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Post by philschneider on Feb 21, 2020 18:19:18 GMT -5
This was a stone cold classic match. It is up there with Cesca vs. Cantanzarro and I could honestly see putting it above it on a list of all time French Catch matches. Bert Royal is in our 1971 MOTY, but this is a very different Bert Royal. We saw Tony's brother Jim earlier in the footage, and from the only two matches we get it looks like the Oliver brothers are up there with the best pair of brothers in wrestling history. I cannot overstate how much I loved Tony Oliver in this match. He was Masa Fuchi on speed, constantly driving his knuckles into parts of Royal's body in this torturous way, and then flying into big bumps and exchanges. It was so much fun to watch him lay in his cheap shots, including finding ways to plausibly stomp the referee without getting DQed. Royal was super cool too, I loved his early almost maestroish mat work, and later he lost his cool and matched Oliver blow for blow including a stomp to the back of the head which looked legitimately concussive. The final stanza was pretty wild with both guys spilling to the floor, some kinetic rope running and a deep backslide finish which was about as good of a flash pin as I can remember seeing.
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Post by jetlag on Feb 22, 2020 6:01:05 GMT -5
Awesome, awesome fight. I was excited to see Bert Royal, a really neat WoS guy with all too little footage, showing up as a young lad in France 13 years before his WoS material. Tony Oliver is, I assume, another Spanish worker, and like all Spanish workers we‘ve seen so far he is really awesome. This was nasty, grinding title fight, 1 fall over 35 minutes. The wrestling equivalent to seeing Ali slugging it out with someone over 12 rounds. Great mix of wrestling and beating the shit out of each other. Oliver was the kind of worker who was all about inside shots and grinding his knuckles really hard into his opponent. Anytime he got an advantage he would dig his fist into Berts face, elbow to the stomach , bite, or hammer him in the ribs. There was a lengthy section where he was just trying to pull Royals knee apart. He also has really awesome mannerisms, like he gets so upset at the audience booing his tactics in hilarious ways, he is totally the hero of his own story. Later he takes the chance to stomp the referee, which was such an amusing psycho move. When Royal gets fed up and starts firing away with those forearms, Oliver is really awesome flopping around wobbly headed, it was amazing to watch. Royal is mostly on the receiving end of Olivers cheapshots, but he busts out some really cool fast movements here and there, he also has his awesome signature backslide submission hold and a really cool Tiger Mask spin into a victory roll. I loved how intense they worked the pin attempts, I am so mad workers nowadays have no sense for that kind of thing. Oliver also really knows how to escalate things, he is basically throwing shots the whole match, but when he drops his knee on Royals throat or stomps him in the back of the head it really feels like he crossed the line. It builds to this really intense frenzy, Royal taking bumps to the outside, Oliver getting pasted with a big palm strike (!!), both guys trading forearms on the floor, nasty use of the ring ropes, awesome finish. Post match Oliver shows some class, which I guess is a nice conclusion to his story, since we seemingly won‘t see him again. It‘s really amazing that we all got interested in French wrestling by guys doing improbable athletic shit in black and white matches, and then France keeps throwing completely different things at you that end up being really awesome.
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Post by shrike02 on Apr 16, 2020 23:07:50 GMT -5
Watched this today and enjoyed it immensely. Struggle, nice character work. Some neat moves you just don't see today, and tons of grit.
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Post by mvz on Feb 27, 2021 6:16:15 GMT -5
The reviews above capture the strong points. Oliver is constantly finding ways to bend the rules. Royal is really good too. I just finished watching and want to watch it again right now. They are always working, there’s a lot to sink your teeth into. Everyone should see this if they can.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2021 8:29:52 GMT -5
Of all the French catch that has been unearthed recently, this is the one that I return to most frequently, even more than Cesca v Catanzarro. A gem.
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Post by makaiclub on Apr 4, 2021 18:53:28 GMT -5
This was awesome. Oliver was not interested in friendly sportsmanship. He was more interested in grinding Royal’s knee joints into dust. Oliver adopted sneaky tactics such as grinding his fist into Royal’s limbs while locking on any hold that was available to him. Royal’s revenge spots were amazing. The crowd hated Oliver so any time Royal would crack his face with a forearm, they were cheering or Royal like crazy. Excellent match. This is something that I should check out more often. ****1/4
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Post by yojianjodefence on Jul 19, 2022 3:32:57 GMT -5
Stellar showing from one of the all time "wish we had more footage" guys in Oliver and a chance to see Royal at his phsyical peak. Outstanding heel shtick that escalates from mild deception and the taking of liberties into a full blown dickhead strop that brings out the righteous viciousness in Royal. Stuff like this really rounds out our understanding of Royals trajectory, making this not just one of the best French catch matches we have but one of the most valuable, too.
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Post by puropotsy on Feb 28, 2023 17:44:56 GMT -5
Royal has what I would assume is a championship sash. The story of the match is Oliver being a heel to his own detriment, always having to get in an extra shot during a submission or pin attempt or having to grab the tights. Royal consistently fights back with uppercuts, throws some nice dropkicks and even applies a nice-looking torture rack. They spill to the floor brawling late in the bout then return with Royal eventually tripping up Oliver coming off the ropes and getting the pinfall. Awesome match.
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