Found Footage Friday: Universal Pro Wrestling 1992~!

Bulldog KT (Gedo)/Pat Tanaka/Villano IV vs. Coolie SZ (Jado)/Lightning Kid/Jerry Lynn Universal Pro 8/18/92

MD: It's important you know that Lynn and co. come out to Don't Cry by Asia. Also that Pat Tanaka is a huge jerk in this match and I'm all for it. They did a lot in 20+ minutes over three falls. It was fun to see Villano work with Lynn (bounding fast exchanges) and Kid (hitting him really, really hard and then taking all of Waltman's karate bs). The heels worked together well, lots of setting a babyface up for a double team or single shot. There were some nice pushes by Tanaka, on a suplex to give it extra oomph and then to set up the finish by basically shoving a victory rolling Lynn and Villano out of the ring. Gedo and Jado generally worked together but their stuff looked practiced, solid, and usually pretty mean. After coming back from a relatively long, cycled beatdown, Lynn broke up a hold on Kid and they hit a tandem missile dropkick/Northern Lights. Second fall had some funnier stuff from Lynn as he tossed Tanaka into the corner and Tanaka twisted twice on the way and then got down on his hands and knees and dog barked Gedo out of the ring. But it came back together for the fireworks down the stretch. 

ER: I was pretty blown away by this, a frenetically based long three falls match where every guy is working fast and hitting harder. Everyone had standout moments, with Jerry Lynn being the guy who blew me away the most. Lynn looked ready to work any promotion in the world, breezing into Japan and working smoking hot dodging and tumbling sequences with Villano IV, throwing perfect snug execution on everything he attempted. His offense makes extravagant bumps look necessary. When he hits a dropkick to Villano IV, it makes sense that it sends him flying out of the ring; when he blasts Pat Tanaka with a clothesline, he swings it so hard that it makes Tanaka's inside out flip bump seem like the natural way to get eaten by that clothesline. Everything Lynn did was crisp, established the pacing of the match, and followed through to logical match building conclusions. When I say I was blown away, I mean it. Jerry Lynn is a guy who I view as a known quantity. We've all seen many JL matches, we all know he's talented, the industry respects him, he's worked everywhere, etc. But seeing Lynn here is like seeing him for the first time, seeing things he was capable of that never defined his style. Lynn really could do it all...but I don't know how often I've seen him doing It better than he does here. 

The thing is, everyone kind of comes off that way. Jado and Gedo as beefed up Mr. Perfect Singlet Boys is the most interesting version of them in the 90s. I love the wave of T&C Surf Designs inspired Japanese indy wrestlers of the late 80s/early 90s, from the surf punks surrounding the ring in the most violent late 80s FMW Different Style bouts, to these two beefy Malibu boys in their mullets and surf suits. It's unfathomable to me that 1992 Jado and Gedo had great clotheslines, but video doesn't lie. Jado throws a top rope clothesline as hard as Ikeda ever threw, and that's arguably the toughest clothesline to throw well. Gedo blows up Jado with a clothesline that would get Tenryu's attention, and it's a wildly more interesting version of themselves than all their bad juniors wrestling the rest of the decade. 

If Pat Tanaka was a real jerk - he was! - then Villano IV might have been an outright sadist. This man was in his late 20s and a physical danger. If I praised Lynn's execution, then V4 deserves the same praise. Everything he does has such force behind it. He has these cool kneedrops, where he starts from a kneeling position and drives a knee into his opponent's temple, and I'm not sure I've ever seen legdrops thrown with more force. I didn't think you could get such impact from a standing legdrop, but Villano made them look like real finishers. 

But the thing that really stood out in a match filled with standouts, was Villano IV and Lightning Kid starting off the third fall with a literal shoot fight on the floor. I couldn't tell why it escalated, but they clearly start throwing increasingly harder and harder shots during a routine sequence. I don't know the exact moment it turned unprofessional, but Villano knocked Kid to the floor and Kid came up throwing elbows meant to crack jaws, and Villano recognized the intent behind those elbows immediately and landed five straight punches to Kid's face and head. This all happened within 15 seconds, where a hard Villano club to the back turned into a Kid shoot elbow, and suddenly Kid was fleeing while wisely shielding his face as Villano finds every uncovered part and lands every punch he throws. No idea what happened, but there's no mistaking those punches for worked, and whatever might have happened didn't affect Kid's big comeback in the tercera, which played as great retribution. Villano IV stood in for spin kicks and cooperated to make it look like a strong comeback, taking all of his kicks and making the decision to not punch him directly in the face, again. 

Gran Hamada/Panterita del Ring vs. Shu el Guerrero/Scorpio Jr. Universal Pro 8/18/92

MD: Shu and Scorpio come out to Simply Irresistible. Good for them. Anyway, I struggle a little with matches like this. There's just not a ton to say. There were 12+ minutes of bits/spots to start, and they were good! A lot of them were really good. But do I just list them? There wasn't a lot of rhyme or reason to them. There was a little bit of progression with early matwork, but after that, it was off into bit-land. Yes, Shu based well. Yes, Scorpio had some moments of stooging, including a great one where Pandrita was able to roll through on something, drive him out, and force him to walk down the ramp hands up in retreat so there was no dive. There was a great bit where Shu swiped away a Panterita dropkick and slapped his chest repeatedly only to end up in the corner for a knee driving headscissors takeover. Hamada in general looked like a million bucks. Then they had a few minutes of beatdown which was, again good (really liked a catapult where Shu choked Hamada down onto Scorpio's knees), and a comeback with a strike exchange and some big dives, before Shu scored a clutch powerbomb and a pretty swank tied up pin. Definitely good action. A lot of character and personality. Super entertaining. I'm sure DEAN would have been able to write the hell out of this. But all I can do is bear witness.

Kendo/Great Sasuke vs. Rocky Santana/Super Delfin Universal Pro 8/18/92

MD: This was the main event, 2/3 falls. By the way, the first match on the show, that we don't have, is Black Magic vs Rey Bucanero. Though it's 92 Bucanero so he was like 12. Ah well. Kendo comes out with a soccer type shirt with himself on it. The fans are immediately behind him.

The initial Kendo vs. Santana and Sasuke vs. Delfin exchanges (two times) are a lot of fun. Nice tricked out back and forth with Kendo and Santana where they both hit the mat hard and Sasuke being insanely flexible against Delfin. Some nice comedic bits in there as well, like Santana getting skidded out and Kendo sliding out to invite him back in and Santana faceplanting a few times. It's mostly friendly though Delfin takes (and misses) a swipe at one point. The fall ends with the pairings getting switched up and Sasuke flying off the top on both Santana and Delfin leading to a funny bit where they toss Kendo off and Sasuke tosses him back on until he finally sits on all of them for the pin.

Second fall switches the pairings for real, with Delfin falling for all of Kendo's tricks and Santana feeding for Sasuke. The rudos take over though and run a beatdown on one than the other than the first again. They tease a comeback but Delfin gets a tornado DDT and locks up Kendo for the pin. After that, Kendo gets rolled out of the ring hurt, and I thought this was going to turn into a different sort of match. It lets the de facto rudos control for a bit but Kendo just comes back in pissed a few minutes later and he gets into the most ridiculous kneeling strike exchange with Santana that I've ever seen. They whack each other, then fall over backwards then get counted and pop back up and do it some more. It goes on for quite a while and it is a crowd pleaser. After that, they pop right into dives with Sasuke knocking everyone out with the Space Flying Tiger Drop to get the countout win. Definitely fun. Might have been interesting to see it take a more grisly turn but that's not what they were doing here. 

ER: I love these proto-MPro matches where you can see the style almost fully gestated, the lightheartedness with the stiffness, the innovative movement with the strong lucha inspiration. I love Rocky Santana within this world. He understood the kind of regional lucha comedy that would crossover well to Japanese Indies, while also working stiff enough to capture the attention of the rest of the crowd. They laughed when Santana charged into the ring and tripped on the bottom rope, face planting into the ring and crying to the ref for support. When he did the exact same thing in the second fall, they ate it up, fully understanding his vibe. He bases as well as Hamada and moves the same, but he'll also break down and start punching people. The whole match building to a long stretch where Kendo and Santana kneel in front of each other and do several minutes of stiff punches, comedy punches, and exhausted punches, is brilliant. We've all seen enough "two men throwing strikes with no defense" at this point, but it's crazy how many innovative versions of that exist on small lucha shows and Japanese Indies. This exchange starts normal...until the strikes start becoming unexpected, sometimes silly, sometimes mean, thrown in a totally unpredictable rhythm. It looked like Kendo and Santana were playing some kind of memory game that nobody else knew the rules to, and this memory game involved being punched in the jaw, ear, and neck. I've never seen an exchange like it, one that had multiple goals and just kept going until everyone in the building was on board. That's wrestling, baby. 

Read more!

New Footage Friday: LIGHTNING KID~! RICKY BLUES~! MORGUS~! CACTUS~! GOODFELLAS~! SHINZAKI~! COLLYER~!

Lightning Kid vs. Ricky Blues WIN 11/15/92

MD: Unless I'm (that is Cagematch) is mistaken, this was a week after the Rheingans/Saito vs Lynn/Kidd match we covered previously in NFF. Blues was a local guy who worked off and on all the way to 2011, including as "Watsumi the Rising Sun" (but only sometimes as he also seemed to wrestle "Watsumi the Rising Sun" in this era), and he was game to do everything he could to keep up with Waltman here, including almost killing himself on a twisting dive off the top rope to the floor. This was a match that would have probably blown minds four years later, let alone in Dundalk, Maryland on a card with Axl Rotten and Don Muraco teaming in 1992. It was definitely as much of a spotfest as you could get in an indy juniors match for this time, though it was hard not to be distracted by the four person announce team with a more-than-competent woman trying to call it around the local promoter, a heel announcer, and a feigning (?) drunk suspended heel manager trying to get reinstated to buy Morgus' contract. Ultimately, that made it a nice little slice of its time while being entirely ahead of its time with Waltman coming off like a major attraction that brought everyone around him up towards his level.

PAS: Wild shit that had I seen in 1992 would have pulled my wig back. We all know Waltman, especially in 1992 when he is trying to make his bones, he is an undeniable presence, but still let's give it up for Ricky Blues. This was worked at a breakneck pace, with really crazy spots, and he was right there with the Kid every step of the way. Two nutty dives to the floor, including a really wild moonsault, some killer shots including a great back elbow and never felt a step behind what Waltman was doing. I mean really only Waltman and maybe Liger was working like this in 1992 (and even Liger was more deliberate) so give this guy credit for meeting him step for step and spot for spot. Loved the powerbomb counter for the near fall and the crazy bodypress which both guys took a wild bump for, leading to the countout. What a trip this was. 

ER: Hard Rock Ricky Blues! I know little about the early 90s Baltimore indy scene, but lucky for me I actually do as they just had the exact same guys as they did in the late 90s Baltimore indy scene. But I've never heard of Hard Rock Ricky Blues before tonight, and now I'd like to see some more. This had a ton of exciting moves that I hadn't personally seen in 1992, and the entire 4 person commentary crew looked like they were beamed from a 1982 local evening news broadcast (and who is the woman on commentary who appears to know more about wrestling than the guys?). We get some really exciting dives, starting with a Lightning Kid tope con giro that wipes out a woman in the front row, and I'm always impressed when wrestlers manage to work relatively safe in a snug ringside area with no barricades. The fans were really close but it didn't stop Kid from hitting that dive, then throwing a spinkick right under Blues' chin with that woman literally inches away (our camera angle looked like she reached down for something and Kid immediately kicked over her, but I think it was just the camera angle). Blues hits a wild moonsault press to the floor (again right next to people) and Kid hits a sick cannonball off the top to the floor. Nuts. They packed a lot of action into a 15 minute match, with Kid doing some small things I've never really seen him do (like a cool diving punch to a kneeling Blues). Blues had a really crisp top rope frankensteiner, quick sitout powerbomb, big press slam to START the match, and a great crossbody that took both to the floor for the count out. Please tell me that we have the 2010 Ricky Blues Sr. vs. Ricky Blues Jr. match?

 Cactus Jack/Morgus the Maniac vs. The Goodfellas MEWF 11/12/94 - GREAT

PAS: Really nifty southern tag with a solid but understated performance by Cactus, he takes a nice shoulder bump into the post and has a fun hot tag, but is a relatively minor player in the match. I really enjoyed the three others guys here, Morgus is a fun indy Roughhouse Fargo, and does a nice job working face in peril building to Cactus. I am not familiar with the Goodfellas but they ruled here, fun stooging, with the MX/Super Delfin arm wringer spot and lots of backfired headbutts on Morgus, but when they took over they laid in a big beating, great looking kneedrops, hanging suplexes and a huge top rope elbow, feels like guys that should have had a bigger career

MD: This was from November of 94 and it felt like Cactus teaming with a hard-headed Maryland version of Jimmy Valiant by way of Norman the Lunatic. Casanova and Valentino were guys whose peak of success were as enhancement talent on WCW and WWF TV but had a perfectly fine local act drawing the "greaseball" chants and holding up their end of this as cheating stooges with fairly compelling offense. Cactus didn't do anything too over the top here (a legdrop on the apron but certainly no nestea dive) but in this setting, you wanted him playing to the crowd and working shtick. They really built up the pumphandle spot, where one Goodfella would work over Cactus' arm and hand it off to the other, turned around on the apron, leading to the big payoff of him doing it to his own partner. They rule-of-three'd it with the payoff being Cactus hopping to the outside and waving to one Goodfella as he was pumping the arm of the other and it got a big pop. The heat on Morgus worked, as the heels had plenty of stuff and were going to lengths to get heat (clapping behind the ref's back to fake tags even when they didn't have to) and Cactus was a pretty good hot tag in front of this crowd. Morgus is a guy who was 500 on the PWI list a couple of years before and watching this, that felt about right, but formula tag matches are like pizza; so long as someone in the match knows what he's doing, it's hard to get it wrong.

Chad Collyer vs. Jinsei Shinzaki MPRO 6/00

MD: Nice, fairly grounded match that hit the high spots the crowd would have wanted (primarily from Shinzaki). Collyer was just a couple of years in here and they went back to pretty straightforward holds accordingly, but he was vocal and worked them well from underneath. About five minutes in, he had enough and hit a cheapshot during a rope break and his offense was ok. In general though, he was best at eating Shinzaki's stuff with enthusiasm here. The fans didn't go up for a ton in this one but they loved the rope walk, which looked as beautiful as ever. I personally loved the finishing submission where Shinzaki locked in a straightjacket camel clutch and just yanked Collyer in half.

ER: I thought this was really cool, never realized Collyer would be such a great foil for Shinzaki's offense. We got a lot of neat matwork, snug headscissors that really looked difficult to escape from, tight headlocks, and a tiny bit of personality from Collyer that somehow wasn't there as much a couple years later. Shinzaki didn't do any big flying moves but everything he did was really tight. His rope walk Baba chop really looked like a potato right to the hairline, and Collyer sold it fantastically, going down hard and kicking his legs like a guy who just took a leaping punch to the top of his head. Shinzaki's quick right throat thrusts looked great (and I didn't remember him as a "shake out your fist" guy but it only makes me love him more) and he really barrels right through Collyer on his top rope shoulderblock. Collyer had some nice looking brainbuster and an awesome tornado DDT. The tornado DDT was so great, as he clearly baited Shinzaki into throwing a strike while he (Collyer) was sitting on the top rope, just so he could catch Shinzaki in a headlock when the strike was thrown. You don't usually see guys baiting an opponent into taking a tornado DDT and it's a cool bit of detail work that someone should steal. Shinzaki's straightjacket camel clutch always looked wicked, and if you're talking about surprising things that no current wrestlers have stolen, that's another good one. 

Read more!

New Footage Friday: Waltman's Sampler

Lightning Kid/Jerry Lynn vs. Masa Saito/Brad Rheingans PWA 11/9/92

MD: What a weird match to exist. I don't have a great sense of Waltman's 1992, where he was done with Global early in the year and not into WWF until 93. There was one tryout match with Bob Cook in WCW and some shots in Japan. I could go back through old WONs but it doesn't seem worth it. If there were more PWA tags with Lynn, I'd be curious to see them. This was set up with Saito and Rheingans as monsters and Lynn and Kid as specialists, with the announcers really hammering the underdog status. Brad played de facto heel (and Saito more thorough heel) and it's such a great role for him. I've seen him on 90s undercards from Japan doing the same and he was very good at it. It almost makes you wish they paired him with Patera and Blackwell in early 80s AWA, but that was never going to happen.

PAS: Kid and Lynn were working as underdog blowjob babyfaces against a team of barrel chested murderers, and everyone played their role well. Rheingans hit a couple of big suplexes and a nasty powerbomb and Saito chucked Waltman with a Saito suplex. There was some nice moments of babyface fire, Waltman getting hyped up and throwing all of his karate at Saito was cool, and Saito sold it an appropriate amount. These makeshift teams worked well together and against each other and I would have been interested in a longer arena version of this TV tag.

ER: This felt like a syndicated WCW match in the very best way, with two teams that nobody realized had crossed paths all behaving the exact ways you'd expect them to behave. Rheingans and Saito are like stockier Steiners, and I loved the ways they tossed Kid and Lynn while also loving the believable ways Lynn and Kid fought their way into it. Saito is arguably the most brick house wrestler to ever walk, and I love how Kid goes off on him with cool kicks and Saito leans into every one of them looking like Thing deflecting bullets off his rock hide. Every time Kid or Lynn would hit the mat because of Saito, it looked and sounded like their skeletons were being rearranged. Saito hits a snap suplex on Lynn that should be a finisher, his dragon screw on Kid sent him most of the way across the ring, and his stiff arm lariats look savage. I love his Saito suplex on Kid, looking like one of those rollercoasters that keeps lifting you up higher and higher until the bottom drops out and you freefall. Kid's kick variations looked great, especially impressed at how damaging he made every dropkick look. Being vaulted into a dropkick is a tough spot to pull off, and not only did he do it several times here, but he used them to smartly set up Rheingans finally catching him and hitting a killer powerbomb. I really loved this, and would have loved a more fleshed out version of this pairing.


1-2-3 Kid vs. Diesel WWF 1/15/94

ER: This was worked how I expected, how I wanted, and most importantly how the fans in the building wanted. The whole match was Kid getting launched and tossed from high angles, big biel throws, gutbusting kneelifts, big sideslam, just picking Kid up by the neck and dropping him. Kid did not get a night off working Diesel, he was going to be taking some bumps, and he even took a doozy to the floor when Diesel pushed him away with a boot when Kid was going for his other leg. Kid bumps hard backwards into the ropes, flops around in them, then lands stomach first on the floor (luckily Diesel was cool enough to press slam him back into the ring). The moments where Kid took over were great, as there was no such thing as a wasted second. Kid attacked with speed, and legsweeps, and a ton of spinkicks. When Diesel would go down Kid would pounce immediately, attacking the leg by driving his knee into it. Kid worked like a guy who knew he was about to get caught, so he was just doing as much as he could until he got clobbered again. Growing up we would have a taco night every couple weeks, easy dinner, mom would make the taco meat on the stove and then we'd add our own fixings. Pretty normal family thing. One time I walked into the kitchen to see our cat Inky furiously eating as much taco meat off the stove as it could. She clearly knew she was going to get caught, but she just wanted to eat as much of that spicy taco meat as she could before getting caught. 1-2-3 Kid was just eating all that taco meat, before getting unceremoniously dumped over the top buckle with Snake Eyes. Inky did not have to take any kind of finisher.

MD: Diesel was a week away from his big Royal Rumble push and for Kid, this was during his week of getting to hold the tag titles with Jannetty. Quite the moment in time for these two. There was a lot to like here. Diesel was pretty giving, but not too giving, letting his legs get beat up but never in any real danger. Waltman bumped huge for him as you'd expect. They had some smart spots, like Kid losing the advantage because Diesel repositioned himself away from a top rope move; when Kid tried to follow up with a figure four instead, he got booted out of the ring; also, the big comeback spot of Diesel going for a second side slam off the ropes and Kid turning it into a headscissors take over. The crowd really appreciated it when Kid was on top here and got heavily behind him. Everyone loves an underdog but these two worked the match in a way that kept them engaged. Nice, short encounter that played to each's strength.

PAS: This was fun stuff, Waltman was such a crazy bumper for this era of WWF, and that bump he takes to the floor off of Nash's leg push was some Jerry Estrada level insanity. I thought Diesel was really good in this match too. He bumped and sold well for Waltman's moments of offense and when it came time to hurt him, he hurt him.


X-Pac vs. Bryan Danielson NWA 11/23/07

PAS: This was a real fun tournament match, which had a little more bite then a normal tourney match. I liked how it started almost genial with Waltman and Danielson exchanging armdrags and taunts, but then Danielson got pissed off and really beat the crap out Waltman, and then ended up brawling into the crowd. Finish run was a bit weak, I would have liked to see Waltman break out something a little bigger then an X-Factor, still this was good stuff and they matched up surprisingly well.

MD: This felt like a really good TV match to me, with Waltman really happy to be in there. The moment that will stick with you is when Danielson got the best of Waltman and did the crotch chop, because it's so out of character and because it cracked up Waltman (whether he knew it was coming or not). I think there are certain endemic issues about late 00s Waltman, whereas he's too trapped by the Syxx/X-Pac stuff and some of those moves and mannerisms. They tease and then pay off a bronco buster which really didn't fit the match or the character he was portraying but was sort of inescapable for anyone in the crowd who was more casual given how big a star X-Pac had been. One aspect of "TV matches," as a classification, is simplicity of a finishing stretch. Here, given the scope and the setting, they could have gone around once or twice more.

ER: I had never seen this pairing before (apparently they were on opposite sides of a big FIP elimination match, but seeing this distilled in a singles match is way more satisfying) and I loved how they matched up. I'm with Matt in that I wish Waltman didn't feel so locked into specific X-Pac mannerisms and moveset, though at the same time it lead to a couple of genuinely funny moments: X-Pac breaking an early test of strength to motion for Danielson to suck it, with Danielson doing something similar later in the match gave us the announcer - calling it like an actual sport - to say "and now a suck it from Danielson!" Also, when Waltman was bumping his crotch into Danielson's forehead, Danielson staggered back into the corner selling them like actual strikes, and I appreciate that. I did like the build up to the bronco buster, as it lead to moments of Waltman flying crotch first into the turnbuckles and lead to our finish of him getting boosted up onto the top buckle, but I liked Danielson beating him around the ring even more. X-Pac getting crotched on the guardrail and then clotheslined off looked real painful, as did Danielson's big bump that got them out of the floor to begin with. I love how many wrestlers were inspired by 1-2-3 Kid because they finally saw a smaller wrestler making it on a big stage, only to find out later how much larger Waltman was than they realized. Seeing how much Waltman towers over Danielson is a real sign of one thing wrestling has at least taken a step forward on in the past 15 years.

Read more!

Saturday Night Digging in the Crates: Lightning Kid vs. Wellington Wilkins Jr.

The purpose of this project is to do a deep dive into the muck of the internet and pull out the hidden gems. Find a match which hasn't really been talked about and shine a light. This match is on one of Goodhelmets yearbooks, but outside of that it is pretty much unknown.




Lightning Kid v. Wellington Wilkins Jr.  PWA 11/90

ER: Man this match was such a blast. Wilkins is a stocky cruiserweight who's built like Backlund and spends 20 minutes ragdolling Waltman around the ring with awesome throws and weird matwork. Not many people in wrestling history have played the role of ragdoll better than early 90s Waltman. Wilkins is a guy who I admittedly have not seen much, but this match has me excited to break out all my M-Pro and see how he roughs up guys much tinier than Kid. Here he takes the full 20 minutes to stretch and smash Kid, starting with all sorts of trippy leg and arm grapevines, like Volk Han crossed with how you thought Dean Malenko actually worked when you were a teenager. Then he goes into all these wild bridging suplexes and powerslams that must mean he has the neck strength of a gorilla. He would just grab Kid by a convenient appendage and toss him, sometimes into a crazy bridged suplex, another time into a nasty over the shoulder backbreaker. Kid is always a good comeback worker, and here he gets to break out a bunch of desperation strikes, and if any of them whiffed he was great about selling a limb that Wilkins had just worked over. Awesome find, this.

PAS: I love a violent torturer as a heel gimmick. Wilkins is nicknamed "The Mystic" and is basically working as Olivier in Marathon Man. He is just ripping and tearing at the joints and muscles of a 14 year old Waltman and it periously close to watching child abuse. Waltman is actually a heel coming into this match but is a such a great sympathetic babyface that he turns himself during the match. The fact that this was a draw bites into it a bit, as the Kid just looks like a badass for surviving this beating but it doesn't build to a crescendo. Still incredibly violent and compelling for a random US indy match in 1990. 

Read more!