I Miss Super Porky

Brazo de Plata/Brazo de Oro vs. Gran Hamada/Perro Aguayo UWA 3/10/91

ER: What a great tag, the kind of match where you'd consider yourself lucky if you got to see a variation of it live, and a real tour de force Porky performance. The fans are way into everything Porky brings, and he keeps surprising them. Before the match even starts he does a hilarious pratfall to the floor, falling flat on his face just getting from the ring to the apron. The fans eat it up and want only more Porky, and they get it. This starts nice and ramps up the entire match, and gives us a full feeling match in 11 minutes. There's some simple almost US style matwork from Oro and Aguayo to start, and I like how that played into the gradual ramping up of the match. The 11 minutes felt so complete because of the way they kept building speed throughout and kept working to bigger and bigger things. Hamada got to flash his speed and work blazing fast exchanges with both Brazos, the kind of speed that still stands out as special 30 years later when the foundation modern style of wrestling is based around speed, and his huracanrana roll up still stands as the best of all time. But, that pre-match faceplant pratfall set things in stone, and this was always going to be Porky's match. He gets into slap fights, does muscle pose downs with Perro, hits an awesome big boy tope, hits his crushing Porky splash, and does all the little things like whipping over fast on armdrags and showing his always shocking agility. This match feels like the kind of thing that should have lead to Porky being one of the most popular foreigners in Japan for the next decade, and I'm sure that Hamada recognized that. I imagine Porky wanted to remain in Mexico for good reasons (such as several young children at home), but I love thinking of this alternate timeline where Porky spends his 90s working a bunch of M-Pro and Toryumon tours. 

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New Footage Friday: New AAA 4/30/95!

PAS: Roy Lucier continues to do yeoman's work uncovering lost classic stuff, including this AAA show which wasn't in circulation.

AAA 4/30/95

Mascarita Sagrada/Ninjita vs. Los Espectritos (Espectrito I/Espectrito II) 

MD: Fun, long minis match. I'm generally a stickler for the standards in lucha, 2 out of 3 falls matches, both parties getting pinned in tag matches, etc., but I probably would make exceptions for minis matches. This was standard structure and I'm not sure it helped things. The timing on the pinfalls didn't do anyone favors. The finish, instead of being dramatic with Mascarita Sagrada sneaking in a pin, had to be extended to Ninjita getting pulled back in by MS post-dive for the countout. Plus it was all more back and forth without that serene lucha moment of comeback (I could see them saving that for later in the card). Little things. That said, the match still worked, and a lot of that was due to the credibility of both sides. The Espectritos (especially I) were great bullies, great bases, able to take back over at a moment's notice or sneak in a well-timed bit of interference to keep the advantage. There was a power bomb in there where Espectrito I just picked up MS like he was nothing at all. And the tecnicos could believably take back over at a moment's notice, turning literally any physical contact into an arm drag just like that. For the first half of this we had a bunch of Ninjita when you really wanted MS in there, but halfway through the segunda we got what we wanted and he was spectacular. This took up most of the first quarter of the two-hour show and I can't imagine anyone complaining about too much it.

PAS: This was cool stuff, you don't normally see minis get this much time, and the Espectritos have plenty of stuff to fill that time. They just toss Mascarita Sagrada around like he is a wrestling buddy, Espectrios are both little people, but it looks like Rey vs. The Big Show when they are in there with Mascarita. Both technicos of course are armdragging and ranaing machines. Most mini's matches of this era have a pretty high baseline, and this doesn't push it pass that level but no shame in that. 

Aguila de Acero/Super Calo/Winners vs Los Diabolicos (Angel Mortal/Marabunta/Mr. Condor) 

MD: Fairly complete trios match here. I was definitely higher on the Diabolicos than the tecnicos. They were a well oiled machine, both feeding early in the primera and especially during the beatdown in the segunda. Some timing issues from the tecnicos, not getting up on the ropes at the right time, coming into the ring too early during the beatdown and having to stand around, Aguila de Acero coming into the ring too late for the fast count finish which meant the submission lasted way too long. I didn't mind the finish otherwise. When you're looking at this as a card instead of a bunch of individual matches, you need to switch things up and while it got over Pepe Casas more than any of the wrestlers, it's obvious the fans were pretty happy by it. Also, there were a couple of good dives to set it up and a nice tangible feeling of mild dread when post-dives, it ended up two on one for Calo.

Los Power Raiders (Power Raider Azul/Power Raider Blanco/Power Raider Negro/Power Raider Rojo/Power Raider Verde) vs. Heavy Metal/Juventud Guerrera/Karloff Lagarde Jr./Perro Silva/Picudo 

MD: Yeah, this was a mess. You knew it'd be a mess coming in but it wasn't as fun of a mess as I was hoping. The rudo side controlled most of the match, with little hope spots peppered in and there was a lot of talent there but they just didn't mesh. A long beatdown is fine, good even, if the rudos are on the same page and if they keep things moving and interesting. Here they kept Verde in there for way too long and there were a bunch of moments where Juvi just seemed at a loss. He was teaming with Lagarde and he'd hop up on the second rope to do something, and Lagarde would take things in another direction and he'd just have to hop back off. That sort of thing. The focus of the finish was on Perro Silva and Rojo but given the rules of the match, they were absent for most of it. I'm not saying there's not a situation where that could work but I don't think this was it. When things were moving, this was fine, but if this was going to be chaos anyway, I'd actually want more and not less.

La Parka vs. Jerry Estrada - FUN

PAS: This had been out there on a AAA yearbook, but I hadn't seen it before so I figured I would write it up. This was mostly a Tirantes match, which is about my least favorite kind of lucha. Most of the match was focused on Tirantes slow counting for Parka and fast counting for Estrada.  We did get three crazy Parka dives, an almost Sabuish flip dive off the top, a great tope, and a big plancha. Estrada hits a crazy tope into the second row, so we did get a lot of good even with all of the Tirantes. 

El Hijo del Santo/Octagon/Perro Aguayo/Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Blue Panther/Psicosis/Scorpio Jr/Shu El Guerrero

MD: The good stuff. As always, when you get this level of talent and experience and charisma in the ring, it really can't go wrong. Even Perro, who was more physically limited at this point, is such a character, so hard hitting, so spirited and fun that you just can't look away. He's such a folk hero, out there slapping hands on the way to the ring, and then mentoring Rey later. Rey's amazing, of course. What stands out the most to me is how comfortable and willing he is in his role. There's no sense at all of a Napoleon Complex. He doesn't veer in the least, leaning into all of his strengths and vulnerabilities (which are, of course, narrative strengths). Panther hammed it up against Octagon and showed flashes later, like hitting the double stomp or a huge slap on Perro as insult to injury. He was so broad and versatile in the 90s and doesn't get a lot of credit for that anymore relative to his maestro rep. Santo was smooth as could be. Shu was a great bully and Scorpio a perfectl y acceptable stooge, and even Octagon didn't bug me much. Of course, Psicosis was the guy I really wanted to see and he didn't disappoint. Just the perfect mix of basing (feeding and catching Rey) and attitude (shadow boxing on the apron) and flash (amazing twisting senton to end the segunda). It doesn't have a real finish but since it has an awesome and brutal surprise angle, it's hard to be too upset about that.

PAS: Just a murderer's row of legendary all time great luchadores (and Octagon, although he is fine here). I really loved the first fall, with tremendous exchange after tremendous exchange, including some great Rey vs. Psicosis stuff, ending with one of my favorite Star finishes ever, with Perro running around stomping all of the guys in the star. Rudo beatdown in the second and beginning of the third fall was nifty if a bit formless, and we get a wild finish run with tons of crazy dives, and constant switching of the camera from one bit of mayhem to another. Santo/Negro angle at the end was really cool, and pretty unexpected. Too bad Santo's family put a kibosh on the gimmick, because what potential that had. 

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New Footage Friday: NECRO! MONSTA! SANTO! PERRO! NAVARRO!

Perro Aguayo vs. El Hijo Del Santo Monterey 1990?

MD: Basically 10 minutes of perfect lucha libre followed up by another five of enjoyable bullshit. This is JIP but it's joined with Perro slamming Santo onto a table that he has leaning from the apron to the floor. Twice. If you're going to come in onto any moment, that's pretty much ideal. That basically ties off the primera. The segunda has a little bit of beatdown, Santo dodging a senton with perfect timing, launching a bunch of comeback dropkicks, moving out of the way so that Perro hits his second, and hitting two perfect topes, one out of the ring and one off the top before finishing him off with the caballo. Entirely iconic and super heated. Tercera goes to the floor with some revenge chairshots and a lot of bleeding from Perro before we get a perfect ref bump and a foul that scores Perro a win that got overturned. Post match Perro goes for the mask, with Stuka making the save and they make the best challenges possible, Perro with blood dripping down his face and Santo with his mask ripped. It would have been nice to have the first few minutes but what we ended up with was plenty of the absolute best doing what they did best.

PAS: This was pretty short as we miss the opening section, but what we got was frantic violent stuff. Perro is one of the great intense brawlers, and Santo is an iconic brawling babyface. Loved the pair of dives to finish up the second fall, Santo's tope is always amazing and sends Perro into the chairs. Perro bleeds, they exchange big shots. It felt more like a set up for an iconic match, the TV angle for the big blowoff, but it was a hell of a set up. 

ER: Even with who knows how much of the Primera cut, we still get 10 minutes of two legends doing the things you'd want them to do. These two are a great lucha yin yang, as Aguayo is so good at punching Santo around the ring, and Santo is one of my absolute favorites at staggering and falling all over ringside. Santo always brings a tumbler's artistry to getting his ass kicked, taking punches and tumbling backwards on dirty floors with legs flying up, getting tossed into a skidding down a table, always a second away from a quick comeback. I love Santo brawling comebacks, as he hits his gorgeous floating dropkicks to knock Aguayo to the floor, then hits that perfect tope to send Perro flying into chairs, and then sets up the in ring rope with incredible speed. I've watched so many different excellent Santo matches from years spanning four decades, and he's a guy like Negro Casas who I'm so used to the old awesome version that I always get surprised by certain movements from the young awesome version. I had to skip back several times just to gawk at how slick Santo looked while getting to the top tope before nailing that in ring tope. I couldn't get enough. Perro misses his own tope, crashes to the floor and gets a chair jammed into his neck by Santo, and again, this is 10 minutes of all the things you want to see. We don't have the full match, but oh well, you know you're going to want to watch early 90s Santo vs. Perro. 

Negro Navarro vs. Apolo Estrada Monterey 1991?

MD: I loved the front half of this. A little bit of BS from the outside and a little bit from the ref but most of it was Navarro showing off on the mat and then Navarro showing off with a beating. Great strikes used to high effect and just the amazing personality that we're used to from his later career. He's a top ten talent in being able to express himself in the ring and here he just has this easy, laconic way of laying in a knee or working a wound that's unmistakably him. The violence, punches or kicks or headbutts, seem both effortless and brutal all at the same time. It could be the footage quality but Estrada came off like a sort of scummy tecnico. When he did get a chance to fire back, it was with a low blow and quality revenge shots. It was a bit scattered though, not as concentrated as a big moment of transition might have been. The tercera built well, with Navarro staying in it due to outside interference until Estrada had some help of his own. That moment, more than the comeback, felt like a big swing of comeuppance and was pretty satisfying in a way a BS-laden finish generally isn't. Ultimately, this was a great opportunity to see Navarro do his thing in his prime in a singles setting.

PAS: Man this was awesome to watch, the first prime age Navarro where he looked as good as he looked in his fifties and sixties. He lays a super nasty beating on Estrada, throwing these little knuckle punches to his forehead busting up his brows, big knees to the face, and a great series of combos to the body and head. He also would throw in a submission or two which felt like an expansion of the beating, then a real show of skills. Estrada was fine here, he had a very Chicky Starr look for a babyface but he bled a bunch and his comebacks were fine. Finish was a bit Monterrey, but that is kind of baked in when you see the arena you are in.

ER: This was great, prime Navarro working slightly different than I've ever seen him work, with a cool strikes and stooging style. Early on we get one of those great Navarro moments when Estrada takes him down with a single leg, but Navarro quickly grapevines Estrada's leg and twists him. From there, Navarro basically works this whole thing as Flair, even throwing his punches similarly to Flair. The more I watched this the more I kept thinking of Flair coming through Monterrey in the early 90s and having this same match with Estrada, and this is the first time I've seen Negro Flairravo. I loved his short punches, Satanico-like right hands to the edge of the jaw, cool body shots, kicks to Estrada's leg, and tons of moments where he sets up cheating from his second. Estrada bled a bunch and made tecnico appeals, while Navarro would do rudo stuff like take a shot to the leg, pretend it hit his balls, but abandon it immediately when the ref wasn't biting. I was laughing all through the interference from the floor, and I'm too much of a lucha novice to recognize Navarro's second. But I loved him yanking Estrada out of a submission he was applying, then yanking his leg off the ropes over and over while Estrada kept breaking a hold. It paid off great with Navarro eating one KO shot from Estrada's second to set up a (in theory) Bombs Away. Watch this match while picturing Navarro as Flair, and I'm confident you'll love it as much as I did. 

 Necro Butcher vs. Monsta Mack GHW 10/20/06

PAS: This is a super sexy on-paper match up, two of the great 20th century indy crowbars wailing away on each other, and it totally delivers on that promise, even exceeds it. Both guys spend the entire match just escalating the force of the shots. Necro opens up with his classic straight right to the jaw and Mack fires right back, these are two guys who utterly refuse to stand down. Necro also takes a Necro in the mid-2000s level bump, as Mack hits a running powerslam right on the concrete, he also eats some gross thrown chairs which land legs first into his eye. Match ends with a bar fight, as they both throw increasingly psychotic shots at each other, until Monsta springs off the chair with a nutcase headbutt which looks like it dimmed Necro''s running lights. Mack just kind of pins him, and for a apparently blown finish, it is exactly what you want from these two guys. Awesome shit, loved every second of it. 

MD: Intimate, personable few-frills violence. Necro sets the tone immediately with punches up and down Mack's body. You can see flesh crater in the wake, a high-low assault that lets everyone know what they'll be getting, not like they had any real doubt. It never stops from there. Necro is resilient and unyielding but Mack's a monster and when ferocity is this close to equal, size is going to win out. The ambience helps make this, with a fan asking the ref about the rules at one point, with suggestions for violence from the crowd that pales to what they're actually going to do, with the camera man complaining about trying to get back over the rail when they head back to the ring; it's like a found-footage version of a bum fight, except for one of the bums is a 300 pound killing machine. There wasn't a lot of narrative here except for that. There was a moment of transition where Mack went to the top because he couldn't otherwise put Necro away and misses, but that just leads to the bar fight finish with two chairs, two men sitting and meeting one another with no filters and no remorse, and hubris like you'd never see elsewhere in wrestling.

ER: Any time any new vintage Necro is unearthed, obviously it needs to be discussed. There were few wrestlers in the world I loved more in 2006 than Necro Butcher. Experiencing the fun and violence and chaos of a live Necro Butcher match was the kind of thing I wished every wrestling fan got to experience. I saw him three separate times, including a few years after this match, in a San Francisco night club against big fat King Dabada (in a match that has never been released beyond a few highlights, so maybe that one will show up here someday. It was two big sweaty men brawling around a snug nightclub, falling onto fans, going up into the balcony, and I ran around the building following them everywhere. Who would love running around following Necro's Tasmanian devil crash. He and Mack beat the shit out of each other from first punch, and this whole match was filled with close fists to the jaw. The crowd brawling was as hard and reckless as you'd want, and Mack kept hitting Necro with expertly thrown chairs. Necro is usually the guy with the best chair throwing range in wrestling, and I liked how Mack kept beating him to that punch. Necro took some classic Necro hard spills on the floor including a brutal powerslam, and they built to a climactic punch off. I usually hate those sit and punch sequences, but I can't really argue with one that ends the match with a seeming knockout headbutt/punch combo. They punch each other one at a time, and then build to left-right combos, and then throw in headbutts. Mack laughs to himself before lunging in with a headbutt straight to Necro's jaw/orbital bone, then decks him right out of his folding chair. 

JR: If you believe in the idea of home turf advantage in pro wrestling, Necro’s home turf would be any building that looks like it previously held a now defunct indoor mini golf course. I have no expectations for this other than Phil sending it to me and saying it’s better than you expect it to be, which is incredible because I would expect this to be life altering. It’s a rare Necro match that features the vaguest hint of a feeling out process (and some trash talk) but it quickly shifts into exactly what you’d want from both of these people: wild looping punches that connect full force and a complete disregard for their own well being and the well being of others.

While there are some great Necro performances in companies that had actual cameras, there is always a wonderful quality when you find a Necro match like this. He feels like a cryptid, this monstrosity that should be caught on camera and if he noticed someone filming, it’s unclear what would transpire but it would probably be horrible for all involved.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t write about Mack being absurdly, preposterously reckless in his own right; throwing open chairs at Necro (with a fan sitting in the bleachers like 8 inches from where the chair lands), flailing and falling on top of people in the crowd. Through the first five minutes of this, each transition is essentially built around one person or the other doing something that pissed the other off a little too much. It’s a wrestling match with a few tiny fights breaking out for good measure.

While the match loses steam a little bit heading into the bar fight section, and the finish feels as though they were going for a surprise tko type thing that didn’t land as effectively as it would’ve if they had played it more straight, I don’t think anyone is watching this because of the narrative escalation or whatever. It’s exactly what someone would expect from these two 15 years ago.

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New Footage Friday: Satanico! Perro! Lawler! Fishman! Ringo! Taue! Air Paris! V3! Dr. Death!

Perro Aguayo/Fishman/Satanico vs. Villano III/El Jalisco/Ringo Mendoza CMLL 1983?

PAS: My god is this a whirlwind. We have six tremendous lucha brawlers just ripping into each other, and it keeps building and building. Cubsfan guessed this match was 1983, which makes this some of the earliest Satanico footage we have, and my god is he brilliant, he throws these multiple punch combos with such preciseness and force, it is like watching Sugar Ray Robinson footage. It is a great contrast to the more unhinged and wild brawling of Perro, Perro and Ringo Mendoza are mostly paired up in this match, they had two apuestas matches in the 70s which must have been classics, because this felt like an all time rivalry, by the end of the match they are both covered in blood on their knees just whirling shots at each other.  Don't know much about Jalisco, but he takes a bump to the floor in the match where it looks like he tears his ACL, but gets back into to fight more, so it must have just been a great sell. Villano 3 spends most of the match in an incredible boxing war with Satanico, and I loved his little dances before unloading shots. The match ends with a low blow, but there are six minutes or so of post match brawling where it gets so intense that it feels like the crowd is going to rush the ring. The point of this project is look at all kinds of footage, a lot of time we unearth fun curiosities, this however was a stone cold classic.

MD: This felt evolutionary. I wouldn't necessarily call it revolutionary, as you get the sense these guys were having matches this good all the time. Part of why I love wrestling is the structure, the patterns, the ritual, and that exists nowhere as much as in lucha. There are things you just don't see a lot of, whether you're watching a match from 86, 96, or 06. One of these are two distinct rudo beatdown segments. You just don't see it much. This had that, with the beatdown that opens the match an all timer. All three rudos absolutely shined, with Perro's boots the 1983 equivalent of Suplex City, with Fishman's punches more memorable than anything else he's done in any other match I've seen him in, and Satanico just holding court as the true king of wrestling villainy. Throughout this Ringo is sympathetic working from underneath and Villano III is tough as nails as the guy wanting to get in and save his partner.

When I say evolutionary, though, it's because not everything has been calcified yet. You still get the sense of reasons behind things we've always just taken for granted. For the first comeback, It's Villano III in there and it's a bunch of the classic rudo miscommunication that they've been doing for decades and that you can imagine in your mind just with those two words alone, but there's an element of danger and desperation that I've never seen. It's not just a given. There's still a chance that the rudos are going to win out with the numbers game and Villano III will get pulled back under. It eventually becomes ritual but here it, the element of lucha which however enjoyable has the least amount of actual struggle, felt just a bit more believable than usual. That was a testament to the rudos, to the tecnicos, to the viciousness of the beatdown, and yes, to the punctuation of Ringo just unleashing on Perro after the momentum shifts.

Even the stuff that feels a bit more out of place in a war like this, like the Estrella-rana combo after the second comeback in the tercera, works because of how battered Perro and Ringo were by that point and the way they sell their exhaustion as they move towards each other in the center of the star. Everything builds towards the end-of-match fouls and they feel less like a means to an end but meaningful ends in and of themselves.

ER: Matt and Phil covered this one before I had a chance (my family's Christmas is today due to sister working on Christmas, so I'm holed up in my parents' bathroom typing about pro wrestling to avoid their mockery), but I watched this last night before bed and my god is this era lucha as heated as any Mid South brawl you've seen. There's a vocal contingent that says they don't get lucha, but what is not to understand about a match like this? This is 20 minutes of fists flying and men taking dangerously fast bumps to the floor, before running back in to send more fists. Satanico is in his early 30s here, has his hair styled like Richard Dawson, takes at least 6 lightning fast bumps to the floor, and has the exact same hunched posture as 70 year old Satanico has. But here's Perro Aguayo also throwing fists and flying to the floor, and here's a luchador - Jalisco - I don't really know, taking a mammoth bump to the floor with a knee sell so convincing that someone could say "oh yeah this is the match where Jalisco blew out his knee and never was the same again" and I'd say "sure makes sense"; This is the greatest Fishman performance I've seen (the way he would square up and fire shots to the gut and collarbones!), the greatest Ringo Mendoza performance I've seen (I don't think I've ever seen such a majestic fired up tecnico performance from him, the perfect combination of tecnico intensity and peak athleticism), Villano III wrestles like Villano III, and the whole thing just washes over you in a perfect bath of dickhead relentless rudos and walking tall tecnicos. The striking is so tight, and yet so passionate that it probably didn't need to be as tight as it was, the message still would have shone through. Perro and Ringo go at it like dogs and leave bleeding, Satanico would fly to the floor and fly back in just as fast to gun for Villano's head, the crowd keeps surging closer and closer to the ring, the whole thing is just gorgeous. This is lucha perfection, the kind of match worked in a universal language with flair that only lucha can provide.


Akira Taue vs. Dr. Death Steve Williams AJPW 6/4/91

PAS: Thumping heavyweight wrestling which is exactly what you want from this match up. Really great Willams performance, he just puts so much pop on everything he does in this match. He does this great sliding dropkick where he just sticks both feet into Taue's ribs and send him flying to the floor, and then works an abdominal stretch by pounding on those ribs. There is a minor key AJPW finish section with some really nasty falling lariats by Taue and a fun near fall where Taue grabbed the rope on the Stampede and got a two count, only to fall to a big stampede for a three. The older I get the less I care about smoothness and both of these guys are rough as sandpaper.

MD: This was a Doc showcase, from the fans chanting along to his music at the beginning to him powering Taue around the ring with the second Oklahoma Stampede attempt (not counting the posting on the floor) that was the finish. Doc felt like a proto-Brock here, just full of energy and explosiveness. Taue was there to take everything, get in position, and bump around for Williams. When he fired back, it was memorable, be it the hundred-hand slap across the ring or the back brain kicks. The finishing stretch was each trading bursts of momentum before Williams won out. The whole thing was an absolute clash of the titans. Size in and of itself doesn't matter any more than speed but the way that these two went at it made it feel larger than life.

ER: I pushed a little extra for this one as Taue is a guy who is weirdly under-represented on Segunda Caida, and that's something that should change. Taue vs. Doc was almost always a once a year singles match, and this is the first time it happened (and the only time it didn't happen as part of the Champion Carnival). So they met up nearly every year after this in the Carnival, including the well known '96 CC Final, so it was a fairly rare match up and one that always happened as some part of big tournament...except for here. It's their only singles match without some kind of stakes, and that's pretty cool. The two shouldn't blend well, and maybe they kind of don't, and that's what makes it fun. Taue's clunkiness is part of his charm and makes his moments of athleticism that much more exciting, and it's fun seeing him take offense because he moves like the only two "How to Move and Stand" models in his life were Giant Baba and Bob Backlund. Seriously, watch when Taue takes a punch or stays standing on a shoulderblock, his butt out/fist cocked stance is pure Backlund, the way he takes suplexes is like Backlund...just a perfect Frankenstein monster of Giant Bob-uh.

I liked how Taue used his falling clothesline a lot here, spamming it as a guaranteed takedown on Doc, as it was a way to actually swing things back to Taue's favor while also still making it feel like he was working underneath the full match. Taue does a lot of simple things here to play into Doc's crazy strength, like just grabbing the best kind of chinlock (tight arm choke while pressing his weight down into Doc's back and shoulders, and also holding tight onto a side headlock. Doc is not someone you want to put in a side headlock, but Taue locking in a snug one actually adds some meaning to Taue eating a back suplex, making it feel like his actual offense was reversed (as opposed to the moments where someone with zero business headlocking Doc was merely doing it for the spot). Doc had some cool punishing slams, and surprised me with a great baseball slide dropkick that sent Taue sprawling to the floor. Taue sprawls better than most wrestlers, there's always at least one limb sticking up in a way that it shouldn't be. Taue reads as a hard guy to lift (another secret about the greatness of Taue), so when Doc press slams out of a pin and Taue goes flying, it comes off like an even greater version of that spot. Doc Stampeding Taue into the ringpost is only more gold, and the nearfall that comes from Taue holding the ropes on a Stampede, falling on top of Doc with a crossbody, fully convinced me it was the finish. Two guys who infrequently met in singles matches, meeting for the first time, just made me want to go back through their half dozen CC matches.


Jerry Lawler vs. Air Paris NAWA 4/18/03

PAS: Really simple, really pleasurable Lawler indy tour match. Weird heel/face structure with Lawler doing sort of heelish mic work at the beginning (insulting a big Air Paris faction in the crowd) but Paris and his manager Bert Prentice working heel in the match. Paris was a highspot guy in NWA Wildside (and in his one WCW match) but was working Memphis heel here, he had a great greasy haired laser tag attendant look, and threw some really great looking punches. Lots of complaining about pulling hair and other fun horseshit. At one point Prentice holds Lawler while Paris wraps a chain around his hand, and instead of Paris accidentally hitting Prentice, the interference actually works!! We did have a Lawler Stone Cold Stunner, which is my least favorite Lawler thing ever (outside of the young girls of course), but otherwise this was spot on.

ER: We've gone through and watched a ton of Lawler indy matches from the 2000s, and this is just more of that same fun Lawler formula. Lawler can have this match in his sleep, so a capable opponent will always lift things, and Paris was a fun jerk here. He was bigger than his WCW appearances a couple years prior (when it looked like he and Styles were actually about to be a pushed new TV team...in the very last week of WCW), and he's dressed like an undercover cop at a rave, so it's fitting when he's complaining about hair pulls and tights pulls to eventually justify his own cheating. Lawler is always capable of surprising me, in mixing up his formula and catering it to specific crowds and opponents; here he surprised me by absolutely leveling Paris with a standing clothesline out of a blocked hiptoss attempt. Lawler is not someone I think about when I think about guys with a good short arm clothesline, but it shouldn't shock me that he uncorked a beauty. Lawler punches Paris around the ring, with Paris eventually coming back by punching Lawler in the back of his head. It's also no surprise when guys tend to "punch up" when facing Lawler. I recently watched a Lawler/Aldo Montoya match where it looked like Montoya was trying to break Lawler's jaw, and here Paris throws several knuckle shots right at Lawler's eyebrow. We get Paris choking Lawler with a chain behind the ref's back, and I'm always going to love a chain in a Lawler match. Lawler knows how to work around a chain, whether it's his chain or responding to someone else's chain. We build to both guys eating backdrops, Lawler punching Prentice off the apron (with Prentice taking an impressive bump for a guy cosplaying as the Mayor of Flavor Town), a strap removal spot where Lawler request Paris stop advancing on him, and then we really do get the chain spot to beat all chain spots. Phil mentioned it, but the whole spot is drawn out the exact way you've seen it countless times: Prentice gets on the apron and holds Lawler prone, Paris theatrically wraps the chain around his fist, gives his fist a big kiss, rears back...and just punches Lawler in the head. Prentice hops off the apron. I made an audible "HUH?" type sound. This is like when Matt saw a match where someone hit an axe handle off the middle buckle to a downed opponent, a true in the wild rarity.

MD: Air Paris is always going to be the unfortunate answer to a trivia question, but he put on a good show here. Lawler's opening mic act was ten years out of date (even for this crowd) and Prentice's act half-hearted and probably fifteen. None of that was a certainty because Lawler as of a few years ago could still spend the first ten minutes of a twenty minute recorded match on the mic and you wouldn't mind it at all, but here it was all too homophobia driven and the fans only seemed partially into it.

Paris did have his own cheering section which he used well as a prop throughout the match. There was nothing 'air' about him here, instead playing up the mic work insinuating that if he beat Lawler, he'd get a shot at the following Raw. He was the upstart jerk, playing up every won exchange or bodyslam as if he won the lottery (through skill, not luck). He kept the volume up high and presented himself as an entertaining foil for Lawler. The strap-dropping felt particular satisfying even after only a few minutes of it. Pure formula, but so long as you lean into it, it almost always works and they leaned into it here.

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Descansa En Paz Perro Aguayo

Perro Aguayo/Leon Chino vs. El Hijo Del Santo/Eddie Guerrero WWA 8/19/88

PAS: After seeing that Perro passed this afternoon, I went searching the internet for a cool Perro match to review and came across this banger. This is super young Eddie who is wearing Giant Warriors face paint, we get some cool mat exchanges between Eddie and Perro early, and we have a standard lucha primera caida. Then all hell breaks loose: Santo snaps and cracks Perro over the head with a chair, and Santo and Eddie go full rudo in Tijuana. The crowd starts throwing things at Santo as he batters a bloody Perro, throwing him into chairs, standing on top of him, and egging on the crowd. Great example of Perro's connection to the crowd as this beatdown turns the crowd on the son of the saint. There is a great moment at the end of the second fall when Santo taps Aguayo with the caballo and then contemptuously throws his face into the mat. The third fall is great too with Perro getting his revenge and cracking Santo with a chair. The finish shows a double pin eliminating both Chino and Santo, leaving Eddie and Perro to square off. It is a cool section which ends with Evil Santo jumping in and low blowing Perro. Great match, one I hadn't heard of before, and ends up living up to its prodigious on paper promise.

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Sunday Night Digging in the Crates: Requiem for a Saint

El Santo/Gori Guerrero/Hurricane Ramirez/ El Solitario v. Missonaires De La Muerte/Perro Aguayo 9/12/82

A true lucha holy grail, El Santo's retirement match has show up on youtube. So much fun to see all of these legendary guys mix it up. Pretty much a brawl from the start, which is a bit of a shame as I would have liked to see what exchanges Gori and Santo still had in them, although this kind of kick and punch thing is easier to protect old guys in. The atmosphere was insane, although the actually wrestling highlights were limited to Perro Aguyao and Solitario having a blood soaked war in the middle of this tribute to a legend. They sort of hijacked it and totally stole the show. Man was prime Perro Aguyao a world beater, the more I see of him, the more I think he was a top five brawler of all time. Would have liked to see Santo's team go over stronger as they won both falls by DQ, with the rudo's surprisingly left to rule the roost celebrating at the end, I guess they had to come back to sell tickets.

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HAMADA UWF #2 3/2/90

Shoji Akiyoshi v. Masonari Murakawa

PAS: Young Sasuke is basically getting squashed at this point, as young Jado stiffs and beats him quickly. I think the story with Sasuke is that he was trust fund rich kid, and he is getting beaten on like a trust fund kid trying to break into wrestling.

TKG: I thought Sasuke bought a gold statue of himself. That’s a kind of tacky Tony Montana move…not really the type of thing you do if you’re actually born to wealth. Really Sasuke is a pretty tacky guy lots of ways. It’s possible that over the course of his career he concussed the class out of himself. No concussion here but did feel like Jado was taking him to the grocery store: “Learn to loose like common people”.

Monkey Magic Watika v. Black Aidoman

PAS: This wasn’t as good as baby Gedo v. baby Jado from the previous show, as baby Delfin just isn’t as good at this point. There is some fun bumping by Aidoman, and his offense looked good. Seems weird because I don’t remember Gedo being this good 3 years later.

TKG: This had feeling like they were given too much time and they tried too much but yeah Gedo surprises. The early section with Delfin throwing non contact dropkicks which Gedo bumped huge for was kind of ugly. But I had a real sense of Gedo as guy controling and putting a match together.

Bison Kimura v. Xochi Hamada

TKG: Is it really a joshi match if there are no neckbridges and no screaming? I mean there may have been one pin where Hamada neck bridged out, and Hamada did scream when Kimura bit her foot. But essentially this was worked like Leilani Kai vs. Starla Sexton at the state fair. They wouldn’t be given this much time at the state fair. Promoter might tell them to go long while he waits for Austin Idol to show up. This was given too much time and Hamada started blowing lots of stuff.

PAS: The ropes were really loose and I think Hamada blowing stuff can partly be attributed to the shitty ropes. Kimura was fun beating on Hamada, I especially liked her stomps. Still this wasn’t much of a match and was a thousand minutes long.

Shu El Guererro/Black Terry v. Kendo/Blackman

PAS: This was exactly what you want from a fourth from the top tag. Kendo and Blackman have some really fun spots, and both rudos bump and stooge like champs. Kendo is a guy with out a ton of substance, but has some serious flash. Black Terry is such an asskicker, there is a section where they trap Blackman in the corner and you have some black on black violence so bad that someone should call Bill Cosby.

TKG: Kendo is super super fast here. He isn’t as good as guy eating opponent’s offense as he is as guy running through his own spots. But majority of match was spent with the rudos eating stuff and getting outwitted, so not much of a problem. Kendo does a spectacular dropkick where he spreads his legs and simultaneously knocks both Terry and Shu out of ring. It looks like no one has tightened the ropes and Shu does a nice job protecting Blackman from dieing on his top rope arm drag. Shu grabs at Blackman’s legs and makes it look like he’s trying to prevent Blackman from hitting his spot, while actually holding Blackman up.

Super Astro/Lizmark v. Jose Luis Feliciano/Espanto Jr.

TKG: Aw fuck Super Astro is the most spectacular wrestler in the world. This starts with some Super Astro going through his signature stuff with Espanto Jr while Lizmark matches up with Feliciano. They switch up half way into match and Super Astro matches up with Feliciano while Lizmark gets paired with Espanto Jr. When they switch pairings you really don’t want to see the Lizmark/Espanto Jr sections as they are a mess. But this is all about Super Astro. They still haven’t tightened the ropes which are sub foxy boxing loose at this point and you realize the degree to which Super Astro can just launch himself from standing position and doesn’t need the ropes to do most of his big spots. Lizmark is really handicapped. Super Astro doesn’t do his fake (the 619 inspiration) but just hits one beautiful back tope and flip after another.

PAS: Lizmark still hits all of his spots, they just look super dangerous because he looks like he is going to land wrong, but they all come off. Espanto Jr. isn’t very good, there is a point where he breaks out an insane looking tombstone, which was completely out of place in this match, and which Lizmark doesn’t really sell. Tom is right about Super Astro. He is incredible and he does a tope rope dive into a tope which is breathtaking. Feliciano was pretty great too, as he took everything really well, and had amazing clotheslines for a luchadore.

Negro Casas v. Yoshihiro Asai

PAS: Casas is a complete pleasure to watch in everything he does. At this point Asai was an over green babyface with some nice spots, kind of like a paunchier Mistico. Casas does a better job carrying Asai here, then anyone ever has carrying Mistico. The opening matwork was especially impressive considering that really isn’t what Casas is known for, or really what Asai is either. The finish felt a little abrupt, and they definitely want to make me see the hair match they challenged for.

TKG: This wasn’t nearly as heated as their sections in the trios match from the last show. Still pretty fun. Negro keeps getting taken to the floor and then bailing before Asai can dive. Eventually he gets stuck and Asai hits this nutty over the top rope flying forearm. Casas hits a top turnbuckle dive too. But this is mostly kept in ring and on the mat.

Gran Hamada v. Perro Aguayo

PAS: Man alive was this fun, Aguayo just exudes asskicker more then anyone else his size in wrestling history. He totally beats the shit out of Hamada here, throwing rows of chairs on him, hitting him with bottles, busting him open. Meanwhile Hamada is getting in some really great babyface comebacks. Aguayo goes over super strong winning two straight falls and just destroying Hamada in the second fall. His double stomp off the top is the end all be all of double stomps.

TKG: The brawling in the crowd was just awesome. I mean I have seen enough joshi that I should be immune to “wrestler gets tossed headfirst into row of chairs” spots. But Hamada gets tossed headfirst into row of chairs and the force of the toss flips him over that row and he takes another bump on the next row. Aguayo then just picks up the chairs wallops Hamada with the row and then tosses the row of chairs at the fans. Hamada leans into everything and there really is no need to lean into Aguayo’s boots to the face. He doesn’t need help making it look like he’s knocking his opponents face off.

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