New Footage Friday: Fishman, Black Cat, Fritz Von Erich, Kabuki, Hercules Ayala

PAS: Network put up a nearly complete Star Wars card from 1981 (Kerry vs. Race was out there before, and we took a pass on Killer Tim Brooks vs. Mil and a Battle Royal) so we decided to review a couple of the matches from that show and threw on a cool NJ HH to close out the week.

Kevin Von Erich/David Von Erich vs. Hercules Ayala/Ali Mustafa WCCW 2/21/81

MD: There was a lot to like here. I know David and Kevin had won some of the other tag belts in Dallas but this was their first time winning this one and it felt like a huge deal. Some of that was the setting. Some of that was the post-match celebration. A lot of it was the match itself though. They were a very good babyface pairing, with a lot of energy and just enough stuff between the double teams, the flying, and the claw. Ali was just a tremendous stooge, bumping, feeding, full of underhanded offense. I loved how he threw himself into dropkicks. Ayala brought the power and the size, more than doing his part. What really stood out was how often they went back to heat. I think the Von Erichs had ten comebacks here but between the size advantage and heel chicanery, they kept ending up fighting from underneath. It's not a well that's gone to all that often to begin with, but because they never took back over for long, it made for more of an escalation than any sort of stuttering and really got the crowd to build more and more for them as the match went on. As much as I tend to resent the Dallas crowd for their hero-worship, it's really hard to blame them given matches like this.

PAS: This was a bunch of fun. I loved the Von Erich's meathead charisma, they are great as big fired up country boys ready to fight. Kevin is a totally under rated flyer. He doesn't have the gracefulness of some, but he has a ton of power in his legs and really gets in the air on dropkicks and big elbows. Matt makes a great point about the structure, heels really controlled the match, and they were great at it, and the Von Erich's made a bunch of mini comebacks leading up to the big comeback which really blew up the crowd. Don't know much about Ali, but he was really great in this match, offensive looked nasty and he was a great foil, Ayala was a beast too, great press slam, and he had this moment where he came into break up a pin and just punched David right in the liver, a liver which was already working hard I imagine.

Fritz Von Erich vs. Kabuki WCCW 2/21/81

PAS: Kabuki is such a cool act, the weird penis nose mask, the spinning around, the face paint, the crazy bendy fingers, I am all in, wrestling needs more exotic weirdos. I am a fan of 80s old man walking tall matches, loved the Bill Watts stuff from Mid-South and any time Jackie Fargo or Eddie Marlin wrestled in Memphis. Fritz may be a garbage person, but he is pretty good at walking tall. Lots of Kabuki gesticulating and Fritz countering with a big punch. I loved the spot where Kabuki went for a nerve pinch under the arm, and Fritz countered with the claw. Gary Hart starts punching at Fritz's leg and a fan attacks Hart, have to love wrestling that can get drunks ready to jump barricades. Finish was kind of BS with David running in and beating up Kabuki, actually made Fritz look kind of weak. Still I dug this, although it is very in my wheelhouse.

MD: This was minimalist in the best ways. They knew what they were doing. Fritz came in first which both allowed Kabuki his elaborate pre-match rituals and let him sign about a hundred autographs for kids. About half the match was them looking for an opening an that made when either found an opening all the better. Listen to the heat for Kabuki's first real burst of offense. The crowd was irate because of the build for it. It kills me that we live in a world where the claw probably wouldn't work, because it's such an effective, visual tool that can be built towards throughout a match, that can be consistently countered or defended against, that can be the perfect instrument for a comeback. Fritz was the real deal here, absolutely genuine Americana. He was a gnarled old bastard who looks close to 73 than the 53 he was at this point. Kabuki was electric with his theatrics and Fritz' response, putting his finger to his head and spinning it to indicate in his slow, bigoted way that Kabuki was a crazy weirdo will be the image that sticks with me as much as anything else. The finish was definitely muddled. The idea was that Hart was interfering so thoroughly that David (who wanted revenge anyway) had to run in, but you had both a fan and Manning attacking Hart first which really muted the threat of him. I get that they had to protect Kabuki and Fritz but the sequence felt overstretched and neither of them or David ended up looking good.

ER: I love it! Fully agree with Phil about old guy Walking Tall matches. I would wager a substantial amount that I was the high vote on the Eddie Marlin/Tommy Gilbert Memphis match (and also bet that Phil was the 2nd highest vote) and I assume if you've read much of anything I've written you would know that I have a general fondness for old guys wrestling. That juxtaposition between an incredibly tough man, who is now also very vulnerable due to humans' peculiar habit of eventually dying. Fritz was in his 50s here but looked large, and powerful; a vast aging physique that still flashed plenty of muscle. The man looked like someone who could still muscle around cattle. And what a sight it is to see the ringside area swarm with children and adults alike, all trying to get their programs signed by a man they would later grow to not respect. And we get a simple yet effectively hot kick and punch match with Fritz lifting heavy legs into Kabuki's gut, and throwing punches that....well, realistically I could watch an old cowboy punch another old cowboy like that for 20 minutes and have it be one of my favorite matches of all time. See, our 1976 MOTY. Kabuki grounds him and bites at his throat, Fritz reverses to a stomach claw from his back, and we all know how silly the stomach claw was but it somehow never looks silly in the least when Fritz is applying it. Hart attacks Fritz's leg when they're in the ropes and a drunk fan charges in to save Fritz. It is a fact that any spectacle that can inspire a drunk man to play hero, is almost always going to be great. This is not a man who runs onto a baseball field or charges the Nitro ring or makes jack off motions behind a live on the scene news reporter. Those people are in it for the fleeting fame. This man is not Soy Bomb. This man was so incensed watching his legend get treated unfairly, that he felt it necessary to step in and show Fritz he was NOT ALONE. This man was so wrapped up in the drama that was professional wrestling and the Von Erichs, that he - in that moment - felt that HE was the solution. In that moment he was the guy thwarting an armed robbery. And that's a level of performance that most performers will never achieve. David Manning annoyingly gets the biggest babyface spot of the match when he punts Hart from the apron, Kabuki throws great uppercuts but gets pinned by a backdrop, DVE is somehow a babyface for beating down a man just so his dad can pin him....but I don't care, because this was 10 great minutes of pro wrestling.

Fishman/Black Cat vs. The Cobra/Shiro Koshinaka 10/6/85

ER: This was a fun low stakes tag, making me want to seek out more and more Black Cat. He was so cool here at dickish little things, yanking Koshinaka out of a pinfall by his hair, swiping at Cobra from the apron when he ran the ropes too close to their corner, nice aggression; he really did little things you don't typically see in juniors matches. Koshinaka was also a pleasant surprise. He has been wrestling for more years than I've been alive, and it was neat seeing him even younger (he showed up a lot on the NJPW 80s set, but mostly from '87-'88, nothing this early). He was on the good guys team here but showed plenty of spunk, slapping both heels around (especially taking it to Fishman), landing a heavy plancha on Fishman, good punk charisma. Fishman we recently saw in an unearthed 1998 match against Santo, a real treat of a match that made me curious to see more of him. Here he was mostly feeding Koshinaka, but he throws meaty chops, bumps hard for dropkicks, takes a squirrelly backdrop bump on his shoulders, and throws a killer back elbow. Takano lightens up on some things, but gets crushed by a Black Cat lariat (after landing on his feet after a flip, the best) and throws some cool armdrags, rolling across Cat's back to do so. The match ending sunset flip is reckless but smooth. Nothing blowaway, but a really fun match.

PAS: Fishman is a truly legendary lucha libre figure, and I have never gotten it. He worked the Monterey show I did commentary on years ago and was the worst guy on the card. He was old then (although old luchadors normally rule) so I am always looking forward to catching glances at him during his prime and trying to figure it out. This match doesn’t do it though, he seems like a replacement level tecnico and feels like the least interesting guy in this match. Black Cat is one of those guys who was around NJPW forever, but man is he great, he feels like a great regional rudo, like Toro Bill or Arandu, a guy you know had dozens of classics which never showed up on tape, but just radiates professional asskicker. He had an awesome journeyman career, starting out as a Villano IV tag partner in UWA, worked as a trainer and ref in New Japan for years, had a weird AAA run as a Gringo Loco and even had a WCW Worldwide match against Chris Adams. Nothing spectacular in his performance in this match, but impossible not to enjoy him.

MD: I'm glad I'm on the same page with Phil and Eric here re: Black Cat. This was a great showcase for him. All of his stuff looked mean including these little bursts of bullying chain wrestling, and he based perfectly for his opponents. The rope running sequence with Cobra definitely stood out: he threw himself into the arm drags and they managed some fairly complex fakeouts before ending with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. I wasn't quite so high on Fishman. There's something very iconic about him as an entity but to me, here was just there in this one, effective but forgettable. I do think we have more Black Cat in this footage and we should poke around to see what we can find.

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New Footage Friday: Can-Ams, Kikuchi, Kobashi, Aoyagi, Kurisu, Steiners, Eaton, Enos

PAS: Pete from PWO drops another awesome batch of Handhelds including another Can-Ams vs. Kobashi/Kikuchi match, so despite the Network pooping out another turd, we get a great week of New Footage.

ER: Phil is an old crank, and let me say that for people of a certain age, Lex Luger slamming Yokozuna was a big deal. Preteen me loved seeing and hearing about all the different athletes from different sports, all wanting to slam Yoko. I loved that they got a tiny jockey to give it a shot, the whole thing made it seem to me that pro wrestling was a lot bigger deal than it actually was. I still remember how excited I was when Jim Duggan knocked Yoko off his feet in a match, and as we didn't have cable I actually went over to my grandparent's to watch the aircraft carrier showdown. I think a full upload of the Intrepid footage is something that would be extremely exciting to people who are currently age 31-37, and absolutely not interesting to anybody else. Phil's not wrong for being unexcited for uncut Intrepid footage, but it ain't for him.


Dan Kroffat/Doug Furnas vs. Kenta Kobashi/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi AJPW 6/1/91

PAS: This is a previously unseen precursor to their all time legendary match a year later. It doesn't reach the highs of the 1992 match (few matches ever really do), this had many of the elements that made that match so special. Kikuchi is an all time great face in peril, he takes huge bumps (the doomsday device DDT here is especially grotesque), gets his body bent in sick ways (both Can-Ams were trying to touch his heel to his head in Boston Crabs) and times his moments of hope and counters perfectly. Kobashi is a tremendous hot tag too, he has such a variety of big and great looking offense, and while I have sometimes found that tiring in singles matches, it is great in a tag format. Can-Ams have some really impressive tag offense, Furnas may not have been a complete wrestler, but man was he an athletic marvel, and when he starts throwing those monster dropkicks and ranas it is something special. The final set of near falls in this match really had the crowd rocking, and only the ref blowing the finish and counting three, when it clearly was two, keeps this from that rarefied air of top AJPW matches. Still what a discovery to unearth

ER: What a spectacular discovery, maybe the most fun tag match to get unearthed in the last year, four super creative guys all flourishing, really feels like these guys have enough material to work 45 without the match ever seeming long. From the beginning Kroffat is working the match with an immediacy that makes it feel like the match is going to be an under 10 minute burner, but they keep that energy up for 20 minutes. As I was watching this I kept thinking "Man I'm really impressed with Kroffat in this match..." then a second later "Man I'm really impressed with Kobashi in this..." and then "Man I'm really impressed with Kikuchi in this..." Sometimes when watching a match I'll be internally ranking who I think is having the best performance in a match, just automatically. And this match had me flipping out because everyone was in the running for best in the match. Kobashi is a guy we've all seen enough of at this point, but seeing him as the fired up hot tag protecting his buddy is reinvigorating, and it was a kick watching him toss off big Saito suplexes and unhinged lariats (one sees him spill into Kroffat's legs right after landing it and following through). Kroffat and Furnas were insane athletes, and here Kroffat is moving as quickly as I've ever seen him, all of his chops and strikes have this fast snap, and all of his cool kick combinations landed with precision. Kroffat threw one big crescent kick that landed fresh right across Kikuchi's chin, landed hard on a senton, was always where energy was needed. Furnas - as Phil noted - is not really a complete wrestler, but is a super fun wrestler in this setting. He has world famous power, and it's so cool to see his deadlift throws, and in a great spot he caught a Kikuchi crossbody and shifted his weight enough to show he had caught him, and then quickly planted him with a belly to belly.

Kikuchi was at his best here, at his most fighting spirit, able to crack you with an elbow and almost steal pinfall victories the whole time, and catching a mean beating from the Can Ams. His timing is always so good about going for roll-ups that you always buy them as possible match enders. We built to a lot of great saves and some big moments, the fans really getting understandably whipped up. I have no actual idea how Kikuchi survived the top rope DDT, it looked like a move where we should have been saying "Oh whoa footage of Kikuchi's final wrestling match finally got found", but both teams were just so good with saves and building nearfalls that Kikuchi just must have used the adrenaline from having not just died to ramp up his performance even more. The finish, clearly, is a damn shame. I'm sure the match was ending shortly anyway, but man what a shame. Wada calls for the bell on a pin that clearly gets saved by a diving Kobashi, and then it's one of those awkward situations where there's a language barrier and everybody keeps wrestling. What a bummer of a momentum killer to a match that still manages to be a straight classic. This match is right around the top of the best handhelds we've seen uncovered in the last year. A real find.

MD: What a find. The match we have between them is one of the best AJPW tags of the 90s. I personally like it more than some that are more touted. A lot of that has to do with Kroffat's oozing character and near memphis-esque grounding of things.

Botched finish aside, this was a blast. Obviously, I wish we had it pro-shot because Kikuchi's expressions and Kroffat's swagger were two of my favorite things about the match we had, but we're just lucky to have it at all.

There are a bunch of highlights, but what stood out the most were Kroffat and Kobashi going at it full intensity to begin. It's one of the best opening exchanges to a tag match you'll ever see. Add in a loose narrative of the Can-Ams taking more than not, with multiple fairly hot tags and an incredibly hot finishing stretch with believable kick outs underpinned a bunch of 2-count partner break-ups and even the botched finish really can't take this down too many notches. 


Masashi Aoyagi vs. Masanobu Kurisu NJPW 9/21/91

PAS: This is the second Kurisu vs. Aoyagi match unearthed from Pete's treasure trove of HH's. I thought their February 91 match was kind of a puro indy scum version of Necro Butcher vs. Samoa Joe, this was kind of like the later IWA-MS rematch, still great, still violent as hell, but lacking some of that kinetic energy. They actually start by feeling each other out a bit, before it breaks down. Kurisu lays in some of his trademark off putting stomps and headbutts, and he really crushes Aoyagi with some of his side of the chair shots. Finish has Aoyagi ripping off his gi, and throwing a bunch of big spin kicks until he lays Kurisu out for good. It never totally broke out into a riot, which is what you want from platonic ideal of this match, but I certainly enjoyed it and was jazzed that it showed up.

MD: I liked this as a second Kurisu vs Aoyagi datapoint. I'd only seen the first match in the run-up to watching this, but that was immediately iconic, both in the Aoyagi mad rush to begin and in the virtual stabbing Kurisu gives him with the chair. Still, that match was like lightning and it always interesting to see if it can strike twice.

This was fairly validating in that regard. While it may not have had the same level of raw violence as the first one, there were some different elements I enjoyed. I liked how Aoyagi started far more gingerly and carefully. It didn't help him but it added some variation and a sense of strategy. Kurisu was still the same descending fog of chaos. He chokes people as well and as believably as anyone I've ever seen. When Aoyagi would sell not having any wind, you more or less believed it as legit.

What I liked best was the comeback though. The spin-kick out of nowhere in order to counter a brutal beating was La Fiera/Sangre Chicana level of great. It was just one of those moments that really and feels like pure payoff, especially, in this case, because I wasn't expecting it after the last match. 

ER: Love that this showed up, anything to add to our pile of both Kurisu and Aoyagi, and even better when it's against each other. Here we get a glimpse of evil goatee Kurisu and he takes nothing but hard kicks in the early parts, enough that I don't know how he's going to make it back into the match. But oh, right, it's Kurisu, so he finally catches a baseball bat kick to the chest and loads up one of the greatest headbutts you've seen. The kind that's so hard that he has such heat on his forehead afterwards that he keeps checking it, positive that he's cut himself open. And then we get to the real plain leveler of Kurisu, when he grabs a chair from ringside. Kurisu - much like Necro Butcher after him - is a true artiste with a folding chair. Necro's specialty was his precise aim in chair throwing, Kurisu's is in the fine art of landing a chair into the side of someone's neck. He does this, several times, and you can tell when Kurisu is pulling his chair shots, and he's someone with a great worked chair shot. Some benevolent soul needs to bring us an LA Park vs. Kurisu Chairman of Wrestling match. There were a dozen worse vanity matches at the most recent Mania Weekend shows, surely someone recognizes what a draw Park will be, and what an...additional expense Kurisu would be? Kurisu kills Aoyagi with chair shots, including a masterpiece with him leaping off the ropes. Once his chair is taken away he just goes on to stomping neck. I really dug Aoyagi's gi removal as a Hulk up/Lawler strap move, and his standing spinning heel kicks were great. Kurisu was super smart about selling them, as you can tell one was supposed to be the finish but Aoyagi kicked low and swung into Kurisu's arm, so Kurisu just got up and let Aoyagi spinkick him in the head again, so the finish looks better. Awesome.


Steiner Brothers vs. Mike Enos/Bobby Eaton NJPW 2/16/94

MD: It's a joy to get to see Eaton do his thing like this. For 94 Eaton, there was an extra bit of oomph to it all, including a big bump over the guard rail off an apron dive by Rick and a near tragic attempt at letting Rick reverse a Doomsday Device into a belly to belly.

It's the nuts and bolts stuff that stand out. Enos is a little flashier but past his opening handshake with Scott, every single thing that Eaton does has meaning and serves the purpose to get the Steiners over as faces. It's perfectly distilled tag team wrestling which is somehow more enjoyable for the setting.

Otherwise, this is pretty much everything you'd want out of 94 Steiners in a 10 minute match. Scott has his matwork shine (including a nasty STF). They do a big, perfectly timed spot with Rick plowing through everyone. Rick's a wrecking ball. Scott's a machine. Enos and Eaton are the foils who can take their stuff and grind them down for the last comeback. Past the crazy botch (which the crowd loved because of Enos' unwitting posturing after the fact, so it more or less worked anyway), this was spot on for what it ought to have been.

PAS: Puro Bobby Eaton is the best, he had a couple of tours of New Japan (including a tag run with our boy Tony Halme, which is true dream match material). He has a bunch of experience working with the Steiners and there are bunch of fun moments, I especially loved the early amateur scrambles with Scott, which he breaks up with one of his classic uppercuts. Nothing I love more then Rick Steiner clotheslines and he has some great ones here, including a great one off the apron which sends Eaton into the front row. I liked Enos trying (and failing) to match Rick suplex to suplex. I didn't mind the doomsday device counter, it wasn't cleanly hit but it looked devastating.

ER: This is really fun, and for a show that wasn't taped these guys all take some nice spills. Eaton takes a hard Scott lariat over the top to the floor, then moments later takes a big bump into the crowd on a lariat. Enos goes toe to toe with the Steiners and keeps getting shown up in amusing fashion, challenging Rick with a huge powerslam and getting upended by one moments later, trying to get underhooks on Rick, who easily adjusts and hurls him with a belly to belly, Enos tries to muscle Scott into a top wristlock and Scott flips both Enos and Eaton. Enos' meathead charisma really helps this in unexpected ways. It's a neat combo and we've seen a few Eaton/Arn tags against the Steiners, but Eaton with Enos is like a more fun version of Eaton and Kenny Kaos. The Doomsday Device belly to belly suplex counter is just a nutso spot to even attempt, that you can't really criticize for not working out (since nobody got killed). A few years ago a friend criticized Rick Rude for not hitting a clean kneedrop in the Piper/Rude cage match, but it's a freaking kneedrop off the top of a cage! To hit it cleanly would have meant certain death for Piper. The move was crazy to try, but Enos gets some laughs by prematurely celebrating, which turned the spot into a dangerous - but saved - stooge spot instead of a botched dangerous spot. Awesome stuff, great action for a match that wasn't taped.

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Andre is an Exquisite Dead Guy Rotating in His Display Case

Andre the Giant/Giant Baba vs. Mitsuharu Misawa/Toshiaki Kawada AJPW 12/2/91 - GREAT

PAS: I am a big fan of immobile end of the road Andre, and it is pretty cool to watch him match up with future puro legends Misawa and Kawada. At this point Andre can only really play a brick wall to knock down (there is an attempted elbow drop which goes really badly), but he is really great at playing a brick wall to knock down. He actually does some pretty cool arm work on Kawada which isn't something he did much outside of his early French work. Andre isn't really leaving his feet, but is willing to take some sharp kicks from Kawada and tight elbows by Misawa. Baba takes all the bumps, which is always a bit jarring because he looks like a giant bag of fragile bones and always looks like he is going to Humpty Dumpty himself every time he lands. Well paced match, which builds well to the big moments by the legends

ER: I've seen much of the Baba/Andre RWTL '91 stuff and this is easily the best match of the bunch, with no close contender. Andre is very much not a mobile human being at this stage, and you can tell just how much pain he's going through in a match from this era based on how often he enters/exits the ring over the top rope, or through the ropes. He went through the ropes in this match more than I've ever seen, so his body must have been absolutely screaming. When Baba has to be the bumper of any team, you know that's a bad sign; as Phil points out, Baba looks like he's going to shatter when he falls, like an old man shoved to the sidewalk by a mugger. But there are two major, important things that set this match apart from others on this tour, and one is that Misawa and Kawada really take it to our two sympathetic broken Giants. Other matches on the tour essentially see opponents being good sports, with even Terry Gordy working gentle. But Kawada throws some big kicks (love him starting with Baba and winging a high kick towards his big head) and Misawa threw big elbows; it was a kick seeing Kawada throw great sidekicks to the chest, even soccer kicks, and man it was cool seeing Misawa throw nasty elbows and uppercuts to Baba, and even throwing elbows on Andre! They suplex Baba a couple times, Misawa gets Baba in his facelock, Kawada body slams Baba and drops a big top rope elbow, even attempts his folding powerbomb! I love that the fans really start booing these punk 20-somethings as they rudely kick at the weakened Giants, and Baba seems to really be trying against these punks, starting out the match with a surprising schoolboy, and breaking out offense he wasn't doing much by this point, like a sharp DDT on Kawada.

The boos really amp up when Andre gets stuck in the ropes and they begin teeing off on him, and Andre gets a great resurrection moment as he rises up to his feet through the storm. Now the key moment that kicks this match another notch, is when it surprises us: there's a lot of value in establishing a formula, establishing expectations, and then suddenly veering from those expectations. It makes a special moment. Every Baba/Andre win ends the same way, with Andre whipping someone into a big Baba boot, then - if he's up for it - Andre drops an elbow; if he's not up for it, he usually just clobbers them to set up Baba's neckbreaker drop. There isn't always build to the finish, it usually just happens when Andre wants things to go home. So Baba hits the big boot, and Andre lumbers in for the elbow drop...and Misawa moves! Andre crashes down to the mat and suddenly the plans have changed! If Andre was going to leave his feet at this point, it was going to be for the finish. Here the format is shifted as the missed elbow allows a double dropkick to tie him in the ropes, leading to our great finishing stretch with Baba and Kawada highlighted above. Andre smothering Misawa so Baba can sneak in a small package was a nice change of pace, and the match was filled with a bunch of fun surprises. I cannot believe this didn't air on TV. It's the only time Andre would have been in the same ring as Misawa, and it was great to see these future legends taking to these icons.


COMPLETE & ACCURATE ANDRE THE GIANT

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Shinya Hashimoto Discovers There is No Room to Rumba in a Sports Car

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Super Strong Machine NJPW 8/4/90 - EPIC

ER: Weird, another awesome Hashimoto singles match? This was great, worked far more like a "Different Style" match from this era than a traditional New Japan match. Much of the match was standing with a great, messy, awkward rhythm. There were no typical turn-based strike exchanges, no throws, no rope running, just a bunch of nasty strikes, like Hashimoto kicking Machine across the kneecaps or Machine throwing punches to Hashimoto's neck. There was no real grappling, more standing attempts at wrist control, just two meaty dudes backing each other up with focused, grubby strikes, lariats to the face, all great. Strong Machine is flat out mean in this match, kicking Hash hard in the chest when Hash is bent at the waist, hitting rough leg sweeps to Hash's inner leg, slapping him in the ear, all rough. Machine does seem to lean out of a couple big Hash haymaker kicks, but there are plenty that land, and I loved how big the crowd was reacting to Hash. Finish is cool and unexpected, when Machine hits a huge diving lariat/avalanche off the apron and a big axe handle, landing hard into Hashimoto, and winning by count out. If I had seen on paper that a flying clothesline off the apron and an axe handle was enough for the count out, I would have been skeptical, but it looked really great in execution and the post match celebration from Machine really made it feel like he went through a war and was thankful to be in one piece on the other side. Awesome match.

PAS: What an out of nowhere gem this was. The hate is layered on pretty thick from the first moments of the match with SSM slapping Hashimoto across the face, and Hash responding by spitting in his eye. The match structure was really cool, with Machine landing some big shots, but he was mostly trying to take out either an arm or leg to slow down Hash who is this menacing beast lumbering forward and unleashing mayhem. Machine's limb work wasn't really based on holds, but more on these awkward and nasty strikes, kicking Hashimoto in the side of the knee cap, throwing uppercuts to the inside of leg, and chops to the arm. Meanwhile Hashimoto is walking throwing it and responding with huge Hashimoto style chops and kicks. Loved this finish with SSM dragging Hash to the floor, hitting a great looking apron clothesline and a crazy diving axe handle and getting the count out win. This looks fun on paper, but it totally over delivered and ended up being one of the best matches from this batch of handhelds

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Finlay is Walking Home Three Parts Pissed

Fit Finlay vs. El Samurai NJPW 4/23/92 - FUN

ER: Finlay was a regular fly-in for the early 90s Juniors tournaments, but his matches always were clipped to shreds if they saw tape at all. So it's satisfying to finally see an actual Finlay singles match, albeit one worked a little more house show style. I'm about as cool as can be with Finlay working a house show style, though. When everything you do looks that good, flash isn't necessary. Instead he just drops 12-6 elbows on Samurai's noggin, pastes him with standing elbows, strangles him in a grisly straightjacket choke (with a kick to the spine for good measure), collides into Samurai with a couple short arm clotheslines, the kind of thing you'd expect, getting his shots in while Samurai works over his leg. The stuff on the floor was cool, with Finlay attacking him with nasty chairshots and Samurai eventually getting fed up and attacking back. Finlay hits this lighting fast clothesline off the apron, and I never recall him doing that before. He drifted out of view from the camera and then suddenly in the background he just launches himself at Samurai. Back in he drops the most precise and quick knee right between Samurai's eyes. The finish felt like a house show finish, with Finlay hitting a leaping tombstone, missing a splash or headbutt off the top, and getting rolled up. It was weird seeing Finlay attempt some flying move off the top, that's not a thing that happens.

PAS: I thought Samurai was close to a non-entity in this, which kept it from being anything more then a fun Finlay showcase match. Finlay looked great though, very WCW era Finlay, smash mouthed, nasty and hard hitting. I love watching Finlay do simple things, he has the best bodyslam in wrestling history, and his elbows and knees are just perfection. The brawling on the outside was great too, Finlay's selling on the edge of the chair chairshots was great. It looked like it smashed him square in the face, and I am sure it barely touched him at all. I pretty much hated the finish, that Tombstone was the nastiest move of the match, and Samurai winning on a banana peel spot, right after eating that move was dumb.

ER: New Japan juniors routinely told tombstone piledrivers to go fuck themselves.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FINLAY

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Aoyagi Drank Enough Whiskey to Float a Battleship Around

Masashi Aoyagi vs. Tony Halme NJPW 10/17/91 - EPIC

PAS: This is another undiscovered Tony Halme masterpiece. I had no idea early 90s Tony Halme was such an awesome killing machine. This was a Karate vs. Boxing mixed match, and Aoyagi is great at these kind of hyrbid fights. First round had both guys working their opponents into corners, with Halme using his pulverizing body shots, and Aoyagi winging head and body kicks.  Aoyagi takes over during the second round, really working over Halme's mid section with knees and kicks, Halme is great at selling fatigue and being winded as he is stumbling around the ring, however he is still able to drop Aoyagi with one body shot. Second round ends with a really cool back and forth exchange. Third round is what pushes this into EPIC territory. Aoyagi gets a quick knockdown with a spin kick, Halme barely beats the 10 count and Aoyagi flies at him to finish him off and leaps right into a huge right hand. Aoyagi beats the count, but a second monster right hand floors him for good.  Great stuff, Halme doesn't have a lot of different songs to sing, but he sings the fuck out of this one song.

ER: There's no way my run through WWF Ludvig Borga matches is going to be anywhere near as fun as these two Tony Halme boxing gems, but I don't care, Tony Halme was awesome. The thing that really put this match over for me was how bonkers the crowd kept getting, the longer it went. These fans were loving it, flipping out for Aoyagi, but at one point chanting for Halme! Halme is hulking in this, really dwarfing Aoyagi, and he throws these huge haymakers all match. Aoyagi is squirmier than Hashimoto so a lot of the shots graze, and Aoyagi's strategy becomes to just throw everything at Halme all at once and hope kicks start to land. Halme's best strategy is to bully Aoyagi into a corner and start throwing blows to Aoyagi's slumping body, and I love how he kept going back to that tactic, and as Aoyagi started landing more and more kicks Halme got more desperate to get him in that corner, finally picking him up and tossing him into the corner (the only non-strike in the match). Aoyagi threw all kinds of wicked kicks right to the gut and liver and spleen. Halme does some of my absolute all time favorite selling, contiually getting buckled at the waist by kicks, stumbling perfectly into position for the next kicks while selling being out of gas, really great stuff. Aoyagi even gets the crowd amped by aping Inoki vs. Ali with a legsweep! At one point Halme gut punches Aoyagi to the mat, and holds himself up by resting glove first on Aoyagi's back. Tremendous moment. Aoyagi gets a big moment at the end of the R2 by hitting a leaping spin kick to floor Halme. Halme has this great staggered dazed walk back to the end of his corner. But just like Hashimoto, Aoyagi smelled blood and aggressively went right back to that well, only to get knocked right out of the sky by a Halme right hand. Not long after that Halme belts him straight across the cheek, perfectly captured by our mystery filmmaker. You can even hear the wind flow out of the filmmaker's sails after that punch, his voice clearly knowing Aoyagi wasn't getting up. Awesome spectacle.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE AOYAGI

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All Japan Handheld Cherry Picking: More Rip Rogers!

Rip Rogers vs. Masa Fuchi  AJPW 6/4/88

ER: And now we get a match from Rip's other All Japan tour, a year and a half prior to the other matches we've gone through. That 1990 tour he played up as a stooging John Tatum with stiff ring work; here he's definitely playing things a lot more swish, little curtsys throughout his entrance and after moves, sassy poses for photos, goosing the ref, that kind of thing. He does continue to do amusing ring jacket removal, this time folding the jacket over and over until it's about 4" across, just bugging the referee with stalling. And I love how Fuchi starts the match off by slapping Rogers on the butt. Fuchi had been stonefacing the who proceeding in the corner, having no time for this (and I had when I watch a match with an old surly bastard...and realize I'm older now than they were then).

This match was weirdly 80% Rogers, which is not what I was expecting. Rogers works snug and makes it work, and a lot of it hinged on Fuchi getting bumped repeatedly to the floor. The opening was simple, Rogers armdragging and slamming Fuchi and rubbing it in, Fuchi getting pissed and responding in kind (and adding a big dropkick). I love the spot where a heel (Rogers) armdrags the face, and the face holds on and rolls through with it. The match really delivers once Rogers bumps Fuchi to the floor (and Fuchi takes this cool backwards bump like he expected to fall into the ropes but fell through), and we get a great moment where Rogers charges out there while the ref tells him to stay away, with Rogers saying he's going to help Fuchi back in. He does not help Fuchi back in. Rip knocks Fuchi off the apron a few times as he tries to get back in, and eventually Rip hits a great vertical suplex from the apron into the ring. Fuchi gets a neat brief comeback moment where he goes up to hit a fistdrop, but misses, and I've never seen Fuchi go for a fistdrop and I somehow like Fuchi even more now. The finish felt a little too house show, but the small details Rip added to it were fantastic. It was a go home match finish we've all seen dozens of times, with Rogers trying to roll up Fuchi by running him into the ropes, Fuchi holding on, Rogers bumping and Fuchi hitting a sunset flip for the win. It's a sequence we've all seen. But Rogers adds a ton to it, bumping back hard when Fuchi bucks him, coming up holding the back of his head, dropping down to a knee to get his balance after getting the back of his head bounced off the mat, allowing Fuchi to leap over him for the sunset flip. Rogers could have been so much more robotic about getting into position for that spot, as you've seen so many times for others, but this guy knows all those little glue things to make a typical moment fresh.

Rip Rogers vs. Akio Sato  AJPW 1/7/90

ER: This was Sato's last AJ tour before being brought into WWF, and...that's weird, right? If you were in attendance at this show and someone told you that one of these guys was going to be a WWF full timer in a month, there's nobody in the crowd that would have guessed it was Sato, right? And from this match you'd be really hard-pressed to find a reason for WWF to be interested in him. Finlay and Rogers are guys who can fill in the down moments of a match, keep things moving forward, invest the fans, keep their opponents from lollygagging. But Sato really does nothing in between lock-ups and other segments. He's one of those walk-arounders. A lot of walking, sometimes with hands on hips, other times with hands at sides. Rogers drags him into some cool stuff, like a killer headlock punch exchange (with both throwing nice ones), Rip wriggles out of a headscissors in a cool way, and Sato finally wakes up a bit down the stretch. At minimum Sato drops a nice neckbreaker, but Rip's cool falling clothesline was better. This wasn't bad and picked up nicely, but man I wish the Rip/Baba match showed up in this batch. I would love to see him flop around for some Baba chops and run face first into that ropes-assisted big boot.

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All Japan Handheld Cherry Picking: Rip Rogers!

Kenta Kobashi vs. Rip Rogers  AJPW 1/15/90

ER: I loved this. Kobashi is all decked out in Taue red but almost as big as he would be in his prime, and Rogers is the most cocksure man in the world. All Japan needed someone like this, and it's really a shame he didn't regularly tour Japan. His energy was unlike anybody else. This match is truly worth watching for Rogers' entrance alone, as he does the greatest strut in wrestling history all around the ring, sleeveless pink tuxedo jacket modeled to perfection, pink hand mirror at his side...and then it peaks when he lifts a child onto his shoulders; and that child is holding a full size American flag. He then parades the child through the crowd, flag waving proudly. There's great pre-bell shenanigans, grabbing the ropes and doing some sexually suggestive deep knee bends for the crowd's benefit, working some bits with the ref (my favorite being verrrry carefully removing his pink coat, brushing out wrinkles, folding it just so as he hands it to the ref, who then just tosses it to a ringboy on the floor), really I considered not watching the match as it wouldn't ever hold up to the greatness of Rogers' entrance.

But Rip is Rip, so the match rules, and 22 (!) year old Kobashi was a great babyface. Kobashi had some well executed tools, big open handed chops, hard back elbows, solid shoulderblocks, painfully wrenched in Boston crab, really some of the hardest hitting young boy offense I've seen. And those things are more than enough for Rogers to work with. Rogers stooges around, takes some great pratfalls (that flying leap into the turnbuckle after an atomic drop!), misses a big kneedrop, smacks Kobashi in the nose with a great punch from a headlock, rakes at his back as a way to escape matwork (shoot, rakes that back over and over to beat the band), pinches a love handle to break another hold, muscles Kobashi over for a superplex, all great stuff. Rogers would be a great wrestler if it was just stooging, but his ringwork is so crisp and stiff that it just sets him apart. Kobashi was doing one of those 7 Match Challenge Series that are a thing, so is eager to impress, and even breaks out a weird kneeling piledriver that is basically a ganso bomb, unceremoniously (and accidentally) dumping Rip on his head. Pump the breaks there, Kenta. Much nice was after Roger's missed knee, Kobashi went immediately after that knee and locked on one of the most snug and quickly applied cloverleafs that I've seen. This is what I want out of a 10 minute match. Everybody should aim to be 10 minute of Rip Rogers.

Haruka Eigen vs. Rip Rogers  AJPW 1/26/90

ER: This begins with a minor disappointment, in the form of Haruka Eigen's navy blue trunks. I assumed many people watching this were interested in seeing a battle of pink trunk supremacy, but alas Rip is the only one clad in pink. No matter, the war on pink is already decided, so Rip teaches everyone how to do the ring entrance of your dreams. The rhythmic clapping thing is instantly adored by fans, really feels like he could have been a staple on All Japan shows. We get another great parade with the young American flag waving child, AND THE CHILD BRUSHES RIP'S HAIR WHILE HOLDING THE FLAG! My god this guy is a legend. That kid is a legend. We get more great pre-bell shenanigans, he brushes Eigen's hair, the ref deals with his hand mirror again, Rip concealed perfume in the back of his trunks which he uses on himself and the ref, he amazingly puts his legs up on the top rope so the ref can give him a thorough pre-match inspection. Really check that inner thigh, ref.

This match is obviously much different than the Kobashi match, as a 40-something Eigen is a slightly different worker than a 22 yr old Kobashi. And Rip makes the most of it. The Kobashi match was very physical, this match you knew was going to build to some spit gags (though this pre-dates people bringing newspapers to block the spit). Eigen was reaching the 5th row with his spit takes, and Rogers hilariously spits straight into the air on one of his takes, landing it right in his hair. Eigen basically acted annoyed at Rip for the duration of the match, so Rip just riles him up, gets him to chase, rakes the hell out of Eigen's back, puts over Eigen's holds, and sprinkles in a few little things that modern wrestlers should steal. My favorite little thing was Rogers reversing an Irish whip but treating it like an actual spot in the match. It's a means to get to something more important, and an Irish whip is probably something we've all seen so many times that we don't even notice them anymore. Rogers treats the whip like it is actually an important, tide turning move, short hopping to stop his momentum after Eigen starts the whip, then uses that hop to gain momentum on his whip reversal. It's a spot we tune out, and Rogers made it an important part of the match, while also looking like he really chucked Eigen into those ropes. Moments like that are why I got so excited when unseen Rip Rogers showed up. A true gift.

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And Now These Three Remain: Faith, Hope and Love. But the Greatest of These is Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Dick Murdoch NJPW 10/10/82 - FUN

PAS: One of the coolest things about this NJ HH trove is the chance to see early 80s Fujiwara. I guess this is young Fujiwara although he looks like he is in his mid 40s. Much like the Slaughter match this would have been better five years later, when it would have been competitive. This was more like a competitive squash, but as you might imagine the execution on the simple things in this match was off the charts. Murdoch is so great at working a simple armbar and wristlock, Fujiwara tries a bunch of different adjustments to get out of it, and Murdoch is constantly twisting the wrist in different ways, such masters at work. I also loved how Murdoch kept bionic elbowing Fujiwara's hard head and how frustrated he kept getting, only to get smacked with headbutts. Fujiwara is pretty overqualified to work as Rufus R. Jones, but he is a great Rufus R. Jones.


Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Seiji Sakaguchi/Keiji Muto/Nobuhiko Takada/George Takano vs. Riki Choshu/Tatsumi Fujinami/Akira Maeda/Super Strong Machine/Kengo Kimura NJPW 10/6/87 - EPIC

PAS: The treasure trove of NJ HH footage delivers us what seems to be a previously unearthed New Japan 10 man elimination match. The other Elimination matches finished very high on the NJ DVDVR 80s sets, and this might be a slight step below a MOTD level, it is still really awesome. This was worked at a super sprint pace which works well with all of these guys in this match, and with Choshu, Muto and Fujiwara we have some of the greatest sprint wrestlers ever. I actually really loved Takada in this, he was about as violent as I have seen him, he really kicks the shit out of Choshu and at one point mounts him and lays out some nasty ground and pound. I also love Sakaguchi as a big bruiser chucking people around, he kind of felt like a proto Akira Taue in this. Kind of an odd match structure as the Choshu team gets a four on one advantage on Fujiwara at the end. We get an awesome Stone Cold moment where the crowd in chanting for Fujiwara as he tries to fight everyone, but while he gets a near fall or two, it would have been cooler if he had gotten an elimination before going down. We did get a great Choshu lariat on the finish and Fujiwara sells a Choshu lariat better then anyone. Still that was a minor complaint for an otherwise awesome match. Had no idea this match existed until a week ago, and it was such a treat to have it show up.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FUJIWARA

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New Japan Handheld Cherry Picking: Buzz Sawyer! Vader! Manny Fernandez! Russians!

Manny Fernandez vs. Timur Zalasov  NJPW 8/5/89

ER: Cool match. I've never heard of Zalasov before and he seemed pretty green, but it's impressive how adept these Russians were. Even if they don't always know how to fall, they always know how to fall interestingly. This had a bunch of cool almost shoot looking armdrags. They were obviously too stylish to be a shoot, but they were executed as if someone was trying an armdrag in a shoot. Manny would kind of tug-o-war with Zalasov over a knucklelock, with Manny getting his momentum  going one way and using that leverage to toss Zalasov the other way. They would hook each other's elbows and drop each other down to a neck bridge, in a couple ways I haven't seen before, cool little twists on common spots. Zalasov appears to be sandbagging Manny a bit (though it doesn't really look intentional) but it doesn't stop Manny from dropping him with a couple cool deadlift Germans. Manny's strength was really impressive here as he doesn't really work a grappling style, but his throws look professional. I liked Zalasov's wobble leg selling, and it looked especially good after Manny surprised him with a nice straight right to the jaw. Zalasov finished it with a great high angle belly to belly, popping those hips and tossing the heavy Fernandez with what looked like ease.

Big Van Vader vs. Wahka Eveloev  NJPW 8/5/89

ER: What a weird little match. It seems vaguely unprofessional from the first minute, and it only goes about 4 minutes. Eveloev tries to keep his distance and Vader keeps rushing him with sumo slaps, and aims to punch him in the face. Russians start angrily climbing into the ring and we get a little pull apart. Vader does more of the same, bullies Eveloev into the ropes, shit is clearly being talked, and more Russians try to get into the ring with NJ ring crew holding them back, and now Sawyer and Murdoch are getting up on the apron. My god I would go into war if I had Vader, Buzz Sawyer, and Dick Murdoch backing me up. Vader hits a quick headbutt but Eveloev hits a boss belly to belly and tries to lock in an armbar, but it's tough to keep a 400 man down and Vader escapes the armbar by rolling over and punching Eveloev in the face, then stands up and kicks him right in the temple, sending Eveloev reeling into the ropes. Russians are actively spilling into the ring to stop this now and Manny Fernandez is in the ring telling them to back off, so Vader slams Eveloev with a super stiff bodyslam, and then full weight splashes him right on the neck/chest for the win. Vader talks shit from the ring to the Russians, Eveloev stands up slowly and cautiously, the way you imagine a man would after getting a 400 lb. weight dropped onto his lungs. Jokes on you, bub. Wahka, Wahka.

Buzz Sawyer vs. Victor Zangiev  NJPW 8/5/89

ER: This match was on the DVDVR New Japan 80s set, but I thought it finished criminally low (which I assume was because it was only 5 minutes or so) and we've never written about it before. This show had a 5 match series of America vs. Russia matches (as you might have guessed from reading the above reviews). This was the 5th match, with the series tied 2-2. Even though the match goes just about 5 minutes, it is straight fire. This star couldn't have burned much longer the way they worked. Brawling bumper Buzz Sawyer is awesome, but bald GaryAlbright Sawyer is maybe just as awesome. Zangiev is super chippy throughout, really showing off and rubbing it in Sawyer's face, tripping him to the mat, snapping on maybe the best sharpshooter I've ever seen (and flexing while doing it!), doing a kip up out of some mat grappling, and really chucking the larger Sawyer around with freak strength. The knucklelock sequences are awesome, real struggle, and seeing Zangiev bridge up high on his neck with burly Sawyer on him. Sawyer decides to not fuck around and rushes in with a great knee to the gut, and then begins showing off his suplexes. I thought we were going to get a KO finish when Zangiev deadlifts him into a backdrop suplex. It feels like Zangiev is cockily moving in for the kill when Sawyer grabs him and throws him practically straight overhead with a gorgeous amateur suplex for the quick pin. The Americans rushing the ring with an American flag to celebrate was an awesome moment. Zangiev was such a natural and I really need to see what other grappling style Buzz is out there.

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Aoyagi Drank That Poison Whiskey Until It Killed Him Dead

Masashi Aoyagi vs. Masanobu Kurisu NJPW 2/5/91 - EPIC

PAS: Just a sleaze indy dream match. It is weird that this is New Japan and not main eventing a NOW or ZIPANG show. Aoyagi comes out jumps the rail, and spin kicks Kurisu right in the mouth, and it is fucking on! Aoyagi beats Kurisu around the ring a bit, and is really laying in to him, you know Kurisu is going to potato you, so you got to throw spuds at him. Kurisu fires back with those odd angle vicious headbutts, unprofessional stomps and chair shots where he digs the corner right into the throat, the whole Kurisu shebang. There is this great moment where Aoyagi blocks a headbutt with a karate forearm block and thrust Kurisu right in the throat. The match stays ragged and unprofessional throughout, lots of wince inducing shots and a DQ finish that has Kurisu violently chair shotting Aoyagi, the ref and multiple trainees. This is part of a batch of new NJ HH's unearthed by Pete over at PWO, this is what I was dreaming it was going to be like when I saw the match listing and it lived up to every second.

ER: Phil and I spoke today and he told me about this match, and when I asked how it was he said, "Close your eyes and picture what you think a Kurisu/Aoyagi match would be like. It's that. It's exactly that." And wouldn't you know, it's exactly that! Kurisu matches always have a vague feeling of unprofessionalism to them (and, you know, sometimes a very blatant feeling of unprofessionalism to them) and this is no different, just a bunch of kicks to parts of the body that don't get kicked, kicks that get caught when the kicker doesn't expect them to get caught, half crabs sunk in deep (while holding onto the ropes for dear life!), Kurisu standing on Aoyagi's neck while Aoyagi holds Kurisu's other boot from going god knows where (that throat standing getting paid back with a nice thrust back to Kurisu's throat), and of course Kurisu eventually getting sick of things and grabbing a chair. Kurisu really should have been the man given the Chairman of Wrestling gimmick. At one point the action wanders off the camera to the right while the mysterious cameraman is asleep at the wheel, but we assume, obviously, that it is an artistic choice, like Tarantino panning away from Mr. Blonde hacking a cop's ear off. We know that the unseen violence is made that much worse by forcing us to imagine the horrors that could be happening. Wrestler vs. karate guy matches are always the best, trainees always get shoot beaten, chaos always ensues, and Kurisu is creator of chaos. Phil was right, this was the match you pictured when you dreamed of Kurisu vs. Aoyagi.

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A World War Was Announced a Day Ago but Regal Didn't Know

Lord Steven Regal v. Ricky Steamboat WCW 8/19/93-GREAT

PAS: Thanks to our pal Beau James we get an awesome 1993 Regal handheld match. As one might expect you get a lot of shtick in a Regal house show match, including Steamboat hitting an inverted atomic drop and doing a mocking mincing walk. Steamboat also does a old time put your dukes up challenge, you don't see a lot of physical comedy Ricky, but he is pretty good at it. There is a great long Backlund/Blue Panther short arm scissors spot, and some great Regal smashing forearms. I think with a real finish this would have ended up as an EPIC, but the time limit just kind of comes without any real build.  So happy this just showed up.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE REGAL

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New Japan HandHeld Bonanza: Lucha Cherry Picking

Pete over at PWO has gotten his hands on a ton of New Japan HHs from the 80s. I am posting the Fujiwara matches in C+A posts, but I figured I would do some reviews of the lucha guys showing up and my buddy MattD showed up as well!


Tiger Mask/George Takano v. Brazo De Oro/Brazo De Plata 9/6/81

PAS: Slim and trim Brazos looking great. We have a couple of other 1981 Brazos New Japan matches and we don't have any lucha Brazos this early. They are here to serve as foils for the technicos and they do a great job eating fancy arm drags. We get a nasty Plata top rope senton which is less lung collapsing in 1981 then it was later. Takano is a big dude and he flies around quite a bit with some nice arm drags. Mask is at his best when he comes in, hits his stuff and leaves and he had some cool flipping sentons. Nothing mindblowing, but a great chance to see a couple of lucha greats early in their career.

MD: I'm going at this in a more comprehensive way than Phil, watching everything (including Tiger Jeet Singh handheld matches). He is a wiser man than I. For 81 Brazos, I jumped the line though. The setting on this is amazing. It's some sort of outdoor bathhouse with steam rising up in the foreground and a crowd that seems eager for all of the Brazos' relatively outlandish stuff. Tanako competently takes most of the match with Tiger Mask hitting just enough of his signature stuff at the beginning and end to leave you satisfied. Oro and Plata, despite being very young here, base perfectly both on offense in taking stuff (goofus and gallant) and fit in just as well as they would in Japan ten years later.

Tiger Mask/Gran Hamada/Kengo Kimura vs. Steve Wright/Coloso Colosetti/Black Man 3/5/82

Totally fun trios match, that was a better finishing run away from being a real lost classic. Black Man had a couple of fun lucha exchanges with Hamada, which included Hamada taking a couple of his legendarily high backdrops. Colosetti wasn't in a ton, but I liked his exchanges with Tiger Mask where he kept trying to brawl like a rudo, and kept getting caught with spin kicks, I loved how he finally got frustrated and just palm thrusted TM in the eye. The rudo star of this match was Wright, totally awesome performance, he may look like an accounts payable manager, but he is remarkable agile, at points looking more agile then Tiger Mask. He has really great looking cartwheels out of arm bars and a cool kipup, and when it got time to get nasty, he through some really nice uppercuts and some vicious bodyslams and an awesome looking judo throw. Match kind of ended abruptly, which is a problem for a lot of Tiger Mask matches, but it was a real treat to watch.

Junji Hirata v. Luis Mariscal 8/29/82

Mariscal is a 70s and 80s luchadore who worked as a Baby Face and Scorpio trios partner and lost his hair to Villano IV and Perro Aguayo, I don't remember seeing him before, but he was a fun discovery. Young Hirata was svelte but hit hard, and these two had a nice scrap. It started with some basic but solid grappling, and then Hirata actually got snippy and they had a bunch of nice punch and chop exchanges. This was an undercard match with little heat, but I could visualize Mariscal having similar exchanges with Enirique Vera and tearing the house down. Really liked the multiple in ring topes by Mariscal to set up the pin

Kantaro Hoshino v. Villano III 8/29/82

PAS: Pretty strange match, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. V3 jumps Hoshino at the bell throws him to the floor, posts him, and hits a plancha. The match never felt in control, with Hoshino ripping at Villanos mask and Villano constantly biting Hoshino's head. It really felt like someone should be bleeding, and I enjoyed seeing a real lucha brawl in New Japan. Finish had Hoshino DQed for trying to rip off Villano's mask, and he goes nuts and beats up the ref. Then he ties up V3 in the ropes and tries to tear off the mask again. Really felt like a match setting up an apuestas, and I guess we need another batch of handhelds for that.

MD: Yeah, this was enjoyable. V3 rushes Hoshino and just doesn't let up for a few minutes. Pure rudo beatdown to start a match. I love how he keeps things moving, using the ring as a weapon, leaping off the ropes inside and out for extra leverage, pulling Hoshino half out to hit a knee on the apron, bulldogging him into the turnbuckle, etc. If Villano was doing this here against a guy working a different style, what the heck was he doing in Mexico at this time, right? When it's Hoshino's time to fight back, he goes straight to the mask and then follows it up with some revenge usage of the ring as well. The finish is where the weirdness sets in as they move on to rope running and submissions, like the end of a title match primera. Thankfully, it cycles back to hate with the mask ripping finish and the never-ending post match with the two trying to get their hands on each other. This left me wanting to see about three dozen more 1982 V3 matches. Then I made the mistake of looking at what else he did in 82. Not much, just, you know, feuding with Los Misioneros, including apuestas matches with Signo and Texano. This was definitely better than nothing though.

Black Cat/Isamu Teranishi/Kuniaki Kobayashi v. El Signo/Negro Navarro/El Texano 1/1/83

PAS: This was one of the most exciting matches to show up on this batch of footage. We have so little prime Missonaires de la Muerte, we know how awesome all these guys were as oldsters, and their rep is so great, that any time 80s MDM shows up it is a lucha fan holiday. This was more like an awesome first fall of a great trios match, then a great match on its own, but it was a awesome demonstration of what made this team so special. They were just relentless, attacking at the bell and always moving forward. Their pace was really something to watch, never not moving, never not attacking. They didn't take many bumps but every bump was athletic and crazy. We don't get a ton of offense from the Japan team, Kobayashi has a couple of cool armdrags, which Texano bumps huge for. For some reason Kobayashi and Teranishi start brawling post match, as the MDM just strut out victorious.

MD: Los Missionaries were the prototype for a rudo trios side for a reason and here you can so clearly see why. Relentless is exactly the word I'd use, too. This was just the perfect combination of complex spots and improvisational bridging. They kept working back into their corner, kept switching up, kept helping each other whenever possible while their opponents weren't on the same page at all. This would have played well as a Guerreros primera twenty years later (give or take a powerbomb), maybe even thirty. You saw hints of the stooging and miscommunication that would have, in another match, been part of a tecnico shine or comeback. You saw hints of them basing and bumping. At times they were moving so fast that you'd think that there was no way they'd feed an armdrag in time, but they do. Primarily, though, this was their showcase and they brought it, from the initial ambush to the triple team hanging seated senton on the floor and the nasty, nasty tombstone that finished things. Again, it just leads you to imagine all the things we don't have.

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For No One Can Lay Any Foundation Other Than the One Already Laid Which is Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Jim Neidhart NJPW 1/1/83 - FUN

This is a look at early Jim Neidhart, who looked weirdly like Eddie Kingston. Neidhart was pretty much all bodyslams, forearms and shoulderblocks, although he is a guy with nice bodyslams, forearms and shoulderblocks. Fujiwara didn't both to try grappling with Jim Neidhart, so this was a lot of headbutts and punches. I think this is the earliest on tape appearance of the Fujiwara headbutts a ringbar comedy spot, so a meaningful discovery for the deep Fujiwara historians.

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Regal's Mentality Catches Up With His Biology

Lord Steven Regal/Dick Slater vs. Davey Boy Smith/Sting WCW 11/28/93 - GREAT

PAS: We get a nifty chance to look at Regal work a house show tag match along side fellow classic heel stooge Dick Slater.  This is mostly the heel bumping and clowning for the faces and these are a pair of great clowns. Regal and Davey Boy had a great PPV match full of WOS spots, and they break out a bunch of those tricks here. This stuff has been spammed a lot by indy dudes lately, but it is pretty crazy to watch them do wristlock cartwheel counters in 93 WCW. Sting and Regal have a really fun knucklock sequence, with Sting doing a super impressive bridge with Regals weight on top of him. The finish came a bit abruptly after a long heel kneework section on Davey Boy, but that was my only quibble. Fun stuff and a great out of nowhere upload.

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ALL TIME MOTY LIST Head to Head 1990: Onita/Goto v. Kurisu/Dragonmaster V. Midnight Express v. Steiner Brothers

Midnight Express v. The Steiner Brothers WCW 10/20/90

PAS: Someone uploaded a WCW Handheld from October 1990. While there are some really classic WCW stinkers on this card (Mike Rotunda v. JW Storm, Sting v. Black Scorpion), we do get an awesome chance to watch the Midnight Express, one of the greatest bumping and stooging teams of all time, take on the Steiners, one of the greatest offensive teams of all time. It is great to see all of the shtick the MX break out on a house show, Jimmy Cornette takes a bump off the apron and challenges the ref to a fight, the MX do a Brazos style dissension spot which included Cornette slapping Bobby. We move into a classic face in peril section, with the MX breaking out a ton of cool double teams and Cornette cheap shots. Rick Steiner is an all time great hot tag, he is so explosive and is so much fun to watch running wild. Finish was pretty cool with the Steiners hitting Steinerlines from the front and the back to pin Bobby, kind of wanted to see one of the insane Steiner finishes, but it was still decisive.

ER: Wow, pro wrestling is fucking great! This is a real classic and had it been on PPV it would still be talked about fondly today. And because of some true hero in New Jersey, we get to see it. And it's great. It's as great a match in execution as it looks on paper. And you really get the best of both worlds, with class house show stooging, with taped for a larger audience spots. It starts with a bunch of amusing spots with Lane complaining about non-existent tights pulls off hip tosses, gets into things with the ref, gets Cornette into things with the ref, watches as Cornette makes the worst "put up your dukes" pantomime and then falls into the ropes when the ref throws back, Lane gets into things with Bobby, which leads to Bobby taking a nasty apron bump when those weren't common, which leads to Cornette slapping Bobby, which leads to the crowd momentarily turning Bobby face as he grabs Cornette by the jacket to threaten him before making up. Really if this is the most we got from the match, all of us would have been satisfied as hell. Except we get a lot more.

When the Midnights are finally on the same page, Eaton tries to beat Scott with speed. Scott looks like an absolute monster and moves like Eaton, and when it looks like Eaton might get the duke after some leapfrogs Scott fakes him out and gets him in an electric chair, and Rick does a nasty bulldog off the top. Lane blasts Scott with a racket and throws some wicked stomps to Scott's ribs, Eaton bashes him with a chair, and then we get to see what a great FIP Scott was. Eaton is athletic as hell and had nasty offense that doesn't get enough credit. We all know he has great punches (and he shows off several varieties of them, and a guy in the crowd exclaims loudly after each one, and I love a man whose favorite part of a wrestling show is Eaton's punches), but watch him hit a shockingly forceful fist off the top, really leaping into it, and in my favorite spot of the match watch him shove Scott into the turnbuckles and blast him with one of the hardest lariats I've seen as he stumbles back out. Did you know Eaton threw one of the greatest western lariats? Because apparently he does. Scott gets some great flash comebacks, a sunset flip, and some beautiful big windup punches that looked like Rocky swinging for the fences. The ending is a bit sudden, but total dynamite: Scott hits the frankensteiner (a truly amazing spot) and Rick comes in with a huge Steinerline. Phil is right about Rick being a tremendous hot tag, it's something that really doesn't get talked about enough. And the end being so sudden is always believable with the Steiners, as they're clearly so powerful and explosive that they look like anything they do could be a finish.

Onita/Goto v. Kurisu/Dragonmaster review

Verdict: 

PAS: I loved this tag match, one of my favorite things in wrestling is to discover and watch hidden gems like this, and I have never heard anyone talk about this match before, especially cool because these two teams have only matched up a couple of times on tape. Still that FMW tag is such a perfect slice of violence, I have to go with it, it feels like picking the WCW tag would be recency bias.

ER: Damn this was great. Tag team wrestling done properly might be my absolute favorite wrestling (or fat guys, or punches, or guys pointing at their head, or elbow drops, or...) and this was white hot. There is definitely recency bias at play, as oftentimes the newest thing is going to feel like the coolest thing, but I loved this so much I'm having a hard time remembering how damn much I love that FMW tag, and how I've watched that tag like 4 times this year. This tag feels like it could have those legs, and I think with a slightly escalated finish I'd vote for this match in a heartbeat. This wasn't a blowout at all, this was a worthy, awesome challenger, but I gotta go FMW.

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Wednesday Night Bootleg- Regal v. Punk

William Regal v. CM Punk MSG 12/28/08





Truly tremendous match. The best babyface Punk match I have ever seen and one of Regal's best WWE matches as well. We start with some very nice chain wrestling, Punk went to one of the Blue Blood training camps and you could tell he was jazzed to work holds against Regal. Punk sidestepped Regal and threw him to the floor, where he followed with a big tope, which is not something you normally see at house shows, even at MSG. The momentum shifts again when Regal counters an Irish whip and just launches Punk with a half nelson suplex, Punk takes a full Misawa bump on the move, hurling him out of the ring. Regal takes over and just beats on Punk. Lots of nifty violent moments by Regal in this section, he does a go behind and blasts Punk with forearms to the back of the head, and counters the first GTS attempt with a fast and violent flurry of elbows. Regal is letting it loose a little here, stiffing Punk, throwing him with suplexes. Punk is always willing to work this style and Regal really shows his versatility by being the best possible Samoa Joe here. Finish is a great too, with Regal reversing a GTS by trying to rip Punk's nose off, and then obliterating him with the knee trembler. Awesome discovery, go watch this match.

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Wednesday Night Bootleg: REGAL vs. BOURNE

William Regal v. Evan Bourne 4/21/11 - Bucharest



How has a wretch like me, living a subway ride away from Titan Towers, never seen Regal live? The plebes who attended this show have now all seen Regal live, and they’re literally a buggy ride away from living in freakin’ Transylvania. The setting adds a lot: you expect Bourne halfway through his shooting star press to turn into a bat and fly away, or for Regal to be revealed as a vampire bear, thereby validating all of Striker’s corny Morrissey references in Regal matches. Bootleggers of the world: unite.

This could have been a clash in styles, but Sydal has worked with bases as built like Regal (Sheamus, Mark Henry, Lizzy Valentine) in the past, and Regal can still flip, flop and fly with the best of ‘em, as he does for an array of monkey flips and ranas. WWE house shows are some of the more exciting wrestling to watch these days, as you have a bunch of really capable workers breaking out of the four minute TV shell and actually interacting with a crowd. You could have no idea who either guy is, and immediately get Regal’s character from his stink-eyed leering. Bourne also gets it, whoo-hooing the crowd and pausing for effect before his big offense spots.

In this match and WWE handhelds at large, you get to see the fun shtick that they don’t have time for on Raw. It’s old stuff, but the kind of fun old stuff you haven’t seen in a while: Regal cowering in the ropes to avoid getting hit, Regal stealthily telling the crowd to shut up after he offers Bourne a cordial handshake, Bourne as fist-pumping babyface on fire.

The chain wrestling is off the hook as well, with the best armbar spot I’ve seen in a while as Regal cinches one in, gets caught by a Bourne headscissors, then fights out of it and body slams Bourne, all while holding onto the armbar and taking the fight to the ground. It really helps your aerial babyface dramatically to have an awesome mat worker keeping you out of the air, until the crowd is eager to see some high flying. You also get several vicious Regal knee strikes, and him dropping a Hansen-sized elbow drop out of nowhere.

By the end Regal is screaming like a banshee at the crowd, and teases a dangerous-looking tiger driver. It’s been enough of a fight to that point that it doesn’t seem absurd for Regal to spike Bourne straight down on his head in this irrelevant midcard match. The finish is an expertly fluid top rope moment: being able to watch Bourne do his thang in a fairly steady one-shot (as opposed to RAW's bait-and-switch camera angles) puts into better perspective how crazy it is that he can hit these moves. Probably my favorite WWE match of the year, just ahead of a comparable Mysterio-Cody Rhodes handheld from Lyon and the recent Masters-McIntyre series. Crowd goes wild and returns home to Castle Wolfenstein happy as clams.

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Wednesday Night Bootleg- Regal v. Bryan

One of the great things about the state of wrestling fandom in 2011 is the easy availability of footage. House show wrestling was previously limited to paying customers or occasionally HH DVD's. Now with youtube there is much more available stuff. So we will be finding it, embedding it and reviewing it every Wednesday Night

William Regal v. Daniel Bryan Austria 11/10/10



This was pretty much the dream match folks wanted to see when Danielson signed with the WWE, we got some tastes on TV, but this is the longest singles match that has shown up. The highlight was all the early exchanges based around each guy attempting to secure a wrist lock. Both guys had some neat twist and turns on the hold, check out the especially nifty counter Regal breaks out at 4:34. When they got to their feet it was more of a standard WWE match, although a really slickly worked one. I would have liked to see Regal break out a little more brutality, although his forearms were nice stuff. Finish was very cool with Regal attempting to steal it with a backslide, only to get maneuvered into the LaBell lock. Not a off the charts match, but definitely delivers what it promises.

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