[1980-10-05-Germany] Axel Dieter vs Moose Morowski

[Jetlag]

This is a No DQ, Tap Out and Knockout Only, Loser Leaves Town match that goes about 35 minutes. Despite the length it's a real goody, maybe the best match of the year.

 

Dieter is the local babyface technician who can kick ass if necessary. Morowski was a canadian worker who is used to these stipulation matches. No gimmicks required, they just beat the shit out of eachother. The technician vs. brawler story makes this unique as it leads to some unusual matwork and struggling. Dieter wants to do holds and takedowns into a pin, but Morowski throws punches and pulls his hair. This leads to Dieter visibly aquiring Morowski's tactics over the match and fighting fire with fire. It develops into a really compelling bout with great selling. Dieter has this great punch drunk selling and at one point does this ridiculously great sell of a Morowski heart punch. Morowski on the other lands punch after punch and does a very convincing job selling that he is slowly punching himself out. After 7 rounds with no winner, the announcer says the 8th. round will be endless until there is a decision. At this point both guys look like they have been beaten past the point of human tolerance. It builds to really nifty, albeit clunky finishing sequence.

 

Great bout, one of the best from germany, and according the Dieter himself the best of his career.

[Microstatistics]

From my limited sampling, this is the best match I have seen out of Germany so far. I read the Segunda Caida guys review and was surprised that they gave most of the credit to Morowski for this. He threw great punches and took some huge bumps but, personally, this was clearly the Dieter show. Terrific performance as the babyface hero resisting the relentless bull through technique and ferocious fightbacks. His selling was excellent throughout. Super intense and dramatic match with a great crowd. Unique finishing stretch as well. **** 5/8

[SAMS]

1980-10-05
Catch Wrestling Association - CWA World Catch Cup 1980
Alex Dieter vs. Moose Morowski
Loser Leaves World Catch Cup 1980 Match
Festzelt auf dem Schützenplatz, Hannover, Lower Saxony, Germany
★★★★ ¼ 
Card

Having seen no continental wrestling thus far, I was hoping my World of Sport viewing would carry over somewhat. But I’ll admit, this is as close to zero context as I’ve gotten so far on this journey.
The venue was very dark, it felt like an old beer hall filled with swirling cigar smoke, but it was more likely a big tent due to being hosted in a festival complex. Definitely had a unique aesthetic and a rapturous audience - they were absolutely behind Dieter the whole way, living and dying with every swing of momentum.
However, dare I say that the first two rounds were a bit…boring? They were establishing the match, but they spent a lot of time on the mat, and throughout, the periods where they were grounded were the least engaging. I’m not sure whether that was due to the camera angle or the poor video quality, but it was hard to gauge what exactly the holds were and it definitely would have benefited from us being able to see the wrestler’s faces.
If the third round had Moose beating the shit out of Dieter with a barrage of punches, then the fourth round was Dieter returning in kind with kicks. These had a savagery to them and the intensity definitely had risen and we wouldn’t see it abate from here until the finish.
As Moose leant more and more into using underhand tactics Dieter was forced to follow suit. A borderline low blow punch to the stomach from Moose caused Dieter to retaliate with a brutal kick straight into the jewels. Moose went to the top, only to get caught and he did nothing but plummet to the floor for the best bump of the night. In fact a couple times Moose’s bumping was almost Slaughter-esque.
Essentially the remainder of the match was both men wailing on each other, and while they remained on their feet things were excellent. On the mat, sometimes the energy would dissipate somewhat and the crowd would catch their breath and calm down a bit, but interestingly the finish, which I thoroughly enjoyed, did come from a ground based submission hold.
Dieter hit a flying crossbody, as both men had reverted to attempting desperate high risk offense from the top. He then caught Moose in a submission hold that I really have no idea what to call. It was sort of a Full Nelson applied with the legs. The pressure of the hold sent Moose under and I presume the official decision was a KO victory rather than a submission.
Definitely one of the best matches of the year with excellent woozy and exhaustive selling from both men. The offense was brutal and primal and for the majority of the 35 minute runtime they delivered in spades. There’s large chunks of context I’m missing for sure and this is one match that I would be keen to revisit in the future to give it a second look.