PeteF3

Burke was a results-compiler and I think a photographer, who wrote for the non-Apter/Weston magazines of the late '70s and early '80s. He was a guest several times on Brian Last's old 6:05 Superpodcast. Yes, he did write about the international scene quite a bit, more than just about any other magazine writer, which was an impressive feat with no video tape. I have one magazine around where he has a big write-up on Bert Mychel, of all people.

Yeah, I'm not sure how much I buy that supposed list. Some real, "Tony Khan loved me, it was that damn Jimmy Jacobs who fucked me over" vibes a la Vince and Johnny Ace.

Still waiting for another villain to do this "avoid the knockout and get pinned anyway" spot.

That was peak WWF/WWE "book minorities in the most stereotypical gimmick possible and hide behind 'satire'" bullshit. See also: voice-dubbed Kaientai, Latino Heat Eddie Guerrero, Cryme Tyme, right up through the New Day. (And yeah, I'll hear that some of these were the talent's own idea--what were they going to do, propose ideas that *didn't* appeal to Vince? Come on.)

I love Fujiwara as much as any PWO poster but there are definitely longtime Observer voters who would be confused (not even shocked, just confused) at the suggestion that he's a top-10 or even top-50 worker all-time. He wasn't disliked or anything but neither Dave nor a lot of his readers see him the same way a lot of us do. Gordienko...man, the rep is there, but I thought I struck the motherlode on getting early-'70s Grand Prix footage of him and he showed me *nothing.* Not as an interview, not as a personality, not as a worker. It was at the end of his career and he was maybe miscast as a heel, but it was the most disappointing "find" in my personal wrestling footage-collecting hobby probably ever. It certainly casts doubt that he was a major name into the "mid-'70s" though because he looks pretty washed-up by 1972-73.

I feel like Saint's a HOFer on influence. Even though George Kidd was a TV pioneer of the style, Saint's the one whose tapes were studied and the one most closely associated with British wrestling spots elsewhere in the world.

Strongbow was not the babyface, though.

It should also be noted that Strongbow's bump to the floor against Wanz would 100% be cause for a countout/KO finish, as it was a bigger bump than most bumps to the floor on WoS outside of maybe some Clive Myers matches. Yet he got back into the ring and was pinned with a suplex soon after. Maybe one could argue that that was the American Strongbow's influence but I doubt he was the one dictating the finishes.

Professionally filmed.

Richard Land found it on a giant shipment of tapes he got from someone in Germany, same source as Tom Magee-Kamala. Mostly American TV but also a chunk of German catch and at least one World of Sport episode (just one match that ITV Wrestling doesn't link to and doesn't appear to have been in circulation previously--Peter Kaye vs. Kid Chocolate from 17 March 1981). It's available through his Patreon and going through the tapes is an ongoing process.

Chief Jay Strongbow vs. Otto Wanz (7/7/79) Another find courtesy of Richard Land. Strongbow definitely doesn't fit the mold of classic European wrestling but from a star-power standpoint he's a fairly major get for Otto. He was squarely in the middle of a big WWF run--if the date is right, this is smack in the middle of an MSG match against Greg Valentine on 7/2 and a TV taping in Allentown on 7/10. So this is peak post-broken-leg Jay which might also be his peak as a worker post-Joe Scarpa as the Valentine matches are genuinely great. This match is professionally shot with multiple cameras and the heat is incredible...and yes, Strongbow is a full-blown heel here, which is a jarring sight. Wanz looks only barely thicker than Jay, the smallest I've ever seen him. The first round is on the level, with Jay only doing a Lou Thesz-esque elbow butt in lieu of a clean break on the ropes, but ramps up the viciousness in round two, beating down Wanz in the corner and choking him out. The crowd goes nuts for Otto's comebacks even though he does little more than a snap mare and his steamroller splash. It's repetitive and at close to 30 minutes (including round breaks) the longest Strongbow match I've ever seen, but God help me if I wasn't getting into this at the end. Strongbow takes a huge Harley Race bump over the turnbuckles in the final round and that sensibly tells you that the finish is coming, and the crowd loses their minds over it. Wanz had as much control over his fans as Chief Jay or Ivan Putski did in New York or Daddy in England, but he had just a bit more variety in what he could do than Jay and wasn't anywhere near as selfish as Putski or Daddy, as he also knows that getting beaten down and coming back is more compelling than just bulldozing a guy. They even get down and work a cool-looking leg grapevine/nelson reversal on the mat in the middle portion, just to shake things up a bit.

The spot that you see all too often in European tags is the heel being tied in the ropes and the babyfaces picking up his partner and battering-ramming him into the heel's stomach. They do this a few times, the referee steps in, and then the babyfaces pick the ref up and ram *him* into the heel. It may be my least favorite spot pre-2010s wrestling and I just groan every time I see the obvious, contrived set-up for it. I don't like it as a DQ finish that puts all the heat on the ref and makes the babyfaces look stupid as opposed to a well-done "face gets disqualified finish" where they're just pushed to the limit and lose control (or are just plain framed by a clever heel). And if it's *not* a DQ, I like it even less. My briefer thoughts on the tag in question from the Yearbook thread: "This will be fun as it's my first chance to see Marty Jones as a heel. This crowd is absolutely jacked for Zrno, chanting "MI-LE" non-stop every time he's in the ring. Schumann isn't really that good and is basically just a big musclehead but his reversal of the Hart Attack where he gets Finlay to clothesline his own partner is absolutely fucking brilliant and gets a huge reaction. The third fall takes a really unexpected detour when Schumann gets busted open and Finlay & Jones go from rather routine heels to being particularly vicious in going after the cut. Schumann ducks a flying attack by Jones and he and Finlay both tumble to the floor for the countout. This is a tag title change that the crowd pops huge for and is treated as a Big Deal. Fun match. If not the most Southern tag match in continental European history it's not far off." That was written 10 years ago but I definitely don't recall the KO/CO finish bothering me. It seemed like a last-second desperation defensive move by Schumann and a blunder by the heels--blundering heels are okay, even vicious ones. Maybe a true southern tag would have had Zrno get tagged in and get a house-afire sequence before going to a finish, but what we got was enough to work for me.

Well, yeah, it's a list of the champions, not a complete catalogue of title defenses.

According to my listings (so take with a grain of salt, but I got it from somewhere) that match was for the CWA Middleweight Title. Because who personifies "middleweight" more than Terry Funk? I can't confirm if Otto wrestled Cannonball Grizzly for the Lightweight title as the semi-main event on the same card or not.

You can have a contrast in styles and personalities without having a total style clash, though there is a certain freakshow appeal to that, also. (Robinson vs. Brody in All-Japan comes to mind, as does the glorious trainwreck that is Hansen & Brody vs. Mil Mascaras & Dos Caras.) And also...nice enough guy, as far as I know, but Randy Colley kinda sucked. In any environment whether odd fits like Germany or something more conducive to his style. The mere fact that he contrasts with Wright isn't enough. (Now, Wright vs. Moondog Spot on the other hand, I might buy a ticket to see...) Like I think I said earlier, I didn't want to watch Johnny Saint vs. Colonel Brody, but I did like watching Saint having to go out of his comfort zone against a guy who could at least meet him halfway like Finlay.

I don't think there's any truth to the Hellwig-as-Vader story and I'm not sure where it originated. Hellwig flatly shot it down himself, IIRC. A freak athlete like Vader was going to be in-demand in both Japan and the U.S. sooner than later. As we discussed in another thread, that's where the money was. Whether or not he had credentials as a shooter (and he had at least enough phony credentials as one that UWFI despite trying to differentiate itself from "fake" wrestling threw huge money at him), no one of his size in wrestling had ever been capable of taking bumps, throwing dropkicks, and executing perfect sunset flips the way Vader did. And that's the Leon of 1987-89, years before he was adding the moonsault and diving splashes to his arsenal.

I exaggerate a little (okay, a lot) but I think comparing the relative health of Big Daddy as compared to Vader is like comparing the relative health of died-at-34 Layne Staley as compared to died-at-21 Sid Vicious. Like, "died at 67" isn't exactly the biggest flex in history.

Big Daddy revisionism. Incredible.

Fatigue makes you un-tough in a hurry. I think a legitimate Vader-Daddy scrap would come down to who tired out first and for such a big guy, I've never heard of Leon ever having any problems with his cardio despite working a high-impact, high-energy style. Daddy, on the other hand... The other issue for Daddy is that Vader was as likely to hurt you by accident as he was on purpose. Kind of a moot point, I think, because I don't think either one would have allowed themselves to be put into a position to, respectively, play the doofus who does nothing but bounce off a belly or face off against an outsider who took their reputation as a monster a little too seriously.

Well, now apparently Kuniaki's daughter is denying the story. I guess we'll have to wait and see if this is an outright falsehood or an Afa/Joe Paterno/Mae Young/Tom Petty situation.

https://x.com/miruhon/status/1833239234175775165?s=46&t=jd8qInMnXwQK1iDk12oCWw Per Weekly Fight Twitter. Hot take, maybe (less of one in these parts) but I thought he was Sayama's best opponent. Also had an incredible brawl with Masanobu Fuchi that I still think is slept on despite making the old AJPW '80s set.

I have. And I would say that rating is not unfair.

I mean...Vader tends to have that effect on people. Even subpar workers have to look like they're fighting for their lives and that's often compelling on its own.

Paersey is Maritimes star Stephen Petitpas (as evidenced by the tights he didn't bother to change/disguise). Until this footage showed up I had no idea he ever worked Europe.

Of course, Fry has heard of everything, but I have no answers about Mae. I don't know of any reference to Foxcatcher as it relates to wrestling amateur or pro, outside of John DuPont's Olympic team and the subsequent Steve Carell movie. Fry had to be referring to that movie if it's the 2015 BAFTAs. So it's clearly not what Mae West was referring to.