Anything from this stuff look interesting?

If there is nothing from the 80s which is a Stone Cold Lock, I want to find at least one match to represent the style. So the best French 80s match makes the set, even if nothing is of that top 100 quality. 

I think France will be well represented, even though we have less footage and the quality went down, but they still had workers around who could deliver.

I watched the following matches so far:

Walter Bordes vs. Zarak 3/1/1980

Bruno Asquini & Guy Mercier vs. Jo Gonzalez & Pedro Gomez 8/4/1980

Gerard Herve & Tony Lamotta vs. Golden Falcons 8/11/1980

Le Petit Prince & Claude Rocca vs. Bob Remy & Anton Tejero 8/18/1980

Guy Mercier & Alan Mitchell vs. Dave Finlay & Ian Gilmour 8/25/1980

Jean Corne & Rene Caballec vs. Jacky Richard & Albert Sanniez 9/8/1980

 

The best match and a strong recommendation would be Prince/Rocca vs. Remy/Tejero. That match wouldn't look bad compared to the best 50s and 60s stuff. We watched the Finlay tag on Segunda Caida and everyone agreed it's a great match. I also really enjoyed Lamotta/Herve vs. The Golden Falcons. Corne/Caballec vs. Richard/Sanniez had some of the best exchanges in all these but a weaker second half. Asquini/Mercier vs. Gonzalez/Gomez was the weakest of the tags that I've seen, but still a good match. Zarak/Bordes was unique as Zarak is a big towering masked guy doing strength spots. Not a bad match but it probably went too long.

I think all these matches deserve a watch and a second opinion. I can just post my reviews if people are interested.

 

Yeah, throw your reviews up for sure

 

Everything from 1980:

 

Zarak vs. Walter Bordes (3/1/1980)

1 Fall match going a bit over 25 minutes. Zarak was a big, towering guy in a mask. It fascinates me how much masked French wrestlers look like luchadores. This Zarak guy didn‘t work like a luchador (he was a British guy, in fact), but he seemed like a decent worker. Bordes had entered the maestro portion of his career at this point, and he had quite good looking mechanics. The early portion of this was Bordes putting a hold on Zarak, Zarak powering out and Bordes really flying across the ring. Bordes even flew into the crowd like Spike Dudley later in the match. The problem with the match was that they seemed to have no ideas for a story or such, so it was your typical series of retaliation spots. Zarak had some nice punches, a knee drop to the throat and one point just kneed Bordes in the balls, but wasn‘t terribly interesting as a character. The worst thing about the match was that it ended in a stupid DQ after they ran through a series of nearfalls.

 

Guy Mercier & Bruno Asquini vs. Jo Gonzaelz & Pedro Gomez (8/4/1980)

2/3 Falls match going about 25 minutes. I love that France has a litany of South American rudo bases available. Structurally, this was exactly like something you‘d expect to see in Arena Mexico or Monterrey. The thing that the French crew has going for it in 1980 is that these guys are old and rugged now but still doing all the ridiculously fast armdrags. Asquini is balding and dumpy looking here but has just a beautiful dropkick. Mercier didn‘t do a ton besides hitting some great looking arm drags and stiff uppercuts, but he had a nice airplane spin and impressive old man strong military press. Gomez & Gonzalez looked good during the opening wrestling portions. Unfortunately, the rudo beatdown went a little long and they seemingly didn‘t have it in them to make up for it with a ferocious finale, although the rudos were dedicated to miscommunication spots. There was also some ref bullshit in the match, although the refs mannerisms were amusing and thankfully it never took center stage. I could see someone who has never seen French pro wrestling before digging this.

 

Gerard Herve & Tony Lamotta vs. Golden Falcons (8/11/1980)

2/3 Falls match going about 30 minutes. French pro wrestling was nearing the end, but tag team wrestling could still deliver, and this delivered. Fast intricate exchanges, a pair of masked guys who can stooge and deliver a beating… yeah, this is pretty much Lucha. Also, both teams wore matching outfits , so they understood the crucial parts of tag team wrestling. Gerard Herve is some young stud and a quite polished technico. Lamotta is balding and grey, but still really athletic with great looking ranas and flips, although he wisely leaves the bulk of the work to his partner. I didn‘t know what to expect from the Falcons (what kind of heel persona is that, anyways?) but they were ready to wrestle and bump and had good heel timing. There were some heel ref shenanigans with Michel Saulnier again, but to be honest he may have carried the heel beatdown section with his amusing ways to sabotage Herve. The european uppercuts landed loudly and the crowd was into this. The last fall is really short but the ending move is a good one.

 

Le Petit Prince & Claude Rocca vs. Anton Tejero & Bob Remy (8/18/1980)

2/3 Falls match going a little over 30 minutes. The guys were still absolutely killing it. It‘s the same formula as any of these late period French tags, two good guys who will armdrag hard, 2 rudos who will bump like crazy, and an incompetent referee who is made the butt of many a joke. It‘s really nice that we have footage of Tejero from the 1960s up to here. He was getting lumpier and greying, but still an insanely dedicated bumper. He flung himself out and across the ring like 20 times in this. I have no idea what kind of money these guys were getting to work this hard, but it‘s a trip. Rocca looked awesome just running the ropes and the Prince hadn‘t slowed down much since the 60s. I also really liked Bob Remy who was a real fucker tagging guys with punches and stiff punt kicks. This was all action until a pretty intense rudo beatdown kicked in with the Prince taking a beating, even getting flung into the crowd and carried back by a second who didn‘t bother removing his cigarette. The 3rd fall wasn‘t as intense as the first two, but this was a romp.

 

25/08/1980 Guy Mercier & Alan Mitchells vs. Dave Finlay & Ian Gilmore

2/3 Falls match over about 25 minutes. Browsing through hundreds of French matches, and just out of nowhere a 22 year old Dave Finlay pops up in what is maybe his first ever televised match working like a seasoned veteran heel. Pretty cool. The saying about European tag wrestling is that they didn‘t quite know how to do it, but this match had pretty much the kind of structure you want: Fun babyface shine segment, followed by a heel beatdown before a series of cut offs before a comeback succeeds and then a finish. They fool you a bit here by doing a really long shine with the heels making several attempts at starting the beatdown and being cut off, but in the end the structure is there and even the 2/3 Falls formula is integrated well. This was a bit more holds and takedowns based and less about armdrags and ranas, similiar to what we know from British wrestling, but don‘t be fooled the pace in this match was lightning fast. These guys really do an absurd amount of stuff even in a long match, but everything is executed effortlessly. Guy Mercier is a former European champion with a look and aura that just screams tough old man, and while there wasn‘t a ton of extended wrestling in this match he looked like a classy worker. It speaks for the creativity of these old workers just how much they could do with moves like a body slam or hip throw. Finlay also did this cool thing where he misses a big splash in about the first minute of the bout and spends the next few minutes scurrying away while the faces twisted up his leg and launched him into the ropes. It didn‘t pay off in the long run, but it was a fun bit of selling to make the opening minutes more interesting. Once the heels got something going after what felt like 15 minutes of highly entertaining bumping and stooging, they basically focussed on getting the faces to the corner and stomping the crap out of them. Really simple and effective stuff that made me wish modern workers paid more attention to making simple things like a stomp look good, because Finlay had damn great looking stomps here. Another layer to the match was Michel Saulnier, who was grey and a referee by now. The match had some heel ref antics and comical amounts of babyface retaliation against Saulnier, while that is something that can ruin a lot of these Euro matches it was actually executed in a really fun manner here. The thing I loved most how delighted the fans were at the trick the heels used to get a pin here. No hard feelings, it‘s all good fun in France.

 

Jean Corne & Rene Caballec vs. Jacky Richard & Albert Sanniez (9/8/1980)

 

2/3 Falls match going 30 minutes. If all 80s French wrestling is just gonna be quality workrate tags like this involving lumpy maestros, I‘d be fine with that. The opening exchanges were just ridiculously fast and intricate. It was like watching Navarro/Solar on speed. I also enjoyed Albert Sanniez a lot here, who may be the best of the French rudos. He just makes everything look great. The structure was a bit weaker than in the previous tags as it seemed like the faces were never really in trouble and there wasn‘t an extended heat segment.. Roger Delaporte was the referee here and for some reason he keeps this in order. Being a legendary TV villain and then turning around to be a good guy referee is weird. The time limit ran out, but Delaporte declares Corne & Caballec the winners anyways. The work here was very good, but I could see some people being annoyed or confused with the match layout.

Great! Make threads for each match you think is a set level match and give them a ranking

The audio is a problem with these matches. I have to watch them with a single earphone otherwise I hear that continuous dubover. 

Blazing through 1981 - 1982. It's weird that we have so much from the 50s but so little from the 80s. Maybe they'll have it digitalized in the next 10 years.

 

Jack de Lasartesse vs. Guy Mercier (10/5/1981)

1 Fall match going 30 minutes. Lasartesse was sporting blonde hair here and hadn‘t fully morphed into the evil grandpa looking guy yet. This had the weird Lasartesse match problem where he did a ton of offense, but the match wasn‘t as smartly laid out as his better matches. His offense looked good, especially the knee drops and throat jabs, but Mercier wasn‘t able to stage some kind of epic comeback against that like a Van Buyten type worker would have. I thought Mercier was too small to fight Lasartesse (seems there was a lack of big guys on the French scene), and while he does fine, he doesn‘t do a ton of interesting things here either. He was mostly hogging Lasartesses leg which didn‘t lead anywhere. There was also the thing where Lasartesse hits his sick ass knee drop off the top rope followed by the tombstone piledriver which is a finish if I‘ve ever seen a finish in French catch, but Mercier just kind of gets up and they move on with the match. Guys will get pinned following a bodyslam or hip throw, but for some reason everyone survives the Tombstone Piledriver. This also goes to a draw and again, referee Delaporte declares the face the winner which feels like it completely eliminates the purpose of a draw. I‘m probably making this match sound worse than it was, the work was good and especially Lasartesse had a good showing, but the baffling layout choices prevented this from being more than that.

Jean Corne & Rene Caballec vs. Jacky Richard & Guy Renault (10/12/1981)

2/3 Falls match going 30 minutes. Richard & Renault were donning the leatherman gear here. There were some structural choices here that may confuse people, but the work was undeniable. This kind of insane cardio show from a bunch of crusty old men is just befuddling. I liked the early pinfall to increase tension throughout most of the match, and there was just one entertaining exchange after another. Richard & Renault weren‘t bumping as big as other rudos we‘ve seen, but had no problem going along and looked considerably scummy. The crowd absolutely loved this and folks were jumping up and down anytime Les Celts got the upper hand. Note: this is labelled as Richard/Renault vs. Marc Mercier/Kader Hassouni in Loss‘s file.

Le Petit Prince & Gerard Bouvet vs. Anton Tejero & Albert Sanniez (7/24/1982 or 1/1/1979)

2/3 Falls match going a bit under 30 minutes. This exact same match is also uploaded as being aired on 1/1/1979, so it‘s another mysterious case. This was a „more of the same“ match with some sequences being replicated exactly as in the previous Prince/Rocca match. That is to be expected, I guess, and there were still like 10 sequences that would have most luchadors drop their jaws with envy. The man bringing something fresh to the table was Bouvet, doing some more technical stuff and even a skin the cat spot. Tejero was a bit more subdued here, so Sanniez stepped up being the master of the hair pull. There was no intense heat segment like in other French tags and the faces handily bagged this one 2:0, so I guess that disqualifies it from a Best Of list anyways.

Mammoth Siki vs. Zarak (8/28/1982)
Remy Bayle vs. Golden Eagle (8/28/1982)

These seem to be in the exact same building as the tag the previous month (or 3 years earlier?). Anyways, these matches were mostly heavyweights beating on each other in not very exciting ways. The men mostly grinding these matches down were Siki (really likes slazy chinlocks) and Eagle (really likes lazy chokes). I liked Bayle who looks like a Soviet grappler with his singlet and body hair. Anyways, these are for the „At least it was short“ category.

I'm pretty sure that Prince match is from '82, Couderc looks much older. 

Blazing through 1983..

 

Daniel Schmid & Remy Bayle vs. Paco Ramirez & Gilbert Wherle (7/1/1983)

 

2/3 Falls match going about 25 minutes. Paco Ramirez was apparently working EMLL as „Lawrence de Arabia“. That was the most interesting thing about this bout. The wrestling was okay, but the face/heel dynamic was executed kind of poorly and you could tell they didn‘t have the kind spark of brilliance you usually expect from French wrestling. Worst of all, the match went needlessly long when these workers just didn‘t have much to offer.

 

Flesh Gordon & Walter Bordes vs. Frederico & Kato Bruce Lee (7/9/1983)

2/3 Falls going about 25 minutes. Flesh Gordon debuts. And France would never be the same! In all honesty though, this was really good. Young Flesh Gordon was a pretty good technico, no kidding. Really dug the luchariffic rhythm of the early exchanges. And Bordes as his maestro partner was just ridiculous, even hitting a plancha to the outside. Most importantly, this felt like it had spark. It also had the kind of recognizable southern structure that people can recognize. Frederico & Kato Bruce Lee won‘t set your world on fire if you‘ve seen Anton Tejero and Albert Sanniez, but they knew how to beat someone up and make it not boring.

 

Guy Mercier & Mr. Montreal vs. Fred Magnier & Yasu Fuji (7/30/1983)

I have a suspicion that this is from the 70s due to the way it‘s filmed, but Fuji is listed as only having come to Europe in the 1980s. But what do we know. Anyways, this was pretty mediocre and brutally long so you don‘t really want to watch it.

 

Flesh Gordon & Walter Bordes vs. Golden Falcons (8/13/1983)

2/3 Falls match going about 25 minutes. I am totally fine with young Flesh Gordon and an ancient Walter Bordes carrying French TV at this point. Gordon is really spry doing these luchariffic exchanges and I am loving Bordes in these matches, just bouncing around and mixing in all this cool shit while being old enough to be everyones grandpa. This also had a nifty heel beatdown where Flesh Gordon was laid out like an All Japan tag and Bordes took a big beating. In a nifty moment, the Falcons even stole the „wrestler gets catapulted into his own partner“ spot which is usually reserved for babyfaces. Gordon comes back in the 3rd fall wearing a bandage and just uppercuts everyone a lot, and all is right in the world.

 

Guy Mercier vs. Mr. Montreal (8/27/1983)

1 Fall match going a bit under 30 minutes. This was a clean technical match, seemingly a rare occurence by 1983. The fact they still had matches like this at that time made me wish there was more 80s French TV around. This was super minimalist, two guys struggling over basic holds for 30 minutes without a fall. It was something you‘d expect out of the 60s. The holds were simple, but they were really cranking them. The whole match felt clinical and the fact Montreal was squeezing Mercier so hard with those headlocks his veins seemed about to pop emphasized that. I imagine this kind of contest was more Merciers speciality than the heatmongering face/heel style. His suplexes ruled. Both guys seemed to get increasingly agitated towards the end, really cracking each others jaws with the uppercuts. I‘ve seen a lot of 80s Euro draws like this, but seeing this go 25+ without rounds or falls was impressive. I could see most people finding this boring, but I enjoyed the show.

 

Kader Hassouni & Jean Corne vs. Jacky Richard & Albert Sanniez (9/3/1983)

2/3 Falls match going about 30 minutes. You will know exactly how these go by now. Long, quality face shine chock full of super quick sequences to start, before the heels take over for a beatdown. Faces come back, heels bump like mad and a quick finish happens. After this, the matches we have get pretty wacky, so I guess this is a sort of last hurra for the classic type of Catch. It was as good as any of these matches you‘ve seen too. Everyone looked pretty old but they had no problem going hard as usual. Richard especially was the most grey and crusty looking dude here but had no problem bumping big and fast and running the ropes. Hassouni was spry and Sanniez had one of his typically good performances. There were also a bunch of rowdy kids and an elderly lady at ringside threatening to storm the ring at the heel tactics of Richard & Sanniez. Maybe for this reason referee Michel Saulnier decided not to do anything fishy here.

I'm done with the 80s catch. Unless we've overlooked anything in the archive, I think there is a pool of 5 matches that are worth taking a look at. I didn't rewatch the Finlay match or the 85 tag that was already on YouTube. 

There may be more matches in the "Unsure Content" folder. I remember there was at least one tag involving Van Buyten with some unidentified guys from the "Derier Manchette" show that should be in there, as well as a tag with a floating ring featurung Albert Sanniez and the Mercier brothers (?). I'll have to comb through it.

EDIT: I checked and these should be the file numbers:

Marc Mercier & Pierre Mercier vs. Albert Sanniez & Pedro Lini(?)  CPC84054125

Franz van Buyten & Mr. Montreal vs. Bob Ufo & John Harris CPC8405434901

 

It sounds like there is some stuff missing from '87 as well.