New Footage Friday: RIP Masa Saito, Frank Andersson, Ron Simmons, British Bulldogs, Terry Gordy, Masa Fuchi

We decide to find a couple of Masa Saito Handhelds to focus on, along with a unique All Japan singles match.

Masa Saito/Animal Hamaguchi vs. The British Bulldogs AJPW 5/14/85

MD: I might not be the biggest Hansen fan, but that doesn't mean I'm not one at all. He's the most uncooperative guy imaginable at times, occasionally to the detriment of a match having any structure at all, but he more than makes up for it in atmosphere and visceral intensity. You get exhausted watching a Hansen match. In this setting, Dynamite has all of the drawbacks of Hansen and none of the upside. This is about ten minutes. Nine of those, including the final minute, have the Bulldogs in charge. Dynamite doesn't sell a single thing (including getting tossed off the top rope). Some of the Bulldogs' stuff is pretty cool, like the tandem set up second rope power slam and Dynamite's tombstone and the finish is fine with Saito and Hamaguchi getting fed up after a ref bump and just demolishing Davey Boy in the corner for the DQ, but the match itself is problematic at best. There's a reason why so much of the far-too-revered mid 80s WWF tag team scene doesn't hold up to scrutiny and you're looking at it in this match.

PAS: I can totally understand why Saito and Hamaguchi got fed up and shoved the ref. I would be pretty pissed if a roided out midget ate me up like that. Saito and Hamaguchi are both legit badasses, Saito beat up multiple cops, you figure they would just make Dynamite sell. I did like a bunch of the Bulldogs moves, that powerslam was great and Dynamite was really explosive, and his one bump to the floor looked great, but I was hoping for an all action match between two dynamic offensive teams and I got the Bulldogs working like the Road Warriors.

Masa Saito/Frank Andersson vs. Hiro Saito/Ron Simmons NJPW 9/23/91

PAS: Andersson is a Swedish Olympian, who had a brief WCW syndie run in the mid 90s, so we had an Olympic tag team against the odd couple of Saito and Simmons. Andersson is super green in pro-wrestling, although he had a nice run of cool suplexes at the end of the match. Still he had some of the worst dropkicks I can remember seeing, it felt like the local football coach was working in a charity Southern tag and insisted on doing a dropkick. There was a nifty bit of business when the Saitos squared offf, and Simmons hit a nice powerslam, but this was an Andersson showcase when he probably shouldn't have been showcased.

MD: Andersson is best described here as a lankier Alex Wright without the smoothness or the rhythm. The best part of the match may be that some kid seems to be ring announcing. The second best part is probably the crowd's reaction to Andersson's lame kick. That's one thing I've enjoyed with these house shows: the crowd is very willing to crack up at something they find funny, be it Enos' reaction to the countered Doomsday Device or just a strike that doesn't look good. At the same time, if someone earns applause, they get it. To be fair to Andersson, he's got occasional explosiveness and his suplexes to lead to the finish were fun. The little bit we get of Masa Saito vs Ron Simmons makes me want more. Simmons is always so good at being in the moment, expressing frustration at a two count or exuberance in breaking a hold. This needed more Masa Saito and less Andersson.

Masanobu Fuchi vs. Terry Gordy AJPW 4/2/92

MD: Now this is the stuff. Just what you'd want from these two. I just wish it went another couple of minutes. I loved the early standoffs. There's such a promise of violence to Fuchi and a promise of impact to Gordy. His one hand slams are the best. Fuchi equalizes things by targeting the knee and it's just vicious. Just like Gordy made those slams look effortless, Fuchi is able to make locking in holds (even a stump puller against a guy Gordy's side) and limb manipulation look so easy. That's true with his small packages late in the match too. He's just able to snatch up body parts out of nowhere like the most natural thing in the world. Anyway, Gordy, who had been selling huge, recovers by repeatedly tossing Fuchi out of the ring, which is a hugely believable way to transition off of selling, and finally puts him down by hitting a short clothesline (after Fuchi had ducked one or two standard ones), and locking in a Cobra. Great stuff. It would have been nice to have five more minutes of it.

PAS: Fuchi was such a huge part of what made All Japan in the early 90s so great, but we really don't have many singles matches during that run, especially against heavyweights, so it is really cool to see what he brings in that situation. Loved Gordy hurling Fuchi with those one armed bodyslams, really contemptuous, and Fuchi responding by tearing up the knee. I especially dug Fuchi catching the up kick and turning it into a stump puller, such a nifty counter. I am the worlds biggest Fujiwara fan and I love watching someone use craft and guile to overcome power. I do think the match could have used one Fuchi reversal or escape when he was trapped in the cobra clutch, the crowd seemed ready to really explode for a Fuchi comeback and the finish felt a little flat. Still this was a real treat, and I want to track down a bunch more Fuchi singles.

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My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Worldwide 4/16/95

1. Meng vs. Bill Payne

So I called out Meng recently for being a shitty squash match worker, and he still sorta is. But here he was really fun. Maybe something happened between '95 and '97. I need to do a Meng depth chart to see when he started to get lame. His squashes are usually boring because he really has little dynamic offense. He throws a few chops, then he goes to Tongan death grip. But here in 1995 he has tons of offense. He throws these awesome knees from the clinch and hits a beautiful piledriver. He also does a couple cool superkicks that are less superkick, and more front kick right under the chin. They looked great. He also dished out an awesome running clothesline that he doesn't normally do, and in general worked as stiff as people imagine Meng works. We'll figure this out together.

2. Jim Duggan vs. Sledgehammer McGill

Holy shit Sledgehammer McGill?! I've never seen or heard of this guy before, and he's a pretty unassuming black 90s jobber (Steiners reject singlet, flat top), but he bumps like a freak for Duggan by dumping himself on his dome a couple different times on Duggan clotheslines, leaning way into Duggan forearms, even bumping over the top to the floor for one of them! Match went less than 2 minutes, but I want more Sledgehammer the bump freak!

3. Frank Andersson vs. (Not Thee) Manny Fernandez

Well I have never heard of Andersson, who looks like Sting/Tom Howard/Klaus Kinski/Rutger Hauer and apparently won the bronze at the 1984 Olympics in Greco-Roman. They talk during the match about him getting a title shot but I have zero memories of ever seeing him. He's kind of like a Glacier before Glacier, complete with blonde crewcut. But instead of karate offense it's all cool wrestling takedowns and suplexes. They're all rehearsed and really set up, but Manny got dumped on his head a few times by cool leg trips and an awesome deadlift belly to belly to end it. Did this guy ever work New Japan? I'd like to see him vs. Hashimoto.

4. Big Bubba Rogers vs. Kenny Kendall

Poor KK only gets a minute here. Poor guy had a good build and was as tall as Bubba, but it looks like he only ever got job duty for a few years in the 90s. How are there guys like Scott Putski or Jim Powers that get roster spots but guys like Kendall don't get a shot? I mean, none of them are any good, so why not Kenny? Why are there people like Frank!?

5. Marcus Bagwell/The Patriot vs. Dino Casanova/Romeo Valentino

Dino and Romeo were known as The Cream Team on the indy circuit. Ewwww. Oddly enough, The Cream Team was the name of an amateur gay porn Bagwell appeared in several years before this. This was 2 minutes and Romeo/Dino bumped like crazy for Stars & Stripes. I think if this was actually given 8 minutes it would have been a good match. As it was, Bagwell threw a nice dropkick, Patriot's top rope shoulderblock looked good, Dino did a full Jannetty bump off a clothesline. It was a fine squash.

6. Alex Wright vs. Arn Anderson

Boy, this finely illustrates one of the most obnoxious things about televised wrestling. The commercial break before the two guys even enter the ring, I already know the finish. As they cut to commercial after the Stars & Stripes match, Tony goes "AA vs. Alex Wright for Arn's TV Title is coming up next, and remember, TV title matches are a 10 minute time limit." I try and bet Rachel all of the money ever that this match is going to a time limit draw, but I show my hand too early and she doesn't take the bet. Back from break and they're all laying it on thick. Penzer is announcing the time limit which has clearly never happened in any other match you've ever seen that DIDN'T go full time limit, Heenan is saying "I don't think Wright could even last 3 minutes with the champ, let alone 10!" while Wright is walking to the ring. Just dogshit. Match isn't good, either, blatantly obvious finish or not. Wright seems reallllly nervous in there. It's kind of crazy. I don't recall many times seeing a wrestler and thinking, "Man this guy looks scared he's going to break something in there," but Wright seemed completely crossed up from go. You know his little trademark armlock/cartwheel mat transfer? Well they go to that, he slips, they start over, he trips on the kip-up spot and falls on his back, Arn stays with it, Wright gets up to cartwheel and ends up wheelkicking Arn across the face, Wright falls again, etc. Just unfortunate. But Arn tries his damndest and continues being a pro throughout. Who knows how much of an HBK shitfit would have occurred if he were in Arn's boots. Arn looks just fine here, doing all his cool offense that only guys like Finlay seem to do (scraping boot laces across the face, stomping hands). But holy lord the whole match is "HOW MUCH TIME IS LEFT ON THE CLOCK!?!?!?" and then Penzer does the 2 minute warning when the match is about 5:30 in and Wright botches the ending by hitting his finisher at the 10 second mark meaning Arn had to kick out instead of let the time expire. Just a total mess. To their credit the fans at Orlando Studios were going crazy with the time countdown so it worked to a certain degree live, obviously. But boy this couldn't have been more disappointing.

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