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La Complète et Exacte French Catch


Phil Schneider

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We have unearthed maybe the greatest collection of hidden gems in wrestling nerd history. 350+ French Catch Matches from the mid 50s-mid 80s.

There will be info about a Google Drive soon, but we have started reviewing them over at Segunda Caida with youtube links for what we are watching.

 

https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2014/05/la-complete-et-exacte-french-catch.html

 

Is the link to all of the Catch we have reviewed (some stuff which had been available before and the new stuff), and we will be doing new matches every Tuesday.

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Just watched Eddy Wiecz/Eddy Koparanian vs. Georges Gueret/Andre Bollet 2/23/56. What a fun match. The footage looked so crisp. I might be mixing up the faces, but everyone had distinctive feel to them.

Bollet starting the match not shaking hands and then being intimidated by Koparanian. He was such a douche. At least twice disrespectfully slapping Wiecz.   The first half of the first fall has such a pretty feel to it. Interesting submission holds, athletic rolls, it doesn’t get touch until Bollet illegally kicks Koparanian in the back. Thus giving Gueret an opportunity to forearm the hell out of him. Now the rest of the match will be filled with forearm smashes and European Uppercuts.

Gueret was so good a subtly throwing knees in the corner without the ref seeing. His upper half is straight but clearly on camera he’s getting the guy right in the kidneys.

Without spoiling the ending for those excited to watch it, the move that’s done completely caught me by surprise.

I can’t wait to dig through more of these! Your site has been very helpful in learning about which older lucha matches to watch (and fall in love with), hopefully More from France can be my next discovery.

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  • 2 weeks later...


This week we have a proto-WAR heavyweight battle between Iska Khan and Jim Oliver, and one of the craziest matches in wrestling history between Francis Louis/Jean Claude Bordeaux and Antonio Perero/Mota Dos Santos with both teams flying into the ring on spring platforms

 

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2020/02/tuesday-in-french-catch-day-louis.html

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This week we have the earliest Finlay match on tape that we think exists in the wild (and that is brand new to the community like ALL this footage), a raucous, crowd-pleasing tag team match between two experts in  Guy Mercier and Alan Mitchells and a real master of stooging in Ian Gilmour with Finlay as his bruising and bumping heavy. 

and maybe my favorite match we've watched so far with Jean Bout, who we'd never heard of but is just beyond great, taking on a real scumbag in Liano Pellacani. Watch this one. @DEAN, @Goodear @OSJ @supremebve @jaedmcthat means you (and everyone else too).

Youtube links and reviews in the post:
http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2020/02/tuesday-is-french-catch-day-finlay.html

 

Edited by Matt D
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  • 3 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Le Petit Prince & Francis Louis vs Daniel Noced & Jacky Richard 2/22/71

Match review:

This is my first Petit Prince match. I often start these French videos not knowing who is who for the first portion, but the moment the Prince got tagged in it became obvious. 

Very fun match. Started off with the clear Face-Heel dynamic. In the first movement the faces were outclassing the heels for a majority of the segments. Francis Louis establishing wrist control on Daniel Noced leading to multiple head scissors. Petit Prince comes in and uses his small size to his advantage by moving around Noced. Within minutes of each other, both Louis and Prince got Daniel Noced out of the ring. Francis Louis with a drop kick sending him over the top rope and Petit with a roll to get him through the bottom one. 

The match start to even up when Jacky Richard over powers Prince, but the quick reversal gets them both to tag out. A return to Louis getting the better of Noced follows until Noced gets revenge for his embarrassment earlier and throws Francis over the top rope. What follows is a series of beatings and tearing down of the Petit Prince. Heel advantage of stepping on the hair and kicking while the ref isn’t looking. Noced and Jacky continue to go back and forth on whose knee is on Prince’s head and different forms of hammerlock pins and stretches. All while Prince is reaching towards Louis. They even pulled a ref missed the tag move to rile everyone in the crowd up. The most beautiful beatdown had to be when Noced sits Le Petit Prince on the top turn buckle and is holding onto him while he is clobbering him back and forth. A close second to grabbing Princes hair, while in the hammerlock, and slamming him up and down against the canvas. 

The villains get the pin after a full press midsection breaker. Prince is kicked after the pin and the crowd loses it. All the characters are established here. Jacky Richards is the heel that will tire the smaller face down, Daniel Noced is the heel that will do cheating moves to get the heat, Francis Louis is the strong protected Face, and Le Petit Prince is the underdog that wows everyone with his fiery grace. 

In the next movement the Heels really up their cheating. Openly reaching in the ring, in front of the ref, to pull poor little Prince’s hair. They both even double team an arm submission, but Prince uses that to his advantage and dives to make the tag. Francis proceeds to smash both Noced and Jacky with strong European Uppercuts, repeatedly. While Prince’s character has the wow factor and the lovability and an underdog, Francis Louis is the equalizer. No nonsense, the guy that will out grabble and now out pummel the bullies. 

Once we’re back to a level field it’s the Petit-Noced show. Numerous times throughout the match the gentlemen have been kicked or thrown or rolled out of the ring. Now it is coming off more personal and heated. Petit and Noced brawl for a bit to the outside and the crowd is losing it. Complete pandemonium. Noced even throws Prince into the post, cutting his forehead open. Francis is looking to tag in, but an angry, wobbling Prince is too fired up and wants Noced to himself. He is now swinging punches. A few miss but when he starts landing them Noced is getting man-handled. But Noced swings back, much stronger than Prince, getting him again out of the ring. Apron madness and flipping leads to Daniel Noced being tied up. The rage in Prince to beat a vulnerable  stuck Noced until Prince couldn’t stand was brilliant. The towel gets thrown. Bad guys win. All because of the luck of cocky jerk Noced getting stuck and the pride of the Prince to stay in the match. It’s clear at that point if Francis Louis was tagged in they would have gotten the second fall and likely the third. That just makes Prince all the more endearing. After being overpowered and cheap-shotted throughout the fight, he had to prove himself and was angry enough to do it. However, with the beating taken, Prince just couldn’t stand long enough. Noced raises his arm in victory, like a prick. Beautiful.

———

I’m very behind on watching these. But I think this week and next might have a few free hours to get my France on. Which full (or at least clipped but with beginnings and endings) matched do you recommend I check out next?

On 6/9/2020 at 11:39 AM, Matt D said:

Jetlag posted his top 10 for 1957. I'm not so great at lists but I can definitely agree that every match on this list is well worth watching and you guys should do it now if you haven't already.

 

I love a good list. Are all of these he mentioned on the Segunda Caida site?

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 7/27/2020 at 9:18 PM, Octopus said:

I love a good list. Are all of these he mentioned on the Segunda Caida site?

Every single one of them has been reviewed on SC. Every Tuesday we review 2-4 more. Some match/review links might need to be added to the page above, but that link at the top will take you to all of them. There are several that stand out as the best, but I seriously doubt you would not entertained no matter the match you picked.  

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  • 3 months later...

Oh boy, this sounds so amazing, and I'm not saying that because I'm actually French, but because I loved british wrestling and the european style I've seen of the late 60's and 70's so I expect to enjoy this a ton.

My issue is that I don't know whereto find these. I anyone could help me, that would be much appreciated.

Merci

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Hey, welcome aboard. Glad you found this.

The blog is http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/

We post new reviews/links every Tuesday late night and will for the next couple of years.

This will get you the last few weeks: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/search/label/French Catch

There's the starting of a master list here, but it only got so fleshed out: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2014/05/la-complete-et-exacte-french-catch.html

I'll PM you some more resources later. This is a big ocean to dive into and you'll want to see it all once you get your feet wet.

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Is the master list a full list of what came out already of some kind of a "best of" comp?

I'm asking that because I tend to gather the most stuff first and then watch the whole in chronological order. Actually I'm currently in late 1985 in the US after I gathered everything from all the territoiries, WWF, MACW, Montreal... , and all the sets I bought from Good Helmet (including Portland & Puerto rico).

So I don't know, I may jump out of this project every wednesday (since "tuesday night" for you guys will be too late to still be "tuesday" for me) and watch the latest catch match you posted (and maybe share my thoughts here as well). Anyway, count me in, I just don't know when!

Edited by MrMoonlight
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4 hours ago, MrMoonlight said:

Is the master list a full list of what came out already of some kind of a "best of" comp?

I'm asking that because I tend to gather the most stuff first and then watch the whole in chronological order. Actually I'm currently in late 1985 in the US after I gathered everything from all the territoiries, WWF, MACW, Montreal... , and all the sets I bought from Good Helmet (including Portland & Puerto rico).

So I don't know, I may jump out of this project every wednesday (since "tuesday night" for you guys will be too late to still be "tuesday" for me) and watch the latest catch match you posted (and maybe share my thoughts here as well). Anyway, count me in, I just don't know when!

1. It's just that we didn't keep the thing updated. I'm going to send you some more info in PM right now and I suggest that you use that as a guide. The good news is that 1957 is mostly updated on that list, so that's your starting point.

2. After that, you should google the match name and "Segunda caida". Video links are in the review posts. If you can't find something, reach out to me. We're midway through 1960 now.

3. We did go chronologically for the most part because it led to the most surprises and the week to week quality is so good. We do jump ahead now and again when we see something particularly interesting or gain some knowledge that makes us want to check something out but we've been pretty disciplined.

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  • 8 months later...

They're all worth watching, but this week's tag is something everyone should take the time and check out. It'll just make your day.

Here's what Phil and I had to say about it:

Spoiler

MD: This isn't the best match we've seen, but it was still so, so, so good. Exceptionally good. Great. Exceptional, except for that it wasn't at all an exception. This is just how good the high end tag matches in this footage get. But it is so good. It has less prolonged heat, maybe, but that's not replaced by meaningless excess but instead by a constant pressure. The Blousons Noirs never stop trying to get an advantage, never hesitate to cheat, always work towards their side of the ring and the cheapshot, complain about low blows, try to sneak in a grab or a trip out of nowhere, even use the ring rope as a battering weapon. Ben Chemoul and Bordes are always trying to escape and press an advantage and get revenge. There's not a moment in the entire match where it feels like they're just killing time or not somehow actively competing with each other, and that's insane considering some of the great, imaginative comeuppance spots. They called Ben Chemoul the acrobat of the ring, but he feels more like a jester, not just in how he amuses, and his agility and humor, but in how he shows the the heels to be frauds and fools under their swagger, as dangerous as they might be. He did a double turtle draw-in spot that I've never seen before and it felt like exactly what these characters would do. We've seen enough footage by this point to call the Blousons Noirs one of the best heel units of all time. Bordes was young and game (willing to bump hard out of the ring and to fire back from underneath) and the match might have been a little hotter if there was a few more minutes of him being beaten upon somewhere in there, but the fans still went up for whenever he came back, just like there was a buzz whenever Ben Chemoul came in and did his little initial bound to one knee to intimidate an opponent. Matches like this are just pure joy to watch.

PAS: This was tremendous stuff, on the level of the best Midnight Express vs. Rock and Roll Express tags, really an all time classic. Love the Noirs, they have the entire package, viciousness, stooging, bumping, basing, truly a five tool heel tag team. Borders and Chemoul are a great face team too, Chemoul was so slippery and would draw the heels in and evaded them with such skill. Bordes was great too he takes a huge head first bump into the crowd which really need to be giffed, and had one of the nastiest front face locks I have ever seen, one of the great things about all of this footage is how incredible the little things looked, which makes the big things look even better.

 

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  • 5 months later...
39 minutes ago, Horatio said:

I can't believe I'm really the first to ask this, but who was Batman? 

I'm assuming he's not the American WWWF Batman...?

So to the best of my knowledge, Batman is David Smith-Larsen, who ended up in Opera.

Here's an article though it's strange it calls him L'Ange Blanc instead of Batman, basically:

https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=20040116&slug=kell16

He was actually really quite good.

 

Edited by Matt D
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14 minutes ago, Matt D said:

So to the best of my knowledge, Batman is David Smith-Larsen, who ended up in Opera.

Here's an article though it's strange it calls him L'Ange Blanc instead of Batman, basically:

https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=20040116&slug=kell16

He was actually really quite good.

 

Very interesting. I didn't think an actual Batman could give his identity away anyways, but very cool that this guy got his start in India.

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  • 2 months later...

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