Found Footage Friday: LOS BRAZOS~! LAWLER~! REDD DOGG~! EDDY~! REY~! JBL~! hhh~!

Humberto Garza Jr/Principe Franky/Tigre Universitario vs. Los Brazos Monterrey 4/24/94

MD: Tecnico vs tecnico encounter with the Brazos vs locals. Pretty much as fun as it sounds. First two falls were a blast. Franky matched up with Brazo, Tigre with Oro, and Garza with Porky. Then they switched it around in the segunda. Primera had a couple of exchanges each with matwork/chain wrestling leading into rope running in the second. It all hit for me. Then Porky accidentally splashed his brothers and celebrated and they argued and hugged and you've seen it dozens of times and it always works. In the segunda, there was a bit more animosity due to a Brazos kick and this time around a stumbling but spectacular Porky splashed all three off the top to even the falls up.

Tercera had them trade holds (but not really break them up, which was interesting). There was a nice Porky/Franky exchange in there where Porky hit a couple of big power moves before stretching him a bit. He could have been an absolute killer in another world. Then they cycled into the tandem spots, like La Estrella with the associated 'rana, and back and forth leglocks where everyone got involved. After simultaneous pins. things got pretty exciting between Oro and Garza (I think, look, it's far away and blurry) before they pinned one another. There was a great nearfall where the Brazo got a killer grounded punch countering a pin attempt. But the fans, who were chanting for their locals the whole way through, got to see then go to a draw with the larger than life stars at least. Any new Brazos is immediately worth watching. 

ER: I don't know if there's anything that makes me happier than the words New Super Porky Handheld. Handhelds are my favorite kind of wrestling, the difference between a great soundboard recording or a great recording from the pit, and they can each reveal such different things about a match. It turns a match into a completely different experience, putting you inside a crowd to see what they're seeing. Super Porky is one of our greatest handheld wrestlers ever; he's a man whose case as a mega star legend grows more and more with every new Los Brazos handheld over a 15 year stretch. Early 90s house show Porky was a force of nature, the ultimate babyface who felt like a genuine cultural phenomenon. It's fitting that Principe Franky comes out to Selena's "Amor Prohibido". I don't think I've ever considered comparing Brazo de Plata to Selena, but whenever I see Super Porky working to god level reactions in some LA high school gym, it feels like the same kind of cultural secret. One broke mainstream for the saddest reason, one became the weirdest and completely botched WWE signing ever.     

Porky is a master entertainer, a legend who works every reaction from a packed Monterrey arena that on tape looks stacked with German Expressionist angles. Porky works just another match where every single movement gets a great reaction. It's like when Elvis is cracking jokes during the late night set at the International and he's actually funny and deserves laughs, in front of a crowd who would also love him if his jokes were bad. Porky has that charisma and as much variety in strong material. 

All three Brazos looked strong, all match. Brazo de Oro is a high end great matwork guy who hasn't survived as a referenced name when discussing great mat workers. This is a long match and his gas tank through long match filling-while-engaging fast matwork was a highlight. Brazo is a consistent treat in the handhelds, for the brother who became the least worker by the 2000s he's a great fusion of Oro with a meaner streak. But everyone is there on their Sunday afternoon to go nuts for every riff Porky takes off with. When he splashes his brothers to end the first fall, you can tell the buzz in the crowd is caused by them all being familiar with the branching ways the aftermath could go. Los Brazos are so good at playing off learned material, expanding on regular spots and adding punchlines. As his brothers approached him, I was so giddy waiting for Brazo to smack Porky, and for Porky to shed wounded tears to squealing admirers, that I actually squealed when Oro pecked his brother was a soft kiss. Prime Brazos didn't ever miss. 

Have we all seen Super Porky actually getting STUCK under the bottom rope as a routine? My memory is terrible so forgive me if I've come to this conclusion on several Porky matches before but I'd like to think my declining brain would retain the image of Porky's big round butt hung up on the bottom rope like a crawling toddler held in place by his diaper. The referee ran over to him, freeing him so lovingly. He reworks the spot after the confusing and disappointing finish, where everyone is waiting for him to get back in the ring and he gets stuck trying to roll in. Nobody leaves the arena when the match is over, 1/4 of this link is just a packed arena celebrating Super Porky, lingering, drawing out poses so they can listen to the entirety of "Amor Prohibido", then only one month old. Undeniable.   

Jerry Lawler vs. Redd Dogg WWE 10/22/02 - GREAT

MD: Richard Land posts Raw and Smackdown feeds every month and usually that gives us a dark match with Steve Bradley or Scott Vick or someone, which is fine but not usually worth covering. This was in Memphis holding court against Jerry Lawler vs the future Rodney Mack. That's worth covering, even if it only went around five minutes.

Maybe I'm biased but this was very good. Dogg slammed Lawler to start and Lawler shot him a look and the Jerry chants started. Dogg did it again and howled. Then he hit a back body drop and was really feeling it, right until he went for another and the punches started. Lawler finished it with his own body slam and dropkick which Dogg sold by rolling to the outside and having a fit and the crowd went up big for all of this of course. 

They followed with rope running and Lawler caught himself on the criss-cross and strutted, and I wonder how many indie matches he did that in over that three month period. He dodged a corner charge and hit a nice bulldog and pointed to Dogg who sold it as the fans chanted again. Mack probably deserved to get a spot out of this one as he was playing into everything very well. He took over with a nice punch in the corner (selling his hand) but Lawler got his knees up on a splash and then dropped the strap in the most self-aware, funny way possible. This was a ritual celebration and at this point turned into a ritual slaughter Punches, mare, second rope fistdrop and Lawler could go back to greeting everyone at ringside as if they were old friends and kissing babies (well, maybe let's not).

ER: For as much time as he actually spent in WWF, there is so little Lawler match footage that I get excited anytime something like this turns up. Lawler is an excellent short match worker and every four minute Lawler match provides insight into who he was as a worker. This is a cool situation to see him work. He was far from a WWE regular in 2002 - his year saw him work three TV matches, two dark matches, and two house show tags - and here he gets to work as hometown legend vs. a larger, almost complete unknown who had been working house shows and dark matches. It's a great spot for Redd Dogg to be in, too, as he gets an opponent to sink his teeth into, someone who the crowd really wants to see succeed for them. To this point he'd only been in dark matches teaming opposite Charlie Haas, or working Batista on house shows. Against Lawler, in Memphis? Suddenly he has an actual canvas. 

I really loved the surprised reaction Lawler got, people excitedly rising to their feet when they realized Lawler would be wrestling, not doing commentary. Actually, it is really odd seeing him wrestling in a Smackdown ring. Have I seen Lawler wrestling on Smackdown? What is this Velocity? That never happened. I'm sure I saw some nothing Lawler match on Smackdown, but Lawler coming out to the Velocity color scheme is new, and gives this match some unidentified energy. 

This is only a few minutes, but few are better than Lawler at setting up a short story with payoffs. Was Bobby Eaton still employed by the company? Anyway, Lawler takes early match bodyslams that lead to his own later match bodyslams, he takes a dark match back body drop - I thought Redd Dogg set it up way too close to the ropes when he shot him in, but Lawler found a way to take a great one anyway - and the next time Dogg dropped his head for one Lawler dropped to a knee to punch him. The more Lawler makes his way into the match, the more the crowd reacts with glee, perhaps none more than when Lawler holds the ropes on a criss cross and floats into a Fargo strut like he was Fred Astaire. I knew I'd be rewinding any fistdrops that would be occurring, but I didn't expect to watch Lawler maneuver his way into a Fargo strut a half dozen times. I watched it frame by frame, watching his feet, watching how he hit the ropes and spun those feet lithely into place, strut locked into a groove. I'm happy we got a classic Lawler ugly dropkick, lest I feel the need to use the word "lithe" again. 

Redd Dogg's two big pieces of offense were two excellent right hands in the corner. I don't remember Rodney Mack having such great shutdown right hands, the kind of punch you only have to throw once or twice, like Chuck Palumbo's. Lawler's selling of the two punches, especially the second one that drops him to a knee and sends a hand to his jaw, feeling for any breaks. Loved how Redd Dogg shook out his fist after the second one, perhaps in reaction to Lawler's selling, perhaps because he knew what a great looking punch it was. As the rules state, anyone who shakes their fist out after a decent punch is automatically a very good wrestler. I've yet to find anyone who shakes their fist out while still looking like a bad wrestler, but I am excited for whomever eventually forces me to break that rule. 

It's WWF, so it was no guarantee that Lawler made a comeback in his hometown, but when he does we get yet another variety of strap drop: The crowd all knew the strap was about to be dropped, Lawler knew they knew and held up a finger waiting for their patience (the same way he held up a finger while in a side headlock, before backdropping Andy Kaufman), because he wanted to make sure Redd Dogg was looking right at him when the strap came down. Lawler waited to meet Redd Dogg's eyes, the way Stone Cold would get down into someone's face and blast the double middles straight into their eyes. Lawler finishes him with a bolo punch fistdrop from the middle buckle that lands so beautifully I watched it a half dozen times, just like the Fargo strut. Lawler shook out that arm the whole flight and if you didn't know what a Lawler fistdrop was you'd swear he just sent a fist into Redd Dogg's forehead as hard as he could. 

Undertaker/Batista/Rey Mysterio vs. Triple H/Eddy Guerrero/JBL WWF 7/19/05

MD: The biggest appeal of these dark matches is always to see wrestlers interact. I immediately want to see what JBL and Eddy teaming in 05 looks like, right? After their feud the year before. Our first image instead, however, is Triple H standing across from Rey and Batista flexing and Undertaker doing the throat cut, Rey in the middle, telling him he better damn well get out there and be David to a dubious Goliath. Apparently there was never a Rey vs Trips singles match. Seems like a huge oversight on his part as Rey would have made him look as good as anyone, right? This would have been the first time they ever faced off. 

So what happens? Triple H gets down on his hands and knees, begs off as a joke, punches the air like he was facing Little Beaver, and then Rey dropkicks him. Triple H sells it huge, sprawls out all over the place...

... and the fans start chanting Eddie Sucks. The Career of Triple H in a nutshell. 

Then the match goes from ridiculous to sublime as Eddy makes faces and tags in, the fans go nuts, and he immediately tags out to a scar-ridden JBL. JBL gets a shit eating grin, happy to be facing off against Rey, and then just as he gets in, Rey tags off to the Undertaker. JBL turns right back around, tags Eddy, and then he and Triple H take a powder, leaving Eddy in there with Taker.

The thing is, Triple H has to go along with it. He can't push against the heat here. He can undercut a babyface or someone with a political power disparity but he can't undercut Eddy. So after things cycle around to Eddy and Rey, and Eddy begs off and hugs Trips, all he can do is act like second banana to Shawn again and take the groan shot from Eddie's head as Rey runs over and slams it. Triple H is a survivor. 

For some reason, the crowd sweetening seems to go wild after that (even though it's a dark match) but they run a spot where Rey pulls down Triple H's pants and he runs around the ring, dragging Rey on the mat behind him, so obviously he knew what he was up against here. Then, during the ensuing Triple H/Batista "pec-off", JBL comes in posing like Road Warrior Animal and they all give him "too much, cut it out" expressions while he walks out of the ring with a kicked puppy face. Half the effort for at least an equal result.

(And yes, when Trips and Batista finally have an exchange and Batista clotheslines him over the top, the Eddie Sucks chants start anew).

Both Batista and Taker let themselves slip under a bit and then came back only for Rey to get caught in the fallaway slam by JBL. They worked him over on the outside, including a moment of JBL leaping over the rail as Taker got close. The crowd sweetening started up again, a wave of someone hitting the button every few seconds and it was pretty maddening. And so confusing. This is a dark match from 20 years ago! What the heck.

After some pretty solid cutoffs... look, when this dropped, I joked to Eric we'd get to see Triple H landing on a boot after a flying nothing and then staring at the lights for a minute before flopping. I was kidding. I shouldn't have been. That's what sets up the last burst against Eddy and the hot tag. Thankfully, it's not quite a minute, and it was made better by JBL trying to talk to Triple H through it, but, that's it for me. I'm out. Maybe Eric will mention Triple H taking everyone's finish or taking one last scare bump for Taker. Maybe he'll mention the drama of Taker milking a handshake to Batista and a fist bump to Rey. Me? I'm moving on to the next match.

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Found Footage Friday: 1998 IWA MID-SOUTH TV~! BULL PAIN~! IAN~! TRAILER PARK~! DUNN~! FAIRWAY~! SMOTHERS~!

MD: We don't usually do full episodes of TV but four episodes of 1998 IWA Mid South TV have popped up and they're full of matches. We'll do the first two now and double back for the rest later.

IWA Mid-South Hardcore TV 1/31/98

Steven Dunn (with Kenny Bolin & Rico Beatty) vs. Bobby Martin

MD: Super competent TV squash. I wasn't expecting comfort food on this thing, but here it was. I kept waiting for Dunn to pull Martin up instead of just lackadaisically covering him and I was happy when he finally did. The hope was fairly minimal as it should be. Really this was just a mauling with one power move after the next. Even when we see a squash on ROH TV now it doesn't quite look like this. It's either more rushed or more 50/50. On a show with a ton of matches, this had time to breathe. It's supposed to feel just a little excessive (but not too excessive). That's how Dunn gets heat. When Jones fast-counted at the end, I wasn't sure if it was a heel move or a bit of mercy for Martin.

ER: Strongly worked squash from Steven Dunn. Look at Dunn getting on the gear after WWF, just in time for All Japan and eventually the Derby Sports Arena. He looks great. He looks like geared up Jim Powers but everything he does is better than the best thing geared up Jim Powers could do (running clothesline?). Dunn is dominant and keeps it moving the whole time, giving us a full 5 minute squash without filling time by trash talking the audience. Dunn throws great punches, stomps Martin's hands, pokes the man in the eyes when he's on his knees, despicable tough guy stuff. The escalation of everything was strong, including the way he slowly worked Martin into the match. Martin gets punched in the head trying a sunset flip and I assume that's the most "offense" he would get, until Dunn runs into a boot in the corner. Then runs into it again. Then again. I'm not sure I've ever seen that. Dunn just kept running into that boot, like a guy still playing paper when his opponent only throws rock. Great gag to work Martin into the match, and Martin looks good punching Dunn across the ring. I also love that Dunn finished the match almost right after, dropping to his knees with a powerbomb to stop a rana attempt. 

IWA Mid-South Television Title Three Way: Chip Fairway (c) vs. Cash Flo (with Billy The P) vs. Rollin' Hard 

MD: I will give Thatcher credit. On commentary, he was pushing the idea of variety hard, noting that Dunn had worked a more 70s/80s classic style and here he was pushing that each of these three worked a different style. And it more or less worked as a promotional tool. I bought into it at least. I'd say this overachieved but only because I had my doubts coming in. It's still a three-way. Rollin' had some issues hitting some things and there was weird leg selling that felt almost legit and then went away in the middle. The alliances shifted though Flo and Chip worked against Rollin more often than not. They always betrayed one another and came back to it. Rollin felt like a de facto face at best. I'm not sure the crowd was ever particularly behind anyone here. They did keep things moving. The TV title felt like it was being used to highlight these younger guys with less time in the business and this was champ vs two former champs. Chip won it by hitting a cheapshot off the top after Flo hit the Alabama Jam. Like I said, despite some issues, it probably overachieved but in a very "all things considered" sort of way.

ER: I enjoyed this a lot even if the match structure is brutally bad. Three ways stink, for reasons on vivid display, namely the last half of a too long match (why did this go 15 minutes!?) comprised of constant pinfall break ups and pins for things that would never win a match. Rollin' Hard has the most in ring experience of the three and looks like he has the least. Hard was such dead weight, it's hilarious. He cannot get up for anything. It takes Chip working with Cash just to get Rollin' over for a back body drop, which has no lift whatsoever. This man would not float in the Dead Sea. 

The big takeaway here is what a phenom Chip Fairway was just a few months into his career. This match would have somehow been much worse as a singles match between Flo and Hard, as Fairway does his best to glue this growing mess together. It probably wouldn't have been a mess had it gone 8 minutes instead of 15, but it goes 15 and desperately needs Fairway. He's a great bumper, great at taking offense, great at working hard heel offense, honestly looks like someone with as much polish as anyone on this show who worked in major feds. He bumps hard to the floor, and when he makes his way back in he does an expertly timed low bridge that sends Cash over the top backwards. His bumps have great punch to them, jumping into the impact, not overselling after hitting the mat, just focusing on the impact. 

Fairway has better stomps than anyone working on US TV right now, and his lariat to Cash was finisher worthy. When he breaks up a pin (and there are a lot of broken up pins!) he's the only one making it look like he's using the opportunity to land a shot on one of his opponents. He throws great lefty punches with snap, his chops have loud sound and louder impact. He reminded me a lot of Adam Priest, only larger and wrestling in a t-shirt. The finish itself looked great, even if the several minutes leading us there were not. Cash Flo's Alabama Jam looked fantastic, and Fairway getting the win by breaking up Flo's pin with a top rope elbowdrop across the back of the head looked like a real finish. 

We've written about a lot of IWA Mid-South, but I don't know that we've written about Fairway before now. We should do that more often. 

Paul Diamond vs. Adam Flash

MD: Diamond felt about equivalent to Dunn so it made sense that they were on a collision course of sorts. He still had a lot of gas in the tank though, even if it was used in odd ways at times. Flash took much more of this than the guy in the opener and even won it after Dunn interfered (and a fast count from Jones; so not mercy in the first match). They kept it mostly tight with arm drags and hip tosses and reversals. Flash hit a low dropkick at one point and Diamond a pumphandle slam for a nearfall. He also hit this pretty bizarre back leap off the top into what I think was supposed to be a DDT but just sort of flattened Flash instead. Still, for the most part, Diamond looked like he belonged on TV and if he was on a card in 1998 I'd probably shrug and say sure, I'd go see him.

ER: I didn't like this as much as the Dunn squash, but it had similar strong qualities. I actually think Steven Dunn had more major fed potential than Diamond, but Diamond had the height that Dunn didn't and wrestled more like a heavyweight. Dunn worked a strong Memphis style and had an excellent sense of pacing. Paul Diamond wrestles more like a late 90s heavyweight like Wrath-but smaller, for the good and bad that entails. He had great force on his backbreaker and his awesome corner crescent kick hung on Flash's body. That corner spin kick is my favorite piece of Jerry Flynn's offense, Diamond's looked just as good. Flash was starting to gain confidence, getting the timing of his punches down and too afraid to throw them from distance, but I remember him eventually becoming a guy I liked rather than Not Good Kidman. 

Tracy Smothers vs. GQ Masters III (with Kenny Bolin)

MD: Smothers, unsurprisingly, looked like a million bucks. Bolin came out to start to work with Masters on a trial basis, more to get at Smothers than anything else. Bolin was all over the show, of course. Tracy was babyface and had a few FBI gestures but was mainly just his walking on water Southern Boy self. Masters got in a bit after a racket shot in the corner but Smothers cameback with an awesome flurry of offense, winning it with his cool fall forward cradle slam that I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone else really do. Looked great though. Bolin was foiled on this day. 

ER: Damn you talk about underrated guys we haven't written enough about, GQ Masters is an underrated guy that I love. I don't even know that he worked a hundred matches, he was just incredible at getting in there and taking a stooging ass kicking. I think this whole match could have been worked with Smothers just standing in the dead center of the ring, because GQ kept rushing headlong into everything, then would get his ass kicked and scramble to the ropes every time. When Bolin finally hit Smothers in the knee with the racket, GQ got to punch Smothers across the ring, and had that same excited look on his face like when Duane Gill would land something before getting his neck crunched with a DDT. GQ sold that DDT like Tenryu, neck damaged but the top of his hairline still smarting from the impact. Smothers has a tremendous belly to belly and really rag dolls Masters on his finishing slam. Masters just had a great knack for making offense painful. I wish GQ Masters III was someone who was wrestling now, in a place where I could book him to throw punches and get his ass beat, the way wrestling should be. 

Shark Boy vs. Mad Man Pondo

MD: Pondo bumped all over the ring for Shark Boy for the first few minutes. I don't think it actually served either of them because it didn't feel earned. There was no resistance to it. No weight to any of it. I get why they did it as it was almost all Shark Boy for a minute or two before Pondo nailed him off the top with the stop sign for the win. Still, it was one of those cases where doing what intuitively led to making Shark Boy good actually didn't make him look as good as if he had to earn it.  

ER: I cannot believe Shark Boy took 90% of the match while sporting the most low budget indy ass look in indy wrestling. The whole time I was waiting for Pondo, this dirtbag ass looking superstar, to kick this jabrone's ass and instead it was all Shark Boy offense. Shark Boy hit a clothesline that landed much harder than I expected for a guy who was much smaller than Pondo. He had a nice elbowdrop, nice punch, but did not have enough material - or size - to run so much of the match. I don't think Pondo landed a single piece of offense, just hit Shark Boy with a stop sign and needed a Jeff Jones fast count to win. Why was Shark Boy being presented so strong? He had no look to speak of and looked more like a non-wrestler who was wearing someone's leftover tights, but they worked this like Hogan vs. The Genius, only with freaking Mad Man Pondo in the Lanny Poffo role. 

Axl Rotten vs. Trailer Park Trash

MD: "Trash a long wiry wrestler" as Thatcher let us know. It is fun that Thatcher has to say Trailer Park or Trailer Park Trash over and over. Axl is pretty over here. Trash does a good job taking a punch (or even teasing it) and running. Solid heatseeking before he can get a cheapshot. When he's leaning on him, the crowd's happy to chant Axl. Pretty smart match for this crowd overall. Trash almost looks too together and with it, more like a perfect slimy used car salesman than a guy called Trailer Park Trash. He misses an Alabama Jam (which is probably not something he should be doing if it's Cash Flo's big move) and Axl hits a great reverse exploder that probably has a name I should know but don't. Then Pondo hits the ring and Ian makes the save and this all builds to something bigger.

ER: Talk about a trend, us not writing about underrated guys who we should be writing exclusively about, because Trailer Park Trash - like GQ Masters, like Chip Fairway - also perfectly fits. TPT is a perfect Wrestler-as-Bad Boyfriend, getting his ass whooped around the trailer park after coming home too late too drunk. He's wiry, he's not so much a scumbag, he just looks like a good ol boy who loves watching The Intimidator and hates pretty boy racers like Daryl Waltrip. He is an excellent stooge, but I appreciate the ways Rotten sold for him (even before I knew they were setting up a tag for next week). Rotten hit the turnbuckles and rolled away holding his back so convincingly that he looked like a guy with a slipped disc. 

The post-match was excellent and made me - and anyone watching I assume - excited to see the tag next week. This is how you set up a hot match in one quick angle. Ian comes out to beat Pondo's ass around ringside while Trailer Park beats Axl in the ring. When Trailer Park Trash is throwing mounted punches at Axl's face, he looks like the best wrestler on these shows, which are filled with great wrestlers. Ian shoves Pondo into the ringpost and swings a chair off his head right one foot away from some teenagers. Ian looks like a damn fighter in the brawl, to the point where his punches and arm strikes look more damaging than his unprotected chairshot.  

IWA Mid-South Hardcore TV 2/7/98

Loser Leaves Town For 30 Days: Steven Dunn (with Kenny Bolin & Rico Beatty) vs. Paul Diamond

MD: On paper, at least, this show gave a bunch of payoffs to the previous one, so that's great. Honestly, this would have been really good with an extra five minutes. I think either in shocking people or leaning into the times or just protecting Diamond in the loss, they just completely left out the heat. Dunn ran to start and caught Diamond as he came back into the ring but between that and the false finishes after a ref bump, that was it. Diamond took over quickly and hit a bunch of stuff (a dangling kick to the gut followed by an inverted atomic drop, that move he tried the previous week off the second rope (it's a twisting bulldog, not a DDT), a spin wheel kick in the corner, and even chairshots on the outside (which blunted the finish because why should we care about Bolin/Beatty interfering if he can just do that?). Then the ref bump, a false finish after Diamond got Beatty and a phantom Pin after Bolin hit Dunn by accident (and the spin wheel kick), before the powder and the DDT on the chair to send Diamond packing for 30 days. There was a great conventional match in here, or even a heated no DQ match, but unfortunately, we're in February 1998.

ER: You know this was going to be hot because Diamond waits the entirety of Van Halen's "Right Now" piano intro before running out during the guitar intro, and the music shuts off like 5 seconds into the guitar intro because it's not a very big building and Diamond runs to the ring pretty fast. Kenny Bolin looked great last week in his black Member's Only jacket but the white Member's Only looks incredible this week. I'm with Matt that part of this seems to be worked No DQ but acknowledging that would make other parts of the match meaningless, so it's those loose ECW rules where Anything Goes but also we want to get heat with interference and traditional comebacks so we just have to compartmentalize things, focus on all the good parts about the work. Like, the way Diamond stops short of a Dunn leapfrog and punches him upon Dunn's landing, or how Dunn didn't want to just take out the referee, he dropped an elbow right on the back of his neck. I will always love a ridiculous powder finish. Salt in the eyes works so well, but powder leaves the ring looking like a building was just imploded. Dunn throws powder and DDTs Diamond on a chair, and the ref crawls over to make the count while the ring looks like the aftermath of the Onita/Funk exploding cage match. 

Flash Flanagan (with Kenny Bolin & Rico Beatty) vs. Adam Flash

MD: This was pretty well put together with a couple of solid transitions, the hope spots you'd expect, and a good finish. Flanagan looked crisp in mostly everything he did. (Adam) Flash did not, which did hurt this. Still pretty good overall though. They had some nice kip up bits in the feeling out. Flash took over with the high octane stuff including a dive. Flanagan caught him in the corner with a power bomb and then really went to work with measured offense. The ropes (which he used a few times to choke) seemed... best way I can explain it is that the covering for the rope was too long for the rope/cable itself so it was bunched up at points that gave the ring a permanent look of distortion. I've rarely seen ring ropes like that before. Anyway, Flanagan went for a flipping legdrop and Flash moved. Then he went for a big moonsault and missed allowing Flanagan to hit his back leap neckbreaker, which was pretty slick actually. This felt, again, very much of its time, with someone polished up against some eager and the two of them trying to find some sort of middle ground that worked.

ER: Not great, but how else is Adam Flash going to learn? This feels like something stupid we would book for a DEAN~! show, entertaining ourselves by getting two of wrestling's Flashes into a match and then it's just a 12 minute match where one guy is over their skis. If we do a Bay Area show I'm not sure it's worthwhile to put Cheerleader Melissa under her Alyssa Flash persona, and if we book Scorpio it won't make sense to use him as Flash Funk. AEW didn't let use use Sting under his Blade Runner persona, so we're left with Flash Flanagan vs. Adam Flash and it's fine. 

Flash is just a bit too tentative in a lot of his offense, like he has good intentions but he's too scared to actually hit someone in the chest with a dropkick, too scared he's going to make a misstep, too scared he's going to throw a potato so he throws his punches with the shortest windup possible. A 10+ minute match with a tentative opponent needs a guy like Flanagan in there running things, making things make sense, bumping big for Flash when it's appropriate. Flash was good at working around Flash's shortcomings. Flash was hitting bad standing dropkicks all match, so I appreciated that Flash makes him miss a bad one and it leads directly to him transitioning to offense. When Flash hits the most tentative jackknife pin I've seen, Flanagan uses it to roll to his feet into a sick powerbomb. Also, for as bad as Flash's standing dropkicks looked, his seated dropkick and a kind of nuts one he did off the apron were much better. This is IWA Mid-South, you can hit guys! 

I like how Flanagan's offense is good at setting him up for potential misses, as he escalates moves he's already established. He hit a nice legdrop off the middle buckle for 2, and later he escalates by attempting a big somersault legdrop off the top (looks like it was nice and squared up, too). I don't know that Flanagan needed to take such a high back body drop for a guy like Adam Flash, but he's a pro. It's appropriate that Flash missed his moonsault. Chalk it up to those janky ring ropes Matt mentioned. You truly have not seen ropes like this before. It's like every inch of the ropes was fighting to get out of its casing, so the ropes were all twisted and took strange right angles. They looked like our old rotary dial phone cord, which was 20' long and impossible to uncoil. 

IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Title: Bull Pain (with Billy The P) (c) vs. Tracy Smothers

MD: Another good one with some goofy booking at the end. Watching Smothers, especially after a certain point in his career, is always engrossing, always engaging. He has a way of just being constant motion, of redefining how we think of action. He does a bunch of relatively tricked out offense (Reverse DDT, Flatliner of sorts, his pump handle front slam, the jumping superkick), but that's not what I mean. He has that Roddy Piper ants-in-his-pants way of just never stopping. He never stands still. He never primes up and waits for the next thing. He never thinks of his next spot. He's just always fluid. There's also something he does that I never quite noticed until now but feels so unique: Most people will do a ten punch or strike exchange with the same hand over and over, but he switches sides. It's so visually different from everyone else. 

Pain made for a good foil for him. We're in an era where if you put your head down, you'll get power bombed instead of kicked and that was the transition with Tracy having to fight his way back (and get cut off a couple of times with belly to back suplexes). Finish was all about Billy the P feuding with Bolin. Pain went for a Superplex and Bolin held Tracy's legs. They went another minute or two before Tracy won the belt. Billy the P then went on the mic and said that Tracy shouldn't win that way and they restarted the match leading to Tracy's leg getting grabbed and Bull hitting the DDT. Big problem with it was that they worked a normal finishing stretch after the interference the first time. It made it seem like Tracy did earn it. If they had gone to the finish more quickly you could have bought it all more maybe? That's part of the point I guess.

ER: What a monster of a Bull Pain performance. I love Tracy, he was one of those guys who I sought out just about every match of his until the man passed. New Tracy was something I would always try to watch. But Bull Pain shows up and he's such a merciless ass kicker that he brings even more of the IWA-MS flavor that I want, even more than Tracy. Bull Pain is the quintessential IWA wrestler, because he throws so much force behind every kick, every punch, every chop and every blistering arm strike...but will also work abdominal stretch top rope leverage horseshit and take a crazy back body drop bump on the floor to start the match. He's nuts, he hits hard, he'll waste you with a falling clothesline if you run into his boot. 

He's great at taking Smother's best offense. Smothers had a big offensive tool bag and wasn't always in with guys who could take it well. I mean that for simple things and complicated things. Tracy's corner 10 count punches look real good bouncing off Bull's bald white head, and his back elbow off the top looks decapitating, like something Ospreay would do (complimentary). Tracy does an actual good version of a reverse STO, hooking his arm around Bull's neck before hopping back with it, locking Bull into only one kind of bump. I thought it was amusing how Bull transitioned back to offense by just powerbombing Smothers, like he decided he wasn't taking any more. Tracy ducks and Bull just powerbombs him, then starts headbutting him in the stomach. I liked the restart, if only because it gave us more involvement from the truly bizarre Billy The P. Wrestling needs more weird little guys. It's one of pro wrestling's great deficiencies. The small weird guys get run off, back to being a paying customer, because Wrasslers don't want to be associated with them. But IWA was in no position to run anyone off so we get this weird little guy dressed up like a Star Search tap competitor, grabbing Tracy's leg so Bull can spike him with a DDT. 

Bad Breed (Axl Rotten/Ian Rotten) vs. Mad Man Pondo/Trailer Park Trash

MD: This was a tornado tag and I have to give them credit. This was absolutely of its time but it still left everyone satisfied and ended definitively. They went around the ring, used chairs. At one point Ian hit a spin wheel kick in the corner (not sure where the agenting was there as it was a big Diamond move earlier, but again, sign of the times... granted, that'd happen today on a PPV too so I guess it's just the chaos of having wrestlers drive the ship to a degree). I don't ever really get the sense that they were in danger, except for when Bolin came in with the racket, but then Billy the P came in to stop that and they kept that churning. There was ref hooha with Jeff Jones running out after a bump but refusing to count 3 (checking on the other ref instead). Then they tore his neckbrace off and the good ref DDT'd him. Finish was a nice reverse double suplex. This absolutely accomplished what it was trying to do. The value of what they were trying to do is subjective, sure, but you can't say they didn't nail it.

ER: This rocked, a great kind of mess with tons of moving parts, Ian gets fantastic color while Pondo has gross diseased blood pooling out under his bangs, the whole thing is a great fight. Paul Diamond takes a double unprotected chairshot in a truly This is 1998 way. I'm expecting Pondo to take something stupid like that but Diamond really was wrestling a When in Rome style and that meant he too was going to seek brain damage. This just got better the longer it went and the bloodier it got. I laughed loud when Ian hit the same corner spinning heel kick that Paul Diamond hit earlier. Jerry Flynn started doing it on TV in 1997 and now every heavyweight in IWA wants to jack it. Diamond's looks strong, but I appreciate Ian doing it in Flynn's style, so he falls but first to the apron. The fact you can no longer see his face skin through the darkest red blood makes it better. 

The breakdown of the match is fantastic. Axl is trying to get Pondo in a katahajime while Ian and Trailer Park are just punching each other on the floor in the foreground. The punches get better as Axl grabs Pondo by his bangs and headbutts him a half dozen times. It all builds to an unexpectedly gigantic pop, as fans lose their absolute minds when ref Eric Moore hits a DDT on Jeff Jones. I mean people were leaping up and down on bleachers after this DDT. Trailer and Pondo were getting dumped on their heads to normal reaction, but Jeff Jones taking a DDT got a reaction so much louder than anything else on these two episodes of TV. They're still feeling that high when the Rottens dump Trailer Park on his head again with a reverse suplex. It's a testament to the fans in Louisville that they respond biggest to angle payoffs and not just brutal headshots. 

 

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Found Footage Friday: BATTLARTS B-RULE TOURNAMENT~! KAMEN SHOOTER SUPER RIDER~! ISHIKAWA~! OTSUKA~!

Full Show 5/24/01 Part 1

Full Show 5/24/01 Part 2

ER: 45 minutes of 2001 BattlArts filmed on Super 8 at perverted voyeuristic angles showed up. I think it's a guy filming the BattlArts he's watching on his TV. You can hear him nose breathing. It makes some of the matwork look like a tape Nicolas Cage is watching in a dark room. 


Mohammed Yone vs. Kamen Shooter Super Rider

ER: I wasn't expecting Super Rider to tap Yone with an armbar in about a minute, but that's what happened. Not really any matwork, just some light standing grappling that never got to grappling, a fireman's carry, and some light scramble before a quick tap. 

MD: Look, I've been spending a LOT of time watching 1989-1990 Newborn UWF and not a lot of time watching 2001 BattlArts so I'm a little disoriented but this felt a lot like tournament lucha to me. Short, not entirely satisfying, all a set up for later payoff. It's a testament to how insane pro wrestling can be that you just have Kamen Shooter Super Rider with his antennae out there grappling and even winning like this, and he's just accepted as an entity that should be beating Yone and heading into round two. These are the truths of this world. Clearly, it didn't bother anyone there, not that we could really hear all that much past the breathing.

Ikuto Hidaka vs. junji.com

ER: This also goes a minute, but with a more satisfying finish. They feel each other out and lightly jockey for standing position, Junji going for legsweep takedowns but Hidaka holding his base, until Junji gets this nice sweep...that Hidaka basically suckered him into. As Hidaka is falling from the takedown he's already rolling up Junji's leg with a kneebar, which gets the tap. Junji did not make any attempt at a rope break even though they were practically under the ropes. Either I don't understand the rules or Junji.com's bubble burst. 

MD: That inner trip was really nice and you like to see it rewarded with the almost immediate tap that followed, sure. You can't say they weren't getting over the idea that a fight could end at any moment, especially with one bit shift of advantage. These aren't entirely satisfying though. 

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Katsumi Usuda 

ER: 10 perfect minutes of BattlArts without a single strike, just mat struggle and two guys who had to be shooting. A gentleman's game that felt like an honest honor battle from the 20s. Ishikawa and Usuda having a good old scrap with no tricks, with its own natural twists emerging from the grappling and submission attempts. The match is elevated by it being filmed by a guy filming his screen. It makes the match feel more dangerous, something happening behind closed doors. It's 10 minutes of wrestling someone taped onto the middle of a video store rental and eventually someone else rented that tape and had no idea what world they discovered. 

Ishikawa, in his tiny shiny tight black shorts and bright red pair Matflex, is the fucking hottest Ishikawa we have on tape. Ishikawa's ass in these shorts give his grounded headscissors new life. Fuck I forgot about goatee Ishikawa, was he hot or was he more of an IT guy who does BJJ? Doesn't matter, because this Ishikawa is hot and gets to show off more of his wrestling skill than he typically uses against a devil like Ikeda. I love how he forced Usuda to work hard for a triangle knowing he was going to use one of his rope breaks the second Usuda got there, using his 1-0 advantage to tire the boy out. It's so cool getting a look at these two shooting, to see Ishikawa crossing his calves while blocking a rear mount, filling in those tight shorts, ever thankful that our cameraman filming his film of a film zooms in on that ass. The 10 minute draw is disappointing, sure, but the fact Ishikawa was clearly strategizing this as a way to advance makes it so much cooler than your typical draws. This man knew he was in a tournament. 

MD: It's fine that the earlier matches went short because that meant this was allowed to have time, right? Ishikawa's a joy to watch, the way he controls distance, how he drops down to a knee to create a shock and try to force an opening, the way he all but rolls Usuda over to make him eat a rope break and how casually he snatches for the rope to get out of a hold without a worry in the world. He is a man completely in control of the situation, something made somehow all the more impressive by how Usuda was scrapping and scrambling at him. When he lets things go to time (both of them in shared leglocks) you get the sense it was almost strategic. He knew that he had the first escape point and would win and in a tournament setting a win was a win no matter how you got it.

Takeshi Ono vs. Alexander Otsuka

MD: Otsuka, less overtly but more sublimely than Super Rider, does give that air of the unusual, infinitely credible but wearing his gear that cuts out a piece of the back to make a superhero-like A. Ono is able to snatch a hold early to force a rope break, reminding people how things could end just like that if they had forgotten after the Ishikawa match. But then he didn't get much else. Otsuka was all over him. Ono would drive forward and Otsuka would just ride his momentum over and down. Ono would shoot low and Otsuka would withdraw for a second and then get on top of him. Ono was able to get a rope break there but shortly thereafter, it was all over. 

ER: It's weird watching an Otsuka match, waiting for the disgusting way he's going to inevitably suplex Ono, while knowing that this show isn't about suplexes and you were just getting heavy mat bully Otsuka. Ono didn't get to throw kicks and Otsuka didn't get to bounce Ono off his shoulder with precision, so it's a lot of Otsuka bullying Ono into holds. The finish is Otsuka laying his weight into Ono to force him to give up his back and go in for a choke, It never felt like Otsuka broke a sweat and Ono couldn't match size, but it benefitted from having the feel of Ono scrappily working up to someone in an afternoon spar.  

Kamen Shooter Super Rider vs. Ikuto Hidaka

MD: Well you can't say these two weren't fresh for this one. Hidaka got another nice rolling kneebar early and that seemed to be a wake-up call for Rider. He spent most of the rest of the fight as the aggressor maintain control but not being able to do much with it, lots of ball control, not a lot of shots on net, basically. But he kept the pressure on and eventually that led Hidaka to go for another one of those rolling kneebars. Rider was ready and caught him in a cross armbreaker and moving on to the finals (far deeper into this one than I would have expected). Unfortunately for him, the other side of the bracket was Otsuka vs Ishikawa.

ER: I love that someone out there was documenting themselves watching the biggest BattlArts night in Kamen Shooter Super Rider's career, the guy on paper who should have been eliminated in the first round with no fuss. I love the one night story of Super Rider. This really felt like Hidaka went in expecting Rider to be more of a pushover. Hidaka tried to lean on him and the more he tried that, the more Rider frustrated him and clowned him. Hidaka looked actually frustrated at some points, finding out Rider had much stronger takedown defense than expected. When Rider stood up out of a scrambling submission, leaving Hidaka on his back, I saw in Hidaka's eyes that he knew he wasn't going to win this one. I'm not saying this is like that house show where Brooklyn Brawler won a battle royal and got a long title match against Shawn Michaels because of it, but of all the names on this show he's the last I expected to go to the finals. Hidaka's face when Rider pulled the armbar said the same.  

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Alexander Otsuka

MD: I noticed the camera not being my friend here more than in the other matches. I think there were more photographers at ringside for this one which made it problematic. Also, the cameraman was probably overeager. Sometimes that gave things a nice chaotic feel as limbs were flailing about on the mat, but for the most part, it hindered.

Ishikawa came into this one so much differently than the last, much more conservative, much more focused on just containing Otsuka for as long as he could. Eventually that paid off as he got an ankle lock in the ropes and forced a break. Otsuka came out of that more aggressive, but things were even for a bit. After a reset, both men were grinning and smiling, having quite frankly the time of their lives with one another. Otsuka was able to ride that aggression to a rope break on a rear choke soon after, but Ishikawa went 2-1 with another ankle lock.

That set up the finish where, back in the middle, Ishikawa forced Otsuka to roll out of one position, only to trap him in an armbar the moment he did. As I was watching this go on and looking at the video time tick down, I definitely was getting worried for poor doomed Super Rider.

ER: Great scrap between two heavies, two big styles, shaved down into a bare bones struggle. This was a tough scrap with both men's most dangerous weapons sanded away by format. No Fujiwara tricks from Ishikawa, no tough unpreventable throws from Otsuka; instead we got what felt like a gentleman's wrestling match, a respectable scrap in front of a fire place, for themselves and no-one else. The 10 or so minutes passed like nothing and the action never stopped advancing or being met force to force. BattlArts had some daring and inventive shootstyle, some incredible drama. This style forced them to not rely on their spectacularness and flair for surprise comeback wins, and go more head to head in a quiet head to head. It's always engaging and a rare peak at two legends of the genre and era, working vigorously through the basics. 

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Kamen Shooter Super Rider

MD: By the time the bell rang, there was less than two and a half minutes left on the video. Super Rider came in hot, as he more or less had to, and he had a nominal advantage early, or at least didn't have a disadvantage, but Ishikawa deftly turned a cross armbreaker attempt against him and pried away a hand, getting it between his legs and locking in an armbar for the decisive win.

ER: Not even two minutes, but a genuinely hot two minutes with Ishikawa at his most Inoki. Super Rider shouldn't be here but here he is. Ishikawa has this gleeful sicko grin on his face for all of it, letting himself get into trouble before power bending Rider's arm over his thigh. It's a sick fight between a high ranked Fujiwara guy and a scrappy Sayama guy. Ishikawa cockily gives up his back and while I don't know how much trouble he was actually in when Super Rider pulled off a roll through armbar, but it was cool as hell. Ishikawa's confidence, with that ass, a whole evening with a legend just strengthening his career case. 

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Found Footage Friday: MONTERREY~! BLONDY~! PATTERSON~! ARANDU~! STUKA~! REYNA~! ROBOCOP~!

Stuka/Mogur/Estrella Dorada vs. Arandu/Fabuloso Blondy/Ricky Patterson Arena Coliseo Monterrey 1989

MD: Blondy and Patterson have the USA facepaint and are waving the flag. Arandu (being a caveman) has a valet, Laila with him which is not something I think I've seen in the other matches of his we've come across, but she is super active and adds a lot to the act. This was all about him feuding with Stuka while Blondy and Patterson caused havoc in the background. Laila held Stuka's leg from the outside allowing Arandu to get an immediate advantage, ripping the masking and biting the head. Patterson especially was all over the place, flaunting his size, making over the top pro wrestler faces right into the camera. Blondy had some great punches. Nothing really to say here about Estrella and Mogur, though.

Super hot comeback in the segunda as Stuka (his hair streaming out of the ripped mask, forehead bloody, the visor underneath which made for an iconic image) tossed Arandu out. Arandu moved as Stuka backflipped to his feet on the floor, but then he missed his superkick and hit Laila. That let Stuka get the fall. Tercera was brawling and revenge with Stuka lawn darting him into the fourth row. Finish was a play on the segunda with Laila holding Stuka on the apron and Arandu nailing her by accident. As the refs were distracted by that, he fouled Stuka for the win though. Very effective stuff to keep the feud going.

Black Man/Hara Kiri/Rudy Reyna vs. Babe Sharon/Milo Caballero/Talisman Jr.? Arena Coliseo Monterrey 1988/1989

MD: This is apparently not the usual Talisman, even though he has the gimmick; they said he was a new rudo making his debut. He was pretty game, including diving out of the ring feet first after Reyna dodged at one point. While Sharon (who came out like usual with the turban and cape) had some fun antics with Hara Kira (who had a good look and was married to Irma Aguilar apparently), the best primera exchange was Black Man and Milo. They were really going at it on the mat and with the quick switch up armdrags. Very fun stuff. Things got zany for the primera's finish with the rudos triple clubbering everyone like they were Choshu's army and the tecnicos coming in to fight off all three. It ended with two of them in leglocks and Reyna running over them until he goaded Milo to leap; he landed on his partners and Reyna sat on them.

Segunda started with another fun exchange between Black Man and Sharon (and then Black Man and everyone) before Talisman snuck in a foul on Hari Kiri and they started the beatdown, with a lot of teasing the tecnicos by bringing him over to tag. Sharon and Reyna were former partners and Sharon got the pin with energetic shoulder blocks and a running flip senton. Tercera was heated with the rudos keeping control with blatant fouls and triple teaming until Milo accidentally hit Talisman. Things broke down in and out of the ring from there. What stood out in the chaos was Reyna hitting a great punch on Talisman. But the tecnicos slipped on banana peels (including Black Man bounding into the ring only to get caught off a rana attempt by a Sharon power bomb) and the rudos snuck it out. The tape got a little wonky right at the moment of comeback which is a shame, but this was a very good look at these guys in a very complete match.

Robocop/Fox Man vs. Blue Fish/Imperio Negro Arena Coliseo Monterrey

MD: Sometimes you just need to watch a Robocop match, right? I've seen some Blue Fish in all the Monterrey that's been uploaded but I never feel like I've gotten a real sense of him. It's important to note that he was billed from the most "inhospitable" part of the ocean, and, if I've got this right, Imperio Negro was from the galactic abyss and is a representative of the intergalactic cursed empire. So, you know, a perfect enemy for Robocop.

Structurally, this was comfort food lucha. Initial exchanges. Second round for rope running. Tecnicos get the advantage and win the primera. Immediately into the rudo beatdown for the segunda. No real comeback here (save for one Blue Fish quebradora in the midst of...) but instead right into submissions that are broken up one after the other and the dive into the finish. Lots of pulling at Robocop's mask by Imperio early. Robocop seemed fairly bulky overall. Blue Fish slowed Fox Man down on their exchange and worked the mat. With the VQ it was a little tricky to see everything there but on the second exchange, Fox Man had a nice novel shoulder side straddle into an arm drag. Robocop hit a flip dive off the apron but we didn't really get to see it and finish had Blue Fish jam another quebradora, landing on his feet and putting a head into Fox Man's groin for the foul and the DQ. Ref hadn't been calling them on the rudos in the segunda so that was a bit of a surprise. Maybe the best part of this was the commentators going on about the plot of Robocop and how his gun never ran out of bullets, etc. Still, it was fun local undercard stuff.

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Found Footage Friday: Hanover 86 Part 2

Hanover '86

9/8/86

Klaus Kauroff vs. John Quinn

MD: Time to hit the second half of the 4 hour 9/86 Germany tape with Bull Power (Vader) all over it. Anyway, this was down our alley, real 305 live stuff, a clash of the titans. So much of this were just the two of them crashing into one another or throwing meaty shots, testing one another, pressing advantages when they could. It was two out of three falls, which we don't usually see for a singles match but it meant that when one did get the best of the other with a rare shoulder tackle that worked or a body slam, it warranted a successful pin and worked within the match.The format gave it room to breathe and make those key moments mean so much even though in theory they were so simple and straightforward. 

Otto Wanz vs. Bull Power

MD: Speaking of titans clashing. It's interesting that these two matches were on the same card. It makes Kauroff vs Quinn sort of a like-minded undercard attraction, though this was going to have more fireworks. Overall, I don't think this was as strong or seasoned as Kauroff vs Quinn but it didn't disappoint either. Wanz knew exactly what he had in Leon even if Leon didn't quite know everything he was yet. Pre-match, Power did his usual attack while still in the trucker hat and windbreaker, wielding the flag. Unlike others, Wanz recovered quickly and took the flag to cross check him repeatedly to the fans' delight. Lots of delight in this one.

Wanz would get the better of him with skill and a bit of slickness, moving out of the way at a key moment, and meeting him head on. Power would take three charges (the last being a football three-point stance set up) to stagger Otto but he would stagger him, and he could always credibly take over with a few shots, especially as he pressed him into the corner. They'd keep going in circles with this, Power taking back over and Otto fighting from underneath. He never seemed in too much danger but Power could likewise take right back over whenever he had even the smallest opening. I'd call this more inconclusive and unsatisfying than anything else (even if not disappointing), as they left more for the future. Otto eventually hefted Power over the top and they brawled on the floor until things were thrown out.

Axel Dieter vs. Klaus Wallas

MD: Clipped as this is, it becomes a real simple exercise in Wallas being as big a jerk as humanly possible and Dieter eventually coming back and giving him what he deserves. Primal, straightforward, effective stuff. Wallas looked as good as I've seen him in this footage. He'd take Dieter to the ropes and punch him in the face. When Dieter charged in, he'd force a break in the corner and then punch him in the face again. Later on, he'd drape his knee right over Dieter's throat, that sort of thing. Then when it came time, Dieter hefted him over the top rope and caught him with a flurry of shots on his way in. Eventually, once he took enough, Wallas started to fight back and they went to the floor where things devolved into chaos. It's obvious by now but Dieter really knew what he was doing in there.

Steve Wright/Steve Casey vs. Col. Brody/Dave Morgan

MD: We only get part of this as it skips to the finish out of nowhere, but what we get really is great fun. There are moments of the heels working together or bullying the faces but most of this is Wright and Casey clowning them to high effect. It could be as simple as Casey smacking someone in the face out of nowhere or as complex as one heel being trapped in the ropes and the other being used as a battering ram and then, after the ref complains, summarily dropped to elated laughter from the crowd. You'd also get some fun wrestling like Wright and Morgan doing these fast headscissors reversals back and forth over and over again, or Wright doing all of his headstand and kip up tricks with Brody. But mostly it was stuff like Brody going for a dropdown and Wright dropping down beside him and saying "boo." But it really was great fun. Brody and Morgan were good sports but also engaged. When they shrugged off a double headlock charge, Brody pointed to the prone babyfaces in a sort of "Ha Ha. We finally got you!" sort of way. Of course, immediately thereafter things were turned around and the battering ram took place. We lose the big comeback and only get a glimpse of the finish but the individual bits were great.

9/10/86

Kid Burgess vs. Rasputin 2

MD: Fans really liked to get on Rasputin's case and he sold it well. Burgess had some fun counters early. Rasputin would get over on him twice and then he'd spin out and nail him with a headbutt. Or he'd escape from a full nelson and then just lay prone on the mat until Rasputin leaned in and got kicked. Rasputin finally got incensed and took over by cheating but Burgess dumped him over the top to get into it. Fun comeback with a lot of signature combos and dropkicks but he finally missed one and Rasputin slammed him for the win. Not sure if this was the first match on this card but the fans were definitely up for it.

Steve Wright vs. John Quinn

MD: If you have access to Richard Land's drive, this is worth a watch. A lot of these are, of course, but this gets time, has familiarity and animosity while still being light and fun, and both of these guys are tremendously talented. It's a long draw and while clipped we get more than the gist of it. Wright starts by doing a cartwheel and asking for a handshake and you can tell immediately Morgan has had more than enough of him in his life. Early on, he tosses Wright out in a big way (tapping his head after) and Wright comes back in and gets a sunset flip. You can't keep Wright down. He has all of his signature counters, the bounding and twisting and flipping, the kip up into a dropkick after getting knocked down, clever escapes from full nelsons and other holds. He also does something I've never seen before where, in a front facelock, he goes down to one knee than the other a few times before coming up and flipping Quinn's arm out of it.

There's a round where he controls the arm (including a very smooth short arm scissors) and a round where Morgan batters him around the ring getting revenge. And then Wright gets revenge for the revenge. There are a couple of very believable near-falls for the style down the stretch and the fans are chanting Stevie most of the way. Masters doing masterful things. That's what this one is.

Otto Wanz/Axel Dieter vs. Bull Power/Klaus Wallas

MD: This whole show has a sort of yellowish overtone to it, almost like AI, but AI could never replicate Otto Wanz crashing into Bull Power in the corner like this. They really built to that moment, with Dieter starting and holding his own against Power until he got hit by a Vader Attack in the ropes. Then Wallas worked him over so when Otto came in (and the crowd was overjoyed to see him get in) he was up against Wallas. Otto tagged out to Dieter before Power came in so it wasn't until Dieter could escape once again that they ended up facing off. It was worth the wait. Wallas had some great jerk expressions here, one of which was zoomed in, and Dieter knew EXACTLY what to do in his role, but this maybe didn't have enough Otto and Vader for me, all things considered, especially because the tape cuts off into some sort of wild scene we can barely make out (with a pinball table lit up in the corner) before the tape ends. This had to be a great show to attend live however. That much we can tell.

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Found Footage Friday: DOUBLE DUSTY~! MURDOCH~! SUPER DRAGON~! taro~! BOSS MAN~! IVAN & SHEIK~!

Dusty Rhodes/Dick Murdoch vs. Iron Sheik/Ivan Koloff GCW 4/3/83

MD: Another recent vault drop. It's a Texas Tornado match and it's a shame we don't have the whole card as it has Buzz vs Masked Superstar, Tito/Blair vs Arn/Borne, Larry vs Tommy, and Flair vs Atlas. BUT we will take what we can get. Heels have Homer O'Dell out with them. Dusty vs Sheik feels like a really unique match up. There's some great pro wrestling bs at the start as the announcer says that Sheik has requested the fans not chant USA USA.

The Outlaws are such a blast in this setting. A lot of it feels like Dusty doing his thing and Murdoch knowing exactly how to riff off of it. They'd throw double elbows or simultaneous punches or pingpong people between them or as part of a comeback. At one point they each took a leg and dropped an elbow (though Dusty didn't go all the way down which was funny). When the heels were able to pry one off and double team, Dusty was great at throwing himself to break up the pin (Sheik did that once or twice too). We don't have a ton of Outlaws footage and to see them conduct a crowd like this and the sheer fluidity in how they worked together is just magic.

This made good use of the rules by stressing that there were none. That meant that Murdoch could toss people over the top. It meant that at one point they grabbed a belt and used it as a weapon, just like that. It meant O'Dell could break up pins. And it especially meant that he could take Dusty out with a cane shot. Apparently he was taken to the back to get bandaged up though we don't see it. That left it two-on-one against Murdoch and he knew exactly what he was doing there too. Biggest pop of the match was him kicking out when both men were pinning him at once. He'd get comebacks but ultimately swept under, setting up the bandaged Dusty coming back and chasing the heels off. Wonderful stuff that set up the following month's bullrope/chain match as they couldn't get away then.

ER: This is from a new Dusty mixtape but it felt like it belonged on the WWE Vault's Dick Murdoch Mixtape that doesn't actually exist. Dusty is getting bandaged up for a long stretch, returning right at the end, which gives us a chance to see how great Murdoch was at working 1 on 2. We all know how great Murdoch was, but handicap matches are tough to work and most people aren't good at them. Murdoch could have been, if it ever made sense to put him in one. This was Texas Tornado rules and I think that format benefitted the pairing. I can't imagine a long Sheik/Ivan control segment would have been worth the hot tag it led to, so seeing the ebbs and flows of Murdoch and Dusty punching the hell out of these two lawless foreigners is the best version of this match. Murdoch knew exactly what to do as Dusty's partner in the TX Outlaws. During the first half there were all these little moments where each man was doing his own thing, and Dick would come in to add a little punctuation to some poetry Dusty had just finished writing. I love all Murdoch punches, but the best was when Dusty was setting up the Flip Flop & Fly without noticing Murdoch moving in, and as Dusty was throwing the payoff punch to Sheik, Murdoch landed one at the same time. Southern Synergy. 

Texas Tornado matches can often have too many instances of bodies getting in the way of other bodies, but Murdoch is a natural at moving through the chaos without slowing down. He was so good at little punctuations, like when Dusty knocked Koloff flat on his back, and as Murdoch casually walks out of the corner to go after Sheik, he stomps Koloff's face as he passes by. The 2 on 1 was really fun and led to Sheik bumping far bigger than I was expecting. The madman from Iran takes two big bumps over the top to the floor, and the guardrail was so close to the ring that his leg gets hung up on it as he's falling! When Sheik and Koloff were pinballing away from Murdoch throwing punch combos from his knees, it's perfect heel feeding and perfect babyface timing.  Murdoch is great at moving between the two as he fights to his feet, never leaving them standing and selling for too long, a man who always knows where he needs to be. 

Dusty makes his triumphant return with a bandage that makes him look like sassy Rambo, and everyone in the Omni loses their minds, except for depressed Omni Superfan Donald Sutherland, who holds the front row hostage every week with his arms folded, a man forever unmoved by the most charismatic wrestlers in history. 

Dusty Rhodes vs. Big Boss Man WWF (Toronto) 10/29/89

MD: There's a moment midmatch where Boss Man has on a hold which one might graciously call an "armbar." Boss Man is making a face that represented the exertion of effort and he was sweating enough that you bought into it. Dusty was making a face that showed the world that the world was painful. I am usually not a stickler for details such as this, but it was not a very good armbar, ok? But it didn't matter. Because Dusty simply turned his hand upwards, flexed his fingers a bit, asked the crowd to come up for him, to help him, to be there for him, to participate, to make noise, to be part of this match and this moment, and they did. 

It was enough. 

Because Dusty was Dusty. Because Boss Man was huge. Because they wanted to be there to see them. Because someone in the back row probably couldn't see the hold all that well but their eyes gravitated to the faces and the faces were larger than life. 

And he asked them. Dusty Rhodes, who himself was larger than life, flexed those fingers. There's some kid in that crowd, someone who had worked a full shift before dragging themselves to the stadium, some old lady who had seen cheered for Billy Watson decades ago.. and Dusty was asking them to come up for them.

And they did. 

And more and more as the match went on, he would reward them. Just as he rewarded them preemptively at the start by stepping on Slick's hand when it was on the apron pre-match. Late in the match he'd reward them by dodging an Avalanche so that Boss Man went careening into Slick. And at the end? As he sent Boss Man reeling, Traylor making up for the dubious hold with brilliant physical charisma as he bounced off the top rope and then the second rope, Dusty would send them over the top by diverting a Slick nightstick shot into Boss Man's head and picking up the win. 

Once upon a time I might have grumbled about this. Plenty of people still will grumble at it. Now? I see how it's so much more impressive to create something out of nothing than far, far less than the something Dusty created here out of far far more. 

ER: A much better match than their SNME match that was taped two days later. That match ended with a weak roll up and had unnecessary arm work instead of dancing, not enough of a big fat guy swaying from punches and elbows. Dusty was on fire here, and Boss Man was great at being a huge young guy setting up every Dusty strike. Boss Man had some material I've never seen, a real guy who keeps giving the more footage you watch. There's a lot of great Boss Man that's just hiding in plain sight, a gifted worker who has aged sneakily well. We've all seen the incredible All Japan 1993 but Traylor is a guy who looks really great through way more years than we talked about at the time. 

There's a fantastic rhythm to this match, like everyone took Dusty's lead and made this into Parappa the Rapper with elbows and a nightstick. When Dusty is dancing in the ring with Boss Man's stolen nightstick, Boss Man is so fed up and humiliated on the floor that he starts banging the apron while hopping down the length of the apron. Five big hopping open handed swats, bopping down the length of the apron, Slick and Boss Man banging out their own Robbert Loggia-Tom Hanks long piano. Boss Man tops himself later when he lands a swinging punch on the floor, punctuated with two lateral hopping apron slap beats before landing the punch on 3. I don't know that I've ever seen so much apron work from Boss Man and it's because NBC didn't want to let him show his rhythm. He rocks and sways for Dusty the effeminate snack charmer, the finish showing off Boss Man's legendary rope work. Dusty elbowing Boss Man into the top rope, into the middle rope, all the way across the ring into Stick's errantly swung nightstick. A flat on his back knock out ending on its biggest beat. 

Super Dragon vs. TARO LXW (New York) 9/27/03 - EPIC

MD: Traveling match as Dragon vs TARO take New York. Apparently TARO had no idea this was taped until it popped up a month ago. Fun (and as you'd expect, brutal) showcase in front of a crowd that probably didn't know what they were getting into. Lots of Dragon basing for TARO. Lots of body contact in general. We have endless reversal sequences now but these two had a way of chaining one attempt to a reversal to the move all while Dragon had TARO up or was catching him in mid air. It creates a different sort of effect where it's less do-si-do somehow, almost as if there's a better application of pro wrestling physics at play. 

Likewise there was a sense of escalation. Armdrags and headcissors to the start, strikes and grinding holds in the middle, a dive to change chapters, and bombs at the end. On the dive, TARO's button gimmick really did feel fifteen years too early. That would have been over huge in 2018. On the bombs, Super Dragon's buckle bomb hits so much better than anyone else's because he almost makes it a sit out with the roll back that follows it. I imagine the people in the crowd couldn't believe some of the kickouts and felt that the lariat that ended it might have been a little anticlimactic. At the same time, one thing I appreciated was the commentary going up for things like a dodged chop or Dragon just chucking him across the ring, even as much as some of the tricked out offense. The lines were less clear back then. If the crowd was at all thrown by the finish, they would soon get it over with the head crunching punctuation Dragon put on things after the match. I'd say that this was what they'd all be talking about in the car on the way home, but the next match was Corporal Robinson vs Necro Butcher so who knows. 

PAS: This as a touring match is pretty fucking crazy. There is something about Taro and Super Dragon doing this to each other in a warehouse in Southern California, as an attempt to start something, or change something, which makes sense. But to just take this on a tour? Do this as the third match on the card? Justin Credible in the back stretching and warming up (to wrestle La Parka, what the fuck was this show? As grody and violent as these guys ever got, nothing in wrestling was ever as sick as what Super Dragon would do to his friend Taro, and this match was loaded with stuff I have only ever seen in this match. A running liger bomb into the corner? A suplex using the horns of Taro's mask? A tapitia flipped into a powerbomb? Fucking hell. Super Dragon did a Psicosis corner bump as hard and fast as it has ever been done, in case you thought this was a one sided mauling. Unbelievable stuff, what a pair of demented psychos. 

ER: This Super Dragon YouTube channel has been such a great personal gift. As Segunda Caida's only ever West Coast representative, we grew up with completely different scenes and regional styles. Indy wrestling was at its most regional in 2001-2004, Bay Area style different from LA style, different from New Jersey style, different from Pittsburgh, different from Georgia, different from Kentuckiana. It was my incomparable favorite time to be a wrestling fan. I saw the West Coast style first hand in the best wrestling years of my life, and I bet Super Dragon was a guy I saw live more than almost anyone. Michael Modest, Donovan Morgan, RevPro/Early PWG guys, Boyce LeGrande, Bryan Danielson somehow, Jardi Frantz, Vinnie Massaro, Larry Blackwell. Those were my guys, who I drove my friends to see in my 1987 Chevy Astro van. 

This channel has given me back so many Super Dragon matches I was at with friends. It's given me back memories of Super Dragon matches I had somehow forgotten, like when I watched myself reacting to Super Dragon/Bobby Quance on the hard cam. I saw Super Dragon live at least a dozen times at the APW Gym, front rows only on three sides of the ring. I saw a Dragon/TARO match a year before this match, and I've seen plenty of tags with Super Dragon/TARO pairings. I love these two. The first RevPro tapes I traded for were shows from July 2000, and their earliest matches are just as good as their latest. TARO is one of those great regional finds from that special era. A flyer with great daring ideas and under a hundred matches; one of several guys who got talked into regularly letting Super Dragon drop them on their heads. He had to have been Dragon's most frequent opponent, and they had years of ideas for each other. 

Super Dragon had a Psicosis/Rey, SUWA/Dragon Kid level base for TARO's imagination, and their matches felt like nothing was off limits and real damage had to be happening. They were strong at placing the biggest spots of their matches, smart about match pacing and still surprising. There are consequences to the matches and the selling is perfect in the same way I think Jersey All Pro selling from the same time was perfect: the realism, stiffness, and the innovative ways to drop guys head first with suplexes was actually happening. They were enduring actual shit kickings. Whatever selling we were seeing, we were seeing a guy actually getting his nose smashed full speed into a turnbuckle, actually thrown unprotected onto his head and neck by the horns. Deranged, TARO, Orion, Nate Webb et al can sell any way they want. They were taking real life damage. Every TARO match is a reason why TARO had less than a hundred matches.  

There's so much to see, so many bumps, so many exchanges that never quite go the way you think they're going to go, so many things you may only see in one of their matches and never in anyone else's matches. This had a sitout buckle bomb that was so precisely and violently executed, a swinging fireman's carry splash mountain. and a suplex so damned it could only come from our early 2000s era of head drop innocence. Just like Jersey All Pro guys from the same era, they knew how to get to big moments in creative ways. TARO hit what had to be one of the earliest topes into a tornado DDT, but it came after Dragon had wrapped himself around the ringpost in that way he does, which was different from Cassandro's way, which was different from Psicosis's way. Setting up a big high spot with a big bump in stead of a big spot causing a big bump. They understand set up and payoff and escalation. There was a moment that felt like something Tully Blanchard would have thought up: Dragon prevents TARO from crotching him on the top buckle by bracing himself, but deservedly Mutumbos TARO and gets his legs swept out from under him into a worse crotching. I don't know if I ever loved wrestling more than when I was 22 years old.   

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WWF 305 LIVE

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SUPER DRAGON

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Found Footage Friday: PRE-MUTA SCALE MUTO SCALE~! BUZZ~! NEW VS. NOW~! BIGELOW~! FUJINAMI~!

Buzz Sawyer vs. Keiji Muto NJPW 7/21/87

MD: This episode of NJPW TV wasn't in the usual sets over the years. It had fallen through the cracks. There's very, very little written about this match, for instance, and the match deserves to have a lot written about it. It's wild. I have some questions about this episode of TV actually. There are some hype pieces before the matches and I don't know if they were just clipped out of how I usually watched NJPW or if this was a different show but they are cool and of the times. Laser lights and noises as you see Buzz posing and stuff.

Muto was Space Lone Wolf here, coming out to Final Countdown. He was getting a push as the young guy in NOW but he really felt like an outlier here. His stuff was smoother and more theatrical than anyone else in the company. He didn't fit in against the UWF guys, for instance, but since he was the only guy like that, he stood out. Buzz, is, of course, way over the top here, funny faces, noises, whining, etc.

At first this is a normal match with Muto controlling the arm and Buzz hitting the floor and Muto hitting the handspring elbow in the corner. But then Buzz tosses Muto out and they end up sort of under the ring with Buzz biting him and obviously some big blading happens here, as they both comes up bloody. Buzz works the wound: headbutts, biting, a chairshot. Muto bites to break a hold and they slam each other's head into the mat. It's pretty glorious carnage by this point, exacerbated by Muto punching the wound in the corner and Buzz hitting a snap suplex on the floor. All the while, the blood masses all the more. Muto reverses a suplex. Buzz gets his power slam. Muto tries for a desperate roll up out of nowhere.

It builds and builds, but to what? It builds to Buzz getting knocked out of the ring. He staggers, stands, arms extended, welcoming, blood running down his face. I've never seen a man waiting for a dive quite like this. He invites it. He longs for it. He wants nothing more than for Muto to embrace his in this grisly bloodletting, for the two to become one there on the floor. He craves an escalation of the violence, an increase of the danger, for flesh to hit flesh and bone to crash against bone.

And Muto, Space Lone Wolf, a boy becoming a man before everyone's eyes, does not disappoint him. 

The match is shortly thereafter thrown out, a heap of bodies and blood, but what a ride while it happened.

ER: Buzz is no longer working as Mad Dog, here he is some kind of ill, demented, disease riddled dog. He's weepy, he's weird, he sometimes appears to be crying, he mainly appears to be unwell. It's a totally unique take on the unleashed monster gaijin. He's not out and swinging at a soul, he's like a rabid dog who goy sprayed by a skunk and he's just wandering around and sort of whimpering, effects of the rabies hitting his system hard. Every time the camera cuts to Muta in the ring, he's wearing an expression of concerned distrust, no clue what this diseased dog has in store.

As he works over Sawyer's arm, Sawyer howls and whimpers and you can see a version of this match that doesn't build to blood and stays Sawyer fighting through arm work and I can see an interesting match there...but it plays so much better as Muto using it as a way to restrain a large unpredictable animal before he breaks free from his restraints. I don't know if I've ever seen a scene like Buzz holding Muto on the floor of the gym for so long, biting at his head. It goes on long enough that it almost seems like the illusion is broken, as it always looks like a man holding a smaller man down solely for the purpose of gigging his head, but the longer it goes it dips into the wrestling illusion being broken and back into something Not Supposed To Be Happening. The more young boys swarm, the more it feels like this diseased animal had done something unpredictable even for him. When Muto comes up bloody, I admittedly expected there to be more, but I also don't think there are many instances of Muto bleeding before this. The truly shocking thing happens just after, when Muto gets his first chance to bite Buzz back, and it is truly disgusting. Muto digs the entirety of his full lower jaw of teeth into Sawyer's forehead, and when he pulls away Sawyer has so much dark crimson on his face and chest that I said aloud "Muto fucking bit him FOR REAL!?" 

Buzz Sawyer has this magical blood that behaves differently from any other bleeder I've seen. His blood is not free flowing. He tried several times, earlier in the match, to bust himself open by slamming his head into the railing, but he only ever got a stain. Now, cut open, his blood does not flow free but it flows in spurts, when attacked. I don't know if I've seen bleeding like this. He spurts blood after Muto bites him...then it stops. Until Muto rans him into the ringpost, and then a new batch gushes out all at once, repainting his body. It's fascinating. The whole things ends in a mess, Buzz staggering around to let everyone in the arena see the damage, Muto looking shell shocked. I love the use of Sawyer's signature bump, flying out backwards through the ropes from a dropkick, and I loved him simply standing up from the floor, arms raised. He flies through the ropes and rises from the depths like Michael Myers standing up after a shotgun blast, and Muto knows his only chance is to ignore rules and referees and just try to escape intact. 

Every new piece of Buzz Sawyer footage adds to his legacy, the type of person who we will likely never see in pro wrestling again. Shape, look, attitude, style. We're not getting any of that back. Celebrate this.  

 

Antonio Inoki/Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Masa Saito vs. Akira Maeda/Kengo Kimura/Nobuhiko Takada NJPW 7/21/87 

MD: This was right in the midst of the NOW vs NEW feud where instead of having, for instance, Choshu's Army come in and declare war on everyone, they positioned all the old guys (and Muto) against all the younger guys. Inoki, Fujiwara, and Saito were sort of the leaders of NOW. Maeda, Fujinami, and Choshu were the leaders of NEW. This meant that Inoki could be positioned against all of the other top stars and none of them could be positioned against each other. It was a real frustrating state of affairs that only lasted a couple of months even if it did make for at least a couple of fresh match ups. It also absolutely killed Kengo Kimura's momentum. He was one of the hottest acts of the year having turned on Fujinami (in a Choshu-esque way) at the start of the year and disappearing to "learn boxing". 

Regardless of how frustrating the overall feud was, just given the people involved here and the potential match-ups, this was going to be fun and heated. This wasn't a subtle feud either. The commentary more or less outright said as the NOW team came out that they were trying to protect their spots and they presented it as a battle between fathers and sons (or at least older and younger brothers).

We never got that satisfying Inoki vs Maeda singles match but it was always exciting to the crowds when they faced off in a setting like this. Even before getting the towel off, Inoki charged him here. But all of these match-ups were exciting. The fans wanted to see Fujiwara vs Takada after a year and a half of the two being on the same side. Saito vs Takada was fresh (and felt unlikely). Fujiwara vs Kimura was particularly chippy with Kimura using that boxing skill in the corner (and some slaps) and Fujiwara fighting out. And Inoki vs Maeda when they finally faced off? Well Inoki was a genius in framing it. He took a tag from Saito and time just stopped with a huge pop. Takada was in the ring and he saw Inoki poised to enter and tagged in Maeda, and the place went nuts. It was a minute of awesome scrapping with a rolling kick and the spin wheel kick and headbutts and a half hatch suplex and Inoki scrambling his way to an advantage and Maeda jamming it. Just what you'd want until Inoki made the tag.

But even that was okay because the tag was to Fujiwara so now the crowd got THAT match up. That's the way a match like this worked. Fujiwara did get swept under, and I've seen enough of these, that for him to be the one to take so much offense in the match and work from underneath, well, I knew the ending midway through this bit of heat. It was chaotic enough but he was going to get the armbar on out of nowhere, and he did. All of this did feel larger than life. The feud was a failure but not necessarily because the action wasn't good or fans didn't like specific match ups. It's just that it didn't give them everything they wanted most. 

Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Bam Bam Bigelow 7/21/87

MD: This is usually a solid match up, but maybe not as fun as Bigelow vs Choshu, for instance. They'd wrestle a notorious 3-match series in early 1989 which was about making Fujinami as champion look as dominant as possible as he was teaming with Inoki and Choshu, wherein he won all three matches. 

This was well before that. It's sub-five minutes but I think we get most of it. Bigelow (who came out with a chair threatening the crowd effectively) dominated to start, just clubbering and power moves. I wouldn't say that it was the best clubbering in the world, but it worked. Fujinami came back by ducking a clothesline and leapfrogging Bigelow but then he crashed into Shibata's dad who was reffing. I can only assume he was supposed to crash into him right after the leapfrog which would have been a great visual, but instead, he came up short and had to clothesline him by accident, which came off as pretty funny. Bigelow used this to get a chair and smack Fujinami. He went for a top rope splash with the chair (with Japanese letters on it) on Fujinami, but Fujinami rolled. I'm sure he was supposed to get all the way out of the way but instead he ended up tripping Bigelow on the way down, which was another great visual, this one made better by the miscue. 

If it went to a finish right after that, this would have actually been very effective and one of the better sub-five minute matches I've seen in a while. Instead, Fujinami threw an enziguiri but then Bigelow went out and eventually over the rail for the DQ instead. Ah well. 

ER: This was like going into an ice cream shop intending to buy a scoop, but getting enticed by the different flavors on display, getting a few different tasty samples on those little wooden spoons...and then you realize the samples scratched that sweet itch and you back out of buying a scoop, annoying every employee in the shop. It's over before it really begins, but contains several moments of intrigue, most of them from the young red singleted Bigelow. You expect a couple big bumps, and get them. Toward the end of the match he ocean crashes over the top to the floor off a dropkick, then takes a faster and even cooler version of that bump going over a guardrail. While I wasn't sure which type of big bumps we'd get, I was expecting them. The neatest things were the things I wasn't expecting. Bigelow had an almost fistdrop turned into a single hand choke. I've never seen Bam Bam do a fistdrop, and this was not intended to be one, but it very clearly was one, just with different intentions. Then a huge missed splash off the top, that turned into a much weirder and cooler and bizarre looking moment. Bigelow had set a chair over Fujinami before going up top, but Fujinami rolled out the way of the splash a bit late. What this wound up doing was causing a fluke log roll effect, where Bigelow was going to splash flat on the chair, but instead his ankles caught Fujinami mid-roll and it whipped Bigelow into a face plant on the chair. A much worse bump than was planned, but much cooler in an unintentional cool accident way. 

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Found Footage Friday: HANOVER 86~!

Hanover 

9/86

Franz Schuhmann vs. Steve Wright

MD: Four shows. Mainly the layperson appeal is Bull Power against all of these guys but it's nice to see some shows not even on wrestlingdata with guys we've been watching in 80/81 and some others. They fit 4 hours onto this tape and we'll see how many shows we make it through this week. We have dates for the subsequent shows but not this one but it's probably the first few days of September 1986.  Everything is clipped but you tend to get the flow and a lot of fun spots. 

For instance, you get a lot of Wright really stymieing Schuhmann here with his meticulous precision, Even when Franz has a good counter, like looping one leg over the other to turn Wright over, Wright just moves into a cartwheel to get out of it. There's some fun bits where they hang onto holds through escape attempts (there Wright lets Franz hang on even as he does a scooping hip takeover for instance). Some fun pin exchanges too where they both end up laying there. If this boiled over we don't see it but as things progress to rope running, we've seen Wright win enough times that even without the actual finish, we can imagine it.

ER: It's too bad this is so heavily clipped. Weight looks extremely spirited all match and I love when he tries out tricks. The clips mean we miss on some of Wright's move application, and I like seeing how he gets into and out of things. He works his way into several inventive and firm submissions on Schuhmann, but we never get to see how Schuhmann gets out of most of them, nor how Wright maneuvers through them. We get to see a lot of Wright getting into things, and that in itself is great. He is a clever Dean Malenko, a Dean Malenko with follow through and natural progression through holds. I don't have any experience with 80s Franz Schuhmann. I've seen plenty of mid 90s Schuhmann but no mid 80s. This match doesn't offer much insight, it's clipped into a Wright highlight reel, but I loved the way Wright maneuvered him through sequences. A series of rolling Malenko nearfalls actually felt like something, and ended with both men lying flat on top of each other, a rest neutral position that hasn't been seen in pro wrestling in 40 years.  

Tony St. Clair vs. John Quinn

MD: Quinn had superior size but got plenty of heat by going with inside shots or hair pulls to keep St. Clair on his back leg as well as just bullying him around. Nice Tony chant here. He always had a connection with these German crowds (as early as 86 we can see now). Tony would finally get one over on Quinn and use a  headcissors and they'd do the Gotch Lift style spot but out of the headscissors which you never ever see and is really the damndest thing. We get this a number of times but the clipping means it's never QUITE as clear as I'd like. They take it out of the ring and then back in from the apron, working in and out of it. A very cool spot (and way to spend a few minutes). Quinn bullies St. Clair some more, tossing him out, but St. Clair comes back with a number of nearfalls en route to the time limit draw.

ER: Quinn kicked ass here. There are very few men today who look like John Quinn and none of them are trying to become wrestlers. I like Quinn, a worker I don't think I'd seen before Matt and I started writing about Germany, but this is the coolest I've seen him. He's a monster, a sadist. I don't remember him being so sadistic in the '81 footage we've written about. This was mostly Quinn beating St. Clair's ass, as viciously and as stiff as I've seen him beat someone. He's a hard hitting bully, hitting St. Clair hard enough that St. Clair gets loud reactions any time he's in control (which isn't much, that we saw). Everything Quinn does looks mean. Kicking Tony in the back with a scoff, hammering him several times with punches to the stomach that St. Clair sold as if he didn't think he was actually getting punched in the stomach, headlock punches so good that you realize it's been ages since you've anyone do a headlock punch even thought they're literally always good. Holding a headlock away from a referee, unleashing your inner Nolan Ryan just once, elevating yourself as a wrestler to all who see? Easiest shortcut to looking like a great wrestler, right there for the taking. Headlock punches, gone. Why don't you see brown cars anymore? 

Eddy Steinblock vs. Bull Power

MD: This isn't 89 Vader here. He's only been wrestling for about a year and he's been a babyface for a lot of that, even if he had another tour of Germany before this. He's out with the flag and a trucker hat and windbreaker type jacket and American flag, shoving fans away before the bell. Also attacking Steinblock with the flag before the bell, which gets the exact right reaction from the get go. 

He's raw but there's a lot to like. You don't want to look away a bit due to the rawness, not just in spite of it. He has brutal looking blows from every angle, plus the Vader Attack (with a big pose) and usage of the ropes or just wrenching his back over the corner turnbuckle. He'll just throw in a knee on Steinblock or lean on him with one. Some of it got a little repetitive since he only had so much stuff (the back elbow and Vader Attack hit multiple times) but it was all doing damage so you hardly cared. Steinblock came back with dropkicks and big sweeping blows (to huge crowd reaction since they cared about Vader already) but he missed a splash onto the leg and Vader never really looked back, crushing him with an Avalanche and a Splash for the win. Definitely a way to establish him for later, bigger matches.

ER: Not much Vader earlier than this. This is Vader at his most long haul trucker, with the perfect wrestling body and his sweet round face. He shifts side to side with soft polite eyes during the long in ring introduction ceremony with everyone from the tour, but when he's out for his match he's taunting everyone with an American Flag. An odd sized American flag, Vader's belly sticking out under his short, zipped, normal man's windbreaker jacket. Pointing to the flag, doing ethnic heel "How about that, huh? How about that right there!" Cheap heat diner brawler Vader, Bull Power, works the best Eddy Steinblock match I've ever seen, because he just beasts Steinblock's ass and makes him sell and bump. If it's not the best Steinblock match, it's the most compelling. I haven'y seen any 80s Steinblock, but I've seen plenty of 90s Steinblock where he's booking himself on top forever. It's wild to see him get punched around and beaten up bad by Vader. Bull Power doesn't have all of Vader's presence and size confidence, but he knows he can hit hard and throw his weight around. This man looked tough and out of place, a different cool version of a favorite.  

Axel Dieter/Steve Casey vs. Le Grand Vladimir/Rasputin II

MD: A feel good tag. We've seen a bunch of these now but the clipping made it seem even more so since you never really saw the heels on top. Maybe they never were even over two falls. This had heel miscommunication, Vlad walking into a bunch of spots (the best was when he armdragged nothing and was made to look the fool), Dieter playing the hits and Rasputin bringing size and energy in his bumping and Casey relative youth. You got some fun moments in here but it was harder than the other matches to get a real sense of things past Vlad's annoyance with Rasputin.

ER: We only have four minutes of this, but we see a lot in four minutes. Matt and I are the only two people in the world who talk about Le Grand Vladimir and this is the first I'm seeing him five years older, and he's somehow even better. This German style that nobody cares about that acts as a fountain of youth to older tall brutes. Vladimir works as stooging brute great at getting caught off guard by Steve Casey, a chance to nuanced bad partner bullshit with Rasputin, five years older but taking faster bumps to the floor than in 1981. I was blown away by how strong Casey's fundamentals were, admittedly more so when I thought it was Texas Steve Casey. No, British Steve Casey has the fundamentals and worked real strong as a babyface with heavyweight moving dropkicks and snug headlocks. Dieter is eternally loudly over, a god. Steve Casey looked like he belonged with Dieter in every big babyface moment, a natural fit. 

9/5/86

Franz Schuhmann vs. Hansi Rooks

MD: Rooks is kind of like if you merged Vader with Harley Race, in look at least. He's a real jerk. Schuhmann had a connection with the audience which reminds me of UFO and especially Sal to a degree and it made sense he'd be a top guy there for years after this. He went sailing out at Rooks' hands right towards the camera to start and then pulled back in. Then Rooks had the audacity to go for a handshake and kick him. When Rooks was beating on him on the outside and got a yellow card, he merrily waved to the crowd on the way back in. You have to like his style at least. Franz had some fiery comebacks including dropkicks that knocked Rooks out of the ring or that pinballed him, but Rooks eventually won it with a nice tilt a whirl slam.

ER: You're telling me that there was a big fat guy with Harley Race hair out there named Hansi Rooks?! Fans wanted to see Otto Wanz's body with the familiar blond curls of Harley, with a name honoring Razzle Dingley. I've never heard of this guy and neither have you. He's the perfect kind of brute for our German tent shows, a big heel who knows how to kick and punch and is a real bully. That's what they wanted to see and that's the 80s German heel style I've grown accustomed to. Rooks is not as good as Quinn or Vladimir or Wiskoski or Vader and he leans out of strikes but he is one of them and this was a fun, clipped look. His clubbing to Schuhmann's chest looked heavy and his finishing slam was cool, but this was just a glimpse. 

Otto Wanz vs. Col. Brodey

MD: I'll be honest that part of the appeal of the 80-81 shows is that there's just a bit less of the familiarity we've already had with later 80s German footage. Guys like Brodey and Guajardo. They're fine and generally functional but I've liked getting to know Morowski better for instance. 

So this felt familiar, almost stereotypical. It was, of course, a nightmare of a time for Brodey. Wherever he tried to go, whatever he tried to do, Wanz was there. He'd go for a full nelson and Wanz would butt butt him. He got whipped into the corner and belly attacked. Wanz would throw these brutal looking hamhocks or take him down with a swank tricked out armbar takeover. Once or twice Brodey would pry off a leg and have some hope but Wanz would just kick him across the ring or propel him that way out of a pin. When he hit the flip senton and the splash it was a mercy, even if Brodey's ineffectual kicking might have said otherwise. Obviously, the crowd loved it all of course.

Bull Power vs. Axel Dieter

MD: We're lucky to have this footage. It's very good, even if Leon was just figuring it out still. Dieter was not and he knew exactly what to do, charging in right at the start and doing some damage. The ref wasn't going to let him go wild so early though and Vader used that distraction to snatch Axel's throat. He'd do these lifting hanging tree chokes, put him down and just clobber him. It looked great. He had plenty of Vader attacks and back elbows and a tendency to move Axel around by his throat. Dieter would come back when he could, either throwing desperate shots, or after Vader missed a corner charge or he could duck a back elbow. The place went nuts as he just laid into him with uppercuts and punches. All it took was one shot from Vader to turn things right back around though. Both men went over the top once or twice (with Axel able to use Vader's weight against him) and things devolved on the floor. This was raw but well worth watching.

Klaus Wallas vs. Eddy Steinblock

MD: Wallas was a judoka in the 1976 Olympics which more or less made his pro career and got him runs in New Japan. He picked up a thing or two there like the enziguiri he used at the end of one round. he was 43 and at the tail end of his career but he had presence and confidence as he moved around. My favorite thing he did was this little duck around to whack Steinblock in the back to cut him off. The first time we see him do it, he does it in the lower back with an outright slap and it looks nasty. Steinblock would come back which would mean mostly whips into the corner and mares for Wallas. I get the sense he wasn't taking too many big bumps anymore, but the fans ate it up anyway. I liked the finish which had Wallas whipped, do a little do-si-do where he hooked the arm to whip Steinblock back the other way, where he caught him in that European arm drag slam that ended so many matches.

Steve Wright/Klaus Kauroff vs. Rambo/John Quinn

MD: This got time and actually had a decent amount of heat. It's one of Rambo's first tours of Germany, if not the first. Apparently he had come in through working for Delaporte in France. Of course, the heat wouldn't start until Wright clowned these guys, absolute menace that he was. Fun bit with Quinn where Wright would cartwheel off of whips and Quinn would just walk off of them, refusing to run. Wright also did the multiple kip ups deal with Rambo, and then a great chinlock bit where he worked up to a fireman's carry, got cut off by Quinn, did it again, and then when Quinn came in whacked him with Rambo's feet on an airplane spin. Big pop for that. Heels controlled with a lot of illegal cutoffs and even when Wright came back after ducking a second double clothesline, Rambo kept breaking up pins until he got red carded. You need to do a finish like that now and again to get over the rules, really.

 

9/7/86

Bull Power vs. Steve Wright

MD: This feels like a real find honestly. We're just looking at 86 Bull Power here, but you watch him against a guy like Wright who was such a master of his craft and Vader comes off like a huge monster, a huge star. He nails Wright before the match with the American flag and the image of it made me wish he had worked the whole match with his hat. Ah well. Wright dodges a Vader corner charge at the bell, and follows up, knocking Vader all the way out of the ring. Vader comes back and press slams him over the top rope. They really don't look back from there.

There are cool bits in here where Wright, who is usually a menace to everyone, just can't get out of a wristlock and he keeps monkey flipping Vader who just hangs on. You get all the stuff you'd expect, Vader Attacks, and corner charges, and just the meatiest shots from Vader. Wright comes back by throwing his entire body at him and choking the life out of him desperately, no funny tricks here. Vader's able to shut him down with one shot though. Ten shots from Wright equal one from Vader. They go quite a while and we get a sense of it even with the clipping, before Vader KOs him with one, slams him, and hits the big splash for the win. It's a very good match where Wright took but only at a high cost and when it made the most sense. Mostly it was giving. They were still building to the Otto match here.

Axel Dieter vs. Le Grand Vladimir

MD: It might just be a selection of the footage we have but these two feel like lifelong opponents. I just went over to wrestling data on a whim, after having that thought, to see how many times they faced. I clicked on Dieter's opponents and there, at the very top of the list by a wide wide margin was Vladimir. I wouldn't have necessarily guessed that but I'm not at all surprised by it. So it's not the selection of matches we have. It's simply truth.

There's such familiarity and contempt in this match. They spend the first round trading mares and chinlocks and fighting out of them and cutting each other off, but as it gets going, Vlad comes in with his overhand hammers and his casual knee strikes and his stomps, and Dieter comes back by ducking a shot and catapulting him into the ropes so he lands on the knees, and ultimate finishes him off with mean whips into the corner and body slams. These two know each other, every cell, and it's almost like watching a married couple bicker on some level, the way it's obvious they're under each other's skin. It's a very lived in match, if that makes any sense, and it's fun to visit, especially knowing we get to go home and they're stuck with one another.

Kid Burgess/Steve Casey vs. Hansi Rooks/Klaus Wallas

MD: Burgess is George Burgess, also Jamaica George and "Coolcat Jackson" which is an amazing name. He passed away a couple of years ago. He was able to clown the heels by escaping things and especially (of course) with a preternaturally hard head. They were able to get their heat on Casey instead and leaned on him hard. After winning the first fall, the camera cuts to the crowd where some security guards have to force a guy back into his seat and I got the feeling people were getting upset. That's probably why Casey came back (as Rooks was trying to work over his ears) and won the second fall with a quick jumping back elbow that seemed to surprise Wallas on the apron in that he didn't move to interfere until it was too late. They did a lot of brawling outside of the ring in the third fall, probably to try to channel the energy elsewhere, so that when they worked over Burgess and Wallas won with a suplex, there wasn't a riot or anything. 

 

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