New Footage Friday: Flair, Slaughter, Johnny Valentine, OG Kroffat, Roadies, Freebirds

Sgt. Slaughter vs. Ric Flair Pro Wrestling USA 8/16/85

MD: This is a hell of a thing. It's a 30+ minute Slaughter vs Flair match from 85. We had 4-6 minutes of footage before. I don't think this was on anyone's radar as a possibility to be released, but it's a very unique match up. Maybe there's Crockett stuff with them (I started to look through the 82 JCP results but stopped at seeing Flair vs Jerry Blackwell in St. Louis and gave up because I got too frustrated that we don't have that), and there's that one WWF match that made tape, but this ended up feeling really unique. It's not the best match ever but it had a lot to like.

We've all seen hundreds of Flair matches. Narratively, he's such a loose wrestler. He does what he feels is right in the moment and because of who he is and the presence he has, it's almost a feedback loop. What he does in the moment is right because of who he is. He defines what is right and ultimately, so much of it is about the idea of Ric Flair instead of the specific actions of him. I tend to look at wrestling in a very textual way and Flair is a creature of context, of symbolic ideals. You can't break his matches down move for move. Ultimately, he's about no more and no less than constant engagement of the crowd, filling the time in the most compelling way possible, even if it didn't create a greater whole, and for all I'm able to say definitively, I'm not sure I can definitively say that's not the right ideal to shoot for.

Slaughter was larger than life too. As a heel, he was good at grinding down, bumping and stooging. As a face, brawling and selling. You didn't get a lot of the brawling here but the match shined the most when Flair was working over the arm and Sarge was showing the toll. It was probably weakest, past the early headlock spots (the Slaughter armwork that followed was way more compelling), when Sarge was working over the leg. While Flair had a tendency to sell his leg way more than any other body part (and if I had to guess, that's because it's subconsciously what he liked to work over the most or maybe the broadest, most visual thing there was to sell), Slaughter seemed to be struggling with actually putting on the figure four and it made everything a little clunky. The opening feeling out segment was absolutely great, two over the top characters meeting and Slaughter having a lot of fun at Flair's expense. I don't always love Flair playing as vulnerable as he did here for a lot of this, but against an opponent so over the top like Slaughter, it worked. Flair had to use every dirty trick to get an advantage, but once he really dug in with it towards the end, he was vicious and effective and that made Slaughter's comebacks, especially the finish with the out of nowhere with the cobra clutch all the more exciting. The color was saved for the post match with Boris. There were a few creative decisions I didn't entirely agree with, but this was absolutely effective for what it was and it felt like a dredged up dream match, one of those champion vs champion affairs that are never quite as satisfying as they could be but that felt monumental and important.

ER: I think Matt really wrote all that anyone could have wanted on this match, love his thoughts on Flair's match construct, really fascinating analysis and attention to detail, there's not much I'll be able to provide on this match that Matt didn't already. BUT! I liked it. It was one of those big champ vs. champ matches that we all know isn't ending definitively, so you soak up and enjoy it for the charisma of two legends who rarely matched up (including a couple intriguing/unseen Slaughter/Savage vs. Flair/Mountie house show matches I'd love to surface), and dig how great these two look against each other despite seldom crossing paths. I thought they worked the pace really well considering they were going fairly long, and they spaced out a couple of great big bumps to make them feel like an even bigger deal: Slaughter took a big tumbling bump to the floor, and then Flair took two different ones, the second showing him landing on a ton of different objects before hitting the ground; hits the ringside table, falls onto men, hits a chair, thuds to the floor, it's like a great death scene where someone is pulling down curtains and sweeping some China off a table before hitting the floor. My favorite moment was Flair and Slaughter fighting in the corner, Slaughter selling Flair's chops as well as any man, Flair dialing in some of his greatest punches right to the chin, Slaughter recoiling and holding his face, the chops loud enough to literally change the sound pattern of the crowd din that went the whole match. This match was filled with great moments without ever necessarily building to anything extraordinary, and this is okay with me. For a 30+ minute match it certainly didn't feel like it, so it's not something I'm going to nitpick, this felt like it was structured specifically to be enjoyable to this crowd. There's no way someone watching this in the arena wouldn't have been losing their mind. Boris Zhukov runs in and I like the energy of his shots to Slaughter, and then he goes and dumps Slaughter right on his head with a tombstone. Jeeeeez (this set up a really fun singles match between them). So it's a 30+ minute match that ends with a bunch of hunks like Brad Rheingans, interrupting their Chippendale rehearsal to run out in just jeans and boots (seriously, they looked like a male stripper construction worker flash mob), saving their boy. Historically, this is real important, and made for a great Friday afternoon view.

PAS: Every once in a while the network really drops something special. These are two of the biggest stars of the 80s and we never had them matching up before. I didn't love this match, but loved that we got it. This was a Flair match, and while Slaughter delivered some cool stuff, it felt a little like he got shoehorned in a match formula. I really liked Slaughters work with the hammerlock and headlock, and thought it was pretty lame when he started work a figure four. He looked like Disco in that terrible Russo gimmick with print out. I loved Flair's punches to the face and knee drop, and when this turned into a brawl it got special, still I would have rather seen Flair work a Slaughter match then Slaughter working a Flair one.

Road Warriors/Paul Ellering vs. Fabulous Freebirds Pro Wrestling USA 8/16/85

MD: This felt larger than life, another top-of-the-card war. The Roadies were at the height of their power, with every big move shaking the Meadowlands. I'm not sure I've ever actually see them do anything cooler than Animal press slamming Gordy. No one in the crowd even blinked during the attempt. It took too much effort for the Birds to really get over on Ellering. If they combined the attempt at heat with the real thing and didn't give him a pseudo-comeback in the middle, this would have been stronger. The finish was BS but the best sort. Buddy elbowdropping the ref was visually striking. The Birds took the inevitable lost but immediately got their heat back with the huge double back body drop into a powerbomb (in 1985) on Ellering and then the Roadies cleared the ring to end it. New Jersey knew what it liked and it liked the Road Warriors.

PAS: I do love these big main event punch outs. Birds are really great bouncing off the Road Warriors and I loved Gordy as the big dog willing to growl. Ellering is a weird figure in the 80s, as a babyface manager he seemed to exist only to sell so the Roadies didn't have to. The beat down on Ellering was fun and the Warriors hot tag was really explosive, that Animal shoulder block looked like a missile. This kind of made me want to watch some more Warriors matches, sure they aren't going to sell but I appreciate heavyweight wrestling that looks like it hurts.

Kintaro Oki/Michiaki Yoshimura vs. Johnny Valentine/Dan Kroffat JWA 05/29/72

MD: Big thanks to Loss for finding this for us. Valentine is exceptional. He might be the best total package that we have the least amount of footage of. He makes everyone else look shoddy. The way he utilizes leverage and pressure on the simplest holds shows us just how much we take every aspect of pro wrestling for granted and how much more gripping it could be.

This was my first look at the original Kroffat and he reminded me a bit of Wiskowski, both visually and in his ability to marry really sound tag work with dynamic stooging. This was structured with just total control by Valentine/Kroffat for the first fall, long periods of varied grinding holds, quick tags, and drawing a pissed off Yoshimura in. The second fall was lightning quick, just a comeback, a hot tag, headbutts and a finish. Then the last one having a little bit of everything (including Oki pulling off a "Look to the sky/faked you out" spot), before it ended with Valentine pre-creating the Brock vs Orton spot with endless bloody elbowing which either led to a draw or a DQ or who even cares. It was great. I'm pretty sure we should just watch Johnny Valentine matches all the time from now on.

PAS: Johnny Valentine would be my favorite wrestler ever if we had more footage. This wasn't a world class match, but it was another world class performance. Kroffat and Valentine are a fun tag team, Kroffat is a lot more expressive, hitting every move and bump for the last row. Valentine would tag in and start grinding and pounding away. Oki and Yoshimura didn't do a ton to stand out although they were really solid. The finish was awesome though with Valentine pummeling Oki until he started leaking all over the ring, and Oki fired back with great looking gory headbuts. Every Valentine match is a treasure, and this was minor jewel, but a jewel nonetheless.

ER: I obviously agree with the Valentine love here. I love Greg Valentine (not a bold statement), and imagine just how much of a legendary badass Greg had to be just to not be considered a total joke by people who knew Johnny? Greg should be looked at as even more of a total legend just for the giant shoes that he admirably filled. Johnny is so cool and is a rare tough as hell guy who can be beat. He doesn't just gobble up opponents from what we've seen, and his clear toughness always makes it look like his opponent really went through hell to earn a victory. While I don't think the whole of the match made this legendary, the moment he starts raining down on Oki with elbows SHOULD be legendary. That is one of the more unexpected turns into total outright violence that I've ever seen in a match, things going along just fine with headlocks and grounding your opponent until suddenly you are draining your opponent of blood like it was 1850 and Valentine was curing Oki of an infection. Kroffat (or KING KROW as he goes by for some reason) looks like the toughest version of Peter Tork. He was an odd pairing with Valentine, but I liked his sometimes comically expressive bumps and mannerisms. Overall I thought this went too long, felt more like a 50s match than an early 70s match, but I also liked the slow burn due to that insanely rewarding culmination, that moment you really see Oki's head faucet just getting opened up.

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1970 Match of the Year

Gene Kiniski/Johnny Valentine vs. Giant Baba/Antonio Inoki JWA 2/1/70

PAS: I thought this was delightful, just an absolute banger of a match, with all four guys just unloading on each other. We don't have much Valentine footage, but every time he shows up, he looks like an all time great. He and Baba especially just go to war. Baba is so fast moving in this match, it is really jarring, and he goes toe to toe with Valentine and matches his stiffness. I loved his little chops to the neck, chest and head, total rapid fire and nasty. Valentine really knows how to make it hurt, the series of elbow drops he finished the second fall with felt trachea smushing, especially the second rope one. Kiniski is a great sneaky cheap shotter too, with some great looking body shots. One of the stiffer 70s matches I can remember seeing, Johnny Valentine was working on a whole different frequency of nasty.

ER: At some point - literal decades ago, by this point - I assumed all wrestling pre-80s was just one guy holding a headlock for 45 minutes before getting a pin with a bodyslam. Time has, again and again, proven me wrong, in more ways than just my teenage pro wrestling opinions. This is a special tag that is nothing but 4 tough guys smacking each other around the ring, and that's always going to be my favorite thing. I love Baba, but I have never seen Baba move like this. This is maybe the most "larger than life" I've ever seen Baba, as he moves as quickly as a normal size human and hits as hard (harder?) than anybody in the match. Baba feels like a boss battle in this match, and you've never seen Baba chops more violent than this. Johnny Valentine isn't someone I've seen a ton of, but to me he feels like one of the greatest strike salesmen in history. He's known for his legendary toughness, but watching him put over strikes this whole match was maybe my favorite thing about it. Baba's chops had enough mustard that you wouldn't really have much of a choice to sell them, but Valentine had a ton of different ways to whip his head around, squint his eyes, grit his teeth, absorb shots quietly or dramatically, really a guy who felt like he knew exactly how strong to put over his opponent with just his mannerisms. I wouldn't have thought Valentine vs. Baba was a war made in heaven, but here we have 30 minutes of proof (with sadly 20 minutes lopped off the front).

Gene Kiniski is a legend, and a guy I've barely seen in his prime. Here he is in his early 40s and he has a genuine claim to being the best guy in the match. The fireworks were Baba and Valentine trading shots, but Kiniski was the generator powering this whole facility. He had a real workmanlike attention to details, no half routes from him, the difference between practical effects and CGI. There are men who approximate pro wrestling, and then there are guys like Finlay who show you exactly how and why every move works. Kiniski is obviously in that camp. He's got hunched shoulders and a mug that looks like it's changed shape over the years from fighting, and the man understands how to make a move mean something. He does a drop toehold in this match that looked like it could fell a tree. He also whips up the crowd into such a lather with his bullshit, that fans throw actual garbage at him. Have you ever seen fans throwing garbage during a match of a major promotion IN JAPAN?? Kiniski and Valentine have big reputations as asskickers and tough guys, and they deliver on that, but their ability to work a crowd and be MORE than tough guys was amazing to see.

I loved the babyface hero team of Baba and Inoki. We get to see Inoki the charismatic hero before he made the most cocky and important decision of his life. You watch him with those eyes, and he looks like a megastar. It's also alarming that Baba felt like so much more of a star in the match than Inoki did. Baba looked stronger, faster, AND like a bigger star than Inoki in this match. The first one isn't as surprising, the second one is very surprising, and the third of those might be most surprising of all. Seeing these two teaming together during such a formative year of their lives was special. No wonder people love pro wrestling.


ONGOING ALL TIME MOTY LIST

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New Footage Friday: Tully, Fujinami, Johnny Valentine, Kiniski, Baba, Inoki, Shawn, Austin

Giant Baba/Antonio Inoki vs. Johnny Valentine/Gene Kiniski JWA 2/1/72

MD: There's a lot to unpack here. First, we're lucky to have this footage at all. Second, we're impoverished for having so little Valentine and so little younger Kiniski while we're at it. They were complete stars here, sneaky, goony, mean heels, the sort that you wouldn't really be able to have in Japan even ten years later. There's as much of this match with them and their seconds complaining about things that happened as there is action. It gets to the point where the crowd starts throwing things at them. All of that is ok because even joined in progress, the action is still lengthy and it's so good.

Valentine somehow manages to be punchable and aggravating while still coming off as the toughest guy in the room. He was absolutely the total package. Everything he did, from sneaking in gut shots to locking in a crazy 1970 cross-arm breaker jumped off the screen. Kiniski showed a lot here, whether it be with endless knee thrusts, the cruelest stomps, the unforgiving reverse headlock, or just the constant menacing of the ref or the crowd and trying to constantly sneak into the ring. Inoki brought the dropkicks and some fire but it was unmissable, even in 1970, the difference between him and Baba. The latter was far more confident in letting himself sell. Inoki had to constantly fire back no matter what. Hopefully there's more Valentine in either the AJPW or WWE archives, because he's absolutely someone who lives up to the hype.

PAS: I thought this was delightful, just an absolute banger of a match, with all four guys just unloading on each other. We don't have much Valentine footage, but every time he shows up, he looks like an all time great. He and Baba especially just go to war. Baba is so fast moving in this match, it is really jarring, and he goes toe to toe with Valentine and matches his stiffness. I loved his little chops to the neck, chest and head, total rapid fire and nasty. Valentine really knows how to make it hurt, the series of elbow drops he finished the second fall with felt trachea smushing, especially the second rope one. Kiniski is a great sneaky cheap shotter too, with some great looking body shots. One of the stiffer 70s matches I can remember seeing, Johnny Valentine was working on a whole different frequency of nasty.

Tully Blanchard vs. Tatsumi Fujinami MUGA 10/29/95

ER: Well, this ruled. I had no idea Tully had worked in Japan, and after seeing this match I have no idea why he didn't work Japan more often. He was just over 40 when this match happened and was still in great shape, and didn't seem to be any less Tully Freaking Blanchard than he was 5 years prior. I'm not sure how this match was proposed to him, how it was set up, finalized, don't know any of the details. I don't know any of the other gaijin posing in the ring with him (Shane Rigby? Darren Malonis? They worked other Muga shows, but they're a weird footnote in pro wrestling), but I'm so glad that this happened. We've all seen Inoki or Fujiwara exhibition matches, and I assumed this would be something like that. Instead it's a great 15 minute scrap that would have easily made a  Segunda Caida '95 MOTY List. I think Muga is a style that a lot of territory guys would excel at, but I'm sure others would use it as an opportunity to lie around in a headlock for 10 minutes. 

But this isn't that, as it's engaging as hell and comes off far more like Tully working shootstyle than Tully taking a night off. This whole thing has some great hard fought struggle, and there was no headlock here that felt like it was just trying to kill time, not even close. It's cool seeing Tully work the mat in this specific way, like when Fujinami is setting up an arm break spot by extending his leg against the arm and then kicking his other leg into it, and you see Tully make his arm go limp to absorb the blow. Those are some cool detail points. And it's fun seeing Tully be Tully within a more rigid setting, see him arguing with the ref over breaking holds, or bailing to the floor after a pinfall and trying to yank Fujinami out by the legs. This whole thing was a killer catch fight, real energy being exhausted during grappling, a back suplex that drops Tully flat and hard, a dragon sleeper held a couple seconds after the ref calls it; I went in thinking this was going to be Tully getting a cool payday out of retirement. I left wondering why we were deprived of a ton of great mid 90s Tully Blanchard.

PAS: Technical Tully is a real trip, you think of him as as the ultimate smarmy sleazy heel, but he worked this mostly hold for hold. Fujinami is a master of this kind of match, and he only needs a game opponent to have something magical, and Tully was more then game. I really liked Fujinami kicking at the arm, and the two suplexes felt big enough to be the only two suplexes in the match. This kind of stuff is even cooler than holy grails, we didn't even know we wanted this, and all of a sudden here it was.

MD: This match is magic. I'd never heard about it. It just appeared out of nowhere. It has Tully Blanchard from 1995. It's MUGA. We really do have the best hobby. I loved this. It was worked as gritty as you can possibly imagine, just mean, uncooperative straightforward matwork, lots of struggle with nothing fancy. I love how much effort the two of them exerted for every little thing, when so many of the things in the match were little. I love how the characters still shined through despite that. Tully's ref fake out to lock in a front facelock was great, and him calling Fujinami a "sleepy boy" while in the hold was even better. Fujinami staring Tully down when he attempted a cheapshot was just as good. None of it detracted from what they were trying to accomplish in the least. I loved the escalation where Tully's butterfly suplex towards the end felt like a big deal but not so big given the pace of the match that the finish, with Fujinami rolling out then immediately back in to catch Tully in a belly-to-back wasn't totally believable. I'll take gift matches like this out of the sky any day.

Shawn Michaels vs. Steve Austin WWF 3/10/96

MD: I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this was really good, especially considering that it's a dark match for a TV taping. In fact, keep that in mind for everything I say next: this was a dark match for a TV taping. Austin had already wrestled a couple of times. The purpose was to make the crowd happy. There was no issue or feud to generate heat, etc. I get that people (not necessarily us, but you know, people) are generally high on Michaels' 96 run, but I've always been hot and cold on it. There are things I really like, such as the Goldust ladder match and some of the stuff with Vader, but there's a lot of formula as Michaels was trying desperately to channel later WWF Hogan and prove to the world that he was a legitimate main eventer, despite his relative size.

That's not at all what this match was. This had much more of a NWA Title Match structure than you'd usually get in WWF and I don't know if that was 'relatively fresh out of WCW' Austin calling it or what. That sounds commonplace, but was a real novelty for this setting and for Michaels. The first third was basically worked out of a headlock with a number of spots of Austin almost getting out but getting cut off. After this awesome hammer blow out of nowhere, the second third was Austin in charge and this was a bit more routine WWF. It had chinlocks (though they were still working it and the crowd) with escalating hope spots and cutoffs (and an elaborate ref-assisted low blow spot), with the tide turning after a pile driver attempt on the floor, and a really great transition/comeback with Austin avoiding crotching himself as Michaels moved away from the ropes and a kip up out of nowhere. Totally different than the usual Michaels formula (though I couldn't tell you if it was a spot they used in their other matches because I haven't seen any in a decade, at least).

The crowd was heavily into Michaels; this was both his home state and the honeymoon period where he had the momentum towards Wrestlemania XII. They were into his comeback but it meandered just a little. There was a weird moment of Michaels messing with his hair before realizing he should be charging at Austin. They were running around the ring for a surprise clothesline spot at about half speed. Michaels did get a revenge clotheslining of Austin on the guardrail which was nice. The finishing stretch had a couple of wrinkles to it (including a stun gun) but didn't quite live up to the match. Austin was in hybrid mode here, still half Hollywood Blondes stooge, mocking Michaels' pose and hamming it up a bit, but all of that was additive. He filled space between shots so well, really at the height of his power as this particular sort of heel. For what this was (again, a dark match with no issue on a TV taping between two guys who had only worked together once or twice ever, over the few days prior), I thought this was actually kind of great.

PAS: I enjoyed this more then I was expecting. I really liked the house show feeling of it. Working the first long section out of a babyface headlock is classic wrestling trope stuff, but not what you would normally see out of a PPV or TV match. Austin is really great at letting his frustration build. The forearm Austin landed before taking over was a big one, and set the tone for a pretty nasty beatdown. I liked the bump on the floor, and the finish run, Austin avoiding crotching himself and bouncing up is a super cool bit of business I hadn't seen before, and I thought they built to the superkick really well. Lothario at ringside just made me wish this was Austin vs. Super Sock, but it was pretty good stuff, toned down Michales may be better for everyone.

ER: I loved this. I love "House Show Feel" WWF. It's so much better than most of actual onscreen WWF. I used to attend most TV tapings than came through our area but sometime a decade ago I started only being interested in attending house shows because the matches were more satisfying, pro wrestling actually worked towards the crowd. House Show Undertaker wrestles completely different than every Undertaker match you've seen. And here we get to see Austin and Michaels working differently than they ever worked on TV around this time. I recognize this is not a house show match, but it's incredible how much different the match structure becomes once the TV cameras aren't around. Michaels is toned down in the best way possible, and Austin works spots - both offense and stooge spots - that I've never seen him do before, especially not in his WWF run. The slow build portions of this with arm locks and headlocks were really satisfying, and by the time Austin absolutely pastes Michaels with a swinging axe handle (damn did that look nasty, best version of the Polish Hammer I've ever seen) I was fully on board. 

Austin is so great at jawing with fans - watch this WCW house show six man if you somehow missed it to see even more - and this is in a way that you just don't see from WWF. Austin is great at mocking Michaels and the match includes one of my absolute favorite spots I've seen in a WWF ring: Michaels is draped over the middle rope, and Austin runs in to jump butt first onto Michaels, Michaels moves, and Austin bounces butt first on the ropes and then lands on his feet and calls for the SAFE sign. I had to pause the video I was laughing so hard. It was pure pro wrestling heel genius, and he pauses the perfect amount of time to let the fans soak up his genius, naturally leading to him getting absolutely decked. The work is simple, the match long build to the match ending superkick is excellent, and it's a match type that WWE like has hundreds of just sitting in their vaults. Them not recording house shows is a true tragedy, so many lost performances and unique match-ups, but if they have recorded every match listed as a Dark Match then we'd have enough fresh new content to keep us happy for a decade.

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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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1969 Match of the Year

Johnny Valentine v. Wild Bull Curry NWA Houston 6/20/69

ER: My god what an unearthed classic. I'd never seen Curry before, and here he's almost 60, looks like Eugene Levy doing a bit as Mr. Peepers, and he's over like crazy. Valentine looks huge, but even he gets intimidated with Curry lurching towards him. We get some great exchanges with both men stalking the other around the ring, Valentine knowing just how to work the crowd and build to Curry spots, and a mean headlock (and I love a mean headlock). Valentine ends the first fall with a slick amateur takedown into a pin, surprising Curry. It surprised me too and made Valentine look like an all time dangerous shooter (which doesn't seem like a stretch). Things get wild in the second when Valentine gets busted wide open by Curry, and goes foggy eyed while Curry punches him in the head and face over and over and over. I'm practically begging Curry to stop when Valentine finally collapses and can't answer the bell. Third doesn't last long as Curry starts punching Valentine again and when great ref Dick Raines tries to pull him off, Curry pops him in the nose. They brawl around the floor and Curry lobs a chair at him, old dude Danny McShain comes out and starts going after Curry, Raines gets popped again, and the fans are going crazy the whole time. Classic stuff.

PAS: Man what an epic performance by both guys. I loved the story of the match early with Valentine trying to infight and grab and grapple, while Curry is trying to get some distance to throw hands. Valentine timed the match to make every Curry blow have a huge effect, and sold the impact and his fear really well. I loved him early trying to readjust his jaw and shake off the cobwebs. There was this great moment after Valentine has grounded and stretched Bull that he tries to throw hands with him, it is a big mistake as Johnny is drilled with big shots and sent flying. I loved the nasty takedown and pin by Valentine to end the first fall, it felt like a guy just trying to get out of this situation any way he could. Second fall was a hellacious fistfight, with Valentine drawn into a toe to toe war and Curry beating him to the punch and busting him open, glassy eyed Valentine squirting blood is an all time great wrestling visual. Had no problem with the third fall ending like it did, as the Wildman could not be contained. Great great stuff and another NWA Classics jewel.


ONGOING ALL TIME MOTY LIST

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