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.

 

[David Mantell]

We've seen some of what OJ has called "Ivy League" French Catch matches from the mid to late 80s, usually not televised but rather shot on an early camcorder - where the legends of the 1960s and 1970s, grey haired and all, would have one last battle for old times' sake.  Now a decade or so later, here's the German/Austrian equivalent. We know it's GRAZ 1996 because there is a cheap camcorder caption that says so all the way through.

Otto Wanz is back!!!  Grey haired and tubbier that ever.  The greys make him look like Bill Eadie when he teamed with Randy Colley in those first couple of Demolition TV matches and they put all kinds of hair dye in their hair and Eadie wore silver.  However he is upstaged for geriatric chic by the legendary Rene Lataserre, three decades after challenging for a European title on ITV, now wearing a black T-shirt under his famous velvet embroidered cloak. It makes him look like a skinny George Steele. 

Kauroff is still Kauroff just a bit chubbier He's got a slightly stroppy outfit which at the back looks like the defective Demolition costume they gave Bryan Adams to wear when he debut as Crush in 1990 with no metal ring, just cross crossing straps. Which leaves us with the baby, Steve Wright, still in his 40s, at this time (and the only one still alive in 2025.). His son, student and former tag partner Alex is one of the rising stars of WCW.  I think he's already been TV champion.  In his future Alex has a good long run as Cruiserweight champion and a week as WCW World Tag Team Champion with Disco Inferno.  He will also headline a 1997 WCW tour of Germany, teaming every night with Lex Luger in the main event to beat Harlem Heat.  So while the Kid is doing big things in American Major League Wrestling, here is Dad still looking quite spry as his boy becomes Germany's answer to Davey Boy.  Steve and the crowd were clearly very self conscious of this, there's a definite "Dad's Still Got It" vibe to his every action.

The bout doesn't actually start until nearly seven minutes in - first you have to sit through a bunch of "This Momentous 
Occasion" type speeches in German.  When it does start they have an electronic beeper instead of the bell. Kauroff throws Wright who can still take the throw and cartwheel back to rectitude.  And do his little bow. He dicks a clothesline and gets a flying tackle for 2. For reasons not made clear the action stops and restarts.  Kauroff gets a powerful top wristlock Wright uses referee Didier Gapp's shoulder to spin out and no, Didi is no more amused than he was in earlier years.  Didi spends plenty of time handing out yellow cards, not least to Otto who rushes the ring to rescue Wright. Das Wunderdad still has the moves, he can do his bouncing kip up, cartwheel back and do a high whip that forces big Klaus to take quite a hefty Bump. Wright also has a sharp forearm smash which he puts to formidable use against Rene. Sixteen years earlier this was the arrogant ring aristocrat fighting this young kid. Now it looks like a skinhead attacking a pensioner.

Otto and Rene do their best impersonation of Big Daddy and various British heels. Although generally Otto still prefers to use forearms instead of bodychecks like Shirley or indeed Schurli Blemenschutz, and still has his spinning splash finisher.  Unlike those two, Otto does sell, in the same embattled Dusty style as he did in the 80s.  Kauroff can still lbe very brutal with his Les Kellett kick to the back. Rene mostly takes old man bumps that make you feel sorry for him.

Kauroff scores a fall on Wright with a powerslam triggering a brutal brawl between Otto and Rene with Wanz looking psychotic as he chokes Lasaterre on the ropes and earns a second yellow card. Later Otto gives both villains a side chancery throw and squishes them each with his somersault splash, pinning Rene. This gives Wanz and Wright the match.  I guess that suddenly pause near the start was Otto and Steve scoring a quick opener which got cropped out badly.

If you're not nostalgic for the wrestling  of the German speaking world of the 79s and 80s then Wright is pretty much the saving grace here. Otherwise it's one big Teutonic Big Daddy Tag. Or more likely drawing on tag matches by the aforementioned Herr Blemenschutz.

 

[David Mantell]

This bout from the November 1996 Catch Cup at the Bremen Stadhalle looked interesting on paper, a meeting of two generations. Michael Kovacs, one of the young nineties generation of wrestlers in Austria/Germany in the wake of Steve Wright including Steve's son Alex as well as Ecki Eckstein, Franz Schumann, Ulf Hermann etc had come of age. On the other hand there was the old school characters like Bobby Gaetano, Axel Dieter Sr, Roland Bock etc. in Britain we knew Gaetano, French born, Germany based, best for being Marty Jones's final opponent in the World Mid Heavyweight title.

What I didn't know was that, like Jones, Gaetano had  gone heel himself. Here we get to 1996 and he's quite the little villain. Just like Jones himself, Gaetano was now walking down the shady side of the street He gets a hefty boo at the start and struts around while Kovacs is cheered.

Round 1: Kovacs easily forces Gaetano onto the ropes.  He takes Bobby's arm in a wristlock and Gaetano easily switches arms to reverse the lever. Kovacs rolls out of the lever.  Back and forth he rolls - and then high whips Gaetano for a somersault into a hard bump.  Kovacs legdrops and scissors the arm, twisting hard. He gets up, passes the arm high over his head and has the hold on the kneeling Gaetano.  Gaetano eventually corners and brutally throttles Kovacs until referee Didier Gapp stops him.  Gaetano snapmares Kovacs and tries to smother him by leaning forward so his breathing is impeded.  He gets Michael in  the side chancery, front underhook top wristlock and straight arm over shoulder throw, leaving Kovacs in an armlock in the guard.  Kovacs gets kneeling up right ready to roll out of the armbar. Instead Kovacs goes for a fireman's carry takedown into backdrop.  Next  Kovacs gets a side headlock into wristlever into hammerlock.  He tries for a folding press but the bell goes. During the break, the same music the Leeds Boys used for their ring entry is played.  I should know the tune but don't.

Round 2. Gaetano gets a side chancery hold releases and beats down on Kovacs.  He comes off the top rope with a flying stomp, jams a finger in Kovacs' eyes and chokes him on the top rope.  He releases and snapmares Kovacs who in return clotheslines Gaetano.  Gaetano leapfrogs and brags to the crowd how clever he has been to dodge the charge only for Kovacs  to dropkick him out of the ring. Michael then suplexes Bobby in and crosspresses him but gets no count from Didi for reasons unclear.  He gets a grovit, shoves his man down and stomps him with help from the top rope.  Gaetano kicks his man outside and raises his arms in victory.  Kovacs comes back and Gaetano tries to knock him off but gets shoulder blocked down.   He gets double legs and slingshots Gaetano out of the ring.  The bell goes, the KLF plays.

Round 3. Kovacs gets a side headlock into wristlever into drop toehold into Gotch Toehold but Gaetano grabs the ropes so Gapp orders a break. Gaetano gets a wristlever but Kovacs gets another drop toehold.  He tries the Scorpion Deathlock and the back bridging STF.  He gets no submission so releases. On both their knees, Gaetano headbutts Kovacs, smacks his head in the mat and chokes him on the bottom rope. He snapmares and smothers Kovacs and side Chancery throws him.  He chops and chokes Kovacs on the mat.  Kovacs chops  back, gets a dropkick and powerslam, a low flying dropkick and a small package for 2.  Kovacs gets double legs, teases stomping Gaetano's crotch then gets a scorpion Deathlock.  The bell goes.  Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top plays but no sign of Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin or Precious.  Kovacs is slow to release angering Gaetano who pounds him in the corner.

Round 4. Once the bell is gone, Gaetano resumes beating up Kovacs, getting a wristlock, slipping it overhead and posting  him to the opposite corner where he repeats the process.  He charges Kovacs in the corner who boots him down.. Kovacs clotheslines Gaetano, missile dropkicks him off the top turnbuckle and fisherman's suplexes him for the onecrequired fall. 

A slightly disappointing battle of the generations with Gaetano having gone dirty in his old age.