Found Footage Friday: 1989 NJPW~!

2/8/89

George Takano vs. Hiro Saito

MD: Pretty solid match. Takano was being pushed more at the start of 89 (with his team with Super Strong Machine) than at any point since he dropped the Cobra gimmick. He looked good here in a singles against a very game opponent. He did take most of the match. Saito would try to get him in a hold and he had an interesting technical escape to everything (be it stepping through to set up a takedown or a headstand to get out of a headscissors). Saito had a nice escape or two of his own. Things really picked up down the stretch as they absolutely paintbrushed each other for thirty seconds. That led to a nearfall off of Saito's senton and Takano catching him out of nowhere with the spin wheel kick and then finishing him off with a suplex and top rope splash. You'll be glad to know they shook hands post-match.  

ER: This was good. Tight grappling, real force applied during submissions and lock ups and knuckle locks, real physics used in takedowns and near misses. Takano had some great stuff to steal, including a cool low kip up out of an armbar (going straight into leaning his weight down into Saito's legs to maneuver out) and a cool pendulum swing spinebuster takedown, shifting Saito's weight back and forth before slamming him. Saito's figure 4 headscissors is impossibly snug, and all of Takano's eventual escape looked well earned. Once he escapes he locks Saito into a disgusting leg-grapevined camel clutch that would have played as the finish. You know maybe someone shouldn't steal any of this Takano stuff as I don't know who would be able to apply it as well as he does. They work these holds until the 10 minute announcement and then get right up and go into the finishing stretch. I was getting used to these snug holds and suddenly we're getting suplexes, Takano going up for a high backdrop, Saito hitting his senton famously full weight. I think Takano is much more interesting working holds than he is doing actual running offense. All of his holds looked like he was stretching Saito, but his top rope splash finish looked like he was trying to avoid full contact at all costs. 

Bello Greco/Sergio El Hermoso vs. Hirokazu Hata/Naoki Sano

MD: When Hata and Sano came back from Mexico, they brought their sparring partners with them. There's a Fujiwara match with them that people should seek out. As best as I can tell, Greco was the real base and worker and Sergio was the flash and lead for the comedy. He kissed the announcer before the match and blew one to the ref, causing all sorts of havoc. Hata and Sano had some big climb up armdrags on Greco. And the kiss spot where Sano went flying the first time but Hata blocked it to tweak the nose/lips the second worked about as well as it could. Sano had a bit more style to what he was doing maybe, whereas Hata just played into what he was given more, but both looked good. Finish had Hata hit a dive to the floor off the top and Sano hit a German (but not able to hold the bridge) for the win. In context, a lot of these spots were repeated from the TV matches they were having, but they were all crowd-pleasers for the house show crowd.

ER: The exoticos' music is incredible. It's like someone doing a muted trumpet sound with their mouth doing a sexy Peter Gunn theme. They have a great act. You can tell it's a great act, because they got constant laughs for the full 14 minute runtime, while tons of wrestlers on this card couldn't buy a reaction. Matt Borne and Italian Stallion can't buy a single sound from the people of Sapporo, but they love every single thing Greco and Sergio do, with good cause. The fans love the silly rope running, they love the butt stuff (I wonder if Rick Rude ever saw Bello Greco and lifted an entire career of selling atomic drops), they love the accidents and the misdirection, just involved in every single movement both do. Their timing is great throughout, the absolute best bit being Greco running down the length of the apron to just miss Hata, running his own face into the turnbuckle. Sano looked like a guy clearly in the middle of his breakout year whenever he was in (his stepover armdrag early in the match was so fast and clean) and Hata looked like a guy who was not that, and I loved how they worked with the exotico tandem. They weren't guys being worked around, they were integrating nicely. I would have loved to see Greco and Sergio stick around longer than these few weeks of '89 and work with more opponents, see what the act could do in singles, but all the footage we have is so good in the way that I'm happy it never burnt out. 

Seiji Sakaguchi/Kengo Kimura vs. Matt Borne/Italian Stallion 

ER: This doesn't add up to anything big but has plenty of fun working parts. I have not seen much of Italian Stallion's 1989 New Japan run, and it's crazy how much time he spent there that year and only that year. Sakaguchi makes chopped liver out of him, swallowing him up whole and chaining judo throws while never letting go of his arm, which he caught when Stallion tried to throw one punch. One punch that doesn't land and Sakaguchi treats him like he's Seiji Sakaguchi fighting The Italian Stallion. Stallion isn't bad at all, but he is much better when he wrestles like a poor man's Matt Borne rather than his usual rich man's Joey Maggs. His dropkick hits like a truck and he throws Kimura with a cool belly to belly, but needs a better clothesline. 

I love how Matt Borne moves. He's just as unpredictable as Buzz Sawyer but keeps things more compact. He's a bulldog, goes hard after Sakaguchi and gets hit hard by the large man. I loved a double leg trip Kimura and Sakaguchi pulled on him, like they were actually trying to pull him apart like a wishbone. Borne really smothers Kimura whenever he's in with him, riding him on the mat and not letting him land anything until the finish. He even pulls some bullshit when the ref misses Sakaguchi's tag and Borne goes back to picking on Kimura, shutting down a hot tag. Crowd doesn't react in any way to his bombs away which is just cold. He eventually takes the pin when Kimura gets a piledriver, and I like how he sells the piledriver with confusion instead of neck pain. 

MD: Little bit of a weird one to me. Stallion (and Borne to a lesser degree) gave a bit to Kimura but mostly ate him up on the mat. Stallion would just roll around on top of him. As you can imagine, they'd give more for Sakaguchi though. Kimura did get the win with the leg lariat/pile driver combo so maybe he felt giving but it did seem like Stallion was going to assert himself as much as possible when given the chance (just not with one of the bosses). Maybe that's why he stayed around so much in 89? 

Super Strong Machine vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 

ER: This doesn't rise to levels of Fujiwara singles match greatness, but it is a Fujiwara singles match against one of my favorite New Japan 80s natives so it's obviously a great 12 minutes. Fujiwara is in house show antagonist mode and just trolls Strong Machine with annoying stuff all match. He breaks every lock up with a slap, in a way that's not meant to hurt but meant to rile up Machine into making mistakes. It's all mischievousness where he retains plausible deniability over being a troll but it's all there. Look at Machine finally make his first inroads and throw Fujiwara to the floor, only to see the insanely aggravating way Fujiwara casually walks back around the ring after hitting the floor. Fujiwara gets his head bounced off the turnbuckle bolt and just strolls away adjusting his trunks. I don't think there was a wink thrown to the crowd, but it was implied. Just a cool fucking guy catching eyes with a girl in a car while crossing the street. 

Things open up when Machine starts going after Fujiwara's taped up knee with an ankle lock, and you can tell it's getting to Fujiwara because he starts throwing backfists from his back into Machine's neck. Machine wisely maneuvers things into a single leg crab, much harder to throw backfists from that position. Fujiwara breaks free from it by fishhooking Strong Machine's mask with one hand and throwing punches with the other, gripping a handful of the bottom edge of his mask with his left while punching him straight in the jaw with his right. When he gets to his feet he throws half a dozen headbutts, still holding Machine by the mask, hopping on his bad knee while throwing them. There's a great moment where Machine fires up after Fujiwara kneels on his face, and demands Fujiwara punch him some more, like a man. Fujiwara happily obliges and buckles Strong Machine's legs. 

The finish sequence is hot as hell. Fujiwara catches a clothesline and puts his weight behind an armbar in one motion, but Machine rolls through, so Fujiwara tries to take him down again with a Fujiwara but Machine blocks it, so Fujiwara pulls an inside cradle. Fujiwara's greatest successes come from never wanting to finish a match a specific way, always willing to pivot to whatever might be available. 

MD:  Not top tier-Fujiwara, sure, but it was definitely chippy and snippy. They leaned on each other. Battering in the corner, etc. I'd say SSM had the advantage until he tried slamming Fujiwara's head into the post. Then he tried to stop the headbutts that would come (self aware in a very good way) but couldn't. He did pull Fujiwara out and post his leg and Fujiwara had to fight from underneath for a bit. Fujiwara came back with huge headbutts though and ultimately after two arm bar attempts (first rolled through) locked in a small package. Nice little self-aware bits in this, the sort of thing you'd be more likely to get from Super Strong Machine than a lot of his contemporaries.

Hiroshi Hase vs. Shiro Koshinaka

MD: This was really good. Super high on it. There's a rule for 1987-1989 NJPW Juniors matches: The best ones start with an immediate ambush/advantage, and Koshinaka got that, nailing Hase in the ropes on the first exchange and going after his taped knee. Lots of nasty little shots and bigger submissions. At one point he went for a suplex, and Hase's leg went out and his head just crushed into the mat. Koshinaka hit the butt butt, the top rope knee drop and even the power bomb. Then he shoved Hase out. The ref got in his face and that let Hase pull Shiro out to take over. 

I wouldn't have minded if Hase sold just a little more but I was generally ok with it. Most of his offense wasn't hefting Koshinaka up but slamming his head into the exposed post instead (the best kind of offense). Koshinaka bled. Hase stayed on the wound. The ref tried to stop him at one point and Hase pointed out that Shiro had been unsportsmanlike in going after his leg and this was warranted. 

Eventually he did hit the Northern Lights but couldn't keep the bridge given his leg. He ended up choking Koshinaka for the DQ, which is way better than it sounds on paper, trust me. Post match Hiro Saito came in and they beat on Koshinaka and anyone that tried to stop them. Honestly, as a finish, it's not something we saw much during this era in New Japan and it was grisly and effective for me. Really good match.  

ER: This was really good. There was a different Koshinaka/Hase match on the New Japan DVDVR 80s set that happened the next month, from 3/16/89. I was higher on that match than the consensus (I had it 25 spots higher than the final results) and I think this is the better match. Koshinaka goes after Hase's leg like a heel and works the first third of this match as Junior Heavyweight Tenryu. Hase's comeback goes on so much longer and is equally violent, so much so that it turns Koshinaka into a bigger babyface by virtue of Hase being such an asshole. Hase pays merely lip service to Koshinaka's knee work - had the knee come back in any meaningful way, instead of Hase occasionally shaking it out while otherwise not acknowledging - it would have been one of the best New Japan juniors matches of the late decade. Koshinaka throws sharp kicks at Hase's knee that do not look pulled, so much so that it seems absurd when Hase goes on offense for 10 straight minutes with no sign of slowing down. 

Until Hase just flipped the switch, his knee selling was great. There was this almost third wall breaking spot where Koshinaka went for a snap suplex and Hase couldn't make it over on his bad leg, so instead whips nose first into the mat in one of the more disgusting DDT bumps I've ever seen. It's such a fucked up looking bump that it looked like a blown spot or miscommunication. It hits this meta level of "Hase's leg is so bad that he can't take moves the way you all expect guys to take moves" and it was something that could have made this match legendary. But Hase messes that up to and actually treats the spot like a fuck up, not acknowledging the bump he took at all and kind of quickly getting to his feet. 

But he went so hard on Koshinaka that I think he overcame the lack of selling. I've never thought of Hase as a kicker, but he unleashes some hellish kicks on Koshinaka. At one point, Koshinaka on his knees, Hase is just kicking him right across the bridge of the nose and Koshinaka hangs in for more, so Hase kicks him in the back of the head. He's really merciless, and Koshinaka turns into this fired up screaming babyface while taking everything Hase brought. Hase's torso and legs wound up smeared with Koshinaka's blood and he looked like a deranged animal biting at Koshinaka's head. The DQ finish looked great as there really was nothing the referee could do to separate Hase's mouth from Koshinaka's head. That man looked like he was pulling with all his might to pull him off and it was not happening. I'm curious what the consensus would have been on this match. Enough DVDVR voters would have hated Hase's selling, but I think more would have loved the violence. 

Antonio Inoki/Riki Choshu/Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Big Van Vader/Bam Bam Bigelow/Rip Morgan 

ER: A great house show main event that never quite settles into a structure but has the two biggest gaijin taking tons of big bumps for the freaking powerhouse native team. That's a star studded lineup and Vader/Bigelow treat them as size/power equals for long stretches. Bigelow takes a full flip for Riki's second lariat one minute in. Just a full backflip like he's Jeff Hardy. Fujinami isn't taking a flipping bump for Vader's clothesline, he's blocking it and getting a sick backslide instead. This is Riki's lariat though, so even Vader is taking a big leaping bump for it late in the match. Vader and Bigelow get rocked by suplexes and clotheslines all match, from all of them. Choshu even suplexes Vader in from the apron! Everybody was taking suplexes man.  

There isn't even really any hierarchy in this match, it's kind of strange. Going into it Rip Morgan feels like the most obvious Guy Taking Pin in Main possible but he's in there working big exchanges with Inoki and Choshu. He hits a kitchen sink knee to Choshu that Riki takes so well that it made my stomach hurt. Riki leans into his Scorpion Deathlock like he's applying it to Morgan as a shoot submission. Nobody felt like a bigger start than anyone else, it was just six stars working a main event that nobody outside of this sports center will ever see.

Bigelow was the one who worked this with joy. Everybody works with energy but Bam Bam was having fun. He's not a monster, he's the guy working with some color, a little whimsy. He shakes his fist out after punching Riki, bodyslams Inoki with force, breaks up a pin with a falling headbutt to Inoki's face. He's doing light axe handles off the top and throwing headbutts, but also looks like he's giving Vader ideas on how to wreak havoc. Vader had this amazing press slam hoist of Choshu, super impressive, made him look weightless. Bam Bam gets in the ring and directs Vader to throw Riki onto his knee in a gutbuster. It rules.  There's an awesome 1-2 where Bigelow breaks Inoki's octopus hold on Morgan by leveling him with a clothesline, and right when he hits it he gets wasted by a Riki lariat, great bookend to him getting flipped by one early. There are some little clips in this so we don't get a full feel for the finish, but this is six guys I loved watching run around each other. 

MD: 1989 starts with the Power Elite of Inoki/Choshu/Fujinami coming together against Vader and Bigelow. They do a bunch of these matches in January and the start of February, so it's a little overdone by this point, but the plus side is that they've been practicing and honing the match. That meant some spots like the Inoki kicking off out of the over the shoulder double team worked quite well. 

I really enjoyed the start of this one, with the heels ambushing and then Choshu ducking a Bigelow clothesline, hitting a lariat that just staggered him and then hitting the real one that Bigelow took a flip bump for (very rare for 89 in general and especially a guy Bigelow's size). In order to keep things fresh and prep for the Russians coming in, they had Rheingans join Vader/Bigelow as their American player/coach and he was at the margins of this one. 

This was fairly back and forth. You feel bad for Fujinami here. He's fine but he doesn't come off as the ace/champ when teaming with two of the most charismatic wrestlers ever. Vader was there to basically get control again. It boiled over (with a clip, and during that clip Inoki may have actually won it) to either the DQ or the post-match where heels controlled in the corner wouldn't stop double teaming and charging in. 

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Found Footage Friday: PIRATA~! MS-1~! JAGUAR~! DEVIL~! FUJINAMI~! KOSHINAKA~! CHOSHU~! SAITO~!

Devil Masami vs. Jaguar Yokota AJW 9/7/83

Kadaveri: I think the context of this match finally surfacing needs a bit of explanation for those who aren't 80s Joshi nerds. Jaguar Yokota and Devil Masami were the top two stars of AJW in the 1981-84 period in between Jackie Sato retiring and the Crush Gals becoming megastars. This WWWA Singles Title match was the main event to one of the biggest shows of the era and essentially the blowoff to their feud, which goes back at least as far as them feuding over the AJW Junior Title in 1980. Jaguar & Devil went on to form the tag team 'Empress Duo' and never wrestled each other in a singles match again.

Sadly though, the match was missing. The source for most of the early 80s AJW footage you'll see online is one Japanese guy's collection of home-recorded VHS tapes of AJW broadcasts on Fuji TV. I got in contact with him a few years ago and specifically asked him if he had this match, as I noticed a Crush Gals vs. Mimi Hagiwara & Noriyo Tateno match (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_qqf3xDkrE) from the same show was circulating. Turns out that back in 1983 when recording the episode he'd mistakenly inserted a tape with only about 25 minutes left, so we got the first match of the episode but then it cut off and the main event wasn't recorded. Imagine making a little error like that, and finding out someone from another continent is upset about it 40 years later. It's far from the only big match of that era missing but I'd say it's the most historically important one. I'd hoped for years that surely someone else had recorded and kept a copy, but most of these older Japanese fans aren't very online so this hypothetical person might not even be aware that they have something rare.

In more recent times there have been different people uploading their own recordings of 80s AJW broadcasts to YouTube, which has filled a few gaps. You might see me in the comments asking if they have the 1983 Jaguar vs. Devil Title match, but to no avail. Despite there being no footage, I felt this match was important enough then when I made the 1980s Joshi Set last year I inserted a magazine description of the match into the video (https://vkvideo.ru/playlist/640112534_2/video640112534_456239022) to let everyone know the match happened, rather than just disregarding it entirely.

So for decades, all we had to go on to learn about this match was descriptions in Japanese media at the time, and references to it in future interviews. When Devil Masami defeated Dump Matsumoto to win the WWWA Singles Title in 1985, she referenced this match in her post-match interview, saying that she felt her performance had made up for her deporable display in the 1983 bout, where she was so upset about losing that she'd threatened to quit there and then. At the time, AJW was still running a strange mix of worked pro-wrestling with an element of legitimate competition. Specifically, while most matches were entirely worked, sometimes they'd do matches where the majority was worked for entertainment purposes, but there was no pre-determined winner. Rather, after some kind of signal had been given, the wrestlers would take turns to try and legitimately pin the other for a 3 count.

Then in July 2024, this Japanese blogger uploaded clips from the match, saying that someone who had a copy invited him to his house to watch it and allowed him to record some moments on his phone.  https://ameblo.jp/kimumasa992/entry-12860724586.html I only had to watch a few seconds of the clips to verify that this indeed was the 9/7/83 title match. Whether this directly led to the full match being uploaded isn't clear, but it's possible the buzz among the tiny number of 80s Joshi nerds about this footage being confirmed to exist caught the ear of the mysterious uploader who put up the whole broadcast several months later.

Now to the match itself. The match length was 38:26, with 25 minutes shown on the TV edit. My more wider thoughts on it is that it changes my ideas on the development of AJW's house style by quite a bit. My working theory at the moment is that in early 1984 we saw their working style(s) diverge into what ended being the most varied but somehow still cohesive wrestling products of the era.

Firstly, there was an escalation in quickening the pace of matches and adding innovative moves, which brought us the style most associated with Jaguar Yokota, the Crush Gals and the Jumping Bomb Angels.
Secondly, while brawls and evil cheating heels totally existed beforehand, Dump Matsumoto kept that style relevant by upping the ante considerable, adding horror elements and a level of unhinged spectacle far beyond anything the likes of Abdullah the Butcher ever did. Thirdly, in what feels like a restraining move on the other two trends (even if not conscious), there was a movement (in big title matches especially) towards slower, epic feeling matches based around holds (taking some influence from early shoot style) and longer control segments compared to the far more fluid Joshi house style. I associate this more with Devil Masami, but Yukari Omori also excelled in this.

What's thrown me off about this one is, while Devil Masami was still in her uber-heel phase here, this match is actually fought more like a 'Style Three' type of match that I thought didn't come until around a year later. There's barely any dirty play from her at all in fact, even though she doesn't do her turn from heel to 'tweener' until a big angle in February 1984. So I think this match is in fact a first draft in front of a live audience of the style that really peaked in the Crush Gals boom era of 1985-86. Also, this is before the UWF's first show, so while I do know that shoot style did influence some AJW wrestlers a bit after this, it clearly wasn't the only thing going on.

We get an opening flurry in the first couple of minutes where both wrestlers get to throw some offense but to little effect, and then things settle down and for the next ten minutes this is very grounded wrestling. Sometimes they're on the mat exchanging holds, and they switch things up by taking to their feet for tests of strength, but the one consistent thread is that Jaguar is the superior wrestler. Devil is competitive and gets ahead a few times, but Jaguar always comes out on top in these exchanges. There's a familiar moment where Jaguar has Devil in a facedown leglock and Devil just can't break out of it and tries going for the ropes, familiar because Devil would put Chigusa Nagayo in a similar predicament in their big title match two years later.

Eventually Devil needs to break this dynamic and she does it by throwing Jaguar headfirst into the ring post and throws her into some chairs on the outside. Within  the context of the match I guess this is a dirty play, but watching Devil up to this point with her liberal use of weapons and outside interference, it barely counts.

This doesn't work well for Devil though. Jaguar flies back into the ring and unloads some big flying offense on her before taking back control and getting her on the mat stuck in a hold again. It's an unconventional layout in that Jaguar is the smaller, faster babyface, but actually she's the one who's trying to keep things grounded and slowed down with Devil fighting from underneath. So it feels like she's the one whose comeback has been built to when she manages to counter Jaguar's hold with a headscissors and then hits a cool seated-piledriver like move for her first protracted segment of offense of the match. We get some feats of strength with her big delayed bodyslams but soon they're back on the mat but Devil has Jaguar grounded now. Her camel clutch feels like such a more heelish hold than anything Jaguar did however. But this just leads up to what I think is the match highlight, one of the sickest ganso bombs I've ever seen it's borderline attempted murder. Devil just plants Jaguar straight down on her head and Jaguar stays down looking like she'd had the life knocked out of her.

The big ganso bomb changes the match completely. The next section is all Devil-dominance and Jaguar is selling like she's at 50% energy at most for the next several minutes. It's not the kind of 'holding a specific body part' selling we're more used to in modern times, just a general sense of being out of it and just about holding on to survive. Jaguar does get in a counter by hitting a backdrop, but is too hurt to capitalise and they tease a double KO for a bit before they're both up (Devil actually gets up first). Jaguar also tries hiding out on the outside to recover, making the most of the 20 count. It's a really good selling performance. Bear in mind we are missing about 13 minutes of the match (I assume nothing was cut from here on as it's the finishing stretch and the time calls add up), so the exhaustion on display probably made a bit more sense if we were seeing this in full.

Now we get to the spicy bit. The ring announcer makes the call for 35 minutes passed, and Devil goes for the win as per the secret rules. She stands horizontally to Jaguar, who is lying flat back on the match, and Devil just goes down flat to try and hold her down for the 3 count. On the replay, I have to admit, it looks like Jaguar cheats a little bit. The rule was that you're not allowed to try to bridge out until the cover has already been applied, but she goes up a split second before. Might not have made a difference, but Jaguar is able to turn onto her front and keep herself in the match. It's her turn to try to win next. Devil again goes for a cover, but those in the know will see she wasn't trying to win this time, it's a spot for Jaguar to do her signature bridge out straight to her feet to come running off the ropes, which she follows with a very nice jump over Devil's head (she gets impressive height on it) to get back into the match. Her turn is next

The spiciness continues. Jaguar hits a butterfly suplex and she goes for the win as per the rules. Devil's shoulders are clearly down as Jaguar begins the cover, and she tries to fight her way out of it but can only get one shoulder up at any one time. There's an almighty struggle over this, but Jaguar definitely does manage to pin Devil's shoulders for a 2 count. But a 3? Well, this video quality isn't great so it's not entirely clear, but it does look to me that Devil's shoulder was up just before the 3. Anyway, Devil was convinced her shoulder was up and was outraged. I've read all about this incident but never seen it for myself, with Devil saying the referee was biased and Jaguar says Devil was just mad she lost. But she goes right over the announcer table to scream at Commission Ueda (who isn't just an on-screen authority, he was actually the most powerful person in the company who wasn't a Matsunaga) that she's been screwed.

While it would still be the norm for rookie matches, this would be the last time AJW had a World Title be decided by shoot-pin rules. Which is another thing which makes this match historically significant and I'm so glad we finally got to see it. While that aspect of the company would be downplayed going forward, they also created a template for the kind of epic title match that AJW would really specialise in over the next few years. This is a lot rougher than the later matches, there are some lulls in the action (I mean in terms of being captivating, not literal movement) and it feels like it'd take a little while longer for the AJW crew to fully figure out how to get the most out of this style. I'd say the 7/19/82 match between these two is still probably the better match, albeit a very different one. It feels a bit weird to give this a star rating considering the context, but I'm going to give this a flat 4. But for it's place in history this is a must watch for anyone interested in 80s Joshi. I'm so happy this has finally surfaced.

MD:  To my credit, I am back in 1979 still, right? And while I've seen the Dump stuff that's canonical, I'm less versed on this stuff. But this is a big match, and a lost match, and we'll jump right in. It really felt like a title match and a struggle, especially the holds where it was obvious just looking at Masami and Yokota just how much effort they were putting into them, and especially the finish which had Yokota forcing Masami's shoulders down almost from force of will alone (or as Kad pointed out, from true force alone). This had kinetic action that ground back into the holds in a way that gave the match substance. It never broke down into chaos or interference. It always went back to the center and therefore it never lost its way.

Throughout the match, Yokota would get an advantage with speed and grit, often times just throwing her body at Masami (which is really how the match started), and then Masami would grind her down with power (again, how the match started) and bombs. Some of the specific holds really worked for me, such as the way they were able to trade bodyscissors early, working basically all the way around the world shifting holds and positions until they switched places on who had on the bodyscissors. 

Masami would drive Yokota out of the ring or leave her laying, but Yokota came back again and again. The comeback towards the end had her basically vault straight up over Masami's head before hitting a rana. Even then Masami shut her down and tossed her off the second rope from a fireman's carry. So while it was all grounded, they built to some pretty big spots, before the finish which was scrappy as could be and still felt contested nonetheless. I don't know if those shoulders were down.

Riki Choshu/Masa Saito vs. Tatsumi Fujinami/Shiro Koshinaka 9/5/88

MD: This one's on us. We've had access to this HH since 2018 or whatever but I don't think anyone actually gave it a good look. It's the IWGP Heavyweight champion and the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion up against the tag champs for the belts. And it's really good and goes twice as long as I expected. 

After some opening title match feeling out between Saito and Fujinami (two of the most credible guys ever so it was good like you'd expect), Shiro wants to tag in against Choshu and we're off to the races. Koshinaka is a guy that I like a lot more in tags than singles. He (and Takano/Cobra) were really expected to be the heirs to Tiger Mask in having exciting, over the top Jr. Title matches and you really end up with a lot of noise. But he was a plucky underdog with a special connection with the crowd and a real sense of theatricality. Earlier in 88, he started being the only guy in the promotion (not even Inoki) who would sometimes "Hulk Up" and the fans couldn't get enough of it.

Here he quickly got outgunned by the superior hierarchical forces and what we ended up with was a tale of survival as he tried to punch his way out of first Saito's Prison Lock and then Choshu's Scorpion. There's probably nothing the fans in 88 New Japan would eat up more than someone fighting valiantly against holds like that and at one point they were clapping along to each valiant Koshinaka punch in a way that I'm not sure I've seen them do before. They cycled through this twice until, fighting a Scorpion attempt, Koshinaka was able to crawl over and make the tag.  

I thought things would go home shortly hereafter (once Koshinaka recovered enough to make it back in of course) and there was a bit of that, with Fujinami having to survive some of the holds Koshinaka fought out of as they targeted his knee. Shiro did come back in and they had the advantage for a while, but they were fighting from a deficit. It was Fujinami that got overwhelmed instead, posted on the outside by Saito and opened up to create a dramatic (and surprising) next act to the match as Saito bit the wound and Fujinami fought for his life.

Koshinaka tries to intervene and got trapped in the ropes just as Fujinami turned the tide, fighting off both Saito and Choshu until Choshu's lariat finally prevailed. Super dramatic stuff, the sort of which you can only get out of New Japan at its best. 

Pirata Morgan vs. MS-1 (hair vs hair) CMLL 3/15/91

MD: There's a moment at the end which is honestly remarkable and we're going to lead with that. After a solid tercera where I'm not sure MS-1's selling was warranted, but they sort of made you go for it anyway, Morgan gets a small package through countering a move for the pin. The commentary says that this move was invented by Lex Luger, champion of the world, and is called the Total Package. Honestly, this was worth dusting off just for that.

This is in the found, or at the very least, underlooked category. I'm sure most people haven't seen it. It's interesting but doesn't rise to the level you'd want it to, mainly due to some narrative quirks. It has some things you almost never see in a hair match, and despite Morgan wearing white with his black, it doesn't get quite as bloody as I thought it would.

We come in with MS-1 controlling in the primera. He is, of course, good at that. Morgan goes for a few comebacks but the ref gets in his way; it's that kind of match. They make a big deal out of the fact Morgan doesn't have a second. After MS-1 puts him away to win the first fall, he absolutely cracks him on the post on the outside. They made it sound as loud as any shot like that I've ever heard but then there isn't the massive amount of blood to follow it up. Morgan tries to come back with some big shots but the ref again gets in his way, which feels like an inversion to earlier apuestas matches. It'd be like the ref disrupting things after Chicana's big comeback punch vs MS-1. It just felt wrong.

As the segunda goes on, MS-1 keeps pulling Morgan up, which you almost never see in a hair match. He steps on his chest and then steps off before the three, that sort of thing. Eventually, Morgan tries coming back again and this time the ref pushes him out of the ring. That was the cue for Morgan's brother and Hombre Bala to come out to second him which symbolically turns the tide of the match and leads to his big comeback and some big dives before the finish. Along the way, there are some other weird quirks like Morgan rolling in the ring to get into position and some rope running that felt out of place, but in general, it ends well with that famous move invented by Luger and the fans are happy with the outcome. It all could have been just a bit more grounded and grisly though. 

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Found Footage Friday: KNOBBS~! SAGS~! DREW~! TAYLOR~! YAHAMA~! CHOSHU~! KIDO~!

Chief Yaqui vs. Karl Kowalski 1/30/50

MD: This is worth watching, but I suggest doing it on mute. It's a fake audience track with sound effects and Bill Stern being particularly irritating and racist. A joke a minute and none of them good (well the one about how the white man wouldn't have made it further west than Hoboken if their opposition all fought like Yaqui was pretty good). The action itself, while clipped, was pretty good! Yaqui had a thousand little tricks when it came to getting presumably crowd pleasing little shots in with both his hands and his feet. Kowalski was bald and had a greased head gimmick, maybe.

When they took it to the mat, it was pretty gnarly, actually, not that you'd tell from the commentary. They got tied up pretty bad once or twice with some fairly unique leglocks and counters. At one point, Kowalksi had him upside down after jamming a rolling leglock type move and was peppering shots into the side. The finish was Yaqui locking in a sort of deathlock and rolling with it to turn it into a bridging pin. I'd like to see either of them in literally any other setting than this, but we're beggars and not choosers when it comes to footage from 1950.

Yamaha Brothers (Kantaro Hoshino/Kotesu Yamamoto) vs. Riki Choshu/Osamu Kido NJPW 1/24/79 

MD: This has been hidden for a couple of years but it was definitely new to me. This card had Jose Estrada vs. Fujiwara and I want to see Super Medico vs. Fujiwara, but we won't dwell on that. Let's just be glad for what we have. This is about fifteen minutes, JIP, and while maybe a little formless and back and forth, the wrestling is good. Choshu and Hoshino trade armholds early, but it gets kind of wild when Yamamoto comes in and just slaps the life out of Choshu repeatedly. You sort of wish this was the Choshu of a few years later to fire back. In general, Yamamoto looks great here.

There's a moment later on where Choshu comes in hot and hits a couple of double arm suplexes in a row and looks great, but some of his other fiery stuff doesn't hit like you'd expect from him. Hoshino's a little tank, like you'd expect, high impact charges into the corner, some nice teamwork with Yamamoto, and he matches up well with Kido, as he would for years to come. At one point Kido comes in with a bunch of bodyslams and it's funny because you're expecting takedowns and what not. There were some fun moments with clear momentum shifts and parallels. Yamamoto misses a giant turn around flying body press as Hoshino fails to hold on to his opponent and gets wiped out by his own partner. The finish is a similar set up with Choshu and Kido crashing into each other off the ropes. There wasn't a bad exchange in this one, but I'm not sure it all came together to form a coherent whole.

ER: I don't believe I have seen any 70s Yamaha Brothers so I had no idea what the hierarchical dynamics would be when I started this, but I was only excited to see a match with four extremely short legged men. You couldn't find shorter legs in 1979, this was the match for that. I'm so used to Kantaro Hoshino as a junior that I forget he was more beefed up in his 30s, but even then he and Yamamoto are still clearly smaller than Choshu and Kido...so color me surprised at how much of this was dominated by the Yamaha Brothers. The idea of Hoshino dominating Choshu or even Kido just a few years later is preposterous, but this gem takes us to the point in time where the Yamahas easily and efficiently cut Choshu off from Kido for the first half, peaking with Yamamoto just rocking Choshu with punches like he was Kurisu (Kurisu wrestled Hector Guerrero on this card by the way and holy god does 1979 Hector Guerrero vs. Kurisu sound incredible). Yamamoto really comes off like a supreme badass every time he's in the ring. At one point he gets swarmed by Kido and Choshu and in mere seconds he winds up holding both of them by the jaw in headlocks, standing on the bottom buckle, threatening to remove their mandibles from their heads until Hoshino comes in and punches Choshu to the floor. The hierarchy was so damn different in 1979, which is why something like this showing up is such a treat.   

Drew McIntyre/Dave Taylor vs. Nasty Boys WWE 11/20/07

MD: Look, if you're reading this, you're reading it to see what Eric has to say. I'm reading it for what Eric has to say. I included it to see what Eric has to say, and I'm sure that'll be here soon if it's not already. Let me say just a few things. My understanding is that the Nasties lied about the shape they were in and were there to show off in front of a bunch of their buddies in the front row. Knobbs comes out and hugs a bunch of people and Sags has a long talk with one kid. They're super over. They come out to a version of their song I'm not familiar with (I know the "We're the Boys; we're the boys... the Nasty Boys" one). This had a Janet Jackson rip off to start and sampled lines from Gorilla and the Brain. Big Nasty Boys chant to start too. 

And you know what, I kind of dug the first half. They had a ton of heft behind everything they did. Drew was demonstrative and working big. He called out Sags which... I don't get why but it was kind of funny. I could have absolutely seen them have a 2 year run as sort of ambassadors and doing high school things like the Bushwhackers; they were about the same age as the Sheepherders when they signed in the late 80s and they obviously knew how to work a crowd and come off as stars. It felt almost like watching the Freebirds in 92. The back few minutes were pretty rough though. After Sags hit the craziest pumphandle slam I've ever seen (I was kind of glad to see it since I always wondered what would happen if someone took a slightly higher angle on the drop, like a powerbomb, and now I know!) he sort of just stood around for Drew to kick him for a brief, very brief, bit of heat leading to miscommunication and then casually walked over to make a hot tag. Brutal stuff. And of course the finish didn't work at all. So not a lot of gas in the tank but that's not to say there wasn't any at all. 

ER: So this dropped just a few days before we wrote about it, and I didn't watch it until last night, but all I saw written about it was how the Nasty Boys were unprofessional sacks of shit who went out there completely out of shape and took advantage of poor young greenhorn Drew McIntyre, and how Dave Taylor (in his second to last match in WWE) looked outraged on the apron and broke character to tell off the Nasty Boys. They showed up looking like complete shit to pop their weird Tampa friends and children of those friends, fucked up a young innocent boy with no Arab strap and embarrassed the business in the process. The Nasty Boys have brought shame to professional wrestling. For three days now I've been picturing how the fucked up, fat, somehow same age as me now, unprofessional Nasty Boys were going to mess this kid up like a PG version of Ian Rotten vs. Peter B. Beautiful and when I finally watch it...

It's a totally professional kind of impressive match that's far better and more interesting than at least 75% of the dark tryout matches we've ever seen. Dark tryout matches have a ceiling of quality. They are 3-6 minutes. Sometimes you reach nirvana and get Vic Grimes vs. Erin O'Grady. I saw a 2003 Psychosis tryout match against Jamie Noble and it was fine. My friends and I weren't expecting to start our night with a Psychosis match and we were all excited at the surprise and it was fine. He did the rope flip bump on the back of his head, and I still remember it 20 years later so that means It Worked. That's the ceiling for a dark trout match tryout, and this Nasty Boys tag was a good one.  

It was also a totally normal match and not a single thing looked out of sorts or unprofessional to my eyes, and honestly I came away thinking the Nasty Boys would have been worth a shot as a team working house show undercards in 2007. This was a roster that had Jim Duggan and had just had Tatanka and Road Warrior Animal. I really liked each one of those runs and thought nostalgia Legends Contracts acts would be far more interesting if used in an All Japan Old Man style division instead of [camera pans to Faarooq saying Damn]. A Legends Division (which shouldn't be titled and should just exist as a thing but they wouldn't be able to resist calling it a Legends Division) that would allow one of them to occasionally break out of the old man trios matches into a short feud with a younger wrestler would be a thing that would make me watch WWE television again. 

The Nasty Boys hadn't appeared on any kind of wrestling television in over 10 years before this match and came out with a theme song I have never heard anywhere else before that sounded like a cut up Steinski break of their original theme, and the fans in Tampa reacted. That's important. It's good to have acts on your show that get reactions, who then work for the next 5 minutes to sustain those reactions. I was made to believe that the Nasty Boys were goof off/jerk offs and instead they just got a crowd invested in a match the way Brett and Brian Major or John Morrison or The Miz 100% did not do 20 minutes later. I said I saw no moments of unprofessionalism or even sloppiness, and I mean that. Knobbs looked as fat as I've ever seen him and was wearing a XXXL Nasty Boys blouse but had several moments where I thought he was going to punish Drew and instead just worked like a good heavyweight. There was one moment where Drew was selling a shoulderblock too long and was sitting up instead of lying down for the elbowdrop Knobbs was waiting to hit, and when Knobbs shoved him back to the mat I thought for sure McIntyre was toast. Knobbs hit a big heavy elbowdrop, but it was not an unprofessional amount of weight. Have any of you actually watched the 1991-1993 Superstars and Wrestling Challenge matches? They fucked job guys up every single week. Everybody did. Toughen up, boyo. 

The toughest thing about this match was Sags lighting Drew up with chops that should have been enough to get Sags signed and put into a Mad Max team with Road Warrior Animal, because tell me a 2007 Animal/Sags team doesn't actually sound cool. Jerome Saganowich would have looked and worked so much better in a revamped Road Warriors team than Droz or Heidenreich ever did. Nasty Warriors. God that would have been great. Based on his chops and his pump handle slam I see no real differences between 2007 Jerry Sags and 1993 Kensuke Sasaki. 

Dave Taylor is the person who didn't do enough in this match. I liked the way the Nastys kept him out of the match down the stretch with punches and elbows to knock him off the apron, otherwise he just peaced out of strike exchanges that could have actually taken this match to Dark Tryout Match Nirvana. Brian Knobbs threw three unanswered punches to the side of Taylor's head and it was the perfect opportunity to show Knobbs what the locker room thought of him with a pair of uppercuts, but Taylor just took a hiptoss and stood on the apron the rest of the time. Drew showed good timing in feeding for a returning nostalgia act in what was actually the longest stretch of time he was in the ring in any of his WWF matches to that point. Drew was trusted to stay in the ring for an extra minute or two with two guys making a 10 year return, and he did great. His visual reaction to a hot tag is one of the little things he did that you could tell he was going to keep getting better. 

The finish was botched but was a split second from being a direct hit Beverly Brothers Wrestling Challenge intro exclamation point. Drew would have suffered a head injury and been given a role as the slow third member of The Highlanders. The Nasty Boys should have been signed. In 2007 would you have rather seen the Nasty Boys every few weeks, or Deuce & Domino? You know the answer. Have Cherry manage the obese Nasty Boys and give her a Lisa Langois Class of 1984 punk look instead. This was better than both Morishima dark matches and it wasn't close. 

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Yoshiaki Fujiwara Will Gather All the Nations

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Seiji Sakaguchi/Kantaro Hoshino/Antonio Inoki/Keiji Muto vs. Akira Maeda/Kengo Kimura/Super Strong Machine/Riki Choshu/Tatsumi Fujinami NJPW 8/19/87- EPIC

These multi-man elimination 80s NJ matches are as certified as a wrestling match gets. At this point New Japan had shifted from the UWF vs. NJ feud, into kind of a generations feud, with Maeda on one side and Fujiwara on the other, and Choshu and Fujinami teaming up. Young Muto is a bit out of place repping the old school, which was a fun wrinkle to this match. The energy of these matches is always a standout, everyone is super charged and going at it with such intensity. Hoshino is always a highlight, this little sawed off batamweight getting into everyones face with great looking punches. Our guy Fujiwara gets some great match ups, throwing hands with Kimura, diving in and out of holds with Fujinami. Fujiwara is such a great slow paced technical worker, it is fun to see him thrown into a whirlwind like this. I love how Choshu is used at this time, that lariat is a game ender and the threat of it is always there.  There were some great eliminations, including Maeda calling Inoki into the ring squaring off with him, and eventually sacrificing himself with a headscissors which sent them both over the top rope. The match ended up with Muto against Fujinami and Choshu, and that is drawing dead, Muto had a moment or two, but eventually fell. 

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Masaji Aoyagi WDF 8/9/97-GREAT

A little minor key for a pair of guys who have the capacity to blow it out, but it had a lot of nifty stuff in there. I always dig kickboxer Fujiwara and it was fun to watch him square off with Aoyagi and realized that he didn't want the smoke. Similarly Aoyagi didn't want to be down on the mat with Fujiwara, to the point where he takes a bite of Fujiwara's leg while he is in a cross armbreaker. I really liked the finish with Fujiwara just dragging Aoyagi down to the mat, transitioning into side control, moving to his back and just sinking in a rear naked choke, it felt like the way a mid 2000s MMA fight with a  jujitsu black belt tapping a kickboxer who didn't train ground defense. Both of these guys are such great spectacle wrestlers, I was hoping for something bigger, but I dug what we got.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FUJIWARA

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE AOYAGI

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El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Springtime in CSP

Week 24: Springtime in CSP

EB: One of the main challenges of doing this journey through Puerto Rican wrestling is that we are covering a period where we usually have a dearth of results and/or footage to help inform the rivalries and wrestlers that are appearing in this time period we are covering. The late 1989 to first half of 1990 in particular is a time period where we tend to lack information. Matt and I have done our best in piecing together what we have found (both footage wise and results wise) but this is still a bit of a dark period. April 1990 is definitely a month where this lack of information is notable, so we’ll try to piece together as best as we can how things are progressing in CSP as Spring gets into full swing. The best way to try to cover the goings on is by reviewing the status of the titles and their current feuds.

Let’s begin first with the World Junior title, where ‘Tough Guy’ Eddie Watts has been the World Junior champion since the end of January. After initially winning the title from Super Medico #1, for the past couple of months, Watts has held back the challenge of Huracan Castillo Jr. and Joe Savoldi. More recently, Watts has had a few matches with Invader #4, but his main challengers are still Castillo and Savoldi. And while Watts has been able to hold onto the title so far, his luck is about to run out. According to the title’s history, Huracan Castillo Jr. was able to defeat Eddie Watts for the World Junior title on April 21.   

Although we will still see a bit more of Eddie Watts, we do have to say goodbye to Joe Savoldi, whose most recent semi-regular run wraps up in April. Before saying goodbye to Savoldi, let’s watch him in action against two opponents. First, a non-title TV match against Eddie Watts, and then a bonus match against Chicky Starr.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFQEIcaxjjY

We join the match in progress as Watts has Savoldi on the mat and applies a spinning toe hold. Chicky Starr as usual is at ringside for Watts. Eliud Gonzalez is on commentary, and he makes sure to point out how effective Eddie’s repeated toeholds are on damaging Savoldi’s knee and leg. Watts keeps focusing his attack on Savoldi’s left leg, but Savoldi eventually is able to kick Watts away and flip him over off the ropes. Watts and Savoldi get into a blow exchange, one that it looks like Savoldi is winning. However, Watts sweeps Joe’s leg and sends Savoldi to the mat. Eddie follows up with an ankle twist and then stomps on Savoldi’s leg after placing it on the bottom rope. Watts takes too long jawing at the crowd and Savoldi counters a leg hold with an enziguri. Savoldi mounts a comeback but is showing the effects of the hurt leg. Savoldi works over Eddie’s right leg by ramming it a few times into the ringpost. Both men fight on the outside but Savoldi manages to throw Watts back into the ring. Watts begs off but is able to throw Savoldi through the ropes. However, Savoldi surprises Watts on the apron with a sunset flip back into the ring and is able to score a three count for the win! Savoldi may have not been able to defeat Watts for the World Junior title, but he was still able to score a clean win over Watts.

MD: This is JIP with Watts doing damage to Savoldi’s leg to start. Savoldi does a good job selling it on the comeback, using punches and other things instead of his usual start-of-the-90s junior offense. Watts tries to take a powder but Savoldi chases him down, drops the selling and hits a sunset flip into the ring to win. 

EB: As a bonus, let’s also watch footage of a Savoldi vs Chicky Starr match. We’re not sure if this match is from 1989 or 1990, but it gives us another chance to see Chicky in singles action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iX53MgPnWc

Another match joined in progress, as both men briefly lock up but Chicky quickly gains the advantage with some blows. Savoldi fires back with a few haymakers and hits a backdrop on Chicky, who quickly decides to roll outside to regroup. Chicky takes his time getting back into the ring and once again gains the advantage with a low blow on Savoldi. Chicky starts hobbling around, complaining that he has a bad knee, but continues attacking the downed Savoldi with several kicks and knee strikes (including using his supposedly injured knee). Chicky remains in control for a couple of minutes, hiding some illegal punches from the ref’s view and taunting the crowd as he maintains control while adjusting his knee pad every so often. Chicky attempts a cover after a slam but Savoldi quickly kicks out. Savoldi fires off a few punches and seems to gain control, backing Chicky into the corner with some kicks. Savoldi hits a monkey flip on Chicky and the tide has definitely turned in Savoldi’s favor. Joe goes on the attack, including chasing Chicky around the ring, and continues with the advantage with several punches and kicks. A punch knocks Chicky through the ropes to the outside, and Savoldi gives chase. However, Chicky appears to reach into his tights as he ambles around the ring,  and when Savoldi tries to chase after him back into the ring, Chicky catches Joe with a loaded punch. Savoldi falls to the mat and Chicky quickly covers for the pinfall win. A not so clean victory for Chicky Starr.

MD: Pretty complete in seven minutes or so. Maybe a little JIP. Chicky eats some shine work until he uses the loaded kneepad (that rare weapon) to throw a bunch of shots into Savoldi’s guts. Joe eventually comes back with monkey flips and a running knee into the corner of his own and Chicky takes a great bump through the ropes. On the floor, though, he pulls out yet another object, this time the knucks and catches Savoldi back in the ring after he gives chase for the win. It makes sense if Chicky’s being pushed as a tag champ (or about to be depending on this was filmed) that he can still get one over, dirty, on a Jr. Heavyweight.

EB: Let’s talk briefly about the other singles title holders. March was a turbulent month for the Universal title, with two title changes occurring in the month. TNT lost the Universal title to Abdullah the Butcher, who in turn lost it to Carlos Colon to end the month. TNT was not happy about losing the Universal title, and beside that unexpected match vs Saito on TV, would soon find himself enveloped in a feud with Rick Valentine (another member of El Club Deportivo). Let’s go to a brief clip from the ending of a recent TNT vs Valentine match.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXgoZV2IrH0 

Hugo narrates the clip, mentioning that both men are on the outside and bleeding. We cut to both TNT and Valentine on their knees and exchanging blows, with both men notably bleeding from their foreheads. We then cut to later in the match, where both men get to their feet and trade blows once more. TNT is able to get the better of this exchange and is able to knock Valentien down with a headbutt. Valentine kicks out of a pin attempt and TNT fires off a few chops in the corner. TNT whips Valentine across the ring but runs into Valentine’s knees when attempting to follow through. Valentine takes advantage and quickly pins TNT, placing his legs on the ropes for leverage and scoring the three count. Valentine steals the win as Hugo mentions that blood has been spilled and TNT is going to be looking for revenge.

MD: This is clipped in a way that we don’t usually see in this footage. We just get snippets of it for a minute or so. What we do get to see is mainly bloody brawling with both of them on their knees throwing shots though. It looks really good and this is one that I wish we had in full, even if on paper, you might not expect much of it. Valentine gets the crooked win by putting his feet on the ropes after a double leg in the corner. 

EB: TNT would continue feuding with Valentine into the beginning of May, but he would not remain without a title for much longer, as at the April 25 tv tapings TNT would regain the TV title he never lost (he had vacated the title when he won the Universal title) by defeating Leo Burke. That’s now two titles El Club Deportivo has lost as the end of April approaches. Of the remaining singles titles, two are in the hands of El Ejercito de la justicia (Colon has the Universal title and Invader #1 has the Caribbean title), while the Puerto Rico title is still held by the injured Manny Fernandez (although the title’s status may soon change since it seems Manny is not returning).

We’ll talk soon about the Universal title, but first let’s look at the tag scene. As mentioned in our previous installment, the end of March saw both tag titles switch hands, with the Super Medicos winning the World tag team titles and Chicky Starr & Leo Burke winning the Caribbean tag titles from the Invaders. Let’s first review the Caribbean tag title feud that began at the end of March.

Chicky and Burke were able to win the Caribbean tag titles from the Invaders thanks to interference from the Iron Sheik. While this interference led to a singles match between Sheik and Invader #1 on March 31, the Invaders quickly started chasing Chicky and Burke to get their rematch for the Caribbean tag titles. As we saw last time, Chicky and Leo gave the Invaders a non-title match, but the Invaders were able to win that match and secure a return title match. 

On April 7 in Caguas, the two teams faced off once again, but Chicky and Burke attacked Invader #4 during the match and temporarily took him out of action. An angry Invader #1 signed to face the Caribbean tag champs in a two vs one handicap match on April 14.  This handicap match took place at Estadio Hiram Bithorn and at one point during the match, Maelo Huertas showed up to help save his brother from a two on one attack, bringing a two by four with him to help clear the ring. Hugo said he had never seen Maelo (Invader #4) like that when he showed up with the two by four. The two teams are signed to face each other in a grudge match for April 21, so it looks like the feud between Chicky & Burke and the Invaders is far from over. We unfortunately do not have footage of any of these matches, but we do have an Invader #1 music video with several highlights from 1986 and 1989 (and set to their current entrance music). Let’s see how many opponents you can recognize.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xr9kfTpjEY

MD: I’d honestly say that this is a great way to show someone who isn’t in the know exactly what made Invader special. You only see a little bit of his selling but you see a ton of him coming back with big strikes against formidable foes as the crowds go wild. 

EB: The Super Medicos were finally able to defeat Los Mercenarios for the World tag team titles on March 31. The former champions were not happy over losing the World tag titles, and they decided to send a message to the Super Medicos. We got an inkling of something happening during an insert promo we saw in a previous installment, where the Super Medicos made reference to an attack done by Los Mercenarios. What exactly happened? Well, the incident occurred during a tag match where the Super Medicos were facing an unexpected tandem popping in for an appearance in CSP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybMmvwXFvwQ

We already saw Mr. Saito in action vs TNT in the previous installment, but it appears he did not make this excursion alone. Riki Choshu is teaming up with Saito to face the Super Medicos and I am still in shock that these two popped in for an appearance in CSP in April 1990. Eliud Gonzalez introduces both teams, as the Super Medicos show off their recently won World title belts. Saito and Choshu are being managed by El Profe, who has specialized in managing the Japanese wrestlers that have come into the territory. Profe is also the manager of Los Mercenarios, so there may be something else up as well. Choshi and Medico #1 start off for their teams. Choshu gets the better of the initial exchange and is able to back Medico #1 into the rudo corner. Saito holds Medico #1 as Choshu delivers some chops. Master Saito is tagged in and briefly maintains the advantage on Medico #1. However, Medico #1 counters with several chops on his end and is able to tag Medico #3, who sends Saito down with a dropkick. Estrada Jr (it appears we’re still in that weird period where he is being called #4 although by now I think he had been promoted to #3) gets a two count but Saito gets control back with an eye poke. Choshu is tagged in and delivers several kicks to Estrada Jr, followed by a suplex. Choshu gets a two count and tags Saito back in. Saito applies a sleeperhold on the younger Estrada, but Medico #1 jumps off the top rope to break the hold. The rudos make a switch behind the ref’s back, and Choshu puts a nerve hold on the younger Medico (which is again broken up by Medico #1). The rudos switch again, Saito works a nerve hold and again Medico #1 comes in off the top rope to break the hold. Another illegal switch and Choshu works a neck wringer on Estrada Jr. The ref asks Profe if the tag was made and he shakes his head vigorously in the affirmative. Another Illegal switch occurs and Saito backdrops Estrada Jr. Saito continues in control, choking Estrada Jr. and eventually tags Choshu back in. Choshu and the younger Medico exchange blows and Choshu keeps Estrads Jr near the rudo corner. 

Saito is tagged back in and proceeds to choke out Estrada Jr on the mat. Medico #1 cheers on his partner from the apron, and it looks like Estrada Jr is trying to fight out of the choke. Saito sends Estrada Jr. into the ropes and Estrada Jr counters with a dropkick. This allows for the tag to be made to Medico #1, who comes in  with punches on both Saito and Choshu. While this is happening, El Profe charges towards the tecnico corner and yanks Estrada Jr off the apron. This angers Estrada Jr, who goes after Profe, who is backing up towards the locker room entrance. El Profe tries to kick Estrada Jr, but the kick is blocked and Estrada Jr knocks Profe down. As Estrada Jr sets himself up to punch a downed Profe, Los Mercenarios rush out of the locker room and attack the younger Medico. It was a set up. Los Mercenarios and El Profe grab the younger Estrada and drag him into the locker room. Meanwhile, Medico #1 has been successfully fighting off both Saito and Choshu. However, Medico #1 realizes that his tag partner is missing and asks the crowd what happened. Medico #1 leaves the ring in search of his son, as the fans point in the direction of the locker room. All of a sudden, the younger Estrada is tossed out of the locker room and to the floor, busted open. Medico #1 sees his son and goes to him, but the referee has been doing the ring out count while all this has been happening. As Medico #1 holds his son and tries to help him, the referee counts out the Medicos. Saito and Choshu win the match and it looks like Los Mercenarios have sent a message to new World tag team champions.   

MD: Well, this is surreal. It feels like a 1990 WCW tag tournament or something. Choshu and Saito (MASTER Saito) don’t take the night off either. They feed early and then cut Medico (4? They’re saying 4; I’m going to assume it’s Estrada, Jr. unless Esteban tells me otherwise) off with a perfectly timed shot from Saito. A lot of these Medicos matches have felt like an education in Estrada, Jr. taking the heat and there’s more of that here as he takes a beating and gets a hope spot or two in. On the comeback, Medico 4 goes after Profe and gets ambushed by the Mercenarios so while Medico 1 is punching Choshu and Saito and giving them a double noggin knocker, Medico 4 is nowhere to be seen. Eventually he’s tossed out, a bloody mess, and Medico 1 tends to him leading to the countout. This was a fun surprise. 

EB: The Super Medicos and Los Merenarios would face off after this attack in a rematch on April 14. This feud will continue throughout the month and we’ll see how it ends up unfolding next time.
We have a couple of matches that appear to be from April 7. The first match features El Profe’s latest monster Atkie Malumba taking on Miguelito Perez. Let’s see if Perez fares better than the other wrestlers that have faced Malumba so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wHxkly5mOY

Hugo and Chicky are on commentary, as they mention that Miguelito has a tough opponent in Malumba. Atkie has been impressive thus far as part of El Profe's Real Academia. Hugo notes that Miguel will have to use his speed and agility against Malumba, as we wait for Atkie to finish his pre match preparation. As Malumba bows, Hugo asks Chicky if they are happy that this man is with El Profe and not against them (Chicky responds with Definitely). Atkie charges at Perez to start but is met by several; punches from Miguelito. Perez is able to stun Malumba and back him into a corner, where he continues attacking Malumba with punches and kicks. Perez does some standing punches and continues the attack, ramming Malumba into another corner and not letting up. Chicky admits on commentary that he is impressed that Perez has been able to keep Malumba at bay so far. However, the momentum shifts when Miguelito whips Malumba into the opposite corner and tries to follow up with a corner splash. Malumba meets the incoming Perez with his own standing splash, and Perez is knocked down. Atkie follows up by choking Perez on the mat, as Hugo mentions that Perez must feel like he ran into a truck. El Profe mugs for the camera holding the shrunken head, as Malumba tosses Perez outside of the ring. Malumba drags Perez over to the fence in front of the crowd and attacks Perez there, including grating Perez’s head across the fencing. Atkie starts shaking and chanting, as he moves over to El Profe and bows to him and the shrunken head. Profe makes sure to point Malumba back in Miguelito's direction, and Atkie kicks the incoming Miguelito right in the face. Back in the ring, Malumba hits a slam and follows up with a splash. As we have seen before, Atkie foregoes the pin and decides to go to the top turnbuckle. A flying splash leads to a three count and another impressive win for Atkie Malumba. El Profe celebrates in the ring and Malumba hits an elbow drop on Perez post match. Chicky says that this man is here to destroy El Ejercito de la Justicia and, so far, it looks like Malumba will do just that. 

MD: Quick mauling here. Malumba took him out to the fence and beat him there a bit, rolled him back in and hit a top rope splash. It was what it should have been.

EB: The other match we have from April 7 features the new Universal champion. Carlos Colon defeated Abdullah the Butcher on March 31st to become the Universal champion once more. While Abdullah will not be appearing in the short-term (meaning no title rematch), El Jeque has sent his latest acquisition after Carlos Colon. The Iron Sheik is no stranger to Carlos, with the two men having previously had a feud over the Universal title in early 1988. Now, it appears Sheik is set on continuing what Abdullah is not able to follow up on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxfqwzFWEl0 

We join the match in progress as it looks like the Iron Sheik was using his loaded boot to counter a charge into the corner by Carlos. We cut to later in the match as Hugo continues narrating. Carlos goes for a slam on the Sheik but the ref gets knocked down by Sheik’s legs on the slam pick up. Carlos is bleeding and both wrestlers look tired. Carlos hits another body slam on the Sheik and goes to the top turnbuckle. Carlos attempts a flying legdrop but the Iron Sheik rolls out of the way. Sheik gets to his feet first as we see El Jeque lying on the ground beside the ring, completely knocked out. Sheik puts Carlos in the camel clutch. The ref is still out but eventually comes to. Carlos manages to break the hold and the Sheik falls to the outside. Carlos goes after the Sheik and the clip cuts to both men exchanging punches outside of the ring as the ref tries to get them to go back inside. Both men  continue fighting and attack the ref when he tries to break it up (Sheik with a shove, Carlos with a headbutt). Carlos gets fired up and continues punching the Sheik, but a kick to the groin stops Carlos in his tracks. The Iron Sheik takes advantage of the low blow and puts Carlos back in the camel clutch outside of the ring. 

The ref comes to and calls for the bell, apparently it is a double disqualification. As Carlos struggles in the hold, the rudo locker room comes out to cheer Sheik on and to act as a barrier to anyone who might attempt to help Carlos. The tecnicos come out and start fighting with the rudos, as Sheik continues applying the camel clutch to Carlos.  As the fight continues, TNT breaks away from the group and goes around the ring, coming up behind the Iron Sheik with a chair. TNT cracks Sheik on the back with the chair, getting the camel clutch broken and saving Carlos.

MD: Wild stuff here. We only get three minutes of it. Colon accidentally takes out Vikingo with a slam, misses an Alabama Jam, and then just barely escapes the Camel Clutch (great bloody visual). He goes out with Sheik and headbutts him repeatedly and even headbutts Vikingo when he gets in the way. Sheik hits the foul and puts the Clutch back on while they’re out on the floor. Vikingo calls for the bell. The whole backstage area comes out to brawl (which I assume has to do with the heels uniting but it’s a great visual since they haven’t done anything like this since we started the project). 

EB: It looks like the rudos are banding together to try to take out El Ejercito de la Justicia. Colon obviously wanted payback against the Iron Sheik. What is next for these two? Let’s go to an airing of Campeones where we learn a bit more about how this rivalry escalated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIV-lVtyuLo

This match is from what is likely the April 14 Campeones episode. It’s an older match featuring the Iron Sheik vs Invader #2. We’re including it because the commentary is new, featuring Hugo and Chicky talking about the latest happenings in CSP. It also gives us a chance to see Invader #2 in action. This match originally happened in late 87 or early 88, when the Iron Sheik was being set up for his feud with Carlos Colon for the Universal title. At the time Chicky was the Iron Sheik’s manager. Besides the match, there are some important talking points we need to cover from the commentary.To start,Chicky mentions that he, El Profe and El Jeque have formed a coalition to take El Ejercito de la Justicia out. All three rudo managers are banding together and they will act as one unit going forward. As we’ll see in the coming weeks, this actually also serves as a way to phase out El Jeque, after this run with the Iron Sheik he will no longer be appearing as a manager for CSP. Chicky mentions that the Iron Sheik is an important centerpiece in this plan, as he’ll be facing Carlos Colon once more. Invader #2 controls the early part of the match, as he’s able to hiptoss Sheik. The Iron Sheik comes back with an eye rake and uses his spike toed boot to further gain the advantage. As Invader #2 cuts off Sheik with a dropkick, Hugo mentions that tomorrow they will be in Mayaguez (based on commentary from other matches, I believe TNT vs Iron Sheik was scheduled for that card). 

As the Sheik gains control again with another eye rake, we go to an insert promo featuring Carlos Colon. Carlos mentions that last week the Sheik hurt him (referencing the camel clutch incident we just saw), but tonight he will be out for revenge. They are scheduled to face off for the Universal title in a barbed wire match tonight at Estadio Hiram Bithorn. Calros promises he will deliver a heck of a beating to the Iron Sheik. Hugo and Chicky react to Colon’s words as the Iron Sheik begs off from an attack by Invader #2. As Invader #2 continues with a series of punches, Sheik resorts to another eye rake to cut off the attack. As the ref gets Invader #2 to back away from the corner, the Iron Sheik takes advantage to load up his boot. When Invader #2 charges in, Sheik comes off the ropes with a kick to the head and gets the three count. 

MD: This was a bit more of a spry Sheik from a few years earlier, up against Invader 2 in his Solar-masked glory. It was pretty back and forth with Sheik stooging backwards and bumping a bit more for him and then taking over with eyerakes primarily. This time when he loaded the boot, though, it was the end for Invader. I wonder how much of a boost him being in there, using that gimmick, and being with Chicky. had given Abbuda Dein as he was getting established. Unfortunately we don’t have the barbed wire match this sets up, which is quite the shame.

EB: We unfortunately don’t have any footage from the barbed wire match. Also, we have reached the end of the Iron Sheik’s short run in CSP. This means that there is an opening for a new challenger for the Universal title. Who will be next in line? We’ll find out in a moment as we go to a match that appears to be from the April 14 card.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlG1REUE9Lo 

Pierre Martel is back and this time his opponent is the monster known as Atkie Malumba. Hugo and Carlos are on commentary and it appears this match is from a late April airing of Campeones, since Carlos mentions that he is soon to meet Malumba that night one on one (it seems we have found who Carlos Colon’s next challenger will be). Martel gets an early advantage working Atkie’s arm but a thrust to the throat cuts off Pierre’s attack. From there it’s mainly Malumba, as he shows off the different ways he can choke Pierre. Carlos mentions that we shouldn’t forget that Pierre does use a loaded boot, but whether it’ll come into play here remains to be seen. Malumba continues with the throat and neck based offense, with Profe even getting a cheapshot in on Pierre at one point. The match goes to the outside and Atkie continues on the attack, throwing Pierre into some chairs near ringside. Pierre manages to get back in the ring and tosses some dirt he grabbed from the floor into Atkie’s face, causing him to stumble around outside in discomfort. El Profe checks on Malumba and tries to wipe his face clean. Hugo mentions that with an opponent like Malumba you pretty much have to figure out how to even the playing field. Pierre stomps Maluba as he gets near the ring but follows him outside and gets the better of a punch exchange with Atkie. Back in the ring, Malumba is staggered and Pierre sets up for his loaded boot, but Profe grabs onto Pierre’s leg and refuses to let go. Atkie takes advantage of this distraction and knocks down Pierre from behind. This sets up a splash, although Malumba decides to forgo the pin. Atkie goes up top and hits a flyin splash, again choosing to stop the cover at two. The ref tries to stop Malumba from coming off the top rope again and Atkie splashes the referee instead. Atkie hits another flying splash on Pierre, as another referee comes in and calls for the bell. Malumba leaves the ring, as El Profe tries to calm him down and it looks like Martel is hurt.

MD: You always kind of want to hold it against Malumba for who he isn’t, but he had solid presence; he was always on, always reacting, always trying to make the most of whatever was happening. That meant recoiling in confusion and frustration at every shot Martel got in early and just constantly being on him when he did take over. Martel came back here only to have Profe grab his leg and Malumba load his boot. Maybe you don’t need the monster to also have a loaded boot gimmick but then it does create that dissonance of unfairness that he has to resort to something like that when he’s so big and so dangerous. Post-match was kind of great actually, as he hit a flying body press on the ref (Vikingo) who was trying to get in his way, just squashing him, and then hit the top rope splash on Martel anyway. That’s how you get over a monster, give or take the loaded boot.

EB: It looks like Carlos was attacked in Mayaguez by Atkie Malumba and he is now the newest challenger for the Universal title. Carlos is going to have his hands full with this monster, who has made easy work of all of his opponents thus far. We’ll continue to follow this burgeoning rivalry as we head into May.

Next time on el Deporte de las Mil Emociones, as May approaches things heat up for some of the existing rivalries. Will there be any new title changes? Also, a new wrestler arrives in CSP as a blond cowboy comes calling as part of the new rudo coalition.
 

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Found Footage Friday: BABA~! LADD~! LAWLER~! NJPW BATTLE ROYAL~!

Giant Baba vs. Ernie Ladd AJPW 8/7/80

MD: This is slightly more Found than New. It was probably part of the big 1980 season set drop from 2019, but it was hard to figure out exactly what was new and what wasn't from that. Now that someone posted it to YouTube though, it's nice and easily accessible for everyone. This is more or less a spring between two brilliant, giant, lanky wrestlers. I think this was building to a bigger match later in the month at Korakuen. It hits all the marks you'd want for an eight minute match between these two. There aren't a ton of bumps, but when they come, they're giant and awkward. Given the size involved, Ladd makes taking a mare look like a car crash and obviously him eating a back body drop is all that and more. Likewise, the holds. Baba locking in a side headlock is like King Kong doing it to Godzilla. Ladd mostly stays in this with shots to the throat but Baba's quick to fire back and they brawl on the floor a couple of times, once with Ladd ending up tied up in chairs. The finish was pretty amazing as Ladd can take things from Baba that others can't, in this case, an actual Thesz press where Baba somehow landed on him like he was Earthquake. Of course, Ladd got his heat back after to set up the next match. Fun battle of the titans here.

Battle Royal NJPW 11/19/81

MD: This followed the opening ceremony to the tour and cagematch has it with a few extra guys that aren't actually there for the battle royal. Normally not a big deal but when those guys are Andre, Murdoch, and Hansen, it's a bit of let down. It means that the most interesting guys in the ring end up being Killer Khan and Pat Patterson, often paired up with one another. That's not too bad in and of itself, at least until Pat gets eliminated. It more or less settles down to some of the Japanese (maybe Sakaguchi, Choshu, Kimura, Yatsu, Fujinami?) on one side and a Samoan, Khan, and Tiger Toguchi (Kim Duk) on the other. Not bad but still not Andre, Hansen, and Murdoch. Even then, it was weird lopsided as the Japanese side (who had the numbers advantage to begin with) worked together and the other side didn't (Patterson did more for the other side from the outside than they did for one another). And then when Sakaguchi was put into positions to make saves, he had to force himself to be a few seconds slow and it was all very labored. Anyway, this wasn't nearly as fun as the Battle Royal we covered a few months ago from the middle of the decade.

Jerry Lawler vs. Big Bully Douglas USA Championship Wrestling 4/13/02

MD: Lots of new stuff from Bryan Turner's channel. I was going to write up a Tracy Smothers vs. Kory Williams brawl, but the merrily accepted "string him up" chants by the 1997 Cooksville audience made it a bit much to cover, so it's back to the paragon of virtue that is Jerry Lawler instead. And this was a pretty perfect bullshit 2002 babyface Lawler match. Douglas was a bald bruiser sort, a lifer in these Nashville indies. With Ernest T at ringside, he could play a proper foil for Lawler, having just enough credible power offense and able to stooge and feed enough to make it all work with Lawler doing the heavy lifting with his selling, strikes, and overall timing.

The opening of this was wonderful gaga, as Ernest kept slipping Douglas an object (horseshoe, knucks, chain) and Lawler dodged the corner shot, stole the weapon, distracted the ref by blaming Ernest, nailing Douglas, and then after the fact showing the ref the object that Ernest had slipped in. It got funnier each time he pulled it off and as Ernest and Dougls were getting more apoplectic. Eventually, he missed the fistdrop, though, and ate that power offense (suplex, side slam, etc) with a bit of help from Ernest on the outside and with Douglas pulling him up a couple of times at 2. The comeback was preceeded by Stacy slapping Ernest. The strap went down, the punches rained down, a stunner that we all want to forget about occurred, and Lawler lifted Douglas up after one pile driver to tease a second when Rapada ran in for the DQ. That opening sequence was pure distilled Memphis and the rest went down smooth.

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Found Footage Friday: ANDRE~! INOKI~! MAEDA~! CANEK~! CHOSHU~! RUSHER~!

El Canek vs. Riki Choshu UWA 12/19/79 

MD: Title match for the UWA World Heavyweight Title in Mexico City. We're lucky to have it more for Choshu being in the spot than anything else as it feels like we're much more apt to have Fujinami in a match like this. It went less than fourteen minutes over three falls. Choshu wasn't fully Choshu yet, but he was more than competent, hanging on to the arm for a lot of the first fall; it was about 60% of what we'd get from France just a few years earlier given such an exchange but 60% of that is still solid if you ask me. Canek was going through the motions of trying to escape but without some of the intensity we're used to. Canek took the early advantage when they picked up the pace, but Choshu caught him with a suplex and Scorpion Deathlock to end the first fall. Second was more back and forth with chippy strikes in between holds and Canek barely getting Choshu up with a press into a backbreaker. Tercera had some good nearfalls as they played into the title drama. Occasionally they were just a little off on some of their spots, but it was never anything that really took you out of the match. Finish was Canek tossing Choshu off the top and following it up with a flying body press. More enjoyable than great, but still a very complete match overall.

Antonio Inoki vs. Rusher Kimura NJPW 3/17/1982

MD: Kimura had come into New Japan to face Inoki late in 81 and they had a blowoff Lumberjack match in October. Kimura reemerged to menace Inoki at the end of his January 1982 series with Abdullah (which is all worth watching) and they were paired up in February and here in March. They come off as two alpha bulls of the 1970s, standing tall right around age 40. Kimura was a couple of years older than Inoki. The fans were into this and they almost got more reaction just standing, staring, posturing, or clapping to build anticipation than with the actual action. The holds were simple and hard-fought, straightforward grinding.

Midway through the match, Inoki, as he was want to do, became a complete jerk, starting a double knucklelock lock up and then just slapping Kimura, wrenching the arm into a pumphandle over the shoulder, and locking in a cross armbreaker. The fans loved it as they always did. Kimura came back with incredibly hard shots in the ropes and a massive running forearm, following it up with some brutality with a weapon on the outside (weapon shots were ok so long as they weren't in the ring in NJPW at this period). Inoki fought back hitting the enziguri to knock Rusher out and they brawled hard on the outside for the countout. Nothing was proven but the fans, so into this, got most of what they wanted to see, two big stars butt heads and egos with one another, and yeah, Inoki being a triumphant jerk. More heel-coded behavior that was wildly over for an ace babyface. Everyone loves a bully so long as he's your bully.

Andre the Giant/El Canek vs. Antonio Inoki/Akira Maeda NJPW 5/24/83

MD: Lots to see here. They had Maeda work almost all of this, likely because it wasn't taped. I haven't seen a ton of pre-UWF Maeda and it was strange to see him a little less confident than usual. Still, having Andre in the match will do that to anyone. The early minutes where Maeda had Canek in a standing toehold were interesting because Andre kept menacingly entering the ring. It ended up a bit like a pitcher who was thrown off by having to repeatedly look at the runner at first. I can't remember that same sort of feel in a lot of other matches, but that was the threat of Andre. They eventually did have Andre run in only to get single-legged himself and Inoki and Maeda locking in a modified version of the estella on Canek and Andre to a big pop.

Canek worked heel for the most part and had some good stuff (Neckbreaker drop, flying forearm, gutwrenching power slam, this great standing knee strike springing off the bottom rope like Abby's headbutt) though he was often working from underneath. Andre and Maeda really worked well together, surprising as that might be. Andre beat him around the ring, including the hugest chop. At times Maeda seemed unsure but Andre took his stuff, staggering for a dropkick and going all the way down for the spin wheel kick, the second time perfectly getting caught in the ropes. Brilliant Andre-in-Japan spots to end this. Inoki and Maeda kept tossing Canek into Andre as he was caught, so Andre, fed up, put his foot up to take out his own partner. Then Andre caught a massive Maeda dive only to help him over the rail for the DQ. I enjoyed this a lot even if it's not much of an Inoki tribute.

ER: Every new Andre match that shows up from any year only cements his status as the greatest wrestler of all time. Here we get Andre as a super active complainer, getting into and out of the ring a dozen times in a huff, threatening a walk out, it's all incredible stuff. This is a match where Inoki is hardly present, and Andre works the entire thing from his entrance to minutes after the bell. Andre moves as fast as anyone in the match, walking straight over the top rope and back the whole time, even exiting the ring like he was fucking Marty Jannetty or something. We get to see Andre as a Zbyszko stalling tactic guy, which is just what I wanted to see tonight without knowing it before watching it. This gigantic man just runs up and over the ropes and stamps his feet about Inoki being a sneaky opportunist and it rocks. His physical acting is the best in wrestling history. His apron work is incredible, but look at his in-ring selling. 

Watch Andre sell la estella better than any luchador I've seen; the way he howls and grabs at his hamstring and how Maeda goes right after the hamstring with kicks until Andre wedgies him like a little baby. Andre is a real showman, drawing boos from the fans while also drawing laughs, like when he does his throaty Giant Laugh while Maeda is crawling at his feet, then settles into working quick tags to cut Maeda off. I don't know why it's so funny seeing Andre work quick tags and keep stepping over the ropes just to come in and hit a punch. I love him. Maeda didn't always seem like he knew what to do with Andre, working a couple sequences uncharacteristically tentative. I guess I don't blame him for thinking twice about a sequence that ended with him taking one of the biggest chops ever. Maeda's comeback spinning heel kicks were fantastic. Andre took a big bump off the first and then got caught in the ropes on the second. Andre's bump over the top to the floor was amazing, just insane that he was taking bumps like that on shows that weren't being recorded. What a god. Him catching a Maeda pescado and trying to crush him over the guardrail, then chasing Inoki and Maeda all around the ring while yelling on the house mic, it's just great. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE ANDRE

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Found Footage Friday: LAWLER~! DUNDEE~! FABS~! BACKLUND~! INOKI~! FUJINAMI~! IRON MIKE~! 87 NJPW 5x5~!

Antonio Inoki/Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Bob Backlund/Iron Mike Sharpe NJPW 5/18/85

MD: There was some bluster between Sharpe and Inoki, as a foreigner punching above his weight class by trying to call Inoki into a match was common for mid-80s NJPW, but this was really about Backlund and Fujinami. You'll get through this and you'll remember their rope running and chain wrestling to a degree, as they were pretty perfectly matched up against one another. You'll probably note the moment when Sharpe and Backlund took over and how Backlund was more aggressive than usual, sportsmanlike but still something of a de facto heel, which is interesting in 85. His running powerslam was especially great. What will stick with you the most - and really what you should watch this for - is the long short arm scissors sequence towards the end. You watch a hundred Backlund matches and half of them, at least, will be about him working towards picking someone up from a short arm scissors. But this was still really well worked, with the fans going up for every attempt and Fujinami believably maintaining control, even if he wasn't the world's heaviest guy. I really love Backlund's footwork and positioning here as he tries to work into the Gotch lift, which is more elaborate than what I remember out of WWF Title era. It feels like a huge deal when he finally muscles Fujinami onto the top rope. Of course, not long after, Sharpe gets kicked in the back of the head by Inoki, but what are you going to do? 

ER: I didn't plan on falling in love with Iron Mike Sharpe over the past year, but I think it's important to follow your heart wherever it might take you. My love of Iron Mike Sharpe has, up until this point, never ventured outside of the States. It hasn't really ventured that far outside of New York State, specifically. I love Sharpe most in his early 90s house and Raw appearances, when he's at his best combination of big bumping stooge and local institution. I've never seen a single Mike Sharpe match from Japan, so this is a very exciting find for me. And whatever my thoughts on the match, you have to love that at one time Sharpe was doing his near constant grunting and growling through a sold out Korakuen main event. Inoki actively avoids Backlund and Sharpe takes on a lot of dirty work, No No No No No'ing his way through an Inoki octopus and several ankle picks that left him defenseless. This was no cheating, stooging Sharpe, this was a guy who shook his head and yelled in submissions while hoping to land big swinging body blows and heavy kneelifts when able to stand. 

The one amusing piece of offense Sharpe got in on Inoki was while Inoki was bending his leg, and Sharpe fought free from the move by clasping both hands around Inoki's chin. Clasping onto Inoki's chin is at least tantamount to tugging on Superman's cape, so I call this a win. The fans were excited to see Backlund, and after this one week New Japan tour his visits would all be separated by periods of several years. Backlund and Fujinami had several singles matches against each other and had nice rhythm. Backlund's headscissors had a nice snap and I like how he bumped dropkicks sideways into the ropes. Their rhythm is most apparent during the short arm scissors sequence, with Backlund working through it with an on the nose promptness. He begins every scissor legged roll through lift attempt at near exact 80 second intervals, with each 80 second stretch containing different obstacles, all building to the successful lift. Sharpe was run over soon after, but I liked his and Backlund's excitingly simple finishing stretch of hard bodyslams. Imagine Bob Backlund and Mike Sharpe representing North America to the fine people of Japan, two weirdos who made a whole nation believe we all constantly make Popeye sounds.  

Elimination: Tatsumi Fujinami/Riki Choshu/Akira Maeda/Kiyoshi Kimura/Super Strong Machine vs. Seiji Sakaguchi/Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Nobuhiko Takada/George Takano/Keiji Mutoh NJPW 10/6/87

MD: This only really gets fifteen minutes bell to bell, which isn't *nearly* enough time for one of these, especially given who's in there. But it does give the match a sort of sprint feel, with a lot of quick action and a lot quick switches. Honestly, this almost felt like a Survivor Series version of a classic New Japan 5x5, only with more violence and harder strikes. It's also a lot more one sided than most of these that I've seen, which sort of makes sense when you realize the murderer's row of NJPW stars on the one side of the ring, and George Takano and Keiji Mutoh on the other. You could have stacked a couple more minutes at almost any point of this and it would have been good wrestling, but where I wish they did more was right at the end. You had Fujinami, Choshu, Maeda, and Kimura all on one side, with only Fujiwara on the other. Fujiwara survived for a bit but even he couldn't last long against those four. Given the numbers game and the lack of big stakes and big narratives, it ended up like the exception that allows for the rule on other elimination matches which all end up as one on one big drama affairs.

Jerry Lawler/Bill Dundee vs. The Fabulous Ones MCW 5/1/99

ER: I had never seen this, and it was so great. The ultimate crowd pleaser, in front of one of those great big Nashville Fairgrounds crowds. It wasn't a super common thing to see Lawler and Dundee tagging, but this crowd couldn't care less because it was WAY less common to see the Fabulous Ones.  They hadn't tagged for nearly 4 years at this point, and neither were what you'd call Active since that last tag. Lane was fully retired and Keirn mostly ran his wrestling school in Florida, occasionally (very occasionally) working. It probably also helped that Lane and Keirn showed up and actually looked good for their age. This wasn't a paunchy retirement tour, these were two guys in their late 40s who looked GOOD for their late 40s. The fans are loud for the Fabs the whole match, and Dundee and Lawler lean into it. Lawler took two great backdrops and would run squealing to Dundee on the apron, and Dundee stooged around for the Fabs, always getting caught with a Lane kick after gloating about something (the best was when he banana peeled after getting his legs swept by Lane while strutting). 

Stacy Carter starts passing a weapon back and forth to Lawler, and it rules. He hits a bunch of great short right uppercuts to Lane. Lawler keeps cutting Lane off from Keirn, and it just makes the fans chant louder for Steve and Stan. We even get an extra tease before Stan makes it over to Steve! I love when the hot tag doesn't come when it looks like it's going to come, and here Lawler knocks Lane into the ropes while Dundee runs all the way around the ring to knock him to the floor. The hot tag to Keirn is hot as expected, and the finish is a perfect fusion of 1999 Jerry Springer wrestling with classic Tennessee: Carter gets on the apron and starts a striptease, drawing all of the Fabs' attention, meanwhile Lawler and Dundee are gathering the high heels that she's thrown. It leads to the hilarious moment of Lawler getting brained by a high heel at the hands of Dundee, and immediately pinned. A heel Lawler/Dundee team against a babyface Fabs was the exact thing I needed, and I wish we had more heel Lawler from this era.

MD: Eric had watched this years ago but it's finally back up again thanks to Bryan Turner. He hit the high points really well, but I'd like to add an overall feeling I had for it. I think there was a certain freedom to Memphis in 1999 that may not have existed ten years earlier. It was always broad, of course, but it was always well aware of its broadness, well aware of what worked for the crowd, but still having to balance that with the understanding of how it was viewed by the rest of wrestling. That meant that even as they had the Bruise Brothers strut around or Kamala tromping through a back yard or the House of Gullen or Hector Guerrero and his chili powder, it never quite let itself go all the way over the top in the ring. They always wanted Lawler to be world champion somehow someday. By this point, though, the ship had sailed, the ambitions had shrunk, and it wasn't even about survival anymore. It was a cherry on top, and that let this match really sing and soar and go wildly over the top in being as Memphis as something could possibly be in all the best ways. It felt like this perfect cross-section of masters still being able to go at a high level and any semblance of forced legitimacy just totally gone from their antics. In short, it was a blast.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE JERRY LAWLER

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