Found Footage Friday: JERRITO~! MASCARITA~! WARREN BOCKWINKEL~! KABUKI~! THE V~?

Mascarita Sagrada vs Jerrito Estrada AAA 2/20/94

MD: Bit of a wonky finish, though one that was set up well enough and that led to a bigger match down the road, but didn't do the match any favors. That's not to say the match wasn't really good because it was. Jerrito leaned on Mascarita Sagrada well from the first second power bomb all the way to the end, which, given MS' physical charisma and explosiveness, created a fairly unique sense in a lucha match outside of the normal rhythms. I had the feeling that he really could come back at any point, as opposed to just designated transition points. Likewise, even while he was in the midst of a comeback, I got the sense that he could get cut off, either by Jerrito dodging or just being a brick wall, or, to play into the overarching story, by Espectrito snatching a leg from the outside. The camera was somewhat erratic on those big moments causing the viewer to leave certain things up to the imagination. We saw MS fall to end the primera but it was only on reply you really saw that trip from the outside. The finish had him fed up at the interference (which was not overbearing necessarily but was just frequent enough to add something without taking away too much attention from the match) and waste a dive towards Espectrito but I have no idea if he completely missed or just got a bit of him or what. The countount and title change came as he was trying to get another pound of flesh. Where the match actually was hurt was by elongating the segunda instead of giving MS a pin to go along with one of his comebacks, and having the dive and the countout be in a tercera instead. I'm sure there was some mindset to it but it raised expectations that something off was going on and took me out of the match a little. Still, another great find.

Warren Bockwinkel vs Billy Varga Los Angeles 5/23/53

MD: We just have a handful of Warren Bockwinkel matches on tape. This one has a little audio problem (Jimmy Korderas talking about TNA overlaid over it for part of the first fall) but otherwise is very watchable. Good gritty holds throughout, but each one had real progression. There was maybe just a little bit more narrative than I was expecting at points. Bockwinkel won the first fall with a drop toe hold into a leg submission but lost the second as Varga leapt over the same trick attempted. Then, right as the time was going to expire in the third, Bockwinkel went for it again only for Varga to counter. I liked Bockwinkel's counters of counters here too. Early on Varga went hit an up and over headscissors takedown out of a hold, but Bockwinkel got an arm up to block it the second time; that sort of thing. There was a great short armscissors in there too. I would say that there was less kinetic energy than in the French matches from a few years later. For instance, in that short arm scissors, Varga tried to escape by rolling and was rolled back by Bockwinkel using leverage and slamming his leg down. In a French match it would have led to lifts and much bigger rolls. Likewise though things were just starting to heat up and get to scrapping as the time ran out, it really needed another minute of them hitting each other. They had only just started. Still, a lot of good holds and wrestling in here and a nice look at the elder Bockwinkel as the measured veteran and Varga as an energetic crowd favorite.

Great Kabuki vs The V AJPW 8/30/88

MD: Usually we only look at the stuf that's at least good on paper, but sometimes we have to cover the strange and bizarre or disastrous. Late 80s- early 90s All Japan is not exactly known for crazy gimmicks. You'd get the occasional show with Land of the Giants or the Blackhearts but this feels a step further than even that. The V was Don Sanders who we have spotty results for over the 84-93 period doing enhancement work in the Southeast. This looks like his biggest actual run, fifteen matches in 88 including a tag spot low on the card with Rocky Iaukea against Taue and Nakano on a Brody Memorial Show. As best as I can tell, this is the only footage of him in the gimmick that's ever slipped out. V was an 83-85 American TV show about lizard people aliens that dressed up like humans in orange-red jumpsuits and tried to conquer Earth. That's the gimmick. Sanders had a purple jumpsuit with a black mask and at the start of the match he'd pull it off to reveal a lizard mask underneath it. The main event of this show was a Hara/Tenryu vs Jumbo/Yatsu tag that came in #47 on the DVDVR 80s set. And down on the undercard was this guy doing working this absurd gimmick and making "V" peace signs as he revealed his lizard face to the world.

It's what inspired Kris Statlander's green-face make-up but Sanders wasn't the galaxy's greatest alien. He was a guy who could be led through a fairly simple match on the mat with Kabuki with a monkey flip and a leap-up turn around cross body off the second rope and one of the world's worst dropkicks ever, right to Kabuki's gut (not intentional). Kabuki's someone who excels in tags or six-mans against guys who will scrap with him, but that isn't always the most dynamic undercard house show singles match wrestler. Here, it seemed to be about surviving the night as much as anything else. The two guys filming this were pretty into the V though, ironically or no, counting the pinfalls and oohing and ahhing for the offense attempts. At least someone was having fun with this thing. But hey, now have footage of one of the most bizarre footnotes in 80s All Japan. It's not all Ikeda and Ishikawa killing each other. Sometimes you guys come to the blog for that sort of thing too.