New Footage Friday: Rito Romero, Super Calo, Pedro Morales, Blackjack Mulligan, Rey Mysterio

We had a fun bunch of stuff in the queue for this week, but the network totally overdelivered, with two previously unseen old school matches and a Rey dark match from Nitro


Rito Romero vs. Danny Savich Dallas Wrestling 9/26/52

PAS: Really enjoyable bit of classic wrestling shtick. This was an underhanded cheapshot artist taking liberties with a local hero. We have multiple old ladies expressing their disgust with Savich as he threw punches and stuck his foot under the ropes on a submission hold. Meanwhile Romero would fire back with punches and even a couple of nice dropkicks. Really liked Savich's neck twist and he had a nice grumpy jerkiness, he felt like a soda shop owner who would yell at kids for just reading the comics instead of buying them. Romero is a guy with a legendary rep, and there were moments where you could see it, he took some big bumps to the floor, and had great timing. Really bummed that Savich wasn't going up for the Romero special, I was ready to mark out. The third fall was a nice look at what 1952 out of control brawls looked like, Romero kept knocking Savich to the floor, and when Savich offers his hand to keep it clean, he Fuerza's Romero and starts hurling him to the floor. The both tie up their opponent in the ropes, ending with Savich getting DQed for tying Romero's throat in the ropes and choking him, Savich even punches the ref and the seconds trying to free Romero. Felt like this would build to whatever the 50s equivalent of a big stips match was. Fun discovery

MD: I had three paragraphs written on why the stunt granny who drew Savich onto the apron at the end of the first fall was symbolically equivilent to a dive train that sets up the final bit of rope running in a lucha caida, but it felt like overkill.

Instead, I'll just point out the obvious: these guys were pretty great. Romero's legendary, of course. Savich I was less familiar with, but he was exactly the sort of gritty, underhanded stooge you'd want him to be. This worked a smart pace with a ton of build and callbacks throughout the falls. Romero was emotive and sympathetic and fiery, with punches meant for the last row; everything he did felt dynamic. Savich was mean, grabbing a goozle at a moment's notice to lock in a hold, and the diamond drill (neck) twist was an awesome little gimmick move.

There's a moment where Romero almost locked in the Romero special and it felt electric, the sort of move that we may have seen a million times, but that would have been so special for that crowd to see in that moment on that night.

Pedro Morales vs. Blackjack Mulligan WWWF 3/15/71

MD: This was pretty fascinating. It was probably more down my alley than my fellows but it was deep down mine. Minimalist, full of meaning and crowd interaction and control. Sometimes I threaten to review a bunch of John Studd matches, as I think he's one of the most misunderstood wrestlers in history. He's absolutely no great shakes from a workrate perspective but I love how he worked as a stooging heel, utilizing the dissonance between his size and his behavior in order to aggravate fans through stalling and complaining when they knew in their heart that he actually had an advantage without all of the underhandedness. It's just that we all came up in an environment where workrate was the primary metric to judge a wrestler's skill.

Mulligan works much the same way here, making this feel almost like Memphis in New York. He's got a massive size advantage, but he spends the first five or six minutes delaying lock-ups, missing charges, and constantly going for an object in his tights to load his glove. The fans pop each and every time he tries for it. Meanwhile, Pedro gets two lock-ups out of him and skillfully ducks an arm under to get a hip toss each time. When Mulligan is finally able to load the glove and get a cheapshot out of a headlock, it's established that despite his size, Pedro's the superior wrestler and that Mulligan's loathsome, whining about cheating that's not happening to him and trying to cheat himself (despite the fact he's so much bigger), but there's also the sense that if he does catch Pedro with this, the champ's in big trouble. I love all of this. It's doing so much with so little to such great effect and the crowd is completely on board, to the point that even though Mulligan's only on top for a minute or so, they become unglued when Pedro fights his way back.

This repeats, with Mulligan taking over with a cheapshot and the crowd getting incensed again. The best part of that was Mulligan breaking a hand-claw (yes a hand claw), due to getting hit with a soda (I think) to the head. It was a dangerous precedent to sell that so much but the fans loved it. Honestly? I think at that point, Pedro locked in a long headlock and chinlock (that they still worked and worked in and out of), just to cool the crowd down a bit. Whatever happened, it was pretty fascinating to watch. They went back to the heat/object one last time, but everything seemed on fast forward at this point so that they could go home. Pedro played a trick to make Mulligan think he was thw winner, hit a great super-heated dropkick, followed it with a dive off the top and the quick win and big celebration. Mulligan lost but got to escape with his life intact. I get that sometimes I may read too much into a match but I'm pretty sure I'm spot on there and this wasn't the match they thought they'd be working that night (there would have been a lot more Mulligan control with the claw). Really interesting stuff with an amazing crowd.

PAS: Minimalist is the perfect way to describe this match, up until the finish the biggest move was probably a hip toss, but man did they have the crowd lathered up and ready to go to war. This is super early footage for both guys, we mostly have post prime on both guys, and you can see why both guys were such big stars. Mulligan selling the soda to the head was a great bit of wrestling improv, although I could see being pissed if I was sharing a locker room with him "Now these fuckers are going to chuck things at us every show." Really liked Pedros fake out at the end too, when he tapped Mulligan on the back to make him think he won only to get dropkicked and bombs awayed for the win, totally a spot I could see Eddie Guerrero stealing thirty years later.

Rey Mysterio vs. Super Calo WCW 9/23/96

MD: This was a hell of a nitro-style lucha spotfest actually. If you're going to watch a match like this without a lot of flash and little substance, this is as good a choice as any. Calo was a little over-exuberant on offense (which cost him in the end) but otherwise based really well. Rey was Rey. They did everything imaginable in about six minutes until Calo wrecked his arm or his ribs or something on a stupid top rope turning legdrop. He was an immobile target after that and Rey adapted somewhat (I doubt the finish was a second split legged moonsault) but they still tried a 'rana which really didn't go well. This match was the sweetest candy and it ended with Calo on the mat ridden with cavities.

PAS: Calo was working most of this match as a straight rudo, which is something I hadn't seen from him before. When talking about Super Calo, the first thing that comes to mind isn't his great Buzz Sawyer powerslam or his spinebuster, but he hit both of them. 1996 Rey was crazy, he is in a dark match and still taking a sunset powerbomb on the floor and hitting a great quebrada. Calo is the guy who crashes and burns, and he misses a flipping dive of some sort, and clearly breaks his arm (you can see the bone cracked) it goes off the rails obviously after that, broken armed Calo can't catch a springboard rana. Up until the disaster, this was good stuff though, and I hope we get more dark matches or house show stuff from that era of WCW.

ER: I also thought it was interesting Calo was working actual rudo, instead of a tecnico/tecnico. He and Rey were pretty frequent partners in AAA, so I like WCW instantly making Calo a Rey opponent upon bringing him in. Rey was fairly new to WCW himself, but had the benefit of several showcase PPV and Nitro matches in his first couple months, so was already getting a big reaction from fans in Alabama. Fully agree with how nuts Rey was, there's just no need to be taking a sunset flip powerbomb to the floor in a dark match. It was 1996. I don't think this was something I would have even seen at that point, and here's this crazy small guy getting torched with one in a match that wasn't even going to be seen for another 20+ years? Bless him. Rey really had the feeling of being a guy about to do something that you hadn't seen, and Calo was there with him taking big falls. Calo gets to break out a bunch of tricks, including his nice somersault headscissors off the top, and I didn't actually notice the moment where he got hurt. I saw the weird twisting legdrop (that I still thought hit pretty well, looking more like one of Waltman's low quick slashing legdrops, only off the top rope), so I had no clue what was going on when Calo rolled over selling and Rey was the one dragging him to his feet. The rana was unfortunate, but again I was still confused as to what happened, and I'm happy those fans didn't crap all over the weird finish. It's awesome how immediately the luchadors were accepted by WCW fans. I guess it helps when you have someone like Rey leading the way, but it's cool to watch smaller guys get big reactions while they try to break their necks in dark matches.