Found Footage Friday: '86 CROCKETT HANDHELD~! GARVIN~! FLAIR~! NIKITA~! ARN~! MAGNUM~! DUSTY~! RAGING BULL~! WAHOO~!

JCP Handheld Cincinnati 4/27/86

Wahoo McDaniel vs. Jimmy Garvin

MD: We just get five minutes clipped here. It's a real morality play though. Clear, clear lines. Garvin earns nothing. Whenever Wahoo gets the chants, he's smacking him around the ring. Garvin begs off and gets a cheapshot low. He uses Precious pulling the hair from the outside to distract so he can take over. He uses an eye rake. When he's in charge he's laying in stomps or tossing Wahoo into the rail. Wahoo has big definitive shots. Garvin is underhanded and peppers things in. Night and day. Wahoo comes back, does the war dance, hits the chops, but Garvin kicks out at one and runs away to the draw a count out and fight for another day. 

ER: I don't think I ever thought Cincinnati was a place Crockett even toured but I'm also old enough now that a lot of information sounds like new information. I know they ran Cleveland frequently but maybe I didn't ever think about Cincinnati as Crockett Country because we didn't have footage until some guy who loves awful chili that tastes like pumpkin pie brought a camera to document it. I'm glad he did. He wanted the match bad enough to record it as fully as he could while editing on the fly to save battery for the bigger matches. This man, who smelled of raw onion, knew Flair and Garvin had worked broadways in the Carolinas. He couldn't risk it. So we got this clipped, but it's house show perfection. The crowd is so entertained by professional house show Wahoo, not murdering Garvin but doing all his same painful strikes and Native Stooges chops. Wahoo hits Garvin hard and forces Garvin to work up to him. Garvin had excellent worked stomps and the way Wahoo sold being punched in the corner could teach every wrestler today. Watch Wahoo flinch away from a shot under the ribs, reflexively rear back for a punch, before taking another. The best punches and strikers are almost always the best at selling punches. 

Baron von Raschke/Ivan Koloff vs. Manny Fernandez/Hector Guerrero

MD: This was probably a rough 20 minute draw that turned into a good 13 minute clipped draw. Though there was nothing we saw in those 13 minutes to really make me think the full 20 would have been that much of a slog. They went with a double heat structure with a long shine that consisted of Raschke being a pole in the center of the ring that Hector got to roll around and Ivan's arm getting worked over as he bumped, stooged, and fed more. First heat was on Manny and had some good assisted holds that drew in Hector and got heat. Then Hector got to make a big house of fire entrance with rapid punches until he got swept under. The idea was that once he got the hot tag (again rolling all over the place) there just wasn't enough time for Manny to get the win, though he came real close. I don't remember too many draws being worked quite this and it's a solid structure on paper. 

Most fascinating thing to me is just watching the Baron. He lost the offense once by goose stepping and setting up the claw. He had a way of both hitting offense (even stomps) and bumping that he'd move his waist but not his abdomen. He's like an old action figure without enough points of articulation. You can make him sit up in the middle, but then you can't bend his knees or waist. And he still takes bumps and hits offense, but it's amazingly stilted. I've seen plenty of Baron matches but maybe it was just worse by 86? Anyway, maybe this was helped by the clipping, maybe not, but it worked for me.

ER: We love guys who move weird and nobody moves around a ring weirder than 1986 Baron, who is my exact age but he moves like someone re-animated a 75 year old monster from memory. His bumps are terrible, taken only one way, rolling back to his seat waving his arms like he's Accredited Giant Gonzalez. I like how Manny works like Chavo when he teams with Hector. I wonder how he worked when he teamed with Chavo. Probably like an asskicker. Manny hits like a rock and pulls off a flying headscissors, Hector brings energy and the crowd loves his evasive tumbling. Koloff works like the best Haruka Eigen. He did an All Japan tour in 1990 when he was in his late 50s and I need to see every match we have from that tour. I loved how he bumped for Hector's late match hot tag, Korakuen would have gone wild for the ways he ran into the turnbuckles and bounced his way halfway back across the ring. While I'm curious how Baron worked his bearhug, I respect the camera's choice to edit. 

Dusty Rhodes vs. Arn Anderson + Magnum TA vs. Nikita Koloff [Cage]

MD: This is still a bit clipped but you get the sense of what's going on and I loved the Dusty vs Arn portion until the finish. This being a house show, there was such freedom for Dusty to absolutely demolish Arn. Arn sold the cage at first, not the danger of it but the fact he couldn't get away. Then he managed to run himself knee first into the cage. Dusty took over on it with such one-of-a-kind timing on seizing the foot, taking him down, holding it, looking to the crowd, stomping, stomping again. If a conductor of an orchestra is primarily worried about controlling the time and volume, Dusty was the best conductor of a crowd I've ever seen. Just a virtuoso. 

After smashing and rubbing Arn's head against the cage a bit, Arn actually came back with these beautiful low kicks from the ground, just sweeping his leg against Dusty's as if he was dance fighting. He honed in and then, once he had a real advantage, the Russains came out with the chain. I would have probably liked it more if Dusty mounted a comeback and then they came in? But there was also the sense that this was the plan all along if Arn got even the smallest bit of advantage. 

I suppose it worked either way as Magnum rushed in to break it up and start his match with Nikita. This had a totally different feel. Magnum did control early including a goofy atomic drop that sent Nikita in (and justified the blading) and using the cage to help himself bound up to the top turnbuckle for a double axe handle.Nikita lawn darted himself head first into Magnum's gut to take over and Magnum worked well from underneath. At one point he ate a backbreaker and crawled on his knees across the ring and it really worked for me.

Great transition, maybe even an all time one honestly, as Nikita went for the sickle, Magnum moved, and he went arm first into the cage. Things opened up from there with Magnum throwing all sorts of punches and a great sweeping dropkick. I loved the finish too, as Magnum went to toss Nikita head first into the cage, but Nikita grabbed Magnum's head at the last second and they both went in at equal speed. Just a real symbolic sense of them being equals/rivals/fated. That led to a ten count where it seemed like Nikita might beat it but he collapsed and Magnum shot up at the last second to a huge pop. Lots to love here.

ER: I appreciate that we got a little handheld ambiance before the match, our documentarian filming the people at the Cincinnati Gardens, reminding us that Miller Lite tastes great and is less filling, giving us a too brief glimpse of the ringside guardrails getting moved around before the cage goes up. As Dusty goes after Arn's ankle, I appreciate that everything you hear yelled by the crowd sounds like create-a-crowd ADR. "Do it again, Dusty!" "Give it to him!" "Stomp that ankle, Dusty!" It's clipped up, but I'm glad we get Arn's killer missed knee strike into the cage, Dusty seated on the middle rope but dodging, Arn's knee going into the cage, Arn throwing the knee to actually connect with Dusty and thus hitting the cage just as his knee would have connected with Dusty's stomach. After getting his face ground into the cage, Arn misses a wild swing and takes perhaps the fastest faceplant I've seen from a miss, a reaction to a Dusty elbow that swings him into the mat faster than anything Dusty could have done to him. 

TA vs. Nikita portion is a real hot fight. Koloff was great at taking punches and Magnum was great at throwing them. Koloff took an axe handle better than most I've seen, really selling the impact in how he let it drive him spinning to the mat. Koloff is great at taking Magnum's punches, none better than in the aftermath of him missing the sickle into the cage. Magnum lands a jab to Koloff's nose and Nikita winces up like he's prematurely stopping a gush of blood. Wahoo hit this great swinging axe handle to Garvin's chest in the opener, and I thought that was the coolest strike of the night, until Magnum threw the same swinging axe handle at Nikita's face. It's funny that the "first man to his feet, Wins" finish came after both ran each other into the cage, which was treated much more seriously than Magnum straight up murdering Nikita with a piledriver moments before. I still loved the drama around both men getting to their feet. 

Ric Flair vs. Ron Garvin

MD: Opening few minutes of this were great. Flair would press Garvin into the corner, try to take a liberty, smack him, immediately get smacked back, sell it with shock. It was a lovely bit of vaudeville. I'm torn on parts of this one overall. Flair's narratives just don't come together how I'd like. What happens in minute 17 doesn't necessarily stem logically from what happens in minute 6 like with other greatest-of-all-time wrestlers. But that doesn't necessarily mean that what happens in minute 17 isn't good and that it doesn't fit the moment or the characters. But it leaves me wondering if something was left on the table sometimes. But maybe I'm wrong and this is better and more organic somehow. 

Here, when Flair did take over, it felt clear like he was fed up from all the shots he took from Garvin and that he just wanted to lay shots in, not worried about winning or any sort of strategy. It was raw and human and effective, and I think the issue isn't it necessarily, but when he went into the finish and started to target the leg. I preferred him punching Garvin in the face to being just as mean about the leg, but then when things had to slip into some sort of finishing sequence, it wasn't one that matched the rest of the contest. My favorite shot he did was when he had Garvin draped over the top rope like Sheamus (or like he was setting him up for Eigen's spit spot) and instead of just whacking him in the chest, he punched him in the cheek. 

Maybe I'm wrong though. Maybe the narrative is that Flair was angry and he was mean and cruel but in the face of Garvin constantly firing back, maybe he was a coward and maybe he blinked first, and he went to the knee out of desperation and then tried to cover it with bluster like it was his plan all along. Maybe it's my fault for just not having enough faith in Flair. Maybe I'm not fair to Flair. Regardless, the finish did hit, with Garvin, leg torn up, eating a second shinbreaker anyway to punch Flair in the face. Both guys went sprawling to the floor and got counted out. You can't say the fans didn't get their money here at least.

ER: Love the guy in the crowd who, as Tommy Young is holding up Flair's title, keeps saying, "Garvin's leaving with it! Garvin's leaving with it!" Super physical match, which I greatly respect, and if we had it in full I'd say it's one of my favorite Flair matches of the era. We don't know how long the actual match may have gone, but we have 21+ minutes of it here and it's easy to think they went past 30, and they were fighting the whole time. Garvin unsurprisingly throws the hardest punches of the night while Flair takes the hardest bumps, but it's so much more than that. Unless edited out entirely, they don't hit the mat at all. No long builds out of headscissors, no wear down holds, just pure physicality in every exchange. Even though it had several staples of Every Town Paid to See My Shit Flair, this feels paced differently from a lot of Flair touring champ matches. The schtick blended into the fight a lot better than I've seen it in many highly acclaimed Flair matches, and his cumulative selling felt like a guy who really had been battered and beaten for 30 minutes. There were no moments where he was taking bigger bumps for Tommy Young or running ropes after selling fatigue, this was always fought like two men getting progressively worn down and hurt from their fight. 

When Flair goes into his own personal Showstopper mode, many things can feel disconnected from everything else in the match. This never felt that way, every blur of fighting felt like a part of their larger war, and every exchange had such physical power that by the time we were 30 in and both men were limping around the ring after each other, artistry out the window, scrambling and crawling over each other for any advantage, it felt like a righteous culmination to their war. Some of my favorite moments include Garvin popping Flair right in the forehead for a nearfall and shaking out his fist while still lying across Flair's body, fanning his fingers while still pressing Flair to the mat. It's no secret that Garvin has amazing punches, but you could randomly step into any minute of this match and see a perfect example of some all timers. Garvin's punches all look sped up, like the punch is sped up at the point of impact to make them look harder than they are, but Garvin is just that good. When he throws three perfect punches before rolling smoothly into a jackknife pin, I thought it was an honest to god real finish. 

Flair getting pressed off the top actually served the match, wasn't just an excuse for Flair to take one of his bumps. It leads immediately to Garvin dropping an elbow for 2, and the punches he rains down on Flair after the kickout are incredible, standing over him punching down at Flair, Flair groggily trying to sit up but just getting punched over and over, like he's being punished for kicking out. Garvin also does this beautiful thing where he takes a knee breaker and fucking decks Flair upon landing, before falling in a heap himself. Wrestling needs more guys who lash out instinctively upon feeling pain, before the pain consumes them and they are forced to sell. Garvin definitely sold the damage of that knee breaker, but he reacted like someone who stubs their toe and foolishly lashes out and attacks the bed frame he stubbed it on. It makes much more sense to have that reaction to a man trying to hurt you, and once you see Garvin deck Flair you wonder why it's something we don't see more. This is the most boiled down raw version of Misawa popping up to hit an elbow and it's beautiful. Great match, great war. 

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Found Footage Friday: THE MALENKO-GUERRERO CLASSIC~! LORD NORMAN~! COLLINS~!

MD: We've been doing this for years now, pulling together whatever we can find from the connections we have and just on the internet in general. In parallel for a lot of those has been https://x.com/krisplettuce who has a patreon where he pulls all sorts of things together. Where we focus on matches specifically, he focuses more on whole TV shows and spans of shows. He's recently organized thirteen episodes of Malenko GWA from 88, hosted by Bob Roop and while none of the matches go too long, we're highlighting a few of them. 

Lord Norman vs. Steve Collins GWA 6/25/88

MD:  Collins was the Party Animal with the Party Girls (two valets) with him, and the fans chanting "party" basically the whole way through. He was the promotion's light heavyweight champion. Dropkicks, headlock takeovers including using the turnbuckles. That sort of thing. It's kind of amazing watching Smiley here knowing that he'd be on a few UWF 2.0 shows the back half of the year standing up to guys like Yamazaki and even Maeda completely believable and dominant. Here he was the newly crowned TV champ and had a chip on his shoulder. He was a few years into the business and you wouldn't know it was the same guy in UWF past the physique. Oh yeah, he also came out with a pipe, because of course he did.

I'm not sure he was always entirely on the same page as Collins but there were some little positioning things that were pretty interesting. Other things, like them setting up him missing a stomp onto Collins only to get his hands stomped himself didn't seem entirely plausible in the set up. When he took over, he had pretty credible offense, a few suplexes and a really nasty hotshot where he seemed to lose control of him. His entourage (including Dr. Red Roberts) menaced the girls and Collins went out. Norman went to post him but got posted in return and just missed the count back in. Post match they did a challenge where Collins would put a Party Girl up against the TV title. 

Lord Norman vs. Steve Collins GWA 7/23/88

MD: By the time the challenge happened, Norman (and Death Row) was managed by Reverend Johnson and he lost the match due to distraction and had to give up a party girl. He'd also given up the light heavyweight title since he wanted to move up weight classes so as to better face Norman and others (which was put interestingly as they noted he might lose some of his speed/agility in doing so).   

Right before this one, Johnson broke into the TV show with a pirate feed to announced the formation of the Black Wrestling Alliance which does, as a gimmick, feel at least five years before its time. Collins is down to one Party girl as Dominique had chosen to be with Smiley and crew. This was probably a stronger overall match than the last one and Smiley showed a lot more both while taking stuff and working from underneath and through his offense. There was a bit where he got clowned trying to get out of a headscissors I liked quite a bit. 

Collins was favoring a knee though he didn't really target it. He did his nice off center double underhook suplex though and stayed on him pretty aggressively. They ran a spot where he distracted the ref while Death Row crushed Collins and that made me think it was probably a good thing Maeda didn't see this match or else he would have never made it to UWF. Finish had Death Row rush the ring once Collins put on the sleeper and the Party Girl slipping Collins a chair so he could "break bad" as the commentary put it and hit everyone with it. You do get the sense that Smiley, even a few years in, might be progressing week to week but maybe it's just a data point issue.  

Joe Malenko vs. Hector Guerrero GWA 8/20/88

MD: Hey, this was really good. We only get about ten minutes of it before Rusty Brooks comes in while Joe has the flying octopus hold on and everything devolves from there, setting up a Joe knee injury for whatever would come next. This was for the Jr. Heavyweight Title that Collins had given up and what a trade up to either Joe or Hector. 

The early feeling out process was great, a lot of tricked out technique but always with an attempt of one-upping your opponent and getting an advantage. Hector started clean but leaned heel very quickly and that helped underpin everything here. He went from shaking hands to start to going over the top to point out his feet were on the ropes as Malenko had him in a hold to really selling big and whiny to faking a handshake for an eyepoke and he never looked back from there. The fans were more interested at chanting Porky at Brooks (who was seconding Hector) but I'd say they got into it as it went on. I want to know how Eric thinks this compares to the WCW matches between Dean and Eddy almost ten years later. 

ER: I thought this was just fine, and honestly pretty comparable to the (mostly awful) Dean/Eddie WCW matches. This match was nothing like those, but had similar pluses and minuses. The worst thing about the never-ending Dean/Eddie feud was that it was almost always a lot of very fast work with no real goal. Everything was fast, most of it was crisp, some of it was insanely impactful, none of it led to anything at all and none of it was treated as "something that happened". They moved on from offense so quickly that they could have gaslit anyone into thinking that nothing at all had even happened. I've seen multiple brainbusters that were sold for less time than most people sell a hiptoss, endless limb work than nobody sells, sequences blown through for speed rather than any lasting impact, finishes fully disconnected from anything that happened in the match proper, etc. It was wrestling made for a 2 minute highlight video to be posted 25 years later by an Twitter engagement account saying "Nobody talks about how Eddie Guerrero and Dean Malenko were two of the best to ever do it". 

Dean modeled himself nearly entirely after his older brother. He moved almost exactly the same as Joe, but did not retain half of the weight Joe put behind his move execution. Dean was good at move execution, but he had no clue how to let a move sink in or mean anything at all. He saw what his brother was doing, but didn't seem to understand what he was doing or why he was doing it. Dean's only takeaway seemed to be "do it faster, get through exchanges faster, move on to new exchanges immediately". Seeing Joe's inset promo, we know Dean did retain his brother's terrified eyes, emotionless promos straight into the camera, but couldn't even do those as well. I don't think this is Joe or Hector at their best, though there were moments. Momentum blocking is one of my favorite things in wrestling, from refusing to be pushed off a headlock or dead weighting a move, and them each blocking a hiptoss by gluing their boots to the mat looked real good, in a way that Dean never understood. The important thing Dean never understood is that both men actually looked like they were trying to throw a hiptoss when the other blocked it. Dean always thought too far ahead to the inevitable reversal, so "the move that never got completed" always looked like a move designed to be reversed. Joe selling his knee after Rusty Brooks' interference was really great. His fall to the mat and his second fall after struggling back to his feet to cross chop Brooks in the throat looked like someone who actually blew out their knee and there has been no point during Dean's career where his leg selling looked this good. Now that I think about it maybe Rusty Brooks - somehow only 30 years old!!! - might have been the best thing about this. 

For what might be the best version of Malenko vs. Guerrero, please see Hector Guerrero's WCW matches against Dean on the 4/4/97 Nitro and the 6/8/97 Worldwide. They are each about 3 minutes long so none of your time will feel wasted. 

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

Adnan Al Qaisi vs. Ian Campbell Iraq 1970

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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New Footage Friday: Thesz, Valentines Jr. and Sr., Flair, All the Guerreros, Kikuchi, Slinger

Lou Thesz vs. Johnny Valentine Florida 9/1/73

MD: The Thesz/Valentine match had some frustrating cuts. We basically lose any time Valentine gets over on Thesz. What we do have here is pretty great though. It feels like a completely different beast to wrestling we have today. There are little things like how Thesz controls the center of the ring and Valentine has to work around him, the way that space and distance is used, the sheer effort in Valentine just trying to press Thesz' head down. Some of it is timeless and universal too, with Thesz getting fed up and starting to unload with the forearms, for instance. The headlock takeover counter to the bodyslam would be striking in a match now. Just a really good finishing sequence. Here's a testament to this thing: We only get seven or eight minutes but when they shifted to the up-close alternate angle, I knew exactly what spots/moments I was looking at, and in a world of flimsy HD, it's amazing just how good and legitimate this stuff looked close up.

PAS: I have a hard time watching and rating clipped up matches, feels like judging a movie based on the extended Red Band trailer. The highlights in this match were pretty choice though. Johnny Valentine is the best ever at making simple things look awesome, there is an extended armbar where he just shoves Thesz's neck to his chest, he feels like he is going to pop it off like spare button. I loved Thesz unloading in the corner with a flurry and Valentine's droopy selling, Valentine going glassy eyed really put it over the top. I was really hoping for a whole match, Valentine is an all timer, and we have very little of him, still I'll take what I can.

Ric Flair vs. Greg Valentine Mid-Atlantic 7/17/80

MD: The Flair/Valentine match was all cuts. You'd get one every few seconds. That said, you were sort of able to cobble together the narrative of the match. We don't have a ton of Flair from the summer of 80, but he was 31 (which, to put in perspective, is how old Roman Reigns was two years ago) and he was electric. The initial armwork shine was just over the top great. (The story behind this feud was Valentine coming back to the territory in late 79 to find his partner, Flair, as a face now. They had an altercation and some matches, and eventually Valentine says he wants to change his ways and work with Flair. Of course he turns on him in a cage tag match). There was blood. There was the two of them just mauling each other with shots. There was a pretty good finish. You can't judge something like this on merit considering how clipped it is, but you can tell instantly just how great a babyface Flair was that year. Hopefully they have more. Hopefully they have something complete.

Hector Guerrero/Mando Guerrero/Chavo Guerrero/Eddie Guerrero vs. Negra/Crazy 33/Ari Romero/Bonzi WIN 11/26/89

ER: This is a fun 10 minute Guerrero Familia showcase, similar to the 4 Horsemen showing up on the Pro to take on Bobby Walker, JL, and Men at Work. This actually works out to be mostly a Mando showcase, which is a fun twist, and I really liked his quick Indian deathlocks and fast work around an armbar, and he even got to be the one to save Hector (during the one moment the Guerreros weren't really in control) with nice babyface punches. The match is mostly pretty simple ring cut off stuff, some arm drags, some backdrops, fairly one-sided towards the Guerreros, but we build to a really great early tower of doom spot with every single person in the match getting stacked and climbing on top of each other like a big cheerleading routine finale, before everybody crashed to the mat with back bumps. Couldn't get a big sense of the non-Guerreros in this: Romero felt like a guy I'd want to see again, loved him stooge bumping to the floor and running down the aisle through the crowd to get away; Bonzi seemed like kind of a load, or like a not-nearly-as-good Phil Hickerson type who shows up in new masked gimmicks every other week; Crazy 33 felt like a Bestia Salvaje type professional, and there's probably a reason he was in for a lot of this.

MD: Sometimes we watch things because they're great. Sometimes we watch them because they're new and novel. Sometimes we watch them because we just have to. This is a little bit of all of that. Despite the size of the video, the match isn't all that long. The first half is a presentation of a plaque to Gory with all of his kids involved. Each one comes up to him in turn. It's heartfelt, special stuff. The match itself was fun. The rudos were game. Crazy 33 stood out enough as a stooging base that I'd like to see more of him. Mando shines in an environment like this, one where the good guys are meant to be triumphant and the rudos are meant to be clowned. The Guerreros work like a well-oiled machine. There's no real heat to this, just some moments where they rile young Eddy or get Hector in the corner for a minute. It all breaks apart at the end in a huddle in the corner, with Eddy coming out of it with a big electric chair drop off the second rope. Good, celebratory stuff.

PAS: Crazy 33 is Rocky Star who was in that cool mask match with Fuerza and Santo so it makes sense he is the standout rudo here. Eric really hit the nail on the head comparing this to a WCWSN semi-squash, but it is still super cool to see all the Guerreros together. I would have loved to see a little more of Chavo, but I am on record as enjoying watching Mando eat folks up. Eddie was a little unpolished but was an athletic marvel, so fast and explosive. Would really love to see these four against some real competition, but this was nifty.

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Richard Slinger AJPW 3/3/91 

ER: For a guy who is the ultimate babyface in trios matches, Kikuchi certainly takes every chance he gets to show what a prick he can be. This gets unprofessional really quick, but never verges into "somebody stop the damn match something is wrong!" territory. Both guys appear to be working together, while also clearly beating the shit out of each other and taking liberties at any chance. Slinger starts with some simple light leg kicks to gauge distance...and then Kikuchi pounces in and starts unhinging Slinger's jaw with elbows. And from there that's what this match becomes, and it's incredible. Kikuchi clearly starts elbowing Slinger in the back of the head on the mat, and Slinger doesn't look super cool with it, so Slinger starts picking his own shots; my favorite was when he was locking in an STF and "accidentally" kicked Kikuchi in the back of the head while swinging his leg over. And that STF. My god. Slinger bends Kikuchi back into the most demonic upward dog pose you've seen. The struggler is real in this motherfucker. Every elbow looks angry, every kick lands on a jaw, neither man can stand up off the mat without stepping hard onto the other's face....and yet this isn't some no selling dick contest. These two sell and bump for the other...while looking like they are trying to injure and sandbag each other. It's incredible. Kikuchi has to muscle Slinger through on a backdrop, really looking like Slinger just got as heavy as possible. I was expecting Kikuchi to turn around and kick his teeth in, but instead Kikuchi sells how difficult it was to muscle him over by falling into the ropes. We get THEE GREATEST backslide exchange in pro wrestling history, looking like the only instance of two guys trying to shoot backslide each other. The struggle over this backslide is the stuff of legend, the most struggle during the most violent backslide skirmish you've ever seen. Both of my shoulders would have been dislocated if I were part of this exchange. Slinger hits a wicked spinkick under Kikuchi's chin, Kikuchi locks in a super vertical crab to snap Slinger's back, and you KNOW the chickenwing that ends the match gets held WELL after the tap out. This match would stand out as notably violent on any card in history, a truly incredible find. GOD BLESS CAMCORDER OWNERS WHO ALSO PRESERVED THEIR FOOTAGE.

MD: This is a good problem to have, but the amount of AJPW footage we have to comb through is daunting. There are the endless six man tags with a lot of the same guys that you know will all be good, which add to the litany of these matches that we already have and that are part of the canon. Why do you go for one instead of the other, etc. Really, the only way to handle this is just to watch everything, but who has the time for that?

That said, this was a disc I wanted to look at because it was full of bonkers tag matches (main evented by yet another Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, & Kenta Kobashi vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue, & Masanobu Fuchi sort of match). The first match on the card was this though. I figured I'd start there since we just had fun with Slinger last week.

That's the thing with these. You never know when you're going to find something great. This is great.

Just from the get go, you have Kikuchi responding to a few Slinger low kicks by charging in with brutal forearms. Slinger's response was a roundhouse superkick out of nowhere. It never lets up from there. They follow it up with gritty, competitive yet somehow still tricked out grappling, bookended and enhanced by the two of them just beating the crap out of one another or Kikuchi grinding Slinger's face to dust with his boot (something that Slinger reversed into a Dragon Sleeper/STF, by the way). Later on Kikuchi moves out of a grounded armbar into a front facelock, respositioning Slinger to lift him up into this big twisting slam, and following it up with a deep crab/half crab. A minute later they'll work organically into Slinger hitting a floatover suplex or taking Kikiuchi's head off with a spinning wheel kick. It never really feels like two guys just hitting spots though. Everything has weight and impact and time to settle in. Everything's earned and takes a couple of extra shots or finding an opening for them to hit it. This is even true for the finish (Slinger throwing kicks, Kikuchi catching a foot, Slinger going for the enziguri, Kikuchi ducking it, both guys being down for a moment, and then Kikuchi taking advantage of the positioning for a Tazmission of all things). It's just that sort of match.

PAS: This was a blast, Slinger who was Terry Gordy's cousin seemed to only have a career in Japan (are there any TN indy Slinger matches? Someone ask Beau James or Kris Zellner) and he is fully qualified to have a banger with a guy like Kikuchi. Kikuchi was half himself, half his arch enemy Fuchi in this match,  he gets tortured with some sort of violent reverse STF, which some indy guy needs to steal ASAP, and also lies in a boston crab that looked like it would snap Slingers back. I liked how both guys would fire back, refusing ever to get washed away with the wave of the other guys offense. That backslide was as awesome as Eric described it as and basically the whole match had that sense of real struggle.

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PWF 5/22/98

ER: PWF was a Carolinas based 90s indy operated by Italian Stallion (probably). PWF stood for Pro Wrestling Federation which is almost impossibly adorable. This was a handheld of a show they ran in West Virginia, with Eddie and Hector Guerrero inexplicably working a tag match, while Eddie was still very much employed by WCW and to my knowledge not suspended. 1994-2000 indy wrestling is kind of a fascinating thing, as once the change to DVD happened a lot of these cards never got transferred, so there's an absence of this era online. It was also a time when main federations were far more innovative than indys, and indy feds were still trying to be more like territory feds from years before instead of figuring out what the next big thing was going to be. So you have crowds with mullets watching wrestlers with mullets, wrestlers who all kind of wrestle like bad body WWF and Crockett jobbers, while actual bad body WWF and Crockett jobbers were working the main events.

1. Russian Assassin vs. The Breeze

ER: One immediate thing of note is entrance music hadn't gone through that terrible period of change, with the change happening just a year after later. Here we have the crowd getting excited listening to Assassin (who has nothing whatsoever Russian about him) coming out to late period Alice Cooper and Breeze (looking like Opie from Sons of Anarchy, but wearing a tie dye shirt) coming out to Skynyrd's cover of JJ Cale's "Call Me the Breeze". A year later nu metal would hit and half the workers of every southern indy would enter the ring to "Down With the Sickness" for the next 16 years. It's like that song immediately replaced "When the Levee Breaks" for all of the lamest reasons possible. And let's be honest, this guy is only called The Breeze because he really likes that Skynyrd song. I'm sure he's been a part of a tag team called The Street Survivors (which, isn't a terrible tag team name). This match is 3 minutes long and starts with an alarmingly bad punch exchange, and a missed clothesline where Assassin looks like he's miming throwing a football, poorly. It was the kind  of exchange where neither punch lands and The Breeze holds up his arm to block Assassin's punches long before the punches are thrown. And then, somehow, Breeze has really good corner 10 count punches, a shockingly good delayed powerslam, and drops two legdrops, with at least 50% of those legdrops looking good! Then he hits a kind of cool diamond cutter with him coming off opposite ropes like he was setting up The Pounce. 

2. The Bodyguard vs. Robert Gibson

ER: There's something really wonderful about the simplicity of indy names 20 years ago. I mean, The Bodyguard? Plenty of men have worked a bodyguard gimmick, but nobody has just said "you know what? My name ain't important. Just my duty." He comes out to Bad to the Bone, because someone had to. Ted Dibiase is his manager. Or client? We don't know because we're too busy being disappointed he could not choose one of the multiple smash hits from the eponymous soundtrack as his entrance theme. Gibson is coming off his ill-fated WWF run, still rocking his NWA duster. Oddly I recently (within the month) sought out Gibson vs. D-Lo Brown from Shotgun Saturday Night, as one night I got curious and wondered if Ricky/Robert had any singles matches during their few month late 90s WWF run. Turns out Gibson worked D-Lo Brown, Ricky worked Marc Mero. Just one singles match apiece. Couldn't find Ricky/Mero, but the Gibson/Brown match was plenty fun. Anyway. I'm not sure who the Bodyguard is but he has height and a workably decent build, the kind of guy who you'd think get a shot at some point. But Gibson was really great in this. He found a bunch of cool ways to work around Bodyguard's limitations. Bodyguard did not have a great shoulderblock, but Gibson sure made it look good. First one he takes a standard back bump, next one he does a great sell I've never seen where he runs into The stationary Bodyguard and just drops straight down to his knees, just hitting that brick wall and crumpling. Another shoulderblock sees him take a great bump through the ropes to the apron and floor. We get a couple bearhug spots (which I love) with Gibson escaping them first by boxing the ears and second by biting Bodyguard's forehead. Seriously Gibson was awesome here. Bodyguard has one surprisingly decent punch, some silly overhand tomahawk chops (I don't think I'd personally employ a Bodyguard who used overhand chops in a fight situation, but I am just one man). Dibiase grabs Gibson's leg and holds onto it for the finish, so that's his payday. And now I want more late 90s indy Gibson.

3. Meng vs. The Overlord

ER: What a weird little match. Meng was still in WCW at this point, but apparently has bills to pay. The Overlord looks nothing like what you'd expect any kind of Overlord to look like. For starters, he's wearing a singlet. He has that late 90s gassed Power Plant look, but is also kind of lean around the waist. Think James Earl Wright. And the Overlord is not as good as your average gassed Power Plant guy. Gassed Power Plant guys always had at least one thing they did shockingly well, like a nice press slam or nice elbow drop. The Overlord had nothing that looked good. Early on he botches an arm drag and tosses Meng into the ropes, the type of thing that Finlay would have wrecked him for in front of a Universal Studios audience. But Meng plays along and even sells for this guy. Meng is really fun in his parts, throwing an axe kick to the downed Overlord's balls, and hitting a brutal overhand chop that sounded like it had Lucha Underground sound sweetening. And then, suddenly, 6 minutes in, The Overlord reveals his gift: He can bump really great to the floor!! I mean, really, really great. So I had him pegged as gassed Power Plant grad, but really he was a gassed UPW grad this whole time! Meng casually tosses him through the ropes to the floor, and Overlord decides to just wildly fly through the ropes and onto concrete. Meng follows and chucks Overlord into the announce table and he flies violently into that! Overlord tries to get back in the ring and Meng punches him on the apron.....and Overlord does an awesome Harley Race "feet catching the bottom rope" bump landing back first on the concrete. Who the hell is this Overlord!? Once he gets back in he continues to suck, but damn, we'll always have that minute of awesome bumping.

4. Jimmy Snuka vs. American GI

ER: American GI doesn't seem like your typical indy heel gimmick. The guy has an Army shirt, a crew cut, doesn't bark orders at the crowd like a drill sergeant, is just a standard issue army guy wrestler. One who is clearly booked as a heel because the crowd isn't going to boo Snuka. Is West Virginia against the troops? Is this a smart local gimmick playing off of Virginia's world renowned Antimilitarism? This feels like a pretty standard 90s Jimmy Snuka indy match. It goes about 4 minutes, GI takes most of it. GI didn't look that good. I'm not sure who GI's manager was, but HE was good. He violently choked Snuka in the ropes, and later took a vicious bump off the apron from a big clothesline from GI. So Snuka took some middling offense, and then decided to go home: Hit a backbreaker, then went up to plaster him with the Superfly Splash, totally unprotected because his knees were shot at this point, brudda.

5. Eddie & Hector Guerrero vs. Black Angel & Super Ninja

ER: Holy cow. You guys. Eddie. Eddie Guerrero wrestled so damn well on a strange Virginia indy show. Also, Hector! Man what a killer match with essentially just 2.5 out of 4 wrestlers. I have no clue who Super Ninja or Black Angel are/were, but Black Angel gets a real nice reaction coming out. He gets kind of mobbed by fans, truthfully. Why? I do not know. He takes a snapmare nicely? Super Ninja is a guy who is at least workable. He has better timing than Angel, has better ring awareness (seems like every move Angel did would either wind up with he or his opponent lying in the ropes), and did a couple decent spin kicks. But you guys. Eddie. Holy cow. He was so damned good here. Fans are on him right away with the Eddy Sucks chants that were all the rage at the time, and he feeds them great. This match was a wonderful example of his stooging ability, showing genuine frustration (watch the intensity as he slams his hands on the apron after getting armdragged out of the ring), his comedy (watch him get excited and slap Hector after getting too fired up, then immediately beg off), and just his incredible wrestling ability. The way he took offense, the way he would slyly get into position for stuff, the way he would work the crowd from the apron, the big bumps he took to the concrete, the snap he would deliver his own offense with, the way he would feed the offense of people with pretty bad offense. Eddie was just really special. I'm not sure what circumstances lead to him working this show, but I'm glad those circumstances happened. And in all this Eddie talk it would be easy to forget about Hector, but Hector busted ass in this too! Hector was doing all sorts of cool suplexes, trying to set up complex roll ups that Black Angel would botch, and playing a great toned down second to Eddie. Eddie is a marvel down the stretch, taking increasingly impressive bumps to the floor while Ninja/Angel try to finish Hector, with Eddie's best bump coming as he takes a superkick on the apron and bumps backwards from the apron to the guardrail. Seeing kids leap in shock as Eddie flies into the rail in front of them was glorious. No clue why the Guerreros worked this show, no clue why they won the tag titles which I would guess were never ever defended by them, but I'm so glad that some guy sitting in a balcony decided to record this.

6. George South vs. Italian Stallion

ER: Man, I love George South. I watched a current George South match within the last 6 months and I still love super old even more Jesus-y George South. I love that he's a God fearing man, but also a bad guy. Like Jesus loves him, and he loves Jesus, but he's a bad guy. George South was one of those guys you could slot into a suddenly empty spot on the 500. "We have Black Buffalo on there twice? I guess put George South at 205." Italian Stallion gets a stunningly loud reaction coming out to the ring. Everybody wants to slap him five. He and South have two of the most incredible faded glory mullets you have ever seen. And I really liked this. It doesn't take much for me to like a South match, but Stallion was surprisingly game too, and I always love a couple of old dudes fighting. South is so good at the little things, he throws a couple of different great punches (really like his short uppercut), bumps big on armdrags and clotheslines, and can brawl. Stallion threw a shockingly good overhand right, cut really low on a missed lariat, had a big press slam and nice powerslam. And this was good! We get some amusing wandering brawling on the outside, as South would punch Stallion, Stallion would wander halfway around the ring, Stallion would punch South and South would wander back around a couple lengths of ring. But man I dig this kind of stuff. If I could be guaranteed a match as decent as South/Stallion on every indy card I went to, I'd be a happy live wrestling fan.

What a neat little time capsule of late 90s indy wrestling. I could watch stuff like this all day.

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Tuesday Night Digging in the Crates

Terry Funk/Freddy Valentine v. Johnny Slaughter/Hector Guerrero ACW 4/17/99

This is the kind of thing that youtube has been a boon for. This is a random match from a indy somewhere put up by some guy named Johnny Slaughter, and we get to see a battle between two all time greats. Hector and Terry are both guys with lots of amusing shtick and it is fun to watch that shtick collide. Hector breaks out a star, and some fun rolling around for a tag, plus great brawling with Funk. Funk wanders around throwing windmills, beating the piss out of Slaughter doing Terry Funk stuff. The two local guys were fine, but this is obviously a blast mainly to get a glance at a couple of legends doing their thing.

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Jose Lothario Levels that House and Ties a Rope to the Back of the Bus

Jose Lothario/Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs. Chavo Guerrero/Hector Guerrerro NWA Houston 4/6/84 - GREAT

Super fun heated tag match with Duggan and Lothario walking tall and tossing the Guerrero's all over the ring. Lothario and Duggan are both awesome guys at bumping around heels, and the Guerrerros are spectacular bumping and stooging heels, each Guerrero brother must have been back body dropped out of the womb they are so great at taking them. We get some fun knee work on Duggan when he missed a big knee drop, and a screwy finish which sets up the next match. Lothario was mostly there to throw his big left hook and be charismatic, both of which he does in spades. Very fun stuff.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE JOSE LOTHARIO

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Digging in the Crates Podcast #4

Will returns for a special all NWA Classics 24/7 episode of the show.

Digging in the Crates #4


We talk about Andre v. Harley, Fantastics v. Midnight Express, Jose Lothario v. Hecto Guerrero and JYD v. Butch Reed chain match. If you haven't subscribed to NWA Classics, what are you waiting for???

NWA CLASSICS 24/7

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NWA Classics on Demand - Price Tag Reviews #2

Our running tally from yesterday is $2.65

Andre the Giant v. Harley Race 1/7/79 $3.00

This is exactly the kind of match I was hoping would show up when this service was pitched. Two absolute legends, guys with limited footage in their primes having an old school 35 minute 2/3 fall World title match. I am pretty sure there is no other footage of Andre wrestling for the NWA title, and I am also pretty sure this is the only version of this match up we have. First fall was pretty interesting with Andre really doing some nasty arm work, lots of twisting and pulling, a nasty looking hammerlock submission, the Anderson brother hammerlock body slam ect.. Harley gets dominated most of the first fall, but is able to get Andre to the floor and hit a nasty looking bodyslam on the concrete for the countout.

Second fall had Harley working a bear hug for some reason, Andre sold it well, but it is a conceptually odd move to use on a guy that much bigger then you. Andre makes a big comeback, hits a butterfly suplex and a big splash for the pin. Third fall is pretty short and has Harley bumped around the ring before deciding to bail to the floor, where he grabs Andre's legs so they both get counted out. Sort of a clever finish by Harley, although also sort of bullshit. Still a great match, cool chance to see both guys younger and spry, and neat to watch Andre work this kind of NWA title match. Well worth at least $3.00 and that is cutting it a little short.

Chavo and Hector Guerrero v. Dr. Death Steve Williams and Ted DiBiase 7/85 $1.00

This was a Banolero on a Poll match and isn't something we had available when we did the Mid-South set. Really neat to see the Guerreros, as they are dynamic tag team, my favorite spot was a minute in when the Guerrerros did a  do see do dropkick spot, and Dr. Death and DiBiase tryed the same thing and failed.   Match was hurt a little by the on the poll stip, the Bandolero wasn't hung on the poll as much as dropped around it, so the wrestlers had to drag it to the top to free it, and their was a lot of battling around a poll instead of just wrestling, not sure if this would have made the DVDVR set, but it was still cool to unearth. I am really hoping for a bunch of new Chavo Guerrero stuff, such an awesome guy with a under documented career.

$6.65 with plenty of cool looking shit left to come, shouldn't have any problem earning a second month subscription

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