German catch

[David Mantell]

From the same tournament as Otto's return match with Don Leo. It's the younger more slimline Wanz in against an expat British heel and Dave Schultz lookalike. A grey bearded man in a suit and hat is interviewed in the ring.  Otto can still do rolling  cros buttock takedowns into an armlock at this stage.  He has a basic snapmares and an abdominal stretch and is a bit of a slugger.  Viking looks like a biker who took up wrestling to be paid to beat people up. Mick McMichael in his kilt is the referee.  It all ends when Viking charges Otto in his corner at the start of round 2 and slugs him but Otto takes over and slugs Viking then slams and pins him.

[David Mantell]

From 1986.  Rambo is another wrestler who comes down to disgraced paedophile Gary Glitter's track "I'm the Leader of the Gang (I am)" Later on after round one they play an awful knock-off of that Mr Postman song that the Beatles and the Carpenters both did (sung in broken English with a German accent) .  All the same camera mixing tricks as the Steve Wright Vs Tony StClair match from the same tournament 

Samson is a strength man and Rambo is a North American so the are best served by the slow old German style. Holds are worked for long periods of time and the escape that works is the last one tried.  Being a North American, Rambo pushes upwards on headlocks etc to power out rather than downwards to the mat to pull off a leverage based escape.  

Agadoo by Black Lace gets played between rounds. Ouch. 

I would expect Rambo to be the heels but he gets as much applause as Samson.  A babyface match with competitive needle. Still going at the same pace at the end until Samson rallies for the pin. The camera cuts away at the ruckal moment so only when Billy's hand is raised by referee Mick McMichael do we know the result. No sportsmanship, Rambo refuses a handshake.

 

[David Mantell]

Joined in progress. In 1987, Tony is younger and fitter and can almost match the big blond Swiss for size. It's a bit of a highlights package so we go from Tony kipping up in wristlocks to him walloping Rene with forearm smashes and don't find out how we got from A to B. It's also filmed over two peoples' shoulders and their heads get in the way. Lots of stomping each other, not much technical work ("Not too much wrestling" as Kent Walton would say.) Tony kneesmashes his way out of a tombstone piledriver, Rene misses an aerial move off the top turnbuckle. Tony gets the winner with a clothesline and cross press.

[David Mantell]

Masa Chono as a good guy at Heumarkt, Vienna 1987. (Chono was a rare heavy duty heel in 90s Japan, often beating babyfaces up til other babyfaces came to the rescue in groups) One fan shows his appreciation by shouting Japanese motorcycle brands at him. Chono makes nice transiions from chinlock to sleeperhold. He already has the step over toehold but not the extra facelock of the STF.  He works long and hard on Klaus's legs.   He also has good karate kicking skills like Saysma and Yamada. Clip appears to end with Kauf getting a public  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[David Mantell]

Another short clip, unusual because the Wright Brothers are on opposite sides. Steve and Bernie aren't tagged in together but Steve gets a few shots and a dropkick, I  n at Bernie on the apron. Bernie is no longer the Bearcat Wright violent case but he's hanging out with he notorious Indio.  Bernie spends most of his time against Bobby Gaetano .Ending comes when Steve gets a flying bodypress on Indio for a successful pin. 

[David Mantell]

News item August Smisl gives what I assume is a journo a good stretching.  Also Finlay and an American have a match then a backstage angle. The American threatens to shoot Finlay. So now you know where Austin, Pillman and Russo got the idea from.

[Jetlag]

That guy saying he's gonna shoot Finlay is actually Austrian Viktor Krueger of BattlARTS fame. AFAIK they actually had a 'shootfight' match at some point but I don't think I've ever seen footage of it.

[David Mantell]

16 hours ago, Jetlag said:

That guy saying he's gonna shoot Finlay is actually Austrian Viktor Krueger of BattlARTS fame. AFAIK they actually had a 'shootfight' match at some point but I don't think I've ever seen footage of it.

Ah, I see. Shoot was a Pun in that case?

[David Mantell]

Incidentally @Jetlag how influential would you say was Steve Wright on the 90s generation of young talent like Ulf, Eckstein, Kovacs, Schumann, Alex etc?  

Would you be inclined to agree with my suggestion - as discussed earlier in this thread - that the shift in German style away from the slower methodical style of Bock, Chall, Dieter Senior etc towards a more agile British-influenced style was attributable to Steve? If not, who or what else prompted the shift in style?

[David Mantell]

Quote

 

Quote

 

Royal Rumbles (WWE copyright be damned) have become a staple end of the night attraction at traditional British shows since the ,mid 90s (heck, Stephen Barker even named his PROMOTION Rumble!). They offer blue eyes a shot at revenge against the heels who beat them earlier in the night and send fan, especially the family audiences, home happy. Here is a specimen from the final ever episode of Relo. Your typical heaving mass of bodies, nothing much technical here. Danny Collins gets cheered by the crowd which is particularly surprising not just because he went heel in 1994 but for more reasons I'm about to get into on the German Catch thread.

This was the last Traditional British Wrestling on TV (and apart from that Japanese visit to Croydon in 96, Rumble Promotions' VHS that same year and a couple of all-Brit bouts on VDB in Germany's deliberately retro 1998 video, the last Traditional British wrestling to be professionally filmed) until 2003 and Premier Promotions contributions to Johnny Vaughn's World Of Sport on digital channel BBC3.

A couple of more modern examples of this. This is from an All Star show at former TV Venue the Royal Spa Centre in Leamington Spa 11.5 years ago. I was (probably) in attendance.

 

And here is a more recent example from, er. Rumble Promotions:

 

 

Okay. Just to compliment those videos from Britain, here is the Royal Rumble concept in Germany/Austria 

 

 

 

[David Mantell]

This clip is 9.5 mins long but we only get about 5 minutes of match. Chenok may have been a Baron when he jobbed the European Welterweight Championship to Danny Collins as part of the 1985 FA Cup Final coverage earlier that year (or is it next year? As you can see from the thumbnail it says 1984! @sergeiSem can you explain ) but here he is the German working class babyface, a mixture of Roland Bock, Mick McMichael with a moustache and C21st Flesh Gordon with a combover.  Denis Goulet we've seen on here in the past, upcoming French TBW of the period. Indio is kind of like N'Boa with a dead snake. We saw him and Bernie team years later with Indio (with Steve on the other side!) and it didn't make much sense, but here it does - Bernie is kind of it Bearcat mode here with a crewcut and short beard looking like Syd Cooper's kid brother, not Steve Wright's. 

Anyway, five mins action and it ends awkwardly. Indio and Bernie clean the ring of everyone - it took me two attempts to pick up that they were DISQUALIFIED and they decide they've won the fight and are making their exit when Chenok gives Indio a smack in the mouth on the way out.

We are then treated to an audio profile piece with Chenok and an audio promo with the man, both in German. In between we get a shot of Chenok flying bodypressing Bernie and highlights of what looks like the Birmingham Steve Logan versus Dave Morgan plus a mini tribute piece to Rene Lataserre..

Who is this  Wener Bendig? Is he on here?

 

[David Mantell]

Speaking of Dave Morgan, here is another match where he comes out from behind his Maschke and is the good guy.  That time, which I must have seen but didn't review apparently, but I mention it in the bowels of the British thread on page 19 in July 23:

Quote

On the other hand I have seen some quite good scientific wrestling from Germany that was practically British wrestling in another location.  Dave Morgan vs  Steve Logan (mk2 the Birmingham clean one who now runs K Star gyms) circa 1984

That time was a clean match, this is blue eye versus villain, the villain in question that loveable old rogue with the Afro hairdo Indio Guajaro.  According to a personality profile at the end, Indio is from Colombia and Morgan is heavyweight champion of something called the NWF (no idea if there is any connection to the early 70s promotion that Pedro Martinez ran out of Buffalo NY - more likely it's a mishmash of NWA and WWF dreamed up by a promoter who has been reading American wrestling magazines.)

It's March 1983 so in a yellow roped ring just like that Roland Bock clip against Don joni El Coral. We get a long voiceover during the intro but this doesn't become a commentary, just an explanatory voice that PPS up now and then.

Good guy Dave is a mild mannered heavyweight. He and Indio exchange basic technical stuff in the early rounds, more like a British heavyweight bout that a German bout of the time, with Dave getting the best of it. Dave does a good French style headscissors takedown counter to armbars. Indio puts up his hands in victory and the crowd give him the bird (the whistling noise, not finger gestures.) He can also cartwheel like Danny Collins (making his pro debut around this time.)

Bad guy Indio sells a lot of Dave's offence, takes bumps, gets hit with double ankles and dropkicks, sells holds and is utterly humiliated so the audience are laughing mockingly at him. Eventually he gets some heat bashing Dave around with forearm smashes. It looks like Indio either can't roll out of an armbar or doesn't want to upstage good guy Dave who gets bored waiting for the roll and boots Indio in the stomach.  Indio gets darker heat when he starts choking Dave out on the ropes. He puts his hands up and gets actual boos because this time he is winning. He pitches Dave to ringside just as the round ends. The MC has to shout SCHTOP!! SCHTOP!! as he chokes Morgan. 

Morgan makes his comeback headscissoring Indio around and dropkicking his out the ring. Then he goes too far and ties up Indio and charges him and gets a Yellow Card. The German fans have no equivalent of Aux Chiottes L'Arbitre, they just give the ref The Bird (see above). Indio soon gets his heat back but Morgan suddenly gets a side folding press roll up for the win.

 

 

[David Mantell]

On 5/12/2025 at 5:54 AM, David Mantell said:

 

From the post CWA EWP and from Fit Finlay's farewell tour, he gets a World title shot here at Paul "Cannonball Grizzly" Neu, the artist long ago known as PN News.  First up it's nice too see they still went in for white ropes and dark blue mat- what is it about old school German wrestling and that colour combination. They've still got the disco between rounds "Eurotrash Hits " the commentator calls it- and indeed they still have rounds at all when All Star hardly bothered. Finlay has Robbie Brookside of all people as his corner man while Grizzly has Ecki Eckstein as his flag waver.

One is an old man, the other a big fat man also getting up in years so a fairly slow paced affair and not in the methodical German style either.  Bearhug territory from Grizzly .  Things look a bit temperamental between Robbie (with his corner bucket). and Finlay (the crowd favourite) at the start of round 3. The commentators discuss Finlay's former backstage job with the WWE Divas - Trish Stratus is name checked. 

Finlay cross buttocks Grizzly to break out of a bearhug in round 4.  Finlay gets a yellow card in round 5:for persistently not allowing Grizzly back in the ring. Grizzly goes to work in round 7 with a Big Daddy style offence but it falls to bits when he misses a "Cannonball Roll" (that's a Broken Record for all you old WCW fans). of the top turnbuckle.

At this point the Wildcat goes WILD, turning heel on Finlay and attacking him at ringside then getting into a wild schmoz with Eckstein and a bunch of other guys who run in.  Everyone including Grizzly piles in to keep them apart.  Robbie says something rude about Finlayin German with a strong Scouse accent and Finlay piles out after him followed by everyone else. Brookside cuts a long promo in English challenging Finlay to a Liverpool street fight then storms off.  Finlay offers to make it a tag match with son David Jr (III). Which I guess led to the Finlays Vs Brookside and Dirty Dan Collins tag match I reviewed several pages earlier in this thread.

 

Sixteen years earlier in Bremen...

 

 

As with the Terry Funk match that year, Finlay is the Quasi babyface sympathetic heel, although not as emphatically the good guy as in 2012. The Rapmaster is anything but. Looking like a cross between an unmasked Kendo Nagasaki and Nasty Boy Jerry Sags with a shaved head, ponytail and black leather tailcoat and hard rock ring entry music. Only the pink and black ring gear really makes him recognisably PN News from WCW. He also does the odd basic scientific move like a fireman's carry, or trying for a single leg Boston Crab before Finley kicks him off.

Referee is Didier Gapp, the referee so miserable that Germans think of him as a comedy hero. He doesn't do much of note, just gets on with the job.  He manages to lure Finlay back from an out of the ring brawl, even if he then kicks Neu off the ring apron.  Eventually they go at it outside the ring, with Neu backdropping Finlay on the floor and Finlay dashing back at the last second to turn a double knockout into a knockout win. Sorry OJ.

P.S. the 2012 bout has just come on my smart TV. Didier refereed that too. By then he was totally bald and quite tubby.

[David Mantell]

Father and son team up, like the Boothmans and the Kilbys back home in Blighty.

Alex and Steve both share the same attack skills (technical plus acrobatic) and they even get in the ring the same cartwheeling way. Generally it's Alex that does the FIP stuff and Steve that makes the save - until dad goes down to a Yamamoto leg drop for the opening fall. When Steve makes a tag, Alex takes a while to get going before going on the attack, hecsoin enough tags Dad back who gets the equaliser on Yamamoto. Alex does come back but ends up getting caught in a folding press by Finlay - his first good move of the match - for the decider.

There's not a lot to be said about the heels. Yamamoto is your standard German Wrestling Surly Tokyo Street Thug heel and Finlay is just his regular early 90s bully boy self, here against Alex mostly. Great shot at the start where fans are singing songs about Finlay and he just stares DAGGERS at them. 

Some good moves from the Wrights but basically your standard face Vs heel match, there to make the fans happy - until it makes them unhappy, natch.

 

[David Mantell]

Just a quick one to bring the German thread level with the British and French threads in the last couple of days(two bouts each, one long one short)

Heel Vs heel with Kauroff as the sympathetic heel getting the "KAU-ROFF!!! KAU-ROFF!!!" chants. Just highlights including KK totally dominating Brody in a finger interlock and easily breaking a full nelson then flipping the Colonel around. Brody and Klaus have a fairly slambang cartoon brawl winBridy doing his fall over the top rope spot from his Owen Hart match on New Catch.

Q. What does VIEDERKOMPF mean?  All I know is that German/Austrian fans like to sing it at heels.

[David Mantell]

An oddity.  Johnny South had been a regular visitor to the German/Austrian tournaments scene going back to the 1970s.  Here in 1994 he turns up in his full tribute Legend of Doom gear.  Since the Real Mike Hegstrand had visited the CWA and beaten Rambo here for the World title less than two years earlier, here the Legend becomes "British LOD" a slightly cowardly heel wannabe who runs away from the man the real Hawk beat for the biggest prize in European Wrestling not so long ago.  British LOD is presented as having some front but covering and covering up whenever Rambo gets aggressive. It takes careful listening to get that German fans are giving British LOD "the bird" not cheering him, but it's the same whistling noise they gave Indio Guajaro against Dave Morgan 11 years earlier. Rambo mostly easily breaks South's holds and overpowers him. It's like comparing Tony StClair Vs Kendo Nagasaki to Tony Vs Bill Clarke as King Kendo. Rambo of course wins with a flying forearm.

The footage quality and production incidentally are very good, almost the professional TV quality of the home videos of Otto's biggest 1980s title defences such as July 1980 Vs Don Leo or the final defence against Bull Power.  There's also a commentator present. I believe there are videos on this channel of the rest of Hanover 1994 in similar condition.

This is the year before South filmed his Reslo appearances as the Legend (singles bout Vs Paul "Raging Bull" Neu, elimination triple tag, Rumble) By 1999 he would be popular enough to be the man who ended Marty Jones's final World Mid Heavyweight Championship reign in April that year in Bristol. By 2002 he was gone from All Star as part of a clean out of tribute characters and a renewed focus on young talent such as Dean Allmark. Robbie Dynamite Berzins, Mikey Whiplash Gilbert etc etc.

[David Mantell]

On 8/17/2024 at 1:47 AM, David Mantell said:

On 8/17/2024 at 1:47 AM, David Mantell said:

Yes I was going to dig out a triple tag where not only Haystacks but King Kong Kirk were billed as Americans. Kirk was from Pontefract in West Yorkshire. I doubt too many Americans know about Pontefract or Pontefract cakes.

Here we are. Preceded by a GLORIOUS promo with Haystacks talking about how tough "Us Americans" are. in a broad Manchester accent!!!

Although to be fair, third team-mate Mighty John Quinn once cut an in ring "gee" on ITV about how his "Congressman" told him to beat up Big Daddy. Quinn was a Canadian, Canada has MPs not Congressmen 

Something I've noticed about this 1986  bout.  There were quite a few RTL logos about.  Was this a one off TV broadcast rather than a home video?

[David Mantell]

Some more Evil Legend of Doom, again from Germany 1994.  This time he's announced as The Destroyer Johnny South. Paired with Dirty Dan Collins (Danny having turned heel on the Liverpool Lads in Croydon earlier that year,) they take on two of Germany/Austria's best young good guys, score and concede a fall each (Ulf backslides South, South DDTs and pins Ulf) before Collins goes wild and bludgeons both opposition  with a ball shaped weapon of some sort that South throws him and so gets DQd.

It's heartening to see that German fans in 1994 gave heat for breaking up a promising technical exchange by going for a rope break.

Danny and John/Hawk (not to be confused with John Hawk the future JBL who appears on some of these CWA matches) would be on opposite sides on Reslo's elimination triple tag match in 1995. Ulf would be in that match too as the Hollywood Blond.

Given that a year before this, Dave Duran was Animal Legend of Doom teaming with Kendo Nagasaki  possibly South as Hawk Legend was a full time heel at this point.

[David Mantell]

Am wondering if @sergeiSem read that last post as he's just gone andd uploaded ANOTHER bout of South as a heel LOD in Germany 1994.

What's odd about this one is that it shows South was a vastly better worker and wrestler than the man he was impersonating. In a heel sort of way, the Legend of Doom has a good mat based bout that the real Mike Hegstrand could never have. (See also Demolition actually being better workers than the Road Warriors.)

Schumann also has a bad rep for impersonations due to his pink/black outfit which made him look like Bret Hart (Bret in his book mentions being shown a photo by German fans and not being a happy bunny.)

[David Mantell]

From May 1981 in a ring with red ropes, possibly the same or a relative of the one from the late 1970s Roland Bock Vs Beau Jack Rowlands film insert.

The big bad Swiss mostly does the expected demolition job except for a couple of hope spots and the referee is no help to Gaetano either.

 

 

[David Mantell]

Quote

Tony St. Clair vs. Masa Chono (Bremen, taped 12/17/94

I'm not a huge fan of Chono, but this was all right. There as nothing "European" about it, which kind of bored me, but St. Clair continues to impress me with his work even into the 90s.

S4C's outside broadcast team takes the long trek Eastwards across the Severn Bridge, across Lloegr with its feral Saesneg population (look those up if you can't guess) and across the North Sea to Bremen where then current British Heavyweight Champion Tony StClair takes on former NWA Champion Masa Chono.  Chono is doing his New Japan heel act here and shows it from the off, karate kicking Tony down then booting and stomping him to ringside where  Orig had been welcoming the Reslo viewers in Welsh and in a snazzy blue suit just moments earlier. 

After some family American work, Tony and Masa set down to an old school German long work the hold sequence with Tony having an armbar in the mat and moving to keep up with Chino trying to get out. He gets a leg  to the ropes but at least there has been some struggle to do so, so no heat.  Chono gets a side headlock and Tony tries various things to turn him into a pinning predicament. Chono let's Tony get up then punches him down, we can't see if referee Mick  McMichael, minus his kilt, reprimands him or not.  Chono gets a drop toehold into his famous STF, the move he ended mentor Lou Thesz's final bout with 3 years before. Tony grabs a rope, the first time everyone ignored it, the second time he gets the break while Chono gets a First Yellow Card and consoles himself with tampering with me rd corner post cover.  Chono takes Tony out and slams him in a ringside table. By the end Tony has bladed and Chono got a Second and Final Yellow Card. He gets a sleeper on Chono and takes him down. Chono backs him off in the corner but collapses. He gathers his strength and gets up in time to catch Tony with a flying shoulder block. He tries a flying axehandle but Tony catches him in the stomach. Tony's turn to fly now - he gets a flying bodypress but Chono rolls through and gets a 2 count. Chono takes it outside again, missing a charge on the metal post like Ron Simmons at Halloween Havoc 1991. McMichael blames StClair and gives him the yellow card. Undeterred, Tony slams Chono's face into the ringside table No card for that one. Or for stomping Chono from inside the ring. Tony is tired and - on the second attempt and badly- lands a clothesline on Chono. Tony bodychecks him and puts on a Zoltan Boscik Special/Octopus.Atomic Stretch.  Chono eventually gets the cross buttock throw but is too tired to follow down.  Both men run the ropes, collide and fall down  Chono reverses a posting but Tony boots him and lands a spinning vertical splash (Puro and Lucha fans no doubt have a fancy name for this one)  Tony slams Chono but misses a flying kneedrop off the top. Chono lands.three kicks on the wounded knee and takes the leg but Tony kicks him in the head with the other foot.   They run the ropes and Tony gets a DDT. He doesn't follow down. Chono is up at 9 before Tony gets the Powerslam and pin.

Apart from the public warnings and long protracted hold sequences of the old Germany (that StClair would have seen in his youth) there indeed wasn't much European about this bout. Slow and protracted with long double counts.

 

[David Mantell]

Mammouth Siki clearly is a much bigger guy than Bobby Gaetano. I apologise for suspecting they were the same person because thy were both black with horseshoe baldness.

Hansi Rooks I've had a soft spot for since reviewing his 1986 win over King Kong Kirk. He's what Big Daddy could have been without Max Crabtree's crazed and excessive level of Booking Him Strong.  We've also seen B/W footage on here of him in the early 70s as a young man with dark hair looking like Hercules Cortez.

Dave Viking I know little about, a Scotsman based in Germany with no career back home AFAIK but who seemed to be a hardy perennial across the North Sea. Judd Harris did have a few memorable moments on ITV - as Daddy fodder Gunboat Harris for Joint in 1980 and as Baron Von Schultz for All Star in 1988 popping up on the same Croydon TV taping as the Kendo-Rocco falling out to lose a title eliminator match to ex World Heavyweight Champion Wayne Bridges (who thus earned a second return match against new champion Kendo Nagasaki which he won on DQ to regain the title, then retired soon after, taking his red/white/blue ball, sorry, belt back home to his pub where it was on display for the next 30 years.

Cheap basic goodies/baddies tag match, the baddies get a period of dominance over Siki before Hansi makes the hot tag, the heels are then generally mown over - including the old rowing boat spot - until they try a double team on the big blond, are DQd and sent packing in disgrace from the ring.

 

[David Mantell]

That man Gunboat Harris again, same tournament.  Dave Morgan whom we've seen quite a bit of on here, sometimes wearing a Mashcke, other times as a clean British Blue-eyes, is here a dirty British villain while completely unMashcked. Jorg Chenok, according to Kent Walton in 1985, beat Wolfgang Saturski at around this time to capture the European Welterweight Championship (his first confirmed sighting as champion was turning up to job the title to Danny Collins on the FA Cup Final Day '85 World Of Sports Special, seven years after Dynamite Kid handed the belt back to Max Crabtree before heading off to Stampede. Arpad Weber I confess to being unfamiliar with but I think I've seen the name on the French Catch playlists.

Another cheap and cheerful tag for bier swillers in a festive mood in May 1981. Jorg as a babyface reminds me a lot of Roland Bock. The same archetypal facially haired, pipe smoking,* Alsatian owning working class German everyman.

* not literally, but the archetype does. 

Another family friendly, drunk friendly, wrestling match. The villains get more substantial, getting more heat than Harris and Viking did and eventually winning by DQ when the babyfaces go a bit over the top with the old hog tying one heel in the ropes and using the other heel on him as a battering ram routine - in response to which the faces use the disapproving ref as a battering ram too.  You've sent the routine on late 70s/ early 80s French Catch TV. Never done on Delaporte (at least not as un Arbitre) or Martial in the 60s and I wouldn't fancy their chances trying that on with British refs like Max Ward.

Although as we have seen, Georg Blemenschütz was treating referees like this in the late 1970s.

The beer flowed freely that festival 44 years ago, they were easily amused.

[David Mantell]

VdB on a rare trip across the Iron curtain to Hungary - date uncertain but I'd say it's the early 80s.  Mamdouh Farag (black trunks), future national hero babyface of Egypt and scourge of WWE's Arabic language content division, during his German days Vs British wrestler Ray Glendening (red one arm leotard), a journeyman who occasionally popped up on World Of Sport.  

There's a couple of seconds Ringerparade at the start. Farag is bigger and stronger and slow motion ragdolls Glendening about. He powers out of a full nelson and lifts him and puts him on the ring apron while held in a front chancery.  Farag is also the natural babyface, cheered all the way for his actions. He finishes Ray with a dangerous looking piledriver/powerbomb hybrid which scores him a KNOCKOUT!!!

The clip is just 6.5 mins long and has been edited by someone doing acid who wanted to make the viewer trip out too, hence lots of silly effects.

Promoter was Arpad Weber whom we saw in action two posts above.

 

 

[David Mantell]

Erik Watts heads to Germany to get away from the accusations of nepotism. Here he faces thuggish young Japanese heel Hiro Yamamoto.  Erik of course was a familiar figure to German fans as his WCW matches were broadcast on RTL's Catch Up.  He takes quite a beating from Hiro before coming back with a sunset flip pin attempt only for Hiro to becsa ed by the bell.

Interim music "Saturday Night" by Whigfield.  VERY 1994!!!

Erik soon battles back to get the one fall required with a flying bodypress.  No sign of the STF Daddy allegedly paid Masa Chono to teach him.