Found Footage Friday: SANTO~! KATO KUNG LEE~! VORDELL~! WAYNE~! THE MOST HUBRIS-LADEN MATCH OF 2002~!

El Hijo Del Santo vs. Kato Kung Lee 11/28/86

MD: This was from Santo's patreon and you can get it there. We've been spending so much time lately with our Panamanian friend Kato Kung Lee as a tecnico in Panama that it was a bit strange to see him as a rudo here but rudo he was. He was touted for his martial arts skill of course but it was telling early that he was only able to get an advantage by powering Santito into the corner. It was only after he took over that way that he leaned into the mean looking shots. If Santo's the best ever at anything, it's his rolling, convulsing selling or his selling on the outside with his head on the apron slumped over and his absolute explosiveness in key moments including comebacks. Both were on display here. KKL took the primera with this great kneeling cradle bodyslam that was almost like a falcon arrow in its own way, followed up by a full body stretch. We don't see how Santo comes back in the segunda due to a brief bit of clipping but do see his great dropkicks and even KKL cutting him off so that it becomes a banana peel roll up.

The tercera is where the blood comes in, with Kato Kung Lee taking back over after the seconds got involved during a cavernaria by Santo. We miss a little bit of that final beatdown but we get to see the come back, the dive, the senton off the top and the finish, with the crowd up for all of this. The best thing I can say about this is that it holds up against other Santo mask matches, with the blood coming a bit later than expected but maybe all the more dramatic for it. The best thing a Santo opponent can do in a match like this is make him seem like he's really at risk, and I think KKL managed that here due to his size and perceived skill.

Damon Scythe vs. Robby Lance ECCW 6/29/02

MD: The sheer hubris of these two, huh? I mean, you want to judge a match accurately, like you would any other match. Consistency is important in this sort of thing. I want to point out that they never, ever had the crowd. A little, just a little for some of Lance's comebacks. But he kind of blew that with some cocky covers and a few too many underhooks and overhooks and cradles and straightjackets and whatever, when he probably should have been portraying more desperation when he had an opportunity while behind. There was some sense of escalation as the match went on and bombs mattered more (until they didn't down the stretch) but they also started the match off with a German and a Tiger Suplex and there wasn't really a sense on why some submissions were more effective than others. I know they had matches leading up to this, but I have no idea if it was in front of the same or a similar crowd, but this crowd in particular wasn't at all ready for what they were offering them. They weren't conditioned. They weren't understanding. Plus it was 2002, probably the single worst moment in indy wrestling history for hecklers wanting to put themselves over with references or demands. They led things off by being called Marky Mark and ended it with fake countdowns to when the match should end.

So I had to get all of that out there. At some point around the 25 minute mark, the shopping plaza should have been struck down by lightning for what they were trying to accomplish, but it was still fun to see twenty years later. Everything was hard hitting. Everything was tricked out. Everything was overly elaborate in the best pro wrestling bullshit manner. Because they agreed to the same level of twisted reality and because they were selling and countering and putting effort into all of it, you just toss your hands in the air and sort of buy all of the excess. I mean, the crowd didn't, but I am older and wiser and not trying to get myself over (even while posting on a pro wrestling blog in 2023). Lance's second fall was off of some submission so wonky that he lost it and just jammed in a nasty hammerlock, which, on the one hand, good instincts, right? But on the other? That was an exception though. Most things worked surprisingly well, if you just tried to shut out the noise and the images. If they were in the back of a shopping plaza with chains instead of ropes in Japan, this might be an all time classic? Probably not though. There's some alternate universe where these two start Catch Point ten years early. In this universe this match and these two wrestlers end up forgotten until now.

Vordell Walker vs. Damien Wayne SAW 6/14/13

MD: This was in a cage, for Wayne's NWA National title, and DVDVR darling Walker's last shot at the title. The cage was used pretty effectively here as a way to justify blood, as a way to steady top rope moves, and just to make everything seem bigger. Wayne had a way of selling everything like he was in a giant arena and watching that through the grates of the cage probably helped it relative to the overall setting. The fact that Walker's shots (chops, headbutts, missile dropkick, you name it) all looked massive didn't hurt.

Some weird structural decisions midway through unfortunately, with Wayne getting passed an object when he was more or less in control (having just hit a top rope elbow drop). You'd want that to happen after Walker hit something big maybe? The object was gone after that and it didn't have a huge impact overall in the match. They were going back and forth for most of this, which was fine, but that probably should have been done at a different point and maybe to open up a more prolonged bit of heat. Maybe my favorite use of the cage was Wayne using it to steady himself when Walker was in the tree of woe; they set up maybe the only good sitting up out of the corner spot I've ever seen with Wayne, steadied, stomping Walker's gut to make him sit up so he could hit a legdrop. When he tried it the second time, he ate a hanging suplex, which more or less set up the finishing stretch. These two just paired up extremely well with one another and while the finish could maybe use just a little more oomph and I had that one narrative quibble, it was a solid cage match all around.