Found Footage Friday: '86 CROCKETT HANDHELD~! GARVIN~! FLAIR~! NIKITA~! ARN~! MAGNUM~! DUSTY~! RAGING BULL~! WAHOO~!

JCP Handheld Cincinnati 4/27/86

Wahoo McDaniel vs. Jimmy Garvin

MD: We just get five minutes clipped here. It's a real morality play though. Clear, clear lines. Garvin earns nothing. Whenever Wahoo gets the chants, he's smacking him around the ring. Garvin begs off and gets a cheapshot low. He uses Precious pulling the hair from the outside to distract so he can take over. He uses an eye rake. When he's in charge he's laying in stomps or tossing Wahoo into the rail. Wahoo has big definitive shots. Garvin is underhanded and peppers things in. Night and day. Wahoo comes back, does the war dance, hits the chops, but Garvin kicks out at one and runs away to the draw a count out and fight for another day. 

ER: I don't think I ever thought Cincinnati was a place Crockett even toured but I'm also old enough now that a lot of information sounds like new information. I know they ran Cleveland frequently but maybe I didn't ever think about Cincinnati as Crockett Country because we didn't have footage until some guy who loves awful chili that tastes like pumpkin pie brought a camera to document it. I'm glad he did. He wanted the match bad enough to record it as fully as he could while editing on the fly to save battery for the bigger matches. This man, who smelled of raw onion, knew Flair and Garvin had worked broadways in the Carolinas. He couldn't risk it. So we got this clipped, but it's house show perfection. The crowd is so entertained by professional house show Wahoo, not murdering Garvin but doing all his same painful strikes and Native Stooges chops. Wahoo hits Garvin hard and forces Garvin to work up to him. Garvin had excellent worked stomps and the way Wahoo sold being punched in the corner could teach every wrestler today. Watch Wahoo flinch away from a shot under the ribs, reflexively rear back for a punch, before taking another. The best punches and strikers are almost always the best at selling punches. 

Baron von Raschke/Ivan Koloff vs. Manny Fernandez/Hector Guerrero

MD: This was probably a rough 20 minute draw that turned into a good 13 minute clipped draw. Though there was nothing we saw in those 13 minutes to really make me think the full 20 would have been that much of a slog. They went with a double heat structure with a long shine that consisted of Raschke being a pole in the center of the ring that Hector got to roll around and Ivan's arm getting worked over as he bumped, stooged, and fed more. First heat was on Manny and had some good assisted holds that drew in Hector and got heat. Then Hector got to make a big house of fire entrance with rapid punches until he got swept under. The idea was that once he got the hot tag (again rolling all over the place) there just wasn't enough time for Manny to get the win, though he came real close. I don't remember too many draws being worked quite this and it's a solid structure on paper. 

Most fascinating thing to me is just watching the Baron. He lost the offense once by goose stepping and setting up the claw. He had a way of both hitting offense (even stomps) and bumping that he'd move his waist but not his abdomen. He's like an old action figure without enough points of articulation. You can make him sit up in the middle, but then you can't bend his knees or waist. And he still takes bumps and hits offense, but it's amazingly stilted. I've seen plenty of Baron matches but maybe it was just worse by 86? Anyway, maybe this was helped by the clipping, maybe not, but it worked for me.

ER: We love guys who move weird and nobody moves around a ring weirder than 1986 Baron, who is my exact age but he moves like someone re-animated a 75 year old monster from memory. His bumps are terrible, taken only one way, rolling back to his seat waving his arms like he's Accredited Giant Gonzalez. I like how Manny works like Chavo when he teams with Hector. I wonder how he worked when he teamed with Chavo. Probably like an asskicker. Manny hits like a rock and pulls off a flying headscissors, Hector brings energy and the crowd loves his evasive tumbling. Koloff works like the best Haruka Eigen. He did an All Japan tour in 1990 when he was in his late 50s and I need to see every match we have from that tour. I loved how he bumped for Hector's late match hot tag, Korakuen would have gone wild for the ways he ran into the turnbuckles and bounced his way halfway back across the ring. While I'm curious how Baron worked his bearhug, I respect the camera's choice to edit. 

Dusty Rhodes vs. Arn Anderson + Magnum TA vs. Nikita Koloff [Cage]

MD: This is still a bit clipped but you get the sense of what's going on and I loved the Dusty vs Arn portion until the finish. This being a house show, there was such freedom for Dusty to absolutely demolish Arn. Arn sold the cage at first, not the danger of it but the fact he couldn't get away. Then he managed to run himself knee first into the cage. Dusty took over on it with such one-of-a-kind timing on seizing the foot, taking him down, holding it, looking to the crowd, stomping, stomping again. If a conductor of an orchestra is primarily worried about controlling the time and volume, Dusty was the best conductor of a crowd I've ever seen. Just a virtuoso. 

After smashing and rubbing Arn's head against the cage a bit, Arn actually came back with these beautiful low kicks from the ground, just sweeping his leg against Dusty's as if he was dance fighting. He honed in and then, once he had a real advantage, the Russains came out with the chain. I would have probably liked it more if Dusty mounted a comeback and then they came in? But there was also the sense that this was the plan all along if Arn got even the smallest bit of advantage. 

I suppose it worked either way as Magnum rushed in to break it up and start his match with Nikita. This had a totally different feel. Magnum did control early including a goofy atomic drop that sent Nikita in (and justified the blading) and using the cage to help himself bound up to the top turnbuckle for a double axe handle.Nikita lawn darted himself head first into Magnum's gut to take over and Magnum worked well from underneath. At one point he ate a backbreaker and crawled on his knees across the ring and it really worked for me.

Great transition, maybe even an all time one honestly, as Nikita went for the sickle, Magnum moved, and he went arm first into the cage. Things opened up from there with Magnum throwing all sorts of punches and a great sweeping dropkick. I loved the finish too, as Magnum went to toss Nikita head first into the cage, but Nikita grabbed Magnum's head at the last second and they both went in at equal speed. Just a real symbolic sense of them being equals/rivals/fated. That led to a ten count where it seemed like Nikita might beat it but he collapsed and Magnum shot up at the last second to a huge pop. Lots to love here.

ER: I appreciate that we got a little handheld ambiance before the match, our documentarian filming the people at the Cincinnati Gardens, reminding us that Miller Lite tastes great and is less filling, giving us a too brief glimpse of the ringside guardrails getting moved around before the cage goes up. As Dusty goes after Arn's ankle, I appreciate that everything you hear yelled by the crowd sounds like create-a-crowd ADR. "Do it again, Dusty!" "Give it to him!" "Stomp that ankle, Dusty!" It's clipped up, but I'm glad we get Arn's killer missed knee strike into the cage, Dusty seated on the middle rope but dodging, Arn's knee going into the cage, Arn throwing the knee to actually connect with Dusty and thus hitting the cage just as his knee would have connected with Dusty's stomach. After getting his face ground into the cage, Arn misses a wild swing and takes perhaps the fastest faceplant I've seen from a miss, a reaction to a Dusty elbow that swings him into the mat faster than anything Dusty could have done to him. 

TA vs. Nikita portion is a real hot fight. Koloff was great at taking punches and Magnum was great at throwing them. Koloff took an axe handle better than most I've seen, really selling the impact in how he let it drive him spinning to the mat. Koloff is great at taking Magnum's punches, none better than in the aftermath of him missing the sickle into the cage. Magnum lands a jab to Koloff's nose and Nikita winces up like he's prematurely stopping a gush of blood. Wahoo hit this great swinging axe handle to Garvin's chest in the opener, and I thought that was the coolest strike of the night, until Magnum threw the same swinging axe handle at Nikita's face. It's funny that the "first man to his feet, Wins" finish came after both ran each other into the cage, which was treated much more seriously than Magnum straight up murdering Nikita with a piledriver moments before. I still loved the drama around both men getting to their feet. 

Ric Flair vs. Ron Garvin

MD: Opening few minutes of this were great. Flair would press Garvin into the corner, try to take a liberty, smack him, immediately get smacked back, sell it with shock. It was a lovely bit of vaudeville. I'm torn on parts of this one overall. Flair's narratives just don't come together how I'd like. What happens in minute 17 doesn't necessarily stem logically from what happens in minute 6 like with other greatest-of-all-time wrestlers. But that doesn't necessarily mean that what happens in minute 17 isn't good and that it doesn't fit the moment or the characters. But it leaves me wondering if something was left on the table sometimes. But maybe I'm wrong and this is better and more organic somehow. 

Here, when Flair did take over, it felt clear like he was fed up from all the shots he took from Garvin and that he just wanted to lay shots in, not worried about winning or any sort of strategy. It was raw and human and effective, and I think the issue isn't it necessarily, but when he went into the finish and started to target the leg. I preferred him punching Garvin in the face to being just as mean about the leg, but then when things had to slip into some sort of finishing sequence, it wasn't one that matched the rest of the contest. My favorite shot he did was when he had Garvin draped over the top rope like Sheamus (or like he was setting him up for Eigen's spit spot) and instead of just whacking him in the chest, he punched him in the cheek. 

Maybe I'm wrong though. Maybe the narrative is that Flair was angry and he was mean and cruel but in the face of Garvin constantly firing back, maybe he was a coward and maybe he blinked first, and he went to the knee out of desperation and then tried to cover it with bluster like it was his plan all along. Maybe it's my fault for just not having enough faith in Flair. Maybe I'm not fair to Flair. Regardless, the finish did hit, with Garvin, leg torn up, eating a second shinbreaker anyway to punch Flair in the face. Both guys went sprawling to the floor and got counted out. You can't say the fans didn't get their money here at least.

ER: Love the guy in the crowd who, as Tommy Young is holding up Flair's title, keeps saying, "Garvin's leaving with it! Garvin's leaving with it!" Super physical match, which I greatly respect, and if we had it in full I'd say it's one of my favorite Flair matches of the era. We don't know how long the actual match may have gone, but we have 21+ minutes of it here and it's easy to think they went past 30, and they were fighting the whole time. Garvin unsurprisingly throws the hardest punches of the night while Flair takes the hardest bumps, but it's so much more than that. Unless edited out entirely, they don't hit the mat at all. No long builds out of headscissors, no wear down holds, just pure physicality in every exchange. Even though it had several staples of Every Town Paid to See My Shit Flair, this feels paced differently from a lot of Flair touring champ matches. The schtick blended into the fight a lot better than I've seen it in many highly acclaimed Flair matches, and his cumulative selling felt like a guy who really had been battered and beaten for 30 minutes. There were no moments where he was taking bigger bumps for Tommy Young or running ropes after selling fatigue, this was always fought like two men getting progressively worn down and hurt from their fight. 

When Flair goes into his own personal Showstopper mode, many things can feel disconnected from everything else in the match. This never felt that way, every blur of fighting felt like a part of their larger war, and every exchange had such physical power that by the time we were 30 in and both men were limping around the ring after each other, artistry out the window, scrambling and crawling over each other for any advantage, it felt like a righteous culmination to their war. Some of my favorite moments include Garvin popping Flair right in the forehead for a nearfall and shaking out his fist while still lying across Flair's body, fanning his fingers while still pressing Flair to the mat. It's no secret that Garvin has amazing punches, but you could randomly step into any minute of this match and see a perfect example of some all timers. Garvin's punches all look sped up, like the punch is sped up at the point of impact to make them look harder than they are, but Garvin is just that good. When he throws three perfect punches before rolling smoothly into a jackknife pin, I thought it was an honest to god real finish. 

Flair getting pressed off the top actually served the match, wasn't just an excuse for Flair to take one of his bumps. It leads immediately to Garvin dropping an elbow for 2, and the punches he rains down on Flair after the kickout are incredible, standing over him punching down at Flair, Flair groggily trying to sit up but just getting punched over and over, like he's being punished for kicking out. Garvin also does this beautiful thing where he takes a knee breaker and fucking decks Flair upon landing, before falling in a heap himself. Wrestling needs more guys who lash out instinctively upon feeling pain, before the pain consumes them and they are forced to sell. Garvin definitely sold the damage of that knee breaker, but he reacted like someone who stubs their toe and foolishly lashes out and attacks the bed frame he stubbed it on. It makes much more sense to have that reaction to a man trying to hurt you, and once you see Garvin deck Flair you wonder why it's something we don't see more. This is the most boiled down raw version of Misawa popping up to hit an elbow and it's beautiful. Great match, great war. 

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New Footage Friday: Faulkner~! McMichael~! DUSTY~! MX~! CHOSHU~! RED BULL ARMY~! FUJINAMI~!

Vic Faulkner vs. Mick McMichael WOS 7/1/72

MD: It's not every day we get a new UK match from 72, though, of course, we know there's a lot out there locked in a vault. This was six rounds and generally worked blue eye vs blue eye, with Faulkner more the trickster and McMichael more grounded and dogged. Faulkner had all of his tricks: elaborate escape attempts, "look up" spots, not letting go of the handshake between rounds, and so on, but he let himself get clowned and countered and kept in holds a lot too which made this balanced and even and made those times when one of his tricks did work mean even more. McMichael was a great foil (I don't think base is quite the word here but it's in the right genus of words), patient, steadfast, solid, but also able to take it up not just one but many gears when it was time to. One of the most unique elements of this style of wrestling is that draws can be satisfying and even preferred; Walton indicated at such at the end, that it would have been a shame if either of these wrestlers had to be the loser and you sort of have to agree with him.


Dusty Rhodes/Magnum TA vs. Midnight Express NWA 9/11/86

PAS: This hits every beat you would want out this match. Dusty doing a chicken dance with a rubber chicken stuck in his pants, Cornette taking a big Baby Doll assisted pratfall, Bobby Eaton dinging his awesome punches off of Dusty's skull, Big Bubba standing around looking mean. Just a pitch perfect shtick heavy 80s wrestling match, Dusty is so great in these matches, rock star charisma, pitch perfect timing, signature spots, awesome selling, so awesome. Dusty was past his athletic prime at this point, but man did he know how to squeeze every drop out of the orange. MX are tremendous foils, especially Eaton, lays it in when they need to, but feed and bump their ass off when the time comes. This kind of tag is a perfect bit of business, and these guys did it so well. 

MD: Everything you'd want out of ten minutes of these guys. I loved the opening with the chicken flapping, Bobby's awesome cheapshot punch in the corner and his subsequent flapping, and Magnum trailing right behind him, nailing him, and doing the flapping again to a big pop. There are a few different ways to achieve perfection in wrestling but that's definitely one of them. It was followed immediately by Dusty elbow dropping the rubber chicken which was more transcendent than perfect? Once they rolled over to heat (and given how the fans were going nuts for every bit of stooging BS before it, I wasn't convinced it was going to happen in the first place) with Cornette sneaking in a racket shot on Dusty on the outside, the fans just went nuts. It was southern as it could be with Magnum emotionally drawing the ref and the MX laying in cheapshots not to keep the damage up but to keep Dusty down. His selling was amazingly sympathetic, at one point clinging to the ropes prone and in agony after a racket shot as the Dusty chants rang on neverending. The place became absolutely unglued with the hot tag with everyone on their feet. To be fair, they were popping for everything they should have been the whole match from Dusty elbow dropping a chicken to Magnum taking guys out with the racket at the end. What a show.


Riki Choshu/Tatsumi Fujinami/Kengo Kimura/Osamu Kido/Masa Saito vs. Timur Zalasov/Wahka Evloev/Victor Zangiev/Vladimir Berkovich/Salman Hashimikov NJPW 5/22/89 - GREAT

MD: If I'm figuring this right, this was three days before the big Vader vs. Hashimikov title change and it absolutely served its purpose of heating Hashimikov up for the run. In general, it's 35 minutes of guys grappling, getting positioning for suplexes, hitting those suplexes, and then using said suplexes to lock in holds. That was true with Fujinami and Zalasov who started out, with the two of them setting a good, believable pace until Fujinami broke the code by hitting his suplexes one after another instead of immediately going into a hold with them which wore Zalasov down enough for the dragon sleeper. Kimura felt like the weak link on the Japanese side. There were moments where you thought he might be able to start getting strikes in, but Eveloev caught his leg before he could get momentum going and he was just fighting to get to the ropes again for the last minute or two of their match. Kido and Zangiev came off as very evenly matched until the end when Zangiev got momentum with a series of suplexes in a row (much like Fujinami's in the first bout). Zangiev just got pro wrestling and theatrics a little more than his countrymen.

With the (2-1) stage set, the last two bouts really did the heavy lifting for what they were trying to accomplish. Berkovich targeted Choshu's arm and Choshu sold accordingly, but one thunderous lariat off the ropes and the Scorpion took him down quickly. Then, after back and forth and a struggle that matched the Fujinami and Kido bouts, Saito hit the same pattern on Hashimikov only for him to survive the Scorpion. Saito leveraged that advantage into two Saito suplexes however, but kept going for more instead of pinning him and Hashimikov got under him and dumped him on his head for the win. It felt like a big, triumphant moment, one punctuated with Vader coming out to cut a promo on him before the trophy ceremony. If I was in that crowd, I'd wonder how even Vader might be able to put Hashimikov down.

PAS: Red Bull Army are great, hairy pasty Russian dudes who will just grab and throw anyone they are wrestling. Zalasov, Evolev and Berkovich are the lesser know members of the group and all looked good although didn't leap out the way Zangiev and Hashimikov did. I did really like Evolev's quick fireman's carry into an armbar which took out Kimura. 

Zangiev is a treat to watch, his signature headscissors escape is so cool and such a smart bit of business for a guy who was clearly new to wrestling. Kido is a UWF alumnus and seemed very into working hard grappling with Zangiev. Man when Zangiev puts you away, you go away, some really great looking belly to belly throws which landed Kido awkwardly, and a cradling scissors kick takedown into a kneebar for the tap. Choshu really brought the Choshu in his fight, landing a right hand to the temple, and some big supelexes and a lariat before the tap, he seemed the least willing to play along with Red Bull, and just did him. I love Choshu and it worked. Final match felt like a final match. This was a series of matches with a lot of Saito Suplexes,, but man you can see why the move was named after him, such torque and force. Hashimikov feels like a beast and really can get explosion on his shot, he is at Saito's legs with such speed. Very excited that our friend Loss has dug out so much of the stuff and I am excited to dig in. 

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New Footage Friday: 1986 Crockett Cup!!

MD: Anyone reading this site will know the backstory here and how we thought it was always possible we were going to get this but never entirely sure. I know second-hand that people like Cornette had doubts as late as this year whether or not it existed. We lose five matches here, including Dundee/Landell vs Doc and Taylor and the Sheepherders vs the Guerreros, but what we got was great. Obviously we dropped everything to review it.

Fantastics vs. Fabulous Ones

PAS: This is a cool concept with heel Fabs facing the team that ripped off their entire gimmick. I didn't think there were any particularly excellent performances in this match, but the Southern tag formula is so solid, that even a baseline match in that style is going to be entertaining. I did like how vicious the Fabs were, gouging at eyes and spitting. I would be pissed if some LSAT tutor named himself Bill Schriber and stole all of my test tricks. Tommy Rogers had this weird open eyed smile on his face for much of the match like Forrest Gump, and Bobby Fulton sold pain with this over emotional cry face, I have a feeling the close up filming of these matches will do the Fantastics no favors. I really liked the finish, with Rogers doing a blind hot tag blocking a backdrop and rolling up Keirn

MD: Quick spoiler. This was the Fantastics' night. I can imagine other people are going to disagree, but out of their three great matches, this might have been my favorite. It was the most traditional of the three. There was such a novelty to see them against the Fabs, and picture perfect, totally on point, scraggly heel Fabs. I write this at the back end of four hours of wrestling, most of which being tags, so my memories aren't great, but this was just solid, solid tag work with two teams that were, on paper, mirror images of one another.

The shine was beautiful. The transition with a Lane superkick over the top rope while the ref was distracted was great. This was a show where every limb in the world was going to be worked over. Here it was the neck including the first of ten neck-clotheslines-over-the-top rope. This was the only one that ended with Keirn mocking the Fargo Strut though. Fulton, as much as almost anyone I've ever seen, was the distilled embodiment of (endearingly folksy yet somehow still emotionally true) Southern Pro Wrestling. Sometimes it's almost too much, almost too engaging. The look on his face after a hope spot when he realizes Keirn still has his leg so he can't make it to the corner is perfect Pro Wrestling. The finish was one of the freshest and most interesting on the whole show, with a blind tag and complex body positioning for the roll up.

Buzz Sawyer/Rick Steiner vs. Koko B. Ware/Italian Stallion

PAS: This was an awesome bit of business. I love that the WWE Network has become a Buzz Sawyer delivery system. Sawyer was incredible in this, just so many cool moments. He takes an insane bump into the ropes from a Koko dropkick, does this great amateur drop down instead of leapfrogging Stallion, suplexes Koko on the floor, misses his huge superfly splash, and does this awesome catch of Stallion leapfrog into a power over powerslam. Just an awesome show, everyone else was fine, and Koko takes a great bump to the floor, but man was Sawyer electric.

MD: This was really good. For some reason, it always amazes me just how giving Buzz Sawyer was considering all the stories about him. The way he bumped for Koko here was out of this world, or at least the normal physics for this world. He was an incredible stooge too, and not just with the big motions. There's a shit-eating grin on his face after a leapfrog but before he takes a body press by Koko that's top notch.

Here I thought at first that the shine might have been a bit too long, but ultimately, it just made the transition, a brutal suplex on the floor, one of the worst you'd ever see, all the more weighty. Koko's selling of the back was completely engaging and Buzz targeted it enthusiastically. Steiner and Stallion were fine in their roles, but this was the Buzz and Koko show.

Brett Sawyer/Danny Peterson vs. Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin/Black Bart

PAS: Shortish semi-squash, Sawyer and Peterson get in a little offense early, but basically go down pretty quickly. Bart had a nice clothesline, and Garvin's short brainbuster was super nasty looking, neck trauma for Peterson.

MD: I have a soft spot for Bart, having started watching wrestling in 1990 and watching as much as I could. He was all over WCW, WWF, and GWF if you watched everything in the year or two that followed. That said, I was not a fan of him on this night. Sawyer gave everything he had and frankly, for this part of the tournament, it was too much. He hit both an Alabama Jam and a top rope kneedrop onto Bart's arm, two of the biggest moves of the whole show, and they meant nothing. I thought it was too much even before Bart decided not to sell any of it. The most over thing in the match wasn't any of Sawyer's big offense but when he spat towards Garvin. That tells you something. Anyway, Garvin's brainbuster was great though.

Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton/Dennis Condrey) vs. Nelson Royal/Sam Houston

PAS: Really short match with Houston really getting fed to wood chipper. MX really moved through their stuff fast and violently. Houston does get a tag in, but Royal puts on a abdominal stretch and gets hit with a axehandle and pinned. Maybe 2 minutes.

MD: This was a whole lot of nothing, just a minute or two, but that whole lot was the Midnights looking amazing. They were the team you wish that you saw more of on this night. Eaton had the best punch of the night and that was saying something.

Magnum TA/Ronnie Garvin vs. Buzz Sawyer/Rick Steiner

PAS: This was only about 5 minutes, and I really wish it went longer. Just love both of these teams. Garvin is pasting people as usual, and it is really fun to watch him treat Rick Steiner the way Rick Steiner would treat everyone else he wrestles. The Maddogs beat on TA for a bit, including some punches to the forehead which seem to bruise him up good, then we get a great hot tag to Garvin who is throwing taters, and a quick belly to belly pin. These teams had great chemistry, and I wish we got a longer run from Sawyer and Steiner, what a pair of asskickers.

MD: The most interesting part of Magnum's game to me is always his selling. This is a guy who is supposed to portray a double-tough leather jacket Americana mustache biker ideal and he's not afraid to give and give and give. I think some of it is the explosiveness of the belly-to-belly which he can hit sort of out of anywhere, but I wonder if it's something he got from tagging with Wrestling II and being groomed by Dusty. The fans went along with him for the ride here. My favorite thing in all of this was probably Garvin slapping Steiner in the face after he wouldn't budge on the shoulder blocks. His peppering in of punches after the hot tag was good too. Steiner seemed a little lost at the end and that Belly to Belly sure was close to the ropes. This was perfectly fine and perfectly fun.

Road Warriors vs. Wahoo McDaniel/Mark Youngblood

MD: Not a lot to say here. You get the sense that Wahoo just wanted to get out of there before the crowd booed him too much. The best part of this was Tony and Ross trading off on the mic to open the evening session. I did like when Ross started to mention piledrivers and off the top rope moves and everyone booed until they realized he was saying they were legal on this night.

Ivan Koloff/Nikita Koloff vs. Jimmy Valiant/Manny Fernandez

MD: All of the pre-match stuff was fun. For a totally unnecessary moment on a packed show, Shaska cut a good promo on Valiant. I liked the Russian solidarity trying to get Gorchenko over. The Russians' formula was a bit bonkers by this point, with Ivan 1970s stooging and Nikita coming in to dominate. Obviously the fans loved every time he ran into Valiant's fist, but it's pretty dissonant. More about that the next time they show up.

Sheepherders vs. Rock and Roll Express

MD: Ah, our hated enemy, New Zealand. The Rock'n'Roll stuff with the flag at the beginning was great. They felt like such a big deal even though this was only sort of a cameo appearance for them. I caught this one on the bus, sans notes. Robert was FIP (body part of choice: shoulder/arm after a missed corner charge). Lots of interesting varied, relentless offense by the Sheepherders, including a bit second rope hammer to a prone Robert. The hot tag was super hot but the finish was BS as they hit an interfering Victory with the flag, not even one of the Sheepherders. They start a solid bullshit chant, complete with a "Blind Ref" sign in the crowd, after the fact though.

PAS:  Pretty by the numbers R+Rs match which is a great number to listen to. Sheepherders are pretty basic, but their basic stuff looks good, if you are going to stomp a shoulder,  stomp that shit. Gibson is as good an FIP as Morton and Morton is an all time great hot tag. That was an awful finish though, lots of ways to have the R+Rs lose and look strong without that fart.

Fantastics vs. Arn Anderson/Tully Blanchard

MD: This was excellent. They were laying it in to one another, especially Tully. I liked the comfort food and novelty elements of the Fabs match, but this was worked as hard as possible, with everything basically hitting. What really took it over the top, though, was just how committed everyone was in their reactions. If it comes off like it matters to the wrestlers, it's going to matter to the crowd, and no one could make it feel like it mattered quite like Arn and Tully. When Arn really gets to come in against Rogers, we hear him say "I'm gonna enjoy this" while rubbing his hands together. The sheer offense he manages to express a moment later when Rogers tells him to kiss his ass popped the crowd huge.

I loved the comeback here. They just couldn't put Fulton away, so everything finally escalates to another suplex attempt on the floor. Fulton's able to escape by the skin of his teeth and after some real hard work, a minute later he's rolling for the hot tag. They went around the loop one or two times more before the finish (with the heels reacting again, JJ flying into the ring, Arn slamming his own head repeatedly onto the turnbuckle in frustration. These guys made you care).

PAS: This was really good, you don't think of Tully and Fulton as all time great punchers, but they looked like Dundee and Lawler here. Tully and Arn are great vicious pricks, and we have J.J. wandering around outside being a sleazy fuck. God is JJ great, he feels like a Southern Preacher who preaches about Jesus while owning 50 percent of a Miami youth hostel with a pool boy he met on vacation. Arn's two big spots, the spinebuster and gordbuster are both huge spots that always feel like finishes, and I love how sure he is of himself when he hits them.

Giant Baba/Tiger Mask vs. Jimmy Garvin/Black Bart

MD: This felt surreal, though not as surreal as the next Baba/Misawa match. The biggest thing to point out here was how the fans more or less booed or were indifferent two the Japanese wrestlers to start and how thoroughly Misawa won them over with his big spots. Bart probably didn't earn a trip to Japan with his selling. If Precious had swung at Baba post match like it looked like she was going to, she might have though?

PAS: It is weird how Jimmy Garvin worked both Misawa and Hashimoto in tag tournaments. He actually was a pretty good foil for Misawa's fast stuff, and Baba worked hard for mid 80s Baba. Not a great match but a pretty fun one.

The Road Warriors vs. The Midnight Express

MD: I sort of liked the story here where the Midnights were good enough to keep getting opportunities but just couldn't hold the offensive against the Road Warriors, which led to Cornette trying to escalate things with the tennis racket and getting caught. There's not much else to say here except for how good the Press-into-the-Ring spot with Eaton was.

Steve Williams/Terry Taylor vs. Nikita Koloff/Ivan Koloff

MD: First of all, it's a real shame we didn't get Bravo/Martel vs Williams/Taylor. Ah well. This was ok, but definitely worked towards a draw. It's also a shame, because in another setting, it could have been built to Doc and Nikita matching up with the crowd wildly behind Doc. As it was, the heel-in-peril on Ivan lasted forever and when they finally got to Doc vs Nikita, they defused it too much with stalling. I thought they could have worked the last minute of the draw a little more excitingly too. The post match carnage was something else though, just a total heel mauling in the Bill Watts style.

The Fantastics vs. The Sheepherders

MD: This became a bloodbath and an outright brawl towards the end. It's a heck of a spectacle and a testament to both the Fantastics (who wrestled three very different matches in one night) and the Sheepherders (who we only have a few minutes of vs the Guerreros). Phil will probably disagree with me, but I'm not sure it quite had the narrative meat it needed to stand up to the other two Fantastics matches on the show, no matter it's rep over time. They got some solid heat on Fulton on the outside but the comeback turned into a big blur. Blood's an awesome tool and it was used well here (as was the king of the mountain stuff we didn't see in the other tags), but all anyone's going to really remember is the pledge at the beginning and the flag shots and bleeding at the end (especially the blood on the bottom of Fulton's heels on that last dropkick. Wow). Near the end of an exhausting day of wrestling, I think this shut down the crowd for the next couple of matches.

PAS: I was surprised at how much of this was a standard tag until the blood started flowing. Once Fulton is cut the match skips a gear and we get a pretty exciting bloody brawl. Fulton's OTT selling work better here, as I bought his seizure selling as  guy bleeding to death more then I bought it when he breaks in out in random tag matches. By the end it got pretty out of control, but I wouldn't call this match legendary, the juice was a nice touch, and I like the match being thrown out, but for a match with the big rep it was more unique in context then in execution.

Magnum TA/Ronnie Garvin vs. Giant Baba/Tiger Mask

MD: Totally surreal. Some of the biggest stars of decades and this felt like a piss break match that had to take the crowd back after what they had just witnessed. You got just the tiniest hint of Garvin and Baba firing back and forth on one another and an amazingly cool finish with Magnum just barely catching Misawa off the top with the belly-to-belly, but this was mostly dead, and I'm pretty sure I was too by this point.

Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs. Dick Slater

MD: We had this before, I think. Duggan was really over at this point. Slater had real heat at this point. The crowd remained dead for most of this. I liked the transition cementer with Duggan going through the rail. I liked the hope spot with Duggan chasing Slater around the ring. They started to wake up a bit for his big comeback and did light up for the finish.

Dusty Rhodes vs. Ric Flair

MD: Paul Boesch is the best. This we only had 15 minutes of before. Back in late 92, WWF did these "Manager Cam" segments for CV, including one of the only Dibiase vs Santana matches we have in WWF on tape, where it's entirely focused on the manager. I love that we got this show without commentating, but there's a chunk of this that felt like the Baby Doll show. To their credit, the fans were back up for this. Dusty bled. Flair missed the knee drop to cause a transition and then missed the butt down on the leg in the ropes for another, which were both good inversions that you didn't see ALL that much. Flair bled. Dusty was smart enough to not lose on the boot shot, but to lose on the DQ and get to take out the ref as well. It's Dusty vs Flair. You've seen it.

The Road Warriors vs. Magnum TA/Ronnie Garvin

MD: We had this before as well. I don't have a lot to say about it. It didn't feel like a dream match but it did feel like a culmination to a degree. I think nothing wore out its welcome (they could have spent too much time with the arm control work early, for instance, and they didn't). Magnum gave up a ton and the back focus was good. For the most part, until Animal's late chinlock, they kept it varied and interesting. I'm not sure this was the right match up to end the night. The fans seemed split. They popped somewhat for the belly to belly, but less for the hot tag that followed. Then they popped huge for the finish. Mrs. Crockett calling them the "Road Runners" at the end made the entire night worth it.

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New Footage Friday: Johnny Smith, Miracle Violence, Bossman, Bad News, TA, Ladd

Magnum TA vs. Ernie Ladd Houston Wrestling 11/9/84

PAS: This is a matchup we have seen before, but a new match. Really dug fired up babyface Magnum, and dirty tricks Ladd. The opening was great with Magnum jumping Ladd at the bell and throwing these lighting face overhand rights in succession, with Ladd flopping into the ropes horizontally.  Ladd was all cheap shots and foreign objects and broad pantomimes which made the crowd rabid. Ladd kind of worked like a heel late period Baba, two old and arthritic to move fast, but the size and timing makes up for a lot. Would have liked to see a real finish, but this was a pair of great role players, playing their role.

MD: New Houston footage is gold. We have a couple of Ladd vs Magnum matches and they're generally good. This is no exception. Ladd was such a master of creating meaning. He's brilliant, even broken down, at using his size to its full advantage. He just gets it like few others his size have. It's one thing even for a guy like Terry Funk to crash out of the ring and end up with a chair around his head (that enhanced by his credibility), but it's another thing for a guy as lanky and huge as Ladd. You have to love how he needs to resort to illegal objects and chicanery and cheapshots to get over on Magnum too, even given the size and the fact he's champ. That just makes Magnum look all the better and gives Ladd extra heat because it frustrates the (always great Houston) crowd. Magnum holds his own here, just a mean bullying face, the sort that crowds will always love because it's a tough guy wish fulfillment. The finish was BS but it sets up a no DQ match and a cage match after it, so you can't be too down on it.


Bad News Allen vs. Ron Simmons CWF 12/16/86

MD: This is interesting almost solely for Bad News leading Simmons through the match. Lots of standard babyface stuff from a guy who had only been in the business for a few months. You got some sense of Simmons' star power already but he wasn't there with the expressions and the crowd interaction yet. Bad News, on the other hand, was super giving, surprisingly so if you've seen him in other environments. Some of his stooging (like complaining about a hair pull) was just tremendous, and he made sure to do little things to get over Simmons strength (such as doing a test of strength but with two hands to Simmons' one). The belt shot at the end was more of a whip with the strap, but to the face, and just brutal. I'm not sure I've ever quite seen that done with a title belt before and you wonder why not, since it was such a great visual, except for that it probably hurt like hell.

ER: Phil and I were talking a couple days ago about how Bad News was somebody who should be the absolute coolest, has the coolest look and the coolest background, but doesn't have a lot of matches I really like. Feels like he should have cool matches, usually doesn't have cool matches. But he was really popular at my school among my friends in the late 80s, because he looked cool and he rarely lost. I remember him losing to Hogan on SNME, but that was Hogan so none of us faulted him for that, obviously he couldn't beat Hogan. Every other PPV he would either win or go to a double DQ, just a guy who we all saw as way higher up on the hierarchy that he actually was. And he only became more popular due to a lie that I started. So keep in mind that I was 8, and 8 year olds have no clue how the world works or if a lie is plausible or not. Some kid at camp once told me that he found an uzi in "somebody's" house, and took the uzi. He said he had the uzi in his bag, but couldn't show it to me because he also had $10,000 in the bag and didn't want people to see it. All of this seemed perfectly plausible to me, a stupid fucking child. So I *may* have told people that Bad News Brown was...Shel Silverstein. We had a few Shel Silverstein books in our classroom, and to an 8 year old it wasn't too much of a stretch that a black and white photo of Silverstein looked like Bad News Brown (or Sid Haig, but none of us would have known that), and none of us would have known that "Silverstein" isn't a really a common name for black people. Those books were really popular in our class, so Bad News Brown then became even more popular among those of us who watched wrestling. And then years went by and I didn't think about it and I ended up tricking myself into a false memory, as I saw a picture of Shel Silverstein a decade later and thought "wait I thought he was black".


Terry Gordy/Dr. Death Steve Williams vs. Big Bossman/Johnny Smith AJPW 7/18/93

ER: It's so cool seeing Bossman come out to Hard Times in some community center looking building in Osaka. Oh, and remember when Paul Heyman brought Johnny Smith in to work an ECW PPV main event opposite RVD, but got cold feet at the last minute that fans wouldn't accept Smith so replaced him with Balls Mahoney? Wouldn't accept Smith? Here's Smith 6 years prior going toe to toe with Doc and Gordy, and literally knocking both wobbly with shoulder blocks, but yeah probably would have looked overmatched against RVD. There are two kinds of MVC matches, the kinds where they gobble people up and club and smash their way through, and the kind where they hang back a bit and lie in some holds. This is more the latter than the former, but not much to the match's detriment. Gordy hangs on the apron a lot, and Doc seems off a beat in several moments and particularly doesn't seem to know the rhythm and timing of Bossman's spots.

We get a nice babyface performance from Smith carrying this through, with some explosive bursts from Bossman. Smith really gets the crowd behind him by not backing down to MVC, slamming into them like he was the size of Bossman, throwing cool elbows between the eyes, cutting low on clotheslines and landing a couple nice ones to the back of Doc's head. He's the guy clearly taking the pin, but the crowd keeps getting more into him the more he refuses to stay down. Bossman gives him welcome respites, coming in and throwing his in-contention-for-best-ever uppercuts and moving quicker than anyone in the match. We get some awesome moments, like Doc muscling up the HUGE Bossman for a press slam (I thought he was going to quit on it but he kept powering through and even tossed in an extra rep), or Doc catching a Smith crossbody off the top and running him into the buckles for a Stampede, only to turn around and run into a Bossman elbow to get a great nearfall for Smith. Smith runs a big gauntlet down the stretch, taking powerslams, a powerbomb, a chokeslam, and gets a surprising last gasp kickout after a tandem chokeslam/backdrop. Bossman and Smith only teamed a few times, only once making tape, so this match doubling our footage count was a nice treat showing a cool complementary set of bruisers.

PAS: Not at the level of the Bossman tag we reviewed a couple of weeks ago, but this was a fun big boy battle. Smith is built like a block of firewood, and never lets the MVC eat him up, he takes a pretty big thumping, but keeps coming at both guys. I mentioned in the previous Bossman tag match (and will mention over and over again if we do the rumored Bossman in AJPW C+A) how great he is at doing complex sequences. And we get a great one here as he slides out of the ring and slides quickly back in misses a clothesline, gets both feet up and nails Doc with a windup uppercut. He is so smooth with that stuff, that it really makes me wish I saw him work El Hijo Del Santo. The presslam by Doc was an all timer, and although it felt a bit awkward, I dug how hard it was to take out Smith at the end.

MD: Most memorable here will be the two big spots, Doc somehow getting Bossman up with the high effort gorilla press and the awesome blocking of the Oklahoma slam with the forearm. More on the former in a minute. Smith really held his own here, staying in it. I thought it was all a little too headlocky in the end and it certainly wasn't the bombastic affair that the last Bossman match was, but it was still good, and maybe attuned to the crowd. Back to the Press slam spot. Yes, it was a huge effort by Williams, but one thing I loved about it was how they teased it a moment before. Bossman locked in a headlock (a lot of that here) and Doc tried to lift him up and over with the belly to back but couldn't do it. It's a little thing but that tease made the press slam that immediately followed mean all the more. That's the stuff in wrestling I live for.

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New Footage Friday: Rock 'n' Rolls, Hennig, Gagne Long Riders, OMX, Tully, Magnum

Rock 'n' Roll Express vs. The Long Riders Pro Wrestling USA 12/29/85

ER: Really fun tag with the hoss Irwin brothers picking apart Robert while we get a fun show from Ricky on the apron, leading to an absolutely scorching Ricky hot tag. I like the Irwins. I don't know if they're actually good, but they read how I want a couple of bullies to read. They got big arms and big bellies and look like farm strong Moondogs, and they don't really need to do much more than that to make things work against a team like the Rock n Rolls. Ricky and Robert seem to work up to the Irwins (I mean literally, since the Irwins are big boys) and both tighten up their strikes so the size difference doesn't seem like a big deal. I was just tickled every time we could see Ricky on the apron, firing up the hot Meadowlands crowd (and really this had to be one of the first times the Rock n Rolls ever played in Jersey), throwing big punches from the apron, all leading to that hot tag. The hot tag even has my favorite Irwin moment of the match, as Ricky hits a cool crossbody on Bill and while pinning him, Scott just strolls over and kicks Ricky in the eye. Ricky looks so small compared to the Irwins but his power cannot be denied, he comes in and works absolute rings, throws these fantastic underdog fired up babyface punches, and wins with a cool slingshot sunset flip. Not an essential match, but delivered in the ways I wanted it to.

MD: On paper, I was really excited about this one. I got a kick out of early, early 80s (Dr.) Bill Irwin in Memphis footage, which was my first exposure to him, and I've always had a soft spot for the guy. If the Long Riders had teamed in the AWA a year or two before, I feel like they'd be much better remembered. This was just a cool, unique match up. It couldn't try to overshadow the Russians vs Roadies match that every single person in the crowd was there to see, or even the sheer heat (heel control might be a better term) of Slaughter vs Markoff/Zhukov that was higher on the card too, but it was still a really fun TV style match. Bill and Gibson had a really solid early exchange, one of the best I can remember having seen Gibson having actually. Scott was a really strong presence, using his size for the cutoffs. Really, both tag teams worked so well, the Express with their constant motion and quick tags, and the Riders just tearing at the Express like dogs with an axe to grind, taking every advantage. Gibson put on a strong performance as Face-in-Peril. The hot tag was hot. Morton was doing weird back bumps on his dropkicks. The finish was clever. It's really everything you'd want from a ten minute 1985 tag match. Good stuff.

PAS: I was totally into this. Rock and Rolls are my favorite tag team ever, and their legend has really been built against some signature opponents, so it is cool to see them work a new pair. I thought the Irwins were really good here, especially Scott Irwin who really came off as a violent force of nature, he had real explosiveness for such a big dude and landed everything with a thud. Morton was an awesome hot tag, he came in like an uncaged badger and really laid it in to the Long Riders. Really made me want to see a long feud between these two teams as they really meshed well.

ER: I actually didn't know that the Rock n Rolls are Phil's favorite tag team. The more you know.

Magnum TA vs. Tully Blanchard Pro Wrestling USA 12/29/85

ER: Like most of you, I'm a ranker. I don't know if I'm good at it, but every year I make ranked lists, favorite albums, favorite movies, favorite wrestling matches, favorite wrestlers, I like ranking. While watching a match - whether intentionally or not - I'll try to decide who I like most in a match, who's my favorite guy. It gives me a little framework for what I'm going to write about, and it's fun in a trios match as new guys capture my attention as a match goes on. And then you get something glorious like this and it is nearly impossible to pick a favorite, it's just 12 condensed minutes of the type of asskicking you watch professional wrestling to see. We get some hot as hell punch exchanges, and Magnum looked like an all time babyface superstar, like someone who was clearly going to be one of the biggest names in wrestling for the next decade. Tully knew exactly when to show ass and show his vicious side. He had a couple different very subtle weak leg moments, just absolute perfection, no stoogey Charleston wobbly knees, much more like when a fighter gets rung and you see a little buckle as they momentarily check out of our universe. He gets punched in the ropes by Magnum - short, violent, totally on point shots - and falls through the ropes onto the timekeeper's table, stands back up to the apron and gets rocked again, and uses the ropes to guide his butt down to the apron. 

Magnum's punches didn't really need much putting over in this match, but Tully did little things the entire match to make them pop even more. Both guys bleed, and we work a lot of this with minimal rope running. I think they really only used the ropes a few times, with TA springing off with a running punch, and later shooting Tully in for the belly to belly, so this felt more like a fight. Of course, both guys throwing fiery punches and elbows for 12 minutes *may* have helped with that fight feel. The pro wrestling integrated itself nicely, with Magnum hitting a gorgeous press slam and the ref wearing some Shinya Hashimoto flared pants, and there's officially just Too Much Good about this. I loved when Tully knocks Magnum to the floor a couple times (with simple, fast and hard bumps to the floor from Magnum) and when TA started crawling back in, Tully just scampered over on his knees and started firing short punches from the ring to TA on the floor. Tully was really great at scampering, really added to the pacing of his matches, and here it made him come off like a wounded yet still aggressive animal, shoving off to create space but always as a means to attack, not hide. The match wrapped up a little too neatly, which is really my only complaint, but I fully buy the belly to belly as a finish because moments before I fully bought a punch as a finish. The punches that happened all match long were great enough that I would have bought one of them merely falling over and getting pinned as the finish. Glory be to the Network.

MD: Keeping in mind this match's placement on the card and the fact it was going to have time limitations, if nothing else, the only thing that would have made this one even better was if Tully had worn an eyepatch. It was a hell of a house show sprint between these two, just turned up a couple of notches considering the occasion. This is only the second full match we've ever seen between the two of them and it delivered well enough to be considered the little cousin of the first. They went all out, beat the crap out of one another, each got revenge on one another, Tully, on the outside, for what Magnum had done to him at Starrcade and then Magnum, on the outside and inside both, for what Tully did to him here. With a definitive finish, this felt like a feud ender, a final bit of punctuation (an exclamation point) at the other end of the war.

PAS: What a present this match was. We have one singles match between these two, and it is arguably a top ten match of all time, so getting another bite at the apple is amazing. It appears that these two don't know any other gear then hellfire, as they lace into each other here with wild abandon. We get two sets of wild punch exchanging, and it as good as the best Lawler vs. Mantel or Dundee punch exchanges, wild swinging and landing. Magnum looks great here, dominating Tully, but leaving openings to take shots. Both guys bleed, both fight like their life depended on it. Great, great stuff and I was thrilled to get to watch it.

Original Midnight Express vs. Midnight Rockers AWA 12/25/87

MD: The 86-7 Midnight Rockers would probably be a lot easier to swallow if more of their matches were this heavily clipped. Michaels especially had a tendency of taking too much too early for far too long. The stuff that they did was often really good: elaborate, creative, hard-working and compelling (as was the case here with some complicated set up and payoff to specific spots with Condrey and Rose stooging like champs). There was just always too much of it. They gave the fans too much of it for free bleeding well past the point where the heels should have been making them pay for their insolence (to the point where they should have been bleeding). It all becomes noise after a while. Here, due to the clipping, it doesn't wear out its welcome. Without that bloat dragging it down, the shine is good and memorable, the heat's good and memorable, the comeback is spot on and the rush to the draw is fun. It's a shame we can't judge this one for what we got instead of what probably really happened.

PAS: It seems kind of crazy to have a southern tag go to a 30 minute draw. That is a match formula which is pretty foolproof, but caps out at about 21-22 minutes. I agree with Matt that the clipping might have been a blessing, we had some fun spots in the opening face control, I loved the spot where Marty blocked Shawn getting whipped into the corner with his body, only to have it backfire when Randy Rose tried it, and OMX were champion stooges. This match went more then ten minutes before any heel offense, and even the best stooges would have trouble filling that time. I liked the heel control section, both Rose and Condrey are pretty vicious, Condrey really ripped Michaels head off with a clothesline. Still when they got to the countdown, it felt kind of rushed, and they never really built to a compelling conclusion, it just kind of ended. I loved the Star as a spot in a tag match, but it should be part of the early face control stooge section not your compelling saved by the bell near fall. Match with fun parts that never really came together.

Greg Gagne vs. Curt Hennig AWA 12/25/87

MD: There is a time and a place where this match would be special, a lost match hinted and rumored at, where this would be the great find of the week. Unfortunately, it wasn't the AWA and it's not 1987. I do sort of love the atmosphere here. Larry the Ax being supportive of his son was well and good a few years earlier when Curt was an up and coming babyface. It's endlessly superior when he's the preening, cheating champ. Proud, heel dads are the best dads. The deal with the multiple refs, with Verne being tied to the Ax, with it being Christmas, with Greg having come so close for so long... all of this felt big and special. The wrestling itself was really good too, with each guy standing tall and hammering one another, and Hennig's bumps being ridiculous but adding to the total effect instead of distracting from it, and all of the limbwork giving this the gravitas and weight a title match deserved. It's just that it's the AWA and they can never get the big things right. By 87, Verne, who had been so good at eating up opponents in his home territory, couldn't even protect himself properly. He looked like a dottering fool as Larry cheated how he liked, punching the old man for getting in his way and breaking up the sleeper just like Verne hadn't been there at all. The post match was heated enough and this should have led to a geriatric mixed tag match (it led to a non-title cage match instead), but they definitely blew the landing on this one.

PAS: I thought this was tremendous, we don't have a ton of AWA Champion Hennig, but all I have seen is stellar, so much better then the Mr. Perfect run which he is best known for. Gagne was really fun, he looks like a schlub but is a pretty dynamic offensive wrestler and a good seller. The early exchanges almost looked like Tiger Mask stuff, with really big height on all the throws and really athletic counter wrestling. I loved Gagne hitting a big headscissors and crotching himself on the ropes on the second try, great set up for Hennig's leg work. Hennig takes a big bump of his own into the ringpost setting up Gagne's arm work. I would have liked to see a little more stealth in the finish, as a straight belt shot in front of the ref is a pretty unsastifying finish to a big title match. I thought the pull apart post match was pretty electric. Greg is bleeding, Verne is slinging the strap at both Curt and Larry, and Curt is breaking away from the wrestlers pulling him apart to wildly throw shots. Really should have sold out the next month with a tag or hair match or something.

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New Footage Friday: Kroffat, Kawada, Pat Roach, Ray Steele,

Magnum TA/Randy Savage vs. The Mongolians 11/24/83

PAS: This was more of a cock tease then a match worth watching. Clearly they have raw footage Omni shows (including the rest of this tourney, the finals was Butch Reed/Pez Whatley vs. Savage/TA which I am sure was better), which is exciting, but this was kind of a dud. The Mongolians brought nothing to the table outside of silly haircuts, they were a plodding forearm and punch team, who didn't have good looking forearms and punches. TA and Savage control early with headlocks and front face locks, and there was some interesting stuff there, including TA rolling through a front face lock into mount. We get a couple of dull sections of the Mongolians in control, a hot tag to Savage, who only hits a second rope elbow for the pin. All this really made me want to do is organize an Oceans 11 style heist of the WWE footage vault.

MD: I'm not going to spend ten sentences griping that we didn't get basically any other match on this card. Still, this was a waste. It's a great look at the potential of 1983 Magnum. I don't know who told him to rush across the ring and attack the Mongol on the apron but he owed whoever it was a beer. The crowd loved that and therefore the crowd loved him. He came off like a star with an abandon that completely overshadowed Savage. Randy's best moment was realizing the incompetent Mongol tossed him into his own corner during a short FIP segment and bumping his way back to the center of the ring. This was the first match of the tournament and was paced as such: headlocks during the shine, a couple of hot tags without the time put in to earn heat, amorphous clubbering heel offense. Really it was enough to make me want to see Magnum/Savage vs the Bruise Brothers or Whatley/Reed from the same show but that's about it. This did what it was supposed to do but it wasn't supposed to do much.

Ray Steele vs. Pat Roach WOS 4/87

ER: I'm hardly familiar with these two, but I like Roach on sight as he's in his 50s, burly, and looks like a British version of Randall "Tex" Cobb. He also is the guy who boxed his way into a propeller blade death in Raiders of the Lost Ark. I wager you've seen him in far more movies than you've seen him in wrestling matches, so I'm happy this showed up. And it was a nice, satisfying, minimalist match with a lot of attention paid to simple bodyslams and wristlocks and the way it built to one big running forearm felt like this was happening in World of Muga. Roach has a few different cool neck bridges and I love how he weaponized a snapmare by turning it into more of a throw than a takedown. I don't believe I've seen it done or taken that way before. Steel was good at wrist control and grinding Roach down with a couple knees dug into the back and I loved how much of a big deal the bodyslams turned into. Roach started hitting release slams on Steele and each one kept him down for just a little longer, no pinfalls, just letting that slam soak into the bone. By the time we got to the ending running forearm (which looked like it shook Steele right out of the sky) it felt huge. Classic Muga mixed with World of Sport, meaning there was a backslide, a few bodyslams, a couple uppercuts, a forearm, a couple snapmares, and approximately 35 somersaults, and it was cool as hell.

PAS: This was a really good example of the power of simplicity when it looks good. Much of the first part of the match was based around working a top wristlock, but it was a great looking top wristlock and both guys had a bunch of small adjustments to make it look violent and impactful. I loved how size was used in the match, Roach is a lot bigger, and he menaced over Steele and had the slightest bit more sizzle on all of his shots. That running forearm was awesome looking, it looked like a KO blow and Steele sold it like he had his lights turned off. That is so much more effective then a dozen KO elbows or kicks which are shrugged off.

MD: There are a few other matches between Steele and Roach out there but I'm pretty sure this one hasn't shown up before. As it only goes a few rounds, it's a good starter match for anyone interested in British heavyweights, especially later era stuff (this is from 87). The atmosphere is everything that makes this style stand out: that "real sport" feel, the struggle for every hold, the shift between potential and kinetic energy where any increase in intensity might lead to a fall, the difficulty in switching momentum once someone gains an advantage. Everything is earned, but once something is gained, it's worth every bit of that effort. And despite all that, just like life, it can all end in a moment (in this case, by the means of a killer forearm). We don't review nearly enough of this stuff here. There are far worse things we could do than a C+A Pat Roach.

Dan Kroffat vs. Toshiaki Kawada AJPW 4/2/92

PAS: I really loved this, Kroffat jumps Kawada during the streamers and low blows him early, for the rest of the match we get pissed off Kawada and Kroffat fighting for his life. Kawada really lays in the kicks to the face in this match trying to kick Kroffat's eyeball to the back of his head, Kroffat to his credit doesn't get eaten up, but keeps firing back, including landing a big wheel kick and a molar loosening superkick. Kawada actually works over the leg during the last part of this match, which isn't something I remember him doing. He does it in a very Kawada way, with these brutal leg sweeps which look like he is recklessly trying to tear Kroffat's MCL, ACL, all the CL's. The finish was awesome as he slaps on a nasty looking high angle single leg crab, and when Kroffat taps, Kawada just stomps out of the ring, like "Fuck this guy and this whole stupid wrestling thing."

ER: The way Phil described it I thought this would be a little more of a mauling, but I thought Kroffat had almost as many dickhead shots at Kawada as vice versa. But in Kawada's defense, Kroffat totally starts it. Kawada grabs his head and starts firing off those low kicks to the temple, and Kroffat responds by basically flopping to his back while sneaking in an upkick on Kawada's balls. He plays innocent but when Kawada gets up pissed, Kroffat knew what he did. Kroffat is pretty crafty throughout, and I always love how he hooks that crescent kick right around a guy's ear, but he sets up Kawada's stuff in nasty ways too, like crashing hard into Kawada knees on a senton attempt. And Kawada certainly is a beast, really looking already like prime Triple Crown level Kawada here, that confidence is there and he does punish Kroffat nicely. We've seen matches where Kroffat and Furnas eat guys up, so we know he's no pushover, but seeing Kawada tee off on him in the corner with whipping shins into Kroffat's head just feels like Kawada knows exactly what kind of wrestler he is. Kawada breaks out something I don't think I've ever seen from him (and I don't think I've seen done by anyone this well) as he hits this front legsweep on Kroffat, and not even a typical Inoki legsweep, more like a diving kick to Kroffat's knee and shin. And the finish is brutal as Kawada grabs a high single leg (think a Liontamer but with a half crab) and just starts stomping face until Kroffat is all "Dude, fucking FINE, I quit" and then Kawada just storms out like "Fucking GOOD just quit then". The fans filming this were clearly huge Kawada fans, as you can hear them the whole match giggling with glee at this awesome professional wrestler.

MD: This is the AJPW Kroffat I want. In a land where the heel/face divide is sort of murky and often underplayed, Kroffat's the heel that we hope for. It's not enough that he does one nasty, underhanded thing from the get go. He does three, utterly unleashing Kawada. It's still Kawada though, so this isn't some sort of firebrand vengeance. It's pinpoint precision. Kroffat knows what he did and tries to stay on top (small thing, but I really liked how he stops short on the headlock-shrug off, refusing to be whipped and just comes right back at Kawada again), but one caught kicked and the meanest shove down possible later and Kawada's totally honed in on the ankle. It's not enough that he kicks the leg out from under Kroffat a couple of times. Somehow he manages to specifically kick the ankle out. It's fairly back and forth from there, with Kawada trying to kill Kroffat and Kroffat more than holding his own, including some fairly cool stuff like Kroffat riding a back body drop reversal to a tiger-driver over into an armbar and the finish where Kawada stomps Kroffat's face off in order to lock in a vertical half crab. Great stuff. We're lucky this one got unearthed.

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WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING 4/6/85 THOUGHTS

PAS: Phil Schneider
LB: Lee Benaka


World Championship Wrestling 4/6/05

"Today is a free day"
Ole Anderson

PAS: I had a shit eating grin on my face this entire show

LB:  This show was a whole lot of fun, and it opened perfectly with an excerpt from Ole's confrontation with Thunderbolt Patterson.  The menace in Ole's voice was enough to fill the big freezer in the basement of Aunt Lena's house in Brainerd, Minnesota.

PAS:  Sam Houston v. Tully was pretty fun. Not super competitive but Houston always brings jobber fire. Perfect 10 Baby Doll has gigantic hands, I mean she looked like she could palm a pumpkin. The soft core porn video package of Tully turning down pussy in a search for Baby Doll was amazing. Tully was rocking some spectacular stunner shades, and knows how to show a lady a good time. I am only bummed the dicks in the WWE production department, put generic music over what was assuredly an amazing Hall and Oates tune.

LB:  Sam Houston was really tall.  I always liked him since I saw him in person wrestling the Warlord in the Municipal Auditorium in Topeka, Kansas, during the dying days of the Central States promotion in the mid-1980s.  What if Sam Huston would have seriously abused steroids?  Would he have been bulky and huge, or would his lankiness just have been exaggerated severely?  Tully's slingshot suplex didn't look really smooth due to Houston's height, but it was a nice enough match.  The Tully video was bizarre indeed.  Tully was sitting in a mansion at a opulent table eating alone, and a woman at the top of the stairs kept calling her to him.  Except that it was a music video, and it was all done in pantomime.  Tully evoked emotions of disinterest, exhaustion, and ennui balanced with a healthy dose of randiness.

PAS: Flair v. Gene Ligon was not one of your classic Flair v. Enhancement Guy matches, Ligon doesn't bring as much to the table as George South or Mike Jackson, and there were some points where they looked like they were on different pages.

LB:  I don't really remember much about this one, so I think Phil was right on here.

LB:  A Superstar Billy Graham squash was predictably sad.  Graham looked like today's Scott Steiner on a bad day, and his touted "Kung Fu" moves were hard to discern.  And Number One Paul Jones had his arm in a sling.  A rather sorry sight all around.

PAS: Lee is crazy, watching Kung Fun Billy Graham was just like watching Jet Li. The speed, the grace, the KUNG FU!!!

PAS: Goodhelmet really needs to put together a "homoerotic promo videos of the 80's" comp DVD. Magnum T.A. shirtless posing on his Harley like a Blue Boy centerfold would surely make the cut.

LB:  Magnum T.A. was just over the top and almost made me question my sexuality.  Almost.  This video should have turned him heel.  The shots of him making out with plain-looking bar chicks was not impressive, and the repeated close-ups of some woman licking her lips was disconcerting.

LB:  Yet another music video featured Jimmy Valiant prancing around to yet another generic soundtrack, certainly not "Boy from New York City".  It seemed to be stock footage of women walking around on a beach and Jimmy posing in front of old cars and small airplanes in a museum.  Not sure what it was trying to convey, but maybe the original soundtrack would have provided more of a clue.  And it was fun to see Tony Schiavone wilt when the Boogie Woogie Man planted a kiss on him at the beginning of his post-squash-match interview.

PAS: Three separate Dusty Rhodes promos, boy that producer must really like Dusty. They were pretty good promos though. If you have to hear from someone three times, it might as well be Stardust.

LB:  I especially liked the final promo, where a beat-up-looking Dusty was standing outside his limo with a drink in his hand, celebrating his win of the TV title.  He really did look like he was getting lit up after a bruising triumph, and it was a lot more real than any of the "backstage" celebrations you see on wresting shows these days.

PAS: Ivan Koloff really had a ridiculous Boris Badanoff Russian accent. Dusty Rhodes and Tommy Rich are the worlds greatest Moose and Squirrel.

LB:  Yeah, Ivan's accent was pretty thick.  At least they didn't let Nikita say too much back then.

PAS: Buddy Landell had probably the best squash just for the elbow drop, and man did pre-Horseman J.J. Dillion wear some dandyfied suits. He was resplendent in a maroon velvet tux with ruffled collar. I like exasperated executive J.J. way better then fake Don Carson, he didn't even clean his glasses once.

LB:  Buddy Landell was a lot of fun, with the Flair strut and taunts to the audience about being the real Nature Boy.  I love J.J. as an "exasperated executive" (perfect!) and wonder whether J.J. was wearing these dandy suits prior to this in the Central States when he was heading up the Rat Pack and trying to stuff Rufus R. Jones into a rat suit.  I think he was somewhere between executive and dandy back then.

PAS: Black Bart kills Ron Rossi by tossing him hard into the bottom rope, which snaps and Rossi lands very wrong on the floor. Only "Holy Fuck" moment of the show, but it was a big one.

LB:  Of course I was up getting another beer when this horrifying bump occurred.  J.J. thoughtfully kicked the limp snapped cable out of the way so that Bart could carefully put Ron Rossi back in the ring.  That's a tough way to earn $25.00.

PAS: Arn v. Raging Bull was pretty beautiful, nothing fancy, just solid blue collar wrestling. Everything looked hard and solid. It was mostly a set up for the Ole turn on Thunderbolt Patterson. The promo before hand was great, as Ole warns Patterson "I'm not going to touch you...not today"  and the Anderson's beat down on Manny and T-Bolt makes you want badly to see the Omni blow off. The post beat down Anderson promo was kind of strange, as Arn wasn't really giving an Arn promo, as he was much for Bobby Jaggersish, lots of "Daddys" and "Jacks", while Ole did the serious killer stuff great.

LB:  I was going to say the exact same thing about Arn's post-beatdown interview.  It was hard to accept the idea that these two were related, except for the last name and the early male-pattern baldness, as the pinched Minnesota accent clashed harshly with Arn's Georgia twang.  I think Ole tried to assert that their fathers were brothers, but that seemed to be made up on the spot and did not make much sense.  But you did want to see Thunderbolt try to gain revenge and prove that Ole wasn't "carrying" him for all that time.

LB:  Prior to the end of the show, the announcers teased an Avalance Buzz Tyler match and failed to deliver.  Damn!  That was the only fault of this great old show.

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