Found Footage Friday: SAD GENIUS~! GRANS HAMADA & GUERRA~! GYPSY JOE~!

La Gran Guerra: Jason the Terrible/Chicky Starr/Iron Sheik/Ron Starr vs. Carlos Colon/Ricky Santana/Rufus R. Jones/TNT WWC 10/29/88

EB: On December 12 and 13 of 1987, Capitol Sports Promotions held for the first time ever the La Gran Guerra match, which pitted members of the heroic El Ejercito de la Justicia against members of the villainous El Club Deportivo. La Gran Guerra is two rings enclosed by a steel cage with all team members starting the match together. Handcuffs are located around the sides of the cage and the objective is to handcuff your opponents in order to neutralize and take them out of the fight. The winners are the team that is able to handcuff all of the opposing team’s members first. And the prize for winning is that you get to uncuff your teammates and then get 5 minutes to attack your neutralized opponents at your own leisure. The two sides have each won one La Gran Guerra match and now, ten and half months after the first two matches were held, a third La Gran Guerra is set to happen.

The date is October 29, 1988 and we are almost two months removed from the big Aniversario show main evented by Carlos Colon vs Hercules Ayala in a fire match. This feud continued beyond Aniversario, with Colon and Ayala engaging in several rematches that escalated to a stretcher match and most recently a Texas Death match on October 8. Colon and Ayala are captaining their respective teams for this third La Gran Guerra, but while Colon is competing in the match for El Ejercito de la Justicia, Ayala will be captaining from ringside for El Club Deportivo. Ayala is unable to compete due to a neck injury suffered when Carlos Colon piledrove him on the arena floor during their Texas Death match. He’ll be here supporting his team, even if he’s there in a neck brace at ringside.

Joining Carlos Colon on the El Ejercito de la Justicia are a veteran of the previous two La Gran Guerra matches in TNT and two first timers in Rufus R Jones and Ricky Santana. For El Club Deportivo it is none other than Chicky Starr leading the charge, joined by his cousin Ron Starr, the Iron Sheik (a key member of the team that won the second La Gran Guerra) and Jason the Terrible (who is making his return to Puerto Rico after a year and half away). Ron and Jason are competing in their first La Gran Guerra match. All combatants are in the ring so let the war begin. 

MD: There has been a lot of talk about modern cage matches and about how the cage is seen as something to climb or something to escape or something to fight on top of. That's in contrast to decades ago where a cage was somewhere where there could be no interference, where there could be no running, where feuds had to end. Gran Guerra takes it a step further even. In these, the goal is not to contain the action, but to constrain it. Instead of one more person entering every few minutes, wrestlers are removed instead. The action becomes tighter and more focused as it goes on and more and more wrestlers are handcuffed. 

Here the blood came quickly as people were tossed into the cage. Santana bled first but he was soon joined by almost everyone, with Jason as the obvious and striking exception. For the first few minutes, they stayed in one ring and ignored the other, just making everything feel all the more claustrophobic. When they did venture out into the second, it was more to allow for the handcuffing to be spaced out geographically than anything else. Colon and Jason were matched up for most of this and they would be the ones to end it.

These days interference happens in almost every cage match, just another way the gimmick has been diminished over time. But matches should serve purposes, not just to entertain and titillate. Dissonance creates heat. The cage is supposed to be a way to end feuds, to allow violence to run its course. In a world where that is true, where the last thing people expect is interference, it can cause amazing heat. In a world where it happens all the time, then there's much more to be gained by NOT having interference, because that's what goes against expectation. Then, one time out of ten, do it. That's how things played out here, with Ayala throwing in salt as Colon was about to win. Not only did it cost the babyfaces match, it also meant that they were beat on mercilessly for the next five minutes as per the stipulation. Here, because it was set up to matter, that meant even hotter rematches between the babyfaces and the heels and more tickets sold. So yes, there was interference here, but it's shown to be the exception that proves the rule.

ER: It can be tough watching such a large scale two ring match in fuzzy video quality, action further obscured by being shot through a chain link cage, but here it feels like we're seeing what anyone sitting in the cheap seats would be seeing at a huge blowoff event. The action can be hard to follow, but when the action is all blood-drawing punches you know you're just seeing the universal pro wrestling language being spoken. Blood flows early and often (Ricky Santana is so bloody that for all I know he hit the blade in the dressing room) and my favorite thing about it was TNT in there throwing all variety of full extension high kicks and spin kicks. In a match where every man is punching and using the cage, it's awesome to be the guy throwing huge kicks that play to the back row. All of his kicks look great, especially the ones to Chicky and Jason. Chicky is a great guy to see sell a kick, but I loved the match long story of Jason just walked through every kick to his mask, no matter how hard or spectacular, and finally fell flat on his face after a high kick to the back of his head. This is fucking Jason! Conventional weapons cannot harm him, conventional kicks cannot move him, and finally TNT finds his weak spot. This doesn't seem like the kind of match they could have done in PR just a decade before, as I've heard of far smaller things causing riots. Ayala throwing salt in Colon's eyes leading to all the babyfaces taking an unprotected 5 minute beatdown should have brought back the glory days of rioting. I don't think it would have been possible for the heels to make it past one minute without the cage being swarmed. 

Sad Genius vs. Gran Hamada 9/5/00

MD: I know Genius has other Texas Death Matches but I haven't seen them. But on some level this is a brilliant exercise in futility and frustration for Gran Hamada. Genius comes in with this amazing level of confidence, belt around his waist, pulling his hand back on the shake, and then he immediately gets rolled up by Hamada. this is a Texas Death Match though (the traditional style that can ONLY end in the ten count after a fall), so no big deal. He just gets up and keeps wrestling. Then he ends up in a cross arm breaker and almost immediately taps out. And he just gets up, selling the arm a bit, but otherwise unperturbed. Why not tap out? You have ten seconds to get back up after that. There's no reason to stay in a hold in a Texas Death Match with these specific rules except for pride, and this guy is somehow perfectly delusional and self-aware at the exact same time. 

In the face of all of this, Hamada is Hamada. He is full of pride. He, even in 2000, can still land on his feet out of a takeover, no problem. And yet he's been tossed into this bizarre world against this bizarre wrestler who was obviously capable and talented, with these rules that drive him increasingly nuts. Yes, Genius would take advantage of the ability to escape any hold he wanted and would come back with a clubbering shot or two, but Hamada just plowed through and kept things coming, escalating his offense and those holds. There was a path where he could eventually get Genius either hurt enough, knocked out enough, or humiliated enough that he'd stay down and that journey might have be compelling, but everything just sort of fizzled out as either Hamada or Genius or the ref or god himself just had enough and this ended without meaningful conclusion.

ER: I'll be honest: I've watched a lot of wrestling in my life, but I can't pretend I knew who Sad Genius was before this week. Maybe I heard about him once, who's to say. I've already forgotten enough names of movies, bands, actors, whatever, to fill books. If I'd heard tale of Sad Genius before a few days ago, they've been forced out by newer but not necessarily more interesting knowledge. Sad Genius is essentially a trust fund kid who keeps trying to buy his way into high society but is never accepted by the peers he seeks. It feels like he's doing a fake title belt Andy Kaufman bit, only if Andy got actually good at pro wrestling fundamentals and wanted to be taken seriously as a wrestler instead of just using wrestling as a medium for chaos. Sad Genius even looks like Andy Kaufman, right down to the exact same grown out at the sides combover Kaufman was sporting in 1982. 

This match is about 10 minutes long, and the entire time it feels like something teetering into a shoot. You get a real sense that there were details Gran Hamada was not told and he is finding them out over the course of the match. Hamada recognizes this man, whose name sounds like a bedroom shoegaze project, is Up to No Good. I am positive that Hamada was not told about the Texas Death rules. I am positive about that, as the only interpretation of what happens in the first 30 seconds of this match, is that Hamada recognizes Sad Genius is Up to No Good and shoot pins him with an inside cradle. Hamada dragged this man into an inside cradle and looked upset to learn that the house style was Texas Death. He wrestled the rest of the match like that and looked constantly perturbed and guarded, like he couldn't wait to lace into Genius for this shit. And that's before Genius kicks Hamada in the stomach a couple times as hard as he can, or hits the most shootstyle rolling kappo kick possible, or drops him on the back of his head with a back suplex. I'm confident nobody has told me about MUGA-trained Andy Kaufman before. I would remember that. 

Hamada still does flying, but he does it in this fascinating untrusting way, knowing he has to force Genius to catch a pescado, he throws dropkicks like he's expecting his target to move, and he keeps taking Genius down with armbars that keep turning more serious...but Genius never does act up. He just looks like he keeps getting shoot taken down and arm barred by a 50 year old legend until somebody in jeans gets on the apron and starts yelling. Sad Genius is either a great salesman or Gran Hamada actually hurt his arm, and there's a feeling that no matter what happens in any of these matches, Sad Genius is getting awarded the title. There's a 10 minute post-match interview with him and it plays like a video deposition of a man hesitant to give up his family. Sad Genius would have made a 500. 

JR:The music swells. You need to hear it for yourself. It starts out like music you’d normally hear through shitty laptop speakers and suddenly it swells, like when something diegetic becomes the needle drop over a montage. It dawns on me at this moment that I’m watching a haunted object. Not something cursed but something possessed and controlled by the spirit of Sad Genius. It dawns on me again when he is pinned almost immediately via a small package that looks uncooperative. Hamada looks confused and part of me wonders if he knows the rules to the match and then the referee starts counting as though it’s a Texas Death Match without weapons or cowboy boots or hatred. You can see in Gran Hamada’s eyes that he is in a wrestler’s stress dream. He is in the ring and he has no idea what the finish is, what the rules are. It’s a dream and he can’t go anywhere. His eyes are narrowed and wet and confused and Sad Genius stares back with the eyes of the man who used to come in to the library and tell me that fractals and zeroes were gateways to other dimensions. Hamada has no alternatives. He fights, applying an arm bar and winning and then hearing a bell and then starting over. The referee got to eight that time. He is stuck chasing a ghost, hearing an invisible audience. Suddenly he leaves. He breaks out. He wakes up. We are left behind. Maybe it was our dream all along. We are the ones trapped. Sad Genius has his arm raised, and we follow him back to the locker room. He’s sitting in a folding chair and speaking, staring into space just beyond the plane of the camera. We can now see the cameraman. We must be in the room, it’s the only explanation. He is staring at us. We can’t understand what he’s saying. The camera man is gone by now. Sad Genius is staring at us when the video ends.

 

Sad Genius vs. Gypsy Joe 1/19/03 

MD: There were not many people in this crowd, which sort of tracks and is not at all a surprise, but it does give this a distinct feeling like it's being wrestled specifically for us almost twenty-three years later. If the Hamada match was a novelty, this was a spectacle and pretty much everything one might have expected. For the first few minutes of this, Genius (who had his music start back up as he disrobed) and Joe (who came out to Dust in the Wind, of course) absolutely kill each other. After a couple of clean breaks, Genius launches just the nastiest kicks and then Joe brutalizes him with chops. There was one little short elbow that Joe hit that I went back and watched ten times because it was the best peppering shot I've seen in ages. Genius finally has enough and hits the floor only to start in on Joe's legs on the posts. If we had another five minutes of this I imagine it would be just as imagined.  

Instead, two masked Karate Guys come running in and it becomes an impromptu tag match with both of them working over Genius until he could get a dragon screw leg whip on one. Joe comes in just mauls them in the best way including taking all their chops like they were nothing. Genius gets in on the act too including Inoki pumphandles, but he gets hit by this hilarious low blow kick. He comes back anyway and hits a belly to back to win it and it's just all wonderfully ridiculous. Post-match Joe is ready to fight anyone in Tokyo and wants more people to show up next time.

ER: Sometime between the Hamada match and this match, Sad Genius added disrobing music. He keeps his robe one right up to the bell, when a 3 second power riff plays, timed to his disrobing and kicking off the match. Joe is 70 and definitely doesn't know who Sad Genius is, and at first I thought he was going to wrestle this in a t-shirt but instead he treats this guy like Fujinami. Genius hits three stiff as hell kicks to Joe's chest and Joe treats him like an asshole, at one point throwing a jab of an elbow point into Genius's eye. The double ninja DQ robbed us of any kind of chaotic finish and means we never get to see Joe try to break this guy's nose. Joe does do a 70 year old kneedrop off the top to one of the ninjas and that feels like one of the most dangerous things a man his age could possibly do. 

JR: Sad Genius disrobes in time with a music cue that hits with the force of a horror movie jump scare or a hammer or a bottle breaking. At this point I think it is not farfetched to assume we are in the presence of a trickster god. The front row here is completely empty this time. I cannot tell if it is the same building. It looks like it. It might not even be a building but a dimension. A domain. Gypsy Joe looks incredible and looks as though he is decomposing. He is wondrous. Sad Genius is beautiful and it is easy to see why so many gave him so many chances. While I’m thinking this, two masked men in karate outfits attack everyone. They do not look like trained pro wrestlers. They are resplendent. Suddenly, Joe and Sad Genius are united. They are on our side. They are on a side together. It feels like a moral impossibility for Sad Genius to understand the idea of comradery. There is someone off camera yelling instructions in English. There are probably voices speaking in languages that do not exist if I dare turn the volume up any louder. 

The bell never ends anything in this match. There is a winner and the fight continues. The sacred space bleeds into something profane that only Sad Genius understands. He lays out wrestling matches like an alien who had wrestling explained to them by a child and then thought about it for a thousand years. He lays out wrestling matches like those chess computers that have only ever played chess against other computers. One of the karate men hits Sad Genius in the groin and he doubles in pain, and something so normal and recognizable and banal feels uncanny. Music plays and there is another winner and the two men with faces are attacked again. The bell never means anything. Eventually the karate men stop returning into the frame. It feels final and I can’t say how. The camera follows Joe and Sad Genius out, back into a locker room. They speak in English. They speak past one another. We are left with a still shot of a grey hallway, like something out of a Tsai Ming Liang film. I can still see it with my eyes closed.
 

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Found Footage Friday: BUNKHOUSE STAMPEDE~! CENTRAL STATES SHENANIGANS~!

Bunkhouse Stampede JCP 12/14/86

MD: Omni next week as we're going to give Eric more time to recover from D3AN. This was another recent drop from JCP's debut at the Rosemont Horizon (so says Charles and we believe him when he says things). Very good cross section of the talent here though obviously no Flair, Tully, Dusty, and Nikita since that was the main event tag. It's hard to talk about any one specific thing in this but I definitely have a few thoughts. 

The first is that this, more so than almost any other battle royal I can think of felt purely chaotic. Workrate, spots, any of that is impossible here because there are just so many people and there are a few weapons (boot, flimsy trash can lid, Animal's wrist spikes, a strap, etc) flying around moving from participant to participant. The second that someone starts to do something interesting, someone else comes behind them and nails them. Sometimes it registers, sometimes it doesn't. Animal got someone with the spikes but they didn't realize it was happening and they didn't sell it right. The match was full of stuff like that but somehow it's additive because it just adds to the feel. 

None of the usual critical tools to talk about wrestling (structure, selling, workrate, execution) work in an environment like this. You wouldn't want it all the time but as a novelty, it's fascinating, because these are still incredible talents and characters all interacting with one another and having to operate on the fly. No plan survives more than a few seconds and everything becomes reaction. 

You can follow the flimsy trashcan lid around the ring as different people get it and since you're never going to keep track of the action (Ronnie Garvin's in this and I couldn't tell you one thing he did and he'd be a great person to watch generally), it's a good center point. It's best use, by the way, was when Rick Rude wrapped it around Animal's skull. It was that flimsy but it's a great visual. Rude and Manny drove a lot of this, with Manny scrapping with Wahoo (a precursor to their AWA feud a little while later I guess). Lots of heat for both, but at the end it was Eaton and Animal and that went about as well for Eaton as you'd expect in Chicagoland. This was a bit of a mess but despite what certain people will tell you sometimes a mess full of tons of talent is exactly what you need.

ER: This was so great, appropriately released in the middle of a battle royal compilation video, directly before the Great Berzerker Battle Royal. This battle royal is great because it throws 25 or so of the best dressed photo album dads in the world into one crowded ring and just hangs out with them. Almost everyone bleeds, but it would have been just as good (better?) if they had just been in there drinking beers like they had just finished a softball game. The cagematch listing is not accurate, because there is no Dick Murdoch, Road Warrior Hawk, Big Bubba, or Baron von Raschke, but that doesn't matter. Well, maybe Dick Murdoch would have mattered. Okay Dick Murdoch with a 50-50 poly cotton blend t-shirt stretched over his stomach would have made a huge difference. This is a blood and fashion battle royal. Everyone is in their finest yard weeding jeans - except for Jimmy Garvin, who is by far the easiest to find man in the ring at all times - and old t-shirts and tank tops. 

Every man is dressed entirely appropriate for a Bunkhouse. Jimmy Valiant looks tall and powerful and exactly like Toby Klein just looked at D3AN. Bobby Eaton gets pummeled in the corner all match and survives all the way to the end until Road Warrior Animal throws him violently to the floor, Eaton swinging a weight belt at his face a few times before he's gone. Arn Anderson is an incredible focal point all match, a target in his red slacks and white t-shirt. He punches, he gets punched, he bleeds, he is eventually eliminated without his shoes. You see, more than one person removes their boots or shoes to use as weapons, and Arn's stocking feet up in the air is a reminder of that. Ole is in camouflage pajamas like he's Udo Dirkschneider in the "Balls to the Wall" video. Wahoo and Manny put on a helluva performance before eliminating themselves, punching each other bloody and bashing each other into ringposts. Ronnie Garvin looks incredible in his black sleeveless shirt (that gets ripped away at some point) and brown leather weight belt. Barry Windham stands tall in dark blue jeans and a dark blue tank, Rick Rude stands tall in part because of his cowboy boots. Tim Horner is in a goldenrod shirt and takes the fight well to everyone larger than him, meaning everyone but Bill Dundee. Bill Dundee is in town because he had to leave Memphis in July, and he runs around hitting everyone and pulls these great I'm a Little Guy faces whenever someone tries to lift him up and over. Dutch Mantell is dressed like Bunkhouse Buck, who modeled his entire fashion on Dutch Mantell in a Bunkhouse Battle Royal.  

As far as drunken softball fights go, you've seen better. But I don't think wrestling fashion ever approached being this good again. Everyone knew exactly what kind of fight they were headed into. The red Ricky Morton and the purple Robert Gibson, the kneepads over the jeans, the Yard Work Outfit Supreme. Just throw on some old shoes that you don't mind getting dirty, some pants you don't mind kneeling in, find a bandana you can tie around your pants, or like the Bullet, around your neck. You know the drill. You've never seen 25 better dressed wrestlers in any one place at any one time and you never will again. This was the golden era, when men knew how to dress for a fight.  

Ken Timbs vs. Rufus R Jones (Boxing Match) Central States 3/28/85

MD: Next two are from one of our other great archivists, being Ben/ArmstrongAlley/KrisPLettuce, who has just organized some Central States. This was passed off to me as especially awful, and it's not quite as embarrassing as it could be. You think of the Piper vs T boxing match with the heavy gloves and T getting gassed as awful. The problems here were entirely of a different sort. 

If anything, there were two many punches. There was zero drama over the first few rounds. Jones just kept punching away again and again and Timbs kept his hands up until he couldn't and went down multiple times. There haven't been THAT many worked boxing matches in wrestling but the trick is to treat them like a wrestling match with boxing trappings and not a boxing match in a wrestling ring. That means that you do shine/heat/comeback as much as possible and in the shine, you should have the heel get some false advantages and then eat comeuppance. There was nothing of that here. Just Timbs walking into fists and selling as Jones chugged along. There wasn't a build to any highs at all. It was just a dull train moving slowly.

When he did take over in later rounds, it was because he was valiantly outpunching Jones in the corner. Only after he took over did he jab him in the eye with his thumb as Gary Royal distracted the ref. Totally backwards. Then later on Royal distracted the ref and Timbs got a knee in to take back over again. Only then he kept doing the knees when the ref was looking once more. One knee, followed by punches. That's the way to go. Maybe a second one that gets caught which could have led to the further distraction and Royal slipping the object in to Timbs' glove (because that was necessary) but don't just do it blatantly in front of the ref. 

Just no artistry, no build, no payoff. The place where that did happen was on the finish as there was a dramatic power around the object (which the fans noticed) and Jones had to duck it repeatedly before getting it himself and KOing Timbs with his own loaded glove. Maybe it was more powerful to put all of the actual "pro wrestling" part of this right at the end, but I don't think so. Just completely tossed the comparative advantage out the window and then didn't even make it believable for all the punches that Timbs was just eating.  

Gypsy Joe vs. Mr. Pogo (Chain Match in a Cage) Central States 3/28/85

MD: Well, this is definitely down our alley. Yes, there's a cage. It's about seven feet tall, I think. It doesn't come into play except for to set the mood and to show that they're enclosed and no one can get in and no one can get out, and in this case, I'm perfectly fine with that. There's enough going on with the chain after all. 

This was touch the corners, but they didn't try for a bit. Joe's advantage early on was fun, as he went after the foot first and then dodged a chain shot causing it to recoil and hit Pogo in the face. Pogo took over with it wrapped around his fist and didn't look back. One chain punch after the next, opening up Joe. The VQ is what it is, but you can tell he bled big. Eventually he went to touch the corners though and that let Joe come back. They did a good job of really building up anticipation for his first punch. He started going around and Pogo held him back until Joe finally charged in and took a shot that knocked him into the fourth corner.

Post match the cage did come into play. They had said that Sheik Abdullah the Great's New York Office had said he was on a fishing trip but he came in wearing a disguise with the heels to help beat on Joe and it took a while for the babyfaces to make the save. A good post down beating even if it was surrounded by the extra stuff. Otherwise, a nice minimalist bloody affair. 

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Found Footage Friday: RESURGENT DYNAMITE~! YOUNG ROCCO~! GYPSY JOE~! WOLFIE D~! THE LAND OF GIANTS~!

Mark Rocco vs. Terry Jowett WoS 5/24/73

MD: Amazing historical find by Allan here. This has to be the earliest Rocco we have, and maybe even by a couple of years, right? He was only around 22 here, already a three year pro. And it's fascinating to see what he was doing at this age and how he was presented. Jowett had ten years experience on him and Rocco, despite winning out in the end with a near tilt a whirl slam off the ropes, was the underdog and it was ultimately an upset. 

Along the way, there was a ton of entertaining spots, though maybe not the exhausting (in a good way, in small doses) Rocco trademark I'd expect. All the explosiveness and dynamism in how he hit stuff and took stuff but not consistent, if that makes sense. Jowett was a great counter to his antics, and I'm personally sympathetic to his hairline (Rocco's was shaggy and he already had the trademark mustache).

There was a rough around the edges feel to this, that would, in years to come, conform into Rocco's edge of your seat style. We come in during the third here (and leave two rounds later with the finish) and there are lots of quick and deep pin attempts. After one escape where Rocco just sort of stumbled out to the crowd's amusement, he was quick to go for a joking handshake, great instincts in not losing his focus and in keeping the crowd engaged, in making it seem like they were seeing a show instead of making one of their own out of what they were watching. 

Some of the comedy spots were great, whether it be Jowett booting Rocco on a drop down, or criss crossing his own limbs and rolling about so Rocco couldn't get an advantage, or my favorite, when Rocco started his hyperactive roperunning only for Jowett to run in place instead, making Rocco out to be the fool. Very funny stuff. 

Rocco would get dirtier as the match went on. Interesting, after he started clubbering for the first time and drew a public warning, Walton chastised him for it, not for the cheating itself, but because he didn't earn much from the warning. He only took over really when he dropped a knee (legal apparently) on Jowett's throat, and then only until the end of the round as he leaned in on the arm while he could. Lots of imagination in both his offense and his bounding and bumping (one time fliping all the way over and sailing between the ropes) and towards the end, he had these cobra clutch ripcords I can't remember seeing much otherwise. 

Really just a great historical snapshot of one of the most dynamic wrestlers of all time early into his development. One of my favorite finds this year. 

ER: Remember how much we, as an online contingent of pro wrestling writers and historians of Noticers used to criticize Rollerball Rocco? He was the British embodiment of the same criticisms we held towards Kurt Angle, the all flash-no substance, looks cool-means nothing type of wrestler who fell out of favor with us. I don't think we could have anticipated the Kurt Angle/Dean Malenko style of constant movement detached from meaning would become the predominant pro wrestling style in every company in the world, so much so that things have looped back around. Now, watching even the "worst" era of Mark Rocco indulgence gives me new respect for his style and ability. 

The first British wrestling I was exposed to was a Johnny Saint/Rollerball Rocco match and that match was at least a decade after this one, and it is an entirely different Rocco. It should be, he's incredibly young and only three years into his career. As Matt says, he is the underdog in the match and commentary frequently talks about him like a baby who they impressed made it even this deep into a wrestling match. But he does not wrestle like a stupid little baby, he wrestles like tough guy with a real cool command of physics. His snapmares play like violent offense, his timing is impeccable, and his strikes always looked damaging. He was adept at comedy (Matt mentioned the very funny rope running spot where he ran back and forth as Jowett mocked him like Bugs Bunny) and really the only inexperience I saw was how he didn't always seem to know what to do next, never capitalizing on snapmares and kind of waiting around for Jowett to stand back up (which is another hilarious Kurt Angle parallel). I thought that actually worked for his young mustachioed punk character as it made him look like he was big timing the veteran Jowett. Rocco's bumping for the finish was excellent, a real rewind worthy moment where he back bumps and then handsprings back through the ropes feet first and takes another pratfall on the floor, a comedy bump that looked like either the greatest lucha rudo comedy bump or the payoff to a John Cleese bit.    

The Land of Giants (Skywalker Nitron/Butch Masters) vs. New Bulldogs (Dynamite Kid/Johnny Smith) AJPW 12/1/90

MD: I'm pretty well suited to know what's new and what's not new from 89-91 AJPW or so, and I'm pretty certain this classics drop is new. We're going to cover it anyway because that's what we do, cover Land of Giants matches. We get about six minutes out of the nine here, with a clip in the middle that annoying means we lost the transition to heel offense, but you can imagine it for the most part. 

And honestly, I liked this a lot. I have issues with late era Dynamite but this was one of the best performances I've seen out of him from 89-90. The most important thing is that he needs opponents he can't just chew up and you can't chew these guys up. They're huge. This started with Smith vs Nitron and I thought they actually matched up well, too well. Some of that was Nitron not working big enough but some of it was Smith not working small enough. He wasn't acting like he was in there with a giant. Even though Masters worked bigger, he'd still do the same thing against him later. 

Dynamite knew how to get the most of them though. When he came in, he had some awesome looking stuff, a fistdrop from an angle that you don't usually see it, a headbutt followed right by a jawbreaker. He was punching up and he was valiant for doing so and he wanted everyone in the crowd to know it. We get the clip then and come back to Masters working over the back, and it's honestly one of the best sells for a bearhug I've seen in a long time. I've criticized Omega's selling of his diverticulitis lately because while it's probably accurate, real to how he feels, it comes off as hokey. Dynamite knew what back pain felt like; he was probably feeling it there depending on how much he had chosen to dull it that night, but he was able to project it to the back row in the best of ways. Nitron's bearhug wasn't quite as good but the effect was still the same. 

The comeback was pretty huge as Dynamite fired up to the top as Masters was inexplicably headed up there to put him away and they did a huge superplex. Smith came in and cleaned house. Finally Smith slammed Masters and Dynamite came off the top with the headbutt much to the crowd's delight and they won as simple as could be. Not sure what was in those lost three minutes (when we came back in Masters was beating on Dynamite on the floor) but the six we got were pretty good. 

ER: This was probably the most entertaining Land of Giants match I've seen, and it was because of a more interesting and risky Butch Masters performance than I expected, and a downright fantastic "late era" Dynamite performance. This whole thing was totally worth it just to see Dynamite as a sincerely scary looking man going hard as fuck after Masters. Dynamite's face is scarred, his body is stiff, but the man feels like a threat at all times. Johnny Smith was at his beefiest in this era, so it actually works when he's throwing down with Nitron and Masters, but this is Dynamite's match. Dynamite hits an incredible fistdrop on Masters, a lunging fist torpedoed into Masters' throat, so perfect that I watched it half a dozen times. I would have said this match was incredible if everything else in it looked like dogshit. After that fistdrop he throws Masters to the floor so hard that it turns into what has to be the biggest bump of his career. Dynamite is great at running face first into boots and was good at drawing sympathy as both Giants take him to The Land of Bearhugs, but the big shock is him hitting a superplex on Masters. I have no idea what Butch was going to do up there, but whatever it was I wasn't expecting him to get suplexed off. When Smith tags in, Masters leans all the way into a stiff missile dropkick to his upper chest and gets wrecked by a Smith clothesline that I think hit harder than all of us expected, especially Masters. 

The icing on the cake was Dynamite hitting a flat out disgusting diving headbutt, smashing his forehead into Masters' teeth. You can see a knot already starting to form on the right side of Dynamite's head and Masters lies on the mat holding his face. Dynamite looked and wrestling like a pilled up psychopath, in the best way. That headbutt was one of the meanest things I've ever seen in a wrestling ring. Smith sets Masters up over halfway across the ring and Dynamite wants him there. He does a shoot headbutt to a man's face and Masters has no idea what hit him. It is Dynamite's head whipped into the entire side and mouth of Butch Masters, like a soccer hooligan leaping off the bleachers. 

Wolfie D/Steven Dunn vs. Gypsy Joe/Danny D Evansville 9/20/00

MD: I don't know. Sometimes you just want to see Wolfie D (here in full Slash mode) go up against Gypsy Joe? And there was some of the early, with a feeling out process and then the first (shorter) of a double heat after Wolfie took Joe down with a hairpull. Pretty simple control stuff with Danny getting drawn in to allow for the blind switches. Joe eventually made a comeback off of a whip reversed and teased a stinkface maybe, because it was 2000 after all. No punches here though. That's important because those were saved to the end.

Danny got leaned on for most of the rest of the match, and it made sense because even though Dunn was a pro and Wolfie a pro's pro I'm not sure you wanted them stooging for this lanky guy with dubious agility all that much. But it was a joy to watch Wolfie just destroy someone and they worked him into a few solid hope spots, including out of a bodyscissored full nelson. When Joe did make it back in (on a hot tag which was earned but not quite maximized re: the timing) the punches came out and they went into a pretty quick roll up win. You never quite know what you're going to get with the Bryan Turner uploads until you get there but this was pretty well worked overall.

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Found Footage Friday: TEAM USWA~! TEAM WCCW~! THUNDERDOME~! BRET~! FLAIR~! MONTERREY DEEP DIVE~!

Thunderdome Cage Match: Team USWA (Bill Dundee/Danny Davis/Jeff Jarrett/Billy Joe Travis/Gary Young) vs. Team WCCW (Eric Embry/Tom Prichard/The Awesome Kong/El Grande Pistolero/Steve Austin) USWA 1991

MD: This is going to be a found week. I swear I've seen this before but it could just be a phantom memory or I'm getting it confused with some NWA Anarchy match or something. Everyone's in the cage to start and there are handcuffs set up around the cage. Whichever team gets handcuffed to the cage first loses and the survivors get the key and get to unlock their partners for five minutes of pure, unfair violence. There's also a pinfall stip but it's confusing to everyone how it works even if it plays into the finish. 

Kong gets handcuffed right as the match starts, which gives the babyfaces an advantage from the get go and also takes out of play the biggest physical threat in the match. It's a choice, I guess. There is that sort of danger you get from let's say a NJPW elimination match, where if you get too close to someone who's handcuffed, you can get disrupted or grabbed. That too plays into the finish. In general though, Kong is a non-factor here. There's one solid visual of all of the USWA guys attacking him post match (which gives away the finish, sorry), but in general, he's gone from the get go. Pistolero might have been Gypsy Joe. If that's the case, it's a shame he didn't get to do much either as he's one of the first guys to get handcuffed. 

They cover a lot of ground in less than ten minutes here, though. Everyone gets bloody pretty quickly. People get slammed into the cage. They change dance partners and make some use of numerical advantages when they come up. the USWA side is pretty solid and you have at least Embry and Prichard on the other side, given who gets taken out early and the fact that Austin is green but game. It comes down to Travis and Prichard. Prichard gets too close to Jeff who nails him. Travis rolls him up but he's too close to Embry who breaks it up. Prichard is able to handcuff Travis and get the key. Dundee kicks Prichard who loses the key. Young gets it. The heels win but the babyfaces get free and the fans are delighted by the beatdown that follows. Pretty clever stuff all around. I think there's room for this gimmick in 2024.

PAS: This was basically an all punches match, and luckily we have 6-8 of the greatest punchers in wrestling history throwing hands. If all it is is Bill Dundee and Eric Embry throwing hands, Dayenu. Add that to Billy Joe Travis uppercuts, lots of blood and a crowd pleasing finish. Pure candyfloss pro-wrestling pleasure. I am not sure it would work in 2024, who even throws good punches anymore, but shit it worked in 1991.

ER: I thought this was incredible. I can't believe how much they did in 10 minutes, and I never expected it to swell to an insanely sadistic babyface conclusion. There are seven great punchers doing literally nothing but throwing punches and literally everybody bleeds. The Thunderdome stipulation is low key brutal and actually more violent than anything in the PG-13 Beyond Thunderdome. They did these matches with Robert Fuller and Eddie Gilbert replacing Gary Young (that's a plus) and Billy Joe Travis (that's a lateral and a totally different vibe). I get Kevin Nash being unavailable but I wonder if they tried to get Al Green...

On paper I wouldn't have thought handcuffing every one of your opponents to the cage would work, but then I laughed the moment Amazing Kong got cuffed 1 second into the match and spent the rest of the time hoping someone would come near enough to kick out at. Everyone else was too busy throwing punches. They all looked great, but my favorite bit was when Dundee (who looked incredible all match) finally got cuffed and Eric Embry was trying to line up a punch on someone, but he back into Bill Dundee who caught him with a short punch to the cheek and then a harder punch while he was stunned. Jarrett had tremendous fire throughout, Nightmare Danny Davis always comes off like Rutger Hauer in a street fight in these kinds of matches, and Billy Joe Travis is an incredible dirtbag with real babyface fire. You can tell by looking at him that he's a dirtbag, but the man is a fighter and when he's on your side you want that. 

The finish is downright sadistic. The winning team - the team who cuffs every opponent to the cage - then gets 5 minutes to beat their extremely disadvantaged opponents without mercy. Prichard wins the handcuff key for WCCW but Dundee kicks it away, meaning Gary Young gets it and uncuffs all the USWA guys, who - despite losing - proceed to fuck up every member of World Class to a rousing babyface reaction. This is such a long beating that I kept waiting for the Memphis fans to turn on their own. Seriously, after the match it's just 5 mean being beaten bloodier and bloodier by the good guys, desperate to fight back but chained to a cage, the Good Guys lining up shots at sitting ducks. When the halfway announcement of 2.5 minutes comes, it's already felt like this beating has gone on far too long. This is a merciless beating and the blood flows freely as Team Memphis just stomps on dead bodies like total psychopaths, never once stopping to consider if what they were doing was the correct choice. Ethics aside, every second of this was amazing. What I thought was a silly gimmick that would get in the way of what would have been a better 5 on 5 tag, turned out to enhance every part of it. 

Tigre Universitario/Principe Franky vs. Bello David/Bello Guerrero CMLL 12/92

MD: Deep into the crates here, as Roy didn't even break the matches out of these episodes. I'm going to try to go through each and every one however. Between the pre-match interview and the primera, I got the sense that David and Guerrero were in the midst of a gimmick change maybe. David had a Millionaire name as well and he might have recently lost a match? Luchawiki isn't much help there. Tigre and Franky were in matching gear and worked well as a tandem.

This was crowd-pleasing, action-packed undercard lucha though. There are a few clips; when we come in, they're hitting a foul on Franky and control for most of the primera. Lots of well put together double-team stuff, mostly double clotheslines and back body drops and elbow drops and the sort. The tecnicos come back and hit some flashing stuff including a great rowboat to win the caida. There's some fun stuff with Guerrero accidentally hitting the ref on the outside as well. The rudos got their fall back in the segunda (and showed more exotico tendencies) and everything built to cycling and a pretty exciting finishing stretch where Tigre and Franky continued to work well together (both with an alley-oop into a double axe handle in the corner and the tandem topes into the seats towards the end). The finish had each side getting a fall but Franky accidentally hitting the ref as David kept dodging dropkicks; he locked in a submission but the ref DQ'd him as David was tapping. Entertaining stuff all around.

Bret Hart vs. Ric Flair WCW 2/20/98

MD: Again, this feels like something we would have seen at some point, but it's still worth watching. MGM Grand House show from early 98. They fit a ton into the first few minutes, with Bret sort of stumbling bemused through Flair's act. It's entertaining but I'm not sure I'd call it particularly great or resonant. Definitely entertaining though. That means he has a slap fight with Charles Robinson, trading inverted atomic drops, eating an eye poke in the corner off a break, putting Flair in a figure-four, that sort of thing. Bret got serious fairly quickly once Flair took over, working from underneath as Flair hit some vicious stuff on the floor and a really nice belly to back. We get what I assume to be a brief cut so we never see how Bret gets out of the figure-four but he goes full Lawler for the finish, dropping his strap and fighting out of the corner before hitting some moves of doom and locking in the Sharpshooter. Definitely a moment in time and certainly crowd-pleasing.

ER: There were a lot of Bret/Flair matches that happened, but we don't have as many of them as I assumed. Most of what we have exist as handhelds (I believe Souled Out '98 and the excellent Smack 'Em Whack 'Em title change are the only two officially released bouts) including the great '93 Boston Garden iron man. But almost all of the handhelds was during their long series of '92/'93 WWF house shows. WCW, despite running Hart/Flair within a month of Bret joining the company, rarely ran the match. This happened the month after Souled Out and then they didn't interact for nearly two years. This match is the weakest of the Bret/Flair matches we have, but I don't think that's really an insult. The WWF matches are all great, and while it's been some years since I watched Souled Out '98, that match was at minimum praised at the time. 

This is nowhere near as ambitious as their WWF house show title matches 5 years prior, and it worked much more as a compact greatest hits. We're missing a portion that may or may not be significant (I am leaning towards Somewhat Significant, as the crowd is rather loud through Bret's struggle in the figure four, and when we clip to them standing in the corner they have gone quiet. We could have missed 30 seconds or 8 minutes), and the focus their title matches have isn't really here. The ending, especially, seems a bit too simple: we clip to Bret taking down both straps, backbreaker, Hitman elbow, suplex, sharpshooter with no fight. It was too tidy for the drama they are each capable of. They were both such more compelling during Flair's control segment. Flair and Bret are each guys who are good at yanking on a leg, Bret's inside cradle and backslide were each strong nearfalls, and I popped for a Bret enziguiri while working underneath that felt like an underutilized Bret tactic. The smaller moments of this were better than the broader moments. I particularly loved the way Bret sank to his seat in the corner after getting Flair cheapshots him in the eye, and how he recoiled when Flair did it again standing. 

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Found Footage Friday: DUSTY, JR.~! EIGEN~! OKUMA~! GYPSY JOE~! FUJI~! HENNIG~!

Mr. Fuji vs. Curt Hennig WWF (Kuwait) 1982

MD: There are plenty of things that are interesting about these Kuwait matches. Often times they're on smaller cards with smaller crews and need to go longer than what you'd see even at MSG and sometimes with hierarchy slightly off because the shows have to make do with what they have. They're also in front of crowds that are game but maybe less familiar than the New York faithful. Sometimes that lets a wrestler lean into strength, like Roddy trying to cause a riot or Putski doing as much as possible with as little as possible and being super over in the process.

Sometimes you get a match like this which is eighteen minutes, and maybe eight too long, and that's with us coming in just a bit JIP, which means we lose a little bit of the opening shine. Almost immediately, Fuji takes out the eyes with a foreign object and the next ten minutes or so are Fuji working nerve lock with Hennig working up, hitting some dynamic piece of offense and then immediately Barry Houston-ing himself with some huge bump (missed dropkick, dive through the ropes, giant dive onto Fuji's knees, all starting with that huge spasming sell of the eyes).

All of that works pretty well, if only because Fuji's such a jerk, perfect for this crowd, and because Hennig is so far over the top with everything he does. When he finally punches up, however, they go into what should probably be a finishing stretch, but because they're so far from home, they can't go home. It just lingers for minutes after that, with Hennig locking in a long front facelock. Mercifully, Fuji eventually goes back to the object, allowing Hennig to get it and get revenge on Fuji's eyes. He stooges around the ring blindly, all but beckons Hennig over to hit an elbow drop, and they land the plane with maybe the only 80s abdominal stretch I've ever see end a match (with some great exhausted selling from Fuji on a close up). I like seeing wrestlers facing challenges like this to see how they react. I wouldn't say this passed with flying colors but there was a pretty good twelve minute match in this eighteen minute frame.

Mark Scarpa/Dusty Rhodes Jr. vs. Haruka Eigen/Motoshi Okuma AJPW 6/5/90

MD: This is more Found than New, but it was buried on a tape list for quite a while, long enough for some of us to be ready to state our appreciation for Eigen and Okuma at least. This one showed that their act was probably a little dependent upon their opponents (I have new respect for Rusher after it) but it was also a good match for Dustin to be in to learn a thing or two. Dustin was billed as Dusty Jr. here. Not every punch hit exactly how you'd like, but overall, he was well on his way. His size was absolutely noticeable against Okuma and Eigen and let him take a lot of the match, maybe more than ultimately was enjoyable since they're so good at getting scuzzy heat.

Scarpa was, of course, Jay Youngblood's kid, also Mark Young. He had an Evel Knievel thing going with his gear and did some breakdancing arm movements that had the announcers calling him a "squishy pose" man. Eigen did play off of that amusingly. In general, for a guy that had over 150 matches at this point, a lot of them on WWF house shows against name opponents, and that had 15 matches on this tour already to get used to the AJPW rings, he was jarringly bad at getting whipped into the ropes. It's something that you take for granted with almost anyone you see at this level (especially that made it to an All Japan tour). Sometimes it might have been part of a spot Okuma wanted to do, such as missing a leaping headbutt and wiping out, but even that didn't look like it should have. He was capable at other times and took a great bump off of Okuma's head in the corner, for instance, but it's hard not to remember those whips.

So without heat and with Scarpa offering a little bit of sizzle but not too much else, the big draw here is just to see Dustin fit into the Eigen and Okuma show. That meant hitting elbows to little effect early given Okuma's hard head but being able to floor him late with the full flip, flop, and fly, or doing the spit spot on the apron with Eigen, increasingly realizing what he had until he hammed it up for the crowd bigtime on the third smack to the chest.

ER: Matt and I, big Eigen and Okuma guys, were excited for this one, and even though it's probably more exciting on paper than in execution, this is the Exact Kind Of Shit I Like. Matt might not know this, but I was a major Mark Young Guy when I was 7 and 8 years old. Before I knew what a job guy was, Mark Young was my favorite job guy. Even I, a 7 year old, figured out quickly which WWF wrestlers were going to be winning matches on WWF weekend TV. If one man was named The Widow Maker and then other man was named Dennis Allen, I was smart enough to know that things were about to go poorly for Dennis (especially once I asked my dad what a widow was and what "makes" widows). But Mark Young was the job guy who got more offense, and occasionally got close pinfalls. He looked like a guy who was primed to get a win, and I was excited to see him get that win. He also did breakdancing and flips, and that shit certainly didn't make me like him any less. Watching him with adult eyes, he basically looks like Dave Meltzer and runs the ropes like a guy in his first week of wrestling school. 

But that's okay! While it is alarming how poorly literally any spot that required him to run the ropes went (this All Japan tour came after he had already been working the WWF house show/TV circuit for at least a year) I thought it was impressive how well the match worked. Eigen and Okuma were in there with a gangly 6'6" large adult cowboy baby and a breakdancing goofball who couldn't properly run, and Dustin/Scarpa provide two of the most uniquely odd opponents I have ever seen Eigen and Okuma deal with. I loved every single instance of Eigen getting almost Actually Upset by Scarpa's breakdancing. Eigen is angry that he even has to attempt to lock up with a man who is wiggling his arms like Plastic Man. I loved all of Okuma's headbutts, especially how Eigen would run Dustin and Scarpa across the ring to slam them face first into Okuma's head. Scarpa was so weird, because he couldn't begin to understand Irish whips, but he actually had really impressive bumps. I loved how he bumped and sold after being run into Okuma's head. When Okuma ran at him with a headbutt to the stomach, I loved how Scarpa fell to his butt. Scarpa also had a really incredible sunset flip, leaping to the top rope and twisting in midair to glide perfectly over Eigen. It looked like a legit finisher, and also created a great moment where Eigen was not there and Scarpa just flipped off the top onto nothing. 

Dustin was mostly in there to be the son of Dusty Rhodes. Is it kind of weird that Scarpa didn't also go by Jay Strongbow Jr.? It's probably because Strongbow was a WWF guy who really didn't wrestle much in Japan, so they wouldn't recognize whatever family offense Scarpa would have been doing. They recognize Dustin doing the jabs and hard Dusty elbow to Okuma. Eigen/Dustin was a fun pairing and after Dustin took a tough bump to the floor, hitting the apron on his way down, I actually bit at Eigen's tope feint. Eigen got such a head of steam that I actually thought this man was hitting a tope into the large target of Dusty Rhodes Jr.  I was NOT expecting Dustin to facilitate Eigen spitting into the crowd. I don't think gaijin usually got involved in that spot. It's almost always one of Eigen's peers, and I wish I had behind the scenes footage either explaining the intricacies of the spot to Dustin, or letting Dustin know he would be trusted enough to have the honor of facilitating Haruka Eigen spitting all over Chiba salarymen. 

Gypsy Joe vs. Hot Rod Biggs (First Blood) Hardcore Championship Wrestling 1997(?)

MD: This is the main event starting around the 1:38:00 mark. Gypsy Joe was mid-sixties at this point and he had a series of matches with Biggs. This is the one we've dropped in on as it's a recent upload. It's First Blood, which, as best as I can tell, meant that Joe could win, but Biggs could still be protected due to the haphazard nature of "First" and especially get his heat back post-match by really laying out Joe and opening him up.

There's a real art to an old pro being able to hold court in the center of the ring and having his opponent create motion. In order to make this work, things have to look credible, the fans have to respect the old lion, and everyone has to be dedicated to the act. Jose Lothario in Houston was amazing at this and I've seen Lawler manage it pretty well before his stroke. Joe and Biggs do great with it here, with Biggs coming at him again and again only to feed and fall. The flip side of this is the post-match beatdown, where it feels like an real heat-drawing affront that Biggs is doing so much damage to someone so old and beloved and (from a kayfabe perspective at least) admirable.

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Found Footage Friday: MUTA~! VADER~! DEATH~! SAITO~! BIGELOW~! BABA~! GYPSY JOE~!

Giant Baba vs. Gypsy Joe AJPW 8/20/81

MD: Baba really charges right in at Joe here and starts on him in the corner before tossing him out and threatening to go after him. If he had, this might be in the running for a really great sub-five minute match. Joe came to no-sell Baba's head chop, which is a pretty alarming sight to be honest. That led to a great moment where he took over briefly with an eye rake, only for Baba to get annoyed that he wasn't selling the chop and hit an eye rake of his own. Baba most certainly got it. In fact, the reason why he didn't chase him out early was so he could chase him out the second time that he tossed him, a payoff to that initial tease that would lead to the match ultimately getting thrown out. This was more of a weird few minutes than anything else, but you can't fault either Baba's savvy or that early intensity.

ER: This was Gypsy Joe's first All Japan match, one of IWE's big foreign stars going after the big All Japan Boss after his old home fed's dissolution. This was the beginning of a several year run in All Japan for Joe, but watching this out of context you might wonder if this guy who isn't selling Baba chops would ever work Japan again. Joe even puffs his chest out and challenges Baba to chop him some more, and then ignores those! When Baba tosses him to the floor and Joe comes back in immediately with a chair, I love that we got to see a little bit of panic from Baba, and even more I love that Baba dropped down quick to a knee to sell Joe's first chop of the match (a great overhand in the corner). You bet Baba's chops got even harder the rest of the match. It's funny that "Baba Chops" were a running joke among "smart" fans for years, but they really are fucking great. His knife edge chops really do pack wallop, and his classic overhands look like a giant smashing the heel of his palm right into the crown of Joe's head. Joe can no sell those all he wants, he's definitely taking a full blow to the dome. 

Steve Williams vs. Keiji Mutoh NJPW 5/26/90

MD: Williams had a very weird spring 1990, bouncing between All Japan and New Japan. To put things into perspective, he was working All Japan on the 23rd and New Japan on the 24th, and then was back to All Japan (where he had a great Hansen match) by the start of June. And he had done a New Japan shot in February too, so, just a weird period. No one else really was jumping around like that, but then Williams was a pretty special talent at the time. He hit the ring with a crazy intensity, threw people around, threw himself around, and so on. In some ways, Mutoh was an ideal opponent for him too. He was one of the only guys in Japan who could work up out of a chinlock like an American babyface (young Kobashi being another and they had a fun match the next month where Kobashi did just that).

When this match was Williams or Mutoh throwing themselves at each other, or Williams throwing Mutoh, it was a lot of fun. Overall, though, I thought Williams either gave too much or Mutoh took too much. There were moments midway through where Williams was using backslides or small packages to work from underneath which is just completely backwards. Even when Williams dodged the moonsault and took over, it was a brief bit of control before he went careening into the post on a missed charge. There was definite electricity here, but they needed to trust the basic tenets of pro wrestling more instead of making this so even or even lopsided in Mutoh's favor.

Masa Saito/Koji Kitao vs. Big Van Vader/Bam Bam Bigelow NJPW 5/26/90

MD: I've seen plenty of early SWS Kitao lately, and I have to tell you, it's amazing to hear a crowd so behind him. Vader, and to a lesser degree, Bigelow, did heroic work helping to make him here. Vader eating him up just a little only to let him come back huge, knock him out of the ring, and then sell the frustration and emotional weight of it by tossing chairs into the ring, was just top notch stuff. There was a moment after they started in on Saito where I thought Saito was going to take all the heat and it'd build to a massive, explosive Kitao hot tag. That was not to be, but I almost didn't mind because Saito - a guy who spent so much of his year in the states - decided to do a Dusty Rhodes impression against Bigelow, firing up big with arm twirling atomic shots and reversing a vertical suplex just for the hell of it. When they leaned, it was actually on Kitao, which makes sense, because he needed to get his reps in selling. So, it was probably the match it needed to be, untelevised and in front of this crowd, but not as good of a match as it could have been if they just used more smoke and mirrors and kept Kitao out of it. He had size and the fans were behind him. It was amazing how exposed he was by the end of 1990. Full credit to Vader here for selflessly making him look great.

ER: This really is Kitao getting to work through a few different roles in front of a large 5,000 person crowd but without any of it being taped. It's unsatisfying seeing Vader and Bam Bam hold back against him, but I guess we weren't going to get the two biggest dudes nuking him on a show that wasn't taped. They look like such monsters here. Vader in the mastodon helmet, and Bam Bam in the sleeveless gear. I prefer cap-sleeve Bam Bam as a look, but sleeveless Bam Bam has a neat circus strongman aesthetic that feels totally different. Also, Masa Saito as the smallest man in a tag match is so cool. This match was all about Vader being very VERY generous in selling Kitao's offense. My favorite part of all this might have been Vader selling for Kitao, then throwing chairs 40 feet across the arena into the ring, getting his heat back and more. Bigelow takes some huge bumps and is really quick. I'm not sure you're going to find a man this size who can take a backdrop as high as or take a snap suplex bump as fast as Bam Bam, but it probably helps when Saito is doing the tossing. Dusty Saito was a giddy surprise, using those rolling Dusty fists to power Vader into a back suplex, the kind of memorable moment that tends to happen on the best house shows. Vader really beats the shit out of Kitao after the bell on the floor, WAY more than he was hitting him during the match proper. Have you're schoolboy win, you're going to take at least a few forearms to the chest. 

Big Van Vader vs. Keiji Mutoh NJPW 10/7/90

MD: It's fun to see the similarities and differences between this and the Williams match. I'd still say Mutoh took a little too much of it overall, but whenever they reset to a stand up, Vader had an obvious advantage. There was also a real sense towards the end, after the comeback and during the finishing stretch, that as good as Mutoh was in hurting Vader and getting him down, he couldn't put him away, not even with the moonsault. Moreover, when he did the rolling dodge of a clothesline, it had only taken a dropkick to take Doc out. Against Vader, he had to do the rolling dodge, the jumping back kick, and then the dropkick. We lose a little bit of this when Vader's beating Mutoh around the ring, but what we do get to see is fun. The sheer momentum of Vader crashing not just into but through the connected guard rails is an impressive sight. Meanwhile, it may have taken more to get and keep Vader down, but Mutoh survived two big splashes until the third (just barely) kept him pinned. The fans were up for Mutoh's comebacks, but I bet they would have been up for them even more if he let Vader get a bit more on him.

ER: I love a nice short sprint, and this was tidy and quickly violent and cool. It didn't reach the heights it could have, but this isn't a match that really happened so it's great to see. Vader goes up early for a back suplex, but most of this is Mutoh doing everything he does full force and Vader finding cool ways to sell it by absorbing it, while punishing Mutoh. He slaps him around, hits a press slam that looks so effortless that I'm not sure I'd be able to lift my cat above my head the same way, and he really knows how to flatten a guy on elbowdrops. I love how he took hard dropkicks by basically freezing in place, more stunned than hurt. He was really great at getting into position for everything Mutoh had. My favorite might have been when he took the handspring elbow by dropping down to a knee and staggering out, then takes the (stupid) one handed bulldog straight onto his forehead, better than most I've ever seen taking that (stupid) move. The man absolutely annihilates a guardrail and always looks like the most unfuckwithable man, and the whole finishing stretch was beautiful. Look at how Mutok shoves and presses up off Vader's chest after hitting the moonsault, or how Vader sets up a Mutoh sunset flip by missing his splash. Mutoh pays for that sunset flip, and you can see how the crowd KNEW that splash was curtains. 

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New Footage Friday: Porky vs. MA2K for HAIR, Negro Casas, Great Sasuke, Gypsy Joe, Takashi Ishikawa

Dream Machine/Gypsy Joe vs. Takashi Ishikawa/Akio Sato AJPW 1/20/83

MD: This was good stuff. I really like the team of Dream Machine and Gypsy Joe. Joe's so matter-of-fact, just a meat and potatoes, pound and stooge stalwart of the wrestling world. Dream Machine in Japan is a constant treat. He puts a little extra into everything. That may be an extra reversal on an armdrag or the oomph on a knee drop when he could have just gotten away with a stomp or that nasty (really just unnecessary for the match but over the top vicious) chairshot on the outside. This was mainly back and forth but I liked how Joe/DM controlled matters when on offense and the escalation felt surprisingly flashy, including the Sato/Ishikawa veg-o-matic (1983, folks), and the near deadlift German that ended it.

PAS: I am a big Ishikawa guy, and it is really fun to watch him and Gypsy Joe mix it up. Those are a pair of guys who throw hard down the middle shots, and Joe especially always feels like he is taking liberties. Loved the idea of Jimmy Hart's First Family invading japan, and that Ishikawa and Sato were willing to go along with the ride and give as good as they get. Finish with Onita attacking Joe makes me sad we never had a Gypsy Joe run as a top heel in FMW.


Negro Casas vs. Great Sasuke CMLL 7/7/96

MD: This is not 100% new, but it's definitely 100% rare and absolutely 100% worth watching. It's just an amazing Negro Casas performance. The first fall has him working pretty evenly on the mat with Sasuke, though they're both emphasizing the pain and the struggle very well. As I was watching, my thought of them really letting things build and breathe was disrupted by an out of nowhere superplex, but it worked, because of the 2/3 fall structure and because it operated as a tonal shift. That let Sasuke get the first real advantage of the match and take the first fall.

While that first fall was technically competent, things start to sing in the second as Casas the beloved troublemaker rudo is fully unleashed. It starts with chinlocks and headscissors and Casas, at each and every point, claiming it's a choke and getting the ref to break it. Ultimately, Sasuke gets frustrated and starts stomping, but Casas then trips himself in the corner (repeatedly) whenever he's near Sasuke's second, until the ref gets wholly distracted and Casas is able to slip in a perfect foul.

The tercera has Casas pressing the offense, including some immediately blown off legwork (this is the big flaw of the match, but you sort of forgive it because of who Sasuke is and the fact that Casas could only get so far with it before eating an asai moonsault), and then, after more chicanery and fouls (wherein he claims to be fouled himself), he ultimately takes a far too nonchalant approach to things, pays for it, almost loses, and comes back at the last second with la casita for the win. Sasuke has some fire in this, but he generally comes off as an out-of-his-element tourist who's getting fleeced by a savvy local. There's no one else in the world who could have done what Casas did in this match in 1996. I can count on my hand the people in all of history that I think could marry this level of technical skills and emotiveness with presence and just a sheer mastery of every moment without having anything feel contrived and over the top. What's crazy is that he could still probably have 95% of this match today.

ER: What a little treat! Two legends I have never seen face each other, on Casas' home turf, with Casas turning in one of the most generous rudo performances possible. This is a dominant Sasuke performance, Casas gives him at least 90% of the match, and it totally works. This is black tights Casas, which is my favorite Casas look ever, playing not so much a sniveling rudo, but a rudo who is going to focus his energy on cheating even when his focused energy could potentially win decently. It's great. Sasuke dominates the entire primera with matwork, and it's cool seeing Japanese juniors matwork in a lucha ring, nicely stretched half crabs and hard armbar attempts, and Casas is someone really great at putting over that kind of matwork. He repeatedly gets outclassed by Sasuke, and this is last time I'll mention how unselfish he was here, just a luchador with the most confidence possible, letting a flashy junior come in and show off all his coolest stuff. The segunda is where Casas - while still letting Sasuke handle almost all the offense - focuses much of his attention on making Tiger Mask look like a cheating son of a bitch, and it's hilarious. He had four different moments where he would act like TM was swiping his leg from the floor. 

The first time I actually thought TM had just missed his mark and Casas was a pro and just be the guy committed to pretending he got hit by a pitch to take his base. When he went back and did it again I saw what he was doing, and LOVED it. Casas was using imaginary trips to distract the ref while Casas could then go punt some ninja in the balls and I was 100% here for it. Sasuke kicking out of a ball kick in Mexico feels like a pretty big deal, and kicking out of a second shot was beyond the pale. Who is this ninja with the invincible scrotum, whose second has the fastest hands in the west? The Sasuke highspots were expectedly impressive, with his big Asai moonsault into the narrow entryway, always connecting so cleanly chest to chest; he hit his tumbling moonsault in ring, and a Bruce Lee style kick off the top to the floor that sent himself into a seat and Casas sprawled down an aisle. Casas hit a gorgeously cocky senton off the top rope (taunting fans as he climbed the turnbuckles), and had a couple big bumps: one fast to the floor off a dropkick, the other late in the match flying off the top rope to the floor off another dropkick, with Casas landing directly on a photographer who humbly gets up and scampers off. But the star of this was Casas repeatedly making Tiger Mask defend his honor, the innocent man accused of guilt, sounding only more and more guilty the more he defends himself. Casas was writing a Hitchcock script around leg swipes and dick kicks.

PAS: All timer by Casas, what an incredible performer. We get to see all of the facets of Casas as a world class rudo, the technical back and forth mat work of the first fall, leads into an award winning performance as a trolling heel, loved how when he fouls Sasuke, he fakes a foul on himself just to muddy the waters and confuse the ref. Later Casas is a generous base for all of Sasuke's crazy highspots, and a violent bastard as he tears up Sasuke's knee. He delivered it all and it was great. Sasuke was a fine dance partner and loved when ever he was ripping apart Casas' knee. Really wish we could have seen Casas against other imports at this time, you get sense he could deliver a great match which virtually anyone.


Super Porky vs. Mascara Ano 2000 CMLL 8/7/98


MD: Super minimalist affair, and generally I'm ok with that because you know it'll be super primal as well, but here I wanted a little move of everything. That's not because I felt unsatisfied but because the bits and pieces we got were so good; unfortunately, they were just bits and pieces. Porky came out charging, just bullying MA2K around the ring and it's a sort of triumphant, dominant Porky that you rarely see, just meaty shots and no mercy. He just took the primera too quickly. He was so dominant that you had to wonder how MA2K could even get back in it, and it went the only way it could, with a missed move off the ropes. The heat here was very brief, the comeback definitive but also too sudden to really enjoy. That led to MA2K loading up the arm-brace and smashing Porky repeatedly until he couldn't fight back. All good ideas. All good execution. We just needed more of it.

PAS: Really hard hitting heavyweight apuestas match, which didn't have enough juice or time to get really great. Porky comes out like a freight train and bowls over Ano for the entire first fall, which is an interest look for a technico in an apuestas match. It reminded me of Dusty Rhodes or Bill Watts walking tall over bumping heels. I loved the dominant first fall, and was fine with the banana peel segunda, and liked the finish with the loaded brace, and Porky's spasmodic selling. I just wished we got some real back and forth before that finish, it feels like we were robbed a dramatic Tercera, and instead they just went right into the finish at the beginning of the fall. Still a fun discovery

ER: I LOVED THIS! Now, there is one absolutely cruel moment to start, and that is that this is a big apuestas match, and we did not get to see ring entrances. You need that pomp, you need to see Mascara coming out with Universo wearing their dusters and suits, and Porky appeared to have a cape with a head and chest piece, and we saw next to none of it! And that is the only mistake they made, because the match itself features another flat out brilliant Super Porky performance. Phil has called Porky arguably the most entertaining wrestler of all time, and you see performances like this and it's hard to argue. What's amusing is Porky has long been a favorite of mine, but this and the other Porky match we've reviewed for NFF have been among my absolute FAVORITE Porky matches. Which means I loved the guy without ever even seeing some of his greatest work, and now I am just over the moon. I have never seen Porky work the mat like he does here, and it's the best. It's so cool seeing him break out these skills, stretch that muscle memory, and even use his belly to his advantage! That Indian deathlock spot was class, the way he locked Mascara's leg and applied pressure while rolling through, and after when he held Mascara's legs in place with his stomach! 

All of Porky's exchanges looked fantastic, just momentum and charisma crashing into Mascara. His energy level was really a sight in the 90s, and then seeing him drop a nice vertical suplex and following with a Perfect Plex is just next level? Super Porky, dropping someone with a Perfect Plex? YESSSSS. He is just so damn fun here. I am a big Mascara fan as well, and he knows to lay back during this one, total foil for Porky's antics. He lets Porky handle the offense, because Porky has spectacular offense, capitalizes on things like Porky missing a huge senton off the top. And I loved all the shenanigans around the loaded arm wrap. I loved how obvious Universo and Mascara were being about it, the very concept of a discreetly hidden weapon trick thrown out the window. But I loved the Snidely Whiplash dastardly gall, and Mascara comes in a clocks Porky right in the throat, and then does it again. I dug Porky's spasm-y selling while Mascara struts around the ring, brazen in his rudo behavior. This was great.  

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New Footage Friday: Gypsy Joe, Hara, Billy Robinson, Ray Stevens, Chic Cullen, Dynamite Kid, Bruce Hart

Billy Robinson vs Ray Stevens AWA 9/13/81

MD: The Ray Stevens Rule is as follows: No matter what wrestlers say about another wrestler, if the footage doesn't bear it out, we have to see it as suspect.

With every new (or more complete) Ray Stevens match, I hope to find some hint that proves every other Ray Stevens match I ever saw wrong. I never do. Yes, he's old. Yes, he's broken down from a life of bumping and partying and fast driving. Yes, there's so much we don't have. None of that matters. Why? Because we have other old, broken down guys and you can see it so clearly in the ruins of their movements. Why? Because we have old Flair, who idolized him, and while old Flair is heavily flawed, the remnants of wonder are still there. Why? because we have plenty of Stevens' partners, Bockwinkel and Patterson, and they are two of the most amazing 40-something wrestlers ever.

And you know what? He's pretty good here. He's pretty good at garnering heat in the beginning through stalling. He's pretty good at stooging for Robinson throughout. He's got some good back and forth punching. He's ok, decent enough, with his King of the Mountain segment. He takes a great beating, both physically and emotionally. I'd say a lot of the rest of the stuff he did on top wasn't very interesting, but he did manage a nice little headbutt to the gut out of the corner.

Unfortunately, he's in there with a far, far more memorable verison of Billy Robinson. This is Billy Robinson the master, Billy Robinson the trickster, Billy Robinson the super-over babyface in a territory that values the idea of wrestling skill more than any other. It's a Billy Robinson who is out there to make a fool of his opponent and then to fire back after he's kept out of the ring by him. He's great. He's larger than life. I've seen some great Billy Robinson matches, but I've never quite seen him so triumphant. He completely and utterly eclipses Ray Stevens in maybe the best Ray Stevens performance I've ever seen and you know what, unless you find me some 1960s footage, I don't think I ever need to see another Ray Stevens match. I've seen enough. He's not that great. Billy Robinson, on the other hand, absolutely is.

PAS: I enjoyed Stevens in this, he came off as a less sprightly Dick Slater, a tough guy who will oversell and stooge but still dish it out. Of course poor man's Dick Slater isn't an all time great wrestler, and it feels Stevens maybe a Sayama/Brody style lie. Any chance to see Robinson do his thing is awesome and he does a ton of nifty little twists and additions to the match. I liked how he got a little aggressive and ended up hurting his own neck, allowing Stevens to get some shots in. I also really dug how he worked his way into the Boston Crab reversal which led to the pin. This felt a little undercardish for a match between two such legendary wrestlers, but I liked what we got.

Davey Boy Smith/Bruce Hart/Keith Hart/Robbie Stewart vs Duke Myers/Kerry Brown/Dynamite Kid/The Great Gama Stampede 10/9/81

MD: Ed Whalen is the king of jerks. I knew when this was announced as a 20 minute clip, it wouldn't be a full match. It made me wonder just how long the original match actually was. This shows us about five minutes of shine early on, another ten of the finish, and a promo from each team. It's still a meaningful chunk of Stampede and well worth watching. The very worst thing about it was Whalen saying "hoo boy, I wish you could have seen that action!" or whatever when it came back. He was the asshole who decided to (litearlly) cut the tape!

Anyway, this was the Chic "Robbie Stewart" Cullen show, and how cool is the idea of that showing up on the WWE Network in 2019? The bits of shine we got were great, but also suffered from diminishing returns. All action, quick tags, just go go go in a way that wouldn't seem out of place today. There's no denying how workrate heavy Stampede was. I will say this though. The crowd was buzzing at the start of the five minutes and they weren't at the end, except for maybe when a groin shot was teased. It was great, but maybe too focused on one heel without enough teased even exchanges. They were pacing for sixty minutes but as five taken in a bubble, it was unsatisfying (but tasty) candy.

The heat was really strong, though a bit too focused on ref ineptitude/chicanery. Instead of them booing the heels (or even JR Foley), the crowd was shouting about wanting a real ref. I'm not sure what they went back with on this, but if it was something with Stu as a special ref, for instance, that's totally fine. In a bubble it was a bit of a shame because there's better way to get heat.

Cullen's a perfectly serviceable, very solid, brit wrestler in a lot of the 70s-80s footage we have of him. Here he got to shine as a highly sympathetic face-in-peril with some really great hope spots (including an absolutely lightning cross body out of nowhere). I'm guessing they put so much of this on him so that the Harts and Davey could be the ones to clean house at the end. There was a great moment where Keith (I think) rushed around the ring on the outside and just brutalized everyone in a mob scene.

The heels were more than capable in repressing Cullen. The tension kept getting ramped up because and in spite of the ref. The hot tag was well timed and hot. The babyfaces got to run riot on the heels to the crowd's delight. The finish was wonky and had to be hugely disappointing for everyone who just sat through 60 minutes, but I bet they all came back the following week anyway. Very fun footage, both ahead of its time and of its time in both good and bad ways, and it's a downright crime that all of this footage was cut and lost forever.

ER: I really loved all the action we got here, and came away super impressed with all of these Stampede babyfaces. Matt did a tremendous job of laying out the joys and frustrations, the ebb and flow, the reasons Ed Whalen can suck it, so I can just focus on how much I loved literally all the action. I have seen hardly any Chic Cullen/Robbie Stewart and he came away from this match looking like an all time great babyface. He was super fiery and fun on offense, loved his piledriver on Kerry Brown. Brown is a big guy and Stewart really looked like he had to strain and muscle him up to hit it, which only added to it for me. Also loved him hyperextending legs and threatening to drop his head to groin, and when the match quickly became him as the FIP it was as good as any FIP work we've seen. He bumped big (look at that grisly suplex over the top to the floor that Dynamite gave him!) and his small stature and teen idol feature hair made him come off like "The Cute One" in a boy band. But I thought all the babyfaces looked great. Apparently Bruce Hart throws the best elbowdrops this side of Hansen, really fast and full weight, and Bruce worked really violent in general, also hit a mean elbow off the top, and came off like a cool asskicking babyface. He always looked vicious when he would come in, and his viciousness made Stewart come off even more sympathetic. Davey Boy looked exactly the same as Dynamite, same size and look, even moved the same as Dynamite. He came in and hit a great jumping headbutt and later in the match Dynamite did one exactly like it. Davey Boy had these long arms and I thought he did a great job every time he tried to save Stewart before being sent back to the apron. Keith wasn't in as much but he also looked good in limited time, hitting a cool dropkick right under the chin. The heels were at minimum serviceable and it was great seeing Gama kick Stewart between the eyes, they all looked good bullying Stewart around. Dynamite was a clear standout for the heels, bumping huge to the floor off a miscommunicated dropkick, dropping Stewart with suplexes and a great high kneelift, and that killer suplex he hit to the floor, and his always strong strikes to a prone opponent (he hit this awesome falling lariat/fistdrop on Stewart that someone should steal). Preaching to the choir, but obviously it is a major crime that so much of this footage is completely gone. What we have here is gold.

Gypsy Joe vs. Ashura Hara AJPW 2/4/82

ER: I love an early 80s AJ garbage brawl, and this one felt like we had a cool layer of "is this FOR REAL!?" Gypsy Joe is almost 50 here and is a total savage, with William Murderface hair and a cinderblock forehead. He has a bunch of great strikes that all seem to land hard, probably because his strikes all land hard. Hara is no pushover, obviously, the dude played professional rugby through his athletic prime (weird he wasn't a Schneider guy earlier) so he's going to hit hard and absorb a beating. Hara surely threw some meaty chops, but Gypsy Joe looked dangerous. Hara would hit him with a shot and Joe would just stare at him and hit him back a couple times, harder. Joe had sharp uppercuts and these whipping shots to the the head and back of neck, and clonked Hara a bunch with headbutts from his big flat forehead. Hara kept getting pissed off and they played it like Joe was being unprofessional, so Hara kept going to the floor for chairs and he absolutely blasted Joe with a couple shots, getting that great Japan seat popping visual as it flies off Joe's head. But you know Joe gets that chair and hits Hara in the face with it, right with the fucking edge, then chokes him over the bottom rope and keeps bouncing Hara's head off it. You knew this wasn't likely to get an actual finish, but who cares as this had all the charm you wanted and even more of the violence than you could have expected.

MD: We've been doing this since May or so. I will admit I get some real enjoyment when I find something I know Phil or Eric will love. This one was totally down Phil's alley and we had to rush it to the front of the pile. It's an iconic Gypsy Joe performance. He's been in all sorts of spatterings of matches over the years, but this feels absolutely iconic. It's violence that doesn't stop and that goes on for a few more minutes than you'd expect. It takes one of my least favorite tropes, the idea that someone would just stand there and brace himself and take a chairshot, and somehow makes it completely and utterly believable. It's not about some sort of manliness or some sort of obtuse turn-taking when Joe braces himself in the corner and awaits the chair to come. It feels more like inevitability, like he somehow how knows this is his fate and his lot and all he can do is weather the storm. The affront offends him and he answers in kind, but he has seen the hopelessness of life and knows that all any one person can ever do is to meet it head on. Or it's just a fifty year old taking unnecessary chair shots. What do I know? It's still a really cool find.

PAS: This two are frequent dance partners (I remember an awesome IWE match between the two from 79, which I have to find and review now, and they matched up a bunch in AJ during this time), and there is no mystery to why it is a great match up. Both guys are willing to dish out and receive grim and grizzly amounts of violence, Joe walks forward and eats these sicko chair shots to his head and shoulders, and Hara absorbs some brain melting headbutts. Joe may have the most unprofessional and violent looking headbuts this side of Kurisu and he wallops Hara with them, along with a nice tasting menu of his famous lung flattening chops. Of course we get a double count out, but it would seem silly for this to end in a pinfall, of course it ends with both guys wandering around in the stands bleeding and hurling things at each other.

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