Franz Schumann

[Dylan Waco]

Discuss Here.

[ohtani's jacket]

I go back and forth on Schumann. I really dig the chain match he had with Johnny South in Reslo but then he looked like a poor man's Chris Benoit in everything else I've watched recently. I liked Jetlag's defence of him, and I might binge watch him a bit this week. My first instinct is to suggest there were better workers in CWA like Zrno, but I'm kind of intrigued by the idea that I'm no selling him because of the style shift in the late 80s.

[ohtani's jacket]

Franz Schumann vs. Robbie Brookside (2/15/98)

 

Brookside was channeling Chris Jericho here. Talk about the biggest Daniel Bryan there never was. Schumann looked deeper into a second career phase than he should have in 1998, but he did look good when he took over the offence. Not an auspicious start to checking out more Schumman if he's going to be so quiet, but I haven't written him off completely based on this one match.

[ohtani's jacket]

Robbie Brookside vs. Franz Schumann (5/9/98)

 

Schumann debut in '85 and was pushing 40 here, so I guess that's why he looked so different. I couldn't decide whether Brookside seemed more like Chris Jericho or Edge, but either way he was distinctly uncool. This was falls count anywhere. I hate falls count anywhere matches. Schumann looked noticeably gassed. If you ever wanted to see what a German indy is like, I guess this is your ticket. Meanwhile, Schumann is 0 for 2

[Dylan Waco]

I actually watched a dozen or more of his matches and I'm left thinking that he was a really good wrestler, but not the sort of person that does any individual thing that really makes him pop out for a project like this. Jetlag compared him to Pillman, but I kind of think of him as the best possible Ben Bassarab. I do think his matches with Liger and Benoit were great, I really liked the Finlay matches, the chain match with Shaun South was borderline great (especially for the gimmick), and I thought the Horowitz and Severn matches were as good as they possibly could have been. At times he could be sloppy, but I generally thought he put his matches together pretty well, he had some nice big spots, and he worked really snug. At best his matches have a nice feeling of escalation too. There just isn't enough volume there to build a case, especially since I don't think he was other worldly in any of these matches.

[Matt D]

Has anyone seen the two Martel matches from 95? I'm curious, but we're obviously past the fact. Someone posted them in the last month or so.

[Jetlag]

The Martel matches are fun, nothing more. Pretty standard heel vs. local face stuff. I prefer Schumann vs. Horowitz.

 

I didn't consider Schumann at all. Someone whose career broke down along with the territory, hence leading to these bizarre matches with Brookside OJ mentioned above where they were trying to work like ECW. He still has some good matches throughout the 90s.

[PeteF3]

Speaking of Schumann footage, is any of his Japan stuff on tape? He worked a Super Juniors tournament in the early or mid-'90s.

[ohtani's jacket]

Franz Schumann vs. Karsten Kretschmer (VDB 1/31/1998)

 

This was nice stuff. It was arguably the best I've seen Schumann look as a worker. I can't really recall him grappling this much in other bouts, I wonder if there is other footage of Schumman working like this. With an exhibition of this sort, there's always a possibility that it was a departure from the norm. But I think this is from the promotion that had some great grappling from Jones, Wright, and Zrno so it may have been that Franz was finally getting to show his ability after all those years working for confused promotions like Reslo, CWA, and EWF that were trying to find some way to stay relevant in the early 90s during a period of downturn for European wrestling. In any event, I liked this Schumann much better than the younger version.