New Footage Friday: Recognize GAME

GAME 9/12/94

PAS: This has to be one of the weirder shows in US wrestling history. It is a bunch of LA indy guys working a RINGS style show in a Chinese Restaurant. Outside of hearing about Vandal Drummond from Incredibly Strange Wrestling, and the two guys in the main event, I am not sure who any of these guys are. Thanks to our buddy Roy Lucier for uploading this, hopefully he has some more floating around, I really need to see Shootstyle Super Boy.

ER: I gotta say the Chinese restaurant venue really does add to the vibe of this show. It really gives it that feeling of something out of Bloodsport or the background of a Street Fighter II level.

Vandal Drummond vs. Greg Regaldo

PAS: This was really devoid of highlights, outside of one nice German suplex by Regaldo, this had the feel of a grappling match between two freestyle wrestlers who were just trying to avoid mistakes. Drummond is able to get a choke during a scramble for the win. Weird how dedicated these guys were to making it look real and not worrying about it being particularly entertaining.

RUR 2000 vs. Benson Lee

PAS: This was pretty cool, both guys were wearing lucha masks for some reason, and had some pretty fast and aggressive grappling. Lee was the standout, he had a great looking judo throw and a cool looking sort of calf slicer for the submission. 2000 kept up, and everything moved pretty briskly, it reminded me of an undercard U-Style match, which is a fine standard to reach.

Doug Williams vs. Eric Anderson

PAS: Doug Williams is neither the Redskins Super Bowl winning quarterback or the early 2000s British Indy guy. He is announced as a former California State Wrestling champion, and basically dominates Anderson the way a dull amateur wrestler might dominate an MMA fight. This was pretty long and didn't have many highlights. Everything looks authentic enough but so far we haven't had much that was particularly exciting.

Terry Iwakura vs. Makoto Muraoka

PAS: They list both of these guys as black belts, and this felt like guys with some experience working this style, although all I could find on either guy is Muraoka getting mauled by Ralph Gracie at an EWF show. Really liked the first part of this match which felt like a UWF match, some nice fast submission attempts and sharp kicks. This went too long though, and it felt like both guys lost a bunch of their spark. You really have to a be great performer to have a shootstyle match go 20 plus minutes, and these guys didn't have that in them. Could have been a killer six minutes though.

Vandal Drummond vs. Benson Lee

PAS: These are the two guys who ran this fed, and I imagine came up with this idea while watching bootleg UWF tapes. So it was pretty cool to watch them execute their idea. This was good shootstyle full stop, Lee threw some nasty body kicks, and both guys had great looking takedowns and submission attempts. I loved Drummond's yank down front face lock, and Lee had a really cool judo trip. I thought Drummond really looked good attacking the back the whole match, he really felt like a guy with a jujitsu background even if he didn't have one.  Finish was really cool with Drummond blocking a judo throw by sinking in a side choke and dragging Lee to the floor for the tap.  Only Lee I had seen before was him getting murked by Severn in 2 minutes, but he had some cool stuff, and I kind of want to dig into the lucha and garbage Drummond, because I dug shootstlye Drummond a fair amount.

Dan Severn vs. Al Snow

PAS: This was fun stuff. Severn is clearly in his element, really rough power takedowns, big throws. mat pummeling. Snow kind of brought the pro-wrestling elements. I thought both of the falls out of the ring were cool bits of showmanship, really put over the struggle and intensity of the grappling. I liked Snow getting a little chippy in the last couple of rounds, throwing the cheap shot on the break, going for wilder kicks. Watching a lot of Severn over the last couple of years, he was a really great finish guy, they always looked super violent and conclusive. The overhead throw into an armbar he ends the match with here was super cool looking and credibly violent. Props to Snow for really putting over the pain of the hold. Cool, shit and another notch on Severn's belt.

MD: What an odd match to even wrap your head around. Snow trained Severn. We have footage from January of this same year of Snow and Severn working a MI indy, but Snow's dressed as Shinobi and working the fake Muta type gimmick (down to a missed moonsault to lead into the finish). It's out there on Youtube. Severn works that as your 80s babyface Steve Williams type, mainly from underneath due to Shinobi's kicks and oriental nerve holds or whatever. Then they do this.

Really, at this point, Snow could have been absolutely anything. There's no reason he couldn't have gone to WCW in 96 and replaced Johnny B Badd as the TV champ to feud with DPP. A little later, he could have been in that Malenko/Guerrero/Benoit US Title mix, or feuding with Booker T over the TV Title in 98. He could have done more in Japan with this style and rolled into 00s Inokism or teamed with Johnny Ace in AJPW instead of Mike Barton. I'm not saying the sky was the limit, but it's definitely a testament to the guy and ultimately something of a disappointment that he ended up following the exact path that he did.

Here he's solid, absolutely solid. This is five rounds of dubious length (round 3 seemed really short is all that I'm saying). Snow brought the kicks and a nice throw or two, but mainly this was a Severn showcase and it was up to Snow to feed limbs and realistically struggle and believably stay in it for all five rounds, which I think he did. Occasionally he'd grab a leg, but Severn would almost immediately grab one back. Occasionally Severn would get in a German or some such but it was played mainly as a thundering takedown. Towards the end, they leaned a little more into the pro wrestling sensibilities with a Snow cheapshot and the finish, which was Severn responding by pressing him against the ropes, turning it into a northern lights style suplex, and hanging on to the arm mid-air for the submission once they landed. Snow made sure to yell accordingly which let the fans understand what was going on. I'd label this perfectly respectable, which, frankly, was probably MORE than you could honestly ask for.

ER: I thought this was some high end American indie shootstyle right here. Al Snow is a really cool 1995 wrestler, a guy who was unique enough to show up on WWF, WCW, and ECW TV, have memorable indy feuds throughout the whole year, the great Benoit ECW match, the great SMW run, and here he shows a whole side that makes me want to see a whole career of shootstyle Snow. Dan Severn is one of my favorite recent obsessions, a guy who could have had some absolute classic wrestling matches, had he actually stuck to it as his main occupation. So here we get these two cool shootstyle guys work a long stretched out match, filled with cool submission attempts, sick throws from Severn, Snow trying - and succeeding - with big kicks, and both guys working huge takedowns that had to take the wind out of both. These two worked really great together, super complementary, with Severn going after limbs and working for suplexes. They grappled very convincingly throughout, and had a couple cool moments where they rolled to the floor in a tight grapple. Snow would through big strikes, landing a good deal and knocking Severn down for 10 counts, but when his leg would get caught Severn would make him pay in cool ways. The finish was really great, with Severn getting an armlock and Snow screaming a blood curdling scream for the stoppage. I really love our American handheld indie shootstyle history, and this was a fantastic addition that I had never seen before.

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Dan Severn Has a Good Thing Going Now; Don't Do It

Dan Severn v. Chris Candido SMW 2/24/95 - GREAT

ER: This was really fun, different than the Tajiri/Blaze matches, this is more Candido working a pro style match against a crowbar, and then occasionally breaking down and trying to play his game. Early on Severn plants him with a big suplex and Candido bails to the floor, which is the proper reaction. But Candido is game and he'll play, and sometimes that goes well for him. Candido gets to lock on all sorts of painful stretch Plum variations, just jamming his palm into Severn's jaw and neck while yanking his arm in the other direction. Other times he'll grab a waistlock and Severn will just chuck him and grab his arm on the way down. At one point Severn tosses him across the ring with a belly to belly (and I love how we've now seen Severn use the ropes to set up his belly to belly, backing a guy in and then using the spring of the ropes to add momentum to his throw) and Candido gets up, shakes the cobwebs off, and punches him across the face. Candido was really good at overmatching Severn here, mixing up his attacks, dropping legs, even hitting a rana. A real satisfying match that nicely mixed pro style with some subs and throws.

PAS: I really liked Candido trying to bring the south to Severn. He slaps him in the face, runs out of the ring, and pearl harbours Severn when he comes back in, he pokes him in the eye, stomps him in the head and even hits him low. Candido knows in his heart he can't grapple with Severn so every time he loses a wrestling exchange he goes low. I really enjoyed all of Candido's grounded octopus holds, they looked nasty and I enjoyed how Severn powered out of them. I would have liked a better finish as the armbar kind of came out of nowhere, and Severn has been so good at violent impressive finishes. 

Dan Severn v. Benson Lee Steel City Wrestling 3/19/95 - GREAT

ER: Lee is a black belt karate guy who stuck to Pennsylvania indies, possibly working a son of Bruce Lee gimmick, and I'm really loving Severn as touring shooter bringing legitimacy back to the NWA title. It's a reverse Inoki, instead of bringing in wrestlers and black belts to beat, Severn just tours the nation throwing dudes across rings and choking them out. Lee is in full gi with kickpads and comes at Severn with low kicks. It doesn't last long as Lee throws a kick at Severn's liver, Severn deftly catches it and just HACKS downward on Lee's leg, dropping him with a fast single leg. Severn threw that downward strike like he was the bear in The Revenant, it looked so violent. Lee spent much of the time understandably scrambling towards the ropes when he was taken down. Severn backs him into the ropes and launches him across the ring with a double underhook suplex, really a gorgeous throw. Lee makes a nice comeback as Severn charges and he catches him in the breadbasket with a kick, then throws a few more as Severn gets to his feet, including a running sidekick right to the gut that  buckles Severn. It leads to an awesome moment of Lee expertly aiming to lock in a dragon sleeper, and Severn responds by violently snapmaring his way out of it. And he turns that snapmare into a monster of a gutwrench suplex, getting incredible arc and immediately locking on the armbar. Killer little mid 90s shootstyle in a high school gymnasium. You can picture John Darnielle writing an evocative song about it.

PAS: I am questioning the legitimacy of that Benson Lee black belt, his karate looked very Eric Bischoffish. My god though 2 minute Dan Severn maulings are my new favorite thing in wrestling, it is like watching Youtube clips of Tyson fights. When Severn catches Lee's kick and rips down on it, it looked like it should have shattered Lee's knee cap. If I was Lee I would have rolled out of the ring, walked straight to my Toyota Tercel and driven home. Lee's little Dragon sleeper was cute, but Severn countering that with the worlds most violent snap mare right into a gutwrench suplex was awesome. Call the EMTs.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAN SEVERN

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