80s Joshi on Wednesday: Jackie! Rimi! Nancy! Ayumi!

Disc 2 

4. Ayumi Hori & Nancy Kumi vs. Jackie Sato & Rimi Yokota 1/6/81

K: This match is Red Phoenix vs. Dynamic Jaguars, i.e. the two babyface factions going up against each other. I noticed at the entrances that Ayumi Hori is now being billed as ‘Super Jumbo Ayumi Hori’, she’ll get her name changed to Jumbo Hori soon after this.

This is worked a very fast pace, certainly unlike most wrestling of its time. But what also stands out about it is despite that, it’s still quite mat-focused and they get a lot of movement out of struggling for holds. There isn’t much targeting of a limb over a long period, it’s more that they just grab at whatever they can when they get an opening and improvise from there. There are some patterns though which fit the wrestlers we’re watching. For example Rimi is a lot more ferocious than Jackie and likes to come in all guns blazing hitting fast offense from the get go, whereas Jackie is more content to take control with an armbar or something. But Jackie comes across as the better wrestler here as her approach actually does work the vast majority of the time, whereas Yokota sometimes overextends herself with her flying around and throws momentum to the Red Phoenix team when one of her moves doesn’t hit. 

Likewise, Hori is clearly presented as the weak link in her team. Her size does come into play a few times, for example it feels like she was only able to counter one of Jackie’s headscissor takedowns because she was physically bigger rather than her having much technical skill. But that’s all she really has to offer here and so spends most of her time on the defensive or trying to tag Nancy back in so they can get back into the match. I did enjoy her cocky smile squaring up to Jackie though, like she really thought she was in with a chance there before Jackie wrenched her shoulder out and started running circles around her on the mat with impressive ease.

Jackie isn’t able to do this so easily against Nancy though. When we restart for the 2nd fall things are pulled back and they do a really good Greco-Roman style struggle. Nancy actually gets the better of Jackie in this, one clever more is when they’re on the mat she pushes her knee against Jackie’s chest for extra leverage in pinning her down. Jackie backs into her corner to allow Rimi to tag in, and we get that contrast again when Rimi charges in trying to beat everyone up at once, looks amazing for a few seconds before it backfires and now Red Phoenix are back on offense. Whichever way it goes for her though, Rimi is a thrill to watch.

The 3rd fall is a bit slower worked than the previous two, I think they convey well that the battle has been taking its toll. Hori did sell her leg a little bit earlier on but not much amounted to that until here, where we get a protracted stretch of her leg being worked on is cut off from tagging Nancy in because of it. She even gets a bit of shine here in being allowed to sell. The finish, this is going to sound like I’m being “early 2010s WWE fan” funny here, but I have to describe it as Ayumi Hori hits Rimi Yokota with an Attitude Adjustment, then picks up Rimi to hit a 2nd one but Rimi does the CM Punk counter of landing on her feet and pivots into a quick rollup for the win. 

***3/4

MD: I’m pretty sure Hori and Yokota were tag champs at this point which is interesting given the factions. We don’t usually get to see the wrestlers coming down to the ring up to this point, so it’s nice to see Jackie slapping hands and what not. She’s leaning hard into the Jaguar theme with one on the back of her coat and the pattern worked into her gear. Kumi and Hori have blue matching coats so not rocking the Red Phoenix literally.

This was action packed right from the start. It was driven pretty well by the contrast between the four. Kumi and Yokota were explosive (with Yokota more so). It doesn’t mean Yokota wouldn’t pick up even Hori and drop her on her face, but they were more likely to just throw themselves at their opponents. Jackie and Hori leaned more on dominant strength. This was the biggest I’ve seen Hori work so far though she might have been too giving at times. In general, though, there was a sense that she was a mountain to be climbed, a problem to be tackled, though Jackie was so often up to the task. When things picked up at the end of they fall, they really picked up, which was saying something given the pace up til then. Jackie survived a front flapjack by landing on her feet and immediately headscissored Kumi over, following it up with her slingblade type neckbreaker drop whip off the ropes and her belly to back drop. Yokota came in with her press up vertical seated sentons off the rope and things kept swirling faster and faster until Jackie slammed Kumi and Rimi hit her triangle ricocheting splash off the turnbuckle pad and Jackie finished her off with her bodyslam backbreaker. It’s all a lot and was a lot within the span of seconds really, but it was very exciting stuff that didn’t feel weightless or tacked on. It felt more like a fast break from a couple of great athletes. 

Second fall started with some really nice close-up struggle as Kumi was able to turn a test of strength around on Yokota by pushing her over with the knee. From there they worked her over, almost leaning heel in their aggression. She was able to slip up out of a pin with a shocking bridge to get the tag to Jackie and everything broke down into chaos on the outside after that. Everything comes back together for Kumi and Hori both putting on figure fours (again, struggle: hori has to really kick at Jackie to get it on) and then Yokota has another electric comeback and they head outside again and the match has sort of lost the plot even if it’s all very exciting. They do find it again as this leads to Kumi beating the count to take the second fall.

Third fall has some struggle (very good stuff with Jackie fighting for every inch) to start before things settle down for very nasty legwork on Hori. Yokota just stomping on it looks absolutely brutal. But none of it matters because once she makes the tag, she’s fine. Finishing stretch has more beating on Yokota until she starts to cartwheel and bound and every time she does it, you have to pause and go back and see it three times because you almost can’t believe your eyes, even with footage from 45 years ago. Hori catches her after the first but then she bounds out of a FU attempt and wins with a roll up. I don’t 100% know what’s coming, but given how she’s come along and what she can do, I can’t wait to see where Yokota is at this point in 1982 for instance. Lots of good action in this one even if because of the length and the lack of a clear heel, it did sort of go all over the place. The Jackie/Rimi team is something special given their differences and strengths.

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Tarzan Goto is a Survivor in Love Again

Tarzan Goto/Shinigami vs. Yuiga/Drake Morimatsu Yuiga Produce 10/30/04 - GREAT

Yuiga is a Kurisu trained Joshi wrestler who started in Neo and just kind of hangs around Japanese dirtbag indies for 20 years or so. She had both teamed and wrestled against Goto a bunch before and it makes sense she would want to have him smash her with barbed wire boards in the main event of her produce show. Shinigami and Morimatsu were around and did some stuff, but this was pretty focused around Goto's shambling menace and Yuiga using her Judo to try to avoid blows and throw him. There were some stiff shots, Goto using his size and a couple of cool throws, plus it looks like it was in a industrial warehouse used for human trafficking which is a great look for a sleazoid Japanese indy match.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 1/19 - 1/25

ROH TV 1/22/26

Adam Priest/Tommy Billington vs Premier Athletes (Tony Nese/Ariya Daivari) 

MD: Wrestling isn't math.

Sometimes, though, it can be a book report.

Everyone rushes to make things quantitative, to bestow star ratings, to rate things next to each other. 

I care a lot more about understanding, about categorizing, about yeah, analyzing. That's not about scoring on points having to do with excitement, execution, innovation so much as breaking down the narrative and try to figure out how it ticks. These things can go hand-in-hand. You can use this to judge a match but that's not usually my intent. 

So we're going to do something a little different this week. We're going to look at a match through a narrative framework.

I'm not saying you can do this with every match exactly this way. I'm not saying I do it with every match automatically, though my brain is wired now to be thinking about some of these things as I watch, sure. 

This works well for a southern tag (the most beautiful form of pro wrestling there is) but for other things, be it face vs face matches or matches from cultures that structure things differently, the hinge points that still should exist are transitions or momentum shifts. Not everything will fit neatly into a three act structure but there still should be act breaks if you can figure out where to find them. Otherwise, it's just all noise and the match is probably not going to be very satisfying even if it might be sensational.

Pre-Match: This covers entrances, talking on the way to the ring, inset (insert?) promos. There's a lot to see here. It matters how people come down to the ring. It sets the stage, creates a mood. We're going to cover a 1981 joshi babyface vs babyface match later this week and to see Jackie Sato grasp people's hands on the way to the ring and understand the connection she had with the crowd relative to her opinions gave some insight into the match itself and to how the crowd reacted. We're the blind man touching the elephant and every data point helps.

Lots of data points here. Athletes are out first with Sterling putting over their relatively new heater, Stori Denali as she towers over everyone. He gets some cheap heat talking about local sports, hypes everyone up to shout Athletes Rule so that they can shout Athletes Suck instead. These guys were getting booed anyway but there's no question now. They look like a unit with matching red boots even if everyone's stylistically different in other ways with their own flourishes.

Priest/Billington are out to Billington's music, reddish matching tights, a tron that just focuses on Billington. We get an inset promo with Swirl and Lethal, Lethal having turned on Bandido, and Billington/Priest by proxy a few weeks ago. Lethal says they're done. Christian says they're not. A little wonky. As that's happening, they're moving down to the ring with haste and energy, Priest hyping up the crowd.

Code of Honor: Here's a bonus element just for ROH matches. I love the Code of Honor. It's a mandatory handshake before a match but it forces an extra character moment to set the stage right at the start of the match. Athena always puts a dainty left hand out to insult opponents for instance. Sometimes she clocks someone as they shake, sometimes she doesn't, but that tension is always there. It's an opportunity and while you need a baseline of straight up shakes, it's to a wrestler's detriment if he or she doesn't make the most of it.

Adam Priest absolutely makes the most of it. He tells you almost everything you need to know about him in the span of fifteen seconds. He gets right in Daivari's face, putting his hand out. When Daivari just stares him down he shoves him and puts the hand back out. He's got a chip in his shoulder, full of babyface fire. He's hungry and won't be denied. Daivari on the other hand is a vet's vet, just like Nese, and he has his own pride, and in the face of that challenge, he doesn't back down, but does show a modicum of respect, slapping Priest's hand to complete the Code. Again, fifteen seconds, but they set the stage immediately, making the most of it.

Feeling Out/Shine: They're still fleshing out the stage. It's Act 1 of a play, introducing the characters, setting, and the "normal world." Who are these people? What makes them different from each other? Why do you root for the babyface? Why do you boo the heel? If the match was going to play out with everything fair, everything normal, what might it look like? There may be a "false heat" of sort where it seems like the heel is getting an advantage, but then they get comeuppance. 

Priest and Daivari start with chain wrestling focused around the arm. Daivari is the early aggressor but Priest is ultimately able to turn things around and win the exchange, pumping his arm as the fans chant "Athletes Suck." Daivari presses him into the corner (since he couldn't get an advantage cleanly) and he and Nese double clubber before calling for an Athletes chant (they get "Suck" for their trouble). Billington manages a blind tag off the ropes and they hit a slick drop toe hold/elbow drop combo before controlling with the arm and quick tags for another couple of minutes, until Nese is able to get back in and has a nice rope running exchange with Billington leading to the...

Transition to Heel Offense/Heat: Transitions are everything. They're the act breaks, the change that we see in the world. They're the shocks to the system that grasp you as a viewer and change the course of history. They should be clever but definitive, not mushy and unclear, but also earned and believable. A kick to the gut out of nowhere doesn't generally cut it. That's not enough to change history. Something too far the other way is going to feel more like a process than an exclamation point. Sometimes that can be okay but it means you're telling a different sort of story and need to insert more nuance. 

They did an excellent job here. Nese and Daivari are very good at layering these things. Here Nese succeeds on a dropdown, throwing Billington off balance. Is a dropdown a trip? Is it just getting out of the way of someone running? It's pro wrestling. It can be either or both. It doesn't necessarily matter what the original intent was. Here it does throw Billington off and Nese charges right in behind him to clip the legs in the ropes. He goes to drive Billington into the barricade. Billington fights him off. Daivari comes to help. Billington fights him off too. Thus distracted, Nese is able to toss Billington into the hard ring apron shoulder first and then, as Nese rolls in to distract the ref, Daivari and Sterling are able to stomp on him. It's a great transition because it caught everyone by surprise, because it clearly leaned hard into character: Nese was opportunistic and underhanded, Billington valiant, and it led to a bit of cheating to show the difference all the more clearly. 

Heat/Hope Spots/Cutoffs: Again, wrestling isn't math and there can be differences in ratios here. Some of the best tags of the 80s have long, long shines where the heels get their comeuppance again and again and relatively short heats. To me, it's just basic narrative logic to have a longer heat where you're building up pressure more and more for a hot tag and getting the fans wanting it more and more.

It's good to have a singular narrative focus and they make use of the arm here. Billington's arm was thrashed on the apron. It gives Nese and Daivari a target to attack and gives an "out" for why Billington can't come back even though he's trying his best. He goes for punches or forearms but the arm gives way. He reverses Nese and puts him into tombstone position. The arm doesn't let him hit it. Hope snatched away. The Athletes get showy and cocky building to Nese missing a moonsault, but he's able to make the tag and Daivari cuts a crawling Billington off with an elbow drop. All of this builds up the pressure.

Transition to Hot Tag: again, transitions are inflection points, shocks, the world changing, act breaks, the most important part of a match past maybe the finish. This is the moment the crowd has been waiting for, what they had been hoping for. The inversions have already come with the hope spots and cutoffs, but this is one last chance to either be definitive with it or string a last series together.

Here it's basically just a double down after Daivari and Priest both go for clotheslines. Important is that Nese is still reeling from that missed moonsault (though that's just an extra detail for why he can't disrupt things, but the Athletes are so good with details). Simple, straightforward, as Daivari crawls towards his corner to find no one there and Billington finds exactly what he was looking for in Adam Priest. But it's art so it's subjective, right? You could say that even though Daivari had a clear moment of control (ball possession?) after the elbow drop cut off, that the key inflection point was the missed moonsault and everything after that was the Athletes losing control. It's interesting to think about either way. Again, not math.

Comeback/Finishing Stretch: Another place where you can separate more or combine if you want to, however you'd like to think about it. In modern wrestling, they're so stuck together that it's hard to differentiate. The comeback generally leads to pin attempts and break-ups and things ebbing and flowing towards a finish. In modern matches, you often get a really extended finishing stretch that can be as long as half the match where everything breaks down and you get constant spots/action for long minutes and I am not a huge fan of that. But yes, the babyface who got the hot tag comes in a house afire (of fire?) and releases all that pent up pressure and they start laying down false finishes to build to however the match is going to end, ideally raising that pressure back up for the finish.

This was a particularly great stretch because it was less about big moves and kickouts (or break-ups) and more about playing with conventions and expectations. We're all trained to know the various ways a match logically tends to end and this didn't just give us big moves but narrative beats where endings could happen only to snatch them away and build to the next one.

Priest led off with what would be the comeback phase. He had some great signature offense, mowing down Daivari as he fed for him but then catching a foot and turning it into a German Suplex and leaping off the turnbuckles with a tornado DDT after he shoved off Nese who was trying to stop him. This was disrupted by a Daivari small package attempt, which you can note, if you want, where things shifted from comeback to finishing stretch (though again, it all blurs).

What followed was a series of false finishes, a double submission by the babyfaces, Sterling causing a distraction on the apron, heel miscommunication, Nese pulling the rope down, a kickout after a heel double-team, more heel miscommunication and Priest locking in his half crab, Denali using Billington cutting off Sterling's second attempt at distraction to chokeslam Priest (pin broken up by Billington), and then finally, after Billington cleared Daivari out to hit a dive and make it one-on-one, Priest reversing Nese's pumphandle driver finisher into a roll up for the win. Just a very clever and self-aware sequence of not just finishers or moves, but coded moments that we have fans have been conditioned can understand could possibly lead to the end of a match. It had me on the edge of my seat at least as after the double submission, almost anything that happened could plausibly lead to a finish given our understanding of pro wrestling.

Post-match: This is where the finish sets in and resonates. Maybe the heels get their heat back. Maybe the babyfaces run them off. Maybe they celebrate with the crowd. Maybe the commentary just takes things through the replay and cements the message of the match.

Here the Swirl came out to ambush and the Athletes joined in. The babyfaces won the battle but lost a bit more in the war, giving them plenty of places to take things moving forward.

Pre-Match, Feeling Out/Shine, Transition to Heel Offense, Heat/Hope Spots/Cutoffs, Transition to Hot Tag, Comeback/Finishing Stretch, Post-Match. In this case there was the Code of Honor as well, which fits in between Pre-Match and Feeling Out/Shine, and could probably be part of the latter. It's a useful framework to think about how matches are put together and how they work narratively. Not every tag match is going to follow it. A tag may have double heat. You may get a "Things Break Down" period after the hot tag that's so lengthy with so many momentum shifts that you may want to try to organize it some other way. If you're watching an All Japan tag from the early 90s, it's much more about specific match-ups and hierarchy. Lucha manages ebbs and flows differently and I wrote more about that here years ago. But in all of these cases, you're generally looking for transitions. Those are your anchors to breaking down a match.

And of course, you don't have to do any of this. You don't have to think about matches this way. You don't have to engage with wrestling this way. It's art. You can just sit back and consume it. But I know that I personally enjoyed this tag, which was very good, all the more for engaging with it and thinking about it through this lens. 

Did I give it a star rating? No. But by breaking it down this way, I pulled out a lot of what made it stand out and pop for me, at least from a storytelling perspective. There are lots of different ways to engage with wrestling (and art in general). Try to explore and figure out what works for you, even if it doesn't necessarily fit into some of the quantitative boxes others have traditionally used.

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Found Footage Friday: WRESTLE YUME FACTORY~! KITA KANTOU GROUP CUP TAG TOURNAMENT~! ABSOLUTE KILLERS~!

4/27/97

This show is available from @itako18jp on Twitter who is really doing incredible stuff making this incredible rare footage available. Send him some money.

Azteca/Basara vs Tadahiro Fujisaki/Wolf

PAS: I am going to forgive a lot of sins if you just lay it in violently, and all four of these guys are wrestling like 90s indy puro guys. Fujisaki is the young Fugo Fugo and he brings the violence even as a pup. Real thump on all the forearms and kicks from all four guys. There was one bad looking whiffed Azteca kick which The Wolf sold anyone, hope Fujiwara cussed him out backstage for that, but otherwise everything looked good, and Basara especially had a sick run of nasty offense near the end of the match. The way you want to start out a tag tourney for sure. 

MD: You do sort of spend the whole match waiting for Basara to get back in and then when you do, you're rewarded for it. He's basically Super Strong Machine with a beard on his mask and slightly different, but just as impactful offense. He came in, absolutely trucked Fujisaki with three of four huge and nasty power moves like a waterwheel slam and power bomb before crushing him with a frog splash only to get rolled up quickly to end it.

Before that, you had a long stretch of Azteca vs Wolf and they were matched up well, taking it up and down with gritty matwork, pretty nasty kicks (some that hit far better than others) and just enough flash, Azteca's somersault senton and Wolf's spin wheel kick in the corner, for instance. Pretty fun way to start this thing off, even if I miss Basara already.

ER: The first thing you notice about Basara is his excellent mask, with long mustache and billy goat's beard like he's the Lorax, or a shabby Pei Mei. Then you notice that he's wearing capri tights, and has an upper body that looks like baby Masa Saito. Any Japanese wrestler who opts for the capri tights is automatically one of the most dangerous men in the room, but add in a budding Masa Saito body and you know they're a menace. I liked everyone here, thought each person brought something. Azteca and Wolf were near style mirrors, throwing kicks with similar speed and style and each having their own way to work a headscissor. Azteca threw a KO kick a foot over Wolf's head, which was really the only misstep, but I also liked how Azteca sold Wolf's kicks more than Wolf sold Azteca's. Wolf had a spinning heel kick in the corner that landed with real thump, and his high bridge fisherman's suplex looked so good and had such a tight grip that I bought it as a nearfall. But this match was all about Basara's hot tag, where he simply entered the ring and forced his will on Fujisaki. Headbutts, a sidewalk slam that looked like he was aiming to concuss, a senton that aimed to land as heavy as possible, and a frog splash that was big enough that it felt like a finish. I liked the real finish, where Fujisaki reversed a vertical suplex into an inside cradle, because Basara looked like he was really straining to complete his suplex while Fujisaki was weighting him down into a cradle, believably dragging him down into a loss. 

Kamikaze/Masakazu Fukuda vs. Hiroyoshi Kotsubo/Masayoshi Motegi

PAS: Another fun WAR tag with really stiff guys working stiff. Kamikaze is just a super fun wrestler to watch, and he especially turns it up at the end, with a really nasty stiff clothesline and a bunch of tubby highspots which landed hard. The Motegi and Kotsubu team is a bit generic, but work and land hard. They definitely put the right team over though. 

MD: This was good from bell to bell. I thought Kotsubo and Fukada worked especially well together, lots of tricked out reversals including one great fight over the arm at one point. Motegi asserted himself the most, taking over pretty much every time he came in, though they were able to isolate his leg and tear it apart a bit mid-match. There was one slap fight between him and (I think) Fukuda and I could have used more of that, especially since the only match with him. Fukuda and Kamikaze opened things up with basically the first real double team flurry of the match to pick up the win on Kotsubo.

ER: I'm kind of used to Motegi being one of the guaranteed worst guys in any given match, which isn't even so much a diss to Motegi, but more that he is often in matches with more interesting guys. Here he looked like young aggressive Rusher Kimura and was teamed with a real punk in Kotsubo. Kotsubo was super aggressive on the mat and worked holds like a bully, flattening guys out just to punish. This got real good when Kamikaze stopped being a pushover and started throwing Kawada kicks at Motegi's forehead then kicking him straight in the kneecap to drop him. He was really bending Motegi's leg on a kneebar, and that knee work came back spectacularly late in the match when Kamikaze broke up a bridging German with a sweeping kick to take out the bridge and make Motegi yell. Motegi made this great one legged tag out, throwing a knee and pushing off his good leg to leap toward Kotsubo, and Kotsubo came in and immediately threw a backfist at Kamikaze's cheekbone, demanding the weaker Fukuda tag in. Kotsubo's victory roll triangle on Fukuda felt like something he really should have been reserving as a finisher, but it was no doubt cool as hell. Motegi takes a Kamikaze clothesline the way Rusher would have, and him getting blown up by that clothesline makes his crucifix reversal of Kamikaze's next clothesline even better. I bit at that nearfall for sure. The ending was tight, real smooth, with a Kamikaze corkscrew senton straight into a Fukuda top rope double stomp, straight into a Kamikaze moonsault. Each of the three hit flush, and Kamikaze's sitout powerbomb was strong. 

Ryo Miyake/Tarzan Goto vs Shigeo Kato/Shinigami - EPIC

PAS: This match was really awesome, pretty classic Japanese tag structure with a veteran teaming with a younger protege. Goto is the perfect guy to be a  veteran mauling a younger guy, and Kato shows a lot of fire, including a great looking dive over the top rope. Goto also does some fun work stomping and punching Shinigami's claw hand.  Miyake has a generic look, but puts some really thump behind everything he threw. Great greasy diner version of an All Japan tag.

MD: This was everything I wanted from this match up. Kato and Shinigami were the world's best Kane and X-Pac basically. Kato was scrappy as hell, fighting great odds against Goto and Miyake. They had such a size advantage, could put so much more into their strikes, and then when they really went to town on him, it was with chairs and the bell hammer. He still flung himself headlong at them though, including literally with a huge flip dive.

Goto knew what he had in Shinigami though. They built to the two facing off (though Kato tried to run at Goto again before reluctantly making the tag). Of course Shinigami went right for the claw, but Goto was ready, stomping on the hand and then dragging the fingers over the ropes. That just built the anticipation for when he got it later reaching up from underneath to lock it in. He hit his claw slam on Goto and even the top rope one on Miyake but Kato wanted back in there and did well with a frog splash and pile driver, but Goto isolated him and mercilessly crushed him to eliminate he and Shinigami from the tournament. Goto and Miyake are basically not fair here.

ER: Remember when we, as tape traders, thought Tarzan Goto was "a fat load"? I know we weren't seeing the breadth of Goto's career when those comments were made, but he is one of the all time "everyone was initially wrong about him" guys in our circle. Were we all turned off by his sloppy appearance? The very thing that would make him stand out as an instantly unique presence in 2026? Whatever I first thought of Goto after seeing him on my first wrestling tape, a 9th gen 8 hr deathmatch comp, he now obviously looks like an ideal pro wrestler. Like Hashimoto. We got Tarzan vs. Tenryu (it rules) but we never got Tarzan vs. Hashimoto, but it's Goto performances like this that make it so clear that he was a sloppy man's Hashimoto. Goto had the perfect mix of Kurisu shoot stiffness and incredible worked offense. He is capable of headbutting a man hard enough to scramble both brains, or working one of the tightest safest worked headbutts possible. He will kick you in your spine as hard as possible or throw one of the more ungodly chokeslams I've seen, but he also has perfect worked punches, as if he worked Memphis in the mid 80s or something. Every clothesline he throws is the best clothesline on the entire show. He has such a fantastic left hook delivery, unlike anyone else's clothesline. His brainbuster was 100% the kind of move that should finish a match, but several things he did were the kinds of things that should finish matches. He is a presence. 

Kato and Shinigami - a man who seems like he is working an Alabama Onryo gimmick - are so small that you know they're going to be massacred, but I like how drawn out the massacre was. The ending was never in doubt, but this was not a 7 minute mauling, this was a match that gave Kato time to fight. Yes, it also gave Goto more time to fight, and that's what gives us Tarzan literally breaking a folding chair over Kato's face, giving him a wicked atomic drop on a table that did not budge even slightly (so he just slammed Kato as hard as he could ass first on a table), even smashing his head with the ring bell hammer! The match going nearly 20 minutes made Kato looks stronger just because of how much violence he withstood. Miyake is a Goto protege and is shaped exactly like Greg Valentine and throws elbows almost as hard as Valentine. He even walks like Valentine! Well, like a 5'7 Valentine, but still I had to go check when Valentine's first Japan tour was (five years after Miyake's birth, sadly). Kato shows constant fire and gets a great late match run against Miyake, hitting a frog splash with real impact (for his small size) and shockingly piledriving the much heavier Valentine Son. He spikes him good, too, so I guess his murder by Goto brainbuster was justified. 

Shinichi Nakano/Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Rikio Ito/Shinichi Shino - FUN

MD: Cleverly done but not too much of a match. Ito and Shino attacked right as Fujiwara and Nakano were entering the ring and they controlled on Nakano for a while. This included a half crab and an over the shoulder backbreaker. Both were broken up by Fujiwara, the latter with an awesome punch to the ribs.

Transition had Fujiwara break up a top rope move from the outside setting up a Nakano superplex. Then they tried to put Fujiwara into a crab, never a good idea. Finish had Nakano go for a Fujiwara Armbar and then both partners coming in for tandem stomps when Ito tried to break it up. Nakano got another Armbar in there to take it. They'd be working again so they kept this one straight and to the point.

PAS: This was a pretty nifty opening match, with Ito and Shino trying to turn it into a brawl, and then got dragged into Fujiwara's world. I really liked how Nakano kept going for the Fujiwara armbar, like he was trying to show his mentor what he had learned. Fujiwara is of course my favorite, but I liked how little he was in this match, he was like the shark in Jaws, and this was the first act of the movie, he is coming, but right now he is lurking. 

Tadahiro Fujisaki/Wolf vs. Gokuaku Umibozu/Masashi Aoyagi - GREAT

MD: I guess Umibozu and Aoyagi had a bye of some sort. Umibozu is Hirofumi Miura and this is an absolute mauling. Wonderful stuff. Aoyagi, of course, hits like a truck, or a tree trunk. He hits very, very hard.

Umibozu is fascinating though. There's this casualness to how he lays shots in, just slaps out of nowhere and sort of effortless kicks. Occasionally, Fujisaki and Wolf get some hope. Wolf tries about six different leglocks or twists in a row and Umibozu just casually snaps a kick over to knock him off. There's no real relief for them. If you're not getting the taste slapped out of your mouth by Umibozu, Aoyagi is cratering your chest in. In the end, Fujisaki managed a dragon sleeper, but Umibozu just brought up a couple of knees, rolled him over, hit a Scorpion Death Drop and then put his skull through the mat with a fisherman's buster. Serene violence, this one.

PAS: This owned, it is fun to see Fujisaki who would go on to be one of the all time great Puro crowbars as Fugo Fugo under the learning tree with a pair of all timer asskickers like Aoyagi and Umibozu. Aoyagi just put so much sauce on every shot, he throws chest punches like he is trying to defibrillate a flatline patient. Umibozu is like a hyper violent Orange Cassidy, he doesn't seem to be giving a huge fuck about the match, but everything he lands is horrifying.  

Takashi Okamura/Yoshikazu Taru vs. Kamikaze/Masakazu Fukuda

MD: And Okamura and Taru would be the other recipients of the bye I guess. First few minutes of this made me think it was going to be a mauling but it had one of the hottest finishing stretches I've seen in a while. Gripping stuff. They started hot too with Taru almost KOing Kamikaze with a high kick and then Kamikaze returning the favor with some straight punches that dropped Taru.

Once it got going and Taru came back and got the tag, Taru and Okamura did a pretty damn good job dismantling Fukuda and Kamikaze though. Okamura's shots were just nasty and varied. Honestly, Fukuda and Kamikaze did stay in it more than I thought they would, with Fukuda fighting out of the corner and Kamikaze hitting big offense on Taru and the two of them unleashing their combo in the corner that won them the first round match. It's just that whenever Okamura came back in he mowed through the opposition.

Stretch had them unloading on Taru. Tons of great offense including a deep deep exploder by Fukada. When Okamura came in, Fukada caught a foot and jammed an elbow down on the knee. But Okamura came back with the craziest jumping spin kick. Neither side could put the other away though. Finally, Okamura hit a Northern Lights but Fukada shifted somehow into a cross arm breaker breathtakingly and Okamura rolled him up for three. Hell of a finish.

PAS: This was really a hidden classic, just an incredible match between four guys most people haven't heard of. I love a Gi guys vs. Wrestlers match, with our Gi guys beating chunks off of the wrestlers and the wrestlers responding with big suplexes and Kamikaze's fat boy flying. Matt is right about the finishing run, it was as cool a back and forth spot fest finishing run as I can ever remember seeing, As intricate as your MPRO matches, but with everything given a chance to breath and the shots landed with brutal force. It feels like something which would have an incredible reputation if we had it in April 1997, as opposed to it showing up like magic nearly 30 years later. 

Ryo Miyake/Tarzan Goto vs. Gokuaku Umibozu/Masashi Aoyagi-GREAT

MD: I don't think it was until this match that I really appreciated just how many styles were represented here. Miyake and Goto were over the top and wild, downright hardcore while also being big and beefy and hard hitting. They ambushed Umibozu and Aoyagi to start. Aoyagi was able to fire back in the ring but Miyake held his own and hit a dive on him. That did some damage to his leg though and Umibozu was able to dig down on it right until Goto had enough and broke a chair over his head.

After that they leaned in hard on opening Umibozu up. He'd fight back a bit but get shut down by a Goto headbutt. He finally fought his way back against Miyake, hitting a DDT and unleashing Aoyagi on him. Lots of brutal offense especially in the corner until Goto had enough and started swinging a chair again, this time getting fed up and nailing the ref too. Things devolved into chaos (and a DQ) and chairs flying in and out of the ring. I can't say I didn't want to see Goto and Miyake up against Fujiwara but there really are no wrong answers at this point.

PAS: What a tournament this was, just great styles clash after great styles clash. Really a throwback to early days FMW here, with a pair of karate guys against wild brawlers.  This is the first time Cagematch listed Goto and Aoyagi against each other, but it feels like they have years of history. Just a pair of awesome characters whose differences work well in tandem. Both guys seem like unstoppable forces in different ways, and it just makes sense that everything broke down into a DQ, I was able to snatch a singles match between them in the same bulk buy and I can't wait to check it out. 

Shinichi Nakano/Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Takashi Okamura/Yoshikazu Taru-GREAT

MD: It's telling that Okamura and Taru were absolute killers in their last match and Nakano and Fujiwara really had their number here. They got their pound of flesh on Nakano with some nasty shots but it wasn't nearly the same. Also interesting is that this was more of a "moves" match from Fujiwara than most, and he's not really known for that. 

Okamura pressed him in the corner to start but he got underneath him and hit sort of a slightly exploding belly to belly. He followed it up with a headbutt and this driving body slam where he sort of lost him and sort of choke him down (Nakano actually hit one similar later so it might have just been an Okamura thing, but it worked for me). After Nakano's comeback (just a single strike out of the ropes but it was a nasty one), he hit another belly to belly on Taru followed by a pile driver. They had some nice kicks (but then so did Nakano) but they never really had a chance here.

PAS: I love when Fujiwara has contempt for someone, he spent much of this match sneering at Taru and Okamura, parrying their kicks and just showing contempt. It is such a great pro-wrestling vibe, and it always makes any comeuppance he gets so satisfying. Fujiwara and Nakano run the table here, but every shot Okamura and Taru land is awesome because it so visibly pisses off Fujiwara. 

Shinichi Nakano/Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Gokuaku Umibozu/Masashi Aoyagi-GREAT

MD: Despite being the finals, things go along pretty much how you'd expect early on. Fujiwara and Aoyagi match up very well. Fujiwara gets one very good sweeping takedown. No real advantage. Likewise Nakano and Umibozu. Nakano has more of a meat and potatoes style honestly, and he does take over with that. But then something happens right at the edge of the camera. Fujiwara takes off his boots. When Nakano gets that advantage and tags, Fujiwara enters barefoot. This cannot be a good thing.

And it is not. He immediately kicks Umibozu a few times and starts punching him in the face. Then he punches him some more, headsbutts him, and tags in Nakano who rolls him out and smacks him in the skull with a chair. Fujiwara makes it back in not long after and punches Umibozu more in the face. This is not going well for Umibozu. He fires back on Nakano finally, but Nakano hits one of the best recoiling shots I've ever seen to floor him. Umibozu finally is able to get a sweeping shot and redirect Nakano into his own corner but that was a hell of a mauling for a few minutes there. Barefoot Fujiwara, my god.

They fight even (including Fujiwara matching kicks with Aoyagi) until they catch Nakano laying by the apron and take over on him. They get a modicum of revenge on him until he's able to hit an enziguiri out of nowhere and tag Fujiwara in. Umibozu and Aoyagi still have the advantage though, right until we enter the Fujiwara headbutt comedy hour. I'll be honest, as entertaining as this was and as much as I would have loved it in a vacuum, this feels like the sort of thing that should have been in an earlier round. It does lead right to the finishing stretch where Fujiwara holds Aoyagi at bay while Nakano finishes Umibozu off with a power slam and Northern Lights to win the tournament. Lots of good stuff here. I just had that one nitpick.  

PAS: This match was so close to an all-timer level. Fujiwara taking off his boots to show Aoyagi "I can kickbox too Motherfucker" was one of the coolest wrestling moments I can remember. I have watched so much Fujiwara in the last 15 years, so great that he still haws songs I haven't heard before. Umibozu and Aoyagi are such asskickers, that they met barefoot Fujiwara shot for shot, and really laid an asskicking on Nakano. I agree with Matt that the Fujiwara ringpost hard head comedy spot kind of cuts off the momentum of the match a bit, and it never really gets back up to the violence inferno of the first 14 minutes. Despite the third act problems, I really loved this match, and this tournament was truly incredible stuff. Well worth the 10 bucks or so.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE AOYAGI

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE TARZAN GOTO

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FUJIWARA

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Vulnerability, Dissonance, Commitment. KJ Orso vs. Effy

KJ Orso vs. Effy GCW Code of the Streets 1/17/26 

Vulnerability is everything. 

Now you might say that vulnerability is everything for a babyface, but no, it's everything for a heel as well. The key to heat is dissonance, that gap between expectation and reality. Big John Studd might have been over because he was a menacing giant, but he was super over because he was a menacing giant who played the coward and refused to engage at the start of matches. 

That brings us to KJ Orso. As Fuego del Sol, he was bombastic, dynamic, a high-flyer. He was larger than life energy in a compact package that lit up the sky, always more over than his push. He could bound, flip, and twist with the best of his peers. He still can. The fans know it. They know it to look at him. They know it by how he moves. 

When he decided it wasn't working, that the fans weren't getting him where he needed to be, that he was ready to trade away easy certitude of the mask and gimmick to bet on himself, he changed his entire style of wrestling. He gives them nothing now, nothing to cling on to, nothing to embrace. He's dug deep into footage to reclaim old moves (like Jo Labat's shrugging shoulder attack from 1957) and spots. For a normal heel, just giving them nothing might be enough, but the GCW crowd knows him, knows who he was, and for them to watch him wrestling this way is like sticking a finger in the wound because they know he's still capable of it.

Every now and again you see a glimpse of it, a big bump, a key top rope move at a key moment, something strategic, opportunistic, there not to pop the crowd but to take advantage of a moment. It serves as dissonance in its own right, shows him to be a hypocrite, committed to who he's become right until it's convenient not to be. For the most part though, you wouldn't recognize him. 

This is a crowd used to seeing everything: chaos, mayhem, every excess known to man, and they're just happy to be there, happy to see it all and soak it in, but they're not happen to see Orso. He betrayed his friends, betrayed the crowd, betrayed the very aesthetic idea of modern spot-heavy wrestling. And they know, deep down, it wasn't due to strength but due to weakness. That means that when he succeeds, when he takes over in a match, and heaven forbid, when he wins, that makes it all the worse. 

And the key to the act? The confidence to be vulnerable. 

Watch him here. He comes out to the ring sneering and scowling at the camera, jawing with fans young and old, and he trips on the way to the ring. When's the last time you saw someone trip on the way to the ring? When's the last time you saw a heel do it? He trips and he sells it. He snatches a hat off someone's head, uses it to clean off the floor (because it had to be the floor's fault, not his, always someone to blame), and then punts it into the crowd.

He makes it into the ring and ring announcer Emil Jay, unable to hide his disgust, calls him KJ Asshole. He sells it by whipping about in fury, but then recoils back the other way as the fans start chanting asshole in turn; it's as if he took a one-two punch, and everyone there knows that they got under his skin, that if they stay invested, if they chant and boo, they can affect reality around them, they can make a difference. He makes the crowd feel like they matter, gives them a reason to care, to be invested, to not just cheer and chant 50-50 to not just be happy to be there and see spectacle before their eyes. All it takes is a little confidence and a lot of vulnerability. All it takes is to allow himself to be affected and to look the fool.

Effy gets in on the act too, mocking the trip. I've seen a decent amount of Orso this last year. I haven't seen a ton of Effy lately, so we'll lean just a little into this data point. Dissonance doesn't just create heat but it opens the door for all emotion. From the way he basks in the ring as Goodbye Yellow Brick Road plays in the background to how he's constantly adjusting his gear for the moment, to his mind games and his connection to the crowd, he presents himself with a lot of confidence and just enough vulnerability. If Orso's vulnerability is internal, here Effy's is external, based upon what happens to him in the match, real and meaningful acts of violence instead of imaginary slights in his head. He recently lost the GCW Title and it's clear that affects him, but he doesn't wrestle like a man who is lost and grasping for significance and meaning at every turn in the way that Orso does. He gives the fans just enough human vulnerability to connect to while giving them tangible results, substance to latch on to. It makes his accomplishments seem more admirable just as Orso's come off as endlessly frustrating and aggravating.

Effy certainly has a lot to work with. Orso, stinging from the trip, from the Asshole chants, from the disrespect, from not getting everything he's convinced himself he deserves, is a prime target for Effy's humiliating offense of butt attacks and gyrations. It does more than just getting under Orso's skin. It wounds his pride and his pride is everything. It's too tempting for Effy and he leans into it harder than he does his chops and other more conventional offense and that allows Orso to take over. Of course, as noted, Orso has his own failings, and he ends up too busy clapping the fans up so he can mock them and potentially deny them a dive, and he gets caught as well. Character drives everything here and that gives the fans so much to work with as well.

That plays out as the match goes on. Orso opens up on Effy's leg, but he can't help but steal the headband and taunt. Effy comes back but he goes for one too many vertical splashes and gets caught. The difference is that Orso is blindly lashing out at the world and Effy is trying to hit KJ where it hurts the most, the difference between a heel and a babyface, even if it leads to similar transitions nonetheless. 

Over time, those disparate wants start to lean in Orso's favor. He goes back to the leg time and again, chipping away it. It leaves Effy a half step slow. Even down the stretch, Orso, all too human and driven by the chip on his shoulder, would lose focus and Effy, embracing and leaning with his humanity, would capitalize, but in the end the leg gave way at a key moment and Orso was able to steal one out.

On some level, the fans knew what they saw was entertaining. They understood the skill involved. But due to the commitment, due to Orso giving them nothing and Effy giving them quite a bit, they were left legitimately frustrated and aggravated by the result of a match. In 2026. Emil Jay made the announcement, using Orso's name as written. He had no choice, Orso had won. He, just like the fans, was held hostage by the result. Orso had sold so much up front, shown so much vulnerability, and now he had snatched away the fans' joy and was gloating about it. Next time they'll hate him all the more and the circle will continue. In 2026, the beautiful art of pro wrestling can still work, can still move people, can still delight and infuriate. All it takes is a little vulnerability and total, absolute commitment.

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80s Joshi on Wednesday: Jackie! Mimi! Rimi! Kai! Kumano! Ikeshita!

Disc 2 

3. Jackie Sato, Mimi Hagiwara & Rimi Yokota vs. Leilani Kai, Mami Kumano & Yumi Ikeshita 1/4/81

K: AJW traditionally do a good Korakuen show on or around January 4th where you’re almost guaranteed to get a quality main event even if they’re not almost the most consequential. This match is such a good example of what these shows were going for. Here we have probably the top 3 babyfaces in a company going up against the top 2 heels and one of the currently residing foreigners (who almost always align with heels) in a ⅔ falls match, which the main event tag matches usually were. 

Another note, Rimi Yokota vacated the Junior Title before this show to focus on challenging for the WWWA Singles Title (and I guess, outside of kayfabe, no one at the junior level was ever going to beat her for it). Before this match Tomoko Kitamura (later Lioness Asuka) defeated the obscure Noriko Kawakami to win the vacated title.

The heels are in control for an unusually long time to start off with here, especially since it’s Jackie Sato who they’re dominating first. I thought it was cool how Leilani Kai would have a lot of choking-centred offense, and when Yumi Ikeshita came in, she continued on that theme by switching up her offense to target the throat. For example she just stands on Sato’s neck disdainfully, and a bit later she changes her “plant opponent’s face onto sticking up toes” move so that she plants Jackie’s throat on it instead. When Rimi is able to tag in, there is no hot tag, as she just gets dominated as well. The comeback actually comes from Mimi Hagiwara, whose new gimmick is that she’s taken up boxing training and is now a fearsome striker. It’s a bit ridiculous when you describe it when she has such spaghetti arms, but I think it works at neutering a weakness by insisting in kayfabe actually Mimi is strong and punches really hard. The conviction she puts behind those haymakers and that they actually work in taking down Kai and getting the comeback going after everything else had fails puts her punches over as legit. You can make all kinds of things work in wrestling if you commit to them. They even come back to this in the 2nd fall, when Mimi clenches a fist at Kai and that’s enough to get Kai to back off into her corner.

The 2nd fall has a fantastic final few minutes where Jackie manages to tie up Leilani Kai and Mami Kumano in the ropes and so they can’t help their partner. Then we get ‘Flew Too Close To The Sun’ sequence where Yumi Ikeshita just gets battered with one move after another by Jackie & Rimi making quick tags in and out, before she gets pinned with a very spectacular move where Rimi runs at the corner pad and kinda dropkicks it to spin around into a running splash but with extra oompf. Great stuff.

In the 3rd fall all the tension and violence we’d seen building up in the first 2 just explodes. They’re quickly on the outside brawling and just punching each other hard like rival football hooligans. A chair gets introduced to Yokota’s neck. There is an unfortunate bit after this where Mimi Hagiwara’s in the ring with Leilani Kai and goes for a few poorly executed takedowns which hurt the previously ferocious momentum a bit, but Rimi rushes into to rectify that. We get a more measured cooldown when the heels take over on Mimi and get a measure of revenge when they trap her in the ropes and drop her throat first into it. This lasts just about enough for the crowd to get their energy back because before you know it all hell breaks loose, they’re all running into the ring and brawling and Jackie Sato & Yumi Ikeshita look like they’re damn trying to murder each other choking over out on the floor. The match fall gets thrown out and the match is called a draw.

Great match. Exciting all the way through, we got memorable interactions in a bunch of pairings and Mimi Hagiwara’s boxing deal is getting over (she’d done it before this but this is the first time you’ll see it on this set). They achieved all that without giving anything away, not even a real finish.

****

MD: On the one hand this devolved into chaos and got thrown out. On the other, some of the checkpoints along the way felt almost evolutionary as we move into 1981. Moving into 1981, I am acutely aware that we’re on borrowed time with some of these wrestlers. We’ll lose Kumano and (for the most part) Jackie, of course, by the end of the year. So I guess we appreciate what we have while we have it. 

Kai seems like she’d come along in the year or so since we’ve seen her. Still a lot of choking and Moolah-ism but more presence and confidence. The start was clever as she went to the floor to call out Jackie only to set up a distraction so the Black Pair could nail her from behind. They controlled from there on Jackie then Yokota (whose frame makes her a great FIP) and then Mimi. But apparently Mimi had developed as well because she had gloves on her hands and was now a great puncher apparently. She ducked a Kai shot and laid in a bunch of blows to turn things around. That let them do a big corner spot where Jackie and Mimi held all three of the heels so Yokota could come flying at them repeatedly. Ikeshita took back over with a nasty headbutt though and they dismantled Mimi with missile dropkicks, Ikeshita’s fall away slam, release bombs from Kumano, and then a big suplex by Kai to win the first fall.

Jackie asserted herself right at the start of the second fall, but the heels took back over, including with an Ikeshita seated senton out of nowhere. The babyfaces turned it around with one of the best things I’ve seen out of all of the footage so far. Kai and Kumano came over to menace Jackie on the apron but she and Mimi were able to get their heads tied up in between the ropes, allowing the babyfaces to switch around and completely demolish Ikeshita finishing with Yokota pressing back off the top turnbuckle with a ricocheting splash. The third fall had some spirited stuff on the outside, including a chair getting stuffed down upon Yokota by Kai’s partner (maybe Wendi Richter in overalls?), but it devolved into chaos and got thrown out. This built to some great moments and, like most of the 80s matches was a little more even than the 70s beatdowns so felt more complete. It was a good way to start the year. 

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Found Footage Friday: LOST LUCHA~! HIJO DEL SANTO~! BABE RICHARD~! KONNAN~! REY SR~!

Shogun/Faisan vs. Babe Richard/El Master Arena Coliseo 1984-1985

MD: It's rare that lucha this old pops up and I don't think we have a ton of Richard pre-reffing. Shogun is the Ramirez from the last few months.  Master was Richard's brother. They had a pretty good act as heatseeking rudos. Constant motion. Faisin did a spot early where he took one's hands up to the top rope and when the other rushed in, he faked a kick, then stepped on his head/shoulders, to bound off and armdrag the other. I'm not sure I've seen it done quite like that. Then Shogun came in and they played right into a bunch of rudo stooging. Once they took over (and got the primera with a foul), they were constant double teams and pulling feet in from the outside to be weapons. Just constant nuisances. The handheld nature of this meant we heard all the laughter as they were getting theirs and the heat when they were dishing it out. Comeback became quebradora city until Faisan took an errant palm strike and fell down, getting a foot up as he did to foul one of his opponents before the ref and draw the DQ. Very weird finish that I am glad is lost to time because no one seemed to like it.

Rey Misterio Sr./Arana Negra vs. "Huracan Ramirez Jr."/Konnan LA Early 90s

MD: A series of finds from the family of this Ramirez. Arana is going to be Misterioso and we come in with a rudo beatdown. He works the crowd well enough here. They all do more or less, and the crowd is very into Konnan (and Ramirez knew his job was to get them chanting along for him). It's fun to watch Misterio beat on him. Most of the Rey Sr. I've seen has him as a tecnico but it's always fun to watch him play rudo now and again. He was quite good at it. Konnan was quite good at making sure people's faces ended up in his crotch, including when Arana tried to do push ups. Rudos took back over with chairs (including a drop toe-hold onto them) and Konnan was good at looking like he was constantly trying to get back in it or fight back, even with a rudo ref. Finish had Misterio get a foul on Konnan behind the ref's back but he spent too long celebrating and got nailed himself with a Konnan foul. The fans seemed pretty happy about all of it at least. An interesting look at how certain instincts played out in front of a crowd like this and of a relatively svelte Misterio Sr.

Huracan Ramirez Jr./Hijo del Santo vs. Mosco de la Merced/Tornado Negro Anaheim Late 90s

MD: We get about ten minutes of action here and I'm not sure if it's just the primera or if it's the whole thing, but it is fun. This is parking lot tent lucha. Ramirez looked pretty good here, starting and then being part of the finish. I don't know if Tornado Negro was a natural enemy to him or what but they matched up well with armdrags and what not. The fans wanted to see Santo and so do we and he had a few minutes of playing the hits with Mosco, sweeping him out of the ring, doing the headstand headscissors, a headscissors takeover, the rowboat. It's all rousing stuff and the fans eat it up. Then Ramirez comes in for some rudo miscommunication stuff, including yanking the ref down, before he hit a power bomb out of the corner and Santo flew off the top with his headbutt and they brought it to a finish. We're not going to refuse seeing Santo we haven't seen before and the setting was nice but it was pretty lightweight stuff.

ER: My girlfriend and I are in Reno for a birthday weekend getaway, and we watched this in bed at like 1:30 AM after getting some of the best pizza (shout out Noble Pie Parlor). We had just talked about El Santo movies the day before when she saw a couple in one of my many dvd and blu ray stacks, and I had given her a brief history lesson and told her about the times I saw El Santo's son live, explaining that he is regarded by me and everyone else as one of the finest wrestlers in history. Lo and behold, the next day, new Hijo del Santo appears in the wild and here we are watching him. This is probably not the greatest intro someone could get to Hijo del Santo, but I loved her reactions and insight. Mainly, she wanted to know, that if he was such a big star, then why was he working this show under a tent outdoors without a very big crowd. I told her he was a major star who was still a man of the people, and as long as someone paid his rate he would play any venue and still put on a performance worthy of the Santo name. 

I have never seen him turn in a Less Than Santo performance, and in that way this was a good way to introduce someone to him. Because once Santo entered the ring, she understood his star power. She has been absorbing wrestling through osmosis, it being regularly on in my place, but she has never seen anyone who moves like Hijo del Santo. I told her that I hadn't either, and would recognize his motion anywhere. She was captivated by how light he was on his feet, his cross ankle headscissors, all of the things we are so familiar with, captivating yet another soul. We have all seen dozens and dozens and hundreds and hundreds of Santo matches more essential than this one, but I don't know if there's a wrong place to jump into this man's career. Even in this venue, you can feel the star power and see what's special about him. I'd watch him work his magic with anyone, anywhere. 

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El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: For Each Show Host, A Match

Week 56: For Each Show Host, A Match

EB: We continue on the road to Aniversario 91, as four matches have been officially signed. The main event is scheduled to be Carlos Colon vs Ron Garvin for the Universal title, but Dino Bravo has been making noise about wanting that title match for himself. Bravo made a surprise appearance at Noche de Campeones where he made a surprise attack on Carlos Colon. It looks like we finally have a decision with regards to whether Bravo gets the match or not. Meanwhile, Carlos is dealing with the Polyneasian Prince, Gen. Akbar’s latest recruit and someone who seems to be focused on injuring Carlos before Aniversario. They faced each other last week in Caguas after having quite the brawl at the TV taping, and it looks like the rivalry has escalated. They are set to face off once more in a barbed wire match.

In other Aniversario news, Bronco remains out due to the fireball attack but promises revenge on Akbar at Aniversario. Meanwhile, Profe keeps spiraling a bit with the idea of having to face Monster Ripper, in part due to the constant needling from Hugo Savinovich over the situation. One final piece of news, TNT has been cleared for action and has set his sights on getting back the TV title from King Kong. Now let’s go to the west coast version of Super Estrellas de la Lucha Libre from June 1 and see what the decision regarding Dino Bravo is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0tpp1n8IWI

Hugo welcomes the viewers to the show and goes over what we will see today, including Universal champion Carlos Colon (in a rare tv studio match) taking on King Kong. During the rundown Hugo makes mention of Dino Bravo being the number one contender for the Universal title and the man who will face Carlos at Aniversario, so it looks like the commission made the decision to change the match to Colon vs Bravo. Since this is the west coast edition of Super Estrellas, all mentions of Aniversario are focused on the Friday card in San German. Hugo updates the viewers on the most recent developments for that card, but not before hyping up the air conditioning, ample parking and security available at the facility in San German. The main event for Friday July 5 is Carlos Colon defending the Universal title against Dino Bravo. It is official, since Bravo and Profe were alleging that Carlos was ducking Bravo out of fear. To help Bravo’s cause, it seems that Profe went to Ron Garvin and paid him off to step aside. Garvin called the WWC commission and relinquished his title shot. Add to that Carlos wanting payback for the attack Bravo did at Noche de Campeones and here we are with Bravo now challenging Carlos at Aniversario.

Also scheduled is a first time ever match in Puerto Rico as a man faces a woman, and Hugo says that Monster Ripper is favored against Profe. Dick Murdoch vs Giant Warrior and Bronco vs Skandor Akbar in a vengeance match round out the signed matches so far, there will be 6 other matches so stay tuned as new updates are made. Next week there will be information about where you can purchase tickets for the show, and with that let’s go to the ring for our first match. 

King Kong vs. Carlos Colon

Our first match is a surprising one, as Carlos Colon takes on King Kong. This is a non-title match and Hugo mentions this is a dangerous opponent for Carlos. Akbar is not at ringside with Kong, but Hugo says that it will be a big boost for Devastation Inc if Kong defeats Carlos here. The first minutes of the match are all about establishing Kong’s size and strength advantage, he shoves Carlos down a few times and works him over with nerve holds. The match continues with Kong in control, with Hugo saying it's surprising that Kong is having such a dominant showing against Calros, who trains diligently. Hugo sends a hellos to the viewers watching in the different countries the program airs and it sure seems that this match is to help establish if Carlos can handle bigger and stronger opponents such as Dino Bravo. After six or seven minutes, Colon makes a comeback after dodging a corner splash. The offensive flurry is ended when Kong uses his weight to belly bump Colon on a corner charge. Kong picks Colon up for a slam and Carlos grabs the ropes to prevent it. The referee tells Colon to let go and kicks Colon’s hands off the ropes. The sudden momentum shift seems to unbalance Kong and he falls down with Colon on top. The ref makes a count and Carlos wins the match, although it looks more like it was luck. This may be a sign that Carlos may have a tough time against Bravo unless he really prepares.

MD: Not a long match but kind of an interesting one since we haven’t seen Colon face someone this size in a while. Kong really had Colon’s number for the first two thirds of this, overpowering him and then leaning down on him hard with clubbers and nerveholds. Colon dodged a corner charge and took over. There was some sense that he had worn him down with a rope-a-dope though it didn’t quite have enough time to play out. Kong was so active that it sort of worked though. He came out of the corner with a Vader Attack though but Colon held on to the top rope on a slam attempt and when the ref kicked the hands out, he fell on him for a quick three. If Kong was leaving the territory this was a good way to have him do business on TV on the way out. Otherwise, it was a weird thing to give away.

EB: Dino Bravo is in the studio for another promo about facing Carlos Colon, only this time the match is officially a go. Bravo says that he tracked Colon to his backyard and on his first visit to the island almost broke Colon’s neck. Bravo has his number and he will become the new Universal champion at Aniversario 91. Carlos Colon is next and says that Aniversario 91 is going to be an important night for him. Not only is he facing the world strongest man and a great wrestler, Colon has a personal score to settle with Bravo after the humiliation he received at Noche de Campeones. Hugo makes note that this is not only for the title but also a chance for Carlos to represent Puerto Ricans well. Carlos says that the fans know Bravo's accomplishments and it is a tough task he faces, but with the fans support he will come out with the win. The segment ends with an Aniversari 91 card rundown featuring the four announced matches so far.

MD: Bravo just seemed happy to be there, talking about how Colon was the ambassador to the world but that Bravo had come to his backyard and could have broken his neck. He had to ask Profe for confirmation on the fact it was called Aniversario but said that Colon should bring his heart and his belt and he’d take both. As a kid from New England in 1991, I would have probably seen Bravo as a bigger star than Ron Garvin but I still have my doubts here.

Billy Joe Travis & Gran Mendoza vs. Ricky Santana & Tito Carrion

EB: We go back to Miramar for our next match but it seems that an argument is happening at the commentary desk. Billy Joe Travis is there with El Galana Mendoza and El Profe, they are up next. Instead of being in the ring, Travis is angrily yelling at Hugo Savinovich, it seems Travis is angry about comments Hugo has made about him. Hugo dismisses Travis and tells him to get in the ring, he doesn’t want to talk to Travis right now. Profe has to drag Travis away so they can go to the ring for their match. As Travis and Mendoza enter the ring, the camera shows Hugo and Eliud at the commentary desk and Hugo is angry, explaining to Eliud that this guy Travis brought up Hugo’s wife again and Hugo is not having that. It looks like there have been some verbal jabs between Travis and Hugo in recent weeks but we haven't seen them on the TV episode versions we have. Still, Hugo says that if Travis has any issues with him that’s fine but he should stick to talking about Hugo and not his wife. Eliud adds that Travis took it further by shoving Hugo and Hugo says he’ll compose himself because he is a professional and has a job to do. 

In the ring, Mendoza and Travis are facing Ricky Santana and Tito Carrion. Travis and Santana lock up and Hugo asks Eliud to continue with the commentating for now. Santana and Carrion get the early advantage on Travis, as Hugo has calmed down enough to join Eliud on commentary. Hugo says that he's pretty sure that El Profe is behind all of this by goading Travis and getting him riled up to go after Hugo. Hugo thinks it’s because of all the comments and grief he has given Profe over the Monster Ripper situation. Hugo draws the line at having his wife and family brought into this though. As Travis and Mendoza take over on Carrion, Hugo continues going off, saying that this has to be Profe and other people that are likely jealous of the good work Hugo does on the TV shows and that he’s not going to continue letting this go. The rudos continue working over Carrion and Profe decides to go over and needle Hugo about what happened. Hugoa accuses Profe about being behind all of this and Profe just laughs, saying all he did was tell Travis the truth about all the garbage Hugo was saying about Travis. In the ring, the rudos continue isolating Carrion and, despite a brief flurry from Carrion, win the match after a Mendoza DDT. Post match, an angry Travis once again makes a beeline towards Hugos and starts yelling and shoving him a bit before being pulled away.

MD: Travis was an awesome heatseeker. He has some things I love in USWA Texas right around this time if I’m not mistaken, and he was getting right in Hugo’s face before the match. It’s funny that on a card where they already have Profe vs Ripper and (if I’m not mistaken) Akbar vs Bronco, they’re looking to maybe do Hugo vs Travis too, but I guess it would fit a theme. This was effective (in part because it was so unusual) nonetheless.

Travis was a natural fit here, leaning his face in so Santana could take a swipe, then nailing him with sweeping punches and slaps of his own. He stooged big when it was time, and then, once they got Tito in, they leaned hard on him, drawing Santana in a couple of times that just made the double teaming worse. Real mauling. Carrion finally got a comeback but it was brief as he ran right into Mendoza’s knee and ate a DDT. Post-match Travis jawed with Hugo at the desk some more.

EB: Skandor Akbar has an interview and talks about not being certain that Bronco will make it to Aniversario. Akbar is retired and pays other people to fight for him, but he is not happy at being forced by the WWC to face Bronco. But he has a plan and Bronco better be careful. Bronco responds by telephone as they replay video of the fireball incident. Bronco says he has burn marks, blisters and scars from Akbar’s fireball but promises that at Aniversario he will get his revenge. 

MD: Akbar wasn’t happy with having to face Bronco. He said he was the godfather, the general, and retired, rich enough to pay others to wrestle but WWC was forcing the issue. He sounded frazzled, focusing both on the idea that Bronco might be too hurt to wrestle due to the burn but also that it could happen again or he might have a trick up his sleeve. Bronco, despite not being in the studio, was spirited as ever and fans would certainly think he was showing up for this one.

Rod Price vs. Herbert Gonzalez

EB: Rod Price is in action against Herbert Gonzalez and this match is a showcase for the man who says he is the perfect wrestler. Herbert gets no offense and Price shows off some nice moves as Hugo and Eliud talk up Price's credentials and background. Price gets the win after a shoulder tackle. Let’s see what waves Price can make in Puerto Rico.

MD: On paper, Price really fits in too but I’ll need to see something more competitive. He steamrolled Herbert here, belly to belly, hotshot, leg drop, fist drop, a goofy roll into an elbow in the corner and a great jumping shoulder tackle, all while Akbar gloated on the outside. 

EB: Giant Warrior is in the studio to talk about his scheduled match against Dick Murdoch. Warrior says that Murdoch won’t get any vindication at Warrior’s expense. He'll keep an eye out for Joe Don Smith but his main focus is on Dick Murdoch.

MD: Interesting bit here is that they did half, translated, and then did the other half. You don’t usually see Hugo actually ask a follow up question (this time about Joe Don Smith) that way. I can’t say that Murdoch vs Giant Warrior is exactly what I’d want for my #2 match on the PPV relative to Murdoch vs Invader or TNT but they had run through some of these pairings already I guess and it’s not like Warrior wasn’t heavily established by now. 

Brad Anderson vs. Huracan Castillo Jr.

EB: Up next is Brad Andersn taking on Huracan Castillo and there may be fireworks considering that Profe and Monster Ripper are at ringside. And immediately Ripper tries to go after Profe but instead Profe hides behind Brad Anderson. Ripper still goes after him and Profe decides to flee to the locker room instead of getting caught by Ripper. Profe stays in the shadows of the entrance as Ripper calls him a chicken, but runs back out when Ripper goes back to ringside. The match starts and it is pretty even in the first minute until Castillo catches Anderson with an atomic drop that sends Anderson through the ropes to the outside. Profe rubs Anderson’s booboo before  Brad gets back in the ring. As the match continues, Profe heads over to the commentary desk and explains that he’s trying to avoid any incident since the commissioner has been going around levying fines as of late and Profe doesn’t want to risk his license (although he wants nothing more than to give Ripper a slap in the face). Anderson works a chinlock on Castillo and Ripper again tries to chase after Profe (who hides behind the commentators). This match is really a backdrop for the Profe and Ripper rivalry. Castillo ends up making a comeback but it’s the managers that lead to the finish. Profe distracts the ref so that Anderson can get the advantage, but Ripper takes that opening to shake the ropes and cause Anderson to fall from the turnbuckle. Castillo gets the pin right after and he and Ripper head back to the locker room.

After the match we get promos from El Profe and Monster Ripper. Profe says that he is fed up with the insults and has reached the point of not caring about being a gentleman. Since he is being forced to do the match, Profe will take this opportunity to use Ripper as an example that a woman's place is in the home, tending to their husbands and doing the household chores. . Maybe Ripper is infatuated with Profe and that is why she wants to get her hands on him but Profe is going to forget she is a woman and will beat her up at Aniversario. Monster Ripper responds by saying Profe will respect women and reminds Profe that she is not like the women from around here. She will fight on behalf of all of the women in the world and she will hit him hard.

MD: Ripper was out with Castillo. Profe was out with Anderson. Really, the match took a backseat to their antics as Ripper chased Profe to the back once or twice. I’m not sure about the chemistry between Castillo and Anderson (probably down to Anderson), but there also wasn’t a lot to latch on to here. Castillo had his nice jumping knee on the comeback. Finish was muddled as Profe distracted for no reason as Anderson was going to the top, allowing Ripper to shake the ropes and Castillo to steal a win. Post match promos seemed to be what you’d expect for a man vs woman match. I’d almost rather have had Ripper defeat a guy (Exotico would have been perfect but we haven’t seen him for a while) as part of the build instead.

EB: Skandor Akbar is in the studio with Rod Price, a recent arrival to his stable. Price has several nicknames it looks like. Akbar talks up Price's physique and wrestling skills. 

MD: Akbar touted all of Price’s attributes and called him Rugged and Mr. Perfect. Price said he was a Dude with a Tude and Hugo had to figure out how to translate it.

Dino Bravo vs. George Anderson from WWF Superstars

EB: We get a Dino Bravo squash match courtesy of the WWF. We still haven’t seen Bravo wrestle in Puerto Rico but that will change soon.

MD: Bravo has some weirdly babyface coded offense, both an inverted atomic drop and an airplane spin. I hate how he sets up the side slam with a kick to the gut. If he had done it after the airplane spin, it would have been much better and less stilted. The WWF heat machine is droning and distracting in a way I don’t usually notice. Wonder if it has something to do with the Hugo voice over on the sound mix. It would have been nice to have Bravo in studio for a squash. I bet it’d have a different feel.

EB: Dick Murdoch and Joe Don Smith offer some comments about the scheduled match with Giant Warrior. Murdoch is miffed that he is booked against Giant Warrior because he wants Carlos Colon again. If Murdoch has to annihilate someone else to get that, he will do that. The episode then ends with the previously seen TNT and Ron Garvin music videos and Hugo's sign off.

MD: Now I feel bad for questioning Giant Warrior because Joe Don and Murdoch feel the same way I do. But Murdoch says Warrior should say bye to his loved ones because he’s going to lift him up for the brainbuster and send him to the hospital.

EB: So we’ve seen how Aniversario is shaping up on the west coast, but we have a big card scheduled for tonight in Bayamon. Let’s go to part of the Campeones episode from June 1 to get the latest news.

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

The video starts with Hugo in the Aniversario 91 control center, where he is explaining the confirmation of Colon vs. Bravo and the whole deal with Ron Garvin stepping down. Hugo also talks about the incident that happened last Wednesday in Miramar with Billy Joe Travis. It’s the same incident we saw on Super Estrellas but we get some additional footage. It seems Carlos Colon has come out to the commentary desk and Hugo is asking Carlos if El Ejercito de la Justicia would help Hugo train if he decides to challenge Travis to a match. Carlos says of course they will and promises in front of everyone that he will be the first one to train Hugo. Hugo yells out ‘You got it Mr. Travis’ and it looks like we have another match for Aniversario 91. Giant Warrior also approaches Hugo and offers his help in training Hugo. The control center wraps up by reminding the dates for Aniversario 91.

MD: We see a little bit more of what occurred after the match from the last show. Because (at the urging of Profe, says Hugo) Travis insulted both Hugo and his wife, he said he’d fight Travis. Colon offers to help. Giant Warrior offers to train, and we’ve got another non-wrestler vs wrestler match for Aniversario. After this we get just a glimpse of a pretty cool looking Road to Aniversario video.

EB: We then get a card rundown for tonight in Bayamon:  Carlos Colon vs Polynesian Prince in a barbed wire match; in a super challenge Invader #1 vs Ron Garvin; Giant Warrior vs. Dino Bravo; rematch for the TV title as King Kong defends against the returning TNT; Super Medico #3 defends the Caribbean title against Dick Murdoch; Galan Mendoza & Billy Joe Travis defend the Caribbean tag titles against the Caribbean Express with Monster Ripper handcuffed to El Profe at ringside; Brad Anderson defends the World Junior title against Ricky Santana; and Invader #4 & Mr. Ito vs. Rod Price & Action Jackson. Also, tomorrow they will be in Caguas with Carlos Colon vs. Ron Garvin; Invader #1 vs. Dino Bravo; TNT & Giant Warrior vs. Polynesian Prince & Dick Murdoch; Super Medico #3 vs. King Kong, Castillo, Perez & Santana  vs. Mendoza, Travis & Price; Invader #4 vs Brad Anderson; and Mr. Ito vs. Action Jackson.

We cut to Skandor Akbar and Polynesian Prince in the studio, with Akbar talking about tonight’s barbed wire match. Clips are shown of last week’s match between Colon and Prince, with Akbar saying Carlos gave Prince his best shot and it didn’t get the job done. Tonight Prince will finish Colon and then Colon will call Akbar master. Prince just chews on some straw while Akbar is talking. Then Akbar talks about tomorrow’s tag match against TNT & Giant Warrior.

MD: The card they’re promoting with the Prince vs Colon barbed wire rematch is really good. Invader vs Garvin. Giant Warrior vs Bravo. King Kong vs TNT. Super Medico III vs Murdoch. Caribbean Express vs Travis/Mendoza with Profe and Ripper handcuffed together. Anderson vs Santana. Plus Invader IV. Mr. Ito. Rod Price. And Action Jackson. That’s a really strong show. Another show has Colon vs Garvin, Invader vs Bravo. TNT/Warrior vs Prince/Murdoch and Medico vs Kong. So some good shows in the lead up to Aniversario. The most interesting part of the Akbar promo was him talking about how many favorites Murdoch had done for Devastation Inc. over the years.

EB: El Profe is with Travis and Mendoza, and they talk about tonight’s title defense against the ‘Chicken’ Express. Travis starts by calling Puerto Rico ‘his island’ and insults Hugo Savinovich and his wife. Profe is happy that he will be handcuffed to Monster Ripper so he can stop her from doing her underhanded cheating. Mendoza talks about tomorrow's six man tag and says something that gets bleeped. 

MD: Travis was leaning hard into this saying he’d not just beat Hugo but beat his wife as well.

EB: Ron Garvin is here and is looking forward to knocking out Invader #1 tonight. Invader has to prove to Garvin that he can knock Garvin out. Garvin is confident he can knock Invader out, ask Carlos Colon about that.

MD: Garvin having to come up with about six ways to show off his fists as Hugo was translating his promo doesn’t quite reach Scott Hall levels of amusement but it comes close.

Brad Anderson vs. Ricky Santana

EB: Our main event for this episode of Campeones is the World Junior title match from last week in Caguas, as Ricky Santana challenges Brad Anderson. The match starts with Profe goading Santana into chasing him outside the ring, allowing Anderson to surprise attack Santana when he rounded a corner. Sanatna quickly recovers however, and decks both Anderson and Profe. Santana is back in the ring as Anderson is trying to revive Profe on the outside, but has to race back in to avoid the countout. The wrestlers exchange shoves and punches with Saatana winning the exchange. It looks like Profe massaging Anderson’s booboo is a regular part of their act, as he does it again after Anderson got atomic dropped by Santana. On commentary Hugo and Profe are arguing about their upcoming Aniversario matches and who will fare better, and also about Profe’s insistence of making fun of wrestlers' nationalities. Ricky continued in control as we got to commercial break.

Back from the break and Santana is doing a sunset flip for a two count. Based on the commentary, it looks like Profe had thrown Ricky into one of the posts, which gave Anderson the opening to take control of the match. Profe claims that Santana fell into the post and he was only near him to try to help him back up. Santana is bleeding and Anderson works him over with a rear chinlock. Anderson misses a legdrop and Ricky comes back, highlighted by a foul kick to Anderson when the ref wasn’t looking. As Ricky gets fired up, Hugo has the video crew show a brief moment of when Profe threw Ricky into the post so the fans can see what a liar Profe is. Another punch exchange is won by Santana. Ricky goes for a flying body press but accidentally takes out both Anderson and the ref. Ricky covers but there is no one to count. Ricky starts punching Anderson again, with Anderson countering with a backdrop that sends Santana over the top rope to the floor right by where the referee is coming to. Santana gets on the apron and exchanges more punches with Anderson. Brad tries to suplex Santana in but Ricky shifts his weight and lands on top of Anderson. A second referee runs in and does the three count. Santana has won the title… or so it seems. Turns out the first referee saw Anderson throw Santana over the top rope and awarded the decision to Sanatan by dq. Anderson remains the champion. 

MD: On paper, this pairing was getting old, but this had enough Puerto Rico hooha to make it work. Profe distracted Santana for an Anderson ambush on the floor to begin but when he held him, Santana ducked and Andreson took his manager out on the floor. Fun stuff. Back in the ring, Santana controlled for a while as Brad stooged. One big problem with Anderson is that his transitions tend to be fairly weak, a lot of just pressing someone into the corner and taking over. The big damage was done during the break as Profe had posted Santana though, opening him up. That was a good visual during the chinlock at least. Finish was wonky and Dusty-ish, with the ref getting taken out on a flying body press by Santana and Santana then hefted over the top by Anderson. A second ref came in to count a pin on the way back in but the first one had seen the over the top hefting and ruled it a DQ instead of a title switch. It’s the Junior title. Just switch the thing back and forth, right? Overachieving match overall though, especially fun for Profe trying to explain what he did and didn’t do on commentary.

EB: We have video for two of the matches from the June 1 house show from Estadio Juan Ramon Loubriel. Before getting to those matches, let’s discuss some of the other results from that card. As would be expected, Dino Bravo picked up the win against Giant Warrior in his first match in Puerto Rico on his way to Aniversario 91. Titles wise, Super Medico #3 retained his title against Dick Murdoch, while the Caribbean Express and Ricky Santana regained their titles. As for Invader #1 and Ron Garvin, we’ll discuss what happened in their match next time. 

That leaves the TV title match and the barbed wire match, which are the two matches we have footage for. First, TNT has made his return and is getting a chance to get revenge against King Kong  and possibly win the TV title back. Let’s see how that goes for him.

TNT vs. King Kong - June 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x8W7Pcf8aU

We join this match in progress as King Kong is stomping a downed TNT. Kong sends TNT into the ropes and knocks him down with a belly bump.  Kong casually steps on TNT and continues attacking him. As the blows continue, TNT starts gathering himself and fires back. Eventually TNT is able to knock Kong down after two clotheslines. An eye rake by Kong stops TNT’s surge and Kong splashes TNT in the corner. TNT is sent into the ropes and ducks a Kong clothesline, setting up a dynamite kick that staggers Kong. A second one staggers him more but Kong does not go down. TNT comes off the ropes with a flying spin kick and finally knocks Kong down. TNT makes the over and gets the three count. TNT has regained the TV title and defeated the monster that had put him on the shelf.

MD: Just two minutes here. Kong controls for a bit, moving around well and with credible shots. I liked TNT’s hulk up here. Kong still squashes him in the corner but TNT ducks a shot and starts laying in the kicks, with Kong as a big canvas for his offense, making it look great. TNT hits the jumping kick and scores a decisive win.

EB: And now let's see how Carlos Colon fares against the Polynesian Prince as the ring is encased in barbed wire.

Carlos Colon vs. Polynesian Prince - Barbwire Match - June 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9b7r8GSoHc

We join the match with Carlos already in the ring and the Polynesian Prince climbing over the ropes into the ring. The ropes have barbed wire wrapped around them. The match is a bit tentative to start, with Colon doing a side headlock and Prince attacking but not with much aggressiveness. As this is going on, Hugo shills the PPV broadcast of Aniversario 91 on the cable system this is being broadcast on. The match continues with Prince in control, using chokes and biting offense but again it does not come across as being aggressive considering the type of attacks.Carlos starts bleeding and Prince attacks the forehead. Carlos ends up going into the barbed wire off some blows from Prince, but it comes off more as incidental than done with purpose by Prince. The match continues with some standard spots of trying to push your opponent's face in the wire and Prince pulls out a foreign object to attack Colon with. Prince controls the first half of the match but once Carlos makes his comeback it is all Colon. Prince bleeds as Carlos starts throwing Prince into the barbed wire and attacking the cut on Prince’s forehead. Carlos ducks a clothesline and hits a back suplex that sets up Prince for the figure four. Prince submits and Carlos Colon has won the barbed wire match. Post match, Carlos decides to dish out some more punishment to Prince and make sure the rivalry is settled once and for all.

MD: It’s great we have this one but I’m not quite sure it lives up to other Colon barbed wire matches. Some of that could be the muted sound, of course, but a lot of it was how they treated the barbed wire. Prince went into it early. He responded by hitting a foul and taking over for quite a while. Colon came back and punished him for much of the rest of the match, leaving both men bloody. There were a lot of whips back into the wire and Prince was deep into character as he responded with an almost dancing sort of Kamala-esque selling. There just wasn’t enough gravitas in trying not to end up in it maybe? The best bit was actually Colon having to adapt his comeback headbutts and getting Prince from behind. Finish had him locking in the figure-four and the wire here almost was more useful to keep any potential interference out so Prince had no choice but to give up.

EB: Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, more matches are signed for Aniversario including Ron Garvin getting a new opponent for the event. We also will see who Mr. Ito and Hugo Savinovich starts his training as we continue on the road to Aniversario 91.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 1/12 - 1/18 (Part 1)

AEW Dynamite 1/14/26

MJF vs Bandido

Way I see it, Max only has one thing left to prove.

Look, he was a very young world champion, main evented one of the biggest shows of all time, has drawn houses and ratings and sold merch, has the Punk feud, has the Danielson match, the Darby match, the Ospreay match, the Omega match. The Mistico match, with the Briscoe match the next night. He's probably a top 10 success story in the wrestler-to-movie pipeline already (but then it's not like he has a lot of competition; Hunter didn't blow the world away with Blade III). He got over incredible babyface bullshit with the Double Clothesline/Kangaroo Kick deal. He's done two musical numbers. I could go on and mention more matches or esoteric things. You can argue any one of these things, but you can't argue all of them. 

So what's left? Going to WWE and main eventing a Mania? That's all politics. It's all playing a game. It's being part of a machine. We know he can play politics. There's nothing real there anymore, if there ever was. Natural heel that he is, he's not going to break Make-A-Wish records or be the best darn spokesman for the Saudi regime you could hope for. 

Is it getting star ratings? We don't care much about that here but he's got the highest WON star rating ever for a US TV match, or something like that. Does quantity really matter all that much? Maybe it does to some people, but wrestling isn't math. 

Wrestling is, however, broken.  

More than just about any fictional medium out there, it has an antagonistic fanbase. It's not about real vs fake. It's not about working people and kayfabe. But it was for a long time, and as wrestling fans trended older, as the product became more niche, more about itself than real life human issues, it became all the more essential for those remaining fans to feel like they were smart, to be above it all, to not compare themselves to the people screaming and shouting and letting themselves get caught up in the moment. 

The social contract between performer and audience broke. 

I'm not saying that wrestling is the only medium with a spoiler culture or people obsessing over box office or fans nitpicking every thing. It's 2026 and we're in an age of social media and that's a lot of things now. Wrestling’s more interactive than most others, however, and it asks more of the live audience. And that live audience today are the heirs of the 80s sheet writers and readers, the ones that looked down upon people who cheered for Hogan or Dusty, who were self-conscious about their hobby, the hobby that they put so much time and effort into. The rise of the internet let that mentality spread like a disease. The end of WCW and rise of MMA peeled off a lot of the more casual fanbase. And then social media brought people closer to the wrestlers allowing the Elite to use irony to get over by tossing the suspension of disbelief to the wayside and creating a relationship with the fanbase, showing everyone the strings all the time so they could feel nice and comfortable and superior. 

All this led to a shift in how matches were worked and a shift in the reward structure. The super indy style became more prevalent as was mimicking bloated Japanese style epics. Getting star ratings or high cagematch scores became more important in getting over. Hitting viral spots might get you over the top. Yes, we're seeing it in all forms of entertainment and hearing stories about how people can't get cast unless they have a certain amount of Instagram followers because movies can't be greenlit unless some total number is reached. But because of the interactive nature of wrestling, the end product shows it all the more. It’s become an endless race to a sensational bottom, nothing allowed to breathe, nothing allowed to sink in, nothing allowed to resonate. Everything has to be so awesome and overwhelming that nothing can actually move people and force them to feel.

Which brings us back to Max and what he has left to prove.

He says he’s a generational talent, says that he wants a legacy, to be remembered as one of the best ever. We’re in a quantitative checkbox world. How many spots? How many counters? How many kickouts? How many likes, retweets, views? And he can be one of the best at that. We’ve seen it. He’s proven it. He’s proven it too many times, actually, because it never seems to take with the fanbase and that just drives him to prove it again, just so it won’t take again. He can be another number in a world of numbers.

Or he can leverage his push, his track record, his spot, his skill, his success outside wrestling, and prove that one last thing.

He can save pro wrestling. He can reset the balance. He can make people WANT to feel again, to value it.

What an uphill battle he faces. Look at this match. He’s in there against Bandido, one of the best babyfaces in the world, with a real, true connection to the crowd, who lets himself be earnest and heartfelt, but look at what he had against him? The crowd he’s in front of. Not only have they been watching years of this stuff, following it online, living and breathing it, but on this very show they’d already seen a Darby Allin car crash trainwreck match with some bumps that should be highlights for the entire decade AND a crazy multi-team tag full of coordinated, collaborative, over the top spots. Moreover, he has Bandido himself to face, because for as wonderful Bandido is, his finisher, the 21-plex, is one of the most disruptive moves in pro wrestling, forcing his opponent to move into a spot that he’d never be in for any other match. Feeling is about immersion, and nothing breaks immersion quite like that. 

Max would have to wrestle basically a perfect match, a perfect performance in order to make this work, to save the crowd from itself, to save wrestling from itself, and quite frankly, to save him from himself and his own need to prove once again everything that’s already been proven and not the one thing that he still needs to prove the most. 

—-------------------

Every detail mattered. That’s half the battle here. The other half is selflessness, confidence, channeling the spirit of Terry Funk to throw yourself fully into every moment, to make every moment seem to matter, not necessarily to the story or to history, but to the wrestler in the ring. Everything has consequence, physical but especially emotional. If the wrestlers care, the fans will care. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but over time. 

The fans were split to start, behind Bandido but willing to chant for MJF. They sang along to his theme song. So he immediately disengaged and told them to shut up. That turned them immediately.They weren’t going to get rewarded by MJF, no pat on the head, no playing along, nothing to latch on to. That would continue. 

The early feeling out process hits the right marks. MJF underestimates Bandido early, stepping over a dropdown and playing around with Eddy Guerrero’s mannerisms, with Ric Flair’s. That builds up the pressure for him to get outwrestled by Bandido. Bandido punctuates it with the finger gun. MJF responds with an eyerake. The fans boo. This is Act I. The characters are being established. The stage is being set.

MJF runs into a press slam and stumbles into 21-plex position, hands on the second rope, crouching. It’s the gun in Bandido’s holster, Chekhov’s Gun, and by going to that position early and often, by setting it up as a possibility at multiple points, it becomes more believable, more strategic even. Was MJF trying to lure Bandido in? Had he actually stumbled there? Other matches, other sequences couldn’t be controlled, but this match could be. Regardless, here MJF rolls to the outside, just a tease, and walks away from Bandido’s first dive attempt, tapping his head, showing his superiority, making it impossible, only to walk right into a second dive attempt. MJF gives the fans nothing. Bandido gives them everything. MJF shows himself to be despicable, arrogant, cowardly and gets instant retribution. And the fans? They don’t chant this is awesome. They chant for Bandido instead.

Bandido is giving the crowd everything. MJF tries to stall on the apron and Bandido doesn’t give him an inch. There’s a cost to that though. It lets MJF take over on the arm, to introduce the wedge that will help drive the narrative of the first half of the match. MJF hits a pumphandle facebuster. But then he lets it breath, walking it off, interacting with the crowd. He chokes in the corner. The fans boo and he leans into that booing, amplifying it. More than that, he sets up a logical hope spot. There’s an ebb and flow. Bandido tries to fight out of the corner. MJF uses the arm to cut him off. MJF taunts Bandido and the crowd by teasing the Macarena. That lets Bandido fight back again. MJF cuts him off, hits a shoulder breaker, basks more, gets a reaction. All emotional responses. All character driven. All structurally sound. Wrestling isn’t math. Sometimes it’s physics, and here pressure is building and letting off only to build all the more. This has time to live and breathe and worm its way into the hearts and souls of the crowd.

They make the most of the commercial break. MJF throws Bandido arm first into the corner, hammerlocked. He goes for it again. Bandido turns it around and starts the ten punches in the corner. Interactive. MJF cuts him off at nine as he was hyping up ten, stealing the candy from the fans. He hits an inverted atomic drop and jams the arm. The fans chant for Bandido. Back from break, he goes for the Three Amigos. It’s always a borderline face spot when Mercedes does it, but there’s no joy in MJF’s heart. It’s a sheer insult. Bandido blocks the third and starts firing back. MJF tries to cut him off, can’t. The crowd expects Bandido to reverse it clean, but MJF bites him. The crowd boos, thinking they weren’t going to get their reward once again, but Bandido, leaning into his strength powers through.

This is where they start twisting and inverting things. MJF avoids the 21-plex again, but Bandido reverses the Salt of the Earth. It all builds to a huge moment where MJF thinks himself safe by retreating back over the barricade but Bandido dives from the top all the way over it, defying MJF’s cowardice, defying that sense that he could prevent the fans from getting what they wanted. Bandido is brave, courageous, a man of the people, a folk hero, and he goes above and beyond to ensure justice is done.

From here they continue to invert, continue to escalate. Everything that had happened so far in Act I (defining the characters and the tone) and Act II (MJF controlling with the arm and the hope spots and cutoffs) set the stage for things boiling over here into a hot extended finishing stretch. There’s one moment after MJF turns Bandido jamming the Heatseeker pile driver into a pulling cutter that the fans chant Fight Forever, but it’s not many and it soon fades. Why? Because MJF went back to the well and tried it again only for Bandido to get the best of him. He selflessly stooged and showed vulnerability to disrupt the fans even thinking of treating this like a 50-50 scenario.

They move into big spots and roll-ups and nearfalls, keeping things exciting, cashing in all of the emotional capital they invested in the first two acts of the match. After so many teases and lures, Bandido finally hits the 21-plex, but can’t hold the bridge given his arm. MJF goes for the Salt of the Earth but turns the reversal into a LeBell Lock (which Danielson on commentary lets slip, emotionally, as a Yes Lock in a great accidental call; he was just as engaged as the crowd, a testament to him and the match). Bandido passes out. MJF wins, but still manages to sell, seeing Bandido as a threat too dang the emotional weight post-match, seeing Bandido as too dangerous to let live and attacking after the bell, only for Brody King to make the save.

—---

One slip from one part of the crowd, but in general, it worked. Max and Bandido controlled for the 21-plex, survived the carcrash and spotfest before them, kept the crowd, gave everyone a memorable moment, and made people feel. They can go back to this again later, build it not bigger but deeper. Bandido came out better than he came in. Max came out better than he came in. Wrestling, I think, came out better than it came in. But it’s one step on a road and there’s so far left to go.

Why do I think that this on Max? Why not Fletcher? Why not Ricochet? Why not FTR? They can and should be part of it. They need to be part of it. But to me, it’s needs to be him. Because he’s on top and has the freedom. Because he’s a student of the game and as such understands what has been lost. Because he had that taste of Arena Mexico. Because he clearly feels alive when the fans are booing him. Because this is what he has left to prove. He can’t do it alone, but he can help change the incentives. He can help convince wrestlers that this is something they want to be a part of, that it won’t be career sabotage, even if maybe, just maybe, there’s one three quarters of a star less in it for them. 

He can help convince crowds that this is something they want to experience. They don’t have to be fooled into believing that it’s real. They can be convinced that it’s worthwhile to come and be part of the experience, to boo the heels and cheer for faces and embrace the text for its own sake once again without trying to force themselves above it or feel self conscious about it. Like if they went to a movie. Like if they watched a TV show. Like if they read a book.

I’ve felt that way in the past, that need to be a part of something. I get the notion. I wanted to see Black and Gold NXT live, to be part of that. I went to the 2015 Royal Rumble mainly so I could do the Yes! Chants at least once. I think fans can be convinced that it’s not just about seeing a big spot or athleticism or witnessing a 5.25 star match (or sing along to the songs and pavlovianly respond to catch phrases like in the other place), but instead being part of this unique emotionally gripping live experience that they can’t get anywhere else. 

They can do it with open eyes and leave their troubles at the door and Max can help show them that it’s worth it, that even in 2026, it’s worth being genuine and not ironic, that not everything’s a meme or a gif.

Unlike one house and one buyrate and one match, it’s the work of a lifetime, the work of a generation. But there’s no greater legacy he could possibly have.

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