NO-MAS: Omos in NOAH

 

Team 2000X (Omos/Jack Morris) vs. Takashi Sugiura/Naomichi Marufuji NOAH 1/1/25

ER: Around Christmas, Tim told me that NOAH was bringing in Omos as a Nigerian Kaiju and wondered if I'd be interested in checking out how they handle a guy who's completely different than any NOAH wrestler in history. Omos has been in WWE for four years now and for whatever reason they are scared about using an Actual Giant in a wrestling match now. There are fewer Big Men in wrestling than ever before. Why!? It can't be the "quality" of the ring work, that doesn't make sense. I've seen plenty of fucking Xyon Quinn or Cora Jade matches. They can't care that much about people looking bad in a ring. 30% of their roster is made up of people with lifted asses and blown out knees working spots in half speed, but I guess a literal Giant moving at the speed of a Giant isn't something they can visualize working in Pro Wrestling. Pull the damn trigger on a guy who is 7'3 and Looks Cool. Omos looks cool. He's a Black Giant who looks cool. He's not Eli Cottonwood. He's not Shanky. Is it because he's the only black giant? Is that why they're so afraid, because he's the tallest black wrestler they've ever been around?  Suddenly the tallest black wrestler in history comes along and can pull off facial hair and dress well, and they get too racist to understand what they have? He's the tallest black wrestler since Karl Malone and that means something.  

Now I don't think there are actually any guys on the NOAH roster I actually care about seeing against Omos - this is a far cry from MY NOAH of 20 years ago - but the idea still intrigued me. I don't know why they scared the Big Man away from pro wrestling but it fucking sucks, and now NOAH is courting one with the intention of making him a big attraction. Their first step in making him a big attraction? To have him do something he's never done before: Win the tag titles in his first match in the company. 

This tag was a fine way to debut Omos, even though it was nowhere close to as good as his debut 4 years ago. I thought Jack Morris and Marufuji looked awful. Morris had really bad stomps and clubbing shots, and is a real bland guy to pair with your new giant. As I was thinking about how bad most of Morris's offense was, Marufuji blazed out of the corner with a 5 hit combo that missed so badly I assumed was intentionally thrown as a 0 hit combo. I thought he was just backing Morris up with near misses like they were breaking into Low Ki vs. Red but then Morris took a big Sean Salmon bump and I had to rewind to see what had made him bump. 

I don't know how Marufuji came up through All Japan and has strikes that look this bad. He's in his mid-40s and has a fuckboi perm and I wish he had gotten the shit kicked out of him by Kanemaru and IZU Makoto Hashi in 1998 because he blows. His work with Omos is really bad too. He has no idea how to work a giant and he's terrible at setting up spots. He throws a punch to be caught and he throws it like he was fighting AJ Styles. Omos has to deadlift him on a backdrop and Marufuji hops early on the double chokeslam. It means more symbolically that he easily pinned Marufuji on his first night in Japan but it would have been much better to pair him off for a big match with Sugiura. I like Sugiura and he knew exactly how to work Omos. He was also much better at doing something with Morris, burying knees in his stomach and leaning into Morris's one cool bump (one his shoulders taking a brainbuster off the middle buckle) and he knew he could actually throw some elbows at Omos for him to no sell. Sugiura's looks after Omos absorbed those elbows were well above the level of the same expected looks from any Performance Center alum. 

As for Omos, I don't think he did enough, and he needs to actually throws strikes. Sugiura can take a club to the back dude. Marufuji's best moment was getting kicked off the buckles to the floor, and it was Omos's best moment too. He needs to swing harder and not be afraid to be a giant. Stan Hansen swung big and missed big. Swing to hit. Miss like a Giant. 

Tim Livingston: WWE has been sending talent to Pro Wrestling NOAH for two years now. That exchange has led to predictably blah stuff (outside of Mutoh becoming an Hall of Famer, an outright cool distinction), but it all pales in comparison to the most intriguing thing of all to come out of this relationship.

In an interview during their August excursion, Josh Briggs and Tavion Heights asked Mutoh and Marufuji who they thought would do well coming over from WWE to NOAH. Mutoh excitedly exclaimed OMOS, citing his love for big guys and later saying he could help make Omos a star attraction. The homogenization of outsider talent in Japan has led them to be so same-y and tryhard over the past several years. Being able to drop f-bombs and flip people off = cool in 2025, apparently. Someone like Omos being in Japan has a chance to make an actual impact if done correctly.

Lo and behold, Omos DID get announced for the NOAH New Year show, as the mystery partner of Jack Morris. No, not the fringe Hall of Fame pitcher; this guy is a Scottish pro wrestler, although now I wonder if Verne ever approached Jack about making an appearance at an AWA show at one point. They were even facing Marufuji and Sugiura for the GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Titles. I asked if Eric would want to check in one someone I know he likes and figured we'd follow his exploits for the green brand as long as he's there. Or, given he's still in the throes of his '97 WCW project, get his comparisons between OMOS and Ron Reis at the very least.


Omos immediately jumps off the page here, especially standing next to Morris, who is a bit generic. The wide shot of Omos walking down the aisle was a great production choice. You can see just how much he stands out in the arena, and it hammers home how a simple presentation can get so much across. Him staring down Wakamotoharu at ringside, a high-level sumo and big pro wrestling fan doing guest commentary, was downright mesmerizing given he hadn't even entered the ring and had already created a buzz.

The match layout could not have been better here: instead of teasing out his eventual tag into the match, Morris tags Omos in right away and the match becomes immediately intriguing. Omos rightfully comes into this match knowing he owns the two legends across from him in nearly every facet, even withstanding Sugi trying a few tricks and failing hard. Another great piece of production, inadvertent or not: Omos hits a corner avalanche and the impact is so strong it shakes the corner cam out of focus.

Omos' second control segment on Marufuji was even better. I love how Marufuji tried what Sugi tried only to eat even more shit. The Omos big boot knocking him off the buckles to the floor looked amazing; a prelude to him getting bieled back in right on his hip after being lifted off the floor by his cranium. Omos busts out the basketball shooting taunt, and it's one thing for someone like Carmelo Hayes to work basketball gimmicks into his stuff, but a 7'4" dude doing it just hits harder.

It should be pointed out Marufuji hits nothing but air on a strike combination "towards" Morris that was so hilarious it would lead any blooper reel. This is a guy who looked up to Misawa, came up in the All Japan dojo, and after nearly three decades can only really throw a chop with any authority, with two of those spent on top of a promotion. Boggles the mind.

The finishing stretch hammered home Omos as a difference maker and was tremendous. You get the splash from Morris standing on Omos' shoulders (with the low camera shot to sell the height Morris jumped from), the murdering of Sugi on the apron with a chokeslam, and then the double choke bomb to give Omos (and Morris, I guess) the belts.

Omos has roughly 200 matches under his belt, a majority of those being off TV, but this is as good as I've ever seen him look. There was meaning in every spot, his overall presentation was superb, everything he did was efficient and impactful. He wasn't hidden or limited in any way. In ten minutes, you learned everything you needed to know about what Omos can do while leaving plenty in the tank for the weeks and months to come. A great piece of business and a great start. 

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Found Footage Friday: Hanover 1981

Hanover 1981

MD: Another Richard Land (@maskedwrestlers on twitter) find. He has a ton of these from a recent haul that he'll slowly go through. We've already seen the next and it's full of great stuff. If you are, however, let's say the biggest Adrian Street fan in the world, do feel free to reach out to me. Some things really need to be seen.

Achim Chall vs. John Quinn

MD: Quinn had a size advantage here and could pepper in shots from almost any angle whenever he wanted. Chall was obviously skilled, both generally and in kayfabe, presented as such. He was able to score clever takedowns and get in jumping knees. The problem is that Quinn gave him no room to breathe. He was constantly being admonished by the ref for picking Chall up too early or kicking at him while he was down or stepping on him. When he hit moves, it was dropping him throat first on the ropes. He would put illegal holds on and hide punches with a headlock. You could hear the announcer mention some slight he did every few seconds. Eventually the ref had enough and red carded him, awarding the match to Chaim. It wasn't satisfying but because of those little glimpses of Chall's skill maybe it was effective in getting Quinn heat for the tour overall, allowing Chall to beat him without hurting Quinn at all (even if it didn't help Chall a ton) and reinforcing the rules, always important in the grand scheme of things.

Adrian Street vs. Francisco/Paco Ramirez

MD: Street's song is so effective at making him stand out, even in 1981 Germany. It just transfers anywhere and is so unique relative to everyone else's presentation even though people tend to come out to music here. But he was going to stand out anyway. This was one of the most remarkable things I've ever seen. He was a babyface at times in the States but he was still the Other and it was much more about seeing the heel get embarrassed in the South by someone who you'd never invite to dinner. This was different. It was celebratory in the most German way. It was Cabaret. There was pure elation for everything he did, whether it was using Ramirez' arm to mimic sexual acts while in an armbar or dancing with high kicks between falls or menacing the ref. Street may or may not have been the best wrestler in the world on this night in 1981 but he was the most appreciated and maybe the most alive. I've never seen him quite so free to be this over the top in everything he did but the fans absolutely ate it up. It was on Paco Ramirez, one of our old friends from the later French footage to play the straight man. Yes, Street was over the top, but it took incredible skill and understanding of pro wrestling (including, yes, the mechanics) to make this all work. No one could have done it quite like him and we've never had footage of him doing it quite like this.

PAS: Killer stuff, the decadent Weimar German's are eating up his act with a spoon, really reminded me of a crowd super into an all timer lucha exotico like  Pimpinela or Cassandro. Really made me wish we had an epic bloody lucha Adrian Street apuestas match. Not a ton of actual wrestling in this, but you could tell that Street was a master of that part of it all as well.  This was a couple of years after Bowie moved to German, but it had that Bowie spirit. This isn't the kid of thing which encourages a lot of written scrutiny, bit what a delight.

 

Alex Dieter vs. Moose Morowski

MD: There's a noted classic 1980 match between these two that I'm not nearly familiar enough with, but I can say safely that these two were familiar with one another here. Dieter attacks right from the start and controls for the entire first round and the fans chant his name and love it. You get the sense that Morowski deserves it as well. Nothing flashy but a thorough beating. Then Morowski returns the favor in the second round with violent, rudimentary offense incensing the fans. After tossing Dieter out of the ring, a fan decides to take matters into his own hands and tosses a chair in. Morowski immediately beelines towards the ropes and charges at him and that's basically all she wrote for this one. We see the camera trying to track what's going on but it's hopeless. Completely unexpected. Totally wild. True heat and immediate consequence. Pro wrestling, everybody.

PAS: I loved the 1980 match

https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2016/11/all-time-moty-list-head-to-head.html

This felt like a house show version of the epic 1980 match, and clearly had some building to do until the fan chucks the chair at Moose ending the match. Would have loved to see the beating Morowski clearly put on that dude, and that is certainly a legit memorable finish. 

Grand Vladimir vs. Caswell Martin

MD: Pretty enjoyable stuff! Vladimir is very funny at first, doing everything over-the-top sporting to Martin and the crowd's surprise. A lot of raising his hand and shaking his hand and really making a show of it. Martin returns the favor by holding on to a cravat for the entirety of the second round despite every attempt by Vladimir to escape. One idea executed perfectly. In the third round, Vladimir goes for another handshake and then hits a gutshot and tosses Martin out as the ref is distracted and it's lovely payoff to all of the build. He ultimately gets disqualified but then is run off post-match. 

Goro Tanaka (Tsurumi)/Kengo Kimura vs. Cowboy Ed Wiskoski/"American Football Star" Jim Neidhart. 

MD: Goro totally gets it. He does a big sumo introduction including a split where Kimura bounces on his back. Wiskoski comes out with a cowboy hat and to "Some Girls" by Racey which is not a song I had ever heard before but it's quite the entrance overall. This is two out of three falls but none of the falls get a lot of time. Tsurumi is working for the last row and Neidhart is a tank. He catches Kimura off the ropes for a stampede to end the first fall. Second fall ends with them doing a bunch of silly karate moves on Neidhart, with the third ending abruptly with a dropkick to reverse a bodyslam into a pin. Things were simple and straightforward here, with one inversion instead of six, but it was all very effective. Just a weird match on paper and in practice though.

Moose Morowski vs. Pat Roach

MD: Roach took the first quarter of this by controlling the arm with a double wristlock and all sorts of other offense. But once it opened up, they absolutely pounded on each other and never looked back. Just a total war of attrition. It spilled out multiple times and came back in. There were cheapshots at the end of the round and then cheapshots to counter the cheapshots at the end of the next round. I don't think there's a whole lot to say about it, but that it's just great pro wrestling, blurry, gritty, full of animosity, with the most believable late match selling you'll see. Of course they were exhausted. Of course they could barely get up. They'd been going for minutes upon minutes just laying it in on one another. You could get parts of a match like this today but not, I think the total sum of it.

 

Achim Chall vs. Bret Hart

 

MD: This being on the tape was why it was prioritized and I'm glad it was for the Morowski matches and the Street match, but there's not a lot here. Chall is obviously very skilled at doing simple things extremely well. This is all Bret working the arm and Chall countering with some fun cravat stuff. They'll work up to their feet and crash into each other and go back down into the holds. Perfectly solid stuff. The highlight was probably Bret doing one of those bridge arounds to keep the hold that always look so slick and that I've never seen him do before. It ends just as simply with Chall falling on Bret for the pin.

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El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: No Vacancy

Week 43: No Vacancy

EB:  The TV title tournament was held on January 26, and while we do not have the complete brackets of who faced who in the first round, we do know that the final match of the tournament was between TNT and Original TNT. When the numbers were drawn, Original TNTr received the bye to the finals, where he faced a tired and bloody TNT. Thanks to these circumstances (and a well placed salt throw) Original TNT became the new TV champion.In addition, the two tag title matches held that day resulted in disqualification wins for the tecnicos, with the circumstances surrounding those wins leading to stipulation rematches for February 2.  In the case of the Super Medicos vs. Rick Valentine & Galan Mendoza we have a no DQ rematch. For the Texas Hangmen and Invader #1 & Bronco #1, the Hangmen’s actions resulted in them stealing Bronco’s mask and Invader making the save with his fist taped up. If you have been following along on our journey you know that the taped fist appearing means things have reached a serious point.

Adding to everything going on heading into February 2 is the awaited cage match between Carlos Colon and Greg Valentine to settle the Universal title vacancy. Overall, there is a lot that’s been happening so far in 1991 and it looks like a lot of issues may be settled on February 2. Lucky for us, the Superestrellas de la Lucha Libe episode we have for the February 2 weekend gives us the opportunity to put a lot of these ongoing feuds in context, since it consists almost entirely of highlight videos for each of the ongoing feuds. It is the west coast version of Superestrellas that we have, so the focus is on promoting the February 3 card in Hormigueros, but as usual it’s basically the same card that will be held on February 2 in Bayamon (so we’re getting the build up here). If you were wanting to have a fuller context of what has been happening in CSP throughout January of 1991, this is the TV episode to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c78Y1d8JfiA

Hugo welcomes the viewers to the program and runs down what will be on today’s show. Hugo mentions that we will see Norman the Lunatic and Dick Murdoch in action (although we do not get any Norman in the episode, so it may be edited out of this version we have).  Hugo also mentions that we will have some special videos going over the ongoing feuds, with highlights about what has led up to this weekend’s house show matches.

We cut to the feud highlight video for Miguelito Perez vs. Kim Duk. This started January 19 in Caguas, upon Miguelito’s return from a Japan tour. Miguelito gets his signature powerslam and makes the cover, but Duk gets a foot on the ropes to stop the count. Miguelito thinks he has won the match and briefly celebrates, but the ref explains to him that the count was stopped due to Duk’s foot being on the ropes. While Perez has his back turned, El Profe hands Kim Duk something. Miguelito heads back towards Duk and sends him into the ropes to set up another powerslam, but on the rebound Duk throws salt into Miguelito’s face.  Duk is disqualified but Perez is down and temporarily blinded on the mat. Duk takes the opening to start attacking Migueltio with a kendo stick, hitting several blows on the defenseless Perez. Some days.later, Miguelito got a surprise when he was leaving the studio and found his vehicle’s windshield smashed up. Fans that were nearby informed Miguelito that it was Kim Duk that had done it with a baseball bat.

El Profe and Kim Duk cut a promo on the upcoming match with Miguelito Perez, with Profe saying that Kim Duk’s leg is all better now (it seems that Duk claimed he was injured last Sunday to avoid facing Miguelito) and there will be no excuses when Kim Duk  finishes Perez this weekend. We go to Miguelito with Hugo, and Hugo talks about everything that has happened so far, such as the salt being thrown in Miguelito’s face, Duk’s knee being hurt last week, and now the incident with the windshield. Perez wants all of the fans to be there tomorrow night because he wants revenge. It’s true that he didn;t see Kim Duk break the windshield of the car, but the fans that were there said they saw Duk do it. Miguelito is also convinced that last week Duk was faking that he was hurt or ill so that he wouldn’t have to face Miguelito. Tomorrow night in Hormigueros, both of them will be there and Duk will pay for what he has done. Perez asks what is up with Duk no longer coming out here with the baseball bat, all of a sudden he is back with the kendo stick. Hugo and Miguelito talk that maybe Duk is hiding it due to a guilty conscience or that he does not want to get any more fines for carrying it around. Miguelito also sends a warning to El Profe about not getting involved. Miguelito is coming for Duk’s head.

MD: This feud seems to have come out of nowhere but it’s a solid mid-card feud that moves Perez up the ladder a little bit if they need him to be moved up. I keep waiting for them to cycle the Hangmen (or Valentine/Mendoza) to the Caribbean Express but I guess it’s not time for that yet. Here Duk got DQed for using the salt in front of the ref, attacked with the kendo stick post-match and then trashed Perez’s car with it. So obviously Perez was out for blood. They got a ton of mileage out of 90-91 Duk all things considered. 

EB: We cut to the feud highlights for Giant Warrior vs. Scott Hall. We get the highlights from the Christmas Day tag match where Scott Hall turned on Giant Warrior due to Hall believing it was Warrior who had hit him with the chair. Hall had left Warrior laying and the feud was on from there. We go to their most recent encounter from January 27 in Hormigueros, where Warrior was well in control of the match and attempting several pin attempts. However, Hall made his way to the ring apron and was able to catch Giant Warrior when the latter attempted to bring Hall back in. Hall took advantage of having Warrior on the ropes and grabbed his bullrope from the turnbuckle. Hall then proceeded to choke Warrior out with the bullrope as the ref rang the bell, signalling a disqualification. Hall snapmared Warrior down with the rope and then started whipping Warrior with the bullrope. This has resulted in a bullrope match being signed for this weekend.

The interview with Hall is edited out of this version of the episode but we do get Warrior’s interview. Warrior has the bullrope with him and makes note that they will find out if Hall is man enough to be attached to the other end of the bullrope when facing Warrior.   The bell can do a lot of damage to a man’s head and Warrior is looking forward to defeating Hall and paying him back. Hall can’t run anywhere.

We then have a rundown for tomorrow’s card in Hormigueros (which is likely the same card scheduled for that night in Bayamon): Carlos Colon vs. Greg valentine for the vacant Universal title in a cage match; a rematch for the World tag team titles as Invader #1 (with his taped fist) and Bronco #1 challenge the Texas Hangmen; TNT challenges the new TV champion Original TNT; Giant Warrior vs Scott Hall in a bullrope match; Norman the Lunatic vs Dick Murdoch; a no DQ rematch for the Caribbean tag titles as  the Super Medicos challenge Rick Valentine & Galan Mendoza; Miguelito Perez vs. Kim Duk; and Huracan Castillo Jr. defends the World Junior title against Mr. Pogo. 

MD: The 1/27 match between these two actually looks pretty good. They’re working well together. It ends with Hall using the bullrope which, I mean, great, and it sets up a bullrope match for the upcoming card (which looks really good by the way, one of the best single cards I’ve seen them promote in ages and that’s saying something). But, they have the Texas Hangmen! They use a noose. It’s really similar! Maybe they should have clearly put Hall and the Hangment together as a unit? 

EB: We join a Dick Murdoch vs Nick Ayala match in progress just in time for Murdoch to hit a brainbuster and get the pinfall win. Hugo makes note that Murdoch has a young man with him at ringside, it appears Murdoch has said that he is training this person and wants to make him into a wrestler. Murdoch speaks briefly with the unnamed man and they shake hands before leaving the ring. We go to an interview with ‘Captain Redneck’ Dick Murdoch and this unidentified man. Murdoch calls Hugo ‘Herman’ and quickly moves past talking about Norman the Lunatic in order to complain about the loss of a beautiful lady on an island where there are none to be found. Murdoch also says that he found the man that made Puerto Rico famous in major league baseball by striking out in the World Series. The man is named Jose but Murdoch quickly tells Jose that he will get him to stop speaking ‘that trashy Mexican talk, that trashy Puerto Rican talk’, he will learn English like the rest of the world speaks. and that from now on his name will be Joe Smith. Murdoch insults the viewers and then tells ‘Herman’ that after Norman, he wants Carlos Colon.

MD: We’re robbed of the Ayala match as we come in just with the brainbuster. Murdoch’s promo is something else. He calls Hugo Herman. He has a guy with him who he calls Jose and says is a famous baseball player who struck out in a key moment who he will teach wrestling and call Joe Smith. He goes on about a bunch of other stuff and it’s all exactly what you’d expect. After Norman, his eyes are on Colon.

EB: Next is the recap of the feud between the Super Medicos and Rick Valentine & Galan Mendoza. This feud began with Embry getting injured during the fire match held on Christmas Day and thus a new tag team was formed with Valentine & Mendoza looking to avenge what happened to Embry. January 12 in Carolina saw Mendoza use his loaded glove to help his team get the win. The two teams faced off on January 19 for the Caribbean tag titles, where once again Mendoza used his loaded punch to hit one of the Medicos. Valentine made the cover but the time limit rang before the three count was completed. The rudos complained about there being irregularities with the timekeeper ringing the bell when he did, so a rematch was held at the January 23 TV tapings in Miramar. Once again Mendoza used his loaded glove to hit one of the Medicos and this time the rudos were able to get the win and became the new Caribbean tag champions. The Medicos wanted a rematch and they got it on January 26 jn Caguas. The Medicos had the match in hand with several pin and submission attempts on Valentine. However, Mendoza kept breaking up the pinfall and submission attempts. Finally, Medico #1 got Valentine in a sleeperhold, which caused Mendoza to leap off the top rope in an attempt to break the hold up. Medico #3 had rushed in though, and instead was able to intercept Mendoza and put him in a sleeperhold as well. The ref had seen enough of Mendoza’s interference and called for a disqualification, which meant the rudos remained the champions. The Medicos kept the sleeperholds on and left Valentine and Mendoza laid out in the ring. This weekend they face off in a no DQ match.

We cut over the rudo team's interview and go to the Super Medicos. Hugo asks Medico #3 for his thoughts and Medico #3 says that everyone knows that the rudos stole the belts from them but they will regain them tomorrow. Hugo then asks Medico #1 for his thoughts, since the fans saw how Valentine & Mendoza cheated to win the belts in that bloody match they had on TV.  Tomorrow it is no DQ, so anything goes from either team. Medico #1 says that moments ago the fans saw clips of the battles the Medicos have had with Valentine & Embry and now Mendoza, and also the ways that the rudos have cheated, It’s now no DQ and the rudos say that they have the tiles and now want to get rid the Super Medicos. They may have the titles, but getting rid of the Medicos will be impossible for them to do.

MD: Not a lot to say here because we’ve covered a bunch of this but it’s been a very solid feud overall. Again, they got a ton of mileage out of Rick Valentine between 90-91 and multiple partners. Everything’s built to a big No DQ match which you think would favor Valentine/Mendoza but we shall see.

EB: We go to the feud highlight video for TNT and the Original TNT. El Profe is the narrator for the first part of this highlight video (so we are going to get his slant on things), where he recounts the start of this feud in 1989. Original TNT found out through a wrestling magazine that here in Puerto Rico there was a faker named Juan Rivera, who had gone to Loiusiana and decided to copy the name and style of TNT (which is not true). So Original TNT made his way to Puerto Rico to put a stop to this fake (again, this is Profe’s rudo slant on what happened). Hugo then continues the narration, indicating the two men were scheduled to face off at Aniversario 1989 in a winner take all match for the identity of TNT, but Original TNT did not show up.  Now in 1991 Original TNt has returned and the feud restarted on January 19, when TNT made a surprise appearance to save Carlos colon from Original TNT’s attack. TNT put Original TNT in the Cobra Dinamita and left him knocked out in the ring. They faced off for the TV title in the tournament finals on January 26, where Original TNt was able to steal the win. The next day in Hormigueros, they faced off in a singles match, where TNT hit a spin kick in the corner that sent him flying to the outside. TNT landed on his feet and surprised Original TNt with a sunset flip pin attempt to get back in the ring. They continue fighting, with Original TNt getting a back suplex. Both men’s shoulders are down as the ref makes the count. At two, TNT gets one of his shoulders up. The ref completed the three count and Profe celebrated thinning Original TNT had won. The ref raises TNT’s hand as the winner instead.

We go to Original TNT and El Profe in the studio, talking about the upcoming TV title defense against TNT. Profe says that there cannot be two TNTs in wrestling, one will cease to be tomorrow. Original TNT reiterates that he is the real TNT and the other is an impostor. We then go to Hugo and TNT, with Hugo reminding the fans that this started back in 1989. TNT mentions that the dog impostor forgot to mention how he won the TV title. TNT had two matches before the final (meaning Original TNT got the bye) , TNT was very bloody and, to top it off, Original TNT had to use salt to help him win the TV title. Tomorrow it is one on one, face to face, and this time TNT will be fresh. He proved last week that he can beat the dog impostor despite also bleeding, because he was born and raised in Puerto Rico. He’s looking to get rid of the impostor and hurt him in the process as well.  

MD: Nice to finally hear AC/DC over the TNTs fighting. Looks like the TV title was decided with Original TNT winning the coin flip, so TNT had to wrestle an extra match that he didn’t. Then the finish the next night was him winning  on a banana peel slip by getting his shoulder up after Original TNT belly to back suplexed him. So now they face off again in fairer circumstances for the title.

EB: We have now the feud highlight video for Invader #1 & Bronco #1 vs the Texas Hangmen. This starts on January 6 in the first teamup of Invader and Bronco. The Hangmen are attacking Bronco in the ring, since Invader had chased Profe back to the dugout.  The Hangmen get Bronco up to hang him, but Invader (who had emerged from the dugout dragging Profe with the other noose) noticed what was happening and went to the ring to make the save. We go to January 26 where the two teams are facing off again. Invader makes the hot tag to Bronco, who starts cleaning house on both Hangmen. However, Invader fell to the floor after the tag from the damage taken in the match. Bronco continued attacking the Hangmen and remained in control, but one of the Hangmen snuck around to where Invader was outside of the ring and hit him over the head with a chair. The Super Medicos came out to check on Invader and help him back to the locker room area. This left Bronco alone with both Hangmen and he was eventually overwhelmed. The Hangmen signal that they are going to unmask Bronco and actually follow through on the threat, taking off his mask. Bronco quickly fell to the mat and covered up his face, as Hugo reminds the fans that this is the ultimate insult to a masked wrestler. The ref disqualifies the Hangmen but they don’t care and attack the defenseless Bronco. All of a sudden, Invader emerges from the stairwell and he has his fist taped! Remember that Invader’s  taped fist heart punch is considered to be a very dangerous maneuver in Puerto Rico. The Hangmen do not seem to notice and send Invader into the ropes, but before Invader can wind up and let it fly, El Profe grabs Invader’s legs and trips him up. Invader decides to go after the unsuspecting  Profe for interfering and hits him with the taped fist heart punch. Profe is laid out on the arena floor and Invader chases both Hangmen off before checking on Bronco. The Hangmen notice Profe on the floor and check on their manager. 

In the studio, El Profe is with the Texas Hangmen. Profe mentions that they know how dangerous the taped fist, with Profe knowing from experience, but they won’t be afraid tomorrow night. The Hangmen have Bronco’s mask with them, mocking Bronco for being unmasked and repeating that they are not afraid of Invader’s taped fist. They will keep the World tag titles. 

Invader and Bronco are somewhere in the arena for their promo, with Invader showing off his taped fist. Bronco is irate about the Hangmen going for his mask, something that they shouldn't have done. The mask is to be respected and Bronco and Invader will teach the Hangmen a lesson. Invader says they have the taped fist and that when the final bell rings, they will be the new World tag team champions. 

MD: The feud continues. This time a Hangman hits Invader with a chair from while he’s waiting to be tagged in and the Medicos take him to the back. That lets the Hangmen pull off Bronco’s mask. But Invader comes in now with the Heart Punch ready! Another bit of escalation. They started with a straight up match and had all these points they could escalate to. It’s just great week to week booking for a promotion like this and I think there’s a lot ot be learned for modern wrestling.

EB: We finally get a look at some highlights from the Carlos Colon and Greg Valentine feud that has been going on since December 15. While we have described what has happened so far,  it’s always better when we have footage to help show as well. We start with the match from December 15, where Greg tried to use his shin guard to assist with the figure four leglock, but Colon managed to push Greg away. This results in Valentine colliding with the ref and sending El Vikingo to the outside. Shenanigans occur when Profe interferes and helps break Colon’s figure four on Valentine. Greg gets his own figure four on Colon ,with a second ref coming in and calling for the bell. However, El Vikingo had seen Profe interfere and, after discussing it over, the second ref Victor Quiñones declared the Universal title was held up. A rematch on Christmas Day ended with Valentine disqualified for using the shin guard as a weapon. Valentine busted open Colon and attempted the figure four, but Carlos again kicked Valentine away. Carlos got hold of the shin guard and attacked Valentine in turn. Another rematch for the vacant Universal title happened on January 6, one that saw interference from Dick Murdoch and Giant Warrior. Colon ended up winning the match, but Profe and Greg filed a protest due to Giant Warrior interfering and helping Colon win. Carlos  announced on TV that he was not accepting the win this way and the Universal title remained vacant. To settle the matter, Colon and Valentine will face off in a cage match to decide once and for all who will be the Universal champion.

Direct from WWF we get a Greg Valentine interview conducted by announcer Miguel Alonso. Valentine talks about the title being held up the last three times they wrestled, outside of the last time when Colon won with Giant Warrior’s help. Valentine talks about stepping inside a steel cage for all the marbles when the video cuts to Colon in the middle of his interview. Carlos is inviting all of the fans to go to the new arena in Hormigueros so they can cheer him on and together they can win back the Universal title. It’s going to be a tough match, but Carlos is willing to give every drop of sweat and blood in order to win in the cage. Hugo wishes Carlos luck as the WWC representative in this match and Carlos says that you have to give Greg Valentine his due as a great professional wrestler. But Carlos has a commitment to the people of Puerto Rico, to represent them well and he doesn't plan to fail tomorrow. He has many reasons to win that match tomorrow and he’ll be dead before losing the match. The episode video cuts off just as Hugo starts his show closing.

MD: Finally we get all of the Valentine vs Colon matches at once, or at least the finishes of them, going back into December. What you can tell from these is that they looked very good. Valentine has great late match selling of exhaustion which makes you think they were long and grueling. It was another of Colon’s signature Figure-Four vs Figure-Four feuds with Valentine’s kneebrace factored in. Lots of ref bumps. Lots of overturned and unclear finishes. Plenty of Profe interference (that guy is doing so much work for the company). Occasionally Giant Warrior got involved to even the odds. The last match ended with Valentine having the figure four on but refusing to let go of the ropes for leverage. We can only learn so much from this recap video but it looks like a solid feud to anchor the territory.

EB: We have two of the top matches from February 2 in Bayamon. First let’s look at the World tag team title match where Invader #1 and Bronco #1 challenged the Texas Hangmen. Invader has his taped fist and Bronco is mad at being unmasked and humiliated by the Hangmen. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v35vTbPy_N8

We are Estadio Juan Ramon Loubriel and again we have the match from the raw house show footage, so it’s no commentary but all of the crowd noise and atmosphere. The tecnicos are in the ring as they are introduced, while the Texas Hangmen are outside on the field when introduced. One of the Hangmen (I think it’s Psycho) has Bronco’s mask on in order to mock his opponent, and he even starts doing Bronco’s dance to the crowd in order to further the mocking. The bell rings and Bronco charges out to attack both Hangmen and we are underway. Invader sends Psycho into the ropes for a chop but Psycho bails to the corner and then outside of the ring when threatened with the taped fist. Psycho gets into a tussle with referee Victor Quiñones over wanting to use the bullrope, but Victor eventually is able to hang the ropes over the ringpost in the rudo corner. Profe and the Hangmen start complaining that the ref needs to check Invader’s taped fist for any hidden objects, but the ref ignores them. The Hangmen back away every time Invader squares up with the taped fist during the first few minutes, with the tecnicos controlling the first half of the match via quick tags, working the Hangmen’s arms over,  and the continued fear and avoidance of Invader’s taped fist by the Hangmen.

The turning point for the Hangmen comes when Bronco is backed into the rudo corner and the Hangmen are able to double team Bronco. The Hangmen focus on keeping Bronco in the ring,as El Profe approves of their strategy since it keeps Invader and his taped fist out of the equation. The Hangmen are able to lure Invader into the ring a few times, allowing them to double team Bronco behind the referee’s back (including using the noose to choke Bronco). At one point, Bronco almost makes the tag but is stopped by Killer. Psycho grabs the rope and holds the cowbell behind his back as Killer works Bronco over with a chinlock in the ring. He is not able to use the bell but has the crowd on edge. The Hangmen continue in control (even doing an illegal switch), but a missed corner headbutt charge allows Bronco to tag in Invader. A quick flurry of offense has both Hangmen reeling and Bronco reenters the ring to even up the sides. Both Hangmen are rammed into each other and Bronco dropkicks one of them outside. Invader gets a small package but the pin attempt is broken up. Invader is sent into the ropes but gets a sunset flip for a near fall. A backslide pin attempt by Invader is also broken up, but this time Bronco comes in and dropkicks the interfering Hangmen. The ref is tied up with Bronco and the Hangmen attempt to use the ropes as a weapon against Invader. However, Invader ducks down and backdrops the interfering Hangman over the top to the outside. Invader is sent into the ropes but before anything can happen, he is tripped up by the other Hangman. Bronco jumps onto the Hangmen that is on the floor to break up the double team. Inside the ring, Invader gets slammed to the mat but rolls out of the way of a Hangman splash. Invader gets up, readies his fist and hits the Hangman with the heart punch. The crowd counts along with the referee and we have new World tag team champions. The crowd cheers as the tecnicos are awarded the belts and celebrate on the field.

MD: By this point, the Hangmen were not just a threat and dangerous, but they really had the stooging down. This starts awesome with one of them wearing the Bronco mask they stole and taunting the crowd with the Bronco hop. Then they stalled forever, presumably because they were afraid of the heart punch. Eventually, Invader and Bronco get their hands on one and just smack his arm around from corner to corner in a great moment. Things go as you’d expect from there, with Bronco getting too close to the corner and getting swept under. It builds to a big comeback (Bronco dodges a corner charge) and a hot tag and an exciting finishing stretch which ends with Invader and one Hangman in the ring. He misses a top rope headbutt and Invader hits the Heart Punch and it’s a huge celebratory scene. Great stuff after months of build.

EB: The other match we have from February 2 is the steel cage match between Carlos Colon and Greg Valentine. Will we finally have a Universal champion? Let’s find out as we join the match in progress.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9D5gGFbXXM

Hugo and Eliud are on commentary as Valentine drops a series of elbow drops on a prone Carlos. Hugo mentions that Carlos had been rammed into the side of the steel cage to knock him down just before Valentine started with the elbow drops. Greg tries to escape through the cage door but Carlos grabs him and stops the escape attempt with a turnbuckle smash (which almost results in Valentine falling out before Carlos quickly grabs him). Carlos rams Greg into the cage and stomps on him as the rain starts falling. Valentine pokes Carlos in the eyes and tries to send Colon into the side of the cage, but Carlos blocks it and instead sends Valentine head first into the side of the cage. Colon continues on the attack with punches and headbutts, staggering Valentine. As Carlos punches Valentine’s forehead to work over the cut, Hugo mentions that the rain is an advantage for Carlos since he is used to working in these open air environments compared to Valentine. At around the 2 minute mark of the video we get a 5 minute time call, so we really have not missed too much of the match. Carlos makes an attempt to leave via the door but Greg stops him. 

A series of elbow smashes helps Valentine stun Colon and allows Greg the chance to gain control. Colon’s head is rammed into the ringpost as Valentine continues focusing his attacks on Colon’s head. Both men are busted open and exchanging punches as it continues to rain. A headbutt by Carlos sends Valentine down. After a clothesline, Carlos again attempts an escape through the door but Valentine stops him. Carlos wins another punch exchange and does a cartwheel as Greg begs off. Carlos again makes another escape attempt but is stopped.when Valentine grabs his legs and pulls Colon crotch first into the ropes. Valentine quickly crawls over Colon to try to escape but Carlos is able to stop Valentine. Carlos continues attacking Valentine, but it is becoming noticeable that both men are tiring a bit from the punishment and bleeding they have endured. Carlos makes an attempt towards the door but Valentine knees Colon in the back to stop him. Valentine does some clubbing blows on the mat and cinches on the figure four. Hugo makes note that this is to hurt Carlos since the only way to win is via leaving the cage. Carlos tries to break the hold by hitting Valentine’s leg, but Greg cinches the hold on even  more. Carlos tries to reverse the hold but is unsuccessful, as the crowd tries to cheer him on. Hugo takes a moment to send a hello to the fans watching the program in Curacao, all over Latin America and Panama. 

Valentine finally releases the hold as Carlos lies prone on the mat holding his knee in pain. Valentine starts crawling towards the door but Carlos is able to maneuver close enough to grab Valentine's leg. Carlos is able to pull Valentine back in and drops him crotch first on the top rope. Carlos falls down to the mat from the exertion, followed by Valentine .The air horns sound as both men get to their feet and a rope counter sequence leads to both men colliding. Carlos falls closer to the cage door than Valentine and starts limping in that direction. Valentine catches Carlos in a back suplex and both men are down again. The cage door remains open as the 15 minute time call is heard. Valentine is the first one to his feet but Carlos surprises Valentine from behind with a dropkick that sends Greg into the corner,  bouncing off it and falling to the mat. Calros gets a second wind and works over Valentine’s leg, he is setting up the figure four. Carlos starts applying the hold, but Valentine kicks Carlos away from him. However, the cage door had been left open for the last few minutes and the momentum of the kick sends Colon flying through the ropes and out the door. Carlos has escaped the cage and won the vacant Universal title. The video cuts out right as the ref raises Colon’s hand in victory.

MD: We get the last ten minutes of this but I don’t get the sense we missed more than five or six more? It feels almost like a Bruno cage match where he’s willing to go for the door but only after he’s satisfied he’s beaten on his opponent enough. Valentine’s constantly going for it. It builds to a hot bloody finish where Valentine caught Colon with a foot over the rope on the way out and started working the leg. He put on a long figure four and then it was down to Colon to find the strength in his leg to stop him. Valentine’s late match selling was excellent here and we get the bloody visual of him crawling away from Colon towards the door. Carlos does find the strength to come back and eventually gets the leg himself but he’s kicked while trying to put on his own figure four. Unfortunately for the Hammer, he’s kicked all the way through the cage for the finish. Pretty iconic stuff overall.

EB: We finally have settled the Universal title vacancy and the champion is Carlos Colon. We also have new World tag team champions in Invader #1 and Bronco #1. But what of the other title matches from this weekend? We’ll find out in due time if any others changed hands.

Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, Carlos Colon is not given much time to celebrate his Universal title win as Dick Murdoch makes his move. Also, has Invader finally gotten his revenge on the Texas Hangmen? And who is the new associate El Profe has brought in to help manage the rudo wrestlers? 

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 12/23 - 12/29

AEW Dynamite 12/25/24

Darby Allin vs. Ricochet

It was a Christmas miracle. 

Ricochet hit a 630 senton from the top through a table to the floor onto Darby Allin in the Hammerstein Ballroom in front of the smarkiest fans imaginable and there was no This is Awesome chant. There was no AEW chant. There was no Fight Forever or Both These Guys. There was concern for Darby Allin. There was jeering for Ricochet and his antics after the fact. There was a face and there was a heel and there was a clear preference from the crowd that one wrestler beat another. The fans were invested in something other than the idea of perceived greatness. They were responding to the action unveiling before their eyes in real time, but more than that, they were moved by the consequences of that action. If that's not a pro wrestling miracle here at the end of 2024, in front of this crowd, after a spot like that, with a wrestler like Ricochet who I'd never imagine it possible six months ago, I don't know what would be.

Stooging is an investment. It's a means to an end. Just like everything else in a match. It generates heat. It creates a pressure for the heel to get what's coming to him. It builds it up and when it's paid off, there's a feeling of gratification and justification. It shouldn't be done for its own sake just like nothing else should be done for its own sake. It can also be considered an investment because it does have a cost. It takes the place of more conventional, traditional action. There are critics who will stack demerits onto a match for it. But this was such an amazing demonstration of its power. 

Ricochet started the match by complaining about a hairpull in the corner, Ricochet being the baldest man alive. When Paul Turner cried foul, he immediately went to the tights as if Darby pulled them, changing his story. As Darby had him in headlocks, he made faces as he strained, mugged. He eventually slipped out by using the baldness as a tool and then celebrating as if he'd truly accomplished something special. He was consistently on, hitting flashy spots after he had taken control with a cheapshot in the corner, but the immediately rubbing it in the crowd's face. 

The match had a second, smaller miracle, one of the best, most fortuitous hope spots of the year. The crowd has started throwing toilet paper at him (the sort of streamers a heel like him, so full of himself, deserves). If not for safety and clean-up concerns, I half think they should have Swerve debut toilet paper with Ricochet's face on it that they sell in the arenas. Maybe it's worth it despite all that. Anyway, the hope spot was Darby sweeping a distracted Ricochet's feet off the apron. But what made it all come together was that there was a roll of toilet paper on the apron and Ricochet made it so the distraction was due to him throwing it back into the balcony. They couldn't have possibly planned for that but it call came together perfectly (Ricochet was constantly "on"), as did the cutoff where Ricochet cruelly slammed Darby's back in the post, giving the fans absolutely nothing to like about him. 

So when Ricochet hit the 630, they absolutely didn't have to "give it to him", or celebrate how wonderful AEW was in general. They were honed in on how much they hated him, how much they loved Darby, how worried they were for him, how much they wanted to cheer for him and how much they wanted him to stop Ricochet from making it to the semi-finals of the tournament. There's not one right way to do pro wrestling, but there's not any one way quite as right as that. 

There's a change in the air in AEW: with Fletcher, with Ricochet, with Okada, even guys like Takeshita. They're more willing to look vulnerable, to stooge, to be something other than cool athletic marvels who go 50-50 with the most exciting matches they can possibly have. It's unlocking tools left long dusty and the crowds are reacting. The reaction for Fletcher vs Benjamin and Fletcher vs Okada was nothing short of remarkable, and the reaction here for Ricochet vs Darby was, as I noted, miraculous. 

Don't get me wrong. I think in a match like Ospreay vs Komander or Ospreay vs Dante Martin (or even Ospreay vs Okada as the finals of the C2, even if it's not the match I would have chosen; instead I would have had another five minutes of Okada working the leg after Ospreay got stuck in it as a second heat and then built to an even bigger comeback), it's a great sign of success to have those This is Awesome chants. However, you don't want that when there's a clear heel doing fiendish and underhanded things. You don't want that when there's a wrestler the fans are supposed to dislike and ideally pay money to see lose, or at least to revel in their losing after they've already paid money for the AEW experience. 

In a situation with a clear heel/face dynamic, a This is Awesome chant isn't necessarily a sign of success. It's a sign that the fans aren't engaged in the storyline being told and are instead enjoying things in their own way; if that's the case, then why are you even trying to tell the story in the first place. In that case, it becomes something done for the sake of it, waste and to some degree, a failure. 

But this match right here is proof positive that by leaning into the old ways, of having the heel stooge and be as unlikable as possible, even when they do escalate down the stretch, the fans are going to be not just entertained, but also invested (as the stooging itself is an investment) in the actual outcome of the match and in the face overcoming and the heel getting his. It's still possible in 2024, and it's another, incredibly potent tool in AEW's toolbelt, one that create an even more engaged and loyal fanbase. 

So no, maybe this wasn't a miracle. It was an experiment, a hypothesis. 

It was proof.

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Found Footage Friday: TAJIRI~! HHH~! BABA~! EIGEN~! FURNAS~! MVC~! SPIVEY~!

Dr. Death Steve Williams/Terry Gordy vs. Dan Spivey/Doug Furnas AJPW 10/19/90

MD: I like Kroffat as much as the next guy, move even, but Spivey being in there instead increased the hoss level considerably. This was heated from the start too. Doc had it out for Furnas for some reason. He gave him the middle finger before the match. Furnas returned the favor by swinging a kick at him as he was squaring up with Spivey. Doc wiped his sweat in Furnas' direction. Furnas gave him the finger. Doc told him to kiss his butt. You get the idea. It's a good way to start a match. 

It doesn't let up from there. Furnas uses the three point stance to knock Gordy down, but Doc's able to grind Furnas down well enough that he makes sure to rush over and smack Spivey around a bit too, before mouthing off and maybe even spitting at him drawing Spivey in and it's just an absolutely chaotic feel early on.

What follows is about five minutes of the best wrestling you'll ever see. Doc catching Furnas in mid air and bringing him to the top rope, the two of them trading slaps and Furnas leaping over him to hit a belly to belly. Doc and Spivey smacking each other all the way out of the ring. Spivey hitting a bossman slam on Doc and boos ringing through the air as Gordy breaks it up. The place absolutely exploding as Furnas press slams Gordy only to eat a lariat. It's a hell of a five minutes before everything settles down to holds.

They take it down before building it back up and the overall effect is a hell of a thing. Gordy and especially Doc get a ton of heat. Furnas is able to clap up Spivey. There are a bunch of great nearfalls down the stretch before an extremely definitive ending but one that took that bit of extra effort. These are the sort of lost matches we hope to find.

ER: I love All Gaijin matches in All Japan because it's interesting to see how they can organically draw heat and interest without any kind of Nativism at play. No side is necessarily more loved or hated, only more established. Dr. Death understands that and leans into the MVC's established rep and for seemingly no reason goes hard on Doug Furnas. I have zero reason to believe there is any kind of animosity between Dr. Death and Doug Furnas, but everyone in this match made me believe there was. Doug Furnas was fairly established at this point. Not at the level of beating teams like Doc and Gordy, but already a two time All Asia tag champ who had beaten big teams. Doc quickly turns him into an underdog babyface which leads to a more spirited wild eyed performance from Spivey and some incredible payoff when Furnas finally starts throwing them around. 

Everyone was so good in this match that I fully bought into Doc and Gordy as two guys who actually hated Furnas (they didn't), Furnas as a guy out of his depth (he wasn't) and Spivey as a guy fearlessly telling MVC to back the fuck off and stop taking liberties with Furnas (they weren't, but at times it didn't seem like Spivey realized that). Doc was doing some performative middle fingers and phony baloney heat drawing across the ring while Furnas looked like a guy making the universal face of "Hey man I didn't do anything to you do you have the right guy?" You could tell Doc had the right guy when he sat Furnas on the top rope and slapped Furnas so hard to break. Furnas looked like Allen Covert and sold the slap by making the face that Allen Covert makes when his girlfriend leaves him in one of the few Sandler movies where that happens. Doc is great at bullying Furnas to rile up Spivey, and Spivey is that great combination of large and reckless and Just Getting Real Good so that he always gets too amped up on his first punch of an exchange and throws some potatoes before dialing back a little. He always looks ready to pop off, and it's a killer distraction from Furnas finally popping off. 

Doug Furnas gorilla press slamming Terry freaking Gordy - and the scared face Gordy makes while being held up high in that press - is an incredible spot. It would have been an amazing press slam anyway, but once Furnas added a pump it became an all timer. The crowd lost their minds at that press slam and that hyped Doug up so much he did a backflip and then ran as fast as he could into Gordy's biggest clothesline of the match. Doug finally suplexing Death was so cool. I love the way Doc bumps when he's reeling, just as I love when he decides one turnbuckle isn't enough for a stampede. MVC made damn certain that they were the bad guys here and were so convincing that the fans bought them as bullies against two of the toughest dudes. Terry Gordy out here getting booed over and over for breaking up pins and picking on Mega Athlete Doug Furnas.   

Giant Baba/Rusher Kimura/Akira Taue vs. Harkua Eigen/Motoshi Okuma/Masa Fuchi AJPW 10/27/90

MD: This is a recent Classics drop and a Baba 30th Anniversary match. Jumbo gives him a plaque before the match and everything. This gets a ton of time, 20+ it feels like and it's just packed full of character and comedy. It's hard to do justice to it all or even half of it but I'll point out a few things.

First, Eigen, amazing as always, really shines at the start. He faces off against young Taue to start but then darts to the corner and slaps Baba before running out. They reset, he does the same thing but this time teases Baba and slaps Rusher. Then when facing off against Rusher, he ducks and slaps him twice before leading him to the corner for a long heat segment. They kick away at him forever before we ultimately get some goofy stuff with Okuma and headbutts. There are a ton of headbutts in this match and while Rusher gets some in, a lot of them are eaten by Taue.

Taue's a lot of fun here. I've seen every bit of 1990 footage we have of him and he wasn't there yet, but here he's got this sense of wild abandon, limbs flying and flopping about, that would soon be gone from him. He looks like he's going to become an entirely different wrestler here between his selling of the headbutts and a sort of physical recklessness.

This refuses to end, a lot of the normal things you think might end it getting broken up. They run some of the best Eigen spit spot stuff ever, as both Taue and Baba get to do it, with Baba getting it on his hand and everyone almost cracking up (and Kobashi cracking up decades later on commentary). Then Rusher goes for it, but he's blocked, and Baba comes in from the other side with a chop and it's pretty hilarious let me tell you. The finish is a fun combo of Taue hitting an atomic drop sending Okuma into Baba's foot and then right back into Taue's belly to back. My only regret is that they didn't repeat the atomic drop/boot sequence a couple of times first. Great fun that no dirtsheet would have appreciated at the time but that we can absolutely appreciate now.

ER: This is one of those Wrestling Heaven situations for me. I love my King's Road, and I love my boys. Give me 20 minutes of VILLAIN SHOKAI up to their old bullshit and the nuanced twists that come with every new 20 minutes. It's crazy how many ways they found to do their same bullshit slightly different over the years. You recognize the behaviors but there are always things they do different, things I've never seen, or realistically perhaps things I've seen a million times but don't care because they all work so well together that I don't ever get tired of them. All of these old men matches (Masa Fuchi was 36 lol) were written off unfairly by morose tape traders, so now everything in them is ripe for discovery. Nobody was talking about how great Haruka Eigen was when I got into trading, none of these guys were getting any kind of acclaim. We're long past that now.

Now, before this even starts, you just know Eigen is going to get up to shenanigans before Villain Shokai starts bringing headbutts and hamstring kicks. Eigen starting the match with a slap and run routine on Baba and Rusher is so classic, celebrating in the aisles with young boys you barely recognize, knowing he was going to get paid back down the stretch. A lot of these start with long heat on Kimura, eating boots and headbutts and selling the headbutts so believably (that happens here), but that's not where the match stays. I thought they did a great job integrating everybody and keeping Baba's involvement short and exciting. Villain Shokai made quick tags and this settled into me being excited watching an Akira Taue who didn't wrestle a single thing like my favorite wrestler Akira Taue. 1990 Taue is so cool as can see hints of the Taue that would be there just a couple years later but you'd only notice them if you were familiar with them. For the most part, he's a totally different guy with totally different offense and movement. 

His most important characteristic that he apparently always had, was his realistic approach to bumping. Watch how he sells an Okuma headbutt to the mouth, watch the way he falls with limbs flopping around and not in a controlled wrestling school back bump. The realistic bumps and selling were the things that instantly drew me to Taue at the end of the 90s, and with all the '90 Taue we have as evidence we can see that it's just who he is, a thing that would be near impossible to teach someone. He also has completely different offense and I love "elbowdrop Taue who doesn't use his giant feet in any way" but maybe I only love it because I know we're not far away from "big feet to face and the best chokeslams ever" Taue. 

You get so much tough guy sneaky prankster Eigen that you forget they had already started honing the Spit Spot this early. It's still early, as the front row all knows what's happening when it's happening, but nobody is holding up newspapers. People are fleeing, which only draws attention to one woman who is not moving at all while every other woman around her scurries to safety. Baba getting involved in Eigen's Spit is a thing that does not happen in most of these, and his involvement here brings two incredible moments: Baba clutching Eigen under the chin and clubbing his chest, only for Eigen to spit all over Baba's hand, leading to Baba wiping off his hand all over Eigen's head; then when Rusher is winding up to club Eigen, Fuchi intercepts his arm. While the two are locked in struggle, Baba creeps in from the other side and just knife edges Eigen. Taue's back suplex drops like a damn anchor. These 20 minutes always feel like 5 to me, something I never say about Modern Epic Wrestling. 

HHH vs. Tajiri WWE 1/25/03

MD: This is the sort of Vault drop that we're looking for, Hunter reign of terror match or no. Previously we only had a few minutes of this. With the introductions and post-match this is 30+ minutes. The biggest takeaway, past maybe how good Tajiri is here and how it's a shame we don't have a bunch of other 20+ minute matches with him from this era, is that Hunter consciously worked it differently than almost any other match of the period. Maybe even almost any other match of his career.

There's the whole bit about Hogan doing two extra bits of chain wrestling in his Japanese appearances (when it's more the reckless energy and Axe Bomber people should be looking at). To me, this was more about Hunter getting to work the sort of classic NWA Title match style that he didn't think the current WWE audience would appreciate. The problem was that he just didn't have the reps with it (which isn't really his fault). It meant he did the sort of stuff you'd expect him to be good at (feeding into headlocks and other holds) well, but when he tried some fancier escapes, it didn't quite click. The headstand escape to the headscissors was cute and all but people haven't clipped him basically comedically putting himself back into the hold to set up the positioning for it.

What did work were the transitions, the hope spots, the cutoffs. Hunter took over by clipping Tajiri with a clothesline on the handspring and that looked great. They worked a lot of hope spots given the time the match had to breathe and it meant when Tajiri did comeback, it felt momentous. Lots of moving parts and hoohah on the finishing stretch but the fans certainly got their money out of all of it. I loved hearing Earl talking up close too. That's something you'd rarely get in the heavily produced WWE, even in the early 00s. This just felt very different and refreshing in a sea of 2002-2003 Hunter matches I have memories of but really don't want to revisit. 

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70s Joshi on Wednesday: Nancy! Seiko!

44. 1979.08.XX2 - 01 Nancy Kumi vs. Seiko Hanawa

K: Matt is correct in that this show is actually from July, as the commentary hypes the Jackie Sato vs. Monster Ripper title match on July 31st. To prepare for this project, I made a good effort to catalog every 70s AJW match there’s footage of and put them in chronological order, but because of the lack of dates in written sources/me not understanding Japanese, a lot of that came down to just looking at the footage and guesswork. The auto-translated captions on YouTube have since given us some new insights.

I’m writing this very shortly after seeing a tweet saying “Everyone knows the legend of Jackie Sato. But Nancy Kumi was one of the best of the 1970's.” It’s not my style to call anyone out in these posts but I’m going to use that as bouncing off point, as I certainly have not come to this conclusion about Nancy Kumi from the footage we’ve made our way through so far. She’s been an extremely uninteresting wrestler. But I’ll give her another shot here as she faces her junior Seiko Hanawa.

Well the first thing of note I saw was Nancy miss a flying crossbody, but Seiko just stood there for a couple of seconds looking a bit confused before deciding she’s supposed to go on offense now. That was a bit strange. But then again this whole match is a bit strange. They both seem to be working heel for some reason, at least in terms of structure. Seiko’s control isn’t the most engaging wrestling ever but when Nancy counters a headscissors and takes over everything grinds to a halt as she sticks her knee into Seiko’s back and, well do you know this hold where they just do that but also with the feet as well? This goes on for a minute or so and the commentary really put over how important this is by cutting to one of the announcers walking around chatting with fans.

Most of the match is Nancy in control, and it’s not that bad in a vacuum. She does have some malice in her hits and normally I’d want to get behind whoever she’s whacking with a chair on the outside. I think really Hanawa is the bigger problem here. She just doesn’t really do anything to make you want to get behind her, though like I said it’s like she was working heel earlier in the match. This all comes together when we get Hanawa launching into her comeback to utter silence and it’s just sad. Crowd could not care less about what’s happening in the ring at this point. The only thing that wakes them up a bit is when Nancy goes up top to finish this failure of a match.

3/4*

MD: This was the US vs Japan preliminary league and I’m not convinced this isn’t from July and not August due to the commentary. Lots of distraction as they had fun with the high school boys in the crowd so they weren’t fully focused on the match. They did list off some of the standings and it was more than I could follow.

Kumi was the primary aggressor here. They both went for dropkicks at the start but immediately thereafter, Kumi was slamming Hanawa around ringside. Hanawa came back after a missed move off the ropes and had a nice rolling headlock but Kumi deadlifted her up by her head out of it and took over for most of the match. That included some brutal chairshots on the outside and a bridging figure four.

Hanawa came back with this impactful gobehind roll up that almost felt like a snap German and then had a great fiery comeback with a lot of takeovers before Kumi shut her down. Kumi finished her off with these sort of Northern Lights Gourdbusters and a top rope twisting splash. Pretty good sprint overall. The legwork went nowhere, of course, but I liked the transitions and that goes a long way. I'm kinder to it than Kadaveri was but certainly not required watching.

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2024 Ongoing MOTY List: Briscoe vs. Bad Apple

 

13. Mark Briscoe vs. Bryan Keith AEW Rampage 9/20/24

ER: I can't imagine what it's like being Mark Briscoe. I haven't gone through the pain that he's gone through. I've never had a brother, never lost a brother. Not just a brother, but a tag team partner. Most of you with brothers never would have spent anywhere near as much time on the road trapped in a car with your brother. How many other people have ever lived a life like that with your brother, for over 20 years? I hate that right now I don't get to see Jay Briscoe unleashed as the Jon Moxley style maniac that Jon Moxley could never be. We don't get to see Jay Briscoe as the top guy - which would have happened - but Mark Briscoe doesn't get to see it either. I hate it, but I love that he's wrestling. This match felt important, because it really felt like a guy refining himself as Singles Match Mark Briscoe. I'm sure in the last couple years he's had plenty of Meltzer 4 star + singles matches, and I've seen enough of those, but the ones I did all felt like AEW Style Great 14 Minute Match Formula. This match might not have been his most ambitious singles match over this 2 year stretch, but it felt focused and impactful and tight in a way that I associated more with Jay singles matches. This wasn't him going on Crazy Mark Briscoe autopilot in a six man, this was a guy who looked like a singles champ. 

His Redneck Kung Fu is used as comedy in those six mans tags, here it's the perfect mix of goofball delivery and stiff finish. His baseball slide was thrown with joshi speed and heavyweight impact, and his Cactus Jack elbow off the apron was one of the best elbowdrops of the year. He landed with impact on everything; on his bumps, on his follow through, on his chops that got more intense the longer we went. His clotheslines hit like a champion's. The J-Driller should be the most protected finish in AEW. I can't wait to watch the rest of his 2024 singles match run, because this suddenly feels very different. 

I've said that I don't fully buy into the Hangman Page character, but Bounty Hunter was a character I didn't buy into even a little. I don't buy Bryan Keith as a Bad News Brown. I think he looked so good in his spaghetti western Entrance Pancho that a lot of people bought in on sight. But he wrestles like a 2024 Scoot Andrews update and wears his pants at 75 year old luchador height. He makes a lot more sense as Already in the Ring Bad Apple Bryan Keith, so he worked great as Singles Star Mark Briscoe's opponent he was 100% going to beat. I don't like matches he works as a back and forth, and think he benefits from a match where he has a few minutes of control in the middle and a couple spots down the stretch. It tightens his 3-4 minutes and it all looks better when stacked. He has a great kneedrop and I am always going to rate a guy who uses a kneedrop in 2024, and not one of those safe ones to the chest, an honestly worked kneedrop to the temple that would have played in a Nick Bockwinkel match. He leaned into chops and clotheslines and he doesn't just have a good kneedrop, he has a good kneelift.  

There's a real sweet spot in hitting a nicely built 12 minute match. AEW should pepper way more 8-12 TV classics into their cards than ringing the 20 minute Great Match bell so often. 

2024 MOTY MASTER LIST

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 12/16 - 12/22 Part 2

AEW Collision 12/21/24

Claudio Castagnoli vs Darby Allin

MD: This had a great beginning and a great finishing stretch and both were somewhat invalidated by what immediately happened thereafter. Claudio is a guy who, like Christian, is used to working matches against the same opponent multiple times. While Christian is a genius in that area, Claudio is no slouch. The C2 in general has allowed him to play upon spots and finishes and invert them over time.

In this case, Claudio and Darby played off the start of their last match together, where Claudio kept moving out of the way whenever he got knocked to the floor early, thwarting Darby's attempt to dive on him. This time, he didn't wait for the bell. Instead he leaped right at Claudio, clinging on to him all the way up the ramp and enabling the balcony dive. That was a great start considering what had come before, but I don't think it meant much in the grand scheme of the match. Once the bell rang, Claudio hit a lifter and followed it with a ridiculous Giant Swing. That did give him the advantage but it also gave him a huge round of applause. Remember, this is the guy who betrayed Bryan Danielson. At times, the crowd is going to have to "give it to him" because he is so impressive but doing one of the biggest swings ever in AEW in front of this slightly smarkier crowd was probably a mistake. There's been too many such things out of Claudio as of late and it's not doing any favors for the Deathriders storyline, already struggling as it's cordoned off into one small area of the main event and not creating any overarching effect on the show overall (save for the first few weeks). 

Of course these two are a natural pair for heat and hopespots and comeback and it was all impressive. I liked how Claudio would at times just lift Darby up by the waist and that's something he ought to do more if he can. And then the finishing stretch hit just right with another big spot through a table on the floor, and Claudio going for his recent finishing move, that clothesline after an opponent barely makes it in from the count. Sometimes patterns can get too repetitive and take you out of a match because it's no longer believable but I buy these guys getting into this situation given the physical force that is Claudio Castagnoli. So Darby ducks it and they keep going through levels of escalation, with Darby finally getting hit with it and kicking out, with Claudio going for the Ricola Bomb only for Darby to turn it into a Code Red, for Claudio to get his knees up on the Coffin Drop, and then to hit the Ricola Bomb leading to a kickout not once but twice. With anyone else it might be a bit much but with Darby, at this point so late in the C2 it felt like proper escalation.

It built to a pretty clever finish where Claudio, frustrated by Darby's resilience in the face of his best moves, went for a chair. The ref took it and when distracted, Claudio hit him with knucks. Clever finish, right? 

One little problem.

Red Velvet had turned heel the night before doing it to Leyla Hirsch in an even more clever way since she used a turnbuckle rod and a hidden wrench she had gotten from under the ring. Same finish (which is not a common finish! I've barely ever seen the sort of switcheroo played out here, ever!) two nights in a row in front of the same crowd, one of which being a heel turn. Not to mention that the knucks would be a better gimmick for Velvet anyway as a puncher (I've got a campaign going for her to dust off the Heart Punch; I think it'd be unique and super over). I don't even know what to say. I haven't seen a lot of complaining online so they probably get away with it, but you'd almost have to put Velvet in the Deathriders and say that Claudio had been inspired by her actions or something otherwise to cover it. They lucked out I guess, but it, like the Swing and the opening flourish not meaning anything, definitely put a blemish on an otherwise excellent match. 

ROH Final Battle 12/20/24

Dustin Rhodes/Sammy Guevara vs The Righteous (Double Bullrope Match)

MD: This was a good complete package with a solid build that added something different (and violent) to a pretty well put together PPV overall. I think, especially given the build, I would have wanted a bit more of a straight brawl instead of something so plunder-filled with tables and ladders and what have you, but that's hard to avoid in almost any match of this sort in the era that we live in. We see what Blood and Guts and War Games look like these days. 

That said, my favorite parts of this were when Dutch and Dustin were brawling out on the ramp (even if it devolved quickly into Dutch's Bossman slam) and surprisingly Sammy laying in forearms on Vincent on the floor (which quickly led to Sammy hitting the post and eating an Orange Sunshine). I could have used about thirty percent more of that (or sixty, or ninety, but I get it). Speaking of Sammy taking that, despite the Tornado Tag nature, they did a good job of getting people out of the way so that the big themes could play out, most especially through Dutch going through the barbed wire table of course. And Sammy wiping out as well. 

I thought those key moments hit. The nearfalls with Sammy making a last second save all worked for me. What worked even more was how at one key juncture, it was Vincent, having escaped the Rope, using it to choke out Dustin. You'd expect that moment and the subsequent comeback by Dustin to belong to Dutch, and Dutch was the one Dustin beat in the end, but despite the familial connection being Dutch's, Vincent was the one who was pulling the strings, and in this case, pulling the rope around Dustin's neck. 

At some point, I really would like to see AEW/ROH trust in a crowd to do a more minimalist brawl, especially when there's a solidly built issue like this one, but maybe this wasn't the match for that (I'm not entirely sure Dustin feels like what he has to offer along those lines is enough for a 2024 audience, though it is, 100% because no one can do it like he can). It certainly wasn't the crowd. More on that momentarily. 

Athena vs Billie Starkz

MD: When you look at a match as a thought experiment interesting things can happen. In this case, they were putting together and executing a match with over a year of build, yes, but also with just a few weeks of build, but more importantly, one where most of the crowd and the audience watching at home weren't actually familiar with either. That's fascinating. I had misgivings about the build, which I noted last week, but the reaction online didn't pick up on my misgivings at all; instead people were just frustrated that Billie didn't win on her second chance and that Athena wasn't freed up to go to the main roster. 

It showed a clear lack of understanding of the week to week storytelling that was occurring. Tourists dipping in on ROH for a PPV and the year end PPV at that, and ones with ulterior motives and interests as well. They didn't plan on hanging around ROH so they wanted Athena where they could more easily and regularly see her. They're more familiar with the idea of Billie Starkz than the Billie Starkz who has been on screen in 2024 and more than that, the idea of an idea of someone like Billie Starkz, a young talent beloved because of her indie run who was ready to take a title. 

I won't speak to real life, but on screen, she wasn't. She absolutely wasn't ready to win. I know everyone made fun of Heyman noting how early the Bloodline storyline was in being completed, but here it's valid. Billie hasn't even really seen the light yet. She's still a heel. She's just a bullied, put upon heel who petulantly stomped her foot until she got a title shot. She wanted more attention not Athena. She didn't outright claim that Athena was evil or wrong or had to be stopped. If anything, she was trying to be her own Athena. If their match last year really got her established in MIT, then ultimately this one should start the road for her to leave it and find herself, but I'm not 100% that's the path they're going to take with her. I do think Athena is headed for bigger and better things, at least in the short term. I'd like to see Billie get some different mentor but outside of Emi Sakura (and wouldn't that be interesting?), no one in house really fits the bill. 

I thought the match itself was good. Just to focus on the finishing stretch, the moment where Athena clearly has an advantage and could go for the O-Face but chooses to use the mic instead out of paranoia/a lack of more fiber/Lexy wanting to please her and then almost losing because of that was a perfect character beat. And that moment in the corner after she had eaten Billie's finisher once and ended up back on her shoulders with the turnbuckle pad in hand is an absolutely perfect encapsulation of Athena as a talent. Yes she's agile. Yes she's believable. But it's her emotiveness in the moment! She went from the worry that she was up in the electric chair position to the surprise that she had the turnbuckle pad in her hand to the savvy bit of control that she could hit the poison rana all within a split second and it played out on her face like a method actor. She was living it and it was all organic and not overwrought. No one else in wrestling today can do that. 

But yeah, it must be weirdly aggravating to book a PPV more or less how you should, but having the fans just unprepared for what they're about to see. The 2024 ROH PPVs have a much better build than 2023 ROH PPVs, with the TV really setting things up, even if I don't agree with every decision, but it's almost wasted on the audience that tunes in a couple of times a year relative to the crazy sort of sickos matches they were doing without build previously. Like I said, an interesting thought experiment. This match certainly deserved a better reception online overall.

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2024 Ongoing MOTY List: Darby vs. Hangman

 

12. Darby Allin vs. Hangman Page AEW Dynamite 7/31/24

ER: I don't buy Hangman Page as a character. I don't buy the wild card persona that they push on commentary, I don't buy this threats to the referees, I don't buy his emptiness any more than I buy into the emptiness of any man. I don't think his strikes fit his villainous turn. He needs better shitkicking kicks. When he throws a kick to the ribs of a grounded man, his body language is far too flowy, too West Side Story High School Production. If Page is indeed a Bad Guy, I want to see him kick Darby in the ribs. Darby will do worse things to his own ribs in every match, and I need a Villain to not pull his kicks like a background fight scene Jet. 

But it doesn't really matter whether I but Hangman or not, because I fully buy Darby Allin. I buy into the level of punishment Darby is able to absorb, because he is literally right there absorbing all of that damage in full view with no smoke and mirrors. Darby absorbs inhuman punishment and he walks through the fire, and it's the most entertaining act in wrestling. He makes up size like nobody else and he does things that nobody else will. And while I might not buy into Hangman Page: The Character, I do think he works great as a Darby Opponent. Now, I also think that nearly everybody works as a Darby Opponent, but Page seems to understand even better just what he can do to Darby in a match, and knows how to take his offense in cool ways. 

I was really impressed how Page made his catches not feel like catches. When Darby Coffin Dropped off the entrance...circle?...Hangman didn't wait for him with his arms out. He stood there wobbly with his shoulders in, leaning forward into it the Drop like he was trying to counter it or block it, but at the same time he's making a perfectly absorbed catch. When he gets his ass knocked off the ring steps with a battering ram tope, a real weapon, he sticks with it and takes all of it. Darby does not need Page to lean into his offense to come off dangerous, but it sure doesn't hurt. You know he is going to make Page's offense look as great as possible - those three weirdly Too Sexual powerbombs he took on the apron and violent post-coital breakup fallaway slam into the edges of the ring steps, and how he didn't have to take the Death Valley Driver as vertically as he did, getting turned inside out attempting a Buckshot lariat - because that is who he is. But it's his dedication to making everything look good is what sets him so far above the rest. 

Darby Allin understands Walk and Brawl better than almost any ECW wrestler. Nobody tries to make Walk and Brawl look good, most just, well, walk. When Darby walks Page back to the ring with a tight headlock, his free hand pulling at Page's upper jaw, it looks fully believable that a guy Darby's size would be able to force a larger man to walk with him, like he is giving him no choice at all. He takes spots that others sleepwalk through and makes them matter. Look at the way he works a 10 count on the floor. There's no rolling around until 8 and then sprinting back into the ring. This man took real damage, he's selling that damage on the floor, but when he needs more than 10 he slowly rolls in to break and then slowly rolls back out, still selling everything he should be selling, no miracle  resurrections. He is small, but knows how to make his offense look effective against men of any size. His shotgun dropkick, back elbow, coffin splash, all of it lands like a heavyweight, and the way he lands lower on the hips always makes his Code Red set up look like he understands the physics of all his offense. 

I didn't love the finish and didn't love the set up for the majistral, but I buy into Darby, and love how he makes me buy into others. 

2024 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Found Footage Friday: EXIT~!

Fugo Fugo Yumeji/Sanshu Tsubakichi vs. Munenori Sawa/Keita Yano EXIT 08/24/08

https://youtu.be/dCkb-5mpA7E?feature=shared

MD: Honestly, a match that defies words for the most part. Sanshu and Keita are in this, absolutely, and they are important to create a sense of normalcy and a baseline for things to push up against, but their mastery on the mat is completely overshadowed. This is about Fugo and Sawa being Fugo and Sawa, right? They throw hands, and then they throw heads, and then they throw hands again, and then they throw feet, and then it's back to the heads. I say hands because said hands are open and smashing directly against the skull and face of one another. Those come, more often and not from the ground and the kicks from a standing position and the heads fly from any position imaginable. 

They feel here like a perfect match, like an aligned pair, like each is the only one in the world that can complete the other. Granted, it also feels like if they were to touch for too long, it would set off a chain reaction and the entire world would explode. That sort of match. Fugo was all but unstoppable here, even from Sawa. There were two moments where he escalated matters into a suplex. After one, he held an advantage over Sawa so strong that the latter barely knew where he was, even as he kept coming in for more and kept giving more. And yes, Fugo was unstoppable as he captured Keita in a hold (after yet another headbutt) and Sawa kicked and kicked and kicked at him, the damndest kicks you'd ever see, and Fugo just held on until he got the tap. It's one of those matches that can't really be analyzed, only experienced. 

PAS: Fugo is such a malevolent force in EXIT, a grinning violence troll. Sawa was never my favorite BattlArts guy, a bit too flourishy for my taste, but anyone trained by Yuki Ishikawa can hang in this dungeon, and he just unloads with everything here, even his silly little skip kicks were full force to Fugo's torso. Fugo unleashed those disgusting headbutts and a keylock so violent you could almost see Yano's muscle tear. Exactly what you want from some guys in some chains. 

Toshiya Kurenai/Aki Shizuku vs. Ai/Kikujiro Umezawa EXIT 09/25/11

https://youtu.be/qNybdbDJmU8?feature=shared

MD: This match had the biggest pitfight feel out of the lot of them with the criss-crossed chains to express the barrier, the intergender aspect, the gloves on Ai. This is a little simplistic but until the final Ai/Aki exchange, this felt a little like rock/paper/scissors to me in the best way. Ai and Kurenai were the scissors, throwing kicks and evenly matched against one another. Then when Ai realized she was making no headway she tagged in Kikujiro and he was the rock, just absolutely streamrolling Kurenai with some of the best deadlift offense you'll ever see, just getting in close, throwing headbutts, and hefting him off the ground like he was absolutely helpless to stop it, no matter how skilled a fighter he was. Then Aki came in, pure paper, using holds and finesse to cover Kikujiro's large frame, outtechniquing him and stretching him in ways that should have been implausible to watch but that came off as absolutely believable. The opening few minutes of this felt like some of the most beautiful "different style" wrestling I've ever seen in that way. The last few felt like an absolute war between Aki and Ai as they went all out for even the slightest edge. 

PAS: Awesome match where I wasn't really familiar with anyone in it, and came away wanting to see more of everyone. Loved both women wrestlers who were throwing pure heat at each other with speed and force, it was like watching Lioness Asuka and Toshiya Yamada sped up without losing any of the pop Kikujiro was awesome just a golem, huge unmoving and violent, throwing these great looking deadweight suplexes hard on the concrete floor and smushing people with headbutts. This looks like the basement of container ship where the sailors made people they were human trafficking fight to the death, which is about the coolest wrestling atmosphere ever.  

Jota vs Kazuhiko Ogasawara EXIT 02/14/10

MD: This is a jaunt outside my comfort zone but one I'm glad to take.. Ogasawara is the master in a gi, older, calm, confident, at peace. At times he is in danger here but he is almost entirely unflappable. Jota is young, bald, a striker's striker who is able to get the absolute utmost torque on his holds. I didn't think this would last a minute honestly, because when Ogasawara got him down for the first time, the only word I could think of to describe the strikes he was laying into the leg, the side, any open area on Jota's body was "ground beef." That's what those strikes were doing to Jota. It was downright grisly.

But Jota either was able to lace limbs and joints together for a hold or get back to his feet and throw kicks. All it would take was one for Ogasawara to crumble but it had to be the right one and then he'd have to follow up, something that proved difficult. Mid match, he did got in a hold that trapped Ogasawara's head like a butterfly (we couldn't fully see what was going on with the arms from our angle) but he was able to get a break. Once back to his feet, Ogasawara broke his stoicism for the only time in the match letting out a yell and driving Jota back (almost from the sharp and sudden yell alone), but he was able to recover. The whole match there was the sense that Jota was doing everything in his power to contain Ogasawara, that one false step and he'd get crushed, but that he could win with one daring strike as well. When Ogasawara finally felled him with a swift kick, the one that would herald the beginning of the end no matter how many times Jota just barely managed to get up, it felt like a moral victory of sorts: Ogasawara's belt fell off. Symbolic as that might have been, it was ultimately futile, though the effort itself from Jota remains worth noting.

PAS: Big time Ogasawara fan from his Zero One days, and he is just a beast here, just pulverising Jota with every punch and kick, the shots to the body especially felt like they were powdering bone and pulping internal organs. I loved the first big Jota comeback as he hits an upkick, with Ogasawara doing this killer delayed sell. All of a sudden the kid had hope!! And he hits the vet with everything he had, only for Ogasawara to keep walking him down, until he finally puts him in deep freeze with several knockdowns. So awesome, so glad this existed and someone taped it.

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El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Captain Redneck Goes Caribbean

Week 42: Captain Redneck Goes Caribbean

EB: Thanks to his win in the Royal Rumble match CSP held on January 12, the Original TNT had been bragging about beating Carlos Colon, who was the last person eliminated. Carlos took exception to this due to it being a multi person, everyone against everyone type of match and that Original TNT had been the last one in, so a one on one match was signed. The match took place on January 19 in Caguas and Carlos won by disqualification when El Profe interfered. Carlos had Original TNT in the figure four leglock and El Profe jumped into the ring to break it up with an elbow drop. This was done in front of the ref and caused the disqualification. However, Profe was successful in getting Carlos to release the hold, allowing Original TNT to immediately pounce on Carlos and put him in the cobra sleeper. The ref called for the bell to get Original TNT to break the hold but he kept it on, his intention was to put Carlos out. Suddenly, someone ran out of the stairwell towards the ring, it was TNT! He was not scheduled for that night’s card but had just returned from his tour of Japan. TNT kicked Original TNt from behind, causing the cobra hold to be broken. TNT then put the Cobra Dinamita on Original TNT as the crowd cheered on. Original TNT struggled but was taken down to the mat. Meanwhile, Carlos had gone after El Profe, chasing him around ringside. Profe would eventually run away down the stairs. In the ring, TNT had put to sleep the Original TNT and left him unconscious on the mat. After Original TNT had been left sleeping, TNT made his way to the ringside table and grabbed a microphone. As TNT addressed the crowd. Profe reappeared from the stairs and went to the ring to check on the still unconscious Original TNT. On the mic, TNT mentioned he had put that guy (pointing at the ting) to sleep and “Now, I want that impostor to drop the name and take off the paint, because whether it is here, China or Japan, the only TNT is me!”. 

One other notable happening that occurred during the week is that we have new Caribbean tag champions. The January 19 match between the Super Medicos and Mendoza & Valentine ended a bit controversially, with the bell ringing signaling a time limit draw just as the rudos had the cover on one of the Super Medicos (of course, this was after cheating with the loaded glove). A rematch was held at the January 23 TV taping, where Mendoza and Valentine ended up bloody messes but walked away with the Caribbean tag titles after once again using Mendoza’s loaded glove. We’ll discuss some of the other happenings from January 19 as we go along, but for now let’s go to the Campeones episode from January 26.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSjc-kb_E

Hugo and El Profe are our hosts, with Hugo welcoming the viewers as always to the 4pm time slot on TeleOnce. Hugo then introduces his co-host as the supreme leader of El Club Deportivo, his majesty El Profe (which Hugo qualifies by stating this is how El Profe was asking to be introduced). Profe is pleased by the intro and Hugo also comments that he sees Profe is matching his mask colors with his suits for the show. Profe starts talking about how good he looks and Hugo ignores him and talks about what we’ll see on today’s episode. We’ll get our first look at ‘Captain Redneck’ Dick Murdoch as he faces Huracan Castillo Jr. in a match from the Three Kings Day show. We’ll also have the latest in the rivalry between the Super Medicos and Rick Valentine & Galan Mendoza, a Caribbean title match from Christmas Day as Bronco #1 defends against Ivan Koloff, and the fire match between the Super Medicos and Valentine & Eric Embry. Hugo mentions this was the match where Embry was injured and thus taken out, to which Profe responds that thank goodness Galan Mendoza stepped up as Rick Valentine’s new tag partner. 

Tonight they will be in Caguas, where there will be  rematch for the World tag titles between the champions the Texas Hangmen and the challengers Invader #1 & Bronco #1. An important stipulation for the rematch is that the bullropes are banned from ringside, which means that they played a role in helping the Hangmen win during the lumberjack match held on January 19. Profe seems a bit worried about the bullropes being banned but he clarifies that they’ve only served to equalize things and they won’t be necessary tonight. 

The TV title will also be decided in a six man tournament tonight. The first round matches will be announced that night and the three winners will then draw numbers to see who gets a bye to the finals, with the other two wrestling first and the winner facing the third wrestler afterwards in a no DQ, no countout, there must be a winner match to crown the new TV champion. Let’s go to our first match, which is our first look at Dick Murdock in CSP.

Murdoch’s opponent is Huracan Castillo Jr., who is a substitute for the originally scheduled Jimmy Snuka. Murdoch immediately attacks Castillo just before the bell rings, raking the eyes repeatedly. Murdoch still has his ring jacket on as he continues going for the eyes. The ref warns Murdoch about having an object in his hands, which Murdoch tosses away. Murdoch does the horn symbol to the crowd and finally takes off his ring jacket. Murdoch continues punching Castillo and yelling at the fans, but gets distracted by thrown debris. Castillo uses this opening to fire off some counterpunches of his own, causing Murdoch to head for the corner and beg off in the most amazing way possible. While Murdoch begs off, Hugo and Profe have the following conversation about Captain Redneck: 

Hugo - “All of a sudden they’ve got him dancing rock and roll in the corner. Castillo is dominating now and showing Murdoch that if he wants to fight, a fight he will get.”

Profe -  “This Redneck is a weird man, he is one of those wrestling veterans that they call a redneck, you know what that means? They’re crazy, wild, they drive big trucks…”

Hugo - “And very racist.”

Profe - “Very racist, they hate Puerto Ricans  and blacks, they…”

Hugo - “They hate everyone but their own redneck race. But..”

Profe - “He’s even a member of the KKK”.

From here Hugo says he won’t go into that but that whatever criticisms you can have about Murdoch’s character, you have to give him credit for his experience, being a vicious rudo and that he is looking to dominate here in CSP. By this point in the match, Murdoch has regained control and starts using a foreign object to attack Castillo. Profe and Hugo talk about Murodch’s legendary tag team of the Outlaws with Dusty Rhodes, as Castillo rolls out of the ring. Murdoch follows after him, picking up some debris thrown by the fans, and he uses it to attack Castillo. Hugo makes a point that Murdoch’s attacks have been with objects tossed in by irresponsible people that are an embarrassment to the sport of wrestling. Profe says that those are El Ejercito de la Justicia fans that do that, Club Deportivo fans are well behaved. Meanwhile, Murdoch has taken Castillo over to the fence area and rammed Huracan into it.  Murdoch heads back into the ring and grabs another piece of debris, as Castillo slowly makes his way back as wel. Hugo continues on his rant about the small group of fans that throw stuff into the ring, insisting that the tecnicos should give a message to the fans to not do that. “It gives a bad image of all of us.”  

Murdoch continues in control as we go to commercial, but when we return Castillo starts making a comeback. Murdoch starts begging and cowering when Huracan starts punching him. Castillo rams Dick’s head into the turnbuckle, causing Dick to fall to the mat after stumbling for a bit. Murdoch rakes Castillo’s eyes, but acts as if he got hit in the eyes as well so that the ref doesn’t call attention to Dick’s actions. Castillso gets punched to the outside, with Murdoch following and stalking Castillo. Dick tries to ram Castillo into the fence again, but Huracan blocks and Murdoch gets rammed instead. Murdcohs stumbles around as Huracan continues the attack, with Murdoch even sitting on a chair and getting knocked over. Castillo hits a dropkick on the outside as the bell rings, it looks like we have a double countout. Castillo attempts to continue his attack but Murdoch takes him down with a low blow. Murdoch then hits Castillo with a brainbuster on the ballfield, leaving Huracan spasming on the ground. Profe says that it looks like El Ejercito de la Justicia has a big enemy in Dick Murdoch. 

MD: Talk about a guy made for a territory. Murdoch was electric here. The only person I can compare him to is Funk in the mid 80s when he came in. Just constant stooging and antics. I’ve seen the criticisms that Murdoch would get too goofy at the wrong time but there’s almost no wrong time on the mid-card in Puerto Rico. He begged off early and it was wonderful. The fans tossed something into the ring and he screwed with it for a minute as Castillo made it back in only to whack him and then hand it to the ref blaming the crowd for the entire state of affairs. He made a massive showing of sneaking up behind Castillo to choke him and then tried to run him into the stadium fence only to take the bump. He hit the most blatant and flagrant foul I’ve ever seen in Puerto Rico and then crushed Castillo with the brainbuster on the field. So over the top, absolutely 

EB: The match is followed by a  series of promos from three of the participants in tonight’s TV title tournament. The focus of the interviews is to mention that each of the participants is looking to win the tournament, but also to send a message to their current feud rival. Scott Hall has a rope with him and he warns Giant warrior that he will use it to pay back Warrior for attacking him last week with the big boot. Kim Duk (holding a baseball bat) and El Profe talk about the tournament but also send a warning to Migueliro Perez. For his part, Miguelirto puts over the TV title as the second most important singles title in the WWC and that he promises to win the tournament. But he also wants to get his hands on Kim Duk for throwing salt in his face and attacking him with the kendo stick last week.

We also get a rundown of tonight’s card in Caguas: a rematch for the World tag titles as the Texas Hangmen face Invader #1 & Bronco #1; the tournament for the TV title featuring TNT, Scott Hall, Giant Warrior, Original TNT, Miguelito Perez and Kim Duk; a no time limit rematch for the Caribbean tag titles as the Super Medicos challenge Galan Mendoza & Rick Valentine; Sasha defends the Women’s World title against Monster Ripper; and other great stars.   

MD: I’m sure Esteban will explain this better, but it seems like we’ve got Hall vs Warrior, Duk vs Perez, and Original TNT vs TNT, and then the winners do a coin flip to see who is the odd man out and gets a bye into the finals for the TV Title. I remember Global doing something similar not too long after this where three people were vying for the title and someone (I want to say Eddie Gilbert) got the bye. Hall says he’s going to have a friend with him and that Giant Warrior beat him with his boot. Duk didn’t give us much to work with. Perez gave us more. One note on the card presentation: we saw a glimpse of a super bloody Rick Valentine and Galan Mendoza and I wish we saw what led to THAT. Ah well.

EB: Our next match is from Christmas Day 1990, as Bronco #1 defends his recently won Caribbean title against the fearsome Ivan Kooff. As they start, Ivan tries to punch Bronco in the midsection, but hits Bronco’s weight belt and complains about hurting his hand. Profe on commentary also starts complaining but Hugo defends Bronco by saying that it’s been approved as ring wear by the WWC, he doesn’t use it as a weapon and it hasn’t hurt anyone else so far (calling into question that Koloff was faking it). They work some holds, with Koloff getting a hammerlock and Bronco countering with a stepover takedown. Bronco works Koloff over on the mat, as Hugo mentions how Bronco has won the fans over in his short time in Puerto Rico. Koloff tries to punch Bronco but gets knocked down via a counter punch, which causes Ivan to complain again to the ref. A lockup leads to Bronco getting a wristlock on Ivan, which he eventually counters with a takedown but Bronco quickly gets out of it before Ivan can lock a hold in. Bronco does some of his hopping to get the crowd into it. They continue working holds as we go to commercial break, and we come back to Bronco ramming Ivan’s head into the turnbuckle. Bronco attempts an unsuccessful cover. Ivan takes over with a punch to the throat and rams Bronco’s head into the turnbuckle (where Ivan had conveniently placed part of his chain over the pad). Ivan gets a swinging neckbreaker and legdrop, but Bronco starts getting fired up and launches a counterattack. Bronco gets a backdrop, but Ivan grabs onto Bronco’s belt and throws him to the outside. Ivan knocks Bronco off the apron but on the second attempt to punch Bronco off, Ivan accidentally hits the ref and knocks him down. Ivan tries to suplex Bronco into the ring but ends up tripping over the ref instead. The momentum carries Bronco over and on top of Koloff, allowing Bronco to get the pinfall. Bronco retains the Caribbean title over Ivan Koloff. Bronco has his hand raised as Koloff complains it was only a two count.

MD: This was pretty good. Another stadium match. Koloff had a lot to give still in a place like this that valued what it did. Bronco was cartoonish but made it work, constantly appealing to the crowd and remaining active and in motion. Here he had a medically approved waist band which Koloff hurt his hand on. Ivan took over, in part by slamming Bronco’s head into the chain that he had brought to the ring and was just hanging out over the top rope. He played King of the Mountain but elbowed the ref who had been trying to pull him back. The ref ended up on his knees; Ivan tried to suplex Bronco in; Bronco fell on him as Ivan tripped over the ref. Clever finish.

EB: Giant Warrior cuts a promo talking about the TV  title tournament and Warrior is confident he will win tonight because he has never lost a match in Caguas. Also, he’s going to pay back Scott Hall for everything Hall has done to him so far.

MD: Warrior is a perfectly fine promo, especially when they have Kim Duk cutting his own, but I do miss the crazy music videos we were getting in 90.

EB: We also get interviews from the two teams involved in the World tag title match tonight, which has the stipulation that the bullropes are barred from ringside (during last week’s lumberjack match some of the wrestlers at ringside got involved and in the confusion the bullrope was used to allow the Hangmen to get the win). Profe says that it will not make a difference, the Hangmen will get the job done tonight. Psycho speaks for both Hangmen, promising that they’ll show tonight that the tecnicos do not deserve any more title shots. Bronco and Invader respond, with Bronco promising that those belts will go to them and Invader mentions that he’s got the mask on because tonight is serious and they will win the tag titles. Time for the Hangmen to show if they can get it done without the bullropes.

MD: Big takeaway here for me is that Invader, now that he’s teaming with a masked guy again, is donning the mask. That’s a nice bit of thematic escalation given who they were facing. Bronco’s promos are akin to how he wrestles, very energetic.

EB: The Campeones episode ends with the fire match we’ve already reviewed between the Super Medicos and Eric Embry & Rick Valentine, though this is your chance to watch it in a normal aspect ratio. The show ends as the wrestlers fight to the dugout, with the commentators reminding the fans that this is the match where Embry was injured and forced to leave the island.

Now we go to the west coast version of Superestrellas de la Lucha Libre from the same day. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtsmLpah0kg

Hugo opens the show by welcoming the viewers and runs down what we will see on today’s program (including TNT’s first match since coming back from Japan). Hugo then talks about the latest happenings in the Super Medicos and Mendoza & Valentine rivalry, asking the director to show what happened the previous week. Mendoza talks about how last week the Medicos paid off the timekeeper to ring the bell to call for a draw when it looked like they were going to lose the Caribbean tag titles. Tonight, Mendoza and Valentine will show who the real Caribbean tag champions are. The Super Medicos then get a chance to respond, with Medico #1 making sure that everyone knows that they did not pay anyone to ring the bell or need anyone to save them. We then go to a Caribbean tag title match from the TV taping, where Mendoza hits Medico #1 with his loaded glove, causing Valentine to fall on top of  Medico #1 and get the pin. A very bloody Mendoza and Valentine have won the Caribbean tag titles. An irate Medico #1 cuts a promo at ringside after the match, demanding that the commissioner grant them a rematch as soon as possible (which the commissioner agreed to). That rematch will be tomorrow in Hormigueros and will have no time limit. Hugo runs down the rest of the card before going to the first match.

MD: I get the sense that Mendoza is a pretty solid promo all things considered. They didn’t have Ripper of Valentine do much here. Medicos were heated and for good reason. Clip has them losing the titles to the loaded glove to break up a move, and then a very effective passionate post match promo at ringside with a bloody mask. We’d seen the loaded boxing glove but this hits different (no pun intended).

EB: We have the Caribbean Express taking on Mendoza & Valentine, with Hugo noting that the rudos were still hurt from the match against the Medicos where they were busted open. Hugo and Eliud are on commentary and the Express start off hot, focusing their attacks on the forehead of Rick Valentine. The Express controlled the first part of the match with quick tags and double team maneuvers (including a nice baseball slide by Castillo on Mendoza). Mendoza gets a DDT on Perez and tags in Valentine, giving the rudos their first control segment of the match. The rudos tas in and out and keep Perez near their corner in order to maintain their advantage, but Perez mounts a brief offensive flurry after an attempted clothesline in a corner. Another missed charge into the corner allows Perez to tag Castrillo in. All four men end up in the ring and in the confusion Castillo comes off the top with a crossbody onto Valentine. However, the ref is busy getting Perez out of the ring, so Mendoza sneaks in a blow with the loaded glove and rolls Valentine on top of Castillo for the pin.   

MD: Good match. I could have used a little more heat in the middle before the comeback but Valentine and Mendoza are wrestling extremely vulnerable so it made sense. They were great early bumping and stooging actually. The Express caught the by surprise pre-match and yanked off their bandages and started some woundwork. Mendoza hardly even seems a step down from Embry here to be honest. I liked the double elbow smash that the Express did but they were very smooth in general. Valentine hit a DDT out of nowhere but they didn’t hold the offense for long. Perez’s stuff looked especially good on the comeback. Mendoza snuck in a fistdrop to break up a pin (with the loaded glove of course) and they stole another one.

EB: After the match we get some promos, first is Migueito Perez who explains why he didn’t appear last week in Hormigueros. It seems that Kim Duk busted up the windshield of Miguelito’s car. Hugo asks Perez if he saw Duk do it, but Perez says that the people that were there saw Duk do it with a baseball bat (which explains why Duk had a baseball bat with him in the promo he did on Campeones). 

We also get promos from the two teams in the no time limit match for the Carribean tag titles. The Medicos tell Mendoza & Valentine to be ready for payback after everyone saw how the rudos stole the titles from them. Mendoza and Valentine cut their promo still bloody from having won the belts. The rudos again reiterate that the Medicos must have paid off the timekeeper but it does not matter now, they are the champions and they don’t need that much time to beat them again tomorrow.

The January 27 card in Hormigueros is as follows: The Texas Hangmen vs Bronco #1 & Invader #1 in a steel cage; the awaited match between TNT and Original TNT; no time limit for the Caribbean tag titles as Galan Mendoza & Rick Valentine take on the Super Medicos; a rematch between Giant Warrior and Scott hall; Miguelito Perez vs Kim Duk; and Huracan Castillo Jr. defends the World Junior title against El Profe. 

MD: They’re really leaning hard into this one. Now we get a great visual promo where Ripper has the belts and Mendoza and Valentine are absolute bloody messes. Everyone gets to talk here and it’s impassioned and effective.

EB: Next is Scott Hall vs Herbert Gonzalez. It’s a short match with Hall making a strong showing and pinning Herbert after the crucifix.

MD: Some of the stuff Hall does here (like controlling the arm down to a legdrop onto it) is the same sort of stuff he was probably doing for years but the confidence and timing just seemed to hit in ways it hadn’t even a year or two before. He dismantled Gonzalez in the ring and dangling over the apron before putting him down with a Vader Bomb type splash and the crucifix. Good squash.

EB: We get another series of promos from the Texas Hangmen and Bronco and Invader. Tomorrow they’ll be in the cage and both teams are looking forward to hurting their opponents in the cage. Invader makes note that no one can interfere, unlike the lumberjack match from the previous week. 

MD: They have an engine now, different lead heroes with different partners up against the Hangmen, all leading to steel cage matches. I’m not sure how much longer it can last but you can always cycle them down to feud with the Castillo/Perez or the Medicos just as easily and build those to cage matches too.

EB: We have TNT’s first TV match back from Japan and his scheduled opponent is Kim Duk. The wrestlers are introduced and Duk proceeds to do a salt tossing ritual in each corner before the match starts. As both men feel each other out to start, Eliud mentions that last week TNT made a surprise appearance during the Carlos Colon vs. Original TNt match and put Original TNT out with the Cobra Dinamita. As TNT works over Duk’s arm in the ring, Hugo reminds the fans of the history between TNT and Original TNT. The match progresses with TNT remaining in control by focusing on Duk’s arm despite Kim’s attempts at countering. Things turn in Duk’s favor when TNT misses a spinning kick, allowing Duk to counter with a kick of his own to gain control. However, Duk ends up throwing TNT over the top rope, causing him to be disqualified. But it seems that it was all a plan, as Original tNT runs out to attack the unaware TNT at ringside. Original TNT locks in the cobra sleeper and puts TNT out, with El Profe and Kim Duk watching. Duk even takes out some crew members that made a move to help TNT. Original TNt leaves TNT unconscious on the floor, paying him back for the previous week. Original tNT yells at the unconscious TNT (calling him an impostor) and even slaps him across the face a few times. The rudos leave ringside without waking TNT up, so Victor Jovica (flanked by Giant Warrior and the Caribbean Express) makes his way to ringside to help wake TNT up. TNT comes to but is in rough shape, so the tecnicos take him out on a stretcher to make sure he gets checked out.   

Afterwards we get interviews from Original TNT and TNT about their match tomorrow. TNT has an ornate head mask on and mentions that his throat is still feeling the effects of what Original TNT did. He even has to stop part way through talking because his throat starts acting up. He says that he’ll only address the imposter as ‘perro’ from now on and promises that he will not stop until he takes the paint and name of that impostor ‘perro’. 

MD: Former partners colliding. There was a slight sense of familiarity here, mainly with Duk taking over by ducking a TNT kick. They ran a big angle where Original TNT snuck behind TNT on the floor and put him out (getting revenge on him and setting up their next match). It would have been more effective if it was after a TNT comeback and both him and Duk were on the floor maybe? He still got the heat and it did seem sudden and unexpected but sometimes things in wrestling are paced to click just right and I’m not sure this was.

EB: We end the episode with a couple of videos involving the two wrestlers involved in the Universal title situation. The title is still vacant and it looks like Greg Valentine and El Profe have indeed agreed for Valentine to face Carlos Colon in a cage match to settle things once and for all. We first get a video for Greg valentine set to ‘Here Comes The Hammer’. We get highlights of Greg against various opponents, such as Huracan Castillo, Miguelito Perez, one of the Super Medicos and Carlos Colon. It’s a shame we do not have more footage of Greg Valentine in Puerto Rico, but at least we get a little bit of him in this environment with this video. 

Carlos Colon’s video is next and shows him training at the Albergue Olimpico, doing a more traditional training program in preparation for the upcoming cage match. The video ends with Carlos sending a message of thanks to the fans for the calls and messages. He promises that he is ready physically and mentally for the challenge to come. 

MD: The Valentine video was delightful but it just made me feel sad for all the Valentine stuff we’ve missed out on. Lots of elbows. Moving the kneepad. All the good stuff. Ah well. The Colon video was very olympic. Lots of traditional training including swimming a lane and running a track. We’ve missed some big matches before, obviously, but this whole Valentine run feels like the first full run we’ve been missing.

EB: Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, if you want to get caught up on what has been happening so far in 1991 we have just the TV episode for you, as we get recaps of all of the major feuds going on. Also the feud between the Texas Hangmen and Invader & Bronco reaches a dangerous peak as Invader’s taped fist enters the picture. And who will finally be crowned the Universal champion when Carlos Colon takes on Greg Valentine inside the steel cage? 

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