Found Footage Friday: PARK IN PANAMA~! LAWLER~! CHRSTOPHER~! KING~! STARR~! PORKY~! GRUNDY~!

Principe Island vs. Sandokan Panama 1988/89

MD: Almost certainly, Principe Island is LA Park. He's got be around 23 here. Overall, this is a pretty impressive apuestas match to have in his "pre-history." He ambushed Sandokan to start and the primera was bloody and visceral. We lose about twenty seconds to static and when we come back, he's got Sandokan down and is biting the wound. That sums it up pretty well. He ends it with an impressive flurry of bounding back into the ring, over the ropes, and then hitting a flipping dive off the apron, before launching a back flipping kick in the ring for the pin. Occasionally some of his kicks look off and he's a half step behind on feeding for bits of the comeback, but overall he does very well here. That comeback is good despite that, by the way. Sandokan ducks punches and hits big ones of his own to the crowd's delight and then he's able to turn a jumping Principe knee into a back body drop. Pretty rousing stuff. 

Then they really go all out for the tercera, with both guys missing moves off the top rope (Principe missing a senton atomico) and hitting dives (Principe with a bit tope and Sandokan flying off the top to the floor). It's an exciting stretch at the end with a fight over who would hit a move off the top (Sandokan eventually gets a superplex) and a ref bump leading to Principe scoring a phantom submission. When he went to celebrate, Sandokan got behind him, holding him up in an electric chair position while on the second rope and dropping back for the win. You can never get a sense of how full these arenas are because so many people are out of their seats mobbing the ring side area. Post match, Principe seemed to make it through the various stages of grief as he walks around trying to not have his mask taken off by Sandokan. I'm not sure he ever quite gets to acceptance though, as he's still jawing on the mic with his mask off at the end. Not perfect, but a very good overall performance for young Park.

PAS: What a discovery! This is a bloody wild lucha apuestas with one of the all time greatest wild bloody lucha apuestas workers as a pup. The crowd was seemingly on the verge of a riot the whole time, and I thought we might get Park brawling with the fans when he spilled into them. Loved the early violent beatdown on Sandokan: Park busts a bottle over his head to start and grinds the pieces of glass into his head, cutting him badly. He also throws a classic Park chairshot where he let it go as he swung it so it careened awkwardly into Sadokan's head. Sadokan is a real discovery too. We have enough footage now to really get a sense of him as a top level local charismatic babyface brawler, kind of a Panamanian Colon, with some big dives and hard stiff punches mixed in. Matt mentioned a bit of awkwardness but I like my apuestas to be a bit raggedy. I thought this was completely awesome, one of the greatest unearthed pieces of footage we have found since this project started. 

ER: This was tremendous. An apuestas match that really felt like an apuestas, that universal wrestling language we've seen is that way because it works regardless of language or era. Not too long ago we knew collectively very little about the Panamanian lucha scene, and now we have this cool snapshot of local babyface legend Sandokan, who really does seem like Panama's Carlos Colon. At this point I'm going to need to see the Costa Rican Carlos Colon, and the El Salvadoran Carlos Colon, I'm sure there's someone similar in Honduras, and I'm going to need to see the LA Park matches with all of them. Panama is nowhere near Mexico City, so I have no clue how often Park was going down that way, who facilitated his trips there, nothing. I know how often I've driven from the Bay Area to Omaha, NE - the same distance from Mexico City to Panama - and that's zero times baby. Park is just showing up 1500 miles away making locals bleed and starting near riots. He bloodies up Sandokan and runs him mouth first down the apron into a ringpost, then gives him a real LA Park chairshot with an open metal folding chair. It's a real beating, with hard right hands and plenty of flash (I can't imagine cannonballs off the apron were anywhere near the norm in late 80s Panama) while also bashing Sandokan into the ring steps. 

He bumps huge for Sandokan's comebacks and knows exactly when to act cutthroat and when to get his ass beat. Sandokan has great babyface punches and Park's bumping takes over the rest. Park bumps like Jerry Estrada (or, like LA Park), taking essentially four straight backdrops, the 4th sending him flying head first flipping through the ropes to the concrete, goes up for a big spinning backbreaker, takes a nasty full extension stretched out bump into the ringpost, always managing to out-bump Sandokan x2. Sandokan misses a big top rope splash? Just look how high Principe is going to bounce on his missed flipping senton. The ramped up flying is cool, with Park's tope suicida and Sandokan's plancha leading to believable moments of each man barely beating the count, and there's a cool superplex where Park tried to drag Sandokan up to the top turnbuckle by his ears before getting thrown off. If you have to have some drama at the finish, I at least like how this was done. The referee gets knocked to the floor in a big bump, and Park gets the ref-less win after a back suplex. As he's celebrating on the turnbuckles, he eats a flat out crazy electric chair drop off the middle buckle, and the post-match unmasking and mic work sounds heated as hell. I'm going to need any and all unseen La Parka footage, and at this point I want to see more big Sandokan title matches. Model citizen, zero discipline. 

Brazo de Plata vs. Aaron Grundy (Mike Shaw) CMLL 12/15/92

MD: This is hair vs hair. It's 6 minutes, two per fall. It's a Porky hair match so we pretty much have to cover it at some point and it's ok, you know? I'm sure people knew what they were getting here: big guys crashing into each other over a short period of time. Grundy had the advantage to start and did beat Porky around the ring. He took a shot to the post on the outside but no color. He ate a clothesline (meaty enough) in the ring and a pretty woeful splash from Grundy. Porky's big comeback in the segunda (after a missed corner charge) was an unlikely slam and an iffy splash of his own. The tercera saw Grundy take back over with a pokey punch after a handshake lure-in, but he had the good manners to miss a splash off the second turnbuckle and this time Porky got some air on his splash. This was clipped so we just had the action and a few seconds of the haircut but you can't really say that these guys didn't do what they set out to do. And hey, Shaw had nice headbutts, an ok clothesline, some decent punches in there, even if he was no Tugboat on his big splash.

ER: It would be easy to view this match as a disappointment, because I don't think it's possible to have a wholly fulfilling three falls hair vs. hair match that is less than 6 minutes of footage. Super Porky is one of my favorite big match workers and I was dying to see what he could do with Mike Shaw a mere four months before Friar Ferguson's debut/final match. This match just might be the final time that Mike Shaw ever looked like a normal human being. He's a big fat guy of course but his red singlet actually fits him, and he has a nice lush beard that covers up his goiter-like swollen bullfrog neck area. Losing his hair to Super Porky clearly made him go insane, and the man never had a normal head of hair, beard, or eyebrows past Christmas '92. So outside of the weirdness of seeing the last normal glimpse of Mike Shaw, you got a tremendous small scale Porky selling performance. 

I always talk about how Jerry Lawler is not only the greatest puncher in history, but he's the greatest punch salesman in history. He knows how to sell his own punches, and how to sell his opponent's punches better than anyone. Well, of all the praise I've heaped on Porky over the years, I don't think I've ever talked about how Porky is one of the great punch salesman in wrestling history. This match gets sincerely great when Grundy starts throwing punches directly at Porky's poor overworked heart. Grundy clearly starts targeting the ever sensitive heart of Brazo de Plata, and I love how Porky sold each one of the shots. He was in their recoiling from the blows, treating smaller shots like he was dealing with some rough heartburn (I now need to see a handheld where Porky chomps through a handful of Tums before spitting out a chalky mist after getting punched again), and as the punches get harder (and Grundy threw some awesome punches at our big boy's heart) Porky starts recoiling with his whole body, rubbing at his chest and desperately trying to create space before his ticker stops for good. Everything else in the match was rushed or a bit underwhelming - no matter how endlessly entertaining it is to see Mike Shaw throw a standing splash that is literally him just falling forward without leaving the ground an inch, his ugly missed splash off the middle at least had to have hurt his knees - but Porky getting his heart attacked was amazing. You can't ask much more from a 5 minute pro wrestling match than "an obese man tried to force his fat opponent into cardiac arrest". 

Jerry Lawler/Brian Christopher vs. Derrick King/Dustin Starr LAW 8/29/04

MD: This was the main event of the Lethal Action Wrestling 2nd Anniversary show and it was basically the Lawler Family Comedy hour. Before the match got going, Christopher did both his whole dance routine and threw his beads and Lawler seemed like a proud father for how into the crowd was, even if he refused to take the imaginary shovel. It's a little sad to think this was after Christopher's national run was basically over. Lawler's comedy was pretty funny here. They ended up riding both of the heels like bulls; Lawler did a fun dropdown bit off rope running; and the best part was King pulling the strap down fighting out of the corner and Lawler patiently putting it back on before clocking him. 

In general, whenever King and Lawler were in there together it was at least great, but it was probably just fun the rest of the time. The finish was someone sneaking King a chain and him actually getting to pin Jerry so that's probably why Team Lawler took so much of this. The heels started some real control on Christopher and that was fine (even if Starr was probably a half step behind what he might have done a couple of years later) but it was a bit too little, too late to put any drama into this. Lawler rushed in after the hot tag and really crushed everyone though, immediately dropping the strap and hitting some of his better stunners. It's always nice to see Lawler and Christopher as an over babyface team together, but the way this was structured meant that this had a relatively low ceiling, even if it did have a fairly high floor.

ER: This is a match that takes its time getting to where it's going. It also keeps the whole crowd of children and adults wildly entertained with a match that at times felt like something put on for an elementary school. This was a full Brian Christopher Go Brian Go babyface match, started with a 10 minute comedy stretch before building to some punch throwing, and was a 20 minute match with Lawler/Christopher taking at least 90% of it. I didn't care for some of it, Brian Christopher is in for most of the match while Lawler just laughs at G-Rated Brian antics. But then there are some incredibly inspired sections where Lawler and Derrick King work the exact type of match I want to see. Everything Lawler and King do against each other is the exact reason you'd be watching this 25 minute match. You knew the punch exchanges would be good, but you wouldn't have been able to predict the tights game on display. 

Lawler is in flamingo hot pink trunks and singlet, with black pink and turquoise tights paint splatter tights. It's an incredible combo, and one you'd have never guessed he was sporting back in 2004. This is a 1991-1994 era tights and singlet combo. I mean that singlet is PINK. I don't associate bubblegum and splatter paint with the 2nd George W. Bush term. Lawler must have shared his notes with King, because King is wearing his own set of hot pink trunks and singlet with some colorful big stars on his tights. It's nothing at all like anything that was happening in 2004. But the punches in the corner are universal. Derrick King has the best punches in the match. Lawler finally throws some good ones but King's are supreme. King throws a fistdrop and excellent right hooks, and the match peaks when King takes his strap down only for Lawler to slide it back up like Bugs Bunny and deck him. It's perfect, and it almost makes you forget about Lawler dishing out middle fingers and the worst looking Stone Cold Stunners you've seen. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LA PARK

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE JERRY LAWLER

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New Footage Friday: POWER TWINS EXPLODE! MASCARITA! FLAIR! OLE! GRUNDY'S EXPLODE! VAMP! CHICANA!

 Ric Flair vs. Ole Anderson NWA 10/17/81

MD: I've never heard anyone talk about this one, so it's new enough for our purposes. We don't have nearly enough 80-81 babyface Flair for my liking, so every bit helps. There's a different energy to him than in later years, or the same energy but channeled differently. It's a strap match where they spend the first chunk with Ole trying to grind on holds (maybe because this followed what was likely a chop-heavy Wahoo vs Piper match) and then later escalate to the win attempts and using the strap as the weapon. The crowd and the later match violence make the earlier parts ok even if they're not what you immediately want. They flub it once and Ole touches all corners and that gives the fans some confusion but everyone recovers and the run-in finish still feels pretty satisfying. 

PAS: I always enjoy when Ole works an arm, he has a really workmanlike sadism to him, like a cruel prison guard in a movie.  He doesn't really care this is a strap match, he is going to tear up the arm and there isn't much anyone can do to stop him. Babyface Flair has a real kinetic energy too him, and his fired up comeback is like something you would expect from Eddie Guerrero. The strapping near the end was nasty stuff and I like how both guys got more desperate. This was a really good match, a chance to see Flair against a rare opponent and see how he adjusts to a different type of match. 

Vampiro Casanova/Sangre Chicana vs. Solomon Grundy/Aaron Grundy 92

MD: Hey, if we count Flair and Ole as cousins, this is a family feud week on NFF. This was a parejas match where the losing team had to then fight in an apuestas match. Aaron is Mike Shaw and he starts out hugging Vampiro before going full rudo on him. Chicana bumped and stooged for Grundy well enough but he was definitely the least featured guy in this one. I liked Shaw's vertical big splash foul as it felt like a very appropriate lucha finisher. They built well to Grundy vs Grundy though there's never a lot to these post-tag apuesta matches. This was fun but not as fun as a straight tag between these guys would have been.

PAS: You want to see more Sangre Chicana in the mix when you look at the on paper match up, and we got a whole heck of a lot of Vampiro. I enjoyed the Grundy's use of their fat, and I agree the splash foul was great stuff. Still this underwhelmed for a big stips match, and the final showdown was much more about the outside interference than two fat guys in overalls hitting each other. 

ER: I actually thought this was a great Vampiro performance, which isn't really a sentence that I find myself typing that often. Vampiro bumped all around the ring and ringside for Aaron Grundy's fatness, and when it was time to fire back he threw actual good punches and then shook his fist out after! It is wrestling fact that any wrestler who shakes out their fist after a punch - regardless of quality of punch - is automatically a Good Wrestler. There are zero examples countering this. You shake out your fist after a punch, you are good. Similarly, if you are a heel and point to your head after doing basically anything, you are automatically a Good Wrestler. This whole thing is chaos, as the Grundy's are attacking each other and Vampiro is attacking Chicana, loved when Aaron hit Solomon on the apron with a chair and then turned right around and hit Vampiro. This is a man with a strategy! The chaos was fun even though it made for a bad traditional match, I loved how the big splashes looked and loved the constantly shifting allegiances. Also, looking at Shaw, and it's unfathomable that Vince didn't get excited seeing him as an overalls wearing hillbilly. That is a wrestler look Vince adores, and it's so weird he opted to turn him into Bastion Booger, with gear that just cannot be explained by anyone. Shaw looked cool with the shaved head and beard, but apparently Vince saw him with the shaved head and thought "You know? Ditch the beard. Also, the eyebrows."

Konnan/Mascarita Sagrada/Wendi Richter/Power Twin 1 vs. Mario Savoldi/Espectrito/Madusa/Power Twin 2 IWAS 7/93

MD: Absolute blast. There was so much going on here, so many spots, so much riffing and goofing, with Ted Petty (unmasked) being a grade A stooge. You could hear a ton of chatter here, and some of that was Konnan directing traffic, but a lot of it ended up sounding like a Popeye cartoon or Army of Darkness or whatever, with Madusa muttering at everyone and just all sorts of foolishness. Power Twins explode was not something I knew I wanted to see but they really leaned into it. This was all over the place, from some really good mini action to Madusa just ambling around the ring with no one letting her do anything, and it fell apart multiple times, but it was so wildly entertaining that it was exactly what we needed during this insane week.

PAS: This was a bunch of fun, really the perfect kind of touring match to bring to a place like the Philippines. I am really surprised that these kind of AAA mixed matches never caught on in the US, great way to fill a card and multi man matches are a great way to hide limited workers. I think Power Twin vs. Power Twin was my favorite part, as they had almost a Brazos interaction with each other with both guys alternating as the aggrieved Super Porky. I thought the heels playing catch with Mascarita was fun, and the payoff of Espectrito being too heavy to lift was great. Fun Petty performance too, it is strange he ended up only getting to big leagues late in his career, he was such a talented performer.  

ER: I agree with Phil, the AAA man/woman/mini/exotico match was one of my favorite match formats in lucha, and always played great in front of non-lucha crowds (I always remember the great version of that match that happened in Hustle). This one is a bizarre and cool twist on that format as it replaces the exotico on each side a freaking POWER TWIN! Adding a large adult twins to either side of a multiman just automatically makes a match recommendable. One unheralded great thing about the Power Twins was that not only did they wear matching singlets and have the same shaped body (I've never understood that, do they eat they exact same meals and do the exact same exercises and walk the same number of steps? How are twins this old still this identical?) but they are also balding in the EXACT same way and that rules. It's easy to like a match where it looks like everyone is having a fun time together, and these people were clearly loving performing in front of this crowd. The fans ate up all the Sagrada/Espectrito exchanges, and they brought a lot of unique shtick that really impressed me. What impressed me was the fact that it seemed like everyone in the match was wholly involved in the shtick, they were all working the bit. Often you get one guy who is good at it (and here that was Ted Petty and stunningly Madusa) and the others work a straight match and let that guy work his shtick. But we had some great group effort on bits here, and that's where the match excelled. I loved Madusa's chatter, she was so good at setting up cheating or setting up Petty to do something fun. Ted Petty worked this match like a more pratfall comedy version of The Sheik, and well, obviously that was going to be great. My favorite thing was when he ran into the ring to attack a Power Twin, and then immediately after paused, wondering if he had attacked the correct Twin,. Honestly the main thing this was missing - and would have been legendary - is if the Power Twins had switched teams at some point and then did a "we're upset because nobody noticed" bit. 

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