Found Footage Friday: SOLAR IN PANAMA~! GALVEZ~! FUJINAMI~! CANEK~! WOLFIE~! DUNN~!

Solar vs. Sergio Galvez Panama

MD: The first two caidas of this were just ok but the tercera was pretty great. I liked Galvez in general. Sometimes, he'd have a stomp that felt a bit too light, but he was really a good cross-section between scuzzy and bestial. Moreover, he started on the forehead by jumping Solar before the match and never stopped. Honestly, it was such focused mask and wound work that it caused some big problems for Solar later in the match. When his comeback finally arrived, he had to manage keeping his mask on to the point that he couldn't have nearly the fire you'd want. Thankfully, by the start of the tercera, he recovered and battered Galvez around ringside.They really went deep on that one, a ton of submissions and nearfalls and back and forth action. At times, Solar was just yanking Galvez by his shirt into a surfboard. At one point, when Galvez had him in a crab (which he had used to win the primera), Solar patted him on the back to make him think the ref was calling it off, that old trick. Between that and some beard pulls sometimes the match felt like it lived up to the stakes more than others. Solar won both falls with big spinning quebradoras where the ref did just call it, so that was a little weird, but the fans were totally behind it. The segunda definitely felt off here, but they more than made up for it down the stretch.  

Tatsumi Fujinami vs. El Canek 4/23/81

MD: I wasn't too sure about this on paper. Juniors Fujinami vs the World in the late 70s or start of the 80s is almost universally good but Canek tends not to be the most inspired opponent in general. In specific, on this night, however, he had quite the chip on the shoulder. It seemed to stem from the pop Fujinami got as he came out to the Japanese Social Distortion sounding live band that our resident expert (https://forums.prowrestlingonly.com/forum/1538-puroresu-history/) thinks was there for Tiger Mask's debut. He tossed his flowers down right at that pop and attacked him right at the bell.

He dominated for most of the match too, even if Fujinami had some awesome comebacks. Early on he dropkicked him right in the face but couldn't follow with a diver. Later on, he repeated it and did get that dive, which itself followed a crazy face first plancha from Canek. Like I said though, this was mostly Canek, just leaning on Fujinami inside and outside of the ring the whole way through as if he really had something to prove. Whenever Fujinami started to come back, he'd just throw his whole body at him: a neckbreaker drop, a front dropkick off the apron, that huge dive. Eventually, Fujinami got absolutely fed up and started on the mask, pulling him around the ring and into the turnbuckle with it. The ref took umbrage and got punched by Fujinami for his trouble. Post match, they kept going at it and if this was Mexico it'd all have led to mask vs hair challenges. Instead they'd have a UWA match in Juarez about a week later, but that I don't think we have. Surprisingly great Canek performance here and good fire from Fujinami at the end.

Wolfie D vs. Steven Dunn (Weapons Match) MCW 12/19/98

MD: We get a solid six minutes of action before things break down here. If I'm not mistaken Wolfie was with Ashley Hudson and Flash Flanagan as the Black Sheep. Dunn was half of the Vols, of course. He gets to the big plastic trash can of weapons first and unloads on Wolfie with a chair and a bat and a crutch, so we get blood immediately. From there, they go back and forth pretty steadily with Wolfie choking Dunn with whatever he can get his hands on and both guys coming back pretty evenly without interesting transitions. That's because it all was leading to a big one, with Dunn lifting a 2 x 4 between Wolfie's legs. He ends up tied in the ropes and is about to get chair shotted into oblivion when Hudson comes out with his boomerang (since he's Australian) and the two Black Sheep completely destroy the ref, a second ref (by tossing the trash can at him) and Dunn until Sawyer makes the save. Pretty good, heated, piece of business to set up some big matches to come. They gave away just enough but not too much given the escalation to come.

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Found Footage Friday: DOUBLE DOG COLLAR CAGE MATCH~! ADNAN IN IRAQ~! GUERREROS~! CHICANA~! LA FAMILIA MARKUS~!

Adnan Al Qaisi vs. Ian Campbell Iraq 1970

MD: Long 2/3 falls match that ends 1-0 for Adnan at the time limit (either 45 or 60 depending on clipping). This had been out there in parts but is newly clipped together in a welcome effort. You get a real sense of the imperial pageantry here, officials and a band and parade feel, even though the same footage of a few fans (out of the very many) is interspersed now and again. Let me put it this way. Campbell knew what was good for him here, knew what was safe and what wasn't. They weren't going for heat. They were using this as a showcase for Adnan's technical superiority. As such, it was a pretty effective dog and pony show.

Campbell had a size and strength advantage, but Adnan had an answer for every hold. Towards the last fifteen minutes, the answers were a little harder to find and Campbell could press harder with a full nelson or chinlock, but even those ended quickly enough by prying off an arm or pulling out a leg. In return, Campbell could use his strength to escape Adnan's stuff, but he'd find his way back in sooner than not. It meant that individual exchanges could be interesting, but that the total picture was a bit toothless. At times they'd break out into strikes. This first happened around the ten minute mark as Campbell was starting to register some of the damage to his arm. He had a great little bit where he trapped the arm behind his opponent's back with a hammerlock and tossed in a nasty forearm, but even there, Adnan fired back with a flurry and a jumping elbow smash soon enough. They repeated this a few minutes later and that's when Adnan got his one fall.

Considering the locale and the one repeated shot from the crowd of someone sweating profusely, it was probably sweltering there and Campbell was a big, hairy guy, but they kept a pretty good, competitive pace throughout. They'd go from a handshake to mean shots and back to a handshake so things were never going to come close to boiling over, but as they got towards the end of the time limit, Adnan increased his intensity, using leg kicks and just tossing Campbell out over the top repeatedly. That made it seem something of a moral victory for Campbell that he was able to survive to the bell (whistle?) even if he was a fall down. It was wrestling as celebratory propaganda, but as such it was fairly fascinating to watch, just maybe not 50 minutes worth of fascination.

Sangre Chicana/Gran Markus Sr./Gran Markus Jr vs. Chavo Guerrero/Hector Guerrero/Mando Guerrero CMLL 9/18/87 

MD:  Roy's back posting, always a good thing. This was from the 54th CMLL Anniversary show and at the very least hasn't been streaming online for quite a while, if ever. The bits in between falls are clipped out so it moves at a fast pace. The announcer also gets Mando and Hector confused for a good part of this and almost psyched me out, but no one moves quite like Mando. Primarily, it's another Sangre Chicana match in his prime, so that's exciting, but he's more of a dodgy chickenshit here, throwing shots now and again but mostly on the run. He gets slammed onto the floor right as this ends, so that's some comeuppance but it's more about everyone else. Markus, Sr., maskless, has a sort of enjoyable weighty swagger to himself. This is the guy we saw in so much of the Houston footage, just older. Jr. on the other hand, is younger than what I'm used to and a bit more spry. This opens up with fun in-and-out matwork between him and Chavo. Chavo's in the most but Hector has a nice snap belly to back and the end of the primera is a combo of that belly to back and an axe handle off the ropes. And of course, Mando is a ridiculous beast like always, full of contorted, tricked out offense: takedowns and monkey flips and bounding around the ring. There's a lot more to the opening feeling out stuff than the beatdown or the comeback, but both are spirited enough. If this led to some sort of Chicana vs Hector or Mando match, I would have liked to see that too.

Bart Sawyer/Steven Dunn vs. Ashley Hudson/Flash Flanagan (Double Dog Collar Cage Match) MCW 1997

MD: Very timely Bryan Turner upload here, though not timely enough to make Phil's list as an honorable mention. Sawyer was attached to Hudson and Dunn was attached to Flanagan. Babyfaces dominated early. There were a bunch of chairs in there, both wedged in the corners and just free floating and Dunn used them liberally. That led to free flowing blood. They'd switch advantage for a bit. Very few big setpieces here and just a lot of violence. That said, both Sawyer and Hudson did fistdrops off the turnbuckles with the chain wrapped around their hands onto the other. My most vivid memory of the match itself was probably Sawyer choking Hudson with the chain as Dunn stomped on his groin. There was a lot of that sort of thing here, but plenty of cage shots, chair shots, and chain shots too. It all built to a ref bump and Dunn accidentally clocking Sawyer. That's when things got really fun. Sawyer stared at Dunn, slowly took off the dog collar, snatched the key from the ref, and went to leave the cage. Dunn tried to stop him and ate a kick and a DDT for his troubles and Sawyer locked the cage back up on the way out, taking the key as the fans shouted 'traitor' at him. Hudson and Flanagan made short work out of Dunn after that, finishing it with a leg drop off the cage from Flanagan. Then, as Prentice (I think) taunted everyone on the house mic about how this was his New Year's present for everyone and not to worry because "It's just Steven Dunn", they absolutely dismantled him after the bell. No one could help since the heels had the key. Finally, Sawyer came back in to finish him off. Good match and a truly great post match angle.

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5 Minutes with Chris Hamrick

Chris Hamrick vs. Dr. Feelgood MCW 8/5/98

ER: This was so cool, and reminded me a lot of the Vic Grimes/Erin O'Grady WWF tryout match. Now, that match happened at a sold out Raw taping and this match happened in a small building in lovely Smyrna, TN, but the vibe of putting all of your coolest moments into a tight 5 gave it that spiritual tryout match feel. Hamrick's pants were resplendently tasseled, the best kind of gear for a dynamic bumper like he and I liked Dr. Feelgood's terrible gear too. I'm not sure how many official years of medical school or training that Dr. Feelgood went through, but he's got the Caduceus on his tights and the smock shirt of perhaps a phlebotomist-at-most or RN-at-likeliest, and he would have stood out as more of a bumper himself if he weren't opposite one of the all time greats. 

These two packed so much lunacy into this. Hamrick pulled out a springboard plancha and this awesome springboard stomp, hanging Feelgood over the middle rope and springboarding into that stomp, boot smacking him precisely across the face as Hamrick landed in a knee slide like he was doing a Chuck Berry guitar solo. This felt like a dance they had both perfected, and the only one who wasn't clued in on what they were doing was the cameraman. I would have been furious at this guy if I was Hamrick, as the camera kept zooming in on Hamrick and mostly missing all of his craziest moments. The camera pulls in too close on the plancha, misses half of the classic horizontal Fuerza bump to the floor, and then completely misses the somersault bump off the apron to the floor. We catch the aftermath and Hamrick holding his back, but this is an unforgivable cameraman sin. The reality is that Chris Hamrick had such unseen and unexpected bumping and offense that camera people hadn't yet caught up to what he was doing. Dr. Feelgood had some big stuff of his own, like a fucking top rope powerbomb (!), a really cool pop-up atomic drop, a doctor bomb, and a nice tilt a whirl backbreaker. Somehow the blond bombshell powerbomb is not the actual finish, but it comes back for the finish when Feelgood goes for another and Hamrick leaps off the top rope to snare him with a super rana. The leaps of faith that Chris Hamrick takes are almost unparalleled. He had such excellent form on his big moves; a man who knew how to fall in ways that nobody else could. 

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The King Can't Recall, Recall Your Name

Jerry Lawler v. Tazz MCW 11/4/00 -FUN

ER: I mean I had to know the piledriver no sell was coming but this one was annoyed me the most out of the Tazz series, mainly as it was kind of done as a mid-match throwaway, in a match that was already a scant 5 minutes. I mean it was used the same way you would use a ducked clothesline, just a way for Tazz to transition directly back to offense. But the only thing he does to capitalize is just punch Lawler a few times. Pretty big waste of a spot that should be a huge moment in a match against Lawler. I'm actually pretty surprised Lawler would agree to something like that. Seems like something most workers would have an issue with when going over the layout. All that aside, I actually enjoyed the match. Maybe not quite as violent as their brief WWE feud, but Tazz plunked Lawler in the forehead a couple times, Lawler was wearing his boss white tights/black singlet get-up and worked around Tazz nicely. He threw a bunch of cool punches and surprised Tazz from behind with the dropkick. Really great fistdrop that I've never really seen him throw before, as this was more dropping down to a knee the way Roman Reigns punches the mat before the Superman Punch. It looked great. Also gotta love that when Lawler committs to hitting the fistdrop, his missed fistdrops look just as great. Tazz moves on one from the middle rope and Lawler really jams his wrist on it. You can feel the knuckle pain.

PAS: I could easily see this being a GREAT if the either did away with that piledriver spot or placed it better, I did like the announcer attributing the no-sell to Tazz's lack of a neck. I liked the brawling a fair amount, although the finish with a unnecesary ref bump leading to Tazz missing a somersault senton was really weird. Since when did Tazz have a somersault senton? Why a ref bump before he did it? Was he worried it would take him so long to climb the ropes that the ref would count him out?
The entire match was really just a backdrop to a Memphis Power Pro invasion with Bulldog Rains, Brandon Baxter, Randy Hales and Derrick King at ringside. I just wanted to see the King v. Derrick King uncooperative interpromotional matches, Derrick King would make an awesome Tenryu.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE KING

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You Should Have Given Your Love to The King, It Couldn't Do You No Harm

Jerry Lawler v. Steven Richards MCW 1/20/01-GREAT

ER: I know I've said it before but Stevie is just a great opponent for Lawler, since he really feels like a nice throwback to an 80s Memphis worker. Here they work a cross between violent arena brawl and studio comedy match, with some fine brawling (loved Stevie's fist drop into kneeling choke) and both bringing some great comedy. Lawler went for his great corner 10 count punches...but then thought Stevie could use some more, so ended up doing about 50 corner punches. Greatest spot in the match - and really one of my favorite spots I've seen in any Lawler match - was him taking the strap down, and Stevie panicking and pulling Lawler's strap back up, as if it would immediately nullify his superhuman strap down powers. So Awesome.

PAS: Yeah I was a big fan of this match too, although it was a bit stally in the middle especially for a short match, and I hate the Lawler stunner and the dumb finish, but man everything else ruled. Stevie is a guy with some really nice punches and bumps and can really do some shtick. I want to second the greatness of the replace the strap spot, such a brilliant spot and can't believe I hadn't seen it before.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE KING

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