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. 

 

[David Mantell]

Cool Cat Jackson you all know about now, the Reslo identify of George Burgess whom Joint Promotions put on ITV as The Jamaica Kid in the Seventies and Jamaica George in the Eighties. Anaconda was a bit of a rent a heel sandbag for Big Daddy.  As well as having the misfortune to be teaming with Rasputin to lose to Big Daddy and Pat Patton in 1988, their performance was torn to shreds by legendary Wigan rippers Ernie (son of Billy) Riley and Tommy "Jack Dempsey" Moore in the First Tuesday docu on the Snakepit. Anaconda's other accomplishments in losing to Big Daddy includes singles match KO loss in the early 80s, a 1991 tag loss on Scottish TV a few months after this bout with the mauve Kamikaze to Daddy and Johnny Kidd and finally being in Giant Haystacks's corner for his famous 1981 Wembley loss to Daddy, standing next to Banger Walsh in identical Giant Haystacks t-shirts.

Clip is 5:31 and they lock up at 2:41 for a start. Or rather they lunge at each other then break off to circle and Anaconda shouts abuse in English at the German fans. The same again at 3:15. By 3:37 even the referee is fed up and gives Anaconda a warning for stalling. Things start going with Anaconda throwing George a couple of times for 6 or 7 counts anelbow for three and another for 7. Pretty soon Anaconda is stomping all over George like a kid on a sofa. MC is going ballistic but the ref just stands and watches. 30 secs of clip left. Ref orders him off finally, round bell goes, end of clip.  Perhaps we shall see the outcome some other sunny day.

[David Mantell]

On 11/3/2024 at 10:32 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

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. 

 

Already reviewed this one:

On 10/20/2024 at 1:38 PM, David Mantell said:

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.

Seems I was right OJ.  Okay I'll have another watch of it over dinner,

It's what Kent Walton called "A Great Fight" rather than " A Great Wrestling Match". What really does it down for me is the lack of chain wrestling spots, with the action just frozen in holds when they pop up from amidst the brawling. I know that was the indigenous German style - intensive struggle and sweat and drama over the mechanics of a hold -  but Steve Wright is the specific guy who revolutionised that and brought speed and chain wrestling sequences to Germany/Austria (Germans actually called technical work"British style" apparently). What he needs is someone who can reverse his holds and he does the same to them in all sorts of inventive ways.

A bout like this is like Bob Backlund defending his WWF title against monsters like Killer Khan, Jesse Ventura and Big John Studd - all big Monsters that should surely eat him for breakfast except that he could wrestle them in knots, all big drawing cards to make fans think tonight's the night Backlund faces his Howdy Doody Doom and pack out the venue.  But none of them any use for showing what a gifted skilled sportsman Backlund really was. I guess being brought up as an old time European fan rather than being an American fan, less responsive to storytelling than you OJ.

Still, this is 80s/90s CWA, the most American friendly old school Euro territory there was. It gets over on the summer festivities crowd, drunk on good German beer and good German sausage meat, but then they are just the German equivalent of little kiddies come to see Big Daddy effortlessly mow down the villains and make it look Easy, Easy.

[ohtani's jacket]

The problem is that Steve Wright never wrestled the way you describe. I can't think of any examples of Wright having a classic wrestling match in the CWA. At some point, his style evolved from the Wonder Kid style you see in World of Sport to the Bull Blitzer style that he used when he faced Marty in '86. Whether he's working heel or face, it's the Bull Blitzer stuff that you mostly see in these CWA matches with the occasional nod to his Wonder Kid past. Personally, I prefer his Bull Blitzer style work to the Wonder Kid stuff just like I prefer Terry Rudge to a stylist like Johnny Saint, but that's not really a preference for brawling over technical wrestling. I simply think Wright is better suited to being an asskicker than a stylist at that phase of his career. 

In the CWA, they had to work with whatever opponent they were booked against. I'm sure you'll agree that it was fairly random. Shiro Koshinka wasn't going to be doing European holds. Japanese matwork is fundamentally different from European matwork and II doubt they would have meshed well. They could have tried, but I doubt the results would have been noteworthy. Working heel is an easier option. A cheap option, perhaps, but you've seen the heat that Bull Power got. That heat is the end goal for most professional wrestlers. You can lament that it's not a technical wrestling match, or you can accept it for what it is and look for positives. Personally, I don't think you're going to find too many strong technical bouts from CWA -- certainly not that often and definitely not in full. The strength of the Koshinaka bout was a strong narrative and a great character performance from Wright, two things that were evident in the best World of Sport matches and are universal things not American things. It's the type of match that would have run in the Halls in England and would have garnered a positive reaction. TV being so sanitized often creates a false impression of what wrestling was really like in the Halls. 

I would take a great technical match over a brawl any day. I am not a particularly big fan of brawling. I would rather watch a lucha title match over an apuestas match, for example, but I like a good brawl when I see one. Backlund vs. Khan has potential on paper, but I believe it wasn't that well executed. I haven't gotten around to watching it yet. Again, not a match where you'd want to see them mat wrestle. Brawling was a huge part of Backlund's shtick, and he was pretty adept at it. 

[David Mantell]

On 8/19/2024 at 10:36 AM, David Mantell said:

Clean wrestling German style. Part of a January 1998 video release, about the best quality VdB production ever, reported lying marketed as a nostalgia "Wrestling How We Liked It" show.  I thought it got reviewed on the British thread but can't find it. I remember remarking on it highly resembling Joint Promotions TV footage 1985-1986 (I meant that as a compliment, OJ)

 They work the holds longer than in actual British wrestling and only Wright really uses kip ups and rollouts. Zrno somersaults backwards French style out of a loose hammerlock to convert it to a figure four top wristlock on the mat. Wright counters W ith a headscissors.Zrno flips out and after a round break they both go into folding press attempts. This leads into a test of strength which leads to bridges, trying to break them and more folding presses.

A female fan keeps shouting for Mile. At, one point male Northern English voice tells her to "shut up, woman." Wright is okay with it and leads the cheers for Zrno at one point. Apart from a brief exchange of forearms in the final seconds it stays scientific until the end. A nil nil draw.

Afterwards there is some sort of parade with all the wrestlers in the ring and the MC making a speech in German. They all leave the ring with medals round their necks.

Both these two wrestled for the CWA circa 1990, it's a pity they didn't have a match together then.

 

Steve Wright having a clean scientific/technical bout in Germany 

[David Mantell]

14 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

TV being so sanitized often creates a false impression of what wrestling was really like in the Halls. 

The only real difference was that when wrestlers did break the rules in Britain away from the ITV cameras, they pushed the boat out more for fouls and violence.,  Clean matches were much the same on Reslo, on Screensport and on the Pallos's 1981 tapes (and indeed om camcordings) as they were on World of Sport.  The difference was only in terms of what could be gotten away with in terms of dirty wrestling.

[David Mantell]

On 10/4/2024 at 2:15 AM, David Mantell said:

Three Brits and an honorary British Wrestler makes four. Heaps of technical skill in this one. I was really hopeful. What could go wrong? Answer: a comedy referee.

Didier "Didi" Gapp, who may be a familiar face to you from New Catch and I think one or two of the last Old Catch matches on FR3, was something of a cult figure to French and to some extent CWA fans who would chant Didi, Didi for him. (This was unusual for France where from the late 70s onwards except for Sheriff Roger Delaporte, referees were generally assumed to be dubious quasi Dangerous Danny Davis types.). Here, Gapp plays the role of a miserable "humourless" official, always tooting on his whistle and looking for ways to reprimand the boys until in the end they just get fed up and start winding him up.

This is a pity because when they do get down to business there is some really fantastic technical action particularly from Hart and Wright (now that would have been one heck of a World Mid Heavyweight Championship match!) Tony and Dave stick together and oOwen and Steve likewise, like a mixed gender tag match. StClair and Taylor do the heavyweight version of fast technical action and try not to allow their size to get in to way of some fine folding press attempts.

Unfortunately Didi runs around being the pesky jumped up petty official, even when there is good action going on. I guess he was more used to being the centre of attention back home in France. Eventually the four wrestlers get bored and start manhandling Gapp, doing the old The Ref Gets Pinned/Scores Pin  gag (a fave of husband and wife ref and wrestler Brian Dixon and Mitzi Mueller) who finally flips out and disqualifies everybody.

To be fair the four boys seem to have had fun conducting the audience in the extended singalong (Owen especially seems to get a certain dumb core amusement from this.) If only the referee in this was someone like Jeff Kaye, this could have been The Royals versus the Saints 19 years on (spot the common denominator, Tony.). As it is, one can look at the good bits and ponder what might have been.

 

This also shows Steve's technical skills well despite Didier Gapp and his unfunny upstaging antics.

[David Mantell]

On 10/7/2024 at 9:22 PM, David Mantell said:

... Didier Gapp in the tag match constantly trying to be the "humourless" jumped-up petty official and grab all the attention with his antics to the point where he was the de facto heel in the match.

... shades of Bill Alfonso on his arrival in ECW as "troubleshooting" referee on a one man mission to restore order to the "outlaw" league?

[David Mantell]

On 8/30/2024 at 10:52 AM, David Mantell said:

 

On 8/30/2024 at 10:52 AM, David Mantell said:

Steve Wright vs. Maske USA/Catcher in the Mask (Bamberg 4/3/83?)

 

I don't know which name Maske went by, but it was Dave Morgan under the mask. Morgan was a solid Brit worker who spend most of his time overseas. We have footage of him from Germany, Austria and South Africa and possibly Canada. This was a decent Steve Wright showcase match with some cool Euro matwork in the early rounds. It descends into a niggly brawl with Wright getting too many payback spots for the level of niggle Morgan inflicted and shows the weakness in Wright's ability to structure matches, but if you like Wright it's worth watching.

@sergeiSem has it down as 3rd April, not 4th March. I've posted this occasionally as an example of what VDB was like as opposed to iBV/CWA but not really reviewed it. Unfortunately the audio is badly out of sync by about a minutr 

Definitely those early rounds show off what Wright could do and Morgan also (plenty of neat spring ups including out of headscissors.) At one point the referee trips up over the two competitors and gets rolled over by them as they struggle over a chin lock.

Things go sour when Morgan offers his hand as he did at the start but this time suckers Wright in for some forearm smashes and a lot of rope related fouling. Consequently there is a lot of Wright fighting fire with fire and the referee going a bit far with the "allowing for retaliation" as Kent Walton would say. One good bit where Wright catapults Morgan over the ropes to ringside. Most of it is Steve just lowering himself to the masked villains's level.

In Britain many blue eye Vs heel matchups were structured like this. A clean first half and dirty second half. Kendo Nagasaki did this a lot with skill opponents in the 60s/70s.

The early rounds of this before the Masked Morgan starts wrestling dirty are another good example of what Wright could do.