Found Footage Friday: LYONS~! SCHMIDT~! SUPER ASTRO~! SUPER BOY~! OGAWA~! SAWADA~! FUJITA~!

Billy Red Lyons vs. Hans Schmidt 11/13/59

MD: Schmidt was announced here as a replacement for Dick the Bruiser. We don't have a ton of Lyons footage in his prime and he was quite young here, on the way up. Davis says this was his biggest challenge yet. He was quick though, which seemed to light a fire under Schmidt too. By the five minute mark or so, they were both on their knees slugging it out with each other. Lyons held his own for fifteen minutes or so, but ended up counted out when an over-excited admirer wouldn't let go of him on the outside. Pretty clever count out spot that let Schmidt win while making Lyons look like he really had a shot.

Super Astro/Principe Joel/Jalisco vs. Super Boy/Fobia/Mano Negra Compton Lucha 6/5/95

MD: The primary pairing here was Super Astro vs Mano Negra and while Negra was high energy both in stalling and in his exchanges, the few glimpses of Super Astro vs Super Boy that we got made me wish that was the primary pairing instead. Jalisco stood out too as he had a certan swagger, even posture I would say, that made him stand out. He would take out all of the rudos with the same move and then the ref too for good measure. Super Boy had a great dive at the end (with Jalisco following up with a sort of elbow dropping dive) to set things up for Mano Negra vs Super Astro again. At that point, however, Joel turned heel and it ended as a pretty big rudo beatdown that probably built to some bigger match later on. The turn didn't really take away from the match as it felt like it came right at the end.

PAS: Very fun lucha trios filled with talented professional luchadores. The extra juice was getting to see bits of Super Astro and Super Boy two of the most electric exciting luchadores of all time. I love a fat highflyer and both of these guys were perfect example of melding chub and athleticism. Super Boy hits a crazy flipping senton to end a fall, and Astro is twinkle toed as ever. Finish was a bit of a dog's breakfast, but the stuff preceding it was a blast

Naoya Ogawa/Atsushi Sawada vs. Kazuyuki Fujita/Kendo Kashin IGF 4/11/15

MD: 8 minutes here and it's all action. The Fujita vs Sawada exchanges are great, just that right mix of intensity and flair and headbutts. Sawada really brings the energy whether it's his initial takedown or just scooting around the ring out of the way when Fujita gets the advantage. We don't get a ton of Kashin and Ogawa here, but the contributions are worthwhile, with Kashin trying to kill Sawada on the outside with some cloth around the neck and Ogawa giving in to Sawada's desire to get STO'd by his own partner so that he can hit a ridiculous and serene tandem DDT. I'd happily watch a 10 match Sawada vs Fujita series if such a thing existed.

PAS: This kind of hardhitting quasi-shoot puro stuff is right up my alley.  Fujita is such a rock headed dim bruiser and it is great to watch him bully Sawada and have Sawada fire back. Loved the flurry of strikes in the corner by Sawada, one of the advantages of wrestling Fujita is that you can hit him as hard as you can and it won't faze him a bit. Kashin and Ogawa are smaller players in this match, but Ogawa has such a great arrogant bruiser vibe, that he works great in this match as a foil. Taunting and bullying his partner until he had enough and just disposed of him. 

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New Footage Friday: SCHMIDT! YUKON ERIC! FUERZA! CRUZ! PANTHER! CARAS!

Hans Schmidt vs. Yukon Eric Chicago 9/25/53

MD: Great to see new Chicago footage and to see it in full color from 1953 is particularly nuts. I wouldn't say the color added a ton to the action itself (as that has to be a word used carefully here) but I do think it let you see the crowd reactions more vividly, and at times your eyes were going to wander in this match. Schmidt's excellent. Everything looks credible and precise. His holds are perfectly cinched. His shots are mean. His hairpulling is just matter-of-fact and inevitable. He doesn't miss a beat. Eric had size and charisma but not a whole lot else. The long first fall was primarily him controlling with basic holds as Schmidt sold and worked his way out. The finishing bearhug was excellent though, as Schmidt desperately pulled at the hair and threw in shots to escape but ultimately couldn't. The end of the second fall was really strong as well, with a series of backbreakers, each one a bit harder for Eric to kick out of (he tossed Schmidt onto the ref with the first). Then the third was abrupt and full of all the action with Schmidt flying around the ring with crazy dropkicks. It's obvious how good Schmidt was here, but this was probably not the opponent you want to see him against. And hey, if anyone has $50K lying around, we can probably get all of the remaining Chicago footage converted.

Fuerza Guerrera/Talisman/Al Rojo Vivo vs. Hombre Bala/Javier Cruz/Aguila Solitaria Pista Arena Revolution 1986

MD: Pretty complete and enjoyable trios. Fuerza looked like an all-timer here with struggle-filled matwork with Cruz in the primera including some neckbreaker style spots where both guys went over. He had a moment in the faster segunda where he threw an early missed kick just for the hell of it on a rope running exchange before getting armdragged and sliding across the ring and out. It's the sum of little things like that which just brings such an atmosphere to a match like this. He also hit a crazy back suplex in the segunda. I don't know how much footage we have of Rojo Vivo (don't think much, if any) but he had a good Mocho Cota But Red sort of look and stooged pretty well; not quite as much as you'd like, but pretty well. He strung a bunch of arm takeovers together and then did the Ingobernables invisible punt, which I don't think I've seen in the 80s before. I like 80s Talisman (more so than 90s Hijo del Gladiator at least) and his shots looked good and he based well, especially for Cruz's tricked out armdrags in the segunda. In the tercera, they took out Cruz and put on a pretty solid beating on the other two leading to Cruz finally recovering and a big comeback. My favorite bit there was Fuerza preventing his partner Talisman from rolling out of the ring because he didn't want to get back in there, and then Talisman returning the favor on him when he tried to roll out. I'm not sure I'd ever seen that before either. Just another sign that this was probably the week to week baseline for this stuff and it's a crime we don't have more of it.

Blue Panther vs. Dos Caras 9/25/04 AWS

MD: Pretty ballsy match as they work holds for ten minutes straight in front of a crowd shouting for curb stomps and what have you. It's good though, with them working in and out smoothly and smartly, for the most part chaining from one thing to the next, and it worked more as a maestros match than with any tecnico/rudo leanings. Early on, I don't think the crowd knew what to think of it, but by the eight minute mark, or so, as they've escalated into more complex holds and escapes, they get a big, earnest ovation and it's the sort of thing that can't help but put a smile on your face. There's real appreciation there from the crowd and not just some jaded sense of wanting to seem smart. They move on with even more advanced stuff at that point, before picking up the pace in the last minute. Unfortunately, the first two bits of the latter don't really hit and it's the sort of thing that could lose a crowd and, given their preconceptions of lucha, probably made it all seem a little anti-climactic after ten minutes of great matwork. I'm just glad we got to see those ten minutes though.

PAS: I remember getting this match on tape when it happened, but it is cool to see it show up online. This was well before we had tons of Maestro stuff on Youtube, so this was a real shock to the system. Both guys are so skilled and still retained a lot of athleticism at this point and I loved all of the different ways that they attacked holds. The Tapitia sections were especially cool, as was all of Panther's arm work. Caras is a master, but Panther hits a slightly higher level, not sure if more then 10 wrestlers ever had the kind of smoothness and precision on their holds that he had, especially Panther in his 40s rather then his 60s.

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