New Footage Friday: JOE MALENKO~! INOUE! TAJIRI! CICLON! MOGUR! STYLES! CROSS!

Joe Malenko vs. Mighty Inoue AJPW 1/25/89

MD: We're just starting to see the dividends with this new run of Classics. Previously we just had the last few minutes of this title change and while it was good, it, and other Malenko and Inoue matches from 89, always had me wanting to see the full thing. It didn't disappoint. Both wrestlers were extremely good at chaining one hold or opportunity into another while dealing and adapting with engaged struggle from their opponent. Early on that was Malenko with the arm (including an 89 Crossface), and later, Inoue with the leg. Shortly thereafter, they'd end up tied up a few times, an even match. Malenko had the bridges and the bombs and was so good at chaining a move out of a suplex. Inoue had the somersault senton and even creeping towards 40 could still absolutely go. This had the usual block-and-counter laden finish you'd get on these late 80s AJPW Jr. matches and while it was a finish partially set up to protect Malenko, it still felt like a big moment for Inoue and the fans reacted accordingly.

PAS: Loved this, a real chance to watch Joe Malenko ball out. I loved the opening with him leaping over Inoue's leg sweep attempts like he was doing the Kid and Play dance, and finishing it off with a scissors kick takedown. Lots of nasty counter wrestling on the mat, including Inoue putting on a sick Indian death lock, and some really cool looking arm locks by Malenko. I thought the roll up finish worked good with the way the match was going, Inoue showing he had a little funk to his game as well. 

ER: I thought this was fantastic, an awesome juniors match with matwork more interesting than anything you'd ever see in a New Japan juniors match. My only complaint with the match at all is that they felt the need to break away from the matwork. This was a 15 minute match, and the first 13 are up there with the coolest Muga clinics I've seen. Joe Malenko really is one of the all time mat guys, doing almost minimalist Bob Backlund type holds only wrenched in and played small and tough rather than long. Malenko isn't really about quick movement, and his style is so engaging that it doesn't really need it. You can see every step of his holds, and he builds through each of his holds in snug ways that are easy to follow and make simple holds look agonizing. Malenko is not without flash, as he begins the match doing little MPro hops to avoid Inoue's legsweeps while locked at the arms, and after hopping over a few he spins into a killer leg-scissors takedown. Malenko's bridging neck work is always impressive, made both guys look tough watching them go through slow motion Cirque du Soleil poses. 

Malenko cranks in a couple of nasty cravats across Inoue's face, locking his hands under Inoue's armpit and behind his back, and all of his holds look grinding and painful. Inoue's return fire looks good, especially when he butterflies Malenko's legs on a standing deathlock, he works Malenko's arm in some simple but painful looking ways. Malenko refuses to go into Expected Juniors Matwork, doesn't do kip ups out of knucklelocks, doesn't do monkey flips when you'd expect them, and his knucklelock takeovers look like expert judo throws rather than part of a rolling exchange. And I wish they would have stuck to that. It made for a great 13 minutes. Joe Malenko is much cooler on the mat than he is running ropes, and there were a couple things that didn't look quite right once they were on their feet. But we also got a tight fisherman's suplex from Joe, a slick reversal into a German suplex, Inoue's none-better somersault senton, and a great flash pin title win out of an Inoue rolling cradle reversal. Inoue's reversal was really strong, and the 13 minutes of bridging matwork by both men really established how good they were at forcing each other into bridged holds, you get the real sense that Malenko really couldn't have escaped the pin. Great match, with several things that modern acolytes of this mat style could learn from. 

Tajiri/Ciclon Ramirez/Fantasik vs. Halcon Negro/Mogur/Guerrero de la Muerte CMLL 12/23/95

MD: Tajiri had a few month excursion to CMLL when he was about a year into his career and there's not a ton to see of it, so this was a fun thing to pop up. He had a nice, long opening exchange with Guerrero de la Muerte (Toxico) and they were fine, basic but smooth. Late in the tercera he hit some solid kicks and had a nice tope. This was pretty standard fare otherwise, though lacking a central underlying storyline. Mogur stood out out with some good dropkicks and a great knee in the corner, plus leaning hard into the missile dropkick which led to the tecnicos taking the primera. The beatdown wasn't very memorable, with the comeback spurred by the rudos all mounting and posing Tajiri. Fantastik seemed to be straining to his his offense at times but disappeared from the match at the end with a pretty spectacular slingshot swanton bomb to the floor. It ended with a pretty unsatisfying foul which wasn't built and didn't seem to be leading anywhere.

PAS: Fantastik is this super cool luchador with a hairy chest who basically spent his entire career in Japan. I don't remember him working CMLL at all, and here he was with his Big Japan buddy Tajiri. There is a more well know match later in this tour where things break down between Tajiri and Mogur and they start stiffing each other, but there isn't anything like that here. I enjoyed the opening Tajiri and Muerte mat work the best, real chance to see how skilled Tajiri was as a kiddo. And that Fantastik swanton to the floor is one of my favorite high spots ever, what height and extension he got on that. It might have even been better than Super Astro's. 

ER: Matt mentions that this is pretty standard lucha fare, and he's right, but it's also really exciting watching just standard lucha fare from guys from this era. I've seen a stupid amount of standard lucha from the last decade of the CMLL roster, so a different era of roster going through their routines can be a real sweet panacea. It's cool seeing Tajiri and Fantastik in the CMLL mix, to see Tajiri do a pretty good job of understanding basic lucha caida structure. He's tasked with being the first mat exchange of the match, he comes in at the end of the segunda with a high spinning heel kick, and then lands a nice dive on Mogur at the climax of the tercera. Fantastik had the wild spot of the match, with a gorgeous slingshot swanton off Halcon Negro, perfectly lined up down an aisle. I really liked Negro here, a great theatrical bumper, and if that slingshot swanton wasn't in the match I think my favorite moment would have been Negro getting bumped to the floor, sliding out after a headscissors and landing on one leg, then hopping on one leg to slow his momentum until landing in the front row. He looked like a Looney Tunes character who skidded to a stop before running off a cliff. Ciclon Ramirez was a super graceful tecnico, great height on headscissors and bumps, and Mogur is a classic rudo in the vein of Mocho Cota or Satanico, all short right hands and nice traffic direction. This was probably a typical Saturday night for all of these guys, but it played with the right amount of freshness for me. 

AJ Styles vs. Jason Cross NWA Wildside 8/15/01

MD: This had a few things going for it. First and foremost, they were working it as an evil mirror image sort of match (or more accurately, as Cross stealing Styles' act), so there were a bunch of parallel spots that were effective and creative and well-executed, but also that meant something because there was an underlying story driving them. It wasn't an exact tit-for-tat, but was defined enough you couldn't miss it. Cross would hit one sort of tricked out arm drag, Styles would return with another. At one point, Styles hit a huge over the shoulders alley-oop on Cross that caused him to hit his head on the screen above the ring. Cross returned the favor later with one onto the top turnbuckle snake-eyes fashion. Late in the match, they both hit top rope splashes. That sort of thing. The second thing would be the theater itself. It let Cross hit a crazy dive of the stage, less crazy for the twists and turns and more so for the damage he would have done to himself if Styles didn't catch him well (he did), and they followed it up with brawling on the floor, with a green tinted, security footage looking sort of night-vision effect, and Styles spectacularly hitting a wall step-up standing moonsault. For the most part, everyone's stuff looked good. There were a couple of physics defying moments from Styles, like a bump off of a top rope 'rana that took me out of it. I thought Cross' strikes looked really good and it's too bad we didn't see more of them. They didn't wear out their welcome here by any means and that helps to justify the your move, my move nature a little (as does the mirror image underlying story), but if they shuffled things around a bit and had Cross lean on him a bit more towards the end, it would have made Styles get the moral win, before the "1988 WWF Manager on the apron so let me chase him around the ring" screwy finish, mean more. Still, this was very good for what it was and what it was trying to be.

PAS: Cross was working a Mike Davis as Dusty Rhodes version of AJ Styles here, which was a fun gimmick. The athleticism in this match was pretty off the charts, both guys had tremendous snap and execution on all of their big spots. This would have been pretty mind-blowing at the time, I mean we were just starting to see Low-Ki,  Red  et al do this kind of thing in the Northeast, and this was at or even above that level. The Cross dive off of the stage, the Styles wall walk moonsault and spiked headscissors, totally wild shit even now. I did think this was aiming to be an all time lost classic until they returned to the ring where they lost the string a bit. I don't think we needed that chase around the manager spot, and a fast ref count felt like one too many booking things for a match which didn't need any of them. Let Cross win clean or have Styles win clean, the match was good enough that no one would have been hurt by it. Cross is one of those weird wrestling casualties, no reason he should have been lost to history. He was like a taller AJ Styles and should have at least had a ROH/TNA career.  

ER: This is an era of indy wrestling that will always have the warmest place in my heart, as it was right when I was really getting into wrestling message boards and was the peak of my tape trading. This match had all of the things I loved about getting tapes in the mail, with a perfect wrestling venue for starters. This was in an old (?) movie theater, with the ring up on the stage and all the crowds seated below watching the show. I'm always interested in seeing how guys perform while having less sides of the ring to play to. This set-up has them essentially playing to one side of the ring, which brings unique perspective and focus to some of their exchanges. 2001 was fertile for getting a random selection of indy tapes in the mail and being surprised at so many styles happening all over the country. This was inventive as anything else from 2001, and Cross wasn't that far behind Styles as a talent at this point. Bobby Quance is a guy who gets brought up as a "what should have been" guy with under 100 matches, but Cross's stuff ages even better for a guy with a similar career. Cross is great at taking offense, and I love the heel gimmick of aping a popular face's wrestling style so well that is gets under the babyface's skin. Cross is great at being that smug and backing it up in ring. Cross hits an insane corkscrew plancha off the movie theater stage, and takes all of Styles' craziest 2001 offense, like the spike jump up headscissors and a Styles Clash off the top rope. Styles has been doing this level of great match for over 20 years now, and seeing how many indy guys are working for major promotions now, 2001 Cross is more polished than most of them. He was slightly too late for WCW, and for some reason didn't catch on in TNA after getting semi-regular shots. You always hate to see a cool talent fall through the cracks. 

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New Footage Friday: GORDY! HICKERSON! BLACKWELL! HANSEN! SASUKE! ATLANTIS! AMERICAN DRAGON! METAL MASTER!

Stan Hansen/Terry Gordy vs. Crusher Blackwell/Phil Hickerson AJPW 12/14/88

MD: Bizarrely giving Hansen performance. This is one of the most giving performances I've ever seen out of him, especially against someone who's not paying him. Was Blackwell bringing him in for shots in his Georgia Indy or something? Did he feel like he owed him for some favor done in 1978 Mid-Atlantic (if so you don't really see that bear out in their AWA stuff)? No idea, but this is a Hansen who's getting crushed by mass, beaten around the ring, and legitimately playing face-in-peril in a bear hug. When Hickerson is in there, he fights back a bit more, but then they just tag Blackwell back in. Remember, this is 89 Blackwell. He's huge, has great presence, and can still do an amazing elbow drop (and miss one for a transition too), but this isn't seven years earlier when he was missing top rope splashes and what not. And, of course, Gordy's on the apron playing clapping cheerleader. Eventually, he has enough, intervenes, survives charges into the corner long enough to get a foot up, and it's academic from there. I'm still filing this under "baffling."

PAS: Hansen was always very good at using his size to overwhelm, and it's cool to see him in the ring with two big motherfuckers who gives as good as they get. This was worn tread on the tires Blackwell, but he was still a quarter horse of a dude with great punches and good use of that girth. Hickerson is a mean asskicker in this to, and I love to watch two guys stand in the pocket with Hansen and not get blown out of the building. Gordy is fun in his exchanges as well, although he isn't in the match a ton. Finish was great, I love a Hansen lariat, and this was one of his nastier ones. He hooks it right under Hickerson's jaw and it looks like it's going to pop his head clean off.

ER: At minimum you knew this was going to be great just because how often do you get to see a tag match where Terry Gordy is the smallest man in the match? But how much does it rule that Blackwell and Hickerson took 90% of that match?? Stan Hansen is perhaps the most famous eater of men in pro wrestling history. Hansen can chew someone up more dominantly than anyone, and here he gets completely dominated by Crusher and Hickerson. Sure Hickerson takes some knocks to the head, gets smacked into a ringpost, but it's like Crusher and Hickerson were working the way Hansen and Gordy work every other team. Usually when Hansen takes a shot from someone, he's the one who shakes his head and then angrily walks through it. Blackwell is absolutely impenetrable here, just flattening and outfighting Hansen and Gordy. Blackwell isn't getting the same height on his jumping elbow drops, and he's not doing high dropkicks (or any dropkicks), but he's a tough fat guy with a low center of gravity who punches and headbutts Hansen in the face. 

Blackwell acts like and is treated like the toughest guy in the match, and I love it. His elbow drops look awesome, his missed elbow drops look awesome, his avalanches are delivered with glee, and he's a 5'9 man who convincingly bearhugs Stan Hansen. Two different times in the match he's working over Hansen in the corner, then stops Gordy's interference with one strike! Gordy charges in to save Hansen and Blackwell just turns around and punches him! Later, Gordy charged in and Blackwell just mule kicked Gordy away and ignored Gordy's forearm! Blackwell worked like the total star of the match, which is the most fun way the match could have been worked. Hickerson also appears to be having a blast on his only trip to Japan, a trip where he and Blackwell will be the team in the RWTL who wins no matches. Hickerson seems to really bathe in the new audience, and Blackwell holding Hansen and Gordy in the corner like he was Andre, so that Hickerson can fly across the ring with an avalanche, was a real moment of wrestling bliss. Hansen decides to shut things down the way he does. Hickerson goes back to the well on that avalanche and eats a boot, then the hardest possible Hansen running shoulderblock. Elbow pad adjusted, Hickerson whipped, lariat takes us out. Who could have guessed this would be a 10 minute Blackwell/Hickerson showcase? A great on paper match worked within an unexpected structure is a great treat. 

El Hijo de Anibal/Atlantis/Great Sasuke vs. Java Genjin/Tutankhamen VIII/Macho Pump MPRO 7/24/03

MD: Lost MPRO match that's a good use of fifteen minutes of your time. I haven't seen much Anibal, Jr., but he died of COVID earlier this year. I thought he looked pretty solid here actually, having a decent amount of size, only slight awkwardness because of it, a fearless dive or two, and a nice running elbow. It followed a pretty standard lucha structure despite being one fall. The tecnicos got to shine early, including everyone feeding for Sasuke and Atlantis getting to do some more tricked out one-vs-two spots than I usually remember him doing. When the rudos took over, it was primarily Jabagengi (Being Gran Apache, of all people, working a monkey man Neanderthal gimmick, of all things) directing traffic. It was solid but maybe lasted a little too long without enough motion. They worked for the comeback and went into bigger exchanges. Tutankhamen shined here more than in the rest of the match, including a double jump twisting senton bomb and a no hands dive over the top, but maybe he was a little too into celebrating after the fact. Macho Pump had some personality and got tossed by the head by Atlantis and I have nothing else to say about him. Finish maybe needed a little more zing, but the dives before it had plenty. Basically, the highs were high and lows were few and tolerable. Fun stuff.

PAS: I thought this was neat stuff, MPRO six mans are such a joyful formula style of match. Gran Apache in a monkey suit and Fantastik in King Tut hat do a great job of filling in the KDX rudo base role, and this is some of the better Macho Pump I have seen. They were especially great at basing and bumping for Atlantis, just flying around for all of his offense, I loved the height and distance Macho Pump got on the monkey flip, it was almost Eddieish. All of the dives looked great, we couldn't always see where they landed, but man does Sasuke fly out sight with recklessness and force, it is almost crazier when we don't see his running tope con hilo land. Fantastik hit a crazy flipping springboard senton in the ring, and a wild no hands tope con hilo on a prone Anibal, he was so good every time he showed up in Japan but never went anywhere in Mexico.

ER: 2000s MPRO is a fed ripe for discovery for me, a real blindspot outside of a few matches here and there. Before this, did I know that Gran Apache wore a Giant Gonzalez full body skin and fur suit with a Neanderthal mask? I had no idea, and the crowd had no real idea what to make of him. He has a large novelty club and looks like Bubba the Cave Duck, only with a big dark zipper up his back. He grunts and slaps chest and thighs and constantly tries to get the crowd to react to him, and they politely do, but not enthusiastically. I'm not sure I would have even known it was Apache, even though the slap punches were there and he was a strong base for the tecnicos. I adored Apache's backwards bumps to the floor, perfect backwards tumbles over the bottom rope while landing on his feet, a bump to the floor I don't really see in lucha. There's a classic luchador way of bumping rolling over the bottom rope to the floor, holding the rope and flinging your legs over, but this was like Apache tipping backwards into the water before scuba diving. I loved it. Sasuke had what appeared to be a huge Asai moonsault to the floor (tripod camera missed the landing but it got the loudest reaction of the match so it was surely typical Sasuke danger) and hit his big swan dive right at the finish. Anibal hits a great dive and a nice plancha to the floor, plus takes a wild monkey flip in ring that bounces him upside down off the ropes. But Fantastik really takes the cake, taking multiple high backdrop bumps to the floor (often at the hands of Apache by accident), hits a cool double jump springboard somersault senton, a gorgeous bullet tope, and then hits the dive of the match with a hands free senton to the floor, Super Calo style. I love this format, really need to dive more into mid 2000s MPRO. 

American Dragon vs. Metal Master Paris Japan Expo 7/6/08

PAS: Chad Collyer uploaded this, it was from a show in Paris and has a masked Bryan Danielson against a masked Collyer. What a treat, first section of this match saw Dragon working 80s heel, choking with a rope, doing a Ric Rude hip swivel, taking stooging bumps. He was as good doing John Tatum as he is doing souped up Chris Benoît stuff, as he was doing Ricky Morton shtick in WWE tags, what a talent. I thought all of the early over the top heel stuff really paid off at the end of the match, when they had more of a hot workrate finishing run. By then the crowd was fully behind Metal Master, and chagrined every time Dragon got a bit of an advantage. The execution on the finish had a bunch of cool little flourishes, including Dragon doing a super fast Saint escape of a waistlock into a back elbow. Video gets choppy at the end, but we still get almost the whole match and a great little snapshot at a small part of an all time greats career. 

MD: Absolutely tremendous. When I saw the word "expo," I half wondered what we were going to get. It hearkened back to some of those lucha performances at other "expos" that end up being as streamlined and straightforward as possible, in front of game but unfamiliar crowds. In that regard, this didn't disappoint. This is 2008 Collyer and Danielson, under hoods, wrestling their version of a high-energy 1989 American match. Danielson completely gives himself over to the role, complaining about the crowd not cheering for him at the start, bumping, stooging, feeding, clowning, and stalling throughout, taking over on an unclean break, playing hide the object with a rope from the turnbuckle, and yes, twice doing the Rick Rude hip swivel and probably having the time of his life in the process. Yet, they show that they understand what works and why it works. The crowd completely comes along with Collyer as he fights his way out of a chinlock. Danielson hits an axehandle off the second rope mid-way through to set up a bit transition as he leaps off the top into a Collyer dropkick later. They had to switch cameras towards the end and you got the sense that the person had technical difficulties and had to be selective in what was captured, but you get the broad idea of it. Towards the end, they cycle into Steamboat/Savage pin attempts, and some very believable 1989 power move near falls, before Danielson reverses a flying body press and grabbing the tights for the win. Full commitment, total patience and restraint, great understanding of what works and why. I'm sure they had a blast doing it. It's a great performance from both guys and another feather in Danielson's cap.

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Black Terry Ain't Got no Ills, Black Terry Don't Owe No Bills

Black Terry/Pierroth II/Arlequin vs. Chico Che/Fantastik/Multifacetico IWRG 3/19/09-SKIPPABLE

TKG: Aw man this was an awful mess. What the fuck? IWRG shelled out the money for Dr Wagner Jr and didn’t pay anyone else? These guys looked like unpaid trainees. Maybe Dr Wagner Jr has access to the good drugs and partied with the roster preshow. I haven’t seen Fantastik in ages and he looked barely trained. No one but Black Terry and Multifacetico looked like they knew how to run the ropes. Arlequin looked like Jim Belushi disinterestedly brawling in a fight scene in a shitty direct to video action movie. There is a point where Arlequin and Fantastik try to do fighting spirit chop exchanges…I don’t know if Arlequin was doing a Kawada sell, but he sells the pain and then goes to fighting spirit sell by doing push ups but is in too much pain and does girl push ups instead.

PAS: The thing you love about IWRG is that they will give great matches enough time to really be great, the flip side is when you get an abortion like this, it will be a long drawn out abortion. Tom talked a lot about how bad Arlequin was, and he was really bad, but man alive did Chico Che and Pierroth II look like crap. They kept matching up with each other in long rope running sections, where neither guy looked like they had run ropes before. He tried, but Black Terry wasn’t able to do anything with this.

Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro/Cerebro Negro v. Trauma I/Trauma II/Ultraman Jr. IWRG 10/29/09-EPIC

TKG: This starts with Dr Cerebro and Ultraman Jr doing technical exchanges built around trading nasty arm wringer variations. Then Black Terry matches up with Trauma I and Cerebro Negro matches up with Trauma II doing exchanges of submissions. Trauma puts on a submission that hurts the opponent can’t escape but won’t tap to, and then opponent slaps on submission that works the same body part. This whole thing is really made by both Terry and Cerebro Negro’s selling. Second fall is the fast exchange fall and these are superfast Gods Must Be Crazy stop motion animation fast exchanges. Black Terry and Ultraman Jr look to blow a bunch of things but they keep going and the awkwardness gives a real violent feel to the fast exchange section as they look to be forcing each other into stuff. That’s the sense you get throughout this fall as it’s super stiff and super fast. Things may be moving so fast that these guys can’t perform as smoothly as you normally see in most “quick exchange” caidas. Third fall also has some rough moments but these guys are professionals and know how to make that add to the feel of an actual fight. Like Tina Turner these guys can do nothing nice and easy, they’re all about the nice and rough.

PAS: Dinastia De La Muerte v. Terrible Cerebros was the feud of the year in IWRG in 2009, this was that match up with Ultraman Jr. replacing Negro Navarro. That is a huge step down it talent, as Ultraman Jr. is slightly above average and Navarro was the best wrestler in the world in 2009. It kind of works in this match though, as Navarro's absence forces the Traumas to step up huge and really become the focus of the match. The opening mat sections were long and awesome, that kind of machismo mat wrestling, where guys show their skill by tying up and then releasing their opponent can be overdone in IWRG, but it is really great here. Everyone sells pain and frustration tremendously, and you really buy this as a test of machismo, no one is going to tap and they are all desperate to prove the more skilled luchadore. Tom was right about the ragged awesomeness of the second and third falls, it gets faster and more violent and more reckless and it feels like it is going to spiral completely out of control. I have no problem with a low blow finish, but this felt like it should have built to a total explosion, and the finish deflated it a bit. Still a tremendous match, right up there with the best matches of 2009.

Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro/Negro Navarro v. Solar/Sucida/Zatura IWRG 1/28/10-EPIC

PAS: Great, great stuff. These are six of the greatest wrestlers in the world given some time to have a wrestling match. We start out with Solar v. Negro Navarro which is the best match up in wrestling today. They are playing a variation of the same notes, but this was less of an exhibition and more of a struggle. They didn't do the hold, release, hold style, things were being countered and reversed. The tapatia reversed into a tapatia was especially awesome looking. The youtube revolution has allowed us to see this match up a bunch in the last couple of years, that may be seen as a bit of a downside, but it is a weird criticism. They are traveling around the country and the world doing their thing, and they still mix it up a bunch. This isn't 80's WWE guys doing move for move replications of the same house show match, it is two maestros locked in a decade long battle of one upsmanship and I am eager to catch every installment. Next we get a long completely awesome Zatura v. Black Terry mat section, it may be the novelty of it, but this felt as good as the Navarro v. Solar section. They did a lot of battling in and out of leglocks which really felt like a Imanari fight, I also loved how Terry would use wrist locks to transition into throws. A singles match between those two would be unbelievable. The first fall ends with a really great speedy exchange between Suicida and Dr. Cerebro, with Segura flying all over the ring and Cerebro bumping like a king. Just an awesome first fall, as good as any opening caida I can ever remember seeing. Unfortunately the second and third falls were both about four minutes, good but really too abbreviated for this to truly be a classic. Both falls had great shit in them though. The second fall, had more Navarro v. Solar, with both guys jockeying for big throws. The third fall had Cerebro taking Suicida to the floor and beating the shit out him, it added a bit of violence to the artistry which was welcome. Honestly add three minutes to each fall and we have the match of the year, even as is, it is a beautiful piece of wrestling

TKG: Holy crap this was great. Solar and Navarro aren’t just guys exchanging technical holds but there is this real sense of escalation in their exchanges. They start off with arm drag exchanges which lead to arm locks and immobility knots which build into arm locks that can’t be reversed forcing rope breaks. From there they move into this amazing boxing in a phone booth section of mat wrestling (perhaps wrestling in a dumbwaiter) that transitions into both guys trying for ceiling stretches. Each of these sections is given its own weight and there is this real feeling of escalation to this whole exchange. This is followed up by Black Terry v Zatura, and I’m not a guy who particularly cares for shoot interviews and don’t believe in using them as source for actual facts. But listening to self aggrandizing stories told by professional liars gives you some insight into the value system of those liars (the values and morality of the stories). And watching Terry v Zatura after Solar v Navarro really reminded me of all the tales of shooters where there are two schools “yeah I’d stretch a guy see what he had, but I wasn’t a ripper those guys are assholes”. And you have this escalation from Solar v Navarro as pros stretching each other to Terry v Zatura “ripping” which leads into Cerebro and Suicida just wanting to beat each other up. Solar watches all this and goes “Oh this is how we’re going to play” and comes in and just goes at Navarro with added violence. Second fall we get a small little bit of Solar v Cerebro which ends with Solar doing a pretty cool deadlift into armdrag and backbreaker. I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth but it’s kind of a shame we don’t get to see some of the Solar matches where he isn’t paired opposite Navarro, one of the people who taped the Angelico v Navarro match showed clips of Solar’s match on the 1/21 show which looked fun. But it’s back to Solar v Navarro trading big throws. Third fall is all about Cerebro and Suicida having unfinished business. This match just keeps on building and building, and is easily the best thing I’ve seen thus far in 2010.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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IWRG 3/19/09

PAS: Alfredo got in a batch of IWRG including some shows that didn’t show up on youtube, this show was earlier in the year then any of the other stuff we have reviewed.

Black Thunder, Mr. Condor, Muerte Roja vs. Turbo, Bushi, Pendulo

TKG: Mr Condor was pretty bad ass here. And you wanted to watch whatever he did but this was a mess. Black Thunder is the rudo who specializes in eating Turbo’s stuff better than anyone else (Averno to Turbo’s Mistico), but he looked like a mess eating either Bushi or Pendulo’s offense. Surprisingly, he didn’t look that great opposite Turbo either. Where is Marabunta? The Bestias Metalicos? Mr Condor deserves better Nuevo Diabolicos.

PAS: Turbo has some nice looking armdrags, but they were only occasionally eaten nicely. This was the first time I had seen Muerte Roja and he really wasn’t doing it for me, really a poor mans Hysteria. This was all about Mr. Condor as he was in the role Black Terry often plays in IWRG, legendary rudo carrying five other guys.

Black Terry, Pierroth II, Arlequin vs. Chico Che, Fantastik, Multifacetico

TKG: Aw man this was an awful mess. What the fuck? IWRG shelled out the money for Dr Wagner Jr and didn’t pay anyone else? These guys looked like unpaid trainees. Maybe Dr Wagner Jr has access to the good drugs and partied with the roster preshow. I haven’t seen Fantastik in ages and he looked barely trained. No one but Black Terry and Multifacetico looked like they knew how to run the ropes. Arlequin looked like Jim Belushi disinterestedly brawling in a fight scene in a shitty direct to video action movie. There is a point where Arlequin and Fantastik try to do fighting spirit chop exchanges…I don’t know if Arlequin was doing a Kawada sell, but he sells the pain and then goes to fighting spirit sell by doing push ups but is in too much pain and does girl push ups instead.

PAS: The thing you love about IWRG is that they will give great matches enough time to really be great, the flip side is when you get an abortion like this, it will be a long drawn out abortion. Tom talked a lot about how bad Arlequin was, and he was really bad, but man alive did Chico Che and Pierroth II look like crap. They kept matching up with each other in long rope running sections, where neither guy looked like they had run ropes before. I thought Condor kind of kept that last match together, but Black Terry wasn’t able to do anything with this.

Hijo del Pierroth, Oficial 911, Máscara Año 2000 Jr. vs. Zatura, Fuerza Guerrera, Dr. Wagner Jr.

TKG: This wasn't really much until the third fall. House show Dr Wagner working mailed in brawl through crowd and running through his charisma posing spots. Wagner does have a ton of charisma and him tearing off 911's police hat and posing with it was amusing. Official 911 looked really amusing without the hat,as he still had the visor and looked like a highschool football coach or retiree golfer. I was surprised by how well Mascara Ano dos Mill Jr looked doing the half assed brawl through the crowd. Third fall was the IWRG regulars getiing all their stuff in, the fall in the Wagner touring match thats built on locals showcasing their stuff and they all delivered.

PAS: This was the best match of this sub par episode. Like Tom mentioned it was a big batch of nothing up until the third fall, but the third fall was really good. Zatura was all over the ring, in a show with some impressive flyers (Turbo, Fantastik) underwhelming, Zatura busted it out. My favorite move was his rana to the floor which sent 911 somersaullting into the crowd where he totally wipes out a fan. This dude was flipped head over heels. Fuerza had some fun interactions with 911 too. For a guy with shtick, Wagner doesn't really have shtick I love, but I don't hate it either.

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