Gilbert Cesca

[Dylan Waco]

Discuss Here.

[Phil Schneider]

The most prolific of the 50-60s French catch guys we have footage of, was one half of the stone classic Cesca v. Cantanzarro match which is as good as any wrestling from any era ever and in some great tags. Will make my list somewhere for sure

[ohtani's jacket]

Dunno if you've seen it Phil, but there's another Cesca singles match out there against Rene Ben Chemoul.

[Phil Schneider]

Am I alone on Cesca here? No respect for the French?

[Grimmas]

What five matches should I watch?

[Jetlag]

I like the french style, but Cesca has like 7 matches on video and he doesn't always look outstanding in them. In fact he sometimes looks like the lesser guy next to Catanzarro, Anton Tejero etc. I enjoyed him vs. Ben Chemoul but Chemoul is the better guy aswell. The french guys are suffering from current lack of footage, plain and simple. Maybe we should do an extra list for guys with very limited footage available.

[Phil Schneider]

I don't think the French footage explosion has helped Cesca particularly, with more of a context, he seems like more of solid hand, then a transcendent standout. Weirdly we haven't come across very many new Cesca matches, but now that we see more of other guys he doesn't stand out as much. I might find a place for him on the list, but he won't be the top rated Catcheur.

[Matt D]

I agree with Phil. He also suffers a little relatively from being across the ring from Catanzaro or being teamed with Ben Chemoul. The few matches we have gotten were informative to one degree however: I can more safely say that if we magically had 100 more Cesca matches, he'd likely be very good, bordering on execllent, in all of them.

[Shrike02]

I think Matt is spot on with his observations. I'm very sure several other workers from the French Catch footage treasure trove merit serious consideration, especially some where unfortunately we don't have a lot to judge from, but from what we have, they are transcendently great.

[ohtani's jacket]

It's hard to judge Cesca without more of his singles stuff available. The footage didn't do any favors for Catanzaro either, IMO, and Ben Chemoul has been a whopping disappointment. I actually think his ITV footage would be the key here -- matches against Breaks, McManus and Faulkner. 

[Matt D]

2 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

Ben Chemoul has been a whopping disappointment.

As of March 65, we disagree strongly with OJ on this.

[Jetlag]

I like Chemoul, but he isn't super exciting in the new footage compared to the more mysterious guys like Dr. Adolf Kaiser, Jose Tarres, the Oliver Bros or Jean Rabut. That said Cesca has been very reliable and seems a bit like an Angel Azteca type guy.

[ohtani's jacket]

How much new Cesca footage is there, anyway? I can't remember off the top of my head. Rene Ben Chemoul was hyped as the best ever in the French sources I read. He's clearly not. I would call him the Johnny Saint of catch for as overrated as he is, but Saint had better matches than Ben Chemoul. 

[Matt D]

The Saint comparison isn’t bad for Chemoul. His stuff has hit and resonated in the moment more for me. Lots of people love Saint though and I imagine people who love Saint will love Chemoul. 
 

One reason I’m hesitant to rank a lot of the Catch guys is that the style lends itself to me giving people a pass for things I wouldn’t in WoS, where there are plenty of guys where I wouldn’t need to give a pass. But I’ll flesh that out more in months and years to come. 
 

For now, I really want people other than the four of us to delve into this footage and break things down.