca/René Ben Chemoul

 

Teddy Boys, for those of you who don't know, were teen rebels influenced by American rock 'n' roll music. The subculture started in London in the 1950s and spread across the UK, and was characterised by an overly macho, gang led philosophy that often led to violent clashes with rival subcultures such as the mods. Because of this violence, the Teddy Boys, along with rock 'n' roll were blamed for most of the social ills of the 1950s. It also meant that a lot of heels in the UK, as well as across the channel, adopted a 'Teddy Boy' look even if it wasn't entirely in keeping with how actual Teddy Boys dressed. In the 60s, it merged with the 'rocker' look and was basically a juvenile delinquent look. Even when you get to the 80s, rockers are still portrayed as heels, which is in stark contrast to the babyface rocker teams in the US. I'm not sure if Bourson and Le Boulch teamed regularly as the Teddy Boys, or if Le Boulch was just Bourson's partner for this particular evening, but Bourson did the Teddy Boy gimmick for years. Unfortunately, the VQ on this footage is terrible with the picture breaking up every few seconds and the tape cuts off before the finish, so it's really only snippets of what looked like a fun match.

 

Bob ALPRA has posted a full length version of this with improved video quality. Teddy Boy was in actual fact Aldophe Sevre, who died a few days ago. I don't know where I got the name Jean-Claude Bourson from. I can't find the page I sourced it from. Anyway, forgetting my ignorance, the full length bout is a typical heel vs. babyface tag from the era with a thirty minute opening fall followed by a quick sub-10 minute concluding fall. Le Boulch comes across as a slightly better worker in a Hombre Bala journeyman type way, but Sevre is the younger guy who actually fits the Teddy Boy gimmick. Lots of the cheating and retaliatory brawling you would have seen from other matches that ALPRA has posted. At one stage, a fan is holding Sevre back so Sevre takes a swing at him. The pair start scrapping and the police get involved. It's mental how close the action is to the fans given how many fights there are. Fun match, but not really essential unless you're a completest. Sevre played the gimmick well, but 60s catch has a list of quality heels the length of my arm and he didn't quite rate as high as some of the others.

[ohtani's jacket]

Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Gilbert Cesca

 

Remember how I said French babyfaces where bland and difficult to get a grip on? Of course this masterpiece would be the next match I watch. This was the 60s French version of that 1980 Saint vs. Grey match, or whatever the 1960s British equivalent was. It started off with a heavyweight coming out and posing while wearing some Roman tunic, which I thought was an odd curtain raiser for a pair of 75-80 kilo guys, but once they got down to wrestling it was fantastic athletic, dramatic stuff. This is gateway drug stuff, but for some reason ALPRA left off the finish. He promised to upload it soon, but he's been known to take a while.

 

The finish -- and by finish I mean literally the finishing move -- was posted in another video he uploaded. So this is complete.

[Indikator]

And it's basically just the count for the move that was performed in the end of the video.

 

Cesca vs Ben Chemoul was btw a matchup you could see in North America . I assume that Kola Kwariani signed them for their tour and as they have been virtually forgotten I have to assume furthermore that they flopped. It is hard to say if Kola stopped booking Euro guys because of those two or if he had retired because of unrelated matters.

[ohtani's jacket]

Michel Saulnier vs. Le Petit Prince (9/30/67)

 

The Little Prince was a renowned lightweight star who had debut the year before, I believe, in a match against Andre (then billed as a 144 kilos.) He was a flashy and flamboyant worker in keeping with both his gimmick and status as a lightweight draw, and I was immediately more taken with the ground game of Saulnier. Fans of Johnny Saint would probably enjoy the Prince. He worked at a solid clip and the action was off the hook at times, but it could have been weighted a bit better as the counters lost their sting after a while. I guess fast moving action was the calling card of the lightweights and one match is too little to pigeon hole the Prince. Another day where I was more into the rhythm of the bout and I probably would have thought it was impossibly cool.

 

Batman vs. Teddy Boy (9/30/67)

 

Batman actually wore the full Batman costume to the ring. That's cool. I guess it's not surprising that there was a Batman gimmick in the 60s given how phenomenally successful the TV show was, but it's not the kind of thing you expect to see in a French ring. In Mexico nobody bats an eyelid, but France? It's another layer to what was going on in the 60s. I guess ALPRA's uploads have focused a lot on guys like Chemoul and Cesca and not so much on the masked superstars and assortment of characters; but in any event, Batman was apparently British worker Dave Larsen, who was a Paul Lincoln guy. I assume he was a much better worker than the Batman stuff showed as it looked like he was trying to work a non-European power style to fit the idea of a super hero wrestling. Goofy, but harmless fun.

[Indikator]

I expect that European TV in general focused on the more suitable wrestlers, especially in countries with an influencial church you couldn't go for comedy and brawls. You had technical bouts on TV and the bloody brawls on house shows. A single bloody match could have probably gotten a TV show cancelled in all of Europe.

[ohtani's jacket]

Bruno Asquini/Gilbert Cesca vs. Les Blousons Noirs (Claude Gessat/Marcel Mannevau)

 

This had a real "catch as lucha" beginning, which I dug. A lot of the exchanges could have been directly aped in Mexico and folks would have been none the wiser. This was a bit more work orientated than other Les Blousons Noirs tags, which tend to have a great number of cut-off spots and heel cheating. Here the focus was on a steady flow of exchanges with the rhythm and tempo being key to enjoyment. It was filmed at a different venue from usual (w/ more of a studio layout than Élysée Montmartre); perhaps giving it a different feel. Asquini (I want to say) threw a punch combo at the end that made me sit upright, and all told it was another nifty match.

[ohtani's jacket]

Gilbert Cesca vs. Cheri Bibi

 

I'm guessing that Cheri Bibi is based on character created by Gaston Leroux (of Phantom of the Opera fame.) He was a real bruiser similar to a slimmer, more mobile Mal Kirk. As you can imagine, this was a continuous beat down by Bibi on the smaller Cesca w/ Gesca retaliating to Bibi's tactics with fierce gusto. An age old match type, but one that can really drag if the guy working on top isn't that compelling or the selling isn't so brilliant. Gesca tried to be a live wire here, and even choked Bibi out with a towel before brawling with him on the outside, but none of it really held my attention.

[ohtani's jacket]

Jean Corne/Michel Falempin vs. Jean Menard/Jacky Richard (8/2/77)

 

You know when you get to the 70s colour footage that wrestling at the Elysée Montmartre is dying, but there's still something cool about this maestros era. The only way I can describe it is that it's similar to BattlARTS in terms of being a hybrid style with a constant flow of exchanges. I wasn't enamoured with the falls in this, but the individual match ups were great. Corne and Falempin were still plying their Les Celtes gimmick (with visibly green trunks this time) and Menard and Richard were right bastards. Throw in the old man, Delaporte, and Couderc cackling away on commentary, and you've got another unique French pro-wrestling experience.

 

Jean Corne/Rene Cabellec vs. Jacky Richard/Guy Renault (10/12/81)

 

This may have been from 1981 but it was easily one of my favourite catch bouts to date. Just one awesome exchange after another. The flow of the match will be difficult for people unfamiliar with catch, because there's no three part narrative like most people want from 2/3 falls; but if you look at it through the lens of work as I know plenty of you do, it's like a perfect Monterrey style work rate style tag tucked away from the bright lights of Paris and just pure catch. This was a great bout.

[El-P]

Seriously, I need to jump into this at some point, if only to listen to freakin' Roger Couderc. These are all the guys Eddie Carpentier was always talking about when he was announcing WWF Superstars with Guy Hauray. Great thread Dan.

[BillThompson]

About to start watching some of this, what were some of the promotions at the time? Gilbert Cesca vs. Billy Catanzaro took place in what promotion for instance? And do we have an actual date on that match?

[ohtani's jacket]

The promotion that the television comes from is I believe the Fédération française de catch professionnel (FFCP) promoted by Roger Delaporte and filmed predominantly at the Élysée Montmartre in Paris. There is no date on Cesca/Catanzaro, but presumably it's from the FFCP. The dates used in this thread are TV air dates and may not be reliable. The spelling of the wrestlers' names is also questionable at times.

[BillThompson]

The promotion that the television comes from is I believe the Fédération française de catch professionnel (FFCP) promoted by Roger Delaporte and filmed predominantly at the Élysée Montmartre in Paris. There is no date on Cesca/Catanzaro, but presumably it's from the FFCP. The dates used in this thread are TV air dates and may not be reliable. The spelling of the wrestlers' names is also questionable at times.

 

 

Thanks for the info, asked about this one because it seemed to have no info available for it.

[ohtani's jacket]

Cheri Bibi/Eric Husberg vs. Marcel Montreal/Rémy Bayle (1965)

 

This was really good. Unfortunately, there was something wrong with the frame rate so the video was choppy, but if you can get past the slo mo effect it's one of the more accessible catch bouts out there. Bibi looked much better in this than the Cesca match, possibly because he was younger here, but also because everyone was a heavyweight so they gave as good as they got and it was a real bruising encounter. Snappy rhythm even over a 2/3 falls 35 minute bout. Didn't drag once and they didn't pull any punches when it came to dishing out the forearm smashes. If you like the Finlay/Regal/Taylor style you'll like this.