Rock & Wrestling
Rock & Wrestling is a series of events that has been held annually in Hamburg- St. Pauli since 2003 .
character
Rock & Wrestling is a subcultural wrestling show in the form of an evening tournament. As in professional wrestling , characters are designed to be embodied by wrestlers. These compete against each other in pairs and perform a pre-choreographed fight, from which a wrestler emerges as the winner. After all fighters have competed against each other, the overall winner of the evening will be determined by a written public vote. The loser of a game can therefore also emerge as the overall winner of the evening. The event is accompanied by a moderator as well as performances by bands before the fights and during the break.
history
The event goes back to an idea of the employees of the Komet Bar in St. Pauli; The inspiration was a song by the Swiss musician Beat Zeller, founder of Voodoo Rhythm Records . The aim of the organizers was to combine rock 'n' roll music with US wrestling and Mexican lucha libre . Rock & Wrestling existed as a series of parties in the Komet-Bar for two years before the first event in the current sense with choreographed fights and musical interludes in 2003 on the roof of a garage in the back yard of the bar. Due to the increasing number of visitors, in 2005 she moved to the much larger location Hafenklang . In 2007 a warning was issued due to the unauthorized use of the comic figure "Superman", the costs of which had to be refinanced through a solidarity event on the MS Stubnitz . A wrestling show was also held there, so there were two overall winners in 2007. In 2011, in addition to the event in Hafenklang, a show was performed at the Fusion Festival in Mecklenburg-Vorpommerschen Lärz . In 2013 a print magazine was published for the event as well as a series of collector's pictures based on the Panini pictures. In 2017, the series of events took place on two evenings on the occasion of the 15th performance.
In 2018, an additional event with an identical procedure was held in the Rote Fabrik in Zurich . In September 2018 the "opera-stable" stage was Hamburg State Opera , the five-part "Operanovela" Ring & Wrestling listed that including the cast and characters of Rock & Wrestling an alternative version of the Ring des Nibelungen presented. The music of the format was composed by Leo Schmidthals , the director was Dominik Günther .
On the second visit to Zurich in 2019, two Zurich wrestlers fought against each other in addition to the Hamburg guests; the proceeds from the event were donated to sea rescue organizations working for refugees. Also in 2019 Rock & Wrestling made a guest appearance at the computer game festival Play in the Markthalle Hamburg. Viewers could interactively influence a fight.
In 2020, the show took place online due to the rampant Covid-19 pandemic. There were no fights and therefore no winner, instead standard moderators Don Pedro and Nik Neanderthal presented short films shot for the show, video material from the early days of the show and live music by the band Thee Drongos from the Hafenklang premises.
The show comes from the left-wing alternative milieu in St. Pauli. Occasionally, the event refers to current political issues by portraying people or institutions that, in the opinion of the organizers, have a negative influence on the development of St. Pauli as heels and humiliating them. In 2009 real estate speculators were presented and in 2014 Corny Littmann's appearance in local politics in St. Pauli was taken up. Together with the Cologne Rock'n'Roll Wrestling Bash, Rock & Wrestling is the first such event in Germany and serves as a model for similarly oriented events such as the NBG Trash Wrestling in Nuremberg.
| year | Venue | winner | Bands |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Comet (Hamburg) | ||
| 2004 | Comet (Hamburg) | Haidi Hitler | Nik Neandertal, Mr. Brain W. Williams |
| 2005 | Hafenklang (Hamburg) | Nik Neanderthal | Nik Neandertal, Digger and the Pussycats |
| 2006 | Harbor sound | Captain penis | Bitchfinga |
| 2007 | Hafenklang Exile (Hamburg) | Bento III | Ohlsen Syndrome, The Stilettos |
| 2007 | MS Stubnitz (Hamburg) | Dolly Duschenka | Reverend Beat-Man, Chung, mama's boy |
| 2008 | Hafenklang exile | Jesus | Ohlsen syndrome, mother’s boy |
| 2009 | Harbor sound | Muhfumba | |
| 2010 | Harbor sound | Loony Lobster | Boy Division, D-66 |
| 2011 | Harbor sound | Iron Maidel | Boy Division |
| 2012 | Harbor sound | Haidi Hitler | Animal Grind, Caracho |
| 2013 | Hafenklang & MS Dockville (Hamburg) | Nik Neanderthal | Hello Werner Clan, test winner, Cheating Hearts, OB & BRRR |
| 2014 | Harbor sound | Loony Lobster | Mighty, The Ricky Kings |
| 2015 | Harbor sound | Team Bento | El Cantina, The Bucky Rage |
| 2016 | Harbor sound | Pinkzilla | The Beasts, Leafoot Tea |
| 2017, day 1 | Harbor sound | Renate & the cat ladies | Cheating Hearts, The Black Drongos |
| 2017, day 2 | Harbor sound | Thunder Cunt | The Haemorrhoids, Boy Division |
| 2018 | Harbor sound | Dolly Duschenka | The Dutts, Hipbone Slim |
| 2018 | Red Factory (Zurich) | ||
| 2019 | Harbor sound | Mr. Cheese | Rantan plan |
| 2019 | Red Factory (Zurich) | Aargau cleaning help | Dÿse , Paranoid Pictures, De_bris |
| 2019 | Market hall (Hamburg) | St. Pauli on Mauli | |
| 2020 | Harbor sound | (no fighting because of Covid-19 ) | Thee Drongos |
Media reception
North German media report regularly on the event, as do national blogs. The Hamburger Morgenpost defined the event as "trashy cult catching", the Hamburger Abendblatt as a "subculture institution (...) with (...) socio-political ulterior motives". The director Dominik Günther, who staged Ring & Wrestling at the Hamburg State Opera, described Rock & Wrestling as "the most colorful, creative, energetic and exciting event of the year in Hamburg". In 2008 there was an exhibition in the Hamburg gallery Linda with photos by the photographers Anne Gabriel-Jürgens and Frank Egel, which had been created over the years in the showroom and in the backstage area of the event. In addition, a video report on the event appeared in Zeit Online's "Zuender" magazine this year. In 2010 the documentary "Smash Trash Wrestling Bash" by the Hamburg filmmaker Bianca Wiehmeier was published. In 2012 Egel held a solo exhibition in the Projektor cultural space in Hamburg's Karoviertel.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Daniel van Eendenburg (Ed.): This is how it all began . In: Rock & Wrestling - The booklet . 2015, p. 5.
- ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt of December 13, 2007, available online
- ↑ Fusion-Festival.de: Welcome. Retrieved April 20, 2018 . (PDF, 1.79 MB)
- ↑ Announcement on Facebook. Retrieved November 30, 2014 .
- ↑ a b Abendblatt.de: Wagner wrestling makes Wagnerians gasp. Retrieved June 4, 2019 .
- ↑ RAWZH.ch: Rock and Wrestling. Retrieved October 28, 2019 .
- ↑ klub forward: Rock & Wrestling Online Show! on YouTube
- ↑ Hamburger Morgenpost of July 23, 2011, available online
- ↑ Entry in the St. Pauli blog of the Hamburger Abendblatt from July 26, 2014. Retrieved on December 4, 2014 .
- ↑ Article on Sounds Like Me. Retrieved December 4, 2014 .
- ↑ Article on The Hermetic Cafe. Retrieved December 4, 2014 .
- ↑ mopo.de: show war of anarchists. Retrieved July 23, 2016 .
- ↑ Staatsoper-Hamburg.de: In conversation with: "Ring & Wrestling" makers Dominik Günther and Leo Schmidthals. Retrieved June 4, 2019 .
- ^ Website of the Linda Gallery. Retrieved December 2, 2014 .
- ↑ Zuender report on Youtube. Retrieved December 10, 2014 .
- ↑ Entry on Moviepilot.de. Retrieved December 10, 2014 .
- ^ Exhibition announcement on Page Online. Retrieved November 30, 2014 .