New Footage Friday: You Can Never Break the Chain

Franz Van Buyten vs. Johnny South Hamburg 9/22/91

PAS: South is gritty looking guy, sort of a less skilled Terry Rudge. These Van Buyten Piratekamf matches definitely have a formula, Van Buyten takes a big beating at the beginning, does a couple of big leverage spots to keep his opponent from climbing the poll, and then has a fiery comeback. The South beatdown here was on the more brutal side then normal, with Van Buyten getting some nasty looking cuts and abrasions on his nose, and Van Buyten's comebacks are always great. I enjoy good formula wrestling, although I am interested to see if any of these new matches deviate at all.

SR:Well, it‘s 1991. Van Buyten was 4 years away from retirement, and Johnny South, while having a reputation for being a really good worker on British TV in the 80s, was slowly morphing into a Road Warrior clone as European wrestling was dying. Piratenkampf magic was at play here, though. It‘s weird how chain matches that start with something that resembles chain-assisted shootstyle before devolving into a series of drawn out nearfalls over tugging on the chain can work so well, but here we are. The grappling feels really intense with neither guy being willing to give an inch as that might mean he‘d have to spend a few minutes in a painful chain-assisted facelock. South was feeling it here, working a bit like a quasi-Finlay working over Franzs body parts with chain assisted moves and giving him a beating. Franz is of course someone who will sell really well for a guy working like Johnny South here. One thing I am fascinated by is that even after watching Franz in a few chain matches, is that he always does something to mix it up. You watch him and start to notice his spots that he has, and then he will catch you off guard by doing something different. It‘s the mark of a great formula worker that his signature match doesn‘t get old. This was pretty lean at about 20 minutes and since it ended with an interference spot before Franz challenges a young PCO in his Zubaz pants to another Piratenkampf. Weird to have a grudge match set up another grudge match but I‘m not complaining and this was an unexpected nice late career moment for Johnny South.

MD: Super minimalist affair. South spent the first half really leaning on Van Buyten, using the chain to enhance his rudimentary holds and strikes onto a limb. He'd wrap the chain around an arm or leg and just hammer or knee the chain. Van Buyten would have little comebacks whenever he could create distance but he couldn't follow up as South would just goozle him again. He was credible and imposing but not exactly dynamic. He could pretty much get away with just dropping knees on a bleeding Van Buyten. With these matches, a wrestler can get the crowd manipulation equivalent of a hope spot by pulling someone off the pole but that it doesn't mean you can follow up, so it's a nice little narrative tool. As the match went on, Van Buyten's hope spots added in more offense until he finally fully came back with chain assisted punches and was able to go for the pole. It wasn't the most triumphant Van Buyten comeback I've ever seen but the gradual nature of it made it all a bit more nuanced than usual. The back third of the match was all about Van Buyten fighting for victory on the top rope, hanging on to the pole, and it was full of compelling visuals and the crowd being really into it, with a great final flourish that the camera only half caught, but all felt a bit one-sided and maybe even unearned relative to how the first half of the match went.


Franz Van Buyten vs. Wild Carl Wallace Hamburg 9/29/91

SR: Carl Wallace, a young PCO, was another Canadian worker staying in Europe to learn the business. I‘ve seen him have some fun interactions on the (otherwise pretty awful) New Catch show that aired on Eurosport, but I had no idea he stayed in Hamburg let alone that he fought Franz in a Piratenkampf. This had an unusual amount of the face being in control in the opening, I assume to kill time as Wallace wasn‘t super versed in what to do with this gimmick. We do get Franz twisting up Wallaces leg a bit and putting on a chain assisted Fuchi leg stretch. It‘s weird that a chain match opening with grappling and holds works well, but it makes sense when you think about it. Getting your leg worked over sucks, getting your leg worked over with a chain seems downright torturous. PCO quickly finds his groove though as he steps the rope onto Van Buytens throat and then continues to work over him with chain punches while his partner Crawford was outside yelling at Van Buyten in French and cheering PCO on to tug harder when it came to grabbing the flag. Van Buyten looked convincingly beaten to a pulp after eating some elbows and leg drops from PCO before starting his trademark great comeback. Once again there was a nifty spot that involved someone getting launched off the top rope that got a big pop, and because PCO was young and eager he took a big flip bump for his troubles. The ending was more extended than the South match with van Buyten smashing Wallace in the face repeatedly with forearms before PCO misstimes a bodyslam and lands on his own head which feels like the most shocking finish any of these Piratenkampfs had so far. I have no idea how a ca. 1991 PCO would fare in a regular match this long, but in with this stipulation and Van Buyten as the opponent there are no limits.

PAS: You can definitely tell that PCO is greener then goose shit in this match, but the Piratekamf formula can integrate that pretty seamlessly. You don't need to be super experienced to wrap a chain around someones mouth, and that is always going to look awesome. PCO is of course one of the great physical freaks in wrestling and he demonstrates that by hitting a huge flip bump off the top rope, and taking an Oro bump on a bodyslam. Some of his punches and elbows could have used work, but we had the great Van Buyten comeback and some really cool fights over the flag.

MD: This one, just a week later from the last, was a lot more dynamic and a lot more complete. It had an early period where Van Buyten was clearly in control, utilizing holds enhanced by the chain but with a tangible sense of struggle. WCW (PCO in his early-mid 20s) took over with a hairpull and a lot of chain-assisted punches and choking. Very credible if very simple offense. He already had a great physical presence in tossing his body into blows. Van Buyten excels at creating a triumphant moment of comeback, and later in the match, he absolutely created one here by running across the ring and diving away while WCW was going for the flag, causing WCW to take a physics-defying flip bump off the top. From there it was a back and forth slugfest, with Van Buyten selling the weight of the match, especially when going for the flag, before spiking WCW on his head to allow for the finish. While WCW brought a lot of physical tools and enthusiasm to the table, you do get the sense that Van Buyten could do this match with just about anyone in the world.


Shank vs. Terry Knight NWA Wildside 10/21/00

MD: It's a little bit tricky going from Germany to this, if only because the Piratekampf rules of using the pole are just better than the four corner touching. The weirdest moment in this was when Knight did the same sort of leap away from the corner as Van Buyten did in the PCO match, but instead of it being a huge moment, it was just a momentary cut-off on a babyface and Shank was right back in it a moment later. The transition to the outside where Knight pulled him out was utilized better, but again, it didn't stick. I generally liked Knight here. I thought he did some interesting things with the chain, like wrapping it around his own knee, even if maybe he wrestled this a little too evenly. It was very back and forth, which it really didn't have to be given the arrest finish (which is one of those things they used repeatedly, I think, and probably sounded like a good idea on paper, but...). Specific moments were okay here, but nothing stuck. Whereas with the Van Buyten matches, everything sticks.

ER: This starts with a custom Shank sonnet written on a half roll of toilet paper all about how he was going to have Terry Knight's ass, how he bought him for two cigarettes and a roach clip, and we are immediately reminded of Shank: Babyface. The match itself has moments, but overall doesn't really work. It's too long, and the tapping turnbuckles kind of structure doesn't work with a babyface like Shank. The best parts of this are both guys punching with their fists wrapped in chain (Shank has those kind of mostly good punches that you know means the other guy is paying the price the better they look), and Knight even wraps his knee in chain for a kneelift! I also love Shank matches where he gets in over his head on offense, tries things he probably shouldn't be trying, like a wild guillotine legdrop. But Shank is a wildcard and shouldn't be put in matches with silly rules, so the visual of Shank trying to smack turnbuckles in succession makes him look silly. And even sillier, they had Knight carry him around the ring while hitting buckles and had Shank hit them after, and the visual of another man just carrying Shank around like a baby is a position they never should have put him in. Shank can't be just carried by some oversized Mitch Ryder! The arrest finish was a fun idea on paper, and I think would have worked great if Shank had just completely massacred Knight, really needed to look like he was murdering him with that chain. Instead the worked a completely competitive match with Knight being just as dominant as Shank, so most of this sadly didn't work for me.

PAS: I am the high voter on this match. Shank is one of my favorite characters in wrestling ever. A giant muscled up tatted guy who worked a babyface prison rapist gimmick. The poem written on a roll of toilet paper where he lovingly describes sodomizing Knight is a true moment in time. He isn't really a polished wrestler, but has an almost early Goldberg feel to a lot of his offense, it doesn't look controlled, but really looks spectacular and really looks like it hurts. That top rope leg drop was incredible and super violent. I thought there were a lot of nifty moments in this, like Shank wrapping his leg around the chain to block Knight from reaching the buckle, and Knight wrapping Shank's broken arm around the ringpost with the chain. I agree the finish was dumb, but I really enjoyed everything before that.

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Unicorn Gimmick Matches - Cell Block Match

Shank v. Timber the Lumberjack - NWA Wildside 7/1/00

Shank is one of my favorite gimmicks in wrestling history. He was a guy working a babyface convict gimmick where he would threaten to rape and murder his opponents. He set up this match by laying in wait outside of Timbers family's house and discussing how his grandmothers body would never be found. The Cell Block match is a cage set up in the unpaved parking lot outside the Wildside arena, no ring, just a cage on dirt. This is a match I have wanted to see since it happened, so I was amped that I unearthed a copy. The match has amazing opening, Timber is in the cage screaming for Shank to get in there, and Shank appears from out of a hole with sod placed over it and jumps Timber from behind. The punches and kicks in this really felt like a pair of guys fighting over weight time in a yard. Shank really stomps like his trying to mush someones head. They also both land some really brain damaging unprotected chair shots. Finish was kind of silly, but nutso, Shank pries Timber's axehandle into the top of the cage and uses it a platform to hit an moonsault where he hits his knee into Timber's temple. Shank then just squeezes his way out of a hole in the cage, before he is jumped by Terry Knight and Jeff G. Bailey.  This wasn't long, but really violent feeling, and Shank rising from underground like a raised vampire was one my favorite freakshow spots ever.

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NWA Wildside Episode 18 Review

A real friend of the program uploaded a few old episodes of Wildside onto the internet, and I couldn't find any sort of dates on any of these. The earliest episode numbers I found were in the 60s, so these are like from that late 90s period that never got converted to DVD. Some people just have episodes of Wildside they taped off TV just sitting in a box at their parents house, where they possibly still live. Just as I have boxes of old APW gym wars tapes and unmarked tapes with Reckless Youth matches and poor video quality puro sitting in the next room as I type this (though thankfully I do not live with my parents, although many boxes of old Nintendo Powers and LPs still reside there).

And boy, if you wanted to show somebody a segment to let them know what Wildside was all about, the show starts with Jeff G. Bailey storming the ring and having Crowbar get rid of Onyx, then K Krush brings out a struggling body bag that contains the bound and gagged wife of Chance Williams (if not the owner of Wildside, then the "on TV" owner). Bailey makes fun of her, full on states - does not imply - that the three of them had their way with her right to Chance's face (as Crowbar holds him in a choke), says not to worry about her being pregnant because Krush used the rhythm method, and how they treated her good by giving her a pedicure, a manicure, even "a couple of facials". Oh my lord. I mean holy shit. The lead heels straight up kidnapped and gang raped the owner's wife as the lead angle of this episode. Where do you even go from there!?!?

After the show intro (Sanctioned by the NWA!) Chance calls out Bailey and makes a match for Y2Kaos (so this show must have aired in late 1999 if that was an edgy show title) where Bailey could gain control of the company for 30 days if he wins, but if he loses then AJ Styles gets a title shot against K Krush. Bailey tells him his first order of business as show runner would be to fire Styles and Chance, as then they'd have more time to "attend NAMBLA meetings and march in parades". My god Jeff G. Bailey.

1. Jorge Estrada vs. K-Krush

Estrada comes out to Orgy's "Blue Monday" if this doesn't feel like the late 90s enough yet. Orgy's album "Candyass" sold almost 2 million copies. Imagine how many hundreds of thousands of teens made their poor mothers buy them Orgy's Candyass CD for Christmas? How many poor mothers, who knew nothing of popular music as they gave that up years before, when they had children, how many poor mothers had to uncomfortably ask a person in a music store, or a Best Buy, or anywhere "Excuse me do you guys have Orgy?" "Did they specify which album? Is it Candyass?" "Oh....dear....I don't know, they just said Orgy...." How many poor mothers bought the WRONG Orgy album? And their 13 year old was a total shit because it wasn't the Orgy CD they wanted. I think many of our moms bought us something that was super well intentioned, but not totally correct. My mom once bought me an issue of a wrestling magazine that had Sable on the cover. I was not a fan of Sable, and there was nothing I ever said to one person that would make them think I liked Sable. But my mom knew I loved wrestling, and knew I liked girls, so she saw this magazine at the airport or mall or market and thought of me. And 18 years later I still remember it fondly and even though I have no clue where that magazine is I still love that my mom purchased a wrestling magazine somewhere (probably while wearing sunglasses since she would likely equate it to buying the raunchiest kinds of pornography). But the problem is that any kid who would have wanted Orgy's Candyass subsequently grew up to be an awful, unsuccessful human being who hated their life and parents and job. So they've never reflected on how nice their mom was to buy them Orgy's Candyass for Christmas. They are unthankful husks of human beings, probably.

Match was okay. You remember Estrada as the worst member of the Flying Elvises in TNA, and this was a few years earlier than that, before he developed all that ring polish. Krush took a nasty backdrop into the ropes. Bailey called Estrada "George" the whole match, until the end when he started calling him Jorge after hearing the other announcer say Jorge the whole match, which makes me think Bailey just thought his name was George. Estrada mistimes Krush's spin kick finisher so ends up running basically mouth first into Krush's butt, busting his lip open. Post match Krush humps the turnbuckles at some women who both laugh, blush, and pretend to wave dollar bills at him.

Al Getz cuts an awesome long promo, detailing how terrible his life has been for the last 12 years because he has no friends, and all he sees is darkness. This is all because 12 years ago he had only one friend in the world, a pretty girl at summer camp. And one night he brought her flowers and that jerk JC Dazz was kissing her. Getz was really great here, really stretched that promo out, told a great story instead of a wrasslin promo. Some blonde in the front (who he referred to as a fat cow) was screaming at him the whole time, trying to step on his story ("You don't even like girls you fag!") but Getz stayed the course and allowed himself to get embarrassed, brought out JC Dazz, and asked him to blast him with a chairshot. Dazz accepted and I saw Getz fiddling in his pocket, and I gruesomely thought he was reaching in for a blade for a post-chairshot gusher. But instead he pulls out some pepper spray and blasts Dazz with it when he raised the chair over his head. "That was pepper spray, and you're going to be blind for the next 2 minutes!" and then, because this is a great episode of wrestling TV, he calls out SHANK!!!

2. Shank vs. JC Dazz

Shank is really one of the more fascinating guys in wrestling history. He didn't work long, and he wasn't technically "good", but damn if I don't get excited and want to see every single thing involving Shank. He's a guy who is a mysterious, dangerous ex-con, who genuinely comes off like a crazy ex-con, or even present-con. He had really explosive violent offense, he just couldn't really bump or do a lot of the basics. But he had an incredible aura, and that offense really was violent. His clotheslines look the absolute worst to take, and when he lifts guys up on chokeslams and powerbombs and backdrops it looks like he can launch them 15 feet. Finish is a quality BS finish as Dazz kicks Shank low, leading to Getz getting in the ring with more pepper spray, but accidentally spraying Shank. Dazz punches Getz with Getz taking a rough bump into the ropes, then runs with Dazz chasing after. Shank is blinded and swinging wildly in the ring, and Dazz plasters him with a chairshot off the top. Good way to keep Shank strong in losing, have Dazz fight back against two men, and prolong the Dazz/Getz feud.

3. Hardcore Elimination Rumble: Ruckus vs. White Trash vs. Damien Steele vs. Toad vs. Q-Sick

60% of our competitors have either green hair or are wearing a sleeveless South Park shirt. And this was really disappointing. 1999 was a fun and ridiculously stupid time for hardcore wrestling, as every single hardcore indy wrestler wanted to show they were more hardcore than the hardcore "phonies" in WWF and WCW, except guys in WWF and WCW were actually doing some REALLY stupid and dangerous stuff in their hardcore matches. My point being, there were a lot of incredibly stupid things done in 1999 in the name of hardcore wrestling. But this just didn't have anywhere near the level of stupid stuff you'd want, certainly nothing close to approaching Dave Burkhead's weird and wonderful hardcore run on WCW syndicated TV during the same period.  White Trash took a couple of full body nasty bumps into guardrails, fans be damned. Q-Sick seemed like a better wrestling version of Darren Drozdov, Toad seemed practically untrained for a guy who would get several matches on WCW TV not long after this, Steele was better than a guy wearing a singlet and South Park t-shirt should be, definitely seeming like the most complete worker in the match. But this really just needed more stupid. It was somehow too orderly, somehow not violent enough, somehow too professional. That's good for them, but I am selfish and wanted some wrecked brain cells.

Not sure who found their old Wildside VHS tapes and converted them, but that person certainly added some extra joy to my 3 day weekend. I considered canceling an RSVP to a fun BBQ just to spend my day drinking in the house and watching 1999 Wildside. I went to the BBQ, had a blast, but also kind of thought about getting back home to the Wildside the whole time.  I *may* cancel some plans on the 4th to watch the rest of this little treasure trove...

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NWA Wildside- Throwback Review Episode 36

NWA Wildside was an awesome early 2000's promotion run out of a barn in the middle of nowhere Georgia. They really were one of the only promotions to pull off R rated sex and violence wrestling without devolving into puerile Russo humor. More Abel Ferrera then Dennis Dugan. Guys like AJ Styles, R-Truth and Abyss started out there, and they had a bunch of really fun Southern veterans, and the best promo guy in indy wrestling history in Jeff G. Bailey. Episode 36 is the earliest they have up, and I will do a couple of these a week until I catch up to them

http://www.twnworldwide.tv/nwawildside36.html

5/14/00

Show starts with a Pulp Fiction style rundown of previous weeks. They are setting up a Shank v. Scottie Wren match, and Shank is as awesome as I remember him. He is working an Oz inmate gimmick, he has crazy tattoos, a creepy high pitched voice and tells Wren he has to bend over and take it like a man. We also get an quick intense Jim Cornette promo with the Cole twins talking about Bad Attitude.

Rusty Riddle v. Skyfire

Riddle is an 80's WWF job guy who was working a biker gimmick. I remember him in a pushed tag team at one point in Wildside, although this appears to be before that. Skyfire worked as EZ Money in ECW and Jason Jett in the dying days of WCW. This was kind of a mess, as they seemed to be on different pages for most of this. Riddle had an impressive rope walk, but no other big spots. Finish had an unnecessary ref bump.

We get a pretty generic Jeff G. Bailey promo, he does compare team NCW to the Cornelia chapter of Act-Up and call someone a dirty Mexican who wants to steal the hubcaps off of his Corvette, but this was mostly just a typical heel manager promo. I know I will see better from Bailey in the future.

Silky Boom Boom v. Ricky Noble

This was Noble's debut and he had a nice monkey flip, but kind of blew his finisher. Nothing to see here

Scottie Wren v. Shank

Shank is a better promo then a wrestler, but he did have kind of an enjoyable Ahmed Johnsonish green guy doing awkward highspots charm. He went up early for a plancha, slipped off and then just threw himself over the top with a nasty tope. Wren had some nice fatboy highspots too, although much of this match was pretty ugly. Finish comes with a Timber the Lumberjack chair shot to Shank, and then a save from champion Stone Mountain (currently stinking up TNA as Abyss)

Eddie Golden v. AJ Styles

Eddie Golden is a long time Southern indy guy, he is the nephew of Jimmy Golden and really great. Styles is a little green at this point, but an athletic freak and he and Golden work really well together. Golden works him over nicely with Styles bumping big and breaking out a nice highspot or two. Still will all of AJ's backflips, I was probably most impressed by Golden's nasty back elbow. Finish gets telegraphed a bit as babyface color guy Steve Martin (not working a Steve Martin gimmick) mentions that AJ Styles and Rick Micheals are the only two guys he can trust. Ref gets bumped and Martin slides in the ring to make the count on Golden (he has some sort of power in the company, I am just jumping in here), Styles gets up before 3 and attacks Martin, AJ then jumps his tag partner Jorge Estrada and we get a big AJ heel turn.

Very watchable overall show, the Golden v. Styles match and post match angle was definitely the highlight, but we really didn't get any of the transgressive weirdness or crazy violence that made Wildside so awesome.

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