Found Footage Friday: FUNK~! RHODES~! APACHE~! ANGELICO~! NAVARRO~! PSICOSIS II~! SOLAR~! HYSTERIA~!

Gran Apache vs. Angelico Arena Lopez Mateos 2011

MD:  This really benefited from Black Terry, Jr. getting us so close to the action. Apache is so great to watch up close. First and foremost, the strikes are so damn good. Every time he rears back for a punch or a slap, it's an event. But I love watching him lace one limb over another and grapevine in to lock in a hold. There's just such confidence and assurance to it all. Meanwhile, it never feels given. It simply feels taken. Angelico, on the other hand, really worked to unlock one hold or another. He'd grind his elbow down or work the arm in order to get the leg and it always felt like he was accomplishing something of meaning. That was made all the more so by Apache selling after each and every hold. Even if he was only in it for a second, you'd see the toll it was taking on him. Eric had written about how hard Scorpio landed on Sabu last week and maybe that was on my mind, but there's a senton of the turnbuckles that Apache hits here that was absolutely thudding. Late in the match, Angelico pushes him off and Apache hits basically the only good roll in wrestling history because it prevents Angelico from being able to capitalize, and then he just clocks him again. Finish had a bit of distraction but they still went the extra mile to have Apache go for one last (distracted) punch only to end up contorted and pinned for his trouble. It's a joy to watch Apache work up close and personal. 

Hysteria/Psicosis II vs. Solar/Negro Navarro Arena Lopez Mateos 1/19/11

MD: BT, Jr. had released this previously but I don't think we've ever covered it. Pairings here are Solar and Psicosis and Navarro and Hysteria. Solar and Psicosis keep things flowing, lots of ins and outs, lots of motion. Navarro gets the sort of reaction you'd expect right when he gets in there. All the twists and turns (of his opponents') body that you'd expect too. There were a couple of escapes where I had to rewind to see them again and I'm still not quite sure how he got out of a hold but I believe it because I believe in him. The magic of Negro Navarro. When Solar made it back in, he got too close to the corner and the rudos started acting like rudos, beginning a beatdown. Psicosis and Hysteria worked well together (and had clear camaraderie) but they went too far, going after Solar's mask. That led not just into a comeback (Solar's quebradora and Psicosis bumping huge off the rope for a Navarro punch) but the rudos having their masks undone too. Fun finishing stretch where Hysteria whacked the post by accident, letting a bit of spirited pairing/cycling happening before a double pin and then a clutch Psicosis submission out of a cazadora finished it. Fun match which switched things up given the beatdown and cleaner lines.

ER: I'd never seen this. This is flat out some of Black Terry Jr.'s best work. This was a great match that Terry brought to full life. It is one of the most well-filmed wrestling handhelds I've ever seen. He's the closest person to the match and frames every exchange in full vision. It's a hard worked, impressive match with stiff submissions and long chain sequences to a quicker pace than I'd expect on a Wednesday night winter show. This crowd is hot, and these guys all bust ass. Negro Navarro looked so tough, stoic and strong as he worked through holds and hit harder than the others. When Histeria fakes a late match foul, Navarro can only stand and shrug into the distance, the toughest guy ever to work Teller physical comedy, When the loud, molten crowd is cheering his name, he handles it the same. His composure and focus is there in perfect frame, making Navarro's hidden reaction feel seen. 

Solar and Psicosis II are strong together, every exchange. Psicosis II was a very good worker that would probably be talked about more if he wasn't the second Psicosis. He is great at working with Solar, working up to Solar to his strengths, going up multiple times for Solar's strong delayed overhead backbreaker (one directly into Black Terry's camera like it was planned). Solar's selling during his near unmasking was sympathetic and led to a hot home stretch. Every stretch was hot. The Solar/Psicosis opener was 5 minutes that set a steep pace and they held it. Everyone's work held up to the closeness of Terry's camera. It was incredible how tight all of this looked. Psicosis locks Navarro's into such a wicked, contorted lifted submission and we're three feet away from where Navarro's body gets dumped. I don't often think about how pro wrestling is filmed, but this match was so good, and everything about how the action as filmed was to the match's benefit. It was all the angles I wanted to see of every exchange.  

Dusty Rhodes vs. Terry Funk [Texas Death Match] PWF 5/6/89

MD: Bob Cook of all people coming through and supplying this to us decades later. This has such a great feel and look and mood to it. They came down in street clothes without any music. There's no fanfare, no pomp and circumstance. They're just there to fight. And fight they do. The first half of this is in and out of the ring so we can only catch glimpses of the violence when it veers back into to screen. I love how organic it all feels. Funk brings in a table but it doesn't feel like a "spot." It's just him setting it up however he can to slam Dusty's head into it and then he tosses it out when he's done with it. Entirely different than the sort of things we see today in a way that I'm not even sure that I could explain to someone who's mostly only seen modern wrestling. The plunder is a means and not an end. It's just part of the path of violence that they're walking. It's opportunistic. They get bloody so quickly and the falls come quickly too but maybe you can buy the one for the other. They fight on the apron and Funk gets tied up in a microphone wire and it's all brilliant stuff. Dusty knows how to make the most of it spinning him about and whacking him with the mic. 

The rules here are a thirty count after the pin and then you have to beat a ten count, which does break things up but also leads to what is almost a clever finish. Dusty gets a roll up out of nowhere, which is the last thing you'd expect in a Texas Death Match, because how does that even work? Where's the drama? Funk just got rolled up. Obviously he's going to beat the count. But he goes after the ref and Humperdink comes in. The timekeeper is keeping the count, not the ref, so it keeps going while Humperdink tries to use an illegal object on Dusty. Dusty moves. He gets Funk. It would have been a perfect finish because it would have used that 30 seconds for the backfiring interference and then Funk wouldn't have been able to answer the ten count when he would have otherwise been fine, but they complicate it somehow and start the 30 count again. It's a great finish in theory though. And from what we got to see here, it was pretty wonderful over the top bloody violence.