New Footage Friday: VAN BUYTEN! GUJARADO! MORGAN! LOGAN!

Dave Morgan vs. Steve Logan Hamburg 1984

SR: Dave Morgan was a British worker who travelled the work and made a name for himself everywhere except Britain. I‘ve always enjoyed the little scraps and bits I‘ve seen of him, as he has that kind of subtle charisma of a rugged technician, like Osamu Kido or Shunji Kosugi. He won‘t do any of the fancier dancy bits of British wrestling, instead he‘ll throw a side suplex that looks like it requires zero cooperation and earn himself the respect of any audience he was working for without any theatrics. This was a clean match. I think Steve Logan was some young boy just starting out and making his way working the German tournaments and getting the rub by going long with a veteran here. The grappling here won‘t blow you away if you‘ve seen a lot of Euro stuff but there were some beautiful arm lock takeovers and suplexes especially from Morgan.

MD: I'd call this an excellent Morgan showcase. I don't get the sense we have a ton of matches of his but if we were trying to judge him for a Greatest Ever list, this is the sort of match we'd use to check off "carrying an able young wrestler to a multi-round draw." It was pretty clear he was directing traffic in there but he also managed to show a lot of depth and variety in what he did. The first half contained simplified versions of some of the catch holds/exchange we've been seeing lately, hanging on to an arm through multiple escape attempts, including the up and over headscissors and a second attempt at such being jammed. Logan, working from underneath, put a lot of struggle and effort into everything he attempted. There were a number of quick pin attempts and reversals here and the crowd was appreciative of everything. The match turned somewhat midway when Logan fooled Morgan on a series of cravates into a snap mare by slapping him on the shoulder. Morgan responded by this amazing stepthrough wind-up back kick to the ribs and turned up the brutalization. He had a few good suplexes and throws: a floatover, a butterfly, and a fall-away slam. He was able to flawlessly segue into some subtle comedy, getting caught up in the ropes or missing leg dives, and then into one big bump over the top off a dropkick for Logan's last flourish, before taking back over with a frustrated last attempt to put the youngster away before the time ran out. The crowd was up for everything and seemed very appreciative of the draw. Logan showed promise but this was Morgan's match.

PAS: Logan had a nice leapfrog, but as Matt and Sebastian said this was a Morgan showcase. He wasn't breaking out the super fancy mat wrestling, but everything he did looked tight and meaningful. I loved his big takedowns, really put his hips into the throws. It didn't really build to a big finish, but it was a fun chance to see what Morgan delivered.


Franz Van Buyten vs. Indio Guajaro Hamburg 1984

SR: 1980s Hamburg was a charming territory. Since we are probably going to review a lot of Hamburg stuff, I‘m going to have to state some disclaimers – not all German wrestling in the 1980s and before was run by CWA. In fact, CWA didn‘t even exist properly at this point. Hamburg was promoted by a guy named Sven Hansen and Rene Lasartesse, and it has a vibe that is slightly sleazier and raunchier than the stuff from Bremen, Hannover and Austria. Supposedly, the tent that they were running these shows in was really old and gritty, and a sizable chunk of the audience were pimps and their associates, not just from Hamburg. The crowds were pretty rowdy too, basically always yelling things like „Bash his face in!“ or „Rip off his balls!“. This was the kind of formula match that got these crowds really going, every single time. The face is the superior wrestler, the heel cheats a bit, and through lots of foul tactics it builds to a segment where the face is finally able to blow the bad guy away. Guajaro is a solid enough Colombian rudo, spitting at the audience, yelling Spanish into the mic, beating his chest and saying „I am the best!“ in German. Van Buyten must have had this exact match 500 times, but he is too brilliant to scorn him. Both guys were pretty lively here and there were some movements like rope running and leapfrogs that they didn‘t do later. The match had a good pace and an interesting finish were Franz took a big bump to the outside then Guajaro earned himself a DQ for bodyslamming van Buyten outside. Franz, of course, wants to continue fighting and we get Rene Lasartesse coming in wearing a sweater and throwing the Piratenkampf bracelets and chain into the ring and I‘ll bet the place was filled up for when Van Buyten accepted that challenge.

PAS: I enjoyed the griminess of this brawl. It started deliberately, but really picked up, with Guajardo landing hard forearms to Van Buyten's back, he really moved him with each shot. Van Buyten fired back by hitting these really cool diving bodypresses into Guajaro while Guajaro was tied in the ropes. Eventually they just spill into the crowd and wail on each other on the floor. Guajaro doesn't seem like a hidden great worker or anything, but he looks cool and brings some energy to a brawl like this. Did its job to get me excited about the Piratekamf.

MD: The more Van Buyten I see, the more I wonder if he isn't one of the greatest sellers ever. Guajaro was there to use his strength and ferocity, to take advantages and stomp and clubber, to refuse to break clean and maul Van Buyten on the outside. In the first third, Van Buyten would seize an advantage with flash and style. The middle was launched by Guajaro hitting a cheapshot double-thrust on a rope break and knocking Van Buyten over the top, following up with a slam into the post and a series of shots to the back and rib. The comeback was triumphant as usual, with Van Buyten playing chicken with the ref to dive at Guajaro before everything broke down and cards were bandied about. Guajaro didn't have to do a lot here, just be a looming dangerous presence and let Van Buyten do his thing from underneath. That was probably a good thing, but the final effect was a fun match in front of a game crowd.


Franz Van Buyten vs. Indio Guajaro Hamburg 1986

SR: We didn‘t get a new 1984 Piratenkampf, but I guess we can pretend the previous match set up this exact match. This is a match stip where even unspectacular workers like Dave Taylor or Frank Merckx can produce something pretty great. Unfortunately, that didn‘t quite happen with Guajaro here. Guajaro is a guy who is more suited for energetic, heat mongering affairs. Unfortunately, he didn‘t know to do much with this stip besides choking Franz a lot. The chokes looked nasty especially those where he dragged the chain across the mouth, but it needed a bit more inventiveness that Guajaro doesn‘t quite show here. There was some cool chain grappling early on built around gnarly endurance spots, and we DO get a great van Buyten comeback where he locks in a nasty chain choke himself before booting Guajaro in the face a bunch, even hitting a chain clad dropkick. The crowd wasn‘t into the choke-heavy body of the match but they got into it big time as they do when the fight for the flag started. Guajaro didn‘t do much in this section either so van Buyten just kind of bags the win. Still, it gets the full Piratenkampf point.

PAS: These Hamburg Piratekamf's have a specific rhythm to them, a filthy violent grinding rythm and this delivered that. Guajaro was dominant early, rubbing the chain into Van Buyten's mouth using it to pull his throat into the bottom rope, slowly torturing him. We had some great moments of leverage with Van Buyten tensing and pulling as hard as he could to keep Guajaro from the flag, and then an awesome Van Buyten comeback, with big hard shots from the wrist brace and chain and a great dropkick. Van Buyten is a really great comeback wrestler, works well with the crowd, times his spots well. He is up there with Colon and Dusty and Lawler in that 80s comeback babyface. I wanted maybe one more big exchange before Van Buyten got the flag, but otherwise this was great, and I am really happy we get to watch a bunch more of these types of unique cool matches.

MD: From my limited experience, there are different sorts of piratenkampf matches. For instance, there are the ones where the wrestlers are constantly going for the flag and then there are the ones with a lot of punishment and a big comeback. This was much more of the latter, which, on principle, I prefer. Ultimately, this was very similar to their other singles match, just enhanced by the chain. It had a lot of similar beats, with Van Buyten out-finessing Guajaro early on, getting leaned upon for the middle section, and then mounting a bit fiery comeback. I think, ultimately, the chain helped. It meant less motion but often times more viciousness. It meant that the hope spots were primarily Van Buyten pulling Guajaro off the pole, generally losing his own balance in the process so he couldn't capitalize. The comeback was a barrage of forearms by Van Buyten that were almost better than whatever he could have done with the chain and the crowd was absolutely up for it. Guajaro was much more inclined to choke with the chain than strike with it, which made for solid visuals given Van Buyten's selling, but no color of note. The finish could have used maybe a bit more oomph but again, the fans were wholly into it whenever anyone even got close to winning.