Matt D - SC
@MattD_SC
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French Catch gifs. Notepad essays. Minimalism. Treats this place like a message board. https://t.co/RbJVL28tQk https://t.co/9NOpTiCQVK
Joined October 2024
When we watched the French Catch uncovered in 2020, I tried to capture gifs of unique holds, sequences, and character bits. I began posting them too early into this account so some are flagged, but if you start with the one below you can scroll back and forward to see/share them.
Gilbert Leduc vs Michel Chasine next (JIP: 9/20/57). Electric finishing stretch. Power bombs somehow disappeared from the world in the 70s and only reappeared in the late 80s, as if the NWA brokered some sort of deproliferation accord that ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
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A few pages on matchmaking vs booking and the lost opportunity of not capitalizing on Statlander vs Shafir when the iron was hot.
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Look, I like dives as much as the next guy (pretty sure I don't, but work with me here), but what makes Ricochet special is how he can balance all of that with the stooging, bumping, character work, and physical charisma seen here. The selling runs deep. https://t.co/ZpH9WibWUX
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Bayne/Stat (if Stat's there) make those gimmicky strength spots way too tempting. And Ford being down doesn't help. To me (if I'm remembering right), this should be the tone they should shoot for. It's just tricky with the specific less flippy people in the men's B&G this year.
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Fine with two Blood & Guts matches. My only issue with it is, because of variety, it likely dooms the women's one to be full of perfectly timed choreographed celebratory tandem/multi-women spots and plunder bs instead of something more grisly, hate-filled, organic, and visceral.
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Liano Pellacani with the best cravat techniques 1958 has to offer.
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Kobashi porting over secret techniques in order to try to defeat a monster heel like Abdullah the Butcher.
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There's a beautiful consistency to Wheeler Yuta always finding a way to come in from off camera to be a cheapshot artist. It happens every tag that he's in, often multiple times. He's maybe the best ever at this one, deliberate, absolutely insufferable thing.
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You can see these sorts of moves all throughout the French Catch gif thread. But Carpentier was decades before his time in presenting himself as a television star. https://t.co/2yXfp3PnX7
While almost every match in the French Catch collection is worth watching for one reason or another, there are a number of moments - spots, strikes, bits of technique, bits of character, worth preserving in gif form. In this thread, I'll provide them with some context.
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Not to downplay this, but this stuff was happening in France up and down the card in the 1950s. It was the standard. What made Carpentier stand out relative to his peers (on either continent) was how he was far better at presenting himself as a star on TV in how he framed things.
Édouard Carpentier remains a wrestling anachronism to me. He debuted in 1953, but a lot of his moves would feel innovative in 2025.
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If you'd told me ten years ago that I'd be more captivated by a four minute headlock than most contemporary wrestling I'd have thought you were out of your mind. Funny how things change.
Four minutes of a Bockwinkel headlock on Funk, but they stand up to most any other 4 in wrestling. Bock’s oscillating expression of struggle and sadistic glee. Funk’s constant shifting attempts to escape. They squeeze so much out of it. Watch and learn.
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Bruno filling the generation gap between him and Roddy Piper with Roddy's skull.
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When all else has failed and you have nowhere else to turn, pray to Inoki.
Jon Moxley vs Kyle O'Reilly. What happens when the hunter becomes the hunted? When you're no longer the wolf and the wolves are at your door? When you no longer ride death but are chased by it instead? https://t.co/JvZmz0Huoz
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My favorite thing about Liano Pellacani, and what makes him so unique as a heel, is the Victor Borga-esque writhing when the ref gets on his case after he lays in these absolutely brutal shots. He's an amazing character.
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People can’t copy Bockwinkel or Funk. Especially not Funk (Bock was JUST as good at being in the moment in his own way). They were the best. But people can still learn so many things here, most especially how to make every second matter, and how, as fans, to accept nothing less.
Two of the absolute best of all time working the simpliest hold in a way everybody should understand why they are considering the best! Do not copy. It's not rocket science but understand why and what they did.
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This is the type of thing we need to be talking about instead of Sting or Undertaker
Four minutes of a Bockwinkel headlock on Funk, but they stand up to most any other 4 in wrestling. Bock’s oscillating expression of struggle and sadistic glee. Funk’s constant shifting attempts to escape. They squeeze so much out of it. Watch and learn.
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It’s telling that when Dusty went to WWF they sanitized it but leaned even harder in some ways. He did common jobs in vignettes on the way in, was a common man up against a king and queen for a year, and then couldn’t be bought by Dibiase.
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