Found Footage Friday: VALENTINE VS. MURACO~! ARMSTRONGS VS. STUD STABLE TEXAS DEATH MATCH~! COWBOY LANG IN SUN CITY~!

Greg Valentine vs. Don Muraco WWF 7/24/88

MD: This was in the Toronto Network dump from last year, and it's a bit of a miracle match. There wasn't a lot else new on the show so we're just getting to it now though. This was a grudge match between face Muraco and Valentine after Valentine took out Billy Graham's leg. It was Muraco's last WWF feud. He was jacked to the gills here (which was probably necessary considering how drenched he was before he even did anything). Valentine had the brace already. The crowd had Bulldogs/Warrior vs. Demolition/Fuji and Savage vs. Dibiase to come, but so far had sat through Terry Taylor vs. Scott Casey, Powers of Pain vs. Bolsheviks (a uniquely terrible pairing) and Haku vs. SD Jones, and they were absolutely up for a match with some heat and guys they considered to be stars. They were buzzing the whole way through.

Muraco gave them something to buzz about, too, believe it or not. He charged forth before the bell and spent the first many minutes of the match absolutely dismantling Valentine's arm. The best parts here were when he smashed it into the announcer's table (giving us a great look at the little TVs Monsoon and Mooney were using to follow along with the action) and when, after doing a stepover dislocation, Valentine decided to take a flop bump for absolutely no reason, one of three or four in the match. Muraco messed up on a corner charge and Valentine hit a series of desperation elbow drops and went straight to the leg. While he made sure to use his good arm primarily, you'd still like to see some lingering grimacing as he was transitioning. It wasn't a dealbreaker though. Valentine eventually flipped the brace and went for the figure four but Muraco blocked it three different ways. He was doing a better job favoring the leg in his hope spots: falling on a slam, having to really pull the tights to only half get a pile driver. This all lead to a big hulking up (the Jerry Blackwell stoic style) which the crowd absolutely went up for, but they timed a ref bump in the set up for the tombstone and one brace shot later, it was all over. Some of Muraco's stuff looked a bit airy but he brought a huge intensity in the beginning and the end and Valentine covered the rest. Great last gasp for a guy who hadn't had much of a deep breath for years. 

ER: This was a late July summer show and you know NYC was hot as hell because this was one of the wettest shows you've seen. Every boy on this show was as wet as you've ever seen them, and Muraco and Valentine were downright soaked with meaty summer sweat. Click on any minute of this file and you will see some gassed dudes burning through electrolytes. You haven't seen wetness like this before. This is just two big wet boys hammering on each others' limbs right after the crowd had watched SD Jones take a back bump after getting kicked in the back of the head. This is totally different, as Don Muraco breaks out some of the coolest arm work of his career while Valentine does a bunch of fun stunned selling, like he was going into shock from having his arm demolished. Muraco bounced the arm off the turnbuckle, rammed his arm and shoulder into the ringpost, and hit a great shoulder breaker. Those were somewhat expected, but I was not expecting his cool legdrop onto the arm or even his stuff over to butt bump the arm. Now, sadly, he worked over Valentine's left arm, which meant that Valentine could still fire back with his right arm, and he really dished some shots. The arm work didn't come into play in the finish in any way, but it was a cool way for him to control until Valentine was working over his leg with the shin guard. It was a great way to take Muraco down the stretch as he was good at fighting Valentine off and also burly enough to walk through some wicked Valentine chops and other offense to build to a big comeback. Muraco's piledrivers were disgusting, adding insult to injury by giving Valentine a wedgie on one, then clutching him for an awesome Gotch lift tombstone that was one of the gnarliest finishers of the era. Can't hold up to a shin guard to the head though. 

Pepe Gonzalez/Little Mr. T vs. Cowboy Lang/Bad Jim Brown South Africa 1980s?

MD: A whole bunch of South Africa stuff got dumped around a year ago and we played it safe and just watched the Matt Borne match, but hey, they give these guys twenty minutes in a 2/3 falls match and someone has to watch it, right? Cowboy Lang was one year off from working in five different decades. We've seen him in a bunch of territories over the years.  It meant that he knew every trick in the book by this point and considering they had a bunch of time to kill, they used a bunch of them. Gonzalez worked at least one or two WWF shows. I'm not digging in to see if he worked as Pepe Gomez as well, but if he did, he worked even more than that. He could kind of go too. Some good rope running spots with him, especially with Brown basing. He took a beating well too. Little T was there for the big payoffs to the comedy spots, but they were good. His introduction to the match was in a great full nelson bit where Lang kept breaking free just as Pepe was going to position him in the corner for a shot from T and then finally gloating and turning to get it put on again. But T gets him instead and this builds to a bunch of heel communication bits with punches. What made this work better than a lot of similar matches I've seen was the amount of time it had. That meant that they could get some real heat on Pepe, sneaking shots in, controlling the ring, working a missed tag by the ref, all the good stuff. It made the comedy comeuppance resonate just a bit more when it came. It's amazing what a few extra minutes, well used, can do for a match.

ER: I don't have much to add other than to bring up the possibility that Cowboy Lang might have actually made it to that 5th decade of wrestling. His last listed matches online were from 1999, but I know I saw him live more than once on APW shows, and I was not in attendance for any of the shows listed on cagematch. I was definitely in attendance for matches against Bobby Dean and Lil Nasty Boy, which would have happened in either 1999 or 2000. I remember Lang being a real hit with the crowd as he was the only cowboy wrestler on the card, on shows that happened in or adjacent to farming areas. A little person in his mid 50s working line dancing spots in an opening match is going to get a big reaction in a town with multiple cowboy bars. I say the guy made it to 5 different decades. 

The Bullet/Brad Armstrong/Scott Armstrong vs. Robert Fuller/Jimmy Golden/Elix Skipper Wrestle Birmingham 8/12/05     Part 2

MD: We don't often get to highlight the stuff our old friend over at Armstrong Alley posts, due to the show vs match set up of FFF, but this was a good one to pull out and take a look at. The sound comes in a minute or so into the clip, so don't worry about that. This was a Texas Death match but didn't have Texas Tornado rules. That meant the ten count gimmick was integrated into more of standard tag format. During the shine, you had Elix Skipper taking a lot of stuff, eating early pins, and then stooging/selling big as he got back to his feet. Some of the pins weren't entirely believable but when there's no actual consequence in getting pinned, maybe there was just no reason for him to kick out and jump up at one? Once you got past Brad's early Russian Leg Sweep it worked a little better. They drew in Fuller with some taunting too, very Br'er Fox trickster folk hero stuff (more on that later) and Fuller is the most offendable guy in wrestling history so it worked. 

When they took over on Brad, they worked in the ten counts as bits of hope that would then be cut off. Brad can work from underneath as well as anyone and the heels kept it moving and compelling. The finish was the sort of BS one might expect, with the Bullet getting the sleeper on fuller, interference causing a distraction, Golden KOing Bob with the knucks and then the ref calling the first man to his feet the winner. Again, they went back to the rustic trickster aesthetic: as the ref was admonishing Golden for trying to help Fuller back to his feet, Brad and Scott pulled Bob up. Classic Americana, out cheating the cheater. Everyone looked pretty spry in this except for Bullet Bob who was more than a half step slow, but even he was still pretty credible just for who he was and the mask to make him look a bit younger. The gimmick made things interesting, though even with the history and animosity it was weird to see a Texas Death Match that wasn't an outright hate-filled brawl.

ER: There are a few important takeaways from this. The first is that Robert Fuller and Jimmy Golden - in their mid 50s - still looked good enough to be tagging regularly on much bigger shows than this. Fuller hardly worked over the previous decade, and Golden hadn't been a featured TV performer since 1997, but they had better energy, better timing, and better bullshit facial expressions than most of the tag teams WWE was trotting out in 2005. You watch the Stud Stable here and tell me you'd rather see a Road Warriors team with Animal/Heidenreich, or the Heart Throbs, or Charlie Haas/Rico. The Stud Stable may have been in their mid 50s but goddamn was tag wrestling looking bad on the main stage in 2005. 

Second takeaway is that Brad Armstrong looked incredibly good for a guy who had worked about as many matches as Robert Fuller ever since WCW's closure. Not only was Armstrong the most jacked I've ever seen him, but he was worked fast and hard and taking big bumps any time he was in the ring. I'm not really a high vote Brad guy. I think he's one of the 5 best Armstrongs* but I don't think I could put him higher than 5. But if he worked most of his career the way he worked this match, he just might have been my favorite Armstrong. Look at how hard he gets run into the turnbuckles! Look at how great his spit sells are whenever he gets punched! Why is 2005 Brad Armstrong so good and so gassed?? 

Third takeaway is that Elix Skipper, youngest man in the match, looked like total shit and had all of the worst offense. What was his spin kick ever supposed to be? Bullet was an old man still in incredible physical shape, but couldn't really move even half speed any longer, but it really wasn't that noticeable when Elix Skipper's offense was also thrown at half speed and wouldn't have even looked good at full speed. Fourth takeaway is that it was insane how much effort Wrestle Birmingham put into wraparound comedy sketches in their programming. I'm not sure if any of them were actually funny but damn did those guys go out there with actual planned material when they really did not need to do any of that. 

*Expanding on putting Scott over Brad, a request: Depending on the night, I think it would be possible for any Armstrong to be 1st and any Armstrong to be 5th. On this night Brad was first, Bullet was last, Brian was second**. Scott vs. Brad is admittedly a tough comparison, as we have so much more Brad footage available. Brad worked longer matches in WCW and got all of the New Japan tours, Scott mostly worked Smoky Mountain and pulled job duty in WCW. So the Brad vs. Scott WCW comparison is mostly made on Brad working offense vs. Scott taking offense, and I prefer how Scott takes offense more than I prefer Brad doing offense. Brad has strong execution but I don't think he really uses it in imaginative ways. Scott is great at taking bumps as a heel or babyface, knowing which bumps to use depending on his role within the match (e.g., you won't see him take backdrop bumps as a babyface but the man will get some height as a heel). I also think Scott's personality blossoms as a heel, whereas Brad supposedly had this great personality that never managed to show up meaningfully on film. Perhaps the biggest reason I prefer Scott over Brad at this point in my life, is that I've simply seen more Brad and know what to expect. Scott still has the capability to surprise me, and that's more exciting to me now than Brad working an armdrag sequence. This match though? Brad looked like the all time greatest Armstrong. You find me Brad performances like this and I'll start reviewing the best of the jacked to the gills Brad footage. 

**check out the Road Dogg vs. Raven match that took place after the Stud Stable/Armstrongs match, which made me want to seek out a bunch of 2005 Raven. Raven looked like shit any time he wasn't wrestling, but between the bells this man could still work! I have limited memory of 2005 Raven in TNA but I guess now I need more 2005 Raven. 

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RIP Bullet

Bob Armstrong/Eddie Graham vs. Dick Murdoch/Bob Roop Florida 12/28/74

ER: This is only a 6 minute clip, but there is so much value in these 6 minutes that of course you have to see it. It's one of those tags where the ref never seems to have control, with all four combatants and Gary Hart running around potatoing each other at will. Armstrong is too much fun to watch in this, as he wiggles and glides and dances his way into and out of the ring, firing downward punches and elbows, giddily hopping and bopping into the action. All of the bumps in the match are cool and off balance, more guys spiraling away and stumbling out of punches than guys taking back bumps off strikes. Eddie Graham was a good staggerer and great at coming in with a well timed punch, and I loved seeing he and Roop grapple. All of their standing lock ups look tough as hell, constant struggle, and Roop crushes Graham with his shoulderbreaker down the stretch, which looks just as violent in 2020 as it did in 1974. Murdoch was a major standout, as while Bob is wiggling and punching his way through things, Murdoch is working everything. His belly is big but he is fast, and he runs this entire show. He's a great heel bumper here, not over stooging, but in there to be a threat while also making the babyfaces look like a threat. I loved him and Bob fighting over a brainbuster, how Murdoch's legs wobble when he's eating Armstrong's punches or getting a chair shoved into his face, how athletically he spills to the floor while not looking at all athletic. A lot of this was a battle on just who to focus on, because these guys all do interesting things when they're not even in the match.


Bob Armstrong vs. The Mongolian Stomper NWA Mid-Atlantic 9/9/75

ER: This was a ton of fun but stopped right when things were getting great, but what we got rules. It's a hot Mid-South Coliseum crowd and Lance Russell is calling the action, meaning it sounds the exact way wrestling should sound. Stomper is an absolute physical specimen. Armstrong is also as in shape as he always was, but Stomper looks like a final boss. It's based nearly entirely around the tightest side headlocks you've seen, with both men using their big arms to try and separate each other's melons from their shoulders. Stomper gets shot into the ropes, Bob leapfrogs over and flies backwards with a back elbow, with Stomper slipping to the floor to avoid the big elbowdrop. Back in, and there is a ton of super engaging Armstrong side headlock work. Armstrong has the most apropos surname ever, and Stomper is a master at being an oversized heel going through all the physical throes of being trapped in a snug headlock. When Stomper finally gets loose of it he flings Armstrong into the corner, Armstrong leaps gracefully to the middle buckle and hits an axe handle. Stomper is super generous here (no doubt building to running this match back a few times) and just stooges all over for Bullet, never managing to block a single kick, punch, or chop, and falling prey to every single leapfrog. There's a great theatrical ref bump where Armstrong runs the ropes so fast that Stomper runs him right into the ref after a dropdown, and the ref flops around fantastically after taking an Armstrong shoulderblock. If that shoulderblock is enough to send a mountain like Stomper to the mat, what would it do to a mere referee? Armstrong gets the pin after a big elbow, but Stomper grabs his belt and Gulas sets up the title match that I don't think I have access to. Armstrong knew how to make the most out of the most basic pro wrestling movements, and Stomper is the same thing, heel category. It's a special thing seeing them play off each other.


Bob Armstrong vs. The Mongolian Stomper NWA Mid-America 9/16/75

ER: This is under 5 minutes, not a full match, but it's essential. It's the final few minutes of a rowdy bloody match for Stomper's Southern Heavyweight title, and we get it before the blood starts flowing. They throw big swinging punches and constantly have to be separated before throwing at each other more. Armstrong gets busted open and Stomper doesn't go for anything other than working that cut for the rest of the match. Armstrong's face is covered and Stomper has Armstrong's blood on his legs and body. Bob is not someone who grows squeamish at the sight of his own blood, and it just inspires him to bust Stomper's head open. Not long in, and this loses all pretense of a wrestling match and it becomes a fight. It's so great, just the two of them clutching at each other's heads and refusing to break holds as they strangle each other on the apron. This was an expertly done non-finish, the kind of bloody realism that made you forget there had even been a match happening.


The Bullet/Adrian Street vs. Robert Fuller/Jimmy Golden Continental 9/1/86

ER: Not a Bullet showcase by any means, but a showcase in strange bedfellows. I don't know how much babyface Adrian Street I've seen, but a Bullet/Street babyface team is a fun idea, especially with Fuller and Golden to bump around acting confused by Street's wiles being turned on them. Street freaks everyone out, goes after the ref, goes after Golden and angers him by making him feel things, really gets under the skin of Kevin Sullivan on commentary, is constantly backing Golden up on his heels. Everybody was confounded by street, and the dichotomy was more amusing because of how much Golden and Fuller towered over him. Bullet was the guy saving Street throughout, and I liked the few moments they worked together. Bullet hitting Golden with an atomic drop, sending him flying forward into a Street kiss, sending Golden bumping wildly backwards (selling the kiss 4x as much as he sold the atomic drop) is pro wrestling. Bullet basically worked this match as Street's groomer, dragging Golden to their corner to be assaulted, and punching him in Street's direction for more kissing. Fuller and Golden finally cut Street off from Bullet, and I loved Fuller choking Street from the apron, Bullet getting a hot tag but the ref missing it, and finally Bullet going after Fuller on the floor. Tom Prichard runs out and things get gross with him forcing kisses on Miss Linda while Sullivan talks about how she's getting it finally from a real man. Luckily Steve Armstrong runs the heels off, wearing a neck brace and short white OP shorts.

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New Footage Friday: Dougie! Dundee & Barnes! Eddie! Jimmy Golden! Pre-Parka La Parka!

Bill Dundee/George Barnes vs. Tojo Yamamoto/Jimmy Golden CWA 5/20/75

PAS: This clip starts with the end of Barnes/Dundee vs. Tojo/Eddie Marlin, which is a pretty entertaining double juice brawl which ends with Dundee and Barnes grinding salt into Eddie Marlin's eyes and a wild post match brawl around the arena including a whole section of Dundee and Barnes crawling under the stage to escape. The Golden tag was titles versus Jimmy Golden's hair, and we get a really good chance to see Dundee and Barnes as a heel team. Barnes was a real bruiser with his punches landing with more thud, while Dundee's landed with more speed. Golden is a bunch of fun in this, he is so tall and his offense has this nifty awkwardness, that makes everything look less polished and more violent. That top rope dropkick he finishes with, looks like might have knocked Barnes all the way out of the ring.

MD: This has the last few minutes of Tojo/Marlin vs. Barnes/Dundee and the post match, the back half of Tojo/Golden vs. Barnes/Dundee, and a few minutes of Bob Armstrong vs. Stomper. It falls more on the "rare" side than completely new but it's nice to see it in one place. Any chance to see Barnes/Dundee in action is worth taking. Here they were big bumping (look at the armdrag over the top in the second match), big stooging (especially Dundee, who was quick with the object), wound targeting (Barnes, to the point where the announcing noted that he liked to target the head), heatseeking heels. We got glimpse of fiery hot tag Tojo, at bloody, struggling Marlin, and a bit more of that of plucky babyface Golden fighting from underneath and launching a mid-70s missile dropkick to win the belts. The best part of this was the post match of the first match though, where the faces trapped the heels on the stage and got chaotic revenge for the way the match went.

ER: I'm not too familiar with Barnes so this was a treat, as he gets more time to showcase than the others. He's like if Memphis Jeff Jarrett was a better cheating stooge. He throws hard punches that are a nice counterbalance to Dundee's whipping punches, and they both bump all around for big Tojo chops and Jimmy Golden is this mammoth clumsy athletic babyface. Dundee looks like a teen idol, like the bassist for Sweet or an Australian Paul Williams, and when he's paired with Golden it looks like Big John Studd vs. Sky Low Low. It's amazing. Barnes is a real great bastard, takes fun banana peel bumps, Golden shocks the hell out of me with a missile dropkick to win, the whole thing was an awesome glimpse at Dundee as part of a cutie pie Nightmares. "Bobby Sherman except asskicking cheaters." After the match you get to see how great 1975 Bob Armstrong was, before this match you got to see how great 1975 Eddie Marlin was, this was a wonderful 22 minutes of wrestling.


Chavo Guerrero/Eddie Guerrero vs. Los Invasor Del Norte Monterey 6/19/91

MD: This is a young LA Park as Invasor 1. As best as I can tell, he's the one with the yellow boots. That's the one that comes off as the star at least. There's a ton to like here. Chavo's cool and collected, smooth as can be. Eddy's a bit rougher around the edges but works like he has a chip on his shoulder. You get a real sense of Chavo having to basically babysit his younger brother who has something to prove which is one of those narratives that exists in a lot of fiction but not a whole lot in wrestling matches. Between Chavo's showmanship and the Invasors' willingness to stooge, the end result is a lot of fun. The first few minutes of the match is just them teasing lock ups but hugging instead (first the rudos and eventually the Guerreros to pay it off). When Eddy gets in, first ends up in a hold but Chavo sort of waves him off on a tag to get out of it. "You take care of this one yourself, kid." was the gist I got, which isn't something you usually see.

They were willing to try a lot of stuff, from back body drops over the ropes to a proto-STO to Eddy clobbering IY on the apron to a forearm, to those swinging arm drags that defy gravity but that look so cool you don't even care, with the first fall ending with duel Germans by the Guerreros and the second with real pretzel submissions by the Invasors. The beatdown that followed in the tercera was fine but I wish that Chavo had a bit more oomph on his save on Eddy that set up the comeback. It ended with a foul on Eddy and I would have definitely watched a hair vs mask match between Invasor I and Eddy on the way to Stuka eventually taking the Invasor mask.

PAS: Every bit of Eddie Guerrero footage we get is a true blessing, and he was electric here. His pendulum armdrags are incredible looking, and I loved the way baby LA Park takes them. All of the falls were classic lucha structure, Invasor's bump and stooge big for the initial babyface run, and are signficanlty rudoish during their beatdown. I liked the heat of the post match brawl, although I agree with Matt that it would have been better with more steam. This wasn't a lost classic or anything, but it was really cool to backfill the history of three all time greats (and whoever the other Invasor was)


Franz Schuhmman vs. Doug Gilbert CWA 12/20/97

MD: Totally committed Gilbert performance here, from the moment he comes in (to Born in the USA which while seemingly used for every American, feels particularly poignant here) with his jacket airbrushed with his own face to the brawling on the floor and the Bret-like roll up reversal out of nowhere he ate for the finish. In between, he basically did everything right. The chain wrestling to start was fun and believable even if it went maybe one minute too long given the length of the match. Gilbert got frustrated first and went dirty and his control segment was perfect, with him working the crowd and the ref and his opponent with a bunch of good stuff. The comeback was mainly brawling in the crowd with one big posting and then they went right into the finish. Good showing with Gilbert presenting himself, if not exactly like a star, then at least like a great, memorable character that you want to see again.

ER: What is Doug Gilbert doing wrestling one match in Germany? Don't care, because we got it! And this is one of the best Dougie performances I've seen, just going to Bremen for a one-off and coming off like a genuine star. He stalked that ring with an absurd amount of confidence, and it was cool how he adapted his style to be more technical opposite Schuhmann. He's still yelling at the crowd and being a dickhead about removing his jacket, but he doesn't spend all match just winging punches. Technical Dougie is fun as hell, and it's cool to see guys showing off the spectrum of styles they can work to adapt to a specific environment. I like wild eyed brawler Doug, but seeing him bend Schuhmann around with a cool Indian deathlock or a wrenched in figure 4, to bumping big to the floor and spiking Schuhmann with a great piledriver, it really felt like Gilbert wanted to show off everything he could do. He still gets to color in a lot of things with brawling, but him working a Schuhmann match was much more interesting to me than him working a Doug Gilbert match. As I said, he looked totally in control of that ring the entire match, just came off like a big deal. I don't think of Doug Gilbert as a guy who could go anywhere and have a professional 15 minute match in any style, but he looked like a pro's pro here.

PAS: This was a CWA vs. The World card which was completely crazy, along with Schuhmann vs. Dougie we get Osamu Nishimura and Tony St. Clair repping CWA vs. Rhino and Robbie Brookside repping WCW (Rhino was in WCW?), Marshall Duke vs. Savio Vega repping WWF, Chono shows up repping the NWO, and there is WCW's Ice Train vs. CWA Cannonball Grizzly, yes Ice Train vs. PN News, lets hope that shows up. Dougie was repping the USWA and he repped the fuck out of the USWA in this match. This was Bremen, Tennessee and Dougie broke out all of his great tricks, and even a couple we didn't know he had (that Indian deathlock was totally dope). Schuhmann was a bit of a passenger, but I loved his hard punches to Gilbert's forehead (I thought he was going to hardway him). Pretty much everything you would want from a hidden gem Doug Gilbert match.

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New Footage Friday: Heenan, Larry Z, Jumbo, Tenryu, Lawler, Beau James, Dirty Dutch, Goldens

Jumbo Tsuruta/Giant Baba vs. Killer Karl Kox/Dick Murdoch AJPW 2/25/81

PAS: This is a 2/3 falls match where we get parts of the first two falls and the whole third. Mainly worth it to see Kox and Murdoch as a team, and they rule. nothing is more of a natural heel team then two guys that look like racist southern sheriffs in the 50s, you almost expect them to interrupt the match to go firebomb a black church. Kox is one of my all time favorites, and there is so little footage available. Fun to watch him team with Murdoch, when you watch them together it is almost like Murdoch is Dick Slater to KKK's Terry Funk, Kox has all of the Murdoch shitck and does it even better, his punches are a bit more awesome, elbow drop is even more throat crushing and his Brain buster is even more brain busting. I really like the double team that Baba and Jumbo use to finish the fall, and I dig the cheapshot finish, but this was more of a showcase then a great match.

MD: This is cool because one of the few significant Kox performances we have is the match against Murdoch. There were times here when he was out on the apron pantomiming what Murdoch was doing where he was almost like Dick's dad or older brother. They both have that same larger than life over the top-ness both throwing offense and eating it, even if they are completely different physically. Past the entrance, we basically come in on a long Jumbo, FIP, with Murdoch and Kox as a well-oiled machine cutting off the ring. It's amazing how commonplace and obvious something like this, that's virtually a lost art was. Now we're in a world of all-action tornado tags with 3/4th of the match being a finishing stretch.

Anyway, they had some great stuff, be it the brainbuster or the elbow drops or the suplex. The end of the first fall was just great with Jumbo floating over to escape a suplex and hitting the world's hugest flying knee after a Baba big boot. The second fall was the heels staying on top after that little blip and Murdoch making short work of Jumbo. Baba finally got involved towards the end and I thought the finish, while abrupt, was actually pretty cool. I wasn't expecting it and it definitely got over the Americans while protecting the Baba and Jumbo. I hope we come across a lot more of Killer Karl in the hunt for footage. It feels like we've just scratched the surface.

ER: Goddamn this was good. I love Kox so much (Ed: Find a better way to say that), he looks like the absolute toughest old white dude. He's 50 and looks 75, like a tougher version of Robert Duvall's Reverend EW in The Apostle, and Robert Duvall beat a man into a coma with a baseball bat in that movie. Kox is a man who looks like kids his in his neighborhood are scared of him, a guy who owns a mean dog, a guy who keeps things that fly over his fence. And he never ends up saving any of you from burglars while your parents are away. Kox reminds me of a meaner, more grizzled version of my grandfather, the late great George Yost. And my grandpa was grizzled. He was a lumberjack with 6 of his brothers. Two of them died as lumberjacks. He worked hard and was a millionaire, but lived in a trailer for most of the years I knew him. He lived until he was 91, and he wore those periwinkle old man jeans that I've never seen in stores, yet many old men in my life wore them. He was old and grumpy and perpetually hard of hearing. He loved pro wrestling when my mom was young, which is why she hated pro wrestling, because it was on a LOT in Riverside, CA in the 50s and 60s. He never learned my sister's name, even though she was 25 when he eventually passed away. He would call me Eric when he came down to stay with us, and called her "The Girl", but not in a mean way, in a "I just genuinely can't remember" way. He was vain. He kept himself at 170 lbs until he was 90, wanting to maintain his waistline so he could wear his favorite clothes (his light blue jeans and thick flannel shirts). And when he turned 90 he assertively told his Church to not print his birthday or age in the Church Bulletin, because he "didn't want people to know he was old." When I was still young enough to live with my parents, he would watch wrestling with me when he was visiting us for a couple days. He watched and seemed intrigued by Cactus Jack and Terry Funk getting pushed off the stage in a dumpster. He hadn't watched wrestling in decades, but Freddie Blassie was his favorite when he watched. He called my mother's school principal a pencil neck geek to his face. Karl Kox is a mean version of George Yost, and I've watched every single available match we have of him. So any time we get any new Killer Karl Kox footage it's some of the best wrestling news I can get.

Murdoch and Kox are so cool, jumping off the ropes way to much for round-middled southern boys, jumping with great elbows and axe handles, even Baba looks like he's gonna go off the top rope at one point. These two were such tough bruisers, and really scrambled to put a beating on Jumbo. I loved Murdoch going after Jumbo and missing on a fast elbowdrop. The finish of the first fall is one of the all time greats, with Murdoch running so damn hard into a big Baba boot, truly making it one of the most effective and nasty Baba boots in history, then stumbling back face first right into a smashing Jumbo high knee. We even get a slo mo shot of that great finish and it reminds you of the first non-deathmatch tapes you bought or traded for, watching thunderbolts ripple through Misawa's body as he got dumped on his head, watching sweat fly off Kawada's head as Misawa smashes him with an elbow, and now seeing Dick Murdoch spray spit after running into Baba's size 22.

The second fall is an absolute murder. Jumbo is in complete punching bag crash test dummy mode, and Kox and Murdoch look like literally the best tag team I've ever seen. Murdoch throws the best back elbow, hits an awesome running powerslam, the greatest worked kneedrop. He and Kox have this great thing going where Dick throws Jumbo face first into Karl's knee as he's tagging in, Kox drags Jumbo's limp, heavy corpse over the top rope and bodyslams him halfway across the ring, Kox throws a short fast uppercut that would get an OOOOOOOO reaction when it showed up on a Great Punches mixtape. By the time Murdoch finally lays Jumbo out with a brainbuster, the pinfall is a mercy killing. Thinking of 2/3 falls tag team wrestling in terms of boxing and MMA, this fall would be an absolutely legendary round.

Third fall sees these great old men (HA! I called them both old, even though Murdoch here is younger than I am now. However older, I have not yet become nor will ever become the exact, specific kind of man that Dick Murdoch was, for better and worse). Kox gets to show of his somehow better than John Tatum stooging, as Baba gets involved and throws awesome chops at Killer's throat. After each chop Kox comes drunkenly firing out of the corner, throwing punches at nobody. But before long Murdoch and Kox are having an elbowdrop contest on Baba's chest, with Kox throwing the finest leaping elbowdrop you've seen, outgunning Murdoch's excellent take on the falling elbowdrop. Kox even gets to finish the match, gets to have a hidden weapon finish. How fucking cool is that? 50 years old, getting to use a hidden weapon to knock Giant Baba out and pin him in Tokyo in the main event. How cool is it to thing of Kox 20 years after that, telling people about this match while wearing a plaid shirt tucked into his jeans, and a hat that he got while visiting a decommissioned Naval aircraft carrier.

This match is honestly my favorite wrestling match I've watched all year. This is some great pro wrestling. It's what I get joy from, this thing I've been obsessed with for much of my life. We need to make this thing public and make sure anyone who wants to see it, will be able to. This is what it's all about people.

Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu vs. Bobby Heenan/Larry Zbyszko AJPW 7/4/81

PAS: Pretty awesome to see two of the greatest wrestlers of all time team up to take on Jumbo and Tenryu. As you might imagine we get lots of shenanigans from the AWA dream team, cheap shots and chinlocks with the strap wrapped around the throat. Heenan is great when he realizes the jig is up and he takes a great flip bump on Jumbo clothesline. I would have liked to see the finish be a little more competitive, it felt like Tenryu and Jumbo just decided to stop with the nonsense and end the match, but it was fun to see The Brain and The Legend in a different context.

MD: Obviously it's great to see any interaction between Larry and Bobby. Heenan was super demonstrative with the tag rope. In most matches you don't even notice it, but here he was using it as an open symbol for all of the chicanery and his heart. He was so over the top at times that you could confuse him for Percy Pringle, but it worked in front of this crowd. Obviously, he wasn't going to offer hard hitting or monstrous violence. What he had to offer was being as Bobby Heenan as possible. That included, apparently, taking a perfectly believable flip bump off of a chop. Larry, at this point, was an absolute king of feeding into offense too. Everything felt fluid. Yeah, it would have been nice to have a little more of this, maybe a six month run against the High Flyers, but I'm glad we got anything at all considering that the community's never even seen this pairing before. 


Jerry Lawler/Beau James/Dutch Mantel vs. Jimmy Golden/Eddie Golden/Jeff Tankersley SSW 9/18/10

ER: Man this was 12 good minutes of tag that I wish went 30. What a fabulous trios team we get from the babyface side, with Beau James at his biggest, 320 lb. (that just means his punches land harder), and the on again off again feuding legends Lawler and Dutch. Jimmy Golden is in great shape for 60, although his nephew Eddie is the one in 80% of this. We start with Beau, Lawler, and Dutch all getting to show off their skills against Eddie, showing off who has better shots in 2010. Beau throws such a great right hand and a stiff shoulderblock, Lawler and Dutch...well you know what those guys bring, and I loved when Jimmy got involved as he had a couple of fun stumbly, arm swinging bumps (especially when he went face first into the buckles, he stumbling back bump was sheer perfection). We get good moments of Eddie accidentally taking shots at Jimmy and Tankersley, and really the Goldens only take over when Lawler and Dutch collide and start fighting amongst themselves. Lawler is FIP throughout, taking boots and other shots from all of them, getting run into the ringpost still better than maybe anybody, taking a big backdrop, and Golden looks good taking over. Lawler comes back when Golden goes for another backdrop, Lawler stops short and punches him and tags Dutch (there was kind of a silly moment earlier where Dutch pulled his tag hand away) and then everybody swarms the ring. Beau tees off on Jimmy and Jimmy takes a couple more stumbling bumps, and we wrap things up in satisfying fashion. They clearly had the material to double this thing, and I wish we got some more (would have loved the Goldens surviving the Dutch hot tag and going through another control segment) time, and I wish we got more Beau James. His shots on Jimmy in the corner were great, loved his headlock punches, and I wanted to see more from the big guy. Still, this was what I expected, and made me smile the whole way through.

PAS: Man that babyface trio is a group of all timers. I loved all the early bumping around by the heels, especially Eddie Golden who was an awesome pinball and could turn vicious in a moment. With James and Eddie Golden you have a pair of all time born too late guys, this should have been a regional feud for the ages in the 80s, but they were both guys out of their time. Lawler is amazing at taking a beating and building to the hot tag, his post shots were brutal looking, and the punches by the Goldens and Tankerlsy really looked like they were brutalizing him. Jimmy Golden is just ageless, and I think there are probably some real Golden Gems among this SSW footage I agree with Eric that this really could have used another 5 or 10 minutes, but that may be just us getting greedy.

MD: Lots to like here. I think this may have peaked at the entrances though. The Goldens came out to All Hell's Breaking Loose. I watched the first year of Continental last year and Golden/Fuller coming out full of swagger to the near spoken word beginnings of that song was probably the best part in the midst of a year that was full of best parts. Dutch looked like the coolest old man in the world. As for Lawler? The venue, with a crowd that was by no means huge, felt electric, like it was hundreds of people more than it was, when he walked down.

The match itself was fun though, running the old "Partners who don't trust each other" gimmick. I like how they played it out, though, setting it up with two heel miscommunication spots, teasing it with one for the faces that was averted, and then going through with it off of a heel-driven shove that sent Lawler into Dutch. The arguing that ensued explained the heels taking over. Them taking over was Lawler eating a solid beating inside and out, with ref distraction and Dutch refusing to tag in. Ultimately, though, the heels get too big for their britches, hit Dutch, and he tags in and ends it. Exactly what it should have been and thoroughly enjoyable for what it was, just classic character driven storytelling that never gets old, well executed. Eddie particularly grew into a great stooge and Lawler has that immortal ability to sell every moment as meaningful and important to him (and if it's important to him, it's important to the crowd).

ER: I must find contention with Matt saying Dutch looked like the coolest old man in the world, as earlier in this post we witnessed 50 year old Karl Kox wearing a tight blue t-shirt hugging his near-retirement belly, the worlds KILLER KARL KOX written simply in white. White bubble lettering.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE JERRY LAWLER

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New Footage Friday: Rudge, Steele, Fantastics, Goldens, Kawada, Fuchi, Tenryu, Kabuki, Jumbo, Hara

Terry Rudge vs. Ray Steele WOS 7/25/87

MD: This is eight three-minute rounds. We get all but round two. You don't even notice due to the sheer consistency that these two wrestle with. It's exactly what you'd expect. Rudge is the world's best imaginable Barry Darsow, mean and grimy and grinding, quick to throw in an uppercut or a clubbering blow. Steele has the height advantage and looks like some sort of aging vicar, with the stiff upper lip, but a righteous meanstreak if you get him mad.

It has the sort of escalation you want from a UK heavyweight match, a lot of struggling over specific holds (they spend the fourth-round almost entirely fighting over a double knucklelock/test of strength), but Rudge's tendency to sneak shots in leads to Steele firing back, then they're right back into it. I loved how the height advantage played into things. Steele could come over the top to gain advantage on holds, but Rudge would grapevine the leg and turn it into a trip. He'd also come in from underneath with cheapshots now and again.

Ultimately it's a draw, so while we get that escalation, we never quite get payoff, just the two swiping at each other in exhaustion at the end. In this case, I actually think the payoff would have been as simple as a Steele bodyslam. They tease it twice in the match, once in the end of the fourth and then once in the fifth as a counter attempt to a Rudge cross body. Because they make the struggle matter so much and because it never even pays off, it means the next slam that this crowd sees, no matter the match, ought to matter all the more. It's good stuff in the way that most classic UK wrestling with solid wrestlers is; a bit long, a bit daunting because you really have to pay attention to value the connective tissue, but worth it in the end.

PAS: Remember when British wrestling was cool instead of embarrassing? This was the kind of thing which made Euro wrestling great, a pair of past their prime Thatcher voters with fag ash on their trousers having a mid day pub dust up over a five quid cricket wager. Rudge is an all timer, he is in that Finlay/Regal phylum, world class wrestlers who would smash in your teeth as soon as they would put on a leg lock. I loved how he kept throwing these little cheap shot headbutts, where he would grind his sweaty bald head against the cheek and eyes of Steele. Steele was great too, he would use his height to really lean into holds, and threw some nice kidney shots, and an awesome diving in ring tope which looked like it cracked Rudge's cheekbone. I would have liked a real finish, but the match ending with both guys exchanging dental surgery level uppercuts is a great way to ease into a draw. Class stuff.

ER: Fans of modern New Japan would likely just complain about how nothing happened in this match, and it's a match that goes the full 8 rounds with no pinfalls, a 0-0 draw, with big strikes that don't really happen until the home stretch. But I was hooked the entire time. Rudge is just so cool, England's answer to Australia's Roger Ward. He does this great act here where he's a clear asskicker who's playing coy. The entire match was worth seeing just for the post-bell interactions between these two after every round has ended. Rudge does all these annoying little things begging to be hit illegally without outright begging, practically rubbing his big toe into the mat while going "Who meeeeee?". He kept rubbing and pressing his head into the larger Steele, avoiding eye contact the whole time as if he was somehow coming off innocent. Eventually Steele does finally slap him late, and Rudge goes into this great drama routine, holding his face and staggering, really playing it up to the ref while the announcer knows exactly what he is doing. It was all beautiful. But I also loved how Steele came out to start the next round with a handshake, and Rudge reluctantly accepts it as he assumes it's a trap, as he was being a total shit and knew he had it coming. But it was just that, a handshake. It's amazing how "little" can happen in these matches but the style is so engaging to me that suddenly we're through 8 rounds and I'm still excited like it was the first round. Steele is a big guy and gets a couple of great leverage chokes on Rudge, really forcing Rudge to lift up his weight to get out of them, and we get a couple of great long moments of struggle and balance. They both work each other's necks in a way that give me flashbacks to weeks of chiropractor appointments, blocking snap mares with their neck muscles. Those European uppercuts down the stretch look like they would have dislocated my neck from my body. I love this stuff.

Jumbo Tsuruta/The Great Kabuki/Masa Fuchi vs. Toshiaki Kawada/Genichiro Tenryu/Ashura Hara AJPW 2/24/88

PAS: All Japan six man tags are pretty consistently great stuff, and this was a murderers row trios which hadn't made TV or tape before. Look at this line up of badasses and they beat on each other like you would expect. I loved all of the nasty rear naked chokes we got early, both Kabuki and Fuchi look like they are trying pop Hara's head off his shoulders, and Kawada throws a nasty one on Fuchi too. Kawada had some awkward moments of flying, and it was clearly a good move for him to ditch all of his Tim Horner offense later in his career, he gets down to asskicking later and is the Kawada we all love. Everyone in this was great, Tenryu and Jumbo were killing people with saves, Kabuki was throwing his awesome uppercuts and thrust kicks and Fuchi was doing some torturing. We get a frantic finish run full of big bombs and the whole match was a joy.

MD: Totally agree with Phil here. This was good stuff with guys just crushing each other. Of course Kawada was going to end up as good as he was, sharing the ring with guys like this. They gave him a surprising amount of the match. Kabuki, on the other hand was heavily protected, but that let him come in and decapitate people with his strikes and then head back out, never harming the match. There was a good ebb and flow here, with limb-based control segments. I absolutely love that they used the crab both to target the leg in one and then the back in another. When do you ever see that in a single match? My favorite thing about the finish is that it was set up with a shot from the outside from the opposite corner. It was visually jarring but in a good way. There are a lot of late 80s/early 90s AJPW six-mans at this level but that doesn't mean we're not better off for having one more.

Fantastics vs. Eddie Golden/Jimmy Golden SSW 8/5/93

PAS: SSW is a Beau James run indy in Kingsport TN, which has been running for over 25 years. They have had a bunch of southern wrestling legends come through the fed and they just launched a subscription service. This is an early card in the feds history (so much that at this point James, sort of the Lawler of the fed is still working as a ref) and we got a chance to see early Eddie Golden and Jimmy Golden in the tail end of his prime (he was pretty old, but the Buckhouse Bunk run was still in the future) against the Fauxtastics (Jackie Fulton is replacing Tommy Rogers, which is a nice sized step down). This had some really great moments, I really liked Eddie faking a cheapshot punch, and a lot of the heel miscommunication stuff (I am a mark for an over the shoulder arm ringer spot). Bobby Fulton can really milk a hot tag, he isn't Ricky Morton but he is close, but this match went 35 or so minutes, and I think that is bloated for a southern tag. A 20 minute edit of this match would be really great, you could keep the early heel stuff and the long beatdown section on Bobby, but at 35 the seams started to show. I am excited about this service, there have been some great matches in the little bit of SSW I have gotten my hands on over the years, and I imagine their are some classics which will show up here.

MD: This had all the pros and cons of its setting. It was an indy match in 1993 on a fairly big show for the promotion (at least as best as I could tell). That meant it had all the time in the world and could press the southern tag stylings to their full potential. It meant that they could have an extended shine broken up by heel stalling and shtick after payoff-laden set pieces (often involving heel miscommunication). It's amazing how giving Jimmy Golben was in these moments given his size and that he could have put all that weight on Eddie. It meant that they could still build a double heat with comeback attempts and cut offs, and focused limbwork. Having Bobby Fulton in there always helps because he's one of the best at milking moments. It also had a 20 year old scion of a wrestling family, who was a total natural at some things, like the opening match shtick, but also had to hold up his end of a fairly long match. There were some baffling moments, like when Jackie didn't bump on a forearm miscommunication spot (it'd be repeated a few minutes later in a different context) or Jimmy breaking up a pin that should have won his team the match because it wasn't the finish, or even the ref just spending a bit too much time with Bobby on the distraction spots (though it's Bobby so you sort of buy it anyway). If you like the elements of the southern tag style (and if you don't, I feel bad for you), this had deep dives into those, so there was a lot to like.

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Saturday Night Digging in the Crates

We take a trip to Alabama for a wild riot of a cage match.



Tennessee Stud/Robert Fuller v. New Guinea Headhunters-SECW Early 1987

PAS: This is a revenge cage match after one of the more famous angles in the 1980s. In the first cage match between these teams a third Headhunter popped up from under the ring to massacre the face team. This time it starts out 3 on 2, however when the cage gets locked the ref whips off a black wig and it is Jimmy Golden. Really fun turn the tables angle. Everyone beats the crap out of each other, and Golden puts the ref shirt back on to count the pin. However Kevin Sullivan gets in post match and starts stabbing fools and eventually the locker room empties, craziest brawl in Alabama since Bull Conner.

ER: To me, this kind of match is just unhateable, unless you're a weenie who needs highspots. This is all wild chaos with guys taking bumps with no regard to where other guys are standing, people falling off the cage, everybody throwing blows also with little regard for who gets in the way. Headhunters all appear to be about 5 feet even and Golden and the Fullers appear to be about 7 feet tall and everybody just constantly smashes into each other for 5 minutes. And then after the pinfall nobody acts like the match is over and the brawl stays just as wild. Dudes run in with no shirts, a lot of it seemed unplanned, and this is something that if I saw this when I was a kid I'd be hooked for life (and considering I write daily rambling posts on a pro wrestling blog I don't know how much more I could realistically be hooked...but...somehow morrrre?). This felt like a fight that happens at the end of a townies-only BBQ out in the woods.

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