Found Footage Friday: MORISHIMA~! O'CONNOR~! CARPENTIER~! NICOLI~! ANTONE~! NOBLE~! HAAS~!

70s Central States Footage

Betty Nicoli vs. .Jean Antone Central States Mid 70s

MD: This was for the "Kansas Girls" championship. That's the name of it apparently. First I thought it was billed as two Kansas girls going for the championship but Nicoli was billed from New Orleans. The belt in question is basically a Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper with turquoise and purple diamond shape glinting in the middle and not much form to it. A brief aside, because I can see it in the comments here. The most annoying match I've ever posted from the French collection is the one with Lola Garcia vs Brigitte Borne. People just go on and on about how they want more of this and how horny they are for the women basically. Just shut up and talk about hammerlocks or something people. You can see some of the insipid comments on this too but only a few thankfully

Anyway, we get a solid 7 or 8 minutes before this blips out and it's interesting as a snapshot of women's wrestling in the territory in the 70s. It doesn't really look like what we've seen from the 50s nor does it entirely remind me of 80s Moolah-ism. Nicoli ambushed Antone (dubbed "the Mighty Mite") to start, but Antone turned her around. Lots of punches and stomps but the punches were weird sweeping things that hit from odd angles. Nicoli took over quickly and didn't look back, with lots of slams and tossing Antone out and picking her up at two. It was building to a come back of some sort but we don't get to exactly what. It was mean overall but with some real question about the strike execution; I imagine they were instructed to hit that way but it didn't help matters unless the point was to take it all less seriously (which it probably was).

Pat O'Connor vs. Edouard Carpentier Central States Mid 70s

MD: We get the last half of a fifteen minute draw here and it's really high level stuff in its own way. O'Connor is just sound, quick when he needs to be, but what draws the eye is his positioning, the way he plants his legs when pressing in on a hold, the way he'll stymie Carpentier's slick stuff with something as straightforward as possible. If it needs an extra twist or turn, it's done clinically and effectively.

Carpentier, on the other hand, knew how to present himself as a star. My take on his French work was that he was a decade or more ahead of everyone else, and you can see that here too. He was tanned and sculpted and everything he did was big and sweeping. He'd flip to get out of a hold, would do a cartwheel before getting a takedown. He was theatrical but able to ground it in the illusion of technique. As O'Connor met him halfway, all of this worked and was just a great example of the two putting on a show for a television and studio audience. 

Takeshi Morishima vs. Jamie Noble WWE 8/19/08

MD: WWE Vault has given us this. At the time I'm writing this, they haven't given us much else, but this is interesting at least. He was doomed from the start given his look and the era and the memory of Kenzo Suzuki and the Gordy comparison. If this had worked out just enough to get him hired, however, I see him landing in 2009 ECW and then he could have ended up part of Regal's Roundtable with Kozlov and Ezekiel Jackson and feuded with Christian and that probably would have been great.

Here he was paired against Noble, who fought valiantly from underneath, ducking and dodging and going after Morishima's legs. Noble got caught in the corner and Morishima got a few seconds pummelling in before the ref pulled him off. Noble ended up in a neck vice eventually and the fans went for him, but it wasn't like he was playing to them in any meaningful way; he was just familiar and Morishima was a monster. It ended a little anti-climactically but was a good performance overall; the babyface got over, the fans were awed by his offense. They might not have liked it in the back but this worked fairly well. 

ER: I remember when this happened, remember reading the reports online of Morishima getting a tryout, remembered hearing that backstage thought he looked like a big fat Japanese schoolgirl, and I was still young enough that I was upset that they "didn't get it". If Morishima had been hired I'm thinking it would be because they wanted him to be a big fat Japanese schoolgirl character and then maybe it would turn into a dancing character. His incredible hair - on the shortlist of wrestling's greatest heads of hair - is tied back in a ponytail and his fringe is parted down the middle. I'm not blaming him for inviting the schoolgirl comp but maybe it would have led to him in a romance tag team with Santino or something. 

The crowd responded to Morishima's violence even though he wasn't working as an overt heel. He was the heel because he was the foreign monster but he was not seeking boos. It was 3 well spent minutes of Morishima hammering Noble hard enough that every Morishima impact got an impressed reaction, and it all looked impressive. His kicks to Noble's body are as painful sounding as his high speed shoulderblock. There were so many people Morishima could have worked this stiff against. I wish WWE leaned more into heavyweight vs. heavyweight for their dark match tryouts than the played out heavyweight vs. cruiser.  Sure he could throw Noble at will but lets see what he could do with Shad Gaspard or Manu. I was a Manu guy for a month in 2008. 

Takeshi Morishima vs. Charlie Haas WWE 8/18/08

MD: Much shorter match with Morishima positioned as the face. He got to hit some of his big stuff (the sudden Boss Man Slam, the legdrop), but no pummelling in the corner, nothing like that. Haas had cheapshots and stayed on him doggedly and Morishima was able to sell. The fans were certainly impressed as he started up the top for the missile dropkick he won with but they didn't see to know what to make of it when he was trying to appeal to them.

ER: Morishima saved his best hair for the babyface match. It was a common thing for WWE to have a guy  work two tryout matches over two nights of tapings, one as a heel and one as a face. He was smart to save his greatest babyface hair for his babyface match against the opponent we all wanted to see him against. I am not sure how many guys on the 2008 roster I would want to see less than Charlie Haas. I can't believe I was still watching Charlie Haas matches in 2008. I bet Morishima/JTG would have been worse. Morishima vs. Deuce probably worse. Who was the worse Highlander? Haas steps up and hits Morishima hard enough to make this work and he also tells enough people to shut up that it pushes Morishima's reaction up a bit. You could hear the buzz building for his missile dropkick. Check out how perfectly Lilian Garcia nails the pronunciation of Takeshi Morishima. Tony Chimel couldn't.