DEAN~!!! 2 Day 4: Slim J vs. The Beast Mortos

DEAN~!!! 2 5/24/25

Slim J vs. The Beast Mortos

MD: Probably the match I was most looking forward to on paper. It was one of those things that you didn't even know how badly you wanted until you saw the graphic for it. Look, I like Ciberneticos as much as the next guy but sometimes, you want wrestling distilled to its purest form as a starting point and then and only then built up and embellished with every enhancement imaginable. Contrast so often makes the world go round and that's what we had here, a monster of a base vs the most underrated babyface of all time. 

Let's talk babyface Slim J. It's easy to get lost in all the move innovations and clever ways to do things. You could stop and say "Hey, this is a half generation later Nova" and make all the jokes that go along with that. But that's not Slim J. Wrestling is symbolic. A move is nothing but a tool, a piece of diction, vocabulary. It's everything else: the selling, the overall body language, the timing, the placement, that makes up the syntax, that makes wrestling live and breathe and separates it from a video game simulation or simple acrobatics. It's the heart and the soul of pro wrestling, and that's where Slim J shines. That he's able to then marry it with all of that interesting vocabulary: entry points into moves, clever variations, the inventions that others have taken as their own for decades now, that's the best of both worlds, and he's one of the very best of both worlds. He uses his size and resolve and determination to draw sympathy and then makes the most of every opening with a souped up shotgun blast that still somehow seem organic and plausible within the narrative realities of pro wrestling. He draws you in and then stretches your suspension of disbelief instead of disrupting it. It's really a hell of a thing.

And this Mortos is by far my favorite version of him. Yes, he can do amazing, spectacular things, flips and dives and everything else, but so can so many others. It's more impressive in some ways due to his wideness, his mass, his imposing frame, but it's best done sparingly. He is best when he is the center of gravity that others must revolve around and must escape. I want to see him hitting those brutal looking strikes. I want him to catch people as they charge at him. I want people to have to solve the puzzle of how to stagger him, how to push him back, how to get him down. And then yeah, as an exclamation point, I do want him to do one or two extraordinary things, but that's the cherry on top, not the meal itself. 

They got the balance just right here. Slim J would chip away at Mortos only to get caught and stomped on and tossed about and hit with the nastiest strikes in the corner or the center of the ring. Then he'd use all of his ingenuity to create an opening only to get caught again. There was a sense of inevitability here but it was the journey that mattered, not the destination, and even then, he was clever enough and persistent enough and canny enough to just maybe, maybe give people some real hope. But hope just isn't enough when you're up against a wild man bull that can catch you in midair and obliterate you at a moment's notice. The only possible destination in that case is a final one. Hell of a journey though.  

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Found Footage Friday: SABU~! NISHIMURA~! COSMO SOLDIER~! WILD BOYS~! MOONDOG~! DANTE~!

Wild Boys vs. Dante/Moondog Power Slam Championship Wrestling 9/17/93

MD: Not going to lie, I can't tell Jordan and Neely apart in a cage. That's going to make this problematic because while I think Jordan is the one in the post match angle, I'm not sure. If I'm wrong, accept my apologies here. The actual action here was pretty brisk. Maybe six or seven minutes total of a match but it was nonstop. There was a chair in the cage and that defined almost everything that happened, with the Wild Boys controlling early. Everyone ate the cage well here too, including the Moondog but it was those chairshots that stand out. Dante was able to take over midway through including a number of shots off the top where he use the cage to steady him. Wild Boys mounted a heated comeback and got a roll up win, but one left the ring post match and the manager trapped the other in there. The beating was bad enough but then Moondog threw a fireball and it nearly became a riot scene as everyone was rushing to get him water and there was some deep Nashville concern at play given the selling and how close to the ring everyone had been.

ER: I had no idea what to expect from this match, as I didn't know anyone in the match until I saw it was an actual Moondog and not just some guy working Mudshow Moondog. So Larry Latham is in there and that means I know who Dante is, and the Wild Boys are in jeans and sneakers with full heads of hair, like 75% scale Bart Gunns. Latham was 40 going on 70, Dante was a white goof in a mask, and the Wild Boys were southern boys in jeans. Except it was like Rock n Rolls vs. Russians in a cage that was sturdier than you'd assumed when your brain was in Mudshow Mode. The Wild Boys are the perfect punch-backers, firing punches that kept getting better the longer they were in the cage, Dante taking really strong bumps hitting the cage and falling to the mat holding the ropes to desperately stop his momentum. Dante took bumps like a more hinged cage match Bobby Heenan: not as spectacular, but the same As A Manager energy to make up for Moondog Spot's old man shutting down comebacks and taking chair shots. Dante was the one taking back body drops, Moondog was the one with the clout to shut down the Wild Boys with a single shot. The Wild Boys had honest babyface energy that kept getting stronger the more they were allowed to fight, and I loved the quick fireball escape. Moondog gets the hell out of dodge before most people can even figure out what happened, and the ringside concern for the burnt Wild Boy is so sincere and serious. I don't know how many people in frame were In On It or were genuinely concerned and helping out as a Good Civilian, but I'd buy any number from Zero to All. 

Sabu vs. Osamu Nishimura Lima, OH 8/7/94

MD: Blurry ten minute sprint. I thought Sabu might work more towards Nishimura since it was a rare opportunity and that they might start on the mat, but there really wasn't much of that. They only lingered there towards the end and then not for long. If anything, Nishimura worked towards Sabu, which was what the crowd hungered for anyway. That even meant a relatively early dive.

One great strength of Sabu is that he was very giving. He had the luxury of being so because he could grab a chair at any point and become instantly credible. That's what happened here. Early on he ate a clothesline on the floor and the dive and a subsequent dropkick in the ring but the second he introduced the chair, everything turned on its head. His strikes looked great too and I don't know if that was Nishimura leaning into them or the video quality of the tape. A second chair attempt backfired on him down the stretch and Nishimura hit some real bombs (a German and a nasty Power Bomb) but Sabu survived and overcame with the chair yet again. The Facebuster is one of those moves that looks almost more nasty when it's not coming off the top because of the short period between start and finish. Part of me wanted a bit more of Sabu hanging on the mat but this was probably the right match for this crowd on this night and it's hard to fault it overall.

Cosmo Solider/Super Taira vs. Koji Niizumi/Kubo KAGEKI 2/27/11 

MD: A Sebastian special obviously. Speed and finesse vs size and toughness as everyone worked hard for a non-stop twenty minutes. Kubo had the size and hit like a truck while still able to move. Niizumi had precise, stiff strikes. And Cosmo and Taira stayed in it by utilizing double teams and quick shots. I will say that Taira, while hitting as hard as anyone in the match, did bug me a bit by not registering shots that were coming his way, even when Niizumi was starting to come back and fire back, for instance. There were plenty of times where Cosmo would go for a lift or a suplex and barely get the guy over and that just added to what was going on. My favorite bit of all of this might have been when he turned Niizumi's crab attempt into an ankle lock with the Fujiwara headstand twist, but there were a lot of little slick bits like that throughout. The back half had things moving at a machine gun pace but it was all interesting enough that you didn't mind much, and other than Taira, everyone was register what was happening consummately. The finish sort of came out of nowhere on a rana but you got the sense almost anything that was happening could have ended it, so it was as good a way to exit as anything else. 

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DEAN~!!! 2 Day 3: JD Drake vs. Josh Woods

DEAN~!!! 2 5/24/25

JD Drake (w/Anthony Henry) vs. Josh Woods (w/Tom Lawlor)

MD: The chaotic and mutable spirit of indie wrestling lives here as this was initially supposed to be Woods vs Lawlor, but ended up with Lawlor seconding Woods. Thankfully, this time around (as opposed to DEAN~!!! 1) Filthy Tom had time to carefully prepare his sartorial style and he came in looking like the caddie-ist of corner men. It actually matched Woods' turquoise wave gear well. Henry, on the other hand, has been training hard in his absence and felt it important to let everyone know that by coming down to second JD without a shirt.

I missed the Workhorsemen and this was a great venue to see them both back together again (even if it wasn't a tag, though I'd like to see this tag, but that's beside the point). They're the ultimate utility players. You can plug them in to any role and they'll get the job done. You could debut them as Ricochet's new crew next week (as opposed to CRU or whoever) and people would gawk (not a bad thing given they're trying to get heat and dissonance drives heat) but they'd be in the right place at the right time doing the right thing the right way every single time that they'd need to be and it would work. You could have them call out FTR and do a short program, could have them try to survive the Hurt Syndicate for ten minutes on TV, could have them challenge Dustin and Sammy on ROH, could have them menace Top Flight (not sure anyone works better with Dante than Drake), and they'd get the job done. Drake's instantly credible between his size, how he moves, how he carries himself and Henry has that snap precision execution and throws himself into everything he does. 

Woods, given his background, is instantly credible, and he definitely threw himself into everything here. This was just his second match this year (with a VIP match earlier in May). He got the better of Drake early on with takeovers, holds, and some nasty knee strikes on the floor. You don't want to be on the floor with JD Drake though because he's got the best transition move in all of wrestling, his press up against the ropes into a big meaty shot. I liked Dylan's call explaining that you're hurt not just by the strike but by the pressure of the ropes going the wrong way at the wrong angle or what not. After that, Henry made his presence felt and it made sense that he'd be a little more impactful than Lawlor out there (a perfectly fine encouraging cheerleader, mind you), given the tag team stylings of Henry and Drake. That included a beautiful neck twist on the apron with big follow through as Drake was distracting the ref. 

Woods came back with quicker, more high-impact, high-motion offense than you might expect and they rolled into a stretch where Drake hit his cannonball but missed the moonsault allowing Woods to hit a pretty impressive corner twisting suplex. Just good wrestling executed well. I don't think it chipped into the same sort of unique space that Woods vs Lawlor might have but it helped ground and round out the card.

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El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: An Authorized What?

Week 48: An Authorized What?

EB:On March 9th, Carlos Colon defended the Universal title against Dick Murdoch in a match that had none other than Buddy Rogers as the special referee. Murdoch had pinned Colon in their previous two non title matches thanks to rope assisted cradles, leading to a special referee (Rogers) being appointed to make sure no shenanigans occurred in the title match. Well, shenanigans did occur and it led to Jose Colon (brother of Carlos) getting involved at one point of the bout. His appearance resulted in him getting attacked by Joe Don Smith and Dick Murdoch, and the fallout of this attack remains to be seen. Also on March 9th, the Caribbean Express won the Caribbean tag titles from the team of Rick Valentine and Galan Mendoza. It looks like the Caribbean Express are back in the tag ranks and once more holding championship gold.  

Let’s go to the March 16 episode of Camepones to see just what happened during the Universal title match. Please note, the listed date on the video says 3/23 but this is the 3/16 episode (since it refers to the events of the Colon vs. Murdoch match with guest red Buddy Rogers as happening last week).

3/16/91 TV

Your hosts are Hugo Savinovich and El Profe, with Hugo welcoming the viewers and Profe remarking that it's always a pleasure for the people to see him (modest as always). Profe mentions who will be in action on today's program, with Hugo adding that we will have our first look at a newcomer to CSP, one ‘Dirty’ Doug Gilbert (mentioned to be ‘Hotstuff’ Eddie Gilbert’s younger brother and Profe says that Doug is well recommended as a great talent). Hugo then mentions that we will have a special look at the training Jose Colon has been doing, causing Profe to laugh and mockingly say ‘the training’. We will have a video of what happened last week in Carolina when Jose Colon, who is not a  trained wrestler, was attacked. El Profe interjects that  everyone should find out that Jose is ‘un HP autorizado’ (which translates to an authorized SOB). Hugo is annoyed and corrects Profe, Jose is a CPA. Profe ‘apologizes’ since he thought it was SOB, but Hugo tells Profe to stop being a jerk. Hugo continues talking about the attack on Jose as Profe just continues cackling and saying ‘as if he is going to learn anything in a week’. Hugo says that Jose was attacked by Murdoch's lackey Joe Don Smith (Profe corrects Hugo by saying disciple not lackey). Hugo promises that we will have special interviews with Carlos and Jose Colon, as well as Murdoch and Joe Don later on in the show.

They then start talking about tonight’s show in Bayamon. The main event will see Carlos and Jose Colon take on Dick Murdoch and Joe Don Smith. Profe keeps laughing, calls Jose SOB again and talks up how Joe Don Smith is a legitimate athlete while Jose has been sitting behind a desk. Profe says that there is no chance for the Colons to win, Joe Don with one arm tied behind his back could mop the floor with Jose Colon. Hugo indicates that Jose has been training since early Monday morning, but Profe is not buying Jose having any chance. Hugo and Profe also hype the merchandise and videos available for sale. Hugo also reads an announcement for an amateur boxing tournament that will be starting later today, with over 130 amateur boxers participating (Profe audibly yawns and whistles as Hugo reads the announcement). One last topic, Hugo says that they've received news of unscrupulous individuals selling fake tickets to fans outside of their events. Please protect your money and only buy the tickets from the official box office at the arenas (as Profe puts it ‘Protect yourselves, morons. You don't get a chance to see me if you don’t.’). Hugo throws it to the first match, Ricky Santana vs. Moondog Spot.

MD: And lo, the name “Gilbert” would be mentioned for the first time in our journey, both Eddie and Doug, with the latter about to face Ricky Santana.

Moondog Spot vs. Ricky Santana

EB:  This match is from March 2. Moondog Spot is making a return appearance to Puerto Rico, previously having had a notable tag run with Moondog Rex back in 1982 (in fact,, the Moondogs had a bit of a feud with Tommy and Eddie Gilbert at that time). Ricky (who El Profe insists on calling ‘Ñico’ Santana to Hugo’s exasperation) is being pushed as a heartthrob and Hugo talks up Ricky's popularity with the ladies early on in the match. Profe starts wondering what the heck do the ladies find attractive about Santana, causing Hugo to needle Profe about checking out Santana. Profe counters by going off on how attractive ladies find him (to Hugo’s incredulity). In the ring, Santana has a size disadvantage against Spot but the early portion of the match sees Ricky be able to counter Spot’s wrestling holds. Spot takes to complaining about a hair pull and yells at the crowd. Tonight there will be a show at Estadio Juan Ramon Loubriel where Ricky Santana will take on newcomer Doug Gilbert. Spot repeats the earlier hold and Santana counters once more, leading to another round of complaining. Ricky starts to get mad at Spot’s stalling. Ricky works over Spot’s arm as El Profe gets on Santana for having US Male on his tights since Ricky is Cuban. Hugo explains that Ricky was in a tag team with White Angel over in the U.S. and they had decided on that as their team name since Ricky lived in Florida.

The announcers continue bickering as sRicky maintains the advantage by working over Spot’s arm. Ricky eventually sends Spot into the corner for some mounted punches, but Spot counters with an inverted atomic drop (which has the announcers arguing over the legality of the move). Spot tosses Ricky outside and chokes him out with a camera cable. Hugo yells at Profe about the legality of that move and why doesn't he say anything about that. Profe responds with ‘Because it was well done.’ Spot sends Santana into the ringpost as Profe insinuates something may be going on with Hugo and Ricky, since Hugo goes on and on about Ricky this and Ricky that. We go to commercial break with Rick on his feet and looking to get back in the ring. We come back with Ricky having Spot in a sunset flip for an unsuccessful pin attempt. By the argument the announcers are having, it seems that it was a case of Spot grabbing the ropes to try to hold on, but the ref kicked Spot’s hands off the ropes. Profe was complaining about the ref doing  that and Hugo actually agreed with Profe on that point. Spot works on Ricky’s neck but Santana fights out of the hold momentarily. A missed dropkick leads to Spot once again working over Ricky’s neck. Spot continues in control but makes the mistake of sending Santana to the outside. Ricky recovers and surprises Spot by grabbing the Moondog’s leg and dragging him out of the ring. Santana fires off several punches on the outside and then sends Spot shoulder first into the ringpost. Back in the ring they continue fighting, with each getting a nearfall (Santana manages to get his leg on the ropes after a splash). Spot tries to slam Ricky, but Santana counters with a standing switch and is able to hit a reverse rollup off the ropes for the win. An impressive win for Santana over a larger opponent.

MD: I liked this a lot actually. It got a ton of time and was very straightforward but Spot brought a lot of enjoyable BS to the table. It amuses me to no end that he could get the ref to blame Santana for false hairpulls on takedowns multiple times. He’d bump bigger than you’d expect (I think he was just younger than 40 which you wouldn’t expect either) on things like back body drops and then would go complain to the crowd as they threw stuff at him. He stooged all over the palace for Santana until he could toss him out and then had a chinlock later on with a pulling of the rope for leverage that couldn’t have made a lick of difference to the strength of the hold but was great wrestling nonsense. Eventually he hit a big splash but Santana got his feet on the ropes and Santana got him in a pretty dubious roll up off the ropes for the win. It was a better win for Santana than it might have been if it was less of a match.

Scott Hall vs. Tito Carrion

EB: Next we have Scott Hall facing Tito Carrion and this is a great showcase for Hall. Profe mentions that what we are seeing Hall do to Carrion is what Murdoch will do to Jose Colon tonight. Hall wins with the crucifix. Afterwards, Kim Duk cuts a promo on how he will become Caribbean champion once more. Scott Hall follows by saying  that every week he comes on TV to say who he has faced and defeated, tonight it is Duk’s turn to try to shut Hall up. 

MD: This is a fully formed Diamond Studd here. He doesn’t have the toothpick or the swagger from being the character necessarily, and is more cowboy with the way he carries himself, but just the execution and the big bombs, it’s him. He’s made it. He chains together four things (hanging tree toss, fall away slam, slingshot belly to back, crucifix/razor’s edge) and looks like the most formidable heel in the world basically. Duk and Hall cut promos one after the other and while Hall tries to keep it short, Hugo still talks over it for a while so we get a dozen fun hand motions as he tries to figure out how to fill time (Duk just did a few karate things). I’ll miss that when it’s gone.

EB: We get our first look at Doug Gilbert with a music video set to ‘Can I Play With Madness’. It seems Gilbert is a very recent arrival because the footage is from one studio match and an interview he seems to have done in the studio.

MD: It didn’t seem like they had a lot of footage to go with here. This was to Iron Maiden’s Can I Play with Madness and had a clip from an interview started and stopped and overlaid with fun colors plus footage from maybe one match with him doing a slingshot suplex. If I was watching this at home I don’t think I’d be too moved to see him in person.

EB: We then get promos from Action Jackson and TNT about their match tonight in Bayamon. TNT promises to take the TV title from Jackson the same way he took the name and paint from him.  

MD: Jackson is a lot more comfortable as himself. TNT is still frustrated that Jackson has the TV title and is going to keep working to get it back. That’s about all there is to say here.

EB: Our next segment is what happened last week during the Carlos Colon vs. Dick Murdoch match.. The leadup to the clip features Hugo and Profe arguing about what happened the previous week and what will be tonight’s main event, a tag match between Dick Murdoch and Joe Don Smith vs Carlos Colon and his brother Jose. Hugo says that we’ve heard a lot about what happened last week and it was even in the press, the incident whereDick Murdoch and his lacey Joe Don Smith (Profe says Joe is a protege) attacked Jose in a savage manner and… Profe interrupts saying it was deserved what happened to him (meaning Jose Colon), why was he sticking his nose in what was none of his business. Profe rants how Jose cost Dick Murdoch the Universal title, but Hugo explains a bit of what happened. Profe complains about why Jose got involved, Hugo says that sometimes family ties can cause you to get involved. After the video of what happened last week, we will see a video of JoseeColon training (Profe really wants to see this, because there’s no way that Jose can be trained in a week).

We go to the match highlights, with Colon attempting a figure four on Murdoch, but Murdoch kicks Colon away. Colon ends up colliding with Buddy Rogers in the corner. In the confusion, Joe Don Smith hands a foreign object to Murdoch, which he uses to hit Colon and get the pin (Rogers had not seen the use of the object). Profe claims that he didn't see anything untoward happen and that if they show anything it’s because they doctored the footage. We cut to Rogers giving the title to Murdoch, when suddenly someone runs out to ringside. It is Jose Colon, and he’s there to tell Rogers about the cheating that happened. Rogers tells Joe Don to allow him to check for the object and  Rogers initially finds nothing. Jose tells Rogers to check Joe Don’s boots and eventually Rogers finds the object. As a result, the decision is reversed and Carlos Colon is the winner by disqualification. An irate Murdoch and Joe Don attack Jose Colon outside the ring and a brainbuster on the outside is prevented by the tecnicos coming in for the save. They then show Jose Colon being checked on and carried out for medical assistance. Carlos was furious about his brother being attacked and we cut to Carlos going after Murdoch with a chair. We see them duel with chairs for a moment before Joe Don grabs Colon’s chair from behind and helps Murdoch attack Carlos, before they are run off by the tecnicos.

Murdoch and Joe Don cut a promo where Murdoch says how proud he is of the job Joe Don did last week. Joe Don says that tonight they will sweep the Colons. Murdoch wants Joe Don to listen to him tonight so that no harm comes to Joe. Murdoch then insults Colon and his brother, promising to get rid of Jose Colon tonight and then allow Joe Don to get some paintbrushing on Carlos. 

We then go to a video showing the training Jose Colon has been doing. Jose is in the ring with Invader #4 under the supervision of Carlos Colon and Isaac Rosario. We get a few minutes of Jose doing drills as Hugo explains what the purpose of some of the drills are (mainly for endurance and agility). Sometimes Carlos would get in the ring to encourage his brother whenever Jose would start tiring. We then get an interview with the Colon brothers, with Hugo mentioning again that Jose is not a trained wrestler but after what happened last week Carlos wanted his brother to pay back what happened. Hugo asks Jose if he is worried, which he is but he is ready to pay back what happened last week and he has Carlos with him to guide him. Carlos responds that he has confidence in his brother, this isn;t about wrestling, it is about respect. Carlos reminds everyone that one time someone he will not name attacked his wife and Carlos made sure to avenge that.. After tonight, he hopes that Murdoch, Smith and everyone else on the rudo side will learn to respect Puerto Ricans.

We go back to the studio, and El Profe says that after watching the authorized SOB train (Hugo yells CPA), he thinks he has seen women that have just given birth train with more intensity than Jose. Profe laughs as Hugo is exasperated and the video cut out as Hugo starts rebutting Profe’s insult. 

MD: Super high heat angle here as Buddy Rogers, the special ref got bumped out of a figure-four leglock pushoff. Joe Don gave Murdoch an object. He nailed Colon and won. Joe Don rushed in to get it and put it in his sock. Colon’s CPA (and Profe loves to talk about this) brother Jose came down to tell Rogers what happened. After some back and forth, he found the object and Murdoch responded by hitting a brainbuster on Jose on the outside. Big, big heat. Now, they were going to come back with a mixed tag and we got the training video accordingly. Very different and very fun stuff here and again, just super high heat. 

EB: Let’s go to the March 16 west coast edition of Superestrellas de la Lucha Libre in order to get an idea of what else is happening in CSP.

3/16/91 West Coast TV

Hugo welcomes the viewers to the program on WORA TV and runs down some of what we will see on the program (including the debut of the younger brother of ‘Hotstuff’ Eddie Gilbert). Before running down tomorrow’s house show lineup, Hugo apologizes to the fans for some no shows the previous week. Giant Warrior unfortunately was not able to make the show due to a flight delay causing him to miss his connection from Japan.  He is here this week though and will be in action. Also, Super Medico #1 apparently was very ill and was not able to appear last Sunday, so as a make good to the fans they are adding a bonus match to tomorrow’s house show in Aguadilla. We will have Super Medico #1 taking on ‘Dirtys’ Doug Gilbert. Tomorrow’s main event will be a no time limit rematch between TNT and Action Jackson, the stipulation is due to them going to a 30 minute draw last Sunday. Other matches scheduled include Invader #1 vs. Motor City Madman, Scott Hall defending the Caribbean title against Kim Duk (it seems Duk scored a win over Hall last week and gets the title shot), the Caribbean Express vs the California Studs, Giant Warrior vs. Rick Valentine, Ricky Santana vs. Galan Mendoza and the previously announced bonus match. Hugo hypes up the merchandise that will be on sale at the arena and also the VHS releases available for purchase.

Super Medicos vs. The California Studs (Tony Anthony/Brian Lee)

EB: Our first match is in progress, it is from the March 9 house show from Carolina. The Super Medicos are facing off against the newest rudo team known as the California Studs. Super Medico #1 and Tony Anthony are in the ring for their teams. Skandor Akbar is at ringside seconding the Studs. The announcers make note that Brian Lee is the taller of the Studs so that the fans know who is who. Medico #1 is sent into the ropes but gains control by hitting Anthony on the bounceback with a tackle. Medico #1 follows up with the ‘hit machine’ punch combo, knocking Anthony down. Medico #1 goes for a pin but Anthony grabs a hold of the ropes. Medico #1 runs into the ropes but is grabbed from behind by Lee. Medico #1 is knocked down and the rudos do an illegal switch. Lee throws Medico #1 into the rudo corner and taunts Medico #3, causing Medico #3 to try to run in. This gives the Studs an opening to do a double team choke in the corner. After choking Medico #1 for a bit, Anthony tags back in and hits an elbow and legdrop for a pin attempt (broken up by Medico #3). The match continues with the Studs working over Medico #1 in their corner while Medico #3 keeps being drawn in to try to help to no avail. 

A pin attempt by Lee is broken up by Medico #3. This annoys Lee, who tosses Medico #1 to the outside and starts jawing with Medico #3. While these two are facing off in the ring, Anthony takes advantage and rams Medico #1 back first into the ringpost. Medico #3 keeps being baited by the Studs, which gives them more opportunities to continue attacking Medico #1 behind the ref’s back. Anthony suplexes Medico #1 into the ring but the pin attempt is broken up. The Studs continue in control, with Medico #1 at one point getting a sunset flip counter that the ref doesn’t count due to being distracted by Anthony. An inside cradle counter by Medico #1 obtains the same result. Medico #1 starts coming back with some punches on Lee, but gets yanked by his mask when he goes after Anthony. The Studs continue in control but eventually a missed elbow drop by Lee gives Medico #1 the chance to tag in Medico #3. The crowd cheers as Medico #3 is finally the legal man and Medico #3 is able to clean house on both Studs. Medico #1 eventually joins the action in the ring, pairing up with Brian Lee and ramming Lee’s head into the turnbuckle several times. The Studs are whipped into each other, with Medico #1 dropkicking Lee out of the ring. Medico #3 hits a shoulder block  on Anthony, but as the ref is telling Medico #1 to get back on the apron, Medico #3 charges at Anthony, who grabs Medico #3 and hotshots him on the top rope. Lee is tagged and the Studs hit a powerslam into a top rope kneedrop combo for the pinfall victory. A big win for the California Studs. And on a separate note, this is the last time we will see Super Medico #1 in action for CSP. It seems that his no show the previous week may have not been due to being sick and it will become apparent in the coming weeks that he has left the company. 

After the match we get a  promo from the California Studs and Skandor Akbar  about their non-title tag match tomorrow against the Caribbean Express. Akbar promises that the Express is nothing more than a stepping stone for the Studs getting all the gold. The Studs offer some remarks as well. The Caribbean Express followed with their own comments about tomorrow’s match, with Miguelito cleaning up that the reason it is non-title is because the Stud have not yet earned a title shot. Miguelito recognizes that he and Castillo have to be very careful, because the California Studs have shown their quality so far. Hugo congratulates the Express on their title win last week, Castillo reiterates that the Studs have to beat them first in order to get a title shot.

MD: Match was really good, because the Studs leaned about as hard as possible into the southern tag structure, drawing in Medico #3, cheating when the ref was distracted, having the ref miss roll ups by Medico #1, everything you could want. Anthony took Medico #1’s punches well to start and Lee was just big enough to be the perfect cut off man in the match. Very good stuff with the Studs getting a fairly cheap banana peel out of nowhere (but not fully cheating to) win. Perez and Castillo won the belts off of Valentine/Mendoza and now Studs are gunning for them. This felt like maybe a half step back for Perez but it’s Puerto Rico and guys can always be moved back into tag feuds. It’s one of the strengths of the territory. The Studs had their rhythm down with Hugo and Akbar and I’m sure these matches will be good as well.

EB: Giant Warrior is in the studio and has words for Rick Valentine and Monster Ripper. He also apologizes for not being there last week but promises you can count on him tomorrow.

MD: Warrior apologies for not being there due to the flight from Japan. He’s pretty confident as an interview by this point, honestly, and it kind of makes me wonder what his ceiling could have been. He was better in the ring than El Gigante but, you know, a foot shorter. I feel almost obligated to try to find some of his Big Tiger Steele Germany run from the late 90s now. Anyway, he’s up against Rick Valentine next and said that Valentine may have been a great tag wrestler, but… He also doesn’t do crazy hand motions while Hugo is translating for him. That’s confidence right there.

Doug Gilbert vs. Herbert Gonzalez

EB: We get our first look  at ‘Dirty’ Doug Gilbert in action as he takes on Herbert Gonzalez. Hugo and Eliud talk up how Doug is part of the Gilbert dynasty, the fans should remember Tommy and Eddie from their previous runs in the territory. Hugo continues talking about how much Doug has learned from his father and brother and this match is mainly a showcase for the newest arrival in CSP. Herbert gets a brief moment of offense but this is mainly all Doug, who wins the match after a slingshot suplex. Afterwards, we also get our first promo from Doug, where he has words for Super Medico #1 and speaks pretty fast.

MD: Dougie’s in his early 20s here and he looks pretty solid. His stuff hits well. Nothing was over the top or crazy either in his bumps or his stooging or his offense, but everything felt solid. Good hand type stuff with one corner bump to give Gonzalez hope before the finish. He was using a slingshot suplex (and maybe a fist drop, re the interview) here. Interview was a little scream-y, but he’ll figure it out.

EB: Monster Ripper is here with Valentine and Mendoza so they can talk about their respective singles matches tomorrow. Valentine says that Warrior's height doesn't make a difference to him. Mendoza is mad about losing the Caribbean tag titles and promises that he will take it out on Ricky Santana tomorrow.

Motor City Madman and Akbar are out next and Akbar has words for Invader #1, saying they gave him a taste last week of the power that is the combined might of El Club Deportivo and Devastation Inc. Madman just mentions that he is tired of being on this trashy island and the trashy people, and he is going to take out Invader like the trash he is.

Invader #1 is next and says that everyone last week saw what kind of man Madman is when he stuck his nose in Invader's match against Dick Murdoch. Invader wanted to teach Murdoch a lesson for all he has said about Puerto Ricans and the antics he has done, he almost had Murdoch with the sleeperhold. However, Madman attacked him. Now, what Madman started last week, Invader will take care of it tomorrow.

MD: I’d love if Ripper ended up with the Gilberts but I don’t see that happening. Valentine has Giant Warrior upcoming and mentioned he’d been to Japan multiple times too. This is true. Kerry Brown was used a lot by NJPW in 84-86. Madman and Invader 1 are set to face each other and I wonder what an Akbar vs. Invader 1 match would have looked like in 91. I bet they could have made that work.

Action Jackson vs. Miguel Perez Jr. 

EB: Action Jackson is taking on Miguelito Perez in a studio match that is joined in progress. Action has Miguelito down on the mat but picks Perez up to continue attacking with punches. Action takes down Perez and works over Miguelito’s head with a headscissors. Perez eventually fights out of the hold and sends Action into a corner. Action dodges the springboard elbow, but Miguelito catches him coming out of the corner with a clothesline. Perez briefly remains in control, but Action counters with some punches and eventually gains control with a rear chinlock on the mat. Perez fights out but Action hits a hard clothesline for a two count. Back to the chinlock on the mat. Perez again eventually gets to his feet, but Action sends Perez back down with a slam. However, Action misses a splash from the middle turnbuckle and Perez starts his comeback. A legdrop leads to a near fall. Perez gets a powerslam and goes to the top for a crossbody block. Perez hits it but the momentum allows Action to turn it over and then uses the tights for leverage to get a three count. Perez complains about the tights being  pulled but it’s a win for the reigning TV champion. 

Action Jackson and El Profe are in the studio to talk about tomorrow’s no time limit rematch. Hugo says they were lucky last week that the title was saved by the time limit, but Profe says that the only one saved was TNT from getting beaten up some more. Action echoes those sentiments. We go to an annoyed TNT, because Hugo is telling him that Action Jackson is claiming that he had TNT in the cobra as time ran out, but in fact it was the other way around. TNT says it was Jacksonw who was saved by the bell last week and also complains about Action resorting to low blows that the ref missed thanks to that dog El Profe. Tomorrow there is no time limit and he will get that TV title.  

MD: I’m sticking to my guns that Perez was ready to move up into singles more thoroughly. He looked pretty good here even if Jackson’s stuff was kind of dull (holds which he didn’t work to the level I would have liked). Perez had good escapes and then was dynamic when he was on offense. At one point he missed a handspring into the corner but rushed right back out to run through Jackson (Jackson made this look really good). Finish was flying body press that Jackson rolled through on to pull the tights. Maybe not the finish if you’re building him for a no time limit match with TNT. 

EB: We get a repeat of the handicap match Giant Warrior had against Johnny Ringo and El Condor, won by Giant Warrior. 

MD: And it’s still a great flip bump on that clothesline by Johnny Ringo.

EB: We are then treated to a Kim Duk promo about his Caribbean title shot against Scott Hall. Duk says he is ready anytime and anywhere, and reminds Hall that he beat him one two three last week. Duk also throws shade at El Profe for causing Hall to lose that match. We then go to Scott Hall with Hugo. Hall promises that he will rise to the occasion and leave with the belt tomorrow.

MD: I know that the Diamond Studd starts soon, but do we really need to lose Scott Hall? It’s almost not fair. I see him on the screen with Hugo and I just crack up before he even says anything because I know all the arm motions and hand motions to come. Ah well. I’m not sure Hugo knew exactly what even to say after Kim Duk’s promo which, I guess, is understandable.

Kim Duk vs. Rick Valentine

EB: Our final match on the program is Kim Duk vs Rick Valentine (accompanied by Monster Ripper). Hugo mentions that Duk is a bug fan favorite as we get Duk doing the salt ceremony before starting the match. The announcers mention that it looks like Duk has gotten in better shape and they think it is due to his positive change in attitude leading to better habits and encouragement. The match is surprisingly short, as Duk catches Valentine with a blow out of the corner and gets the pinfall victory a couple of minutes in. Hugo closes the show as the video cuts out. 

MD: This was certainly efficient. It went ~3 minutes after Duk’s salt ceremony. Two of those were Duk having Valentine in an armbar. Valentine took over for a little but ran into a really nice looking strike out of the corner (punch, forearm?) by Duk and he got the pin off that. Not much here.

EB: Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, Dick Murdoch issues a challenge to Carlos Colon for a cage match, Action Jackson and TNT show that the time limit is not the only thing that needs to be eliminated in order to try to settle their rivalry, and the California Studs get their first tag title shot as we finish off March 1991.

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DEAN~!!! 2 Day 2: Arez/Gringo Loco vs. Coven of the Goat

DEAN~!!! 2 5/24/25

Los Desperados (Arez/Gringo Loco) vs. Coven of the Goat (Tank/Jaden Newman)

MD: Of all the matches on the card, this felt like the most DVDVR-coded one. It's like you could just grab guys off of a 2025 DVDVR 500 and here they'd be. WAR jokes. Tilde marks. Making sure everyone knew it was king sized. And man was it ever surreal to see the Coven out there with the Rev doing his thing in the daylight, surrounded by flashing digital casino billboards, amidst the palm trees. There was something downright post-apocalyptic about it, like the early stages of a Mad Max wasteland timeline where society was still breaking down and some of the old bastions of late-stage capitalism still creaked on. And here were these marauders to let everyone know that despite the sugar-coated trappings plastered around the ring, things were not okay and no, they'd never be okay again.

Between their match on DEAN~!!! 1 and the fact I've seen Loco in his share of crazy IWRG brawls back in the day I was expecting this to go all over the place and cause havoc. But it really was a conventional tag, one that was smart and hit the marks you'd want and some that you didn't know you needed. Arez and Newman got to play on the mat for a bit and do their thing. Loco and Tank were able to lay it into each other. Towards the end of the shine, Arez hit a series of rapid fire mid-air kicks on Tank and that was one of those moments where time stopped and you just had to gawk at the impossibility of what you were watching. It was a moment that would have never existed without Dean, without his openness of mind and broadness of interests, without his ability to inspire his friends and cohorts to create something in his memory. It was a moment that shouldn't be, this behemoth of the southern indies having his back percussed upon by the educated feet of the strangest of lucha masters. 

But then the Rev grabbed a leg from the outside and the Coven did their thing, cutting off the ring and doing damage. This didn't go particularly long but it doesn't have to when Newman's using his body as a weapon and Tank's leaning on you. A little then will go a long way. As they cycled into the finishing stretch, Tank, maybe feeling the sun on his back, maybe inspired by the palm trees, maybe drawing dark energy through the Rev from the bitter tears of a thousand lost souls who had bet away their pensions and alimony money at the casino nearby, moved with renewed fervor of years past, crashing into Gringo Loco in the corner again and again. That came at a cost though. He had been able to save Newman from Arez once. Spent and drained on the floor from his lost-in-the-moment exertion, watching from the outside in, all he could do was look on at the three count. But the Coven were able to lay in a post-match beating and walk out with heads high. The wheel ever circles on from one strange, dark encounter to the next. And this one was stranger than most, just like Dean would have wanted and just like we all need now and again.

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DEAN~!!! 2 Day 1: Manders vs. Rhino

DEAN~!!! 2 5/24/25

Manders vs. Rhino

MD: I actually really like Ron Bass. Some of that is a sort of after-the-fact nostalgia to his babyface turn on JJ Dillon and Black Bart and Buddy Landel in 1985. They more or less anchored the JCP midcard that year. But as a heel in the early 80s, he was a guy who knew exactly what to give and when, would lean on people, would throw himself into things when it was time get comeuppance. I was looking through the board and DEAN thought that he needed a reexamination in 2015. I tend to agree and...

Actually, let's put a pin on Outlaw Ron Bass for a minute as hard as that may be. DEAN~!!! 2 took place last week in Arizona. There is a Matt involved. He is promoter extraordinaire Matt Griffin (formerly #251, two spots above Ricky Reyes, on the November 2002 DVDVR 500, Jacey North). He is not me. I'm basically just here holding the fort on the blog while Phil and Eric put this stuff together and honor the big guy. It means, however, that I can enjoy the show like the rest of you can and that I get to write about it having not, you know, actually put together the matches. I ended up writing about DEAN~!!! 1 in one big post but I figured I'd write about each match here on its own. Maybe one a day. Maybe not. But we'll get through them soon enough. 

Anyway, back to Ron Bass. I got big Ron Bass vibes from heel-leaning Manders here. There was a moment early on where it seemed like the crowd was more than happy to get behind him, but they had put it together with Rhino as the babyface given that they were probably expecting a more-casual-than-not crowd and it all worked out. Unsurprisingly, he rose to the occasion. 

These could have been two big, hard-hitting guys just running into each other over and over again. When they announced the match, that was mostly what I was expecting. That would have been fine. It would have set the stage for the rest of the show. It would have given everyone a unique match-up worth talking about. And there was quite a bit of that smashing and crashing overall. But that's not all that this was. Manders gave a far more nuanced performance than that, layering in both vulnerability and canniness to give the match a backbone so it wasn't just working on heft and muscle alone.

That vulnerability was honestly lovely. That's the word I'll use. Lovely. He stood tall against Rhino, going shot for shot, but each shot he took snapped his head back. On the floor, Rhino might have backpedaled in the face of Manders' assault, but in the ring, he had just a bit more forward motion, which made sense both visually and because he was babyface-coded here. Manders went for a big shot early and missed the lariat on the outside, ravaging his arm into the post. He found really interesting ways to sell it moving forward. Rhino hit a suplex almost immediately thereafter and he played up the landing by focusing on it. Then, closer towards the finish, he whiffed on a lariat and sold the arm just from the motion of missing. That's a true relatable feeling. If your arm hurts and you move it the wrong way, you feel it. Of course going for broke and missing a lariat (even if the only contact was with the air) could stun someone, but it's a concept of immersed selling that you will almost never see from anyone else even if you watch eighty years of pro wrestling footage. 

And he was canny in his offense. He, being the heel, missed the charge on the outside, but Rhino crashed into the post only because Manders propelled him that way. He pointed to his head after the fact and well he should. This was still a crowd that half wanted to support him and it was best to make it clear what they were going for considering he'd be gutting his way though the rest of the match with one arm. That meant when Rhino clapped up later on (because he's a babyface vet who knows how to get the crowd going), the fans went with him, and it meant that they were happy and satisfied with the finish instead of disappointed. This was a match that could have just been the lowest common denominator and everyone would have been happy with it anyway but that tried to be something more, because that's the spirit of the thing, isn't it? And the spirit was alive and well with this opener.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (And Friends) 5/19 - 5/25

AEW Double or Nothing 5/25/25

Ricochet vs Mark Briscoe (Stretcher Match)

MD: What a tricky line to walk. The first half of this was full of comedy, full of real shine. The back half was a bloody horrorshow. It was, from start to finish, a stretcher match, a grudge match. From the second Ricochet walked out in his cosplay robe, he had heat. From the moment Mark Briscoe walked down with his mohawk, he was lauded. There was a "This is Awesome" chant towards the end despite it all.

So many disparate things on paper. If you had read that paragraph to me a year ago, I would have told you that the match had to a discombobulated mess, something that refused to commit, that tried to be everything to everyone and ultimately was not enough of anything.

But that wasn't this match. Not at all. Everything in that first paragraph came together to form a singular vision. That actually doesn't do it justice. It gets it backwards. All of those things didn't come together to create a vision, they were created by the vision itself.

It all comes down to how thoroughly Ricochet commits as a performer. The nexus of the character is that he is so gotten to by the crowd, by his opponents, by his own place in the world, that everything becomes a slight and every slight becomes a drive towards lashing out, towards a level of violence that far exceeds the transgressions.

There's never a sense that he's in on the joke, never a sense that he's out there "entertaining" the crowd. It's always that they're getting under his skin, always that they're causing an affront, always that he wants to strike back at them and the babyfaces they love so much. He never looks down. When he's in charge, he's gloating and sticking it to him. When he's getting his comeuppance, he throws everything into it. Even though he hits "cool" offense, he makes it so it never seems as such. He makes amazing things irritating just by doing them. He went so far as to tease the table and push it back under the ring just to deny the fans even a little bit of what they wanted. That takes an amazing level of commitment and confidence. It's laudable. It's almost the exact opposite approach that one would have thought he would have taken in AEW.

And Briscoe, as a wrestler, as a character, is wise to the world. He is confident in himself and confident in the crowd. He wants to cause Ricochet as much pain as possible but he knows there's more pain to be inflicted on the inside than on the outside. He married humiliation (even the mohawk!) with physical damage here. And it went well for him (and for the crowd) right until it didn't.

He used the cleaning spray on Ricochet's head. Ricochet used it in his eyes. He meant to use the chair as a springboard. Ricochet tossed it into his face. The response was an escalation to the action, because Ricochet was well and fully gotten to, because, in his heart of hearts, he was selling the pain he felt on the inside.

Once he took over, he didn't look back, he didn't stop. Once he drew blood, he meant to keep drawing it again and again and again. But then Mark Briscoe, a folk hero, once awoken, wasn't one to stop either. He could go forever, the human representation of that memorable, symbolic image of a crutch stopping the ambulance door from closing.

In the end, it went even a step even farther, Ricochet hiding the scissors around the ring, a preemptive attack even before Briscoe did the first thing to his bald head (one that shows the hypocrisy of Ricochet's argument all the clearer). When even that wasn't enough, he was ready with a low blow, a low as could be for Ricochet has no bottom. He'll sink forever selling his emotional damage all the way. And that's why this worked when so many similar things simply never would. That's why the This Is Awesome chant was about Ricochet getting comeuppance and not about fans enjoying spectacle for the sake of spectacle. Embracing vulnerability is a hell of a thing. More wrestlers should try it.

Hurt Syndicate vs Sons of Texas

MD: When we look back at this one down the line, we'll think more about the MJF moments, accidentally distracting the ref for the Unnatural Kick, offering the ring to Shelton which let Dustin and Sammy get back into it, that ultimate moment of Lashley embracing him after teasing dissent and then crashing through the barricade and his opponent. The story will play out and we'll see the match for the things that went right and went wrong for MJF.

As it's own entity, it was probably the best Hurt Syndicate match so far. When Dustin was in there with Shelton, they were scrapping hard. When Shelton was in there with Sammy, he knew exactly what to give. That's no small thing. Shelton's a big guy but he spent a chunk of his career in the land of the giants. For him to shift to a relative super heavyweight this late into his career is impressive. And of course Lashley vs Sammy was all sorts of amazing feats of strength (and agility for Sammy taking them).

Because this followed the Ricochet match, we didn't get that bloody Dustin face-in-peril we might have gotten otherwise. The point of this match was to further the broader story while giving the Syndicate a good challenge. It wasn't abut Dustin reliving his Double or Nothing past. Here, the Syndicate had to lean a bit more unlikable. That meant we didn't get to see Shelton pinball Sammy back and forth between the apron and the barricade (which  I badly wanted). Instead he did it once so that MJF could choke him while the ref wasn't looking. It's ok. Sometimes a match has to be what it needs to be and not what I want it to be. And this was what it needed to be and a very good version of that as well. Maybe someday in the future we'll still get to see Sammy pinballed. One can always hope.

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Found Footage Friday: DEAN~! 2 Special!!

In honor of DEAN 2~! tonight. Here are some found footage gems from DEAN 2~! stalwarts

Torneo Cibernetico: Felino/Mega/Rambo/Super Mega/Ultimo Vampiro vs. Blue Panther/Bombero Infernal/Dr. Cerebro/Negro Navarro/Scorpio Jr. (Torneo Cibernetico) IWRG 2/15/01

MD: Once this got going it was a lot of fun. You never expect too much out of the battle royale seeding part at the start and there wasn't a lot to see here either, save for everyone piling on Ultimo Vampiro in the corner at the end. The sheer talent in the match was such that once you got into the pairings, there was always someone amazing in the ring. Even though they were eliminated relatively early, Navarro and Cerebro got to stand out during those first few minutes, Navarro with his tricked out holds and understanding of how to project himself as a star and Cerebro by creating a lot of motion, taking a lot of stuff and contorting at least one person in unholy ways. Unfortunately, we only had one brief moment of Panther and Cerebro going at it, with Cerebro sitting up out of a Panther Tapatia.

They teased Mega vs Super Mega which the crowd wanted to see but if it happened, we didn't get to see it. There was a general excitement for rudo vs rudo pairings though. In general, I could have used a little more of both Dandy and Panther, but they both looked good in what they did do. Rambo got to shine with two rapid fire eliminations, first with this great double top arm wrench that someone should really steal and then with a seated campana. He fell almost immediately thereafter to a clever enough Scorpio foul only to get revenge at the end by sneaking one on him from the apron to let Panther win it. So fun stuff all around even if we only got the tiniest appetizer of Cerebro vs Panther.

PAS: This was fun rather then truly exceptional. We have some all timers on both sides, and we get glimpses of what made them great. A taste of Navarro, an appetizer of Cerebro, a sip of Dandy. Panther and Cerebro are the reasons we wrote up this match, and I did dig the little bit we got from them, 24 years later I am expecting more of a dish tonight. I really need to dig into this 01 IWRG Bihari is putting up, because I suspect their are some really hidden bangers (Panther vs. Felino on this show is closer to what we want) This wasn't one of them, but still well worth checking out.  

ER: Rob Bihari uploaded this lost gem not long after we announced the DEAN~! 2 Cibernetico, when I publicly said that we have no actual footage of Dr. Cerebro mixing it up with Blue Panther. The opportunity to prove me wrong led to us finally getting this Cibernetico out there for public consumption. When we found out who CMLL was letting us use for DEAN~! 2 we all immediately salivated at the idea of Cerebro getting minutes with Blue Panther and Virus, two compatriots that Cerebro hardly has any (taped) ring time against. There's an incredibly fun Cerebro/Virus singles from a decade ago (that Matt wrote up when he was just getting into lucha, which is funny to think in retrospect that it's only been a decade since Matt dove into lucha libre) and this Cibernetico that featured both Cerebro and Panther that was not in circulation. Once I publicly proclaimed that we had never seen Cerebro and Panther in the ring together, Rob swooped in minutes later proclaiming that we actually DO have that match in circulation now. Ask and ye shall receive, and we received a real gift. 

The DEAN~! 2 Cibernetico was one of the best Ciberneticos I have seen, and when I watched this match the morning of DEAN~! 2 my mind was in another place. I was somewhere else and watching this in a hotel room and pacing around my room until we left to go see the event space that morning and meet the crew. This match was on, and I was in theory watching it, but I knew I wanted to see it again. In the heat of the insanity that was the DEAN~! 2 live experience, every person backstage was buzzing during and after the Cibernetico. Blue Panther - at 64 - had one of the great performances of his life, young upstart Virus looked as good as ever, and really all 10 guys overdelivered in ways I don't think anyone expected. The DEAN~! 2 Cibernetico was, for me, the best case scenario for a match that looked like dynamite on paper. We got several to book several names that we never dreamed we'd have access to a year ago, and put them in a match with pairings we were dying to see. Then, it actually happened, and I was moved by how hard these men worked at our weird, exciting, outdoor Arizona mall show near a fountain display, lit by the neon signs of Universal Citywalk chain and axe throwing barcades. Nothing is going to compare to my memory of seeing this Cibernetico. Losing my mind with Phil, my good friend Will who I was meeting in person for the first time, wrestlers from DEAN~! and wrestlers who weren't on the show at all, is never going to be beat. Bryan Danielson coming out after your Cibernetico to give one of the greatest promos of his life, somehow convincing hundreds of people in the life affirming power of pro wrestling. 

I stated to at least a dozen people (probably more) over the rest of the night/weekend/next week, that I had watched a newly unearthed early 2000s IWRG Cibernetico and OUR Cibernetico, the one we all got to share, was better. I remember El Dandy suddenly being a top 25 guy on a DVDVR 500 and it made me want to get as much IWRG as possible. Trading for Negro Navarro matches, buying the Dr. Cerebro/El Hijo del Santo mask vs. mask match - and so many other shows - for $5 at Franks and Son Collectibles in some City of Industry warehouse whenever my friends and I would drive down to see wrestling. A 21 year old who now had opinions on Bombero Infernal and Rambo. Had this Cibernetico been available on VHS on any of the trips we made to Franks and Son lucha shows, I obviously would have bought it. Blue Panther, Cerebro, Dandy, Navarro, Felino, all guys I was buying tapes specifically to see. But I had never seen this match until Rob uploaded it, and it had the misfortune of being watched on the same day I witnessed live the most special Cibernetico of my life. 

So the competition was going to be stiff. The mindset was different, my brain was operating on other matters, I am no longer in a hotel room after binging on a breakfast buffet with the DEAN~! crew since we wouldn't be eating again for another 12-16 hours. Now, we're a couple weeks removed from DEAN~! 2, I've finally floated back to earth, I was finally ready, I can finally admit...this is a really great Cibernetico. I still don't think it's better than the one on DEAN~! but I don't think that matters because as with all Ciberneticos, this had things that no other one had. Maybe the only knock against this one is that it never felt like it built to a fever pitch and didn't have as much ongoing story threads, but at the same time it's filled with guys who I could watch wrestle in 2nd gear for hours. That is not to say that anyone dogged it, it just never built to any big bumps and dives, and I think that's incredibly cool in a different way. 

Also, all of these legendary names enter the ring collectively to Survivor's Burning Heart, which feels more like something you'd see at the beginning of a 90s Germany catch tournament show when everyone on that card has to come out and stand in the ring like an idiot. I don't think these Cibernetico teams were chosen based on their allegiances to Communism or Capitalism, but maybe this match is aligned deeper than I realized. 

I think everyone here had some legit moments. My favorites? Cerebro, Panther, Navarro, Bombero Infernal, Rambo. Maybe Rambo. I love Rambo. I love luchadors who move like Rambo. He looks like a poor kid in faded camouflage pajamas, just looking like total shit in there, but then he and Dandy are rolling and he dives into Dandy's leg with a takedown and Dandy is selling for him with that spirited 2001 energy he had and it's everything I want in lucha. Rambo's huracanrana roll up on Navarro is such a great surprise, smoother than even Dr. Cerebro's. Nobody bumps to the floor over the bottom rope like Rambo anymore. The old man luchador style of getting to the floor has been phasing out for a long time, and Rambo's exits are smooth and graceful and faster than you'd expect. "Faster than you'd expect" is one of the joys of older lucha statesmen. He hits two great butt butts into Dandy and the man shouldn't be this damn good with gear that bad. He's 15 years past losing his mask here and he's hitting his double wristlock and butt attacks like a 30 year old. 

The guys I fully expected to be standouts - Cerebro, Navarro, Panther, Dandy - were, and had a half dozen sequences each that any fan of theirs would want to see. Negro Navarro started the whole thing super hot with Super Mega, with the kind of llave and rolling I could watch for an entire match. Navarro had this drop toehold that seemed to work in reverse, body going one way, legs tripping Mega the other way, bending space and time for what could have been a simple single leg trip. Navarro has a snapmare strong enough that it could have been a piece of actual offense, and he kept gravitating to teaming with Panther to target Dandy in cool ways. Cerebro was incredibly vicious, a totally different approach than he's worked the last 15-20 years. He was real aggressive and rudo stiff. In the battle royal he was always running into frame swinging hard horizontal rights. He had great shtick to accompany mat bumps that were harder than everyone else's. His short run against Blue Panther was great fun, with a Cerebro huracanrana roll up and excellent Panther surfboard with awesome power. He also got all his limbs tied up by Bombero, who was holding the ropes so blatantly while laughing like a supervillain that nobody got in his way. Panther's crucifix on Dandy was maybe the most vicious submission of the entire affair, with Panther bending him back forceful, not smoothly, while Dandy screamed and crab walked slowly to a bottom rope.

Watch this Cibernetico. It's great. It's got as many special moments as the best Ciberneticos. They're all unique snowflakes. Can any nation truly stand alone? Maybe we'll answer David Bickler's question on DEAN~! 3. 

Rhyno vs. Low-Ki PWS 6/7/14 - GREAT

PAS: This was kind of a compact TV match, about seven minutes, pretty stiff, just a nice piece of business. Ki hits a couple of nasty kicks on Rhino a guy that square must seem like a perfect heavy bag for him. They each get a kick out of their big move, Ki liquifies his insides with a Warrior's Way for a two, and Ki gets a kick out of the Gore. Match ended with a bit of an awkward roll up, which kind of felt like two guys who couldn't agree on a finish. Give it another big move or two and it would really sing. 

JR: I'll always have a soft spot for Rhyno. I remember being right at the age where I could read magazines when he was coming up in ECW and finding out he had done time and being both mystified and terrified. I remember going to those Hardcore Homecoming shows less than 10 years later, and him working heel, cutting promos about how he was slumming it for a night before going back to TNA, and the guy behind me trying to get a "Bound for Glory" chant going.

What can be said about Low Ki that hasn't already been said? A captivating worker, an inscrutable person. If you hate Low Ki, you are anti-labor.

I had no idea what to make of most of this. I thought it funny that Rhyno is always notable for making his stuff look great while working pretty light, while Low Ki is notable for...the opposite of that. Here, I think they kind of don't know what to do with one another. In someways, it's a match between two guys who are good at working from underneath but primarily want to find ways to control pace, and I don't think either of them really found a way to get in a groove. I thought at the beginning, Rhyno was going to work kind of like a Stan Hansen brawl on the outside with Ki doing a Tommy Rich impression, and then when they didn't do that, I thought Ki would find a way to stick and move around the bigger man, but neither thing happens. Instead, we kind of get a house show match with a finish that feels like more generous on behalf of Rhyno, which I suppose is to be expected.

MD: I loved the look of this one, shot from underneath with those big windows up top. The crowd was more behind Rhino though he tried to turn them. Ki didn't care about them one way or the other. He just did his thing, full steam ahead. Rhino treated him like an absolute equal, like they were the exact same size. There was a small feeling early on that if Rhino just caught him that'd be enough, but it didn't last. He recoiled from Ki's chops. He focused on the back because size alone wouldn't cut it; it would open the door but it wouldn't even contain Ki, let alone defeat him. That led to a fairly long bearhug in a fairly short match but you didn't mind it much. I didn't mind the finish either, where Rhino kicked out of Warrior's Way and Ki kicked out of the Gore before Rhino got rolled up with a lumpy sunset flip as he went for the second one. I would have just liked those kickouts to register a little more emotionally. No one was expecting Ki to kick out but once he did, life just moved on. It's less the shocked face I'm looking for so much as the resolve that one gore simply wasn't enough and he had no choice but to charge back in, even though he was unknowingly charging towards defeat. I never got that feeling and to me that would have put the match just enough over the top.

ER: It looks like I'm the unexpected high voter on this match. It was everything I wanted out of a Ki/Rhino match and more. This was in the back half of a *13 Match Show*, some kind of damned spiritual successor to vintage post-midnight USA Pro shows of a decade prior, and it gets harder to harder to stand out in any way on a show like that. Well these too stood out. Low Ki hit Rhino hard enough multiple times to actually move him. I bet Rhino hasn't felt many chops harder than Ki's, and I know he felt that kick to the thigh later. I have now stood next to Rhino and realize that he is the same height as me, while being probably twice my width. He is a large freezer garage filled with 36 count packs of soft drinks but Low Ki's palm thrusts to the chest looked like something that actually would have tipped that fridge over. 

Rhino is one of out more uniquely shaped men and I love him working a bearhug down to one knee after press slamming Ki onto the buckles. Low Ki has excellent selling and this unmatched ability to recoil on bumps like no other wrestler has (maybe Lio Rush?), selling something huge like a bump to the apron or something less like a headbutt to the stomach or creating activity in a bear hugs. It makes him an ideal opponent for a man of any size, but a big couch of a man like Rhino can make him pinball and rebound in the best ways. And, as Rhino is the size of a couch, Low Ki treats him like me doing Macho Man elbowdrops onto my parent's couch, fucking up that couch with a Warriors Way, just messing up this living room set of a man.

Ki took the Gore so well that it makes the move feel new all over again. It was a great Gore anyway, and would have been great no matter who was taking it. What I loved most about it was how Rhino did not do his typical set up out of the corner but instead used it as a much cooler 180 surprise. He shot past Low Ki with a clothesline and turned on a dime to stop him cold as Ki was rebounding off the ropes. It looked fucking awesome and I don't remember seeing him use it as a momentum stopper. Rhino is always the one supplying the momentum behind it. I wasn't expecting Low Ki to kick out of that surprise Gore and I wasn't expecting Rhino to kick out of the Warriors Way so both popped me good. And I loved the finish, with Ki leaping over a  Gore that Rhino had set up at a charging distance, showing that Rhino should have kept trying to surprise the ninja and not give him any of time to quick react counter. When Low Ki is given actual time to react to an attack, he has too many ways to use that time against his opponent, and Rhino paid for that error. 

Mad Dog Connelly vs. Jordan Blade PPW 9/25/22

PAS: This was Connelly's first dog collar match, and outside of the Demus match I think it is my favorite. These were two staples of the PPW UWFI rules division, and this had the pace of a one round MMA brawl with a chain. All gas, no breaks stuff with both wrestlers trying to decapitate each other with huge chain shots from the break. I loved how nasty all of the wrestling moves felt with the chain in the mix, everything felt like it could go wrong and someone could land temple first on steel. The whole thing felt like a finishing run, sometimes you want to sip, sometimes you want to shoot straight whiskey. 

MD: There's such a Hansen-ian bent to Connelly and especially his chain matches. It's all implicit storytelling, the path of least resistance. They're not building a castle in the sky. They're not loading Chekhov's Gun. They're hitting you with a shotgun blast to the face. There's a cold hard logic to eternal forward motion. The train's coming. Either you can stop it or not.

And at times, Blade could. Connelly went for a choke with it almost from the get go and that put him at a disadvantage that allowed for a German Suplex. Less could be done when he hit the floor and simply pulled. That said, it wasn't until the chain came loose and the ref halted proceedings that he was finally able to start choking Blade with it, striking mercilessly by surprise. That was the opening for the gutwrenches, three in a row, with the chain dangerously dangling between them enhancing the image of each impact.

Blade was skilled, strong, and tenacious though and had an honest shot at it, but wrapping the chain around Connelly's face to further mangle him wasn't the way to go. Thus equipped, loaded, primed, he burst forth, that aforementioned shotgun blast in the form of a headbutt (because I can load Chekhov's Gun in this review, even if he won't). Maybe one last hopeful Blade Rear Naked Choke followed, but it was too little too late, for Connelly was able to roll through and end it with the selfsame sense of brutality that he tried to begin it with. There's no out-hating the Mad Dog in a dog collar match. The chain knows who it serves.

ER: I'm not sure this even goes 5 minutes and it clearly didn't need to go longer than that. I saw this match for the first time in 2024. Phil showed it to me in our motel room the night before the first DEAN~! show. I was sitting up in the bed that we would be sharing - there was some mistake because the in-over-his-head motel manager messed something up with our reservations, giving us a small room with one bed and Tom K the literal largest hotel room I have ever been in - and Phil was seated at the motel desk, laptop on desk. We were both exhausted after a very long travel day. I had a red eye flight and had hung out with friends in Philly all day, so I had not actually slept in over 36 hours. But we were both excited about the show the next day, and Phil asked if I had ever seen Mad Dog vs. Jordan Blade. I had not. 

Now we are in a post-DEAN~! 2 world and I saw more than one person disappointed that Mad Dog vs. Adam Priest "only" went 7 minutes, but I am of the mindset that Mad Dog Collar matches don't need to go that long at all. This is a wild man, unleashed, and most humans aren't going to be able to take a "normal" main event's worth of time enduring a chain beating and chain choking. This match against Blade is a complete match in its 5 minutes. There's no way to stop Mad Dog, only briefly slow him down, and I thought it was great how Blade didn't wrestle a bad match, she just got overwhelmed and couldn't find a way back in. It doesn't diminish her, doesn't mean her strategy was bad, she just got beat by a maniac. She tried to stop the boulder from rolling down the hill but those arms get tired real quick and before long you realize you can't even step aside, that boulder is going straight over the top of you. 

Hard to believe this was Mad Dog's first collar match and he already had full mastery of the chain. I lost my mind when Blade wrapped the chain all around his face and it only made Mad Dog want to use his face as a weapon. It was a good idea but she couldn't have predicted how Mad Dog would have reacted to having a face full of chain. If you've already taken balled up chained up fists to the head and barely weathered those, you just can't prepare for a chain wrapped maniac's face. I love how Mad Dog's violence does not just revolve around the chain. The chain is a weapon he will use but also a tool he will use to facilitate violence, in the same way the Gracie's used their gi to advance to the real violence. He knows how to use the chain to cut angles and change distance, but it is not his only method to bring violence. One of the more violent things in a match made of violence happened on the floor, when Mad Dog just charged into Blade's face with a back elbow. No chain needed, while the threat of the chain loomed always.

2022 MOTY MASTER LIST

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70s Joshi on Wednesday: Nancy! Kai!

64. 1979.10.XX - 03 Leilani Kai vs. Nancy Kumi (Either late September or before October 17)

K: One of Fuji TV’s tricks was to edit matches down for length, but rather than just cut the footage up, they’d shift the commentary audio so that the announcer would be in the middle of a sentence when the video actually skipped minutes ahead so it was even less noticeable that there was cutting. I say that because they do a primitive version of that trick here when they skip ahead in the match opening ceremony.

This was better than I thought it’d be. Kai starts off by attacking Nancy with a bouquet of flowers, forcing her to flee the ring. I’m not convinced that hitting someone with flowers is all that threatening, although the image was funny. There is a decent amount of effort put into this and I thought Nancy sold well when she was slowly trying to create space to weather the tide, I’ve not been impressed with her in general. She also looked good losing her temper when they started fighting on the outside, choking Kai in a justified babyface reprisal.

Moolah got involved again. I know that she’s going to wrestle Nancy Kumi soon enough so I guess this match was partially an angle in setting that up, as they don’t resolve anything between Kumi and Kai with this one. It ends in double countout and both wrestlers seem to claim victory.

**1/4

MD: This would have been a pretty good match in Kansas City or Albuquerque? I thought Kai had a lot of star power, a lot of flair. For instance she had great fun rampaging with flowers before the match. She just didn’t have quite enough of it. She’d do the heel handshake with her other behind her back but not really pay it off. She’d make a shocked noise when Kumi was winning a test of strength but it didn’t really go anywhere. If she was going to lean into it, she should really lean into it, and she would later in her career, but not quite yet. Otherwise she took a lot of this and when they were going it wasn’t always perfectly timed. At one point Kumi had to basically deadlift slam her because of a time miscue. Lots of choking and kicking and stomping and Moolah interfering and a bit of heel reffing. Kumi was much better at asserting herself than she had been a year earlier and they had some nice missed splashes, including one off the top, but it definitely didn’t hold up to Black Pair matches or what have you. Match got thrown away as they were outside for too long even though Kumi probably got in early enough. She went after the ref in response. Floor wasn’t too bad here but it was a low, low ceiling.
 

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 5/12 - 5/18

ROH TV 5/15/25

Dustin Rhodes/Sammy Guevara/Marshall Von Erich/Ross Von Erich vs Mason Madden/Mansoor/Ariya Daivari/Tony Nese

MD: There are a couple of different ways to do an 8-man tag. You can lean hard into the tag gimmick by creating a sense of danger and difficulty just from the sheer numbers at play. Any time someone gets too close to not just the wrong corner but even the center of the ring ropes, there's a chance that a knee or arm may reach out. That evokes the sense of those 80s New Japan elimination tag for instance, creating a mood where all of these wrestlers are trapped with one another, the babyface getting dragged down as face-in-peril most of all. Or you can just toss the tag rules out the window and run rapid fire spots with people running in and out, making use of those sheer numbers to keep the action going and going with no logical reason for it to ever stop or for anything to sink in. 

Anyone who knows me is going to know what I prefer. And this did a pretty good job at it for the first two thirds. In that case, you'd maybe run through individual pairings until you got into the heat but they avoided that for a specific reason, Dustin's more or less cracked a code, or at least I think he thinks he has. When he's with the Von Erichs, he drops back and delays getting in the ring until after the hot tag. They find some way to contrive it, whether he's attacked before the match or just slips back into the scenery of the numbers like here. 

In 2025, it's tougher than ever to figure out what the fans actually want. In 1985, they wanted to see the heel vanquished and the babyface triumphant and a clear win or at least a clear beating, or ideally both. While there are increasingly heels on the AEW/ROH working to get under the skin of the fans and get actual heat, and while maybe in time, that will restore some of those old incentives, fans today seem to want their candy. Candy can come in a number of forms, but it's generally something they can brag about seeing or experiencing, whether that's a five star match, a debut, a crazy spot, or just getting to sing along to a theme song or as part of a chant. 

Getting to see Dustin Rhodes is a form of candy. He's a legend, an attraction, someone who knows how to work a crowd from underneath as well as anyone else alive. For 80% of the viewing audience, he was part of their childhood, whether they started watching in 1990, 2000, 2010, or 2020. Who knows how many more times anyone will get to see him wrestle live. He's candy. And by holding himself back, he makes the fans earn it and makes his arrival into the ring mean all the more. That also lets him put the Von Erichs front and center for both the shine and the heat, giving them reps and getting the fans used to them in both roles. 

The other aspect of an 8-man is all the characters at play, and given the heel side, that was bound to go well. MxM interacted with the Athletes with the cheer at the start, by pushing them out of the way of danger. They were able to switch things up with the spot where Madden drapes an opponent over the ropes and Mansoor hits an apron senton. Last time Madden caught someone trying to hit a tope. This time, it was due to Mark Sterling getting involved as a distraction. It's a great spot but it'll only feel organic if they keep thinking it through in creative ways. Here it was the transition to heel control which made it all the better. 

Things did build to Dustin and even more so to Sterling getting hit by the Golden Globes/Shattered Dreams/Unnatural Kick and then the claws. They always have the ref dramatically look away when that happens. Maybe they didn't need to when it was the manager getting kicked? Anyway, it was a crowd pleasing finale and a good presentation overall. I would have liked another minute or two of heat but they were probably working against the clock, but other than that, I had a good time with it.

AEW Collision 5/16/25

Dustin Rhodes/Sammy Guevara vs Lio Rush/Action Andretti

MD: This was a #1 contender's match for the shot at Double or Nothing. I can't say it really felt like one, especially when Dustin was doing his fake dive bit in the middle and given a relatively anti-climactic finish where Sammy jammed Andretti's torture rack neckbreaker finisher to hit his own. In general, I like matches ending like that now and again, without a clear exclamation point, but maybe not a match with stakes? 

Of note, we got much more of Dustin in this one, including him working face-in-peril because the alchemy is different in a straight up tag than a six or eight-man and there's less of a need to showcase Sammy. That said, Dustin was excellent at slapping the mat at various points and selling the leg and really doing his half to explain why he wasn't making it to the corner despite making it look like he was fighting as hard as possible.

We know that about Dustin though. More importantly, this was the first time that I really got CRU as a team. The Top Flight breakup/feud did no one any favors but seeing them up against some contrast, they really came off like a swarming menace, in the way they took over, in cutting the ring off with Dustin, in that late match flurry against Sammy. Real Kaientai DX actually, in a way that I'm not sure anyone else is matching right now. There's maybe something there and I hadn't felt that before. They need something else. There would be worse fates for them than to become Ricochet's guys, for instance, especially if he ever lands a singles title and has to be protected more (he's pretty bulletproof right now). So this was pretty good for what it was, but I didn't quite feel the weight. I do think the PPV match could be good if Dustin can hook the crowd.

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Found Footage Friday: GATTONI~! LYONS~! MILLERS~! CARPENTIER~! STANLEE~!

Maple Leaf Wrestling 1/15/57 

Baron Gattoni vs. Billy Red Lyons

MD: Lyons was so young that they were just calling him Red Lyons. They said he had worked in the States for a year but was newly debuting in Canada. Apparently Gattoni (who was billed as Italian though he was from Argentina I think) was also new to the territory. This was mainly to establish him as a threat while giving people a look at Lyons, being a plucky young Hamilton native. Gattoni controlled the center, shoving Lyons down repeatedly. Lyons threw some shots. Gattoni would hit him once for every four or five and floor him. He won it with a bearhug in just a few minutes. The sequence post match where Lyons was totally prone as they waited for the stretcher might have lasted longer than the match.

The Millers (Bill/Ed Miller) vs. Pat Flanagan/Ken Kenneth

MD: I can't say I'm super familiar with Flanagan and Kenneth but I'm kind of annoyed they didn't team Ken Kenneth with Stan Stanlee. Ah well. Kenneth was from New Zealand. Flanagan had a nice spinning back heel kick (mule kick as they called it) and they were fine. Good heart. Stayed in it. Slick at times. But this was the Millers' show. They were hulking brutes, one bigger than the other, but both far bigger than their opponents. They would yank an opponent into the corner by the leg, but would also cheat at every opportunity: hairpulls, tights pulls, double teams. If you got too close to the heel corner, you were in trouble and even two refs couldn't keep them at bay. In fact, the two refs did a better job of missing tags on the babyface side than they did controlling the Millers even if they tried. Usually that'd put heat on the refs but it felt a bit like chaotic joshi matches with lots of interference where you throw your hands up and wonder what the refs could even do.

They controlled for most of this with little bits of hope if the babyfaces could get a tag or even just stay out of the heel corner for long enough, but even just the reach of the Millers made it hard. They were very good at what they did and they won it by switching off on Torture Racks (Ohio Backbreaker) to create a strong visual. Solid stuff overall but maybe a bit too much of the same for a bit too long.

Eduoard Carpentier vs. Steve Stanlee

MD: This is what we're here for, as Carpentier comes off as a star as well as anyone of his era. Stanlee was Mr. America and the commentary likened him to Buddy Rogers (though maybe a little less unscruplious). He faked out Carpentier on the shake before the match but that was the last time he was going to get one up on him for the next ten minutes. Every time he did something (a trip, a cheapshot) Carpentier had an answer, bounding onwards and upwards entertainingly and always with a flourish after the fact to let the fans know that he was special. Stanlee was a good sport, playing along by failing to do some of those flourishes himself to high stooging effect. One bit and one tricked out escape after the next. Carpentier didn't come off as quite as technically sound as some of his French Contemporaries but he made every bit he did do resonate and stand out more.

Stanlee did get up on Carpentier eventually just by smashing at him with knees and punches, especially out of a headlock. Then he shited it around for an inverted headlock and that worked for a bit, right until it didn't as Carpentier did the Sliced Bread (and Chris Hero's joke, not mine, is that it's #1 if it happened back in the 50s). counter for the win. Quick but the fans got some value nonetheless. Post match Stanlee tried to make a scene and got his head twisted multiple times for his trouble.

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70s Joshi on Wednesday: Lucy! Barkley!

63. 1979.10.XX - 02 Lucy Kayama vs. Winnie Barkley (Either late September or before October 17) 

K: And we're back with this interminable USA vs. Japan series. True to formula, Joyce takes control of the match right from the start with uninteresting offense including a couple of dropkicks that really didn't look good at all despite Lucy selling them. I won't fault her selling in execution but in context I wish she'd put up a lot more of a fight than this, but that's not the match they're going to have.

There's not much in the way of transitions here either. Lucy just grabs Winnie by the leg out of nowhere, pulls her down and puts her in a figure four and all of sudden she's on offense. Likewise for when Winnie gets to the ropes to break the submission, at which point she just gets up and with seconds is hitting snapmares as if she was on offense the whole time. We get a more aggressive one which sends Lucky flying through the ropes to the outside, at which point she gets stomped on by Moolah. I think this is the most Moolah has ever blatantly interfered in one of these USA-Japan series matches. Somehow, getting assaulted by Moolah only powers Lucy up, as she gets back in the ring, hits a bunch of her biggest moves including a Tiger Driver and gets the win.

The winning pin was very strange in that Winnie seemed to get her shoulder up at 3 and there was a slight delay in the referee calling it, except this was the heel American referee so why he'd do a dodgy looking finish that benefitted the Japanese wrestler is beyond me. This match really didn't make any sense. Seeing Lucy hit a clean Tiger Driver was cool I guess, but that's about the nicest thing you'll get me to say about this. I may be in a bad mood as while I was watching this match a bee or wasp flew in the window and stung me.

*

MD: Barkley was probably the least of the American contingent. If she had the Littlefeather gimmick maybe it’d have been different (I do believe that) because her spin through chop was pretty good. Otherwise, her best offense was just having Moolah stomp Lucy on the outside. She did throw herself into everything but even her chokes didn’t look great. When Lucy did fight back, her stuff was spirited and she had a nice finishing stretch with the leaping horizontal cross chops and the really deep gutwrench before hitting that inexplicable tiger driver. The ref wasn’t a huge issue here overall but there was no meat or substance to any of this anyway so it hardly mattered. We were better off when it was the Black Pair in just about every match. That’s for sure.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 5/5 - 5/11

AEW Collision 5/8/25

Ricochet vs. Angelico

MD: When I think of the New Heel Movement in AEW, some surprises have been bigger than others. I don't think Okada leaning into getting heat as a TV worker was a surprise. I had seen inklings with Kyle Fletcher in commercial breaks for well over a year; no one could have anticipated just how far he'd go with it all, but potential had been there. Someone like Blake Christian still does just a little too much instead of letting things sink in, even if he's doing shtick instead of spots. Up and comers like Lee Johnson and Red Velvet are known to be hard workers and it made sense that they'd take to the rising wave. 

But Ricochet. Ricochet has taken me completely by surprise. I know there were some signs of stooging and heatseeking back in his indie days, but even then it had that aftertaste of PWG irony. Yeah, that's a thing. It's been absolutely telling watching him with the Bucks the last few weeks, because they come at it from different angles. For the Bucks, they always have to be winking, always have to be in on the joke, always have to have an arm around your shoulder so that you know they're laughing with you and you're laughing with them. In some ways, it's lovely, because they bring you into the tent with them. In others ways, though, it covers a lack of fearlessness. They can never be truly vulnerable. They're always playing the role. You'll always see the strings. They never REALLY let anything get to them, not really. They'll commit fully for any spot or any bump, but they won't commit emotionally.

And I get it. Given their size and their style and their preferences, they couldn't show that sort of weakness, or at least felt like they couldn't. Here's a bit of actual irony. They were, of course, essential to the creation of AEW. It's because AEW exists, it being a place where people can work their style and not be ridiculed or depushed or punished but instead glorified, I think Ricochet feels safe to be so confident and fearless and genuine as a performer. He has that layer of safety and security. He knows that he's safe from a monster who gets off on ridiculing his employees and that lets him put himself fully as the butt of the joke. In this case, the agency is in his hand. He doesn't have to worry about being dressed in in a bee costume or in polka dots or as a rooster against his will. If he ends up a rooster, it's because it's his creative vision. I get why the Bucks can't fully embrace that because they had to build everything and it's probably so very hard to let go and push away from what established them as stars in the first place. But now that AEW exists, to see wrestlers letting themselves stooge and show ass and be vulnerable is an amazing thing, a light of pro wrestling's uniqueness and specialness bursting out of the clouds once more.

And Ricochet is able to balance it with his big spots and quick action to high effect. Because he has that extra gear and everyone knows he has that extra gear, he can build and build to it by drawing heat and getting stooged. It's giving the fans the best of both worlds. That was certainly true in his match with Angelico, and it carried through all the way to the post match where he was able to push things all the way into the red emotionally in his interactions with Gowen. 

The fans and Angelico went straight to hair taunts to start and Ricochet responded, chip on his shoulder,  by winning the initial wrestling exchange of the match. He boasted about it and then Angelico did what Angelico does, trapping the arm out of a pin attempt after a trip and not letting go. Ricochet tried to roll out and Angelico rolled him back in, leaning on superior reach and ungodly technique. All the while he took liberties, paintbrushing the head while Ricochet could do nothing about it. Immediate comeuppance. When Ricochet finally scrambled to the ropes, the fans didn't cheer the exchange and the fact they got to see it, but they booed Ricochet's craven exit and the fact that it was over. That doesn't sound like much but it's the way pro wrestling is supposed to work, the emotional tugging that is supposed to happen, and something that's been lost in a sea of "This is Awesome."

Angelico went back to the hair in the ropes and Ricochet went for the eyes taking over. He cemented it with athleticism and beat down Angelico during the break while also fighting off the crowd, selling (because that's what it is!) everything the crowd was throwing at him. That's the key. That's what keeps them going that's what keeps this churning. That's what makes the fans want to tune in and buy tickets to see Ricochet. He's reacting to everything. He's letting it get under his skin. It's affecting his face, his actions, his body language, his everything. It means that he looks the fool when he's working from underneath and it drives his viciousness when he's on top. It's human and believable even if it's exaggerated and entertaining. It's perfect. If ever it becomes too distracting and the fans are chanting bald instead of responding to what's happening in the match, that's when Ricochet ramps up the viciousness a little and makes it clear that it's the fans' fault for what's happening to the babyface. That's tried and true heeling and it still works today. 

Angelico mounted a comeback after the break but maybe took his eye off the ball due to the temptation of mocking Ricochet more. Ricochet leaned hard into that viciousness and put him away in a manner that spoke well to hierarchy. Angelico left the match looking better than he came in. Ricochet was all the stronger for his immense vulnerability because he won so definitively and defeated someone who had pushed him to a limit (even if not the limit). And all of that set the stage for him to take everything one step further in the amazing post match angle with Gowen.

There's room for all sorts of styles and approaches in AEW. That's part of the strength of the promotion. But something genuine like this will always resonate more emotionally than something that's simply spectacle for the sake of spectacle and certainly more than something that's too winking and emotionally guarded. The more wrestlers give themselves over to pro wrestling in this way, the deeper the connection they'll have with the crowd. 

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