Matt D

This was my write up of the 80 match. Otto Wanz vs. Don Leo Jonathan Graz, Austria 7/12/80 MD: The Great Don Leo Jonathan's final match. We previously had 12 clipped minutes of this in watchable format and the brunt of the footage in completely unwatchable format with the sound muted. I had watched the former a few years back when I was going over some Wanz and couldn't make too much sense of it, clipped. This is very much new and complete then and it's worth watching. It starts slow and clean with the two playing size vs size but quickly gets more heated. Wanz wins a couple of early exchanges and Jonathan starts to go for inside moves. The engine of these Wanz matches was that his opponent cheated and Wanz tried to stay on the up and up with the fans wanting him to fire back and go dirty more and more. When he finally did it, they erupted. Jonathan had a great variety of punches. Pokey ones in the corner, these flicking backhands, big meaty shots. And when Wanz fired back he was willing to bump around, even it being his last match, including getting knocked over the top a couple of times. They both had specific bits of athleticism too. Jonathan flipped over using the ropes to get of an armhold and hit a dropkick as well. Wanz had his flipping sentons towards the end but also did an up and over headscissors takedown. More than any move however, was the physicality and intensity of those corner beatdowns from Jonathan which ended a round and then Wanz starting the next round but rushing across the ring to pummel him to the crowd's delight. He had such a special relationship with them and they got so loud as started to fight fire with fire. What we get here with the full match is much more fleshed out and valuable than the 12 minutes we already had. It seemed like Jonathan still had a lot to offer but he bowed out on a high note against Wanz.

He released the full 80 DLJ match not long ago (we had just had it clipped) so this is just the rest of the card but I know Zrno vs Velhurst/Londos was already out there.

Richard Land’s monthly drop is just 7/12/80 which I think was already out there but I bet it’s a VQ boost. Will check later.

Everything before 1980 (and some select things after) is worth watching. Sorry.

Here’s where I landed on Darby vs Ospreay: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2024/12/aew-five-fingers-of-death-1216-1222.html?m=1

Petit Prince/Jean Corne vs Zoltan Boscik/Jacky Richard almost hurts me to think about since we can’t see it.

I am still boggled by these cards. Time travel wouldn’t help. We’d have to do it multiple times.

Exciting stuff. And yes, full push for Gilbert.

I think 2/3rds of the swimming pool matches are lovely.

Different guy, would love to talk with him.

You have to reach out to Richard Land, primarily through twitter @maskedwrestlers over there. He's @landy1987 here, I think, but not active so that's your best bet.

I watch a lot of wrestling. Rarely does one single act move the needle. What happens with Villano III here after Vulcano destroys his mask after the primera will move the needle.

He was a middle class person’s Brutus Beefcake against Giant Haystacks.

Good to know. I had no idea who that guy was.

Steve. No one else looks/moves like that.

This is December 84. Lasartesse vs Paersey was a slugfest. Wright vs Rasputin was a really solid Wright mauling with a little bit of heat and a good finish. Couple of matches to go on it.

I was doing a great job rushing through the new Bremen HH footage (Morgan vs Martin was great! Lasartesse vs Roocks was very good! I skipped to Morgan vs Zrno and that was great too.) but my momentum got destroyed by Haystacks vs Steinblock (what a Brutus Beefcake-y dude) and then Haystacks vs Wanz. Oof.

It’s really good. Very different than their other more comedic match. I’m writing up Wanz vs Studd for Friday on SC, btw. It was lovely.

Going to live wrestling for the first time in eight years to see Virus and Hechicero tag. I would not have guessed 8 years ago that my next show would have been a New Japan one. Weirdly, TMDK will have been on both shows.

It's not clean (but it's clean-ish) but it has all the unlisted stuff on it and I wasn't sure you have seen the unlisted stuff yet. It's everything in the collection that we found on the first pass (with the tV show name primarily). Bob's got other stuff that was outside of it.

The one I linked in my post, Dave!

Have you still never gotten to the master list on the blog? http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2021/05/french-catch-tuesday-master-list.html?m=1 not that we have a Corne/Falempin vs Zarak match (which sounds great).

Thanks for pointing it out. Much appreciated.

It’s “Wrestling for the Sake of Wrestling.”

He’s Jerry Lewis. The French love Jerry Lewis. (He’s kind of Jimmy Valiant too.)