Found Footage Friday: LAWLER~! ROOSTER~! COLORADO~! REJECTS~! SLIM J~! ROCKWELL~! HAWKINS~! OKUMA~! EIGEN~!

Haruka Eigen vs. Motoshi Okuma AJPW 9/15/89

MD: Another recent Classics drop and it's a great thing to pop up because while we have a lot of Eigen and Okuma in this era, and likewise, a decent amount of All Japan comedy, it's always with them as foils for Rusher and Baba. It's rare to see the two of them one on one and really, comedy without Baba or Rusher. This was certainly something. They wrestled a bit before building to the comedy but once they got there, it never went away. It was a mean sort of thing though, Okuma headbutting Eigen in the mouth, both guys holding the other in the ropes like Sheamus and laying in a huge shot that would cause spit to go flying into the front row and everyone to go running, Okuma stepping over Eigen to hit the falling headbutt and then having it countered by Eigen tripping him. Okuma had somewhat more dignity here, with Eigen spitting farther, getting headbutted, having to run around the ringside area to try to find a way back into the ring without getting nailed, but Okuma got his comeuppance too. Very unique, very stylized, but interesting and worth watching at least once. The crowd was certainly into it and they should have been considering the effort, timing, and expert expressiveness of these two, all while being just hard-hitting enough to belong in 1989 AJPW. 

Jerry Lawler vs. Mike Rapada vs. Terry Taylor NWA Worldwide 11/13/99

MD: This was for Rapada's NWA North American title, with the appeal, as much as anything else, that it was a WWF announcer vs. a WCW office guy vs. a NWA wrestler, in 1999. The Nashville crowd was pretty big and fairly hot. Both guys had been feuding with Rapada and Lawler's promo setting it up was that Rapada thought beating him would let him get into WWF but that he'd never get there. The real appeal of this one, however, was seeing Lawler in a Triple Threat match. They'd been around for a chunk of the decade, obviously, and Lawler had called his share by November 1999, but you could see the wheels ticking even in the promo setting it up. 

Lawler and Taylor were de facto allies here, and this ended up pure Memphis. Lawler would use a sharpie (a real one, not an imaginary one), that Stacy handed to him into Rapada's throat repeatedly, but he'd have Taylor there in the ring to distract the ref. It allowed for a slightly different execution for hide the object but was effective through it's blatantness with Lawler being more blatant than ever. They built towards dissension between Taylor and Lawler as only one party could win the title, leading to a miscommunication headbutt to the groin and Rapada coming back. Finish was Taylor kicking out of all of Rapada's big moves and then stealing the win as Lawler was gloating after hitting Rapada with the pile-driver. This had its ceiling considering who was in there with the King, but it was great to see him experiment with the possibilities of a new form (and find ways to work all of his time-tested stuff in). 

Devil's Rejects (Azrael/Shaun Tempers/Patrick Bentley) vs. Slim J/Adrian Hawkins/Ace Rockwell NWA Anarchy 9/27/07

MD: As always, you can drop in to almost any of these Rejects matches and it feels like... well, home is probably not the right word, but certainly somewhere familiar and, for us at least, welcome. The Anarchy announcers are always the best at getting you up to speed too. They didn't know it but they were commentating for immortality. Here, things start out as 3 on 2 (really 4 on 2 given Wilson, the Staff of Righteousness, and that this was a streetfight). Hawkins had just refused membership in the Rejects and while he and Slim J meshed in look and style, and even had an early advantage by striking first, the numbers were against them. I liked Bentley a lot here, bumping huge out of the ring for Slim J to start, later on dragging his elbow over a wound when they were in control, playing his new character overtly in his elated reactions while still seeming menacing. When things seemed darkest and Hawkins was about to hit a pile driver off the top onto a chair on Slim J, Rockwell rushed out to even the odds which was a big moment and a bigger pop. That led to a great comeback highlighted by a Slim J diving reverse DDT on 2/3rds of the Rejects and a Coast-to-Coast by Hawkins. Eventually, as it so often happened the superior chemistry and teamwork (and sheer brutality) from the Rejects won out though, building and building and building it to a bigger payoff down the road and keeping these insatiable fans ever hungry.

PAS: I just love this stuff. I really should have been watching Anarchy weekly back in the mid 2000s, it is very much my kind of wrestling. The Rejects are a swarming gang of creeps as always, although it is a different vibe without either of the monsters Tank and Iceberg. Damn Slim J is a great brawler. I say it every time one of these matches come out, but it just blows me away how great he is at throwing hands, timing comebacks, bleeding, all of it. Really almost a 21st century Tommy Rich, and it is a shame he never got a chance to really have that kind of match on a bigger stage. Loved Rockwell coming from the back, he is an amazing brawler too, and that is a trope which always works. Rejects win felt earned and that double team reverse DDT that Azreal and Tempers did was awesome looking. Great match, but basically any time these guys matched up it was tremendous. 

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Found Footage Friday: TAKA~! ISHIKAWA~! WARGAMES 2x2~?! SLIM J~! SHADOW JACKSON~! CONCRETE GORILLAS~! NWA ELITE~! DEVIL'S REJECTS~!

Yuki Ishikawa/Kurashima vs. George King/TAKA Michinoku BATTLARTS 2003

MD: If George King wants to post BATTLARTS matches on Instagram, we're going to watch them. King was the odd man out in some ways, but you can't say he wasn't game. Whenever TAKA was in, he was shouting encouragement from the corner. He wasn't afraid to slap and chop hard and he had a lot of feats of strength that felt labored in a way that added to the struggle. Occasionally, you questioned the timing or positioning maybe, but Ishikawa was going to be able to work him into holds and make things look great with just a bit of feeding. That's all he needed anyway. It was a lot of fun to see Ishikawa and TAKA square off, as TAKA threw some nasty kicks but spent a lot of his time twisted and contorted in a crossface chicken wing or outright getting dropped on his head by Ishikawa. Kurashima was in there to take suplexes and throw them, but it was mostly Ishikawa's show. King and TAKA layered in just enough cheating to keep things interesting and help rationalize the finish. 

Slim J/Shadow Jackson vs. Jay Fury/Nemesis 2x2 War Games NWA Anarchy 7/19/08 

PAS: Slim J has seemingly gotten a spot in AEW/ROH which is awesome, he is one of the most underseen and underrated wrestlers of the 21st century, and it is great he is getting a bit of shine. Most people remember him as a high flyer workrate guy, and he is very good at that style, but he truly excels in a bloody ugly brawl like this.

This was a four person War Games match, which conceptually seems a bit silly, but worked fine. It just ended up as a quick tag team I quit match. Nemisis and Shadow Jackson together were the Urban Assault Squad, a long time Cornelia tag team, and this was the apex of their post break up feud. There was a trophy involved in the break up, and the sharp trophy was used as a stabbing implement to open up all four guys. Slim J started the match and took a nasty beating throughout, including getting German Suplexed while both he and his opponent were standing on the top rope, and getting hung with a noose from the cage. There was a lot of battling on the top rope, and at one point the fence started peeling away from the cage, which gave the whole match this chaotic, razor's edge feel. Like any minute this whole thing is going to collapse. Jackson had a real connection to the crowd, but I didn't think his offense looked that great, the heel team was fine, if a little unmemorable, but this was another great example of what an all time deranged psycho Slim J is and was.  

MD: I loved the layout on this. It was like a War Games Lite or a Sprint War Games. Slim J started with Fury for the first five minutes, wrestling from underneath to really dominate towards the end. Nemesis came in and they began to just demolish him. Jackson came in three minutes later to even the odds and they had a big comeback. It was particularly interesting though as Slim J had to earn his part of it like he would have to in order to set up a hot tag. Nemesis had been holding the cage to keep Jackson out and it was only when Slim J was able to fight away from the noose and take over on Fury that Nemesis had to help his partner and Jackson was able to come in. The faces then slipped on a banana peel and we got a really brutal beatdown, tons of shots into the cage, and the insane visual of Slim J eating that German from the top of the cage all the way across the ring. It was an amazing distance to travel on it. Anarchy is so good at booking big moments in these matches and here it was Slim J coming back again as he was about to be hung and Jackson rising up to get his revenge as the crowd lived and breathed with his every movement and the triumphant victory. It was real folk hero stuff which is what you want in a War Games. I agree that specific things could have looked a little better in practice at times and that probably would have put it further over the top, but I'm completely behind the theory of this one.

Devil's Rejects (Azrael/Shaun Tempers/Iceberg) vs. NWA Elite (Abomination/Phil Shatter/KIMO) NWA Anarchy 7/19/08

MD: There was a moment right at the midway mark of the match, even as the announcers were laying out the stakes again, where I thought to myself "This is actually a pretty conventional tag." Of course in that moment Iceberg decided to take a bite out of Shatter's skull, so obviously it's all relative, but this was a different sort of match for these groups. It was titles vs the chance to ever challenge again, where the Elite were trying desperately to wrest some gold, at all costs, from the Rejects after a six month reign from Azrael/Tempers. What you got on one side was a fairly oddball group with KIMO's unconventional strikes and Abomination's size, but with Shatter doing the brunt of the work from underneath as the Rejects worked like a well oiled machine. Shatter had a lot of time working with these guys and taking their stuff and, to some degree, to be able to get Iceberg up when needed, including to set up the hot tag. Unexpectedly, Iceberg took huge bumps in the process. They had a great moment at the end where the managers were taken out on the apron and everyone crashed into each other to set up the finish. Ultimately everyone worked to put over KIMO which was a choice in time, I guess. The Elite's team never really seemed to gel here (Abomination was really just there, an absence in your vision in his all black gear), but Shatter held up things well considering he had the Rejects to work against.

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Found Footage Friday: PANAMANIAN LUCHA~! CACTUS~! MORRUS~! SLIM J~! ROCKWELL~! DEVILS REJECTS~!

Galvez/Taur vs. Kato Kung Lee/Celestial 1988

MD: More Panamanian lucha. This was pretty polished. Galvez stooged well and looked like he could be the Cuban Assassin's partner. Taur had this great sweeping punch. Both of them based perfectly for Celestial who had a ton of fun headscissors takeover variations. Kato Kung Lee came off as an attraction at the height of his power and the fans were very into his rope running/climbing shtick that befuddled the rudos and won the first fall. The beatdown that followed primarily relied on the numbers game and was compelling enough, and then the comeback was celebratory like you'd expect. I'd say this match, at least, would stand up fairly well against comparable ones from the era.

Shaun Tempers/Azrael vs. Ace Rockwell/Slim J NWA Anarchy 5/20/06 - EPIC

MD: This was a great piece of business, with all of the story beats and intensity of one of the more complicated Anarchy matches but in a nice, compact package, going less than 15, with a clean shine, heat, comeback structure. It had all the wildness and mayhem you'd want though. Rockwell and Slim J rushed the Rejects at the start and they both looked great in the early going. Rockwell was incredibly intense with his headbutts and punches and running shots as the camera kept switching back and forth to try to keep up with the action. Slim J took a bit more of a beating given the size differential but came back in the ring with offense that seemed to pause time as he shifted around this way or that. I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone else do his flipping grounded neckbreaker in a Rude Awakening style, for instance. All of that only worked for so long as they could keep the Rejects away from each other, however, and they came back in the ring when they could start to work together. Eventually, Rockwell stormed the ring by using his cast as a weapon and they went towards the big spots of the finish. The first was an absolutely insane superplex counter where Slim J pulled all of his weight down to switch motion in midair and with just a touch of his toes on the mat turned it around with huge momentum. It's not the sort of thing I'd want to see every day but here, it absolutely worked. Then Rockwell crashed Tempers through set up chairs on the floor with a top rope splash. And to set up the actual finish, Slim J took out Wilson and Azrael with a corkscrew dive. The finish was what you'd expect here, something to keep the heat on the Rejects and protect Tempers' weapon, but overall this one really got the job done in keeping the feud hot while giving the babyfaces a lot of chance to fight back.

PAS: This was really great stuff, high energy, big time violence and really intensity. Great demonstration of what made and makes Slim J so amazing. He brawls like an absolute demon in the beginning of this match and also pulls off some incredible state of the art highspots. The reversal of the superplex was mind blowing, just such a cool mix of balance and athleticism, his corkscrew dive to the floor was also next level. Rockwell is tremendous too, he feels like a guy who needs a deep dive, also really great at the punching and kicking parts and hits that wild top rope splash through the group of chairs. The Rejects were fine foils and the finish did a really nice job of setting up their all timer of a War Games which was still to come, I really need to see every second of this feud.

Cactus Jack vs. Crash the Terminator MECW 9/10/95 - FUN

MD: This was supposed to be Cactus vs. Barbarian but apparently Barb couldn't make it. Cactus hyped things up pre-match saying he'd teamed with Crash (being the future Hugh Morrus) before in Japan and they'd have a good match and they shaked, but Crash then ambushed Cactus. Cactus comes back with a really nice forearm sending Crash out and Cactus got back on the mic saying that it was time to fight instead. I don't think the intensity quite lived up to that opening, or that they went quite as hard as you'd expect for a main event substitution like this, but for one thing, the ring seemed really unforgiving. That said, I liked the idea of the entry point with the mic work before and after the ambush. You could picture Foley in the back trying to figure out how they'd start the match. Once they got going, most of Cactus' stuff was very credible. Great headbutt. Nice running elbow drop. DeMott was obviously strong. He caught Jack off the second rope impressively and got him over on a big suplex and a power bomb. Finish was a missed moonsault and a second double arm DDT and there was a sort of senseless ref bump in the middle, which was literally impactful but not exactly resonant. The announcing continues to be some of the worst in recorded history, without even the woman that helped the Waltman match we saw.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SLIM J

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE CACTUS JACK

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New Footage Friday: TANK ~! BOSS MAN~! DEVIL'S REJECTS~! NWA ELITE~! FUGO FUGO~! ISHIKAWA~!

Big Boss Man/Tank vs. Pomp and Circumstances NAWA 2004

MD: This was a fun local match with a big star, though it was definitely much more of a Tank match than a Bossman one. That said, this was a younger, spry dominant clapping babyface Tank and no one's going to complain about watching him crush Rockwell and Tempers. The few times where Tank and Bossman did some stuff together were a hit, obviously. I thought Rockwell was more the stand out in bumping and feeding here, really flying around the ring. The transition, fairly deep into the match, was a low blow and the heat mainly about working Tank's leg and that was fine. When they swarmed him or cheated, they controlled things. When they let Tank create some distance, he got hope spots in. There was a fakeout hot tag that the ref didn't see. Because of that, I didn't like the lead in to the hot tag where Tank walked over to the corner and hit a superplex despite the bad leg. He could have just walked over to his own corner instead. It would have worked better with just a basic toss off the top. The finish was pretty much what you'd expect in a situation where they didn't want Rockwell and Tempers to lose clean. Overall, this was fun stuff though.

PAS: This was a fun Southern tag, with some big babyfaces mostly bumping around weaselly heels, MX vs. JYD and Bill Watts with Bossman in the role of Watts. Not sure of the date of this match, but Bossman would be dead in August 2004, so this was one of his last matches. He still came off like a star, but was clearly diminished. We have Devil's Rejects Tempers this week too, and it is fun to see him as a pretty boy heel as opposed to a face painted psychotic. It is a different role for Tank too, and one he does well. Nothing that will blow your mind, but something that delivered for sure.

Devil's Rejects(Tank/Iceberg/Shawn Tempers/Azreal) vs. NWA Elite (Kory Chavis/Jeff Lewis.Michael Judas/Onyx) NWA Anarchy 12/30/06

MD: This felt like the first chapter of the next book of the saga, a transitioning from the Rejects vs NWA Anarchy to the Rejects vs NWA Elite, something to whet people's appetites for the escalating violence to come. They always do an amazing job of making everything feel like it has gravitas and lore. There's just a lot of weight and inertia behind what was going on in the promotion. Everyone involved had a history with one another, with Bailey, to a degree with Wilson since he'd been the voice of the company for years. They were all former champions in Wildside or Anarchy or both. This expanded, extended Elite was made up of former allies and enemies, and they always seemed to work surprises in. In this case it was Mikael Adryan returning from Puerto Rico as Mikael Judas and Kory Chavis returning for the Elite even though they'd been enemies in his last appearances. It did hammer the notion that the Elite was elite which was necessary given the sheer force and dominance of the Rejects. 

And I know all this because they spent the first five or six minutes of the match not actually calling anything but just laying it all out. I'm not sure how much use that was to people closely following along in 2006 but I appreciated it fifteen years later. If I spent most of this review just setting the stage, it's because it was a stage worth setting. This feels like the most important thing in the world for the residents of Cornelia, Georgia. Past that atmosphere, the most impressive thing about the match was the restraint. While there was some interference from the outside, some foreign object use, Wilson involving himself a little, it was primarily kept to standard tag rules, with believable and fairly even momentum shifts and transitions, for an astounding amount of time. When it broke down and got violent, they built to a few big, memorable spots (primarily the massive, seemingly impossible razor's edge out of the corner by the returning Judas) and the arrival of Dominus who was best used as a tease anyway. It moved things along, gave the crowd a taste of what would come, decided nothing, reintroduced some players, and fit well on a card that also had a couple of title matches and AJ Styles. Maybe not the over the top spectacle we're always hoping for looking back, but a good piece of business overall.

PAS: This was the first match in this feud, we have the Wargames blowoff and are anxiously awaiting footage to drop of their fans bring the weapons match. This feud got covered in great detail on the Way of the Blade pod I did with Jeff G. Bailey and Rev. Dan Wilson which is a great listen. This wasn't one of the wild brawls that would follow, but a more traditionally worked tag that built to a pretty big crescendo. I liked the early Onyx stuff with Iceberg and Tank, he came off like a total horse throwing those huge guys around. We get some violent interference from both Bailey and Wilson behind the ref's back. It breaks down at the end with Judas hitting a razor's edge on Iceberg which was wild, and we had a lurk in by Dominus and the Rejects lay out Judas with two huge Iceberg splashes, and a sick top rope double stomp where Judas was being lifted off the ground. Totally did the job of making folks wanting to see the Elite get back their win.

Yuki Ishikawa/Joeta vs. Fugofugo Yumeji/Buki WUW 7/14/18

PAS: This is in what looks like the back of a comic shop in Tokyo somewhere. There is a tiny ring with chains instead of ring ropes and Japanese indy legends Yuki Ishikawa and Fugofugo Yumeji bringing along two guys I hadn't heard of to have a violent punch out. They couldn't run the ropes or do any complicated sequences in that ring so it was all punishing grappling and hard shots. Buki and Joeta were in the spirit of things, and their exchanges were nearly as violent as Fugofugo and Ishikawa. Buki especially was a nasty little prick yanking at Joeta's face and stomping on limbs. Ishikawa and Fugo is as great as that match up promises on paper, Ishikawa is a more skilled grappler working out of the guard, but Fugofugo throws some gross headbutts and uses his strength to move into positions. Really nice mix of FUTEN/BattlArts style stuff and backroom violent indy sleaze.

MD: Phil covered this well, but I'd like to double down on the sense of confinement. This ring was tiny. It was surrounded by chains. While they never came into play, all it took was one hard shot to knock you back to your own corner. When Ishikawa and Fugofugo tested each other with early grappling, there was a sense of extra care to it. Movement was limited and they were very much aware of it and working all the harder not to allow for openings or make mistakes. Buki came off like a real bastard throughout most of this, just a guy with a huge chip on his shoulder. Joeta held his own, just solid throughout, especially when going strike for strike against Fugofugo. As this escalated and became more and more violent, you lost sight of what was on the walls behind them and only focused on the cage and the tiny box which it enclosed. It gave everything almost a pitfighter atmosphere that really encapsulated the underground feel they were going for and that I imagine most of the rest of the card couldn't begin to manage in the same visceral way.

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New Footage Friday: HASH~! LIGER~! CHONO~! SANO~! SLIM J~! BARBED WIRE~! MATT BORNE WILL PLAY SUN CITY~!

Maniac Matt Bourne vs. Daniel "The Hulk" Voges South Africa ??

MD: A bunch of this South African footage dropped and we're playing it safe by going with the sure thing, Maniac Matt Borne. I tried to figure out when this probably was, but only found a story about Borne losing his passport on the way to South Africa and some guy stealing his identity and ODing years later. Here he was facing Danie "the Hulk" Voges, who was obviously a beloved local folk hero, at least from the reaction he got. It felt a little like an Otto Wanz match along those lines. This was a round system, seems like the best of five with some weird production quirks between the Dutch (?) commentary and long shots of crowd reactions of the same few people, a pair of twins, a couple that was very into it, and one guy who seemed to be sleeping. Borne was great here though, laying it in, stooging, getting heat, taking big shots. I'm not sure if Voges' straight on chops would look good against anyone else but they looked great here. It was mostly these two throwing shots but Voges won a fall in the second round with a power slam that was nasty as he barely got Borne over and Borne evened it up with a knee off the top in the fourth. Voges bled pretty heavily in the last round and it ended with both guys still scrapping and the fans left wanting more.

PAS: The Otto Wanz comparison is right on, the match also had sort of a Carlos Colon feel. This was basically all punches, but both guys had great looking punches, with Borne throwing hands, and Voges having this chops to the neck and chin. We get some really dramatic blood a big almost fatal powerslam and some glam looking ladies in the crowd horrified at the violence being laid out on their hero. I wan't to check out some more Voges, I like a big time local hero and he had some big star timing. 

ER: I love the aesthetics of this, feeling like our big German CWA rounds matches. We all separately got the local legend Otto Wanz vibes off Voges, except he's like the Iron Mike Sharpe of Otto Wanz's. Borne doesn't work his Buzz Sawyer lite style here and instead works as Kevin Sullivan. Kevin Sullivan/Mike Sharpe is a fight I'd want to watch, and it was good here. I like big heavyweight matches where they fill a lot of time by throwing downward clubbing forearms across chests and throw right hands and slaps to the jaw that land with thud. Borne throws punches at Voges' hairline and busts him open, and a regional hero fighting and swinging through a bloody forehead is a simple classic recipe that we've now seen get the same rabid reactions on every continent but Antarctica. This is the first broadcast in wrestling history that I've seen let a camera linger on a man who fell asleep in the crowd, capturing that moment where he wakes up with a snort and immediately begins acting as if he hadn't been asleep. It also captures a woman outright screaming in support of Voges, and that kind of regional passion plays to every part of my wrestling heart. That Voges delayed powerslam on Borne was well worthy of winning a fall, and I love the brawl it devolved into. 

Shinya Hashimoto/Naoki Sano vs. Masa Chono/Jushin Liger NJPW 1/6/90 - EPIC

MD: Unique match up where they weren't afraid to mix the pairings. It starts out with Liger vs Hashimoto with a nice bit of Liger crashing against him and Hash giving just what he should until Liger's able to zoom past him and finally get him down. Later on, it's interesting as he almost has a hard time getting Liger up, despite the fact Liger's smaller than Chono, giving everything a grittier, uncooperative feeling that makes every impact all the worse. A chunk of this was Chono leaning on Sano and while that was fine, you were kind of waiting for the other guy on each side to get back in. As per the norm for 1990, the STF was both over and protected. The eventual payoff was Chono and Liger dropping Hashimoto with a spike pile driver and then Hashimoto trying one crushing shot after the next to finally put Liger down. Good match that gave us just enough of the Liger/Hashimoto pairing and never wore out its welcome.

PAS: I love the Liger vs. Hashimoto match up. Unlike most junior versus heavyweight matches Liger always tries to go toe to toe with Hashimoto. It isn't David vs. Goliath, Liger is more like Mike Tyson: he may be short, but he hits just as hard. I loved him using momentum to drop Hashimoto with a shoulder block and a flip kick to the temple. Chono versus Sano was really cool too. Sano was such a smooth and violent wrestler, and I love the solebutt to the stomach as an equalizer. Hashimoto really went after Liger at the end, hitting almost a half powerslam half brainbuster and Liger kept coming and getting in his face. Great stuff, really fun discovery.

ER: I thought this was excellent, with my love for it growing with every moment I reminded myself that this match would have - if not for a man with a camcorder - gone undocumented. Watching how hard these four legends beat the shit out of each other for 2,200 fans in Korakuen early in the new year and nobody else, and yet a 40 year old guy in California is able to see these fully beatings 30 years later. It makes me emotional. It's crazy to see this level of commitment on a house show, with strikes thrown full force in spots and tons of offense that missed, but was thrown to hit. The true greats, men like Hashimoto and Liger, bring that suspension of disbelief into their matches with their full commitment to offense, and to see it worked to maximum effectiveness on a small but hot Korakuen handheld just makes me love them more. 

These guys come off like the toughest wrestlers on earth in matches like these. The Hashimoto/Liger segments were my favorite and they were complemented perfectly by Sano running traffic like a madman and Chono leaning into and bumping big for Sano made him feel like a real force. But Hashimoto and Liger looked like fucking pro wrestlers. Everything landed and every landing felt real. There's an early Liger hook kick that catches Hashimoto behind the ear and Hashimoto crumbles perfectly. The misses were incredible, so violently executed that you buy the idea that Hashimoto threw a spinning heel kick that was supposed to take Liger's head off until Liger moved when he wasn't supposed to. Now, these men are pros, and the reality is that Hashimoto merely threw a spinning heel kick so hard that it would have seriously injured Liger had it not been ducked, and Hashimoto is such an ideal version of what a professional wrestler should be that he makes every miss look like he expected a bullseye. 

Hashimoto drills Liger into the ring with a running brainbuster that is an insane spot for an untaped show, and when Hash hits that spinning heel kick he sends the full weight of his hip crashing into Liger. Sano is a barefoot psychopath, hitting a gorgeous pescado (later to be completely outshone by Liger's gorgeous tope con giro but hey) and throwing a bananas running dropkick to knock Chono off the apron. When Hashimoto gets the pin on Liger, he's a man really holding his opponent's shoulders to the mat, with Liger being pinned because he was the weakened man. It's that attention to detail when they aren't thinking about how many people are going to ever witness it. It's a special thing when you find a match that only exists because of some guy and his camcorder, and the match raises the stock of all four guys involved. 

Slim J vs. Azrael NWA Anarchy 4/9/11 - EPIC

PAS: This was a barbed wire massacre match, and a real great chance for these two sickos to poke little holes in each other. Both guys are really great traditional brawlers, and they had some cool violent moments in a match which was mostly about getting stuck. I loved the insanity of both guys swinging barbed wire baseball bats super hard into each other, I mean just imagine how much their wrists hurt. Azrael driving his forearm into a barbed wire chair on a missed slam was sick stuff on top of it all. Slim J amps it up in the closing moments of the match, wrapping himself in barbed wire and using his body as a pokey weapon. Azrael hits a sick ace crusher on him, but can't cover because him arm got punctured. The announcers mention all the brawls these two have had in this feud and I want to see all of them. 

MD: They delivered on what was advertised here. There was barbed wire everywhere throughout. While it was pretty gratuitous, everything was done with consequence, which is what you hope for out of a match like this. Early on, the basic layout of the ring, with weapons everywhere and Wilson on the outside put Slim J at a disadvantage as he had to get things out of the way whenever he wanted to try to hit one of his moves. I liked how they built up the wire early, as the wrestlers themselves were tasked to put it on the ropes. That was a gradual process but it built up tension for the first few shots into it, and did have the very clever moment of Azrael using the Staff of Righteousness to do it at one point. In a match like this (like an exploding cage match or anything else along those lines), one whip can completely change momentum, so long as the wrestlers put it over, and they absolutely did here, and that makes for different sort of narrative opportunities. Mid-match, Slim J, to create the great equalizer, wrapped himself up in the wire and tried to use his body as a weapon to varying effects. It meant that every impact in the finishing stretch was pushed even further over the top. I probably won't revisit this one anytime soon, but they treated everything in this match with fear and respect and consequence and it elevated it into something that was more than simple blood and guts.

ER: Slim J's legend grows with every month of footage from the past 20 years. He's one of the great babyfaces from that era, as talented as but somehow not even as heralded as The Amazing Red. Slim J has been knocking out Rey Mysterio level matches for years now to a fraction of the acclaim, and it's crazy. Here's another to add to his legend, a violent insane spotfest from the great Anarchy. There's great carny shit like Reverend Dan at ringside, and the early match looked like old school bullshit with classic Dusty Rhodes teased barbed wire spots. But when Slim J dodged and Azrael hammer-fisted a chair covered in barbed wire full force, the tone of this all changed. Slim J took a full force tennis racket shot to the head, and from then on full force was the name of the game. 

Azrael's beating looked vicious, and Slim's selling of the beating made it look even more lethal. Slim J might be the greatest selling babyface of the entire 2000s indy scene, it's not even a contentious statement. Here you get great high level cruiserweight spots from Slim J, like his fine Santo roll, but you get violent additions like Azrael subsequently getting flapjacked face first onto a chair. But soon Slim is wrapping himself entirely in barbed wire like a sexy boy band Sabu and they're swinging - again, full force - barbed wire bat shots like they were wrestling in the ugliest dirt lot lucha. And, as someone who has had their hands stung by many different aluminum bats, Slim straightening his wrists and shaking his hands was a familiar pain. 

Slim's missed corner avalanche while wrapped in barbed wire was like Zona 1-2-3 Kid, and that Azrael ace crusher is one of the greatest ever iterations of that move. Let's get Azrael into the online discussion for best ever stunner/crusher. Slim J takes a kind of whipping slam into a thick garbage can like a true garbage match legend, always combining big impact with a folded body, and Azrael's sitout driver off the rope rope through a table was an incredible finish. It's the kind of finish that even Shane McMahon might not consider to win his father's love. The chemistry here is incredible and it feels like it will play out like a legendary bloody lucha feud the more matches are uncovered. If this is the only one we ever get? We were lucky., 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SHINYA HASHIMOTO

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SLIM J

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New Footage Friday: SLIM J~! AZRAEL~BRYAN~! KOFI~! BIFF~! LEE~! JAGGED EDGE~!

NWA Anarchy (Hate Junkies (Dany Only & Stryknyn)/ Azrael/Slim J/Mikael Judas/Nemesis) vs. NWA Elite (Jagged Edge/Bro Newsome/Se7en/John Johnson/Shawn Tempers/Jacoby Boykins) NWA Anarchy 6/30/12 - GREAT

MD: You have to love how many stories they pack into a match like this, each and every time we see one of these big multimans. This one was all action the whole way through but never felt like meaningless noise. Slim J and Azrael working together at the start; the build to Jagged Edge vs Judas (and the payoff in a way that made people want more); Nemesis getting quickly rolled up after wanting to be in there for a chunk of the match (which would theoretically pay off at the end); the John Johnson goofiness which they closed off quickly and with satisfaction; Stryknyn's eye being vulnerable; and having it end with a big finishing stretch between Slim J and Tempers where they were able to set up and payoff the cobra clutch in a clever way for a great false finish before having the turns and setting things up for the future. Everyone did well in there, with the monsters protected and nothing seeming out of place. There wasn't that sense of guys eating pins too easily that you often get in elimination tags too. Mostly everything here was earned. I will say that it didn't quite have the sense of chaotic danger around the ropes with hands swiping that you see in some of the multi-man tags I like the best, but really that just let them focus more on whatever story beat they were telling with the wrestlers in the ring. The crowd was hot for the start of this and it's obvious why given the amount of care and thought put into each and every one of these big matches.

PAS: It is really hard to have a match with this many people in it, and give everyone a moment to shine, and have no unearned pins. I mean you got a pretty good sense of everyone in the match, even the guys who weren't in it long. Loved the Jagged Edge vs. Mikal Judas showdown, really teased a big showdown, got a taste of it, and left folks wanting to a buy a ticket to pay it off. Jagged Edge's chokelsam was probably the move of the match he sent Stryknyn into the cheap seats. Slim J gets the big finishing run with Tempers and it was pretty great, I imagine they had a hell of a title match at some point in this. The finish was booking heavy, but these always are, and I do think a heel Urban Assault Squad is a cool idea., and this was leading up to the great War Games later in the year.

Biff Busick vs. Trevor Lee XWA 1/17/15

MD: This was from January 2015 in RI, so not on as big a stage as their Evolve match a few days before. Lee was 21 at this point but he already had so much of it down. The crowd was absolutely game and really eager to see Biff kill someone. Lee gave them the all too rare for mid-2010s indy wrestling stalling to start and it worked huge. My favorite bit of it was a fan on the outside shouting "I thought you were supposed to be good" and Lee shouting back "I am good!" He cycled that right into a picture perfect eyepoke on a handshake attempt and an opportunistic throw to the outside. All great set up to clearly make the crowd against him and for Biff and to rile them up for some violence. They got that in spades with the crowd brawling as they went all around the place, really keeping things moving including a great visual where Biff got his leg caught on a chair off a whip and bumped huge, and then a bunch of nasty revenge shots using the terrain as a weapon. He even let a kid get a shot in on Lee. Eventually it had to get back in the ring and they moved into more of the back and forth you'd expect with a few big suplexes and shots and collisions. Again, I liked Lee's timing a lot here and his body language, overly following through in a believable way when he was about to run into something for a transition. Biff's stuff all looked unsurprisingly great (though I wish he wouldn't do stuff like the running blockbuster, but I get why he did) with the fans into everything. I haven't seen a Lee match in a long time and this made me want to see how he was doing now as Grimes in NXT.

PAS: This was a really well executed indy wrestling match, which hit on all of it's individual points really well, without ever moving fully into special territory. Still I can imagine the crowd was really happy to see this match live, and I dug watching it 6 years letter. Busick is a guy with tremendous explosion and execution, really tremendous at a fiery babyface comeback. Lee really put in the work early to make the crowd dislike him which made that comeback work. Loved the flip powerslam counter by Lee, it came out of nowhere, looked awesome and was a great moment to cut Busick's momentum reloading it for one more big comeback. This would be a fun feud to bring back in NXT, or if both guys end up someplace else.   

Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston WWE 9/2/19

MD: What a difference a decade-plus makes. This was an entirely different crowd, up for everything, but pretty annoying, down to the CM Punk chant in the middle (though at least that got booed down). It was a sort of crowd Kofi and Bryan were used to by this point, however, and they worked well to it. If you said this was a top 5 Kofi career singles match, I'd believe you, though Bryan drove most of the action and big moments. They worked the first half straight, babyface vs babyface, with just a bit of tension on whether Bryan would turn on him, and it was good, athletic stuff with kip ups and tapitias into surfboards and hesitant handshakes and both guys rallying the crowd and what have you. It felt a little like a mid-2000s indy affair to be honest. Midway through the match, Kofi following some major clowning of Bryan by taking a big bump out and Bryan feigned concern before turning on him with a hard whip into the post. He amped up the aggression after that but didn't really heel it up enough to get the crowd to turn on him, which sort of put a cap on how good the match would ultimately be. The battling over the yes lock towards the end was really good though, especially how Bryan finally got it on Kofi (which is something they probably used in their PPV matches too but I barely remember those); Kofi jumping into it from the top was a great visual. Finish was a bit too big on Kofi escaping Bryan's big stuff without one more rotation of Bryan dodging something of Kofi's but in general it was excellent house show fare that would have been better still if they led the crowd instead of following it.

PAS: The Mania match between these two is an all timer, and it was fun to see how they ran it back on tour. I liked all of the early feeling out sections on the mat, and Bryan turning more vicious. You don't really think of Bryan as an all-time puncher, but he really lays it in here, with those almost Bret Hart overhand loopers. Kofi was fine, he hit his stuff mostly, got height on his dives and didn't get outclassed. Of course this is Brynn's match. He looked great as the wounded ex champ who is plotting to get back on the top of the mountain, only to fall victim to a great looking spinning kick to the face. 

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New Footage Friday: FELINO~! MAGICA~! WOLFIE D~! FLASH~! SLIM J~! MASADA~! MURDER ONE~! WAR GAMES~!

El Felino vs. Mascara Magica CMLL 5/21/96

PAS: A real hidden gem which, barring some third caida wonkiness, is a real classic. The first fall is some of the best lucha mat wrestling I have ever seen. Felino and Magica were working these sick looking leglocks, just tremendous torque on ankles and knees. There was some llave in it, but it really felt more like Tamura RINGS stuff than Negro Navarro. Felino also really bangs at Magica's shoulder in the second fall, leading to a cool bit of business where Magica can't lift Felino into the submission he won the first fall with. I liked the screwy finish to the third fall with Magica sliding under the ropes to beat the count, but not getting his foot all the way in, felt like kind of heartbreaking NBA replay moment where the game winning three point shooter had his toe on the line. I thought the restart Caida got a bit move spammy, and had this possible foul from Felino which didn't pay off. They were telling such a brilliant smaller tighter story and then went unnecessarily maximal, it was like the end of a Marvel series. WandaVision is about grief, Falcon and Winter Soldier is about race, but let's end it with a bunch of pew pew lasers. Still the good was so good that this was a real treat to watch.

MD: A week or two ago, an Atlantis mask match dropped and I realized I'd seen it a few years ago because dataintcash posted it on Youtube, which got me thinking how much I wanted him to post some more stuff as it'd been a while. Lo and behold, this drops. At the least, it's been offline for a while. It's a long title match and outside some goofiness in the tercera (and even allowing for that, really) it's very good. They had plenty of time to let things breathe, which is what you want. The primera was worked straight and it covered the ground of what you look for in these: it was competent, as in they didn't blow things or seem lost; competitive, as holds weren't just given but had struggle; and compelling, with some more tricked out holds and escapes. The next level is having some semblance of a narrative and there were bits and pieces with that, between a focus on the legs and both guys going for STFs. The pace picked up and led to the first of multiple Mascara Magica dives in th e match and the finish. The segunda had Felino fake a leg injury after another STF and then took the opportunity to do a cool victory roll from the apron in to set up the fall. In the tercera, he went full rudo with some great arm focus (including Mascara Magica not being able to hit things), and ultimately a tecnico comeback and huge dive for what looked like the win, but they restarted the match and it felt almost like a fourth fall, building from Felino clotheslines and Mascara Magica roll ups to bigger (and still legitimately impressive in 2021) spots with neither guy able to pin the other until Mascara Magica switched to a submission and got the nod. Just a good, long title match, where even the restart didn't hurt it as it felt thematically different afterwards. Anyway, someone nudge dataintcash to post some more stuff.

Wolfie D vs. Flash Flanagan MCW 4/4/98

MD: This was on a Tojo Yamamoto memorial in 98. Wolfie was on a crutch with his leg in a cast. I'm a big fan of matches where someone's working with a real limitation because they're almost forced to get outside of rote spots and be creative. This was definitely creative. There was a need for Wolfie to be on top for a lot of it so they had to keep finding ways for that to happen when he could barely move around, first with the crutch shot, then by tying Flash in the ropes, then with a chair, etc. It made it more of a thought experiment than the straight up bloody violence you might hope for out of something like this, but maybe that's fitting for a Tojo memorial show. These two worked a bunch of gimmick matches (tables, death match, falls count anywhere, ladder) over the span of a couple of years before starting to team later in 98 and this ended in BS with the chain breaking and nothing really getting settled, but it was fun while it lasted.

Slim J/Murder One/Gabriel/Altar Boy Luke vs. NWA Elite (Todd Sexton/Masada/Rainman/Azreal) NWA Wildside 7/3/04 - EPIC

PAS: Another Cornelia War Games gets dropped and we get to see another classic. This was really wild, with probably one too many gimmicks and ideas, but some real high highs. Slim J has got to be one of the great cage match workers of all time, what a total psycho. He bleeds a ton, takes huge bumps (including a top rope side slam), and gets barbed wire kicked into his face. Really liked the classic Wildside tag teams facing off against each other, with the Blackout of Murder One and Rainman beating the bricks off of each other and the Lost Boys of Gabriel and Azreal doing the same. Masada brings the lunacy by lighting his hand on fire for chops. Lots of set up required for the big ladder bump off the cage, but the payoff looked painful, and Dusty got his moment to elbow everyone. Again Cornelia proves they know how to end a War Games, with Slim J sticking barbed wire in the mouth of Sexton for the tap. Nasty, nasty stuff. 

MD: Interesting structure here as this has the longest Match Beyond that I can remember. Usually, you get through the War Games itself and it's pretty quick to the finish. The first pairing seemed like it was two minutes instead of five, but you forgot that quick. The pre-match promo had Bailey hype up Sexton, who was playing scared to get over the danger of the match (which is always nice to see in a world where everyone tries to be tougher than it) by saying they needed him in first as the technician to work on someone's limb and damage him for the submission or surrender portion. That would be well and good except for the other side surprised them by starting out Slim J, who as the smallest guy, you wouldn't think would start. These Wildside/Anarchy matches are full of clever little bits like that. Some of them, like Gabriel getting trapped outside the cage at the end, worked really well. Azrael (who was pretty great in this one, bumping and basing all over the place and happy to crash into the cage over and over) going through the table from the inside out worked well too. 

Some things, like Dusty freeing Slim J from the cuffs, or the dissension between the two tag teams that were trying to work together, or the final turn on Sexton needed a bit more space to breathe but it's hard in a War Games when things are happening all the time. It was also a bit of a victim of its time, where every move needed an extra twist or flip or spin to it. Everything was a tricked out video game move. When they used the barbed wire or tossed people into the cage, it all worked a lot better. That said, the fact that the match worked as well as it did despite the trappings of its time was a testament to how much effort and thought they put into these and how much history and character elements they could call upon, even in 2004. And hey, what was up with Luke and Rainman deciding to do headlocks and rope running at the start of the third period though? Even the announcers called that out. In a way it, like everything else, sort of worked though. A War Games is pure distilled chaos and everything in this match fit that bill.

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New Footage Friday: ROSE! TENRYU! TAKASHI ISHIKAWA! FINLAY! FUNK! WAR GAMES!

Buddy Rose/Alexi Smirnoff vs. Tenryu Shimada/Takashi Onome Big Time Wrestling 9/2/78

MD: This was a TV match to get over the Rose/Smirnoff tag team and build to more Texas Red/Dean Ho matches where Ishikawa and Tenryu (with their modified names) were there to put up a fight but put over the heels. What's so fascinating about it to me is how naturally Tenryu worked in this setting. You could see him take a different path and be an ethnic babyface throughout a bunch of territories into the 80s. After some pretty good armwork, he comes in off a hot tag and he was like Tito Santana or Rick Martel for a couple of minutes. I know the prevailing thought is that Tenryu doesn't become Tenryu until after Choshu comes in and it's true; this was a different guy, but he was a more interesting guy than we usually see before the transformation and it was his role and his setting. You just don't have a lot of hot tags and "house afire" moments in turn of the 80s AJPW tags. Here he generic babyface stomped instead of the sharp kicks and had the generic wind-up punch. Just a different world from where he'd be ten years later, even if he did get to to the sumo palm charge and rolling cradle as well. If he was going to be this version of Tenryu, he would have done a lot better with it in the States. The heels looked good, with Smirnoff having a couple of interesting submissions, and Rose maximizing every moment, jawing to the announcers about what they'd do to their future opponents and just making everything look vicious and entertaining. You're watching this because it's a Buddy Rose match you probably haven't seen, always worth watching, but also to see a weird Americanized babyface version of Tenryu that might have been.


Terry Funk vs. Fit Finlay vs. Tiger Steel EWR 5/18/01 - GREAT

MD: We're working off of two data points, but from what we've seen lately, Finlay was pretty damn good at being in three-ways. A lot of what makes this work is the interplay between he and Funk, the way they reacted to things and were presences in the match. Funk headbutting people. Finlay broaching no foolishness. Them working together only to turn on each other. Tiger Steel is Butch Masters and he makes a really expansive canvas for getting beaten on here by two of the real experts. He had some good moments of striking down upon Funk's skull too. The use of weapons was generally fun, with my favorite bit being a big piece of wood used as a springboard for Funk as it hung all the way across the ring on the bottom rope. There's a set up for a fire extinguisher that never gets paid off but that's chaos for you. The post match promo where Funk works to get the crowd to turn on him is almost as fun as the match.

PAS: Tiger Steel kind of wrestles like a poor man's Kevin Nash, and poor man's Kevin Nash is actually a pretty great third guy in a Finlay and Terry Funk 3-Way. He is there to get pounded on by both guys, gives each of them a little break where he works the other guy and lets Funk and Finlay catch their breath. This was a pretty fierce pace for guys in their 50s, and Funk and Finlay really vamp, it is a cool contrast with Funk being one of the great maximillist wrestlers of all time and Finlay being the ultimate minimalist, it isn't a contrast at all, it works in concert. Funk is pinballing himself in the ropes wilding around flinging punches, and Finlay is dropping short sick knees and hard forearms, while Steel is there to be hit.. It really works well, and the formlessness keeps it from being an EPIC, but I enjoyed every bit of it


Team Anarchy (Slim J/Azrael/Brody Lee Chase/Jeremy Vain/Iceberg) vs. NWA Elite (Geter/Jagged Edge/Shadow Jackson/Nemesis/Shaun Tempers) NWA Anarchy 3/30/13 - EPIC

PAS: Always glad to see another Anarchy War Games match show up as the NWA Wildside youtube account has been dropping gems lately. This is a nifty bookend to the War Games matches in my book, as like 2006 Jerry Palmer has a 5 minutes in the cage stipulation, except this time as a heel, and like 2007 this is Jeff G. Bailey vs. Rev. Dan Wilson, although Rev. Dan was purely a babyface and didn't have a huge role in the match. Lots of great performances and a ton of blood, Slim J and Azrael and the Urban Assault Squad had been feuding and they are the first four in the cage and I really dug all of their interactions, including all of the ways Azrael used his partners body as a weapon throwing him into a flippy splashes. Vain was the big surprise and gets a big pop, I really liked Jagged Edge coming in with a cowbell and wrestling like a Black Bunkhouse Buck (Blackhouse Buck? Bunkhouse Black?). Geter is enormous and laid everyone out with some really punishing looking power offense. When the Match Beyond starts the face team really goes after Tempers, spraying him in the eyes and Slim J applying a sick looking STF for the tap out. Iceberg says he has too much history with Palmer to beat him up in the 5 minutes, but turns it on him and brings out Mikal Judas who lays waste to Palmer (including a sick kick to the face, which a littler birdy told me was a receipt for Palmer potatoing guys). This really had a lot to love about it, and it is the same neighborhood as the 06 ad 07 classics. 

MD: You knew you were going to get good stuff here anyway, but when it was Slim J coming down for the opening 5 minute period, that was basically cemented. He shined during the first couple of periods, wrestling evenly but gaining advantage at first, leading to the early blood from Jackson, then just getting lawn darted into the cage and bleeding himself once the Urban Assault Squad was at full strength, and finally showing off a hundred double team moves in a two minute span once Azrael made it in to even the odds. He was able to show off a full range of what you'd want from a War Games participant here, down to the big dive and nasty submission (and subsequent emotion with Palmer) at the end. There was so much local history in that ring and the weight of it made everything resonate all the more. The weapons added a bit of variety and made the blood flow even more conveniently. I liked how they handled Vain's return, as he had to clean house and get some shine but couldn't overshadow either Iceberg battling cleanup after him or the surprise for the Palmer 5 minutes. There was a real sense of attrition and advantage from the Elite having the numbers game for so long so even though he made a difference, it made sense that he got swept under even before his period was over. The post-match was a tricky balance. They needed to have Palmer get his comeuppance and take enough damage, but not take so much that the fans were elated and frothing to the point of not accepting the reconciliation; I was a little iffy as it was playing out but it worked for the crowd in the end.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SLIM J

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FINLAY

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New Footage Friday: KIDO! IVAN GOMES! VILLANOS! LOS DESTRUCTORES! DEVILS REJECTS! NWA ELITE

 Ivan Gomes vs. Osamu Kido NJPW 8/14/76

PAS: Gomes is a legendary Vale Tudo fighter who both fought and trained with Carlson Gracie. Very little footage of him exists and this is a Different Style Fight with Kido. This was a worked shoot, and more of an interesting bit of historic footage then a great match, with Kido eating a lot of head kicks and eventually getting choked out with a guillotine. I would love to see Gomes in some actual Vale Tudo fights and I have to keep an eye on this youtube page.

MD: I don't have much to say about the specifics of the match. It's more that it exists at all, and of course, the general sense that if something like this does exist in the 70s, what else happened that we haven't seen along these lines and that might exist on tape? It's a whole style of wrestling that we barely have any of until years later. Some of the shots that do land were pretty great, at least. Hopefully we get more along these lines.

Villanos (III/IV/V) vs. Los Destructores (Tony Arce/Vulcano/Rocco Valente) AAA 3/5/95

PAS: These are a pair of great lucha rudo trios and on paper you would expect a brawl, but this was a title match and was worked mostly scientifically. We get some cool matwork exchanges and rope running in the first couple of falls, Villanos are super skilled and it is fun to watch Los Destructores try to match them hold for hold. At the end of the segunda Villano IV hits this fast northern lights suplex and damages his neck. The third fall has the Destructores working him over angering his brothers and heating up the third fall. It never really breaks down into a total brawl, and I really hate the double pin ending in lucha, however this was a cool chance to see great luchadores do something a bit unexpected.

MD: Just about everything you could want out of a trios titles match. Just understand that it's a title match and it's worked like a title match. Therefore, it's not even close to everything you'd want from a Villanos vs Destructores match. The primera was technical and sound, very smooth, with that sort of escalation from pairing to pairing you like to see. Everyone got time. While nothing was breathtaking, everything worked. It ended cleverly with the bottom dropping out and Villanos pinballing into one another, allowing for a triple team. For such a logical sort of spot, it felt pretty fresh to me. The segunda kept that escalation going and was full of motion, with things never wearing out their welcome. It ended with the Villanos working like a well-oiled machine only for disaster to strike as Villano IV crushed his own head on a Northern Lights suplex, which is again, not a specific spot that I can think of seeing too many times, but carried the narrative for most of the rest of the match. He fought on but had to start the tercera and just got crushed by the Destructores, a great selling job as the fans more and more desperately wanted him to get out of the ring. Eventually it happened and they rolled into a big comeback until he was recovered enough (though still sluggish and selling) to move into a lot of finishing stretch near-falls, a few dives, and a final pairing with a really good visual on a double pin (which feels like a consolation prize, but what are you going to do?). It was a title match so it never became an over the top brawl (though the Villanos were pretty heated in their final comeback, for good reason), but it was loose enough that the Destructores really got to rudo it up in the back half. Otherwise, like I said, it was pretty much everything you could want from a title match that played it mostly straight, clever in multiple places and overall well-executed.

Devil's Rejects (Iceberg/Shaun Tempers/Azrael/Tank) vs. NWA Elite (Kory Chavis/Jeff Lewis/Phil Shatter/Abomination) NWA Anarchy 6/23/07

PAS: I wrote a long review of this match in my book Way of the Blade (buy it now on Amazon),  and have recorded an upcoming podcast on this match for my Way of the Blade podcast with both of the evil stewards of these teams Rev. Dan Wilson and Jeff G. Bailey. So I have said my piece. It was super hard to track down, and Rev. Dan has placed it on Youtube for all to see. NWA Anarchy is a real footage blind spot, it is clear that there are plenty of classics to be excavated. This is a heel versus heel War Games, with two psychos leading their respective crew of lunatics into battle, it has blood, huge uncalled for bumps by enormous men, a showdown between two untrained monsters, Phil Shatter looking like prime Scott Steiner and much more. It is a goddamn delight and everyone should watch it, buy my book to read me praise it more, and keep your ears peeled for the podcast. 

MD: This is one I've heard about and read about but never actually had the chance to see. It's just a perfectly balanced War Games, the mix of story and moments and spots and blood and violence and spectacle. More than anything, it creates a sense of mood, which is what you want from every match you see, but something you absolutely need in a match beyond. Multiple times in this thing, you get a sense of inevitability or dread or awe. Case in point, the first five minutes with Chavis holding an advantage over Tempers. It's unquestionable, but you know it's fleeting, on borrowed time. Likewise, later on when Lewis is kept out of the ring for long seconds; when he flies in around the barbed wire off the top of the cage, it's a great moment since it's full of daring and surprise, but you can feel the encroaching futility because the numbers game was about to be restored. The match succeeds at so many things: Tank's return, an absolute Shatter showcase, Abomination destroying everyone in the center of the ring, the escalation of weapons (fork, weapon of destruction, sword of screams) and blood, and of course, Wilson and Bailey getting involved, which is visceral and satisfying (the whole world seem to shift on that missed dropkick), but also doesn't distract from the wrestlers when it came to the finish, which is honestly some of the most restraint ever shown in a match like this.

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New Footage Friday: SANTO! TANK! BABA! JUMBO! DANDY! MOGUR! ICEBERG!

Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Giant Baba AJPW 5/14/77

MD: This was the final of the 77 Champion Carnival and I'm pretty sure Baba came into it worn down from dealing with Abdullah. Jumbo sensed his moment, his big opportunity, and threw everything he had to win. For the first minute or two, unfortunately, that meant containing headlocks. I was sort of regretting this one showing up. I've been spending a lot of time with 88-89 Jumbo lately, and it's a little hard to go back. Once Baba really started to fight out of it, however, the match opened up. Jumbo was determined to give him zero openings, meeting him more than half way with forearms and pure athletic aggression. Instead of the usual momentum shifts, Baba got hope spots, but Jumbo would close the gap and take back over. Ultimately, it wasn't his moment, and it took one good move for Baba to get the win. A few years later, it would have taken two or three and the match would have been the better for it. (Of course, twenty years later it would have taken ten or fifteen and the match would have been the worse for it). Still, everyone in that crowd knew what they had just witnessed: Jumbo dominating even a weakened Baba. He may not have won the match but he took another step towards what he would soon after become.

ER: This was maybe the most I've ever seen Baba dominated in a match, and while I'm not big on Jumbo from this era, it's a cool sight to see. Jumbo goes after him and keeps muscling Baba down to the mat with headlocks and then yanking forward on his neck. Once Jumbo even did a Phillie Phanatic kind of trick where he tripped Baba, and Baba did this athletic roll backward over Jumbo and wound back up on his feet. You got this sense that Baba was kind of biding his time, and was going to come down on Jumbo twice as strong, and then when that time came there was this great buzz where the crowd realized that Baba was supposed to be coming back strong, and wasn't. Baba was being effectively outstruck and outmuscled by Jumbo and that sense of buzz and panic was really exciting. It was cool seeing Baba getting hope spots, to see him completely outgunned. It was the hierarchy at the time, but I wish we got a couple extra nearfalls at the end, let Jumbo kick out of a couple big boots or something huge. I loved Baba's spry big left boot here, and how he hung Jumbo out on his flying clothesline, but I'm picturing the crowd reaction had Jumbo gotten a shoulder up ONE last time, and I just love how great the AJPW hierarchy style worked for so long, how well trained the crowds were to recognize when someone was exceeding their usual standing. 

Kato Kung Lee/Hijo Del Santo/Mogur vs. Hijo Del Gladiador/Kung Fu/Supremo CMLL Late 80s

MD: We're obliged to watch any new Santo that comes down the pipe. This was clipped but in a sort of "good parts only" way. You still got the sense of what was happening (primera = rudo beatdown; segunda = tecnico come back; tercera = exchanges with tecnico advantage). Santo and Kung Fu were captains, and while he took the time to bully Kung Fu pretty soundly, including at least three times of just casually walking across the ring and whacking him in the skull, Santo was able to have exchanges with all the rudos. We didn't quite get enough of everyone else. For instance, the camera completely missed whatever Hijo del Gladiador used to win the segunda, we don't get much Mogur at all, and while they teased the usual Kung Fu vs Kato Kung Lee battle, it ended with the rudos taking a powder and eating the countout. What we got here was good and iconic but it just made you want the rest.

El Dandy/Gran Cochisse/Hijo Del Santo vs. Pirata Morgan/Blue Panther/Bestia Salvaje CMLL Late 80s

MD: Another clipped affair where you still get a lot of good stuff but probably not quite enough of it. We got a lot of Dandy, Cochisse, Panther, and a bit less Santo and Bestia here. Past catching a Dandy dive like a brick wall, I barely remember Pirata being in this. Cochisse was pretty game for an older guy and at least tried a bunch of stuff (the best of which was urging his body to pull off a 'rana out of a standing stretch), though he had Panther to do a lot of the heavy lifting. Dandy looked like the best guy in the world, with a beautiful comeback punch out of nowhere and a killer clothesline. Panther was good all around but it was particularly striking when they spent a good fifteen seconds highlighting him gnawing upon Dandy's hand on the outside. Not the sort of Panther you were expecting.

PAS: This was a pretty wild brawl from what we got, with a chance to see some all time greats. Santo is cool in this kind of chaos, you don't expect him to kick your ass, but he is always ready and willing. Assuming this is late 80s Dandy is going to deliver at an all world level. He hit a enziguiri with Bestia running off the ropes, which was as cool as I have ever seen that move hit. We also get the wild Dandy over the top rope floating tope, which was one of the great dives of the 20th century. This is all chopped up sadly, so you lose some of the subtle flavors, but it is great we got to see what we got to see. 

Tank/Iceberg vs. Azrael/Rainman NWA Wildside 10/30/04

MD: We don't watch a lot of death matches around here and even then, I probably see less than the other guys. The appeal is fairly obvious. Wrestling is all about helping the crowd suspend their disbelief, not necessarily to make them feel like what they're seeing is real, but to accept it in the moment as its own sustainable reality. A lot of things can help with that, logical storytelling, compelling selling, great looking offense. Presumably, however, nothing is as quick and easy as people really getting hurt and there's no proof of that quite like blood. It's like injecting that suspension of disbelief into the fans' veins instead of crafting a beautiful picture that makes them feel it naturally. The premise are that there are weapons on poles in each corner. The camera vantage point means that we see a lot of violence but not necessarily any close-ups of the result of said violence, which I'm more or less fine with. Early on, Rainman and Azrael were able to get the weapons first as they were smaller, more agile, and that allowed for the only equalizer possible against Tank and Iceberg, but it wasn't going to last. It's a lot of violence that all escalates to the last corner and the thumbtacks. They serve as a certain center of gravity pulling the last third of the match towards the center of the ring. There's a moment where the ref hurts his hand on one during a count which actually helps the overall atmosphere and feeling of danger. The finish is completely believable with a flaming boot doing half the work and a huge double team by the NWA Elite off the top and into the thumbtacks doing the rest. It's not the sort of thing I want to watch every week, but it definitely got the job done.

PAS: Really cool to see some handheld Wildside show up, especially a gruesome brawl like this. Iceberg and Tank are such formidable babyfaces, that you almost need to come armed with implements of horror to have any chance at all. Every time I see Iceberg I am amazed at the agility he had for such an enormous man, he was really on the level of Vader or Jerry Blackwell. He takes a psychotic assisted powerbomb here, and hits one of the most devastating sit out spinebusters I have ever seen, it look like it powdered Rainman's spinal cord. We got a lot of gross stabbing and carving, and some fun stuff with thumbtacks which weren't completely played out by 2004. The flaming kick to the face was one of the cooler looking fire spots I have seen in a while and the finish had the violence and chaos you want from Cornelia GA. 

ER: I could watch Tank and Iceberg do anything. These two would have been a legendary team from another era, and watching them is always just a crushing reminder of the big fat man dearth we're dealing with now. At a certain point WWF just stopped seeking out fat guys, and fat guys stopped seeking out wrestling. There should be a steady pipeline of football guys who weren't good enough for the NFL, who are now also rapidly gaining size due to no longer having two a days in their life. How does NXT not have 7 of those guys? At some point the wrestling world changed and it unfairly passed over two real talents. Iceberg and Tank were the kind of guys who you could tell would have been great workers no matter their size, and I'm so happy they were big fat guys. They're two of the better bleeders of the 2000s, and throw right hands with their entire body, two guys who threw hands like they had never seen any wrestling past the territory days. You take their bleeding, and their big right hands, and insert them into any 1985 territory, and you have a big time drawing heel. I don't think you even need the death match portion of this for it to work, but Tank and Iceberg are great at integrating weapons. The thumbtack bumps all looked sick, loved that seated spinebuster right into the tacks, and Tank's STO followed by picking tack shrapnel out of his wrist was awesome. Tank eats a flaming kick, and that might be one of my favorite ever Wildside spots, just a killer moment that would have have me leaping out of my chair live. 

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: ANARCHY WARGAMES

15. Team Elite (Gunner Miller/Kevin Blue/Billy Buck/Chris Spectra) v. Jeremiah’s Battalion (Gladiator Jeremiah/Cyrus the Destroyer/Se7en/Azrael) Anarchy Wrestling 6/24

PAS: The first recent vintage Wargames match I have reviewed since I started my C+A Wargames and it lives up to the name. This has been building for a while since Billy Buck turned on Slim J, turning him into Gladiator Jeremiah. Buck then joined Team TAG and Jeff G. Bailey. Jeremiah then began recruiting monsters to take with him into war. Before the match they announced that Iceberg was in the hospital meaning the Battalion was one man short. Buck and Jeremiah start out and Jeremiah mauls him, bloodying him up and chucking from cage side to cage side. Heels get the advantage and Jeremiah takes some big bumps into the cage. At one point Cyrus, who is 350 if he is an ounce, gets hurled into the cage and breaks the whole thing, For the rest of the match the cage looks like it is going to collapse, which doesn't stop nutso Jeremiah from doing a dive off the top. Really enjoyed Spectra who came in with nunchucks and actually had some fun offense with them as weapons. Se7en also really hurled people around when he came in, he has such force in everything he does. The final Battalion member to come in was the returning Azreal who comes in lowered from the ceiling with druids holding torches. It was a pretty dope entrance, especially for an indy show. My only real complaint in the match is Azreal being the one to submit, a hacksaw in the mouth is a fine way to end a match, but having a guy have this big entrance only to be the loser seems like weird booking. Still great violent performances by everyone in this match, and one of the better Cornelia Wargames I have seen.

ER: 10 years on, another great WarGames from Anarchy. They really capture the violence like few can. How many Monsters Ball and other cage matches did TNA run, none of them ever approached the violence here. The opening 5 was great, Jeremiah is a total savage and Buck is a big guy who bumps bigger all around the ring and immediately bleeds; Blue comes in and throws some so-so shots, and Jeremiah absolutely devours him like a Tazmanian Devil cartoon. This guy is great. And then I fall in love with Cyrus the Destroyer, who looks like Buster Bloodvessel at his biggest. He takes an absurd bump into the cage, just getting launched upside down into it and scraping down the side of it. As you'd expect, we get some wild cage bumps, with Gunner upping the ante later by missing a spear into the cage with gusto. Chris Spectra is a guy I've never seen before and he had an awesome entry into the cage, coming in with nunchucks and catching a Jeremiah punch by wrapping it the chain. And as I'm talking about cool entrances we suddenly get druids coming out with very real torches, and Azreal getting lowered from the ceiling on a small plank (and good thing they kept the lights off as it had to be difficult to look cool while balancing on a tiny platform being lowered from the ceiling. Everybody in this tightens up strikes and kicks as if they were being filmed in HD and thought they needed to make it look good, which just adds to the feeling of constant violence. My only complaint is everyone needing to get to kind of the same place damage-wise all at once so Azreal could do his entrance, so you had people who had been in the match for less than 4 minutes selling death the same as the guys who had been in the whole time. But, the entrance was a cool visual so there's at least a decent tradeoff, and the match suitably ends on the nastiest thing in the match, a hacksaw rubbed across Azrael's mouth corners. Yuck. Another great indy cage match, and I'm excited to see more of these guys.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Anarchy Wrestling Hostile Environment 6/24/17

Chase Jordan v. Jeremy Foster

Really energetic opener. I liked Jordan as a goofy looking guy who would get vicious when taunted by the crowd. At one point he hit a diving punch to the back of Foster's head which was as violent as anything on this show. Foster is a hyper competent babyface who had some nice moments, including a great looking heel hook. Finish felt a little off, but this was a fine use of 8 minutes.

Ryan Vega v. AJ Gray

This was the climax of a feud which saw Vega stab Gray in the eye with a pen and piss on a referee. Vega has a nice scumbag look, although it is more Reddit troll then dangerous gutter punk. Match was a Gray showcase, as he was getting his revenge by hitting huge spots, he had a crazy Orihara moonsault and finished with a Phoenix splash where he kneed Vega in the ribs. Gray was fun (I remember liking him in CWF too) and this was another good match. 

Nightmare Kyle Matthews v. Anthony Henry

Another in a run of really entertaining Kyle Matthews matches, he has turned into one of my favorite guys in the world to watch. Henry is a guy I have seen a lot in EVOLVE and he was always a bit too go-go-go for my tastes, there was some of that here, but Matthews slowed him down some but still danced with him when it was time to dance. Really enjoyed Henry's arm work, after a Valet distraction he whipped him off the apron with the arm, and worked it for the rest of the match, including a cool bridged Fujiwara and a elbow lock with back control. I love how they have turned Matthews octopus into a killer hold, and both Henry's escape from the first attempt and the final finish were really well done. Looking forward to Matthews having a long fun run with this belt.

Lynch Mob (Joey Lynch/Matt Lynch) v. The Approved (Adrian Hawkins/ Bobby Moore)

This was a taped fist street fight for the tag team titles. I really dug this when The Approved and the Lynch Mob were punching each other in face, the Approved both have some really nice looking right hands, and the early part of this had a ton of energy. I liked how the Lynch Mob used dives, they were almost Sabuish in their recklesness. This fell apart a bit at the end, as both teams were setting up elaborate set pieces with chairs and it lost a lot of the energy it had earlier.

Tank v. Brad Cash

Here we had a Tapai death match along with lots of additional pokey weapons. This had some nice moments, Tank is a good brawler and the parts that resembled a brawl were good, still lots of this was geek show Mr. Pogo stuff. Lots of slow cutting by each guy, it was gross and bloody but not that compelling. I always prefer death matches to be built around stiffness and and bumps, the final bump by Cash was nasty as Tank choke slammed him on gusset plates, but this was mostly stabbing. Gory spectacle, but I am over gore for gore's sake

Rock C v. Jessica Leigh

I liked Rock C's reverse grapevine leg lock finisher, and she had one nice side suplex, but otherwise this was more a match for the live crowd, then anything you want to watch on tape.

Jacob Ashworth v. Stryknyn

Really fun heavyweight title slugfest. They start out early with some basic tight takedown and lock up wrestling, but like most face v. face matches, it really kicks in when they start throwing hands. Stryknyn hits a great looking barfight headbut and throws some really great straight rights, he also has some nice looking stomps. Ashworth doesn't have as crisp punches, but has great babyface fire, and some of the exchanges looked down right Lawlerian. I didn't love the moves section as much, lots of full nelson slams and B- spears, but I have to love any match based on great punches.

Team Elite (Gunner Miller/Kevin Blue/Billy Buck/Chris Spectra) v. Jeremiah’s Battalion (Gladiator Jeremiah/Cyrus the Destroyer/Se7en/Azreal)

The first recent vintage Wargames match I have reviewed since I started my C+A Wargames and it lives up to the name. This has been building for a while since Billy Buck turned on Slim J, turning him into Gladiator Jeremiah. Buck then joined Team TAG and Jeff G. Bailey. Jeremiah then began recruiting monsters to take with him into war. Before the match they announced that Iceberg was in the hospital meaning the Battalion was one man short. Buck and Jeremiah start out and Jeremiah mauls him, bloodying him up and chucking from cage side to cage side. Heels get the advantage and Jeremiah takes some big bumps into the cage. At one point Cyrus, who is 350 if he is an ounce, gets hurled into the cage and breaks the whole thing, For the rest of the match the cage looks like it is going to collapse, which doesn't stop nutso Jeremiah from doing a dive off the top. Really enjoyed Spectra who came in with nunchucks and actually had some fun offense with them as weapons. Se7en also really hurled people around when he came in, he has such force in everything he does. The final Battalion member to come in was the returning Azreal who comes in lowered from the ceiling with druids holding torches. It was a pretty dope entrance, especially for an indy show. My only real complaint in the match is Azreal being the one to submit, a hacksaw in the mouth is a fine way to end a match, but having a guy have this big entrance only to be the loser seems like weird booking. Still great violent performances by everyone in this match, and one of the better Cornelia Wargames I have seen.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WARGAMES

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All Time MOTY List Head to Head + Wednesday Morning War Games: NWA Anarchy Team Anarchy v. Devil's Rejects V. Akiyama v. Inoue

Team Anarchy (Shadow Jackson/Nemesis/Slim J/Ace Rockwell) v. The Devil's Reject's 
(Iceberg/Tank/Azrael/Shaun Tempers) NWA Anarchy 7/22/06

PAS: What a grizzly blood soaked war, Devil's Rejects have to be the scariest faction in wrestling history, they look like a gang of hillbilly cannibals. It really adds something to the danger of WarGames it is one thing to be locked in a cage with Arn Anderson or Sid, totally different thing to be locked in a cage with a bunch of guys who look like they have lost hikers chained up in their basement. Rockwell comes in with a broken arm and Slim J comes with a bad eye and they both injuries get exploited in horrible ways, Rockwell gets crucifix powerbombed arm first into the cage, Tempers drives a fucking meat cleaver into Slim J's eye. The babyface comeback after the sides equalled up was awesome, Shadow Jackson was great in the Nikita/Sting roll of powerhouse babyface roll coming in an powerslamming the 600 pound Iceberg. Rockwell wails on Azreal with his cast, and they end up Russian legsweeping Tank off the top through a table and superplexing Iceberg which might have opened up a crater in Cornelia. Finish was totally legit as Rockwell takes a claw hammer and tries to rip out Tempers cheek. Post match was crazy too, the match was control of Anarchy v. owner getting 5 minutes in the cage with Rev. Dan Wilson (all of these War Games seem to be about control of the fed, fucking McMahon GM nonsense ruined indy wrestling), the owner gets one punch in and then the Reject's stream in and maul that dude, stab him in the head, Iceberg second rope splash, meanwhile the crowd is hurling garbage and wrestlers are trying to scale the cage.

ER: This match completely surprised me. I loved Wildside but really haven't watched much Anarchy. A decade ago I never heard anybody recommending Anarchy matches, it flew almost completely under my radar. And THIS was there the whole time! This match has been sitting around on YouTube for 8 years and this is the first I've heard of it. And it's wonderful. Ace Rockwell turns in one of the finest fiery underdog babyface performances I've seen, blazing in with a cast on his arm and throwing these great right hands all match, throwing his whole body at Azrael, making me root for Team Anarchy right out of the gate. Phil is right that the Devil's Rejects stable are downright frightening. How many times have you seen metal t-shirt face painted wrestlers come off like total jokes ("I am counter culture!"), and here they look like Satanist bikers from I Drink Your Blood. And it's all great! Again Ace Rockwell is an impossibly good babyface warrior here, Slim J enters by flying off the top with a crossbody and doesn't slow down, Azrael and Tempers are great meathead thugs (who end up hitting big bladejobs), Tank and Iceberg (comically billed at 600 pounds, which I suppose would make Tank 560 and Ace Rockwell 350) are big ol' fat guys who will stiff you, splash you, crush your face with a legdrop, and wrestle like you wish Tank Abbott wrestled in WCW. We get some pretty sick bumps throughout, including what I think are the nastiest cage bumps I've seen. Tempers and Azrael press slamming Ace into the support pole of the cage and letting him just drop was nasty, but there are several other moments of guys flying into the cage at awkward angles and dropping terribly in between ropes and cage. Finish is disgusting as Tempers gets a clawhammer jammed into his mouth and thankfully taps before it bursts through his cheek. This was some wild violence right here, the kind of thing that makes me want to go watch all the Anarchy I can find.

Akiyama v. Inoue Review

Verdict:

PAS: I am going with Wargames, easily the most violent of the War Games I have seen, and a match which delivers visceral fear and hate better then almost anything I can remember. I loved Inoue v. Akyama but that is more a quirky indy comedy, Anarchy Wargames is Apocalypse Now

ER: Going in I thought this was just going to be a fun discovery and would make a good challenger for its novelty factor. But goddamn does it get my vote. Akiyama/Inoue is an all time favorite of mine, and this match crashed the party and made itself known as possibly the most violent WarGames match in history. Think about that. New champ.

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Wednesday Morning War Games: NWA Anarchy - Azreal and Hate Junkies v. UAS and Kimo

Urban Assault Squad (Nemesis and Shadow Jackson)/Kimo v. Hate Junkies (Stryknyn and Dany Only)/Azrael NWA Anarchy 10/29/11

This match only had one ring and was 3 on 3, so it stretches the War Games definition a bit, but it delivered in the gritty violence area. Anarchy has run a bunch of War Games matches which fits with Atlanta metro area location and the seedy violence of the arena. I loved the Stryknyn and Nemesis opening section really intense brawling with Stryknyn especially laying in some brutal stomps, Stryknyn also wins the Tommy Rich award as he is leaking all over the ring. Azrael stood out too, as he is a big guy who took some wild upside down bumps into the cage. Match didn't have too much of a story, for a while the heel team was working over Jacksons bad ankle, but Kimo slapped on a submission without a ton of build. Still this felt like a street fight between a death metal band and a bunch of Crips, and it is hard to not love that.

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