Found Footage Friday: LA PARKA~! PIERROTH~! DOUGIE~! LAWLER~! RUFFY~! MOTO~!

Ruffy Silverstein vs. Mr Moto (Jiu Jitsu) NWA Chicago 1950s

MD: This was a judo jacket match where it was supposed to be no strikes, no pins, submission only, and with both wrestlers wearing judo jackets. Here they called it a Jiu Jitsu match and to make things more confusing, called Moto's illegal chops that drove a lot of the narrative of the match "judo". There were a number of gi assisted takedowns and submissions that were sort of interesting, but the match was really about things boiling over again and again as Moto took liberties, Silverstein fired back, and they built towards the end, to Silverstein hitting a couple of body slams. In that regard, the gimmick was more a means to an end, an environment to create contrast for them to do some more conventional things. There were a couple of interesting moments with the gis, but nothing more interesting than Silverstein going outside of them to lock in a cross-armbreaker. In general, not enough working joints or trying to get submissions as it always came back to the cheapshots and retaliation. Finish had Silverstein get a visual pin after the slams in a match where pins don't count and then Moto locking in a quasi-gi choke as the time limit wore off. Overall unsatisfying. My favorite bit at the end was when Davis called out a fan for just reading his newspaper during the match. 

Pierroth Jr. vs. La Parka Monterrey 7/16/00

MD: Park can be hit or miss in the 2000s for me, primarily because you get so much bullshit in his indy matches. Heel ref. Interference. Hamming about. When it hits though, it really hits, and here, I think it hit because the crowd wasn't as desensitized to it as they would be years later. That was combined with what makes it work as much as it does in the first place, Park's physical charisma, and, in this case, a very easy to understand and very clear and distinct injustice that was layered on top of the usual heel ref bullshit, a matter of seconds. La Bruja was supposed to be Pierroth's second. Parka was going to have another female to counter. She didn't show. In the pre-match when Parka was screwing around with La Bruja's gear to taunt her, and Wagner, Jr. came in with a weapon to whack Parka in the back, with the claim that he was Pierroth's second second. So they went right into a very uneven beatdown, with immediate mask ripping, subsequent blood, and Pierroth winning the first fall entirely one-sided with a power bomb.

It was the perfect alchemy of unfairness, blood, attitude, selling, animosity towards Pierroth and affection towards Parka and the fans were pissed. Early into the segunda, as the beatdown continued, the bottles started to fly. They went into a comeback (which stopped the bottles) where Parka had to work against basically four people, including the ref, only to get cut off by La Bruja crotching him on the top. He'd steal the fall by turning another powerbomb attempt into a 'rana but this second beatdown would continue, though maybe with a few less things thrown in thanks to the evening out of the falls. The tercera built to a ref bump and more overt interference until Parka's second finally ran out to turn the tide. That distracted the recovered ref, however, and led to Wagner coming in to set up a big foul kick while Pierroth held Parka. You can guess what happened next, though I'm not sure I've ever seen it executed with such gusto. Parka jumped straight up to dodge the kick. Pierroth got nailed instead and an elated crowd got to see a tecnico win and a title change. It was chaotic and messy and wild in the right ways, playing on heartstrings and building to big moments. 

ER: Remember when Monterey tapes started getting more widely circulated in the early 2000s, and we all realized all these great sounding on paper matches were all taking a back seat to some referee the entire match. I've watch so many La Parka matches over the last decade that even baseline shit entertains me in a big warm way. But seeing how incredibly a year 2000 baseline Big La Parka match played in Arena Coliseo Monterey made me nostalgic for buying $5 lucha tapes at Frank's and Sons. When all the bottles and trash starts flying in during the segunda? Forget it man, nothing beats that shit. I don't care how bad the ref's timing was or that he just flat out refused to take a La Parka headscissors, or maybe how long it took to get to certain places, once garbage starts hitting a ring it crosses over into Great Pro Wrestling. I wanted more stiffness from Park's eventual comeback but this crowd and this atmosphere meant that didn't matter. La Parka hitting a tope into Dr. Wagner, his second finally coming out and punching El Bruja around, and tons of fans rushing ringside to throw more water bottles when La Parka wins is some incredibly comfortable lucha to spend time in. All I need is thrown garbage, Pierroth's 60s western villain eyes and slacks, and a quarter of La Parka's face peeking out from behind his torn mask

Jerry Lawler vs. Doug Gilbert PWE Strawberry Slam 2018

MD: As minimalist as can be. You watch this and you see the breadth of what is possible with pro wrestling, or at least one far pole of it. It's vaudeville, Abbot and Costello, a constant build to the (very literal) punchline, again and again. It shouldn't work in the confines of wrestling, because you have to suspend disbelief and everything is so thoroughly telegraphed here but it does because of the wrestlers, their emotional connection to the crowd, and the expertise of their performance. The match starts with Gilbert pressing Lawler into the corner and punching him. It happens three times, with three corners, with gaps in between to let it resonate, with three great punches. After the third, he gloats and Lawler walks up, taps his shoulder and nails him with a punch of his own. It doesn't work without those punches looking as good as they do. It doesn't work without Gilbert being such a jerk about it. It doesn't work without Lawler being so matter-of-fact in retaliating, in letting the emotion build up until he unloads. It's not about what but instead about when and how. 

Eventually, Gilbert plays hide the object, with the audience getting to interject and be part of the show by calling it out and delaying its use and delaying its use until it has a certain payoff of its own, letting him take over. Things build into a Lawler comeback, a ref bump, a chain getting tossed in, and the eventual finish, with a last second foot on the rope and a roll up out of nowhere. Other than punches and a side headlock to set up the ref bump and the schoolboy for the finish, the only other "move" in the match is Lawler slamming Gilbert's head into the turnbuckle one time as part of his comeback. But they filled sixteen minutes (and without late-era Lawler's usual house mic work) and accomplished what they set out to do.

ER: When you see a modern 70 year old Jerry Lawler match with a near 20 minute YouTube file, you assume it's 10 minutes of Lawler on the mic and not a file full of punching and wandering. Matt called it vaudeville and it's exactly what it is. It's notable for being evidence of Dougie passing Lawler as a worker. It took several decades, but 50 year old Doug Gilbert is now a better worker than a 70 year old Lawler. Lawler is a fun old man with a huge belly who works like Mama Harper in that episode of Mama's Family where Mama has to wrestle Mt. Fuji and Matilda the Hun. Doug Gilbert now might have the best worked punch in pro wrestling. Lawler was throwing Looney Tunes punches while little kids jumped up and down with each one, Doug was throwing one off bombshells in every corner, and there's a woman sitting in the bleachers opposite hard cam who you think has to just be wearing short shorts with a camisole top but the full length of the video reveals that it's just a very short dress and we wonder if the man/tripod operating the hard cam was building this story reveal into out main story. I didn't know there was a Portland, TN. It's basically Kentucky, but 45 minutes north of Nashville. I grew up in a town with a population under 10,000, which is around 11,000 now. I attended the one wrestling show that ever happened there (in 2000) and saw Mike Modest, Christopher Daniels, Bison Smith, Moondog Moretti, and others with my dad and friends. It was the day after I turned 19. Portland, TN is about the same size as the town I grew up in and where my parents still live, and I obviously would have gone to this show had I lived there, and I would have loved to watch two old men do nothing but throw fake punches at each other's face and bodies.  

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New Footage Friday: PATTERSON! CHOSHU! THESZ! SILVERSTEIN!! CYCLONE!!

Lou Thesz vs. Cyclone Anaya Chicago 3/31/50

MD: I thought this was excellent. It may not have the same overt character as the Silverstein match because Thesz wrestled clean but they really went at it. A lot of it was just headlocks, but they worked and worked and worked them. Breaks were clean, but they were never easy, never given. When they worked out of the holds, the entire point was to work into the next one. That was the escalation as opposed to spots. Thesz was explosive, able to grab a double leg of nowhere, able to catch his opponent with a toehold take down off the ropes (and then to twist him into a cool figure four toehold that we never see now), and of course able to fly up with the Thesz Press which is as good a finish and probably did as much for him (especially in an environment where every match needed three finishes instead of one) as a Diamond Cutter did for Page. Anaya held his own here. I loved the end of the second fall where he goaded Thesz into back and forth mares in order to open him up for his deep cobra twist. The finish of the last fall was perfect, with Anaya going for the twist again and then hurting his leg as they both went over the top. The way Thesz targeted the leg again and again only to set him up for a dropkick was, like the end of the second fall, game of human chess stuff. Great showing all around.

PAS: This was really great, Anaya isn't a guy I had heard of before, but he made me a fan. Matt mentioned Thesz's explosiveness, which isn't something I really think of him for, but he felt like a Steiner Brother during parts of this match. He really tore into takedowns, and got huge ups on his Thesz press. I loved the psychology of the match with Anaya being outgunned by a master, but having the Cyclone twist as a killshot. He finishes the second fall with it and goes for it again right at the beginning of the third fall. It eventually backfires on him as he tries it too close to the ropes and gets bieled to the floor, with both guys taking a big bump and Anaya dinging up his leg. Thesz wasn't really working heel here, but he had a nasty streak to him, including absolutely obliterating Anaya with an upkick. I also thought there was a real fuck you aspect to the final single crab, like he was tired of this kid and was going to stretch him out and end it.


Lou Thesz vs. Ruffy Silverstein Chicago 3/17/50

MD: This had been up for a while when they did the big release back in 2014 but it was down until some copyright issues were cleared up. It's great to have it back. This is a really good look at Thesz as a travelling heel champion. It's not really how I picture him in my head. What's really interesting here is how the announcer doesn't really decry Thesz' tactics but instead insists that this is him taking Silverstein seriously. When the Chicago Film Archives dropped so many matches, it was hard to really organize and categorize them. That's, in part, why we're focused on chronologically going through the French footage two-three a week nice and steady. That, then, more than Chicago, is our point of comparison. I think this was just as competitive as a lot of the 50s French footage we've seen recently, though maybe not quite as complex or advanced. You had the sense that Thesz was making Silverstein work for every hold or advantage, through his positoning and how quick he was to grab on, let alone the cheapshots and the use of the ropes. I really, really love Thesz' elbow shot that he'd do in the midst of a break. The end of the first fall, that escalation into rope running and a dropkick out of nowhere, was right out of Jacky Corn's playbook (or possibly vice versa). When Silverstein had a moment, he used it well, with good looking shots and some quick moves into holds (like how he took advantage of an ugly missed dropkick to get a quick roll over to end the second fall), but he didn't have too many of those moments. Again, big credit to the announcer for making him seem all the stronger for the fact that Thesz had to cheat against him in the first place though. Silverstein did put on more pressure in the final fall but you never really got the sense Thesz was in trouble. While still very good, I think this might have been better if Silverstein took a bit more earlier and really made Thesz need to resort to those tactics. As it was, it was a situation where we were told instead of shown.

ER: Big fan of this nice long look at Thesz, and the way he can work as default heel against a respected local guy, showing dominance early without being blatantly cocky, and then revealing he still had a couple gears to shift into when he got frustrated. The announcer was smart about pointing out Thesz' less than sportsmanlike strikes, by acknowledging without hand wringing that there was nothing actually wrong with them, it's just not the type of thing that every one does. Thesz has this little back elbow he utilizes on a break that really feels like something that gets pulled in the NBA, bracing the back of his left elbow and weight against Silverstein and upon breaking, shoving his left palm with his right fist. So he's not hitting a sharp back elbow to the temple or anything, but it's more of an emphatic heavy shoulder shrug directly into the neck and jaw. They work a couple of exclamatory headscissors sequences and the best part was that Silverstein looked like a guy who wasn't quite sure how to get out of a Thesz headscissors. He tried to bridge out of the first one and I swear I thought he was going to get snapped in half; later when he tries to escape from another headscissors, Thesz basically twists his knees and sends Silverstein face first into the mat. Silverstein was competitive without ever fully seeming into it, but I liked how he won the 2nd fall by ducking under a Thesz dropkick, with Thesz sliding over Silverstein's back like Bo Duke sliding over the General Lee. Thesz is clearly not happy with dropping a fall, and after a minute or so into the 3rd fall he decides to put this thing to bed and just starts wrecking Ruffy with shots. I love Thesz's short glancing right elbows, and he just leans full weight into Ruffy from go and even the announcer throws up his hands with a "dumb voice" as if he's sick of sticking up for the technical legality of Thesz and his strikes. "Oh Thesz will break alright, he'll break your lower mandible." Thesz treated this 3rd fall like a big brother who was letting his little brother be competitive, but then the little bro accidentally busted big bro's lip, and you just can't do that.

PAS: I loved how this escalated, obviously Thesz was the bigger, badder star, but I thought Silverstein really had his moments. I loved how he rocked Thesz with big football tackles and cracked him with a forearm so hard Thesz had to take a standing 8. Thesz does this really cool selling where he almost takes a timeout, he can't stand, or has to lean into the ropes. He really feels rocked, like he might have gotten his bell rung legit. After Silverstein putting him on queer street a couple of times, I got why he got nasty in the third fall, and that third fall was a grimy little fist fight from both guys. Thesz has this technician reputation, but he could go gutter with the best of them. The legend was that there was some bad feelings between the two, and that is why this felt out of hand. It looked like hard hitting wrestling to me, but it could have easily been a quasi-shoot too.

Riki Choshu vs. Pat Patterson NJPW 10/26/79

ER: This was a match-up I'd never thought too much about, and yet now seeing it in front of me it suddenly seems really obvious just how similar these two are. Outside of their nationalities their looks and styles feel like mirror images: same build, same movement, same headlocks, same exact movement on kneedrops. Patterson takes a lot of this match, and I like the way he holds Choshu down. He really leans his weight over Choshu's body on a cool smothering chinlock, not resting but clearly weighing Choshu down. He kept beating Choshu to different attacks, cutting him off abruptly and not allowing him any space. I loved the different ways Patterson used knee strikes, with a nasty quick knee to the gut and a later short knee right between the eyes when Choshu was trying to get to his feet. I laughed at Patterson rolling to the floor for a breather the second Choshu was actually able to make space, a guy who needed to regroup the second things shifted the other way. Choshu landed super heavy on a big dropkick, and really looked like he deadlifted Patterson up for a great certical suplex. I loved how late Patterson moved on Choshu's kneedrop, really suckering him in before scooting a shoulder out of the way and then immediately going back to work. Choshu really brought a ton to the finish, some of the best "occupying time" work I've seen. Patterson goes up top and drops off with a knee, then immediately goes back up for another one. The second Patterson went up for another Choshu started struggling to get up, grabbing for the ropes to try and lift himself up, so that when Patterson nailed him with the second and final knee it met Choshu's chest a few feet off the ground. So many other wrestlers would have just stayed on the mat, waiting to take that second knee, but Choshu added a whole different layer to what they were doing, looking not just like a guy who was going to fight until he could no longer move, but using his time to sell struggle in a way that made the finishing knee mean more and look more devastating. If I was unfamiliar with Choshu and that was the lone thing he brought to the match (it wasn't), I would already want to see a ton more of him, because it's those kind of touches that show how deeply someone understands big match atmosphere and presentation.

MD: Pretty certain this one's never been in circulation in our usual circles (or if it has been, it's very rare). Ultimately, this is to set up a bigger match with Sakaguchi which has been out there. I'm not sure I've ever seen it though and I ought to because this sets it up really well. They really go at it here, with Patterson inclined to take every advantage imaginable. It almost feels like a schoolyard fight, but with Patterson channeling the rep Blassie used to have, just goozling and launching inside shots and lightning quick to grab the hair whenever Choshu gets even a hint of an advantage. And when Choshu really does? Well, that's when he hits the floor and stalls. He's just a great presence here, mean and nasty, while making it absolutely clear that he needs to cheat to get out of everything while Choshu manages to escape very similar moves with strength and skill and courage. For example, he'll reach around with a hair pull to escape a Scorpion Deathlock only to immediately put on a crab and have Choshu power out. That sort of thing. That means something and that matters. The big stuff in the match was really big too, with Choshu powering Patterson into a huge, offset airplane spin into a proto-AA, and Patterson hitting a brutal bombs away as Choshu was getting up after dropping him face first onto the exposed turnbuckle. Every new Patterson performance feels like buried treasure and this is no exception.

PAS: I had always though of Patterson as more of prototype big bumping heel, but he was a nasty fucker here, more Johnny Valentine then Dolph Ziggler. He really ground away at Choshu and when Choshu fired back it really meant something. Loved the finish (no surprise there with Patterson being a legendary finish guy) with Choshu trying for a sneak top rope kneedrop, only to miss and weaken a wheel for Patterson to work over, before hitting the two bombs away. Eric mentioned how great Choshu trying to get up after the first one, only to be driven into the mat with the second was, and man was it great. Made the whole finish look super violent and brutal, and made Choshu look like a tough motherfucker in the loss.

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