Found Footage Friday: PANAMA~! SANDOKAN~! KATO KUNG LEE~! OLIMPICO~! GIGANTE TATAKI~! DYNAMITE~! CANEK~! KIMURA~! TAKANO~!

Sandokan/Kato Kung Lee vs. Gigante Tataki Panama 

MD: Tataki was Walter Quisbert Limachi, a 7'5" Bolivian giant who had been a boxer before getting into wrestling. They get around twenty minutes out of this before it breaks down completely. Tataki was fairly agile for his size, with a ton of presence. At one point, he gets Sandokan down and just bounds up to the second rope to miss a stomp. When he took and when he gave was a little suspect and he sure liked to bump out of the ring whether it was warranted or not. In general though, this all worked pretty well. Early on Sandokan and Kato Kung Lee used a lot of kicks to the legs and tried to play cat and mouse with the giant. If he got his hands on either of them, he could chuck them across the ring without any issue. The first time he stepped through the ropes to give chase, you could hear all of the kids screaming in horror. When they were double teaming him they were able to bound over him to hit sunset flips and what not. Unfortunately for the heroes, around halfway through the match, he got them both outside and smashed Kato Kung Lee with a chair. That was it for him and he got taken to the back. After that, Sandokan put up a valiant attempt, staggering Tataki with ten punches for every one that Tataki could throw, but after getting knocked to the floor, he recovered and started tossing Sandokan around again, including hitting a kneeling pile driver and this great toss where he grabbed Sandokan's singlet and rolled backwards. Both Sandokan and Kato Kung Lee were more than happy to fly around for him. Eventually, Olimpico (I think) came out to even the odds allow Sandokan to recover. Even then, they could barely hold the giant at bay, but after getting posted, he eventually got angry and went to the back, only to come back to sign a contract for the apuestas match we have upcoming. This wasn't Der Henker vs LeDuc/Corn or anything, but it was a pretty solid way to fill almost half an hour as a total package. All we have is the footage to go off of but Sandokan continues to look impressive as a local Carlos Colon type ace. Tataki may have given a little erratically, but for a guy his size he had a lot of presence and surprising athleticism. 

Sandokan/Olimpico vs. Gigante Tataki (Hair Match) Panama

MD: This falls on the spectacle side of apuestas matches as opposed to the bloody sort, but it was a hell of a spectacle. Sandokan and Olimpico started like the tecnicos did in the last match, throwing kicks in and darting around so Tataki couldn't get them. He sold the leg kicks as if he was taking bullets, but he'd also bound to the second rope threateningly. It didn't take him long to separate his opponents, given that he was able to toss them around so easily. Things opened up once he hit his kneeling piledriver to Sandoken on the floor. Once they could no longer double team him, he'd pummel one and then the next. The comeback was big, but it could have been bigger as he just missed a big splash in the middle of the ring. It was fun though, with Sandokan running up to sit upon Olimpico's shoulders so he could smash Tataki on the head, right until he'd get rolled forward, forced to victory roll his own partner. They kept bounding up and doing it again though. I was picturing Carlos Colon and Invader 1 doing it to Andre, and it was all pretty wonderful stuff. Tataki wasn't exactly subtle in his shift from taking to selling, but he sold enthusiastically when it was time. Even then, he was able to separate his opponents and was taking back over again with huge hanging tree slams onto Sandokan, until the ref ended up distracted by Olimpico and Tataki ate a mule kick to the groin. He sold this bigger than anyone has ever sold anything, basically, falling out of the ring and spasming across the basketball court towards the crowd. That set up the absolutely iconic finish with Sandokan and Olimpico throwing chairs at Tataki one after the other, burying him so he couldn't answer the count.

Dynamite Kid/Canek vs. Kengo Kimura/George Takano NJPW 4/3/81

MD: Chippy stuff actually. Early, early 80s mean jerk Dynamite is the best Dynamite and here he had a couple of kids to beat all over the ring. Canek tried to keep up, which was welcome, but he wasn't nearly as mean. Kimura and Takano had something to prove so it ended up being a little less cooperative than you'd think. Less artful exchanges. Kimura was especially good at hoping into the ring to assert himself and break things up and just swipe from the outside in general; good fire overall. When they could work together, they had a chance and Dynamite wasn't afraid to bump for them when warranted, even if he was less eager to sell. In return, they went up for all of Kid and Canek's stuff (butterfly suplex, delayed vertical, gutwrench suplex, clothesline onto the top rope, Canek's plancha, the press slam into a backbreaker that ended it). Like I said, Canek was fine but whenever he was in there, you wanted him to tag out just because you knew Dynamite was going to throw a nasty European uppercut or drop a headbutt.

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Found Footage Friday: PANAMA~! KING MIKE RAPADA~! SANDOKEN~! EL SATANICO DE PANAMA~! GEMELOS INFERNALES~! EL BARON~! CHRISTOPHER~!

El Barón y Jaguar Kuna vs. Satánico y Gemelo Infernal 3 Panama 1985

MD: I wouldn't say this held up quite as well as the matches we've seen so far out of Panama. These guys were lithe, wiry, and they had some tricked out armdrags as you'd expect but other exchanges felt downright clunky. Satanico is a pale reflection of the one we know and love, just some guy in a mask. I haven't talked up the Gemelo Infernales' maskes, which are these cool goblin type deals in black and white. #3 here used his knee fairly well. Baron here had a skull match which was pretty solid too, even if he was a scrawny tecnico. His best stuff were the flying driving headbutts. Jaguar had a neat front flip he did for absolutely no reason, one great dropkick and a dive that has to be seen to be believed to end the third fall. Overall, these guys were game and occasionally things got wacky in a good way (like when Gemelo Infernal 3 kept hitting spinning tombstones on everyone which led to some uninspired head-selling by Jaguar), but didn't come together like some of the other Panamanian footage.

Sandokan/Ricardo Díaz/Antorcha 1 vs. Kronos 2/Gemelo Infernal 1/Gemelo Infernal 2 Panama 1989

MD: Back when we were all doing the AWA 80s set over ten years ago, I had the distinct feeling that Verne was terrified at the idea of overheating the crowd. Heels rarely won and they even more rarely got their heat back after the match. After seeing a decent amount of this Panamanian lucha, you really, really get the sense that they wanted to cause a riot each and every time out. Sometimes, they even manage it. Here they didn't but it was sure a surprise to me.

The first two falls were pretty much as you'd expect. The exchanges are a bit more flowing, with a lot of tosses out of a head and shoulder sort of grab. Sandoken has the most tricked out, even if not particular swift, variations. I really liked when he continued the motion through on one of these to get to his feet. Everything was smooth and kept moving, with the tecnicos winning the fall with these fun assisted victory rolls into sunset flips. They're kind of hard to explain but it was all pretty neat and you could imagine some more athletic 2022 guys stealing it successfully. The second fall was more of a beatdown with the rudos winning with submissions.

Then things really opened up. First there was a great comeback with Sandoken coming back with headbutts on everyone, Diaz with fun sweeping punches, and Antorcha with shoulder throws/back body drops, a whole bunch of the. The rudos took back over though, all leading to the Gemelos bloodying up Sandokan and Diaz on the inside and Kronos absolutely crushing Antorcha with a chairshot on the floor. We're talking an all time chairshot here.He got carried away by some of his buddies leaving things with a 3 on 2 numbers game for the rest of the match. There were a couple of comebacks, including a sort of unbelievable 3 on 1 Sandoken comeback towards the end with Sandoken kicking out of a bunch of stuff, but the numbers won out and, like I said, somehow there wasn't a riot. Just another really complete look at this regional subgenre. It remains well worth diving into.  

Brian Christopher vs. King Mike Rapada USA Championship Wrestling 6/9/01

MD: This was a TV match to heat up a feud for the No DQ match live that night. It was Brian Christopher going in to Nashville to try to take the crowd back from (now heel) Rapada and defend his dad's honor. I'm not exactly rushing to watch Rapada matches or anything, but the idea of Christopher defending Lawler and being a stand-in babyface is kind of interesting. Of course he does it in the way that Jerry would love most, blatant homophobia on the mic to start. Rapada's heel act isn't bad, as he has Honest Ernest playing a trumpet on the way down, and he keeps control during the match using the usual chicanery. Here, I think he used the "hidden object" too sparingly, just really once or twice to cut Christopher off instead of really leaning into it. Christopher had a lot of fire to start, beating Rapada around the ringside area including a bulldog on the floor. This was to set up the later match so it ended in a ref bump and trumpet shots (see, it was a good part of the act), but it was a nice look at Big Star Christopher coming home right after his WWF run ended defending the honor of the Lawler name.

Jerry Lawler vs. King Mike Rapada USA Championship Wrestling 7/28/01 

ER: This was maybe 5 minutes long including the post-match, and it wasn't very good, and also it was very good. Mike Rapada is the ultimate example of a guy who did the absolute least with the most, the Renegade von Erich, a man who never got good at wrestling despite constantly working with some of the smartest workers in wrestling history. But I actually like him in his King Mike persona, playing the aloof dumb heel with a stolen crown. He's the best dressed in the ring, but that's also because Lawler is wearing this sunny side up gear that I've never seen him wear, with white tights and yellow singlet. Jackie Fargo is wearing one of those confusing shirts that some 70 year old white men have, the kind that don't fit their personality or body. It's pointless to ask these men about these shirts (or their car dealership hats) because they won't have much of an answer about a) where they got the shirt, or b) why they ever thought it looked like a normal shirt that you would wear in front of people. 

Fargo's shirt is a hideous NBC Sports shirt-jersey, with NBC SPORTS as the name across the shoulders, a big N as the jersey number, and a big Peacock logo on the front. It doesn't resemble anything at all related to sports, and looks much closer spiritually to a toddler's onesie with a baseball playing elephant and the words Lil Slugger across the shoulders. While wearing this shirt, he calls King Mike a "little asshole" for turning on these fine people. Fargo is 70 here, so when he gets down to count a 2 count he needs to pull himself up by the ropes to stand back up, and there is zero chance he's getting back down to count another 2 for King Mike. Jackie literally just stands next to the pin with his hands on his knees waiting for them to take the hint that no count is coming. Lawler picks up on it and rakes Rapada's eyes just to move things along.  Lawler takes the strap down maybe three minutes in and throws four great right hands, also takes a big back bump on a double shoulderblock collision. Billy Joe Travis comes out and gets into the ring only to get punched by Fargo (great punch too) and in the chaos Rapada hits Lawler with a chain, Fargo gets the chain, Travis threatens Fargo, and King Mike kicks the ring announcer. Some hot matches happening an hour east at the Lebanon Airport Armory later tonight, be sure to check em out. 

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Found Footage Friday: ARQUEROS DEL ESPACIO~! LOS TEMERARIOS~! TENRYU~! HANSEN~! FOOTLOOSE~! PANAMANIAN LUCHA RIOTS~!

Los Temerarios (Black Terry/Jose Luis Feliciano/Shu el Guerrero) vs. Arqueros del Espacio (Lasser/Danny Boy/El Arquero) UWA 1989 - GREAT

MD: Half an hour of pure action and motion here. Just one killer exchange after the next building to a tercera of multi-man spots and dives before honing in on an exciting finish. El Arquero is Robin Hood, generally considered to be a B-Team Alvarado, but this match is a great example how that has nothing to do with him and everything to do with how great his brothers are. He was spectacular here, including a step up moonsault press and an amazing contribution to the dive train. The VQ was a little rough, with a blue tint, so it was hard at times to tell Danny Boy and Lasser apart but they both more then held up their own so it hardly mattered. You could tell Feliciano and Terry apart on the rudo side but they based and kept up on all the exchanges equally well, each outdoing the last with every opportunity. The match started with a very good mat based Shu/Arquero exchange and basically didn't let up for twenty minutes and two caidas until things ultimately escalated even further. There wasn't really a beatdown or a comeback so the momentum shifts were slight and the finishes somewhat sudden but you definitely couldn't fault the action here.

PAS: Outside of a bit of a wonky finish, this is at the level of any classic trios we have on tape. Loved to get a chance to really see Shu El Guerrero do his thing. What a slick mat wrestler, he is so good at using Amateur style takedowns and level shifts. Robin Hood feels like a guy who if we had more footage of would have the rep of the rest of his family. He's so fast, so elegant in his movements, just a treasure of a wrestler to watch. Our boy Terry isn't a focus of this match, but looks like a great business like rudo in his ability to stooge, bump and base. I wish things didn't fall apart at the end, because before that this looked like an all time classic, and while I love unearthing cool oddities, finding an all-timer is really special.

ER: I'm a few days late to the party but was excited to check this one out. It delivered. It's 1989, but between the ref's untucked shirt and the video angle, it feels like a weird modern indy lucha. The main giveaway that it's 1989 is that no wrestler would be caught dead shirt-cocking it the way the Space Archers do. The matwork is modern as hell and showed hardly any light. When you're talking the Carlton Celebrity Room, the quality of your night depends on the luchador. You know, Jose Luis Feliciano, ya got no complaints. Feliciano was so quick, with Terry not too far behind him, both basing impressively for Danny Boy/Lasser. I'm not sure which one of them it was (if you're wondering, Shu has the mask with the white plume, Arquero is Robin Hood and has the bandit mask, Terry is the shortest Temerario), but let's say Lasser had two of the slickest armdrags I've seen, Robin Hood hits one of the sweetest moonsault presses (making contact while perfectly vertical and them landing on his feet like Kerri Strug) and a dive that was just as nice. If you're looking for the Terry highlights, my favorite bit with him was at the very beginning of the tercera. It's not the Black Terry you're used to seeing brawl through gravel, but it's great classic luchador Terry, a treat seeing him work airtight fast exchanges. 

Stan Hansen/Genichiro Tenryu vs. Toshiaki Kawada/Samson Fuyuki AJPW 7/16/89

MD: Just to put this into context, it's just five days after Hansen and Tenryu win the tag titles, on a Brody memorial show. In 89, we see Tenryu against both Fuyuki and Kawada in singles matches, but this tag is new to us. A person might expect all of them to go easy on one another since they were stablemates in Revolution, but that person simply wouldn't know the first thing about Genichiro Tenryu. This was a war, with Hansen and Tenryu working to teach Footloose a lesson and Kawada and Fuyuki fighting to prove a point, sure, but also for their very lives. They did best when they were able to work as a unit, and they shined most individually when Tenryu pushed them to far and they furiously fired back, Kawada with kicks and Fuyuki by punching Tenryu repeatedly in the face. More often than not though, they ended up on the ground having the meanest boots from Hansen and Tenryu crashing into their back or ribs. 

Hansen created emotional opportunity better than any wrestler ever and an Irish whip reversal never looked as real as when Fuyuki managed to reverse Hansen and throw his entire body into him with a back elbow so he could make a tag. Likewise, Kawada hit a front missile dropkick, which rarely looks great because it always just pushes his opponent into his own corner, into Tenryu who leaned into it and not away from it. All four of these guys leaned into everything, except for that tragic moment after Footloose had gotten Hansen on the ropes through staying on him two-on-one where Kawada went for a dive and crashed and burned as Hansen moved. There was a lot of that here, with Footloose knowing they had to take higher risks to stay in it and Hansen or Tenryu simply being able to move, including the finish where Tenryu got a clever cradle out of nowhere after a dodge. It was a clever finish but maybe a slightly anti-climactic one after the violence that preceded it.

ER: I really loved what Matt said about this match, and I love AJPW matches that have all of these little story elements going on that you can really get into, all of these little hierarchy moments where you know when Kawada or Fuyuki are really punching above their weight and the crowd is half getting excited to see how they might test Hansen/Tenryu, and half getting excited to see how Hansen and Tenryu are going to punish their insolence. But I also love AJPW matches like this where you can pay no kind of attention to the stories or relationships and just sit back at 1 AM on a Friday night and have a ball watching all these guys beat the hell out of each other. I love how hard Footloose came out of the gates, fearlessly going for the kill on Tenryu knowing that the punishment will be threefold. I couldn't believe how hard Kawada was throwing lariats in this match, what a murderer. When you are in a match with Stan Hansen and you are the one throwing lariats that make me flinch away from the screen, you are a murderer. I love how Footloose really felt like they were throwing the kitchen sink at the champs, how a lot of their strikes were thrown at odd angles and not just "proper kick exchange" form. It felt like Footloose were just wildly throwing all of their limbs at the larger champs and praying something would land significantly enough for them to capitalize. 

When Hansen tagged in and started going after Fuyuki's arm and shoulder (just to be a dickhead), it's so perfect that Footloose pay all of that back when Hansen misses a charge shoulder first into the corner. Hansen's lariat never even comes into play, but Footloose were so good at capitalizing and changing gears that it was easy to see them somehow getting an upset. The whole thing is wall to wall nasty kicks to the back, Kawada's wild missed running plancha, Hansen's great bump where he builds up a head of steam and crashes headlong between the ropes to the floor, and Footloose throwing their bodies as hard as possible at the champs. I thought the finish really worked, as not only did Tenryu's inside cradle look impossibly snug with no way of escaping, but I loved the visual of Tenryu having to "resort" to just using weight and leverage to win the match. Tenryu was getting beat worse than he expected, and instead of staying in and fighting fire with fire, he saw a quick way out and took advantage of it. I don't know if the finish would have worked as well in other Tenryu/Hansen title defenses, but I thought it worked perfectly here as the champs won but showed how vulnerable they might actually be, a vulnerability that was non-existent 20 minutes earlier. 

Sandoken vs. Rocky Star Panama 1980s

MD: More Panamanian lucha. The primera didn't waste any time. After a bit of jockeying for position, Rocky Star hit three dropkicks, moved Sandoken right into a butterfly suplex flawlessly and then press slamed him and locked in a bow and arrow for the win. The segunda was even more abrupt. Rocky Star pushed the advantage with some shoulder tackles, but ran right into a fairly nasty submission all within a minute. So in that regard, this felt almost like modern CMLL. They had a long tercera and they did a lot. Rocky Star just had a lot of stuff in general. Neckbreakers, goardbusters, drop down No Future style kicks. Sandoken's comeback was big but could have been even bigger, and led to the dives. I loved the finish. Rocky Star made a grab between the legs with the ref trying to talk to Sandoken. In doing so, he made it so Sandoken's leg fouled the ref. That gave him an opening for a foul of his own and the win. The fans, as you can imagine, were not pleased and the last five minutes of this clip are people walking around with chairs over their head threateningly. At first I gave it the benefit of the doubt as there was a lot of potential energy but very little kinetic energy and figured that maybe they were just packing the place up for the night, but nope, it all turned south by the end and became a well-deserved riot scene. 

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