Found Footage Friday: DUSTY, JR.~! EIGEN~! OKUMA~! GYPSY JOE~! FUJI~! HENNIG~!

Mr. Fuji vs. Curt Hennig WWF (Kuwait) 1982

MD: There are plenty of things that are interesting about these Kuwait matches. Often times they're on smaller cards with smaller crews and need to go longer than what you'd see even at MSG and sometimes with hierarchy slightly off because the shows have to make do with what they have. They're also in front of crowds that are game but maybe less familiar than the New York faithful. Sometimes that lets a wrestler lean into strength, like Roddy trying to cause a riot or Putski doing as much as possible with as little as possible and being super over in the process.

Sometimes you get a match like this which is eighteen minutes, and maybe eight too long, and that's with us coming in just a bit JIP, which means we lose a little bit of the opening shine. Almost immediately, Fuji takes out the eyes with a foreign object and the next ten minutes or so are Fuji working nerve lock with Hennig working up, hitting some dynamic piece of offense and then immediately Barry Houston-ing himself with some huge bump (missed dropkick, dive through the ropes, giant dive onto Fuji's knees, all starting with that huge spasming sell of the eyes).

All of that works pretty well, if only because Fuji's such a jerk, perfect for this crowd, and because Hennig is so far over the top with everything he does. When he finally punches up, however, they go into what should probably be a finishing stretch, but because they're so far from home, they can't go home. It just lingers for minutes after that, with Hennig locking in a long front facelock. Mercifully, Fuji eventually goes back to the object, allowing Hennig to get it and get revenge on Fuji's eyes. He stooges around the ring blindly, all but beckons Hennig over to hit an elbow drop, and they land the plane with maybe the only 80s abdominal stretch I've ever see end a match (with some great exhausted selling from Fuji on a close up). I like seeing wrestlers facing challenges like this to see how they react. I wouldn't say this passed with flying colors but there was a pretty good twelve minute match in this eighteen minute frame.

Mark Scarpa/Dusty Rhodes Jr. vs. Haruka Eigen/Motoshi Okuma AJPW 6/5/90

MD: This is more Found than New, but it was buried on a tape list for quite a while, long enough for some of us to be ready to state our appreciation for Eigen and Okuma at least. This one showed that their act was probably a little dependent upon their opponents (I have new respect for Rusher after it) but it was also a good match for Dustin to be in to learn a thing or two. Dustin was billed as Dusty Jr. here. Not every punch hit exactly how you'd like, but overall, he was well on his way. His size was absolutely noticeable against Okuma and Eigen and let him take a lot of the match, maybe more than ultimately was enjoyable since they're so good at getting scuzzy heat.

Scarpa was, of course, Jay Youngblood's kid, also Mark Young. He had an Evel Knievel thing going with his gear and did some breakdancing arm movements that had the announcers calling him a "squishy pose" man. Eigen did play off of that amusingly. In general, for a guy that had over 150 matches at this point, a lot of them on WWF house shows against name opponents, and that had 15 matches on this tour already to get used to the AJPW rings, he was jarringly bad at getting whipped into the ropes. It's something that you take for granted with almost anyone you see at this level (especially that made it to an All Japan tour). Sometimes it might have been part of a spot Okuma wanted to do, such as missing a leaping headbutt and wiping out, but even that didn't look like it should have. He was capable at other times and took a great bump off of Okuma's head in the corner, for instance, but it's hard not to remember those whips.

So without heat and with Scarpa offering a little bit of sizzle but not too much else, the big draw here is just to see Dustin fit into the Eigen and Okuma show. That meant hitting elbows to little effect early given Okuma's hard head but being able to floor him late with the full flip, flop, and fly, or doing the spit spot on the apron with Eigen, increasingly realizing what he had until he hammed it up for the crowd bigtime on the third smack to the chest.

ER: Matt and I, big Eigen and Okuma guys, were excited for this one, and even though it's probably more exciting on paper than in execution, this is the Exact Kind Of Shit I Like. Matt might not know this, but I was a major Mark Young Guy when I was 7 and 8 years old. Before I knew what a job guy was, Mark Young was my favorite job guy. Even I, a 7 year old, figured out quickly which WWF wrestlers were going to be winning matches on WWF weekend TV. If one man was named The Widow Maker and then other man was named Dennis Allen, I was smart enough to know that things were about to go poorly for Dennis (especially once I asked my dad what a widow was and what "makes" widows). But Mark Young was the job guy who got more offense, and occasionally got close pinfalls. He looked like a guy who was primed to get a win, and I was excited to see him get that win. He also did breakdancing and flips, and that shit certainly didn't make me like him any less. Watching him with adult eyes, he basically looks like Dave Meltzer and runs the ropes like a guy in his first week of wrestling school. 

But that's okay! While it is alarming how poorly literally any spot that required him to run the ropes went (this All Japan tour came after he had already been working the WWF house show/TV circuit for at least a year) I thought it was impressive how well the match worked. Eigen and Okuma were in there with a gangly 6'6" large adult cowboy baby and a breakdancing goofball who couldn't properly run, and Dustin/Scarpa provide two of the most uniquely odd opponents I have ever seen Eigen and Okuma deal with. I loved every single instance of Eigen getting almost Actually Upset by Scarpa's breakdancing. Eigen is angry that he even has to attempt to lock up with a man who is wiggling his arms like Plastic Man. I loved all of Okuma's headbutts, especially how Eigen would run Dustin and Scarpa across the ring to slam them face first into Okuma's head. Scarpa was so weird, because he couldn't begin to understand Irish whips, but he actually had really impressive bumps. I loved how he bumped and sold after being run into Okuma's head. When Okuma ran at him with a headbutt to the stomach, I loved how Scarpa fell to his butt. Scarpa also had a really incredible sunset flip, leaping to the top rope and twisting in midair to glide perfectly over Eigen. It looked like a legit finisher, and also created a great moment where Eigen was not there and Scarpa just flipped off the top onto nothing. 

Dustin was mostly in there to be the son of Dusty Rhodes. Is it kind of weird that Scarpa didn't also go by Jay Strongbow Jr.? It's probably because Strongbow was a WWF guy who really didn't wrestle much in Japan, so they wouldn't recognize whatever family offense Scarpa would have been doing. They recognize Dustin doing the jabs and hard Dusty elbow to Okuma. Eigen/Dustin was a fun pairing and after Dustin took a tough bump to the floor, hitting the apron on his way down, I actually bit at Eigen's tope feint. Eigen got such a head of steam that I actually thought this man was hitting a tope into the large target of Dusty Rhodes Jr.  I was NOT expecting Dustin to facilitate Eigen spitting into the crowd. I don't think gaijin usually got involved in that spot. It's almost always one of Eigen's peers, and I wish I had behind the scenes footage either explaining the intricacies of the spot to Dustin, or letting Dustin know he would be trusted enough to have the honor of facilitating Haruka Eigen spitting all over Chiba salarymen. 

Gypsy Joe vs. Hot Rod Biggs (First Blood) Hardcore Championship Wrestling 1997(?)

MD: This is the main event starting around the 1:38:00 mark. Gypsy Joe was mid-sixties at this point and he had a series of matches with Biggs. This is the one we've dropped in on as it's a recent upload. It's First Blood, which, as best as I can tell, meant that Joe could win, but Biggs could still be protected due to the haphazard nature of "First" and especially get his heat back post-match by really laying out Joe and opening him up.

There's a real art to an old pro being able to hold court in the center of the ring and having his opponent create motion. In order to make this work, things have to look credible, the fans have to respect the old lion, and everyone has to be dedicated to the act. Jose Lothario in Houston was amazing at this and I've seen Lawler manage it pretty well before his stroke. Joe and Biggs do great with it here, with Biggs coming at him again and again only to feed and fall. The flip side of this is the post-match beatdown, where it feels like an real heat-drawing affront that Biggs is doing so much damage to someone so old and beloved and (from a kayfabe perspective at least) admirable.

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Found Footage Friday: HANSEN~! SPIVEY~! KOBASHI~! ACE~! PUTSKI~! FUJI~! KUWAIT~! SMOTHERS~! EATON~! ROCK 'n' ROCKERS~!

Ivan Putski vs. Mr. Fuji WWF (Kuwait) 1982

MD: The Rex match might have been technically better and even more primal and straightforward in some ways, but this had astoundingly glorious bullshit. At the two minute mark of the video, Fuji starts to play "hide the salt" and they milk it for another three and a half minutes before locking up, with the fans getting more and more into it as the ref can't catch him. Fuji eventually gives up with it and they start cycling through holds that Putski can power out of. Fuji gets an advantage on an armbar by pulling the tights to get Putski down but he ultimately gets a hyper noogie for his trouble. The crowd is loving every second of this so far, much like the Rex match; Putski just has a special relationship with them and Fuji isn't at all afraid to make goofy faces and flail about. Around twelve minutes after the goofiness with the salt started, Fuji finally gets it in Putski's eyes. This triumphant moment earns Fuji a bit of karate and a nerve hold before Putski shakes it off, hits two back body drops, and chases a retreating Fuji to the back. Another good time had by all. I don't know what this says about me, but I can watch Fuji hide salt in front of an irate crowd all day.

ER: People cannot get enough of Kuwait superstar Ivan Putski, and they show nothing but confused indifference for Fuji's salt ceremony...until they clearly see that Fuji is saving salt for Putski's eyeballs. I wish I knew more about the average Kuwait wrestling show attendee's familiarity with classic wrestling heel tropes. I want to see Bobby Heenan hiding a weapon for 20 minutes in Kuwait, slipping it in his boot and back in his trunks and even standing on it. Imagine Lawler hiding a weapon that doesn't actually exist and getting these men (No Women Allowed in the Kuwait Wrestling Club) to lose their minds, tearing their keffiyehs from their heads. Fighting Ivan Putski is like fighting a person in one of those inflatable dinosaur costumes. Much like the Moondog Rex match this week, there are some tremendous strength spots. 

I could see a lot of these spots done by a skinny fat super indy undercarder and played for hack laughs, but the exact same spots done by a completely gassed 5'4" man in early 80s Kuwait play like the pinnacle of the genre. Fuji breaks Putski down to his knees with a nerve hold, both hands digging into Putski's armpits while clutching his pecs, and in an incredible moment Putski rises to his feet and begins loosening Fuji's grip by flexing his large pectorals, Fuji's eyes growing wider, hands still gripping Putski's fleshy muscular breasts, Putski going through every posedown challenge to break the vice, a Most Muscular pose with unbroken eye contact finally freeing him. Putski's strikes get better the longer the match goes. His headlock punches have more intensity than Nolan Ryan's, and his elbow strikes to Fuji's chest in the ropes bounce him wickedly. But when that salt finally comes back into play, it's glorious. Fuji sneaks it into Putski's eyes and Putski swings his short T-rex arms blindly at him, while Fuji stays just out of arms reach throwing throat thrusts and headbutts. But Ivan Putski is the Most Powerful Man in the World and, much like the Philistines blinded Samson and still felt his full wrath, Fuji is soon tossed hardway by two backdrops, and flees the building before it all gets pulled down on top of him. 

Stan Hansen/Dan Spivey vs. Kenta Kobashi/Johnny Ace AJPW 11/20/90

MD: Pulling this back from the middle of the handheld card as it's the last major match we haven't covered yet (there's a Ricky Santana/Doug Furnas vs. Dick Slater/Joel Deaton match which isn't all that interesting and an opening match Teranishi/Kikuchi vs. Fuchi/Ogawa match that I don't promise I won't cover in the weeks to come). It's always fun to hear Kobashi come out to Kickstart My Heart. The contrast here is good. Early Kobashi/Ace (the All-Asia stuff) can be frustrating if they're up against a small, quick team and you get a lot of action and not a lot of weight to anything. But there is nothing but weight when you're in there against Hansen and Spivey. Obviously, Hansen is the real muscle, but Spivey starts this match out by catching Ace off a cross body and just SOS-ing him over his head and shortly thereafter, when Kobashi tries to get technical with him with a leglock, just jams his leg down upon Kenta's face in the nastiest way possible. Spivey wasn't a bad Hansen partner by any means. He was big enough and had some presence but it was also believable for Kobashi to bounce back off the ropes and drop him with a heart-filled shot.

Whenever this hits the outside, it gets great. Hansen just uses the rail and a chair and even this big wooden table. He was better smashing Ace with it than going for the lariat against it, though, as he took out his own arm opening up a fairly lengthy "contain the beast" bit from the two of them. You can't keep Hansen down (in 1990) for long though, and they rotated about until they were beating Kobashi down, with him surviving despite the odds and some nasty shots (including the aforementioned chair shot). At one point Ace broke up a submission by running in and bounding off the ropes with a clothesline but he got absolutely nailed by Hansen the second time he tried it (which was happening more and more in AJPW at this point and was always a great spot). The comeback was wonderful and imaginative, with Kobashi ducking a double shoulder block that sends both Hansen and Spivey to the floor. A dive on Spivey and a suplex on Hansen followed and Ace and Kobashi got in some hope that they might, maybe, steal this one. But of course it wasn't to be. Hansen got fed up and lariated one after the other in quick succession to end it. At this point in their development (where they may have won the secondary titles but were still losing to Jumbo/Partner and even Misawa/Kawada), Kobashi and Ace just hanging as well as they did meant something to the crowd.

ER: I'm not sure how many things in wrestling make me smile wider than Stan Hansen running to the ring through a parting see of fans, chasing after some, swinging his bullrope at others. Danny Spivey looks huge here, like the World's Largest Wings Hauser. He's several inches over Hansen whenever they're next to each other. Did Stan Hansen gift every touring gaijin tag partner his own set of chaps, like a leather goods Ribera Steakhouse jacket? Underneath his Gifted Chaps, Spivey is wearing Daisuke Ikeda's future ring gear, larger. There's a woman in the crowd who loves him and yells SPIVEY all match long. For her, he leans into a strong Ace clothesline and bumps big for a Kobashi back suplex. I love the precision and speed that Spivey and Hansen used to get Kobashi to the floor, slammed face first into a table, and rolled back into the ring. It was like 5 seconds flat. Hansen just threw Kobashi's body like he was a bag of autumn leaves. Stan Hansen was the first guy I ever saw do the Ringpost Chop and I thought it was incredible. Here he tries to take Johnny Ace's head off with a lariat and instead Western Lariats a thick table as hard as he would lariat a man. Hansen was a genius at hitting offense into inanimate objects, thrown as if he never once expected he would miss. 

Nagoya, in one night, got to see over 10 minutes of Stan Hansen and Abdullah the Butcher getting cut off decisively from their tag partners, and I love whenever Hansen is the Man in Peril. He is both great at selling while in offense, and also a constant threat. Kobashi and Ace are like two cops trying to take down a guy on PCP, just swinging chops and feet, always a second from lashing out. Hansen is great in peril, and he's even better getting his revenge. Cower at the ease with which he throws Kobashi with a head whipping bodyslam, or the way he and Spivey launch Kobashi with a backdrop and Stan is already falling on top of him with an elbow. Hansen and Spivey miss a tandem 3 point tackle into the ropes like two men who weren't expecting to hit the ropes, because Stan Hansen tis a man who has considered the concept of object permanence. Kobashi's pescado into Spivey hits flush. Hansen just beats the shit out of him. There's a really great sunset flip nearfall, where Ace does an unconvincing sunset flip and Hansen balances himself and starts knuckle punching Ace in the head, but Kobashi does a mountains-moving dropkick to send Hansen flying back into a close pin. He shuts that shit down swiftly and suddenly, putting Ace down hard on his back with a shoulderblock, backing into the corner as he calls for the Lariat. Kobashi screens into frame to save his dude and takes the absolute worst swinging hell arm to the nose, a fool of a man for startling a large blind man who never chooses Flight. Ace loses the match, but absorbs a comparatively polite lariat. 

Tracy Smothers/Bobby Eaton vs. Ricky Morton/Marty Jannetty Wrath Pro 2/18/07

MD: Speaking of glorious wrestling bullshit. This had Smothers on the mic to start (of course), with the usual threats to leave to get the fans chanting and then a great bit about having no heat with Morton. Tracy graciously said that if Ricky turned on Marty, he'd not only give him the right to ride with them, he'd give him five whole bucks. Morton didn't take the deal. That and Smothers making a show out of taking his shirt was the first ten minutes of the video.

Of all the various ways to watch and enjoy wrestling, there's only one that is unquestionably wrong: you can't quantify wrestling; if you're counting the number of kickouts or punches, you're doing it wrong. But you can speak about things more broadly in terms of time, especially in a narrative sense, sure, and with that in mind, I'd like to report that the next six minutes were Jannetty and Smothers goofing. Jannetty would get a takeover or reversal; Smothers would complain about the tights or the hair even if it made no sense given what actually happened; Jannetty would then do the move to the ref slowly to show him it was impossible. At one point he even had the ref do a counter on him to show him. It was six minutes well spent.

After some more stooging and clowning from Eaton and Smothers, they got about a minute of heat on Morton, before he came back and they went right to a double roll up and some more Smothers jawing including the singsong promise never to come back and yelling at everyone to go home. The entire video was around twenty-five minutes; 35 with ten more minutes of heat would have been preferable, but it's hard to complain too much about what we got given the venue and the age and filled out bump cards of the wrestlers involved. 

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Andre's Across the Street from the Embassy Suites

Andre the Giant vs. Mr. Fuji WWF Wrestling at the Chase 2/11/84 - FUN

ER: Man the Chase is a great venue to host Andre. Andre looks incredible in the Chase, like he shouldn't be working in a building that he can make look this small. I need to find and watch every match Andre ever worked in intimate venues. He looks downright joyful when he comes to the ring, bouncing and smiling his way through the crowd. Fuji does a great hide the weapon routine that works the crowd up into an absolute lather, with people standing and screaming at Fuji and the ref as Fuji kept hiding a packet of salt all over his person. Fuji shifts it from his hand to his tights to his armpit and back to his tights, and that fucking salt never even comes into play. I love it. Fuji is a real shit and it's fun watching Andre deal with a little shit. Fuji actually backs Andre into a corner with chops, nice karate thrusts to the throat, and unless you have a sling and some rocks, a thrust to the throat is maybe the most believable way to defeat a giant. It works for 15 seconds or so, and then Andre realizes he can cave in Fuji's chest with a single chop. He throws several great chops and Fuji gets knocked down more and more with each one. I loved the way Fuji sold them, falling deeper into the ropes with every chop. There are some great Andre spots, like Fuji running the ropes and running squarely into Andre's posterior, but before long Tiger Chung Lee gets on the apron and starts beating Andre with a stick. Fuji and Lee double team Andre with Lee just beating on him with that stick, and the crowd gets actually upset at all of this shit. Andre again realizes that he is a Giant and just wastes both of them with a noggin knocker, then Fuji and Lee each take big bumps to the floor getting tossed by Andre. This would be the last time Andre would ever wrestle at the Chase.  

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE ANDRE

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New Footage Friday: WWF on MSG 4/25/83

Mr. Fuji vs. SD Jones

ER: This match was quite fun and mainly notable for its EXCELLENT finish. I thought SD Jones was going to pull this one out (not an impossibility) as he hit two massive headbutts on Fuji. Fuji sold them in this fun knee-buckling way and Jones worked a real nice headbutt, grabbing Fuji's melon with both hands and rearing way back before safely whipping his head forward. The headbutts played as a nice payback for Fuji's great falling headbutts to SD's "midsection" earlier in the match. But just as I thought SD was going to get a newly seen win from 40 years prior, he comes off the ropes and Fuji powers him over with a super fast belly to belly suplex that made Fuji look like Yoshiaki Yatsu. 

Iron Mike Sharpe vs. Johnny Rodz

ER: I like this kind of brainlessly active 10 minute Garden undercard match, where Sharpe will complain about his announced weight (here he was announced at 282 but screams about how he's 292 "and all muscle") and then bumps around for Rodz' dropkicks and sunset flips. Rodz gets tangled in the ropes in a cool way to sell a strike, and I love how Rodz' fast tough guy shtick plays against Sharpe's dumb meathead shtick. There's a great moment at the end where Sharpe gets tied in the ropes like Andre and has to make a bunch of stupid faces while Rodz fires up MSG for an attack that never comes. Rodz is dancing around and doing a hammock routine over the corner ropes, and the whole time Sharpe has to stand there screaming while his arms are tied in ropes. When Rodz finally attacks he runs right into a boot, then Sharpe hits one of his trademark ugly straight arm lariats for the win. 

Ray Stevens vs. Tony Garea

ER: Stevens has a pretty disappointing list of matches in his lone consistent WWF run, really only staying for 6 months and matching up a lot against Strongbows and Garea. But this might be the most I've seen a wrestler do with the typical Garea undercard match. It's the same Garea match you've seen if you've ever bothered to see more than one Tony Garea match, but Stevens is so good that he knows how to sell and bump for Garea's side headlocks and dropkicks and headlock takeovers and surprisingly stiff shoulderblocks, basically working like Bill Dundee against a stiff. Stevens' movement and the way he throws punches and kicks really reminds me of Dundee too, and despite being 47 here was hardly washed. His bumps are interesting, not just flat back bumps, but throwing himself back into the ropes and really making it look like he's getting knocked around by Garea and his bad body shots. I really loved Stevens keeping Garea on the floor with pointed kicks and punches, with Garea bumping multiple times off the apron. It could have been really good if Garea had bladed, but Stevens really built it up nicely for a potential Garea comeback, and Garea's fast sunset flip (with Stevens really whipping himself over on it) looked like a finish. Strong nearfall. The actual finish was Garea hitting a crossbody but Stevens rolling through for a quick pin, leaving this great visual of Garea angrily storming around inside the ring while Stevens gets his hand raised from his back, just like in the Fuji/SD Jones match before it. Stevens looked really great here, great enough where I think there should be an actual list worthy 1983 WWF Stevens match. His 80s AWA career is written off due to a leg injury and age, but 1983 Stevens looked like a guy that would be one of my 2021 favorites. 

The Wild Samoans (Afa/Samula) vs. Chief Jay Strongbow/Jules Strongbow

ER: This is the TV debut of Samu (here as Samoan #3) and it's a real fun showcase for him and his speed. Both Strongbows work this with a fun energy, and with Samula doing big flat back bumps with every tomahawk chop, making the Chief look like a real fun lesser Wahoo. Samula took bumps like a man testing out a hotel mattress, leaping up and backwards like every chop was taking the legs out from him. He works the entire first fall without tagging in Afa, and his energy keeps bringing out a great active side of the elder Strongbow. Is Chief Jay Actually Good? This match seems to point to that, and I wouldn't have guessed there were really fun Jay Strongbow matches from 1983. The Indians win the first fall after eventually hitting a big double chop and Samula, and then do the same early in the second. Samula had already been taking big backsplash bumps and here he got to show off his high dropkick. Jay really leans in to take the double headbutt for the finish of the second fall, and I loved his staggered blinded selling of it when the third eventually began; it felt similar to how Lawler would woozily fight back while knocked out standing. It all builds to an amazing spot where Strongbow and Samula hit heads, but it sends Jay on an incredible backwards bump over the top to the floor. Chief Jay basically leapt backwards over the ropes and went tumbling down in a great bump. Both teams handle the hot tag in cool ways, with Jay falling flat backwards after a collision and landing close enough for Jules to fall in, and when Jules tags in and hits Samula with a hard overhand chop he flies backwards halfway across the ring and tags Afa and his flight. Afa's fast rope running cross up was a neat burst of speed for the sudden finish (which was handled a bit clunkily as Jay was breaking up the pin after the one count and the ref just ignored it). So, what's some recommended Chief Jay Strongbow? 

Rocky Johnson vs. Don Muraco

MD: Rocky Johnson is a guy that absolutely got it. We don't have a ton of him from the 70s, but when he pops into a territory like Houston or Portland, he has a larger than life energy that doesn't really get talked up enough. It's probably because most people know him from this run, and then more from 84 on than 83 back, but he's probably a wrestler that deserves more of a look. The first few minutes of this were picture perfect in that regard. Muraco came down in Steelers gear with Albano. Johnson wanted the mic to call Muraco "Brother" which apparently was part of the program here as that offended Muraco. Albano ate a headbutt, both of them got double noggin' knockered from the inside out. Johnson started with the slaps that led to punches and Muraco took a powder. Then they moved on to strength spots where Johnson just stopped Muraco's whips like they were nothing. All great stuff. All got a reaction. Muraco was stooging all over the place. The finish worked too. After some solid beatings by Muraco, Johnson came back and ultimately hit this amazing standing dropkick onto Muraco who was perched on the top to get the countout win. The big problem was a bizarre structural approach probably having to do with Muraco as a vulnerable champ. After that shine, they had Johnson lean on Muraco with a long chinlock instead of the other way around. If that was part of Muraco's control, with them moving in and out of it with hope spots, it wouldn't have wowed anyone, but it would have still worked given Johnson's level of being over and Muraco's heat with the crowd. Instead, everything just ground to a halt for a few minutes. Pretty bizarre. That's 80s New York for you. The rest of this was good though.


Bob Backlund vs. Ivan Koloff

MD: If you're someone who like Bob Backlund matches, this will probably be something of a lost gem for you. They were very well matched. Koloff was slimmer than his 70s WWWF run and we know that he was still very good at what he did from his run in Crockett over the next few years. Instead of leaning into forboding strength, he played up his canny, and they built slowly and gradually and with great payoff to Backlund's strength spots, specifically a lift up out of a full nelson reversal and the gotch lift out of the short arm scissors. Say what you will about Monsoon on commentary, but him dismissing so much that happened in the ring did make it matter all the more when he really put something over, as he did with these. He and Patterson were both calling them the most impressive feats imaginable. Backlund was very good at knowing when to be beat down or to sell the aftereffects of something and when to just shrug it all off and go up for the crowd. He got out of Koloff's big bearhug by pressing Koloff's head down low enough so he could launch a knee. I've never seen that before and I might not believe it from anyone else. That was the thing with Backlund. He was so deep into his own character that it had to be hard for the crowd to do anything but believe along with him. He followed up his escape with this amazing crumbling pile driver. They made too much of the slow counting ref in the back third, but it was a pretty solid finishing stretch with an exciting calf branding near fall and Koloff going to the well once too often to see a suplex reversed for the clean as a whistle finish. Between how well these two were matched and that the crowd was into it, even chanting USA at times, they could have definitely gotten more than one match out of this one.

Jimmy Snuka vs. Superstar Graham

MD: I wasn't going to watch this but it was 3 minutes long and I figure someone's interested. Snuka remained on the rise and Graham fed for him and took all of his stuff and got beaten clean in the middle of the ring in 3 minutes. He looked withered and terrible, of course, but this was an effective use of a former champion to further get over the molten babyface and build his credibility. Just a very giving performance by Graham while still being a pretty embarrassing one given how he looked and moved and the shoddy kung fu stuff that was mainly just waving his hands around.

Swede Hanson vs. Pedro Morales

ER: This was a cool little 4 minute match with a couple neat surprises. I really liked Swede Hanson's lock-up and headlock game, even if it doesn't always go anywhere. He's a really big guy and his size during lock ups and headlock sequences always makes me sit up a bit, like I'm not expecting a huge old guy to effectively scramble to maintain a front chancery. Morales breaks an early smothering headlock by working his way to a knee breaker, which is where that sudden scramble from Hanson comes from. Morales takes a huge backwards bump through the ropes to the floor off a strike from Swede, and looks like he hits the back of his head on the timekeeper's table while basically doing Harley Race's bump. Morales comes back eventually with some solid body shots but then catches knees on a charge, eating a great Hanson running kneedrop for a close nearfall (in what I thought was the finish). Hanson had hit a couple other nice kneedrops earlier, those old school worked knees that were worked and throw with the full shin. Morales wins with a small package, but if this got a couple more minutes it would have been a great Velocity match. 

Eddie Gilbert vs. Jose Estrada

ER: This was right before Gilbert's serious car accident and it's fascinating the kind of reactions Gilbert was getting as a young babyface in WWF. Gilbert looks and works like young babyface Portland Roddy Piper, throwing energetic corner punches and surprising Estrada with a Thesz press for a near win, and is getting the kind of crowd reaction that Owen never got in the early 90s in a similar role. Gilbert and Estrada have a fun chemistry, and I especially liked how Estrada kept cutting off Gilbert with a punch to the head or stomach. Sometimes Gilbert would charge in and jet get stopped by a punch to the guy, other times Estrada would actually pause a hold he was doing just to punch Gilbert, or punch Gilbert in the face right when Gilbert was working his way out of a hold (Gilbert starting to break a headscissors? Cut your losses and just punch him!). Estrada doesn't wrestle without scruples, but it sure makes him look smart to not cling to a failing hold. This is a show with a lot of really well done finishes, and this was no different: It's a quick bit of rope running where Gilbert tries to catch Estrada with an O'Connor Roll, but Estrada holds on and bumps Gilbert, then runs at Gilbert for his own sunset flip, which Gilbert rolls out of and falls into a double leg pin. 

Andre the Giant vs. Big John Studd

ER: This is actually a neat footnote of a match to appear, as Studd had to be Andre's most frequent opponent over his long career. Studd and Andre feuded for parts of a decade in WWF alone, and this was the first time this attraction had played New York. Studd/Andre would have been a big attraction here, and I love how Studd riled them up by throwing down a $10,000 challenge. This motherfucker was challenging 10K over bodyslams *this* early into their WWF feud? Studd just started at 10K and only went up to 15K by the end of the decade. More guys on the Indies should challenge people for the money in their pocket. But this is a big match, starts and builds like a big match, but has a cruel dismissive count out finish that gets actual garbage thrown in the ring in MSG. 

The story is minimalist but very satisfying. Andre gave Studd a few laughing one handed shoves when he got in the ring, and kept shooting Studd these great Kubrick stare death looks like "No, please, keep talking, let's see what happens." Studd throws punches aimed at Andre's left arm, and Andre is good enough to work a Sell the Arm match as the largest man in his sport in 1983. He throws clubbing punches at the side of Studd's head and neck, and throws heavy chops that physically move Studd when they connect (and they always connect). But Andre throws all of those strikes with his right arm, and is great at selling pain when Studd is working a Fujiwara and dropping weight onto the arm. Andre is great at keeping active in holds and reacting to micro movements and changes in Studd's leverage. I loved how Andre trying reaching back to grab Studd in a headlock with his free arm, with Studd tucking his chin so Andre couldn't hook it, but still having to get his face smothered by Andre's big arm. Studd really got knocked around by Andre's comeback, really getting moved by his strikes and taking a couple bumps falling through the ropes to the apron. But Studd's strikes also got louder the longer the match went, with one axe handle blow to Andre's back sounding like a gunshot. Andre rams Studd into the corner, using ass and shoulder, and all of Studd's strikes to fight for a breath look hard.  

There are two great bodyslam teases, with Studd really getting his hand buried to get Andre off a leg, and an even better one as the very finish to the match: Andre grabs Studd on the apron to bring him back in over the top with a bodyslam, and Studd blocks it by just hooking his feet around the top rope! Studd is holding on for dear life with his toes glued together, and when Andre can't pull him free he just drops Studd, then plops down leg and ass first on his chest. Studd roles out of the ring and Nopes his way right down the entrance way without looking back on time. Fans are furious, and it turns out this was the only Andre/Studd match that would ever be run at MSG. They deserved a bit better than that finish, but I really dug the match as a big early moment of a long feud. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE ANDRE

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New Footage Friday: Moondogs, Aoyagi, Mr. Fuji, State Patrol, Can Ams, Matsunaga

Moondogs/Mr. Fuji vs. Pedro Morales/Ivan Putski/Tony Garea WWF Kuwait 1983

ER: I loved this! I loved it so much I wound up watching it twice, back to back. That is the first time that has ever happened with any match involving Garea, Putski, Fuji, etc. But here it is and it's totally great. These Kuwait shows seem like an absolute blast from the wrestlers' perspective, as every old gag gets a gigantic reaction. The crowd responds huge to every single thing they're supposed to respond to, so we get a simple match with a ton of heat and rabid excitement for the simplest exchanges. Fuji is fantastic in this playing a great stooge. He gets his salt knocked out of his hands by Putski, pinballs around so he can get punched by all the faces a couple times, does some funny misdirection, scrambles on his knees to tag out, all the exact things this crowd wants to see. The faces don't need to do much, the fans are reacting to Fuji and the Moondogs (if that doesn't sound like a cool as hell Hanna-Barbera crime solving show I don't know what does) reacting to the faces. Putski has a lot of energy and the crowd rightfully reacts huge to all of his headlock punches, and I cannot imagine what they even thought of the round hairy Moondogs. Garea comes in and does a lot that one headlock that you've seen Garea do, but soon you got Rex holding him in a long as hell bearhug, building to that tag, and Kuwait warms my heart by getting so damn into this bearhug. It's beautiful. We get the Moondogs cutting off the ring and it's satisfying as hell, because you know the roof blows off the place when Garea finally tags in Putski. It wraps pretty quickly after this (all of the Kuwait matches we have end very suddenly on things that weren't typical finishers), but honestly they could have kept this up for 30 minutes. This was simple, insanely effective wrestling, and instantly became my favorite match I've seen of several of these guys.

PAS: Pretty fun to watch the crowd go absolutely bananas for really simple wrestling. Every time Putski throws hands they totally lose there shit. Moondogs and Fuji are fine as foils, and everything was executed well (outside of the finish which looked botched) This exact same match wouldn't work well in the Boston Garden, but in front of a crowd that hadn't seen all the shortcuts before it was a total blast.


Ryuma Go/Masahiko Takasugi vs. Masashi Aoyagi/Mitsuhiro Matsunaga Pioneer Senshi 1990

PAS: This is exactly what you want it to be. Go throws the prematch flowers at Aoyagi and gets met with a big spin kick and we are off. It feels ragged and unprofessional like the best Karate Gi matches do. Go bleeds early and Aoyagi bleeds in the middle of the match, and blood all over a Gi is still one of the coolest visuals in wrestling. The Go/Takasugi team is perfectly willing to deliver dangerous looking stomps to the back of the head. Really fun to watch young lion Matsunaga working as a Aoyagi dojo boy, what a weird career he had.

ER: I dug this, as I am going to do with a loosely constructed karate gi guys vs. trad pro wrestlers match. It took a little while to really get percolating, overcame some stumbliness from Matsunaga, and blossomed into a great mix of blood and shoot throws and unprofessional kicks. Go and Takasugi were the owners and headliners of Pioneer, and I love when a couple of karate goons kick the tar out of authority. I didn't really see how Aoyagi got busted open, but it's a real gusher, sending rivers down his chest and covering his face, and around this time Aoyagi and Matsunaga start really taking things out on Go. I really liked the Aoyagi/Matsunaga dynamic, with Matsunaga throwing off balance kicks and kind of getting in over his head, occasionally getting his leg worked over or picked up and slammed hard, with Aoyagi always coming in to save him by kicking Go or Takasugi in the head, and Go especially takes the messy end of these kicks. I love those moments in Aoyagi matches where he violently kicks someone to the floor, always landing one of his hardest kicks in the match and then shoving someone unceremoniously to the ground with both feet.


State Patrol vs. The Can Am Express AJPW 6/4/91

ER: This was a good match, but not as great as the match I had built up in my head. This didn't quite have the cohesion or build that the greatest AJ tag discoveries have, and doesn't seem to ramp up as much as it should. It's a 18 minute match that feels more like they were pacing out 27 minutes, so we somehow get a ton of action while also feeling that we got things cut short. We don't have a lot of State Patrol in All Japan even though they did several tours. They were a team I always loved in WCW and feel like part of a whole wave of WCW guys who got overshadowed at the time by people who liked Benoit, Regal, and Malenko, even though undercard guys like Buddy Lee Parker or Gambler or even Vincent were working similar, or complementary styles at the same time to much less acclaim. So here's the State Patrol against one of the thee tape trading teams of the 90s. Kroffat/Furnas were an incredible on paper team who didn't always deliver their on paper potential, but always had a high floor due to the unique athletics of both men.

Tom Magee is a guy getting talked about a lot now, which is funny for several reasons, one of which (that I haven't seen discussed) is that Tom Magee's ceiling was Doug Furnas. We have 10-15 years of Furnas footage out there that was hot at the time but nobody cares about now, where you can see every positive Magee trait executed by a guy who was as good as he was gonna get. Furnas got effortless height on leapfrogs and could snap off a few press slams like it was nothing. Tom Magee was never going to be Hogan and it's foolish if anybody ever actually said that. It's unfair and stupid when current baseball prospects get compared to Mike Trout. There is zero chance of that happening. But Doug Furnas was cool and he's the best possible Magee. State Patrol are two guys who can work stiff and dish back, and so are the Can Ams, so at minimum you knew you were gonna get a couple hard forearm shots, a couple tough suplexes, and a couple nice double teams. We got it all and it was good.

James Earl Wright is a fun guy who got even less exposure than Buddy Lee Parker, as he never had that "Power Plant Trainer" fame like Buddy Lee. But Wright was damn good and threw himself into offense really well (always taking high backdrops and fast suplex bumps) but also committing to his own offense. He throws low fast clotheslines and I love the State Patrol's forearm/German suplex spot. Both guys do nice elbow drops which is a favorite move of mine that has been slowly phased out without anybody noticing the past decade. Kroffat throws a mean sidekick and fastest possible snap suplex, Furnas hits hard pivot belly to bellys, we get a cool misdirection into the finish with State Patrol hitting a top rope shoulderblock to each other when Kroffat flips out of a suplex, and the crowd did keep getting louder. But I think these teams have even better in them, so I'm left merely smiling that I got to see them fight at all.

PAS: I actually think Eric is underrating this, which is surprising because this is the sort of thing I would expect him to overrate. This was just a tightly worked powerhouse tag match, the kind of thing you might expect from a great Stieners match. State Patrol landed everything with a thud, especially great work from James Earl Wright, who was throwing heat, great looking lefty lariats, big elbow drops, nice forearms. That forearm/German suplex double team was completely awesome and should be stolen by a half a dozen indy wrestling teams right now. Loved watch Furnas stretch out and show off, and his Frankenstiener finish looked about as good as that move has ever looked.

MD: This is from a stacked show, stacked enough that I thought about pressing us to review the whole thing. Instead, we'll fill in gaps with the five, or so, key matches over the next year. The context matters. On the one hand, yes, this is part of the AJPW handhelds, and part of a great show in specific. On the other hand, this is the State Patrol. I don't think it could ever live up to what was in Eric's head, unfortunately.

This is a really cool Worldwide main event about five years before its time and with twice the room to breathe. All the little things worked well. Kroffat and Wright had an especially good bit of matwork. The State Patrol moved in and out of the ring really well, just somehow always in the right place at the right time against two opponents they probably hadn't faced off against too often. They cut off the ring well, allowing for a very effective face-in-peril run for Furnas.

We knew a lot of that already though. What the match has as well are some crazy State Patrol double teams (that German/forearm looked great), rapid fire elbow drops, Buddy Lee Parker rope-walking successfully, and some fairly complex bits of positioning on tandem spots. Where I'm with Eric is that I was left wanting more.

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