80s Europe #12

 Alan Dennison vs. Jim Breaks, 7/14/1980

1980 was a really fucking good year for European wrestling. This would be a slam dunk MOTY for WoS in most other years, hell for almost any promotion in any year. One thing here is that we get to see Breaks working a long form two out of three falls bout over 40 minutes, which he does a brilliant job at. The other unique thing is Breaks opponent. Alan Dennison is this strongman guy who really works like an old timey strongman. His thing is that he has absolutely inhuman strength. So Breaks is really good at breaking a guy down and bending them into weird positions, and Dennisons thing is that he powers out of all of Breaks holds from any angle. Like Breaks would take him down, try to step on his arm/shoulder and Dennison would slowly throw him off etc. There was a part where Dennison even challenged Breaks to put a leg hold on him just to immediately blow him away with a sweep of his leg. Another moment saw Dennison going into a neck bridge with Breaks trying to pull his head like a cartoon character. It was the biggest bullshit you’ll ever see, but it was absolutely brilliant bullshit. When Dennison gets fired up he has these crazy facial expressions, even shit talking Breaks to his face, he throws these stiff armed punches where it looks like even he himself can’t bend his arm anymore. He also has a thing where he grabs Breaks face or pectoral muscle as if he’s going to tear him apart with his freak strength. Truely awe-inspiring performance from Dennison. Breaks was freaking brilliant as usual. He’s a total master at cheapshotting someone between rounds, I loved how he started by “accidentally” scraping Dennisons face with his boot several times. He is just so in the moment and never ever misses a bit, like he will go out of his way to sell the most miniscule stuff in really over the tope ways, such as the spot where Dennison clapped his hands together to escape a hold. Breaks got more mileage out of his hurting fingers than a lot of wrestlers have ever gotten out of anything. Match also had the usual super intense Breaks armwork which saw him doing a bunch of vicious dropping Dennison shoulder first into the ropes. His vocal performance was also great, I loved him yelling “His arm is gone!” and urging the ref to stop the match after nailing a particularily nasty armbreaker. They also make brilliant use of the 2 out of 3 falls structure, and the story of the Breaks Special vs. Dennisons double armlock is so simply but brilliantly done. Very unique match and both guys looked like absolute masters going 40 minutes without slowing down or ever letting the match drag.

Alan Dennison vs. Jim Breaks, 8/30/1980

Didn’t have the epic scope of the title match, but it was a very good match in its own right. Faster pace, plenty of cool wrestling, and lots of Breaks bitchslapping Dennison, garnering tremendous heat. An Dennison is just a crazy power machine. He punched Breaks in the face a lot in this. I am just amazed how much different stuff they did compared to the previous match. Granted, the basic themes of strength vs. grinding limbwork were there, but they built in a lot of different keypoints. The match was also a cool piece in the story of their feud, as this was a non title bout with Breaks looking to piss off Dennison.

80s Euro Master List 

80s Europe #4

Johnny Saint vs. Steve Grey, 1/28/1980

Johnny Saint is the World Champion here. Steve Grey has beaten him the year before, can he do it again? Something I love about old european wrestling: the weight classes that protected these lighter guys.

This is an utterly incredible match. Easily the best Johnny Saint match ever. Part of why the match is great is the high speed, super athletic, tricked out technical stuff they do, but how they build it into an intense contest is magnificient. This is not the smiling, funny Johnny Saint who does jokes and tricks, it's Johnny Saint as the focussed, skillful champ against the most determined guy in the world. Walton puts over how impressive it is that Grey can even throw Johnny. They also map out the action beautifully, with some spots teased early on that get played off later, repeated sequences leading into transitions etc. Always with the focus on the challenger trying to topple the champ. Then you also have all these insane fast and intricate rope running exchanges.

Another thing I like about this bout is that it's not nice. It's an all technical match with no strikes, but they were punishing eachother here. Each hold or takedown would be really wrenched in, Grey was constantly trying to snap Johnny's wrist. Grey would also claw his hand in Saint's face, Saint would smash his shoulder into the mat, elbow on the face when trying a pin, etc. I also really liked the use of the arm wringer bump or missed dropkick, these simple bumps look great in World of Sport and were timed perfectly.

Grey is a crazy good babyface. He is great at putting over how fierce the bout is and how he was pushing himself to the limit to beat Saint. His selling was fantastic: He would slump over exhausted but then get up, or get Saint in a basic hold so he could regenerate his injured leg. Saint was less expressive but perfect for his role.

 All time great match. May be a serious GOAT contender even. But that's up to how much one can enjoy this kind of face vs. face technical match. For what it is I can't recall many instances where it's been done better.

 Jim Breaks vs. Jon Cortez, 2/2/1981

Great TV match. The usual Breaks heat mongering, coupled with his ferocious arm attacks and Cortez' technical brilliance. Even though this is both guys bread and butter, there was tremendous attention paid to basic holds. Check out Breaks trying to crush Cortez with a bearhug to counter his chancery, as well as some great struggle over a headscissor reversal and a shoulder pin. 

Gerard Herve & Tony Lamotta vs. Golden Falcons, France 8/11/1980

2/3 Falls match going about 30 minutes. French pro wrestling was nearing the end, but tag team wrestling could still deliver, and this delivered. Fast intricate exchanges, a pair of masked guys who can stooge and deliver a beating… yeah, this is pretty much Lucha. Also, both teams wore matching outfits , so they understood the crucial parts of tag team wrestling. Gerard Herve is Flesh Gordon as some young stud and a quite polished technico. Lamotta is balding and grey, but still really athletic with great looking ranas and flips, although he wisely leaves the bulk of the work to his partner. I didn‘t know what to expect from the Falcons (what kind of heel persona is that, anyways?) but they were ready to wrestle and bump and had good heel timing. There were some heel ref shenanigans with Michel Saulnier again, but to be honest he may have carried the heel beatdown section with his amusing ways to sabotage Herve. The european uppercuts landed loudly and the crowd was into this. The last fall is really short but the ending move is a good one.

1980s EURO COMPENDIUM

80s Europe #3

 

Jon Cortez vs. Keith Hayward, 11/5/1980

These two always did very no-nonsense technical matches together, and this was no exception. Big emphasis on amateur moves like single leg takedowns, firemans carries, pick-ups etc. There were some flashier moves, but most of this resembled a World of Sport take on shootstyle. Some top notch stuff in this. Bit slow paced and some moments in the last round felt blown, but keep in mind the much decorated Hayward was pretty much a rookie here. Quite impressive showing.

Johnny South vs. Ringo Rigby (8/5/80)

Tough contest in front of a really hot crowd. South looked like a hard man. His subtle heel moves early on where great - defensively shoving Rigby around, crawling to the ropes - and the crowd was super uptight about every bit of it. They ain't letting you get away with shoving a guy in the ropes in World of Sport. There were some cool holds early on, including a great struggle over a surfboard hold, but Johnny South then unleashed an asskicking. Really dug his face scrapes and forearm drops. Rigby looked quite good as a fired up young guy. He fired back with some cool double handed chops and big dropkicks. It builds to a series of pretty great strike exchanges and there was an insane spot where both guys ran heads first into each other. Simple but super enjoyable.

Jon Cortez vs. Pete Lapaque (1/28/80)

This was a totally dope match. Just the kind of random World of Sport bout you can turn on and get lost in. Jon Cortez was so great at crafting these throwaway matches as intense struggles. Pete LaPaque is a cool, chubby rudo, but this is all about Cortez who is such a graceful, awesome wrestler. Starts of with some slick grappling, then great arm work from LaPaque, Walton talking endlessly about how to tell wrestlers apart, and then lots of niggle and head to head wrestling with plenty of neat spots. One might complain about the kind of flat endings but don't forget this was just an undercard bout to the bigger Saint/Grey match later. As such it was real good.

 

1980s EURO COMPENDIUM

80s Europe #2

Jim Breaks vs. Young David (Davey Boy Smith), 2/23/1980

  This was a great piece of pro wrestling. Breaks in his bumblebee trunks just carrying a barely in puberty Davey Boy like it's nothing. To be fair, David looked good in parts here, doing a decent job struggling out of Breaks holds and taking a big unexpected bump in the last round, but it  was plainly obvious that he could only do a handful of things. Most of his comebacks are just him bodyslamming Breaks over and over. He did however do a great job palm striking his way out of a submission and bloodying Breaks nose. Breaks was great here at first playing a more subtle version of his usual character before turning it up to 11. His submissions were just ridiculous, trying to sprain Davids ankle at first and then zoning in on the arm and bending it as far as humanly possible. This just lead out in a great way. Fun post match too with Davids mentor Alan Dennison coming in to smash things over Breaks head. 

Pat Roach vs. Pete Roberts, 2/13/1980

Pat Roach always looks like the hardest man on the planet to me. This was a pretty excellent contest with some nifty heavyweight grappling. Roachs judo throws rule, as well as his overhead arm suplex. Roach was playing nice early on, and Roberts was doing a really neat Fujiwara-ish performance trying to crack the giant. Once Roach was outsmarted, he just went beast mode and ragdolled Roberts about the ring. In the 3rd fall, Roberts made excellent use of ring positioning to chop Roach down. I liked the finish more than OJ as Roach was limping and in trouble only to launch an overzealous Roberts over the top rope, taking an insane bump on the outside. The smart player Pete Roberts being outsmarted himself was neat.  

Jeff Kaye vs. Tony "Banger" Walsh, 1/28/1980

This was a battle between two great looking wrestlers. Walsh is pasty with a bowlcut and Kaye has kind of medieval mid length hair and is dumpy looking. Kaye is super fired up here cartwheeling around and Banger Walsh was looking to give it to him, throwing shots and grinding Kaye down  with basic moves.  Walsh has really good basic stomps and clubs. If you are familiar with these type of European give and give back face/heel matches you won't be surprised by the structure here but they worked in so many high end exchanges that it stayed entertaining. Unique finish too. Really really fun sprint. 

Fit Finlay/Ian Gilmour vs Guy Mercier/Alan Mitchells 9/25/80

2/3 Falls match over about 25 minutes. Browsing through hundreds of French matches, and just out of nowhere a 22 year old Dave Finlay pops up in what is maybe his first ever televised match working like a seasoned veteran heel. Pretty cool. The saying about European tag wrestling is that they didn‘t quite know how to do it, but this match had pretty much the kind of structure you want: Fun babyface shine segment, followed by a heel beatdown before a series of cut offs before a comeback succeeds and then a finish. They fool you a bit here by doing a really long shine with the heels making several attempts at starting the beatdown and being cut off, but in the end the structure is there and even the 2/3 Falls formula is integrated well. This was a bit more holds and takedowns based and less about armdrags and ranas, similiar to what we know from British wrestling, but don‘t be fooled the pace in this match was lightning fast. These guys really do an absurd amount of stuff even in a long match, but everything is executed effortlessly. Guy Mercier is a former European champion and legit Greco roman wrestler with a look and aura that just screams tough old man, and while there wasn‘t a ton of extended wrestling in this match he looked like a classy worker. It speaks for the creativity of these old workers just how much they could do with moves like a body slam or hip throw. Finlay also did this cool thing where he misses a big splash in about the first minute of the bout and spends the next few minutes scurrying away while the faces twisted up his leg and launched him into the ropes. It didn‘t pay off in the long run, but it was a fun bit of selling to make the opening minutes more interesting. Once the heels got something going after what felt like 15 minutes of highly entertaining bumping and stooging, they basically focussed on getting the faces to the corner and stomping the crap out of them. Really simple and effective stuff that made me wish modern workers paid more attention to making simple things like a stomp look good, because Finlay had damn great looking stomps here. Another layer to the match was Michel Saulnier, who was grey and a referee by now. The match had some heel ref antics and comical amounts of babyface retaliation against Saulnier, while that is something that can ruin a lot of these Euro matches it was actually executed in a really fun manner here. The thing I loved most how delighted the fans were at the trick the heels used to get a pin here. No hard feelings, it‘s all good fun in France.

1980s EURO COMPENDIUM
 

80s Europe #1

 

Ken Joyce vs. Tony Costas, 1/9/1980

Ken Joyce was this British maestro who had a knack for cool submissions in reversal without getting all too jokey. Costas was this gentleman wrestler from Cypris with a mustache. How many wrestlers from Cypris do you know? This is why you gotta love European wrestling. Match was full of tricked out technical works. Lots of holds and pin attempt worked in a way you haven‘t seen them before. Joyce seemed to be in control but Costas got a fall on him. I liked how Joyce just palmed striked Costas when he did something he didn‘t like. Very good technical bout.

Jon Cortez vs. Jeff Kaye, 2/5/1980

Jon Cortez was a wrestling machine, always putting on top notch TV performances. All his holds he worked with a certain intensity. This was a technical bout with some pretty great scrambles. It was a friendly match but things got pretty intense for a minute when Cortez was down a fall. Kayes acrobatic moves, such as walking on his hands across the ring or cartwheeling out of holds were impressive for a tubby aging guy. 3Rd fall was super short but intense as Cortez sensed a weakness and just went for the kill with backbreaking holds on Kaye.

Mark Rocco vs. Pete Roberts (5/28/80)

Battle of the goofy bodysuits. Marc Rocco is infamous for innovating a much faster paced, more thumpy wrestling style than what you usually saw in the British rings, or anywhere else really. Personally, I don‘t like him as much as other British heels, but this was one of his better bouts. Starts with a cool opening round of slick matwork before the hothead Rocco antics kick in and he starts kicking the hell out of Roberts. Rocco started kicking the tar out of Roberts leg and Roberts looked good sprawling on his takedown attempts. Roberts also took a big bump to the outside. The problem with the match was Rocco got two public warnings and just kept on cheating even though he should‘ve been DQ‘d. It got good heat though. Roberts was also slow to follow up on the finishing pinfall. It felt like both guys got a bit carried away after working abroad. It stuck out because in old British wrestling mistakes are few and far between and usually well covered.

Assorted World of Sport

 Pete Roberts vs. Caswell Martin (WoS 4/4/1973)

I thought this was a great match. It’s not for the faint of the heart though, being essentially 30 minutes of almost uninterrupted matwork. But these guys are great at what they do, and there is no more wrestling that feels like this, really. Really elegant hold for hold wrestling, and they really wrench in the holds so that you care when someone breaks out of them. They really torque in those basic wristlocks and hammerlocks, and they move into more elaborate spidery holds quite nicely. Roberts was doing a ton of cool shit in this match, at one point Caswell goes into a bridge and Roberts puts on a crucifix neck crank, there’s also some STF work that feels esoteric by the standards of european wrestling. Martin is such a supremely athletic wrestler that he can make stuff like flipping out of a leg grab look fantastic. Really dug all the nearfalls throughout the match. I would’ve liked the match to get a little more rowdy, Roberts was working over Martins shoulders pretty hard at one point and there was never really a serious heating up moment, but that’s not what they were going for. The crowd ate the match up, anyways.

Romany Riley vs. Lenny Hurst (2/13/1980)

Really good, heated little match. Riley is some tough looking barrel chested dude with prison tattoos, after some elegant escapes he catches Hurst with a thudding forearm and then turns to Walton as if to quip. Hurst promptly pins him to score a fall in the 1^st round. That pisses Riley off and he goes to town on Hurst. I really dug the build to the explosion here, Riley is overzealous in trying to get a hold of Hurst, just grabbing holds before Hurst is back on his feet, until he decides he’s had enough of the niceties and just kicks the crap out of his opponent. The great thing about World of Sport matches is how riled up the crowd got for simple things like kicking a guy when he’s down. Riley kicks the hell out of Hurst and throws him to the outside, then he gets a warning and immediately does the same thing while Walton says he’s going berserk, really intense moment. The whole second half was really intense actually, with Riley throwing super stiff european uppercuts and Hurst coming back throwing punches and headbutts. Hurst looked like a really good babyface here, throwing some fantastic dropkicks. He also had some really good selling, at one moment he looked like he seriously had his bell rung, trying to keep it together and the crowd was willing him on to take it to Riley. Really simple, super effective entertaining match.

Steve Veidor vs. Gordon Corbett (11/16/1976)

Gordon Corbett was a boxer turned wrestler and this was his only TV match. Corbett looks like really only a wrestler on world of sport can look, dumpy, balding, totally non-athletic looking guy. But he knew the usual holds and all his stuff looked good, proving posture and well-drilled movements are key to being good at wrestling. He had some fun tricks in his bag here. The crowd was firmly on the side of Veidor, even though there were no foul tactics from Corbett, and you can tell why Veidor was so popular based on the way he wrestled here. Really graceful wrestler for a lanky guy. There was a a really cool extended armwork sequence, and Corbett one-upping Veidor at the end and getting nearfalls felt a bit like Momota trying to pin Liger. Fun match, here’s to you Gordon Corbett.