[1967-09-30-France] Le Petit Prince vs Michel Saulnier

[Jetlag]

This was a really rewarding match to check out. It may have peaked in the first 5 minutes with both guys trading awesome wristlock reversals. I'm absolutely dead tired of wrestlers flipping out of wristlocks so the fact they made it cool here speaks volumes. Match had everything: brilliant athletic spots, pin-point accurate technique, fierce strike exchanges, and everything made sense. Prince tagging Saulnier with a savate kick to the face also caught me off guard. I didn't think the draw ending was as flat as Phil described it, they clearly kicked it up a bit. This match feels a bit weird to give a YES in project, for all we know there may be a dozen Prince matches in the archive that blow this away, but for now it's a really good, unique bout.

[Chorros3]

Great! A late 60s lightweight match! The ancestral face high flyer vs. salty heel base dynamic done right, Saulnier is trying to ground the Prince while he tries to use his high flying. Pure athleticism while also working the headlock tightly. Also a little shtick thrown in for good measure. This is just state of the art for the time, the pace of this probably took a good 25 years to be matched. Finish was a bit confusing but as Jetlag said above they clearly turned up the volume a little first; if this led to a bigger match I sure hope it’s available. Don’t miss out on this. Keeping in mind all the French footage is somewhat hard to rate, I’d say about ****1/4.