Found Footage Friday: BUNKHOUSE STAMPEDE~! CENTRAL STATES SHENANIGANS~!

Bunkhouse Stampede JCP 12/14/86

MD: Omni next week as we're going to give Eric more time to recover from D3AN. This was another recent drop from JCP's debut at the Rosemont Horizon (so says Charles and we believe him when he says things). Very good cross section of the talent here though obviously no Flair, Tully, Dusty, and Nikita since that was the main event tag. It's hard to talk about any one specific thing in this but I definitely have a few thoughts. 

The first is that this, more so than almost any other battle royal I can think of felt purely chaotic. Workrate, spots, any of that is impossible here because there are just so many people and there are a few weapons (boot, flimsy trash can lid, Animal's wrist spikes, a strap, etc) flying around moving from participant to participant. The second that someone starts to do something interesting, someone else comes behind them and nails them. Sometimes it registers, sometimes it doesn't. Animal got someone with the spikes but they didn't realize it was happening and they didn't sell it right. The match was full of stuff like that but somehow it's additive because it just adds to the feel. 

None of the usual critical tools to talk about wrestling (structure, selling, workrate, execution) work in an environment like this. You wouldn't want it all the time but as a novelty, it's fascinating, because these are still incredible talents and characters all interacting with one another and having to operate on the fly. No plan survives more than a few seconds and everything becomes reaction. 

You can follow the flimsy trashcan lid around the ring as different people get it and since you're never going to keep track of the action (Ronnie Garvin's in this and I couldn't tell you one thing he did and he'd be a great person to watch generally), it's a good center point. It's best use, by the way, was when Rick Rude wrapped it around Animal's skull. It was that flimsy but it's a great visual. Rude and Manny drove a lot of this, with Manny scrapping with Wahoo (a precursor to their AWA feud a little while later I guess). Lots of heat for both, but at the end it was Eaton and Animal and that went about as well for Eaton as you'd expect in Chicagoland. This was a bit of a mess but despite what certain people will tell you sometimes a mess full of tons of talent is exactly what you need.

ER: This was so great, appropriately released in the middle of a battle royal compilation video, directly before the Great Berzerker Battle Royal. This battle royal is great because it throws 25 or so of the best dressed photo album dads in the world into one crowded ring and just hangs out with them. Almost everyone bleeds, but it would have been just as good (better?) if they had just been in there drinking beers like they had just finished a softball game. The cagematch listing is not accurate, because there is no Dick Murdoch, Road Warrior Hawk, Big Bubba, or Baron von Raschke, but that doesn't matter. Well, maybe Dick Murdoch would have mattered. Okay Dick Murdoch with a 50-50 poly cotton blend t-shirt stretched over his stomach would have made a huge difference. This is a blood and fashion battle royal. Everyone is in their finest yard weeding jeans - except for Jimmy Garvin, who is by far the easiest to find man in the ring at all times - and old t-shirts and tank tops. 

Every man is dressed entirely appropriate for a Bunkhouse. Jimmy Valiant looks tall and powerful and exactly like Toby Klein just looked at D3AN. Bobby Eaton gets pummeled in the corner all match and survives all the way to the end until Road Warrior Animal throws him violently to the floor, Eaton swinging a weight belt at his face a few times before he's gone. Arn Anderson is an incredible focal point all match, a target in his red slacks and white t-shirt. He punches, he gets punched, he bleeds, he is eventually eliminated without his shoes. You see, more than one person removes their boots or shoes to use as weapons, and Arn's stocking feet up in the air is a reminder of that. Ole is in camouflage pajamas like he's Udo Dirkschneider in the "Balls to the Wall" video. Wahoo and Manny put on a helluva performance before eliminating themselves, punching each other bloody and bashing each other into ringposts. Ronnie Garvin looks incredible in his black sleeveless shirt (that gets ripped away at some point) and brown leather weight belt. Barry Windham stands tall in dark blue jeans and a dark blue tank, Rick Rude stands tall in part because of his cowboy boots. Tim Horner is in a goldenrod shirt and takes the fight well to everyone larger than him, meaning everyone but Bill Dundee. Bill Dundee is in town because he had to leave Memphis in July, and he runs around hitting everyone and pulls these great I'm a Little Guy faces whenever someone tries to lift him up and over. Dutch Mantell is dressed like Bunkhouse Buck, who modeled his entire fashion on Dutch Mantell in a Bunkhouse Battle Royal.  

As far as drunken softball fights go, you've seen better. But I don't think wrestling fashion ever approached being this good again. Everyone knew exactly what kind of fight they were headed into. The red Ricky Morton and the purple Robert Gibson, the kneepads over the jeans, the Yard Work Outfit Supreme. Just throw on some old shoes that you don't mind getting dirty, some pants you don't mind kneeling in, find a bandana you can tie around your pants, or like the Bullet, around your neck. You know the drill. You've never seen 25 better dressed wrestlers in any one place at any one time and you never will again. This was the golden era, when men knew how to dress for a fight.  

Ken Timbs vs. Rufus R Jones (Boxing Match) Central States 3/28/85

MD: Next two are from one of our other great archivists, being Ben/ArmstrongAlley/KrisPLettuce, who has just organized some Central States. This was passed off to me as especially awful, and it's not quite as embarrassing as it could be. You think of the Piper vs T boxing match with the heavy gloves and T getting gassed as awful. The problems here were entirely of a different sort. 

If anything, there were two many punches. There was zero drama over the first few rounds. Jones just kept punching away again and again and Timbs kept his hands up until he couldn't and went down multiple times. There haven't been THAT many worked boxing matches in wrestling but the trick is to treat them like a wrestling match with boxing trappings and not a boxing match in a wrestling ring. That means that you do shine/heat/comeback as much as possible and in the shine, you should have the heel get some false advantages and then eat comeuppance. There was nothing of that here. Just Timbs walking into fists and selling as Jones chugged along. There wasn't a build to any highs at all. It was just a dull train moving slowly.

When he did take over in later rounds, it was because he was valiantly outpunching Jones in the corner. Only after he took over did he jab him in the eye with his thumb as Gary Royal distracted the ref. Totally backwards. Then later on Royal distracted the ref and Timbs got a knee in to take back over again. Only then he kept doing the knees when the ref was looking once more. One knee, followed by punches. That's the way to go. Maybe a second one that gets caught which could have led to the further distraction and Royal slipping the object in to Timbs' glove (because that was necessary) but don't just do it blatantly in front of the ref. 

Just no artistry, no build, no payoff. The place where that did happen was on the finish as there was a dramatic power around the object (which the fans noticed) and Jones had to duck it repeatedly before getting it himself and KOing Timbs with his own loaded glove. Maybe it was more powerful to put all of the actual "pro wrestling" part of this right at the end, but I don't think so. Just completely tossed the comparative advantage out the window and then didn't even make it believable for all the punches that Timbs was just eating.  

Gypsy Joe vs. Mr. Pogo (Chain Match in a Cage) Central States 3/28/85

MD: Well, this is definitely down our alley. Yes, there's a cage. It's about seven feet tall, I think. It doesn't come into play except for to set the mood and to show that they're enclosed and no one can get in and no one can get out, and in this case, I'm perfectly fine with that. There's enough going on with the chain after all. 

This was touch the corners, but they didn't try for a bit. Joe's advantage early on was fun, as he went after the foot first and then dodged a chain shot causing it to recoil and hit Pogo in the face. Pogo took over with it wrapped around his fist and didn't look back. One chain punch after the next, opening up Joe. The VQ is what it is, but you can tell he bled big. Eventually he went to touch the corners though and that let Joe come back. They did a good job of really building up anticipation for his first punch. He started going around and Pogo held him back until Joe finally charged in and took a shot that knocked him into the fourth corner.

Post match the cage did come into play. They had said that Sheik Abdullah the Great's New York Office had said he was on a fishing trip but he came in wearing a disguise with the heels to help beat on Joe and it took a while for the babyfaces to make the save. A good post down beating even if it was surrounded by the extra stuff. Otherwise, a nice minimalist bloody affair. 

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Found Footage Friday: BASH 85~!

Great American Bash JCP 7/6/85

Buddy Landel vs. Ron Bass

MD: A twenty minute draw, only a bit cut (we lose some of Buddy's control). I always was partial to this feud so it's nice to get a bit more of it. It filled out the midcard well, just having Bass trying to get revenge on JJ basically for picking a city slicker instead of a country guy. 

This was going long and it had a lot of Buddy getting early stalling and comeuppance. Buddy's body language is almost generational, the way that he scoots through the ropes after taking a shot or gets fired into the corner. He tries to outwrestle Bass and fails, tries to outsneak him and fails, tries to outfight him and definitely fails. When he does take over, it's about grinding Bass down and letting JJ get shots in when he can. The comeback on the floor is fiery and the crowd loves it but it's a prelude to the bell ringing for the draw. Post match, Bass gets his hands on JJ and Buddy tries to intervene only for the two to end up crashing into one another. Satisfying stuff even despite the draw.

Ole Anderson/Arn Anderson vs. Buzz Sawyer/Dick Slater

MD: This was a blast. I love the Sawyer/Slater team, even as babyfaces. Huge energy. They came in hot firing away at the Andersons, with Buzz and his fuzzy boots swinging a title belt around over his head. It was stooging fiery chaos for the first half, with Slater's windmill punches and Buzz running about biting arms and interjecting at every point. He had one charge into the corner where he shot back at high speed with a forearm that was just nuts. 

Eventually the chaos was too much and the ref got distracted so that the Andersons could take over on Slater. Super hot crowd for this as Buzz stomped back and forth on the apron. Some great hope spots and last second cutoffs where an Anderson would lock up the legs. The hot tag was sufficiently hot but things ended pretty abruptly with an elbow drop cheapshot behind the ref's back. Could have used another rotation on the finish but this lived up to my expectations.

Manny Fernandez/Buzz Tyler/Sam Houston vs. Abdullah the Butcher/Superstar Billy Graham/Konga the Barbarian

MD: I haven't talked about what we had and didn't have here but we came in during the heat on the old footage of this one. That's all beatdown on Houston who survives and survives until he's able to get close enough to draw his own guys in and win in the ensuing chaos with a roll up.

All of that is in here and it's pretty good pro wrestling, but we get the front here as well. That was Graham and Konga stooging (as once Abby got in, it would be time for the heels to take over). And it was very good. This is some of the best I've seen 80s Graham look. He was flying around way more than usual and leaning hard into the goofing. Konga did his share as well honestly. And all of that was fine because it set the stage for Houston getting destroyed. The fans absolutely loved the finish. It really seemed at this point that they could make Houston into a big deal in the years to come.

Paul Jones vs. Jimmy Valiant (Dog Collar)

MD: Previously we just had the opening feint and the finish here. The feint was great, as Jones hemmed and hawed and refused to put the dog collar on before trying to slip it on Abby instead. That didn't work but it drew attention so Abby could stab Valiant in the forehead. Previously we had commentary over that but here we got to clearly hear a scream from the crowd and that's the sort of thing that makes all of this better. 

Jones controlled, smacking a bloody valiant with the chain wrapped around his hand. He made sure to bask in it and taunt the crowd. Said crowd went up huge for Valiant's comeback as he manipulated Jones with the length of the chain. He got the sleeper on. Abby tried to interfere. Valiant was too smart for it and he got the win before Abby unloaded on him. Pretty enjoyable piece of business overall.

Russians vs. Road Warriors

MD: This couldn't have been more heel-in-peril. Not only was it Krusher and Ivan, Nikita wasn't even there because he was prepping for the main event. Even though the Roadies were the AWA champions, only the JCP titles were on the line (which given the finish made no sense anyway).

And the Warriors took the brunt of this. Maybe Ivan would get an eye rake or Krusher would get a few body shots in, but then they'd miss an elbow drop and would get swept right back under again. Animal press slammed Krusher into the top rope, then pressed Ivan off the top. Hawk got in on the action. In no case did they really get them up but the struggle made it work nonetheless. It was a bit of diminishing returns though.

They had a sort of convoluted bit to let the Russians take over and they kept control with frantic, almost desperate quick tags. Even then, when the hot tag came, it was while the Roadies were taking shots. They just didn't matter. Things devolved quickly after that as both sides used chairs. It get having the Russians finally look vulnerable but a straight up Clash of the Titans might have been more palatable. 

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El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Ninja Quest

Week 19: Ninja Quest

Leo Burke has had a notable January. His first title defense of the newly won Universal title was against former champion Carlos Colon. That match ended with controversy, as Chicky Starr got involved by ringing the timekeeper’s bell and cost Carlos Colon what looked to be a title victory. A rematch was held due to this and this time Carlos brought in his trainer Barba Roja to neutralize Chicky. However, Burke still managed to keep the Universal title when fellow stablemate Manny Fernandez ran in to save Leo’s title and in the process severely injured Barba Roja. With Carlos Colon’s attention diverted by the Barba Roja injury, Leo then participated in a Ruleta Rusa match and (through cheating) was able to cost TNT his face paint. Now Leo Burke has an enraged TNT after him, with the karate ninja wearing a mask and vowing to avenge this humiliation. TNT is on a quest to defeat Leo Burke and pay back the humiliation.

However, TNT was not able to initially get his revenge against Burke, with Leo managing to eke out a countout victory despite TNT beating him from pillar to post. Burke and Chicky Starr thought they had gotten the better of TNT but Carlos Colon ceded his upcoming Universal title shot to TNT, allowing TNT another opportunity to avenge his humiliation (and give Carlos a chance to go after Manny Fernandez for what he did to Barba Roja). The Universal title match between Leo Burke and TNT took place on January 27 in Guaynabo and it resulted with no clear winner due to cheating and issues with the referees that resulted in Invader #1 getting involved. Due to this controversy, a rematch was ordered  February 3 with a special referee appointed to prevent any further chicanery taking place. The special referee was boxer Alfredo ‘El Salsero’ Escalera, someone who has previously dabbled with wrestling in the early 80s. Chicky was not happy about Invader’s involvement in the January 27 match or with the special referee appointed for February 2  

That second title match ended in a disqualification win for TNT when Chicky again got involved. Although TNT won the match, he had not yet pinned Burke. Once more, due to the results of the match, it was decided that there would be one more Universal title match between Leo Burke and TNT. The match will be held on February 10. As for Chicky Starr, due to what happened between him and Alfredo Escalera a match has been signed that will see a boxer vs a wrestler also for February 10. Will TNT be able to complete his quest for vengeance? We shall soon see. But before getting to that February 9 match between Burke and TNT, there is one more thread we need to wrap up for January.

That last thread we need to catch up on before passing into February is the saga of ‘Tough Guy’ Eddie Watts and his challenge for the World Junior title. As we have talked about previously, Watts has been brought in by Chicky Starr as the newest Club Deportivo member with the goal of winning the World Junior title. Eddie had wrestled Super Medico for the title, but the match ended in a disqualification victory for Medico when he was tossed over the top rope by Watts. A rematch was signed for January 27 and let’s go to Guaynabo for that match.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIw8N7l4pZE

This is from the February 10 Campeones airing, so we get the commentary team of Hugo, Carlos and Chicky. We also get some comments throughout the match about that night’s card (which includes discussion about both the Universal title match between Burke and TNT and the boxer vs wrestler match between Alfredo Escalera and Chicky Starr). Hugo mentions this isn’t the first time Medico and Watts have faced off for the World Junior title and that Chicky wants to add the title to his stable of champions. As the ref checks both participants, Carlos says that he hates to admit this but Chicky has quite the prospect in Eddie Watts, one of the better junior heavyweights to have come to Puerto Rico (something Chicky brags about after Colon’s comment: “The tough guy may not be the biggest but he’s got an ability and intelligence that few can match”). Hugo starts getting at Chicky for once again using the word intelligent to describe his wrestlers, with Chicky saying that in his organization there are only intelligent people. Carlos sarcastically goes: “Hugo, El Club Deportivo is composed of geniuses apparently”. Hugo clarifies they must be geniuses of evil., but one has to admit they are going through their best period with all of the champions they have right now. Carlos says that will change tonight because he’s feeling good about TNT’s chances tonight. Carlos also mentions Chicky’s match vs Alfredo Escalera, saying that he’s given some pointers to Escalera (with Chicky being annoyed by this). I’ve made all these observations about the commentary because Watts has been taking his time in getting into the ring to start the match.

Back to the match, as Watts finally locks up with Medico (almost two minutes in). Medico backs Watts into the corner and breaks, with Watts complaining his hair was pulled (looks like he’s been studying Leo Burke).  Hugo mentions that historically, fans side with the wrestler in a boxer vs wrestler setting, but he has a feeling that tonight the fans will be firmly in Escalera’s corner against Chicky. Eddie Watts is backed again into a corner after a lockup and stays there after the break, stalling once more and complaining about his hair being pulled. Chicky at ringside also complains to the ref, which Hugo makes mention of on commentary (Chicky: ‘Of course, I’m right there and saying what happened; Hugo in a sarcastic tone: ‘The man who always tells the truth, Chicky Starr, an honest man’; Chicky: ‘Definitely, now you’re talking correctly’).  A third lock up leads to Watts shoving Medico and then falling to the outside after a punch by Medico. He really is doing the Leo Burke playbook here. The commentators put over the Canadian guillotine maneuver as Watts recovers and gets back in the ring.

At this point the match settles into moments where each man gets a few moments of advantage, with Medico and Watts each working a side headlock segment. A rope running segment leads to Watts leapfrogging over Medico and celebrating, resulting in Medico punching him. Watts once again exits the ring as Chicky complains about a closed fist. We go to commercial break as Medico flips Watts back into the ring and come back with Watts in control. Hugo on commentary mentions that Watts can thank Chicky Starr for helping him gain control, it looks like Medico had Watts in a jam but Chicky has been able to distract the ref. Watts is on the attack, but a throw into the corner is reversed by Medico. Super Medico is slow to get up but manages to scoop up Watts for a slam attempt. However, Medico can’t hold Watts up and falls, allowing Watts the chance for a pin attempt that gets two. Medico is able to get a sunset flip but the referee is tied up with Chicky and Watts escapes the pin attempt. Chicky on commentary starts justifying why he’s talking to the ref.

Watts attacks Medico on the outside, ramming Medico’s head onto the ring apron. An attempt to ram Medico into the ringpost is countered and Watts ends up hitting the ringpost instead. Watts is busted open and Medico unloads a series of punches on the outside. Medico throws Eddie back in the ring and another punch combination results in a pin attempt that gets two. A headbutt sends Watts to the outside, with Medico giving chase and attacking Watts near the crowd (including ramming Watts into the guardrail). Watts staggers back to the ring and Medico comes off the rope with a headbutt that knocks Watts down. A pin attempt gets two. Medico has things well in hand, but both men knock heads coming off the ropes. This sends Watts to the outside but he remains on his feet staggering around. Chicky points Watts to the direction of the ring and, as Watts gets on the apron, he is met by Medico. Eddie headbutts Medico in the midsection and jumps over the ropes with a sunset flip. Medico counters by grabbing onto the top rope for leverage and sits down on Watts for the pin (remember his feud with Brett Sawyer and how Medico didn’t like that this was done to him?). Chicky immediately jumps on the apron to complain to the ref about Medico holding onto the ropes, telling the ref to check Medico’s hands for blood (since Watts was bleeding the ropes would have been covered by the blood). The ref checks Medico, finds blood and restarts the match. Chicky on commentary is happy justice is done, but Carlos brings up how Leo Burke used a foreign object to defeat TNT in the ruleta match and that the decision wasn’t reversed then but here it is (which Carlos thinks is unfair). Watts briefly has the advantage but Medico uses a series of punches and headbutts to regain control. Medico goes up top and goes for a senton, but Watts rolls away. Medico lands hard and Watts makes the cover for the three count. We have a new World Junior champion. El Club Deportivo now has four of the five singles titles.   

MD: This is a very complete stadium match (shown, I think, the next week to hype up that week’s matches) though we lose the point of transition due to a commercial. I’d be interested to see how Watts took over but it was probably just an eyerake or something. Watts is not someone I’m terribly familiar with. He worked Stampede before this (including losing at least once to Morrow and Cuban Assassin in 89) and had a mask match with Atlantis and Lizmark in late 90 as Animal II. He feels like a perfect guy to have been in the GWF Light Heavyweight Tournament to lose to Jerry Lynn in the second round or something. He sort of grew on me as the match went on, starting with some stalling which really paled to what was going on in the territory with Leo Burke (though Chicky being with him helped) but you couldn’t help but enjoy watching him move backwards step by step around the stadium with each Medico punch. That was actually a solid chunk of the match. And he ate some nice headbutts (with the proper transferal of blood onto a white mask) after blading. They went out of their way to protect Medico here, with a phantom pin and a false finish when he accidentally had his hands on the ropes after a sunset flip. Watts finally won it after Medico missed a leap off the top (and they went out of their way to show Chicky telling Watts to move). I don’t know about you but I enjoy watching Medico jab people in the face.   

EB: Let’s see Eddie Watts in a tv match as the new champion. His opponent is the masked La Sombra.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2ee_aT-xgk

Watts seems pretty hyped in showing off his new championship as the video starts. Chicky seems to fake out Sombra as Watts is taking his jacket off, likely to prevent Sombra from jumping Watts early. This is a short match and one that further establishes Watts for the tv viewers. It’s another solid if basic showing for Watts, with the big spot being the Canadian guillotine finish (Watts covered some distance across the ring there). A rematch between Medico and Watts would take place on February 3, with Watts retaining the title. We’ll have to see what challenges arise for Eddie Watts as we progress into February.

MD: This was ok. The most memorable moment is Watts stepping back to dodge a dropkick and end Sombra’s one flurry of offense. He won with the legdrop off the top again. Basically, he’s workmanlike and competent, but not magic

EB: As February began, some changes continued in terms of the roster. One area with notable turnover was the tag team division. As mentioned in our last post, a new version of Los Mercenarios made their debut the first weekend of February. This new combination of Angel Acevedo and Rambo Ron Starr defeated the Youngbloods for the World tag team title. In addition to the new Los Mercenarios, another team arriving for some appearances is the team of The Hunters (or Alaskan Hunters). This tag team had a previous run in CSP in 1987 and it appears they're heading back to the territory. But while the rudo side seems to be reloading, the tecnico side is losing two of their stalwart teams. The first team leaving are the Youngbloods, who are finishing up this latest run with CSP after their title loss on February 4. Let’s take one last look at the Youngbloods with a throwback match from 1987, one that also allows us to take a look at the Alaskan Hunters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkRqsqYv-mk

This is from a Campeones episode that aired in January1990. This match was airing since The Hunters were on their way back and this served as a reminder to the fans who they were. The commentary mentions that the scheduled opponents for the Hunters were originally Huracan Castillo and Miguelito Perez but they had not yet arrived, so the Youngbloods are taking their place. The Alaskan Hunters (composed of Dale Veasy and the Bob Brown that is not the Bulldog) had a good run back in 87, winning the World and North American tag titles in the summer to fall run they had. The Youngbloods are able to counter an initial attack by the Hunters into an offensive flurry that sends both Hunters outside to regroup. You can see Chicky Starr is their manager back in 1987, but when we next see the Hunters that may not be the case. Carlos on commentary talk about how Chicky cost him the Universal title the previous week against Leo Burke by ringing the bell prematurely and interrupting the match (it appears this episode aired the same weekend as the rematch with Barba Roja in Colon’s corner, as Carlos says he has a surprise to counter Chicky tonight).  The Youngbloods control the first part of the match  to the crowd’s delight, although both teams could confuse the ref if he’s not paying attention by switching out their team members. The Hunters take control by sending Mark into their corner and working him over. The latter half of the match is one where the Hunters are in control, including a member switch when the ref’s back is turned. We go to a commercial with Mark trying to counter the Hunter in the ring with some chops but come back with Mark in a bearhug trying to fight out of it as Chris is trying to rile up the crowd. The Hunters continue attacking Mark in the corner (with some quick crowd shots shown throughout including a kid that looks to be sucking his thumb). Mark gets a couple of pin counters but the Hunters continue with the advantage. As Mark is being worked over with a reverse chinlock, we see Castillo and Perez arrive in street clothes. They proceed to jump in the ring and attack the Hunters, which the referee allows. It looks like they’re taking over for the Youngbloods. Present day Chicky on commentary can’t believe they’re allowing this (and in this case I’d have to say he has a point) but the fans cheer as Perez and Castillo make quick work of the Hunters for the win. We’ll be seeing the Hunters again soon, although if they look the same remains to be seen. .  

MD: This is from 87. The Youngbloods were replacing Perez and Castillo who had a transportation problem (Maybe a “four flat tires” situation?). The Hunters (Veasy and “Not Bulldog” Bob Brown) come off like the Outrunners, a perfectly genuine parody of 80s pro wrestling. They’re bald, energetic muscle guys, with a bearhug and a tendency to get redirected into one another. Youngbloods clown them early only to get dragged down in the corner. Right when they’re maybe starting a comeback (or at least have some roll-up hope spots), the Express hit the ring in their street clothes and get a counted pin that surely didn’t count.

EB: The other tag team the tecnico side is losing is the team of Huracan Castillo and Miguelito Perez. While they are not leaving the promotion ,the two are going to focus more on the singles title division for the time being and not be a full time team. Let’s also take a look at them in action, first with two matches from late fall of 1989 and then with one from our present day 1990 chronology where they take on the Universal champion Leo Burke and his manager Chicky Starr.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6CYH6AiJIw

This first match is from late fall of 1989 as we get Perez and Castillo taking on El Exotico and El Gran Mendoza. Castillo and Mendoza start off, both men being familiar with each other from a previous rivalry they had over the World Junior title in 1987. We get a nice hold exchange and counter sequence from Castillo and Mendoza, which ends up with Mendoza missing a charge and ending up going through the ring ropes to the outside.  Exotico goes over to help his teammate but Mendoza is not happy about the attempted backrub. Mendoza rolls back in but gestures to Exotico to get in and makes the tag. Exotico gestures to Castillo to meet him in the center of the ring but the exchange does not go well for Exotico. Castillo tags Perez in and they hit a couple of double team moves on Exotico. Perez continues in control of the match, faking out Exotico on a leapfrog and then taking him down with an armdrag. Castillo tags back in but a missed elbow drop allows Exotico to tag Mendoza back in. Mendoza maintains control on Castillo but decides to tag Exotico back in, who promptly misses an elbow drop. A punch exchange is actually won by Exotico and he knocks Castillo down with a clothesline. Another successful clothesline sees Exotico start to dance a bit, but the overconfidence allows Castillo to counter with his own clothesline when Exotico attempts a third one. A neckbreaker gives Castillo time to tag in Perez, and Perez goes on the attack, with Mendoza and Castillo eventually all coming into the ring. The rudos try to ram Perez and Castillo into each other but they counter and instead attack Mendoza and Exotico. This leads to a powerslam on Exotico for the pin. 

MD: Perez and Castillo have matching Zubaz-type gear. It’s funny that Castillo is the one with the top instead of the hirsute Perez. Mendoza takes a slow-mo Hamrick bump early and then gets annoyed as Exotico tries to rub his back. Exotico has these fun preening short arm clotheslines but it gets reversed on the third and they go into a finishing bit with the Perez powerslam.

EB: Let’s go to our second match from late fall of 1989.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgYCR2aNbkU

Mendoza is again facing Perez and Castillo but he has Abudda Dein as his partner in this go around. Dein and Castillo start off with armbar exchanges and seem evenly matched. Mendoza on the ring apron keeps trying to take some swipes at Castillo every time he circles near the rudo corner. Dein takes control with a knee to the midsection but Castillo counters with a monkey flip out of the corner and a dropkick. Dein tags in Mendoza, who seems ready to go after Castillo. However, Mendoza circles around once and then tags Dein back in without engaging Castillo, Another exchange ends with Castillo getting an atomic drop that sends Dein into his corner and into Mendoza. Dein regroups and has a strategy conference with Mendoza, but does not tag out. Perez is tagged in for the first time this match and Dein does not fare any better against him. The rudos are able to gain the advantage when Mendoza reaches over to grab Miguelito by the neck when he’s coming off the ropes. Mendoza tags in and works over Perez briefly before once again tagging Dein back in. Dein briefly maintains control but a belly to belly suplex off the ropes allows Perez to tag Castillo back in. Dein also tags Mendoza in at the same time and now it’s castillo and Mendoza fighting in the ring. Castillo hits a flying knee and this leads to all four men fighting. In the chaos Castillo ends up getting rammed into Dein, which briefly allows the rudos to attack Perez two on one. However, an attempted double team backfires when Mendoza hits Dein with a kick when Perez gets out of the way, allowing Castillo (the legal man) to jump off the top turnbuckle with a bodypress onto Mendoza for the pin. 

MD: In cutting this footage up, Dein’s shoes have been a big help. He’s probably on the way out here as he needs Mendoza’s help (a nasty head grab as Perez was coming off the ropes) to take over and then eats a belly-to-belly to set up the comeback in short order. Mendoza takes the fall after some miscommunication however.

EB: We go to our present time as Perez and Castillo (who are being identified more by their team name of The Caribbean Express) are facing the Universal champion Leo Burke and Chicky Starr in tag action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xgG-Cop2bE

Castillo and Burke start the match off as Eliud Gonzalez on commentary talks about how proud Perez and Castillo’s fathers are about how their sons careers are going. Castillo knocks Burke down with a dropkick, which sends Burke looking for relief in the corner. Burke goes for a side headlock but Castillo manages to take Burke down with a couple of armdrags. Castillo works the arm as Chicky yells at the fans. Hector Moyano on commentary mentions that the tecnicos’ speed has been the difference so far. Leo breaks the armbar by sending Castillo into the ropes and hitting a knee to the midsection. Chicky tags in but falls victim to an armdrag takedown. Chicky breaks out of the hold but a nice exchange leads to Chicky once again being trapped back in the armdrag. Burke tries to come in to help Chicky but the ref stops him. While the ref is distracted with Burke, Perez switches out with Castillo and continues to work on Chicky’s arm. The ref asks Castillo if he tagged out and the crowd cheers in affirmative when Castillo points at them. Chicky manages a headscissor counter but the attempt to charge at Perez backfires and Chicky ends up getting dropkicked out of the ring.

Castillo throws Chicky back in and Perez and Castillo continue to maintain control on Chicky. Burke breaks up a pin attempt with a kneedrop, which gives Chicky enough time to make the tag. Burke attacks a dazed Castillo. Perez fires up the crowd as Burke hits a neckbreaker on Casitllo. A second attempt at a neckbreaker sees Burke slip to the mat when Castillo grabs onto the ropes. Perez is tagged in and cleans house on Burke and Chicky. All four men briefly end up in the ring, with Chciky rolling out and Castillo being told to leave the ring by the ref. Perez hits a powerslam on Burke, but with the ref’s back turned, Chicky stomps on Perez. This gives Burke the opening to send Perez into the ropes, where Chicky grabs onto Miguelito from behind when coming off the ropes, snapping his head back. Burke takes the opening to put on the figure four and Perez tries to fight out of it. It looks like Perez might reach the ropes but Chicky moves over to yank the ropes away (something he had been doing while seconding Burke against Carlos Colon). The ref warns Chicky to back away but it’s enough for Perez to finally give up.  

MD: They’re in and out in under six minutes here. Burke is an absolute workhorse paired with Castillo to start, rope running, feeding, hitting a cheapshot or a cut off, and then feeding again. Chicky takes his share of damage too. Brief, brief heat here as Perez jams a neckbreaker attempt by holding on to the ropes and the heels feed some more. There’s an awesome matter-of-fact pin breakup in the stretch with Chicky just sauntering in with a nonchalant stomp. Finish has him catching Perez from the outside which lets Burke put on the figure-four.

EB: We’ll have to see if any new teams step up to fill the void left by these two tecnico teams. Speaking of open spots, with Gary Albright wrapping up his run in CSP, there was an opening for a new wrestler in El Profe’s Real Academia. El Profe has brought in another power wrestler in the form of Carl Styles. Styles first appears in the available CSP results on February 2, taking on Mark Youngblood. Let’s see him in action against Nick Ayala and learn more about Carl.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hesb-lQweFQ

The announcers talk up the young Ayala and mention that he’s up against a man with an impressive physique in Carl Styles. As Styles knocks Ayala down with a clothesline, Eliud Gonzalez starts mentioning that Styles was a collegiate champion at the University of Tennessee, was three years intercollegiate champion in bodybuilding and he is from Georgia. As Styles continues with the advantage, El Profe moves toward the announcers table and yells ‘As you can see, what I bring here is quality, the cream, so watch and learn’. Eliud remarks that so far Carl is backing up Profe’s words. Ayala briefly looks to start a comeback but an eyerake stops him. Carl continues showing off his power with a delayed shoulder breaker. Carl’s offense seems to be focused on the neck and shoulder area of Ayala. A gutwrench suplex leads to an attempted pin but it looks like Styles decided to lift Ayala up. The commentators continue talking up Styles and his bodybuilder physique (so they’re giving Styles a similar presentation as Albright, although focused on bodybuilding instead of amateur wrestling). A powerslam sets up a full nelson (that explains the neck and shoulder based offensive attacks) and Ayala gives up. An impressive win for Carl Styles. 

MD: Styles feels like he’s taking Albright’s spot on the card. He feels like a guy who should be dressed up like Super Freddie or Jason the Terrible to me. Ayala tries to punch back but just gets powered over with a shoulder breaker, a gutwrench, a power slam, before finally being put away with the Full Nelson.

EB: As has been the case with other newcomers, sooner or later they will be tested by some of the more established tecnicos. In this case, let’s see how Carl Styles does against Super Medico.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOFzaYbZ0VI

The match starts with Styles hitting some clubbing forearms to Medico’s back. Styles then hits an overhead press slam on Medico before posing for the crowd and going for the pin attempt. Medico kicks out at two. He then counters Styles with a sunset flip attempt for two. Styles goes back on the attack, hitting a snapmare and then a chinlock on Medico. A slam leads to an elbow drop miss by Styles and Medico tries to take advantage with his punch combinations (or as Eliud calls it his ‘maquinita de golpes’ or hit machine). A backdrop and a slam gets a two count for Medico. A shoulder tackle knocks Styles down, but Carl is able to get to his feet and grab Medico coming off the ropes, leading to a hotshot onto the top rope. That is enough to give Carl the opening to put on the full nelson and get the submission win. Styles refuses to break the full nelson and holds on until forced to break. It looks like El Profe has brought in another potential power threat for the tecnicos. The video ends with Carl trash talking the crowd and the camera guy.

MD: We come in JIP here, hard to say how deep. Styles shows off his power more with a press slam, then puts on a chinlock. Medico works up and yes, I do like watching him punch people. Styles takes it with big flailing arms. He cuts off Medico with a hotshot (pretty varied set of offense from this guy) and locks in the full nelson for the win.

EB: Besides the roster turnover, we also have the existing issues between the Club Deportivo members and El Ejercito de la Justicia. We talked about Leo Burke and TNT earlier, but what about Carlos Colon and Manny Fernandez? Well, the week after the attack on Barba Roja, Carlos was absent from the Campeones episode, meaning it was just Hugo and Chicky on commentary. Throughout the show, they talked about what had happened and how Carlos was out for blood against Manny. Chicky said that Carlos was not going to be able to do anything to Manny while Hugo said Carlos was going to go on a rampage. They would face off on January 27 and then again on February 2, but no clear winner was had either time (with the February 2 match ending in a double countout). The feud between Carlos and Manny is far from being settled.

Still, Manny is also the Puerto Rico champion and he is facing challengers for his title. Let’s go to a JIP title defense against Miguelito Perez.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFUgm8FJEdY

We join the match in progress with Miguelito on the floor outside of the ring, right by the lighting rig. The referee is administering the ring out count as Manny Fernandez is on his knees recovering. Outside is Chicky Starr,  who is watching Perez attempt to stand up. Inside the ring Manny is able to stand up and gets tied up with the ref, allowing Chicky the opportunity to attack a vulnerable Perez on the outside. Hector Moyano on commentary mentions that Manny had rammed Miguelito’s neck against the lighting rig pipes and that Chicky appears to have hit Perez with something just now as well. Perez is able to stagger back to the ring but he is easy pickings for Manny. Fenrandez hits a corner clothesline on Perez but a second attempt results in Miguelito charging back with a clothesline of his own. Miguelito starts getting fired up and knocks Manny down with a second clothesline. Several punches lead to a dropkick for a two count. Perez hits an irish whip and a charge into the corner. Perez tries for a slam but Fernandez counters with an inside cradle for two. A punch exchange leads to a criss-cross rope running exchange between the two men. Perez manages to drop down as Manny passes through but Manny catches Miguelito with the flying forearm off the rebound and gets the pinfall win. A successful Puerto Rico title defense for Manny Fernandez.

MD: We just get the last three minutes of this, starting with Perez on the floor. That lets Manny distract the ref so Chicky can get a cheapshot in. What pals. Manny’s swagger was in full display when he was in control. Perez is able to reverse a second corner clothesline and fire back. Finish is rope running with Manny hitting the flying forearm out of nowhere. Looked like it was probably a good one.

EB: Harley Race is also one the champions in El Club Deportivo, holding the Caribbean title. So far he has stayed out of any direct feud with El Ejercito de la Justicia but that is soon to change. First, let’s look at Race in action against Chris Youngblood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2weqnRrhsc

Last post we saw Mark Youngblood take on Harley Race, let’s see how brother Chris does. The ring introductions are made and Race gets a side headlock of the lock up. Chris counters by sending Race into the ropes and hitting a chop. Another lockup leads to a break in the corner, where Race attempts to cheap shot Chris but his punch is blocked and Chris counters with a double overhead chop. An irish whip and clothesline gets a two count for Chris. As both men circle one another again, Chris starts clapping to get the crowd into it. Youngblood gets a side headlock on Race and works if for a few moments. Race sends Chris to the ropes, but misses a punch, allowing Chris to hit a slam for a two count. Chris starts pumping up the crowd and doing a war yell on the turnbuckle as Race tries to collect himself. Hugo on commentary mentions there may be a potential upset here, which has been happening all over including boxing (I’m guessing this means Tyson vs Douglas happened already, so this is from a mid February tv airing even though the match was likely taped at the end of January). Race uses a knee to take over for a moment, leading to a pinfall attempt for two. Chris is able to get a sleeperhold on Harley and it may be an upset. However, Race manages to counter by ramming Chris face first into the corner. A piledriver sets up the fisherman suplex and Race gets the win. You can’t give Harley these openings, he’ll end it quickly with that fisherman suplex.

MD: It’s interesting to think that the Sports Club at this point was Race, Burke, Manny (and yeah, Watts). That’s quite the group. This had Race skidding to the ground for Youngblood’s chops early, thudding him down in the middle, and then cutting off the comeback with a piledriver and the laying fisherman’s suplex. Didn’t quite have the time to be anything more. Race could still take a few bumps early though.

EB: Earlier we mentioned that Invader #1 had gotten involved in the January 27 Universal title match. After Invader's interference, Chicky Starr promised on tv that Invader would pay for sticking his nose where it didn’t belong. This resulted in Chicky asking Harley Race to take care of Invader.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GslZxj_K_LI

The video opens with Invader heading towards the announcers’ table where Harley Race and Chicky Starr are standing and appear to have been ranting and raving moments before. It looks like Harley and Chicky had come out and issued a challenge to Invader. Chicky wants Harley to teach Invader a lesson for interfering in the Universal title match. Invader addresses Harley and asks if he understood correctly that Race was challenging him. After Harley and Chicky make it clear that they want Invader right now, Invader says to give him 5 minutes to get ready and he’ll face Harley. But before Invader finishes talking, Race decks Invader with a punch as Chicky yells ‘Right now!’. Harley rams Invader face first into the ringpost and grabs the table to attack Invader, as Chicky eggs Harley on and runs down Invader on commentary. ‘I’ve taken over the official commentary for this encounter, as you can see the Invader is finished, you can see the blood is flowing! Harley Race, the champion, the only man that will finish with Invader. This is for sticking his nose into what didn’t concern him’. Chicky gives back the mic and joins Harley in yanking Invader’s dress shirt sleeves in order to make a straight jacket of sorts. Harley and Chicky taunt the defenseless Invader and Harley continues hitting Invader at his leisure. 

Eventually the trio of Castillo, Perez and (I think) a masked TNT arrive to help Invader, with Harley and Chicky getting into the ring. Race challenges Castillo to get in the ring with him as Invader is helped to the back by the other tecnicos. Inside the ring the bell rings, and Castillo immediately is on Race with a series of punches and a clothesline. A slam sets up an elbow drop, but Race dodges it. Race gets up before the stunned Castillo and immediately hooks in the fisherman suplex for a quick pinfall. Race has another quick victory, but more important, he’s set his sights on Invader #1.

MD: This is a great angle, with Invader wanting just five minutes with Race and getting cheapshotted, tied up, and bloodied up for his trouble. It leads to a match with Castillo where Race made short work with him. I know that there were short matches on TV even with names sometimes, but Race’s feel even shorter, which makes him come off as particularly dominant. It may be because he couldn’t work longer matches or at least not frequently but it was probably effective in giving him a bit of extra aura.

EB: Invader #1 and Harley Race would face off on February 2 in Humacao in a tag match (with partners Carlos Colon and Leo Burke, respectively) and in a singles match on February 3. This match ended in a disqualification win for Race, but the rivalry is only heating up. They are scheduled to face each other again on February 10. We’ll talk about some of the other happenings of the February 10 card next time but we’re closing out this week’s post with the Universal title match between Leo Burke and TNT. Although the rematch has been ordered by the wrestling commission, this is basically understood to be TNT’s last shot at Burke and the Universal title. Because of the repeated cheating by Burke and Starr, Carlos Colon has offered to serve as TNT’s second for the match. And in another boost for TNT, a decision has been handed out by the wrestling commissioner. After a few weeks of review, it has been decided that due to the way Leo Burke won the ruleta rusa match, the stipulation of TNT losing his face paint has been rescinded and TNT can legally wear his face paint again. Let’s go to Caguas for the match.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgq0PHDMTBE

TNT is back in the face paint and Carlos Colon is seconding TNT in order to counter Chicky Starr. This is from a Campeones airing a week after the match took place, so we get the interesting dynamic of the two seconds being on commentary along with Hugo. Carlos mentions on commentary that he had been saying that this year they weren't going to keep taking any more underhandedness from Chicky Starr and El Club Deportivo and it was going to be an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. TNT and Burke are near one side of the ring, with Burke arguing and pointing that TNT needs to head to the opposite side of the ring to start the match. Carlos is watching from the ring apron but Chicky is still in the ring and also motioning that TNT should move to the other side of the ring. The ref El Vikingo has his hands full, telling TNT to move to the other side but also going after Chicky and telling him to get out of the ring. As TNT moves a bit to the other side, Burke immediately moves towards Carlos and starts pointing and telling him to get off the apron. TNT moves back near Burke and,as Burke turns around from yelling at Colon, TNT unleashes a kick that scares Burke away. The match has begun.

Burke starts begging off in the corner but TNT stands his ground. (Wait, did someone throw a smoke bomb near ringside?) Burke tries a kick but TNT blocks it and counters with a chop. Burke staggers back up but TNT follows up immediately, not giving Burke the opportunity to try his usual rolling out of the ring and stalling playbook. A lock up leads to a TNT chop and Burke again staggers away but is grabbed by TNT. A blow exchange occurs but TNT comes out with the better end of it. Burke finally is able to leave the ring and stall a bit to slow down TNT’s momentum. Chicky on commentary says that he’ll say one good thing about TNT, he’s one of the young lions in the sport and has made an impressive showing so far in his career, but he’s in there with the master in Leo Burke and has no chance of winning. Back in the ring, TNT and Burke circle each other, with Burke jabbing his hand into TNT’s face. As TNT recovers and goes back after Burke, Leo puts the ref in between them to stop TNT from getting at him. Burke again gets away to the outside and the ref stops TNT from going after him.  

Back in, Burke again circles around and slaps TNT in the face. He is really trying to goad TNT into making an angry mistake. TNT charges again  but Burke once more hides behind the ref, using him as a shield. AS TNT is backed away, Leo kicks TNT from around the ref’s side. Burke works the advantage with punches and a turnbuckle ram, leading into a side headlock. TNT counters by sending Burke to the ropes and hitting a slam for a pin attempt, but Burke gets his leg on the rope. TNT immediately kicks Leo’s leg and takes him down with a headlock. After working the headlock on the mat, TNT continues with the advantage as we go to commercial break. Back from the break and we see TNT lying partly on the top turnbuckle as Leo is yanking TNT’s left leg. As Leo keeps applying pressure, TNT is able to kick the back of Burke’s head in order to break the hold. Both men tumble to the mat. TNT is limping as he gets up and Burke immediately attacks the injured leg. You can tell Leo is probably thinking about the figure four already. TNT sends Burke into the ropes but collapses after a leapfrog counter, his leg unable to support his weight. Leo goes for the figure four but TNT manages to kick Burke away, sending him into the corner with Burke hitting the back of his head on the top turnbuckle pad. Burke is first up and hits a neckbreaker that gets a two count. A back suplex by Burke gets two. Both men are showing signs of fatigue but Leo maintains control with some punches and a kneedrop. Burke gets a sleeperhold on TNT in the middle of the ring and this may be enough to put TNT away.

TNT struggles in the hold and starts to fade, but is able to ram Burke back into the turnbuckle to break the hold just when it looked like TNT was going to collapse to the mat. TNT hits a couple of back elbows but an irish whip charge is countered by Leo into a sunset flip pin attempt. TNT kicks out at two and immediately counters with his own cradle attempt for two. TNT hits  a spin kick off the ropes and both men are down. Carlos starts clapping and cheering TNT on. Both men get to their feet and try to gain control but they end up colliding heads off a Burke shoulder tackle and are down again. Carlos gets up on the ring apron in a kneeling position to cheer on TNT, causing the ref to move over to make sure Colon does not get involved. On the other side of the ring, Chicky takes advantage of the ref’s attention being diverted and slips a foreign object to Burke. Chicky on commentary once again is having monitor problems and doesn’t see what Hugo is talking about. Burke tries to hit TNT but is sent flying by a backdrop to the mat. Leo loses the foreign object on impact, with it landing right by Carlos Colon. Carlos sees the object and points the ref’s attention to Chicky, who is on the apron. As he does this. Carlos grabs the foreign object. The ref now moves towards Chicky Starr and tells him to get off the apron. In the confusion, Burke chop blocks TNT’s leg and starts his attempt at putting on the figure four. Seeing this, Carlos decides to get in the ring with the object and decks Burke with it. Carlos immediately jumps out of the ring and hides the object in his sock as Chicky is arguing with the ref. TNT crawls over to make the cover and the ref turns around in time to make the three count. TNT has done it! Chicky Starr is not happy about the outcome as Carlos jumps into the ring to celebrate. Carlos helps TNT up and hugs him as Chicky on commentary says that the WWC cannot accept this win. As Carlos continues raising TNT’s arm in victory, Chicky starts wagging his finger indicating  that this should not be. The ref goes to give TNT the title belt but Carlos grabs it to present it to the new champion. As TNT grabs the belt, we see Invader #1 and Huracan Castillo arrive to celebrate with TNT. Invader and Carlos help put the title belt on the new Universal champion as TNT and Castillo share a moment. The tecnicos leave the ring as Chicky continues waving his hand around, with Carlos on commentary saying that he did what he had to do in order to ensure that Chicky and Burke did not get away with it again.  

MD: Great moment here. As always, I love seeing Burke do his thing early, trying not to engage, ducking out of the ring, hiding behind the ref. He tried to sneak a kick in that way but it didn’t do him much good. TNT controlled the first half. We lose the transition and presumably a chunk of Burke’s control due to the commercial as we come in on TNT hope spots as he’s limping around. For someone who did come off as quite dangerous, TNT was very good at portraying vulnerability. Here, he did a leapfrog but immediately crumbled due to the knee and wasn’t able to capitalize after the spin wheel kick. Lots of hooha at the finish, with Chicky giving Burke a weapon, TNT dodging and hitting a back body drop as Colon was complaining to the ref, Burke clipping the leg, and then Colon hitting Burke as he was going for the figure-four as the ref was distracted by Chicky. Huge, warranted celebration as TNT rolled over for the win.

EB: TNT has become the Universal champion! He is the first El Ejercito de la Justicia member  that is not Carlos Colon to become the champion. But you can bet Chicky Starr and Leo Burke will be complaining about the match ending. Will there be a rematch?

Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, some ‘new’ tag teams make their debut as we also get a new manager joining the rudo ranks. Plus, TNT begins his reign as the Universal champion, but an old foe may end this reign before it’s really begun.

Read more!

El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Turnover

Week 18: Turnover

EB: As we head into the latter half of January, it looks like there is some turnover happening in the roster and in some of the existing feuds. We saw some debuts in the beginning of the year and we’re close to saying goodbye to some of the post Aniversario roster members. We’re also at what may be crossroads regarding the top feuds in CSP.  Carlos Colon thought he had solved the outside interference problem in his matches with Leo Burke by bringing in Barba Roja to neutralize Chicky Starr. But as we saw, he didn’t count on other members of El Club Deportivo getting involved. Manny Fernandez saved Leo Burke’s Universal title reign by attacking Carlos Colon when it looked like Burke might submit to the figure four leglock. And in the ensuing chaos, Manny attacked Barba Roja with the flying kneedrop and severely injured him. How will Carlos Colon react to what happened?  We shall see. Let’s go to a Puerto Rico title match where Manny Fernandez is defending against former champion Invader #1. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkMlnkKJyKA

Eliud Gonzalez does the ring introductions, indicating that this is a Puerto Rico title match with a 30 minute time limit. Invader is making another attempt at regaining the Puerto Rico title from Manny. Hector Moyano on commentary mentions that it looked like Manny was staring disdainfully at the title belt when it was being presented by the ref, indicating that he’s disgusted with Puerto Rico. Both men are wary to lock up at first but once they do Manny takes a quick upper hand with some chops and sends Invader into the ropes. Invader counters with a  sunset flip for two, which causes Manny to back away into a corner to regroup. The ref gets Invader to back off as both wrestlers stare at each other. Another feeling out process leads to a lock up once again. Manny gets the advantage and shoots Invader once more into the ropes, but Invader ducks a clothesline and counters with a crossbody for a one count. Invader goes for an inside cradle and that gets two. Invader’s strategy is one of trying to score the pinfall whenever the opportunity is there. Manny goes outside to stop Invader’s momentum and complains to the ref about his pin counts. El Vikingo starts the ring out count on Manny as he slowly gets on the apron while continuing to complain at the official (you can also see Chicky voicing his complaints at ringside and to the camera). Both wrestlers face off again but when they go to lock up, Manny quickly puts on an armbar and forces Invader down to the mat. The advantage is short lived, as Invader fights to his feet and counters with two arm wringers and a drop toe hold to take Manny down to the mat. Manny eventually is able to fight out of the hold and sends Invader into the ropes, hitting a hiptoss. A followup elbow misses, and Invader counters with a hiptoss of his own and is back to working on Manny’s arm. 

Manny eventually works out of the armbar by hitting headbutt, but Invader is able to hiptoss Manny again and work the arm once more. This has not been Manny’s match so far. Eliud on commentary mentions that we are in Dorado for this match. Invader continues working and attacking the arm. We go to commercial break and when we come back Invader still has Manny in the armbar. Manny finally is able to turn things around by sending Invader into the ropes and hitting his rolling elbow smash. This stuns Invader enough to allow Manny to attack him with some headbutts and then a kneedrop. Manny hits four rapid fire elbow drops on Invader and goes for the pin. He only gets a two count. A back suplex gets two as you can hear some fans start chanting for Invader. A short arm clothesline by Manny goes into an immediate pin attempt for two. Manny works a reverse chinlock, leading to the referee to check on Invader via arm drops. Invader keeps his arm up and fights out of the hold. It looks like Invader may be starting a comeback. Manny and Invader have a blow exchange (including chops, headbutts and elbows), Invader knocks Manny down with a clothesline and starts getting fired up, slapping his chest and doing his short hops. 

Invader and Manny again exchange blows, but Manny counters Invader coming off the ropes by side stepping and throwing Invader through the ropes to the outside. As Manny distracts the ref, Chicky almost immediately starts attacking Invader, with both men exchanging blows on the outside. Manny blindsides Invader from behind by jumping off the ring apron with a blow. Manny rolls Invader back into the ring, hits a slam and decides to go to the top turnbuckle. It looks like he is setting up to hit a flying kneedrop, the same move that severely injured Invader #3 and more recently took out Barba Roja. Miguelito Perez rushes into the ring and attacks Manny, causing a disqualification. It looks like El Ejercito de la Justicia does not want any more injuries occurring from Manny’s flying kneedrop. Manny fights Miguelito off however, and sends him over the top rope to the floor. Chicky tells Manny to go to the other turnbuckle to try again, but as Manny starts climbing that turnbuckle we see him get shoved off by Carlos Colon. On the other side of the ring, Miguelito had grabbed Invader by the legs and was dragging him outside of the ring to safety. Carlos (in his suit and tie) starts ferociously attacking Manny, wanting revenge for what Manny did to his trainer Barba Roja. The fight spills to the outside as Carlos and Manny continue fighting. Manny is able to ram Carlos into a lighting rig to momentarily halt the attack, but Carlos recovers and continues right after Manny. Carlos gets his head rammed against a ringside table but still continues grabbing onto Manny and attacking. Now it’s Manny who gets rammed face first into the table. Both men are bleeding and punching each other on the floor. Eliud mentions that we’re basically watching a streetfight here between Carlos and Manny. Carlos throws Manny back in the ring and they continue tussling as the commentators note that it’s a bit hard to be able to attack while dressed in a suit since your movement is more restricted. Manny bails to the outside but Carlos gives chase and the video ends with Carlos still attacking Manny at ringside. Carlos wants Manny’s blood for what happened to Barba Roja and it looks like his attention has shifted away from Leo Burke and the Universal title. 

MD: This was a very fun title match on TV until it all broke down. Manny fed into Invader’s arm control early. Just two guys who knew exactly how to build that early stage of making a champion look vulnerable to the challenger’s superior wrestling. Manny was one of the best every at hitting a picture perfect cutoff off the ropes and he took over after that. And of course, Invader’s maybe the best ever at timing and portraying his comeback. Here when he got the first shot in and recoiled to show how far he still had to climb, the crowd went nuts. Eventually, Manny desperately cut him off by tossing him to the outside and Chicky got involved and it all ended with Colon rushing in, still wearing his tie, and brawling with Manny. The match was definitely a means to an end to set up the post-match but it was an enjoyable journey to get there.

EB: With the issues surrounding Manny (both with Colon and Invader) ,a tag match happened between Burke and Manny versus Carlos and Invader #1. We go to highlights of that tag match.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRHzkyi4_lo

We join the match with Invader making the hot tag to Carlos Colon, who starts exchanging blows with Manny Fernandez. Carlos gets the better of that exchange and knocks Manny down with a clothesline. A cartwheel follows as Manny begs off but Carlos presses the atack. While this is happening, Invader is standing outside of the ring, leaning on the ring apron and trying to recover from the damage he has taken so far. Carlos hits a clothesline as Chicky on the outside rushes Invader and rams Invader’s head into the ringpost. We cut to Carlos attacking Burke in the ring and we see Chicky rush towards a downed Invader (who is bleeding from the head) and repeatedly kick him in the face. There is no love lost on Chicky’s part towards Invader. We see some wrestlers come out to check on Invader as the match continues on. We cut to later in the match as Carlos is still on the attack vs Leo Burke, while outside of the ring they are trying to bandage Invader’s head. The wrestlers on the outside (they look familiar and it’s almost like seeing double, we’ll discuss them in more detail next time) try to help Invader to his feet as Carlos gets Burke in a sleeperhold. Manny rushes Carlos from behind to break it up and now the rudos are double teaming Carlos. Invader doesn’t seem to be reacting too well so the wrestlers help Invader to the back as Carlos is still being double teamed by Burke and Manny. Later in the match, Carlos has been busted open as both Burke and Manny continue punching Carlos repeatedly in the head. The ref calls for a disqualification since Burke and Manny are ignoring his orders for one of them to exit the ring. Burke and Manny setup Carlos for the flying kneedrop, but Invader rushes out to the ring and shoves Manny off the top turnbuckle. Burke, Manny and Chicky decide to run to the safety of the locker room as Carlos and Invader go after them. Carlos runs over to the ringside table and grabs the ringbell (which he tosses to Invader) and a chair as they continue to head towards the locker room entrance. As the clip ends, we hear Hugo say that they are on their way to try to break down the rudo locker room door.  

MD: We come in with Invader’s hot tag. He had been opened up and it’s a shame we miss the heat on this. Invader’s tended to immediately after the tag and thereby basically out of the match. It’s neat to see Colon’s comeback after a tag, cartwheel and all, as he comes in a house of fire. He also hits some great neckbreaker drops on Burke. Just when he locks the sleeper on, Manny flies in to break it up and they double team until they get DQed. Invader runs back out, bandaged up, to stop them from injuring Colon though. What we got of this looked really good and I bet the whole thing was great.

EB: We’ve seen two of Chicky’s Club Deportivo members in action but a third member had officially debuted at the start of the year. Harley Race won the Caribbean title and is looking to make an impact in Puerto Rico. Let’s look at him in action against Mark Youngblood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcjvaXGv_rY

We get Mark in singles action against Harley. Mark gets the better of Race in the initial exchange,as Harley goes to the outside to regroup. The commentators (Eliud and Moyano) are talking about the seven time World champion’s pedigree. Race is back in the ring and Mark continues in control with a slam. Mark continues getting the better of Race as the commentators talk about how Chicky has been bragging about having Race in his stable and that he is the Caribbean champion. Race counters a side headlock into a back suplex, and follows it up with a measured knee drop. A fisherman suplex follows for the three count. Although Harley didn’t dominate the match, his experience came through and he was successful against Mark Youngblood. We’ll have to see if Harley gets more involved in the goings on between El Club Deportivo and El Ejercito de la Justicia.

MD: They covered a lot of ground in two minutes here. That meant Race let his punches get blocked early with a bit of stooging and a retreat out of the ring. He tried a cheapshot but Mark got the better of him off the ropes. Then Race shifted gears from bumping and stooging to ever so casually taking over by turning a headlock into a belly to back, hitting a kneedrop, and winning with the fisherman’s suplex. They could have done this same match in ten minutes but the cliff notes version was interesting, in as it still felt kind of effective at two. 

EB: One wrestler who has been a notable presence throughout the last three months of 1989 has been Gary Albright. Built up as a monster on tv with his Albright lock, amateur abilities and his belly to belly suplex, Albright unfortunately has not been as successful when challenging some of the higher ranked tecnicos. Albright had been unsuccessful in challenging Invader and Miguelito Perez for their titles but still continued to impress on tv. However, as the month of January wound down, Gary Albright’s run in Puerto Rico would come to a close. We have a couple of matches of Albright from the late 89 period just to round out our look at Gary Albright in Puerto Rico. And to finish our look at Albright, we’ll see him take on TNT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h--cUAZoYEE

Our first match harkens back to the period where Albright was being built up as a monster. Here he is facing Maelo Huertas and Armando Fernandez in a handicap match. Both tecnicos try to team up on Albright to start, but Gary is able to fight them off and attacks them one at a time, ending the match by slamming Maelo on top of Armando and pinning both of them.

MD: Totally elementary in one minute. Albright just pushed people away from him until he could isolate one, a power slam, a slam of the other onto the first, and the win. That’s how you book a monster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx9YB5TQJYc

EB: Our second match is a TV match against Miguelito Perez. This appears to be from before Albright challenged Perez for the Caribbean title at the end of 1989. The commentators mention that this is a tough challenge for Perez, as Gary has the power and size advantage. Albright just dominates Perez with knee strikes and an elbow in the corner. Perez tries to fire back with punches, but they have no effect on Albright. Perez finds an opening when Albright puts his head down too early when Miguelito is coming off the ropes, getting an inside cradle for a two count. Albright goes back on offense and Perez is only able to come back when Gary makes another mistake by missing a charge into the corner. Perez is able to knock Gary down with a clothesline but misses his own  charge into the corner. Albright sends Perez into the corner twice and hits a shoulder tackle (a bit weak on contact) and then an elbow drop for the win (with Perez kicking out at three). It looks like we’re somewhere in between the Albright Lock being dropped and the belly to belly coming into play as his finisher.

MD: We have a number of PR matches with Albright where he works far too weak and scared. He’s a monster. He should act like one. Here in a two and a half minute match, he does, just relentlessly swarming Perez. I’m not saying his stuff looks great necessarily but it almost doesn’t have to because he’s such a relatively imposing figure and because he’s so persistent with it. Perez takes over on a missed charge but then misses one of his own and Albright clunkily puts him down for a big elbow drop. Sort of surprising how much of a squash this was but Perez had the banana peel of hitting hard in the corner to excuse it. If Albright worked like this all the time in PR he would have been way more marketable. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsDIBG68eCI

EB: We finish our look at Gary Albright with a match against TNT. And yes, it looks like Albright is facing Kwang instead but it is TNT (we’ll explain shortly why TNT is wearing a mask). TNT starts off very aggressive, throwing a kick at El Profe to scare him away from ringside and getting the early offense on Albright. A spin kick sends Albright to the outside to regroup. Albright and Profe start complaining that it was an illegal throat hit and that Albright should be the winner by disqualification. The ref tells Albright to get back in the ring. Albright wins a lock up by backing up TNT into a corner and hits a chop, but that only gets TNT animated and he scares Albright off. TNT is really fired up for some reason (we’ll find out why soon). Albright keeps trying to find an opening but TNT starts attacking Albright in the corner with several strikes. However, Gary hits one chop that sends TNT backwards and now Albright has the opening needed to go on the attack. Albright controls the middle portion of the match, using his size and power (and some choking and interference from Profe) to maintain control. TNT at one point counters with a crossbody but Profe has the ref distracted and the pin only gets two. Albright shifts his focus of attack to TNT’s back, putting him in a couple of bearhugs to use his size advantage. Albright also uses an abdominal stretch (with El Profe assisting) to further weaken TNT’s back. The turning point comes when Albright decides to go to the top and is too slow, allowing TNT to catch him at the top. TNT slams Albright and follows that with a thrust kick. TNT continues attacking Albright but Gary is able to counter a throw into the corner and starts punching TNT. The ref tries to get Gary to back off and gets caught with the follow through of Albright’s punches. As Gary turns to see the ref on the ground, TNT seizes the opening and uses the ropes to hit a double leg kick that sends Gary backwards. Albright trips over the ref and TNT quickly jumps on top to use the leverage and get the pinfall. This is it for Gary Albright in Puerto Rico, his last appearance in the available results is February 2 where he was scheduled to face Victor Jovica.

MD: And if Albright will get controlled by Perez at the 1989 year end show, of course he’s going to beg off and hide behind the ref against TNT, only ever taking over because of Profe’s interference. I really do think there’s something to the dissonance of an Olympic level threat being a big coward, but it’s also sort of limiting. Albright likely learned a lot about what a pro wrestling heel could be during this stint but I think he used it to better focus him over the years to come. TNT did a decent amount of fighting from underneath here, including having to deal with a bear hug, but when it was time, he came back with a huge kick (after another missed splash) and they went into a really fun finish where the ref got knocked down and then TNT tripped Albright over him.

EB: One other stalwart of the last few months of 1989 has been the team of Angel Acevedo and Gerry Morrow. On their debut they won the Caribbean tag titles from the team of Perez and Castillo and have recently been challenging the Youngbloods for the World tag team titles. We’ve recently uncovered a recap of that feud between Los Mercenarios and Perez and Castillo, so let's take the opportunity to see how this feud played out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T_U4Npdumg

This video starts off already in progress as we revisit the singles matches held at Aniversario 89 in Mayaguez. We start with the second singles match where Perez won. However, here we see that after the match Los Mercenarios attacked Castillo and Perez, in particular having a prolonged double team attack on Perez as Casitllo had been knocked to the outside. Huracan is able to get back in the ring with a chair to chase off the rudos, but we see that Miguelito has been busted open and left laying. We go to another match held on October 18 in Toa Alta, where Castillo is facing Acevedo. The attempted interference from Morrow backfires as he instead splashes his tag partner, allowing Castillo to get the pinfall win. Our next highlight is from October 21 in Bayamon, this is the rematch for the Caribbean tag titles. Perez and Castillo were in control but Morow manages to hotshot Perez on the top rope. Los Mercenarios send Perez over the top rope, drawing a disqualification. Los Mercenarios continued attacking Perez and Castillo after the match.

We go to October 28 where the two teams are once again facing off for the Caribbean tag titles. Perez and Castillo are once again in control but Perez accidentally runs into Castillo ,which turns the tide in favor of Los Mercenarios and allows them to get the win. Both teams squared off once more on November 8 in Toa Alta, with Perez cleaning house on both Mercenarios. All four men end up in the ring and the bell rings as it’s a time limit draw. Both teams continue fighting after the bell. The next highlight is from November 11 in Yabucoa, as once again Perez and Castillo are in control when Morrow backdrops Perez over the top rope and draws a disqualification for his team. Our last highlight comes from November 22 in Manati. This time it’s Castillo cleaning house as Miguelito is down on the apron recovering. Once again all four men end up in the ring, but as the ref escorts Perez out of the ring Los Mercenarios blindside Castillo from behind and roll him up for the win. This feud looks to have spanned over two months and we still don’t have a full tag match between the two teams. But at least we can see how the feud progressed. . .

We do have one more match featuring Castillo and a partner taking on Los Mercenarios (we’ve seen a few iterations of this in previous posts). But this time, Castillo might have his strongest non Perez partner yet in Super Medico.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBRURCN19eI

As you would expect from the tecnico tag team combination ,they perform very well against Acevedo and Morrow. Both Castillo and Medico have had extensive tag experience (even if not with each other). The tecnico team is clearly in control of this match, with Castillo and Medico easily keeping the match flow against both Mercenarios while tagging in and out. Los Mercenarios are only able to turn the tide when Acevedo sneaks into the ring to catch Castillo unaware with a clothesline. Castillo is able to tag out and Medico handles both Mercenarios with ease. Medico goes for a couple of pin attempts o n Acevedo that are broken up by Morrow. This draws Castillo into the ring. Castillo and Medico ram Los Mercenarios into each other. Castillo tries to send Morrow into the corner, but Morrow counters. However, Morrow’s charge is dodged by Castillo and Morrow goes through the ropes. As the ref escorts Castillo out of the ring, Medico hits a crossbody block on Acevedo. But as has happened many times before, Morrow takes advantage of the ref having his back turned and comes off the top rope onto Medico, allowing Acevedo to get the pinfall. 

MD: My big takeaway from both the 5 match recap and the Medico/Castillo match is just how valuable Cuban Assassin and Jerry Morrow were during this span. They were credible, reviled, nasty, worked just as hard as they had to in order to get their comeuppance early on or towards the end of a match, had a lot of different, believable ways to win. Morrow could come off the rope at any moment or they could hit a double team like a spike pile driver out of nowhere. They had the size and presence, even if not necessarily the athleticism to hit a believable cut off clothesline or just a shoulder block no matter how fiery the babyfaces’ offense are and they were physically memorable enough to play into comedy beats if need be. These were two guys that would never get a major run with WWF or WCW (note: Major) at this point but that had tons of value when put in the right spot and in the right way. Likewise, you could believe that Castillo and Medico could win at any point. The hierarchy was loose and the crowd was with them. When Medico rolled up Assassin, I thought it was possible (right until Morrow came sailing off the top to cut it off).

EB: As we’ve seen previously, Los Mercenarios had been involved in rivalry with the Youngbloods for the World tag team titles. When we last saw the two teams tangle, it was in a strap match where Los Mercenarios had the match won if not for the referee not seeing Acevedo hitting the turnbuckle first. Due to the circumstances of the finish, Los Mercenarios were granted another shot at the World tag team titles. This time, on the first weekend of February, Los Mercenarios defeated the Youngbloods and captured the World tag titles. However, this was not the Mercenarios team we’ve seen since Aniversario 89. 

https://youtu.be/BhYSZS_pnVY

We bid goodbye to Gerry Morrow as we have a new tag partner for Acevedo in Rambo Ron Starr. We previously saw Ron Starr take on Leo Burke in October of 1989, but before that he had quite the memorable three year stint as Chicky’s cousin and accomplice. He’s back now, and while the last time we saw him was as a tecnico, it appears he has fallen back to the side of the rudos. He’s aligned himself with El Profe (still selling the fallout he had with Chicky) and this is the New Mercenarios tv debut. However, a very important piece of information is mentioned at the start of the match. While this is the team’s tv debut, they had actually already competed the previous weekend against the Youngbloods for the World tag team titles. And on their first weekend teaming together, Acevedo and Starr defeated the Youngbloods for the World tag team titles. Does that make them double tag champions? We’ll find out next time if that’s the case.

The opponents for Acevedo and Starr are Super Medico and Herbert Gonzalez, and while Medico can definitely get the job done I’m not sure if Herbert is up to the task.  Medico starts off for his team and does well against both Starr and Acevedo, but the tide turns once Herbert gets in the ring. The commentators make note that Rambo Ron Starr is back, looks to have gotten bigger and that he is quite the reinforcement for El Profe and Mercenario #1. El Profe brags about his team winning the World tag titles right off the bat and that no one will be able to defeat them. Herbert tries but Starr just outclasses him in the ring. Herbert is able to back Ron into the corner and tag Medico back in, with Medico hitting a flurry of punches on Ron. Medico hits an elbow and dropkick on Ron but decides to tag Herbert back in. Ron rakes Herbert’s eyes and hits the DDT (which had been established during Starr’s previous run as his finisher) for the win. A strong showing for the new World tag champions in their tv debut. Super Medico might need to rethink his choice of tag partner next time.

MD: Rambo Ron Starr is in for Morrow and he adds a little more motion and speed to the proceedings. More oomph on rope running. Quicker to bump and feed. All while still being rugged and mean. This was just a few minutes long and not much of a showcase really. It went back and forth though Los Mercenarios were always just an eyerake away from taking back over and then controlled the ring well. Starr won with a DDT out of nowhere.

EB: Another newcomer we briefly saw in our last post is Eddie Watts, who hails from Canada and appears to have his sights set on the World Junior title held by Super Medico. Let’s take a look at Watts in action against Herbert Gonzalez.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEYpj--hEnM 

The first detail is that Eddie Watts is managed by Chicky Starr, so we have another new member of El Club Deportivo. This match is mainly a showcase for the new arrival, as Watts pretty much is in control of Herbert throughout the match. Eliud on commentary gives Eddie’s vital stats, including that he hails from Winnipeg, was World Junior champion in Canada and studied at the University of Calgary. Watts’s offense looks fine if basic for the junior division but it’s clear Chicky has brought him in to continue the quest for all of the titles (he already has the Universal, Puerto Rico and Caribbean champions in his stable). Eliud tells the fans that Eddie’s favorite maneuver is the Canadian guillotine. An ax handle from the bottom turnbuckle doesn't connect well and Herbert briefly looks to start a comeback. Watts is able to stop Herbert with a boot to the face and eventually wins the match with an Alabama Jam off the top rope (I’m guessing this is the aforementioned Canadian guillotine). Eddie celebrities and motions that he wants the title.   

MD: Watts seems like he should be beneath Chicky’s notice as a charge, but I guess Chicky wanted to go after the Junior title and needed a warm body. He is not a familial Watts, only one in name. This was not the world’s most impressive showing either. He had a great finish with his take on the Alabama Jam, but his double axe handle off of the BOTTOM turnbuckle was so ineffectual that Gonzalez fired up on him after absorbing it. Overall, Watts seemed competent enough but he’s going to need his opponents to do a bunch of the heavy lifting, I think.

EB: As to why Chicky would have interest in the World Junior title, besides the goal of his stable holding all of the titles, the World Junior title is one singles title that Chicky himself had held previously, as recently as 1989. In fact, the reigning World Junior champion, Super Medico, had a brief feud with Chicky in the summer of 89 where they traded the title back and forth. As recently as the Thanksgiving Day show Chicky had challenged for the World Junior title, and while we didn’t have the footage available when we covered the event, we do have video of that match available now. Let’s take the opportunity to see Super Medico and Chicky Starr in action battling for the World Junior title.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awsBNzSBjx8 

We join the match in progress and we see that Chicky is still growing his hair back from Aniversario. This is a good showcase for both Chicky and Super Medico as we really haven't been able to see them in this setting as much. The video opens with Chicky in control, hitting a wristlock throw on Medico and then putting on a headlock. Medico reverses into a hammerlock but Chicky makes the ropes. Chicky buys time by staying in the corner and telling the ref to keep Medico away. As the ref is talking with Medico, Chicky appears to reach for something that was in his kneepad. The ref checks the kneepad at Medico’s request but doesn’t find anything. Chicky looks pleased with himself as he sort of prances around the ring. Hugo calls the movement weird and thinks it may be a tactic to throw Medico off his game. Chicky goes into the ropes to prevent Medico from attacking him and the ref tells Medico to step back. Hugo talks about how Medico is a complete wrestler on both offense and defense. Chicky continues stalling as the crowd gets on his case. Finally, they lock up and Medico takes Chicky down to the mat. Chicky eventually breaks the hold by reaching the ropes. Chicky wins a blow exchange and struts a bit before continuing his attack on Medico. 

The match continues with Medico gaining the advantage, but Chicky is able to stay in it with some counters, including using Medico's tights as leverage and ramming him head first into the turnbuckle. A kneedrop leads to a pin attempt, but Chicky’s cover is a bit too cocky and Medico kicks out. Hugo channels Gorilla Monsoon a bit by saying that he’s not going to win if he doesn’t hook the leg. Chicky continues with a focused attack on Medico's head and neck area. Medico fights out of the clutch hold Chicky had on. Medico is slow to get up as Chicky is a bit frustrated that the hold was broken, but he immediately starts attacking Medico with kicks. Chicky uses the ropes to leverage a double kick and push Medico to the floor. Chicky again starts prancing a bit in the ring (Hugo says that Chicky is doing those weird moves again) as Medico slowly gets back in the ring. Chicky sends Medico into the ropes but makes the mistake of putting his head down a bit too soon and Medico counters with an elbow to the back of Chicky’s head. Medico takes over with a series of punch combinations, including his signature punches off the top rope. Medico hits a hiptoss and a shoulder tackle but the video skips ahead as Medico is going for a second shoulder tackle. Just before the video skips ahead, we see Chicky start grabbing the referee. The video comes back to Chicky pinning a downed Medico as the ref calls for the bell. Based on the context, it looks like Chicky grabbed the referee and pulled him into Medico’s tackle. Chicky then may have knocked Medico out with the foreign object he had been hiding earlier. However, the ref has disqualified Chicky for pulling him into the shoulder tackle. Chicky thinks he won but the ref lowers Chicky’s arm and raises Medico’s instead. Medico immediately chases Chicky out of the ring as the crowd cheers. Chicky makes a hurried exit as he is flanked by security and the fans throw garbage at him. Medico retains the World Junior title.  

MD: Tremendous sub-10 minute match, one of my favorites I’ve seen for this project so far. It’s mostly strikes but they’re all really good. There’s some BS with Chicky avoiding the lockup or trying to hide an object, but a lot of what hits are these great forearms or mean kicks and stomps. Medico’s stuff looks great when he fires back or gets a knee in. And of course, Chicky throws his head into every shot. There is a bit of a clip at the end, but you can get the idea. Chicky got desperate, cheated in a blatant way, lost the match. It’s great to see him do his thing with such a game opponent though.

EB: We’ll continue to follow Eddie Watts and his challenge for the World Junior title next time. 

Leo Burke has been able to retain the Universal title so far in January, although it may appear that the rise was a bit sudden based on the tv performances we’ve been able to review.  But as a bit more footage has been uncovered, we’ve discovered Burke had faced almost the entire tecnico side before facing off against Colon. While Burke has been able (so far) to stave off Colon’s attempts at regaining the Universal title, there are some other potential challengers in the tecnico camp. And Lro is not a stranger to any of them. Let’s go back a moment to the fall of 89 to add some more context to Leo’s rise to the top of the challenger rankings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX3xl_nuA5A 

This is from late fall of 1989, as Leo Burke continues to rise up the contender rankings and is facing the TV champion TNT in a non title match. If you recall Burke had faced TNT in early November as part of Chicky’s continued quest to avenge the humiliation suffered at Aniversario when Chicky lost his hair. Hector Moyano mentions that both wrestlers are looking to rise up the Universal title rankings. We get the pre-match hug between Burke and Chicky and Eliud Goznalez comments on how TNT makes his presence felt with his fabulous face paint. There’s a bit of a staredown before both men lock up. TNT backs Burke into a corner but is forced to break by the ref. Burke tries to punch TNT off a second lock up but the punch is blocked and Leo immediately bails from the ring. Burke takes his time getting back in and attempts to sucker punch TNT off a lockup. TNT was ready and swats Leo’s hand away. Burke backs away but when the ref tells TNT to keep his distance, Leo takes the opening and lunges with a kick, surprising TNT and allowing Burke to gain control of the match. Burke attacks TNT in the corner with chops and a choke. He follows that up with a snapmare and some kneedrops. TNT counters by sending Burke into the ropes and eventually hits a crossbody for two. Burke begs off as we go to commercial break. 

Back from the break, we see TNT lying on the mat with Burke in control once more. However, Burke sends TNT into the ropes, where TNT ducks two clothesline attempts and hits a spin kick. TNT goes for a pin but Burke breaks the count by putting his leg on the rope. TNT goes back on the attack and hits a side kick to the face. TNT makes the cover but Chicky has jumped on the ring apron and is distracting the referee. Burke takes the opportunity to toss TNT over the top rope and it looks like TNT landed on his knee (he starts holding his knee in pain). TNT stumbles a few times trying to get back in the ring, his knee looks to be hurting and causing him issues in standing. Burke suplexes TNT into the ring and goes for a pin attempt that gets two. TNT ducks a punch and hits an atomic drop on Burke, but the move causes more damage to TNT’s injured knee and TNT cannot follow up. Burke goes after TNT’s injured knee and is able to put the figure four leglock on. TNT tries to hold on and fight out of the hold but the pain is too much and he submits. Burke has won the match and moves up the Universal title rankings. Post-match, Burle leaves the figure-four on for a while longer before breaking the hold. Chicky and Burke celebrate as they leave the ring while the ref checks on TNT who is still clearly in pain.    

MD: Burke’s looked great in this run so it’s nice to be able to flesh things out with a few missing puzzle pieces. He stalled to start and then fed for TNT, which was typical for him but hasn’t gotten old yet. We miss the transition and have no idea how long the heat was due to the commercial but we come back with TNT’s comeback, hitting the spin wheel kick off the ropes. Chicky intervenes after the superkick though, letting Burke toss TNT through the ropes, hurting his knee. From there, TNT would get spots in (an atomic drop and a knee lift) but would be too hurt to capitalize and Burke eventually gets him to cleanly submit to the figure-four, putting Burke over huge and only protecting TNT a little. 

EB: Burke managed to get past TNT on his way to the top of the rankings, but how will he do against Invader #1? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5RLgNgTYs0  

We are again in late fall of1989 as Burke faces one fo the top tecnicos in Invader#1. As the ring introductions are made, Invader tries to get at Chicky, which causes Burke to get in front of Chicky as he bails to the outside. Burke also joins Chicky outside after the bell rings, he hasn’t taken his jacket off yet. Chicky helps Leo take the jacket off and we get their pre-match hug. Burke gets back in the ring and the action starts. Invader gets a quick roll up attempt but Leo kicks out and immediately goes outside to halt Invader’s momentum. Burke gets back in, complaining his tights were pulled. Invader quickly takes Burke down to the mat and Leo tries to call a timeout. Invader uses a pair of arm wringers and a drop toe hold to gain control, but Burke soon counters and hits a knee to take over. We go to commercial break as Leo is on offense and come back with Burke still in control, working over Invader’s arm. Invader is able to briefly counter with a slam, but a knee to the midsection cuts him off and Burke continues in control. Burke focuses his attacks on Invader’s arm. Invader makes a comeback via several chops, and a backdrop gets two. A clothesline knocks Burke down, who immediately rolls out of the ring. Invader follows right behind, and a chase around the ring begins. Burke manages to get to the ring apron and kicks Invader away, but looks to hurt his leg jumping back into the ring. Invader immediately goes for a figure four attempt, but Burke was playing possum and counters into an inside cradle for the pinfall. Burke joyously celebrates by doing some squats to show his knee is fine and points at his head as he exits the ring. Burke has faced pretty much all of El Ejercito de la Justicia and has come out on top. He’s definitely earned the number one contender spot and, as we know , Burke would win the Universal title soon after.  

MD: Burke and Invader are very well matched. Invader’s able to make the most of Burke’s stooging and stalling early. Burke eventually takes over on the arm which is a nice bit of variety as he usually targets the leg. Invader punches out of the corner for his comeback and they go into a great finish where Burke bounds into the ring from the outside, feigns a hurt leg, and then rolls Invader up after he attempts a figure-four to capitalize. Post match, Burke bounces around gloating. Good stuff. 

EB: As January of 1990 progressed, Leo Burke had managed to retain the Universal title against Carlos Colon (although not necessarily by clean methods). With Manny Fernandez getting involved and seriously injuring Barba Roja, Carlos Colon's attention is now divided between wanting revenge against Manny and wanting to regain the Universal title. In addition, Manny’s involvement has brought Invader #1 closer to Burke’s sphere and he could potentially be a challenger for Leo’s Universal title. However, an incident occurred in January that would set the stage for who Burke’s next challenger would be.
A new match called La Ruleta Rusa (The Russian Roulette) was announced on tv. In essence, it was a match where in order to compete, the wrestlers involved each had to put something up in a wager (basically making it an ‘apuestas’ match). The match ended up being TNT vs Leo Burke, with each man putting something up. Burke wagered his beard against TNT’s face paint, meaning Chicky Starr had one more chance to see TNT stripped of part of his identity (remember the whole ‘Original TNT’ plot in 89 that saw Chicky lose his hair in an apuestas match at Aniversario). In the closing moments of the Ruleta match, Chicky grabbed his opportunity. While the ref was distracted, Chicky slipped a foreign object to Leo Burke, who proceeded to knock TNT out with said object. Before the ref turned his attention back to the wrestlers, to everyone’s bewilderment, Burke lay down on the mat with TNT on top of him. The ref started his count put Burke countered TNT’s ‘pin’ at two and won the match. It was a ruse so that the referee would not notice TNT knocked out. Due to the match stipulations, TNT lost the right to wear his face paint. TNT was furious after the event, rightfully feeling cheated out of part of his identity. He vowed he would have his revenge on Burke and Chicky. And he vowed that he would not show his face until he was able to defeat Burke. That is the reason TNT was wearing a mask in the match against Gary Albright, he was still on his quest to avenge his humiliation (also explains why he was a bit aggressive). And TNT got his chance against Burke in a non title match.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lro0uCvI-8

We have a brief two minute clip of the match ending. We are in Isabela as Burke exits the ring and the masked TNT goes after him. Hugo mentions that the crowd has been mainly on their feet witnessing the uncontrolled fury of TNT on Leo Burke. TNT attacks Leo with chops on the outside of the ring as the ref starts the ring out count. A nifty spin kick knocks Burke down and TNT starts punching Burke on the ground. TNT throws Burke back in the ring, with Burke stumbling backwards into a sitting position. Burke is bleeding and TNT continues his attack as Burke rolls out of the ring to safety once more. TNT goes out after Burke but is surprised by a kick and Leo tries to ram him into the guardrail. The crowd obscures a few moments of the action but we then see Burke stumble backwards as TNT kicks him towards the ring. Burke rolls back in and then back out via  a different side trying to get away. TNT still gives chase. A tired Burke tries to leave the ring area but TNT grabs him from behind and rams him into the barricade. TNT drags Leo back to the rinside area and continues attacking him around the ring as the ref continues the count.  Leo gets on the ring apron and is able to fight TNT off long enough to fall back in the ring and get the win by countout. TNT was not able to defeat Burke and has yet to avenge his humiliation. 

MD: Full credit to TNT for all of the ways he refocused and reimagined himself during this run. You’d think that a facepainted ninja would be a bit one-note but they kept coming up with things. Here it was the mask. Anyway, he beats Burke around the ring with punches and kicks but then they do a banana peel finish where Burke just barely beats the count and gets a foot on TNT to stop him for a countout win. More meat on the bone.

EB: TNT was still furious and wanted to fight Burke but with the loss he wasn’t scheduled as Burke’s next challenger. It was Carlos Colon,who had the next title shot. But Carlos, understanding what TNT was going through in wanting to avenge the humiliation, decided to give his title shot to TNT (Carlos said it was a case of allowing TNT his chance at revenge). As the month of January came to a close, TNT now had another chance to face Leo Burke, this time with the Universal title on the line.   

Next time on El Deporte de la Mil Emociones, we head into February of 1990. We'll continue following the developments in the different feuds between El Ejercito de la Justicia and El Club Deportivo. Also, more new faces make their debut as the tag team division heats up.
 

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