tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-320474262024-03-29T07:50:06.806-04:00Segunda CaidaPhil Schneider, Eric Ritz, Matt D, Sebastian, and other friends write about pro wrestling. Follow us @segundacaidaPhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00329664351238667356noreply@blogger.comBlogger4723125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-23342524655823802812024-03-28T23:30:00.003-04:002024-03-29T07:49:11.363-04:00El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Tag Teams Back Again<p><b>Week 20: Tag Teams Back Again</b></p><p>EB: El Ejercito de la Justicia is in celebration as the Universal title is once again on the side of the tecnicos, but for the first time it is not Carlos Colon that is the reigning champion. After avenging the loss of his face paint, TNT has won the Universal title for El Ejercito de la Justicia and ended Leo Burke’s nearly two month long reign. The finish to the match had some controversy, as Carlos Colon ‘fought fire with fire’ and picked up a dropped foreign object that Chicky Starr had handed to Leo Burke. Colon decked Burke with it and TNT was able to score the pinfall. Burke and Chicky protested over what they felt was a gross injustice (conveniently ignoring all of the cheating they had done to win and keep the title for as long as they did). A rematch occurred between TNT and Leo Burke that went to a 60 minute time limit draw. This led to a no time limit rematch and TNT was successful in keeping the Universal title. With Burke’s chances being used up, it was time for a new challenger to step up. Who will it be? We’ll talk about it shortly.</p><p>With Leo Burke no longer the Universal champion, there were a few tecnicos that wanted to avenge some of the chicanery they had experienced at the hands of Burke and Chicky Starr. One of those wrestlers was Miguelito Perez, who we last saw being the victim of Burke’s figure four leglock in a tag match. Here we join a singles match between Perez and Burke, near its conclusion. </p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIYvPXAHxKAn">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIYvPXAHxKAn</a></p><p>This is just the last minute of the encounter and Miguelito has Burke on the run. Leo tries to escape through the ropes but Perez manages to stop him and continues the attack. Burke cuts off Perez with a kick to the midsection and hits a neckbreaker. Burke slowly makes his way to the top turnbuckle, but Perez catches him up there and slams him off. Perez sends Burke into the ropes to set up his powerslam, but as Perez picks him up, Burke shifts his weight and is able to small package Miguelito for a surprise pinfall. It happened so quickly that Perez initially didn’t realize that the three count was made, as he slammed Burke and tried to continue the attack. It's a clear reminder that Burke is still a skilled technician and very wily in the ring. </p><p>MD: Only a minute but a good minute, with Burke very precise with a kick/neckbreaker combo, getting tossed off the turnbuckles, and then rolling Perez up on a body slam attempt. Nice banana peel finish that keeps everyone over. Perez got the slam post match, upset.</p><p>EB: Leo Burke would not remain without a title for long. With TNT’s Universal title win, the TV title he held was vacated. Burke ended up winning the vacant TV title at some point in February. As March approaches he is set to defend the TV title on March 3 against a returning face. One who hasn’t been in CSP for several years but was a big name in the late 70s and early 80s: Pierre Martel. We’ll follow this up next time. </p><p>Beside TNT’s win, there were other happenings on that February 10 card from Caguas. The other big match from that night was the boxer vs wrestler match between Alfredo Escalera and Chicky Starr. Escalera won the match by disqualification but not before giving Chicky a lesson in how to take boxing blows. It was an incident that would be brought up a few times on commentary in the weeks that followed, much to Chicky’s chagrin. There were other matches that night besides Chicky’s embarrassment (both against Escalera and in Burke’s Universal title loss). We’lll use them to help us organize our journey through the rest of February 1990. </p><p>On February 10, Eddie Watts defended his World Junior title against Huracan Castillo Jr. Also on that card, newcomer Carl Styles took on Miguelito Perez. This is the beginning of a potential rivalry for both matchups, ones we will follow as 1900 progresses. To begin, let’s first look at Miguelito Perez in action against an odd opponent.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyjKVGcC5A4">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyjKVGcC5A4</a></p><p>I’ve never seen the Alligator Man here before and even the announcers are confused on whether it’s supposed to be Crocodile (which Eliud Gonzalez introduces him as during the ring intros), Alligator (which is how Moyano presents him initially on commentary) or Lizard Man (halfway through the match Eliud and Moyano clear up that they’ve been informed it’s lizard). Thanks to Matt asking for help from the collective wisdom of our fellow wrestling friends, it appears that this is Florida indie wrestler Gator B Long. I don’t really remember him at all in Puerto Rico, so he’s likely just in for a tv taping working as enhancement talent. Moyano mentions that Gator Man has the height advantage and remarks about the claws and head he had with him for his entrance. Gator starts off taking control by choking Perez in the corner and continuing to target the throat area on the mat. Gator does fairly well, countering a side headlock on the mat into a couple of rollover pin attempts, and even getting Perez into a headscissors. Still, Perez was able to make the comeback and hit the powerslam for the win. An example of the sometimes odd nature of who will show up in Puerto Rico. </p><p>MD: No idea who our Gator friend is. He has the paraphernalia (Claws, etc), some size, and the word “Long” on his tights. He was fairly competent too. Most dynamic thing he does here is a big boot but he’s generally in the right place at the right time and this is a complete enough three minute TV match. Comeback by Perez was interesting as he just started clubbering down on “Long” while he was giving him shoulder thrusts in the corner. Perez had some nice downward elbows from an almost headlock position too before he won it with the power (body) slam.</p><p>EB: Now let’s look at Carl Styles in action, taking on Huracan Castillo Jr.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jnQR4vYYSU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jnQR4vYYSU</a></p><p>Styles continues to prove himself on tv. Last time we saw him face Super Medico and this time he has a very capable opponent in Huracan Castillo Jr. Or as Hector Moyano says on commentary: ‘a man named Styles vs a man that moves with style’. Styles wins the initial lockup and puts Castillo in a side headlock. Castillo counters by sending Carl into the ropes but gets knocked down by a shoulder tackle. Huracan counters Carl’s next rope running attack with an armdrag and a side headlock takedown. Styles tries to sneak in a pinfall attempt by yanking Castillo’s tights but Huracan rolls back over and continues working the side headlock. Carl tries to break out of the hold but gets hit with another armdrag, a dropkick and another side headlock takedown to end up back where he was. The commentators make note that Castillo has been able to neutralize the powerful Styles so far with the holds. </p><p>Styles again breaks the hold by sending Castillo into the ropes. Huracan tries a body press but gets caught by Styles, who hits a backbreaker on Castillo. Styles starts showing off his strength, hitting Castillo with a lift into a press slam. He taunts the crowd and goes for the pin but Castillo kicks out. Styles presses the attack, hitting a slam, clothesline and a suplex for another unsuccessful pin attempt. Castillo counters with a sunset flip pin attempt, but Styles kicks out. Castillo starts firing up and hits several punches and blows on Styles to regain the advantage. Castillo continues on the attack with a clothesline into the corner, an elbow to the head and slam, but Styles manages to dodge an advancing Castillo and uses Castillo’s own momentum to throw him though the ropes to the outside. The ref prevents Styles from going outside to go after Castillo, but with the ref tied up, Eddie Watts runs out and slams Castillo headfirst into the ringpost (remember that Castillo has started wrestling Watts as a World Junior title challenger). </p><p>Castillo is busted open and laid out on the floor. Styles finally is able to evade the ref and go out to the floor. From there it's academic as Styles throws Huracan back in the ring and, after a flurry of punches to Castillo’s bleeding forehead, puts Castillo in the full nelson. Castillo is almost out of it in the hold but the ref is still waiting to see if Huracan will submit. Suddenly, Miguelito Perez runs out to the ring and climbs the turnbuckle, jumping onto Styles from behind in order to break the full nelson on the unconscious Castillo. The ref disqualifies Castillo due to Miguelito’s interference, but Miguelito immediately goes after Styles. Perez wins a punch exchange but misses a dropkick when Styles grabs onto the ropes to stop his momentum. Styles puts Perez in the full nelson and cranks the hold on. Castillo is out on the floor still feeling the effects of the ringpost slam and the full nelson, he is unable to help Miguelito. Styles keeps the pressure of the full nelson on Perez who is struggling to no avail. Super Medico runs out from the locker room to help Miguelito, and Medico starts furiously punching Carl's back in order to get the full nelson broken. Styles keeps the hold on despite Medico’s repeated blows. Perez is out as Styles continues to absorb Medico’s blows and refuses to release the hold. Castillo is able to get to his feet and the announcers think he’s heading to the locker room but he’s actually picking up a chair and heading back to the ring. Castillo motions for Medico to step aside and just cracks the chair over Styles’ back, finally getting the full nelson broken. Styles rolls out to safety but then tries to get back in, with Profe holding him back. Perez is down, Castillo is propped up against the corner and Medico is staring at Stylers in case he gets back in the ring. The video ends with Medico checking up on Perez as Castillo falls down exhausted to the mat. Carl Styles is quite the powerful and dangerous man. </p><p>MD: If Styles was in the Albright spot, he was a bit better suited for it. He’s less of a monster with less amateur credentials but he’s a bit smarter and more seasoned in his work. While he gave Castillo most of the early match, it was with holds, not cowering or stalling. He cut him off out of nowhere by catching a body press off the ropes into a backbreaker. Castillo came back, and it’s worth noting that unlike Colon’s cartwheel, he had slapped the mat hard once in between his punches to get the fans into it. It’s a bit of a weird visual tick since he should be firing back at full speed and this breaks it up but it was probably effective in its own way. Styles was able to toss him out to stop the fire, though, and Eddie Watts (Castillo’s Jr. Heavyweight rival) came out to post him on the floor and open him up. From there it was academic. Styles won with the full nelson and wouldn’t break it up. Perez came out and got him off but missed a dropkick and ended up in the full nelson too. That drew out Medico and finally after Castillo came back with a chair, they forced Styles away. This was good as it set up at least four different matches and a few potential tags while making Styles look like a beast. </p><p>EB: We’ll continue following both feuds since we’re getting rematches on March 3 for both matchups (Cartillo vs Watts and Styles vs Perez). Speaking of Super Medico, he’s gone on a new path since losing the World Junior title to Eddie Watts. As mentioned before in our introduction of Super Medico, he had a long tenure as tag wrestler as part of the Medicos / Super Medicos team. Teaming up with partner Super Medico #2 (Johnny Rodz) and then later as three man unit with Super Medico #3 (Don Kent), Super Medico had enjoyed great success in tha tag ranks in the early to mid 80s. But since around 1985 when he turned tecnico, Super Medico has mainly wrestled in the singles division., But after being back in Puerto Rico for over 8 months, it seems Medico has decided to reenter the tag team ranks once more. And he’s bringing in a new Super Medico to be his partner. They’re making one of their first appearances on the February 10 card and they’re immediately put up against some tough competition in the team of Los Mercenarios, the reigning World tag team champions. Let’s go to that match and see just what the new Super Medicos can do.</p><p>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-8FUNomXjw </p><p>Joining Jose Estrada (who is Super Medico #1) as his new tag partner is Jose Estrada Jr. He’s identified as #2 by Hugo here but that will soon change. This is from a Campeones airing the week after TNT won the Universal title. Hugo, Carlos and Chicky are on commentary and part of the conversation they have centers around the Universal title win and how the match ended. In the ring, the Medicos are having a strategy session as the bell rings and Acevedo tries to rush them to catch them unawares. The Medicos are prepared and do a nifty double team maneuver where one lifts the other into a headscissor position to cut off Acevedo. This leads to stereo monkey flips and stereo dropkicks by the Medicos on both members of Los Mercenarios. Starr and Acevedo end up on the outside, confused as to what happened and trying to regroup. Carlos and Chicky talk about how 1990 appears to be the year of the tag team between the new and returning teams that have appeared so far (and with one more still to come). Carlos also talks about how he had said 1990 was going to be the year for El Ejercito de la Justicia, they’ve already won back the Universal title and next they are going to dismantle El Club Deportivo. Chicky naturally takes exception to this and starts complaining about how the title was stolen from Burke. Carlos counters by saying that he doesn’t care about Chicky’s complaining, you have to fight these types of individuals at their own game (or fire with fire). Chicky says that both his and El Profe’s organizations are well equipped to win back that Universal title and Carlos fires back that his predictions last week came true: TNT won the Universal title and Alfredo Escalera gave Chicky a heck of a beating in their match. </p><p>Back in the ring, Medico #1 and Acevedo have been in a bit of a back and forth locking up but Medico #1 (you can tell them apart because Medico #1 is a bit more stocky and shorter) gains the advantage and fires off an armdrag and a nice series of dropkicks on Acevedo. Ron Starr tags in and Carlos on commentary talks about there being like 6 or 7 Medicos but that this combination may be the best one yet. The Medicos do quick tags to work on Ron Starr’s arm and Starr ends up knocked out of the ring by a punch from Medico #1. Starr gets back in the ring after pacing about frustrated and Medico #1 tags his son in. Ron briefly gets an advantage but is taken down to the mat by Estrada Jr. Ron claims his hair was yanked, and when he is taken down again by Estrada Jr, he complains even more animatedly that his hair was pulled. Ron and Estrada Jr. continue working holds, with Estrada Jr getting the better of Ron. On commentary, the talk turns to all the new impressive teams that have been arriving like the Super Medicos and the soon to debut new Invaders tag team. They’ve shown on tv footage of Invader #1 and Maelo training and they should be debuting soon. Chicky also says that there may be more new teams appearing soon in the tag division and even Carlos says to not discount him teaming up with TNT or another tecnico to get in on the tag action. The match continues with both Medicos keeping control of the match and even Chicky has to compliment the new Medico on showing good potential and skill in the ring so far. We head to a commercial break as Ron Starr sends Medico #2 into the ropes and Acevedo hits him from behind with a knee.</p><p>Back from commercial break and it looks like we’re in the middle of Medico #1 hitting a cutoff clothesline on Acevedo to knock him down. Both men are on the mat and reaching for their corner to make the tag. Ron is tagged first and manages to cut off Medico #1 with an elbow, He immediately goes to work on Medico #1 and tries for a pinfall off a clothesline, but Medico #2 breaks it up. Another pin attempt is again broken up by Medico #2 and Ron decides to drag Medico #1 to his team’s corner. Acevedo is tagged in and a quick double team leads to a two count. Acevedo puts a submission hold on Medico #1 as Medico #2 starts clapping to get the crowd into it. Ron pushes on Acevedo’s back for leverage, which draws in Medico #2. The ref stops Medico #2 from going any further and Los Mercenarios switch out without a tag. Ron puts Medico #1 in a front facelock, but Medico #1 tries to force Ron backwards towards the Medicos’ corner so he can make the tag. Acevedo runs in to try to stop it, drawing the referee’s attention and causing the ref to miss the tag. El Vikingo tells Medico #2 to get back in the corner since he didn’t see the tag and Los Mercenarios take advantage by double teaming Medico #1. Acevedo hits a neckbreaker for an unsuccessful pin attempt, but a follow-up piledriver attempt is countered with a backdrop. Starr is tagged in and tries to attack Medico #1, but is countered with a sunset flip for a pin attempt, although it is missed by the referee who is busy getting Acevedo out of the ring. Carlos states that tag matches should have two referees to avoid situations where the ref is distracted and that allow for cheating to take place. Chicky argues that El Profe being out there is like having a second referee anyways. Medico #1 crawls to the wrong side of the ring looking for the tag and gets decked by El Profe (some great second referee work there I guess). Medico #2 desperately wants to come in and help but keeps getting stopped by the ref. Ron starts punching a downed Medico #1, but Medico #1 finally is able to crawl through Ron’s legs and makes the tag. Medico #2 comes in and cleans house on Ron Starr, which brings Acevedo in. Medico #2 handles both members of Los Mercenarios and eventually makes a pin attempt on Ron after a dropkick. Acevedo breaks up the pinfall but Medico #2 continues on the attack as Acevedo is escorted out. Medico #2 hits his own version of the ‘hit machine’ and almost gets the pinfall. Medico #2 slams Ron and comes off the top with a strike, leading to a pin attempt that’s broken up by Acevedo. Medico# 1 jumps in to attack Acevedo and now all four men are in the ring. Both Medicos try pin attempts on both members of Los Mercenarios but the bell rings and it looks like we have a time limit draw. Los Mercenarios walk away still the World tag champions,but the new Super Medicos have taken the World tag team champions to the limit. There’s a lot of potential with this new team.</p><p>MD: This was a nice, complete tag match that was just lacking a real finish (time ran out while things were chaotic). Medico 3 or 4 (Estrada, Jr.) depending on how you want to bill him, was called 2 by the commentary just to make things more confusing, so I’ll just go with that. He was the New Super Medico 2 more or less. Morrow had been still fairly capable for what he was asked to do, including come off the top once per match, and had good history and chemistry with the Cuban Assassin, but Ron Starr was a big step up. When I mentioned all the lead heels last week, I should have mentioned these two as well, because Starr is a guy who could have main evented just as easily as Burke. They’re very interchangeable. Super Medico (1) took the heat here after eating an knee on the outside while rope running and he did a great job selling and having dynamic hope spots from what we saw (having lost a bit with a commercial break). The comeback was very good as he started to fire back but Starr jammed him, only to crawl through the legs and make the tag. Things got chaotic after that with both Medicos trying pin attempts as the time ran out. </p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8NSiQZjjDI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8NSiQZjjDI</a></p><p>EB: And here we have the Super Medicos making an appearance on tv taking on the team of El Gran Mendoza and a masked wrestler going by Assassin #1. We are in Ponce and the match is in progress. Due to their performance against Los Mercenarios, it appears that the Super Medicos have already been positioned as the number one contenders for the World tag team titles, so a rematch will be happening soon. For now, the tv audience gets an opportunity to see this new version of the team in action. Medico #1 is in the ring and hits a crossbody block for a pin attempt. Assassin turns the tide with a hotshot on the top rope and from there the team of Assassin and Mendoza take control and use the inexperience of the younger Estrada to lure him into the ring so they can double team behind the referee’s back. Mendoza takes over but Medico mounts a small comeback that ends with both Medico #1 and Mendoza colliding their heads when coming off the ropes. Both men make the tag and Medico #2 starts punching Assassin #1. The two men exchange blouse which leads to Mendoza jumping in to try to blindside Medico #2 but Medico #1 also gets in the ring to counter. Both rudos are rammed into each other and Mendoza is sent out of the ring via a double dropkick. The Medicos set up Assassin for what looks to be their finisher, which is one Medico launching the other into the ropes and then sort of press slamming him onto their opponent/. The crowd cheers as the Medicos pick up the win.</p><p>MD: This was just a couple of minutes, with Medico 1 taking a beating until he could get a tag and Medico 2 could come back. Medico 1 obviously has the better punches but Medico 2 is emulating them well enough. Finisher was a press up off the ropes where one Medico lifted the other into a splash. Again, my big takeaway is that Medico 1 was very good at what he did.</p><p>EB: The new Super Medicos look to be a strong force in the changing tag division. There is another ‘new’ team on the way as well in the Invaders but Invader #1 has a feud going on with Harley Race. We saw the attack done by Race and Chicky Starr on Invader last time and the two faced each other on February 10 in a match with no winner. The rivalry would continue throughout February and we actually do have footage from one of their encounters. </p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfhv7-SEEoc">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfhv7-SEEoc</a></p><p>This is from a Clasicos de la Lucha Libre segment from almost two decades later, so we are not getting any context from the commentary. Still, it’s the only footage we have of Invader #1 vs Harley Race in a match from this February 1990 feud. It looks like Invader tried a charge to start the match but he runs into Race’s knees. Race follows up with a couple of elbow drops for a pin attempt. Invader kicks out and Race tries to choke Invader from behind, but does succeed in grabbing him and tossing him out of the ring. Race tries to ram Invader face first into the production truck near the ring but Invader counters and it’s Harley who gets rammed into the side of the truck. Invader throws Harley into the ring and controls the next minute, leading to a couple of unsuccessful pin attempts. Race catches Invader with a headbutt to the midsection after the second kickout, leading to a Race control segment where Race attempts his own unsuccessful pin attempts off such moves as a kneedrop, a belly to belly suplex and a piledriver. Race continues on the attack with several punches and a high knee strike (well, high for 1990 Harley Race). A swinging neckbreaker gets a two count for Harley,who continues on the attack but Invader keeps kicking out. Invader eventually starts a comeback off a headbutt to the midsection. Race and Invader exchange punches and blows, as Invader knocks Race down with a chop. Invader does his two hops when he starts getting fired up and gets a flurry of blows on Race. An eyerake cuts Invader off and Harley tries to send Invader off the ropes. Invader counters by picking up Harley to attempt a bodyslam, but the momentum makes both men fall over the top rope to the outside. Race and Invader start brawling on the outside as the referee starts the ring out count. Both men are counted out as they fight away from the ring. </p><p>MD: The commentary (from many, many years later) was a bit disjointed from what we were watching with an ad talking about getting your tax refund and Idol Stevens (Sandow) and Orlando Colon. These two were pretty much perfect opponents at this point in their career. Race bore down on Invader with all of his super credible “stuff” (neckbreaker, pile driver, suplex, not-so-high jumping knee, short clothesline, lots of short punches, atomic drop), with Invader always making sure to stay in it by getting hope punches in when he could. He finally fired back and turned the tide but both went sailing over the top and brawling for what I assume was a double countout.</p><p>EB: This is the last footage we have of Harley from this run. His feud with Invader #1 will last to the end of February, ending with Invader winning the Caribbean title on March 4 (although I’m not sure if the match took place or if it was a phantom switch). Still, Invader has other plans as well, those being the upcoming debut of the new Invaders tag team. They are set to debut on March 3 and their opponents are The Hunters. How will the new Invaders fare? We’ll find out next time. </p><p>As mentioned previously, Eddie Watts has Huracan Castillo Jr as the next World Jr title challenger but Castillo is not the only new challenger to appear. A returning wrestler would also rotate in as a challenger. Joe Savoldi had previously had a run in CSP in 1984 through early 85, both as a singles wrestler and in a tag team with Al Perez. Since that run as a regular, Savoldi has made a couple of appearances in the following years, popping in for a weekend or two but not staying for any extended run. Now Savoldi has appeared again. Let’s take a look at him in action vs El Exotico.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rErHS9Pc0BM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rErHS9Pc0BM</a> </p><p>It’s been a while since Savoldi has been in Puerto Rico, and it looks like Exotico wants to spoil the return. Hector Moyano and Eliud Gonzalez are on commentary for this match and talk about how Exotico has a particular way of moving about in the ring (Eliud recalls how El Profe described Exoticos as ‘being very delicate’) but that he knows how to captivate the masses and grab their attention. A lock up leads to a quick cradle pin attempt by Savoldi. Exotico kicks out and complains his tights were pulled. Savoldi gets a side headlock on Exotico and hits a shoulder tackle off the ropes. A rope running leapfrog and drop down sequence leads to Savoldi taking Exotico down with a couple of armdrags. Savoldi hypes up the crowd and Moyano talks up Savoldi’s speed and endurance. Exotico hits a clothesline on Savoldi and struts after. Exotico follows up with a couple of snap mares and does a single arm bicep pose to the crowd. Eliud actually commends Exotico on his performance so far but Savldi counters with a series of punches to cut off Exotico’s momentum. However, Savoldi misses a charge into the corner (going headfirst) and Exotico takes advantage with a belly to back suplex for a two count. A slam leads to a missed elbow however, and Savoldi is able to come back with a series of blows. Exotico cuts off Savoldi with an eyerake and sends him into the ropes. Savoldi hits a leapfrog over Exotico, and then takes Exotico over in a sunset flip when Exotico was busy celebrating the successful avoidance. Savoldi gets the win and he’s back to make some waves in CSP. </p><p>MD: It’s easy to look at Savoldi, Styles, Watts being in and thinking that there’s something to a “boycott” of talent, but then you look back a few years earlier to guys like the RPMs getting pushes (and getting over!) and you look at who was getting pushed in Memphis, Portland, or (soon after this) Global, and you see that it’s more of a consolidation in WWF and WCW than anything else. Honestly, I’d probably be kind of excited if a guy with Savoldi’s skillset in working the crowd while still being willing to take a big corner bump came around in 2024. He was experienced in doing some things that are almost lost arts now. Exotico preened and strutted and posed and looked like the best possible Scotty the Body partner again, including his very dubious German Suplex, but Savoldi out-finessed him with a clever cradle for the win.</p><p>EB: It doesn’t take long for Savoldi and Eddie Watts to face off against each other, let’s go to the ending of that encounter.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5HaEGJPM_E">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5HaEGJPM_E</a></p><p>We join the match in progress, with Savoldi down in one of the corners. Eliud Gonzalez on commentary is mentioning that Savoldi had received a punch from Chicky Starr on the outside and that Watts was taking advantage of the situation. Watts slingshots Savoldi throat first into the corner as we hear Chicky has made his way to the commentary table and said that the commentators should be honest with the fans and say Savoldi has no chance against Eddie Watts. Moyano says to Chicky that it looks like he’s learned a lot about boxing (referencing the punch he hit on Savoldi) and then says ‘speaking about boxing, the other day there were a lot of smacks (referencing Alfredo Escalera’s match vs Chicky Starr). Chicky takes exception to this and tells Moyano to stay out of business that does not concern him if he wants to keep his teeth. Moyano says that he was only referencing the Tyson vs Douglas fight. Chicky is not buying it and Eliud tries to defuse the situation by talking up how Chicky’s wrestlers have climbed the ladder of success, but Chicky is still hot about Moyano’s dig. In the ring, Watts has been in control but misses a dive from the turnbuckle. This gives Saovldi the opening to come back with a series of punches and a backdrop. Watts begs off but Savoldi continues on the attack, sending Watts into the ropes and hitting a palm strike to the chest. Watts begs off again, but is able to counter Savoldi with a kick to the midsection and immediately bail to the outside after receiving a signal from Chicky. It looks like Chicky and Watts are claiming that the elbow pad has come loose and needs adjusting, but it’s likely that they are loading it up. Watts gets back in the ring and tries to ram Savoldi into the turnbuckle, but that gets countered. Savoldi hits a few punches but is cut off by Watts hitting a knee. Watts grabs onto Savoldi and then leverages both him and Savolid over the top rope to the outside with a flip. The ref calls for the dq and awards the match to Savoldi due to Watts intentionally throwing him over the top rope. Watts and Chicky don’t seem to care too much since that means that they retain the World Junior title. </p><p>MD: We come in towards the end of this with Watts in control. He misses a dive out of the corner and Savoldi has a comeback. Watts breaks it up by having Chicky check his armguard and stalling but that weirdly doesn’t go anywhere. Instead, he gets Savoldi in a headlock, starts climbing the middle of the ropes while hanging on to him, and pulls both over to draw the DQ and theoretically protect his belt, but I had no real idea what he was going for there. I’d say that these two were overall matched up well, though?</p><p>EB: With the ending of that match it’s only a matter of time before Savoldi and Watts face each other again. In the meantime, let’s take another look at both men in action against other opponents. </p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyP4ktoIASU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyP4ktoIASU</a></p><p>Watts is taking on Armandito Salgado and it’s another chance for Watts to show off his skills now that he is the World Junior champion. Eliud Gonzalesz does the ring introductions and Moyano mentions that the crowd does not like Watts at all but puts over his capabilities in the ring. The match starts fairly even with Watts and Salgado exchanging arm wringer counters and switches, leading to Watts complaining that his tights were pulled (even going over to the ref and pulling his pants to show what had supposedly happened). Salgado actually gets a nice chop sequence to back up Watts but misses a corner charge which gives Watts the opening to control the rest of the match. Watts mouths off to the crowd, eliciting a loud reaction back, and eventually hits the Canadian Guillotine for the win. Very solid showing from Watts. </p><p>MD: Watts is growing on me a bit. He’s not Rip Rogers or Eric Embry but for a Jr. version who can still stooge a bit and has stuff that generally looks good, he’s ok. He’s learning the specific crowd more and more and was engaged with them throughout this entire enhancement match. He had a kind of weird looking Saito/Teardrop suplex where he hangs on to the tights and of course his Alabama Jam to end it. Not a bad showing.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O13o80pFEjA">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O13o80pFEjA</a></p><p>EB: Meanwhile, Savoldi is facing El Gran Mendoza, which should be a solid matchup. Both men are evenly matched to start but Savoldi controls the pace with a side headlock takedown. They work a side headlock into a pin reversal sequence a couple of times before standing back up and working a rope running sequence which sees Savoldi get the better of it with a clothesline on Mendoza. Moyano and Eliud on commentary talk about how they’re expecting this to be a good matchup as Mendoza rolls out of the ring to collect himself and then gets back in the ring. Mendoza again ends up on the receiving end of an armdrag sequence but manages to reach the ropes to break the arm hold. Mendoza takes the advantage of a throat punch and focuses his attacks on the neck area of Savoldi, including hitting a hotshot on the top rope for a pin attempt. Savoldi mounts a comeback with several punches and an elbow off the ropes, but Mendoza counters with a clothesline of his own coming off the ropes. Mendoza’s attempt at a reverse cradle is blocked by Savoldi and Savoldi hits a sunset flip for the pinfall win. A solid showing for Savoldi and you can be sure he will get another crack at Eddie Watts. </p><p>MD: These two match up against one another well too. Mendoza is a little bigger but they could have been a tag team given their looks. Again, this is just as meat and potatoes/comfort food undercard late 80s/early 90s wrestling as you can. Savoldi is a perfect 1986 second match on the WWF B show babyface. But this stuff doesn’t exist anymore so it’s not bad to go back and visit.</p><p>EB: We have one more member of El Club Deportivo we haven’t talked about yet and that is Manny Fernandez. Manny has been in the crosshairs of Carlos Colon ever since he interfered in the Universal title match he was having vs Leo Burke, a match where he cost Colon the title win and also injured Barba Roja with the flying kneedrop. Their matches so far have been inconclusive and, although they did not face each other on February 10, Colon still wants to get his hands on Manny. To clarify the timeline a bit, it is around this point in mid February that the match where Manny defends the Puerto Rico title against Invader takes place, the one where Carlos rushes in at the end wearing a suit and brawls with Manny. This leads to the tag match where Colon and Invader took on Burke and Manny, the one where the Super Medicos came out to help the injured Invader and ends with Carlos and Invader attempting to go after the rudos who had fled back to the locker room. Carlos and Manny are scheduled to cross paths once more on March 3, but let’s take the opportunity to watch Manny in action against Huracan Castillo Jr. </p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rW4mVx5Rtw">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rW4mVx5Rtw</a></p><p>We get the ring introductions (with Manny billed from Mexico) with the match scheduled to one fall with a 10 minute time limit. Hector Moyano is on commentary and mentions that this match should be an exciting one. As Manny and Castillo feel each other out, Castillo appears to direct some words to Manny. On the outside, we cut to Chicky showing off his cap to the camera and checking out how good he looks in the reflection. Moyano highlights that Castillo has the speed but Manny is dangerous at all times in the ring and will not show mercy. They lock up and Castillo gets a side headlock on Manny. This is countered by Manny sending Castillo into the ropes, leading to a duck down and leapfrog sequence from Manny and an attempted armdrag that gets countered by Castillo. Chicky complains that Castillo pulled the tights on the second armdrag takedown as the crowd gets on Chicky. Castillo keeps working the armbar but Manny breaks out of it briefly. A charge gets countered by Huracan and after a few counters Manny is back in the armbar on the mat. Chicky complains the hair was pulled to no avail. However, Manny manages to get back to his feet and, as the ref circles around, takes the opportunity to yank Castillo down by the hair and put on his own armlock. The crowd starts yelling at the ref that Manny pulled Castillo’s hair, which Manny denies doing when asked. Castillo tries to fight out but gets yanked down again by the hair (with the crowd again yelling at the ref about it). Manny gets caught on the third attempt and as the ref warns Manny, Castillo takes the opening and yanks Manny down by his hair instead. A test of strength is initially won by Manny but Castillo eventually is able to get back to his feet and hit a few kicks to the midsection to bring Manny down to his knees. Manny breaks the test of strength by sending Castillo into the ropes and surprises him with a lariat as Castillo is rebounding back. Manny hits a couple of kneedrops and seems to be in control. Manny tries a backdrop but Castillo counters into a sunset flip for a two count. An inside cradle by Castillo gets two. Manny sends Castillo into the ropes but misses a clothesline. However, as Castillo is rebounding off the ropes, Manny surprises Huracan with his inverted rolling elbow to the face. One flying forearm later and Manny is able to get the pinfall. Another win for the current Puerto Rico champion.</p><p>MD: This was basically a good first half of a match but they went to a finish without a comeback. Solid first act though, with the two matched up well. Manny would get advantages by drawing the ref by claiming a hairpull and then doing one himself, but Castillo would come back. Manny took over for real with a clothesline out of nowhere and worked the jaw a bit. Castillo didn’t get a comeback but he a couple of roll up hope spots before Manny took him down with the corkscrew back elbow and flying forearm. Interesting, Manny was billed from Mexico and not Texas here.</p><p>EB: TNT has been successful in retaining the Universal title in his rematches against Leo Burke. As the month of February approaches its end, the WWC championship commission has decided that it’s the turn of the new number one contender to challenge TNT for the Universal title. That new number one contender? Carlos Colon, who had climbed back to the top position and who hadn’t really had a clean loss to Leo Burke in his attempts to regain the Universal title. Carlos had also ceded a title shot he had to TNT so that TNT could have a chance to avenge the loss of his face paint against Leo Burke. This series of matches led to TNT eventually winning the Universal title. So now we have the prospect of TNT defending against Carlos Colon. Except, Carlos has decided to forego the title match. He will not challenge a fellow member of El Ejercito de la Justicia for the Universal title, he’s good with someone from their side holding the title and doesn't plan to ever challenge for the Universal title again as long as TNT holds the title (which Carlos feels will be for a long time).</p><p>With Carlos Colon passing up the title shot, the number two contender moves up and is declared to be next challenger. That wrestler? Abdullah the Butcher, who we last saw being cheered by the fans for turning on Chicky Starr and going after Steve Strong. Abdullah is finally making his return to Puerto Rico and he is also bringing in a new manager with him by the name of El Jeque. Abdullah is not part of El Club Deportivo but El Jeque also says that Abdullah is not a member of El Ejercito de la Juticia, he is his own entity. Still, Abdullah was playing a bit nicer last time we saw him and it’s going to be interesting to see Abdullah take on TNT. They are scheduled to wrestle for the Universal title on March 3. But before the title match takes place, we have an interesting match taking place on tv, there is a battle royale with a $5,000 prize and most of the roster is taking part, including TNT and Abdullah the Butcher. Let’s go to that match.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJFMOslereY">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJFMOslereY</a></p><p>We join the battle royale already in progress, with only Huracan Castillo Jr. having been eliminated from the field of competitors at this time. There is a $5,000 prize for the winner and we get a good representation of the regular CSP roster at this point in time, I think we’re only really missing Carlos Colon and Chicky Starr (setting aside Harley and Manny for now). Competing for the prize are TNT, Abdullah the Butcher (accompanied by his new manager El Jeque), Invader #1, Miguelito Perez, Huracan Castillo Jr (who has been already eliminated based on the commentary), both Super Medicos, Joe Savoldi, Leo Burke, both Mercenarios, Carl Styles, a newcomer to the territory named Rick Valentine (you may know him as Kerry Brown and we’ll discuss him more next time), Eddie Watts and El Exotico. There’s a lot of action in the ring but Exotico gets cute and tries to take on Abdullah. This does not go well for Exotico and Abdulalh tosses him out for the second elimination of the battle royale. Moyano on commentary mentions that it looks like Abdullah was making gestures towards the locker room as a message to Chicky Starr, there is no love lost between them stemming from the incident when Abdullah attacked Chicky and Steve Strong was sent after Abdullah. The action continues as we see the Super Medicos double team Rick Valentine and then Carl Styles. We go to commercial break and when we come back, it looks like no one else has been eliminated so far, although Eliud Gonzales is mentioning that Abdullah has just helped Invader back into the ring. It looks like Abdullah had gone over to help Invader from being eliminated by Ron Starr, something that has surprised Moyano and Eliud. Abdullah goes to a corner as the wrestlers continue battling. Eliud identifies the new Medico as Medico #4 (this makes more sense since we already had a #2 and #3 in the early to mid 80s). </p><p>As the match continues, Leo Burke surprises Miguelito Perez and eliminates him. Rick Valentine tosses out Super Medico #4 for the fourth elimination of the contest. TNT eliminates Eddie Watts, which is quickly followed by Carl Styles eliminating Joe Savoldi. It looks like the eliminations are starting to pick up. TNT kicks out Angel Acevedo as the field keeps dwindling. Abdullah keeps to his corner as the wrestlers continue trying to eliminate competitors. Burke tosses Invader twice over the top rope but Invader lands on the apron both times and gets back in. Burke tosses Invader a third time but remains there to try to push him off when Invader lands on the apron. However, Invader counters with a headscissors and tries to yank Burke out instead, but the attempt results in both men going over and being eliminated. Invader and Burke briefly fight on the outside, as we see Carl Styles successfully toss Super Medico #1 out. We’re down to five competitors. Abdullah is doing a standing choke on Ron Starr in one corner as Styles and Rick Valentine are double teaming TNT. Styles momentarily goes after Abdullah in order to help Ron Starr. Ron starts attacking Abdullah as Styles goes back to TNT, who is being held by Valentine. Styles charges but TNT ducks and the blow sends Rick Valentine over the top rope and out. Four men left. TNT tries to eliminate Styles on one side of the ring, while on the other side Abdullah manages to counter Ron Starr’s attack and is able to eliminate him. TNT has Styles halfway out when Abdullah seizes the opportunity, comes up from behind and tosses both TNT and Styles out. Abdullah has won the match and the $5,000 prize. </p><p>El Vikingo hands the check to Abdullah as El Jeque enters the ring to celebrate with his client. TNT also enters the ring and starts questioning Abdullah about why he tossed him from behind. El Jeque holds up the check as TNT continues making the thrown out motion and asking Abdullah why he did that. If you look closely you can see Abdullah starts pointing to the check the last couple of times that TNT does the thrown out motion, basically saying that’s why he did it. Abdullah bows his head and sticks out his hand in a gesture of letting bygones be bygones. TNT goes to shake it and Abdullah immediately hits him with a strike that knocks TNT down. Abdullah starts leaving the ring, looking annoyed but not attacking TNT any further. As Abdullah and El Jeque are leaving the ringside area, TNT gets up, jumps over the top rope, and chases down Abdullah. TNT starts furiously attacking Abdullah, kicks El Jeque for good measure and grabs El Jeque’s cane. TNT then starts attacking Abdullah over and over with the cane. The cane gets repeatedly slammed on Abdullah's head and busts him open. El Vikingo tries to stop TNT, but he gets thrown to the ground. TNT is in a rage and continues attacking a prone Abdullah with cane shots. Abdullah looks to be holding his hand up as a sign to try to ward off TNT, but the attack continues. Isaac Rosario comes out and tries to help El Vikingo stop TNT, but TNT ends up throwing both men off and goes back to attacking Abdullah. El Jeque has made his way over and tries to help Abdulalh but TNT starts hitting Jeque for good measure. TNT starts choking Abdullah out with the cane, and to be honest, I think TNT is being a bit excessive considering what happened. Rosario and Vikingo finally manage to pull TNT away from a bleeding Abdullah.</p><p>We then go to an interview with TNT where he is discussing the upcoming Universal title defense vs Abdullah. TNT is talking about how he knows that the Universal title represents a lot of money to Abdullah, but that it also means a lot to TNT as well. This title is in the camp of El Ejercito de la Justicia and no one, including you Abdullah will take it. El Jeque interrupts the interview and calls out TNT for attacking him in a traitorous manner. Why did he do that to him? TNT immediately grabs Jeque by the throat and starts choking him out and starts saying that what happened to him is nothing, but before anything more happens Abdullah rushes onto the scene with a metal pail and just blasts TNT over the head with it. Abdullah gets a few blows in on TNT’s head as Hugo starts yelling for help. Carlos Colon and Invader #1 run in and chase off Abdullah before the attack continues further (although again, looking back at this, I don’t think Abdullah is really in the wrong here after TNT’s attack). Just as Abdullah is leaving the set, he tosses the pail backwards in an attempt to hit TNT. Hugo yells for Abdullah and El Jeque to be escorted out as Carlos and Invader check on TNT. </p><p>However, as TNT reaches his feet, he yells in a rage and sends Carlos and Invader flying. Hugo tells TNT to calm down as TNT yells for Abdullah. He then cuts a seething promo where he has to take deep breaths because of how furious he is. “Abdullah, Abdullah the Butcher… you want to fight with TNT? You want this title? Abdulah the Butcher, you’re going to have to kill me! Because this title represents my life! It represents the people of Puerto Rico! And Abdullah the Butcher, this that you have done to me (points at the blood on him) is nothing compared to what will happen to you in all of Puerto Rico! Abdulah the Butcher, by my mother, I will end you! ” TNT continues yelling as he storms off the set. Hugo mentions that TNT is bathed in blood, the studio walls, the floor, Hugo himself, everywhere is covered with blood. Hugo picks up the pail to show the dent in it from when Abdullah hit TNT. The Universal title match is happening on March 3 and things just became more personal..</p><p>MD: This is a personal thing but as opposed to the last time we saw a battle royal (the match that we launched with twenty or so entries ago), this time I knew all of the competitors and how they felt about one another and their roles on the card. Really, once you got Exotico (who dared step to Abdullah) and some of the juniors (like Watts and Savoldi) out, any one of those guys could have lasted to the end. Abby was coded as a babyface here, mainly paired with heels. There was a nice bit with Burke trying to throw out Invader over and over until they both went over together. Weirdly, the Medico we’ve been seeing as 2 or 3 was called 4 here. It ended up being Valentine (Rick, being Kerry Brown, who we haven’t seen much of yet) and Styles on the heel side and TNT and Abby in there with Styles accidentally hitting Valentine and Abby tossing out both TNT and Styles together. Postmatch, Abby teased a handshake but ended up assaulting TNT who fired back brutally with a cane. That led to a subsequent interview where Abby crushed TNT with a trash can and we were off to the races.</p><p>EB: Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, we head into March 1990. TNT and Abdullah the Butcher clash over the Universal title, Carlos gets his chance at Manny?, and there’s a tag team tournament on the horizon.<br /><br /></p>Matt Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02778958512167944058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-73819023502467795502024-03-27T23:30:00.003-04:002024-03-27T23:30:00.254-04:0070's Joshi on Wednesday: Hagiwara! Hanawa! Yokota! Fujimi!<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mjQGzNrKZM" target="_blank">5. 1978.08.XX - 01 Mimi Hagiwara vs. Seiko Hanawa (JIP, Month Guessed)</a><br /><br />MD: We come in JIP here and get about seven minutes of action to the finish. Right from the start it’s already more measured and methodological than what we’ve seen so far. That doesn’t mean they ever really stop, just that it’s a little more hold driven and mat based to start. After escaping from a couple of Hagiwara’s holds (like a fairly nicely entered cross-armbreaker) Hanawa took over by chaining a cross toehold into a nasty surfboard into a seated bodyscissors with thudding drops and then finally into a leg nelson. It was all pretty well done. Hagiwara fired back after getting knocked outside but I get the sense she was still working things out on offense. Her punches and neckbreakers didn’t have a lot behind them. Hanawa came back after dodging a flying cross chop and hit these great short rope-assisted fireman’s carry takeovers. She landed a few big back body drops but Hagiwara snuck in a small package out of nowhere for the win. Hagiwara’s best stuff at this point seemed to be her pin attempts (Victory Roll, Sunset Flip, etc.) but she had ok fire and we should get to see her develop in the footage to come. Interestingly, the commentators were talking about an “industrial event” in Hawaii and how well received the Beauty Pair were upon arrival and I wonder if we can find out anything more about that. <br /><br />K: Mimi Hagiwara is an unusual wrestler. She's also an actress best known for playing Choko in the original Kamen Rider TV series, a rare case of an AJW wrestler already having some fame before wrestling. She did her tryout under a mask to stop the media finding out she was trying to become a wrestler. She also debuted at the age of 22, which is very old by their standards. Seiko Hanawa is best known as Rimi Yokota's partner in the 'Young Pair' tag team, she disappears from footage by late 1979 so not much else to say about her.<br /><br />The match is JIP. There's a funny moment at the start of this where Seiko is holding on to the rope to try break Mimi's submission, but the referee just kicks the ropes so she loses grip. The rule on rope breaks here is that you must secure the rope to get the break, not just touch it, so the ref kicking it is just testing to see if you've secured it or not. They're both just working very basic holds here. Mimi is a bit slower on executing things but she has the right idea and sells underneath ok. Mimi gets kicked out of the ring, when she returns she starts her comeback with punches. They don't look very good but that she punches hard is part of her gimmick we're just supposed to accept. Seiko takes back control with a lot of repeated moves which are a bit boring, but then Mimi rolls her up out of nowhere to get the 3 count.<br /><br />Not much of a match.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFrJDtiFQKE" target="_blank">6. 1978.08.XX - 02 Rimi Yokota vs. Victoria Fujimi (Month Guessed)</a><br /><br />MD: Alright, this seems to be a broadcast from Hawaii, apparently from the Civic Center in Hilo, Hawaii. We’ll see if Kadaveri has any more info on it as I’m getting to this first. It’s our first look at the future Jaguar. She had a cape with “Rimi” on it and worked at least de facto heel here. Fujimi had a karate gimmick including the gi and early kicks and over the shoulder throws though she settled into more conventional offense later on (a figure four, a butt butt, and then these nasty dropping goardbusters down the stretch). If you told me that Rimi got the Jaguar nickname for biting people, well… this match would be good evidence. She got out of a tough bodyscissors that way and later, after taking over on the outside and starting on the arm, gnawed on Fujimi’s hand while she was in control. She balanced a bunch of dropkicks and cross chops with that mean armwork, the brutality on the outside, or just a running forearm down the stretch. This had a great comeback at the end with Fujimi shedding her gi jacket as if she was Lawler dropping the strap and rushing the ring. She hit a huge Thesz press and then this giant ‘rana with the legs locked around the arms in a unique way, and then those goardbusters. Yokota bullied her way back into it but Fujimi hit a sunset flip out of nowhere for the win. I wasn’t too sure about the heel/face dynamic here but I thought the transitions worked really well. <br /><br />K: I’m pretty sure this is the chronologically the first Joshi match we have in full, so very fitting that has it has Jaguar/Rimi Yokota in it, who is still wrestling full time to this day. This is all her era. She is introduced as part of ‘Young Pair’ and Victoria as part of ‘Golden Pair’, her tag team with Nancy Kumi. This is the era where rather than having stables almost everyone is put into tag teams. And a note to Matt on how she got the name ‘Jaguar’, I’m not 100% sure this is THE reason but it seems the most likely explanation. The AJW roster used to travel separately in three buses, in August 1980 they were given stable names after which bus they travelled in. The girls who rode the ‘Jaguar’ bus were called the Dynamic Jaguars, Rimi was one of them. This was their entrance theme as a faction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=U0FgzA7oLhw By mid-81 she’s being called Jaguar Yokota.<br /><br />The opening is just them exchanging moves, the back and forth signifies that no one is really getting an advantage. There’s a fun moment where Rimi stands on Victoria’s foot to stop her from dodging a strike which knocks her over, but when Rimi goes to run the ropes she gets tripped by Victoria still on the ground. This sets up Victoria locking in a bodyscissors to gain the advantage, which Rimi tries to counter with BITING THE TOES AHHHH. People generally wouldn’t call her a ‘heel’ as she’s not part of the Black Legion official heels, but in terms of working the match she’s the heel here it’s just slightly more subtle.<br /><br />Rimi dominating most of the match builds up to Victoria taking off her gi and jumping into the ring to get a comeback in and we get some back and forth excitement. Victoria eventually wins on a sunset flip before doing a very pleasing backwards roll into an arm-raised leap of delight. If we’re being objective this was no better than average quality wise, but it’s a lovely match to have. <br /><br />**</p>Matt Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02778958512167944058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-2989809666403748552024-03-25T23:30:00.025-04:002024-03-25T23:30:00.248-04:00AEW Five Fingers of Death 3/18 - 3/24<div><b>AEW Dynamite 3/20/24</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Kazuchika Okada vs Eddie Kingston</div><div><br /></div><div>MD: So here's a fun thing. If you view the blog on the web, you can see tags. If you click on the Kazuchika Okada tag, you can scroll to the bottom of the page and go all the way back to 2015. If you did Kingston, you'd probably just get a few months. What I'm trying to say is that when people were writing about Okada, we weren't. I'll take it a step further: when people were watching Okada, I wasn't. I was watching Houston arena footage daily or figuring out lucha through the obviously very correct lens of 2010 Jon Strongman Andersen vs Hector Garza. I'm not actually super familiar with the guy! I was familiar with Phil and Eric's 2017 take on Omega vs Okada though (<a href="http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/01/2017-doesnt-make-list-six-star-edition.html">http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/01/2017-doesnt-make-list-six-star-edition.html</a> and <a href="http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/01/i-also-watched-omega-vs-okada.html">http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/01/i-also-watched-omega-vs-okada.html</a> respectively). So I am sort of coming in with an open, beginner's mind as I watch Okada, but also sort of not because there's a reason why I wasn't riding along with everyone on the NJPW train. </div><div><br /></div><div>All of this, if I'm being honest, has me feeling a little bit on my heels, since I write a lot about this stuff and do so in a fairly aggressive, direct manner. I want to be able to back it up. Ok, here's another thing. Eric and I are very close in many of our opinions. That wasn't really intentional. We read each other's stuff, often after the fact. We communicate, but we don't consult, except for that I have a pretty good sense if he's going to like something and I'll throw it his way. Where I tend to be a little more forgiving than Eric and especially Phil is on execution. </div><div><br /></div><div>Wrestling is symbolic. The thought, the narrative, the theory, the consistency matters more than the execution. There are a lot of correct paths to the same destination. Where it becomes an issue is if there's a discrepancy between how something is presented (or perceived by conventional wisdom) and how something looks and feels. It's when it affects suspension of disbelief that we really have a problem. That can happen a lot of ways and most of them are tied to selling. Wrestling doesn't have to be realistic. It does have to be believable within its own reality though. There's lots of ways to accomplish that, as I said. Older Andre can just put his hand out and you'll buy that it could crush a mountain because he's so big and has such presence and has been established over time and in how his opponents react to him. Baba could do a head chop and because the crowd buys into it and the wrestler who he's facing wants his paycheck and sells so big for it, over time a consistency of meaning is created. Or, you know, Terry Funk can just legitimately punch you in the face and that works too. </div><div><br /></div><div>I'm walking my own winding road here to say that Okada's stuff really doesn't look so great and it bugged me here. Maybe it bugs me more because he's Okada and he's been put on a pedestal for the last decade and a half? Maybe it bugs me more because he's facing Eddie and because of the people Eddie has faced over the last year? Maybe it bugs me more because I'm comparing it to the other Japanese wrestlers who I've written about recently? Maybe it bugs me because I'm also watching Fujiwara and Choshu go at it on the side? We're just days off from watching Shibata Tenryu Punch Danielson in the face, right? Maybe it bugs me because there's a lot in this match that I actually did like. I don't know how NJPW TV was structured or how much ROH TV Okada worked, but there are different constraints for weekly TV wrestling than for other sorts, and while I imagine it wasn't for everyone, I liked the pacing. I liked the methodological control. I liked the sense that he was dismantling Eddie. I liked his reactions to what was happening and to how the crowd was responding. So much of wrestling isn't about move A or move B but about what happens between A and B, and there was confidence and energy and life in that regard. It just kept leading to things (strikes and especially cutoffs) that I wasn't feeling. He'd throw a knee to the gut or clubber down to try to break a hold, and watching it I sort of ended up making the same face Okada makes when he sells, a perfectly fine expression to express dismay. Eddie is a guy who will absolutely lean into offense, but he won't jump headlong into it. That was what was apparently required here and maybe PAC is a guy to make that happen. I'm ready for Darby to get back and challenge, because he'll make all of this stuff look good without making it look absurdly over the top. </div><div><br /></div><div>Okada came off as someone who is very good at all of the most artificial "live theater" elements of pro wrestling (truthfully the elements I love the most) but strangely lacking in that fairly necessary visual element that assists in creating a simulated reality, at least relative to how he's portrayed (again, it's the portrayal that causes the issue in general; more on the issue in specific in a moment). It's like imagining a Jerry Lawler (and this is just an example, not a direct comparison) who could sell, who had his timing, who could connect with the crowd through his expression and body language, but just didn't have that punch that put him over the top and tied it all together by taking your worries and cares away and allowing you to buy into the fantasy of the moment. In some ways, him coming so close and then missing that one crucial element makes it worse, because you end up judging him on the curve of what might have been.</div><div> </div><div>I think I had a bigger problem with it here because it was Eddie and it was Eddie losing his title and because I'd love to have been able to write about it as if it was real and focus on the narrative of Eddie's dream of a Triple Crown being torn apart just a few months into it by someone who didn't necessarily represent the Japanese lineage Eddie clings to so vehemently but instead that has a certain flamboyance, that went to the eyes and played dirty, etc. There's a lot to flesh out there, but I just wasn't feeling it in the same way. I wasn't immersed. It's a me thing. It's an Eddie thing. It's a long, stable bridge that had been built by his last many matches and that bridge felt a bit more wobbly here. I'm still curious to see Okada vs other guys on the roster. He's great at emoting but struggled here with immersion. I think he has upside and that the weighty and deliberate artificiality he brings is something the product could use more of. Let's just see him against Darby and Cassidy and Dustin and Garcia and whoever else and maybe not against people who require just a little more physicality like Eddie or Mox or RUSH. </div>Matt Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02778958512167944058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-19624315564665183222024-03-24T15:00:00.001-04:002024-03-24T16:08:05.230-04:002023 Ongoing MOTY List: Danielson vs. Rush <p> </p><p>2. Bryan Danielson vs. Rush AEW Dynamite 2/8/23</p><p>ER: Whatever happens in the future for AEW, whether they go on to have a TNA-length run - only with actual success - or something bad happens and they lose TNT/TBS and wind up on Freevee, I think it will always be impressive in hindsight that they were the ones who best captured the Dream Match phenomenon that founded ROH in 2002. The Dream Match is something that should have a limited shelf life - and surely does - but AEW has made it seem like a fresher concept than anything since those early super indy years. Their fans respond to Dream Matches, AEW themselves know how to present them as Dream Matches, and the growing number of actual cool first time/only time matches that have already happened there is a surprisingly resistant list. Danielson vs. Rush wasn't really a match I had considered as a Dream Match, even though I've championed each man since early on in each of their respective career's. But the second Danielson ran down to the ring and Rush started stomping him out in dazzling gold boots and black attire, this felt like a Dream Match that I've wanted to see for a decade.</p><p>It's great. It's excellent. It's a match I literally never thought once about happening, and the second it was happening I wanted to see nothing more. Some Danielson matches have the tendency to play like favorite matches from my own wrestling history. Whether or not that's because Danielson and I have similar tastes in wrestling or I'm just projecting my own favorites onto him, who's to say, but Rush walking away from Danielson's tope only to get hit past the ringpost with an even harder tope is like Danielson distinctly showing us he's recreating El Hijo del Santo vs. LA Park from Monterrey and I don't think that's accidental. Danielson taking an overhead belly to belly to the floor is like a classic NOAH big show main event spot, except Our Pillars were almost never dripping plasma the way Danielson was while flying off the apron and certainly never splashed said blood across the camera lens on the way down. Because you see, Danielson started bleeding a <i>lot</i> really early on after Rush kicked him into a chair and the guardrail. It's arguably not the most dickish thing Rush even did, as he also kicked a bunch at his kinesio tape and chopped away at Danielson's pectoral that's connected to the kinesio'd shoulder, and he knows how to look like a real ass while doing it. </p><div>A fun thing about the best Dream Match wrestling matches is when they make you wonder things like "Is Danielson the hardest kicker Rush has ever faced?" Nakamura wasn't kicking him as hard as Danielson does here. Or, "Is Rush the hardest chopper Danielson has ever faced?" I sure haven't seen Danielson shying away from chops 10 minutes into a match the way he did here against Rush, although I guess I don't know how damaged his shoulder or body was in other matches. How about, "Is this the hardest Rush has ever <i>gone after</i> anyone?" Maybe a couple dozen LA Park matches are in contention here but at worst this is Rush "not holding back" to the level of his best Park fights. The headbutt exchange coming so many years - literal decades - after the earliest Danielson concussion worries plays almost surreally. I've gone through more than one phase of "I don't want to see Danielson wrestle anymore because I am worried about his health" that by this point I have ceased to worry and have just accepted him as a Randy the Ram who merely knows how to present himself as "smarter and more elevated than that". Thus, I am now unburdened, free to laugh like a sicko at the way Danielson collapses after Rush asks him to punch him in the neck, and Rush hits him back twice as hard. </div><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2023/07/2023-moty-master-list.html">2023 MOTY MASTER LIST</a></p><p><br /></p>EricRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914406276096930555noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-46320251310611539912024-03-23T00:00:00.009-04:002024-03-23T17:47:24.643-04:00Found Footage Friday: PANTERITA~! WHITE WOLF~! WHITE WOLFIE D~! SHEIK WEINGEROFF~?! BRAVE EAGLE~! JOHNSON~!<p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDhPVuFMKyw&ab_channel=WrestlingPlaylists" target="_blank">Chief Brave Eagle vs. Karl Johnson Big Time Wrestling 1930s?</a><br /><br />MD: We lose the end of this and I think the first fall is a little clipped too but it's over twenty minutes of action from very long ago and probably worth taking a look at. I'm not sure about the 1930s designation but the only thing I have to make me doubt it is that the commentator compared Eagle to Japanese sumo wrestlers and pro wrestlers because he was bald and barefoot and had a particular stance. He was billed from Canada and Johnson from Sweeden. They made a very big deal out ofthe fact that Eagle was 270 pounds and Johnson was 250. That was considered quite big back then apparently. The first two falls had more cautious approaches with cheapshots off the ropes by Johnson and Eagle trying to fire back. Finish to the first was Johnson pressing in with clubbering shots and getting a fireman's carry and a knock down shot in the first and then Eagle recovering and hitting his own shot after the fireman's carry in the second. The third was more hold focused with Eagle locking in a Stepover Toehold and Short Arm-scissors that felt like they'd be totally valid forty years later. The bald head of Eagle was apparently so novel that they played up Johnson being unable to grab the hair to escape (he grabbed the tights). The footage cuts off with Johnson with a rear cross toehold. Again, I'm not entirely convinced it was from the 30s but I don't see a big difference in the actual work between this and something from, let's say the 50s, even if the way it was filmed did feel different.</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl3MRvWHe6w&pp=ygUVd29sZmllIGQgc2hlaWsgZ2Vvcmdl" target="_blank">Hubcap on a Pole: Wolfie D vs. Sheik George Weingeroff Powerslam Pro 5/27/94</a><br /><br />MD: Bryan Turner says this was '94 which is after we have any record of Weingeroff still wrestling. He was apparently pretty much blind by this point regardless. He does the Sheik gimmick with costume and praying before the match and a couple of mannerisms, but it's pretty out of place. The fans were behind Wolfie against him for the most part. This was a hubcap on a pole match but didn't really follow the sort of logic you'd expect. The presence of the pole usually works to set up transitions. If a babyface has control and goes for it too early, he's vulnerable to the heel. If the heel is in the midst of a subsequent beatdown and tries to go for the weapon, the babyface can have his comeback, etc. They didn't lean into that here. Part of the problem was that the hubcap fell down midway through and someone had to put it back up while they were working holds. There were a decent amount of those for a match with this gimmick, and not just due to the technical mishap. It ended like these usually do, with the heel getting the weapon but the face nailing him before he could use it. Wolfie took out everyone, including the manager, and including the ref by accident, and someone came out to sneak attack him so that Weingeroff could win and leave with the title. Post match, Wolfie got some revenge. The audio was rough on this so I'm not sure who we were dealing with but at least the gimmick was self-explanatory. The actual work was ok for a mostly blind guy working an out there gimmick. You end up kind of glad he didn't work a few years later to the point where people would have expected him to emulate Sabu more. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsacE1fmacg&pp=ygUWcGFudGVyaXRhICJ3aGl0ZSB3b2xmIg%3D%3D" target="_blank">Mask vs. Mask: Panterita del Ring vs. White Wolf Monterrey 11/22/98</a><br /><br />MD: I'm trying to stick to the post-order on these so I don't get lost, but Roy posted an apuestas match and Phil rightly noted that I should probably prioritize it. Since there seem to be no matches in the build to this, I'm giving it a go. Lobo Blanco is Andy Anderson, aged 23, who would be in the WWF system not long after this, primarily working in MCW and then with a fairly lengthy run in Puerto Rico. He had a pretty elaborate Wolfman style mask here. Plus side is that it stood out. Downside is that even though he took a posting on the outside at one point, it wasn't the sort of mask you could rip and get color with. Anyway, this comes in right at the end of the primera with the ref (Cuate Guerrero? who I think was the mainstay Monterrey ref for a lot of this footage) clotheslining Panterita so that Lobo could sunset flip him to win the caida and I was kind of wondering why I wasn't watching Fabuloso Blondy in 1989 instead. Immediately thereafter, Panterita did something I'd never seen which made it all worth it though; he started to bug the local commissioner about getting a new ref. It didn't work but I admired the refusal to just accept this bullshit.<br /><br />Lobo took the initiative to ambush him during this, but he ate a back body drop and the aforementioned posting. For the rest of this match, including a fairly back and forth and actually exciting tercera, whoever was in the studio for this one kept rolling fast and loose with things; they'd be so excited to do a replay of a roll up that we'd miss a plancha, that kind of thing, so you were eventually watching a string of replays. That included the roll up that won Panterita the segunda, by the way. We saw it in replay form (they were showing us Panterita accidentally pulling Lobo's mask off in replay form during the initial roll up). Like I said, the tercera was pretty back and forth and exciting. Anderson wasn't afraid to let Panterita dive onto him including a flipping senton to the floor. Eventually, Guerrero got what was coming to him, body an errant Panterita dive and a Lobo dropkick; Lobo got his phantom pin off of a splash mountain style power bomb, but there was no ref. When Lobo tried it again, Panterita got the win. This was pretty good for what it was even if we missed the primera and the rudo ref infection had overtaken things by 98. Panterita was certainly confident in his own skin by this point and milked everything as much as possible for the crowd which isn't a bad thing for a local hero.</p><p>ER: I didn't know Andy Anderson was working Mexico, but he's a perfect fit. It's like Todd Morton working Mexico, if Todd Morton was a guy with enough gall to embellish his size on Cagematch to 6'2" 266 lb. Nobody has gone out of their way to tell me to watch as much Lobo Andy Anderson in Puerto Rico as I can find, and one of you should have. It's possible one of you did, but this match is what's going to make me go and do that. We never got Todd Morton working outside the states, and Anderson is an excellent proxy to show us what that might have looked like. He is the White Wolf, and his attire is impeccable. His pants are a shiny black, with white fur down the legs; his mask is Ke Monito, had Ke Monito been a werewolf inspired by Oliver Reed in Curse of the Werewolf rather than a monkey. It is a furry fluffy white mask which would look <b>incredible</b> matted with blood. Maybe there's a bloody match that led to this mascara contra mascara where we could see that bloody matted mask, but I doubt Anderson was walking around with more than one of these. </p><p>White Wolf bumps exactly like Todd Morton, meaning he is an incredible bumper. He out bumps Panterita - except for one time - the entire match, taking a wild flipping Slaughter bump to the floor, a running backdrop on the floor, an excellent posting that would do Lawler proud, and countless more hard bumps into an ungiving ring. Panterita has a pescado with fine follow through and a slingshot senton to the floor that might have been 20% less effective than Super Calo's, but the drop was steeper and the Arena Coliseo Monterrey floor much harder than the WCW floors Calo was showcasing it on. Panterita and Wolf showed great strength in the way they integrated nefarious referees, somehow bumping subtly and with nuance for a Monterrey feature that is usually so broad and overplayed. There were a lot of great little things, like the way Panterita broke out of a low abdominal stretch with pointed elbows to the meat of Wolf's thigh...but then Panterita missed an insane flying shoulder block into the bottom buckle - into a chair - in an angle and trajectory I have never seen before, flying in like a dive knowing full well he was hitting a drained pool. The heat Wolf drew on his splash mountain showed how durable he could have been working Mexico for life. The fans he was egging on really hated him, and not just in the way you root against a man, there was hate in these men's eyes. But Andy Anderson didn't wrestle too often in Mexico, and he knows not what happens to men who attempt two Splash Mountain bombs. I loved this. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Matt Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02778958512167944058noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-37123346385873809982024-03-20T23:30:00.002-04:002024-03-20T23:30:00.221-04:0070's Joshi on Wednesday: Sato! Ueda! Romero! Kumano!<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBBe6p_sR3E" target="_blank">4. 1978.06.XX - Chabela Romero/Mami Kumano vs. Jackie Sato/Maki Ueda (2/3 Falls, Date Approximate guess based on when Romero was in Japan)</a><br /><br />MD: It’s amazing how much they fit into thirteen minutes over two falls here. It’s not even that it’s a sprint. I wouldn’t call it that. It’s just so dense. It’s not even back and forth. There are momentum shifts. It’s just that whatever team that is on offense is filling their time with a ton of stuff. To start, it was the heels controlling on Maki. They had some double teams but the best part of the early going was when they were yanking her arm out of her socket; Romero was especially good there. Eventually Sato made it in but things would frequently spill to the floor and it became like a lumberjack or handicap match with everyone getting involved. <br /><br />The end of the first fall was full of interesting stuff. Mami had the flip out powerbomb and an attempt at calf branding. Both of the Beauty Pair would use this sort of slingblade type hair yank down. Maki had a butt butt and I really like her standing vertical suplex which has the hand between the legs to make it almost a hybrid power slam. And then Sato, after leaping off the top with a splash, ended it with this crazy high angle belly to back. <br /><br />Interestingly, even though Romero got pinned, they let Mami start the second fall; that’s different than France, Houston, or Portland when it comes to two-out-of-three fall matches. The match shifted here as she started to play hide the object with a spike and then actually hung both of the Beauty Pair with the dangling hangman’s choke like she was Brody King trying to murder Darby Allin. Sato and Ueda would fight their way back in and set off a finishing stretch that included a thudding drop out of a belly to back suplex position without going down from Sato and an very unexpected giant swing from Maki, before things spilled out again and Maki slipped in towards the end of the count to score the win. There’s a match in some year in some place where they just kept working and working Maki’s arm until a hot tag, but it wasn’t here. This had a feeling of just being everything and more, a constant battle that shifted from one style of match to another: it was that dogged southern tag and then became a brawl on the floor and back in the ring to be a sprint and then a hide-the-object Memphis heat segment. Just wild stuff.<br /><br />K: It looks like we come into the match in progress, but from how everyone's positioned it's possible the tape just starts a few seconds after the bell rings or something. A neat thing I'll just note is the Japanese rolling text at the bottom is an advert for wrestler tryouts, giving requirements that applicants must be aged 16-20 years old and at least 160cm (5 feet 3 inches) tall. Part of what makes AJW an unusual company is, at a time when wrestling was mostly an "invitation-only" closed business, they were just openly advertising to millions of fans on TV how to enter the business.<br /><br />This is our first look at Chabela Romero. She's a veteran Mexican wrestler (debuted 1955) who pops up in this era of AJW every now and then as a foreign heel. It's also the first time we're seeing Mami Kumano, who by this point will probably have taken Shinobu Aso's spot as Yumi Ikeshita's partner in Black Pair (hard to say for sure with the dates being unknown).</p><p>Right at the start Mami and Chabela are inflicting a relentless beatdown on Maki Ueda. Lots of double teaming that the referee tries to get a handle on but fails, but he also turns a blind eye to Jackie coming in to even the odds for a moment. Chabela gives us a bit of focus targetting Maki's right arm, and Mami follows along. There's a nice move where she stretches Maki's arm out and then headbutts her on the shoulder. Someone should steal that. The hot tag is a little weird. Chabela has Maki in a kind of hammerlock and is pushing her towards the ropes for Mami to hit her, but Maki turns her over, does a backwards roll towards her corner to tag in Jackie.</p><p>Jackie's a real good hot tag. Great dropkick. At this point all hell really breaks loose as they're fighting on the outside and people are getting slammed into tables. It's hard to follow what's going on exactly. We're soon back in the ring with Mami dropping Jackie with a powerbomb like move, except instead of driving her down she just drops her to the side. Jackie has a really cool thrust kick move, where it looks like she's pushing someone away from her with her boot rather than trying to actually hurt. It looks disdainful. That gets followed up by her great proto-slingblade move, which the commentary call a "neckbreaker." Mami takes it high angle on her neck.<br /><br />The pacing of this is so constant. Even when Chabela tries to get away for a moment Maki goes chasing her to the outside and we get another outside brawl with people getting choked. It always gets a double countout but they're back in at 18. Jackie does the move Nanae Takahashi would call the 'refrigerator bomb' in the 00s, but here they call it the 'Beauty Special'. Jackie follows this up with a great backdrop suplex that drops Chabela right on her neck to get the pin on the 1st fall.<br /><br />We get a bit of a rest period in between the falls, which is really the only time in the whole match we get any chance to breathe. Once the bell rings Jackie flies straight at Mami hitting her with suplexes and her neckbreaker, then pins in Maki who unloads in the same way. The tables are turned though when Yumi Ikeshita comes to the outside and does some kind of distraction which allows Mami to whack Maki in the face with a wrench. Jackie is furious and goes to rip her head off but gets knocked down by the wrench as well. All the while Mami is hiding it from the referee in kinda comical ways, but the crowd sound very angry. She keeps changing direction while choking Jackie with the wrench so he can't see even though he's clearly aware something nefarious is going on. When hiding the wrench clearly isn't going to be possible anymore Mami just hands it back to Yumi on the outside and then things get totally deranged as she starts swinging Jackie & Maki one at a time by the neck on the outside in a not exactly safe looking way. Lots of screaming going on throughout all this and Yumi is throwing people around at ringside if they look like they're trying to stop this madness.<br /><br />Eventually Beauty Pair manage to isolate Mami and double team her a little bit before Jackie hits a really nice backbreaker. Ikeshita tries to run in to interfere (I don't know where Chabela is right now in this chaotic scene) but gets taken out. Maki hits a Giant Swing on Mami of all things before we get another wild brawl on the outside with more throwing people into chairs and over tables who aren't even in the match. Maki Ueda gets the win by countout to give Beauty Pair the 2-0 win in this very hectic match.<br /><br />My overall thoughts are this is both the pacing and the chaotic nature of this feels like an escalation on what we saw from Jumbo Miyamoto a couple of years earlier. A hotter crowd also helps. You might compare this to the Abdullah The Butcher & The Sheik matches happening in All Japan around the same time, I imagine there is some influence with the hiding the weapons spots. But there's a feeling of things going off the rails here that those matches don't quite reach, and none of those are as frantically paced. The flaw here though is the spots don't always flow together, and it feels like there's a lack of payoff for certain elements. For instance there's never really any comeuppance for using the weapons, and their use doesn't really escalate throughout, they're just thrown in. It's not a bad thing as such, but there's more than could be done with it.</p><p>This is the first match we have where I feel there's enough to give a star rating, which I generally do when reviewing things, so here goes:<br /><br />***1/2<br /><br /></p>Matt Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02778958512167944058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-59220406433627297872024-03-19T23:00:00.001-04:002024-03-20T01:39:25.846-04:002022 Ongoing MOTY List: Dustin vs. Claudio <p> </p><p>37. Dustin Rhodes vs. Claudio Castagnoli AEW Rampage 8/24 (Aired 8/26/22)</p><p>ER: Matt <a href="https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2022/08/aew-five-fingers-of-death-822-828.html">already wrote this gem up at length</a> when it originally aired, but I wanted to add a few perfunctory thoughts years later just to officially add it to our MOTY List. I have such fond memories of that brilliant but brief era in WWE where Cesaro and Goldust were among several of my favorite guys producing great weekly tag matches. I think of that window so fondly that it's hard to believe that was a full decade ago now. Cesaro and Goldust matched up a lot over a 6 month stretch from late 2013 to early 2014 and the matches were always given ample time to deliver. Most of them did. But were weren't getting Goldust singles matches during that era, just letting the best hot tag-slash-best face in peril in the world play to his strengths in perhaps the last best era of WWE tag team wrestling. </p><p>So now, nearly a decade later, we finally get one of the singles matches that would have slotted perfectly into that era and excites me just as much today. Dustin is older and doesn't have that same gas tank, but the pairing is no less intriguing. I love a Veteran Who Has Lost a Step match story, and Dustin is great at playing that story. The way he misses his high crossbody and blogrolls all the way to the floor or hits his head on the bottom rope taking a shoulderblock, these are spots that mean more when done by Old Dustin than Young Spry Dustin. Falls are more serious to us old people. Claudio is the perfect guy to take advantage of Dustin's slower step, and Dustin is great at firing people up by regularly seeming he was about to go on a tear before Claudio could shut it down again as quickly as it began. </p><p>Regal says on commentary that Claudio is the only person he's known who can throw an uppercut as hard as Dave Taylor, which is the coolest kind of compliment Regal can give someone. But more than that, Claudio is capable of working spots on Dustin that nobody else could do, while catching Dustin spots that nobody else could catch. He's arguably the perfect modern Dustin opponent. He catches the cannonball safer than anyone while making it looks like catching a 240 pound medicine ball, and I can't imagine Dustin trusts anyone on the roster enough to leap off the top rope with his rana. Claudio's giant swing is one of the great wrestling spots, but perhaps never better than performed on Dustin. Claudio is the guy who is actually capable of swinging the big man, and it looks so great because nobody has legs longer than Dustin's. AEW's top down angle of that swing and how much of the ring surface area they were covering was perfection. All of Claudio's displays of strength only imply that his crossface grip has the power of a trash compactor, like it's shifting Dustin's teeth in his gums. </p><p>I really couldn't care less about the "Is this Dustin Rhodes' last attempt to win a World Championship?" story they kept trying to push on commentary, and seemingly only on commentary. Dustin's approach in this match, to me, didn't feel any different than it has in any other high profile singles matches. What does the ROH World Championship actually mean to anyone in 2022? This is a belt Matt Taven held for half a year, what is it <i>really</i> supposed to mean for Dustin Rhodes to hold this specific title? Would it really have been any different than giving him a nice Lifetime Achievement watch? I guess one difference is that the watch would actually mean something to Dustin. Dustin potentially winning the World Title of a company he never worked for in a company that is financing the company he never worked for doesn't really carry a lot of emotional weight for me. Of course Regal has to tell me that the ROH World Title is a Title that is "coveted by every single wrestler in the world"; they <i>need</i> to say those things, but none of it sounds convincing in any way. </p><p>What I <i>did</i> buy into was Dustin's fatigue down the stretch: his red face swelling in Claudio's crossface, the way he almost bailed on a piledriver, tossing Claudio off to the side rather than sit back on it, the way it felt like he couldn't totally hold Claudio down on pinfalls. It led perfectly to the finish of an out of breath Dustin unable to duck Claudio's leapfrog, running face first into Claudio's balls, but also being tired enough to be incapable of capitalizing. Claudio momentarily compartmentalizes his ball pain and uppercuts Dustin's body out of the air, a final shot to the hull of an old ship. </p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2022/02/2022-moty-master-list.html">2022 MOTY MASTER LIST</a></p><p><br /></p>EricRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914406276096930555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-88875318254414248302024-03-18T23:00:00.000-04:002024-03-18T23:00:00.228-04:00 AEW Five Fingers of Death 3/11 - 3/17<p><b>AEW Dynamite 3/13/24</b><br /><br />Darby Allin vs Jay White<br /><br />MD: Obviously now, a few days after the match we're well aware of the injury that happened very early when Darby hit a dive and hurt his foot. Definitely a strange occurence considering that there was a post match ankle injury angle to write him off. I'm all for guys being written off but it was maybe a little weird considering he was climbing Everest. It should give White plenty of heat doing a "I Broke Darby's Foot" or, alternatively "I Shattered Darby's Dreams" deal. Given the weighty promo Darby made they've been walking a fine line where they admit that it was on the dive but also point out the post match chair shattering. This is rare ground; it's not every day someone gets hurt in the same place that they were supposed to get hurt to be written off screen and put heat on the heels, while also substituting the reason why they were written off for the actual injury. And it's not every day that the reason they were originally written off is due to climbing a dangerous mountain. Wrestling is at its most serene when it's at its most honestly bizarre sometimes, I guess? <br /><br />Originally, I was going to write about consequence, focusing on the injured/lacerated back and how great a job they did making what happened to Darby against the Bucks resonate. That was present right from the get go. Darby, of course, has a history with headlock takeovers, but the one that White hit him with at the start was made to seem particularly devastating. This is a good thing. If wrestling is trying to create a suspension of disbelief over time, then having consequences last after one match and into the other is not just something to aim and strive for, but also actively helpful in situations like this where you have people of similar hierarchy and want to realistically put one over the other while still protecting the loser. It was presented as valiant (and crazy) that Darby was out there at all. He was bandaged. Every slam or bump or crash into the corner or prone press to the mat for a pin attempt was presented as painful. We'd seen the blood. We see the bandages. We could imagine the pain. Wrestling getting us to imagine pain is a great way to help us to suspend disbelief and more thoroughly immerse ourselves in what we're watching.<br /><br />What's astounding here is how thoroughly they leaned into it even after the foot injury. Immediately thereafter, Darby hobbled across the ring to hit the tope. He followed it up by eating the half and half into the chair. I think back to Danielson/Okada one and how they adapted with the injury. Here, they didn't, and that felt like the right move since they were still selling the weight of a spot-of-the-year type crash through glass. The overarching story was that Darby was already a step slow. It made sense that as the match went on, he might be two steps slow. One injury creates the possibility of another. Vulnerability begets vulnerability. This is all basic pro wrestling storytelling; it can be done more or less gracefully, but early work on one body part so often opens things up to shift to what the wrestler really wants to work on. It's all a matter of whether it is coherent and compelling. This wasn't quite that as White never targeted the foot/ankle, but after comeback attempts and cutoffs and multiple times dodging the Blade Runner, Darby took too long to hit the coffin drop and then missed entirely when he tried to course correct once White rolled to the apron. That was basically the finish, as Darby valiantly beat the count only to get hit by the Blade Runner. I don't necessarily know if I have a unified thesis here other than the notion that Darby's one of the best in the world at portraying that most important element of pro wrestling, consequence, and here it was multiplied multifold considering the bump through the glass preceding the match, the weight of Everest over their heads, the legitimate injury early on, and the injury angle post match. In that regard, it was an unquestionable counterbalance to...<br /><br />Eddie Kingston/PENTA/PAC vs Young Bucks/Kazuchika Okada <br /><br />MD: Hey, did you guys see the PENTA vs Action Andretti match from Rampage a week or two ago? It was like there was a metal plate in Andretti's head and a giant magnet in PENTA's boot. He just kept zooming headlong into superkicks. It was the funniest match I've seen in a while. It's amazing when you think about it, that someone trained their body to be strong and fast and supple enough to twist and fly and contort all to the end of crashing into someone else's foot seven times in one match. Pro wrestling is the wackiest thing, really.<br /><br /><b>AEW Collision 3/16/24</b><br /><br />Bryan Danielson vs Katsuyori Shibata</p><p>MD: The biggest red flag in this match is the strike exchange. It's at the end and we're at the beginning, so let's leave it ahead of us for now. There's a sort of comforting, lazy casualness to putting these dream matches on Saturday nights on free TV. They're all X amount of years after they should be (even, arguably, the Hechicero match! We were watching him fight Black Terry in 2014!). The stakes are low. Ultimately, there's a level of pride, the fear that this won't be enough, the worry of injury. On the other side of the scale is perspective; we understand that it's a near-miracle that we're getting these matches at all. And they continue to be interspersed in Danielson's 2024 journey, one where he is finding peace with himself and the path before him.<br /><br />This match could never give us everything we hoped for. By its very nature, it made us hope for too much. What it did give us, however, was wonderful parallels and, truthfully, so, so much of what we were looking for. It certainly gave us what we needed and only a little that we likely didn't. Considering we were dreading shoot headbutts between the two, the match ended up not just a miracle and a joy but also an absolute relief.<br /><br />They started out with a feeling out process and some matwork that was tight and gritty and based around opportunities and openings while still feeling tricked out. It felt like it was bordering on shoot style at times, not quite UWF but more UWF in 86 NJPW with that firm pro wrestling patina. Everything felt earned and it was all interesting. They played into the parallels (first on commentary mentioning the head injuries and then in the match itself) with both wrestlers getting bow and arrows.Danielson went to strikes first but that just let Shibata play stoic in the corner. More often than not, it's Danielson going into that well, not his opponent, so this let him play up against a different sort of paragon. Danielson realized he wasn't going to win in a standup at this stage of the match and went to the leg. That opened up the arm and other holds, including him stomping on the elbow. Shibata was able to get him out and hit a PK on the apron though, sending things to the break.<br /><br />During the break, Shibata pressed the advantage on the floor, but Danielson trapped him in a chair and hit him with a running dropkick. He wasn't able to press it back in the ring, because Shibata, trapped in the corner, turned it around and started throwing these killer pokey Tenryu-esque punches. In his control, he was able to dropkick Danielson in the corner and step on his elbow. Parallels abound.<br /><br />They went into a false finishing stretch there. Shibata wins matches with the sleeper into the PK and he tried the sleeper here. Danielson fought out and they traded ankle locks, with Danielson turning it into his ankle-hooked German, followed by a Shibata STO. This really felt like a finishing stretch, with both wrestlers down, Shibata recovering for the death valley driver, and Danielson reversing the ripcord forearm attempt into the Busaiku Knee and the LeBell Lock.<br /><br />It doesn't work though. You see false finishes, but you rarely see a false finishing stretch that feels so fully formed. AEW house style often has a shine/heat/a finisher teased right before they go to the commercial break, but this went further than that. In doing so, it made the strike exchange that was to come more palatable to me. Yes, they'd ultimately be asking to get hit, but it was after they brought the match to a logical conclusion and it simply wouldn't end. Yes, I say this fully understanding why strike exchanges like this happen, the cultural significance, how they played out in the 2010s. I still don't love them. I get that fans want them. I get that they're expected. Later in the show, during the Keith/O'Riley and Claudio/Archer matches, they were even more egregious because this one felt like it was a special moment and it ended up being not even a once-in-the-night (or twice-in-the-night moment; guys were asking their opponent to hit them all night!).<br /><br />But I won't punish this match for what came later. Here, at least, it did feel special, with Shibata sitting cross-legged first, with the two trading boots after he rolled to his feet, with Danielson dropping down and showing that they were equals, with both cross-legged and firing away. There is no rule of wrestling so universal that there isn't some situation where it makes sense to break it. For strike exchanges where people just ask for it, this was probably it. Danielson won it (when he couldn't earlier) and to me, it was because he had already hit the knee once. That's when they went into the real finish, with Danielson failing on his second knee, Shibata locking the Octopus, and the two going into roll ups. Maybe it was my own expectations. With these two, I was expecting that extra level of excess and we only got the normal level of it, placed at the right point in the right match to make it resonate. If they had worked the whole match that way, it would have frustrated me, but a couple of minutes of the ultimate parallel, the willing strike exchange, in a match built upon the notion of two so equally matched mirror-image wrestlers, well, what can I say? It worked for me.<br /></p>Matt Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02778958512167944058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-47062195983460852832024-03-17T16:00:00.001-04:002024-03-17T18:27:38.829-04:00Jim Duggan's Best WWF Match<p> </p><p>Jim Duggan vs. Shawn Michaels WWF Raw 5/10/93</p><p>ER: I think, from other wrestling writers, when reading a lead such as "Jim Duggan's Best WWF Match" you might think it was some kind of trick. Then you read the review and it's just talking about the 1992 or 1988 or 2009 Royal Rumble and Duggan is barely mentioned and you realized you have indeed been duped by Sensational Pro Wrestling Headlines That Are <i>Technically </i>Correct. I'm not here to trick you. You know that by now. I'm not interested in tricks. I'm just here to talk plainly about Jim Duggan's Best WWF Match, and regardless of your interpretation of that statement I think you will be satisfied. This is both a) Duggan's Best WWF Match, b) The Hardest Duggan Worked in a WWF Match, and c) The Best Duggan Ever Looked <i>in </i>a WWF Match. Whatever definition of "Best" you came into this with, I think I will have your bases covered. </p><p>Admittedly I am higher on Duggan than most, recognizing the strengths and weaknesses that he brought to the last 30 years of his career. But even as a supporter of his strengths (and someone who was even a fan of his 2006-2008 WWF comeback) I can admit that often the best WWF/WCW Duggan matches were due to his opponent. That doesn't mean that Duggan brought nothing to these matches, but I would say the vast amount of "From WWF On" Duggan matches that I enjoy are due to an opponent working <i>around</i> Duggan as an opponent. Duggan is often more of an obstacle to work around than a guy to work <i>with</i>. This was even more true by the time he was in WCW. Regal vs. Duggan, Craig Pittman vs. Duggan, even Roadblock vs. Duggan, these are match-ups that were entertaining due to fun wrestlers working around a large obstruction. Jim Duggan was not someone who was interested in having Great Matches, and I love how durable and popular he remained by working a safe style. He was clearly a smart man, working as a stupid man. </p><p>So I have no idea what got into him for this one match. I can't think of another WWF match he had anywhere close to this match, the longest recorded singles match of his entire WWF tenure. We're not really buying the accuracy of the supposed 20-25 minute house Savage matches, anyway. Until I see video evidence I think it's far more likely that whomever reported those numbers was actually watching a 15 minute match that <i>felt</i> like a 25 minute match. This match was an actual long TV singles match that goes through two commercial breaks, not some house show fantasy. It's a lumberjack where all the lumberjacks - Bam Bam Bigelow, Mr. Hughes, Typhoon, Terry Taylor, you know the real big guys - save Yokozuna were actually wearing flannel shirts. It's absurd, and their appearance made me assume before the match started that the lumberjacks would be heavily involved in cartoon fashion. And yet, the lumberjacks were hardly a factor, except for Yokozuna's very important involvement in the finish. </p><p>Oh, well then surely Shawn Michaels was the one covering for Duggan! This was a long singles match that was clearly made palatable by the great Shawn Michaels slipping on banana peels! Nope, that's not it either. Michaels bumps like a normal man, still taking great bumps, but not as one bumping in service to himself as he often does. Did he take one of the highest backdrops a man could possibly take? Getting vaulted up higher into the air as Duggan shoves his already-high-in-the-air-knees up and over even <i>higher</i>, resulting in one of the highest non-Rick Rude backdrops in company history? Yes. Michaels was great in this match. But I think Hacksaw was even greater. </p><p>Duggan takes an actual furious attack to Michaels and keeps the attack going nearly the entire match. It is the most energetic I have seen Duggan in a WWF ring and it's a sight. His strikes have purpose, he drops elbows with weight, he does a vertical suplex! This man doesn't just do a vertical suplex, he does a <i>delayed</i> vertical suplex! Think about it. Explore the Hacksaw corners of your brain, and try to recall if you've seen Jim Duggan do a vertical suplex, let alone hang onto one for awhile. This was a match for a title, and Duggan was fighting like a man who really <i>really</i> wanted to win that title. Michaels had shown up for the match in street clothes on crutches, trying to duck the challenge, and here's Duggan ripping clothes off Michaels back. This proves the theory that, If Jim Duggan Is Ripping Another Man's Clothes Off During A Match, You Are Watching A Great Duggan Match. He looks incredible. His Johnny Ramone shag was his best ever haircut, and his large American flag singlet-covered belly hangs down like a pregnant dog's. When he misses his Old Glory kneedrop, he misses it like a man who doesn't care about his knees. </p><p>Michaels is a guy who wears cowboy boots whenever he gets the chance, but this match is the match where he finally takes one of those boots off to do the best thing you can do with a cowboy boot in wrestling: hit a guy with a big belly directly in the head with the heel of that boot. But Jim Duggan has a similar-but-different asset to black wrestlers and islanders: His head is not so hard as to be impervious to headbutts, but it is a head that is so empty that the heel of a cowboy boot cannot began to damage it. The same goes for Michaels desperately trying to lock in a sleeperhold and chinlock: You are only expending your own average trying to cut off blood flow to the man who already has limited brain activity. This was the last big Duggan match. Duggan went on to have a US title reign the next year and a TV title reign during the Russo era of WCW, and neither of those actual title wins felt like anywhere close to as big a deal as this title challenge. The US title reign felt like something written into Hogan's contract, the TV title run was written as "who would be the funniest guy to put a literal garbage title on"; this match was the last time Duggan felt like he was actually fighting for something. 1993 WWF is the easiest year to re-book in hindsight. This match, ending when Duggan is thrown to the floor and flattened by Yokozuna, leading to Mr. Perfect going after Michaels for the DQ, clearly set up programs that never got satisfyingly paid off. Duggan should have challenged Yokozuna for the World title on PPV, Perfect should have challenged Michaels for the IC title at King of the Ring, Crush should have slammed Yokozuna on the Intrepid after Duggan softened him up, etc. The Luger turn ruined everything that the first half of the year had been building to...</p><p>but somewhere in all that mess we got an actual great Jim Duggan WWF match. </p><p><br /></p>EricRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914406276096930555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-72465825280240602392024-03-15T23:30:00.007-04:002024-03-16T14:31:51.303-04:00Found Footage Friday: SOLAR~! IN~! JAPAN~! AZTECA~! JIRAIYA~! DRAGONS~! SKULL REAPER~! URA~! ITO~!<p><br /></p><p><a href="https://twitcasting.tv/sportiva07/movie/523883848">Hiroaki Ura vs. Yusaku Ito Sportiva 2/6/19</a><br /><br />MD: Sebastian sent this one on to us. He described Ura as in his black trunks roookie stage but very talented. That tracked. He started out with very basic holds to just try to contain Ito and I had the sense Ito was taking him lightly and letting him sow his wild oats a bit, ready to shut him down when he'd had enough. Ito didn't turn things around early enough though. Instead, Ura was able to pry a leg off and start to do real damage with it. Throughout the match, especially after the tide turned back the other way but even before, I had the sense that Ura was like the dog that caught the car at times; once he got it, he wasn't entirely sure what to do with it. He was going off desperation and instinct and throwing anything he could. It meant that when he shifted away from the leg and to broader offense. It didn't work so well for him. Ito, on the other hand, was entirely deliberate. If he couldn't get a hold, he jammed an elbow down onto Ura's skull once and then took it. He'd block him and turn him right into a hold. The finish is him shutting Ura down with a decisive motion to hit a Michinoku Driver. The damaged leg is a wedge that Ura could use to get back into things though. He also had a potent explosiveness able to zoom across the ring while Ura was stumbling in his selling. When they moved into strike exchanges, it had fighting spirit how I particular like it, with staggering and recoiling, and a struggle to push forth and some really spirited screaming from Ura. This was inevitable, of course, but they did a very good job in not quite making it look so. </p><p><br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt3jQKf3Ps8&ab_channel=DowgaaJapan_AI_Lab" target="_blank">Solar I/Dragon Yuki vs. Azteca/Jiraiya KAGEKI 7/13/13</a><br /><br />MD: This had been thought lost but it's just been out there where no one knew to look for it. I think it was on the Azteca 20th anniversary show. Here, you have Solar in his most exhibition-y, touring mode, but somehow more so. He's so over the top here with poses and flexing and pandering to the crowd that it's almost transcendent. Especially because he backs it up. It's in one fall so the structure is kind of loose, in as you get exchanges early with a lot of motion and everyone getting to pair with everyone else, things building to some relatively big dives including a huge Yuki flipping senton off the second rope to a grounded Azteca on the floor, and then the matwork which actually gets some room to breathe, with the pairing of Solar and Jiraiya particularly great. It was a little weird to go into the matwork after the dives but what I was watching was so enjoyable I didn't mind too much. It both gave rationale for no one to break things up as Azteca and Yuki were still recovering and also sort of felt like a tercera where teams trade submissions once they were there to save their partners. In a lot of ways, this was Solar at the very height of his old man powers, completely confident in his own skin almost to the point of bombastic parody. But he still went hard to celebrate Azteca.</p><p><br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nMsxVXIeKc&ab_channel=DowgaaJapan_AI_Lab" target="_blank">Solar I/Azteca vs. Azul Dragon/Skull Reaper A-ji KAGEKI 7/14/13</a><br /><br />MD: I was a little worried this was going to be more of the same but it really wasn't. Dragon and Reaper came in full rudo, ambushing to start and using their second to cheat to take back over when the opportunity arose. It meant that there was a lot more heat. The previous match was celebratory but in a good way, certainly structured like a real match. This didn't have anything quite as tricked out but there was a lot more animosity to draw upon. When Solar and Azteca fought their way back, there was some of that posing and pandering (but in the best way, of course), but the rudos kept it from going overboard by keeping the pressure on. That's not to say it wasn't without levity. The commentators (and Azteca) watching it back got a real kick out of Skull Reaper nonchalantly taking out the ref to break up a pin. It all built to Solar quebradors as you'd imagine followed by a simultaneous Solar submission and Azteca splash. Fun stuff but I did miss the matwork of the other match. <br /><br /><br /></p>Matt Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02778958512167944058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-58544938649196210332024-03-14T23:30:00.001-04:002024-03-15T07:54:19.103-04:00 El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Ninja Quest<p><b>Week 19: Ninja Quest </b><br /><br />Leo Burke has had a notable January. His first title defense of the newly won Universal title was against former champion Carlos Colon. That match ended with controversy, as Chicky Starr got involved by ringing the timekeeper’s bell and cost Carlos Colon what looked to be a title victory. A rematch was held due to this and this time Carlos brought in his trainer Barba Roja to neutralize Chicky. However, Burke still managed to keep the Universal title when fellow stablemate Manny Fernandez ran in to save Leo’s title and in the process severely injured Barba Roja. With Carlos Colon’s attention diverted by the Barba Roja injury, Leo then participated in a Ruleta Rusa match and (through cheating) was able to cost TNT his face paint. Now Leo Burke has an enraged TNT after him, with the karate ninja wearing a mask and vowing to avenge this humiliation. TNT is on a quest to defeat Leo Burke and pay back the humiliation.<br /><br />However, TNT was not able to initially get his revenge against Burke, with Leo managing to eke out a countout victory despite TNT beating him from pillar to post. Burke and Chicky Starr thought they had gotten the better of TNT but Carlos Colon ceded his upcoming Universal title shot to TNT, allowing TNT another opportunity to avenge his humiliation (and give Carlos a chance to go after Manny Fernandez for what he did to Barba Roja). The Universal title match between Leo Burke and TNT took place on January 27 in Guaynabo and it resulted with no clear winner due to cheating and issues with the referees that resulted in Invader #1 getting involved. Due to this controversy, a rematch was ordered February 3 with a special referee appointed to prevent any further chicanery taking place. The special referee was boxer Alfredo ‘El Salsero’ Escalera, someone who has previously dabbled with wrestling in the early 80s. Chicky was not happy about Invader’s involvement in the January 27 match or with the special referee appointed for February 2 <br /><br />That second title match ended in a disqualification win for TNT when Chicky again got involved. Although TNT won the match, he had not yet pinned Burke. Once more, due to the results of the match, it was decided that there would be one more Universal title match between Leo Burke and TNT. The match will be held on February 10. As for Chicky Starr, due to what happened between him and Alfredo Escalera a match has been signed that will see a boxer vs a wrestler also for February 10. Will TNT be able to complete his quest for vengeance? We shall soon see. But before getting to that February 9 match between Burke and TNT, there is one more thread we need to wrap up for January. <br /><br />That last thread we need to catch up on before passing into February is the saga of ‘Tough Guy’ Eddie Watts and his challenge for the World Junior title. As we have talked about previously, Watts has been brought in by Chicky Starr as the newest Club Deportivo member with the goal of winning the World Junior title. Eddie had wrestled Super Medico for the title, but the match ended in a disqualification victory for Medico when he was tossed over the top rope by Watts. A rematch was signed for January 27 and let’s go to Guaynabo for that match.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIw8N7l4pZE">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIw8N7l4pZE</a> <br /><br />This is from the February 10 Campeones airing, so we get the commentary team of Hugo, Carlos and Chicky. We also get some comments throughout the match about that night’s card (which includes discussion about both the Universal title match between Burke and TNT and the boxer vs wrestler match between Alfredo Escalera and Chicky Starr). Hugo mentions this isn’t the first time Medico and Watts have faced off for the World Junior title and that Chicky wants to add the title to his stable of champions. As the ref checks both participants, Carlos says that he hates to admit this but Chicky has quite the prospect in Eddie Watts, one of the better junior heavyweights to have come to Puerto Rico (something Chicky brags about after Colon’s comment: “The tough guy may not be the biggest but he’s got an ability and intelligence that few can match”). Hugo starts getting at Chicky for once again using the word intelligent to describe his wrestlers, with Chicky saying that in his organization there are only intelligent people. Carlos sarcastically goes: “Hugo, El Club Deportivo is composed of geniuses apparently”. Hugo clarifies they must be geniuses of evil., but one has to admit they are going through their best period with all of the champions they have right now. Carlos says that will change tonight because he’s feeling good about TNT’s chances tonight. Carlos also mentions Chicky’s match vs Alfredo Escalera, saying that he’s given some pointers to Escalera (with Chicky being annoyed by this). I’ve made all these observations about the commentary because Watts has been taking his time in getting into the ring to start the match.<br /><br />Back to the match, as Watts finally locks up with Medico (almost two minutes in). Medico backs Watts into the corner and breaks, with Watts complaining his hair was pulled (looks like he’s been studying Leo Burke). Hugo mentions that historically, fans side with the wrestler in a boxer vs wrestler setting, but he has a feeling that tonight the fans will be firmly in Escalera’s corner against Chicky. Eddie Watts is backed again into a corner after a lockup and stays there after the break, stalling once more and complaining about his hair being pulled. Chicky at ringside also complains to the ref, which Hugo makes mention of on commentary (Chicky: ‘Of course, I’m right there and saying what happened; Hugo in a sarcastic tone: ‘The man who always tells the truth, Chicky Starr, an honest man’; Chicky: ‘Definitely, now you’re talking correctly’). A third lock up leads to Watts shoving Medico and then falling to the outside after a punch by Medico. He really is doing the Leo Burke playbook here. The commentators put over the Canadian guillotine maneuver as Watts recovers and gets back in the ring.</p><p>At this point the match settles into moments where each man gets a few moments of advantage, with Medico and Watts each working a side headlock segment. A rope running segment leads to Watts leapfrogging over Medico and celebrating, resulting in Medico punching him. Watts once again exits the ring as Chicky complains about a closed fist. We go to commercial break as Medico flips Watts back into the ring and come back with Watts in control. Hugo on commentary mentions that Watts can thank Chicky Starr for helping him gain control, it looks like Medico had Watts in a jam but Chicky has been able to distract the ref. Watts is on the attack, but a throw into the corner is reversed by Medico. Super Medico is slow to get up but manages to scoop up Watts for a slam attempt. However, Medico can’t hold Watts up and falls, allowing Watts the chance for a pin attempt that gets two. Medico is able to get a sunset flip but the referee is tied up with Chicky and Watts escapes the pin attempt. Chicky on commentary starts justifying why he’s talking to the ref. <br /><br />Watts attacks Medico on the outside, ramming Medico’s head onto the ring apron. An attempt to ram Medico into the ringpost is countered and Watts ends up hitting the ringpost instead. Watts is busted open and Medico unloads a series of punches on the outside. Medico throws Eddie back in the ring and another punch combination results in a pin attempt that gets two. A headbutt sends Watts to the outside, with Medico giving chase and attacking Watts near the crowd (including ramming Watts into the guardrail). Watts staggers back to the ring and Medico comes off the rope with a headbutt that knocks Watts down. A pin attempt gets two. Medico has things well in hand, but both men knock heads coming off the ropes. This sends Watts to the outside but he remains on his feet staggering around. Chicky points Watts to the direction of the ring and, as Watts gets on the apron, he is met by Medico. Eddie headbutts Medico in the midsection and jumps over the ropes with a sunset flip. Medico counters by grabbing onto the top rope for leverage and sits down on Watts for the pin (remember his feud with Brett Sawyer and how Medico didn’t like that this was done to him?). Chicky immediately jumps on the apron to complain to the ref about Medico holding onto the ropes, telling the ref to check Medico’s hands for blood (since Watts was bleeding the ropes would have been covered by the blood). The ref checks Medico, finds blood and restarts the match. Chicky on commentary is happy justice is done, but Carlos brings up how Leo Burke used a foreign object to defeat TNT in the ruleta match and that the decision wasn’t reversed then but here it is (which Carlos thinks is unfair). Watts briefly has the advantage but Medico uses a series of punches and headbutts to regain control. Medico goes up top and goes for a senton, but Watts rolls away. Medico lands hard and Watts makes the cover for the three count. We have a new World Junior champion. El Club Deportivo now has four of the five singles titles. <br /><br />MD: This is a very complete stadium match (shown, I think, the next week to hype up that week’s matches) though we lose the point of transition due to a commercial. I’d be interested to see how Watts took over but it was probably just an eyerake or something. Watts is not someone I’m terribly familiar with. He worked Stampede before this (including losing at least once to Morrow and Cuban Assassin in 89) and had a mask match with Atlantis and Lizmark in late 90 as Animal II. He feels like a perfect guy to have been in the GWF Light Heavyweight Tournament to lose to Jerry Lynn in the second round or something. He sort of grew on me as the match went on, starting with some stalling which really paled to what was going on in the territory with Leo Burke (though Chicky being with him helped) but you couldn’t help but enjoy watching him move backwards step by step around the stadium with each Medico punch. That was actually a solid chunk of the match. And he ate some nice headbutts (with the proper transferal of blood onto a white mask) after blading. They went out of their way to protect Medico here, with a phantom pin and a false finish when he accidentally had his hands on the ropes after a sunset flip. Watts finally won it after Medico missed a leap off the top (and they went out of their way to show Chicky telling Watts to move). I don’t know about you but I enjoy watching Medico jab people in the face. <br /><br />EB: Let’s see Eddie Watts in a tv match as the new champion. His opponent is the masked La Sombra. <br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2ee_aT-xgk">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2ee_aT-xgk</a> <br /><br />Watts seems pretty hyped in showing off his new championship as the video starts. Chicky seems to fake out Sombra as Watts is taking his jacket off, likely to prevent Sombra from jumping Watts early. This is a short match and one that further establishes Watts for the tv viewers. It’s another solid if basic showing for Watts, with the big spot being the Canadian guillotine finish (Watts covered some distance across the ring there). A rematch between Medico and Watts would take place on February 3, with Watts retaining the title. We’ll have to see what challenges arise for Eddie Watts as we progress into February. <br /><br />MD: This was ok. The most memorable moment is Watts stepping back to dodge a dropkick and end Sombra’s one flurry of offense. He won with the legdrop off the top again. Basically, he’s workmanlike and competent, but not magic <br /><br />EB: As February began, some changes continued in terms of the roster. One area with notable turnover was the tag team division. As mentioned in our last post, a new version of Los Mercenarios made their debut the first weekend of February. This new combination of Angel Acevedo and Rambo Ron Starr defeated the Youngbloods for the World tag team title. In addition to the new Los Mercenarios, another team arriving for some appearances is the team of The Hunters (or Alaskan Hunters). This tag team had a previous run in CSP in 1987 and it appears they're heading back to the territory. But while the rudo side seems to be reloading, the tecnico side is losing two of their stalwart teams. The first team leaving are the Youngbloods, who are finishing up this latest run with CSP after their title loss on February 4. Let’s take one last look at the Youngbloods with a throwback match from 1987, one that also allows us to take a look at the Alaskan Hunters.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkRqsqYv-mk">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkRqsqYv-mk</a> <br /><br />This is from a Campeones episode that aired in January1990. This match was airing since The Hunters were on their way back and this served as a reminder to the fans who they were. The commentary mentions that the scheduled opponents for the Hunters were originally Huracan Castillo and Miguelito Perez but they had not yet arrived, so the Youngbloods are taking their place. The Alaskan Hunters (composed of Dale Veasy and the Bob Brown that is not the Bulldog) had a good run back in 87, winning the World and North American tag titles in the summer to fall run they had. The Youngbloods are able to counter an initial attack by the Hunters into an offensive flurry that sends both Hunters outside to regroup. You can see Chicky Starr is their manager back in 1987, but when we next see the Hunters that may not be the case. Carlos on commentary talk about how Chicky cost him the Universal title the previous week against Leo Burke by ringing the bell prematurely and interrupting the match (it appears this episode aired the same weekend as the rematch with Barba Roja in Colon’s corner, as Carlos says he has a surprise to counter Chicky tonight). The Youngbloods control the first part of the match to the crowd’s delight, although both teams could confuse the ref if he’s not paying attention by switching out their team members. The Hunters take control by sending Mark into their corner and working him over. The latter half of the match is one where the Hunters are in control, including a member switch when the ref’s back is turned. We go to a commercial with Mark trying to counter the Hunter in the ring with some chops but come back with Mark in a bearhug trying to fight out of it as Chris is trying to rile up the crowd. The Hunters continue attacking Mark in the corner (with some quick crowd shots shown throughout including a kid that looks to be sucking his thumb). Mark gets a couple of pin counters but the Hunters continue with the advantage. As Mark is being worked over with a reverse chinlock, we see Castillo and Perez arrive in street clothes. They proceed to jump in the ring and attack the Hunters, which the referee allows. It looks like they’re taking over for the Youngbloods. Present day Chicky on commentary can’t believe they’re allowing this (and in this case I’d have to say he has a point) but the fans cheer as Perez and Castillo make quick work of the Hunters for the win. We’ll be seeing the Hunters again soon, although if they look the same remains to be seen. . <br /><br />MD: This is from 87. The Youngbloods were replacing Perez and Castillo who had a transportation problem (Maybe a “four flat tires” situation?). The Hunters (Veasy and “Not Bulldog” Bob Brown) come off like the Outrunners, a perfectly genuine parody of 80s pro wrestling. They’re bald, energetic muscle guys, with a bearhug and a tendency to get redirected into one another. Youngbloods clown them early only to get dragged down in the corner. Right when they’re maybe starting a comeback (or at least have some roll-up hope spots), the Express hit the ring in their street clothes and get a counted pin that surely didn’t count.<br /><br />EB: The other tag team the tecnico side is losing is the team of Huracan Castillo and Miguelito Perez. While they are not leaving the promotion ,the two are going to focus more on the singles title division for the time being and not be a full time team. Let’s also take a look at them in action, first with two matches from late fall of 1989 and then with one from our present day 1990 chronology where they take on the Universal champion Leo Burke and his manager Chicky Starr.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6CYH6AiJIw">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6CYH6AiJIw</a> <br /><br />This first match is from late fall of 1989 as we get Perez and Castillo taking on El Exotico and El Gran Mendoza. Castillo and Mendoza start off, both men being familiar with each other from a previous rivalry they had over the World Junior title in 1987. We get a nice hold exchange and counter sequence from Castillo and Mendoza, which ends up with Mendoza missing a charge and ending up going through the ring ropes to the outside. Exotico goes over to help his teammate but Mendoza is not happy about the attempted backrub. Mendoza rolls back in but gestures to Exotico to get in and makes the tag. Exotico gestures to Castillo to meet him in the center of the ring but the exchange does not go well for Exotico. Castillo tags Perez in and they hit a couple of double team moves on Exotico. Perez continues in control of the match, faking out Exotico on a leapfrog and then taking him down with an armdrag. Castillo tags back in but a missed elbow drop allows Exotico to tag Mendoza back in. Mendoza maintains control on Castillo but decides to tag Exotico back in, who promptly misses an elbow drop. A punch exchange is actually won by Exotico and he knocks Castillo down with a clothesline. Another successful clothesline sees Exotico start to dance a bit, but the overconfidence allows Castillo to counter with his own clothesline when Exotico attempts a third one. A neckbreaker gives Castillo time to tag in Perez, and Perez goes on the attack, with Mendoza and Castillo eventually all coming into the ring. The rudos try to ram Perez and Castillo into each other but they counter and instead attack Mendoza and Exotico. This leads to a powerslam on Exotico for the pin. </p><p><br />MD: Perez and Castillo have matching Zubaz-type gear. It’s funny that Castillo is the one with the top instead of the hirsute Perez. Mendoza takes a slow-mo Hamrick bump early and then gets annoyed as Exotico tries to rub his back. Exotico has these fun preening short arm clotheslines but it gets reversed on the third and they go into a finishing bit with the Perez powerslam.<br /><br />EB: Let’s go to our second match from late fall of 1989.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgYCR2aNbkU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgYCR2aNbkU</a> <br /><br />Mendoza is again facing Perez and Castillo but he has Abudda Dein as his partner in this go around. Dein and Castillo start off with armbar exchanges and seem evenly matched. Mendoza on the ring apron keeps trying to take some swipes at Castillo every time he circles near the rudo corner. Dein takes control with a knee to the midsection but Castillo counters with a monkey flip out of the corner and a dropkick. Dein tags in Mendoza, who seems ready to go after Castillo. However, Mendoza circles around once and then tags Dein back in without engaging Castillo, Another exchange ends with Castillo getting an atomic drop that sends Dein into his corner and into Mendoza. Dein regroups and has a strategy conference with Mendoza, but does not tag out. Perez is tagged in for the first time this match and Dein does not fare any better against him. The rudos are able to gain the advantage when Mendoza reaches over to grab Miguelito by the neck when he’s coming off the ropes. Mendoza tags in and works over Perez briefly before once again tagging Dein back in. Dein briefly maintains control but a belly to belly suplex off the ropes allows Perez to tag Castillo back in. Dein also tags Mendoza in at the same time and now it’s castillo and Mendoza fighting in the ring. Castillo hits a flying knee and this leads to all four men fighting. In the chaos Castillo ends up getting rammed into Dein, which briefly allows the rudos to attack Perez two on one. However, an attempted double team backfires when Mendoza hits Dein with a kick when Perez gets out of the way, allowing Castillo (the legal man) to jump off the top turnbuckle with a bodypress onto Mendoza for the pin. </p><p>MD: In cutting this footage up, Dein’s shoes have been a big help. He’s probably on the way out here as he needs Mendoza’s help (a nasty head grab as Perez was coming off the ropes) to take over and then eats a belly-to-belly to set up the comeback in short order. Mendoza takes the fall after some miscommunication however. <br /><br />EB: We go to our present time as Perez and Castillo (who are being identified more by their team name of The Caribbean Express) are facing the Universal champion Leo Burke and Chicky Starr in tag action.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xgG-Cop2bE">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xgG-Cop2bE</a> <br /><br />Castillo and Burke start the match off as Eliud Gonzalez on commentary talks about how proud Perez and Castillo’s fathers are about how their sons careers are going. Castillo knocks Burke down with a dropkick, which sends Burke looking for relief in the corner. Burke goes for a side headlock but Castillo manages to take Burke down with a couple of armdrags. Castillo works the arm as Chicky yells at the fans. Hector Moyano on commentary mentions that the tecnicos’ speed has been the difference so far. Leo breaks the armbar by sending Castillo into the ropes and hitting a knee to the midsection. Chicky tags in but falls victim to an armdrag takedown. Chicky breaks out of the hold but a nice exchange leads to Chicky once again being trapped back in the armdrag. Burke tries to come in to help Chicky but the ref stops him. While the ref is distracted with Burke, Perez switches out with Castillo and continues to work on Chicky’s arm. The ref asks Castillo if he tagged out and the crowd cheers in affirmative when Castillo points at them. Chicky manages a headscissor counter but the attempt to charge at Perez backfires and Chicky ends up getting dropkicked out of the ring. <br /><br />Castillo throws Chicky back in and Perez and Castillo continue to maintain control on Chicky. Burke breaks up a pin attempt with a kneedrop, which gives Chicky enough time to make the tag. Burke attacks a dazed Castillo. Perez fires up the crowd as Burke hits a neckbreaker on Casitllo. A second attempt at a neckbreaker sees Burke slip to the mat when Castillo grabs onto the ropes. Perez is tagged in and cleans house on Burke and Chicky. All four men briefly end up in the ring, with Chciky rolling out and Castillo being told to leave the ring by the ref. Perez hits a powerslam on Burke, but with the ref’s back turned, Chicky stomps on Perez. This gives Burke the opening to send Perez into the ropes, where Chicky grabs onto Miguelito from behind when coming off the ropes, snapping his head back. Burke takes the opening to put on the figure four and Perez tries to fight out of it. It looks like Perez might reach the ropes but Chicky moves over to yank the ropes away (something he had been doing while seconding Burke against Carlos Colon). The ref warns Chicky to back away but it’s enough for Perez to finally give up. <br /><br />MD: They’re in and out in under six minutes here. Burke is an absolute workhorse paired with Castillo to start, rope running, feeding, hitting a cheapshot or a cut off, and then feeding again. Chicky takes his share of damage too. Brief, brief heat here as Perez jams a neckbreaker attempt by holding on to the ropes and the heels feed some more. There’s an awesome matter-of-fact pin breakup in the stretch with Chicky just sauntering in with a nonchalant stomp. Finish has him catching Perez from the outside which lets Burke put on the figure-four.</p><p>EB: We’ll have to see if any new teams step up to fill the void left by these two tecnico teams. Speaking of open spots, with Gary Albright wrapping up his run in CSP, there was an opening for a new wrestler in El Profe’s Real Academia. El Profe has brought in another power wrestler in the form of Carl Styles. Styles first appears in the available CSP results on February 2, taking on Mark Youngblood. Let’s see him in action against Nick Ayala and learn more about Carl.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hesb-lQweFQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hesb-lQweFQ</a> <br /><br />The announcers talk up the young Ayala and mention that he’s up against a man with an impressive physique in Carl Styles. As Styles knocks Ayala down with a clothesline, Eliud Gonzalez starts mentioning that Styles was a collegiate champion at the University of Tennessee, was three years intercollegiate champion in bodybuilding and he is from Georgia. As Styles continues with the advantage, El Profe moves toward the announcers table and yells ‘As you can see, what I bring here is quality, the cream, so watch and learn’. Eliud remarks that so far Carl is backing up Profe’s words. Ayala briefly looks to start a comeback but an eyerake stops him. Carl continues showing off his power with a delayed shoulder breaker. Carl’s offense seems to be focused on the neck and shoulder area of Ayala. A gutwrench suplex leads to an attempted pin but it looks like Styles decided to lift Ayala up. The commentators continue talking up Styles and his bodybuilder physique (so they’re giving Styles a similar presentation as Albright, although focused on bodybuilding instead of amateur wrestling). A powerslam sets up a full nelson (that explains the neck and shoulder based offensive attacks) and Ayala gives up. An impressive win for Carl Styles. </p><p>MD: Styles feels like he’s taking Albright’s spot on the card. He feels like a guy who should be dressed up like Super Freddie or Jason the Terrible to me. Ayala tries to punch back but just gets powered over with a shoulder breaker, a gutwrench, a power slam, before finally being put away with the Full Nelson.<br /><br />EB: As has been the case with other newcomers, sooner or later they will be tested by some of the more established tecnicos. In this case, let’s see how Carl Styles does against Super Medico.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOFzaYbZ0VI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOFzaYbZ0VI</a> <br /><br />The match starts with Styles hitting some clubbing forearms to Medico’s back. Styles then hits an overhead press slam on Medico before posing for the crowd and going for the pin attempt. Medico kicks out at two. He then counters Styles with a sunset flip attempt for two. Styles goes back on the attack, hitting a snapmare and then a chinlock on Medico. A slam leads to an elbow drop miss by Styles and Medico tries to take advantage with his punch combinations (or as Eliud calls it his ‘maquinita de golpes’ or hit machine). A backdrop and a slam gets a two count for Medico. A shoulder tackle knocks Styles down, but Carl is able to get to his feet and grab Medico coming off the ropes, leading to a hotshot onto the top rope. That is enough to give Carl the opening to put on the full nelson and get the submission win. Styles refuses to break the full nelson and holds on until forced to break. It looks like El Profe has brought in another potential power threat for the tecnicos. The video ends with Carl trash talking the crowd and the camera guy. <br /><br />MD: We come in JIP here, hard to say how deep. Styles shows off his power more with a press slam, then puts on a chinlock. Medico works up and yes, I do like watching him punch people. Styles takes it with big flailing arms. He cuts off Medico with a hotshot (pretty varied set of offense from this guy) and locks in the full nelson for the win.<br /><br />EB: Besides the roster turnover, we also have the existing issues between the Club Deportivo members and El Ejercito de la Justicia. We talked about Leo Burke and TNT earlier, but what about Carlos Colon and Manny Fernandez? Well, the week after the attack on Barba Roja, Carlos was absent from the Campeones episode, meaning it was just Hugo and Chicky on commentary. Throughout the show, they talked about what had happened and how Carlos was out for blood against Manny. Chicky said that Carlos was not going to be able to do anything to Manny while Hugo said Carlos was going to go on a rampage. They would face off on January 27 and then again on February 2, but no clear winner was had either time (with the February 2 match ending in a double countout). The feud between Carlos and Manny is far from being settled.</p><p>Still, Manny is also the Puerto Rico champion and he is facing challengers for his title. Let’s go to a JIP title defense against Miguelito Perez.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFUgm8FJEdY">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFUgm8FJEdY</a> <br /><br />We join the match in progress with Miguelito on the floor outside of the ring, right by the lighting rig. The referee is administering the ring out count as Manny Fernandez is on his knees recovering. Outside is Chicky Starr, who is watching Perez attempt to stand up. Inside the ring Manny is able to stand up and gets tied up with the ref, allowing Chicky the opportunity to attack a vulnerable Perez on the outside. Hector Moyano on commentary mentions that Manny had rammed Miguelito’s neck against the lighting rig pipes and that Chicky appears to have hit Perez with something just now as well. Perez is able to stagger back to the ring but he is easy pickings for Manny. Fenrandez hits a corner clothesline on Perez but a second attempt results in Miguelito charging back with a clothesline of his own. Miguelito starts getting fired up and knocks Manny down with a second clothesline. Several punches lead to a dropkick for a two count. Perez hits an irish whip and a charge into the corner. Perez tries for a slam but Fernandez counters with an inside cradle for two. A punch exchange leads to a criss-cross rope running exchange between the two men. Perez manages to drop down as Manny passes through but Manny catches Miguelito with the flying forearm off the rebound and gets the pinfall win. A successful Puerto Rico title defense for Manny Fernandez. <br /><br />MD: We just get the last three minutes of this, starting with Perez on the floor. That lets Manny distract the ref so Chicky can get a cheapshot in. What pals. Manny’s swagger was in full display when he was in control. Perez is able to reverse a second corner clothesline and fire back. Finish is rope running with Manny hitting the flying forearm out of nowhere. Looked like it was probably a good one.</p><p>EB: Harley Race is also one the champions in El Club Deportivo, holding the Caribbean title. So far he has stayed out of any direct feud with El Ejercito de la Justicia but that is soon to change. First, let’s look at Race in action against Chris Youngblood.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2weqnRrhsc">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2weqnRrhsc</a><br /><br />Last post we saw Mark Youngblood take on Harley Race, let’s see how brother Chris does. The ring introductions are made and Race gets a side headlock of the lock up. Chris counters by sending Race into the ropes and hitting a chop. Another lockup leads to a break in the corner, where Race attempts to cheap shot Chris but his punch is blocked and Chris counters with a double overhead chop. An irish whip and clothesline gets a two count for Chris. As both men circle one another again, Chris starts clapping to get the crowd into it. Youngblood gets a side headlock on Race and works if for a few moments. Race sends Chris to the ropes, but misses a punch, allowing Chris to hit a slam for a two count. Chris starts pumping up the crowd and doing a war yell on the turnbuckle as Race tries to collect himself. Hugo on commentary mentions there may be a potential upset here, which has been happening all over including boxing (I’m guessing this means Tyson vs Douglas happened already, so this is from a mid February tv airing even though the match was likely taped at the end of January). Race uses a knee to take over for a moment, leading to a pinfall attempt for two. Chris is able to get a sleeperhold on Harley and it may be an upset. However, Race manages to counter by ramming Chris face first into the corner. A piledriver sets up the fisherman suplex and Race gets the win. You can’t give Harley these openings, he’ll end it quickly with that fisherman suplex.<br /><br />MD: It’s interesting to think that the Sports Club at this point was Race, Burke, Manny (and yeah, Watts). That’s quite the group. This had Race skidding to the ground for Youngblood’s chops early, thudding him down in the middle, and then cutting off the comeback with a piledriver and the laying fisherman’s suplex. Didn’t quite have the time to be anything more. Race could still take a few bumps early though.</p><p>EB: Earlier we mentioned that Invader #1 had gotten involved in the January 27 Universal title match. After Invader's interference, Chicky Starr promised on tv that Invader would pay for sticking his nose where it didn’t belong. This resulted in Chicky asking Harley Race to take care of Invader.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GslZxj_K_LI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GslZxj_K_LI</a><br /><br />The video opens with Invader heading towards the announcers’ table where Harley Race and Chicky Starr are standing and appear to have been ranting and raving moments before. It looks like Harley and Chicky had come out and issued a challenge to Invader. Chicky wants Harley to teach Invader a lesson for interfering in the Universal title match. Invader addresses Harley and asks if he understood correctly that Race was challenging him. After Harley and Chicky make it clear that they want Invader right now, Invader says to give him 5 minutes to get ready and he’ll face Harley. But before Invader finishes talking, Race decks Invader with a punch as Chicky yells ‘Right now!’. Harley rams Invader face first into the ringpost and grabs the table to attack Invader, as Chicky eggs Harley on and runs down Invader on commentary. ‘I’ve taken over the official commentary for this encounter, as you can see the Invader is finished, you can see the blood is flowing! Harley Race, the champion, the only man that will finish with Invader. This is for sticking his nose into what didn’t concern him’. Chicky gives back the mic and joins Harley in yanking Invader’s dress shirt sleeves in order to make a straight jacket of sorts. Harley and Chicky taunt the defenseless Invader and Harley continues hitting Invader at his leisure. </p><p>Eventually the trio of Castillo, Perez and (I think) a masked TNT arrive to help Invader, with Harley and Chicky getting into the ring. Race challenges Castillo to get in the ring with him as Invader is helped to the back by the other tecnicos. Inside the ring the bell rings, and Castillo immediately is on Race with a series of punches and a clothesline. A slam sets up an elbow drop, but Race dodges it. Race gets up before the stunned Castillo and immediately hooks in the fisherman suplex for a quick pinfall. Race has another quick victory, but more important, he’s set his sights on Invader #1.<br /><br />MD: This is a great angle, with Invader wanting just five minutes with Race and getting cheapshotted, tied up, and bloodied up for his trouble. It leads to a match with Castillo where Race made short work with him. I know that there were short matches on TV even with names sometimes, but Race’s feel even shorter, which makes him come off as particularly dominant. It may be because he couldn’t work longer matches or at least not frequently but it was probably effective in giving him a bit of extra aura.<br /><br />EB: Invader #1 and Harley Race would face off on February 2 in Humacao in a tag match (with partners Carlos Colon and Leo Burke, respectively) and in a singles match on February 3. This match ended in a disqualification win for Race, but the rivalry is only heating up. They are scheduled to face each other again on February 10. We’ll talk about some of the other happenings of the February 10 card next time but we’re closing out this week’s post with the Universal title match between Leo Burke and TNT. Although the rematch has been ordered by the wrestling commission, this is basically understood to be TNT’s last shot at Burke and the Universal title. Because of the repeated cheating by Burke and Starr, Carlos Colon has offered to serve as TNT’s second for the match. And in another boost for TNT, a decision has been handed out by the wrestling commissioner. After a few weeks of review, it has been decided that due to the way Leo Burke won the ruleta rusa match, the stipulation of TNT losing his face paint has been rescinded and TNT can legally wear his face paint again. Let’s go to Caguas for the match. <br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgq0PHDMTBE"><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgq0PHDMTBE</a><br /><br />TNT is back in the face paint and Carlos Colon is seconding TNT in order to counter Chicky Starr. This is from a Campeones airing a week after the match took place, so we get the interesting dynamic of the two seconds being on commentary along with Hugo. Carlos mentions on commentary that he had been saying that this year they weren't going to keep taking any more underhandedness from Chicky Starr and El Club Deportivo and it was going to be an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. TNT and Burke are near one side of the ring, with Burke arguing and pointing that TNT needs to head to the opposite side of the ring to start the match. Carlos is watching from the ring apron but Chicky is still in the ring and also motioning that TNT should move to the other side of the ring. The ref El Vikingo has his hands full, telling TNT to move to the other side but also going after Chicky and telling him to get out of the ring. As TNT moves a bit to the other side, Burke immediately moves towards Carlos and starts pointing and telling him to get off the apron. TNT moves back near Burke and,as Burke turns around from yelling at Colon, TNT unleashes a kick that scares Burke away. The match has begun. <br /><br />Burke starts begging off in the corner but TNT stands his ground. (Wait, did someone throw a smoke bomb near ringside?) Burke tries a kick but TNT blocks it and counters with a chop. Burke staggers back up but TNT follows up immediately, not giving Burke the opportunity to try his usual rolling out of the ring and stalling playbook. A lock up leads to a TNT chop and Burke again staggers away but is grabbed by TNT. A blow exchange occurs but TNT comes out with the better end of it. Burke finally is able to leave the ring and stall a bit to slow down TNT’s momentum. Chicky on commentary says that he’ll say one good thing about TNT, he’s one of the young lions in the sport and has made an impressive showing so far in his career, but he’s in there with the master in Leo Burke and has no chance of winning. Back in the ring, TNT and Burke circle each other, with Burke jabbing his hand into TNT’s face. As TNT recovers and goes back after Burke, Leo puts the ref in between them to stop TNT from getting at him. Burke again gets away to the outside and the ref stops TNT from going after him. </p><p>Back in, Burke again circles around and slaps TNT in the face. He is really trying to goad TNT into making an angry mistake. TNT charges again but Burke once more hides behind the ref, using him as a shield. AS TNT is backed away, Leo kicks TNT from around the ref’s side. Burke works the advantage with punches and a turnbuckle ram, leading into a side headlock. TNT counters by sending Burke to the ropes and hitting a slam for a pin attempt, but Burke gets his leg on the rope. TNT immediately kicks Leo’s leg and takes him down with a headlock. After working the headlock on the mat, TNT continues with the advantage as we go to commercial break. Back from the break and we see TNT lying partly on the top turnbuckle as Leo is yanking TNT’s left leg. As Leo keeps applying pressure, TNT is able to kick the back of Burke’s head in order to break the hold. Both men tumble to the mat. TNT is limping as he gets up and Burke immediately attacks the injured leg. You can tell Leo is probably thinking about the figure four already. TNT sends Burke into the ropes but collapses after a leapfrog counter, his leg unable to support his weight. Leo goes for the figure four but TNT manages to kick Burke away, sending him into the corner with Burke hitting the back of his head on the top turnbuckle pad. Burke is first up and hits a neckbreaker that gets a two count. A back suplex by Burke gets two. Both men are showing signs of fatigue but Leo maintains control with some punches and a kneedrop. Burke gets a sleeperhold on TNT in the middle of the ring and this may be enough to put TNT away. <br /><br />TNT struggles in the hold and starts to fade, but is able to ram Burke back into the turnbuckle to break the hold just when it looked like TNT was going to collapse to the mat. TNT hits a couple of back elbows but an irish whip charge is countered by Leo into a sunset flip pin attempt. TNT kicks out at two and immediately counters with his own cradle attempt for two. TNT hits a spin kick off the ropes and both men are down. Carlos starts clapping and cheering TNT on. Both men get to their feet and try to gain control but they end up colliding heads off a Burke shoulder tackle and are down again. Carlos gets up on the ring apron in a kneeling position to cheer on TNT, causing the ref to move over to make sure Colon does not get involved. On the other side of the ring, Chicky takes advantage of the ref’s attention being diverted and slips a foreign object to Burke. Chicky on commentary once again is having monitor problems and doesn’t see what Hugo is talking about. Burke tries to hit TNT but is sent flying by a backdrop to the mat. Leo loses the foreign object on impact, with it landing right by Carlos Colon. Carlos sees the object and points the ref’s attention to Chicky, who is on the apron. As he does this. Carlos grabs the foreign object. The ref now moves towards Chicky Starr and tells him to get off the apron. In the confusion, Burke chop blocks TNT’s leg and starts his attempt at putting on the figure four. Seeing this, Carlos decides to get in the ring with the object and decks Burke with it. Carlos immediately jumps out of the ring and hides the object in his sock as Chicky is arguing with the ref. TNT crawls over to make the cover and the ref turns around in time to make the three count. TNT has done it! Chicky Starr is not happy about the outcome as Carlos jumps into the ring to celebrate. Carlos helps TNT up and hugs him as Chicky on commentary says that the WWC cannot accept this win. As Carlos continues raising TNT’s arm in victory, Chicky starts wagging his finger indicating that this should not be. The ref goes to give TNT the title belt but Carlos grabs it to present it to the new champion. As TNT grabs the belt, we see Invader #1 and Huracan Castillo arrive to celebrate with TNT. Invader and Carlos help put the title belt on the new Universal champion as TNT and Castillo share a moment. The tecnicos leave the ring as Chicky continues waving his hand around, with Carlos on commentary saying that he did what he had to do in order to ensure that Chicky and Burke did not get away with it again. <br /><br />MD: Great moment here. As always, I love seeing Burke do his thing early, trying not to engage, ducking out of the ring, hiding behind the ref. He tried to sneak a kick in that way but it didn’t do him much good. TNT controlled the first half. We lose the transition and presumably a chunk of Burke’s control due to the commercial as we come in on TNT hope spots as he’s limping around. For someone who did come off as quite dangerous, TNT was very good at portraying vulnerability. Here, he did a leapfrog but immediately crumbled due to the knee and wasn’t able to capitalize after the spin wheel kick. Lots of hooha at the finish, with Chicky giving Burke a weapon, TNT dodging and hitting a back body drop as Colon was complaining to the ref, Burke clipping the leg, and then Colon hitting Burke as he was going for the figure-four as the ref was distracted by Chicky. Huge, warranted celebration as TNT rolled over for the win. <br /><br />EB: TNT has become the Universal champion! He is the first El Ejercito de la Justicia member that is not Carlos Colon to become the champion. But you can bet Chicky Starr and Leo Burke will be complaining about the match ending. Will there be a rematch? <br /><br />Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, some ‘new’ tag teams make their debut as we also get a new manager joining the rudo ranks. Plus, TNT begins his reign as the Universal champion, but an old foe may end this reign before it’s really begun. <br /></p>Matt Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02778958512167944058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-72232600498136042682024-03-13T23:30:00.000-04:002024-03-13T23:30:00.374-04:0070's Joshi on Wednesday: Miyamoto! Fumiake! Ueda! Sato! Aso! Ikeshita!<p>MD: Most weeks we'll try to hit one full match but here, to start off, we have a few due to clipping.<br /></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQZFBH8_Uus&ab_channel=kadaveri" target="_blank">1. 1975.03.19 - Jumbo Miyamoto vs. Mach Fumiake (WWWA Singles Title) (Clipped)</a><br /><br />K: This is a historically important match that we only have due to the Samurai TV show ‘AJW Classics’ airing a portion of it in 2003. Jumbo Miyamoto is the current champion, she is a cousin of the Matsunaga Brothers (the owners of AJW) and appears to have been one of AJW’s biggest names since being founded in 1968. Mach Fumiake was already a mainstream celebrity in Japan as she was runner-up in a TV singing contest (a Japanese ‘American Idol’ style show), her wrestling for AJW was a big enough deal that it got them a TV deal with Fuji TV. It’s a massive bit of history because women’s wrestling had been stuck with a stigma of being seedy, getting Mach Fumiake convinced the TV executives that this would be wholesome entertainment for families and hip affluent young people in particular.<br /><br />The first time I saw Mach Fumiake is when she made a special appearance in the legends segment of the Dream Slam 1 show in 1993. It was immediately obvious why she was a huge star in her day. She’s very tall, good looking, has a deep voice and turns out she can sing as well! It’s like someone merged the most marketable qualities of every top Joshi star who followed her into one person. The only thing she’s potentially missing is, was she actually any good in-ring? <br /><br />We only see about 3 minutes of a 20 minute title match here, so we can’t meaningfully assess them as wrestlers. But we can at least get a flavour of what the AJW main-event style looked like in 1975, and see that there is already evidence of the innovations it later became renowned for. The pace is breakneck. Jumbo opens with a couple of rough snap mares; the move is treated as if 1 alone isn’t going to do much damage, but it’s about getting control of your opponent and unloading a relentless barrage of offense upon them. Mach tries to fend it off by immediately clambering for the ropes, which we can see is already established as a babyface move here (it was considered a heelish move elsewhere at the time, Jack Briscoe escaping a hold by grabbing the rope was a heel turn!). After more exchanging of throws we even get a familiar spot where Mach uses her long legs to put Jumbo into a headscissors, which Jumbo kips up out of and we get a standoff pose-down. <br /><br />The match soon skips ahead to what looks like the final couple of minutes. Jumbo hits a big vertical suplex (or ‘brainbuster’ as it’s called in Japan) for a 2 count. This gets a big reaction from the crowd like they’re really impressed Mach kicked out of it! I’ll not as well that Mach doesn’t so much kick out and bridges her shoulders up off the mat. The best part of the match by far was Mach’s big boot, she delivers two in a row, and the way she does it is to Irish Whip Jumbo into the ropes, and then hit her with the strike as she runs back at her. The 1st one especially looks like it really knocked Jumbo silly. The finish comes soon after, and unfortunately is a bit weak. Mach hits two butterfly suplexes (or something similar) but struggles to get Jumbo up high for either of them so they don’t have much impact, and then pins Jumbo for a 3 count but Jumbo looked like she’d got her shoulder up at 2 and immediately stands up and yells at the ref. Not really the most decisive way to put over your new top star, but now the era of Mach Fumiake truly begins (if it hasn’t already), just a shame we can’t see any of it. </p><p>MD: We get the opening couple of minutes and then the finishing
stretch here, after the announcements and some discussion from the
commentators. I had no idea what to expect coming in considering that
we’re in the mid-70s. My points of comparison would be IWE, AJPW, NJPW.
Jumbo had a clear size advantage though Mach was taller, and they size
each other up to start. I was thinking they’d go right into measured
matwork maybe? They do not. Jumbo blinks first and charges in with these
fevered snap mares. Then Mach returns favor with armdrags. The
intensity is jarring relative to what I was expecting given the year and
location. They’re just throwing their bodies at one another and
whipping the other over though. We come back post clip with a big Jumbo
vertical suplex which was very much a finishing move in most places
around the world in 75. I never even saw one in the French footage. Mach
came back by absolutely taking Jumbo’s head off with a big boot, and
then locking in an Octopus hold and finishing it, though not without
controversy with a double underhook drop and a butterfly suplex that she
barely, barely got her over with. Jumbo pretty clearly kicked out at
two but the ref didn’t see it that way and she started attacking
everyone post match. The commentary discussed a “Mach Special” for Mach
and a Raiden Drop for Jumbo but I’m not sure if that butterfly suplex
was the Mach Special or not. The only reference I see online to it is
from the script to Mach’s 1975 movie The Great Chase. Anyway, that’s a
tangent. Point here is that this set the stage immediately: wild
intensity both during and after the match with them absolutely going all
out against each other from what we get to see. It feels like a huge
shame we don’t have more Mach footage even if only from how she took
Jumbo’s face off with that boot.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTVHoPVJaSY&ab_channel=kadaveri" target="_blank">2. 1976.11.01 - Jumbo Miyamoto vs. Maki Ueda (WWWA Singles Title) (Clipped)</a><br /><br />K: At the time of this match Maki Ueda is both the WWWA Singles Champion and a WWWA Tag champion with Jackie Sato as Beauty Pair, a cultural phenomenon rivaled only by the Crush Gals in the mid-80s. We have a decent amount of footage of Maki Ueda from later in her career but this is all we have of her two title reigns. <br /><br />Similar to the previous match, Jumbo opens with a couple of rough snap mares to establish control, though this time she throws Maki straight out of the ring and lays beatdown on the ringside area throwing her into chairs. It feels like a less-refined version of Las Cachorras Orientales, but it doesn’t feel like it really did enough damage for it to have been worth it. Maki gets back in the ring and Jumbo hits her with two shoves off Irish Whips. Jumbo’s offense comes in twos. After a bit of tossling on the mat which Jumbo gets the better of, we see the move where Jumbo pushes her opponent into the ropes front-first, and then pulls back on the ropes to knock them down to the mat. She does it twice of course. I’ve never liked this move as it’s not very convincing; but it’s a Joshi staple at least by the late 70s, and possibly already was at this point. <br /> <br />The match skips ahead with Maki on top, and we get to see what her “Irish Whip into a strike” move is. Hers is some kind of jumping knee attack, but she gets barely any height on the leap; it’s not clear if that’s even what she intended. The camera angle probably didn’t help though. Maki hits a couple of neckbreakers that had some good snap behind them and then puts Jumbo in a sitting Gory Special kind of submission. Amusingly, this is broken up when Shinobu Aso of Black Pair (Beauty Pair’s nemesis) runs in, quickly pushes her over and runs back out before the referee can do anything. The match just keeps going though. So Joshi’s pretty lenient attitude to outside interference is already happening here. She didn’t achieve much though as Maki still gets Jumbo into another submission hold. Jumbo is selling like she’s already a defeated woman here, she just looks kind of pitiful just about reaching the ropes while groaning in pain. Maki pulls her to the outside and tries to get revenge for the earlier beatdown, but this is a mistake as outside brawling is Jumbo’s speciality, and this gives her an opening to whack her head on the announcer’s table a few times to get herself out of trouble and reset things. Jumbo tries to unload some big offense but Maki counters into a sunset flip pinning predicament and gets the win. And that’s the end of Jumbo Miyamoto’s career, we barely knew her. Mariko Akagi gets into the ring and they set up her challenging Maki for the belt on November 30th (Mariko wins the title here, but we have no footage of her reign).</p><p>MD: This time I wasn’t surprised when Jumbo rushed Maki at the bell, but
I didn’t see Maki’s bump over the top (her stomach hitting the rope off
an Irish Whip and it just propelling her up and over) and Jumbo erasing
her face on at table at ringside. Unfortunately, this is clipped as
well and when we come back, Maki had an advantage, presumably from
working on Jumbo’s damaged and taped knee. After a Cobra Twist attempt
by Maki (too close to the ropes) they end up back outside and proceed in
slamming each other’s face into that table once again. The finish has
Maki get a sunset flip off a whip in the corner. This was Jumbo’s
retirement match, which was announced to the crowd after it was over,
and if there was a fast count in the Mach match, here it was a slow,
hesitant one, as if the ref didn’t want to count Jumbo out. The
post-match ceremony was pretty emotional, including upcoming challenger
Mariko Akagi, who had been commentating, coming in to greet Jumbo and
Maki. I’m glad we have these even if it’s hard to judge them on merit
given the clipping.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5jyb6GLRyE&ab_channel=kadaveri">3. 1976.12.08 - Jackie Sato & Maki Ueda vs. Shinobu Aso & Yumi Ikeshita (WWWA Tag Team Titles) (Clipped)</a><br /><br />K: Beauty Pair vs. Black Pair was THE feud of 1976-78 and this is the only in-ring footage we have of it. Black Pair here are Yumi Ikeshita and Shinobu Aso. The version of Black Pair Westerners are more familiar with is Yumi Ikeshita and Mami Kumano, Kumano having replaced Aso when she retired in 1978*, but the Ikeshita & Aso pairing is still well remembered in Japan and is the version of Black Pair who Beauty Pair battle in their feature film “Red-Hot Youth.” Speaking of youth; it’s worth pointing out that at the time of this match, Sato & Aso are 19 years old and Ueda & Ikeshita are just 18 years old.<br /><br />This opens with a good display of the 70s AJW heel style where roughly every 2nd move is dirty. For example Shinobu tags in by grabbing Maki by the hair and doing some double teaming. This is followed up by choking Maki with the ropes and on the ropes with her boot, using the ropes as a weapon to knock her down, and also repeatedly doing this face-scrunching move which looks more like schoolyard bully humiliation than wrestling offense. Plus clawing the eyes. It’s also very vicious and focused in its villainy if not on a particular body part or something. But there’s also something aesthetically pleasing about Yumi Ikeshita’s body slam off an Irish Whip. As much of a nasty cheater as she is, she still shows she can hit some impressive moves when she wants to.<br /><br />There’s not much else to say about this match as it’s also edited and we don’t get to see much other than Black Pair just beating down on Beauty Pair so it’s quite repetitive. Maki’s bodyslam and piledriver both look pretty nice and Jackie gets to hit a dropkick, but that’s about it. The most noteworthy part may actually be that Maki actually gets a 3 count out of her piledriver, when that move notoriously almost never finishes matches in Joshi. They ought to get lessons from Maki on how to hit it properly.<br /><br />*Shinobu Aso would make a brief comeback in 1987 with JWP as “The Sniper”. </p><p>MD: Normative things I find interesting here: Maki was announced as
Dropkick Ueda. She had a cape. Sato didn’t. In both this and the matches
we’d seen previous, the champions were announced first. Here, both
teams came out simultaneously from different parts of the arena as the
music was playing. Ikeshita was noted as “The Bomb Girl.” Her shoulder
was bandaged up as was Maki’s elbow. They also kept cutting to people
playing badminton. Just leaving that out there. <br /><br />This remains
about as far from a 70s NWA Title match style as you can get despite the
belts presumably being on the line. The second the bell rings, all
civility goes by the wayside. There were liberal cuts here, but Aso and
Ikeshita went to the eyes early and they stayed there throughout. Early
on, there were still breathless momentum shifts with Sato and Ueda
staying in it but the story of the match seemed to be Aso and Ikeshita
using dirty tactics and frequent double teams to control Sato while Ueda
badly wanted in. They had a number of suplexes too, including a nice
fall away slam and a tilt-a-whirl. When she got in, it was a bit more
familiar to me in the AJPW tag style; she was able to come in hot but
quickly got dragged down by the numbers game and stayed that way until
Sato had recovered enough to even the odds. Much like the two matches
that preceded it, the clipping makes it a little hard to really judge
but the tenets of the style seem to come into focus already: unyielding
and varied high-impact offense and relentless intensity with no quarter
given. As we move into more complex matches, we’ll have a better sense
of whether or not it all comes together on a match by match basis and
hopefully how it continues to develop towards the end of the decade. </p>Matt Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02778958512167944058noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-45854758514874443752024-03-13T00:00:00.001-04:002024-03-13T02:39:48.668-04:002023 Ongoing MOTY List: Dustin vs. Swerve<p> </p><p>10. Dustin Rhodes vs. Swerve Strickland AEW Rampage 2/15 (Aired 2/17/23)</p><p>ER: I don't know how he keeps doing it. At the time, I didn't know Dustin was only in his late 20s during his heavy schedule years as Goldust. That was half his and half my life ago, and he wasn't taking Death Valley Drivers on the ring apron then. He's an old dude and he keeps surprising us. A 6'6" great actor is almost a curse. It doesn't matter how good Tim Robbins or Jeff Goldblum are, it makes everything tough when your leading man is a foot taller than everyone. Liam Neeson's wife and family die in every movie so he can just be 6'5" alone in every scene. Dustin is a 6'6" old guy who is somehow a perfect opponent for every style opponent. I guess shooting guard bodies age with more grace than center bodies, but seeing Attitude era Dustin I wouldn't have guessed he'd be this adaptable into his 50s. Swerve is a talented guy who sometimes shovels a ton of bullshit onto things that don't need shoveling, and I let out a loud HA when Dustin just kick stopped some kind of slow motion handstand capoeira to hit an all time Code Red. </p><p>Fighting Dustin made Swerve cut down on the bullshit and just kick and stomp on a seeping cut, raking his wrist tape across it to cover his arm deep red. I wish Dustin had been wearing all white instead of all red; it's like he was trying to cover up how much he was bleeding. He doesn't even need to bleed to draw sympathy, but he hides his blood showing he doesn't need such gimmicks; he bleeds for his love of the boys in the back. Dustin fucking slaps Swerve a couple of times. I like that Swerve's offense doesn't hit as hard as Dustin's. He's taking his shots and walking through them, an old man winning a gym game 10-8 over a young guy who keeps claiming he was shot from cardio day. I could never see Swerve do a handstand again, but I love how good he is at different angled spikes on his head. He'll take piledrivers, Code Reds, suplexes, a Cross Rhodes, all of it bouncing on or around the top of his head. Every nearfall worked. Retirement will never happen. Dustin is Satanico. The Code Red will get adorably slow but gracefully old but his uppercuts will be exactly the same. </p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2023/07/2023-moty-master-list.html">2023 MOTY MASTER LIST</a></p><p><br /></p>EricRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914406276096930555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-63169342252043391162024-03-11T23:30:00.019-04:002024-03-11T23:30:00.130-04:00AEW Five Fingers of Death 3/4 - 3/10AEW Collision 3/9/24<div><br /></div><div>Bryan Danielson vs Shane Taylor</div><div><br /></div><div>MD: There were three or four cascading stories to this one. First and foremost, Shane Taylor is a big, dangerous guy. I've been watching some 1987 baby Hashimoto matches as of late. He's usually paired up with young lions like Chono and Nogami and Anjo, and these aren't at all slouches, even at the start of their careers, but my big takeaway is that it's just not fair. Hashimoto is too big and too quick and too skilled and agile enough to make Maeda's spin wheel kick look like nothing compared to his own. Taylor isn't quite that, but he still brings a ton to the table, that combination of size and power and striking and precision blocking. Danielson sees the leg here as a wedge, as a way in, as a bridge to other offense, as a great equalizer, and he gets there eventually, first to open up the match and then later on to set up the finishing stretch, but Taylor sure didn't make it easy for him. He blocked early, counter-punched, and even once Danielson created that wedge, was just able to bully him towards the corner to take over. </div><div><br /></div><div>Then there was the morality at play and the underlying animus empowering Taylor. Danielson came into AEW as a pretty clear babyface, but during his second real feud in the company, with Adam Page for the title (preceded, of course, by the Kingston match in the tournament to give him the shot), he took a hard left turn, running through Dark Order members. In between the loss to Page and the Revolution match with Moxley that would herald the creation of the BCC, Danielson, mean, cruel, brutal, kicked Lee Moriarty's face in. Moriarty never quite made it into the BCC. He ended up under Taylor's wing instead. This may be a more serene, Bryan Danielson, one on the other side of his match with Kingston, at peace with himself and the world around him, but that doesn't erase his transgressions of the last two years. It meant that Taylor had something to fight for, something to prove, something to avenge, and even things that should have worked, like the focus on the leg, only worked so much.</div><div><br /></div><div>Therefore, Danielson had to find another wedge, be it kicking high or using Taylor's just rage against him. At key moments he was able to dodge, to duck, to avoid, and therefore to open Taylor up again. The punches that Taylor was hitting early became far more challenging down the stretch. Kicks from Danielson that might have been blocked early, hit true once damage was done. He still had Taylor's power to contend with. While he wrapped the leg around the post, he never really locked on any meaningful hold; that wasn't the intent of the targeting. Instead, he chipped away at the armor here and there, provided himself the means to strike at the heart within. It took effort, persistence, skill, but he was able to duck and dodge and roll and create distance just enough to sail across the ring with a knee that would put him down for three seconds. Ospreay was coming out after the match. While Danielson's reputation speaks for itself, their most recent pay-per-view efforts had very different results. Danielson was coming off from a loss and needed a meaningful win. Taylor's own record isn't stellar, but between his size, his presence, his strikes, his righteous fury, Danielson's win mattered enough to paper over the loss to Kingston.</div>Matt Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02778958512167944058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-70975030752819038602024-03-10T20:30:00.000-04:002024-03-10T20:49:41.121-04:00 AEW Five Fingers of Death 2/26 - 3/3 Part 2<p><b>AEW Revolution 3/3/24</b><br /><br />Sting/Darby Allin vs Young Bucks<br /><br />MD: I was on the fence whether to write this up or not. It's one of those matches that defies analysis, transcendent in the emotion. With a week's distance, however, I figured that maybe it might be fun to try to take a more clinical approach to something so impossible to break down. As I was writing, I think I ended up getting emotional anyway, but I'll at least give it a go. Let's start with the Bucks. I do not write often about the Bucks. I won't deny their talent certainly. I have a long essay in me about how they got ahead by breaking norms because if they would have wrestled within the norms, no matter how well they might have done it, they would have never gotten ahead. That's admirable on the one hand and probably very destructive in another. Metatextual deconstruction in an art form that relies upon suspension of disbelief is harmful over time. It takes a genie out of a bottle, changes incentives, modifies the relationship between wrestler and fan. I absolutely believe that it was what they needed to do to get ahead and it's hard to fault them for it, but ... well, like I said, I have an essay but that's not what I want to write about here.<br /><br />I will say this, however. The act needed an overhaul. They work best when they're representing a sort of counterculture, when they're pressing against something, rebelling against something, when they have a chip on their shoulder. The story of the Elite and All In and early AEW is that they bet on themselves (and against those who said they couldn't do it) and won, that they created a new paradigm where they could succeed outside of the old systems where they could not. There was a certain amount of time right at the start, through the pandemic, as crowds came back, when that sort of celebratory spirit could carry things. I think we're past that now and certain swings, such as the trios division being created to celebrate their vision of pro wrestling, sort of fell flat because of that. Obviously with the Punk situation, they had something they could press up against, but legally and practically, they weren't allowed to in a way that would draw money. Things weren't working. To their credit, they stopped, retooled, and looked at all of the current criticisms against them to pull together characters based in a sort of assumed reality that better fit guys in their mid to late 30s than the traditional "Young Bucks" gimmick did. Suddenly, they have something to press up against again; suddenly there's a chip on their shoulder once more; there's something with meat on the bone to give them an edge. <br /><br />And that edge allowed for a program that needed to be something more than just two athletic guys bumping and selling and feeding and providing motion for Sting; it allowed for it to have the emotional weight and gravitas it deserved. By the time you hit the match itself, however, we were all in a sort of exceptional situation. There was always the hint of doubt that Sting would actually win due to some of the traditional pressures of pro wrestling. The retiring hero should lose on the the way out and put over younger talents. The champion should lose the belts to keep continuity. Darby is going off to climb a mountain. The Bucks were particularly ascendant in their new characters; the champions would be gone and the challengers would have to carry the territory. And up until the Dynamite before Revolution, the Bucks had all the heat. Yes, Sting and Darby were undefeated and had won the titles, but during the build the Bucks were in control of the situation. That changed on the 2/28 Dynamite, with head games and Sting dropping from the rafters for the final image of a Death Drop on a Jackson (not a stooge, not security). So some of that heat was blunted already. The Bucks had already gotten a taste of comeuppance. The champs were on the rise. It was okay though, because the iconic moment was worth it. This entire situation was exceptional; it bent the rules of pro wrestling. It was a once in a lifetime event. That's why the Bucks maybe did make sense as opponents; they've excepted themselves from those rules for their entire career. They could swim these uncertain waters as well as anyone.<br /><br />And they swam right into the start of this exceptional match, with the breathtaking entrance of three Stings (three Bordens) and an immediate numbers game advantage for the babyfaces. The Bucks already needed some sort of wedge to get and keep control due to the size and presence differential. They had superior teamwork and experience, maybe (Sting and Darby were 29-0 after all), but that didn't really come into play during a Tornado Tag. The heel interference that was part of the Elite's 2021 heel run wasn't in play here either. Like I said, no stooges. But again, it didn't matter, because the fans were there to celebrate Sting. The family got their revenge early on. In some ways, that story closed itself off and it came down to the titles and the question of whether Sting was going to leave undefeated with gold around his waist, with the lingering secondary question of just what sensational and dangerous thing Sting or Darby might do on the way out. While that's a question that sort of tugs at suspension of disbelief, it only does so far. Sting and Darby are so confident in their own skin, so comfortable as the characters they embody, that you believe their crazy dives are meant to even the odds of size and age and actually harm their opponents. It's not gratuitous or simply living up to expectations; there's a reason that those expectations exist in the first place. Here, the snake eats its own tail in the best of ways.<br /><br />They moved away from the ring and got the Borden kids out of play. There was never any explanation for this. In a tornado tag, anything goes. That said, when you're pulling against norms as thoroughly as this match did at times, you don't want extraneous questions. Maybe there could have been a throwaway line that they had come out for the entrance as planned and cleared, but then got involved in an unplanned way. Now, they had been escorted away by security, not because the interference was illegal, but because they were not cleared to wrestle or had signed any waiver to perform and AEW had to protect itself legally after what had happened a few weeks prior? Something like that. On the other hand, do you want to waste any emotional time on it? Sure, part of me wondered why they weren't helping out when the Bucks were doing major damage late in the match, but maybe it didn't bother anyone else. Maybe we just accept the moment for what it was and that the story had moved on. I'm never very good at just accepting the story had moved on myself, not when it comes to selling, not when it comes to dangling plot threads. But again, maybe that's just me. I spent a paragraph on it, but I'm also willing to let it go and not look back once I hit "enter" twice to start the next one.<br /><br />The Bucks needed a major shift to take over considering they had already received quite a bit of comeuppance. They received it with Darby crashing through the glass. When you're in a situation where you can only have a relatively short heat segment with the heels in control, it helps when you have dynamic offense, spectacular suffering, and blood: the more the better. Darby's entire back was lacerated. That made everything feel absolutely serious quickly. Then, instead of getting to hit one of his signature dives, Sting was cut off and took a spectacular bump through a table instead. The Bucks did more than that, but just from those two flashpoints: the image of Darby's back and the image of Sting going through the table, they had everything they needed to capitalize on the drama of the moment. Sting made his superman comeback attempts (and the kickout on the EVP trigger was it's own sort of magic) but the numbers game was too much for him. Again, most people expected this to be celebratory; the whole show was a celebration of Sting, but there was always the tiniest kernel of doubt for reasons awash in the moment and ones listed above about the nature of pro wrestling retirements; if Sting demanded that he do the deed on the way out, who could really say no to him in the end? All of those things came together like a bolt of lightning to empower Darby's big save. That hit as perfectly as any pro wrestling moment ever does, that feeling in your stomach watching that makes you want to gasp and cheer and sigh all at once. <br /><br />From there it was academic and, of course, exceptional. Sting won on the way out. It felt like the most right thing in the world. They broke three or four narrative rules in the build, in the start of the match, in the result. I'm not going to say it shouldn't have worked because of that. It was too big to fail, over 16,000 people and almost 40 years big, and fueled by respect and love and admiration, created by people who understood the worth and value of pro wrestling and the power of believing in something bigger than yourself. But as hard as a pill as it might have been for me to swallow at the start of February (and as hard as it is for me to accept at all, because I just don't want to see the guy go), this was the right place and the right time with the right people to create something that was exceptional not just in its nature, but in its quality as well. </p>Matt Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02778958512167944058noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-27654393404282929572024-03-09T00:00:00.006-05:002024-03-09T12:39:41.138-05:00Found Footage Friday: ROSE~! WISKOSKI~! BASTIEN~! ZULU~! MARTINDALE~! ARAKAWA~! MARKUS~! DANDY~!<p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbWWWNa9F2c" target="_blank">Tommy Martindale vs. Mitsu Arakawa NWA Chicago 10/22/54</a><br /><br />MD: According to our buddy Ohtani's Jacket, Arakawa was Japanese-American and his gimmick in territories (though not here) was that he was a Hiroshima survival hellbent on revenge. This went about twenty in one fall and was solid stuff. During the pre-match stomping and bowing Martindale flew forth with a dropkick to get things going. He was a chippy and fiery babyface, always trying to work his way out of holds. In that regard, they seemed fairly evenly matched. Arakawa controlled the first third with a series of headlocks, constantly switching from one side to the other and taking him over. Eventually he used a "back bend" that he had been working for to get a reverse headlock in and break it up. You have to love the struggle. The fans did too. When Martindale went for a chinlock later and Arakawa had to escpae by going to the ropes, he drew big boos for it. These fans were conditioned to see wrestlers fight to get out of holds and everything was better off for it. Towards the end, Arakawa started to fight dirty with throat shots. Davis said Martindale had a boxing background but he didn't get to show it here. What he did get to show was that perseverence in constantly trying to fight out of holds, as he turned a body slam attempt by Arakawa into a pin and scored a banana peel victory. Nothing groundbreaking here but you have to love that underlying sense of struggle that could make six minutes of headlocks enjoyable. </p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiAfU6ImI7s&ab_channel=KevinOrcutt" target="_blank">Buddy Rose/Ed Wiskoski vs. Red Bastien/Ron Pope Big Time Wrestling 11/4/78</a><br /><br />MD: I don't know how new this is in general but it's a recent Orcutt upload and it's new to me and I've seen as much Rose as I can find. This was to establish Dr. Ken Ramey as Rose's new manager. Pope was a black strongman with a headbutt and a bearhug who I'm not super familiar with.The first five minutes of this were all worked around headlocks and while Wiskoski is good feeding and stooging for them, you can see the difference with Rose. He goes over perfectly for Bastien's walk up headscissors takeover in the corner, the legs going over in a picture perfect manner but one that still feigns impact and heft as opposed to seeming cooperative. Rose had a way of making over the top bumps seem completely natural. Likewise the way he'd flail his arms as far as was humanly possible during headlock cranks; it was for the last row, incredibly memorable, but still somehow felt like that's just what his body would do. Wiskoski was clunkier going over and more artificial on the flailing and it's not like he didn't bring things to the table. He just wasn't Buddy Rose. That's the thing though. No one was. He just instinctively knew what to do at every moment. </p><p>The heels took over when Bastien went to the well once too often and Rose turned it into a belly to back. They got heat for a few minutes before a big comeback where Buddy ended up slammed by Pope and in Bastien's fireman's carry. When he got put in it a second time, they had a great finish of Ramey pulling Bastien's tights behind the ref's back so that Rose would go sailing over the top to draw the DQ. Very creative and it reminded me a little of the moment a few years before when Heenan debuted as Bockwinkel and Stevens' manager. Obviously this didn't have the same staying power, but it was a very effective capping of a pretty entertaining and purposeful TV match.</p><p>ER: I've probably been to Sacramento more than 98% of people who write about pro wrestling and I have zero familiarity with the Roy Shire Sacramento shows. I dated a girl whose uncle worked for KTXL as a camera operator. He was not a wrestling fan, he just filmed whatever was being filmed that day at KTXL. He viewed pro wrestling no differently than he viewed news broadcasts, talk shows, or people renting the studio to record their own paid programming. But he was still someone with up close wrestling stories from the sidelines, who did remember a lot of guys who came through Sacramento. Rocky Johnson was a name he brought up the way you'd bring up a college roommate's name, the way an old boss of mine used to talk about Pepper Gomez. This era of wrestling is underwritten about in general, and the Bay Area territory is way underwritten compared to other territories. Red Bastien is under-talked about because his career ran from 1950-1980 instead of 1960-1990, so most of the footage we have is from him in his late 40s. Ray Stevens too. The Bay Area guys all peaked in years we don't have, but now we get to watch Buddy Rose and Ed Wiskoski working a Sacramento TV studio within their peaks. </p><p>Matt talked about Buddy Rose because Rose is a guy always worth talking about and seeking out. He takes multiple backdrops from Big Ron Pope and swung his loose floppy arms around in a side headlock like the Mighty Zulu had hit him with a second tranquilizer dart. Buddy is great, and this is a great Buddy match. But I love Ed Wiskoski and Matt shit all over him. Ed Wiskoski is great because he had two really great wrestling names: Ed Wiskoski and Col. DeBeers. He has some of my favorite wrestling posture. I love how he stands board straight like a Marine, like late 70s Nick Nolte. I love how he has a mustache and flattering shag cut, like late '70s Nick Nolte. His haircut and posture make him look like a Shakespearean surfer, and I love when he does his full rigid body flip over bump. Ed Wiskoski is a hulking version of Tom Atkins in Halloween III, the kind of guy who would show up to a street fight in brown corduroys. When he fights Bastien, he looks like and wrestles him like he's Bastien's younger, bigger brother. Buddy Rose is a guy who can and does steal many of the matches he's in, but Wiskoski wrestles like Chuck Connors would have wrestled. I get something out of him I don't get from any other wrestler. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tSfBUKvO-o&ab_channel=RoyLucierCMLL" target="_blank">Gran Markus Jr/Monje Negro/Milo Caballero vs. El Dandy/Apolo Estrada/Monarka CMLL 1989</a><br /><br />MD: Sometimes we get a 13 minute match and it's the full thing. Sometimes, like here, we come in at the start of the segunda. There's a short bit to begin where Markus does a pretty good job basing for Estrada's flashier stuff (think that was the main pairing) followed by a bit of dissension, I think because Dandy didn't like Estrada kicking Markus out of the ring (a tecnico taking pride in being a tecnico?) but then I got that from the commentators and they are unreliable narrators as usual. Regardless, that dissension helped the rudos take over. Of note, Caballero is a rudo here, which isn't what I'm used to and Monje Negro has to be up there in age, but he cut a forboding oversized figure, especially when put next to Markus. He had a knife kneelift and lawn darted Dandy right into Monarka, so that was fun. </p><p>During the beatdown Markus really leaned on Estrada, bloodying him, gnawing on him, and tossing him into the third row in the most satisfying way. I don't remember Markus gnawing on bloody people often but the aftermath was a great visual with the white mask. The comeback was pretty great too as Estrada dodged a Markus knee as Monje Negro was holding him and the two ended up on their knees throwing shots at each other. Estrada got a few pin attempts in before Markus just jammed him, slammed him, and crushed his face with a nonchalant kneedrop. They cycled through after that, with Dandy and Monarka finally locking the other rudos into La Estrella, but Markus caught an Estrada body press, tossed him onto the mass of bodies in the submission, and then pinned said mass. I have to admit that Markus kind of looked like a beast here. Anyway, post-match kids got to hang out with the tecnicos in the bloody ring, so all's well that ends well, I guess?</p><p><br /></p>Matt Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02778958512167944058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-77751938747482735192024-03-07T23:30:00.076-05:002024-03-08T06:29:26.722-05:00El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Turnover<p><b>Week 18: Turnover</b></p><p>EB: As we head into the latter half of January, it looks like there is some turnover happening in the roster and in some of the existing feuds. We saw some debuts in the beginning of the year and we’re close to saying goodbye to some of the post Aniversario roster members. We’re also at what may be crossroads regarding the top feuds in CSP. Carlos Colon thought he had solved the outside interference problem in his matches with Leo Burke by bringing in Barba Roja to neutralize Chicky Starr. But as we saw, he didn’t count on other members of El Club Deportivo getting involved. Manny Fernandez saved Leo Burke’s Universal title reign by attacking Carlos Colon when it looked like Burke might submit to the figure four leglock. And in the ensuing chaos, Manny attacked Barba Roja with the flying kneedrop and severely injured him. How will Carlos Colon react to what happened? We shall see. Let’s go to a Puerto Rico title match where Manny Fernandez is defending against former champion Invader #1. </p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkMlnkKJyKA">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkMlnkKJyKA</a></p><p>Eliud Gonzalez does the ring introductions, indicating that this is a Puerto Rico title match with a 30 minute time limit. Invader is making another attempt at regaining the Puerto Rico title from Manny. Hector Moyano on commentary mentions that it looked like Manny was staring disdainfully at the title belt when it was being presented by the ref, indicating that he’s disgusted with Puerto Rico. Both men are wary to lock up at first but once they do Manny takes a quick upper hand with some chops and sends Invader into the ropes. Invader counters with a sunset flip for two, which causes Manny to back away into a corner to regroup. The ref gets Invader to back off as both wrestlers stare at each other. Another feeling out process leads to a lock up once again. Manny gets the advantage and shoots Invader once more into the ropes, but Invader ducks a clothesline and counters with a crossbody for a one count. Invader goes for an inside cradle and that gets two. Invader’s strategy is one of trying to score the pinfall whenever the opportunity is there. Manny goes outside to stop Invader’s momentum and complains to the ref about his pin counts. El Vikingo starts the ring out count on Manny as he slowly gets on the apron while continuing to complain at the official (you can also see Chicky voicing his complaints at ringside and to the camera). Both wrestlers face off again but when they go to lock up, Manny quickly puts on an armbar and forces Invader down to the mat. The advantage is short lived, as Invader fights to his feet and counters with two arm wringers and a drop toe hold to take Manny down to the mat. Manny eventually is able to fight out of the hold and sends Invader into the ropes, hitting a hiptoss. A followup elbow misses, and Invader counters with a hiptoss of his own and is back to working on Manny’s arm. </p><p>Manny eventually works out of the armbar by hitting headbutt, but Invader is able to hiptoss Manny again and work the arm once more. This has not been Manny’s match so far. Eliud on commentary mentions that we are in Dorado for this match. Invader continues working and attacking the arm. We go to commercial break and when we come back Invader still has Manny in the armbar. Manny finally is able to turn things around by sending Invader into the ropes and hitting his rolling elbow smash. This stuns Invader enough to allow Manny to attack him with some headbutts and then a kneedrop. Manny hits four rapid fire elbow drops on Invader and goes for the pin. He only gets a two count. A back suplex gets two as you can hear some fans start chanting for Invader. A short arm clothesline by Manny goes into an immediate pin attempt for two. Manny works a reverse chinlock, leading to the referee to check on Invader via arm drops. Invader keeps his arm up and fights out of the hold. It looks like Invader may be starting a comeback. Manny and Invader have a blow exchange (including chops, headbutts and elbows), Invader knocks Manny down with a clothesline and starts getting fired up, slapping his chest and doing his short hops. </p><p>Invader and Manny again exchange blows, but Manny counters Invader coming off the ropes by side stepping and throwing Invader through the ropes to the outside. As Manny distracts the ref, Chicky almost immediately starts attacking Invader, with both men exchanging blows on the outside. Manny blindsides Invader from behind by jumping off the ring apron with a blow. Manny rolls Invader back into the ring, hits a slam and decides to go to the top turnbuckle. It looks like he is setting up to hit a flying kneedrop, the same move that severely injured Invader #3 and more recently took out Barba Roja. Miguelito Perez rushes into the ring and attacks Manny, causing a disqualification. It looks like El Ejercito de la Justicia does not want any more injuries occurring from Manny’s flying kneedrop. Manny fights Miguelito off however, and sends him over the top rope to the floor. Chicky tells Manny to go to the other turnbuckle to try again, but as Manny starts climbing that turnbuckle we see him get shoved off by Carlos Colon. On the other side of the ring, Miguelito had grabbed Invader by the legs and was dragging him outside of the ring to safety. Carlos (in his suit and tie) starts ferociously attacking Manny, wanting revenge for what Manny did to his trainer Barba Roja. The fight spills to the outside as Carlos and Manny continue fighting. Manny is able to ram Carlos into a lighting rig to momentarily halt the attack, but Carlos recovers and continues right after Manny. Carlos gets his head rammed against a ringside table but still continues grabbing onto Manny and attacking. Now it’s Manny who gets rammed face first into the table. Both men are bleeding and punching each other on the floor. Eliud mentions that we’re basically watching a streetfight here between Carlos and Manny. Carlos throws Manny back in the ring and they continue tussling as the commentators note that it’s a bit hard to be able to attack while dressed in a suit since your movement is more restricted. Manny bails to the outside but Carlos gives chase and the video ends with Carlos still attacking Manny at ringside. Carlos wants Manny’s blood for what happened to Barba Roja and it looks like his attention has shifted away from Leo Burke and the Universal title. </p><p>MD: This was a very fun title match on TV until it all broke down. Manny fed into Invader’s arm control early. Just two guys who knew exactly how to build that early stage of making a champion look vulnerable to the challenger’s superior wrestling. Manny was one of the best every at hitting a picture perfect cutoff off the ropes and he took over after that. And of course, Invader’s maybe the best ever at timing and portraying his comeback. Here when he got the first shot in and recoiled to show how far he still had to climb, the crowd went nuts. Eventually, Manny desperately cut him off by tossing him to the outside and Chicky got involved and it all ended with Colon rushing in, still wearing his tie, and brawling with Manny. The match was definitely a means to an end to set up the post-match but it was an enjoyable journey to get there.</p><p>EB: With the issues surrounding Manny (both with Colon and Invader) ,a tag match happened between Burke and Manny versus Carlos and Invader #1. We go to highlights of that tag match.</p><p>h<a href="ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRHzkyi4_lo">ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRHzkyi4_lo</a> </p><p>We join the match with Invader making the hot tag to Carlos Colon, who starts exchanging blows with Manny Fernandez. Carlos gets the better of that exchange and knocks Manny down with a clothesline. A cartwheel follows as Manny begs off but Carlos presses the atack. While this is happening, Invader is standing outside of the ring, leaning on the ring apron and trying to recover from the damage he has taken so far. Carlos hits a clothesline as Chicky on the outside rushes Invader and rams Invader’s head into the ringpost. We cut to Carlos attacking Burke in the ring and we see Chicky rush towards a downed Invader (who is bleeding from the head) and repeatedly kick him in the face. There is no love lost on Chicky’s part towards Invader. We see some wrestlers come out to check on Invader as the match continues on. We cut to later in the match as Carlos is still on the attack vs Leo Burke, while outside of the ring they are trying to bandage Invader’s head. The wrestlers on the outside (they look familiar and it’s almost like seeing double, we’ll discuss them in more detail next time) try to help Invader to his feet as Carlos gets Burke in a sleeperhold. Manny rushes Carlos from behind to break it up and now the rudos are double teaming Carlos. Invader doesn’t seem to be reacting too well so the wrestlers help Invader to the back as Carlos is still being double teamed by Burke and Manny. Later in the match, Carlos has been busted open as both Burke and Manny continue punching Carlos repeatedly in the head. The ref calls for a disqualification since Burke and Manny are ignoring his orders for one of them to exit the ring. Burke and Manny setup Carlos for the flying kneedrop, but Invader rushes out to the ring and shoves Manny off the top turnbuckle. Burke, Manny and Chicky decide to run to the safety of the locker room as Carlos and Invader go after them. Carlos runs over to the ringside table and grabs the ringbell (which he tosses to Invader) and a chair as they continue to head towards the locker room entrance. As the clip ends, we hear Hugo say that they are on their way to try to break down the rudo locker room door. </p><p>MD: We come in with Invader’s hot tag. He had been opened up and it’s a shame we miss the heat on this. Invader’s tended to immediately after the tag and thereby basically out of the match. It’s neat to see Colon’s comeback after a tag, cartwheel and all, as he comes in a house of fire. He also hits some great neckbreaker drops on Burke. Just when he locks the sleeper on, Manny flies in to break it up and they double team until they get DQed. Invader runs back out, bandaged up, to stop them from injuring Colon though. What we got of this looked really good and I bet the whole thing was great.</p><p>EB: We’ve seen two of Chicky’s Club Deportivo members in action but a third member had officially debuted at the start of the year. Harley Race won the Caribbean title and is looking to make an impact in Puerto Rico. Let’s look at him in action against Mark Youngblood.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcjvaXGv_rY">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcjvaXGv_rY</a></p><p>We get Mark in singles action against Harley. Mark gets the better of Race in the initial exchange,as Harley goes to the outside to regroup. The commentators (Eliud and Moyano) are talking about the seven time World champion’s pedigree. Race is back in the ring and Mark continues in control with a slam. Mark continues getting the better of Race as the commentators talk about how Chicky has been bragging about having Race in his stable and that he is the Caribbean champion. Race counters a side headlock into a back suplex, and follows it up with a measured knee drop. A fisherman suplex follows for the three count. Although Harley didn’t dominate the match, his experience came through and he was successful against Mark Youngblood. We’ll have to see if Harley gets more involved in the goings on between El Club Deportivo and El Ejercito de la Justicia.</p><p>MD: They covered a lot of ground in two minutes here. That meant Race let his punches get blocked early with a bit of stooging and a retreat out of the ring. He tried a cheapshot but Mark got the better of him off the ropes. Then Race shifted gears from bumping and stooging to ever so casually taking over by turning a headlock into a belly to back, hitting a kneedrop, and winning with the fisherman’s suplex. They could have done this same match in ten minutes but the cliff notes version was interesting, in as it still felt kind of effective at two. </p><p>EB: One wrestler who has been a notable presence throughout the last three months of 1989 has been Gary Albright. Built up as a monster on tv with his Albright lock, amateur abilities and his belly to belly suplex, Albright unfortunately has not been as successful when challenging some of the higher ranked tecnicos. Albright had been unsuccessful in challenging Invader and Miguelito Perez for their titles but still continued to impress on tv. However, as the month of January wound down, Gary Albright’s run in Puerto Rico would come to a close. We have a couple of matches of Albright from the late 89 period just to round out our look at Gary Albright in Puerto Rico. And to finish our look at Albright, we’ll see him take on TNT.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h--cUAZoYEE">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h--cUAZoYEE</a></p><p>Our first match harkens back to the period where Albright was being built up as a monster. Here he is facing Maelo Huertas and Armando Fernandez in a handicap match. Both tecnicos try to team up on Albright to start, but Gary is able to fight them off and attacks them one at a time, ending the match by slamming Maelo on top of Armando and pinning both of them.</p><p>MD: Totally elementary in one minute. Albright just pushed people away from him until he could isolate one, a power slam, a slam of the other onto the first, and the win. That’s how you book a monster.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx9YB5TQJYc">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx9YB5TQJYc</a> </p><p>EB: Our second match is a TV match against Miguelito Perez. This appears to be from before Albright challenged Perez for the Caribbean title at the end of 1989. The commentators mention that this is a tough challenge for Perez, as Gary has the power and size advantage. Albright just dominates Perez with knee strikes and an elbow in the corner. Perez tries to fire back with punches, but they have no effect on Albright. Perez finds an opening when Albright puts his head down too early when Miguelito is coming off the ropes, getting an inside cradle for a two count. Albright goes back on offense and Perez is only able to come back when Gary makes another mistake by missing a charge into the corner. Perez is able to knock Gary down with a clothesline but misses his own charge into the corner. Albright sends Perez into the corner twice and hits a shoulder tackle (a bit weak on contact) and then an elbow drop for the win (with Perez kicking out at three). It looks like we’re somewhere in between the Albright Lock being dropped and the belly to belly coming into play as his finisher.</p><p>MD: We have a number of PR matches with Albright where he works far too weak and scared. He’s a monster. He should act like one. Here in a two and a half minute match, he does, just relentlessly swarming Perez. I’m not saying his stuff looks great necessarily but it almost doesn’t have to because he’s such a relatively imposing figure and because he’s so persistent with it. Perez takes over on a missed charge but then misses one of his own and Albright clunkily puts him down for a big elbow drop. Sort of surprising how much of a squash this was but Perez had the banana peel of hitting hard in the corner to excuse it. If Albright worked like this all the time in PR he would have been way more marketable. </p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsDIBG68eCI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsDIBG68eCI</a></p><p>EB: We finish our look at Gary Albright with a match against TNT. And yes, it looks like Albright is facing Kwang instead but it is TNT (we’ll explain shortly why TNT is wearing a mask). TNT starts off very aggressive, throwing a kick at El Profe to scare him away from ringside and getting the early offense on Albright. A spin kick sends Albright to the outside to regroup. Albright and Profe start complaining that it was an illegal throat hit and that Albright should be the winner by disqualification. The ref tells Albright to get back in the ring. Albright wins a lock up by backing up TNT into a corner and hits a chop, but that only gets TNT animated and he scares Albright off. TNT is really fired up for some reason (we’ll find out why soon). Albright keeps trying to find an opening but TNT starts attacking Albright in the corner with several strikes. However, Gary hits one chop that sends TNT backwards and now Albright has the opening needed to go on the attack. Albright controls the middle portion of the match, using his size and power (and some choking and interference from Profe) to maintain control. TNT at one point counters with a crossbody but Profe has the ref distracted and the pin only gets two. Albright shifts his focus of attack to TNT’s back, putting him in a couple of bearhugs to use his size advantage. Albright also uses an abdominal stretch (with El Profe assisting) to further weaken TNT’s back. The turning point comes when Albright decides to go to the top and is too slow, allowing TNT to catch him at the top. TNT slams Albright and follows that with a thrust kick. TNT continues attacking Albright but Gary is able to counter a throw into the corner and starts punching TNT. The ref tries to get Gary to back off and gets caught with the follow through of Albright’s punches. As Gary turns to see the ref on the ground, TNT seizes the opening and uses the ropes to hit a double leg kick that sends Gary backwards. Albright trips over the ref and TNT quickly jumps on top to use the leverage and get the pinfall. This is it for Gary Albright in Puerto Rico, his last appearance in the available results is February 2 where he was scheduled to face Victor Jovica.</p><p>MD: And if Albright will get controlled by Perez at the 1989 year end show, of course he’s going to beg off and hide behind the ref against TNT, only ever taking over because of Profe’s interference. I really do think there’s something to the dissonance of an Olympic level threat being a big coward, but it’s also sort of limiting. Albright likely learned a lot about what a pro wrestling heel could be during this stint but I think he used it to better focus him over the years to come. TNT did a decent amount of fighting from underneath here, including having to deal with a bear hug, but when it was time, he came back with a huge kick (after another missed splash) and they went into a really fun finish where the ref got knocked down and then TNT tripped Albright over him.</p><p>EB: One other stalwart of the last few months of 1989 has been the team of Angel Acevedo and Gerry Morrow. On their debut they won the Caribbean tag titles from the team of Perez and Castillo and have recently been challenging the Youngbloods for the World tag team titles. We’ve recently uncovered a recap of that feud between Los Mercenarios and Perez and Castillo, so let's take the opportunity to see how this feud played out.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T_U4Npdumg">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T_U4Npdumg</a></p><p>This video starts off already in progress as we revisit the singles matches held at Aniversario 89 in Mayaguez. We start with the second singles match where Perez won. However, here we see that after the match Los Mercenarios attacked Castillo and Perez, in particular having a prolonged double team attack on Perez as Casitllo had been knocked to the outside. Huracan is able to get back in the ring with a chair to chase off the rudos, but we see that Miguelito has been busted open and left laying. We go to another match held on October 18 in Toa Alta, where Castillo is facing Acevedo. The attempted interference from Morrow backfires as he instead splashes his tag partner, allowing Castillo to get the pinfall win. Our next highlight is from October 21 in Bayamon, this is the rematch for the Caribbean tag titles. Perez and Castillo were in control but Morow manages to hotshot Perez on the top rope. Los Mercenarios send Perez over the top rope, drawing a disqualification. Los Mercenarios continued attacking Perez and Castillo after the match.</p><p>We go to October 28 where the two teams are once again facing off for the Caribbean tag titles. Perez and Castillo are once again in control but Perez accidentally runs into Castillo ,which turns the tide in favor of Los Mercenarios and allows them to get the win. Both teams squared off once more on November 8 in Toa Alta, with Perez cleaning house on both Mercenarios. All four men end up in the ring and the bell rings as it’s a time limit draw. Both teams continue fighting after the bell. The next highlight is from November 11 in Yabucoa, as once again Perez and Castillo are in control when Morrow backdrops Perez over the top rope and draws a disqualification for his team. Our last highlight comes from November 22 in Manati. This time it’s Castillo cleaning house as Miguelito is down on the apron recovering. Once again all four men end up in the ring, but as the ref escorts Perez out of the ring Los Mercenarios blindside Castillo from behind and roll him up for the win. This feud looks to have spanned over two months and we still don’t have a full tag match between the two teams. But at least we can see how the feud progressed. . .</p><p>We do have one more match featuring Castillo and a partner taking on Los Mercenarios (we’ve seen a few iterations of this in previous posts). But this time, Castillo might have his strongest non Perez partner yet in Super Medico.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBRURCN19eI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBRURCN19eI</a></p><p>As you would expect from the tecnico tag team combination ,they perform very well against Acevedo and Morrow. Both Castillo and Medico have had extensive tag experience (even if not with each other). The tecnico team is clearly in control of this match, with Castillo and Medico easily keeping the match flow against both Mercenarios while tagging in and out. Los Mercenarios are only able to turn the tide when Acevedo sneaks into the ring to catch Castillo unaware with a clothesline. Castillo is able to tag out and Medico handles both Mercenarios with ease. Medico goes for a couple of pin attempts o n Acevedo that are broken up by Morrow. This draws Castillo into the ring. Castillo and Medico ram Los Mercenarios into each other. Castillo tries to send Morrow into the corner, but Morrow counters. However, Morrow’s charge is dodged by Castillo and Morrow goes through the ropes. As the ref escorts Castillo out of the ring, Medico hits a crossbody block on Acevedo. But as has happened many times before, Morrow takes advantage of the ref having his back turned and comes off the top rope onto Medico, allowing Acevedo to get the pinfall. </p><p>MD: My big takeaway from both the 5 match recap and the Medico/Castillo match is just how valuable Cuban Assassin and Jerry Morrow were during this span. They were credible, reviled, nasty, worked just as hard as they had to in order to get their comeuppance early on or towards the end of a match, had a lot of different, believable ways to win. Morrow could come off the rope at any moment or they could hit a double team like a spike pile driver out of nowhere. They had the size and presence, even if not necessarily the athleticism to hit a believable cut off clothesline or just a shoulder block no matter how fiery the babyfaces’ offense are and they were physically memorable enough to play into comedy beats if need be. These were two guys that would never get a major run with WWF or WCW (note: Major) at this point but that had tons of value when put in the right spot and in the right way. Likewise, you could believe that Castillo and Medico could win at any point. The hierarchy was loose and the crowd was with them. When Medico rolled up Assassin, I thought it was possible (right until Morrow came sailing off the top to cut it off).</p><p>EB: As we’ve seen previously, Los Mercenarios had been involved in rivalry with the Youngbloods for the World tag team titles. When we last saw the two teams tangle, it was in a strap match where Los Mercenarios had the match won if not for the referee not seeing Acevedo hitting the turnbuckle first. Due to the circumstances of the finish, Los Mercenarios were granted another shot at the World tag team titles. This time, on the first weekend of February, Los Mercenarios defeated the Youngbloods and captured the World tag titles. However, this was not the Mercenarios team we’ve seen since Aniversario 89. </p><p><a href="https://youtu.be/BhYSZS_pnVY">https://youtu.be/BhYSZS_pnVY</a></p><p>We bid goodbye to Gerry Morrow as we have a new tag partner for Acevedo in Rambo Ron Starr. We previously saw Ron Starr take on Leo Burke in October of 1989, but before that he had quite the memorable three year stint as Chicky’s cousin and accomplice. He’s back now, and while the last time we saw him was as a tecnico, it appears he has fallen back to the side of the rudos. He’s aligned himself with El Profe (still selling the fallout he had with Chicky) and this is the New Mercenarios tv debut. However, a very important piece of information is mentioned at the start of the match. While this is the team’s tv debut, they had actually already competed the previous weekend against the Youngbloods for the World tag team titles. And on their first weekend teaming together, Acevedo and Starr defeated the Youngbloods for the World tag team titles. Does that make them double tag champions? We’ll find out next time if that’s the case.</p><p>The opponents for Acevedo and Starr are Super Medico and Herbert Gonzalez, and while Medico can definitely get the job done I’m not sure if Herbert is up to the task. Medico starts off for his team and does well against both Starr and Acevedo, but the tide turns once Herbert gets in the ring. The commentators make note that Rambo Ron Starr is back, looks to have gotten bigger and that he is quite the reinforcement for El Profe and Mercenario #1. El Profe brags about his team winning the World tag titles right off the bat and that no one will be able to defeat them. Herbert tries but Starr just outclasses him in the ring. Herbert is able to back Ron into the corner and tag Medico back in, with Medico hitting a flurry of punches on Ron. Medico hits an elbow and dropkick on Ron but decides to tag Herbert back in. Ron rakes Herbert’s eyes and hits the DDT (which had been established during Starr’s previous run as his finisher) for the win. A strong showing for the new World tag champions in their tv debut. Super Medico might need to rethink his choice of tag partner next time.</p><p>MD: Rambo Ron Starr is in for Morrow and he adds a little more motion and speed to the proceedings. More oomph on rope running. Quicker to bump and feed. All while still being rugged and mean. This was just a few minutes long and not much of a showcase really. It went back and forth though Los Mercenarios were always just an eyerake away from taking back over and then controlled the ring well. Starr won with a DDT out of nowhere.</p><p>EB: Another newcomer we briefly saw in our last post is Eddie Watts, who hails from Canada and appears to have his sights set on the World Junior title held by Super Medico. Let’s take a look at Watts in action against Herbert Gonzalez.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEYpj--hEnM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEYpj--hEnM</a> </p><p>The first detail is that Eddie Watts is managed by Chicky Starr, so we have another new member of El Club Deportivo. This match is mainly a showcase for the new arrival, as Watts pretty much is in control of Herbert throughout the match. Eliud on commentary gives Eddie’s vital stats, including that he hails from Winnipeg, was World Junior champion in Canada and studied at the University of Calgary. Watts’s offense looks fine if basic for the junior division but it’s clear Chicky has brought him in to continue the quest for all of the titles (he already has the Universal, Puerto Rico and Caribbean champions in his stable). Eliud tells the fans that Eddie’s favorite maneuver is the Canadian guillotine. An ax handle from the bottom turnbuckle doesn't connect well and Herbert briefly looks to start a comeback. Watts is able to stop Herbert with a boot to the face and eventually wins the match with an Alabama Jam off the top rope (I’m guessing this is the aforementioned Canadian guillotine). Eddie celebrities and motions that he wants the title. </p><p>MD: Watts seems like he should be beneath Chicky’s notice as a charge, but I guess Chicky wanted to go after the Junior title and needed a warm body. He is not a familial Watts, only one in name. This was not the world’s most impressive showing either. He had a great finish with his take on the Alabama Jam, but his double axe handle off of the BOTTOM turnbuckle was so ineffectual that Gonzalez fired up on him after absorbing it. Overall, Watts seemed competent enough but he’s going to need his opponents to do a bunch of the heavy lifting, I think.</p><p>EB: As to why Chicky would have interest in the World Junior title, besides the goal of his stable holding all of the titles, the World Junior title is one singles title that Chicky himself had held previously, as recently as 1989. In fact, the reigning World Junior champion, Super Medico, had a brief feud with Chicky in the summer of 89 where they traded the title back and forth. As recently as the Thanksgiving Day show Chicky had challenged for the World Junior title, and while we didn’t have the footage available when we covered the event, we do have video of that match available now. Let’s take the opportunity to see Super Medico and Chicky Starr in action battling for the World Junior title.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awsBNzSBjx8">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awsBNzSBjx8</a> </p><p>We join the match in progress and we see that Chicky is still growing his hair back from Aniversario. This is a good showcase for both Chicky and Super Medico as we really haven't been able to see them in this setting as much. The video opens with Chicky in control, hitting a wristlock throw on Medico and then putting on a headlock. Medico reverses into a hammerlock but Chicky makes the ropes. Chicky buys time by staying in the corner and telling the ref to keep Medico away. As the ref is talking with Medico, Chicky appears to reach for something that was in his kneepad. The ref checks the kneepad at Medico’s request but doesn’t find anything. Chicky looks pleased with himself as he sort of prances around the ring. Hugo calls the movement weird and thinks it may be a tactic to throw Medico off his game. Chicky goes into the ropes to prevent Medico from attacking him and the ref tells Medico to step back. Hugo talks about how Medico is a complete wrestler on both offense and defense. Chicky continues stalling as the crowd gets on his case. Finally, they lock up and Medico takes Chicky down to the mat. Chicky eventually breaks the hold by reaching the ropes. Chicky wins a blow exchange and struts a bit before continuing his attack on Medico. </p><p>The match continues with Medico gaining the advantage, but Chicky is able to stay in it with some counters, including using Medico's tights as leverage and ramming him head first into the turnbuckle. A kneedrop leads to a pin attempt, but Chicky’s cover is a bit too cocky and Medico kicks out. Hugo channels Gorilla Monsoon a bit by saying that he’s not going to win if he doesn’t hook the leg. Chicky continues with a focused attack on Medico's head and neck area. Medico fights out of the clutch hold Chicky had on. Medico is slow to get up as Chicky is a bit frustrated that the hold was broken, but he immediately starts attacking Medico with kicks. Chicky uses the ropes to leverage a double kick and push Medico to the floor. Chicky again starts prancing a bit in the ring (Hugo says that Chicky is doing those weird moves again) as Medico slowly gets back in the ring. Chicky sends Medico into the ropes but makes the mistake of putting his head down a bit too soon and Medico counters with an elbow to the back of Chicky’s head. Medico takes over with a series of punch combinations, including his signature punches off the top rope. Medico hits a hiptoss and a shoulder tackle but the video skips ahead as Medico is going for a second shoulder tackle. Just before the video skips ahead, we see Chicky start grabbing the referee. The video comes back to Chicky pinning a downed Medico as the ref calls for the bell. Based on the context, it looks like Chicky grabbed the referee and pulled him into Medico’s tackle. Chicky then may have knocked Medico out with the foreign object he had been hiding earlier. However, the ref has disqualified Chicky for pulling him into the shoulder tackle. Chicky thinks he won but the ref lowers Chicky’s arm and raises Medico’s instead. Medico immediately chases Chicky out of the ring as the crowd cheers. Chicky makes a hurried exit as he is flanked by security and the fans throw garbage at him. Medico retains the World Junior title. <br /><br />MD: Tremendous sub-10 minute match, one of my favorites I’ve seen for this project so far. It’s mostly strikes but they’re all really good. There’s some BS with Chicky avoiding the lockup or trying to hide an object, but a lot of what hits are these great forearms or mean kicks and stomps. Medico’s stuff looks great when he fires back or gets a knee in. And of course, Chicky throws his head into every shot. There is a bit of a clip at the end, but you can get the idea. Chicky got desperate, cheated in a blatant way, lost the match. It’s great to see him do his thing with such a game opponent though.</p><p>EB: We’ll continue to follow Eddie Watts and his challenge for the World Junior title next time. </p><p>Leo Burke has been able to retain the Universal title so far in January, although it may appear that the rise was a bit sudden based on the tv performances we’ve been able to review. But as a bit more footage has been uncovered, we’ve discovered Burke had faced almost the entire tecnico side before facing off against Colon. While Burke has been able (so far) to stave off Colon’s attempts at regaining the Universal title, there are some other potential challengers in the tecnico camp. And Lro is not a stranger to any of them. Let’s go back a moment to the fall of 89 to add some more context to Leo’s rise to the top of the challenger rankings.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX3xl_nuA5A">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX3xl_nuA5A</a> </p><p>This is from late fall of 1989, as Leo Burke continues to rise up the contender rankings and is facing the TV champion TNT in a non title match. If you recall Burke had faced TNT in early November as part of Chicky’s continued quest to avenge the humiliation suffered at Aniversario when Chicky lost his hair. Hector Moyano mentions that both wrestlers are looking to rise up the Universal title rankings. We get the pre-match hug between Burke and Chicky and Eliud Goznalez comments on how TNT makes his presence felt with his fabulous face paint. There’s a bit of a staredown before both men lock up. TNT backs Burke into a corner but is forced to break by the ref. Burke tries to punch TNT off a second lock up but the punch is blocked and Leo immediately bails from the ring. Burke takes his time getting back in and attempts to sucker punch TNT off a lockup. TNT was ready and swats Leo’s hand away. Burke backs away but when the ref tells TNT to keep his distance, Leo takes the opening and lunges with a kick, surprising TNT and allowing Burke to gain control of the match. Burke attacks TNT in the corner with chops and a choke. He follows that up with a snapmare and some kneedrops. TNT counters by sending Burke into the ropes and eventually hits a crossbody for two. Burke begs off as we go to commercial break. </p><p>Back from the break, we see TNT lying on the mat with Burke in control once more. However, Burke sends TNT into the ropes, where TNT ducks two clothesline attempts and hits a spin kick. TNT goes for a pin but Burke breaks the count by putting his leg on the rope. TNT goes back on the attack and hits a side kick to the face. TNT makes the cover but Chicky has jumped on the ring apron and is distracting the referee. Burke takes the opportunity to toss TNT over the top rope and it looks like TNT landed on his knee (he starts holding his knee in pain). TNT stumbles a few times trying to get back in the ring, his knee looks to be hurting and causing him issues in standing. Burke suplexes TNT into the ring and goes for a pin attempt that gets two. TNT ducks a punch and hits an atomic drop on Burke, but the move causes more damage to TNT’s injured knee and TNT cannot follow up. Burke goes after TNT’s injured knee and is able to put the figure four leglock on. TNT tries to hold on and fight out of the hold but the pain is too much and he submits. Burke has won the match and moves up the Universal title rankings. Post-match, Burle leaves the figure-four on for a while longer before breaking the hold. Chicky and Burke celebrate as they leave the ring while the ref checks on TNT who is still clearly in pain. </p><p>MD: Burke’s looked great in this run so it’s nice to be able to flesh things out with a few missing puzzle pieces. He stalled to start and then fed for TNT, which was typical for him but hasn’t gotten old yet. We miss the transition and have no idea how long the heat was due to the commercial but we come back with TNT’s comeback, hitting the spin wheel kick off the ropes. Chicky intervenes after the superkick though, letting Burke toss TNT through the ropes, hurting his knee. From there, TNT would get spots in (an atomic drop and a knee lift) but would be too hurt to capitalize and Burke eventually gets him to cleanly submit to the figure-four, putting Burke over huge and only protecting TNT a little. </p><p>EB: Burke managed to get past TNT on his way to the top of the rankings, but how will he do against Invader #1? </p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5RLgNgTYs0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5RLgNgTYs0</a> </p><p>We are again in late fall of1989 as Burke faces one fo the top tecnicos in Invader#1. As the ring introductions are made, Invader tries to get at Chicky, which causes Burke to get in front of Chicky as he bails to the outside. Burke also joins Chicky outside after the bell rings, he hasn’t taken his jacket off yet. Chicky helps Leo take the jacket off and we get their pre-match hug. Burke gets back in the ring and the action starts. Invader gets a quick roll up attempt but Leo kicks out and immediately goes outside to halt Invader’s momentum. Burke gets back in, complaining his tights were pulled. Invader quickly takes Burke down to the mat and Leo tries to call a timeout. Invader uses a pair of arm wringers and a drop toe hold to gain control, but Burke soon counters and hits a knee to take over. We go to commercial break as Leo is on offense and come back with Burke still in control, working over Invader’s arm. Invader is able to briefly counter with a slam, but a knee to the midsection cuts him off and Burke continues in control. Burke focuses his attacks on Invader’s arm. Invader makes a comeback via several chops, and a backdrop gets two. A clothesline knocks Burke down, who immediately rolls out of the ring. Invader follows right behind, and a chase around the ring begins. Burke manages to get to the ring apron and kicks Invader away, but looks to hurt his leg jumping back into the ring. Invader immediately goes for a figure four attempt, but Burke was playing possum and counters into an inside cradle for the pinfall. Burke joyously celebrates by doing some squats to show his knee is fine and points at his head as he exits the ring. Burke has faced pretty much all of El Ejercito de la Justicia and has come out on top. He’s definitely earned the number one contender spot and, as we know , Burke would win the Universal title soon after. </p><p>MD: Burke and Invader are very well matched. Invader’s able to make the most of Burke’s stooging and stalling early. Burke eventually takes over on the arm which is a nice bit of variety as he usually targets the leg. Invader punches out of the corner for his comeback and they go into a great finish where Burke bounds into the ring from the outside, feigns a hurt leg, and then rolls Invader up after he attempts a figure-four to capitalize. Post match, Burke bounces around gloating. Good stuff. </p><p>EB: As January of 1990 progressed, Leo Burke had managed to retain the Universal title against Carlos Colon (although not necessarily by clean methods). With Manny Fernandez getting involved and seriously injuring Barba Roja, Carlos Colon's attention is now divided between wanting revenge against Manny and wanting to regain the Universal title. In addition, Manny’s involvement has brought Invader #1 closer to Burke’s sphere and he could potentially be a challenger for Leo’s Universal title. However, an incident occurred in January that would set the stage for who Burke’s next challenger would be. <br />A new match called La Ruleta Rusa (The Russian Roulette) was announced on tv. In essence, it was a match where in order to compete, the wrestlers involved each had to put something up in a wager (basically making it an ‘apuestas’ match). The match ended up being TNT vs Leo Burke, with each man putting something up. Burke wagered his beard against TNT’s face paint, meaning Chicky Starr had one more chance to see TNT stripped of part of his identity (remember the whole ‘Original TNT’ plot in 89 that saw Chicky lose his hair in an apuestas match at Aniversario). In the closing moments of the Ruleta match, Chicky grabbed his opportunity. While the ref was distracted, Chicky slipped a foreign object to Leo Burke, who proceeded to knock TNT out with said object. Before the ref turned his attention back to the wrestlers, to everyone’s bewilderment, Burke lay down on the mat with TNT on top of him. The ref started his count put Burke countered TNT’s ‘pin’ at two and won the match. It was a ruse so that the referee would not notice TNT knocked out. Due to the match stipulations, TNT lost the right to wear his face paint. TNT was furious after the event, rightfully feeling cheated out of part of his identity. He vowed he would have his revenge on Burke and Chicky. And he vowed that he would not show his face until he was able to defeat Burke. That is the reason TNT was wearing a mask in the match against Gary Albright, he was still on his quest to avenge his humiliation (also explains why he was a bit aggressive). And TNT got his chance against Burke in a non title match.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lro0uCvI-8" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lro0uCvI-8 </a></p><p>We have a brief two minute clip of the match ending. We are in Isabela as Burke exits the ring and the masked TNT goes after him. Hugo mentions that the crowd has been mainly on their feet witnessing the uncontrolled fury of TNT on Leo Burke. TNT attacks Leo with chops on the outside of the ring as the ref starts the ring out count. A nifty spin kick knocks Burke down and TNT starts punching Burke on the ground. TNT throws Burke back in the ring, with Burke stumbling backwards into a sitting position. Burke is bleeding and TNT continues his attack as Burke rolls out of the ring to safety once more. TNT goes out after Burke but is surprised by a kick and Leo tries to ram him into the guardrail. The crowd obscures a few moments of the action but we then see Burke stumble backwards as TNT kicks him towards the ring. Burke rolls back in and then back out via a different side trying to get away. TNT still gives chase. A tired Burke tries to leave the ring area but TNT grabs him from behind and rams him into the barricade. TNT drags Leo back to the rinside area and continues attacking him around the ring as the ref continues the count. Leo gets on the ring apron and is able to fight TNT off long enough to fall back in the ring and get the win by countout. TNT was not able to defeat Burke and has yet to avenge his humiliation. </p><p>MD: Full credit to TNT for all of the ways he refocused and reimagined himself during this run. You’d think that a facepainted ninja would be a bit one-note but they kept coming up with things. Here it was the mask. Anyway, he beats Burke around the ring with punches and kicks but then they do a banana peel finish where Burke just barely beats the count and gets a foot on TNT to stop him for a countout win. More meat on the bone.</p><p>EB: TNT was still furious and wanted to fight Burke but with the loss he wasn’t scheduled as Burke’s next challenger. It was Carlos Colon,who had the next title shot. But Carlos, understanding what TNT was going through in wanting to avenge the humiliation, decided to give his title shot to TNT (Carlos said it was a case of allowing TNT his chance at revenge). As the month of January came to a close, TNT now had another chance to face Leo Burke, this time with the Universal title on the line. </p><p>Next time on El Deporte de la Mil Emociones, we head into February of 1990. We'll continue following the developments in the different feuds between El Ejercito de la Justicia and El Club Deportivo. Also, more new faces make their debut as the tag team division heats up. <br /> <br /></p>Matt Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02778958512167944058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-80877778258010728672024-03-06T23:30:00.004-05:002024-03-06T23:30:00.238-05:0070's Joshi on Wednesday: Introduction<p>Kadaveri: For as long as I can remember I've always been interested in roots and beginnings. I've always been interested in history in general, right now there's a book on the Korean War sitting on my desk that I'm reading in between my wrestling fandom, but the closer to the start of something is where my interest peaks. It seems like that's the moment where a thing's true essence is formed, and everything following is an evolution of that fundamental form. This personality quirk is probably why I'm extremely interested in the current efforts of cosmologists trying to document the 21cm wavelength light emitted by the quantum transition of hydrogen atoms from aligned to anti-aligned state, as solving this would mean we could significantly expand our understanding of the universe to the time before stars (and thus, detectable light) existed…<br /><br />But anyway, back to wrestling, where doing that is not possible. Even just focusing on Joshi, its origins go back to Mildred Burke's tour of Japan in 1954, whereas the earliest footage we have comes from the mid 70s. But the aim of this project is still to get as close to the heart of this thing as we can. <br /><br />My own personal story and attachment goes back to me being just a few years into my (almost dying) wrestling fandom. I’d been one of those British schoolboys who got very much into 2000 WWF after the Royal Rumble was shown on our Channel 4, and for a year or so it felt like all the boys at school were watching it. I was one of the weirder kids who stuck around a couple more years after the fad in this country had ended, but by 2004 I’d almost entirely lost interest in watching WWE, which for me was virtually synonymous with wrestling. This all changed when I stumbled upon ‘The Wrestling Channel’ by going way too high up the Channel numbers on Sky TV. I can barely describe how much my eyes were opened seeing all the new and different wrestling in front of my eyes I had no idea even existed. I remember watching World of Sport on there, which I did know about from older relatives, but all they ever told me about was Big Daddy, and their descriptions of him did not exactly appeal to me, but the old British wrestling I was seeing was nothing like that and radically overturned my ideas of what ‘old’ wrestling looked like (they moved so fast!) There was also TNA and the Japanese promotion NOAH, and many others I can’t remember clearly now. But there was one promotion which impacted me far more than any other: GAEA Japan.<br /><br />GAEA Japan was a women’s wrestling promotion founded in 1995 by Chigusa Nagayo (not that I knew that at the time), a stylistic offshoot of AJW, the biggest women’s wrestling company ever which this project will be centred on. Although there’s no doubt that a significant part of what caught my attention was simply the fact that it was women’s wrestling and it was actually good (I hope you understand that 99% of my wrestling viewing being 2000-03 WWE left me habitually fast-forwarding all women’s matches), but there was still more to it than that. Unlike in North American wrestling, where women’s wrestling really just felt like fundamentally the same product as men’s wrestling but not done very well, these girls (the ‘GAEA Girls’ will always be my girls) had a distinct flavour to how they wrestled that would have caught my interest even if it were men wrestling like that. I eventually worked out that what I was watching was called ‘Joshi’. It’s not really accurate to call Joshi a ‘style’, it’s more of a scene/tradition in way people use the term ‘Lucha’, in that it has developed in relative isolation from the rest of wrestling and has its own traditions, tropes and tendencies even if the wrestlers themselves can be very different. It would be strange to say that Aja Kong and Chikayo Nagashima wrestle the same style, Aja is a big bullying bruiser wrestler and Chikayo is a speedy high-flying trickster, but there’s still a common essence or rhythm to how they work, and the more I watched the more I tried to dig into what that really is.<br /><br />An early memory I have of going on the internet to learn the history of Joshi was finding an old forum thread where a poster talked about having just watched some 70s footage and being stunned by what he’d seen. The popular narrative then (and still now in fact) was that the generation that came to prominence in the early 90s were great innovators who defined Joshi as we understand it now, yet already in the 1970s, the poster reported, the wrestling he was watching was unmistakable Joshi. Yes the moves were more simplistic, more primitive perhaps, but that rhythm was still there, the gritted-teeth reckless determination to win or die attitude instilled into the wrestlers and yes the fluid and sometimes flawed use of transitions… Perhaps we didn’t really understand the history of this thing at all.<br /><br />Since those days, I’ve felt a personal mission to get to the bottom of this as best I can. It can feel like a research project sometimes, like something I’m doing for homework, but even if I sometimes write in an analytic way I’m doing all of this out of passion. I am of course a huge fan of professional wrestling and believe there are many ways it can achieve greatness, and it need not necessarily be through inspiring passions. One thing I’ll say about my own personal fandom though is there’s no form of wrestling which has pulled more visceral emotional reactions out of me than Joshi at its very best. Even most recently in 2023, while it certainly wasn’t the best match of the year, no other wrestling match made me feel genuinely upset than watching Mio Momono lose her title to Mayumi Ozaki. Wrestling match as tragedy is one specific thing I think Joshi has for whatever reason been able to successfully pull off like no other scene has. It won’t be long into this project where we’ll be watching the Black Pair vs. Queen Angels in another match I’d describe as a great tragedy. Where the purpose seems to be not so much to get the audience angry at the heels, but to build an intense connection between the audience and the babyfaces in their suffering. I once saw someone compare the first Chigusa Nagayo vs. Dump Matsumoto match as Passion of the Christ as a wrestling match, and while depicting Chigusa as a religious figure would be a little too far… I still totally understand where this is coming from. So please interpret my sometimes analytic style of writing not so much as analysing the performance of the wrestling itself, but more an attempt at sober investigation into why a certain piece of wrestling evoked certain emotions out of me. <br /><br />MD: 2023 was a rewarding year on the blog as it pertains to underlooked areas of the pro wrestling world, finishing up the French footage, hitting five years without missing a week for New/Found Footage Friday, and partnering with Graham and Esteban to focus on different footage in a new way. I’d been giving some thought about what would fit well with Panama and Puerto Rico as a potential third day. Meanwhile, our old and dear friend Charles/Loss has been dutifully and brilliantly cataloging and curating the entire history of pro wrestling footage over on the <a href="https://wrestlingplaylists.substack.com/welcome" target="_blank">Wrestling Playlists project</a>. He was able to link to our French Catch reviews but noted that there was almost nothing out there for swaths of 70s and early 80s Joshi that had popped up. I don’t think SC has always done a great job covering Japanese women's wrestling in general. That and WoS feel like the two biggest gaps (we should really do a C+A Jim Breaks or Caswell Martin or Jon Cortez; maybe someday, but that’s for another year). <br /><br />Moreover, it’s not exactly my area of expertise either. I’ve seen and enjoyed some of the usual suspects, the Chigusa vs Dump feud, my share of Kandori or Ozami, but I’m certainly no expert. I barely have a working knowledge. But there is footage, and there is knowledge out there, and I thought we could do some good in trying to watch the footage and link the knowledge and make a map for people like we’ve done with the French footage and like we’ve been trying to do with Panama and 89-on Puerto Rico. In a lot of ways, anything pre-Crush Gals feels like pre-history, but we’ll be doing a lot of what we’ve done for the other projects, going chronologically, defining the players, looking for stylistics advancements and patterns, pulling in context whenever possible, trying to identify the standout matches, just trying to make sense of it all.<br /><br />Since I’ll be figuring it all out as I go, it was a no-brainer figuring out who to pair with here. When I’ve had a question about old Joshi over the last few years, Kadaveri stood out as the person that the people I would think to ask would themselves go to for answers. He’s already done some legwork on this and I’m glad he agreed to tackle this footage with me. At a glance, we have over 70 matches from 1978 and 1979, with some clips from 1975 and 1976 and one match from 1976. There’s always a chance more things might emerge as well. So starting next week we'll look at a match or two a week (with links, of course).<br /></p>Matt Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02778958512167944058noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-11819322857780143642024-03-06T00:00:00.001-05:002024-03-06T02:35:58.105-05:002022 Ongoing MOTY List: Darby/Sting vs. House of Black<p> </p><p>31. Darby Allin/Sting vs. Buddy Matthews/Brody King AEW Rampage 9/21 (Aired 9/23)</p><p>ER: So this probably isn't a Cool Guy thing to admit, but I was never a Sting Guy. Maybe it's because I didn't start watching WCW until 1997, and the only reason I knew Sting even existed before then was because of my friend Justin's wrestling buddy, which I thought was a knock off Ultimate Warrior wrestling buddy. To be clear, I was never anti-Sting, just due to era and timing he was never anyone I had any real connection to, and it is wild to me that the most connected I have ever felt to Sting is now that he's a 63 year old Terry Funk in faceprint. Old Man Sting has this crazy match formula that's like a one move Bray Wyatt match but not dogshit like those matches. He punches his way through his match until he takes a dangerous fall and spends most of the match he just works Vibes until his finisher, and it's fucking great. It just works so well and feels impossible it's happening, a Superstar Wrestling Legend boiling down Big Star wrestling to just vibes, while adding Serious Falls to your formula. It's insane and it's a direction I somehow didn't even see coming when he was working Deathmatch adjacent matches with fucking Abyss in TNA in his late 40s. </p><p>Terry Funk added a moonsault in his late 50s and it's one of the coolest things a Legendary Wrestler has ever done. "But it always looked like shit" it literally doesn't matter you baby. If you went over to your grandparents one day and he called you into the backyard and said, "Eric, you're going to love this, I've been working on this trick..." and then my grandfather attempted to moonsault off a ladder or the roof or his truck, then I don't think it would have been possible to trust my grandfather ever again. If my grandfather fell off a ladder in front of his unsuspecting grandson I would be forever scared that my grandpa was going to suddenly swerve his truck into traffic for a thrill. Sting has children and now takes bigger falls than at any point of his career and he's doing it while living a life of full financial and personal responsibility. Adding a dangerous fall into your B-Show TV Match Formula is an insane thing for a financially stable man who has lived through 13 U.S. Presidents. Sting is a thrill seeker and an addict and it's made me fascinated and captivated by Sting. He punches, he falls, the he makes a lot of faces until the finish. Why do I hate Danhausen doing the exact same thing? I have no idea. I don't know why I chose this path. </p><p>Buddy Matthews was a perfect Sting dance partner for this, so active at getting his ass kicked around by Sting, taking a break to take his own big bump and make a big catch, then back to the ring to pinball around for sexagenarian signature offense. It's a great performance to match Sting's vibe, the guy taking the important "small offense" bumps while every other person in the match took 1-3 dangerous stunt falls. Matthews gets RVD bounce taking the Death Drop and it's the perfect way to use athletic show-off bumping. Everyone else dies. Sting gets shoved off the top rope through a table and hits his head on a second table on his fall. It was incredible. Darby crashed like a sack of laundry on a blocked tope suicida, hit a high coffin drop, and fell off the stage with Brody King while getting choked. Julia Hart's bump might have been the most dangerous and unexpected of the match, with perfect placement after Great Muta finished his walk-on Carol Burnett Show appearance. It's a great spectacle, with Matthews whipping violently for a Muta dragons crew and staggering into mist, knocking Julia Hart too far off the apron, mostly beyond the table she was aiming for, a sicko landing that left the table partly broken in a silhouette of her body. Sting is indispensable.</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2022/02/2022-moty-master-list.html">2022 MOTY MASTER LIST</a></p><p><br /></p>EricRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914406276096930555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-65887948642263060922024-03-04T10:00:00.005-05:002024-03-04T10:00:00.246-05:00AEW Five Fingers of Death 2/26 - 3/3<p><b>AEW Dynamite 2/28/24</b></p><p>FTR/Eddie Kingston vs Bryan Danielson/Claudio Castagnoli/Jon Moxley</p><p>MD: If this wasn't on a PPV week, I'd give it more words. Let me go quickly. Structurally, it had to cover a lot of ground. Two commercial breaks. Two feuds. Double heat. Guys who never teamed together. A rare chance to do Danielson vs FTR. Needing to make the faces look strong even though you were putting over the heels. A lot of ground to cover. There was a wonkiness to the timing of the commercials too. They teased Danielson vs Kingston before having Bryan heel it up and avoid contact. A brief exchange or two lately and they were brawling on the floor to lead into the first break. The match probably would have been stronger with clearer pairings and exchanges but you have to factor in the masters the match was trying to serve. At least I think you do. Maybe that's why I don't do star ratings. </p><p>First heat was on Cash and the second on Dax. The Cash/Moxley interactions were molten lava. There are a few guys in the company (RUSH) that Mox just syncs with perfectly and while you might not think Cash would be in that category, you'd be wrong. There's something roiling underneath with him that he can channel in the best way. I'm very sympathetic to Dax. He wants everything to make sense. He wants everything to fit. He thinks about consequences. He strings together complex narratives. I blame myself for this for listening to the podcast and him breaking down his own matches, but I do occasionally see those strings in ways I might not have otherwise. On the one hand, it's fascinating. On the other, it takes me out of the match a little. I don't have that problem with Cash. Anyway, this built and built until it was Danielson and Kingston in the ring finally, which is how you want a match like this to go. We'll probably forget about this one in a few months but it worked very well in the moment.</p><p><b>AEW Revolution 3/3/24</b></p><p>Bryan Danielson vs Eddie Kingston</p><p>MD: I don't think we're going to forget about this one. That said, AEW puts out so many great matches on an almost weekly (if not weekly basis), and we have big stops ahead of us for both Danielson and Kingston in the months to come, I wanted to memorialize it. More than not forgetting it, I barely have to write anything. The match spoke for itself. Excalibur has been on the top of his game with these matches, hitting the high points during the matches themselves, and if you don't get it there, there's always the Danielson post-match interview where he lays it all out after Eddie leaves. But again, life moves quickly, so best to at least try to do this justice.</p><p>Much of 2023 was about Eddie Kingston's journey to become his best self. As this year goes on, he'll continue to serve as a whetstone to sharpen those around him and eventually, at some point, will have to deal with cracks in his own armor for even the best Eddie Kingston is still Eddie Kingston. For now, though, he's a constant, a paragon, consistent, stalwart. Danielson, on the other hand, is coming to grips with his own mortality the fact that his life as a full-time wrestler is winding down. You can draw a direct line through Danielson's last few big matches. He lost to Kingston in the finals of the Blue League bracket of the Continental Classic; he sought to break Eddie, was sure he could break Eddie. He could not. He defeated Hechicero, yes, but only after getting stretched and humiliated for the entirely of the match. Therefore, when he came out against Sabre, Jr., he wasn't his usual reactive, passive, opportunistic self. Instead he was aggressive, taking much of the match, even in a losing effort (one where, maybe, he had psyched himself out at the very end). I think he needed that performance against Sabre to reconfirm to himself just how good he was. This isn't a straight line. He came out weaker after the win against Hechicero and stronger after the loss to Sabre. It put him in a headspace where he could wrestle the match he wanted to wrestle against Kingston though, one where he was no longer going to try to break him mentally but to lay in wait for the right opportunity and dismantle him physically instead.</p><p>The problem for Danielson, however, is that Eddie Kingston is just a special sort of wrestler. Even though Danielson's plan played out perfectly, the benefit was limited and the struggle incessant. Danielson wrestled defensively. Usually it's more of a subtle thing, an almost Fujiwaran element to how he wrestles. Here, it was overt. His hands kept popping up to try to snatch a limb off of a Kingston strike. The problem was that Eddie was just too good at striking. It took Danielson goading him on the apron, both of them slightly off balance, to force a mistake; Eddie chopped the post and Danielson would have a wedge to pry his guard open for the rest of the match. With almost any other wrestler or even any other version of Kingston, this would be enough for Danielson to achieve his goal. It would be an academic dissection of a body part over the span of minutes. This version of Kingston, however, was just too much. It gave Danielson an edge (Kingston's shots weren't hitting as hard and he had to pause to recover in certain moments) but while it created an imbalance, Eddie was able to wrestle or tough his way out of any attempt to deepen the damage. </p><p>Danielson is endlessly adaptable, though, and he moved with fluidity from one opportunity to another. It meant that he controlled much of the match, and when Eddie came back, it even meant that he did everything right in cutting him off, in opening him up, in creating exactly what he needed, like when he kicked the hand away so that he could hit his first knee. It was just that Eddie, on this night, in this moment, was too good. For much of the duration, Danielson wrestled a perfect match. For Bryan Danielson, of all people, to wrestle a perfect match, his perfect match, and to not be able to keep someone down? Of course it drove him to distraction. Eddie had been lured into a mistake early. Danielson, disgruntled, allowed himself to make one late, getting into a striking contest with Eddie. Even one handed, the jabs and out of nowhere shots that Kingston was able to throw were heartstopping. They weren't enough to put away Danielson though. This was almost a case where both wrestlers were simply too good, a battle of attrition, trench warfare where they fought to gain inches on a map. Danielson's mistake was just a bit too late in the match. Eddie just had a bit more down the stretch. On this night, he was just slightly, ever so slightly, the better man.</p><p>But Danielson wrestled a match without regret. He had wrestled his best match, not one where he got in his own way due to preconceived biases. This time around, Danielson did not defeat himself. He gave it his all and was beaten fair and square by the best wrestler in the world today, the AEW Continental Champion, the holder of the modern Triple Crown. And you could see it after the match, as Danielson came to grips with it, and in the post-match promo after Eddie left. By losing against this wrestler after a match where he gave it everything he had, Danielson ended this small journey of his own, a journey that started and ended with Kingston, and with Okada, Hechicero, Nagata, Sabre, and Akiyama along the way. As he winds down the last half-year of his fully active career as a wrestler, he can move forward with a restored peace (and openness) of mind. And Eddie Kingston can walk forth, head held high, dragging his titles behind him, the respect of his peers warning in his beaten and battered heart.</p>Matt Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02778958512167944058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-13977268022080466112024-03-02T00:00:00.128-05:002024-03-04T08:09:09.232-05:00Found Footage Friday: 1993 WWF House Show Oakland 2/13/93<p><b>WWF House Show Oakland 2/13/93</b></p><p>MD: Richard Land (<a href="https://twitter.com/maskedwrestlers?lang=en" target="_blank">@maskedwrestlers</a> on Twitter) has launched a new service releasing rarities twice a month. It's honestly more than we can easily keep track of, which is a great thing, but we'll feed stuff into Found Footage Friday as much as we can. Reach out to him for more information. This was a house show that neither Eric or I had ever seen from a period where we have both seen a lot of house shows. </p><p>ER: This is an example of the kind of house show I would have been able to attend at age 12, had my parents not kept secret from me the entire existence of live pro wrestling. We lived about 60 miles north of Oakland/San Francisco. We went into the city regularly for Giants games, occasionally for A's games, once for a baseball card show at the Moscone center, and every Christmas season so my mom could see the big window displays at the downtown SF department stores. We would <i>not</i> have gone into the city to see professional wrestling, and I believe that my parents hid the existence of house shows from me with the same ferocity of Peggy Hill hiding the concept of Competitive Eating from Bobby. Newspaper pages were cut out, lies were told. This show happened just after my 12th birthday and this review should be filled with me sharing memories of that happy day when my father or poor mother took me to this show. But they were trying to raise me right. </p><p><br /><br />1. Tatanka vs. The Predator<br /><br />MD: The Predator is Horace Boulder with face paint. We hit this JIP and it's kind of nuts how Tatanka sets the mood immediately. Super hard chops in the corner, everything looking crisp, including an atomic drop. I've gotten the sense in revisits that I didn't appreciate Tatanka enough when I was younger, but everything looked great. He missed an elbow drop which let Predator take over. You'll be happy to know that he had the family legdrop. They worked a pretty decent grounded chinlock with the crowd absolutely going up for Tatanka's hope spots. They were hot for the opener here, especially so when Tatanka started the war dance. He absolutely flattened Predator figuratively with one final chop and then literally with the Samoan Drop. There was a reason why it wasn't just Strongbow but Wahoo as well that gave him the headdress I guess. Nice brisk opener here. I vaguely wonder if there are some great indy Tatanka matches from the late 90s we should try to find. Vaguely.</p><p>ER: I am actually a pretty big Horace Boulder Guy. Over the last 25 years of my wrestling fandom I have tried to sell more than one person in my life on the Idea of Horace Boulder/Horace Hogan. How cool is it that there was a guy who out there who was related to the biggest star in pro wrestling and even had the exact same movement, height, and posture as that biggest star, and that he also wrestled exactly the same in a lot of ways. Except that he was Hulk Hogan Without Success. He wrestled like Hogan, if opponents didn't have to treat him like Hulk Hogan and crowds didn't react to his offense as if it were being delivered by Hulk Hogan. Hulk Hogan Without Success would have been a really funny gimmick. A lot funnier than "The Predator". </p><p>The Predator is a name that invokes the scariest unkillable cool alien presence when it's associated with Arnold's machine gun biceps and John McTiernan's late 80s action perfection dominance. The name "The Predator" invokes the worst possible other horrors when associated directly with pro wrestling, and the singular <i>The</i> implies that he is the worst of them. Begging and pleading with my dad to finally take me into the city to see a wrestling show and suddenly tasked with explaining to him why this man is <i>Thee</i> Predator, and me having no answer because The Predator was a House Show Exclusive over the Winter and Summer months of 1993 and I wouldn't have understood the negative connotations of the word Predator anyway. This would have been one of only three chances for me to see Horace Boulder live in the Bay Area, a fact I wouldn't have appreciated at the time. Imagine living in Colorado and getting to sit in attendance for a Velocity taping dark match of Horace Hogan & Bull Buchanan vs. Mark Henry & Mark Jindrak? God could you imagine. Also of note, in this match, Horace was shaped <i>exactly</i> the same as Gene Snitsky. Exact same build, size, and shape. </p><p><br /><br />2. Kamala vs. Kim Chee<br /><br />MD: This show is full of stuff that I feel like we just never had on tape on any other house shows. Kamala was with Slick and didn't want to fight Kimchee at all. That let Kimchee get an early advantage until Kamala started to fight back. An errant Slick distraction allowed Kimchee to whack Kamala with something I couldn't make out given the VQ, but then he erred and went after Slick. Kamala chased him down, fought him off, and crushed him to the delight of the crowd. Post-match Slick put Kimchee's hat on Kamala, so that was fun. This was a lot of shtick in a very short period of time, but the crowd ate it up as well they should.</p><p>ER: I wonder if 1993 could be considered our best year of Steve Lombardi, in ring. I'm not sure this match would be the one for you to support that claim. In fact, it had to be a pretty great gig pulling lowest card heel duty against house show Kamala in 1993. You got to bullshit with the referee and fans for a couple of minutes, do some light cardio to get away from the former savage who you keep provoking, and then you settle in to sway your body in response to 1-3 Baba chops, stand still for the thrust kick, and run into the cross chop. Lombardi takes a really big bump over the top to the floor as Kamala exits him from the ring post match, and for something that is probably the most dangerous part of his day, he takes it in a way that would classify as a Memorable Royal Rumble Elimination on any given night. </p><p><br /><br />3. Terry Taylor vs. Typhoon<br /><br />MD: Speaking of shtick, this was the second massive physical mismatch in a row and they leaned hard into it. 93 Taylor was, in some ways, at the height of his powers and this was an absolute stall fest. He was strutting, hiding in the ropes, threatening to walk to the back. Everyone in the crowd knew that if Typhoon got his hands on Taylor, he'd lift him up with an armbar or clamp on a headlock or run him over with a shoulder block. Taylor used the ref as cover to get in a throat shot and stayed on the throat until Typhoon started to fight up. Whereas, the crowd was very much behind Tatanka because they wanted to see him triumph, them clapping up Typhoon was more about seeing Taylor get his comeuppance. His cutoff went low instead of high however, and Typhoon even went up for an ill-advised belly to back for him. Taylor then went up and out on the cover attempt, stooging himself about fifteen feet on a kickout. Taylor hitting that suplex actually meant the transition spot of Typhoon reversing a standing vertical (and propelling Taylor across the ring again) was all the more effective though. Finish was Taylor getting some distance with an eyepoke only to leap off the second turnbuckle into a powerslam that was more of a Snow Plow as Typhoon didn't quite get him around. </p><p>ER: 1993 might also be the best year of Terry Taylor, and it's hidden almost entirely on house shows. He has an out of nowhere great Raw match against Mr. Perfect in January and then after a couple more TV appearances he continued working months filling out house shows as the perfect version of himself: A heel Mark Harmon who rubbed people the wrong way with an insincere Nice Guy act. Aloof "Nice Guy" Terry Taylor is a persona that Taylor captures so well that it's one of those things clearly just already being answered by his shirt. I think I would love this match if it were just Terry airing any wrinkles out of his robe before handing it to a ringside attendant. Taylor plays this great fame of Avoid and Strut, never running from Typhoon but showing far too much confidence and acting like an idiot whenever caught. He starts a shoving match and storms the fuck out of the Coliseum, working with the kind of craft that makes 90s House Show Heel From The Territories look like the most fun job in the world. I would take Taylor's full extension slow bounce over from Typhoon's shoulderblock every damn day. Buddy Landel was never this good. 1993 Terry Taylor might be one of the greatest hidden years in wrestling. What looks like a contender for the best in-ring year of Taylor's career, happening <i>in </i>the biggest American company...but hidden almost entirely on house shows. </p><p>Taylor convincingly kicks Typhoon's ass when he takes over. His punches are great, and he acts like a shithead in between every strike. But he also gets pressed through the ropes to the floor during a pin attempt and he makes the spot look as great as it can look, like a French Catch level of comedy and grace. He takes a high backdrop and yells when splatted by an avalanche. I loved the twist before the ending, where Typhoon was ramping up for the finish and Taylor shut it down with an eye poke. I actually got tricked into thinking they were icing things down for another minute or two, until I saw Terry climb to the top. Terry leaps right into a powerslam and then maybe the best part of his whole performance happens, as he just lies flattened and motionless for a hilariously long time, the entire time Typhoon was celebrating and shaking hands with fans after. When Taylor finally starts to stir, he continues making a 90s house show heel look like the most fun job in the whole world, going around the ring claiming that he got his shoulder up in time, before finally hopping to the floor and proceeding to injure his back, limping and openly grimacing, not hiding his pain from the laughter. Terry Taylor feels like a Top 5 guy in 1993 WWF, if we actually got to see more than a handful of matches. </p><p><br /><br />4. Doink vs. Bob Backlund<br /><br />MD: I can't wait to read Eric's take on this one. That's true for the whole show, but especially this. It was, in my mind, exactly what you'd think a Backlund vs. Doink house show match would be. Just a perfect opening with Doink almost busting a lung falling over laughing at Backlund's handshake attempt followed by him hitting three measured takeovers before Backlund returned the favor with all three in quick succession. Beautiful stuff. They then took it straight to the mat just liked you want out of goofy Minnesotan wrestling machine and an evil clown, before switching over to extended holds and reversal attempts. When Backlund finally pried an arm away, he spent a good minute teasing a punch as the fans roared and the ref warned only to just go into an armbar instead; not just any, of course, as he made sure to wrench Doink up and over in the most painful manner possible. He just didn't punch him. That would have been unsportsmanlike. Not that he didn't keep teasing it. Doink, skilled harlequin that he was, turned Backlund over and started stretching him, going so far as to chucking him over the guardrail. Eventually Backlund came back and returned favor, hitting an atomic drop that sent Doink through the ropes. Both guys put absolutely everything they had into what they were doing. With Borne, it was what he had to do to get over. With Backlund, it was just who he was. Anyway, Doink was able to capitalize on being half out the ring to take out Backlund's eyes with something nefarious and he scored a quick, cheap pin. We're better off for having seen this.</p><p>ER: This is great. Historic even. It's a reason why handheld wrestling is the literal best wrestling. Handhelds capture moments that are manufactured for real people in the room that have a relaxed The Cameras Are Off vibe you would never see on TV. Doink/Backlund is a pairing that's remembered so fondly by those of us who remembered watching it as kids and seeing matwork and finding out what a fucking stump puller is. But there aren't actually that many Doink/Backlund matches, and the TV ones were under 5 minutes. This match was a different animal. This was a different animal because this was Doink working a Bob Backlund Madison Square Garden match. Bob Backlund was weird and awkward in 1993 WWF. He was like unfrozen territory babyface and it was like he had been in a Dead Zone coma for a decade and went right back to working 1983 territory wrestling babyface. And now he's doing it in Oakland, CA, which is hilarious to me. Bob Backlund is the whitest wrestler in history and here he is in Oakland, and it's the literal <i>only </i>time he's wrestled a match in Oakland. Doink is tasked with working a 20 minute match with a goofy 1980 white meat babyface in Oakland...and he succeeds by somehow working AS Bob Backlund. </p><p>Doink the Clown works this match both as Doink, but also <i>as</i> 1980 Bob Backlund, were Backlund a heel and also wearing white grease paint to darken his complexion. Backlund also works as 1980 Backlund and Doink is his heel doppelgänger in the exact same style. This is a long form, mostly quiet match, that easily could have lost the crowd's attention at any point and yet they never did once. This crowd was invested in a recreation of a Bob Backlund/Buddy Rose match from a decade prior. Doink works slow strength spots and mugs whenever Backlund is unable to break the hold, Backlund works his long armbar while Doink takes big comical Backlund bumps. Doink bumps like a clown would bump, and it's perfect. When he finally makes the ropes after Backlund's armbar, Backlund pulls him back and Doink goes flying as if shot out of a cannon. Later he takes a big bump and lands right on his butt with his legs out, like a toddler learning to walk. When Backlund finally pulls off the big atomic drop, Doink springs forward through the ropes to the floor, all leading to him taking a weapon out of his jacket to jab Backlund with. Backlund gets the DQ win and literally runs through the crowd like a maniac, like a Bruiser Brody whose goal was to hurt zero people. </p><div><br /></div><p>5. Randy Savage vs. Yokozuna <br /><br />MD: This hit just right. Savage did the babyface version of the Taylor shtick to begin. He got on the mic just to go "Ohhh Yeahhh," which by 93 was probably more than enough. He spun around after Yoko started the sumo stomps. He got back on to start a USA chant. He was just late-era WWF Savage in the full body suit holding babyface court. The match itself was pretty straightforward. Yoko dominated with his size. He had these sort of downwards aimed punches that looked devastating. He tossed Savage out and slammed him into the rail. He dropped a leg on him. Savage would try to punch up but five or six punches equaled one of Yoko's. Finally Yoko missed a splash in the corner and Savage staggered him off the top rope before Fuji intervened with the flag, toppling him. Yoko hit a belly to belly for a quick pin. Post-match, he went for the Banzai Drop, missed, and got knocked out of the ring by Savage. There wasn't much to it. It didn't go wrong. They got as much value out of it as possible and I don't think the fans were at all disappointed for what they got.</p><p>ER: Matt pointed out that yes this is essentially babyface Terry Taylor vs. heel Typhoon (even though I don't think it's anywhere close to as good as our heel Taylor/face Typhoon match) although with less on the heel side and less on the face side. It's a lesser version of that, basically. Less. But also look how damn far Macho Man flew out of the ring when Yoko threw him to the floor! He didn't have to do that. He could have taken a much more sensible bump to the floor on a house show. I love how Savage punches to his feet, loved his punches to Yokozuna's face (and how Yoko would throw his head back for them) and I loved the way Savage crumpled when Yoko put him down with one return shot. I wish they had a couple extra beats before going right into the belly to belly finish, and I wish Savage had a piece of babyface offense that looked better than his top rope axe handle. It feels like a waste to go to the top rope and only come off with a weak axe handle that looks like spatchcocked hands. </p><p><br /><br />6. Tito Santana vs. Damien DeMento<br /><br />MD: These two faced off twenty times between October 92 and the middle of 93. I would have sworn it was more. We have one of their PTW matches. DeMento more or did things right, but it didn't come off great. I'm not sure we needed another bit of early stalling after the Taylor match, even if he had the additional advantage of that special dissonance you get when a bigger guy does it with a smaller one. He took over by jamming Santana on a hip toss and hitting a clothesline. He cut him off with quick eye pokes (again dissonance). The grounded chinlock that made up a chunk of the heat worked in theory because you had someone as good as Santana fighting up out of it, but I'm not sure we needed to see it again this card. The finish was fine. Tito hit the flying forearm in the ropes. As a kid, I knew whenever he hit it and didn't get the win, which, after a certain chronological point was more often than not as his role shifted, he'd be losing. The shift to El Matador gave him El Pase de la Muerte, the shot to the back of the head, and that meant the ending of the match was more open to possibilities. Here though, DeMento landed on him on a suplex attempt back in. Maybe one too many heels going over in a row here? I probably would have liked this more in a bubble.</p><p>ER: I cans see Matt is setting me up here to be the Damien DeMento Guy, and maybe that guy is me. I am certainly more of a fan of DeMento's now than I ever have been from 1993-2021. What an odd guy to have basically existed in wrestling for only one year, the kind of guy with minimal ring experience who never would have been hired for this role in any other era. To hear DeMento tell his story, his "I had no experience but I trained with Johnny Rodz and then I worked worked 140 matches in 11 months in WWF and then retired" would sound like a whopper of a lie. "So yeah, there I was working Madison Square Garden with only 40 or so matches under my belt..." yeah sure okay bud. I don't know if DeMento was actually good, but he is a weirdo who came out of nowhere to work a full WWF schedule for a year and then returned to Pennsylvania and that's it, and that's cool. I love the energy he puts behind missed clotheslines, and his short lariat after blocking a hiptoss looked real good. I was impressed with his positioning near the ropes after taking Santana's flying forearm, and his dedication to making it look like he actually grabbed the top rope on his way back in the ring to shift his weight onto Santana. </p><p><br />7. Steiner Brothers vs. Beverly Brothers <br /><br />MD: Unsurprisingly, this was very enjoyable. Here, the shtick worked on so many levels. Beau and Blake put so much energy and enthusiasm and verve into it. They'd try to buddy up with the ref, would hide behind a security guard, would bob in and out between the ropes at high speed. And with 2024 eyes, the anticipation was all about the huge bumps you know that they - the only guys willing to face the Steiners - would be taking. They were working so big that it wasn't even about the people in the last row seeing them; it was on the hope that Verne would see them all the way from Minnesota. And the Steiners obliged, dropping them on their skull for belly to belly suplexes, power slams, and of course the Frankensteiner at the end. Meanwhile, they really kept it moving. The Steiners were constantly fighting from underneath and often retaking the offense only for the Beverlys to have to go underhanded to stay in it and take back control. </p><p>I get that in the years following this, Scott would become more and more listless in his matches and I would even say here that he wasn't necessarily working the crowd or working for the crowd, but he was entirely engaged with what his opponents were doing. You never got the sense that he wasn't trying to fight back, that he wasn't affected and incensed by everything that was happening to him, that he wasn't desperate to get revenge and to make it over to his brother for a tag. He was just laser focused on the Beverlys as opposed to channeling the crowd. It gave everything a more athletic, organic feel, and, after the hot tag, a more chaotic one with bodies flying around and timing perhaps being just a little bit off. It worked for the crowd, however, and it worked for me three decades later.</p><p>ER: I love the Beverlys/Steiners as a match. Their 1993 Rumble match might be the WWF MOTY, and Enos/Bloom should be in the discussion for Greatest Steiner Opponents. Enos and Bloom are big guys who bump huge for the Steiners, but in a way that makes it clear that these big bumps are being done by big guys. Mike Enos getting crazy height on a backdrop looked even crazier because it looked like a big man getting tossed up that high. But this is a gem because it's a Steiners/Beverlys match that we would never see on TV. Only on house shows do you get to see Scotty as face in peril, a match constructed much more around Beverlys cut off spots instead of Beverly bumps (those are still saved for the end). Mike Enos was always the praised member of the Beverlys, but Bloom is the one who shines brighter in a house show environment. He's the more expressive heel, the one better at drawing heat, the one better at arguing with the ref, the one who even goes and draws sympathy from a security guard in the aisle, and he also has better punches and stomps. The eventual hot tag was explosive and quick, the real time for Enos to shine. It's incredible to me that this is just the way Mike Enos took the frankensteiner. He wasn't just getting vertically spiked on PPV, he was doing it in front of a few thousand people, working towards that one dad in the crowd with a camcorder. Mike Enos taking the frankensteiner is one of our Great Bumps, a Minnesotan man in mustache and mullet and middle age spread doing the most complicated breakdancing head slide. It's incredible. How did the Beverlys never get a Hasbro? Enos should have had one with neck breaking action. </p><p><br />8. Crush vs. Shawn Michaels<br /><br />MD: Not entirely sure how to tackle this one. First and foremost, Sherri was at ringside as a "neutral observer" or some such. She unsurprisingly had the best offense in the match when she got to lay it in on Shawn. She was also really effective in the finish as Shawn was stalking her and she tripped over the ring steps backwards. It was generally a different match when she was involved, more visceral, more gripping. If I had never seen Michaels before, this would be my take: when he took offense early, he was bumping and stooging over the ring, but there was almost too much energy to him. It wasn't focused and channeled the way the Beverly's managed to do it. It felt much more like a guy playing a role. It was easy for him to be press slammed and otherwise tossed around by Crush and he went over the top for it when it was so inherently evident that maybe he didn't have to and it ended up subtracting from the overall effect. When he was on top, however, likely due to the fact that Crush was so much bigger and the effort did need to go into it, he was dogged and persistent and unyielding and his stuff ended up looking really good; it had to in order to be credible. He had no choice. Him putting the extra effort in there paid off whereas in the early stages, when he was stooging, it distracted. And there was nothing more real in the entire match than Michaels, irate, snatching the title belt and smashing Crush over the head to draw the DQ as he tried to check on Sherri. Nine times out of ten, a DQ like that would feel like them searching for a way out of the match. Here, it felt like an act of heated passion in the moment. </p><p>ER: I love that there is one woman captured on camera who is fully into Shawn's entire routine, unafraid to publicly like what she likes. Crush is announced at 257 which must mean Crush was working a heel Buddy Rose act. 1993 was really the peak pro wrestling year for the fried fluffed out mullet, and appropriately we get a large portion of the match built around the potential pulling and tugging of fluffy split end Rod Beck mullets. After Michaels complains immediately about a hair pull, they spend the next couple minutes with Crush holding him in a side headlock while Michaels' hand keeps drifting up towards that flowing cotton candy, the ref stopping his hand 2-3 dozen times on every side of the ring. Michaels going up for Crush's press slam is an awesome spot. Both men make it look so effortless, with the 257 lb. Crush walking Michaels and holding him up to a couple sides, more and more people getting to their feet the longer Crush has him up, dying to see Michaels thrown into the sun. I liked how Michaels' big bump to the floor focused more on the speed of getting there rather than something showy and athletic. The way he spilled made it look like a man who wasn't fully in control of the landing, even though he was. His selling for Sherri's slaps and kicks was excellent, like a man getting up from his blanket after one too many hornets makes his picnic an impossibility. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Matt Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02778958512167944058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-26851956581835159702024-02-29T23:30:00.017-05:002024-02-29T23:30:00.130-05:00 El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Welcome to 1990<p>Week 17: Welcome to 1990</p><p>EB: The year 1989 was an eventful one in Puerto Rican wrestling. A year that started with Carlos Colon vanquishing his rival Hercules Ayala and sending him packing from Puerto Rico, it included such moments as the return of Invader #1 to the ring, the arrival of Sadistic Steve Strong and his reign as Universal champion, the continued rise of TNT as a singles star, a hurricane hitting the island and postponing Aniversario, Carlos Colon being put on the shelf with a shoulder injury and making a comeback to regain the Universal title, the retirement of Invader #3, several notable names such as JYD, Jimmy Valiant, Kerry Von Erich and Ivan Koloff (among others) making appearances in the territory, and a final battle between Colon and Strong to determine who stayed on the island. It’s been a fun and learning experience for us, and I hope you’ve enjoyed and learned about Puerto Rican wrestling throughout our look at most of 1989. But time marches on and so does our journey, as the calendar now reads 1990.</p><p>The new year arrives with a new Universal champion in the form of one Leo Burke. The proclaimed master of the figure-four leglock had been able to defeat Carlos Colon thanks to weeks of repeated damage to Colon’s knee throughout their series of matches. The big blow came at La Gran Guerra where El Club Deportivo focused their post-match attack exclusively on Colon’s knee. This came to a head the next day in Mayaguez where, with the pain in his knee becoming unbearable, Carlos Colon was pinned while in the figure four leglock. While Chicky Starr celebrated that once again his stable had the Universal champion, all of the other singles titles remained in the hands of El Ejercito de la Justicia (despite the best effort of the rudos). Now, all attention is on the customary Three Kings Day show that signals the beginning of the new wrestling season. The main event is a rematch for the Universal title featuring Carlos Colon challenging new champion Leo Burke. Carlos had vowed on tv that he was working on making sure his knee got healthy in the three weeks between the season ender of 1989 and the January 6 Three Kings Day card. We also have several other title matches on the card, some stemming from issues that arose at the 1989 season ender. So let’s begin our journey through 1990 with the happenings from Three Kings day weekend.</p><p>Before getting to the Three Kings day weekend proper, let’s take a moment to recap who the champions are currently: Leo Burke (Universal), Invader #1 (Puerto Rico), TNT (Television), Miguel Perez Jr. (Caribbean) and Super Medico (World Junior). Our World tag champions are Mark & Chris Youngblood while the Caribbean tag champions are Los Mercenarios. Let’s look at where each of the other singles champions (besides Burke) are going into Three Kings Day (we’ll discuss the tag titles a bit later). </p><p>Super Medico had been in a rivalry with Brett Sawyer over the World Junior title to end 1989 but had also faced a challenge from Chicky Starr on Thanksgiving Day as well as having a series of matches with Abudda Dein. Medico was in action on Three Kings Day, although we do not have the information on who his opponent was. But as the month of January advances, a new arrival to the territory will emerge as the next challenger to the World Junior title. We’ll discuss this in more detail soon.</p><p>TNT has been fending off several of Chicky Starr’s hired guns since Chicky was embarrassed by TNT at Aniversario. As 1989 closed, TNT was helping Carlos Colon against Leo Burke and had successfully defended the TV title against Sika. While we do not know who TNT faced on Three Kings Day, he is still being targeted by El Club Deportivo. </p><p>Invader #1 had spent the latter half of 1989 feuding with several of El Profe’s men over the Puerto Rico title. But at the end of 1989, Invader was challenged by Manny Fernandez of El Club Deportivo. While Invader retained the title, the fallout from that match and from La Gran Guerra meant that they would have a rematch on January 6. One other detail that happened with Invader #1 during the holiday break was that, in a segment of El Deporte es la Solucion (a look at different sports hosted by Carlos Colon in an effort to promote and create interest for kids to try out and practice sports) Invader #1 was the guest and revealed that he was looking to form a new Invaders tag team in 1990. He also announced that his new partner would be his brother Maelo Huertas. We’ll follow this story as 1990 progresses. </p><p>Miguel Perez Jr. had taken a bit of a break from full time tag action with Huracan Castillo and had successfully defended the Caribbean title against Gary Albright. He is set to defend the title once more on January 6 against the newest member of El Club Deportivo. </p><p>Let’s now go to Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez in Bayamon for a rundown of what happened to kick off 1990. First, let’s take the opportunity to see what Gary Albright was up to in the new year. Although he was unsuccessful in capturing the Caribbean title, Albright continued to be dominant on tv. He is scheduled to face Ricky Santana on Three Kings Day. Ricky had to deal with Kokina to end 1989, let’s see how he fares against another larger opponent.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E4dne9AGrs">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E4dne9AGrs</a></p><p>As the match starts, Ricky signals that he wants the ref to toss Profe out. Ricky pumps up the crowd as referee El Vikingo talks with Profe and Albright. Gary starts motioning to the crowd to calm down and steps out of the ring with El Profe. Carlos on commentary once again talks about hoping to have managers banned from ringside (to which Chicky remarks ‘Dreaming doesn’t cost a thing, so Carlos can keep dreaming about that’). El Profe is staying at ringside as Albright gets back in the ring to begin the match. Santana continues to want Profe out of there but the ref tells him he can’t kick him out for no reason. They finally lock up and Albright gives a clean break when Santana is backed into the ropes. Another lockup sees Santana backed again into the ropes and this time Albright tries to hit a surprise blow on Santana on the break. Santana dodges and hits Albright with a chop. Albright is admonished by the ref while Santana plays to the crowd. Carlos mentions that he likes Ricky’s strategy of going slow against the powerful Albright. A third lockup sees Santana backed into the ropes and Albright breaking with a shove. Santana responds with a shove of his own which angers Albright and he charges at Ricky. The charge is dodged however, and Albright falls through the middle ropes to the outside. Santana once again celebrates in the ring as Albright is frustrated on the outside and complains that his tights were pulled. Albright gets back in the ring as Santana goes after Profe, who apparently had started insulting Ricky. Profe runs away and Santana gets back in the ring (with Hugo commenting that Ricky getting distracted may not be ideal for him if he wants to beat Albright). Carlos says that Ricky has to ignore Profe if he wants to win, while Chicky says that it’s obvious Ricky doesn't want to wrestle against Albright and is looking for any excuse to not engage. </p><p>Albright starts working over Santana’s arm as we go to a commercial break. We come back to Albright hitting punches on a dazed Santana, as Carlos on commentary is complaining about Profe distracting the referee to allow Albright to throw Santana over the top rope. Albright chokes Ricky with his boot, as Hugo says that it appears Ricky has not fully recovered from the blow he took when thrown over the top rope. Albright chokes Santana on the middle rope and then sends Santana into the ropes. Ricky counters with a sunset flip for a two count. An elbow knocks Ricky down and Albright staggers Ricky with a punch. Albright works the arm again with a hammerlock and tries to ram Santana into the corner. Ricky manages to duck down and Albright ends up hitting his shoulder on the top turnbuckle instead. Ricky tries to start a comeback but an eyerake cuts him off. Albright hits a slam and goes to the top rope, but a splash attempt is countered by Santana’s knees. This may be the opening Ricky needs. The crowd cheers Sanatana on as both men try to get to their feet. Santana manages to stagger Albright with a flurry of punches and backs Gary into a corner. Santana hits s series of standing punches on the turnbuckle and sends Albright across the ring, following up with a clothesline. A kneelift knocks Albright down and Ricky drags Albright to the post. He slams Albright’s arm into the post three times as the crowd comes alive. Back in the ring, Santana staggers Albright with a clothesline and slams him to the mat. Santana signals that he is going to the top turnbuckle and hits Albright with a top rope splash. It only gets two though. Ricky immediately goes back on offense and gets into a punch exchange with Albright. Santana staggers Albright again and whips him into the ropes. Albright counters and catches Santana off the ropes with the belly-to-belly suplex for the three count. </p><p>MD: This was a great look at exactly where Albright was developmentally. It may not have been the skill that would serve him best in years to come, but he was learning how to stooge and stall here on top of being a monster. He seemed to enjoy bounding through the ropes on a missed assault or wiping out off the top rope. I wasn’t as convinced on his transitions or cut offs (clumsy eyerake or just grabbing an arm). And he could hit the belly-to-belly explosively but generally had to set it up with a whip off the ropes. So some of the transitions here were a little iffy but overall, it was solid. Santana really fit right in with his ability to almost constantly work towards the crowd. He had a massive fiery comeback after one of those wipeout leaps from the top from Albright, including three big whacks of an arm into the post (that weren’t exactly sold). He hit his own top rope splash but just didn’t have enough in the take to put a beast like Albright away. That Albright fully survived Santana’s comeback and just took over with the belly-to-belly didn’t make for the most compelling finish but it did put over Albright as being just that tough and dangerous which made sense if he was going into a program with Colon (or even a quick match set up by what we're watching next). If I’m not mistaken, Carlos and Chicky were on commentary here, which made for some entertaining back and forth about how managers should be banned.</p><p>EB: Albright’s belly-to-belly suplex is definitely being established as a move that can come at any moment and end the match. Besides his match with Ricky Santana to start the year, Albright also had an encounter on one of the tv programs with a prominent member of El Ejercito de la Justicia.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlodJpa4IOU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlodJpa4IOU</a></p><p>Gary Albright is facing Armando Fernandez and the announcers right away mention that Fernandez is at a disadvantage both in size and power. This match is all Albright as he makes quick work of Armando. Within a minute Albright hits the belly-to-belly suplex and goes for the cover, but Albright decides to lift up Armando before the three count in order to continue dishing out more punishment. A second belly-to-belly is hit and again Albright lifts Armando up at two. The ref starts making noise at both Abright and El Profe about Albright cutting off the count again but Albright ignores him and hits a third belly-to-belly suplex. Again, Albright lifts Armando up before the three. This causes Carlos Colon (in a suit) to get in the ring and to stop Albright’s abuse of his opponent. The ref calls for the bell and awards the match to Albright by dq due to Colon entering the ring and confronting Albright. As Carlos takes off his jacket, Albright jumps Carlos and gets some blows in, including a body slam. However, Carlos counters a throw into the ropes and hits a back bodydrop on Gary before chasing him out of the ring. Carlos and Albriight jaw at each other as Carlos takes off his shirt and it looks like this may be setting up a match between them. We know that there is no extended feud between them, so it’s likely a case of this setting up a match for later in the TV taping or a one-off at a house show.</p><p>MD: Pretty effective three minutes here. Albright looks like a monster against Fernandez, clubbing down on him immediately. He hits repeated belly-to-belly suplexes off the ropes but then picks Fernandez up at two. Albright is a guy who Watts or Verne would have picked up in a heartbeat five years earlier, but the world was different in 1989-90. This was more or less how he should have been presented. It drew out Colon who interjected. Albright ambushed him but Colon was able to run him off. We’ll see in the footage to come but I don’t think they foresaw a six month program between the two like what you had with Strong, so it made sense to leave the fans wanting more but not have Colon absolutely destroyed here. There’d been enough of that in 89. Albright still came off as a threat.</p><p>EB: The start of 1990 also saw a legend arrive in the territory as the newest member of Chicky Starr’s Club Deportivo. Harley Race, who had previously made appearances as the NWA World champion back in the early 80s and who had made a return appearance to CSP for Thanksgiving 89, is wrestling on the Three Kings Day show. His opponent is Miguel Perez Jr and the Caribbean title is on the line.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0apiz2srPM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0apiz2srPM</a></p><p>As the match introductions are made, Hugo, Carlos and Chicky on commentary mention that Miguelito has a very tough opponent in the legendary and former multi-time World champion Harley Race. Chicky (the one at ringside) mugs for the camera, looking very happy to have Harley Race in his stable. As the ref checks Harley for foreign objects and the combatants jaw at each other before the match starts, Hugo and Chicky talk about Harley’s success in both the NWA and WWF and how he’s looking to continue that success in Puerto Rico (and that Chicky is over the moon having Race in El Club Deportivo). Carlos puts over the talent in CSP and says it won’t be easy for Harley. The match starts and Miguelito manages to take control early on, keeping Race off balance with a crossbody off the ropes and blocking Race’s punches after a second lockup. Miguelito slams Harley and puts Race in a standing headlock. Harley counters by sending Miguelito into the ropes and attempts to toss Perez over the top rope. Miguelito blocks the attempt but Race does it again and sends Perez flying over the top to the floor. Race goes after Miguelito and hits him with a punch to the head and then a sit down piledriver on the floor (although he didn’t get much force on it). Harley gets back in the ring as Perez tries to shake off the effects of the piledriver. The ref starts his count but Perez manages to get on the apron. Race cuts him off and guillotines Perez on the top rope. Harley kicks Miguelito off the apron and goes after him to the floor. Hugo on commentary starts asking Chicky just how he is able to get all this talent to come in under his management since it took Hugo a lot of work when he was manager to get people to come in. Chicky says that it’s because he’s intelligent. Race grabs Perez by the head to try to ram him into the post, but Miguelito counters and sends Harley head first into the ringpost. Now it’s Harley who is trying to shake off the effects of an attack. Miguelito goes on the offensive and punches and chops Race against the ring. Carlos on commentary segues into complaining about how, with all the talented wrestlers Chicky brings in, why does Chicky insist on interfering in the matches (it’s an argument that’s been going on for a few months on tv by this point and something Chicky continues to deny he does). At ringside, Perez continues to attack Race but a low blow by Harley stops Perez. Race rams Miguelito into the ringside chairs and gets back in the ring. The camera shows Miguelito on the floor holding his arm as you can see some fans trying to help him back up. Perez gets back in the ring and gets hit with a clothesline as we go to a commercial break.</p><p>Back from commercial and the tide has turned, as Miguelito whips Harley into the corner and Race takes a bump over the top turnbuckle to the floor. Perez goes after Race on the outside and starts hitting several forearms to Race’s back as Chicky at ringside gets in the ring and protests to the referee that Race was thrown over the top rope (while ignoring Race had done that to Perez earlier). The ref tells Chicky to get out of the ring as Perez slams Race’s head into the ringsteps. Race stumbles away towards the ring announcer’s table and, when Miguelito gets close, grabs the Caribbean title belt and hits several blows to Miguelito’s midsection. Race puts the title back on the table and gets back into the ring as Miguelito is down on one knee at ringside trying to recover. Race tries to suplex Perez back into the ring but Perez counters and ends up sending Race into the ropes for a roll up pin attempt. Race kicks out at two but Perez continues the attack with several punches to Harley’s head. Perez hits his powerslam finisher but Race kicks out at two! Miguelito looks frustrated as Chicky gloats on commentary. Perez tries a dropkick but Harley manages to swat him away. Miguelito holds his head as he slowly gets up, allowing Race to hook him in a fisherman suplex for the three count. Harley Race is the new Caribbean champion! </p><p>MD: Like night and day going from Albright to Race. I have my issues with, let’s say, 1980 Race, but in 1990, in PR, against guys like Perez, it’s pretty cool just to see him and see the value he adds. He took one giant bump over the top that he really shouldn’t have taken, but in general, it was more about the little things, a cut off here, a facial expression there. He took over with a Chicky distraction and a pile driver on the floor. Perez was losing this one so he was out there to look strong. That meant coming back too soon from that pile driver and the belt shot later in the match. It was another match where the heel kicked out of a big move and hit his finisher with the interference coming earlier, which maybe isn’t the best way to do it. It made more sense with Albright than it did here, but I guess you also want to put over a guy you’re going to use as a title holder as being as legitimate as possible. Outside those two qualms I liked this a lot. And Chicky was funny on commentary as Hugo was griping that when he was a manager, he couldn’t get guys as easily as Chicky could.</p><p>EB: As mentioned earlier, Manny Fernandez was facing Invader #1 in a rematch for the Puerto Rico title. While we don’t have footage of the match, Manny was able to become the Puerto Rico champion. Let’s take a look at a tv match featuring Manny against a newcomer to CSP in Nick Ayala. More importantly, this video also has a clip of a match between Invader and Manny that is from after January 6. </p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l5bNcG9zQ0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l5bNcG9zQ0</a></p><p>Ayala surprises Manny to start, hitting several moves successfully. Manny is visibly taken aback by Ayala’s initial success but gains control using his veteran experience, first by reversing Ayala’s momentum off the ropes and then by faking a test of strength and kicking Ayala in the gut. Ayala tries to counter with punches to the midsection but Manny cuts Ayala off and from there just takes over. There’s a point where Ayala is on the mat while Chicky claps enthusiastically for Manny’s handiwork (and Chicky even gets a cheapshot in once done clapping). Manny slingshots Ayala into the bottom rope throat first and just continues on the attack, finishing Ayala off with his jumping rolling elbow smash.</p><p>Immediately after this, we get a short clip of Manny taking on Invader #1. It’s the finishing stretch of what may be the January 6 rematch (it looks like they’re in Mayaguez so this match may be from January 7). Invader is in the midst of a comeback on Manny, staggering Fernandez with chops and a clothesline into the corner. Invader tries to send Manny across the ring but Manny counters and sends Invader to the corner instead. Invader manages to stop himself from hitting the corner, but Manny comes charging in from behind. However, Invader uses the ropes to steady himself and leap over Manny’s charge. Invader ends up behind Manny and rolls him up for a pin attempt. However, Manny is able to shift the momentum before the three count and ends up on top with a roll up instead. Manny grabs the tights for leverage and pins Invader for the three count. Manny quickly leaves the ring as Invader for a moment looks like he thought he had gotten the pin before Manny countered, but the referee raises Manny’s hand as the winner as Invader looks on. The ref starts motioning for the title belt as the video ends. </p><p>MD: Commentary seems to indicate this is Ayala’s debut but that doesn’t seem right. Manny gives him a bit to start (one back body drop) before clowning him for the rest of the match. Chicky is a constant presence, laughing, pointing, shrugging, whacking Ayala in the head. He doesn’t take away from Manny because Manny’s very good at taking up all of the air in the room in the first place. This was a straightforward showcase for the nefarious pairing.</p><p>EB: The Youngbloods and Los Mercenarios had a match for the World tag titles at the 1989 season ender that saw the Youngbloods retain the titles by disqualification when Los Mercenarios attacked them with the leather belts the Mercenarios were wearing. The resulting attack (where Chris was tied by the neck to the turnbuckle and Mark was repeatedly whipped by both Mercenarios) has led to a rematch occurring on Three Kings Day weekend. The World tag titles are on the line once more but in a tornado rules strap match. We don’t have the January 6 match but we do have the match from the following day in Mayaguez.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJWzmSOb6bI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJWzmSOb6bI</a></p><p>We are in Mayaguez and the Youngbloods start off hot, going right after Los Mercenarios and whipping them with the leather straps. Los Mercenarios run to the safety of the outside as the Youngbloods stand tall in the ring to the crowd’s cheers. The ref tries to calm things down so that he can attach both teams to the straps. We end up with Mark tied to Morrow and Chris tied to Acevedo. This is tornado rules, so all four men are in the ring at the same time, but to win you have to touch all four corners first without interruption. Los Mercenarios have the strategy early on of attacking the Youngblood brother not attached to them from behind, allowing them to get the upper hand when the brothers try to come to each other’s aid. Los Mercenarios choke the Youngbloods in different corners of the ring for several moments, but Chris is able to break the choke and sends Acevedo into the ropes. Chris uses the strap to clothesline Acevedo down and attacks Morrow in order to break the choke on his brother. Chris whips Acevedo and starts choking him with the strap as Mark uses his strap to attack Morrow. After a moment, Morrow is able to get away from Mark long enough to attack Chris from behind. This allows Acevedo to gain the advantage on Chris while Mark continues attacking Morrow, first by using the strap to crotch Morrow and then by whipping Morrow with the strap. One more yank on the strap between Morrow’s legs causes him to flip over onto the mat. With Morrow down, Mark tees off on Acevedo in order to get him off his brother. The Youngbloods go on the attack but Morrow cuts off Mark with a low blow. Morrow starts touching the turnbuckles and gets to three before Mark stops him. Chris then starts touching the turnbuckles and hits three of the. However, the fourth one has Acevedo waiting for him and Acevedo knocks Chris down to stop the count. Acevedo starts touching the turnbuckles as we go to commercial break. </p><p>Back from the break, and Chris sends Morrow to the outside of the ring. Mark (who is attached to Morrow) goes outside to continue the attack. Meanwhile, Chris focuses his attention on Acevedo, using the strap to whip him. Acevedo gets sent into the ropes and both Chris and Acevedo knock each other down with clotheslines. Morrow is on the outside whipping Mark with the strap as Acevedo gets up and starts touching the turnbuckles. Chris is following him though, and touches the turnbuckles after Acevedo (who is moving slowly). Acevedo hits the second turnbuckle with Chris quickly touching it as well from behind. Acevedo touches the third turnbuckle with Chris quickly touching it as well. Now it’s a matter of who gets the fourth turnbuckle. Chris hooks himself on the ropes to prevent Acevedo from reaching the last turnbuckle, which causes El Profe to jump on the ring apron and punch Chris in order to break his hold on the ropes. The referee sees this and goes after Profe and in doing so misses Acevedo crash into the fourth turnbuckle (which would have given Los Mercenarios the win). As Acevedo stands near the corner, Mark reaches out from the floor and trips up Acevedo, sending him to the mat. The ref turns around and sees Chris making a dash towards the fourth turnbuckle. The Youngbloods have won the match and retained the World tag titles. The crowd celebrates as El Profe complains to the ref. As the Youngbloods are hugging each other, Los Mercenarios and El Profe attack them from behind. Before too much damage is done, Super Medico and Ricky Santana run in to chase the rudos out of the ring. </p><p>MD: This is a strap match and was one of the more interesting looking things on paper from the new footage. Unfortunately, there’s a commercial break in the middle so we only get about six minutes of it. I think Chris was with the Cuban Assassin and Mark was with Morrow. It’s basically all action with the necessity of close quarters created by the strap keeping things moving. It was touch the corner which feels weird in a tag match but they more or less made it work with the attempts bookended by brawling and whipping, including the comedy crotching on Morrow. Finish was clever as Chris followed behind Assassin only for Profe to intervene at the last second. That distracted the ref who missed Assassin touching the last corner, allowing Chris to dive for it. The fans loved it certainly.</p><p>EB: The Universal title rematch between Leo Burke and Carlos Colon ended with interference from Chicky Starr that allowed Burke to retain the Universal title. Due to this interference, Carlos was granted another match with Leo Burke. On TV, Carlos talked about having a surprise in store for Leo and Chicky in order to neutralize any potential interference from Chicky (something Chicky said would not make a difference). Let’s go to that rematch taking place in Manati to see what Colon’s surprise is. </p><p>The match video is split into two parts. </p><p>Part 1</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t-NXbGBOpE">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t-NXbGBOpE</a></p><p>Part 2</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=382FcPLedqQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=382FcPLedqQ</a></p><p>The ring introductions are made as we see Leo Burke and Chicky Starr standing on one side of the ring, while Carlos Colon is standing with his trainer Barba Roja. Carlos has brought Barba Roja back to counter Chicky. We see Barba Roja and Chicky pointing and jawing at each other (you’ll remember that Chicky attacked Barba Roja at Aniversario before TNT intervened, which resulted in the spray can being discovered and the Universal title match being restarted). Burke and Chicky look like they want Barba Roja ejected from the ringside area but it’s not happening. The match is announced to have a 60 minute time limit. El Vikingo shows off the title belt as Chicky continues making aggressive gestures at Barba Roja, but Barba is not backing down. Chicky hides behind Burke when Barba Roja makes a move towards Chicky. The bell rings and both managers exit the ring, Barba Roja with a handshake for Carlos and Chicky with the customary pre match hug with Burke. Carlos immediately rushes towards Burke but Leo runs out of the ring and towards the direction of the locker room. For a moment, Carlos looks to give chase but decides to stay back in the ring. Barba Roja had quickly moved in case Chicky tried anything. Burke stops near the exit to the locker room but sees that Colon is not being baited by his tactic. Chicky has a strategy session with Leo as they head back to the ring area. Burke tries to set the pace in the ring but, after Carlos hits a roll up for a two count, once again bails to the outside. The commentators (Hector Moyano and Eliud Gonzalez) are talking about how Carlos has brought back his good luck charm in Barba Roja. Burke stalls in getting back in the ring (complaining about his tights being pulled) but eventually locks up again with Carlos. A clean break occurs once Carlos is backed into the corner, but Colon moves aggressively towards Burke and backs him down. Burke hits a kick and a punch, then sends Carlos into the ropes, but Colon counters with a sunset flip for a pin attempt. They are too close to the ropes and Burke breaks the pin attempt by grabbing the bottom ropes. Burke again bails to the outside to stop Colon’s momentum. Back in and Burke again bails outside after an inside cradle pin attempt by Colon.</p><p>This time when Burke gets back in the ring, he switches tactics and decides to beg off from Colon, which does not work. Colon takes over and starts working on Burke's arm. Chicky starts complaining but Barba Roja immediately moves toward Chicky in order to make sure he doesn't cause a distraction. Carlos continues getting the better of Burke for the next couple of minutes, still working the arm despite Leo’s best attempt to break out of the arm wringer. Burke tries to throw Colon through the ropes to the outside to break the armbar, but in a surprising turn Colon holds on and takes Burke with him to the outside. Colon, still not letting go of Burke’s arm on the outside, gets back in the ring dragging Leo with him. Chicky continues to try to make a move throughout but Barba Roja is right there to block him from getting near the wrestlers. Burke finally breaks out of the armbar and sends Carlos into the ropes. Carlos dodges a blow and tries to counter with a roll up from behind, but Chicky is right there and grabs Burke’s arms to hold onto him and prevent Carlos from taking Burke down. This causes Carlos to fall backwards onto the mat and get the wind knocked out of him. Barba Roja rushes over and complains to the ref about what happened. This turns the tide in Burke’s favor, who starts attacking Carlos with several knee drops. A pin attempt only gets one for Burke. Leo hits several punches on Carlos (including a jab to the throat) and hits a neckbreaker for a two count. Leo uses a leverage throw to send Carlos to the outside near where Chicky is as we go to a commercial break. During the break, we get an interview with Chicky and a newcomer by the name of Eddie Watts. It appears that Eddie has been challenging Super Medico for the World Junior title and is looking to dethrone Medico in their next encounter. We’ll follow up on this Medico vs Watts rivalry in a later installment.</p><p>Back to the match (continued in the second one of the links), Barba Roja runs over to ward off Chicky as Carlos tries to recover from being thrown to the floor. Burke goes to the outside of the ring and hits an inverted atomic drop on Colon. Chicky moves in to spit on Carlos but backs off when Barba Roja moves in as well. Burke rolls in momentarily to break the count and grabs Carlos to attempt what looks to be a piledriver. Carlos counters with a back bodydrop onto the floor. Carlos and Burke both reenter the ring but Leo is just a bit faster and gains the advantage. Burke hits several punches on a stunned Colon and starts getting confident. A second attempt at standing punches from the middle turnbuckle is countered by Colon hooking Leo in a bearhug hold and then hitting an inverted atomic drop. Carlos makes a comeback (including a cartwheel) and has Burke staggering. Both men knock each other down when colliding with a shoulder tackle off the ropes. Burke is up first and decides to go to the top turnbuckle, but he is too slow and Carlos catches him at the top. Burke is slammed off the top turnbuckle and Colon starts stomping on him, as the announcers make note that it looks like Burke is bleeding. Carlos is fired up and continues on the attack, including biting Burke in the face. Carlos gets a sleeper on Burke, who tries to roll out of it. Carlos maintains the hold on Burke, just as he did earlier with the arm wringer. Chicky, seeing Burke in trouble, gets up on the apron and starts climbing the ropes. Barba Roja sees this and jumps on the apron. Barba Roja shakes the top rope, causing Chicky to lose his balance and crotch himself on the top rope. It looks like Barba Roja has effectively neutralized Chicky and Carlos may yet regain the Universal title. Carlos slams Burke and attempts to put on the figure-four, but Burke counters with an inside cradle for two. Burke slams Carlos but Carlos grabs Leo's leg and trips him up (a move we have seen Burke do in previous matches). Carlos keeps a hold on Burke’s leg and a second attempt at the figure four by Carlos is successful. It looks like Carlos may have the match won.</p><p>However, as Burke struggles in the hold you can see that Chicky at ringside is motioning with his arms for someone to come out. It’s Manny Fernandez! Manny attacks Colon twice in an attempt to break the figure four but Carlos is not letting go of Burke. The ref tries to get Manny out of the ring, but Barba Roja comes in to try to stop Manny from continuing to interfere by applying a sleeper on Manny (after ducking a punch from Manny). This is countered by Manny ramming Barba Roja back first into the corner. Manny hits Carlos with another kneedrop and throws him over the top rope to the floor. The ref calls for the bell and the match is a disqualification win for Colon (meaning Burke retains the title). Manny goes over to Barba Roja and slams him to the mat. Carlos is out on the floor as Manny goes to the top and hits a kneedrop onto Barba Roja, the same kneedrop that severely injured Invader #3 and caused him to vomit up blood. Barba Roja is in bad shape and, before Mannty can attempt any more damage, we see Invader and TNT run in to chase Manny off. A concerned Carlos and the ringside physician also join the other tecnicos in the ring to check on Barba Roja. A camera cut shows Leo Burke hugging the Universal title belt as he’s leaving the ringside area. There’s no telling how bad Barba Roja is hurt.. </p><p>MD: Pretty great stuff here, unfortunately split into two videos. Colon had Barba Roja to counter Chicky. Burke was exceptional here. Even just in the early going, he was so good at being in the right place at the right time, slinking in and out of the ring, going from stalling to feeding for kinetic spots, back to stalling after getting his comeuppance. Great, great transition as Chicky and Burke grabbed arms as Colon was trying to roll him back off the ropes, causing Carlitos to crack his head on the mat. He came back with a big inverted atomic drop to counter a ten punch in the corner, cartwheel and all, and they went towards an exciting finish where Carlos used the sleeper hold to soften Burke up (neither had gone to the legs yet). Chicky tried to interfere but Barba Roja shook the ropes to take him out. Burke had a great nearfall small package as Colon finally went for the figure four, but Colon got it on, only for Manny to intervene. Barba Roja tried to fend him off as he did Chicky but Manny was too much for him and drew the dq, saving Burke’s title. Post-match they really ratcheted up the heat by flattening Barba Roja. Definitely one of my favorite things we’ve seen so far in this project.<br />EB: We’re off to a hot start to 1990 as El Club Deportivo now has three of the five singles titles in the promotion. They also look to have seriously injured Barba Roja. If Colon was not happy about feeling cheated out of the Universal title, you can bet that the attack on Barba Roja is going to turn into him seeking revenge.</p><p>Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, the feud between the top tecnicos and El Club Deportivo escalates as we get shifts in our feud pairings. Also, we say goodbye to some of our fall and winter of 89 regulars as we get some roster turnover. And… is that Kwang??? </p>Matt Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02778958512167944058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-74021718715801351872024-02-28T16:00:00.001-05:002024-02-28T17:38:24.739-05:00RIP Virgil: A Weekend With Vincent<p><br /></p><p>For the last 2+ years I've spent every day writing a book painstakingly reviewing every single match that took place in 1997 WCW. One of many guys making this project worth continuing has been Vincent's work as the nWo's Enforcer, the man stationed to the front lines who doesn't actually realized he's the weakest link of the coolest gang. It's a great role made greater by everything that Vincent brings to it. Here are two classic nWo Vincent performances from a summer weekend of 1997 WCW TV. These are the first two WCW reviews I've posted publicly on Segunda Caida since starting the book, and it feels Correct that my first full preview of what my WCW book will be like is to honor Vincent. A Real Character. </p><p>Each match is under 2 minutes and showcase Vincent's incredible charm. His ability to act cool without realizing he's not. I don't think anyone actually did it better. </p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzsRVCxvgjY">DDP vs. Vincent WCW Saturday Night 8/9/97</a></p><p>The story goes that Charles Wright was the guy in line to get Vincent's eventual spot in the nWo, but seeing the perfect way Vincent embodies his Lowest on the nWo Totem Pole Role, I really can't visualize what The Godfather's place would have been. Vincent's role was an important one. A wrestling stable of a certain size needs a clear weak gazelle, a man there to take bumps that the higher ups won't take and stare up at lights the higher ups will never see. Without Vincent, the nWo might be more formidable, but I'm not sure how it would <i>work</i>. Would Wright and Norton have teamed instead of Norton and Bagwell, and would Bagwell have in turn wound up as the nWo Vincent? I'm not sure if that's better, because Buff really thrives in Vicious & Delicious in ways that I don't think Kama The Extreme Fighting Machine would have. Vincent is too damn good at being exactly what he should be in the nWo and <i>to</i> the nWo that the other ways just don't make sense. Adding one guy to the bottom makes the whole group better. </p><p>Who else in the nWo would have been pinned by DDP on a Saturday Night, taking 30 seconds of a 90 second match to even lock up, reacting visually to the boos of the crowd and even flinching at DDP's <i>BANG</i>? Vincent spends the match making a beeline for the ropes any time DDP locked in a slight advantage (which was every time contact was made), sticking his body through the ropes to make the ref back DDP up, DDP kicking him in the ass while Vincent's torso is halfway out of the ring and those <i>tight</i> Guess jeans are framing his perfect set inside the ring. When Vincent finally steps to DDP he walks right into an elbow smash and jabs, a big kick to the stomach. His knees are turned to a fine powder with DDP's pancake piledriver, a move I'm surprised more guys didn't just refuse to take. Vincent takes the Diamondcutter like he was writing a manual for 2009 Christian. Heaven needed a champion, and the nWo needed a Vincent. </p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSK-AFrI7YU">The Giant vs. Vincent WCW Pro 8/10/97</a></p><p>This is incredible. This is the moment. And I fully understand why the cameras cut away from this moment, but whomever chose to do what, it was incredible. Upon entering the ring Vincent attempts to "roll" in over the top. He doesn't attempt to enter the ring like Solar with any kind of beautiful arc, but more like a guy skinning the cat <i>into</i> the ring. Rolling over the top, casually. Smoothly. Except Vincent, upon holding the top rope and rolling in, clearly gets hung up between the middle and top ropes, and so the camera cuts away for several seconds. When they cut back Vincent is only <i>just</i> getting himself untangled from the ropes. This man rolled into the ring and got hung up in the ropes like they were made of fly paper, then stood up and walked to the center of the ring like a man who didn't just loudly shit his pants while stepping into a room where all eyes were on him, casually removing his sunglasses with the biggest smile on his face. </p><p>I hold firm to my belief that Vincent knows <i>exactly</i> what character he is playing, knows his exact role on the entire roster hierarchy, and perfectly understands that he is the man who needs to act untouchably cool while also stepping on any possible rake in sight. For all we know, the camera cut was only unfortunate timing, and Vincent was actually intentionally lying across the middle rope, in the same way Jeff Jarrett lies across the ropes in the corner to taunt his opponent. But I choose to believe that Vincent was hung up in those ropes like he was caught in a tuna net, <b><i>and</i></b> that he 100% knew exactly what he was doing, <b><i>and</i></b> fully understood his role as a guy who thinks he's cool and has no actual idea that he is not, but would also do whatever it took to maintain his status as the least cool guy in the Cool Guy stable. </p><p>Getting stuck in the ropes was only the beginning of Vincent's brilliant Zero Offense performance, as the cool guy getting into the ring in the least cool way possible then tries his damndest to stay physically away from The Giant. He avoids contact as long as possible and is scared the entire time he's in the ring, and it's all perfect. He at first acts like he's merely circling behind Mark Curtis while circling the Giant with good intentions, but then he Hey Buddy claps Curtis on the back the way a stranger would when he was about to force a man into doing an unexpected illegal favor. A man passes you on the street and gives you a head not and a shoulder clap, suddenly you find yourself as a human shield. As Vincent fully hides behind Mark Curtis in the corner, Curtis - a human shield who was in no real danger - looked like he had no idea Vincent would be holding him as a shield for so long, and looked to actually be trying to wriggle away so Vincent could take his medicine. And Vincent is that, a child trying to not take medicine. </p><p>He takes comic flat back bumps when he gets thrown to his back and headbutted, gets kicked in the ass when stumbling away, dragged back into the ring as he was trying to frantically army crawl the floor on his stomach. His crossbody is caught, and Giant's backbreaker is among his most backbreaking, even though his insistence on keeping his hands balled into fists while clutching Vincent - instead of gripping Vincent's back and balls with full increased pituitarily outstretched hands - shows he is a Giant who feels shame and is no wild giant at all. He has the restraint of modern man's guilt showing through those balled fists, and it is a tell that all of Universal Studios can read. Were they to meet an actual Forest Giant, they all know that beast would have no problem gripping them squarely by the ass and genitals for any reason, and now they all know The Giant is no beast, but simply a large man who has been sadly touched by mankind's insistence on feeling shame. Imagine The Giant asking someone which ear is "the gay ear". Sad. </p><p><br /></p>EricRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914406276096930555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-61672830521733809712024-02-26T22:30:00.000-05:002024-02-26T22:30:00.291-05:00 AEW Five Fingers of Death 2/19 - 2/25<p><b>AEW Collision 2/24/24</b><br /><br />Bryan Danielson vs Jun Akiyama<br /><br />MD: One of the last couple of times I discussed Eddie Kingston, I waxed poetic on how I can write about him as if it was all real, that I barely even need to go into mechanics or subtext, because the text itself is so rich and immersive. I mentioned at the time the one other thing that popped off the top of my head as something I could do that with, Jumbo Tsuruta vs Genichiro Tenryu, especially towards the end of their rivalry in that vaunted year of 1989. By that point, the virus of violence that had infected All Japan Pro Wrestling with the arrival of Riki Choshu ("The Carrier"), and that had first infected Tenryu, was now lodged in the heart of Tsuruta. Tenryu admitted it, embraced it, used it to fuel a Revolution. Tsuruta, however, denied it, decried it, claimed himself to be an Olympian, a hero, a gentleman, an athlete, a paragon. Yet again and again, when his back was pushed against the wall, and no one could push him back or push his buttons quite as well as Tenryu, his true colors shone through.<br /><br />That leads us to Bryan Danielson, Eddie Kingston, and the year 2024. We are in the midst of Danielson's golden year, a year where he gets to wrestle Blue Panther at Arena Mexico, where he gets to wrestle Okada and Sabre, Jr. in Japan, where a round robin tournament was created just for him, and where every match feels special. He is pro wrestling's warrior monk, a man who reads three books at a time, who has absorbed all the wisdom to be found in pro wrestling and seeks for truth and meaning outside of it in a way so few of his peers can manage. He holds to the tenets of family, of hard work, of knowing one's self, of fighting through broken limbs and finding joy and humor in both the sacrosanct and the profane. <br /><br />Is it his year though? Is it really? Within the same walls, the same promotion, the same world, even, is a man who has been living out his dreams, who has been meeting his heroes and finding himself their equal, who finally, after decades of toil, has found the value in his own worth and has turned it into strength and resolve. This is a man who bet on himself, who overcame his greatest rival, Danielson's teammate, and then ultimately his greatest monster, himself. The tournament was made for Danielson. Eddie Kingston won it. In winning it, he claimed a prize of his own making, a triple crown for a new era. He beat Claudio. He beat Moxley. He beat Danielson. And why did he beat Danielson? Because while Kingston bet on himself, Danielson bet not on Danielson, but against Kingston. He bet that Kingston would break under the pressure as he almost always had before. He lost that bet. Subsequently, he lost to Okada, was stretched by Hechicero, lost to Sabre. One's left to wonder, during this capstone year of Danielson's glory, if momentum, if fate itself, has shifted to his polar opposite, has shifted to Eddie Kingston.<br /><br />And so, much as they had 35 years before with Tsuruta and Tenryu, underneath the pressure that Eddie Kingston represents, the cracks have begun to show in Bryan Danielson. They were there in the pre-match interview with Lexy, calling her out for not saying Akiyama was legendary (for Danielson is the authority on this; of course he is), declaring his respect for Akiyama but stating clearly and firmly that he was about to beat him in front of Kingston, and more than anything else, seething over Kingston's lack of professionalism, for Danielson holds himself and those around him to a impeccable standard.<br /><br />Then came the match itself. Danielson cupped his ear to call to the crowd, playing to them more so than usual, as if he needed to ensure that Akiyama, despite being a legend, wouldn't be cheered over him. He broke clean with the first contact, but put his hands out and then up, making a big deal of it, showing everyone that he was the professional gentleman athlete. Twice in the match, including right before the finish, he started the Yes chants, something he almost never does now. He did it in the first Okada match but it was to help paste over the injury. This was entirely different. He threw Germans in a way that he wouldn't normally, and I half wonder if it wasn't to set up a fighting spirit moment of suplex trading with Akiyama, just to show he could. In years' past, almost none of this would be necessary, because Danielson had nothing to prove to anyone; he was wrestling this match like he needed to prove something to the crowd, to Kingston, to himself. And he did prove something, surviving the clash of knees, putting Akiyama down, even shaking his hand gracious like a professional. But then cracks became fissures. He looked to Eddie, rubbed it in with his middle finger, and when Akiyama took offense, Danielson backpedaled before turning a second shake into a unconscionable low blow. <br /><br />This was a dream match of sorts, but one caught within certain limitations: time, scale, age. Moreover, it had to serve the moment, to serve a greater purpose, nominally as part of Danielson's golden year, but in truth, a key stop on the road to Revolution and two world views, two differing mentalities, two philosophies of pro wrestling and life clashing against one another. So while it may not have been a perfect match (and I could write another paragraph on Nigel valiantly cashing in his built up credibility for a very good cause during the commercial break, but it would be too much a digression), it perfectly served its purpose to be the straw that broke the camel's back and pushed Danielson over the edge.</p>Matt Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02778958512167944058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32047426.post-63358663992144131642024-02-25T15:00:00.001-05:002024-02-25T15:49:04.774-05:002023 Ongoing MOTY List: Darby/Orange vs. Gates of Agony<p> </p><p>7. Darby Allin/Orange Cassidy vs. Toa Liona/Bishop Kaun AEW Dynamite 5/31</p><p>ER: Yeah, I'm pretty in the bag for Darby Allin matches and I can't see what can drag me out of the bag at this point. I was a huge Spike Dudley fan and that was without Spike running as fast and hard into his opponents as possible. Spike sprinted headlong into danger like few else, while Darby does exactly the same, somehow endures the punishment, then throws his own body as a weapon. He is weapon and he is a projectile and he has the ability to be thrown so hard that I can only watch captivated while not thinking of a day where his body while suddenly shatter into a million pieces. Darby Allin is a supernova who will explode into stardust while doing something stupid like getting pounced out of the air on a tope en reversa or being dropped back first onto the top turnbuckle. Nobody gets blown up like Darby, nobody offers as much of himself in recompense, nobody but Darby has issue taking as much punishment during his opponents' swarms as during his own triumphs. Imagine if Ricky Morton had also murdered himself during his end of match comebacks, or if Spike Dudley's matches had finished not with a cooperative bulldog but with him throwing his own body even more violently into his opponent than they had just been throwing him. </p><p>I liked Bishop Kaun's match against Dustin a couple weeks before this, but I liked it because I thought it was Another Excellent Dustin Match where he bled a ton for no real reason on a B-show and thought Kaun could have been just as well have been 50 other guys on the roster. It was a Dustin match and Kaun was interchangeable. Here, with two smaller opponents, Kaun and Toa looked exactly like the monsters they're championed as. They leaned in for all of Darby's blows and because of the size difference, Darby got to hit them as hard as possible. Darby is fearless, and the sequences where he slaps Toa across the face and then pays for that for the next couple minutes is key to everything. Kaun whipping Darby into railings while Toa sprints around the ring to upend OC, running almost so hard that he nearly flies into the crowd himself; later you can see Darby running full speed back and forth into the corners to send all his weight into these beasts, and you can see the rag in their faces as they get suckered into running after him just as hard. I love moments like Darby using an Irish whip to knock Kaun off the apron, even though it slows him down enough to leave him prone for a nasty Toa hip attack. </p><p>The timing of everything was - and seemingly always is - so good when Darby is in there directing traffic with his adamantium skeleton. The way he smacks Toa around with back elbows and ducks a big swinging arm just in time for OC to hit the Orange Punch, allowing Darby to hit his cannonball tope which is now so expected that it's almost easy to forget how much of an all time great tope it is. I remember buying a lucha tape and seeing Black Warrior hit a tope so hard that it flipped him upside down on collision, making the tope read like a car crash with the physics causing the elements to fly off into their own trajectories. Darby's topes always look like a man was trying to sneak through a more-red-than-yellow light and getting t-boned, and Darby is the world's most durable Yugo. </p><p>Also, as someone who used to not be amused in any way by Orange Cassidy, he is one of my favorite babyfaces now. I get excited to hear Starship, I give a thumbs up with my thumb barely extended, and I flipped out for how hard he crashed onto his tailbone while hitting Stun Dog, holding Toa in place for a code red. I am a full on OC Guy now. That said, he's even better when Darby is the one setting up the timing of the misdirections. Darby just makes everyone stronger. </p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2023/07/2023-moty-master-list.html">2023 MOTY MASTER LIST</a></p><p><br /></p>EricRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00914406276096930555noreply@blogger.com0