New Footage Friday: Double Tiger Conways, Mark Lewin, Kawada, Tenryu, DiBiase, Hansen, Jumbo

Tiger Conway Jr./Tiger Conway Sr. vs. Mark Lewin/Gary Hart Houston Wrestling 5/9/79

MD:This looks like it might be the last new match we get out of Houston for a while. You have to love the crowd. There's one wide shot where you can just feel how electric everyone was, even for an attraction match like this. Some of that was a testament to Gary Hart (and how consistently and single-mindedly Hart and Lewin had down their heel game), but so much of it was because of the Tigers.

Lothario was the real "find" of the Houston footage, but Conway, Jr.'s notable as well. He feels very much a local guy, sort of a more mid-card Bill Dundee, who the crowd loves and who delivers match after match. He was an incredible seller and a real fiery comeback. Before all of this Houston footage, he was a guy lost to time and a throw-away mainstream gimmick. This was my first look at Sr., and he was spry and willing but there wasn't a ton to see. They were sure over though and that, along with Jr. doing everything well and Lewin and Hart being sufficiently despicable, made this fun.

PAS: There is something so classically pro wrestling about a youngster bringing in his old retired dad to even the score against an interfering manager. Conway Sr. is great in the Dusty/Bullet Bob role of dancing babyface who can bring it if necessary. Hart doesn't bump but he takes some shots to the face and some demonstrative headbutts. I liked Conway Sr. getting the pin in the first fall, but getting laid out and taken to the back by a throat chop in the second fall. That leaves Jr. to have to take out both heels at once, and he does a great job only to get smashed with a table leg after pinning Hart. I would love to see the blowoff to the Lewin vs. Conway feud, because this was a great taste.

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Ted DiBiase AJPW 3/21/82

MD: We gravitate towards the oddities and the B-sides, the bursts of violence and glowing lights lost in the fog of history. This is none of that. This is a Classic. This, had it not been buried, would be canonical. It would have done well in the 80s AJPW DVDVR ballot. It'd be on some Lynch or Meltzer or McAdam list. It's just a good, high-effort, wrestling match with dueling limbwork and incredibly hard fought transitions. 82 Ted has the best, leanest gutwrench suplex I've ever seen and this crazy tendency to bump out of the ring when he probably shouldn't. Tenryu stays right with him including what is probably the earliest top rope sunset flip in recorded history. It's a draw but there's enough escalation and progression that you don't feel too cheated by it. Really, this was what NWA champion Dibiase probably would have looked like when he was working neutral and it was a pretty good showing for him all around.

PAS: DiBiase is a guy who I like as a brawler, but have never really rated as a technical title match guy. This is really the first time I have seen him perform at the level of an NWA champion in an NWA champion style match (this wasn't for a title, but was very much in that style.) We get some solid matwork early, with Ted working a bunch of different variations of a hammerlock, and Tenryu putting on a tight front face lock. Much of the match is contested on the mat, but we get some big stand up sections including DiBiase taking a big spill to the floor and eating a really nice looking Tenryu tope. Tenryu also unloads with some great looking sumo thrusts which send DiBiase to the floor again. I loved the gutwrench and powerslam by DiBiase, and Tenryu really nails an enzigiri and piledriver. Would have liked a finish, but I get why this went to a draw. I agree with Matt that this would have been highly though of if it was around earlier, and while I prefer stuff with a little more flash, this was a hell of a meat and potatoes bout.

Jumbo Tsuruta/Yoshiaki Yatsu/Masanobu Fuchi vs. Toshiaki Kawada/Genichiro Tenryu/Stan Hansen AJPW 11/20/89

PAS: I think the Kawada/Tenryu/Hansen trios team has got to be the most violent trios team in history (although this is zebra stripe Kawada which is significantly less violent then black and yellow Kawada), and the Yatsu/Jumbo/Fuchi trio has to be up there. Yatsu comes into this match wearing a rugby helmet which is usually used to prevent concussions or while recovering from them(I never wore one because I am not a pussy, although now I can't remember any event that happened in my 20s), as one might imagine both Tenryu and Hansen take sadistic pleasure in stomping and elbowing Yatsu right on the side of his head. The presence of that helmet really adds to the violence of their attack. Kawada is the target of the other team, and he takes a pretty good beating including selling an inverted atomic drop like he took a croquet mallet to his nards. Finish felt a bit abrupt, but I am all for the Hansen kill shot lariat. Overall a nifty discovery with six all time greats doing their dance.

MD: This was exactly what one would have expected, a bunch of guys who would continuously bring the unrelenting pressure with ebbs and flows and big shots. I liked how they would work sequences and then grind down to holds before switching partners. I liked how well they contained Hansen early on. Yatsu was a blast to watch as he made sure to sell with every foolish, effective headbutt he threw. I like how when he tried the jumping kick on Tenryu it did absolutely nothing. The Total Elimination spin kick/jumping kick from Kawada/Tenryu, on the other hand, was a thing of beauty. It all escalated into bombs towards the end and that one ever-present kill shot by Hansen. Satisfying as you'd expect.