Found Footage Friday: HIJO DEL SANTO EARLIEST FOOTAGE~!

Hijo del Santo/Matematico/Blackman vs. Blue Panther/Lobo Rubio/Black Terry 7/24/83

MD: Our earliest footage of Hijo del Santo. This is just 8 minutes, clipped, and we usually don't do clipped matches, but look at the names here. It's not like we have a ton of lucha from this early either. A lot of the focus is on the Lobo Rubio vs Santo pairing and some things do stand out. they would hang on to a limb through escapes and moves much more than I'm used to in lucha (I'm more used to one hold moving into the other). It felt more European in that regard. Some of it was very slick. Santito had these great leap through armdrags too where he sort of jumped past Lobo and whipped him around. Santo already had the flip senton off the top but here he chained it into a forward charge and the set up for the caballo instead of a dive. The footage cuts off with a later fall with Santo doing quite well against everyone all at once until they did catch him and start triple teaming. They certainly didn't let him out there with the gimmick before he was ready. That's my big takeaway here. 

ER: What a find, guaranteed to be the best eight minutes you spent on a match this week. If this is the earliest Hijo del Santo we've seen - and I don't think Matt would lie - then this is a real find. It's not a full match but it gives a very full picture of everything that young incredibly skinny Hijo del Santo could do. This man arrived fully together on sight, kept from the gimmick but advancing quickly. This man was already here, looking like he understood everything already. What stood out first was the honesty in his basics, the advanced level quickness of his exchanges without skipping past the actual contact and transition. He knew how to apply a side headlock, how to do tough scissors escapes, how to fall for leg picks making it look like he's not just moving through a sequence. Just like the Santo you've known every active year of his career, his execution is flawless. His dropdown floated in gorgeously at the tops of Lobo's knees, forcing Lobo's roll rather than relying on Lobo to do the sequence anyway. 

Beyond his command of physically sound basics and speed, he had tricks and ideas. He did a mystifying armdrag that is perhaps the prettiest armdrag I've ever seen, where he floats past Lobo as a magician's misdirection and hooks him as Lobo is turning around to his left. He does it twice. I watched it I don't know how many times. His rolling senton hit just as smooth as any year of Santo you're familiar with, and while your brain expects tope, I liked the quick to the point in ring tope he hit to Lobo's neck. His confidence was unreal. 

The bit at the end, with Santo working both Blue Panther and Black Terry, is the most GIFable thing I've ever seen, on the level with the real primo Super Porky sequences, for different reasons. Every man is On for every single step. They're all the best man of the sequence. Look at Blue Panther set up this wonderful bit where he actually gets tripped by Santo's dropdown while Terry makes it over; Panther is up rubbing his head in confusion as he stumbles perfectly into place to grab Santo before getting armdragged past Terry. Terry takes a bump through the ropes when Panther gets shoved into him, and Panther hangs up in the ropes by the boot when he's dropkicked after. Even Lobo gets involved, kicking Panther's boot free and dropping him off to the floor. We go into Santo's earliest footage and come away learning that Blue Panther was just as fully formed. 

I wish we got more Matematico and Blackman. Matematico had a roll up that gliding up and over Panther's body, hesitating at the top of the steady rollercoaster before tumbling perfectly down the other side. Blackman is at minimum a great North Star for viewers with mask blindness when watching 40 year old lucha footage. Blackman had a nice command of his speed, and the bit at the end where he evades all three rudos was a guy who surely had some good ideas in the footage we don't have. Bask in what we do have.   

Hijo del Santo/Matematico/Blackman vs. Blue Panther/Lobo Rubio/Black Terry 7/31/83

MD: The revancha from the following week. Another minute or two longer than the first clip too. This was shot more from ringside/underneath and we come in (after the tecnicos greet the kids and pose for a photo) with a rudo ambush. Panther and Lobo have a great Hart Attack style dropkick followed by a pendulum back onto the knees. The kids are already chanting Santo and for good reason as he bounds over Lobo in the corner and hits a bunch of armdrags and dropkicks. This is clipped but we get a really nice Matematico vs Black Terry exchange and then all of the tecnicos bounding off the top rope one after the other with body presses until they pin the rudos all at once in a great fall-ender. It's so easy to take Santo for granted since we have year and years of him and plenty of footage, but he was constant motion here, all over the place and they certainly set him up for success with the feeding and basing. It had to be pretty exciting to see him vs Panther for this crowd. Panther had a great roll through landing/escape on a catapult I'd never seen before, though it all built towards Santo's tope. Lightning in a bottle that would shine in the night for years and years to come.

ER: We should be making a bigger deal about this right? We should be shouting about these two matches from the rooftops. It's Hijo del Santo, it's Blue Panther, it's Terry, it's glimpses of guys like Matematico and Blackman, it's just constant gorgeous sweeping lucha action. This match is just as special as the previous week's, as this one is in the middle of the most amazing arena, a bullfight arena that stretches to the heavens and doesn't even seem to have spaces for proper aisles and rows. The higher you see the grandstand stretch to the sky the less sense it makes. It feels like reckless construction, thousands of people stacked on top of each other defying physics row by row. It's the same kind of wonder as when I saw National Geographic photos of favelas on a hillside, stacked impossibly on top of each other, no roads or paths or support network visible, just colors. The lucha action itself is beautiful, impossibly smooth, but I can't stop looking at these thousands of people piled on top op each other, how impossible the lines and angles look. It looks like how they draw a large crowd in comic books, like during that storyline arc where The Thing gets involved in pro wrestling. It's just stacks of people. They aren't real, but these people are, and they're ALL chanting for Santo. 

Because, Santo was ready on arrival and everyone in this impossibly shaped building knew it. We've all played with Coach's Sons in childhood sports and we're all inclined to dislike them, but Santito was the rare coach's son who was clearly a megastar. His tope is filmed from the crowd, making it look like Santo disappears deep into the crowd. I wish I knew where he landed, but it's probably even better that we don't know. El Hijo del Santo recently finished #22 on the GWE project, and seeing how he looked in his earliest footage...how silly is that? My entire life as a lucha fan, we've been subliminally underselling the perfection that is Santo. It's writers getting MVP fatigue for Bonds and Jordan, you just see nothing but high end work from the same guy and eventually you just want to vote for Charles Barkley or Jeff Kent. I love Samoa Joe, but I was also there for his earliest matches representing UPW. We know the wrestler he grew into and the great heights he reached, but here's footage that show Santo reaching those heights from go, under the brightest lights...and I'm just not sure you can reasonably compare the two. 

Celestial/Stuka vs. Carlos Plata/Gran Markus Jr. Arena Coliseo Monterrey 1989

MD: Apparently we have very little footage of Plata. This starts with kids surrounding the tecnicos and a guy in a dog costume handing out candy. Commentary loves this for the "seed must be sown in children today and harvested tomorrow in adults." It's funny as they talk about wrestling being more sanitized for national consumption and then at the blow of the whistle the rudos immediately ambush the tecnicos. I could watch Markus pick up guys by their mask/tights and drop them on their face over and over. You really don't see that often but he's just a brick wall in there. The finish of the primera was just Markus holding Stuka in a surfboard while Plata kicked him over and over. Mercy rule win for the rudos.

Segunda did have the tecnicos come back with Markus basing for some fun stuff. Plata kept things more back and forth. He was good at sneaking shots in and had a way of throwing his body around interestingly on bumps. Nice finish with Celestial stretching himself up backwards for a victory roll and Stuka doing a back handspring headbutt. Tercera had Plata using this pretty great choke drop off the ropes right into a choke. Things broke down pretty chaotically, with Stuka fouling his way back into the ring to mount a comeback and then Markus trying to interfere from the outside after he got eliminated. Even with two refs that just led to distraction which backfired on his team much to the children's delight. 

ER: A great rudo showcase, a great look at Markus and our (my?) first look at Plata. Plata is such a good base and expert at setting up tecnico offense, that he makes Celestial look like Atlantis in the first two falls, while the bad 3rd fall finish makes him look like Celestial. Markus works dominant stooge and plays to Stuka's bumping shtick while taking big bumps of his own. Markus and Plata worked what felt like 80% of the match in control while working like they were on their heels. Stuka I liked more when he was bumping for Markus's strikes, but Markus knew how to take their tecnico offense so well that he made them look like mountain movers at times. Markus and Plata are such great bullies, Markus kicking Celestial in the ribs while he was held in a submission, or my favorite, Markus lifting Stuka by his singlet and repeatedly throwing him face first into the mat. Markus is doing a Taue reverse nodowa otoshi, only using stretch fabrics. No less vicious. The peak is when Markus and Stuka have a showdown punch exchange that is truly great, both reeling in ways that nobody can real now, Stuka dropping into the middle rope after a shot straight to the chin. Beautiful work.  

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Found Footage Friday: REMO BANDA~! PRINCIPE ISLAND (LA PARK)~! ARANDU~! GRAN MARKUS~! ANTICHRISTO~?

Remo Banda/Coliseo 2000 vs Panico/Zorro de Oro CMLL 1989

MD: Remo Banda is Super Parka/Volador , with his glorious head of hair. I think Zorro de Oro is actually Anticristo of the famous promo which makes this particularly well timed in some ways. Coliseo had a colorful costume with his name in big letters (like a sign almost) and Panico was just a scuzzy looking rudo doing scuzzy rudo things. Primera had him get the best of Remo Banda with a bunch of armdrags but then also refuse to engage at times as well. All of these guys were perfectly competent, even if Zorro de Oro had me look twice as he went twisting over the top rope to the apron once or twice. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. The primera had bodies flying about chaotically to end but things settled down with a segunda beatdown. The commentary was trying to paper over that even though the rudos tossing Remo Bando around by his hair, the refs didn't dare disqualify these men with "sewers for their hearts." Also that Gran Davies, since he had been a rudo when he wrestled, tended to favor the rudos as a ref. Also that the ropes should be an ally to the fighter, not an instrument of torture. Lots of fun commentary here that only got more flowery when Morales took over in the tercera. Anyway, the tecnicos took over too with Remo Banda pinballing the rudos as they pretty quickly got their revenge and won the day. This had an undercard feel but colorful characters at least.  

Cachorro Mendoza/Rudy Reyna/Jose Torres vs Principe Island/Arandu/Gran Markus Jr (Monterrey 1990)

MD: Kind of a murderer's row of Segunda Caida rudos here, with my new appreciation for Arandu and the idea that Principe Island is, in fact, pre-Park. He had a swanky black jumpsuit with shoulder tassles and the announcers likened him to Michael Jackson. Markus mainly directed traffic and while he had some dubious kicks, he also stooged when it was time to stooge so I forgive him. Tecnico side was interesting. Torres was better known for his football gimmicks Super Maquina and El Invencible and Reynes had graduated (through older age) from being an Exotico to being a more straightforward tecnico. Both of them controlled the center of the ring with armdrgs and hiptosses and even a neat dragon screw takeover variation and had the rudos create motion for them. And boy did Arandu and Principe want to create motion, skidding and flying and bumping all over the place. You half had the sense they were trying to outdo one another, but it was really just who they were. Rudos ambushed at the start and controlled things until Mendoza took everyone out early in the segunda. From there the rudos fed plenty to make the older tecnicos look like experts until Markus got caught throwing a foul fairly early in the tercera. Nice to see all these guys as it was sort of a weird crossroads of time. And hey, you have to love that rudo side.

Kendo Star/El Magnifico/Kendo vs Principe Island/Carlos Plata/Milo Caballero (Monterrey 1989)

MD: This was prior to the 1990 match but I'm covering these per post order. This is a younger Park, stringier, with shorter hair. He's matched up with Kendo here, with their first exchange being mostly posturing and kicking at the air and shtick and their second being all of Kendo's fast tumbling with Principe running behind him and left in the corner, laughing at his own comeuppance. We know that he's one of the most charismatic wrestlers ever, but this isn't a Wagner Jr situation where he took years to work it out. It's a Gino Hernandez situation. We knew it a bit from Panama but it's so clear here. He got it. He was honest and earnest and coy and brazen. Unmasked Principe with a face full of character, sort of a face only a mother could love, isn't just bumping and sliding and feeding. He's reacting to everything and you watch him and imagine an entirely different career where he could have been amazing unmasked, like another Negro Casas. And of course, he was able to tap into so much of that and amplify it in his own way with the suit, but you look at this and wonder.

Magnifico is Justicero, and Plata is another one of those plain looking guys who could go exactly as much as he needed to. There are dozens and dozens of them. They matched up well enough and were actually the final pairing though the match itself would have told me it would be Principe and Kendo. Kendo Star had the mask and the gear but wasn't nearly as over the top as Kendo and didn't stand out nearly as much here, but Milo fell about for his act well enough. This didn't go quite deep enough into beatdown and comeback to have the emotional stakes you'd want; Principe and Kendo bolstered it but if they had leaned into the violence and revenge just a little more, the payoff would have been visceral given the pieceson the table. As it was, it's mainly a great look at this young man who would someday become legend.

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Found Footage Friday: ROSE~! WISKOSKI~! BASTIEN~! ZULU~! MARTINDALE~! ARAKAWA~! MARKUS~! DANDY~!

Tommy Martindale vs. Mitsu Arakawa NWA Chicago 10/22/54

MD: According to our buddy Ohtani's Jacket, Arakawa was Japanese-American and his gimmick in territories (though not here) was that he was a Hiroshima survival hellbent on revenge. This went about twenty in one fall and was solid stuff. During the pre-match stomping and bowing Martindale flew forth with a dropkick to get things going. He was a chippy and fiery babyface, always trying to work his way out of holds. In that regard, they seemed fairly evenly matched. Arakawa controlled the first third with a series of headlocks, constantly switching from one side to the other and taking him over. Eventually he used a "back bend" that he had been working for to get a reverse headlock in and break it up. You have to love the struggle. The fans did too. When Martindale went for a chinlock later and Arakawa had to escpae by going to the ropes, he drew big boos for it. These fans were conditioned to see wrestlers fight to get out of holds and everything was better off for it. Towards the end, Arakawa started to fight dirty with throat shots. Davis said Martindale had a boxing background but he didn't get to show it here. What he did get to show was that perseverence in constantly trying to fight out of holds, as he turned a body slam attempt by Arakawa into a pin and scored a banana peel victory. Nothing groundbreaking here but you have to love that underlying sense of struggle that could make six minutes of headlocks enjoyable. 

Buddy Rose/Ed Wiskoski vs. Red Bastien/Ron Pope Big Time Wrestling 11/4/78

MD: I don't know how new this is in general but it's a recent Orcutt upload and it's new to me and I've seen as much Rose as I can find. This was to establish Dr. Ken Ramey as Rose's new manager. Pope was a black strongman with a headbutt and a bearhug who I'm not super familiar with.The first five minutes of this were all worked around headlocks and while Wiskoski is good feeding and stooging for them, you can see the difference with Rose. He goes over perfectly for Bastien's walk up headscissors takeover in the corner, the legs going over in a picture perfect manner but one that still feigns impact and heft as opposed to seeming cooperative. Rose had a way of making over the top bumps seem completely natural. Likewise the way he'd flail his arms as far as was humanly possible during headlock cranks; it was for the last row, incredibly memorable, but still somehow felt like that's just what his body would do. Wiskoski was clunkier going over and more artificial on the flailing and it's not like he didn't bring things to the table. He just wasn't Buddy Rose. That's the thing though. No one was. He just instinctively knew what to do at every moment. 

The heels took over when Bastien went to the well once too often and Rose turned it into a belly to back. They got heat for a few minutes before a big comeback where Buddy ended up slammed by Pope and in Bastien's fireman's carry. When he got put in it a second time, they had a great finish of Ramey pulling Bastien's tights behind the ref's back so that Rose would go sailing over the top to draw the DQ. Very creative and it reminded me a little of the moment a few years before when Heenan debuted as Bockwinkel and Stevens' manager. Obviously this didn't have the same staying power, but it was a very effective capping of a pretty entertaining and purposeful TV match.

ER: I've probably been to Sacramento more than 98% of people who write about pro wrestling and I have zero familiarity with the Roy Shire Sacramento shows. I dated a girl whose uncle worked for KTXL as a camera operator. He was not a wrestling fan, he just filmed whatever was being filmed that day at KTXL. He viewed pro wrestling no differently than he viewed news broadcasts, talk shows, or people renting the studio to record their own paid programming. But he was still someone with up close wrestling stories from the sidelines, who did remember a lot of guys who came through Sacramento. Rocky Johnson was a name he brought up the way you'd bring up a college roommate's name, the way an old boss of mine used to talk about Pepper Gomez. This era of wrestling is underwritten about in general, and the Bay Area territory is way underwritten compared to other territories. Red Bastien is under-talked about because his career ran from 1950-1980 instead of 1960-1990, so most of the footage we have is from him in his late 40s. Ray Stevens too. The Bay Area guys all peaked in years we don't have, but now we get to watch Buddy Rose and Ed Wiskoski working a Sacramento TV studio within their peaks. 

Matt talked about Buddy Rose because Rose is a guy always worth talking about and seeking out. He takes multiple backdrops from Big Ron Pope and swung his loose floppy arms around in a side headlock like the Mighty Zulu had hit him with a second tranquilizer dart. Buddy is great, and this is a great Buddy match. But I love Ed Wiskoski and Matt shit all over him. Ed Wiskoski is great because he had two really great wrestling names: Ed Wiskoski and Col. DeBeers. He has some of my favorite wrestling posture. I love how he stands board straight like a Marine, like late 70s Nick Nolte. I love how he has a mustache and flattering shag cut, like late '70s Nick Nolte. His haircut and posture make him look like a Shakespearean surfer, and I love when he does his full rigid body flip over bump. Ed Wiskoski is a hulking version of Tom Atkins in Halloween III, the kind of guy who would show up to a street fight in brown corduroys. When he fights Bastien, he looks like and wrestles him like he's Bastien's younger, bigger brother. Buddy Rose is a guy who can and does steal many of the matches he's in, but Wiskoski wrestles like Chuck Connors would have wrestled. I get something out of him I don't get from any other wrestler. 

Gran Markus Jr/Monje Negro/Milo Caballero vs. El Dandy/Apolo Estrada/Monarka CMLL 1989

MD: Sometimes we get a 13 minute match and it's the full thing. Sometimes, like here, we come in at the start of the segunda. There's a short bit to begin where Markus does a pretty good job basing for Estrada's flashier stuff (think that was the main pairing) followed by a bit of dissension, I think because Dandy didn't like Estrada kicking Markus out of the ring (a tecnico taking pride in being a tecnico?) but then I got that from the commentators and they are unreliable narrators as usual. Regardless, that dissension helped the rudos take over. Of note, Caballero is a rudo here, which isn't what I'm used to and Monje Negro has to be up there in age, but he cut a forboding oversized figure, especially when put next to Markus. He had a knife kneelift and lawn darted Dandy right into Monarka, so that was fun. 

During the beatdown Markus really leaned on Estrada, bloodying him, gnawing on him, and tossing him into the third row in the most satisfying way. I don't remember Markus gnawing on bloody people often but the aftermath was a great visual with the white mask. The comeback was pretty great too as Estrada dodged a Markus knee as Monje Negro was holding him and the two ended up on their knees throwing shots at each other. Estrada got a few pin attempts in before Markus just jammed him, slammed him, and crushed his face with a nonchalant kneedrop. They cycled through after that, with Dandy and Monarka finally locking the other rudos into La Estrella, but Markus caught an Estrada body press, tossed him onto the mass of bodies in the submission, and then pinned said mass. I have to admit that Markus kind of looked like a beast here. Anyway, post-match kids got to hang out with the tecnicos in the bloody ring, so all's well that ends well, I guess?

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Found Footage Friday: DUSTIN~! INOUE~! STEEL~! BATES~! CASAS~! MARKUS~! ESPANTO~! RAMBO~! PANTERITA~! ARANDU~! SHEIK~! SULTAN~!

MD: So long as Roy keeps posting new lucha, we're going to take a look at it so nothing slips through the cracks. That is the service we provide. It's just going to take a while. Don't worry. We've been at this for five+ years. We'll get to, let's say, the Jumbo vs Billy Robinson hour-long match that just showed up unclipped for the first time ever. Eventually. Thankfully I don't have to cover the Lawler vs. Dundee 2011 match that Bryan Turner just uploaded since Phil and Tom were actually there. Still, we'll slip in some other things when we can. 

Negro Casas/Gran Markus Jr/Angel Blanco Jr vs. Tigre Canadiense/Jalisco/America CMLL 1992

MD: Really fun rudo side here. They started with the beatdown so that was a good thing. Just constant motion and violence. They'd put someone in the ropes and nail him and switch to the next guy doing it, so ona nd so forth. Casas was a ball of energy. We're talking DDTs on the ground and bursting across the ring and then pointing and laughing to the crowd. Every Negro Casas match you see him do something interesting or unique; a different pose or interaction with the ref or sell. Here at the end of the primera, instead of the standard lift and drop (like a spinebuster slam) that is typical in lucha to set up a submission he spun around once or twice with it, just to add some flair to it. I've never seen him do it before and I'll probably never see him do it again but that's Casas for you. He also had a great with America at the end of the segunda where he drew him in after his exchange with Angel Blanco, just completely disrupting the structure and then took an awesome bump over the top rope after they rolled around the ring. Then on the finish in the tercera, he turned a Saito Suplex into a German for the hell of it (again, something I've neve seen him do before). That's our Negro Casas.

Markus and Angel Blanco were pretty natural partners, a mini Ola Blanca and all of these guys worked well together. Markus always had big meaty shots and he based well for Jalisco in their one exchange. The Angel Blanco vs Jalisco exchange wasn't as strong. Tigre Canadiense did silly walks across the ring and had a punchable face. He was a fine foil for Casas but then who wasn't? America hit an awesome dive over Jalisco to set up the finish in the tercera, but I don't have a ton to say about any of the tecnicos really. Fun match that didn't wear out its welcome though.

Tigre Canadiense/Monarka/Colosso vs. Rambo/Espanto Jr./Corsario Negro CMLL 1992

MD: This one had me a little more worried. All you really need to know about it though is that it was the Rambo show. He was all over this and in a pretty good way. I don't think it had much more to offer though. In the primera, he was naturally paired with Colosso and his camo pants. This was a great one-time act as Rambo kept going for nerve holds and Colosso just flexed his way out of them. Then Colosso put one of his own and Rambo sold it in a panic, before shifting to a bearhug; somehow this ended with the more-or-less rudo ref in a bearhug, hilarity ensuing. I wouldn't want this act ever week but it was a good one time thing.

The transition to rudo beatdown in the segunda was great, with Rambo getting accidentally hefted over the top by his own partner. They start to tease the break up but finally swarm and hug. He had pretty solid chops and a running powerslam and then stooged all over during the comeback. Our Canadian tiger friend continued to dance funny, throw dropkicks, and be punchable. His pre-match interview was one minute away from him saying "totally tubular." Otherwise, these guys were fine. I wanted to see more out of Corsario Negro; he was tubby and I kept expecting him to do something cool because of it but nope, nothing. This was a one man Rambo show.

Panterita del Ring/Ciclon Ramirez/Aguila Solitaria vs. Arandu/Gran Sheik/Sultan Gargola CMLL 1992

MD: Panterita is obviously Safari/Epheso, and a helpful youtube commenter is saying that Ramirez was also Pegaso and Tiburon, the Sultan was Pancho Zapata, Jr, the Sheik was Ari el Gato Romero. So hopefully that helps someone. I wasn't too sure what to expect here and the primera didn't help. Everyone was fairly competent during the initial exchanges, even if Sheik (who did a lot of the work) didn't have a look to match his partners. Arandu looked especially good (surprisingly good?) in there against both Panterita and Ramirez.

It really opened up with the rudo beatdown though. The central story here was Arandu vs Panterita and they did a great job portraying hatred and violence. Arandu smashed Panterita into the seats again and again and Panterita came back not once but twice with fiery punches and revenge shots. Arandu wasn't afraid in the least to bump over the top all the way out of the ring. They were heating up an apueastas match that I think we get later on and from the opening cageyness of Arandu all the way to Panterita's flip dive to the floor to set up the finish, they made me want to see it. Ramirez had a belt and felt like a bigger deal overall but Panterita really gave off the vibe of a local hero in this one.

Ace Steel/Dustin Rhodes vs. Masao Inoue/Jason Bates WLW 9/25/04

MD: For some reason they gave us the hype promos for the show as inserts. This at least tells me that Steel and Bates used to be partners and that Dustin was stepping in for Trevor, which let Ace Steel do a Dusty impression. After some feeling out between Bates and Steel, Dustin tags in. There's a bit early on with him paired with Bates where he takes a punch in the corner. I have literally no idea how good or bad the punch was because Dustin's selling was so great. He leaned into it and then dropped immediately in the corner. Then he comes back and hits a beautiful shot of his own and it was twenty seconds of absolutely ideal pro wrestling. Slightly more dubious was Steel deciding to do the flip, flop, and fly, with some iffy punches while Dustin watching on the apron, but he was a good enough sport to come in for tandem figure-fours with Ace. Say what you will about the guy but always did come off as slightly deranged.

The crowd was full of not just the one guy who kept shouting for Ace to "go crazy" but a bunch of kids too, and they ate up the southern tag structure of Dustin rushing in to try to help his partner and Bates/Inoue taking advantage of it. It wasn't a big crowd but it was a buzzing one. Inoue wrestled this like he was Masa Saito or something, with big slams and eye rakes and double clotheslines (well, the eye rake I'd expect out of him). He ate a pretty comedic heel miscommunication version of the Shattered Dreams on the finish, but both he and Dustin were supporting players for whatever was going on with Bates and Steel. While I think they got pretty good mileage out of Dustin, and while it was surreal to see Inoue there at all, I'm not sure they got all that much out of his presence in the match.

ER: I am just in love with NOAH sending Masao Inoue as their representative for Harley Race's 5th anniversary show. This was a crowd made up of 80% children and one man who with all sincerity yelled "Get Crazy, Ace!" at least a dozen times, in a way where he wasn't seeking attention for himself, he just really wanted to see Ace Steel get crazy. This is an enthusiastic crowd at a family wrestling show on a Saturday night, who like heels to tell them to shut up in the kind of way where you can tell he really isn't the kind of guy who would tell a bunch of children to SU. There is no need to send Misawa or Kobashi. This is a show where you send the 27th man on your hierarchy out to and give him a two week American vacation. Masao Inoue is exactly the same person as Jun Akiyama would have been to Eldon, MO, and nobody in attendance was upset that they didn't get Takayama, the way 12 year old me was upset when I went to a Giants fan day in 1993 hoping to meet Barry Bonds and Will Clark and Rod Beck but instead wound up with indifferent pictures of me with Steve Scarsone and JR Phillips. 

The ring announcer has never heard a single word of Japanese in his life. He has never heard or said the name Masao Inoue before and proceeds to announce him as "Muhsoaaa Hagaoooooooowaaaa", somewhere between Adele Vazeem and covering your mouth with your hand so the parking attendant at your job somehow won't notice that you wiped your mouth every time you mumbled his guessed name. Inoue comes out in full Minoru Suzuki head towel and makes his wrist tape eye rubs and eye rakes the focal point of his Missouri offense.

I really need to go through my spindles of NOAH dvds to see if I have Jason Bates/Akitoshi Saito or Ace Steel/Haruka Eigen. 

Inoue does fun theatrical hopping body slams, with a little leg kicked out at the end, like a Leprechaun doing a slam in a musical. He also big times a lot of Dustin's strikes, not moving his head at all on 80% of Dustin's punches. I'm no lip reader, and I'm certainly no mind reader, but Dustin Rhodes privately questions on the apron whether or not Kishin Kawabata would have been this casually unprofessional. This match pioneers the idiotic "needlessly long inset promo over the actual action" and peaks the genre by playing Dustin's promo over his entire hot tag, 8 minutes after everyone else's inset promo had ended. He delivers his promo in a harsh whisper as if he recorded it in a public restroom and didn't want anyone else to know he was cutting a wrestling promo in the last stall. Jason Bates eating a Dustin drop toehold face first into Inoue's balls and getting high cradled by Dustin is an EXCELLENT finish to an event that sent dozens of kids home happy, laughing at the name Bull Schmitt one more time before their mothers tell them "I said no MORE." 

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Found Footage Friday: DOUBLE DOG COLLAR CAGE MATCH~! ADNAN IN IRAQ~! GUERREROS~! CHICANA~! LA FAMILIA MARKUS~!

Adnan Al Qaisi vs. Ian Campbell Iraq 1970

MD: Long 2/3 falls match that ends 1-0 for Adnan at the time limit (either 45 or 60 depending on clipping). This had been out there in parts but is newly clipped together in a welcome effort. You get a real sense of the imperial pageantry here, officials and a band and parade feel, even though the same footage of a few fans (out of the very many) is interspersed now and again. Let me put it this way. Campbell knew what was good for him here, knew what was safe and what wasn't. They weren't going for heat. They were using this as a showcase for Adnan's technical superiority. As such, it was a pretty effective dog and pony show.

Campbell had a size and strength advantage, but Adnan had an answer for every hold. Towards the last fifteen minutes, the answers were a little harder to find and Campbell could press harder with a full nelson or chinlock, but even those ended quickly enough by prying off an arm or pulling out a leg. In return, Campbell could use his strength to escape Adnan's stuff, but he'd find his way back in sooner than not. It meant that individual exchanges could be interesting, but that the total picture was a bit toothless. At times they'd break out into strikes. This first happened around the ten minute mark as Campbell was starting to register some of the damage to his arm. He had a great little bit where he trapped the arm behind his opponent's back with a hammerlock and tossed in a nasty forearm, but even there, Adnan fired back with a flurry and a jumping elbow smash soon enough. They repeated this a few minutes later and that's when Adnan got his one fall.

Considering the locale and the one repeated shot from the crowd of someone sweating profusely, it was probably sweltering there and Campbell was a big, hairy guy, but they kept a pretty good, competitive pace throughout. They'd go from a handshake to mean shots and back to a handshake so things were never going to come close to boiling over, but as they got towards the end of the time limit, Adnan increased his intensity, using leg kicks and just tossing Campbell out over the top repeatedly. That made it seem something of a moral victory for Campbell that he was able to survive to the bell (whistle?) even if he was a fall down. It was wrestling as celebratory propaganda, but as such it was fairly fascinating to watch, just maybe not 50 minutes worth of fascination.

Sangre Chicana/Gran Markus Sr./Gran Markus Jr vs. Chavo Guerrero/Hector Guerrero/Mando Guerrero CMLL 9/18/87 

MD:  Roy's back posting, always a good thing. This was from the 54th CMLL Anniversary show and at the very least hasn't been streaming online for quite a while, if ever. The bits in between falls are clipped out so it moves at a fast pace. The announcer also gets Mando and Hector confused for a good part of this and almost psyched me out, but no one moves quite like Mando. Primarily, it's another Sangre Chicana match in his prime, so that's exciting, but he's more of a dodgy chickenshit here, throwing shots now and again but mostly on the run. He gets slammed onto the floor right as this ends, so that's some comeuppance but it's more about everyone else. Markus, Sr., maskless, has a sort of enjoyable weighty swagger to himself. This is the guy we saw in so much of the Houston footage, just older. Jr. on the other hand, is younger than what I'm used to and a bit more spry. This opens up with fun in-and-out matwork between him and Chavo. Chavo's in the most but Hector has a nice snap belly to back and the end of the primera is a combo of that belly to back and an axe handle off the ropes. And of course, Mando is a ridiculous beast like always, full of contorted, tricked out offense: takedowns and monkey flips and bounding around the ring. There's a lot more to the opening feeling out stuff than the beatdown or the comeback, but both are spirited enough. If this led to some sort of Chicana vs Hector or Mando match, I would have liked to see that too.

Bart Sawyer/Steven Dunn vs. Ashley Hudson/Flash Flanagan (Double Dog Collar Cage Match) MCW 1997

MD: Very timely Bryan Turner upload here, though not timely enough to make Phil's list as an honorable mention. Sawyer was attached to Hudson and Dunn was attached to Flanagan. Babyfaces dominated early. There were a bunch of chairs in there, both wedged in the corners and just free floating and Dunn used them liberally. That led to free flowing blood. They'd switch advantage for a bit. Very few big setpieces here and just a lot of violence. That said, both Sawyer and Hudson did fistdrops off the turnbuckles with the chain wrapped around their hands onto the other. My most vivid memory of the match itself was probably Sawyer choking Hudson with the chain as Dunn stomped on his groin. There was a lot of that sort of thing here, but plenty of cage shots, chair shots, and chain shots too. It all built to a ref bump and Dunn accidentally clocking Sawyer. That's when things got really fun. Sawyer stared at Dunn, slowly took off the dog collar, snatched the key from the ref, and went to leave the cage. Dunn tried to stop him and ate a kick and a DDT for his troubles and Sawyer locked the cage back up on the way out, taking the key as the fans shouted 'traitor' at him. Hudson and Flanagan made short work out of Dunn after that, finishing it with a leg drop off the cage from Flanagan. Then, as Prentice (I think) taunted everyone on the house mic about how this was his New Year's present for everyone and not to worry because "It's just Steven Dunn", they absolutely dismantled him after the bell. No one could help since the heels had the key. Finally, Sawyer came back in to finish him off. Good match and a truly great post match angle.

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Found Footage Friday: BRAZOS~! LA OLA BLANCA~! NEGRO CASAS~! COTA~! BRAZOS AGAIN ~! ULTIMO~! CASAS AGAIN~!

Los Brazos vs. Hijo Del Gladiador/Gran Markus Jr./Dr. Wagner Jr. CMLL 3/22/94

MD: Long title match, which meant a lot of it was wrestled clean. You'd still get Porky butt bumps or whatever, but they kept the shtick to the tercera for the most part. The wrestling was good too. Brazo de Oro and Gladiador had a great exchange in the segunda, for instance. Actually, Gladiador ate a bunch of arm-based control in the primera too. I always like Talisman matches when they pop up but his 90s work jumps out less for me. He was very good here though. The whole rudo side was. Markus brought the size and while Wagner wasn't fully developed yet, he still had that ability to pause and draw the crowd to him. Porky had a striking tope to end the primera and had the crowd more than a little behind him towards the end when they dropped the pageantry of title match lucha and let things devolve into fake heart attacks and what have you. Still, this was a pretty good showing all around and highlighted the Brazos' range.

PAS: I am a huge fan of the Porky heart attack spot, just an all time classic bit of pro-wrestling bullshit. This was an all timer version of that, with the rudos stomping him on the chest only to fall victim to a sneaky inside cradle. The crowd just exploded and leaped to their feet. There was lots of great stuff leading up to that too. Oro is a great technician and is tremendous at filling the early parts of the match leading up to the huge Porky moments. Brazos are so good at traditional trios wrestling, it isn't a style which we see much of anymore, and it is fun to see a new version of it pop up.

ER: This was great, a full match that took its time to build to actual real drama. Los Brazos and this version of the Menudo-like Nueva Ola Blanca had really great chemistry. Every single pairing in this match had rockstar moments. Ola Blanca shifted really well between generous rudo bases making Los Brazos look like aces, to vicious bullies who could swarm and dismantle. Brazos are an easy team to showcase and they all have enough material to fill long singles matches and they're smart about fitting their material into trios work. They're incredible. Oro has some really fast reversal and mirror exchanges, but with strong physics and use of speed. They peak the primera with the likely spot of the match, a huge Porky tope that knocks Markus to the back of Coliseo. Imagine the bravery it takes to stand firm in the face of a 1994 Super Porky tope. I love the years long Brazos/Markus feud, it's nothing but big boy classics, so anytime you get more of that story it's pure joy. This was some of El Brazo's finest work, flawless turnbuckle running armdrags and a great European style headscissors, aggressive baseball slide going after Wagner on the floor and some really fast exchanges. He could really go but for understandable reasons doesn't get the same hype as his brothers. There were also some really big bumps on a pretty unforgiving mat. Porky missed a big back splash at one point and it looked like he just did a full force senton to a sidewalk. I thought the heart attack stuff was some incredible pro wrestling, real drama that got the crowd deeply invested. 

Porky got to show off why he's such a mega star, showing off his athleticism in a long match, throwing out cartwheels and splashes and bumps, even showing off his amateur skills with a big delayed Angle Slam. He took some great theatrical bumps, like a fat guy doing a Bill Dundee impression (has Beau James been doing Bill Dundee doing Super Porky this whole time?). Porky took a passionate, sympathetic beatdown that seemed to go on forever, fan support growing as he kept making his sweet little helpless faces. Ola Blanca really put the boots to Porky, and he's holding his heart the entire time, clutching his chest and breathing heavy and hardly noticing the beating. Porky connects like few tecnicos in history, and I love a good match stoppage. It felt really chaotic as the refs call for an actual time out, and the rudos seem real incredulous about time outs suddenly being allowed in wrestling. People crowd around Porky and it adds to the stress of the moment, as the cameras can't get a clear shot of him on the apron being tended to by the doctor. When he insists on continuing and wins with a small package, it's a huge moment. I've seen plenty of mask matches end with less enthusiastic crowd reactions. Men and women alike are on their feet jumping up and down, Porky a slightly shorter Bruno. Off the charts charisma. I love this man. 

Negro Casas vs. Mocha Cota CMLL 3/25/94

MD: Obviously Casas and Cota are two of the most charismatic, interesting, compelling wrestlers ever. Their hair match in fall 94 is just okay due to the one-fall format and the fact that Casas gives Cota the whole thing. This obviously lacks the stakes down the stretch that the hair match has, but it feels superior in a lot of ways. Cota ambushes to start and gets an early pin. Casas comes back with the world's best foul kick out of the corner. It's right in front of the ref but it's so fast and so brazen that the ref has no idea what to even do with it. Casas, trickster god that he is, makes him doubt his own eyes. A fun beating commences, with Casas opening Cota up with a shot to the audience seats. Casas has some fun stuff here, dancing around before he lays in a great punch and taking Cota's hair as they're standing on the apron and just pulling him down face first all the way to the floor. When we get a clear shot of Cota bleeding it's great but the hair, so amazing for apuestas bets, does obscure it at times. They start to really lay it in during the tercera, with Cota getting the better of the scrapping and he parallel opens up Casas on the seats as well. Even without the stakes, Casas sells it like they've been through a war, first out on the floor and then back in the ring, barely beating the 3-count by limply grabbing the rope again and again. They build to a comeback and another foul for the finish but it all fits given who was in there. In some ways, I think this slipping out even made the subsequent hair match better since it provides that bloody bridge that the feud had been previously missing.

PAS: I thought this was awesome, it just built and built and then had just a super violent finish. I loved the nasty fireman's carry throw giving Cota the first fall. Casas's foul to take control in the second fall was about as great as I have ever seen that done, right to the nuts, in the spilt second when the ref turned his head. It is weird to say that a kick to the balls demonstrates how great a wrestler is, but that kick to the balls demonstrated how great Casas was more than any highspot or bit of mat slickness could. Then when it gets violent, it gets super violent. Both guys bleed, Cota smashes Casas' head into the hard Arena Mexico stairs like he was trying to open a piñata that was misbehaving. It isn't a climax of a match, but is about as incredible a middle chapter as you could expect.

ER: These two are magic together. What performers! Casas and Cota are two of the most expressive wrestlers in history and they're great at both being hams without either outworking the other. They kick things (really hard) into gear in the segunda when Casas overcomes a hot Cota primera by kicking him right in the balls as swiftly as I've ever scene someone kick a pair of balls. He sneaks that ball kick in on Cota in the one split second the ref looked away, and it was a real piece of art, like a shoplifter or pickpocket in a French new wave film. Then he gaslights everyone about the ball kick and beats the shit out of Cota. Casas's punches in the segunda were big swinging joyous shots, theatrical with a flashy follow through. Casas had this way of wrestling like a brute, just grabbing guys by the hair (of which Cota had an ample supply) and throwing their face into the mat; but his movements are so beautiful that it's like watching violent Marcel Marceau. His kicks to a kneeling and reeling Cota stung but also played big to back row Arena Mexico, his whole body is doing something.

He hits a stomp from the apron right to Cota's bleeding forehead and it's like he's striking up a big number in The Music Man. Negro Casas at his charismatic peak is a real rush, a real complete performer who knew the exact kind of lucha drama Mexico City wanted to see. He plays this crowd as confidently as any wrestler I've seen, like Flair in the Carolinas. These two know how to fight, and they have a truly great fight while fully recumbent, Cota leaning in with a seated headbutt as Casas throw killer punches to Cota's ear and neck. They really punched it out and it built to Cota beating his ass on the floor, kicking him around ringside and slamming Casas's face into seats. Casas starts bleeding maybe 1/2 as much as Cota, and feigns going into shock at the sight of his own bloody nose. A rudo doing shifty eyed panic at the sight of their own blood is an incredible rudo shtick that someone should steal, even if they wouldn't have the right level of camp as Casas. 

I love when Casas acts like a giant brat, when he's just kicking at Cota to shove him out of the ring, like a teenager throwing a tantrum when her mom bought the wrong prom dress. Casas is throwing these stiff kicks to Cota's torso with this bitchy face, and it's incredible. It all builds to a big punch out, everything thrown in rhythm but out of time, Casas mixing in chops with leg kicks while trying to weather short, perfectly targeted lefts and rights on the chin from Cota. It's a great punch out to finish a fight. This made my night. 

Los Brazos vs. Los Mercenarios CMLL 7/9/94

MD: About as straightforward of a Brazos match as you can get, but still everything the fans wanted, save for maybe a more elaborate and definitive finishing stretch. The crowd wanted nothing more in the world than to see Porky in the ring and to get to cheer and chant for him. The primera had a few comedy spots and ended with one of the biggest Porky splashes off the top I've ever seen, on all three rudos. The segunda was a fairly straightforward beatdown. There was a little bit of blood and not a lot of motion, but with a crowd this hot, you didn't need to do much but stand Porky in the middle of the ring and dropkick him off the top repeatedly. I really liked the double clothesline Hart Attack that Los Mercanarios used since you don't see that sort of thing too often, even in lucha trios. The comeback was straightforward and heated and led to some trios spots before everything broke down on the outside and the match was thrown out. There were most match promos and the Brazos standing strong but it probably could have used a few more elaborate comedy spots either upfront or at the end. Otherwise, it was a definite crowd pleaser.

ER: Oh to be in the crowd for a Los Brazos match. I love when we get Brazos US footage, you really get to see how far Porky's local celebrity status extends. He was a marquee name on this show, a name this crowd all knew in advance, the man getting the chants all through the match. I don't know who any of Los Mercenarios are, but they worked really well within Los Brazos style. They all knew their sequences and knew when to play into the comedy, but always worked the comedy seriously. I loved a spot where one of them was trying to Irish whip Porky and Porky kept holding onto the top rope; the Mercenary was really yanking on Porky's arm to drag him away from the rope, and sincerity makes the humor work its best. In the hot tercera brawl, the shorter stocky Mercenary really beat Porky's ass in the entrance aisle, throwing heavy right hands to knock him down and then rains down with some more. Los Mercenarios try a pretty dangerous missile dropkick while one is holding Porky prone, but he gets scared or something and fucks up the first attempt, and it's kind of a miracle he didn't Gronda his leg. They do it again, he commits to the dropkick, they're a good team. Super Porky hits one of the most spectacular highspots in Brazos history when he hits his big splash at the end of the primera. I hope the Alvarados bought that middle Mercenario extra tortas because that man got absolutely crushed by one of Porky's all time splashes. They give us a lot of momentum shifts, more than I was expecting, and it elevates the match. The action was strong and would shift in believable ways, and by the end I really bought into the fight. But god, imagine hitting a splash like that and the only reason it was documented was because of some guy sitting in the loge seats at Grand Olympic. 

Negro Casas vs. Ultimo Dragon CMLL 7/9/94

MD: I absolutely loved this Casas performance. It might be one of my favorites ever and that's saying something. He and Dragon start it on the mat as they properly should, with Dragon ultimately getting the advantage, with some lightning-quick, explosive twists down onto the leg. Casas eventually has enough and takes advantage of the ref sleeping by launching a clunky foul kick. From there, he doesn't look back, absolutely conducting the crowd to shush and play along. He's all but sweating charisma and personality as he interacts with the ref and with them. Then, after he takes the first fall, he launches a second foul for absolutely no reason, just because he could, and goes even further over the top. Anyone with enough charisma could take this act a decent distance because the crowd is so great, but it's Casas' ability to go and his physicality and emotiveness that makes it all overflow. 

I swear that Dragon's comeback is almost solely due to Casas basking in the interaction he's having with the crowd and getting distracted. But what makes it work, what turns it from a hit into a home run is how he walks right into Dragon's German Suplex and goes over for it so well. He follows it up not by taking ten more moves but instead by using the period between falls to walk out on the absolutely elated crowd. Once he comes back, though, he and Dragon have a great, high-spot laden finishing stretch, with Dragon playing possum with his knee so he can dropkick Casas to the floor, and ultimately getting the best of him in a clear, clean, and hugely entertaining way in the end. Dragon looked really good too throughout most of this, but Casas came off like the biggest, best star in the world here.

PAS: Dragon has a rep as a great worker, which is really undeserved. What he can be is a great passenger, and Casas is a master driver. So with these two matches as examples, was Negro Casas the best wrestler in the world in 1994? What a fucking king he is in this, just conducting the crowd and making every Dragon moment mean so much. 94 Dragon had some stuff, but it is what Casas can do with that stuff that made it special. Imagine how good 1994 Negro Casas vs. 2021 Ninja Mack would have been, or 1994 Casas vs. 2003 Amazing Red (I imagine both those matches would be pretty great right now, Casas is still incredible).  

ER: I've been watching Dragon a lot against lesser opponents lately, and it's a real treat to see him against someone like Casas. Dragon is a guy who is going to match the personality of his opponent, so if his opponent is an iceman with dead eyes you're going to have a heatless move exchange with no consistent story. You put Dragon in with someone like Casas and magically, Dragon has a big personality. In the match up above we got to see Casas sneak in one of the all time great low blows in wrestling history, and here he works two other great spots around low blows, one of which might be just as great. He again plays the game of kick Ultimo low when the ref is distracted, but this time my favorite work was in his foul faking. Fouling and fake fouling was something I really loved when I started getting into lucha, and it's mostly absent in modern lucha. The theatricality around a guy getting hit in the nuts or fervently pretending like you did get hit in the nuts was always wildly entertaining to me, and that's probably because there were real artists like Casas and Satanico who knew how to hit balls and how to pretend their balls were hurt. 

When Casas goes down from a phantom shot the Grand Olympic crowd really turns on him, and the ref knows exactly how to play it, acting like he's going to give Casas the segunda before Ultimo appeals to the crowd and the crowd all stands waving their fingers at Casas. Casas gets up to protest and Ultimo points out that Negro's balls no longer hurt, and Casas does this note perfect "oh yeahhhhhh my balls!" and begins selling them again. I love how Casas looks at the Mexican fans afterward like "man you're gonna support some goof in a mask instead of one of your boys? Come on. We gotta hold ourselves up." The nearfall stretch in the tercera is strong, we get a big Ultimo dive past the ringpost, a Casas powerbomb that feels like it might be it, a snug Ultimo hurricanrana, Casas threatening to walk out, all of it great. Negro Casas getting into it with the LA fans and managing to walk into Ultimo's traps is just hugely entertaining pro wrestling. 

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QEPD Super Porky

Brazo de Plata/Brazo de Oro/El Brazo vs. Solomon Grundy/Chavo Guerrero/Popitekus CMLL 4/8/90

ER: It doesn't get more portly than this in lucha, and this match was filled with a ton of belly busting. The big draw here is Porky/Grundy and it delivers in every way you'd want it to. In a match with no dives we still wind up with a ton of big boy gold. Outside of a few nice armdrags we don't really get any Popitekus (but with his gorgeous hair he looks like the fattest possible Ramone), but we get a lot of Porky picking on Grundy, building to a huge sumo war between them to end the tercera. Grundy dwarfs Porky but Porky throws harder fists, throws an uppercut into Grundy's neckbeard, and then bumps him to the floor with a belly bump. There are a LOT of belly bumps in this match, and they're all great. 

I love Grundy's slow bumps to the floor, feels and looks like a glacier falling into the Antarctic. He falls to the floor, Porky hits a lariat off the apron (felt like it was supposed to be a plancha but Grundy moved), and then Porky splatted him with his running belly bounce. Later Grundy takes the absolute slowest Harley Race bump, and I love it. The match is filled with entertaining misdirection, a lot of Porky accidentally hitting splashes and avalanches on his bros and then blaming them for it. Porky even shoves Grundy backwards onto his brothers! There are some classic moments, like Porky being knocked from the apron onto Oro's shoulders, who dumps him butt first onto a front row fan! I also loved the big build to Grundy hitting an avalanche on all three Brazos, with Porky doing a hilarious bump where he runs most of the way across the ring before just taking a normal back bump. The final sumo showdown between Porky and Grundy was fantastic, with Brazo shoving a ref in between them to get Los Brazos DQd, the ref getting a full stretcher job post-match to sell the Porky/Grundy loose meat sandwich. This match might have the most belly bumps I have ever seen, so of course it comes with the highest possible recommendation. 

MD: Great build here as they really milked a potential Porky vs Grundy encounter all the way to the tecera, with a couple of false starts along the way. The first was best as they teased it only to have the other Brazos rush in, kicking off the transitional beatdown. It wasn't just all Porky either as Grundy showed some decent physical charisma in his bumping and in building the anticipation. And of course, yes, he'd eat Porky's clothesline to knock him out, catch Porky's clothesline off the apron and get crushed against the barricade for good measure. The funniest bit of this one was when Porky ended up in some guy's lap in the first row. That shows protecting people with control of your body right there. This ended with one of the most satisfying bits of ref flattening you'll encounter. It was hardly definitive but I doubt anyone cared about that given the effort they made to stretcher him out.

JR: I don’t know if this is a personal failing or an issue with the narrative overall but I feel like far fewer words have been written about rudo Brazo de Plata, so I’m glad we can touch on it here. I think it’s instructive for how gifted a performer Porky truly was. He has great timing and great cut offs and when he does his normal spots minus the flourishes that made them so well loved otherwise, they stand out as tremendously impactful. He is a performer that can use his body in so many ways, or rather, can use his body in one way but change enough about it to make it feel so different. As he rushes forward, with good but rarely seen punches and headbutts and body checks, Super Porky feels inevitable.

Of course, as the match goes on, specifically in the third fall, we get to see the rudo comedy that one would expect from Porky, where he is essentially the incompetent henchman deployed by his slightly more competent brothers. Nothing here is exclamatory per say, or groundbreaking, but at the same time there is value in being able to play the hits and do so without any major faults. This match is fine, more of a Brazos exhibition than anything to talk about on behalf of their opponents, but at the same time it is nice to see Porky show off different shades and viewpoints rather than the standard fare we talk about most often.

Brazo De Plata/Negro Casas/TAKA Michinoku vs. El Hijo Del Gladiador/Gran Markus Jr./Satanico CMLL 5/30/97

MD: Fun trios. This was sort of a sweet spot where Porky was still imposing, to the point where he was, of course, funny, but could make someone like Hijo de Gladiador beg off when he was taking liberties. Within a decade, that would be over and he'd be there just for laughs. Great laughs, certainly, but here he could serve more roles within a match. He could also make like Shawn Michaels posing in the ropes while his partners were in the ring, so it was a balance. And when it was time for him to come in, the fans buzzed in a way that they didn't for Casas or Satanico, for instance. The end of the primera was fun stuff with Casas hitting one big DDT only to get jammed on the second, setting up Porky to come in and accidentally knock him onto Markus only to teeter him back to a sitting and pinning position and then squashing Hijo de Gladiador on a sunset flip attempt. They got the pin while shaking hands like gentlemen. Not much else to say here except for that TAKA (more Taka here than TAKA) was paired well with Satanico both in the primera and in the closing exchange. Satanico was pretty giving against him and looked as great as always; his big interaction with Porky was slapping him in the corner only to get crushed by a series of headbutts out of it as the crowd popped big. The final tecnico comeback was picture perfect Porky use too, as Hijo del Gladiador was trapped behind him in the corner so every time he got whacked by Satanico and Markus he was crushing HdG. Not only does that never get old, but here it was effective and pro wrestling believable in switching the momentum for that final time.

ER: Wow. I actually had no idea a match existed that had Satanico tearing it up on the mat against Taka Michinoku (I trust we do NOT have their singles match a couple weeks after this?), and it's only one of several very fun things happening here. Porky is really treated as the biggest name in the match, and he worked the match as someone who relished the role. This was always building to a big Porky/Markus chubby boys showdown, but all the pairings here worked really well. Gladiador and Casas gave us some quick exchanges before Satanico and Taka came in and outquicked them, and I loved all the rudos scrambling away from Porky whenever he came in. Gladiador hit a questionable strike on Casas and Porky runs in and just plasters him into the corner. We get a lot of classic Porky comedy mixed in with actual strong ringwork, so we get him bumping his butt into Gladiador's face when getting punched in the corner, but we also get an amazing sequence where Satanico starts punching and slapping Porky over and over in the corner. and I'm expecting Porky to start his crying routine. Instead, he had enough and charges out of the corner with a half dozen wicked headbutts that backs Satanico all the way across the ring. Porky hits a big dive into Markus (Markus had landed two very stiff punches earlier during Irish whip exchanges and I couldn't wait for Porky to flatten him) and Taka finishes things with his nice missile dropkick to Satanico's chest, then plants Satanico with the Michinoku Driver. Loved the vibe throughout this whole match, great mix of classic lucha and comedy and stiff strikes. 

JR: I must confess that I haven’t watched a ton of this 90s lucha since the pandemic, and returning to it here is like putting on an old pair of comfortable shoes. Seeing prime Casas and Satanico and remembering the things they did every night was so gratifying. It made me love wrestling for a moment.

But Porky! A revelation every time. People talk about Tajiri being a silent film star with his body language, but I see Porky do sequences here, with a stylized hip attack and a rope running sequence and I can’t help but think of Charlie Chaplin films, in which he is toeing the line between genius and accident. Porky does that here; getting kicked in the gut, but the momentum causes his ass to hit someone in the face, or flattening his own partner so hard that he bounces back up into a cover of his own.

Really, this is sort of the platonic use of porky in a match like this. Casas does the heavy lifting and holds everything together long enough for Taka to shine and change the pace and for Porky to have a few huge moments, including a tremendous plancha. This isn’t what I’d call an all time Porky match or anything, but I think it’s the blueprint of one.

Brazo De Plata/Brazo De Oro/Brazo Cibernetico vs. Villano 3/4/5 Acapulco 11/20/04

PAS: I think I have probably called 15 different lucha cage matches "the only good lucha cage match", but I am doing it again. Here is the only good lucha cage match and it is great one. You can put together any combination of wrestling's Hatfields and McCoys and they are going to try to murder each other, and this was an awesome combo. Nothing funny about Porky here, he was looking to put Villanos in the ground, and there was some big chop and punch exchanges and a fair amount of spilt blood. I liked the finish with V5 and Oro left in the cage only for V3 to break a bottle through the cage on Oro's head so his brother could escape. I am not sure how we didn't review this match when it arrived on the internet, but it is another chapter in this endless family feud. 

MD: Nothing is bad in a bubble. Lucha cage matches tend to be bad because they're a bunch of singles guys stuck together, a few of them maybe with programs or build, but with the primary goal of escaping in the midst of the chaos so that they're not one of the last two in there. Team vs team cage matches probably work better because there's much more hesitation for wrestlers to just scramble out at the first opportunity; to be doing so would be to leave their partners in danger. More so, there's generally a more visceral feud as was the case here. Finally, you have to factor in how hard it is for Porky to get up and out of the cage by this point, so they really had to do some damage to the Villanos to allow for that. Put that all together and you had a recipe for a good lucha cage match. 

I loved how this was filmed. You weren't going to see all the action but then that was impossible given the sight constraints and the size of some of the wrestlers and how thoroughly they were intent on beating and bloodying one another. Instead, it almost felt like you were on one of those rail rides at an amusement park, except for instead of the figurative horrors of It's a Small World, you were able to look left or right and see the real horror of a bloody Porky getting battered in the corner or Platino scrapping hard in a fist fight. It was less on the big memorable spots and more on the steady violence then, at least until the ring started to clear a bit. Thankfully, it all led to the most memorable moment of all, when Villano III smashed a beer bottle into the cage as Oro was trying to climb out, shattering it against the cage and sending glass right into Oro's face. Brilliant, unsafe spot, that was only lessened a little by the fact the Brazos weren't immediately on top of him to get vengeance.

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THE FATTEST FEUDS: Gran Markus Jr. vs. Los Brazos!!!

Gran Markus Jr./Pierroth Jr./Ulises vs. Los Brazos CMLL 2/4/90

ER: This was so good and immediately told me that I had made the right choice in chasing down chubby dudes to watch. This was much more like a fun 80s house show tag in a southern territory, starting with the rudo team stalling themselves away from Los Brazos, including some fun sneak attacks that backfire (love Ulises missing a running hip attack on the floor and hip attacking the ring apron, don't think I've seen that before). But before long it's a great fight, and Markus starts throwing these short hard punches to Brazo's temple, it looked like he was attempting to slice him open, and within seconds sure enough El Brazo's head, torso, and arms are covered in blood. The Markus/Porky moments are all fire, and there's a long stretch where Porky is just taking kicks and punches and Markus' slashing shots to the head that made me absolutely die for a Brazos ring clearing. Porky hits an absolutely phenomenal butt splash off the top, crazy height and distance, Markus ran in and Porky flies in with a butt first Thesz press and sticks the landing, so incredible. Ulises (much more commonly known before and now as Tony Salazar) has sorta flimsy offense that works for a cheapshotting rudo, but he takes big dramatic bumps which nicely highlight some Brazo punches. We get some chaos as this spills all over, with great shots of Pierroth laying down a beating up in the seats, we get more fun Porky/Markus tradeoffs including some gorgeous fat guy armdrags, the whole thing felt like it made as much sense in 80s Mid-South Coliseum than 1990 Arena Coliseo. The finish was abrupt, a shot to the balls that gives the win to Los Brazos, but you KNOW this is setting up the title shot rematch...

Gran Markus Jr./Pierroth Jr./Ulises vs. Los Brazos CMLL 2/16/90

ER: This is the title match rematch, and it's all action, go go go, no excessive rudo cheating or DQs like in their prior match; this is everybody in the match showing off with speed, quick tags, and super fun sequences. Porky is obviously a standout, he was such a freak athlete and honestly I'd be happy just watching him do his gorgeous rolling handsprings. But he gets to show off his speed and excellent shtick, doing quick leapfrog spots, missing a colossal senton that lands him halfway across the ring, works a fun comedy spot where he shows of his amateur skills by getting into referee's position before casually reaching up an arm to armdrag Ulises, hits a suicide dive onto everyone that must have felt like getting hit with a barrel from Donkey Kong, does his big butt splash off the top, hits an awesome low angle hip pivot belly to belly suplex on Markus, just totally kills it. All the Brazos came in with speed, working several cool fast armdrag spots with Pierroth and Ulises, and I especially thought Ulises had some cool ones, and Pierroth took a really great fast backwards bump to the floor at one point. Markus was much more of a stooge here (no signs of that bare knuckle brawler from their previous match), but he is a really great stooge opposite Porky; his shaky knee sell off Porky shoulderblocks alone would probably get me to recommend the match. The dive train is really fast and exciting, all Brazos really ramped up the speed and flew out of the ring as fast as possible (Porky's was going to be impossible to top, but Oro and Brazo's dives looked fantastic). Total speed match, nothing but fun.

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New Footage Friday: Piper, Inoki, Blackjack, Mano Negra, El Brazo, Negro Casas

Antonio Inoki/Riki Choshu vs. Roddy Piper/Blackjack Mulligan NJPW 08/26/77

ER: Loved this. It was Piper's first match in Japan, and here he is the main event already looking like an absolute legend. Before the bell even starts us off he's stalking Choshu into the middle of the ring and looking like absolute trouble. The energy Piper brings to this is fantastic, just mauling Choshu every chance he gets with some of the best kneelifts and kicks, really looked like Sonny Corleone beating up Carlo. That he brings similar energy when opposite Inoki surprised me, immediately made me buy Piper as someone on Inoki's level. Piper was a guy I always enjoyed but I've never appreciated his ring work more than in the past 5 years. Piper has become one of my favorite ever in ring guys, and I think for too long he was regarded as more of a talker than a wrestler. His talking is obviously legendary, but at this point I think his ring work is even more of a selling point. Mulligan plays almost late career Andre on the apron, which is good as it's an effective use of him. He was on the apron a lot and you knew if Piper could get the action towards that part of the ring that Mulligan would be there with a few clubbing blows to the chest or a big shot, and he looks good as a guy who tags in to take out Choshu with a cool flying elbow and great powerslam, feels cool as gargantuan cowboy lurking on the apron. But Piper was such a megastar here, loved every second of him, loved him using Inoki's head as a full speed battering ram (and how that backfired into an atomic drop/octopus hold to end a fall), love his punches and his wild movement that he uses to sell strikes. The finish appears to be cut off and/or marred by a screen filled with kanji, but only a wang would complain about that.

MD: We have three or four matches with Piper from 77 and will go through them all in time. What stood out the most here was how fully formed he was. I always find the California footage we have with him somewhat unsatisfying. Maybe that's because of VQ or just how unmoored it is. We have such a scattering, some of it complete, some of it JIP, some of it with poor video or sound. Piper is the sort of guy that you have to see and feel. You have to see the big things and the small things. You have to hear his banter. You have to feel how the crowd is reacting.

Here he was just dogged intensity. Offensively he should have been paired with Hansen instead of Mulligan. He was just relentless, a swarming buzzard with ADHD (or coke, I guess?), peppering knees and elbows and fists. When it was time for him to give, he bumped and stooged, and contorted himself like no one's business for the octopus.

Despite what I just said, Mulligan was game too. I've liked almost everything I've seen out of him in the 70s. He had size and presence and just enough attitude. Inoki was triumphant. Choshu was fiery whenever he was allowed to make comebacks (and these NJPW tags have a bit more of a traditional southern, or maybe given the 2/3 falls structure, Portland feel than AJPW ones). Ultimately, we get a sense of where this was headed with Piper/Mulligan miscommunication but we don't get a full finish. Still, this is over fifteen minutes and you get the idea. Plenty of ideas, actually. Good, satisfying wrestling.

Bruiser Brody vs. Great Kabuki WCCW 6/7/81

MD: Brody was a guy who obviously got it. He understood how to sell himself. He understood how to manipulate a crowd. He understood how wrestling worked. It's not like you can honestly say that he didn't have a very strong grasp of professional wrestling and, past some arguable execution issues with his offense, that he lacked the ability to excute what he wanted to do.

The issue with Brody is that he so often used that knowledge to chose the worst, most self-serving path. Selling is the language of pro wrestling. It's how the story is told. Things can happen, but selling is expressing the weight and meaning of these things. So often, Brody would bump or recoil and then absolutely refuse to sell. This may have served him (especially in Japan) but it absolutely did not serve his matches, especially when he was the babyface, which he was a lot of the time. It makes them an absolute chore to watch.

This was different. Maybe it's because of the big scope of the match (and theoretically the big payday). Maybe it's because he was basically there to serve the Fritz (his boss) vs Hart aftermatch and how babyface-dominant that was going to be. Maybe it's because Kabuki is larger than life and not a normal competitor (even though he's significantly smaller than Brody), but Brody sold, a lot, as much as I'd ever seen him. As such, he became less of an impediment and more of a Hogan-type figure, one who could get sympathy from the crowd and build to these big, colossal comebacks. Yes, sure, Brody constantly tried to get shots in and, as such, made Kabuki always work for it, but that's different than always immediately popping up and winning far more than half of the exchanges. He bled. He sold. When it came time for his comeback boots or his huge dropkick that set up the finish, the crowd erupted. It was a big deal because he let it be a big deal.

Kabuki was extremely effective in his role. His cut-off kicks out of nowhere looked great, despite the size difference. They didn't use the cage as a weapon, but he did use it as a prop, allowing him to ropewalk for chops (including the one that Brody bled after) and to help fly off the top. I immediately want to see ten more Kabuki cage matches out of this. If Brody let himself be this wrestler more often, despite whatever he might have thought or what insecurities he might have had, he would have been even more of a star than he was.

The post-match stuff with Fritz and Hart was everything you'd want. They honored the stipulation down to making sure that Hart had to wear his suit jacket for it, and despite attempts at chicanery, Fritz beat the snot out of him and embarrassed him. Everything you'd want, with Fritz' awesome Three Stooges eyepoke to cutoff Hart's attempts at underhanded eye-rakes once and for all the ridiculous cherry on top.

PAS: Really surprised to see Brody work from under for so much of the match. I am used to seeing Brody eat, here he was mostly the meal. Kabuki is great, does such an awesome job of conveying weird mystery, the spinning around, the walking the ropes, the whole package, he isn't a big guy, but you buy him dominating Brody. Loved the big cutoff dropkick by Bruiser, and the couple of killer superkicks by Kabuki. Very satisfying pro-wrestling.

Atlantis/Negro Casas/El Texano vs. Mano Negra/El Brazo/Gran Markus Jr. CMLL 11/10/94

ER: Dang this was great. Look at that rudo team filled with varying degree of chubby boys! And the chubby boys are all total asskickers which means this is flat our guaranteed to rule. Mano Negra was really king scum here, just assaulting the tecnicos with some of the best knees I've seen, throwing nice whipping kicks and short fast punches, really felt like he was always threatening to show up and kick somebody in the legs even when he wasn't in the match. Negra was such a vicious powder keg in this - and I've mostly seen late 90s/early 00s Negra, who I liked - that I really need to see as much younger Negra as possible. His performance in this match made him feel like one of my potential favorite luchadors ever. My favorite moment in the match was when Atlantis finally made his comeback against Negra, and Atlantis is pasting him with shots on the floor, and Negra selling that beating really felt like an all time wrestling moment for me. If we were making a 10 minute compilation of my favorite moments, I think Negra eating those fists gets on. He went through such a great tonal shift during what was a very quick beatdown, starting out standing tall and just crumpling with each shot, until he's not even lying on the floor, just uncomfortably leaned into the ringpost, struggling to somewhat stay on his feet but wanting no more of Atlantis. Usually if you see a wrestler conveying "guy who talked to much shit and immediately regrets it with ever punch his face takes" it has more stooging, more flair, more flourish, but here it just looked like Atlantis finally beat the shit out of him and Negra sat there hoping he wouldn't come back.

Brazo impressed the hell out of me too, really liked him on the mat picking ankles and grabbing wrists, not someone I remember being a guy who I cared about on the mat, and really Brazo was awesome at everything he did here. There was a moment on the apron that I've never seen before, where he's holding up his arm to show the ref that he's not about to cheapshot...and then with his arm held up in the same position he just runs his elbow right into Atlantis' head the second the ref can't see. Brazo always felt like the least Brazo to me, this whole match he was clearly a Brazo worth knowing. Markus is a big ol' chubby boy and threw hard punches and looked like a real wrecking ball every time he was in. This was a flat out excellent rudo team. The tecnicos really just had to show up to get cheered, and they did! Texano kept really impressive pace with fast rope running, Casas always does one thing in every match that only feels like a Casas thing (here I loved him bumping backwards neck first into the bottom rope), and Atlantis got his big fired up tecnico moments. I loved all of this.

MD: This is a pretty crazy technico side. Texano right off of his 61st Anniversario show hair loss to Ricky Santana, Negro Casas, and Atlantis. The first half of this was a rudo showcase though. There's not much better in wrestling than a good rudo beatdown. This was in the two refs era and that distracted a little bit but in general, it flowed exactly how it should have with cheapshots and doubleteams and ring control. Both Brazo and Markus have these great thundering elbow smashes. Casas has all of the charisma of today but three times the physical prowess and he all but flies across the ring when hit. The comeback went from heated to fluid shtick quickly in the best way and I liked the pin out of nowhere because you don't necessarily see that as a match ender all that much.

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