[1987-10-01-CWA-Hamburg, GER] Terry Rudge vs Franz van Buyten

[Jetlag]

Nominate: Terry Rudge vs. Franz van Buyten, Hamburg 10/1/1987

I re-watched this classic. Still a kickass match. These Hamburg shows were much more rowdier than the tame british TV wrestling, so Rudge was allowed to go all out.

Of course the main selling point is that this is a match to see Rudge at his most aggressive and violent in an important match against the top babyface. But this match also has a simple, effective structure going for it, where they make the most out of using the round system. The first round is the feeling out and establishing of the characters. In the second round, they do some really slick wrestling about arm whips and a headscissor. Simple stuff executed great and done neatly. The third round Rudge is finally fed up with Van Buyten and so begins one of the baddest ass stompings I've ever seen in a wrestling ring. The following rounds eventually have the big, slowly built up Van Buyten come back and several nearfall attempts and back and forth in the last round. After the last round, they do an extra, 10-minute tie breaker section (because this is some kind of decision match) which is a fractal of the whole match.

Like I said, the aggression and sheer fury Rudge shows here is off the charts. He looked like the single baddest dude on the planet and was attacking Franz like a machine. Even during the early feeling out and wrestling sections, he is constantly aggressivly shoving his opponent in the face, manipulating the fingers or bending the wrist in really painful ways like he was Gene Lebell. The heat section is off course utter pain, with the highlight being the hammerlock/head shove to face combo. You can totally see Fit Finlay being inspired by Rudge. Franz, on the other hand, is a guy with really great selling (especially love his shoulder bumps which make it look like he was being launched back with a ton of force), takes a reckless bump at one point and gives Rudge back as good as he can. That rope tie up/crossbody spot is something a lot of babyfaces in germany and austria did, but nobody made it look as good as Franz as he just rams into his opponent with his entire weight.

So there you have it, a simple match built around a great face vs. a great heel to give the 2000 folks at the Heiliggeistfeld a good night.