French catch

[David Mantell]

What's happened to French Catch Tuesday on Segunda Caida? 

Has the stock of new bouts run out?

[ohtani's jacket]

1946.11.15 Henri Cogan vs. Charlie Fisher

We already had some Charlie Fisher in the archive footage, but he's fun to watch. I suspect if we had more Fisher, he'd be a favorite of many since he's a lively and energetic worker.

1946.12.18 Louis Loew vs. Butcher Johnson
1946.4.27 Butcher Johnson vs. Martin Butch

Butcher Johnson is another of those great black workers lost to history. A big star in Britain in the 30s and a stalwart of the business right up until Paul Lincoln broke off from Joint Promotions in the early 60s yet, i suspect, an unknown name to most folks. He worked barefoot and was extremely athletic. There was an exoticism associated with him, particularly in the 30s, because of his ethnicity and skin color, but fortunately that didn't prevent him from demonstrating his wrestling prowess in the ring. I suspect he would have been one to watch in the 1930s. 

[ohtani's jacket]

10 hours ago, David Mantell said:

What's happened to French Catch Tuesday on Segunda Caida? 

Has the stock of new bouts run out?

Time to start reviewing these clips @Matt D I know you love clips.

[David Mantell]

11 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

Time to start reviewing these clips @Matt D I know you love clips.

And hopefully get them posted some place us ordinary mortals can see them. 

[Matt D]

On 7/30/2025 at 7:27 AM, David Mantell said:

What's happened to French Catch Tuesday on Segunda Caida? 

Has the stock of new bouts run out?

Just on vacation this week. More to come.

[David Mantell]

16 hours ago, Matt D said:

Just on vacation this week. More to come.

Okay, for this week.  here's a nice short bout that neither OJ nor myself have touched before.

Alex Fontaine, presumably no relation to Pierre Booster Fontaine of New School French promotion the ICWA. He's the one in the black top, looking like a freshly unmasked masked man, or maybe Jon Guil Do.  Joined in progress with Cavilliers outside the ring.  They lock up and Guy gets a side chancery and monkey climb. Alex dumps some relative of Guy out of the ring followed by the man himself. They take turns dumping each other outside and get a lot of dropkicks and huracanranas on each other. They kip up, kip out of headscissors - and kip up straight into a head collision and double KO.  OJ won't like it, but a ringside lady here with kids, whose husband is a boxer, reckons it's a nice fair equitable conclusion.

[David Mantell]

On 1/30/2020 at 2:31 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

Rene Lasartesse vs. Franz Van Buyten (aired 1/17/72)

This was a disappointment. You hope for a classic between these two and you get a gimmick match, and a shitty gimmick match at that. Some of the work seemed okay but the match was long and they committed the cardinal sin of being boring. The finish was stupid and the match was completely unsatisfying. 

The thing is, the French didn't really think of it as a gimmick match.  It was just another place where wrestling shows were held. Obviously the entire evening's show had to take place in the pool including long serious technical bouts and phases of bouts when the audience would just forget about the water. 

In this case, any anticipation about seeing big Swiss Renecger wet was undermined when he managed to capsize his boat on the way y to the ring. Rene had something of Sid Eudy to him, big, tall blond and accident prone.(I bet Eudy wished a certain 2001 WCW PPV had been held in a pool.)

The bout starts off as technical wrestling for giants with snapmares and side chancery throws. Van Buyten showing he can do all the French somersaulting stuff as well as RBC, LPP, Saulnier etc.  Lightweight wrestler Bob Remy is L'Arbitre for contrast.  Later on it becomes something like an 80s WWF match, full of big power stuff. Lasartesse uses a big reverse piledriver a lot. You're showing your (lack of) age if you think Tombstone but that does underline my point about 80s WWF style. About 13 minutes in, Rene does it the fourth time and the commentator says "La Belge TOMBE le quatrieme fois.". Don't you just love unconscious multilingual puns.  At one point the commutator goes on about "Le Manchette Nautique" (Maritime Forearm Smash)"qui est different du Manchette Classique.". No I didn't spot any difference either.

Referee Remy turns the crowd off off him by refusing to allow FVB to bung Lasartesse in the water.  FVB end up pitching them both over and getting himself disqualified after claiming a KO victory (shades of Flesh Gordon getting DQd and claiming moral victory due to some unauthorized pin count - or else Jimmy Hart and his referee's stripes jacket at WM9.) So he pitches them both out again.  Franzl does get one moral victory although this means the clip ends in a cliffhanger as both men are last seen stuck on different corners of the ring while the boat - already badly taking in water - comes to an awkward stop halfway between them.  Presumably Franz  finally had to dive for it during the next programme.

Talking of peoples' wives on the wrestling show. we don't meet Franz's but apparently she was a lady wrestler says the commentator.

[David Mantell]

[David Mantell]

And here is his tag partner from a few weeks earlier:

Yes it's the same Samourai.  The commentator says he is in red with yellow patterns and if this was 2eme Chaine then viewers saw for themselves.

Heel Vs heel, Marcel is of course a Blousson Noir and wears his Blousson to the ring. He looks like Big Bully Busick with a comb over. Samourai throws Manneuvaux around and takes bumps better, rolling up. easily, even after his wrist has been worked on. He easily reverses a standing full nelson and gives moustachioed Marcel to take loud bumps.  Great escape from headscissors, unpicking one leg while in the ball and setting it to legspread.  He even does the monkey climb - after all, the French call it la Planchette Japonaise.  Neat crossface/bodyscissors combination too.  Defensively hecdoes one of Johnny Saint's old counters, being pulled upwards by a limb - in this case the leg- and getting the other leg full locked upright so instead of being dropped, he ends up standing upright. He gets the winner with a sunset flip, no selling a kick to the head from Manneuvaux. 

This is very much a vehicle for Samourai.  Despite all this, he gets booked by the crowd, both at the end (and bows to the MC and L'Arbitre)and whenever he gets a Prime from Un Sportif Anonym during the bout.  Mostly from the bit where he goes wild with the chops on the floored Manneuvaux and gets a Deuxieme Et Derniere Avertisement.  An over the shoulder backbreaker turns into an excuse to choke Manneuvaux on the ropes. 

Talking of Samurais, Kendo Nagasaki deserves and apology from all those who mock the disco ladder match nearly 15 years later. Compared to the cheap Son et lumiere here, that was quite a light show.  Fairy lights come on on the ring as an old beardy geezer called Phillipe is interviewed Then some police surplus flashing lights and something loud and banging we can't see clearly on screen.  This was a prelude for an Astronauts tag team match with about 5 mins of guys being shot into the ring while going about the early stages of a big standard Catch A Quatre which cuts out mid match.

 

 

[Phil Lions]

Step aside Ric Flair, there's a new top dog in town! Rene Ben Chemoul discussing his womanizing ways certainly wasn't on my bingo card when I started checking out a 2001 radio interview with him, but here we are. And if I'm now stuck with this info in my head, you might as well be too!

Quote

- Interviewer (a woman): Ah, you were a ladies' man.
- Rene Ben Chemoul: Well, uh, I can't...
- Interviewer: You still have a lot of charm, you still have a twinkle in your eye.
- Rene Ben Chemoul: You're very nice, but I've changed a little. No, but it's true that I used to really like women.
- Interviewer: So a bit of a womanizer?
- Rene Ben Chemoul: Very, I was very... Oh yes, oh yes. And I had, I still had a good method, no doubt, because I never got into any big trouble.
- Interviewer: Because sometimes you had several women at the same time?
- Rene Ben Chemoul: Oh, uh, you want to know everything, then, really. I mean, of course, because since I often went to the same cities or the same... Well, obviously, yes.
- Interviewer: What was it like? Were they female fans who came to see you at the exit?
- Rene Ben Chemoul: Often, yes, that was it, yes, female fans.
- Interviewer: Did they like strong men?
- Rene Ben Chemoul: Yes, it must also be said that seeing men fighting undoubtedly had a certain appeal for some women. I don't know. You know, fantasies, we don't know where they're going to go.
- Interviewer: So, even in bed, they were asking you to act like a big, tough guy?
- Rene Ben Chemoul: No, but they didn't need to ask me anything. (laughs) I was doing what was needed.
- Interviewer: Were you more gentle or more of a brute?
- Rene Ben Chemoul: Ah, but no, I wasn't a brute, on the contrary. So that's why they came looking for me. They were disappointed because it's... No, I was, I've always been gentle.
- Interviewer: So a life that's a bit hectic in that respect?
- Rene Ben Chemoul: Ah, very.
- Interviewer: Very?
- Rene Ben Chemoul: Oh yes. Oh yes, yes, yes, yes. Oh yes, yes. I've had a life in that regard. Very good. That's why I got married so late [note: he got married in his 50s after he retired from wrestling]. I waited a long time, you know... Well, I didn't try. I waited until I'd stopped doing the rest of the sport to settle down, so to speak.

[ohtani's jacket]

Can't say I'm surprised.