AEW Five Fingers of the Death Week of 2/21-2/27

AEW Dynamite 2/23

3. Bryan Danielson vs. Daniel Garcia

PAS: I wrote this up for the Ringer, it was dope! 

MD: This was probably a top 3 match up that I wanted out of the promotion in 2022. Now, at the end of it, I want it six more times. This had a completely different feel than Moriarty vs. Danielson. There, Danielson spent the whole match pushing Moriarty to where he wanted him to be. Here, Garcia started at that point and they took it from there. You don't want to look away for a moment in a match like this. Danielson's character is so confident and secure in who and what he is that he's able to goad Garcia into strikes and then just shift gears and pick a leg for the world's smoothest Indian Deathlock entry. It means that his opponents have to show the same willingness to deviate, and Garcia did by hitting the chop block out of nowhere on the leg.

The legwork here was integral but it never overwhelmed the match. It provided Garcia reasonable openings to stay in it. I loved the camera angle during the break when Garcia caught a foot in the corner and hit a dragon screw out of it. I loved him digging his knuckles into the quad while posting the leg. I thought Danielson's reaction after the missile dropkick was great. He sold the shock of his own landing with a few ginger movements, but wasn't at all overwrought and went right on to channeling the intensity with the crowd that was allowing him to overcome the pain.

All of the little moments of manipulation and counters in the stretch stood out. Usually you see them in a feeling out segment or right at the finish (a typical Sasha Banks finish set up, for instance), but they were pressing down on legs and affecting balance all throughout the last third. Danielson mentioned how the match had a real flow in their grappling and while I saw a little of that in the beginning, it resonated more towards the end, which is more daring because that's when they have to bring it all home. The forearms while holding the knucklelock position felt violent and novel. Danielson with two big learned counters in the end, jamming the third dragon screw attempt and especially jamming the attempt at yet another flowing grappling roll to set up the stomps and the finish were just brilliant bits of pro wrestling. Even though this got time and they filled it exceptionally well, it still felt only like a taste and left me wanting more.

ER: I've seen so many "new" wrestlers described as "smooth" over the past few years, and almost every time I finally see them it's always some guy like Lee Moriarty and I realize that in this context "smooth" meant "soulless but fast". Daniel Garcia is smooth as hell, but actually in ways that lead to violence and not just ways that lead to reversals of reversals. This was a hot TV match that I wish I could have seen without a significant chunk happening during Picture in Picture, but even reduced to a 1/6 screen the viciousness sang out the entire match. Little things early, like the overly spirited matwork and Danielson getting to his feet on a break and throwing a push kick to Garcia's face, and the way Garcia threw a block into the front of Danielson's knee while Danielson was pushing the rope running pace. Garcia's smoothness came through strong in his matwork, with one of the finest Indian deathlock sequences I've seen, Garcia mapping mat moves and transitions out so fast that he looked like animation. The selling from both was great, as it felt more like Fujiwara UWF selling than somebody doing exaggerated limping, and that played nicely into the small action shifts. 

They move nicely into and out of matwork and striking and suplexing, always feeling like the match could move into any of those directions regardless of what they were currently doing. Matwork could turn into striking, striking could facilitate matwork, suplexes were thrown to get an advantageous mat position. There were a lot of great moments, but I loved when they were battling over leg locks while scrapping and it kept escalating until Danielson was raining down strikes wile their legs were still tied up. The knucklelock elbow exchanges were unconventional and very cool, a spot that looked naturally and in the moment rather than designed to be clever. Garcia's earlier dragon screws were real sick stuff, like we were going to suddenly see Danielson's kneecap floating on a different part of his leg, so Danielson finally stopping it and dishing stomps to Garcia's neck played big. That triangle finish looked murderous, like he couldn't have physically locked it in tighter if he wanted to. This was a killer 10 minutes, and I have no doubt they could have a totally different and equally compelling match at 15, 20, 30 minutes, maybe even longer. The chemistry was too damn good. 

2022 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

Matches from GCW If I Die First 2/5/22

Ninja Mack/Dante Leon vs. Jordan Oliver/Nick Wayne  

ER: I loved this. This tapped into a great 10 minute high spot opener tag that all my favorite American indies have produced. Ever since Jersey All Pro gifted us with this kind of wrestling, there's been some bad copycats and some inspired acolytes. This match was the latter. You watch these guys work bigger and more complicated stunt spots that build to multiple physics defying spots, and you begin to notice...Jordan Oliver has a peach fuzz beard...Nick Wayne has a puka shell necklace...Dante Leon looks like he deals E...there's an actual ninja...this basically IS 2001 Jersey All Pro. All four are guys with cool stuff to show off and a good idea about where to put it. Dante Leon looks like a weenie but throws the hardest elbows of the match, also whips himself into the mat on back bumps and arm wringers. Oliver has precise timing and knows how to build to and payoff big bumps: Early on he sees Ninja heading for the turnbuckles and heads him off at the pass, sending him flipping fast in a crash to the floor; later Ninja Mack stops him on his own trip to the top, and Oliver crashes to the floor 3/4 of the length of the ring away. Ninja Mack is pure uncut joy to watch, the most 2001 JAPW guy we've been gifted with, showing it's still possible to be an innovative flyer. Everybody here gets great showcase dives and they all rule, but Ninja breaks out a double handspring top con giro that was so fast I thought the video started glitching. He has strike combos that go directions you don't expect, and he takes bumps that land in ways you haven't seen. The finisher train looked great, everyone found increasingly stupid ways to get themselves cuttered, and Ninja Mack's finisher just shows that he's an Evolved Sasuke. Great mood-setter right here.  

PAS: Very fun stuff, just four kids with ideas, some of which are great, some of which maybe not so much. I have been watching a lot of GCW for my Ringer column, and they do this kind of spotfest a lot, and it is almost always worth watching. Ninja Mack is Blitzkrieg level crazy, as wildly athletic as anyone in wrestling ever. He is perfect in these kind of throw at that wall see what sticks matches, and has so many fun possible opponents. Can you imagine if Claudio works some GCW dates? A Low-Ki rematch? Chris Hero returning from podcasting to beat his ass? Wayne is a high school kid, and has already signed a AEW contract. I imagine he has quite a future, and already fits well in this kind of thing.

John Wayne Murdoch vs. ASF

ER: This is a great wrestling match story. ASF is the new guy local who wasn't booked on the show, who steps up above his weight when a storm prevented the travel of several real Murdoch opponent. That's a match set-up I really like and this delivered. Maybe ASF got to show off too much cool stuff, but for a new guy he does have a lot of cool stuff. He has a real knack for smacking his head into things painfully, flying headfirst into a propped up chair, later going forehead first on a Flatliner. When it's his time for crazy highspots, he hits a Homicide-like tope con giro through the ropes that sends he and Murdoch through several rows of chairs, and follows up with a big flip dive. There's some punishing in-ring stuff, like Murdoch putting ASF kidney first through a folding chair, or a swinging ASF DDT that looked like something that could have pinned JWM. Great plucky energy from ASF, and JWM played off it well. 

Gringo Loco vs. Psycho Clown 

ER: Gringo Loco has been a real asset as the traffic director and big base of the GCW lucha matches, and here he gets the chance to throw down and have a wild through-the-indoor-sports-complex lucha brawl with one of the biggest luchadors in the world. He gets that chance, and flies into it head first. This had blood, big dives, big falls, big weapon shots, and several dangerous bumps. Loco gets thrown through ringside chairs a bunch, and shows off how well he can catch a dive when Psycho hits a beautiful diagonal dive past the ringpost, Loco absorbing all of it and sending him flying back into more chairs. Loco rips Psycho's mask and gets the blood flowing, Psycho bashes Loco with a chair and gets his blood flowing, and pretty soon they're brawling to bigger and bigger spots. A couple of doors get involved, and I like how doors continue to get used as weapons after they've been exploded. Some wrestlers would attack opponents with pieces of broken table, but it seems far more common when a door gets broken, and I like that. They were good about punching each other to build to big moments, taking a tour through the sports center and showing off what a fun playground it is for this type of match. But even then I wouldn't have predicted a dive off the goal posts. They did a good job of punishing stunt set up. If either man took too long to set up a stunt spot it almost always backfired on them, and after Psycho sets up a door on some chairs, he catches that fire. Hats off to GCW's camera crew who captured Loco's journey as he balance beam walked out on support beam attaching the goal posts to the wall and then flew off the posts with a swanton. Psycho gets hits own plancha off the top of the staircase, and I love how amped Clown always gets after one of his big dives or falls. The fight back in the ring was strong (my favorite was Loko nailing a full extension superkick, only for Psycho to shake it off and run at him with a bull rush headbutt that staggered Loco back into the ropes), and the Spanish Fly finish looked deadly. 

PAS: Phil wrote about this match over at The Ringer. 

Grim Reefer vs. Deranged vs. Alex Zayne vs. Atticus Cogar vs. Dark Sheik

ER: This was kind of messy with several bad landings and one that looked especially dangerous, but it also had a Grim Reefer performance that kept getting bigger and better, some wild dives, and a couple nice surprises. I was mainly excited for this because Deranged doesn't make tape that often and I try to go out of my way to support Special K alumni. Deranged still gets as much quick rotation on his spin kicks, will fly dangerously onto a dog pile powerbomb, will almost smash his face on the apron on a high moonsault to the floor, and will take a couple of gruesome bumps for great yarder offense. Grim was the star here, making a comedy smoking spot work tremendously by throwing perfect worked punches while taking huge drags from a joint. He had a couple of long arm strikes (including punching Deranged in the throat) and other nice strikes while everyone ran at him, Reefer hitting every beat of his timing without missing a puff. He even puts the joint out on Cogar's forehead! Reefer's bumping is also a cut above, getting absolutely spiked on a cutter and taking a Zayne knee strike flush to the head. Zayne can have a few too many steps to his work, but has a lot of ideas and some innovative stuff. I loved his nutso Diamond Dust tope and his big ripcord driver to Deranged. There was a dangerously messy tower spot where Deranged flipped over the top of everyone stacked on the turnbuckles, and Cogar almost died in three different ways. I think everyone got their vertebrae crunched at one point or another, with the worst being Sheik getting stung taking a Deranged cutter off Cogar's shoulders. Sheik barely moved the rest of the match and everyone worked around her, one of those sick things that can happen in a scramble. 

2022 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

2002 Boss Man vs. 2002 Ass Man

Big Boss Man vs. Rikishi WWF Smackdown 1/24/02 

ER: I loved this one and wish we got more. Boss Man at this point was 80% punches, but the man had several excellent punch variations and still moved quick for such a big guy, so it worked great as a style. The only cruelty of this match is that it's merely 3 minutes, meaning Rikishi had to kind of quickly take things home after being worked over the entire match. Also, Jacqueline was the ref for some reason (which at minimum looked cool as it made both guys look that much larger). It all starts with a good lock up, one of those lockups where they really shove and walk each other around the ring, until Rikishi backs Boss Man into a corner and Boss Man responds with a two cross-handed throat thrusts, then proceeds with overhand rights to the eye and uppercuts to that neck. He does the Boss Man slide to the floor and decks him with another punch, then starts throwing actual open hand tomahawk chops to Rikishi's throat!! These chops are nasty as hell and I am all about Boss Man: Throat Offense. He throws an axe bomber so Rikishi can do his big flipping bump, and Boss Man even gets deep into his law enforcement gimmick by kneeling on Rikishi's throat and refusing to break! That is the kind of legitimacy I appreciate from a wrestling gimmick. This would have benefitted from a little back and forth, as it was Boss Man beating down Rikishi for the first 2/3, until Rikishi responds to a strong shot by just superkicking Boss Man's lights out, hitting a big Earthquake splash, then dragging him to the corner for a Banzai Drop. You throw in 1-2 more transitions and this is an under 5 minute classic, but as is it still rules.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WWF 305 LIVE

Read more!

Found Footage Friday: BRAZOS~! LA OLA BLANCA~! NEGRO CASAS~! COTA~! BRAZOS AGAIN ~! ULTIMO~! CASAS AGAIN~!

Los Brazos vs. Hijo Del Gladiador/Gran Markus Jr./Dr. Wagner Jr. CMLL 3/22/94

MD: Long title match, which meant a lot of it was wrestled clean. You'd still get Porky butt bumps or whatever, but they kept the shtick to the tercera for the most part. The wrestling was good too. Brazo de Oro and Gladiador had a great exchange in the segunda, for instance. Actually, Gladiador ate a bunch of arm-based control in the primera too. I always like Talisman matches when they pop up but his 90s work jumps out less for me. He was very good here though. The whole rudo side was. Markus brought the size and while Wagner wasn't fully developed yet, he still had that ability to pause and draw the crowd to him. Porky had a striking tope to end the primera and had the crowd more than a little behind him towards the end when they dropped the pageantry of title match lucha and let things devolve into fake heart attacks and what have you. Still, this was a pretty good showing all around and highlighted the Brazos' range.

PAS: I am a huge fan of the Porky heart attack spot, just an all time classic bit of pro-wrestling bullshit. This was an all timer version of that, with the rudos stomping him on the chest only to fall victim to a sneaky inside cradle. The crowd just exploded and leaped to their feet. There was lots of great stuff leading up to that too. Oro is a great technician and is tremendous at filling the early parts of the match leading up to the huge Porky moments. Brazos are so good at traditional trios wrestling, it isn't a style which we see much of anymore, and it is fun to see a new version of it pop up.

ER: This was great, a full match that took its time to build to actual real drama. Los Brazos and this version of the Menudo-like Nueva Ola Blanca had really great chemistry. Every single pairing in this match had rockstar moments. Ola Blanca shifted really well between generous rudo bases making Los Brazos look like aces, to vicious bullies who could swarm and dismantle. Brazos are an easy team to showcase and they all have enough material to fill long singles matches and they're smart about fitting their material into trios work. They're incredible. Oro has some really fast reversal and mirror exchanges, but with strong physics and use of speed. They peak the primera with the likely spot of the match, a huge Porky tope that knocks Markus to the back of Coliseo. Imagine the bravery it takes to stand firm in the face of a 1994 Super Porky tope. I love the years long Brazos/Markus feud, it's nothing but big boy classics, so anytime you get more of that story it's pure joy. This was some of El Brazo's finest work, flawless turnbuckle running armdrags and a great European style headscissors, aggressive baseball slide going after Wagner on the floor and some really fast exchanges. He could really go but for understandable reasons doesn't get the same hype as his brothers. There were also some really big bumps on a pretty unforgiving mat. Porky missed a big back splash at one point and it looked like he just did a full force senton to a sidewalk. I thought the heart attack stuff was some incredible pro wrestling, real drama that got the crowd deeply invested. 

Porky got to show off why he's such a mega star, showing off his athleticism in a long match, throwing out cartwheels and splashes and bumps, even showing off his amateur skills with a big delayed Angle Slam. He took some great theatrical bumps, like a fat guy doing a Bill Dundee impression (has Beau James been doing Bill Dundee doing Super Porky this whole time?). Porky took a passionate, sympathetic beatdown that seemed to go on forever, fan support growing as he kept making his sweet little helpless faces. Ola Blanca really put the boots to Porky, and he's holding his heart the entire time, clutching his chest and breathing heavy and hardly noticing the beating. Porky connects like few tecnicos in history, and I love a good match stoppage. It felt really chaotic as the refs call for an actual time out, and the rudos seem real incredulous about time outs suddenly being allowed in wrestling. People crowd around Porky and it adds to the stress of the moment, as the cameras can't get a clear shot of him on the apron being tended to by the doctor. When he insists on continuing and wins with a small package, it's a huge moment. I've seen plenty of mask matches end with less enthusiastic crowd reactions. Men and women alike are on their feet jumping up and down, Porky a slightly shorter Bruno. Off the charts charisma. I love this man. 

Negro Casas vs. Mocha Cota CMLL 3/25/94

MD: Obviously Casas and Cota are two of the most charismatic, interesting, compelling wrestlers ever. Their hair match in fall 94 is just okay due to the one-fall format and the fact that Casas gives Cota the whole thing. This obviously lacks the stakes down the stretch that the hair match has, but it feels superior in a lot of ways. Cota ambushes to start and gets an early pin. Casas comes back with the world's best foul kick out of the corner. It's right in front of the ref but it's so fast and so brazen that the ref has no idea what to even do with it. Casas, trickster god that he is, makes him doubt his own eyes. A fun beating commences, with Casas opening Cota up with a shot to the audience seats. Casas has some fun stuff here, dancing around before he lays in a great punch and taking Cota's hair as they're standing on the apron and just pulling him down face first all the way to the floor. When we get a clear shot of Cota bleeding it's great but the hair, so amazing for apuestas bets, does obscure it at times. They start to really lay it in during the tercera, with Cota getting the better of the scrapping and he parallel opens up Casas on the seats as well. Even without the stakes, Casas sells it like they've been through a war, first out on the floor and then back in the ring, barely beating the 3-count by limply grabbing the rope again and again. They build to a comeback and another foul for the finish but it all fits given who was in there. In some ways, I think this slipping out even made the subsequent hair match better since it provides that bloody bridge that the feud had been previously missing.

PAS: I thought this was awesome, it just built and built and then had just a super violent finish. I loved the nasty fireman's carry throw giving Cota the first fall. Casas's foul to take control in the second fall was about as great as I have ever seen that done, right to the nuts, in the spilt second when the ref turned his head. It is weird to say that a kick to the balls demonstrates how great a wrestler is, but that kick to the balls demonstrated how great Casas was more than any highspot or bit of mat slickness could. Then when it gets violent, it gets super violent. Both guys bleed, Cota smashes Casas' head into the hard Arena Mexico stairs like he was trying to open a piñata that was misbehaving. It isn't a climax of a match, but is about as incredible a middle chapter as you could expect.

ER: These two are magic together. What performers! Casas and Cota are two of the most expressive wrestlers in history and they're great at both being hams without either outworking the other. They kick things (really hard) into gear in the segunda when Casas overcomes a hot Cota primera by kicking him right in the balls as swiftly as I've ever scene someone kick a pair of balls. He sneaks that ball kick in on Cota in the one split second the ref looked away, and it was a real piece of art, like a shoplifter or pickpocket in a French new wave film. Then he gaslights everyone about the ball kick and beats the shit out of Cota. Casas's punches in the segunda were big swinging joyous shots, theatrical with a flashy follow through. Casas had this way of wrestling like a brute, just grabbing guys by the hair (of which Cota had an ample supply) and throwing their face into the mat; but his movements are so beautiful that it's like watching violent Marcel Marceau. His kicks to a kneeling and reeling Cota stung but also played big to back row Arena Mexico, his whole body is doing something.

He hits a stomp from the apron right to Cota's bleeding forehead and it's like he's striking up a big number in The Music Man. Negro Casas at his charismatic peak is a real rush, a real complete performer who knew the exact kind of lucha drama Mexico City wanted to see. He plays this crowd as confidently as any wrestler I've seen, like Flair in the Carolinas. These two know how to fight, and they have a truly great fight while fully recumbent, Cota leaning in with a seated headbutt as Casas throw killer punches to Cota's ear and neck. They really punched it out and it built to Cota beating his ass on the floor, kicking him around ringside and slamming Casas's face into seats. Casas starts bleeding maybe 1/2 as much as Cota, and feigns going into shock at the sight of his own bloody nose. A rudo doing shifty eyed panic at the sight of their own blood is an incredible rudo shtick that someone should steal, even if they wouldn't have the right level of camp as Casas. 

I love when Casas acts like a giant brat, when he's just kicking at Cota to shove him out of the ring, like a teenager throwing a tantrum when her mom bought the wrong prom dress. Casas is throwing these stiff kicks to Cota's torso with this bitchy face, and it's incredible. It all builds to a big punch out, everything thrown in rhythm but out of time, Casas mixing in chops with leg kicks while trying to weather short, perfectly targeted lefts and rights on the chin from Cota. It's a great punch out to finish a fight. This made my night. 

Los Brazos vs. Los Mercenarios CMLL 7/9/94

MD: About as straightforward of a Brazos match as you can get, but still everything the fans wanted, save for maybe a more elaborate and definitive finishing stretch. The crowd wanted nothing more in the world than to see Porky in the ring and to get to cheer and chant for him. The primera had a few comedy spots and ended with one of the biggest Porky splashes off the top I've ever seen, on all three rudos. The segunda was a fairly straightforward beatdown. There was a little bit of blood and not a lot of motion, but with a crowd this hot, you didn't need to do much but stand Porky in the middle of the ring and dropkick him off the top repeatedly. I really liked the double clothesline Hart Attack that Los Mercanarios used since you don't see that sort of thing too often, even in lucha trios. The comeback was straightforward and heated and led to some trios spots before everything broke down on the outside and the match was thrown out. There were most match promos and the Brazos standing strong but it probably could have used a few more elaborate comedy spots either upfront or at the end. Otherwise, it was a definite crowd pleaser.

ER: Oh to be in the crowd for a Los Brazos match. I love when we get Brazos US footage, you really get to see how far Porky's local celebrity status extends. He was a marquee name on this show, a name this crowd all knew in advance, the man getting the chants all through the match. I don't know who any of Los Mercenarios are, but they worked really well within Los Brazos style. They all knew their sequences and knew when to play into the comedy, but always worked the comedy seriously. I loved a spot where one of them was trying to Irish whip Porky and Porky kept holding onto the top rope; the Mercenary was really yanking on Porky's arm to drag him away from the rope, and sincerity makes the humor work its best. In the hot tercera brawl, the shorter stocky Mercenary really beat Porky's ass in the entrance aisle, throwing heavy right hands to knock him down and then rains down with some more. Los Mercenarios try a pretty dangerous missile dropkick while one is holding Porky prone, but he gets scared or something and fucks up the first attempt, and it's kind of a miracle he didn't Gronda his leg. They do it again, he commits to the dropkick, they're a good team. Super Porky hits one of the most spectacular highspots in Brazos history when he hits his big splash at the end of the primera. I hope the Alvarados bought that middle Mercenario extra tortas because that man got absolutely crushed by one of Porky's all time splashes. They give us a lot of momentum shifts, more than I was expecting, and it elevates the match. The action was strong and would shift in believable ways, and by the end I really bought into the fight. But god, imagine hitting a splash like that and the only reason it was documented was because of some guy sitting in the loge seats at Grand Olympic. 

Negro Casas vs. Ultimo Dragon CMLL 7/9/94

MD: I absolutely loved this Casas performance. It might be one of my favorites ever and that's saying something. He and Dragon start it on the mat as they properly should, with Dragon ultimately getting the advantage, with some lightning-quick, explosive twists down onto the leg. Casas eventually has enough and takes advantage of the ref sleeping by launching a clunky foul kick. From there, he doesn't look back, absolutely conducting the crowd to shush and play along. He's all but sweating charisma and personality as he interacts with the ref and with them. Then, after he takes the first fall, he launches a second foul for absolutely no reason, just because he could, and goes even further over the top. Anyone with enough charisma could take this act a decent distance because the crowd is so great, but it's Casas' ability to go and his physicality and emotiveness that makes it all overflow. 

I swear that Dragon's comeback is almost solely due to Casas basking in the interaction he's having with the crowd and getting distracted. But what makes it work, what turns it from a hit into a home run is how he walks right into Dragon's German Suplex and goes over for it so well. He follows it up not by taking ten more moves but instead by using the period between falls to walk out on the absolutely elated crowd. Once he comes back, though, he and Dragon have a great, high-spot laden finishing stretch, with Dragon playing possum with his knee so he can dropkick Casas to the floor, and ultimately getting the best of him in a clear, clean, and hugely entertaining way in the end. Dragon looked really good too throughout most of this, but Casas came off like the biggest, best star in the world here.

PAS: Dragon has a rep as a great worker, which is really undeserved. What he can be is a great passenger, and Casas is a master driver. So with these two matches as examples, was Negro Casas the best wrestler in the world in 1994? What a fucking king he is in this, just conducting the crowd and making every Dragon moment mean so much. 94 Dragon had some stuff, but it is what Casas can do with that stuff that made it special. Imagine how good 1994 Negro Casas vs. 2021 Ninja Mack would have been, or 1994 Casas vs. 2003 Amazing Red (I imagine both those matches would be pretty great right now, Casas is still incredible).  

ER: I've been watching Dragon a lot against lesser opponents lately, and it's a real treat to see him against someone like Casas. Dragon is a guy who is going to match the personality of his opponent, so if his opponent is an iceman with dead eyes you're going to have a heatless move exchange with no consistent story. You put Dragon in with someone like Casas and magically, Dragon has a big personality. In the match up above we got to see Casas sneak in one of the all time great low blows in wrestling history, and here he works two other great spots around low blows, one of which might be just as great. He again plays the game of kick Ultimo low when the ref is distracted, but this time my favorite work was in his foul faking. Fouling and fake fouling was something I really loved when I started getting into lucha, and it's mostly absent in modern lucha. The theatricality around a guy getting hit in the nuts or fervently pretending like you did get hit in the nuts was always wildly entertaining to me, and that's probably because there were real artists like Casas and Satanico who knew how to hit balls and how to pretend their balls were hurt. 

When Casas goes down from a phantom shot the Grand Olympic crowd really turns on him, and the ref knows exactly how to play it, acting like he's going to give Casas the segunda before Ultimo appeals to the crowd and the crowd all stands waving their fingers at Casas. Casas gets up to protest and Ultimo points out that Negro's balls no longer hurt, and Casas does this note perfect "oh yeahhhhhh my balls!" and begins selling them again. I love how Casas looks at the Mexican fans afterward like "man you're gonna support some goof in a mask instead of one of your boys? Come on. We gotta hold ourselves up." The nearfall stretch in the tercera is strong, we get a big Ultimo dive past the ringpost, a Casas powerbomb that feels like it might be it, a snug Ultimo hurricanrana, Casas threatening to walk out, all of it great. Negro Casas getting into it with the LA fans and managing to walk into Ultimo's traps is just hugely entertaining pro wrestling. 

Read more!

On Brand Segunda Caida: PG-13 Hit the Big Leagues

PG-13 vs. Legion of Doom WWF Raw 5/12/97

ER: Here is the lone 1997 WWF in-ring appearance of PG-13, a team that would have been a fantastic addition to the 1995 roster but weren't going to have much place in 1997. This whole thing is fun, two goofballs who are the last ones to find out that they would be wrestling LOD. Of course it's only going to go 2 minutes, but what else was supposed to happen? I am not sure the people of Delaware knew what to make of JC Ice, and it wouldn't surprise me if this was the only time Jamie Dundee ever wrestled in Delaware. PG-13 rush the ring and throw punches that LOD do not acknowledge, and then do a great job of flying around painfully for LOD. Wolfie D gets bieled through the ropes to the floor, slides back in to tag in Ice and Jamie Dundee gets a great laugh from the crowd by avoiding the tag while sucking his teeth. He gets brought in anyway and desperately uses some of his Dundee flailing karate to keep Hawk at bay before being nailed with a clothesline. 

I liked our tiny bit of PG-13 offense, with Ice raking Hawk's eyes and trying to hit a piledriver, only to have it blocked. Wolfie D comes in and they hit a stuff piledriver on Hawk, who completely ignores it, and PG-13 both eat clotheslines. The finish is the kind of dangerous finish that nobody on the regular roster would agree to, as Ice gets lifted up for the Doomsday Device (with Dundee begging and praying for mercy the whole time he's on the shoulders). Once Ice takes the Device, they position him in the middle and then lift Wolfie for more of the same, with the idea that Wolfie would get knocked off and flip directly onto JC Ice. And that's kind of what happens - and it probably should have gone even worse - as Wolfie tries to soften his fall without sending a knee into Dundee's face, and then they get pinned while draped across each other. I don't know if this was their last TV appearance (they might have taped something that aired after this), but this sure felt like a match that only happens when an act won't be returning. 

PG-13 vs. The Dudley Boyz ECW Hardcore Heaven 8/17/97

ER: Dundee's big padded Uncle Sam top hat is incredible, he's got his gorgeous rainbow sherbet Mickey Mouse Ice jean jacket, Mickey boxer shorts hiked over his Ice jorts, really every single thing about PG-13 was hateable. God knows I would spend money on that jacket if it got put up on eBay. For this match, I didn't think it would work to have PG-13 invading from USWA...while also working babyface opposite the Dudleys. When a rudo luchador goes up against a rudo gringo, the luchador is always going to be the tecnico. It is a dicey move to expect any crowd anywhere to cheer for PG-13, but somehow Dundee kind of does the impossible. He cuts a promo on the Dudleys, running down Mama Dudley and doing a Butthead impression, all before this "rasslin' match" and it actually seems to get the crowd behind PG-13? The early goings are slow, but there's an amusing moment where Dundee slides out of the ring and sneaks a kiss on Jenna Jameson (who was out there with the Dudleys) who acts completely disgusted at having Jamie Dundee near her, and it's shocking that there were no Styles comments about that being the worst thing she's ever had in her mouth. The match gets good when the crowd weirdly gets behind Dundee standing up to Bubba. Dundee starts firing punches and Bubba asks for another, no selling the prior ones, so Dundee kicks him in the balls to a huge reaction. It should also be noted that Dundee's reaction time seems somewhat slow this entire match, so there is a chance that Jamie Dundee decided to get loaded for his ECW PPV appearance. 

The hot tag to Wolfie D gets a genuine hot tag reaction - which I was not expecting- and Wolfie D looked really great here. There's a cool spot where he hits a double dropkick on both Dudleys and gets insane height off it, the guy must have been a champion high jumper. He hits a nice tiger driver on D-Von and a great bulldog off the top rope on Bubba (with Bubba seated on the top and Wolfie leaping off with him). D-Von catches Dundee on an attempted pescado, and then Wolfie flies onto both of them with one of his own. This couple minute stretch was easily the best part of the match, and really showed how Wolfie D could have been a popular ECW act, as he was doing ECW-style highspot chaining way better than a lot of their in house guys. But the 3D comes almost immediately after all this without much build. I think the match may have been more effective had PG-13 worked as invading heels and overtly cheated throughout, threatening to take the ECW belts back to USWA. What we got wasn't bad, but it felt like they picked the most difficult layout for success. Still, they worked hard to make a tough layout work, and that feels like a success. 

Read more!

2021 Ongoing MOTY List: WALTER vs. Dragunov

7. WALTER vs. Ilja Dragunov NXT TakeOver 8/22

ER: This was a really great 2007 NOAH throwback. At its best it felt like Morishima vs. McGuinness, or even Morishima vs. Kobashi. It had a big Kings Road feel, with chops that caused major blood blisters and elbows to brainstems that looked life shortening. You really have to buy into Ilja Dragunov's facials, and there are some bad ones. He's the worst version of early 90s goofball Kobashi, with some offense that approaches Kobashi at his most punishing. WALTER is the very very important Morishima. You needed somebody in there grounding things and keeping this from becoming Funny Face theater. WALTER just brought 20 minutes of punishment, coloring up Dragunov's body with welts and bruises while ramping up the body impact the whole time. WALTER threw two back to back lariats that were among the best lariats of the year, knocking Ilja out of the sky with the first one, and then out of his boots with the next one. When you buy into Dragunov as an energizer bunny who needs to be dismantled to quit, it adds to WALTER's beating. 

The beating grows as the frustration grows, but the presence of the frustration is important. Ilja is aggravating, as he leans into the Backlund dorkiness, but he also leans into a beating, and that's easy to like. WALTER destroys him on offense, and not all of Ilja's hits the same, but he has moments where he steps to the plate and crushes it. His senton really pops WALTER's guts, and down the stretch he hits WALTER just about as hard as someone can hit a man in the cerebellum. WALTER hits some of his nastiest ever stuff, like a shotgun dropkick that had to have left Dragunov with a flared ribcage and a release powerbomb that was cruel. I love WALTER's top rope splash. It's one of the great He Doesn't Belong Up There splashes with the unsteady takeoff but heavy landing. I didn't fully buy into Ilja absorbing ALL of that damage, but he is good at withstanding a beating, and when it's time for the finish he makes everything look finisher worthy. His shots to the back of WALTER's head were sick, and I loved the quick tap when Dragunov yanked WALTER to his feet by the neck. This was one of the best WALTER performances we've seen in WWE, maybe one of his best ever. 

PAS: I think Eric is being hard on Dragunov, this was a great WALTER performance, but it was Dragunov's match. I am normally down on wild Nic Cage wrestling performances but, I thought his drooling, spitting, screaming descent into hell really worked for this match. I really dug all of his judo throws and takedowns, felt like credible impactful offense using WALTER's size against him. This had to be one of the most violent WWE matches ever. Dragunov took an ungodly beating, and laid into WALTER as hard as he could back, by the end of this match his entire body was a bruise. WALTER had been champion for so long, that if you were going to take him out, he had to be taken out, and obliterating the back of his neck and head with elbows and yanking back his head like that felt like an appropriate end. It really did look like he could have paralyzed WALTER with those shots, and I loved how WALTER tapped quickly. I wasn't coming in expecting to love this. NXT epics usually leave me wanting, but this was awesome stuff. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

Tuesday is French Catch Day: Batman! Viracocha! Der Henker! Corn! Leduc! Kamikaze

Batman/Paco Ramirez vs. Inca Viracocha/Gonzalez 5/17/71

MD: A rare one-fall tag (or alternatively just the first fall of a longer one, but I don't think that's the case). Between this and the first fall of the Genele tag from last week, I think it's pretty safe to say, two years in, that most of these French tags probably would have been better if they weren't in an unbalanced 2/3 falls format. This was very good as a standalone fall. Neither of these Peruvian heels are Peruano but they're both very good in their own way. Viracocha can lean on someone and Gonzales had a wild energy with some big high spots that you'd expect out of a babyface like dropkicks and cartwheels. He also shouted Arriba! in one of his first moments in the match which popped literally everyone including the announcer. Where they really excelled was cutting off the ring and sneaking in shots to keep their opponents down in the corner. And feeding for the faces, of course. Batman looked as good here as we'd ever seen him, mixing in a couple of power moments that almost felt heroic in with his usual technical, tricked out stuff. Ramirez was a game partner, fiery at times, especially in drawing away the ref enthusiastically when his partner was getting double teamed. Just a really good, really solid tag.

Der Henker/Kamikaze vs. Jacky Corn/Gilbert Leduc 6/14/71


MD: This one felt special. First off, it was Leduc and Corn teaming together, which has been rare, just two of the biggest, best scrapping, technical babyface stars we've seen in the footage. They were greeted at the start by dancing majorettes and a marching band. Kamikaze may well have been Aledo, but it's hard to tell because he was so immersed in the gimmick. When he bumped, he bumped huge, and he was quick, but his offense was primarily chops (including high, low, high attacks), and he was way over the top with the stereotypical Japanese act. Henker was nothing if not consistent, an absolute monster. Much of the early part of the match was Henker shrugging off Corn and Leduc's technical wizardry. As none of the conventional wristlocks or up and over escapes worked, they built to Leduc's trademark headspin headscissors and that at least chipped away at him a bit. Towards the end of the first fall, they were able to get him out long enough for Corn to hit this amazing gutwrench throw on Kamikaze for the fall.

Henker became absolutely unleashed in the second fall, press slamming Leduc into a gutbuster and then just crushing him with a tombstone. Leduc ended up getting taken to the back (rare for this footage) as the heels continued to work on Corn, including another press slam gutbuster, and alternating tombstones from Henker and karate shots from Kamikaze, before a third tombstone meant that he couldn't answer the call. My favorite part of this beating was Kamikaze doing something I'd never seen before. He lifted Corn up in a Rude Awakening style over the shoulder neckbreaker and then walked him over to the ropes, slipped Corn's head under the top rope and lifted up to choke him with it while still holding the over the shoulder neckbreaker. Awesome stuff.

The third fall set things up to seem impossible for Corn. He barely recovered to meet the bell and, as the beating continued, he kept crawling to a corner with no partner. Then, suddenly the crowd erupted as Leduc somehow powered his way from the back. Corn rolled for a hot tag and Leduc started unloading on the heels (and the ref as well when he tried to get in the way). Henker would come back, but as the fall went on, Corn and Leduc would continue to get the upper hand until they could finally tie up Henker in the ropes long enough to score the win over Kamikaze. This wasn't the most technically sound match we've seen. It didn't have the highest workrate or the craziest moves or the most intense shots, but it told a hell of a story that the fans completely got behind and like I said, even in a sea of footage that gives us great wrestling week in and week out, this felt special.

PAS: This was really great stuff, wild over babyfaces mean flamboyant heels, wrestling at its best. I love LeDuc one of my favorite guys on the set, he has an almost Mr. Wrestling 2 vibe with a combo of dancing and asskicking. I loved him in the third fall, as he hit these super cool fast forearm combos, and then tying up Henker and catapulting  Kamikaze into him. Not sure if Kamikaze was Aledo, but he ruled, Aledo unmasked has less restrictions on what he could do, but Kamikaze was a tremendous evil Asian heel, cool chops big bumps, vicious and stoogy, exactly what you want.

Read more!

AEW Five Fingers of Death Week of 2/14-2/20

AEW Dynamite 2/16

Bryan Danielson vs. Lee Moriarty

MD: A whole lot to like here. The match was built around Danielson not letting Moriarty do his thing for long and grinding him down instead. Moriarty tried early, able to hang on the mat and hit his sweeps and legpicks and whatever else, but Danielson kept jamming him at every point, even though he couldn't get a strong advantage either. That lasted right up til the point that Danielson got him in the ropes and started kicking. Danielson continued the beating through the break, cutting off a hope spot here or there (including one timed well with the fans' clapping, as Danielson kept them engaged by interacting with little flourishes). There was a real Bockwinkel sense to how Danielson kept telling Moriarty to come on and get back into it. Eventually, he did, showing a real fire by trading strikes with Danielson, on his feet, mounted, and even upside down with their legs locked. Danielson's reaction wasn't to panic at the monster he was creating in real time, but instead a sort of sadistic elation as he took the violence up an extra notch and took Moriarty's face off, first with the knee and then with the stomps. Danielson really channeled all the things that make Moriarty special while tamping down on the elements of his work that can sometimes get to be a little over the top. It was a perfect match for this point of the broader storyline.

ER: I thought this was pretty great. Danielson broke Moriarty out of some of his patterns and built up a violent match, one where he often overwhelmed Moriarty while letting him stand with him. Danielson has saved some of the more vicious ring work of his career for this AEW run, and I flipped when he had Moriarty's feet draped on the ropes and brought a knee right up into his chin. Relentless Danielson is tough to root against. He knows how to keep up a beating and bring some heat out of his opponent, and the build to a bunch of sicko Red Bull Army low angle suplexes was a sick surprise. I thought Moriarty was build up more credibly in this match than any of his other AEW work, Danielson shaving the top and bottom end off and leaning him a more interesting way. I was expecting more reversals of reversals and I got neck bouncing suplexes and a real scrap. 

4. Darby Allin vs. Sammy Guevara

PAS: Wrote this up over at The Ringer

MD: As Darby matches go, this wasn't one I was particularly excited for. I'd rather see Sammy against a base, but as this went on, Darby sort of leaned in that direction, working the leg with a bunch of interesting and compelling bits of offense that took advantage of Sammy's flexibility (my favorite bit was the coffin drop onto the folded leg) and controlling the pace. Along the way, it wasn't my move/your move at all, after the initial feeling out process, there were clear control segments with interesting transitions. Sammy hitting the fireman's carry facebuster onto the top rope was the usual great Darby bump, then Darby took the scenic route to really earn opening up the leg after the initial Sammy mistake. I thought Sammy's selling thereafter was pretty consistent. He had flashes of being able to move but they were just flashes. He missed most of the high risk moves he went for after that, or jumped right into Darby's clutches out of desperation or a foolish desire to keep up. Obviously, the cutter on the floor was an all time counter, but even then, he couldn't fully capitalize because of the leg. Finish was what it was as they had to keep the stories going and this was just a TV main event with one week's build, but I ended up liking this one more than I was expecting.

ER: I love both of these guys, and while they're similar size I don't really see them as similar wrestlers. But this felt like the most similar we've seen them, and they managed to mirror each other in interesting ways while never once approaching a 50-50 match. Darby takes a couple of really great bumps to the floor, and I loved how Sammy bounced him off the corner ropes diagonally, sending Darby bouncing down to the apron and to the floor. It looked like a less insane version of the Hell Storm/Crazy Crusher ladder match bump, and that's because Darby applies backyard death wish sensibilities to his more controlled bumps, finding the perfect balance. And speaking of sicko bumps, I loved Sammy's missed swanton to the apron. Excalibur called it perfectly on commentary when he referred to it as an "unforced error". The legwork story in between those bumps was really well done and nicely sold by Sammy. Darby dropping tiny coffin drops on Sammy's body like JYD headbutts was a real treat, and while I didn't know what the match was quite building to, I certainly was not expecting that cutter counter. I don't know if you can make a Darby tope countered with a Sammy cutter look any better. Half the time cutters don't get hit this clean when a guy is standing perfectly still, let alone flying as fast as a Darby tope flies. These two have had a bunch of matches together and have cool chemistry and great ideas, and even with the angle-advancing finish I think this was exceptional. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

Andre's Final Match

Andre the Giant/Giant Baba/Rusher Kimura vs. Masa Fuchi/Haruka Eigen/Motoshi Okuma AJPW 12/4/92 - FUN

ER: This was Andre's literal final match, and even if he hadn't passed away less than two months after, I'm not sure how many more matches he would have realistically had. This looked like the end of the line, and I'm probably the biggest 1992 Andre booster there is out here. Andre comes to the ring in an MMA train, but it's probably the only MMA train I've seen that exists solely to keep a man on his feet. Andre used the man in front of him as a walker, and the cameraman kindly turned the camera to something else as Andre was struggling to get up the ring steps. But these comedy matches are pretty foolproof. I have the feeling that an old man trios could still work just fine even with two immobile participants, so one isn't going to affect anything. There are still plenty of fun matches, and we get to see the fun things Andre could do when he was literally on his last legs. There's silly comedy, like Rusher blocking Eigen's slaps until Fuchi grabs his arms, and an extended take on Eigen's crowd spitting as he kept trying to get back in the ring on different sides, only to be stopped and chopped by Kimura and Baba each time. 

Kimura is kept away from the giants for long stretches, and when Baba first, then Andre, come in to protect him they get nice "ooooooohs" from the crowd. Andre shoving Rusher behind his back and then challenging anyone to take a come through him first is a great moment. Fuchi always sneaks in stiff shots when opposite Baba, and Baba saves his hardest chop for Fuchi. Fuchi also kicks at Rusher's knee like a real asshole, just teeing off full strength on an old man's ACL and hamstring. Eigen always bumps big for Baba and Rusher, and I love the way he came in fired up and threw chops at Baba, right before getting thrown right under the bus. I assumed Andre wouldn't tag in at all, but he does, and it leads to the best comedy moment of the match. As Eigen heroically/foolishly grabs Andre in a rear waistlock and Okuma tries to attack from the front, Fuchi sneaks in and SMACKS Andre with a big clubbing shot to the back. When Andre turns to face Fuchi with daggers in his eyes, Fuchi points at Eigen and gets the hell out of there. The finish is old guy gold, with everyone playing a game of pickle with Eigen. Andre whips Eigen into a Rusher forearm, Rusher whips Eigen into a big Baba boot, and Baba whips Eigen into an Andre lariat. Once Eigen drops from the lariat, Andre - holding the top rope - just drops his butt right down on Eigen's chest. The man could have gotten away with putting his boot on Eigen for the pin, but he's a showman to the end. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE ANDRE

Read more!

NXT UK Worth Watching: Noam Dar vs. Tyler Bate! An Actual Great 3-Way!

Ligero vs. Joseph Conners vs. Travis Banks NXT UK 11/15 (Aired 12/5/19) (Ep. #71)

ER: Had you told me I was about to watch a match that was not only a triple threat match, but also nothing but 10 minutes of chained offense, I would have zoned out immediately. NXT UK isn't really a fed that does triple threat matches (one of their best features) and it's difficult to chain a lot of offense through a triple threat because you're dealing with that extra man. It started a little hinky and ironed out the quirks pretty quickly, settling into a fast paced match that felt much longer than it actually was, but not in a bad way! They squeezed so many ideas into a relatively short running time that it felt much more complete than most triple threat matches, while managing to avoid one guy constantly lying just out of frame waiting until it was his turn to step in. Describing the action feels almost pointless, as moves begat moves begat moves, but this was incredibly fun. Ligero really glued this together, not always having the most showcase worthy offense but clearly knowing how to get this match from A-E and not miss C. 

When I started the NXT UK project Ligero was an early standout for performances like this one, but tapered off hard in 2019 after his great Ohno match. Conners also felt like he really came together here, as his Brian Kendrick-lite act plays well in the middle of a chaotic three way. Chained offense usually comes off like two guys waiting around for one guy to get to a specific spot, and this rarely had that eye vacancy of remembering dance steps. Instead they upped the crazy as the match went on while not messing up the timing, so the match felt more like an exciting tightrope walk the longer it went. Banks hit a great early tope suicida on Conners, and later in the match when Conners goes to wipe out Banks with the same, Conners instead gets elbowed out of the air and topes to nothing. There was enough of that violence throughout that it never felt like three guys doing throwback ECW Nova offense, instead making a bunch of the highspots look opportunistically cool (Conners giving Ligero a DDT after a cradle attempt, big spills to the floor, a Conners double stomp on the ring steps). This felt like a real lightning in a bottle triple threat, like they hit a point where every complicated sequence was just working, and I don't think they could replicate it. I think it stands alone as a great match, using a bad match format, featuring majority problematic wrestlers, and that's a weird achievement.

Noam Dar vs. Tyler Bate NXT UK 11/16 (Aired 12/19/19) (Ep. #73)

ER: Another great Noam Dar performance. Dar is really great at mocking an opponent while in control and then showing tons of ass the second the tide turns. He mocked Bate every chance he got while taking every cheapshot he could, then leaned right into everything that Bate threw at him. They started with some cool learned behavior stuff, which can come off really dance-y but mostly avoided it here. Too often when learned behavior comes into play, it turns into two guys with vacant stares trying to remember their next step, but a lot of their tricks felt really organic, like Dar shoving Bate into the ropes and dropping down for a Phillie Phanatic trip and Bate holds the ropes and pounces on Dar's back. Things hit that next level when Dar gets pissed and stomps down on the inside of Bate's knee, then does a cool Garvin stomp variation going around to each limb, lifting it, and stomping it to the mat. I loved Dar's use of the snapmare as active offense, snapmaring Bate into the turnbuckles and into the ring steps. The snapmare is slowly becoming a lost art, as most don't use it any longer and many that do don't know how to properly execute one. Dar not only executes a great snapmare, but uses his in ways that nobody else does, and that's the kind of thing that makes a wrestler stand out high above the rest. 

Dar almost wins by count out after the snapmare into the ring steps (Dar mocking Bate's big strong boy poses in the ring the entire time) and we move into a really good extended final stretch of nearfalls and reversals. Dar has some awesome reversals, and they're all used to interrupt Bate's trademark bullshit, which makes the reversals not only more satisfying, but adds to that high end level of "learned behavior" they played with to start the match. Dar cuts off Bate's bullshit with nasty reversals, dropping him with a quick Flatliner to cut off that spot where Bate makes people stop in their tracks for a right hand, and when Bate bounces shoulders first off the top rope (to hit his big lariat) Dar just grabs his legs and drops down into his heel hook. It feels weird to say that Noam Dar has the best heel hook/knee bar in wrestling, but it's pretty hard to dispute how grinding it looks here. Dar looks like he is shredding Bate's ligaments and I am here for all of it. Bate does some fun theatrical one leg hopping the rest of the match, and Dar seems like he has a well of ideas to pull off annoying shifts in momentum. He bails to the floor to break up a fast sequence (then gets taken out by a big no hands running plancha), but when Bate limps up to the top rope he catches knees on the way down. Dar is great at taking offense, and I love the way he sells and staggers for Bate's shots, not taking the same bump twice, and matching the level of bump to the impact of the move. Bate does nail that big right hand to set up the finish, and Dar buckles his knees and puts a hand down to stop himself from going down, perfectly setting up Bate's Tiger Driver win. Dar was so good here, that it really felt like the kind of thing Ohno brought to NXT UK, catering a cool match around a specific opponent and taking the match in directions that nobody else has. He must have sitting on some of these ideas and wanting to work them into a match with Bate for ages, yet at no point did this ever come off like a "getting all of my ideas in" match. Very impressive. 

COMPLETE GUIDE TO NXT UK

Read more!

Found Footage Friday: KERNODLE~! MANNY~! KHAN~! SADOKEN~! LA PARK??

Sandoken vs. Principe Island Panama 80s

MD: It's a matter of debate here whether or not Principe Island is a young LA Park. The answer seems to be no but some of the gear and the body type at that age, based on other photos we have, makes it seem at least possible. Let me tell you though, if it was him and I was to go back to after this match and tell him, "Hey kid, you just took the biggest beating that you'll ever take in your life," it would have seemed plausible. Obviously, it wouldn't have turned out to be true, but it was an absolute mauling. Principe Island came out to the ring with a sombrero and a snake (there was a very amusing pop when the ring girl took the snake away). And that was basically all he got to do for the entire match, because Sandoken came storming out of the locker room with a chair, a blur of violence, red cape falling off as he started to punish the poor kid. He beat him around the ring, with the chair, with the stairs, tossing his head in, with brutal straight punches. Principe Island bumped all over the place and writhed in pain. The ref called for a DQ once, so Sandoken pulled off the mask. Principe Island made it to the back and came back with a new one, so Sandoken ripped it and beat on him some more. He got DQed again later on theoretically giving the win to Principe Island, but it took multiple wrestlers to save him post-match. The last image of him was someone putting him in a fireman's carry and running him to the back. Just a triumphant beating and probably my favorite footage from Panama so far.

PAS: This would be really crazy if this was LA Park, considering the levels off asskicking he has laid out over the years. Sandoken is like Kevin Sullivan or Kurisu here just absolutely potatoing Island. Pretty crazy to see a guy come in with a cool snake like that and just get fucking obliterated without a single bit of offense, why waste the snake on this guy? I think at one point Sandoken smashes a bottle over his head and Island just bleeds and eats a beating. Cool if weird match, and it did make me want to see more Sandoken. 

Australian Wrestling 1985

Don Kernodle vs. Ron Miller

MD: As best as I can tell, Miller was promoting and had worked with Crockett to bring in a group of his talent for this 85 tour. Kernodle was billed (repeatedly) as former US Champion and Miller as the current Australian champion. Manny came out with Don and that drew Larry O'Dea out to equal things up. Kernodle absolutely earned his pay on this night, stooging early and then bumping for the rest of the match. He created almost all the motion. Some help from Manny on the outside led to him taking over and they worked in some nice hope spots and cut offs (including a missed corner charge that Miller should get some credit for) until Don hurt his knee on a missed move. Miller went immediately for a figure four and then a reverse figure four which drew Manny in for the DQ and O'Dea in for a brawl. Very complete match with Kernodle doing the work but Miller bringing the charisma and star power and credibility.

Killer Khan vs. Lu Leota

MD: I think most of the Lu Leota footage we have is from the New Zealand show On the Mat. I'm not very familiar with him. He was a Samoan who was heavily tattooed but didn't have a lot of size. Here, despite a few attempts at comebacks, he was beaten around the ring by Khan in a competitive squash but a squash nonetheless. Khan beating someone to a paste is one of the joys of 1980s wrestling, however, so I'm not about to complain. Was there anyone better at just tossing someone's head into the turnbuckle? Maybe it was the way the ring was set up or how Leota crashed into it but it was such a simple thing that completely took his head off. The match never really looked back from there.

Larry O'Dea vs. Manny Fernandez

MD: While we don't have dates for the tour, the consensus is 1985, so it's probably at least a year before Manny turns and it was interesting to see him as a heel at this point. This was sub-ten minutes but still felt fairly complete, just without the stalling and long heat from the Kernodle match. Manny was more than happy to bump around the ring (and out) and he ate a really nice drop toehold into a submission from O'Dea. He also ate the corner on a charging knee attempt. Manny took over out of nowhere with a flying shot off the ropes and all of his subsequent offense felt sharp and very credible. I could see them using this one to build up a match between Manny and Miller to close out the tour.

PAS: I enjoyed this a bunch, really fun TV match, with O'Dea having some nifty offense early, including some cool legwork. Manny takes over, and he really has the some of nastiest offense. When he catches O'Dea off the ropes he just starts unloading and it is a matter of time. That top rope half knee/half stomp was great looking

Read more!

Regal is a Poor Twisted Child, So Ugly So Ugly

William Regal vs. Edge WWF Royal Rumble 1/20/02 - EPIC

ER: It's the way that Regal smugly waves to the Atlanta crowd on the way to the ring. The fine people of Atlanta should be as familiar with Regal as anyone, and this is literally his first match back in his old territory. Fittingly, this match is worked shockingly similar to Regal's WCW matches vs. Psychosis, and this one is somehow even better. It's nuts how many highspots they work into this match, but 2002 was a pretty insane in-ring year in WWE. The opener of this PPV saw Spike Dudley take eight big bumps off suplexes and getting generally thrown, and here you have two much bigger guys each taking bumps that rival Spike. 

Regal is great at selling Edge offense, but Edge lays it in more in this match than any match of his I can remember, so the selling works extra well. Regal is great at filling in blanks that most would have left blank, he takes a great backdrop bump, and really whips his forehead into the mat when Edge...well, whips Regal's forehead into the mat. You think you're getting into a match where Regal will stooge and cheat, and while there is cheating, there is also some real beating. Regal's running knee strike and short left elbow both looked finisher worthy, and his face lock looked like he was trying to crush Edge's jaw. He throws Edge with a half nelson suplex that almost spikes him, and instead Edge takes it right on his freaking nose. I had no memory of this match being this great. 

They keep adding interesting twists and new ways of doing things, like when Regal attempts a Tiger Driver and Edge blocks it, slowly powers up from it, and holds Regal in the air still locked together in that butterfly, before sending him over into a heavy landing northern lights variation. The way Edge's body landed on Regal's chest on the landing looked like something that would keep a man down, and looked more like something Tamon Honda would do, not Edge. Maybe the best part? We still get that release Tiger Driver, and it rules. They keep going, working in an apron DDT, a great Edge spinning heel kick off the top, a Regal German suplex that throws and folds Edge across the ring like Kawada, and some actual potato shots. I'm not sure I've seen Edge's forearm smashes look better than they do here, and he hits a falling clothesline that is so good, I honestly didn't think Edge had it in him. They even work in some slick submission stuff, with Edge doing a cool as hell drop toehold when Regal repositions him for a Regal stretch, and whatever stretch variation Edge briefly locks in turns Regals lips blue. Jesus. The finish is some fun bullshit with Nick Patrick being pulled in the path of a Spear and Regal laying Edge out cold with brass knux. An absolute unheralded gem. Why don't Edge fans ever point to this match when arguing their position? 

PAS: This was surprisingly great. The announcers are talking about how Edge broke Regal's nose, so Regal was coming in looking for a receipt and well, pissed off spud tosser Regal is the best Regal. It felt like he was pushing the pace and forcing Edge to either swim or drown, so Edge was landing some big shots as well. I really dug the dueling Regal Stretches, although I normally hate "the use my opponent's finisher" stuff, which was rife in early 2000s WWE. I loved Regal picking the ref's pocket to get back the knux. A fun BS finish for an otherwise nasty match.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE REGAL

Read more!

On Brand Segunda Caida: More 2002 Big Boss Man

Big Boss Man vs. DDP WWF Smackdown 1/17/02

ER: This era Boss Man really the master at taking 80% (or more) of a match and still letting his opponent plausibly beat him. Boss Man and DDP doesn't have to be an 80/20 match, but I liked how Boss Man turned it into one by using two different attacks out of the ref's view. Early in the match while the ref is trying to break them up, Boss Man punches DDP in the orbital bone to take initial control; late in the match he gets backed into a corner by DDP, and when Teddy Long leans in to tell DDP to break the hold, Boss Man uppercuts him right in the balls. All of Boss Man's offense looked great, like his big spinebuster, his awesome hot shot on the turnbuckle (after punching DDP's balls), and the punch exchanges between the two were fire! Boss Man's punches were the best in 2002 WWF (and that was when they had a roster of cool punchers in all weight classes) and DDP trades back and forth really well with him. At one point DDP just punches Boss Man in the chest to stun him, and that's the kind of thing you don't see anymore unless it's part of an overcomplicated combo. Much of DDP's offense comes from strong reversals or dodges of Boss Man, like a sleeper turned into a nasty jawbreaker, and it makes a lot of sense to make those kind of openings. Boss Man doesn't lay out for the Diamondcutter, taking it more like a Stunner, but the way he took it really made it look like a lot more snap was being done to his neck. Taking the flat stomach bump looks cooler, but I liked the painful way he took this one.

Big Boss Man vs. Shawn Stasiak WWF Metal 1/19/02

ER: Right out the chute this project is getting Shawn Stasiak's name in print for the first time on Segunda Caida. If nothing else, we'll always have that at least. Boss Man is wearing the riot squad gear (would have been awesome if he came back in Big Bubba attire for this run), but there's some confusion around the face/heel dynamics. Boss Man got a good reaction coming out, possibly because the aesthetics of his gimmick play much better in the south (this was in Texas). However, Stasiak was the de facto babyface here, meaning fans were put in a position to cheer Stasiak over Boss Man, which is tough because I cannot imagine many people cheering Stasiak over anybody. They do some things that feel like they would be expressly forbidden in modern WWE, namely Boss Man getting into it with a ringside fan (that guy who wears the same gas station shirt who was profiled on Confidential). It felt like the same way a guy would get heat on a southern indy show, and it just makes me nostalgic for seeing southern wrestling played to an 8,000 strong crowd. Stasiak even gets to go out and side with gas station guy and it feels like the crowd is suddenly far more invested in this. Could you see any wrestler today ever acknowledging or trying to start something with that one fan who sits front row with his mom every show? Boss Man was still really fast, and a lot of this was built around his speed, whether he was bailing quickly out of the ring or unable to slow a charge due to his size/speed combo, and some of his fast bumps were impressive. His offense is made up almost entirely of punches, which is perfectly fine because he still has a great uppercut and overhand right. I wish this one was not so driven by Stasiak offense, as he just wasn't very good and always landed too rigid on nearly everything he did. His crossbody looked like an ironing board being thrown at Boss Man and his leaping back elbow looked like he bounced off Boss Man instead of knocking Boss Man down. This was the last of the Shawn Stasiak I will be reviewing.

Read more!

Tuesday is French Catch Day: Drapp! Dula! Genele! Renault! Saulnier! Cabera!

Andre Drapp vs. Jimmy Dula 4/26/71

MD: Mean, chippy fight where both sides used up their public warnings. It feels like the first 30 minute draw we've seen in a while. We also haven't seen much of either Drapp or Dula lately. Dula, especially, seems to have come a long way in ten years. He was a unique bruiser before who would appeal to the crowd after every move. Here, there was very little of that and more aggression as he was always moving to the next attack. They were really going from the get go, just great lock ups and jockeying for position with very little given, all the way throughout. As the match went on, Dula would cheat more and more but Drapp would then get admonished as well as he'd bend the rules while getting his revenge. It was definitely impressive that they kept it at the level that they did for so long.

Bobby Genele/Guy Renault vs. Michel Saulnier/Pedro Cabrera 5/7/71

MD: Exceptional juniors tag. I'd say the 20 minutes of the first fall was one of the best single falls we've seen in the entirety of the footage. They started by wrestling clean and fast, with Saulnier's low center of gravity giving him an extra bit of torque on every mare, Cabera showing off with the cartwheels, Renault basing like a champ, and Genele adding a bit of spice with his reactions. There was a buzz every time he came into the ring, and it wouldn't become apparent until later on just why. From there, they settled down into well worked holds and counter attempts for a bit until Genele started with the inside shots. It'd still be another round of holds before Renault really joined him. At that point, Genele shone with that sort of chip on his shoulder attitude and mean forearms and stomps that justified the reaction he had been getting. They took over on Cabrera's arm, creating an actual, genuine tag heat segment where they cut the ring in half, had hope spots and cut offs, and built to a big hot tag and Saulnier clearing house with faster and faster exchanges as they escalated to a finish. The rest of the match was still good, as Genele and Renault worked in another heat segment using holds, where the individual escape attempts felt more like hope spots than in almost any match we've seen. It's French tag wrestling so the second and third falls were far shorter and to the point, but the last one was celebratory and the fans got sent home happy like usual. I focused so much on the narrative that I was underselling how good any single individual exchange was. This was the high end junior style of the time. People will be able to make gifs of Cabrera going up and over and around to lock in a short arm scissors or some of the super fast rope running exchanges. It was just grounded in a structure that let the crowd really care about what was happening and that made the big moments resonate more than usual.

PAS: This was great stuff. Both tecnicos really threw some fun stuff, Cabrera especially was just flying around the ring. GIF makers can definitely get some shit to tweet at Jim Cornette. Genele is a real shithead and while I think the focus will be on all of the fast cool shit the babyfaces did, lots of credit to heels for making it look good and adding some real nastiness to the process. 

Read more!

AEW Five Fingers of Death Week of 2/7-2/13

AEW Dynamite 2/9

2. CM Punk/Jon Moxley vs. FTR

MD: I don't cover a ton of modern tag wrestling here. You don't see me a lot on the MOTY lists and Eric's the one who did the live PPV recaps. While I don't make a big deal out of it, I am definitely a low voter on the Uso style of 2010s tag wrestling though. It, like a huge chunk of everything else with me, is mainly structural. I like an exciting finishing stretch where everything's broken down as much as the next guy, but I don't want that to be half the match, no matter how hard they're working and no matter how many well timed spots they work in. You need to build something up so that you can break it down. That's true if I'm watching a 95 All Japan Tag or a modern AEW tag. You build up the meaning, you build up the narrative, and then you pay it off with a finishing stretch after a big tag/moment (not necessarily a hot tag since not everything has to be a standard heel/face southern style tag match) at the end. Order gives way to chaos. That's my personal preference.

So if you want to have a long, spot-filled, action packed, imaginative finishing stretch, and FTR has been excellent at those since the NXT days, one way to give it weight and balance and meaning within a match it is to just give the rest of the match plenty of time. They did that here. There was the heat on Punk's leg; some great, chaotic brawling on the outside after the hot tag to Mox, the sort of thing that could have been a finishing stretch in and of itself; them taking Mox out with the table; and then a second segment of real heat before finally moving into an entirely earned over the top finishing stretch. The stretch lived up to the build with Tully getting involved (and you know he wanted to take the big star's move whether or not the body was willing), a bell shot, false finishes, the babyface finisher tandem tease and the babyface submission payoff. The match had stakes, both internal and external. It built things to a middle point high with the dives and brawling and then brought them back down for the second heat segment, all so that it could rise even higher for the finishing stretch. What we got in the end was a beautiful, fleshed out, complete tag match instead of just a lot of exciting noise.

ER: I'm fairly in line with Matt when it comes to feelings on the Usos/New Day style of Big Match tag wrestling, and I think that's been reflected in our MOTY lists. We've had enough Usos matches on our lists, but we're rarely if ever the high vote, and there have been plenty of their acclaimed matches that didn't register with us. This match felt like the best version of any of the acclaimed Uso tags, with much more ebb and flow done over the same run time. It's tough to repeatedly peak a crowd and bring them back louder with each peak, and it's a beautiful thing when that happens. I loved all the twists this match took and just when I thought I saw what the main focus was going to be, they would pivot and give me something even more exciting. When I thought this was going to be FTR making quick tags and working nasty double teams on Punk's knee, I couldn't wait for the Moxley hot tag. Then, the Moxley hot tag came much quicker than expected and I, like Matt, thought this was them moving right into the finishing stretch. Maybe we've been conditioned. Moxley's hot tag was excellent, and this is a man who moves like he's been reborn. He ran into FTR with more force than I've seen him run into anyone over the last decade, he hit a lariat that looked all shoulder muscle, and it lead to our great ringside brawl. 

Harwood really stood out as a guy taking big working man's bumps, like his splat landing on a Punk vertical suplex on the floor, or that later crazy Doomsday Device that was probably safe as can be but the way he tucked his head on the fall made it look that much crazier. FTR were also real savages separating Moxley from Punk after suplexing him through a table. I'd love to never see FTR against the Young Bucks or Lucha Bros for the rest of my days, and instead just see them holding a guy in their corner, standing on his face like total assholes, and then slingshotting his head into the bottom buckle. Teeter totter spots almost always look like trash, but they looked like they were trying to decapitate Mox on that bottom buckle. The actual finishing stretch was awesome, and I loved the smooth timing of Mox hitting Harwood with an atomic drop while Harwood made the tag, leading to Wheeler coming in to grab Mox but immediately eat a back suplex. Tully is a total maniac and I love when he gets physically involved in things, just great chaos to add to a finish. 

2022 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

2022 MOTY MASTER LIST

1. Villano IV vs. Pentagon Jr. AAA TripleMania XXX 10/15

2. Chris Jericho vs. Bryan Danielson AEW Dynamite 9/14

3. Bryan Danielson vs. Hangman Page AEW Dynamite 1/5

4. Lance Archer vs. Hangman Page AEW Dynamite 2/9

5. Gringo Loco vs. Psycho Clown GCW 2/5

6. LA Park vs. Villano IV AAA TripleMania XXX 4/30

7. Bryan Danielson vs. Daniel Garcia AEW Dynamite 2/23

8. Dustin Rhodes vs. CM Punk AEW Dynamite 4/20

9. FTR vs. Young Bucks AEW Dynamite 4/6

10. Darby Allin vs. Jeff Hardy AEW Dynamite 5/11

11. CM Punk vs. MJF AEW Dynamite 2/2

12. Bryan Danielson vs. Matt Sydal AEW Rampage 5/27

13. CM Punk/Jon Moxley vs. FTR AEW Dynamite 2/9

14. Dax Harwood vs. CM Punk AEW Dynamite 3/23

15. Masahiro Takanashi vs. Chon Shiryu Choco Pro 1/22

16. Daniel Makabe vs. Damyan Tangra Scenic City Invitational 8/5

17. Rayo de Jalisco Jr. vs. Blue Demon Jr. AAA 4/30

18. The Hardys/Sting/Darby Allin vs. Private Party/The Butcher and the Blade AEW Dynamite 3/23

19. Darby Allin vs. Matt Hardy AEW Rampage 9/14 (Aired 9/16) 

20. The Hardys vs. Private Party AEW Dynamite 3/16

21. Rey & Dominik Mysterio vs. Logan Paul/The Miz WWE WrestleMania 4/2

22. SLADE vs. Manders Limitless Wrestling 5/28

23. Jun Akiyama/Konosuke Takeshita vs. Eddie Kingston/Ortiz AEW Rampage 11/18

24. Eddie Kingston vs. Daniel Garcia AEW Rampage 4/20 (Aired 4/22)

25. Doudrop vs. Becky Lynch WWE Royal Rumble 1/29

26. Eddie Kingston/Santana/Ortiz vs. Jeff Parker/Matt Lee/Daniel Garcia AEW Rampage 1/5 (Aired 1/7)

27. Darby Allin vs. Andre el Idolo AEW Dynamite 3/30

28. Bianca Belair vs. Becky Lynch WWE WrestleMania 4/2

29. Manders vs. Masha Slamovich Scenic City Invitational 8/5

30. Darby Allin vs. Sammy Guevara AEW Dynamite 2/16

31. Darby Allin/Sting vs. Buddy Matthews/Brody King AEW Rampage 9/21 (Aired 9/23)

32. Chamaco Galindo/Icaro/Dante Valaguez vs. Mandibula Jr./Maulee Jr./Arana Negra Jr. Arena Juan Jaramillo Frikas 2/20

33. Austin & Colten Gunn vs. Jungle Boy/Luchasaurus AEW Rampage 2/9 (Aired 2/11)

34. Claudio Castagnoli vs. Konosuke Takeshita AEW Battle of the Belts 8/6

35. Hijo del Fishman/Hijo del Pirata Morgan/Tonalli vs. Toxin/Aster Boy/Relampago IWRG 2/13

36. Real1 vs. Lince Dorado MLW 5/13 (Aired 7/7/22)

37. Dustin Rhodes vs. Claudio Castagnoli AEW Rampage 8/24 (Aired 8/26)

38. Necro Butcher vs. Blaine Evans IWA-DS 4/22

39. Ninja Mack/Dante Leon vs. Jordan Oliver/Nick Wayne GCW 2/5

Read more!

Is Gulak Losing His Faith? He's Gonna Lose it Sometime

Drew Gulak vs. Veer WWE Main Event 7/1/21 - GREAT

ER: Gulak wrestled Bronson Reed the week before this, and it made me want to see more Gulak matches against weird undercard heavyweights. Veer is the perfect kind of guy I want to see Gulak work for 5 minutes: a guy who never works singles matches, has a great look, and a big build. Gulak comes off like a dominant heavyweight, working as Veer's equal and not as a light heavyweight underdog. This is also the most we've seen of Veer outside of graphics announcing that He's Coming, but I like his potential and love his look, and there isn't a better showcase partner than Gulak. Veer has a lot of cool offense running through Gulak, throwing impressive punches for his skill level. Veer famously won an Indian gameshow, then signed as a pitching prospect with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Pitchers should know how to throw a good punch, it's all just learning mechanics and repeating an arm slot. If you can pitch to a 3:1 strikeout to walk ratio in A ball, you're a guy who can repeat an arm slot. Veer's got big worked punch potential and I'm here for it. He also throws a great big boot and a high sideslam with a big landing. 

Gulak makes his way into the match by throwing straight kicks right at Veer's knee. He was great at bumping for all of Veer's big attacks, but he looked like Fujiwara going after Veer's knee. Gulak goes after it some more when Veer misses a boot in the corner, and I loved how Gulak kept throwing those front kicks. Veer sold them well, and I actually thought Gulak was going to tap him when he worked a cool figure 4 with a bridge after hitting a hard dropkick to the knee. I wish we had another beat before the run to the end, but thought Veer looked great hitting hard corner splashes and a big falling clothesline. This was a hard hitting heavyweight match, one of the few times in WWE that Gulak has really been allowed to exist as a big guy's equal, and it worked great.  

Read more!

2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Ikeda vs. Keisuke Goto

147. Daisuke Ikeda vs. Keisuke Goto GPS Growth5 12/18/18

PAS: This is Ikeda against a young kid, and while that isn't what it would have been 10 years earlier, it is still going to be violent kicks to the ribs, punches to the jaw and gross headbutts. Goto has a nice second rope senton, but otherwise was pretty much there to be beaten violently. There is a great moment where Ikeda has a tight purpling rear naked choke with this sick grin on his face, looking like he is right where he needs to be. What a beautiful psycho. 

ER: This is a pretty baseline Ikeda beating, but those are the best, and it's always fun to see what his punching bags to do fight back. Goto really bends Ikeda's left calf over his knee, forcing it down at the ankle, and some of his elbow smashes actually pack more wallop than Ikeda's. This starts out actually competitive, and that changes complete when Ikeda stops Goto's assault by jamming his thumb up Goto's ass. I cannot think of a bigger insult to injury than Ikeda doing an Oil Check before delivering an asskicking. If I'm going to get kicked in the cheek several times, please just kick me in the face. Ikeda does some big body kicks, a hard headbutt, and a mean front kick to Goto's nose and mouth. Where guys like Finlay would stomp on your hands if you were to slow to get to your feet, Ikeda just kicks you in the ribs and face alternately until you make it back up. I liked Goto's running senton, and his middle rope senton wasn't pulled at all, but I would happily take both of those sentons rather than take Ikeda's vertical suplex, his sick high tilt sheer drop back suplex, and that collarbone crushing lariat. We can all identify with the man in the crowd who starts loudly laughing after that lariat. All Ikeda fans are That Man. 

2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

Found Footage Friday: PANAMANIAN LUCHA~! CACTUS~! MORRUS~! SLIM J~! ROCKWELL~! DEVILS REJECTS~!

Galvez/Taur vs. Kato Kung Lee/Celestial 1988

MD: More Panamanian lucha. This was pretty polished. Galvez stooged well and looked like he could be the Cuban Assassin's partner. Taur had this great sweeping punch. Both of them based perfectly for Celestial who had a ton of fun headscissors takeover variations. Kato Kung Lee came off as an attraction at the height of his power and the fans were very into his rope running/climbing shtick that befuddled the rudos and won the first fall. The beatdown that followed primarily relied on the numbers game and was compelling enough, and then the comeback was celebratory like you'd expect. I'd say this match, at least, would stand up fairly well against comparable ones from the era.

Shaun Tempers/Azrael vs. Ace Rockwell/Slim J NWA Anarchy 5/20/06 - EPIC

MD: This was a great piece of business, with all of the story beats and intensity of one of the more complicated Anarchy matches but in a nice, compact package, going less than 15, with a clean shine, heat, comeback structure. It had all the wildness and mayhem you'd want though. Rockwell and Slim J rushed the Rejects at the start and they both looked great in the early going. Rockwell was incredibly intense with his headbutts and punches and running shots as the camera kept switching back and forth to try to keep up with the action. Slim J took a bit more of a beating given the size differential but came back in the ring with offense that seemed to pause time as he shifted around this way or that. I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone else do his flipping grounded neckbreaker in a Rude Awakening style, for instance. All of that only worked for so long as they could keep the Rejects away from each other, however, and they came back in the ring when they could start to work together. Eventually, Rockwell stormed the ring by using his cast as a weapon and they went towards the big spots of the finish. The first was an absolutely insane superplex counter where Slim J pulled all of his weight down to switch motion in midair and with just a touch of his toes on the mat turned it around with huge momentum. It's not the sort of thing I'd want to see every day but here, it absolutely worked. Then Rockwell crashed Tempers through set up chairs on the floor with a top rope splash. And to set up the actual finish, Slim J took out Wilson and Azrael with a corkscrew dive. The finish was what you'd expect here, something to keep the heat on the Rejects and protect Tempers' weapon, but overall this one really got the job done in keeping the feud hot while giving the babyfaces a lot of chance to fight back.

PAS: This was really great stuff, high energy, big time violence and really intensity. Great demonstration of what made and makes Slim J so amazing. He brawls like an absolute demon in the beginning of this match and also pulls off some incredible state of the art highspots. The reversal of the superplex was mind blowing, just such a cool mix of balance and athleticism, his corkscrew dive to the floor was also next level. Rockwell is tremendous too, he feels like a guy who needs a deep dive, also really great at the punching and kicking parts and hits that wild top rope splash through the group of chairs. The Rejects were fine foils and the finish did a really nice job of setting up their all timer of a War Games which was still to come, I really need to see every second of this feud.

Cactus Jack vs. Crash the Terminator MECW 9/10/95 - FUN

MD: This was supposed to be Cactus vs. Barbarian but apparently Barb couldn't make it. Cactus hyped things up pre-match saying he'd teamed with Crash (being the future Hugh Morrus) before in Japan and they'd have a good match and they shaked, but Crash then ambushed Cactus. Cactus comes back with a really nice forearm sending Crash out and Cactus got back on the mic saying that it was time to fight instead. I don't think the intensity quite lived up to that opening, or that they went quite as hard as you'd expect for a main event substitution like this, but for one thing, the ring seemed really unforgiving. That said, I liked the idea of the entry point with the mic work before and after the ambush. You could picture Foley in the back trying to figure out how they'd start the match. Once they got going, most of Cactus' stuff was very credible. Great headbutt. Nice running elbow drop. DeMott was obviously strong. He caught Jack off the second rope impressively and got him over on a big suplex and a power bomb. Finish was a missed moonsault and a second double arm DDT and there was a sort of senseless ref bump in the middle, which was literally impactful but not exactly resonant. The announcing continues to be some of the worst in recorded history, without even the woman that helped the Waltman match we saw.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SLIM J

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE CACTUS JACK

Read more!

An Exhaustingly Exhaustive Review of WWF Royal Rumble 1/24/93, Pt. 2

Bret Hart vs. Razor Ramon

ER: Another great match. Perhaps too long, but still a great match. The first 75 minutes of the show is one of the best 75 minute stretches of wrestling you'll find in any era of WWF. A couple pieces could have been placed differently, and the crowd gets weirdly restless in the middle (maybe burned out by too many closely strung together nearfalls? I don't know). This starts with a great opening punch exchange, and Razor never got enough credit at the time for his punches. I'm not sure who else could even make the claim to a better whipping right hand in this era, or any era. Razor's punch doesn't allow much wiggle room and requires a lot of moving parts, and I don't know who threw a similar punch better. Also, Razor and Bret are both great stomp punchers. Razor throws those long rights, whips Bret hard into the turnbuckle, and Bret takes just a classic back first bump into them, making it look almost as violent as his classic chest first bump always looks.  

Hart takes over by working over Razor's leg, kicking it out from under him a few times while holding onto his other leg, slamming it into the ringpost, and it's the only part of the match that feels incomplete or misplaced. It never really leads anywhere, Razor doesn't sell the knee, and I don't think you really needed a leg work segment to set up the Sharpshooter finish 12 minutes later. You can just win with the Sharpshooter, you don't need leg work. Now Razor working over Bret's ribs is much more interesting, and it starts with Razor reversing an Irish whip by jamming a kitchen sink knee into things, then whips Hart low into the corner. Bret slides across the mat ribs first and gets wrapped around the ringpost, and the ribs give Razor a cool focal point for the rest of the match. We DO get Bret going hard chest first to the buckles and we realize, yes, the Bret chest first turnbuckle bump IS the definitive violent corner bump. This particular one is one of Bret's best versions, and think of how many matches that covers. I don't know how Bret's arms didn't go completely numb after hitting the buckles. He ran full speed into them like he couldn't see them and had no idea they were there, and then fell backwards, rigid, to the mat. Most match finishes do not look as nasty as Bret running into the buckles. 

We get a lot of Razor working on Bret with his abdominal stretch, stomps, a stiff shoulderblock, and his always nice fallaway slam. Bret's big comeback from all of that is big, with Razor taking a high  backdrop bump to the floor and then Hart nailing a full body tope (with a couple of sneaky mounted punches thrown in after the landing). They work in a lot of momentum shifts down the stretch, which were all handled well but might have benefitted from one or two of them being dropped. Still, it lead to some classics, including proof that Bret might be the only person who can make the jump off the middle buckle into someone's boot actually look damaging and not silly, and the way he crumbles after hitting it is an incredible sell. It also helps that he hits his Hitman elbow off the middle rope so actually has a reason to be leaping off it into a boot in the first place. The match really should have ended with Bret wriggling out of what surely would have been a match finishing Razor's Edge to trap Razor with a backslide. Nothing that came after was necessary, and the finishing itself came off a little clunky (even with Razor grabbing onto the ropes and Earl Hebner's pant leg to desperately stop the Sharpshooter. Pulling a backslide out of the jaws of a Razor's Edge would have kept Razor stronger, and the backslide looked like a finish (most of the crowd bit hard at the late kickout). Still, even with my criticisms this felt like the 2nd best match on a card with four strong matches. 

Lex Luger debuts as Narcissus in an awkward segment where really nothing at all works. They have the trifold mirror set up in the entrance way, but Luger's gear covers up a lot of his body so you can't even see what all the fuss is about. And there IS fuss. Luger poses to an obstructed view while Heenan lavishes such praise over his body that it nearly approaches Power and Glory workout video levels of uncomfortable. My favorite part was when Heenan drooled over Luger's thighs. "Yes! Look at yourself! Enjoy yourself, Narcissus! Look at his thighs!!!"

The Rumble Match

This is a really really good Rumble, with the only flaw being that it is TOO LONG. It has a great first half and almost felt like a love letter to fans of the territories, as it was front-loaded with several different world and regional champs and that early star power felt big. Within the first 10 entrants we had Flair, Backlund, Dibiase, Lawler, Tenryu and Perfect. Flair and Backlund start it off, and neither Monsoon or Heenan talk about what a historic showdown it legitimately was. When you think of early 80s WWF champ, you think Backlund; When you think of early 80s NWA champ, you think Flair. As best I know, this is the only recorded footage of these two facing each other. There was an early 80s "title unification" match at the Omni but I don't think footage of that was ever shown on TV. So you get a fairly decent chunk of a Flair/Backlund match, years later than you would have wanted it, but they work it like an actual match (as opposed to spending the time trying to lift a guy's leg over the ropes). Papa Shango interrupts as the 3rd entrant but gets disposed of immediately, so we get a 4 minute Backlund/Flair match, and that's pretty neat. Now, Backlund was in this Rumble for over an hour, but I thought he looked pretty bad during at least his first half hour, and 1993 Backlund had a ton of weird timing issues. It often felt like Backlund was purposely trying to throw off his opponents' timing during this run, but he doesn't seem the type to do that. 

The two major standouts of this Rumble are Flair and Lawler. They're each in for just 15-20 minutes but their activity and execution and sheer knowledge of how to work a great Rumble is unparalleled. Flair must have had a running bet to see how many eye pokes he could fit in to his run, as he cuts off every single spot with an eye poke and it's incredible. My favorite was right after Max Moon came in and hit a fiery babyface sequence, and Flair tapped him on the shoulder and poked him in the eyes before just walking off. Lawler looked amazing during his whole run, punching everyone in sight and selling even better, getting into battles with guys we never got to see him battle (like Lawler/Backlund, or Lawler/TENRYU! Just the idea of a Lawler/Tenryu singles match makes me angry that they were even in the same ring and it didn't happen). Lawler has an awesome moment with Max Moon, where Max hits his nice corner spinning heel kick on Lawler, goes for it again and eats a huge backdrop bump to the floor. Huge bumps to the floor were one of the great things about this Rumble as I'd say 2/3 of the eliminations were dangerous bumps or bad landings, and that's an insanely high percentage. Also, Lawler has these incredible lowrider car show screen printed tights. Perfect targets Flair and Lawler and anything those three do with and against each other is gold, and if you want to talk about disgusting eliminations then you have to talk about Lawler and Perfect. 

Lawler takes the highest elimination bump of the match, getting launched by Perfect, and then immediately cashes in that receipt. Dibiase and Koko start shoving Perfect over, and Lawler begins yanking him by the head, really making it look like Perfect was desperately trying to hold on to that bottom rope, turning it into a really violent elimination. Referees are trying to pull Lawler away, guys in the ring are shoving Perfect, and Perfect hangs on to the bottom rope as long as humanly possible. It's, ahem, perfect. Knobbs, Skinner, and Samu have really memorable 3 minute runs, and you need a few high end crash and burn guys to make a Rumble good. Knobbs got a huge crowd reaction and had a real fired up run, Skinner came in like a dangerous potato throwing asshole, and Samu came in throwing headbutts. They all took tremendous bumps to elimination, with Samu's maybe the most dangerous. Undertaker had come out midway through (hilariously right as Lawler was headed back through the curtain, and Lawler gives Undertaker a wide berth) and he eliminates Samu by setting him on the top rope and shoving him hard, Samu flipping onto the apron on his head before going to the floor. Berzerker was fun during his 5 minutes, but with a guy who can eat up that much of the ring you hope for more than 5 minutes. I loved how, when Berzerker entered the ring, he went around the ring literally hitting every single person in the match. He didn't focus on anyone (until following Backlund to the floor and hitting him with a chair) but instead just stomped and clubbed his way through everyone. Koko also had a good run, building off 10 year feuds by going after Lawler while gleefully hiking up his gigantic High Energy windbreaker pants. 

The halves of the match are really clearly divided, as the ring needs to be fully cleared so Giant Gonzalez can debut and attack the Undertaker. I liked the Gonzalez debut, even though they never actually learned how to film him. When a guy is *actually* 8 feet tall, you don't need to film him from the floor up. He's the tallest man in pro wrestling history! Show him from far away so you can see how much larger he is than anything else in the arena! When you shoot him ground up it just makes him look like a normal guy, albeit a normal guy wearing a fur and muscle suit.  The problem is, since you had to clear the ring for that angle, and you front loaded the Rumble with most of the best workers, you're left with IRS, Damien DeMento, and Backlund when the smoke clears. It takes quite awhile to build any of that lost momentum back, with even a Natural Disasters Explode moment feeling tepid. Earthquake went right after Typhoon with no explanation, eliminated him, and then it was never mentioned again (Earthquake was gone at the end of the month and worked WAR for the rest of the year). 

Carlos Colon comes out fairly late, but it's really weird because he clearly belonged in the first half of this when it felt like they were legitimately trying to bring in a ton of regional champs. What would Carlos Colon even mean to a 1993 WWF audience? Also, you better believe Monsoon referred to the 45 year old Colon as a youngster after both he and Heenan had spent the entire match using Backlund's age 43 as a negative against him.  I would love a show of hands at the Arco Arena to find out how many in attendance knew anything about Carlos Colon. They had him announced for the Rumble several weeks before the match, but had only showed a picture of him during Mean Gene's Rumble previews, no footage or anything. It would have been far more valuable to see Colon throwing punches and headbutts at Lawler, Tenryu, and Flair; instead we get to see a lot of Colon against Damien DeMento, which is weird! Tatanka was by far the most exciting worker of the 2nd half of this, and his chops in the corner were thrown with more force than any Flair chop. 

Bob Backlund is 28th elimination, going past the hour mark and getting the most mixed reaction of the match. For the first half hour the crowd audibly hated him, but the longer he stayed in the more the crowd seemed to be pulling for him. When he was eliminated I genuinely could not tell if the loud reaction was applause for him making it that far, or relief that Backlund was not going to be in the main event of WrestleMania. The finish run is Macho Man vs. Yokozuna, which was better than I remembered, but the execution of the finish is as bad as I remembered. They work a 5 minute singles match as the final two, and it's good. Savage gets Yokozuna reeling with axe handles, Yokozuna hits a great thrust kick, Savage fights back, and eventually hits the big elbow. And then Savage pins Yokozuna...in the Rumble...and Yoko kicks out, sending Savage over the top to the floor. I kinda get it, I guess? The pinfall attempt just looks stupid and makes Savage look like a total dweeb, but I guess I can buy that the two of them had been one on one so long at the end that Savage went into Singles Match Mode. But that elimination? One man just cannot press a man from his back, over the top rope, and make it look like anything other than a man jumping over the top rope. Savage does as well as possible in that situation, but surely we could have figured out a better way for Yokozuna to eliminate Macho Man. This Rumble is way too long and dips hard for a bit in the middle, but that first half has some of the best work in Royal Rumble Match history and that alone makes this one of the best Rumbles, warts and all. 

This feels like one of the best WWF PPVs and it's weird that it doesn't get discussed as such. I thought every match was a varying degree of great, with the Rumble Match itself being too long and having too much deadweight but still succeeding due to a lot of hard work from the entrants. Lawler, Flair, Perfect, Dibiase, and several guys who were only in for 3 minutes all had great showings, and it had some of the nastiest elimination bumps of any Rumble. The other 4 matches are great in their specific way, and I think it's important that they all accomplished something very different, all felt very different. The opening tag is one of the great WWF tags of the 90s, Michaels/Jannetty had a better match at a house show the day before (and a much better match a few months later on Raw) but still delivered here, the big boys fight was fast paced and fun, and Hart/Razor gave us a Bret singles match that we rarely saw (they had two PPV matches and to my knowledge no other singles matches that made tape). This was a great show. Every single match is recommended. 

Best Matches: 

1. Beverly Brothers vs. Steiners

2. Bret Hart vs. Razor Ramon

3. Big Boss Man vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

4. The Rumble Match

5. Shawn Michaels vs. Marty Jannetty

Read more!