German catch

[David Mantell]

On 10/20/2024 at 10:46 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

Fit Finlay vs. Otto Wanz (8/10/90)

After watching Vader slug it out with Otto, I was interested to see what approach Finlay would take. It was more of a standard heel performance from Finlay. He bumped and sold for Otto in the beginning before chipping away at his legs and working him on the ground for a while. Nothing great. The finish was some BS with the heel ref whose name escapes me. Man, Finlay vs. Bull Power would have been interesting, especially if Vader threw a stray punch or two. 

Finlay has a feud with Big Daddy in 1986 so no surprise that he can bump around and make Big Otto look good.

What's the story with Otto's ring gear?  It makes him look like a sailor! Or at any rate an obese showgirl doing a Sailor Girl routine.  I've heard of "fat old men in swimming trunks" but Otto looks like a fat old woman at poolside in a holiday resort in the Mediterranean.

Just to make things even weirder, so if the other videos of that day's action have a colour signal fault so Otto's "sailor girl" outfit looks Lavender!  (It also makes people look green like the Incredible Hulk.)

 

[David Mantell]

Each man has a wrestler seconding them - Shiro has a young Akira Nogami (a blue-eye in England) Wright has Tony StClair in a stripy pair of sweatpants(possibly in tribute to former CWAer Ed Brutus Beefcake Leslie who would have been beating and shaving Curt Hennig at Summerslam 90, 7 days after this show had not a female parasailor condemned Hennig to have long blond Goldilocks for the rest of his life.  Union Flag is flying edgeways on during the National Anthem. Crowd is chanting for Mile (Zrno) for no good reason. (Or is it "StevEN" ?)

I was expecting a technical bout but after one armlock, Shiro goes to work with dirty wrestling. (Funny how the Japanese are always heels in Germany - they were allies in WW2).  Stomps Wright in the corner while using the rope for leverage and choking..  in round 2 Wright eventually gets a monkey flip and Shiro gets a leglock which becomes a Boston crab Wright brawls in retaliation but is kicked to the mat again by Shiro. Shiro gets an American figure 4'leglock on.  various leglocks and headlocks on the mat. Shiro shoves Wright out of the ring. Back to brawling.(Apart from one Wright sunset flip attemptand one flying tackle pin attempt.).   Down on the mat things start to get technical at last with a Shiro front chancery into Wright armbar. Bell goes just as Wright is trying to turn  Shiro over. 

New round starts with armbar into cross press attempts by Wright.  Shiro tries for his first scientific move, a flying headscissor, but Wright throws him off. Wright backside for a 2 count.  And back to brawling for the rest of the round.. Shiro gets a GREAT backdrop but follows down too late with a pin cover so the ref won't count it.  One long headlock on the mat alternating with brawling.  Shiro nearly gets a backslide pin.  Shiro kicks Wright out of the ring, Tony towels him down and sends him on his way.  Shiro's turn to get thrown out of the ring. Steve gets an Ivan Koloff kneedrop and two legdrops, More brawling, Wright tries for 2 further nelson pins.  Shiro piledriver for 2 count. Wright dropkick nearly gets a KO.  Shiro is begging for mercy.  Wright finally gets a pin with superplex off the corner. StClair comes in to congratulate him.  Gets presented with his belt back and bouquets, poses for photos with the ref and another official. Shiro and Nogami reappear.  After refusing, Shiro grudgingly shakes Wright's hand - did they have blackmail material on him? Wright wraps Union Jack.  A young Alex Wright in double denim comes in to give dad a hug.

Disappointing.  I thought I would get a scientific match, I mostly got a brawl.  OJ will probably like it though.

 

 

 

[David Mantell]

Most of the first several minutes of this are taken up by a long boring speech in German as all eight participants get introduced.  Steve Casey is Steve McHoy, son of Wild Angus, for more details see the British thread. Cool Cat Jackson, real name George Burgess, recently passed away.  In the 70s he was called the Jamaica Kid, was KO'd in round 2 of his 1975 TV debut by Kendo Nagasaki (taped at the same taping as George Kidd v Jack Mulligan ), then in Feb 1976 he was brutally squashed by heel Big Daddy who was made to do this by backstage powers intent on sabotaging Daddy's face turn.  By the late 80s he was back on TV as Jamaica George on Joint shows. By the early 90s he was CCJ on Reslo. Hansi Rooks we met earlier in this thread fighting King Kong Kirk in 1985 and in a 1971 B/W film clip. The guy with the sunglasses looks suspiciously like the guy who was Gabby Laillee's boyfriend from Czechoslovakia on that March 1987 episode of Old Catch on FR3, the one who formed a babyface alliance with Flesh Gordon at the end of the episode.

They play Entry of the Gladiators (or as everyone in Britain knows it, the Clowns Song). and parade round the ring. Finally six minutes in, we get the match. Not sure who Billy Joe is,(possibly Crazy Dave Adams) but he knows his technical moves and he and Jackson have a decent Heavyweights Who Can Move British match. Camera zooms in on  Jackson during the break between rounds. Crowd are mostly on Jackson's side after Brannigan does too many attacks on the mat but mostly they just clap and applaud fair play on both sides. Brannigan gives Jackson a shove after the bell of round 2. Didier Gapp counts Knockouts in French and the MC translates.  Crowd finally gives heat when Brannigan runs Jackson's face along the ropes. Referee Gapp gets into shoving match with Brannigan then pulls back to outside the ring to allow Jackson to take over. Unfortunately the tape cuts out at that point- any chance of a follow up clip sign squad?

 

 

[David Mantell]

Otto Wanz and Rambo on a news magazine show cutting promos on each other while Colonel Brody stands in the background minding his own business. Rambo's promo is in English with a Quebec accent.

[David Mantell]

Unknown date tournament match in a tent., crowd is deceptively large, wait until the camera pulls away from the ring. Helmut is a local heel, I thought I'd already posted one of his bouts but can't find it. Glaser is babyface and "American" and certainly wrestles like it.  Not very remarkable heel Vs blue-eye match with the heel screwing a victory.

 

[TheDuke]

15 hours ago, David Mantell said:

 

They play Entry of the Gladiators (or as everyone in Britain knows it, the Clowns Song). 

 

 

Or as Homer Simpson knows it, the ballet. 

https://youtu.be/-n9Q5yCocTw?t=22&si=6vVmSigoGFb82Gzq

[David Mantell]

On 10/15/2024 at 7:23 PM, David Mantell said:

Was there ever an actual German/Austrian wrestling TV Show pre-1990s or was it all just little features here and there and even they got banned?

 

On 10/15/2024 at 11:51 PM, Jetlag said:

No there wasn't. Though some German/Austrian footage was occasionally shown on Catch Up, a show that started around the late 80s and mainly showed NWA stuff from the US. One of the hosts of that show, Horst Brack, even had a mini-feud going on with Rene Lasartesse, culminating in the following:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTCBUfW9IZg

 

 

On 10/16/2024 at 8:15 PM, David Mantell said:

Fixed your tech probs there, Jetlag

Yeah, Catch Up was the show I had in mind when I said "pre 90s". Just turns out it started a little bit earlier than I thought. A contemporary of New Catch and mid period Reslo.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_Up

Found this and have linked it to the CWA page on English Wikipedia.

[Robert S]

On 10/20/2024 at 10:52 PM, David Mantell said:

Otto Wanz and Rambo on a news magazine show cutting promos on each other while Colonel Brody stands in the background minding his own business. Rambo's promo is in English with a Quebec accent.

Wanz got a good laugh out of me calling Rambo a "McDonalds athlete" and having "McDonalds and hamburger muscles" (I guess that was the only comeback he could come up after the ice cream and Schnitzel remarks by Rambo). I doubt this aired on any TV (the interviewer is clearly Austrian (he has a clear accent) so you would expect the watermark of the Austrian broadcasting corporation ORF which is not there), this looks more like something CWA produced themselves and sent to the ORF with the hope that they air it as a time filler.

Wanz always running around with the tobacco brand on his shirts & gear somehow makes me chuckle as well ("Milde Sorte" was an Austrian tobacco brand), mostly because tobacco ads are forbidden now for 20 years or so.

[David Mantell]

3 hours ago, Robert S said:

Wanz got a good laugh out of me calling Rambo a "McDonalds athlete" and having "McDonalds and hamburger muscles" (I guess that was the only comeback he could come up after the ice cream and Schnitzel remarks by Rambo). I doubt this aired on any TV (the interviewer is clearly Austrian (he has a clear accent) so you would expect the watermark of the Austrian broadcasting corporation ORF which is not there), this looks more like something CWA produced themselves and sent to the ORF with the hope that they air it as a time filler.

Wanz always running around with the tobacco brand on his shirts & gear somehow makes me chuckle as well ("Milde Sorte" was an Austrian tobacco brand), mostly because tobacco ads are forbidden now for 20 years or so.

Are you in the video?

Why was Colonel Brody standing around in the background?

It's funny, I just thought "Milde Sorte" meant what it looks like it means in English, that Otto was a mild sort of guy! An ironic way for a big bull of a man like Otto to describe himself!

Brody and Regal did a face to face promo once for a 1991 German tournament match. Both the match and the promo got re-scrreened on New Catch.  Brody made mention of the true story of how Regal got his foot in the door of the business by taking on Brody (then still Magnificent Maurice) in Bobby Baron's carny shoot challenge booth in the Horseshoe Ballroom at Blackpool Pleasure Beach (where Regal himself later became a carny shooter). "He had a big mouth at the beginning of his career," Brody told the camera, "but tonight his career is FINISHED." Regal was kayfabe- angered by that.

[David Mantell]

On 10/20/2024 at 9:49 PM, David Mantell said:

Most of the first several minutes of this are taken up by a long boring speech in German as all eight participants get introduced.  Steve Casey is Steve McHoy, son of Wild Angus, for more details see the British thread. Cool Cat Jackson, real name George Burgess, recently passed away.  In the 70s he was called the Jamaica Kid, was KO'd in round 2 of his 1975 TV debut by Kendo Nagasaki (taped at the same taping as George Kidd v Jack Mulligan ), then in Feb 1976 he was brutally squashed by heel Big Daddy who was made to do this by backstage powers intent on sabotaging Daddy's face turn.  By the late 80s he was back on TV as Jamaica George on Joint shows. By the early 90s he was CCJ on Reslo. Hansi Rooks we met earlier in this thread fighting King Kong Kirk in 1985 and in a 1971 B/W film clip. The guy with the sunglasses looks suspiciously like the guy who was Gabby Laillee's boyfriend from Czechoslovakia on that March 1987 episode of Old Catch on FR3, the one who formed a babyface alliance with Flesh Gordon at the end of the episode.

They play Entry of the Gladiators (or as everyone in Britain knows it, the Clowns Song). and parade round the ring. Finally six minutes in, we get the match. Not sure who Billy Joe is,(possibly Crazy Dave Adams) but he knows his technical moves and he and Jackson have a decent Heavyweights Who Can Move British match. Camera zooms in on  Jackson during the break between rounds. Crowd are mostly on Jackson's side after Brannigan does too many attacks on the mat but mostly they just clap and applaud fair play on both sides. Brannigan gives Jackson a shove after the bell of round 2. Didier Gapp counts Knockouts in French and the MC translates.  Crowd finally gives heat when Brannigan runs Jackson's face along the ropes. Referee Gapp gets into shoving match with Brannigan then pulls back to outside the ring to allow Jackson to take over. Unfortunately the tape cuts out at that point- any chance of a follow up clip sign squad?

 

 

Update - Signsquad has posted a video of CCJ versus Ulf Herman so presumably Cool Cat (George) won the above match and went on to face Ulf in the next round.

[David Mantell]

On 10/21/2024 at 4:13 PM, David Mantell said:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_Up

Found this and have linked it to the CWA page on English Wikipedia.

German Wikipedia is pretty impressive for wrestler info:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kategorie:Wrestler_(Deutschland)

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kategorie:Wrestler_(Österreich)

[David Mantell]

On 10/21/2024 at 10:51 PM, David Mantell said:

Brody and Regal did a face to face promo once for a 1991 German tournament match. Both the match and the promo got re-scrreened on New Catch.  Brody made mention of the true story of how Regal got his foot in the door of the business by taking on Brody (then still Magnificent Maurice) in Bobby Baron's carny shoot challenge booth in the Horseshoe Ballroom at Blackpool Pleasure Beach (where Regal himself later became a carny shooter). "He had a big mouth at the beginning of his career," Brody told the camera, "but tonight his career is FINISHED." Regal was kayfabe- angered by that.

Here is the match and the promo in question:

 

[David Mantell]

On 9/18/2024 at 4:07 AM, David Mantell said:

 

Quote

Fit Finlay vs. Mile Zrno (Eurosport circa 1990)

This was on YouTube already with German commentary. Some people say it's from the 12/22/89 Bremen show, but I can't really confirm that. What's more important is that it's really good. Easily one of the better Finlay matches of the era. He even does a significant amount of matwork, something he'd shred his act of during the Paula years. Zrno is a tre-mendous worker (you'll get the reference if you listen to Williams' commentary.) I really need to watch all the Zrno I can find. There's not enough pimping of Croatian wrestlers. Germany seems like the ticket back to respectability for Dave Finlay.

I've discussed this before on the French thread due to Orig's claim on the English commentary that Zrno's trainer was Charley Verhulst. Finlay had been pushed by Joint as a Bully heel partly to lead to his 1986 FA CAup Final tag confrontation with Big Daddy, partly to sow the seed  of one of his victims Dany Collins eventually taking a title from Finlay (in 1989, too late for ITV.

Yes there is plenty of mat wrestling although it's not chain sequences (check the 1982 Finlay Vs Davey Boy match for that), it's more horizontal top wristlocks down on the mat and Zrno bridging out. Finlay does get some nice legdives and well applied leglocks and toe holds from nowhere, as well as one rollout..  Finlay gets a double wristlock and Zrno lifts him in it into a fireman's carry takedown. Zrno topes and monkey climbs Finlay.  Paula as much of a heat machine in Germany as back home. Here on CWA Video as on Reslo she is able to do her husband slapping faux-botch (banned on ITV.) Like how Finlay strikes a pose as Paula fans him down with the towel Olympic style.

Finlay comes to the ring to Belfast by Boney M. Later during a round break Everything Counts by Depeche Mode is played.

End comes when Zrno misses a cross body off the top rope and Finlay gets a face first piledriver for the pin.

As on the French thread, here is a version with English commentary by Orig Williams:

Apart from the claim that Charley Verhulst trained Zrno, there is the classic lineup to look out for - "WE KNOW THIS MAN AND WE KNOW HIS WIFE!!!"

 

[David Mantell]

From Orig Williams' BWF official magazine Main Event Wrestling, 1990

[David Mantell]

Paul Neu from the same magazine, a year before he took up rapping in WCW (yo baby yo baby yo). Signed for me by nice guy Mr Neu at an All Star show in Bedworth England in the early 2010s, where he was working as American Avalanche, teaming with Joe E Legend and Brody Steele whom I saw last night in Dudley.

[David Mantell]

Drew is moving into his Ultimate Chippendale phase with hair grown back and no sign of Doctor Monika.  No idea who Brian Walsh is, presumably another Brit who came over on the North Sea ferry. Show is set inside an ice rink set up for a dinner party, as Drew comes to the ring the camera fails to track him but instead focuses on a fat middle aged woman with a dangly earring.

Match is mostly slow and power based, lots of selling of holds, which seems to be what Germans went for traditional, rather than speedy reversals. Mostly Drew in charge although Walsh does get his shots in. Drew attacks Walsh between rounds and gets a public warning for his pains.  Walsh ends up staggering around at ringside for a bit.  He comes back on fire for a bit until a posting cuts him short. They are both knocked down but McDonald is up at about 3 or 4 whereas Walsh stays down for 9 and then is picked off by Drew with a slam and cross press   @PeteF3 - another example of one of those finishes we talked about, blue eye narrowly survives a knockout but gets picked off for a pin.

 

[ohtani's jacket]

Shiro Koshinaka vs. Steve Wright (8/20/90)

I thought this was an excellent match. I am a long time hater of Shiro Koshinaka, but this match and his excellent apuestas bout with Satanico have convinced me that he was one of the better touring Japanese workers of his era. He basically worked as a heel here, but it created a platform for Wright to work a hugely compelling performance from underneath. You won't find many better Wright performances than this. You can find matches with great brawling or exhibition style Euro work, but very few matches with a compelling narrative. There isn't a ton of matwork, but what matwork there is comes across as a  do or die struggle. I wouldn't have expected a match with Koshinaka in it to be one of the better German catch bouts from the early 90s, but it makes sense given the makeup of competitors in these tent shows.