German catch

[Robert S]

11 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

(...)

This is listed as  a "Entscheidungskampf", which as best I can tell is some kind of decision match. I'm not sure if this is the "final" of the tournament or not.

(...)

It might translate to "tournament final" but more likely it means "blow-off match" or something similar. Probably, each won one match within the tournament and the third match was about who the real better wrestler was, i.e. a rubber match.

[ohtani's jacket]

Rene Lasartesse vs. Dave Taylor (Piratenkampf, Hamburg 1987)

This wasn't the best Piratenkampf match and it wasn't the worst. You could probably make an argument for Taylor being better at Piratenkampf matches than regular matches, which is peculiar. You'd think it would be the opposite. This had more heat mongering than violence, but it was perfectly ok. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Tony St. Clair vs. Dave Taylor (Wien '90)

What was with Dave Taylor and the tassels around his arms? I think it was related to a gimmick he had in Reslo. It's weird and does nothing for him. Speaking of doing nothing for him, Tony St. Clair had a sickening mullet in 1990. Just ghastly. If you were hoping to see Taylor and St. Clair carry on the proud tradition of British heavyweight wrestling, you'll be sorely disappointed. This was a comedy match without any laughs. The ref in Wien gets involved too much. It's the same thing in every match. And that damn whistle.

Tony St. Clair vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (Graz '95)

This was better than expected. Our boy St. Clair could wrestle. He does some nice defensive work in this match against Takayama.

Tony St. Clair vs. Fit Finlay (Boxing match, Bremen '96)
Tony St. Clair vs. Fit Finlay (Chain match, Bremen '96)

Weak, half-arsed gimmick matches. This was 1996, the same year Finlay had his amazing feud with Steve Regal. How can these be so bad? Am I the only one who watches bad Finlay matches? Or am I the only one who thinks these are shite?

[ohtani's jacket]

Tony St. Clair vs. Fit Finlay (Hannover, 9/9/91)
Tony St. Clair vs. FIt Finlay (Street FIght, Hannover, 9/11/91)

Now these were MUCH BETTER. You want to watch these if you're a Finlay fan. The first match sets up the Street Fight, and the Street Fight is great. The best thing about it is that they only use a few props, but they use them to maximum effect. The rest of the match is a straight brawl. Both guys bleed. Finlay bumps like he did in his youth. The ending could have been better, but it hardly mattered. One of the better Finlay matches I've seen between '86 and the feud with Regal in '96. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Osamu Nishimura vs. Michel Kovac (Wien '97)

Nishimura in catch seems like a dream come true. We just need to find a better opponent than Kovac.

Fit Finlay vs. Steve Casey (Hannover '94)

Look, it's Finlay against Wild Angus' boy. I always had a soft spot for Casey and I loved the way he kicked the shit out of Finlay in this match. It's kind of rare that you see a wrestler use their size advantage with their legs instead of their reach. I didn't have huge expectations for this but it ended up being a cool bout.

Fit Finlay vs. Tony St. Clair (Graz '86)

This was clipped, but it's professionally shot so worth checking out. They're so young. 

Fit Finlay vs. Tony St Clair (Wien '91)

This is decent by Wien standards, but nothing essential. 

Fit Finlay vs. Dave Taylor (Hannover '91)

Man, Hannover is a hell of a wrestling town. Don't let 'em tell you that Dave Taylor was never over anywhere because they loved him in Hannover. This took a while to get going because they were playing off the crowd heat, but it got good in a hurry. I guess everyone has an expectation of what a Finlay vs. Taylor match should look like, but they were adlibbing nightly in front of paying crowds, so you kind of have to remind yourself that it's a house show and not your own personal dream Finlay vs. Taylor match. Fun match. And Hannover, hell of a town. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Fit Finlay vs. Steve Wright (Wien '91)

Steve Wright matches are always a bit disappointing to me. He's one of those guys who has a false rep for being a super worker when, in reality, his matches rarely meet my expectations. This one showed his fighting side, and it looked like he had the potential to have a really good fight with someone, but I doubt that he ever did. Maybe I'll turn the corner on him some day. I'm starting to turn the corner on my idea that Finlay was poor between '86 and '96. 

Fit Finlay & Hiro Yamamoto vs. Steve Wright & Alex Wright (Wien '93)

The Wrights' entrance is lame. They deserve to be beat on for that. Fit Finlay vs. Alex Wright, what a wrestling education that is for the wonder kid. If you've never seen a young Tenzan before, he looks a bit like Tajiri. He doesn't do much, but that's okay because this is mostly about Finlay vs. the Wrights. Steve Wright is like a house on fire. I could dig this Steve Wright. I guess you need to mess with his kid to get him all fired up. 

Fit Finlay vs. Alex Wright (Wien '93)

Steve is at ringside for this. This was the best beat down since Dibiase and Virgil. Steve got involved just like Piper, and of course he got beat down too. I hope there's more of this. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Fit Finlay vs. Chris Benoit (Wien '91)

FInlay vs. Benoit, this has to be good right? There's no comedy, I can tell you that much. They beat the shit out of each other in the Finlay vs. Benoit tradition. I'm not sure if people are interested in this match up anymore, but it was a decent match.

Fit Finlay vs. Franz Schumann (Street Fight, Wien '93)

Both guys came to the ring in white t-shirts and jeans with taped fists. They both bladed but not enough to ruin those white tees. Another decent match from what seems like a pretty good run for Finlay in Wien that year. 

Fit Finlay vs. Franz Schumann (Chain Fight, Wien '94)

I thought this was a boring and uninteresting fight, but the camera angle gives us a good look at what the outdoor Wien venue looked like. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Fit Finlay vs. Chris Benoit (Wien '91)

It's Benoit vs. Finlay in Wien again. No major revelations here. You know what I would have liked to have seen? A Finlay vs. Dynamite Kid series. That would have been amazing. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Fit Finlay vs. Chris Benoit (Street Fight, Wien '91)

The Wien trilogy is complete. This was more of the same from Benoit and Finlay. Both guys bladed but a lot of the action happened on the far side of the ring so we missed out on the more compelling stuff. 

[ohtani's jacket]

FIt Finlay vs. Owen Hart (Wien '90)

Neither good nor interesting. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Dave Taylor vs. Owen Hart (Wien '90)

This was better than the Finlay match largely because it was Owen working an Owen Hart touring match instead of a Fit Finlay brawl. Owen Hart touring matches aren't really my thing right now, but it's not every day you see Owen wrestle Dave Taylor. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Franz Schumann vs. Jushin Thunder Liger (Bremen, 12/19/92)

I'd never bothered to watch this before. This was from some kind of Japanese tape and had Liger and another guy doing commentary over it. Heavily clipped with a lot of the focus on Liger. I wouldn't mind seeing the full match since it looked like one of Schumann's better bouts. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Fit Finlay vs. Jushin Thunder Liger (Bremen '93)

I didn't realize until recently that this match took place in Bremen. It's a fancam, so the camera angle isn't great, but it's a pretty good walk through of a Liger vs. Finlay bout. It doesn't resemble Catch whatsoever. It's basically a Liger tour match. You wouldn't put it on either man's resume, but that's a compliment in a way. I usually dislike fish out of water matches, but thid wasn't bad at all. 

Fit Finlay vs. Steve Casey (Wien '94)

These guys are on my must-see list after their last match. I think Casey is still doing the Lord gimmick here, but he looks like a Chippendale's stripper. Finlay is wearing yellow, which doesn't sit well with me. This is one of those bouts where nothing happens. I mean, stuff happens, but nothing really happens. I wonder if wrestlers can explain why nights like these happen. Casey doesn't start wrestling the way I want him to until the finish. Finlay has another off night. And I do mean another. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Fit Finlay vs. Franz Schumann (Wien '91)

I liked this a lot. The secret to this match was that both refs stayed on the outside so it was straight asskickery. Some great selling too. The crowd hated Finlay's guts and kept taunting him throughout. Awesome finish as well. Another one in the good pile. 

[Britwresdvds]

On 7/26/2020 at 2:20 PM, ohtani's jacket said:

You know what I would have liked to have seen? A Finlay vs. Dynamite Kid series. That would have been amazing. 

I realise I'm late to the party here.

They did actually have a run together - pretty sure it was 1993. I saw it live at my local hall in Leamington Spa.

Dynamite, of course, was a shadow of his former self by that point though.

Sadly, I've never seen any footage around anywhere.

[ohtani's jacket]

Fit Finlay vs. Alex Wright (Wein '94)

This was a year removed from their other Wein matches. Wright has grown as a wrestler and gets the better of Finlay during the early exchanges. Finlay takes over and does his thing, but it's aborted due to a run-in from Schumann. I was hoping for something better. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Fit Finlay vs. Steve Casey (Wien '94)

This was a return bout from the week before. I don't remember too much about the first bout, but I didn't care for it much based on my comments above. The problem with these bouts is that they're mostly shitty house show matches. Casey is an interesting match-up for Finlay, but it's hardly a surprise that they're half-assing it on a house show. I didn't hate this, but they only really engaged in serious brawling a few times. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Vader vs. Tatsumi Fujinami (CWA Bremen 12/21/1991)

Usually, I wouldn't care about a transplanted match like this, but Fujinami is a rare case of a Japanese wrestler who was great the world over and CWA Vader is just about my favorite Vader. This wasn't a great Catch match, but it was a decent Fujinami/Vader house show match. I was disappointed that they didn't use the rounds system since Vader's style lends itself perfectly to rounds, but I was happy enough with the strike exchanges. The finish was dumb, but I guess they wanted to cook up a schmoz. I just don't see a beast like Vader needing to surprise anybody with a flash pin. I guess pulverizing Fujinami into submission was off the cards. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Fit Finlay vs. Eddie Gilbert (Bremen 12/19/92)

Eddie Gilbert, what is your Southern style ass doing in Germany in 1992? This didn't resemble Catch at all. It was a pretty great fight, though. It was one of those matches were they stall at a lot at the beginning then go hell for leather when it's too late and time is running out. I would have preferred a bit more back and forward action, but Finlay was a bit of a staller in his own right. Some really nice exchanges when they do hook up. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Fit Finlay vs. 2 Cold Scorpio '(Bremen 11/27/94)

This felt like a transplanted New Japan juniors match, but I guess that was the way European wrestling was heading in the early 90s. Finlay took too much of the match, which is prone to do at times. The German crowd popped for Scorpio's dives, which was the coolest thing about the match. We all know Scorpio through tape trading and what not, but hearing the reaction for him from a live crowd in Germany in '94 was cool. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Chain Match: Finlay vs. Schuhmann (CWA WIEN'97)

I felt like watching some Finlay after listening to Regal's podcast. This was from right near the end of Finlay's time in the CWA. He had shaved off his moustache and was letting his grey hair show. He lost some of his aura when he shaved the mo. He looked like such an asshole with that stache. Schuhmann looks unrecognizable without his mullet. The match is okay. They couldn't go the whole hog with the chain presumably because of the cameras. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Fit Finlay vs. Tony St. Clair (8/13/94)

This was surprisingly good. It was a British Commonwealth title match, but instead of going ten, twelve rounds, as it may have done in the UK, they worked a tight 15 minute Tony St. Clair vs .Fit Finlay match. The kind of match they could have worked anywhere in the world in '94. It had a very 90s international wrestling feel to it (as opposed to a Catch feel.) The crowd really enjoyed it and were right behind St. Clair. What an interesting career Tony St. Clair had. Watching him from the late 70s, you'd never have guessed how he'd stretch his career out and the places he'd end up wrestling. I wonder why he never ended up following Taylor and Finlay to WCW. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Fit Finlay vs Tony St. Clair (11/12/94)

This was a fairly typical Finlay match from this era. A lot of whistleblowing, warnings, and boos from the crowd. Finlay is an excellent agitator, but it grows a bit wearisome after a while. I can understand why Finlay cultivated this heel act, and he had a lot of success with it, but a little bit of wrestling wouldn't go astray. I did like his promo afterward. Finlay has some underrated mic skills. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Finlay vs. St. Clair (CWA Bremen´94 - Chain match)

This was okay, but you don't get the violence that you want from a chain match. It's closer to a WWE cage match than those gruesome 80s German handhelds. I guess the CWA wasn't a very violent promotion, but I can't imagine too many people watching this and not wishing that Finlay had used the chain a bit more. 

[ohtani's jacket]

1994/11/25 - Fit Finlay vs Tony St. Clair (Cage Match) (CWA)

This was more like a fence around the ring than a cage, but it was actually one of the better Finlay vs. St. Clair brawls. They got to move about around a bit more instead of being restricted by a chain and it was more interesting to watch from the perspective of a German fan in the crowd. 

1994/12/07 - Fit Finlay vs Tony St. Clair (Chain Match) (CWA)

This was a second chain match during the same Bremen season. It's a shame the chain matches from this era aren't more violent. It's such a promising sounding gimmick on paper then it ends up being fairly tame.