The Beginner's Guide To British Wrestling

[ohtani's jacket]

It's back to the dregs until I get more comps.

 

Ivan Penzekoff vs. Johnny Kwango (12/4/74)

Ivan Penzekoff vs. Kevin Conneely (2/21/74)

 

Ivan Penzekoff was an interesting guy. He was originally so lithe that they billed him as the "The India Rubber Man." Later they pushed his Anglo-Latvian roots with overtones that he was a Red despite the fact he was billed from Bolton and had a Lancashire accent. He was a real hardman, an ex-miner, ex-boxer and a guy who liked snakes and breeding guard dogs. Kung Fu tells a story about this venue in Bristol they used to work where the management would put on a free bar for all the wrestlers. Penzekoff would be in the opening match and after his shoulder he'd head to the bar where he'd proceed to drink the place dry. Management complained to Dale Martin, so they decided to put Penzekoff on last. Ivan's solution? Head to the bar as soon as he arrived and drink until match time.

 

All of this is more interesting than the matches. I'm not sure why, but for some reason they chose Penzekoff to be the foil for a lot of comedy wrestlers during this era despite the fact he didn't really add anything and wasn't allowed to contribute much. The Kwango match was nothing special if you've ever seen a Kwango match. In fact, I was kind of annoyed that there was so little wrestling and so much emphasis on making Penzekoff look like a fool. Conneely was a Liverpudlian Irishman who never stopped talking. He cracked a joke with literally every hold kind of like the Irish Les Kellett. Some of it was funny and other bits were mildly amusing, but it wasn't really in the class of Les Kellet at least not on this outing.

 

Bobby Barnes/Magnificent Maurice vs. Johnny & Peter Wilson (aired 1/1/77)

 

Magnificent Maurice was Colonel Brody doing an exotico gimmick. Walton got in a great line about Barnes having found himself another blond now that he was no longer tagging with Street. This was better than your average WoS tag, which isn't saying much. The exoticos were amusing.

 

Bert Royal vs. Kenny Hogan (11/3/76)

 

Short catchweight tournament contest that was basically an offensive showcase for Bert Royal. Royal was another of Walton's favourites, but he's a guy I've never really warmed to. I'll probably start to re-evaluate him soon as I'm running out of footage to watch.

 

Mike Marino vs. Amet Chong (12/11/74)

 

Amet Chong was billed as a Peruvian Indochinese wrestler, which for all I know was probably true. He worked the "non-English speaking wrestler can't understand the rules schtick" before Marino KO'ed him with a chop. Walton was trying to sell it as Chong not understanding the ten count in English, but shit was terrible. One of the worst WoS matches I've seen.

 

Pete Roberts vs. Amet Chong (11/20/74)

 

This was Chong's first match on television. He was in for a month and fed to Veidor or someone. Roberts tried harder than Marino to make something of this, but it was the same bullshit from Chong. The crowd sure gave it to him with plenty of racial epithets. Not your best side on show, Britain.

[Indikator]

Chong was a comedy wrestler who wrestled a lot of times in Vienna and Hannover. He is kinda helpful for me as his shenanigans are sometimes described in the vain of "he is the spiritual successor of soandso in that his matches tend to be filled with silly antics". I'm really happy to learn who was the monster heel/evil foreigner/comedy worker of the early 1900s.

 

You might contact the Wrestlingheritage guys for more info, maybe they could use some screenshots from you for their biography section.

[ohtani's jacket]

That makes sense, cheers.

 

More dregs:

 

Ivan Penzekoff vs. Mel Stuart (aired 5/8/76)

 

Penzekoff wore a Soviet Union jacket to the ring complete with hammer and sickle yet he wasn't really a heel. I have no idea what his gimmick was meant to be. He looked like more of a long haired Cossack than a Russian nightmare. I guess it's possible that the communist overtones were played up more in the halls and they didn't want to do anything too controversial on television. Later on, he formed a tag team with Johnny Czeslaw called The Iron Curtain Duo, but they seemed to miss a trick with how they could've pushed this. Anyway, he got to show more of his offence here since Stuart was a jobber, but Walton's stories about him breeding Siamese cats and the time he developed a cauliflower ear between rounds 3 and 4 were more interesting than the match itself.

 

Johnny Kwango vs. Billy Torontos (6/5/78)

 

This had a couple of funny moments like when Torontos tried to headbutt Kwango and almost knocked himself out and then attempted an airplane spin where he was the one who ended up dizzy, but apart from that it was uninspiring no matter how much Walton laughed. Kwango was towards the end of his career here and pretty average. McManus provided "expert analysis" between rounds and was painfully dry. This truly was the dregs.

 

Mick McMichael vs. Tally Ho Kaye (6/30/76)

 

Tally Ho Kaye was a third rate rudo and McMichael has never been a guy who excites me much so this meandered along with the kind of heel cheating and face retaliation that's been done better a thousand times.

 

Zoltan Boscik vs. Steve Kelly (11/7/77)

 

This was surprisingly good. It was one of those matches where an experienced rudo carries a young teenager to something competitive. British wrestling did these matches well. Boscik isn't a favourite of mine, but he was solid here. The 16 year-old Kelly only had a few moves, but Boscik bumped for them well. This achieved its aim.

 

Lee Bronson vs. John Henry Yearsley (4/19/77)

 

This also perfectly good. Bronson was a young heavyweight who was one of the future hopes for British wrestling but didn't get the push he should have. Instead of being the natural successor to Bridges and St. Clair he faded away. Yearsley was a Welsh vet who was good fodder for a rising young star like Bronson and he delivered a nice, professional jobber-to-the-rising star performance.

 

Sheik Adnan Alkaissy vs. Lenny Hurst (10/30/79)

 

Hey, it's General Adnan. He got pretty good heat for this performance. There was a woman at ringside who screamed at him like a mongrel. They did a whole big angle about how the British promoters hadn't determined whether the sleeper hold was legal under Admiral-Lord Mountevans rules, so when poor old perpetual jobber Lenny Hurst was put to sleep the bout was called off and the St. John's ambulance people had to come to the ring. Max Ward ordered the Sheik to revive Hurst and he did that old school schtick where you wake people up from sleeper holds. Noteworthy if nothing else.

[ohtani's jacket]

Jon Casanova vs. Tug Wilson (aired 4/22/72)

 

This is an obscure one. It was the television debut for both these men. Casanova was literally working a Casanova gimmick inspired by the 1971 BBC series, which was written by Dennis Potter of Singing Detective fame. Apparently, the gimmick really took off, especially when he started handing out roses to the women in the audience. Wilson was a barefoot wrestler from Belfast with a bunch of nifty moves, who like Casanova soon became a fixture on bills up and down the country. Then, as soon as they'd arrived, they were gone. Casanova disappeared in late '73 and Wilson a few years later. There's one other Wilson match on tape, but this is the only Casanova match among tape traders. Not a huge tragedy, but both guys worked some of the biggest names and better workers of the era and it seems like we're missing a chunk of what was happening in the very early 70s as we have only a small amount of footage. The match was fairly average, a bit shapeless really, but an interesting time capsule if nothing else.

 

Dynamite Kid vs. Tally Ho Kaye (11/3/76)

Vick Faulkner vs. Black Jack Mulligan (11/3/76)

Kid/Faulkner/Royal vs. Hogan/Kaye/Mulligan (11/3/76)

 

These were all from the same television taping as the Royal/Hogan match I watched the other day. It was a type of catchweight television tournament. The promoters liked to run these television tournaments that were sort of like Davis Cup ties where you'd have singles matches and sometimes a tag, but strangely they rarely played them for dramatic effect. Often the faces would sweep the heels with nothing in the way of a decider.

 

I've got to give Kaye his due here. He was the star of this episode, firstly carrying a 16 year-old Dynamite Kid to an excellent catchweight tournament bout, then to secondly job to him, and then for his tremendous apron work during the six man tag. I called him a third rate rudo the other day, but this was almost as good as Breaks or Sid Cooper. Dynamite Kid made for an excellent face in peril in both matches. Of all the teenagers I've seen on WoS, he showed the most potential at the youngest age. If any Dynamite Kid fans remain, I'd highly recommend checking out how well he does here.

 

The British Black Jack Mulligan was a generic brawler who cheated a lot, but he wasn't too bad. He had an Alan Moore-like beard that made for some great heat spots where the babyfaces threw him by his whiskers. The six man was better than most WoS tags because they did a legitimate FIP section on Dynamite, but I had to laugh when they announced it was first to three falls instead of best two out of three. They didn't have a clue what to do with tags. All in all, a pretty lightweight taping, but Kaye's star shone bright.

[JNLister]

The three singles/same guys in a six-man tag was heavily used/overused on arena shows for a while, likely because it saved on payoffs. Poor Tony Walsh had to work singles with Daddy every night, then come back and bump for him in the six-man after having already done all of Daddy's routine.

[ohtani's jacket]

Tally Ho Kaye vs. John Naylor (10/11/78)

 

This had some amusing antics from Kaye, but I think his schtick works better when he's in against someone I like. I've softened on Naylor a bit. He doesn't draw quite the same visceral hatred from me that he did in my earlier viewing, but this was always going to be a stretch for me to enjoy.

 

Sharky Ward vs. Jeff Kaye (10/8/80)

 

Look, it's a fat, journeyman Australian. You don't see too many of them. Ward was brought over to face Bridges, I think, and Kaye was chicken fodder along the way.

 

Tally Ho Kaye vs. Johnny England (7/5/77)

 

This was Johnny England's television debut and as with most debuts he hadn't turned heel yet. Instead, Walton was trying to put him over as a body builder. Kaye wrestled this straight, which was kind of dull as Kaye wasn't much of a wrestler. Not one of the better matches from the debut genre.

 

Johnny Kwango vs. Dave Freeman (10/8/75)

 

Another television debut, this time from a guy who never really went anywhere. Another dullish Kwango match. Man, Kwango could be entertaining but he could also mail it in. Maybe it's the dregs getting to me.

 

Tino Salvadore vs. Tug Wilson (1/2/73)

 

Now here's a perfect example of the sort of WoS booking which confuses me. This was the final match of a special tournament to celebrate England joining the EEC. I've written about the earlier matches before but basically they pitted Great Britain against France, Belgium and Italy. For whatever reason, diplomacy or what have you, Europe swept this tournament, but the odd thing about it was that in this third bout, which was really a dead rubber to see if Britain could save face, instead of having a popular British wrestler go over they put one of the European guys up against a heel. There was no way a heel was going over in this situation. Obviously, it wasn't meant to be this big patriotic thing, but they just didn't care about maximising the dramatic potential of this show. It's like the antithesis of the Portland TV show.

 

Anyway, Tug Wilson was a heel by this point. He may be the first guy I've seen play a heel while doing a martial arts schtick. What a refreshing change. He also had quite possibly the coolest looking sideburns in the entire 70s WoS run as well as a cool mustache. Salvadore was better known Stateside as Salvatore Bellomo. Walton pissed me off by doing his "he doesn't speak a word of English" schtick, which doesn't make sense when you're talking about an Italian and apparently Bellomo could speak seven languages. Despite all this, the match as all right. It was fun to see Wilson's heel act and I imagine his tag team with Rocco drew good heat.

[ohtani's jacket]

Tally Ho Kaye vs. Danny Collins (3/20/85)

 

Collins was one of Joint Promotions' boy wonders and this was another of those vets vs. young boy matches that were so common on television. The trouble is that the vets were already old in the 70s, so by the time the 80s rolled around these matches didn't have quite the same zing. Kaye was also pretty fat at this point. Wasn't a brutal match or anything, but not so interesting. Walton could be overheard at the start saying they couldn't use the ring announcer footage because he fucked up twice in the introductions.

 

Ray Steele vs. Larry Coulton (Black Jack Mulligan) (11/29/71)

 

How strange that we have Black Jack Mulligan's television debut. He was going under his real name here. It's also some of the earliest WoS footage we have and gives a portrait of Ray Steele as a young man (nice haircut.) Starts cleanly, but gets a bit heated and is fairly lively for a television debut. Mulligan showed glimpses of his future traits, but was given the benefit of the doubt as having to work that way to contend with Steele. The finish was Mulligan failing to make the count after three consecutive dropkicks, which may seem like a weak finish but I actually thought it was really cool. Why not score a knock out off stuff like that?

 

Tally Ho Kaye vs. Danny Collins (aired 1/21/84)

 

Collins had made his television debut the previous November where he took a fall off Jimmy Breaks. This was a special no rounds, 20 minute time limit contest and although it was a bit slow at times it was better than their match from '85. Kaye put the kid over even if it was on a DQ. He also got on some granny's wick awfully bad in this one.

 

Alan Kilby vs. Black Jack Mulligan (2/3/82)

Tom Tyrone/Alan Kilby vs. Black Jack Mulligan/Bill Bromley (2/3/82)

 

More tournament stuff. Kilby worked really hard as usual and was way too excited when his tag team took out the second contest. It was like he hadn't been let on that it was a work. I've got respect for Mulligan. He was a better grappler than it appeared, but kept in character at all times playing a Northern brusier with a short temper who was easy to out smart. Someone in the crowd dropped the N word before the start of the bout, which was embarrassing.

 

Alan Dennison vs. Black Jack Mulligan (8/3/83)

 

Mulligan had shaved his head at this point and was as close to an asskicking Terry Rudge as he'd ever get. This was easily the best Dennison match I've seen and something I came close to recommending, but I'm not sure it would mean much to people unfamiliar with Dennison. Pretty much a straight contest with very little bullshit. Mulligan gave Dennison a tremendous run for his money and Dennison was a guy who was fairly well protected by Joint. The finish was another one where Mulligan gets knocked out easily, but he took his bump over the ropes like a man and I really like this.

 

Billy Torontos vs. Kurt Heinz (aired 1/17/81)

 

Short comedy match with some neat Torontos spots and a game Heinz. Walton sure loved him some Billy Torontos. The strange thing about this slapstick style of wrestling is that it was so business exposing that Walton had to continuously sell it as though Torontos was an accomplished worker who was doing all this comedy on purpose because he was a comedian. Kind of a warped kayfabe, but British wrestling had some many who played to the galleries that you accept it as a norm. Torontos died not long after this.

[ohtani's jacket]

Mark Rocco vs. Alan Dennison (10/11/78)

 

All action, one fall, knock out tournament match. Rocco was hit and miss as a worker, but this sort of match suited his style to a tee. To Rocco's credit he knew that if he was going to be a success in the business he needed to stand out in some way and he achieved that by having an incomparable workrate. Dennison impressed me with his bumping and by hanging with Rocco in general. For a guy I thought I didn't like he sure has come up trumps lately.

 

Mark Rocco vs. Steve McHoy (2/17/82)

 

This really showed the genius of Rocco. It was supposed to be a world title match against Kung Fu, but for whatever reason Kung Fu chose to leave for Stampede instead and on this big Royal Albert Hall show they replaced him with a guy who'd never been on TV before in heavyweight Steve McHoy. Rocco really excelled at these catchweight contests, but this was asking a lot in terms of making up for the loss of a title match. Nevertheless, Rocco got on the house mic, cut a promo on Kung Fu and proceeded to have a heated, action packed bout in and out of the ring and really get the Albert Hall crowd going. Super stuff this.

[ohtani's jacket]

Count Bartelli vs. Roger Wells (11/16/76)

Count Bartelli vs. Klondyke Jake (10/8/75)

Count Bartelli vs. Honey Boy Zimba (7/5/77)

 

Boredom thy name is Bartelli.

 

Walton would always tell the same anecdote about Bartelli that he trained by lifting a donkey. I think I'd rather see him lift a donkey then wrestle.

 

All of the 70s greats were past their prime, but with the majority of them you can still tell that they were tremendous wrestlers. In Bartelli's case, it's hard to tell where the legend sprung from. To his credit he was extremely popular even in the years after his unmasking and seemed like a nice guy when he got on the house mic at the end of the Zimba match, but talk about all hammerlocks and no bumps. In the first two matches he was wresting fatties, but Zimba wasn't exactly a slouch. He needed carrying to produce something exciting, but all Bartelli ever brought to a match was the most basic of strength holds. The Klondyke Jake match was the best of the three since the fatty some spectacle, but this was dull stuff for the most part.

 

Bartelli telling Walton to take a bow was fun. There was a close-up of an embarrassed Walton smoking a cigarette with a cigarette holder. Drinking and smoking while commentating is grand.

[ohtani's jacket]

All right, it's off to Germany and Austria we go.

 

Otto Wanz vs. Indio Guajaro (Recklinghausen 3/83)

 

This followed a pretty simple formula: some comedy to begin with, then Indio bent the rules and Wanz got pissed and beat the shit out of him. It's probably demeaning to Wanz, but if Big Daddy had matches like these he'd be a sure fire Hall of Famer.

 

Achim Chall vs. Caswell Martin (Hannover 1980)

 

I don't know the song Cas Martin came out to, but it sure was funky. Martin's stuff looked typically good, but I'm not sure he had the necessary drive to have great matches.

 

Franz van Buyten vs. Colonel Brody (Hamburg 9/20/87)

 

The last time we saw Brody he was working his 70s exotico gimmick. Somewhere along the way he traded it in for a South African military gimmick (as you do.) Ed Wiskoski would go on to pinch the gimmick and take it to another extreme, but Brody was still a nasty piece of work. He didn't do much in the way of holds, but they all looked like he was torturing a cadet during military training. van Buyten naturally was the right guy to sell that and so this was better than it had a right to be.

 

Otto Wanz vs. Bull Power (Graz 6/30/90)

 

This was tremendous. Arguably the best of the Vader/Wanz series, though admittedly it's the freshest in my mind. The anthems are played on a bugle while the crowd wave sparklers and sing along in full football voice. CWA sure took this pageantry seriously. The match starts off like any Bull Power/Wanz match with Vader beating the shit out of Wanz until the big comeback. In this case, Vader went for a splash in the corner and reeled backwards in agony. From there on out, he sold a knee injury about as well as you can without it being a legit injury. Wanz took full advantage, but his victory here had more to do with his staying power and ability to withstand the beating Vader unleashed. I don't now how many times the ring announcer told Vader to get out of the corner, but it was amusing.

[Indikator]

Bambikiller has managed to get the Austrian equivalent of a senator of his hometown region to attend his shows, something that is unfathomable in Germany. They really loved their catch wrestling, it's a pity that the national wrestling scene is in shambles (if the situation is as bad as in Switzerland, it surely is bad)

 

Sorry, I don't recognize the song, should be some Motown record. Check out Soul Train on Youtube , for this European it has been a magnificent find.

 

Gernot once had a website for Chall online, I don't know if this is the complete version (http://chatito.beepworld.de) . His debut was in 1955 apparently and he had a judo background.

[pantherwagner]

Franz van Buyten vs. Colonel Brody (Hamburg 9/20/87)

 

The last time we saw Brody he was working his 70s exotico gimmick.

What???

[Indikator]

He is talking about his stint as Magnificent Maurice (not the Gene Dubuque version or Spellbinder/Del Rios from Memphis)

[Robert S]

Bambikiller has managed to get the Austrian equivalent of a senator of his hometown region to attend his shows, something that is unfathomable in Germany. They really loved their catch wrestling, it's a pity that the national wrestling scene is in shambles (if the situation is as bad as in Switzerland, it surely is bad)

The difference is that Switzerland never really had a scene (I think that I ready that Lassartesse tried to build something up at one point but failed) while "Heumarkt Catchen" was a fixture in Vienna for 50 years or so.

[ohtani's jacket]

Axel Dieter vs. Pat Roach (Hannover 1981)

 

I really want to like this match as it's 30 minutes of Pat Roach, whose matches we have are almost always joined in progress, but it just doesn't go anywhere. This is second or third time I've tried watching it and I still can't find a hook to get me into it. Dieter stymies the match early on with boring holds, Roach roughs him up a bit and Dieter makes a comeback, but none of it is uninspired. In theory, this should be as good as Dieter vs. Moose Morowski, but it doesn't play out that way.

 

Axel Dieter vs. Mile Zrno (Hannover 1981)

 

This was a good match. It was quintessentially European, which made it easy for me to understand. The work wasn't that slick early on, but everything from the second round onward was solid and Dieter mixed in a lot of cool shit.

 

Bull Power vs. Axel Dieter (8/30/86)

 

It's a shame this is clipped as Vader brutalised the old man. Worth watching if you've got a spare couple of minutes.

[ohtani's jacket]

Axel Dieter vs. Bob "UFO" Della Serra (Hannover 1981)

 

I wasn't sure what to make of Quebec wrestler Bob Della Serra before the bout, but he ended up giving Dieter the best technical match of his Hannover tournament. This was wrestled almost entirely on the mat. 30 minute mat contests shot on handheld are an acquired taste, but I was pleased to see Dieter use more of his skill even if there was no real arc to the match.

 

Bull Power vs. Otto Wanz (9/22/86)

 

Early Wanz/Vader match. I think this was a body slam challenge. We didn't get to see all of it, but it looked like typical Wanz/Vader action, though they'd get better later on. Wanz bleed.

 

Axel Dieter vs. Bull Power (9/29/86)

 

This had a cool dynamic while it lasted as Dieter showed some fight and didn't let Vader walk all over him. He kind of reminded me of old man Pat O'Connor here.

[ohtani's jacket]

Axel Dieter vs. Klaus Wallas (CWA 9/16/86)

 

Dieter continues his fun brawling run at this tournament. I'm not sure whether he was supposed to be a heel or not, but it looked that way.

 

Axel Dieter vs. Tony St Clair (10/26/86)

Klaus Kauroff vs. Vader (10/26/86)

 

All this 80s stuff is clipped to the equivalent of 8mm reels, but it's fun to watch none the less. St. Clair was still pretty good in '86 and worked some neat exchanges with Dieter, and in the final Vader brutalises Kauroff. Kauroff was this short, stocky guy who tried to dish out some punishment with worked pro-wrestling style strikes and Vader just potatoed him. It was fun watching two in shape fat men pummel it out, but Kauroff was out classed. It's really hard to get a decent grasp on how good Germany was in the 80s because of the footage issues, but England had gone pear shaped around this time and Germany was much more interesting through to the end of the decade. How we're going to represent that on the Europe set I'm not sure, because you can only really rate and compare the longer Germany footage whereas this stuff would make a yearbook project. Still, if you liked Vader on the AWA and NJPW sets, you should fill in your Vader watching by checking out these clips.

[ohtani's jacket]

Axel Dieter vs. Moose Morowski (Hannover 1981)

 

This was pretty awesome. While the Zrno and Della Serra matches have some nice holds, this was a Dieter match with an actual narrative as Moroswki beat on Dieter and Dieter had to make a comeback. Dieter was a pretty decent brawler and from the limited footage we have his brawls are perhaps more compelling than his technical matches. I'm not sure that this is as good as their 1980 match, but it was the best of his '81 Hannover matches thus far.

 

Axel Dieter vs. Le Grand Vladimir (Hannover 1981)

 

This followed along similar lines, although it was shorter and Vladimir wasn't quite as interesting as Morowski. Mainly it lent weight to this idea I have that Dieter was most fun to watch when he was brawling.

 

Bull Power vs. Klaus Wallas (8/31/86)

 

Finally, Vader was matched against someone who gave as good as he got. This was the most fun of the early Vader CWA stuff. Wallas just whaled on him repeatedly and Vader was his usual merciless self.

 

Bull Power vs. Steve Wright/Eddie Steinblock (1987)

 

As far as handicap matches go, this was pretty good. Wright and Steinblock had some fun double team moves working over Vader's arm and Wright did a bunch of cool shit once they had Power neutralised. Vader kind of shook off the arm work later on, but that's okay because he was busy pummeling Steinblock, which is what you want from Vader. Wright got sick of it, though, dropkicked the ref and choked Vader with some sort of cord, while the crowd got all excited and started gathering around the ring and thumping on the canvas. Fun clip.

[ohtani's jacket]

More catchen...

 

Otto Wanz vs. Don Leo Jonathan (Graz 7/15/78?)

Otto Wanz vs. Don Leo Jonathan (Graz 7/12/80?)

 

Had some trouble dating these. The first match was a 45 minute handheld with slightly poor VQ (it was B&W basically), while the other was 12 minutes of colour footage. The trouble is that each uploader dated their match as 7/12/80. Originally, I thought the second match was a pro-shot version of the first, but the finish was different. The 45 minute match may be the 1978 CWA World Heavyweight Title change as the celebration at the end was befitting a title change, and Jonathan seemed to look older in the second match in so much as you can tell from a B&W handheld, but I don't see how we can have a full handheld from 1978.

 

Anyway, Wanz was younger here and in better shape. Jonathan was one of probably a litany of big men that Wanz faced over of his career and both these matches were pretty classic Wanz -- take a beating, make a comeback, wash, rinse and repeat. Jonathan took some pretty big bumps for a guy who was nearing the end of his career. I haven't seen a ton of Don Leo Jonathan, so I'm not sure how good a showcase this was or whether he was restricted by his role as the generic cheating American with his all-in wrestling style, but it worked well and the pair were a good match-up. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed actually watching pro-shot stuff, though. It's so hard to concentrate on handhelds. You miss so many details without the benefit of medium close-up.

 

Klaus Wallas vs. Jörg Chenok (Bamberg 4/3/83)

 

I quite like Klaus Wallas. He was an Austrian judoka who represented Austria at the '76 Olympics, if I'm not mistake, and debut around '78. He seemed to get the hang of wrestling pretty well. He knew how to clobber people and how to sell and struck me as a guy with good timing. This was a decent showcase for him and featured some neat work from Chenok as well.

 

Axel Dieter/Eugen Wiesberger vs. Ivan Strogoff/Klaus Wallas (1983)

 

Decent tag match. Better than anything I've seen from England in the same time frame, but I don't think we're ever going to find a tag match from Europe that ranks among the greatest tag matches of all time. There was a loose FIP structure here and some nice work from Wisberger on the face side, along with some strong Dieter segments and more good wrestling from Wallas, but ultimately it as just a match.

 

As a bit of an extra, if you go to around 5:10 on this clip, you can see the workers camping at one of the summer German tournaments and Alex Wright is practicing backbends at the age of 10 --

[ohtani's jacket]

Axel Dieter vs. Pat Roach II (Hannover 1981)

 

These two fought three times during the 1981 Hannover tournament. The first two matches ended without a winner and Dieter won the final match. This was one of the matches without a winner. Whether it was the first or the second, I'm not sure, but try as they might they didn't seem to have a great match in them. Roach dominated most of the bout before Dieter made a comeback in the final fall and the match ended with Dieter continuously throwing Roach over the top rope, presumably after time had expired. I love Pat Roach, but he couldn't deliver the same sort of beating as Moose Morowski. I'm guessing it's a stylistic difference between North America and England, since outside of the halls they never really brawled in England. Some of the finer details may have been better in close-up, but I wouldn't rank this stuff among the better moments of Pat's career. Dieter won the Hannover World Cup five or six times, which in my mind makes him like the German Tibor Szakacs, who won the Royal Albert Hall Tournament Trophy five times, but much like Szakacs we have nothing from Dieter's prime and he comes across in these '81 Hannover matches as having about as much charisma as Ray Steele.

 

Axel Dieter/UFO vs. Ed Wiskoski/Moose Morowski (Hannover 9/15/81)

 

This was probably the best tag match I've seen from Europe covering as much 60s-80s footage as I can find. It's probably no surprise that three out of the four competitors are North American. Christ knows why it had to go so long. Thirty minutes plus without a winner and without the hot finish it needed to be a surefire nomination for the Europe set, but still it was a proper tag match. Funnily enough, they didn't apply Southern style tag psychology, it was just solidly worked instead of being treated like some kind of amazing stip match where there's no wrestling. Portland fans may be interested in Wiskoski's work, perhaps.

[ohtani's jacket]

Axel Dieter vs. Karl Dauberger (Hannover 1981)

 

This was a shorter match than a lot of the Hannover draws, so we got to see what Dieter could do when he upped his workrate. Fun match, but three rounds is too short. If Dieter could have maintained this sort of workrate over six rounds, his matches would have been really good.

 

Franz van Buyten vs. Ivan Strogoff (May 1981)

 

Strogoff looked a bit like Terry Rudge and wrestled like him too, which is a very good thing. I dug this a lot as I'm a mark for van Buyten. He did some cool strength holds where he had Strogoff in a submission and lifted him off the mat. Strogoff took control of the match with some solid brawling, but the match ended up being called off as Strogoff's second (possibly Lasartesse?) got involved and caused a big brawl.

 

Giant Haystacks vs. Klaus Wallas (Hannover 1985)

 

This was about as good as a Klaus Wallas vs. Giant Haystacks match could be. Don't tell me this means I need to search for good Haystacks matches. Oh God, I just did a YouTube search.

 

Axel Dieter vs. Steve Wright (Hannover 1981)

 

This was better than I remembered. I've kind of softened on Wright since I saw his early 70s World of Sport footage, but I still consider him something of a disappointment footage wise. Nevertheless, he looked like the best opponent Dieter faced in this tournament and we got to see much more of Dieter's technical ability than in previous fights. Unfortunately, it went to a draw as per most of these Hannover fights. It's a wonder anyone ever won the Cup with the number of draws there were. I wonder if draws forced a replay?

 

Axel Dieter vs. Klaus Kauroff (Hannover 1981)

 

This came across as a bit of a blockbuster since Dieter had won the Hannover tournament in 1980 and Kauroff would go on to win it in '81. Kauroff was a Maurice Vachon looking wrestler who was a pretty decent grappler. There was an intensity to this that was missing from a lot of Dieter's other matches and although it ended in a draw (again) it was a compelling and worthwhile match-up. Probably Dieter's best match of the tournament.

 

Franz van Buyten & Bobby Gaetano vs. Le Grand Vladimir & Judd Harris (Recklinghausen 3/83)

 

Fun tag match. Van Buyten and Gaetano made an awesome babyface pair. This was the best Gaetano has looked in the matches I've seen him in. He was balling in this match. I'm pretty confident in saying that Germany had better tags than England, though they haven't knocked one out of the park yet. This was quality houseshow-ish stuff, though.

[ohtani's jacket]

Giant Haystacks vs. John Quinn (Bremen 12/21/85)

 

This was all right. I thought the psychology of John Quinn going up against Giant Haystacks was pretty sound, but it wasn't the kick-in-the-balls match that's going to get me watching a lot of Haystacks. He did throw some pretty wicked looking shots, though. And it was infinitely better than it would have been on British television.

 

Steve Wright vs. Maske USA/Catcher in the Mask (Bamberg 4/3/83?)

 

I don't know which name Maske went by, but it was Dave Morgan under the mask. Morgan was a solid Brit worker who spend most of his time overseas. We have footage of him from Germany, Austria and South Africa and possibly Canada. This was a decent Steve Wright showcase match with some cool Euro matwork in the early rounds. It descends into a niggly brawl with Wright getting too many payback spots for the level of niggle Morgan inflicted and shows the weakness in Wright's ability to structure matches, but if you like Wright it's worth watching.

 

Dave Viking vs. Dave Taylor (1980s)

 

I'm not much of a Dave Taylor fan, but this was a swank 8 minute bout. Viking was a journeyman brusier who knew how to beat people up and make it look good and Taylor sold well. Think of it as a solid WCWSN style match.

 

Judd Harris vs. Rolo Brasil (Bamberg 4/3/83)

 

Judd Harris was another journeyman. In fact, he was a guy who'd been on the road since the 60s. This was a similar bout to the Taylor/Viking match, but nowhere near as compelling. Harris wasn't as mobile and Brasil is decent, but not very charismatic. Pretty uneventful.

[ohtani's jacket]

Dave Taylor & Bernie Wright vs. Colonel Brody & Butcher Mason (Hamburg 10/1/87)

 

Colonel Brody coming out to the theme from The Bridge on the River Kwai was the mark of a man who's put some thought into his gimmick. Nice touch. This came out of left field and did quite an impression on me. Our good friend Jetlag says: "For those wondering, Butcher Mason's gimmick was that he had an invincible gut. It is also hinted that he has inhuman strength in his hands. That leaves his beard and his feet as his obvious weakpoints. They ran an angle before where they challenged people from the audience to hit Mason in the gut and whoever made him wince would get 5000 DM in cash (enough money to buy a car at that time)." Brody and Mason made for a fun rudo team and the crowd was hot for Dave Taylor. I was digging this a bunch and wanted to nominate it as one of the best European matches of '87 and just as Brody and Mason were doing all sorts of cool heel work on Wright, there were two quick falls and the thing was over. Why can't you give me a hot finish, Germany?

 

Franz van Buyten vs. Butcher Mason (Hamburg 9/18/87)

 

Same deal. Here you have a guy in van Buyten who excels at working against bigger guys and does the coolest strength spots imaginable with big men, including the most boss throw of Mason that really needs to be seen to believed, and the match is hot and building into something good and then they go all silly buggers on the ending.

 

Charly Verhulst vs. Mile Zrno (Graz 7/12/80)

 

This was good. Verhulst was Johnny Londos from the New Japan set and here he worked an up tempo, workrate match that was chock-a-block full of cool holds and awesome throws. Verhulst's takedowns were awesome. Zrno clearly liked this style of working, but I got the impression that it was Verhulst holding this together. What thrilled me the most was that they didn't cop out on the finish. It wasn't a blockbuster finish, but it was totally in keeping with the rest of the match and makes this a comfortable nomination for a Euro set.

 

Ritchie Brooks vs. Bernie Wright (Hamburg 8/18/89)

 

Ritchie Brooks had a mane Ricky Morton would have been proud of. This was all right, I suppose, but it was a match wrestled between Ritchie Brooks and Bernie Wright and that's about all it was. The action was better than the final years of wrestling on ITV, but it didn't blow me away.

 

Franz van Buyten vs. Klondyke Mike Shaw (Hamburg 10/7/88)

 

van Buyten again ruled at taking on a big guy and this was an awesome brawl for the first two thirds with Shaw looking pretty damn good. Then the silly buggers began. It wasn't too bad as van Buyten dished out a bit more punishment before the screwy finish, but fuck me I want the world to know the name Franz van Buyten and this CWA booking ain't helping.

[ohtani's jacket]

Bud Jenkins & Jean Sobek vs. Gino Rossini & Eddy Warrant (Herne 6/11/1988)

 

This was the most lucha looking match I have ever seen from a European promotion. In fact, if you squinted hard enough the heels even looked like Infernales. Really cool stuff with some beautifully coordinated sequences. Would have made a great addition to a feature Euro set, but true to form it cut out before the end.

 

Hansi Rooks vs. Dave Viking (Recklinghausen 1987)

Hansi Rooks vs. Frank Merckx (Recklinghausen 1987)

 

Undercard stuff. Basic journeyman brawling. Nothing to write home about.

 

Franz van Buyten vs. Suni War Cloud (Hamburg 8/10/87)

 

I was ready to write this one off since I found Suni War Cloud boring the last time I watched him, but leave it to van Buyten to hook me in. This looked pretty awesome, but it was clipped to the first and final rounds and judging by how many hugs they gave each other at the end it must have been a time limit draw. Forced me to take a re-look at this:

 

Terry Rudge vs. Suni War Cloud (Hamburg 9/20/87)

 

This was perfectly good Terry Rudge. Fuck knows what I was thinking the first time round. Rudge gave War Cloud a working over and the ref stuck his nose in one too many times and a spit between the two led to a red card for Terry. Like all German bouts, it needed a better finish, but it was worthy Rudge and watchable Rudge.

 

Indio Guajaro vs. Wolfgang Saturski (Bamberg 4/3/83)

 

I've been trying to find a good Indio Guajaro Germany match on par with his match against Pete Roberts from WoS, but we'll never know if this is the one as whoever edited it had a field day using every dissolve effect known to man and most of them in rapid succession.

 

Billy Samson vs. Butcher Mason (Hamberg 10/8/87)

 

This was a lot of fun. For some reason, there's 40 mins of this available and so little of the stuff you really want to see, but this was good heavyweight stuff. Mason ended up selling the fuck out of his leg and despite Rudge urging him on in his corner, Samson took him to the pay window.

 

That pretty much ends my German vacation. I came away with a far greater appreciation for German wrestling than I'd ever had before, but it's still frustratingly incomplete. When the matches aren't clipped to shit, they either go too long or are marred by a shitty finish. Nevertheless, from '86 onwards it's clearly better wrestling than anything in the UK.

[ohtani's jacket]

It's the Zoltan Boscik hour:

 

Vic Faulkner vs. Zoltan Boscik (5/26/76)

 

Faulkner is a guy who's star power I probably underrate. The Wrestling Heritage guys had him #3 on their list of the top 200 television stars with 130 appearances on television during the ITV years. His enduring popularity was down to the fact that he was a pretty good looking guy who had a type of boyish charm. He liked playing tricks on his opponents and was usually all smiles, but he didn't stand for any shit and would get fired up if you pushed him too far. Some people didn't like his wholesome image, and I think he's a bit of a smartarse at times with his shit eating grin, but he was extremely popular, especially when he tagged with his brother, Bert Royal. The pair of them were like the Beatles of 1960s tag wrestling, or at least the Rock 'n' Roll Express. Faulkner was lightning quick and usually did pretty snazzy sequences.

 

This was a match from one of Joint Promotion's Royal Albert Hall shows (the one with the great Veidor/Davies match.) Joint ran the Albert Hall around four or five times a year. They were always big shows, but not used for television tapings that often. Since it was an Albert Hall show, both guys upped their workrate and the opening fall in particular as pretty spectacular. Walton put the bout over as former champion vs. former champion (British welterweight and lightweight titles), which made the match-up seem that much better. It was a catchweight bout with one fall to decide the winner and the fall came a bit too early in the round that it was scored otherwise I would have put this on my list of great matches. The opening fall was really, really good.

 

Zoltan Boscik vs. Steve Grey (aired 5/8/76)

 

This was an excellent match. The first couple of falls had some of the best mat work I can remember seeing in a WoS bout. Boscik finally looked like the European mat wizard that he's meant to be and Grey was outstanding as usual. It shouldn't come as any surprise at this point that the best Zoltan Boscik match I've seen was against Grey. Steve Grey had great matches with everybody. I swear it's ridiculous that this guy isn't more widely known. He was still young and early into his career here and he's having one of the best WoS matches on tape. When they moved from the mat to trying to win the bout, I was surprised at how awesome Boscik's bumping was. That's something I never really noticed before. He took a whip out of the ring where he nearly decapitated himself on the ropes and then almost crashed into the television camera. Awesome stuff. Really great match. My opinion of Boscik has sky rocketed.

 

Sid Cooper vs. Zoltan Boscik (6/1/77)

 

This was fine for what it was. Sid Cooper has definitely had more exciting matches, but I liked this fine. Interestingly enough, Boscik was playing this almost babyface like role where he'd sometimes get riled up but mostly keep his cool. In the next match he was a fully fledged heel.

 

Steve Grey vs. Zoltan Boscik (1/31/79)

 

This was another great Grey vs. Boscik match. These two had fantastic chemistry together. If it hadn't been joined in progress I would have listed it without hesitation. Zoltan was a full on heel here and his bumping was out of this world when Grey would retaliate to his heel tricks. The Reading crowd were hot for this and Boscik really gave them plenty to cheer about. What a great showing from the Hungarian. Zoltan Boscik you are now more than all right by me.