Found Footage Friday: ALOHA MR. LAWLER~! RICKARD~! ST. CLAIR~! THOMPSON~! PESAK~! VON SCHACHT~!

Jack Pesek vs. Fritz/Friedrich von Schacht Chicago 6/27/52

MD: This goes about twenty before Von Schacht gets himself disqualified for not breaking a hold and continuing to pepper Pesak's elbow with knees. They alternated between solid slugfests and maybe less than dynamic (for the point of the match) holds in the back third but the first two thirds was full of rousing stuff. Von Schacht was an early adopter of the bald, evil German gimmick and he was full of a wild physical charisma. A lot of the early parts of the match was Pesak tossing him out and von Schacht had a great way of landing in the least comfortable looking ways caught up in the rope often head over heels or in a ungainly heap.

He was able to get revenge and discus throw Pesek out once, but primarily he took back over with inside shots, hairpulls, and a dogged sort of aggression. More often than not, Pesek was able to outdo him on the mat though. We do have a few more von Schacht matches and I should double back for those too as he was pretty entertaining here. Some of the slugging towards the end reminded me of when things boiled over in 50s French matches, though it all sort of ended anticlimactically instead. 

Tony St. Clair vs. Clay Thompson Joint Promotions 8/19/67

MD: Occasionally, a member of the community goes above and beyond. Here, fxnj purchased an old film reel off an auction site, had it sent, converted, and then posted it. What we have now is the very likely the oldest full British match online (according to John Lister at least) and a look at what a catchweight match from 1967 looked like, as well as a rare look at Clay Thompson.

Yes, St. Clair, very young and known here primarily as the younger brother of Roy, spent the entire match with his mouth gaping wide open, but all in all, this was good pro wrestling, very good wrestling as sport in the British style. St. Clair had the weight (class) advantage, and used that to press forward for much of the match but Thompson had a clear skill and experience advantage and was able to use that to escape every hold. As evidenced by the finish, there was always a sense that Thompson was just one move away from victory and St. Clair, while being the aggressor, was really just trying to hang on.

This never boiled over, never even came close, though it was grittier on the back half, but there were so many little tricks and escapes by Thompson, and even some holds like an inverted short arm scissors that felt unique or rare. He'd escape again and again and St. Clair would just barely hold on to a wristlock. St. Clair was agile, cartwheeling here and there at times. That made the finish, where he succumbed to a figure-four and came into the next round limping heavily, all the more striking. I could watch a hundred matches like this and they're probably in a vault somewhere in England, gated behind an expensive and elite process. But at least they may exist, right?

Jerry Lawler vs. Steve Rickard Polynesian Pro Wrestling 8/9/86

MD: I'd heard about this match but never watched it before (more Found than New), as best as I can tell. Rickard was well into his 50s at this point. He's the father of New Zealand pro wrestling and created the On the Mat show. We have some episodes of that in the early 80s and I just never got around to checking them out. I'm not sure anyone in our circles really have. Should probably do that some day.

This was pretty straightforward. Lawler had a blonde valet with him for the trip to Hawaii. They cut midway through to Pedicino and some weightlifters. Rickard's age was noted and they talked about his Commonwealth title on commentary. They kept it on the mat for the first half, with a lot of Lawler complaining and Rickard showing him up on holds. Simple, effective stuff. The back half was full of punches, with Rickard meeting Lawler halfway with some pretty good ones, especially uppercuts. Lawler eventually crotched him and got DQed. Probably more on the FUN side of things, given the pace and the attraction feel but I'm not going to say no to a 80s Lawler match against a unique opponent that's new to me.

ER: It's been 40 years and we're still uncovering more evidence of Jerry Lawler being the greatest wrestler in history at working around any opponent's limitations. Jerry Lawler gets great matches out of green giants, TV comics, high school defensive coordinators, fundraising pediatrcicians, diabetic African savages, and various regional elderly men. Lawler is the best possible choice of wrestler to work Aloha Stadium against the biggest star of the Polynesia and presumably Micronesia territory, now in his mid-50s, and get the best match out of him. I enjoyed old Steve Rickard, thought he knew exactly where to place his two best punches and had an armbar takedown that looked like he was trying to post Lawler's arm, but this was just another Lawler masterclass in knowing the exact right match to work for an audience he had barely worked before. 

The video quality is such that it is easier to hear everything Lawler is saying than it is to hear almost anything commentary is saying. Sometimes I have no idea how Matt is able to pick up on certain things commentary is discussing - especially in old lucha - but it also makes me wonder how much the last 25 years of WWE television has made me consciously tune out most commentary. Anyway, this is the kind of super vocal Lawler performance that he usually reserved for much smaller crowds, not a stadium show. I don't know if I've heard Lawler be this vocal during a match, working a Best Possible Barry Darsow match against a territory star who couldn't hack it on the mainland. 

What takes it to the next level is the three minute run to the abrupt DQ finish, after Lawler has made it look like he was going to work a full match of satisfying stooging and loud hair pull complaints and subtle being the back cheating, before pulling out a run of four different ways of landing increasingly damaging punches. Lawler is out here looking like Smug Asshole #1 in his ugly fucking ketchup and mustard tights, the arguable worse color combo of his entire career, worse than any of the 1992 splatter paint tights which actually are great. He's a goof with a dumb goatee and ugly tights who suddenly lands the best punches on the 27 match show, before getting clocked with a Rickard punch that may as well have been him punching Lawler in the side of the head as hard as he could. 

I am consistently blown away by Lawler's innate timing and the way he sells offense as if he knows exactly how his opponent is going to throw it. His bumps and the way he sells every single strike always looks like he knows exactly how devastating or light the move looks. I have no idea how he is able to remove himself for the situation and understand that a shoulderblock landed soft enough that he shouldn't do a flip over bump but instead bump to his tailbone. You can't plan ahead for a Jim Powers punch to land, so how the hell is he able to anticipate how each individual punch is going to look? It's an incredible strength that I think only Stan Hansen, Finlay, Tenryu, and Yuki Ishikawa possess on the same level. 

I can't see Lawler ever dropping outside of my three favorite wrestlers ever, because we are still getting matches from my entire lifetime ago that add to his legacy. Nobody has gotten wrestling in the specific way that Jerry Lawler got wrestling. 

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Phoenix Pro Wrestling 6/7/16

Phoenix Pro Wrestling is a local indy that my pal Tim Livingston and I do commentary for. They've been running shows for over a year now, and sadly THIS show was the first one I had to miss (I was on a cruise to the Caribbean with my family, a trip that combined all of the nightmares of being trapped on a large floating island with Florida strangers, with all of the nightmares of being trapped on a large floating island with your constantly arguing parents; But, also, 24 hour wood fire pizza and a ship full of people whose job it is to essentially be your slave), but they were quick to upload most of the matches, so I took it upon myself to watch those matches (so I won't be completely lost while doing commentary on the next show, and because they all looked like matches I wanted to see). So check them out if they interest you, and enjoy the sometimes-in-the-red commentary stylings of Tim Livingston, sans Eric Ritz.

4. Boyce LeGrande vs. Victor Sterling

Boyce is always one of the guys I look forward to on PPW shows. Boyce was in one of the first matches on the very first indy wrestling show I attended some 17 years ago, so I love seeing still working and still actually having good matches. I love heel champ Boyce, love that he can usually win but doesn't want to risk losing so he has no problem cheating. The good wrestler who also has no problem resorting to cheating is a favorite of mine. Sterling is a guy who always does a thing or two that surprise me in a match, here I really dug his fisherman suplex (with Boyce adding a nice touch by grabbing Sterling's wrist to attempt to stop the suplex) and powerslam, Boyce tossed out a nice northern lights, nice yakuza kicks, and dealt stealthily with a fan who tried to grab his leg while climbing the turnbuckles. These two have worked before and have a nice 10 minutes down. I think they have a really good match in them. Their PPW matches so far have ended non-decisively, but they seem to be progressing well. I do miss seeing Boyce's big lariat, which he uses as his finisher in PPW.

5. Kikyo vs. Brittany Wonder

This ended up being my favorite match on the card, which was not what I was expecting. Not due to lack of talent, but because I liked the look of all 4 matches on paper, and I had never seen Wonder work before. So I was looking forward to it, but wasn't expecting it to be my favorite of the evening. It was tightly paced and both looked real good. Wonder starts with a couple of hug based moves. I guess one cute former Bay Area worker got signed to be a hugger, lightning could strike twice. I loved her hug into a headbutt, where she pounced on Kikyo in a full legs-wrapped-around hug, Kikyo tried to shake her by dropping to her butt, so Wonder leaned in for a peck, and a headbutt. Wonder has a bunch of fun offense, and it's suited nicely to her abilities. She mixed in some fun stuff like a flatliner type moved using Kikyo's own momentum off the ropes. Plus, she has a butt, so might as well do hip and butt attacks and a bombs away! Makes sense to me! Work to your strengths! Kikyo is really great setting up Wonder's offense flourishes, and chooses her own moments wisely. She had a killer lariat, nice STO and a picture perfect yakuza kick right to the side of Wonder's head. We brawl into the crowd and Wonder muscles Kikyo over the guardrail with a clothesline. The Kikyo moonsault is a fitting end, and again this was just a fun, tightly worked 10 minutes. Well worth going out of your way to watch.

6. JR Kratos vs. Sir Samurai

Samurai isn't usually a guy to be put in a position to have a workrate type of long singles match, so he must have been excited to get the opportunity to show off his gas tank. He's got a nice round belly but he certainly doesn't look tired after a 20 minute match. I liked the early one-up stuff leading to Samurai hitting some back elbows, but I really loved things when it spilled to the floor. Kratos hits a nice leaping knee while Samurai is draped over the apron, but soon Samurai ups things with a rolling senton off the apron and into the crowd. The crowd brawl portion was real fun as both guys roll around on the dirty floor, Samurai throws stiff shots, gets a gross in-use trash can dumped on his head (we can get some kind of scuzzy attendees at our shows, so no telling what kind of things could have been in there) leading to Kratos hitting a nice sliding kick to the canned Samurai. Back inside and there's an accidental DQ leading to a fun restart, and Samurai takes all sorts of big slams which...man those did not look fun. Fun match and while crowd brawling can seem like almost a rest spot to extend a match in a lot of cases, here it was my favorite part.

7. Drake Frost vs. Marcus Lewis

Lewis has missed a lot of time with a concussion so it was good to finally see him back (with arguably the furriest ring gear in wrestling), although seeing him bump a huge lariat onto the back of his head really made me cringe. Frost is a guy who has really started to come into his own since the first PPW show. He's got a simple moveset and bumps appropriately for his size, and while there was a couple off moments on dropkicks, but we got plenty of fun stuff for a big title match. Lewis hits a crazy moonsault to the floor on the narrowest side of the ring, and later hits his 450 flush. Frost hits a big fat guy leg drop, huge lariat and finishes it off with a crazy twisting superplex. Good to have Lewis back, excited for more Frost title matches.

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