2023 Ongoing MOTY List: AEW PARKING LOT BRAWL 2

 

13. Trent Beretta/Chuck Taylor vs. Claudio Castagnoli/Jon Moxley AEW Rampage 8/4/23

ER: This is the second Best Friends Parking Lot match, and if the Height of the Pandemic words I wrote about the first one are to be believed, I thought that one was one of the best matches of the year. That one was against LAX, who doesn't exist anymore. This one is against Blackpool Combat Club, who didn't exist then but is as good and as watchable as LAX was then. But this wasn't as good as that and I know that even though I couldn't tell you one clear detail of that first match which I loved if you had a gun to my face, I would guess, but it would be a lie and I would spend some days unexpectedly suddenly afraid that I cheated death and would someday be forced to pay back double. That first match was the first match Chuck Taylor was a part of that I thought was great. Now it's a couple years later and he has the dark red cheeks of a man with lupus and it reminds us all how we've aged since our last parking lot fight a couple years ago. 

This match knew what it was, in a way that hurt it. It didn't have the freshness or the element of surprise that the original had. This was violent - Trent Beretta essentially got busted open good in the first few seconds - but had this weird approach where everything that happened in the parking lot was equally damaging as anything else that happened in the parking lot. Selling is less important to me in matches where guys are just taking "real" bumps. But this felt long in ways the other one didn't, moving at a pace that was like the match walking alongside itself. Getting hit with a spoiler was about the same as getting piledriven on the roof of a KIA which was about the same as getting powerbombed through a windshield. The price was about 3 seconds. It felt like they were on an itinerary. But also Trent Beretta tried to recreate the legendary Real Parking Lot Fight where Cliff Booth threw Bruce Lee into the side of a Lincoln Continental. 

Really it's the Trent Beretta match. That's why we watch this. We love Claudio doing strong man spots in a junkyard brawl, we love Moxley bleeding almost as quickly as Trent, but Beretta is the guy doing the spots you want to see on cars. That cannon ball into the side of the car was sick, Claudio press slammed him on top of a car, he got slammed inside the engine and stayed inside as Taylor was powerbombed on the hood, he gets bombed through a windshield, Claudio swings him into the head of one of those big yard waste bins, and every time he fought back his offense it was just him taking the same awful falls only offensively instead of defensively. He drove this forward and his body kept taking the most real bumps on concrete and cars and then getting right back up to do it again. I don't give a shit about his mom. Chuck Taylor siphoning gasoline should have led to something special - and I'm not looking up whether Taylor actually siphoned like a divorced dad who hates his wife's new boyfriend, because I believed he was that man; eyes flaring redder than his rosacea cheeks, he thought only of his hallway that used to be lined with pictures. But a man siphoning gasoline shouldn't lead to the weakest stretch of the match, not when guys are out there killings themselves. 

Trent Beretta is a guy who I just realized has three different Tags on our site because I've spelled his name differently three different times. But I thought he was so good in this match that it made me take the time to go back and fix all of the times we tagged him as Trent Barretta. I didn't have the energy to update the ones that just used Trent. 

2023 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Found Footage Friday: BABY TAUE~! HARA~! BRET~! VIRGIL~! BABY MONEY INC~! BLONDY~!

Akira Taue vs. Ashura Hara AJPW 10/28/88

MD: This isn't long, but if I'm not mistaken, it might be the earliest Taue singles match on tape. And honestly? It wildly overachieves. I'm used to 89 and even into 90 Taue who is trying to figure out how to be Taue. This is not that guy. This is a big athletic guy trying to figure any of it out. And he's trying to do so against Hara who is stoic and brutal and ready to kill him. Taue hits a Thesz press right at the bell and the crowd ooohs. Great, effective start. The first two minutes of this are pretty sprint light, all building to Hara clocking him with the ring bell on the floor. Throughout this, Taue will throw chops and kicks and there really is the sense that he's learning in the moment, even from a purely kayfabe perspective. He's trying to figure out what angle to throw his strikes from, what technique to use, how to get enough mustard behind the kicks to actually impact Hara, despite his size and presumably strength advantage. It means that every four or five shots from him equals one of Hara's. It means that when he hits the hundred hand sumo slap in the corner and it doesn't register and he escalates to outright smacks across Hara's face, Hara is going to clean his clock with one massive retribution shot of his own. It means when he's able to score four or five kicks, Hara's able to cut him right off with just one off his own off the ropes, even if both of them will keel over after the fact. 

When it comes to the actual execution, Taue bumps big, most especially for the clotheslines at the end, but there is a sense of him telegraphing his stuff (especially the missed stuff) way more than it ought to. We get a great camera shot of Hara managing the same exact thing, a missed clothesline in the corner, with a lot more intensity and grace. I think, and this is just a guess, that Taue didn't know enough to get in his own way yet. He has some single matches with Taue over a year later, right as Taue was on his way out, and in those, he tries to fight from underneath and show fire and I almost see more of that here, naturally, against Hara. Watching the AJPW mainstays this early in their development is so interesting, because you can see all sorts of possibilities and realities that didn't happen. This Taue, one that was more than willing to run into Hara's open hand, and then throw his entire body right back at him, was a different sort of Taue than the one we'd eventually get.

ER: I can't get enough Taue, the man who took over as my favorite pillar sometime post-Misawa death and together we haven't looked back since. I just like how he moves and how he falls and how he sells on his feet. He's a permanently old man and this is the youngest I've seen the old man doing his thing, Akira Taue with the fluffed up city pop hair of All Japan Young Boys. Taue is an athlete who is clumsy in form and clumsy in fall in all of the best ways. He is in his first year - which means he has been thrown to the wolves for over a hundred matches already on the Kings Road schedule - and can barely budge the Hara the Tank. It's one of those fun reaction worthy young boy matches where a brick solid stoic badass in his 40s lets a young boy hit him as hard as he can while he barely budges until he shows him several times how to throw proper kicks to the ribs and butts to the head. Ashura Hara barely reacts to Taue's slaps and yet also feels the need to bash him with a ring bell a couple minutes in. Early! Taue sells slaps really well and Hara knocks him silly really well. He lets Taue kick him in the chest and back if it's hurting him he's wearing it all inside. He catches a kick when he decides to catch a kick - casually, like he was just throwing Taue's leg around with his buddy - and gets to his feet with an uppercut to Taue's left cheekbone. Taue absorbs all of Hara's clotheslines and kicks really well, and Hara literally just clotheslines and kicks him until pinning him. They all looked great and none of them looked clean. 

Fabuloso Blondy/Guerrero Negro vs. Stuka/Apolo Estrada CMLL 1989

MD: Three falls in fifteen minutes or so. Blondy was in his full glory, and Guerrero Negro, sans mask, seemed just happy to be there with him saluting along to the anthem. Tecnicos charged in immediately thereafter. I haven't seen a ton of Apolo Estrada but I like what I have seen. He's very charismatic and over the top in his own particular way. Blondy fouled him to lose the first fall but take over the momentum which is not something you see often actually. They focused in on his stomach and took the segunda after a solid beatdown. In the tercera, Estrada came back after shrugging Blondy into the post on a ram attempt on the floor. Nice pop for it. The fans were into these guys. He got some solid revenge on Blondy's stomach, too, which is again not something you see a lot of focus on. As they cycled through Blondy did a sleeper, which, again isn't usually part of the diction of lucha libra. Finish was fun with Stuka getting Guerrero Negro but Estrada missing a big leap off the top only for Blondy to get overconfident and rolled up. It was a good, over act and here was another look at it, brief, a little slight, but still enjoyable.

Bret Hart/Virgil vs. Ted Dibiase/IRS WWF 8/16/91

MD: This came out of nowhere. They started running this matchup in July, with Duggan sometimes teaming with Virgil. It's still very early in the Dibiase/IRS pairing. We don't have a ton of them with Sherri so it's fun to see it. Super hot crowd and you can hardly blame them as there was always something to look at here. Just having Sherri out there meant that there was a constant reaction to everything that was happening. That meant lots of attempts to interfere which didn't come to anything but drew the eye (and the fancam) to holding her head during a double noggin knocker, to taunting every single person in the arena when Dibiase and IRS finally took over. I almost can't comment on some of Rotunda's holds because the cameraman was more interested in seeing what Sherri was up to. There was a long, long shine here with a couple of false calls on the heels taking over but some very fun stuff, like Bret feigning an eyerake from the outside from IRS (that never happened) which let Virgil unload on Dibiase illegally and this great bit where Virgil did an arm wringer to IRS and then Rotunda's fist right into Dibiase's face. I'm sure I must have seen that spot at least a few times but it felt new to me. The heels had to work three times harder (and dirtier) than the babyfaces to get anything which, I suppose, made the fans care all the more when they finally took over. There was a ton of heat for it at least. Bret ended up taking maybe 80% of this match though Virgil seemed plenty competent when he was in there. Finish was probably what people usually got around this time, with Virgil, almost, almost getting to triumph over Dibiase only to have it stolen out from underneath him (by a loaded purse). Summerslam was just around the corner though.

ER: I have bad taste in wrestling, so this kind of thing is the kind of new match that excites me. I love seeing new WWF pairings from this era, matches that didn't exist in any other form. They ran this tag on a few house shows leading up to Summerslam '91, the peak of Virgil's career and Bret's first singles match title win. Other than these few house show tags, Bret and Virgil rarely associated. Both babyfaces, both careers on the upswing, both in wildly different places one year later. Virgil's World Title Challenge the next year would be by far Bret's shortest match of his first World Title run. This is our lone Bret/Virgil partnership on film and it's a really good tag match, and every person in the match is really great at their role in the match. Bret gets loud crowd sympathy out of getting out of a long chinlock, Dibiase reacts perfectly to a hot tag, IRS works faster and hits heavier than later Money Inc., and the timing of everything is pinpoint. 

But this is a Sensational Sherri. Whatever single Montreal man snuck their camcorder to horsily record Sherri's every single movement at the importance of anything else on the show, was correct to do so. Regardless of the intentions of a lone Quebecois cameraman probably named Edouard, this camera belonged on Sherri. This was one of the hardest working, entertaining, constant motion and broad breathless interaction that few managers in history could replicate. Sherri works an incredible and active manager role with the best looking legs of her life, running around the ring to stop and rub specific fans' faces in it, shouting specific encouragement to IRS or Dibiase in between interacting with fans, physically interact with all four men in the match multiple times ranging from big to small ways, all while adding to the match by getting the crowd more invested in the match by also being more invested in her. She is incredible to watch. It's like she's acting a big scene out for her own biopic; an incredible confident performance that is bigger than any TV performance. You put this performance of hers in any territory and she is a megastar. 

This is a gem of a tag. Every participant did a leaping punch off the middle or top buckle, and any match with jumping or falling punches is going to be a house show gem. But this is a Sensational Sherri match, a match I'm not sure I've seen anyone work better. That it plays like a documentary scene about a Great Manager due to our French New Wave handheld with swirling squeals of in the red crowd noise makes it a wrestling match that should be referenced going forward. 

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El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Tag Teams Back Again

Week 20: Tag Teams Back Again

EB: El Ejercito de la Justicia is in celebration as the Universal title is once again on the side of the tecnicos, but for the first time it is not Carlos Colon that is the reigning champion. After avenging the loss of his face paint, TNT has won the Universal title for El Ejercito de la Justicia and ended Leo Burke’s nearly two month long reign. The finish to the match had some controversy, as Carlos Colon ‘fought fire with fire’ and picked up a dropped foreign object that Chicky Starr had handed to Leo Burke. Colon decked Burke with it and TNT was able to score the pinfall. Burke and Chicky protested over what they felt was a gross injustice (conveniently ignoring all of the cheating they had done to win and keep the title for as long as they did). A rematch occurred between TNT and Leo Burke that went to a 60 minute time limit draw. This led to a no time limit rematch and TNT was successful in keeping the Universal title. With Burke’s chances being used up, it was time for a new challenger to step up. Who will it be? We’ll talk about it shortly.

With Leo Burke no longer the Universal champion, there were a few tecnicos that wanted to avenge some of the chicanery they had experienced at the hands of Burke and Chicky Starr. One of those wrestlers was Miguelito Perez, who we last saw being the victim of Burke’s figure four leglock in a tag match. Here we join a singles match between Perez and Burke, near its conclusion. 

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

This is just the last minute of the encounter and Miguelito has Burke on the run. Leo tries to escape through the ropes but Perez manages to stop him and continues the attack. Burke cuts off Perez with a kick to the midsection and hits a neckbreaker. Burke slowly makes his way to the top turnbuckle, but Perez catches him up there and slams him off. Perez sends Burke into the ropes to set up his powerslam, but as Perez picks him up, Burke shifts his weight and is able to small package Miguelito for a surprise pinfall. It happened so quickly that Perez initially didn’t realize that the three count was made, as he slammed Burke and tried to continue the attack. It's a clear reminder that Burke is still a skilled technician and very wily in the ring. 

MD: Only a minute but a good minute, with Burke very precise with a kick/neckbreaker combo, getting tossed off the turnbuckles, and then rolling Perez up on a body slam attempt. Nice banana peel finish that keeps everyone over. Perez got the slam post match, upset.

EB: Leo Burke would not remain without a title for long. With TNT’s Universal title win, the TV title he held was vacated. Burke ended up winning the vacant TV title at some point in February. As March approaches he is set to defend the TV title on March 3 against a returning face. One who hasn’t been in CSP for several years but was a big name in the late 70s and early 80s: Pierre Martel. We’ll follow this up next time. 

Beside TNT’s win, there were other happenings on that February 10 card from Caguas. The other big  match from that night was the boxer vs wrestler match between Alfredo Escalera and Chicky Starr. Escalera won the match by disqualification but not before giving Chicky a lesson in how to take boxing blows. It was an incident that would be brought up a few times on commentary in the weeks that followed, much to Chicky’s chagrin. There were other matches that night besides Chicky’s embarrassment (both against Escalera and in Burke’s Universal title loss). We’lll use them to help us organize our journey through the rest of February 1990. 

On February 10, Eddie Watts defended his World Junior title against Huracan Castillo Jr. Also  on that card, newcomer Carl Styles took on Miguelito Perez. This is the beginning of a potential rivalry for both matchups, ones we will follow as 1900 progresses. To begin, let’s first look at Miguelito Perez in action against an odd opponent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyjKVGcC5A4

I’ve never seen the Alligator Man here before and even the announcers are confused on whether it’s supposed to be Crocodile (which Eliud Gonzalez introduces him as during the ring intros), Alligator (which is how Moyano presents him initially on commentary) or Lizard Man (halfway through the match Eliud and Moyano clear up that they’ve been informed it’s lizard). Thanks to Matt asking for help from the collective wisdom of our fellow wrestling friends, it appears that this is Florida indie wrestler Gator B Long. I don’t really remember him at all in Puerto Rico, so he’s likely just in for a tv taping working as enhancement talent. Moyano mentions that Gator Man has the height advantage and remarks about the claws and head he had with him for his entrance. Gator starts off taking control by choking Perez in the corner and continuing to target the throat area on the mat. Gator does fairly well, countering a side headlock on the mat into a couple of rollover pin attempts, and even getting Perez into a headscissors. Still, Perez was able to make the comeback and hit the powerslam for the win. An example of the sometimes odd nature of who will show up in Puerto Rico. 

MD: No idea who our Gator friend is. He has the paraphernalia (Claws, etc), some size, and the word “Long” on his tights. He was fairly competent too. Most dynamic thing he does here is a big boot but he’s generally in the right place at the right time and this is a complete enough three minute TV match. Comeback by Perez was interesting as he just started clubbering down on “Long” while he was giving him shoulder thrusts in the corner. Perez had some nice downward elbows from an almost headlock position too before he won it with the power (body) slam.

EB: Now let’s look at Carl Styles in action, taking on Huracan Castillo Jr.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jnQR4vYYSU

Styles continues to prove himself on tv. Last time we saw him face Super Medico and this time he has a very capable opponent in Huracan Castillo Jr. Or as Hector Moyano says on commentary: ‘a man named Styles vs a man that moves with style’. Styles wins the initial lockup and puts Castillo in a  side headlock. Castillo counters by sending Carl into the ropes but gets knocked down by a shoulder tackle. Huracan counters Carl’s next rope running attack with an armdrag and a side headlock takedown. Styles tries to sneak in a pinfall attempt by yanking Castillo’s tights but Huracan rolls back over and continues working the side headlock. Carl tries to break out of the hold but gets hit with another armdrag, a dropkick and another side headlock takedown to end up back where he was. The commentators make note that Castillo has been able to neutralize the powerful Styles so far with the holds. 

Styles again breaks the hold by sending Castillo into the ropes. Huracan tries a body press but gets caught by Styles, who hits a backbreaker on Castillo. Styles starts showing off his strength, hitting Castillo with a lift into a press slam. He taunts the crowd and goes for the pin but Castillo kicks out. Styles presses the attack, hitting a slam, clothesline and a suplex for another unsuccessful pin attempt. Castillo counters with a sunset flip pin attempt, but Styles kicks out. Castillo starts firing up and hits several punches and blows on Styles to regain the advantage. Castillo continues on the attack with a clothesline into the corner, an elbow to the head and slam, but Styles manages to dodge an advancing Castillo and uses Castillo’s own momentum to throw him though the ropes to the outside. The ref prevents Styles from going outside to go after Castillo, but with the ref tied up, Eddie Watts runs out and slams Castillo headfirst into the ringpost (remember that Castillo has started wrestling Watts as a World Junior title challenger). 

Castillo is busted open and laid out on the floor. Styles finally is able to evade the ref and go out to the floor. From there it's academic as Styles throws Huracan back in the ring and, after a flurry of punches to Castillo’s bleeding forehead, puts Castillo in the full nelson. Castillo is almost out of it in the hold but the ref is still waiting to see if Huracan will submit. Suddenly, Miguelito Perez runs out to the ring and climbs the turnbuckle, jumping onto Styles from behind in order to break the full nelson on the unconscious Castillo. The ref disqualifies Castillo due to Miguelito’s interference, but Miguelito immediately goes after Styles. Perez wins a punch exchange but misses a dropkick when Styles grabs onto the ropes to stop his momentum. Styles puts Perez in the full nelson and cranks the hold on. Castillo is out on the floor still feeling the effects of the ringpost slam and the full nelson, he is unable to help Miguelito. Styles keeps the pressure of the full nelson on Perez who is struggling to no avail. Super Medico runs out from the locker room  to help Miguelito, and Medico starts furiously punching Carl's back in order to get the full nelson broken. Styles keeps the hold on despite Medico’s repeated blows. Perez is out as Styles continues to absorb Medico’s blows and refuses to release the hold. Castillo is able to get to his feet and the announcers think he’s heading to the locker room but he’s actually picking up a chair and heading back to the ring. Castillo motions for Medico to step aside and just cracks the chair over Styles’ back, finally getting the full nelson broken. Styles rolls out to safety but then tries to get back in, with Profe holding him back. Perez is down, Castillo is propped up against the corner and Medico is staring at Stylers in case he gets back in the ring. The video ends with Medico checking up on Perez as Castillo falls down exhausted to the mat. Carl Styles is quite the powerful and dangerous man.  

MD: If Styles was in the Albright spot, he was a bit better suited for it. He’s less of a monster with less amateur credentials but he’s a bit smarter and more seasoned in his work. While he gave Castillo most of the early match, it was with holds, not cowering or stalling. He cut him off out of nowhere by catching a body press off the ropes into a backbreaker. Castillo came back, and it’s worth noting that unlike Colon’s cartwheel, he had slapped the mat hard once in between his punches to get the fans into it. It’s a bit of a weird visual tick since he should be firing back at full speed and this breaks it up but it was probably effective in its own way. Styles was able to toss him out to stop the fire, though, and Eddie Watts (Castillo’s Jr. Heavyweight rival) came out to post him on the floor and open him up. From there it was academic. Styles won with the full nelson and wouldn’t break it up. Perez came out and got him off but missed a dropkick and ended up in the full nelson too. That drew out Medico and finally after Castillo came back with a chair, they forced Styles away. This was good as it set up at least four different matches and a few potential tags while making Styles look like a beast. 

EB: We’ll continue following both feuds since we’re getting rematches on March 3 for both matchups (Cartillo vs Watts and Styles vs Perez). Speaking of Super Medico, he’s gone on a new path since losing the World Junior title to Eddie Watts. As mentioned before in our introduction of Super Medico, he had a long tenure as tag wrestler as part of the Medicos / Super Medicos team. Teaming up with partner Super Medico #2 (Johnny Rodz) and then later as three man unit with Super Medico #3 (Don Kent), Super Medico had enjoyed great success in tha tag ranks in the early to mid 80s. But since around 1985 when he turned tecnico, Super Medico has mainly wrestled in the singles division., But after being back in Puerto Rico for over 8 months, it seems Medico has decided to reenter the tag team ranks once more. And he’s bringing in a new Super Medico to be his partner. They’re making one of their first appearances on the February 10 card and they’re immediately put up against some tough competition in the team of Los Mercenarios, the reigning World tag team champions. Let’s go to that match and see just what the new Super Medicos can do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-8FUNomXjw 

Joining Jose Estrada (who is Super Medico #1) as his new tag partner is Jose Estrada Jr. He’s identified as #2 by Hugo here but that will soon change. This is from a Campeones airing the week after TNT won the Universal title.  Hugo, Carlos and Chicky are on commentary and part of the conversation they have centers around the Universal title win and how the match ended. In the ring, the Medicos are having a strategy session as the bell rings and Acevedo tries to rush them to catch them unawares. The Medicos are prepared and do a nifty double team maneuver where one lifts the other into a headscissor position to cut off Acevedo. This leads to stereo monkey flips and stereo dropkicks by the Medicos on both members of Los Mercenarios. Starr and Acevedo end up on the outside, confused as to what happened and trying to regroup. Carlos and Chicky talk about how 1990 appears to be the year of the tag team between the new and returning teams that have appeared so far (and with one more still to come). Carlos also talks about how he had said 1990 was going to be the year for El Ejercito de la Justicia, they’ve already won back the Universal title and next they are going to dismantle El Club Deportivo. Chicky naturally takes exception to this and starts complaining about how the title was stolen from Burke. Carlos counters by saying that he doesn’t care about Chicky’s complaining, you have to fight these types of individuals at their own game (or fire with fire). Chicky says that both his and El Profe’s organizations are well equipped to win back that Universal title and Carlos fires back that his predictions last week came true: TNT won the Universal title and Alfredo Escalera gave Chicky a heck of a beating in their match. 

Back in the ring, Medico #1 and Acevedo have been in a bit of a back and forth locking up but Medico #1 (you can tell them apart because Medico #1 is a bit more stocky and shorter) gains the advantage and fires off an armdrag and a nice series of dropkicks on Acevedo.  Ron Starr tags in and Carlos on commentary talks about there being like 6 or 7 Medicos but that this combination may be the best one yet. The Medicos do quick tags to work on Ron Starr’s arm and Starr ends up knocked out of the ring by a punch from Medico #1. Starr gets back in the ring after pacing about frustrated and Medico #1 tags his son in. Ron briefly gets an advantage but is taken down to the mat by Estrada Jr. Ron claims his hair was yanked, and when he is taken down again by Estrada Jr, he complains even more animatedly that his hair was pulled. Ron and Estrada Jr. continue working holds, with Estrada Jr getting the better of Ron. On commentary, the talk turns to all the new impressive teams that have been arriving like the Super Medicos and the soon to debut new Invaders tag team. They’ve shown on tv footage of Invader #1 and Maelo training and they should be debuting soon. Chicky also says that there may be more new teams appearing soon in the tag division and even Carlos says to not discount him teaming up with TNT or another tecnico to get in on the tag action. The match continues with both Medicos keeping control of the match and even Chicky has to compliment the new Medico on showing good potential and skill in the ring so far. We head to a commercial break as Ron Starr sends Medico #2 into the ropes and Acevedo hits him from behind with a knee.

Back from commercial break and it looks like we’re in the middle of Medico #1 hitting a cutoff clothesline on Acevedo to knock him down. Both men are on the mat and reaching for their corner to make the tag. Ron is tagged first and manages to cut off Medico #1 with an elbow, He immediately goes to work on Medico #1 and tries for a pinfall off a clothesline, but Medico #2 breaks it up. Another pin attempt is again broken up by Medico #2 and Ron decides to drag Medico #1 to his team’s corner. Acevedo is tagged in and a quick double team leads to a two count. Acevedo puts a submission hold on Medico #1 as Medico #2 starts clapping to get the crowd into it. Ron pushes on Acevedo’s back for leverage, which draws in Medico #2. The ref stops Medico #2 from going any further and Los Mercenarios switch out without a tag. Ron puts Medico #1 in a front facelock, but Medico #1 tries to force Ron backwards towards the Medicos’ corner so he can make the tag. Acevedo runs in to try to stop it, drawing the referee’s attention and causing the ref to miss the tag. El Vikingo tells Medico #2 to get back in the corner since he didn’t see the tag and Los Mercenarios take advantage by double teaming Medico #1. Acevedo hits a  neckbreaker for an unsuccessful pin attempt, but a follow-up piledriver attempt is countered with a backdrop. Starr is tagged in and tries to attack Medico #1, but is countered with a sunset flip for a pin attempt, although it is missed by the referee who is busy getting Acevedo out of the ring. Carlos states that tag matches should have two referees to avoid situations where the ref is distracted and that allow for cheating to take place. Chicky argues that El Profe being out there is like having a second referee anyways. Medico #1 crawls to the wrong side of the ring looking for the tag and gets decked by El Profe (some great second referee work there I guess). Medico #2 desperately wants to come in and help but keeps getting stopped by the ref. Ron starts punching a downed Medico #1, but Medico #1 finally is able to crawl through Ron’s legs and makes the tag. Medico #2 comes in and cleans house on Ron Starr, which brings Acevedo in. Medico #2 handles both members of Los Mercenarios and eventually makes a pin attempt on Ron after a dropkick. Acevedo breaks up the pinfall but Medico #2 continues on the attack as Acevedo is escorted out. Medico #2 hits his own version of the ‘hit machine’ and almost gets the pinfall. Medico #2 slams Ron and comes off the top with a strike, leading to a pin attempt that’s broken up by Acevedo. Medico# 1 jumps in to attack Acevedo and now all four men are in the ring. Both Medicos try pin attempts on both members of Los Mercenarios but the bell rings and it looks like we have a time limit draw. Los Mercenarios walk away still the World tag champions,but the new Super Medicos have taken the World tag team champions to the limit. There’s a lot of potential with this new team.

MD: This was a nice, complete tag match that was just lacking a real finish (time ran out while things were chaotic). Medico 3 or 4 (Estrada, Jr.) depending on how you want to bill him, was called 2 by the commentary just to make things more confusing, so I’ll just go with that. He was the New Super Medico 2 more or less. Morrow had been still fairly capable for what he was asked to do, including come off the top once per match, and had good history and chemistry with the Cuban Assassin, but Ron Starr was a big step up. When I mentioned all the lead heels last week, I should have mentioned these two as well, because Starr is a guy who could have main evented just as easily as Burke. They’re very interchangeable. Super Medico (1) took the heat here after eating an knee on the outside while rope running and he did a great job selling and having dynamic hope spots from what we saw (having lost a bit with a commercial break). The comeback was very good as he started to fire back but Starr jammed him, only to crawl through the legs and make the tag. Things got chaotic after that with both Medicos trying pin attempts as the time ran out. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8NSiQZjjDI

EB: And here we have the Super Medicos making an appearance on tv taking on the team of El Gran Mendoza and a masked wrestler going by Assassin #1. We are in Ponce and the match is in progress. Due to their performance against Los Mercenarios, it appears that the Super Medicos have already been positioned as the number one contenders for the World tag team titles, so a rematch will be happening soon. For now, the tv audience gets an opportunity to see this new version of the team in action. Medico #1 is in the ring and hits a crossbody block for a pin attempt. Assassin turns the tide with a hotshot on the top rope and from there the team of Assassin and Mendoza take control and use the inexperience of the younger Estrada to lure him into the ring so they can double team behind the referee’s back. Mendoza takes over but Medico mounts a small comeback that ends with both Medico #1 and Mendoza colliding their heads when coming off the ropes. Both men make the tag and Medico #2 starts punching Assassin #1. The two men exchange blouse which leads to Mendoza jumping in to try to blindside Medico #2 but Medico #1 also gets in the ring to counter. Both rudos are rammed into each other and Mendoza is sent out of the ring via a double dropkick. The Medicos set up Assassin for what looks to be their finisher, which is one Medico launching the other into the ropes and then sort of press slamming him onto their opponent/. The crowd cheers as the Medicos pick up the win.

MD: This was just a couple of minutes, with Medico 1 taking a beating until he could get a tag and Medico 2 could come back. Medico 1 obviously has the better punches but Medico 2 is emulating them well enough. Finisher was a press up off the ropes where one Medico lifted the other into a splash. Again, my big takeaway is that Medico 1 was very good at what he did.

EB: The new Super Medicos look to be a strong force in the changing tag division. There is another ‘new’ team on the way as well in the Invaders but Invader #1 has a feud going on with Harley Race. We saw the attack done by Race and Chicky Starr on Invader last time and the two faced each other on February 10 in a match with no winner. The rivalry would continue throughout February and we actually do have footage from one of their encounters. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfhv7-SEEoc

This is from a Clasicos de la Lucha Libre segment from almost two decades later, so we are not getting any context from the commentary. Still, it’s the only footage we have of Invader #1 vs Harley Race in a match from this February 1990 feud. It looks like Invader tried a charge to start the match but he runs into Race’s knees. Race follows up with a couple of elbow drops for a pin attempt. Invader kicks out and Race tries to choke Invader from behind, but does succeed in grabbing him and tossing him out of the ring. Race tries to ram Invader face first into the production truck near the ring but Invader counters and it’s Harley who gets rammed into the side of the truck. Invader throws Harley into the ring and controls the next minute, leading to a couple of unsuccessful pin attempts. Race catches Invader with a headbutt to the midsection after the second kickout, leading to a Race control segment where Race attempts his own unsuccessful pin attempts off such moves as a kneedrop, a belly to belly suplex and a piledriver. Race continues on the attack with several punches and a high knee strike (well, high for 1990 Harley Race). A swinging neckbreaker gets a two count for Harley,who continues on the attack but Invader keeps kicking out. Invader eventually starts a comeback off a headbutt to the midsection. Race and Invader exchange punches and blows, as Invader knocks Race down with a chop. Invader does his two hops when he starts getting fired up and gets a flurry of blows on Race. An eyerake cuts Invader off and Harley tries to send Invader off the ropes. Invader counters by picking up Harley to attempt a bodyslam, but the momentum makes both men fall over the top rope to the outside. Race and Invader start brawling on the outside as the referee starts the ring out count. Both men are counted out as they fight away from the ring. 

MD: The commentary (from many, many years later) was a bit disjointed from what we were watching with an ad talking about getting your tax refund and Idol Stevens (Sandow) and Orlando Colon. These two were pretty much perfect opponents at this point in their career. Race bore down on Invader with all of his super credible “stuff” (neckbreaker, pile driver, suplex, not-so-high jumping knee, short clothesline, lots of short punches, atomic drop), with Invader always making sure to stay in it by getting hope punches in when he could. He finally fired back and turned the tide but both went sailing over the top and brawling for what I assume was a double countout.

EB: This is the last footage we have of Harley from this run. His feud with Invader #1 will last to the end of February, ending with Invader winning the Caribbean title on March 4 (although I’m not sure if the match took place or if it was a phantom switch). Still, Invader has other plans as well, those being the upcoming debut of the new Invaders tag team. They are set to debut on March 3 and their opponents are The Hunters. How will the new Invaders fare? We’ll find out next time. 

As mentioned previously, Eddie Watts has Huracan Castillo Jr as the next World Jr title challenger  but Castillo is not the only new challenger to appear. A returning wrestler would also rotate in as a challenger. Joe Savoldi had previously had a run in CSP in 1984 through early 85, both as a singles wrestler and in a tag team with Al Perez. Since that run as a regular, Savoldi has made a couple of appearances in the following years, popping in for a weekend or two but not staying for any extended run. Now Savoldi has appeared again. Let’s take a look at him in action vs El Exotico.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rErHS9Pc0BM 

It’s been a while since Savoldi has been in Puerto Rico, and it looks like Exotico wants to spoil the return. Hector Moyano and Eliud Gonzalez are on commentary for this match and talk about how Exotico has a particular way of moving about in the ring (Eliud recalls how El Profe described Exoticos as ‘being very delicate’) but that he knows how to captivate the masses and grab their attention. A lock up leads to a quick cradle pin attempt by Savoldi. Exotico kicks out and complains his tights were pulled. Savoldi gets a side headlock on Exotico and hits a shoulder tackle off the ropes. A rope running leapfrog and drop down sequence leads to Savoldi taking Exotico down with a couple of armdrags. Savoldi hypes up the crowd and Moyano talks up Savoldi’s speed and endurance. Exotico hits a clothesline on Savoldi and struts after. Exotico follows up with a couple of snap mares and does a single arm bicep pose to the crowd. Eliud actually commends Exotico on his performance so far but Savldi counters with a series of punches to cut off Exotico’s momentum. However, Savoldi misses a charge into the corner (going headfirst) and Exotico takes advantage with a belly to back suplex for a two count. A slam leads to a missed elbow however, and Savoldi is able to come back with a series of blows. Exotico cuts off Savoldi with an eyerake and sends him into the ropes. Savoldi hits a leapfrog over Exotico, and then takes Exotico over in a sunset flip when Exotico was busy celebrating the successful avoidance. Savoldi gets the win and he’s back to make some waves in CSP.  

MD: It’s easy to look at Savoldi, Styles, Watts being in and thinking that there’s something to a “boycott” of talent, but then you look back a few years earlier to guys like the RPMs getting pushes (and getting over!) and you look at who was getting pushed in Memphis, Portland, or (soon after this) Global, and you see that it’s more of a consolidation in WWF and WCW than anything else. Honestly, I’d probably be kind of excited if a guy with Savoldi’s skillset in working the crowd while still being willing to take a big corner bump came around in 2024. He was experienced in doing some things that are almost lost arts now. Exotico preened and strutted and posed and looked like the best possible Scotty the Body partner again, including his very dubious German Suplex, but Savoldi out-finessed him with a clever cradle for the win.

EB: It doesn’t take long for Savoldi and Eddie Watts to face off against each other, let’s go to the ending of that encounter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5HaEGJPM_E

We join the match in  progress, with Savoldi down in one of the corners. Eliud Gonzalez on commentary is mentioning that Savoldi had received a punch from Chicky Starr on the outside and that Watts was taking advantage of the situation. Watts slingshots Savoldi throat first into the corner as we hear Chicky has made his way to the commentary table and said that the commentators should be honest with the fans and say Savoldi has no chance against Eddie Watts. Moyano says to Chicky that it looks like he’s learned a lot about boxing (referencing the punch he hit on Savoldi) and then says ‘speaking about boxing, the other day there were a lot of smacks (referencing Alfredo Escalera’s match vs Chicky Starr). Chicky takes exception to this and tells Moyano to stay out of business that does not concern him if he wants to keep his teeth. Moyano says that he was only referencing the Tyson vs Douglas fight. Chicky is not buying it and Eliud tries to defuse the situation by talking up how Chicky’s wrestlers have climbed the ladder of success, but Chicky is still hot about Moyano’s dig. In the ring, Watts has been in control but misses a dive from the turnbuckle. This gives Saovldi the opening to come back with a series of punches and a backdrop. Watts begs off but Savoldi continues on the attack, sending Watts into the ropes and hitting a palm strike to the chest. Watts begs off again, but is able to counter Savoldi with a kick to the midsection and immediately bail to the outside after receiving a signal from Chicky. It looks like Chicky and Watts are claiming that the elbow pad has come loose and needs adjusting, but it’s likely that they are loading it up. Watts gets back in the ring and tries to ram Savoldi into the turnbuckle, but that gets countered. Savoldi hits a few punches but is cut off by Watts hitting a knee. Watts grabs onto Savoldi and then leverages both him and Savolid over the top rope to the outside with a flip. The ref calls for the dq and awards the match to Savoldi due to Watts intentionally throwing him over the top rope. Watts and Chicky don’t seem to care too much since that means that they retain the World Junior title. 

MD: We come in towards the end of this with Watts in control. He misses a dive out of the corner and Savoldi has a comeback. Watts breaks it up by having Chicky check his armguard and stalling but that weirdly doesn’t go anywhere. Instead, he gets Savoldi in a headlock, starts climbing the middle of the ropes while hanging on to him, and pulls both over to draw the DQ and theoretically protect his belt, but I had no real idea what he was going for there. I’d say that these two were overall matched up well, though?

EB: With the ending of that match it’s only a matter of time before Savoldi and Watts face each other again. In the meantime, let’s take another look at both men in action against other opponents. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyP4ktoIASU

Watts is taking on Armandito Salgado and it’s another chance for Watts to show off his skills now that he is the World Junior champion. Eliud Gonzalesz does the ring introductions and Moyano mentions that the crowd does not like Watts at all but puts over his capabilities in the ring. The match starts fairly even with Watts and Salgado exchanging arm wringer counters and switches, leading to Watts complaining that his tights were pulled (even going over to the ref and pulling his pants to show what had supposedly happened). Salgado actually gets a nice chop sequence to back up Watts but misses a corner charge which gives Watts the opening to control the rest of the match. Watts mouths off to the crowd, eliciting a loud reaction back, and eventually hits the Canadian Guillotine for the win. Very solid showing from Watts. 

MD: Watts is growing on me a bit. He’s not Rip Rogers or Eric Embry but for a Jr. version who can still stooge a bit and has stuff that generally looks good, he’s ok. He’s learning the specific crowd more and more and was engaged with them throughout this entire enhancement match. He had a kind of weird looking Saito/Teardrop suplex where he hangs on to the tights and of course his Alabama Jam to end it. Not a bad showing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O13o80pFEjA

EB: Meanwhile, Savoldi is facing El Gran Mendoza, which should be a solid matchup. Both men are evenly matched to start but Savoldi controls the pace with a side headlock takedown. They work a side headlock into a pin reversal sequence a couple of times before standing back up and working a rope running sequence which sees Savoldi get the better of it with a clothesline on Mendoza. Moyano and Eliud on commentary talk about how they’re expecting this to be a good matchup as Mendoza rolls out of the ring to collect himself and then gets back in the ring. Mendoza again ends up on the receiving end of an armdrag sequence but manages to reach the ropes to break the arm hold. Mendoza takes the advantage of a throat punch and focuses his attacks on the neck area of Savoldi, including hitting a hotshot on the top rope for a pin attempt. Savoldi mounts a comeback with several punches and an elbow off the ropes, but Mendoza counters with a clothesline of his own coming off the ropes. Mendoza’s attempt at a reverse cradle is blocked by Savoldi and Savoldi hits a sunset flip for the pinfall win. A solid showing for Savoldi and you can be sure he will get another crack at Eddie Watts. 

MD: These two match up against one another well too. Mendoza is a little bigger but they could have been a tag team given their looks. Again, this is just as meat and potatoes/comfort food undercard late 80s/early 90s wrestling as you can. Savoldi is a perfect 1986 second match on the WWF B show babyface. But this stuff doesn’t exist anymore so it’s not bad to go back and visit.

EB: We have one more member of El Club Deportivo we haven’t talked about yet and that is Manny Fernandez. Manny has been in the crosshairs of Carlos Colon ever since he interfered in the Universal title match he was having vs Leo Burke, a match where he cost Colon the title win and also injured Barba Roja with the flying kneedrop. Their matches so far have been inconclusive and, although they did not face each other on February 10, Colon still wants to get his hands on Manny. To clarify the timeline a bit, it is around this point in mid February that the match where Manny defends the Puerto Rico title against Invader takes place, the one where Carlos rushes in at the end wearing a suit and brawls with Manny. This leads to the tag match where Colon and Invader took on Burke and Manny, the one where the Super Medicos came out to help the injured Invader and ends with Carlos and Invader attempting to go after the rudos who had fled back to the locker room. Carlos and Manny are scheduled to cross paths once more on March 3, but let’s take the opportunity to watch Manny in action against Huracan Castillo Jr. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rW4mVx5Rtw

We get the ring introductions (with Manny billed from Mexico) with the match scheduled to one fall with a 10 minute time limit. Hector Moyano is on commentary and mentions that this match should be an exciting one. As Manny and Castillo feel each other out, Castillo appears to direct some words to Manny. On the outside, we cut to Chicky showing off his cap to the camera and checking out how good he looks in the reflection. Moyano highlights that Castillo has the speed but Manny is dangerous at all times in the ring and will not show mercy. They lock up and Castillo gets a side headlock on Manny. This is countered by Manny sending Castillo into the ropes, leading to a duck down and leapfrog sequence from Manny and an attempted armdrag that gets countered by Castillo. Chicky complains that Castillo pulled the tights on the second armdrag takedown as the crowd gets on Chicky. Castillo keeps working the armbar but Manny breaks out of it briefly. A charge gets countered by Huracan and after a few counters Manny is back in the armbar on the mat. Chicky complains the hair was pulled to no avail. However, Manny manages to get back to his feet and, as the ref circles around, takes the opportunity to yank Castillo down by the hair and put on his own armlock. The crowd starts yelling at the ref that Manny pulled Castillo’s hair, which Manny denies doing when asked. Castillo tries to fight out but gets yanked down again by the hair (with the crowd again yelling at the ref about it). Manny gets caught on the third attempt and as the ref warns Manny, Castillo takes the opening and yanks Manny down by his hair instead. A test of strength is initially won by Manny but Castillo eventually is able to get back to his feet and hit a few kicks to the midsection to bring Manny down to his knees. Manny breaks the test of strength by sending Castillo into the ropes and surprises him with a lariat as Castillo is rebounding back. Manny hits a couple of kneedrops and seems to be in control. Manny tries a backdrop but Castillo counters into a sunset flip for a two count. An inside cradle by Castillo gets two. Manny sends Castillo into the ropes but misses a clothesline. However, as Castillo is rebounding off the ropes, Manny surprises Huracan with his inverted rolling elbow to the face. One flying forearm later and Manny is able to get the pinfall. Another win for the current Puerto Rico champion.

MD: This was basically a good first half of a match but they went to a finish without a comeback. Solid first act though, with the two matched up well. Manny would get advantages by drawing the ref by claiming a hairpull and then doing one himself, but Castillo would come back.  Manny took over for real with a clothesline out of nowhere and worked the jaw a bit. Castillo didn’t get a comeback but he a couple of roll up hope spots before Manny took him down with the corkscrew back elbow and flying forearm. Interesting, Manny was billed from Mexico and not Texas here.

EB: TNT has been successful in retaining the Universal title in his rematches against Leo Burke. As the month of February approaches its end, the WWC championship commission has decided that it’s the turn of the new number one contender to challenge TNT for the Universal title. That new number one contender? Carlos Colon, who had climbed back to the top position and who hadn’t really had a clean loss to Leo Burke in his attempts to regain the Universal title. Carlos had also ceded a title shot he had to TNT so that TNT could have a chance to avenge the loss of his face paint against Leo Burke. This series of matches led to TNT eventually winning the Universal title. So now we have the prospect of TNT defending against Carlos Colon. Except, Carlos has decided to forego the title match. He will not challenge a fellow member of El Ejercito de la Justicia for the Universal title, he’s good with someone from their side holding the title and doesn't plan to ever challenge for the Universal title again as long as TNT holds the title (which Carlos feels will be for a long time).

With Carlos Colon passing up the title shot, the number two contender moves up and is declared to be next challenger. That wrestler? Abdullah the Butcher, who we last saw being cheered by the fans for turning on Chicky Starr and going after Steve Strong. Abdullah is finally making his return to Puerto Rico and he is also bringing in a new manager with him by the name of El Jeque. Abdullah is not part of El Club Deportivo but El Jeque also says that Abdullah is not a member of El Ejercito de la Juticia, he is his own entity. Still, Abdullah was playing a bit nicer last time we saw him and it’s going to be interesting to see Abdullah take on TNT. They are scheduled to wrestle for the Universal title on March 3. But before the title match takes place, we have an interesting match taking place on tv, there is a battle royale with a $5,000 prize and most of the roster is taking part, including TNT and Abdullah the Butcher. Let’s go to that match.

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

We join the battle royale already in progress, with only Huracan Castillo Jr. having been eliminated from the field of competitors at this time. There is a $5,000 prize for the winner and we get a good representation of the regular CSP roster at this point in time, I think we’re only really missing Carlos Colon and Chicky Starr (setting aside Harley and Manny for now). Competing for the prize are TNT, Abdullah the Butcher (accompanied by his new manager El Jeque), Invader #1, Miguelito Perez, Huracan Castillo Jr (who has been already eliminated based on the commentary), both Super Medicos, Joe Savoldi, Leo Burke, both Mercenarios, Carl Styles, a newcomer to the territory named Rick Valentine (you may know him as Kerry Brown and we’ll discuss him more next time), Eddie Watts and El Exotico. There’s a lot of action in the ring but Exotico gets cute and tries to take on Abdullah. This does not go well for Exotico and Abdulalh tosses him out for the second elimination of the battle royale. Moyano on commentary mentions that it looks like Abdullah was making gestures towards the locker room as a message to Chicky Starr, there is no love lost between them stemming from the incident when Abdullah attacked Chicky and Steve Strong was sent after Abdullah. The action continues as we see the Super Medicos double team Rick Valentine and then Carl Styles. We go to commercial break and when we come back, it looks like no one else has been eliminated so far, although Eliud Gonzales is mentioning that Abdullah has just helped Invader back into the ring. It looks like Abdullah had gone over to help Invader from being eliminated by Ron Starr, something that has surprised Moyano and Eliud.   Abdullah goes to a corner as the wrestlers continue battling. Eliud identifies the new Medico as Medico #4 (this makes more sense since we already had a #2 and #3 in the early to mid 80s). 

As the match continues, Leo Burke surprises Miguelito Perez and eliminates him. Rick Valentine tosses out Super Medico #4 for the fourth elimination of the contest. TNT eliminates Eddie Watts, which is quickly followed by Carl Styles eliminating Joe Savoldi. It looks like the eliminations are starting to pick up. TNT kicks out Angel Acevedo as the field keeps dwindling. Abdullah keeps to his corner as the wrestlers continue trying to eliminate competitors. Burke tosses Invader twice over the top rope but Invader lands on the apron both times and gets back in. Burke tosses Invader a third time but remains there to try to push him off when Invader lands on the apron. However, Invader counters with a headscissors and tries to yank Burke out instead, but the attempt results in both men going over and being eliminated. Invader and Burke briefly fight on the outside, as we see Carl Styles successfully toss Super Medico #1 out. We’re down to five competitors. Abdullah is doing a standing choke on  Ron Starr in one corner as Styles and Rick Valentine are double teaming TNT. Styles momentarily goes after Abdullah in order to help Ron Starr. Ron starts attacking Abdullah as Styles goes back to TNT, who is being held by Valentine. Styles charges but TNT ducks and the blow sends Rick Valentine over the top rope and out. Four men left. TNT tries to eliminate Styles on one side of the ring, while on the other side Abdullah manages to counter Ron Starr’s attack and is able to eliminate him. TNT has Styles halfway out when Abdullah seizes the opportunity, comes up from behind and tosses both TNT and Styles out. Abdullah has won the match and the $5,000 prize. 

El Vikingo hands the check to Abdullah as El Jeque enters the ring to celebrate with his client. TNT also enters the ring and starts questioning Abdullah about why he tossed him from behind. El Jeque holds up the check as TNT continues making the thrown out motion and asking Abdullah why he did that. If you look closely you can see Abdullah starts pointing to the check the last couple of times that TNT does the thrown out motion, basically saying that’s why he did it. Abdullah bows his head and sticks out his hand in a gesture of letting bygones be bygones. TNT goes to shake it and Abdullah immediately hits him with a strike that knocks TNT down. Abdullah starts leaving the ring, looking annoyed but not attacking TNT any further. As Abdullah and El Jeque are leaving the ringside area, TNT gets up, jumps over the top rope, and chases down Abdullah. TNT starts furiously attacking Abdullah, kicks El Jeque for good measure and grabs El Jeque’s cane. TNT then starts attacking Abdullah over and over with the cane. The cane gets repeatedly slammed on Abdullah's head and busts him open. El Vikingo tries to stop TNT, but he gets thrown to the ground. TNT is in a rage and continues attacking a prone Abdullah with cane shots. Abdullah looks to be holding his hand up as a sign to try to ward off TNT, but the attack continues. Isaac Rosario comes out and tries to help El Vikingo stop TNT, but TNT ends up throwing both men off and goes back to attacking Abdullah. El Jeque has made his way over and tries to help Abdulalh but TNT starts hitting Jeque for good measure. TNT starts choking Abdullah out with the cane, and to be honest, I think TNT is being a bit excessive considering what happened. Rosario and Vikingo finally manage to pull TNT away from a bleeding Abdullah.

We then go to an interview with TNT where he is discussing the upcoming Universal title defense vs Abdullah. TNT is talking about how he knows that the Universal title represents a lot of money to Abdullah, but that it also means a lot to TNT as well. This title is in the camp of El Ejercito de la Justicia and no one, including you Abdullah will take it. El Jeque interrupts the interview and calls out TNT for attacking him in a traitorous manner. Why did he do that to him? TNT immediately grabs Jeque by the throat and starts choking him out and starts saying that what happened to him is nothing, but before anything more happens Abdullah rushes onto the scene with a metal pail and just blasts TNT over the head with it. Abdullah gets a few blows in on TNT’s head as Hugo starts yelling for help. Carlos Colon and Invader #1 run in and chase off Abdullah before the attack continues further (although again, looking back at this, I don’t think Abdullah is really in the wrong here after TNT’s attack). Just as Abdullah is leaving the set, he tosses the pail backwards in an attempt to hit TNT. Hugo yells for Abdullah and El Jeque to be escorted out as Carlos and Invader check on TNT. 

However, as TNT reaches his feet,  he yells in a rage and sends Carlos and Invader flying. Hugo tells TNT to calm down as TNT yells for Abdullah. He then cuts a seething promo where he has to take deep breaths because of how furious he is. “Abdullah, Abdullah the Butcher… you want to fight with TNT? You want this title? Abdulah the Butcher, you’re going to have to kill me! Because this title represents my life! It represents the people of Puerto Rico! And Abdullah the Butcher, this that you have done to me (points at the blood on him) is nothing compared to what will happen to you in all of Puerto Rico! Abdulah the Butcher, by my mother, I will end you! ” TNT continues yelling as he storms off the set. Hugo mentions that TNT is bathed in blood, the studio walls, the floor, Hugo himself, everywhere is covered with blood. Hugo picks up the pail to show the dent in it from when Abdullah hit TNT. The Universal title match is happening on March 3 and things just became more personal..

MD: This is a personal thing but as opposed to the last time we saw a battle royal (the match that we launched with twenty or so entries ago), this time I knew all of the competitors and how they felt about one another and their roles on the card. Really, once you got Exotico (who dared step to Abdullah) and some of the juniors (like Watts and Savoldi) out, any one of those guys could have lasted to the end. Abby was coded as a babyface here, mainly paired with heels. There was a nice bit with Burke trying to throw out Invader over and over until they both went over together. Weirdly, the Medico we’ve been seeing as 2 or 3 was called 4 here. It ended up being Valentine (Rick, being Kerry Brown, who we haven’t seen much of yet) and Styles on the heel side and TNT and Abby in there with Styles accidentally hitting Valentine and Abby tossing out both TNT and Styles together. Postmatch, Abby teased a handshake but ended up assaulting TNT who fired back brutally with a cane. That led to a subsequent interview where Abby crushed TNT with a trash can and we were off to the races.

EB: Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, we head into March 1990. TNT and Abdullah the Butcher clash over the Universal title, Carlos gets his chance at Manny?, and there’s a tag team tournament on the horizon.

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70's Joshi on Wednesday: Hagiwara! Hanawa! Yokota! Fujimi!

5. 1978.08.XX - 01 Mimi Hagiwara vs. Seiko Hanawa (JIP, Month Guessed)

MD: We come in JIP here and get about seven minutes of action to the finish. Right from the start it’s already more measured and methodological than what we’ve seen so far. That doesn’t mean they ever really stop, just that it’s a little more hold driven and mat based to start. After escaping from a couple of Hagiwara’s holds (like a fairly nicely entered cross-armbreaker) Hanawa took over by chaining a cross toehold into a nasty surfboard into a seated bodyscissors with thudding drops and then finally into a leg nelson. It was all pretty well done. Hagiwara fired back after getting knocked outside but I get the sense she was still working things out on offense. Her punches and neckbreakers didn’t have a lot behind them. Hanawa came back after dodging a flying cross chop and hit these great short rope-assisted fireman’s carry takeovers. She landed a few big back body drops but Hagiwara snuck in a small package out of nowhere for the win. Hagiwara’s best stuff at this point seemed to be her pin attempts (Victory Roll, Sunset Flip, etc.) but she had ok fire and we should get to see her develop in the footage to come. Interestingly, the commentators were talking about an “industrial event” in Hawaii and how well received the Beauty Pair were upon arrival and I wonder if we can find out anything more about that.

K: Mimi Hagiwara is an unusual wrestler. She's also an actress best known for playing Choko in the original Kamen Rider TV series, a rare case of an AJW wrestler already having some fame before wrestling. She did her tryout under a mask to stop the media finding out she was trying to become a wrestler. She also debuted at the age of 22, which is very old by their standards. Seiko Hanawa is best known as Rimi Yokota's partner in the 'Young Pair' tag team, she disappears from footage by late 1979 so not much else to say about her.

The match is JIP. There's a funny moment at the start of this where Seiko is holding on to the rope to try break Mimi's submission, but the referee just kicks the ropes so she loses grip. The rule on rope breaks here is that you must secure the rope to get the break, not just touch it, so the ref kicking it is just testing to see if you've secured it or not. They're both just working very basic holds here. Mimi is a bit slower on executing things but she has the right idea and sells underneath ok. Mimi gets kicked out of the ring, when she returns she starts her comeback with punches. They don't look very good but that she punches hard is part of her gimmick we're just supposed to accept. Seiko takes back control with a lot of repeated moves which are a bit boring, but then Mimi rolls her up out of nowhere to get the 3 count.

Not much of a match.

6. 1978.08.XX - 02 Rimi Yokota vs. Victoria Fujimi (Month Guessed)

MD: Alright, this seems to be a broadcast from Hawaii, apparently from the Civic Center in Hilo, Hawaii. We’ll see if Kadaveri has any more info on it as I’m getting to this first. It’s our first look at the future Jaguar. She had a cape with “Rimi” on it and worked at least de facto heel here. Fujimi had a karate gimmick including the gi and early kicks and over the shoulder throws though she settled into more conventional offense later on (a figure four, a butt butt, and then these nasty dropping goardbusters down the stretch). If you told me that Rimi got the Jaguar nickname for biting people, well… this match would be good evidence. She got out of a tough bodyscissors that way and later, after taking over on the outside and starting on the arm, gnawed on Fujimi’s hand while she was in control. She balanced a bunch of dropkicks and cross chops with that mean armwork, the brutality on the outside, or just a running forearm down the stretch. This had a great comeback at the end with Fujimi shedding her gi jacket as if she was Lawler dropping the strap and rushing the ring. She hit a huge Thesz press and then this giant ‘rana with the legs locked around the arms in a unique way, and then those goardbusters. Yokota bullied her way back into it but Fujimi hit a sunset flip out of nowhere for the win. I wasn’t too sure about the heel/face dynamic here but I thought the transitions worked really well.

K: I’m pretty sure this is the chronologically the first Joshi match we have in full, so very fitting that has it has Jaguar/Rimi Yokota in it, who is still wrestling full time to this day. This is all her era. She is introduced as part of ‘Young Pair’ and Victoria as part of ‘Golden Pair’, her tag team with Nancy Kumi. This is the era where rather than having stables almost everyone is put into tag teams. And a note to Matt on how she got the name ‘Jaguar’, I’m not 100% sure this is THE reason but it seems the most likely explanation. The AJW roster used to travel separately in three buses, in August 1980 they were given stable names after which bus they travelled in. The girls who rode the ‘Jaguar’ bus were called the Dynamic Jaguars, Rimi was one of them. This was their entrance theme as a faction:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=U0FgzA7oLhw By mid-81 she’s being called Jaguar Yokota.

The opening is just them exchanging moves, the back and forth signifies that no one is really getting an advantage. There’s a fun moment where Rimi stands on Victoria’s foot to stop her from dodging a strike which knocks her over, but when Rimi goes to run the ropes she gets tripped by Victoria still on the ground. This sets up Victoria locking in a bodyscissors to gain the advantage, which Rimi tries to counter with BITING THE TOES AHHHH. People generally wouldn’t call her a ‘heel’ as she’s not part of the Black Legion official heels, but in terms of working the match she’s the heel here it’s just slightly more subtle.

Rimi dominating most of the match builds up to Victoria taking off her gi and jumping into the ring to get a comeback in and we get some back and forth excitement. Victoria eventually wins on a sunset flip before doing a very pleasing backwards roll into an arm-raised leap of delight. If we’re being objective this was no better than average quality wise, but it’s a lovely match to have.

**

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 3/18 - 3/24

AEW Dynamite 3/20/24

Kazuchika Okada vs Eddie Kingston

MD: So here's a fun thing. If you view the blog on the web, you can see tags. If you click on the Kazuchika Okada tag, you can scroll to the bottom of the page and go all the way back to 2015. If you did Kingston, you'd probably just get a few months. What I'm trying to say is that when people were writing about Okada, we weren't. I'll take it a step further: when people were watching Okada, I wasn't. I was watching Houston arena footage daily or figuring out lucha through the obviously very correct lens of 2010 Jon Strongman Andersen vs Hector Garza. I'm not actually super familiar with the guy! I was familiar with Phil and Eric's 2017 take on Omega vs Okada though (http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/01/2017-doesnt-make-list-six-star-edition.html and http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/01/i-also-watched-omega-vs-okada.html respectively). So I am sort of coming in with an open, beginner's mind as I watch Okada, but also sort of not because there's a reason why I wasn't riding along with everyone on the NJPW train. 

All of this, if I'm being honest, has me feeling a little bit on my heels, since I write a lot about this stuff and do so in a fairly aggressive, direct manner. I want to be able to back it up. Ok, here's another thing. Eric and I are very close in many of our opinions. That wasn't really intentional. We read each other's stuff, often after the fact. We communicate, but we don't consult, except for that I have a pretty good sense if he's going to like something and I'll throw it his way. Where I tend to be a little more forgiving than Eric and especially Phil is on execution. 

Wrestling is symbolic. The thought, the narrative, the theory, the consistency matters more than the execution. There are a lot of correct paths to the same destination. Where it becomes an issue is if there's a discrepancy between how something is presented (or perceived by conventional wisdom) and how something looks and feels. It's when it affects suspension of disbelief that we really have a problem. That can happen a lot of ways and most of them are tied to selling. Wrestling doesn't have to be realistic. It does have to be believable within its own reality though. There's lots of ways to accomplish that, as I said. Older Andre can just put his hand out and you'll buy that it could crush a mountain because he's so big and has such presence and has been established over time and in how his opponents react to him. Baba could do a head chop and because the crowd buys into it and the wrestler who he's facing wants his paycheck and sells so big for it, over time a consistency of meaning is created. Or, you know, Terry Funk can just legitimately punch you in the face and that works too. 

I'm walking my own winding road here to say that Okada's stuff really doesn't look so great and it bugged me here. Maybe it bugs me more because he's Okada and he's been put on a pedestal for the last decade and a half? Maybe it bugs me more because he's facing Eddie and because of the people Eddie has faced over the last year? Maybe it bugs me more because I'm comparing it to the other Japanese wrestlers who I've written about recently? Maybe it bugs me because I'm also watching Fujiwara and Choshu go at it on the side? We're just days off from watching Shibata Tenryu Punch Danielson in the face, right? Maybe it bugs me because there's a lot in this match that I actually did like. I don't know how NJPW TV was structured or how much ROH TV Okada worked, but there are different constraints for weekly TV wrestling than for other sorts, and while I imagine it wasn't for everyone, I liked the pacing. I liked the methodological control. I liked the sense that he was dismantling Eddie. I liked his reactions to what was happening and to how the crowd was responding. So much of wrestling isn't about move A or move B but about what happens between A and B, and there was confidence and energy and life in that regard. It just kept leading to things (strikes and especially cutoffs) that I wasn't feeling. He'd throw a knee to the gut or clubber down to try to break a hold, and watching it I sort of ended up making the same face Okada makes when he sells, a perfectly fine expression to express dismay. Eddie is a guy who will absolutely lean into offense, but he won't jump headlong into it. That was what was apparently required here and maybe PAC is a guy to make that happen. I'm ready for Darby to get back and challenge, because he'll make all of this stuff look good without making it look absurdly over the top. 

Okada came off as someone who is very good at all of the most artificial "live theater" elements of pro wrestling (truthfully the elements I love the most) but strangely lacking in that fairly necessary visual element that assists in creating a simulated reality, at least relative to how he's portrayed (again, it's the portrayal that causes the issue in general; more on the issue in specific in a moment). It's like imagining a Jerry Lawler (and this is just an example, not a direct comparison) who could sell, who had his timing, who could connect with the crowd through his expression and body language, but just didn't have that punch that put him over the top and tied it all together by taking your worries and cares away and allowing you to buy into the fantasy of the moment. In some ways, him coming so close and then missing that one crucial element makes it worse, because you end up judging him on the curve of what might have been.

 

I think I had a bigger problem with it here because it was Eddie and it was Eddie losing his title and because I'd love to have been able to write about it as if it was real and focus on the narrative of Eddie's dream of a Triple Crown being torn apart just a few months into it by someone who didn't necessarily represent the Japanese lineage Eddie clings to so vehemently but instead that has a certain flamboyance, that went to the eyes and played dirty, etc. There's a lot to flesh out there, but I just wasn't feeling it in the same way. I wasn't immersed. It's a me thing. It's an Eddie thing. It's a long, stable bridge that had been built by his last many matches and that bridge felt a bit more wobbly here. I'm still curious to see Okada vs other guys on the roster. He's great at emoting but struggled here with immersion. I think he has upside and that the weighty and deliberate artificiality he brings is something the product could use more of. Let's just see him against Darby and Cassidy and Dustin and Garcia and whoever else and maybe not against people who require just a little more physicality like Eddie or Mox or RUSH. 

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2023 Ongoing MOTY List: Danielson vs. Rush

 

2. Bryan Danielson vs. Rush AEW Dynamite 2/8/23

ER: Whatever happens in the future for AEW, whether they go on to have a TNA-length run - only with actual success - or something bad happens and they lose TNT/TBS and wind up on Freevee, I think it will always be impressive in hindsight that they were the ones who best captured the Dream Match phenomenon that founded ROH in 2002. The Dream Match is something that should have a limited shelf life - and surely does - but AEW has made it seem like a fresher concept than anything since those early super indy years. Their fans respond to Dream Matches, AEW themselves know how to present them as Dream Matches, and the growing number of actual cool first time/only time matches that have already happened there is a surprisingly resistant list. Danielson vs. Rush wasn't really a match I had considered as a Dream Match, even though I've championed each man since early on in each of their respective career's. But the second Danielson ran down to the ring and Rush started stomping him out in dazzling gold boots and black attire, this felt like a Dream Match that I've wanted to see for a decade.

It's great. It's excellent. It's a match I literally never thought once about happening, and the second it was happening I wanted to see nothing more. Some Danielson matches have the tendency to play like favorite matches from my own wrestling history. Whether or not that's because Danielson and I have similar tastes in wrestling or I'm just projecting my own favorites onto him, who's to say, but Rush walking away from Danielson's tope only to get hit past the ringpost with an even harder tope is like Danielson distinctly showing us he's recreating El Hijo del Santo vs. LA Park from Monterrey and I don't think that's accidental. Danielson taking an overhead belly to belly to the floor is like a classic NOAH big show main event spot, except Our Pillars were almost never dripping plasma the way Danielson was while flying off the apron and certainly never splashed said blood across the camera lens on the way down. Because you see, Danielson started bleeding a lot really early on after Rush kicked him into a chair and the guardrail. It's arguably not the most dickish thing Rush even did, as he also kicked a bunch at his kinesio tape and chopped away at Danielson's pectoral that's connected to the kinesio'd shoulder, and he knows how to look like a real ass while doing it.  

A fun thing about the best Dream Match wrestling matches is when they make you wonder things like "Is Danielson the hardest kicker Rush has ever faced?" Nakamura wasn't kicking him as hard as Danielson does here. Or, "Is Rush the hardest chopper Danielson has ever faced?" I sure haven't seen Danielson shying away from chops 10 minutes into a match the way he did here against Rush, although I guess I don't know how damaged his shoulder or body was in other matches. How about, "Is this the hardest Rush has ever gone after anyone?" Maybe a couple dozen LA Park matches are in contention here but at worst this is Rush "not holding back" to the level of his best Park fights. The headbutt exchange coming so many years - literal decades - after the earliest Danielson concussion worries plays almost surreally. I've gone through more than one phase of "I don't want to see Danielson wrestle anymore because I am worried about his health" that by this point I have ceased to worry and have just accepted him as a Randy the Ram who merely knows how to present himself as "smarter and more elevated than that". Thus, I am now unburdened, free to laugh like a sicko at the way Danielson collapses after Rush asks him to punch him in the neck, and Rush hits him back twice as hard. 

2023 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Found Footage Friday: PANTERITA~! WHITE WOLF~! WHITE WOLFIE D~! SHEIK WEINGEROFF~?! BRAVE EAGLE~! JOHNSON~!

Chief Brave Eagle vs. Karl Johnson Big Time Wrestling 1930s?

MD: We lose the end of this and I think the first fall is a little clipped too but it's over twenty minutes of action from very long ago and probably worth taking a look at. I'm not sure about the 1930s designation but the only thing I have to make me doubt it is that the commentator compared Eagle to Japanese sumo wrestlers and pro wrestlers because he was bald and barefoot and had a particular stance. He was billed from Canada and Johnson from Sweeden. They made a very big deal out ofthe fact that Eagle was 270 pounds and Johnson was 250. That was considered quite big back then apparently. The first two falls had more cautious approaches with cheapshots off the ropes by Johnson and Eagle trying to fire back. Finish to the first was Johnson pressing in with clubbering shots and getting a fireman's carry and a knock down shot in the first and then Eagle recovering and hitting his own shot after the fireman's carry in the second. The third was more hold focused with Eagle locking in a Stepover Toehold and Short Arm-scissors that felt like they'd be totally valid forty years later. The bald head of Eagle was apparently so novel that they played up Johnson being unable to grab the hair to escape (he grabbed the tights). The footage cuts off with Johnson with a rear cross toehold. Again, I'm not entirely convinced it was from the 30s but I don't see a big difference in the actual work between this and something from, let's say the 50s, even if the way it was filmed did feel different.

Hubcap on a Pole: Wolfie D vs. Sheik George Weingeroff Powerslam Pro 5/27/94

MD: Bryan Turner says this was '94 which is after we have any record of Weingeroff still wrestling. He was apparently pretty much blind by this point regardless. He does the Sheik gimmick with costume and praying before the match and a couple of mannerisms, but it's pretty out of place. The fans were behind Wolfie against him for the most part. This was a hubcap on a pole match but didn't really follow the sort of logic you'd expect. The presence of the pole usually works to set up transitions. If a babyface has control and goes for it too early, he's vulnerable to the heel. If the heel is in the midst of a subsequent beatdown and tries to go for the weapon, the babyface can have his comeback, etc. They didn't lean into that here. Part of the problem was that the hubcap fell down midway through and someone had to put it back up while they were working holds. There were a decent amount of those for a match with this gimmick, and not just due to the technical mishap. It ended like these usually do, with the heel getting the weapon but the face nailing him before he could use it. Wolfie took out everyone, including the manager, and including the ref by accident, and someone came out to sneak attack him so that Weingeroff could win and leave with the title. Post match, Wolfie got some revenge. The audio was rough on this so I'm not sure who we were dealing with but at least the gimmick was self-explanatory. The actual work was ok for a mostly blind guy working an out there gimmick. You end up kind of glad he didn't work a few years later to the point where people would have expected him to emulate Sabu more. 

Mask vs. Mask: Panterita del Ring vs. White Wolf Monterrey 11/22/98

MD: I'm trying to stick to the post-order on these so I don't get lost, but Roy posted an apuestas match and Phil rightly noted that I should probably prioritize it. Since there seem to be no matches in the build to this, I'm giving it a go. Lobo Blanco is Andy Anderson, aged 23, who would be in the WWF system not long after this, primarily working in MCW and then with a fairly lengthy run in Puerto Rico. He had a pretty elaborate Wolfman style mask here. Plus side is that it stood out. Downside is that even though he took a posting on the outside at one point, it wasn't the sort of mask you could rip and get color with. Anyway, this comes in right at the end of the primera with the ref (Cuate Guerrero? who I think was the mainstay Monterrey ref for a lot of this footage) clotheslining Panterita so that Lobo could sunset flip him to win the caida and I was kind of wondering why I wasn't watching Fabuloso Blondy in 1989 instead. Immediately thereafter, Panterita did something I'd never seen which made it all worth it though; he started to bug the local commissioner about getting a new ref. It didn't work but I admired the refusal to just accept this bullshit.

Lobo took the initiative to ambush him during this, but he ate a back body drop and the aforementioned posting. For the rest of this match, including a fairly back and forth and actually exciting tercera, whoever was in the studio for this one kept rolling fast and loose with things; they'd be so excited to do a replay of a roll up that we'd miss a plancha, that kind of thing, so you were eventually watching a string of replays. That included the roll up that won Panterita the segunda, by the way. We saw it in replay form (they were showing us Panterita accidentally pulling Lobo's mask off in replay form during the initial roll up). Like I said, the tercera was pretty back and forth and exciting. Anderson wasn't afraid to let Panterita dive onto him including a flipping senton to the floor. Eventually, Guerrero got what was coming to him, body an errant Panterita dive and a Lobo dropkick; Lobo got his phantom pin off of a splash mountain style power bomb, but there was no ref. When Lobo tried it again, Panterita got the win. This was pretty good for what it was even if we missed the primera and the rudo ref infection had overtaken things by 98. Panterita was certainly confident in his own skin by this point and milked everything as much as possible for the crowd which isn't a bad thing for a local hero.

ER: I didn't know Andy Anderson was working Mexico, but he's a perfect fit. It's like Todd Morton working Mexico, if Todd Morton was a guy with enough gall to embellish his size on Cagematch to 6'2" 266 lb. Nobody has gone out of their way to tell me to watch as much Lobo Andy Anderson in Puerto Rico as I can find, and one of you should have. It's possible one of you did, but this match is what's going to make me go and do that. We never got Todd Morton working outside the states, and Anderson is an excellent proxy to show us what that might have looked like. He is the White Wolf, and his attire is impeccable. His pants are a shiny black, with white fur down the legs; his mask is Ke Monito, had Ke Monito been a werewolf inspired by Oliver Reed in Curse of the Werewolf rather than a monkey. It is a furry fluffy white mask which would look incredible matted with blood. Maybe there's a bloody match that led to this mascara contra mascara where we could see that bloody matted mask, but I doubt Anderson was walking around with more than one of these. 

White Wolf bumps exactly like Todd Morton, meaning he is an incredible bumper. He out bumps Panterita - except for one time - the entire match, taking a wild flipping Slaughter bump to the floor, a running backdrop on the floor, an excellent posting that would do Lawler proud, and countless more hard bumps into an ungiving ring. Panterita has a pescado with fine follow through and a slingshot senton to the floor that might have been 20% less effective than Super Calo's, but the drop was steeper and the Arena Coliseo Monterrey floor much harder than the WCW floors Calo was showcasing it on. Panterita and Wolf showed great strength in the way they integrated nefarious referees, somehow bumping subtly and with nuance for a Monterrey feature that is usually so broad and overplayed. There were a lot of great little things, like the way Panterita broke out of a low abdominal stretch with pointed elbows to the meat of Wolf's thigh...but then Panterita missed an insane flying shoulder block into the bottom buckle - into a chair - in an angle and trajectory I have never seen before, flying in like a dive knowing full well he was hitting a drained pool. The heat Wolf drew on his splash mountain showed how durable he could have been working Mexico for life. The fans he was egging on really hated him, and not just in the way you root against a man, there was hate in these men's eyes. But Andy Anderson didn't wrestle too often in Mexico, and he knows not what happens to men who attempt two Splash Mountain bombs. I loved this. 

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70's Joshi on Wednesday: Sato! Ueda! Romero! Kumano!

4. 1978.06.XX - Chabela Romero/Mami Kumano vs. Jackie Sato/Maki Ueda (2/3 Falls, Date Approximate guess based on when Romero was in Japan)

MD: It’s amazing how much they fit into thirteen minutes over two falls here. It’s not even that it’s a sprint. I wouldn’t call it that. It’s just so dense. It’s not even back and forth. There are momentum shifts. It’s just that whatever team that is on offense is filling their time with a ton of stuff. To start, it was the heels controlling on Maki. They had some double teams but the best part of the early going was when they were yanking her arm out of her socket; Romero was especially good there. Eventually Sato made it in but things would frequently spill to the floor and it became like a lumberjack or handicap match with everyone getting involved.

The end of the first fall was full of interesting stuff. Mami had the flip out powerbomb and an attempt at calf branding. Both of the Beauty Pair would use this sort of slingblade type hair yank down. Maki had a butt butt and I really like her standing vertical suplex which has the hand between the legs to make it almost a hybrid power slam. And then Sato, after leaping off the top with a splash, ended it with this crazy high angle belly to back.

Interestingly, even though Romero got pinned, they let Mami start the second fall; that’s different than France, Houston, or Portland when it comes to two-out-of-three fall matches. The match shifted here as she started to play hide the object with a spike and then actually hung both of the Beauty Pair with the dangling hangman’s choke like she was Brody King trying to murder Darby Allin. Sato and Ueda would fight their way back in and set off a finishing stretch that included a thudding drop out of a belly to back suplex position without going down from Sato and an very unexpected giant swing from Maki, before things spilled out again and Maki slipped in towards the end of the count to score the win. There’s a match in some year in some place where they just kept working and working Maki’s arm until a hot tag, but it wasn’t here. This had a feeling of just being everything and more, a constant battle that shifted from one style of match to another: it was that dogged southern tag and then became a brawl on the floor and back in the ring to be a sprint and then a hide-the-object Memphis heat segment. Just wild stuff.

K: It looks like we come into the match in progress, but from how everyone's positioned it's possible the tape just starts a few seconds after the bell rings or something. A neat thing I'll just note is the Japanese rolling text at the bottom is an advert for wrestler tryouts, giving requirements that applicants must be aged 16-20 years old and at least 160cm (5 feet 3 inches) tall. Part of what makes AJW an unusual company is, at a time when wrestling was mostly an "invitation-only" closed business, they were just openly advertising to millions of fans on TV how to enter the business.

This is our first look at Chabela Romero. She's a veteran Mexican wrestler (debuted 1955) who pops up in this era of AJW every now and then as a foreign heel. It's also the first time we're seeing Mami Kumano, who by this point will probably have taken Shinobu Aso's spot as Yumi Ikeshita's partner in Black Pair (hard to say for sure with the dates being unknown).

Right at the start Mami and Chabela are inflicting a relentless beatdown on Maki Ueda. Lots of double teaming that the referee tries to get a handle on but fails, but he also turns a blind eye to Jackie coming in to even the odds for a moment. Chabela gives us a bit of focus targetting Maki's right arm, and Mami follows along. There's a nice move where she stretches Maki's arm out and then headbutts her on the shoulder. Someone should steal that. The hot tag is a little weird. Chabela has Maki in a kind of hammerlock and is pushing her towards the ropes for Mami to hit her, but Maki turns her over, does a backwards roll towards her corner to tag in Jackie.

Jackie's a real good hot tag. Great dropkick. At this point all hell really breaks loose as they're fighting on the outside and people are getting slammed into tables. It's hard to follow what's going on exactly.  We're soon back in the ring with Mami dropping Jackie with a powerbomb like move, except instead of driving her down she just drops her to the side. Jackie has a really cool thrust kick move, where it looks like she's pushing someone away from her with her boot rather than trying to actually hurt. It looks disdainful. That gets followed up by her great proto-slingblade move, which the commentary call a "neckbreaker." Mami takes it high angle on her neck.

The pacing of this is so constant. Even when Chabela tries to get away for a moment Maki goes chasing her to the outside and we get another outside brawl with people getting choked. It always gets a double countout but they're back in at 18. Jackie does the move Nanae Takahashi would call the 'refrigerator bomb' in the 00s, but here they call it the 'Beauty Special'. Jackie follows this up with a great backdrop suplex that drops Chabela right on her neck to get the pin on the 1st fall.

We get a bit of a rest period in between the falls, which is really the only time in the whole match we get any chance to breathe. Once the bell rings Jackie flies straight at Mami hitting her with suplexes and her neckbreaker, then pins in Maki who unloads in the same way. The tables are turned though when Yumi Ikeshita comes to the outside and does some kind of distraction which allows Mami to whack Maki in the face with a wrench. Jackie is furious and goes to rip her head off but gets knocked down by the wrench as well. All the while Mami is hiding it from the referee in kinda comical ways, but the crowd sound very angry. She keeps changing direction while choking Jackie with the wrench so he can't see even though he's clearly aware something nefarious is going on. When hiding the wrench clearly isn't going to be possible anymore Mami just hands it back to Yumi on the outside and then things get totally deranged as she starts swinging Jackie & Maki one at a time by the neck on the outside in a not exactly safe looking way. Lots of screaming going on throughout all this and Yumi is throwing people around at ringside if they look like they're trying to stop this madness.

Eventually Beauty Pair manage to isolate Mami and double team her a little bit before Jackie hits a really nice backbreaker. Ikeshita tries to run in to interfere (I don't know where Chabela is right now in this chaotic scene) but gets taken out. Maki hits a Giant Swing on Mami of all things before we get another wild brawl on the outside with more throwing people into chairs and over tables who aren't even in the match. Maki Ueda gets the win by countout to give Beauty Pair the 2-0 win in this very hectic match.

My overall thoughts are this is both the pacing and the chaotic nature of this feels like an escalation on what we saw from Jumbo Miyamoto a couple of years earlier. A hotter crowd also helps. You might compare this to the Abdullah The Butcher & The Sheik matches happening in All Japan around the same time, I imagine there is some influence with the hiding the weapons spots. But there's a feeling of things going off the rails here that those matches don't quite reach, and none of those are as frantically paced. The flaw here though is the spots don't always flow together, and it feels like there's a lack of payoff for certain elements. For instance there's never really any comeuppance for using the weapons, and their use doesn't really escalate throughout, they're just thrown in. It's not a bad thing as such, but there's more than could be done with it.

This is the first match we have where I feel there's enough to give a star rating, which I generally do when reviewing things, so here goes:

***1/2

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2022 Ongoing MOTY List: Dustin vs. Claudio

 

37. Dustin Rhodes vs. Claudio Castagnoli AEW Rampage 8/24 (Aired 8/26/22)

ER: Matt already wrote this gem up at length when it originally aired, but I wanted to add a few perfunctory thoughts years later just to officially add it to our MOTY List. I have such fond memories of that brilliant but brief era in WWE where Cesaro and Goldust were among several of my favorite guys producing great weekly tag matches. I think of that window so fondly that it's hard to believe that was a full decade ago now. Cesaro and Goldust matched up a lot over a 6 month stretch from late 2013 to early 2014 and the matches were always given ample time to deliver. Most of them did. But were weren't getting Goldust singles matches during that era, just letting the best hot tag-slash-best face in peril in the world play to his strengths in perhaps the last best era of WWE tag team wrestling. 

So now, nearly a decade later, we finally get one of the singles matches that would have slotted perfectly into that era and excites me just as much today. Dustin is older and doesn't have that same gas tank, but the pairing is no less intriguing. I love a Veteran Who Has Lost a Step match story, and Dustin is great at playing that story. The way he misses his high crossbody and blogrolls all the way to the floor or hits his head on the bottom rope taking a shoulderblock, these are spots that mean more when done by Old Dustin than Young Spry Dustin. Falls are more serious to us old people. Claudio is the perfect guy to take advantage of Dustin's slower step, and Dustin is great at firing people up by regularly seeming he was about to go on a tear before Claudio could shut it down again as quickly as it began. 

Regal says on commentary that Claudio is the only person he's known who can throw an uppercut as hard as Dave Taylor, which is the coolest kind of compliment Regal can give someone. But more than that, Claudio is capable of working spots on Dustin that nobody else could do, while catching Dustin spots that nobody else could catch. He's arguably the perfect modern Dustin opponent. He catches the cannonball safer than anyone while making it looks like catching a 240 pound medicine ball, and I can't imagine Dustin trusts anyone on the roster enough to leap off the top rope with his rana. Claudio's giant swing is one of the great wrestling spots, but perhaps never better than performed on Dustin. Claudio is the guy who is actually capable of swinging the big man, and it looks so great because nobody has legs longer than Dustin's. AEW's top down angle of that swing and how much of the ring surface area they were covering was perfection. All of Claudio's displays of strength only imply that his crossface grip has the power of a trash compactor, like it's shifting Dustin's teeth in his gums. 

I really couldn't care less about the "Is this Dustin Rhodes' last attempt to win a World Championship?" story they kept trying to push on commentary, and seemingly only on commentary. Dustin's approach in this match, to me, didn't feel any different than it has in any other high profile singles matches. What does the ROH World Championship actually mean to anyone in 2022? This is a belt Matt Taven held for half a year, what is it really supposed to mean for Dustin Rhodes to hold this specific title? Would it really have been any different than giving him a nice Lifetime Achievement watch? I guess one difference is that the watch would actually mean something to Dustin. Dustin potentially winning the World Title of a company he never worked for in a company that is financing the company he never worked for doesn't really carry a lot of emotional weight for me. Of course Regal has to tell me that the ROH World Title is a Title that is "coveted by every single wrestler in the world"; they need to say those things, but none of it sounds convincing in any way. 

What I did buy into was Dustin's fatigue down the stretch: his red face swelling in Claudio's crossface, the way he almost bailed on a piledriver, tossing Claudio off to the side rather than sit back on it, the way it felt like he couldn't totally hold Claudio down on pinfalls. It led perfectly to the finish of an out of breath Dustin unable to duck Claudio's leapfrog, running face first into Claudio's balls, but also being tired enough to be incapable of capitalizing. Claudio momentarily compartmentalizes his ball pain and uppercuts Dustin's body out of the air, a final shot to the hull of an old ship. 

2022 MOTY MASTER LIST

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