Dr. Adolf Kaiser vs. Michel Chaisne (France - 2/28/1957)

ON DR. ADOLF KAISER:

(from our correspondent in Paris, Alfred Lang, 1957)

„(…) French television has about half a million subscribed viewers. From experience, there are roughly 4 people watching every TV set at a time. A forum of an estimated 2 million watches both the speeches of head of government Mollet aswell as the appearances of Dr. phil Adolf Kaiser. (…) He is introduced to the French people as a German champion of Catch, and a Doctor of Philosophy. This man likely does not a speak a lick of German, he is slightly more repulsive than the musclemen who normally practise the noble sport of Catch, his face is more animal-like, and he looks like a lusty murderer in a fifth category American movie, who is brought down in the last scene by magnanimous G-man with a colt. The partner of this splendid German is usually chosen to be a good looking, sporty young man, whose pleasant task it is to get demolished by this supposed Adolf Kaiser over several rounds and finally be caught in this Germanic catcheurs gruesome stranglehold and sink to the ground, not completely soulless but unconscious, and be carried to the back in a solemn procession. The crowd completely loses it during these battles which are likely carefully choreographed beforehand. „Sale boche“ - „Beat the nazi to death“ is one of the more moderate chants. (…) Once the „Actual Report“ is over and the charming face of the host appears on the screen, 2 million people, surely a third of them children breathe a sign of relief, telling each other what a nameless swine this boche Adolf Kaiser is. The adults will listen to Monsieur Mollet excitedly talking about the French-German friendship the next day. People will be educated on the new epoch of French history in schools by well meaning teachers, but this Adolf Kaiser, German doctor of philosophy, will continue to haunt their minds until the next Friday, when 500 000 TV sets will be turned on once more to educate 2 million people on the German horror...“

SR: I have read about Dr. Adolf Kaiser, aka Hans Waldherr before. A german reporter, I think from Der Spiegel or Stern, saw him on TV in France and then wrote a rage filled article (see above) about Dr. Kaiser, who was portraying an evil German on French television, which supposedly had a toxic effect on the relations between France and Germany. I assume this was maybe the earliest appearance of Dr. Kaiser, since he gets a respectful reaction from the crowd at his introduction. I was expecting Adolf Kaiser, Doctor of Philosophy to be this outrageously evil and brutal character, but he was a fairly classy worker and he wore leopard trunks of all things. He surprised Chaisne with a nice leg trip and wrist attack, later he locks in a cool double armlock that a luchador could steal. It made me wonder how technical German and Austrian workers could get, I guess simply everyone in Europe then was some awesome wrestling genius. However, it soon became apparent where the bout was gonna go, since Kaiser was eager to show ass, bump big and throw inside shots. His animalistic body language and antics also had „evil“ written all over them. Chaisne soon started to give Kaiser the business with some nasty nasty knee scrapes and laying in the uppercuts. I almost thought it was too much too early, since Kaiser hadn‘t done anything that nasty compared to the heels we saw on French TV before, but I guess when you‘re a German named Adolf Kaiser working in France you gotta be prepared to eat some uppercuts. Wrestling wise there was some cool body scissors work and the Dr. showing he could wrestle even when he would gladly take shortcuts. Chaisne is another worker we‘ll see many times until the very 80s and he looked veritable here. He seemed to have the match in the bag until Kaiser launched him outside and rammed his head into the ringpost. Chaisne came up bloody and fell to an Indian Deathlock coupled with the dreaded nerve hold from the Dr. Afterwards Chaisne has to be carried to the back with everyone acting all concerned. Really nifty TV bout which was oozing with character all the way through.