LKAC NIght 7/New Footage Friday: Low-Ki, Red, Colon, Flair, Dory, Abby, Race, Tenryu

Harley Race vs. Genichiro Tenryu AJPW 7/16/82 

ER: About the match you'd expect, that was robbed of a finish by a sudden run in caning from Umanosuke Ueda, but also given a lot more life and energy because of Ueda's appearance. The match is pretty typical of these two from this era, with Race dominating Tenryu but them finding nice ways of working Tenryu into it. Race has a nice jumping knee, big kneedrop, elbowdrop, works some headbutts in the corner, and throws a couple of really awesome knees to the stomach. I don't know that I've seen a standing knee to the stomach look more vicious in pro wrestling, but Race just grabs Tenryu by the left arm and buries his knee into Tenryu's stomach, leaving Tenryu with nothing to do but take that damn knee. Tenryu peppers in nice comebacks, hits the enziguiri (and I liked how Race treated it more like he got his bell rung than as a KO type move) and some cool gutwrench suplexes, but while all the action looks good it never really feels like it ramps up in intensity. When Ueda runs out of nowhere and starts beating Tenryu with a cane, however, things pick up, and get even better when Race intervenes and both of them start beating on Ueda. This was fun (although if this was later on surly jerk Tenryu vs. this era Race it would have been epic) but nothing essential.

MD: This was a fun ten minutes of action with a rousing post-match of Race and Tenryu working together and standing tall that stands out, first and foremost, for Harley taking 90% of it. If you just know the guy's rep, there's nothing surprising about that. If you actually watch his matches, it almost never happens. We've seen tags even in the last few months (the Kox one in particular) where Race was working like a heel manager and not one of the toughest guys ever. He had a tendency to give and give and bump and feed and stooge and I get why he might do that as a traveling heel champion, but he did it all over. Here, though, he absolutely crushed Tenryu, cutting him off again and again. Those knees to the gut jumped through time and caused me some physical pain over thirty-five years later. It never quite came together as a match but as an exhibition of just how brutal Harley could be when he actually turned it up, it felt very worthwhile. I can think of a dozen Race matches where I wish we had gotten this version instead of.

PAS: No idea why these guys are wearing identical purple trunks, really distracting, they have other trunks, I don't know why someone didn't put a bug in their ear. I really enjoyed this as an opportunity to see meat grinder Race. He kicked the shit out Tenryu, crushing him with knees and suplexes, and hitting the best headlock punches to the face I have ever seen. Tenryu had his moments, but this wasn't peak Tenryu and he worked this more like a young guy taking his shot at a legend, then as a legend himself. I really liked his enziguiri, and the Ueda run in was fun, this was mostly a Harley showcase though and a nifty one.

Carlos Colon/Abdullah The Butcher vs. Ric Flair/Dory Funk Jr. WWC 1985

ER: Cool find and an awesome big babyface performance from Colon (though it's always weird to me seeing the babyface biting at people's heads) with a big bumping heel team performance from Dory and Flair. What is probably most fascinating about all of this is seeing Flair and Dory as a team. What other situation would we have ever seen these two team up? It's not two guys I ever thought about teaming up, so it's a pretty awesome snapshot at Dory working Terry-free and adopting some of his new partner's mannerisms. There are two moments where Dory bumps almost Flair-like that don't feel like any bump I've seen him take before, him snapping back off a Colon punch and then going with a slow upside down vertical bump off a big headbutt felt VERY Flair to me. And it should be noted that bearded Dory was the coolest Dory could look. It made him look like a cool character actor, like David Morse, instead of his usual look which was more like David Morse playing a substitute teacher. Dory bumped big here but teaming with Flair and working slight heel gave him a little edge, made him come off meaner, gave his knees to the gut and his uppercuts some extra snap. Colon has some of the all time greatest punch comebacks, it's invigorating to see him firing off big right hands while fueling a rabid Puerto Rican crowd (who were much closer to the ring than I'm used to seeing), and I really loved how they handled a partner miscommunication with Colon accidentally hitting a leaping knee on Abby when Flair moved. Abby gets hit, bounces back into the ropes, then immediately punches Colon hard. It was an interesting take on accidentally getting hit, there was no mulling it over, no overdone/stupid late match turn after not acting the whole match, or refusing to tag in, it's just reactionary. When I was maybe 8 or 9 my dad was coming home from work, and I hid around the corner of the divider between our dining room and living room, waiting to jump out and surprise him. Well, I jumped out, and he was definitely surprised because he instinctively struck, belted me before he had any idea what he was reacting to. Abby punching Colon felt more like that, a guy surprised he got hit just instinctively hitting back. Abby eventually does leave when things get hot, and Sweet Brown Sugar (the Texas guy, not Koko B. Ware) comes out to replace him but it's all over for Colon from there. Puerto Rico really is the territory I need to watch more, the energy and atmosphere alone always makes things great, and this was just what you would want out of 10 minutes with 4 legends.

PAS: The match is joined in progress with Abdullah already bleeding, but honestly with Abby that might just mean we missed 45 seconds. There is an alternate world where Flair and Dory are a great touring heel team, as opposed to a one time (maybe more, but I can't imagine when they would have matched up before) dream team. They do a nice job working over both faces and bump great for the big Colon comeback. I have no problem with Abby immediately firing back on Colon when, Carlos hits him, but he did come off kind of churlish leaving the ring, since when is Abdullah the Butcher running away from a fight? He should have just forked everyone in the ring. Abby leaving turned the match into more of a set up then a complete match, but the individual work in this was pretty cool, and it is a nifty discovery.

MD: Our Man in Puerto Rico, PWO's Boricua, let us know that this was either the initial airing or an early repeat, as opposed to what's been easily available for a few years. This set up Colon vs Abby at Aniversario 85 and I love how Memphis Puerto Rico always feels with this stuff.

We miss most of the heat on Abby and while it was probably just him laying about as Dory and Flair worked on the leg or some such, it still seems a shame. They're a very fun heel unit here. I'm pretty certain at this point, I'm always more glad when a new Flair tag pops up than a new singles match.

Colon clearing house as a hot tag for Abby is a great image and for a second, you think all of this might actually work. Then they end up accidentally hitting one another though and reality sets in; no, this would never ever work. Abby figures it out and decides to leave. The crowd remains disappointed and pelts him with garbage. Sweet Brown Sugar does run in (maybe a bit too early for what they were trying to accomplish) to take Abby's place, but Colon, despite fighting valiantly, can't make it to the corner.

Good stuff and very effective use of Dory and Flair to set up a match that neither of them would be in.

Amazing Red/Ice XVII vs. Low-Ki/Stevie Lynn 3CW 11/11/05

PAS: I thought this was shockingly great, Lynn and Ice XVII were a pair of feuding opponents in Britain who I had never heard of. They brought in Red and Low-Ki the way Lawler and Dundee might work paired with random Tennessee money marks in the 90s. I actually thought Ice and Lynn brought a fair amount of juice to the match, they clearly had stuff worked out with each other, but served as nice dance partners for Ki and Red as well. We get a couple of Red vs. Ki sections, which were unsurprisingly nice, we get a matrix which is always incredible,  but much of the match was focused on the Brits. Ki is a great hot tag and he just brutalizes Ice XVII when he tags in, there was some especially nice selling on Ki's kappo kick where he went limp (although with Ki it is always possible that he got legit dimmed). We had a pretty hot finish and I really was into the finishing combo which Lynn used, a lightning fast fisherman's buster for two and a brainbuster for the duke. No idea what happened to Lynn and Ice XVII, but on first glance I would rather watch them then a lot of your current British indy guys.

MD: What stood out the most here was how grounded all of this was. I haven't seen a lot of 2005 UK tags in a while or anything, but the thing doesn't break down until 20 minutes in and when it does, it leads to the finish. Most lauded 2018 WWE tag matches break down in the second minute and just stay tornado tags with fifteen minute finishing stretches. I guess I was expecting less discipline here.

While I get it was mainly them doing their usual shtick, I liked the anticipation early for Red and Low Ki locking up (they ran through other pairings first). If, in a normal match, you'd get holds with spots worked in and out, the Low Ki vs Red pairing served here as the spots. Everything popped when they faced off against one another. Ice felt like you'd expect an indy guy of the era to feel. He had a bunch of stuff and hit it well enough. Here, it served the match fine. Lynn brought a little bit of size but I'm blanking on him past that, and I only saw this thing a few minutes ago. Obviously that means he didn't stand out negatively either though.

Past the measured escalation, what I liked the best was Low Ki working the apron. I know it's a crazy notion, but as it comes to the belief in his own character, I liken him a bit to the Ultimate Warrior in my head. My favorite thing about Warrior is how into what's going on he gets when he's on the apron. Here, Low Ki was selling the action and you could viscerally feel how badly he wanted the tag. That's the sign of someone who's fully given himself to the moment.