Found Footage Friday: FUNK~! SPIKE~! STEEN~! AXE~! WAGNER~! BABE FACE~! BLUE FISH~! DIFUNTO~! ROMO~! ESCOBEDO~!

Terry Funk/Spike Dudley vs. Kevin Steen/Jason Axe 5/17/13

MD: How much do we love Terry Funk around here? We love him so much that almost all of the matches that people posted to pay tribute (handhelds with Bock from Japan, chain matches and streetfights with Doug Gilbert ten years apart, etc.) were things we already had covered. Thankfully, this came down the pipe too. It's clipped with a few minutes of entrances and Terry talking at the end, but what we get is good. Spike looked great early on controlling Axe with chain wrestling. It was basic stuff, but snug and with purpose. Post-clipping it seemed like things broke down to a match inside the ring and one outside, with Steen and Funk brawling around ringside and Spike working from underneath in the ring. I wish we were able to catch more or it than we did including the transition, but what stands out most is the image of Funk and Steen careening towards a door in the back of the room and someone trying to film it all on his phone but unable to keep his focus because he has to throw his hand up in excitement and exhileration at the idea that these guys are brawling with such purpose and energy just a few feet away from him. That instinct to film everything just got shattered by the feeling of the moment and that's the magic of even a 69 year old Terry Funk for you. Finish was feel good like you'd expect. Axe survived an Acid Drop and really planted Spike through a table with a running DVD and Funk finally made it back to the ring, queuing things up for tandem spinning toe holds. What we got here was good, with Steen really reveling in the moment. I bet the whole thing would have been even better.

Sergio Romo Jr./Chuy Escobedo vs. Difunto/Principe Rebelde CMLL 1992

MD: Totally solid undercard lucha. Chuy and Principe Rebelde didn't do a ton for me but Romo and Difunto stood out. Difunto just checks a lot of the boxes for me, a stooging, basing, bruising rudo with a big personality, big selling, big reactions, and some impactful offense. He was matched with Romo. The primera was three exchanges (matwork, rope running, and then things breaking down) and I though the rope running especially stood out. Romo had this cool headstand into an armdrag I hadn't seen much. Escobedo and Principe were fine but they had less time and did less interesting things. It ended with a pretty funny bit where they had the ref pin the rudos and do the count.

They switched partners for the segunda but things quickly shifted to beatdown after an errant Difunto hug. Solid but not too over the top. The comeback almost went there with some crowd brawling but it never really boiled over. There was an absolutely amazing dive through the ropes into a body press by Romo where Difunto's head went cracking into the front row seats. Just a top notch dive. Romo didn't always look special, but he had an extra gear he could tap into occasionally. That's my early impression after a couple of matches at least. This was very much undercard lucha for the sake of lucha but all you need is one or two good hands to make that enjoyable and this was overall.

Dr Wagner Jr/Blue Fish/Babe Face vs. Milo Caballero/Centurion/Monarka CMLL 1992

MD: This was the usual mishmash of local guys and bigger names at various stages of their career that we've been getting. Wagner doesn't jump off the screen for a number of years to come but he was already in his late 20s here. It's still a good match situation for him to be in, I guess. Babe Face had been at it for almost twenty years but he's still a kind of refreshing guy to see in 92. Blue Fish was something of a local legend. He's got a fun mask with a big dolphin type fish on the side and in general was very good at being the right place at the right time and feeding into rudo miscommunication spots.

This had time and not a lot of urgency. It picked up a bit whenever Babe Face and Milo Caballero were in there together. I think the commentators even joked that they were made from the same physical mode, but they matched up well together both with exchanges and just throwing shots. Otherwise, I'd call it a professional match. The rudo beatdown in the segunda was laser-focused. Babe Face stooged here and there and kept things entertaining but for the most part, it was just workmanlike. I'd not mind seeing most of these guys in other matches, but I'd expect them to be in more supporting roles.

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Found Footage Friday: RYUMA GO~! BARR~! BRUISE~! HAMADA~! SCORPIOs~! ESTRADA~! ARANDU~! SUPER PUNK~! DIFUNTO~!

Super Punk/Kendo Star/Milo Caballero vs Sultan Gargola/Ulises/Difunto CMLL 1992

MD: I thought this would be uneventful since we only get ten minutes of in, but we come in during the segunda right at the comeback with Difunto's masked ripped to shreds by Super Punk (Luciferno?) and the tecnicos getting some serious justice on the rudos. Super Punk's mask had been ripped as well and between the segunda and tercera they continued to really go at it.This got a little silly with the tercera exchanges (though I ended up kind of wanting to see more Caballero and his unnecessary flipping) before settling down to Punk and Difunto smacking each other in the face again. The finish was great though. In the midst of the brawling, Difunto ended up on one of the refs. Super Punk tried to leap off the top on him and landed on the ref. That let Difunto get in a foul. Pretty creative stuff. Just at a glance, I don't think we get the undercard apuestas match that this hopefully led to. That's a shame. As for the match itself, who doesn't want to watch ten minutes of goofy chaos, right?

Gigante Warrior/Scorpio Jr y Sr vs Solomon Grundy/Gran Hamada/Centurion CMLL 1992

MD: Pretty out there attraction match. I think that Gigante Warrior is Butch Masters who I've spent a bit too much time with in late 90 AJPW. He'd been around a bit by this point and could contribute in a match like this, even if he'd never be your first choice. Scorpio, Sr. always comes off like the world's best possible Rey Mysterio, Sr. opponent in size, shape, and temperment, so take that as you will. Hamada is there to give this a weird WAR feel. Honestly, I almost had the vibe of one of those matches with Porky and Marco Corleone in them, just with less charisma. Hamada, even in 92, still had bursts of explosiveness and some solid strikes. Scorpio, Jr. could match up with anyone on the other side, which says something, I suppose. Centurion didn't exactly impress, however. Grundy was there to get hit by Warrior and splash people in the corner. I'm never not going to have at least some fun with a matchup like this, but your mileage, gentle reader, may vary.

Jerry Estrada/Arandu/Angel Blanco Jr vs Blue Demon Jr/Panterita del Ring/Transformer CMLL 1992

MD: Pretty straightforward match here. Up front, the biggest things to note are how well Estrada and Arandu fit together visually  and that Panterita continued to feel like a big deal locally. Demon did not impress for the most part, but I'm not surprised there. It did surprise me a little how he let Angel Blanco kind of eat him up on the mat (even with simple things) in their initial exchange and had to goad him back for another go around so that they could at least feign evenness before tagging out. Transformer is Super Kendo, I think, and he's got fun gear but didn't stand out a ton otherwise. Estrada's stooging and selling had the announcers proclaim he was out to get the Oscar for Best Actor. Arandu still wasn't afraid to bump out of the ring.

They went around a couple of times in the primera with Demon looking a little better on his second exchange with Angel Blanco. He did have his timing down on the punches on the outside at least. The beatdown in the segunda was solid but probably not long enough in the grand scheme of things and then the comeback and finishing stretch in the tercera was blink and you'd miss it though Demon did hit a tope to set up the finish at least. Nothing egregious but not super interesting either.

Bruise Brothers (Ron and Don Harris) vs Ryuma Go/Jesse Barr Orienal Pro-Wrestling 12/3/92

MD: As best as I can tell, they'd been feuding both in general and over the tag belts and otherwise off and on since July. This was the big blowoff, a Texas deathmatch in a cage, but one that otherwise followed tag rules for the most part, and Ryuma Go's last match in the promotion.

There was a lot going on here but most of it really worked for me. Bruise Brothers were more apt to break the rules and double team while the faces tended to wait for tags though there were a lot of transitions based around the partner having enough and intervening. The Texas Deathmatch rules allowed for any number of big impressive bombs from Ron and Don (assisted powerbomb, double suplex, Slaughter Cannon with a double axe-handle, top rope power slam, etc.) which would lead to the three count and then the drama of whether Go, or for a huge chunk of the match, Barr (who took the broader heat), would be able to beat the count. Mostly everything else would lead to a somehow still dramatic two count.

The Harris Brothers were good at imposing themselves and solid at clubbering even if they were never quite as wild as you'd want. Maybe they made up for it with the big power moves. Early on the cage was the equalizer for Go and Barr (that and Go's headbutts and Barr's fire) but between it and the Deathmatch rules, it never became quite the force I would have wanted. It wasn't a huge part of the beatdown on Barr for instance, just there as part of the connective tissue at times. That's not to say the beatdown and the instances of just barely making the count after some big bomb wasn't compelling, because it was (gushing blood or no; here it was no). I thought it was so well done that my biggest criticism of the match is that he recovered way too soon after the hot tag to set up the finishing stretch (wherein they did this neat belly to back/high angle side slam combo). It also ended on an Octopus Hold, and I get the idea that surrender is probably valid in a Texas Deathmatch but you want to see the count come into play at the end, just like you do the cage; that said, it was really novel to see it used as it was, to ramp up the drama during a face-in-peril segment of a tag match. I can't think of many other tag team Texas Deathmatches and I can say pretty safely that as a proof of concept, there's more there to mine.

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Chilanga Mask Love Letters 2018

Difunto vs. Masada vs. Último Demonio vs. Wotan (Chilanga Mask, 5/20/18)

SG: Matches with eliminations give you a lot to talk about, but this is one fall to a finish. Luckily for us, it’s one of the most sheerly violent matches that I’ve ever seen. Wotan is fully unhinged even to start, cracking a giant beer bottle over Demonio’s head to some of the shriekiest of audience shrieks. Masada looks giant compared to him but is really out to give one of his most physically active performances since who knows when. Feels very much like him to not want to get shown up on the road, even if I appreciate his dickishness/desire to not do shit making him one of the few American deathmatch guys ever who wrestles with a genuine sense of hierarchy. The first half is mostly Difunto/Masada primarily pairing off in the ring with Demonio/Wotan in the crowd and eventually the merch table. 

Bless whoever had coffee mugs printed out because Wotan is ready to blast Demonio with a few, just insane. I think that he delivers about 200 headbutts in this match, all as nasty as what Black Terry did to him here a couple years before. Demonio’s refusal to not engage him in stand-and-strikes really pays off for the match in a rare occurrence because I can’t remember the last time that someone broke a mug over Ishii’s head. I’m less bothered by the deathmatch magic elves and some revealing camerawork than I could be because it adds to how grotesque it all is, because the action is already in the Bumfights territory. Like, what’s more desperate than Wotan sticking Demonio’s head with skewers that he’d already been stabbed with by Masada?

The best lucha brawls come off like real fights between broken men in bad neighborhoods, and no offense to whoever owns the Toyota dealership with which Coliseo Coacalco shares a lot, but that’s already the ennui of this shit, so why not go for the gusto? The final third breaks down, less in quality but more in depravity, as a chair table on the floor comes into play. Deathmatch magic elves and all. Masada nearly breaks Wotan’s neck with a Death Valley from the apron onto it and it just gets worse from there after two nasty powerbombs on the outside. 

Meanwhile Difunto has bled more than anyone and is barely making it into the review! His dueling beer bottle to the dome spot with Wotan goes as well as you’d expect. Finish is Demonio getting his revenge and knocking Wotan unconscious with a falling powerbomb from the top to the chair. Well, it’s sort of a finish, because Difunto & Masada then stage-dive in onto the two as the staff attend to Wotan. And then a fight breaks out in the crowd after a fan yells out that they should let Wotan die instead of getting him treatment. Impulso, there to carry his brother to the back, responded by kicking the shit out of someone who might not have been that fan. Also, Facade is here. Everyone should just know that. Sadly, he didn’t kick the shit out of a fan.

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Lucha Worth Watching? Angel Dorado/Difunto Mask Match!

Angel Dorado vs. Difunto I  ERLL 1/28/18

ER: This is apparently a match with some contentious opinions. Some have said it's one of the best matches of the year, others assume that those people took advantage of the trust of friends to trick people into watching a match that they had already wasted their own time watching, just paying this nightmare forward, and now it's my duty to trick somebody else so that this lurking, menacing man will stop following me and my friends no matter where we hide and no matter how far we run. We get 28 minutes of match, and it somehow feels majorly clipped in spots. Was this match actually 50 minutes?? I cannot imagine what was deemed not good enough to air, because we got a LOT of footage of two guys hitting some semi-blown spots and then lying on the mat for long periods of time. There was a lot of mat lying. I didn't see how Dorado first got his mask ripped open, but I saw both men lying on the mat for long periods of time. We get a couple of great moments: Dorado hits a gorgeous tornillo through the ropes, a spot that should surely make the gif rounds; Difunto breaks a beer bottle over Dorado's head, and I have no clue what the access to prop glass is down in Monterrey, but I'll assume it's slim. So it's a crazy holy shit moment, a guy busting a bottle over someone's head...but it also happens maybe 4 minutes into this match. Dorado did that tornillo and another huge dive off the top to the floor after having a bottle smashed over his head. Other than that, we get a lot of very lazy moments of getting into position, we get that nasty modern big match lucha thing of a big move off the top (like a Spanish Fly), then a kickout, then both men lie still for a long time, then the guy who took the Spanish Fly is the next to do a move. That happens throughout. The fans are really into Dorado, and both men bleed, but man I wish I had seen a 2 minute highlight video of this match, with no other footage showing up. We all could have thought we'd missed out on a violent classic. But now here I am with my back against the ocean, car facing me on the beach with the parking lights on, watching the tree line, waiting for it to appear. Somebody else please watch this before it finds me.

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