Found Footage Friday: NJPW 85~! DANCING ANDRE~! CAPTAIN REDNECK~! INOKI~! BACKLUND~! SHARPE~! ADONIS~! HIRO~!

NJPW 5/18/85

Masked Superstar vs. Kim Su Hong (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbKieuAaBEQ)

MD: Kim is a South Korean wrestler who shows up on these NJPW cards now and again. I can't say that he stands out much. I love Eadie, love him, one of my favorites, but in New Japan he is so often a gatekeeper, just an incredibly credible wall for people to push off against. He takes 90% of this. Still some neat small things like losing Kim early and then claiming he was oiled up. That sort of being alive within the match. All of his stuff looks mean and credible with both a killer neckbreaker and then a twisting drop down into a front facelock. He also whacks him with something outside of the ring to big effect. Kim does come back late and his stuff is middling, some good, some bad. Superstar drops down on him and nails him with a clothesline to end it.

ER: We don't have Hashimoto/Sano, or the Canek/Enrique Vera tag, but we have Masked Superstar throwing Finlay level clubs to Su Hong's chest and killer knees to the side of the head. I liked how Superstar held the ropes to block a single leg and just went right back to clubbing. Superstar kind of jams Su Hong up on his small pieces of offense, running too hard into dropkicks that really shouldn't have moved him but looked worse with how he treated them. His clothesline looked like a match finishing clothesline and there's a good chance I won't watch a Kim Su Hong match the rest of my life. 

Super Strong Machine vs. Tony St. Clair (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pADWavSmgM)

MD: Just a credible back and forth match. I wouldn't say any of the transitions were particularly interesting but everything looked good. SSM is a tank and St. Clair can hold his own. They traded advantages and holds. Machine had a nice leaping headbutt off the ropes and a killer clothesline. St. Clair turned a headlock into a backbreaker (by slipping out, not a Robinson backbreaker). Good finishing stretch where St. Clair got a nearfall on a sunset flip in but Machine was able to get a German for the win. Wakamatsu got involved pre-match even though Machine wanted nothing to do with him and then tried to attack SSM post match only to get thrashed for his trouble. Added a little spice to what would have otherwise been a meaty but straightforward midcard match.

ER: This crowd is so fired up for Super Strong Machine. He was getting clapping Misawa-type chants during his entrance. I wasn't expecting Tony St. Clair to look larger than Strong Machine. My mental pictures don't always give me accurate reads but both are 15-20 pounds in the opposite direction I picture them. Made it look good when Tony started hitting Machine. SSM can work real tough and St. Clair looked like he was moving him good with his back elbow and uppercut, sharp front chancery. His dropkick pushes up under the chin and he makes a whip into the buckles look like it made all his limbs go briefly numb. I like the way these two hit each other. St. Clair is great at leaning into lariats while selling how much he doesn't like taking them. Strong Machine has one of my favorite German suplexes. Both of them work exactly how Bret Hart would have worked New Japan in 1994. 

Kengo Kimura/Seiji Sakaguchi vs. Adrian Adonis/Dick Murdoch (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bqyZdnuwVU)

MD: Honestly, this is yet another all time Murdoch performance, and on a house show too. Granted, the stuff I loved here was stuff Meltzer wouldn't have liked anyway but what are you going to do about it. For instance, there's a moment in the middle where Sakaguchi's on a rampage. He takes out Adonis and then goes to the apron to get Murdoch and Murdoch moves to the other side of the post and the crowd cracks up. It's great. But it's such a tiny little wrestling thing. His reactions are great throughout. The way he takes the Inazuma leg lariat by covering his face like he'd just lost his nose is amazing. Dick Murdoch. Captain Redneck, or as they call him in NJPW, the Super Rodeo Machine.

This had a great heat on Kimura where he kept almost coming back and Murdoch and Adonis would just make a quick tag. Eventually, instead of going for a hold, he threw a dropkick instead and made it to Sakaguchi. They did another bit of heat on Kimura and then a big hot comeback. Everything ended up thrown out. Post match they had both a great bit with a chair and being afraid of it and an even better one of double elbowing the ref. Great stuff.

ER: Great Dick Murdoch handheld matches are the best, because not only do you get to see Dick Murdoch being the greatest pro wrestler, but it makes me think of DEAN. To take us back at least 15 years, the moment I always remember from Segunda Caida Radio - something I am not sure exists online anymore, but was loved by all the real SC Heads - was DEAN making fun of Meltzer for thinking Dick Murdoch was a guy who only worked for the cameras. By then we had a lot of handheld footage and had all seen Murdoch wrestling exactly the same as in all of his great matches. DEAN had seen Murdoch live. We were all talking about how great Dick Murdoch was, but DEAN was the one who saw him live and knew how good he was off camera. I always think about DEAN doing a bit as Murdoch, where he's dogging it in Korakuen and does a Don Knotts reaction when he sees a Japanese guy in the crowd with a huge 1985 camcorder.  

This is the only match on this show that doesn't have a listed cagematch runtime, and I didn't realize it would be the longest match of the show. And in that time, Dick Murdoch kept putting on a performance that grew in elegance the longer they went, arguably peaking two minutes after the count out when he got cheers for beating up the referee and then running shenanigans around a chair swinging Kengo Kimura. The match goes long enough that we get several momentum shifts and each one peaks the action and story and Murdoch grows with the story. I think my favorite part was when he had been worked over for awhile and got to tag out, and he stayed in the ring shaking out and rubbing his arm after tagging in Adonis, not participating in but watching Adonis lay a beating on Kimura. The cattle branding looked like a wild rapids ride, his punches matched the energy at all times, and he sold Kimura's like they were the stiffest punches of the match. The fans treated him after the match like a charming folk hero. 

The Cobra (c) vs. Hiro Saito (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIud5l0HlGc)

 

MD: I am not at all a Cobra guy. I think some of his Rocco matches are really bad, for instance, as he tried to fill a post-Tiger Mask gap and ended up with the worst of two worlds. A lack of substance and not even all that much style. Action for the sake of action and the action tends to frankly just be okay. This was great though, and so much of that was on the contrast. Saito is the prototypical cruiserweight bully and he gave everything weight and heft as the two of them threw everything they had at each other.

 

That meant that when Cobra was going to do an unnecessary backflip charging at Saito in the corner, Saito would come back and take his head off with a lariat. Or if he'd get pushed off after a kick and do another backflip within the ring, Saito would dropkick him out and crush him with a dive. They worked it like a title match starting with holds and going back to them, building to big spots and exchanges, with meaningful momentum shifts usually based around a big reversal/mistake/missed move. As time went on they traded some really great pile drivers and the dives you'd expect. Saito got a German mid match but couldn't put away with it and down the stretch Cobra finally escalated to a Tiger Suplex for a win. Very good lost Jr. Heavyweight Title match.

ER: We don't really talk much about how cool Hiro Saito is, and for how long he was cool. He's cool in all the eras. He was cool when I started getting New Japan tapes in 2000, and he was a bleach blond black beard surf punk with a tight bod, punk groupies and surf licks. Cobra feels like a throwback in 1985 by comparison, and it's punk scum vs. Mil Mascaras. Cobra's Mil hits hard, and Saito keeps spiking Mil with martinetes. The crowd was real into Saito's grounded piledriver when Cobra tried standing out of a headscissors, and they kept coming alive when they see how tough and well worked. I knew it was really good when Cobra's cravat into a stump puller and how Saito slowly powers out of it by eventually digging into Cobra's mask and hitting a GREAT fistdrop. Direct, hard. His piledriver after is perfect. Two kids in the crowd invent TomK's famous Dueling Chant 15 years before he did while Saito takes a crazy bump getting dropkicked to the floor. Cobra's kip up to dropkick is as beautiful as anything by our most graceful lucha legends. Saito hits a massive tope that is what you want a tope to be. I was going to write about how Cobra's flying offense isn't as good as his matwork and hitting but then he hits a piledriver so good that I felt I shouldn't harp on his lesser offense. Hiro Saito is so good. He's such a hard bumper, and strong, and fast. His forceful kickout just after 3 is the exact right energy. 

Andre the Giant vs. King Kong Bundy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kntbQ5SjUs)

 

MD: I wasn't going to cover this one since it was already out there, but it's pretty remarkable. My gut says that this was during the period where Andre was really breaking down, before his surgery and the switch to the singlet, but also before he really figured out how to work his late era style. So he was left in there against Bundy not entirely sure what he could or couldn't do. And what he ended up doing was being as entertaining as humanly possible. Yes, they did the bit where Bundy walks up the ropes to try to escape a hold and gets dropped, but Andre's mannerisms and little dance moves in this one are all over the place. Little shuffle steps. Hand motions. Weird faces. Outright dancing. He doesn't do the Fargo Strut but basically everything else you can imagine. And the fans do respond to it. I mean, who knows. Maybe he was just ribbing, maybe he was drunk, but I've only ever seen him do one or two of these little crazy finger motions or screw around like this, not build a whole match around it.

ER: I think every single Andre match I write about has me talking about some little thing I've never seen Andre do before, and I always mean it. But this Andre is an entirely new Andre. This is a house show taped by some saint, and without it I'm not sure we ever get to see Andre as a dancing babyface. It's incredible. I've seen Andre do something that could be considered sassy before but never a full match of him working as Dusty Rhodes. It's incredible. It doesn't start right away, but when it starts it does not stop. It feels like it's going to be your standard great Andre performance, smothering the humongous Bundy, muscling him into corners, hooking him in heavy sleepers, and I was excited about how he was going to sell for Bundy's comebacks. But when things take a turn, they really take a turn. I certainly was not expecting Bundy to walk up the ropes like Bret when Andre had a sleeper locked on, a real Dig Up mentality, and when Andre just drops the big man flat the crowd erupts. 

That's when Quirky Andre comes out. He makes the cuckoo sign, twirling his finger around his ear, and then does a kind of soft shoe routine, a little tap dance with a hard final step, like he's letting everyone in on his bit. If he'd had a cane and top hat it only would have made more sense. He keeps it up. While holding Bundy in another standing choke, he floats some butterfly steps, skipping in place in a movement that I have not once seen Andre do. He becomes Dusty Rhodes, flip flopping and flying. Bundy himself seems confused, he doesn't seem to understand the timing of the dancing and the strikes, leaning out of Andre's first punch after a perfect dance, so Andre has to catch him even harder with a backhand. This is truly an Andre I've never seen. Bundy takes a huge bump over the top to the floor and eventually just leaves, but not before more Andre dancing. How does history's greatest wrestler keep raising his stock? You think you've seen everything the biggest spectacle in wrestling history has done, but he keeps bringing out new tricks. This is no different than if a dancing babyface Stan Hansen match had just been discovered. It's bizarre, it's great, it's nothing you've seen. It's Andre.   

Bob Backlund/Iron Mike Sharpe vs. Antonio Inoki/Tatsumi Fujinami (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsW8GclZnt4)

 

MD: Honestly, I was here for Backlund vs Inoki and we really don't get that. What we do get is very good though. A lot of it is Sharpe being as vocal as humanly possible in a ring but entertaining and credible. Most of the rest, though, is Fujinami vs Backland and of course they match up so well. They matched up well years earlier and they match up even better now that Fujinami is a credible heavyweight. Right place, right time, smooth, slick, imapctful. And yes, they do a great short arm scissors sequence leading to the Gotch lift, just like you'd want. I just wanted a little bit more Inoki in here though. 

ER: I went into this wanting the most Popeye noises ever heard in one wrestling match. This was our chance. I wanted to hear Backlund and Iron Mike Oh-Whoa-Whoa-Whoaing all over the ring in the only time these two ever tagged. But we didn't get that. Backlund ceded the constant vocals to Sharpe and Sharpe ran with them. Backlund was shockingly silent. 1985 Backlund is interesting. It's his first year at sea after his long reign on top. I wonder what drove him to wrestle that year, seeing how much he pulled back for several years after. He surely could have been working regular Japan schedules had he wanted to, so he clearly just didn't want to. He only worked this one short New Japan tour and now we have another small piece of it. Sharpe vs. Inoki is an amusing footnote. You look at this tag and you've never seen a more obvious Taking the Fall guy than Iron Mike. Backlund's matwork with Fujinami was something I could have seen a lot more of. The crowd was so into Backlund's slow powerful reversals, but most of this tag felt like it was just about to kick into gear and never really did.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE ANDRE THE GIANT

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Espectáculos Promociones Panama: Africano! Cobra!

El Africano vs El Cobra

GB: Ah, the perennial el Africano. Perhaps not one of the most famous luchadores Panama has had to offer but certainly one of its stalwarts. Africano, then named “Kimba”, debuted at the age of 17 in the early to mid 70s.While the exact date of his debut is difficult to pinpoint, I managed to dig up some old newspaper clippings that show a fresh-faced Africano taking on Relampago in August 1975. Nevertheless, if we’re to believe him in a recent interview, his debut is as universally carny as any other in wrestling:

Africano had been invited to watch a show at the Eneco de la Guardia. Little did he know that the local promoter had secretly planned a debut for him on that very same night. Suddenly, the promoter approached him and said, "You're next." Africano felt a wave of panic wash over him. He was already intimidated by the talented wrestlers surrounding him, and now he was expected to perform in front of a packed arena without any preparation.

"Get your pants off and go out there!" the promoter barked at him. Africano was hesitant, but his nerves were quickly replaced by confusion. There was only one problem: he was underage and the local commissioner, Napoleón, refused his debut without permission from his parents to wrestle. The promoter sent him out in a taxi to find his parents and get the necessary paperwork signed before his match started.

It was like a scene out of a Benny Hill skit as Africano raced against the clock to make it back in time. Finally, with the ink barely dry on the signature, he burst through the doors of the arena just as the announcer was introducing him.

However, a star was not quite born. Back in the 70s and 80s, Africano was often relegated to the lower rungs of the card (this match was second from the bottom of the card, for instance). With bigger names and better wrestlers, he struggled to get his career consistently off the ground until around two decades later. To his defence, he was still relatively young by the time he got more of a break in the 1990s when, amongst other notable accomplishments, he became the sole Panamanian to defeat Mexico’s Mr Jack and win the UWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship.

Still, even as a rookie, he was a legitimately tall, towering presence and, as such, was the perfect “first challenger” programme for Sandokan, fresh off the latter becoming a “triple world champion” in March 1977. While I’ll assume the praise to be heaped on Camacho Castro’s shoulders in getting him that over, the young Kimba/Africano was always viewed by promoters as someone with a lot of promise.

In the match, though, we’re over a decade into his career and Africano is still seemingly stuck in that “promising” stage. Meaning, he was still quite the mixed bag of talent. Also quite the mixed bag of tricks. Africano wears his influences quite apparently on his sleeves. As a teenager, Africano was a student of the Olympic wrestling academy and also dabbled a little bit in gymnastics (acrobatics?) and that certainly plays out in how he wrestles. You get the slight roughness and raw talent in his chain wrestling with the nuttiness in his bumps, too. However, while I think he has some interesting enough ideas, I’m not quite sure he has the acumen to pull some of them off. What I can say, though, is he certainly played to the back with his selling. Cobra is much more the polished wrestler and a lot more alive here than other matches I’ve seen of him where he often disappears into the background in tags or plays second fiddle to his opponent. The highlight of the match came in the moment Matt likens to a “nudo” hold, though I’d argue this is much more the Jim Breaks special just with Cobra rolling Africano around to embarrass him. As an ardent Jim Breaks dissenter, this was the closest I will ever get to my hopes of seeing Rush punt the bejesus out of Breaks and that idiotic spot.

As for the booking, this match here, much like last week’s post, was seemingly done to set up an apuesta at a later date. The ending promo was slightly bizarre with Africano being attended to by the local medics. He’s in a lot of pain but valiantly saying he’s welcoming of an apuesta against Cobra. Really strange for someone billed as the “rudo”. Even stranger for the tecnico Cobra to blindside him up front as he did. I wish I could tell you more but there’s not a whole lot written about either man, let alone this feud. The only tidbit I can add is to Africano’s debut in which, coincidentally, one of his opponents would be none other than Cobra (the full match being: el Barón/Cobra vs Africano/Gemelo Infernal 3).

MD: This was in three falls, with a very short first one. Cobra had a mask and a snazzy cape on his entrance. Africano was black and came out with tribal beads or jewelry maybe? Despite the roles being very clear, Cobra ambushed Africano on his introduction; he was standing on the ropes to look at the crowd and Cobra dropkicked him off and followed it up with a pretty hearty beating before stretching him for the quick pin. Africano slowed things down with some chain wrestling at the start of the segunda, but just long enough to absolutely crack Cobra on the spine to take over. He had some pretty stylized stuff, including this weird shoulder/arm strike off the ropes and a sort of skidding elbow drop and a specific sell job i’ll get to in a moment, but he could hit pretty hard as well.  

After two fairly short falls, they went a little more back and forth, with Cobra trying to come back but Africano shutting him down, until Cobra was able to hit a catapult out of nowhere and things opened up. Cobra followed up with atomic drops and Africano’s true calling was in selling those. Somehow he managed to bump head over heels over the top rope for the first one and then retreated into the corner. For the second, he started hopping around the ring, planting himself twice and then propelling himself over the top like he was doing a Super Mario triple jump. Cobra followed it up by tying Africano into a “nudo” (knot, if you never knew that translation from Blue Panther matches) and then hitting a dive from the top to the floor for a countout win, so it was quite the celebratory finish.  I liked this more on a second watch. The stylized bits of offense and selling were fun and in between there were glimpses of real technique on things like armdrags and some hard shots from Africano.

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New Footage Friday: Fishman, Black Cat, Fritz Von Erich, Kabuki, Hercules Ayala

PAS: Network put up a nearly complete Star Wars card from 1981 (Kerry vs. Race was out there before, and we took a pass on Killer Tim Brooks vs. Mil and a Battle Royal) so we decided to review a couple of the matches from that show and threw on a cool NJ HH to close out the week.

Kevin Von Erich/David Von Erich vs. Hercules Ayala/Ali Mustafa WCCW 2/21/81

MD: There was a lot to like here. I know David and Kevin had won some of the other tag belts in Dallas but this was their first time winning this one and it felt like a huge deal. Some of that was the setting. Some of that was the post-match celebration. A lot of it was the match itself though. They were a very good babyface pairing, with a lot of energy and just enough stuff between the double teams, the flying, and the claw. Ali was just a tremendous stooge, bumping, feeding, full of underhanded offense. I loved how he threw himself into dropkicks. Ayala brought the power and the size, more than doing his part. What really stood out was how often they went back to heat. I think the Von Erichs had ten comebacks here but between the size advantage and heel chicanery, they kept ending up fighting from underneath. It's not a well that's gone to all that often to begin with, but because they never took back over for long, it made for more of an escalation than any sort of stuttering and really got the crowd to build more and more for them as the match went on. As much as I tend to resent the Dallas crowd for their hero-worship, it's really hard to blame them given matches like this.

PAS: This was a bunch of fun. I loved the Von Erich's meathead charisma, they are great as big fired up country boys ready to fight. Kevin is a totally under rated flyer. He doesn't have the gracefulness of some, but he has a ton of power in his legs and really gets in the air on dropkicks and big elbows. Matt makes a great point about the structure, heels really controlled the match, and they were great at it, and the Von Erich's made a bunch of mini comebacks leading up to the big comeback which really blew up the crowd. Don't know much about Ali, but he was really great in this match, offensive looked nasty and he was a great foil, Ayala was a beast too, great press slam, and he had this moment where he came into break up a pin and just punched David right in the liver, a liver which was already working hard I imagine.

Fritz Von Erich vs. Kabuki WCCW 2/21/81

PAS: Kabuki is such a cool act, the weird penis nose mask, the spinning around, the face paint, the crazy bendy fingers, I am all in, wrestling needs more exotic weirdos. I am a fan of 80s old man walking tall matches, loved the Bill Watts stuff from Mid-South and any time Jackie Fargo or Eddie Marlin wrestled in Memphis. Fritz may be a garbage person, but he is pretty good at walking tall. Lots of Kabuki gesticulating and Fritz countering with a big punch. I loved the spot where Kabuki went for a nerve pinch under the arm, and Fritz countered with the claw. Gary Hart starts punching at Fritz's leg and a fan attacks Hart, have to love wrestling that can get drunks ready to jump barricades. Finish was kind of BS with David running in and beating up Kabuki, actually made Fritz look kind of weak. Still I dug this, although it is very in my wheelhouse.

MD: This was minimalist in the best ways. They knew what they were doing. Fritz came in first which both allowed Kabuki his elaborate pre-match rituals and let him sign about a hundred autographs for kids. About half the match was them looking for an opening an that made when either found an opening all the better. Listen to the heat for Kabuki's first real burst of offense. The crowd was irate because of the build for it. It kills me that we live in a world where the claw probably wouldn't work, because it's such an effective, visual tool that can be built towards throughout a match, that can be consistently countered or defended against, that can be the perfect instrument for a comeback. Fritz was the real deal here, absolutely genuine Americana. He was a gnarled old bastard who looks close to 73 than the 53 he was at this point. Kabuki was electric with his theatrics and Fritz' response, putting his finger to his head and spinning it to indicate in his slow, bigoted way that Kabuki was a crazy weirdo will be the image that sticks with me as much as anything else. The finish was definitely muddled. The idea was that Hart was interfering so thoroughly that David (who wanted revenge anyway) had to run in, but you had both a fan and Manning attacking Hart first which really muted the threat of him. I get that they had to protect Kabuki and Fritz but the sequence felt overstretched and neither of them or David ended up looking good.

ER: I love it! Fully agree with Phil about old guy Walking Tall matches. I would wager a substantial amount that I was the high vote on the Eddie Marlin/Tommy Gilbert Memphis match (and also bet that Phil was the 2nd highest vote) and I assume if you've read much of anything I've written you would know that I have a general fondness for old guys wrestling. That juxtaposition between an incredibly tough man, who is now also very vulnerable due to humans' peculiar habit of eventually dying. Fritz was in his 50s here but looked large, and powerful; a vast aging physique that still flashed plenty of muscle. The man looked like someone who could still muscle around cattle. And what a sight it is to see the ringside area swarm with children and adults alike, all trying to get their programs signed by a man they would later grow to not respect. And we get a simple yet effectively hot kick and punch match with Fritz lifting heavy legs into Kabuki's gut, and throwing punches that....well, realistically I could watch an old cowboy punch another old cowboy like that for 20 minutes and have it be one of my favorite matches of all time. See, our 1976 MOTY. Kabuki grounds him and bites at his throat, Fritz reverses to a stomach claw from his back, and we all know how silly the stomach claw was but it somehow never looks silly in the least when Fritz is applying it. Hart attacks Fritz's leg when they're in the ropes and a drunk fan charges in to save Fritz. It is a fact that any spectacle that can inspire a drunk man to play hero, is almost always going to be great. This is not a man who runs onto a baseball field or charges the Nitro ring or makes jack off motions behind a live on the scene news reporter. Those people are in it for the fleeting fame. This man is not Soy Bomb. This man was so incensed watching his legend get treated unfairly, that he felt it necessary to step in and show Fritz he was NOT ALONE. This man was so wrapped up in the drama that was professional wrestling and the Von Erichs, that he - in that moment - felt that HE was the solution. In that moment he was the guy thwarting an armed robbery. And that's a level of performance that most performers will never achieve. David Manning annoyingly gets the biggest babyface spot of the match when he punts Hart from the apron, Kabuki throws great uppercuts but gets pinned by a backdrop, DVE is somehow a babyface for beating down a man just so his dad can pin him....but I don't care, because this was 10 great minutes of pro wrestling.

Fishman/Black Cat vs. The Cobra/Shiro Koshinaka 10/6/85

ER: This was a fun low stakes tag, making me want to seek out more and more Black Cat. He was so cool here at dickish little things, yanking Koshinaka out of a pinfall by his hair, swiping at Cobra from the apron when he ran the ropes too close to their corner, nice aggression; he really did little things you don't typically see in juniors matches. Koshinaka was also a pleasant surprise. He has been wrestling for more years than I've been alive, and it was neat seeing him even younger (he showed up a lot on the NJPW 80s set, but mostly from '87-'88, nothing this early). He was on the good guys team here but showed plenty of spunk, slapping both heels around (especially taking it to Fishman), landing a heavy plancha on Fishman, good punk charisma. Fishman we recently saw in an unearthed 1998 match against Santo, a real treat of a match that made me curious to see more of him. Here he was mostly feeding Koshinaka, but he throws meaty chops, bumps hard for dropkicks, takes a squirrelly backdrop bump on his shoulders, and throws a killer back elbow. Takano lightens up on some things, but gets crushed by a Black Cat lariat (after landing on his feet after a flip, the best) and throws some cool armdrags, rolling across Cat's back to do so. The match ending sunset flip is reckless but smooth. Nothing blowaway, but a really fun match.

PAS: Fishman is a truly legendary lucha libre figure, and I have never gotten it. He worked the Monterey show I did commentary on years ago and was the worst guy on the card. He was old then (although old luchadors normally rule) so I am always looking forward to catching glances at him during his prime and trying to figure it out. This match doesn’t do it though, he seems like a replacement level tecnico and feels like the least interesting guy in this match. Black Cat is one of those guys who was around NJPW forever, but man is he great, he feels like a great regional rudo, like Toro Bill or Arandu, a guy you know had dozens of classics which never showed up on tape, but just radiates professional asskicker. He had an awesome journeyman career, starting out as a Villano IV tag partner in UWA, worked as a trainer and ref in New Japan for years, had a weird AAA run as a Gringo Loco and even had a WCW Worldwide match against Chris Adams. Nothing spectacular in his performance in this match, but impossible not to enjoy him.

MD: I'm glad I'm on the same page with Phil and Eric here re: Black Cat. This was a great showcase for him. All of his stuff looked mean including these little bursts of bullying chain wrestling, and he based perfectly for his opponents. The rope running sequence with Cobra definitely stood out: he threw himself into the arm drags and they managed some fairly complex fakeouts before ending with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. I wasn't quite so high on Fishman. There's something very iconic about him as an entity but to me, here was just there in this one, effective but forgettable. I do think we have more Black Cat in this footage and we should poke around to see what we can find.

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 6/30/96

Dave Taylor/Bobby Eaton vs. Fire & Ice

ER: This is fun for what we got, but man I really wanted to see an actual full tag match between these two. Just like the Faces of Fear vs. Duggan/Pittman match from the previous episode, the potential was high as there were 4 tough guys who didn’t mind hitting hard or getting hit hard. And there were plenty of guys getting hit hard in this match, it was just a very quick 4 minutes. Taylor and Train do a nice shoulderblock exchange, and Taylor wrecks him with a few uppercuts, high dropkick to the chest, and a nasty forearm smash across the chest. I love Dave Taylor. A C&A Dave Taylor will need to be done in the future. I have a feeling he won’t really have many classic singles matches, but he is never less than enjoyable in a tag or multiman. So the match is going great, but sadly Eaton gets kind of steamrolled. He tags in, throws a couple nice punch variations to a held-by-Taylor Ice Train, then goes for an ill-advised top rope elbow. Once he misses that Fire & Ice just takes over. Norton didn’t seem in the mood to sell anything, Eaton takes a big crooked backdrop, eats Norton’s crippling shoulderbreaker and a big splash from Train, and on the floor Regal advises Taylor to not even attempt to break up the pin. So what we got was real fun, but could have been all time great had it gotten 10 minutes and actually let Eaton shine a bit.

Kurosawa vs. Alex Wright

ER: This had some miscommunication, and the layout left a lot to be desired, but I was impressed by how expressive Kurosawa was. Wright had a bunch of potential but often disappointed. He hit a couple athletically pretty but light landing dropkicks, and a couple European uppercuts that seem a lot weaker when we're merely 10 minutes removed from Dave Taylor. But Nakanishi took Wright's offense in a fun stooge style, really cartoon-y but atmosphere appropriate. Nakanishi has light arm strikes but really heavy legs, so he hit a couple of so so forearms but then aimed to kick a hole in Wright's chest and threw some big stomps. He also committed to a big missed elbow off the top. So there was some heart in the match, but it didn't go to a very interesting place. Nakanishi did some offense for awhile, then Wright came back with a spinning heel kick and German suplex. And, how crazy is it that Nakanishi is basically still working a full schedule?

ER: Macho Man does a promo with Mean Gene to build up the upcoming WCW Theatre at MSG show, and threatens guest referee Bruno Sammartino . Still can't believe they don't use a graphic of Bruno to build this up. 

Rough & Ready vs. Cobra/Bill Payne

ER: Bill Payne was around for a shockingly long time, was a guy big enough to actually get an entrance now and then, but also never win a match. He looks like Super Crazy mixed with Julio Fantastico. Rough and Ready were truly the cruelest gift, an awesome pairing that only got paired 20 times, with half of those not making television. I love the combo of 1996 combo of mid 40s Dick Slater and Pussy Wagon Mike Enos (The Mauler??). Bill Payne eats a full landing vertical suplex from Enos on the spinning stage, painful spill, and I'm now a Bill Payne fan. He also eats a badass fallaway slam off the middle ropes from Enos. Enos is really muscling this guy around and it's awesome. Slater kicks Payne in the gut with a flat out great stomach kick, and Enos hits one of the biggest high rotation power slam you've seen. You need to cherish the Rough & Ready that you come across in the wild. It is nature's endorphins.

The Gambler vs. Booty Man

ER: Gambler has his sick as hell red trunks with all four playing card suits on the back. Gambler is such a great stooge, and a real pro, the kind of guy I really appreciate. I'd rather watch all of the Gambler matches than the best Kenny Omega matches. Gambler is the Chris Elliott of wrestling. A little thicker, but an understanding of physical reaction, a fun but punchable face, and an undeserved smug cockiness. Booty doesn't bring much of interest other than Kimberly Page. Gambler brings nice clubbing arms, solid stomps, big falls, and leans into Booty's high knee. High Knee. Say it.

Kensuke Sasaki vs. The Giant

ER: Surprised they would put Sasaki in with the Giant, as I didn't think Sasaki was there to lose one minute matches. He throws hard chops and hard leg kicks, and Giant's big chokeslam is super impressive, as he lifts him with one arm, then lifts him higher before dropping to his knees with the slam. I wanted more, obviously.

Hugh Morrus vs. Lex Luger

ER: Luger is a god on these 1996 shows, and he has truly gotten the worst of what WCW has to offer. Who else is having to make chicken salad out of a main event opposite Hugh Morris or Konnan? Luger knows how to craft matches out of these lugs beyond lugs, working this one like a great Hogan match. Morrus gets a couple of big slams to start and they slow play them, with Morrus hamming it up and Luger selling them with a "You think that's a knife" face. Luger let's him think he's at a disadvantage, then just explodes on Morrus with a bunch of nice forearms and shows off a bodyslam of his own and hits a nice powerslam on a big guy. Luger really does work the best version of the Hogan match you're used to, because he's not working with the same level of insecurity. He's cool with his spot on the pecking order, happy with the amount of money he's made, not scared of guys like Hugh Morrus. He knows he can sell for Morrus and naturally look like a star, so it makes a Hogan-style match more like a Nice John Cena match without toddler shorts and goofy faces. Morrus gets to merely miss the No Laughing Matter instead of having Luger take it, then just kick out and go for win. Missing the moonsault that leads to a Luger comeback is a much more organic way of moving the match along, and Morrus also gets to eyerake his way out of a Torture Rack. A Hogan match with him missing a legdrop would make it more interesting, give it some more depth. Morrus didn't look great here, but it didn't matter, because we had Lex Luger running things in 1996.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WCW B-SIDES

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Pro 4/13/96

A request from the wonderful and dependable Cubs Fan, a mere hours before the most exciting baseball game of his last decade is about to commence (I'm pulling for the Cubs, buddy).


1. State Patrol vs. Fire & Ice

This was really fun, and according to Chris Cruise the debut of Fire & Ice!! Historic!! Parker is a guy who won't back down and he jumps Train and immediately stiffs him up. It doesn't last long as Train gives Buddy a massive backdrop and a lariat right into Parker's throat, then Norton tags in and steamrolls him with a shoulderblock. State Patrol get to double team him for a bit, choking him out on the ropes and clubbing him, until Norton does a cool double vertical suplex on them. Finish is Norton hitting his nasty shoulderbreaker on Parker followed up with a huge standing splash from Train. Really fun tag.

2. V.K. Wallstreet vs. Cobra

This was maybe the most offense I've ever seen Cobra get. He throws a nice dropkick, some decent-ish punches, threw a really nice high arc powerslam. A lot of guys threw pretty nice powerslams during this era WCW. But Cobra really was a guy who seemed green for several years. I once saw somebody selling a "Super J" comp tape from their tapelist. I assumed initially that it was some Super J Tourney Comp, but no, it was legitimately a Jeff Farmer comp, just during the time he went by Super J. That is probably the weirdest comp tape I've ever seen.

3. Giant vs. Butch Long & Not THEE Manny Fernandez

Manny Fernandez is announced as Vern Henderson here. I always feel for jobbers when they get their name announced wrong. But an onscreen graphic to boot? Ouch. So Manny and Long didn't actually get any offense here. I'll give you time to collect yourselves. Giant threw a nice corner clothesline, and (recurring theme!) a big powerslam. Cool spot where Manny was trying a single leg on Giant, Long flew in with a crossbody that got caught, Giant did a huge kneelift to Manny and then a fallaway slam on Long. This maybe went 90 seconds.

4. Men at Work vs. Brad & Steve Armstrong

This was awesome. It's a fun example of WCW syndicated hierarchy, as there are still matches that surprise me with who's going over. I didn't see Norton going over One Man Gang, and here it was more of a toss-up. Armstrongs don't win a lot, neither do Men at Work. Armstrongs won this one, but ask yourself if the result wouldn't have been different if it were Scott and Steve instead of Brad and Steve. Steve/Scott seems like a team that could feasibly lose to Men at Work. But man this was good. Starr and Brad had glorious slicked down tightly curled mullets, you got a shit ton of dropkicks (and Brad is a guy with a great dropkick), Kanyon showed off a beautiful piece of underrated pro wrestling by nailing Brad with a big right hand coming out of an arm wringer (think about it, picture a guy doing an arm wringer, twisting up and under, only to be met with a right hand on the other side. You love it.), Steve continues the TREND by hitting a big rotating powerslam on Starr  (seriously, EVERYbody did a powerslam and it's the best), Kanyon predicts indie wrestling 15 years into the future by hitting a urunage onto his own knee, and that early match urunage leads to a great finish where Brad scouts it, reverses it later when Kanyon goes for it and slips right out the back into a dynamite Russian legsweep. This was just wonderful classic tag wrestling.

5. Lex Luger vs. Vern Henderson

Henderson is a fun old roided guy who pops up a couple times of year in WCW. He always tries, attempts offense he probably shouldn't, and takes at least one big bump a match. I always smile when Vern pops up. Luger is a little more controlling here than he was against Ice Train, but he still gives Vern a lot. Vern breaks out a neat little floatover armdrag that you wouldn't expect him to, and as advertised gets tossed to the floor and takes a big back bump without getting slowed down by the ropes. His punches are bad and Zbyszko calls out how awful his hammerlock is. "Luger must just be letting him put that thing on to be kind!" Luger hits a powerslam (THEME!) and runs nicely into Vern's corner boot. But then it's torture rack time. Fun little match. Luger was like Bill Dundee in terms of 1996 WCW studio taping mastery.

6. Barbarian vs. Konnan

Woof. What a waste of Barbarian. Let me be the first person to talk about how awful a wrestler Konnan was. At this point he had been given the US title, yet still clearly had no idea how to take offense. He had no idea how to fall, and many times came off like a totally untrained wrestler. At one point Barbarian hits a lariat and Konnan puts his arms at his side and just tips over. Later he spun around twice before hitting a kick to the stomach. I can't actually figure out a way to type what he did, to properly convey how misguided it looked. Barbarian was in the ropes, Konnan right in front of him, in place, just spun around clockwise - twice - on his feet, and at the end of the second spin just threw his leg out, so it was like a sidekick to the stomach. Barbarian sold it properly, like a confused man who kind of got flicked in the nuts by a good friend. Just holding his stomach and looking up at Konnan, confused. Later Konnan has problems getting up on a powerbomb (didn't seem like he intentionally sandbagged Barb, just looked like he was clueless) so Barb muscled him up and planted him anyway. The finish is Klassic Klueless Konnan, as Barbarian goes for another powerbomb, Konnan is supposed to do a rana, but Konnan instead manages to completely brain himself, just awkwardly dropping right onto his own head and neck. Barb tries gallantly to roll through it, and Konnan ends up sitting on Barbarian's chest holding his own head for the pin. A true champion.


Have you had enough 1996 syndicated WCW, Cubs? Well there's gonna be more! After all, you were my first donor, gotta give the people what they want!


***I'm probably sounding like a skipping record (like my Metal Health LP that awesomely skips during the first chorus of "Cum on Feel the Noize", so it just gets stuck perfectly on Kevin DuBrow yelling "Mooore moooore moooore") at this point but I'm still trying to raise money for my friend and coworker whose home burned down, completely disappearing every single one of her possessions. The donations have slowed but no matter, I still have plenty of neat requests to fulfill and WILL be continuing to fulfill them! I'm matching EVERY contribution and will continue writing above and beyond for those who donate. You donate $1? That's awesome. Whatever you can do, and then you get to make a request. This means SO MUCH to me and you all are making me so happy***

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Worldwide 11/5/95

1. Nasty Boys vs. Buddy Valentine/Johnny Swinger

I did not realize Swinger worked WCW this early. And here he had a mullet and mustache!!! That means for essentially 6 years in WCW, whenever a worker went to management and said "Hey, I really feel like stiffing a guy," then WCW management would say, "No problem! We'll give you Swinger!" And the Nasty Boys were guys who would stiff up jobbers occasionally. Although they don't really stiff up Valentine or Swinger here. They squash 'em good, but no real taking advantage of, which is what everybody watching at home (me) wanted.

2. The Shark vs. Vern Henderson

Rachel totally guessed that Tenta would be in the next match. She is fully immersed in WCW B-Sides now. It is a part of her. Tenta looked good here and call me crazy but I thought he looked cool with the balding up top/ponytail in the back look. Most human beings don't look cool with this look. Match was super short.

3. DDP vs. Cobra

Did anybody predict DDP becoming a massive star 2-3 years after this? Here he looks like an weird old dude with annoying hair and a bad singlet/tights combo, and 2 years later he was an old dude with annoying hair and tight jeans...but a totally deserving gigantic star. Just looking at these two, I would have guessed Jeff Farmer being a way bigger star. But then again I have no idea what I'm talking about. I thought Cobra had a cool look when I was 13. I love after this match when Craig Pittman comes out to distract Cobra and start a feud. The thing is, I don't remember ever seeing Cobra win a match EVER, so it's odd for a guy who is a strongly booked TV presence to come out and start menacing a consistent loser. Seems a bit like piling on. Like the Yankees bunting and doing a double steal against the Astros in the 9th inning of a game they're winning 9-1.

4. Steve/Scott Armstrong/Tim Horner vs. Brian Pillman/Arn Anderson/Ric Flair

These kind of matches are probably the best thing possible about these sets. You have three guys who nobody has ever seen take a pin on TV, vs. 3 of the bigger stars of the 90s, and 75% of the match is the Horsemen showing ass for Armstrongs/Horner. I don't know if it's because hierarchies aren't as strong today or the egos of the guys on top are just that much bigger that they don't want to look weak, but these type of matches just don't exist any more on TV. I think I was so confused by the Armstrongs running roughshod over Arn and Pillman that it took me like 3 minutes to realize Tim Horner was not in fact Bobby Eaton. I'm pretty sure for 3 minutes I was just non-stop talking about how I didn't realize Eaton ever wore trunks this late into his career. "I don't remember the last time I saw Eaton NOT wearing tights, you know? I assumed he had hideously scarred legs, but they're just normal super white Eaton legs you know? you know?!?!" Then Tim Horner came in and threw an arm drag and I was like Ohhhhhhhhh. Because only in wrestling can you have a guy with the worst haircut possible, and have there be another guy in the same room with the exact same haircut.

Anyway, the match was fucking boss because it's not the Armstrongs and Tim Horner getting squashed by Kevin Sullivan and Hugh Morrus, it's the Armstrongs and Tim Horner getting to squash the motherfucking Horsemen while the Horsemen have to desperately cheat to scrape out a victory, so who couldn't cheer like mad while watching it!?

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