Found Footage Friday: 1980 HANOVER~!

9/17/80 Hanover

Chris Colt vs. Axel Dieter

MD: Watching Chris Colt in dark blurry 1980 Germany footage is a real joy. There's no other word for it. He wrestles like the whole world is out to get him. Like he can see them coming from every angle. And they're also purple elephants. What a guy. He was complaining about hair pulling before they even locked up. With every exchange he won he tapped his head like he was a genius. Then he walked right into some immediate comeuppance and he complained some more. Just antics with every exchange. Some great bits that were clearly bits but that never felt like bits. They just felt like him being off his gourd. He'd press a dirty advantage between falls just kicking and stomping away but Dieter would just come back and give him the what for. Post match, he tried to charge in an attack only to end up upside down in the turnbuckles. That's Chris Colt for you. We're lucky to have had him even for a moment.

ER: Chris Colt wrestled this like he was Eddie Gilbert in Puerto Rico, a foreign invader stooge who threw cheap shots and resorted to punches when home hero opponent wasn't even considering them, meanwhile getting completely upended on 90% of all exchanges. If you had told me Chris Colt doesn't have any offense and just gets by on drama, stooging, and bumps, I'd believe you. He wrestles this like a manager who doesn't think he's going to win the match but wants to be as disruptive as possible before losing. Even the ref is through with this guy before his entrance music has stopped. Colt takes forever getting his clothing off and the ref just pulls his shirt off over his head. It's like Colt took that moment and tried to have a defiant tantrum until he lost. I loved how most of his cheap shots lead to him getting hit, trying to attack after the bell and getting tossed aside, attacking Dieter after his loss and getting dropped off the turnbuckles onto his head. The man took a back body drop like someone who didn't expect to get flipped in the air, like an America's Funniest Home Video where someone gets double jumped off a trampoline and breaks their collarbone. 

Steve Wright vs. Sal Bellomo

MD: This went the full five rounds and it was a lot of fun. Babyface vs. babyface. Sportsmanlike though it did boil over a bit down the stretch with a fast-paced big bumping (Wright) strike exchange and some wild rope running where Wright would keep getting Bellomo off balance as they worked to the bell. Before that, it was very back and forth. There was one round where Wright had a headscissors on the whole time, but a lot of the early stuff was Wright being a nuisance with his cartwheels and escapes, only for it to build to Bellomo to have a cartwheel of his own. Lots of hanging on to holds as well, even though escape attempts. When Bellomo got one over on him, Wright would be good spirited for the most part, clapping even on his back. They did some very high level work, including some monkey flip spots where they changed direction and pin exchanges going back and forth. I don't know how much substance it had over all, but everyone watching enjoyed themselves a great deal. Just good, strong professional wrestling for its own sake.

ER: This was so good, real pleasant, watched the entire long draw with a big smile. It's tough to do babyface vs. babyface and do it sincerely, and these two might have been the best to try it with. The German fans obviously love Wright, but Bellomo is the Germany revelation that we love so much. These fans get behind their home hero and love this spry Italian, and it creates a real nice environment for their work. Anyone who is only familiar with Sal from seeing some kind of awful 20 minute undercard draw against Samula has no idea what Hanover Bellomo is like. He and Wright don't hate each other, even though it gets more competitive and the handshakes get a bit more teeth clenching, and instead we build to a bit of competitive oneupmanship that never feels like the same kind of grating athletic display as Eddie/Malenko. Bellomo works like a World of Sport legend, I was stunned by his skilled headscissor escapes and the way he works Wright's brand of tough guy athletics. I don't know what 70s matwork exist of Bellomo but his German work is different than any US work of his I've seen, yet he never looks out of place doing it. He is adept at doing complicated exchanges with last minute twists, and there's this great moment where things tip over and Wright shoulderblocks Sal off the apron to the floor. It's a different kind of toughness than they'd been showing and came a bit out of nowhere, a fall bigger than the back body drops and other spills he'd taken. Great way to peak the action, great match to spend some time with. 

Caswell Martin vs. Le Grand Vladimir

MD: Night and day from the last match. The second Vlad hit the ring, even before getting announced or taking gear off, he had tossed Martin out over the top rope to huge boos. When things got settled and he WAS announced, the boos came back even louder. This went the full five rounds as well, but it was a different animal. At the bell Martin got some revenge but Vladimir kept trying to contain him. Early on that didn't go so well. Martin kept slipping out including a great up and over on a top wristlock and the Zangiev escape on a headscissors. Vlad would pull the hair to keep the arm and then express to the ref that it couldn't be possible for him to do that as he, himself, was bald (even if Martin wasn't). There was a whole round where Martin controlled on a cravat going in and out of it and that was well done. After that, Vlad had enough and goozled and stomped and got carded once or twice but controlled until a big comeback from Martin down the stretch. Fans were super into it as you can imagine, and things kind of bounced around with that until the bell and the draw. 

UFO vs. Tom Shaft

MD: Shaft is sort of limited by this point but he does those limited things pretty well. Against someone like UFO, that's enough. His shots look good. He had some nice rapid fire punches to the gut as they were firing back on one another. He had this clothesline to the top of the head and some sort of jumping knee or kick that worked. And he'd bump when it made sense. First round was a lot of UFO using holds and controlling but at the end of the second, Shaft went flying over the top on a shot. He came back in between rounds to get revenge, and then they slugged it out for a lot of the third before UFO won with a sunset flip. Shaft yelled at people after the match. It's interesting to see him since we don't have a lot of footage at least. 

Achim Chall/Michael Schneider vs. Moose Morowski/Ed Wiskoski

MD: Fun while it lasted but it didn't last long enough. You never know coming into these if you're going to have a near classic or if things will just end off going off the rails early. They worked over Morowski's back to start with Schneider bearhugs and these great jumping double knees to the back from Chall. Wiskowski is a wonderful stooge in these matches, eating a bunch of dropkicks and then doing a Buddy Rose-esque fall through the ropes to the floor. Heels took over by swarming and drawing in Chall, and it all sort of led to nothing as Morowski hit a backbreaker and Wiskowki came off the top with a diving headbutt to draw a DQ. If it was just for a fall, that would have worked because then they could have gotten it back quickly from the damage done and the babyfaces would have had to fight back from injury but that was just the match. I'm sure it paid off later but we get these scattershot.

9/20/80

Kim Duk vs. Louis Laurance (JIP)

MD: We come in at the end here. Laurance is far smaller but he hits a bunch of dropkicks until he gets trucked by a Duk dropkick the pin. Not much to say. 

Steve Wright vs. Takashi Ishikawa

MD: Wright really is the Johnny Saint of Axel Dieters. It's a good act, but it gets a little old. The cool thing is that Ishikawa could completely keep up. And the other good thing about Wright, of course, is that after all the cartwheeling and bounding and kip ups and laughter is done, he is actually a tremendous bumper and seller, and he did so here for Ishikawa after a pile driver. that was in the second round and they went into the third more even, slugging away a bit until Wright caught him with a very impressive twisting backslide for the pin. Could have had a bit more of this.

Chris Colt vs. Caswell Martin

MD: This was a lot of fun, the most fun you'll have watching wrestling this year, maybe. Colt has those voices in his head and a chip on his shoulder. He'd try all sorts of things and Martin had not just an answer, but often a hilarious answer to everything. He'd climb around in a headcissors and toupie out. He'd suddenly have a hard head and goad Colt into punching it. He'd have Colt walk up the ropes in a full nelson and give everyone a thumbs down before dropping him. He'd get dropkicked and then drop him right back. Bit after bit after bit after bit. During the round breaks, Colt would flail about to the music and mess with the crowd. He'd get a few shots in or toss Martin out but he could never hold the advantage for long and it was all so entertaining that we're probably happier that way. Martin finally twisted and turned him all around before bridging his way for a pin. Great fun.