French catch

[Jetlag]

From what I've seen Axel Dieter had no problem doing all those flying headscissors, ranas and difficult bridge ups and working a fast paced match, just look at his matches with Mile Zrno or Steve Wright himself. No small feat considering by 1980 he was nearing the end of his career, and he wasn't exactly a small man. Knowing he worked France and Spain quite a lot I wouldn't be shocked if he had been quite the athletic guy in his younger days aswell. We know wrestlers did the quicker handspringy stuff in Britain and France before Steve Wright came around. Also, I've never heard of Steve Wright training anyone besides his son, until his son Alex founded his school in the early 2000s, where Steve would help out sometimes. The guy most credited for training the younger lightweight types in Germany in the 90s is Bernard Benesch, a French wrestler who worked for Lasartesse as a referee in Hamburg. Franz Schuhmann, the most prominent lightweight in the scene, credited Lasartesse himself with training him in the 80s, and he has said most of his training was bumping and how to use the ropes, almost everything he knew he learned from other guys while wrestling, either by being in the ring with them or watching them.

Here's Beneschs student Markus Buchholz in action against Bernie Wright:

You can see this mirrors a World of Sport style match a bit more, but I don't see how we need Steve Wright in the equation, given his brother Bernie is right there and probably showed young Markus some things in the ring before the match.

 

[David Mantell]

Dieter could fly about but he didn't do the specifically British stuff (rolling or cartwheeling or sometimes something even more clever, to untwist an armbar) that all the young kids in the 90s did. Scisseaux Volees, particularly as a counter to an armbar, was more of a French thing anyway (in Britain people would try it and get thrown off.)

Dieter did definitely go for the old German thing of exploring every single option for getting out of a hold, one by one, and the last one he tried was the one that worked. Which (to get back in topic) appears to be the preferred style of Ms Leo Dewerdt of Belgium.

[David Mantell]

(Will review Bernie Wright Vs Markus Buchholz on the German Catch thread. I suggest discussion of that match continue over there.)