New Footage Friday: The Sheik, Bull Curry, Mad Dog Vachon

The Sheik vs. Juan Humberto Texas Wrestling 12/14/54

MD:Very cool to see the Sheik in his earlier stages of development. We have a decent amount of footage of him but it's mostly from the 70s or later when the act and the man had both calcified. Here he was downright spry. Humberto was another heel, generally, I think, so this has some of the same issues that Curry vs Savich had. The fans seem fairly reluctant to get behind Humberto. It was sort of a tale of two matches. While Humberto's stuff was all pretty good, Shiek wasn't very interesting in taking any of it. On the other hand, when the Shiek was in control, he was unrelenting and wild. There was a definite sense of danger. He kept going for chairs or the microphone and would come in at odd angles. I think he ended up, in later years, as a wrestler who didn't end up feeding much or taking much and just judging from this match, that was probably the right decision.

PAS: I didn't love this, there were moments of wildness with the Sheik which were compelling (although unfortunately that coincided with the worst of the VQ), but much of the in-ring stuff was a little dull, and I didn't get much of a sense of Humberto at all. You can see the Sheik working on his act, and I would still like to see more of the Detroit stuff when he was a super over star, but I still haven't really enjoyed a Sheik match as much as him and Sabu almost burning themselves alive in FMW when he was super old.

Wild Bull Curry vs. Danny Savich Texas Wrestling 2/22/55

MD: Of the three matches, this was the one I was most interested in on paper. The 69 Curry vs Valentine match was one of the real highlights of the Houston footage, which is saying a lot. This was Curry a decade and a half younger. Some things are obvious from the get go. Curry is a hell of a puncher. We only have a few data points, but it's very striking just how much he accomplishes with his fists alone. In 69, he was an older, more sympathetic figure. This, as best as I can tell, was more heel vs heel, where you had a cheating, low-down heel vs a mangy, nasty heel. It meant that while the match was entertaining, the crowd were only going to get so far behind Curry. If this was part of a turn, it was effective. If this was to get over the difference between Curry and Savich and get Savich's second (and Texas Main Eventer, Duke Keomuka) over as cheaters, it was effective. Savich was apparently bleeding here but we didn't get a great look at that. The cheating felt novel, though I have no idea how many years they were doing this sort of thing. The ref didn't seem to have any idea how to handle it, as if a disqualification rule for interference by a manager just didn't exist. Curry generally fought off both guys whenever he was on the floor but he ultimately had his arm paralyzed by Keomuka which let Savich finish him off. The nature of the match sort of held it back, but I'd love to see more Curry. Against the right opponent, you can just tell he'd be great. The Diamond Drill Twist remains the best finisher of the 1950s.

PAS: I loved this. Minimalist punch out between a pair of ugly mean pricks is pretty much narrowcasted towards my interests. Curry looks like a hairier Abe Vagoda and is clearly an all time great punch and kick wrestler, a real variety of hard looking thudding shots, which Savich sells like he is being hit by sledgehammers. Savich gets opened up over the eye in a cut which looked like it was seeping into the hair in his eyebrow. Really cool finishes to all three falls, with Savich using his Diamond Drill Twist, which was a Stooges like neck twist, which Curry sold like he broke his neck. The second fall had Savich taking big bumps outside the ring and Curry King of the Mountaining on both Savich and Duke Keomuka. I loved the third fall finish with Keomuka locking in some sort of paralyzing nerve hold on the floor, which left Curry unable to move his arm and defend himself against hard clean shots to the jaw. The little glimpse we have of Texas Wrestling is great stuff, seems to be a promotion built around violent brawls, which is a real shift from the other 50s wrestling we have seen.

Mad Maurice Vachon vs. The Amazing Zuma Texas Wrestling 3/19/57

MD: I thought this was excellent. I wouldn't call Vachon a total package, but he was maybe 90% there and what he didn't have, some of the outright technical savvy you like to see in this era, he didn't even need. Zuma brought a ton to the table; he was full of charisma and had a lot of fun stuff including the 'rana flurry at the end. Lots of crazy quick throws too. What I loved the most about this though was how engaged both wrestlers were. Zuma was constantly talking and strutting and hovering in and out. Vachon reacted to everything, jawing (and scraping) with the ref, selling surprise after a kickout or if Zuma got a shot in, diving out of the ring in response to the Zuma cartwheel. We're talking Mark Henry levels of negative space usage here. This was constant motion (as opposed to constant moves) in the best way.

PAS: This was a lot of fun. Vachon was a really vicious bastard in this match, constantly crowding Zuma in the corner, pummeling him, ripping at his nose and eyes. Zuma was clearly the local version of Antonio Rocca, and he had a great looking dropkick, and some really awesome looking ranas to take the final pin. He did seem a little weird taking offense though, and at points seemed awkard just moving around the ring. Vachon was really great at pushing pace, and you could totally see why he would go on to be such a big star.

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MLW Worth Watching: Daga! Teddy! Myron!

Daga vs. Ariel Dominguez MLW Fusion #51 3/2 (Aired 3/30/19)

ER: This was a cool Daga showcase and probably the best he's looked in MLW, Dominguez is a pint size guy who has done a lot of fun work getting squashed in MLW and here was his longest match - by far - in the fed, and as an added bonus we got to hear Jim Cornette talk about Negro Navarro and Misionarios de la Muerte. This was a long Daga beatdown, and Daga is way cooler when he's throwing downward angled punches and hard kicks to a pint sized dude. I'd much rather see that than the same dance spots every other indy kicker does. I dug how long Dominguez held on, even if his comeback offense looked a little light and stumbly (he's also still really new at this, not even sure he's been in wrestling for a year, so tiny guy with no offense is still a fine role for him) but it made for a fun story. The story of Dominguez holding on, Daga looking meaner than I've seen (building to the Low-Ki ear ripping revenge match), and the finish really made this worth watching. That damn finish was gross. Daga hit a fast release German at a cruel angle, looking like he bounced Dominguez off his head. As Cornette is going on about chiropractors, Daga picks him up and plants him with one of the most cursed Hashimoto style DDT/brainbusters I've seen. Kid got crushed. Very excited to see this Daga run it back against Ki.

Teddy Hart vs. Myron Reed MLW Fusion #51 3/2 (Aired 3/30/19)

ER: Reed is a guy I enjoyed a lot and wrote up several matches of when he was a babyface flier. But heel Reed is even more fun! There's something great about a wiry, shit talking highflyer. How infinitely more interesting is that than a sexy dance fighter who is worried about remembering the next step in his routine? Hart comes out with taped up ribs and Hart laces into Reed with some nice punches, Reed firing back with elbows, but both sold appropriately. Hart's punches look better and more painful than Reed's elbows, and both guys recognize that and sold to that level. Once Reed started working over Hart's ribs this thing jumped up to the next level, with Reed targeting a bunch of flying directly into Hart's ribcage, with Hart rolling around holding his stomach like my buddy who bought street tacos at 11 PM after a Mexico City lucha show. Teddy toned down most of his flash once Reed starting working his ribs, and he even threw in a cool tribute to Bret by running hard chest and ribs first into the buckles. He put his own spin on it, crumpling inward and slumping towards the buckles, instead of violently recoiling the way Bret would. Reed worked smart chestbreakers and Teddy would make inroads by dodging out of the way of springboard attacks. It was a really great twist on the flyer match formula. This was easily heading toward list, but the finish was a little uninspired: Reed argued with the ref for way too long and Hart just pinned him with a backslide. We certainly could have done better than that. Still, the bulk of this was really good, and that's the important part.

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THE FATTEST TEAMS: Abdullah the Butcher & BOTH KIMALAS!?

Stan Hansen/Joel Deaton/Mike Golden vs. Abdullah the Butcher/Giant Kimala/Giant Kimala 2 AJPW 6/4/91

ER: Would you look at the mass on that team? That team of Babyfaces?? This is a handheld - which is a real gift, as we hardly have any of the Kimalas team in AJPW. Kimala 1 didn't show up a lot in Japan, and these two only teamed together in '91 (and weren't making TV very often), but to throw in the equally fat Abby? This trio was so fat they should have been called The Disorderlies. The heels are made up of the actual cool team of Hansen and Deaton...and some blond guy in a mullet that nobody has ever heard of before this match. AJ brought in a bunch of weird one tour guys in the late 80s/early 90s and Golden was fun to watch in that "I bet my balls that Mike Golden will be the one pinned in this match." We get actual gold before the bell when Hansen gets his bullrope stuck on the guardrail, so he looks uncharacteristically awkward freeing it, and then upends the timekeeper's table to make something pay for what the guardrail did. Our team of tubs was really fun throughout. Kimala had some impressive fast "working in Japan" moments, doing a really impressive leapfrog/side kick combo to Deaton, and later taking a fun pratfall bump to the floor after eating an accidental avalanche from K2. 

Kimala 2 took two really crazy fat guy bumps, one getting tossed fast to the floor by Hansen, the other getting tossed over the guardrail into the crowd by Hansen, and he even came off the top with a big chop on Deaton. Things are a little disjointed, and the crowd gets really quiet during Golden's one extended run, but before long Hansen is kicking and stomping Abby right in the head, Deaton hits monkey flips on Abby and K2, Hansen flips out and chokes Abby out in the ring with his bullrope, and Abby drops two big fat guy elbows on Golden. Our taper crew were WAY into Abby and the Kimalas, and even amusingly tried to drum up some support for Golden. The building sounded stone silent while Golden was in the ring, and our dauntless film crew gives him some loud "Miiiiiike-uh! Miiiiiiiike-uh!" before breaking down into laughter. These guys wanted to see three obese men from two African countries absolutely beat up a guy named Mike Golden, and they are why we were able to see just that. Bless.

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2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Jericho vs. Omega

9. Chris Jericho vs. Kenny Omega AEW 5/25

ER: I had no idea what to think coming into this match. Phil was keeping vague to me about what he liked, and these are two guys who he does NOT like, so I was partly convinced going into it that I was being tricked into watching a match that I wouldn't actually enjoy. Our relationship isn't typically one where we will trick the other into watching secretly terrible wrestling, although since he's accused me of that (he really does not enjoy the Tanahashi/Sabre series to the same degree I do) I keep awaiting retribution. And watching the match, I'm still not sure if I know. I came out of this with an appreciation of Omega that I've never had before, as him leaning into everything Jericho threw out is what really made this. He stood there and took a beating, dished back chops with his entire body (leaving Jericho's whole body discolored), covered for clunky Jericho moments, and fell on his neck several times in the name of rehabbing a 48 year old's offense. Earlier in the show, Cody kinda hit a throne (that apparently had steam trapped in it) with a hammer to show HHH that HE WASN'T HIS BOSS. Jericho clearly accidentally broke Omega's nose with an errant punch because he was showing HHH he can still work unsafe but nobody will bury him for it here. I really liked Omega targetting the back of Jericho's head with a couple finisher-worthy V-Triggers (which is a way better finisher than getting a grown man to sit on your shoulders and have it be at all plausible) and the snapdragons both looked nasty. Jericho hit a great inside out dropkick right to Omega's face, and I liked Excalibur on commentary talking about how Jericho aimed for the nose to send Omega bumping on his neck on the apron. Jericho even looked like he was aiming his Lionsaults so they landed across Omega's face, and late in the match threw a short knee to a downed Omega. You don't get a ton of matches with face work, but Omega is a guy who I don't mind seeing get beat about the face. The big table spots played like big moments, with Omega doing one of his spectacular swan dives into one on the floor (really he's not much different than early Sabu), and him hitting a huge flip dive into the table Jericho was holding was truly crazy by both men. So many things could have gone wrong, and as it was Jericho's leg didn't look too far away from getting snapped by a weird landing. I like that we got a sensible finish, I would have surely bet on overkill on a show like this, but a one shot Judas Effect is something I can get behind.

PAS: I wasn't coming into this match expecting to like it, and ended up kind of loving it. Omega is pretty much a poster boy for maximalist wrestling, but this was a match built around two guys stiffing each other with shots to the face and head. There were a couple of big spots which were done really well and sold really well, the double stomp with the table was kidney mushing, and I liked the surprise of Omega getting backdropped through the table. I loved how Jericho took all of his normally loose 2000s offense and made it eye socket crunching, those code breakers looked like they were going to shove Omega's cheekbone through his teeth. The broken nose really added to the match too, and Omega sold the shots like Gerald McClellan, it felt like we were watching him get beaten to death in the ring. Really liked the back elbow KO finish too, great performance by both guys, and one of the most surprising matches in years.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Dustin vs. Cody

2. Dustin Rhodes vs. Cody AEW 5/25

ER: This was incredible. Dustin is one of my favorite workers ever (not a controversial statement around these parts), a guy we've been seeing wrestle for literally more than 60% of his life, and his level of quality has remained relatively high over that 30+ year span. And his performance in this match makes a compelling argument for the greatest performance of his life. Cody doesn't do a lot for me, and I don't think it's controversial to say that the best performances of his career have come with his brother. Their 2014 tag team was especially memorable and what immediately comes to mind when I think of "Cody's best work era". But I find his mannerisms silly, that sledgehammer moment was one of the biggest air balls I've seen in a wrestling presentation, the kind of thing that would deservedly haunt a show had it not delivered. And while Cody did plenty of so-so offense here (and apparently three different moves are called the Cross Rhodes), I don't think he was a zero. I think his contributions added more than detracted, he was just always going to be the background guy. This was Dustin's show.

Dustin is looking more like the son of Dory Funk than the son of a son of a plumber. They both look like various stages of a David Morse biopic. And those sad eyes were a big key to this story. The build-up and execution of the moment Dustin runs face first into the middle buckle is one of my favorite wrestling spots of the decade, and it's great that it leads directly to the match being elevated to greatness. Dustin hits an all time blade job, I mean legendary status, and it informs every single moment in the rest of the match. Every Dustin comeback feels bigger, every bit of damage he takes feels more dire, and everything feels much grosser. At one point blood is streaming out of his head in a continuous stream; at another, Cody is punching him right in the cut and his hands and knuckles are covered in blood. It felt like a fight out of an S. Craig Zahla movie. Dustin has so much good offense throughout, his old man 619 and rolling senton combo to the floor, his nearfall powerslams sending both men over in a spray of blood, the code red out of the corner, and every single punch and slap bounced off Cody's head. The nearfalls all landed big, and although I agree with Phil that the way Cody won felt anti-climactic, I also thought it was cool that he had to keep putting down his brother to get to a "stop it, he's already dead!" moment. Wouldn't it be great for Dustin to go out working his last few years as a LA Park style old man draw?

PAS: Opening part of this match was just OK, Cody doesn't really have good looking offense and some of the spots felt more cute then impactful. I loved the set up for the Dustin blade job, with Dustin setting up the nut kick, Cody removing the second turnbuckle to block it, and and Cody drop toe holding Dustin into the exposed buckle. That Dustin blade job was an all timer, it looked liked Strawberry Fanta was coming out of a fountain soda machine. I liked Cody's knuckle punches to the cut, and the figure four spot was really well executed. The punch exchange at the end of the match actually felt like a fist fight between brothers, and I loved the Code Red. I thought the ending was a bit anti-climactic, but man what a performance by Dustin. It was all bleeding, selling and emotion. It is up there with some of the best last ride, old man matches I have ever seen, and last ride old man matches are some of my favorite types.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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AEW Double or Nothing 5/25/19

This wasn't a show I was particularly excited about. I imagine we are low voters on a bunch of the guys on this show, but Dustin Rhodes is an all time favorite, and the show is a big deal for sure.

Christopher Daniels/Scorpio Sky/Frankie Kazarian vs. T-Hawk/El Linderman/CIMA

PAS: This was what you would expect for a opening six man tag. I hadn't seen the SCU team in years and they seem to have kept all of their athleticism, pretty impressive that old man Daniels can still look so smooth, although smoothness isn't something I care a ton about. Strong Hearts was fine, I liked Hawk's chops and Linderman's deadlift German suplexes, but if you are going to bring in OWE guys, they really should have bought in the crazy Chinese Shaolin Monks rather then just second tier Dragons Gate guys. Fine but ultimately forgettable.

Dr. Britt Baker DMD vs. Kylie Rae vs. Nyla Rose vs. Awesome Kong

PAS: This was pretty bad and way too long. Awesome Kong was a cool surprise, but didn't look ready for in ring work and spent most of the match hanging outside. Rae doing her Gillberg version of Bayley was probably the most bush league thing on this show (either that or Cody's sledgehammer stuff). I am not sure there are enough non-WWE women to make a real division, this wasn't a good start, and I am not interested in seeing any of these ladies again.

Best Friends vs. Angelico/Jack Evans

PAS: I think it is a mistake for a fed basically main evented by the Young Bucks to have so many B-Team Bucks running around: SCU, both these teams, Lucha Brothers, Super Smash Brothers. They really need some teams who don't work the same style. You can't have 10 versions of the Rockers, you need a Twin Towers or Demolition. This is my semi-annual attempt to watch a Chuck Taylor match and get it, and I still don't. He hits some spots OK, but there are parts where he can't run the ropes and his forearms and kicks look terrible. Trent was mechanically fine, if uninteresting. Angelico is still Angelico, some of his stuff looks cool, the double teams with Evans are nifty, and then he throws a punch. Evans is still awesome, his body is made of jello, and he flips like crazy. His moonsault to the floor was one of the crazier spots of the night. Didn't care for this, it was a worse version of Bucks vs. Lucha Brothers and I didn't love that either.

Aja Kong/Yuka Sakazaki/Emi Sakura vs. Hikaru Shida/Riho/Ryo Mizunami

PAS: This was a fun showcase for all six ladies. Everyone got a chance to run through their stuff, and a lot of it looked pretty good. Sakazaki's magical girl shtick is pretty creepy, there already is a pervert constituency among Joshi fans and that seems to lean way into it. Aja is still a beast and definitely stood out, I especially liked any time she faced off with Mizunami, as I am always going to dig a big gal punch out. Shida got the big with with the knee, and I think a version of her 2018 singles with Aja would get over pretty big.

Dustin Rhodes vs. Cody

PAS: Opening part of this match was just OK, Cody doesn't really have good looking offense and some of the spots felt more cute then impactful. I loved the set up for the Dustin blade job, with Dustin setting up the nut kick, Cody removing the second turnbuckle to block it, and and Cody drop toe holding Dustin into the exposed buckle. That Dustin blade job was an all timer, it looked liked Strawberry Fanta was coming out of a fountain soda machine. I liked Cody's knuckle punches to the cut, and the figure four spot was really well executed. The punch exchange at the end of the match actually felt like a fist fight between brothers, and I loved the Code Red. I thought the ending was a bit anti-climactic, but man what a performance by Dustin. It was all bleeding, selling and emotion. It is up there with some of the best last ride, old man matches I have ever seen, and last ride old man matches are some of my favorite types.

Young Bucks vs. Lucha Brothers

PAS: Pretty much what you would expect, there were a couple of nice storyline moments, with the Bucks being a little rusty due to their long layoff, and the very end of the match with the work on Matt's arm. Still most of the match was running through a million headdrop finishers for 2.9 counts. Fenix had a couple of amazing moments of high flying, including a rope trick on both Bucks which looked great. But this was everything turned up to 10, and my eyes eventually just glassed over with the nearfalls. This kind of match is clearly going to be a showcase for this promotion, and I think it will keep me from really investing in it.

Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho

PAS: I wasn't coming into this match expecting to like it, and ended up kind of loving it. Omega is pretty much a poster boy for maximalist wrestling, but this was a match built around two guys stiffing each other with shots to the face and head. There were a couple of big spots which were done really well and sold really well, the double stomp with the table was kidney mushing, and I liked the surprise of Omega getting backdropped through the table. I loved how Jericho took all of his normally loose 2000s offense and made it eye socket crunching, those code breakers looked like they were going to shove Omega's cheekbone through his teeth. The broken nose really added to the match too, and Omega sold the shots like Gerald McClellan, it felt like we were watching him get beaten to death in the ring. Really liked the back elbow KO finish too, great performance by both guys, and one of the most surprising matches in years.

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Low-Ki is a Fake Cartagegna, Nice With The Hands Better With the Banger

Low-Ki vs. Necro Butcher IWA East Coast 7/12/11 - GREAT

ER: Just when you think you've seen 'em all, some match between two legends pops up in your inbox. And it's weird and great because Ki comes out as a full fledged babyface, including bringing a kid into the ring and giving him his t-shirt. Ki giving merch to kids like he was Bret Hart? Wut? Necro immediately recognizes how bullshit that is and jumps him. Ki spends the first few minutes of this as an underdog babyface, which is a weird role I've rarely seen him in; part of the appeal of Ki is that he's often the smallest guy in a match who doesn't care that he's the smallest guy in the match. I liked seeing him treated like the small guy, Necro holding onto ropes to avoid whips, shoving him off with ease, and part of the fun is that you know Ki isn't going to take it for long. I really love when guys like these two show up in places that aren't entirely made up of smark crowds. Feuds in FIP were always more interesting than the same feuds in ROH, because FIP matches would have a ton of weirdos and kids and developmentally disabled people flipping out for the action. Once this match spills to the floor is when it gets really great, because suddenly it looks like Necro is in a sea of varying degrees of Necro clones. Every guy in the bleachers looks like a different era of Necro Butcher, like all all of the Simpson males at the end of the Lisa the Simpson episode. They brawl through the bleachers past all of the various members of the Butcher clan, and you get to hear some kid yell at Ki to kick Necro in the face, and Ki does him one better by doing an awesome double stomp on the bleachers, hopping right onto Necro's chest from 4 rows up. Necro gets the top of his head busted open, Ki throws Necro off the top through a set up chair BY HIS BEARD, kicks and chops from both guys echo through the building, the exact thing you were hoping would happen. We got a ton of Necro gouging at Ki's eyes and face, dropping him with a couple big powerbombs, there was a big spot where Ki came an inch or two from being dropped on his head (looked like he waffled between a somersault bump or flat chest bump and got about the worst combo of those two things), but this felt like a Ki/Necro match at all times. Not sure how I haven't seen this match before, but it made me desperate to see these two working more regional indies and less super indies.

PAS: Their pair of 2006 match are arguably the greatest two match series in indy wrestling history, this is five more years of wear on Necro's body, and it isn't surprising that they couldn't hit those heights again. Still a great match, and a pair of guys with magical chemistry. Necro is a guy Ki can hit as hard as he wants and KI really takes advantage of that, while Necro figures if he is going to get pounded that hard he might as well unload too. I loved all of the fights on the bleachers, it was what I remembered from watching the match years ago. Ki leaping off the bleachers to crush Necro's ribs was super nasty, no give on bleachers, so it was all feet to bones. There were a couple of awkward spots, but the finish was a finish and I am glad this showed up again so I could enjoy.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LOW-KI

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New Footage Friday: FULL OMNI SHOW!

GCW 11/4/83

PAS: You have to love that the network is throwing stuff like this up now, instead of some OVW match which was already on Youtube. This is completely new, and full of intriguing match ups, and a rarely seen match up between two all timers

Mike Jackson vs. Bob Roop

PAS: This was a cool match on paper between two of the maestros of 80s regional wrestling. It had a moment or two, but was mostly worked as a match to let people settle in their seats. The headlock takeovers had some snap, and I dug Roop's stampede shoulderbreaker, but this was basically skippable.

Johnny Rich vs. Chick Donovan

PAS: I am amused at them running a Tommy Rich cousin against a fake Nature Boy on the undercard of Wildfire vs. Flair. Chick had some nice straight punched to the temple, but this was pretty forgettable as well. Rich just kind of rolls him up after some basic dropkick/armdrag stuff.

Ronnie Garvin vs. Cy Jennigan

PAS: Another short match, but a bit more nip and tuck then the first two. No I idea who Jennigan is, but he was pretty aggressive, backing Garvin into the corner and landing some nice looking body shots. Garvin puts him out pretty quickly with a big punch and elbow drop.

Jake Roberts vs. Pez Whatley

PAS: This is a match with a bunch of individually cool things in it. Roberts is a great sleazy heel, and they build nicely with his cheapshots and Paul Ellering interference. Whatley is pretty exciting babyface and times his comebacks well, including some really sweet dropkicks. Still this goes to a 30 minute draw, and they had about 15 minutes of stuff to fill time with. At no point did they really work to a finish, and the match ended up feeling like someone was stuck in traffic and they were told to stretch. Ended up being pretty tough to get through.

Ted DiBiase vs. Buzz Sawyer

PAS: One of the weird and cool things we have gotten with the Hidden Gems on the network is a much wider view of Buzz Sawyer. We got to see his most legendary match ever, The Last Battle of Atlanta, work an awesome Battle of Dogs against JYD and now a rare bit of babyface Buzz taking on DiBiase. As expected this had a lot of great looking right hands by both guys, and Buzz using his traditional heel mannerisms and awesome babyface mannerisms. There were a couple of time killer chinlock spots (this was a DiBiase match after all) but after Buzz gets cut it is a pretty energetic brawl including an awesome post match where DiBiase throws a chair at Buzz who catches it, sits down and gives him an evil grin. Fun stuff.

MD: I really, really like fiery babyface Dibiase. Heel Dibiase though? Kind of the shits as often as not. I'm presuming he called this match and he called it to come off as a vulnerable champ. Buzz had JUST turned face and they were going to have to count on him to draw for the next few months, but that lengthy babyface sleeper sequence was unforgivable. I say that even with the pop Sawyer got after Dibiase hope spotted his way out of it only to get caught off the ropes again. It just went on forever. It's a shame too because there was a lot of good stuff. The early clowning was great because the crowd desperately wanted to cheer Buzz and he could really milk it. When Dibiase finally took over, all of his offense looked really good. The finish was pretty heated brawling. But man, vulnerable heel champion or no, you don't want an endless babyface sleeper that they barely work. Even a 1983 Georgia crowd knew that wasn't going anywhere. They were just polite enough to cheer along.

The Road Warriors vs. Buzz/Brett Sawyer

PAS: This was a total blast, Buzz comes out to save his brother and the crowd goes nuts. Brett has a broken arm and his cast and Buzz's insanity even up the match. Animal gets busted open and Hawk has a bandaged ear, and this is the most I can remember the Roadies looking vulnerable, which really helps the match. Shockingly good selling by both guys, and I am wondering if I need to revisit the Roadies. Their offense looks great too, they are both amazing power wrestlers, their slams looks so effortless and their bearhugs look rib cracking. Great heat on Brett and a big hot tag by Buzz and we actually have the Warriors go down clean.

MD: I loved this. Earlier in the day I doubled back and caught a lot of what we have of GCW TV from November. That meant I saw the Buzz Sawyer turn. The pop when he ran back to the ring to team with his brother here was huge. They had delayed this one show with the injury angle on Brett. There was just a buzz and that initial shine with the revenge cast shots and the fans reacting to every shot was great. Considering how little the Road Warriors would give a few years later, they were great at doing what they had to here. They were completely protected by the weapon-like nature of the cast and the sheer babyface fury that Buzz brought. I thought the bearhug control bits were actually really effective, which was a testament to Brett's selling and how badly the crowd wanted the Sawyers to get revenge and the finish was pretty triumphant. The perfect match for this crowd and this moment. Between this, the Last Battle of Atlanta and the Thanksgiving show, plus some stuff we know they have back in August from previous releases, we're starting to get this real picture of the territory just like we were able to with Houston a few years back.

Ric Flair vs. Tommy Rich

PAS: This is the first match we have between these two legends (outside of a Power Hour match in 1990) and I really wanted it to be a classic. Instead it was a good match, with two good wrestlers putting on a show for the fans up into a bad finish. Rich has those great looking straight punches, and Flair bumps all around the ring for them. I really enjoyed the king of the mountain section with Flair constantly knocking Rich to the floor. I thought the big Flair bladejob was a bit desultory, and Flair just checking it off his list. That belt shot at the finish of the match was really weak looking and left me with a bit of a bad taste. Still there was a lot to enjoy in the meat of this match, I imagine if we every get another matchup between the two it will fulfill more of its promise.

MD: This is just a very solid Ric Flair match. Nothing was over the top exceptional but everything seemed to hit, even if loosely. I think a lot of that has to do with the opponent, not necessarily any actual skill that Rich brings to the table, but just from who he was and where they were. Rich was established so Flair didn't have to establish him. It meant that he was able to take a good chunk of the match. Rich was over so Flair could make use of that to get heat. It meant that Flair could go back to the well again and again with the cheating and get reactions. Rich wasn't a one trick pony so Flair didn't have to fall into formula. They worked this pretty broadly. There were attempts at legwork and then actual legwork but it didn't dominate the match. Rich had plenty of comebacks but Flair got to use a lot of his great offense. I especially liked the pile driver and the subsequent comeback reversal. Finally, they got to do a fairly complex finish with a roll up and a belt shot and both guys came out of it looking pretty good. Maybe Rich would get him next time, right?

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MLW Worth Watching: Acey Baby! Gotch! Gringo! Myron! Park! Mancer!

Ace Romero vs. Simon Gotch MLW Fusion #48 3/2 (Aired 3/9/19)

ER: Dug this battle a lot and thought it was going to land safely on our list until the Contra run in (and after we witnessed Contra run in to attack every fat guy on the NYC show we were at, how was I not expecting this!?), but what we got was awesome. Gotch was throwing hard shots and looked like he was genuinely overwhelming Ace to start, really smacking him around. Ace really only had two pieces of offense, but they were HUGE pieces of offense, hitting a giant fat guy Pounce and then following up with a completely bonkers dive, maybe the fattest dude I've ever seen hit a suicide dive. What could possibly be going through both men's heads during this moment. What chance does Gotch - or anyone - have at successfully catching a 400 pound man, safely? What chance does a 400 pound man have of landing safely? Romero is nuts and I appreciate his Headhunter-like abuse on his body (while acknowledging that he is likely bigger than either Headhunter was at their biggest). Gotch is able to go back to leg kicks, chest kicks, and in one great spot throws an awesome thrust headbutt at Romero's stomach and sells it like he just clonked heads with an Islander. There are great details that Gotch throws into matches sometimes that show he really gets it. This was shaping up to be pretty special before Contra's attacks on the obese. And now I'm sad that Contra don't wear black hoodies with black bandanas tied around their faces. They could still carry their flags, but they should have been called Antifat.

Gringo Loco vs. Myron Reed MLW Fusion #50 3/2 (Aired 3/23/19)

ER: While I thought this was a bit too planned out at times (helping opponents kick out of pins because it rolls into the next bit of offense too well!), I still like what these two bring, and appreciate how Reed brings some personality and attitude to his flips and flops. A chubby guy springing all over the ring is always going to entertain me. It's also weirdly entertaining hearing Cornette do commentary on this one as it really feels like nothing he would have ever talked kindly about before. There could have been more selling in this one, it was definitely all about the spots, but I appreciate Reed selling a piledriver like Tenryu, even though he didn't stay down long for it. When you are at least visually acknowledging that a move hurt your neck, that will put you ahead of those types that are just concerned about their next move. We get some great stuff here, and they do a couple neat things that plays into their spotfest, like Reed doing a couple extra superfluous somersaults and getting caught in a huge sitout powerbomb. Loco hits a killer tope con hilo, there's an awesome battle over a top rope Loco powerbomb/Reed frankensteiner where you honestly don't know which way it will go (Reed won, and Loco took that frankensteiner with a super late rotation that looked deadly), Reed hits a big springboard 450, Loco hits a kooky twisting press to win, just a super fun 7 minute spotfest. Glad they matched these two up, and I think the face/heel alignment works even better now (Loco face/Reed heel) than if they had matched them up a month or two prior.

LA Park vs. Mance Warner MLW Fusion #50 3/2 (Aired 3/23/19)

ER: This was a really great brawl for the first 2/3 that sadly went on too long and experienced some major slowdown in the final third. I actually liked the layout of this as I had a blast watching Warner dominate Park to start. Park is usually the guy to rush his opponent with an attack, so Mancer going after him with eyepokes, great worked chair attacks (he knows how to stab at someone's body with an edge of a chair without murdering them), smacking him through the crowd, beating him with a kendo stick, hits a killer tornado DDT off a chair, totally looks like a guy who can hang with Park. The Bunkhouse Buck cosplay is obvious cosplay, but he's more than just suspenders and crazy eyes, and I'd rather have guys cosplaying Buck than Shawn Michaels, obviously. It's fun to start with Park eating a beating because you know it will turn into Park paying back that beating. And sure enough, before long Park is sentoning Mancer through a table, powerslamming him through a different table, absolutely crushing him with a full force senton off the top (Mancer seems like enough of a worker that he'd swallow a condom filled with pig's blood, would have been a great time for a whale spray of blood), and we build to a fun tradeoff of belt shots and suspender shots, both guys whipping each other in the face and head, Park bashing him in the head with a table, Mance throwing that table hard from the ring at Salina (and her surprised reaction was fantastic, Salina even did the Park dance during their entrance!). It was all great at this point. This could have been a tremendous 10 minutes brawl.

Sadly, Park appeared to gas out pretty hard down the stretch and the final few minutes got a little painful to watch. Maybe I was reading too much into it but the pace just came to a stop and Mancer was put into the difficult spot of  working around a much bigger guy (MLW is billing Park at 233 lb., which is only slightly less believable than trump's 243) who could not move. They still somehow try a couple of spots off the top, which could have gone awful, and the production inserts a replay over one of the top rope spots, I assume on purpose as the set up and landing were probably pretty ugly. Park looked tired enough that I'm surprised they didn't cut straight to a finish, and it looked like Warner had to improvise a couple workarounds to planned spots to compensate. It looked like Park at one point was going up top for another planned spot but thankfully reconsidered. There were still cool moments down the stretch, and I loved Park's mammoth spear finish, but this was a pretty thankless final 5 minutes for Warner. It looked like he did the best with what he was given, but basically had to get crushed by a giant dude for a few minutes. Very surprised some kind of audible wasn't called.

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On Brand Segunda Caida: More 90s Terry Funk!

Terry Funk vs. Tito Santana NWC 10/8/94

ER: To my knowledge none of the '85 WWF Santana/Funk matches made tape, which is a shame as those two in '85 would have been perfect dance partners. And we know this even more, because they were pretty perfect dance partners here, almost a decade later. Early 90s Funk was about as much of a guaranteed great performance as you could get on a 90s indy card. You know people were talking about Funk on the way home from these cards, which was no small feat with people like Sabu on the undercard. Funk just knows how to own any environment. The Aladdin theater was a big venue with a cool concrete riser in the middle for performances (it's one of several places my mom saw Neil Diamond "in the round"), so you knew Funk was going to incorporate that. Pre-match Funk is almost always as good as in-match Funk, and here he stalks and hobbles around, whips his ring gear at fans, bullies the ring announcer, and then laces right into Tito. Every strike exchange between the two was fire, and Terry takes a big bump over the top to the floor off a Tito chop. 

All of the crowd brawling was really exciting, as Funk threw stuff around like a modern (younger) LA Park, ripping up the guardrails, throwing garbage cans, scaring girls that were in the front row, clonking Tito with a can, laying him out with a piledriver on the floor, the stuff you'd be flipping out for had you wandered in off the strip that night. Tito gets some nice comeback moments, gets to eventually pay Funk back with his own great piledriver, smacks Funk through the ropes again (with Terry taking a fun tangled up in ropes bump to the floor), and we get a really nice moment where Tito is on his knees, and Funk keeps rearing back to wallop him with a left, but Tito keeps punching him in the gut each time. It was a really nice twist on a babyface fighting back to his feet, arranged like only Funk can. We even get Funk tossing out a few headbutts only to stagger around before going down like a felled tree. Even after Tito wins you get Funk kicking the ref out of the way so he can choke out Tito with his wrist tape. This is the perfect environment for Funk. The dude should have done a Vegas residency.

Terry Funk/Cactus Jack/Steve Austin/Undertaker vs. The Rock/Faarooq/D-Lo Brown/Kama Mustafa WWE Raw 12/29/97

ER: My god this ruled. This was Terry Funk's return match to WWF, a post-Raw dark match I didn't realize was online, a fantastic house show style main that you know absolutely slayed everything else on the show. Funk is in his Chainsaw Charlie "gear" (what the hell was that about again?) but a few smart fans start up "Terry" chants whenever he's in. This is really the only interaction we got between Funk and The Rock, and it's a real trip seeing Funk stiff him up with hard right jabs and a big left. Funk also takes a fast bump over the top for Faarooq, all while wearing weird old man jeans, dusty red shirt and stockings over his face. Honestly his Chainsaw Charlie gear is probably the most "Alabama abandoned strip mall indy show attended by 13 people" look that ever made it onto WWF television. Austin works like an absolute fiend when he's in, it's always shocking to me when WWF Austin works super fast. Here he's the quickest guy in the match (although admittedly there aren't tons of known speedsters here) and he absolutely crushes Rock with a falling elbow at one point, all while wearing his impossibly tight jorts. Rock was really great on the apron, honestly he could have stayed there the whole match and it would have been wonderful (even though his stuff in the ring was standout). At one point Kama interferes from the apron with a kick, and falls awkwardly into the ring over the top rope, trying desperately to slide back onto the apron as if nobody would notice the dude just literally fell into the ring. Rock looks over at him and gives him a thumbs up. I died, then watched it a few times. The finish is rushed, Undertaker only gets in right at the end and hits a chokeslam so weak that it was like he was practicing how he was going to chokeslam Mae Young, but damn was this whole thing still a blast.

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2019 Ongoing MOTY List: IKEDA and ISHIKAWA Rekindle Their Violent Romance

10. Daisuke Ikeda/Alexander Otsuka vs. Mohammed Yone/Yuki Ishikawa Ikeda 25th Anniversary Show 4/7

PAS: I am in a pretty great nostalgia K-Hole right now, I get to watch the Warriors go back to 2015 post KD injury, and I get to see my FUTEN and BattlArts friends take it back to 2010 and approximate a FUTEN tag. Ishikawa has shown up in 2019 and is making a strong Wrestler of the Year pitch, after basically being inactive for the last half a decade. The rest of the guys in this match have clearly slowed down a step or two, but Ishikawa looks like prime Yuki Ishikawa. We get great opening Ishikawa mat sections with both Ikeda and Otsuka, including Ishikawa doing an awesome gator roll. There was a long Ikeda vs. Yone section where the match dropped down a gear (although it did have an awesome spot where Otsuka deadlift Germans both guys, and some great Ikeda straight punches to Yone's head). The focus of the match was Ikeda vs. Ishikawa of course and I was so glad to see them run that all time legendary matchup back. The structure was pretty interesting with Ikeda initially working as a guy who had lost a step and couldn't hang, in the early sections he kept going to the eyes and breaking submissions by biting. When we got the final stanza though, he stands up and brings the heat you would expect from Daisuke Ikeda, including nearly beheading Ishikawa with a spin kick to the jaw. There is some great intense scrambling on the ground, but Ishikawa finishes Ikeda off with a nasty Octopus. So happy this happened, and so happy it showed up on the internet. Can't believe that they are still doing this to each other, but god bless those two lunatics.

ER: This had a different vibe for me than the past BattlArts/Futen throwback tags we've gotten, and while I don't think it ever ramped up to the gear of some of those absolute classics, but those classics also largely felt like the Ikeda/Ishikawa show (which is obviously the most durable of all BattlArts feuds) and an equal parts Otsuka/Yone show. Obviously all of the most classic Futen tags have
contributions from non Ikeda/Yuki guys like Ono and Oba, but this felt like the first throwback tag we've seen in a long time that had contributions from all original BattlArts guys, and I loved what Otsuka and Yone brought to the table. Otsuka is beefy as helllll now, but he's not just some sluggish tub, just makes his asskick more thicc. Dug his scramble with Yuki the most, but he's also great at the guy throwing stiff as hell flat feet right to the chest to knock someone back a few feet, or tossing out German suplexes on one - or both at once - of his opponents to save his boy (and Phil is right, those tandem German suplex trains can look silly but this one looked violent, like they all entered into a pact to wind up in more pain), and Otsuka got the awesome role of being the guy who marches in to break up Ikeda from trouble, in mean ways. Normally Ikeda seems to get that role, but Otsuka really runs with it. Otsuka also pulls off what might honestly be the fastest giant swing I've ever seen. He was whipping around and literal knee breaking speed, just a total marvel of strength. Yone got to show off his stiffness as well, which isn't something that always happens as he can definitely be more "pro style" than the others. He and Ishikawa have barely even crossed paths in 20 years, and Ikeda has mostly been his tag partner this decade. So it was awesome seeing him come in with really hard leg kicks, a couple awesome mule kicks to the face, and arguably the hardest thrown elbows of the match (and yes, I realize the three guys he was in with, Yone's elbows looked that good). Of course we end with the two legends, doing their dance, Yuki getting dropped with what should be an illegal brainbuster, Ikeda landing completely under the chin with a brutal spin kick (his best kick of the match, would have bought as a finish), and Yuki locking on the twisty octopus. *Obviously* this match was going to make our list, but these old dudes just keep justifying it.

2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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On Brand Segunda Caida: Early 90s Funk

Terry Funk/Dory Funk Jr. vs. The Land of Giants (Skywalker Nitron/Butch Masters) AJPW 11/12/90

ER: I was in the mood to watch some Terry Funk matches I had never seen, and this certainly fits that bill! We regularly get people asking why we don't have more SKYWALKER NITRON on the blog, so this buys us some time from those types. And it's true that while Terry Funk was in Road House, he has not ever been paid money to portray Michael Myers or Sabretooth, and that still means something to a lot of people. But my god what a Terry show this is. Terry is so great working both giants, running around them in amusing ways, mocking their "step over the top rope" ring entrances by stepping over the guardrail to get away from them, literally forcing two giants to angrily chase him. The way he sets up this big moment is so wonderful, testing the waters with failed shoulderblocks, feeling out Nitron, building to head faking his way into an ankle pick, flopping to the mat to grab a leg. It was incredible. Throw in Terry throwing stiff punch combos on hot tags, nice headbutts, and a pair of really big bumps over the top to the floor to put over the Giants, and it was all a weird kind of magic. Dory couldn't move them, so it kept setting up Terry to save the day and lead to a ton of fun moments. 

The Giants are fine. This is probably the most cohesive I've seen them look, and I thought they mixed in their big boots nicely, thought Masters had a genuinely great bearhug on Dory, and I think a giant-assisted legdrop is a cool tandem finisher (that got a really awesome nearfall reaction, as I actually could have seen them do something crazy like let part-timer Terry lose to these guys). The finishing stretch nicely whips the crowd up, and while I was hoping for a finish a bit more interesting than Dory hitting a sloppy as hell Thesz Press, the Terry performance here alone made this a bank full of money. Terry is ALWAYS fun against weird opponents, and two 6'9" Faux Warriors are the perfect kind of weird.

Terry Funk vs. Road Warrior Hawk NWA Grandslam 4/17/93

ER: There really aren't a ton of Road Warrior/Funk interactions, and this was about as fun a singles match as one could have hoped for. This was a nice and full gymnasium for a big indy card, and here's Terry Funk coming out for the main event, screaming at fans, yelling at moms in baggy white sweatshirts, ripping his chaps off and threatening to swing on people, ranting and raving through the crowd before making his way back to the ring. When Hawk finally comes out, Funk leaves the ring and shoves Dennis Coralluzzo around, then waits until Hawk is distracted by greeting a disabled fan and jumps him. This whole thing is great, a tremendous Terry show. He buries Hawk under chairs, brawls through the crowd and, importantly, the crowd brawling is genuinely good, with Funk throwing stiff body shots and hard elbows to the back of Hawk's neck. Funk bounces a trash can off Hawk's head and then actually gives him a piledriver on the floor. The crowd is fully hot for this and the ring bell keeps ringing, which I think always adds to the chaotic feel of something like this. Things hit an impossible peak when they brawl up through the bleachers, Funk gets his head smashed into the wall at the top and then bumps backward, upside down, sliding down the bleachers. Amazing. Funk gets great color, bloody as hell on a Saturday night in Minnesota, getting press slammed by Hawk back in the ring, making damn sure those people got their money's worth. This was a card filled with talent, and this match is officially listed as going less than 2 minutes. If one single person in attendance complained that they only got a "2 minute match" from these two? Wrestling just might not be for them.

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I Forgot WWE Money in the Bank Was Today Blog! 5/19/19

Got it in my head that this thing was happening next weekend, went on a nice jog during the breaks in the rain, hot shower, cozy pants, sitting down with coffee and Phil texts me if I'm gonna write up the PPV. Crap. I had been planning on watching a Death Wish sequel, a couple Beyond matches, and the Schitt's Creek finale I've been saving...but let's dive in blindly to Money in the Bank!

Daniel Bryan/Erick Rowan vs. The Usos

ER: Pretty genuinely surprised that this wound up on the pre-show. Now, I don't actually know what the rest of this card is (been only skimming through TV the past several weeks, and now that I'm watching it's more fun to just see what happens), so maybe it will knock my socks off! And this whole thing delivered the usually fun pre-show match quality, but with these guys it should have been way better than that. It was good, it was fun, but it really wasn't that much more fun than if we had gotten a Mojo Rawley/No Way Jose 8 minute match. The timing looked just slightly off throughout, things like one of the Usos leaping far out of the way to set up Bryan catching him in an armbar, or Bryan arriving at the edge of the ropes and having to wait a split second to be hit by the double superkick, Usos double splash finish looking ugly with both guys landing more on their feet than landing the splash, just felt like a lot of this was worked at 75%. There were cool moments - hard not to be with these guys - and Bryan pretty clearly looks like the best wrestler in the company right now. I liked Rowan catching both of the Usos on dives, thought each Uso took a nice big bump, but this underdelivered expectations from these four.

Naomi vs. Carmella vs. Nikki Cross vs. Mandy Rose vs. Ember Moon vs. Dana Brooke vs. Natalya vs. Bayley

ER: Everybody has new gear which is cool as I don't even remember people having notably cool new gear at Mania. Was their seamstress running behind? Naomi in the afro puffs and bumblebee look is fantastic, she pulls it off so well. I really, really love that gear and look on her. And Carmella is finally out of the Baywatch swimsuit and into a money two piece. This whole match is somewhat sloppy, a little disjointed, but they went for a ton of shit, tried out some cool new shit, and tried to be a little unique with the concept. Not all of the spots worked, some of them felt way too choreographed (stuff like Carmella holding the ladder too long waiting for Mandy to kick her knee out (and the extremely awkward aftermath of that spot, with Carmella weirdly shoving her away with one arm and saying "get away from meeeee" like they were two kids play fighting and one actually got hurt), or Dana Brooke reaching right over the briefcase to grab the rope because the spot was for her to swing from it, that stuff never looks good and I hate when we see the end of the sequence telegraphed by the process. But the painful stuff was painful and the cool stuff was cool. Mandy Rose took a couple big nasty bumps, one over the top to the apron to the floor, the other getting kicked off a ladder; Sonya Deville came in to fireman's carry Mandy up the ladder, and that looked awesome; Ember hit the Eclipse off a ladder into the ring, Nikki does a nice version of Finlay's ring skirt trap beatdown, Naomi took a painful as hell atomic drop bump on a ladder, Mandy ran up a set up ladder to hit a knee in the end, tons of cool stuff. Overall I thought it was too mapped out and a little messy, but it was an appropriate length, and fun! And Bayley could make for a fun title chaser.

Rey Mysterio vs. Samoa Joe

ER: Man are we ever gonna actually get a total badass match between these two? This is a genuine dream match and we've gotten a pointless Mania match, a rushed Raw match, and now an even more rushed PPV match. This was more angle than match, with Joe getting legit busted open by a shot and then getting pinned fairly quickly while his shoulder was nowhere close to the match. It's pretty lame to have them both wildly celebrating a late career Mysterio title win, while also getting thoughtful Michael Cole voice saying "You now Samoa Joe has a legitimate beef about that pin." This match needed Dominick to take a real shit kicking. Instead we got Cole saying weird things like "He's making Rey's teenage son watch his father get beat!" First, Mysterio's large ass adult son has to be in his 20s by now, old enough to foolishly run in to help his dad. We've had Miz's dad eat a beating, Dominick needs to get busted open. If you don't want to have Dominick eating a beating on the same show where that happened in a different feud, then what is the point of even debuting Dominick at this point? What we got of a match was fine, these two are nice dance partners, but we just didn't have the time to make it very interesting.

Shane McMahon vs. The Miz

ER: I really enjoyed their Mania match, thought the stunt spots were genuinely nutty and built too nicely. Having them fight in a cage kind of contains the stunt aspect more than I'd like, but they bring good energy to this. Shane is a fun stuntman, but here he shows that he's a fun cornered animal. I was fully expecting him to work a fully equal match, because for whatever reason Shane is always treated like an equal. But here he comes in playing desperate strategy, scrambling for escape any way he can. I do like the moments where he can't help himself but always pays for it, even if Miz catching him on the coast to coast was kind of awkward. Miz unleashing actual punishment was really good, with Cole calling him a sadist (which is a weird thing to have your announcer saying about your babyface who isn't doing a heel turn) as he beats Shane with a chair. I was hoping they'd end it like this, with Miz getting some revenge and dropping him face first on a chair. But they opted to go a pretty stupid route instead, as they apparently think the hot way to draw fans into this PPV is some refs making mistakes! The ref stops the match when Shane gets his foot on the ropes, even though it's a No DQ cage match. Two matches in a row where a ref mistake changes the outcome of a match is just stupid, uninteresting, and lazy. That Shane eventually wins the match by dropping to the floor, ensuring the feud continues, was not what I wanted. This started very promising but didn't go in a direction anybody could have wanted.

Tony Nese vs. Ariya Daivari

ER: Damn this feels like a couple deep cut guys on the roster to be getting PPV time. I don't really have the time to watch 205 Live, but damn what is the state of that program? Tony Nese really stinks. This whole thing is ice cold (possibly by design) and Nese doesn't help any one soul in the building get warm. His prepared combos are so sloppy and shitty looking, he runs through this awful high kick/kneelift, leg sweep, leg drop combo that is so slow, and manages to look shittier literally each step of the way through the combo. Daivari has a couple more interesting things than I remembered. I liked his jab and a couple of his cheapshots, but he doesn't have anything interesting enough to make the crowd care about Tony Nese. We do eventually get a Boring chant, and it's stupid but not undeserved. Nese doesn't deserve cheers for his shitty elbow exchanges and slow kicks, all delivered with absolutely zero personality. Nese is such a zilch. Fans at least make a little noise for his flip dive and 450, but I actually laughed when it got a kickout. These guys are going for This Is Awesome Please Don't Stop epic without earning one damn ounce of it. I hate it but I kind of love it. The finishing stretch was nonsensical and cut short right when they decided to do some silly kickouts. Really this whole thing showed that neither of these guys are anywhere close to deserving PPV time. This was outright bad.

Lacey Evans vs. Becky Lynch

ER: I really have not been into any of the Lacey Evans stuff we've gotten so far, so this is a decent chance for her to win me over. I think I'm still upset that we never got the culmination of this exact same run for Eva Marie. I wasn't expecting any good matches from that, but I got a genuine kick out of the Eva Maria stuff. And Lacey looks if not great, interesting. Her arm work was nice, whipping Becky's arm into the match, wrapping it around a post, stomping on the wrist, kneeing the elbow, all of those are cool things. She threw a hard elbowdrop to the stomach, overall a nice attack. The crowd doesn't really seem to buy into her game though, and it makes for some pretty quiet control segments. Perhaps worse, is that Lacey doesn't eat a babyface beating very well. She is really stiff - not in a cool strikes kind of way, stiff as in "kind of a lug" - who doesn't bump excitedly for explosive offense, kinda just clunks her way over on big dropkicks, and always seems just slightly out of position. The finishing sequence building to the Disarm-her was messy and unconvincing, with another bizarrely out of place ref leading to the sequence looking even uglier than it should have. Was this a case of "refs call it like a shoot and the shoulder wasn't down" or have they not been instructing the refs to act like it's a shoot for a decade? This whole PPV has felt both cursed and like a curse over the past hour.

Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte

ER: This could be a nice way to turn our misfortune around. This overall feud has had some unfortunate detours and misdirections, and has been a disappointment, but it still has high ceiling potential and it's always a possibility one of the matches could reach that ceiling. It doesn't really get to that ceiling, and is also kind of a dull mess. There were also several moments where one of them intentionally or unintentionally flinched out of the way of important strikes, so you got a few moments of sold strikes that ate a ton of air, including the kick that literally ended the match. That stuff is ugly as hell and the wrestlers need to be given the confidence to call audibles more often. The match didn't work to any interesting peak moments, was not memorable, and then it ALSO turns out it's even more of an angle than a match, as we get the full fan requested Bayley run in complete with her cashing in the briefcase.

Charlotte vs. Bayley

ER: This was at least memorable for the fans' legit large pop for the quick Bayley win. It would be a real kick if Bayley suddenly got a groundswell of support the way fans suddenly took to Kofi. I would love if the end result of all of this fairly botched Becky/Charlotte feud is Bayley becoming as popular as Becky was a year ago. Bayley running through the crowd was a genuinely fun moment.

Elias vs. Roman Reigns

ER: You guys I really don't like this PPV and I definitely would rather be listening to the angular guitar synth sounds of Jimmy Page while Paul Kersey takes down a sect of LA new wave gutter punks. I am starting to resent the PPV a little at this point. "Big Dog" Commentary Count: 3

AJ Styles vs. Seth Rollins

ER: This was not the match I was hoping for, when I was hoping for my luck to turn around. AJ has been a noticeable step down over the past year, and Rollins is arguably my least favorite guy on the roster. This just wasn't the match I wanted. It's a match that I'm very tired of. We haven't really seen these two in a match, but that's not what I'm mean, I mean that I'm tired of these Seth Rollins style fitness routine epics. This stuff is such soulless junk, I always wind up totally zoned out 5 minutes in. There were things that looked cool: AJ sets up a nutso piledriver off the apron and Rollins drops hard to his escape, Rollins hits his dive a little more recklessly (not as daintily) as he can, stuff like that. We get an actually AWESOME reverse suplex off the top, with Rollins whipping Styles with a low arc, making it look like AJ bounced right off his face. It was great and infinitely cooler than any other piece of Rollins' offense. So naturally it was used as a mid-match nearfall surprise. The missed and hit superkick tradeoffs look as silly and overdone as they usually look, and "The Beast Slayer! Looking to burn it down!" is so cringe that I don't even know if Manowar could make that sound cool. It certainly doesn't sound cool when describing Seth Rollins. This may have been a good version of "this match". It didn't go anywhere deep into overkill, even if I thought the layout was boring and predictable. That makes it at least an above average version of this match, but I'm tired of this song.

Lucha House Party vs. Lars Sullivan

ER: Pretty sure this match was booked as a Vince dogwhistle to trump showing he fully supports the burgeoning market of white guys with questionable tweets pushed too far and taking the matter of getting rid of brown people into his own hands.

Kevin Owens vs. Kofi Kingston

ER: I'm not expecting to really enjoy the "not against Daniel Bryan" portions of Kofi's title run, but we'll see. I don't have much skin in either of these guys, so it's tough for me to get into this, but they do well with the time they're given. Owens superkicking Kofi out of the sky on a big plancha to the floor looked cool, Owens took a big double stomp on the apron, Owens takes a big upside down bump in the corner and drops on his his, and more. This does continue the unfortunate trend of the night of every single match having an absolute dogshit do si do reversal sequence that looks like slow mo play fighting. Those sequences are really bugging me tonight, so things weren't perfect here. But it's probably the best match on the show since the MITB women's match, and that wasn't a particularly high bar.

Baron Corbin vs. Finn Balor vs. Ricochet vs. Andrade vs. Ali vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton

ER: Within the first two minutes of this, Andrade takes a gorgeous Jerry bump, Ali gets backdropped on a table, Balor gets backdropped on a table, Ricochet hits a springboard 450 to the floor, and Ricochet gets backdropped on a table. This match feels like it knows it can definitively be the best of the night. They do a lot of big things here, and it consistently looks good and painful. Ali and Ricochet both eat backdrops onto ladders, and Andrade spectacularly springboard dropkicks Orton off a ladder. This has been a night where agents have laid out some real clunkers, so guys stepping in and having one of those fun WWE Heavyweight X Division matches is going to come off even better. WWE has a decent history of being able to do a "many guys chaining together offense" multiman, and this played like one of the good ones. Andrade hitting a sunset flip powerbomb on Finn off a ladder through another ladder - Andrade landing on his feet and Finn recoiling like a skinny kid getting bounced off a trampoline by two fat kids - was one of the most spectacular WWE spots of the last decade. That was WWE stealing the brilliant insanity from the Crazy Crusher vs. Hell Storm Canadian backyard ladder match. Ali, Balor, and Ricochet really sacrificed their backs for some cool moments tonight, all of them taking multiple back bumps onto ladders, onto the floor, and onto unbudging tables. Ricochet taking a mammoth hip toss from McIntyre, from the ring through a ladder set up at ringside really made this feel like we were getting an ECW match with 3 Spike Dudleys. Corbin is pretty good as modern Justin Credible, pushed cartoon rat faced heel who has been shaving his head for hairline reasons since late 20s getting a ton of go away heat. I would have preferred an actual finish with the guys involved, since really everybody here absolutely busted their ass and someone deserved some credit for that. But I also love Brock more than most people so I can't deny that I think he's a fun guy to be running around threatening to cash in briefcase. What an absolutely scary monster in the closet, knowing that Lesnar could run out at any time to potentially concuss someone! This match played a lot more like something you'd see on a dirty indy show, everyone taking some impressive risks and the fans really getting into it. This show desperately needed to go out on an exciting note, and this match delivered that.

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2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Hidaka vs. Ito

26. Ikuto Hidaka vs. Takafumi Ito Ikeda 25th Anniversary Show 4/7

PAS: This was really great, basic arm versus leg match, but both guys were super tricky on the mat and found awesome ways to fly into attacks, counters into counters. I loved Hidaka's dragon screw whip with Ito tied into the corner, really looked like it shredded all the tendons in his knee. Ito really grabbed at the arm in nasty ways too, including a victory roll into an armbar. Built nicely from simple grappling into more complex fun stuff, had enough wacky stuff that I wouldn't call it pure shootstyle, but shootstyle adjacent wrestling is having a good year.

ER: This was a fun Batt style match with flat out bizarre commentary. For all I know the two guys weren't even talking about Hidaka or Ito, as they spent literally the entire match laughing their heads off like they were recreating a conversation between Knox Harrington and Maude Lebowski. Ito would be ripping at Hidaka's arm and they would be giggling away. Weird. Ito isn't a guy I've seen a lot, and for an older guy he really hasn't shown up on tape a lot. But I dug him opposite Hidaka, liked the arm vs. leg angle, and loved how it built to a hot finishing stretch that broke away from the grappling. Ito had some nifty counters to established Hidaka offense, done in a way that it wasn't a dancey counter to a counter to a counter; instead we get Hidaka's cool cradle roll up countered into a sick armbar, or Hidaka doing his unique skin the cat only to be met with a hard knee to the gut on his way back in the ring. Hidaka looks and moves the exact same as he did 20 years ago, really dug his attacks on Ito's leg (though I wish both guys had sold their respective arm and leg). The finish stretch had some great throws, a tight and violent Exploder from Ito, a big back suplex from Hidaka and a sick German from Ito (with Hidaka getting his foot gently on the top rope in a nice visual), and that missile dropkick to Ito's knee is such an insane spot. All of this was apparently hilarious, based on our weird commentary crew recorded inside a garbage can.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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New Footage Friday: ANDRE, ANDRE, ANDRE (and Tom Magee)

Andre the Giant vs. Jerry Blackwell AWA 11/2/80

MD: I knew we had this JIP, but we had less of it than I thought. What we basically had before was Andre's last comeback and the finish. It stood out, however. Why? because in those few minutes we had 1980 Andre, far more agile than he would be a few years later but closer to the wide-as-well-as-tall giant physique than what he was a few years earlier, taking that back-body drop which is one of those life-changing wrestling spots you never, ever forget.

Blackwell's amazing. There are people who weren't born until after he died in 1995 that will see this match because of the Network and get some sense of it. That makes me happy. I was barely familiar with him until the DVDVR AWA set. He's this amazing mix of size, preternatural physical speed and prowess, and the wherewithal to balance his the threat of his size with comedic timing. He's both dangerous and hugely giving.

What we missed when we just had the back body drop and the slam was some really good wrestling, including the second most impressive and memorable spot in the match, when Blackwell held on to a top wristlock as Andre threw him over his shoulder. It's the sort of thing you'd see all the time in a Ricky Steamboat match and the familiarity helps give it meaning, but two guys this size working that sort of spot took something relatively simple though always cool, and pushed it way over the top.

After Andre took over (absolutely killing Blackwell with chops and headbutts, constantly forcing him out of the ring), I loved the urgency in which Blackwell would try to attack Andre on his his way back in. It gave everything an air of believable desperation.

As much as lore has it that Andre hated other giants, you have to wonder what he thought about Blackwell, being a guy who could work with him like this, that could bump for him like this. I can't imagine Andre, even 1980 Andre, would do a rope running spot with just anyone, and certainly that he would take that back-body drop for just anyone.

ER: I love stuff like this, a regular match but with a $5,000 bodyslam stipulation added in. You don't win the match by bodyslamming your opponent, but you win 5K which is nice incentive. It also means you don't get an entire match of two gigantic guys stuffing their hands into the other's taint, that's just added as sweet delicious icing. I really loved Roger Kent's commentary during the ring intros. When Blackwell is billed at 485 lb. he goes "Blackwell actually gained weight just for this match!" which is an excellent piece of psychology, knowing that Blackwell wolfed down extra buckets of fried chicken just to make himself harder to body slam. And about Andre he says "You might recognize Andre from his appearances on BJ and the Bear, or as Bigfoot." Like people watching at home somehow only knew of Andre as a furry Steve Austin foe. But this is great. Blackwell is good at working Andre over logically, going after his arm (which would conceivably be one of Andre's weak points) and working in some clever spots around Andre's status as unmovable object. My favorite was Andre getting up off the mat while Blackwell was charging in, unaware that Blackwell was charging in, only to see Blackwell run straight into Andre's butt and go recoiling backwards. It felt like Frank Drebin neutralizing a shooter by unknowingly opening a door into him. Andre's big shots look fantastic. His lean back straight right punch across face in the corner is arguably my favorite punch in wrestling. And I dug the few bodyslam teases, with Blackwell inevitably getting squished from falling under Andre. The finish was really cool as once Andre got the slam the fireworks really picked up, Blackwell knowing he could no longer win 5K so just unleashing a nothing to lose attack on him was great, but Andre turns it on him very quick, tosses Blackwell into the ringpost, and then just launches him over the top rope...for the loss!! Blackwell takes a huge bump to the floor, total avalanche. Love this.

PAS: This was a great battle of the giants I didn't know happened and was totally amped to see. Blackwell is basically shaped like a square, like not a human shape and is amazingly agile for a guy who looks like he should be stuck in a Rascal Scooter. That Andre backdrop was amazing, can't believe he got him up and he landed like that. Blackwell lifting Andre for the slam and getting engulfed was awesome, it looked like a ghost being eaten by Pac-Man. I thought some of the mat stuff was a bit slow, but still this delivered what you wanted it to.


Andre The Giant/Hulk Hogan vs. Bobby Heenan/Nick Bockwinkel/Bobby Duncum/Ken Patera AWA 11/7/82

MD: If you could only pick three matches to express to people exactly what the AWA was in the first half of the 80s, this could be one. You can see so clearly here some of the homesy elements that Hogan took with him to New York and that helped defined the entire era to come. Andre got in on the dance, basically being Dancing Andre during the times they were in charge. The fans were hot for everything they did and they were elated to shout weasel at Heenan. Bockwinkel was absolutely amazing just always being a presence in the match (the other guys were too but he stood out to me; there was one moment where he was on his way out of the ring after getting thumped by Andre where he tried this kick out nowhere to Andre's legs, just always so present in the match). There was double face-in-peril. The comeback was hot but maybe wore out its welcome a bit (not that the fans cared). I liked the structure, where the numbers game finally overwhelmed Andre though Hogan could take on one at a time in the meantime. Then, when Andre got worn down, they could work on Hogan a bit too, all til Heenan got over confident and dared to face Andre. The second FIP was focused on Hogan's previously-injured arm so everything made sense despite the feeling of constant over the top (and like I said, sometimes hokey in that charming AWA way) chaos. The most fun you'll have watching wrestling this week.

PAS: This was four great pinballs being bounced around by two of the greatest paddles in wrestling history. Loved all of the heels running right into Andre and Hogan and getting consistently repelled. When they finally get Andre on his back they swarm like ants on a leftover french fry, only to the have the Hulkster run wild on them. Heenan was a wild bumper as one would expect, and Bockwinkle was great at sneaking in a shot or two. Wholly satisfying wrestling, which sold a ticket to everyone in the arena for future permutations of this feud.

Andre The Giant vs. Big John Studd WWF 7/20/84

MD: As best as I can tell, next week will be the one year anniversary of us doing New Footage Fridays. We've done at least three matches every week for a year. There's a ton of new or very rare footage that has been uncovered in the last year that we haven't even gotten to yet. Let me put it this way, just from Japanese handhelds and some older years of Japanese TV alone, we could do this for another year; just with what we have right now.

This is all the writing I've done for the site this year and most of the wrestling I've watched this year, and it's one of the best experiences I've had in a couple of decades of interacting with other people online about wrestling. It's been a great time searching for footage, checking with people to see if it's new, scanning through it to see if it's worth talking about, and then seeing what Phil and Eric have to say about it too. With a lot of the non-network matches, we're not just reviewing but also highlighting so others can watch as well. I can't speak for the other two (though I bet I speak more for Eric than Phil on this one), but I love when we get comments and people tell us what they think about the matches we're dredging up. We don't get enough. Chime in. It's appreciated.

All that said, I'd like to introduce everyone to the hill I am going to die on this week: Big John Studd. Studd is, I think, one of the most wildly underrated wrestlers of all time. He's not a total package like Eric's Berzerker-era Nord. In fact, one element of his game is actually quite flawed and I'll get to that. It's more the case that he's one of the biggest victims in history of workrate primacy and the undervaluing of stalling and stooging that afflicted wrestling writing and thought for much of the last forty years.

Studd more often than not is the world's largest Larry Zbyszko. He's a heat-generating magnet, made all the more so by the fact he's so damn big and so damn powerful. He's a giant. Even facing another giant, there's massive dissonance in the idea that he's going to take five minutes walking around the ring jawing with fans or that he'll do everything he can to avoid a lock-up. That's part of what made it all so brilliant. This isn't base laziness. It's premeditated and effective.

This match is as perfect an example as you'll get. He absolutely takes his time getting in, making at least one full, languid, rotation of the ring, interacting with the fans, taunting Andre, drawing heat. The second he starts to get in, Andre is on top of him. This is a return match (though the return was a few months and other shows in the making) so everything was primed and the fans absolutely love Andre not letting Studd do what he wanted to do. That loops us right into the second half of the Memphis-equation, the stooging. If the stalling is the build, the stooging is the payoff. Studd sells everything happening in the ring as only a guy his size could, with massive limbs flailing and body bouncing all over the place, gigantic recoil. His robe ends up over his head. This never aired. It has no commentary. It was filmed to potentially air (much of this show ended up on TV or on videotapes) and they occasionally cut to members of the crowd looking absolutely delighted. As good as Andre was at being Andre, that's not him. That's all Studd.

When Studd takes a powder out to the floor and is surrounded by the crowd, the two cops come down to stand on either side of him. The visual is striking. Everyone's so much smaller than Studd and here he is, running away, in hostile territory, Gulliver in the land of the Lilliputians, and he needs these two tiny cops to protect him from all the other tiny people. People are most affected by things when there is a gap between their expectations and reality; that's John Studd in a nutshell and it works.

Where it falls apart, generally, is when he takes over on offense. Some of his stuff, the clubbering, some of the intensity with the choking, is really good, but it almost always settles down into a bearhug or a chinlock and Studd, while so good at giving and giving and giving, at delaying and delivering with his stooging, wasn't great at making his holds compelling when he was on top. Someone like Flair or Bockwinkel absolutely were, and even a guy like Zbyszko could take that first half of his act and pay it forward into the second part. Studd couldn't or wouldn't. That's half of the problem. It's what people remember. It's what stands out because it falls later in the match. Even so, the fans were completely into Andre's comeback (so much of that based on the heat that Studd had drawn previously in the match) and it all finished both definitively and well.

Like I said, the chinlock was half the problem. Only half. The other half is the workrate bit. We spent decades in a dark age where stalling was frowned upon as the opposite of everything wrestling should be. Why care about the acting in a movie when there are special effects to look at, right? They're flashier. They involve less thought and less nuance. People have turned the corner on wrestlers like Lawler and Zbyszko. Studd isn't on that same level. He's only half the act, but I feel like it's time he finally got proper credit for that half, which was truly exceptional. That's the hill I'm standing on. Shoot your arrows accordingly.

ER: I think I was more excited for Matt's review of this match, than I was about the match itself. I think I have had upwards of 5 different conversations with Matt about Big John Studd: Giant Stalling Stooge, and he's been absolutely dying to tell all of you about it at length, and I'm happy we finally got there. The match itself was short and fun, but Studd's stalling really was memorable. Look at his faces as he stalks the ring, watch the fans and his reactions to the fans as he retreats deep into the aisle. I also liked the twist on Andre getting trapped in the ropes, with Studd beating him into place instead of Andre falling and letting gravity trap him. But the real satisfaction comes when Andre unleashes his payback and splats him with his butt, crowd going even more nuts for an Andre comeback because of Studd being such a weenie for so much of the match. I really loved the optical illusion of these two hulking dudes battling in the corner, as it really looked like the ring posts were going to bend and collapse.

Bret Hart vs. Tom Magee WWF 10/7/86

ER: I finally got around to watching the mini doc on this match, and it was a fun little piece of history. WWE taking the time to film people talking about this match that only the nerdiest of wrestling nerds would know about really feels closer to Phil writing up every PWFG show or me writing up every Berzerker match than anything else WWE has ever done. Think of the man power they utilized and the quick turnaround time to get all of this filmed. The idea that they would bug Bret in 2019 to ask him to talk about a 4 minute match from over 30 years ago is such a joy. A 30 minute doc on a short match involving a guy who 99% of modern WWE fans have never even heard about who has no involvement in any way with pro wrestling since the 80s is like getting a 30 minute documentary about the cop's brutally bad fake mustache at the end of Sleepaway Camp. But I thought they did a really excellent job at highlighting this kind of lost footnote, thought Waltman had some nice insight, thought DBS Jr.'s Bret impression was tremendous, and was only disappointed that we didn't get any comments from Bret or Magee after we had seen the match. Magee came off down to earth, totally cool with the fact that wrestling wasn't for him, and I loved his note that they shielded him from all of that "next Hogan" talk. 

The match itself was the same kind of thing we saw Bret do for 25 years. It was very clear that Magee had no offense whatsoever outside of his dropkick (which Bret made look especially great during the spot in the corner where he took two, crashed hard into the mat and rolled to the floor to take off). It was amusing seeing Magee take extra long to pick Hart up off the mat, only to pause and just do an inside cradle or a small package. Hart was patient and polite while looking downright mean. When he puts the boots to Magee he's fully protecting him while looking like he's toeing him right in the eye. He even handles Magee not moving out of the way of a second rope elbow that was clearly supposed to miss, going right back on the attack and planning what the actual finish should be. You could see Magee's specific potential, see his freak athletic gifts, in the way he casually leapfrogs over Bret. I don't think I've ever seen a leapfrog look so effortless. It looked far more like Hong Kong wire fighting than Magee actually using his legs to leap over Bret, and his sunset flip was genuinely great, keeping a really tight roll so that the physics of it make sense. Bret's chest first bump into the corner is probably one of my top 3 favorite bumps in wrestling, always looking like his skeleton should be permanently wrecked each time. We knew this wasn't going to be any kind of classic, but not a single soul cared about that. The fact that we got to see this fun historical footnote while getting a neat story out of it was really special.

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Daisuke Ikeda Anniversary Show 4/7/19

PAS: Very excited to see this show up!! Ikeda and Ishikawa back on their bullshit again, plus lots of other fun dudes.

Funimori Abe vs. Junji Tanaka

PAS: Junji Tanaka is old school BattlArts dude Junji.com, and is dressed in a Sumo pad for some reason. This is a solid BattlArts/Futen opener, where guys hit each other a little harder than is really neccesary. Junji is in his late 40s and takes a bunch of really gnarly kicks to the head which he sells like an old man falling down a flight of stairs. Abe was fine in his role of a guy kicking an old man.

SAKI vs. Hikari Shimizu

PAS: This was a bad Joshi match, which really felt out of place on this card. When BattlArts had Joshi matches they would usually try to work the style, this was just a lot of bad dropkicks and hair whips. Shimizu seemed to hurt herself at one point so the ending felt abrupt. I did like SAKI's furry pink Brody boots though.

Keisuke Okada/SUGI vs. Hiroshi Yamato/Taro Nohashi

PAS: Match had some really fun moments without really ever coming together entirely. Okada and Yamato had a fun shoot scramble to start, and SUGI and Nohashi followed it up with a fun lucha exchange. The middle dragged a bit, but built to a fun finish with SUGI unloading all of his big highspots. Taro Nohashi seems like a guy I need to dig into more. He was awesome as a crowbar in his FUTEN matches, and here he splats Okada with some sick headbutts and bases really well for all of SUGI's spots. I wonder if their are hidden MPRO gems I need to dig up.

Ikuto Hidaka vs. Takafumi Ito

PAS: This was really great, basic arm versus leg match, but both guys were super tricky on the mat and found awesome ways to fly into attacks, counters into counters. I loved Hidaka's dragon screw whip with Ito tied into the corner, really looked like it shredded all the tendons in his knee. Ito really grabbed at the arm in nasty ways too, including a victory roll into an armbar. Built nicely from simple grappling into more complex fun stuff, had enough wacky stuff that I wouldn't call it pure shootstyle, but shootstyle adjacent wrestling is having a good year.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Tatsuo Nakano vs. Super Tiger/Tomohiko Hashimoto

PAS: Apparently Nakano is still semi-active, I hadn't seen him in years, he still brings the heat when needed, and I really enjoyed team UWF. Fujiwara is ageless, and still will deliver two or three cool things a match, even as he enters his 8th decade on this planet. I loved how he broke a Tiger submission hold by twisting his ankle at a really nasty angle, and the counter of Hashimoto's slap into a Fujiwara armbar was smooth as expected. I didn't think the Tiger and Hashimoto team brought enough to really make this a list match, although I liked Hashimoto's energy.

Brahman Brothers vs. Masayuki Tokumitsu/Rocky Kawamura

PAS: This was a Brahman Brothers match. They are very much a thing, lots of comedy spots of spitting water and grinding things into faces. It serves a purpose I suppose, but It isn't really my thing. As a former amateur boxer I do appreciate the form on Rocky Kawamura's body shots, but this was mostly forgettable. This was a show of everyone showing up and doing their stuff, some of that stuff I love, this is stuff I don't.

Daisuke Ikeda/Alexander Otsuka vs. Mohammed Yone/Yuki Ishikawa

PAS: I am in a pretty great nostalgia K-Hole right now, I get to watch the Warriors go back to 2015 post KD injury, and I get to see my FUTEN and BattlArts friends take it back to 2010 and approximate a FUTEN tag. Ishikawa has shown up in 2019 and is making a strong Wrestler of the Year pitch, after basically being inactive for the last half a decade. The rest of the guys in this match have clearly slowed down a step or two, but Ishikawa looks like prime Yuki Ishikawa. We get great opening Ishikawa mat sections with both Ikeda and Otsuka, including Ishikawa doing an awesome gator roll. There was a long Ikeda vs. Yone section where the match dropped down a gear (although it did have an awesome spot where Otsuka deadlift germans both guys, and some great Ikeda straight punches to Yone's head), The focus of the match was Ikeda vs. Ishikawa of course and I was so glad to see them run that all time legendary matchup back. The structure was pretty interesting with Ikeda initially working as a guy who had lost a step and couldn't hang, in the early sections he kept going to the eyes and breaking submissions by biting. When we got the final stanza though, he stands up and brings the heat you would expect from Daisuke Ikeda, including nearly beheading Ishikawa with a spin kick to the jaw. There is some great intense scrambling on the ground, but Ishikawa finishes Ikeda off with a nasty Octopus. So happy this happened, and so happy it showed up on the internet. Can't believe that they are still doing this to each other, but god bless those two lunatics.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE YOSHIAKI FUJIWARA

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAISUKE IKEDA

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THE FATTEST FEUDS: Gran Markus Jr. vs. Los Brazos!!!

Gran Markus Jr./Pierroth Jr./Ulises vs. Los Brazos CMLL 2/4/90

ER: This was so good and immediately told me that I had made the right choice in chasing down chubby dudes to watch. This was much more like a fun 80s house show tag in a southern territory, starting with the rudo team stalling themselves away from Los Brazos, including some fun sneak attacks that backfire (love Ulises missing a running hip attack on the floor and hip attacking the ring apron, don't think I've seen that before). But before long it's a great fight, and Markus starts throwing these short hard punches to Brazo's temple, it looked like he was attempting to slice him open, and within seconds sure enough El Brazo's head, torso, and arms are covered in blood. The Markus/Porky moments are all fire, and there's a long stretch where Porky is just taking kicks and punches and Markus' slashing shots to the head that made me absolutely die for a Brazos ring clearing. Porky hits an absolutely phenomenal butt splash off the top, crazy height and distance, Markus ran in and Porky flies in with a butt first Thesz press and sticks the landing, so incredible. Ulises (much more commonly known before and now as Tony Salazar) has sorta flimsy offense that works for a cheapshotting rudo, but he takes big dramatic bumps which nicely highlight some Brazo punches. We get some chaos as this spills all over, with great shots of Pierroth laying down a beating up in the seats, we get more fun Porky/Markus tradeoffs including some gorgeous fat guy armdrags, the whole thing felt like it made as much sense in 80s Mid-South Coliseum than 1990 Arena Coliseo. The finish was abrupt, a shot to the balls that gives the win to Los Brazos, but you KNOW this is setting up the title shot rematch...

Gran Markus Jr./Pierroth Jr./Ulises vs. Los Brazos CMLL 2/16/90

ER: This is the title match rematch, and it's all action, go go go, no excessive rudo cheating or DQs like in their prior match; this is everybody in the match showing off with speed, quick tags, and super fun sequences. Porky is obviously a standout, he was such a freak athlete and honestly I'd be happy just watching him do his gorgeous rolling handsprings. But he gets to show off his speed and excellent shtick, doing quick leapfrog spots, missing a colossal senton that lands him halfway across the ring, works a fun comedy spot where he shows of his amateur skills by getting into referee's position before casually reaching up an arm to armdrag Ulises, hits a suicide dive onto everyone that must have felt like getting hit with a barrel from Donkey Kong, does his big butt splash off the top, hits an awesome low angle hip pivot belly to belly suplex on Markus, just totally kills it. All the Brazos came in with speed, working several cool fast armdrag spots with Pierroth and Ulises, and I especially thought Ulises had some cool ones, and Pierroth took a really great fast backwards bump to the floor at one point. Markus was much more of a stooge here (no signs of that bare knuckle brawler from their previous match), but he is a really great stooge opposite Porky; his shaky knee sell off Porky shoulderblocks alone would probably get me to recommend the match. The dive train is really fast and exciting, all Brazos really ramped up the speed and flew out of the ring as fast as possible (Porky's was going to be impossible to top, but Oro and Brazo's dives looked fantastic). Total speed match, nothing but fun.

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RIP Silver King, Part 3

Silver King/Dr. Wagner Jr./Fuerza Guerrera/Pierroth Jr. vs. La Parka/Super Parka/Emilio Charles Jr./Antifaz Del Norte Monterrey 7/9/00    Pt. 2    Pt. 3

ER: This was during the era of getting excited to buy Monterrey tapes based upon on paper match-ups, and then getting the tape and realizing a significant portion of the match was going to be devoted to the two referees. And this had that! And maybe it's just the mood I was in while watching this, but I didn't mind it. You still had 8 absolutely fantastic in the year 2000 luchadors (yes Pierroth obviously ruled, all Pierroths do; Antifaz was a guy I don't think about in 2019 who I really liked during this era). You get King and Wagner as stooging brothers, a great sequence with Pierroth and Park holding each other up by their shirts as they slap each other silly (Pierroth especially is so fun here, really milking that holding onto Park's shirt was the only thing keeping him standing), Emilio Charles is always fun as a fired up babyface away from Arena Mexico, and Antifaz shows that he was good back then and that I wasn't crazy. The whole primera is the rudo team (both teams look like on paper rudo teams, but when in doubt just assume the one with Fuerza is it and you'll almost always be correct) beating down the tecnicos, hitting them with garbage and brawling around the ring. Segunda is the comeuppance and ref involvement, with the tecnicos dragging a section of connected arena seats into the ring and sending King and Pierroth into them, then getting all 4 rudos seated while kicking over the seats. The ref spots are actually fairly funny and executed well, with Parka getting beaten down by the four rudos in a huddle, and then swapping the ref for himself without the rudos noticing. If you're going to work some kind of a Bugs Bunny spot, Park seems like one of the few that would be able to make it work. We do get a great Park dive, a nice splingshot splash by Super Parka, mean spots like SP getting rammed balls first into the ringpost and then getting Emilio Charles' head tossed into his groin, and seemingly the entire tercera is made up of ballshots. This whole thing was spirited and felt like everyone having a great time on a house show, which will almost always be my thing.

Black Tiger III/Atlantis/Vampiro vs. Dr. Wagner Jr./Universo 2000/Mascara Ano 2000 CMLL 6/15/01

ER: This is really fun as we get two brothers colliding, the criminally underrated early 2000s Dinamitas tearing it up, Atlantis getting stretchered out after taking a Wagner Driver, Atlantis reminding me of what a damn athlete he still was in 2001, and...Vampiro. 83% is something I would be cool with on my report cards, so I should be cool with it in my lucha trios. A lot of this feels like the Dinamitas show and while Universo wasn't the captain here he was certainly the primary shit disturber. Dinamitas were great bullies and I could watch a match of them just putting boots to guys like Atlantis. They always get it paid back, and I dug Universo falling on front row regulars to draw sympathy (god I hate that stupid ring barricade they've had this decade), and Mascara takes a wildly fast bump to the floor off Atlantis' tumbleweed. Wagner outdoes them both and makes Vampiro appear to be not a load: Vampiro throws Wagner merely towards the crowd, and Wagner goes off and tope con hilos himself into the second row, turning one poor individual into the most expected base of the day. They should've signed that guy, it was a great catch. King-as-Tiger hits his big caida ending rapid moonsaults and we get two different sequences of Tiger/Wagner, both working some playful spots off rope running, with a great moment of Tiger headbutting Wagner when he goes for a leapfrog. I only remember seeing the brothers in CMLL on opposite sides a couple times during this era, and this was a fun look at that.

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