Found Footage Friday: AOYAGI~! KOBAYASHI~! TARZAN~! SATANICO~! CHARRO II~!

Satanico vs El Charro II CMLL 10/19/03

This is a 13 minute match (2/3 falls), with an overzealous ref who ends two falls in dubious ways, finish that was clunky to say the least, and with a game tecnico who has certain issues of which I'll get to later, but it's still worth watching because the first half is an all time Satanico mauling and that's saying something. I don't know if Charro breaks his nose or what. The blood from the forehead after the mask tearing doesn't seem substantial but the center of his face is covered, and Satanico gives no mercy at all. The best part of this has him just repeatedly punching a seated Charro's head back into a chair over and over again. The primera ends as he ties the mask up and the ref DQs him. The instant reply between falls is literally just him tying the match to the ropes in slow motion. At one point in here the blood was so extensive, you had to wonder how Charro would even be able to see to come back.

The beating continues into the segunda until Satanico misses a corner charge. It's time for Charro's big comeback, with Satanico already down a fall. He takes Satanico's legs out with a double leg and you're expecting a submission. Instead he hits the ropes and I was picturing some big, impactful crushing revenge shot like a senton. Instead? Charro does the worm and hits an elbow drop. That's the match totally going off the rails. It still sort of works because there's an element of danger in just whether Satanico might get humiliated and lose two falls in this manner, but ultimately, instead, the ref DQs Charro for some reason I can't fathom and we get a back and forth tercera where Charro takes Satanico over in a clumsy sort of crucifix pin for what felt to me like an upset. Satanico just dismantling a guy with a white mask is one of the best things in lucha though and this match had plenty of that.

Masashi Aoyagi vs Kuniaki Kobayashi NJPW 6/9/92

MD: This was about what I wanted to be, an absolute war with a few narrative checkpoints to keep it honest and an inconclusive finish based on the idea that they weren't done fighting until the moment that they finally were. Kobayashi ambushed with a forearm and a DDT right at the start and the next few minutes were about Aoyagi working from underneath and getting cut off and brutalized. That included a capture suplex and some nasty, nasty headbutts in the corner. When he came back, it was with all of the wrath and violence that you'd expect, but a bit of interference he had to swipe at from the outside meant that Kobayashi could get back in it. From there, they just went at each other until the ref seemed to want to call a stoppage. It didn't work. It didn't even come close to working until by the end they were just throwing shots and DDTing each other and it was like the tide going back out to sea as they laid there and finally decided it was enough. Dawn had come. It was time to pick up the pieces, patch up the wounds, and prepare to do it all again the next night.

Masashi Aoyagi vs Tarzan Goto Shin-FMW 9/29/97-EPIC

MD: Well, this was nuts. Obviously, we're paying tribute to Aoyagi and Goto who both died fairly recently, and if you want to see them just put everything out there, this is one to watch. I have no idea why Goto came out to Ridin' High by Rosemary Butler but it was such a weird dissonance as he came down a ring full of barbed wire covered tables and it was all the more so post-match with blood and vicera everywhere. I can't imagine anyone was going to argue with him though.

This starts with a few minutes of Goto plastering Aoyagi on the floor with a chair and other objects, really bloodying that white gi up. The comeback, when it comes back in the ring, is five minutes of Aoyagi axe-kicking, clubbing, and biting Goto. It's back and forth from there, though with fairly clear, wire and table related transitions. It's bad enough that Aoyagi's broke a wire-laden table with Goto's back but then he followed it up with those absolutely brutal kicks; that sort of thing. Ultimately, Goto catches him on a spin wheel kick and then plants him over and over with killshots, Aoyagi kicking out time after time. When he finally finishes the job it's with something no one in the world would kick out off. Just a violent, bloody spectacle; you'll be left with the the grisly afterimages burnt into your eyes and with the dulcet power pop of Riding High stuck in your head.

PAS: This was grody and awesome, both of these guys are such awesome 90s wrestling characters. Goto with his greasy hair and mangled forehead and Aoyagi with his Johnny Unitas haircut and Gi. They just tear after each other, with Goto turning the white Gi red with chairs and a broken bottle, and Aoyagi flinging his hard kicks to the head and body and hurling the barbed wire boards. Goto was just brutalizing Aoyagi near the end, and the finish was gnarly. FMW really had a hell of special roster, with Onita and guys like this.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE AOYAGI