On Brand Segunda Caida: Dustin Leonard

Dustin Leonard vs. Erron Wade NSPW 4/18/21

PAS: This was a lion's den match, and was held outside in an octagon.  It was a pretty cool atmosphere as it felt cold, late at night, at one point a loud train whistle rang out. Wade felt a little out of his depth, had some head kicks, and did get a nice jumping guillotine, but most of the match he was on his back foot as Leonard came forward. Wade ends up bleeding from his eye a bit due to a Leonard knee, and gets caught in a nasty looking cross arm breaker where he hyper extended his elbow. Leonard is such a wave coming over you, no matter what is happening he feels inevitable.

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Comando Negro Apuestas Matches

Comando Negro has to be the most obscure wrestler to have multiple matches in my book

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I covered his classic mask matches with El Pollo and Trauma 1 (as Canis Lupus). While checking out his Luchablog entry, I noticed he also had hair vs. mask matches with Segunda Caida favorites Freelance and Chico Che so I tracked them down to review as well.

Comando Negro vs. Freelance IWRG 10/10/10

PAS: This was a a nice mix of highspot heavy lucha with an Arena Naucalpan style bloody brawl. Freelance starts out by headscissoring Negro off of the stage and following up with a stage dive into chairs. He also does a flip dive off the iconic Naucalpan beer cooler, a crazy plancha and a beautiful diving rana to the floor. Negro is a great solid meat and potatoes luchador, catching all of the fancy stuff perfectly and mixing in a great looking bullet tope of his own. Both guys bleed, go face first into beer coolers and chairs, and the finish has Freelance setting up for a top rope rana only to get fouled by Negro's second and powerbombed from the top rope. The tecnicos cut the ref's hair before Freelance get shaved, which seems a bit uncalled for, since he didn't really seem to be heeling much. A slight step below the two Negro all timers,  but it was an excellent apuestas full of cool shit.

Commando Negro vs. Chico Che IWRG 12/9/10

PAS: This was a total war. Che is one of my favorite all time obscure guys, and seeing a new awesome Che performance is a total treat. This match has the inversion of the traditional lucha apuestas formula with technico Che getting the dominant Primera Caida. Che is one of the hardest hitters in lucha, he feels almost like an old WAR wrestler with his combination of chub and thump he puts in every blow, he just moves Negro with ever forearm. Che takes the first fall with a heavy top rope splash and continues in the Second to tour the arena with Negro bouncing him off of beer coolers and chairs. We get some interference by Negro's seconds Gringo Loco and El Hijo Del Diablo, and when Che's seconds Los Cerebros hit double topes on them, Che gets DQed and the Cerebros get bounced to the back by the rudo ref. The third fall has some shenanigans with Loco and Diablo and the heel ref, but it also has some really beautiful moments of lucha, Negro sending Che over the guardrail with a tope, Che returning the favor later with a elbow suicida of his own. Che hitting some amazingly graceful headscissors, the seconds running in and getting pelted with trash by the crowd, and finally Negro cracking Che in the jaw with a fist wrapped in a chain for the win. Great stuff, might have actually squeezed a third Negro match in the book if I had seen it before I wrote it. 

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NXT UK Worth Watching: OHNO! Imperium! Williams!

WALTER/Fabian Aichner/Marcel Barthel vs. Pete Dunne/Tyler Bate/Trent Seven NXT UK 4/20 (Aired 6/12/19) (Ep. #46)

ER: NXT UK really doesn't do many trios matches, and they have a roster that would really benefit from having some trios matches. I guess they really weren't part of traditional British wrestling (not sure I've ever seen a trios match from World of Sport, but there are a lot of things I've forgotten over the years so who knows), and there have only been a couple so far through 46 episodes of NXT UK. The highest floor NXT UK matches have strong pacing, and it's easier to pace out a trios. This was all really fun and the format made everyone's entrance into the match a little more exciting. A Pete Dunne hot tag is going to be better when he's able to tag in and hit a cool few things before being leveled by WALTER, and Bate is someone else who benefits from a tag that's not immediately stopped so he can get in all his moves. Imperium are good at controlling, sectioning off the ring, keeping things interesting by rotating guys through. WALTER felt like the real standout here, always there to cut someone off with a high kick, and his work with Dunne was especially noteworthy. WALTER is really good at setting up offense for people, and when Dunne tagged in - looking like he was just going to be getting his shit in - I loved how WALTER turned it into a much cooler segment by quickly sidestepping a moonsault and chopping Dunne in the back of his neck before locking in a rear naked. Aichner and Bartel threw themselves into their offense with gusto, like a nice Bartel kneedrop or a killer Aichner brainbuster. WALTER was really great at running things, all members of Mustache got to show off their strengths in quick bursts, with Seven chopping a great watercolor pattern on WALTER's chest, Bate getting a big double clothesline, nice dive from Seven, and then the debut of Alexander Wolfe finishes it. It's a played out way to debut someone, bring them in under a hood while announcers poorly feign confusion, but Wolfe sticks Bate with a nasty sitout powerbomb so I'm good. 

Kassius Ohno vs. Kenny Williams NXT UK 6/14 (Aired 6/19/19) (Ep. #47)

ER: Another great Ohno NXT UK performance, with him always finding ways to restrict himself during matches, always working a match specifically toward his opponent. His NXT UK run really feels like  the closest we can come to a genuine territory arrival. It has a real Finlay Return to the Indies feel to it, and that's a great feeling. Here he starts working over Williams' right arm, holding it clutched in his armpit while refusing to be shaken off. Williams tries to roll him off with an armdrag, Ohno rolls through with him and comes up trapping the same arm. Ohno put on a clinic of handless limb control, bending Williams' arm at the elbow just by moving his body. Just as I'm wondering how Kenny is going to get out of it he leaps up and grabs Ohno in a headscissors, forcing Ohno to rope break. I was wondering where Ohno was going to take the arm control, but instead Williams got cute with a sunset flip attempt and Ohno stomped him right on the underside of the jaw. 

And from then on Ohno does not give one good damn about Williams' arm, just wrecking Kenny with chops and strikes, hard boots, flattens him with a Finlay roll (there's that name again...), and comes up with several cool ways to shove Williams' throat into the ropes. I do think Williams took it down a bit with his comeback, breaking the nice rhythm they had going. There was just a bit too much hesitation with a few of his moves, and Ohno is someone with precise timing. Ohno's sequences are all tightly orchestrated, so it's obvious when Williams is making him wait too long on a mark. It's not super offensive, and he still manages a couple cool things like a multi step ankle pick, and it's mostly a strong pairing. Ohno hits knees on his senton after being too cocky, but I think Williams needed to work quicker than he did. It felt like Ohno had to sell too long for offense that looked like some of Williams' weakest. The worst offender was him doing a sloppy upside down rebound off the ropes (similar to a poor Jon Moxley night) and hitting a too pulled penalty kick after. I mean...he could have just kicked Ohno. He didn't need to navigate a ropes course before kicking him. 

Kenny hits a dive and waits a bit too long to hit a back elbow off the top into the ring, and things immediately get great again when Ohno cuts him off and aims to murder. Williams tries more silly flouncy rope tricks and Ohno rams him throat first into the ropes again, then doesn't waste time smashing him in the back of the head with a roaring elbow while Williams was still hung up in the ropes. These two match up again 9 months from now, in a match I saw before I saw this match. I think their second match is better, but they make a great set as both matches are very different. Ohno could have had unique matches with every member of the UK roster several times through. There's no reason this couldn't be the reality we are living right this moment. 

COMPLETE GUIDE TO NXT UK

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New Footage Friday: SANTO! PANTHER! FISHMAN! BORNE! FINLAY! SABU! BRODIE LEE!

Fishman/Espanto Jr./Blue Panther vs. El Hijo Del Santo/Volador/Octagon AAA 5/15/94

MD: My hard drive went kaput, which has been a fight that's been going on for a while, so I lost my initial write up of this. In short, it was a solid lost trios with long entrances and a spirited post-match Panther promo where a lot of stuff hit well and where it moved briskly. There wasn't a pairing that really stood out, but there are things that will stick with me, like Espanto landing on his feet off of an exchange or Volador looking almost inhumanly athletic towards the end or Blue Panther being an absolutely amazing stooge off a quebradora, selling his groin in a spasm all the way across the ring and out to the floor or Santo's lightning crack tope off of an irish whip. The more I see of Fishman from this specific era, the more I think Eric should deep dive on him since he's got a sort of hammering Bestia del Ring vibe to him.

Matt Borne vs. Sabu ACW 11/23/01

MD: Deceptively long video. The match is pretty much what you'd hope it to be and doesn't wear out its welcome. That's because the back half is a pretty manic Borne post 9/11 rant about how he'd die for the crowd and challenging Sabu to come back out (he does, once, but not the six or seven times Borne wants). For the match itself, Sabu does his stuff and Borne is a very game foil. There's crowd brawling that we miss but that we can be assured was solid due to a father in the outskirts putting his kid up on his shoulder to see it, a sure sign of quality. They use weapons liberally but never gratuitously. Borne bleeds big as Sabu stabs at his head. There's a table. It does not break. I'm amazed they could move after that (I'm not really, because I've seen it before, but you know what I mean). Sabu's so good and experienced at this sort of match that he knows exactly when to head out and move things along when Borne can't get it in. Blood, plunder, big bumps, unmitigated violence, a clear finish, and only about ten minutes before the rant begins. Afterwards the camera sticks with Borne as he goes backstage and is told how spectacular it all was.

PAS: I thought this was excellent, it really had the pacing of a great 80s brawl, the kind of thing you might imagine Matt Borne might have had in Mid-South or Portland. It also had Sabu at his unhinged greatness, flying around, stabbing Borne in the head, crashing awkwardly into tables and chairs. Borne kept the whole thing connected, at no point was anyone standing around waiting, or setting stuff off, it always felt like a fight. The crowd brawling really felt chaotic too, they were just flying through the crowd, not seeming to care who they hit. This is easily the best 2000s Sabu match I have seen, and it felt right up there with the top tier Funk, Foley and Sandman stuff. 

Fit Finlay vs. Brodie Lee vs. Joe Gacy 3/16/12 - GREAT

MD: Our theme for this week are matches shorter than the video run times as this doesn't go as long as was indicated. Here, though, I could have used a few more minutes, because I liked what we had and I wasn't quite done with it. There was a sort of unique element for a three-way here, where the guy on the floor often operated like a moat monster. If you got too close to Brodie or Finlay on the floor, they'd just pull you right out. It made for a more interesting dynamic than guys laying around and played well into Finlay's ability to use the apron, for instance. Gacy felt like he belonged, with a great jab and willing to bump around for the other two.

PAS: I really liked the way this was organized. I hate three ways normally, but this was less about doing choreographed spots, and more about the third guy being a violent cheap shotter. I mean imagine leaving your back open and giving Finlay a free shot, or being near the ropes and being pulled out and smacked by Brodie Lee. I am crediting Finlay for the structure, because he is one of the greatest match architects ever, but whoever called this match was really smart. There were a lot of great little Finlay moments: he blocks a Lee Scorpion attempt by straight punching him in the face, takes his signature top rope bump to the floor and is just constantly killing people. Gacy is by far the least of these three guys, some of his stuff looked good, but some did not, and it seems totally BS to have him go over. That indy Finlay run was one of the coolest things ever, and I am excited we got to see another classic Finlay match. 

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ICW No Holds Barred Vol 3 - Deathmatch Drive-In 7/4/20

Big Twan Tucker vs. Dominic Garrini

PAS: These two were scheduled to match up on AIW show Mania weekend and was one of my most anticipated matches. I believe these two have a great match in them, although this wasn't it. Being in an opener deathmatch in front of an unfamiliar crowd hurt this match a bit. We had some great moments, Twan is awesome at hot brawling openings to matches and they just went after each other to start with Dom killing him with Kawada kicks to the face. The first big lighttube shot was great with Garrini charging in only to get wasted by a lighttube. The match was hurt with a long set up section where Twan just kind of wandered around setting up tubes and boards while Garrini laid there, these matches really need corner men to do all of the construction. They never really brought the match back under control after that, and it was a lot of big spots with long set ups, so this ended up being a bit of a disappointment with some great individual pieces. 

ER: I actually thought this was pretty great. This had great 90s backyard aesthetics, and Dom had the perfect look of a midwest backyard meathead. He's the friend who works overly stiff and wears shorts to school during cold weather months. Dom kicks the hell out of Twan, really hard kicks to the hamstrings and body, and both guys collect sick downward chops to the side of the neck. Twan took a bunch of real painful big man bumps, like crashing through a table with a sick flapjack, or getting tossed with a couple of strong Dom suplexes. The lighttube shots came off cool and gritty to me, adding that grit for the home stretch and elevating the match for me. Garrini ran headlong into a hard swung lighttube, just one of SO MANY examples we've seen of Garrini being a fearless talented meathead jock; the heavy boy's Darby Allin. The lighttube fight added to the grit and gave Garrini the aura of a cool Canon Group action star. Dom headbutting a lighttube into Twan's head is one of those great deathmatch comp moments. Garrini knows how to come off like a true backyard legend, as you suddenly get no sense whatsoever of his grappling accomplishments. Suddenly Garrini is a Cactus Jack acolyte and you see that in his cocked head as he's taking strikes, or Twan flattening him through a door with Dom as a backpack. It was under 10 minutes and always felt like a kickass yard fight. 

56. Eddie Kingston vs. Bret Ison

PAS: This was Eddie's only pandemic indy match, and was an absolute masterclass at what makes him so special. His pandemic hair and beard looked totally badass and this was a standard match, no chairs or tubes just knuckles and knees. I loved the start of this as they began to exchange shots but Kingston gets popped with an elbow and before he could fire back just crumples to the ground, and the match went like that. Kingston was trying to use his hand speed and guile to stay in the pocket with a heavy hitter, landing these peppering palm strike combos to the head and body,  but he kept getting caught with powerful one shot elbows and punches. Kingston is one of the great strikers in wrestling, but is even better at selling strikes and he does a great job making Ison look like he is beating Eddie to death. I wish Ison was 20% better in this match, he is pretty hit and miss with the force on his shots, sometimes he really nails Kingston, and sometimes the forearms come with a big foot stomp and not much force, also don't think the spinning backfist landed as cleanly as it needed to for it to be the finish. Still this was a heck of Kingston performance, glad to see he has got

ER: Quarantine Kingston with shaggy hair and bed beard is fantastic, the Unabomber Kingston era staggering his way into a fight. How did none of us realize that Kingston would make the greatest Bruiser Brody? Are we so visual that we need to see that shag? Kingston looks like a Puerto Rican Tex Cobb and it's tough to go back to smooth line Kingston after seeing this. It added a mountain man side to his character that has been absent before, made him come off like even more of a regional folk hero. Ison is a big goony Baron Corbin, and he's the kind of guy Kingston can make look like a threat just by selling his chops. Kingston's strike game was so great throughout, pivoting through different muscle memories and strategies, never looking out of his element or desperate, just someone looking to advance any way he can. He makes Ison's strikes look like they matter and lays in his rolling elbow. Kingston leaned into everything and made this feel like a genuine war, and while I wish Ison used his size much more than he does, he's someone that has no problem bashing limbs with wild men like Kingston. It's a pairing with a high floor, with a fired up Kingston performance keeping that floor high as hell. He even works blue afterwards in his folksy Lenny Bruce fireside 4th of July chat. 

Eddy Only vs. Tim Donst

ER: I really liked how this started, with Only cementing himself as the heel by running the crowd down hard, and then getting wrecked by Donst, to the point where I was feeling sympathy for Only and the beating he was taking. Donst didn't really hold back on anything, and there was this stunned look on Only's face when Donst hit him as hard as he could with a plastic fat bat covered in tacks. Getting hit in the side of the head with one of those bats at full strength would hurt enough, but when it leaves dozens of tacks stuck into your head? Only looks at Donst like he can't believe Donst hit him as hard as he possibly could have, and then Donst does it again. Only is getting really battered, suplexed onto the grass, and it's this cool heel in peril with a cold babyface just punishing him. But at some point I am reminded why whatever Tim Donst is supposed to be doing does not work for me. He is so emotionless in the ring that he takes things beyond no selling, as not selling offense tends to at least bring some kind of character. He just acts like a man who is numb to all kind of pain, which could be cool...but if I was every other dude on a deathmatch card with him it would sure as hell he annoying to watch a guy get suplexed multiple times into tacks, crawl hands and knees through tacks, take a back bump off the apron through a board with cut up beer cans, get lighttubes kicked into his face, and sell it all by making a frowny face as if he were being admonished by his parents for missing curfew. I liked what Only brought to this, came off like a guy who was in actual pain while taking some gnarly shots, including getting a barbed wire board avalanched into him. I liked Donst's willingness to be crazy, loved his wild tope, but you have to make these weapons mean something. He is adamantly trying to make them mean less than anyone. 

Eric Ryan vs. Alex Ocean

ER: I'll always go out of my way to watch Eric Ryan matches. He's one of my favorite brawlers and he's one of the greatest bleeders in wrestling history, no hyperbole. This match did not work for me at all, went way too long, and was pretty artless about how they got from A to B to C. However, Ryan bled great. He bled immediately, and it was some great blood. He headbutted a couple of lighttubes into Ocean's head, got color on his own head, and somehow wound up immediately cutting open his entire back. He had this gorgeous collection of streams running down his back that made him look like he was a see through human body vein diagram. There are a lot of painful moments here, but they all run together pretty quickly. It's crazy to me when someone is dragged across the mat through a bunch of broken glass, but there's such a weird focus on selling every single thing the same in a deathmatch. There really needs to be some expressive selling to get across some of this damage. Give me a guy screaming as he's being dragged across broken glass man. The kind of stuff that is more interesting to me is Ryan starting the match with a fork and quickly stabbing Ocean's arm when Ocean goes for a lock up. Ocean snatched the fork away, and Ryan simply grabbed another one out of his pocket. That moment had so much more creativity than just setting up props. The finish of the match sees Ryan attempt to mule kick a couple lighttubes over Ocean's face while holding a single crab, but he keeps missing and just heel kicking Ocean in the face. And guess what? Ocean getting kicked in the face looked more violent than any of the weapon shots. A death match with the brawling as the focus is just going to be better, and this felt like 18 minutes of them picking up and just moving onto the next prop. 

Matthew Justice vs. Casanova Valentine

ER: I dug this match on paper and liked a lot of what they did, I just wish they didn't take 20 minutes to do it. Valentine has maybe my favorite look in deathmatch wrestling, like a gastric bypass Pig Champion, and I love blown out Justice epics. I thought they did a good job at working the deathmatch elements and not just arbitrarily rolling around in wire and glass. There was some build to this, and I liked how Justice hit Casanova's garden weasel out of his hands with a chair to start, instead of jumping right into some weaseling. They took those steps to ramp up their damage and make the eventual weaseling mean a bit more. If you start with Valentine breaking lighttubes over Justice's balls, then where can you go from there? The match is plagued by length and some unnecessary overbooking, with things like Riley Madison and Manders interference not really leading to anything that we couldn't have done without. People want to see Justice jump off high places, and he does that, and it rules. He hits a wild superfly splash off an SUV through a table, and we get to see Valentine really smoosh Justice later with his own big splash. A lot of the weapon stuff comes off kinda weak, as they were following a match that saw every possible weapon and attack you could need from a match, and this was just going to be repeating that. And it didn't help that the finish was a verrrry long time stand still moment of Mancer trying to light some fireworks that were attached to skewers, and the fireworks would not light. So you had poor Valentine kneeling there holding skewers into his own head, eyes fixed on Manders the entire time trying to light the damn things, Justice standing around waiting, and finally Justice calls an audible and just hits Valentine with a chair. I think they could have done what they did in half the time, and a 20 minute match ending with the flattest finish possible is always going to seem more disappointing. 

Matt Tremont vs. Akira

ER: I really didn't like the start of this, as they sat down in chairs right at the bell and did the "barroom punch" spot and threw worked punches at each other. The crowd was the quietest during this than they were all night, so I can't say that it was working for them either. I don't like that spot anyway (although Akira and Mickie Knuckles made it obsolete with their take on it earlier this year), but starting off a match with it, with no build and nowhere to go, makes no sense to me. Tremont throws nice worked punches, but this crowd has seen some uggggly shots on this show, and they are not going to be moved by worked punches. And when Akira puts his hands behind his back and demands Tremont hit him, there isn't any drama in that either, as Tremont had already punched him 10 times without Akira bothering to defend. Some things work, and "some things work" is probably the thing I will find myself writing the most whenever I watch deathmatches. Akira gets that same cool blood streaming down his back that Eric Ryan got earlier, there's a cool battle over Akira trying to get Tremont up for a death valley driver, and Tremont really brains Akira with lighttubes when Akira was attempting a plancha. Akira gets a fairly deep slice under his breastbone from it, could have been a cool thing to build off. But, as with a lot of this, the build just seems scattered at best. 

John Wayne Murdoch vs. Jeff King

ER: I thought this was a fantastic Jeff King performance, one of my favorite individual performances on the show. I am always going to love any wrestler who is referred to as an old timer (unless it's some cutesy fake old man gimmick) and King has had an interesting career. I knew him as a guy who would show up on IWA-MS shows in the 2000s, and then he disappeared for several years, coming back earlier this decade and slowly working himself into the deathmatch scene. He's probably younger than I am, but I love an old timer who is perhaps a fish out of water. Here he takes a furious beating from Murdoch, and every second of the match King felt like a man trying to prove himself to a scene. And at minimum, he certainly proved himself to me. He took a lot of punishment, and I think what makes a deathmatch worker appeal most to me is what their foundation is. I relate far more to the IWA-MS deathmatches because the core IWA style was rooted in southern wrestling. East coast DM style is much more big prop spots with less glue to get to those big moments, but King is a guy who feels more like a Memphis guy and that really works within a deathmatch. He takes big bumps and fills in downtime with nice punches, so there is less building structures and seeking weapons and more of a southern structure in its place. He gets really scared up here and I bought into his horror at the violence, like getting a gusset plate smashed onto his arm and punched into his head. He does a wild tope con giro through a table (Murdoch moved) and there were several moments of him taking an insane bump on missed offense. He hits a disgusting senton through several set up chairs, crushes Murdoch through barbed wire table with a backpack cannonball, and gets dropped through a chair by a Murdoch brainbuster. The finish is basically a botch but far more insane for it, as it's supposed to be a Murdoch superplex through a tubes covered table, but they set the table up WAY too close to the buckles. So, the superplex happens, but King flies PAST the table and Murdoch takes a back bump onto the table and spills off, both guys ending up worse off than if they had both gone through the table. Ugly fight, awesome King performance, and that's exciting for me as I hadn't seen the guy work in probably well over a decade. 

John Wayne Murdoch vs. Nick Gage

ER: It's cool Gage made it out as a way to cap off the show, but I think his power is minimized a lot by showing up at the end of a show where every single match had one of the guys essentially "doing" Nick Gage. These are all going to be bloody fights, and by the time we get to the main event of these shows we have seen EVERYTHING. So even though Gage and Murdoch have the best "sitting in chairs while punching face" sequence on the show, it is also the third time we have seen that routine. Gage has charisma that brings a higher floor into his matches, and the energy he brings to a crowd is undeniable. He and Murdoch punch each other in the face, and I loved how Gage geared up, took a lot of shots, kicked his chair away and flew into Murdoch with a diving elbow. Both guys took some disgusting shots, like Gage getting thrown through a sliced cans board, and plenty of ugly bumps through chairs. Murdoch wins with a brainbuster on a bent to hell chair, which was sick and looked like something that should definitely finish a match. And, it did finish a match, literally right before this match. And that's kind the problem with shows like this. Even with an appropriate number of matches, it is incredibly hard to still WOW a viewer at the end of a show like this. We all learned that a long time ago, the best matches of a deathmatch tournament are almost always 1st round matches, and on a show like this where everyone is using mostly the same props you're going to see even more of the ideas being used up halfway through. A match like this would have played far better as the main event of a normal wrestling show, but this is the kind of match that drew a nice crowd so more power to these lunatics. 

2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

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WWF 305 Live: THE COLOSSAL JOSTLE!

King Kong Bundy vs. Andre the Giant WWF 9/23/85 - GREAT

ER: The Colossal Jostle!! How have I gone this long in my life without knowing that there was a match between two huge men and it was billed as the Colossal Jostle!! This had to been the main draw on an MSG show that did 18,000 people but is a lackluster show on paper. No title matches, a 3 minute JYD/Funk match on top, and yet here's the Colossal Jostle early in the evening. The crowd is loud and hostile for this jostle, and it really felt like a true clash of the titans. A month earlier they did an angle where Studd and Bundy beat down Andre to end an Andre/Studd singles, sent the man out on a stretcher, and then Andre went on a New Japan tour for a month. This was his first match since returning from that beatdown (Japan), and an excellent example of the all time great in-ring acting of Andre. 

Within seconds he is strangling Bundy in the corner and Andre's facials are the best. Bundy throws some big clubbing arms, but Andre is all about huge chops and headbutts and covering Bundy's entire neck and face with his hands. There's even this wild moment where Andre uses his forearms to block two Bundy swinging arm strikes and then throws two of the biggest chops I've seen. 

Now, this whole thing was shaping up to be one of the great 80s Andre singles matches, but right in the middle is Andre holding a long headscissors armbar. It's a long stretch and positions don't change a lot, and it's a real tonal shift for the match. However, it's also undeniably fascinating to watch Andre work an armbar while Bundy is doing whatever he can to budge Andre and make the ropes. They say everyone's the same size on the mat, but imagine Andre holding your head with his legs while he pulls on your arm! Think of the weight and strength required to hold a man as large as Bundy down to the mat! It's a long hold, but I found it pretty interesting. Andre even rolled Bundy onto his stomach, so at one point he was holding it almost like a crossface, very cool visual. 

Once out, Bundy bumps real big for Andre, doing an incredible backwards fall through the ropes and out past the apron, splatting with a back bump to the floor to sell a headbutt. When Bundy makes it back into the ring, Andre is laughing that playful, sinister laugh, like a cartoon cat cornering a mouse. Andre's acting during Bundy's comeback was excellent, making it impossible not to buy into Bundy's chokes and kicks, truly one of the best at making body pain palpable. Andre gets the boots up on a corner charge and hits a bombs away, but Studd runs in and we get a welcome back beatdown. This was a really great 1985 feud, something that would have played incredibly hot in any territory. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WWF 305 LIVE

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Rene Ben! Cesca! Tejero! Zapata! Kramer! Dukan

Rene Ben Chemoul/Gilbert Cesca vs Anton Tejero/Pancho Zapata 7/18/65

MD: Incredibly entertaining 30 minutes here. This is one of those matches I'd feel good about showing people new to the style. By this point, Ben Chemoul and Cesca were a well oiled machine. I'll admit to Ben Chemoul's act getting a little old. They introduce a number of new spots but you still get a bunch you've seen a lot and a little of him can go a long way. Cesca is the perfect mix of style and substance, on the other hand. The first fall had a lot of quick tags by the stylists, lots of stooging and feeding by Zapata (our old friend La Barba) and Tejano. I'd say this was the first time we really saw quick shine-like tags to this degree in the chronological footage but we've been moving and more to heels utilizing ref distractions and that was in full force. While Zapata was a brilliant stooge and vicious when he had the opportunity, it was Tejano who was just incessant, constantly going for the eyes or body shots and making the ref move back and forth as they kept a corner onslaught going. They got real heat (and some trash thrown in) but the fans seemed like they were as entertained as anything else. The transitions felt almost luchaesque here, with tags not mattering so much when the heels were in control and things building to a moment of comeback, in this case a nice little spot with Ben Chemoul kicking his way out of a hanging backslide/punch double team. The third fall was full of big complicated spots including one that ended with stereo missile dropkicks which was probably as complex as anything we've seen. It ended on a high note and everyone went home happy (save for Zapata and Tejano at least).

PAS: These Chemoul/Cesca tags are uniformly excellent, they are Rock and Roll Expressish when in comes to consistent match quality. Zapata and Tejero are tremendous foils, they are listed from Mexico and they come off like an all time rudo tag team, eating all of the fancy Cesca and Chemoul ranas perfectly, tying themselves up into ropes and utter capitulating themselves over the top rope rope. Tejero is one of the great out of the ring bumpers ever, and Zapata matches him. I enjoyed how many different ways the technico squad could time up Zapata and Tejero in the ropes. I could have used a bit more drama in the final run to extend this match to the top tier of French Catch, but man was this fun stuff. 

SR: 2/3 falls match going about 30 minutes. Pancho Zapata, what a name. Apparently, he‘s Joachim la Barba, so it‘s nice to see him again. This was another French formula tag and one of the finest entries in the genre so far. At this point you have to ask if the South Americans are actually better than the French guys. They had no problem going along with all the technical moves, then looking despicable while kicking the French guys asses, and finally bumping like maniacs, stooging and getting their own asses kicked in a big way. And Ben Chemoul and Cesca are just really reliable workhorses. At one point it seems Chemoul got a small cut in his face and Tejero does some really nasty work trying to squeeze more blood out of him. Zapata looked subdued compared to his really violent 50s performances but he had some cool headbutts and the biggest bump of the match diving off the top into nothing, and later just suicide diving into a ringside table. I also dug the knee lifts to the back. Chemoul and Cesca looked great throwing punch combos in the second half. Double missile dropkick sequence was pretty insane. It ended a bit light hearted considering things seemed to get intense in the middle of this, but these matches are so straightforwardly fun and enjoyable that that is a very very minor nitpick.


Juan Botana vs Viarmeck Wizuk 7/25/65

MD: We lose the first ten minutes of this and get the last eight and a half and that's a shame, because what we get is pretty great. They just go at it here, Wizuk rugged and hard-hitting and good at playing to the crowd and Botana wild and stooging and relentless, able to sneak in a cheapshot from his knees to retake control again and again. This had the best leg nelson we've seen in forever, with Wizuk rolling around the ring and then really stretching with it. Botana had to bite to get out. They kept building to trading hard shots with one another, with Botana not at all afraid to bump big for Wizuk. It's a shame we don't have more of these two in the footage.    


Karl von Kramer vs Gass Dukan 7/25/65

MD: Von Kramer looked like the best wrestler in the world on this night. Doukhan was Israeli and according to the announcer, spent half the year in Tel Aviv and half in Paris. He's a natural opponent for Von Kramer, and he could both hang with the matwork and be fiery when necessary, while keeping a sharp patina of being an absolute sportsman (he wanted to shake hands at the start and at the end despite it all, and there was a lot of it). This was some brilliant stuff, with every exchange having one or two extra wrinkles, or really, just never stopping in its folding. There were wristlocks which just didn't stop. Von Kramer kept trying to roll through and Doukhan kept rolling through himself or rolling von Kramer back. Von Kramer had a dozen interesting ways to take a guy down and five or six interesting ways to grind him. They started the match with a series of front facelocks reversed into arm whips, until von Kramer turned the last reversal into a dragon sleeper which Doukhan used a knee shot to get out of. The entire match was like that. Von Kramer had some takedowns he went back to again and again, like a headlock with a knee to take Doukhan over or this inner reverse gutwrench especially, until late in the match, Doukhan jammed it with a backbreaker. Von Kramer stooged up and down for Doukhan and the fans loved every second of it, but he never lost his credibility. He stayed mostly stoic, selling the indignity of it, occasionally losing his cool (and it mattered all the more when he did due to the stoicism) but going right back to the attack. He was able to give a ton but able to get a credible takedown at any moment; the fans still ooh'ed when he locked in the nerve hold because they knew just how dangerous the guy was. You got the sense that the match wasn't heading to a clean finish because it would have been pretty bad form to put the German over clean, but he also felt like a mountain that Doukhan shouldn't entirely overcome, so it ended with Von Kramer really losing his cool and creatively choking the hell out of him in the ropes for the DQ and, of course, Doukhan getting his shots in post match. Von Kramer was really an exceptional pro wrestler and we're lucky to get to see him go all out with a game Israeli in 1965 France.

PAS: This wasn't the violent brawl you would expect from an Israeli versus a German with a Swastika on his robe in 1965. I mean Doukhan had to have lost family in the holocaust, I wanted this to be more Munich then gentleman's arm drag exchanges. They were really nice armdrags though I really liked how Doukhan would roll through and stay connected to throw an arm drag of his own. I really liked von Kramers contemptuous takeovers, he would toss him with real disdain. I did like how we got some really heated fighting at the end, with Doukhan taking some revenge for his people by choking out Von Kramer with a belt.

SR: 1 fall match going about 20 minutes. I am happy we get another Von Kramer singles match, and against a fun athletic technician like Doukhan nonetheless! This was a more WoS like match. Lots of fun technical wrestling, and unpredictable bumping from von Kramer. It was a bit light hearted considering this was an Israeli wrestler taking on an evil German guy, but Doukhan kept coming up with cool stuff you don‘t expect (even after seeing a lot of unexpected stuff in this footage) including a freakish lucha armdrag and it was a really good glimpse at what a typical night of work looked like for these guys. Kramer gets himself dq‘d in a lame ending but we get Doukhan throwing him around a bit after the match.

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2021 Ongoing MOTY List: Bryan vs. Uso

18. Daniel Bryan vs. Jey Uso WWE Smackdown 2/26

ER: Bryan doing his thing is still very entertaining to me, and his best matches still have this subconscious "retirement tour" vibe to them, while still being highly physical. Bryan has perhaps the strongest case for #1 in the world in 2021. He's not that old in the grand scheme of things, but he has this nise Rusher Kimura and hyper athletic Mitsuo Momota vibe, only while having the best timing and arguably execution in the fed. He really stalks Uso here, throwing vicious uppercuts and heavy landing kicks, but Uso is really good at fighting off his back foot and throwing surprisingly impactful elbows while being backed up. Bryan is convincing and intimidating as a shooter, and I loved how Uso reacted to the strong strikes and the forced pace. 

Things turned when Bryan tweaked his knee early, then aggravated it jumping off the apron. Uso got a thing to focus on and Bryan is great at working through and out of injury. Uso ran Bryan into the ring steps painfully, and slammed him knee first into the ring post. A single leg crab segment is nice and engaging, and made Bryan's later Yes lock attempt feel a little more charged. They have good chemistry and tight timing, and are able to pull off a nice snug fight. We end things with a count out, so we don't get to ramp up a little bit to a more violent home stretch, and that's too bad. But the work here was so strong that I don't think it suffered for lack of finish. It just made me want to see these two fight more people. 

PAS: This was a very smart TV match, Bryan really went out on a high note. The match was all about the bad knee and Bryan did some nice selling, and Uso did some really awesome attacks. The low superkick to the back of the knee was killer and I loved him cutting off the flying knee with a diving chop block, it totally looked like something that would rip up every tendon in Bryan's knee. Great Uso performance, both of those guys have been excellent for a really really long time. I really bought into the near fall Yes lock after the butterfly superplex, and I had no problem with the count out (although the ref aggressively counting as soon as they went outside kind of telegraphed it). 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Koshinaka Can't Put Back Together What You Sever

Masashi Aoyagi/Akitoshi Saito vs. Shiro Koshinaka/Kuniaki Kobayashi NJPW 3/9/92 - EPIC

PAS: This is pitched at the speed and violence of all of the other matches in this feud, a pair of guys in Gi's barreling full speed ahead throwing wild punches and kicks, while a pair of guys in long wrestling tights try to subdue them with the art of pro-wrestling. Koshinaka is a revelation in these matches. He isn't a guy I have ever been super high on, but put him in an invasion scenario and he is a stone cold killer. That hip attack, which can look silly, is just awesome in these matches. He looks like he is landing KO blows to the temple and jaw with his hip bones. Finish of this match was really iconic, with Saito getting his eye opened up, and both Koshinaka and Kobayashi making a real solid attempt to blind him for life. The match eventually gets stopped as Saito is crying blood, and we get a wild New Japan versus Karate Guys pull apart post match. AEW should just get a bunch of guys from Bart Vale's Florida Karate dojo and just redo this whole feud, I mean how incredible would Dustin Rhodes fighting Karate Guys be?

ER: This is great. We were just able to watch a fight that happened a few weeks before this match, with Koshinaka and Kobayashi really trying to push Aoyagi over the line in some pretty hellish ways. I thought it was such a fascinating way to present the home promotion boys come off looking like real assholes, intentionally or not. This is a tornado tag, and absolute shoot fight craziness because of it. The phrase "this is a shoot" got really overused the last few years on some pretty shitty wrestling, and you see something like this and you see multiple moments where these guys are clearly shooting on each other and you get that sense of actual danger and unprofessionalism. 

Koshinaka and Kobayashi are monsters, and Koshinaka is especially a prick here, kicking Saito multiple times in the cheekbone when you could tell he was not expecting to be kicked in his face. It takes a certain kind of man to kick a man in the face when the owner of the face is not expecting it, and Koshinaka shows he is definitely that kind of man. Around those kicks were all four men throwing knees as hard as they could into each other's chest and throw as many hard elbows and palms at each other's heads as possible. Every move to submission or strike is doused in hate, and some more unprofessional shots open Saito wide open and lead to a stoppage. Koshinaka took things too far, and I was dying for the karate guys to split his head open with an axe kick. There is a weird/cool restart with a new karate guy replacing Saito (whose head won't stop bleeding) and this man is smaller, and gets tossed around like a prison bitch by Kobayashi. Kobayashi drills him into the mat with a couple capture suplexes, rips at his gi, then flattens him with his body to lock in a choke, just the cruel kind of way a vet would treat a guy first day of camp to see if he can accidentally murder him. Koshinaka and Kobayashi really put me on the side of Team Karate here, can only imagine how I would feel as a Japanese teenager in 1992. 

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Matches from Asylum Wrestling Revolution Mercyful Fate 2 3/28/21

Justin Kyle vs. Madman Fulton

ER: Kyle is a new 2021 fun discovery for me, a working man's Goldberg in the best ways. He's raw as hell and a real bruiser. He has relatability and you can see the potential in him having a successful indy career as a late to the game older guy putting in his best work ever, if things break right. Fulton, on the other hand, is a tall guy who spent a LONG time in the WWE system - as in significant parts of 6 years, on TV in tag teams with guys like Angelo Dawkins - and he has way less polish than Kyle. Fulton is more Lance Hoyt or Big Cass than Kevin Nash, but that's enough for Kyle to work with. It goes too long, honestly would have benefitted from being cut in half, but Kyle has big charisma and already almost enough shtick to carry off a long Dundee/Lawler style battle. That's what they try to do here, and Kyle is a compelling title match worker. He hits hard and never skimps on clotheslines and shoulderblocks, some cool tough guy offense like a great jackhammer, or him flying full speed into a lariat that takes him and Fulton to the floor. He takes big bumps off chokeslams and through tables and doors, and they beat each other with hard plastic school chairs. The chairshots all look painful, bouncing awkwardly off their heads and even an ankle. I really enjoyed the build to Kyle removing his back brace, feels like something not far off from being a Lawler strap takedown for him. I could see these two having a good Loser Leaves Town match with blood. 

3. Mickie Knuckles vs. Akira

JR: When I suggested we write up the Mickie/Sara Dox match, Eric came up with the Mickie as Niebla analogy, which is quite perfect. Here she seems to have an extra gear that makes me rethink the comparison. I tend to love wrestlers who can appear fast in a small amount of space. That trait really adds to the opening portions of this match, and truthfully, Mickie relies on it throughout as it makes the later transitions credible, as she establishes early that she only needs a split second to go back on offense.

Mickie has a strong performance throughout, but Akira brings a dynamic that Mickie is really able to play off. Realistically, this is a prop based death match. It is Chekhov’s gun as designed by Xzibit. Despite this, Akira manages to really find unique ways to use the props once they come into play. Small things, like Knuckles trying to pry the broken water jug off her head before the spot is complete really give the whole thing an air of violence that can sometimes feel lacking.

Mickie, of course, makes sure everything looks incredible, mostly because she wrestles as though there still isn’t evidence that brain injuries have long term effects on a person’s well-being. She takes a big screen TV to the back of the head in a sort of maximalized homage to Necro/Toby. As always, her offense is crisp. She makes sequences that have been used ad nauseam (like the boxing spot) look compelling.

This match flows so well in comparison to a lot of death matches, and I think it is in part because they never overstay their welcome with any one weapon or stay in any one location. They don’t walk and brawl so much as they find places to fight and move on, almost before the viewer really has a chance to process it. The pace is frenetic, to put it mildly, and the work seems to build and reach a fever pitch even without much escalation in the middle portion of the match.

The third act, which I would consider to be essentially everything after they come back inside, almost feels like the third fall of a big apuestas match at times in terms of pacing. Almost every single move was a believable near fall, something that could have ended a match. Roll ups and weapon shots took on equal importance, and the reversal and rollup attempts earlier tie directly to the finish itself. I don’t know if I’ll be the high man on this match, but for me, this is one of the most compelling and well laid out matches I’ve seen this year.

PAS: I am not a 21st century death match guy, but I am a Mickie guy and I thought this had more of a Black Terry brawl vibe than a geek show. Mickie is ferocious, never a moment when the gender disparity hurts the match, as she makes every punch and headbutt feel like something that should knock someone silly. She's maybe the only non-Necro wrestler ever to make a bar fight look good, all of her punches were vicious and she just unloads with a series of gross headbutts at the end to clean it all up. I thought the brawling into the street was very cool. That was a dicey looking neighborhood, and I almost expected one of them to pick up a used syringe from the gutter. I could have done without the lighttubes, the shots with the TV were so much crazier if you wanted to use glass, and these things always work better with less set up props. It also went a bit long, could have used a couple of minutes sliced at the beginning. The finishing series of mat reversals with the battle axe sounds idiotic on paper, but some how worked in execution. I was pretty surprised how much I enjoyed this, but Mickie is back and better than ever.

ER: Mickie Knuckles has become almost a Paula Pell wrestling character, and it's great. She's like a super dangerous aunt, showing up to an event pounding mini bottles of rum. There's the Mickie James party aunt vibe, and then there's the Mickie Knuckles party aunt vibe. But this match is a real fight, and has the same intensity over long portions as the infamous Black Terry/Wotan match. This is one of the few matches to really capture the vibe of that classic. As Phil mentioned this is an intergender match, but there's no point where that matters, no point where anything feels dumbed down because Mickie hits as hard as any wrestler going. She takes an incredible beating and gives as good as she gets, and the beating is just constant over the course of a long death match. This is the kind of fight that leaves both fighters with some lasting damage, long and short term. Mickie takes two incredibly hard shots with a 5 gallon water jug taped to a stick, a real ungiving, uncaring shot, no protection. But this isn't a geek show, there always feels like there's excellent build and artistry from Mickie and Akira. 

Akira bruises up Mickie with kicks, Mickie fires back with the most savage headbutts, they fight into the street, and the kind of spots I've seen dozens of times they are suddenly making look fresh and violent in new ways. I couldn't believe some of the punch exchanges, not just that I was seeing these painful close up shots, but that either of them stayed conscious through them. Their stand and trade looked better than any stand up I've seen this year, and we've been watching shows specifically targeting the kind of matches where that can take place. Their movement and the way the shots hit was super visceral, very shocking, and kept ramping up in violence over a very long time. There were some incredible moments, and I think my favorite was them making "sit in chairs and punch" interesting again, capped off with Akira flying into Mickie with an uppercut. Mickie takes the shot, takes a beat to figure out how bad she is hurt, then locks in a sick triangle while still seated in her chair. I honestly thought that was going to be the finish (didn't realize the match was like only halfway over) and Akira has this amazing frantic realization that this could be the finish, and only breaks it by tipping Mickie over in her chair and knocking her into a bridged pin. 

The run to the finish is long, but builds well, so even though I wish it were shorter I liked all the things they were doing and managed to continually be shocked by what they kept doing. Mickie's whole right butt cheek gets shredded by gusset plates, she takes a couple nasty spills through tubes, both have bruising and swelling and bleeding from many areas, and we get an insane battle over an actual axe, and they somehow manage to avoid any corny "axe handle" jokes and craft plausible nearfalls out of some things that should seem ridiculous. This was a real, honest to god war, featuring the best fighting I've seen all year, and incredible bout for both. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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New Footage Friday: KIDO! IVAN GOMES! VILLANOS! LOS DESTRUCTORES! DEVILS REJECTS! NWA ELITE

 Ivan Gomes vs. Osamu Kido NJPW 8/14/76

PAS: Gomes is a legendary Vale Tudo fighter who both fought and trained with Carlson Gracie. Very little footage of him exists and this is a Different Style Fight with Kido. This was a worked shoot, and more of an interesting bit of historic footage then a great match, with Kido eating a lot of head kicks and eventually getting choked out with a guillotine. I would love to see Gomes in some actual Vale Tudo fights and I have to keep an eye on this youtube page.

MD: I don't have much to say about the specifics of the match. It's more that it exists at all, and of course, the general sense that if something like this does exist in the 70s, what else happened that we haven't seen along these lines and that might exist on tape? It's a whole style of wrestling that we barely have any of until years later. Some of the shots that do land were pretty great, at least. Hopefully we get more along these lines.

Villanos (III/IV/V) vs. Los Destructores (Tony Arce/Vulcano/Rocco Valente) AAA 3/5/95

PAS: These are a pair of great lucha rudo trios and on paper you would expect a brawl, but this was a title match and was worked mostly scientifically. We get some cool matwork exchanges and rope running in the first couple of falls, Villanos are super skilled and it is fun to watch Los Destructores try to match them hold for hold. At the end of the segunda Villano IV hits this fast northern lights suplex and damages his neck. The third fall has the Destructores working him over angering his brothers and heating up the third fall. It never really breaks down into a total brawl, and I really hate the double pin ending in lucha, however this was a cool chance to see great luchadores do something a bit unexpected.

MD: Just about everything you could want out of a trios titles match. Just understand that it's a title match and it's worked like a title match. Therefore, it's not even close to everything you'd want from a Villanos vs Destructores match. The primera was technical and sound, very smooth, with that sort of escalation from pairing to pairing you like to see. Everyone got time. While nothing was breathtaking, everything worked. It ended cleverly with the bottom dropping out and Villanos pinballing into one another, allowing for a triple team. For such a logical sort of spot, it felt pretty fresh to me. The segunda kept that escalation going and was full of motion, with things never wearing out their welcome. It ended with the Villanos working like a well-oiled machine only for disaster to strike as Villano IV crushed his own head on a Northern Lights suplex, which is again, not a specific spot that I can think of seeing too many times, but carried the narrative for most of the rest of the match. He fought on but had to start the tercera and just got crushed by the Destructores, a great selling job as the fans more and more desperately wanted him to get out of the ring. Eventually it happened and they rolled into a big comeback until he was recovered enough (though still sluggish and selling) to move into a lot of finishing stretch near-falls, a few dives, and a final pairing with a really good visual on a double pin (which feels like a consolation prize, but what are you going to do?). It was a title match so it never became an over the top brawl (though the Villanos were pretty heated in their final comeback, for good reason), but it was loose enough that the Destructores really got to rudo it up in the back half. Otherwise, like I said, it was pretty much everything you could want from a title match that played it mostly straight, clever in multiple places and overall well-executed.

Devil's Rejects (Iceberg/Shaun Tempers/Azrael/Tank) vs. NWA Elite (Kory Chavis/Jeff Lewis/Phil Shatter/Abomination) NWA Anarchy 6/23/07

PAS: I wrote a long review of this match in my book Way of the Blade (buy it now on Amazon),  and have recorded an upcoming podcast on this match for my Way of the Blade podcast with both of the evil stewards of these teams Rev. Dan Wilson and Jeff G. Bailey. So I have said my piece. It was super hard to track down, and Rev. Dan has placed it on Youtube for all to see. NWA Anarchy is a real footage blind spot, it is clear that there are plenty of classics to be excavated. This is a heel versus heel War Games, with two psychos leading their respective crew of lunatics into battle, it has blood, huge uncalled for bumps by enormous men, a showdown between two untrained monsters, Phil Shatter looking like prime Scott Steiner and much more. It is a goddamn delight and everyone should watch it, buy my book to read me praise it more, and keep your ears peeled for the podcast. 

MD: This is one I've heard about and read about but never actually had the chance to see. It's just a perfectly balanced War Games, the mix of story and moments and spots and blood and violence and spectacle. More than anything, it creates a sense of mood, which is what you want from every match you see, but something you absolutely need in a match beyond. Multiple times in this thing, you get a sense of inevitability or dread or awe. Case in point, the first five minutes with Chavis holding an advantage over Tempers. It's unquestionable, but you know it's fleeting, on borrowed time. Likewise, later on when Lewis is kept out of the ring for long seconds; when he flies in around the barbed wire off the top of the cage, it's a great moment since it's full of daring and surprise, but you can feel the encroaching futility because the numbers game was about to be restored. The match succeeds at so many things: Tank's return, an absolute Shatter showcase, Abomination destroying everyone in the center of the ring, the escalation of weapons (fork, weapon of destruction, sword of screams) and blood, and of course, Wilson and Bailey getting involved, which is visceral and satisfying (the whole world seem to shift on that missed dropkick), but also doesn't distract from the wrestlers when it came to the finish, which is honestly some of the most restraint ever shown in a match like this.

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It's Maybe Cold Outside, But in Ludvig Borga the Fire is Burning

Ludvig Borga vs. Tony DiMauro WWF Superstars 7/24/93 - VERY GOOD

ER: This was Borga's WWF debut, and he shows up with no hype whatsoever. There's mention of his debut at the beginning of the show, and when it's time for his match he's just described as a new wrestler from Helsinki. There was no inset interview, no coming soon videos, not even his name on the entrance screen; just Borga coming out and Vince telling the TV audience that he's from Helsinki. They do the exact same thing to the Quebecers on this same episode, debuting them with no features or word that The Mountie was coming back with a chubby friend. I'm pretty sure I couldn't have told you too much about Finland when I was 12, and I'm not sure how it related to pro wrestling or why it was important. But this was a great debut, and it's kind of cool how it came with no warning. DiMauro doesn't get an introduction, because Borga fast walks to the ring and without slowing down storms up behind DiMauro and deadlifts him into a hard back suplex. DiMauro is a big guy with a good build, and it's smart to debut Borga against a big guy, as it just made him look more badass quickly demolishing this guy. He is efficient and violent, hits a hard back elbow and a truly great headbutt (one of the finest I've seen hit in WWF), swings hard for DiMauro's head on a missed clothesline, really comes off like a monster. He also misses a fast avalanche and takes a fast bump on a DiMauro clothesline, which felt like a generous thing to do in his debut. But, then he absolutely wastes DiMauro with a diving clothesline, capping off a super explosive debut. 

Ludvig Borga vs. Jason Headings WWF Wrestling Challenge 7/25/93 - FUN

ER: I don't know who Jason Headings is, but he certainly earned his keep here. Borga would have been a total stranger to this crowd, but it's kind of cool to give a guy two weekend showcase squashes with no prior TV build, kids at home watching a giant angry faced Finnish man on Saturday, then seeing the same guy wreck someone else on Sunday. Borga does this great thing where he storms out and immediately goes after his opponent, not waiting for the bell. He lifts Headings up by the throat and drops him flat, clubs him, then picks him up in a vertical suplex and holds it for at least 15 seconds. Headings lands a stiff lariat that doesn't budge Borga, and when Headings gives it another shot he gets folded in half by a Borga clothesline. The bump looked like it surprised Headings more than anyone else, as he was clearly going to do a folding bump off the clothesline, but I don't think he was expecting Borga to hit him so hard, so his momentum got carried in an unexpected way. It's not like Borga swung for the fences, but he really hooked him and the fold looked awesome. Borga DOES swing for the fences on his next clothesline, but it is meant to miss (luckily Headings ducked), but Borga turns around and hits his flying clothesline for the quick win. If I was a kid and saw these two Borga squashes on back to back days, I would have immediately thought this guy was a main event threat. Curious to see how they handle him on Raw.  

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LUDVIG BORGA

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Way of the Blade: The Podcast Episode 1

As part of the Way of the Blade project I am going to do a podcast covering all 100 matches. My first episode is with fellow Segunda Caida compatriot Eric Ritz discussing Killer Karl Kox vs. Dick Murdoch. The show is slowly seeping through the podcast world, but you can check it out below!!

LISTEN HERE!!!

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2021 Ongoing MOTY List: Cesaro vs. Bryan

7. Cesaro vs. Daniel Bryan WWE Smackdown 1/15

ER: When you see Cesaro and Bryan are going to get 12 minutes to do their thing, this is the kind of match you go in expecting. They work their very good match and add in a couple of twists, familiar opponents who have been working opposite each other for 15 years and are still changing things. I wish we got even more matwork, but loved the tastes of it Bryan gave us, snug and grinding. Cesaro worked tight headlocks and attacks on the neck and used that to try to wear the rest of Bryan down, Bryan went after Cesaro's arm used that to try to wear the rest of Cesaro down. And these two are good at grinding each other down over the course of 12 minutes. Bryan holds a hammerlock painfully, Cesaro keeps fighting for the neck, and things open nicely when Cesaro breaks a hammerlock with a back elbow. He aims elbows and uppercuts and a running uppercut straight at Bryan's neck, and we get some sequences that don't look clean, but instead look intentionally rough. 

Bryan has a cool armbar takedown and really looked like he'd yank Cesaro's arm off, and he hits a monkey flip out of a knuckle lock that bounces Cesaro off the ropes and onto his head. I assume they had planned for Cesaro to go over or through the ropes, but I thought it was cool how it ended up. Cesaro either gets his head cut open from that, or bonks it on the back of the ring post while Bryan is kicking him, so we get the cool visual of the back of Cesaro's bald head bleeding while Bryan acts like a jerk and kicks out his arm. I thought Cesaro's selling was really strong, never performative, but actually looked like he was being appropriately slowed down on offense. Their fight over a crossface and Yes lock is really good, and I thought the finish of Bryan running in with the flying knee, only to get caught and thrown into an uppercut, then immediately plastered with the Neutralizer, all looked great. You saw Cesaro and Bryan were getting 12 minutes to do their thing, and this is the kind of thing you want.

PAS: We have been watching both of the guys for the better part of two decades, so you don't expect them to break out new things, but this match had a bunch of fun new twists. The monkey flip counter out of the knuckle lock into the ring ropes was super nasty, as was Cesaro using his freak strength to counter a superplex into a twisting one of his own. I hadn't seen either thing before and they were both awesome. I also loved Bryan ripping at the nose to get on the Yes lock. This match was basically face versus face and it was neat to see moments where both guys were showing what they were willing to do to win a match. Bryan was incredible all year at putting people over and still looking strong and this did feel like a big victory for Cesaro, well earned and hard fought. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Tuesday is French Catch: Khan! Gasparini! Voinet! Kasbarian!Straub! Gugliementi!

Iska Khan vs. Jean Gasparini 7/11/65

MD: We haven't seen Gasparini since 57, when he was thoroughly trounced by Hayes. He's still the game guy, a complete Italian stereotype (the commentator was talking about the crowd throwing tomatoes at him that he'd use for sauce later post match). He reminds me of Jason Schwartzman from the most recent season of Fargo. That makes him a better foil for Khan than Hayes, probably, and this was fun for what it was. Khan's quasi Charlie Chan act, with lots of bowing and chopping and clever foot usage to get out of holds, was definitely over. He also always has a bit more of an edge than you'd expect. At one point, after Gasparini was working nerve holds in and out of the ropes (including recoiling Khan neck first off of them in that old French way that's no longer used now), Khan repositioned to send him sailing out and then charged after him with some brawling on the floor. Gasparini had to resort to cheapshots and stalling for the most part, but he was good at it. Khan's got mad at the end as Gasparini tried to keep him out of the ring and fired back with chops and a final sequence which apparently used secret ancient marital arts to completely paralyze his opponent. He had to undo it after the match. Entertaining stuff with just a bit of an edge.

SR: 1 fall match going about 15 minutes. Gasparini is a rugged looking heel with a mustache who likes to hit shots to the body. This started as a fun tour of Khans spots before Gasparini decided to crank up the violence, even brawling Khan on the floor and swinging the ring steps at him. In turn, Khan started busting out the chops. Felt a little short (Gasparini went down pretty fast) but I enjoyed it.

PAS: I really enjoy watching Khan, he has a bunch of fun chops and eye pokes. Gasparini is a fun pasta and red sauce stereotype Italian, I just wish he hit a little hard. He was throwing body shots and I wanted a little more marinara on them. It did end up getting pretty heated at the end with Khan and Gasparini throwing bigger shots before Khan dropped him for good. I dug this, love Khan, but it was pretty unremarkable overall

Gil Voinet vs. Georges Kasbarian 7/11/65

SR:1 fall match going about 15 minutes. These are two guys with excellent build. Match-wise there was nothing outstanding they grappled a little and Kasbarian started cheapshotting and Voinet fired back and then they took it home. It felt like a match between two body guys.

MD: Like what we often see, but bigger. Both of these guys were definitely heavyweights and they still worked things with holds and escapes. Everything just had more oomph behind it, more shoulder blocks, more slams. Kasparian was quick to go to shortcuts and quick to complain when legitimate escapes got cut off. When Voiney ultimately got mad, his fiery blows were massive and the crowd well knew it. The technical bits weren't as smooth (even when Voiney would do something really impressive like cartwheel out or when Kasparian would try a huge flying headscissors out of an armbar only to get jammed and shrugged off) but they still absolutely worked. Voiney won with an airplane spin but his fireman's carry gutbuster was probably the most impressive single thing in the match.

Vasilios Mantopolous vs. Daniel Noced 7/16/65

SR: About 3 minutes are shown. This was an episode were the pre match on paper looked more exciting than the main event, but it seems these guys weren‘t that familiar with each other to produce a match similiar to Noced/Prince. They hit some hard uppercuts and fast rope running and I enjoyed that.

MD: This is kind of a weird few minutes. It had a few good spots and an ok energy, and maybe it's just because we didn't get the majority of the match, but at times they seemed to match up oddly. There were some starts and stops and some of the acrobatics (like Noced trying to land on his feet out of a monkey flip) weren't at all hit clean. I imagine if we had the longer holds earlier in the match, this would have still been pretty good though.

Luc Straub vs. Giacomo Gugliemetti 7/16/65

SR: 1 fall match going 30 minutes. Matt was wary about this going in, but I thought it was decent catch. They worked simple holds, with enough resistance and intensity that I got into the match. I dug Guguliemetti here, liked how he worked a chinlock, liked how he sold Straubs first chop as if his eardrum was shattered, really liked how he clutched his own arm after hitting Straub to put over how hard he was hitting. Straub didn‘t do any goofy stuff, no judo either though. Bit long match and needed more escalation but I enjoyed myself.

MD: I have to admit, I was sort of dreading this one, and that's before I knew it was going to be a draw. I did know it went around 30 minutes and I knew that Straub's been pretty tough to watch in tags lately. The judo thing only takes you so far, especially in tags where there's a lot of shtick and comedy. This was wrestled straight, though, and it was solid. I'm not sure I needed thirty minutes of it, but it was solid. They would build to blows (with Guguliemetti losing his cool) and then take it back down. It never really boiled over, though, as Straub would fire back but then want a handshake and reset into holds again. What worked was the struggle of the holds, the selling in the moment and immediately thereafter, and the variety that Straub, especially, brought to the table. They didn't really do long working in and out of holds, but instead used a wide variety: a rolling leg nelson, cobra clutch, a short arm scissors, the Mascaras headscissors (which we now know predates him), a body scissors, hammerlocks, Gugulimetti's arm-switch stranglehold, etc. With a couple of fun escapes and dropkicks by Straub here and there and the strike exchanges fun even if, like I said, it never boiled over. If we were beggars and not choosers with this footage, we'd probably rank this fairly high. As it is, it's a half hour of very competent wrestling that never quite feels great.

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Way of the Blade: 100 of the Greatest Bloody Matches in Wrestling History

The first Segunda Caida Book is available. If you like what we have been doing on this blog for the last dozen or so years, this is your chance to get Segunda Caida in BOOK FORM!! I am going to be doing a lot of publicity for the book and a big podcast project is upcoming. Check this space!!

Amazon link

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NXT UK Worth Watching: OHNO! Gallagher! Webster! Coffey!

Flash Morgan Webster vs. Joe Coffey NXT UK 4/19 (Aired 5/8/19) (Ep. #41)

ER: I'm not sure why I wasn't expecting these two to have great chemistry, because I loved how they worked this match. I think this is Webster's best performance in NXT UK so far, and it makes the case for him being a better singles worker than tag worker. He was such a good ragdoll for Coffey but had offense that stood on its own, he knew when to work in that offense, and it always looked like something that would actually damage the larger Coffey. Coffey is good at neutralizing Webster, working holds and knocking him down with a shoulderblock, and Webster does cool things like actually try to trip Coffey on dropdowns. If I haven't mentioned Webster's dropdowns before, I love them as he always looks like he is trying to take a guy out at the ankles, and a wrestler who works a nice dropdown is a wrestler I'm going to like. 

I like Webster's upside down armdrag, and his enziguiri, senton, and dropkicks are sold appropriately by Coffey, who lays in some heavy uppercuts and a cool swinging butterfly suplex. The pace of this was great, as Coffey kept speed with Webster but left nice openings, and the quick early pace made Coffey's long full nelson work make some sense. Webster gets this great unhinged crossbody while Coffey is in the ropes, tipping Coffey to the floor while Webster goes flying down, and I love how fast Webster is to get back in to hit a tope con giro. One of the best things about Webster is that he never seems to expect a move to be sold if it doesn't hit squarely. His tope con giro looks great but also sends him crashing past Coffey, and the big move is handled appropriately and nobody tries to pretend Webster didn't go crashing down the entranceway. And I love how tidily the match wraps up, with Webster outquicking and looking for an upset, getting a moonsault and nice high knee, but then hitting knees in a flat out disgusting way on a swanton. Coffey just stuck those knees up and Webster landed on them like he was landing on a fence. Coffey folds him with a spear and waylays Webster with a lariat, and the lariat sends Webster spinning like he was bounced off the Blob at summer camp. This was 6 minutes and kicked ass the entire time, great way to kick off the #1 contender qualifying series. Can't say enough nice things about this match. 

Kassius Ohno vs. Jack Gallagher NXT UK 4/20 (Aired 5/29/19) (Ep. #44)

ER: This was actually the first NT UK match I ever watched, and it apparently took my favorite American wrestler fighting my favorite British wrestler to get me to finally check out the product 44 episodes in. Going back and watching it now that I have the context of the 43 NXT UK episodes that came before it, and I still think it's the best NXT UK match at this point in the series. In fact, I have Kassius Ohno being in the four best NXT UK matches through the first 44 episodes. I don't think that is an insult to NXT UK, that Ohno was able to come in and have matches better than anyone else on the roster. I think it's just something Ohno would be able to do on any roster in wrestling. I loved pretty much every single thing about this match. This felt like an homage to classic World of Sport, but at no point did any of this feel derivative. Lesser workers could have made this look like a minor league baseball stadium Al Snow match, all World of Sport equivalents to doing Stunners and People's Elbows. Instead, Ohno and Gallagher took classic World of Sport sequences and put their own twists on them. They played off familiar moments and gave them sudden right turns, successfully playing off our expectations and giving us something fresh out of something near and dear. 

I liked Gallagher going for Johnny Saint's old lady in the lake spot - a spot we started seeing a ton on the indies around 2003, when more indy workers had finally seen a Johnny Saint match - and Ohno just stomps Gallagher in the face instead of going through with the spot. Gallagher headstands in the corner like Nigel, Ohno takes the spot a direction I hadn't seen in other Gallagher matches. Ohno had this great attitude of being too smart to fall for Gallagher's tricks, and so Gallagher threw a couple of extra tricks at him.  The standing exchanges were as good as I was hoping they'd be, with my favorite being Gallagher trying to knee his way into Ohno's knee and elbow crooks to force leverage. Gallagher tying on a wristlock and then lifting his opposite grip side knee to force down Ohno by the elbow, or digging his knee into the back of Ohno's, that's the kind of thing I love to see. And when they broke out of the WoS homage it happened with an absolute bang, with Ohno bloodying up Gallagher's face with a "I'm done messing around" punch. 

Gallagher is smaller but can strike with the best of them, and once Ohno moves the match into punch territory, Gallagher is more than fine throwing hard elbows and a couple of his great headbutts. Ohno throws some of his greatest pump kicks in the biz, and I really only wish we had gotten the built up finish the boys had earned. Ohno hits a finisher worthy rolling elbow, landing Gallagher's leg well under the rope (and hanging off the apron), but the ref counts as normal (which is odd he wouldn't check the ropes as Gallagher was lying right next to them, feels a safe bet he would have had a limb breaking the plane) but Ohno amusingly swipes Gallagher's leg back into the ring. The look on Ohno's face as he swung Gallagher's leg back in without the ref seeing was enough to make me love that finish. Still, I really would have liked the ref to have noticed, and Gallagher to have slipped to the floor, continuing the match and giving Gallagher another break to come back. If we got a match restart and a small Gallagher comeback, there's a chance this reaches evergreen #1 NXT UK match. As is, it will just have to be "the best so far".

COMPLETE GUIDE TO NXT UK

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WWE Backlash Running Late Blog 5/16/21

ER: So apparently there STILL isn't a rewind feature on Peacock and I didn't realize. I'll go back and pick up whatever I missed when it's uploaded. 

Sheamus vs. Ricochet

ER: I thought this kicked all kinds of ass, great way to kick off a show (even if it was the last match I watched). This one really cements Backlash as a super strong show, high floor, high ceiling. This is the first singles match ever between Sheamus and Ricochet, and it's a really great time for it to happen for the first time. Sheamus has been on fire since his return, and Ricochet is having his best in ring year since at least 2018. It's a good time for them to finally cross paths in a singles. Sheamus lays in his beating, really pounds Ricochet's chest, and throws a couple different knees that POP in replay. I love watching Sheamus kick, knee, and elbow his way through a match, and Ricochet's flying added some fun flash. I love a guy who can lean jaw first into kneelifts and then hit some fly springboards. I never got the sense Ricochet could win this match, but that's fine because he also didn't look like a total joke. He looked like a guy who could surprise Sheamus at some point, and Sheamus remains on his tear. 

Asuka vs. Rhea Ripley vs. Charlotte

ER: I thought this was good! I was not excited to see two three ways on this card (three, including the Mysterio handicap match), but I wound up enjoying or even loving all of them. This felt like Charlotte's best performance all year, which is amusing as I'm pretty sure I said that about Rey Mysterio and Roman Reigns, so this show was apparently the time for the big stars to show the hell up in 2021. I also think this was one of Asuka's best performances of the year, had a nice run through all of the match, felt like the most involved in many ways. But my main take away was that it was good to see Charlotte lean into her better qualities, and find better ways to integrate her more recent Barry Darsow constant chattering. I don't think every wrestler intends to become Barry Darsow, but sometimes it happens, and Charlotte's turn as a Mean Girl Barry Darsow have been mixed. Charlotte has downright stunk in the ring lately, looking completely distracted and dominating too much TV time for the low quality of work. This felt like a step in the right direction. 

Dolph Ziggler/Robert Roode vs. Rey Mysterio 

ER: Dominik taken out earlier in the night, and it gives us this really great old school handicap match, with an all time legendary babyface gutting it out against what feels like a tag team of Hennig and Rude. The Dirty Dawgs are - believe it or not - one of the best teams in 2021 wrestling, and Roode/Ziggler have been putting on their strongest work in years. Their team name is horrible, but it also fits, and their ringwork and chemistry are good enough that the work surpasses the name. This is Rey's strongest performance of the year, a year that started with him looking aged to me for the first time in his career. A slow first 2-3 months has lead to a wildly resurgent Spring, and it still amazes me that we get to still be seeing REY MYSTERIO performances. He is so good at making this a compelling handicap match, knowing the exact moments to make his comebacks, knowing exactly how to take a valiant but sympathetic underdog beating. Roode and Ziggler are great at working their end, and I really think this tag is the best possible role for each. Both thrive within this tag structure, have very good timing for it, and it really plays to their individual strengths. Their cutoff spots are good and they stooge very well for all of Rey's best spots. There's a fantastic callback spot, where early in the match Rey hits his sliding body press to the floor, and then later Roode throws him into that spot and directly into a Ziggler superkick. Rey's selling from the spot is superb, and the later match payoff of him sliding out on the offensive again, sunset flip powerbombing Ziggler into the apron was great. Dominik's late match involvement was well integrated, and I think he keeps showing improvement. Working pros like Roode and Ziggler is helping him, and I think that bears well on them. But this match was a Rey match, and was one of the great Mysterio performances, a genuine later career highlight of one of the greatest careers ever. 

PS: Very happy we get to see Rey still delivering on a big stage. He is only 46 which is pretty much still luchador prime (I mean Black Terry is still having MOTYs in his late 60s), and I enjoyed him working in this classic tag team structure. Handicap match with the partner coming from the back is tag team wrestling going way back (we even see a version of it in French Catch), and Mysterio and Ziggler and Roode all play their roles well. Dirty Dogs have some really nasty double teams, some good shit talking, if this was a new team instead of two guys who have been around forever, I really think they would be getting a ton of props. That baseball slide into the superkick was incredible, as was the Rey final cut off baseball slide into the powerbomb. I didn't love the timing of the final frog splash, Dominick took forever to get up to the top rope, and the impact looked more like a celebrity frog splash (I think Snoop Dogg had more impact) than a wrestler's version. Seems like keeping Dominick in the locker room for 70% of the match is the way to go, but I am all for Rey getting another run.

The Miz vs. Damian Priest

ER: A zombie lumberjack match, in tribute to the first episode of the real ECW, and it actually winds up being much more fun than I expected it to be. Dumb as hell, but I'd rather these two work dumb than work serious. I liked Miz a lot here, and I think acting like a doofus around zombies while taking silly Edge offense from Priest is a good spot for him to excel. There's a fun moment where Miz and Priest stand back to back and fight zombies together, man united, then back in the ring Miz goes for a high five as a way to Trojan horse a kick to the stomach (that gets caught). Morrison comes out and wipes out a bunch of zombies with parkour, and then gets SWARMED and dragged to his death by zombies! Part of me wants Morrison to disappear for 6 months to commit to this and come back like parkour Onryu. Zombie Parkour is a brilliant gimmick for Morrison, as then he doesn't have to act or promo, he can just brainlessly go through gymnastics showcases and it would give everything much more substance. This was a good use of time, and we got to see two different people kick a zombie in the face with a spinkick. 

Bianca Belair vs. Bayley

ER: Belair's gear is incredible, like the kind of iconic look that they need to have on an action figure to memorialize it. Her whole look is superstar, and it's one of the moments where I think Sasha and Bianca could one day be talked about as the two biggest American women's wrestling stars ever. It's an attainable career destination. And this match was good, a strong Belair performance in her first big title defense. They were both active in good ways, and Bayley did the kind of performance that makes someone like Belair look like a strong champ. Bayley bumped big and didn't work "crazy" (I don't actually know if Bayley is supposed to be working a Woman Driven Mad gimmick right now or if she just got into large crimping and it's humid). This felt like a good showcase for Bianca, she looked like someone confident in her spots, and Bayley really knew how to make those spots look good. Very satisfying. The finish is somewhat odd with Bayley appearing to kick out, but it's a simple way to lead immediately to a good rematch that Bianca wins decisively. 

Drew McIntyre vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Braun Strowman

ER: I've enjoyed the way these three have interacted, it's been one of the positives of 2021 WWE. They are three heavyweights who all wrestle their size, and that is going to give you a big advantage in 2021. I don't typically like three ways, but I am confident in them having a good one, all are good at coming up at ways to be out of a match and/or get someone out of a match for long stretches, and they go hard when they not the one disappeared. And this was good, because of those reasons, heavyweights crashing into each other like heavyweights. Drew had another good performance, one of the most consistent performers this year, a cool big babyface who can throw bigger guys like Braun and Lashley. Braun has never looked more cut, and Lashley has found the right way to play his personality. It's a good combo of elements for a match like this, with all men taking some good bumps and picking their moments. Braun lands on his shoulders on a couple of gnarly suplexes, Lashley flies hard into his spears, McIntyre takes a wicked Braun powerbomb through the announce table, and they do a couple of entrance ramp bumps and a big stunt spot. Now, I think the in ring stuff was much cooler than the stunt spots, because these dudes have unique things they can bring in ring. Give me more of Lashley/Drew hitting a delayed vertical suplex on Braun, please. They kept a good pace, had some impressive big man stuff, good heavyweight fight. 

Cesaro vs. Roman Reigns

ER: I thought this was a pretty great main event, the kind of match that felt like it earned its main event gravitas indulgences. This was my favorite Reigns performance of the year, a year that has been good for Roman promos but bad for Roman matches. This felt like more of a classic Roman quality main event, worked within his modern heel character. The fit felt good here, and it hasn't totally before for me. Cesaro on the other hand has a realistic claim to best in the world right now in ring, and is now doing it during one of the strongest pushes of his career. Cesaro doing his thing on the main stage is something I've wanted to see, and Reigns is someone who makes a good opponent for him. A lot of things felt big here, lots of Cesaro uppercuts that look fully absorbed by Roman, no theatrical followthrough, just Cesaro throwing his whole arm into Reigns' chest and neck. Reigns' superman punches look good in all the slo mo shots, and this match is the best kind of balance between a main event I enjoy and a main event WWE wants their wrestlers to have. It's the kind of match that looked really great in highlight form, but sustained interest over nearly a half hour. It was probably too long, but they filled the time well and everything looked snug. Roman can lose his "gotta work 25 in the main" HHH influences tomorrow and I'd be happy, but this was good. They made big suplex spots look great, crashes into barricades and posts look great, but Reigns also made so many veins pop out on Cesaro's head during a headlock choke that I thought it was going to burst. That kind of thing will always make a match kick ass, and it did. 

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Get Close Up, Soaked Up, Kingston is KG Post Up

Eddie Kingston vs. Roderick Strong FIP 6/30/07 - GREAT

PAS: Kingston Road matches aren't my favorite type of his matches, but he does US Indy All Japan as well as anyone. Both of these guys really set out to brutalize each other, as this was more of a Kobashi vs. Misawa style match than the Kawada stuff which Kingston usually does when he works this style. Sick hard chops by both guys, Strong has always been a bit colorless (especially aughts Strong) but his execution was always good, and he works stiff. Kingston shows a couple of his tweaks, and I loved him screaming at Strong to get away from him when he was trying to fight off a superplex. The match had some gross head drops, including Kingston throwing a release Dragon suplex, and Strong winning and retaining the title with a Tiger Driver 91. You can really see their youth in this match, as I don't think the suplex bumps would be nearly as athletic if this match happened today, although a slowed down version of this would probably even be better. 

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NJPW Karate Invasion Mini C+A

 

After checking out the pair of awesome Akitoshi Saito matches, I need to check out the entire Karateka versus New Japan feud. It was pretty sure, completely awesome and led to the formation of Heisei Ishingun when the guys stopped kicking each other ass and joined up to kick everyone else's ass.

Akitoshi Saito vs. Michiyoshi Ohara NJPW 2/8/92 - EPIC

Akitoshi Saito vs. Shiro Koshinaka NJPW 2/12/92 - GREAT

Masashi Aoyagi/Akitoshi Saito vs. Shiro Koshinaka/Kuniaki Kobayashi NJPW 3/9/92 - EPIC

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New Footage Friday: Different Style!!

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Aleksey Tyurin NJPW 7/22/90 - GREAT

PAS: Tyurin is an enormous Judoka, he looked like he might be 6'7 360, spent much of the match with some great looking Judo throws on Hashimoto. It is always fun to watch Hash try to solve a puzzle in these different style fights. The puzzle here was Tyurin's strength and technique and eventually Hash just tries to dirty it up, stunning Tyurin with two nasty short headbutts, dazing the bear enough to get him over with a side suplex and choke him out. Really fun visuals in this match, and while it wasn't tremendously action packed I really found it compelling. 

MD: Tyurin is massive, absolutely massive and he has a lurching way of moving at you with his arms up. The best way that I can explain this is that it's like when a little kid family member comes charging at you because they watched too much wrestling or something, when you're an adult and you have to do everything you can not to lose your balance and fall on them and break them. Tyurin is gingerly not trying to absolutely crush tiny child Hashimoto here. Which is bizarre and surreal. It means that just a headlock takedown seems like it could demolish Hash's kidney and break his ribs though. The flip side was that every movement (and every bit of restraint, I guess) tired Tyurin down more, so all Hashimoto had to do was stay alive long enough. Which he did. The suplex at the end barely works but is still worth seeing, though I'm not sure the choke out works because Tyurin was so large that he'd always be in the ropes. Always.

ER: Yes yes yes, this match is exactly my kind of thing. I adore that we are still finding new weird Russians that Inoki brought in, and I had no clue there were ever any GIANTS wrestling in New Japan Different Style fights. Hashimoto is a large man, and Tyurin absolutely dwarfs him. Tyurin looks like the largest possible Glenn Fleshler, a mammoth judoka who just walks through Hashimoto's strikes and flattens him with what come off like normal judo moves, like a headlock take over or an STO. He's so huge that he makes a headlock takeover look finisher worthy, and it's amazing. At one point he literally approaches Hashimoto and raises both of his arms over his head, and I swear to god he looked exactly like the grizzly bear on the poster of Grizzly. Just a giant man about to bear attack Hashimoto, so Hash kicks him right in the knee and keeps his distance. Tyurin doesn't pretend he is a bear any longer. Hash keeps getting better and better at evading Tyurin's takedowns, slipping out and landing on top, and I thought the build to the final choke was good. Hashimoto powers Tyurin over with a Saito suplex, and it while it was far from the prettiest suplex you've seen, it looks like Hash is moving a damn mountain. I bought the choke as it really looked like Hash was smothering the giant, using Tyurin's size and meaty neck against him. Great stuff. 

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Ramzin Shbiev NJPW 6/12/91 - GREAT

PAS: Shbiev comes out in boxing gloves and shorts, although he doesn't have a Box Rec record. He had decent form, but it didn't really look professional to me. Hashimoto however really knows how to work a match around a Russian guy with Boxing gloves. Hashimoto and Shbiev circle each other for the first couple of rounds, with Shbiev landing some nice body shots. That leads up to an all timer of last minute, with Shbiev dropping Hashimoto with a really nice multi punch combo. Hash realizes he can't stand in the pocket with him, hits two sick looking leg sweeps, and puts his lights all the way out with a sick high kick to the face, Shbiev didn't block it at all, and I wouldn't be surprised if he forgot all of the math he learned in middle school. 

MD: Two rounds of build up leading to one quick round of payoff, but what around it was. The build was measured and disciplined. Shbiev had a pretty clear advantage for the first two rounds, a straight up puncher. Hashimoto was able to slow the torrent with kicks, but whenever he tried to cut the distance and use his size to grab Shbiev, he ate a bunch of blows and the size and momentum necessary for the attempt brought them into the ropes. Towards the end of the second round, Hashimoto seemed to realize that just keeping Shbiev at bay wasn't going to work out and he started going for it with more wild kicks, landing one and knocking him flat. In the third, likewise, Shbiev realized that if Hash was going to do that, he better do something else and he rushed in with a really nasty flurry. They kept one-upping one another as Hash used his reach advantage with sweeping kicks, throwing Shbiev off his game enough that he could get a brutal headlock takeover and then finish it all off with a homerun hitting kick to the face. Just a hugely satisfying last round.

ER: Different Style is the most perfect pro wrestling. The looseness of a fight with the artistry of a performer, Hashimoto was really the true master of the Different Style. Inoki was the pioneer, but Hashimoto was getting these superstar reactions to his theme song because of his incredible Different Style wars. Shbiev comes out wearing long shorts and looks like someone Louis Gossett Jr. had to take down in the latter half of Diggstown, and Hashimoto is an expert at selling all of his strikes. Shbiev is a real interesting puncher, good at mixing up his shots, and Hashimoto is so captivating as someone struggling to find his distance. Shbiev drops him with this hard left to the body, and the longer this goes the more risks both guys take, both elevating their aggression. The final flurry is incredible, always amazing to me how well these non-wrestlers fall when it's time for them to take their wrestling beating. Hashimoto starts brutalizing Shbiev with legsweeps, just giving this poor guy knee problems for life, before finishing everything with a sweeping high kick that just drops him. Different Style God Hashimoto. Get me the t-shirt. 

Akitoshi Saito vs. Michiyoshi Ohara NJPW 2/8/92

MD: Crazy ten minutes of pro wrestling here. Ohara rushes Saito at the start, but Saito's about to outstrike him for most of the match. The great equalizer is that Ohara's better able to take him down and hook him, using the gi, yes, but especially with an absolutely monster capture suplex. He can't put Saito away, though, or even capitalize enough, so this builds to Saito kicking the crap out of him towards the edge of the ring, the two warring sides going at it on the floor, and a massively bloody Ohara trying desperately to get his revenge with a thousand red-streaked headbutts, changing the color of the gi. It's all for naught as Saito puts him down for good, with the post-match swarming of the ring being just as crazy as everything else we've seen here in this ten minutes of violence.

PAS: This was incredible, one of the best matches we have unearthed since we have done this. This is part of the Karate dojo versus New Japan feud, and I clearly need to find every second of this. Easily Ohara's career match, he was working as an amateur in a singlet and has some nice wild throws and takedowns, and Saito is hurling punches and kicks at him the whole time. Ohara also throws some really great looking headbutts, which are especially awesome after he is opened up and spraying blood around the ring. The whole match felt on the precipice of a riot and then it just exploded at the end. Totally awesome.

ER: Incredible, the exact kind of bloodlust you want from a NJPW/Karate Guys war. This is the most charisma I have ever seen Ohara possess, and I love young handsome normal hair Saito. You got a ringside area filled with New Japan tracksuits and karate gi's, and you know that's literally always an oil/water scenario. Ohara was super aggressive here, running down to the ring like he was Ultimate Warrior in a freestyle wrestling singlet and hits a double leg without slowing down, and then it's just several minutes of Ohara throwing Saito with STOs and other takedowns while Saito throws downward blow karate strikes and damaging kicks. Saito's kicks are really starting to slow Ohara, as they are relentless, and both guys seem to be playing VERY fast and loose with rope break rules. There were two different moments where each guy made it to the ropes to break a hold, and the rope break did not slow down the man applying the submission, merely giving them an opening to drag their opponent away from the ropes and continue choking or ripping at an arm. 

The oil and water of course mix on the floor, and New Japan guys start flying into karate guys, and it's one of those things that's always fun for me to go back and rewatch over and over, finding new guys to focus on each time. I think my favorite was a karate guy getting in Shiro Koshinaka's face, while Koshinaka completely brushes him off with stoicism and an elbow. Ohara is busted open and it only makes him madder, and he runs into the ring dripping blood and throwing nothing but smashing machine headbutts at Saito. Saito just tries to keep his cool and throw as many kicks as he can, all while Ohara is trying to smash him with his body and skull. Saito's gi gets covered in Ohara's blood splatter, making Saito look like he went to the Spirit Store and bought a "crime scene" costume. Ohara eventually cannot answer the bell, and then the oil and water mixes again as the karate guys are trying to swarm around Saito while the New Japan guys want to go at it. Again, another moment where I go back and rewatch multiple times, focusing on a different NJ guy each time. Look at the absolute babyface FIRE that Satoshi Kojima shows by repeatedly flying into karate guys to shove them out of the ring, total megastar charisma. Look at the veteran boldness of Osamu Kido as he casually wipes blood off his track suit! There is no wrong guy to look at here, in this best of all wrestling feuds. 

Akitoshi Saito vs. Shiro Koshinaka NJPW 2/12/92

MD: Impossible not to compare it to the Saito/Ohara match. This was longer, with less urgency. The blood wasn't as good. The suplexes (except for Koshinaka's last capture off a kick) were more cooperative. Once he really started to unload midway through, Saito had some great strikes, especially a jumping spin kick towards the end. Koshinaka was simply more of a showman than Ohara and he milked the ten counts and other moments better, but that's not always what you want in a match like this. The post match was a bit more meandering, with guys throwing shadow spin kicks at each other. It felt a little more like West Side Story than a war at times.

PAS: I thought this was also pretty great, although it was obviously hurt by watching it after the Ohara masterpiece. This had a lot of the wild brawling you love from this match up, with Saito being a crazed killer, and Koshinaka landing some really stiff hip attacks and big punches. This was a bit longer and wasn't turned up to 11 the whole match, but it definitely had it's frenzied moments, and I am loving Saito blooding up his Gi with the New Japan roster. Clearly I need to find and watch every released match in this feud, I love an out of control Puro gang fight. 

ER: This was more of a slow burner than Saito's fight against Ohara a few days earlier, but it was really no less good. Koshinaka brings a totally different vibe than Ohara brought, and stretches it into a more interesting story and longer payoff. I think almost all of us would pick the Ohara match if we wanted to just show one of these to someone, but this match had a great feel and strong build in a totally different way. I honestly have no idea how Saito didn't go on to become an even bigger star. He's someone we've seen in major Japanese feds for 30 years now, always a positive presence on cards but never the top guy. It's almost crazier that he didn't become Naoya Ogawa before Ogawa or Maeda after Maeda. 

The match is a long scrap that looked like it hit as hard in minute one as it did in the final minute. Koshinaka's sliding knees and hip attacks looked great, Saito's front kicks looked great, and this Koshinaka is really my most favorite Koshinaka. He had this calm cool to his attacks and took a hard kick beating in stride. At one point he caught a very fast Saito high kick, and he had this awesome measured facial reaction to it, like he knew exactly the three things he should do next. The way he casually stretches Saito into a single leg crab was like a Dojo Terminator firing up its mission. Saito comes back and starts wearing him down, and we get a cool fiery restart after it looked like Koshinaka wouldn't be able to continue. It's cool seeing guys like 2 Cold Scorpio rooting Koshinaka on from the apron, and he had a super memorable babyface dying on his sword run to the finish. Saito bloodies up the knee of his gi from trying to flatten Koshinaka's nose several times (by the end of the match Koshinaka has visible bruising under both eyes and his forehead), and I loved the shots Koshinaka was still able to fit in. His final stand was perfectly timed, getting to his feet right as he was counted down, and remaining on his feet in defeat. 

The post-match was of course another memorable fight between dojos, with Kuniaki Kobayashi leading the charge into punching a ton of karate guys in the face, and what I loved the most about it was New Japan Dojo basically heeling themselves during the beatdown. The crowd wasn't reacting to them as "their guys" by the end of this, and Koshinaka and Kobayashi were left looking at each other with the kind of sheepish looks of men who know they were the ones who pushed things too far. Koshinaka drags Aoyagi into the ring and Kobayashi comes in and jumps him from behind, none of the other karate guys are in there, it's just Koshinaka and Kobayashi hitting cheap shots, and Aoyagi is just like "guys come on, this doesn't need to happen like this". It was great, a different vibe from a familiarly excellent cast. 

Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Richard Byrne NJPW 7/8/92

MD: Compared to the other matches we watched this week, this was pretty ridiculous, but it also told the most complete story and it was sort of serene as well. For the first half, Byrne had the clear advantage on strikes, with Fujinami's selling getting them over, especially the spin kick to the gut. He had a few good moments of grappling, including almost getting the dragon sleeper on, but it was, at best even. Then, midway, Fujinami stops everything, demands gloves of his own, and comes out firing blows to the crowd's delight. Byrne, suddenly losing the striking game, has to come back with big kicks, but overstretches with it and goes tumbling over the top rope. They start fighting on the floor and he kicks the post, and it's all but over from there. This had an almost anime-esque mid-match power up with the gloves. But, since it was Fujinami, and the crowd was so into it, and he just rushed into it with so much earnest abandon, it pretty much worked.

ER: I love wrestling after the fact stories like Richard Byrne, a Massachusetts indy guy who ran a dojo in the same building as Killer Kowalski's school, who got this random match as a martial arts guy on a New Japan show, and also was a cult star in South Africa of all places. That's a cool as hell person and there's never been a better more interesting time in wrestling than these New Japan Different Style fights. Imagine if WWF was bringing in random MMA or weightlifting or decathlete guys, like they just kept the spirit of the Yokozuna bodyslam challenge and carried it through the 90s with all their biggest stars. WWF could have believably made Different Style fights the biggest focus of their 90s, and I think it would have been a more successful direction. Byrne was totally new to me here, and he's like Garry Shandling doing a Jerry Flynn character. It's great, the perfect early 90s strip mall dojo vibes. 

Byrne is such a sneering punk, with this big comical cartoon expression on his face that made him feel like a Punch Out! character. Fujinami was brilliant at selling his kicks, and honestly Byrne was great at selling for Fujinami's big late match strikes. There are great moments like Fujinami locking in the dragon sleeper around Byrne's huge head, or Byrne angrily tearing off his gloves and throwing them to the mat, then Fujinami demanding he be put INTO gloves before the 3rd round starts. Fujinami comes out with his fighter gloves and starts peppering Byrne, frustrating him with quickness, and it became a whole different Different Fight at that point. I thought Fujinami was going to end it with his great rear naked choke, but Byrne convincingly back elbows his way out of it. I LOVED Byrne's two bumps over the top to the floor, one a silly "Macho Man getting press over the top by a Yokozuna kickout" bump off a Fujinami uppercut, the other a missed kick momentum sending him down. Byrne adds some of those fun pro wrestling elements to this early 90s New Japan fight feel, including hanging from the bottom rope by one leg after eating a Fujinami enziguiri while trying to get back into the ring. The finish feels downright Memphis, with Fujinami getting a heel hook and Byrne stuck with nowhere to go, ripping his gloves off and throwing each of them at Fujinami, that felt like a glimpse of how Austin Idol would have worked one of these matches. 

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