FOUND FOOTAGE FRIDAY: OMNI 7/3/83

7/3/83 Full Show 

Bill Irwin vs. Brett Wayne

ER: Great combo of guys, a weird size mismatch but not a wrestling mismatch. We're both big Irwin and Sawyer fans, two more men who've had their career cases bolstered by all this Omni footage. Irwin is this great wrestling weird guy, a stumblier Terry Gordy, big and lunging and always off balance a bit. He's a stomping lummox and Brett Wayne is a strong underdog who connects with the Omni setting. He's great at fighting to his feet, he's great at taking offense with real expression. The way he rag dolls on a big backbreaker is just one good example of his emotive selling. Irwin mostly in control, but that off balance gait makes him feel less in control. 

Irwin builds to his biggest offense, and it's all powerful stuff. His gutwrench and vertical suplexes land heavy, and I loved his Bruiser Brody kneedrop. Fresh off an All Japan tour where he worked exclusively as Brody's partner, he does a pitch perfect impression of Brody's bodyslam and King Kong kneedrop, only Irwin's kneedrop looked better. Everyone in the Omni and my house thought Irwin was missing that kneedrop when he was setting it up. It hits square and Brett already has his foot on the ropes. I wish it had missed so it didn't lead directly to Brett fighting back with babyface fire. 

The count out finish is excellent, as Irwin tosses Sawyer to the floor and Brett gets his whole leg hung up over the guardrail as he lands. The guardrail isn't even especially close to the ring, a whole commentary table and more away, he just flew. He takes another, different kind of great tumble over the rail when Irwin boots him from the ring. Great rail work. Buzz Sawyer saunters out as this is happening, and there's a great bit where he keeps half heartedly talking Bill out of jumping off the top buckle to the floor as Brett is struggling.

MD: Loved this. Great way to get the crowd going. There was a massive size difference but they milked it as far as they could. In the first exchange on the mat, Wayne scrambling free got a massive pop because they made a big deal out of it. Then Irwin complained about him being greased up. The first few minutes were bit after bit, Irwin missing an elbow or running into a boot or getting twisted around while trying to control the arm. Celebratory babyface shine stuff made better by the connection Wayne had with the crowd, the size difference, Irwin's willingness to stooge. 

He did take over and there weren't really hope spots or comebacks so much as big kickouts from Wayne, starting with a kickout at one. Because it started the sequence, it had a completely different effect than a late match nearfall that was about fighting spirit. It was a bit of defiance before Irwin had beaten him down as much. At one point he managed a kick out and the place went nuts and Irwin slapped the mat in frustration. Then Irwin hit the knee but Wayne's leg bounced up on the rope for a great visual. He got mad at that (instead of making faces) and tossed Wayne out. Wayne took this amazing pinball bump over the rail, and then when knocked off the apron as he was trying to come back went sailing over it again. Great stuff leading to a countout. Post match, Irwin menaced him like he'd come off over the top but officials stopped him. He still got over for the sheer threat of it given his size.

Bob Sweetan vs. Killer Brooks 

ER: I love Killer Brooks' look as a wrestler so much, a total dirtbag who looked like Ricky Jay without success. He has the look of a man to be looked at with scorn, and the Omni all feels that scorn. This is a man to avoid as he's buying his beer and Twinkies at the store. Brooks is so hateable on sight that the Omni is excited to see noted huge piece of shit Bob Sweetan punch the hell out of him. That's what this is, a big fat piece of shit punching a scum bag around the ring while the scum bag begs off and takes funny bumps. Killer Brooks is one of the more underwhelming wrestlers I've come across in our 20 years of 80s projects, but he's great at getting punched around by Sweetan. Sweetan had a great bit where he kept badly hiding headlock punches from ref Nick Patrick, but the crowd disliked Brooks so much that they kept siding with Sweetan and saying he did nothing wrong. The time limit draw finish is unsatisfying, but Brooks' scramble at the finish was the coolest part of the match. Mr. Piledriver finally sets up the piledriver, and Brooks, panicking, floats his leg out to the ropes while dragging Sweetan down with a double leg. It looked more spry and agile than anything I've ever seen Killer Brooks do, so it's possible it was all an accident. 

MD: I'd say this overachieved. Same idea as the first match in some ways but this time Sweetan was more the aggressor and able to push Brooks around. Fans went up for every punch, especially the ones in a headlock that he hid from the ref. Brooks took over with a cheapshot or two and kept laying in punches (big stomp ones). Sweetan hulked up with a "Now you've done it" look that got a pop fromt he crowd and Brooks did take a draping face first bump into the corner. They kept brawling to the bell for a time limit draw. Pretty minimalist overall but you can't really say it didn't work. I do think Brooks needed something extra during his control whether it was working the crowd more or a little more variety in offense, but the fans still went up big for Sweetan's comeback. I would have rather a double DQ for too much punching than the draw maybe too.

Tully Blanchard vs. Pez Whatley

MD: Ah, this is why they didn't do the DQ in the previous match. After cutting Pez off on a comeback, Tully got DQed here for pounding on him in the corner. Then they had a post match of Tully running into a bunch of punches before he got the upper hand and more or less kept his heat on the way out in the Tully way. Match itself was a lot of fun. First few seconds were beautiful as Tully turned a handshake into a slap and then ran like hell. Of course he got clowned shortly thereafter. Then he reached over the ref to hit a cheapshot in the corner and was off to the races. What a jerk. What a pro. Little odd to see him in this setting but he was going to get over as a heel anywhere and he clearly did here.  

ER: I could have watched Tully go after Pez for a half hour without getting restless. Tully is both for this, born to move as despicably as possible. I think I love this match structure, where Tully beats Whatley's ass by being an underhanded but tough asshole for 5 minutes then Pez beats Tully's ass for a couple minutes after the DQ. Tully's movement should be studied. It's dickhead Baryshnikov, strutting around on his tiptoes after cheapshots and violent outbursts. That short elbow he shoots into Pistol's jaw, before violently pulling him by his trunks through the ropes to the floor? That's what I want. I want that trunk pull, that sudden jolt to the waist that sends Whatley's head and shoulders folding to the apron. The crowd hates Tully's shit pants smug strut after. Pistol's punches after the bell were hot fire, and Tully takes two big spills for him. He drops like lead from a missed middle buckle elbow, and flies fast through the ropes to the concrete to put over Pistol's atomic drop. If I could be guaranteed a Tully match like this on every indy card, I'd ho home happy with wrestling every time. 

Ronnie Garvin vs. Iron Sheik

MD: Weird card so far. This was a deal where the title was on the line for the first ten minutes only but it didn't matter because it was a non-match. Garvin choked him with the towel and kept choking him with the towel and the ref just threw it out. He said he was going to give everyone a July 4th gift and get Sheik out of the country and then really didn't do that. They did leave the fans with a happy memory as Garvin atomic dropped Ellering into Sheik on the floor. Still, this had to feel a bit like a rip off. And actually, that's maybe not the best idea in general, because Ellering was in the next match and it was built at least a little about deferring punishment to him. This card is kind of all over the place even if specific bits are okay in isolation.

ER: This was hot, smoking hot. Garvin is an animal and Sheik is great at being overwhelmed by this haircut of a man. The timing and scrap of it all was tremendous. It was a great Paul Ellering match, a guy we don't always praise and a guy who doesn't always add to a match. Here he's excellent dressing, a bee buzzing on the periphery and getting tangled into and out of the action in ways that felt like a guy actually breaking up and exacerbating a fight. When Nick Patrick would get tangled with them it would get even better! Sheik gets hung by the neck from the top rope that Garvin used to distract and snare like a gi. These Omni DQs/count outs/messes are great at building to a climactic explosion of someone out of the ring, and this one was perfectly executed: Sheik's flying into Ellering with a running kneelift, Garvin sidestepping at the last moment. Timed to the T, with nobody looking around for a cue. The sense of space from all used to max effect. 

Stan Hansen/Tommy Rich/Ole Anderson vs. The Road Warriors/Paul Ellering

MD: I feel for Arn that he wasn't in the Tommy Rich role after they made a big deal about him not going with Ellering in the build. This is Ole in his Bill Watts standing tall phase and he is over but it's still weird. Also weird is Hansen and Tommy Rich as tag team specialists and, of course, like always, the Roadies eating so, so much offense in the extended shine. It goes on forever. Very fun to see Hansen cutting off the ring by blocking so Rich can come in and keep the assault on. He also hit a great monstrous belly to back out of a headlock.

Pretty interesting heat. They kept cycling in the babyfaces (first Hansen) and controlling with headlocks using hairpulls or their own corner to keep control. There'd be tags but it'd be right back into the headlock. They opened things up on Rich which let Ellering tag in quickly over and over to get cheapshots. Eventually he kicked his way out of the corner (to great applause) and made a hot tag to Ole. Ole ended up back in the headlock and they really worked it this time. I thought maybe they took the fans a bit too low because there'd already been a hot tag but when Ole started to fight back, the fans did get up for the comeback. He went through the legs which was a wild image and got a hot tag to Hansen. Everything fell apart after that and I think the Roadies were DQed for tossing Rich over the top. Man Mountain Darsow (who just debuted on TV) came in to take care of business and the fans did like that. Too many inconclusive finishes on this one, I think.

ER: Hansen vs. The Road Warriors is so sick. He looks so damn tough against them, he looks towering. The way he knocks them both back with chops, the way he moves both with no issue, it's marvelous. Hawk and Animal are not yet Hawk and Animal. They are not will imposers yet, they are machines without full ideas of what to do. They're 10-20 matches into a 2,000 match career, a feeling that has never been felt before. Think of being 10 of 2,000 into anything. Your 10th ever beer, or your 10th ever burger; how those would be if Stan Hansen was punching your neck while you had it. Hawk has this nasty side headlock grab that looks like some real ranked bouncer Dalton sweep up the eyeballs toughness, and Hansen just lifts him cold and quick with a back suplex, like it was instinct and the easiest way to shake off a 275 pound man. 

The Road Warriors are infants with fuzzy Monchhichi haircuts. Hawk, always gifted with finding surprising ways to take offense, apparently had that skill from go. I watched it back a few times when he ran through a Wildfire punch to his stomach, stumbling through it and out of it with a leg buckling forward roll.  The Road Warriors long headlock control wasn't my favorite. Animal did the greater portion of it and his control was too stifling with too little advancement; too slow burn without catching fire, too smothering to lead to rewarding babyface selling, minimal intrigue given to Tommy and Ole in the headlocks. The headlock on Rich was enough, we didn't need one on Ole. Rich finally tagging out to Ole was one of the best parts of the match, Ole great at fighting messily through Hawk and Animal and Ellering for good measure. 

The real treat is after the match, as I've never seen any part of Barry Darsow's one month long Man Mountain Darsow era. His rarest persona. He's dressed like a 5 year old who likes big truck, and big hulking baby who's a Real Man's Man. Unrestrained Darsow is a sight. It's the biggest I've seen him outside any modern YouTube thumbnails. Had I been there and been even slightly more interested than the depressed man in white slacks in the front row, I would have thought Darsow was a future wrecking ball no different than Hansen and the Road Warriors. I wouldn't have known about how much he would call people goofballs.  

Buzz Sawyer vs. Scott Casey

MD: Casey had come in from Southwest and built this with a promo that he heard Sawyer was the toughest guy around so he wanted to fight him. Meanwhile, there had been some Rich and Sawyer animosity (re)building with a great backstage fight at the last Omni show. This was definitely good. Buzz got outwrestled to start, and he made it very engaging, constantly moving and flailing, teasing clean breaks and handshakes, taking his signature bump sideways out of the ring after a punch during rope running. 

He took over with a spinning heelbutt in the ropes after all those clean breaks and his cutoffs were all wild bits of body motion as he got his feet up. Finishing stretch had him missing a huge top rope knee drop and then holding the ropes after a roll up reversal. I could have used a little more on the comeback but this was really just to set the stage for Rich making the save for Casey and the two of them having a wild bloody brawl around ringside. Better to save the energy and fans' attention for that. 

Larry Zbyszko vs. Mr. Wrestling II

MD: We've not covered the weekly TV the vault has been posting leading up to this show. Those have had less great matches and more were great episodes where stories ran throughout the show.  

They had built to the last match by having this great show long story with Larry saying Wrestling II didn't deserve a shot followed by II winning a handicap match (pinning one person after another with his new pal Rick Rood coming out to ensure Larry didn't interfere), and then Larry's crony Killer Brooks failing to pin two guys, the second being Rood, after II came out to help him. 

That led to the last Omni show having Wrestling II get a pinfall on Larry that was counted by by Rood while the ref was down and stealing the belt. On the next show, they instituted a new rule where in case of a draw, a ref could decide a winner, and it was all about setting up Killer Brooks and guest commentator Wrestling I as co-refs for the upcoming match.

The following week, Larry finally got Geigel to force Wrestling II to give the belt back to him, but that led to a $25,000 vs Mask challenge where Larry brought in Tully and Wrestling II had Pez as his partner. They'd do a three round elimination tag. The reason for this was clearly because GCW TV wasn't set up to do one long match over the whole show. That defeated part of the purpose of the TV to cut promos for the weekly shows around the horn. By doing it in rounds, they could be a bit like Portland who would do promos between falls of 2/3 falls matches. The elimination gimmick was more to put Wrestling II's mask more at risk and build the story of the match. 

That was fun (even if it was weird to see Tully as anyone's second banana) and led to Wrestling II beating the odds.

Which brings us to this long, long title match. Like I noted, it was a great build and we were lucky to see it. 

The premise here is that with the two refs, Larry wants to wrestle clean if Wrestling II dares. Wrestling II does dare ("Mr. Zbyzsko, my name is Mr. Wrestling"). Brooks is all cleaned up which is funny to see. 

So they work this match for far longer than you'd expect with Larry getting one-upped hold after hold, exchange after exchange, and throwing a fit on the outside (with the fans counting along) only to come back in and get shown up again. That meant headlocks that II was able to keep despite Larry's best efforts, times where it looked like Larry might have gotten an advantage with something legitimately slick only to immediately lose it, and rope running where he did A-B and C right only to get clowned on D. At one point, when Larry was disengaging to try to figure out what to do, II grabbed the house mic and said "I thought you wanted to wrestle" to a big pop. We've seen this a thousand times, but I've never seen it taken to this level where they just run it for so, so long building up pressure for him to totally lose it. And the best part was that they had the fans the whole way between the build, the premise, and the execution (including and especially Larry's selling of the humiliation).

Finally, Larry got frustrated enough to throw a punch. Brooks (playing it even) was quick to admonish him and II hit a kneelift, only for Larry to go sailing out. Then the humiliation continued. Roll-ups, rope running, monkey flips. There'd be little glimpses of Larry losing it, not breaking clean in the corner, escalating to a body slam (only to get slammed immediately himself), but he kept going back to the wrestling, even having just a bit of luck with a full nelson. It wasn't enough and II escaped. That's when Larry lost it and kicked II through the ropes onto the table on a rope break. This was a whole 30 minutes into the match, which is a massive testament to the two of them, being able to keep the ball in the air that long.

Larry opened things up from there, peppering in punches on headlocks. Both I and Brooks (surprisingly) admonished him. He'd keep throwing punches, with Brooks doing most of the admonishing. Because he was giving him grief, there was only so much I could do, even as Larry came back for more punches. Eventually though, that little bit of delay, that little bit of distance let II start to duck and weave and mount a huge comeback.

Things get a little muddled for the finish unfortunately. We get a bit of out of the comeback clipping leading to a double down. II then does get the kneelift but Larry's hand is in the ropes and Brooks starts giving II grief. That causes I to get in his face and Brooks to toss I out. I eventually comes back and takes Brooks (who had been more or less doing his job) out of the match. II has a clear advantage down the stretch but can't quite put Larry away before the bell. As it rang, he had him in a great sleeper, with Larry's legs far, far out causing a big visual lean. I awarded the match to II (given the new rule that refs could do that on a draw) but said the belt should stay with Larry. The clipping hurts it a bit and it'd almost be better with only one ref (though it did help cover some of Larry's punching, maybe), but overall, I thought this was a fairly big accomplishment to pull off.

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New Footage Friday: ARKANGEL DE LA MUERTE!!! MR. NIEBLA!! TEXAS HANGMEN!! RODDY PIPER!! ADRIAN ADONIS!!

Roddy Piper/Tim Brooks vs. Adrian Adonis/Ron Starr PNW 3/31/79

MD: About ten years ago, I went back and watched all of 79-82 Portland and there are very few pro wrestling pastimes more fulfilling. This wasn't part of that collection and I think it's because it was part of the syndicated show as opposed to the live (or delayed) Saturday night one. It seems like every other match we're watching these days is "before its time," but the shine here absolutely was. Starr and Adonis basically pinballed themselves around the ring in interesting and coordinated ways to land upon Brooks' leg. Meanwhile, on the apron, Piper showed ass by bumping himself in reaction or because he tried too hard to reach for a tag. The structure was interesting here. It was absolutely heel in peril, by definition, but it didn't wear out its welcome. Part of that was because Piper never made it in, so it wasn't the babyfaces dominating both heels, which is something you never see. Right when Piper did make it in, he launched a few "karate" cheapshots and the heels took over, controlling the ring, distracting the ref, etc. They had a double clothesline behind the ref's back lead to the heel's first fall win but a dodged one led to the finish and that's the kind of callback that always works for me. So yeah, it's cliche, but this was before its time, but then a lot of things in Portland were, tag wrestling especially. If nothing else, this is worth seeing for babyface Adonis.

ER: I really love the Portland wrestling scene of the 70s and 80s, and I wish that kind of thing were sustainable today. The crowds were always really great from the footage we have, and this kind of match seems so unique to PNW. Loved Piper's extended bagpipes squawking, and it's wild to go from minutes of bagpipe practice to minutes of Tim Brooks' knee getting ripped apart. Brooks is a guy who shows up in a lot of territories and is immediately the worst guy in the territory, but I really dug the Piper/Brooks team and thought Brooks was a great addition to the match. He had this great veteran taunting rope running to before the bell, hitting the ropes too close to Adonis and Starr under the guise of warming up. Adonis and Starr had some real heavy leg work on him, both of them flying high and landing on Brook's leg. Starr even comes off the top rope onto it! Babyface Adonis is a real treat, with his feathered hair and 100 lb. lighter frame. You can see his potential for being a chubby boy, but here we get him looking like the lead singer of Grim Reaper and it rules. Piper has become one of my absolute favorite wrestlers over the past 5 years or so, someone that was hiding in plain sight for so long. His style is so great and I can't believe he wasn't recognized as a greater in-ring guy, as he's really someone with a super extended period as an excellent worker. His Portland work has such a manic energy to it, always infectious. This got a lot of time and at the end of it I wasn't left feeling that the guys had done a ton of "big" stuff, but they all knew how to nail small moments that the match just kept sustaining.

PAS: I was shocked at what a great babyface team Adonis and Starr were, for a pair of guys who rarely worked babyface and didn't seem to have a long run together, they had a bunch of smooth double teams and great shtick. I loved all of the early leg work including some great fast takedowns from both guys, and a lot of leapfroggy drops on Brooks' knee. The Russian legsweep/superfly splash combo they used to win the second fall was dope, as was all of the taunting of Piper. The in ring breakdown of heels in the match was about 80/20 in favor of Brooks, which is suboptimal. Piper is really fun getting aggravated on the apron though. Any new Piper footage is a mitzvah and this had some really nifty moments from him.

Texas Hangmen vs. Carlos Colon/TNT WWC 11/3/90

PAS: Standard southern tag match, with the added addition of a wild start and finish. I loved Puerto Rican baseball stadium brawling, and the Hangmen jump the faces in the infield and they go after each other. We even get TNT smashing a Hangman's head into home plate. The in-ring stuff was solid, including Colon getting opened up. TNT is a fun hot tag too, love his spinning kicks. Finish goes back to the dugout with El Profe running to the locker room to grab bullropes and the locker room emptying. We could have cut five or so minutes in the middle, but otherwise this was good stuff.

ER: I'm always going to love the atmosphere of a big Puerto Rico baseball stadium brawl. I'm happy with 20 minutes of punch and kick as long as you have those great visuals of rowdy people in a bleacher, people standing up from their folding chairs on the infield, you get scenes of Ferris wheels and carnival rides out past the outfield, and it's just the best wrestling vibe. The first 12 minutes of this match are just TNT and Colon beating the Hangmen pillar to post, just the Hangmen stumbling around the stadium and ring getting punched into position. TNT has a bunch of spinkick variations, a big heavy swinging leg that he uses a bunch in control and during a late match comeback, his big leaping kick, big savate kicks and superkicks, punches with dramatically long follow through, and the Hangmen served as great punching and kicking bags. Colon is a ball of energy that is impossible to root against, too easy to feed off the crowd's reactions to him. Every time he or even TNT got any kind of a strike against the Hangmen, the crowd exploded. Colon is an animated puncher, a violent take on the classic dancing babyface, someone with a good foot shuffle and leapfrog to lead to a big coconut crush headbutt, and the fans losing it for all of his movements makes it so much better. Colon gets busted open, the Hangmen (Bull Pain among them) are good kick punchers themselves, and the match gets even more electric when they roll back out to the infield. Castillo and Los Medics running in front the outfield to break up Profe's bullrope choking was a spectacular wrestling moment, we get a great pull apart with the locker room, all of it is pro wrestling eye candy.

MD: I thought this had a great atmosphere, with the stadium crowd being up for almost everything, and bookended by the wild brawling out of the ring. Right from the start, we have Colon slamming a Hangman's head into home plate which is maybe the best way to start any match in the history of wrestling. I loved how TNT and Colon worked together for merciless shine. I've seen Abby in this (very Memphis) role as the absolute extreme of a partner Colon can unite with, but TNT brought the crazy kicks and mobility while keeping all of the manic unpredictability. Meanwhile, Colon was running around with a fork, preemptively, like he was Abby. It's Puerto Rico so both transitions involved low blows, but the Hangmen's control section was good, even if they were more sound and solid than violent and brutal like the match probably warranted. TNT's hot tag was cut off and cooled down a bit since they had to wait for Colon to recover and set up the end brawling. The bullrope beatdown and post match with the faces trying to keep Colon and TNT from going after the Hangmen off the field all really worked for me. Just good PR spectacle with a solid foundation.

Mr. Niebla/Oriental/Tsubasa vs. Arkangel De La Muerte/Zumbido/El Engima CMLL Japan 8/13/98

PAS: CMLL Japan was such a fun promotion, with a bunch of cool 90s luchadores just going all out for short Nitro lucha matches. Man it is easy to forget what an absolute athletic marvel young Mr. Neibla was. He was just flying all over the ring with really impressive pop and height on everything he did. Loved his feint into an over the turnbuckle tope, great vertical leap, would have loved to see what his combine numbers were. Zumbido and Arkangel were really great rudos (Zumbido shows up in shows around Denver and still fucking rules) and I always loved the way Zumbido's mullet would spin along with his dives. Enigma (who we think is a young Mazda) has some nice moments, but almost dies on a tope when his feet get caught. Good stuff, and I am looking forward to digging into more of the new stuff they are uploading.

MD: 9 minutes of all action, big dumb lucha spectacle with no real narrative but lots of bodies flying around. Of these guys, I think I'm least familiar with Enigma and I thought he comported himself well, in his opening exchange with Tsubasa and then eating all of Oriental and Tsubasa's tandem stuff. Plus he had the makings of a rolling Northern Lights Suplex sequence. Zumbido was charismatic as ever. There's not a lot you can do storywise in nine minutes though I guess I did sort of appreciate the 30 seconds of Arkangel putting Niebla in holds before a micro comeback and the dive train/finish. It's amazing what you can do with even the tiniest bit of glue.

ER: Love CMLL Japan, Phil is right that it's always sprint Nitro lucha, and it's always filled with guys who had enough fun spots to fill a Nitro lucha match. Niebla was such a king during the late 90s, super graceful height on everything and a willingness to die on dives and bumps. He jogs lightly around the ring to laughs from the crowd before slingshotting himself effortlessly over the top in a wild torpedo of a dive. Zumbido is a top 20 favorite luchador for me, a great rudo with huge bumps and spectacular highspots, whip crack strikes and tight rolling. His mullet flows in mesmerizing ways while his tassel pants are among the best in wrestling history, making every Zumbido roll through look like a crashing wave. Arkangel does rudo in Japan well, and here he's the big bumper in a match filled with them, taking a super high backdrop from Niebla, crashing on arm drags, and taking dives. We get several big dives to the floor: Tsubasa hits an Asai moonsault that flattens Enigma, we get a sloppy-but-reckless fun dive train with Enigma catching feet and faceplanting, Tsubasa almost breaking both ankles flying over Zumbido with a somersault senton, Zumbido hits a wild dive on Niebla that sends him face first into the 2nd row, Enigma mans up a mere 15 seconds after crashing on his dive and sinks a perfect catch on a big Oriental moonsault to the floor, all action that feels wholly like CMLL Japan. I love when stuff shows up there, always a must watch for me. 1998 was the first year I got into lucha so this era and these guys have major nostalgia for me, and it's always great to see how it holds up.

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Jose Lothario Never Thought He'd Plot a Course for Failure This Long

Jose Lothario/Alberto Madril v. Dick Murdoch/Killer Brooks Houston 3/31/78 - GREAT

PAS: This is a 2/3 falls match for the Texas tag titles and is 3/4ths awesome. Lothario v. Murdoch isn't a huge part of this match, but is predictably spectacular every time it happens, and Madril is great as both face in peril and hot tag during different points of the match. Madril isn't a guy I have seen a ton of, but here his awesome punches stand out in a match that also has Dick Murdoch and Jose Lothario in it. We had a great build and an awesome finish run with Madril hitting a great football tackle on an interfering Gary Hart right before the pin. Unfortunately Killer Brooks is a perpetual turd in a punchbowl, he just looks so ineffectual and weak when he is the match. His punches are lame, his stomps look like they wouldn't pop packing peanuts and he can't bump. If Murdoch had a replacement level partner, this would be an EPIC for sure, Killer Brooks ain't that.

Jose Lothario v. Kamala WCCW 9/25/88 - SKIPPABLE

PAS: On paper this looks like a cool match, but it was pretty much a Kamala squash, with Kamala getting DQ'ed after bloodying up Jose. If this led to a blow off match it could be a cool angle, but I am guessing it was just used to put over Kamala.

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DVDVR Puerto Rico 80s Set: Hercules Ayala vs. Killer Tim Brooks (Taped Fist Cage Match) (October 1985)

Disc 1, Match 12: Hercules Ayala vs. Killer Tim Brooks (Taped Fist Cage Match) (October 1985)

This was more enjoyable minimalist fare, the sort of thing I expected from the set. I've seen a decent amount of Brooks in Houston lately, and he varies with his opponent. Some of it has been in those nigh-impossible to watch two-ring six man tags where you never know where to look and the wrestlers' have a hard time building a narrative. Ayala, after two matches, feels like the definition of a large body that has his opponent orbit around him and create the motion and the action. In that, Brooks did an admirable job here, using the gimmicks to full advantage.

The story of the match was that Ayala would beat Brooks to a pulp with the taped fists and Brooks would stooge and sell and beg off. The few advantages he got were due to low blows or cheapshot kicks. It's one of those matches that could have used a real heat segment but, at the same time, didn't suffer quite as much as it should have because the beating was thorough and consistent enough. The fans paid to see Brooks trapped in a cage with Ayala and for Ayala to punch him a lot, to open him up, to focus on the wound, and then, towards the end of the match to slam him into the cage, hit a few power moves, and win. That's what they got and it's hard to fault the match too much for it.

I liked the double gimmick aspect of the match. It meant that they didn't have to go to the cage early, instead focusing on the punching and the power of the taped fists. They get that over immediately in a very clever way with Brooks missing an early punch, hitting the cage instead, and not selling it at all, a testament to how hard the tape made the fists. He'd indirectly use the cage later on to hit the second and top rope more than he would have otherwise, but it really didn't come into play until the end of the match, when blood had already been introduced.

This is going to be another hard one to rate as it was very one-sided. Still, Ayala played his part well. His 'comeback,' if you want to call it that, after about twenty seconds of actual heat, felt impassioned enough to make up for the short time. That paired with Brooks' reactions was just potent enough to make the match feel like more than it was, which is the magic of pro wrestling. I just don't think it was quite magical enough to rate well on the set as a whole.

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