Found Footage Friday: ECCW DANIELSON~! FIRESTORM~! HAVOC~! ABBADON~!

Bryan Danielson vs. Abbadon ECCW 11/16/01

MD: Decided to finish up the year with some 01 Danielson up north. These appearances feel like a big part of Danielson's development because he was allowed to do so much, to really stretch. He had angles and mic work before and after a bunch of these matches. He got to play the invading American heel, a champion, someone who felt like a big deal. It was more than just trying to have the best match possible. There's a lot going on here. This had time, a hot post-match, and the back half of this was all go. Personal preference had me liking the front half more but I'm surprised I don't remember this one breaking through and becoming more of a thing on the boards back in the day. Abbadon was a, shall we say, randy madman type character, a wrestling savant wild man who was made for his time. In 1986, you ate the turnbuckle. In 2001, you humped it. So it goes. Obviously, he had some fairly weird rolls and move set-ups but a lot of his fundamental work looked pretty good. In fact, my bigger problem was probably that he lost some of the outlandishness in the back half when it was all about getting set up for the next big move/spot.

Danielson wrestled this in the match, wrestled it mouthy, was quick to insult the crowd, insult Abbadon, shout for the USA, proclaim that he was the sexiest wrestler alive, and so on and so forth. In the first half, he kept a slight advantage with tricky shots out of nowhere (a cheapshot kick out of the corner, a leg sweep, etc.) and submissions. Eventually he started jawing with the ref that let Abbadon come back an they never really looked back. Just a lot of "stuff". At times, when Danielson was taking it, he might show the impact or beg off, but more often than not, they were just going all out, until Danielson finally snuck in a mousetrap pin for the win. The greater whole of the two halves more or less had it all come together though, especially when you factor in the post-match where Danielson feigned sportsmanship only to have his goons come out to try to break Abbadon's leg. I could have seen this ending up on some 2001 lists at the time.

Bryan Danielson vs. Adam Firestorm ECCW 12/12/01

MD: Pre-match, Chance Beckett, the Jr. Heavyweight Champ who is down with a concussion comes out to begrudgingly lay down for Danielson, his promoted opponent. Danielson makes a big show out of it and then, after getting the pin, here in 01, runs around the ring doing the arm pumping yes chant. This is, I would like to add, before Diego Sanchez ever had his first pro MMA fight. So at least subconsciously, this was in Danielson's head as a natural movement.

Firestorm comes out to challenge after that. Danielson was leaning hard into the Jr. Heavyweight mentality, to the point of saying he didn't care about the heavyweight title (which Dr. Luther had). It meant pretty even tricked out chain wrestling (with Firestorm getting just a bit of an advantage) until Adam went crashing into the post shoulder first. That let Danielson start in on the shoulder. I don't know if WWE drilled this out of him because it doesn't work as well on TV relative to small crowds, but I do enjoy how vocal Danielson is in his matches in the first half of his career. He was having it out with the ref and the crowd, trying to start USA chants, doing the Fargo strut. Some of his offense here was pretty interesting too. He hit a hammerlocked belly to back that you don't see much, had a great cut off on the top where he jumped to the floor crossing Firestorm's arm over the top, and even hit a top rope Northern Lights later on.

Firestorm was game and was definitely working on his act mechanically but he wasn't there yet when it came to priming moments or selling consequence. He just dropped that shoulder selling when it was convenient and he only took a breathe and played to the crowd when it was to set up getting cut off by Danielson. They had a neat bit where Firestorm locked in the Cattle Mutilation first before Danielson could and like I said, it was a mechanically exciting juniors match for 2001, but Firestorm just wasn't the guy in this stage of his career to make it more resonant. Lots of moving parts with ECCW as Firestorm lost on a trip and then Danielson, bragging post-match, had his next challenger run in. Still, past the historical value of a 2001 Yes Chant, it's just a lot of fun to see this version of Danielson's personal development.

Bryan Danielson vs. Havoc ECCW 06/29/02

MD: I found this drier than the Firestorm match. It might have been that Danielson, more experienced and more confident, didn't feel the need to lean on more goofiness. He was still talking, still interacting with the crowd. They got on him because he was from Aberdeen early, which was pretty funny heckling. At times, this almost felt like him noodling with various submissions for the heck of it, just experimenting with the time he had. There was a nice entry into a seated surfboard, and he had a cool variation on the Mutalock where he had the arms double underhooked like in the Cattle Mutilation. He even did a handspring into the corner. Nominally, he was working the leg, but you wouldn't really know it from Havoc's selling. The only big thing came from it was the final transition to comeback as Havoc blocked/jammed a dragon screw which opened things up for him to hit a dive. Some of Havoc's knees (and that seemed to be his thing overall) felt a little wonky and he couldn't get the corner post figure-four to work right, but overall this was a perfectly sound technical affair. It was just maybe a bit more of a technical match to get Havoc over than another example of young Danielson sowing his wild oats and it suffered relatively for it.

Read more!

AEW Five Fingers of Death 12/25 - 12/31 Part 1

AEW Dynamite 12/27/23

Eddie Kingston vs. Bryan Danielson

MD: It all has led up to this. The previous match between Kingston and Danielson. Kingston's road in the tournament so far. The entire Blue League of the tournament. Eddie Kingston's last two years. Eddie Kingston's whole life. All of pro wrestling history. All culminating in this moment. Granted, that happens a lot. Every moment is the new end point of history, but this sure felt like it.

If you've been following along here, you've seen a lot of Eddie Kingston ROH Champion reviews. It's been a different look at Kingston, Eddie the Ace, emulating his heroes, not just in their fight and struggle but at the very height of their success, fully developed entities that can confidently carry the weight of a company. He's been poised, focused, controlled, able to channel his animosity into a positive, potent, unstoppable force.

That's not at all been how he's wrestling in this tournament. Eddie's spent his life in the muck, crawling and scraping, fighting his own demons and a world that wasn't made for him, full of people with fake smiles fake tans and success that was anything but meritocratic. But this last year, bolstered by his time in Japan, he found a path towards something more. Eddie Kingston's spent his whole life just trying to survive but now he's learning to actually live as well. After an entire existence underground, he's tasted the warmth of the sun. It's made him wonder if he wasn't made for even more, if he couldn't carry more on his shoulders, if the world wasn't bigger and brighter and more wondrous than he could have ever previously believed. Success begets success. It creates opportunity and Eddie, the student of the past, has dared to dream of a new, better future.

A future with an American Triple Crown. He bet on himself, took a chance, took a risk, in order to create something that's never been, that never could be without him taking that leap. In doing so, he went from being the defending ace stretching out in his newly found comfort zone to someone who had to face all of his fears once again, most of all, the fear that he isn't enough, that he doesn't deserve it, that he's not worth it, that he's not worth much at all. And he's fought like a man barely hanging on, like someone who knows everything's at risk. He's fought like a wounded animal who had to prove something to himself most at all. And he lost, and he lost, and he lost again. He ran right into Brody King. He raised a helpless finger of defiance at Bryan Danielson. He went back to the old well instead of being the master of the new one. But he's been crawling back. He was able to find a burst of composed control at the very last second against Claudio. He was able to be just a bit more of that ace against Garcia, himself even more lost than Eddie. He was able to overcome Andrade by being the great fighter the old Eddie always was.

But Danielson was in front of him once again. And Danielson understands Eddie. He sees Eddie. Danielson is a sage, a thinker, a warrior monk, a dissident all in one. He tears at the scabs upon one's soul. He looks, he listens, he learns, and he strikes where the heart is weakest. Through this, he claims to build strength in others, and maybe that's true to a degree, but the scalding heat of competition shining in Danielson's eye
makes you wonder if he's not just cruel. He knows Eddie in ways a Claudio never could (despite what Castagnoli might claim). He cares in ways Claudio never would. If Eddie Kingston drips with hubris, then Bryan Danielson is the harsh god that will tear off his wings to prove that yes, he is not worthy, that yes, he does not deserve it, that yes, he is not good enough and he never, ever will be. Claudio claimed to be such an entity earlier this year, but he's not, for it's all just a job to him. For Danielson it is a religion and heresy, even the heresy of an acolyte of the Four Pillars of Heaven, must be stamped out.

Eddie's last promo before the match raised the question of whether or not he deserved this; he sounded unbelieving. But the second that bell rang, and for the first real time in this tournament, he believed. His hands were up. He didn't charge in. This was not Eddie the bum. This was not Eddie the scrapper. This was Eddie the Ace and Bryan Danielson had never encountered this Eddie Kingston. Danielson knew instantly he had to break him. He had to goad him. He had to bring out the rage and the fury and the animosity. He had to show the world that Eddie hadn't grown, that he wasn't better, that he never, ever could be better. And Danielson, despite his injuries, can float in the ring like a man walking on water. He stalled. He insulted. He poked and prodded.

And Eddie held firm. He stuck to his gameplan and got the early suplex and the dive. When Danielson struck at him, he looked for his opening and found a way to fire back. He stayed Danielson's equal. Now, Danielson, wrestling his equal, is still going to be able to get his advantages. He might go to the eye himself. He might illegally and confidently turn what should have been a clean break in the corner into a flurry of offense. He'd get his edge and find his lever though. So it wasn't long before he truly was in command, before he could turn the knife to break Eddie as Eddie has broken again and again. Legs trapped, at Danielson's mercy, the dragon breathed his toxic fumes, getting the crowd to chant that Eddie was a Bum.

Yet Eddie held firm. He took what Danielson threw at him, absorbed it, rose once again, and this time the fans came along with him. He was angry. Of course he was. He felt that rage and that hate within him. Of course he did. He knew the fans wanted him to unleash a flurry of his own on Danielson, exactly as Danielson wanted him to, ready for Eddie's big mistake, for his overemotional explosion. And it looked like it might come. Eddie threw a chop and Danielson went for the LeBell lock. Yet, with poise and control, Eddie escaped. Eddie went for the uraken, and Danielson was ready, turning him and preparing him for another trap. You could practically see the glee radiating off of Danielson here as he felt Eddie was laid bare to the world once again, the eternal failure, a wild animal with no self-control.

Yet Eddie held firm. He was one step ahead of Danielson and turned that reversal into one of his own. All things equal, Bryan Danielson could possibly beat Eddie Kingston, possibly not, but against Bryan Danielson, Eddie Kingston had always defeated himself. So close to dreams he couldn't have ever imagine to be possible, however, now that he had begun to trust in himself, to let himself believe the cheers of the crowd, to understand that hard work and perseverance and a good heart were all their own valuable treasures, no matter what life might have shown him before, Eddie held firm. And as he punished Danielson, as he absorbed offense and had an answer, as he endured Danielson moving through the match like a raging stream, taking every opportunity to throw an insult or a kick from every natural, organic angle, the tide started to shift.

For it was Bryan Danielson that broke. No matter how much he told Kingston he was a bum or tried to get the fans to chant it, no matter how many times he attempted to goad Kingston in, no matter how far he pushed him, Eddie kept his chin up, kept his eyes clear, and refused to falter. In the face of that, the grand dragon, the sage at peace with himself, at the precipice of yet another accolade in a tournament that was made for him and only then hijacked by Kingston and those upstart dreams, saw red. Danielson spat up at Kingston and charged forth into a strike exchange, played right into Eddie's hands. There was still a finishing stretch ahead of them, flying knees and spinning backfists, the reversal to a power bomb that had ended previous matches in the tournament, all of the drama and heart and defiance that you'd expect.

But whether Danielson realized it or not (and knowing him, he likely did) and whether Kingston realized it or not (and knowing him, he likely didn't), the match was already over. Eddie held firm. Danielson broke. And for Kingston and those chanting his name, the sun had never felt quite so warm.

Read more!

AEW Five Fingers of Death (and friends) 12/18 - 12/24

AEW Collision 12/23/23

Daniel Garcia vs. Brody King

MD: I'm actually skipping out on the Kingston and Danielson matches this week. Very good stuff, exciting tournament action, matches with novelty, but I'm fighting the clock here and don't have a ton to say. I will note that the sheer level of familiarity and physical trust allowed for some very special individual spots between Danielson and Claudio though.

Instead, I want to focus on a couple of other matches from the last week, starting with Garcia vs King. It was practically perfect. Pro wrestling perfection. One of the real joys of pro wrestling is that everything counts. Hypothetically, every match that’s ever happened can be an input to every match that is yet to come. It's that you can tell stories bigger than an individual match. You can call back on decades of history. I've written about how Garcia's past year or two shaped his run in the tournament, but here that run, and the story of the tournament as a whole, led specifically to this match.

Brody King was built up as a final boss in the early stages of the tournament. He was a monster. Some of that was in how his opponents engaged him, but even in his losses later on, he was protected. He hit his head on the post allowing Andrade to defeat him; for Danielson, it took knee after knee after knee. Garcia, on the other hand, caught between one identity and another, came up short again and again. He's good enough to beat any opponent on any night, but when push comes to shove, he hasn't and he doesn't. Certainly in this tournament, he didn't.

Brody was fighting to advance but also to make a statement, like he always does. Garcia had nothing to lose but pride, the only thing he had left, so he was fighting for that. Pride is no small thing in wrestling, but when it's the very last thing a wrestler has to cling on to, it becomes all the more valuable and potent. Garcia teased just a little dancing on the way out, but shrugged it off. His hair was cut short. He was regressing to move forward into whatever his next form may be. And he got almost nothing in the first two-thirds of this. He chose to start with a slap, to make a statement of his own, the defiance of someone who (much like his last opponent in Kingston) would dare shout into the wind and awaken the wrath of an angry god just to prove to the world that he was still alive, that his voice mattered, that he was worth time, effort, attention.

And for his hubris, King destroyed him. It was relentless and unyielding. Occasionally, Garcia would show a flash of additional defiance, a choke over the ropes for instance, but it'd just lead to a further stamping out of the embers of life; in that case, it was in the form of Brody's noose-like dangling choke. The match built to such moments, not a shift in momentum but instead small meaningful victories fought for with all of Garcia's heart. After getting thrashed on the outside, he made it back into the ring at the last second. He was able to get his foot up in the corner a few times, creating distance, hope, opportunity, showing the universe he still had a pulse. It all built to three escalating moments. First, he stood tall, pride animating a body that should have crumpled limp, standing up to Brody's chops and throwing shots of his own. Then, he kept going back to the well for a belly to back suplex, an impossible physical feat, stubbornly trying again and again, enduring the consequences of failure, until he somehow, with great effort, hefted Brody over. Then, finally, after once more finding himself oppressed and punished by this god's wrath: a death valley driver, a lariat, a solo Dante's Inferno, he channeled all of that hope and determination into a snatch of King's legs, pushing forward as if he was reaching forth towards the entirety of any possible future worth loving, and taking King off balance for a jackknife roll up. This was anything but a back and forth affair. It was a one-sided mauling building to small moments of life, of defiance, of hope, of the underdog proving something to himself, his opponent, and the world itself. It was a match that took all of the potential energy created by Garcia's last year, by everything that had happened in the tournament so far, by King's run and Daniel's tortured crawling, and turned it into kinetic gold the only way pro wrestling can. From a star-rating perspective, there was probably a ceiling on this. As a story that can only exist in this medium, at this time, with these people, it was wonderful, emotional, and resonant.

 

AEW Rampage 12/22/23

El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Black Taurus

MD: I liked their ROH Final Battle match. I did. And I thought it was appropriate for the moment. You often want a big bombastic exciting sprint to cycle off of the pre-show and into the main show. It recalibrates the crowd and sets the tone for the rest of the night. Moreover, it's part of the appeal of new-era ROH, these crazy dream matches that show up out nowhere a couple of days before the show. You wanted it to be as "much" as it could possibly be. Right match with the right people at the right time where they did the right thing.

But... I personally liked this one more. An all out sprint between a base and a flyer, especially two of the top ones of their generation, have some inherent issues. I do think that these two know how to put together a match and especially know how to put together one of their matches, but it's a problem I have with both something like the ROH Final Battle match and some of Gringo Loco's stuff. They're are so good, and do so much, that it just screws up the relative balance with the rest of the card. It even screws it up within the match itself. For instance, both Taurus and Gringo Loco have moves that are so amazing, so breathtaking, so devastating, that they're not just bigger than anything else in the match (including the finish), and not just anything else on the card (including the finish of all the other matches), but almost anything else you've ever seen (including every finish you've ever seen). In a sprint/spotfest, because of the need to keep things moving, especially during a finishing stretch that has to live up to a match that hasn't stopped for a second the whole time through, there's little room for excuse on the kickout either. You can't ensure someone's by the ropes. You can't take extra time after the impact with both guys out. You just have to get through a clean and clear two count kickout in the middle of the ring and get to the next spot or the magic's going to get disrupted. So you have these clean kickouts (and the expectation of a clean kickout, since while these moves are groundbreaking and skullcrushing, they aren't necessarily framed as a potential finish and they almost never actually finish the match in an AEW showcase stage where the flyer almost always beats the base) after things that are bigger than anything you'd ever seen. If Vikingo was presented as a wrestler so full of heart that you can't keep him down (and Rey was like that to a degree, but he was also clever in his kickouts/escapes), it'd be one thing, but he's not presented that way; he's presented as a breathtaking offensive wrestler, not like an Eddie or even someone like Blake Christian who's billed as "All Heart."

So I do struggle with that as I watch. The Rampage match, however, while starting as big as the ROH match and ending as big as it, had a secret weapon in the middle, the all-powerful commercial break. Taurus, who I would remind you, is twice Vikingo's size, shut him down and leaned on him hard. And good! He should have! He is twice his size and more than half as agile and quick. That straight out math means that if given the chance, he could just grind Vikingo down even without big moves and headdrops. Small measures like a foot choke in the corner or more mid-level moves like a side slam are still devastating from this guy! More important, it brought the match down after the hot start so that it had a place to go down the stretch. The stretch was no longer competing with the rest of the match but could breathe more on its own strengths. And, perhaps most importantly, it rewarded the fans for hanging in there and being invested in the match. Taurus, by grinding things down, was taking away from the audience the single thing that they wanted the most in the moment, not Vikingo winning the match, but the chance to see a once-in-a-lifetime spotfest. He was denying them that by being so formidable, so imposing, by throwing around his weight without throwing around his body. When Vikingo was able to come back and hit the afterburners and force Taurus to come along for the ride, the endorphins popped in the crowd's collective mind as well. A reward withheld creates anticipation and anticipation makes the payoff all the sweeter. Is it the match that they would have chosen to have if the commercial break didn't exist? Probably not, but on a week in and week out basis, we barely know how good we have it that these matches have to go picture-in-picture. Thankfully, I'm reminded each and every week.

Read more!

Found Footage Friday: UNDERCARD MONTERREY~! RAMBO~! SOLAR II~! GRAN HAMADA~! SKELETOR~! LUCHADORAS~!

Rambo/Engendro/Alacran vs. Huracan Jr/Solar II/Gran Hamada (Monterrey 1991)

MD: From the initial promo, I thought this might be a showcase for Huracan, Jr, billed as Ramirez' son but actually his nephew. He was more known as a UWA guy as were Rambo and Engendero, the latter of which was part of Los Desafiantes with Scorpio, Jr. and Shu. I wouldn't say Huracan got any more of the spotlight than Solar II or Hamada though. He was matched with Egendero but was the last pairing to get to go and while Egendero based well for him, they didn't get to do much. In that primera, Solar and Alacran matched up well, but what stood out the most, even with just a few shots, was how Rambo and Hamada were very natural opponents. Rambo just got it and Hamada wasn't afraid to throw a headbutt or a punch to send him sprawling and stooging.

They kept it moving and entertaining, with Alacran bumping from his own partners in the primera. Rambo took over with a fairly blatant foul in the segunda but they had crowd control well-managed and it was a solid beatdown ending with Engendero absolutely squashing Hamada with a somersault senton off the top. The comeback was driven by some rudo miscommunication on an elbow smash and they went into one of the usual high energy celebratory finishing stretches with a big dive by Solar and Hamada crushing Alacran with a belly to back. It only went twenty or so but it covered most of the bases.

Skeletor/Astro Negro vs. Angel del Espacio II/Johnny Curiel (Monterrey 1991)

MD: This was as undercard a match as you could get save for maybe the finish, a pair of dives that led to a count out (though being an undercard match, the escalation to dives was an acceptable finish for a tercera). That's not Angel del Espacio. It's Angel del Espacio II. That said, these guys were constantly moving and put a lot into this, placement on the card be damned. Skeletor (who may or may not have been Bronco - I'm leaning towards not) had the baggy MOTU mask and the big gestures to the crowd and bumped all over the place for armdrags and everything else. Astro Negro and Johnny Curiel were like mirror images of one another, journeymen who could still go through the motions. Angel del Espacio (II) kept coming during the beatdown, forcing the rudos to work and stay on him. This certainly didn't wear out its welcome. 16 minutes was the exact right amount of time for it.

India Azteca/Venus vs. Selene/Guerrera Purpura (Monterrey 1991)

MD: Of note here, Guerrera Purpura would become Lady Metal. This got really good as it went along. The rudas ambushed right from the get go and the tecnicas came back and because they cycled into some dubious exchanges, ruda miscommunication spots, and comedy (including that really fun spot where the tecnica slaps the mat as the rudas are on the outside, causing them to duck; then when their heads are down, she slaps both of them, making them think that they hit each other), I thought things would settle down into a pretty conventional match. That was not the case however. Instead, Guerrera Purpura got bled buckets after getting tossed into a row of chairs as part of a pretty brutal beatdown. After Guerrera Purpura recovered enough to storm the ring, the tecnicas would get their revenge through slamming their opponents into the posts, not a row of chairs. The finishing stretch had a bunch of fun bits until they brawled on the outside leading to a last second roll in by the tecnicas (Which much like the tercera dive count out finish from the last match just isn't something you see every day in lucha; oh and speaking of things you don't always see, make sure to catch the giant swing down the stretch).

Read more!

El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Aniversario Fallout

Week 12: Aniversario Fallout

EB: Aniversario from Bayamon is over but we still have one final piece from Mayaguez to look at. It’s the Universal title match between Carlos Colon and Sadistic Steve Strong. Due to the result of the title match the previous night in Bayamon, the roles are reversed and it is Colon that is the defending champion going into the match. And as was the case in Bayamon where a stipulation (barbed wire) was added to the match in the final lead up, this match also has an added stipulation. In this case, Colon vs Strong in Mayaguez is now a cage match.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DowBkGTGnTo

We join the match in progress as Carlos appears to be applying the same strategy of trying to take out one of Strong’s legs in order to set up the figure four leglock. There’s no barbed wire to punish your opponent with, but the cage still makes sure that there is no escape and (more importantly) no easy interference. The crowd cheers on Carlos as he keeps working on Strong’s leg and, after keeping the attack focused on the leg, eventually Carlos manages to get the figure four leglock on after hitting a body slam on Strong. The crowd amps up as Colon keeps the pressure on. Strong continues to fight and resist the hold as a close-up on Carlos reveals he is bleeding from his forehead. Strong manages to reverse the hold, with the pressure now being applied to Carlos. In  pain, Carlos manages to reach the ropes in order to get the hold broken. Carlos tries to get up but Steve Strong quickly hits a succession of three elbow drops to the back of Colon’s head and neck to keep him down. Strong sends Colon into the ropes and hits him with a clothesline (which happens to be the arm he has ‘Damian’ on). Strong hits another elbow drop and goes for the over, but decides to pull up Colon at two. Strong wants to deliver more punishment and finish off Carlitos. After keeping Carlos down with a headbutt, Strong backs off and repositions ‘Damian’ on his arm. His intent is clear, Strong wants to hit Carlos with the loaded clothesline. Strong sends Carlos into the ropes, but Carlos blocks the clothesline and hits a crucifix on Strong for the three count. The crowd goes wild in celebration at Carlos getting the win.

MD: Between the blood running down Colon’s face, the chip on Strong’s shoulder, and the fact the two of them were trapped in the cage, there was almost certainly a great match here. We just get a few minutes of the finish. Where we come in, Colon had turned the corner towards the comeback after what was almost certainly a grisly beating and both wrestlers were throwing kicks. Colon got the advantage, targeted the leg, and put on what felt like it would be an absolutely definitive and inescapable figure four. There was nowhere to go and no one to help Strong. However, he may no longer be champion, but he was still an absolute beast and he was able to turn it around and then retake the advantage, including a massive lariat. When he went for it again, however, Colon climbed up into a crucifix pin to steal a win. A good couple of minutes but the real transcendent serenity to be found in a match like this is always in the beatdown and that glorious moment of comeback and those things we don’t have.

EB: With Aniversario weekend complete, let’s review how things stand and how they would develop in CSP throughout the month of October.
With their Caribbean tag title win, the team of Los Mercenarios will become a regular presence in the territory. The team of Angel Acevedo and Jerry Morrow would eventually face the former champions of Miguelito Perez and Huracan Castillo Jr but would be successful in holding on to their newly won Caribbean tag titles.

Super Medico retained his World Junior title against Gran Mendoza (who was a replacement for Jeff Jarrett). A couple of weeks after the event, Super Medico faced a new challenger in Brett Sawyer. This was a tecnico vs tecnico match which we join in progress.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OfmqTJCBIk

Medico and Sawyer are circling each other in a face-off as Hugo on commentary mentions how this match has been quite the showcase of technical wrestling and it’s been a tremendous back and forth between the two tecnicos. Sawyer gets a small package off a lock up for a two count. They lock up again and this time Medico gets a two count of an inside cradle. Medico tries to grab Sawyer's leg, but it is countered into a back slide. However, Medico’s legs land in the ropes and the ref signals at Sawyer to break the pin attempt (which Sawyer does after a delay). Medico seems a bit annoyed at the delay in releasing the back slide, as Sawyer circles the ring a bit and seems to make a comment to someone in the crowd. Sawyer hits a side headlock which Medico breaks by sending Sawyer into the ropes. A series of criss-crosses leads to Medico getting a sunset flip on Sawyer but Sawyer manages to keep his balance and does not fall down. Instead, Sawyer maneuvers both he and Medico (who is still trying to turn him over into the sunset flip pin attempt) near the ropes. Sawyer sits down on Medico’s chest for a pinfall attempt. As the referee starts counting, Sawyer grabs onto the top rope with both hands in order to gain more leverage and prevent Medico from kicking out. The ref counts three and we have a new World Junior champion.

Post-match we get an unexpected development. As the ref raises Sawyer's hand indicating he is the winner, Medico comes over visibly upset and complains to the ref that Sawyer was grabbing the ropes. You can also see some of the crowd also visibly pointing at the ref and trying to signal what had happened (and we even see a few things get thrown into the ring). Medico starts arguing with Sawyer about him holding the top rope while Sawyer signals that the three count was made. Sawyer lifts the belt and Medico continues arguing with Sawyer about what he did (as the crowd also seems to be complaining as well). Both wrestlers leave the ring and, since it just so happens both are tecnicos, they are heading to the same locker room. Medico continues arguing and shoving Sawyer about what happened as the crowd starts throwing things at Sawyer. The argument and shoving by Medico continues all the way into the dugout, up the stairs and into the locker room. Sawyer sits in a chair and ignores Medico who continues asking him why did he hold onto the ropes. Medico gets more angry as Sawyer just ignores Medico and tries to untie his boots. Eventually, Sawyer stands up and asks if Medico has a f###ing problem and Medico shoves Sawyer down. Sawyer gets up and the two start fighting in the locker room. After a while, the tecnicos rush in to break it up and you can see both Sawyer and Medico are bleeding from their foreheads. This situation has gotten out of hand.

MD: Interesting stuff. Sawyer, Buzz’s brother who we know from Georgia and Portland primarily, is another guy who was past his last big run but still had something left to add. Despite this being for the Junior title, there was a real Buddy Rose vibe to Brett here. He had extra girth and looked like the heat was getting to him, but could still go on fast exchanges. The post match angle in the locker room was intense. I’m sure they weren’t playing off of it specifically, but I can imagine how the backstage area would feel just a bit more out of control during this period, right? It certainly felt novel and like things were getting very much out of hand.

EB: As result of the ending of this match and resulting altercation in the locker room, a rematch was scheduled between the new champion Brett Sawyer and the former champion Super Medico.

Mark and Chris Youngblood made a triumphant return to Puerto Rico at Aniversario by capturing the World tag team titles from the team of Rip Rogers and Abudda Dein. The former champs would split up after Aniversario, with Abudda Dein returning to singles competition. Rip Rogers would attempt to regain the World tag titles from the Youngbloods but with a new partner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yE9pqYKsfA

Rip’s partner is none other than Chicky Starr, sporting a new haircut thanks to his loss to TNT at Aniversario. The match is joined in progress as we see Rip and Chicky use an object that they picked up from the ground and attack Mark Youngblood. Hugo on commentary is saying that the blame for this goes to whoever was the irresponsible fan (and he stresses irresponsible a couple of times) that threw the object near the ring. Chickly and Rip maintain the advantage thanks to their cheating, with Rip putting Mark into a sleeperhold (as Hugo on commentary exhorts young viewers to not play around and use these holds which can really mess you up). Mark manages to break the hold and tags in Chris, who tees off on Rip and Chicky. All four men end up in the ring. An attempt to smash the rudos together leads to Chicky and Chris crashing into each other instead.  Chris ends up loopy outside the ring as Mark is double teamed by Rip and Chicky. Mark is held by Chicky and Rip goes for a clothesline, but Mark dodges and Chicky is hit instead. In the confusion after the hit, Chris comes off the top rope with a crossbody onto Rip. Chicky breaks it up at two. However, as the ref takes Chicky out of the ring, the Youngbloods are able to hit a slingshot splash onto Rip for the pinfall win. The Youngbloods retain the World tag team titles.

MD: We just get the last few minutes including a hot tag from Mark to Chris and the finish. The bit of beatdown we see looked good; Chicky was in rare form, his hair cut, looking from afar like the slimiest Bob Backlund imaginable. He had some great strikes and stooged like a champ too. Rip was Rip, so he partnered with him well, but Chicky made him look almost mundane. Anyway, the Youngbloods kept pressing post-hot tag with Chicky saving Rip until he tripped on the ropes and couldn’t anymore.

EB: However, Rip’s time in CSP would soon wrap up, with Rogers losing the Caribbean singles title he held to Miguelito Perez in early November. As for Rip’s former tag partner, Abudda Dein would find himself back in singles competition but with a heavier scrutiny around his suspicious boot. The controversy surrounding Abudda’s boot would come to a head when during a match an attempt was made to uncover if the boot was loaded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4nj_FF7S64

Dein’s opponent is prelim wrestler Tito Carrion, who doesn't have much luck in this match. Dein dominates throughout, at one point tossing Carrion to the floor and taking advantage of the ref making the count on Tito to load up his boot. Dein hits a boot to the head on Tito when he tries to get in the ring and proceeds to hit him with another after Tito gets thrown back in. Dein wins the match as Tito is busted open. Dein continues to attack the worse for wear Carrion post match, leading to Invader coming out to try to make the save. His first attempt is foiled by Profe grabbing onto Invader’s leg and allowing Dein to hit Invader with a  boot to the head. Invader is stunned outside as Dein continues to attack Tito, but eventually manages to get to his feet. Invader punches Profe and bodyslams him on the floor, and then gets in the ring to go right after Dein. Invader knocks Dein down and immediately grabs him by the leg to try to get Dein’s boot off. Will we finally discover if that boot is loaded? Dein fights Invader off but Invader manages to knock Dein back down and once again tries to unlace Dein’s boot. The boot is off! And Invader immediately hits Dein with it on the head, which busts Dein open. Invader tries to hit Dein again but a kick to the groin by Dein stops Invader. Dein grabs his boot and hightails it out of the ring before the boot can be checked. Dein helps Profe to his feet and they both amble back to the locker room as Invader is left laying in the ring from the kick to the groin and bleeding from his head.

MD: Look, Tito wasn’t a world beater, but he at least put up a fight in there, and that boot had to be loaded from a kayfabe perspective, because the stomp that Dein won with didn’t look like much of anything at all. There wasn’t any tricky loading or big wind up or anything. Just a sort of casual stomp and the pin. The post match was spirited though, with Dein bleeding in a moment where you wouldn’t think that he would (as the visual focus would have been on the boot instead). Things definitely feel chaotic this week as they heat things up again post Aniversario.

EB: This incident would lead to a short feud between Abudda Dein and Invader, one where Abudda was unsuccessful in capturing the Puerto Rico title.

TNT had been successful in retaining his name and paint, while also remaining the TV champion. However, will Chicky Starr drop the enmity with TNT after what happened at Aniversario? We’ll find out shortly.

Speaking of Chicky Starr, his Club Deportivo had been operating basically with only Chicky and Steve Strong as active members for most of the summer and fall. But after experiencing a less than stellar Aniversario with the loss of the Universal title and failing to strip TNT of his name and paint, it was time to bring in reinforcements. The first such reinforcement is someone we saw return at Aniversario, one Manny Fernandez. Manny would not waste time in terms of making an impression on TV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTNEfhwycRw

Chicky is with Manny and wearing a cap to hide his haircut. This is a nice back and forth match where Manny manages to get the win after Super Medico misses a crossbody attempt and gets hit with Manny’s elbow to the face. Manny Fernandez is back in Puerto Rico and who knows what he and Chicky will get up to.

MD: They covered a lot of ground in around 6 minutes here making for a very complete TV match. Of note, Manny and Chicky continue to have natural chemistry; Chicky was out there with a hat. Super Medico outwrestled Manny early. Manny took over with a kick to the gut and leaned hard on him with a headbutt and knee drop. Super Medico fought out of a chinlock and kept pressing, but Manny finally shut him down. Just a nice example of a compact star vs star TV match that would have worked on WWF or WCW TV in 89.

EB: Chicky would also bring in Leo Burke as the newest member of his Club Deportivo. Leo was billed as the true master of the figure four leglock and he would put his mastery of the hold on display in his matches. One such display was against a returning Ron Starr (Chicky’s ‘cousin’ who had a falling out with Chicky the previous year).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESAigD-MjtU&t=23s

We’ll talk more about Ron Starr and his history in CSP in a future installment. Here he is making his return to Puerto Rico as a tecnico and is taking on his ‘cousin's’ newest client in Leo Burke. We join the match in progress as Burke launches Ron into the ropes, leading to both men colliding and falling down. Ron makes it to his feet first and hits a couple of headbutts to knock Leo Burke down. A pinfall attempt gets two. Hugo on commentary calls Burke the master of the figure four. Burke gets an abdominal stretch on Ron, but Ron counters it into a side legsweep for a two count. After exchanging a few blows, Burke launches Ron into the ropes but Ron counters with a knee to the face which sends Burke to the outside of the ring. Ron gives chase and hits a series of chops on Burke, However, Ron misses a charge on Leo (who is standing in front of the ringpost), which leads to Ron hitting his knee on the post. Back in the ring, Burke capitalizes on the injured leg and puts Ron in the figure four. Ron gives up but Burke refuses to break the hold as Ron continues to yell in pain. Eventually the ref is able to get Burke to break the hold. Chicky gets in the ring and calls off Burke as the ref warns Chicky about Burke not breaking the hold. An impressive win for the master of the figure four.

MD: We have the last almost three minutes of this and, look, when I think of Ron Starr, I think of Leo Burke and when I think of Leo Burke, I think of Ron Starr. Just the definition of journeymen who didn’t get major runs in the 80s in the most traditionally watched territories but always delivered in some of the smaller ones. Starr missed a knee on the outside and crashed into the post and Burke got over that figure four by making him give up to it. Chicky with the hat was giving me Paul E vibes a bit.

EB: Chicky wasn’t the only manager bringing in new reinforcements. El Profe had lost the services of Ivan Koloff after Aniversario but had decided to refocus Abudda Dein in the singles ranks. In addition, Profe also brought in a new wrestler to the territory by the name of Gary Albright.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwkITdkl9Y0

The video opens with Profe offering the fans or anyone who dares $5,000 if they are able to break Gary Albright’s hold. It appears no one takes up the challenge, so the match against Armando Fernandez  begins. Hector Moyano puts over the physical size advantage Albright has on his opponent. Eliud Gonzalez also mentions that Albright’s hold must be a very good one if Profe is willing to offer $5,000 to anyone who can break the hold. This match is a showcase for the new arrival, with Albright showing off his size and strength. The commentators do not know what the mystery hold is but catch on when Albright slaps it on (it seems to be some sort of half nelson hold). A quick and impressive submission win for El Profe’s newest stable member.

MD: Man did Albright ever make Armando look like a child in there. He was just huge and imposing. I can’t imagine anyone challenging him for that $5000. Not all of his offense hit with the oomph you’d want (the back elbow and the shoulder thrusts in the corner especially) but he was so big it almost didn’t matter. Armando got one (1) punch in for the entire match and that felt about right to me.

EB: As we saw after the Universal title match in Bayamon, Steve Strong was interviewed wanting another match against Carlos Colon. A rematch was signed between Carlos Colon and Steve Strong for October 28. Let’s go to that match.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_MhXGNmh8Q

This footage of the match is from a Clasicos airing many years later, so the commentary doesn’t really add much in terms of at the time context. We join the match with Strong and Colon fighting outside of the ring. Strong has the better of Colon and lifts him up on his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. Strong proceeds to go towards one of the ring posts and proceeds to ram Colon’s left shoulder into it. It’s the shoulder that had been previously injured and it seems Strong’s gameplan is to try to take it out again. Strong shoves Colon into the ring. A bleeding Carlos is trying to gather himself on the mat as Strong gets up on the middle turnbuckle and taunts the crowds with his hand pose. Colon gets to his feet but Strong charges him with a tackle and hits a ddt to put Colon down. Strong hits an elbow drop and covers but only gets two. Strong hits a shoulder tackle and a legdrop, but again only gets two. Strong staggers Colon with some clubbing blows to the head and proceeds to bite the cut on Colon’s forehead. Strong misses an elbow drop and Colon starts getting fired up as the shoulder strap comes down. A series of punches and headbutts leads to Carlos hitting a cartwheel to fire up the crowd. Carlos continues on the offensive attack but Strong manages to counter with a clothesline to knock Colon down for a two count. Strong hits a nice piledriver on Carlos and slowly makes the pin.  It only gets two which frustrates Strong, who decides to go to the corner and adjust ‘Damian’ on his forearm. Another clothesline and elbow drop only get two and Strong is really starting to get frustrated with the ref. Strong hits a back bodydrop on Carlos and sends him into the ropes for another one. This second one ends up with Carlos being backdropped onto the referee Isaac Rosario and knocking him out.of the ring. A clothesline attempt from Strong is ducked by Carlos, who hits a back suplex on Strong (the same maneuver he used to win at Aniversario in Bayamon). Both men are down in the ring. Chicky, who has been outside seconding Strong, gets close to the ring and the camera catches him loading something into Strong's arm protector. Chicky then casually walks away, passing behind Isaac Rosario on the outside. El Vikingo runs into the ring to take over referee duties as both Colon and Strong have gotten to their feet. Strong hits a loaded clothesline on Carlos and gets the pin! It looks like Strong has regained the Universal title. Vikingo goes to hand the title belt to Strong but Isaac Rosario makes his way back into the ring and stops Vikingo. Isaac tries to get at Strong’s arm protector to find the foreign object in it but Strong yanks his arm away. Vikingo starts pointing at Strong’s arm and also asks to check it but Strong refuses. Rain starts falling as Vikingo calls for the bell to ring and it seems both Rosario and Vikingo are conferring. Strong refuses to have his arm checked and leaves the ring, as El Vikingo checks on Carlos and goes to consult with the commission members at ringside. While this is going on, the camera catches Chicky putting something away in his pocket. Strong makes a motion for them to check his arm protector as Chicky tries to shoo the camera away. The ringside doctor tries to check on the bleeding Carlos. However, Carlos rolls out of the ring and makes an immediate charge at Strong. Strong kicks Colon in the gut and walks away with Chicky and security to the locker room as the rain keeps falling. Carlos is then helped by the ringside doctor as he makes his way in the opposite direction of Strong.

MD: This was all pretty iconic. It is the best Strong has looked to me so far, as he’d really grown into his role. Looks wise, when he smirks, he comes off exactly like a slimy jock 80s movie villain should. We come in with them brawling on the outside, but Strong soon takes over and hits all of his big stuff. Carlos comes back including the cartwheel but Strong actually cuts him off and scores the pile driver only for Colon to kick out. Definitely rousing stuff here. They kind of goof the ref bump, which was a good idea (Colon crashing into the ref during a back body drop) and have to run the spot twice, but the end effect is Chicky loading up the arm guard for a loaded clothesline, the win, and then the contested finish. These two could work together extremely well by this point.

EB: So after that ending, who is the Universal champion? Well, due to the way the match ended the decision was made by the commission to hold up the Universal title. Neither Carlos Colon nor Steve Strong is the champion. With the title held up and the status of what will be done unclear, tempers would flare during a taping of Campeones de la Lucha Libre, a show where Carlos Colon and Chicky Starr served as co-hosts with Hugo Savinovich. The two would start arguing over who tried to steal the win in the Universal title match (Colon angry at Chicky’s interference by loading Strong’s arm protector and Chicky claiming that they stole the title from Strong who had won fair and square). The argument got heated and..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhUiWoChU2s

Hugo explains that they will show us an incident that happened between Carlitos and Chicky Starr in Salinas. We cut to Chciky Starr (wearing his crown) saying that he didn’t try to steal anything, you’re the only thief here (referring to Carlos), all the public knows this. Carlos reaches over arguing with Chicky, leading to Chicky yelling ‘Don't touch me! You don’t have to touch me! Simply this, you stole that title from Steve Strong and you know this well! You know what I think of you? (slaps Carlos in the face) This is what I think of you!’ Carlos grabs Chicky and hits him with a headbutt as Chicky’s crown flies off his head. Carlos goes after Chicky by tearing at his tuxedo jacket, but Chicky surprises Carlos with either powder or a spray blast in the face. Carlos is blinded and down. Chicky starts motioning to someone off camera and we see Manny Fernandez run in. Both Manny and Chicky attack Carlos, with Manny hitting piledriver and both men tearing away at Colon’s clothes. Manny continues attacking the bleeding Colon as it becomes clear that Chicky has a spray can as he starts spraying Carlos with it. They continue attacking and tearing away at Colon’s clothing but help finally arrives in the form of Carlos Colon Sr (or Don Carlos if you prefer) and a few of the tecnicos. Chicky and Manny make a run to the dugout with Don Carlos giving chase. Don Carlos tries to take a swing at Manny’s back but is unable to stop his running momentum and just completely eats a fall into the dugout (Hugo on commentary: ‘Wow, Carlitos’ dad fell down’). Carlitos is left in a pretty bad way as JYD and Invader are shown helping Don Carlos back from the dugout and over to where Carlitos is. TNT checks on Carlos and is joined by Invader (you can see Chicky’s crown is still lying on the ground near Carlitos). JYD is making sure Don Carlos is okay, but Don Carlos waves him off and motions to JYD that he should check on Carlitos. Invader and TNT place Carlitos on a stretcher to carry him back to the locker room so he can receive medical attention.

MD: Just a great, bloody angle with an explosive pile driver, a torn suit, and real concern as they brought in Colon’s dad. One thing to note here is that even before Manny attacked, Chicky had already thrown the powder in Carlos’ face. His minions and cronies would come and go but Chicky was the constant and they had to keep him strong, even if it was just in an underhanded sort of way.

EB: As November began, the situation regarding the held up title would soon begin to clear up. So let’s go to Hugo welcoming us to what is either the Nov 4 or Nov 11 tv show and learn what the latest updates and goings on are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w0gB_23wk8

Hugo gives a few updates. First he talks about the World Junior title situation, where he mentions that Brett Sawyer did not appear for the rematch with Super Medico scheduled for the previous week. Therefore, it was ruled that Super Medico regained the title via forfeit. Hugo also runs down the card they have tonight that will inaugurate the new arena in Yabucoa (we’ll look at the card lineup shortly). The big news is an update regarding the Universal title situation.Chicky Starr has thrown out a challenge on behalf of Steve Strong for a match to decide who the Universal champion will be. The catch? If Carlos loses he must retire but if Steve Strong loses then Strong will leave Puerto Rico. There must be no time limit, no disqualification and there must be a winner. Both Colon’s and Chicky’s lawyers are going over the contract for this proposed match and we just have to see if Carlos will accept this challenge.

Strong and Chicky would express their discontent at the title being held up in a promo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ48_u8W2XQ

After the first promo we see a brief clip of Hugo announcing that the title has been held up and also see the version of the show opening around this time. It includes a few second clips of the chain match between Invader and Ivan Koloff and the Caribbean tag title match between Perez and Castillo and Los Mercenarios from Aniversario. There is also a second bonus promo from a few months before when Strong was still Universal champion and he and Chicky were going to face Invader and JYD in a tag team match.

For those curious, this is the card scheduled that night for Yabucoa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C76LfVJOUMg

The main event is a cage match between Carlos Colon and Chicky Starr (not surprised after the attack we saw). We are getting a rematch between Sawyer and new champion Super Medico for the World Junior title and it also looks like Chicky has not forgotten about what happened with TNT at Aniversario, as his stable member Leo Burke is facing TNT tonight. Here we have Leo Burke talking about his upcoming match with TNT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHDf2ZwBhII

And if you’re wondering, the Angel of Death did appear that weekend as Chicky’s newest acquisition, but it’s a case of grand opening and grand closing with this tenure. Still, we at least get a Sports Shop segment out of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WgElsTjzVA

Before this specific tv episode ended, we got our answer regarding Carlos Colon accepting Chicky Starr’s challenge. The answer is yes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vQs7cQAQpM

Hugo is with Carlos and Chicky as they have the contract for the proposed Universal title match with them on a table. Both men have agreed with the contract stipulations and now it is just a matter of making it official by signing the copies of the contract. Hugo tells Chicky to behave while he explains to the viewers what is going on and goes over the conditions. No time limit, no disqualification and there must be a winner. The winner gets the Universal title and the loser must hold to their specific stipulation. If Carlos loses he must retire. If Strong loses he must leave Puerto Rico. Carlos and Chicky make some final comments before making the match official. What will be known as La Batalla Final (The Final Battle) is now official for Thanksgiving Day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHDf2ZwBhII

As part of the hype for the cage match that night, we get a Chicky Starr music video and promos from Chicky and Carlos talking about the cage match.

First the music video.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajQ9Zj8Mt58

Chicky starts by saying that if Carlos thinks he is going to finish Chicky Starr, he’s not going to get it since he and El Club Deportivo will finish with Colon first. After the music video, we get Chicky reading a proclamation where he says “The king proclaims for the year 1989, the king of wrestling Chicky Starr proclaims that the year 1989 will be the final year of Carlos colon as a professional wrestler. The king has spoken.”
We also get promos from Carlos and Chicky.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og2TY1q7up4

Chciky wants Carlos to understand that he has a lot of experience in cage matches. So does Carlos, but he will immediately be on Carlos as soon as the door closes. He promises that any trick could come from his sleeve and he will walk out of the winner. Carlos will have to be taken out on a stretcher and to the hospital ‘you damned filthy black’. (Like I’ve mentioned before, Chicky would sometimes go over the line insulting his opponents).  

Carlos says that he doesn’t care if Chicky brings objects to the ring, inside the cage Chicky can’t run, Carlos wants to give Chicky what he deserves and he’ll give Chicky a beating like never before to avenge what Chicky’s done to him. Hugo also asks Carlos about the upcoming match on Thanksgiving Day and whether he feels he has made a mistake agreeing to the stipulations. Carlos does not think he made a mistake but he's aware it’s a serious match and of the gravity of the stipulations if he loses. He’s not ready to retire and even if he were, he’s not going to let people like Steve Strong and Chicky Starr dictate when that will be. He studied the contract and talked it over with his wife and family, and he feels this is the only way he will be able to banish this beast from Puerto Rico. He’s confident, and with the crowd’s and the supreme being’s help, he will walk out the winner.

MD: Some scattered thoughts on these last clips. It’s a shame Sawyer wasn’t there for the match because that was such a hot angle in my mind. It’s just the risk one takes with this stuff. Card is Subject to Change nowhere more than Puerto Rico it seems. They were amazing at increasing the stakes in that Memphis sort of way, though. The gimmick going from Colon just surviving Strong and getting the title to him potentially having to leave Puerto Rico and retire if he loses would definitely inspire attention. And Chicky coming to a formal contract signing in the crown and robe is pure Chicky. I haven’t actually seen an Angel of Death match in ages, but the gimmick of the bionic hand should have worked well in PR and he was definitely looking like a giant Gary Hart at this point.

Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, the clock is winding down on 1989 as we head towards The Final Battle. Who will finally triumph between Carlos Colon and Steve Strong?

Read more!

2023 Ongoing MOTY List: LA Park, Pimpi, KAOMA JR?

 

3. LA Park/Sayrus vs. Pimpinela Escarlata/Kaoma Jr. 3Bat Productions 9/9

ER: I wanted to see LA Park live in Richmond, CA a couple months ago. It was a real stacked card with LA Park in a tag team main event opposite Jacob Fatu for the first time since their MLW blow up, Psycho Circus vs. Puerquiza Extrema, what was surely a great tag with Black Taurus, Arez, Canis Lupus, and Laredo Kid, plus an undercard with Faby Apache and Pimpi and others I loved. My buddy Jason and I drove down because that is a total no brainer of a live show right there, and we opted to drive down to buy tickets at the door and avoid the online service charges on the $50 GA tickets. Well smart guy, they were charging *$70* for the GA tickets at the door, with front row seats priced at $220 and the next two rows at $180. I was so shocked to hear that $70 price that I had to ask "Dollars?" Folks, I am not to the point in my life - nor do I think I ever will be - where I am prepared to pay $70 for a lucha show (or any wrestling show) and so we turned back around and drove back from whence we came. To their credit, there was a huge line around the building and it was only kids under 5 who got in for free, so hats off to all the families there with several kids who were prepared to pay $400 to see live lucha. I am apparently a Broke Bitch, which is why I cannot pay $70 to see LA Park live, but I can be paid by my job to watch this LA Park match in the bathroom. 

Honestly, had this match just been Park and Pimpi brawling and slapping each other with Park's belt, I would have added it to my MOTY list. I've seen plenty of Park matches over the past several years that are mostly comprised of belt whippings, and I loved them all. Luckily for us, this match is much more than whippings, and features a totally unexpected (to me) standout performance from Kaoma Jr., a guy who has been around for 20+ years who I don't think I've heard about before this match. Even cooler, is that we get essentially a full Park/Pimpinela fight before the entire match peaks with a Kaoma and Sayrus (another guy I'd never heard of and was expecting nothing from) showcase that totally delivers in every way. 

The Park/Pimpi stretches were everything I wanted them to be. I would have been extremely entertained by the belt not even coming into play, as is evidenced by Park trying to take out Pimpi's legs with a log roll - a large, mossy log gaining speed - but that belt comes into play almost immediately. I don't know how Park keeps Get Hit With Belt fresh, but he does. I loved how he reacted normally to all of Pimpi's belt shots, but the second the rudo ref tried it he snapped to attention, and the ref froze in his shoes in sudden terror...before belting Park right across the fucking FACE. Park falls onto and sits on a woman at ringside, takes a nice shoved bump into the ringpost, and recovers on the floor while Cassandro welts up Sayrus with that belt. Pimpinela's open hand chops hit almost as hard as Park's, and he hits Park right in the neck with those large open hands, then beats him around General Admission with a Piso Mojado placard, and all of the rudos - ref included - throw overhand chops at Park. 

It ramps up even more when Park inevitably turns the tides, beating Pimpi on top of the same woman that he fell onto earlier, Pimpi screaming melodramatically the entire time, sounding like Gretchen from Bob's Burgers. But then Park disappears and triumphantly reappears with a beer cooler...and fucking swings it incredibly hard, by the handle, into Pimpi and Kaoma. I don't care if they got an arm up as a shield, the speed Park swung that cooler at Kaoma could have broke his ulna. When the belt whipping payback comes, it comes with vengeance, and of course the ref gets the worst of it. It's a pair of bad whippings, the kind that made me long for LA Park whipping Johnny Knoxville, Johnny's eyes going wide as he's momentarily silent before breaking out into his high pitched giggle. I've seen Park force a rudo ref to take his whipping live more than once and this was the worst I've seen, capped beautifully by Park standing on the man's palms while the man's pudgy stomach takes a real whipcrack. 

Now, Kaoma. I went into this match expected nothing out of Sayrus or Kaoma, because they were not the men who drew me to this match, and all I really wanted was for them to mostly stay out of the way. But every time Kaoma got in between Park and Pimpi's brawling, he was an instant standout. His overhand chops somehow stood out even more than Pimpi's he takes a high backdrop from Park, and then I really snapped awake when he hit a startlingly convincing shoulderblock into Park. Park has at least 60 pounds on Kaoma, but that shoulderblock looked like something that genuinely knocked Park on his ample ass. His tope focuses on that actual headbutt portion of the tope, a man dedicated to playing the classics with accuracy and violence. I've seen so many Arms Fully Stretched Out dogshit topes that I began to think the odds of seeing a classic flying headbutt done by someone other than Hijo del Santo were next to nil. Sayrus has a really impressive tornillo crossbody block and was a nice dance partner for Kaoma, but Kaoma just kept raising the bar. His tope en reversa senton is an actual incredible spot, executed with precision, like a graceful lucha version of Tenryu's falling top rope elbowdrop. His Atlantida thrown into a backbreaker looked...well, backbreaking, and the man rolls up tidily for a complicated Sayrus huracanrana the way all my favorite rudo bases do. Park and Pimpi's finishing stretch was a total afterthought thanks to Kaoma's fireworks, and I loved how the match transitioned into these two showing out. 

2023 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

AEW Five Fingers of Death 12/11 - 12/17 Part 2

AEW Collision 12/16/23

Eddie Kingston vs Daniel Garcia

MD: In the Garcia vs Danielson match, I talked about how Garcia had to find the middle ground between Pro Wrestling and Sports Entertainment in order to beat Bryan Danielson upon his own terms. I do believe that. I do believe that there's a short to medium term story there with a resounding payoff. In the medium to long term however, I see something else for and in Garcia. There's something artificial and disingenuous about the sports entertainment thing. It's not Garcia's fault so much as it's just an unnatural fit (which gets heat through dissonance, sure, with a limited shelf life) and something that hasn't been fully fleshed out, developed, and defined. It was initially introduced a way to vilify the WWE, their ridiculous trappings and corporate speak, and Vince's insistence upon them. Then it was neutered almost instantly with Vince being removed from control. After that it became more about cheating and about Jericho as a symbolic figurehead tainting the ROH name but without actually doing much to taint it. 

But there's the dancing, right? And the dancing is over. We're not talking Greg Valentine with dyed black hair and a guitar here. Why is the dancing over? It's not over because of the idea of sports entertainment. I'd argue that it's not over in the same way that Nana's dance is over, actually. The dance an extension of a key aspect of Garcia's personality, the chip on his shoulder. You can practically see his aggression and irritation and impatience and insolence channel through his body and into his arms. It's an act of defiance against the crowd, against his opponent, against Menard and Danielson and Jericho, against the world. So for all of his technical skill and all of the things that make you wonder if he's not the heir to Bryan Danielson... you know who the dancing actually reminds me of in its own, unlikely way?

Eddie Kingston.

That's the longterm path for Garcia. It's not some sort of war between pro wrestling and sports entertainment within him. It's the fact that he's the heir to Bryan Danielson and the heir to Eddie Kingston at the same time. He's the guy who studies tape, who loves wrestling so much that it changed his life, that wanted it so badly that it got him out of Buffalo and provided him with purpose and determination after a car wreck that might have left him crippled. He's the only person in the company that can challenge Kingston when it comes to real or perceived grievances. You can see it on his face. You can see it in the way he moves. You can see it in the way he hits. He can tear apart a limb, can go to the mat, can demand every second of that five count, but he's also consumed with an roiling aggravation; he addresses his enemies in every match, and those enemies, well they're the whole damn world.

Which leads us to this match. Eddie came in having to win or else he'd lose everything. Garcia had nothing to lose but pride, which is all that he has left. Two elemental forces crashed into each other. Garcia met him head on. That worked until it didn't, so he started tearing at the leg. If he couldn't beat him by channeling Eddie Kingston, maybe he could by channeling Bryan Danielson. It worked. It worked so well that when it time for Kingston to show his mettle, to show his spirit, his heart was willing and strong, but his knee gave out. That gave Garcia just enough to stay in it despite the hierarchy, despite Kingston's desperation, but not enough to put him away, not yet, not on this night. 

Post match, Kingston said that Garcia had to be his own man, and he does, ultimately. But for now he stands on the shoulders of giants and only with open eyes and hard truths will he be able to look out upon the forest of his own conflicted spirit to find a path through into the light. When he finally does, the Daniel Garcia that emerges is going to be draped in the greatness of the past but like nothing we've ever seen before.

Bryan Danielson vs Brody King

MD: Quick thoughts for this one. It was laser focused and very disciplined. You can get away with that in a tournament like this when you're not competing for attention on a stage that is both bigger and more temporally limited like a PPV. Danielson came in more cautiously than a lot of King's previous opponents, kicks to the leg. King took over on the outside violently and started on the eye. Unyielding purpose inspired the creation of grisly visual stimulus, resonant in blood and pain and physical peril. There were no power moves for the sake of power moves, no suplex city that disrupts the currency of moves up and down the card. He ground Danielson down, buoyed in part, by the narrative advantages allowed by the commercial break. The power moves came after when it was time to try to win; when that didn't work, he went back to the well of violence on the outside, made a mistake, allowed Danielson to capitalize. Danielson went back to the leg, opening up the body, queuing up the Busaiku Knees. King had barely been damaged, and he's a giant and a beast and proven to be formidable through the early stages of the tournament: it only made sense that it would take multiple shots to finally quell his power. This match had a relatively low ceiling when it came to pure spectacle on a weekend full of it but an incredible high floor in its single-mindedness and logical focus.

Read more!

AEW Five Fingers of Death 12/11 - 12/17 Part 1

ROH 12/14/23

Eddie Kingston vs Evil Uno

MD: I can think of two big Uno singles matches in the last year or two, vs Moxley and vs Danielson. I wrote up the Danielson one and I thought while it was appropriate to the burgeoning heel turn and the build in the Page title program, it didn't make use of what makes Uno special. The Mox match has Uno's bloody face plastered into my mind, but I don't remember it too much past that (bloody face and pile drivers. I remember pile drivers); that's a problem with AEW, of course. It's like an interview question where you answer "I care too much" or "I try too hard." There are good matches on a week by week basis and it's very hard for too much to get mythologized. I'm not sure the answer to that question but part of me kind of wishes Evil Uno vs Jon Moxley did stand out more in my mind.

This had more going for it along those lines. It was a chance to showcase Uno close to home. It was on ROH so there were not major constraints when it came to hitting time marks for overall length or commercials. Eddie's in weird spot being in the tournament and the title almost being in limbo but there's a certain comforting structure to these matches. Here, Uno was the clear babyface. They were able to match up well given their similar size and body types, with Eddie basing a bit for Uno. The early babyface advantage disappeared when Eddie took a page out of Joe's book and just walked away from a chop on the outside to the post. That let him tear at the arm a bit to get some heat and build Uno back up for the hand-the-leg-to-the-ref neckbreaker spot, which a Chikara guy like Kingston was going to be selfless enough to take, and with a great facial expression too. Subsequently, Eddie let Uno really stretch in front of the home crowd; he often plays vulnerable but here he was playing vulnerable champ against the hometown hero. But to put Eddie away, you have to do more and more and take risks of your own; Uno took one risk too many and opened him up to the Uraken. Eddie gave him a ton here, but then here on Honor Club and here on the top of the mountain, he has the luxury to do so.

ROH Final Battle 12/15/23

Eddie Kingston vs Anthony Henry

MD: Another day, another "Mad Ace" Proving Ground match. It's 2023, right? Emotional investment about finishes is a weird thing. Sometimes there's a wrestler you really don't want to see in a prominent spot and you hope that maybe they don't get put over. More often, you get happy when someone you think deserves it goes over. Sometimes it's the match itself, something that draws you in so much that you feel like it can only end a certain way. It's wrestling and we wouldn't watch if we didn't care. Sometimes we can be clinical or cynical but when something brings us to the point of being so emotionally invested that we care about who wins, then it's in some ways even more special than the sort of investment we had when we were kids and didn't know how it all worked. It has to be to break past those those walls.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that I really want Eddie to somehow win the C2. I am emotionally invested. I'm emotionally invested for what he himself has invested into it, for his story through the tournament, even just to avoid the heartbreak of the guy losing everything because he reached for the skies. But really, as much as anything else, it's because I want to see these ROH proving ground matches and title matches continue. I like this Eddie! He's different than the guy I usually get. I like that guy too but what makes that guy special makes this guy special and unique too. Eddie's big enough to be both.

Here, he came out cautious, professional, poised. Henry got the first shot in and unleashed just about everything he had. He knew just how dangerous his opponent was. He targeted Eddie's neck and strung together a bunch of credible, dynamic offense. Here's the thing with our pal Eddie though. You chip away at him. You get him down to his knees. You open him up. Well, he's just so damn punchable, right? You lose focus because you just want to stop and hit him. Henry sure did. If he stayed on the neck, hit and moved, hit bigger and bigger offense, maybe he'd wear him down enough. Maybe he'd even beat the clock. He had to start throwing strikes though. People say that Eddie's strength is that he can take damage, take and take and take until he can hit you out of nowhere, but he also makes himself a hell of a target. Once Henry started fighting him on his level, it really, truly was just a matter of time. So yes, emotional investment, because I'm not ready for this Eddie to go yet. I feel like we just met him!

Athena vs Billie Starkz

MD: I'm going to go from emotional to clinical here, sorry. I already gushed about Athena (and Billie) a few weeks ago. Let's do this the old way, a nice tight paragraph talking about structure. This thing was put together so well. Athena went for the magic forearm. Billie ducked and hit her own, taking advantage. She pressed like someone with something to prove (and boy did she ever) right up until she took it too far and got caught on the dive. Athena started dismantling her as they cycled into the heat, bloodying her up and leaning on her. The hopespots escalated, starting with a few gut shots, then fighting on the apron, and then a roll up. All were cut off quickly. She finally kicked up and out of the corner and strung together a move or two, only to get taken out by the facemask, which set up golden, glorious moment of true comeback a minute or two later as she tore it off. From there the match just got bigger and bigger, which huge spots and set pieces and drama. That escalation doesn't resonate quite the same way without the way they built things through the first half though. People are going to remember those big spots and the ref bump and the finishing stretch, but it took the setting of the stage to create the atmosphere for payoffs. Here, they did an amazing job with it.

Read more!

Found Footage Friday: SANTO~! NINJA~! YOUNG STUD BABA~! CALYPSO~! WHITE WOLF~! GILBERT~! DUNDEE~! NEW SOUTH~!

Giant Baba/Michiaki Yoshimura vs. Calypso Hurricane/Chief White Wolf JWA 5/12/64

MD: This one fell through the cracks when one of the Baba anniversary specials came out. It's only ten minutes and heavily clipped but what an amazing look at 26 year old Baba. He was an absolute monster. We have him here scrapping on the mat with Adnan, just chucking Calypso head first into the corner like he was a sack of potatoes, hitting this amazing standing kick around the side of Adnan to the back of his head, cutting off the corner so Yoshimura could deliver damage from the outside, throwing these blistering chops, and, after a hot tag, just chopping high and low and stomping the life out of people. There are so many reasons to love 80s and even mid-late 70s Baba, but you couldn't look away from him here. I still can't get over those kicks that seemed to go all the way around Adnan's body to hit him in the head. Points to him, by the way, for really phoning in the Native American gimmick with the laziest dancing and whooping you'd ever see. He did look great on the mat with Baba though, so he gets credit for that.

ER: Of course we all wish this wasn't clipped, but who could complain about a fresh 9 minute look at a young, whip fast, and jacked thicc Shohei Baba, as well as a great look at how damn good Adnan Al-Kassie and Ciclon Negro were in an era where we couldn't see them. Baba is the draw here, both for us and the fans who, during the pre-match introductions, can be seen literally standing and open-mouth gawking at the presence of Baba, who was almost surely the largest human anybody in the building had ever seen. If they had seen a man that large, somewhere, they had certainly never seen him move like this. It kicks so much ass seeing Baba run through Baba spots I know and love, only 3x as fast and with the impact of Stan Hansen. Look at him run the ropes with Calypso! Look at the fucking boot he throws at White Wolf's face! He's like if Yoshihiro Takayama had a few more inches. Calypso/Ciclon Negro is a guy who always had the rep of a great, respected worker, but most of the footage we have of him is from his late 40s/early 50s. Seeing him in his early 30s makes him look like a guy who would be one of my all time favorites, were I my father's age. He had an excellent style of bumping, athletic but appropriately tuned to the offense he was taking, a real immediacy to his work, a big bumper but with weight. Also, check that spot where Yoshimura moves out of the way and Calypso punches White Wolf in the face, off the apron, and then stands there looking and feeling like a real boob. 

El Hijo del Santo vs. El Ninja 12/13/85

MD: Wild structure on this. Primera was an ambush and a comeback attempt and a cutoff. Segunda had the comeback (that we missed the prime moment of) and a double count out after a dive. Tercera had a lot of the back and forth submissions and drama. And then the final extra fall, due to the count out, was basically some more beatdown and a roll up out of nowhere instead of a real comeback. The fans were up for all of it though.

And, just like the structure wasn't calcified into a more familiar form, neither was Santito. He sure as hell had selling of nerve holds down. I'm not sure I've ever seen it done better. Interestingly, the tercera ended with his flipping senton and rush across the ring; instead of hitting a tope, he hit a reverse body press off the top instead. He also had some pretty fun tricked out submission and pin attempts before that, including this neat Rings of Saturn number and a flexible attempt to get a full nelson with one of his legs. Ninja was fine here. He was a journeyman and understood the weight of the match. He made the kicks and nerve holds work, had some interesting stuff of his own during the hold exchanges, and was happy to escalate to choking with a towel in that final fall. It was clipped up so we missed some of the primera and that big moment of comeback; I had thought we were going to get another one at the end but they went with a flash pin instead. Still, it was a very interesting look at a relatively young Santo.

PAS: So cool that this just showed up. I do a semi-regular YouTube search for "Hijo Del Santo" as he is probably the greatest wrestler who has footage on tape that just might pop up on YouTube some day. This is one of the earliest Santo matches and Ninja wasn't the Monterey wrestler, but a re-gimmicked 60s luchador taking a mask loss payday. He had some nice wrestling martial arts stuff (more Stan Lane than Akira Maeda) , but was otherwise pretty much an opponent for Santo to work stuff out on. Great looking tope was probably the highlight, with Ninja getting sent into seats, and I did like the rolling senton into almost a diving RKO from the other side of the ring. More a cool look into an underseen period than a great match, but man was I happy it showed up. 

TKG: New Santo match shows up and it moves to the front of the queue. You add that it’s an 80s, mask match and yeah…plus I originally thought the Ninja was going to be a Garza relative.

First fall is clipped, but Ninja works like an 80s karate wrestler. He may have more different kinds of kicks than most 80s karate offense guys. I especially liked the kick he did in third fall set up by a Yoga tree pose style calf stretch. Kicks ranged between Stan Lane loose and Kabuki stiff. Left match wishing there was a Stan Lane v Ninja match and Kabuki v Santito one.

Like Kabuki, when Ninja wasn’t kicking he was putting on a nerve hold and Santo awesome selling it. In the 80s most people sold a nerve hold by trying to fight to power out. Santo sold it like he had a crystal ball and had seen shootstyle matches, and sprawled for ropes every time Ninja put the nerve hold on him.

We don’t get Santo’s transition to offense in second fall but we get all of Santo’s beautiful offense. And a double count out finish.

Don’t really get this, as Dandy v Emilio Charles draw meant both guys shaved head…and at one point there was interview with Rafael Maya where he talked about similar draw finishes. It feels like Ninja won two falls straight but whatever. Third fall had some real cool tight ras de lona pins and surfboard near falls.

And fourth was mostly brawling and felt abbreviated. The ‘unusual booking’ instead of leading to hotter final fall made the fourth feel really anticlimactic. Still hot crowd, great third fall and a bunch of neat little things.

Doug Gilbert/Bill Dundee vs. New South (Kory Williams/Ashley Hudson) NWA Nashville 4/14/01

MD: Best part of this was probably Williams and Hudson goofing around on the mic before hand and Gilbert and Dundee putting them in their place. The match tried to have its cake and eat it too. It was a "Climb the pole" deal with Hudson's boomerang atop it, and the winner being whoever got it first. Usually it's about getting to actually use the boomerang and this cuts off before we see if that happens. Moreover, there was a bat hanging around the ring early too so that almost felt like it defeated the purpose of it. And finally, despite the pole gimmick, they stuck with standard tag rules, though they seemed confused about what corner they were supposed to be in and New South made a tag in the ring at one point. It made no sense that the partner on the outside didn't just go for the Boomerang at certain points.

That said, the actual work was ok. These guys knew what they were doing for the most part. That meant a lot of Gilbert taking punches and making them look good and throwing punches that naturally looked good; likewise with Dundee's jabs. Williams was more than happy to stagger around the ring selling. It never boiled over, unfortunately, and there were probably way too many low blows. Old(er) man Dundee could get away with that and make it charming but I'm not sure about the rest of them. This needed more heat and a deal where Hudson got the boomerang but Gilbert got it from him and opened them up post match, something like that.

ER: During the pre-match mic work, Doug Gilbert gets the mic to counter Kory Williams' jabs and tells the New South that "at least everyone in this building knows who we are", and after a 5 second pause one of the commentators just says "GAY". That's when I knew we were diving into the good stuff. And I thought this was good! I enjoyed it more than Matt (and Tom, who watched it earlier in the week and opted out of writing about it). This delivered because it had guys up on the top rope who probably shouldn't be on the top rope, and by people I mean Doug Gilbert, who made the match by kicking Kory Williams in the balls while both were standing on the top rope. It's also important that the pole was so tall that the boomerang hanging from it is never even in frame until Hudson grabs it and it's perfect, because every pole match needs a preposterously tall pole that most participants would be unable to climb given unfettered access to it. We got one great Dundee tease where he showed that he still had crazy climbing strength into his late 50s, and the rest of the match he spent punching New South around the ring while Kory Williams staggered and flopped around. This was right around 8 minutes long and had four different ball shots, and I wish that the video had ended with Hudson climbing up the pole completely off the screen, no boomerang ever shown, all of us left wondering just how tall that pole actually was. At least they didn't show the top of the pole, so we are still empowered to dream. 

 

Read more!

El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Aniversario 89 (For Real This Time)

Week 11: Aniversario 1989 (For Real This Time)

EB: After a three week postponement due to Hurricane Hugo, it is finally time for Aniversario 1989. It is taking place on October 7th in Bayamon and broadcasted for the first time locally on PPV. We also have a second night of Aniversario on October 8th in Mayaguez, where we have the same match lineup albeit with slightly less stakes or stipulations. However, before talking about this weekend’s happenings, we should note that there have been some changes to the card (which are likely due to scheduling conflicts stemming from the three week postponement). We’ll discuss them as we go along but there are two things I’ll mention right now that have to do with the Universal title match. First, Gorilla Monsoon will not be appearing as the special referee for the Universal title match. Second, the match is now a barbed wire match.

Now we do have a bit of a footage issue with Aniversario 89. Despite the fact that the show was broadcast on PPV, it was never released on home video. The matches we have from Bayamon were uploaded years ago back when videos were limited to a 10 minute cutoff. So only a few matches from the PPV broadcast have surfaced, even though I hope that a copy of the full broadcast is floating around out there somewhere. We also have some matches that were broadcast in later airings on tv but these are mainly from the second day in Mayaguez. Since the match lineups for both days are practically the same (outside of some stipulations), we are taking the approach of reviewing the show by intertwining matches from both nights to go over as much of Aniversario as possible in our runthrough.

Let’s talk first about the matches for which we don’t have footage for (or for which we have a small clip as part of a broader video package) from either night. There are four such matches. Unfortunately we do not have the two tag title matches or the world junior title match available. Also, for two of those matches, the challengers changed from the announced card (again likely due to scheduling conflicts or unavailability due to the hurricane postponements).

Miguelito Perez and Huracan Castillo, hijo were set to defend the Caribbean tag titles originally against the Wild Samoans combination of Tama and Afa. However, after the postponement, it was announced that the challengers would be Doug Furnas and Dan Kroffat. Unfortunately for everyone looking forward to this match (including us), we not only do not have the match footage available but the Can-Am Express did not make the event. Stepping is as the challengers are the team of the Cuban Assassin (Angel Acevedo) and Jerry Morrow, known as Los Mercenarios. And this new set of challengers actually won the Caribbean tag titles from Perez and Castillo.

Jeff Jarrett was unable to make the show for the battle of the World Junior champions. In his place was El Gran Mendoza serving as the challenger to Super Medico’s WWC World Junior title. Medico retained his championship.

One match that did not experience changes but for which we unfortunately don’t have the footage for is the World tag title match between champions Rip Rogers and Abudda Dein and challengers Mark and Chris Youngblood. This tag title match also saw new champions crowned as the Younbloods scored the win.  

For those disappointed at the Can-Am Express and Jeff Jarrett not appearing, don’t despair because Paul Jones did make it for his match vs the Junkyard Dog. There is about a minute and half of the ending stretch of the Mayaguez version of this encounter and it's mainly Paul Jones choking JYD with a chain and hitting a flurry of punches before JYD makes a comeback with several headbutts and a Russian legsweep to get the win.

With those matches we don’t have out of the way, let’s talk about the ones for which we have at least one version from either Bayamon or Mayaguez. We originally had Kerry Von Erich scheduled to face Abdullah the Butcher but as we saw previously, Kevin Von Erich had stepped in to replace Kerry for the original Aniversario date.  Kevin is here for this new date and let’s see him in action vs Abdul… never mind, Abdullah wasn’t able to make it to Aniversario on the new date.  Well, let’s go to the match and see who Kevin Von Erich’s opponent is…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDA3xYmfIaQ

It’s Ron Bass, making what I believe is his CSP debut. Kevin also is making his first in-ring appearance for the territory since the late 70s if I’m not mistaken. The commentary team of Hugo, Carlos and Profe spend a lot of the match talking about the Von Erich legacy and talk about what a privilege it is to have wrestlers of this renown (referring to Kevin and Bass) competing in a WWC ring (“it adds prestige and signals to the rest of the world the caliber of competition we have”). Profe also complains about how someone with a German last name can claim to be Texan (“it’s like saying a Perez is English“) and hopes Bass comes out triumphant to show what a real Texan is. This match is a good showcase for the local crowd in seeing Kevin’s wrestling style. Kevin is in control for most of the match, although Bass gets a bit of a control segment in the middle due to some cheating and roughhouse tactics. Kevin tries to get the claw on Bass, and despite Bass initially holding him off, he manages to get a stomach claw on Bass. Ron Bass manages to fight out of the clawhold but an attempt to hit Kevin with his boot misses, which Kevin takes advantage of to roll up Bass for the pinfall win.

MD: This definitely wasn’t Kerry vs Abby. Bass is a guy who definitely drops off the radar early in 1989. He finished up with WWF in March and after this, works for Dusty in Florida and some Guam tours and who knows what else. He’s basically done by 91 when he was early into his 40s. He had a big frame and had put a bunch of wear and tear on it though. He wasn’t very mobile here even if he still had solid timing, decent presence, and a good punch off the ropes. Kevin was Kevin, bare-footed, aggressive, a tried and true babyface and the crowd got up for him winning with a roll-up, even if they weren’t into much else. This didn’t outwear its welcome but it would have been better five or six years earlier.

EB: We also have a match between semi regulars in the territory as Jimmy Valiant takes on Kareem Muhammad. This match is the one from the second night in Mayaguez.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXQdVk7FSnM

We have Hugo Savinovich, Carlos Colon and Chicky Starr on commentary for this match (suggesting this is from a Campeones airing). Hugo asks for their thoughts on who has the advantage here in a styles clash of opponents and Carlos makes the remark that if Jimmy Valiant manages to hold out for five to six minutes then he should have the advantage since Kareem gets tired due to his conditioning after about ten minutes. Valiant takes the initial advantage by choking Kareem (which Hugo makes note of) and maintains the attack for the initial moments of the match. Kareem rakes the eyes to take control of the match. As Kareem continues his attack, the camera cuts to El Profe who is posing and mugging for the cameraman (showing off that kilowatt smile). Chicky makes the comment that with the attack Kareem is doing on Valiant at the moment he’s probably forgotten how to dance by now. Valiant tries to gather himself on the outside and get the crowd into it but Kareem keeps knocking Valiant off the apron when he tries to get back in the ring. Jimmy does manage to get back inside and launch an offensive flurry but Kareem manages to counter with a clothesline and an elbow drop for the pin (although Valiant got his leg on the rope at two, Kareem pulled it away before the ref saw it). Kareem leaves with El Profe as the ref helps Valiant to the back.

MD: They were in and out under five minutes here. We came in with Valiant choking Muhammad with his bandana and poking at the eyes, but it’s not long before he’s overpowered and tossed out. The rest of the match is a king of the mountain sequence with Muhammad knocking Valiant off the apron and Valiant walking around ringside clapping and interacting with fans. He finally hits a shoulder to the gut to get back in and mounts a bit of a comeback before running into Muhammad’s outstretched arm and is squashed. He does make sure to get his foot on the ropes for a second to protect himself in defeat. There wasn’t a whole lot here. I imagine Valiant could have a pretty entertaining match against El Profe (alternatively, Paul Jones was right there and from the minute of footage we have, could still punch, stagger, and eat headbutts pretty well) and Muhammad could be a useful foil for Colon or Invader but this wasn’t either of those things. It was still nice to see Jimmy walking and clapping and hanging out with the crowd, I guess.

EB: We finally get a match from the main night of Aniversario in Bayamon and it’s the long awaited revenge match featuring Invader #3 facing off against Manny Fernandez.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDt9YVFnxWk

Manny is in the ring with Chicky Starr as the music for Invader #3’s entrance begins playing. Invader #3 rushes out and runs to the ring holding a large stick. He jumps Manny from behind (Manny was posing on the turnbuckle looking towards the crowd) and proceeds to hit several blows with the stick on Manny (including one blow that hits Manny right in the mouth). The crowd goes crazy as Invader #3 continues his attack on Manny on the outside . Manny is chased back inside and, as Invader #3 gets back in, Chicky reaches out and manages to yank the stick away from the fired up Invader #3. This does not stop Invader #3, who continues his attack on Manny undeterred. Eventually, Manny manages to lift Invader #3 up in a desperation move and hotshots him on the top rope to stop the attack. On the PPV broadcast, Hector Moyano and El Profe are on commentary and talking about how Invader #3 is looking for revenge for the infamous attack and injury that Manny Fernandez had done to him. Manny checks his bleeding mouth and proceeds to focus his attack on Invader #3’s throat and neck area. Manny slows the pace down as he continues his focused attack, including a headscissor submission hold which Chicky reaches in to help with the leverage (and El Profe on commentary acting like he’s not seeing the cheating going on). As Chicky walks around at ringside, you’ll notice that the ring is on a raised platform here in Bayamon, so one misstep and someone could take a tumble. Manny continues working the submission hold as Moyano makes a comment about how Manny is bleeding from the mouth quite noticeably. Manny starts getting frustrated at not being able to put Invader #3 away and starts punching him around the throat area. Invader #3 manages to get some distance between him and Manny and, as the crowd starts ramping up, begins to land some hits on Manny from a kneeling position. They exchange a few blows but Manny manages to knock Invader # 3 down again and regain control. Manny works a chinlock but Invader #3 responds to the crowd cheering him on and fights out of it, ramming Manny’s head into the turnbuckle. Manny counters out of the corner with a charge and proceeds to adjust his kneepad. Manny then makes his way to the top turnbuckle as the crowd gets worried, remembering that this was how Invader #3 had been gruesomely injured. Invader #3 gets up though and catches Manny on the top turnbuckle, slamming him to the mat. Invader #3 goes on a punching spree but, when he attempts to monkey flip Manny out of the corner, Manny grabs on to the ropes and Invader #3 crashes onto the mat. An attempted dropkick off the ropes by Invader #3 is also countered by Manny holding onto the ropes. Manny proceeds to grab Invader #3 from behind and hold him so Chicky can get up on the ring apron with the stick. As Manny tries to shove Invader #3 into Chicky and the stick, Invader #3 ducks out of the way and it is Manny that takes the hit. Invader #3 dropkicks Chicky off the apron, sending the stick flying into the ring. Invader #3 makes the cover but Manny surprisingly kicks out at two. Invader #3, seeing that the ref is holding the stick, immediately runs toward him to try to grab the stick. As the ref and Invader #3 play tug of war with the stick, Manny attacks Invader #3 from behind and it looks like Invader #3 may have hit the stick on impact. Manny grabs Invader #3 and hits his flying burrito maneuver, which scores the pinfall win. Invader #3 got some satisfaction in attacking Manny for what had happened a year and a half ago but in the end Manny gets the win. Manny and Chicky celebrate as they leave the ring.

MD: One fun part about this entire project for me is that I have no idea what’s coming next. I’ll say this, though. I see the Chicky/Manny act and I just see money. There’s no reason why these two together couldn’t have drawn into 1990 or 1991. Invader #3 came in hot as you’d expect, with a baseball bat in hand. He wanted blood and he got it quickly, even after Chicky got the bat away, opening up Manny from the mouth. He was overexuberant though, which was the story of the match, and flew right into a hotshot on the top rope. That let Manny work the neck, most especially with headscissors (with Chicky assisting at first and then, after a hope spot, by grabbing the ropes himself). Invader would come back and even get a huge nearfall after ducking a bat shot from Chicky, only to lose sight of the goal by trying to get the bat from the ref instead of staying on Manny. That let Manny hit the flying forearm and steal the win. Lots of heat just like you’d want. I’m half surprised this didn’t cause a riot. Hopefully he sticks around.

EB: We unfortunately do not have the chain match for the Puerto Rico title between Ivan Koloff and Invader #1, but we do have their match from Mayaguez the next day. It’s a rematch for the Puerto Rico title that Invader #1 won in the chain match.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BTjhMS_Qio

This match is taken from a tv airing a year later, so the commentary is not focused on what was happening back in 1989. We start the match as Invader and Koloff face off and then lock up, exchanging holds. Tempers flare and soon they start exchanging punches and blows, but Invader uses an arm wringer and drop toehold to regain control of Koloff on the mat. So far this match is different from how I’m thinking the chain match went in terms of being a fight, this is more of a straight wrestling match between Koloff and Invader. As they continue exchanging holds, you can see in a zoom in on Koloff that he has a bandage on his head (again I’m guessing from the chain match). We go to commercial break as Koloff has Invader in a full nelson and come back to them fighting outside of the ring and Koloff using some bolted together chairs to attack Invader. The crowd also looks to have tried to get closer to the wrestlers on the outside, so I’m wondering what have we missed for the match to switch up from where we were before the break. Koloff gets back in the ring and taunts the crowd as Invader recovers on the outside. Invader gets back in the ring and both wrestlers proceed to exchange a flurry of chops, punches and kicks, Invader hits an eye rake on Koloff and rolls him up for two. Koloff attacks Invader and hits him with a back elbow, and for some reason also hits the ref with a back elbow which looks to be deemed inadvertent since there is no dq called. Hugo protests that should have been a disqualification. Koloff rolls up Invader and tries several pin attempts while holding Invader’s tights. Invader keeps barely getting a shoulder up on the different attempts as Koloff keeps trying to get the pin. Invader manages to kick Koloff off of him and takes control with a headbutt to Koloff’s midsection and a dropkick. Invader tries a pin attempt but Koloff gets his leg on the rope. The match continues as time starts winding down. An inside cradle gets a two count for Invader and the wrestlers continue fighting in the ring. A series of punches on the turnbuckle by Invader opens up Koloff’s cut on his forehead. A crossbody from Invader gets a near fall. A backslide attempt gets two. Invader manages to get a sleeper on Koloff but it’s just as the bell rings as the time limit expires. Invader gets the moral win by putting Koloff to sleep but the match ends in a draw.  

MD: I found a post from over ten years ago where our old pal Dylan was lamenting about the chain match not being available. I too shall lament about this. What we do have is this, with a hotter, angrier crowd than the one in Bayamon for Invader #3 vs Manny, and it’s this weird cross section of a riot scene and a title match with all the trappings of a title match. They start with chain wrestling, to a degree, with Invader controlling with a hammerlock. We come back from a break with Invader on the outside hurting and Ivan leans on him hard with the crowd throwing things into the ring to express their displeasure. Invader comes back, in part by using some sort of sharp, dangerous object that someone did throw in to rake at Ivan’s eyes and then they go into full Steamboat vs Savage mode with roll ups and near-falls. There’s an awesome back elbow cut off by Koloff here which might be the best back elbow in the history of wrestling (and one to the ref too for good measure). He does another one to the ref just for the hell of it too. The finish is a big Invader sleeper with the great visual of Koloff reaching desperately for the ref but Esteban let me know that the time ran out making it just a spiritual victory for Invader. So yeah, these two matched up really well. It was a title match though, even if it was a heated one, and it just whets the appetite for what that chain match could have been. Someone has to have it, right? If you’re reading this, help us out and do some digging.

EB: As mentioned earlier, the Universal title match is now a barbed wire match. Carlos Colon gets his first chance to avenge his shoulder injury against Sadistic Steve Strong and looks to regain the Universal title in the process. We go to Bayamon for the ring introductions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjWvgb7M4z4

You can tell it’s a big match as each competitor heads to the ring with an entourage. Sadistic Steve Strong is accompanied by his manager Chicky Starr and by Manny Fernandez carrying the U.S.A. flag. Garbage starts pelting them as they head to the ring. The Spanish version of My Way plays as the tecnicos come out. We have Invader #1 carrying the Puerto Rico flag, accompanied by TNT and the Youngbloods as the crowd grows loud with cheers and air horns go off. Carlos Colon follows the tecnicos out, accompanied by his trainer Barba Roja (looks like he did take Hugo up on the invitation to visit sometime) and also by our backstage interviewer Lysette Santiago. Strong has entered the ring and is waiting for Colon. Eliud Goznalez starts the ring introductions but stops because we haven’t yet played the national anthems. We first hear La Borinqueña (Puerto Rico’s national anthem), followed by The Star Spangled Banner. Strong remains in the ring throughout all of this. Carlos gets in the ring as the ring introductions are made. Carlos gets some final instructions from Barba Roja just before the match begins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKm7Ha3fdyQ

Carlos immediately charges at Strong as the bell rings, attacking him and trying to drive Strong’s face into the barbed wire. Strong manages to hold Colon off, but Carlos goes back on offense including biting Strong in the face. Carlos keeps the pressure on and continues trying to rake Strong’s face in the barbed wire. Strong continues to fight Carlos off, managing an unsuccessful attempt to send Carlos face first into the barbed wire. The first hit of barbed wire occurs when Carlos shoves Strong backwards into the ropes and Strong briefly makes contact as the crowd cheers. Carlos is not letting up and continues on the offensive trying to again smash Strong’s face into the wire. However, Strong manages to gain control and starts fcusing his attacks on Colon’s left shoulder (the one that had been injured). Strong continues putting pressure on and attacking the shoulder as we can see Strong has some cuts on his back and Carlos is bleeding from his forehead. Strong grabs Colon’s left arm and wraps it around the rope (and the barbed wire) to inflict more damage. Strong continues to control the match despite some attempts by Carlos to counter and run Strong into the barbed wire. A choke lift is countered with an eye rake by Carlos and he goes on the offensive as the crowd cheers on. Strong manages to avoid a back bodydrop attempt and hits a DDT on Colon. Carlos ducks a clothesline attempt (remember that training session we saw where part of the strategy was ducking the clothesline?) and both men hit each other with a clothesline. Colon immediately falls down, followed by Strong after a delayed reaction. Colon hits a slam and tries a legdrop off the middle turnbuckle but Strong moves out of the way. Strong hits a slam and tries to come off the middle turnbuckle with an elbow, but this time it’s Carlos who gets out of the way. Carlos starts attacking Strong’s leg to set up the figure four leglock as the crowd cheers on. Strong manages to throw Colon off on his first attempt at the figure four, but Carlos immediately attacks Strong's legs again when he stands up. Strong falls and immediately starts crawling away so Carlos can’t get the figure four on him. Carlos keeps attacking the leg and Strong’s leg buckles on an irish whip attempt due to the damage done. Carlos is almost successful in getting the figure four on but Strong yanks Colon by the hair in order to push him away. Colon dodges a Strong tackle and finally gets the figure four on. It looks like Strong may give up but don’t forget Chicky is at ringside. As the ref is asking Strong if he will submit, Chicky reaches into his jacket and pulls out a spray can. He moves close to where Carlos is and sprays Colon right in the face. This causes Carlos to squirm in pain and the hold is broken. Barba Roja chases Chicky around the ring and catches up to him, trying to get the spray can Chicky had hid once more in his jacket. However, Chicky starts attacking Barba Roja! As Chicky is attacking Barba Roja, Strong adjusts ‘Damian’ on his arm and hits Carlos straight on with a clothesline. Strong gets the three count! Chicky is kicking Barba Roja at ringside when we see a chair fly out at the crowd and hit Chicky. TNT then shows up to go after Chicky and help Barba Roja. TNT grabs Chicky and holds him as Barba Roja finds the spray can in Chicky’s jacket.  As Barba Roja shows the referee the spray can, Chicky runs to the other side of the ring, grabbing a chair and using it to defend himself from other chairs that are being thrown at him. The ref restarts the match after seeing the spray can and, as the match restarts, if you look at the top right corner you’ll see security jumping on the ring platform and shielding Chicky from the crowd. They immediately take off running to get Chicky out of there before the situation gets worse. Back in the ring, Strong immediately had started punching Carlos as the match restarted. Strong throws Carlos on the ropes but Carlos ducks the clothesline and hits a back suplex (once again, remember the planning session we saw, one of the moves they worked on was ducking the clothesline and hitting a back suplex).  Carlos gets the three count and wins! The crowd goes wild (and we even see a chair get thrown in the ring) as Carlos has regained the Universal title. The tecnicos come out to celebrate but as Carlos tries to leave he gets blindsided and attacked by an angry Steve Strong. In a bit of an unintentionally funny visual, one of the Youngbloods is spraying champagne in celebration as Carlos is getting attacked by Strong. Carlos manages to leave the ring and is surrounded by El Ejercito de la Justicia to celebrate his win, as champagne is sprayed everywhere. Strong remains in the ring throughout the celebration as El Ejercito de la Justicia heads to the locker room.

Post match we get interviews with Steve Strong (wanting a rematch in whatever match Colon wants after feeling he was cheated out of the win) and Carlos Colon with Barba Roja (celebrating the win in a tough match thanks to the crowd and Barba Roja’s support). And as the interview with Carlos ends, Lysette says we’re headed back to the ring for our next match. Wait, we have another match to go?

MD: This was a massive spectacle, starting with the huge entrances with retinues. Manny was with Strong and Colon had the Youngbloods (I think) and Invader waving the flag. I’ve mentioned it before but the joy of barbed wire matches isn’t necessarily the blood but instead the constrained lack of space and the anticipation of the wire becoming part of the match. Sometimes that can play out as long minutes of people just pressing each other’s head towards it. Here it was more dynamic. Colon rushed in early and had an advantage until Strong started on the damaged shoulder. Using that as a wedge he bloodied Colon first. Carlos came back with some grisly headbutts. It’s striking to see him fight so violently considering how soft spoken he’s come off in the bio and other appearances, but that’s why he’s the national hero I suppose. Strong cuts him off only for Colon to come back hot, working on the leg and trying and trying for the figure four until he finally gets it. Chicky asserts himself then, spraying Colon in the face. That leads to a moment of true darkness where Barba Roja rushes around the ring only to get battered by Chicky, and Colon, blinded and despondent gets flattened by the loaded armguard of Strong and pinned for three.

We’ve seen before how matches in Puerto Rico often had finishes overturned against the heels in the moment. It’s a very Memphis thing to do. The times I can think of it happening in WWF and AEW were times that Lawler or Jarrett were involved, for instance. It ratchets up the heat, sweeps the rug out from under the crowd, and then gives them hope at the last second. It’s the sort of thing that can’t be done too much because it makes it harder to accept any time a heel does cheat to win later. Here, though, it put everyone in exactly the right state of crazed mania to create pure elation with the true finish. For instance, just when everything was at its worse, you could see a chair come flying in from off the side of the screen to clock Chicky. It wasn’t that flying chair that would save the day but another fan favorite: TNT came out to rescue Barba Roja and assault Chicky. The ref was informed of what happened and allowed the match to continue.And, with the light obscuring him as if he was some sort of celestial figure, Colon ducked a shot and hit a belly to back suplex for three. Strong, furious, stomped at Carlos but the champagne was already flowing. He may have had a point, as all good heels do, and may have been protected, but Carlitos had scored a legendary win nonetheless. A big match with a big match feel. I am left wondering how Gorilla Monsoon would have factored in however.

EB: To close out Aniversario here in Bayamon, we have a match for the rights to the TNT name and gimmick. It’s TNT taking on the Original TNT, the man Chicky Starr had brought in claiming to be the actual TNT and that our TNT was an impostor. But… we have our last no-show of Aniversario as the Original TNT did not appear. Luckily for CSP, we have Chicky Starr, the man who masterminded and was the driving force and instigator behind the Original TNT plot (including outing TNT’s real identity and constantly calling him an impostor). In a change that may have occurred that same day (and who knows if it was announced during the event itself), we now have TNT taking on Chicky Starr in a five minute challenge match. The stipulations are TNT’s name and paint (basically the rights to the TNT identity) vs Chicky Starr’s hair. And the key stipulation in the five minute challenge is that TNT has to defeat Chicky within the five minute time limit in order to win. However, if Chicky lasts the full five minutes without losing then Chicky wins and TNT loses his identity. It’s a ploy Chicky has tried twice before vs Invader #1, first as a 15 minute challenge and then in a rematch as a 10 minute challenge. You can probably guess why the third time is now with 5 minutes as the time limit. Back to Bayamon we go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H7fGogrY18

After their altercation during the Universal title match, Chicky and TNT are going to face off once more this evening.  Chicky, after having to run for his life near the end of the Universal title match, is back out here in his crown and robe (and with Leper Messiah as his entrance music). The crowd wastes no time in throwing garbage at Chicky as he waits for his opponent. TNT’s music plays as he comes out in full TNT garb and with the TV title around his waist. TNT takes his gi off as Eliud Gonzalez does the introductions (mentioning it’s the TNT name and paint vs Chicky’s hair and TNT has to defeat Chicky in five minutes or less). The ref checks both combatants for foreign objects and we are underway. TNT has five minutes to win or else he loses his identity.  Moyano on commentary mentions that the clear disadvantage is for TNT since he has to win while Chicky just has to run out the clock. And this is apparent right off as Chicky just takes off, weaving in and out of the ring as TNT gives chase. Man, the ring mat is just full of garbage from earlier. Chicky continues running from TNT, including crawling under the ring with TNT giving chase (and the cameraman follows them too!). The only offensive maneuvers we see from Chicky so far are quick blows to get TNT to back off and Chicky immediately gets to running away again. Eliud Gonzale calls out that one minute has elapsed.

TNT and Chicky exchange strikes on the outside, but when it looks like TNT is going to take control Chicky bites TNT in the face and runs off again. Chicky maintains his distance from TNT outside of the ring while pointing at his wrist signaling the time ticking away. TNT finally manages to cut through the ring and grab Chicky, dragging him into the ring by his hair. They immediately exchange strikes, with Chicky surprisingly gaining the advantage and maintaining the offensive attack. We are past the two minute mark. TNT hits a bodyslam and immediately goes for the pin but Chicky kicks out immediately. An eye rake by Chicky gives him the advantage again. Chicky hits a DDT as Eliud Gonzalez calls out the time and reminds fans of the stipulations. Chicky again starts mockingly pointing at his wrist. Chicky continues on the attack as the fans start to make noise to encourage TNT. The commentators are talking about why someone would sign up for these stipulations (with Profe calling TNT an idiot) but, as we’ve seen from the build-up, Chicky had really been insulting TNT and put his safety at risk by revealing his real identity. Chicky goes for a pin but gets up at one and dismissively signals he doesn’t want to pin TNT. The attack by Chicky continues as the time keeps ticking away. We have reached the 4 minute mark as Chicky comes off the turnbuckle with an axe handle onto TNT. A pin attempt gets two as the count is at 55 seconds remaining. Chicky hits a body slam with 40 seconds left, covers but again quickly changes his mind and forgoes the pin attempt. Chicky punches TNT with 30 seconds left and hits a back body drop with 20 seconds left. TNT is in real trouble. Chicky points at his wrist as 15 seconds are left and he decides to go to the top again as TNT gets up. However, this axe handle attempt is met with a dynamite kick right to Chicky’s face. TNT quickly covers him as the countdown is at 6 and a quick three count later we have a winner. The crowd starts cheering as TNT has defeated Chicky with about three seconds remaining on the clock. Chicky now will lose his hair. Two refs and Super Medico hold Chicky down as TNT starts cutting some of Chicky’s hair with a pair of scissors. Profe starts having a meltdown on commentary over what is happening to Chicky. We end with Chicky fleeing the ring as security surrounds him while they run to the back, as fans pelt them with garbage. Outside of Manny Fernandez getting the win, not a good night for Chicky (or Profe for that matter having lost the World tag titles and the Puerto Rico title).

MD: Just so interesting that they finished with this. For one thing, I’m still boggled by what Action Jackson had to do that was more important than this match. I guess in part, they had to finish with this because otherwise you don’t have Chicky at ringside for the Strong match. Sending fans home happy with two major celebratory wins is a pretty good way to deal with a natural disaster. Chicky had to survive five minutes with TNT. If he did, TNT had to lose his name and take off the facepaint, to give the gimmick to the “Original TNT” basically. If Chicky lost in those five minutes, he’d lose his hair. Esteban likely will get into more detail past that, but it was a pretty transcendent heel performance by Chicky. He came out to Leper Messiah by Metallica and played defensive early, running around the ring, running under the ring (with the camera following TNT and Chicky, which is something I’m not sure I ever saw before). Eventually he got a cheapshot and took over for the brunt of the remainder of the match, refusing to even try to seriously pin TNT, just playing out the clock in control. The best defense was a good offense despite his hubris. The fans were throwing things in there but they weren’t near-riotous as time ticked down like you might expect. I think they had faith in TNT and faith in pro wrestling in general. Heels win, but not before the babyface at least tries to get a comeback in. It’s ritual and they knew it well. Chicky was poised to beat the clock, with an advantage, with fifteen seconds left. He could have hit the floor and ran it off. But instead he went up top and flew right into TNT’s kick. It was definitely a choice to give him all of it, but when you have only five minutes after a grueling war like Colon and Strong just went through and you have a heel charismatic and hated like Chicky to make it work, this wasn’t at all a bad choice at all.

EB: And that’s a wrap for Aniversario 89 from Bayamon. We’ve seen four titles change hands and TNT retain his identity. However, it remains to be seen if Steve Strong is truly done with Carlos Colon and if we'll see Chicky and Profe retaliate for the losses they’ve taken.

Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, we’ll see the fallout from Aniversario as we start heading toward the end of 1989.

El Deporte de las Mil Emociones Master List

Read more!