New Footage Friday: Piper, Choshu, Inoki, Porky, Nicho, Santo, Rey Sr.

Roddy Piper vs. Riki Choshu NJPW 9/8/77

MD: This was very straightforward. Roddy got outwrestled. Roddy went to the cheapshots first. Choshu came back. Roddy cut him off. They went back and forth towards a clean finish. It was all good though even if nothing was over the top. Piper was maybe 23 here. I like how he sold after holds. I liked the viciousness when he took over. He had a fun gutwrench that Choshu went up too much for. Both distinctive Choshu comebacks were after Roddy was verbally taunting him, which was a nice touch. There was that real sense of struggle in this, from the opening Piper headscissors all the way to the butterfly suplex that ended it. I like how different this was from the Inoki match. That's a testament to young Roddy.

PAS: Really fun to see incubatory versions of both of these all time greats. Piper has some of the better headlock punches I can remember. He really pops Choshu right in the nose and eye. This was before Choshu developed his formula, he has an afro instead of his stringy hair, and doesn't throw a lariat or put on a Scorpion. This was fun, but I can just imagine how amazing a 1985 version of this match would have been.

ER: This is like a great Young Lions match, no highspots or rope running, both guys staying close the whole time, and both laying in shots. Piper was 23 as Matt said, but everything he did looked so good and fully formed. Look at that headscissors where he holds his knees tightly together and scrapes Choshu's head across the mat, or when he whips Choshu's head into the turnbuckle like he's slamming a car door as hard as he can. I also like how Piper would whip his arm into the side of Choshu's head, and also loved how he sold for Choshu. At one point he ate a heavy back suplex, and then lay there pulsing on the mat as if he kept trying to get up but suddenly had no working core. My brain didn't even read Choshu as Choshu in this - as Phil said he wrestled and even looked quite differently - as he looked more like "what if Kantaro Hoshino was a powerlifter?" I dug how he didn't put up with Piper's chippiness, and the two suplexes to end it are a suitable ending for the era.  

Roddy Piper vs. Antonio Inoki NJPW 9/22/77

MD: It's been a bit of a surprise but I've really enjoyed 70s Inoki. Maybe the trick is that I'm watching relatively short matches that highlight his energy? Here, there's a ton of craziness on the outside to start, and Piper capitalizes, and the first few minutes are really good. Piper's great at picking someone apart and Inoki's a quality guy to pick apart. He uses the ring, including ambushing Inoki when he comes back in and unleashing a ton of golden gloves jabs. Inoki's big late 70s move was apparently fighting his way back into the ring; when he does it by getting Piper's leg and then doing repeated bull charges to drive him into the corner, the crowd pops huge. They follow it up with Inoki getting some punching revenge and one of my favorite things, an extended short arm scissors section with Piper constantly engaged from underneath, so I'm all for this one. Piper eventually sneak-shots his way back into it, but it's never a real competition after that; at one point, while facing off for fisticuffs, Inoki's able to just shove him down. Inoki just has this forward momentum, always charging forth, that Piper tries to redirect or sneak around, but there's just no stopping it. Another butterfly suplex ends this. It was a good win, one that made Piper seem like a threat, even if not too much of one, and that made Inoki look great in victory.

PAS: This was a very Piper match which I loved. It starts with Inoki and Blackjack Mulligan brawling on the floor and Piper jumping Inoki from behind. Piper has some great wild punch combos, which he did about as good as anyone. Inoki taking control with his "ruined Ali's career" leg kicks is pretty cool, Inoki knows how to handle a guy with great hand speed and combos. I am also a big time mark for short arm scissors. I liked Piper's comeback, but one of my issues with Inoki matches is when he decides its over he just steamrolls his opponent and ends the match. If this had a more exciting finish it would have been a real hidden classic. It was still a great look at young Piper, who has really become one of my favorite guys to watch.

ER: This was so cool, with Blackjack Mulligan jumping Inoki on the floor and Piper opportunistically taking advantage of that...but I love how the advantage doesn't last long and Inoki comes firing back and just lays into Piper. It felt like an MMA fight where a guy takes advantage of a slip from his opponent, but the guy who slipped is a better fighter and the second he gains his footing he just starts punishing that dude. Inoki overwhelms and clowns Piper, legsweeping him, dodging every attack, catching his strikes and forcing Piper into armbars and short arm scissors and trying to wrench him into the octopus, really punishing him for his insolence. But Piper's comeback is nice and fiery and he really laces some shots into Inoki. I really like Piper's full arm swinging shots, really the only guys I've seen who throw similar arm strikes as him are all luchadors, though I know that was obviously not an influence on him (just as Piper likely wasn't an influence on any luchadors). Phil is right about Inoki just deciding to end matches and ending them quick, but this was still a 10 minute powder keg.

Super Porky/Nicho El Millionario/El Hijo Del Santo vs. Rey Misterio Sr./Halloween/Damian Tijuana 6/2001 (?)

ER: This match was every damn thing I want in my lucha. 2001 Tijuana is proving to be one of the all time great lucha hotbeds, and let's thank Roy Lucier for letting us see these matches from the tape trading era of lucha. 2001 Tijuana and shows with 2001 Santo matches were the very first lucha I bought from a flea market, and it was the best lucha I had seen in my then 3 year history of watching lucha, which began with WCW luchadors leading me on to WWF Superastros, before finally getting cable TV and finding lucha on Galavision in 1998. 2001 Tijuana was my favorite lucha I had seen, and it only looks better in 2019. This is lucha perfection to me. Super Porky turns into a physical comedy performance for the ages (focus on physical), Rey Mysterio Sr. continues to look like an absolute legend every time I see him, Nicho shows how insane he is with how many dangerous violent spills he takes on a show that to his knowledge wasn't being recorded; Hijo del Santo is a legend who we know has a 100% track record of showing up on every show he's on no matter the crowd size, and Halloween and Damian are two of the more dependable brawlers of the era (at one point Halloween hits this great leaping mule kick, and it's just one cool thing the two of them do). It's a match with so many standout stars that I have no clue who the standout star of the match is.

Super Porky gave a performance that ranks up with the best of them, a great mid career performance. He hits a super far assisted top rope splash, sets up a beautiful version of his headlock takeover/headscissors, works a hilarious comedy spot that sees him do more rope running than I've ever seen him do at any point of his career (building to a great payoff of Halloween and Damian popping each other), he absolutely crushes Familia de Tijuana's valets with a huge body press of the apron, and his dancing after the primera was impossible to not smile through. Nicho is absolutely nutso. He takes all of his most dangerous bumps here, plus some new ones. He falls on his head, throws high dropkicks on the concrete floor, gets suplexed into the 5th row and appears to hit a baby (!), he insanely wraps himself around the ringpost on a missed charge (as crazily as I've ever seen that  bump done), drops a guillotine legdrop onto Mysterio over the guardrail, he gets powerbombed kidneys first through two freaking CHAIRS!! This guy! Mysterio is like lucha Fit Finlay, it's insane how underwritten this guy is. He comes off like a total crime boss here, sending his henchmen into battle, he hits hard, he knows how to stooge, he'll take a great bump into the crowd (and suplex Nicho further in), and he comes off like a total sadist. Santo is lucha grace personified, hitting his flawless headscissors, his big senton into a dive past the ringpost (set up nicely by Porky), but then when Felino runs in at the end of the tercera we get to see Santo the brawler - which is the best Santo. He's so graceful and moves so smoothly, but he's super aggressive in brawls and the way he went after Felino made me want to see that match. This match was insanely hot, insanely violent, all done for locals only. Everything from this era of TJ needs to be seen, just a total early millennium wrestling hotbed.

MD: This was glorious mayhem. I love that it fit into so many traditional tropes while being bonkers and over the top. I'm not sure I've ever seen Rey Mysterio Sr as a rudo before but he definitely fit the look. Nicho as the post-modern, crotch chopping tecnico who wanted to get his hands on him, worked. That he had Hijo del Santo and Brazo de Plata with him just made everything more surreal. There are so many weird moments in this. Porky flips up and over with a rope assist before hitting the headscissors/headlock takeover. He's the one who holds a guy down for the Santo senton/tope combo. Santo positions someone on the guardrail for a Psicosis legdrop. Porky hits a dive on a valet. Psicosis had more distinct hope spots than you generally see, which I assume was the US style rubbing off on him. We miss the absolute moment of tecnico comeback here, which is a shame, and Felino interjecting himself at the end led to an awesome beatdown but maybe wasn't conducive to a good match. That's the thing with some of this footage. It's honestly good booking. They keep building to the next thing. It just means when you watch it as a capsule, the finishes aren't always as satisfying as the match itself.

PAS: This was a total blast, pretty much exactly what you want from a Tijuana lucha match: you know it isn't going to make a ton of sense, you won't get a clean finish, there will be some nonsense with refs and run ins, but you put all time greats and total lunatics in that formula and it is going to rule. Nicho went full Sabu in this, flying all over the ring smashing himself into the post, getting hurled into the crowd, you totally understand why he had such a short career as a great wrestler as he was dying these kind of horrid deaths regularly. Porky at his best is maybe the most entertaining wrestler of all time and here he was at his best. The Porky top rope splash has to feel like getting hit with a bag of hotel laundry, all of the sheets from all of the rooms in a giant bag landing on your chest.  Santo brings class to the insanity and Familia De Tijuana are great rudo foils. It goes off the rails as you expect, but it was a great train crash.