The Diabolical Dr. Adolf Kaiser in Barcelona in 1958

Dr. Adolf Kaiser's run in Barcelona in 1958.Since the late 1940s Barcelona, the second biggest Spanish city, had a constant flow of foreign wrestlers coming to the city to take on the local Spanish stars and pro wrestling in general was very popular in Spain during this time. Every once in a while one of these foreigners would be so dominant or have such an interesting character that they would end up leaving a more lasting impression than the rest of them. Examples of this were "The Strangler" Dr. Grailet, Tupac Amaru with his "magnetic fingers", The Great Masahiko Kimura and "The Asilah Strangler" Rafvela, to name a few. Such was the case with Dr. Adolf Kaiser too.

Hans Waldherr was born in Hungary, but grew up in Vienna and eventually became an Austrian citizen. He started his wrestling career in Austria in the late 1940s and was wrestling under his real name. Then in 1955 he traveled to France where adopted a new name and gimmick. He was now Dr. Adolf Kaiser, a monocle-wearing German who was known for his unorthodox style, leopard-striped trunks and a pair of big hands which he would use to choke his opponents with. His go-to holds were this one where he would put his hands on his opponent's neck from behind and squeeze the nerves around the neck (which would inevitably turn into a choking hold), and his other finishing move which was essentially an inverted facelock. Kaiser wrestled several times on French national TV in 1957 and became one of the top villains on the thriving French pro wrestling scene. The post-war French crowds loved seeing the French babyfaces taking it to the evil German. Kaiser's success in France quickly caught the attention of one of Spain's leading wrestling promoters - Luis Bamala.

Dr. Adolf Kaiser showing off his big hands

Sidenote #1: In Spain they actually spelt the name as Adolphe Kaiser, but I'm going with Adolf, because that's how he was billed everywhere else and was better known as that. 

Sidenote #2: Keep in mind, this article covers only Kaiser’s run in Barcelona. That year he also wrestled in other Spanish cities where Bamala was promoting (Madrid, Zaragoza, Palma de Mallorca).

Luis Bamala was a former pro wrestler turned wrestling promoter, who was originally based in his home town of Zaragoza, but then moved his base of operations to the Spanish capital Madrid and became one of the top wrestling promoters in the country. In 1956 he started promoting in Barcelona too - in the summer he would do shows at Pedro Balañá’s 14,893-seat Las Arenas bullring and then the following summer he also promoted at Balañá’s 19,582-seat La Monumental bullring. In October 1957 promoter Luis Bamala, who had previously promoted only bullring shows in Barcelona in the summer months, started running weekly shows at a small 1,600-seat Barcelona theatre called Fronton Novedades (again, a venue owned by the Barcelonian businessman Pedro Balañá). Since Bamala was in competition with the established local promotion, the Gran Price one, he needed new attractions to bring the fans to his shows. Enter the evil German doctor. "The Diabolical" Dr. Adolf Kaiser, as he was billed in Barcelona, made his first appearance at Fronton Novedades on 22 November 1957. Here's how his first appearance in Barcelona was announced in the most popular Barcelonian sports newspaper (rough translation from Spanish):

"A new and great figure announces his participation next Friday night at Fronton Novedades. This time it's the 'diabolical' doctor Adolf Kaiser, a baffling wrestler with extensive knowledge of anatomy, the result of his studies in medicine at the world-famous University of Cologne, where he came to the conclusion that an impressive athletic physique is not required to prevail in a sport as harsh as catch (pro wrestling). With his really devilish look and with completely unpredictable reactions, which lead him to win his matches in the most disconcerting of ways, Adolf Kaiser, a doctor of medicine, has managed to overpower his opponents emphatically over and over again, always in the rings of Germany, from which to date nobody has managed to get him out of. He has received many advantageous proposals to wrestle abroad and time and time again Adolf Kaiser has systematically rejected these offers. Sometimes in an incomprehensible way. However, luck seems to be on the side of the popular promoter Luis Bamala who, on his last trip to Germany, with powerful persuasive reasons managed to get the contract that would allow the Barcelona fans to see in action this unique wrestler of international fame, who doesn't win because of his style, or roughness, or his admirable athleticism, but because of something that has earned him his diabolical fame - his surprising ways of ending his matches".

Kaiser's opponent in his debut ended up being Bamala's top babyface star and European Mid-Heavyweight champion Jesus Chausson. With the sold-out crowd cheering him on, Chausson managed to get a 20-minute draw with the supposed German doctor, who left a memorable impression on the crowd. 

Kaiser returned on 21 February 1958 for another match with Chausson at Fronton Novedades. This time the evil doctor got himself disqualified and busted Chausson open in the process. 

He came back to Fronton Novedades again on 21 March 1958, this time for a match with Felix Lamban. Lamban, who was one of the top Spanish stars at the time, at one point in his career was known as "The Strangler" due to his finishing move "corbata invertida" (inverted tie). It was more or less the same inverted facelock that was also one of Kaiser's finishing moves, which made the clash between the two a natural one. Kaiser ended up winning on points when there was no winner within the time limit.

Felix Lamban's corbata invertida

As usual, in the summer Luis Bamala ran shows at the open-air bullrings Las Arenas and La Monumental. Dr. Kaiser was brought in as the main foreign attraction for those shows. He started his run on 13 June with a win over the very popular boxer-turned-wrestler Jim Oliver. Oliver was one of the premier Spanish stars of those years and he got beat by Kaiser in 9:59 minutes. Next up on 26 June was another one of the top Spanish wrestlers - Eduardo Castillo. Castillo lost in just 7 minutes. Then on 30 June the Argentinian Gran Amenaza fell before Kaiser as well.

Dr. Adolf Kaiser applying his neck hold on Eduardo Castillo

On 3 July Kaiser renewed his rivalry with Jesus Chausson. He had tried to beat Chausson twice already, but hadn't managed to do it. This time the outcome was different. After about 24 minutes of wrestling Chausson had no choice but to give up. Kaiser was choking him out with his infamous neck hold and Chausson ended up bleeding profusely from the mouth.

Dr. Adolf Kaiser applying his neck hold on Jesus Chausson

7 July saw another big match for Kaiser. His opponent was "The Asilah Strangler" Rafvela. The previous year Rafvela had taken Spain over by storm. He was beating everyone in a matter of minutes and overall was more dominant than perhaps any other wrestler in the history of Spain up to that point. Since then Rafvela had suffered a few defeats, but was still one of the most popular wrestlers in Spain and was still viewed as a pretty dangerous competitor. That said, he was no match for Kaiser. The doctor won.

Newspaper illustration: "The Asilah Strangler" Rafvela vs. "The Diabolical" Dr. Adolf Kaiser

Dr. Adolf Kaiser applying his neck hold on Rafvela

By virtue of his win over Chausson Kaiser received a shot at Chausson's European Mid-Heavyweight Title (campeonato de Europa del peso semipesado). That match took place on 10 July and ended in victory for the doctor. Chausson's near three-year run with the championship was over and the diabolical Dr. Kaiser was now European champion.

Dr. Adolf Kaiser as European Mid-Heavyweight champion

On 14 July Kaiser faced Stan Karolyi in a battle of champions. European Mid-Heavyweight champion vs. World Mid-Heavyweight champion. Kaiser may have been champion for just four days, but Karolyi on the other hand had held his World Title since 1948 and was a very popular star in Spain. In the past decade only four people had ever managed to defeat Karolyi in Barcelona - the latest one being Chausson just a few weeks prior. And since Kaiser had just defeated Chausson, the logical assumption was that he would be able to defeat Karolyi as well. He couldn't, but he didn't lose either. The two wrestled to a 20-minute time limit draw.

Then on 17 July Kaiser wrestled Felix Lamban again and the match ended in a double knockout. Up next was Rafvela again. On 21 July Kaiser defeated him by disqualification. He followed that up with another win over Eduardo Castillo on 31 July. In their previous bout Castillo had lost in just 7 minutes, but here he lasted 17:25 minutes. 

On 4 and 7 August there was a single-elimination tournament sponsored by Mobylette mopeds. Kaiser won his quarter-final match (not sure who his opponent was, but it was either Jim Oliver or Eduardo Castillo), but then lost his semi-final match to Chausson via disqualification. He then wrestled Chausson again on 11 August. The result was a 20-minute draw. What followed were a routine win over the Italian villain Conde Daidone on 18 August and a loss on 21 August to Felix Lamban by disqualification.

Dr. Adolf Kaiser in a Barcelona ring wearing his trademark leopard-print trunks

And this gets us to 24 August when Dr. Kaiser suffered his first defeat in Barcelona and that defeat came at the hands of a surprising opponent, who just a week prior wasn't even working for the same promotion as Kaiser. While Luis Bamala was running his shows at the Balañá bullrings, the local Gran Price promotion was running big shows of its own in other Barcelona arenas. And then all of a sudden the two promotions started working together. A new tournament was introduced called I Torneo de Barcelona (first tournament of Barcelona) and that tournament featured wrestlers from both Luis Bamala's group and the Gran Price group. The idea was that the tournament was put together and promoted by Pedro Balañá, the owner of the bullrings where the Bamala shows were taking place and someone who had done business with Gran Price in previous years, but had dropped the working relationship in order to work with Bamala exclusively. The tournament was a major deal that led to several never-before-seen matches. It featured 16 wrestlers, eight from each promotion, divided into groups of four. Each group would have a one-night tournament where they would all wrestle each other. There were winners and losers, but the matches were also judged on points and at the end of the night the wrestler with the most points moved onto the final of the tournament.

The first group in I Torneo de Barcelona had Jim Oliver, Dr. Adolf Kaiser and Claude Montourcy from the Bamala promotion, and "Iron Head" Jose Tarres from the Gran Price promotion. Tarres was the top star of the Gran Price promotion and was incredibly popular in Barcelona. On 24 August Kaiser defeated the respected Frenchman Montourcy in the third match on the show and Oliver in the fifth match, but then in the sixth match Tarres ended up defeating the undefeated Dr. Kaiser.

On 1 September Kaiser faced Capitan Withos. Withos was a wrestler with a martial arts gimmick who was receiving a big push by beating top names in very quick fashion. That streak came to an end at the hands of Kaiser, who beat Withos in 13:07 minutes and thus gained some of his momentum back.

On 5 September Kaiser had a rematch with Jose Tarres. In 1958 Tarres was on a bit of a roll in a sense that he had ended the winning streaks of two of the most prominently featured foreign villains in the Gran Price promotion and followed that up by ending Kaiser's streak too. By virtue of his win over Kaiser, Tarres received a shot at the European Mid-Heavyweight Title, which he himself last held in 1954. The question was could Tarres defeat Kaiser again, but this time on a night where both men were fresh and hadn't already wrestled two matches each. The answer to that question was yes - Tarres once again defeated Kaiser and became European champion.

On 11 September Kaiser finished up his rivalry with Jesus Chausson too. After multiple attempts Chausson finally managed to slay the evil German. Chausson submitted Kaiser with his finishing move - el patin invertido (inverted skate), also known as la sombrilla (the umbrella).

Jesus Chausson's patin invertido/sombrilla

This more or less ended Dr. Adolf Kaiser's run in Barcelona in 1958. He did return for another headline match at Gran Price on 21 November, which was a DQ win over the Spanish Mid-Heavyweight champion Rafael Blasco, but that was just a one-off. Overall, he had a very strong run in Barcelona that was very well-booked and with good payoffs at the end (i.e. he was a dominant heel who ultimately lost clean to the top babyface stars of the two biggest Spanish promotions). And by the looks of it his run drew some good crowds too. After working in Spain in 1958 Kaiser continued wrestling in Europe (Germany, France, England, Spain, etc.) and later on became an actor.