Found Footage Friday: RESURGENT DYNAMITE~! YOUNG ROCCO~! GYPSY JOE~! WOLFIE D~! THE LAND OF GIANTS~!

Mark Rocco vs. Terry Jowett WoS 5/24/73

MD: Amazing historical find by Allan here. This has to be the earliest Rocco we have, and maybe even by a couple of years, right? He was only around 22 here, already a three year pro. And it's fascinating to see what he was doing at this age and how he was presented. Jowett had ten years experience on him and Rocco, despite winning out in the end with a near tilt a whirl slam off the ropes, was the underdog and it was ultimately an upset. 

Along the way, there was a ton of entertaining spots, though maybe not the exhausting (in a good way, in small doses) Rocco trademark I'd expect. All the explosiveness and dynamism in how he hit stuff and took stuff but not consistent, if that makes sense. Jowett was a great counter to his antics, and I'm personally sympathetic to his hairline (Rocco's was shaggy and he already had the trademark mustache).

There was a rough around the edges feel to this, that would, in years to come, conform into Rocco's edge of your seat style. We come in during the third here (and leave two rounds later with the finish) and there are lots of quick and deep pin attempts. After one escape where Rocco just sort of stumbled out to the crowd's amusement, he was quick to go for a joking handshake, great instincts in not losing his focus and in keeping the crowd engaged, in making it seem like they were seeing a show instead of making one of their own out of what they were watching. 

Some of the comedy spots were great, whether it be Jowett booting Rocco on a drop down, or criss crossing his own limbs and rolling about so Rocco couldn't get an advantage, or my favorite, when Rocco started his hyperactive roperunning only for Jowett to run in place instead, making Rocco out to be the fool. Very funny stuff. 

Rocco would get dirtier as the match went on. Interesting, after he started clubbering for the first time and drew a public warning, Walton chastised him for it, not for the cheating itself, but because he didn't earn much from the warning. He only took over really when he dropped a knee (legal apparently) on Jowett's throat, and then only until the end of the round as he leaned in on the arm while he could. Lots of imagination in both his offense and his bounding and bumping (one time fliping all the way over and sailing between the ropes) and towards the end, he had these cobra clutch ripcords I can't remember seeing much otherwise. 

Really just a great historical snapshot of one of the most dynamic wrestlers of all time early into his development. One of my favorite finds this year. 

ER: Remember how much we, as an online contingent of pro wrestling writers and historians of Noticers used to criticize Rollerball Rocco? He was the British embodiment of the same criticisms we held towards Kurt Angle, the all flash-no substance, looks cool-means nothing type of wrestler who fell out of favor with us. I don't think we could have anticipated the Kurt Angle/Dean Malenko style of constant movement detached from meaning would become the predominant pro wrestling style in every company in the world, so much so that things have looped back around. Now, watching even the "worst" era of Mark Rocco indulgence gives me new respect for his style and ability. 

The first British wrestling I was exposed to was a Johnny Saint/Rollerball Rocco match and that match was at least a decade after this one, and it is an entirely different Rocco. It should be, he's incredibly young and only three years into his career. As Matt says, he is the underdog in the match and commentary frequently talks about him like a baby who they impressed made it even this deep into a wrestling match. But he does not wrestle like a stupid little baby, he wrestles like tough guy with a real cool command of physics. His snapmares play like violent offense, his timing is impeccable, and his strikes always looked damaging. He was adept at comedy (Matt mentioned the very funny rope running spot where he ran back and forth as Jowett mocked him like Bugs Bunny) and really the only inexperience I saw was how he didn't always seem to know what to do next, never capitalizing on snapmares and kind of waiting around for Jowett to stand back up (which is another hilarious Kurt Angle parallel). I thought that actually worked for his young mustachioed punk character as it made him look like he was big timing the veteran Jowett. Rocco's bumping for the finish was excellent, a real rewind worthy moment where he back bumps and then handsprings back through the ropes feet first and takes another pratfall on the floor, a comedy bump that looked like either the greatest lucha rudo comedy bump or the payoff to a John Cleese bit.    

The Land of Giants (Skywalker Nitron/Butch Masters) vs. New Bulldogs (Dynamite Kid/Johnny Smith) AJPW 12/1/90

MD: I'm pretty well suited to know what's new and what's not new from 89-91 AJPW or so, and I'm pretty certain this classics drop is new. We're going to cover it anyway because that's what we do, cover Land of Giants matches. We get about six minutes out of the nine here, with a clip in the middle that annoying means we lost the transition to heel offense, but you can imagine it for the most part. 

And honestly, I liked this a lot. I have issues with late era Dynamite but this was one of the best performances I've seen out of him from 89-90. The most important thing is that he needs opponents he can't just chew up and you can't chew these guys up. They're huge. This started with Smith vs Nitron and I thought they actually matched up well, too well. Some of that was Nitron not working big enough but some of it was Smith not working small enough. He wasn't acting like he was in there with a giant. Even though Masters worked bigger, he'd still do the same thing against him later. 

Dynamite knew how to get the most of them though. When he came in, he had some awesome looking stuff, a fistdrop from an angle that you don't usually see it, a headbutt followed right by a jawbreaker. He was punching up and he was valiant for doing so and he wanted everyone in the crowd to know it. We get the clip then and come back to Masters working over the back, and it's honestly one of the best sells for a bearhug I've seen in a long time. I've criticized Omega's selling of his diverticulitis lately because while it's probably accurate, real to how he feels, it comes off as hokey. Dynamite knew what back pain felt like; he was probably feeling it there depending on how much he had chosen to dull it that night, but he was able to project it to the back row in the best of ways. Nitron's bearhug wasn't quite as good but the effect was still the same. 

The comeback was pretty huge as Dynamite fired up to the top as Masters was inexplicably headed up there to put him away and they did a huge superplex. Smith came in and cleaned house. Finally Smith slammed Masters and Dynamite came off the top with the headbutt much to the crowd's delight and they won as simple as could be. Not sure what was in those lost three minutes (when we came back in Masters was beating on Dynamite on the floor) but the six we got were pretty good. 

ER: This was probably the most entertaining Land of Giants match I've seen, and it was because of a more interesting and risky Butch Masters performance than I expected, and a downright fantastic "late era" Dynamite performance. This whole thing was totally worth it just to see Dynamite as a sincerely scary looking man going hard as fuck after Masters. Dynamite's face is scarred, his body is stiff, but the man feels like a threat at all times. Johnny Smith was at his beefiest in this era, so it actually works when he's throwing down with Nitron and Masters, but this is Dynamite's match. Dynamite hits an incredible fistdrop on Masters, a lunging fist torpedoed into Masters' throat, so perfect that I watched it half a dozen times. I would have said this match was incredible if everything else in it looked like dogshit. After that fistdrop he throws Masters to the floor so hard that it turns into what has to be the biggest bump of his career. Dynamite is great at running face first into boots and was good at drawing sympathy as both Giants take him to The Land of Bearhugs, but the big shock is him hitting a superplex on Masters. I have no idea what Butch was going to do up there, but whatever it was I wasn't expecting him to get suplexed off. When Smith tags in, Masters leans all the way into a stiff missile dropkick to his upper chest and gets wrecked by a Smith clothesline that I think hit harder than all of us expected, especially Masters. 

The icing on the cake was Dynamite hitting a flat out disgusting diving headbutt, smashing his forehead into Masters' teeth. You can see a knot already starting to form on the right side of Dynamite's head and Masters lies on the mat holding his face. Dynamite looked and wrestling like a pilled up psychopath, in the best way. That headbutt was one of the meanest things I've ever seen in a wrestling ring. Smith sets Masters up over halfway across the ring and Dynamite wants him there. He does a shoot headbutt to a man's face and Masters has no idea what hit him. It is Dynamite's head whipped into the entire side and mouth of Butch Masters, like a soccer hooligan leaping off the bleachers. 

Wolfie D/Steven Dunn vs. Gypsy Joe/Danny D Evansville 9/20/00

MD: I don't know. Sometimes you just want to see Wolfie D (here in full Slash mode) go up against Gypsy Joe? And there was some of the early, with a feeling out process and then the first (shorter) of a double heat after Wolfie took Joe down with a hairpull. Pretty simple control stuff with Danny getting drawn in to allow for the blind switches. Joe eventually made a comeback off of a whip reversed and teased a stinkface maybe, because it was 2000 after all. No punches here though. That's important because those were saved to the end.

Danny got leaned on for most of the rest of the match, and it made sense because even though Dunn was a pro and Wolfie a pro's pro I'm not sure you wanted them stooging for this lanky guy with dubious agility all that much. But it was a joy to watch Wolfie just destroy someone and they worked him into a few solid hope spots, including out of a bodyscissored full nelson. When Joe did make it back in (on a hot tag which was earned but not quite maximized re: the timing) the punches came out and they went into a pretty quick roll up win. You never quite know what you're going to get with the Bryan Turner uploads until you get there but this was pretty well worked overall.

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Found Footage Friday: KUNG FU~! ROCCO~ HANSEN~! JUMBO~! TENRYU~! AWESOME KONG~! DEVIL~! BORSHOI~!

Kung Fu vs. Rollerball Rocco UK 11/19/85

MD: Rocco is a guy who always feels like he's too bombastic for the style, always ready to explode out at any moment, always too quick to rush back to action, never settling for the comparatively refined (even when entirely dirty and underhanded) World of Sport wrestling. Here, he was able to draw entirely outside the lines and it felt like Cheshire by way of Puerto Rico, especially in the first few minutes which had brawling around the arena, a low blow, a flip bump from the stage back into the ring, moves off the top, choking with a cord, the corner pad taken off and the buckle used as a weapon. It was all pretty wild. Meanwhile, Rocco was leaning in and through and around and up and over for all of Kung Fu's offense, making kicks and straight shots look absolutely deadly, and more than happy to hit some bombs of his own, like dropping Kung Fu with a back bump pile driver of sorts. It calmed down a little in the back half and felt more like a normal Rocco match, to the point where the escalation almost went in reverse, but it was all quick enough that you never were too far away from that crazy beginning. Primarily, this whole thing made me badly wish that 85 Rocco vs 85 Colon in a baseball stadium in San Juan had somehow happened.

PAS: This was great, totally different then you would expect from a match in England. Matt's comparison with Puerto Rico was on point, because it totally had that unhinged vibe, it also reminded me a bit of Poffo's ICW. Rocco was great in this bringing intensity from the beginning, All of the brawling on the stage was awesome, including Rocco eating an insane beal from the stage into the ring. Really liked Kung Fu's Chuck Norrisish martial arts, that thrust to throat looked sick, and his kicks were more Stan Lane then Low-Ki, but great looking Stan Laneish kicks. These guys matched up a bunch, and I want to watch them all, it feels like two guys that meant to be matched up.


Jumbo Tsuruta/Yoshiaki Yatsu/Great Kabuki vs. Stan Hansen/Genichiro Tenryu/Samson Fuyuki AJPW 7/3/89

MD: This was recently uncovered by the new round of Classics and it's a match that fits the moment, that period where Hansen had just joined with Tenryu, a month after Tenryu had taken the title from Jumbo. The clash up against each other with absolutely no give for thirteen or so minutes here, never, ever, allowing for the least bit of disbelief. It's all suspended the whole way through. There's no space for doubt. Revolution controls the ring better, but Jumbo's more than happy to charge in and assert himself when he's not the legal man. In the few matches we have of them working together, Fuyuki always seems more confident when he's with Hansen. Here, even though he eats the early big boot by Jumbo (and Jumbo loved to do that to Footloose), he comes back with his own later as Jumbo's trying to get into the ring. That would set up the exchange they'd have towards the end when Jumbo finally put him down. The match opens up a bit after Hansen and Tenryu hit an assisted powerbomb on Kabuki. 

Yatsu ends up brawling on the outside with Hansen but Jumbo targets Tenryu, absolutely crushing him with a jumping knee in the corner, which led to bleeding and Jumbo being absolutely unrelenting with repeated stomps. Kabuki having to shove Jumbo to get him off felt like a real lost (and now uncovered) definitional moment for 89 Jumbo and the fury he felt towards Tenryu, the only person who could really get under his skin. For all of Jumbo's high and mighty sportsman's nature and noble chin, Tenryu could bring him down to his level, in the gutter with blood and violence. Otherwise, Kabuki was in there to lose the offense a few times (as was Fuyuki) and launch those awesome uppercuts at Tenryu and Hansen. Fuyuki made a try at it towards the end, but he was overexuberent and Jumbo caught him off the ropes with a hotshot and the belly to back for the win. Post match, the violence unsurprisingly continued with bullropes and tables getting involved. This was a worthy release from the AJPW archives that sums up the moment in time very well.

PAS: Goddamn was this my shit. Just six nasty crowbars unloading on each other. I am a low voter on World Champion title match Jumbo, but pissed up Jumbo stomping and punching Tenryu until he is bleeding I am all the way in on. Hansen was great as a background character in this match, a half blind bulldozer smashing everything in sight, I loved the sections where he was getting strafed by Kabuki uppercuts until he unloaded with a knees and punches. Yastsu, Hara and Fuyuki also bring the appropriate level of crazy and this match basically never lets up. This was WAR before WAR, mixing in pissed off Jumbo and reckless Hansen, and I couldn't recommend it more. 

Command Bolshoi/Devil Masami vs Amazing Kong/Haruka Matsuo JWP 9/18/05

MD: Interesting match that covered a lot of ground. Very different Bolshoi than what we've been seeing from her stuff a decade later. Here she was competent and quick but not some sort of maestro. Kong was probably still finding her legs to a degree. She worked to her size fairly well but not so much so as she would a couple of years later. Some of her positioning felt a little more obvious. Each of the exchanges here were a little bit different and the most memorable probably ended up being Matsuo vs Masami, where Masami was just an absolute tank against her. At one point, she ate a dropkick right in the face while she was kneeling, to the point that you could see the flesh move, and she just shrugged it off and pressed on. Later on, she not only prevented Matsuo from making it to the corner with her hair alone, but then threw her across the ring with said hair. It was pretty wild and maybe not something I'd want to see over the span of multiple matches, but dropping in to see her as a force of nature counterpoint to Kong with Matsuo just bouncing off of her was ok for one match. And Matsuo, while she earned many of her openings with Kong's help, did certainly throw herself with everything she had against Masami. I would have been curious to see what the Bolshoi we've been seeing lately might have been able to do with a Kong from a few years later. 

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New Footage Friday: ROCCO! CASAS! COTA! ATLANTIS! LIZMARK! LADIES!

Rose Roman vs. Ramona TaSelle Chicago 1950s 

MD: The downside here is that there's no sound. The upside is that for a women's singles match from this footage collection, it goes a bit longer than most of what we already had. The bonus is no Russ Davis who has good days and bad days, but almost always bad ones with the women. There's other footage of both Roman and TeSelle and they seem younger here. Maybe that's just on me as TeSelle seems to wrestle like it. She's less secure in her cheating, coming off as earnest in wanting to bend the rules but less competent. She has a hard time drawing the ref off to use the ropes. The audacity is good though. There's one moment where she gets to the ropes (she does that a lot) to force the ref to break a Roman arm puller only to audaciously try to get one of her own instead of breaking clean. There are a couple of nice little flourishes like a body drop in a toehold position or Roman's Leg Nelson but this was more of an A for Effort sort of match than anything else. Though we couldn't hear a pop, at least a few people were visibly happy for Roman sneaking out the win, so the crowd probably appreciated the effort too.

PAS: Nifty little match, that Roman Leg Nelson was violent looking stuff she war really smushing TaSelle's neck. You definitely get a sense that these ladies were way more skilled and technical then the Moolah trainees I grew up with, although this was more of a fine 10 minute match, then anything midblowing.


Mark Rocco vs. Mongolian Mauler CWA 4/12/90

MD: Here's our Segunda Caida Mark Rocco tribute match, against the Mongolian Mauler, because of course it is. I've seen a bunch of Rocco. I'm not sure I've seen much blue-eye Mark Rocco though and certainly not against a larger, more monstrous bad guy. This was his show, in front of his crowd, and he was going to play it exactly how he wanted. That meant he gave and gave dynamically but never for long. You can see that right from the get go when Mauler ambushed him with his flag only for Rocco to immediately come back and get the crowd going. It meant that Mauler was half on his back foot for most of the match and couldn't really wrestle how he should have, laying in and leaning in. The public warnings and round structure probably didn't help. In the last five or six minutes he had a little bit of opportunity to do so, maybe a minute of clubbering and bullying, but Rocco wouldn't stand for it for long. Some really clever stuff in here though. I love Rocco coming out of a round break by throwing the traditional British spitting water at Mauler's face (and then hitting him with a quasi-Pedigree) which drew him a public warning but is a tactic I don't think I've ever seen in UK wrestling. The finish was really creative as well, with Rocco first turning a second flag assault back on Mauler and then defacing it so that when the aghast Mauler bent over to pick it up, he was vulnerable to a sunset flip. Rocco probably took a bit too much of this, but at least he was entertaining (as always) about it.

ER: This is probably the first time I've seen Rocco against this kind of an opponent, a big fat guy not specifically versed in British style, just a low rent Killer Khan. Rocco against a low rent Killer Khan was a fun pairing on paper, and I liked it in execution too. This match should have been Rocco selling after taking a flag shot while Mauler cheats to stay ahead. That makes sense and would normally be the layout I would root for. We've all complained enough about Rocco as a proto-Angle guy who didn't bother with selling because that took away time from his "cool stuff". It's valid, but I also liked it here because I think it lead to a more active Mauler than we otherwise would have gotten. It's not like Mauler was going to fully work up to Rocco's speed, but I liked seeing Mauler take over off of a big Rocco miss, like his springboard kneedrop that always hits the mat hard. Rocco was smart about setting up things that worked so that they made sense when they missed later, and we got some nice move reflection from two very different bodies (like Rocco hitting his falling elbow, and a few minutes later getting crushed by Mauler's elbow off the middle buckle). Agree with Matt that the flag finish was far more creative that I was expecting. I was expecting a flag attack that ends in a DQ, instead Rocco baits Mauler into defending the flag and pins him!


Negro Casas/Mocho Cota vs. Atlantis/Lizmark 1990s?

MD: This was pretty much pure joy, from the first few moments of Atlantis using his cape to taunt Casas like he was a bullfighter, to the end with Cota fouling more blatantly than anyone has ever fouled, to all the kids rushing in for the post-match celebration. Casas and Cota could well be my two favorite rudos, guys who just understand stooging like no one else. And feeding. Man, did they ever feed here. They made Lizmark and Atlantis, who aren't slouches by any means, look like a million bucks as they ran into their offense again and again. There was a moment in the segunda where Casas got whacked in the chest and tried to convince the ref he got fouled because of it. Just amazing cheek. The comeback moment was beautiful too, stemming from Cota and Casas both hurting their heads on a double headbutt; that was followed by Casas running halfway around ringside to eat the biggest Atlantis quebradora ever and Lizmark yanking Cota up and down by his hair while sitting on the top turnbuckle. This one was very much for the kids but I can't imagine anyone seeing this and not being wildly entertained.

PAS: Tremendous find, no idea about the year or where this is, but it is two of all the all time great rudos colliding with two hall of fame level technicos in a straight up lucha libre match. Casas is the master of finding small ways to entertain, he is as worth watching in a house show match like this as his in a huge apuestas or title match. I loved him doing the pose off with Lizmark and he just flew into every bit of offense by both guys. That quebradora on the floor was massive, as was the little bits of Atlantis and Casas grappling. Nifty stuff and I can't wait to dig into this channel some more.

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New Footage Friday: French Catch, Super Boy, Rollerball,

Le Marquis/Black Shadow vs. Marcello Motta/Angelito French Catch 5/28/85

MD: All I want to talk about is the Marquis and his valet. Obviously, there was some old writ that somehow survived the Terror and Paris Commune that he was able to brandish showing that old landed gentry, of which he was one of the last, are lawfully allowed to utilize their valets in matches without any repercussion. This was some of the most acceptable and enjoyable constant cheating I've ever seen. They made an effort of distracting the ref a bit, including Motta being angry enough to hurt his own partner, but what made this sing was the total immersion. Every single time the Marquis entered or left the ring, the valet held the ropes. Every time the babyfaces got near the corner, he cheated. Every time the Marquis took a shot, he was there to dust him off. Occasionally the random mascot mocked him. It all led perfectly to the big dropkick spot that allowed enough space for the final pin. As for the work itself, it was good though maybe a notch down from some of the earlier French wrestling we've seen (though that still puts it pretty high). I liked all of the nasty side-mares. Angelito was pretty unique in look and movement but it all felt a little loose from him. I suppose the Marquis' act could get old if we had dozens of matches of his, but as this is pretty much all we have, it's gold in my book.

ER: These kind of matches are pure undistilled joy, and I always find myself loving the surroundings as much as the joyful ring work. Every shot of the crowd brings a smile to my face, and also makes me a little sad that this type of crowd is mostly gone. This looked like a crowd of families seeing a Saturday afternoon matinee. There were older couples and elderly couples, mothers there laughing with their children, a grumpy teen who was probably dragged there by a parent and was fighting the good times, and of course a giant blue furry mascot who apparently was just sitting in the crowd. He occasionally smacks Marquis' personal butler and the crowd appears to treat him like they would any other attendee. Everybody is in a sweater or an overcoat, and this seems like a crowd who would eat simple and deliciously prepared peasant food for dinner one night, which then gets turned into a stew the next night with wine, and in the meantime they're going to have a laugh while watching the acrobatic stylings of Angelito. And that's what I did! Angelito and Marquis were highly entertaining, with Marquis almost exclusively being a base for Angelito's breathtaking monkey flips, while being regularly toweled off by his butler. He and Angelito were quite a pair, and I did not get sick of those monkey flips, the way he would approach his opponent normally, then kick his body into the air so that he was nearly vertically upside down, before pendulum whipping downward to catch his feet on Marquis' or Shadow's thighs. They were amazing. He also had some cool counters, my favorite being Marquis catching him in a press slam, and Angelito immediately kicking his leg down to kick off Le Marquis' chest, landing on his feet and uppercutting him as punishment. I loved how Marquis' butler stood on the apron the entire match, and how that built to a big moment of Angelito drilling him with a picture perfect dropkick to knock him off (it should have been a bigger moment, but the butler oddly just sold it as if he had slipped off the apron and was getting back up to save face, not a guy who just had his sternum collapsed by a hard kick). This never veers into overt violence or intensity, it keeps its pace and is pretty to look at, and I am continually fascinated at these glimpses into the wrestling cultures of our worldwide friends.

PAS: I really enjoyed this although it lacked some of the mindblowing otherworldliness of some of the other French Catch. This was pretty formula wrestling match with a fun formula attack. Angeltio and the Marquis are a fun matched pair. With Angelito whipping off cool takedowns and monkey flips and the Marquies bringing his valet and a quality amount of horseshit to everything he does. I could have totally seen this turn into a six-man tag with the Mascot joining the babyface team. This French stuff is such a treat and we clearly need to find a Frenchman to invade the archives and get us more!!

Mark Rocco vs. Marty Jones All Star Wrestling 8/20/88

MD: Very cool that we got promos at the start of this, though Jones put Robert Gibson's lazy eye to shame. Rocco's hyperactive offensive bursts reminds me of the young Piper we've seen lately and now I lamented that there was never a scenario where those two could have teamed. This was really high end stuff, but it was almost too much so. They'd wrestled so many times that everything was a counter of a counter of a counter. The crowd was on board because they were familiar with them and it never felt choreographed; in a situation like that, I usually go for it. Here though, it was so metatextual, so over the top in the familiarity that some of the basic and primal stuff didn't entirely make it along for the ride. You ended up getting the blood and the DQ at the end but I felt like Jones had more reason to be angry a decade before. Here, familiarity seemed to breed contempt, not the hatred they needed to make the finish work. That's a nitpick but I still couldn't shake the feeling.

PAS: This didn't have the athleticism of the earlier matches, these guys both clearly had more wear on the tires. This had way more shortcuts then the WOS sport stuff we have from the 70s and 80s and I enjoyed the difference. Rocco tossing water into Jones eyes, removing the turnbuckle pad and Rocco bleeding by the end. Even the finish with the ref getting tossed around separates this from other stuff we have seen. It does feel a little more like two guys irritated with each other, then two guys who hated each other, and this kind of a brawl needed a bit more anger. I did love Jones wasting Rocco with the baseball slide dropkick, which is the moment it felt furious.

Rey Misterio Sr./Ultraman/Piloto Suicida vs Mercurio/Fobia/Super Boy FLL 2/15/95

MD: I came late in life to lucha libre, so obviously, I wasn't tapped into this vein like those who were part of the community twenty years (or more) ago. This, to me, feels like much more of a counter-culture scene than ECW. Maybe that's just hindsight but ECW was just a stylized, dirtied up version of what we always knew. This was something else entirely. At the base of it is just good lucha libre: majestic and valiant and scummy and tricked out, larger than life. They hit their spots cleanly and clearly. The primera exchanges were crisp and engaging. The segunda beatdown did a great job with crowd control, feeling organic instead of forced. There wasn't that moment of climax of a comeback. A lot of it happened between the segunda and tercera with a chairshot on the outside, but the finishing stretch hit all the marks, with a Estrella/Rana combo actually finishing the match instead of being a nearfall, which I'm not sure I've ever actually seen. Ultraman was quizzically over (he might not have been the guy I expected the crowd to go for the most) and he played into it well. How great must it have been to be a local during this period, right? The rest of the country was watching the Dungeon of Doom and Million Dollar Corporation and you got this.

PAS: Superboy is this total 90s cult figure, he would show up every year or so in Michinoku Pro as this short really fat incredibly graceful highflyer. He worked the WCW Lucha pilot which never went anywhere and then kind of faded away. So cool to see him in his So-Cal lucha home. The moment where he was working these incredible primera caida armdrag sequences with Rey Sr. were a true highlight. The opening sections off this were pretty great with all six guys getting a chance to shine. I thought the Segunda and Terecera lacked some of the Primera's focus, it was pretty aimless brawling leading into the Estralla finish of the third fall. The promise of that first fall never really delivered. That is a very lucha libre thing though, you will sometimes get this awesome individual fall in an otherwise pedestrian match, and those glimpses of brilliance are well worth it.

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All Time MOTY List HEAD to HEAD: Killer Karl Kox v. Dick Murdoch V. Marty Jones v. Mark Rocco

Marty Jones v. Mark Rocco World of Sport 6/30/76

ER: Cool match that exceeded all expectations. It gets a bunch of time and it ramps up real nicely. As the match goes on Rocco starts acting like more and more of a jerk, really riling up the fans by sneaking in cheapshots or slamming Jones into the ropes. The opening couple rounds have a bunch of  cool cravate reversals and wristlocks and hammerlocks, both guys wrenching stuff in nicely and tricking the other into reversals. We get some cool tricks and show off spots, really like both guys breaking out flashy handsprings out of snapmares, leading to Rocco getting blitzed by a dropkick after getting up from one. Both guys start picking away at limbs, looking for an opening. Jones yanks on Rocco's legs in cool ways, and Rocco is the one who starts going after Jones' arm, and the more he picks away at it the cooler Jones' subtle selling gets. I loved moments where they'd be separated, and you'd see Jones' left arm hanging more than his right, or little ways he would hold it closer to his body. Rocco keeps picking cheapshots and Jones resists, firing back instead with really nice dropkicks, and eventually flat out uppercutting Rocco with some awesome uppercuts. It did seem like they had Rocco dominate for too long to have such a relatively quick comeback win from Jones, but I suppose they were trying to express that Rocco tired himself out quicker by being an aggressive asshole. This was among my favorite Rocco matches I've seen. Later on he kind of became the WoS Kurt Angle, but here he was on point and vicious. This is a Rocco you could grow old with.

PAS: Really great escalation, as the match starts with some friendly grappling and really devolved into this vicious street fight. Rocco really showed great aggression going after the arm and Jones did a great job of selling the injuriy. Classic match of the virtuous babyface walking though hell to defeat a dastardly villain. I did think the ref got a little involved which hurt the flow of the match, I get that is the style, but having the ref in the faces of both wrestlers got annoying. I have no problem with the public warning system as a storytelling device, but here it was overshadowing the work in the match


Kox v. Murdoch review

Verdict:

ER: I wasn't really expecting this to be a close challenge, but it turned out to be fairly close. Kox/Murdoch gets the nod from me still, as two guys punching each other for 20 minutes is going to be tough for me to vote against, but this was a real blast, makes me want to see more 70s Rocco.

PAS: Yeah I liked this a bunch, but it didn't grab me anywhere near as much as KKK v. Dick

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