Otto Wanz Upload Challenge 4: Bobby Duncum and Big Steele Man

Otto Wanz vs. Bobby Duncum 6/12/82

MD: Similiarites are starting to become clear, though they're almost ritualistic. This starts with the clean break game, then it has Wanz eat some cheapshots and fire back off the ropes. The first round ends with a resounding snap mare after that. We've seen this before but it's obviously what the fans want, so what are you going to do? That was just the first round though. Things settled in very differently after that with Duncum managing his best Hansen impression (as good as I've seen it probably) and taking it to Wanz more than anyone I've seen in these matches as of yet. Wanz was more giving than usual, not smothering him but instead setting up big moments of payoff: he fought back valiantly after taking a beating on the floor; he perfectly timed going up and over with the headscissors takeover again; he picked Duncum up out of a headlock, placed him over the ropes onto the apron, and then knocked him down to the floor. Duncum does come back and keeps on him until the finish and this was probably the first time in the footage where I had the feeling Wanz might actually be at risk. That made the big toss off the top rope and headlock takeover suplex for the win incredibly feel all the more celebratory. Duncum being the aggressor for a lot of this brought it to a higher level, but all of Wanz' offense looked great, especially his strikes. If I had to classify Wanz right now, he'd be a cross between Big Daddy and Jerry Lawler.

Otto Wanz vs. Big Steele Man 7/8/89

MD: I get the sense that when Tim wanted me to watch this stuff, this is more of what he had in mind. The years were not kind to poor Otto. He was far less mobile by this point, and 89 Big Steele Man was not 92 Typhoon (who was not 90 Earthquake, etc.). The similarities and differences to earlier in the decade are interesting. Far more minimalist. Lots of sitting in holds. When Ottman (as opposed to the Otto-man) was putting on a chinlock, it sort of worked with Wanz trying to engage the crowd by pulling apart the hands again and again. The fans were kind of with him. They wanted to sing and chant. It didn't have that same sort of electricity as when he teased breaking a hold years before especially considering he had to go back to this well a bit too often or stay in the hold without breaking it for a bit too long. When he was putting on holds, he at least kept varying things so the fans wouldn't get bored. About 2/3rd of what Big Steele Man did looked good. The other third did not. He got good color, though. At times, they went toe to toe with some big blows and that worked, certainly. Wanz' selling of pain and exhaustion was excellent but part of that was because he looked like he could die from heatstroke at any moment. There were some of the old favorites (early unclean breaks, some brawling on the outside, one rollover senton), but many things (piledriver, the up and over headscissors, throws, even elbow drops) seemed to be gone from his toolbox now. The crowd went up big for the finishing bodyslam, but some of the magic was certainly gone.

ER: I'm a big fan of minimalist super heavyweight wrestling, and it doesn't get more minimalist or super heavyweight than later era Wanz. Wanz isn't taking many bumps at this point, but his selling was still strong and he was good at making rest holds look like actual holds. This was two big dudes throwing heavy forearms at chests, and big thundering body blows. They built nicely to bigger moments, like Wanz dumping Steele over the top after hammering his chest, or Steele knocking Wanz off his feet with two standing clotheslines. Otto's rolling sentons still looked great, and I like how he doesn't hit them the same way each time. Here he set one up more traditionally, rolling across Steele's body, then later rolls into one from north-south. I think the best parts of the match were actually the slo-mo recaps shown in between rounds, which really put over the force behind some of the blows, and also made some big moments feel even bigger. Watching Steele's standing clotheslines that lead to Wanz timbering over felt even more epic in slo-mo, like a mastodon getting felled by neanderthals. That the whole long match built to one triumphant bodyslam was really cool, with the Graz crowd reacting to the bodyslam like it was the highspot of the year.