Found Footage Friday: TOR~! RENESTO~! PIRATA~! ESTRADA~! REYNA~! FUCHI~! KIKUCHI~!

Super Swedish Angel (Tor Johnson) vs. Tom Renesto NWA Los Angeles 1951

MD: Yes, Super Swedish Angel is Tor Johnson, that Tor Johnson, the Tor Johnson. This is the only full match we have of him. I've seen this one likened to being straight out of a B film itself, but it almost felt like 1950s Sports Entertainment to me somehow, even in a way a lot of the other gimmicks haven't seemed to be. I expected Johnson to be more monstrous or thuggish but he was over the top in that sort of writhing almost Baby Huey sort of way, arguing with the ref, pulling faces, yelling at the crowd, marching around the ring with his hands waving and his mouth open, selling more shock than actual pain. He won the first fall by having Renesto run right into him and then hitting a decent enough big splash. Renesto is that Tom Renesto, young and Bronco Tom or Cowboy Tom here. He worked the arm pretty well with some varied stuff in the second fall (winning it with a schoolboy trip off the ropes) and then the leg in the third. They actually did a double leglock spot like you'd see in UWF which was pretty funny in this setting. Also funny was Johnson's hide the object bit, as he hid it in his mouth and then got nailed in the stomch, forcing him to swallow it. You really don't see that every day and with a guy witht he size, shape, and mannerisms of Johnson, it was high comedy. He fought with the ref as well. These comedy bits were more the high spots around Renesto controlling with holds. It seemed pretty much inevitable, no matter how much Renestro controlled however. At any point, Johnson could just flex his stomach or get a knee up and once down, it was one big splash away from being the end. Interesting look overall and not exactly what I expected out of our Plan 9 star.

Pirata Morgan/Hombre Bala/Verdugo vs. Apolo Estrada/Rudy Reyna/Tony Reyna (Monterrey 1989)

MD: We've seen three or four Apolo Estrada matches and he's been great in all of them. Here, he was matched up with Pirata Morgan and it was everything I wanted it to be. Los Bucaneros (who, of course, all have eyepatches limiting their vision to match their leader and his exposed eye socket) ambush right from the start and Estrada bleeds right from the start and he basically keeps bleeding the whole way through. Morgan is one of the top rudos ever at directing traffic during a beatdown and they keep it moving. The tecnicos try to fire back but get liberally fouled and triple teamed for their trouble. Bucaneros end the primera with a killer triple dropkick to a seated Reyna and a lifting press down onto another one. Segunda has the comeback and it's tremendous because while the Reynas were disposing of Hombre Bala and Verdugo with some pretty great sweeping punches, Estrada, a bloody maniac, was attacking Morgan in the seats. They have an extended fistfight in the midst of all of it and it's one of the best things I've seen in all of this Monterrey footage, in part because it just keeps going and going. The tercera keeps the wild feel. Rudy Reyna is such a fun exotico-turned-tecnico, with spin kicks and spinning chops and a spin wheel kick; he's a whirling dervish, and Tony may have stumbled a bit but his strikes worked well enough for me. But this was all about Estrada, as iconically bloody as any luchador getting his pound of flesh until Morgan fouls him on the apron. That let the numbers game put away the tecnicos for the win. Estrada was a great local legend, a great brawler, a great bleeder, all the stuff we like around here.

Masanobu Fuchi vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi AJPW 9/4/1991

MD: Thanks to gus for giving us the heads up on this one. As I understand it, we had the finish pro-shot previously and maybe a handheld that we've never covered. I am a massive proponent of handhelds. What we do every week relies upon them. I can tell you a ton about Goro Tsurumi or Eigen and Okuma because of stuff that never made TV. It's essential to figuring out what was going on, but here, you gain so much from getting in close and seeing the reactions. Just seeing the mangled ears (I think Kikuchi's were worse than Fuchi's!) and the grimaces and frustration. These two made the absolute most of one another. That meant Kikuchi having an early wariness, but also a daring, willing to throw a forearm first, but always aware that Fuchi could catch him at any moment. It meant Fuchi slapping him in response, because how dare he really? Moreover, though, it meant Fuchi absolutely stretching him in the most grotesque way possible. He'd just contort the back and hook his hands together to pull a leg in a direction it shouldn't go, and then, when the hold couldn't be kept any longer, he'd shift ever so slightly into a new one that somehow looked worse. Fuchi was such a chameleon, able to work comedy, able to bully in a trios, able to have fire when need be, but rarely (in footage we have) did he really get to be just this tricked out in his holds and was a sight to see. 

And of course, Kikuchi, probably the best babyface of this era in All Japan (Sorry, Kobashi) fired back again and again and put so much emotion and desperation into every forearm, every waistlock to try to get a suplex, into the pair of Octopus holds that he finally locked in. The finishing stretch was exciting with Kikuchi hitting that German (basically the only throw/move in the match along those lines), and the two of them having some teasing roll ups, before Fuchi started hitting one enziguiri after another. Even then, one got ducked and there was a moment of hope before it was extinguished. That was the difference with these Jr. Heavyweight matches. In other hierarchy-driven matches, there could be hope and effort could be rewarded, but there was always a sense this title could change hands at any moment. Guys like Momota or Nakano held it just a year or two before. It gave everything just a bit of extra excitement. Glad to have this one clear, crisp, and in full.