Found Footage Friday: EDDIE~! CHAVO~! MANDO~! REY~! FIERA~! ESPANTO~! NAVARRO~!

Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Eddie Guerrero WWE 4/8/05

MD: 20 minutes or so, with Eddy bringing out a Make-A-Wish kid to begin and Carlito getting in his house show interaction with the two of them (and a bit of Torrie) at the end. So it's not the thirty minutes that the video suggests but it still gets a ton of time. Eddy and Rey were the tag champs together at this point so that made it feel even more special and timely for this week.

They use the time to really let things breathe, with Eddy attacking Rey's arm with a lot of different and varied holds. Maybe what I loved the most about this was how into it the crowd was based on the way they put over each bit of wrenching or cinching of a hold. Eddy would land a drop toe hold out of nowhere and the fans would "oooof" in unison. He'd do a headstand to tighten up a hammerlock and it'd lead to an "ooooh." You have to love that level of investment on even simple things. It is hard, sometimes, to go from 70s French wrestling where everything, a top wristlock or a hammerlock or a short armscissors would have a four minute elaborate series of escape attempts to 21st century wrestling where we have to live with one huge fly mare out of Rey instead of three attempts of it with Eddy hanging on, but that's a me thing, not a match thing.

When Rey really got going, he really got going, hitting from one direction and then the next and the next, all fluid, all with oomph, all believable. Eddy could do no wrong at this point. He cheated and the fans chanted his name, so while he was the aggressor and Rey had to work from underneath, it still felt like a babyface match, just with different tools used than usual used to achieve the same ends. That was a testament in itself. Having not seen it for a while, I love to see Eddy do the three amigos, because unlike all of the tribute spots now, there's no hesitation to milk the moment. He just bursts into the sequence. The finish was the old, tried and true, splash mountain into a 'rana, but it, like everything else in the match looked great and got over huge.

PAS: The dream is to find the bloody house show brawls these two had, but it is really cool to see them work a basically scientific face vs. face match, even with Eddie being a lovable cheat. Really simple effective wrestling with Rey taking a corner post bump and Eddie really showing every step in how to crank and damage an arm. Good point about the Three Amigos, he has a ton of explosion and force on the move, which is never really captured by the tribute spots. I love getting another chance to watch Eddie, what an electric and compelling performer he was

Eddie Guerrero/Chavo Guerrero/Gacela vs. La Fiera/Espanto Jr./Predator Juarez

MD: This is posted on the Juarez YouTube page and is about ten minutes but only a few of an actual match before mask pulling, post match fighting, and Chavo making challenges. Eddy had some really good strikes here though. That's my biggest takeaway. It's not something I usually think of when I think of pre-modern Eddy. In the short amount of footage we have here, he launched a spinning backfist, an awesome European uppercut that reached for the ceiling, and a really nice elbow smash, and then post-match took a bunch of shots well and sympathetically as he was tied up in the ropes. You catch him too early in his career and he often comes off as an afterthought. That wasn't at all the case here. Just given who was in this one, if we had more of it, or if there even was more of it, it'd probably have been good, but we come in on the chaotic violence and as chaotic violence goes, it's solid stuff.

Mando Guerrero vs. Negro Navarro

MD: The only record I see on Cagematch with these two is from 1981 in Los Angeles. It's possible. Navarro is certainly young with a full head of hair. There's a brief bit in English in between the Spanish commentary. Fact of the matter is that I don't know. What I do know is how well these two are matched up. Both have a certain amount of over the top theatricality in what they do. In his later career, Navarro would overlay that on top of the maestro style. Mando was more apt to roll around the ring and eat up opponents. Here, Navarro had control with bit offensive flourishes. He'd grab what I assume is Mando's cape and wrap it around his hand to beat him down. He'd bite. He'd pose. Mando would fight his way back, making sure to preen to the crowd for half a second before big shots. Navarro would cut him off. Just when I thought the 8 minutes of footage that we have would cut off without a finish, Mando snuck through the ref's legs for a roll up and a banana peel win. Whatever vintage it is, it's a good look at Navarro earlier in his career and a very apt pairing.

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Yoshiaki Fujiwara Sustains the Humble, But Casts the Wicked To The Ground

Yoshiaki Fujiawara v. Joe Malenko PWFG 6/1/93-EPIC

PAS: This was so much fun, just a pair of true maestros pulling pushing and twisting each other until someone gives. This wasn't an exchange of holds, it was a constant battle by both men to find some advantage or defense. This was really a Malenko show, as he controlled with great takedowns, and constant attacking, with Fujiwara really focused on defense. Of course Fujiwara is the greatest defensive pro-wrestler of all time, so the defense stuff ruled.

TKG: This was a Malenko show. My favorite thing that he did was use his knee and shin as simple machine, constantly pushing it against stuff to act as a lever, inclined plane or wedge to force Fujiwara to move one body part or another, worlds most violent physics demonstration.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Daisuke Ikeda v. Ricky Fuji/Hitsakatsu Ooya FMW 5/5/95-FUN

This is for the FMW tag belts, and was on the undercard of one of the big FMW 5/5 shows. There was a bunch of stuff I enjoyed here, Fujiwara and Ikeda are both bleeding and do a good job of getting the crowd behind them. We get to see Ikeda kick some folks really hard, including a spin kick right to Fuji's face which looked like it chicleted his teeth. The finish had Fujiwara whipping out flash armbars, including catching Fuji off the top. Still lots of the match had the FMW team beating on Fujiwara and Ikeda, and there was nothing compelling about it. Lots of weak forearms and stomps, you are going to have to hit both guys way harder then that to have me buy into it.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Shinya Hashimoto/Naoya Ogawa v. Tom Howard/The Predator/Steve Corino Zero-One 5/19/02-GREAT

A match which ends up on the low side of great, but had enough stuff I enjoyed to push it over the top. This is part of the big UPW/NWA v. Zero One feud which lots of times came off as a giant money mark fantasy for Fred Rubenstien and Rick Bassman. This did have heel ref shit and a post match brawl with Mr. Fred throwing powder, but for the most part it was focused in the ring. Fujiwara had some cool flash submissions and got in his ring bolt comedy spot, but the star of this match was Hashimoto. The gaijin team is pretty limited, but Hash had some excellent battle of the titans spots with all of them. I especially love his work with Howard, who is someone I am really starting to dig while watching all of this Zero One. I loved how he wasted Hashimoto with a superkick after suckering him in with his hands behind the back gimmick. Finish had some cool OH Gun combo moves including a nasty STO/German Suplex. Cool stuff.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FUJIWARA

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The Sharpest Sword is a Word Spoken By Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Wellington Wilkins Jr. PWFG 5/19/91-GREAT

Damn was this a blast. This was worked as a mat brawl, both guys were exchanging really nasty shots mostly on the mat. Short punches to the temple by Wilkins, almost JYDish seated headbutts by Fujiwara, Wilkins kind of leaping from a lying position into a knee on Fujiwara's throat. Fujiwara was almost working heel here, as he slaps on a kneebar and lays out in a supine lounging position with his head resting on his elbow, he almost looks like he is stifling a yawn. Wilkins is great, he has nice deadlift suplexes and takes Fujiwara's signature boston crab reversal as a dangerous neck bump. Is their any other shoot Wilkins out there? Did he work Kingdom or something?

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Shinya Hashimoto v. Predator/Tom Howard Zero One 7/30/02-GREAT

Man this was a ton of fun, your gaijin team are two guys with some amusing signature spots who work stiff. That is totally enough for legends like Hashimoto and Fujiwara to have a great match with. Hashimoto blisters these two guys, I have to give Predator some credit, he may not be very good, but I bet Brody wouldn't be willing to stand in there and exchange shots with Hashimoto. Howard has a spot where he puts his hands behind his back and dares his opponents to hit him, and Hash and Fujiwara are a pair of guys up for that challenge. Fujiwara wasn't in the match a ton, but he did have a couple of nice exchanges with each opponent. I really liked how he used his speed and guile to maneuver Predator into the armbar, you don't see a lot of Fujiwara working as Rey Jr. v. Undertaker but he is really good at it.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Katsumi Usuda v. Shoichi Funaki/Ikuto Hidaka HUSTLE 5/30/10-GREAT

Funaki makes his return to his BattlArts/PWFG roots in this neat tag. This is a project dedicated to Fujiwara and the match was focused on Funaki, both guys were pretty fun. Fujiwara rips it up on the mat some, does his signature comedy spot, and gets a really great almost Southern hot tag moment, where he bumps around both of his opponents, before locking in a speedy submission. Funaki didn't look completely out of place as he hung on the mat, and took a nice bump or two. Despite that stuff, this match was really all about Hidaka and Usuda just ruling it, kicking the shit out each other, rolling through some breathtaking mat exchanges, looking like two guys made for each other. Their sections with each other was some of the best wrestling in 2010. I really want to see an epic singles match, or a match up in a more meaningful main event tag.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE YOSHIAKI FUJIWARA

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