New Footage Friday: LARRY Z~! KERRY~! BOLSHOI~! KURAGAKI~ ICEBERG~ HAYES
Larry Zbyszko vs. Kerry Von Erich Guam 6/22/90
MD: This was presented as a title vs title match and it's Larry vs a game babyface in front of a crowd more than willing to throw dangerous objects at him. I'm preaching to the choir here but the idea that Larry is anything but a hard worker is nuts. And that doesn't even account for the way he throws himself into a match once the stalling ends. There isn't a second he's not working and engaged and giving it his all when he's engaging with that crowd. He riled them to the point where just saying "Guam sucks" into the mic had them dangerous enough that they had to ask them to stop throwing things over the house mic. Of course he was going to stooge all over the ring for Kerry's spin punches later on too. You sort of knew this was building to a non-finish and I'm not sure, by this point of his career, Kerry was in any shape to maximize his opportunities against an opponent like this, but it was still a pretty fun spectacle as a unique match-up in a unique locale.
ER: I always love seeing pro wrestling presented in a country where I have zero clue of the pro wrestling culture, seeing two pros work a simple formula that almost always gets rabid heat. I have no idea what wrestling any resident of Guam had scene at this point, no clue what territory guys would have been recognized as draws, but this crowd is into every single second of this match and I love it. I'm with Matt as a big Larry Z fan, and the "lazy worker" talking point only sounds more ridiculous every year removed from his career. This may have been a simple match, but neither of these guys were dogging it. It was belt vs. belt (with one of the commentators frequently trashing the "gaudy" AWA belt) and the fans wanted Kerry to knock Larry's block off. I don't know why I'm so tickled by "Larry Sucks" chants in 1990 Guam, but when Guam gets on the mic to say that he doesn't suck GUAM sucks, the commentary crew immediately complains about getting hit in the back of the head with garbage, and garbage pelting a wrestling ring is always the best. This is worked around Larry avoiding Kerry and taking these perfect timberrrrr back bumps off of Kerry's discus punches, before suckering Kerry into discus punching the ring post. It's a great spot and it gives us several cool moments of Kerry still firing off discus punches that clobber Larry, but leave von Erich hopping and shaking out his fist (sadly von Erich just totally abandons the very interesting hand selling for the finish and just goes right back to punching and going for the claw). Both guys land hard vertical suplexes and the double count out finish is done satisfyingly, with Larry dodging the claw by throwing Kerry and himself to the floor, then firing into Kerry's head with his best punches of the match. Fans ate it all up, and why shouldn't they?
Commando Bolshoi vs. Tsubasa Kuragaki JWP 8/2/09
SR: Kuragaki is one of those insanely talented wrestlers who just ended up not quite having the career they should‘ve had due to the industry tanking in the 2000s. So a match like this ending up on my internet is very pleasant. This is the kinda stuff that really bums you when it doesn‘t make tape so bless Bolshoi for granting us the watch. And well this was really really good too. These are two wrestlers who can do a ton of cool shit, and they do a ton of cool shit, and really work together in almost a Rey/Psicosis fashion. Kuragaki is just great basing for Bolshoi's crazy lucha moves, there was Mysterio Rana into a rolling legbar which just looked insane, 10/10 in execution really. Kuragaki's power offense mixed with swank backbreaker holds and hard lariats, as well as the bits of athleticism she sprinkles in all make for a really compelling match. And Bolshoi is a great Rey. Her flash submissions rule as usual, and she also laid in really hard with the kicks to Kuragaki's leg and back area, way harder than you expect from a match that would go unseen for over 10 years. It builds to this really sweet finishing stretch with Kuragaki selling the leg while trying to take Bolshoi out with lariats and power moves. Really liked the spot where they tease Kuragaki reversing Bolshoi's leglock into a Scorpion Hold but then it just doesn‘t happen. The spot where she lifts Bolshoi from her leglock into this gigantic suplex was also out of this world, and the sequence of nearfalls as the time limit ran out was excellent stuff. I absolutely lost it for Bolshoi's kido clutch. Just a super well executed match, which had enough cool shit in it that 3 wrestlers could steal all the stuff in it and each one would be considered really fresh and unique in 2021.
ER: Man you could not get more Wrestling Blindspot for me than late 2000s joshi. But since joshi kind of froze in time during the 2000s it is not surprising to see two of my favorites from 2001 JWP tapes were still wrestling in 2009 JWP. I really liked their chemistry and was really impressed with Kurogaki's ability to maneuver Bolshoi around without showing too many seams. This was not at all a go go go spotfest, instead working through some stiff body work and snug submissions before building to some fireworks. There was this really cool early spot where Bolshoi locked in an abdominal stretch and Tsubasa staggered over into the ropes, so Bolshoi rolled under and shifted the hold into a sick bottom rope tarantula. Bolshoi has a neat habit of ending some kind of juniors roll with a stiff strike, so you get cool spots like a Tiger Mask feint that ends in a hard right uppercut or swinging in with a knee, and I loved the way she used the ropes for leverage on a big stomp to the lower back. Tsubasa is great at using her size, powering out of Bolshoi holds and blocking ranas. I loved her lifting Bolshoi into a powerbomb from a rana, then lifting the powerbomb even higher, then lifting her into a splash mountain, before swinging her down into a nasty Iconoclasm. The ending nearfalls were really hot and well timed, didn't feel like wasted flash as they all actually looked like something that could get a flash pin. Joshi is probably the thing we talk about the least on this site, so I love when we pop in to a completely weird point in time for the genre and pull out something cool like this.
PAS: I am not someone who as a rule searches out rare Joshi, but this was pretty great. You felt like these two ladies were a great matched pair, and this felt like a killer WCW Rey Jr. TV match, with a great base. I adored all of Bolshoi's tricked out spinning kneebar attacks, just momentously cool shit and a great way for someone so much smaller to stay in the game. Kuragaki hit some big throws out of those attacks and did a great job selling and putting over Bolshoi while remaining big and menacing.
PAS: This was really fun stuff as you would expect from an Iceberg chain match in a Southern indy. It is weird to see later career Iceberg, he had lost so much weight, that he just wasn't the elemental force he was when he was younger. He is bigger then Hayes, but not much bigger and is working as an underneath babyface which is an odd role for him. He is good at it though, bleeds a bunch, times his comebacks well, throws cool punches. Still he was so protected for so long in Cornelia, it is strange to watch him dominated and beaten clean.
Labels: Bobby Hayes, Commando Bolshoi, Iceberg, Kerry Von Erich, Larry Zbyszko, Tsubasa Kuragaki
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