Found Footage Friday: HACKENSCHMIDT~! HEENAN~! LANZA~! WANZ~! DON LEO~!

Georg Hackenschmidt vs. Joe Rogers 1/30/1908

MD: If you're here reading this, I don't have to give you the backstory. You know it. Full props to Dan Rice for going the extra mile and making this happen. With that said, let's take a look at the text itself. I've seen people come down on whether this was a shoot or a work, but Hackenschmidt absolutely dominant here, whether he was simply presented that way or not. We get two full falls with matches in between and outside of losing his shoe early on, he never seemed in danger at all. Past the opening when they were both standing and jockeying for position, most of this was on the mat and he was in control for most of it. He was constantly shifting positions, pulling Rogers leg out to hobble his balance, working around him.

Meanwhile, Rogers was constantly active but there was a sense that if he tried for anything to aggressive then Hackenschmidt would be able to get him on his back. A couple of times he was able to bring his arm around for a headlock but it seemed to do him more harm than good overall. Whenever they got towards the end of the mat, Hackenschmidt, being the one in control would indicate that they move back to center and they'd reset with him in control once more. Maybe the most compelling bits here were the pins, especially in the first round. Rogers was larger, more tan, more obviously muscular (though the end clip of Hackenschmidt flexing was certainly something). Hackenschmidt had his number regardless and eventually worked him to his back. Rogers was able to keep a shoulder up ever so slightly and over the span of a minute, Hackenschmidt ground him down switching positions and angles until the shoulder dropped and the ref called it. It was inevitable but compelling nonetheless. I have no great takeaways here, no great wisdom. You could see how this could evolve into something more with the drama of that finish, with the interest from losing the show and working the rest of the fall without it. Genuine sense of struggle, be it in a work or a shoot, will always be compelling. Maybe that's the takeaway.

Blackjack Lanza vs. Bobby Heenan AWA 11/4/83

MD: This was a Wrestling Playlists find and it's a lot of fun. Really, you're watching this for Heenan taking a bunch of interesting offense in incredibly over the top ways. Lanza hits him with a double eye poke, a claw, these great stalking and then corner punches, a head knocker, so on and so forth. Just grumpy old guy offense and Heenan bounces and bounds all over the place, often ending up stuck across the turnbuckles or into the ropes. At one point towards the end he takes a bulldog with a front roll, spiking himself in the process.

What offense he gets here is by using some wrist tape to choke, but Lanza only takes so much of that before angrily popping up to the crowd's delight. When he gets the tape himself, he doesn't choke Heenan with it but instead goes straight for the eyes in the nastiest way possible. This ends with Heenan running for the hills but the fans were booing him and not the promotion for ending a match that way. Thus was the power of Bobby Heenan. I could watch him take offense all day. There was never anyone like him.

ER: Anyone who goes out of their way to consume as much of Bobby Heenan: Wrestler as possible all know that he is in the discussion for wrestling's all time biggest bump freak. But a thing that doesn't get talked about enough is that he doesn't ever seem to do the same bump twice. His bumps are all instantly recognizable as Heenan Bumps but I swear none of them are the same. I've watched this man bump into turnbuckles a few hundred times and I don't think I've seen him land the same way twice. You can watch him get thrown towards, into, and onto the turnbuckles as many times as you like and come away thinking every one is its own snowflake. You've seen him take bumps like the ones you are seeing, but this time he's getting hung up in the ropes different than you've seen, going over the ropes different, or just falling into them different. 

Nobody lands like Bobby Heenan, and maybe that's because Heenan is a man who never gives anyone a blueprint of how to land. His blend of pratfalls and violent bumps and violent pratfalls are second to none. Lanza shot him into the ropes just so he could thrust both his thumbs into Bobby's eyes on the rebound, and Heenan - selling his eyes - staggered until he fell face first into the middle buckle, then bumped backwards from the turnbuckle impact. I've never seen him do that, that way, because that is what he does. Lanza is a great taller skinnier Greg Gagne and would have stood out in plenty of ways if his opponent wasn't Bobby Heenan. Lanza's big punches and those eye pokes and his undeniable charisma do hold their own, but so much of this act is completely made by Heenan wrecking his body in novel ways. You've seen Bobby Heenan flip over in amazing ways taking a punch, but you have never seen him flip the way he does here. Because that's how Bobby Heenan bumps work. He's just going to take a bulldog like a spike DDT.  

Otto Wanz vs. Don Leo Jonathan Graz, Austria 7/12/80

MD: The Great Don Leo Jonathan's final match. We previously had 12 clipped minutes of this in watchable format and the brunt of the footage in completely unwatchable format with the sound muted. I had watched the former a few years back when I was going over some Wanz and couldn't make too much sense of it, clipped. This is very much new and complete then and it's worth watching. It starts slow and clean with the two playing size vs size but quickly gets more heated.

Wanz wins a couple of early exchanges and Jonathan starts to go for inside moves. The engine of these Wanz matches was that his opponent cheated and Wanz tried to stay on the up and up with the fans wanting him to fire back and go dirty more and more. When he finally did it, they erupted. Jonathan had a great variety of punches. Pokey ones in the corner, these flicking backhands, big meaty shots. And when Wanz fired back he was willing to bump around, even it being his last match, including getting knocked over the top a couple of times.

They both had specific bits of athleticism too. Jonathan flipped over using the ropes to get of an armhold and hit a dropkick as well. Wanz had his flipping sentons towards the end but also did an up and over headscissors takedown. More than any move however, was the physicality and intensity of those corner beatdowns from Jonathan which ended a round and then Wanz starting the next round but rushing across the ring to pummel him to the crowd's delight. He had such a special relationship with them and they got so loud as started to fight fire with fire.

What we get here with the full match is much more fleshed out and valuable than the 12 minutes we already had. It seemed like Jonathan still had a lot to offer but he bowed out on a high note against Wanz.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Weasel Suit Matches

There were three WWF weasel suit matches that made tape, from the Spectrum, MSG, and LA Sports Arena. By memory I have only seen one, and don't remember which one it was, so I thought it would be fun to see how they match up with each other. Plus, a bonus AWA Gagne/Heenan weasel suit match, the feud that started it all.


Bobby Heenan vs. Ultimate Warrior WWF 6/18/88

ER: This is the kind of match that would have been so confusing to me had I seen it when it first happened. I was young and had just started watching wrestling, so I had no clue about anyone's history. I knew what I saw. In '89 my friends and I were all laughing at the idea of The Genius of all people getting a title shot at Hogan. To us, Genius wasn't even a real wrestler. We had no idea who Lanny Poffo was, just knew The Genius. In 1988 I would have never even considered that Bobby Heenan was a wrestler. I knew him as a doughy manager of bad guys. The thought of a manager even attempting to defeat the invincible Ultimate Warrior would have been the strangest sight to my child eyes. And luckily for me, Dick Graham and Rodger Kent on commentary sounded exactly like me and my friend doing commentary over WrestleMania VI while watching it on scrambled PPV. They approached this match with a child's innocence, wondering how this match even got signed, seemingly unaware that Heenan was also a wrestler.

The whole match has a really weird tone, and it's kind of cool. The commentary feels like people completely unfamiliar with the product, and Warrior behaves downright silly throughout. He charges to the ring wearing the actual weasel suit (commentary keeps trying to think of the word for "claws" while describing the suit, "Look you can even see the....nails.....talons.....on the suit.....What word am I thinking of? What do animals have instead of nails?") and whips the suit around his head Mystikal style. Warrior even does a funny little marching band leader march around the apron while wearing the suit. The match is short but very satisfying. Heenan has a bigger belly than he had before, but he is still super agile, sneak attacking Warrior with strikes that get no sold, begging off, and then leaping through the ropes to the floor using that muscle memory that old wrestlers retain. 

This is going to be a quick match, which even my child brain would have expected. I like how Warrior doesn't work this like a typical Warrior match. He's not running around doing shoulderblocks or press slams, he's really playing to the crowd and milking reactions in a smart way. He puts Heenan down with a sleeper after Heenan tries leveling off more strikes, and Heenan gets a long, glorious death as he slowly drifts off to sleep. Heenan swings and fights and goes down like a champ, really struggling to get out of it and fight off slumber before succumbing. Warrior ups the silliness by flat out WALTZING with the weasel suit!! And let me tell you, Warrior looked like a beautiful dancer. For an actual doofus, Warrior clearly took himself way too seriously most of the time, and it was cool to see him actually showing a sense of humor with the stipulation. It takes him an eternity to get the weasel suit on, but the crowd is into it, and Heenan looks straight out of Where the Wild Things Are when it's on. Hercules jumps Warrior, Heenan finally wakes up, Warrior lariats Heenan so he can do his awesome flip bump, and I am satisfied.


Bobby Heenan vs. Ultimate Warrior WWF MSG 6/25/88

ER: This was tremendous, the fullest and most complete version of their match. They milked their time getting to where they were going, and it was totally worth it. I love Heenan in his Andre singlet. Most people two strap it. Not many people one strap it. Lawler one straps it, but with tights. Barbaro Cavernario one straps it, but he's a caveman. Heenan and Andre are one strapping their black singlets so they can show off their white, white thighs. As it should be. The opening to this match is similar to  the Spectrum match the week before, with Warrior posing on the turnbuckles and Heenan rushing behind him to club him in the back a few times, which Warrior ignores. Heenan leaps through the ropes to the floor, and that's where this match really takes off. Heenan spends so much time running away from Warrior, with Warrior stalking him like a weird flamboyant tasseled Michael Myers. It all builds to a classic gag where Warrior drops down out of sight and hides behind a corner, naturally leading to Heenan backing his way all the way around the ring before backing into Warrior and getting choked. What makes this already even better than the prior match, is Lord Alfred Hayes (on commentary with Rodger Kent and Billy Graham) absolutely losing it at Heenan taking a beating.

But things jump up to a level I wasn't expecting, when Heenan does arguably the greatest hidden weapon routine I've ever seen. Heenan fishes a weapon out the front of his singlet, and jabs it into Warrior's throat. The ref is on him and Heenan has an absurdly quick sleight of hand to tuck the weapon so that it is perfectly poking out a couple inches out of has singlet, past his butt cheek. He then lets the ref check his legs and boots. The camera gets a great shot of the weapon poking out and Heenan taking it out the moment the ref turns. He jabs Warrior again and slips it incredibly fast into the back of his boot. Ref fooled again, Heenan jabs Warrior, and I don't see him slip it anywhere. We didn't see it, because Heenan has it hidden UNDER his left boot. It was such an incredible routine, done with actual expert quick hand skills, just a masterfully performed bit. Rodger Kent was great at running play by play over the weapons hiding, his own world class performance as it sounded like the best possible Lance Russell getting flummoxed by the weapon not being found. Heenan bites off more than he can chew and Irish whips Warrior into the ropes, and Warrior catches the hand holding the weapon as Heenan tries to tomahawk him with it. Great visual, all played the best.

And then we go into the portion of the match where Heenan is just taking painful bumps into every corner of the ring. Warrior flings him pillar to post, Heenan takes a painful shoulder to ringpost bump, takes those perfect Heenan corner bumps where he manages to hit three different parts of the ropes before he hits the mat. He gets flung upside down back first into one, flies up across the corners of another leading to Warrior elbowing him down so he can hit two more things on his way to the mat, all just totally unique movements to Heenan. Warrior locks on the sleeper, Heenan goes out like a light, and Warrior is more efficient at getting the weasel suit on this time. The highlight of this portion of the segment is Hayes cry laughing throughout, while handling the play by play portion of one man dressing another man in footie pajamas. "Warrior is so precise! Putting it on so properly! Yes, that's it Warrior, get his arm in there." It was glorious. This match is a match that any fan of pro wrestling should love and respect. There really aren't many better versions of this kind of thing.


Bobby Heenan vs. Ultimate Warrior WWF 7/15/88

ER: This is merely an abridged version of the MSG match, so is redundant. Same format, same material, only rushed through and therefore not as satisfying. We get some minor differences, with the best being Heenan refusing to get in the ring to start (both our prior matches started with a Heenan ambush) and Warrior grabbing Heenan from the ring by both arms and pulls him right into the ringpost. Heenan ran from Warrior, in the ring, back out the other side, rubbing his chest and stretching his rotator cuff the whole time to sell his posting. Warrior surprises him again by hiding, lifts him up in a double choke and tosses him onto the apron, then bounces his head off several turnbuckles while the fans count. 

Heenan grabs a weapon out the front of his Andre singlet (though I think it would technically be a Heenan singlet, pretty sure he was wearing this when Andre was still in trunks) and runs through the same routine in the same order as the MSG match, but it's done far more hastily, his sleight of hand isn't as clean, and he just loses the weapon instead of Warrior catching him mid swing. It's not as satisfying, but it's still a ton of fun seeing him stab Warrior in the neck a few times. Heenan takes his gnarly upside down bump after getting whipped into the buckles, gets thrown across the ropes in the corner and elbowed down, all repeats from the MSG match, only half as many bumps. The sleeper finish is academic, only he puts up even less of a fight than in the other two matches (even Alfred notes that he's never seen someone succumb to a sleeper so quickly). If the MSG match did not exist, this one would be the one to seek out. But since the MSG match does exist, this is mostly superfluous. 


Bobby Heenan vs. Greg Gagne AWA 8/17/80

ER: This is clipped but it's cool to see the origins of this match, see how Heenan works practically the same in his mid 30s as he does doing part time work in his mid 40s. Gagne is a great babyface, and this has a ton of Heenan clobbering him with a cast. A cast would have been a nice twist to the Heenan/Warrior matches, but then we wouldn't have gotten the hidden weapon routine. I really liked the false finish of the sleeper hold, as once Gagne locked it in my brain had already been conditioned to Heenan needing to be put to sleep for the finish to work, so when Heenan managed to shake Gagne loose I actually made a WHOA sound outloud, alone. The crowd was insanely loud throughout this, as it was clearly a stipulation the fans wanted to see. I don't actually know how these matches were presented to WWF crowds, if they were actually promoted as part of house shows, if their were market specific promos for them, or if they were just thrown out there with little notice. The fans were clearly into the WWF weasel suit matches, but the fans in St. Paul were reacting to this match like it was a bloody I Quit match. Heenan bumps big, flies around for Gagne's great babyface offense, bumps shoulder first into the ringpost, does one of those great Heenan bumps where he flies into the buckles and gets his legs and arms hung up in the ropes on his way down, all of it slays. I'd love to hear the conversations between Heenan and Vince, love to know how the idea of bringing the stipulation back even came up. I imagine there are some good stories there, and I love when Vince was still willing to bring regional stipulations to his brand.

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New Footage Friday: ANDRE, ANDRE, ANDRE (and Tom Magee)

Andre the Giant vs. Jerry Blackwell AWA 11/2/80

MD: I knew we had this JIP, but we had less of it than I thought. What we basically had before was Andre's last comeback and the finish. It stood out, however. Why? because in those few minutes we had 1980 Andre, far more agile than he would be a few years later but closer to the wide-as-well-as-tall giant physique than what he was a few years earlier, taking that back-body drop which is one of those life-changing wrestling spots you never, ever forget.

Blackwell's amazing. There are people who weren't born until after he died in 1995 that will see this match because of the Network and get some sense of it. That makes me happy. I was barely familiar with him until the DVDVR AWA set. He's this amazing mix of size, preternatural physical speed and prowess, and the wherewithal to balance his the threat of his size with comedic timing. He's both dangerous and hugely giving.

What we missed when we just had the back body drop and the slam was some really good wrestling, including the second most impressive and memorable spot in the match, when Blackwell held on to a top wristlock as Andre threw him over his shoulder. It's the sort of thing you'd see all the time in a Ricky Steamboat match and the familiarity helps give it meaning, but two guys this size working that sort of spot took something relatively simple though always cool, and pushed it way over the top.

After Andre took over (absolutely killing Blackwell with chops and headbutts, constantly forcing him out of the ring), I loved the urgency in which Blackwell would try to attack Andre on his his way back in. It gave everything an air of believable desperation.

As much as lore has it that Andre hated other giants, you have to wonder what he thought about Blackwell, being a guy who could work with him like this, that could bump for him like this. I can't imagine Andre, even 1980 Andre, would do a rope running spot with just anyone, and certainly that he would take that back-body drop for just anyone.

ER: I love stuff like this, a regular match but with a $5,000 bodyslam stipulation added in. You don't win the match by bodyslamming your opponent, but you win 5K which is nice incentive. It also means you don't get an entire match of two gigantic guys stuffing their hands into the other's taint, that's just added as sweet delicious icing. I really loved Roger Kent's commentary during the ring intros. When Blackwell is billed at 485 lb. he goes "Blackwell actually gained weight just for this match!" which is an excellent piece of psychology, knowing that Blackwell wolfed down extra buckets of fried chicken just to make himself harder to body slam. And about Andre he says "You might recognize Andre from his appearances on BJ and the Bear, or as Bigfoot." Like people watching at home somehow only knew of Andre as a furry Steve Austin foe. But this is great. Blackwell is good at working Andre over logically, going after his arm (which would conceivably be one of Andre's weak points) and working in some clever spots around Andre's status as unmovable object. My favorite was Andre getting up off the mat while Blackwell was charging in, unaware that Blackwell was charging in, only to see Blackwell run straight into Andre's butt and go recoiling backwards. It felt like Frank Drebin neutralizing a shooter by unknowingly opening a door into him. Andre's big shots look fantastic. His lean back straight right punch across face in the corner is arguably my favorite punch in wrestling. And I dug the few bodyslam teases, with Blackwell inevitably getting squished from falling under Andre. The finish was really cool as once Andre got the slam the fireworks really picked up, Blackwell knowing he could no longer win 5K so just unleashing a nothing to lose attack on him was great, but Andre turns it on him very quick, tosses Blackwell into the ringpost, and then just launches him over the top rope...for the loss!! Blackwell takes a huge bump to the floor, total avalanche. Love this.

PAS: This was a great battle of the giants I didn't know happened and was totally amped to see. Blackwell is basically shaped like a square, like not a human shape and is amazingly agile for a guy who looks like he should be stuck in a Rascal Scooter. That Andre backdrop was amazing, can't believe he got him up and he landed like that. Blackwell lifting Andre for the slam and getting engulfed was awesome, it looked like a ghost being eaten by Pac-Man. I thought some of the mat stuff was a bit slow, but still this delivered what you wanted it to.


Andre The Giant/Hulk Hogan vs. Bobby Heenan/Nick Bockwinkel/Bobby Duncum/Ken Patera AWA 11/7/82

MD: If you could only pick three matches to express to people exactly what the AWA was in the first half of the 80s, this could be one. You can see so clearly here some of the homesy elements that Hogan took with him to New York and that helped defined the entire era to come. Andre got in on the dance, basically being Dancing Andre during the times they were in charge. The fans were hot for everything they did and they were elated to shout weasel at Heenan. Bockwinkel was absolutely amazing just always being a presence in the match (the other guys were too but he stood out to me; there was one moment where he was on his way out of the ring after getting thumped by Andre where he tried this kick out nowhere to Andre's legs, just always so present in the match). There was double face-in-peril. The comeback was hot but maybe wore out its welcome a bit (not that the fans cared). I liked the structure, where the numbers game finally overwhelmed Andre though Hogan could take on one at a time in the meantime. Then, when Andre got worn down, they could work on Hogan a bit too, all til Heenan got over confident and dared to face Andre. The second FIP was focused on Hogan's previously-injured arm so everything made sense despite the feeling of constant over the top (and like I said, sometimes hokey in that charming AWA way) chaos. The most fun you'll have watching wrestling this week.

PAS: This was four great pinballs being bounced around by two of the greatest paddles in wrestling history. Loved all of the heels running right into Andre and Hogan and getting consistently repelled. When they finally get Andre on his back they swarm like ants on a leftover french fry, only to the have the Hulkster run wild on them. Heenan was a wild bumper as one would expect, and Bockwinkle was great at sneaking in a shot or two. Wholly satisfying wrestling, which sold a ticket to everyone in the arena for future permutations of this feud.

Andre The Giant vs. Big John Studd WWF 7/20/84

MD: As best as I can tell, next week will be the one year anniversary of us doing New Footage Fridays. We've done at least three matches every week for a year. There's a ton of new or very rare footage that has been uncovered in the last year that we haven't even gotten to yet. Let me put it this way, just from Japanese handhelds and some older years of Japanese TV alone, we could do this for another year; just with what we have right now.

This is all the writing I've done for the site this year and most of the wrestling I've watched this year, and it's one of the best experiences I've had in a couple of decades of interacting with other people online about wrestling. It's been a great time searching for footage, checking with people to see if it's new, scanning through it to see if it's worth talking about, and then seeing what Phil and Eric have to say about it too. With a lot of the non-network matches, we're not just reviewing but also highlighting so others can watch as well. I can't speak for the other two (though I bet I speak more for Eric than Phil on this one), but I love when we get comments and people tell us what they think about the matches we're dredging up. We don't get enough. Chime in. It's appreciated.

All that said, I'd like to introduce everyone to the hill I am going to die on this week: Big John Studd. Studd is, I think, one of the most wildly underrated wrestlers of all time. He's not a total package like Eric's Berzerker-era Nord. In fact, one element of his game is actually quite flawed and I'll get to that. It's more the case that he's one of the biggest victims in history of workrate primacy and the undervaluing of stalling and stooging that afflicted wrestling writing and thought for much of the last forty years.

Studd more often than not is the world's largest Larry Zbyszko. He's a heat-generating magnet, made all the more so by the fact he's so damn big and so damn powerful. He's a giant. Even facing another giant, there's massive dissonance in the idea that he's going to take five minutes walking around the ring jawing with fans or that he'll do everything he can to avoid a lock-up. That's part of what made it all so brilliant. This isn't base laziness. It's premeditated and effective.

This match is as perfect an example as you'll get. He absolutely takes his time getting in, making at least one full, languid, rotation of the ring, interacting with the fans, taunting Andre, drawing heat. The second he starts to get in, Andre is on top of him. This is a return match (though the return was a few months and other shows in the making) so everything was primed and the fans absolutely love Andre not letting Studd do what he wanted to do. That loops us right into the second half of the Memphis-equation, the stooging. If the stalling is the build, the stooging is the payoff. Studd sells everything happening in the ring as only a guy his size could, with massive limbs flailing and body bouncing all over the place, gigantic recoil. His robe ends up over his head. This never aired. It has no commentary. It was filmed to potentially air (much of this show ended up on TV or on videotapes) and they occasionally cut to members of the crowd looking absolutely delighted. As good as Andre was at being Andre, that's not him. That's all Studd.

When Studd takes a powder out to the floor and is surrounded by the crowd, the two cops come down to stand on either side of him. The visual is striking. Everyone's so much smaller than Studd and here he is, running away, in hostile territory, Gulliver in the land of the Lilliputians, and he needs these two tiny cops to protect him from all the other tiny people. People are most affected by things when there is a gap between their expectations and reality; that's John Studd in a nutshell and it works.

Where it falls apart, generally, is when he takes over on offense. Some of his stuff, the clubbering, some of the intensity with the choking, is really good, but it almost always settles down into a bearhug or a chinlock and Studd, while so good at giving and giving and giving, at delaying and delivering with his stooging, wasn't great at making his holds compelling when he was on top. Someone like Flair or Bockwinkel absolutely were, and even a guy like Zbyszko could take that first half of his act and pay it forward into the second part. Studd couldn't or wouldn't. That's half of the problem. It's what people remember. It's what stands out because it falls later in the match. Even so, the fans were completely into Andre's comeback (so much of that based on the heat that Studd had drawn previously in the match) and it all finished both definitively and well.

Like I said, the chinlock was half the problem. Only half. The other half is the workrate bit. We spent decades in a dark age where stalling was frowned upon as the opposite of everything wrestling should be. Why care about the acting in a movie when there are special effects to look at, right? They're flashier. They involve less thought and less nuance. People have turned the corner on wrestlers like Lawler and Zbyszko. Studd isn't on that same level. He's only half the act, but I feel like it's time he finally got proper credit for that half, which was truly exceptional. That's the hill I'm standing on. Shoot your arrows accordingly.

ER: I think I was more excited for Matt's review of this match, than I was about the match itself. I think I have had upwards of 5 different conversations with Matt about Big John Studd: Giant Stalling Stooge, and he's been absolutely dying to tell all of you about it at length, and I'm happy we finally got there. The match itself was short and fun, but Studd's stalling really was memorable. Look at his faces as he stalks the ring, watch the fans and his reactions to the fans as he retreats deep into the aisle. I also liked the twist on Andre getting trapped in the ropes, with Studd beating him into place instead of Andre falling and letting gravity trap him. But the real satisfaction comes when Andre unleashes his payback and splats him with his butt, crowd going even more nuts for an Andre comeback because of Studd being such a weenie for so much of the match. I really loved the optical illusion of these two hulking dudes battling in the corner, as it really looked like the ring posts were going to bend and collapse.

Bret Hart vs. Tom Magee WWF 10/7/86

ER: I finally got around to watching the mini doc on this match, and it was a fun little piece of history. WWE taking the time to film people talking about this match that only the nerdiest of wrestling nerds would know about really feels closer to Phil writing up every PWFG show or me writing up every Berzerker match than anything else WWE has ever done. Think of the man power they utilized and the quick turnaround time to get all of this filmed. The idea that they would bug Bret in 2019 to ask him to talk about a 4 minute match from over 30 years ago is such a joy. A 30 minute doc on a short match involving a guy who 99% of modern WWE fans have never even heard about who has no involvement in any way with pro wrestling since the 80s is like getting a 30 minute documentary about the cop's brutally bad fake mustache at the end of Sleepaway Camp. But I thought they did a really excellent job at highlighting this kind of lost footnote, thought Waltman had some nice insight, thought DBS Jr.'s Bret impression was tremendous, and was only disappointed that we didn't get any comments from Bret or Magee after we had seen the match. Magee came off down to earth, totally cool with the fact that wrestling wasn't for him, and I loved his note that they shielded him from all of that "next Hogan" talk. 

The match itself was the same kind of thing we saw Bret do for 25 years. It was very clear that Magee had no offense whatsoever outside of his dropkick (which Bret made look especially great during the spot in the corner where he took two, crashed hard into the mat and rolled to the floor to take off). It was amusing seeing Magee take extra long to pick Hart up off the mat, only to pause and just do an inside cradle or a small package. Hart was patient and polite while looking downright mean. When he puts the boots to Magee he's fully protecting him while looking like he's toeing him right in the eye. He even handles Magee not moving out of the way of a second rope elbow that was clearly supposed to miss, going right back on the attack and planning what the actual finish should be. You could see Magee's specific potential, see his freak athletic gifts, in the way he casually leapfrogs over Bret. I don't think I've ever seen a leapfrog look so effortless. It looked far more like Hong Kong wire fighting than Magee actually using his legs to leap over Bret, and his sunset flip was genuinely great, keeping a really tight roll so that the physics of it make sense. Bret's chest first bump into the corner is probably one of my top 3 favorite bumps in wrestling, always looking like his skeleton should be permanently wrecked each time. We knew this wasn't going to be any kind of classic, but not a single soul cared about that. The fact that we got to see this fun historical footnote while getting a neat story out of it was really special.

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More 80s Christmas AWA! On Heenan! On Martel! On Blackwell and Gagne!

Rick Martel vs. Bobby Heenan AWA 12/25/82

ER: Network puts up new hunky Rick Martel, Rachel is going to be interested in seeing new hunky Rick Martel. Every time we see some early 80s Martel she just exclaims "He's such a good babyface!" This is, I believe, the only wrestler she has said this about. I don't even think she's seen much of The Model era, or how she would even handle heel Rick Martel. Oddly, I think she's seen the '91 Rumble, but Martel lasts so long that it's basically like a babyface Rumble performance, working against the odds. But it is undeniably true that Martel is a fantastic babyface, super expressive and knows how to make things feel like a big deal. Heenan here really comes off like a big deal. He's practically Fit Finlay in how well every single shot lands, and how nicely he takes every Martel shot. He even moves similarly to Fit. Heenan comes off like a total badass, just look how he kicks at Martel from the apron to keep him on the floor or throws winging double chops off Irish whips. Heenan was so good here that it's crazy to me he was only a part timer a couple years later.  Heenan blinds Martel early in the match and Martel is weirdly a guy who is really great at dramatically selling blindness. It's an odd thing to be good at but something everybody clearly knew or they wouldn't have had him still working it into matches a decade later. Martel is great on the defensive in this, but also great on offense. He fired back blindly against Heenan, tossing him with backdrops when Heenan would get close, firing back with great punches (that knock Heenan into the ropes Andre style), kicking at his legs in the ropes (nasty kicks to inner leg), and broke out a textbook sunset flip. The finish was awesome as Heenan gets dropkicked in the back and flies chest first into the middle turnbuckle, made the bump look real violent and worthy of a finish.

Rick Martel vs. Superstar Billy Graham AWA 12/25/83

ER: This was really fun, just a bunch of simple knucklelock exchanges and a nicely worked bearhug by Graham, which is more than enough to frame a nice babyface Martel performance. I like a good bearhug and post-WWF Superstar can still squeeze. I thought he was good at cutting off Martel, especially with a nicely timed throat thrust (a "tae kwon do chop") when Martel was starting to fire back. Maybe Graham's stuff wouldn't have looked as good without someone as expressive as Martel selling it, but the combo worked. Finish is at least a good bullshit finish, as Martel starts making strides and Graham just decides to launch him over the top to the floor for the DQ. Martel took the match finishing bump like a champ.

Jerry Blackwell/Ken Patera/Mr. Saito/Sheik Adnan Al-Kassie vs. Greg Gagne/Jim Brunzell/Ray Stevens/Baron von Raschke AWA 12/25/83

ER: Hell yes, inject this kind of classic multi man action right between my toes. It's JIP 5 minutes but that still gives us 11 minutes of party. The heels all cut off Gagne from his boys, showing how effectively a simple formula can work 35 years later. The heels all took turns distracting the ref to keep Gagne from getting to hot tags and allow double teams, Saito sneaking in with leaping elbows off the middle rope, Patera coming in with a nice cut off shot while Blackwell is busying the good guys, Adnan sneaking in shots, Blackwell hitting a nice falling elbow and later missing a splash, all simple but effective stuff. The whole babyface side is excellent on the apron, keeping everything fired up, Stevens running in to try and do justice, Baron getting to goose step around to thunderous cheers on the hot tag, but Gagne again had an excellent babyface performance and even got to hit this ridiculous double stomp off the middle rope right off Blackwell's belly. This kind of match is like tasty popcorn in a movie, just can't stop eating it.

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New Footage Friday: Heenan, Larry Z, Jumbo, Tenryu, Lawler, Beau James, Dirty Dutch, Goldens

Jumbo Tsuruta/Giant Baba vs. Killer Karl Kox/Dick Murdoch AJPW 2/25/81

PAS: This is a 2/3 falls match where we get parts of the first two falls and the whole third. Mainly worth it to see Kox and Murdoch as a team, and they rule. nothing is more of a natural heel team then two guys that look like racist southern sheriffs in the 50s, you almost expect them to interrupt the match to go firebomb a black church. Kox is one of my all time favorites, and there is so little footage available. Fun to watch him team with Murdoch, when you watch them together it is almost like Murdoch is Dick Slater to KKK's Terry Funk, Kox has all of the Murdoch shitck and does it even better, his punches are a bit more awesome, elbow drop is even more throat crushing and his Brain buster is even more brain busting. I really like the double team that Baba and Jumbo use to finish the fall, and I dig the cheapshot finish, but this was more of a showcase then a great match.

MD: This is cool because one of the few significant Kox performances we have is the match against Murdoch. There were times here when he was out on the apron pantomiming what Murdoch was doing where he was almost like Dick's dad or older brother. They both have that same larger than life over the top-ness both throwing offense and eating it, even if they are completely different physically. Past the entrance, we basically come in on a long Jumbo, FIP, with Murdoch and Kox as a well-oiled machine cutting off the ring. It's amazing how commonplace and obvious something like this, that's virtually a lost art was. Now we're in a world of all-action tornado tags with 3/4th of the match being a finishing stretch.

Anyway, they had some great stuff, be it the brainbuster or the elbow drops or the suplex. The end of the first fall was just great with Jumbo floating over to escape a suplex and hitting the world's hugest flying knee after a Baba big boot. The second fall was the heels staying on top after that little blip and Murdoch making short work of Jumbo. Baba finally got involved towards the end and I thought the finish, while abrupt, was actually pretty cool. I wasn't expecting it and it definitely got over the Americans while protecting the Baba and Jumbo. I hope we come across a lot more of Killer Karl in the hunt for footage. It feels like we've just scratched the surface.

ER: Goddamn this was good. I love Kox so much (Ed: Find a better way to say that), he looks like the absolute toughest old white dude. He's 50 and looks 75, like a tougher version of Robert Duvall's Reverend EW in The Apostle, and Robert Duvall beat a man into a coma with a baseball bat in that movie. Kox is a man who looks like kids his in his neighborhood are scared of him, a guy who owns a mean dog, a guy who keeps things that fly over his fence. And he never ends up saving any of you from burglars while your parents are away. Kox reminds me of a meaner, more grizzled version of my grandfather, the late great George Yost. And my grandpa was grizzled. He was a lumberjack with 6 of his brothers. Two of them died as lumberjacks. He worked hard and was a millionaire, but lived in a trailer for most of the years I knew him. He lived until he was 91, and he wore those periwinkle old man jeans that I've never seen in stores, yet many old men in my life wore them. He was old and grumpy and perpetually hard of hearing. He loved pro wrestling when my mom was young, which is why she hated pro wrestling, because it was on a LOT in Riverside, CA in the 50s and 60s. He never learned my sister's name, even though she was 25 when he eventually passed away. He would call me Eric when he came down to stay with us, and called her "The Girl", but not in a mean way, in a "I just genuinely can't remember" way. He was vain. He kept himself at 170 lbs until he was 90, wanting to maintain his waistline so he could wear his favorite clothes (his light blue jeans and thick flannel shirts). And when he turned 90 he assertively told his Church to not print his birthday or age in the Church Bulletin, because he "didn't want people to know he was old." When I was still young enough to live with my parents, he would watch wrestling with me when he was visiting us for a couple days. He watched and seemed intrigued by Cactus Jack and Terry Funk getting pushed off the stage in a dumpster. He hadn't watched wrestling in decades, but Freddie Blassie was his favorite when he watched. He called my mother's school principal a pencil neck geek to his face. Karl Kox is a mean version of George Yost, and I've watched every single available match we have of him. So any time we get any new Killer Karl Kox footage it's some of the best wrestling news I can get.

Murdoch and Kox are so cool, jumping off the ropes way to much for round-middled southern boys, jumping with great elbows and axe handles, even Baba looks like he's gonna go off the top rope at one point. These two were such tough bruisers, and really scrambled to put a beating on Jumbo. I loved Murdoch going after Jumbo and missing on a fast elbowdrop. The finish of the first fall is one of the all time greats, with Murdoch running so damn hard into a big Baba boot, truly making it one of the most effective and nasty Baba boots in history, then stumbling back face first right into a smashing Jumbo high knee. We even get a slo mo shot of that great finish and it reminds you of the first non-deathmatch tapes you bought or traded for, watching thunderbolts ripple through Misawa's body as he got dumped on his head, watching sweat fly off Kawada's head as Misawa smashes him with an elbow, and now seeing Dick Murdoch spray spit after running into Baba's size 22.

The second fall is an absolute murder. Jumbo is in complete punching bag crash test dummy mode, and Kox and Murdoch look like literally the best tag team I've ever seen. Murdoch throws the best back elbow, hits an awesome running powerslam, the greatest worked kneedrop. He and Kox have this great thing going where Dick throws Jumbo face first into Karl's knee as he's tagging in, Kox drags Jumbo's limp, heavy corpse over the top rope and bodyslams him halfway across the ring, Kox throws a short fast uppercut that would get an OOOOOOOO reaction when it showed up on a Great Punches mixtape. By the time Murdoch finally lays Jumbo out with a brainbuster, the pinfall is a mercy killing. Thinking of 2/3 falls tag team wrestling in terms of boxing and MMA, this fall would be an absolutely legendary round.

Third fall sees these great old men (HA! I called them both old, even though Murdoch here is younger than I am now. However older, I have not yet become nor will ever become the exact, specific kind of man that Dick Murdoch was, for better and worse). Kox gets to show of his somehow better than John Tatum stooging, as Baba gets involved and throws awesome chops at Killer's throat. After each chop Kox comes drunkenly firing out of the corner, throwing punches at nobody. But before long Murdoch and Kox are having an elbowdrop contest on Baba's chest, with Kox throwing the finest leaping elbowdrop you've seen, outgunning Murdoch's excellent take on the falling elbowdrop. Kox even gets to finish the match, gets to have a hidden weapon finish. How fucking cool is that? 50 years old, getting to use a hidden weapon to knock Giant Baba out and pin him in Tokyo in the main event. How cool is it to thing of Kox 20 years after that, telling people about this match while wearing a plaid shirt tucked into his jeans, and a hat that he got while visiting a decommissioned Naval aircraft carrier.

This match is honestly my favorite wrestling match I've watched all year. This is some great pro wrestling. It's what I get joy from, this thing I've been obsessed with for much of my life. We need to make this thing public and make sure anyone who wants to see it, will be able to. This is what it's all about people.

Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu vs. Bobby Heenan/Larry Zbyszko AJPW 7/4/81

PAS: Pretty awesome to see two of the greatest wrestlers of all time team up to take on Jumbo and Tenryu. As you might imagine we get lots of shenanigans from the AWA dream team, cheap shots and chinlocks with the strap wrapped around the throat. Heenan is great when he realizes the jig is up and he takes a great flip bump on Jumbo clothesline. I would have liked to see the finish be a little more competitive, it felt like Tenryu and Jumbo just decided to stop with the nonsense and end the match, but it was fun to see The Brain and The Legend in a different context.

MD: Obviously it's great to see any interaction between Larry and Bobby. Heenan was super demonstrative with the tag rope. In most matches you don't even notice it, but here he was using it as an open symbol for all of the chicanery and his heart. He was so over the top at times that you could confuse him for Percy Pringle, but it worked in front of this crowd. Obviously, he wasn't going to offer hard hitting or monstrous violence. What he had to offer was being as Bobby Heenan as possible. That included, apparently, taking a perfectly believable flip bump off of a chop. Larry, at this point, was an absolute king of feeding into offense too. Everything felt fluid. Yeah, it would have been nice to have a little more of this, maybe a six month run against the High Flyers, but I'm glad we got anything at all considering that the community's never even seen this pairing before. 


Jerry Lawler/Beau James/Dutch Mantel vs. Jimmy Golden/Eddie Golden/Jeff Tankersley SSW 9/18/10

ER: Man this was 12 good minutes of tag that I wish went 30. What a fabulous trios team we get from the babyface side, with Beau James at his biggest, 320 lb. (that just means his punches land harder), and the on again off again feuding legends Lawler and Dutch. Jimmy Golden is in great shape for 60, although his nephew Eddie is the one in 80% of this. We start with Beau, Lawler, and Dutch all getting to show off their skills against Eddie, showing off who has better shots in 2010. Beau throws such a great right hand and a stiff shoulderblock, Lawler and Dutch...well you know what those guys bring, and I loved when Jimmy got involved as he had a couple of fun stumbly, arm swinging bumps (especially when he went face first into the buckles, he stumbling back bump was sheer perfection). We get good moments of Eddie accidentally taking shots at Jimmy and Tankersley, and really the Goldens only take over when Lawler and Dutch collide and start fighting amongst themselves. Lawler is FIP throughout, taking boots and other shots from all of them, getting run into the ringpost still better than maybe anybody, taking a big backdrop, and Golden looks good taking over. Lawler comes back when Golden goes for another backdrop, Lawler stops short and punches him and tags Dutch (there was kind of a silly moment earlier where Dutch pulled his tag hand away) and then everybody swarms the ring. Beau tees off on Jimmy and Jimmy takes a couple more stumbling bumps, and we wrap things up in satisfying fashion. They clearly had the material to double this thing, and I wish we got some more (would have loved the Goldens surviving the Dutch hot tag and going through another control segment) time, and I wish we got more Beau James. His shots on Jimmy in the corner were great, loved his headlock punches, and I wanted to see more from the big guy. Still, this was what I expected, and made me smile the whole way through.

PAS: Man that babyface trio is a group of all timers. I loved all the early bumping around by the heels, especially Eddie Golden who was an awesome pinball and could turn vicious in a moment. With James and Eddie Golden you have a pair of all time born too late guys, this should have been a regional feud for the ages in the 80s, but they were both guys out of their time. Lawler is amazing at taking a beating and building to the hot tag, his post shots were brutal looking, and the punches by the Goldens and Tankerlsy really looked like they were brutalizing him. Jimmy Golden is just ageless, and I think there are probably some real Golden Gems among this SSW footage I agree with Eric that this really could have used another 5 or 10 minutes, but that may be just us getting greedy.

MD: Lots to like here. I think this may have peaked at the entrances though. The Goldens came out to All Hell's Breaking Loose. I watched the first year of Continental last year and Golden/Fuller coming out full of swagger to the near spoken word beginnings of that song was probably the best part in the midst of a year that was full of best parts. Dutch looked like the coolest old man in the world. As for Lawler? The venue, with a crowd that was by no means huge, felt electric, like it was hundreds of people more than it was, when he walked down.

The match itself was fun though, running the old "Partners who don't trust each other" gimmick. I like how they played it out, though, setting it up with two heel miscommunication spots, teasing it with one for the faces that was averted, and then going through with it off of a heel-driven shove that sent Lawler into Dutch. The arguing that ensued explained the heels taking over. Them taking over was Lawler eating a solid beating inside and out, with ref distraction and Dutch refusing to tag in. Ultimately, though, the heels get too big for their britches, hit Dutch, and he tags in and ends it. Exactly what it should have been and thoroughly enjoyable for what it was, just classic character driven storytelling that never gets old, well executed. Eddie particularly grew into a great stooge and Lawler has that immortal ability to sell every moment as meaningful and important to him (and if it's important to him, it's important to the crowd).

ER: I must find contention with Matt saying Dutch looked like the coolest old man in the world, as earlier in this post we witnessed 50 year old Karl Kox wearing a tight blue t-shirt hugging his near-retirement belly, the worlds KILLER KARL KOX written simply in white. White bubble lettering.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE JERRY LAWLER

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WWE 24/7 SHORTIES -Phil and Lee Benaka

Shorties

Ron Garvin v. Big Bubba Rogers

PAS: This was easily the best match we watched on our day of ON DEMAND. Ronnie Garvin is one of my favorites, and really works best in a street fight setting where all he is required to do is throw his great punches. Even green as goose shit Bubba Rogers isn't afraid to take huge fat man bumps, like getting bealed off the top rope and flying outside the ring. Also we had some nice blood, including the visual of a spreading bloodstain on Bubba's dress shirt from Ronnie Garvin's open wound.

LB:  Bubba's weight looked more evenly distributed than his fatter-looking days as the Big Bossman.  However, if Ray Traylor were still alive today and flying from town to town for indie shows, he probably would be charged for two seats owning to his condition as a "man of size."  The opening sequence with Garvin tagging Bubba with quick punches was great.  Bubba's selling and frustration (along with that of boyish Jim Cornette) was enchanting.  I never did quite understand the rules of the Louisville Street Fight, other than it allowed managers to gratuitously interfere with tennis rackets for cheap endings.  The blood was great, and this match went on for a while but was always fun due to Garvin's manly offense.

Sweet Brown Sugar/Dizzy Hogan v. Jobber Black Bart/Ken Timbs

PAS: Short meaningless enhancement tag from Mid-Atlantic, placed on the show for the fact that Dizzy Hogan went on to be Brutus Beefcake and Sweet Brown Sugar wrestled as Koko B. Ware. Of course the Sweet Brown Sugar who wrestled in this match went on to be Skip Young, but I suppose that WWE on Demand editors have cross racial identification problems.

LB:  Phil and I had great fun as the night went on mistakenly identifying various African-American jobbers as future WWE superstars, including the future Bobby Lashley and Booker T.  Ken Timbs was the most enjoyable participant in this match in that he really seemed to care about making most every move mean something.  Jobber Black Bart didn't look much different than the James J. Dillon third-rate heel stable Black Bart who appeared on the 1985 WCW show that we watched later this night.  Was this the match that looked like it was filmed in front of two rows of spectators?  Aww, those early 1980s territory TV matches were the best.

Lord Al Hayes v. Bobby Heenan

PAS: This was a battle of the managers from AWA, and was a blast. Lord Al Hayes has a bunch of fun british escapes which work real well to frustrate Heenan. Heenan doesn't really bump big or bleed alot, but he does have surprisingly nice punches.

LB:  This match was another winner.  I actually had never seen His Lordship wrestle, although I have fond memories of seeing him manage the Super Destroyer Mark something-or-other in the Central States wrestling I grew up on.  Hayes was quite dickish with the boot grinding into the head and slaps.  Heenans hide-and-seek with the foreign object down his trunks was done pretty well.  I was surprised that Heenan was able to get his heat back so completely at the end of the match when he clocked Hayes and the referee with a chair.  And the ref got to his feet first, but I suppose His Lordship absorbed most of the impact.  It might have been better to have had Nick Bockwinkel help Heenan rough up Hayes at the end, but it's nice to see Bobby take care of himself.

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