Found Footage Friday: QEPD EL SIGNO~! VILLANO III~! MR. ARGENTINA~! LA MUMIA~! CAPOEIRISTAS~!

Mecânico Paulão vs. Mr. Argentina Astros do Ringue 2000 

MD: Mr. Argentina passed away earlier in June as well. We've covered one or two of his matches before but as some more have popped up given said event, I thought it was time to head back to Brazil. This had a dinner theater type setting with round tables with white tablecloths surrounding the ring. They were sparsely populated. Argentina was older at this point, balding with strands of hair on either side. Everything he did was interesting though, every entry, every exchange, every counter. Not one thing seemed rote or boring. It all had an extra twist or spin or bit of torque to it. You were eager for them to lock up just to see what he'd do next because none of it was familiar. 

Paulão was, as stated, a mechanic, and he had a way of asserting himself in the ring. All of his offense involved moving Argentina this way or that. Where he had advantage, however, was that the ref was on his side. If Argentina was going to try to do a crazy headstand bridge on a pin, the ref was going to push him over. That sort of thing. This was in rounds and they made it to the third round before the ref really crossed a line by putting Argentina in a full nelson, he got his legs up to headscissors Paulão though and took them both over, drawing a particularly frustrating DQ. Argentina just shrugged though, confident and at peace with what happened. 

El Signo vs. Villano III CMLL 7/15/01

MD: Far more found than new here, but it's a Signo match we haven't covered and you probably haven't seen. It also kicks off with a training video of him just crushing people before showing off Satan's Knot. He takes over immediately controlling the ring. When Villano makes it in, Signo rains down headbutts and knees. Villano fires back but eats a foul in the corner. Amusingly, they reshow the skull covered knee going up and down on the replay repeatedly. Signo hones in on the skull with a noogie and close-in punches to open Villano up and then wins the primera with the knot. The segunda's quick as Villano hits a rana out of nowhere and the tercera is clipped but has them going from trading holds to Villano hitting a tope and then the two of them rolling around and punching each other in the face before Villano tries to commit homicide by dropping a row of chairs on Signo causing people to swarm out from the back. Two masters pushing 50 beating the crap out of each other. 

ER: I have nothing but fond memories of watching pro wrestling in 2001. What a great year to be in college and trading tapes and watching Tenryu matches in girls' dorm rooms and telling them what a Shining Wizard was. I love 2001 pro wrestling, and yet it's apparent that some of my favorite matches from the year are still being found. Because THIS. This match between two old men - old men who are somehow just a couple years older than I - is a fight. Not a pretty fight, but a fight between two older men in a moderately nice cruise ship casino. Villano III looks like a Richard Kind character. One where he doesn't have to do anything with his hair, because Richard Kind and Villano III have the same hair. It's in the tuft. Villano takes an excellent ringpost bump and falls off the apron in the same way that I think Richard Kind would have fallen off the apron: Holding onto the ringpost, eyes crossing, swinging around the post into a pratfall to the floor. Signo is a great little fat guy here. The fatter Signo got the shorter he looked. He bites at Villano's face and headbutts him five times in the side of the head and right in the eye, and from there the struggle looks like the messiest fucking fight as they both grab at each other's hair and gnash teeth from close quarters, no longer looking like the smooth trained fighters of their youth but instead like two men getting into an incredibly boring fight at a wedding. 

I am sad that the limb work section of the tercera is clipped because what we have is incredible, as they scream and fight over leg locks while each getting to lock in a nasty deathlock, rolling slowly through them in ways that made them feel even more agonizing, old joints popping and muscles getting stretched. The matwork clips suddenly into Villano III hitting a great tope that sends Signo flying fast into a fan's sharp knees. The match is thrown out as these men literally start punching and kneeing each other while lying on the floor, fighting from their sides, refusing to stop. Villano tries to break Signo's arm by throwing a short front row of those hard Arena Mexico seats into the bone, and the pull apart felt like a real wedding dance floor feud. This was outstanding, a CMLL gem I had never seen from the era where I had just been starting to actually watch CMLL on my local Galavision affiliate.  

La Múmia vs. Kid Abelha & Guto BWF 2005

MD: A different styles fight between a mummy and two capoeiristas. Can that be the entire write up? It sums it up pretty well. No? Fine. This lived up to its promise. The first third was La Mumia just tossing these guys around with solid technique, mares and beales and the sort, right in the middle of being a guy who came out of a sarcophagus and being an actual trained wrestler. The middle of the match were the two of them getting to work together, bounding and flipping about, redirecting him, and hitting double dropkicks. Then the ref made one get out and the last third was a mauling again, a nice effort that got quickly cut off. He spent the last minute tossing one onto or into the other, including a nice butterfly roll back and a grisly press slam to the floor before he ended it with a powerslam. For ten minuets of this, it was pretty much exactly what I wanted. We don't write up a ton of wrestling mummies or capoeira around here and this was both.

ER: As advertised. This is the most Mummy vs. Capoeira Guys match I have personally seen. I assume this is a pretty common match type in Brazil or whatever pro wrestling footage we haven't yet uncover from East Timor. I still don't think I've witnessed capoeira that actually translates to pro wrestling, but I can see why it's been attempted. It never seems like it's far off from working, but nothing ever lands well. It reads visually as the lightest of the fruity martial arts. To make it work, you need a tall, largely padded mummy alternating between lumbering and feeding for dropkicks. It's amusing seeing a Mummy feeding normally for dropkicks but then also sometimes getting up from them and moving his arms and legs like Angry Frankenstein. Kid Abelha feels better at wrestling than the other guy, but only because he's mastered the high folding upper shoulders bump and takes it several times in a row, making me think that he could have adapted easily to Jersey All Pro within a month. La Mumia hits a dangerous looking vertical suplex on both capoeiristas, dangerous because none of the three looked like they fully understood what a vertical suplex was, or how it should land, or where it should land. Mumia press slamming one of them to the floor was another moment that made this feel like Shaolin Wrecking Crew vs. Rainchild or Ghost Shadow, without a rec center wall to stop the distance of the throw.