Found Footage Friday: MISAWA~! FUCHI~! SLAUGHTER~! BUNDY~! GANG~! PG-13~! DOUGIE~! TN VOLS~!

Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Masa Fuchi AJPW 3/24/92

MD: For the first 4/5th of this, Fuchi really had Misawa's number. He started out by bullying on the mat, so Misawa stood up, but he pressed him into the ropes to lay in shots. Misawa started to fire back as he would, so he picked at a leg and never looked back from there, spending the next ten-plus minutes just dismantling a limb as only Fuchi could. Every time Misawa started to come back, Fuchi would cut him off with a quick kick to the knee. He kept it moving and interesting too, using a tree of woe followed by a dropkick, a shin-breaker onto a table on the outside, and an STF. The fans were behind Misawa and took serious umbrage every time Fuchi went too far. He couldn't quite put him away, but I like how Misawa couldn't use his first choice of moves to come back. He couldn't hit a suplex so he had to shift to a DDT, that sort of thing. A lot of the comeback and stretch was about him just grounding Fuchi and hurting him however he could. I wouldn't have minded Fuchi getting a nearfall towards the end, but this instead portrayed a much clearer and cleaner momentum shift and that was probably a story worth telling in and of itself.

ER: If the idea of Masa Fuchi savagely attacking Misawa's knee for 15 minutes sounds appealing to you, then you are going to love this match. I don't know who out there would be reading Segunda Caida and also not be into Masa Fuchi punching someone's knee as if were pizza dough, but I'm sure they're out there. I don't think there are that many wrestlers who can make 15 minutes of leg work as interesting as Fuchi, and I think a big part of that is the pure joy Fuchi derives from it. This is not a man mechanically working over a limb, this is a man who is doing his favorite thing in the world and is unable to hide that it is his favorite thing. All of the work before the leg work was really good, with Fuchi locking in a super tight side headlock and Misawa dishing out sharp elbows whenever he had some space. But before long Fuchi is kicking Misawa with some downright evil straight kicks to the inside knee, throwing low dropkicks that are clearly aimed at the patella and not the lower thigh, and you can see Misawa starting to flounder. 

There is an amazing spot where Misawa misses an enziguiri, and Fuchi hops in place with his arms extended, knowing he has a sitting duck, before connecting with one of his own. It's the closest I've seen to a native All Japan wrestler pointing to his head after out-thinking his opponent. Fuchi does some brilliant work around the turnbuckles and ringpost, placing Misawa in a tree of woe and DIGGING his elbow into that knee, then dropkicking it some more for good measure. When Fuchi drags him to the ringpost, I'm not sure I've seen a man slam a leg more gleefully into a ringpost. Fuchi even takes a running start to do it! Fuchi slams Misawa's leg into the post like he's trying to slam his front door as hard as possible after an argument with a neighbor. I like how the legwork affected Misawa's abilities to perform some of his offense, making him adjust his offense to use more leverage throws and just try to flatten Fuchi out to stop him. That knee does not stop Misawa from hitting a top rope elbow suicida and a big frog splash, but the man took all that damage and if he wants to hammer his kneecaps a little bit more on a house show, who am I to judge? 

King Kong Bundy vs. Sgt. Slaughter USA Pro Wrestling 8/22/97

MD: I have a lot of faith in Eric's ability to write this one up, but a few things did stand out. Slaughter was billed as the new WWF Commissioner and a 5-time World champion, which is pretty interesting math. Just having the WWF title one time is impressive enough and it's not like being a former US champion isn't, in 1997, more impressive than having the AWA America's Title or whatever they made for him. Bundy, in a back and forth in the ring, said that people were saying he got the commissioner's position in an unsavory way, which feels quite timely actually. They led off with a good battle over a top wristlock. I was kind of disappointed Bundy didn't end up pulling the hair because with guys of his vintage/era/style, I want that Studd-like dissonance of the huge guy resorting to cheating. Sarge got an advantage but hit his signature corner bump to the floor which looked particularly good onto the Newark ballroom carpets. From there, Bundy basically leaned on him with one hope spot until Sarge pulled him out, rolled back in for the countout, and rolled right back out to toss chairs at him until he retreat away. I'd call this a very competent Bundy performance. He'd interact with the crowd and mock Slaughter with a salute and even moved quickly once or twice when it meant something. The brawling on the floor was pretty good which was a little disappointing because they could have done more with that. Anyway, let's see what Eric has to say.

ER: It is true that I'm the one who pushed to include this match in NFF this week. Slaughter wasn't exactly working a ton of dates by 1997 and the idea of him working a Holiday Inn conference room in a year where his only other match was a long PPV match against HHH was far too compelling to pass up. I also loved Bundy's pre-match mic work, deftly tossing off two major insults in two sentences, one taking down the city of Newark and the other a sly takedown of Slaughter. Every heel is going to insult the local town, but some insults are better than others, and Bundy grabbing the mic to say, "I come from SOUTH Jersey, GOD'S country, not this god forsaken nuclear wasteland NORTH Jersey." That would have been a perfect win on its own, but following it up by implying Slaughter did morally ambiguous acts to earn his WWF Commissioner job was pleasantly unexpected. 

The match played well to each of their strengths, with Slaughter backing up Bundy with nice right hands and doing his best to stick and move. A year ago I wrote up a transcendent WWF fundraiser show from 1992 that was among my favorite things I watched all of last year. This was a show that was unlisted in official WWF records, with a Berzerker/Sgt. Slaughter match the main selling point for me. I was shocked that Sgt. Slaughter did his signature bump on that show, a show that was only being recorded by some dad with a camcorder. Well, here we are 5 years later and Slaughter - nearly 50 years old - is taking that bump as fast and dangerously as ever, crashing and burning across the unpadded Newark Holiday Inn carpet. Slaughter's corner bump is often majestic, and the one he takes here is one of the greats, not even accounting for age and venue. It's a nice turning point in the match, with Bundy keeping Slaughter down for a bit (and Slaughter taking a nice brick wall bump for Bundy's back elbow), and I liked how Slaughter hit three shoulderblocks on his comeback, knocking Bundy down on the third but missing a big elbowdrop to give the control back. I also agree with Matt the the floor brawling was really good and they easily could have done a couple more minutes of that and sent the fans home with a truly memorable main event. Bundy took a nice ring posting and they threw a couple of those rigid hotel ballroom chairs at each other, ending with some nice chaos before a post-match highlight reel makes me want to see some 1997 Cousin Luke matches that I didn't know existed. 

Doug Gilbert/PG-13 vs. One Man Gang/TN Vols (Reno Riggins/Steven Dunn) MECW 1999

MD: If the last minute or two went a little different this would have been just about everything you could want from a 10 minute match. Gang felt like an attraction and got to knock around JC Ice early, with Jamie doing sort of an Akeem dance mock and then paying for it. Midway through the ring broke and they used it to beat Dunn to a pulp. They had a ref distraction to miss the hot tag to Gang, and Dutch Mantel was on commentary so that was fun. The hot tag was good but it went to Reno instead of Gang which was the cardinal mistake in the match. I thought they might do a little bit more heat and turn it around and then have Reno tag Gang but he just came in. There was also some interference around the finish that was probably unnecessary and Dunn made the pin as the illegal man, which was what it was. Plus, the match could have used just a little more Doug. All nitpicks though because what we did get really did work both for me and the crowd. The finishing sequence was brutal with the Vols doing a double slingshot belly to back set up into a facebuster and then Gang hitting the 747. Pretty much an all time way to put a guy away. It's kind of exciting to think what other matches like this will turn up as Bryan Turner keeps going through his tapes.

ER: A very fun match, pretty much exactly what anyone going out of their way to watch this match would expect, only with a truly confounding ending that goes completely against what the entire match was building towards. It started out a bit shaky, with Wolfie having to do all the work to cover up all of the work that Steven Dunn was not doing. PG-13 are two guys that could work a great armdrag bump against the Invisible Man, so it's no shock that Wolfie is able to cover for Dunn. I swear, Dunn does the loosest, ugliest sliding legdrop I have ever seen. The camera angle didn't help, but I don't think there was a single angle you could have shown that legdrop to make it work. The match everyone (me included) wanted to see was Dundee vs. Gang, and Dundee did his usual chop suey cartwheel routine that ends with him being laid out by Gang's nice clothesline. That was the pairing I was most excited to see, but the best pairing of the match was easily Reno Riggins and Dougie. The two had the best punch exchange of the match, and Doug sprinted like a crazy man into an armdrag, and then took two insanely high backdrops. I didn't realize Dougie had Todd Morton backdrop height in him, but doing it twice in one match shows that it sure ain't no fluke. I dug the PG-13 heat segment on Dunn, choking him with the snapped middle ring rope and repeatedly getting the ref to get Gang back on the apron (nice work by the referee getting actually physical with the mammoth Gang). Gang got sent back out to the apron three of four times, and it was clear the entire thing was building to Gang, unleashed, decimating PG-13, Dougie, and the man wearing ICP paint on the floor. Wolfie sets up the hot tag in wild fashion by vaulting up to the top rope (remember, no middle rope) and whiffing on a corkscrew moonsault. It is unfathomable that Gang wasn't the hot tag here, no matter how decently Riggins handles a hot tag. I wanted to see Gang flattening everyone, no matter how strong the crowd was chanting for the Vols. Ah, nevertheless. 

Read more!

On Brand Segunda Caida: PG-13 Hit the Big Leagues

PG-13 vs. Legion of Doom WWF Raw 5/12/97

ER: Here is the lone 1997 WWF in-ring appearance of PG-13, a team that would have been a fantastic addition to the 1995 roster but weren't going to have much place in 1997. This whole thing is fun, two goofballs who are the last ones to find out that they would be wrestling LOD. Of course it's only going to go 2 minutes, but what else was supposed to happen? I am not sure the people of Delaware knew what to make of JC Ice, and it wouldn't surprise me if this was the only time Jamie Dundee ever wrestled in Delaware. PG-13 rush the ring and throw punches that LOD do not acknowledge, and then do a great job of flying around painfully for LOD. Wolfie D gets bieled through the ropes to the floor, slides back in to tag in Ice and Jamie Dundee gets a great laugh from the crowd by avoiding the tag while sucking his teeth. He gets brought in anyway and desperately uses some of his Dundee flailing karate to keep Hawk at bay before being nailed with a clothesline. 

I liked our tiny bit of PG-13 offense, with Ice raking Hawk's eyes and trying to hit a piledriver, only to have it blocked. Wolfie D comes in and they hit a stuff piledriver on Hawk, who completely ignores it, and PG-13 both eat clotheslines. The finish is the kind of dangerous finish that nobody on the regular roster would agree to, as Ice gets lifted up for the Doomsday Device (with Dundee begging and praying for mercy the whole time he's on the shoulders). Once Ice takes the Device, they position him in the middle and then lift Wolfie for more of the same, with the idea that Wolfie would get knocked off and flip directly onto JC Ice. And that's kind of what happens - and it probably should have gone even worse - as Wolfie tries to soften his fall without sending a knee into Dundee's face, and then they get pinned while draped across each other. I don't know if this was their last TV appearance (they might have taped something that aired after this), but this sure felt like a match that only happens when an act won't be returning. 

PG-13 vs. The Dudley Boyz ECW Hardcore Heaven 8/17/97

ER: Dundee's big padded Uncle Sam top hat is incredible, he's got his gorgeous rainbow sherbet Mickey Mouse Ice jean jacket, Mickey boxer shorts hiked over his Ice jorts, really every single thing about PG-13 was hateable. God knows I would spend money on that jacket if it got put up on eBay. For this match, I didn't think it would work to have PG-13 invading from USWA...while also working babyface opposite the Dudleys. When a rudo luchador goes up against a rudo gringo, the luchador is always going to be the tecnico. It is a dicey move to expect any crowd anywhere to cheer for PG-13, but somehow Dundee kind of does the impossible. He cuts a promo on the Dudleys, running down Mama Dudley and doing a Butthead impression, all before this "rasslin' match" and it actually seems to get the crowd behind PG-13? The early goings are slow, but there's an amusing moment where Dundee slides out of the ring and sneaks a kiss on Jenna Jameson (who was out there with the Dudleys) who acts completely disgusted at having Jamie Dundee near her, and it's shocking that there were no Styles comments about that being the worst thing she's ever had in her mouth. The match gets good when the crowd weirdly gets behind Dundee standing up to Bubba. Dundee starts firing punches and Bubba asks for another, no selling the prior ones, so Dundee kicks him in the balls to a huge reaction. It should also be noted that Dundee's reaction time seems somewhat slow this entire match, so there is a chance that Jamie Dundee decided to get loaded for his ECW PPV appearance. 

The hot tag to Wolfie D gets a genuine hot tag reaction - which I was not expecting- and Wolfie D looked really great here. There's a cool spot where he hits a double dropkick on both Dudleys and gets insane height off it, the guy must have been a champion high jumper. He hits a nice tiger driver on D-Von and a great bulldog off the top rope on Bubba (with Bubba seated on the top and Wolfie leaping off with him). D-Von catches Dundee on an attempted pescado, and then Wolfie flies onto both of them with one of his own. This couple minute stretch was easily the best part of the match, and really showed how Wolfie D could have been a popular ECW act, as he was doing ECW-style highspot chaining way better than a lot of their in house guys. But the 3D comes almost immediately after all this without much build. I think the match may have been more effective had PG-13 worked as invading heels and overtly cheated throughout, threatening to take the ECW belts back to USWA. What we got wasn't bad, but it felt like they picked the most difficult layout for success. Still, they worked hard to make a tough layout work, and that feels like a success. 

Read more!

On Brand Segunda Caida: Jamie Dundee

JC Ice vs. 1-2-3 Kid USWA 8/7/93

ER: This is more of an angle than an actual match (it is USWA TV, so) but it rules. PG-13 come out and start running down 123 Kid for being small. Jamie Dundee of all people calling people short is going to make for great TV, and he goes on this whole Showtime at the Apollo diss routine on Kid. "People say that we're small, you should see this small stick man in WWF right now! That kid is so small he can hula hoop with a Cheerio! Razor Ramon must have been drunk when he lost to him. This guy's parents named him after numbers!" Kid comes out, gets in the ring, Wolfie goes to fight him, but JC wants to teach this "little guy" a lesson. Dundee is the perfect kind guy to teach someone a lesson, because you know his ass is gonna get kicked. I died and rewound as JC runs into the ring and straight into a super high backdrop, has a great punch exchange with Kid (I love how Dundee throws punches), and my 12 yr old mind would have blown had I seen this, since I actually believed 123 Kid was the smallest wrestler imaginable. I imagine tons of fans have had a disappointing experience when meeting Waltman for the first time. "You were my favorite because you were small like me! Oh, you are not small at all." 

JC stooges around for Kid, great at standing there looking like a dummy while eating kick combos. He takes another backdrop but lands on his feet, showing off to the fans before getting kicked. Then Wolfie D makes this a tag match and comes in, even yelling "pick on someone your own size!" as he charges in. He gets the advantage for a bit, then Kid picks him apart with kicks and JC Ice runs back in to double team Kid. The match proper went maybe 2 minutes, Jeff Jarrett runs in for the save, and somehow we never get a PG-13 vs. Kid/Jarrett match (which would have the potential to be a legitimately great match). Why would you not run that match!? Anyway, this whole segment ruled. (Also stick around for Richard Lee's promo on Bert Prentice right after this, made me want to see him take the Moondogs against anyone and everyone).

PG-13 vs. Tony Falk/Tony Williams USWA 10/2/93

ER: I, personally, always expect a powerhouse team like the 2 Tonys to take over 90% of a match. PG-13 come out with Midget D, and practically the only offense they get the entire match is when D interferes from the floor. Most of the match is spent on Williams controlling PG-13 with armdrags, and Dundee is someone who is going to do a ton of funny things while getting frustrated by armdrags. Dundee takes two great backdrops and bumps to the floor off a clothesline, comforted and cradled on the floor by Midget D. Wolfie does some great stooging around athleticism, like doing a rope assisted backflip while caught in an armlock, only to get clotheslined once he lands; or, getting a hiptoss on Williams and trying to legdrop Williamses' arm, completely missing and hitting canvas instead. Now, why the mat hurt Wolfie D's buns because he missed, when it would have been the same landing has he hit the arm? I couldn't tell you, but I love it. Tommy Rich comes out and gives this great conversational ramble to Dave Brown, and eventually gets in the ring and starts kicking Tony Falk's ass, just to be a jerk.

Read more!

New Footage Friday: PG13! FINLAY! KILLER KARL KOX! DERRICK KING!

Killer Karl Kox Turns Face! AWCW 1973     Pt. 2     Pt. 3     Pt. 4     Pt. 5

MD: We don't do whole TV shows often but this feels worth covering. It's possible this has been out there but quick googling and youtube searches didn't bring it up and it popped up on a TV youtube channel as opposed to a wrestling one, which is always a good sign. This is just a great episode of territories TV, one that felt close to ten years before its time. 73 is not that deep into the decade and things are already defined by the war between Big Bad John's crew and the People's Army.

Lord Layton's perfect as the host, always feigning a struggle with his own moral quandary of journalistic neutrality vs rooting for the good people against the very bad, which just somehow makes the good feel better and the bad worse. The fans are interesting here, never popping at individual lines in the interviews, but waiting until the end. As Karl Kox (who had just turned face) was going on about how he did it for his dead mother who didn't want to see him reviled anymore, I wasn't sure if he really had the fans because of it. In the end though, they were on board. It's such a novel, unique to this area, thing that Big Bad John's biggest gripe was that he had paid $1500 to fly Kox out to be part of his crew and now that money was wasted. That wouldn't have worked almost anywhere else in the world.

This episode had four matches, all of which at least a little competitive. The first (part 2 video) was Bulldog Brower/Abby vs.  Larry O'Dea/Billy White Wolf, with Brower taking a good chunk of the match and the promo after. It left me wanting to see more of him. He had a great presence, a bulky force of gravity in the center of the ring, with big wind-ups to his shots and smart use of his size. It was a weird setting to see Adnan, but he was mainly there to bounce of Brower. Post match promo had Brower enthusiastically talking over John so they couldn't entirely stay focused but it worked for what it was.

Part 3 has the second match, which is Tiger Jeet Singh vs. Kox. The match was short but effective in establishing Kox as a tough and mean looming presence, now a babyface but not one that changed up his style at all. Singh moved and bumped around a bit more than you'd see a decade later, but he was still mostly what you'd expect. The forearm out of nowhere that ended it was great though. Post-match, Kox talked about how the other faces didn't trust him yet, which brought them out. This was the best part of the whole show as King Curtis, untrusting but pragmatic, said that they needed the greatest weapon in all of wrestling, the brainbuster (said like only he could) on their side.

Part 4 introduced Angelo Mosca to the territory, with Layton (who claims to have personally recruited him) playing up his sports and academic credentials like JR might fifteen years later. George Barnes is the sacrificial lamb and he stooges and bumps around well for him, but obviously doesn't have the chance to shine like in the recent Memphis footage we saw. Mosca is fine, but honestly, what's most notable is how out of breath he is in the post-match promo, even noting it and his nervousness, which is a good cover. Definitely not the sort of crazy Mosca promos we'd get in 84.

Then it ends with Waldo von Erich vs. Mario Milano, and if you can get past how deep Waldo still was into the nazi stormtrooper gimmick, even in 73 (it felt more severe than the Barons' goose stepping), this was actually really good. I don't think I've seen a ton of Waldo but he really worked the glove gimmick well, just absolutely unrelenting with a lot of different but all credible bits of offense surrounding it. Milano was fiery in his comebacks and revenge spots, quick to throw out headbutts. Just a good TV main event to put some heat back on the heels after the Kox turn and his win over Tiger.

The fact that we have this whole episode, and with TV Roll information at start makes me wonder just how much is out there. I know there are bits and pieces floating around but I really did enjoy this.

ER: I'll primarily focus on the Kox stuff, but this was a fun episode of TV, presided over by the presumably 7 foot tall Lord Layton, we got to see Abdullah the Butcher without big flapping tiddies but just as stabby as ever, Bulldog Brower even bigger than Abby and with work that looked more than worth seeking out, a fun main event, and a classy 70s TV presentation. But I came here to see the Killer and I loved what we got. His opening promo was open faced and tender, talking about how he recently lost his dear mother, and how his hated ways had turned his family into targets of harassment, and how he wanted to change his ways to honor his mother. I loved his understand of the skepticism, and his reasoning that if he betrayed the fans and his word, he was also betraying his mother, and that couldn't be. It left me not knowing whether he was genuine or not - after all, we've seen old heels go back on their word after much greater promises - so Layton's skepticism is warranted. Kox's match with Tiger Jeet Singh was fascinating to me, as it seems like Kox might be the perfect kind of opponent for Singh. Kox is an expressive seller who can make a claw hold mean something, but I also like Singh digging his nails into Kox's neck and face, loved the way Kox would fight back and struggle up to his feet, and Kox throwing fists is always going to land with me. The finish even feels like a rarity, because how often have you seen a Tiger Jeet Singh match with him actually getting pinned? Kox pins him after a quick, sharpe forearm shot, the kind of shot that looks like it should end a match. Kox throughout this episode looks like Robert Duvall in Killer Elite, a tight mustache with hair that slowly unfurls around the edges, leaving him with fantastic wings that could even bely his plain faced honesty. I loved this whole presentation.

PAS: This really made me wish we had more Australian stuff from this period (do they have a TV archive we can raid?), the idea of these two warring armies full of super charismatic dudes is really appealing. Kox is just incredible in the role of the humbled man trying to atone for his many sins and this really made me want to see him face off with Brower and Abby and everyone. Really felt like a Florida style promotion 10 years before Florida was doing this sort of thing.

TKG: Everything I’ve ever seen from the People’s Army v Big Bad John has been a blast but I’ve only seen “best of never” full shows before. And these full shows are well paced. The whole Kox turns babyface because of his mother’s cancer is amazing. I dug the opening tag a bunch. Bulldog Brower is a guy I associate with dull WWF undercards and I left this thinking that I need to rewatch all of those. All his offense is nasty looking and he’s really fun as immovable object slowly getting knocked down when eating offense. Larry O'day is a guy I will forever remember being killed by the Miracle Violence Connection and it will take something spectacular to make me see him as anything else. The Mosca v Barnes match I thought was really dull but everything else was worth watching and neat watching a whole show format.

Fit Finlay vs. Rico de Cuba CWA 8/7/97

MD: This was a 10+ minute glorified squash where late 90s Finlay (having shrugged off a lot of the chickenshit stooging from his 80s career) just steamrolled some poor, long-haired doofus. He let Rico toss him a couple of times early on and gave him a thing or two as the match went on (especially due to slipping on a banana peel), but this was mostly Fit jamming elbows and forearms into different parts of Rico's skull, turning him inside out with an over-rotated powerbomb, unloading on him utilizing the apron like 00s Finlay, stretching him for fun, and getting so fed up with the guy's last comeback that he ate a red card DQ for half choking him to death in the ropes. More of a novelty for its length than anything else, since you come in expecting the cruelty. It's 2x your 98 WCW Saturday Night Finlay squash and it's good that we get to highlight that sort of thing to the world.

PAS: Rico De Cuba definitely looks like a guy who should have been walking across the beach with Joe Gomez, Jim Powers and the Renegade, and Finlay treats him like that guy. We get all of the classic Finlay brutality, nerve holds which look like he is ripping out chunks of his traps, elbows directly into the trachea, knees across the nose. Cuba gets a couple of comebacks, which didn't look great but Finlay bumped huge for, including flying over the top rope twice. I liked Finlay psychotically trying to rip his head off for the DQ, and this was exactly the kind of thing which made us fall in love with him.

ER: This was so great, this was like if one of those Finlay vs. Johnny Swinger matches from Saturday Night were given 12 minutes instead of 3 minutes. The beating was just as cruel, it just went on 4x as long. Rico de Cuba was given a couple of very short flourishes, and Finlay sold like Cuba was a total superstar in those brief moments. My favorite stretch of the match was when Finlay took two super fast bumps over the top to the floor, working a great Berzerker routine of taking a fast (flipping) bump over the top and landing on his feet, rushing back in and getting tossed just as fast out the other side. Almost all the rest of this is Finlay absolutely mugging Cuba. It is a true greatest hits of every piece of Finlay offense that I love: numbing bodyslams, hard strikes, cruel elbowdrops, snug cravats and chinlocks, precision kneedrops, stomping right on Cuba's chest, and drawing the match ending DQ by tying Cuba's head into the ropes and yanking on his legs. Finlay on WCW Saturday Night is some of the greatest wrestling displays in history, and this is him sharing that formula on some non-Karagias long haired shiny trunks pretty boy 5,000 miles away from Universal Studios.

TKG:  It’s Finlay beating the stew out of some putz. I will always watch that. The early elbows to the nose were so fucking great. And Finlay doing crazy flying out of the ring for de Cuba’s stuff was wild. Man when Finlay puts a guy in a crab that is a fucking deep crab.

Drew Haskins/Derrick King vs. PG-13 SAW ?/?/09

MD: My big takeaway from this is that Haskins with this same gimmick and attitude, would be pretty in demand right now. There's a pre-match promo here establishing the (newly turned?) heel character and how he's on Tiger Beat, etc., just ridiculous over the top snotty heel pretty boy claims. When he actually comes out, a big chunk of the match and commentary is based around the fact he's sans knee pads and wearing dress shoes. Dundee seemed way more into this than Wolfie, both in interacting with Haskins early on (taking the shoe off and tossing it, etc.) and the way he worked the apron during Wolfie's face-in-peril later on. Lots of charisma there still, even in 2009. This hit the marks for a TV tag match but what I'm going to remember the most is the shtick.

PAS: You don't normally see JC Ice outshticked in a match, but Drew Haskins was really on one here. The dress shoes was a great bit of nonsense, and when JC Ice wearing cut off acid washed jeans shorts and a hockey jersey is clowning your clothes you know you have really done something. I think this was hurt a bit by having most of the heat on Wolfie come during the commercial break, as it goes from heel bumbling almost directly into the count out finish, where a midget comes out and hits Wolfie with a broom. I do love watching Derrick King throw jabs, but I imagine there is a better match between these two teams out there.

ER: Hell yes, gimme something like this once a week to watch and write about, just the best kind of Wrestling is America footage you can get. Shown on regional TV, sponsored by a local bail bond company (Grumpy's) that has a crudely drawn rockabilly babe logo, Derrick King wearing hot pink gear, Drew Haskins in ice blue trunks, dress socks and loafers (wrestling in loafers is far more funny than it should be), and PG-13 looking like versions of their heyday selves who have since done time. Haskins takes great pratfalls related to his shoes, including faceplanting after tripping on the low rope getting back into the ring. Derrick King takes two of the highest backdrops, certified Memphis classics. Everyone throws punches at the level you'd want to see, with King's jabs and Wolfie's overhand right standing out especially. We even get an appearance of Half Dollar in the double count out finish, the cohort of King cohort Big Dollar. It's all classic Memphis bullshit, the best junk food.

TKG: The midget was named half dollar!!! I absolutely don’t understand how Drew Haskins didn’t become a bigger deal.

Read more!

New Footage Friday: Lawler, Rude, PG-13, Rich, Dougie, Koko, Bruno, Baron, Bruiser, Ladd

Dick The Bruiser/Bruno Sammartino vs. Ernie Ladd/Baron von Raschke WWA 8/25/73

PAS: This was a no DQ match with Sam Menacker the play by play announcer as the special referee. Apparently according to Cagematch the Bruiser/Bruno tag team was called Annihilation Inc. which is a hilariously Progress Wrestling tag name for the early 70s. This a pretty great big star tag match with Bruno and Bruiser walloping the heels and Heenan running around bumping and getting in the mix. It was kind of odd to see Bruno take a subsidiary role, he is usually such a titanic force, but he was definitely the B-Side of the tag team. Bruiser is a trip, super expressive with some fun Stooges spots, including making Ladd punch himself. Finish was wild with Heenan splitting Menacker open with a foreign object and the heel working over both faces with the ring microphone, kind of odd to have such a non-finish in a no-DQ match but it certainly got the crowd into an appropriate lather.

MD: Where to even begin on this one? Apparently Bruno and Dick the Bruiser were called Annihilation, Inc. I sort of loved Bruiser here. He was far enough along that he could be a big ham, but not so far along that he had become a self-parody like he would into the 80s. Bruno might have been the outside attraction but Bruiser was the guy who was the most over with this crowd. He had this way of adding an extra pause to everything, almost freezing time for just a little too long to be believable but just long enough to transcend belief, to push it from faux realism to borderline mythic.

The heel side here was great. Ladd was just larger than life, with an athleticism he'd lose later. He threw himself into Bruno's punches and back out with the bumps. He had this way of maximize his physical presence, not just on offense, but on selling, taking up as much space as possible to get over his writhing and pain, especially by the ropes and on the apron. I also love the idea of a guy so big needing to utilize a loaded thumb gimmick. There's something underhanded and insulting about that. The Baron was more chickenshit than you might expect. I think he was back body dropped about fifteen times in the match.

Menacker was all over this match as the special referee. It was no dq, so he was mainly there to stop Heenan from overtly interfering. If this was a title match or something more serious, it would have grated, but as an over the top tag, it fit perfectly, really didn't take any heat or credit away from the babyfaces, and the fans loved it.

ER: This was a blast and there's so much to cover that I'm not sure where to begin. I haven't seen any Bruiser or Crusher from when either were closer to their peak, so it was wild seeing Bruiser getting reactions like he was all four Beatles in 1964. Every time he would move an inch he would get wild shrieks from the fans, it was insane. I'm not sure I've seen a large crowd in love with a wrestler this much, pure adulation. He clearly loved soaking it up, but I just couldn't get over how much people screamed when he would do something as simple as go for a pinfall (imagine if Bruiser was in the USWA 10 man below, just doing pinfalls! The event would sound like an absolute massacre with all the constant screaming). Due to Bruiser's impossibly huge popularly, Bruno really could have been any man. I don't think I've ever seen a legend as big as Bruno so clearly relegated to second banana status, sheerly due to the popularity of someone he's teaming with. Imagine Hogan and Rock teaming in 2002 and seeing fans flip out for Rock and then look at Hogan as someone who is standing in front of the Rock and could he please move because we can't see the Rock when you're standing there. Bruno is the cute sheep wandering back into frame in front of the cutest sheep in the petting zoo.

The heels basically stooged for 20 straight minutes, which is fine by me. Ernie Ladd looked gargantuan. Obviously the guy is big, but he looked like freaking Andre here. He also took 3 bumps over the top to the floor, was made to punch his own face by Bruiser (and bumped big for it) and was a real great foil for Bruiser. Baron isn't really a great bumper, he has a long awkward body and falls more like 2010 Akira Taue, if Taue was also constantly getting a chair pulled out from under him. But those bumps work tremendously well in a stooge setting, buckling at the waist from kicks to the stomach, falling on his butt after big punches, taking a ton of backdrops, all of it great. Two different times he does this awesome apron pratfall: He's standing on the apron and takes a shot, and his legs fan out so he's basically doing the splits heels first on the apron, holding onto the top rope while his butt is hanging over the floor, before dropping to the floor. The second time he did this bump was when he was holding Bruiser prone and Ladd naturally accidentally clocks him, just an all time great pratfall. Heenan is fantastic at ringside, kicking at officials, running in with sneaky and not so sneaky punches, causing total chaos and distraction, introducing a ringside microphone cord to choke Sam Menacker and others; Menacker got a couple little Walking Tall moments too, got to slide Baron's foot off the ropes during a pinfall, stuff the fans could get into. This was great, real crowd pleaser. Nobody went home disappointed by this one.

Jerry Lawler vs. Rick Rude CWA 8/27/84

PAS: This is from a commercial video tape of USWA cage matches and seems to have fallen through the cracks, no other reviews, didn't make the DVDVR Memphis set, etc. This was worked kind of like a Bruno cage match with Lawler beating the bricks off of Rude for much of the match. Lawler laying in punches to someone is going to be always worth watching and Rude took an appropriate pasting. I am never going to be down with no-selling a piledriver and one of the great things about the Lawler hulk up, is how he remained vulnerable during it, popping up after a piledriver is the opposite of that. Still despite that this was a pretty heated brawl and really fun discovery.

MD: This was just a mauling. Every wrestler in his mid-20s should probably have to take ten minutes of Lawler's offense in a cage while the crowd gets more and more into it. It builds character. Rude already had a lot here, though, and you can hardly belief this is the same guy that started the year off as a bland babyface in Mid-South. I love his attempts to escape, especially the ones that are futile, either trying to go under the cage or in between the two slats. He wanted nothing to do with any of this and it's glorious. His little bit of offense comes late in the match, almost entirely because of Lawler's own hubris, mostly groin-related and wholly appropriate to his character. The no-sell on the pile-driver is fine because Lawler was still so fresh you figure he knows his to protect himself. It's worth it as the place comes unglued with the strap. It wasn't a spot he overused and here it meant a ton. Nice, refreshing violence with Rude coming off as a guy who deserved the comeuppance he received.

PG-13/Spellbinder/Tex Slazenger/Brian Christopher vs. Tommy Rich/Doug Gilbert/Jesse James Armstrong/Tracy Smothers/Koko B Ware USWA 2/6/96

ER: This match was plenty fun and also so so so so so stupid. It's a USWA vs. SMW 10 man anything goes tornado cage match, most pinfalls in 30 minutes wins. If you knew that info, and didn't even know the participants, you'd know that you'd want to see it. And then you see the names. PG-13! Tommy Rich! Smothers! Thicccc affffff KOKO! And then you realize that this is on USWA's home turf so PG-13 and Brian Christopher are working babyface, and you know this is going to be 8 stars. This match seemed too big to fail. These 10 names, in a cage, weapons, anything goes, the easiest win. The match doesn't even go the full 30, comes out to more like 22 minutes, just more condensed violence right?

And then they go and have almost SEVENTY PINFALLS in 22 minutes. That is not a typo. This was a match almost wholly comprised of pinfalls. Every back bump a guy took, that guy would get pinned. This started happening in the 2nd minute of the match, and kept going until the very end, when they hilariously tried to build drama with a last minute kickout. The kickout was absolutely hilarious, a genuine laugh out loud moment, because it was literally the ONLY kickout that happened the entire match. This was a match that had some guy getting pinned in some part of the ring literally every 15 seconds, and most of the match guys would be waiting in pinfalls for waaaaaay too long while a ref finished counting another pinfall at some other part of the ring. The pinfalls were so plentiful that the ref finally just stopped getting down to count some of them. The pinfall kickout was so hilarious because it made me desperately want JC Ice to yell out "Wait...THAT'S an option!?" Whoever it was that kicked out (video is pretty washed out and guys frequently are blocking other guys) was like the first ape in 2001 to learn how to use bones as tools/weapons. More guys got hit with a hubcap AND a cowbell than kicked out of any move. There were more referees in this match than there were kickouts. It was awful. The participants clearly were working under the rules of "Anything Goes, 'Cept Kickouts".

This was the worst All Japan battle royal I've ever seen. Now granted, the All Japan battle royal is one of my favorite gimmick matches, and they always leave a ton of room for personality to shine through. This is like if someone watched a couple of All Japan battle royals, and came away thinking the key to those being fun was the pinfalls. Or a computer noted when the biggest pops occurred on a card and determined that people cheer loudest during ring entrances and winning pinfalls, so the computer spit out some dot matrix paper stating that the most successful crowd reaction would be for a match that is only ring entrances and pinfalls. And for all the guys in the ring, and all the potential action that was happening, and all the guys spending more time on their backs than all the whores in Tennessee, we spend the whole match in a real tight shot from a ringside handheld camera. A match with this match participants needs some distance to put everything into scope, to follow the action. Watching this much action in a tight frame is like showing up late to the movies and having to sit in the front row, needing to turn left and right to follow action across the screen. 

Even with an entire, match long constantly annoying series of pinfalls, there were some small, tiny gold nuggets in this. Maybe not super nice gold, maybe tooth gold, but still it would be impossible to put these 10 guys into any pro wrestling situation and not get *something* out of it. These 10 guys have good enough schtick that you could have made this a "Hands Tied Behind Back, Must Wrestle on Knees" match and it probably would have turned out better than this. But still, there were moments. Tommy Rich looked like a guy who I want to see in more (better) multiman garbage brawls; it was fun seeing PG-13 as babyfaces, their usual (wonderful) schtick being cheered wildly instead of booed; Christopher hits a big dive off the top to the floor, Dougie hits people with a chair, Koko clonks a few guys with a cowbell and drops someone with the ghostbuster, I thought Jesse James actually showed a ton of charisma and was always super active, and we get a cool spirited post match run in with some skinny dirtbag guy in cut offs talking a ton of shit, Miss Texas eating a piledriver from Koko, and coming off far more violent than anything in the actual match. I cannot imagine a worse match featuring all 10 of these guys. I mean seriously put these exact 10 guys in ANY match other than this one, run that fucking simulation a thousand times, and I just can't picture it being worse than what we got here. Literally any singles match combination from those 10 names would have been better. Pick the least enticing singles match (Jesse James vs. Spellbinder?) and I'm positive it would be better than what we got. This was improbably awful. There's no way this match should have been this bad.

MD: Yeah, look, I don't even know what to say about this. Eric's got it covered, right? Ok, I do sort of occasionally enjoy how malleable the rules of wrestling can be. There are norms that everyone agrees upon and when people break those norms, it has the potential to screw up everything for everyone, because it shatters the social contract that allows for suspension of disbelief. Sometimes, however, you can be in a situation so unique that the norms don't apply. Old Survivor Series matches kind of work like that. You can definitely get eliminated on a bodyslam in an old Survivor Series match. This sort of had the makings of that. You had two companies feuding. It was in a cage. It was falls count anywhere and no DQ and chaotic.

Still, this was absolutely nuts. They should have made it so one counts worked as falls. If normal marathon matches are the equivalent of soccer games, low scoring with a lot of defense and very much a test of endurance, this was a basketball game, with everyone hitting layups and running back across the court. There was some cumulative selling as things went on but it was dangerous because anytime you fell down for more than a second, you were going to get pinned. Maybe it was more like Pro Wrestling Calvinball. Of the things I'm fascinated by in this match, it's not really the structure or any specific spots or performances. I wonder how they convinced someone like Tommy Rich to get pinned fifteen times on tape. Was it because he was going to get to pin someone else fifteen times? You know these guys weren't getting paid much for this. How did they put this together? The announcers could barely keep track of the score. It sort of crescendoed to a final moment. It wasn't like a battle royal where you could remember the order of elimination. Somehow they got to where they were going, so more power to them, I guess.

Last thought, this was a cage match where the cage was solely used to corral the participants and keep them in an area. It served a purpose, pushing everyone together so closely that there'd be constant action and constant pinfalls, but it wasn't uesd in any other way.

PAS: This was a mess, such a cool looking match on paper, with all time great guys like Tommy Rich and PG13, plus awesome fun dudes like Koko and Doug Gilbert, hard to fuck it up, but they fucked it up. This reminded me of an All Japan Battle Royal, where Misawa would get knocked down and dog piled to get eliminated, those were light hearted undercard fodder, this was a main event with guys going down to eye rakes and bodyslams. USWA was always trying weird stuff, a lot of times it worked, this time it really didn't. We have very few arena matches from 90s Memphis, so I was amped when this turned up, it could have been left on the cutting room floor.

Read more!

My Favorite Wrestling! WCW Saturday Night 3/11/00, Part 2

1. Todd Perri vs. Tommy Rogers

Damn this is like a WAR six man in its randomness. A Tommy Rogers singles match in 2000? An AWA jobber from 10 years prior, versus a WCW tag champ from 12 years prior. Why the hell not!? And this is a real oddball of a gem right here. After years of seeing Tommy Rogers getting beat down in tag matches, here he's the old vet punishing a pretty boy. They get crossed up a couple times (Denucci doesn't sell a clothesline, but Rogers covers nicely with a fantastic knee lift). Rogers was working pretty stiff here, stiffer than any Fanastics match I've seen. Rogers threw a running back elbow that knocked Denucci through the ropes and it was one of the nastiest spots I've seen on syndicated WCW. It gets even better as Denucci recovers on the floor and charges Rogers, missing a flying shoulder tackle directly into the turnbuckle. It looked fucking killer. I remember Denucci from death throes AWA, but don't remember him being such a bump freak. I dug both guys here, and I'd be really hard-pressed to find a weirder match-up on these shows (god I hope there's a weirder match-up on these shows).

Baby, Chiquita, who are these new generation Nitro Girls advertising Nitrogirls.com? I remember Spice (my personal fave!!) and Tigress, and apparently Stacy Keibler was "Skye". Where are most of these ladies now? I imagined many of them married rich, and/or teach CrossFit classes at suburban strip malls. Chiquita was probably in a Mystikal video or something. Also I looked up Nitrogirls.com and good news everybody!! The domain name is alllll freed up! If you were looking to do a Fyre tribute site, nows your chance to make it look even more official!

2. Mona vs. Little Jeanie

Scott Hudson is flipping his lid for this one. This is a long running WCW syndie feud, and clearly Hudson's personal favorite. Even Larry is rolling his eyes saying he hasn't shut up about this match. This is probably the lesser of their three (so far) matches, but only because it was only given 2 minutes. The other two matches of theirs got 4 minutes, so this was kind of a "greatest hits played faster" version of those matches. Wrestling barefoot is so nutty so Mona always gets bonus points for that. Her armdrags and snapmare takeover look beautiful, and Jeanie planting her with a German was boss. Jeanie throws a couple reckless leaping elbows, with the second going right across the throat. About as good as you can get for two minutes, but disappointing they didn't budget enough time for more.

3. Mamalukes (Vito/Johnny the Bull) vs. Scott & Steve Armstrong vs. PG-13

Armstrongs and PG-13 were both paid off by the Harris Boys to take out the Mamalukes, and there is zero chance Jaime Dundee used that money sensibly. Armstrongs are both wrestling in jeans (Scott has a spectacular pair of white jeans here), and I'm pretty sure Larry just called them the "Marmadukes" but wasn't actually attempting to be funny. Armstrongs working as co-heels with PG-13 is glorious as both teams bully Johnny the Bull while they all take turns taunting Vito. To the shock of everybody that partnership quickly and suddenly breaks down, Vito hits the spinning DDT on Dundee, and Johnny hits a super impressive springboard legdrop for the win. Really wish they had gone home more naturally, as you could tell they were just filling time until getting the signal, as the switch hit and everybody bumped to the floor within a few seconds, leaving Dundee alone in the ring.

So next week they advertise the return of Shark Boy to WCW Saturday Night. That's weird, right? I didn't realize he was ever more than a jobber with a recognizable gimmick in WCW, let alone a "Shark Boy is BACK next week!!! Be there!!!" type character.

4. Billy Kidman vs. The Artist

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. Iaukea stops and stares silently at a fat guy in a camo hat at ringside during his entrance. The fat guy is mouthing of the whole time but Iaukea just stares at him. I really liked how Artist worked in this gimmick. He threw a couple cool elbowdrop variations, vicious snap suplex and even a neat palm strike. He even outbumps Kidman (although Kidman did have a great bump to the floor) by getting crazy height on a backdrop and Kidman's Rydeen bomb. Kidman goes for a sunset flip and Artist catches him midway and does a Northern Lights Suplex and it looks fucking killer. This match was all Artist and now I really want to see more.

5. Jeff Jarrett vs. The Demon

I've been racking my brain trying to figure out if there is a worker on a regular WCW contract that I know less about than Dale Torborg. I know I've seen him in several matches, but I can't for the life of me remember him doing anything whatsoever in those matches. No signature moves, nothing. So now in the main event (yeesh) I'll finally have my answer! And the answer is....he pretty much doesn't do anything. He punches, sometimes okay, oftentimes poorly. He threw a bad kick to the stomach. He took a nice bump to the floor, but it was nice in one of those "I don't totally know how to do this so I'm going over way faster than I planned and a part of my body may get hung up on the ropes" kinda ways. Like whenever Vince had to bump over the top and he would manage to catch his neck on the bottom rope. Jarrett also throws punches, many of them good. And the Harris Boys interfere. And then The Stroke. And that's it. Punches, punches in the corner, more punches, Stroke.

Read more!

I'd Rather Shoot a Woman Than A King, I Worry Whether This Is My Last Life

Jerry Lawler v. Kerry Von Erich 12/15/89 - FUN

I always enjoy watching Lawler rile up a Texas crowd. Nobody hates the King more then the folks in Dallas. Lawler does some shitalking on the mike and bailing during Kerry rallies. There were a lot of cool moments in this match, Kerry breaking a Lawler choke with the claw, him lifting Jerry with the stomach claw, Lawler using the elbow pad as a boxing glove. Still the match kind of felt like a backdrop to set up a Kerry v. Terrance Garvin feud which is a ludicrous thing to use a world title match to set up. This should have been the climax to Kerry v. Lawler, and they should have let it be the climax, rather then have it overshadowed . Especially having it overshadowed by Terrance Garvin.

Jerry Lawler v. The Undertaker WWF 9/28/94 - FUN

This was a Casket match which aired as a Coliseum home video release. Lawler gets a ton more offense on the Undertaker then I expected. He does some stooging and stalling (including being blinding by a strobe light from an extra large urn, which is a stupid Undertaker gimmick I did not remember), but for most of the match he takes it right at Undertaker. Cracking him with some nasty chain assisted right hands. There is a really great near fall where Lawler punches and stomps Taker almost all the way into the casket. The King even gets to cut off the Taker comeback, before succumbing. More of a nifty curiosity then a great match, but kind of cool that it exists.

Jerry Lawler/Bill Dundee v. The Cyberpunks 5/18/96 - FUN

Dundee is in the midst of a big feud with the Cyberpunks who are PG13 under masks. He brings out Lawler as his surprise partner. Lawler does an interview saying he isn't turning his back on the fans, but is just collecting belts. They have a fun shortish TV match highlighted by Dundee and Lawler laying in some tricky veteran cheap shots. My favorite was Lawler challenging Fire to a test of strength and then jacking his jaw when Fire raised his hand. The Ice v. Dundee stuff was great too, as they obviously have some great chemistry with each other. Finish is cool as Dundee pops his own son with a chain to get the pin and the USWA tag titles, with Lawler feigning ignorance. I enjoyed watching Lawler subtly heel it up, but too short to be anything substantial.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE KING

Read more!