Found Footage Friday: WWF 1998~! AUSTIN~! TOO SEXY~! AGUILA~! FAAROOQ~! CACTUS~! TAFKA GOLDUST~! QUEBECERS~!

WWF House Show Anaheim 3/13/98

Mr. Aguila vs. Brian Christopher

MD: This was the good stuff. I can't imagine anything else on the show is going to reach this level. Christopher was as on as a human being could possibly be. Fascinating reactions to things, fascinating creative choices. He went for a German out of the corner and Aguila landed on his feet. Yet he celebrated like he had just tossed him across the ring. Surely, he would have felt... well, no matter. Then he ate a massive dive and sold his throat for some reason. I enjoyed it. He had some really nice offense too, not just the power bomb down the stretch but a Stroke and this Bulldog which for some reason Aguila decided to sell by compacting himself in a seated spot. Story of his comeuppance was going for the same thing twice and then having it backfire on him in the most spectacular way possible (bulldog #2 let to him crotched in the corner). Really, this was Christopher wound up and given room to run as fast and as far as possible to amazing results.

ER: I love how long they both took coming to the ring. We've never seen Aguila take this long to walk to the ring, and because of that this is the most we have ever heard of Aguila's music. This is the clearest this theme has ever been played. We're learning more about WWF Aguila than ever before, as this is also a clear beautiful look at his gear. This is a GREAT set of gear on Aguila, great use of bright color against white, Lisa Frank color with a clean white canvas. He uses that canvas to paint something beautiful, like the sequence where he knocked Christopher down with a spinning heel kick, hit an effortlessly high floating dropkick to knock him to the floor, then hit an incredible twisting moonsault press to the floor. Cleanest shit ever. 

Christopher was great at setting up his own offense and Aguila's. His set up and execution of the Stroke, rolling Aguila through and firmly planting him, got a stunned reaction and he knew it, soaking in the crowd's hate even more than normal. His messy bulldog (complimentary) nicely set up Aguila shoving him off the next bulldog, balls first into the turnbuckles. The elbowdrop Aguila dropped right on Christopher's face after he dropped to the mat was the best...or was it the best when Christopher hopped to his feet running in place selling that the elbowdrop smashed his nose. How often did we get to see Christopher use two different powerbomb variations in WWF? Funny that I'm seeing it on a house show. Both men covered from the blown spot well, Christopher worked as base for luchadors far better than anyone could have expected. 

Steve Blackman vs. Faarooq

MD: Farooq looked really good here. Just tons of presence. He called everyone ugly on the mic to start, then got Blackman to pose, lured him into the corner and hit a spinning heelbutt I've never seen him do. It was just the way he carried himself. He went for a handshake and Blackman kicked it away but then he got him to run right into the spinebuster slam. Most of his offense was just tossing Blackman out so D-Lo and Henry could beat on him, and Blackman won far, far too soon with a small package out of nowhere, but Farooq looked great in the few minutes we got here, just like the savviest wrestler going. Post-match there was Nation dissension and Rocky ran out and drew chants to try to calm everything down.  

ER: Faarooq looked so damn good here. As someone who's been throwing 1998 WWF on as a break from 1997 WCW, I can attest that this is the best Faarooq looks in the ring in the entire first half of '98. Was he saving it all for the house shows? I'm so confused. He had a really cool Raw match against Shamrock in January '98, so maybe we just weren't getting enough Faarooq against shooters? Honestly, this is one of the greatest NATION performances we have. This is more than just the leader, this is everybody contributing. Faarooq is out here channeling Jungle Jim Kelly with a corner spinkick that he never otherwise used, showing off his peoples' karate to some white karate champ, while his whole team is putting in great work. How about Mark Henry throwing fucking BODY shots full arm into Blackman's stomach? Mark Henry is in baggy light wash jeans and a leather vest and is so wide it's insane. He looks like prom night Shaq. Kama and D-Lo put the boots to Blackman and Kama throws one of the best punches he's ever thrown. Faarooq's singlet doesn't get enough credit for being as elegant as it was. A truly great piece of pro wrestling gear. The simple band diagonally across his torso and the confidence to have so much of the singlet all black. This is confidence. Blackman's inside cradle finish was so slick and so well executed that it played as a finish just as well as Ogawa beating Akiyama, but this was a whole damn Nation show.

Cactus Jack vs. Billy Gunn [Falls Count Anywhere] 

MD: This was great fun. Just constant motion with weapon shots and big bumps all around and stooging from Gunn. Gunn landing on the outstretched chair and taking a goofy flopping bump was one of my favorite Billy Gunn things ever. The transitions were otherwise basically of convenience. Gunn would roll out on the Mandible Claw. He'd roll Cactus back in and Jack would take over in the corner with punches and the running knee, etc. So it wasn't exactly rocket science, but it was still very enjoyable and the sort of thing people weren't going to get on TV. 

ER: Also as part of my 1998 rewatch, I have become a much bigger fan of Billy Gunn than ever before. Did I contribute to the not-long-ago Billy Gunn discourse online? I sure did. I don't know why we didn't give him credit for what he was doing in '98 while it was happening, but damn has his work aged well. This man is a true stooge who is incredible at setting up opponents and taking a lot of damage. All of that is on display here, and all of it plays perfectly off Cactus. Gunn is the best part of the brawl on the floor, the way he hits the ring steps for max volume, the way he flops around on all his bumps and the way he and Cactus get so dirty after a suplex. Why is the floor of the Arrowhead Pond so damn filthy!? Was this a cowboy bar on days the Ducks weren't playing and they needed to fill the arena with sawdust? Gunn and Cactus get so covered in dust that they look like they're on a crew who hauls asbestos out of office buildings. 

Gunn is the perfect foil for all of Cactus's offense, from the violent to the absurd. He leans into Jack's best punches and holds firm to take a running knee in the corner. He gets tossed through a table in the corner and later takes a hard whip into the table he broke. But he is at his best getting over through absurdity, and that is on full display when he gets his balls salad tonged by Cactus and the crowd loses their damn minds for it. Gunn lays Cactus out with a chair and lays the chair over his face, setting up a fistdrop off the middle buckle - he even kisses his fist, which is some expert fistdrop knowledge from a guy who I've never see do a fistdrop before - that is of course reversed when Cactus raises the chair to meet Billy. Gunn's running in place face flop to sell the absurdity was divine. His two big pieces of offense looked great, snapping off a piledriver with real torque and sticking the not-yet-named Fameasser when Cactus ducks his head. For the finish, I loved Billy's kickout attempt after taking the double arm DDT on a chair. No life in the legs, no chance of kickout, but a visual attempt to roll his shoulder up at 3 that didn't take away from any of the violent and/or silly damage he took. 

Mark Mero vs. Chainz

MD: No idea how they thought this was going to work. The only babyface out there was Sable (and someone was whistling for her the whole match). Mero's entrance was over with all the lights and Sable was very over in general, getting her own chant as the match started. Mero played to the crowd, especially when it came to her. Chainz was just there, a de facto babyface who didn't get a shine (he tossed Mero out right at the start). Mero's shots and knees and what not looked good, but no one wanted to see Chainz work up from a chinlock (even being choked by wrist tape). He had a brief comeback but missed a Bombs Away kneedrop and ate the TKO. Probably good to see the state of the Mero/Sable act in a setting like this but this was doomed from the start.

ER: Chainz was definitely the babyface here, he was just the least defined character of the DOA. Part of this was because he didn't have a nazi twin, part of it was having a Z in his name like he was a member of the Burger King Kids Club. But he was a babyface at this point of 1998, even if that was mostly because DOA were in a regular feud with the Nation and WWF crowds were definitely going to be in the corner of DOA for reasons beyond face/heel alignment. Would a heel have the kind of shiny, lustrous hair that Chainz had? 

I thought the match worked really well with Chainz as babyface, throwing strong punches that Mero took like a great overpowered heel. I was also surprised at how fast Mero bumped to the floor when Chainz threw him through the ropes. Both men bump real well for the other. Mero goes down hard for a shoulderblock and clothesline, Chainz takes a shockingly cool bump when Mero snaps his neck over the ropes. He took it the exact same way Jimmy Hart took his apron bumps, and bumping was an underrated part of Chainz' game. Yes, I realize while typing that that every part of Chainz' game was underrated, because there isn't a person reading this who can clearly picture their favorite WWF Chainz moments. What did Chainz use as a finisher? I can't ever recall him winning a match during this run. But in the couple months around WrestleMania this year, he seemed like a guy who was trying for the last time to be noticed. We're not counting that weird stretch in TNA where he was losing 10 pounds a week until he was all teeth and jawbone and his hair started suffering from vitamin deficiency, I mean that he was trying to stand out to someone in WWF who might notice. 

Go watch how much Chainz puts himself out there in the DOA vs. DX vs. Boricuas chain match angle from Raw 4/13/98 (I fully understand if you do not do this) and it was clear he was trying to be noticed by someone. Was it me? Was it me, Chainz, noticing you 25 years after the fact? I love what you did against Marc Mero, Chainz. I loved your missed kneedrop off the middle buckle, and loved you leaning in to take Mero's kneelift to the side of the head rather than to your breadbasket. Nobody else took Mero's kneelift this way, only you Chainz. And it looked really good! I am a noticer, always noticing things. Your effort was true. 

Steve Austin vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley 

MD: I haven't actually written out the word "Helmsley" in a very long time. It still has a red underline under it. I'm not going back to check. Let me dump in some of the personal stuff here actually. I didn't watch a hell of a lot of wrestling from ~93-98. I remember seeing Hogan turn on scramblevision. Mania XIV was in Boston (I lived in a suburb) so with the public workout and everything, people were buzzing about it at High School and that's when I more or less got back into it, right around here.

That said, I don't go back to 98 WWF much. If we had more house shows, maybe it'd be different. What I have seen tends to be C-Shows. So I haven't seen these guys from this particular year in a long time. And it's fascinating just to see Austin move. I'm more used to the Austin of a couple of years earlier or a couple of years later, but here he was a superstar just ready to get the belt and carry the company. He conducted the crowd and fed off of them. It was a house show. The act hadn't quite calcified yet. So he was a little looser but it didn't feel pandering in any way. 

What I'll say about Hunter here is that he was very giving. His character didn't earn a single thing. He got everything through cheating or Chyna or chance. I imagine it wouldn't have carried through quite as well if TV cameras were on but he let himself be genuinely vulnerable in a way that, after a certain point, he never did genuinely again. And he came off as a better, more effective heel because of it. 

Early on they did a couple of hammerlock bits which were very good. Great back elbow and fun punch out of them. That's probably what I will remember out of this as much as anything else. Austin had to fight his way back from some legwork, but he did. The finish was wonky, overthought. Even vulnerable Hunter is still Hunter. It did six or seven things (too complicated a set up for the comeback with a double down that wasn't really needed, shrugging of the stunner the first time, a ref bump, Chyna, etc.) when one or two would have hit so much better. Still, the good in here was quite good.

ER: Man, I loved this. I loved this. I thought it was great. Austin was flat out incredible and constant motion towards something More, while HHH turned in what might be his best performance of the year. I have seen enough Austin/HHH matches and don't think they always work well as opponents, primarily because of HHH, but this was tremendous and a perfect use of time. If you dare, go ahead and check out their brutally long match a few weeks later from Mayhem in Manchester, and you can see a HHH with no idea how to treat a match against Austin. Here? Like night and day, roles defined perfectly and not a single wasted movement by either. HHH was not attempting to work cool heel, he was just feeding and setting things up for Austin to knock down, which he did spectacularly. The work over Austin's perpetually injured knee/s was interesting, and the ways Austin moved around that knee work was amazing. It's crazy how active Austin was in this era. 

For a guy who would eventually be surrounded by go go go wrestlers, it's wild how much he went went went without making his actual work feel empty and forgotten. It's funny whenever I see Austin talked about as a guy who "didn't do much" in the ring. Maybe that's referring to his "small moveset" (silly) but I watch the guy and see someone who is constantly doing something. Austin is a very active wrestler and this 12 minute and change format is perfect for him to craft this active, cool story. I loved every beat of this. When Hunter was getting his ass kicked, he was actually getting his ass kicked. This was not a self-service stooge performance from Hunter, he wasn't yet at the time where he was "showing people he could work down" he was just the heel taking a beating. Early, Austin rocks him so good with a back elbow to break a hammerlock that I had to rewind it a few times, both to see the elbow and to see the actual anger in Hunter's face. That's how a heel should look when a tough babyface elbows him in his big nose. And, while it didn't smash Hunter's nose, Austin's falling elbow is one of the greatest pieces of offense in wrestling history. What an incredible magic trick. This wife beating beer drinking Texas rattlesnake also figured out how to work an incredibly dangerous elbow, pointed directly at someone's throat and never showing a sliver of light, in a way that looks like he's collapsing a man's trachea. The trust he built with that elbow is incredible, and earned. 

When things settle down into Hunter working the knee, I loved the way Austin would stay in the match while selling, never settling into a long Hunter control sequence (because Austin rightly understood that Hunter has next to no ideas how to control things for that long), which fits perfectly into Austin's style. He is a fighter, a man who wants to constantly advance and who will keep after you after losing a limb, and that's how he sells the leg. There is an incredible spot, my personal favorite moment on this show, where Austin misses a clothesline and falls forward into the ropes, recovering in time for Hunter to kick him straight in the knee. The way Austin missed this clothesline pays such perfect attention to detail, every frame looking like a man who threw to connect, falling into the ropes because your missed momentum carried you there. His fall into the ropes looked like a man who hadn't considered he would ever miss that clothesline. Only the top 0.1% of wrestlers can miss offense with that kind of conviction. 

Chyna's involvement was the perfect amount as well, as her presence was always acknowledged while her threats were mostly implied. When she finally elbow smashes Austin from the floor it played as one of the best moments of an already excellent match. When she finally gets in the ring for the finish, the crowd was rabid for any kind of involvement from her. The way they played Chyna's first year in the company was an incredible use of restraint, totally unimaginable today. Austin's greatest feat in this match is actually making Hunter's goof ass Flair/Race cosplay bumps mean something other than "now is the time Hunter can show that he has watched several Flair/Race matches". His rolling upside down bump in the corner is almost always shoehorned into a match, but here felt like the best possible use and execution, adding an off the rails feel to Austin's comeback fire. 

I honestly don't think I could name 10 better matches in 1998 WWF. If these house shows keep coming, maybe eventually we'll be able to name 20 better. 

Godwinns vs. DoA [Country Whipping]

MD: Three minutes. The fans didn't really care at all until a couple of hard Godwinn shots in the ring towards the end. I was off thinking why they didn't get a couple more hillbillies (Moondog Splat was still active in 97?) and have them as part of the whole gang wars thing. And then I blinked and there was a slop drop and the thing was over. On some level this was kind of Death Valley Days coded. Just guys whipping the hell out of each other for three minutes and going home. If Phil, Matt and Eric booked this though, it'd have way more emotional resonance. 

ER: This was only two minutes long and a mostly useless two minutes, all likely for a very good reason. When you have Nazi Bikers taking on Confederacy Nostalgists it is only a matter of time before they come to some real Can't We All Just Get Along conclusions. Why are we lightly whipping each other for two minutes? We all collectively, the four of us, hate blacks, so why are we fighting each other? Henry and Skull have a moment of understanding that they're wasting their own energy fighting those with the same goals, so they agree to a lazily set up Slop Drop and clear the ring so a full crew of tough black dudes can do something more productive. 

Rock vs. Ken Shamrock

MD: Sort of a tale of two matches here. Shamrock looked great early, charging right in and having a lot of dynamic offense. Rocky fed and fed and fed and he did a great job with it. Some distraction from the outside let Rocky take over and it was a little off to me, a little rough around the edges. He didn't register some of Shamrock's stuff in the hope spots. That sort of thing. They did another ref bump here, but it was a nice one with a ducked clothesline. Then the rest of the Nation got involved and everything fell apart. It looked like Rocky was going to sneak away with a win after a D-Lo chairshot but another ref ran out and the Nation swarmed in. DQ win for Shamrock with the fans getting at least one big moment as he hit the Belly to Belly on Henry after a heated face off. 

Headbangers vs. Quebecers

MD: I had high hopes for this one, and it seemed like they'd be personified in Jacques' look. It was pretty amazing. Quebecers had the blue gear here, but Jacques had his hair pulled back tight, which made him looking like the hairline was really receding, with an almost fluffy ponytail, and a baldspot in the middle. Amazing stuff.

There was nothing wrong with this match really, but I wanted more elaboration in the early stooging. Pierre bumped all over the place, but I needed a bit more pluck and comeuppance from Jacques. It's a house show. Do all the bits. They did barely any of the bits. There'd be more bits on a 1989 Rougeaus TV squash. So I was a little disappointed there. I did like the finish where one Headbanger leapfrogged over the other to avoid a whip into one another, only to run right into Quebecers clotheslines. That set up the Quebecers going for their finisher, it getting broken up and the Headbangers hitting theirs. I needed this to have 600% more bullshit and I'm not sure why it didn't.

Undertaker vs. TAFKA Goldust

MD: There were elements to the initial Goldust character which pushed things in clever, if not entirely subtle ways. I don't think much of that was in this incarnation. It was all trying too hard and so little of it landed. Dustin wasn't at his physical best here but he still bumped all over the place for Taker and had his usual timing. Another distraction transition, this time with Taker choking Luna. I liked the comeback though as Taker hit a flurry of punches to the gut like he was playing Punch Out! Then the lights went off and the place went more nuts for Kane than they did for any of the matches. You wonder about the mic-ing with the cameras as they are for most of this, but when the place explodes for something like that it really does make you feel like they've just been quiet for most of the wrestling. I kind of liked Taker's punch exchange on Kane too. Weirdly, the ref didn't call for the DQ even though it would have made total sense (it wasn't a ball control thing either; Kane was getting shots in). But they wanted to send the fans home happy with a "clean" win after the Tombstone I guess and they couldn't do yet another ref bump. 

I'm going to chalk this off as a dubiously agented show. There were good things, but past the Christopher match, which they still might have gotten pre-show, just at half the length, and the Cactus Jack match which they wouldn't be getting anywhere else save maybe PPV (at least until the Hardcore division started up), I don't think it was all that much of a stronger experience than you would have gotten from a Raw of this era, and as a house show, it really should have been.

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Cactus Knows There is Crack in Everything, That is How the Light Gets In

Cactus Jack Manson/Rick Ryder vs. Steiner Brothers NWA 1/20/90 - FUN

PAS: It's Steiner brother mauling a pair of jobbers which is always a blast. Cactus is starting to get a bit of a push, so he jumps Rick and gets a couple of shots in before the hammer is dropped. Rick hits a released belly to belly which folds Cactus in half. Ryder comes in a gets thrown around top rope belly to belly gut wrench, sick Frankensteiner, only for Cactus to beat him up post match, and hit the hipbuster. You wouldn't guess Cactus had such a stellar future ahead of him from this, but this role of punching bag who kills his partners post match was a lot of fun.

Cactus Jack/Abdullah The Butcher vs. Bill Kazmaier/Brian Pillman WCW10/12/91 - FUN

PAS: This didn't have the chaos that your best Cactus/Abby tag matches had, but had some nifty moments. I actually loved the big guy face offs between Abby and Kazmaier and I want to track down their singles match on WCWSN, Abby was a force in this, thrusting Pillman in his bad throat, knocking him off the apron with a running shoulder block, and he and Kazmaier freight train into each other. Cactus was a bit subdued, especially for 91. He is mostly on the defensive and would have ended up pinned by Kazmaier's incubatory FU at the end of the match if Abby didn't cut loose with the Kendo stick. Much more of a standard tag then a whirlwind, but plenty to like.

Cactus Jack/Larry Zbyszko vs. Abdullah the Butcher/Ron Simmons WCW 2/2/92 - FUN

PAS: Love this pair of WAR teams locking up on the Main Event. This was set up to tease the Omni Cactus vs. Abby cage match, and they did a nice job whetting the whistle but never really giving us a full taste. I actually dug the Abby vs. Larry Z interactions the most, with Zbyszko breaking out his spin kick to Abby's big guts, only to be met with some nasty karate thrusts and Abby curling his finger and trying to rip out Larry's eye (with a great bellowing sell by Zbyzko). They did a Simmons face in peril section which wasn't much, only to have him hot tag Abby, almost immediately tag back in and spinebuster and pin Cactus. Felt like wires might have been crossed there. We go right into a fun post match brawl which sees Cactus hit a hipbuster on Abby and smash him with a big rolled up piece of cage material. Release the Omni footage!!

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Tony Halme Reminds Me Bout a Symphony on the Radio

Tony Halme vs. Ron Simmons  WCW/NJPW 1/4/93 - VERY GOOD

ER: I think they could have had a really great singles match if they were around each other a bit more regularly, and weren't thrown into a kind of Special Attraction match. This was the only match on a huge Tokyo Dome card to go under 10 minutes, and it barely even went 5. It's pro style, not Halme working as a massive boxer and Simmons trying to find his way around that, and I think a great hypothetical match exists in both styles. We didn't get either great match, but what we got still had some predictably cool moments. Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone are on the call, and refer to Halme as either "Home" or "Holmes" the entire match, but I liked Tony shaping a little narrative by saying that Halme is pissed because this match was signed when Simmons was the WCW champ and was supposed to be a title match. There's a long feeling out process, and I thought Halme was good at setting up Simmons' offense, and much of the match was him setting up offense for Simmons. Halme ran through a lot of major NJPW guys during his time there, so I was surprised at them letting Simmons mostly control this (his status as recent champ notwithstanding). 

Halme's awkwardness adds to these matches for me, as it makes his reversals look more like failed shoots than guys just on different pages. He lets Simmons lay into him and nicely sets up a Simmons bulldog, takes a nice piledriver, but then just stays standing when Simmons hits a flying shoulderblock, just shoving Simmons into the ground. For his part, Simmons was completely looney about leaning into Halme strikes, particularly a clonking headbutt and a big right bear paw attack that knocked Simmons through the ropes to the floor. Halme's avalanche and big heavy feet-planted clothesline looked great, and Schiavone and JR seemed pretty impressed at how high arcing his powerslam was. The finish was weird but not bad? Simmons hits a powerslam of his own but it doesn't look great, then tries to get a small package twice in a row on Halme. Both small packages look loose, but to me it made it look like Simmons was trying to shoot pin Halme and Halme wasn't having it (I am projecting all of this on the match, I don't think anyone was being unprofessional here). Halme misses a haymaker and Simmons hits the spinebuster with a fantastic float over pin holding Halme's legs down. I think you can improve on literally every section of this match, and a great match wasn't far off, but what we got was plenty cool and it was always going to be a treat seeing Halme cheered as a babyface against Simmons in front of 60,000+ Tokyo Dome fans.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE TONY HALME

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New Footage Friday: 1994 WCW House Show (+ Bonus Lawler vs. Bock!)

WCW House Show El Paso 7/14/94

Lord Steve Regal vs. Johnny B. Badd - GREAT

MD: 94 house show Regal obviously brings a lot to the table. He stalled a lot early, but paid it off by bumping himself on the way back in for high comedy. The chain wrestling, when they got to it, was good, though everything along these lines, even the good stuff, feels a little low rent after watching so much French Catch. When Regal took over, it was with a brutal variety of offense. Badd really needed a couple more meaningful hope spots, even if he was going to get the reversed banana peel win.

PAS: I thought this was nifty stuff. Any chance to see new Regal is tremendous, and I thought he was awesome here. He had some fun stooging stuff at the beginning, really riling up the crowd and doing the job of a opening match wrestler. When he lays a beating on JBB it was appropriate, Lots of of those nasty left handed forearms to the side of Badd's head, and an incredible counter of a sunset flip where he shifts his weight and drops a knee right on Badd's eye. I really liked Badd's comeback, really worked the heavy bag with his body shots, and hit a very cool looking flying headscissor. Finish was a bit lame, but what you would expect from a house show. Regal really elevates everything he does. 

ER: House show Regal during this era would have been such a treat, and his performance is the kind that makes house show handhelds such a joy. Regal is the TV champ here, and just watching his haughty mannerisms as he reacts to the El Paso fans would be enough to make me love this match. He makes a ring attendant hold the ropes open for him, circles Badd several times while making fake lunges toward him, then when the crowd finally gets excited about Badd laying his hands on Regal...why of course that's when Regal rolls to the floor to avoid the action. Regal keeps grabbing the house mic and asking the fans to please be more quiet so he can concentrate on his wrestling, threatens to leave until he begins being counted out, runs back to the ring and trips on the ropes, landing in his face. This is the kind of stuff that house show dreams are made of, a style that we're getting further and further away from to the detriment of all wrestling joy. 

And once Regal does start wrestling he lays a great beating on Badd for over 10 minutes. He leans full body weight behind European uppercuts, works cool knuckle lock exchanges that end with Regal kneeing his way out, blocks a sunset flip by dropping a knee down onto Badd's face. I thought Badd sold Regal's shots so well, loved the way he always looked off balance, the way Regal would uppercut him into the ropes and then headbutt his stomach to get him back into the ropes, Badd had a nice organic way of selling Regal's offense exactly as it was delivered. Badd's punch comeback looked really cool, highlighting how silly modern stand and trade exchanges look, as Bad is landing body shots while Regal and him aren't really focused on each other's timing. It looked like two guys each trying to land strikes while on defense, not like two guys waiting out their turning in the timing to strike. Regal is a slime and tries to put his feet on the ropes for the win just because he can, and it works! Until the ref notices the feet and reverses the call, leading to Regal getting schoolboyed. This was a tremendous Regal performance around a popular but limited performer, but I thought Badd's selling was incredibly strong and only added to Regal's hilarious mannerisms and brutal strikes. 

Brian Pillman vs. Diamond Dallas Page

MD: It's great to see visible proof of Austin sitting and watching matches. I'd guess in this case that Page asked him to for critiques but maybe the guy just liked wrestling and was a student of the game. Pillman here, came off like the world's smallest Hansen, constantly fighting back, constantly making Page fill space with his size and his offense. It meant Page had to take every moment of this with nothing given and that made for a more compelling experience than you might think coming in.

ER: I'm never going to be too into those matches where babyfaces hit arm drags and then hold arm wringers as a big portion of the match, as it always just ends up making me more interested in the heel eventually breaking through and that shouldn't be the goal. But that's what happened here as I wound up being far more excited for DDP bumping around for Pillman, and really loved his hard forearms to Pillman's jaw. I thought he was good at working a big man against a hot babyface, liked how he took the crossbody, but just found myself far more interested in seeing DDP throw those elbows. Maybe the most interesting thing was our cameraman panning the crowd (or well, panning hundreds of empty folding chairs) to catch Steve Austin sitting by the entrance watching the match. I love seeing things like that. 

Stars & Stripes vs. Pretty Wonderful

MD: The highlight of this came early when Roma bumped himself out of the corner on a clean break and declared victory by claiming Patriot took out his eye. Pretty funny stuff. Pretty Wonderful cut off the ring well, but a lot of their offense was more focused on containing Patriot than doing damage to him and that'll only take you so far. The finish worked though, giving us just enough Bagwell and not too much of him.

ER: I have friends who went to a WCW house in Oakland, CA maybe three months after this house show, and they both said that Pretty Wonderful vs. Stars & Stripes was the worst match they had ever seen live, both with memories of the match going 30 minutes and being dreadfully boring. They both acknowledge that they might feel differently now, how their tastes may have changed, and I think it's possible that they might have hated it due to the unnecessary length and the probable amounts of bullshit in the match. The bullshit in this match is really great, but I know I had less tolerance of stalling and drawn out cheating and those sorts of things when I was younger, and now it's something I actively seek. I didn't like those Rockers/Rougeaus matches that started with 15 minutes of them doing showoff poses and playing games of H-O-R-S-E by doing backflips off the buckles, and now I would kill to see wrestling matches like that. 

This match had a lot of bullshit, and it was nearly 20 minutes (with several minutes cut out when the guy stopped recording) of Pretty Wonderful cutting Patriot off from Bagwell. Patriot is one of the more supremely uninteresting wrestlers of the era, and a match focused on PW containing him and his weird punches is a good thing (he throws hooking right hands with nice form, but frequently aims them them so his mid wrist is connecting with the side of his opponent's head, so his fist always lands behind his opponent). Orndorff is great bumping around the ring and begging off from Stars and Stripes, and things get really great when Roma starts using hand claps behind the ref's back to make it look like Patriot is taking cheap shots. Roma backs Patriot into the corner a couple times, and claps his hands right when the ref can't see, bumps backwards holding his face and complaining about Patriot's poor sportsmanship. The first time Roma did it, a woman near our cameraman began loudly, hoarsely CACKLING with laughter. God I wish I could have watched wrestling with that woman. Roma was great at being the batter who is trying to work a hit by pitch, and what really makes the match is how deeply upset the crowd gets with every single cheat utilized by PW. When a crowd is this angry at a heel routine, it's the easiest thing to love. Roma is a guy I never think of, a wrestler I've seen so much yet has made such a small impression on my memory that watching this house show version of Roma gives me a new appreciation for him. This guy knew how to draw excellent heat on an undersold Texas house show, and that's a cool thing. The match builds smartly to a quick Bagwell hot tag, which is the best possible use of 1993 Bagwell. There's a good chance I would not have had the patience for this match in 1994, but in 2020 this was just what I needed.

Guardian Angel vs. Ron Simmons

MD: This was short and weird. You have to call it a disappointment. I've never seen Simmons work heel like this, almost like chickenshit, falling out of the ring and running away from Angel. He had a nice face first corner bump/rope assisted mule kick as a transition move but it didn't go anywhere as Bossman took right back over a minute later (though there was what felt like a small cut which maybe made a difference). Really the best part of this was how the ring shook whenever they hit the ropes.

ER: I thought this kicked ass, and based on the timekeeper's call I think we actually got closer to 4 minutes cut out of this, and I think that was an important cut. I'm pretty positive we missed the 4 minute entirety of Ron Simmons' offense, as the match cuts right after he knocks Traylor to the floor with an awesome falling headbutt/Bret Hart diving elbow, and then joins us back with Simmons missing a big headbutt off the middle rope. What we're left with does indeed feel incomplete, but I loved the match we did get. Simmons/Boss Man really wasn't a singles match that was run a lot (I don't think we ever would have even got a singles match between them 5-6 years later in WWF), and who knows maybe they intentionally did not want to run this match because Traylor so large and it's a tough spot to put some heels in working with a large dominant babyface. 

But large dominant babyface Ray Traylor is some of my favorite wrestling, so I loved seeing him uppercut Simmons around the ring, roll to the floor and uppercut him some more. We get big shoulderblocks and nice collisions, and obviously the big mystery is just what did Ron Simmons do to control Traylor during that missing time. Traylor's comeback after the Simmons missed headbutt is great, a few big clotheslines and a finisher worthy crossbody that Traylor got great big man height on (and Simmons took in a way that landed HARD). We get a hilarious bit at the very end that feels completely out of place (enough that I assume this was played up a lot during our missing time) as Traylor hits a headbutt and then drops to his knees selling Simmons' hard head...only to roll him up in a small package when Simmons tried to capitalize. It's REALLY hard to do a "sell hard head of opponent spot" literally 10 seconds before winning the match, so this had to have been the focal point of the missing time, leading to Traylor exploiting it for the surprise finish. Loved this pairing, glad we finally got to see a nice length singles. 

Dustin Rhodes/Arn Anderson vs. Bunkhouse Buck/Amarillo Slim

MD: We don't get a ton of this. In fact, we lose it right when it's getting good, but I'm sick of hearing Arn say how terrible a babyface he'd be because he has no "babyface skills." He could punch. He had great timing. That's literally all you need.

ER: Oh, how cruel handheld wrestling can be. This was the match I was most excited to see, and what portion of the match clearly showed it to be the best match on the show. Alas, we don't see the finish of the match, and it felt like there still could have been 5 (or 10!) minutes left. The match still could have gone in several ways and we cut out after jumps the gun on the hot tag. It wouldn't be a shock to find out they worked another 5 minutes of Buck/Slim keeping Arn away from the tag. As we finish, Arn has run into the ring throwing punches before getting tossed hard to the floor, and Buck/Slim are just about to start working over Dustin again. We'll never know, but what we do get is as good as its on paper promise. 

There are cuts throughout the match, but those appear to be our cameraman cutting "out of ring" time. Obviously, all of that out of the ring time involves Robert Fuller, so cutting that out of the handheld is a crime. When Bunkhouse Buck takes a huge bump over the top to the floor and Fuller gives him some air by waving his cowboy hat over his face, you know we're missing out on other versions of that. But we do get Fuller on the house mic directing traffic and telling Buck and Slim to keep putting the boots to Dustin. Buck is great at laying in the boots and taking offense, loved how he sold Dustin's atomic drop but also loved how he kept backing Dustin up with a bearhug. At first I thought it was silly that Erik Watts was working as "Amarillo Slim" (I had no idea this was a gimmick he worked at the end of his first WCW run), but heel cowboy Erik Watts is way more interesting than tall clumsy babyface Erik Watts. He takes his own fast bump to the floor and could have really been valuable as a heel patsy who apes Buck and Fuller. Arn as a fired up hot tag babyface is something we didn't get enough of, and something he's great at. He's a powerhouse on the apron, and between his babyface apron energy and Dustin's excellent FIP work, it's not shockingly a great fit. So, watch and love this for what it is, and not for the missing parts we have no control over. We have Amarillo Slim footage now, and for that we should be thankful. Imagine if Virgil had only worked a few house show dates as Curly Bill and had never been on TV under that gimmick. Watts as Slim is not as exciting as that, but it hits the same spot. 

Stunning Steve Austin vs. Sting

MD: Austin was in transition here, no longer the TV champ of 91 or the Hollywood Blonde of 93 but not yet what he'd become a couple of years (and injuries) later. I love watching him squash guys in 95. Here he was still full of stooging and bullshit but had a way that he threw himself into all of his offense that was a portent of what would come. Sting did what he had to, emanating power and authority, a straightman that let all of Austin's manic energy just wash around him, waiting for him to feed into gorilla press slams and back body drops. This had enough time to be fun, but given the number of roll up finishes so far, there was probably no harm in giving Sting something more definitive to end it.

ER: I love Steve Austin, and I really love this era of Austin. I don't know if anyone on the roster at this point delivered offense better than Austin. He wrestles the way 1994 Bret Hart would have wrestled as a stooging heel. Same perfectly executed offense, delivered as if to look like he's really throwing his full weight behind everything. Hart and Austin have very similar styles but tweaked in ways that made them unique and complementary opponents (instead of the parity battle their series could have been), and 1994 Hart was a guy that would have been able to have a great match with Sting. House Show Austin is one of my favorite things, as every time we get to finally see WCW handhelds or unreleased post-Raw dark matches, Austin shows himself to be one of the more engaging crowd work guys in history. I mean, *obviously* Steve Austin was someone who could connect with crowds, but he never really stopped working the way an old 50 year old bullshit artist territory guy would work a 35 person crowd. He clearly relishes getting in people's faces and doing full routines with people in the front row, and the crowd was here for ALL of it. He knew when to be vicious to Sting, he knew when to get his ass kicked, and you get the sense that Austin could have had a match this good with a babyface of any ability. 

Austin is a great bumper, and here we get to see him give the balcony fans in El Paso a great look off at him as he flew into a sky high backdrop, and not long after went up just as high for a quick Sting press slam, and Austin works so fast his bumps look even better. He's one of the best all time at being perfectly in control while working at a speed that makes it seem like things are about to run off the rails. It's like a 2 year old who has been walking for awhile, but still falls down when running too fast, as if the body isn't quite catching up to the desire. Maybe the best thing about his bumping is how hard his landings look, or how hard he makes his landings look. He hits heavy on the mat for every back bump, which makes suplex landings or falls feel always consequential. His offense all looks so good, and I can't get enough of his kneedrop, his diving elbow off the middle buckle that might be the best version of that elbow ever thrown, and one of the coolest things I've ever seen him do: when he unrolls Sting's arm like he's about to hit a Rainmaker and just assaults him with a back elbow. Honestly, it looked so great it should be a finisher. It all builds to a quick, simple Sting comeback. Austin bumps for three decent clotheslines, holds the ropes on a sunset flip only to have them kicked off by the ref (sincerely one of my most hated spots in wrestling history). Austin kicks out but comes up shoving the ref for kicking his hands, leading to Austin getting shoved into a schoolboy. The finish really felt like the kind that some WCW agent saw Flair use for a couple decades, but Austin pulls off that kind of thing with aplomb. 

Jerry "The King" Lawler vs  Nick Bockwinkle CWA 8/21/78 - GREAT

MD: A Thanksgiving miracle, even if one with a ten minute clip through a lot of the good stuff. I'm pretty certain this was the first time Bockwinkel fought Lawler and some of the only footage (if not THE only footage) we have of Heenan in the Mid-South Coliseum. Heenan had amazing purple and gold California pajama gear that could have only existed in the 70s. Bock wrestled Lawler early on the same way he'd wrestle Chavo Guerrero in Houston a few years later, that Hollywood over-confidence in wrestling a local yokel in front of a crowd that loved him for whatever reason. Even Lance picked up on it on commentary a few minutes in (which is why Lance is so great). It led, of course, to Lawler stooging him with his own offense and looking like a million bucks without diminishing Bockwinkel in the least. Heenan and Bockwinkel spend the first few minutes complaining about hairpulls that don't exist only for Bock to take over for a bit with a hairpull of his own. It's that attention to detail that made him so great. The cut comes just as you can tell they were about to move into something better, so it's frustrating, but when we come back for the finish, it's in the midst of a ton of great Lawler punches and Bockwinkel's full body selling that really got over the weight of what had happened so far. The finish is typical Heenan running in when his guy is doomed, but it's to show that Lawler can beat the champ and set up the rematch the following week, which I bet drew. It's a shame we don't have all of this, but we've got 15 minute more of it than we did last week, and I won't complain about that.

PAS: Odd presentation of this match, we get the first 12 minutes or so of this, which is a lot of feeling out and cat and mouse stuff. Lawler suckering Bock into a side headlock, Heenan grousing at the ref, etc. All prologue. These are two masters, so minor key stuff is going to be well worth watching, but just as Lawler starts to pick it up with big forearms to the ribs and a couple of right hands, they jump right to the last two minutes. I obviously want it all, but if you are going to clip, clip the appetizer, not the main course. Finish is Lawler rolling, and we get an absolutely classic fist drop. He is the best ever at it, and this is one of his best, before Heenan just runs in for the DQ (his Laker's jumpsuit was maybe the highlight of this match, he looked like Jerry West on the prowl for the ladies). A little frustrating, but still this was something we didn't know existed until Wednesday.

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New Footage Friday: Johnny Smith, Miracle Violence, Bossman, Bad News, TA, Ladd

Magnum TA vs. Ernie Ladd Houston Wrestling 11/9/84

PAS: This is a matchup we have seen before, but a new match. Really dug fired up babyface Magnum, and dirty tricks Ladd. The opening was great with Magnum jumping Ladd at the bell and throwing these lighting face overhand rights in succession, with Ladd flopping into the ropes horizontally.  Ladd was all cheap shots and foreign objects and broad pantomimes which made the crowd rabid. Ladd kind of worked like a heel late period Baba, two old and arthritic to move fast, but the size and timing makes up for a lot. Would have liked to see a real finish, but this was a pair of great role players, playing their role.

MD: New Houston footage is gold. We have a couple of Ladd vs Magnum matches and they're generally good. This is no exception. Ladd was such a master of creating meaning. He's brilliant, even broken down, at using his size to its full advantage. He just gets it like few others his size have. It's one thing even for a guy like Terry Funk to crash out of the ring and end up with a chair around his head (that enhanced by his credibility), but it's another thing for a guy as lanky and huge as Ladd. You have to love how he needs to resort to illegal objects and chicanery and cheapshots to get over on Magnum too, even given the size and the fact he's champ. That just makes Magnum look all the better and gives Ladd extra heat because it frustrates the (always great Houston) crowd. Magnum holds his own here, just a mean bullying face, the sort that crowds will always love because it's a tough guy wish fulfillment. The finish was BS but it sets up a no DQ match and a cage match after it, so you can't be too down on it.


Bad News Allen vs. Ron Simmons CWF 12/16/86

MD: This is interesting almost solely for Bad News leading Simmons through the match. Lots of standard babyface stuff from a guy who had only been in the business for a few months. You got some sense of Simmons' star power already but he wasn't there with the expressions and the crowd interaction yet. Bad News, on the other hand, was super giving, surprisingly so if you've seen him in other environments. Some of his stooging (like complaining about a hair pull) was just tremendous, and he made sure to do little things to get over Simmons strength (such as doing a test of strength but with two hands to Simmons' one). The belt shot at the end was more of a whip with the strap, but to the face, and just brutal. I'm not sure I've ever quite seen that done with a title belt before and you wonder why not, since it was such a great visual, except for that it probably hurt like hell.

ER: Phil and I were talking a couple days ago about how Bad News was somebody who should be the absolute coolest, has the coolest look and the coolest background, but doesn't have a lot of matches I really like. Feels like he should have cool matches, usually doesn't have cool matches. But he was really popular at my school among my friends in the late 80s, because he looked cool and he rarely lost. I remember him losing to Hogan on SNME, but that was Hogan so none of us faulted him for that, obviously he couldn't beat Hogan. Every other PPV he would either win or go to a double DQ, just a guy who we all saw as way higher up on the hierarchy that he actually was. And he only became more popular due to a lie that I started. So keep in mind that I was 8, and 8 year olds have no clue how the world works or if a lie is plausible or not. Some kid at camp once told me that he found an uzi in "somebody's" house, and took the uzi. He said he had the uzi in his bag, but couldn't show it to me because he also had $10,000 in the bag and didn't want people to see it. All of this seemed perfectly plausible to me, a stupid fucking child. So I *may* have told people that Bad News Brown was...Shel Silverstein. We had a few Shel Silverstein books in our classroom, and to an 8 year old it wasn't too much of a stretch that a black and white photo of Silverstein looked like Bad News Brown (or Sid Haig, but none of us would have known that), and none of us would have known that "Silverstein" isn't a really a common name for black people. Those books were really popular in our class, so Bad News Brown then became even more popular among those of us who watched wrestling. And then years went by and I didn't think about it and I ended up tricking myself into a false memory, as I saw a picture of Shel Silverstein a decade later and thought "wait I thought he was black".


Terry Gordy/Dr. Death Steve Williams vs. Big Bossman/Johnny Smith AJPW 7/18/93

ER: It's so cool seeing Bossman come out to Hard Times in some community center looking building in Osaka. Oh, and remember when Paul Heyman brought Johnny Smith in to work an ECW PPV main event opposite RVD, but got cold feet at the last minute that fans wouldn't accept Smith so replaced him with Balls Mahoney? Wouldn't accept Smith? Here's Smith 6 years prior going toe to toe with Doc and Gordy, and literally knocking both wobbly with shoulder blocks, but yeah probably would have looked overmatched against RVD. There are two kinds of MVC matches, the kinds where they gobble people up and club and smash their way through, and the kind where they hang back a bit and lie in some holds. This is more the latter than the former, but not much to the match's detriment. Gordy hangs on the apron a lot, and Doc seems off a beat in several moments and particularly doesn't seem to know the rhythm and timing of Bossman's spots.

We get a nice babyface performance from Smith carrying this through, with some explosive bursts from Bossman. Smith really gets the crowd behind him by not backing down to MVC, slamming into them like he was the size of Bossman, throwing cool elbows between the eyes, cutting low on clotheslines and landing a couple nice ones to the back of Doc's head. He's the guy clearly taking the pin, but the crowd keeps getting more into him the more he refuses to stay down. Bossman gives him welcome respites, coming in and throwing his in-contention-for-best-ever uppercuts and moving quicker than anyone in the match. We get some awesome moments, like Doc muscling up the HUGE Bossman for a press slam (I thought he was going to quit on it but he kept powering through and even tossed in an extra rep), or Doc catching a Smith crossbody off the top and running him into the buckles for a Stampede, only to turn around and run into a Bossman elbow to get a great nearfall for Smith. Smith runs a big gauntlet down the stretch, taking powerslams, a powerbomb, a chokeslam, and gets a surprising last gasp kickout after a tandem chokeslam/backdrop. Bossman and Smith only teamed a few times, only once making tape, so this match doubling our footage count was a nice treat showing a cool complementary set of bruisers.

PAS: Not at the level of the Bossman tag we reviewed a couple of weeks ago, but this was a fun big boy battle. Smith is built like a block of firewood, and never lets the MVC eat him up, he takes a pretty big thumping, but keeps coming at both guys. I mentioned in the previous Bossman tag match (and will mention over and over again if we do the rumored Bossman in AJPW C+A) how great he is at doing complex sequences. And we get a great one here as he slides out of the ring and slides quickly back in misses a clothesline, gets both feet up and nails Doc with a windup uppercut. He is so smooth with that stuff, that it really makes me wish I saw him work El Hijo Del Santo. The presslam by Doc was an all timer, and although it felt a bit awkward, I dug how hard it was to take out Smith at the end.

MD: Most memorable here will be the two big spots, Doc somehow getting Bossman up with the high effort gorilla press and the awesome blocking of the Oklahoma slam with the forearm. More on the former in a minute. Smith really held his own here, staying in it. I thought it was all a little too headlocky in the end and it certainly wasn't the bombastic affair that the last Bossman match was, but it was still good, and maybe attuned to the crowd. Back to the Press slam spot. Yes, it was a huge effort by Williams, but one thing I loved about it was how they teased it a moment before. Bossman locked in a headlock (a lot of that here) and Doc tried to lift him up and over with the belly to back but couldn't do it. It's a little thing but that tease made the press slam that immediately followed mean all the more. That's the stuff in wrestling I live for.

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New Footage Friday: RIP Masa Saito, Frank Andersson, Ron Simmons, British Bulldogs, Terry Gordy, Masa Fuchi

We decide to find a couple of Masa Saito Handhelds to focus on, along with a unique All Japan singles match.

Masa Saito/Animal Hamaguchi vs. The British Bulldogs AJPW 5/14/85

MD: I might not be the biggest Hansen fan, but that doesn't mean I'm not one at all. He's the most uncooperative guy imaginable at times, occasionally to the detriment of a match having any structure at all, but he more than makes up for it in atmosphere and visceral intensity. You get exhausted watching a Hansen match. In this setting, Dynamite has all of the drawbacks of Hansen and none of the upside. This is about ten minutes. Nine of those, including the final minute, have the Bulldogs in charge. Dynamite doesn't sell a single thing (including getting tossed off the top rope). Some of the Bulldogs' stuff is pretty cool, like the tandem set up second rope power slam and Dynamite's tombstone and the finish is fine with Saito and Hamaguchi getting fed up after a ref bump and just demolishing Davey Boy in the corner for the DQ, but the match itself is problematic at best. There's a reason why so much of the far-too-revered mid 80s WWF tag team scene doesn't hold up to scrutiny and you're looking at it in this match.

PAS: I can totally understand why Saito and Hamaguchi got fed up and shoved the ref. I would be pretty pissed if a roided out midget ate me up like that. Saito and Hamaguchi are both legit badasses, Saito beat up multiple cops, you figure they would just make Dynamite sell. I did like a bunch of the Bulldogs moves, that powerslam was great and Dynamite was really explosive, and his one bump to the floor looked great, but I was hoping for an all action match between two dynamic offensive teams and I got the Bulldogs working like the Road Warriors.

Masa Saito/Frank Andersson vs. Hiro Saito/Ron Simmons NJPW 9/23/91

PAS: Andersson is a Swedish Olympian, who had a brief WCW syndie run in the mid 90s, so we had an Olympic tag team against the odd couple of Saito and Simmons. Andersson is super green in pro-wrestling, although he had a nice run of cool suplexes at the end of the match. Still he had some of the worst dropkicks I can remember seeing, it felt like the local football coach was working in a charity Southern tag and insisted on doing a dropkick. There was a nifty bit of business when the Saitos squared offf, and Simmons hit a nice powerslam, but this was an Andersson showcase when he probably shouldn't have been showcased.

MD: Andersson is best described here as a lankier Alex Wright without the smoothness or the rhythm. The best part of the match may be that some kid seems to be ring announcing. The second best part is probably the crowd's reaction to Andersson's lame kick. That's one thing I've enjoyed with these house shows: the crowd is very willing to crack up at something they find funny, be it Enos' reaction to the countered Doomsday Device or just a strike that doesn't look good. At the same time, if someone earns applause, they get it. To be fair to Andersson, he's got occasional explosiveness and his suplexes to lead to the finish were fun. The little bit we get of Masa Saito vs Ron Simmons makes me want more. Simmons is always so good at being in the moment, expressing frustration at a two count or exuberance in breaking a hold. This needed more Masa Saito and less Andersson.

Masanobu Fuchi vs. Terry Gordy AJPW 4/2/92

MD: Now this is the stuff. Just what you'd want from these two. I just wish it went another couple of minutes. I loved the early standoffs. There's such a promise of violence to Fuchi and a promise of impact to Gordy. His one hand slams are the best. Fuchi equalizes things by targeting the knee and it's just vicious. Just like Gordy made those slams look effortless, Fuchi is able to make locking in holds (even a stump puller against a guy Gordy's side) and limb manipulation look so easy. That's true with his small packages late in the match too. He's just able to snatch up body parts out of nowhere like the most natural thing in the world. Anyway, Gordy, who had been selling huge, recovers by repeatedly tossing Fuchi out of the ring, which is a hugely believable way to transition off of selling, and finally puts him down by hitting a short clothesline (after Fuchi had ducked one or two standard ones), and locking in a Cobra. Great stuff. It would have been nice to have five more minutes of it.

PAS: Fuchi was such a huge part of what made All Japan in the early 90s so great, but we really don't have many singles matches during that run, especially against heavyweights, so it is really cool to see what he brings in that situation. Loved Gordy hurling Fuchi with those one armed bodyslams, really contemptuous, and Fuchi responding by tearing up the knee. I especially dug Fuchi catching the up kick and turning it into a stump puller, such a nifty counter. I am the worlds biggest Fujiwara fan and I love watching someone use craft and guile to overcome power. I do think the match could have used one Fuchi reversal or escape when he was trapped in the cobra clutch, the crowd seemed ready to really explode for a Fuchi comeback and the finish felt a little flat. Still this was a real treat, and I want to track down a bunch more Fuchi singles.

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New Footage Friday: Vader, Santo, Piper

My favorite thing in wrestling in 2018 is the fact that new previously unseen classic footage is being unearthed everyday. Random New Japan Handhelds, Andre matches from the 60s, old school lucha, matches we thought we would never see or classics we didn't even know existed are showing up. With the news that the WWE Network would be uploading new Hidden Gems every Thursday, we figured we would review some of the new cool shit showing up every Friday.

Greg Valentine vs. Roddy Piper NWA 7/9/83

PAS: My god what a incredible all time great brawl. Honestly the striking in this match is up there with Lawler vs. Mantel and Satanico vs. Chicana for the best stuff I have ever seen. It is a really fun dynamic with Valentine hitting harder and Piper hitting faster. There is this great moment early in the match where Valentine lands some clubbing forearms and forces Piper out of the ring, but before Valentine can get a breath Piper bounds back in and unloads with cat quick flurry that sends Valentine reeling. There is another moment where Valentine covers up against the ropes and Piper just unloads a thousand punch combination of body and headshots. I loved how dirty Piper was in this match, he would gouge at the eyes, punch the ear, karate thrust the throat, bite, he was so great at being a babyface and the most low down streetfighter ever. Piper comes in with a bad ear, and things really get vicious when Valentine starts working it over, he posts Piper right on the ear, and then grinds it against the bolt connecting the post to the ring. Then the match is Valentine mauling the ear and Piper selling vertigo and firing back. Both guys are bleeding and firing shots back and forth. Finish was just brutal, Piper snaps and grabs the barrier rope and wraps it around Valentine's throat, even working the rope back and forth to give Valentine a rope burn on his neck, he hangs him and Greg starts foaming at the mouth in a really gross way. The locker room empties to prevent a murder, and Piper is in the ring screaming at Valentine to keep fighting. What a discovery, this was an absolute classic war, with this and the Dog Collar Starrcade match, this looks like an all time legendary pairing. Must watch match, and one of the best brawls I can remember.

MD: If you watch this match and argue that Piper was the best babyface in the world in 1983, I'd have a hard time contesting that. The crowd, absolutely molten, lived and breathed with his every movement. His punch drunk selling and comebacks has always been amazing but I'm not sure I've ever seen it better than here. Valentine was just a machine as his opponent and tormentor. The contrast between Valentine's stalling on the outside and Piper's mad rush back into the ring told a story just by itself. The focus on the ear utilizing the post on the outside was brutal. It's amazing how organic all of it felt given the pace that they were going. The muscle memory involved in some of the ducks and timing on Valentine eating Piper's combos feel impossible. It's so obviously collaborative without feeling that way at all. You don't see the strings. All you can see is the hatred. If they have this, what else might they have?

El Hijo Del Santo vs. Leon Chino Tijuana 8/19/88

PAS: A previously unseen 1980s bloody El Hijo Del Santo match is pretty great treat to wake up to on a Wednesday morning. This starts out a bit awkward with Santo taking a weird off bump into the turnbuckle, and Santo beating up the ref. Business really pick ups when Santo gets posted, as he has a classic Santo bloody stain on mask which keeps growing throughout the match. Chino really gets the crowd riled up and both guys brawl into the crowd, with this HH you can only catch snatches of them through the standing crazy crowd, but you can get glimpses of Santo getting chucked into chairs or Chino getting posted. Third fall is a blood soaked classic, both guys are drenched and pounding on each other, Santo is a brilliant brawler and is a great mix of force and grace. Chino takes a couple of huge bumps (one a crazy Fuerza/Hamrick, one a beautiful Estrada bump) to set up pair of gorgeous Santo dives, including an amazing plancha which leads to Santo rolling up Chino to capture his mask. Santo is pretty much unimpeachable in mask matches, and Chino delivers a die on his sword performance while losing his mask. Crazy drama, tons of violence everything you want from this.

MD: This was a very straightforward Santo apuesta brawl. A very straightforward Santo apuesta brawl is still one of the best things possible in wrestling to be unearthed. Leon Chino was about as meat and potatoes a rudo as you could get here. He ambushed Santo before the announcements, which you rarely see, and then cut him off for a good chunk of the match, really just tossing him around and clubbering, with one dubious arm submission and lots of working the crowd. That was fine. Instead, the major blemish on this one was the ref involvement. I don't even think it was a heel ref thing so much as him wanting Santo to wrestle like a tecnico and stopping punches when he'd allow them for Leon. He still dq'd Leon in the primera for a low blow (which was necessary as Santo was finally coming back and outwrestling him). That let Leon have the advantage for most of the segunda. Outside of Invader I and maybe Kobashi, there's no one in the world who's Santo's equal in selling damage and garnering sympathy on the outside. The finish to the segunda was jarring in the best way with Leon turning the third or fourth back body drop in the match into a (totally legal) pile-driver. The tercera escalated into craziness with Santo's visceral comeback, crowd brawling and dives, both missed and hit. We don't get the actual finish, save for the pin, so the last meaningful thing we see is Santo, in the background of the shot, flying off the top rope with a plancha to the floor. It's the only aesthetically beautiful thing in the entire match and really a perfect last image. Post match there's all the populist pageantry imaginable in front of one of the best crowds you could ever want. Too much ref involvement for the cutoffs and I would have liked to see the finish.

Vader vs. Ron Simmons WCW 12/30/92

PAS: This really lived up to pre match expectations. You never really know how a previously unseen house show match is going to go, but these two went all out, the way a world title switch should be fought. Really great big guy slugfest, Vader is an all time hard hitter, and he really rocks Simmons with big clotheslines and slams. Simmons hits back just as hard, including a couple of big meaty clotheslines and a nasty flash spinebuster. He also had a great energetic beat down in the corner, where he ended up pounding Vader down with big over hand rights and then big headbutts. I really liked some of the near falls, both guys have such big moves that you buy a big powerslam might end it. The finish itself was a little odd, Vader has a cool shoulderbreaker, but it isn't one of his traditionally huge moves, and I was a little surprised that it would be the move that would win him the world title. Great performance by both guys, and I am hoping we get some more 1992 WCW house show stuff, that was one of my favorite eras in wrestling history, and I imagine there are some more great Vader matches and awesome Dangerous Alliance tags sitting on hard drives in Stamford.

MD: It struck me here just how thoroughly Simmons had grown into the role of babyface champion. We never really see him in that role again as he falls down the card so sharply and quickly in 1993. Here, though, he was hard hitting, engaged and felt the crowd, drew sympathy, and was fiery in his comebacks (especially the revenge beating in the corner) and seemingly superhuman in his strength. Vader was absolutely his equal, down to his great selling (even while on offense) and shouts of "no pain." I had some structural issues: I thought the power slam catch off the second rope should have come later in the match, maybe instead of the powerslam where Race intervenes. It's a move that should have been escalated to. While the chinlock/abdominal stretch might have been necessary for the pace they were going, a babyface hold at the part of the match that they should have been within the heat didn't work; Race shouting on the house mic was awesome, but in the moment, it made Vader feel more like a babyface. As someone whose peak WCW watching as a kid was 91-92, it was great to hear period-Tony call an unearthed main event match from that era. Really, it's a shame people didn't get to see this match at the time.

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