[1978-03-24-Houston Wrestling] Jose Lothario vs Killer Karl Krupp

[Jetlag]

Krupp is already doing the roman salute during the introductions and proceeds to warn everybody of ZE GERRRMAN KLAH!. Very subtle there, mein Freund. For a guy who is so outwardly heelish, he starts this off with a lot of wrestling. Lothario was clearly a world class pro wrestler at this point. I really dig the detailled selling, such as Lothario leaving his arm up his back after escaping from a hammerlock. The first minutes of this are great, if you can get into this kind of 70s rolling on the mat like I can. Then Krupp locks on some kind of under the shoulder claw hold, to which Lothario responds by attempting to break his nose and I am in love with this match. Then you get the nerve hold and claw sections, but Lothario is such a champ selling for it that YOU will believe in it. Everything Lothario does is amazing and brutal. He works his way back into the match by neutralizing the claw and it's brilliant. The stuff he does has a prime Kawada feel of simple nastiness: chop to the nose, knee drop to the bent wrist, square punch to the face, knee drop to the back of the head. You expect Krupp to get up with his brain hanging out of his nose. Then Jose busts out the stomach claw and we get a battle of the claw holds, with Krupp doing his best terrified B movie actor impression to sell it.

This was a better finish away from being listed. Maybe I'll list it anways somehow. It is def. near the top of the list of brilliant matches centered around claw holds. Regardless, take my word: Jose Lothario is the fucking man.

[shoe]

I really loved this match . The opening match the arm work from both guys was really good mixed in with some grappling. Lothario's selling of the arm was really awesome. I also liked Jose's ring positioning to keep his arm away from Krupp. This was also Krupp's best match I've seen. The claw gets put over big here.

 

The 2nd fall it starts to escalate. The heat, and the hate both growing. Jose is out for revenge. The finish was brutal with Jose nailing Krupp coming off the top rope with a brutal punch. He follows up with another punch.

 

The 3rd fall and it's a total brawl. The ring couldn't contain both guys and we get a double count out. Just a fantastic match. 4*