Found Footage Friday: WWE IN AUSTRALIA~! BABE FACE~! FANTASMA~! SUPER ASTRO~! SCORPIO~! SATANICO~! EMILIO~!

Super Astro/Fantasma vs. Babe Face/Scorpio WWA Olympic Auditorium 09/12/87

MD: This has been sitting in plain sight for a few years but was thankfully was brought to light by the Wrestling Playlists newsletter recently. It hits so many of the marks you'd want with four very talented wrestlers doing their thing in a slightly alien place for slightly alien promotion. Super Astro is this tightly contained ball of energy, a little shorter than his peers, a little stockier than you'd expect, but it's almost like there's a wick counting down on him and he's always ready to explode. It gives his roles and vaults and stylized tricks an extra bit of oomph. They're things that would be impressive regardless but with him it's all somehow supercharged, and Scorpio, bald and wide and spry took it all so well. He shoved Fantasma before the bell and Fantasma bounced back off the ropes and shoved him back, causing him to bump huge. That's just the sort of guy Scorpio was.

I wouldn't say this had a rudo ref so much as the rudo was holding the tecnicos to far higher standards. That meant they withheld tags in a way that you don't usually see in lucha (though the out of the ring rule was definitely in play) and it allowed the rudos to stay in charge in the primera. That built the pressure for the comeback, even through the end of the fall and a nice double takover onto Fantasma and subsequent submission. You can tell the pressure was up beacuse there was an upset Granny at ringside. 

It was interesting because they used the ref taking back/not allowing tags to build heat but the moment of comeback was wholly within the ring on a bit of rudo miscommunication. From there things went even with it looking like the tecnicos might get swept under again only to outquick and outslick the rudos, all building to Astro knocking Scorpio out and landing on him with a senton through the ropes to the floor. Brutal stuff and Scorpio either bladed or got bust open. Either way, he was a bloody mess. That was the equalizer as simultaneously Fantasma was doing a ridiculous submission in Tombstone position on Babe Face (who I have less to say about here but he was perfectly fine in his role).

The tercera was full of the sort of great exchanges you'd expect until Scorpio was able to go behind on Fantasma off the ropes, using his momentum to push him through the ropes and right into a waiting chairshot from Babe Face. From there it was an academic 2-on-1 with them picking up Astro repeatedly after having him beat. That sort of hubris didn't lead to comeuppance though as they finished him off after one of Babe Face's great off-center running sentons and a nasty legdrop from Scorpio. I'm sure this led to some phenomenal return match we don't have, but at least we have this.

ER: You show up for a match like this to see what Super Astro might do, but then you leave getting to see  stocky rudo toughness from Babe Face and Scorpio. Super Astro is must watch in any setting. You're always going to get something worth writing about. Imagine seeing this stocky little guy in LA doing a slingshot senton to the floor in 1987. It's great. But this is a match that makes you want to watch more Babe Face and Scorpio. Scorpio Sr.! I have not seen much Scorpio Sr. He is as ugly as his son in a completely different way, more hideous monster way. He also looks like the perfect wrestler. Wide, round, ugly, bald, cocky. He's got a fat buff guy or buff fat guy body squeezed into a red King Kong Bundy double strap that you wish could be pulled off as well in modern wrestling but everyone is shaped wrong. Babe Face, it turns out, also has a perfect pro wrestling physique. He is stocky and muscular and compact and powerful. He's Bill Dundee with 20 pounds of thick bulk. He is one of three of the smallest most powerful men, wrestling inside of the largest ring in wrestling history. You fill not believe how long it takes Super Astro to run ropes in this ring. It's incredible. 

We all love Super Astro and we love the way he is in a competition with himself to take higher back body drops. But this hits peaks whenever Babe Face or Scorpio are throwing punches and chops and headbutts. Babe Face headbutts Super Astro in the eye socket to force a tag out and I thought we were going to get a bloody mask hole Super Astro match. He is stocky rudo cocktease, pouncing Astro to the floor to interrupt a dive, cameras catching a great close up of Scorpio's mug before he overhand chops Astro out of his boots. Things build throughout to big Babe Face/Fantasma showdowns, until Babe Face fucking BRAINS Fantasma with an open folding chair to the top of the head while Fantasma was draped over the ropes. The announcers say something about Intrepidos Punks, so either they're describing these two stocky men of differing beauty, or they're advertising the late 80s movie of the same name and either way makes this great. Los Intrepidos Punks lay a fucking beating on Astro while Fantasma's corpse is under the ropes, slapping him back and forth, Babe Face hitting full weight sentons, kneeling on his chest and groin while Scorpio holds a legdrop like the most smug sideburn asshole.  

I liked Fantasma's aggressively pistoning 69 bearhug. 

Emilio Charles vs. Satanico [hair vs hair] CMLL 3/20/98? 

MD: Pretty unique hair match here though one that hits a lot of the right notes despite that and despite some goofiness. As best as I can tell, this is rudo vs. rudo though Charles is the clear crowd favorite. Satanico gets an early ambush and starts dismantling Charles like only he can. No one is better in the history of wrestling at orchestrating violence, including his own. The bump Charles takes into the third row, head over heels, is excellent. Charles starts to mount some comebacks (including one really nice Fujiwara armbar reversal out of a grounded abdominal stretch that's lucha loose but symbolically perfect) but the ref (who apparently he hit the week before?) seems to get in his way each time and Satanico finally gets the caida on a backslide with a fast count.

That causes Charles to start complaining to the commission. Rey Mendoza is out there and says that Charles has a stipulation in his contract that he can call for a change in ref so Babe Richard comes out to take over. Meanwhile, Charles is unloading on Satanico, including tossing him into the crowd. Satanico is able to sneak in a foul though and locks in the Satan's Knot. That seems like the end and the end to Charles' hair, but he gets lost in the moment and refuses to let go and the ref awards the caida to Charles. So it's a bit of an odd dynamic with the ref switch and Satanico basically winning the second fall only to have it overturned. It all gets paid off in the tercera with Charles getting a foul in of his own and everything building to another Satan's Knot only for Charles to fight his way out of it and lock in this great Gory Special (where he has to slowly bring his hands together) before dropping down with it into a pin. I wouldn't call this the most primal match or the quickest path between two points but these guys were so good and they made this work so well for what it was.

ER: The ugliest default babyface fighting dirty through getting punched in the forehead and thrown into the third row by the devil. Satan himself throwing short punches aimed to open up an ugly man's forehead and biting him. I love situations where Charles became the tecnico. He is good at working through tecnico stages of a three fall match, peaking the reactions in the tercera and getting bigger reactions with consecutive quebradoras while the crowd loudly hates Satanico for breaking holds with biting at men's thighs. The devil fights dirty when the devil's beautiful head of hair is at stake. Satanico is a great rudo because he also wrestlers through submissions like the tecnico, pulling each limb with celebratory swipes like he's an Olympic runner raising both arms through the finish line. It makes Charles' win, through a biased ref and the persistent devil himself, even more of an ugly man tecnico triumph. I thought the execution on Charles' tercera-winning Gory Special was so good for this specific match. A fought for Gary, Charles' hands clasped, drawing out the inescapable backslide. 

It didn't get as violent as I expected it would, for a match I knew nothing about. When you start with Satanico biting and punching at a cut you expect escalation and that violent escalation never comes. We also don't get the actual haircutting. Satanico knew that he looked like a totally different badass when he had his head shaved and I wanted to see what that looked like at 50.  

Batista/Chris Jericho/Chris Benoit vs. Triple H/Ric Flair/Edge WWE 4/8/05

MD: New Richard Land Handheld from Australia right after Wrestlemania 21. Some of those names should worry you for a 50 minute clip, maybe, but this is house show bullshit and that's the best bullshit there is. Plus it's about ten minutes of entrances and pre-match talking and ten minutes of them breaking down the ring. I thought I was going to be taking one for the team here but I had fun with this. The pre-match yapping was ridiculous with Triple H going on about how terrible Australia was and how in America they had an army that could kick their asses, the Salvation Army. Basically the most definitional Triple H stuff imaginable. Batista's retort was short and sweet (he had just won the title), and the crowd was hot for all of this really.

All of the early exchanges were fun. Benoit and Edge started. Benoit chopped Edge out of the corner. Edge went for a tag. Both Triple H and Flair dropped down to avoid it. Jericho came in and Batista and Benoit cheerlead the crowd in a Y2J chant. Flair came in, had a chop off with Jericho so the fans could chant woo and then walked into the babyface corner to eat a bunch of punches and take the first flop (of many) of the night. Jericho grabbed a sign and paraded around with it. Batista came in. Flair eyepoked him and chopped him. Batista no sold it. Flair begged off. Batista waggled his finger. Flair took his second back body drop. Triple H came in. The crowd went up for the idea of them going at it. Flair wooed at Batista from the corner repeatedly. Batista posed and the crowd went nuts. Triple H won on a shoulder block exchange and posed. They milked a test of strength for a while before doing it. Triple H kicked Batista, drove him down. Batista fought back up and clotheslined Triple H over the top and the crowd loved every second of all of this. Truly entertaining house show BS, what much, much more of wrestling should be and what a lot of the times it isn't in a world where these barely exist anymore.

Again, this had a ton of time and they worked double heat on it. Jericho was drawn into the heel corner and when he came back and made a hot tag, Benoit came in hot for a bit only to miss the diving headbutt. Eventually, Triple H had Benoit down in the corner but got distracted by Batista and leaped right into a foot, wherein he spent an entire minute (not a second less) standing there looking at the lights dazed before flopping. Only in a house show. I'm actually not sure that spot hit as well as it could have but points for committing to the bit certainly. That let Batista make it in finally, let everything break down, and let Edge eat the power bomb (thumbs down beforehand) to end the match. I don't know if I would have seen this same match around the loop but to see it one time was honestly a lot of fun. Just a totally different world that barely exists anymore. And we're talking 2005, not 1985 here.

Read more!

Eddie's Got 10 Homes, Eight Whips, But the Eights Whips He's Going to Trade for a Spaceship

Eddie Kingston vs. Samoa Joe PWS 6/24/07 - GREAT

PAS: With the very exciting news that Eddie Kingston is challenging Samoa Joe for the world title, I decided to check out one of their two previous singles matches (the other three months earlier, at Fighting Sports Midwest, I know I have seen but can't find online). This isn't the epic indy dream match you might hope for, but a really great example of heat seeking heel Eddie. He breaks out a bunch of stalling tricks, thumb to the eye. He really oversells Joe's first shoulder block like he ran into a steel beam, does a Flair flop on a headbutt, Eddie gets some offense after going to the eyes, but this was Joe steamrolling a shit talking heel, and Kingston going full 90s heel Lawler, I enjoyed the hell out of it but I am expecting a completely different awesome thing in a couple of weeks.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON

Read more!

El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Kong Smash

Week 53: Kong Smash

EB: We had quite the tag match on April 13 between Invader #1 & Ricky Santana against the California Studs. We also have a big card coming up on April 21. But we are not yet done with the TV episodes from the April 20 weekend. While the Campeones episode focused on airing the World tag title match from April 13, the west coast version of Super Estrellas de la Lucha Libre took a different approach to what it was promoting. There’s a big card coming up on Mother’s Day weekend, with a Noche de Campeones scheduled for May 11 in the San Juan Metro area and a Tarde de Campeones scheduled for May 12 in the west coast region of the island. This episode of Super Estrellas is devoted entirely to promoting the May 12 card currently scheduled for San German. Let’s go to the episode, where Hugo is in the middle of announcing that, in a  bit of a surprise, there is a new Caribbean champion (Scott Hall has lost the title and has left Puerto Rico). The new champion…Super Medico #3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43PuLOBV5Ok

The version of the episode that we have begins with Hugo already in the middle of announcing the Caribbean title change that happened. Hug mentions that the new champ does not want to talk about the title right now, instead he is concentrating on training and making sure the title win does not go to his head. We are proud of this positive attitude and congratulations once again the new Caribbean champion Super Medico #3. Hugo then runs down what we will have on today’s program, the main event will be a match from last week where Ricky Santana faced Mr. Pogo for the WorldJunior title (if you were wondering what Ricky did before agreeing to team up with Invader against the California Studs, this would be that match). 

Hugo then shares the big announcement, for Mother’s Day they will be having a big card to celebrate. It will be an afternoon of champions in San German (they are holding a night of champions that Saturday as well). Special prices due to it being Mother’s Day weekend ($5 adults and $2 children). Hugo runs down the card so far: Carlos Colon vs Ron Garvin for the Universal title; Invader & Bronco vs the California Studs for the World tag titles; TNT vs King Kong for the TV title; Monster Ripper vs Amarlyris for the Women’s title; Giant Warrior vs Action Jackson; Super Medico #3 vs.Wild Bill Braddock; and Mascarita Sagrada & Octagncito vs Espectrito & El Pequeño Cobarde. Fair warning, the card will experience some changes in the coming weeks as we get closer to the date. Hugo plugs the VHS tapes and merchandise available for purchase and now to the action. 

Invader #4 vs. El Condor

We have Invader #4 vs El Condor (a rookie Ray Gonzalez). Eliud Gonzalez and Hugo talk up El Condor, that he works hard and it seems that some of the lady fans are asking about him. He has his work cut out for him against the more experienced Invader #4. Condor is given a bit of shine during the middle portion of the match, but this is mainly Invader #4 in control throughout. Invader #4 comes off the top with a body press for the pin.

MD: This is definitely a match that happened in Puerto Rico in 1991. It was fine. Condor is Ray Gonzalez and he’s treated as a bit more competent than a lot of the other enhancement type guys. Plus Invader IV isn’t quite as high on the food chain. He does get to clown him quite a bit with armdrags and what not though. Invader won it with his leap back body press. 

EB: Monster Ripper will be defending her title against Amarylis, who you may remember as Bronco’s second when he first arrived in Puerto Rico. Ripper says it is ridiculous to think Amarylis has any chance of beating her. Amarylis is like Sasha, pure trash. 

Next is the California Studs and Gen. Akbar talking about the scheduled World tag title match for Mother's Day weekend. This promo is a bit muted considering the bloodbath from the previous week but it looks like they have plans for this feud to go on quite a bit longer. But spoiler alert, this will be the last we will see of the California Studs.

MD: Hey, it looks like we finally get Amaryllis, Princess of the Ring, who we’ve seen in those Bronco music videos. She’s going to be challenging Ripper who finally gets to move on from Sasha.

Now it’s Big Brian and Tough Tony. Lots of talk about Mother’s day here. Of course Hugo loved to mention his own mom when Tony Anthony said he was going to buy her flowers too. Lee said that it’d be a good last dinner for Invader and Bronco before they put them out of their misery.

EB: El Profe rounds out this segment of interviews, he is here representing Ron Garvin. Profe says that he has the ideal man to challenge for the Universal title, someone who is a former champ and who previously humiliated and defeated Carlos Colon. 

MD: Profe says he’s always wanted a world champion in his stable and that Garvin, coming right from the WWF, is the guy to get it for him. I’m looking forward to seeing what Garvin can do here certainly.

Wild Bill Braddock vs. El Corsario

EB: Up next is our first look at Wild Bill Braddock, a man who looks like if B Brian Blair decided to emulate Hulk Hogan while wearing arm tassels. Braddock's opponent is El Corsario and this is a quick match to highlight Braddock. There are a couple of instances where Braddock decides to lift up Corsario before the three count, with the eventual pin coming after a powerslam.

MD: I couldn’t tell you one Braddock match I’ve seen before this. He was a late era WCCW/USWA Texas guy. He’s competent here. Lots of pulling Corsario up. Corsario takes a nice clothesline where he goes slowly feet over head in the selling. Braddock wins this with a power slam. Seems like he could be a capable enough midcard heel. It looks like he’ll be facing Medico III moving forward.

EB: Carlos Colon is standing in front of the Puerto Rican flag to talk about his upcoming Universal title defense against Ron Garvin. There is history between them, they had a couple of matches back in 1988, each of them won one. Carlos is happy that San German has been selected as the site for the Mother's Day show and feels that the best gift he can give all of the Puerto Rican mothers is a convincing victory over Ron Garvin. Carlos admits that Garvin has been the opponent that has given him the most trouble, but he has been studying tapes and feels confident he'll be able to win on Mother’s Day. 

MD: Colon puts over Garvin as a dangerous opponent and says he’s been watching tape, but that the biggest gift he can give to all the mothers will be defeating him soundly. I wish Mothers’ Day had been a bigger deal in other territories. All of these promos are fun.

EB: Invader and Bronco want to give the mothers the satisfaction of them giving a beating to the California Studs.

MD: Once again, Bronco promises to beat up people for all the mothers.

Super Medico #3 vs. El Dragon

EB: Some generic comments from Super Medico #3 about his scheduled match with Wild Bill Braddock. We then go to a match where Super Medico #3 takes on El Dragon. On commentary they hype up Medico’s victory over Scot Hall for the Caribbean title. Showcase match for Medico #3, he picks up the win with a bridge into a pin. We then get some comments from Bill Braddock about his upcoming match against Super Medico #3.

MD: Medico is coming along. I’m curious why they didn’t keep pushing Perez as a singles since it looked like that was the direction. Estrada, Jr. really does still seem like a work in progress in his promo and in the enhancement match. Dragon got more here than either Condor or Corsario earlier. Medico won it with a belly to back after a nice go behind. He lost the bridge but got it back in a commanding way. Braddock then cut a promo where he was basically new to the island, had no idea who Medico even was, touting his own body instead.

EB: Akbar and King Kong interview, where Akbar promises that TNT will be finished once for all as he wants the TV title in Devastation Inc. King Kong just growls throughout. 

MD: Hugo really loves saying King Kong. Kong likes to do all the funny hand motions and thumping of his chest when Akbar is speaking, let alone Hugo. Anyway, TNT is a glutton for punishment and Kong is coming for the TV title.

EB: Profe and Action Jackson are next and you can still hear King Kong growling off in the distance as they start their interview. Action is facing Giant Warrior, a feud that started recently when Action got involved in Warrior’s match against Scott Hall. We then get a card rundown for the Mother’s Day card they’ve been hyping all episode.

MD: Not much to say as this is setting up a Giant Warrior match; they do such a good job of building EVERY match. Jackson’s a fun interview and it’s a shame they had him be fake TNT for so long.

King Kong vs. Armandito Salgado

EB: King Kong is facing Armandito Salgado and it is a quick match as Kong hits the splash. Salgado is stretched out afterwards and they keep putting over how dangerous Kong’s splash is.

MD: It feels like we missed out on a King Kong music video here. We just see his head moving this way and that with the tooth necklace super imposed over him. He makes real short work of Salgado but it’s effective. Post splash, Salgado got stretchered out.

EB: TNT is here and calls Akbar a ‘camello’ (camel) and promises that King Kong will have to fight tooth and nail to get the TV title. 

MD: I may have missed it but I don’t think TNT said he was going to beat up King Kong for all the mothers.

Ricky Santana vs. Mr. Pogo - From April 13

EB: This week's main event is Ricky Sanatan vs. Mr. Pogo for the World Junior title. The title was held up on April 6 and this is the rematch from April 13. This would be the match Ricky Santana wrestled earlier on the card before teaming up with Invader to take on the California Studs. Ricky and Pogo are not strangers to each other, Pogo was Rický's first feud when he arrived in Puerto Rico in late summer of 1988. Ricky controls the first minutes of the match, in spite of Pogo trying to slow down Ricky’s momentum at different points. A corner charge by Ricky is countered with a reverse kick and now it is Pogo’s turn to dish out punishment with kicks and a nerve hold. Pogo gets a pretty lengthy control segment but Santana refuses to be put away. Ricky fights out of a sleeper and starts his comeback, but Pogo is able to cut him off. Pogo is still unable to put Ricky away despite several pin attempts. Pogo sends Ricky into the ropes and Sanatana counters with a Thesz press that leads to a pin. Ricky Santana has won the World Junior title. 

MD: If this does come before the tag from last week, then it makes the tag even better, because this was a long, pretty complete match where Santana takes a lot of punishment and gets a sort of banana peel win, even though he had been mounting a comeback. Pogo isn’t what he had been a few years ago and him as Jr. Champ is pretty dubious but the kicks are still pretty good and he could lean on someone. 

Some fun stuff early where Pogo tries to get Santana to shake or bow and Santana does bow but catches the foot as Pogo tries to cheapshot him. Pogo takes over with a kick out of the corner and hits another good one off the ropes. Past that it’s a lot of nerve holds and grounded punches and what not. Santana gets some hope but keeps getting cut off, til he finally does come back and win with a Thesz Press out of nowhere. If this is before that tag, it, along with the pre-match creates more of an overall whole for those fans that day.

EB: We close the show with the Dick Murdoch music video, and I’m convinced that this was likely a stopgap with Scott Hall's departure (it felt like the barbed wire match was the feud ending). Hugo then closes the show by talking about the Mother’sDay card that will happen in a  few weeks.

MD: I’m a little surprised Murdoch is still here now that the Colon feud is over but it’s not like he couldn’t be plugged in against any of the babyfaces. You could do a Murdoch/TNT feud that would be pretty hot I’m sure, for instance. Anyway, all of this looks great and I wish we had these matches in full.

EB: We have video for one of the matches from the April 21 house show, it is the TV title match between TNT and King Kong. This feud has only been going on for a few weeks but it has escalated ever since King Kong made his surprise debut by attacking TNT. In turn, TNT duped Kong with an impostor TNT to avoid getting jumped at the start of their rematch (although TNT’s friend really got a bum deal there). Let’s see how the third match between them goes.

TNT vs. King Kong  - April 21

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chjIK4stC50

This is from a later home video release so the commentary is not from the time this match happened. TNT decides to attack first this time and starts striking Kong as soon as he enters the ring. TNT controls the first minute or so but runs into a Kong boot in the corner. Kong then controls most of the match with his size advantage, throwing his weight around to squash TNT and using some chinlocks and bearhugs. The tide turns in TNT’s favor when he rolls out of the way of a Kong charge into the corner. A brief comeback is cut short when TNT attempts a sunset flip but can’t get Kong over. Instead, Kong just does a vertical splash on TNT which gets a two count. With TNT still down from that vertical splash, Kong goes to the top turnbuckle and jumps off with a big splash. Kong decides to go up again and hits a second top rope splash and gets the three count. We have a new TV champ but one has to wonder how TNT is doing after those top rope splashes. 

MD: They were certainly going all in on Kong here. This was for TNT’s title and they filled ten minutes pretty well, all things considered. TNT was able to outstrike him early, but Kong just crushed him in the corner over and over again. Some of the holds weren’t the most compelling ever, but at one point TNT tried to hulk up only to get cut off which you didn’t see every day. The comeback was really good with TNT flying in with a big boot followed up by the spin wheel kick, but he couldn’t put Kong away. Kong was able to turn the tide and crush him with these massive top rope splashes to actually take the belt. Very Memphis actually, with the monster of the week getting a run like this.

EB: We don’t have any TV from the April 27 weekend, but before heading into May, there are a couple of notable developments to make note of. TNT suffered an injury from the Kong top rope splashes and will be out of action for a bit. Some of TNT’s friends want to avenge his injury and Kim Duk is the first to step up. He will face King Kong at the April 27 house show in Caguas. Also, we’re not sure exactly how the rivalry ended up, but unfortunately the California Studs are gone. Skandor Akbar has brought in a team to face Invader and Bronco in the meantime, but there is another one waiting in the wings that will be coming in for Mother’s Day weekend. And with a series of injuries and departures, the already announced Mother’s Day house shows are undergoing some changes. Let’s go to the May 4 west coast episode of Super Estrellas and hear the latest developments. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MYLxV-Lb2E

Hugo welcomes the viewers and runs down what we'll see on today's program, including Invader and Bronco taking on Gen.Akbar's newest team the State Patrol (James Earl Wright and Dudley Do Right). Hugo then talks about the changes to the May 12 Mother’s Day card. The first change is the venue, due to air conditioning being installed at the venue in San German, the card will now take place in Mayaguez. Hugo runs down the updated card and among the changes we now have Invader & Bronco facing the Samoan Swat Team, Giant Warrior challenging new TV champion King Kong, and Monster Ripper will now defend her Women’s title against Candi Divine (Amaralyris suffered an ankle injury). This Friday they will be in Yauco with a main event of Carlos Colon vs.King Kong, Invader & Bronco vs Action Jackson & El Profe in a lumberjack match, Giant Warrior vs. Rod Price, Caribbean Express vs Samoan Swat Team, Ricky Santana vs Wild Bill Braddock, and Kim Duk vs Billy Joe Travis.

MD: Hugo has a lot to say here. Esteban will cover all this but here’s what stood out. First, the State Patrol are in (making me think the Studs are out?) and… it’s James Earl Wright and Dudley Do Right? I am not making this up. It’d be awesome if they had Wright teaming with the Mountie here, but I don’t think that’s what’s happening. Second, they were building to a big show (Afternoon of Champions) but had to move the venue because the air conditioning was broken! Right now the card is Colon vs Garvin, Bronco/Invader vs Samoan Swat Team, King Kong vs Giant Warrior (replacing TNT), Monster Ripper vs Candi Devine (as Amaryllis already had an ankle injury), plus a minis match, Super Medico vs Action Jackson (with Kim Duk as ref! What a run for that guy), and Santana vs Brad Anderson and Duk vs Braddock to round it out. We’ll see if that holds up.

Super Medico #3 vs. Action Jackson 

EB: We go to Action Jackson and El Profe in the ring during this past week’s TV taping in Cataño. Action and Profe are demanding for Action to wrestle Super Medico #3, arguing that Action beat him last week in Caguas and thus he should get a Caribbean title shot right now. We go to the clip of the match from April 27 in Caguas between Super Medico #3 and Action Jackson, The ref accidentally gets bumped by Jackson after being kicked by Medico #3, leading to Medico #3 taking down Action with a flying headbutt. However,  the ref takes too long to come too and Action kicks out. Action then surprises Medico #3 with an inside cradle for the win. Back to Cataño and Medico #3 has accepted the challenge. We’re getting a Caribbean title match right now.

It’s a bit of a seesaw battle with Medico #3 controlling to start, Action taking over after raking the eyes, and then Medico #3 coming back after countering a corner charge We get another ref bump, this time when Action ducks a flying body press from Medico #3 and instead Medico takes out the ref. Medico #3 gets a roll up but the ref is not up. Profe gets in the ring and headbutts Medico #3 with a loaded mask (the camera clearly showed Profe loading up the mask before getting into the ring). Action makes the cover and the ref counts to three. The ref awards the title to Action Jackso, who leaves the ring with Profe. Hugo and Eliud Gonzalez are saying that they robbed Medico #3 of his title, when we see Kim Duk make his way to the ring. Duk explains to the ref what happened, and we see the ref disappear into the rudo locker room. All of a sudden, the ref runs out with the Caribbean title and holds up Medico #3’s arm as the winner. Looks like the ref found the foreign object. Super Medico #3 grabs the microphone and throws out a challenge to Action Jackson, he’s willing to have another match with Jackson but only if Kim Duk is the special guest referee.

MD: They show us the finish (and Jackson berating Medico before the match) of one match where Medico lost due to a ref bump. Then we get the brunt of a second match where Medico looks better than I’d seen him in the previous show, fiery. I think he just needed a proper opponent and setting. Here he plows through Jackson’s attempts to takeover with eye rakes but plows into the ref with a blind leap off the turnbuckles. That lets Jackson cheat (Profe loads his mask and nails Medico) and steal the belt. Duk comes out and contests and the ref overturns the decision, going so far as to run to the rudo locker room to get it back, and of course all of this sets up Duk as special ref. Interestingly, they apologize later for not having Medico in the studio to talk about all this but Hugo hypes up how upset he is and also his hard matches recently with Brad Anderson as he has one more upcoming.

EB: Ron Garvin joins us by telephone to talk about his Universal title match with Carlos Colon on Mother’s Day weekend. Garvin has been Universal champion before and says he is a bit better and younger than Carlos Colon. Garvin makes sure to wish a happy Mother’s Day to all of the mothers. We then go to Hugo and Carlos Colon, with Carlos mentioning that he wants all of the fans there to support him since Garvin is a dangerous opponent. Carlos has lost to Garvin before and is looking to make sure that result does not repeat itself on Mother’s Day. Hugo then asks Carlos about his match on Friday vs King Kong, with Carlos saying that he has to be careful with Kong, we saw how he put TNT on the shelf for who knows how long and he has to be careful the same doesn’t happen to him. Carlos told TNT he’s hoping to get some payback for him this Friday. 

Hugo then talks over a still photo of Super Medico #3 where he confirms that the Caribbean title match with Kim Duk as special guest ref is set for Mother’s Day weekend. After a card rundown for the May 12 house show, we join in progress a 1988 match between Invader #3 and Ron Garvin. This is to showcase Garvin ahead of his upcoming Universal title challenge and Garvin gets the win with his hand of stone punch.

MD: We have few results for Garvin in 91 but he had one WCW match in March against Rick Steiner in Knoxville apparently and did some for South Atlantic in the margins as well. So I’m not quite sure why he couldn’t be there. Maybe he just didn’t want to be. Lots of “Let me tell yous” in this phone interview. He says he’s leaner, meaner, and younger than Colon, and a better lover, fisherman, etc, which was kind of funny. Weirdly, Hugo doesn’t translate it. Colon gives a hard sell for the Mother’s Day show saying he needs all the fans there to support him. Then he talks about an upcoming spot show against Kong where he’d get revenge for TNT. 

The old footage is joined in progress, with Garvin choking Invader IIi repeatedly, feeding a bit on a comeback, and ducking under to set up the hands of steel to finish him off. It got the point across.

EB: Action Jackson and El Profe offer their comments about the upcoming match with Kim Duk as special guest referee. They sound pretty confident that neither Medico #3 or Kim Duk will be a problem.

MD: Not much to say here. Jackson isn’t worried about beating Medico and he says some pretty bad things about Duk.

King Kong vs. Kim Duk - From April 27?

EB: Skandor Akbar and King Kong are here to talk about the TV title defense against Giant Warrior on Mother;s Day and about Kong’s match this Friday against Carlos Colon. Akbar is pretty confident as well that his man will come away with the duke.

We then  go to April 27 in Caguas, where Kim Duk is facing King Kong in an attempt to avenge TNT’s injury. Because of the injury to TNT, the top rope splash has been banned. Duk makes a valiant go of it, but Kong is able to knock him down and hit a slash for the three count. 

MD: Big news here is that the top rope Super Kong Splash is banned. Akbar says he’s going to destroy everyone anyway. The match was short with Duk’s strikes keeping Kong on the ropes as he tried to get revenge for TNT. All it took was one clothesline out of nowhere to drop Duk for a splash off the ropes. They had built Kong up on the idea that he could crash into you at any point and that would basically be it.

Brad Anderson vs. El Corsario

EB: Brad Anderson is here to send some words to Ricky Santana, his opponent for Mother’s Day weekend. Brad is the latest challenger for the World Junior title. We also get a look at Brad Anderson in the ring, as he faces El Corsario. Brad looks a bit like a pirate with that headgear. Anderson gets to showcase his stuff, albeit with a couple of rough spots where it looks like he and Corsario were not on the same page as to how the bump should be taken. A hard spinebuster slam gets the win for Brad Andedson. 

MD: Brad Anderson, Ole’s kid (and Zan Panzer), looks more like a lost Hennig family member here. They build him up as a family member of Gene, Ole, Flair. He actually has some neat variations. He hits a gourdbuster where Corsario seems to almost take it on the back of his head and then does a spinebuster slam instead of a spinebuster to win. He really did sort of come off as an Anderson for the 90s.

EB: We get a  repeat airing of the Giant Warrior music video where he walks around Old San Juan and with some weird action scenes interspersed throughout. . 

MD: Things you need to know: This started with a weird motorcycle for some reason. We got more of Giant Warrior’s glowing heart. It ended with Giant Warrior wielding a stylized gun and pointing it at a screen followed by footage of a car blowing up.

EB: Hugo is visiting a recovering TNT at his home. TNT (with ski mask) wants to thank the fans for all of the well wishes and says that he is happy that all of the tests have come out negative. He promises that he will be back in the not too distant future and warns King Kong that TNT will avenge this. 

MD: They always do such a good job with these though it’s funny for TNT to be hanging out at home in a ninja mask. Anyway, no permanent damage and he’d be back soon.

El Bronco #1 & Invader #1 vs. State Patrol

EB: Our main event is Invader #1 & Bronco #1 taking on Akbar’s latest team of the State Patrol. James Earl Wright starts off for the Patrol, while Bronco starts off for the champs. The tecnicos control the first half of the match, until Invader gets backed into the rudo corner. Dudley Do Right and Wright work over Invader for the next few minutes, but ultimately Invader makes a comeback and gets the tag to Bronco,who gets the win for his team with his Bronco DDT. 

Hugo closes the show by plugging the May 12 Mother’s Day show and this Friday’s show in Yauco.

MD: So friend of the blog and all wrestling fans everywhere, Kris Zellner, thinks that Dudley is Mike Servich who had runs in South Atlantic and Georgia All Star, and he knows better than me about this stuff so I believe him. This was a pretty slight one overall. They controlled on Wright’s arm. The Patrol was able to isolate Invader in the corner for a bit. Dudley looked ok in there overall stooging and clubbing well. Finish had Bronco getting the hot tag and then hitting his face first DDT out of nowhere.

EB: Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, we continue celebrating the mothers of Puerto Rico. First we get the final TV episodes setting up the Noche de Campeones event. The Saman Swat Team debuts, Profe is working with Monster Ripper, and the final hype for Mother’s Day. Then, we get four matches from the May 11 Noche de Campeones card that was aired live on WAPA as a gift to the mothers of Puerto Rico. Will we have any title changes? And how does Ron Garvin’s return to Puerto Rico go? 

Read more!

AEW Five Fingers of Death (And Friends) 11/18 - 11/30 Part 1

AEW Dynamite 11/26/25 

Jon Moxley has a point.

That's what makes him so dangerous. That's what's always made him so dangerous. He's a multi-time world champion, the creator of Death Jitsu, a man who is willing to go incredibly far to achieve his goals, dubious as they may be.

So what if the emperor has no clothes. He's still the emperor.

So when he says that tomorrow is another day, when there's another fight around the corner, well that's pro wrestling for you, isn't it? The story never ends, usually not until the third retirement at least.

And what a new chapter this is, the Continental Classic, the perfect place to turn things around, to prove he's not a quitter, that he's the ace, the best, an emperor to be feared and respected.

First match: Mascara Dorada, a young lucha lion growing every day into his mantle, yet someone who's been around long enough to smell blood, a clash of styles and backgrounds, glittering light vs grimy darkness.

So Mox did what he did. First, he took it to the mat. The crowd was chanting "You Tapped Out" at him. Time to prove them wrong. Dorada went to the point of Moxley's recent defeats, the ankle, because of course he did, but Moxley, cool and calm, rolled through. He was in control. He was a master practitioner. He maneuvered Dorada into a headscissors but was helpless to stop him as he bounded out with a dexterous headstand.

Cute. Fine. Well and good. Moxley had tools in his arsenal. He shifted gears, let Dorada win that first exchange, adapted, because that's what he did. Mox went to roughhousing, to striking, got a few good shots in, but Dorada was able to roll with it and contorted himself up and around into a 'rana clowning Moxley. Now the crowd was chanting lucha, a little shift of the tide away from Moxley and towards Dorada.

So Mox would just turn up the volume a bit more. He got Dorada down to the floor and hit a rare dive, crashing hard head-first into the barricade. He hit the softer part. Dorada hit the harder part. It was reckless, showed that control was slipping through his fingers, but it worked. It just didn't work well enough. He wasn't going to beat Dorada on flips and dives. The luchador fought back quickly, hit a breathtaking tornillo of his own, and positioned Moxley on the floor beneath the ramp charging at him with a massive dive.

But Jon Moxley had not just a point, but many points in his favor. The emperor may have no clothes, but no one could take his skin and bone and sinew from him. No clothes, one forearm, and he got it up, clocking Dorada as he sailed past. 

Now he was in control. Something had shifted further though. As he leaned down on Dorada, the fans weren't chanting "You Tapped Out." They weren't chanting "Lucha." They were chanting "Dorada." He wasn't an interchangeable mask-wearing cipher. He'd grown in their hearts through the match. 

So Moxley escalated again. He brought the stairs into play on the outside. That, and the time and distance it created, allowed Dorada to come back with spectacular use of the barricade, hitting a cutter over it, and then the ropes, rebounding Moxley and himself back off of them. 

But Moxley always had an answer and this time, with increasing desperation, it was a cutter out of nowhere. Now, as Moxley positioned Dorada into the corner, it all weighed on him: losing the early exchanges, those chants, the recent comeback, all of those losses, the quitting, everything. He started in on the ten count punches, but instead of turning it into his usual bite or rake of the back, he kept punching, and why not? The fans were counting along. That had to feel good, like he wasn't so alone in the world, out there in the ring without even Marina beside him thanks to the Continental Classic rules. Punch after punch after punch as the fans counted along, straight on past ten. Until he overextended and got caught, hefted up in an electric chair position and flipped about into a neckbreaker. 

One moment of weakness led to another as Dorada sat back with a cross arm-breaker. No longer was Mox calm and collected. Now he flailed about in outright terrified panic. Maybe that was the only thing that saved him. He was flopping about so manically that Dorada couldn't lock in the hold. Mox couldn't let himself quit again, not at the start of the tournament, not after Darby and Blood and Guts and Full Gear. 

Seeing red, he rolled Dorada over and punched at his gold mask again and again and absolutely crushed him with a running knee. He went for the Death Rider only to get rolled up. He survived a 450 (because naked or no, he's the emperor, dammit), but was now an unchained animal and he ran right into a spinning kick. At every point here, the vulnerability that Moxley had shown over the last many months primed the fans to think that things could end at any moment. There was an excitement in the air throughout this entire stretch that isn't always present because of that.

Clothes or no, point or no, hypocrite or not, quitter that he might have been, those animal instincts were strong. Dorada went back up top and launched into a shooting star press. Mox got his knees up, all instinct, and wrapped Dorada tightly in a d'arce choke. He was exposed to the world here on the first night of the Continental Classic, and he clung to Dorada's head like a babe in the woods with a security blanket. His desperation was such that there'd be absolutely no escape for Dorada, and instead the relief of escape for Moxley. 

The emperor, his kingdom falling apart, lived to fight another day. That was all that mattered in this moment and Moxley, in denial of so many things, would lie to himself and bask in his victory, ignoring the creeping dread in his heart due to the undeniable truth that Claudio Castagnoli was waiting for him only one week away.

Read more!

80s Joshi on Wednesday: Lucy! Kumano!

Disc 1

9. Lucy Kayama vs. Mami Kumano - 5/80

K: The Lucy Kayama vs. Yumi Ikeshita match that we covered a few weeks ago was always going to make the set, I think this is a good companion piece. Mami Kumano is the less technically impressive than her Black partner, but she has a feral raging energy of her own that she works into her matches well. It's also rare that we see her in a singles match, so let's check this out.

There's some noticeable editing in the early portion of the match where they're exchanging holds and we don't see much else, so hard to draw any conclusions from it other than they were going long so kept themselves plenty of places to go in the time they had to get through. They mainly seemed to be going after each other’s arms. Of course things escalate when Mami Kumano starts incorporating her cheating antics and creating a bit of chaos. She does things by throwing in some hide-the-weapon action and, one of her specialities, very uncivilised biting. There's one memorable moment where Mami has Lucy's arm in her mouth, with no hands! She's just standing there gripping it with her teeth and it looks very savage. She also counters an attempt at leg lock by biting Lucy's leg to force her to break it.

She did a lot more hiding the weapon though, probably overdoing it. The crowd does laugh at one point at the referee's ineptitude for repeatedly missing Mami pulling her weapon from inside her top, which probably isn't the reaction they were going for. Mami's cheating and the referee's uselessness enrages the babyfaces at ringside so much that they grab Mami, by the ankles and yank her out of the ring for Lucy to hit her with a big dive. This moves us forward and the match turns into a war from here on.

It's interesting that Mami actually threw a jumping kick. Not a very good one, it's just that you almost never see anyone throwing kicks in pre-Crush Gals Joshi so it stood out to me.

They build and build up to the time limit finish, by which point they're just clobbering each other with strikes looking barely aware that they're out of time. This probably overachieved for a singles match between the two less pushed members of two tag teams currently feuding.

***1/2

MD: You’ll be glad to know the commentary is still calling her Mt. Lucy (or maybe you won’t be). I miss Kumano’s cool one-arm-cut-off leather jacket but she has a cape and a splash of red in her hair now. And as you can imagine this turned into a wild scene. I get the sense it was clipped somewhere along the way and went to a 30 minute draw, but I’m not entirely sure where. 

Lucy was able to outwrestle Kumano early, having an answer for most things, including attempts to cheat by pulling the hair or throwing a shot while in the hold. Kumano’s answer to that was to toss her out and then, as the match opened up, to hide a spanner and attack her with it. I also get the sense she had a taped up thumb she was using but I’m not sure. 

We’ve seen hide the object before but what made this work were the bits of hope and comeuppance. At one point Tomi grabbed Kumano’s leg and dragged her out allowing Kayama to get a queen rocket through the ropes upon her. She started one comeback by isolating the spanner and grinding her foot into Kumano’s hand. Kumano hit her seated senton off the top relatively early but when she went for it later in the match, she got tossed off by Lucy. All of this was full of struggle and intensity. There was a crazy moment where Lucy put Kumano in a figure four only for (I think) Tomi and Masami to run in and do the spot in unison. Later on when it seemed like Lucy had a real advantage, Ikeshita ran in as well. And they finished it off as the bell rang just throwing wild shots at each other. The big difference so far between the 79 and 80 matches, past some callback spots giving everything a bit more weight and meaning, is that the babyfaces are able to hold their own more (and not just Jackie either). It honestly makes a huge difference.

Read more!

AEW Five Fingers of Death 11/17 - 11/23

AEW Full Gear 2025 11/22/25

Darby Allin vs PAC

MD: There were people that questioned why this needed to be on the PPV when it was announced. On paper, maybe it was just a good match for the sake of being a good match, the sort of thing that has been used for years now to fill out AEW PPVs and tilt those Observer Thumbs Up and Cagematch ratings. And maybe that would have been enough. But there was more at play here.

Darby came in literally hot, having been burned by PAC (or more accurately put through a burning table by him, with Gabe Kidd's help) at Blood & Guts. But this is a Darby that had come down from Everest, one that's at peace with himself. He came in hot but he used that heat to fuel a wrestling machine. He didn't fly in with strikes but instead with headlock takeovers. The purpose of this was twofold. First, PAC had come in saying that they were going to wrestle a clean match and the better man would win. By outwrestling him early, Darby would hurt PAC more than any single punch to the face. More than that though, Darby was bandaged up. He had to wrestle conservatively, even if aggressively. While he had the luxury, he wouldn't use his own body as a weapon.

That luxury wouldn't last long. After barely escaping a makeshift Scorpion Deathlock attempt, PAC was able to catch him on the apron and press slam him to the floor. What followed was a brutal heat section where they did a great job mixing up big bumps/moves (that press slam, though that was a transition, Darby's absolutely brutal bump past the corner to the floor, even the neck-first catapult into the bottom rope) with PAC being a malicious maniac, tearing off the bandages and giving Darby an Indian burn. Everything came together for the latter: Darby's distorted skin, the way the bandage flew through the air, the look of exultation on PAC's face and agony on Darby's, how shocked and horrified the commentators were. It got as big a reaction from the crowd as both of Darby's huge bumps. 

Anything in pro wrestling can matter so long as it's presented correctly and much, much more effort should be made in making small things like this matter as much as possible. Not only is it safer and more varied than big bump after big bump, but it also allows those bumps, if framed correctly, to mean even more through escalation. The proof is in the audience reaction here (and yes, they did go up even higher as Darby crashed through the corner).

Darby mounted a comeback by catching PAC in the apron (and the sense of struggle here was great; PAC was desperate to get out in a way that others in that rare spot often aren't), setting him up for a dive and then a gnarly dropkick from the top to PAC seated on the floor in a chair. 

Darby was obviously hurting and PAC presents himself successfully as one of the best in the world, so they would go back and forth from there. PAC was able to catch Darby off the ropes turning a Coffin Splash into a suplex. He was unable to put him away with the Brutalizer though. Darby was able to get out of the way of a Black Arrow and it looked like he was going to put PAC away with the Scorpion Deathlock.

But there was a plan for this. The Death Riders have quit a little too much lately (even if it's almost all been on the head of their leader). PAC had vowed that this would be a fair fight, that the best man would win. So in some ways, he'd already lost when Wheeler Yuta rushed up to the apron to distract Darby and the ref, and doubly so, when he used the bat to knock Darby out. But moral victories don't exist in the record books, only wins and losses. 

And later on when Moxley faced O'Reilly there was a plan as well. Once it was clear that O'Reilly had an answer for every bit of wrestling Moxley could throw at him, Marina handed Mox the fork and he used it to take over. The plan worked for PAC. The plan only failed in the Casino Gauntlet because Matt Menard chose to punish Garcia and run him off instead of trying to win the National Title. The Plan here worked right up until the point it didn't, until the point where Moxley, having broken Kyle's arm, still managed to tap out to a chain reinforced ankle lock. Maybe he went back and finished the job after the match but even if he won the war, he lost the battle, and in this case, the battle was more important than the war. 

So yes, Darby vs PAC was great, but it wasn't just a great match for the sake of having great matches. There was a grudge coming in and it was worked to that. More importantly, it set the stage, through a begrudging plan of the Death Riders coming to fruition, for Mox vs O'Reilly where a similar plan, unveiled far sooner and far more desperately, nonetheless failed. That contrast hangs over Moxley like his own personal Sword of Damocles, just waiting to fall.

AEW Full Gear 2025 Collision Tailgate Brawl 11/22/25

Eddie Kingston/Hook vs Workhorsemen

MD: It's amazing what you can do in two minutes. Look, I'm not going to say anyone should or shouldn't have done whatever they did or didn't do. We never have the full story and it's always complicated and we do far too much speaking up on matters that we're just blind men touching elephants on.

What I can speak on, however, is this match. They had two minutes, less than two minutes according to cagematch (just 1:48). But the Workhorsemen punched in and showed what they could do. They ambushed Hook and Eddie on the way down. Drake took Eddie out, and that's the way things have been for Kingston as he builds up his fighting strength from match to match. That meant they had Hook isolated and though he tried to fire back off the ropes or out of the corner, they went to work. 

That meant hitting their signature flurry of a Drake apron clothesline, the Henry headtwist, and Drake flying in with a slingshot somersault senton. Hook was finally able to get out of the way causing a bit of miscommunication and then launching Henry. By then Eddie was recovered and he did the same to Drake setting the stage to hit a quick DDT out of nowhere and scoring the win. 

But in two minutes the Workhorsemen, professional as can be, got a spotlight to show that they could take the initiative, knock Hook around the ring, and hit some polished, brutal offense on the guy who was going to be the hingepoint of the PPV's main event. No small thing even for two men who are very, very good at what they do.

ROH TV 11/20/25

Athena vs Harley Cameron (Ported: https://x.com/MattD_SC/status/1991866317486555505)

Throughout the years, we've created a critical system of reviewing and ranking matches that's based on things like action, execution, big spots, and exciting finishing stretches.

It often leaves more performative elements behind. These would include facial reactions, body language, character driven creative choices, and yeah, even selling. 

In fact, over the years, matches that lean too hard on some of these elements tend to be judged by some as unfortunate because they can "negatively impact the action" and make it so a match isn't considered as conventionally great as it might have been if the wrestlers had just been allowed to go hard and lean into workrate instead.

A recent review I saw of Demolition vs Brainbusters from SNME 21, a match that trades workrate for a clever and consistent story of Demolition getting increasingly frustrated leading to a DQ, comes to mind.

Along these lines, some of Jon Moxley's recent performances where he's been leaning hard into the role of a mad king who saw his pro wrestling kingdom crumbling, a man who claimed to stand for things but was slowly being revealed as an emperor with no clothes, an animal with his back against the wall desperate for victory, for revenge, but forced to look himself in the mirror and see a coward, quitter, and hypocrite, have been excellent.

But there are different lanes for different sorts of performances, and I think there's no one as good in the world right now at letting her character drive her physicality and matches as Athena. 

That was evident in her 11/20 ROH TV title match against Harley Cameron. 

Despite being champion for over 1000 days, she came in on her back foot, having been pinned by Harley in the tag tournament (albeit after eating Willow's doctor bomb).

That was maddening for Athena (the character) for multiple reasons. First, she and Mercedes were a sort of super team and they were defeated in the first round. Second, she's been pinned only a handful of times in the last few years. Third, there's a massive difference in hierarchy and experience between Athena and Harley. Harley's treated as plucky and determined, hard-working and fiery, but also as an upstart underdog and often as a comedy act.

That gave Athena a ton to work with but it meant shaping the match and her performance around this mentality as opposed to shooting to have the most exciting, spot filled match possible.

She came out to the ring without her usual celebratory fanfare, scowling instead. She offered a normal handshake instead of her usual left handed princess dangle. Then she ran right in, impatient and irritated, charging into Harley's armdrags. That Harley's execution wasn't perfect only added fuel to the fire here.

When Athena took over, she was constantly distracted. At times, after her running punch in the corner or when putting on a hold, she'd start to unveil her usual grin only for reality to hit and the scowl to return. Just when she started to relax and enjoy herself, the fans began clapping up Harley and she became irate. She jawed back with them, delusionally claiming that they were taunting Harley and not her. 

The match was built around Athena's character-driven mistakes (rushing in, losing her cool, being distracted by the crowd, trying to use Harley's own finisher) creating openings for Harley in order to counteract the hierarchal differences. It demanded absolute consistency from Athena in both what she did and in how she did it. It demanded selling that's far more complex and nuanced than remembering to limp now and again, a selling of the soul. 

These performances tend not to earn stars, but they move hearts and minds. And in 2025, Athena is as good at them as anyone.

Read more!

2025 Ongoing MOTY List: Priest vs. Bosby

 

Adam Priest vs. Tim Bosby ACTION Wrestling 10/17/25

ER: Adam Priest is no secret anymore, but Tim Bosby might still be. I don't think his secret will be kept for much longer. He does too many things well, too many things that show how well he understands pro wrestling. This was a great match, pitting the normally despicable Priest into the role of Georgia Super Babyface vs. the hateable Bosby. Bosby is the big Tennessee heel bringing his title into Georgia and Priest is the scrappy local face taking it to him, and the whole thing rocked. I love heel Priest, but it's great seeing him fired up in the crowd throwing punches at this much larger beast, knocking the heavyweight into fans, throwing uppercuts into him that forces Bosby to use the fans to brace against the impact. Priest is just as great at being a fired up babyface as he is at being a despicable heel, as if there were two different Priests. 

Bosby is a real monster, but a monster who is really smart about how he wrestles. He does so many things in one match - big and small - that make him stand apart from other monsters who are merely men, and other men who are merely wrestlers. When he throws himself into the mat as he whips Priest into the buckles, that's one of those things a wrestler can do every other match or so that will make me like that wrestler a lot more. It's a flashier version of a guy holding onto a headlock when pushed off, in terms of things a wrestler can do to make me tell others they're a really great wrestler. Bosby matches are full of such things, and I can say the same thing about Adam Priest matches. When Bosby takes a back body drop on the floor, Priest walks off hunched holding his back, because Priest understood he needed to fight to get Bosby over, to his own detriment, and it made the bump look and feel even bigger.  

That's key, because they understood exactly what the size dynamic was and they stayed within it the entire match. It looked like a struggle for Priest to back drop Bosby, because look at the two of them! That size difference led to some incredible moments. When Bosby sinks in a smothering sleeperhold, it takes Priest several jawbreakers to break out of it, because they understand the physics of their battle. It's also how they create such a realistic nearfall out of a Bret/Austin Survivor Series finish. Bosby catching Priest's suicide dive roughly over his shoulders then screaming his way through an F5, hurtling Priest at the apron, is one of those things that should make everyone a fan of Bosby (and Priest) and showed how hard Priest would have to work to overcome this beast. I had no idea just how much this match was going to continue peaking. 

Once Priest almost pinned Bosby, it's like Bosby knew he had to Terminator his way through. He keeps utilizing heavy back elbows to break holds and set up sequences, and Priest runs into a back elbow better than anyone going. He also gets powerbombed over Bosby's damn knee for a two count, which is a pretty crazy two count on an ACTION show. ACTION has conditioned me well to understand that big moves finish matches, and overkill will not be tolerated. Priest kicking out of that powerbomb told me things were about to change. I do not think this ever drifted into overkill, I just think both men are 2 Stubborn 2 B Put Down. Priest's tenacity as a hell works just as well as a babyface, and I bit at every nearfall down the stretch, where Priest was at his wrestling physics best. Both men kept making me lean forward in my chair, made me want to skip back to see what I had just seen. 

When Priest chopped Bosby across the thighs and pounced on him with a short piledriver, I flipped out. When he broke out his small package reversal out of a full speed Bosby F5, I bought it as a fully credible title change finish. His crucifix after was a nice follow up jump scare nearfall, because Priest knows exactly what kind of surprise element to utilize here. Their skill in peaking this match from start to finish was so impressive. The F5 kickout was done so well. Bosby played his anger perfectly with some realistically expressionless jock anger rather than bug eyed Performance Center shock, and Bosby does yet another one of those things he does that show how well he understands wrestling: he knows he has the time to slowly pull both straps down before pulling Priest off the mat. Had the match ended right there, I would have loved it. F5, kickout, straps come down, one more F5, no chance of a kickout. 

But this is Adam Priest! We get more, and it gets better. Bosby doesn't just do another F5, he wants to do thee F5. He takes things to the top rope, and Priest gets wise to that while on the top rope. The visual of Priest standing on the top, punching and elbowing at King Kong, eventually winning the battle over a crazy frankensteiner, looked like we were seeing the most insane version of Misterio vs. Nash. The finish is pretty ridiculously overdone but it was truly well done bullshit. After getting another believable nearfall, we go through Priest blindly DDTing the referee to Bosby hitting Priest with a loaded backpack. It wouldn't have hurt Priest's credibility to just take the biggest spinning F5 anyone has thrown, as that's a reasonable way to lose a match to the champ. That Bosby knew that and still went through all the bullshit to win is kind of the point. 

Bosby leaves to Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows" and if people don't, they sure will before long.  

2025 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

Found Footage Friday: AJPW CLASSICS~! ABBY~! WAJIMA~! MAGEE~! TAKAGI~! IDOL~! RICH~! KABUKI~! TIGER MASK~!

Abdullah the Butcher vs. Hiroshi Wajima AJPW 1/2/88

MD: Abby had bigger fish to fry. His eyes were on Jumbo and Baba. Wajima was just a guy he had to babysit here. I'm not going back to see if this did ratings or not but I bet it did even as Wajima was less of a TV draw than he'd been the year before. I'll be honest. I started my AJPW chronological watch with 89 in part to avoid the guy. I kind of regret that now though not necessarily because of anything he did here. More because I would have liked to track every Tenryu match after his turn. But I'd say in small doses, i.e. this match, Wajima was pretty interesting to watch.

Here we got to see him through the lens of an Abdullah the Butcher that wanted the country of Japan to remember that he was a singular and formidable monster. 

Wajima would try a bunch of things. Abby would no sell them in the most bored and stoic way possible, hilarious to both me (despite myself) and the crowd at the time, and cut him off with the throat shot. The fans would chant Butcher over and over again. Then Abby would do some stylized karate shots and pose. It was something. To Abby's credit, it built to Wajima finally got him over and even though the first time that happened, Abby looked more bemused and surprised than anything else, it did sort of matter because of the mountain Wajima climbed. It would have just mattered more if it was, let's say, Isao Takagi (since he'll come up later) or Shunji Takano doing it and not someone who had been around main events for a while. Abby quickly had enough of that, hit a shoulder block and started laying in the elbow drops. Wajima kept putting his feet on the ropes and Abby got incensed and started going after anyone that moved with Baba making the save. Definitely a match that one experiences, this one.

ER: Another lifetime ago, I was the sole person on the Pro Wrestling Only All Japan 80s Nominating Committee to want this match as on the 150 matches on the final set. I understand the need to keep someone like me in check on a group project like the 80s sets. We were cultivating something important and historical for a large group of people to see and experience. Setting new talking points and updating tastes and standards. All 150 slots were important. I sincerely wanted this Abby/Wajima match on the Final 150. I love it. It deserved to be on. The main argument against it was that some thought it was the clear 150th place finisher, which might be true. Some would rank it low because it's only 6.5 minutes bell to bell. It isn't a title change, it doesn't build to a hot finish, and obviously not enough voters went to the wall for Abdullah the Butcher matches, because he had no matches on the set. Hiroshi Wajima had three. So maybe we put this match on the set as the fourth Wajima match and the only Abby match, and it finishes last? Is that bad? 

The two last place matches, #149 and #150, wound up being two different Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Bruiser Brody matches. Their 1983 match was #149, their 1988 match was #150. That 1988 match was #150 on my own personal ballot, in full unanimous agreement with the mass voting bloc in finding Jumbo/Brody '88 to be the very worst match of the 150 best All Japan matches of the 80s. Did we need to have two different Jumbo/Brody matches on their if they were considered the two worst of the set? Every territory we did was going to have a match that finished dead last. There has to be a Worst Scorsese Movie. I always wanted to put a colorful match on the set as the one we thought would finish last. For the WWF set I wanted the best of the Bobby Heenan/Ultimate Warrior weasel suit matches (which didn't make the set). For the Memphis set I Phil and I were the ones pushing for the Nightmare Freddy matches that finished dead last. 

Something has to finish last. Abdullah the Butcher should have been #150. Or #147. Time has proven me correct on this match. I love this match. It has incredible aura, incredible atmosphere, feels filled with danger and tension and unpredictability for its entire short runtime, and devolves into genuine spectacle in Korakuen. This match has intrigue. Abby had returned to Japan a few weeks earlier after a three year absence. He had primarily been a New Japan guy in the first half of the decade and now he was a New All Japan Guy. Abby looked like as big a superstar in 1988 as he had a decade earlier. I don't think we put enough respect on his 87-95 run. Watch this match and witness the power of his charisma. Wajima was one of my favorite kind of wrestlers: Disgraced Former Sumo, but he was a big name and had the greatest robe in wrestling. People respected him. 

Abdullah the Butcher clearly was not one of them. This whole match feels uncooperative and Abdullah looks like a guy who just keeps fearlessly making an all time great sumo look like a chump. There is no fork stabbing. There is no blood. But there is a lot of Abdullah the Butcher no selling Wajima's strikes and looking at him with unblinking, unimpressed eyes. His head is the perfect shape and his expressions are incredible. He walks through or ignores every Wajima strike while throwing screaming taped finger thrusts into his throat, and every single time he does karate poses, a new one every strike. He steps repeatedly to a champion sumo and makes more poses and faces than you've ever seen him do. Wajima finally takes the hint and does a couple shoot throws grabbing Abby by his sizable pants. Abby had finally been Gotten in a match where he disrespected Wajima over and over and over, and once he gets thrown he decides NOPE and runs into a legendary sumo with  full contact shoulderblock and drops three running elbows onto his neck and chest. 

Abby is so disrespectful to Wajima - AND THEN SHOVES JOE HIGUCHI, HARD! - that it draws out Jumbo and Baba and every green-tracksuited undercarder, and Abby spends 10 constantly enjoyable minutes avoiding physical interaction with Baba and Jumbo while throwing fingers at the throat of every tracksuit he sees. Jumbo is screaming at him while being held back, Baba takes his tracksuit jacket off and is walking around in track pants and no shirt, Abby is walking around the rows of Korakuen flanked by TNT and Black Assassin who isn't a guy anyone knows. It's the best. It's always intriguing, always entertaining. 

Here's the match that unanimously finished #150, which is extra appropriate because it was the main event of 3/27/88, with the Tom Magee and Tommy Rich/Austin Idol matches we cover below. Watch this match and tell me it's better than the spectacle of Abby/Wajima. 

#150: 

Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Bruiser Brody AJPW 3/27/88

Also, I was the extreme high vote for one of the Wajima matches that made the final set. I had Wajima/Ishikawa vs. Tenryu/Hara 6/8/87 as my #4 match. #4! It finished #141. #141! I ranked a match #4 that finished in the bottom 6%! You can't get much farther apart than 4 and 141. I haven't watched that match since doing the set, 13 years ago. I'm going to watch it later. I'm justified 15 years later in my love for Abby/Wajima, let's see what shit I was working through in 2012 to be the extreme high Wajima voter: 

Hiroshi Wajima/Takashi Ishikawa vs. Genichiro Tenryu/Ashura Hara AJPW 6/8/87

[Watched it again, turns out I was completely right once again. This match rocks. It's four sumos all angry for different reasons, Tenryu and Wajima cannot stand each other, everyone takes unprofessional shots. Wajima sells Tenryu's enziguiris better than anyone, Hara clotheslines Wajima in the side of the face and Wajima pays him back with one that knocks him onto his head. Every second of it has aura and/or sumos hitting each other hard]

Tommy Rich/Austin Idol vs. Tiger Mask II/Great Kabuki AJPW 3/27/88

MD: You'll want to stick around for the post match where Idol gathers a crowd around him and starts to pose like crazy. That's the most interesting thing in this one but it's also legitimately interesting. The second most interesting thing is the chinlock he puts on Kabuki where he works it so hard that every vein in his neck looked like it'd pop. The sheets said that Idol and Rich didn't get over because the Japanese didn't know what to make of guys who mostly punched and I find that kind of absurd and dismissive. The third is that Rich/Idol come out to Roll with the Changes by REO Speedwagon. 

I didn't love the feeling out stuff here or the finishing stretch to be honest, but I did think the control on Kabuki where they went after his neck/throat with a bunch of headlock punches/throat shots and a great Rich neckbreaker, plus the aforementioned chinlock was all very good. Tiger Mask probably just wasn't the right guy to match up against these two?

ER: Rich and Idol come out to "Roll with the Changes" and I love it. Tommy Rich was still using REO Speedwagon in Japan when he worked WAR in 1993, when the song was 15 years old. The match rules because it's Idol and Rich working a Memphis tag with Kabuki going along with it, Idol and Rich cutting off the ring and throwing punches from real and comedic angles, Idol connecting with Japanese fans as an honest to god cult celebrity. Jerry Lawler got such an ice cold reaction in his limited Japanese work, but Idol grabs the attention of the All Japan crowd and them makes aloof faces like he doesn't understand why.  At one point Idol tags in and throws Great Pro Wrestling Punches while dropping to a knee, throws a snapmare that is actually a man flipping another man to his seat by the head, and then throws punches to a seated Kabuki and chokes him on the mat before running him face first into Tommy Rich's knee. It is everything I love about wrestling distilled into 15 seconds. When he throws headlock punches to Kabuki, Kabuki drops forward to his knees like his nose is broken. Tommy Rich hits a fistdrop off the middle buckle. Idol hooks his hands under Kabuki's chin and flexes his arms as he pulls his neck back over his knee, hair looking like a swag version of the Mark Davis cut, and all is right. Austin Idol had a connection with the Japanese crowds and even in loss, that cult status looms over the victorious Tiger Mask. Idol flexes his biceps in the crowd and the reaction makes it clear that the people want More. 

Tom Magee vs. Isao Takagi AJPW 3/27/88

MD:  Some of these have been out there more or less for a few years but we never covered them (it's hard to keep up with Classics) so they're really new enough. And this was quite the thing right here. Magee came out to Danger Zone like he was Masa Fuchi or something, stood on the top turnbuckle, dropped his cape, posed, and did a shooting star press into the ring right into a tumble. Hell of a thing. 

And you know, parts of this were competent. Sure he landed on Takagi with his first leapfrog and there was just a weirdness to some of what he did. He'd do a headscissors at an angle I've never quite seen it and grabbed the ropes not for heat so much as so he didn't fall over, while in a grounded headscissors. His strikes were stylized to say the least. He put his foot on Takagi's leg while holding an armbar, not to drive him down but to set up a drop toehold and I don't quite get that. Lots of little things like that, but the armdrags looked ok and he was spirited in his legdrops and kneedrops and hiptosses and what not. 

But really this was about the spin wheel kicks. His was basically a beesting, the chop of the spinwheelkick, where he got the edge of his foot into the midsection of Takagi. Takagi when he later reversed a whip and hit a charge and just careened at Magee, went foot first right into his face as he arced. And yes, right after that, Magee opened up in a big way, blood coming down his face. The match was over by that point though as he did a somersault to "dodge a charging Takagi", put in quotes for a reason and then did a belly to back position backbreaker which I've never seen before for a submission. Hell of an entrance though. 

ER: I don't really think Tom Magee is that much different than many guys who are pushed as a Fast Rising Star on the modern indy (or national television!) scene. He had great athleticism and actually had more offense than I realized, and he isn't AS terrible as advertised when it comes to fitting that offense into an actual match. He feels like someone who could have been molded with more time, but wasn't given more time. I liked some things he did (like his weird drop toehold) but the main thing he had going against him was also the same thing he had going for him: He moved like an alien in the ring. If not like an alien, he moved like someone who had been given the implanted knowledge of pro wrestling, without actually knowing or understanding what pro wrestling was. Many of the things he does look "fine" but he does them as someone who doesn't know what he is doing, and the crowds can feel it. He is doing a kneedrop, he is doing a legdrop, he is doing a weird drop toehold, but he is doing it in a way that doesn't feel like pro wrestling, it feels like a memorized series of steps. Tom Magee memorized the sounds of the alphabet phonetically but cannot actually read or understand letters, and it is off-putting to the people who love wrestling. If you gave an alien a recipe to make a pumpkin pie, but they had never tasted a pie or seen what a pie looked like, you would almost surely get some sort of creation that had similarities to pie while also being grotesque in a way that aesthetically offended you. It's why Magee didn't seem to realize he was even bleeding from the nose and mouth after being hit by a spinning heel kick. He does not understand these humans, nor the ways they leak.  

Read more!

80s Joshi on Wednesday: Tomi! Lucy! Kumano! Ikeshita!

Disc 1

8. Lucy Kayama & Tomi Aoyama vs. Mami Kumano & Yumi Ikeshita - 4/4/80

K: Firstly, I want to give a little shout out to an old poster called Xalazi. Many years ago, I remember him posting on Reddit that this was one of his favourite Joshi matches. This would have been around the time I decided I was going to make this set. That comment prompted me to decide that I'm gonna include any match I see getting talked up like that by someone who knows their retro Joshi. It's like giving everyone who's influenced this project a personal pick.
I feel like you need to have seen the 7/31/79 tag between these two teams before you see this one. They have a similar vibe, and have a very similar ending, but everything here feels like an escalation from the previous outing, which was already very dramatic. 

In the introductions Queen Angels don't really look like they're here to fight. Tomi Aoyama has recently returned from a knee injury and it's still all taped up. Lucy Kayama looks almost like a stereotypically dainty shy girl the way she's holding her hands and looking at the floor. That may have been misdirection though, because as soon as the bell sounds they both jump Black Pair with dropkicks, stomp Ikeshita out of the ring and go for a beatdown on Kumano. Feels more like how Black Pair would open a match, but after all we've seen involving these teams, you can't fault Queen Angels for not acting like suckers tonight.

The babyfaces aren't able to maintain the advantage in an all out fight, but they do hold their own and there's some extra venom in their offense. Thankfully for Lucy Kayama her big dive actually hits her opponents this time and sets up them winning the first fall. I think it was her dive that busts Mami Kumano's mouth or nose open. Not too badly but there's enough blood to make her believable dazed even into the 2nd fall. The move they got the pin with was a big splash from Kayama kneeling on Aoyama's shoulders. It looked like they didn't quite know what they were doing, but that's cool, like they're pulling out all the stops to win here.

But then, disaster strikes. When attempting a Giant Swing on Mami Kumano, Tomi's knee collapses under her. Ikeshita immediately pounces after spotting she's hurt. Lucy runs in to protect her partner but gets thrown out the ring so Tomi can be isolated and pinned just before Lucy is able to reach out to break it up.

Then it's carnage. Black Pair are desperate to exacerbate Tomi's re-injured knee. It's hard to figure out what's real and what isn't here and they take multiple kicks at her injured knee in between throwing a bunch of babyfaces around the place who're failing to stop them carry out this criminal assault. Even the officials get manhandled. Heck, even Tenjin Masami tries to restrain Ikeshita at one point!

They start the 3rd fall, maybe hoping the match being officially back on will get Black Pair to tone it down. This doesn't work. Tomi's in a mess on the floor and they continue on the maiming. The way Mami kicks Tomi's leg from under her is so callous it makes you mad. The venue is echoing with the shrieks of the audience. This fall barely lasts a minute before the bell sounds, apparently for some kind of 'time out' to assess Tomi's injury as they don't call the match yet. That only lasts about 30 seconds coz Black Pair won't stop attacking her. Tomi actually tries to escape while on her back just flopping up and down across the ring with one leg in the air. It's actually pretty impressive how much she moves from doing that.

Well done to Tomi for escaping, but unfortunately that just leaves Lucy Kayama in the ring having to face off with Black Pair on her own. She doesn't stand a chance, but she fights valiantly, eventually succumbing to the ultimate retro Joshi finisher, just lying across your opponents shoulders and forcing them down onto the mat until you get a 3 count! I know, revolutionary. Works especially well when your powerless tag partner is watching on the outside all teary-eyed incapable to do anything about it.

Could we have got a bit more of an actual match? Yes. Would this have been better if Lucy's final stand was more prolonged, and she actually got one last hope spot? Oh I'm sure it would. It wasn’t entirely believable that the two Black Pair members were able to fight off virtually the entire roster PLUS officials to kick at Tomi’s knee. The stoppages were a bit too randomly deployed as well, I don't really know why they stopped the match in the 3rd fall, only for Black Pair to ignore it so they just sounded the bell again. Yes, you probably know what I'm getting at, this feels like an early draft for better matches down the line. For those following this, keep note of the "1 partner gets injured in tag match, forcing heroic babyface to fight 2 heels on her own in super dramatic circumstances" match layout. It's an AJW staple.

But there's no way a match this effective can be anything less than great.

****

MD: This was a match which more or less became an angle even if it ended as a match. It’s great to see the Queen Angels back together at least for this shot. It started quite similarly to how you’d expect a Black Pair vs Queen Angels match to start. The Angels got the first strike in. It’s funny how they did though. They wanted a handshake but the Black Pair decided to shake each other’s hands instead and then got dropkicked mid-shake. After that they held an aggressive advantage until they missed a move (miscommunication) and the Black Pair took over.

That’s when things shifted from the norm (and this is a time where I am very glad that I know what the previous norm was). This time around, the Angels were much more aggressive in their comebacks. A lot of times they’d flail in a futile manner but get dragged back down quickly. Here, they were able to come back each and every time and only by the Pair dodging a move could they take back over. Lucy and Tomi had grown to the point where they could take up half the air in the match, maybe more. So when Lucy avoided being choked by wire on the outside and then crashed down upon them from the top rope to the floor, it felt inevitable. They weren’t able to dodge this version of the Queen Rocket this time. Instead, Kumano came back up an absolute mess, her nose bloodied, looking like she was out on her feet.

They got a quick fall with Lucy climbing up Tomi’s shoulders and leaping off and then continued putting on the pressure. Either Kumano was really knocked loopy or she was doing some amazing selling (I think the latter given how quickly she recovered) as she was limp and barely present even as she was getting destroyed. Tomi set things up to give her a giant swing and again, it was striking how she was just dangling for the start of it. Ikeshita had recovered though and came in out of nowhere taking out Tomi’s injured  knee. That’s when things took another turn. They got a quick fall but then the ring filled with people as they tried to continue the punishment while others tried to protect Tomi. The Black Pair tossed everyone around including officials. When the match did restart, Tomi was gone and it was two-on-one and the Pair made quick work of Lucy to win back the titles. What made all this work was how dominant the Angels were in the first fall. They had hit a different sort of kayfabe gear relative to previous matches. That Kumano was a bloody, stumbling mess didn’t hurt things either though, but it’s probably a tough one to judge given how it devolved into an angle and didn’t really reform into a match.
 

Read more!

AEW Five Fingers of Death 11/10 - 11/16 Part 2

AEW Collision 11/15/25

FTR/RUSH/Sammy Guevara vs Kevin Knight/Mike Bailey/Juice Robinson/Bandido

MD: An eight man tag can be an opportunity or an excuse.

It can be an opportunity. 

You have eight wrestlers. How do they interact? Both the partners and opponents. I want the camera to linger on what happens when FTR gets into the ring with LFI for the first time (Cash was quick to go slap hands and greet). These are disparate characters, disparate styles, disparate personalities. It's interesting. It makes the world seem more robust. Hiptosses are great. It's not always about hiptosses. I want to see who these people are and what they think about each other. What the hell does Dax think about Rush? That's interesting. Likewise, Juice hanging back and waiting for Bandido to show up so he could do Guns Up with him and then Bandido realizing what he wanted and getting excited and into it. That's interesting. That's compelling. It's vivid and real and immersive. It draws you in.

It's about the narrative opportunities of having more wrestlers and their attributes to work into the match. It opens the door for creative possibilities. You have Rush's intensity, Dax's hard hitting, Bandido's strength, Bailey's agility, Sammy's attitude, Knight's explosiveness, Juice's charisma, and Cash's wild abandon. And that's just one attribute from each of them. The wrestlers can mix and match all of that. Everything can be bigger. The stooge spots can involve more people. You can go for a double heat instead of a single. There are choices for who gets the hot tag, how to do the cut offs. It's more options, more room for creativity. Maybe most of all, it's also a way to further multiple stories at once and seed future interactions and matches.

It can be an excuse.

Eight people. Eight sets of signature spots. Eight guys who can take bumps. The action can flow and flow and flow and never stop. Someone can bump and the next person can be right there, fresh and on his feet, ready to jump right in and get revenge. You can drown the fans with an endless waterfall. Everyone gets their stuff in. Everyone gets to shine. Everyone gets to show off. The spots escalate endlessly. There's no ceiling. There's no bottom. There's no reason to ever stop. 

Except of course there is, because without stopping nothing can have meaning. Without leaning into tag rules, nothing can truly resonate. But it can be an excuse not to do those things, because you can just keep cycling people in and out forever. 

Cleverness for the sake of cleverness, spots for the sake of spots. It seems to be some wrestlers' fondest wish. Endlessly entertaining, almost certainly ephemeral. 

Usually, depending on who's in the match, an eight-man tag in AEW can be one or the other. 

This one, given who was in it, sort of straddled the middle. There was just enough connective tissue. They let things get chaotic, but then they brought it back to the center. There were foundational moments: Knight mocked the heel corner with the tranquilo pose and when he got thrashed by LFI they did it back to him. Sammy teased a swanton early only to leap down and screw with the fans. When he tried the same thing later, it cost him and helped lead towards the hot tag. Speedball hit his moonsault kneedrop in the ring to finally get that hot tag but then wiped out on the apron, clearing him out of the way for the finish. 

There were excessive moments, most especially early chaos which built to FTR eating Juice's stylized punches, Rush trucking him out of nowhere, and simultaneous JetSpeed dives. 

Ultimately, everything came down to Rush and Bandido, then opened back up as everyone got involved for one last bit of excess, only to cycle back around to Rush and Bandido once more for the finish. Moreover, it came back to the characters at play, their familiarity with one another and lack of familiarity with one another, as Rush got shoved into FTR to position himself for a slightly askew 21-Plex. 

If I had my way, I'd prefer something a little more grounded with chaos even more controlled than this, but it's a big tent promotion and sometimes an excuse is what's needed. Thankfully, here, that excuse didn't leave the opportunities on the table like it so often does.

ROH TV 11/13/25

Athena/Billie Starkz vs Hyan/Maya World

MD: Here's what makes pro wrestling great. 

Athena demanded to start the match. She held out her hand to Maya World for her usual insulting left-handed, draping code of honor shake. She immediately clocked her with the magic forearm, absolutely floored her.

And all that? That was Athena selling.

That was her selling the frustration of eating a rare pinfall from Harley Cameron (of all people) during the tag tournament, of having to defend against Harley now, of being eliminated from the tag tournament when she and Mercedes were the favorites, of Kris Statlander getting into her business, of Billie letting her down, of Mercedes not doing her part (and being able to claim that Athena didn't do hers), of not being part of the first Blood & Guts. 

Grievance after grievance all going into that one seething, agitated, impatient shot. 

This was an enhancement match. Hyan and Maya are on the rise but this was to continue Athena's story. She'd sell for their offense, but she'd sell more for the ghosts in her own mind, a burgeoning obsession over Harley. She'd call Harley out within the match, even as she punished Maya or Hyan. She'd take it out on Billie, so distracted and distraught that she'd all but chop her instead of tagging her, would get in a senseless argument which would allow her to get dropkicked from behind.

The secret truth in pro wrestling is that true strength lies in vulnerability, that it's selling which draws the fans in to get behind a babyface and that showing weakness, be it physical, emotional, or moral is how a heel gets heat. So even as Athena ate up Hyan and Maya, she was being eaten up on the inside, and her performance made that clearly evident to the world. 

Meanwhile, it was on Billie, Hyan, and Maya to react. For Billie that was trying to soothe Athena's wounds through inflicting collaborative violence, of showing the emotional impact of Athena's abuse upon her, of being distracted herself. For Hyan and Maya, it was being on their back feet due to the brutality and coming in hot when opportunities arose. 

The end result was an entertaining match which was laser-focused on promoting the title bout to come. And it all hinged on Athena selling something bigger and more complex than a punch or a kick from the second she walked through the curtain to the second the camera faded on her post-match. 

Read more!

AEW Five Fingers of Death 11/10 - 11/16 Part 1

AEW Dynamite 11/12/25

Death Riders (Wheeler Yuta/Daniel Garcia/Claudio Castagnoli/Jon Moxley/PAC) vs Darby Allin/Orange Cassidy/Kyle O'Reilly/Roderick Strong/Mark Briscoe [Blood & Guts] 

MD: Everything was going Jon Moxley's way. 

It was a long road, but this was where it always had to be headed. Blood and Guts. 

Yes, October and November hadn't gone to plan. He'd quit against Darby Allin at WrestleDream. He'd been on his back foot, barely surviving without quitting (twice) against Kyle O'Reilly. Roderick Strong defeated him by countout to decide the advantage.

But it didn't matter. None of it mattered.

They were in the cage and everything was going his way. 

He'd turned on his partner, his brother-in-arms, had started a reign of terror, been champion and locked away the belt. Even though he lost the belt, it could all still be worth it. He was a mad king, an emperor that had been deposed, but he could get all of it back, and even more than that, he could rain vengeance down on all of his enemies. 

Hangman wasn't there, but the rest of them? Front and center. 

And they were bleeding out. 

The advantage might have been an issue. Yuta had been sent out first, the sacrificial workhorse. He'd stalled and drawn Darby out after him, had been tossed into the cage and used it as a weapon himself. He'd been opened up by Darby's modified skateboard (after going for it himself), had been thrashed further by Darby and Cassidy when it became two-on-one. But he just had to hold out long enough for reinforcements, and he did. Garcia came out to even the odds and two-on-two with one man just a little fresher, they fought even. Until they didn't. 

When Mark Briscoe's music hit, they were wrapped around in a chain, beaten and battered. But that's when everything turned. 

Briscoe had been left laying in the back. Maybe it was the Don Callis family, maybe it wasn't. It didn't matter. Moxley didn't care. He'd take opportunity where he found it. 

Roderick Strong came out to make it 3-on-2, but the advantage time had been cut into severely. He hit a few moves but that was all he could do before Claudio's music hit back.

The plan was always Claudio, infinitely strong, infinitely reliable, always a step behind. He tossed Strong into a chair and then swung both Darby and Cassidy at once. O'Reilly came out next, but by then it was too late. Even with a 4-on-3 advantage on paper, the damage was done. This wasn't the happy-go-lucky world of the Conglomeration. It wasn't even Darby's world, one with open skies to leap and dive and crash. It was the post-apocalyptic world of the Death Riders, and they made use of every weapon, every opportunity. Here, no matter what the numerical advantage might say, the odds were always in their favor.

So instead of sending PAC out next, Moxley himself came to survey his gloriously ruined kingdom, to inflict violence and vengeance. He came in with a fork and immediately opened up O'Reilly more (for his transgressions were the worst of them all). He jabbed it into Darby's back, scraped it up and down, offered it to his newest disciple Garcia in a morbid ritual that let him join in. The women had set the stage for this earlier in their own Blood & Guts match and Moxley casually walked behind the timekeeper desk to seize all of the weapons they had left for him. He dropped broken glass in the ring and scraped a shattered mirror across O'Reilly's bloody skull opening him up more. They dropped Darby on his skull and dragged him across the glass for good measure. 

Life was good. All that he had lost? None of it mattered because he'd craft a new gospel in blood and viscera. He'd show the world that everything he'd always said was true. He would be vindicated and validated. 

And when Darby climbed to the top of the inside of the cage and dropped down upon all of them, even that didn't matter. Because that was just one last gasp of futile hope from a man not meant to climb mountains but to fall off of them and PAC was the last man in. Chaotic order was restored. The door was locked. The key was stolen. The Death Riders had a 5-on-4 advantage and could now punish their enemies to their hearts' content.

Everything was going Jon Moxley's way. 

But fate had a way of turning, bolstered by hearts that simply wouldn't quit, hearts very different than the beleaguered, hypocritical organ beating all too quickly in Jon’s own chest.

Despite being ambushed and assaulted and left for dead, Mark Briscoe arrived, wild look in his eyes and bolt cutters in hand. 

-----

Let's stop there. You know how the story ended. Briscoe turned the tide. Yuta faced him on the top of the cage and despite multiple cheapshots ended up eating a Jay Driller onto the steel. Kidd interfered and they put Darby through a flaming table. The Death Riders were ready (with a stapler of all things) for Cassidy to put his hands in his pockets only for Orange to care more than he'd ever cared before as he ripped the staples out of his own flesh. That let him save a defiant Kyle O'Reilly who was being choked out. Kyle refused to quit and in due course, with a few more twists and turns, he made Moxley tap out once more. A poetic ending to the last month and maybe, in some ways, to the last year. Questions remain: Who attacked Briscoe (the Callis family denied it)? Will this elevate Kyle to the next level? What does this mean for an increasingly out of touch Moxley and his leadership of the Death Riders?

As War Games go, modern ones always lean more towards CZW than JCP, more weapons and theatrics than wrestlers just beating the piss out of each other to solve their issues. In some ways, I thought this was a better mix than usual though of course Mox is a Cage of Death guy, so you knew what was going to happen when he got in there. I'd like to see them try the other way just once though. There are enough opportunities especially now that they're doing two of these on one show. 

That led to its own issues too, where they had to switch things up and play around with the advantage. Between Briscoe being taken out, Strong having less time to press the advantage as a substitute, and the sheer force that is Claudio, I thought they handled it remarkably well. Before and after, the characters drove things in interesting ways. One quick example. Right before Briscoe's music hit, when it was two-on-two, Garcia and Yuta had Cassidy down and were kicking him. Garcia, full of bluster and attitude, did the mocking Cassidy kicks and threw it over to Yuta but Yuta, like an animal that had been kicked too many times itself, couldn't help but kick him full-on. The match was full of little interesting character bits like that while maintaining the overarching story. 

-----

Feedback I've gotten lately is that people really like the dramatization approach to reviewing these matches, where I dig deep into the characters and emotions at play and recount the narrative as presented on screen. It feels almost like 80s PWI or something to me and I don't want to lean too hard into it all the time as opposed to a more analytical approach. 

But here's the point: I can only do it at all because the coherency, consistency, and commitment in what's being presented. If wrestlers are just doing a bunch of stuff, even if the stuff is clever or full of workrate or stiff or whatever else, you can't necessarily draw those throughlines. It's the selling, especially the emotional selling, like what Jon Moxley has been doing as of late, which lets me even find the dots to connect. 

Not every match has this. Not every conventional five star match has this. A lot of times, maybe there's some lip service towards it but it doesn't hold up under scrutiny no matter how exciting and action-packed the match might seem in the moment. You don't have to sacrifice it for "Greatness," because if done with care, it enhances it in every way. It just takes more effort and care.

Maybe that's self-evident, but I honestly don't think you can as easily do what I did up above for the Forbidden Door 2025 cage match main event in the same way. There were too many goofy tonal shifts and funny spots that were done just to pop the wrestlers involved. Specific moments stood out and popped and were impressive but it didn't come together as a narrative in the same way. 

Pro wrestling is an amazing narrative artform that can tell amazing stories almost entirely in ring, through the work alone. This Blood and Guts was built from the Foundation of the I Quit match with Darby and then the subsequent O'Reilly/Strong vs Moxley matches. It was built upon pro wrestling matches that were full of emotion and character development and great emotive performances. That's what made all of the excess here resonate and matter. 

There's a lot to be learned from all of this and I hope the people who make decisions and the wrestlers of both today and tomorrow take the right lessons and not the wrong ones.

Read more!