Phil Schneider, Eric Ritz, Matt D, Sebastian, and other friends write about pro wrestling. Follow us @segundacaida
Saturday, September 03, 2016
Punch Jose Lothario Harder, Make Him Feel It
Jose Lothario v. Great Mephisto NWA Houston 1/18/74- FUN
This is a Brass Knuxs title match, which means that Lothario can throw hands. Mephisto has got quite a bag of tricks, he has a muslim prayer run gimmick, burkaed valet, loaded boot, the whole cheap heat casserole. Not much of a wrestler, but a lot of entertaining shtick. Lothario blows him out in the first fall, unloading awesome looking punches, busting open Memphisto, 10-8 round for sure. Mephisto gets a bit of an advantage in the second fall with Lothario taking a monster bump to the floor and Mephisto loading his orthopedic book. Third fall is more back and forth with Lothario selling a broken rib or punctured lung from the loaded kicks. I would have gone higher on this if Mephisto's stuff looked better, this was a great Lothario performance, but relatively one sided.
Abdullah the Butcher/Tor Kamata vs. The Sheik/Great Mephisto - AJPW 12/11/80
ER: And you thought this would just be a bunch of guys with bad bodies wandering around, bleeding, hitting each other with spikes, and wandering around some more!! Well, you'd be correct. Great Mephisto is terrible, whiffs on punches and is clearly afraid to bump. How'd he get a ticket to Japan during 1980!? Really feels like a guy who won a sweepstakes. Tor Kamata bleeds and is the only one who really bumps, and Sheik often brings out the worst in Abby. Still, they put on a spectacle and throughout some of this it worked. The beginning especially worked, with streamers still in the ring and people starting to bleed. But I guess these things always start out the best, but don't really have much of a place to go. This really could have been four local bad body indy never weres having this fight in any indy that takes place in a bar. The fact this happened in Tokyo probably does make it more intriguing...
Abdullah the Butcher vs. Dory Funk Jr. - Maple Leaf Wrestling 6/29/80
ER: Not technically from All Japan but it must have been shown on Classics. I wonder how Toronto fans felt about 5 minute main events ending in count outs. I guess they were used to them with Sheik at this point, so it was likely expected. They built a fairly smart and logical short match, with Dory not taking Abby off his feet but instead taking over after a big Abby missed elbow drop. Best part of the match was after they had already been counted out and they're fighting on the rampway, Abby doesn't realize he's close to the edge and almost falls off while taking a Dory elbow. After that it's like he sensed how excited the arena got to see him potentially splat off the ramp so spent the next minute teasing like he was going to fall off while Dory elbowed him. There was actually real drama in there as especially that first time (where it genuinely didn't seem like he realized how close he was) I actually wondered if Abby was gonna fall off the ramp.
Terry Funk vs. Abdullah the Butcher - AJPW 7/15/78
ER: So the quality isn't great on this but it takes me back to my days of tape trading where you'd get a 13th gen copy of a Sabu comp and never even consider that these matches exist in better quality. Here the quality is bad enough that Funk and Abby look animated, like we're seeing the bloodiest version of the Beastie Boys' "Shadrach" video. But whatever, this is Abby stabbing Funk with a spike, both men gushing blood, and Funk punching Abby right in his cut. And you know that nobody puts over Abby's spike like Funk. Funk always knows the best way to stumble around, the best way to grab at his chest after it gets stabbed, the best way to grab Higuchi by the collar and tell him to do his job, the best way to go nuts after being pushed too far. Funk - as you may know - understands how to brawl to comeback and Abby knows how to make men bleed, and it rules.
