Found Footage Friday: CROCKET CUP 87 NIGHT 2~!

Crockett Cup 87 Night 2 JCP 4/10/87

MD: We had a lot more of Night 2 than Night 1 but some of that was still handhelds or pieced together and this is a big VQ upgrade regardless, so we're just going to go through this as much as possible on the idea that a lot of this is very much Found even if not entirely New.

Round 3

Bob & Brad Armstrong vs. Tully Blanchard/Lex Luger

MD: Really great stuff here. That's not a surprise. There's an extended (almost ten minute) heel-in-peril shine to begin where Tully gets a few moments but mostly gets clowned over and over. What makes this work is how he constantly tries to drive to the corner and everytime things go really wrong for him is when he tries to stretch the rules, like using his foot to make a tag. JJ complains and the Armstrongs do a phantom tag while the ref is dealing with that. I love the wrist control by Bob here. You get such a great look at how he's holding Tully's hand and the torque involved. So simple but so good. Eventually Luger does get in but the Armstrongs come back only for JJ to pull down the rope and send Brad flying.

The FIP isn't as long but they get a lot done quickly, using the guardrail and working over the back. Brutal stuff with Brad on the floor reaching not for the fans, but for his dad even though there's no way to make a tag, just trying to drag strength and power from his love. The hot tag is great too with Bob coming in fiery as can be, laying into the Horsemen with basically machine gun chops in the corner. I got a kick out of the finish which had the ref miss a pinfall due to the chaos and JJ and Tully do a double clothesline with JJ on the apron to pick up the win. It's funny to think that would add so much but it had symbolic value so it totally worked. Good tag and great to see it in this level of video quality.

ER: I thought this was tremendous, 8 perfect minutes of tag team wrestling. Also, 8 minutes reminding us of what a perfect wrestler Tully Blanchard was. Tully was the primary highlight of this, but I think the whole thing was highlights. Every single second of Bullet preventing Tully from tagging out is pro wrestling perfection. Every second. The cameras catching the perfect angles of the inches Bullet was letting Tully get from Luger, the cut to the hand-on-brow disappointment and disgust from JJ Dillon looking like Robert Prosky in Thief, Luger's teenage quarterback hands on hips frustration when the tags keep being prevented, the way Tully's legs dragged and floated when Brad held onto a side headlock, it was all perfect. Luger was a great partner for Tully. This was Luger's best hair era, by fair. It never came close to looking this good again. His fringe, his gentle approach to being a jacked Ramones superfan. I loved how all of Tully's long build to the hot tag was more about Bullet tagging in his son to square up to Luger, who looks like Asshole He-Man. 

Tully Blanchard has the same kind of physical bumping style as Bobby Heenan. Heenan's bumping gets talked about more because it's flashier and one of the greatest bumping styles anyone has ever attempted. Tully doesn't use the same physical movement as Heenan, but he bumps with the same physicality. Tully has the ability to work these inches and near misses as well as he works big looping O-face back bumps when tugged and pulled and thrown by the Armstrongs, in a way that only makes the Armstrong Family Biceps look like main event power. I don't think there's a more perfect bump than Tully ping ponging perfectly onto his belly into the corner right on his mark, after leaning into Brad's missile dropkick. It's that kind of precision that people see in Chris Candido, the things is that Candido is just 0.7 Tully. Candido was tan, shaped, modeled. Tully looked like your friend's dad who was the asshole orthodontist accused of touching a girl under the gas. The guy in your church denomination you don't want to talk to in the lobby after service.

Road Warriors vs. Midnight Express

MD: The feeding early on, especially by Bobby Eaton, is all time great. The way he's able to rush in and take things and contort pro wrestling physics and make it all look good is up there with the very best ever. He somehow hits the guardrail after getting tossed out and you buy it. He makes a press slam into a snake eyes look like a move that people should be doing weekly now but it's something I've barely seen this century and that if anyone else took wouldn't look nearly as good. Likewise, he took a chop (looked like to the chest to me) and then sold his face, pointing to his jaw repeatedly like he just lost three teeth. Lane does okay too, going head over heels just bouncing off a Warrior, but it's not quite the same as Bobby.

When the Express take over on Hawk, it's from going to the eyes again and again and again and double teaming at every point. They just have a few frenetic minutes in charge, but the sheer amount of varied and interesting cheating they're able to do in believable ways is just remarkable. You buy that the ref just didn't see it because they were so good and Animal was so frustrated. Eyerakes, tossing Hawk over the top illegally, using the racket, again and again. When the hot tag comes, everything becomes chaos and the ref goes down. Cornette threw a fireball at Animal and I thought Animal no sold it but on the replay you see that Ellering pulled Cornette's arm so he plausibly just missed. It's a dangerous thing to devalue though so I'm not sure I loved that. To the crowd, it must have looked like Animal just no sold it. Still that infuriated the Roadies and they took the racket and got themselves DQed the ref came to. This was another really good one as they matched up well and everything had the perfect weight to it, save maybe for that fireball at the end.

ER: This is a famously great tag that has never looked or sounded better. The sound on these new uploads is so key, it makes every bump seem like an impossible physical feat to maintain. There's so much good about this, including Bubba, Cornette, and Ellering at ringside. They all got reactions and none of the reactions took away from the others, just an insanely hot match where everything clicked. Bobby Eaton in 4K is truly something to marvel. He and Hawk are a perfect combination of wrestling physicality. Eaton was so gifted, another guy who moved all in his own way...and Hawk wrestles like the ideal jacked cool guy to be knocking Bobby Eaton around. Bobby was such a ham here, in a way that totally works when selling for the Roadies. Hawk hit a short hard chop that was so loud, Bobby improvised on the spot that it him right in the mouth, backpedaling all the way across the ring to tag in Stan. Sell it to the 18,000 people who couldn't see that it hit chest. Lane took some big shots too, getting whipped upside down into the buckles by Hawk and then calmly begging off as Hawk approached, like hey easy man we got other towns to make. Lane getting yanked by the arm from the apron into the ring was such a great bump, the athletic grace of the Midnights combined with the power of the Roadies. Bobby and Stan get great reactions for their bumps, but probably not as big as the reaction Bubba gets when he steps to the apron and removes his coat and hat. Huge. 

The finish is incredible, one of the great chained together bullshit finishes I've seen. The Midnights throw Hawk over the top to the concrete with full distraction, then Bobby hits Hawk in the ribs with the loudest racket shot and kicks him straight in the guts. It completely breaks down into chaos and pandemonium after the bell and it's fucking pro wrestling baby. That's chaining it all together. That's what we used to do. We used to cut off the ring and drink a case of beer and we used to chain bullshit together without reversals of reversals of reversals. A Cornette fireball to endless racket shots to bodies going every direction in perfect chaotic order. The Roadies murder Bobby with a Hart Attack to cap it off. Bubba takes a hit through the ropes that sends him crashing to the apron and down to the guardrail. He looked humongous and the fall was grand. Incredible pro wrestling. 

Rick Rude/Manny Fernandez vs. Superpowers (Dusty Rhodes/Nikita Koloff)

MD: The #1 seed vs. the biggest babyfaces in this. While the first round had its share of fairly lame teams (especially compared to the year before), now in the quarterfinals you see the breadth of the talent here. This was a huge match. They'd only run it once before at a show at the Great Western Forum. It was a way to put the tag champs up against these guys with the belts not on the line. Rude vs. Nikita was such a natural pairing too and they leaned into that early with some fun strength stuff including Nikita breaking out of a full nelson.

Dusty played FIP after taking a post shot on the outside, with him gradually working back towards a comeback and these guys all knew how to milk it of course. Things broke down after Dusty hit a leaping clothesline off the ropes. Rude came in and then Nikita. Manny went for a flying body press but Dusty rolled through for the wins as the fans went nuts. 

ER: This was short but hot the entire way. I love the Raging & Ravishing team. Everyone in Crockett is so physical. I keep using various forms of that word because everyone is so physical in a totally different way. Manny Fernandez doesn't even look like someone who exercises, he looks like the most dangerous man in a bowling alley, but then he's throwing these impressively controlled kneedrops and holding back his body to keep his shots worked, and it's crazy how dangerous he can make himself look while being this safe. Rude is so good at working with Nikita and Manny knew exactly how to work as Rude's partner, I just love how these men fell around the ring. 

Round 4

Giant Baba/Isao Takagi vs. Tully Blanchard/Lex Luger

MD: Baba/Takagi had a draw as Ricky Morton was out (what a shame to lose that weird match). This was a kind of weird one too. Lots of leglocks early. It looked like things would open up when Luger slammed Baba but then he missed an elbow drop and Baba just beat up Luger and Tully. Novel pairings at least and fun to see them take his stuff (chop, big boot, Russian leg sweep). Takagi looked strong in there, good strikes and the fans really got up when he mowed through both Tully and especially Luger. Takagi missed a corner charge and weirdly Luger couldn't get him up for the rack. He hit an elbow drop for the pin instead. Up until the finish I could see there being interest in a Takagi vs Luger match back in Japan but after that, nah.

Dusty Rhodes/Nikita Koloff vs. Midnight Express

MD: This was a blast really, the whole shine especially. There was an early bit where Koloff broke clean on Eaton, Eaton refused to break clean on Koloff, punching him in the face, Koloff gave chase, Eaton dodged a shot back in the ring and pointed to his brain, Koloff slingshotted him back into the ring and then dropkicked him, which was absolutely perfect pro wrestling. Beautiful stuff. Then Lane got thrashed about and claimed it was a tights pull and Eaton got caught in the ropes as Dusty pinballed him again and again in a teeter totter only to fall outside and immediately get hiptossed onto the floor. Pure Eaton right there. He does the silly painless bit to pop the crowd and decides to take the huge bump anyway. Dusty finished it by giving all of the Express and Bubba elbows and basking in the glory of it all.

Heat was on Nikita and they did what the Express did best, fit a ton of egregious offense into a very small amount of time. They focused on the neck cheated in both large ways and small, and made use of numbers and ring-positioning. They pushed it just a little too hard, had just a bit of miscommunication and Nikita used that to hit the Sickle, no hot tag needed. Given all the different finishes at play, it worked. It also felt a bit like a banana peel, definitive as it was, because of the lack of the hot tag, so that almost protected the Express in loss in a weird sort of way.

Ric Flair vs. Barry Windham

MD:A lot to cover in a paragraph or two. This match, given how it was preserved/presented over the years and that it was going back to a relatively dry well, has traditionally not been thought highly of. But I do think it was very good. There are individual bits that I love, and I honestly do think they come together. 

Some of those bits:

• After the initial feeling out, Flair chops Barry in the corner. Barry puts on a grin and storms out. Flair backs off but struts it off. They repeat the process and this time Flair falls down before strutting. Then Flair gets in a knee and does it one more time. This time Barry sells it big but still storms out and threatens to do a ten punch on Flair. He backs down. Flair goes for a cheapshot and Barry fires off on him. It was such a great exchange in part because how it escalates.
• Late in the match, Flair, who has been knocked around both inside and outside the ring, gets an advantage and scales the top. We all know what's coming, but the execution is so different than what we'd see in the years that would follow. Flair slows himself down to jaw with the fans. Once he reaches the top, he does it again. Barry gets up and waits for him to turn. When Flair does, he's shocked and begs off. Barry shoots a punch to his gut before grabbing him. Flair shakes his head repeatedly. Barry goes to throw him. They struggle over it. Flair grabs his hair. Barry finally gets him over.
• The biggest tease of the match is Barry hitting a one legged missile dropkick which looked so out of the norm for 87 that it felt like a big deal. He pins Flair for 3 but flair had his foot on the rope and got his hand there too at the last second. The hand drew the ref's eye to the foot and after he made the count, he had to restart the match. He was beside himself over it.  Barry immediately gets his finisher, being the leaping clothesline off, only for Flair to get his foot on again. The moment had passed.

Structurally, they go from Flair getting a hotshot and taking over and working the arm to Barry coming back and Flair taking back over to work the leg and getting the figure-four. They got in and out with advantages switching, throwing in plenty of high spots and building to some of the big moments above. When Flair wins it after a series of back and forth pin attempts and holding the tights, it's acceptable but not exactly satisfying, but it didn't need to be given the victory that would follow.

Dusty Rhodes/Nikita Koloff vs. Tully Blanchard/Lex Luger

 

MD: Ok, so I'm running out of time on this one and it's definitely been out for years. One thing I do want to point out that you get watching the show in context is how people controlled Nikita and had a chance by targeting the next throughout the show but the whole show builds to this one where they tear the brace off of his neck. So I really did appreciate that in context. 

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New Footage Friday: ROCK N ROLLS! MX! DANDY! PSICOSIS! REY JR.! PANTHER! SUPER CALO!

Rock and Roll Express vs. Midnight Express NWA 9/7/86

MD: Pretty rare RnR vs MX match from WCW Sunday Edition featuring Dusty on commentary with Tony. It was what you'd want, flashy opening stuff that didn't at all wear out its welcome and a couple of heat segments with all of the roll-up hope spots you usually get from the RnR. Everyone looked great but Eaton looked like one of the best in the world, feeding big, hitting huge offense (the Alabama Jam here was used to cement the first bit of heat and really give the Express control, for instance), and doing tiny things like taking out a leg with a small kick to stop a block on a suplex. There were a couple of cuts due to commercial breaks but they didn't mess up the flow. We saw the transitions clearly, including them using the replay to take us back after a break. The finish was wonky with Dusty literally causing the MX pin to be reversed, but the post match with him sacrificing himself to a Bubba splash was good pro wrestling. It made me want to see a six man at least.

ER: Outside of the finish, I thought this was great, and a real strong Loverboy Dennis showcase. Everyone was part of this showcase, though, Dennis just had a performance that made him look like one of the toughest men in wrestling. A big chunk of this was MX taking apart Robert's leg in real sicko ways, and even though it didn't actually lead to anything, it was work I loved to watch. Condrey has a ton of fascinating work out of half nelsons and 3/4 grapevines, so good that I want to see the entire alternate timeline of Condrey working shootstyle in Japan once his stateside gigs dried up. Condrey's Alabama U Style, where are you? He really knows how to tie up Ricky and Robert on the mat, and the pins he forced them into with his leg grapevines looked impossible to escape. And when he wasn't tying up their legs to work headlocks and pinfalls, he was dropping his knees into Robert's thigh, into his shin, violently twisting his ankle, and then handing it off to that savage Beautiful Bobby! At one point Bobby is hyperextending Robert's entire leg over the edge of the ring apron. Robert is on his stomach, and Bobby is slamming the front of Robert's femur into the apron, then pressing and forcing his leg down over that edge, truly disgusting legwork. Cornette adds one of his all time great racket shots to the match, flying in from offscreen with the handle of the racket aimed straight at the jugular. HHH always looked like a dweeb for using the handle of a sledgehammer as his weapon of choice, but Cornette really looks like the master of making a short handle look like a deadly weapon. Hell, in the post match melee, Cornette even shoulderblocks Ricky Morton through the ropes to the floor, like a man tripping another man into a fountain display. Rock n Rolls looked great and matched strikes with the fierce strikes of MX, and even with the actually stupid Dusty finish, this whole thing was classic stuff. 

El Dandy vs. Ray Gonzales CMLL 8/26/95

MD: A lost Dandy title match. Interesting primera here. Gonazlez controlled with fairly simple armbars, with Dandy working from underneath with a few hope spots, only to get cut off and contained with the arm again. I don't know if they didn't trust Gonazlez to do more complex matwork or not but it still worked because Dandy was working so hard to sell everything. I know on paper, that doesn't sound like much, but you don't often see a primera in a title match worked like this and I'm not sure there are many guys who could have done it quite like Dandy, so it stood out. The segunda was quick with a short bit of revenge with Dandy working over the leg and then a beautiful Northern Lights Suplex. The tercera had some back and forth and chicanery but eventually settled down to them returning to what worked in the primera, Gonzalez working a bodypart (the leg) and Dandy selling. They rolled out of the ring on a figure four and both got counted out and it ended up pretty anti-climactic. If this was building to an apuestas match, it would have worked but it seems like this was the end of the program. Still, a good look at just how great Dandy was at selling.

PAS: A new Dandy title match on paper is really exciting, this was a miss though. Gonzales is a guy who got pretty great in Puerto Rico later in his career, but he looked way out of his depth here. There was one of the worst clotheslines I have ever seen and Dandy really had to dumb it down for him on the mat. His little heel struts and stuff looked bush league too, just a zero of a performance. Dandy had a nice moment or two, his selling of the leg in the tercera was cool, and I like the figure four roll to the floor spot, but you are hoping for a missing gem when this passes by your youtube feed and this wasn't that.

ER: I had no idea Gonzalez ever showed up in CMLL, even though just a few years after this he became the reason I started trading for Puerto Rico tapes. The Ray Gonzalez I traded tapes for was not the Ray Gonzalez here, and many of the flaws in this match look like they could be blamed on miscommunication. I think Phil tuned out early on once Gonzalez hit that flying "clothesline" but considering Gonzalez follows it up with a crossbody block using the exact same form he used for that "clothesline", I assume it was just a spot that wasn't supposed to happen. It's amazing how much poise Ray had just a few years later, that was mostly absent here. It was a mistake to work this as Gonzalez trying to fit into Dandy's lucha setting, as while he had a nice missile dropkick and a couple decent bumps to the floor, he couldn't facilitate the level or speed of work Dandy was capable of. The most interesting this got for me was the beginning of segunda, where we got a glimpse of what could have made for an excellent title match. Ray got rudo heat during the break between falls, and knew it. The fans were rejecting him and it looked like he was going to really run with that, approaching Dandy with an extended right hand, left arm tucked behind his back, and a telegraphed double cross kick getting caught. Bringing some Puerto Rico rudo bullshit into the elegance of a skilled tecnico lucha title defense would have made for a great style clash, like a southern US heel just punching his way through a match opposite Blue Panther. But almost right after that Gonzalez falls back into line, and the rest of the match is worked like the boring end of the Flair vs. Terry Taylor spectrum. Dandy really did a lot to try to make this work, but it's hard to deny that Dandy could have likely had a better singles match with any wrestler on the CMLL roster. Let's all just go back a few days and remember how cool "El Dandy vs. Ray Gonzalez" looked on paper. 

Misterioso/Rey Mysterio Jr./Súper Caló/Volador vs. Blue Panther/Heavy Metal/Piromaniaco/Psicosis AAA 8/11/95 - FUN

MD: Not your average atomicos. You had Rey as captain, Signo as Piromaniaco, maskless Volador, and Calo in hatless, sleeves-only shirt, dancing glory. The story was Rey vs Psicosis, first delaying it and then paying it off. As they cycled through the pairings in the primera, Panther made sure to intervene and rob the fans of that first Rey vs Psicosis exchange. After a mini-beatdown, Rey would mount a comeback and allow the tecnicos to take the primera. The bigger beatdown came in the segunda, and watching Heavy Metal toss Rey around made me really want a 95 singles match with them. In the tercera, Rey came back again and we finally got a killer little Rey vs Psicosis exchange with a spectacular finish. Piromaniaco looked good using his size to bully tecnicos and eat their stuff, but the gimmick had no legs. Panther didn't do a lot but everything he did (the aforementioned cut off, choking Misterioso with part of the ring, ripping up what I choose to believe to be an anti-Tirantes sign, stooging with Psicosis on miscommunication spots) was very good. At times this was fast and loose and all over the place. The camera work missed half the dives. It's really hard to go wrong with cleverly building a match around Rey vs Psicosis though.

PAS: I thought this was mostly pretty forgettable outside of the Rey vs. Psicosis stuff which was incredible. I kind of enjoyed Signo adding some 80s style bumping and brawling to more 90s style lucha, but it didn't really lead to any exciting moments or anything. Psicosis taking the segunda caida with a brutal top rope guillotine was great though. The tercera exchanges between Psicosis and Rey were the highlight. Rey at this point was as elusive and fast as anyone ever, Psicosis was his perfect dance partner, and the finish top rope spiked spinning DDT was awesome. Is that a move they only broke out once, or is there a WCW Pro match which ends in it too?

ER: I was really excited for this one just to see Signo as Piromaniaco - a hood I've never seen him under and one with next to no footage of - and he did not disappoint. In fact, most of the guys in this didn't disappoint, but none of this really turned into anything that felt like a full match. Things were a little disorganized and a lot of the threads got abandoned, but there were plenty of individual moments to make this an easy, fun watch. Obviously, with these names there are going to be some moments. Heavy Metal worked fast and a little reckless, lead to a few moments of clear miscommunication and awkward repeat spots with Super Calo, but when Heavy Metal ran into someone with that speed it looked great. Volador had this fantastic huge hair, like Stefanie Powers in Hart to Hart, and based on the crowd reaction we missed a big late match plancha and bump off the top from him (This is AAA, my friend). I liked Piromaniaco working like El Brazo was great, using his status as stockiest man in the match to absolutely run over Rey a couple of times. He even no sold a Rey missile dropkick by acting like a cartoon kissed him, then did a silly dance. We got a decent dive train with Calo hitting a high quebrada crossbody and Misterioso getting out quickly, and of course all the Rey/Psicosis moments were what you'd want. The tornado DDT with Psicosis on the middle and Rey swinging from the top was wild, with such a high starting point it landed them past the middle of the ring! 

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New Footage Friday: Kaientai DX! MX! Sabu! Sasuke! Armstrong! Hamada! Candido!

Midnight Express vs. Brad Armstrong/Terry Taylor WCCW 1/14/85

MD: This match has been out there if you were paying attention to season sets of Ft. Worth TV but no one in our usual circles seems to have seen it or written about it. It's a long 2/3 falls MX in Texas match which seems at the very least underlooked and against a couple of fairly unique opponents. Taylor wasn't quite there yet but he had the crowd and you'd like to see him get pounded. The MX were still getting established in the territory and a good chunk of the match was meant to showcase them but they had game opponents. The 2/3rds structure made this a little weird in as you had four hot tags and only the first was really hot. Armstrong and Eaton worked really well to begin. They did the spot later on where Eaton was checking his nails on the apron and Taylor clobbered him. Eaton just had absolutely perfect timing throughout. He'd get his foot up on a corner charge at the last possible second that sort of thing. They filled a lot of time here and it may not have made things as clean as possible. You ended up with unsteady heat but it ultimately did its job in getting the Express over as a threat.

Dick Togo/Terry Boy/TAKA Michinoku vs. Gran Hamada/Gran Naniwa/Great Sasuke CWA 2/16/97 - GREAT

PAS: This was a greatest hits MPRO match, but MPRO playing their greatest hits is like the Rolling Stones playing their greatest hits, they are some amazing hits. This is in a Boston Indy show underneath a Jimmy Snuka vs Kevin Sullivan main event, and you can tell the crowd and the announcers had never seen anything approaching this (although the amazing Boston Sport Radioesque announcers do suggest Devon Storm and Ace Darling as possible future opponents, which I actually wouldn't mind seeing). TAKA and Sasuke were the standouts, both getting big dives (TAKA's spaceman plancha is a contender for best dive ever) and even brawling into the parking lots. Also Gran Hamada running through his signature spots is a reminder how amazing Hamada's signature spots were. As usual I loved all of the KDX triple teams, and wild Sasuke rope running. This is a match I didn't know existed and you love to see it.

MD: Around this time, there was some benefit at being geographically close to a Sheldon Goldberg associated promotion. I caught a Sumie Sakai vs Mercedes Martinez match in NECW a couple of years after this on the same card that had Doug Williams or Fleisch and Storm or something. I think I would have rather had this match though. It was pretty much what you'd expect as they all came to work and didn't hold back even with an unfamiliar audience and a hard floor on the outside. They hit the usual triple teams and the big spots and built to a big comeback and by the end, the crowd was pretty into it. Where the real joy comes from is seeing it in this setting, hearing it with these announcers, who couldn't get over how it was the best match they'd ever seen in the promotion (not a thing to say out loud, maybe?). Very lucky crowd to get to see this and I'm kind of annoyed I wasn't part of it.

Sabu vs. Chris Candido vs. Crowbar NWA-New Jersey 8/17/00

MD: This was glorious noise. I don't think a single person in the building understood the rules of a triple threat last man standing casket match and that's before Sabu flew into it and broke it into a bunch of pieces. Everyone was the most of themselves that they could be. Candido stooged and hit cheapshots. Sabu flew all over the place. Crowbar took a bunch of bumps (but so did everyone else). The fans chanted for tables while a guy was actually in the casket since they didn't get how the rules were supposed to work either. Some of the bumps and chairshots were nasty and not the things you'd want to see today but this is a historical relic and we can't change it by clicking play. Everyone called spots in a way that the mic picked up which was sort of fascinating in its own right because it peeled back a layer or two of thought in a match where they basically just did a ton of entertaining stuff.

PAS: This was dumb shit, but in the best way. Devon Storm is a guy who was basically doing Sabu's shit on Northeast indies which couldn't afford Sabu, so it is fun to watch him hurl chairs and get stiffed by his idol. Candido takes some sick bumps in this, big flip to the floor, a totally unnecessary Misawa german suplex bump and a bunch of wild chairshots. Sabu in a casket match is as great as you want it to be, it ends up splinters by the end of the match, and I loved him propping it up in the corner putting Candido in it and doing a diving springboard kick and smashing the shit out of it. Couldn't have been fun to be in that casket and knowing that Sabu was going to do something dumb.  

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New Footage Friday: 1986 Crockett Cup!!

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

Fantastics vs. Fabulous Ones

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Road Warriors vs. Wahoo McDaniel/Mark Youngblood

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

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

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

Sheepherders vs. Rock and Roll Express

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

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

Fantastics vs. Arn Anderson/Tully Blanchard

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Road Warriors vs. The Midnight Express

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

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

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

The Fantastics vs. The Sheepherders

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

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

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

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

Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs. Dick Slater

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

Dusty Rhodes vs. Ric Flair

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

The Road Warriors vs. Magnum TA/Ronnie Garvin

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

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ALL TIME MOTY LIST Head to Head 1990: Onita/Goto v. Kurisu/Dragonmaster V. Midnight Express v. Steiner Brothers

Midnight Express v. The Steiner Brothers WCW 10/20/90

PAS: Someone uploaded a WCW Handheld from October 1990. While there are some really classic WCW stinkers on this card (Mike Rotunda v. JW Storm, Sting v. Black Scorpion), we do get an awesome chance to watch the Midnight Express, one of the greatest bumping and stooging teams of all time, take on the Steiners, one of the greatest offensive teams of all time. It is great to see all of the shtick the MX break out on a house show, Jimmy Cornette takes a bump off the apron and challenges the ref to a fight, the MX do a Brazos style dissension spot which included Cornette slapping Bobby. We move into a classic face in peril section, with the MX breaking out a ton of cool double teams and Cornette cheap shots. Rick Steiner is an all time great hot tag, he is so explosive and is so much fun to watch running wild. Finish was pretty cool with the Steiners hitting Steinerlines from the front and the back to pin Bobby, kind of wanted to see one of the insane Steiner finishes, but it was still decisive.

ER: Wow, pro wrestling is fucking great! This is a real classic and had it been on PPV it would still be talked about fondly today. And because of some true hero in New Jersey, we get to see it. And it's great. It's as great a match in execution as it looks on paper. And you really get the best of both worlds, with class house show stooging, with taped for a larger audience spots. It starts with a bunch of amusing spots with Lane complaining about non-existent tights pulls off hip tosses, gets into things with the ref, gets Cornette into things with the ref, watches as Cornette makes the worst "put up your dukes" pantomime and then falls into the ropes when the ref throws back, Lane gets into things with Bobby, which leads to Bobby taking a nasty apron bump when those weren't common, which leads to Cornette slapping Bobby, which leads to the crowd momentarily turning Bobby face as he grabs Cornette by the jacket to threaten him before making up. Really if this is the most we got from the match, all of us would have been satisfied as hell. Except we get a lot more.

When the Midnights are finally on the same page, Eaton tries to beat Scott with speed. Scott looks like an absolute monster and moves like Eaton, and when it looks like Eaton might get the duke after some leapfrogs Scott fakes him out and gets him in an electric chair, and Rick does a nasty bulldog off the top. Lane blasts Scott with a racket and throws some wicked stomps to Scott's ribs, Eaton bashes him with a chair, and then we get to see what a great FIP Scott was. Eaton is athletic as hell and had nasty offense that doesn't get enough credit. We all know he has great punches (and he shows off several varieties of them, and a guy in the crowd exclaims loudly after each one, and I love a man whose favorite part of a wrestling show is Eaton's punches), but watch him hit a shockingly forceful fist off the top, really leaping into it, and in my favorite spot of the match watch him shove Scott into the turnbuckles and blast him with one of the hardest lariats I've seen as he stumbles back out. Did you know Eaton threw one of the greatest western lariats? Because apparently he does. Scott gets some great flash comebacks, a sunset flip, and some beautiful big windup punches that looked like Rocky swinging for the fences. The ending is a bit sudden, but total dynamite: Scott hits the frankensteiner (a truly amazing spot) and Rick comes in with a huge Steinerline. Phil is right about Rick being a tremendous hot tag, it's something that really doesn't get talked about enough. And the end being so sudden is always believable with the Steiners, as they're clearly so powerful and explosive that they look like anything they do could be a finish.

Onita/Goto v. Kurisu/Dragonmaster review

Verdict: 

PAS: I loved this tag match, one of my favorite things in wrestling is to discover and watch hidden gems like this, and I have never heard anyone talk about this match before, especially cool because these two teams have only matched up a couple of times on tape. Still that FMW tag is such a perfect slice of violence, I have to go with it, it feels like picking the WCW tag would be recency bias.

ER: Damn this was great. Tag team wrestling done properly might be my absolute favorite wrestling (or fat guys, or punches, or guys pointing at their head, or elbow drops, or...) and this was white hot. There is definitely recency bias at play, as oftentimes the newest thing is going to feel like the coolest thing, but I loved this so much I'm having a hard time remembering how damn much I love that FMW tag, and how I've watched that tag like 4 times this year. This tag feels like it could have those legs, and I think with a slightly escalated finish I'd vote for this match in a heartbeat. This wasn't a blowout at all, this was a worthy, awesome challenger, but I gotta go FMW.

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Digging in the Crates Podcast #4

Will returns for a special all NWA Classics 24/7 episode of the show.

Digging in the Crates #4


We talk about Andre v. Harley, Fantastics v. Midnight Express, Jose Lothario v. Hecto Guerrero and JYD v. Butch Reed chain match. If you haven't subscribed to NWA Classics, what are you waiting for???

NWA CLASSICS 24/7

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SLL's All-Request Early Saturday Morning

Yeah, I didn't expect I would end up having things to do today, either. Sorry for the less than timely debut of SLL's All-Request Friday Night, wherein I review five matches as requested by YOU, the Segunda Caida reader. Next week's actually be up Friday night. Honest injun. If it's any consolation, at least this is only the second shittiest thing to happen in wrestling today. Now, onto the requests!

Kendall Windham & The Itallion Stallion vs. The Mod Squad (JCP, Summer 1987)
Requested by Victator

On the surface, this seems like an odd match to request, but when you dig a little deeper...it's still an odd match to request. Kendall is a guy I've liked more often than not, but still, this is a match with four guys who are pretty low on the pecking order in '87 Crockett. Then again, I've seen enough WWE Superstars to know that guys in that position can break out some great stuff when given the chance, and I went into this figuring I might see something like that. And well, I think I saw where it was supposed to happen, I'm just not convinced it actually did. This is a ten-minute time limit draw, and the idea as put forward on commentary by Tony Schiavone (who actually does a pretty solid job trying to get the match over...this match would've been great as a radio broadcast) is that these are four young guys who want to make a name for themselves, and the exposure they're getting on the Superstation means they'll be giving it their all to prove themselves to the fans and the top brass. But their all really isn't that much, and instead of coming off as guys ready to break through, they came off as guys who were still green or who had topped out at a low level. Match is laid out in a pretty traditional 80's US tag style: faces dominate the heels early, heels isolate one face and work him over, face fights back and gets the tag to the fresh man, house afire, breaking down in Center Stage. This isn't the worst version of that match I've ever seen. The Mod Squad are solid heel clubberers. Basher comes off of the apron and boots Stallion in the back after he had been thrown to the floor, which looked pretty cool, and I liked Spike's big overhand punches to Stallion's gut. They were fine in that part of the match. But it's hard not to think of the long list of teams that could've done it better. It's even harder not to think of the long list of teams that would've been more compelling than Windham and the Stallion, who were just deadly dull here. I mean, I don't mean to review the match I want to see instead of the match I am seeing, but formula's familiarity makes it hard not to think of all the times it's been done better. It's a great formula, but a formula doesn't do all the work for you. These guys didn't screw it up, but they definitely weren't afraid to coast on the formula, either.

Ricky Morton & Tommy Rich vs. The Midnight Express (NWA, 10/27/1990)
Requested by DylanWaco

Now this is how it's done. The Rock 'N' New Fabulous Ones high five each other at the top of the match, and then the MX and Cornette all high five each other, Stan Lane attempts (unsuccessfully) to high five referee Teddy Long, and then he and Bobby Eaton strut past each other to deliver a slick behind-the-back high five. The Midnight Express > you. Match proper starts with some basic exchanges between Eaton and Ricky Morton (who will wrestle practically the entire match for his team), before it starts breaking down when Eaton gets Morton in the corner and smacks him hard across the mouth. Irish whip into the opposite corner gets reversed, but Eaton tosses a mean back elbow when Morton charges in. Then we get a slick criss-cross sequence where Morton takes the upper hand and pulls out the circa 1990 hurricanrana, with Eaton tumbling into the face corner and taking a bionic elbow from Rich. The MX manage to control soon enough, though, and they are in full asskicker mode tonight. Lane gets a blind tag and catches Morton with essentially a really big snapmare off of a back body drop. This is also one of your better MX-era Lane performances, as signified by him following a superfluous springboard with the awesome clothesline takedown he did to George Takano nine years prior. Normally would complain about the superfluous springboard, but here, it felt like he was just doing it because he was an asshole, and it worked on that level. All of his redneck kung-fu stuff looked really good here as well. The MX double teaming is in full effect, including a drop toe hold followed by a nice Eaton elbow drop and a back body drop into what was basically a really big snapmare. But the real highlight here is Lane slamming Eaton on the entrance ramp, and then Eaton busting out the Rocket Launcher onto Morton on the ramp, which looked crazy as hell. Then Lane celebrates by cabbage patching in the ring. Seriously, he is like the dick of all dicks in this. It doesn't get the pin, though, so they wail on Morton some more, and Eaton hits the Alabama Jam, but asks the ref to count the knockout, which would probably look weird to some people, but the whole story of the match is that the MX are total jerks and that they are basically trying to kill Ricky Morton for the fun of it, so I can go along with that. But he makes it to his feet, and a whole lot of awesome punches get thrown before Morton blocks another Rocket Launcher with his knees and makes the rolling tag to Rich. He makes quick work of the Midnights, but Cornette and the racket come into play. It looks like it's curtains for or heroes, but then the Southern Boys hit the ring, both dressed as Jim Cornette, and Corny flips out, allowing Rich to grab the racket in the confusion and bop Stan Lane over the head with it for the win. I don't know where this ranks alongside the other classic R'n'Rs/MX encounters (and that is what this was, Rich was pretty much a non-entity here), but it was a great one, and not to be missed.

Mad Man Pondo vs. Super Ninja (UWF, 7/20/1991)
Requested by jaedmc

Damn, I did not realize how long Pondo has been at it. That's...that's a little sad, actually. Anyway, jaedmc requested this match because "not everything you watch should be good". Honestly, though, I didn't think this was a bad match. I mean, it wasn't good, and if nothing else, it's damn weird to see a professional wrestling match end with a guy shooting the half amateur-style and just keeping his opponent down for three. But Ninja - whoever he was - seemed pretty competent, and Pondo didn't really do anything outstandingly good or outstandingly bad. Aside from the finish, this match was unremarkable.

But who cares about the match when you have the commentary? We have Bruno Sammartino arbitrarily shitting on a Mad Man Pondo armdrag, a completely off his meds Captain Lou Albano, Vince Russo prototype Herb Abrams coming out to put himself over, and all three of them plus Craig DeGeorge struggling to call the nigh-unpronounceable name of "Pondo".

Tiger Jackson vs. Irish Leprechaun (WWC, 1980's)
Requested by Tim Evans

I woke up today to find that "Macho Man" Randy Savage, one of my personal favorite professional wrestlers of all time, was dead. Sadly, no one was on the ball enough to recommend a Savage match for me to review, but I can still honor his memory by reviewing a match featuring the Macho Midget himself, Tiger Jackson. It also features Irish Leprechaun (as opposed to Albanian Leprechaun?), who bears a more than striking resemblance to Hornswoggle, though I am told they are not the same person. I don't want to sound like a big racist or anything, but all these leprechauns look the same to me. Amusing comedy bit early on with Leprechaun trying to convince the ref that Jackson is pulling his beard, and Jackson eventually gets fed up and just does it. This is pretty lopsided in Jackson's favor, though Leprechaun gets to do a little bit of cool stuff on offense. Has a nasty headbutt, and he escapes a headscissors by standing up, pulling Jackson's legs off of him, and spinning him on his head like a top. But then Jackson gets the Leprechaun in a compromising position and...turns his feet around 180 degrees? And then the Leprechaun turns them back into place and scores the fluke win with a big splash! Eat that, Sid Vicious!

C.M. Punk vs. Chris Hero - 90 Minute Time Limit Best 2/3 Falls Match (IWA:M-S, 2/7/2003)
Requested by Wrestling_KO Mike

I've got a bit of multitasking to do as I write this, which means I probably shouldn't even be reviewing this match in the first place. But I've made dumber decisions than this and didn't back down from them, so this has no excuse. This match was pretty hyped back in the day because it's two indy darlings wrestling for 90 minutes. But it's also a match that's kinda been lost to time, and that few are interested in revisiting because...well, because it's two indy darlings wrestling for 90 minutes. Even at the time, I seem to recall the reception to this match being somewhat split. I, personally, liked it, but it's 2011, I'm kinda averse to indy darlings wrestling each other for 90 minutes, and it all begs the question, will I still like it? There's only one way to find out, and to make things easier on me, we're going to be doing this in five minute intervals, because passing judgment of all 90+ minutes of this in one go is just not going to happen, nor is me rewatching it immediately afterwords to make sure I got all the details right. Set the WABAC Machince for 2003, Sherman. We're going to Clarksville, Indiana....

C.M. Punk: "We might be here for a while."

Punk always carried himself like a star. We probably shouldn't be surprised that he became one. The opening minutes of the match see them take it to the mat, and the matwork is fine. I can't really complain about anything here so far. What I can say is that in 2003, I couldn't push a button and make a bajillion Negro Navarro matches instantly appear on my computer. If you were looking for quality matwork, your options were a little more limited then than they are now. If you were looking for quality matwork stateside, forget it. You had to wait three more years for Finlay to come out of retirement, or for the occasional Benoit/Regal match on Velocity. So this aspect of the match, while not bad by any stretch, probably isn't as big of a deal today as it was then.

Five minutes gone....

Next five minutes are pretty much the same story as the first. Can't complain, but can't say I'm blown away, either. But near the ten-minute mark, Hero had Punk in a seated hammerlock, and Punk turned his head back and nailed Hero with a short headbutt. Hero threw a nice one of his own in return, and now things are really starting to get interesting.

Ten minutes gone....

More headbutts from the hammerlock. Hero throws a hard chop, too. And then the pace starts to pick up a bit, as we get a few quick armdrag exchanges before Punk locks down Hero's arm. He does the move where he bars Hero's arm and then lifts him up vertically, which is pretty impressive looking on a guy as indy big as Hero.

Fifteen minutes gone....

If you're wondering how we could get fifteen minutes deep into this match when so little seems to be happening without me getting bored, I honestly don't have a definite answer. I think it might just be that they're milking everything they do for all it's worth. Whatever it is, it's surprisingly effective. This is the best five minutes of the match yet, as things go all Benoit/Regal with them still exchanging holds but also laying in some heinous chops and slaps and punches and headbutts while in the holds, including the requisite headbutt exchange while in a knucklelock. This is a blast. The minutes are just flying by.

Twenty minutes gone....

And we're back to simple, straightforward hold exchanges. Again, not bad, but after they kicked it into high gear the last five minutes, a little disappointing to see them dial it back in these. There is one really nice armdrag by Hero in this part, though.

Twenty-five minutes gone....

At least the hold exchanges are good. Hero works over Punk's arm really well, and then Punk turns it around with a rolling toehold. Hero escapes by almost Irish Leprechauning Punk's foot and turning it into an ankle lock.

Thirty-five minutes gone....

Yeah, I don't know where the other five minutes went, either, especially since the five minute intervals are being called out by Jim Fannin, and these last "five" didn't feel any longer than the five before it. The match takes another turn for the chippy here, as Hero attempts a German suplex, but Punk lands on his feet and stomps Hero's jaw in. That young Knockout Kid throws his first forearms of the night, as both guys start dropping bombs on one another.

Forty minutes gone....

Hero does a straightjacket choke cavernaria while biting Punk's nose.

Forty-five minutes gone....

Punk starts unloading on Hero. His urakens leave something to be desired, but otherwise it's pretty good. Then Hero comes back and uncorks the somewhat tubby man tornillo plancha, which ruled it.

Fifty minutes gone....

Fifty-three minutes in, and Punk finally scores the first fall of the match, and this is one of the more contentious parts of it. Punk goes for a shining wizard that was presumably supposed to take the fall, but overshoots it somewhat, and instead spins around and hits another kneelift to get the pin. On rewatch, the overshot isn't as bad as I remember. He doesn't hit it full on, but he gets enough of it that I don't think it really hurts the match that much. He fits two more full-on later in the match, they honestly don't look that much more devastating than the one he just grazed Hero with. What does hurt is that at this point in this match, this doesn't feel like something that merits a fall.

Fifty-five minutes gone....

It's around that both guys start to look a bit worn, and it's weird, because other than the simple fact that they've been wrestling a really damn long time, it doesn't feel like they've done a whole lot to each other. The entire first hour of this match is worked at a pretty even tempo. It has some highs and some lows, but it hasn't really built to anything. It made the first fall seem out of place, and it makes the current sense of desperation from both men seem somewhat unearned.

One hour gone....

Now they're earning it, as Hero takes over and gets some big nearfalls, including one off of the Hero's Welcome that had me briefly wondering if that was what tied up the match. Past the hour mark, they are developing a sense that Hero needs to score a fall soon, or he's going to fall too far behind Punk to overtake him.

Sixty-five minutes gone....

Punk breaks out the flying headscissors on the floor and an elbow suicida that lands him in the third row, but Hero comes back during a fight on the top rope and hits the Pepsi Plunge on Punk to take the second fall, and that genuinely did feel like a big moment, and a major dramatic turning point for the match.

Seventy minutes gone....

The finishing stretch begins in earnest, and what's interesting is that both guys are totally wiped out to the point that you buy the idea that any move could potentially win the match, even though you know without even looking at the results that this thing is going the full 90 minutes.

Seventy-five minutes gone....

I don't have anything really specific to say about this five minute block, so I guess this is as good a place to put this comment as any: this is a great match, but aside from the fact that the Punk/Hero feud was built around them having really long matches with each other, there is absolutely no reason the match needs to be this long. Not gonna knock the match for going this long, because this is the match I'm watching, and I'm reviewing the match I'm watching, not the one I want to watch. But 90 minutes is a long fucking time to spend watching a wrestling match, and there's nothing in this match that these guys couldn't have done in 30.

Eighty minutes gone....

Punk tenaciously works the sleeperhold, which seems like a really good idea in a match like this. Hero sells it really well, and then pays him back with a pair of backdrops and a snap Regalplex that knocked Punk even loopier than he already was.

Eighty-five minutes gone....

I've never run a marathon before, but I imagine that the end of one is kinda like the end of this match. It doesn't really matter what they're doing (though, for what it's worth, what they're doing is pretty good), it's just really cool and borderline miraculous that they even got to this point. And to a large extent, that was really the big appeal of this match - they could've done this in 30 or less and not lost anything, but they chose to do it in 90 just because they could, and that is pretty awesome. Hero hits a superbomb and crawls over to make the cover, draping one arm over Punk, but Punk does the same, and the ref counts the double pin as the time limit expires. But Ian Rotten comes out from the back and, in a rare moment of brevity, says fuck that shit and the match gets restarted.

Sudden death....

Both guys pull themselves to their feet, lay in some hard shots, and then Hero outmaneuvers Punk to lock in the Hangman's Clutch to finally put him away, and it feels like every bit as big of an accomplishment as they treat it as. I have seen many better matches than this, but it is still a great match, even with it's flaws, and on a meta level, what these guys pulled off here was unbelievable. I don't need to see anyone try to recreate it any time soon, but I'm glad it exists, and I'm glad that I've seen it.

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It Gets So Hard In Times Like These To Hold On, But Guns They Wait To Be Stuck By, and On My Side is The King

Jerry Lawler/Bill Dundee v. Original Midnight Express AWA 10/30/87 - EPIC

PAS: This is for the AWA tag belts and is a match which on paper looks really awesome, but especially in the 80’s on paper matches were often pretty disappointing. This however was even better then it looked on paper. Lawler and Dundee are a great tag team, we all know what great individual wrestlers they are, and how well they match up against each other, but they also have great face tag team shtick. Their opening babyface in control section was just full of great stuff. I especially loved the variations on the partner blocks the Irish whip into the corner, also this was a punch marks dream match with both Lawler and Dundee breaking out tons of different combos. I especially loved the running left hook by Dundee. OMX were a lot fun in this too, especially Randy Rose who looked Eaton great in this, he takes a huge high backdrop, and has a bunch of fun offense. Slim Paul E. with his sport coat with rolled up sleeves throws in the phone and the OMX win the belts. I liked this more then any of the Rose/Somers v. Midnight Rockers matches and this was fucking with the high end Rock and Rolls v. Midnights matches.

TKG: Man this was fun. A lot of faces do stuff effectively, heels try same spots only to have the backfire. If you’ve seen the Memphis doc on youtube, you may remember the Hector Guerrero vs. Lawler spot where Hector puts Lawler across top rope and then kicks at him…Lawler tries same spot and Hector gets out of way. Lawler does same spot with Rose but with Lawler working face this time out. Lawler is caught with knee in corner and ends up face in peril eating a punch with a big bump to floor and then taking body slam on the floor running powerslam from Rose, etc. Dundee is all over the place as guy on apron…running after Heyman on the floor. Holding back heel from making tag while waiting for Lawler’s attempt to make hot tag etc. But really this match is about the early face in control section with the two faces just laying in punches and clotheslines..with Randy Rose just running head first into the fists and lariats. Dundee does a top rope knee drop with refs back turned. I don’t know what the top rope rule was at the time but ref turns around and really can’t figure out what’s going on as Lawler and Dundee switch off going for two counts on Rose before ref can figure out who is the legal man. I don’t know if it was a stunt granny but there is also a nun in the front row who punches at the air with every face punch and gets absolutely irate at all the heel cheating. I have no idea why I haven’t heard this match pimped before.

Jerry Lawler v. "Macho Man" Randy Savage WWF 7/4/94 - FUN

Pretty much a by the number Lawler heel match, which no matter how by the numbers is completely awesome..We get four or five minutes of shtick before any lock ups where King taunts the crowd, yells at the ref, pratfalls on some stairs, basically runs through the book. When we do get some contact, Lawler works a donut hole fake chain masterfully, including some truly jaw dislocating punches. No one in wrestling history knows more ways to pretend to hide a chain. He does this great taunt, after dropping Macho Man, where he does some push ups, stopping to elevate himself on one hand to pose to the crowd. Savage is a complete passenger, he does nothing in the match, as Lawler completely controls the match until he tries a piledriver, gets backflipped, Savage then tries a piledriver gets reversed but rolls through Lawler for the pin. Savages only offensive move was a sunset flip. Great opportunity to see Lawler work a broomstick, but I would have obviously liked to see Savage show up.

Jerry Lawler/Chris Michaels v. Bull Pain/Todd Morton XCW-Midwest 8/9/08 - EPIC

This is a match I had big expectations going into, and it totally exceeded them. Morton and Pain are a tremendous tag team, they take huge bumps, really violent offense, great at cutting off the ring, pretty much everything you want from a Southern Heel tag team. Morton really looks like one of the top 10 wrestlers in the world, his stuff is so crisp and athletic for a guy who has to be in his mid 40s, and his bumping is crazy. Usually in a tag match like this your big indy legend will hang around the ring apron and come in for a spot or two at the end, Lawler however worked about 70% of the match, bumping around the heels early, taking a big beating (including a ring post bump which is as good as the best post bumps on the Memphis set) and delivering the big comeback. Michaels looked good in his spots, but this was a Lawler showcase and it was awesome. Finish totally ruled with your big revenge spot by the crutch wearing Tony Falk son at ringside, and a Lawler Fireball. Hit up XCW Myspace and pick this up.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE KING

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