AEW Five Fingers of Death (and friends) 9/23 - 9/29 Part 2

AEW Collision Grand Slam 9/28/24

Claudio Castagnoli/PAC/Wheeler Yuta vs Private Party/Komander

MD: I'm going to pass on Moxley vs Allin. I just have more to say about the Collision matches. It was very good. It's wrestlers pressing each other to the limit. It's exactly what we need. I'm not going to cover too much of the actual happenings in this trios match either. Obviously, Claudio was an amazing base; PAC is really finding himself in this role, is reveling in it; Kassidy, Quen, and Komander saw their opportunity and fought from underneath and showed fire with a never-say-die attitude.

But really, this was all about the interplay of Yuta with his partners. This will play into the Jarrett vs Page match as well, but balancing complex characters in pro wrestling is hard. At the end of the day, it has to transfer to the ring and has to live in front of a crowd, an opinionated, reacting crowd. You can't control these reactions except for through craft and cunning. We're in an age of instant response where people will tweet about a new episode of scripted television, but that won't affect those shows in the moment. It doesn't impact the actual art as it's happening in the same way as wrestling where the crowd is part of the overall effect.

It means that if you lead with real complexity, you could get a split crowd when you don't want that at all. But if you can actually pull it off? Well, then you get something that only a tiny fraction of all pro wrestling ever has managed to deliver upon and that has almost always been a success.

Wheeler Yuta is the most interesting character in wrestling right now. By its inherent nature, this moment can’t last. He's going to make a decision one way or another. Then, maybe he'll be a heel, one who has to live with his decision and his actions and the constant peer pressure around him. He'll be the living, breathing definition of a young man trying to justify what he had done and what he had become, likely by throwing himself entirely into the dark vision that Jon Moxley presents. He could be a heatseeker, bolstered by his betrayal, getting under everyone's skin, made all the worse because deep down, everyone knows that he's just weak. Yes, there are some parallels to Jack Perry that they'll have to navigate but it's not quite the same.

Or he can lean hard into what the fans want right now, can master his rage and frustration and emotions and stand for something. He can be the light that continues to shine after Bryan Danielson has gone off into his retirement. He can be the nucleus for a new Super Generation Army, someone to actually be elevated into a star. He could be a Kobashi who represents the fans' love of wrestling and the spirit they all want to have inside of them. Remember, AJPW didn't push Misawa and company to the moon right after Tenryu left. They held steady on with hosses like Hansen, Doc, and Gordy on top until the younger talent was built up, into 1991. That paid off for years. Yuta can be built in the same way. He can press up against PAC, Claudio, Moxley again and again, getting just a little farther each time, until he finally overcomes. Is that something AEW wants? Do they want to sacrifice part of the now, maximizing the moment, in order to truly build people, to not just give them one big feud, one big moment, and then shunt them back down onto the card because they don't fit the Dynasty dynamic?

I don't know, but right now he's Schrodinger's Wrestler, trying to control his own emotions, with all of us unsure where he’ll land. Jon Moxley has given into his emotions. Bryan Danielson has conquered his own. Yuta is in flux. He's a trained killer with a good heart. It's so essential here to have Claudio and PAC clearly coded as heels in the ring, ones that believe in something, ones with a chip on their shoulder, ones with a point, but ones that are absolutely painting a crystal clear picture. The crowd knows exactly how to respond to them. They're the grounded stability that makes this sort of complexity possible. Claudio has an almost familial expectation for Yuta, simple and direct. PAC, finally at home in a way that maybe he never was with his last set of partners, in turn has an almost bestial glee at the idea of Yuta giving into the twisted spirit and joining them. Every cut to him snarling and smiling provides the exact color this storyline needs.

And Yuta walks the line like the star he could be, believable, compelling, engaging. He's an unlikely protagonist but wrestling is an unlikely business. The fans have cautiously let him into their heart, for in so many ways he represents them in the face of what’s happened. If a TV deal is just about to be signed, there's never a better time to take a risk. It could well be time to make a leap of faith and take a gamble on Yuta for the sake of the future, no matter which way he falls. After all, there isn’t currently a better story in wrestling.

Jeff Jarrett vs Hangman Page (Lumberjack Strap Match)

MD: And Hangman Page is the second most interesting character in wrestling. I think this needs less breaking down, but I do want to note a couple of things. Hangman won the match. After doing so, he slapped the mat like he was a fired-up babyface. Then he hung a guy. Before that came a low blow and the Deadeye. Before that came him basically fighting off nine people, including someone's wife and a giant, all with straps. Talk about being all over the place narratively. Or at least, it should have been on paper. But it worked on the strength of Hangman Page and Jeff Jarrett as performers, maybe with a little of Tony commentating based on what Page had just threatened to do to him too. That's super impressive (and incredibly compelling) when you think about it.
 
What I loved most about this one, however, was how they treated the gimmick. Maybe a straight up chain/dog collar/strap match between the two would have been more visceral and gripping, but since they decided to go this route (seemingly to transition Page towards the BBG; small concern there as they're not the same sort of constants that Claudio/PAC are playing - it could get messy), the way to do it was to treat the straps held by the lumberjacks like a big deal. They built to Page getting whalloped by basically everyone and they built to it smartly. That meant him getting pushed towards the apron early on and treating it like a huge thing, something to be avoided at all costs. He took it seriously with total earnestness. There was no inkling of irony. It reminded me of how Onita would get over the exploding cage early in those matches. If you build up a gimmick as something the wrestlers are wary of, then the fans are going to care about it too.

They were laser-focused and consistent with it. When they did play things as cute, for instance when Jarrett got tossed out to his cronies and they gave him a hug and pushed him back in, they immediately turned it by Page throwing him out the other side of the ring so that the heels over there could give him some shots. Therefore, when Page finally did hit the floor, him getting whipped as a huge deal. Remember, this was a show with a Texas Tornado tag and a Saraya's Rules hardcore match. They'd seen crazier things than even Satnam whipping someone, but none of it was built to like this. Just impressive stuff overall. If Hangman can keep some of these lessons close to his heart moving forward, the sky is the limit for him. I know a lot of people think he was always great, but this little bit of discipline, this little bit more of giving himself over to believing and getting the fans to believe, well, it can take him even further, further than he's ever been.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 9/23 - 9/29 Part 1

AEW Dynamite Grand Slam 9/25/24

Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness

MD: Nigel McGuinness has long dreamed an impossible dream. His career did not end on his terms. He sat on the sidelines, first figuratively and then literally as a commentator, as his peers, many of them even a few years his junior, rose to levels of success that they could have only previously imagined. It could have been him. It should have been him. Not only was it not him, to earn a livelihood, he had to sit and watch every moment of it, to try to translate it for the layman. And worst of all was Bryan Danielson. He rose higher than all of the others, had lost it all as well, but had found some way to reclaim it whereas Nigel never rose and never reclaimed. Yet through perseverance and persistence, through a dogged single-mindedness that never wavered, Nigel both created and seized opportunity. There was no level he would not stoop to, no insult he might leave unsaid. Just as Jon Moxley had goaded Darby Allin, Nigel found his way to the matchmaker's ear and suggested to him a match that would be irresistible to any Ring of Honor fan, Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinness one last time, on the grand stage of Grand Slam, an unplanned, unexpected stop on the path of Danielson's final countdown. If Danielson wasn't cleared, Nigel would get an empty victory that would still fill his belly. If he was, then he was hurt and vulnerable, a prime victim. Either way, everything was coming up Nigel. This was one last chance to right the wrongs, to take everything that he deserved, to show the world that somewhere along the line, history itself had gotten off track. It was his dream.

And Bryan Danielson did not care. Not in the least. While Nigel was living his dream, Bryan Danielson was living his own personal nightmare. This was his final countdown. This was the end of the road. This was his last taste of glory. This was him defining his own destiny in every way that Nigel had never been allowed to. He was going to retire on his terms, champion until someone could take it from him, a true sportsman's exit, a true wrestler's final chapter. But instead, his friends, his brothers-in-arms, had decided to take matters into their own hands. They had betrayed him in the coldest of blood over a difference of vision, over promises unfulfilled and the sort of dissatisfaction over the state of the world that would only be felt by those who intended to remain in it. Danielson had one foot out the door. To Jon Moxley, Bryan Danielson could not be the change this world needed. He was already half checked out, already doing arts and crafts with his daughter in a cabin in the woods. Best to push him the rest of the way and make a statement to the world that needed changing in the process, to do something that mattered in a way that would make it matter the most.

What was Nigel McGuinness and all of his verbal barbs, and his boasts, and his Oasis theme, and the spiky hair he doesn't even have anymore, in the face of a betrayal of the heart? What was Nigel McGuinness in the face of what Jon Moxley was taking away from him, the chance to end his story in a way that would allow him to be the best father he could possibly be? Nothing. Nigel was dirt beneath Danielson's feet as he walked towards the end of the night and his first chance to get back at Moxley. He was a gnat to be swatted away. Nigel McGuinness had spent the last few years of his career seeing Bryan Danielson's face on every wrestler in every match he was providing commentary for. Bryan Danielson, however, could see nothing except for the road to Jon Moxley and revenge before him. In the entire match that would follow, save for one slap, Bryan Danielson did not see Nigel once.

And let's pause right there.

I'm not going to take you through the rest of the match. I'm sure you can find some really good accounts out there of the nuts and bolts of it, the easter eggs, the thought put into it. Despite what I just said, there was thought and care put into it and not just from Nigel. It was a match at least eleven years in the making, an anchor for one of AEW's biggest shows of the year, and it was put together as such.

That doesn't, however, mean that it was presented that way as seen through the lens of Bryan Danielson's performance. Not only is that a good thing, it's a great thing, a truly impressive and admirable thing, the exact sort of thing that AEW needs and everything that its detractors says it is not. This was an indy dream match, fan service to ROH devotees, a wonderful nostalgic box that could be checked, a gift! And it was unquestionably, undeniably, 100% an afterthought to the main story in the company, the title match of WrestleDream between Bryan Danielson and Jon Moxley, exactly as it should be.

That didn't lessen the emotions. It didn't stunt people's feeling in the moment. If you followed along online, people were absolutely into it. The people in the crowd were into it. The announcers, though scattered, were into it. But more importantly, everyone was exactly where they needed to be by the end of the night.

That's a pretty astounding balancing act when you think about it. This was the character (I won't speak on the person) Nigel McGuinness' dream, the culmination of a year of him mouthing off and years more of things in the margins. It built on a dozen prior matches, some borderline legendary. And it cashed in all of that to get over the look on Bryan Danielson's face and what was really on his mind. He never wavered, never blinked, never slowed down. He was a freight train out of control heading straight to Jon Moxley, tie in his hand. Sometimes that meant he made a mistake here. Maybe he charged in the wrong way. Maybe he fell wrong. He was looking past this in a way no wrestler had ever looked past a rival before. Nigel capitalized as you'd expect him to do. It didn't make a difference. Of course it didn't. Nigel mouthed off to the bitter end. Of course he did. Bryan marched on without looking back.

There is power in sacrifice. The more something matters, the more value it can provide when put on the altar of necessity. This mattered a lot. It mattered to longtime fans. It mattered to one of the key commentators of the company. It mattered to the crowd. It was a dream match, a miracle match. But in the grand scheme of things, what matters is the overall direction of the company, the big picture story, the brewing war between Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson, and how the resolution of that war will take the company into 2025. For AEW to truly succeed, hitting those wonderful nostalgic marks aren't enough, being the legacy of all wrestling, from the territories to WCW to Japan and Mexico and whatever else, that's not enough. Those all have to be means to some greater end, not the end itself. And there is a greater end in sight than Danielson vs Moxley, and this match was mercilessly, heartlessly, brilliantly sacrificed to that end. The notion of "Killing Your Darlings" is often misattributed to Faulkner or Chesterton, but the notion is clear enough. In the past, there's been reason to doubt whether or not AEW booking could ever do that given the love of wrestling that ingrained in the company and the nostalgic streak that runs throughout, but there couldn't be a clearer sign than this that it's willing to do what needs to be done no matter how hard it might be. Nigel's dream, though fulfilled on paper, ultimately died to glorify Bryan's nightmare. And both we and the company are better off for it.

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Found Footage Friday: ALL APUESTAS

 
Stuka/Latin Lover vs. Valente Fernandez/Sangre Chicana Monterrey 6/92

MD: Lover still had his mask here (He'd lose it a couple of months later in a tag to Sangre Chicana and Sanguinario, and then immediately thereafter would have the below Fernandez singles match. Sheesh). It took me about a fall to figure out what was even going on here, which is blurry old lucha chaos for you. This was a tag where the losers of the fall had to fight each other over the mask. Also we come in mid stream with the rudos beating Lover down until Stuka streaks in from off screen wildly, knocks Fernandez out of the ring and clocks him with a chair. He'd get bloodied thereafter and they'd take the fall with a gnarly mutalock styled double armhold and Lover hitting a sunset flip on Chicana.

Stuka continues on Fernandez between falls, posting him but Fernandez turns the tables on him, tosses him into the seats, and gets some revenge with a chair. He's really good at this, this being standing around a bloody mess in the ring with a chair menancing Lover until Stuka rolls back in so he can absolutely crush him (he then crushes Lover for good measure). Very quick but impactful segunda that should have presented Lover and Stuka with a high, high bar to overcome for the rest of the match.

Weirdly, that's not quite what happened. Lover came into the terera strong, fighting back against Chicana, and Stuka chased Fernandez around. The tercera didn't quite have the drama I would have wanted, but Fernandez eliminated Lover with a great Reinera and then hit a huge dive. Stuka followed up by fouling Fernandez in front of the ref to set up the singles match.

The commentators said that even though they had been partners, now it was time for a fight to the death given the stakes, and that's how Stuka took it certainy, coming in hot, tossing Lover into the stands, hitting him with a chair, and ripping at the mask. Fernandez tried to get involved a little, and that let Lover fight back reversing a toss and sending Stuka flying into the stands in revenge, opening him up. Back in the ring, they went all out for an exciting finishing high-speed finishing stretch, lots of rope-running and nearfalls. Stuka finally missed a flip dive off the top and Lover locked in an armbar with the leg behind the head for the win. Post-match Stuka, who had increasingly lost it as the match went on, really lost it and took a runner, but multiple luchadores brought him back to have his head shaved. I could have used a little more flash in the tercera of the tag but overall this was more than spectacle enough.

Valente Fernandez vs. Latin Lover Monterrey 9/27/92

MD: This is almost completely bullshit but it's so consistent to it that it's ok. Fernandez charges in at the start but Lover fires back. Fernandez escapes around the ring and crotches over on the rope on the way in. He really doesn't look back with the fouls, all the way into the tercera as he controls most of it, with a spattering of rudo ref assistance along the way that cut Lover off after a big quebradora counter in the segunda, for instance.

What made it work was the triple combination of Fernandez being a total jerk (his celebration in the arms of his second (Sanguinario maybe?) after winning the primera with another foul for instance), Lover fighting back with fire whenever he had a chance, and plenty of blood. There were some big tope suicidas in the tercera and while we couldn't really see them due to the camera angle, the blood all over the floor from Lover put them way over the top emotionally. They felt monumental because we were left with the image of guys just laying around in splatterings of red (I'm not 100% convinced it's blood; it might just be the floor, but I'm going to go with it).

In general though, plenty of bullshit. Fernandez bullied the ref into compliance, hit him errounously though little came of it. He took a swipe at Lover's second and then, in a key moment, took out his own with a dive as Lover was able to move. The finish was fairly definitive with Lover just needing a clear enough path to plant Fernandez with an Alabama slam out of the corner. We're in Monterrey in the 90s and we got what we got accordingly. A bit too much BS but you can't say it didn't work.

Solar vs. Flama Azul Arena Naucalpan 1991

MD: This was very much a tale of two matches. The first two caida were a little more subdued and then everything picked up bigtime in the tercera. The setting with big colorful "LUCHAMANIA" banners in the traditional WM font and canned audio that meant we never got a real sense of the crowd didn't help matters.

Flama Azul got an early advantage without really doing anything underhanded or even definitive to get it. They started clean enough and he was just able to lean on Solar, a combination of him being able to keep up with him technically and having a bit more girth. There was some mask ripping and viciousness but for the most part, nothing was boiling over. That meant that the comeback didn't hit too hard, even though Solar had this way of rushing into the quebradoras instead of just waiting for his opponent to get to him. He makes them look more dynamic than anyone else and he was able to grind down with the knee and get a submission out of one.

Things opened up in the tercera, first and foremost, Flama Azul's skull as Solar continuously drove it into the post. There was a muddy, mess sense of violence here, a lack of pretty spots as they just crashed into each other grabbing and poking and swiping however they could. Just a real sense of animosity that had been missing from the match so far. Eventually, Solar was able to drive forward with one more backbreaker and put Flama down. This would have been better if we had a better sense of the crowd as, once it really got going, the dissonance between the bright colors and the nasty violence really made things pop.

PAS: So much of my experience with Solar is him doing his touring Maestros stuff with Negro Navarro at the end of his career, seeing him at the beginning of the 90s working Naucalpan in this kind of grimy small arena apuestas match is pretty great. It got more escalatingly ugly and violent as the match went on, especially the parts where Solar was trying to crack open Azul's skull like a walnut. This is some of the earliest Arena Naucalpan footage we have, and I love that it was always like this. Nothing fancy, just blood mixing with spilled beer and two guys rolling around in it. 

ER: So this was an outright classic, right? I'm a Solar fan. We all are. I've been there live and seen him do his front flip into the ring in his early 60s, I fell in love with the maestro matwork the first time I saw him, and yet I don't think I have ever seen Solar in a match like this. This was Solar in a damn fight and Solar as a damn rock star. Have I ever seen Solar get reactions like this before? I don't believe I have. The second the propulsive, motorik guitar groove of whatever his excellent entrance theme hit, Arena Naucalpan went crazy and it continued going crazy for a half hour. This felt like a real important apuestas match before Solar got anywhere close to the ring because the crowd made this match feel like real stakes. I have been to mask matches in Mexico before. The loudest one I was at was El Hijo del Santo vs. Super Parka in 2003, and maybe because it was in an open air bull ring rather than the closed in confines of Naucalpan, but this match was so much louder. Solar was swarmed like Mil Mascaras. "That's the guy who unmasked Dr. O'Borman a million years ago," somebody said, maybe. I loved Solar as an old man. I hardly knew his long superstar peak, but Naucalpan reacts to 1991 Solar like Hijo del Santo in El Toreo and I'm hyped. 

I can't pretend to know anything about Flama Azul, but I love him. I don't think we've ever written about him before. You'd think one of us would have covered him at some point but I couldn't find anything. Flama Azul feels like a Segunda Caida guy. He looks like a real piece of shit. Look at this Scumbag El Dandy. He has the body of a co-worker who gets takeout most days of the week, with messy hair and a perfect mustache. I love how he punches at Solar's face and body, love the violent mask ripping, love the damn referee holding Solar by the mask from the ring so that Flama can punch him in the face, repeatedly. Solar takes great prolonged beating, takes multiple backdrops on a hard mat, and the noise in that arena made it feel like people actually thought Solar was in danger of losing his mask, one of the five greatest masks in lucha history. The beating comes to a head when Solar is run along the apron and bounced into the ringpost and spills into the crowd, reinventing the ringpost bump in the early 90s. 

Solar does no matwork in this match. This is not the time for it. He does nothing you would ever call "smooth" in this fight. No, he fights back and spends the rest of the match wrecking Azul's back with the coolest fully controlled quebradoras I've ever seen. Solar was lifting and spinning Azul like pizza dough, bringing him down on his knee in a way that looked like he was controlling every single part of the landing. He just kept lifting and turning and slamming Azul into his knee, the quebradoras a triumphant tecnico show of strength that only got better the more he did. Solar's tope was incredible, his victory hard fought. Azul continued being a piece of shit after the match, refusing all handshakes and storming off to the rudo's locker room before his first trim. I liked the way he argued with no theatricality. He never looked like he was being a rudo for the benefit of the fans who loved or hated rudos, he felt like he was just an asshole that was trying to renege on a friendly wager, getting upset when he actually has to pay for dinner. 

Extra highlight is our post-match barber. He had no electric clippers but just watch the quick work he makes of Azul's hair with a pair of scissors. He was snapping off clumps of hair with real speed, handing off a huge handful to Solar for him to parade around. This man could scissor shear a sheep in a sheet. 

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El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Sasha, Portrait of a Valet

Week 35: Sasha, Portrait of a Valet

EB: The month of August saw some notable departures from CSP, but we also had the debut of Giant Warrior and the returns of Monster Ripper and Sasha. We've previously mentioned Ripper’s run in 1986 and 87 against Wendi Richter and we most recently saw her at Aniversario 90 against Candi Divine. Monster Ripper has come back as the reigning Women’s World champion and as the manager of the new World tag team champions. Due to Ripper’s recent involvement in the World tag title matches between Idol & Valentine and the Super Medicos, the former champions have called upon an old friend to help even things out against Monster Ripper. Sasha has returned to CSP and we really haven’t covered who she is or what her connection is to Super Medico. The story of Sasha goes back to late 1985, when Eric Embry was one of the most hated rudos in Puerto Rico.  Embry had only been in Puerto Rico a few months and had already made waves by defeating Super Medico for the Puerto Rico title, attacked Miguel Perez Sr. which resulted in Miguel Perez Jr. making his debut to avenge his father, and had even gotten into an altercation with show host Hugo Savinovich which resulted in hugo coming out of retirement to take on Embry. Throughout all this Embry expressed his disdain for Puerto Rico and for Puerto Ricans, and in an act of rubbing this disdain in the fans’ faces, Embry debuted a valet that was pretty much subservient to him. A Puerto Rican woman by the name of Sasha. Let’s go to a clip that showcases the Eric Embry and Sasha dynamic, it’s a promo from when Embry was feuding with Hugo Savinovich from around November of 85. Because of the animosity between them, Embry was refusing to have Hugo interview him and was sending in his promos separately (which had to be subtitled since there was no one there to translate).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48a2YTEtEFM

The Fabulous Eric Embry talks about what is going to happen to Hugo Savinovich next time they meet. You can tell Embry has a bit of a condescending tone and mispronounces Hugo’s name throughout. Embry is the reigning Puerto Rican champion, a fact that he loves to rub in the fans’ faces and he also has Sasha with him. The whole point of having Sasha with him is to show off how a Puerto Rrican woman is at his beck and call. Here Sasha spends the promo stroking Embry's hair while standing behind him. It’s clear where Sasha’s loyalties lie.  

MD: Sasha’s behind him here, petting his hair, and he cuts just a nice, relaxed, subdued promo. No yelling. No shouting. Calm, cool, collected. Confident, with the accent coming through strong. It was more effective than if he was boasting and frothing at the mouth and Sasha behind him helped create the mood.

EB: Sasha would second Embry during his matches, helping him cheat, steal wins, or even causing a DQ to help save Embry’s title. Sasha was the bane of the tecnicos that would face Embry. An example is when Invader #3 was feuding with Embry over the World Junior title and one of the matches near the end of the feud featured Sasha being put in a cage so she wouldn’t interfere. Sasha would continue helping Embry out when he went into the tag ranks in a team with The Crushe (aka Rip Morgan) and they feuded against the Rock n Roll RPMs. The RPMs, mirroring the current situation with the Medicos and Monster Ripper, brought in Wendi Richter to help counter Sasha. This led to the two seconds having a feud of their own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hwI21NbzJY

This match is from a home video release CSP did of Wendi Richter’s matches that included several wraparound segments where Hugo Savinovich interviewed his then wife Wendi Richter. Wendi is on the beach with her championship belt, with Hugo asking her about becoming Women’s champion for a third time. Wendi talks about becoming champion for the NWF and also WWC (mentioning that she defeated Monster Ripper in the tournament final as a clip of the match is shown). As for the match with Sasha, looking at the results this likely is from April 5, 1986. The match starts with Sasha and Eric Embry in the ring, Embry has a bandaged head from an earlier match he and The Crusher had against the Rock n Roll RPMs. Wendi Richter makes her entrance and Embry and Sasha leave the ring when Richter steps through the ropes. Hugo is providing English commentary for the video release but you can faintly hear Joaquin Padin’s Spanish narration beneath Hugo's commentary track. If I heard correctly, Padin mentions that this is Sasha’s debut as a wrestler. Richter tries to charge at Sasha a few times while Sasha and Embry are walking outside of the ring, with Sasha not wanting to get in the ring.

The referee Tomas Marin rings the bell and signals for Sasha to get in the ring, but she and Embry refuse since they want Richter to wait in her corner instead of being ready to charge at Sasha as she has done already a few times. The ref starts his count and Sasha is still hesitant about getting in the ring. Finally, Richter is able to grab Sasha on one of her charges and drags Sasha into the ring by the hair. Richter hits a series of snapmares while holding Sasha’s hair, but Sasha is able to roll out of the ring after the third one. Sasha is upset on the outside and Embry comes over to try to calm her down and offer advice. Richter takes the opportunity to kick Embry in the back of the head. Richter points at Embry and yells, causing Embry to wave Sasha in. Sasha gets on the apron but jumps back to the floor the moment Richter charges in to grab her. They do this once more but Sasha gets in the ring on the third try, although hiding behind the ref. As the ref tries to hold Richter back to allow Sasha to get in the ring cleanly, Sasha reaches through the ref’s legs and trips up Richter. Sasha immediately starts attacking Richter’s right leg, getting several punches in and trying to get a spinning toe hold on Wendi. Richter is able to kick Sasha off her and catapults Sasha over when she bounces back off the ropes. Sasha immediately rolls out of the ring again into Embry’s embrace, as Richter works the crowd. Sasha keeps stalling on the outside as Richter again charges and tries to grab at Sasha. When Sasha gets in the ring, Wendi immediately puts her in a side headlock that she wrenches on a few times and then takes her down to the mat still in the hold. Sasha counters with a headscissors but Richter breaks out of the headscissors and goes back to the headlock in a standing position.
Richter takes Sasha down again and keeps working the headlock ,despite Sasha’s best effort to break out of it by yanking Wendi’s hair. Back on their feet, Richter keeps attacking Sasha but a trip by Embry gives Sasha an opening. Sasha starts pulling Wendi’s hair but Richter fights back with some punches. Sasha is knocked down twice from two of Richter’s blows, and is knocked down a third time via a clothesline. It looks like Richter has the match in hand, which causes Embry to jump on the apron. Wendi punches Embry to the floor and continues with the advantage on Sasha, trying for a pinfall. Sasha is able to get Richter off her at the two count. Sasha tries what she can to fend Wendi off (including hair pulls and an eye poke) but Richter hits a slam and goes to the middle turnbuckle for a splash attempt.

However, Embry pushes Richter off the turnbuckle in front of the ref and thai causes a disqualification. Embry gets into the ring to cheer Sasha on as she attacks Richter, but the RPMs (also with bandaged heads) come in to attack Embry and save Wendi. Sasha rolls out of the ring as soon as the RPMs show up. The RPMs grab Embry so Richter can get some hits in on him. The Crusher (also with a bandaged head, which makes me want to see the match they had earlier on the show) comes in to help Embry and all four men start fighting in the ring and then outside. Richter goes outside as well to cheer the RPMs on, but Sasha blindsides Richter with a hit to the head from one of Sasha’s boots. The rudos leave ringside as the RPMs check on Wendi. The video ends with Richter having her arm raised and Wendi yelling and pointing in the direction the rudos left, indicating that this was not over.

MD: Interesting to see where Wendi was a year after Mania. She came off as a star here but was never a great promo. The RPMs were used very well in Puerto Rico and she fit in well with them on paper at least. Sasha stalled huge here to high effect and then fed and stooged when she got in there. They did a little bit of chain wrestling but only a little before Wendi took over again and Embry helped her cheat to get over. It wouldn’t last long as Wendi was quick to come back. Embry actively interfered to draw the DQ and the post match brawl between the teams. It’s funny how they were a year behind just like in 90 (then it was Robocop and Zeus and face vs face on the big show).

EB: Sasha’s feud with Wendi Richter would involve a mixed trios match with their respective tag team allies, a street fight and it would end in a cage match. The turning point for Sasha’s run came when Super Medico was once again feuding with Eric Embry in an attempt to win back the Puerto Rico title he had lost in August of 85. We go to a match from May 17, 1986 in Caguas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR7gc7V9tf0

This match is from a Clasicos segment that aired many years later, with El Profe doing the introduction and narration for the clip. The match is joined in progress, as Embry attempts to suplex Super Medico but the attempt is blocked and Medico counters with a small package for a two count. Embry kicks Medico to cut off any offense and jumps off the middle rope with a forearm to Medico's back. You can see Sasha at ringside, pacing about as she watches her man Embry in action. Embry controls the next moments of the match, hitting several stomps, punches, a snapmare and a falling headbutt on Medico.  A pinfall attempt is broken by Medico getting his foot on the rope. Embry continues with the attack but Medico gets to his feet and slowly starts firing back with punches of his own. Embry starts staggering from the blows but quickly rakes the eyes to stop Medico. A punch from Embry sends Medico through the ropes to the outside. Medico takes a bit to collect himself and tries to get back in the ring. However, Sasha has jumped up on the ring apron on the opposite side of the ring, drawing the ref’s attention and allowing Embry the opening to choke Medico on the top rope. As Sasha finishes her distraction, Embry knees Medico on the head and knocks him back to the floor. The ref comes over and sees Medico on the outside holding his head in pain, and asks Embry what happened (which Embry lies about).

Embry goes out to attack Medico on the floor and grabs one of the many pieces of debris that is laying on the ground. He briefly jams the object into Medico’s forehead before getting back in the ring. El Profe so far has been providing some background info besides commentating for the match, and in a funny moment gives a shout out to the security guard that briefly walks past the camera (apparently Sicariote is his name and he was still working security at the time this segment aired). Embry goes back out and tosses Medico back into the ring as El Profe starts talking about the first time he met Eric Embry back in 1981 while they were in Calgary. Embry comes off the top with an ax handle to Medico’s back and attempts a pin. Medico kicks out and Embry gets a clothesline of the middle rope that sets up a series of falling headbutts that only get a two count.

The match turns to Medico’s favor when he catches Embry coming off the top with a punch to the midsection. Medico follows up with a couple of kicks to the midsection, which then allows him to go off on a punching tear against Embry (including the ‘maquinita de golpes’). Medico comes off the middle rope with a punch that sends Embry tumbling over. Embry tries to crawl out of the ring but Medico is able to grab Embry’s tights before he makes it out. A brief tug of war ensues between Sasha trying to yank Embry outside by the arms and Medico trying to yank Embry back by the trunks (Embry’s butt gets exposed during this, causing Profe to make a remark about how pale Embry’s buns are). Another punch from the middle turnbuckle knocks Embry down and Medico goes for a cover, Sasha gets involved by putting Embry’s foot on the ropes, causing the count to be broken. Medico continues just throwing punches at Embry, who gets increasingly staggered and close to falling down. Medico grabs Embry by the front of the trunks to keep him standing up and continues with the punching. Another pin attempt is foiled by Sasha again placing Embry’s foot on the ropes. Medico responds by basically squashing Embry’s leg as it hangs on the rope. A rope running sequence results in Medico colliding with the referee after an Embry leapfrog and then both Embry and Medico knocking heads. With everyone down in the ring, Sasha hurries into the ring, grabs an object from her boot and places it in Embry’s hand before exiting the ring. Both wrestlers slowly get to their feet and Embry decks Medico with the loaded punch. Embry makes the cover and the ref makes the three count.

Embry starts celebrating his victory when the crowd starts making noise. It seems that commissioner Huracan Castillo Sr. is heading towards the ring. Sasha briefly tries to stop the commissioner but promptly steps aside. Castillo picks up the foreign object Embry had left laying on the mat and explains to the ref what Embry had done. Embry protests but the referee restarts the match. Castillo briefly gets into an argument with Sasha outside of the ring before leaving and the match continues. Medico gets a sunset flip that Embry gets out of. Medico gets a small package that Embry also quickly kicks out of. Sasha gets up on the ring apron holding a chair and Embry moves towards her in order to ram Medico’s head against the chair. Instead. Medico pushes Embry’s head into the chair, knocking him out and allowing Medico to get the pinfall. Super Medico has regained the Puerto Rico title. Sasha worriedly checks on her main squeeze in the ring as Super Medico celebrates on the floor and is awarded the title belt.

MD: Yes, twist my arm and have me watch 1986 Eric Embry vs Super Medico. This was really good. I know we’re focused on Sasha here, but this was really good. Embry underhandedly took over and started beating Medico around the ring. A bit of hidden object and a lot of leaping off the top with axe handles or flying clotheslines. Eventually, it backfires as Medico gets him in the gut and the comeback is top notch. Great punches, some off the top, with Embry bumping all over the place for him. At one point Sasha drapes his foot over the top to break up a pin and Medico just leaps on the leg and continues on. Finish is a ref bump and the two of them crashing into one another so Sasha can hand Embry an object but it all backfires in the end. This was introduced (years later) by a maskless Profe and that was a surprising sight to see.

EB: As you can probably guess, Embry blamed Sasha for what happened in the match and kicked her to the curb.I’m not sure exactly how it went down b+ut it would not surprise me if there was a physical altercation and Super Medico ended up getting involved to save Sasha. Embry would end up bringing in Vivian St. John as his new second and would disparage Sasha when he spoke about his former valet. For her part, Sasha was not going to sit back quietly. We go to a TV match that occurred a few weeks after the previous one, likely from around early June of 1986. By this point in their feud, Embry had stolen one of Medico’s masks and was wearing it as an insult to Medico.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTrNybpWEN0

We are at one of the TV tapings in Rio Piedras and Embry (wearing a Medico mask and accompanied by Vivian St. John) is scheduled to face Victor Cancel, but Super Medico is in the ring and he wants Cancel to give him the chance to wrestle Embry now. Cancel accepts and Medico immediately goes after Embry. Medico is very aggressive with his punches, grabbing Embry’s jacket to tear it off and flinging Embry around. Medico continues with his punches as Chicky Starr is complaining about all of this on commentary. Sasha makes her way to ringside, cheering on Medico (and causing Chicky to make more comments about how Sasha is ungrateful and will get hers). The punches continue and Medico attempts to reclaim the stolen mask, but Embry pokes Medico’s eyes to stop him. Embry attacks back, firing off a Medico style punching sequence as a way to mock Medico. However, Medico is able to block one of the punches and counters with his own flurry, knocking down Embry. Medico goes for a cover but Embry gets his foot on the rope. The match continues with Medico and then Embry getting the advantage, with Embry at one point trying to take Medico’s mask off. Medico hits a few punches after walking across the top rope to get into position. Embry regains control and hits several falling headbutts and attempts a pin. Sasha countries cheering on Medico at ringside as the match continues.
Eventually, Embry ends up accidentally colliding with the ref and Vivian St. John takes the opportunity to hit Medico on the head with a chair (basically doing right what Sasha had screwed up in Embry’s opinion). Embry covers but there is no ref to count. Sasha takes the opportunity to get in the ring and hit an ax handle on Embry’s back, allowing Medico the chance to cover Embry. During all this, St. John is busy trying to revive the ref, unaware of what Sasha had done or that Medico is now the one doing the covering. The ref is revived and makes the three count, making Super Medico the winner of this impromptu match. St. John charges at Sasha and the two start scuffling on the floor, as the fans rush to surround them to watch and cheer on Sasha. Some wrestlers try to separate the women, with Killer Karl Krupp having to carry St, John off in order to stop the fight.

MD: I can just watch these two punch each other all day. This was really good as well. The fans were hot for Medico getting a chance for revenge but Embry took over at times as Medico was focused on the mask. His comeback even had a little bit of rope walking as he tried to get at Embry with his fists (it was organic rope walking since it built up momentum to get at him which is something I've maybe never seen before). Eventually the ref bump came (more of that with Embry maybe?) and St. John used a chair only for Sasha to come in to nail Embry. Very long drawn out pin to build up the drama before the ref could recover and count the three. Good stuff with the seconds brawling after the fact.

EB: The feud between Medico and Embry climaxed in a mask vs hair match where Embry almost stole the win and thus Medico’s mask, However, due to Invader #1 coming down to tell the ref that Embry had cheated (and the fact that the commissioner was at ringside and saw what happened as well), the match was restarted, Medico kept his mask and Embry lost his hair. Embry would leave Puerto Rico a couple of weeks after this but Sasha got a chance for some final payback on Vivian St. John.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuZLu7xrItU

This is a couple of weeks after the Medico and Embry mask vs hair match. Hugo is on commentary and makes note of the size difference between the two competitors. The crowd is firmly behind Sasha but it looks to be a tough challenge. Sasha starts off hot with some armlock throws, but St. John uses her size to stop Sasha and starts working over Sasha's throat on the mat. Hugo keeps putting over Sasha’s heart and that the crowd is firmly behind her. St, John eventually breaks the chokehold and Sasha is able to come back by working over St. John's arm. Vivian breaks the armbar by raking Sasha’s eyes and proceeds to throw Sasha through the ropes to the outside. Sasha tries to get in the ring but St. John kicks her back out. Sasha is able to get in the ring and backs Vivian into the ropes, firing off several blows and then attempting a pin after a snapmare. Sasha gets a monkey flip on St, John, causing Vivian to bail to the outside as Sasha gets fired up in the ring. Hugo compliments Sasha for not backing down at all despite the size difference. Sasha dares Vivian to get back in the ring but St. John remains stalling on the outside. Sasha grabs St, John on the apron and flips her into the ring. Sasha continues with the aggressive attack, focusing on St. John’s leg. Vivian is able to stop Sasha with some forearm blows and tries a cover after a slam but it only gets two. A second slam attempt is countered by Sasha into a roll up. The ref counts three and Sasha has won the match. The crowd cheers as Sasha celebrates her win.

MD: St. John had a size and reach advantage, a big one, but Sasha was fiery and had the crowd behind her. St. John would goozle her to start, and then toss her out, but Sasha would get revenge and tossed her out and then back in. It was pretty good (if messy) when they were scrapping. Eventually Sasha got a roll up out of nowhere for the win. Not definitive but still a big moral one considering the size difference.

EB: Sasha would continue making appearances as a tecnico through the beginning of 1987, but it has now been a while since she has been active in CSP. The Super Medicos have called upon her to help them out against Monster Ripper, Rick Valentine and Lance Idol, and Sasha has gladly returned to counter Monster Ripper. We will have to see how effective her presence at ringside will be for the Super Medicos in their quest to regain the World tag team titles.

Getting back to our current 1990 journey, we had a house show on August 25 that was headlined by Carlos Colon vs TNT in a cage. It is once again a case of having the lineup for the show but not having footage or definitive results. Based on the title histories, we know that Colon retained the Universal title in the cage and that the only title to change hands that night was Ron Starr winning the World Junior title from Huracan Castillo Jr.

MD: I think in the journey so far, other than maybe Chicky having it, the Jr. title hasn’t been a huge focus, but it’s a good way to focus on Starr as a singles without dislodging Colon or Invader on top.

EB: We have reached September and it looks like we are heading towards the climax of the Carlos Colon and TNT rivalry. There is a tag match scheduled for September 1 featuring Colon and Invader #1 taking on TNT and Kim Duk (suggesting that Invader and Duk got involved in the cage match the previous week). However, it has also been announced that there will be one more match between Colon and TNT on September 8. The Universal title will once more be on the line, this time in a barbed wire match.

Let’s go the lineups for Sept 1 and Sept 8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THWWpHnDn7s

The card lineups featured are as follows:

Saturday September 1 in Caguas has Carlos Colon & Invader #1 vs. TNT & Kim Duk; Rematch for the World Tag Titles: Rick Valentine & Lance Idol w/Monster Ripper defend against. Super Medicos #1 & #3 w/Sasha; Miguelito Perez vs. Mr. Pogo; Rematch for the Junior Heavyweight Title: Ron Starr defends against Huracan Castillo Jr.; Invader #4 & Super Medico #4 vs. The Texas Hangmen w/El Profe; and other great super stars.

Thursday September 6 in Luquillo has Carlos Colon vs. his arch rival Abdullah the Butcher; Invader #1 vs. TNT;  Giant Warrior vs. Kim Duk; Carl Styles vs. Mr. Pogo; Miguelito Perez & Huracan Castillo Jr. vs. Rick Valentine & Lance Idol w/Monster Ripper; and the Super Medicos vs. the Texas Hangmen.

And on Saturday September 8 they will be at Estadio Juan Ramon Loubriel in Bayamon where there will be a Universal Title match with the ring surrounded by Barbed Wire as  Carlos Colon defends against TNT; a No DQ Rematch for the Caribbean Title as Invader #1 defends against Kim Duk; Giant Warrior vs. Abdullah the Butcher; Miguelito Perez & Huracan Castillo Jr. vs. the Texas Hangmen; and other great matches.

MD: Good card on Sept 1. Even with Burke gone, this is pretty solid. They finally do the tag with Invader and Colon vs TNT/Duk. The Continental Dream vs Medicos feud is still churning. Starr now defends against Castillo. Pogo’s finally in and up against Perez. And they team.. Actually I’m not sure which Super Medico with Invader 4 against the incoming Hangmen. The Sept 6 card shuffles things about with Abby back in to face Colon and TNT vs Invader, with Perez/Castillo vs Continental Dream and the Medicos against the Hangmen, so things might be moving along.

EB: As we can see from the lineups, we have the returns of Mr. Pogo, Abdullah the Butcher, Invader #4 (who we really haven’t seen since Aniversario, he may have been injured or on tour) and an appearance from Super Medico #4. We also have the debut of a new tag team by the name of the Texas Hangmen. They have been brought in by El Profe and they may prove to be  trouble for the tecnicos (already they are facing the top tecnico teams in their first few weeks here). As part of the hype for their debut, there was a music video highlighting the Texas Hangmen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=javo6gxu60s

The Hangmen were introduced to the CSP audience via this music video, their names are Psycho and Killer. The video includes clips from a squash match and the Hangmen pose menacingly in their masks and holding up their nooses. At the end Psycho and Killer basically say they are coming for the tag belts. We shall see how their run goes.

MD: I can’t say I was wildly moved by Valentine and Idol’s arrival, Idol’s goofy promos notwithstanding, but I am very happy to see the Hangmen show up. I’ve seen almost none of their run. This is a music video with a song specifically made for them. One of the comments says it might be Richard Lee behind it. Beats me. But it has big builds to the words Powerslam and Clothesline and the video shows them hitting those things in time as they destroy people. Plus a lot of fondling their hangman ropes. These guys are Mean Mike and Bull Pain, of course, and we’ll see if I can start telling one from the other as we go.

EB: The September 1 Superestrellas show featured a main event match that featured the team of TNT and Kim Duk taking on Carl Styles and Gama Singh. Styles has had his issues with El Profe and TNT and Duk are focused on their big tag match later that night. Let’s go to that match.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJYx5Oeb7eY

Duk and Singh start off for their teams and we have Eliud Gonzalez and Hector Moyano on commentary. The tecnicos get the early advantage by working over Duk’s arm and tagging in and out. After enduring the attack on the arm, Duk is able to push Carl Styles back into the rudo corner and tag in TNT. The rudos do a double team maneuver and TNT continues with some strikes on Styles. Duk is tagged back in and Styles is hit with a double chop. Duk hits some more chops and Carl fires back with some punches. Duk quickly cuts off Carl’s attack and continues with an illegal thrust to the throat. TNT is tagged back in and hits a spin kick on Styles. A pin attempt is quickly broken up by Singh. The rudos continue in control throughout the middle portion of the match, with Styles eventually backing TNT up towards the tecnico corner and tagging in Singh. Gama lands several punches on TNT, which draws in Duk and in turn causes Styles to also come into the ring. All four men are now in. The tecnicos back the rudos into opposite corners and attempt to ram TNT and Duk into eahc other. The rudos are able to avoid colliding and instead end up in position to hit stereo Dynamite kicks on the tecnicos. From there it becomes academic as TNT kicks Styles out of the ring and Duk makes a cover on Singh., As the ref counts, TNT goes to pose over Duk and the rudos get the win. Duk and TNT get some kicks on Singh after the match as El Profe encourages them on. It looks like Duk and TNT are ready for tonight’s tag match and their respective title matches the next week.They and El Profe look to be very much in sync.

The match is followed by the show’s ending, where Hugo hypes that Saturday's house show card and says that we will also see the official Puerto Rico debut of the Texas Hangmen tonight. Hugo mentions that they are a dangerous team.

MD: Styles is definitely just a guy now. And it’s ok. He looks kind of tiny next to Kim Duk for instance. I think they could have used another heel instead but maybe they hadn’t anticipated some of the exits. They control on Duk’s arm early but once the heels take over, they work well together, mainly beating Styles down (he takes everything fine). Styles and Singh mount a comeback but get cut off after TNT and Duk catch each other on whips mid ring and hit perfectly in sync Dynamite Kicks.
EB: We don’t have results for September 1 but can assume that the Texas Hangmen won their debut match. It also looks like something that happened during the main event tag match as the Caribbean title match between Invader #1 and Kim Duk has been made a kendo tick on a pole match. Also, it looks like we have reached the end of Carl Styles and Gama Singh’s runs in Puerto Rico. Styles had the feud with El Profe in this second run, while Gama was basically filling out the roster as a veteran with some name recognition.

ER: We will discuss most of the fallout from the September 8 card next time, but we will end this installment with part of the main event. It has been two months since Carlos Colon and TNT faced off at Aniversario 90 (and even before then we had all of the drama surrounding TNT’s decision to challenge). They are facing off one more time for the Universal title in a barbed wire match.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-RArb_tw9I

This clip is from a Clasicos airing many years later, so once again we do not have the original commentary for this clip. The match is joined in progress as both Carlos and TNT are bloody messes. Carlos is in the midst of raking TNT’s face into the barbed wire. Carlos lets go and TNT stumbles backwards, giving Carlos the opening to continue attacking TNT. A punch knocks TNT down and he ends up moving underneath the rope. TNT gets up but now he is stuck in between the ring ropes and the barbed wire, not a good place to be. Carlos follows and starts hitting TNT, causing TNT to bump into the barbed wire on the recoil from the blows. Carlos continues attacking TNT, including pushing him with his leg against the barbed wire when TNT collapses to the apron. Colon is not giving TNT any mercy or breathing room. TNT is able to roll back into the ring and counters some Colon punches with a Dynamite kick. TNT is able to follow up with a spin kick, but both men are now down on the mat, the damage incurred so far taking its toll on them. Both wrestlers start exchanging blows while on their knees and TNT is able to grab Carlos by the head and get him near the wire. Carlos stops the attempt by TNT and instead rams TNT’s head into the wire. TNT starts hitting Carlos with punches, but Colon counters by attacking TNT’s leg. As they exchange blows, Colon shoves TNt backwards into the barbed wire and hits a kick to TNT’s leg that knocks him down. Carlos starts focusing more of his attacks on TNT’s  leg, it's clear he is setting up for the figure four. TNT kicks Colon away and Carlos ends up hitting the barbed wire front first.

TNT goes on the attack with several punches to Colon’s head, and is able to force Colon’s head into the wire. TNT backs Colon into the corner and proceeds to wrap Colon’s left arm around one of the wires (and for some reason that made me a bit squamish compared to the forehead rams). Colon fights back and gets out of the corner but TNT is able to lock in the Cobra Dinamita. Carlos fights to get out of the hold by grabbing the ropes, but there is the issue that he may also end up grabbing the wire if he is not careful. TNT keeps yanking Colon away from the ropes but Carlos is able to back TNT into the barbed wire in order to break the hold. Again TNT slaps on the Cobra Dinamita and keeps pulling Colon away from the ropes when Carlos is able to grab them. TNT keeps Colon in the middle of the ring and Carlos starts fading from the effects of the hold. The ref checks Colon’s arm but he is able to respond and elbows his way out of the cobra. TNT gets the hold on a third time and Colon again falls to his knees. Carlos tries to break the hold by grabbing the ropes and ends up grabbing the barbed wire a couple of times as well ,but TNT yanks him away each time. Both men are down on the mat as TNT has the hold locked in and again it looks like Carlos is in serious trouble.

Carlos kicks his legs out and is able to get back to a standing position, where he breaks the cobra with a reverse foul kick on TNT. The ref starts counting both men down as they struggle to recover and stand up. TNT makes the first charge but misses and hits the corner. Carlos starts going on the atack, knocking TNT down with a kneelift. Carlos starts getting fired up as he works over TNT’s leg. Colon attempts to put on the figure four but TNT counters with a small package that gets two. Carlos sends TNT into the ropes, hits him with a punch to the midsection, and then kicks TNT’s leg a few times to knock him down again. This time Carlos immediately goes for the figure four and hooks it on. TNT tries reversing it but Colon rolls back into position. TNT gets near the ropes and grabs them, and the ref breaks the hold (which seems a bit uneven since he didn’t have his hand long on the rope before forcing the break, similar to Colon’s attempt to break the cobra that did not result in the ref calling for the break). Colon continues with his attack and ends up putting TNT into a sleeperhold. TNT struggles to get loose but ends up on his knees near the ropes. Colon keeps the sleeper applied and all of a sudden Kim Duk (with a bandaged head) appears at ringside and sprays green mist at Carlos. However, since TNT was in the sleeper, Colon uses TNT to block the mist from getting to him. Basically, Duk ended up spraying TNT by accident. Carlos immediately covers the blinded TNT and gets the pinfall win. Carlos Colon has retained the Universal title and it may be that this issue with TNT has finally been settled.

MD: This was excellent. We come in JIP with them bloody and Colon batting TNT between the rope and the barbed wire with punches. TNT gets out and hits some big kicks and they go back and forth into the wire. Eventually, TNT gets the Cobra on and even survives getting pushed back into the wire again and again; it takes a low blow from Colon to break the hold. Colon starts on the leg and gets the figure four but TNT survives that as well. Eventually, Colon locks in the sleeper and it’s only because Kim Duk misses him and hits TNT with the green mist that Colon gets the pin. Really good stuff for the ten minutes we have here.

EB: Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, a ghost from the past reappears. Also, we find out what TNT’s next move is, several titles feel like they are in a game of  hot potato, and the Texas Hangmen send a message to the tecnico locker room.

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70s Joshi on Wednesday: Jackie! Ikeshita!

32. 1979.05.XX2 - Jackie Sato vs. Yumi Ikeshita

K: The legal-illegal moves ratio from Yumi Ikeshita here is off the chart. It's like she wrestles dirty as a matter of principle, even if a legal move would have done. There was probably more dirty moves in this one match from her than there's been on Raw this year. It's not just that that she's breaking rules though, there's a real malicious savagery about all her offense. In the opening heat section she does little else but try to ruin Jackie's face and tear her eyes out. Whenever Jackie gets a bit of fightback going, Yumi's default reaction is to reach for the throat and try to strangle her. It all feels purely instinctive and beastial rather than her adhering to a gameplan or something. The scary vocalisations (they're loud, but not exactly screaming) all add to it. I'm reminded of a funny internet comment where a Japanese poster wouldn't believe that Yumi Ikeshita was now married as "no would could love that woman."

Most of the match is really just an extended heat section. Jackie fights back and shows a lot of grit and toughness with how she never feels out of it despite all the torment she's been put through. She even manages a really snug looking flying headscissors in one of her escapes from Yumi's rampage, the kind where it actually looks like she's got a good grip of her opponent's head. This ends in a countout after one of Jackie's comebacks couldn't be repressed in the ring and things spill out. Slightly anti-climatic but worth it to see this textbook heel performance within a fairly standard TV match.

***1/4

MD: In some ways this was one of the most conventional matches we’ve seen so far, by… well, I guess certain conventions at least. I would say it was shine/heat/comeback, because they went right to heat, but once that heat started, you had a number of hope spots, including ones that seemed like a transition, and then cutoffs until the finishing stretch. Kumano was seconding Ikeshita. Jackie was alone. Kumano gave Ikeshita advice early. That drew Jackie in to whack her like a true ace is apt to do and Ikeshita took over because of it.

From there she made it her mission to erase the face of Jackie. There’s some joke about the Beauty Pair and eliminating the Beauty now that the Pair was gone but it’s a reach and someone else will have to come up with it, but man, was it ever a focused attack. She started with this absolutely nasty rubbing of Jackie’s face on the mat, but then pulled and poked and prodded and rubbed her face over the top rope and even the ring apron while on the floor. Just absolutely vicious stuff. Back in the ring, she rubbed her face into the at again, and yanked from a camel clutch position before throwing a headbutt. On the second one, Jackie reversed in a great moment of hope, hitting a big boot before getting cut off. This would continue. Kumano would whack her with a can from the outside. After another flash of offense, Ikeshita would control with a hidden object.

Finally though, she grabbed at Jackie’s head one too many times and Jackie lifted her and dropped her forward, and then hit a belly to back and a number of power moves. It spilled out after that and even with Kumano trying to hold her back, Jackie was still able to prevent Ikeshita from rolling into the ring. It ended as a draw with a post-match double teaming by the Black Pair, but still felt somehow like a moral victory for Jackie. That’s star power for you.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 9/16 - 9/22

ROH 9/19/24

Dustin Rhodes/Sammy Guevara vs Alex Reynolds/Evil Uno

MD: This was a Proving Ground match and was touted to me as the Dark Order going full Larry stalling. And that's not quite what this is. When Larry stalled, it was to build up heat for the first bit of contact in the match, ramping up the pressure and getting under the skin of the fans. What people often don't understand about him, having just heard the stories or working off decades' old memories, was that when it was time for that first bit of contact, he was super high energy and paid off all the build. 

This was a different flavor to stalling. Here, it was about the Proving Ground time limit and all about the Dark Order running out the clock to get a title shot. That's the unique wrinkle of the ROH eliminators. I've seen a bunch of these in the last year or two and while there might be moments down a stretch where someone just tries to stay alive or even lock in a hold, I don't think I've seen one where the heels tried to avoid contact from the get go and do everything they could to just pass the time. Obviously that, too, gets under the skin of the fans because they want to see action, but in some ways it's better (in the eyes of the fans) and in some ways it's worse. It's more underhanded and craven since there's a goal behind it but it's also a little bit clever and purposeful as opposed to Zbyszko just being as obviously irritating as possible. In both cases, there's mind games at play too, so that bit's a wash.

To me, this isn't deconstructing pro wrestling but is instead leaning hard into the rules and the norms. It's not tearing it down but building on the inherent logic. I don't think you'd want to see it in every match but like I said, this was one of the first time I've seen it out of dozens and dozens. And it worked. It was different. It was interesting. It presented a unique challenge for Dustin and Sammy and they had to be as aggressive as possible just to force the Dark Order to engage. That in and of itself, opened them up to make mistakes and fall into traps, especially with Silver on the floor running (literal) interference. So when they did go over in the end, paying off a lot of the things that had been teased but denied due to the avoidance by the Dark Order (like the dives) and going deep with things like Dustin's very unexpected Shining Wizard, it meant all the more. Not only did they beat the Dark Order, but they also beat the passage of time as well. That was a good double triumph to set up the 6-on-2 beatdown to end the show. I still haven't seen that pristine and perfect stalling performance I want in 2024 where one gives one's self totally up to the spirit of it all, but this was an enjoyable TV match cousin to such a thing.

AEW Collision 9/21/24

Dustin Rhodes/Sammy Guevara vs Mike Bennett/Matt Taven (Bunkhouse Brawl)

MD: Everyone's focused on the blood and Taven's bumps into the chair, but there was some very smart stuff here. Taven and Bennett are from MA (though admittedly Boston, or, you know, Carver, and Springfield aren't exactly the same) so not only did Dustin and Sammy come out in the local hockey team's shirts (with new tandem music), but they were also in their street clothes while the Kingdom were in their wrestling gear. Somehow that made them seem less genuine and more heelish. 

The big thing, however, was that they made sure all of the tables and plunder was set up pre-match. This started the show (after whatever ROH matches they taped or dark matches they had) and they had the luxury of having everything ready. It meant that Dustin's dive off the stage through a table with his bulldog or Sammy's cutter out of nowhere through a table didn't need any set up. They were brisk and sudden and shocking. Then, during the commercial break when things calm down a bit as the TV format forces, they were able to set up another table or two. Barring having a Fonzie or Nana out there, this was a really effective way to prevent the match being a quarter setting things up. 

That made everything else easier. The heel transitions/cutoffs were good (Dustin getting reversed into his own set up in the corner, Sammy getting tagged by a chair on his dive, the double superkick as Dustin charged up the ramp with a taser). Likewise the comeback spots: Dustin's double groin claw, Sammy turning the Dirty Deeds into his GTH, worked just right. The high spots were memorable, those brutal landings on chairs, including Taven's after they hit the Doomsday Device over the top and he errantly landed on one on the ramp, Sammy going off the ladder. And all the weapons fit in, the chairs, the belt, the cowbell, the barbed wire Shattered Dreams. It was definitely a lot of stuff, but the Kingdom and Dustin knew what they were doing and Sammy added that extra bit of energy and panache. I'm not sure how this will stack up against everything else this year, but you can't say it's not another notch in the belt of Dustin and another great Fight Without Honor from the Kingdom.  

Darby Allin vs Evil Uno

MD: With Danielson at home selling the injury, there was definitely a worry of a sort of overwhelming NWO-esque doom and gloom with Mox and company. The combination of Yuta's very existence and the fire he's showing mid-way through his matches and Private Party foolishly but bravely standing up for themselves is pushing back against that, giving what Mox is doing the sort of traction to push off against that he himself is saying he's providing to Zay and Quen. Darby's front and center for Grand Slam, however, and while we've seen him act in contrast to Mox and physically stand up to him up til now, the backstage promo leading up to the Uno match and then the match itself took things to an entirely different level.

It's war. For this to work, it can't be Mox running through everyone as they try to act sportsmanlike. People can't just play the 1985 Jumbo card as Choshu came in infecting everyone and everything around him with violence. They have to be Tenryu and meet the violence head on. And Darby not only fought with that level of intensity here, but he also forced it out of Uno. Even if Darby manages to triumph over him and keep his title shot, Mox isn't just going away. You don't make a statement with a turn like that and just go back into the woodworks and have another fishing trip. The darkness is here to stay and the dark intensity and violent passion is the thing that can make AEW stand out. It's not the grisly excessiveness of Hangman vs Swerve from All Out, not every week, but it's a Hansen-ian impulse of wrestlers pushing each other to the absolute limit week in and week out. What that looks like, what those limits are, how it all plays out, the different mix of alchemy when you have fliers and technicians and brawlers, when you have luchadores and disciples of the territories and walkers of the King's Road all clashing against one another... well, that's what's going to make it interesting. 

And it was interesting here. Uno took every advantage, but more than that, he wrestled like a man infected, like a feral beast, throwing his hefty frame into Darby from every angle. He was an out of control locomotion. Sometimes it worked, sometimes he crashed and burned, but he kept coming. Darby, in turn, fought as he always did, but instead of just throwing his own body at Uno, he ripped at the mask and bit at the skull. There's so much interesting to be mined here. Just as Uno threw himself with wild abandon to rise to the level Darby inspired in him, Darby made his own potential mistake, choosing to use Moxley's bulldog choke to prove a point instead of something of his own that might have more easily won the day. You push people this far, and much like Darby's facepaint, you see all the skeletons in the closet of their soul. It's the most fascinating, most human element you can distill in pro wrestling.

There's a change in the air. You can all but taste it watching the show over the last few weeks. Something is lurking in the hearts of the combatants. Something is awakening within them. Jon Moxley opened Pandora's Box and if they can fully tap into this energy found within, maybe this company can find a comparative advantage that no one else can match. TK, if our old DVDVR decoder rings are still working and you're picking up on the signal, this is the noise. Play it loud, play it hard, embrace it. Ride the wave and it'll take us all as far as we can possibly go. 

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Queen of Villains - Truth & Fiction

by @kadavri on Twitter

I originally wrote this as a Twitter thread after having just finished the Dump Matsumoto ‘Queen of Villains’ Netflix series. The thread got way more interest than I’d expected! So I’ll try to tidy it up for the blog post.

This isn’t me reviewing the show. This is for anyone’s who’s watched it (this article will be full of spoilers!) and wants to see the real-life matches it's based on and understand the real history. The show contains a mix of truth and fiction, though sometimes the real story is even wilder than the fiction! I will go through it episode by episode commenting on how people and events were depicted, noting if it’s true, false, or a bit of both.

EPISODE 1: 

Kaoru Matsumoto's father was a cheating alcoholic who abused his wife and she hated him? TRUE: In Kaoru's own words, she became a wrestler because "I wanted to kill my father."

Kaoru was from a poor family, and she raised money as a child by collecting empty bottles to sell? TRUE. 

Kaoru was a wrestling fan as a child? TRUE. Though from what I've read, she was more a fan of Mach Fumiake (a wrestler mentioned but not depicted in the show) than Jackie Sato.

EPISODE 1 MATCH 1 - Jackie Sato vs. Maki Ueda (Loser Must Retire). This is a real match. You can watch it here! https://youtube.com/watch?v=Bq1a-haKZIc 

The Jackie  vs. Maki match was a 'shoot', i.e. had no predetermined winner? FICTION. Jackie winning was the "script" as Maki was retiring anyway for other reasons. 

Maki was angry at Jackie for having a boyfriend and this led to her quitting AJW? KINDA. It was a lot more than that though. She was also unhappy about her pay, she says she was being paid barely more than the average office worker despite being a national megastar. Another issue was the rough schedule, especially since it prevented her from spending time with her dying mother. Jackie’s relationship also caused problems, she once made a cryptic comment about Jackie not being able to ‘separate romance and work’. I’m also not sure this person was actually a ‘boyfriend’ either, but I won’t go into speculation there.

So this stuff in the Netflix show about some matches having no predetermined winner is just made up? No, that’s TRUE. The show fudged the details, but one of the unique things about AJW is it did a mix of normal 'fake' wrestling matches and "shoot pin rules" contests. The audience weren't explicitly told which was which.

What do you mean "shoot pin rules"? So within an otherwise worked pro-wrestling match, the wrestlers would take turns to try to legitimately pin their opponent. If you held them down for a 3 count you won, if they get up, they get the next turn. The wrestlers weren’t allowed to try to get their shoulders up until their opponent was already covering them, then they had to try and power up. It wasn’t a total shoot as in between they’d still do 'fake' moves like bodyslams to keep things entertaining. But remember, they're following that up by trying to legitimately pin their opponent, which incentivises them to be extra hard about it so their opponent is too tired/hurt to bridge up. This created a tension between the co-operative and competitive components of the matches. 

To see what this looks like, see the first match of this video: https://vk.com/video640112534_456239031 I think these matches work a lot better when you understand what’s actually going on. The younger/less experienced wrestlers regularly had matches with these rules. Higher up the card it was rarity, especially as time went on, the last time a World Title match happened with no predetermined winner was 1983. 

The Twitter user MoskowDiscow also provided some extra details, which I’ll quote here: 

“It was always dodgy to an extent too, as sometimes they'd have a preferred winner in mind and would fast/slow count the wrestlers as needed. Lots of post-match blowups over this during the wrestlers' junior years… You will also often see the person being pinned cheat by raising their shoulders at the last second before the pin begins. This, too, caused its fair share of blowups.”

It took a long time for Kaoru Matsumoto to become a wrestler? TRUE. This is even more true than the show depicts actually. She first tried out for AJW in 1976, after failing her first two tryouts, was accepted in 1979, and debuted in late 1980.

Kaoru Matsumoto & Chigusa Nagayo were best friends in the early days? KINDA. Well, they were friends, but from their interviews I don't think they were ever BEST friends like the show depicts. Kaoru was actually closer with Tomoko/Lioness Asuka than she was Chigusa.

In their rookie days Chigusa & Kaoru once sneaked out of the AJW dojo at night and went to a disco together? TRUE. Here's a translated interview of Dump telling the story:

“The period when Chigusa and I were the subject of senior bullying lasted a long time, and there were many days when matches were not set up. There were a number of times in the series when I was taken off the road and was away at the dojo.

It just so happened that we agreed that we should go to a disco because we had so much time to spare, and we went to a disco in Shibuya. A pair of rednecks from Kumagaya City and Omura City in Nagasaki, Japan. As I recall, I was seduced by the phrase "all-you-can-drink-all-you-can-eat" for 1,000 yen, but there was nothing sexy about it. All women in rubber sandals and jersey. I couldn't enter with sandals, so I bought a pair of 980 yen pumps nearby and managed to get in.

I don't dance, I don't drink, I just drink juice and eat. Flirting? It's not going to happen. Then the lights go down and the cheek time starts. 'Wow, what a world this is. They're all kissing! . We stood there with our eyes rolled as if we had wandered into the adult world. Come to think of it, it was probably a temporary escape from bullying. The dreamlike "first disco experience" with Chigusa was one of the few memories of my youth.”

EPISODE 2 MATCH 1 - Kaoru Matsumoto vs. Monster Ripper. AFAIK, not a real match. I have to caveat that whenever I say this that there are footage gaps, so it's possible we just don't have it on tape rather than it's outright made up for the show.

EPISODE 2 MATCH 2 - Chigusa Nagayo & Yukari Omori vs. Ayumi Hori & "Lovely Yoneyama". Not a real match, Lovely is also not a real wrestler. I suspect she's a stand in for Nancy Kumi, who has a reputation for being a real nasty bully, so I think Netflix decided to dodge unnecessary controversy by just not depicting her (she’s still alive).

EPISODE 2 MATCH 3 - Jackie Sato vs. Rimi Yokota. A real match! You can watch it on my 80s Joshi set here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyogO_sbduk

AJW double-crossed Jackie by having Yokota beat her for real? KINDA. It's true that Yokota beat Jackie for real. But it wasn't an actual screwjob, the match was shoot pin rules. Jackie wasn't tricked into it, she just lost. Albeit, it was obvious Yokota would win with those rules as she was an actual great wrestler for real whereas Jackie’s athletic background was basketball, so I guess you could interpret it as a bit unfair to do that to her.

EPISODE 2 MATCH 4 - Chigusa Nagayo vs. Lioness Asuka. A real match. It happened on 1/4/83 and you can watch it here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=I-u-MlMiTFs&t=121m48s It was also under shoot pin rules.

Chigusa planned to retire after this match? TRUE. The story is the match was so good because Chigusa decided her career was going nowhere and this would be her last match before quitting, so she just went all out. But when she went to the boss afterwards to say she's quitting, before she could get any words out, he praised her performance so heavily telling her she’s found herself and should keep wrestling like that, that she changed her mind before saying it.

EPISODE 3 MATCH 1 - Crush Gals vs. Dynamite Gals. Probably based on a real match that happened on 8/27/83. Sadly, there's no available footage of it for me to show you.

Jaguar Yokota and Lioness Asuka got their nicknames in the same meeting? FICTION. Lioness was still wrestling as 'Tomoko Kitamura' for at least 3 months after Rimi Yokota became Jaguar Yokota. (But that's ok, it's just a TV drama not a documentary.)

EPISODE 3 MATCH 2 - Crush Gals vs. Devil Masami & Kaoru Matsumoto. Afaik, not a real match. If it actually happened in 1983, it would have probably looked something like that though.

EPISODE 3 MATCH 3 - Crush Gals vs. Jaguar Yokota & Lovely Yoneyama. Obvs not a real match as Lovely doesn't exist. However, it is slightly reminiscent of this real match - Crush Gals vs. Jaguar Yokota/Noriyo Tateno, which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYc8dfrwz3M&t=62m40s

Jaguar Yokota wanted a "unscripted" match with the Crush Gals so she could beat them easily, but tapped out to Chigusa Nagayo's sharpshooter? FICTION. This whole event is entirely made up by the show. I’m not necessarily opposed to some creative licence in making these shows, but this is the one scene I thought was a bit stupid. Jaguar (a real skilled fighter) would have steamrolled Chigusa if it was real. And the sharpshooter is not a real submission anyway.

EPISODE 3 MATCH 4 - Crush Gals vs. Devil Masami & Masked Yu. Not a real match. I guess the show created it because the debut of "Dump" was not that dramatic in real life so they needed to spice things up. She actually announced her name change pretty non-chalantly after running a 10km race, which you can see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYc8dfrwz3M&t=7433s

EPISODE 4 MATCH 4 - Crush Gals vs. Devil Masami & Dump Matsumoto. A real match! And a famous one for being the moment the Devil Army break up and Dump starts her own group. You can watch it here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYc8dfrwz3M&t=7833s

Shiro Abe refereed that match and passed Dump weapon's behind her back? FICTION. It looked to me that they were borrowing from a scene that happened in a different real match - Crush Gals vs. Dump Matsumoto & Rossy Moreno 1/5/85, which you can see here: https://vk.com/video640112534_456239024

The Japan Grand Prix was a tournament where all the matches had no predetermined winner? FICTION. This was an unnecessary embellishment imo. Of course it's AJW so things weren't necessarily all 'scripted', but afaik the winner of every match was known and agreed in advance. The winner of the tournament was going to wrestle for the World Title at AJW’s biggest show ever (at the time) later in the year, so the company was never going to run it without deciding who was going to win.

EPISODE 4 MATCH 2 - Devil Masami vs. Lioness Asuka. A real match! You can watch it here: https://vk.com/video640112534_456239025 This was also the opening of the Japan Grand Prix tournament.

AJW got its prime time TV slot back with the Japan Grand Prix? FICTION. AJW got its prime time slot back in July 1984, the Japan Grand Prix didn't start until March 15th 1985. We're well into the boom period by this point in real life. I think the show also exaggerated a bit how bad AJW’s business was in between the Beauty Pair and Crush Gals boom periods. They didn’t have a prime time TV slot, but they were still a successful pro-wrestling company.

EPISODE 4 MATCH 3 - Chigusa Nagayo vs. Crane Yu. A match that would definitely have happened due to tournament rules, but I don't believe it was ever televised.

EPISODE 4 MATCH 4 - Crane Yu vs. Dump Matsumoto 4/25/85. A real match! Except it wasn't the "semi-final", it was just part of the round robin stage. You can watch it here: https://vk.com/video640112534_456239025

It wasn't a "no predetermined winner" match like the show depicts, but the scene of Crane Yu being screwed over is actually loosely based on fact. What happened was Crane Yu was told to lose to Dump in a close match where there wouldn’t be any outside interference, and found out mid-match the real plan was Bull running in and her getting totally smashed. I guess they didn’t just tell Yu beforehand the plan was her getting beaten decisively and putting over Bull as Dump’s new #2 because she might object, so she just got delivered a fait accomplii. Yu was so mad about this she legitimately quit, but was convinced to stay come back as a referee..

So was Dump Matsumoto actually an asshole in real life as well? FICTION. Everyone got into the odd fight in AJW, but everyone who was there seems to agree Dump was a really nice person behind the scenes who actively tried to stamp out the bullying culture once she had the backstage clout to do so. Her persona was an act.

EPISODE 4 - MATCH 5. Chigusa Nagayo vs. Lioness Asuka 4/7/85. A real match! But not a semi-final, just part of the round robin stage of the tournament. You can see it here: https://vk.com/video640112534_456239025

The scene in Episode 4 where Dump crashes a variety TV show? That also actually happened, although it was Bull Nakano with her. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bOZuq-1u8Y&t=11350s

Jaguar Yokota was being put out to pasture as the Crush Gals became the top stars? FICTION. She was never as big a star, but Jaguar was still a very popular wrestler and the company loved her. She was NOT forced to retire, the Matsunaga Brothers actually tried convincing her to keep wrestling another year. She retired out of choice after injuries started piling up.

Asuka was angry at Yokota for retiring? TRUE. She'd wanted to have a shoot pin rules match with Jaguar, as probably the only wrestler who could beat her. The scene in the show is based on a real incident where Asuka crashed Jaguar's retirement ceremony, which was not actually supposed to happen. You can see here: https://vk.com/video640112534_456239028

EPISODE 5 MATCH 1 - Chigusa Nagayo vs. Dump Matsumoto Haircut Death Match - 8/28/85. Obviously this is real... but if there's anyone reading who still hasn't seen it you need to go fix this: https://vk.com/video640112534_456239027

Dump went "off script" in the Haircut Deathmatch? FICTION. The show made this up for some reason. I think what they were trying to get across is virtually everyone watching assumed Chigusa would win. Her losing and getting shaved was one of the biggest shocks in wrestling ever. Although it’s possible the wrestlers just massively worked the show creators. 

Chigusa and Asuka didn't always get on? TRUE. They had their ups and downs and were never really best friends. The show doesn't go into details, but by 1986 things between Asuka and Chigusa got really heated. Asuka quit Crush Gals that year, costing the company (and Chigusa!) a load of money as the TV network wouldn’t keep AJW in its prime time slot without the Crush Gals together. 

She also no-showed an AJW event, which caused even bigger commotion than it normally would because

1. It was known she was having problems at the time, for example she’d recently turned up to her Sumo Hall Main Event World Title match against Devil Masami in a total state. She hadn’t slept the previous night, visibly had massive bags under her eyes and when her and Chigusa started rehearsing their singing performance earlier in the day, she just collapsed on the floor and had to be taken away in a stretcher.

2. A famous pop star called Yukiko Okada had recently committed suicide and there had been a bunch of copycat suicides which the media was in a frenzy about, so people in AJW were genuinely terrified that Asuka might have killed herself. It turned out she’d just ran away and went to live with an anonymous female rockstar who she apparently had got rather infatuated with. Chigusa called this woman a ‘grim reaper’ who’d possessed Asuka in a magazine interview, which made Asuka very angry. That whole situation was a mess. The show didn’t go into this part of the story though.

EPISODE 5 - MATCH 2. Dump Matsumoto's Retirement Match. A real match. You can watch it here: https://vk.com/video640112534_456239033 

These wrestlers really bled all over the place after being stabbed with scissors on a prime time TV show aimed at schoolgirls? TRUE. I don't know what else to tell you. There was some trickery to make it look more brutal than it really was, but it wasn't CGI or fake blood. There really was no promotion like AJW and that’s partially why I’m such a huge fan. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily the best pro-wrestling ever (although it’s up there), but I definitely think it’s the most fascinating.

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