By christ give me all of the Fritz Von Erich. This isn't the first Fritz match I've ever seen, but it's probably the earliest and definitely the best representation of a psychotic German with a claw for a hand who wants to squeeze your head until your eyeballs pop out. He was a snarling menace here and it was incredible. Just the way he'd move around the ring growling nonsense, his low stance like he was ready to pounce, the roll of his shoulders, the way he'd snap his gangly limbs into motion, everything he did exuded danger. Straight out the gate he kicked Baba in the throat and clubbed him in the neck and from there he would stalk him down relentlessly, throwing referees and trainees and reporters and anybody else out the way as he did so. There was one instance on the floor where he picked up the referee by the neck and threw him back in the ring, then later he threw that same referee OUT the ring with enough force that the ref's shoe came off. He literally threw the wee fella out his shoes! And then he just picked the shoe up and chucked it at him in disgust. Some of the camera shots on the black and white footage of Fritz hanging over the ropes ready to go at Baba again made him look like some sort of looming Frankenstein. More than anything I loved how he properly threw his weight behind every attempt at the Claw, using his other hand to force the Claw hand ever closer to Baba's face, really leveraging his body to press all of his 260 pounds down on it. He made Baba fight with everything HE had to prevent it and this was really some of the best struggle over a hold I've ever seen. People were absolutely losing their minds for all of it. The first time Fritz went for it he smashed his own hand off the mat, which was awesome because it made even the application of the hold look like it could crush you, the way that hand came down like a piston. Baba immediately jumping on the hand was obviously great and in general his desperation at avoiding the thing all match put it over huge. That led to moments where they were both on the mat throwing strikes and Baba was frantically chopping Fritz in the midsection and chest and forehead. Fritz applying the Claw from his back at the end of the first fall is such a great moment, then Baba gets himself some COLOUR~ and the heat goes up another level for the remainder of the match. The brawling around ringside in the last couple falls is top drawer. Fritz is throwing Baba across tables and into ring posts, taking swings at people who get too close, then Baba will come back and Fritz starts to realise he might've fucked up here. Baba might be skinny as a rail but they call him Giant for a reason and Fritz had no interest in being chopping in the face by those big shovel hands. Fritz almost launching Baba out the ring with a Claw throw was fucking wild and at that point you can't help but feel Baba is justified in trying to smash that hand to pieces with a chair. I thought this was tremendous and easily one of the best matches of the decade.
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