I was asked to write a report about the last evening of the Power of Wrestling at the Schützenplatz in Hannover. I didn’t take any notes, so please don’t expect detailed match descriptions. I live in Dachau near Munich and am severely disabled, but I love wrestling in Hanover so much that I have been traveling to Hanover several days a year since 1996, i.e. for 28 years, to experience wrestling at one of the last strongholds of professional wrestling in Germany. I know people from Hanover who have been going to catchen for over 40 years and bring their children and grandchildren to the fights. You can really see several generations cheering, shouting and cheering together. That has become really rare. In the rest of Germany, you mainly see WWE fans between the ages of 25 and 45 who mostly only know wrestling from TV or the internet and don’t even use the term “Catchen” anymore.
On the afternoon of October 19, 2024, before the final evening, there was a small meeting of legends in the tent, hosted by Mike Ritter. As soon as I entered the tent, my friend Gernot Freiberger from Vienna spotted me. Despite mourning his recently deceased father, he had come to Hanover to say goodbye to the Schützenplatz and swap stories with old friends. Another friend who has remained loyal to wrestling since the 80s was Carsten Jank from Hanover, who has been to Japan several times and surprised me with a “Gotch Style Piledriver” T-shirt by Minoru Suzuki. Does anyone else remember Stefan “Steve the Otaku” Haupt, who thrilled hardcore fans in Hanover with his IWW promotion from 1997 to 2000? I also met him again at the Schützenplatz after many years.
I also had a very nice chat with August “Gustl” Smisl, who in my opinion deserved the CWA World Champion title and would have thrilled the audience. Unfortunately, Otto Wanz and Peter William saw it differently at the time. It was also nice to see Franzl Schuhmann, Tony St. Clair, Dave Taylor and Steve Wright. However, I had also been looking forward to seeing “Dirty” Dan Collins, but unfortunately he wasn’t there despite being announced.
Unfortunately, I can’t say much about Johnny & Nicole South, except that they apparently met and fell in love at the Schützenplatz in 1983. Personally, I also missed people, who have enriched Hanover for many years, at this legends meeting. Nevertheless, I would like to thank Jörg Vespermann and the entire POW team for this very nostalgic meeting.
I had already been told at the legend meeting that both the POW world champion Pascal Spalter and the number 1 challenger Moose would not be there. Nevertheless, the tent was completely sold out that evening with 760 spectators. If I may speak frankly, I have to say that I didn’t really want to see either Pascal or Moose. And I knew that the matchmakers Martin Nolte and Doug Williams would come up with a suitable title fight. But more on that later.
In the technically strong opener Ricky Sosa vs. Tim Stübing, the Hanoverian and Eckstein student Tim Stübing was able to prevail against the very talented Dutchman Sosa. We will certainly be seeing a lot more of the just 19-year-old Ricky “The Drip King” Sosa in the coming years.
The second match of the evening was a Six Man Tag Team Match The Purge Club (Ivan Kiev & Pete Bouncer) & Fabio Ferrari vs. Team Visegrad (Ricky Sky & Dawid Oliwa) & Nathan Angel. Nice match in which Nathan Angel was able to get the victory against Fabio Ferrari for his team. I hope Fabio is doing well so far because he looked pretty banged up and didn’t come out of the backstage area until very late after the show.
The third fight of the evening was for 3rd place in the Catch World Cup 2024: Andi Theque vs Leon Van Gasteren. Andi is certainly not the best wrestler in the POW, but he knows how to entertain the fans. In the end, as expected, Leon Van Gasteren was the clear winner.
Mike Ritter, Martin Nolte and Jörg Vespermann enter the ring before the break. The 25th ring anniversary of Martin Nolte is celebrated. Martin holds a promo and talks about his debut on October 9, 1999 against James Mason and thanks his trainer Tony St. Clair.
After the break, the fourth match of the evening was for the POW Women’s Title Mila Smidt vs Jessy Jay. Both ladies showed that they are currently among the best women in European wrestling and absolutely deserve to fight on the Schützenplatz. In the end, the French title holder Mila Smidt pinned her Austrian challenger Jessy Jay and remains POW Women’s Champion.
The penultimate match saw the unexpected Intercontinental title match James Mason with manager Alex Wonder vs. Zak Knight. Personally, I really enjoyed this replacement match. English wrestling school at its best paired with unfair tricks by Wonder. It was simply great fun to watch these absolute professionals at work. In the end, Mason won by pinfall over Knight.
After the match, Leon Van Gasteren came to the ring and challenged Mason to an IC title match at Christmas Wrestling on Dec. 21 in Hangar No. 5. This challenge was of course turned down by Mason’s manager Alex Wonder. This called matchmaker Doug Williams into action, who put Wonder in his place and confirmed the match, even allowing Leon to choose the match stipulation. Leon didn’t think twice and opted for a traditional rounds match.
After another short break, the final of the POW Catch World Cup 2024 Axel Tischer vs Iestyn Rees took place in the main event. I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan of Rees, who I know from the Prater Catch in Vienna. But I have to say that Rees put in the best performance I’ve seen from the man from Wales so far in this match. But in the end he had to admit defeat to Axel Tischer from Dresden, who was visibly proud to have won the POW Catch World Cup 2024, and after his victory he said “The mat is sacred” and a great last evening on the Schützenplatz came to a worthy end.
© Gerhard Köber for WrestlingFever.de
Fotos © Alex Singer
