New Footage Friday: Wiskoski, Texas Red, Santo, Payasos, Matsunaga, Aoyagi

Ed Wiskoski vs. Texas Red Big Time Wrestling 1979?

MD: This was a 10K challenge, where Bastien would win the money from Wiskowski if he could beat him in 15 minutes. I'm going to come off as hypocritical between this and the trios, but with lucha I tend to like things falling into traditional structural lines because there is an inherent ritualistic beauty to lucha while here, I really appreciate the wrinkles that the 15 minute challenge put upon this structure. For instance, some of the nearfall trading towards the end felt six or seven years before its time, maybe not at the speed of a Steamboat/Savage but considering Wiskoski's size and Bastien's age, it's still fairly notable.

Wiskoski's size is a hell of a thing, really. He's billed at 6'4" on wiki but he uses every inch of that, while still being able to move so well. Their initial feeling out/matwork sequence with the armdrags and the headscissor takeovers was very impressive while still feeling completely sound and logical.

Obviously, having Buddy Rose on the outside and announcing was a big asset. The match was consistently engaging and entertaining, which is really something about that turn of the 80s west coast style. Buddy helped like he always did. The finish was clever as it sort of gave Bastien two visual wins (both of the match and the money) while doubling down on the heat, as Rose not only cheated him out of the money, but Wiskowski ultimately won the match. If they were giving this away on TV, there was plenty to still go to the arena to see.

ER: This was disappointing to me, because it really wasn't the match I wanted these two to have. I like both guys a lot so was really excited about the match on paper. Plus it's from the SF territory which was the territory I would hear about from "old people" as a kid (like how my dad said he and his friends would always call Pat Patterson "Fat Pat"), so any SF footage is great. Judging by the cut of Buddy Rose's suit jacket and shirt lapels I'm saying this was 1979. And I like both of these guys and always want to see more than what's out there, it just wasn't the match structure that I was at all interested in seeing. Wiskoski was putting up his 10 grand check from Shire if Texas Red could beat him in 15 minutes, and Texas Red looks like he is going to beat him every single minute of the 15 minutes. This match was 90% Texas Red beating Wiskoski pillar to post, looking the entire match like Wiskoski should have been the one trying to win a 10K payday. I fully expected this to be Buddy Rose cheating throughout, giving Wiskoski the advantage every time, but instead Red just dominated him most of the run time and couldn't put him away. Wiskoski came off like a total badass surviving Red's onslaught, getting run into the buckles a ton and bumping a zillion times for such a big guy. Wiskoski threw these cool short range side angle punches that I love, but they never seemed to have much of an effect on Red. We do get the big moment of Wiskoski just about being put away before Buddy interfered to break up what surely would have been the win. I liked the actual ring work - not a shock, both guys are very good wrestlers - but this felt like Wiskoski should have been more unfairly dominant, not bumping for 14 out of 15 minutes.


Masashi Aoyagi vs. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga NJPW 8/7/91

ER: This was a big New Japan show with 10,000+ in attendance, and this match was certainly something that was going to stand out early on a big G1 card. This would be an unexpected match to talk about while leaving the arena, two karate guys basically working a heel vs. heel match, two Billy Zabkas kicking spleens and testicles. Aoyagi is an absolute villain in this, cheapshotting Matsunaga with a liver kick while he's being checked by the ref and not letting up for 7 minutes. Aoyagi really gave Matsunaga an asskicking. Matsunaga chose a life of death matches after eating this beating. "I'd rather backflip into Caribbean spider web than get my bottom ribs kicked in," is something I'll likely never announce as my life choice, but these 7 minutes made Matsunaga say that. Aoyagi lands hard kicks to the chest, ribs, arms, and temples. Brutal body shots paid off with hard high kicks. Matsunaga is getting overwhelmed, and literally his only way back into the match is to kick Aoyagi right in the balls! Aoyagi was kicking him all around the ring, literally digging his feet in to Matsunaga's ribs to force him out of the ring, and Matsunaga comes in and just kicks him in the balls. Matsunaga treats Aoyagi with the respect he was treated. There was the feeling it wasn't going to last, but he made his moments count. Aoyagi's receipts were violent as hell though; he starts flinging his whole body into Matsunaga, big tumbling spin kicks that even when they don't land still see Aoyagi's full weight crashing into Matsunaga, awkwardly landing on his legs as they tumble. Aoyagi kicks him until surrender, and then gets the shit kicked out of him by some big ponytailed goon who I didn't recognize in the moment. This is something I don't think we've seen, and instantly becomes one of our all time classic Aoyagi performances.

MD: Is there anything that could possibly set the tone to a match better than Aoyagi kicking his opponent, the seconds, and downing the ref all in the first few moments? Maybe Matsunaga, after being forced out by kicks a few times, coming back in and shooting a kick right between Aoyagi's legs? That's basically this match. They'd retreat and attack. Aoyagi has the cool takedowns and throws, and of course the wild, theatrical kicks. Matsunaga, to his credit, didn't back down until the point where he could simply no longer get up. It was a brutal seven minutes. Violence candy.

PAS: Matsunaga comes to the ring seconded by Tiger Chung Lee and Kurisu, what an incredible trios team that is. Aoyagi opens the match by kicking the shit out Matsunaga, Chung Lee and Kurisu (with our boy Kurisu taking a big bump off the ring apron). He proceeds to bust up Matsunaga's body and head with kicks and punches. I loved Aoyagi's kidney shot/high kick combo. Aoyagi is awesome at turning wrestling matches to 70s Kung Fu movie fights and this was another example of that. Chung Lee and Kurisu jump both guys post match, and I clearly need to see the tag match that set up.


El Hijo Del Santo/Super Muneco/Angel Azteca vs. Los Payasos AAA 9/23/94

MD: The level of talent involved here was off the charts. I feel like every new Hijo Del Santo match is a joy we're lucky to have. Los Payasos was as fun a gimmick as you can get and all these guys were so good and working super hard for a Tijuana handheld in front of a molten crowd. The primera had a lot of the exchanges you'd expect, with two between Muneco and Amarillo. With lucha, the traditional structures work and they work for a reason. I'm ok with rudos catching tecnicos to win a tercera, but it felt a little weird for them to take over the offense and win the primera so clearly. It didn't affect the heat on the comeback but some of that was because you have Santo doing his dive and what not. The tercera was all dramatic flash with a little bit of BS but that's what you want for Santito vs. evil clowns. I'm thinking a lot of the structure (and the martinete DQ to finish the second fall) was because the rudos were taking this in the end, so it probably all worked in context of what was happening show to show. As a standalone I would have preferred something else - a structural lucha ideal, because I always want that - but the match they gave us was still great. The post match sort of boggled my mind but in an entertaining way, at least.

PAS: The Primera Caida of this match was really great, Azteca and Santo are two of the smoothest wrestlers of all time, and Muneco brings a nice frantic energy to all of his offense. The Payasos are all extremely professional rudo luchadores and they know exactly how to play their role as bumpers and eaters of offense. The Segunda and Tercera Caidas were more about establishing business, and I had forgotten about what a huge push the Payasos were getting, they win the first fall clean, only drop the second because they martinete and stretcher out Azteca, and Amarillo ends up submitting Santo to his own Cabello finisher. We did get some Tirantes nonsense to set it up, but still that is a strongly booked rudo team. I enjoyed the back half of this match too, Santo has the prettiest topes of all time, and knows how to get fired up, but this didn’t end up being the classic trios the first fall teased.