This past weekend on May 14 in Wismar, Germany, I defeated long-time nemesis Michael Kovac of Austria in an old school rounds-style European match format for the vacant TopCatch European Wrestling Championship.  TopCatch is operated under VDB, which is arguably the oldest governing body in European professional wrestling.  This new championship honor also makes Yours Truly arguably the most prestigious titleholder in Europe today, if you look at the history of VDB, dating back to 1912.

I have often been quoted as saying that Brian Dixon of All-Star Wrestling in the UK stands as the oldest active promoter in Europe (seconded only by Flesh Gordon’s Wrestling Stars of France, which has been around since about 1977 or so), and as far as consistency goes that honor is due to him.  Regardless, VDB is older simply by legacy and history and although they run somewhat infrequently, VDB’s title gold should be recognized in that light as the top honor on the continent.

A big thanks goes out to my opponent Michael Kovac for an excellent match and a very tough fight, which was contested in 3 minute rounds with a 1 minute interval in between.  The match itself went 6 full rounds and in the 7th I countered Kovac’s finisher attempt into a leverage backslide to pin his shoulders to the mat for the 1-2-3.

There was some discrepancy over whether Kovac kicked out just at the 3-count, which admittedly was hazy even to me, but the referee counted Kovac down and thus awarded the match to me.  I promised Kovac his due rematch, to be held in Austria later this year, so he will get the chance to get his comeuppance then if he can.