New Footage Friday: Virus! Commando Bolshoi! Ace Rockwell! Jimmy Rave!

Virus vs. Super Nova Nuevo Leon 5/4/08

MD: The problem with Virus is always footage. We have him as a role player in countless trios but save for when he had a title in CMLL and some late career indy matches (which are still great), it's a lot harder to find him in showcase matches. Even the ones we know about often aren't online for people to see (like the Valiente lightning match that I had to put back up recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfqlxHTQrHs). Another problem is that it's a lot easier to search YouTube for "Negro Casas" or "Hijo del Santo" than Virus, but that's sort of beside the point.

Why is footage a problem? Because the guy is bulletproof. He can do just about everything well, but without the footage (or the opportunities), it's tough to make a case for just how good he is. This is him in a supre libre match and he absolutely delivers on all fronts. Because of his diminutive stature, he can take dropkicks straight to the skull, which is how the match starts, but he quickly locks in the vertebreaker (which is a killer move in 2021 but even more so in 2008) to take a quick first fall and the beatdown ensues after that. It's a great one too, with mask ripping, an awesome posting, just tossing Super Nova over the rail into empty seats and wound biting. Everything you'd want in a rudo beatdown, which means when the comeback happens, it's very deserved and very satisfying. It's all the more so when Virus himself goes sailing into the crowd and bleeds a gusher, basing and feeding and catching the whole way. It builds to a tecera with a lot of selling that actually feels warranted for once, and here he plays around with his clever hooking to score some nice nearfalls before they take it home. Great, visceral showing where Virus basically does everything there is to do.

PAS: Virus is undeniable, much of his stuff on tape is super fast and intricate matwork, and world class basing for high flyers, we don't really have a lot of Super Libre brawls, but of course he is brilliant at that as well. I loved the Veterbreaker as a killshot, setting it up in the first fall allows them to tease it big later, with Nova reversing it to get a submission in the segunda. The rudo beatdown was great, opening up Nova's mask and enraging the crowd, we had some great looking lucha libre fan characters, a big old lady who looked like she was going slap Virus, a weird Dee Snider looking rocker who was enraged by his behavior, real weirdos are way cool then internet weirdos. Nova was kind of along for a ride, although he hit a nice asai moonsault, I kind of didn't buy him rolling up Virus for the pin, Virus is a master, can't believe he don't spin out of that weak inside cradle, otherwise this was great.

Jimmy Rave/Mike Posey/Chip Day/Corey Hollis/Sal Rinauro vs. Kyle Matthews/J-Rod/Ace Rockwell/Patrick Bentley/Adrian Hawkins RPW 10/30/11

MD: It's a War Games that breaks all the rules: the babyfaces start with advantage; it ends up 4 on 4 as people get out of the cage (and head to the back, even). There are only pretty much the only two rules to break: heels get the advantage and there's no escaping the cage. The third one would be that color is needed, I guess, but this checked that box. Despite the broken rules, this still pretty much works. How? Because it leans harder into the traditional shine/heat/comeback structure given the booking. There's a clear two-on-one shine on Jimmy Rave, with him begging off, taking his licks, and bleeding early. It looks like the faces are going to cruise through the periods until the turn happens. After that Matthews gets a hope spot for his side until the numbers game overtakes his side (the babyface advantage doubly damns them due to the turn; for a while there it's 4 on 2 and then 5 on 3). I wish the announcers had built the Rinauro issue through the match a bit more, but I'm sure the crowd watching knew what the story was. He played his part well when he came in and by taking both he and Rave out of the match, they evened out the numbers advantage in a way that made the finish possible. On the one hand, I would have rather some things not be fully resolved (like Matthews tapping Bentley; he could have just contained him or beat on him while the submissions were happening and then gotten a real win later on), but I guess they knew what they were doing for that crowd since they were going to be right back in front of it a week later. I'd say they beat the odds and had a good War Games despite breaking the rules, so full credit to them on this one.

PAS: This had a superkick or two too many for a Wargames match. Jimmy Rave Approved were a bunch of fresh faced youngsters here and I think that this would have worked a little better with the later more grizzled versions of these guys, fat greasy haired Chip Day, the Corey Hollis of Yard Call etc. I also think two turns in a War Games is two turns too many. I still was really into this though, the offense looked like it hurt, the blood was really flowing (especially from Ace Rockwell, that guy was a hidden gem of 2000s wrestling, he always rules). Fun to see Matthews, who was always a technician work in this setting, the Hidaka Octopus hold was surprisingly good War Games submission. I did think they need something to change the babyface advantage in War Games so in that sense the turn worked, but you could get around that by not having a babyface advantage. 



Commando Bolshoi vs. Akira Nakajima JWP 3/16/08

MD: A few moments really stand out here to me. The match started with Nakajima just an absolute dynamo of energy, hitting shots from every direction with wild abandon. She finally gets Bolshoi down and is just pounding on her and time seems to slow down as Bolshoi's leg comes around to catch the pounding arm changing the course of the match instantaneously. Nakajima would wrestle the rest of the match favoring her arm and unable to capitalize on her hobbled offense because of it. The second moment has her catching Bolshoi off the ropes with a sweeping takedown only to get punched straight in the face from underneath; from there, Bolshoi did this spinning armtrap from her back before locking in a triangle of sorts that was just magic. There was one point where Nakajima was laying in shots with her hurt arm, but each one took more out of her than the last and there was just an almost tragic sense of inevitability, one that carried over to her lightning pinfall attempts. It all felt like a matter of time in the best way. I think they ultimately went a little too long with this because of that. It probably should have ended with Bolshoi's triangle and not gone back up to the top again, but the stuff from the top was pretty nasty and dramatic, as was Bolshoi's late Tiger Suplex (easily locked in when she was blocked earlier) because Nakajima had nothing but desperation and hope left. Nakajima never gave up but you spent good chunks of this match eagerly waiting for her to get caught to see what Bolshoi would do to her next. While that admittedly says more about us than the match, it also says something about Bolshoi's wizardry here.

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New Footage Friday: SANTO! CUCHILLO! SLIM J! POSEY! BUCK! HANCOCK

El Hijo Del Santo vs. Cuchillo El Toreo 10/30/88

PAS: This is available from Santo's Patreon. It's pretty clipped up which is a shame, but what we got is a Santo 80s mask match which is pretty undeniable. Cuchillo seemed pretty replacement level. He had some nice brawling, missed a flip dive, but this was a Santo show, and what a show it is. Santo turns the mask red, flies into the hard chairs a couple of times, and hits a gorgeous plancha headbutt where he just levitates in the air before landing with real force. I also loved the start of the tercera, where Santo is coming forward with such fury that Cuchillo tackles a fan just to try to get away.

MD: 12 minutes, clipped, of a lost Santo mask match. I was a little wary during the primera as it was heavily clipped, to the point where you couldn't really get a sense of it, but everything else was great, clipped or no. Momentum shifts in old lucha often start at the end of one fall and carry into the next. It's always a big moment for Santo to lose a primera; here it was with a tie-up pin out of nowhere. What followed was a segunda where Cuchillo smelled blood and immediately went on the attack. Santo tried to fire back but the ref slowed him down and allowed some fouls. This is where we got the mask ripping and bloodying of Santo you'd want in a match like this. We miss the absolute moment of comeback but see the aftermath, first in Santo getting the pin with a tope headbutt off the top and an insult to injury legdrop, and then the bleed into the tercera where he chases Cuchillo into the crowd to create a chaotic scene with bodies flying and gets his revenge mask ripping in. I t builds to some good nearfalls and a nice Santo dive before a bloodied Santo dodges a top rope flip and locks in (with tangible effort) the caballo for the win. Again, it wasn't the ideal look at this match, but it's worth it just to see Santo's red hot fire at the start of the tercera.

Ultimo Dragon/El Dandy vs. Negro Casas/Mocha Cota Monterey 1990s?

MD: Any new Cota is a good thing in my book, and a match like this with a unique pairing and a different than normal setting is even better. Don't get me wrong, new Casas is new Casas and new Dandy is new Dandy but with them we just have more. That said, while we do get a nice stretch of Cota vs Dragon on the mat, where they cycle well enough from one thing to the next for a unique pairing, and we absolutely get a brilliant moment with Cota that I'll talk about later, the best stuff here is definitely Dandy vs Casas. They seem to be working with a healthy respect for one another at first, moving in and out of holds, doing a little bit of repetition and mirroring with a caught leg bit throughout their sequences, just smooth as silk all around, a nice balance between respect and mean-but-mutual grittiness. Everything comes to a head when Dandy has Casas set up for a tapatia and Cota comes in with a kick. Casas feigns being pissed as Cota lays on the mat posing proudly like the malignant goblin that he is. Casas ultimately leans into it for a rudo ambush (as Cota claps from the outside) that gets reversed by the tecnicos to the end of the fall. It's all we get for this but ten+ minutes of these for is definitely better than nothing.

Brody Chase vs. Mike Posey vs. Slim J vs. CB Suave vs. Billy Buck vs. Stryknyn vs. BJ Hancock Anarchy Wrestling 11/25/14 - GREAT

PAS: This is an elimination gauntlet cage match for the Heavyweight title, with each match going five minutes. This was an all cage match show (let's hope the War Games main even shows up someday), so this wasn't the wild brawl that you expect from an Anarchy cage match, but more of a workrate match. Still, this had some very good moments. Slim J was tremendous in his two sections, he comes in after Posey beats former Crockett job guy Brody Chase, and tools Posey with fast takedowns and amateur rides. Posey catches J off the top ropes with a knee to the stomach and works the body a bunch, before J reverses a submission into a choke for the tap. They worked well together and I want to track down more of that match up. Buck and Stryknyn had a good face versus face section. Buck is one of the better guys in 2010s Cornelia wrestling, and I have seen him mostly as a heel, but he is a great traditional face too. The Buck versus Hancock final section was pretty good too, full of big moves, like a top rope Samoan drop and some cool near falls, and Hancock countering the superkick with a low blow was awesome 

MD: I ended up liking this a lot. It had some things working against it. The blood and guts was going to be in the main event (a War Games) so while this was in a cage, the cage was mostly used to help with some top rope moves and to add a sense of urgency. That urgency was important due to the five minute limits on the matches. If that limit was hit, both guys in would be eliminated. It was a problem when you had fresher guys in there since most matches just don't end in five minutes period, but they worked it pretty well, with wrestlers making mistakes they might not otherwise. It also let them do the false finish to put heat on the heel champ and shine up Buck. I think what I found most impressive here is how they weaved in the history over the last few weeks: Chase's knee had been damaged previously by Posey, which made the self-damage done by the kneeling powerbomb (a spot I've never seen done quite like that) work; Hancock had previously hurt Buck's neck, which made the pile driver the focus for the final pairing. I thought the guys who got time in here were fine, but I did want to see more of Slim J. He looked absolutely great when he came in and started riding Posey all over the mat. I like how he lost the offense vs Suave by getting tossed into the cage on his rope assisted headscissors (a move he used successfully on Posey). Some of the cage assisted spots looked good, especially the huge Samoan drop off the top in the title match. I could nitpick a thing here or there (like Posey using his spell-out-his-name legdrops on Slim J a couple of minutes after missing a legdrop off the turnbuckles on Chase) but overall, I think it was a difficult match to put together and as a total package (layout, wrestling, announcing) it worked out well.

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