Found Footage Friday: APACHE~! SKAYDE~! HECHICERO~! RAYO~! FIERA~! LUCERO~! SANGRE~! ULTIMO~! ATLANTIS~!

Gran Apache vs. Skayde DTU 4/18/10

MD: We're all happy that Black Terry, Jr. is posting matches. He's posted this one here and on Facebook, so give him clicks:  https://www.facebook.com/reel/1681600072845956. Here we got up close and personal for a super enjoyable encounter. Apache was able to keep up with Skyde on the mat the whole way through and had a bunch of thunking power moves, while also bringing multiple dropkicks, a moonsault attempt in the middle, and then the two dives at the end. There was something a little clunky about him at times. When he went over for the rolling Boston crab set up for a rowboat, he had a hard time getting over, but it never felt collaborative. It just added to the grit, and, in my mind, set up the finish where while he took Skyde out, he was spent from the effort he put in on the dives and couldn't beat the count either. 

What made this jump off the screen, however, was how sharp the holds were. They were so good at unlocking holds with little shots and bits of positioning: a twist of the arm one way so as to twist it another, a cradle that wasn't meant to be a pin but to set up the next hold, a transition from a kickout right into the next thing. For the most part Apache pressed the advantage. He had bit of a size, came off as an all arounder. Where he stumbled was not accounting for the fact that one side of the ring happened to have barbed wire all over it and he careened into it on rope running. Later on, there was a bit of added drama that for him to get a rope break on a hold, he'd have to grab the ropes on that side of the ring. It didn't play into the match too much past that but it created a more interesting environment for them to joust in.

While the crowd groaned a bit at the finish, they had no reason to complain with the action up til then. Apparently BT, Jr. is going to be posting every Monday so we'll have lots to look at over time. 

PAS: The 2010's period when Black Terry Jr. was just releasing incredible indy lucha every week (and we would get new FUTEN shows) was one of the most rewarding periods of my pro-wrestling fandom. IWRG and the smaller lucha promotions were just on fire, awesome cool matches every week with guys like Black Terry, Negro Navarro, Dr. Cerebro and many more just killing it. Lots of that stuff has been only sporadically available in recent years, and I am pretty sure this is a match which is completely new. Apache is a guy who dipped into that 2010s indy lucha world, but wasn't a mainstay, so it is especially neat to get to see him stretch, and more Skayde is also always a treat. This is a match which just fulfilled expectations, I came in expecting great looking Llave, some cool exchanges and a little Apache high flying and it just checked the boxes. My expectations are pretty high for this stuff, and while it didn't exceed them, just hitting them is pretty great.  

ER: Had I been there live this is something I still would be thinking about. Black Terry Jr. is back and puts you in the front row of lost lucha libre like few. Phil isn't exaggerating about how much the original BTJ handhelds meant to his fandom, I remember all the excited phone calls and texts about every single new upload, leading down the Black Terry rabbit hole, documenting some of the coolest lucha that had mostly to that point gone unseen by all but the most dedicated lucha heads. I don't think I've ever seen Gran Apache in any of BTJ's handhelds, and the sight of Apache in an environment like this looks totally foreign to me. It's beautiful. Live, seeing two old guys (well, 50 and 45, youthful for our brand of lucha) working llave and the hardest fucking mat possible, it's the thing I want from my lucha. We see them fully up close rolling through exchanges, Apache rolling through leg locks that get tighter with each roll, going through what feels like a 12 step process to knot up Skayde's legs. Apache's llave somehow looks more graceful while Skayde's moves more heavily. I don't mean that as an insult to Skayde's work, I thought the heaviness added to the pendulum swings of his llave, his floating majistral looking like an act of magic physics rather than fast Quackenbush precision. Skayde's single legs and cinched in crabs looked ligament tearing, and Apache is wise to just start slapping and punching him the longer we go. 

Apache's punches and slaps were one of the first things that got me into actual lucha libre, believe it or not. I was mostly familiar with lucha through WCW, and Psychosis/Rey/Juvy matches from Japan or ECW. When my family finally got cable TV in the year 2000 it wasn't long before I found Galavision, and discovered Gran Apache slapping the shit out of Oscar Sevilla in his little Sears portrait matador suit. I was fully onboard the Apache express from one match, and here every punch and slap to Skayde brought me back to those first ones I saw. I never got to see Apache live (I saw Skayde once, during a period where he had gained weight and got outshone by a 60 year old Solar) and the sound of his strikes live must have been incredible. 

7 minutes into this I yelled "There's barbed wire in there?!" to my living room, as BT Jr. had kept that angle hidden. There's a whole side of the ring with barbed wire around the ropes and while these men mostly stay away from the wire, Apache does accidentally hit it once and yelps loudly, a hilarious camera reveal. It also leads to my actual favorite shot, late in the match, as Apache punches Skayde in the face. The afternoon sun glows behind them and The Barbed Wire Side of the Ring looms in the foreground unused, the kind of lucha vision only seen in outdoor tent lucha. Now that BTJ is back, who knows how many more similar visions we will see. We'll write about every one. 

Caifan Rockero I vs. Rey Hechicero 2/13/09

MD: Likewise, Rob's gone through a channel posting a ton of things and pried out what seems to be new or lost or recovered, perfect for us. And for us, it doesn't get too much more perfect than an incredibly blurry match between Caifan and Hechicero from 09. I'm pretty certain AEW fans have no idea how old Hechicero is and how long he's been doing this. I saw my share of his stuff back when I first started getting into lucha, including an apuestas match with Caifan from a year after this one, so this is like going home in some ways.

They go almost 30 and it feels like a series of a hundred mostly disconnected exchanges, each one interesting and experimental in its own right. They're all full of struggle. For a lot of it, Caifan is the aggressor and Hechicero has to get out of something, though he has his share of hefting Caifan up as well. Sometimes it's clear what they're going for and it works beautifully. Sometimes you're left to wonder. There's a shoulder breaker Hechicero does twenty minutes in where I'm not sure if that's what he meant to start with. Other times, though, the struggle is wonderful. When Hechicero went for a tapitia, he only got it after slamming Caifan's head into the mat a few times in a way that I'm not sure I've ever quite seen; simple but it worked very well within the sequence. Caifan hit his arm cradle suplex twice. There was a bit more of a sense of build for the second one, but you still wonder about him having to go to the well in such a long match like that.

They did escalate to rope running but then they'd take it back down. So much as there was a narrative, it was one of increasing exhaustion and damage over time. You believed it because they were doing so much. The moves did get bigger to a degree, more off the top, for instance. When Hechicero finally stunned Caifan enough to get the hold he really wanted, it felt more like him outlasting Caifan than anything else. I wouldn't call this particularly focused, but it was certainly imaginative and fun. 

Atlantis/Rayo De Jalisco Jr./Ultimo Dragon vs. La Fiera/Sangre Chicana/Charles Lucero 9/6/92 Plaza De Toros Monumental

MD: Lucero was a replacement for Tugboat Tyler. They didn't even update the graphics. But he's part of what made this fun. We've seen the rest of these guys go at it, and yeah, I'll always be glad to see Chicana and Fiera, but a relatively young (relative to a lot of the footage we have of him fifteen years later) Lucero in the mix was novel.

A lot of this is the rudos stooging all over the place, Lucero pretending Atlantis fouled him, Fiera having Ultimo run over his back, everyone playing into Rayo's act. Again, some of the novelty is seeing Lucero feed into it. Eventually Chicana punches Rayo in the skull while he has a hold on and the rudos take over. Atlantis comes back with a chair on Chicana and it feels a little unwarranted maybe but who knows what these guys were up to otherwise. The tonal shift is especially weird as they go into everyone-in-a-headlock-at-once and la estella and a celebratory finishing bit for the tecnicos but hey, we're not going to complain too much about mean Atlantis chairshots. This too, like everything else this week, was fun. 

ER: I love when 15 minutes of VHS tape trader quality lucha shows up, talk about a trip back. There's always something new to observe, always somebody who stands out that you weren't thinking about earlier that week, month, or year. Charles Lucero was someone I didn't know about until his matches with Hechicero, Rayo a lot of people didn't know about until he was older and lazier and up his own ass (complimentary, and pejoratively) and here they're both a perfect set of rivals. In the primera there's this great early moment where Rayo is teasing his matador attacks on Chicana, before just rushing past him to double hammer fist Lucero off the ropes to the floor, just swinging that Mexican Polish Hammer into his chest. His misdirections to throw off Lucero's timing are wildly entertaining. I enjoyed old conceited Rayo but whenever I see the stop-start routines done in younger Rayo speed it feels like some of the best lucha trickster work we have. La Fiera was also a standout, because early 90s Fiera is always going to be a standout, and here he was especially gifted at making 1992 Ultimo Dragon's offense sing. Great pairing, an accompanist who knew how to make a guy feel like a star.  

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FOUND FOOTAGE FRIDAY: BABA vs. RUSHER~! BRET vs. SID~! PANTHER~! CASAS~! UG~! ATLANTIS~!

 
Giant Baba/Hiroshi Wajima vs. Goro Tsurumi/Rusher Kimura AJPW 3/27/88

MD: Classics drop from a while ago but no one else is going to cover this stuff at length. It was a lot of fun too. Tsurumi got in Wajima's face early and they honestly really went at it. I don't know if Wajima was just a bit further along in his development by this point or if Tsurumi brought the best out of him but they were slugging. Eventually Rusher got in and Wajima walked him to the corner and the crowd went nuts at the idea of Baba and Rusher (even in 88) facing off. Baba was so slick and self-aware too. He just dropped on his back and picked an ankle. Then he did the headlock > hammerlock > go behind and dropped on his back and did it again. Awesome stuff. After that, Rusher didn't break clean and just blistered him.That just pissed Baba off and he soon blocked a chop, hit the head chop, and was on the mat choking the life out of Rusher.

It wasn't until later on, a few exchanges and tags later (and after he hit the Bulldog on Wajima), that Rusher was finally able to chip away at him and knock him down. Baba mounted a big comeback though, turning a whip around into a neckbreaker drop. Tsurumi tried his luck and got headbutted for his trouble, and then Rusher made saves for him until Wajima was finally able to put him away. I had a lot of fun with it certainly. 

ER: We've been working our way through the entirety of All Japan's 3/27/88 show the last several months, like we're reviewing one song at a time from a Grateful Dead Hampton Coliseum show. We reviewed Big Bubba vs. Shunji Takano last month, we reviewed Isao Takagi vs. Tom Magee and Tommy Rich/Austin Idol vs. Great Kabuki/Tiger Mask II around Thanksgiving. Maybe we'll do Masa Fuchi vs. George Skaaland this summer. 

This is most exciting to me because it's Baba and Rusher Kimura on opposite sides of a tag. I've seen so many Baba/Rusher tags, so many visions of brotherhood, two men who always showed how much they cared for each other during their tags. Once they started teaming they never stopped. Rusher was always on Baba's side during their old man trios, so 1988 would be the last era to see any kind of Baba/Rusher interaction opposite each other. They love each other and don't want to hurt each other, and Rusher shows this by wearing a Giant Baba shirt to the ring!!! The looks they exchanged all match made this so special, and every look and exchange between them is special. On top of this dynamic, you have Goro Tsurumi shit talking Wajima during the ring intros, firing up Wajima to such temperature that he attacked Goro before Baba had even been announced. You could see faces of fans disappointed they wouldn't get to use their Baba-colored streamers. 

Rusher being the one to throw chops at Baba was inevitable, loud open slaps that Baba sold by folding cross-armed at the waist after finally blocking one and chopping Rusher. Baba vs. Rusher was more about gamesmanship, Goro vs. Wajima was hubris and irritability. Goro distracts the ref before mule kicking Wajima in the balls, pulling an inside cradle that Baba breaks up with a disdainful shoving boot from the apron, a real "knock it off, goofball" demeanor. When Rusher breaks up a pin by lightly pulling on Baba's leg, Baba rolls to his back and just looks at Rusher like his boyfriend just playfully pretended to trip over him while he was doing yoga. Wajima palms Goro's face and face slams him to the mat, and when Rusher comes in to save him, he turns right around and leaps through the ropes to the floor when he sees Baba is in position to stop him. I love them. I love what they had. 

Sycho Sid vs. Bret Hart [Cage] WWF MSG 3/16/97

MD: Great Sid bit coming out as he was startled by his own pyro, not afraid of it, but looking like he might lash out at it. Say what you will about thigh slapping, but Bret was the best damn strike stomper that ever struck. He stomped on his punches. He stomped on his kicks. He stomped on his headbutts. There's a sort of purity to it, a beauty, that wrestling can be this too, and it would not just be accepted, but seen as an immersive ideal. Almost instantly, it means that Sid's shots, though bigger arcs, don't feel quite as punchy because he's not stomping on every shot, just some. And of course, when Bret gets whipped into the corner (even back first), he's somehow able to hit in a way that makes the post crash into the cage to make a satisfying noise. Someone could write even more about the SOUND of Bret matches. But it's notable in passing for a paragraph here.

What Sid did do amazingly, however, was frame his action. At one point, after pulling Bret off the cage after he'd been trying to climb out, Sid lifted him up like he'd hit a fall away slam or backbreaker. He looked to the left abruptly, then to the right, these little stilted motions that brought you into the moment by taking you out of it. Then he ran Bret into the cage. He was so big and so strong he didn't have to do anything like that, but that's what made him not just a giant but a star. 

Finish of this was clever enough (if still bullshit like most escape the cage matches that involve the door). Bret had the Sharpshooter on, but that doesn't get him the win in a WWF escape the cage match. Sid was still able to get up and cut him off while climbing, but Sid sold the leg well when he tried to climb. That let Bret hit the huge superplex but Sid, despite being unable to climb, was able to crawl out the door just before Bret could drop.

ER: Cool blue bars MSG cage match just a week before WrestleMania, with something of note happening at all times. Bret gently stumbles during his entrance in a way you can tell really pissed him off, throwing off his entire walk to the ring. He tried to slap hands with a security guard and then ran into a guard on the other side of the aisle, completely rattled. Sid, meanwhile, is in control. Wet as hell, fist bumping everyone, entrance theme perfection. He reacts to his own pyro not like someone startled, but like someone who wasn't expecting pyro and had also never seen pyro before. Mystified, not rattled; curious, but upset. Sid wrestles like Cool Iron Mike Sharpe. Their movement and offense is identical. Body Glove elbow sleeve instead of forearm cast. The more you watch both the more undeniable it becomes. Their offense is thrown the exact same way. Sharpe was Vocal Sid with brown curls, Sid is wide eyed stoic Sharpe with blond curls.  

I've talked before about the audio on these Vault releases, and it really is like seeing wrestling from this era presented in a totally new way. Not having to mic down the crowd to hear any announcers is a marvel in itself, getting to hear individual fans through a full match, hearing how loud and heavy Sid is breathing after they did the first stretch of climbing, how LOUD the turnbuckles sound the three different times Bret gets run into them (two back first, the third his classic chest first), how the ring barely moves but explodes in sound when Bret is pressed off or Sid is superplexed. All the new revelations in sound leap out the entire match. When we wrote about a Goldust/Shawn Michaels ladder match last year, the sound of the ring was so incredible that it added to every bump and strike they did, and that was just as magnified here. A lot of this was arm strikes, Bret throwing his worked punches and Sid throwing his Iron Mike Sharpe arm swings. After Sid's first escape attempt, while Bret is fighting with him on the top rope, Bret's punches to Sid's body look outstanding. As Matt said, Bret is a stomper, a striker totally unseen in modern wrestling, but there's no stomping up top. 

After the match, after the big superplex, after Bret's sharpshooter failed and Sid was still able to crawl to the door that Bret must have forgot about (that stupid psychology wrinkle in every single WWF escape the cage match), there's an immaculate bridge and tunnel girl with her hair done up, trying to take a picture of Bret. He walks right past her on the aisle, and she reaches out to touch his shoulder. As he passes her and her hand makes full contact with him, all she can do in the aftermath is stare at her hand, no expression on her face. In her first physical brush with fame, she got to experience how oiled up and slimy pro wrestlers are, and her brain had no idea how to process this new information. 

Ultimo Guerrero/Atlantis vs. Negro Casas/Blue Panther CMLL 12/4/07 (?)

MD: This was a title match, worked like a title match, and it was refreshing to see in 2026. Primera had Casas vs Guerrero and they did fine, but the pairing of Blue Panther vs Atlantis was just great. Atlantis looked like a million bucks and some of that was on him and some of it was on Panther. Things built to everything breaking down and the tecnicos (Casas/Panther) won with simultaneous submissions (Scorpion by Casas, and a sort of Navarro inverted leglock by Panther). Segunda opened up when Panther went for it again on Guerrero only to get cut off. UG hit the senton de la muerte in the corner on both at once and after tossing them around a bit, Guerrero and Atlantis locked on a tandem submission on both at once (a sort of camel clutch on one while tied to the other and into an Octopus) that looked like a lot of fun.

Tercera had all the bombs you'd expect. There was a slight sense that the refs weren't allowing Casas to punch them because it was a title match and they were the tecnicos but once things went to the floor Casas unloaded. There was another great comeback moment where Guerrero missed in the corner and did his big knee bump over. Panther hit a tope on Atlantis while Casas hit his seated senton off the apron. Then he went and rubbed the head of some kid at ringside with a poncho, which is pure Casas. They followed it with nearfalls (including tandem power bombs) until GdA locked in tandem Atlantidas for the win. They celebrated big afterwards and it did feel like a big deal. Very good tag title match.

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Found Footage Friday: KONG~! MEIKO~! CACTUS~! ATLANTIS~! MASAKRE~! DANDY~! JT SMITH~!

Cactus Jack vs. JT Smith TWA 8/20/91

MD: Guessing on this date from the finish. It's surreal to see Foley go from Manchester vs Vader back to this (just a couple of years earlier). He did stuff on top of stuff to keep it entertaining, smacking a chair into his head (two chairs; the first wooden which he sold more), going on the mic for a big rant (after which he ran right into Smith's offense), the Cactus clothesline over the top, a flip bump in the corner, so on and so forth.

His shots in the corner all looked great and he was there for every little thing Smith did. Smith was in the right place at the right time hitting the right stuff for a lot of this, keeping the crowd engaged as a babyface, but it was hard not to be overshadowed by Cactus. I'd call this more entertaining than coherent or great, but you still didn't want to look away which was the hallmark of early 90s Foley. Great finish too as Foley got his throat caught in the ropes leading to a count out, a very clever way to get Cactus Jack out of a tournament if need be.

ER: A cool match, and I love the timing of this coming just a week after we covered a new Cactus/Vader match. That was 1993, this is 1991, and Cactus seems like such a different wrestler in this one. Just two years later he was slower, beefier, and his execution on almost everything was completely different. Here he threw punches with his arm and threw them more overhand, completely different arm slot than he would use for most of his career. His punches looked great here. Every time he hit JT Smith it looked like a real shot. JT Smith was in there to take shots, and the crowd responded to it. They really got behind him, even though every single time we got a glimpse of the crowd there didn't seem to be a single person in attendance who looked like him. How about that. 

JT Smith isn't really a guy with offense, so of course you were going to have Cactus make up for that. That's when you get him wandering around the building hitting himself with chairs, cutting a promo mid-match, keeping people riled and wary against him and hot behind JT. He knew JT was going to bump big for him - JT Smith got thrown, hit, or clotheslined to the floor three times in under a minute and every fall he took to the floor looked great - and he is Cactus Jack so of course he's going to take some bumps. That said, I don't know if I've seen Cactus take that Ray Stevens bump in the corner before. It's not the Shawn Michaels roll up bump, it's the Stevens bump that John Nord and Mike Modest took neck/shoulder first into the buckles. Nord and Modest took it more horizontally and landed flat, but Cactus takes it messier and ends with an uglier bump down into the mat. 

There were two really great moments, as judged by some guy sitting near the cameraman who exclaimed "Oh SHIT!" two different times: The first was when a charging Cactus clothesline knocked Smith sideways on landed him on his stomach; the second was when Cactus got himself hanged in the ropes very near to where he was sitting. His verbal exclamations were absolutely correct both times. 

Atlantis/Rayo de Jalisco Jr/El Dandy vs. Pierroth Jr/Masakre/MS-1 CMLL 9/92

MD: Really a blast in the about ten minutes we get here. The primera and segunda function almost as a fully formed sprint and then we get at least part of the finish of the tercera. Atlantis looks like a huge star here. He bounds into the ring and gets ambushed starting the rudo control. Masakre is a menace here, sneaking in and punching anyone he can at any point, even when they're in holds.

Atlantis comes back basically on his own, including eating a punch and kipping up immediately to fire back. While this is happening Rayo is fondly holding the hand of a prone Dandy. Atlantis just outslicks all three rudos until his partners can come back (and when they do, it's with a huge Dandy punch and Rayo doing his shtick; it all felt balanced here). For the tercera we come in on them switching matches around which is a little weird, but the tecnicos pretty quickly overcome. I would have liked to see how we got to the mask switching but overall what we did get here was great.

Aja Kong vs. Meiko Satomura GAEA 6/14/03

MD: We're going to try to tackle some of these GAEA uploads that people think are rare/new as we've done a bad job at that. I have no idea about the context here, but I do know that Aja Kong might be the most immediately watchable wrestler ever. You can drop into almost any of her matches from almost any period and while the match might be enhanced by content, you're going to be able to figure out exactly what's going on. 

I call it the "Problem of Aja" which has to be overcome by any opponent she faces. She's too big, too strong, too fierce, too much, and even against someone like Satomura, you see it right from the get go where Aja just stuffs her and starts to pull her apart, wrenching her arms in all sorts of ways they don't belong. With a little bit of distance Satomura can get a quick shot in, but by giving Aja a little bit of distance, she'll get run over in turn. She can smash her head with the metal bucket (or throw it at her) but Aja will just take it and headbutt her back, or even worse: she'll get the bucket and smash Satomura and then drop her head first on it. 

The great equalizer here was Satomura's death valley drivers. Any move that took so much effort could justifiably have such an effect, and they were enough to turn the tide and even to almost put Aja away, but almost isn't enough and while she was able to duck the uraken a few times and get ten strikes in for every one Aja hit, all it took was one landing to end this.

ER: I thought this was incredible. This wasn't out there before? This is new? We're just seeing this match, that feels like one of the classic matches of a classic feud? That can't be. If this match happened on this week's Dynamite it would be a 5.5 star match that people actually remember two months later. Aja Kong is an unstoppable danger that must be endured, and I've never responded to a woman wrestler the way I respond to Aja. The same way I can show any of my non-wrestling bubble friends any Stan Hansen match from any era and they recognize on sight that this man is beating the shit out of everyone and moving and falling and reacting in ways they have never seen yet instantly understand, Aja Kong has that exact same level of accessibility. If this is your first Aja Kong/Meiko match, you will understand everything. The fight Aja forces Meiko into bringing, Aja's unbeatable and at times literally unmovable condescending honesty, and Meiko's urge and determination. Aja feels like someone who cannot be moved and it requires Meiko to do it for real, and when Aja takes something for real she's finally a monster wounded. 

The GAEA girls at ringside keep taking this to higher levels, their volume and cries and anger growing over a brisk 12 minutes, and the crowd actually sounds upset when Aja kicks out of Meiko's final surge of fire. The anguish of her girls at ringside was felt as much or more than the emotion all over Meiko's face.  Every hit in this match is honest as can be. The death valley drivers compress Kong, the slaps seem like they should all swell Meiko's jaw and wreck her hearing. Kong gives this woman a brainbuster on a metal bucket and it's not as violent as a half dozen of Kong's strikes. The emotion is huge for a "short" match, and Kong pulling a fucking small package - and a small package so well executed that it would have brought a tear to Bret Hart's eye - is one of the greatest bullshit asshole heel spots I've ever seen. Can you picture Stan Hansen needle dicking his way into pulling a small package on Misawa? Riots. I've never seen something so brazen. She eventually buckles Meiko's entire body with a uraken but I wanted to see the looks on everyone's faces and the boos from every mouth had Aja Kong won with that perfect small package. 

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Found Footage Friday: BOCK~! HEENAN~! SD MARK II~! CMLL 4 vs 3~! DUSTY~! DUSTIN~! CODY~!

Nick Bockwinkel/Bobby Heenan vs. Greg Gagne/Super Destroyer Mark II AWA 10/3/80

MD: A recent find from a Wrestling Playlists disc buy. You know the deal. Follow along with the work. This was a blast. Perfect pro wrestling. Destroyer is Slaughter of course. Heenan and Bockwinkel make a big stink out of it to start. This was supposed to be a Loser-Wears-the-Weasel Suit match and they refuse to wrestle if that's the stip. Therefore, they will be heavily fined or suspended but the local promoter says that the match will still take place for the fans. 

Heenan is great here as you would imagine, but he spends a lot of this on the apron or getting cheapshots in with one big moment of comeuppance in the middle and another at the end. It's really all on Bockwinkel who stooges all over the place. Because he doesn't have a competent partner, he's even further behind the eightball and he absolutely wrestles that way, getting knocked around the ring, keeling over after shots, getting abused by both wrestlers. They have a few moments of heat where they're able to get over either by Gagne missing a dropkick or Bockwinkel getting Destroyer in the eyes and following up with a King of the Mountain but it's never for long. Gagne has a great hot tag in as he hits his dropkicks with the second into a nice upkick right onto a charging Bock. 

Finish is Heenan loading up his broken arm and nailing Destroyer from behind so Bockwinkel can pin him. Post-match he demands the weasel suit to put on Gagne because they won but the babyfaces get the better of them and slip it on him. Nice bit here as Destroyer goes to Bockwinkel who is all tangled in the corner and  forcibly shakes his hand before they leave. Post match, Bockwinkel gets the weasel suit off of Heenan and starts beating it up. Just a great bit of emotional vulnerability to send the fans home happy by someone who is usually so buttoned up. 

ER: What a perfect vibe. I think I need to go through a real AWA phase. The vibes don't get much better than this. Heenan and Bockwinkel are a perfect team, Greg Gagne is a guy who is way underrated and undervalued as a babyface, Slaughter is legitimately one of the hardest working big men of all time. The Peg never felt hotter. Everyone did everything I loved seeing them do in this match. Heel Bockwinkel is some incredible stuff. Heel Bockwinkel feels like Billy Robinson crossed with Ric Flair. Heenan is like Buddy Roberts crossed with Tully Blanchard. Everyone throws strikes here that are perfect for who they are. Heenan's 3/4 arm slot attacks with his cast looked like Gagne should have been left bruised. Heenan looked like he should have been scared of Slaughter and fought him accordingly. Bockwinkel looked like he really wanted to snap Greg's neck over the top rope. 

Heenan's Race bump was one of the most incredible versions of that spot. Heenan had this amazing knack for "holding on". Race would tumble dangerously to the floor on his. When I think of any great over the top bump it's always accompanied by "to the floor". But Heenan had this way of hanging onto bumps that made them feel even more dangerous than if he had let go and flown to the floor. It feels like he's body is being torn in multiple directions. I wonder how many weasel suits there were. He's the only wrestler in history to get pulled into a fur suit to rabid reaction for well over a decade. It's impossible to not love Bobby when he's losing his mind in his Where the Wild Things Are fur suit. The zipper always gets stuck, but this time we get to experience the joy of Nick Bockwinkel being flustered while he's trying to get Bobby out of the suit. We have that now. 

Gigante Silva/Atlantis/Tinieblas Jr. vs. Fuerza Guerrera/Gran Markus Jr./Pierroth Jr./Violencia CMLL 09/05/00

MD: Another that Charles salvaged from old discs. I'm not sure I've ever heard of CMLL doing a 4-on-3 match like this but here we go. Pierroth and Silva were the captains and Pierroth had a ton of heat with the crowd,  especially the Arena Coliseo tecnico cheering section which was loud and rowdy and chanting for Mexico the whole way through. The rudos swarmed Atlantis to start staying on him and then Tinieblas pinballing them from one to the other. Once Tinieblas went out they did something I'm not sure I've ever seen before; they pulled Atlantis back in so that Silva couldn't come in. They were even cutting off the ring.

This all led to a huge tug of war spot, but with Atlantis' arms being what they were tugging on. All of the rudos and Atlantis went tumbling across the ring, heralding Silva's real entrance to the match. The rudos tried to swarm him but he managed to whip all of them across the ring in a 4 person Irish Whip. Then he hit a corner clothesline and let me tell you, if you told me that he had killed someone in the ring and not Khali, I would totally believe you with how brutal his shots looked. I don't know if the rudos just asked him to go full on or if he didn't know how not to but every strike was grisly.

The comedy kept coming as Atlantis and Tinieblas lured them into a bunch of rudo miscommunication (a lot of which was Markus, who had lost his mask by this point, crushing his own partners), before they built to endless Atlantis and Tinieblas big splashes on all four rudos, before Silva got to finish it off. This was about ten minutes of ringtime in one fall and definitely didn't wear out its welcome. Fun stuff.

Dusty Rhodes/Goldust/Cody Rhodes vs. Dudebusters (Trent Baretta/Curt Hawkins/Caylen Croft) FCW 7/9/10

MD: If the Vault isn't going to give us old Greensboro and Omni, something special like this, something one of a kind, is up there on what I'd want. This was Dusty's last match, teaming with his sons (one a face, one normally a heel), up against the hottest heel act FCW had to offer at the time in the Dudebusters. Baretta and Croft had their act and it was bolstered with Hawkins returning. At the time, I thought they'd all join Ryder (who had spent 2009 coming into his own on ECW) on the main roster to be his muscle and they could have gotten a good midcard (maybe IC title level) act out of all of it. It was not meant to be. 

I love the presentation here. It's one camera with a bunch of interface noise (like a 16 bit line and contrast or whatever and a little golfing guy icon). The Dudebusters come out with white Dusty Sucks Eggs t-shirts. Dusty and family come out to his WWF theme song, cowbell and all. Dustin is Goldust. Cody is Dashing (but no mustache or faceguard yet).

Cody is set to start but Dusty tags in and I absolutely love how the Dudebusters sell for the idea of him, scattering and leaping up to the top rope just because he entered the ring. Obviously the crowd is going to go nuts at the idea of Dusty driving them nuts. They're selling not a punch or a kick but an idea and an ideal and a larger than life presence. That's beautiful pro wrestling and we see so little of it in 2024. Cody felt a little looser than usual in this setting and Dustin was having a blast, including playing off a Dudebusters deal where the kept kissing his cheek by moving so they ended up kissing each other. This was the first time that Cody and Dustin teamed that we know of and they had some fun tandem stuff (like a catapult bounce back onto the knees/second rope move combo). In general, Dustin was moving great in there and looked like a million bucks.

Eventually the Dudebusters used a distraction to take over on Cody and we got the first of a double heat. They controlled the ring well. The hot tag to Dustin wasn't so hot but that's because the real one was going to be to Dusty later. They took back on him with another bit of distraction (they were good at that). It all built to the true hot tag to Dusty, the place exploding, and Dusty hitting a couple of things before picking up the win. As celebratory and reverent as it should have been but a better match than it needed to be because they let the Dudebusters take so much of it.

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New Footage Friday: GUERREROS! PANTERA! APACHE! CASAS! FIERA! PIERROTH!

Los Guerreros Del Futuro (Damian El Guerrero/Guerrero del Futuro/Guerrero Maya) vs El Pantera/Filoso/Triton 9/7/93 - FUN

PAS:Solid workman like trios match and a chance to see Black Terry under a mask work this style. Pantera add the flash to the match with a bunch of flips and ranas. Terry(Maya) threw some big overhand chops and clotheslines. Felt more like a time filler then a standout match, but a pleasant way to fill some time.

MD: Perfectly fine trios here, from the Back to the Future music at the start to a motion-heavy finish. As Pantera pops up in this footage, I consistently like what I see. He had the best primera exchange with Futuro, though it also had the most time too. They started with a fun little head-to-head shoving match and moved onto solid matwork with good bridges from Pantera. He also had a nice moonsault press and unique step up wheel kick during the comeback. We didn't get much Maya (Black Terry) there, which was a shame. Really, past a few hard shots, his biggest contribution to the match was being in the right place for the stooging spots later on. The beatdown was fairly subdued, as they kept one rudo in the ring for most of it and kept things in their corner. The match never really exploded but it always kept moving.



El Mestizo/Gran Apache vs Escudero Rojo/Reyes Veloz 9/7/93

MD: It feels good to watch something with stakes and emotions and a hot crowd. This had a lot going for it, three heel control segments (which means three comebacks), Apache putting it all out there, his punches, an exciting, high-stakes finishing stretch, blood and guts. I really liked the end of the primera. The rudos had ambushed at the start and it looked like they were going to get the nod on a double stretch, but Apache came in with a dropkick on both guys. He then laid out one with an awesome punch and teased a dive outside only to turn it into a moonsault back into the ring as Mestizo hit a flip dive off the apron. The second beatdown came after an errant Apache punch which fed into the end of the segunda where once they got the rudos held for the shots, they just didn't stop and get DQed. One nitpick here is that I would have liked some color on the rudos here to help justify the weight of the DQ. Apache and Mesitzo bled (and got their wounds worked over) but the rudos never did. The tercera ended up as a one-on-one fairly quickly and had some pretty exciting post-dive countout teases and near falls, before the finish, where after a couple of missed leaps off the top, Apache had to chase his opponent down before hanging on and dropping him with a German. This is pretty much what you can reasonably hope for when a lost mid-card apuestas match shows up.


PAS: I think the work in this match was pretty basic, although the drama of the hair stipulation and the blood really brought the entire presentation up a big notch. I agree the technicos getting DQ'ed in the segunda was a little weird, this is an apuestas match, the ref has to give them a bit of rope. The third fall was an extended Apache vs. Rojo singles match, which had some real drama to it, interesting to see Apache here, as he really would go on to great things, he wasn't exactly a youngster but this is definitely some of the earliest footage we have of him.

Chamaco Valaguez/Faraón Jr/Oro vs Arkángel de la Muerte/Cachorro Salvaje/Drako 9/10/93

MD: Drako was some mysterious and short-lived North American in the gimmick. We're not sure who. I don't have an answer after watching this but I thought he had solid presence and size with a fairly potent knee shot. They built up a mystique of him going at it with Faraon, Jr. too with some pretty engaging pre-match theatrics. Guys eat falls in CMLL due to the 2/3 structure and he did fall to a German in the segunda but got his heat back (I guess) by getting DQed by wrenching Faraon's head on the top rope in the tercera. It was pretty unfulfilling. Oro was pretty over and had good energy. I liked how big a jerk Cachorro was. Arkangel hit an amazing sit out Rock Bottom to help end the segunda. Drako seemed competent enough that they could have run further with the gimmick. Maybe someday we'll know the story there.

Atlantis/La Fiera/Pierroth Jr vs Black Magic/Mano Negra/Negro Casas 9/10/93


MD: Fantastic stuff. This was building to the Anniversary show, where both Fiera and Casas and Mano Negra and Atlantis would have apuestas matches. They billed Casas, Magic, and Mano Negra as La Ola Negra, which I hadn't heard before. They do tag a handful of times between 92 and 94. This constantly entertaining with the fans very much into it. Fiera is such a perfect Casas opponent, gritty and tough, but with so many different kicks, all of which look good and Casas is so good at dodging one only to eat the next, that sort of thing. Atlantis and Mano Negra brought plenty of hate too, all the way to the mask ripping at the end. The beatdowns were glorious, the comebacks were earned and heated. There was an awesome bit where they picked up Fiera and drove him head first into the first row chairs before tossing Atlantis into the crowd and post match Fiera got revenge on Casas by doing the same. Pierroth and Magic were ok as bit players but this was really about the other four and made me want to go back and watch the 93 Anniversary show again.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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New Footage Friday: GORDY! HICKERSON! BLACKWELL! HANSEN! SASUKE! ATLANTIS! AMERICAN DRAGON! METAL MASTER!

Stan Hansen/Terry Gordy vs. Crusher Blackwell/Phil Hickerson AJPW 12/14/88

MD: Bizarrely giving Hansen performance. This is one of the most giving performances I've ever seen out of him, especially against someone who's not paying him. Was Blackwell bringing him in for shots in his Georgia Indy or something? Did he feel like he owed him for some favor done in 1978 Mid-Atlantic (if so you don't really see that bear out in their AWA stuff)? No idea, but this is a Hansen who's getting crushed by mass, beaten around the ring, and legitimately playing face-in-peril in a bear hug. When Hickerson is in there, he fights back a bit more, but then they just tag Blackwell back in. Remember, this is 89 Blackwell. He's huge, has great presence, and can still do an amazing elbow drop (and miss one for a transition too), but this isn't seven years earlier when he was missing top rope splashes and what not. And, of course, Gordy's on the apron playing clapping cheerleader. Eventually, he has enough, intervenes, survives charges into the corner long enough to get a foot up, and it's academic from there. I'm still filing this under "baffling."

PAS: Hansen was always very good at using his size to overwhelm, and it's cool to see him in the ring with two big motherfuckers who gives as good as they get. This was worn tread on the tires Blackwell, but he was still a quarter horse of a dude with great punches and good use of that girth. Hickerson is a mean asskicker in this to, and I love to watch two guys stand in the pocket with Hansen and not get blown out of the building. Gordy is fun in his exchanges as well, although he isn't in the match a ton. Finish was great, I love a Hansen lariat, and this was one of his nastier ones. He hooks it right under Hickerson's jaw and it looks like it's going to pop his head clean off.

ER: At minimum you knew this was going to be great just because how often do you get to see a tag match where Terry Gordy is the smallest man in the match? But how much does it rule that Blackwell and Hickerson took 90% of that match?? Stan Hansen is perhaps the most famous eater of men in pro wrestling history. Hansen can chew someone up more dominantly than anyone, and here he gets completely dominated by Crusher and Hickerson. Sure Hickerson takes some knocks to the head, gets smacked into a ringpost, but it's like Crusher and Hickerson were working the way Hansen and Gordy work every other team. Usually when Hansen takes a shot from someone, he's the one who shakes his head and then angrily walks through it. Blackwell is absolutely impenetrable here, just flattening and outfighting Hansen and Gordy. Blackwell isn't getting the same height on his jumping elbow drops, and he's not doing high dropkicks (or any dropkicks), but he's a tough fat guy with a low center of gravity who punches and headbutts Hansen in the face. 

Blackwell acts like and is treated like the toughest guy in the match, and I love it. His elbow drops look awesome, his missed elbow drops look awesome, his avalanches are delivered with glee, and he's a 5'9 man who convincingly bearhugs Stan Hansen. Two different times in the match he's working over Hansen in the corner, then stops Gordy's interference with one strike! Gordy charges in to save Hansen and Blackwell just turns around and punches him! Later, Gordy charged in and Blackwell just mule kicked Gordy away and ignored Gordy's forearm! Blackwell worked like the total star of the match, which is the most fun way the match could have been worked. Hickerson also appears to be having a blast on his only trip to Japan, a trip where he and Blackwell will be the team in the RWTL who wins no matches. Hickerson seems to really bathe in the new audience, and Blackwell holding Hansen and Gordy in the corner like he was Andre, so that Hickerson can fly across the ring with an avalanche, was a real moment of wrestling bliss. Hansen decides to shut things down the way he does. Hickerson goes back to the well on that avalanche and eats a boot, then the hardest possible Hansen running shoulderblock. Elbow pad adjusted, Hickerson whipped, lariat takes us out. Who could have guessed this would be a 10 minute Blackwell/Hickerson showcase? A great on paper match worked within an unexpected structure is a great treat. 

El Hijo de Anibal/Atlantis/Great Sasuke vs. Java Genjin/Tutankhamen VIII/Macho Pump MPRO 7/24/03

MD: Lost MPRO match that's a good use of fifteen minutes of your time. I haven't seen much Anibal, Jr., but he died of COVID earlier this year. I thought he looked pretty solid here actually, having a decent amount of size, only slight awkwardness because of it, a fearless dive or two, and a nice running elbow. It followed a pretty standard lucha structure despite being one fall. The tecnicos got to shine early, including everyone feeding for Sasuke and Atlantis getting to do some more tricked out one-vs-two spots than I usually remember him doing. When the rudos took over, it was primarily Jabagengi (Being Gran Apache, of all people, working a monkey man Neanderthal gimmick, of all things) directing traffic. It was solid but maybe lasted a little too long without enough motion. They worked for the comeback and went into bigger exchanges. Tutankhamen shined here more than in the rest of the match, including a double jump twisting senton bomb and a no hands dive over the top, but maybe he was a little too into celebrating after the fact. Macho Pump had some personality and got tossed by the head by Atlantis and I have nothing else to say about him. Finish maybe needed a little more zing, but the dives before it had plenty. Basically, the highs were high and lows were few and tolerable. Fun stuff.

PAS: I thought this was neat stuff, MPRO six mans are such a joyful formula style of match. Gran Apache in a monkey suit and Fantastik in King Tut hat do a great job of filling in the KDX rudo base role, and this is some of the better Macho Pump I have seen. They were especially great at basing and bumping for Atlantis, just flying around for all of his offense, I loved the height and distance Macho Pump got on the monkey flip, it was almost Eddieish. All of the dives looked great, we couldn't always see where they landed, but man does Sasuke fly out sight with recklessness and force, it is almost crazier when we don't see his running tope con hilo land. Fantastik hit a crazy flipping springboard senton in the ring, and a wild no hands tope con hilo on a prone Anibal, he was so good every time he showed up in Japan but never went anywhere in Mexico.

ER: 2000s MPRO is a fed ripe for discovery for me, a real blindspot outside of a few matches here and there. Before this, did I know that Gran Apache wore a Giant Gonzalez full body skin and fur suit with a Neanderthal mask? I had no idea, and the crowd had no real idea what to make of him. He has a large novelty club and looks like Bubba the Cave Duck, only with a big dark zipper up his back. He grunts and slaps chest and thighs and constantly tries to get the crowd to react to him, and they politely do, but not enthusiastically. I'm not sure I would have even known it was Apache, even though the slap punches were there and he was a strong base for the tecnicos. I adored Apache's backwards bumps to the floor, perfect backwards tumbles over the bottom rope while landing on his feet, a bump to the floor I don't really see in lucha. There's a classic luchador way of bumping rolling over the bottom rope to the floor, holding the rope and flinging your legs over, but this was like Apache tipping backwards into the water before scuba diving. I loved it. Sasuke had what appeared to be a huge Asai moonsault to the floor (tripod camera missed the landing but it got the loudest reaction of the match so it was surely typical Sasuke danger) and hit his big swan dive right at the finish. Anibal hits a great dive and a nice plancha to the floor, plus takes a wild monkey flip in ring that bounces him upside down off the ropes. But Fantastik really takes the cake, taking multiple high backdrop bumps to the floor (often at the hands of Apache by accident), hits a cool double jump springboard somersault senton, a gorgeous bullet tope, and then hits the dive of the match with a hands free senton to the floor, Super Calo style. I love this format, really need to dive more into mid 2000s MPRO. 

American Dragon vs. Metal Master Paris Japan Expo 7/6/08

PAS: Chad Collyer uploaded this, it was from a show in Paris and has a masked Bryan Danielson against a masked Collyer. What a treat, first section of this match saw Dragon working 80s heel, choking with a rope, doing a Ric Rude hip swivel, taking stooging bumps. He was as good doing John Tatum as he is doing souped up Chris Benoît stuff, as he was doing Ricky Morton shtick in WWE tags, what a talent. I thought all of the early over the top heel stuff really paid off at the end of the match, when they had more of a hot workrate finishing run. By then the crowd was fully behind Metal Master, and chagrined every time Dragon got a bit of an advantage. The execution on the finish had a bunch of cool little flourishes, including Dragon doing a super fast Saint escape of a waistlock into a back elbow. Video gets choppy at the end, but we still get almost the whole match and a great little snapshot at a small part of an all time greats career. 

MD: Absolutely tremendous. When I saw the word "expo," I half wondered what we were going to get. It hearkened back to some of those lucha performances at other "expos" that end up being as streamlined and straightforward as possible, in front of game but unfamiliar crowds. In that regard, this didn't disappoint. This is 2008 Collyer and Danielson, under hoods, wrestling their version of a high-energy 1989 American match. Danielson completely gives himself over to the role, complaining about the crowd not cheering for him at the start, bumping, stooging, feeding, clowning, and stalling throughout, taking over on an unclean break, playing hide the object with a rope from the turnbuckle, and yes, twice doing the Rick Rude hip swivel and probably having the time of his life in the process. Yet, they show that they understand what works and why it works. The crowd completely comes along with Collyer as he fights his way out of a chinlock. Danielson hits an axehandle off the second rope mid-way through to set up a bit transition as he leaps off the top into a Collyer dropkick later. They had to switch cameras towards the end and you got the sense that the person had technical difficulties and had to be selective in what was captured, but you get the broad idea of it. Towards the end, they cycle into Steamboat/Savage pin attempts, and some very believable 1989 power move near falls, before Danielson reverses a flying body press and grabbing the tights for the win. Full commitment, total patience and restraint, great understanding of what works and why. I'm sure they had a blast doing it. It's a great performance from both guys and another feather in Danielson's cap.

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New Footage Friday: CMLL Handheld 11/25/95

Migra I/Migra II vs. Mexican Blanco/Súper Diablo (Erin O'Grady/Spike Dudley)

MD: I almost skipped this but I'm glad I didn't. It was a very fun opener. Blanco and Diablo were pretty creative and the Migras were solid bullies who weren't afraid to give and stooge. Very emotive and into what was happening. This followed southern tag structure more than you'd expect and the Migras looked like a million bucks in the heat. There were some wild and effective but very unfortunate acrobatics (the sort that land you on your own head) by the babyfaces but ultimately this was all pretty satisfying stuff for an opener.

PAS: I am guessing this was an all APW match. Diablo was listed on the file as Erin O'Grady (Crash Holly) and I am guessing Blanco was Matt Hyson (Spike Dudley). I assume La Migra was a pair of APW guys too (maybe Mike Modest and Maxx Justice). These guys all worked really well together, with Holly and Spike bumping like you would expect those guys to do, flying super high on monkey flips and eating shit on clotheslines. There were a bunch of dives which looked totally reckless in an awesome way, lots of flips which looked seconds away from killing both the guy who took it and the guy who dove. I really liked the German suplex which finished the match, fun stuff from some green guys who would go on to do things.

ER: Phil is right, this is definitely Modest and Justice as La Migra, a gimmick that has somehow sustained itself in northern and southern California indies. Modest and Justice were the first ones doing the gimmick, and after they stopped using it someone else would use it. even Brian Cage was a member of La Migra at one point in the 2010s. I'm not 100% certain that Matt Hyson is the non Erin O'Grady here, but my only other guess would be Chris Cole (I don't think Hyson ever had the muscle the non O'Grady had, and the offense didn't seem like Hyson's from this era). And this match is really great. This ranks among the best APW stuff I've seen, and I've seen more of it than most. Modest was so polished just a few years in, he really was a natural. But Maxx Justice/Mike Diamond also should have gone places and did bigger things. He was a legitimately intimidating dude with a great angry face, tall, with a big upper body (his day job was throwing luggage around for an airline, which feels like a great workingman's job that a 60s/70s regional babyface like The Crusher would have). But he takes moves really well from flyers. He caught dives and saved a huge rana from the top rope to the floor, and had this great base moment where he cut extremely low on a lariat before catching O'Grady. O'Grady had some crazy stuff, a guy who really did deserve to make it. He gets alleyooped into a dragon rana, hits a great tope, tope con hilo, that rana to the floor, all really big stuff for this era, and he also took two big bumps off the apron skidding across the floor. Hyson/Cole/whomever had some wild stuff too, great somersault senton off the apron and from the middle buckle to the floor, and hits a nice tandem dive with O'Grady. La Migra actually felt like a dangerous gimmick to be working in Los Angeles, feels like a thing that could have got Modest jumped. This match really showed the level of talent in mid 90s bay area indies,  incredible to get talents like this all at once, when you looked at what other American indies looked like in 95/96.


Los Brazos vs. Apolo Dantés/Pirata Morgan/Satánico

MD: This was just the second match on the card. The fans were familiar here and knew what they wanted and what they were getting, which was heaping amounts of Porky. The Primera had a bit of feeling out and one rudo swarm tease (the Brazos rushed in) before the rudos went cheap on a handshake and took over for real with triple teams. The segunda was a long bit of FIP heat, cutting off the ring, before the Brazos had enough and rushed forth. I'm not sure I'd have been as okay with that with normal tecnicos (as it defies logic more than having a thematic beatdown on one wrestler after another) but there's such a chaotic element to the Brazos that it worked. Most of the match was in the tercera, with Oro fighting off everyone and Porky doing a lot of comedy before they launched the dives. Satanico hit a nestea plunge off the apron on the far side of the ring which I don't think I've ever seen him do and somehow adds to his legend. They were chanting for Porky to dive well before it was his turn. The finish was fun as it was one of those everyone gets pinned out of a multi-man submission spots that never actually works and did here. I always appreciate that. The fans appreciated all of this and money was tossed in post match. There was literally no way this was going to be bad given who was in there.

PAS: Brazos are maybe the greatest formula wrestlers of all time. Nothing is more enjoyable then watching them do their match, you don't need any extra juice, the rudos really just have to show up. This match however had two first ballot hall of fame rudos and Dantes who was a king in the 90s. So not only to we get awesome Brazos stuff, but there is so true class to play off of. Satanico is a great Super Porky opponent, very comfortable with playing along, but also willing to get really nasty when it is desired. That Cactus elbow off of the apron was a true Holy Shit moment. We get some big time Pirata bumps too, and Dantes hits a great looking Superfly splash. Porky is of course a joy, he was at both peak fat and near peak agility at this point, and he hits his top rope dive so hard he nearly bounces out of the ring, he also reverses a double wrist lock by springboarding off the top rope into a flip, mind bending stuff from a guy who looks like Homer in the Simpson episode he got Obese to get on disability.


Silver King/Vampiro vs. The Headhunters

MD: This cuts off midway through the segunda, so all we really get is a mauling by the Head Hunters. Really, though, that's all we needed. They were tremendously effective at what they did. Not much more to say here except for that the crowd really wanted to get behind the tecnicos and that Silver King was one of the top guys in the world at working the apron and milking a moment at this point.

Atlantis/Héctor Garza/Pantera vs. Eddy Guerrero/Emilio Charles Jr/Felino

MD: I really liked this. Captains are Atlantis and Charles, and they set the tone immediately by having Charles get a cheapshot in on Atlantis during the announcements. After a brief exchange early where Atlantis gets the advantage, he dodges him for much of the rest of the match (though runs all the way around the ring into a quebradora as the tecnicos take the primera). The other main pairings are Felino and Pantera which works out quite well and Eddy and Garza which starts off a bit slow but on the second and third time through gets great. Late Garza is one of my favorite wrestlers period, so sometimes I don't give Early Garza enough credit, probably, but the point of comparison is always Eddy. I have no idea why the latter is here as he'd been working WCW for a few months now, but I'm not complaining. Once he really unleashes the rudo fury on him (after Felino sneaks in a foul on Pantera to turn the tide in the segunda), the beating is primal. Guerrero refuses to pin him after a nasty, wild powerbomb and then superplexes him and has Felino hold him down for the frog splash. Between falls, he slaps him and hits the brainbuster and locks in a STF for good measure. The comeback is a little all over the place, with Atlantis fighting to get his mask back on and just whipping Charles (who cries foul) around the ring, but Garza sliding all the way from one side of the screen, through the ring, to the other to get revenge on Eddy is great stuff. I could have used another minute or two of comeback, but Pantera gets to creatively upstage Felino, Atlantis gets the decisive win with the Atlantida on Charles, and post match, Eddy perfectly catches Garza on his signature dive. Post match, after the other rudos had left, Eddy wants a shake and Hector gives him one and it felt a little like a passing of the torch even if the real points of comparison would come years later. Always something to see here and it was always something worth seeing.


Mascara Ano Dos Mil vs. Rayo de Jalisco Jr.

MD: Phil's already covered the Casas vs Santo match elsewhere, so this is our de facto main event. Lucky us. Look, it's been a while since I've willingly watched a Rayo match, especially a singles match, but the flip side of that is that it's been so long that maybe I'd be happily surprised? I love how if you go to the official ELP youtube page and find "Touch and Go" almost all of the first comments are in Spanish and about the Dinamitas. This is, obviously, a completely bullshit title match. Instead of matwork in the primera, there's lots of competent Mascara Ano stalling and a bunch of dancing foolishness by Rayo. There are basically two holds, one to stooge Mascara so he can go out and stall again, and one to finish it. The segunda is even less substantial, just a couple quebradoras, a couple of whips, and a missed top rope move by Rayo. My favorite spot in all of this was probably Rayo hitting two bouncing grounding headbutts and then comedically missing the third. My other favorite bit was him accidentally diving on the wrong person twice. We didn't even get Mascara punching him a bunch. This was not good lucha and I was not happily surprised.

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New Footage Friday: ROCCO! CASAS! COTA! ATLANTIS! LIZMARK! LADIES!

Rose Roman vs. Ramona TaSelle Chicago 1950s 

MD: The downside here is that there's no sound. The upside is that for a women's singles match from this footage collection, it goes a bit longer than most of what we already had. The bonus is no Russ Davis who has good days and bad days, but almost always bad ones with the women. There's other footage of both Roman and TeSelle and they seem younger here. Maybe that's just on me as TeSelle seems to wrestle like it. She's less secure in her cheating, coming off as earnest in wanting to bend the rules but less competent. She has a hard time drawing the ref off to use the ropes. The audacity is good though. There's one moment where she gets to the ropes (she does that a lot) to force the ref to break a Roman arm puller only to audaciously try to get one of her own instead of breaking clean. There are a couple of nice little flourishes like a body drop in a toehold position or Roman's Leg Nelson but this was more of an A for Effort sort of match than anything else. Though we couldn't hear a pop, at least a few people were visibly happy for Roman sneaking out the win, so the crowd probably appreciated the effort too.

PAS: Nifty little match, that Roman Leg Nelson was violent looking stuff she war really smushing TaSelle's neck. You definitely get a sense that these ladies were way more skilled and technical then the Moolah trainees I grew up with, although this was more of a fine 10 minute match, then anything midblowing.


Mark Rocco vs. Mongolian Mauler CWA 4/12/90

MD: Here's our Segunda Caida Mark Rocco tribute match, against the Mongolian Mauler, because of course it is. I've seen a bunch of Rocco. I'm not sure I've seen much blue-eye Mark Rocco though and certainly not against a larger, more monstrous bad guy. This was his show, in front of his crowd, and he was going to play it exactly how he wanted. That meant he gave and gave dynamically but never for long. You can see that right from the get go when Mauler ambushed him with his flag only for Rocco to immediately come back and get the crowd going. It meant that Mauler was half on his back foot for most of the match and couldn't really wrestle how he should have, laying in and leaning in. The public warnings and round structure probably didn't help. In the last five or six minutes he had a little bit of opportunity to do so, maybe a minute of clubbering and bullying, but Rocco wouldn't stand for it for long. Some really clever stuff in here though. I love Rocco coming out of a round break by throwing the traditional British spitting water at Mauler's face (and then hitting him with a quasi-Pedigree) which drew him a public warning but is a tactic I don't think I've ever seen in UK wrestling. The finish was really creative as well, with Rocco first turning a second flag assault back on Mauler and then defacing it so that when the aghast Mauler bent over to pick it up, he was vulnerable to a sunset flip. Rocco probably took a bit too much of this, but at least he was entertaining (as always) about it.

ER: This is probably the first time I've seen Rocco against this kind of an opponent, a big fat guy not specifically versed in British style, just a low rent Killer Khan. Rocco against a low rent Killer Khan was a fun pairing on paper, and I liked it in execution too. This match should have been Rocco selling after taking a flag shot while Mauler cheats to stay ahead. That makes sense and would normally be the layout I would root for. We've all complained enough about Rocco as a proto-Angle guy who didn't bother with selling because that took away time from his "cool stuff". It's valid, but I also liked it here because I think it lead to a more active Mauler than we otherwise would have gotten. It's not like Mauler was going to fully work up to Rocco's speed, but I liked seeing Mauler take over off of a big Rocco miss, like his springboard kneedrop that always hits the mat hard. Rocco was smart about setting up things that worked so that they made sense when they missed later, and we got some nice move reflection from two very different bodies (like Rocco hitting his falling elbow, and a few minutes later getting crushed by Mauler's elbow off the middle buckle). Agree with Matt that the flag finish was far more creative that I was expecting. I was expecting a flag attack that ends in a DQ, instead Rocco baits Mauler into defending the flag and pins him!


Negro Casas/Mocho Cota vs. Atlantis/Lizmark 1990s?

MD: This was pretty much pure joy, from the first few moments of Atlantis using his cape to taunt Casas like he was a bullfighter, to the end with Cota fouling more blatantly than anyone has ever fouled, to all the kids rushing in for the post-match celebration. Casas and Cota could well be my two favorite rudos, guys who just understand stooging like no one else. And feeding. Man, did they ever feed here. They made Lizmark and Atlantis, who aren't slouches by any means, look like a million bucks as they ran into their offense again and again. There was a moment in the segunda where Casas got whacked in the chest and tried to convince the ref he got fouled because of it. Just amazing cheek. The comeback moment was beautiful too, stemming from Cota and Casas both hurting their heads on a double headbutt; that was followed by Casas running halfway around ringside to eat the biggest Atlantis quebradora ever and Lizmark yanking Cota up and down by his hair while sitting on the top turnbuckle. This one was very much for the kids but I can't imagine anyone seeing this and not being wildly entertained.

PAS: Tremendous find, no idea about the year or where this is, but it is two of all the all time great rudos colliding with two hall of fame level technicos in a straight up lucha libre match. Casas is the master of finding small ways to entertain, he is as worth watching in a house show match like this as his in a huge apuestas or title match. I loved him doing the pose off with Lizmark and he just flew into every bit of offense by both guys. That quebradora on the floor was massive, as was the little bits of Atlantis and Casas grappling. Nifty stuff and I can't wait to dig into this channel some more.

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Lucha Worth Watching: More 1999 Mr. Niebla!

Mr. Niebla/Brazo de Plata/Atlantis vs. Villano III/Apolo Dantes/Shocker CMLL 9/10/99

ER: This is mostly a big rudo mugging to set up next week's tag, and it works. The entire primera is the rudos stomping down the tecnicos, ending when Dantes gave Porky a headlock takeover and kept choking him (while the others stomped him) until Porky started holding his chest and shaking. I love matches where Porky works in a heart attack spot. Babe Richard can't do much for Porky until the stretcher arrives, so all he does is pull Porky's waistband away from his belly. "Give this man some space, his pants are too tight!" The rudos kick at Porky to roll him out of the ring, and he lands hard on his side. Shocker was great here, breaking out big things like a double springboard elbowdrop, big missile dropkicks, and avoiding Niebla like the plague. The second Niebla would gain any bit of ground Shocker would hightail it out of the ring. V3 was the real thug of the beatdown, walking into frame and punching the nearest tecnico, yanking at Atlantis's mask, and holding guys for Shocker to hit with missile dropkicks. I loved how V3 would hang in to the last second, bumping himself for the dropkick instead of letting Niebla go a split second early. When the tecnicos make their big comeback  (nearly 75% of the way into the match, which had been completely rudo dominated up until then) it's really fun, with Atlantis/V3 pairing off and Niebla finally getting Shocker. Niebla hits a really nice moonsault off the top to the floor on him, and Atlantis/V3 give us a nice sneak preview of their huge mask match just a half year away, with V3 barely kicking out of a smooth rana and eventually getting caught in la Atlantida.

Mr. Niebla/Atlantis vs. Villano III/Shocker CMLL 9/17/99

ER: Great, bloody tag match, the kind where the tecnicos win by default when the refs stop the damn match due to the tecnicos getting their asses beaten too violently. This is a super libre tag, and the Atlantis/Niebla team certainly bleed enough to make it so. Niebla is sporting killer all red gear that I don't think I've ever seen, and after this massacre it's clear that he should have debuted all white gear instead. This is a real mean Shocker performance. He is right on Niebla and gives him a helluva battering, at one point punching him several times right in the ear before Niebla could get back in the ring, always running at him with boots (including his great running full extension high kick), always beating at Niebla with pure scorn. Niebla makes a nice brief comeback, ducking a tandem clothesline and coming backing with a well timed tope en reversa, and a tope that knocks Shocker into the seats. But this was about the rudos being out for all of the blood, and both Niebla and Niebla give us a couple of great lucha bloodlettings. At one point Niebla is hung upside down in the corner and the rudos just use Atlantis as a battering ram, running from the opposite side of the ring, over and over, with Niebla and Atlantis only given mercy when a ref takes the Atlantis battering ram and the thing gets thrown out. After the match Shocker beats Niebla to the floor, booting right in the head several times. Shocker looked like a real monster here, total rudo asshole. It was the kind of beating you might see in a violent apuestas match, not the kind of beating to set up an apuestas match, and that's fine by me.

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New Footage Friday: REY JR.! JUVENTUD! FINLAY! CASAS! SOLAR! PARKA! ATLANTIS! DANNY BOY!

Rey Misterio Jr/Solar/Volador vs. Fuerza Guerrera/Juventud Guerrera/La Parka AAA 10/30/93 - GREAT

MD: What a moment in time this was. Everyone knew what they had in each other here. The vets knew what they had in Rey and Juvi. So much of this match was set up around highlighting them or using them as foils. There are a ton of examples: Parka catching Rey and marching across the ring with him, then Volador catching Juvi. The replay of the leap up 'rana off the top from Rey to Juvi. Fuerza slapping Juvi than being proud when they had him hit the splash across the ring to win the segunda. Obviously, Volador getting down so Rey could jump off his back with his dive onto a Juvi that just ate floor. Rey was the most dynamic entity in the world, with Juvi a game partner who already had working the crowd down. Everyone else more than kept up too. Parka was a rudo but got the chants right from the start. Solar and Fuerza had a great exchange to start the match. The spot where Fuerza hiptossed Volador off the apron and into a perfectly catching Park on the floor was probably the spot of the match and maybe one of the spots of the year. It had a little too much set up but the impact was great. And the character work was just so crisp. Everyone was well-defined, and there was a mini novella within the match between Fuerza and Juvi (With Parka coming out to comfort Fuerza, despite him being in the wrong, and to get them back into it). It's amazing how much they fit into such a short period of time.

PAS: Our boy Roy Lucier is unearthing Lucha TV which hadn't been out there before and found an early Rey Jr. match and a super early Juventud match. That is an all-time great pair and it is so fun to watch them dance their dance. In addition we get Fuerza at peak Fuerza shtick, some cool Solar mat work, a couple of nifty Volador spots and dancing La Parka. I especially loved the Fuerza and Juvi interaction, it has always been one of my favorite parings, the physical comedy between the two is always so great and Fuerza is an all time pantomimer. We got a couple of big time cool spots and just a ton of enjoyable lucha.

ER: This is the kind of match you know you're going to watch the moment you see the lineup. Obviously you are going to watch a match with these six guys, no matter what year it took place. This is one of those lineups where you have no way of knowing which one of them will deliver the hottest performance of the match, just a constant battle of cool wrestlers. Volador was my favorite guy here, but it's a tough choice. I love how tight he throws monkey flips and headscissors, not leaving any kind of space, making it really look like he's the one controlling his opponents' momentum. His monkey flip on Fuerza was textbook, and he played around with a couple of Super Calo like rolling headscissors that look as impressive in 2020 as they did in '93. I really dug him taking a wild Fuerza hiptoss off the apron into Parka, his match climax tope was world class, and his back boost alley oop that tossed Rey into a killer plancha to the floor on Juvy was so damn good. La Parka is a tremendous base for everyone, a guy who could take complicated ranas as good as anyone. Fuerza is a total jerk who might have had the greatest ball kicks in all of Mexico (Satanico would be his primary competition), and he really split Volador's uprights here. Fuerza is such a good mask actor, and it's cool to see he had such in-ring chemistry with Juvy from this early on. I love them as a team and seeing as this is among the earliest matches I've seen with Juventud, it's cool to know that was a thing they had from go. This might not have gotten to the peaks it could have (considering the names involved), but there is zero chance anyone could watch this and have a bad time.

Atlantis/Shocker/Silver King vs. Dr. Wagner Jr./Emilio Charles Jr./Negro Casas CMLL 12/29/95

MD: Just good lucha libre. The rudos were out wearing holiday crowns, one of which Shocker stole in the initial melee. They got the beatdown done in the primera, after some initial tecnico advantage and stalling. Talent level was through the roof here and it was almost all action once the segunda kicked in. The combo of Charles and Casas were made to stooge for tecnicos and Wagner based well (especially for Silver King). An underlying story here was Casas vs Shocker (setting up two singles matches in January), with Casas playing coward, especially whenever he got knocked out of the ring. He was always quick to run away and avoid a dive possibility. He also slowed down the tecnicos' comeback momentum by diving across the ring and out of the fray. The payoff here, wasn't a dive but instead the two of them being in the ring for the final moment where Shocker got the best of him. That was set up not by dives but by a chaotic series of wrestlers being pulled out of the ring to prevent the possibility of them, but it was still unique and exciting. The very best part of the match was the end of the segunda, most especially the sheer velocity that Casas soared into La Reinera. Those two Shocker vs Casas matches (1/19 and 1/26) are the only two singles matches between the two of them in the Match Finder, the second being a Welterweight title match. If they're not already out there, I hope they show up.

PAS: This was quality by the numbers lucha, full of guys who are amazingly talented. Casas and Shocker is a fun match up, and I really want to see those singles matches Matt mentioned. I loved how fast Shocker put him in an Atlantida (which is weird with Atlantis right there) and their back and forths were done with such speed and precision. Shocker is part of that lost generation of late 90s luchadors who never lived up to their potential (Black Warrior, Niebla, Lizmark Jr.) but at his best he was electric to watch, and being matched up with a GOAT like Casas is going to be something. I liked the minor key stuff between Wagner and King too, those guys have been working each other since they were toddlers and you can really tell. Nothing that will be remembered a week later, but man was the day by day quality of this stuff incredible.

ER: Just like that AAA 1993 tag up above, this is a match that I'm going to want to watch just seeing the on paper lineup. I love Wagner and Silver King on opposite sides, I've always loved Negro Casas and Shocker matching up in trios, and I love Emilio Charles stooging around Arena Mexico. Wagner had a bunch of funny walk shtick to sell Silver King kicks, Casas and Shocker had the quick sequences I wanted, and I love Charles' opportunistic rudo. This is the kind of high floor match that comes from having nothing but pros in there. Watching these guys all do their thing while not taking a ton of risks is really fun, because you're dealing with some all timer charisma. Negro Casas moves with such snap, watching him throw a hard kick or take a big flipping bump is so precise and so clean, it really makes Shocker look like a star. It's cool seeing Shocker as the smallest guy in a trios. he looked like Shockercito looks now, and moves as quick as him. This was obviously going to be a win, a classic lucha trios to warm the evening.


Fit Finlay vs. Danny Boy Collins ASW 6/1/12 - EPIC

PAS: The Finlay indy run was such a treat, and it is awesome that another match from that run has popped up (Finlay vs. Dave Taylor in an Irish Street Fight is the coolest looking on paper missing match). This was high end Finlay, and worked pretty interestingly. Collins was working a lot like mid 2000s Finlay, landing cheap shots on the break, using the ring as a weapon, working really stiff. Of course Finlay working as a traditional Finlay opponent is pretty perfect and of course delivered as nasty as he got it. Parts of this felt like Regal vs. Finlay which is about as big a compliment as I can give a match.

MD: This one was a bit of a mindtrip. I can see why you'd have Finlay be the face during this run, and obviously the kids were very familiar and into him in that role as shown by the way they celebrated with him at the end, but this was not what I expected on paper, especially for a nostalgia show of sorts. They called upon Collins to play the bad guy and he did with enthusiasm. I thought they could have been a bit more consistent with the rules; it felt a little like lucha on when the ref made Finlay break things relative to Collins, but that was a minor issue in the grand scheme. The best part of Finlay as a face, of course, is that he works just as mean as he would as a heel, and when it was his turn to give back, he was just as stiff as you'd like.

ER: Collins has been showing up fairly frequently on our New Footage Fridays, which makes sense as he's a guy who essentially wrestles like Fit Finlay. This was practically Finlay vs. Finlay, which is the exact kind of match that will be written about by us. This whole thing was a clinic on hard loud bumps and perfect execution on moves that have been kind of washed over. After seeing Collins and Finlay each throw a couple of gorgeous snapmares, the kind where you have a firm grip around your opponent's neck and jaw and give them a throw while you're leading with their head, you realize just how perfunctory most snapmares are in modern wrestling. The snapmare is treated as an afterthought, a thing to do to get from point A to point B, except point B is typically a lousy thigh slap. Here they treat the snapmare as an actual piece of offense, the way it should when you're throwing a man by the neck, and the follow up cravats and chinlocks were highlights on their own. I love how hard they would lean into Irish whips, the loud PONG when Finlay bumped into the ringpost, and Collin's dropping a knee to Finlay's temple that looked so good that I thought "damn Finlay should steal that kneedrop". Finlay's standing Bombs Away is a treat, and it's a constant joy running throughout a match where you can tell they are treating each piece of offense as important. Finlay is going to sell a short uppercut to his bridge as well as he is going to sell being thrown face first onto a table, and when you treat your offense with this kind of respect it just makes everything come off as important. This was a real gem from a months long tour that saw several Finlay gems. And it might be time for us to break Danny Boy Collins reviews away from NFF and into a regular series.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FIT FINLAY

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LA PARK

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Lucha Worth Watching: 1999 Mr. Niebla

Mr. Niebla/Atlantis/Lizmark Sr. vs. Villano III/Shocker/Mr. Mexico CMLL 8/27/99

ER: I loved this one. This was 9 minutes at most, a full 3 falls, and had so much crammed into it that it felt like they went 20. The rudo team was firing on all cylinders, with Shocker looking like the best wrestler in the world here. This match alone would have amped me up for the Shocker/Niebla mask match, as you had Niebla as this valiant tecnico who at one point glides through the ropes to the floor to go after a baddie, while Shocker does nothing but kick ass. I said we have a bunch of great happenings coming one after the other, everybody here getting their chance to shine. Niebla is a great tecnico, filled with energy, tons of charisma and big movements; Atlantis is right there with him for excitement, and we got a tremendous sneak preview of Atlantis/Villano III with Villano battering him with a quick punch combo; Shocker hits among the best corner clothesline I've seen, running hard into every single tecnico like he was Stan Hansen, and brings out a punch combo of his own; Mr. Mexico has a fun crazy guy energy and does these two really weird blatant prat fall bumps, doing these big swan dives without stumbling or anything. There aren't any dives, and the caidas end all very simply, and the meat of the caidas focused on violent strikes and rudos doing heavy sentons instead of flashy offense. The finish sees the tecnicos locking in la estrella, with Niebla aiming to rana Shocker into the middle of it...except Shocker powerbombs the shit out of Niebla, right into Lizmark at an awful angle. This was a damn efficient use of 9 minutes, total greatest hits collection.


Mr. Niebla/El Hijo Del Santo/Negro Casas vs. Dr. Wagner Jr./Shocker/Mr. Mexico CMLL 9/3/99

ER: Sadly the segunda is clipped out of this one (which had all of the rudo revenge to complement the primera's tecnico rampage), but it's still a primo lineup. This is merely a snack, quick DQ and highspot matches to build to bigger things, but these are all guys I love seeing work in quick environments. Mr. Mexico is a great expressive bumper, Wagner is a true rudo, and Shocker is this great sneak attack artist. That's an awesome combo for a rudo team. Shocker kind of uses Mexico as his human shield, and with his fast bumps and bug eyed expressions Mr. Mexico is a fantastic human shield, meanwhile Shocker is the one cheering it on from the floor and coming in with kicks to the back of the head of downed tecnicos. The tecnicos whip through some great spots, a fantastic quebrada from Niebla, a big Niebla somersault senton off the apron that the camera mostly misses, Santo coming off the top with a cool Hart Attack lariat. Wagner and Santo felt like the big main event elephant in the room, as they went at it the whole time. Wagner dropped Santo early with a big powerslam, and peppers in stiff kicks wherever he can, and the finish run between the two is really cool: Santo goes for the camel clutch and Wagner stands up with Santo on his back, running him backwards into the turnbuckles to loosen him, then plants him with the Wagner driver for the DQ. I loved Negro Casas leaping in and covering Santo's body from further attack, before even thinking about breaking up a pin. Casas understands those personal details and it's the kind of thing that elevates a match like this.

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New Footage Friday: Dick Murdoch! New Kobashi/Kikuchi vs. Can-Ams! Infernales vs. Villanos in TJ!

Dick Murdoch vs. Johnny Rodz WWF Kuwait 1984

PAS: Murdoch is on one in this match. Three stooges selling, phantom air punching, multiple shoving matches with the ring announcers, just the full Murdoch. Rodz was a fun foil in this match, but my goodness what a Murdoch show. It was clear that he was going to take everything to 11 in front of a crowd who may not be familiar with wrestling, so he was especially off his rocker here. There may be five minutes of shtick before the first lock up, some all-time atomic drop sells, everything you would want from a showman in front of a small crowd of Emir’s in a carpeted soccer stadium.

MD: We had a few Kuwait matches to take a look at. After a scan of a few matches (including a pretty fun Adonis/Murdoch/Smirnoff vs. Morales/Johnson/Gama Singh cage match and a 25 minute tag with a fake Masked Superstar, Don Muraco and DeCarlo/Bellomo!) this was the way to go. Two immediate thoughts. First, one of my favorite matches of all time is Funk vs. Martel from Puerto Rico from 1986. In it, Funk wages an indirect war with the entire country of Puerto Rico. This kind of feels like that, with Murdoch spending more time arguing with the crowd and menacing the PA announcer than fighting Rodz. Second, you know how even in the most serious matches, Murdoch ends up stooging in the third act. Like in the amazing Karl Kox match? Here, you don't get anything but the stooging. It's the purest distillation of comedy house show Murdoch and it's a thing of beauty. The way he shooting gallery walks across the ring after getting hit by Rodz is amazing. His reactions to the PA guy calling out every bad thing he does? Brilliant. His stagger shadowpunch selling? He wasn't wrestling for the empty back rows; he was wrestling for someone on Mars. The crowd was a constant buzz. Rodz did his part, but you get the sense he was just happy to be there. This is in no way good but it is in every way great. Dick Murdoch, walking contradiction.

ER: You see some on paper potential for a Murdoch being Murdoch match, and then something so bizarre comes along and ends up out-Murdoching any kind of Murdoch you were hoping to see Murdoch. First, let me say that I really loved Johnny Rodz here. It's tough being the straight man forced to play things normal and not look like a nerd while your opponent is duck walking around the ring and starting fights with timekeepers. Rodz bumps really big for Murdoch to keep him looking like a threat while Murdoch is hilariously stooging to fill in the gaps. There's no chance anyone in the crowd knew who Murdoch was, but because of the work of both men they all got to see Murdoch as a very believable threat and total buffoon. I loved Rodz' big bump off Murdoch's 2nd strike of the match, staggering fast 3/4 of the way across the ring and spilling hard into the ropes, and later Rodz does an awesome twist on Flair's corner bump, flipping over the top and landing hard on his butt on the apron. Murdoch is a great striker, but Rodz had a big variety of shots that made him look super credible. I especially liked him hitting a leaping punch to Murdoch's beer belly, then tags him in the chin when the gut punch causes him to buckle. Obviously Murdoch is a master. He was his own one man Ministry of Silly Walks here, doing this absurd straight leg/straight arm waddle while being punched, and clearly peaking with his atomic drop sell. Murdoch sells an atomic drop like someone who is dangerously close to shitting their pants, knees buckles, on his tip toes, asshole clenched, rubbing out his tailbone, while also moving his hips as if he was working out a major wedgie without using his hands. He punches the air and flops face first with his butt in the air, he punches the air and gets kicked over onto his butt, and every second of it is great. These two men reached people who - honestly - they couldn't have actually known how to reach. They just did what they knew how to do in the most exaggerated way possible, bringing the gift of stooging to Kuwait.

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi/Kenta Kobashi vs. Doug Furnas/Dan Kroffat AJPW 10/7/92

MD: There are a lot of batches of these handhelds. For instance, there's a batch of AJPW dates that we've barely looked at because they were followed so quickly by first Fujiwara vs Fuchi and then by the new NJPW set. This was part of yet another group where we knew these aired on TV but generally JIP or clipped and sometimes just as part of a digest of finishes. As best as I can tell (and I double checked it with Ditch, so we'll call it the best I could tell), only four minutes of this actually aired on TV.

That means that we have for you a never-before-seen-in-the-wild Kobashi/Kikuchi vs Can-Ams match, another iteration of one of the best tags of the 90s.

This is a good and interesting, but lesser version of the match-up. For one thing, the crowd, while definitely abuzz, isn't quite as electric. Also, there isn't quite the same commitment to a singular theme that makes the May match such a great Southern Tag.

This had another six months of history behind it and definitely some of the same elements. I love how Kroffat and Furnas can draw heat in this setting. Every time they cheat or even take a shortcut, the crowd boos. Some of that is Kikuchi's charisma or how beloved Kobashi was, but I think a lot of it is respect and admiration for Furnas and Kroffat. They really lean into it. There are two moments in the match where Furnas comes in behind an opponent who is fighting back against Kroffat and grabs him for a belly to back; the fact they repeat the spot later on adds more than it subtracts because it doubles down on the theme and it gets a reaction each time. I do think overall, there are a number of individual reactions instead of the sort of building one you get in the May match. Ultimately, they instead build to some pretty cool spots and a moonsault that the world for how hard Kobashi had to work for it. Ultimately this was good stuff that couldn't live up to what they'd already laid down months before.

PAS: I thought this was tremendous, their May match is of course an all time classic, and it is so neat that this big run of HH’s had given us two other versions of that match up. Kikuchi is of course a legendary face in peril, and he takes the expected level of beating here. Kroffat was especially nasty throwing knuckle punches like he was trying to open up his eyebrow, Furnas also bends him in two with a variation of a torture rack, which really looked like a guy being tortured. Lots of cool cut offs in this, Kikuchi flies into Furnas when he was about to leap into a rana, Kikuchi grabs Kobashi so he won’t get double team, only to pay the price when Kroffat lariats him off the apron. Video blips out a couple of times so we miss a shot or two, but we are still totally blessed to be able to check this out, and all four guys are at their prime.

Satanico/Rey Bucanero/Ultimo Guerrero vs. Villano IV/Villano V/Atlantis Tijuana 2001

ER: This was from a real hot time in TJ, tons of big talent was coming through fresh off the demise of WCW, and more talent was coming in from CMLL than any time since. This was also around the time me and some friends made some trips down there to finally check out Auditorio Municipal de Tijuana. I got to see some cool things there, and now Roy Lucier is posting a ton of handhelds that not many others have ever seen. This is a great house show style match with some great bits, spirited performances from everyone, and a nice build to a big dive finish. Satanico was an absolute machine in his early 50s, punching everyone in sight, working as ringleader of his Infernales goons, and throwing in a genuinely hilarious spot where Atlantis gets him to flinch and take two fast back bumps in anticipation of getting hit. All of the comedy worked, and there was a really good Bugs Bunny Duck Season/Rabbit Season joke where guys kept turning over sunset flips to favor their side, so the tecnicos flipped it on them and made Infernales flip their own man over, a really fun take on an old spot. Later I laughed when Atlantis started chasing UG around the ring and UG was running full speed but also Atlantis threw out practically a dozen tilt a whirl backbreakers (I know he's slower now, but I have no clue how he has any knees left at all) and worked with big energy; both Villanos looked good, and one in particular (I'm not going to bother to guess which one, as there's no way I'm reading a roman numeral IV or V on a handheld that I'm watching on my phone) has this awesome sequence where he hits a pop up rana, armdrag, and sticks the exclamation point with a cool cutter. All of Infernales alley oop avalanches got real good height, and I laughed at Bucanero/Guerrero locking on their overly complicated rolling leg bars and armbars, because everytime they would roll through Satanico would stroll over and just grab a free limb and start yanking. This was also during the period where Bucanero was maybe the biggest bumper in wrestling, and here he slides to the floor to challenge a Villano to slugfest, then brings it to the apron and takes his big vaulting bump over the turnbuckles to the floor. This all comes to a head with both Villanos hitting stereo dives, capping off the kind of fun and charismatic 15 minute match that anyone would love to have seen live.

MD: This was a blast. The New Infernales were one of the best acts in the world at the turn of the century. Satanico is probably the best guy in history at directing rudo violence. Atlantis was at the height of his power here and the Villanos were Villanos, nothing more said. The initial beatdown was fluid and solid, with everything the Infernales did smooth and practiced. They made each bit of complex tandem offense look natural, like it's obviously what would happen if these three goons teamed up. Even when something didn't quite work perfectly, it still felt like it fit into the match. I really liked the corner alley-oop. I've seen a million GdI matches and they very rarely use it. It made for a great transition. The back half of the match was mostly them feeding comedy spots for the tecnicos. You can hardly imagine Ultimo Guerrero running from Atlantis like that even a year or two later. His knee-bump over the top was at hyperspeed and Bucanero did this twisting trip flip bump over the other turnbuckle which I don't remember seeing him do too often (probably for good reason). I liked the extra (post-)post-dive wrinkle to the finish as I thought it'd end in the ring between Atlantis and Satanico. Just crowd pleasing lucha with some of the best acts in the world at the time.

PAS: This was a very CMLL trios for 2000 Tijuana. Pretty trippy to see these guys work in a different environment. Infernales were just such a smooth lucha machine, the first fall is rudo dominated and dominated in a pretty perfect fashion. Bucanero and UG's shtick eventually began to tire me in 2000, but I can really appreciate it looking back 20 years later. It was fun to see the Villanos who are such master rudos themselves work as technicos against another rudo force. Atlantis is great in this too, he was so fast and agile back then, and having watched him for so long, I was really getting a lot of joy anticipating where he was about to go. Beautiful bumps to the floor from Gdl, in a way that felt totally safe but looked totally dangerous which is really the best way to do it. Great stuff, had a grin on my face the entire time.

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