New Footage Friday: DUSTIN! BARRY! SGT. CRAIG! BILLY BLACK!

NWA 7/11/98


Dustin Rhodes vs. Barry Windham

MD: You'd want this to have a few more minutes at least, or maybe a finish, but it's pretty interesting for what it is. The intimacy stood out as you can really see the grin on Barry's face or hear him jawwing to Dustin. He messed with him a lot to start, engaging and disengaging, teasing a test of strength, refusing to shake the hand until he actually did, which was probably to get Dustin's guard down for when he started to punch. They went to the blood almost immediately thereafter, with Barry tossing him to the floor and slamming him headfirst into a table at ringside. That made the match feel longer and weightier than it was. Dustin had a hope spot and they at least gave lip service to the idea that they might do a superplex in front of this crowd, but that led to Dustin's comeback and the DDQ. This was worked to the level of the show, but by two masters who still weaved in an element of the personal and the visceral despite it all.

PAS: We never really got any matches between these two when they broke up in WCW (at least on TV, they ran Texas Death and Bullrope matches on house shows which I am sure were incredible) , so it is cool we got to see them match up a couple of years later. This match felt like a throw back for sure, with Windham not doing much besides punching but landing some nasty looking punches. They had some really great exchanges and Dustin really opened it up for an indy show (pretty crazy that he was doing this kind of nostalgia indy show 22 years ago and is still main eventing Cable TV shows today), we didn't get a real finish and this felt like it was setting up a big time gimmick blow off match, and while they did run this on a three show circuit, they never came back to this town for a big finish.

ER: I love this era of WWF or WCW guys showing up main eventing a southern indy show during a time they were under contract. It's cool seeing big TV names at the time showing up in super appreciative gyms. We've seen Eddy headline indy cards and put on PPV quality matches, and here's Dustin - another who has done plenty of interesting things over several different indy runs - bleeding all over a North Carolina gym. Windham was done with his WWF run and would join WCW in a few months, and this felt stronger than anything they were doing on TV around this time. Dustin was still making PPV and having nice longer matches with Val Venis, and this felt like a good 1998 house show version of something like that. Windham knuckle punches Dustin in several nasty ways, some great kneeling punches to the brow and temple, and it makes Dustin's color look even more authentic. Dustin is popular with the crowd - a cute kid even hugs him during his ring entrance - and getting juice on a show like this gets them even more into his comeback. This was almost entirely no back bump wrestling, lots of punch exchanges. But these are two guys I love seeing do punch exchanges, and this is a cool era to see them do it.


Fly-High Eddie vs. Thunderfoot #2

MD: Without actually watching more 1998 footage, I have no reason to think Thunderfoot #2 wasn't Ligon but also no reason to think it was. He came out with Ronnie P. Gossett Jr. who was not of relation but was working the gimmick. The video lists this as Mike Maverick but it's Fly High Eddie who is working a stoner gimmick instead of a high-flying gimmick. He starts a Porky chant for Gossett to start which shifted the heat to him instead of either Eddie or Thunderfoot. Whoever Thunderfoot was, he knew what he was doing (which again leans it towards Ligon) completely over the top in celebrating the smallest things and selling so big on everything that you could see it two states away. Eddie really doesn't do anything but he probably didn't have to with Thunderfoot working and emoting for a half dozen people. We probably need more matches like this in joyless 2020.


Big Daddy D vs. "Joltin" Brad Holtin

MD: I have no idea who Big Daddy D was but he had a good look, a certain awkward swagger where he'd stumble out of a move and turn it into a cocky little mannerism, and some fun vocalizing as he was wrestling. This lasted about a minute and a half before he won with a weird standing half crab. Then he cut a promo, winded, after the match. Post match, Maxx came out to save Holtin and D hit him with maybe the slowest kneelift ever but then took a gigantic bump through the ropes when Maxx moved so we'll call it a wash. This was a fine squash but I'm kind of glad we don't have to see the Maxx vs. D match it set up.

ER: I like seeing big fake Power Plant indy guys from this era. It's great because there were guys in the Power Plant who were worse than Big Daddy D, but he was in this North Carolina gym and not many other places. Power Plant guys always brought something pleasant and unexpected to their matches, a nice bump or a great kick, and Big Daddy D had that. His single leg crab looked good, and Holtin put it over strong with his screams. Holtin takes a high backdrop and Daddy takes a disgusting and wonderful Hamrick bump, doing a feet first tope and splatting on his back. That's the kind of bump and risk taking attitude that would have made Daddy a favorite of mine on Worldwide or Metal. Wrestling ain't fair.


Rikki Nelson/Brad Anderson vs. David Isley/Colt Steel

MD: Pretty straight forward southern style tag. Nelson made cocky heeling look natural and effortless and got the job done but it was nothing that will stick with you for long, though I really liked how he was able to menace from the floor when the ref wasn't looking. Anderson came off more like a Power Plant guy than anything else: good look, OK power moves, not always in the right place at the right time. Steel had sort of a poor man's Ronnie Garvin vibe and played face-in-peril well. Isley wasn't really in there long enough to show much, but it all more or less came together with a format that can do no ill.

ER: What I wouldn't give to see this exact same match at the next indy show I go to. I don't mean that  like, "The idea of not being in my house sounds so appealing that even this match would feel like manna from heaven." No, I just wish this was the kind of wrestling I could go see, instead of modern indy style. I wish we had more Rikki Nelsons on the indy scene. He looks like a snotty younger brother of Pat Sajak, brings a real veteran performer's professionalism with him, and it's the kind of thing that is really memorable on a show like this. He's someone who is always filling time, he's always selling something that happened, he's reacting to fans, he's frustrated with the ref, he's giving instructions to Anderson. He's the kind of guy who is always on, but he's not always making the match about him. He just knows how to fill time with a deep bag of material. He had a great top rope elbowdrop and threw out a lot of offense (Hitman elbow and diving clothesline off the middle buckle, slingshot splash, front suplex) while filling the empty spots with glue. Brad Anderson looks like a guy who would have gotten an extended look from WWF, and is the son of Gene Anderson so he's one of those 3rd generation guys they like. But what's crazy is that Anderson was in WCW nearly a decade earlier as Zan Panzer, and here he just doesn't seem to be nearly complete enough as a worker. He got tryout matches with him, and it's possible that they had just experience the 2nd gen letdown that was Scott Putski, that they just opted to pass on Brad Putski. David Isley somehow got an All Japan tour, and he might officially now be the weirdest guy to have gotten on. That tour was 1992, and in 1998 David Isley looks almost completely untrained. His hot tag is stunningly bad and he looked lost through all of it. His ring entrance gear was a old faded neon windbreaker and a backwards dad hat, and he was the one guy in the match who looked like he didn't exercise. Colt Steel looked like Ronnie Garvin's dad, meaning he looked like the Crusher's son, and he was fine. But this tag was all about getting heat, keeping the fans involved, and I wish I could be there now.  


Sgt. Craig Pittman vs. Billy Black

MD: I always kind of liked Pittman in WCW. He brought something different to the table. Watching this, I half wonder why they didn't bring him in to WWF to work that Shamrock/Severn/Blackman contingent when almost everyone was getting signed. He was a little older by this point, almost 40, maybe not in as good a shape as he had been a few years earlier. He was super charismatic here though. If this was fifteen years earlier, he could have been an attraction somewhere, probably. He worked pretty broadly here, less precision and more of just throwing himself at Black. He wrestled for the crowd, with lots of shouting and push-ups and they got into it well enough, with a USA chant at some point. He also did a flip bump off a punch, though admittedly, it was pretty early in the match. Black, as always, had a lot of stuff, big and small: a handspring elbow in the corner, a missed moonsault, mixing it with plenty of heel tricks to get back on offense. Again, this all felt broad and loose. Black took over with a low blow out of the corner but when he tried another one mid match, Pittman just shrugged it off (which doesn't feel like the sort of thing one ought to do unless it's in the final comeback). I'm not sure this ever came together but it was probably a lot of fun for the crowd. I basically want to see Pittman's entire 98 indy run, and I doubt much of any of it is available. Bunkhouse Buck. One Man Gang. Dan Severn for the NWA title. Teaming with Valiant against the Fultons. Ah well. This showed up after all.

PAS: I dug both guys in this match a lot. Pittman has a ton flash and a really well developed gimmick which connected with the crowd. He's kind of a mix between face AWA Slaughter and JYD. Black has a ton of big offense for 1998 but also bumps huge for all of Pittman's stuff. I loved all of the in-ring topes by Pittman and it always looked cool when he broke them out to cut Black off or go on offense.

Read more!

New Footage Friday: Billy Black, Wahoo, Kobashi, Misawa, The Eagle, Tenryu, Tiger Jeet Singh

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Tiger Jeet Singh AJPW 5/14/82

PAS: This match a fair more pop to it then your normal Jeet Singh affair. I am going to give the credit to Tenryu who keeps this moving, and adds some real pops of drama to Singh's stuff. He jumps him at the bell and tosses the sword aside, and works him over only to get stabbed in the throat. Singh breaks a bottle on the ringpost and stabs Tenryu with it causing our boy to start leaking. It breaks out into mayhem from there, with Casual Friday Ueda hitting Tenryu with a sword and both Singh and Ueda fighting various ringboys and menacing the crowd. Not much wrestling although this had the heat and out of control feel to make it pretty enjoyable. Odd feather in young Tenryu's cap for sure.

ER: This is the best Jeet Singh singles match I've seen, and I like Singh more than most. I like the excitement and weirdness he brings to a professional All Japan setting. He's a fun disturber, and he's a big guy so when he doesn't play by the rules he's tough to rein in. Singh is all twitchy and has maybe one bump in him per match, so it always seems like a big moment when someone fights back and takes him off his feet. From the moment they're both in the ring it's chaos, and the whole thing is paced excellently by Tenryu who bumps all over the ring and floor to put over Singh's attacks. Singh gets his sword yanked away but finds a bottle pretty soon and cuts Tenryu up. Tenryu takes a big tumbling bump off the apron after a shot and comes up nice and bloody, and we get Singh finally leaving his feet after Tenryu hits him with the enziguiri off the ropes. A lot of these 80s Tenryu singles are him selling and building to an opponent bump off the enziguiri, so you kind of have to rate the quality of the chaos and beating leading to that, and then the bump off the enziguiri. If you look at something like Tenryu vs. Kimala, that had a lot of Kimala holding Tenryu by the boob, but built to a fantastic Kimala bump through the ropes to the floor. Singh isn't going to do that. Ueda eventually breaks through the ringboys in his Kim Chee cosplay gear and the whole thing gets thrown out, but damn this is how you work a hot Singh match. Tenryu was fantastic here.

MD:  I'd say this was my revenge on Phil for the hour Survival Tag, suggesting a Tiger Jeet Singh match, but really I wasn't too sure what I thought of it and had put it to Eric first instead. If the network delivered this week, this wouldn't have been here. It didn't, so here we are.

I've seen discussion about Singh as the worst wrestler ever recently and this probably won't convince you otherwise, but it was very effective and very fun. I'm all about anticipation and payoff in my wrestling, and so much of that is the babyface comeback after a ton of heat. As such, this is an abridged version of a bloody Puerto Rico Invader I or Colon match. Tenryu holds the advantage. Singh gets a shot in. Tenryu bleeds. Singh works the wound with whatever he can find and menaces the crowd. Tenryu valiantly and furiously fights back to the crowd's delight. It's pure distilled pro wrestling, powered by blood and selling and the rage of the crowd. While this was the Tenryu show, selling huge, bleeding all over, tapping the rage of the crowd in his comeback, Singh still played his role perfectly, breaking bottles and brandishing them for all to see before diving in to deepen the cut. On this night, at least, there was palpable menace to him, one that was backed up by his actions. While the finish was chaotic in the early 80s AJPW way you'd expect, this is one where the babyface being ultimately triumphant in a pool of his own blood would have taken it over the top. As it is, the build is effective, but we only get a taste of that payoff.

Mitsuharu Misawa/Kentaro Shiga/Satoru Asako/Kenta Kobashi vs. The Eagle/The Lacrosse/The Patriot/Johnny Ace AJPW 1/22/96

PAS: Totally oddball match which goes over an hour and is a survival tag match. It starts as a standard 2x2 tag match, in this case Asako/Shiga vs. Eagle/Lacrosse and when someone is pinned, they are replaced by another member of the team. Eagle (George Hines aka Jackie Fulton) and Lacrosse (Jungle Jim Steele) are a fun roided spot team, kind of a poor man's Steiners and have some fun high impact suplexes and a great big superfly splash by the Eagle. Asako and Shiga are a couple of the duller undercard All Japan guys, although Asako does have a nice top rope rana. The match really is a lot of preface to set up Kobashi/Misawa vs. Patriot/Johnny Ace and when we get down to that, we have a typical big workrate mid-90s All Japan tag. Patriot really has nice looking flying shoulder blocks and he hits them from all over, and the neckbreaker/powerbomb double team they do is really nasty looking. I loved Misawa's fired up entrance into the match where he throws bunches of elbows from different angles, and the finishing stretch was pretty great. Ace pinning Kobashi seems like a big upset, but that top rope cutter really should finish even Kobashi.

MD:  We've been doing this for a while. There are certain things I should know by now. For instance, if I tell Phil about an hour long match I found that sounds weird or out of the ordinary, he's going to want to watch it. This is weird and out of the ordinary. It's actually a lot of fun too.

On paper, despite being the one to point it out, this felt like a hard sell. The American side is no great shakes: Lacrosse is Jim Steele, which is basically enough said there. I've got a soft spot for the Patriot, but not necessarily in an hour long match. By this point, Ace was pretty good at filling space and keeping things tight (because he would get eaten alive by Misawa and Kobashi in a hundred matches otherwise) but that doesn't always make for enjoyable wrestling. Eagle's admittedly generally a lot of fun with a ton of stuff. I was not super familiar with Kentaro (blue tights) or Satoru (light ones with knee pads) but they seemed, coming in, to be lower card guys who'd probably eat falls in the first half.

By the way, that's what this was, a 2 on 2 team battle where eliminated wrestlers were replaced until a final tag would begin with the last four guys. The format really helped this. Nothing breaks up an hour like falls. Every time someone was eliminated, it allowed for a restart and a slightly different dynamic. Lacrosse/Eagle vs Kentaro/Satoru was a big vs little battle with the Japanese just trying to contain their opponents and stay in it. Again, Lacrosse wasn't great by any means. He was clunky, but he did bring power and some presence and an attempt, appreciated even if not successful, at big bombs. Once Kentaro was eliminated, the dynamic completely shifted because you had Kobashi/Satoru vs Eagle/Lacrosse, more of a star/underdog vs monsters format, with the fans instantly hot for Kobashi. This might have actually been my favorite section of the whole thing until the end, as there was just a lot of stuff (including an assisted legdrop and a deadlift powerbomb and some great throws/suplexes by Eagle and Lacrosse absolutely killing Satoru on a botched power bomb) and a lot of heat before they finally eliminated Satoru.

That brought us to Misawa and Kobashi vs the World for around half an hour and suddenly it feels sort of a shame that something this novel was lost for so long. They got Lacrosse out of there pretty quickly and what followed was two tag matches, one of about ten minutes and one of about twenty which did feel part of a larger whole. The first one had more direct heat on Kobashi before he made a hot tag to Misawa. The second one had more of an ebb and flow with the Americans maintaining advantage in the face of larger comebacks and momentum shifts. My favorite part of this was probably Kobashi's hulk up and then Patriot (who again, is a guy that I watched on ESPN as a 10 year old and that I buy having a hulk up in his tank) returning favor with hulked-up headbutts. The finishing stretch had maybe a few too many kickouts (as opposed to break-ups) for a match of this length (though that was to protect Kobashi ultimately) but did feel like escalation and felt like something that people would make sure to watch as part of the broader canon of mid-late 90s AJPW, if that makes sense.

Ultimately, the fans loved the whole thing and as unique house show situations go, this was a winner. As WWE struggles with revamping their house show format, this is the sort of thing that they should steal because it immediately felt different and special and it never really wore out its welcome, despite the length, even if maybe the format limited it from being absolutely great as well. Perfect house show fodder.

Wahoo McDaniel vs. Billy Black ASW 9/3/96

MD: This is apparently Wahoo's retirement match and I've got no reason to believe otherwise. Black is kind of a weird guy for Wahoo to end it all with (I doubt Manny was busy that weekend) but he was more than game to do what he had to. In truth, it was a good little showcase for him. Wahoo held court in the center of ring and Black provided motion, feeding, bumping, stooging, jumping out of the ring to kill time and rile the crowd. Wahoo took some cheapshots in the corner, including a dissonance inducing leg lariat, and bumped himself on an elbow drop, but past that he just acted as a center of gravity and let Black do all the work. It made for something slightly more enjoyable than you'd expect and something that showed proper reverence to Wahoo while still protecting the guy (probably honored to be in that spot) who had to be in the ring the following month.

PAS: Wahoo in his last match isn't going to be doing much more then throw stiff chops, and 96 Billy Black is a great guy to work someone who isn't going to do much more then throw chops. Black bumps all of over the ring for every shot, misses a moonsault and a top rope elbow and makes a pretty immobile Wahoo look fearsome. I am not sure why the match ended with a small package, Wahoo didn't really have the flexibility to pull it off this late in his career, and it feels like a more definitive finish would be fine to send off a legend.

ER: This was on the same show that had that legitimately great Mr. Hughes/Barbarian vs. Steiners match we reviewed a few months ago, a stacked indy card with a big crowd who was going nuts for Wahoo. Billy Black comes out looking like off tour summer BBQ shape Travis Tritt, the referee looks like Alan Belcher's Johnny Cash tattoo, Wahoo looks like the world's toughest egg, and this delivered in the ways I wanted it to. Black was great here, really made me want to see more of him (any Wild Bunch tags worth checking out?), and at a certain point I kind of hope Wahoo would just stand still in the center of the ring to see how cool of a match Black could craft around that. Wahoo does move, a little, but this is all about Black running into chops and rolling through the floor coughing and holding his throat. Black sold a solitary Wahoo downward strike to his forehead as well as Tenryu sold Singh jabbing a bottle into his head (seen up above in this very same review). Black eyerakes Wahoo and hits a big flying leg lariat in the corner, Black dishes a lariat and Wahoo essentially, eventually bumps it by getting off his horse onto a smaller horse, and then onto a smaller horse, and then onto a large dog, before landing on his back. From there we go through an amusing stretch where both guys miss the biggest moves of the match: Black whiffs on a moonsault AND a top rope elbowdrop, Wahoo drives his elbow into the mat on his own missed elbow, and Black takes a small package headfirst into the mat for the abrupt finish. After the match a bunch of the boys come to the ring to celebrate Wahoo and present him with a plaque. RVD is wearing his super short leisure kimono, Adam Bomb is there, someone else is wearing pajama pants, and the promoter shows everyone that he has absolutely zero idea how to do a tomahawk chop. The promoter's chops looked like he was working events staff parking and motioning to a car to turn down the aisle on his right. I love 90s indy wrestling.

Read more!