New Footage Friday: SANTO~! CASAS~! DINAMITAS~! KURISU~! KAWADA~! BAM BAM~! RED BULL ARMY~!

Toshiaki Kawada vs. Masanobu Kurisu 6/11/87

MD: I've seen spatterings of 87 and before Kawada but even up until the end of 88 and Hara leaving, you still tend to see him in the context of Footloose tags. Lots of action, some nasty shots, but more of AJPW Junior Tag affirs. I wasn't quite expecting him to have quite the usual chip on his shoulder here and the first few minutes bore that out with a lot of mat containment by Kurisu. By the halfway point, though, the match opened up and became a real scrapfest. Maybe Kurisu had told Kawada that he was going to hit him as hard as possible and that he wanted Kawada to return favor. Maybe Kurisu just hit Kawada as hard as possible and Kawada knew the only way he was going to stop the beating was to fire back with everything he had. The end result was a pretty brutal few minutes though, with Kawada holding his own to the point where it wasn't at all the one-sided mauling I expected and the finish actually came off as believable.

PAS: If you are in there with Kurisu you are going to fight or die, and even young boy Kawada isn't going to die. Kurisu is his usually crowbarry self, driving his knee really nastily into Kawada's arm and landing hard shooty headbutts, Kawada is game for that, and he really wastes Kurisu with a spin kick and some hard chops. It ends up being a really chippy little fight. These guys matched up a bunch in 1987, and I imagine they were all fun. A 1994 version of this would be an under the radar all timer, but I am glad that they crossed paths at all. 

Bam Bam Bigelow/Darryl Peterson/Steve Williams/Rip Morgan/Italian Stallion vs. Salman Hashimikov/Victor Zangiev/Vladimir Berkovich/Wahka Evloev/Timur Zalasov NJPW 5/17/89

 
MD: This started with Italian Stallion vs. Zalasov and it was like nothing we've seen recently with the Russians. Stallion was goofy, refusing Zalasov's increasingly close-talking attempts at a handshake, complaining about tights and hair pulling, overly celebrating whenever he got an advantage, including with the Fargo Strut, clubbering and throwing a dropkick, jawing with the crowd, pulling Zalasov's ears. It was pretty glorious contrast and Zalasov played along to an admirable degree even as both guys jockeyed for position and throws. Eventually, he got behind him and Stallion ate a German for a much deserved bit of comeuppance. He'd continue to be annoying on the outside for the rest of the match.

Morgan vs. Evloev was quick but interesting. Morgan had a size advantage and Evloev was able to avoid him until he wasn't. Then Morgan had a clear advantage with a cross toehold and even a leg drop right until he punched his way into a nasty armbar takeover and an immediate tap. So far, these have been structured in a way where Russian grappling was superior to over the top American pro wrestling.

Which set up Williams vs. Berkovich perfectly. It was an absolute battle of the titans with real attitude underneath. Doc posed to start only to get immediately taken over. Later on he'd throw a kick during a shake and work to press Berkovich over his head. They kept close contact for the most part, but here, Williams was able to get his advantages with pro wrestling sneak shots, either on that shake or in the corner to set up the Stampede and the pin. I guess American Pro Wrestling works so long as it's Doctor Death, Steve Williams. At least they shook after the bout.

Peterson vs. Zangiev leaned even more into the size differential, though Zangiev had the most pro wrestling instincts of the Russians. For the most part Peterson was able to bully him around the ring until he missed a splash and Zangiev got under him for a huge throw. Weirdly this put the tally to 3-1 already, so you figured something might be going on with the last one.

The opening of Bigelow vs. Hashimikov called back to the cross armbar that got Morgan but Bigelow was able to escape. This generally followed the lines of what we've seen so far, Bigelow's size and tendency to throw in cheapshots against Hashimikov's leverage and tenacity. The crowd popped huge for him taking three tries to get Bigelow over with a double underhook throw for instance. The finish made the structuring make sense. It went full pro wrestling with Stallion distraction and outside tripping to the dismay of the Russians. I don't think this was as gripping as the last 5x5 we saw but it did show the versatility of them as foils as they so smoothly worked into very different structures in interesting ways.

Negro Casas/Universo 2000/Máscara Año 2000 vs. Dos Caras/Hijo Del Santo/Rayo de Jalisco Jr. CMLL 9/22/95 - EPIC

MD: The first half of this was good with a nice opening exchange with Casas and Santo and then an enjoyable beatdown where Casas got to direct traffic for the Dinamitas. That started as a swarm in response to Santo getting a nice back headbutt to Casas in the ropes. The last few minutes, however, had an all time brutal comeback from Santo. It started with Casas missing an assisted kick on the apron and Santo just smacking his head repeatedly into the post and it didn't stop from there. Anytime Santo could get Casas close enough to the post, he'd just machine gun launch his skull into the metal. When they made it back to the center of the ring he layed in big shot after big shot. Meanwhile the other guys were working around them with classic spots and even comedy which created some real dissonance to the violence that occurred whenever Santo could get his hands on Casas. In that, the last few minutes reminded me a little of the Santo/Onita/Goto vs Casas/Boulder/Patterson match to some degree, except for this time around it was Santo and Casas that were bringing the violence instead of the flash.

PAS: What in the hell did I just watch, I mean we are reviewing a Kurisu match this week and by far the most violent unprofessional beating of the week is by El Hijo Del Santo. I mean my god did he try to crack Casas's head open like a casaba melon on the ringposts, and just obliterated him with kicks to the head until the ref had to pull him off.  Last week we reviewed a Santo vs. Casas match which was all grappling, and her we get a trios encounter which is FU-TEN level violence. I have more time for the Dinamitas and Rayo then most, but we came to watch Santo and Casas and man did we get that. Casas is really great of course and feels like he did plenty to rile up Santo, but man alive did he get the full experience and much more. Incredible stuff, all time horror.