German catch

[David Mantell]

Okay, here's one more Robbie as a heel in Germany/Austria bout from the Heumarkt '97. Neidhart takes time out from the Harts Vs USA feud to team with the Wildcat and get DQ'd against the locals. Afterwards Robbie cuts an angry promo (In German I think) and Franz calmly challenges the heels to a return bout.

[David Mantell]

Most of the first half of the clip is taken up by a lengthy Ringerparade.  We first seen Rasputin and Klaus Kauroff in the carpark looking quite amicable then cut to said parade with all manner of familiar faces including referee Jeff Kaye.  A bit of a fight breaks out between some of the wrestlers. Then two minutes or so before the end we get some match highlights, George Burgess under his old 70s identity Jamaica Kid Vs uncensored N bomb dropper Colonial Brody. Some bits of good action including a neat escape from headscissors into side headlock from Brody and a great bridge from George.  In the end he gets a flying tackle on Brody but is exhausted so the Colonel not only kicks out at 2 but easily upturns him to get his own pin and the bird from the crowd. Referee Mick McMichael was at the time busy competing in the Golden Grappler and Grand Prix belt tournaments back home across the North Sea.

[David Mantell]

On 2/15/2025 at 12:12 PM, David Mantell said:

Another bout that could just have easily been on a Brian Dixon or Orig Williams show of the same period.  Or even a WWF undecardTen minute start of the show match to get them in a good mood. Next to no technical wrestling (and Doc Dean who was British Welterweight Champion at the time was capable of better) but it made the crowd happy.

Kenny does a promo at the start very much in the style of ITV promo's of 1987-1988 which does go to show that this is not just bootleg fan cam but officially sanctioned footage probably meant to be resold at the merch stands.

I wanted to review this earlier as part of a set of John Kenny posts to all three of the British, French and German threads. But I seem to have already viewed it so never mind. I'll let Kenny* do The Bump* and we can still compare him in three different territories.

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* Spot the early 70s kitsch pop reference!

[ohtani's jacket]

Some German film footage.

1965.8air Horst Hoffmann vs Ian Campbell + Leif Rasmussen vs Micha Nador + Mustafa Shikane vs Josef Molnar (Wiesbaden

Ian Campbell shows up in the most interesting places. It's a shame we don't have any of his matches from ITV. He was mostly playing a stooge heel in these clips. Shikane vs. Moinar was wild. Very stylized and strange lightweight wrestling. It almost felt like performance art.

1962 Geoff Portz vs Paul Berger + Rene Lasartesse vs Jose Arroyo (Berlin)

The German newsreel directors liked to focus on crowd reactions a lot. Must be that history of expressionism. Not a lot you could really gauge from this other than Lasartesse worked the same way in the 60s that he did in the 80s. The only difference was that he looked younger. 

1965.5.8 Josef Kovacs vs Ian Campbell + Horst Hoffmann vs Jose Marques + Ricki Starr vs Leif Rasmussen (Karlsruhe)

Speaking of expressionism, this stands off as a montage of the matches shot at various different camera angles, then shows extended clips of Ricki Starr vs. Rasmussen. As best I can tell, Rasmussen was a Buddy Rose style worker who seemed like a real character. The clips are fun, and I imagine the full match would have been similar to the great Les Kellett vs. Bobby Barnes matches. 

1971 Leif Rasmussen vs Hansi Roocks

This clip is already in circulation. There are some decent exchanges but the main focus is on interviewing women at ringside, and boy are there some interesting hairdos. 

 

[David Mantell]

23 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

1971 Leif Rasmussen vs Hansi Roocks

This clip is already in circulation. There are some decent exchanges but the main focus is on interviewing women at ringside, and boy are there some interesting hairdos. 

Yes, I posted that one some time back.

Quote

Most of it's from the 40s/50s but there are a couple off 1970s clips. Here is 1971 - Leif Rasmussen, a sort of Scandinavian version of Rene Lasartesse, takes on a young dark haired Hansi Rooks (some eight years before a certain glam metal band from Finland formed! ) It's from TV but don't get excited, it's one of the usual "haha let's have a good sneery laugh at the high spots and the screaming marks too" type features you get on TV and cinema newsreels 

Talking of hairdos, Hansi had yet to buy his first bottle of peroxide.

Even in the b/w you can see it's the common 80s/90s ring design with the white ropes and dark blue mat. I think I even spy some sponsorship messages on the canvas.

[David Mantell]

34 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

The German newsreel directors liked to focus on crowd reactions a lot.

It was a common failing of newsreel makers and producers of TV Magazine-show items, to poke fun at the wrestling show and its fans rather than treat it with dignity.  They were more concerned about what their peer group would think than true communication.

Still it could be worse - that Spanish one with the silly sound effects.

[ohtani's jacket]

1958.11.8air Joachim la Barba vs Jakob Thoma + Hans Schwarz III vs Jose Marques (Berlin)

la Barba is working a comedy catchweight bout here against an extremely limited heavyweight opponent. Schwarz vs Marques is the best footage so far. Instead of clips, we get extended sequences from the bout. Both men are skilled and work a style that is similar to French Catch. Marques was a Spanish wrestler, so I guess you could classify it as a continental style. It seemed that most of the skilled workers of this era could travel between France, Britain and Spain and work seamlessly with local opponents. 

1960.10.18air Hans Schwarz III vs someone + Oskar Muller vs Bill Martinez (Munich)

Here's Schwarz again. His opponent looks a bit like Inca and does a lot of fun, exaggerated selling. Schwarz is one of the most skilled workers I've seen thus far. Muller is the stereotypical German wrestler. It's like watching the love child of Axel Dieter and Roland Bock. Bill Martinez did this spot that modern wrestlers should ape. He scored the pin, do a backwards roll, rolled forward again so that he was standing over his opponent, then taunted him in his face. 

1957.11 Hermann Iffland vs Josef Kovacs + James Brown & Matthias Rösges vs Roman Waniek & Hans Dillinger (Wiesbaden)

There was a lot of excellent wrestling in this clip. Iffland and Kovacs wrestled like men, and Kovacs wore Dick Shikat style tights, which I always approve of. The tag match featured something I've never seen before. Instead of standing on the apron, the tag partners stood in each corner holding onto the tag rope. At first I thought it was because there was no space on the apron for them to stand, but then they did a spot where one guy was placed over the top rope onto the apron. A very weird but interesting visual dynamic. I'd be curious to know if all German tag wrestling was like this at the time or it was unique to Wiesbaden. The wrestling and comedy in this bout were first class. 

[Matt D]

Next Richard Land drop in a few days is more Sept 81 with maybe Bret vs Roach, two Wright/Kimura tags, and more Adrian Street. We shall see.

[David Mantell]

I'd like to see the full length Inoki - Lasartesse match and maybe some other ones from the tour like vs Wilfred Dietrich. I wonder if there is footage of the earlier Wanz Vs Don Leo match July '78 where big Otto wins his second CWA title - the debut of the acronym CWA in German/Austrian wrestling circles.

Also the studio tag match which precedes the Roland Bock Vs Bear match and some similar stuff with Rene Lasartesse in the studio (snippets appear in his documentaries posted earlier.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[David Mantell]

Also I would to see some more George "Schurli" Blemenschutz as lead babyface at the 60s/70s Heumarkt so we can judge how much of an influence Schurli was on Shirley ...

[David Mantell]

Years before Rambo becomes a babyface for his feud with Bull Power, here he is as heel challenger (not for the first time on this thread Viz Rambo making challenges and doing an angle during Otto's TV interview.  At this stage, Porier bears an odd resemblance to early 90s Soldier Boy Steve Prince minus the gags. Otto works rather like Big Daddy in the 1977!John Elijah and 1975 Kendo Nagasaki bouts - Daddy and Wanz had a common inspirational ancestor in Blemenschutz.

Not sure who Hercules Boyd is but he seems to be a legit American from the accent. He teams with the only European in the bout, Franz Schumann to face BUll Power and Might John Quinn, an unlikely pair as I recall reviewing them feuding at Heumarkt around this time.Boyd can match power with BB. Quinn is a bit craftier and has picked up some technical knowledge in his time in Britain. Power of,  works in the Blemenschutz style of rugged bodychecks and splashes as a finisher.