70s Joshi on Wednesday: Komone! Kazuko!

52. 1979.09.1X - 01 Hiroko Komine vs. Kazuko Iwai

K: This is a rookie undercard match and I’ve seen enough AJW to know this is going to be a very basic match that exists more to help the wrestlers develop their fundamentals/get reps than to be all that entertaining. Still, this is better than most matches of this type. They both look pretty competent at this match type, Iwai is actually pretty good for her experience level and it feels like the company is giving her a bit of a push by giving her her 3rd televised singles match within six weeks of debuting (and that’s with the footage gaps).

There’s a section a few minutes where Iwai has Komine in an Indian Deathlock, she’s able to hold it in for quite a while and keeps a bit of movement by slamming herself against the mat when Komine tries to wriggle out. Eventually Komine reverses it into a headlock before going mean heel offense. I thought they worked that whole section pretty well, the submission looked pretty tight and believable. Afterwards we get a very strange move where Komine has Iwai on the ground and puts her leg inside and around like she’s going for a sharpshooter, but then she leans forward and grabs Iwai by the head, and does a forward roll into a kind of monkey flip style move. I probably haven’t described it well but see for yourself/I should probably gif it. They’re getting creative already anyway. One of the reasons I’m still so interested in Joshi is how even in nothing matches like this there’s still a good chance you’ll see a bizarre move you’ve never seen anywhere else.

They built to a pretty good finishing stretch where things got more fast-paced, even if they didn’t do anything but dropkicks (which were used as a high spot), crossbodies and pin attempts. Iwai was a little too keen to rush to the next spot after one of her kickouts at 2, but that’s nitpicky. Komine won but protected Iwai a little bit in that she had to pull out a backslide pin to get the win. Solid rookie match this.

**

MD: This is probably the least consequential match we’ve seen? Neither of these two will be in the footage for 79 after that. Komine would not be long for the wrestling world. If you look up Iwai, the results you get are this project basically. But you watch this next to the matches we’ve seen with Masami and Yokota and there’s no reason that either of these two couldn’t have stuck with it and been a star in the 80s. Iwai had fire from underneath, throwing dropkicks and what have you. She looked good early with an inverted deathlock. Komine had a lot of good stuff, whether it just be slamming Iwai’s neck off the ropes or the roll-forward toehold slams she was doing or her twisting body presses. There was a level of basic competence that was expected by almost anyone on TV in the promotion. Komine leaned on Iwai meanly. Iwai fought back hard. This just wasn’t the reality where they made it.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 2/17 - 2/23

ROH Global Wars 2/17/25

Sons of Texas (Dustin Rhodes/Sammy Guevara) vs MxM Collection

MD: When people wonder why they should sign up for Honor Club and why ROH exists in the first place in 2025, this is a very easy answer. This sort of match doesn't exist anywhere else in the world right now, especially with so few house shows actually happening. It had that perfect combination of shtick and athleticism, all structured with a double heat and a big celebratory start and finish, getting exactly the time it needed with no commercial breaks or interruptions in front of a very game crowd, with everyone in the arena (ref, wrestlers, crowd) playing their parts perfectly. Maybe it's not the most marketable or lucrative sort of match or the most exciting overall but it's clever, engaging, and in a lot of ways a comfort when we need one the most.

I got a real kick out of the early comedy especially as they managed a good two minutes on the Rougeaus Kip Up act. Allan had posted a clip of that the other day. Not saying that's where they got it but if they did, more power to them. They had Mansoor do one, then teased Dustin doing it hard, building up anticipation, making it seem like Sammy would do it instead, and finally setting the stage for Dustin to go for it, only for Mansoor to try for an elbow drop. Dustin has a way of not showing ass on these little antics which on the one hand, may limit heat a little, but on the other, makes total sense given he's such a vet that in kayfabe would have seen it all and done it all. It ended with Sammy kipping up after all. Then they did the same sort of thing with dives, with Dustin doing the spineroonie and Sammy doing a ridiculous 450 to the floor. Some of his stuff in here looked astoundingly good and while it wouldn't be my thing normally, it works well as part of the contrast with Dustin.

They cycled through heat on Dustin and then Sammy, with MxM having enough interesting and varied stuff and playing to the crowd with their act to make all of this compelling, especially given how good Dustin is at selling and how much of a force Mason is in general. Yes, the MxM act, as is, probably has a ceiling. They commit admirably nonetheless, and within that ceiling they are entertaining and absolutely belong on the card weekly. Wrestling is broad and varied and there's room for all sorts of acts so long as the talent and commitment is there. And speaking of entertaining, the whole finishing stretch was just that, shattered dreams and all. This event felt like a Clash of the Champions overall (compared to Grand Slam's Insurrextion feel) so this would have been fine for a blowoff. Unless they end up doing something crazy like a blindfold match, I'm not quite sure where this feud now goes, but this hit the balance extremely well overall.

Athena vs Alex Windsor

MD: I talked about how MJF worked a traveling champ type match last week against Dustin in Austin and in some ways this was even more so than that. What was striking, as much as anything else was how Athena really made Windsor come off as a threat. That's not to say Windsor didn't bring anything to the table. She did, a nice mix of strength and speed and technique, and loads of confidence, especially on a stage like this, but it was how Athena reacted to it and how serious she, notoriously known for taking opponents lightly due to her own dominance, took Windsor almost from bell to bell.

It was probably most evident early as Athena came off as almost wary, quick to retreat, even to the floor. Yes, she'd celebrate and milk it once she was there, but she's one to charge in forearm first, not to let her opponent define the pace. Moreover, she had to really rely upon her athleticism with a couple of very fancy bits of acrobatics that we don't usually see out of her. It all added to the idea that Windsor was a real threat, which, of course, made every advantage that she was able to get on her and the ultimately win mean all the more. This was more World Champion 70s Terry Funk than completely unpredictable 80s Terry Funk, still a little unhinged but more savvy than destructive. I liked seeing that slightly different side of her here and it bodes well as she continues to keep the act rolling that she's able to call upon that extra degree of versatility.

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Found Footage Friday: LOW KI~! PCO~! DR. DEATH~! 2 COLD~! MEAN STREET POSSE~! LONDON~! KENDRICK~! FBI~!

WWE Vault Dark Matches

Pierre Carl Ouellet vs. El Tornado(?) 7/7/03

MD: Pretty insane performance by PCO here. Not surprising but he went so far over the top that he did three things in one match probably not otherwise seen in a WWE ring in 2003: a sit out chokeslam, sit out pumphandle slam, top rope exploder. That was on top of both a flip dive to the floor and the flipping cannonball senton he won it with. He also took a gnarly face first corner bump that was not at all warranted by the guy half his size whipping him across the ring. He balanced it with a lot of energy and charisma and a connection with the crowd but it almost all felt like a rib somehow. His opponent was game and along for the ride and got pretty good heat at times but not necessarily through much that he was doing. Just having the offense against PCO here was going to be enough and he didn't capitalize on it by leaning into it in any way. I don't think I'd hire PCO off of this but I sure as hell would give him a 2003 ROH run.

ER: It's crazy how PCO ran the ropes better than every person on the current WWE roster. Not sure who El Tornado(?) is but the man had a fine backdrop and a real nice slingshot senton. It's awesome to see PCO taking bumps off the edges of aprons 20+ years ago, not so different than the Shawn Michaels casket match bump that turned him into one of the worst big match workers of the 2000s. We all know PCO now for his inhuman bumps, but I didn't remember him being so good at bumping into the buckles. Every time he went into the buckles - back first, chest first - it looked so hard. There are some spots in this that they absolutely would not have allowed a regular heavyweight to be doing. The top rope exploder was incredible, both men standing on the top with seemingly no balance issues, PCO getting legs behind it like he was just standing on the mat. Insane. The cannonball hit perfectly, but really everything he did hit perfectly. The man could have been great doing just "basic" clotheslines and slams, but instead he was out here killing himself and a game opponent whom none of us know. 

Mean Street Posse (Rodney/Pete Gas) vs. Low Ki/Vincent Goodnight 8/7/00

MD: We come in on a crazy Low Ki dive (set up well by Goodnight teasing one drawing the MSP in another direction, a set up not used nearly enough now honestly) followed by a great transition where Ki, going for another dive off the apron is knocked off by Rodney knocking Goodnight into him, landing right in Gas' clutches for a world's strongest slam. Gas looked pretty good here, honestly. Most of the rest of the match was a FIP on Ki and Rodney looked ok, but Gas was in the right place and doing the right thing with the right energy. They did a phantom tag (with a clap) as Goodnight had the ref, solid stuff, well taught. The comeback had Goodnight punching one MSP in the corner while Ki kicked the other and they weren't entirely in sync (Ki would have just kicked him all day) before they just crashed into each other and I saw the Gas Mask for the first time in years (I remembered it being more of a full reverse full nelson for some reason when here it was more of a just a lift up). There was probably a really good Ki vs Gas singles match in here somewhere.

ER: I am a big fan of the actual wrestling abilities of the Mean Street Posse, so was excited to see this turn up. Low Ki vs. Pete Gas is one of those oddball EWR pairings that surely never happened in the real world, and yet here's Gas and Rodney hanging in to catch Low Ki's Phoenix splash to the floor, Ki kicking Gas across his very large face, and Gas slamming Ki hard on the floor. Who taught Rodney how to throw his actually good worked punches? Who taught Gas to throw such aggressive low cut missed clotheslines? How many pairs of normal jeans could have been made out of Rodney's double wide legged jeans? How did Gas have such nice form on his vertical suplex? I love Gas choking out Low Ki and breaking before 5, repeatedly telling the referee he could count. What's incredible about Pete Gas and the way he says "I can count!" is that he knows exactly how to say it the way a guy who didn't actually know how to count would defensively and angrily say it. I loved Rodney's sell of Low Ki's short superkick, bumping fast after leaning in chin first. Vincent Goodnight was the only part of this match that didn't work. The guy looked like a worse version of Lenny Lane. Hundreds of guys would have made a better Low Ki partner, but what should stand out the most is how legitimately good the Mean Street Posse looked.  

Paul London/Brian Kendrick vs. FBI (Little Guido/Tony Mamaluke) 8/1/06

MD: This was a hot mess, but still pretty fun. The problem was that the crowd was totally behind the FBI, which Guido (ribs taped even) was able to play into and Spanky, maybe, just a little bit as well, but that no one else could adapt to and the match structure didn't adapt to. London and Kendrick might get a pop for a big move or double team or dive but then the crowd would turn right back on them again. Guido worked really well with both guys. At one point they did a cazadora before Kendrick looped around into a roll up but during it, Guido smacked him right in the back which is a great bit. Mamaluke looked real rough around the edges but when he actually landed, that added more than substracted. There was one missed clothesline where a foot got up somehow that looked nasty, right before London absolutely wiped out on a dive. If they had adapted and really leaned hard into Kendrick/London heeling I think this would have been over huge and could have been honestly great but they stayed the course and ran off the road.

ER: Kendrick's and London's shorts are hands down the worst gear in wrestling history. I fucking hated these enormous culottes in 2006 and they look even worse now. They look like 9 year olds wearing their father's board shorts. I don't think this match was too negatively affected by the teams sticking to their plan and mostly ignoring the fans. Sure, it probably would have been amazing if London and Kendrick came in and chose to be overt heels, but this felt like a crowd worth ignoring, one that wouldn't play along regardless of how you played to them. They were going to react to all the big spots no matter what but they also wanted to get themselves over. I don't think it was a bad crowd, but it wasn't a crowd to cater to. 

As is, I thought this was among the best Guido looked during his long WWE run. This guy was working with something to prove. He looked great against both champs but especially against Kendrick. He and Kendrick worked a lot together but this felt like they were pushing each other hard. Guido blocking Kendrick's majistral, punching him in the back during a cazadora, dropping a knee on his face, both men pushing pace. Everyone else in the match outclassed Tony Mamaluke, who was shockingly behind what I remembered him as. This man couldn't keep up with what anyone else was doing and then he somehow managed to kick Kendrick in the face on a missed clothesline. I skipped back several times and still don't know what he was doing or why he did what he did. It's like he threw he leg up as if Kendrick was supposed to roll over a knee lift with a cradle...but he was also throwing a missed clothesline so what was that leg even doing there? Guido holds Kendrick right after so Mamaluke can hit a cool standing cannonball into him, then everyone lets London splat on the floor on a dive. Nobody came close to catching that man. London's shooting star press vaulting off Kendrick's back looked incredible. 

Justin Credible vs. Kid Kash 9/18/01

 

MD: The crowd did not want to go along for this journey. Kash did small things fine, I'm talking firing back after a big spot or working out of a chinlock. He did some very impressive big things, a run up flip dive to the floor, a pretty complex leaping rana off the top. Credible was... you know, credible, not just sitting arond on the chinlock, working him in the corner, hitting his pull out powerbomb. The fans just weren't buying what they were selling though. In some ways, I think this was a pretty well put together tryout sort of match, but it just didn't click. They even had one unique spot I liked a lot where Credible kicked Kash off of him, pressing him right into the corner hard, only for Kash to fall forward with a headbutt to the crotch. That got a little bit of an "ohhh" but they were right back on their feet a moment later and couldn't really capitalize on it. Or anything else, I guess. At least Kash had the XWF to fall back on.

ER: This is the kind of content the Vault Fans are clamoring for. Justin Credible is one of those wrestlers that is impossible to have a hot take about. There have been a lot of wrestlers who we have worked to change the narrative on, but what if Justin Credible became one of those "actually you know who was really great?" wrestlers. How useless would that be? Maybe it's true. I remember him being an above average bumper and I'm sure there are some other skills he doesn't get credit for. He doesn't get credit for them, because he is someone that nobody wants to talk about. I love talking about guys like that, so let's see if I can further ruin my life by becoming a Justin Credible Truther. His weird minimal contact DDT looks really great when Kid Kash is flying fast onto his face. I also like the way he leaned out of almost all of Kid Kash's punches. One thing you want to do in someone's tryout match is lean out of all their strikes.  He was decent at catching both of Kash's swinging huracanranas and not great at catching his dive, but his scoop powerbomb out of the corner looked good and his superkick was better than I remembered. This was the first Justin Credible match we at Segunda Caida have written about in literally 18 years. Can't wait to revisit his work in my early 60s. 

 

Dr. Death Steve Williams vs. Scorpio 4/28/98

 

MD: I don't know. When this dropped, I saw a bit of "I don't see how this guy could have main evented against Austin" and maybe that would have been an issue. Asking him to do a twenty minute walk and brawl while the stooges were guest timekeepers or whateve rmight have been a problem. This, where Scorpio could create a lot of the motion and Doc could catch him midair off a slingshot with a straight punch or catch a dive and drop him into a tombstone, or just run him over worked pretty well. When he had to bump, he used his whole body, going feet overhead in a slow timbering motion that worked. Credible strikes. A long press slam that got over with the crowd, enough mannerisms to remind him he was alive at all points, a few too many swears that made it all seem just a bit more labored than it had to. I'd watch another twenty matches with this Doc in this environment up against end-run Vader or rookie Edge or Val or Faarooq or whatever.

ER: I have been so excited for this one since it got uploaded, and, yeah, it didn't fully work. I don't think it was either man's fault, but I don't know what the actual problems were. I am not someone who buys into the whole "Doc wouldn't have been able to work WWF style" because that narrative is almost always based on the fallacy that "all Doc does is dangerous suplexes". Dr. Death Williams (as Howard Finkel calls him) is not a one dimensional wrestler, and in 1997 I thought he was one of the greatest wrestlers in the world. Watch his few early '97 ECW matches and tell me his (great) match against Raven couldn't have worked with the majority of the 1998 WWF roster. His 1997 All Japan work is excellent. Watch Misawa's first Triple Crown defense after winning it back from Kobashi. Yes, Misawa takes several suplexes onto his head - it was his fetish after all - but Doc is so much more than suplexes in that match. His energy and look would have absolutely played in WWF a year later. What's so confusing, is that a lot of that energy was completely absent in this match. Maybe that last full year in AJPW really did break him down, but I'm still not so sure. Before this match, the man had just spent the previous month working long Champions Carnival matches, so it's possible his body was worn out from that. I don't know. He did look a step slower here, in a way that I never saw him look in '97, so who's to say when that started. 

It's also easy to forget (unless you go back and watch the footage) that Scorpio was not at his best in early 1998 WWF. The man's timing in singles matches was so far out of whack. I don't know why, but watch late '97/early '98 WWF Scorpio and the man was a constant timing problem. He didn't start looking like himself again until he started teaming with Terry Funk, magically regaining his old form overnight. This match was during the Funk team run, but his singles match timing still wasn't there. I don't think either man did anything specifically bad here, sometimes things just don't work. I still don't agree with the narrative that Doc wouldn't have been able to adapt to The Style. "His big suplexes wouldn't have played in WWF, they needed punch kick guys in their main events" and well the best parts of this match were every single time Doc turned it into a punch exchange. Punching Scorpio out of the air on a slingshot was easily the best spot of the match, but he had several different punches that all looked tremendous, including a staggering right while both were selling on their feet, and a series of jabs that backed Scorpio into the corner and looked like something out of Valentine/Garvin. The crowd doesn't get into any of it, until a Scorpio back suplex makes it sound like they are getting actually fired up for Scorp's comeback. But then he starts his comeback and it dies instantly down to silence. Oh well. 

Maybe this would have seemed like a good match if the crowd had reacted to any of it. It looked like a match that deserved some reaction. The press slam spot looked great, the punches all looked good, Doc catching Scorpio's moonsault press was a cool spot that wasn't being done in 1998, but even then it looked like the crowd wanted something bigger than just a front slam out of it. The reactions were not there and that killed the match good. But both men also seemed off in ways that I don't think reflect their actual abilities. Anyway, I wish I had a Dr. Death match against every member of the 1998 WWF roster for further research but yeah yeah this didn't work like it should have. 

 

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70s Joshi on Wednesday: Jackie! Ripper!

51. 1979.09.13 - 02 Jackie Sato vs. Monster Ripper (WWWA Singles Title)

K: Part of the appeal of pro-wrestling is getting to watch heroes in action. It stirs up some deep primal feel with us, this mix of admiration for the person we’re watching and just the raw emotion of the events taking place. The best babyfaces are able to pull their audiences into that primal state, have them feel a chill go down their spine as they watch their hero stand tall against the odds.

That feeling is what separates Jackie Sato from the pack to me. As impressive as many of these wrestlers are in other ways (it’d certainly be unfair to compare her to the heels too directly), none of them inspire that personal attachment and loyalty. Jackie would be topped by later stars, but from what I can see of the footage we have, she is the big pioneering Joshi babyface who her successors built on.

This is a match I’d already seen several times before this project as it’s one of 70s AJW’s most famous moments, but it’s still nice to have seen the build this time. That Monster Ripper had been looking almost unstoppable leading up to this probably wouldn’t surprise anyone coming into this cold, but it does help a little in knowing exactly how the booking had gone about that.

A little detail I like is how Jackie starts the match like it’s still just any other title match. She extends a hand and offers a knuckle-lock or Greco-Roman start. She doesn’t have any personal animosity towards Monster, at least not on the surface, but Monster just kicks her hand away in disdain anyway. So we know who the moral aggressor is. When the lock-up starts, Jackie first gets the advantage with a nifty move where she stands on Monster’s toes and then launches forward to headbutt her.

There’s an element of desperation and determination in everything Jackie does here, whereas Monster looks like she’s having time of her life toying with her prey. We get a repeat of the spot from their first match where Jackie ducks Monster’s flying hip attack, but it’s doesn’t lead to a comeback like in the 1st match and Monster is back up in no time. It just gives Jackie a little time to regroup. It feels like the odds are against her even more this time. All she can really manage against her to this point are sneaky rollup attempts. They aren’t really offense but it felt like a version of the Steamboat Rule in that she’s letting the crowd know she’s still trying to win the match even if she’s clearly a long way from doing that.

Jackie does something a bit odd for a babyface here, she keeps going to outside to avoid Monster, and when Monster goes chasing after her she’ll get back in. Jackie is selling her leg so maybe she’s buying time for it to wear off, or something else. It doesn’t come across as cowardly though. It all pays off when she takes an opportunity as Monster’s climbing back up to the apron to hit her with a flying crossbody to the floor. Or maybe that was the plan all along. Either way it works, and believable turns the tide of momentum in her favour and sends the crowd into a frenzy as they see Our Hero has a real chance to win this. She doesn’t let up, hitting her biggest moves in quick succession before Monster has a chance to rally. The big splash that she’d won matches with recently only gets her a 2 count though. She gets the win with a backdrop suplex bridge though, with a dubious probably 2.9 count (but this feud has to continue) but the crowd weren’t paying enough attention to Monster’s shoulders to notice that! Bit rough around the edges, but this all worked very well.

***3/4

MD: This felt suitably epic to me, the culmination of something. I’m not sure the finish quite lives up to the match and the moment but they also maybe needed to leave things on the bone if they thought they’d be using Ripper more (we don’t have more of her in 79, but she’ll show up again in 80). There’s a lot to like here. Early on, Jackie uses her speed and daring to frustrate Ripper, including with a headscissors takeover out of a victory roll position. They play at wrist control after that, and it really does become all Ripper fairly quickly. She’s too big, too fierce, too strong.

Maybe it’s just me, but they almost seemed to shoot this part of the match where she just destroys Jackie a little differently. It seems closer up, more of a horror scene. The crowd was full of Jackie’s followers, including two girls they keep cutting to with her name on their headbands, and yes, they look on in terror as Ripper ragdolls her about, ending with a destruction of the leg. As the officials check on her, Ripper rushes back in to attack. There’s nothing polished about anything she does. It’s all rough around the edges, rough in general, but it works here exactly for that reason.

Eventually she all but shoves Jackie out leading to a bit of recovery and the back half. As Jackie makes it back in, she transforms into the most magical of standing tall babyfaces just like that. She leads off with maybe the best drop down trip ever, as she just rolls into a charging Ripper. She’s too fast and too slick and goes so far as to press Ripper up onto her shoulders and drop her. They move into a more even stretch, including a really great reversal out of a backslide by Ripper that I’d never seen before where she just shimmies her way into a folding press with the legs nelsoned. But Jackie keeps pressing and hits a big belly to back (with maybe, almost certainly a shoulder coming up to diminish it a bit?), and sends the place into a fervor by regaining the belt. Very clear and crisp and brisk for most of this. A hero triumphing. Save maybe for them refusing to commit on the finish, a match very much worth the build.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 2/10 - 2/16

AEW Dynamite 2/12/25

MJF vs Dustin Rhodes

MJF entered the ring to boos. He knelt before his giant banner and soaked it in. He jawed with the fans and soaked it in even more. Dustin Rhodes received a hero's welcome, entering second, the star position. Once the bell rang, Dustin drew a line in the sand with his foot. MJF charged in and immediately ate Dustin's signature snap power slam. Later in the match, during a ten punch sequence in the corner, MJF, in control, added insult to injury with the Goldust taunt. Dustin dropped down, hit a power bomb and MJF, embracing his comeuppance, sold as if he was a Stooge, rotating around the ring on his side three times.

Before the match began, MJF and Adam Page had a heated exchange. The match ended full of heat, with MJF hitting Dustin's own finisher and then turning him into the Salt of the Earth (and then a crossface) when he kicked out. Post-match, he had an incredibly heated brawl with Adam Page which stopped once only to start back up again.

Look at the contrast there. That's no small thing. They brought things way over the top only to drag them back down into grit and fury all in the span of twenty five minutes or so. They showed the breadth of pro wrestling, from the serene to the silly to the substantial.

There were certain luxuries at play that they could maximize. Dustin and MJF are both fully established, were very over in front of this crowd, Dustin's hometown crowd. They had a couple of strong promos leading up to this. The match was structured around MJF targeting the arm from almost the get go. Dustin overreached early on and Max was able to drape the arm over the top rope. It gave MJF a wedge to regain offense and capitalize on mistakes as the match went on and obviously played into the finish. It gave Dustin, one of the best in the world at working from underneath, a way to gain sympathy despite his moral (and height) advantage.

Every match has luxuries at play. Every match has things working against it. It's up to the wrestlers to understand these factors, to focus on their goals, and to present a vision, and then to commit to it fully. That's what they did here. Dustin was the standing tall local legend, there to punish MJF for every transgression. MJF went full Flair, an imported villain dropping in to spit upon everything this crowd believed in, to espouse his superiority at every point, to use every dirty trick in the book, and to face righteous justice again and again until, through pluck and daring and a slippery residue of scum, he was able to somehow overcome.

If at any one point, either of them looked down, the entire house of cards would have collapsed. This is a different sort of heeling than what we've been seeing out of Kyle Fletcher, a different sort of being riled by the crowd than what we've been seeing from Ricochet. It was more theatrical, more melodramatic. There was always room for that though. Look at 1985 JCP and the differences between Flair, Arn, Tully, and Ole. They all presented themselves differently in the ring. They all stooged differently. They all fed differently. They all justified their actions in a slightly different way. Different lanes for different wrestlers in different moments with different skills to call into play. All with the same commitment, all playing upon the same traditions, all with the same purpose, to draw heat and get the crowd invested. All never looking down.

And there was such skill at play too. Dustin is the master of at almost lost art of working from underneath and getting the crowd behind him. At one point forty years ago there were dozens of babyface on any single night working their way up out of holds with the fans clapping along. Now there's Dustin. And Max? He has a tendency to directly show that he can hang in his matches (to overshow his hand), one that sometimes obscures the lines of who he is and what he's trying to do. He forces people to see it instead of trusting that they will appreciate him for what they might just catch out of the corner of their eye instead. Here, however, despite playing broad and to the back row, he was so much more subtle, using his athleticism, technique, and body control in indirect ways instead:

He deftly stepped over after a sunset flip attempt to drop down with an arm wrench. He later on did a similar sort of stepover to set up a pile driver. His big top rope move was a snap stomp to the arm in midair, something that required precise timing and aim to look as good as it did but that wouldn't necessarily stand out except for as part of a greater whole. Then, late in the match, after he had set up the chair around Dustin's arm so he might break it off the top, he let the ref distract him and Dustin knock him off and he fell perfectly into Shattered Dreams positions. None of these will make a highly reel. None of them will be made into gifs, but each and every one required a sort of skill that wasn't showy, that didn't serve social media but that absolutely served the match. They're the sort of things that Max won't get end of the year award credit for, thankless things, but ones that accomplish so much more for him in the moment, in front of a crowd, than the things that actually would, and damn it if I'm not going to give him credit for them here.

Just as I'll give them both (and Page) credit, for only a few minutes after MJF was circling the ring like Moe to laughs, he was selling, through unbridled violence and intensity, one of the most exciting feuds the company has suggested in years with Hangman. The word for it is brave. MJF trusted this crowd, trusted Dustin, trusted himself enough to know that so long as he went all in on what he was presenting, so long as he believed it fully and got the fans to believe in it, so long as he showed no cracks, no hesitation, no doubt, the fans would bridge their investment from one extreme to the other. At the end of the day, all that mattered is that they cared without irony, that they were laughing at MJF as he faced his comeuppance but they weren't laughing at the idea of wrestling itself; they were buying into it. That meant he was able to transition from stooging vulnerability to a high heat post-match, just like his predecessors of generations past, and while watching it, you can't help but marvel at just how amazing it all can be when skilled, talented wrestlers take a leap of faith and trust in the magic that's always been there, a fire that only ever needed to be rekindled to warm us all once again.

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Found Footage Friday: 1981 HANOVER~! STREET~! WRIGHT~! HART~! NEIDHART~! ZRNO~! TSURUMI~! ROACH~!

MD: Another Richard Land (@maskedwrestlers) special. Another pretty amazing find. Go check out his patreon if you want access. 

John Quinn vs. Pat Roach

MD: It's definitely a mood to watch the darkened picture as Quinn stands in the ring waiting for Roach as the entirety of The Mighty Quinn by Manfred Mann plays in 1981 Hanover, Germany. This was exactly what you'd expect it to be. They started slow with Quinn holding on to an inner chicken wing/armbar for the entire first fall and into the second as Roach tried to get out with increasing desperation before finally powering out. Then they crashed into each other for a while. And things ultimately built to a massive slugfest with two giant bruisers just going at it. Quinn had more sweeping blows, over the top, from the side. Roach hit from underneath or straight on. Occasionally they'd get a move off the ropes or a slam. Occasionally they'd both go down. It went round after round until it looked like Roach might win it with a slam and then a backbreaker but a foot was on the rope for the first and the bell ran on the second and as they called it a draw, he just stormed out of the ring, a professional ready to move on with life. Hard to fault a match where two guys hit each other as hard as these two hit each other here.

Jim Neidhart vs. Goro Tanaka (Tsurumi)

MD: Straightforward stuff with Tsurumi directing traffic. When they were doing shtick it was a lot of fun, things like Neidhart breaking out of the full nelson and calling for it again only to get dropkicked in the back or eating chops or running into the corner. He had some pretty good clubbering offense too. This didn't go more than three rounds, and had a lot of Neidhart taking liberties and getting admonished by attacking after rounds. More importantly, it didn't wear out its welcome. Tsurumi had a real attraction feel to him where he leaned hard into the chops and the sumo stretching. I'm not sure Neidhart would work as well against one of the real technical guys at this point of his career but he was a good foil for Tsurumi.

------

Jim Neidhart vs. Bret Hart

MD: This was a lot of fun actually. They worked extremely hard against one another Neidhart (Who is the one who has Racey's Some Girls as his theme, not Wisokwski!) charged in right at the start with a killer tackle in the corner and didn't look back for a while. The ref got a big pop by pulling him off with a hairpull. Whenever he tossed Bret in, Bret flew in harder than anyone. That's both against the ropes and into the corner. Bret finally started to fire back and get some revenge. They'd get chippy with one another at the end of the falls. Anvil was using this great Oklahoma Stampede as his finish here and he also did a bodyslam variation that I've never seen before. Bret fought valiantly but he got tossed out one too many times and Neidhart was able to just pick him up from the apron and hit the stampede after crashing into two corners. This was good though. Neidhart had lots of zing and both guys really crashed around for each other.

Mile Zrno vs. Achaim Chall

MD: Two masters being absolutely masterful. We really didn't have much Chall before so it's nice we have a few more matches now, even towards the end of his career. Zrno, on the other hand, is one of those rare wrestlers where you want to see every exchange just to see how he gets out of it. He was the slicker and more agile with Chall being more the one to put on holds so he could get out but Chall certainly held his own with some bigger and trickier spots.

They told a dozen little stories in here, one going to the next. It might be Zrno clapping Chall's ear on an escape and Chall following up with a facewash before cooler heads prevailed, or both escalating things into some nasty shots. They did a short arm scissors exchange with gotch lifts. They had this amazing up and over with dragon sleepers (1981 remember) until they got lost in the ropes. And Chall had the armhook rana mid match where Zrno did a great bridging escape, only to go for it again at the end and get folding pressed for the loss. Definitely a treat to see these two ply their trade.

Moose Morowski vs. Bob Della Serra (UFO)

MD: Another very long Morowski match where they start by trading a round of holds (headlock, armbar) each, before things start to get heated and never really look back. This includes some great exhausted selling as time goes on too, as well as a few sojourns to the floor and a Morowski pile driver (jammed on the second attempt), and his share of cheapshots. The crowd was behind Della Serra with plenty of UFO chants and Moose got (and deserved heat). Not too much to say about the specifics except for that once they started pounding on each other it got quite good but didn't really build to anything meaningful.That didn't mean it wasn't enjoyable for what it was though.

Goro (Tsurumi) Tanaka vs. Ed Wiskowski

MD: These two worked well enough together that I'm sad Wiskowski didn't bring Tsurumi back to Portland to face Buddy Rose (though the timing of that may be off anyway). Wiskowski would get a cheapshot in to take over, Tsurumi would work from underneath with some big karate chops. Wiskowki would run head first into things while bumping for them. Wiskowki would take back over by tossing Tsurumi out and fighting him on the outside. And it would all repeat. Very fun stuff with some unique bit of stooging out of Wiskowski until it got called off and he got DQed. Tsurumi wasn't at all happy with that and wanted to keep fighting but the ref awarded the match to him anyway.

Paco Ramirez/Karl Dauberger vs. Kengo Kimura/Caswell Martin

MD: This didn't go super long even at 2/3 falls but it was a lot of fun. For one thing, I'm not sure I've ever seen Kengo Kimura in a comedy match but he was working as Martin's second banana and there was one clear sequence where he did some fun 2 s 1 stuff. He had a headlock, got hit a with a gut punch from outside, put it back on, and then did the headscissors/headlock combo takeover with a big pumping arm to get the crowd going. They also did a bit where Martin catapulted one into the other while he was holding Kimura so Kimura got out of there at the last second. Stuff like that. All fun. Martin, as always, was confident and creative. He had one bit where he was in a leg stretch and kept making his legs wider to force Ramirez to try to keep up (he failed). We had seen Ramirez as a stylist in the later French Catch stuff so nice to see him get so into this stooging role.

Adrian Street vs. Steve Wright

MD: I cannot begin to do this justice. I could tell you how all wrestling is symbolic and that this was a comedy spotfest with one hilarious bit after the next. I could explain how Steve Wright usually eats up his opponents and here he was up against someone who made fools of them (at least in Germany). I could tell you how they bridged that gap by having both wrestlers menace the ref, with Wright doing it more and more as the match went on and countering more and more of Street's antics by giving it back to him, or how he spent the entire match with a sort of wild whimsy you wouldn't expect. I could explain how the crowd was laughing uproariously the whole time but how they still built to big moments. I could explain specific spots including maybe the funniest ref bit I've ever seen. But, none of this does it justice. No even close. I can't do it with words. Maybe someone could. Not me. This match was buried for decades in a private collection. It only got transferred because it was at the very end of a tape with Bret vs Neidhart on it, an unlisted match from a different card. I think it might be the funniest pro wrestling match ever, though don't show it to your grandmother.

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70s Joshi on Wednesday: Kumano! Ikeshita! Rimi (Jaguar)! Seiko!

50. 1979.09.13 - 01 Mami Kumano & Yumi Ikeshita vs. Rimi Yokota & Seiko Hanawa (2/3 Falls)

K: This is a Named Team vs. Named Team match so you know it’s a big show. Yumi Ikeshita is wearing a dinner jacket for the introductions. How I’m supposed to root against someone in such a cool outfit I have no idea. Actually I do, it’s Yumi Ikeshita she’ll make me snap out of it soon enough.

The start to this is wild. Young Pair try to jump Black Pair at the start but it backfires and then get beaten the hell out of and thrown out of the ring to the screams of the fans and all of that action happens in 15 seconds. Once Hanawa is back in the ring Mami Kumano has got out THE TOWEL and uses it to strangle her, but she also does this kinda funny thing where she’s constantly shifting her body around to block the vision of the referee who knows she’s doing something untoward but can never quite see it… If anything Ikeshita then ups the ante when she’s tagged in, using the towel to strengthen her punches before just assaulting Hanawa’s face and dragging her face all across the mat like she’s trying to make her look ugly. We’re two minutes in when Young Pair get a moment’s reprieve to regroup. They achieved a hell of a lot with those two minutes making the Black Pair look both like absolutely vicious ruthless animals and the Young Pair look brave by daring to try stand up to these awful people.

That 2 minutes was like a compact preview of the 1st fall. Things are less chaotic, for the most part, but you never really believe Black Pair were ever at serious risk of losing control of things. Maybe the closest that comes to it is when things spill to the outside and Young Pair come into the ring swinging chairs, but they’re quickly overpowered. Actually it wouldn’t make sense for them to beat Black Pair at their own game.

I felt like the 2nd fall played off this, as Young Pair manage to even things up after they manage to turn it into a competition of technique, and Rimi pulls off a nifty rollup to get a pin. The 3rd fall then follows that up as Black Pair start by just immediately blasting their opponents with some metal bins and turn things chaotic and full of rampant rule-breaking again. It works because it feels like both teams are trying to change the dynamic of the match to fit their styles. The 3rd fall is really good stuff and Yumi Ikeshita really feels like she had to power up at the end to get the win for her team. This is the best Young Pair have looked so far.

***1/2

MD: This was an absolute mauling. The Young Pair tried to ambush at first and they just got thrashed and the Black Pair didn’t look back. A lot of variety of violence overall. Early on they used the towel and shots to the throat. Yokota wiped out huge with a posting from the apron. Just a lot of kneeing and stepping to the throat. As the match went on thee was a flowing element to the carnage. They’d sweep an opponent across the ring with a yank and then whack them in the back of the head, one side of the ring to the other. They’d hide a choke from the ref almost dancing around the ring with their opponent. And when things escalated they escalated big, like with Ikeshita’s hanging tree choke.

Yokota and Hanawa did better when they could double team but they’d be quick to miss a move or just to get cut off. A chair picked up on the outside jammed into a stomach, a bucket wielded across the skull, the Black Pair were simply unrelenting. The end of the first fall had the Young Pair grab chairs and attack Ikeshita and Kumano in the middle of the ring. Ikeshita absorbed it with her gimmick hard head and Kumano caught it, set it up, and choked one of the Young Pair with her dangling choke. Just unstoppable. In the second fall, the Young Pair did get a banana peel roll up and it made the comebacks in the third fall exciting because it did seem like maybe they could get lucky again but no, no they did not. A fun thrashing which really showed the power and presence of the Black Pair and what made them special.
 

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 2/3 - 2/9

ROH 2/07/25
AEW Collision 2/08/25

Athena vs Carolina Cruz
Dustin Rhodes vs Izzy James
LFI (Rush/Dralistico/The Beast Mortos) vs Ares Alexander/Brick Savage/Jay Alexander

MD: All squashes for my guys this week. So let's talk about squash matches and these ones in specific. A wrestling company should use every tool at its disposal. One of the things that drew me to AEW when I started watching in 2021 were the Dark/Elevation squash matches. I like contrast. I like a baseline that can be used to escalation from. All three of these matches had purpose, function, form. None of them went particularly long (though the ROH match had more time to breathe because ROH has less constraints). All of them allowed some idea or concept to be brought into the world in a way that felt organic and natural and not overly contrived.

Athena's match was at Daily's Place, and had that real Dark feel to it (with a crowd nutty enough to chant Blue Pants at Adam Priest of all people, even as he got over in front of them). It was her first match back after her time in Japan and it reminded people just who she was, that cross-section of intensity, unpredictability, and malicious mirth. She sat Billie down at ringside and made her watch. She menaced Paul Turner. She shook Cruz' hand clean but then assaulted her. And then post-match, she beat her around the ringside area like she was Stan Hansen. Billie interjected but it was both too late and too little (also too little to incur Athena's wrath). So it was a stagesetter to remind people where things stood and hint just a little of where they may one day end up.

Dustin's was reminiscent of one of his last times on Collision, then against Johnny TV. This was to heat him up for MJF and give him an excuse to do a post-match promo. The promo then had been on Jack Perry and him aping Hard Times. The last two or three promos from Dustin have been more from the heart and better off for it. This was only a few moves deep but I like that one of them was the Cross Rhodes because it was a big screw you to MJF for invoking Cody's existence and main event status, just a standing tall babyface act of defiance to show that Max can't get under his skin. I loved the MJF vs Templario and MJF vs Oku matches last year, by far my favorite of his (with the Strong match #3). I'd love that same invading heel champion spirit in Austin, like Flair in Dallas. I think it would work great over the crowd (if, as always, Max is just confident enough in himself to let himself stooge/feed/cheat/heel).

That brings us to LFI. No dissension between the brother and Mortos despite what we saw last week. This was each guy getting one shot in to set up a post-match. They'd focused so singularly on one opponent each getting over a big move, that the other two were fresh and fired back until they got swept under. That led to Komander trying to make a save but falling to the numbers game and Hologram finally getting to make his big return. All functional stuff that will likely set up a match between these guys who are generally used a attractions.

Three squash matches, three different purposes, all character driven and character based and all moving things along in their own way. These matches existing allows for a different narrative effect than just having backstage promos interrupted or having fairly even fifteen minute matches. Every tool at the disposal. 

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Andre the Giant Didn't Have to Treat Joel Deaton Seriously

Andre the Giant/Giant Baba vs. Dick Slater/Joel Deaton AJPW 11/15/90 - GREAT

ER: Just another 90s Andre gem, the kind of playful menace performance he never would been given credit for having against mustache Joel Deaton. Andre didn't need to have a fun match against Joel Deaton, ever. 1990 Joel Deaton looked like Eric Roberts in Star 80 with less success and was above maybe only Ricky Santana on the All Japan gaijin hierarchy. Andre didn't need to do a single thing with Joel Deaton in 1990. Instead he puts on a little show, playing the menace who cartoonishly thirsts after beating up Joel Deaton. He is security getting enjoyment from throwing Eric Roberts from the Playboy Mansion. 

Andre still had incredible presence in his first several 1990 tours with All Japan. The increasingly vulnerable and broken down Andre of 91-92 came fast and his work and acting changed with it. 1992 Andre was still unique and special to me. There was still major aura, but it wasn't a Powerful Giant aura, and he couldn't have worked this match this way against Joel Deaton in 1992. In 1990 Andre still had powerful confidence and aura; a man who could walk through attacks and grab you with unmatched strength. Every second Andre is on camera, he is picturing Joel Deaton as a steaming turkey dinner. 1990 Andre was special. His November 1990 All Japan tour is in all likelihood his Last Truly Great tour, the way March/April 1990 was the last Truly Great Grateful Dead tour. Touring Legends lumbering through Nagano and The Omni with playful menace before the fall. The only difference is that I love 91-92 Andre and I never listen to 92-95 Dead.  

Everybody is good in this match. Baba's worked fun stretches with Deaton and Slater and each came with little surprises. Baba works Deaton like he's a white trash rookie Taue. I am a big 1990 Baba fan. He's playful and adds in visual winks whenever he does a move that he knows looks more spry than any fan was expecting from him. He takes an incredible, layered bump in the corner late in this match after Jowl Fucking Deaton hits him with the best clothesline of the match. I'd have bet $20 on Deaton running into a size 15, and Baba sold it like he had already taken that bet. Baba in 1990 was still leaning into real clotheslines with his weird chest and taking big bumps into the corner. A guy surprising you with a big bump is always more interesting than a guy who bumps a lot. 

Dick Slater is a great opponent for 1990 Baba because Baba can still work stiff enough to justify gaijin over-bumping for him and gaijin bumping for Baba and his reactions to the bumps are one of my favorite little things in wrestling. Slater's 90s is extremely under-discussed for something so great. I need to start writing about Dick Slater's work when he was My Current Age and how great he was right up until his unfortunate back injury. The more we cover IWA-Japan Dick Slater, Puerto Rico, SMW, any year of 90s WCW, All Japan tour Dirty Dick Slater, all of them, the more he might seriously look like a top 50 worker of the 90s, maybe higher. He had Tully Blanchard Energy just when we needed it most. Rough 'n' Ready would be much more appreciated now than they were in 1996. We would have gotten a memorable late 90s ECW run. Anyway,

this is an Andre match. As great as 90s Dick Slater was, nobody was ever Andre. This is the beautiful kind of Andre gem where he has a competitive match against someone who shouldn't be competitive with Andre In His Current State. I love that Andre match. I love how Andre works every person. I want to see matches where he is old but unstoppable but letting Joel Deaton survive. His confidence and presence are unmatched. He is sporting incredible and absurd Capital J muttonchops, that I would make fun of on any ska gimmicked Chikara wrestler who had the same but here you're left with something so much deeper. It's weird to think about Andre styling one of his sideburns into a perfect capital J, so do you think it was just a weird accident? If it was, why would he leave it and not clean it up? Are we to think he has enough energy to shave at all but not enough to fix a coded message on one of his cheeks? The world's largest Prince in a dispute with his record label, signaling to the press with a coy wink that he's going back to his roots as Jean Ferre. That can't be an accident. 

Andre stands on the apron, visibly salivating. Fantasizing about how much he's going to mess Joel Deaton up. Deaton had tried to sneak a chop in on Andre after tagging in and Andre saw it coming a mile away. He doesn't take his eyes off Deaton again. Deaton is in the ring, tied up on his back by Baba's weight, and you can see Deaton staring not up at Baba, but staring wide-eyed directly into Andre's eyes on the apron. Staring right through his mustache. I can't imagine how scary that would have been in 1990. Andre has such a visible craving for Deaton that his entire body drifts down the apron toward him; a man not realizing he's going 85 as he subconsciously keeps up with a hotshot in another car. You've never seen his eyes more excited when he tags in and grabs Deaton by the throat the second Deaton throws a punch. He palms Deaton by the mustache and throws a hand across the bridge of his nose, holds him in a sleeper that looked like it would have strangled Deaton to death in seconds flat had that strike to the nose hadn't happened. This is not a physically broken man, this is a Strongman Giant. When he holds Slater and Deaton prone for Baba, it is clear that neither could have wriggled out of his clutches if they tried. Andre could project his unreal strength and physically overwhelm large men. He allows Deaton to catch a break on the elbowdrop. It looks worse when Old But Powerful Andre eases up on the elbow, but the man had already had his feast, no need to pick the bones. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE ANDRE 

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Found Footage Friday: DANIELSON~! SUWA~! PIRATENKAMPF~! VAN BUYTEN~! LASARTESSE~! VERNE~!

Verne Gagne vs. Bobby Nelson NWA Chicago 1955

MD: Another @pwoloss unearthing we're just getting to. Always nice to see a new match with young Verne, and he was his usual dynamic self here, feigning headlocks for quick decisive hammerlocks, hitting (and dramatically missing) that signature dropkick, ready to fire back against Nelson's shenanigans. 

And Nelson was full of them. I really liked how he moved in general. If he was going to eat a Gagne shot, he did it by getting caught up in the ropes for a second and then sold it with a full spin. Just full effort before, during, after. When he took a mare, he almost went flying out of the ring. Likewise, when he went for a front facelock, he kept putting his foot on the bottom rope to push off and send things back to the middle of the ring. Little things like that when it came to positioning and trickiness. Lots of sneaking in punches, but he'd sneak them in right in the eye in the nastiest way. 

It meant that when Verne did come back, the clobbering he could put on and the technique he used was more than warranted and the fans went up big for it. The old Gagne sleeper that he used to end it was at a slight angle and looked particularly nasty. Just a good short match up with enough contrast to make things work.

Franz Van Buyten vs. Rene Lasartesse (Piratenkampf) Germany 10/84

MD: Another month, another uncovered classic that Richard Land (@maskedwrestlers) dropped on his patreon from the German haul. We only had a few minutes of this previously, and what we had before was blurry and gripping, a fight for every inch in the corner midway through the match. The whole thing is a far more minamalist affair, with some really great high points surrounding the climbs in the corner and Van Buyten especially putting his entire body into halting them. 

It still has the sort of grueling mood that you'd expect from these matches, with a lot of wrenching at the face with the chain, scraping it against teeth with a yank from behind, but the video quality is almost too crisp for such an affair and the blood doesn't flow quite as freely as one might like. It's still tremendous how much they accomplish just by making every small movement matter as much as possible and Van Buyten's comeback is all around brutal. He's one of the greatest babyfaces of all time for a reason; his body language is as good as anyone's ever, and unique on top of that. No one moves like him, the way he throws limbs and frame into everything he does. That's especially present in the comeback. The finish is cheap as can be with Lasartesse escaping the chain and capturing the flag while getting pummeled in the ropes, but in the ensuing, heated chaos, order is restored and no matter what was written on paper, the fans at least got to leave feeling like Van Buyten was the victor.

Bryan Danielson vs. SUWA 1PW 8/19/06

MD: We don't talk a lot about SUWA. This is less known then their ROH match which happened a few days earlier but it was a lot of fun. I didn't love the opening stretch, if only because I didn't feel like they were entirely in sync. Everything was clean but SUWA was messing with the cameraman and the timekeeper and Danielson didn't really play off of it. He took a really nasty double snot rocket just by reversing a whip and hitting his next few spots; yeah one of them was a dive but I wanted a little more. He did throw some toilet paper back at SUWA after he chucked it from outside the ring towards Danielson, so that was well appreciated.

When they got into the heat and the comeback and went down the stretch, I liked it a lot more. SUWA had extra oomph to everything he did. If he took Danielson up and over for a backbreaker, he went way up and over with him. Everything looked good. Danielson, on the other hand, had a really nice looking twisting European uppercut off the second ropes and a tight chicken wing. When they went to strikes and headbutts, everything felt impactful and was sold as such. When Danielson finally locked in the Cattle Mutilation in the center of the ring, it really, truly felt like there was nothing SUWA could do. That's how you want it to feel. I'm glad @aspiranteanegro sent this our way (via Tom).

ER: Matt says we don't talk a lot about SUWA but I think it's more that we don't write about SUWA enough. That's what he meant, but I think the difference is important enough to note. Because, even though we've only written about a few SUWA matches over our existence, SUWA is one of my very favorite wrestlers. He was my favorite Toryumon guy and a completely unique presence in NOAH, and then he was gone. An always eventful 10 years and then he was out. He was one of our last great punchers and last great heels. Nobody else in NOAH was a heel the way he was, with a truly heel face that everyone wanted to see punched. He has pock marks and could have worked any US territory in the 80s and been a legend. There were so many incredible SUWA matches that we did not get to see, but now we have tape of the other SUWA/Danielson match. 

SUWA worked so well with Danielson, fully understanding what the other was capable of. The match had a great build, making it feel like a really complete match. I was surprised that it was "only" 11 minutes long. It felt longer, in a good way, because the nearfalls down the finishing stretch felt well earned. SUWA comes off so authentic. He's tough, but a great stooge. He has no interest in winking as part of his heel routine. He does not ever show any interest in people liking him. He is committed to being a heel and has a moveset that fits him perfectly. There's a great bit where he toe kicks Danielson in the balls and then does full pantomime for the ref, hitting the inside of his leg and doing one of the best ball sells I've seen in showing the ref Danielson was just faking it. SUWA has great kicks. He is not a kicker, but he has great kicks. Nobody wrestling today has better stomach kicks than SUWA, and his John Woo dropkick to Danielson's stomach looked like it caused the bump Danielson took into the buckles. SUWA has a finisher worthy clothesline and throws an overhand chop across Danielson's face, his quebradora looked fully controlled and violent, and he's so good at kickouts that he made it look like Danielson could still beat him four different ways. I don't know why we don't write more about SUWA. I've wasted so much time. I haven't seen any 2013 NOAH SUWA. There are 2000s NOAH SUWA matches I have not seen. I should write a lot more about SUWA matches.

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70s Joshi on Wednesday: Jackie! Lucy! Tomi! Ikeshita! Masami! Komine!

49. 1979.08.XX3 - 04 Hiroko Komine, Tenjin Masami & Yumi Ikeshita vs. Jackie Sato, Lucy Kayama & Tomi Aoyama (2/3 Falls)

K: Top babyface & two buddies vs. top (native) heel and two buddies. Jackie’s team really should have the clear advantage with her having Queen Angels as her partners and Yumi just has two rookies, but that’s not how the match goes. The heels dominate the early goings easily, but with Jackie never tagging in so it’s more that they’re dominating the lesser two of her team. Still it’s a bit surprising to see Hiroko Komine in control of them for so long. Unfortunately there’s a noticeable clip around here so we don’t get to see the first babyface comeback until it’s already started, or if it really even was a comeback or just an ‘extended hope’ as Yumi Ikeshita pretty quickly shuts it down. She does a cool move as she’s taking back control where she Irish Whips Lucy Kayama straight into Komine’s flying crossbody. Someone steal that. It made the Irish Whip look a lot more effective rather than just whipping someone into the ropes as there’s isn’t the time for the opponent to react.

There’s a couple more babyface comeback moments in this first fall, both of which are started by Lucy Kayama. The first one doesn’t go very far, she just counters a running move by tripping her opponent from the side, but before she gets much going Yumi Ikeshita bursts in and she has a new villainous trick for today. She has a towel wrapped around her hand and is using it like brass knucks. I guess that would probably work if the towel was tort enough. Football hooligans used to do that with newspapers around their fists, it’s called the ‘Millwall Brick’. This is what gets Jackie involved for the first time, she doesn’t stand much of a chance against Yumi Ikeshita and her towel though. The second bigger comeback from Lucy comes from a heel mishap. She moves out of the way of Komine charging at her, who knocks Ikeshita off the apron instead and they both tumble to the floor. With a good sense of urgency, the babyfaces isolate Tenjin Masami, Tomi is tagged into the do a flurry of dropkicks and a giant swing which sets up Jackie doing a big splash (stealing Lucy Kayama’s move) and she wins them the 1st fall.

The first thing I want to comment on from the 2nd fall is that Tomi Aoyama hits such an excellent violent looking dropkick it gets an audible gasp from the crowd. She follows that up with this pretty dynamic vertical suplex where she’s never stood up straight at any point, she just kinda falls into it and her opponent goes over with her. No wonder Ikeshita felt the need to bring out the towel to stop her momentum. This time she’s just strangling her with it. She even manages to simultaneously fight off Jackie trying to intervene by kicking her away while still using her arms to continue strangling Tomi. What a… villain. As we go into the finishing stretch for this fall Jackie really looks like a hero throwing everyone around. Queen Angels look cool in a different way with their cool moves. Lucy Kayama does a couple of proto Tiger Driver like moves setting up Tomi Aoyama to get the win with the Queen Special splash for a 2-0 victory. Good match.

***

MD: Maybe I’m crazy for saying this but I think certain structural things are starting to come together with the style. If you look at the matches from a year prior (or even six months), there were more momentum shifts but they all had less meaning. Now there’s more in the way of hope spots before they build to a big comeback. The large majority of this match had the Black Army controlling even though they didn’t pick up either fall and it felt a little like an initiation for Masami and Komine. Komine was slicker; she has this high-speed, too close, askew cross body that is very nice, especially when Ikeshita added oomph with a whip. Masami was more of a bruiser. She just runs headlong into people. Ikeshita was a force of nature like usual, just chucking people over her head at will.

We lose a little of one comeback due to a clip but we get this more or less in full otherwise. At one point they use a towel as a weapon, first wrapped around their hands, and then later, around Tomi’s neck. Jackie comes off like the star she is when she’s in there but she does get beaten around a bunch too. The finish of the second fall has Lucy with this run-into-the-corner headstand splash. I probably would have liked to see the Army get one fall but they did take most of this and the Angels and Jackie do come off like a super team of sorts.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 1/27 - 2/2

AEW Collision 2/1/25

RUSH vs Max Caster

MD: I can write hundreds of words about how and why Bowens could be the Kobashi of AEW if he just believed that he could be, that he's the perfect wrestler for the back half of this decade, that he's the perfect wrestler to differentiate AEW from WWE, that he can be organic in every way they're plastic, heartfelt in every way they're self-referential, an underdog that gets closer and closer and closer to the goal with the fans behind him every step of the way.

But Anthony Bowens was not in this match. Max Caster was. And I think maybe he turned a corner here, weirdly enough. The consistent low key matter-of-fact confidence, the denial of reality around himself, the way he put his hand up to do the LFI salute in a kind of "yeah, yeah, right?" way. "Go away" heat is a thing, and I don't quite think Caster reached that point yet. What is "Go away" heat? There's something I like to call the Samoa Joe test. Would the fans rather see a wrestler get beat up by Samoa Joe or would they just rather not see the wrestler at all. For instance, I do not think the fans would currently want to see Chris Jericho get beat up by Samoa Joe more than they would just not want to see Chris Jericho (Here is my major thought on 2025 Chris Jericho btw: https://x.com/MattD_SC/status/1886137775092584452). I think they still would very much enjoy seeing Caster beat up. I think they liked it here.

Speaking of wrestlers pulling from the past, I half think that Blake Christian is well on his way (if he wants it and he should because it fills a niche) to becoming another sort of sleazy player/coach in a Chicky Starr vein, but maybe it's Caster that can bring in a heavy (Mad Dog Connelly's still out there!) and shift half a step to the side. Because otherwise, I'm just not sure what the payoff is here. People will enjoy an open challenge where Caster gets thrashed as an attraction but only for so long. They had him lose right out of the gate so it's not like they're building to him getting comeuppance either. Nor does anyone want to see him redeem himself. So I just don't know... Unless the answer is him bringing in a monster and shifting half a step to the left to manage him, wrestling occasionally (while still proclaiming that he's the best of course). We'll see, I guess.

Which brings us back to RUSH. Love Rush. Loved him here. Loved him crashing across the ring to squash Caster. I talked him up huge a month or two ago and if you believe the internet news, he then got suspended for taking liberties (again) immediately thereafter. He is so visceral and unplanned (feeling) and dynamic. He's totally different from everything else in the company, certainly different from what WWE offers. The poster-child for that difference, but it's a double-edged sword and he leans too hard into who he portrays. You don't get the genius without the madness and all that, but I am not unsympathetic that they can't do more with him.

Now I have wonder if the answer isn't even to try. Use him like they use Suzuki instead. Let him wrestle in Mexico or New Japan (Strong?) or RevPro and then bring him back in as an attraction. I still think the way to sell out All In Texas is to pay LA Park to lose the mask to him, but if you can't do that, then just bring him in now and again to create a buzzworthy match where he can lose after taking his pound of flesh. I don't know what else can be done if he's not able to be counted on week to week. Maybe they should lean into the rumors, play up the idea that he's unpredictable and you never know what you'll get from him. You can't contain what makes him special. You can just hope to channel it in a positive direction.

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2024 Ongoing MOTY List: Darby vs. Moxley

 

9. Darby Allin vs. Jon Moxley AEW Dynamite 9/25/24

ER: Darby's resiliency brings out the viciousness in his opponents, and often makes his opponents into something more interesting. Darby has the ability to lift people to new heights, whether that is lifting a weak wrestler into something greater, or lifting an established wrestler out of their rut. Jon Moxley is someone who can get into ruts. Moxley is a guy who has spent nearly a decade ping ponging around from Great Wrestler Dogging It to Maybe a Wrestler I Greatly Overrated to That's That Guy I Loved to Great Wrestler Wrestling Great to Was He Ever Great and all other points in between. I'm pretty sure I loved Moxley in 2023, but it is a fluid status. I have been consistently underwhelmed by Mox in 2024. I don't see everything and I miss plenty, but when I look back over the year and my takeaway is "Well I think I liked his singles match against Dax?" that tells me it's been a down year. 

Enter Darby Allin and his continuing quest to fall to the floor and take punishment in ways no other wrestler ever has. Some wrestlers bring out the worst in Jon Moxley's tendencies, but Darby is a full bingo card Free Space that allows any uncreative guy in a rut to just batter and bruise. I do not think Moxley is uncreative, but he sure can act like he is. But he will unleash punishment on the willing, and Darby is the most willing guy in wrestling. Jon Moxley's attitude is elevated here and everything he throws at Darby looks mean. But you know this is all part of Darby's Important Show. 

You find me someone, intentionally or not, who has ever flown through the ropes and off the ringpost (and ring steps) the way Darby keeps doing. This man keeps inventing new ways to fall through/into/off stationary objects. If you're a wrestler who finds a new way to integrate a ringpost into your fall to the floor, you're a great wrestler. I don't make the rules, it's just reality. Super Dragon, Sgt. Slaughter, Psicosis, Cassandro, Darby; it's one of those infallible Great Wrestler tests.   

Darby takes a lot of punishment because he knows we need it. His selling at its best plays upon our fears of his eventual crippling. There's a big crash landing that feels inevitable, but happens so quick that it plays into the fear of this unstoppable force suddenly stopping. He misses a big dive and does his full speed tope con giro into the matless floor covering Arthur Ashe. That dive hit big earlier, after a big time Coffin Drop, a bolo thrown at an escaping Moxley. This time it doesn't. The set up was big and fast, which made it Great. Marina Shafir, Moxley's second who had otherwise not gotten involved, peeled back and completely removed a large grid of the ringside mats in 15 seconds flat. It's one of the most impressive moments of Being A Second I can recall. Currently in AEW, Saraya and Harley Cameron are great at being seconds for each other, but it's almost all vocally within their characters and not usually physically setting up spots. Marina Shafir is setting up the major stunt spot for an unpredictably predictable daredevil and she makes these mats disappear so cleanly and efficiently that it shut the mouth of Load Out guys everywhere. Can you imagine Sinister Minister taking 3 minutes to set this stunt up on an ECW PPV? Shafir clears a full crash zone in 15 seconds and she momentarily had Chyna aura. 

When Darby wipes out into the Suddenly Created crash zone he's wiggling his fingers, selling the injury we've all been expecting. He is compelling not just for his wipe outs and stunts, but because he knows how to keep us in on the act. I love watching what he inflicts on his body and I'll tear up when he's moving like a man wearing someone else's legs like Johnny Knoxville. I fear the type of injuries Darby tempts. Darby himself is fearless. He does not consider injury. He lets nothing slow him down. He's wiggling those fingers for us, not for himself. Darby Allin inspires violence and makes men take risks in delivering that violence that they otherwise never would have taken. But they'll never take risks the way he takes risks. For us. 

2024 MOTY MASTER LIST

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