New Footage Friday: THESZ! BRONKO! VERNE! FINLAY! SCHUHMANN!

Verne Gange/Bobby Bruns vs. Al Williams/Rudy Kay 5/50

MD: Nice, classic tag here, with cheating heels controlling the ring and fiery babyfaces, but maybe not more than the sum of its parts. It's impossible not to compare these to the French tags we've been seeing and those have just a little more complexity. Quick example: here, Verne is actually able to escape an armbar with a bodyslam. In France, that'd be three minutes of the other wrestler hanging on through it. They did everything right but the biggest stars here were Russ Davis on commentary (he was having a good night) and the young woman in the first row who was all but whacking the heel on the apron with her handbag. That's not to say that Kay wasn't a great stooge, because he was, quick with a punch whenever he was on the losing end of an exchange, sliding halfway out of the ring on amrdrags, letting Verne shake the rope to bump him in when he was on the apron. He was a great foil for Verne's earnest integrity. The bit we see of Williams dismantling Verne's arm at the end of the first fall was great though. He was the more interesting of the two on offense and used the ring well even if Kaye was the bumper. Bruns was more of a charismatic scrapper. Some interesting archaic elements here, like how both partners had to eat a fall (like in lucha) and how the ref flipped a coin at the start to see which partners would start. They'd occasionally shake to tag too. The second fall was so short that I wondered if the fans were throwing trash in because the heels got DQ'd or because they had wanted more out of it. While I thought the end of the first fall was put together well, this didn't really build to any sort of a satisfying finish overall.

Lou Thesz vs. Bronko Nagurski 10/51

MD: Even match up here. Lou was the master, playing with Bronko with false starts. Bronko was dangerous at any and every moment. Each inching towards the ropes could end with his big shoulder block. Thesz gets hit by this early and then makes sure to sell it for the next minute to remind everyone just how potent it is. Lots of posturing throughout but everything's earned. Bronko could use his size and strength to just stand up out of holds. Moreover, he was better able to sit on Thesz and keep him in holds. The first fall ended with Thesz having enough of this and escalating to punches which let him hit the Thesz press. The second had Bronko taking much of the advantage and ending it by cutting off a Thesz hammerlock attempt and hitting a couple of shoulder blocks in and out of the corner. The last fall didn't have a lot of near-falls where Bronko might have had a shot at the title but the finish was exciting, with Thesz actually using a drop down as a tripping move to set up the final dropkick. I'm a fan of matches where one move (be it the heart punch or claw) is treated like a kill shot that has huge impact and must be avoided. It doesn't necessarily matter what the move is, just how it's treated, so for them to at least partially build a match that highlights a simple shoulder block so well was a neat thing to see.

PAS: I didn't think this was very good. I like the idea of the killshot shoulder block a lot more then the execution of it, as it just looked like an OK shoulder block. Nagurski seemed kind of sloppy, and had some moments of showing his power, but most of the time looked sort of lost. Thesz is regarded as an all-time great, but he really should have been able to carry a football player with two left feet better than this, and I didn't think his execution looked very good either. If you are going to end a match on a dropkick it should connect, and his Thesz press looked off too. Still will watch all Thesz I can get, but this was a miss.

Fit Finlay vs. Franz Schuhmann CWA 7/18/93

PAS: This was totally badass, Finlay and Schuhmann working a come as you are streetfight like it is a Jackie Fargo vs. Phil Hickerson Mid-South Coliseum main event in 1977.  Lots of nasty sharp shots with a belt and chain, and just killer Finlay punches and kicks. Schuhmann was an opponent, but landed shots and that is what you want for this match, he also took a totally gross bump on the tombstone. If that had happened on WWF TV it would be a viral gif. Finlay was so good in this, I mentally pictured Fit versus Hacksaw Jim Duggan or Tommy Rich. Total treat, and we really need to watch all of these Schuhmann vs. Finlay matches.

SR: Double juice brawl where they come in wearing jeans and shirts. It's pretty fun to watch two euro guys approximate a distinctly US type match. No idea how they got the idea to do this since I doubt any European TV station aired US territorial wrestling in 1993 but it ended up being a fun match. Schuhmann's punches needed work but the crowd is so into him that I can't call him a blight on the match, and Finlay's basic punches and kicks are so violent looking that it makes up for anything else. Because it's Europe they break out a chain and there are some absolutely sick strangulation spots. Great bump on the finish too.

MD: Here's how good Fit is: this is a streetfight with a dropkick and a power bomb and you completely buy them. I think Bill Watts would have had a hard time objecting. The dropkick came early from Schuhmann and Finlay sold it like a shot to the gut. Finlay's selling makes a lot of this. He was a guy who just got it. When he sold the belt shots from Schuhmann, it only made his own belt shots later (which were both great punches and these nasty short whips in the corner) immediately more potent. The finishing stretch was a bit wonky but also kind of great. Finlay hits the world's biggest tombstone but isn't satisfied with getting the ten count and lays in a few more belt shots instead of taking the W. That ultimately lets Schuhmann come back and they get creative for a beat-the-count ending that let the fans celebrate with Franz but had Fit keep his heat and have a legitimate gripe for a rematch.

ER: This might be my favorite Finlay performance of all the German Finlay we've watched so far. It's a real meat and potatoes street fight, with both men showing up looking like 90s European working class Jack Burtons in their torn light wash jeans (Finlay giving us a show with some tears right under the butt cheeks) and ripped up white shirts (Finlay even has some Asian mysticism on his shirt, just like Jack), and Finlay just lays right into Schuhmann. Finlay punches Schuhmann at a ton of awful angles, kicks him in the meat of the back and the spine, wraps a belt around his fist and punches some more. Finlay is so strong at setting up comeback spots and openings for Schuhmann, building to a big cool clothesline off the middle buckles from Franz. The belt shots were a cool equalizer, and Finlay makes Schuhmann's belt shots feel appropriately nasty. And that's really the strength of Finlay's selling, is that he always perfectly grasps just how much he should be selling something. He's not out there acting like his skin is getting flayed off, he's showing the stinging pain and putting over these shots in a way that makes both of their games look stronger. 

Finlay pulls off a street fight powerbomb and made it look like something you'd see in a MMA fight, a powerbomb that looked like Schuhmann absolutely could not have stopped it. It wasn't Sapp/Hoost where Sapp was able to just lift Hoost however he wanted, it was just Finlay using his expert knowledge of physics to snatch and grab a big dude and quickly plant him. The tombstone was nuts, with Finlay aiming to punish his own knees as much as Schuhmann's spinal column, really leaping and dropping down at a wicked diagonal (and, it must be noted, completely protecting Schuhmann on something that looked crippling). Finlay even made an unsatisfying finish actually satisfy, taking an awesome bump getting sprung from the apron over the ropes to the other side (a less dangerous but more unique and fun bump than his great bump past the ringpost earlier in the match), making it look like Schuhmann had vaulted him 8 feet. I liked Franz more than the rest of the gang here, but Finlay was god level in this match. A truly magnificent street fight performance, from a man who I think makes pro wrestling look better than anyone else.