Paris Street Punk


French national champion Jimmy Gavroche, 24, 185#, takes his name from Victor Hugo's Les Miserables and dubs himself "le gamin de Paris."  How many American wrestlers adopt their gimmicks from literary classics?  You can see a short, well-made video here of Gavroche, in which he compares (in French) French pro wrestling with American.  The film also provides footage of Gavroche in action, which requires no translation.

Besides his respect for literature, I like Gavroche for his distinctive proletarian handsomeness--not movie-star gorgeous, but earthy, tough, and solid.  In the three or four online videos I have seen of him in the ring, I like his approach of throwing himself, with everything he's got, at his opponent, storming the barricades.  

Admittedly, a good bit of my interest in Gavroche stems from unchecked Francophilia too.  I may be drawn to Gavroche because I like the French in general--their independence and pugnacity and their resistance to assaults on their liberties, rights, and sovereignty.  (And, while I'm at it, hourras for the Enlightenment, frites ["freedom fries"], champagne, Rodin, Proust, bikinis, Genet, Vincent Cassel, parkour, and Francois Sagat.)

Comments

  1. Haven't you been able to find any matches or pix of this great looking guy in the two and. Half years since this post?

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  2. A Google search finds most entries from 2011-12, but there was a mention that he was going to FL in 2013 to explore the possibility of a TNA try-out. I found a picture of him earlier in Jan. 2014 doing a a publicity gig with other wrestlers in a French super-marché. http://www.lyonne.fr/photoSRC/bqViVeldaWelbKxCPNWs_pusXXdNGltxXD4uu1iw_sR0IkLcazbGupnwlQUaVQo_pWI48f0HY_sxYvETMFwM2diAkJo-_/rencontre-avec-des-catcheurs_1440882.jpeg

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  3. Whoops! Forgot to mentioned that he's considerably less chiseled in this photo than in yours, a bit lardy. Same in the one video I saw him wrestle in. A shame!

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