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