Found Footage Friday: MACHO PUMP~! KOMACHI (MISTICO)~! TOGO~! ORIHARA~! SABU~! TAKA~! SASUKE~!

Masao Orihara/Macho Pump vs. Sabu/MIKAMI Michinoku Pro-Wrestling 10/16/03

MD: We come in a little JIP here but you get the idea quickly. Orihara and Pump grind down on Mikami and it's ok. It's consistent and competent but it's lacking the pep of havint Togo in there. You're just sort of waiting for Sabu to get in. That's the point though, because once he does get in, it's electric. They try to double team him and he just is having none of it. Then he puts the chair in the center of the ring and hits a jumping knee into Macho Pump in the corner; Pump immediately falls throat first onto the opened chair and it's brilliant. Eventually Mikami ends up back in and this turns into an Andre tag where the partner keeps getting dragged down to build up the anticipation for a little bit of Andre. After the second Sabu showcase we get the finishing stretch which has Mikami finally getting to shine with a ton of interesting and seemingly physically impossible roll up attempts on Orihari before Sabu has his final burst and wins the day. Pretty fun stuff once it got going. 

Dick Togo/Masao Orihara/Macho Pump vs. Kesen Numajiro/Hayate/Komachi (Mistico) Michinoku Pro-Wrestling 10/19/03

MD: We've got people kicking and screaming and begging to see a sparring content in front of no crowd between Malenko and Mistico and they can instead watch baby Mistico get beaten on by Togo, Orihara, and Macho Pump. People's priorities are all messed up. This was very good. Bad guys ambushed right from the start and took the first three-fifths before things broke down for the rest. It was a near-perfect balance enabled by the lack of a shine or a feeling out process.

They started on Komachi (who was in matched gear with a matched act with Hayate), and he had one good bit of hope towards the end of this with a handspring but generally just got beat on and screamed. He was figuring it out though his natural instincts were pretty good. They spent longer beating on Numajiro though. Sharp stuff from the rudos though they didn't have a lot of tandem offense. It was more one guy setting up the next for something nasty. As always Togo stood out but everyone carried their weight.

Eventually Numajiro ducked for a heel miscommunication spot and Hayate and Komachi came in hot with big offense and dives. They cycled through a bit after that with everything feeling earned and most things having a little twist to them before Togo finally flattened Numajiro for the win. This went down smooth. Just real easy wrestling to watch and enjoy.



The Great Sasuke/Jinsei Shinzaki/Hayate vs. Dick Togo/Taka Michinoku/Macho Pump  Michinoku Pro-Wrestling 12/16/03

MD: The great thing about heel TAKA is that not only is he a total dick, but he makes everyone around him more of a dick as well. That means that you don't just get him paintbrushing Sasuke in the corner, but you also have Macho Pump playing with Sasuke's mask tassel at the same time. The match was full of stuff like that, but counterbalanced by the fact that the other side, most especially Shinzaki, weren't going to put up with it.

So you got that great mix of the bad guys being really bad and then getting justified and satisfying comeuppance, stooging and bumping and flying around the ring for the other side and taking all of their signature stuff. The video goes around twenty and is a little more back and forth than the other matches we're covering this week but doesn't feel nearly that long at all. Things would build to chaos and calm back down and build back up again until finally boiling over into a hot finishing stretch. We ended up with three different variations of the theme this week (as you might expect) but all three were very watchable. It's so easy to just drop into this stuff and visit for a bit.

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Found Footage Friday: KACE~! CRAMMER~! LOS COWBOYS~! HAMADA~! BABE FACE~! INDOMITO~! M-PRO 8-MAN~!

Johnny Kace vs. George Crammer NWA Chicago 1961

MD: I was doing so well with the Monterrey footage too, but I just can't resist going for the matches that people are showing interest in with this old US footage. People were describing this as a Regal vs Finlay archetype and I can sort of see it but it almost comes off as a proto-UWF match in some ways. These are two guys that get very little discussion overall. We have maybe two or three other Kace matches, for instance. The 60s are just a black hole relatively, unfortunately. He was the NWA Midwest Heavyweight Champion here and the title was on the line. 

And this was just fifteen minutes of mean, dogged, pro wrestling. Kace charged right in to start with a top wristlock and worked the nastiest hammerlock you'd see. That was the thing with both wrestlers. They constantly worked every hold on both ends. That could mean constantly torquing a toehold or driving down and in with a hammerlock or trying to get some sort of leverage to escape only to have the opponent topple your bridge with a tiny movement. It was constant shifting, constant pressure, constant selling. Constant motion in a way that made the match feel competitive and ramped up the stakes and consequence for everything that happened.

There was always the sense that each wrestlers was one well placed punch away from a reversal. Kace controlled early but Crammer would take over with some gut punches and a hammerlock of his own. They'd work up to slugging one another and then back down into a hold and back up again. Kace was obviously a mean bastard with a mean mug and Crammer had the fans behind him through ruthlessly and mercilessly giving Kace everything he deserved, making him choke on a poetic taste of his own medicine. There was no semblance of shine/heat/comeback here, just constant pressure creating implicit storytelling. Crammer would eventually shift to the leg but Kace snuck out and hit a few backbreakers for the win. Even though he came off as entirely credible in victory, it still felt more like he survived the challenge by the skin of his teeth than anything else. That's how hard they were going at one another.

Gran Hamada/Silver King/El Texano vs. Dr. Wagner, Jr./Indomito/Babe Face CMLL 1991

MD: Good and heated.. The central pairing was Texano and Indomito. If you're not familiar with Indomito, he was a Black Power in UWA and a Payaso (Coco Amarillo) in AAA. In the middle he was dressed in a powder blue Zardoz type gear with poofy Ronnie Garvin hair. He had a boxing background but wasn't really going to compare to the punches Babe Face and Hamada (a secondary pairing) were throwing at each other. This started with a rudo ambush and he was good at directing traffic and keeping things laser focused on Texano, who I think, ended up bleeding. The tecnicos did an unusually good job at rushing the ring time and again to try to take back over, only to get beaten back. Usually it's all just beatings and churning until the actual comeback. My favorite bit in the primera was right at the end; Wagner and Babe Face were getting the submissions in the ring and Indomito just slammed Texano's head sideways into the board around the ring again and again and again. Truly the violence we need in this world.

Rushing the ring did work at the start of the segunda and we got a nice bloody bit of revenge. Indomito's bleached blonde hair was made for it. Tercera settled down to exchanges and a lot of Silver King/Texano's usual double teams which were all ahead of their time and smooth and effective. Finish was novel. Instead of clearing the ring for the final pairing, Hamada had Babe Face in a submission in the corner. Indomito redirected a charging Texano into the ref and took advantage with a foul. Nice little twist on the theme to cap off a good one. I have nothing to say about Wagner here except for how striking it is how little he stands out for basically the first third of his career considering what he becomes later. He's in the right place at the right time doing the right thing mostly, but it's sure not ever interesting.

Jinsei Shinzaki/Gran Naniwa/Hideki Nishida/Kazuya Yuasa vs. Kintaro Kanemura/Dick Togo/Tomohiro Ishii/Macho Pump Michinoku Pro-Wrestling 8/14/02

MD: Tough fan cam angle for this one as we miss the early crowd brawling and then have the babyface corner right in the center of the shot for a lot of the rest but these characters are so larger than life you're never at a loss for what was going on. They spent the first six minutes or so (once they got back into the ring) beating up on Macho Pump. Nishida lit him up with chops. Naninwa stomped all over him. Shinzaki walked the ropes. As with these big M-Pro tags, the section maybe wore out its welcome a little but really, who doesn't want to see Macho Pump get mauled? The heels take over on Yuasa and Kanemura, unsurprisingly, stands out. We really haven't covered enough of his stuff on the site but it all seems so self-evident. Just a big scummy, scuzzy, agile, charismatic, guy who comes at things from unique angles and who isn't afraid to crash and burn. Things eventually break down to Kanemura vs Shinzaki before cycling into pairings and finally landing, after the ring gets cleared, on Naniwa vs Pump, with Pump hitting or trying to hit all of his Rock offense and Nanina always a half step ahead. Structurally this was probably the proper balance but I probably would have liked it a little more if they had cycled through pairings to start as opposed to just having the faces beat on Macho Pump. I felt like we didn't get enough Togo in this one, for instance. 

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Found Footage Friday: SASUKE~! SHINZAKI~! TOGO~! ORIHARA~! BATMAN~! POTRO~! HALCON~! WILD RED BERRY~!

The Great Sasuke/Shinzaki Jinsei/Hayate vs. Dick Togo/Masao Orihara/Macho Pump Michinoku Pro-Wrestling 5/17/04

 MD: It's been a while since I've seen any M-Pro but this was the right guys in the right match at the right time, mostly. Every some early brawling that made me worried about the camera angle (it's fine for the rest), they got in and out of the opening exchanges (Pump/Sasuke, Togo/Hayate, Orihara/Shinzaki) fairly quickly. The faces got to show their flair and signature stuff that would hold up today for the most part and Pump got to preen; he always looks better than I expect in these when it comes to power moves, asserting himself, and even strikes. Mainly though, what stood out, and of course this wasn't a surprise, was just how good Togo could look in one minute of snapping stuff off and basing like a rooted tree standing in the center of the ring.

They went into a long, long heat, with the hope spots either being based on the faces getting a tag or one of them trying to interfere. There was that gang mentality of heels in M-Pro and it's often full of varied and interesting offense but it could get a little exhausting. You almost need the heat to go as long as it did because that helps to justify the fireworks of the extended finishing stretch but they would have been better served by a double heat or just meatier hope spots and comebacks, or maybe even a more defined central storyline. They tease Orihara and Sasuke having a beef but it's never really played up. That's really more of a nitpick or just expressing something that would have taken this over the top, because what we did actually get here was very good. 

Batman/Potro/Milo Caballero vs. Halcon de Oro/Diluvio Negro/Mongol Chino CMLL 1991

MD: Just a bit clipped up (we lose how the rudos take over in the primera, for instance, which is annoying) and I'd say just a little unfocused as well, but overall a fun undercard match. I don't have a great sense of who Potro is but he's got fun gear in blue and white with colts (horses) all over it, and something going on with the eyes. He's pretty smooth in there, including a fun spot where he armdragged everyone, including the ref. I haven't discussed just how racist the Mongol Chino look is, yellow gear with a yellow mask with a black fu manchu Hogan style mustache and slanted eyebrows. So that's not great. His rapid fire uppercuts are though, if that helps? Halcon de Oro is a perfectly fine undercard director of traffic in a beatdown and he had a nice whirlybird over the shoulder drop to end the primera.

The underlying story was rudo miscommunication that led to them almost coming to blows a couple of times, especially between Halcon de Oro and Mongol Chino. It sort of took the place of a central pairing but instead of it paying off towards the end, they just went into a dive train in the tercera and then some fun tandem submissions ending with Milo sneaking in and pinning the rudos after they had turned over a 5 person submission. You almost never see that actually ending a match so it was a bit shocking and probably good to condition fans to the possibility overall, but it also made everything feel anti-climactic.

 

Wild Red Berry vs. Carlos Guzman Long Beach, CA 5/22/52

MD: I know I said I wasn't going to skip around but I really wanted to see more Berry after that last tag I saw. This was interesting for some of the names of holds as much as anything else. An Irish Whip was a Kansas Cyclone. When they did cross-cross rope running it was a "Razzle Dazzle" and Berry's standing Figure Four that he won the first fall with was a Gilligan Twist. When Berry feigned arm damage after a series of Guman dropkicks that ended the second fall, a "Robin Hook" was Guzman draping Berry's arm over the rope and kicking it. Towards the end of the match when Berry started on the leg, he leaped down on it while it was dangling on the ropes and this was called a "Cannonball." We don't always see those differences in old footage so it was interesting.

I love Berry's act. He comes to the ring in his robe, signing autographs for kids and even giving them candy. Then the second he gets to the ring, everyone boos him and he's miserable. He's quick to tap his head, to complain, to make a big deal about the pre-match rule discussion with the ref. When he wins a fall, he celebrates  to the full extent. He seemed to drag Guzman down to his level to the point where both of them were sneaking in shots to each other's nose or playing dirty on breaks.  He reminds me, more than anything else, of Jonathan Harris in Lost in Space. Basic civility is impossible when he's around. It means that the matches never rise to a level of technical skill that some people might want from the era, but they're very entertaining in almost every moment.

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New Footage Friday: SATANICO! GARZA! SASUKE! SHINZAKI! NANIWA! ORIHARA! TOGO! BURNETT!

El Satanico vs. Hector Garza CMLL 12/8/95

MD: A lost match building up their big apuestas showdown. It's amazing how much they accomplished with relatively little time here. Satanico was just a master at maximizing every moment, in part by being so thoroughly committed to who and what he was. He fed and stalled immediately, letting Garza shine right from the get go, only to wrench his arm off the top when Garza went up too soon. From there, he opened him up on the outside and goozled him upside-down in the ropes so that the camera and the crowd could all get a good look at it. He then got overconfident allowing Garza to fight back from the outside, including biting. The tercera was fairly even but Garza got the big moment with a huge Finlay-esque whack against the apron. He also scored an escape from a Satan's Knot attempt and avoided a low blow, before Satanico deftly faked the foul for the finish. The goal here was to make Garza look tenacious and fiery while still making it seem like he was in legitimate danger for the apuestas match, all without giving away too much, and it definitely hit those marks.

PAS: This was great shit, a new Satanico singles match is about as great as it gets, and this was a killer Satanico match and a fun Garza performance. Primera Caida was a really fun minute or so, with Garza going up top a little fast, Satanico sidestepping him and putting on a fucking Kimura like he was Demian Maia or something. We get a little juice from Garza and a ton from Satanico, dropping plasma all over the ring. The fake low blow by Satanico was such a great finish. I have never seen anyone fake a low blow when his opponent slides through his legs like that, fun addition. I haven't seen the apuestas in a long time (maybe since 95) and now I really want to check it out again. 

ER: This was some simple, super effective stuff, with really the only highspot coming from a Garza missile dropkick. The rest of this was choking with boots and slamming faces into mats, and knowing it sets up an apuestas match makes it even more effective. I love the story of Garza going for some flash early and Satanico seeing it a mile away, leading to a couple of caidas of punishment. Satanico is such a violent presence that he can get a ton of mileage out of just jamming a guy's face into a turnbuckle or ring apron and then holding it there. Satanico is also so great at bumping for Garza, letting his legs go all rag doll and flop over themselves every time he hit the mat. Garza's big comeback face busters could have looked like junk, but here's Satanico whipping his face into the mat, getting his face nice and bloody while Garza bites at him. I loved how we started with Garza trying more complicated offense and getting his ass kicked for it, so when he comes back it's just him slamming Satanico's face into surfaces. And that's really all you need when you have an all time great like Satanico taking it. The finish was really inspired, loved Satanico going for a low kick but Garza seeing it and scooting back on his heels a bit, then Satanico's faked foul selling when Garza slides through his legs was an Oscar worthy performance of Man Gets Hit With Football. Brilliant.  

The Great Sasuke/Jinsei Shinzaki/Gran Naniwa vs. Dick Togo/Masao Orihara/Macho Pump MPRO 4/1/03 - GREAT

MD: Good mix of wrestlers here. I would have wanted a little more Togo, but you always do, really. What we got of him was great. I loved how competitive the opening exchanges were, with no wrestler hitting much of anything that they wanted to. The best of this Togo him blocking Shinzaki's rope walk strike, but it was all a pretty good opening. The beatdown kept things moving even if it wasn't very memorable. The finishing stretch was fun even if they shouldn't have had Samurai kick out of the double splash when someone else could have broken it up. We've seen a couple of surprisingly fun Macho Pump performances in these and this was no different, as really everyone did their part here.

PAS: Cool example of a MPRO house show from a relatively unexplored period of the promotion. Really enjoy the heel team, great bases for the fancy stuff, and we even got a Macho Pump tope. I don't remember seeing a bunch of Togo versus Shinzaki stuff before and they had some really good exchanges. I thought the the double frog splash probably should have ended it, but I am never going to hate seeing a Sasuke swanton. 

Jason Patrick vs. Malcom Sunshine vs. JM vs. Jimmy Saint vs. Future Mike Daniels vs. Aiden Hollows vs. Aaron Heights EPW 3/27/09

PAS: I asked SC favorite Chase Burnett to send us some stupid shit in honor of his return to Beyond this weekend, and he sent us this scramble match. I had only ever heard of Burnett (wrestling as Jason Patrick), Malcom Sunshine (only because I had seen and reviewed another Burnett match from this era) and Denver Colorado who was managing Saint (current Beyond Promoter). This was a Royal Rumble style scramble match with a new wrestler entering ever minute (which didn't really matter, match started with Sunshine and Patrick, and ended with them, and no one got eliminated until everyone was in). The standouts, were Patrick of course who had some crazy takedowns, a couple of big bumps, and even a moonsault double stomp. Sunshine who was bigger then everyone else and did a bunch of fun throws including powerbombing JM into a wall, and cruicifix bombing Hollows over the top rope. Jimmy Saint was great too, he was all old school execution, great looking fist drop and knee drop, and awesome spinebuster, I also liked how he teased a dive, only to hop off the apron and stiff everyone with chops. Finish came down to Sunshine and Patrick and they probably did a bit too much, although I enjoyed the bombs.

MD: I'm pretty consistent in what I like and what I want, probably to a fault, but when I see a 2000s Scramble Match listed, I know what boxes it's supposed to check. When I was 20 or so, I went to ROH Scramble Madness. I can, at times, put my mind back to that place. You're looking for spots, cool moves, bumps, the sort of stuff that you'll be talking about on the car ride home with about as much depth as the Chris Farley Show. I'd say on that level, this pretty much delivered. Burnett (who had to be pretty young at this point) was wrestling as Jason Patrick here and the throughline, as people came and went, was him and Malcolm Sunshine being in it. Sunshine's not a guy I'm familiar with but he had the sort of basing size you'd want in a match like this, serving as a wall that couldn't be chipped down and as a spoiler to cut people off. 

The fact they had peopled billed from Boston, New York, and LA made the promotion seem a bit more worldly and broad, even if it probably wasn't anyone you'd recognize. If it was ten years prior, they'd be the sorts of names I'd be looking for in the bottom hundred of the DVDVR 500 before going to an indy show. I liked Saint's act and could see him being the Franchise style heel headliner for a local indy, no problem. JM probably had the most of those "moves to be talked about in the car." I was promised Burnett bumps and got a few, including a great DDT bump/sell on the floor and a dive (and there were plenty of dives and a decent amount of standing around waiting for them) that looked gnarly as it wasn't caught quite right. The finishing stretch with Sunshine and Burnett went a little long after the match they'd already been a part of but was overall solid, doing a good job of establishing Burnett as an upstart heel that you have to give something to due to his talent and tenacity even if you're going to be ultimately disappointed by him in the end. For an indy at this level, a match like this accomplished a bunch of thing s and did more good than not.

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New Footage Friday: GORDY! HICKERSON! BLACKWELL! HANSEN! SASUKE! ATLANTIS! AMERICAN DRAGON! METAL MASTER!

Stan Hansen/Terry Gordy vs. Crusher Blackwell/Phil Hickerson AJPW 12/14/88

MD: Bizarrely giving Hansen performance. This is one of the most giving performances I've ever seen out of him, especially against someone who's not paying him. Was Blackwell bringing him in for shots in his Georgia Indy or something? Did he feel like he owed him for some favor done in 1978 Mid-Atlantic (if so you don't really see that bear out in their AWA stuff)? No idea, but this is a Hansen who's getting crushed by mass, beaten around the ring, and legitimately playing face-in-peril in a bear hug. When Hickerson is in there, he fights back a bit more, but then they just tag Blackwell back in. Remember, this is 89 Blackwell. He's huge, has great presence, and can still do an amazing elbow drop (and miss one for a transition too), but this isn't seven years earlier when he was missing top rope splashes and what not. And, of course, Gordy's on the apron playing clapping cheerleader. Eventually, he has enough, intervenes, survives charges into the corner long enough to get a foot up, and it's academic from there. I'm still filing this under "baffling."

PAS: Hansen was always very good at using his size to overwhelm, and it's cool to see him in the ring with two big motherfuckers who gives as good as they get. This was worn tread on the tires Blackwell, but he was still a quarter horse of a dude with great punches and good use of that girth. Hickerson is a mean asskicker in this to, and I love to watch two guys stand in the pocket with Hansen and not get blown out of the building. Gordy is fun in his exchanges as well, although he isn't in the match a ton. Finish was great, I love a Hansen lariat, and this was one of his nastier ones. He hooks it right under Hickerson's jaw and it looks like it's going to pop his head clean off.

ER: At minimum you knew this was going to be great just because how often do you get to see a tag match where Terry Gordy is the smallest man in the match? But how much does it rule that Blackwell and Hickerson took 90% of that match?? Stan Hansen is perhaps the most famous eater of men in pro wrestling history. Hansen can chew someone up more dominantly than anyone, and here he gets completely dominated by Crusher and Hickerson. Sure Hickerson takes some knocks to the head, gets smacked into a ringpost, but it's like Crusher and Hickerson were working the way Hansen and Gordy work every other team. Usually when Hansen takes a shot from someone, he's the one who shakes his head and then angrily walks through it. Blackwell is absolutely impenetrable here, just flattening and outfighting Hansen and Gordy. Blackwell isn't getting the same height on his jumping elbow drops, and he's not doing high dropkicks (or any dropkicks), but he's a tough fat guy with a low center of gravity who punches and headbutts Hansen in the face. 

Blackwell acts like and is treated like the toughest guy in the match, and I love it. His elbow drops look awesome, his missed elbow drops look awesome, his avalanches are delivered with glee, and he's a 5'9 man who convincingly bearhugs Stan Hansen. Two different times in the match he's working over Hansen in the corner, then stops Gordy's interference with one strike! Gordy charges in to save Hansen and Blackwell just turns around and punches him! Later, Gordy charged in and Blackwell just mule kicked Gordy away and ignored Gordy's forearm! Blackwell worked like the total star of the match, which is the most fun way the match could have been worked. Hickerson also appears to be having a blast on his only trip to Japan, a trip where he and Blackwell will be the team in the RWTL who wins no matches. Hickerson seems to really bathe in the new audience, and Blackwell holding Hansen and Gordy in the corner like he was Andre, so that Hickerson can fly across the ring with an avalanche, was a real moment of wrestling bliss. Hansen decides to shut things down the way he does. Hickerson goes back to the well on that avalanche and eats a boot, then the hardest possible Hansen running shoulderblock. Elbow pad adjusted, Hickerson whipped, lariat takes us out. Who could have guessed this would be a 10 minute Blackwell/Hickerson showcase? A great on paper match worked within an unexpected structure is a great treat. 

El Hijo de Anibal/Atlantis/Great Sasuke vs. Java Genjin/Tutankhamen VIII/Macho Pump MPRO 7/24/03

MD: Lost MPRO match that's a good use of fifteen minutes of your time. I haven't seen much Anibal, Jr., but he died of COVID earlier this year. I thought he looked pretty solid here actually, having a decent amount of size, only slight awkwardness because of it, a fearless dive or two, and a nice running elbow. It followed a pretty standard lucha structure despite being one fall. The tecnicos got to shine early, including everyone feeding for Sasuke and Atlantis getting to do some more tricked out one-vs-two spots than I usually remember him doing. When the rudos took over, it was primarily Jabagengi (Being Gran Apache, of all people, working a monkey man Neanderthal gimmick, of all things) directing traffic. It was solid but maybe lasted a little too long without enough motion. They worked for the comeback and went into bigger exchanges. Tutankhamen shined here more than in the rest of the match, including a double jump twisting senton bomb and a no hands dive over the top, but maybe he was a little too into celebrating after the fact. Macho Pump had some personality and got tossed by the head by Atlantis and I have nothing else to say about him. Finish maybe needed a little more zing, but the dives before it had plenty. Basically, the highs were high and lows were few and tolerable. Fun stuff.

PAS: I thought this was neat stuff, MPRO six mans are such a joyful formula style of match. Gran Apache in a monkey suit and Fantastik in King Tut hat do a great job of filling in the KDX rudo base role, and this is some of the better Macho Pump I have seen. They were especially great at basing and bumping for Atlantis, just flying around for all of his offense, I loved the height and distance Macho Pump got on the monkey flip, it was almost Eddieish. All of the dives looked great, we couldn't always see where they landed, but man does Sasuke fly out sight with recklessness and force, it is almost crazier when we don't see his running tope con hilo land. Fantastik hit a crazy flipping springboard senton in the ring, and a wild no hands tope con hilo on a prone Anibal, he was so good every time he showed up in Japan but never went anywhere in Mexico.

ER: 2000s MPRO is a fed ripe for discovery for me, a real blindspot outside of a few matches here and there. Before this, did I know that Gran Apache wore a Giant Gonzalez full body skin and fur suit with a Neanderthal mask? I had no idea, and the crowd had no real idea what to make of him. He has a large novelty club and looks like Bubba the Cave Duck, only with a big dark zipper up his back. He grunts and slaps chest and thighs and constantly tries to get the crowd to react to him, and they politely do, but not enthusiastically. I'm not sure I would have even known it was Apache, even though the slap punches were there and he was a strong base for the tecnicos. I adored Apache's backwards bumps to the floor, perfect backwards tumbles over the bottom rope while landing on his feet, a bump to the floor I don't really see in lucha. There's a classic luchador way of bumping rolling over the bottom rope to the floor, holding the rope and flinging your legs over, but this was like Apache tipping backwards into the water before scuba diving. I loved it. Sasuke had what appeared to be a huge Asai moonsault to the floor (tripod camera missed the landing but it got the loudest reaction of the match so it was surely typical Sasuke danger) and hit his big swan dive right at the finish. Anibal hits a great dive and a nice plancha to the floor, plus takes a wild monkey flip in ring that bounces him upside down off the ropes. But Fantastik really takes the cake, taking multiple high backdrop bumps to the floor (often at the hands of Apache by accident), hits a cool double jump springboard somersault senton, a gorgeous bullet tope, and then hits the dive of the match with a hands free senton to the floor, Super Calo style. I love this format, really need to dive more into mid 2000s MPRO. 

American Dragon vs. Metal Master Paris Japan Expo 7/6/08

PAS: Chad Collyer uploaded this, it was from a show in Paris and has a masked Bryan Danielson against a masked Collyer. What a treat, first section of this match saw Dragon working 80s heel, choking with a rope, doing a Ric Rude hip swivel, taking stooging bumps. He was as good doing John Tatum as he is doing souped up Chris Benoît stuff, as he was doing Ricky Morton shtick in WWE tags, what a talent. I thought all of the early over the top heel stuff really paid off at the end of the match, when they had more of a hot workrate finishing run. By then the crowd was fully behind Metal Master, and chagrined every time Dragon got a bit of an advantage. The execution on the finish had a bunch of cool little flourishes, including Dragon doing a super fast Saint escape of a waistlock into a back elbow. Video gets choppy at the end, but we still get almost the whole match and a great little snapshot at a small part of an all time greats career. 

MD: Absolutely tremendous. When I saw the word "expo," I half wondered what we were going to get. It hearkened back to some of those lucha performances at other "expos" that end up being as streamlined and straightforward as possible, in front of game but unfamiliar crowds. In that regard, this didn't disappoint. This is 2008 Collyer and Danielson, under hoods, wrestling their version of a high-energy 1989 American match. Danielson completely gives himself over to the role, complaining about the crowd not cheering for him at the start, bumping, stooging, feeding, clowning, and stalling throughout, taking over on an unclean break, playing hide the object with a rope from the turnbuckle, and yes, twice doing the Rick Rude hip swivel and probably having the time of his life in the process. Yet, they show that they understand what works and why it works. The crowd completely comes along with Collyer as he fights his way out of a chinlock. Danielson hits an axehandle off the second rope mid-way through to set up a bit transition as he leaps off the top into a Collyer dropkick later. They had to switch cameras towards the end and you got the sense that the person had technical difficulties and had to be selective in what was captured, but you get the broad idea of it. Towards the end, they cycle into Steamboat/Savage pin attempts, and some very believable 1989 power move near falls, before Danielson reverses a flying body press and grabbing the tights for the win. Full commitment, total patience and restraint, great understanding of what works and why. I'm sure they had a blast doing it. It's a great performance from both guys and another feather in Danielson's cap.

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Fujiwara Family: Battle and Arts Pro Wrestling 2/11/20

Yoshihiro Horaguchi vs. Sho Karasuno

PAS: Karasuno kind of wrestles like an indy scum version of Masao Inoue, which is style I dig. A ineffectual schmuck who can goof his way to an advantage. He gets beat on at the beginning of the math including Horaguchi pushing him face first into the corner and tenderizing his kidneys with forearms. Karasuno is a able to get a bit of an advantage by chop blocking Horaguchi and does some fun leg work before falling to a deep boston crab. Nothing really shoot style about this, but a fun opener. 

SR: Very basic opening match. I’ve seen Yujiro Yamamoto carry Sho Karasuno to a good match working another micro indy called RAW, which runs shows with no ring and just a bunch of judo mats instead. Karasuno continued his Masao Inoueish streak in this match, doing some finger manipulation stuff, but also rubbing me the wrong way when he did some geeky stunners and DDTs to Horaguchis leg. Horaguchi worked over Karasunos back with some stuff shots indicating he may be entertaining even when not partnered with Yuki Ishikawa.

The Blue Shark/Baisen TAGAI vs. Superhuman Hero G Valion/Super Macho Monkey 

SR: The last BAP card we saw was a bit all over the place, I like how for this show they adapted a matchcard formula similar to late 90s IWA Japan shows on Samurai TV which is kind of my favourite japanese indy wrestling, starting with a basic match and building up through a series of fun undercard matches to a main event. This match was in the Takeshi Sato & Tortuga vs. Cosmo’Soldier & Akinori Tsukioka spot of a semi-shootish juniors tag. It wasn’t quite on that level but I had fun. Tagai was more annoying than Tortuga, as he kept shoehorning his comedy into the match, he seemed to be making fun of Zack Sabre Jr. style wrestling, which is a weird thing to do on a show main evented by Keita Yano who does serious Zack Sabre Jr. ripoff wrestling. Chojin Yusha G Valion is another maniac who came up from the SPWF dojo and started his own wrestling cult, he has annoyed me on the few SPWF Dojo shows that I’ve seen but he looked decent here and didn’t derail the match like I thought he would. 

PAS: I wasn't into this, there was some nice shooty exchanges between Shark and Valion early, and a couple moments later in the match, but I thought Tagai was crap here. Just shoehorning in lame comedy spots with Monkey, felt like a midwest indy bathroom break match. The moments of good were really out weighted by the bad. 

Yuu Yamagata vs. Anzu Chamu 

PAS: Yamagata is apparently 44? She has been wrestling 20 years? I have never heard that name, and I wouldn't claim to be a Joshi expert, but man there are a lot of random wrestlers in Japan. I gave this a couple of minutes, which was mostly bad forearms by Yamagata and posing by Chamu, ARSION this was not.

ER: Phil's description of why he skipped this match kind of made me interested in seeing this match. I don't think it was a good match, but I found Anzu Chamu charming and possessing genuine underdog relatability. Her offense was as weak as can be, but she looks like a pop star and I assume has several hundred weird Twitter accounts dedicated specifically to her. She's enough of a weenie that she draws actual sympathy, and I think if Yamagata had laid in a beating at a quicker pace this could have been good. Chamu was sympathetic enough that I'd probably feel too bad seeing her get annihilated by a monster, not sure I could celebrate an Aja Kong or Chigusa Nagayo style mauling the same. Her ineffectiveness had charm.  

Macho Pump/Nobutaka Moribe vs. Shigeyuki Kawahara/Takumi Sakurai

PAS: I gave this a chance, too. Pump and Moribe came in masked and in Rey Bucanero shirts and beat around Kawahara and Sakurai a bit. It felt like it went on forever though, without much of a pace difference. The undercard of this show hasn't been doing it for me.

9. Yuki Ishikawa vs. Raito Shimizu

SR: Great, great match that may have been even better than the Horaguchi match from the last show. On the previous show, I said Raito Shimizu showed some promise for this upcoming singles match. I’d say this match way overdelivered on that promise. This was just fantastic and way better than just “Yuki Ishikawa carrying a rookie”. Obviously Ishikawa magic was at play here, the man can do no wrong at this point, but Shimizu held up his end. He really held up his end both hitting the mat and showing personality. At any rate there’s no reason why a guy like Shimizu should be stuck in Z-level indy undercard matches after this. Shimizu is a big boy and this was built around Shimizu trying to even the match by throwing and slamming Ishikawa hard. Of course Ishikawa is 50 years old and beaten up so that made all the crowbar throws look even harder. And Ishikawa is great at coming up with counters to prevent the throws. Really dug Shimizu's selling as he would clutch his arm or neck after escaping from a submission to put over how bad he was torqued. Damn fine performance, and I hope this isn’t the last time Raito Shimizu is booked into a match like this. 

PAS: Man Yuki Ishikawa was a king in this. I have seen Ishikawa carry young guys a lot (much of 2010s BattlArts was Ishikawa carrying guys on this show), and this was one of the better of those matches. Shimuzu brought a ton to the table. He is this rawboned country strong kid who just tosses Ishikawa with big throws. Ishikawa is in his 50s and has a bad back and takes a bunch of really hard slams, each one really made me cringe. Shimuzu wasn't completely lost on the mat either, he uses his strength to power out of some submissions and locks on a nasty gator roll. Ishikawa is master, he constantly uses his grappling to counter the suplex attempts, sometimes locking stuff in mid-air, and absorbs throws to lock in Shimuzu when they both land. It is just a matter of time, if you don't take Ishikawa out, he is going to take you out and eventually locks on a hammerlock into a straight armbar for the tap. Ishikawa is putting together an all timer of a post 50 year old run, and I came away from this wanting to see more Shimuzu.

ER: You get a real sense that old, bad back Yuki Ishikawa could work a captivating match against me, so when he has someone with a cool set of skills it's a given that he's going to work something great. Shimizu is a guy who none of us have ever seen, who is built like a smaller Big Japan guy and is intent on trying to throw Ishikawa onto his head or twist his head off with a series of gator rolls. Ishikawa is a master at using his weight and leverage to attempt to block those throws, tangling Shimizu's legs on Karelin lifts and often turning them to his advantage. Shimizu's determination is really fun to watch, and the crowd picks up on that too. It's infectious watching a guy who is almost certainly over his head and has to know he's going to get tapped but doesn't know how, and the it's great hearing the crowd get behind Shimizu's mad charge into potentially getting ligaments torn. And Ishikawa is someone who will put cruel strain on your ligaments. 30 seconds into the match he is already digging his knee into the meat of Shimizu's calf as he passes guard, locks in a hard guillotine off another Shimizu lift, and has some nasty focused attacks on Shimizu's ankles. You want to harness your deadlift strength? Good luck with that, let me know how that goes when Ishikawa twists your foot backwards. I loved how active both men were, while not entirely neutralizing the other. There was a lot of movement and it always went somewhere, not just movement for the sake of it, and Shimizu really looked like someone who belonged. 

Manabu Hara/Keita Yano vs. Yujiro Yamamoto/Katsuo

SR: Fun indy main event tag built around the main matchup of Hara vs. Yamamoto. Those two had some slick U-Style exchanges early which really made me long for a straight shootstyle match between them. They are both a lot more beaten up than in their primes from 10 years ago, but they still had no problem throwing some surprisingly dangerous suplexes and really smacking each other. Yano, to my surprise, did not ruin the match. He was mostly kept out of it and his one brief run of offense consisted of some stretches which worked. I also enjoyed Katsuo once again as a crowbar trying to crack skulls. The finishing run was a bit of an indy run with shootstyle touches, so I dug it. The next BAP in 2021 is announced to have a Yamamoto/Hara main event, so let’s see if we can unlock that too. 

PAS: I thought this was a blast. It ticked some of the same boxes as the great FUTEN tags, although not at that exalted level. Hara and Yamamoto are the best of that second generation of BattlArts guys and they go after each other here, flying into aggressive grappling and winging big shots and suplexes. Yano still isn't for me, but he mostly stayed out of the way and had some cool Sabre Jr. style stretching submissions which actually worked against Yamamoto. Katsuo is a heck of discovery. 2020 wrestling needed a Takashi Ishikawa and he delivers the step too far clotheslines, forearms and headbutts you want out of crowbar. I didn't love the crowd brawling, and the restart confused me, but this built to a big crescendo and had some pretty high end moments. 

ER: This didn't really work for me. For a 25+ minute tag, it felt really meandering, and much of it never gelled as a tag match. A lot of this felt like a series of singles matches with no kind of tag flow, and Hara/Yamamoto was the only good singles match, all those exchanges were really good. Hara is definitely my favorite of the late BattlArts guys, and veteran Hara is cool in ways he wasn't in 2010. He has this narrowed aggression and confidence and can still surprise with speed. I liked the scrambling a lot and I like how they built up to Yamamoto coming in down the stretch and throwing him with a sick uranage (sent the ref scrambling out of the way) and some suplexes. But those spirited moments of Yamamoto and Hara kept getting slowed down by Keita Yano doing unconvincing exhibition holds. They never made sense, as Yamamoto - who worked fast, engaging, cool exchanges with Hara - is now suddenly powerless to defend against any hold Yano slowly put him in. Yamamoto had to lie there barely moving, suddenly unable to counter any slow motion World of Sport hold. The singles match combinations that weren't Hara vs. Yamamoto also felt like they each went on a bit too long, without really advancing, sometimes repeating sequences as if they were stalling for time. The sudden finish, restart, and then apparent time limit draw really didn't help things. I liked how Yamamoto got his big moment roaring back at the restart bell, but the ending wasn't satisfying for me. I'm excited for the Hara/Yamamoto singles that may exist, but this tag kept losing me.  

2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Dick Togo's Heating Up Like They Wrapped Him In Flannel, Selling Kilos From Your IPOD Nano

Sato/Great Sasuke/Shiryu vs. Super Delfin/Gran Naniwa/Jinsei Shinzaki MPRO 2/4/94 - EPIC 

PAS: Pretty much a perfectly executed MPRO formula six man. It has everything you expect, the intricate lucha armdrags and ranas, the signature comedy spots, the crazy dive train. When these guys get on this kind of roll, it really is something special. Man 1994 Sato (Togo) is one of the most athletic impressive wrestlers in history, the speed and agility he executes his stuff is incredible. He and Delfin match up to start the match, and their exchanges are at Gods Must Be Crazy speed. Sato also wins the dive train which is pretty impressive considering the company he keeps. We get Shiryu and Naniwa next, and they have a more mat based match up, with Shiryu ripping off some really quick amateur rides. It had been a long time since I have seen the Naniwa/Delfin MX arm wringer spot, but man do those guys execute it perfectly. Delfin is great as a cocky douche really getting into working over the arm, and Naniwa is also great as a guy sad and angry at always being a schlemiel. Outside of one awkward Shinzaki spot (and honestly he didn't bring a ton to this) this was textbook stuff, and exactly the kind of thing I fell in love with when I first saw it. 

Dick Togo/Great Sasuke/Nobutaka Moribe vs. Ikuto Hidaka/Minoru Fujita/Macho Pump MPRO 8/22/04 - GREAT 

PAS: Elimination cage match which was relatively uneventful except for a couple of huge moments. Your non FEC team was pretty vanilla and dull, Macho Pump especially is a guy who has never contributed positively to any wrestling match I have seen him in. Most of the action in the match was punch and kick stuff, and not done particularly well. The huge moments were pretty huge though. Fujita hits a nice looking Superfly splash off the cage, Sasuke is battling with Fujita on the top of the cage and basically takes a Shawn Micheals style HIC bump backwards off the cage, and Togo ends the match with a top of the cage senton which is a top five in wrestling history cage dive. Just amazing looking. Feels like what was memorable was memorable enough to recommend the match relatively highly. Dick Togo/Ikuto Hidaka v. Gedo/Jado Riki Pro 1/17/10-FUN 2010 Gedo and Jado both have weirdly oiled up muscled bodies and dark tans, they should find Chapparita Asari, have her grow a poof and work Jersey Shore gimmicks. Good stuff in this, both Gedo and Togo looked great. Togo did a couple of really tremendous moves, I love how he floats mid air with his in ring somersault senton. Gedo does all of the small things really well, punches, bumping and superkicks. Hidaka and Jado didn't bring much at all though, outside of a minute or so of solid Hidaka matwork. Crowd was completely dead, and parts of this fell flat, had a real undercard house show feel, like they were going through the motions. Worth watching for Togo and Gedo, but falls short of a strong recommendation. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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