Found Footage Friday: MAEDA~! MURDOCH~! BLEARS~! ROMERO~! KOX~! DANCIN' DICK~!

Dancing Dick Nelson vs. Herb Gerwig (Killer Karl Kox) Buffalo Late 1950s

MD: Another upload from the family of Killer Karl Kox. This was before he had the gimmick. He was the straight man here to the Dancing Polar Bear from Lansing Michigan, Dick Nelson. Nelson had a bit of Rikki Starr in him, but maybe by way of an elk's lodge. He had musical notes on his jacket and just didn't stop, a constant blur of motion as he boogied to a song only in his own head. He was still a scrapper however. They clashed before the bell and Gerwig went right over, the victim of a monkey flip. He took a powder and Nelson kept on dancing.

Gerwig played the straight man here, feeding as much as anything else. Nelson was a scrapper. We saw a couple of colorful bumps and some stooging from Gerwig but he wasn't fully formed yet. He was there to be Nelson's dance partner, which meant eating his share of monkey flips until he managed to take over with some 60+ year old hide the object. Until he ate yet another monkey flip and it was all over.

ER: How gigantic was this ring to make Karl Kox - erm, Herb Gerwig - look like a normal size, or even small, man? A normal size man who somehow doesn't throw a punch, and is only there to be upset by Dancin Dick, a man wearing a homemade sweater with musical notes on it. Dancin Dick also has this weird compulsion to constantly smooth his hair forward and touch his face. He's like a one man 3 Stooges, just constantly slapping his hair forward and, as commentary says, "being realll herky jerky in there". Gerwig is really good at feeding for him, playing into all the shtick. He takes a pre-bell monkey flip right on his butt, there's a great spot where he catches one of Dick's kicks and does a slick single leg takedown only to get upset when Dick crawls through his legs. There's a complicated spot where Nelson holds Gerwig's legs spread and starts mule kicking every time Gerwig tries to sit up, and Gerwig could not have fed for it better. This was not really a "full" match as Nelson got the pin by kind of just lying down on Gerwig (and Gerwig's hidden weapon raking across Nelson's eyes never went anywhere once it stopped) and you wouldn't really have been able to tell what kind of wrestler Karl Kox was going to become, but I'm loving these early career looks at the legend. 

Lord James Blears vs. Enrique Romero (NAWA Long Beach, CA, 03/10/1961)

MD: This was mostly a friendly contest even if Blears had a number of "sharp tricks." You get the sense that he had been reviled at some point but was just a wrestler with affectations now, including the monocle he took off before the match. Romero (Who I assume is a young Ricky Romero) had the athleticism advantage but Blears would sneak a kick around and into his back or tap on said back in order to trick him into breaking the hold, that sort of thing. Blears also had this great way putting on various leglocks or deathlocks but then building to a teeter totter fall. 

It got a little chippy after Blears hit one two many of those sneak around kicks including a huge clubber to the back by Romero but for the most part it was them working in and out of holds. That included a great rolling arm scissors by Blears and both men trading arm pullers. Blears had a great cut off where he kicked the back of Romero's head and then a nice bridging flip over to escape Romero's later on. This built to a nasty drop toehold into a leg stretch by Blears but Romero escaped and hit a shoulder tackle only for the bell to ring as the time limit expired. Fun stuff though it did seem like Blears was leading for the most part.

Akira Maeda vs. Dick Murdoch NJPW 5/17/86

MD:  If you're keeping track, we already had a June 1986 Maeda vs. Murdoch match that was part of the IWGP League and set up a Murdoch vs. Inoki final with a count out (can't have Inoki vs. Maeda in a tournament final because one of them would have had to lose after all). This was a month earlier with lower stakes, and it felt a little like a UWF match instead. 

Maeda spent a lot of it targeting the arm while Murdoch just tried to contain him and stretch him however he could. They worked a headlock right back into a hammerlock quite a bit which was the sort of stooging that Murdoch could still make work within this setting. Murdoch sold it throughout in large and small ways. Whenever Maeda tried to escalate to kicks, Murdoch shut him down, first by fighting out of the corner and pressing his head back over the top rope to elbow him in the nose and then later, after a great spin wheel kick to the face, by just biting his nose. It had highs and lows, escalating to suplexes and charges into the corner, and then ultimately, to the two of them spilling out so it could get thrown out. Pretty amazing performance to show Murdoch's versatility (which we know from the first two thirds of the Kox match, but...). He could do all the things we know him for but he could do this as well.

ER: I thought this was really excellent and provides some really impressive context for Murdoch. The next night he has one of the best matches of his career against Inoki, a grueling 30 minute match that might have been Inoki's best match of the decade. It is Dick Murdoch working essentially shootstyle, a look at Murdoch in UWF that we cruelly never got to see, and you will be shocked at how proficient he is. Well, maybe not shocked, because anyone reading this is already going to know that Murdoch is great at wrestling, but it's kind of amazing to see how well he works against a real shooter, how he responds to all kinds of kicks, how he handles takedowns, and how he doesn't shy away from any of it. It is not overt Shootstyle Murdoch, but he doesn't wrestle this like a typical Dick match. For an almost 20 minute match he does not use many punches, saving them for moments where they really stand out. When Maeda backs him into the corner with kicks - hard kicks, Murdoch absorbing them with his arm and body - that's when he comes out of the corner landing a couple. 

This was never a punch out in any way, but when Murdoch threw any of his few punches it was always in a way that made you go "oh yeah this could go that way at any time". I love how he sells Maeda's big dropkick, running face first into it and dropping to his knees, holding his face. That's a style. Murdoch wrestles with style that is unmistakably his own. This handheld could have been barely visible and I would have instantly recognized the way his butt and legs look during a north-south headlock. Nobody can work Murdoch's style. Our styles are too homogeneous now. The wrestlers who all wrestle the same all look to those who wrestle like them to further themselves wrestling like themselves. But then Murdoch punches Maeda and briefly holds him still so he can hit his own - impressive and ugly - heavy dropkick to knock Maeda to the floor. I don't know how exactly Murdoch was deemed the winner - they were both outside the ring when the bell sounded - but that's not important. This is an essential match in the story of Dick. 

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Found Footage Friday: KOX~! SHEREEF~! WRESTLING LA RAMS~! MAEDA~! YATSU~! LUCHA ROBOCOP~?!

Killer Karl Kox/El Shereef vs. Don Chuy /Joe Carollo WWA 2/2/67 

MD: The family of Killer Karl Kox shared this and I think it's the earliest Kox footage we have on tape. Chuy and Carollo were LA Rams (offensive tackle, I think) and they did this during their off season. They even had runs in Japan (teaming with Kox) if I'm not mistaken. Shereef brought bigger bumps and Kox brought ones that went over with a bit more effort and grounded things. Things got a little disjointed towards the end of the first fall as Kox jumped in once to break up a pin but was supposed to get shaken off the second time and the ref didn't quite stop the pin. Things reset and the football players hit their big charges and back body drop charges.

Second fall stared with some crowd pleasing grinding headlocks, lots of big selling and arm waving, that sort of thing. The heels took over though but the Rams fought out of the corner and hit a series of double charges until the ref threw it out. The third fall was quick, just three minutes and it ended with Kox planting Carollo with the brainbuster. I knew he did it in the 70s but's crazy that he was doing this as early as 66! It was treated like absolute death Carollo was out for the rest of the match. They did a fourth fall due to the thrown out second and they made short work of Chuy, two on one, and he fell to the brainbuster too. Great look at mid-30s Kox and maybe historical for the Rams on top of that.

PAS: So cool that this showed up, Kox has maybe 10 matches in full that are out there, but looks incredible in all of them. I also just love this kind of match with local heroes, bumping around willing heels. I dug how so much of the Rams offense was tackles and blocks, and all of the crowd pleasing payoffs, like Kox jumping off the top with stomp to break a Chuy headlock, and then when he tries it again Carollo shakes the ropes to spill him off. This must have been building to a big rematch of some sort, because Kox really dominates the end of the match, spiking both Rams with his brainbuster for clean pins in both falls. Would definitely make the fans buy a ticket to next month to see their heroes try to solve the problem of the Killer. 

Akira Maeda vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu NJPW 1/6/84

MD: Maeda and Yatsu were more or less finding themselves here. This would have really been something three and a half years later. As it was, though, they had all of the prerequisite skills. Both could take it to the mat. Both weren't afraid to strike. Both had a suplex or two. They also had plenty of animosity for one another based on the fact that they were on opposing stables and in plenty of tags and trios against one another. This had been out there but only in the form of a tiny, unwatchable, real player sized file. This is much more watchable. They'd go at it from the bell to the post-match after a double count out and it wasn't in the least bit refined, but it was chippy and active, including some armwork by Maeda and a nice seated octopus by Yatsu. Once they started throwing suplexes, Maeda somehow managed to drop Yatsu exactly on his head but Yatsu was unfazed and stumbled up to hit a belly to belly of his own. It was pretty grisly stuff. Overall this was rough around the edges but full of fire, so they definitely had that bit down. 

ER: I thought this was incredibly cool, a very grown up version of a match I wouldn't have expected from either at this point. This felt like a couple older pros, especially Yatsu, who moved spry and almost like a cruiserweight but obviously not. Both looked lithe and had incredible ring confidence. It was some great halfway point between Choshu/Fujinami and Young Lions. Maeda was about to go on a pair of month long WWF excursions, but Yatsu feels like the perfect 1984 WWF Japanese wrestler. Yatsu works this like  shootstyle Mr. Fuji, with some fast unstoppable throws, takeovers and strong-cradled pins, but with a throat thrust and elbowdrop assortment that would play well in Buffalo working Terry Daniels. Akira Maeda got to work a couple months of WWF as Akira Maeda. If I was given the information that a) Akira Maeda worked a couple WWF tours in 1984, and b) worked a tour somewhere early in his career as Kwick-Kick Lee, I would bet so much money on there being a New Haven card with a Kwick-Kick Lee vs. Rene Goulet time limit draw. Yatsu's quick, strong style would have fit well in 1984 WWF, even if it would have just inevitably lead to a tag team with Tiger Chung Lee. 

The submission work and movement within holds was really captivating. You could see the legitimacy in how they worked to prevent the unpreventable or grapple like real heavyweights. Maeda almost scorpions Yatsu with an overhead belly to belly - it's not as bad as it initially looks, with Yatsu taking a lot of it on his forearms and not his neck - and plays it as a successfully blocked takedown, scrambling straight up to his feet and Maeda's waist to pivot into his own belly to belly. It reads as a real way an Olympic level freestyle wrestler would sell the same. They're so good at grappling that they manage one of the great abdominal stretch spots, some beautiful work of real cool fighting over who could secure an abdominal stretch, sending both tumbling hard through the ropes. The way I wrote about it makes it sound like an inevitable end to that spot, but they way they did it didn't feel like it was going that way. It was this shoot authenticity they worked their pro wrestling with, an abdominal stretch do-si-do leading to the stiffest strikes of the match being thrown on the floor to double count out. They could have worked this exact same match just two years later, nothing changed about the wrestling, but now perceived as bigger and bigger stars. They got big reactions for what they didm, and the crowd reacted to this like a fight between two names. But nowhere near the names they'd become, but the wrestling was real. 

Principe Franky/ROBOCOP vs. Ministro de la Muerte I/Ministro de la Muerte II CMLL 1992

MD: This is blurry but kind of novel because I'm not sure how much Robocop footage we actually have. Franky had been Polimero Espacial but lost his mask quite recently in a tag with Latin Lover against Sangre Chicana and El Sanguinario, also in Monterrey. From what we see, he looks solid. There's a fun moment late in the match where his partner teases a dive and we just see him come flipping from off the side of the screen as a blur instead. Robocop is, as promised, Robocop, with a plush looking but intricate costume, visor and all. It's a much more elaborate costume than the other match we've covered years ago. He moved surprisingly well in there, able to do a couple of tricked out armdrags and to finally win it (after teasing that dive) with the diving back headbutt off the ropes. He actually had some presence too. When he came in to break up a submission, there was a little extra swagger in how he moved. Los Ministros are pretty generic rudos but played their part well in this sub-ten minute match. That meant basing for a guy dressed like Robocop and throwing fouls when Robocop was duly distracting the ref. This was undercard stuff and didn't go long but it was fun while it lasted, for the novelty of Robocop as much as anything else.

ER: I can't pretend to know any of these guys and I can't pretend I knew there was a lucha Robocop but I assumed that was likely. I was impressed at how good the Robocop suit looked. I'm not sure what I was specifically expecting from lucha Robocop but this was a quality looking suit. Intricate, as Matt called it, but allowing for smooth movement. No way a 1992 Monterrey luchador working a Robocop gimmick should have a Robocop suit this good. In our grainy tracky footage he looked like La Parka, or a Storm Trooper. He moved smoothly for being the largest guy in the match (maybe some of that was suit weight and mask height) and had an armdrag reversal on the back end of a backdrop that surprised me, and his topes en reversa landed firmly. Ministros were my kind of rudos, guys who would each take a backdrop and are good at catching dives and taking complicated armdrags, working over Franky's knee in a way appropriate in a short lucha match. Franky's dive looked crazy, visible only in the background, Robocop in the foreground, Franky already upside down when he enters the frame. Cameras catch the wreckage on the floor and Robocop wins right after. Opener undercard lucha remains winning.  

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New Footage Friday: PG13! FINLAY! KILLER KARL KOX! DERRICK KING!

Killer Karl Kox Turns Face! AWCW 1973     Pt. 2     Pt. 3     Pt. 4     Pt. 5

MD: We don't do whole TV shows often but this feels worth covering. It's possible this has been out there but quick googling and youtube searches didn't bring it up and it popped up on a TV youtube channel as opposed to a wrestling one, which is always a good sign. This is just a great episode of territories TV, one that felt close to ten years before its time. 73 is not that deep into the decade and things are already defined by the war between Big Bad John's crew and the People's Army.

Lord Layton's perfect as the host, always feigning a struggle with his own moral quandary of journalistic neutrality vs rooting for the good people against the very bad, which just somehow makes the good feel better and the bad worse. The fans are interesting here, never popping at individual lines in the interviews, but waiting until the end. As Karl Kox (who had just turned face) was going on about how he did it for his dead mother who didn't want to see him reviled anymore, I wasn't sure if he really had the fans because of it. In the end though, they were on board. It's such a novel, unique to this area, thing that Big Bad John's biggest gripe was that he had paid $1500 to fly Kox out to be part of his crew and now that money was wasted. That wouldn't have worked almost anywhere else in the world.

This episode had four matches, all of which at least a little competitive. The first (part 2 video) was Bulldog Brower/Abby vs.  Larry O'Dea/Billy White Wolf, with Brower taking a good chunk of the match and the promo after. It left me wanting to see more of him. He had a great presence, a bulky force of gravity in the center of the ring, with big wind-ups to his shots and smart use of his size. It was a weird setting to see Adnan, but he was mainly there to bounce of Brower. Post match promo had Brower enthusiastically talking over John so they couldn't entirely stay focused but it worked for what it was.

Part 3 has the second match, which is Tiger Jeet Singh vs. Kox. The match was short but effective in establishing Kox as a tough and mean looming presence, now a babyface but not one that changed up his style at all. Singh moved and bumped around a bit more than you'd see a decade later, but he was still mostly what you'd expect. The forearm out of nowhere that ended it was great though. Post-match, Kox talked about how the other faces didn't trust him yet, which brought them out. This was the best part of the whole show as King Curtis, untrusting but pragmatic, said that they needed the greatest weapon in all of wrestling, the brainbuster (said like only he could) on their side.

Part 4 introduced Angelo Mosca to the territory, with Layton (who claims to have personally recruited him) playing up his sports and academic credentials like JR might fifteen years later. George Barnes is the sacrificial lamb and he stooges and bumps around well for him, but obviously doesn't have the chance to shine like in the recent Memphis footage we saw. Mosca is fine, but honestly, what's most notable is how out of breath he is in the post-match promo, even noting it and his nervousness, which is a good cover. Definitely not the sort of crazy Mosca promos we'd get in 84.

Then it ends with Waldo von Erich vs. Mario Milano, and if you can get past how deep Waldo still was into the nazi stormtrooper gimmick, even in 73 (it felt more severe than the Barons' goose stepping), this was actually really good. I don't think I've seen a ton of Waldo but he really worked the glove gimmick well, just absolutely unrelenting with a lot of different but all credible bits of offense surrounding it. Milano was fiery in his comebacks and revenge spots, quick to throw out headbutts. Just a good TV main event to put some heat back on the heels after the Kox turn and his win over Tiger.

The fact that we have this whole episode, and with TV Roll information at start makes me wonder just how much is out there. I know there are bits and pieces floating around but I really did enjoy this.

ER: I'll primarily focus on the Kox stuff, but this was a fun episode of TV, presided over by the presumably 7 foot tall Lord Layton, we got to see Abdullah the Butcher without big flapping tiddies but just as stabby as ever, Bulldog Brower even bigger than Abby and with work that looked more than worth seeking out, a fun main event, and a classy 70s TV presentation. But I came here to see the Killer and I loved what we got. His opening promo was open faced and tender, talking about how he recently lost his dear mother, and how his hated ways had turned his family into targets of harassment, and how he wanted to change his ways to honor his mother. I loved his understand of the skepticism, and his reasoning that if he betrayed the fans and his word, he was also betraying his mother, and that couldn't be. It left me not knowing whether he was genuine or not - after all, we've seen old heels go back on their word after much greater promises - so Layton's skepticism is warranted. Kox's match with Tiger Jeet Singh was fascinating to me, as it seems like Kox might be the perfect kind of opponent for Singh. Kox is an expressive seller who can make a claw hold mean something, but I also like Singh digging his nails into Kox's neck and face, loved the way Kox would fight back and struggle up to his feet, and Kox throwing fists is always going to land with me. The finish even feels like a rarity, because how often have you seen a Tiger Jeet Singh match with him actually getting pinned? Kox pins him after a quick, sharpe forearm shot, the kind of shot that looks like it should end a match. Kox throughout this episode looks like Robert Duvall in Killer Elite, a tight mustache with hair that slowly unfurls around the edges, leaving him with fantastic wings that could even bely his plain faced honesty. I loved this whole presentation.

PAS: This really made me wish we had more Australian stuff from this period (do they have a TV archive we can raid?), the idea of these two warring armies full of super charismatic dudes is really appealing. Kox is just incredible in the role of the humbled man trying to atone for his many sins and this really made me want to see him face off with Brower and Abby and everyone. Really felt like a Florida style promotion 10 years before Florida was doing this sort of thing.

TKG: Everything I’ve ever seen from the People’s Army v Big Bad John has been a blast but I’ve only seen “best of never” full shows before. And these full shows are well paced. The whole Kox turns babyface because of his mother’s cancer is amazing. I dug the opening tag a bunch. Bulldog Brower is a guy I associate with dull WWF undercards and I left this thinking that I need to rewatch all of those. All his offense is nasty looking and he’s really fun as immovable object slowly getting knocked down when eating offense. Larry O'day is a guy I will forever remember being killed by the Miracle Violence Connection and it will take something spectacular to make me see him as anything else. The Mosca v Barnes match I thought was really dull but everything else was worth watching and neat watching a whole show format.

Fit Finlay vs. Rico de Cuba CWA 8/7/97

MD: This was a 10+ minute glorified squash where late 90s Finlay (having shrugged off a lot of the chickenshit stooging from his 80s career) just steamrolled some poor, long-haired doofus. He let Rico toss him a couple of times early on and gave him a thing or two as the match went on (especially due to slipping on a banana peel), but this was mostly Fit jamming elbows and forearms into different parts of Rico's skull, turning him inside out with an over-rotated powerbomb, unloading on him utilizing the apron like 00s Finlay, stretching him for fun, and getting so fed up with the guy's last comeback that he ate a red card DQ for half choking him to death in the ropes. More of a novelty for its length than anything else, since you come in expecting the cruelty. It's 2x your 98 WCW Saturday Night Finlay squash and it's good that we get to highlight that sort of thing to the world.

PAS: Rico De Cuba definitely looks like a guy who should have been walking across the beach with Joe Gomez, Jim Powers and the Renegade, and Finlay treats him like that guy. We get all of the classic Finlay brutality, nerve holds which look like he is ripping out chunks of his traps, elbows directly into the trachea, knees across the nose. Cuba gets a couple of comebacks, which didn't look great but Finlay bumped huge for, including flying over the top rope twice. I liked Finlay psychotically trying to rip his head off for the DQ, and this was exactly the kind of thing which made us fall in love with him.

ER: This was so great, this was like if one of those Finlay vs. Johnny Swinger matches from Saturday Night were given 12 minutes instead of 3 minutes. The beating was just as cruel, it just went on 4x as long. Rico de Cuba was given a couple of very short flourishes, and Finlay sold like Cuba was a total superstar in those brief moments. My favorite stretch of the match was when Finlay took two super fast bumps over the top to the floor, working a great Berzerker routine of taking a fast (flipping) bump over the top and landing on his feet, rushing back in and getting tossed just as fast out the other side. Almost all the rest of this is Finlay absolutely mugging Cuba. It is a true greatest hits of every piece of Finlay offense that I love: numbing bodyslams, hard strikes, cruel elbowdrops, snug cravats and chinlocks, precision kneedrops, stomping right on Cuba's chest, and drawing the match ending DQ by tying Cuba's head into the ropes and yanking on his legs. Finlay on WCW Saturday Night is some of the greatest wrestling displays in history, and this is him sharing that formula on some non-Karagias long haired shiny trunks pretty boy 5,000 miles away from Universal Studios.

TKG:  It’s Finlay beating the stew out of some putz. I will always watch that. The early elbows to the nose were so fucking great. And Finlay doing crazy flying out of the ring for de Cuba’s stuff was wild. Man when Finlay puts a guy in a crab that is a fucking deep crab.

Drew Haskins/Derrick King vs. PG-13 SAW ?/?/09

MD: My big takeaway from this is that Haskins with this same gimmick and attitude, would be pretty in demand right now. There's a pre-match promo here establishing the (newly turned?) heel character and how he's on Tiger Beat, etc., just ridiculous over the top snotty heel pretty boy claims. When he actually comes out, a big chunk of the match and commentary is based around the fact he's sans knee pads and wearing dress shoes. Dundee seemed way more into this than Wolfie, both in interacting with Haskins early on (taking the shoe off and tossing it, etc.) and the way he worked the apron during Wolfie's face-in-peril later on. Lots of charisma there still, even in 2009. This hit the marks for a TV tag match but what I'm going to remember the most is the shtick.

PAS: You don't normally see JC Ice outshticked in a match, but Drew Haskins was really on one here. The dress shoes was a great bit of nonsense, and when JC Ice wearing cut off acid washed jeans shorts and a hockey jersey is clowning your clothes you know you have really done something. I think this was hurt a bit by having most of the heat on Wolfie come during the commercial break, as it goes from heel bumbling almost directly into the count out finish, where a midget comes out and hits Wolfie with a broom. I do love watching Derrick King throw jabs, but I imagine there is a better match between these two teams out there.

ER: Hell yes, gimme something like this once a week to watch and write about, just the best kind of Wrestling is America footage you can get. Shown on regional TV, sponsored by a local bail bond company (Grumpy's) that has a crudely drawn rockabilly babe logo, Derrick King wearing hot pink gear, Drew Haskins in ice blue trunks, dress socks and loafers (wrestling in loafers is far more funny than it should be), and PG-13 looking like versions of their heyday selves who have since done time. Haskins takes great pratfalls related to his shoes, including faceplanting after tripping on the low rope getting back into the ring. Derrick King takes two of the highest backdrops, certified Memphis classics. Everyone throws punches at the level you'd want to see, with King's jabs and Wolfie's overhand right standing out especially. We even get an appearance of Half Dollar in the double count out finish, the cohort of King cohort Big Dollar. It's all classic Memphis bullshit, the best junk food.

TKG: The midget was named half dollar!!! I absolutely don’t understand how Drew Haskins didn’t become a bigger deal.

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New Footage Friday: KKK, Harley, Baba, Jumbo, Wrestling 2, Roop, Dream Machine

Network and Dan Ginnety continue to deliver the goods, and now we have too much footage each week. In this very specific way (and really only in this very specific way) what a time to be alive. Tomk jumps on a couple of these as well. 

Giant Baba/Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Killer Karl Kox/Harley Race AJPW 2/11/81

PAS: Dan Ginnety's 1981 TV set delivers another Killer Karl Klassic. I might even like the Race/Kox team more then the Kox/Murdoch team, even though I don't like Race as much as Murdoch. He brings a variety to the attack, more big bumping, more suplexes, plus the legit credentials of being an NWA champ. Kox was the star again though, what a nasty killer he was, everything was done with such force and viciousness. At one point he just drives a half a dozen elbows into the side of Jumbo's neck, it felt like he was trying to chop off an especially knotty piece of wood. We also get a gorgeous brainbuster to finish the first fall, and a great drunken sell of a Baba chop. I loved the finish of the second fall too, with the American's getting counted out as they stomp Baba on the floor. Finish of the third fall was unusal, with Baba tripping Race when he had Jumbo up in a suplex, with Jumbo landing on Race for the pin, that is a classic heel finish in a tag match, and I had never seen it done by faces before.

MD: Kox with Race felt very different than Kox with Murdoch, interestingly. With Murdoch he was much more of a stooge (or maybe a stooge's big brother). Everything was bigger and more sweeping. Here, everything was meaner and grittier. When he was using the object, he looked like Bulldog Bob Brown but had the aura of Abdullah at his most fearsome. Race, on the other hand, was less effective than Downtown Bruno. Every time he came in, he lost the momentum and got clowned by his opponent. This wasn't a heel title defense against a local challenger. I have no idea what he was doing. I just don't think he could stop himself. I thought this was really good whenever Kox was in though. Baba can portray sympathy after a beating so well given his almost skeletal frame. Jumbo's dropkicks were amazing. The way that they got to the finishes of the falls all had a bit more though to them than you normally get in an early 80s AJPW tag match. Good stuff even if Race couldn't get out of his own way.

ER: Karl Kox is a total superstar. He just comes into this All Japan ring and completely owns things. Harley Race worked this as a bizarre Stevie Richards, bumping all over for Jumbo and getting next to no offense, as Kox sat on the apron constantly looking for the advantage. The dynamic was incredibly fun, and kind of weird, in the best way. I love how Kox worked Baba, just bringing a constant attack, and for a guy already in his 50s Kox had such a cool and well utilized offensive arsenal. He punches and kicks Baba all over, drops elbows, throws the best back elbow in wrestling, throws downward elbows to the neck, somehow comes off the top rope with elbow strikes (which is something we've seen in his AJ matches, and he never looks comfortable up there but always hits exactly what he's trying to hit, and the fact he looks like someone who shouldn't be coming off the top only makes it that much better), grabs a tag while Race is taking a bump, and works the apron better than maybe anyone. He drops one of the finest brainbusters I've seen, and Jumbo gets in the match as we're nearly approaching mercy killing time for Baba. 

So we get a lot of Race/Jumbo, and Race is just hammier than a Hormel factory in this whole thing. He bumps a backdrop on the floor from Baba, takes two huge suplexes from Jumbo, takes a few of those Race bumps where he takes a back bump and then slowly flips his whole body over to bump again, tries a bit *too* hard to take his over the top rope bump, hits the most absurd spit take bump I've seen (the sheer amount of spit he shot out could have filled a shot glass), and is all about frantically getting Kox back into the ring. Baba was great and super aggressive here; I loved how violent he was with his big boots. I'd gotten so used to seeing old Baba have opponents getting thrown into his boot, that it's almost jaw dropping to see him running towards someone and kicking their face, throwing them exactly like prime Taue (well, Taue was throwing them like prime Baba, but you know what I mean). Jumbo is all fired up babyface in this, throwing awesome dropkicks, chucking Race with a high belly to belly, constantly punking out Race. The match has a spot I've never seen, something really cool, something I didn't see coming, where Jumbo runs up the buckles on one side of the ring to hit a headlock takeover. Then, he tries it on the other side and gets his legs grabbed out of the air by Kox from the apron, who yanks him from Race and Jumbo ends up spilling into the ropes, falling on his head. This tag is kind of weird, and completely great, and I just cannot get over what a huge deal Kox still feels like in his final year. True legend.

Dream Machine vs. Jumbo Tsuruta AJPW 1/15/82

MD: Graham, while we have decent amount of footage, most of it is from one or two territories and all of a similar style. We know what he can do in southern tags and Memphis-style brawls. I'm a big proponent of taking holistic looks at wrestlers, at seeing them in a lot of different situations. This is absolutely a different situation.

The big questions here would then be: Could he hang in AJPW and could he hang with Jumbo? The answer is absolutely. Honestly, this felt more like a Hansen match than anything else. Once they got past some really fevered chain wrestling to begin, he just kept coming at Jumbo, to the point where, at times, Jumbo seemed almost visibly frustrated by it. He jumped into every bump, leaned into every shot, and traded bomb for bomb. They really ran the gamut between the chain wrestling, grinding holds, the striking, big throws, a table shot on the outside, flying knees, and Jumbo's killer suplex out of nowhere to end it. It seemed like Dream Machine brought grumpy Jumbo to the surface years early and the match was all the better for it.

TKG:  So yeah, 1982 Dream Machine debuting John Walters innovative offense is absurd but everything about this is absurd. Pre-Choshu sprint everything was contested in heavyweight AJPW. 70s Baba is awesome as him and opponents will fight to fend off every hammerlock, arm drag and whip. At worst Jumbo in 70s, early 80s was this guy who would be really awesome spending 2 falls fighting off opponent’s atomic drop, or backbreaker or atomic drop…then would eat it pop up and do all his offense…But even there a good chunk of the style was about non-cooperativeness. This match was completely cooperative, this wasn’t Choshu sprint this was more worked like a Fujinami juniors match from same period. Like I went into this hoping that Jumbo would give Dream Machine enough that it would be like a cool Dream Machine v Dutch match…instead this was a juniors Dream Machine v Nightmare Danny Davis match. As such both of these guys have cool offense, beyond the big suplex into frontcracker monkey flip, Dream Machine’s 2nd rope knee drop was top rope knee drop looking nasty.


PAS: I really enjoyed the stylistic shifts in this match, the early armdrags in this match did feel really juniorish, but they do end this up with some big time moves. Dream Machine really had the offense of a guy who could have had a career working Puro heavyweight wrestling. The top rope knee to the throat, and brutal piledriver combo really felt like it should have beaten anyone. Hell that top rope knee to the throat should have started a long feud where Jumbo sits out two months and comes back in a neck brace. The back suplex which Jumbo ends it with was really brutal, and I have no problem with it finishing the match, although the match almost felt clipped when it wasn't, we go right from the mat wrestling section into the huge finish with out much of a middle. Still a great look at Dream and one of my favorite early Jumbo performances too.

Bonus text dialogue between Tomk and Phil

Phil: I liked Dream Machine vs. Jumbo more then you did

Tomk: I liked it a bunch but it was a juniors match. Like Fujinami vs. Keirn which is not what I was expecting at all. Did my write up come off negative? Didn't mean it to be.

Phil: John Walters can't be a compliment

Tomk: There was a front cracker into a monkey flip spot. I lost my mind at a fucking front cracker spot in 1982. Did Alex Shelly do back cracker/front cracker variations?  Is there anyone who did it who wouldn't come off as insult?

Phil: Fair Point

Tomk: Shelton Benjamin?

Phil: Cerebro Negro?

Tomk: Cerebro Negro is a good call.

Mr. Wrestling 2 vs. Bob Roop GCW 10/23/83

PAS: The Network uploaded the entire Omni show headlined by the previously released Last Battle of Atlanta, and this was clearly the on paper undercard standout. Great chance to see 2 working the Omni which was an arena he ruled for decades. This was a mask match, with Roop repping an injured fake Mr. Wrestling who was putting up his mask against Wrestling 2. This was worked more like a crowd pleasing undercard match then a huge stips match (makes sense with the huge bloody blowoff in the main event.) It certainly pleased the crowd, 2 has a ton of charisma, and is one of my favorite dancing babyfaces of all time, I really dug Roop running full speed into a 2 knee lift with 2 sitting on the second rope, and the indignation of crowd when Roop clocked 2 with fake 1's crutch. Roop was working more of a brawling stooging heel, then the wrestling machine he was in Mid-South, I love wrestling machine Roop, but he is fun as a foil too. Would have liked a bigger finish then sort of the banana peel end we got, but this was a total blast, and the idea of semi-regular Omni show uploads is mindblowing.

MD: I'm with Phil on this one. They could only go so big given the card placement and what was to come. Context, when we have it (and it's great that we have it here), is important in understanding matches. Roop is such a mean bastard. Everything he does looks nasty. Wrestling 2 has this almost magical way of hitting a shot out of nowhere. He comes off as a complete star, almost as a folk hero. Phil noted Roop doing the work of running into the kneelift on the second rope, but what stuck out to me was the timing in 2 getting his knee up at the absolute perfect second.

The transition with the crutch was one of those moments in wrestling where time just stopped as the shot rang through the crowd. It was wrestling perfection. I liked the finish, if only for the amount of effort they put into the escape from the shoulder breaker. Post match was a little underwhelming, but the fact that a rabid fan reached over the barricade and pulled off Wrestling 1's shirt that he was using to hide his face just shows how great and celebratory this crowd was.

TKG: We don’t have a lot in the way of Arena footage of either of these guys and the idea of them matching up for an apuestas was really exciting to me. I’m a big fan of the guy holds onto headlock while opponent stays mobile trying to escape a spots and the variations on it here were really cool. I especially liked the Roop gets out of side headlock by pushing II off into ropes for II to bounce off ropes into a front facelock. I liked a bunch of the body work after the crutch to body shot and crowd clearly got the desperation of II trying to escape Roop’s shoulderbreaker finisher, but I wanted five more minutes after that escape.

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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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1975 Match of the Year

The Destroyer v. The Spirit AJPW 7/25/75

ER: I had never seen Kox as The Spirit, although it was not uncommon for him to work as The Spirit in AJPW. But right when I see him in his black mask, looking like Timothy Carey playing an executioner, I'm hoping against hope that we'll get some loaded mask cheating. And we do. Match starts slow but very satisfying, with some really cool controlled strength matwork. It's far slower than all this hot Catch Point stuff we're all used to, but I really dug it. It's all a long old man strength test, with little one ups peppered in, each man just trying to muscle the other down. Kox locks his arms in a cool way I've never seen, behind Destroyer's back so that he can roll him into an uncomfortable upside down position. Destroyer reverses a couple times so both men end up sorta twisted. Destroyer kneels on Kox's throat, and Kox comes up popping him with his punches that I love so much. All the lock ups in this felt tight, felt tough, and would always end with one of them tossing a punch, an elbow, a headbutt; Kox starts ripping at Destroyer's right eye and busts him open with a loaded mask headbutt, and Destroyer starts bleeding through his mask.

We go through a long and wonderful hide the weapon portion, with each man hiding somewhere between 1 and 4 weapons between them, loading their masks and their fists. Kox starts picking apart Destroyer with loaded shots and Destroyer is great falling into the ropes, onto his knees, getting knocked to the floor. Dick gets his own weapon and Kox is great whipping himself into the mat off loaded headbutts, and always eventually turns the tide by punching back to offense. Punching, headbutting, kicking Beyer in the face and chest as he's falling from punches. At one point Kox goes to plant his knee in Beyer's face and Beyer moves, and these old dudes are tough so they don't wear kneepads, meaning them knees get planted right into the mat. Destroyer pounces on Kox's hurt knee, and locks on one of the best figure 4s you've seen (on the correct leg!), and Kox does a great scramble to the ropes.

Ending is a little surprising as Jumbo finally has enough of The Spirit's cheating, grabs his leg, which leads directly to Destroyer rolling him up with a super snug cradle to win the third fall. I could see some people not liking this, but this match was right in my wheelhouse. From the early stalemate tough old guy mat work, to all the loaded masks and fists, I loved it. There were no slams of any kind, no suplexes, minimal bumps (Destroyer had a big one to the floor and Kox bumped big a couple times off loaded mask shots), just two brutes elbowing eye sockets and wearing the other out.

PAS: End of the road Killer Karl Kox might be one of my favorite wrestlers ever. Just a nasty old bastard who will split your eyebrow with a right hand or knee you in the throat. I also loved the early matwork portion too, nothing fancy, nothing tricky but really impactful. These are a pair of old dudes with crazy tendon strength and it was fun to watch them struggle in tests of strength in weird angles. Wrestling matches are full of traditional knuckle lock tests of strength, these guys were struggling from their back or their knees. Then we get the great mask hiding foreign object section. Destroyer is an old master at that and it is fun to see him have to deal with someone using his own tricks on him. It is like a Lawler match with the heel hiding a chain too. Every one of those foreign object shots were extra violent looking, the headbutts were sold like they should be, and the chain assisted punches really thudded. These no bump Kox matches are the best, I could watch him not bump forever.

All Time MOTY List

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All Japan Motherload...Resurrected? Giant Baba vs. Killer Karl Kox - AJPW 3/3/81, plus Bonus Baba!

[UPDATE] Months later the match showed up again online, but it will probably disappear at some point again. So anybody that didn't get to see Baba/Kox should go watch it, now.

ER: This match is so fucking awesome. And it's all gone. Our mysterious Japanese benefactor SKK and his glorious youtube page are all vanished and destroyed, and this match was the last thing I had written up from his stash. Looks at that blank youtube screen I'm leaving embedded on the page, itself an armband around our hearts. Perhaps some day he will be back. Perhaps some other dedicated loon will take over for him before the inevitable. Here's to this guy, and the next guy.


Because this match is so fucking awesome. It's also weird because it was the second to last match of Kox's career (he had a match in the states against Andre a year and a half later, which is also something I would pay money for the chance to see). So his final match in Japan is for Baba's PWF title at the age of 50. And it's really, truly great. Kox gets busted open from BABA CHOPS! And fires back with mean right hands and pointy back elbows, and his elbow drops actually look like they are going to crush Baba's giant ribcage. Kox really just plants them deeply, right into Baba's sternum. Kox looks like a million crusty old deans going up against a million lame fraternities, except this guy would destroy all Greek campus life. By the time it got to Kox giving Baba a brutal hardway brainbuster I was flipping out. This is flat out pro wrestling. Kox just picks up and drops Baba right on his giant head. Then Kox starts punching Baba with a loaded fist and playing hide the weapon, and sister you haven't lived until you've watched an old white man play hide the weapon, in Japan, against Baba. The falls go quick, Baba gets his same-size-as-Baba trophies presented after the match, Kox glowers, this is the best.


Giant Baba vs. Abdullah the Butcher - AJPW 4/7/79 - BONUS HAIKU


Two oddly shaped men
Baba chops to face break skin
Abby don't back down


Who are these two men
Abby blades his fucking ear
All from Baba chops


All great things must end
Fat guys have great elbow drops
Clearly a count out

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Digging in the Crates Podcast #3

It is an all Segunda Caida show as I am joined by Eric to discusses some matches for a future Schneider Comp.

Digging in the Crates #3

Here are links to the matches

Spoiler v. Wahoo McDaniels NWA Houston 4/21/79


Bradshaw/Terry Funk/Dustin Runnels v. Too Much/Jerry Lawler 7/25/98

Giant Baba v. Killer Karl Kox 3/81

Carlos Colon v. Stan Hansen 2/87

Also check out

Shock Cinema Magazine 

The Mynabirds

And stay listening past the theme song for a post credit scene!! Marvel style!

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1976 Match of the Year

Killer Karl Kox v. Dick Murdoch AJPW 12/9/76

PAS: There are some classic long AJPW title matches this year, but fuck that noise, give me Dick Murdoch and Killer Karl Kox beating each other bloody. Kox opens up Murdoch with brass knuckles and a ring bell hammer, and Murdoch sprays blood all over the ring. Nothing particularly fancy as this is basically the bar fight between the two meanest old Vietnam vets at the VFW hall, they had been needling each other for years until finally they kicked the barstools over and let it loose. Kox may have almost as great punches as Murdoch, and may have had an even prettier brainbuster. The match didn't have a real finish as both guys just started beating up the locker room just so they could keep pounding on each other.

ER: I imagine a lot of people would be turned off by a match like this, that featured two men literally punching each other for 20+ minutes. There is a dropkick, and Murdoch uses the Cattle Branding. Everything else is punches. Some people won't like that. Those people are not people that I watch professional wrestling with. This match is magnificent. It looks like that early scene in The Apostle where Robert Duvall's Apostle E.F. takes a baseball bat beating to his wife's new youth minister lover (jeez it's weird thinking Murdoch was 5 years younger than me when this match took place). This is the Director's Cut of that scene. This match is just beautiful in its simplicity. Two men fighting. Both bump great, love KKK getting hung up in the ropes, bouncing all over. Loved all the knux shots, loved Kox blading for the Cattle Branding, Murdoch hits a gusher, and literally every single punch thrown over 20 minutes looks great. This is a classic.

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