German catch

[David Mantell]

  On 4/4/2025 at 2:25 AM, David Mantell said:

Something we don't know much about is the content of the earlier home video releases and when/how often they came out.  I'm sure the earliest Otto tape must have contained a lot more than just 12 mins of the Otto/DLJ match.  Were the professionally shot matches complied together into Otto's Greatest Hits Pt 1, 2, 3 etc or were they tapes of full shows including the undercards?

It seems extraordinary that they filmed Otto Vs Strongbow in .July 1979 four a home video market that must have scarcely existed.  The promotion having the foresight to film the match ready for a few years later when there was a VHS Aor Betamax machine in nearly every home in the Western World?

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Off Topic I admit but this gives you some idea of the Home Video market in 1980 at the time of the Otto Vs Don Leo bout and gives you scope to consider what motivated the German promoters to take the professional decision of taping these bouts in anticipation of home video releases.

 

[PeteF3]

We've got another discrepancy on that show--the results sites have it as Wolfgang Saturski vs. Klaus Kauroff, but that's definitely not Kauroff and I couldn't recognize him or make out the name.

[David Mantell]

Back on top and a good technical bout from the 80s that doesn't seem to have been reviewed on here in the past. Suffice to say it's two Brits at it, plus a third one as ref:

Tony StClair comes to the ring to Eye of the Tiger a song which not even Jerry McDevitt could save for the WWF to use for Hulk Hogan.

They shake hands with each other - and each with referee and old UK blue eye chump of both Mick McMichael which amuses the crowd. After briefly going into the ropes and getting broken, StClair gets a rear waistlock transitioning into a wristlever which Wright positions himself to counter with a cartwheel into a snapmare, but Tony keeps the wrist and stands up with Steve on the mat. Steve kips up and slides backwards through Tony's legs dragging the wristlever and the rest of Tony through with him but Tony flips over nicely to keep the wristlever from a sitting position.  Steve stands up then goes into a handstand then a couple of his trademark bounce back and forth abortive kip ups before jumping from a kip up into executing a monkey climb on Tony - who still keeps the wrist with Wright still on the floor! What else can Tony withstand to keep a hold?  For his next (attempt at a) trick Wright standing forward rolls then brings his foot down on the wristlock to chop it open a la Steve Grey, then cements his escape with a cross buttock- not following down for fear of Tony taking the wrist again but standing back and getting a four count. (Interesting camera cut to another handheld hardcam further up in the stands using a zooming crossfade.) Tony quickly gets the wrist again and this   time develops it into a standing side hammerlock, riding Wright to the mat.  Steve uses his (W)right leg to turn himself this way and that back into the standing position before throwing StClair off and over the ropes (Some young kids at the time like Fuji Yamada and Danny Collins would follow up with a sliding dropkick- these days it is pretty much standard all over the world.)  Tony gets back in and Steve forms a George Kidd/Johnny Saint ball. After rolling him around. St.Clair teases karate chopping his grouned opponent, getting a sharp response from both the MC "NIEN" and McMichael raising a threatening finger. But Tony is only kidding, he pats Steve who unrolls and gets up. Wright gets a headlock into front chancery (cut to the closer hardcam). Tony pulls off Wright's left arm and goes for a jerking whip but Wright flips out of it beautifully, going over on both hands to a standing start.  Tony gets an armlock takedown into a headscissors plus wristlever for good measure. Wright snaps the wristlock open but Tony easily retakes it. So Wright bridges in the headscissors, kips up in a snapout escapes and runs round but is pulled back into range by Tony b and the headscissors reapplied and improved into a figure 4 headscissor.  But this time he doesn't have the wrist (Steve firmly kicked it open this time) so when Steve snaps and kip ups out, he is free. They go for a finger Interlock but Tony rolls backwards but instead on a flip or a monkey climb, he double ankles Wright.  Tony throws Wright but he comes back off the ropes with a flying tackle for a 1 count. Round break. Shake hands.  Some German equivalent of Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark is playing. 

Round 2.  Wright with a single leg takedown. More teasing from St.Clair as he pokes around with the other leg, going between Steve's thighs and looks like he's going for a crotch shot which provokes another sharp "NEIN" from the MC. Only kidding. StClair puts the free leg in with the locked leg for a handstanding throw (not a toupee as he is not using his head as fulcrum) but Steve cartwheels to a standing start. He shakes Tony's hand but Tony tries for a crafty front chancery and regrets it as Steve backdrops him off with quite a bump. Wright gets a full nelson. Tony can't throw him off. He frees one half but Wright steps behind and reapplies. Another failed throw attempt then Tony slides his arms down through Steve's and rolls out but Steve catches him and reapplies. Repeat this sequence. Then Tony tries the break one side trick and twists the free arm so now he goes behind to apply the hold. Wright bashed out with one blast if his rear and hits the ropes, .Tony (and on instinct McMichael) drop down to let him run over. Tony gets a cross buttock and press for two, being thrown off onto Michael who isn't happy but Wright talks him out of doing a Diddier Gapp//Michel  Saulnier and he shakes hands with Tony. Tony feigns a sudden run of the ropes but nothing comes of it. He gets a leg takedown into seating side leglock.Wright gets some counter in which the camera angle can't pick up. They agree a stalemate and McMichael unties them. Steve cartwheels out of some hold we can't see and double legs Tony who throws him with the legs forcing a bump. Tony whips Steve off the ropes and drops, getting a backslide for 2.  Tony gets a reverse armlock on Steve who uses McMichael:s shoulder to flip out (his version of Vic Faulkner's "Mister Referee!" trick.  Bell rings. DJ plays Scotland the Brave even though McMichael is from Doncaster.Having played Hulk Hogan's old music earlier, I suppose they might as well do the same for Roddy Piper.  Actually it's some German comedy song about a Highland fling party. McMichael not happy about what happened in the end there. Also unhappy is the vision mixer who is doing strange things with that turret mixer from earlier. 

Round 3   McMichael ducks out of he way as the two wrestlers pounce on the same spot of the corner. Tony places Mick out of the way gently on a corner. McMichael still selling his shoulder tells them never mind, so they get on. Finger interlock but Wright gets his legs in and the folding press attempt becomes a series of  Bascule but with extra side rolls and finally a two way leg nelson (still a fave spot with the Brit kids today.) They give up and get a large ovation from the appreciative crowd. I like these German fans. Tony gets another high whip and this time forces the bump on Wright. He gets another one, the impact of which knocks McMichael over. Steve gets a legdive into a full leglock. Tony shoves him off with his free foot which Steve isn't happy about and complains to Mick, or more it's about Mick making a  bit of a fuss over the bumps etc he takes as ref. Tony gets an abdominal stretch. With some effort Wright cross buttocks out of it for 4 and gets a wrist for a slingshot to the ropes and dropkick. Wright gets a posting but Tony absorbs.turns and gets double legs into a Boston Crab. Wright flips him off and goes for the double legs and folding press but Tony double leg nelson first. It looks like another Bascule but Steve reverses himself and gets the flip over for a folding press with bridge - and a BEAUTY- but Tony crawls out. Bell goes, they shake hands. Bad German wedding disco song about Viva Mexico.

Round 4. - St Clair with two forearms, Wright hits a finevdropkick for 3, Steve whips Tony off the ropes, Tony comes back with a sunset flip for two before Steve ankle smashes out.  StClair with a side chancery throw, bodycheck, Wright leapfrogs but gets flying tackled by Tony who gets two. Running the ropes. Wright does another Faulkner spot tribute with his version of "CEASE" (expressed by raising his arms and growling.)  Distracted, Tony hits the ropes again and Wright catches him with a cross buttock and press for the one fall required over the British Heavyweight Champion (disputed All Star branch as ITV and Joint had their own temporary splinter). He could have gone to Brian Dixon for a title shot but instead next year he went to Max Crabtree, pretended to be Bull Blitzer and won Marty Jones's World Mid Heavyweight Championship instead. But that is for the future. Tonight in 1986 Bremen he shakes hands with Tony, the crowd clap and the turret mix closes down to a red screen like it's slowly shutting it's one eye. This profusion of red overpowers the poor old colour signal and the tape goes B/W for a bit McMichael raises Steve's hand. They shake hands to bury the earlier stuff and Mick raises both men's hands for a good technical match.  Tony gives Steve a hug and Mick a handshake.

Very much my sort of wrestling.  And a pleasure to see a German audience appreciate the style when conventional wisdom was that all they wanted was a fatty diet of Otto Vs Yank. A decade later every young German wrestler was working like Steve (and Tony).

But wait. There is what Jim Cornette would call an Afterbirth.  It's some sort of anniversary or significant date for Nico Selenkowitsch, so Steve makes a speech in German inviting him in the ring and then the two wrestlers parading him around on their shoulders like Miss Elizabeth and hugging him and getting a Nico chant going. WEEELL!!! Only a year later, Otto Wanz and Peter Wilhelm would be organising a couple against old Nico Selenkowitsch, overthrowing him, taking over the IBV he formed 14 years earlier and renaming it the CWA after Otto's title. That gratitude and shouldertop parades for you.

[David Mantell]

  20 hours ago, PeteF3 said:

We've got another discrepancy on that show--the results sites have it as Wolfgang Saturski vs. Klaus Kauroff, but that's definitely not Kauroff and I couldn't recognize him or make out the name.

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Will have a look but the tablet needs charging after writing that last little lot about Wright-StClair Bremen 1986. Cheers. 

[David Mantell]

  20 hours ago, PeteF3 said:

We've got another discrepancy on that show--the results sites have it as Wolfgang Saturski vs. Klaus Kauroff, but that's definitely not Kauroff and I couldn't recognize him or make out the name.

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Do you mean this? I'll have to watch it more thoroughly. It looked like Kauroff at the start.  Not tall enough for Le Grand Vladimir.  Possibly Ivan Strogoff?

 

[PeteF3]

In the file from Richard Land, it's Saturski against a guy in a sky-blue leotard and long tights. Black hair and a beard. It might be Judd Harris as I watch the match more closely. Yeah, it's obviously a date discrepancy because that's Kauroff in the match above, but this match is shot from a different angle, elevated and farther back and from the corner of the ring as opposed to ringside.

[David Mantell]

  18 hours ago, PeteF3 said:

In the file from Richard Land, it's Saturski against a guy in a sky-blue leotard and long tights. Black hair and a beard. It might be Judd Harris as I watch the match more closely. Yeah, it's obviously a date discrepancy because that's Kauroff in the match above, but this match is shot from a different angle, elevated and farther back and from the corner of the ring as opposed to ringside.

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Haha I was going to write back and angrily insist that that WAS Kauroff - even the ring announcer says so.  Apart from him and the two French "Russians" I posted, the only other one in wrestling in Europe at that time I can think of was the vastly lighter (and previously hairier on top) Larry "Black Jack Mulligan (No Relation to Bob Windham"  Coulter.  Also about how how Stone Cold and Goldberg have popularised that whole Nikita Koloff look among toxic macho male type like that scumbag Andrew Tate. Which is a reason why I don't like the Stone Cold character. But that's all vastly OT.

Tried reviewing the Katuroff-Saturski bout but the bad picture quality and  the brawly content defeated me.  Maybe OJ would like it if not for the picture.  Quite the other end of the spectrum from Wright Vs St Clair in 1986 Bremen. Amusing to see Kauroff cheekily offer a handshake at the end and Saturski refuse it after such dirty wrestling. He's a loveable rogue, old Klaus. No wonder he became a babyface in the 90s. And it was nice to hear the DJ play a favourite of mine. Funkytown by Lipps Inc, which had only come out four months earlier.

According to Kent Walton in 1985, Saturski (the son of Wolfgang Stark) was at (or around) this time the current  European Welterweight Champion - a title last seen two years earlier in 1978 when Dynamite Kid handed back both the belt and the British belt too to Max Crabtree before departing for Calgary.  Saturski allegedly lost the title the following year to Jorg Chenok - the next confirmed sighting of the title was when Chenok came out to drop it to Danny Collins at the FA Cup Final TV taping.  just like Jean Corne had done for Dynamite 7 years earlier.

I've looked for a Saturski Harris bout on YouTube but no luck. This is what he looked like at the time:

 

[PeteF3]

Someone on Richard's Patreon believes it's Yasu Fuji.

[David Mantell]

  15 hours ago, PeteF3 said:

Someone on Richard's Patreon believes it's Yasu Fuji.

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I think I've already posted that video on the French thread to illustrate how he visited all three Stronghold Euro territories, but this is it:

Also there's this.

Just occurred to me this is only a month after he and Quinn were at Wembley Arena, losing to Big Daddy and Wayne Bridges (blue-eye reunion of old 1974 heel tag team of Bridges & the Battling Guardsman)

 

 

[PeteF3]

Yep, it's the Fuji match, with a big VQ upgrade.

[David Mantell]

Not the bout from Eurosport New Catch with Paula in 1990.  This is a couple of years later.  Zrno's technical work has shit up in quality in this match since that one, he is obviously keeping up with the Wrights. Even Finlay does a few clever escapes just to remind the world he can. It ends with Finlay DQd after he starts going all hardcore at ringside, after which Zrno ward him off with a chair to which he cuts a promo.

This is a high quality copy and was filmed in good quality multicam and the camera crew have access to ringside and the aisle to follow wrestlers about.  The prefab looking building can hold about 500 and appears to be the German equivalent of a Town .Hall or Civic Theatre wrestling venue in Britain. Still not quite broadcast quality like the big Otto fights.

 

[David Mantell]

  13 hours ago, PeteF3 said:

Yep, it's the Fuji match, with a big VQ upgrade.

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I've checked and they're both the same video (same tracking shot across from one side to the other as the two wrestlers are announced.) Was the  Richard Land copy a high generation version of the same?

[PeteF3]

Let's call it "higher" rather than "high."