SAMS Ragtag 1970s Yearbooks

[SAMS]

As promised I'm back with yet another edition. This time around I've temporarily paused my run through the 80s to focus on the decade prior. Obviously there's not as much footage to dig through, but with the addition of the French stuff there's far more than there used to be. 

 

1970

1970-XX-XX
FFCP - French Catch
Jacky Corn & Guy Mercier vs. Ted Lamarre & Jo Marsalo
Best Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match
France
★★★
This is my first exposure to French Catch, so my thoughts and impressions will no doubt adapt rapidly on the fly as the matches rack up. For now though I feel like I’ll inevitably end up comparing it to the closest comp I have, which is early 80s World of Sport. Probably not the best thing to do but I can’t help it.
And straight into that comparison, early 80s WoS feels like the highest level of technical wrestling on the planet at the time, and this, well, kind of turns that up to 11. This feels like REAL grappling in comparison. Immense struggle and supreme weight to everything each man did. Having said that, it was interesting that we didn’t get a standing count from the referee until at least the ten minute mark. Uppercuts, chops and even slams were kind of taken in stride, but when pain and the accumulated toil of the match was sold, it did feel more like an event.
Perhaps a quirk of the style, but the tagging was off. One guy would gain an advantage, have his opponent on the mat, urgently reach over to tag his partner, then they’d release and the guy entering would wait for the complete reset. The willingness to just start again felt really at odds with the urgency to make the tag. But I might have been missing something.
At the start I thought Jo Marsalo would be the mean, bruiser of the bunch, but he in fact turned out to be the bump monkey. His partner, Ted Lamarre, was an absolute ox though, I think he must have worked at least 75% of the match, and no matter what his opponents threw at him he just kept coming. Mercier and Corn had to work their asses off to make any headway with him, and several times he straight up tanked a series of brutal uppercuts.  Mercier and Corn were not shy to lay in the strikes though, preferring for the most part to hit knife edge chops while working over an arm or a leg on the mat. Only later did they up the ante and transition to standing forearms. 
The first two falls both kind of came out of nowhere. We didn’t get a gradual escalation like we would get in Portland for example. But the meat of the falls were engaging enough that it wasn’t a problem. The final fall, all 90 seconds of it, was very much rushed though. After having just lost the previous fall, Mercier and Corn suddenly went hell for leather. Marsalo ended up being the unlucky chump to take the beating. Mercier unleashed dropkick after dropkick and Marsalo was forced to bump stand and bump again, clearly too quickly for what his body was capable of doing, and often he was forced to resort to bumping before the dropkick had even landed. For a match so heavy with grounded, realistic wrestling, this felt weirdly out of place.

1970-01-24
FFCP - French Catch
Guy Mercier vs. Allan Le Foudre
France
★★
Really interesting to see Mercier work again, but this time in a singles setting, just to get a grasp of how he varied his approach. He certainly was the more stylish of the two guys. He seems to have a pet move, a little spin before a leg takedown, that he used a couple times in that tag match but he used again here. Not sure how effective it would actually be in a fight, but it had pizzazz. 
Le Foudre felt more workmanlike, more solid. But nothing jumped off the screen to me here from him apart from the snazzy kip ups he did after every time the bell rang to end the round.
This ended in a time limit draw, but I’m not sure we had a pin attempt until the dying moments. Very much as if they were killing time right from the start and things didn’t get meaningful until that final flurry where they started throwing haymakers.

1970-02-21
FFCP - French Catch
Kurt Kaiser vs. Remy Bayle
France
Part of the challenge with these matches is figuring out who is who. I’ve seen Mercier a couple times now so I think I could pick him out unprompted, and if my partner happens to be around, I can get her to begrudgingly sit and translate a bit to try and clear things up. Here though, that was all completely unnecessary. There was never any doubt that the tall bald guy was going to be Kurt Kaiser. None whatsoever. And poor Remy didn’t see it coming. A nice friendly handshake to start then a stiff as fuck forearm to the face and I’m not sure he would be able to remember the mauling that followed. Kaiser laid a couple more forearms on him for good measure. A few slams to ensure the crowd didn’t feel like they were being shortchanged and that was it. All over. Brutal squash and a statement first showing for the Kaiser.

1970-02-21
FFCP - French Catch
Rene Lasartesse vs. Gaby Calderon
France
★★★
Lasartesse was this tall, gangly guy. All limbs and little bulk. He was a bit plodding, which the smaller Calderon used to his advantage, quickly dodging attacks and getting in a rifle of shots of his own. But this seemed to be the only advantage Calderon had on the big man. Lasartesse may have been plodding but he was utterly captivating. More often than not he was still able to grab Calderon and slam him, throw a sneaky punch, or strip the padding from the turnbuckles and slam Calderon into them, all to the wild jeers of the audience. He definitely elicited a reaction greater than any of the men who’d come before him so far. 
With his gaunt face and light coloured hair, he could easily have played a vampire in a classic movie. Here he came across more like a reanimated corpse. A monster back from the dead ready and able to haunt Calderon’s nightmares. I loved how aloof he was, how casual he was with his attacks. Almost as if he just couldn’t be bothered to put his opponent away. There were moments where Calderon fired himself up and Lasartesse was not shy to bump for the little man. But these moments of control from Calderon were brief and often fleeting. It was never long before the big man was back in control.
In the end things did feel like they were getting a bit aimless. If Calderon was never going to make a strong comeback then they needed to wrap things up earlier and have Lasartesse finish the job. Before things got too bad though Lasartesse finally started picking up the pace and his attacks became more deliberate and impactful. After a series of snapmares followed by stomps or knee drops he decided that despite his size, he was going up top. He nimbly leaped the ropes, flew to the top turnbuckle and dropped an absolutely killer knee drop right into Calderon’s gullet. The referee wasn’t having any of that and immediately DQ’d Lasartesse. He may have lost the match but Calderon surely would have been drinking through a straw for the immediate future. Point made.

[SAMS]

1970-03-03
JWA - Dynamic Series And Iron Claw Series - Day 9
Antonio Inoki, Kintaro Oki & Mitsu Hirai vs. Jim Osborne, Phil Robley & Prince Iaukea
Best Two Out Of Three Falls Six Man Tag Team Match
Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
Card
★★★
Looking over the names in this listing I was hesitant to say the least and I wasn’t particularly expecting to enjoy this. There were moments for sure where they spent too long working a toe hold or some other such static hold but they won me over by the end.
The Japanese team were keen to keep their opponent isolated in their corner early on, desperately dragging whoever the legal man was by the leg again and again. The early stages were by far the slowest, and most boring, part of the match. Inoki, hair styled into an immaculate pompadour, didn’t seem particularly interested in showing any signs of vulnerability and brazenly shrugged off even the most blatant of attacks. It was Oki instead who kicked this match into life, throwing some fun chops and headbutts. I have vague memories of him in IWE, and my recollection was that he was quite bland, but here he was great. When Osbourne and Robley leaned into the wild heelish bumping, they had officially joined the party, and finally Inoki stepped up and showed his stuff, displaying fire and intensity, at one point fighting off all three men at once with wild and savage forearms then slamming heads on tables.
The Japanese team unsurprisingly prevailed at the end but it was a fun ride, even if it felt at times like this was a proto-version of a style not quite fully developed. Iaukea was a big guy, and he worked accordingly, but he was so slow and painstakingly deliberate that he was a detriment for me. Mitsu Hirai was just a warm body.

1970-03-03
JWA - Dynamic Series And Iron Claw Series - Day 9
Giant Baba (c) vs. Fritz von Erich
NWA International Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match
Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
Card
★★
I was excited to see Baba much closer to his prime. I’m pretty down on his early 80s work I’ve seen so far but I had high hopes that his 70s stuff would deliver. On this showing though it feels like it might be more of the same. He definitely was more spry than when he got older, moving about the ring and diving for pins and the like, but there still seems to be something lacking for me.
In this case though it may have been the opponent rather than Baba himself. Fritz von Erich was a hulk of a man and the few times he got a strike or kick into Baba’s body it looked like it visibly shifted the big man a few inches. Unfortunately we didn’t see too much of this as Fritz’s strategy was to bail from the ring, stall, stall some more, and use the CLAW! Both the stomach claw and face claw were used liberally and it was the deciding factor as to why this felt so one note.
Considering that the claw was Fritz’s major weapon, I would have preferred them build up to it or set it up a bit more rather than just spam it constantly. Fritz could have worked over the abdomen or Baba’s head in preparation for applying the hold but he didn’t even hint at doing either. In return Baba, not that he really got the opportunity, could have made more of a concerted effort to attack Fritz’s hand, but again, most of his attacks were chops or knees to the head. 
An awkward dropkick from Baba captured the first fall while a claw applied to the head levelled things for Fritz. The aftermath of that claw was probably the most memorable part of the match, as Baba emerged from the hold with small cuts all over his head and various splatters of blood. This really got over the brutality of the hold and the damage it could do. The final, brief fall ended in both men brawling on the outside and getting counted out. Good to know that these kinds of finishes were always present and weren’t just a quirk of the 80s.

1970-04-11
FFCP - French Catch
Guy Mercier vs Kiyomigawa
France
★★
Kiyomigawa was what I’d describe as limited, at best functional. I’m not sure he had the ability or awareness of how and when to sell from the standing position, his only thought was to grab Mercier, take him to the ropes, and maul him. As the rounds wore on and Mercier’s various flurries of offense were completely blown off he resorted to taking the Kiyomigawa to the mat, where even if he wasn’t going to sell, he’d have to actually work from underneath. 
The constant attacks in the ropes were incredibly repetitive, but Mercier still found a way to make them significant. He did a stellar job of slowly dialling up his own visible fatigue as the match wore on. Early on he was trying to give roughly the same amount of offense he was receiving. He’d grab a toe hold and take Kiyomigawa to the mat and start twisting the ankle. You could see all of Mercier’s muscles taught with strain and he wrenched the joint, while Kiyomigawa just lay there placidly. That wasn’t particularly working so he tried going for intense uppercuts, but Kiyomigawa would just cut him off every time, blowing off the strikes and shepherding him to the ropes. So Mercier leaned into selling, visibly weakening after each barrage and while the attacks were weak, Mercier made it feel effective through the way he reacted to it. 
The few times Mercier was able to get Kiyomigawa to be still and actually take some offense Mercier took his time to milk the moments, basking in the crowd’s furor and urging them on. When he eventually settled things with an airplane spin I actually felt like he’d been through a battle and emerged triumphant, just through the lens of dragging his opponent to a half decent match. Really, really good showing from Mercier.

[SAMS]

1970-05-02
FFCP - French Catch
Bruno Asquini vs. Marcel Manneveau
Chantilly, Oise, France
★★★
Rapid pace to start with both men uncorking headscissor takedowns and Asquini had a series of headlock takedowns which had a frightening velocity. Slowly Manneveau’s proclivity for curtailing the rules became apparent and he gained a far chunk of advantages with illegal strikes and a lot of late attacks after breaks, prompting warnings from the referee. Having not seen Asquini before he struck me as an odd competitor. His bald head and general physique led me to think that he would be the more heelish of the two, he just didn’t strike me as inherently rootable, but in fact he was the supposed fan favourite. He had athleticism for days clearly, but his strikes, while heavy, were somewhat clumsy, and they didn’t have the ferocity of Manneveau’s. 
Manneveau managed to tie Asquini’s head up in the ropes for a choke spot, only for Asquini to free himself and retaliate in kind. Just when it seemed like Asquini was going to seal the deal his pin attempt was reversed and Manneveau escaped with the victory in the only way this could have ended, him grabbing onto the ropes for extra leverage.
Asquini was technically and athletically outstanding, I’m just not sure if I bought him in his role in this match. Manneveau on the other hand was totally on point as the sneaky, tricky bastard. I liked that he didn’t stooge too much and he did try and take it to his opponent. There were times where his bumping verged slightly on the overly dramatic and slapstick, but that would be my only criticism of him at all. I thought the 12-14 minutes of this absolutely flew by. Really entertaining.

1970-05-02
FFCP - French Catch
Michel Saulnier vs. Ricardo Torres
Chantilly, Oise, France
★★
Absolute sprint this one. Both men went a million miles an hour from the opening bell and things didn’t really let up until the finish. There was a brief interlude where Torres nearly lost his head, literally getting it caught in the ropes, and the mild mannered approach got a bit shirtier after that as it felt a little bit more like a scuffle of sorts. I did wonder where the substance was though, as they were just blitzing through moves, one and then onto the next, without letting anything breathe. It felt incredibly modern, like something you’d see on an indy show from 2015. I’m not 100% certain that’s a compliment though. Even when they did try and make things a tad scrappier, it came across as mildly ridiculous rather than as if the emotional tone of the match had changed. A bit mind blowing that a match like this exists from 1970, and I’m sure from the other existing catch footage there’s similar stuff to this going back into the 50s, but just because it was surprising in its style didn’t mean it was particularly good.

1970-05-02
FFCP - French Catch
Peter Kayser vs. Guy Mercier
Chantilly, Oise, France
★★
Kayser was better than Kiyomigawa, but while his offense was more deliberate, and more varied by a hair, he still didn’t possess innate charisma and didn’t draw the eye despite his interesting look.
Considering how Kayser was presented on his debut, absolutely slaughtering his poor opponent within a couple minutes, this was surprisingly even. Mercier was the smaller man, and he had stretches where he was being handled, but he got his fair share of offense in here, perhaps to the match’s detriment. I think I prefer Mercier when he’s on defence, when he’s forced to sell. His offense is mostly leg takedowns or snapmares, quick initial moves that then settle into a hold, and he’s not the best at working them. Maybe it’s due to his last few opponents, but when the roles are reversed and he’s on the receiving end, I’ve found him to be an incredibly expressive seller, very dynamic, but not overboard. Very in line with whatever his opponent has managed to do. In particular his selling of a nerve hold was very good, considering how tiresome that can often be.
A big dive gone wrong saw Mercier fall to the outside, and a big bodyslam from the German put him away after around 20 minutes. As I said this was pretty even and I wasn’t sure which way they were going to go with this. To be picky I would have liked Mercier to sell more, get beat up a lot, then maybe come firing back only to fall short to the monster.

[SAMS]

1970-06-02
Joint Promotions - World of Sport
Ray Steele vs. Leon Arras
De Montfort Hall, Leicester, Leicestershire, United Kingdom
★★
Leon Arras is one of the comedy heels on the British circuit. His work was more about taunting his opponent and playing to the crowd rather than the actual wrestling. He worked his style pretty well and a very green Ray Steele was clearly being led by the hand here. Most of this was Arras taking advantage, getting cocky, giving Steele a lot of talk, only to get his comeuppance in due time. There were moments where he pushed the limits and Steele would get fired up, but these were just bursts of energy from the young man, rather than sustained periods of applied pressure.
Arras allowed this to remain interesting, keeping Steele in the game well after he’d already gained the first fall, but once Steele nabbed that equaliser he went back to being all business and submitted him with a neck stretch in no time at all in the following round.
Perfectly decent match. Interesting to see someone new in Arras. He’s got his style down to a tee at this point, but I’m not sure if it would have diminishing returns if I saw more and more of his matches. Steele didn’t really impress me when I first saw him in ‘81, and he didn’t look to be anything particularly special here either, so I’ll keep a lookout on how he develops throughout the decade.

1970-06-02
Joint Promotions - World of Sport
Jackie Pallo vs. Ian Gilmour
De Montfort Hall, Leicester, Leicestershire, United Kingdom
★★
I thought this was better than the Steele/Arras bout, mainly because Gilmour brought more to the table when called upon than Steele could. Pallo, like Arras, was a pantomime villain, but he had more variety to everything he did, from interactions with the referee and the crowd, to the antics he would try. For the first few rounds though he spent too much time trying to get sneaky pinches in on his opponent rather than anything truly damaging. Pallo picked up two public warnings, but they actually felt pretty harsh considering Gilmour got away with several moves that felt like they should have been penalised. Eventually he grabbed Pallo by the locks and wrenched him against the ropes, giving him whiplash. Finally the referee was unable to turn a blind eye and gave him a warning. But this felt slightly less like retribution and more like petulance, as Pallo hadn’t actually been that devious in the build up.
The final stretch though was very fun. We finally got some more hard hitting action and Pallo showed that, when motivated, he could bring out the big guns and managed to apply a headscissors submission to knock Gilmour out. Overall I thought Pallo came across as an interesting character, but I don’t think this would have been an example of the best he had to offer. Gilmour was solid, was adequately bruising when required, but he didn’t have the knack of generating sympathy. His outbursts made him more unlikeable if anything, which kind of is the opposite reaction he must have been going for.

1970-06-02
Joint Promotions - World of Sport
The Royals (Bert Royal & Vic Faulkner) vs. Honeyboy Zimba & Masambula
De Montfort Hall, Leicester, Leicestershire, United Kingdom
★★
This was the match of the night, but still no great shakes. Fun comedy match that went the twenty minute distance. All four men have comedy chops, but Masambula was the one who seemed to be lacking in the technical department to the point that he was relying solely on his gimmick and his comedy.
The Royals were never shy of sprinkling some light hearted entertainment into their matches and they delivered some slick, fast paced sequences here, but it was Bert Royal who was the most grounded and the most gritty, with his matchups with Zimba being the best of any pairing here. He wrenched a few armbars that generated this clacking sound that drew audible wincing gasps from the audience.
In the end the Royals grabbed the first fall when Bert brute forced a crucifix onto Zimba. But Zimba and Masambula were able to level things at the death, very literally, as they didn’t have enough time to even start the following round before time expired.

[SAMS]

1970-07-25
FFCP - French Catch
Rene Ben Chemoul & Walter Bordes vs. Black Shadow & Josef el Arz
Best Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match
France
★★
For some reason I didn’t care for Chemoul. He had a lot of nifty work, but him showing up the heels came across more obnoxious to me than entertaining. The pick of the bunch was probably his partner Bordes, and the matchups with Black Shadow led to some exciting sequences. Both men were similarly springy athletes so they could match each other blow for blow on things like cartwheel escapes and the like. I did actually like El Arz here. He was the weirdest looking of the bunch. All upper body, as if he went to the gym 7 days a week, and not one of those was a leg day. But he was hard hitting and rugged in a way the other three weren’t and I found that grounding refreshing.
We had a double rope hanging spot, so that brings the tally to four times that has been used in the last 3 matches alone. So clearly they have a thing for it. This time around it was both the heels getting their necks caught in the ropes in a back to back double mix-up spot with Chemoul lording it over his foolish opponents afterwards.
The fast fall was a bit flat. The action was coming at such a pace that it didn’t seem that a pin was coming at all then suddenly Chemoul did a flying shoulder tackle over the ropes from the apron and El Arz had to lie there to take the fall. In contrast the winning fall was a breathtaking springboard leap off the top from Bordes that completely sandbagged Shadow and looked a million bucks. In the end this was thirty minutes of non stop action. There were moments I really enjoyed, the finish being one of them, but it was late at night when I watched it and as it went along I had the nagging feeling that I was ready for it to be over. So probably just too long for what it was.

1970-07-25
WWWF
Bruno Sammartino (c) vs. George Steele
WWWF World Heavyweight Title Steel Cage Match
Philadelphia Arena, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Card
★★
Bruno has a reputation for being all punch and kick-y, and that’s exactly what you find here. As soon as George entered the ring Bruno was after him like he’d harmed his kids. For just punching and kicking, Bruno was awesome in the moments where he was laying waste. There’s a spark in the ferocity of his approach that is pretty unique. Unfortunately this match was hampered by three things. It was a cage match with escape rules, George Steele was as limited with his offensive approach as Bruno but with none of the charm, and the stretches where George did get control I thought Bruno’s charisma, so evident when he was dishing it out, seemed to dissipate entirely. The match type is what it is, there’s no point dwelling on it. It’s just not my thing. I guess Steele being Steele is just something you have to live with as well. I didn’t think he was that good as a Backlund opponent in ‘81 and he didn’t look to be a great Bruno opponent in ‘70. But Bruno feels like he should have been able to milk more out of those moments where he was forced to sell. There was a moment where Steele was driving his foot onto Bruno’s windpipe. Instead of writhing around, gasping for breath, clutching desperately at George’s foot, he just lay there as if to say, this is Steele’s moment to attack, I’ll just catch my breath. I never got the sense that he was really hurting or injured at any point in this match, and if he’d been able to bring that element this actually could have been quite good. 
His over the top comeback was outstanding though, essentially looking like the Hulk as he snapped and battered George into submission allowing him to casually leave the cage.

[SAMS]

1970-08-02
JWA - NWA World Champion Series - Day 6
Dory Funk Jr. (c) vs. Antonio Inoki
NWA World Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match
Sports Center, Fukuoka, Japan
Card
★★★
A really well laid out first 30 minutes set the foundation for a second half that unfortunately may only exist in a parallel universe. Really interesting dynamic of Inoki, a man we usually see on top, as the top dog, but here he’s the challenger and an underdog. They worked a cool series of reversals, Inoki grabbing the arm and unwilling to relinquish, then Dory later on doing the same thing while applying a keylock. I’m a sucker for rolling through a counter and retaining a hold and they both worked both sides of the coin really well here.
Inoki was by far the most engaging of the two though, desperately attempting to escape Dory’s holds and projecting the danger he would be in if Dory gained a solid upper hand in the contest. Dory on the other hand was placid in his selling, which kind of undercut most of what Inoki would try.
At the middle point we hadn’t had a fall yet but I was loving this plucky Inoki performance, Dory pushing his buttons - he began striking on Inoki’s weakened arm which drew a fiery reaction at one point - but the first fall, Dory winning with a double arm suplex, and Inoki’s equaliser shortly after with a German, both felt like they’d been sprung on me, lacking that nice build to the final move or sequence that the groundwork they’d laid felt like it warranted.
The second half was so choppy, some good bits of action and some stretches that dragged. They spent way too much time on the outside, constantly going out, coming back in, they couldn’t really establish a rhythm. The final 2-3 minutes were hot, and in fact the crowd were whipped into a frenzy any time Inoki put together a series of attacks that might have resulted in a pin, but the action and urgency came a little too late. It felt like they could have kicked into high gear earlier at the 50 minute mark and gone hard for the final 10. But I got the sense that both men were gassed. Inoki in particular lost all of the cool touches he’d applied to his selling earlier in the match and instead often just lay there. I guess it accurately represents the exhaustion, but there were moments where a more concerted effort to sell the knee after a missed knee drop off the top or something would have gone a long way.

1970-08-04
JWA - NWA World Champion Series - Day 7
B-I Cannon (Antonio Inoki & Giant Baba) (c) vs. The Funk Brothers (Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk)
NWA International Tag Team Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match
Metropolitan Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan
Card
Travesty that so much was cut from the first fall. Bit of a cheap move having the first fall finish with Dory getting DQ’d for tossing the referee from the ring, but I loved the second and deciding fall. Finally got to see Baba work a bit more like the giant he was, stomping Terry’s knee into oblivion to open up the Boston Crab for the finish. 
Terry was great in the 90s, great in the 80s, and he was bloody great to start the 70s too. He was sporting a jarring 60’s style All-American, neatly combed, blonde haircut making him look so completely foreign to what he would look like later. But everything about his work was already present at this point in his career.

[ohtani's jacket]

Finally, someone who agrees with me about Rene Ben Chemoul!

[Matt D]

5 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

Finally, someone who agrees with me about Rene Ben Chemoul!

I certainly see reasons to criticize him but I think he has his positive qualities too. He’s a folk hero; there are always pros and cons to those. 

[SAMS]

To be fair, Chemoul was likely working within the context of a career history that I'm not privy too. Having come up in the 50/60s, he was already incredibly established with the audience by the early 70s, and his routine at this time was deeply rooted in his past work that I've not seen. If I had chosen to go further back in time to start this project and caught his earlier work first I may feel differently. Having said that, and to foreshadow this thread somewhat, my Chemoul distaste only increases from here, as there's a number of matches I've already watched that I just need to write up and post. Interestingly my Walter Bordes stock is rising simultaneously.

[SAMS]

1970-08-22
FFCP - French Catch
Peter Kayser vs. Guy Mercier
France
★★★
Straight to the point, these two had faced off before and there certainly was no love lost between them. Kayser was a brute of a man with a bold, cue ball head, which lent itself to framing him as the villain, but as a worker he felt competent and serviceable. He’d choke or apply a nerve hold when required and he could throw a decent uppercut, but he didn’t have the looming presence of a man like Rene Lasartesse for example. It felt like Mercier was pulling the strings the whole time. He wasn’t perfect by any means here but he got it right enough of the time to make this utterly compelling. Fantastic selling of Kayser’s blatant chokes, all the way down to the spittle frothing at the corner of his mouth, and he was equally adept at getting over the adverse effects of those nerve holds as well. 
He was nasty himself when required, even resorting to plucking out chest and armpit hairs at one point, but the big takeaway I thought was that despite being the smaller man, the idea was that he had more guts, more gumption, and that was what was going to power him through to victory, and Mercier did a fantastic job of projecting that kind of attitude and resolve in the final stages. The aeroplane spin to finish Kayser off was a bit whatever, but I think they’d laid a strong enough foundation where seemingly any finish with Mercier succeeding would have felt satisfying to some degree. I’m not sure this is my match of the year to this point, but Mercier’s performance here I think solidly sits atop the perch in that particular category.

1970-09-14
WWWF
Bruno Sammartino (c) vs. Beppo
WWWF World Heavyweight Title Match
Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA
Card
★★
The opening exchanges were great. Beppo, Nikolai Volkoff working a sort of Mongol gimmick, had a menacing aura in all the ways I wished Killer Khan would project during his matches. The first few collisions and tests of strengths drew me in, but they seemingly never managed to go anywhere from then on. They built to Bruno’s first big comeback, and he displayed some fairly impactful bumps while he was getting beaten around, but once he’d switched into “tee-off and kick Beppo in the stomach” mode, the crowd were wild but it felt like that should have been the finish. Instead we were only halfway through the match and the subsequent matwork, mostly headscissors, were nowhere near interesting enough to work as a bridge before that previous high and the subsequent final climax. To call it a climax may be overselling it though, a contrived sequence of rope runs saw Bruno position himself for an awkward bump through the ropes and he lay in the front row just long enough to get counted out,
The first couple minutes had me hoping for more, but they were never really able to find a real hook for the match and it came across like stuff to do. Super simple structure, Beppo heat, Bruno comeback, bring the crowd back down, fake Bruno comeback, collision causing a countout.

[SAMS]

1970-09-26
FFCP - French Catch
Batman vs. Cesar Leoni
France
★★★★
This was truly wonderful. As I’ve said before, I often find myself spending just as much time keeping track of who is who in these French catch matches, but there was no need for that here. I’m not sure exactly what I expected as I saw Batman pop up in the match listings, but still seeing a man with a plumber’s face rock up in an Adam West Batman costume still was surprising. What was even more surprising was how bloody good he was. Despite being billed from Cleveland, he apparently was an Englishman named Dave Larsen who’d wrestled around the world, outlined in an interesting article here. But for a man wearing a silly costume he had everything you’d want in a wrestler. I saw someone describe him as a heavyweight Johnny Saint, which is apt in so far as the flamboyant hold reversals and almost carefree nature in which he went about his business, especially in the first half of the match, but his selling felt so much more significant than Saint’s usually does, and when called for, his dialled up the grit to match his opponent’s approach in a way I just can’t imagine Saint doing.
The first half was somewhat a back and forth, but Batman was able to showcase some sublime agility for a man of his size and stature. Interesting and unusual escapes and reversals that were all pleasing to the eye but felt suitably grounded due to the fact that he was a relatively big guy. Leoni’s patience was wearing thin though and it wasn’t long before he felt he needed to cut his superhero adversary down to size. I really loved the savagery with which he would lay in his kicks to Batman’s back, giving an almost street fight tinge to the match, and Batman was a willing and giving seller whenever it was time for him to eat a beating.
Batman kept his cool for the most part, but after getting dumped to the outside and Leoni attempting his own King of the Mountain spot, he had had enough. This was when we saw another side of him, much more aggressive, a lot more fiery. In the end Batman proved his bona-fides with an incredible tombstone piledriver to put Leoni away.
Easily one of the most enjoyable and easy to watch matches of the year, French or not. Leoni’s stiff and mean offense was the perfect foil for Batman’s acrobatics and these two meshed perfectly together. Batman showed the whole package though, from crowd pleasing antics, to generating vulnerability, to fighting fire with fire. I’ll eagerly look out for him to pop up in future matches.

1970-09-26
FFCP - French Catch
Le Hippie du Ring vs. Gilbert Bernaert
France
★★
The Hippie had a decent armdrag, crisply executed, and a nasty Boston Crab which he used to put Gilbert away, but otherwise he was more memorable for his gimmick than his work, and he was fighting an uphill battle as Bernaert, who , despite trying hard to mean mug his way through this match, seemed especially half hearted in applying the heat. His strikes and kicks were the right thing to do at the right time, but his execution was pitifully weak and failed to generate the necessary response from the crowd or myself. In the end this felt a bit of a mishmash, I think large parts of the crowd were cheering for the Hippie, but his eventual victory was met with a damp squib of a reaction. 

[Matt D]

I don't know how good your French is or how you are watching this specific footage, but the youtube captioning translate feature was absolutely invaluable to me as I was going through these matches.

Everything's one click away if you need it:

https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2021/05/french-catch-tuesday-master-list.html

[SAMS]

1 hour ago, Matt D said:

https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2021/05/french-catch-tuesday-master-list.html

That's what I've been using as a kind of source of truth as my other sources seemed a bit hazy with dates and had a few matches missing. It's a great resource for information as well as the reviews themselves are fantastic. I did try using the caption translation feature for the first 5 or so matches I watched, but I found that I was spending more time reading the captions that watching the action and I felt like I was missing more than I was gaining. Strange, as I'm the kind of person who watches everything, English or otherwise, with subtitles on. I might give it another go, especially if you get the sense that there's bits of context I could have gleaned from the commentary that I'm otherwise missing.

[Matt D]

41 minutes ago, SAMS said:

That's what I've been using as a kind of source of truth as my other sources seemed a bit hazy with dates and had a few matches missing. It's a great resource for information as well as the reviews themselves are fantastic. I did try using the caption translation feature for the first 5 or so matches I watched, but I found that I was spending more time reading the captions that watching the action and I felt like I was missing more than I was gaining. Strange, as I'm the kind of person who watches everything, English or otherwise, with subtitles on. I might give it another go, especially if you get the sense that there's bits of context I could have gleaned from the commentary that I'm otherwise missing.

As a compromise, it’s really good for the first 2-3 minutes to ensure you know who is who. Also between falls sometimes. 

[SAMS]

I'm all about compromise 

To be fair, where I've got to now, I'm pretty familiar with the guys who have popped up repeatedly and then by process of elimination it is easier to identify the newbies. But it probably is still a good idea to stick the captions on for the preamble and between rounds for sure.

[ohtani's jacket]

Not sure all those matches are from the FFCP if you're picky about that sort of thing. 

[SAMS]

Hmm I guess it depends on whether it’s easy enough to discern what is and isn’t from FFCP, and if not, where it comes from.

How similar was FFCP to Joint Promotions in being an umbrella organisation under which more regional promotions would operate? I feel like I read that somewhere before and that kind of what I was running with in my head but I may have gotten the wrong end of the stick entirely

[SAMS]

1970-10-31
French Catch
Jean Ferre vs. Frank Valois
France
★★
I came into this hoping that this might end up jostling for one of the better matches of the year, however I left it thinking that it was one of the more frustrating ones instead. A lot of my feelings no doubt come from preconceptions and my own preferences. I've been loving Andre from what I’ve watched of his early 80s stuff, so naturally I want that to translate to a younger, slimmer version of him in an interesting new context. However he was at a different point in his career in 1970 and he hadn’t quite fully developed into the giant-type worker that he would become. He was almost too focused on delivering a straight up wrestling match, that the beats of the match felt unnatural and untrue to what was transpiring in the ring. Valois was eager to get a cheap shot in and was generally okay at being a dick, but he brought little else to the table I thought. The big problem though was that Andre didn’t project that the little slights against him were really riling him up, and we never truly got the payoff sequences that they probably deserved. 
Andre trying to do a pure technical wrestling match combined with Valois limited to throwing cheeky slaps and applying chokes resulted in something that was pretty boring and just so very dry. Yes, there were moments where Andre would dish out something more dynamic, but in my opinion he was far too restrained and unwilling to let loose in a way that would become the norm later on in his career. I’m sure my hang ups with this come from the prism through which I viewed this match, but I still think that these two, at this point in time, could have conjured up something more.

1970-11-14
French Catch
Jean Corne & Michel Falempin vs. Jeff Kaye & Ian Gilmour
Paris, France
★★
30 minute draw chock full of slick, fluid wrestling, worked above board and gentlemanly on the whole. Jeff Kaye was the only worker who gave a strong impression though. This felt much more like a British match than a French one and a lot of that can be attributed to how Kaye was able to take control and force his opponents to go along with his routine rather than vice versa. There were no lulls at all, but it was all light and breezy and inconsequential. The best sequences were Kaye up against Falempin, the first with Kaye getting his arm worked over and the second having him struggle in a headscissors, as they grounded an otherwise fancy free contest. The other three men were pretty much blank slates though and could have been switched out with seemingly anybody. The commentator spent much of the match chatting with a couple in the front row, and when Gilmour got his head caught in the ropes the man’s first reaction was to laugh his arse off, which I don’t think was the intended reaction they were going for.  

[ohtani's jacket]

14 hours ago, SAMS said:

Hmm I guess it depends on whether it’s easy enough to discern what is and isn’t from FFCP, and if not, where it comes from.

How similar was FFCP to Joint Promotions in being an umbrella organisation under which more regional promotions would operate? I feel like I read that somewhere before and that kind of what I was running with in my head but I may have gotten the wrong end of the stick entirely

There were several different promotions operating in Paris during the 50s and 60s, and somewhat frustratingly, they never really referred to themselves as promotions. Instead, they were recognized  by their promoter. The TV in the 50s and 60s wasn't from one specific promotion. Instead, it would it shift between different promoters. At some point, Roger Delaporte became the major promoter in Paris and his FFCP promotion became the main source of televised bouts. However, it it's difficult to watch a Catch bout offhand and tell who the promoter is and what promotion it's from. 

It's interesting reading your comments on Catch since you're starting at a point where the decline had well and truly set in. That said, you tend to favor a style of wrestling that French Catch may not deliver in spades. We'll see as the decade progresses. FWIW, Jean Corne is one of my favorite French wrestlers and I really like Michel Saulnier as well. Andre wouldn't become the Andre you're looking for until he was exposed to wrestling in the States and Japan, but it's intriguing to watch him as a young French heavyweight wrestler. He has a bout against Franz van Buyten in '68 that provides a better glimpse of what he was aspiring to be.

I like Ray Steele. He was a good hand. I tend to like 80s WoS heavyweights, however. Arras' bouts are fun if you know him from film and television. Of all the comedy workers, Kellett was the genius and the guy I would watch any new footage of. Masambula has a huge rep, so I was surprised by your reaction. 

[Matt D]

I'm a big fan of how big a fan you are of Batman.

[SAMS]

5 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

There were several different promotions operating in Paris during the 50s and 60s, and somewhat frustratingly, they never really referred to themselves as promotions. Instead, they were recognized  by their promoter. The TV in the 50s and 60s wasn't from one specific promotion. Instead, it would it shift between different promoters. At some point, Roger Delaporte became the major promoter in Paris and his FFCP promotion became the main source of televised bouts. However, it it's difficult to watch a Catch bout offhand and tell who the promoter is and what promotion it's from. 

Thanks for the information! This is all starting to ring some bells again. I can't remember if I saw it on Segunda Caida or in the French Catch megathread but I'm sure somebody (might have been you) has already said the same thing. For my own nerdy spreadsheet I'm not overly concerned with what is and isn't FFCP, especially if it's extremely difficult to determine, but it's a serviceable catch-all for all the French stuff. But I'll leave my listings in this thread as just French Catch from now on as I don't want it to seem like I'm "in the know" when I'm really not and inaccurately presenting matches.

5 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

It's interesting reading your comments on Catch since you're starting at a point where the decline had well and truly set in. That said, you tend to favor a style of wrestling that French Catch may not deliver in spades. We'll see as the decade progresses. FWIW, Jean Corne is one of my favorite French wrestlers and I really like Michel Saulnier as well. Andre wouldn't become the Andre you're looking for until he was exposed to wrestling in the States and Japan, but it's intriguing to watch him as a young French heavyweight wrestler. He has a bout against Franz van Buyten in '68 that provides a better glimpse of what he was aspiring to be.

As with all things there's good and bad. I'm a little ahead in my watching than what is represented at the thread so far, and some of the Catch material has easily been the best of what is available for the time period, but I wouldn't say it blows everything else out the water per se. It's fantastic to have though as otherwise the 70s, and especially the early 70s, would have been painfully sparse in terms of footage to almost be not worth working through. 

For the Catch footage specifically 1970 isn't an ideal starting point, due to the lack of context and the relative decline you mentioned, but favourites are emerging and I feel it 100% has been worth the effort. In terms of specific wrestlers, I've found myself more drawn to the heels on the whole. I'm a sucker for a good beatdown, but generally the faces/stylists just feel more one note, more generic, and ultimately less interesting. The outliers would be Walter Bordes, Batman, Guy Mercier and, of course, Petit Prince. Of course it doesn't help when folks only pop up on tape one or two times a year at maximum.

What you said about Andre is fight on the money as well. I feel like comparing his match in '70 in France against say, an IWE showing in '72 is almost night and day.

5 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

I like Ray Steele. He was a good hand. I tend to like 80s WoS heavyweights, however. Arras' bouts are fun if you know him from film and television. Of all the comedy workers, Kellett was the genius and the guy I would watch any new footage of. Masambula has a huge rep, so I was surprised by your reaction. 

I know of Steele's reputation, so I'm not going to give up on him yet but so far he isn't one who would have stood out to me otherwise. I don't think I've got to any Kellet yet at all. There might be one coming up in '73?

I wasn't aware of any rep for Masambula, but I have no doubt that he would have stood out in the memory of anybody watching at the time due to how his gimmick might have popped off the screen amidst an otherwise mostly lily-white roster. Great timing on the comedic aspects of his gimmick and the crowd often were lapping it up, but he was the kind of worker that forced his opponent to take a massive backseat and be passive so he could do his match. He also seemed reasonable from a technical perspective but again, nothing that would draw my eye.

2 hours ago, Matt D said:

I'm a big fan of how big a fan you are of Batman.

Honestly, what's not to like?! Anybody who could pull of that absurd gimmick deserves all the praise in the world! 

I was hoping the latter matches would match this initial bout against Leoni but they unfortunately weren't necessarily able to generate that same magic. Having said that it wasn't really through any fault of Larsen's and in fact my appreciation for him has only grown as I've watched more.

[SAMS]

1970-12-01
JWA - International Champion Series - Day 8
B-I Cannon (Antonio Inoki & Giant Baba) (c) vs. Gene Kiniski & Johnny Valentine
NWA International Tag Team Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match
Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan
Card
★★★
JIP at around the 17 minute mark of the first fall but what we have of the remaining 10 minutes is fire. Inoki had hands down a couple of the best hope spots of the year. Just wailing away with chops, earnest and impassioned, only to get cut down to size by a hammerblow of a gut punch from Valentine. The single strike was enough to eviscerate Inoki entirely. In fact this whole match felt like they disregarded any pretence of working holds or doing any matwork, and instead worked a 90% strike based match from all four. The Americans were not scared to work stiff either and liberally went for cheap double teams to constantly try and scramble for the advantage. Just as they were building to an excellent crescendo for the fall, with Baba doing his own version of a chop-ocalypse, just creaming Valentine in the corner with strike after strike, we hit a bit of a blip, as Valentine slumped into the corner and Baba seemed unsure whether to keep going with the kicks or to hang back and let Valentine get to his feet. The fact that Valentine just lay there created this weird dead space and I felt that the momentum to what should have been an awesome fall finish got sapped somewhat. The fact that only a minute or so later they went to the finish anyway, with Valentine eating offense from Inoki before Baba finished him off with a dropkick, just made it all the more baffling. 
The stiff strikes kept on coming, but the subsequent two falls lacked the lustre of the first. Valentine’s elbow drops to take Baba down in the second were glorious, but the action lacked the import that I thought it had previously. Inoki, who I was singularly impressed with in the first, with an outstanding fired up, but ultimately falling short, babyface performance, receded into the background in the second half of the match to the point that he didn’t feel involved at all. The Americans also had far greater synergy as a team than the champions. 
The countout at the end, with Inoki diving in at the last second to seal his team’s victory, was suitably mediocre but this was heavy hitting fun all round. I was slightly disappointed in how things fell off after the first fall but it wasn’t enough to truly harm the match. 

1970-12-03
JWA - International Champion Series - Day 10
Giant Baba (c) vs. Gene Kiniski
NWA International Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match
Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan
Card
★★
It seems to be the trend in these types of singles matches that the action drags throughout the first fall before they finally started climbing the gears as they progress towards the finish. For the first 30 minutes we spent a lot of time on the mat as both men duelled over headscissors. At least the spectacle of seeing Baba execute a flying headscissors was something to behold. In fact the best moments in this first half all had Baba on offense, displaying a certain intensity that Kiniski, somewhat plodding here, just couldn’t match.
A missed attack from Baba turned the tables, Kiniski managed to escape being tied in the ropes and dodged the attack, sending Baba tumbling to the outside, and his back focused offense afterwards brought out some of, if not the best, selling I’ve seen from Baba recently. The crowd were well and truly into this as they fought over the deciding fall. It looked like Baba had enough to put Kiniski away, really getting him on the ropes with a full arsenal of attacks, but a backdrop suplex, which folded Baba in half, was enough to win the title for the Canadian, prompting paper and other rubbish to rain down on the ring from the disappointed fans.
The back half was pretty good, but I just can’t get over that first fall, which was interminably dull. Baba’s best singles performance since I started this project, in comparison to Kiniski he just had a far greater array of offensive moves, plus I bought into his selling a whole lot more, generating the necessary sympathy required to invest the crowd here as the defending champion in his home country. Kiniski had some moments, a nasty little foot rake in Baba’s face, a neat backbreaker, but the strikes he delivered with his legs were consistently worse than those delivered with his hands, and unlike the big tag match before, they spent a lot more time on the mat here, so we got the worse option.

[SAMS]

1970-12-12
French Catch
Der Henker vs. Jacky Corn
France
★★
I came into this expecting something out of Corn, but instead came away from this more impressed with Der Henker. He was a big burly man, well built for the time, even if, with his odd mask, he looked like a knockoff toy you’d find in a cereal box. Corn really left no impression on me at all here, only peaking my interest once he ended up bleeding from a posting and the subsequent annihilation he received that put him away. Henker nailed one final tombstone that left Corn lying limp and lifeless on the mat, prompting his second to toss in the towel, then drag his body across the ring back to his corner while Henker posed to the fans.
I’m not sure if it was because I unfairly assumed that all masked Germans would be heels, but the match didn’t really play out that way. I still believe that was the intended tone, but by the midway point I was rooting for the big German, which I’m certain wasn’t what they wanted.

1970-12-12
French Catch
Gilbert LeDuc vs. Bert Mychel
France
★★★
What fun this was. Seemingly two seconds into the match LeDuc caught Mychel with an armbreaker that had enough torque on it that Mychel was forced to take a knee just to compose himself. From that point onwards I was hooked. A real nice blend of gritty wrestling on the mat with feisty, rugged strikes. Mychel, being the slightly bigger man, had the better of the contest on the mat, but his uppercuts were lacking and when it came to duelling with those strikes it seemed like it was always LeDuc who came out on top.
They fought over a headscissors during the middle portion, Mychel fighting valiantly to keep LeDuc trapped. LeDuc attempted a headspin escape several times unsuccessfully before finally escaping. His escapes only resulted in him getting caught by the arm, spun over and getting the hold reapplied, but the constant struggle kept this middle portion chugging along nicely. 
Mychel showed off his excellent fallaway slam, but despite getting tossed around, LeDuc took advantage of Mychel spamming the move and managed to finally find a counter, jamming the follow up attempts. He turned the tables, managing a slam of his own and that was enough for LeDuc to get the pin. Perhaps the only complaint is that Mychel seemed to go down a little too easy, that single slam didn’t feel like it was the final exclamation point of a rousing comeback, but you could argue it’s the same as having a weak jaw in boxing, LeDuc caught him with a big shot and down Mychel went despite how much he had controlled the match.
A truly well balanced match that covers all its bases in what I would want out of a match like this. Really good performances from both men in their own individual way and I would argue a lock contender for top 5 MOTY.

[SAMS]

1970-12-18
NWA Hollywood
Gene Kiniski (c) vs. Giant Baba
NWA International Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match
Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, California, USA
Card
★★★
The Japanese television crew in attendance conducted interviews with both men before the match, and while Kiniski seemed confident that Baba, trying to reclaim his title, would be the aggressor and he could just sit and wait for a mistake or an opening, it was Kiniski, for essentially the entire match, who would push forwards, set the pace, and take the fight to Baba. Baba in turn seemed very happy to let Kiniski dictate terms and then he’d have his little flurries of offense when it came time for him to win a fall but that was about it. I really thought Kiniski carried this whole thing. He was relentless at trying to use the ropes to his advantage, and even when the referee caught the infraction, he’d break the hold and immediately switch onto something else to retain that control he had. In the moments where Baba managed to finally wrestle back a modicum of a foothold in the match, locking on a headscissors for example, the focus was always on Kiniski, always working the referee. In particular his tactic was to con the referee into thinking he was being choked. It got to the point where he was delivering Stan Stasiak levels of awesome facial expressions.
The first fall lasted nearly 40 minutes, and Kiniski took most of that, but Baba took the fall with a big boot, outrageously against the momentum of the match. Kiniski did manage to level things in short order, a backbreaker doing the trick. I was a big fan of the finish to the third and final fall though, Kiniski over aggressive and missing a knee into the corner. He tried to follow up with another backbreaker but only ended up injuring his own knee further, which Baba promptly capitalised on by submitting the Canadian with a single leg Boston crab.
These types of matches always run the risk of dragging on far too long but Kiniski’s fantastic performance here kept things engaging the whole way through. Despite being a Japanese telecast, the US based venue added a nice change in atmosphere and Kiniski seemed far more at home and animated in this setting than he did back in Japan.

[SAMS]

Well that's it for 1970. Before I move on to 1971 I thought I'd do a little GWE roundup of the wrestlers that I felt warranted a shoutout from their performances specific to this calendar year. 

World Class
N/A

Great Worker
N/A

Flashes of Greatness
Guy Mercier

Notable
Antonio Inoki
Dave Larsen (Batman)
Gene Kiniski
Giant Baba

The biggest hindrance to anybody making the top two tiers here was purely the lack of footage. In fact Mercier appeared the most times at a mere 5. I'm trying to give more of a benefit of the doubt during this time frame due to the footage issue, for example Larsen only turned up once, but I thought his performance was so good that he warranted a mention. For the 80s and beyond I'd say a wrestler's performance would have to be an all-timer to get the same treatment but I also don't want to shaft the 70s workers entirely, so this is where I've landed.

Below are some who I believe deserve some kind of honourable mention. They didn't necessarily rank for me primarily due to that fact that, apart from Bruno and Jacky Corn, every one only made tape once, but there would be some worth in others checking them out.

Bert Mychel
Bruno Sammartino
Buck Robley
Cesar Leoni
Gilbert LeDuc
Jacky Corn
Jeff Kaye
Johnny Saint
Johnny Valentine
Kintaro Oki
Marcel Manneveau
Jim Osbourne
Rene Lasartesse
Ted Lamarre