Otto Wanz Upload Challenge 5: Black Bart and Great Kokina

Otto Wanz vs. Black Bart (Johnson) CWA 7/9/88

MD: This was legitimately good. Very good maybe. Black Bart is a guy that would make every roster in the 80s better. That doesn't mean you'd put him at the top, but he added depth and played a role in the undercard and if need be mid card. He had size and presence and while you might not expect him to win, he could believably do damage. He was a much better opponent for late 80s Wanz than Ottman. He also got to put his hand over his heart for the bugler playing the national anthem which felt like a big moment for him. There was nothing pretty about this. They did the unclean breaks and revenge bit to start, but on a Wanz clean break later, Bart got a hammering cheapshot in and stayed on top for most of the rest of the match, broken up by rousing Wanz comebacks (including the slam and senton after Bart failed at a slam of his own). Bart didn't try anything too. He punched, kicked, hammered, clubbered, but it was all appropriate. He took up time and ate up space and sucked the air out of the proceedings. All Otto had to do was sell and fire back when he had the chance. Wanz even bladed on the outside, which felt like a big deal, and led to some satisfying woundwork. Eventually, Bart missed a charge and went flying over the ropes, and then bladed big himself as Otto got revenge on the outside, setting up the slam and the splash for the win. Otto gave a ton here and the crowd hated Bart for it, but that just meant they went up all the higher for the win. No restholds here (and I never use that word lightly), nothing fancy, just straightforward beatdown, selling, and comeback, and it 100% worked. Otto was secure enough in himself to give what he needed to Bart to make it happen. 

Otto Wanz vs. Great Kokina, Prince of Hawaii CWA 12/17/88

MD: Not great. A story of two matches. When they were really laying it into each other, it was enjoyable. The rest was a litany of nerve holds, forehead claws, and chinlocks. I don't think Otto was bad from working underneath, but he wasn't great either. He just wasn't. He had the crowd naturally but he didn't lead them. There wasn't a build to a big moment in fighting out of holds. There wasn't an ebb and a flow. He was better at timing comebacks fighting out of the corner, for instance. This too, by the way, like apparently every Wanz match, started with just that. Kokina could bump big at this point, but he only did once, early. The match had no sense of escalation or build, just a constant drone of back and forth blows and revisiting holds. I did like the last minute or so, with a larger than life overhead shot and Wanz hitting a big slam. It's just that a guy like Hogan, for instance, would have teased that earlier in the match to make the payoff more meaningful. Wanz doesn't often get to that level of storytelling. Then again, if you listen to the fans, he doesn't necessarily have to.

ER: See I thought this was pretty great, kept me exciting the entire time listening to the loud Bremen crowds "OttO! OttO!" chants to rally every second of Kokina control. I love that we can go back to 1988 Germany to find a match where Kokina is the smaller guy in the match, and it's the kind of minimalist heavyweight wrestling that really appeals to me. I am becoming a big fan of the Otto Wanz slow motion between-round recaps, love watching Kokina take a snapmare and thinking it looks like Kobashi taking a backdrop driver. Otto is great at selling in nerve holds, with his expressive color changing face and excessive sweating, beating his chest and pawing at Kokina's hands. Both man had nice bumps, though Kokina didn't bump nearly as much as he would in just a year or two. He still landed heavy whenever he went down, made it look like Otto was really throwing around a boulder in there. Both he and Otto had a quick bump through the ropes to the floor, and it felt epic whenever we got a knockdown. The strikes all looked good, loved whenever Otto would back up Kokina with his forearms to the chest, and Kokina had big chops of his own and clonked him with a headbutt. I wish we got a better shot of Otto's rolling senton and bodyslam to finish the match (we cut away to a top down view for some reason, only time in the match), but this was what I wanted to see.