Found Footage Friday: PARK IN PANAMA~! LAWLER~! CHRSTOPHER~! KING~! STARR~! PORKY~! GRUNDY~!

Principe Island vs. Sandokan Panama 1988/89

MD: Almost certainly, Principe Island is LA Park. He's got be around 23 here. Overall, this is a pretty impressive apuestas match to have in his "pre-history." He ambushed Sandokan to start and the primera was bloody and visceral. We lose about twenty seconds to static and when we come back, he's got Sandokan down and is biting the wound. That sums it up pretty well. He ends it with an impressive flurry of bounding back into the ring, over the ropes, and then hitting a flipping dive off the apron, before launching a back flipping kick in the ring for the pin. Occasionally some of his kicks look off and he's a half step behind on feeding for bits of the comeback, but overall he does very well here. That comeback is good despite that, by the way. Sandokan ducks punches and hits big ones of his own to the crowd's delight and then he's able to turn a jumping Principe knee into a back body drop. Pretty rousing stuff. 

Then they really go all out for the tercera, with both guys missing moves off the top rope (Principe missing a senton atomico) and hitting dives (Principe with a bit tope and Sandokan flying off the top to the floor). It's an exciting stretch at the end with a fight over who would hit a move off the top (Sandokan eventually gets a superplex) and a ref bump leading to Principe scoring a phantom submission. When he went to celebrate, Sandokan got behind him, holding him up in an electric chair position while on the second rope and dropping back for the win. You can never get a sense of how full these arenas are because so many people are out of their seats mobbing the ring side area. Post match, Principe seemed to make it through the various stages of grief as he walks around trying to not have his mask taken off by Sandokan. I'm not sure he ever quite gets to acceptance though, as he's still jawing on the mic with his mask off at the end. Not perfect, but a very good overall performance for young Park.

PAS: What a discovery! This is a bloody wild lucha apuestas with one of the all time greatest wild bloody lucha apuestas workers as a pup. The crowd was seemingly on the verge of a riot the whole time, and I thought we might get Park brawling with the fans when he spilled into them. Loved the early violent beatdown on Sandokan: Park busts a bottle over his head to start and grinds the pieces of glass into his head, cutting him badly. He also throws a classic Park chairshot where he let it go as he swung it so it careened awkwardly into Sadokan's head. Sadokan is a real discovery too. We have enough footage now to really get a sense of him as a top level local charismatic babyface brawler, kind of a Panamanian Colon, with some big dives and hard stiff punches mixed in. Matt mentioned a bit of awkwardness but I like my apuestas to be a bit raggedy. I thought this was completely awesome, one of the greatest unearthed pieces of footage we have found since this project started. 

ER: This was tremendous. An apuestas match that really felt like an apuestas, that universal wrestling language we've seen is that way because it works regardless of language or era. Not too long ago we knew collectively very little about the Panamanian lucha scene, and now we have this cool snapshot of local babyface legend Sandokan, who really does seem like Panama's Carlos Colon. At this point I'm going to need to see the Costa Rican Carlos Colon, and the El Salvadoran Carlos Colon, I'm sure there's someone similar in Honduras, and I'm going to need to see the LA Park matches with all of them. Panama is nowhere near Mexico City, so I have no clue how often Park was going down that way, who facilitated his trips there, nothing. I know how often I've driven from the Bay Area to Omaha, NE - the same distance from Mexico City to Panama - and that's zero times baby. Park is just showing up 1500 miles away making locals bleed and starting near riots. He bloodies up Sandokan and runs him mouth first down the apron into a ringpost, then gives him a real LA Park chairshot with an open metal folding chair. It's a real beating, with hard right hands and plenty of flash (I can't imagine cannonballs off the apron were anywhere near the norm in late 80s Panama) while also bashing Sandokan into the ring steps. 

He bumps huge for Sandokan's comebacks and knows exactly when to act cutthroat and when to get his ass beat. Sandokan has great babyface punches and Park's bumping takes over the rest. Park bumps like Jerry Estrada (or, like LA Park), taking essentially four straight backdrops, the 4th sending him flying head first flipping through the ropes to the concrete, goes up for a big spinning backbreaker, takes a nasty full extension stretched out bump into the ringpost, always managing to out-bump Sandokan x2. Sandokan misses a big top rope splash? Just look how high Principe is going to bounce on his missed flipping senton. The ramped up flying is cool, with Park's tope suicida and Sandokan's plancha leading to believable moments of each man barely beating the count, and there's a cool superplex where Park tried to drag Sandokan up to the top turnbuckle by his ears before getting thrown off. If you have to have some drama at the finish, I at least like how this was done. The referee gets knocked to the floor in a big bump, and Park gets the ref-less win after a back suplex. As he's celebrating on the turnbuckles, he eats a flat out crazy electric chair drop off the middle buckle, and the post-match unmasking and mic work sounds heated as hell. I'm going to need any and all unseen La Parka footage, and at this point I want to see more big Sandokan title matches. Model citizen, zero discipline. 

Brazo de Plata vs. Aaron Grundy (Mike Shaw) CMLL 12/15/92

MD: This is hair vs hair. It's 6 minutes, two per fall. It's a Porky hair match so we pretty much have to cover it at some point and it's ok, you know? I'm sure people knew what they were getting here: big guys crashing into each other over a short period of time. Grundy had the advantage to start and did beat Porky around the ring. He took a shot to the post on the outside but no color. He ate a clothesline (meaty enough) in the ring and a pretty woeful splash from Grundy. Porky's big comeback in the segunda (after a missed corner charge) was an unlikely slam and an iffy splash of his own. The tercera saw Grundy take back over with a pokey punch after a handshake lure-in, but he had the good manners to miss a splash off the second turnbuckle and this time Porky got some air on his splash. This was clipped so we just had the action and a few seconds of the haircut but you can't really say that these guys didn't do what they set out to do. And hey, Shaw had nice headbutts, an ok clothesline, some decent punches in there, even if he was no Tugboat on his big splash.

ER: It would be easy to view this match as a disappointment, because I don't think it's possible to have a wholly fulfilling three falls hair vs. hair match that is less than 6 minutes of footage. Super Porky is one of my favorite big match workers and I was dying to see what he could do with Mike Shaw a mere four months before Friar Ferguson's debut/final match. This match just might be the final time that Mike Shaw ever looked like a normal human being. He's a big fat guy of course but his red singlet actually fits him, and he has a nice lush beard that covers up his goiter-like swollen bullfrog neck area. Losing his hair to Super Porky clearly made him go insane, and the man never had a normal head of hair, beard, or eyebrows past Christmas '92. So outside of the weirdness of seeing the last normal glimpse of Mike Shaw, you got a tremendous small scale Porky selling performance. 

I always talk about how Jerry Lawler is not only the greatest puncher in history, but he's the greatest punch salesman in history. He knows how to sell his own punches, and how to sell his opponent's punches better than anyone. Well, of all the praise I've heaped on Porky over the years, I don't think I've ever talked about how Porky is one of the great punch salesman in wrestling history. This match gets sincerely great when Grundy starts throwing punches directly at Porky's poor overworked heart. Grundy clearly starts targeting the ever sensitive heart of Brazo de Plata, and I love how Porky sold each one of the shots. He was in their recoiling from the blows, treating smaller shots like he was dealing with some rough heartburn (I now need to see a handheld where Porky chomps through a handful of Tums before spitting out a chalky mist after getting punched again), and as the punches get harder (and Grundy threw some awesome punches at our big boy's heart) Porky starts recoiling with his whole body, rubbing at his chest and desperately trying to create space before his ticker stops for good. Everything else in the match was rushed or a bit underwhelming - no matter how endlessly entertaining it is to see Mike Shaw throw a standing splash that is literally him just falling forward without leaving the ground an inch, his ugly missed splash off the middle at least had to have hurt his knees - but Porky getting his heart attacked was amazing. You can't ask much more from a 5 minute pro wrestling match than "an obese man tried to force his fat opponent into cardiac arrest". 

Jerry Lawler/Brian Christopher vs. Derrick King/Dustin Starr LAW 8/29/04

MD: This was the main event of the Lethal Action Wrestling 2nd Anniversary show and it was basically the Lawler Family Comedy hour. Before the match got going, Christopher did both his whole dance routine and threw his beads and Lawler seemed like a proud father for how into the crowd was, even if he refused to take the imaginary shovel. It's a little sad to think this was after Christopher's national run was basically over. Lawler's comedy was pretty funny here. They ended up riding both of the heels like bulls; Lawler did a fun dropdown bit off rope running; and the best part was King pulling the strap down fighting out of the corner and Lawler patiently putting it back on before clocking him. 

In general, whenever King and Lawler were in there together it was at least great, but it was probably just fun the rest of the time. The finish was someone sneaking King a chain and him actually getting to pin Jerry so that's probably why Team Lawler took so much of this. The heels started some real control on Christopher and that was fine (even if Starr was probably a half step behind what he might have done a couple of years later) but it was a bit too little, too late to put any drama into this. Lawler rushed in after the hot tag and really crushed everyone though, immediately dropping the strap and hitting some of his better stunners. It's always nice to see Lawler and Christopher as an over babyface team together, but the way this was structured meant that this had a relatively low ceiling, even if it did have a fairly high floor.

ER: This is a match that takes its time getting to where it's going. It also keeps the whole crowd of children and adults wildly entertained with a match that at times felt like something put on for an elementary school. This was a full Brian Christopher Go Brian Go babyface match, started with a 10 minute comedy stretch before building to some punch throwing, and was a 20 minute match with Lawler/Christopher taking at least 90% of it. I didn't care for some of it, Brian Christopher is in for most of the match while Lawler just laughs at G-Rated Brian antics. But then there are some incredibly inspired sections where Lawler and Derrick King work the exact type of match I want to see. Everything Lawler and King do against each other is the exact reason you'd be watching this 25 minute match. You knew the punch exchanges would be good, but you wouldn't have been able to predict the tights game on display. 

Lawler is in flamingo hot pink trunks and singlet, with black pink and turquoise tights paint splatter tights. It's an incredible combo, and one you'd have never guessed he was sporting back in 2004. This is a 1991-1994 era tights and singlet combo. I mean that singlet is PINK. I don't associate bubblegum and splatter paint with the 2nd George W. Bush term. Lawler must have shared his notes with King, because King is wearing his own set of hot pink trunks and singlet with some colorful big stars on his tights. It's nothing at all like anything that was happening in 2004. But the punches in the corner are universal. Derrick King has the best punches in the match. Lawler finally throws some good ones but King's are supreme. King throws a fistdrop and excellent right hooks, and the match peaks when King takes his strap down only for Lawler to slide it back up like Bugs Bunny and deck him. It's perfect, and it almost makes you forget about Lawler dishing out middle fingers and the worst looking Stone Cold Stunners you've seen. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LA PARK

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE JERRY LAWLER

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2022 Ongoing MOTY List: Broken Hardys vs. Private Party

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

ER: I thought this was a blast, a great TV comeback for the Hardys and the kind of high end role-working from Private Party that shows how they've really grown. Private Party knew the right balance of "Younger Version of Hardys" and "Lite Heel Showcasing Legends" and they hit it dead on, and the Hardys worked up to their legendary status. The Hardys are the biggest US wrestling tag team of the last two decades, and I am always a sucker for a wrestling match featuring aging veterans tapping into their spent youth. I thought Matt looked great here. His timing was awesome, and his offense lands heavier than ever. He still might have the best punch in pro wrestling, but every move he did landed hard. His Side Effect looks like a dangerous 90s joshi finisher, his Twist of Fate really yanked Kassidy's neck, and his downward strike elbows to the neck looked Misawa-level. Jeff moves like 48 year old Rusher Kimura now, and doesn't seem to be able to bend over and lift anyone to their feet any longer. But, now he just wrestles like old indy freelance Jimmy Snuka, landing full weight on every splash and elbowdrop, absolutely murdering rib cages with his Swanton. Jeff's Swanton has to feel worse than a Vader Bomb at this point, and Private Party hung in for every single heavy landing. 

Quen and Kassidy wrestled this with a smug confidence and it might have been the most I've ever been into them. Flashy babyface teams are okay, but Kassidy nailing a tope con giro and smiling at the camera comes off way better as a brag. Private Party were great at feeding for both Hardys while peppering in their own highlights, and both knew how to time kickouts for stronger effect. It was no guarantee that the Hardys were going to win this. AEW knows how to showcase veteran acts without crushing upcoming acts, and seems to recognize that some acts develop over longer arcs. When Dynamite debuted, Private Party were a featured tag act, and they weren't quite ready for prime time. Careers don't always arc as planned, and this was a great example of two careers at very different points of their arc, colliding nicely. 

2022 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Gordon! Bordes! Frederico! Kato! Mercier! Montreal! Magnier! Fuji!

Elliot Frederico/Kato Bruce Lee vs Flesh Gordon/Walter Bordes 7/9/83
 
MD: Now this had some heat and was all the better for it. They did about ten minutes of exchanges before Gordon missed a dropkick and they went into heat and comebacks for most of the rest of the 30. In the first fall, that meant two or three hot tags too, one of which set up by Gordon catching a kick and driving forward with a trip that worked really well. The heels were more fresh and kept in control though. They used ref distractions for double teams so that even as the stylists came in hot, they got knocked back down. It finally built to a big sequence where they were able to work together to end the fall. The heels took back over in the second fall though, winning with a double team and this continued until the third when chaos would ensue with a giant dive to the outside (and then back in) by Bordes.

So that was the structure, always a welcome one. The details were good too. Gordon had come into his own with the new character, fast and fiery with sympathetic selling and that star nature of always coming back at least a little from underneath (plus that great flip around mare finisher that people badly need to steal). Bordes, older, some hair going n the back of his head, continued to pick up new tricks. They both seemed to integrate some of those headlock flip about tricks that only Petit Prince had done previously and Bordes had a really cool double hand on the mat block to an arm wringer throw. Kato Bruce Lee showed no signs of working a character named like that and was more of a Mike Sharpe style bruiser. Frederico had leather, a bald head, a mustache, and a pretty cool lifting choke towards the end. You watch this and it's hard not to think that they couldn't get a few more years out of what they had. Gordon came off as a solid heir to Leduc, Corn, Corne, Mercier, Ben Chemoul, Bordes, the last of which was still going strong. The heels were competent and compelling, and sometimes they got the structure exactly right to build the crowd to a fevered pop. We're into 1983, but this one simply worked.

SR: 2/3 Falls going about 25 minutes. Flesh Gordon debuts. And France would never be the same! In all honesty though, this was really good. Young Flesh Gordon was a pretty good technico, no kidding. Really dug the luchariffic rhythm of the early exchanges. And Bordes as his maestro partner was just ridiculous, even hitting a plancha to the outside. Most importantly, this felt like it had spark. It also had the kind of recognizable southern structure that people can recognize. Frederico & Kato Bruce Lee won‘t set your world on fire if you‘ve seen Anton Tejero and Albert Sanniez, but they knew how to beat someone up and make it not boring.

Guy Mercier & Marcel Montreal vs Fred Magnier & Yasu Fuji 7/30/83

SR: I have a suspicion that this is from the 70s due to the way it‘s filmed, but Fuji is listed as only having come to Europe in the 1980s. But what do we know. Anyways, this was pretty mediocre and brutally long so you don‘t really want to watch it.

MD: Sebastian got here first and had me worried. Overall, I'm not as low on this as he was, though I agree that it's a bit long for what it is, and it's also missing certain elements. There really isn't the sort of mat wrestling and in-and-out holds that you'd expect from almost every French Catch match we've seen so far. What we do get is generally from Mercier, as the heels are all stomping and hammering and leaning, with just a bit of power moves out of Fuji (primarily a lifting drop onto the top rope). And they do control a lot of the match. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Montreal takes a lot in the second fall, but when he's in control it's sitting in a headlock as much as anything else.

I do think Fuji brought a different presence at least. By this point he'd been active for quite a while and he was still a year or two off from being Super Strong Machine #3 but he had size and reach (especially stomping from the outside). Magnier is a doughy cheapshot-spewing stooge, a sort of poor man's Gastel, but it was still nice to see him again. And yes, Mercier still did all the hits, the spin out takedown (blocked once by Fuji but hit twice), the headstand headscissors takeover, grinding the knee and the nose at the same time, etc. The heels distracted the ref well at times and it made the two big comebacks in the match matter more, but again, it was all a bit lacking. You wanted more heel miscommunication spots and more dumb bits with Saulnier as ref and just more wrestling overall. There were still things to like here; it would have just been a lot better if they stopped at the end of the first fall. It was one of those.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 12/19 - 12/25

AEW Dark Elevation 12/19

MD: Got some sickness in the house (yeah, that sort) right now, and right at XMas too. I had initially thought about doing the whole show as it had a lot of things to like (Shafir hitting people at weird angles; Athena being Athena, the best act in AEW right now; Workhorsemen vs BCC; Emi and Bunny doing their thing) but that's out. There was a Kingston/Ortiz tag, but I don't have a ton to say about it. If I was going to do a Shinno match from this week I'd do the Omega one from Dark that I didn't like one bit, but no one wants to hear me talk about that, so instead, let's go with our honorary Finger Slim...

Ethan Page/Matt Hardy/Isiah Kassidy/Top Flight/Konosuke Takeshita vs. Trustbusters (Sonny Kiss/Slim J/Jeeves Kay)/Wingmen (Peter Avalon/Cesar Bononi/Ryan Nemeth)

MD: The AEW webshows reward and punish those that watch them all. I've seen some griping about the Hardy Party/Ethan Page story popping up here and there and it's a shame as I think Page has done a great job with it. I get people being frustrated by the idea of yet another contract storyline (Khan writes what he knows), but the backstage stuff has been a lot of fun. Page is walking this obtuse line between being malicious and so egotistical (naturally) that he actually gets into the moment at times. He really leans hard into the fabricated enthusiasm that you get the sense that the character is sort of losing himself to the moment at times, but in a way that somehow makes the humiliation worse and not better for Hardy and Private Party. I'm not sure it's entirely coherent, but it's actually pretty compelling.

Here, he burst through the pair as their music hit and did the big hardy gun hang signal only to cut the music when he didn't get a big pop. He had a mic and it was a fun little gimmick but I don't think he leaned into it enough. Past one moment where he freaked out that Takeshita was ending the dive train, he only said anything when it was a plot beat. He should have been commenting on a lot more, like the Trustbusters triple combo sliced bread. That was my big gripe there. It seemed a little too in your face because of it, even if his facial reactions and faux babyface cheering on was actually pretty engaging throughout.

You watch a big twelve man match like this looking for a few things: the rapid fire spots, interesting match-ups of opponents, and interaction between guys who wouldn't normally interact. I don't think we really got that last one. It was nice to see Page pat Darius on the shoulder pre-match as an extension of the above gimmick, but in general the Trustbusters (still working out their act) and the Wingmen kept to themselves and didn't work together much. We did get some fresh match-ups though. Kassidy and Kiss come to mind, and as Darius been on the shelf for so long, even the Wingmen and Top Flight working against one another seemed pretty fresh. So in that regard, this was a hit for me. They especially used Takeshita well here, as a big clean-up hitter. I would have liked Bononi teased a bit more (or even get to lean on Kassidy a bit) before the big showdown with Takeshita though. Honestly, I wouldn't mind seeing one of these on Elevation with various guys on the massive roster once a month.

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Found Footage Friday: SOLAR IN PANAMA~! GALVEZ~! FUJINAMI~! CANEK~! WOLFIE~! DUNN~!

Solar vs. Sergio Galvez Panama

MD: The first two caidas of this were just ok but the tercera was pretty great. I liked Galvez in general. Sometimes, he'd have a stomp that felt a bit too light, but he was really a good cross-section between scuzzy and bestial. Moreover, he started on the forehead by jumping Solar before the match and never stopped. Honestly, it was such focused mask and wound work that it caused some big problems for Solar later in the match. When his comeback finally arrived, he had to manage keeping his mask on to the point that he couldn't have nearly the fire you'd want. Thankfully, by the start of the tercera, he recovered and battered Galvez around ringside.They really went deep on that one, a ton of submissions and nearfalls and back and forth action. At times, Solar was just yanking Galvez by his shirt into a surfboard. At one point, when Galvez had him in a crab (which he had used to win the primera), Solar patted him on the back to make him think the ref was calling it off, that old trick. Between that and some beard pulls sometimes the match felt like it lived up to the stakes more than others. Solar won both falls with big spinning quebradoras where the ref did just call it, so that was a little weird, but the fans were totally behind it. The segunda definitely felt off here, but they more than made up for it down the stretch.  

Tatsumi Fujinami vs. El Canek 4/23/81

MD: I wasn't too sure about this on paper. Juniors Fujinami vs the World in the late 70s or start of the 80s is almost universally good but Canek tends not to be the most inspired opponent in general. In specific, on this night, however, he had quite the chip on the shoulder. It seemed to stem from the pop Fujinami got as he came out to the Japanese Social Distortion sounding live band that our resident expert (https://forums.prowrestlingonly.com/forum/1538-puroresu-history/) thinks was there for Tiger Mask's debut. He tossed his flowers down right at that pop and attacked him right at the bell.

He dominated for most of the match too, even if Fujinami had some awesome comebacks. Early on he dropkicked him right in the face but couldn't follow with a diver. Later on, he repeated it and did get that dive, which itself followed a crazy face first plancha from Canek. Like I said though, this was mostly Canek, just leaning on Fujinami inside and outside of the ring the whole way through as if he really had something to prove. Whenever Fujinami started to come back, he'd just throw his whole body at him: a neckbreaker drop, a front dropkick off the apron, that huge dive. Eventually, Fujinami got absolutely fed up and started on the mask, pulling him around the ring and into the turnbuckle with it. The ref took umbrage and got punched by Fujinami for his trouble. Post match, they kept going at it and if this was Mexico it'd all have led to mask vs hair challenges. Instead they'd have a UWA match in Juarez about a week later, but that I don't think we have. Surprisingly great Canek performance here and good fire from Fujinami at the end.

Wolfie D vs. Steven Dunn (Weapons Match) MCW 12/19/98

MD: We get a solid six minutes of action before things break down here. If I'm not mistaken Wolfie was with Ashley Hudson and Flash Flanagan as the Black Sheep. Dunn was half of the Vols, of course. He gets to the big plastic trash can of weapons first and unloads on Wolfie with a chair and a bat and a crutch, so we get blood immediately. From there, they go back and forth pretty steadily with Wolfie choking Dunn with whatever he can get his hands on and both guys coming back pretty evenly without interesting transitions. That's because it all was leading to a big one, with Dunn lifting a 2 x 4 between Wolfie's legs. He ends up tied in the ropes and is about to get chair shotted into oblivion when Hudson comes out with his boomerang (since he's Australian) and the two Black Sheep completely destroy the ref, a second ref (by tossing the trash can at him) and Dunn until Sawyer makes the save. Pretty good, heated, piece of business to set up some big matches to come. They gave away just enough but not too much given the escalation to come.

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2022 Ongoing MOTY List: Doudrop vs. Becky

Doudrop vs. Becky Lynch WWE Royal Rumble 1/29

ER: I thought this was pretty great. It's my favorite Doudrop match, the closest we've gotten to her as a small Vader, or a large Dick Togo. Becky looks like a crazed version of Rose Byrne in Physical, wild curly hair and gold aerobics leotard only adding to her need to be in control of a match. I thought this did a lot of work towards making Doudrop look like a contender, as at the start of the match nobody in the house expected anything but a Lynch victory, and by the end they were reacting loud for Doudrop's Big Ending, thinking they might actually get an upset. I liked all of Doudrop's offense. She has, at times, the best current senton in wrestling, really making her feet banana peel out in front of her while landing flush with the senton, smooshing Becky with one on her back and a great one later that they showed in slow motion landing fully on Becky's rib cage. Doudrop keeps fully committing to her offense and it makes her misses even better, and her missing the cannonball into the ring steps was nasty enough that I actually thought we were going to get a count out or injury stoppage. 

Whenever Becky got too cocky or decided to run down Doudrop, she would always fire back harder, throwing Lynch with suplexes, hitting headbutts, even powering out of a sick cross armbreaker that I thought was going to be the finish (especially when Lynch started raining down boot heels to Doudrop's head. The powerbomb and running cannonball were when the fans started to believe in an upset, and I was there with them. As Doudrop kept powering out of offense and lasting longer than the arena thought possible, Becky started doing more Woody Allen nervous facials than I needed, but those reactions only made me want to see Doudrop headbutt her some more. The Rock Bottom off the middle rope looked good as a finish, landing Doudrop similarly to how she landed on that missed cannonball earlier. The Women's Rumble right before this was so brutally bad, impressively playing against the skills of almost 30 different women, that it was great to see two women craft a great match around their skills immediately after. 

2022 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Siki! Zarak! Bayle! Eagle! Ramirez! Wherle! Schmid!

Mammoth Siki vs Zarak (JIP) 9/28/82

MD: Not nearly as good as the Siki vs Calderon match from 79 but not as bad as I thought it might be either. The big problem was that Siki didn't want to sell anything, so Zarak would get him in the corner and throw three chops into his throat and Siki would just come out hammering. The hammering itself wasn't so bad. He had a bunch of stuff, a chancery suplex, a drop down/leapfrog/dropkick, headbutts. And the strikes were substantial if nothing else. Zarak fought more from underneath throwing kicks into kneelifts, strutting about, carrying the emotional weight of the selling for the match certainly. In the end, Siki went for the mask one too many times and as the ref pulled him off, Zarak snuck in a low blow. It's a finish we actually haven't seen a ton in the footage so far. My gut says that if we had the first few minutes of this and more Zarak antics, it would have gained some points.

Remy Bayle vs Golden Eagle 9/28/82

MD: Another masked man against a strong guy but this had a different feel. Here, Bayle would have to use his strength to come up from underneath and he did so with quite a lot of verve, actually. They had built the idea of the mask being taken off in the last match and it's paid off here, with Bayle finally getting it after his big comeback, to the crowd's delight. There were some of the nice fire-ups out of a chinlock before that, the fireman's carry lift up and then just tossing the opponent over his shoulder out of the ring. Finish had Eagle angry about losing his mask and making mistakes. Straightforward stuff here but certainly not bad. I almost wonder if these two singles would have worked better as a tag though.

SR: These seem to be in the exact same building as the tag the previous month (or 3 years earlier?).
Anyways, these matches were mostly heavyweights beating on each other in not very exciting ways. The men mostly grinding these matches down were Siki (really like slazy chinlocks) and Eagle (really likes nasty chokes). I liked Bayle who looks like a Soviet grappler with his singlet and body hair. Anyways, these are for the "At least it was short" category.

Daniel Schmid/Remy Bayle vs Paco Ramirez/Gilbert Wherle 7/1/83

SR: 2/3 Falls match going about 25 minutes. Paco Ramirez was apparently working EMLL as "Lawrence de Arabia". That was the most interesting thing about this bout. The wrestling was okay, but the face/heel dynamic was executed kind of poorly and you could tell they didn‘t have the kind spark of brilliance you usually expect from French wrestling. Worst of all, the match went needlessly long when these workers just didn‘t have much to offer. 

MD: I begrudgingly agree here. As best as I can tell, Schmid had an injury/accident in the late 70s and turned into a fan favorite after that and, as the parallel to him is Buddy Rose, it does remind me a bit of the Buddy face run. And he's fine in this role, even impressive with some of his flipping escapes given his size. But he was an entertaining bad guy and this would have worked better if it was Bayle/Wherle vs Ramierz/Schmid. We've seen very little of Wherle in the collection but he had some real expert arm/wrist manipulation and the best part of the match was when he was firing back and forth with Schmid. Ramirez had become quite the character with the bullwhip and matador gear and his preening theatrics. Bayle leaned into his strength again. The big problem here was just that the stylists were never in much danger. There was one bit where Ramirez and Wherle worked together to cheat for maybe a minute but it wasn't enough. There was the long technical first fall and the quick second with some comedy like usual but there was no drama in the middle. It meant things couldn't boil over and there was nothing to get emotionally invested in. That said, and as noted above, the work was still good. There was just nothing to sink your teeth into except for Ramirez being punchable and good exchanges for the sake of good exchanges.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 12/12 - 12/18

AEW Dark 12/13

Eddie Kingston/Ortiz vs Trustbusters (Slim J/JVSK)

MD: Sometimes AEW will tape something and then not show it due to changing circumstances. This was taped all the way back on 11/4 in Atlantic City, and Eddie, post Akiyama, has apparently cooled down. He was still pretty hot for this one. Still, they came through and showed it nonetheless and we're glad they did. Slim J vs Eddie Kingston is about as much of a Segunda Caida match as is possible. If Punk doesn't come back, then Slim J becomes the fifth finger sort of by default. This got a ton of time too and was a good showcase for everyone involved.

Eddie and Slim J got really stretch to start with Slim just absolutely driving Eddie nuts and goading him into things. Eddie came back by responding to some more goading with a perfect eyepoke. Later on the Trustbusters would get to really lean on Ortiz, looking pretty good working as a unit for a team that has maybe one or two Dark matches together. Slim J has been around forever but he's traveled in different circles than a lot of the other AEW guys. I think Davari said that he'd first met him the day that they started as a unit. And I don't see any signs of VSK working him before either (even though VSK has been around for fifteen years). This broke down to some pretty wonderful chaos with Eddie suplexing everyone, taking Slim J's flying reverse DDT perfectly (which not everyone does), and less perfectly eating another dive. They had Eddie break up a couple of lesser things by VSK but made Ortiz kick out of the Amityville Horror/Cradleshock, which I think is JVSK's finisher, so that was a dubious choice but it fit the moment of the match, I guess. I liked the little bit of Sonny Kiss we got as a second in this one, including to set up the finishing miscommunication. Trustbusters are just such a weird and random unit but it somehow works. Excalibur was trying one last ticket sale read as Ortiz made the final hot tag and Eddie spun into the backfist and he carried that manic energy forward into the call. If this is the only Eddie and Slim J encounter we get in AEW, it'd be a shame, but it still felt pretty substantial for a month and a half old Dark main event and I'm glad we got at least this much.

AEW Rampage 12/16

Dustin Rhodes/Orange Cassidy/Chuck Taylor/Trent vs Kip Sabian/Trent Seven/Butcher/Blade

MD: Feel good way to end a yearly themed AEW taping, especially important considering the big hometown babyface lost to end Dynamite. Lots of moving pieces here but they came together pretty well, with everyone more or less where they should be when they should be and plenty of gaga. I enjoyed the Trent-off to start and the fans got into it. Seven is a guy with a couple of unique ideas, a slightly different body type. I think there's probably more value to AEW overall to bring guys like him in occasionally instead of full time, that sense that anything can happen at any moment as opposed to just making a huge roster even huger, but he was more than happy to play along with everything here. Probably my favorite moment in this one was when he was taking Dustin's punches by really throwing his head all over the place. Sabian is someone I give some credit to, as while I don't entirely think the act works, I like how broadly he thinks about things; there was a moment during Dark a week or two ago where he was mocking Alex Reynolds about the Preston Vance turn that is something almost no one else on the roster would have done in that spot. Sort of a galaxy brain approach to his matches.

I get that WWE is better in many ways than it was at the start of the year, but it's always refreshing to highlight someone like Dustin in Texas. It's so intuitive and so special. It's part of what WWF was doing for years at the start of the war in the 80s, bringing in people like Wrestling II in Louisiana or Mad Dog Vachon in AWA territory. All of Dustin's interactions with Danhausen (constantly staring at one another) or Cassidy (playing air guitar to the theme as Cassidy leaned upon him on the entrance) were enjoyable and the sort of things I'd hope would lead to something more. I feel it's off brand to note on Segunda Caida that I would have liked a hug with everyone involved, but I kind of would have. The bits with Danhausen and the faux low blows (and the one actual one) set up the finishing stretch in a fun and different way than a dive train would have. They could run a match like this once every few weeks or once a month, highlighting a local guy, pulling together some characters and some feuds, to send a crowd happy, and it'd be part of what will always make AEW special compared to a lot of what we've been forcefed over the last two decades. I still hope this is leading to Dustin challenging Cassidy for the All Atlantic Title at some point though. I'd even take Dustin and Danhausen interacting more.

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NXT UK Worth Watching: Devlin vs. Banks

Jordan Devlin vs. Travis Banks NXT UK 3/7 (Aired 3/26/20) (Ep. #85)

ER: Jordan Devlin is really good at getting matches I like out of people that I don't like (for their wrestling style or because they're a nonce), often while working a style that I don't even like. He's one of the few guys who you could make the case for being the best wrestler in NXT UK, and I really love the ways he integrates his ideas into a match. In his longer matches he tends to throw in some "cute" exchanges that would surely annoy if done by a lesser performer, but he and Noam Dar have a way of getting cute with their opponents that actually manages to add to a match. Banks is a nonce and I'm not a huge fan of his in-ring, but he's shown himself to be a very good opponent for all of my favorite wrestlers. His matches against Devlin, Dar, Alexander Wolfe, Kassius Ohno, and Brian Kendrick are among my very favorite matches through 85 episodes of NXT UK. I don't think anyone else on the roster has had the level of matches Banks had with those guys, so even if I argue that he was "carried" to those good matches, there have been several other guys who all had matches against those guys and the Banks matches were just overall better. This is basically his last match in WWE, I doubt I'll be writing about any of his matches in the future, so here's me doing a "gotta hand it to" a guy who sucks: Travis Banks, you had better matches against great wrestlers than a lot of other people. 

I loved how Devlin went after Banks and I loved the way both bumped. Devlin always throws in a couple neat tricks, and I loved how Banks got him to faceplant on a dropdown, just rolled right into his ankles and sent Devlin face and shoulder first into the mat. Banks had done some work on Devlin's shoulder and Devlin fell on that shoulder and kept acknowledging it, all through controlling Banks he would roll his shoulder and flex his arm, smiling while enacting revenge. That all happened when Devlin rolled to the floor to escape but Banks came after with a tope. Devlin sidestepped that tope and Banks had one of the more spectacular crash landings I've seen. Banks went upside down, head and shoulder first into that barricade, a crash landing that Darby Allin would want to study just to see how to make it even crazier. As Banks is crashed on the floor, Devlin does one armed pushups in the ring and I love it. Devlin looked good in control, working over Banks with stiff strikes and setting up good comebacks. Devlin's reversals all look really good, and he rarely looks like the type of modern wrestlers I hate, who work every move around a reversal. Devlin's reversals always fit into the match and actually play like a reaction, not like a dance step. 

When Devlin catches knees on a moonsault, Banks goes on an awesome comeback tear. The corner cannonball has become a pretty worn out spot, but Banks hits one with his whole damn ass behind it. A lot of cannonballs have become late somersaults rolling up your opponent instead of into your opponent, and Banks jumps into this one like Jordan from the free throw line, really hitting Devlin like a cannonball. Banks also hits a tope that I didn't even think Devlin would be recovered enough in time to catch, as Devlin bumps out through the ropes and as he's bumping Banks is already getting a head of steam, and by the time the camera cuts back to Devlin he's getting wiped out by the tope. I mentioned "cute" spots, and one of those was a headbutt exchange that I've never seen before, and probably don't want to see much again: Banks hits a headbutt that staggers both, and Devlin winds up falling forward with his own headbutt as both are going down. It sounds complicated, it sounds silly, but I really liked how it came off. If it started turning up in every match like a finger break, it would become one of my least favorite spots, but that's the magic of Devlin, taking an annoying idea on paper and actually making it look good. This had several convincing nearfalls, strike exchanges that didn't fall into obnoxious patterns, and some real crazy spots. It was worked like a big main event and it felt like a big main event. 

COMPLETE GUIDE TO NXT UK

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Found Footage Friday: DOUBLE DOG COLLAR CAGE MATCH~! ADNAN IN IRAQ~! GUERREROS~! CHICANA~! LA FAMILIA MARKUS~!

Adnan Al Qaisi vs. Ian Campbell Iraq 1970

MD: Long 2/3 falls match that ends 1-0 for Adnan at the time limit (either 45 or 60 depending on clipping). This had been out there in parts but is newly clipped together in a welcome effort. You get a real sense of the imperial pageantry here, officials and a band and parade feel, even though the same footage of a few fans (out of the very many) is interspersed now and again. Let me put it this way. Campbell knew what was good for him here, knew what was safe and what wasn't. They weren't going for heat. They were using this as a showcase for Adnan's technical superiority. As such, it was a pretty effective dog and pony show.

Campbell had a size and strength advantage, but Adnan had an answer for every hold. Towards the last fifteen minutes, the answers were a little harder to find and Campbell could press harder with a full nelson or chinlock, but even those ended quickly enough by prying off an arm or pulling out a leg. In return, Campbell could use his strength to escape Adnan's stuff, but he'd find his way back in sooner than not. It meant that individual exchanges could be interesting, but that the total picture was a bit toothless. At times they'd break out into strikes. This first happened around the ten minute mark as Campbell was starting to register some of the damage to his arm. He had a great little bit where he trapped the arm behind his opponent's back with a hammerlock and tossed in a nasty forearm, but even there, Adnan fired back with a flurry and a jumping elbow smash soon enough. They repeated this a few minutes later and that's when Adnan got his one fall.

Considering the locale and the one repeated shot from the crowd of someone sweating profusely, it was probably sweltering there and Campbell was a big, hairy guy, but they kept a pretty good, competitive pace throughout. They'd go from a handshake to mean shots and back to a handshake so things were never going to come close to boiling over, but as they got towards the end of the time limit, Adnan increased his intensity, using leg kicks and just tossing Campbell out over the top repeatedly. That made it seem something of a moral victory for Campbell that he was able to survive to the bell (whistle?) even if he was a fall down. It was wrestling as celebratory propaganda, but as such it was fairly fascinating to watch, just maybe not 50 minutes worth of fascination.

Sangre Chicana/Gran Markus Sr./Gran Markus Jr vs. Chavo Guerrero/Hector Guerrero/Mando Guerrero CMLL 9/18/87 

MD:  Roy's back posting, always a good thing. This was from the 54th CMLL Anniversary show and at the very least hasn't been streaming online for quite a while, if ever. The bits in between falls are clipped out so it moves at a fast pace. The announcer also gets Mando and Hector confused for a good part of this and almost psyched me out, but no one moves quite like Mando. Primarily, it's another Sangre Chicana match in his prime, so that's exciting, but he's more of a dodgy chickenshit here, throwing shots now and again but mostly on the run. He gets slammed onto the floor right as this ends, so that's some comeuppance but it's more about everyone else. Markus, Sr., maskless, has a sort of enjoyable weighty swagger to himself. This is the guy we saw in so much of the Houston footage, just older. Jr. on the other hand, is younger than what I'm used to and a bit more spry. This opens up with fun in-and-out matwork between him and Chavo. Chavo's in the most but Hector has a nice snap belly to back and the end of the primera is a combo of that belly to back and an axe handle off the ropes. And of course, Mando is a ridiculous beast like always, full of contorted, tricked out offense: takedowns and monkey flips and bounding around the ring. There's a lot more to the opening feeling out stuff than the beatdown or the comeback, but both are spirited enough. If this led to some sort of Chicana vs Hector or Mando match, I would have liked to see that too.

Bart Sawyer/Steven Dunn vs. Ashley Hudson/Flash Flanagan (Double Dog Collar Cage Match) MCW 1997

MD: Very timely Bryan Turner upload here, though not timely enough to make Phil's list as an honorable mention. Sawyer was attached to Hudson and Dunn was attached to Flanagan. Babyfaces dominated early. There were a bunch of chairs in there, both wedged in the corners and just free floating and Dunn used them liberally. That led to free flowing blood. They'd switch advantage for a bit. Very few big setpieces here and just a lot of violence. That said, both Sawyer and Hudson did fistdrops off the turnbuckles with the chain wrapped around their hands onto the other. My most vivid memory of the match itself was probably Sawyer choking Hudson with the chain as Dunn stomped on his groin. There was a lot of that sort of thing here, but plenty of cage shots, chair shots, and chain shots too. It all built to a ref bump and Dunn accidentally clocking Sawyer. That's when things got really fun. Sawyer stared at Dunn, slowly took off the dog collar, snatched the key from the ref, and went to leave the cage. Dunn tried to stop him and ate a kick and a DDT for his troubles and Sawyer locked the cage back up on the way out, taking the key as the fans shouted 'traitor' at him. Hudson and Flanagan made short work out of Dunn after that, finishing it with a leg drop off the cage from Flanagan. Then, as Prentice (I think) taunted everyone on the house mic about how this was his New Year's present for everyone and not to worry because "It's just Steven Dunn", they absolutely dismantled him after the bell. No one could help since the heels had the key. Finally, Sawyer came back in to finish him off. Good match and a truly great post match angle.

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Loosely Formed 1998 WWF: Mark Henry's First Great Performance

Mark Henry vs. Owen Hart WWF Raw 3/2

I thought this was a really great Mark Henry performance. The first great Mark Henry performance. A great performance from a man who literally all of us missed on for four years. You can see here how great he was at taking all of Owen's offense AS a superheavyweight (important), selling everything appropriately and to the degree it needed to be sold. 

Henry's bump through the ropes to the floor on a spinning heel kick looked was so well done, and it's the way he leans into Owen's baseball slide dropkick and bumps back flat on the floor. Later he takes a similar bump off a nice Owen missile dropkick, taking it all with his chest and flying straight back. 

Criticizing Owen's ring work is one of my least favorite things, but man Owen had some bad looking offense here. Brother, it's just flat out stupid to do shoulderblocks to the stomach of a man like Mark Henry. Look at how ridiculous Owen looks trying to hold Henry in the corner while jamming his shoulder into his stomach! Why is he doing them? One of my least favorite parts of Owen's in-ring is the way he auto pilots his way through matches, and has these moments where he only knows how to do one thing one specific way, regardless of who his opponent is. He knows how to move a match from A to B to C, but he doesn't change his A to B to C to account for differences in opponent. So while it might make sense for him to throw shoulderblocks in the corner at Jeff Jarrett, it looks absurd against Henry. Henry is the one who should be throwing shoulderblocks, and when he does exactly that later in the match, it only makes Owen's look sillier. When he's kicking away at Henry's leg? Perfect. But come on, it looks ridiculous to put a man that size in the sharpshooter (even if I liked how Owen bumped when he got kicked off his sharpshooter attempts). 

If you compare their selling over the course of the match, it is not a favorable comparison for Owen. Henry builds to his bumps and knows how to sell the size difference, meanwhile Owen is the one taking a strong backbreaker and elbowdrop only to jump up to his feet like nothing at all happened to him when Henry misses his next elbow. Owen is working the match in segments, while Henry is working it as a complete match. When a segment is done, Owen basically claps his hands and moves on to the next section, ignoring everything that just happened. Henry is just out here working a full match. 

I loved the way Henry threw himself into his misses. The leaping elbowdrop miss was the best, but his missed charge into the turnbuckles looked great, better than Owen's. I love the Bret chest first bump as it always looked like it shifted his whole skeleton and usually lead to his opponent taking over for long control. Owen never uses it meaningfully, and seems to just do it because his brother did it. Henry's version actually makes sense within the match. Also, Henry's missed seated splash on Owen's sunset flip attempt (and the subsequent ass cheek sell) was sweet sweet icing. 

BUT maybe the coolest thing Henry did in the match, was the way he RAN toward Owen after whipping him into the corner, before throwing him with a belly to belly. The best wrestlers in wrestling history would have just let Owen recoil and stumble out towards them before hitting their move, but running to meet him right after the recoil and then waiting a beat before throwing him, now that's brilliant. 

I think it's safe to say that this is the first match where Mark Henry looked Actually Good. I don't think this level of performance keeps up through 1998, but this is like finding the good Tamon Honda performances from the 90s that nobody actually talked about in the 90s. 

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Corne! Caballec! Richard! Renault! Prince! Bouvet! Sanniez! Tejero!

Jean Corne & Rene Caballec vs Jacky Richard & Guy Renault 10/12/81

MD: This was just go go and more go but everything was mean and nasty at the same time. We've been watching Corne and Richard for years and years now with Renault and Caballec coming in and out of the footage but could they ever still go. You'd get Richard or Renault just feeding and feeding and feeding, bounding off the ropes, bumping around the ring while in holds, in and out and in again. Even when they slowed down, they didn't let up. It'd be Richard grinding on a chinlock and just punching someone right in the cheek and putting it back on or Caballec snatching a bridging headscissors to a standing Renault and the working of it just constant motion and struggle. And they'd move right into an armbar with Renault scooting around the ring and Richard bumping in trying to get a tag. Or Richard would have an arm puller on Corne with Renault continuously whacking him from the outside, eventually Corne would manage to knock him off the apron but they'd work right back into the hold until Corne could roll around into a headlock and kick Richard in the face. They just kept going and going, constant motion. Just one sequence after the next, constantly interesting and engaging and violent.

There were differences. Richard and Renault were the next version of the Blousons Noirs, I guess, now fitting for the early 80s, by way of Adrian Adonis and studded leather everything. I mean, it was still Jacky Richard. He had to be an old friend to most of these fans. There was a quick and out of nowhere first fall where Corne got clocked by him off the ropes, though. Even Delaporte seemed confused by it, but it did add a bit more drama, yes. The only time the match settled down were the real periods of heat where the heels were controlling the pace and beating down the stylists, and there Delaporte helped to bring the motion as ref as he bristled about. That didn't give the crowd any rest. It just ramped up the pressure for the comeback more and more. And that paid off with some big house cleaning moments from Caballec and clowning revenge by Corne. All of the turmoil boiled over into a short third fall as they worked towards the time limit with pin attempt after pin attempt before Delaporte got to partake in his favorite indulgence and declare the stylists the winners. Just a wonderful middle ground between working hard and working harsh.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going 30 minutes. Richard & Renault were donning the leatherman gear here. There were some structural choices here that may confuse people, but the work was undeniable. This kind of insane cardio show from a bunch of crusty old men is just befuddling. I liked the early pinfall to increase tension throughout most of the match, and there was just one entertaining exchange after another. Richard & Renault weren‘t bumping as big as other rudos we‘ve seen, but had no problem going along and looked considerably scummy. The crowd absolutely loved this and folks were jumping up and down anytime Les Celts got the upper hand.

Petit Prince & Gerard Bouvet vs Anton Tejero & Albert Sanniez 7/24/82 

MD: There's some question on whether this is 79 or 82, but given the technological advances (the names on the screen for instance), I'm thinking the 82 date is right. It's strange being in 82 as opposed to, let's say, the mid 60s where we actually have so little footage from the rest of the world. We have a great idea what wrestling looks like all over in 82 and it doesn't look much of anything like this. This was all the hits, once again, but it's amazing that Prince (and his bases, and Bouvet in his own way) were still able to do them 16 years after we first saw him. You can't help but wonder what it'd look like if Sanniez got to team with 82 Dynamite or Tejero with 82 Buddy Rose or with the potential 1980 Prince vs Fujinami match would have looked like.

It's the hits but the hits are so good, crazy wristlock exchanges early where a wrestler will hang on through everything, all of Prince's headlock sequences where you, and his opponent have no idea which direction he'll dart next as he twists around and through and over, so many cartwheels, Tejero bumping out the ring again and again, Sanniez with a chip on his shoulder, Bouvet being slick as can be. There's even the short arm scissors sequences with the Gotch lift and stumble over the top and right back in, with the actual heat in the match starting with Tejero cutting Prince off when he tries to go up and over the second time. That's the big difference between 66 and 82, that they're able to work the heat to a comeback better, with missed tags and distracted refs and everything else. That bit was probably just a bit too short to really inspire hearts and souls to rage though. It all still ends in a celebratory third fall with a lot of stooging, but even in 82 the action here more than holds up against anything in the world at the time.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going a bit under 30 minutes. This exact same match is also uploaded as being aired on 1/1/1979, so it‘s another mysterious case. This was a "more of the same" match with some sequences being replicated exactly as in the previous Prince/Rocca match. That is to be expected, I guess, and there were still like 10 sequences that would have most luchadors drop their jaws with envy. The man bringing something fresh to the table was Bouvet, doing some more technical stuff and even a skin the cat spot. Tejero was a bit more subdued here, so Sanniez stepped up being the
master of the hair pull. There was no intense heat segment like in other French tags and the faces handily bagged this one 2:0, so I guess that disqualifies it from a Best Of list anyways.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 12/5 - 12/11

AEW Dynamite 12/7

Dynamite Diamond Battle Royal

MD: Dustin is healthy again and was in this one. He's saying he'll retire in 2023, so we're going to cover every bit of his work as we can between now and then, if that actually happens (wrestlers are wrestlers and he's more of a wrestler than most). He does seem to be featured a bit right now and may even get an All Atlantic Title match, maybe? Hopefully? Dustin vs Cassidy would be a new match-up and I think they could do pretty interesting things with it for a one-off. We'll see.

This was, of course, an AEW Battle Royal which means some fun, pointed moments, and a lot of fun moments that just seem to happen. There's a lot to cover even if this wasn't the most eventful AEW Battle Royal I've seen. First, look at all of those managers and seconds! Stokely and Big Billy, The Blade and the Bunny, Penelope Ford, The Boys, Nana! And that's even with Sterling, Vickie, Jake, Arn, and a few others not there. Managers are a great, integral part of wrestling, and AEW is great for using them so thoroughly even if the contract stuff can be a bit much at times. Speaking of contract stuff, one of the biggest actual storybeats here was Matt Hardy, made by Ethan Page and Lee Moriarty to do their bidding and work as a pretty effective unit. Page lost the forest for the trees, of course, and enjoyed rubbing it in so much that he let himself get distracted, but while it was happening, there were fun bits like Matt jousting with both faces and heels, him leaving Moriarty high and dry for a high five, and Page cheering him on against the Butcher (while not helping) leading to a Hardy chant. Butcher was more of a monster in this than Cage, which says a lot about both of them. I loved Blade jumping up to the apron to celebrate with Butcher after he eliminated Dustin. Dustin got his big moment against kip with a picture perfect Destroyer, which was Kip's comeuppance for screwing with Cassidy. Kip had a nice little beat where Cassidy blocked a slam into the corner and he turned to look at him in a moment of exasperation or shock before Cassidy hammered him in. Speaking of Cassidy, one of my favorite little things in all of this was when Jungle Boy came out and Cassidy did his little version of the arm waving to great him before giving him a handshake as Dean saluted them both. It's little things like that which make the promotion feel more alive and active and more than just the sum of matches, promos and angles. Starks, to his credit, was able to take out Butcher (and like I said, Butcher being such a beast in this made that mean all the more), but they could have focused him a little more even than that. Same with Jungle Boy, who had just sort of been in it before he got bodied by Big Bill with the boot and the crazy chokeslam. What mattered in the end was that Starks won though, which laid the groundwork for the promos that would follow. Not the best AEW Battle Royal ever, and the tenor of the eliminations was a bit affected by the commercial break, but even a just ok one is always full of all of those great little moments that makes the tapestry all the more vivid.

Darby Allin vs Samoa Joe

MD: This was a hell of a thing. It's know how much of this was Darby being Darby and how much of it was Joe finding his groove after a time of inactivity, in the latter stages of his career, but if pressed (and I'm pressed every week around here; that's the point), I'd say it was about 50/50. Just a monster base against an insane bumper; not a flyer so much as just a lawn dart who throws himself into everything he does. Joe gave right at the get go, pushing Darby back but eating a dropkick out but then he did his trademark walk away and it was on from there. Joe just absolutely dismantled Darby on the outside, brutal stuff. He leaned on him during the commercial break, and then cut off the comeback attempt by setting up the amazing spinning bump off the post. All throughout, Joe emanated sadistic glee, grinning, scoffing, flexing to mock Darby after that bump, tossing Darby's in and back out of the ring to break the count, just a living, breathing monolithic monster that lives in the same world as you and I. Of course, Darby's exudes resilience like no other and he somehow was able to mount a believable comeback with Joe taking just enough of his stuff to really wow you and make you think that Darby might pull it out. It was all for naught with the great chokeout finish, one of those things that probably aren't as impressive as, let's say Joe catching Darby in a fireman's carry off a plancha like earlier in the match, but that looked great nonetheless. Post match, they go with one of those moments where you can't see the strings and have no idea how they pull it off without severe spinal damage as Joe dropped Darby right on the skateboard wheels. Don't try this at home, I guess? You wonder if they should have been trying it in the arena, but it sure had an effect. The crowd was great throughout, oohing and ahhing every bit of offense, and every bit of it was deserved. Even if this Joe run gives us nothing else, it sure as heck gave us this.

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Loosely Formed 1998 WWF: The One Match Tom Brandi Push

Jesus Castillo vs. Tom Brandi WWF Shotgun 2/28

Here is the One Match 1998 Tom Brandi Push in all of its glory, and it's a surprisingly good match with constant focus on a man who would no longer be under contact one month later. If you watched this match and only this match, you would think we were smack damn in the middle of a Tom Brandi push. 

Tom Brandi gets a full ring entrance while Jesus is already waiting in the ring (with no other members of Los Boricuas at ringside). Who among us remembers the Tom Brandi Entrance Theme? Not this guy, but we get it here in full as he high fives his way to the ring while Michael Cole and Kevin Kelly talk about all the titles Brandi is sure to be challenging for. 

But this match is actually good, and incredibly fun. THIS is the high watermark of the Tom Brandi run, and I have no idea why he and Jesus have such great chemistry. The timing in this match was shockingly good, and Brandi had a couple of sequences that I've never seen him pull off before, let alone this well. 

Jesus brought most of the interesting stuff until the closing stretch, but Brandi was a great foil and his speed and timing played great off Jesus. Jesus does normal things in slightly different ways from anyone else, like when he elbowdrops Brandi in the stomach. How many times have you seen someone intentionally elbowdrop into a guy's stomach? He throws a chop block into the side of Brandi's knee instead of into the knee pit and drops more elbows onto the inside of the knee. 

Brandi takes a nice DDT, and his knee selling is surprisingly strong. His selling isn't dramatic or forgotten, he just works with a believable limp, in a way that still allows him to actually hit offense. Tom Brandi: Nuanced Salesman, is not a thing I've considered typing before. 

Bless Jesus H. Castillo and his sick shoulder-first bump in the corner, like Jun Izumida's flying meteor only jacking his own shoulder painfully into a turnbuckle. Jesus gets thrown up HIGH on a backdrop, and the little do-si-do sequence that leads to Tom Brandi's match finishing full nelson slam was actually great.  

Do I need to watch the 10 minute Undertaker/Salvatore Sincere match? What a weird ass looking match. What the hell were they doing in 1996? Mostly unexplored era for me. 

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Found Footage Friday: PANAMA~! SANDOKAN~! KATO KUNG LEE~! OLIMPICO~! GIGANTE TATAKI~! DYNAMITE~! CANEK~! KIMURA~! TAKANO~!

Sandokan/Kato Kung Lee vs. Gigante Tataki Panama 

MD: Tataki was Walter Quisbert Limachi, a 7'5" Bolivian giant who had been a boxer before getting into wrestling. They get around twenty minutes out of this before it breaks down completely. Tataki was fairly agile for his size, with a ton of presence. At one point, he gets Sandokan down and just bounds up to the second rope to miss a stomp. When he took and when he gave was a little suspect and he sure liked to bump out of the ring whether it was warranted or not. In general though, this all worked pretty well. Early on Sandokan and Kato Kung Lee used a lot of kicks to the legs and tried to play cat and mouse with the giant. If he got his hands on either of them, he could chuck them across the ring without any issue. The first time he stepped through the ropes to give chase, you could hear all of the kids screaming in horror. When they were double teaming him they were able to bound over him to hit sunset flips and what not. Unfortunately for the heroes, around halfway through the match, he got them both outside and smashed Kato Kung Lee with a chair. That was it for him and he got taken to the back. After that, Sandokan put up a valiant attempt, staggering Tataki with ten punches for every one that Tataki could throw, but after getting knocked to the floor, he recovered and started tossing Sandokan around again, including hitting a kneeling pile driver and this great toss where he grabbed Sandokan's singlet and rolled backwards. Both Sandokan and Kato Kung Lee were more than happy to fly around for him. Eventually, Olimpico (I think) came out to even the odds allow Sandokan to recover. Even then, they could barely hold the giant at bay, but after getting posted, he eventually got angry and went to the back, only to come back to sign a contract for the apuestas match we have upcoming. This wasn't Der Henker vs LeDuc/Corn or anything, but it was a pretty solid way to fill almost half an hour as a total package. All we have is the footage to go off of but Sandokan continues to look impressive as a local Carlos Colon type ace. Tataki may have given a little erratically, but for a guy his size he had a lot of presence and surprising athleticism. 

Sandokan/Olimpico vs. Gigante Tataki (Hair Match) Panama

MD: This falls on the spectacle side of apuestas matches as opposed to the bloody sort, but it was a hell of a spectacle. Sandokan and Olimpico started like the tecnicos did in the last match, throwing kicks in and darting around so Tataki couldn't get them. He sold the leg kicks as if he was taking bullets, but he'd also bound to the second rope threateningly. It didn't take him long to separate his opponents, given that he was able to toss them around so easily. Things opened up once he hit his kneeling piledriver to Sandoken on the floor. Once they could no longer double team him, he'd pummel one and then the next. The comeback was big, but it could have been bigger as he just missed a big splash in the middle of the ring. It was fun though, with Sandokan running up to sit upon Olimpico's shoulders so he could smash Tataki on the head, right until he'd get rolled forward, forced to victory roll his own partner. They kept bounding up and doing it again though. I was picturing Carlos Colon and Invader 1 doing it to Andre, and it was all pretty wonderful stuff. Tataki wasn't exactly subtle in his shift from taking to selling, but he sold enthusiastically when it was time. Even then, he was able to separate his opponents and was taking back over again with huge hanging tree slams onto Sandokan, until the ref ended up distracted by Olimpico and Tataki ate a mule kick to the groin. He sold this bigger than anyone has ever sold anything, basically, falling out of the ring and spasming across the basketball court towards the crowd. That set up the absolutely iconic finish with Sandokan and Olimpico throwing chairs at Tataki one after the other, burying him so he couldn't answer the count.

Dynamite Kid/Canek vs. Kengo Kimura/George Takano NJPW 4/3/81

MD: Chippy stuff actually. Early, early 80s mean jerk Dynamite is the best Dynamite and here he had a couple of kids to beat all over the ring. Canek tried to keep up, which was welcome, but he wasn't nearly as mean. Kimura and Takano had something to prove so it ended up being a little less cooperative than you'd think. Less artful exchanges. Kimura was especially good at hoping into the ring to assert himself and break things up and just swipe from the outside in general; good fire overall. When they could work together, they had a chance and Dynamite wasn't afraid to bump for them when warranted, even if he was less eager to sell. In return, they went up for all of Kid and Canek's stuff (butterfly suplex, delayed vertical, gutwrench suplex, clothesline onto the top rope, Canek's plancha, the press slam into a backbreaker that ended it). Like I said, Canek was fine but whenever he was in there, you wanted him to tag out just because you knew Dynamite was going to throw a nasty European uppercut or drop a headbutt.

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Drew Gulak Was Raised on a Promise

Drew Gulak vs. Mansoor WWE Main Event 11/25/21 - GREAT 

ER: This was the  6th (!) and final match Gulak and Mansoor had in 2021, and perhaps the final match they will ever have. I liked all six of their matches, but we didn't quite get one that was a head above the rest. All of them were good, none of them were quite enough to make a list (unless you were compiling a list of Gulak/Mansoor matches, to which I would say that all six of their matches belong on that list). This was a cool match, just like most of their matches, with Gulak starting things off with wrist and ankle control, and I've always been impressed by how well Mansoor stays in sequences with Gulak. It never looks like Gulak leading someone through matwork. Mansoor is always doing something like grabbing at Gulak's ankle, and he's really squirmy, constantly moving forward, so just holding onto his wrist always feels difficult. This broke open nicely with a real sick inverted atomic drop from Mansoor. He stopped Gulak running the ropes by grabbing him like he was going for an exploder, and instead just brought the hammer up into Gulak's balls. Gulak always has nice counters to throw out against Mansoor, and the best was when he threw him off mid-tornado DDT and then hit a fantastic running lariat while Mansoor was still getting his footing. 

I liked Gulak working over the ankle and back, love his little leg whip takedown. It's not a dragon screw he just has a hold on Mansoor's ankle and flings it while dropping his body weight down. There was an interesting fight over a vertical suplex, which isn't something that you really see in WWE. Both kept blocking each other's weight and kept backing the other up, until Mansoor wisely dropped back with his weight, rolling backward and came up to his feet powering Gulak into the suplex. Mansoor really looked like he was fighting to get him over, and the crowd responded much more to that fought-for suplex than they would have to either just hitting a snap suplex (source: they actually responded to that deadlift suplex and had been mostly quiet before that). My big complaint with the Gulak/Mansoor series is that they never really adequately build to a finish, and the finishes can be a bit sudden. It happened five times, so there was no reason to believe it would change for the sixth, and it didn't. Still, this was a real good way to cap off a series that a lot of people did not watch, two fun dance partners who would go on to be even more grossly underused in 2022. Unrestricted 5 minute matches on Main Event every month will always be better than random 2 minute Smackdown matches every few months.

#1 Contender Black Friday Battle Royal WWE Smackdown 11/26/21 - FUN

ER: There aren't many 2022 Drew Gulak matches, so one of his last TV matches is going to wind up being him getting eliminated 90 seconds into a battle royal. Somewhat cruelly, they teased two Gulak interactions that we've never got to see in actual matches: Gulak vs. Sheamus and Gulak vs. Sami Zayn. Gulak mixed it up with both and tried to eliminate Zayn before getting booted spectacularly to the floor by him, sprawling out onto his stomach when he hit. He wasn't the first eliminated (sorry Jinder) so he'll always have that at least. The rest of the battle royal, as battle royals go, was fine. It had Shanky without Veer, and Mace without T-Bar. Sami Zayn won, and he was far and away the best battle royal worker in the match, working constant character moments that added to the whole match, never making the match stand still the same way Happy Corbin and Madcap Moss made it stand still for their character work. Zayn knew how to cheapshot and get almost eliminated, and knew how to always be working while not always being the focus. Angel and Humberto should have stayed in the match longer, as they're better at integrating singles match spots into a battle royal setting, but both took great elimination bumps (Garza going fast to the floor, Carrillo getting body slammed into him). A lot of this felt like it was focusing on the wrong guys. Asskickers like Sheamus and Holland and Cesaro felt underutilized, and Sheamus wasn't working this like it was for a title shot. Fast guys like Mansoor were out of there before the ring was cleared out enough to do anything, but it got saved by Zayn running and stumbling through, Ricochet working a hot finishing stretch, and a false finish Jeff Hardy win before Zayn shoved him painfully to the floor. Needed more Gulak, but Zayn's 2021 was so great. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DREW GULAK

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Tuesday is French Catch Day: Corne! Caballec! Richard! Sanniez! Lasartesse! Mercier!

Jacky Richard/Albert Sanniez vs Jean Corne/Rene Caballec 9/8/80

MD: Caballec is someone we've seen a few times in the footage, going all the way back to the early 60s. Last time we saw him, he was positioned as a bad guy but I noted that he seemed to have stylist skills. He certainly showed them off here. Sanniez, of course, had been an arch stylist but he'd worked out how to be a bad guy in his time in a role. He and Richard were perfectly balanced, the stooging, bruising, slamming, jawing Jacky and the slick, bumping, technical, rope running, and constantly trying to interject from the outside Sanniez. Between the two of them, you had just about everything you could want two stylists to go up against. And of course, Corne was one of the very best at what he did; by this point, it feels like the Celts were as iconic and as much of a staple as the Rock'n'Roll Express, even if Corne was the constant and partners moved around him. In between them was that old walrus, Delaporte, gruff and even more aged than we last saw him, but beloved and one of a kind in his reactions.

Richard comes off again and again as one of the best wrestlers in the entire footage. He's not going to be one that casuals who drop in for trampolines and Petit Prince headlock spots are going to notice, but he's a base's base and a stooge's stooge and a mauler's mauler. He's the glue. He's the reaction that gives meaning to the action. He's the consequence ready to strike and capitalize on an opportunity. Here he's gotten even better at working with Delaporte, working with the crowd (and hating the music from the Celts' fan club), while still being able to take everything and keep up enough to make it all work. They work this to a draw, though that doesn't really make the first twenty minutes much different than what we'd be used to in a long 2/3 falls tag. What it means, as much as anything else, is that Richard and Sanniez are quick to rush into break up pinfalls and earn Delaporte's ire. At one point, after Richard snuck something and the fans called him on it, he pointed to him with the most perfect "J'accuse!" imaginable. They got the heat that they did did by running circles around him, attacking a downed opponent while he was stuck admonishing the other. He got the last laugh as after the time ended, he declared the stylists the winner anyway; he's the promoter so he can do that.

SR: 2/3 Falls match going 30 minutes. If all 80s French wrestling is just gonna be quality workrate tags like this involving lumpy maestros, I‘d be fine with that. The opening exchanges were just ridiculously fast and intricate. It was like watching Navarro/Solar on speed. I also enjoyed Albert Sanniez a lot here, who may be the best of the French rudos. He just makes everything look great. The structure was a bit weaker than in the previous tags as it seemed like the faces were never really in trouble and there wasn‘t an extended heat segment. Roger Delaporte was the referee here and for some reason he keeps this in order. Being a legendary TV villain and then turning around to be a good guy referee is weird. The time limit ran out, but Delaporte declares Corne & Caballec the winners anyways. The work here was very good, but I could see some people being annoyed or confused with the match layout.

Guy Mercier vs Jack de Lasartesse 10/5/81

MD: And suddenly we're in October 1981. The wrestling in 1980 was good! So it's a shame that we're basically a year later without much to show for it. This is our lot though. We shall meet it with dignity. There's still quite a bit left after all. They say it's been thirteen years since we've seen Lasartesse and the footage bears out at least 11, I think. Delaporte is the ref. I'm with Sebastian that the big issue on this one was that Mercier's comeback just wasn't hot enough. Lasartesse had taken over fairly early by working the back and he did it well, with hard shots, pulling the corner protector down for whips, backbreakers, butterfly suplexes. When it came time for the comeback, it was sort of an eyerake out of the bearhug, which led to legwork and the duel selling of the leg and Lasartesse's ears as I think he was doing the Mongolian Stomper gimmick of the crowd noise hurting him. He's such a unique character, with his lanky limbs and gum chewing and the way that he always sells and strikes while he's just constantly walking, like a shark who can never stop. When he sells late in the match by writhing and not walking, having lost his swagger, that's when the fans know he's in trouble. Before that, he's always a long-reached hairpull away from escaping any hold. Mercier does a good job selling the back and then coming back with leglock after leglock and Lasartesse does take back over later, leading to a fairly fiery comeback and strike exchanges towards the bell, but it's just not as primal as a Van Buyten (or Jacky Corn for that matter) match would have been. Great build, but the payoff sputtered too much.  

SR: 1 Fall match going 30 minutes. Lasartesse was sporting blonde hair here and hadn‘t fully morphed into the evil grandpa looking guy yet. This had the weird Lasartesse match problem where he did a ton of offense, but the match wasn‘t as smartly laid out as his better matches. His offense looked good, especially the knee drops and throat jabs, but Mercier wasn‘t able to stage some kind of epic comeback against that like a Van Buyten type worker would have. I thought Mercier was too small to fight Lasartesse (seems there was a lack of big guys on the French scene), and while he does fine, he doesn‘t do a ton of interesting things here either. He was mostly hogging Lasartesses leg which
didn‘t lead anywhere. There was also the thing where Lasartesse hits his sick ass knee drop off the top rope followed by the tombstone piledriver which is a finish if I‘ve ever seen a finish in French catch, but Mercier just kind of gets up and they move on with the match. Guys will get pinned following a bodyslam or hip throw, but for some reason everyone survives the Tombstone Piledriver. This also goes to a draw and again, referee Delaporte declares the face the winner which feels like it completely eliminates the purpose of a draw. I‘m probably making this match sound worse than it was, the work was good and especially Lasartesse had a good showing, but the baffling layout choices prevented this from being more than that.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 11/28 - 12/4

AEW Dynamite 11/30

Bryan Danielson vs Dax Harwood

MD: Top line AEW house style, wrestling-for-the-sake-of-wrestling face vs face stuff here. There was no underlying story, which isn't the same as the match itself having no story or having no purpose. Danielson is seemingly about to be in a main event program with MJF over the Regal assault and having a big win over a storied tag champion in a huge workrate match that goes against most things MJF represents is useful.  For Dax, it gives him another seminal singles match against a top guy and top wrestler and further gets over the idea that he's at the top of his game. Even in defeat, it heats him up a bit heading into the tag title match with the Acclaimed and to whatever they'll be doing at the ROH PPV.

Like I said, the match itself was peak AEW house style stuff. I liked how earned every move had to be. Most of these were set up in smaller chapters. Dax would go for the pile driver, be unable to hit it the first time out, would have to come up with some sort of clever counter (in this case the Arn fake punch which I've never seen used for a pile driver before) to do so. Likewise, the slingshot Power Bomb, which Danielson rolled through with a Rana the first time. And there were layers into layers, sunset flip counters that were rolled through the first time and nailed the second, all of it leading to Danielson finally hitting his kick, which Dax was able to block multiple times (leading into some of these counters upon counters previously). While it was cute at times, it never felt forced, never felt overly choreographed, and never felt telegraphed. It all made sense, but it made sense after the fact not before. That level of being smart yet still feeling organic was symbolized in the suplex outside the ring. Dax moved down the rampway to get to exactly the spot he needed to be to make the spot work, but as Danielson went flying over on the suplex, fans still had to dart out of the way. It was poised and placed but still felt natural. In some ways, it's a shame this was a one off dream match along those lines and that we're not seeing Danielson and a partner go after FTR, because I think they could build on this from match to match to make something really impressive. 

And of course, as it was a cold match coming in, it was on the characters and there respective intensity to drive it. That's why I loved the bit early on where Danielson went for the LeBell lock and Dax for the Sharpshooter, with Dax not releasing in the ropes even on the count. Danielson, instead of just laying there and waiting for the ref to get control, threw up a foot right into Dax's jaw. That set the tone even more than the submission attempts themself. No measure, no hesitation, nothing given. It was Dax's match as much as it was Danielson's, but 2022 Danielson is going to push you to the absolute limit of your physical prowess. Dax met him halfway and they ended up with chops and with kicks, yes, but clothesline each other again and again instead. It was something old, something new, something borrowed, and something absolutely covered in red welts. If it's not up there with the very best matches of the year for both guys, it's just because the stakes in so many of their other matches were so high. That's part of the joy of AEW though, that they can just set this up on a Friday and run it on a Wednesday and we'll have it to watch back whenever we want in the years to come.

AEW Rampage 12/2

Darby Allin vs Cole Karter

MD: Sub ten-minutes considering Darby's intro and the smashing of Comoroto with the bat, but it felt a little longer and probably needed to be a minute or two shorter. Pretty good showing for Karter given his relative inexperience though. I went and looked it up and he really wasn't in the WWE system for all that long. His connective tissue between spots was pretty good for that level of experience though. Between that, his look, and his athleticism, there's probably something there moving forward. It's good he's still working at least some indies on the side though. I do get the impression that with things like taking Comoroto out with the bat or the hulking up/sitting up he's been doing a little more of, they're prepping Darby for something more. 

With that in mind, even if it was good for Karter's development, Darby probably gave a bit too much. At the least, it was warranted by that early offense. Darby absolutely crushed him with his dive and then started on the hand, which would pay off later. Then, though, Karter was able to horrifically crotch him on the top and even more horrifically power bomb him into the apron. Within the ring, he hit a buckle bomb too. Other than that, it was a lot of knees to the ribs and shots to the back and I liked how it wasn't all moves and spots. So long as he stayed focused, Darby couldn't fight from underneath, but he couldn't put him away with knees to the ribs alone so he went broader and Darby came back. I probably would have ended this thing with Darby's hulk up, but they had Karter catch him one more time and miss his 450 before Darby finished him off. It's going to be tough for Karter to get the singles matches he needs in the Factory, since Johnson and Ogogo (who we haven't seen for a bit, even on Dark, so I wonder if he might be injured?) need them too and yet QT has the most overall value as a mid-card heel that can put guys over. But Karter's only 22 and Johnson's only 24, so there's still time for both of them.  I'm hoping that in a year or two we're talking about Karter and Johnson like we talk about 2022 Yuta and Garcia now. It's possible at least.

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WWF 305 Live: Andre vs. Studd Career vs. $15,000!

Andre the Giant vs. Big John Studd WWF WrestleMania 3/31/85 - FUN

ER: I really like gimmick matches where the gimmick is the thing that ends the match, and I also recognize that a lot of those matches tend to be worked in ways that don't quite seem like the guys in the match would have worked things any differently in absence of the gimmick. This is a match where you win by bodyslamming your opponent, and really does not feel like a match you can only win by bodyslamming your opponent. BUT, if Andre fails to bodyslam Studd, then he loses his CAREER!! Andre has to slam Studd, or else we will never hear from him again! But it is definitely a gimmick match where both men don't seem to know or care about the actual stipulations and instead just work 5 minutes that don't totally seem to build to much. It is a match that happens to end with a bodyslam, and before it ended the only way the match by rule was allowed to end, there had only been one brief bodyslam attempt. Since Andre never attempted a bodyslam until he hit the one slam that won the match, there was never any sense that he was specifically weakening Studd to make him easier to slam, as there was never any point in the match where he was having any kind of difficulty doing whatever he wanted to Studd. If this was a man who knew he was in danger of losing his career, then Andre sure chose to play it c-o-o-l. 

There were a lot of really great, interesting ways this match could have been worked. This could have been Studd hurting Andre early and wearing down Andre's back while attempting several bodyslams that each get a bit closer, or this could have been Studd - noted heel giant stooge earlier in his career - scrambling to avoid Andre as Andre dominates and keeps almost-slamming him. You could have Andre get frustrated by Studd's avoidance and make a mistake because of that frustration, allowing a surprise late match shift in momentum. Those are just three easy ways to work this, but there are a ton of other ways, and all of them are more interesting than what they chose to do. This is just Andre having no problem at all squeezing and kicking and punching Studd around the ring without even teasing that he was about to attempt to pick him up and was never once in danger for even two seconds. 

It's such a strange match when you think about it in context. Maybe they thought, "This is WrestleMania. This show will be seen by people who have perhaps never seen WWF before. We need a showcase for Andre. We need people to see this GIANT." But this was not an impressive example of Andre's skills. He punched, he ragdolled the hell out of Studd with a choke, and he held a bearhug. Andre's in-ring acting is the greatest in wrestling, and here there wasn't even an act. If you want a showcase of his offense, you need someone who is more interesting at taking offense, someone who would bump for a giant's punches; if you wanted to showcase Andre's selling and acting talents, then Studd was a big enough guy who could convincingly do offense that Andre would sell. This was just Andre being dominant, worked so that minute 5 of the match felt like minute 1. The long bearhug was supposed to sell that Andre was weakening Studd, but Studd didn't act that weakened and Andre never met resistance so the weakening seemed superfluous. Andre is in MSG and he just doesn't seem interested in making any of the match stipulations add to the match, and he shows none of the charisma or charm that he could show in his dominant performances. There's a moment where Studd tries to kick him, and Andre catches Studd's leg and start to laugh, lets it build...and then just throws a punch, which is a thing that he had been doing the whole match. Andre did have some cool leg kicks, but they were mainly fascinating from a "Andre usually doesn't lift his leg that way" stance. Andre doesn't usually kick a really tall guy in the thigh several times in a match, so it's just cool seeing Andre doing weird leg kicks. 

Andre decides to slam Studd and does so in a way that makes it look like he clearly could have done this 5 minutes ago, and he is awarded $15,000 that is being housed in a child's duffel bag. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WWF 305 LIVE

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Found Footage Friday: BIGELOW~! VADER~! LAWLER~! FARGO~! DUSTIN~! A HOGAN~!

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Big Van Vader NJPW 9/5/88

MD: Second encounter ever between these two. Sometimes Bigelow has a tendency of being too much of a US style babyface in Japan; clapping and working from underneath when you want him to really press his size and just brawl and slug with these guys. A little cartwheel-y, you know? It helped keep him over though. The fans clapped along. They chanted his name both here and in 90 when he spent some time in AJPW. In this one specific case, it was okay because part of his job was to get Vader over, and he'd do that best by recoiling into his shots and bumping all over the ring for him. It may not have been the match that I wanted, ultimately, but it served a purpose. Despite being the first to go bumping over the top to a Bigelow dropkick, when Vader asserted himself, he really asserted himself, with the beating spilling to the outside with an object shot and nasty punches. This was fated to be a double countout, brawl around the ringside area sort of match, but they really managed to put over Vader's ferocity before Bigelow got a comeback. Instead of taking the bump off the top after Bigelow caught him up there, Vader hung on causing both wrestlers to go tumbling to the outside together in a spot you don't see a ton but that really worked with two guys so big. I'm sure no one was too satisfied by a double count out finish but at least it was set up with a big dramatic crash. Post match, Vader stormed around the ring and then Bigelow finally rushed back in to get a last burst of adoration from the crowd.

ER: I love this day and age, where for so long we had two of the three early Vader/Bam Bam singles matches, and then 35 years later the middle match of the three shows up. I liked the theatricality Bigelow brought to this (his cartwheel didn't come until after the match, actually, and it looked incredible). I like that he was just not mirroring Vader by working as the same exact slugging big man. Bigelow was never Vader. He was never a guy who lit up opponents or worked slugfests. I don't think Bam Bam was as great a worker as Vader, and maybe he would have been better if he was more of a Vader, but I love him as Bigelow. Let Vader be the guy who punches a ring boy in the head when the ring boy walks off with his mastodon helmet, and Bigelow can be the guy getting huge cheers while cupping his ear like Hogan. This was a match more about the big bumps than the stiff strikes. 

The strikes were cool, with a few big Vader right hands, and theatrical Bam Bam strikes where he throws a forearm with a leg out behind him. But the bumps were the thing that kept bridging the match to bigger things. Vader flies backwards over the top to the floor after a Bigelow dropkick, then spends a minute threatening fans while Bigelow soaks in the cheers. Bam Bam's corner bump was a sight to behold, flying upside down and winding up draped over the top rope, then Vader smashes into him to knock him to the apron and down to the floor. Finally, when they both crash and burn to the floor, that's when the real brawl happens, with Vader hitting Bigelow with a ring bell hammer and using a table as a full on battering ram. Obviously this match was never leading to a pin, but I love the excited dudes jumping up and down in the crowd as two giant men fought past. And when Bigelow makes his way triumphantly back to the ring? You've never seen a better cartwheel in your life. 

Jerry Lawler vs. Jackie Fargo NWA Worldwide 1999

MD: Fargo was almost 70 here. It was for his hair. Nicole Bass was in his corner. You can imagine without even watching, right? Really, this was a wonderful thought experiment of how Lawler would deal with him, exactly where the line was in making him a threat vs protecting himself and everything else on the card. It meant throwing one's whole body backward for each Fargo punch like only Lawler could do and it meant using every distraction of Bass and from Stacy to pepper punches into Fargo's gut in the corner. For Fargo it meant hitting an atomic drop but then selling his own knee or getting his biggest advantage with a blatant low blow. I thought they did a great job of walking that tightrope in a way where people felt like they were getting their money's worth but it never became unbelievable or ridiculous. In the end, Bass turned (WWF solidarity), Fargo lost his hair. And... well, that's the tricky part with some of the Turner footage. He's doing a heroic job posting it but he's posting as he come across tapes so I'm not 100% sure what happened next. Presumably this would lead to some sort of match with a younger talent fighting for Fargo's lost honor where Lawler would get his comeuppance, but I'm not entirely sure of the chronological here and this footage, while not necessarily new, was so lost and is now so found, that cagematch's little help on any of it. Lawler was definitely primed for some comeuppance after this one though.

ER: This was really really great. I had no idea Fargo was actually working matches this late, and thanks to a pitch perfect performance from Lawler and Stacy Carter, this turned into one of the most fun (non Black Terry) matches involving a 70 year old. We wrote about a different Bryan Turner upload recently, from less than two years after this, where Jackie Fargo was guest reffing a Lawler/Rapada match and could barely get down on his knees to count a pin, so only did so one time. Here he is throwing punches so good and taking cool old man rolling bumps, inspiring enough to make me realize that I have only 30 years to learn how to be a 70 year old man who can throw a great worked punch. The whole match is nothing but highlights, nothing but ace volleys from Fargo, Lawler, and Kat. It needs to be said every time, that Lawler is not only the greatest wrestling puncher, but the greatest puncher seller in wrestling history. Lawler flies around for every Jackie punch, punches that deserve to be flown for, and gets into it with the fans with this fun cowardly demeanor. Pre-eye job Lawler had such great face acting, and somehow this handheld video from 1999 has such incredible sound that you can hear individual crowd members hurling insults and Lawler's reactions to those insults. 

Those insults do not get any louder than from two larger, older women who Carter enrages so much that you'd think she trained under Tracy Smothers. I had no idea The Kat had Smothers Power. Just by briefly running away and then telling these women to shut up, it takes no fewer than six security guards to hold back these two Actually Mad women, both of them almost making it into the ring. Later, Lawler targets one of them again, and she yells clear as a bell, "He ain't nothing but a puss! PUSSY! PUSSY! That's what you are!" It riles everyone up so much that Carter has to get on the mic and implore everyone to please be quiet. "Everybody shut up! [Lawler] can't concentrate!!" Lawler, Fargo, and Carter were all amazing, but a special bit of recognition also needs to go to the ring announcer who lets everyone know without an ounce of incredulity, "5 minutes gone, 55 minutes remaining." This was billed as having a *60* minute time limit!? What a tremendous thing for an announcer to say during a match pitting a 70 year old man against a 50 year old man. 

The punches are excellent throughout obviously, but we built to a great spot where Lawler reallllly winds up a punch that then sails right over Jackie's head, and then Fargo hits an atomic drop, collapsing to the mat selling his own knee. The post-match is great too, with Lawler and Carter filling in a ton of mic work when the hair clippers predictably don't work. Stacy Carter as Luanne Platter is really brilliant, a bank teller who is lured into marrying a 50 year old carny with promises to fund her own hair salon. Carter keeps insisting on the house mic that she be the one to shave Fargo's head, and their exchanges are gold. "She IS a real beautician, you know. Stacy, you're a licensed cosmetologist, right?" "Yes, and they are NOT doing this right." If these two couldn't make it, what hope do the rest of us have? 

Dustin Rhodes vs. Horace Hogan NWA New Jersey 8/16/01

MD: Ended up on this one when someone challenged me on Dustin's bad periods, with the implicit assumption that 99-01 was in there. It's true we don't have a ton of footage of the period, but this was between Dustin's run as one of the lead babyfaces in dying days WCW and his return as Goldust in 02. And hey, it's a good showing. He comes out as the Lonestar to George Thorogood and he is a totally viable indy main event babyface. Punches look good. Armdrags are sharp. He works the crowd up from underneath in chinlocks or sleepers. He takes some nasty shots on the outside driving his body into the edge of the ring. And yes, he hits his signature cross body to nowhere in front of this crowd bumping big to the floor. Horace, who obviously is the devolutionary connective tissue between the NWO and the Bullet Club when you see him in this setting, is fine. He's got a good way of muttering as he wrestles, gets probably legitimately annoyed with the crowd as they keep telling him to call Hulk for help, and believably serves as the other half of Dustin slamming his back into the edge of the ring. And yeah, he goes over quick for those armdrags too. Nothing in this match that gives you any reason to think that Dustin wasn't a high class talent in the middle of 01, even if we don't have that TCW footage that'd really prove it.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE JERRY LAWLER

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