Name: Franz Goethe
Nick Name:
Mr. DDR
"Dancing" Franz Goethe


Ht/Wt: 6'2, 235 lbs
Hometown:
East Berlin, Deutsche Democratic Republic (1970-1989)
Berlin, Germany (1990-1999)

Entrance Music:
Entrance Moves:

Appearance:
Franz Goethe is a pale and heavyset German man with jaundiced features. He has long, thin brown hair combed over a bald spot. Even as a young man, he looks middle aged. Naturally strong and athletic, he is a little fat around the belly due to his poor diet.

For most of his career Goethe wore black trunks with boots and no knee pads. After becoming "Dancing" Franz Goethe in Japan, from 1998-1999, he began to wrestle in a variety of outfits from mesh shirts, to sequin jumpsuits and pacifiers.

Common Moves:
In his early years, Goethe used an assortment of legitimate wrestling holds. He excels in small joint manipulation, and catch-as-catch can European wrestling. Usually keeping grounded, as a babyface Goethe incorporates leapfrogs and dropkicks into his repertoire.

From 1998 to 1999, Goethe would reinvent his moveset to include several variations of strike combinations, interspersed with dance moves including the running man, the cabbage patch, the tootsie roll and the electric slide.

Signature Moves:
Running knee drop, crossface chickenwing.

Finisher:
Atomic Drop (1970-1983)
Deutsch/Dancing Dream (Cobra Clutch)

Gimmick:
For the first few years of his career in East Berlin, as well as early into his US run, Goethe did not have a gimmick other than being a stern hard nosed grappler. Through the 80s, he began to play up his background as an evil foreign heel, carrying the flag of the DDR with him to the ring and cutting promos in his native language.

After 1989, Goethe turned babyface and embraced American values normally as a sidekick to other patriotic heroes. He would put on weight, and develop more jovial characteristics for the remainder of his career until being repackaged in 1998 as a raver/dance music enthusiast in Japanese indies.

Alignment: Heel (1970-1989)
Face (1989 and on)

Style:
Bruiser (1970-1989)
Showman (1989 and on)

Trivia: After moving permanently from Germany in 1989 and settling into a full time US career, Goethe opened a school from wrestling in New York City which was attended by a young Freakshow among others.