Martyn Posted October 1, 2015 Report Share Posted October 1, 2015 Germany is a rich country in case of wrestling history. I'd like to know more about its beginnings, classic territories, rules, biggest stars and drawing cards, talent exchanges with other countries etc but I can't find any information or footage. Anyone here knows where I can find some reliable info in english? Any help will be greatly appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherwagner Posted October 1, 2015 Report Share Posted October 1, 2015 Can't help you much with the history part - I remember seeing catch websites in the past in German, though. There's an excellent channel on youtube with plenty of German and Austrian catch (sergje1): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQffrK1qD9fFSLINCEoQ_aA Today he uploaded Axel Dieter matches vs. Adrian Street (!) and Chris Colt (!!!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martyn Posted October 1, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2015 Thanks! Anyone have some match recommendations from existing footage? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherwagner Posted October 1, 2015 Report Share Posted October 1, 2015 Wanz vs Bull Power (Vader) had some fun HOSS brawls. I haven't seen them in a decade but the Fit Finlay matches with Tony St. Clair (the Irish street fights and the chain match) were pretty good. I think some people on this board (people who have seen a lot more than I have) aren't as high on Steve Wright but I always enjoyed him vs Finlay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jetlag Posted October 1, 2015 Report Share Posted October 1, 2015 Gernot Freiberger runs that channel. He is a great historian and has posted lots of great history and anecdotes online. I don't know how much of it is in english though. You may try contacting him on YouTube. Indikator (who posts here or used to, atleast) is also very knowledgable. Axel Dieter recently passed away which is why I guess those matches were posted just today. Maybe Dieter vs. Moose Morowski will be uploaded too. If you ask me, the best matches from germany we have on tape are a couple Wanz/Vader brawls, Dieter vs. Morowski No DQ 1980, Franz van Buyten vs. Dave Taylor in a chain match 1985, and Van Buyten vs. Terry Rudge in a tournament finale 1987. The last two can be found on Youtube aswell as many Wanz/Vader matches. Franz van Buyten was a worker from Belgium but he was the babyface in Hamburg and did great work there. Germany was a weird wrestling marketplace of all sorts where all kinds of workers went there to earn money or gather experience. Workers who spent time in germany include Bret Hart, Atsushi Onita, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Masakatsu Funaki, Shinya Hashimoto, Hector Garza and others. Shows were usually organized as tournaments that ran for weeks at times in the same place. Otto Wanz (an austrian) was the big popular heavyweight face of the territory and also promoter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted October 1, 2015 Report Share Posted October 1, 2015 Here are lists of the European tournament winners -- and related info about the German promotions -- http://www.wrestling-titles.com/europe/germany/There was a site where people had painstakingly compiled the daily results of the major tournaments, but I can't find the link offhand. I think most of the results are available through Wrestling Data. If you use Cage Match, you can get a pictorial look at the overseas talent involved in each tournament -- eg. http://www.cagematch.net/?id=26&nr=995Some of my own research can be found here -- http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/28927-breaking-down-the-european-won-hof-candidates/?hl=%2Beuropean+%2Bcandidates These are the German bouts I've recommended over the years: Germany Axel Dieter vs. Moose Morowski (No DQ, Hannover 1980) Franz van Buyten vs. Dave Taylor (Pirate Fight, Hamburg 10/5/86) Franz van Buyten vs. Rene Lasartesse (9/27/87) Terry Rudge vs. Franz van Buyten (Hamburg 10/1/87) Johnny Saint vs. Terry Rudge (10/8/87) Steve Regal vs. Terry Rudge (Hamburg 10/7/88)All of the Wanz vs. Vader bouts are worth watching too. There's about half a dozen of them. The trouble with German footage is that it's almost all handheld footage and can be difficult to watch at times due to poor lighting or the camera being far away. The booking of the tournaments is often quite confusing and the rules are hard to follow. I often find it difficult to follow the referees and their incessant whistling. The tiebreaker system for draws is interesting and the Pirate FIght is a cool gimmick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted October 1, 2015 Report Share Posted October 1, 2015 I think this is the site with the detailed tournament results -- http://www.wwf4ever.de/254-12-turnierarchiv-meisterschaften-hannover_info.html The side link on the Almanac gives you more tournament details along with some other historical info albeit in German. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert S Posted October 3, 2015 Report Share Posted October 3, 2015 Gernot Freiberger runs that channel. He is a great historian and has posted lots of great history and anecdotes online. I don't know how much of it is in english though. You may try contacting him on YouTube. Indikator (who posts here or used to, atleast) is also very knowledgable. (...) Good to see that he is still around on the WWW. I remember him posting 15 years ago on a German (pro wrestling) message board. Back then I was amazed by the amout of data he had gathered (for example I got from him a list of all CWA matches that Vader had, I remember being surprised at some of the cities Wanz was running shows, I though it was (for Austria) Vienna, Graz and Linz and that's it, but he also ran some small towns like Zell am See). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted October 22, 2015 Report Share Posted October 22, 2015 i guess I'll put these here: Axel Dieter vs. Adrian Street (Hannover 1981) This struck me as a sort of halfway point between Street's American work and the WoS footage we have of him, though admittedly I don't know what he was like in the halls during his WoS run. He was treated as a complete comedy act here and spent more time mucking around with the ref than he did wrestling. Dieter was never going to give him much due to the size difference between them, but it would have been nice to have seen a bit more of Adrian's grappling skill. I wouldn't say "dirt" has surface on Dieter since he died, but people have brought up the comments Dynamite made about him in his book and his son has been ferociously defending him on an online forum. I can only imagine what sort of prick you would have to be for Dynamite Kid to think you're a prick, but from an in-ring perspective Dieter hardly broke a sweat in this squash. Axel Dieter vs. Chris Colt (Hannover 1980) Chris Colt's gimmick seemed to be that he was in no fit state to wrestle. At first, he looked as inebriated as an wrestler I've seen. He could barely stand and had difficulty taking off his shirt and lifting his boots to have them checked. The ref had this real "WTF?" look on his face while Colt swayed to his theme music like a guy trying to find his way home after a night on the turps. Then the bell rang and he snapped into action. Between rounds he'd rock out to the music then he'd be back at it with smooth bumps and fluid movements. Dieter just sort of stood back in his corner and didn't break a sweat again. Axel Dieter vs. Amet Chong (Hannover 1980) Another night, another walk in the park. I'm so used to long Dieter tournament bouts that it's a surprise to see how many nights he had off. One thing I'll say for this is that Chong looked awful in his WoS bouts but was much better here. Fodder for Dieter, but better than his WoS nightmares. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JNLister Posted October 22, 2015 Report Share Posted October 22, 2015 I've got a YouTube playlist of a whole bunch of Vader-Wanz matches: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLq8CDItFqmRiZVAI7lCv8Q4z2q_DvZ6jy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillThompson Posted October 22, 2015 Report Share Posted October 22, 2015 Nice, I've only ever seen the 12-22-1989 and 06-30-1990 encounters, which were really great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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