Found Footage Friday: LOS BRAZOS~! LAWLER~! REDD DOGG~! EDDY~! REY~! JBL~! hhh~!

Humberto Garza Jr/Principe Franky/Tigre Universitario vs. Los Brazos Monterrey 4/24/94

MD: Tecnico vs tecnico encounter with the Brazos vs locals. Pretty much as fun as it sounds. First two falls were a blast. Franky matched up with Brazo, Tigre with Oro, and Garza with Porky. Then they switched it around in the segunda. Primera had a couple of exchanges each with matwork/chain wrestling leading into rope running in the second. It all hit for me. Then Porky accidentally splashed his brothers and celebrated and they argued and hugged and you've seen it dozens of times and it always works. In the segunda, there was a bit more animosity due to a Brazos kick and this time around a stumbling but spectacular Porky splashed all three off the top to even the falls up.

Tercera had them trade holds (but not really break them up, which was interesting). There was a nice Porky/Franky exchange in there where Porky hit a couple of big power moves before stretching him a bit. He could have been an absolute killer in another world. Then they cycled into the tandem spots, like La Estrella with the associated 'rana, and back and forth leglocks where everyone got involved. After simultaneous pins. things got pretty exciting between Oro and Garza (I think, look, it's far away and blurry) before they pinned one another. There was a great nearfall where the Brazo got a killer grounded punch countering a pin attempt. But the fans, who were chanting for their locals the whole way through, got to see then go to a draw with the larger than life stars at least. Any new Brazos is immediately worth watching. 

Jerry Lawler vs. Redd Dogg WWE 10/22/02

MD: Richard Land posts Raw and Smackdown feeds every month and usually that gives us a dark match with Steve Bradley or Scott Vick or someone, which is fine but not usually worth covering. This was in Memphis holding court against Jerry Lawler vs the future Rodney Mack. That's worth covering, even if it only went around five minutes.

Maybe I'm biased but this was very good. Dogg slammed Lawler to start and Lawler shot him a look and the Jerry chants started. Dogg did it again and howled. Then he hit a back body drop and was really feeling it, right until he went for another and the punches started. Lawler finished it with his own body slam and dropkick which Dogg sold by rolling to the outside and having a fit and the crowd went up big for all of this of course. 

They followed with rope running and Lawler caught himself on the criss-cross and strutted, and I wonder how many indie matches he did that in over that three month period. He dodged a corner charge and hit a nice bulldog and pointed to Dogg who sold it as the fans chanted again. Mack probably deserved to get a spot out of this one as he was playing into everything very well. He took over with a nice punch in the corner (selling his hand) but Lawler got his knees up on a splash and then dropped the strap in the most self-aware, funny way possible. This was a ritual celebration and at this point turned into a ritual slaughter Punches, mare, second rope fistdrop and Lawler could go back to greeting everyone at ringside as if they were old friends and kissing babies (well, maybe let's not).

Undertaker/Batista/Rey Mysterio vs. Triple H/Eddy Guerrero/JBL WWF 7/19/05

MD: The biggest appeal of these dark matches is always to see wrestlers interact. I immediately want to see what JBL and Eddy teaming in 05 looks like, right? After their feud the year before. Our first image instead, however, is Triple H standing across from Rey and Batista flexing and Undertaker doing the throat cut, Rey in the middle, telling him he better damn well get out there and be David to a dubious Goliath. Apparently there was never a Rey vs Trips singles match. Seems like a huge oversight on his part as Rey would have made him look as good as anyone, right? This would have been the first time they ever faced off. 

So what happens? Triple H gets down on his hands and knees, begs off as a joke, punches the air like he was facing Little Beaver, and then Rey dropkicks him. Triple H sells it huge, sprawls out all over the place...

... and the fans start chanting Eddie Sucks. The Career of Triple H in a nutshell. 

Then the match goes from ridiculous to sublime as Eddy makes faces and tags in, the fans go nuts, and he immediately tags out to a scar-ridden JBL. JBL gets a shit eating grin, happy to be facing off against Rey, and then just as he gets in, Rey tags off to the Undertaker. JBL turns right back around, tags Eddy, and then he and Triple H take a powder, leaving Eddy in there with Taker.

The thing is, Triple H has to go along with it. He can't push against the heat here. He can undercut a babyface or someone with a political power disparity but he can't undercut Eddy. So after things cycle around to Eddy and Rey, and Eddy begs off and hugs Trips, all he can do is act like second banana to Shawn again and take the groan shot from Eddie's head as Rey runs over and slams it. Triple H is a survivor. 

For some reason, the crowd sweetening seems to go wild after that (even though it's a dark match) but they run a spot where Rey pulls down Triple H's pants and he runs around the ring, dragging Rey on the mat behind him, so obviously he knew what he was up against here. Then, during the ensuing Triple H/Batista "pec-off", JBL comes in posing like Road Warrior Animal and they all give him "too much, cut it out" expressions while he walks out of the ring with a kicked puppy face. Half the effort for at least an equal result.

(And yes, when Trips and Batista finally have an exchange and Batista clotheslines him over the top, the Eddie Sucks chants start anew).

Both Batista and Taker let themselves slip under a bit and then came back only for Rey to get caught in the fallaway slam by JBL. They worked him over on the outside, including a moment of JBL leaping over the rail as Taker got close. The crowd sweetening started up again, a wave of someone hitting the button every few seconds and it was pretty maddening. And so confusing. This is a dark match from 20 years ago! What the heck.

After some pretty solid cutoffs... look, when this dropped, I joked to Eric we'd get to see Triple H landing on a boot after a flying nothing and then staring at the lights for a minute before flopping. I was kidding. I shouldn't have been. That's what sets up the last burst against Eddy and the hot tag. Thankfully, it's not quite a minute, and it was made better by JBL trying to talk to Triple H through it, but, that's it for me. I'm out. Maybe Eric will mention Triple H taking everyone's finish or taking one last scare bump for Taker. Maybe he'll mention the drama of Taker milking a handshake to Batista and a fist bump to Rey. Me? I'm moving on to the next match.

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