Found Footage Friday: SANTO~! NINJA~! YOUNG STUD BABA~! CALYPSO~! WHITE WOLF~! GILBERT~! DUNDEE~! NEW SOUTH~!

Giant Baba/Michiaki Yoshimura vs. Calypso Hurricane/Chief White Wolf JWA 5/12/64

MD: This one fell through the cracks when one of the Baba anniversary specials came out. It's only ten minutes and heavily clipped but what an amazing look at 26 year old Baba. He was an absolute monster. We have him here scrapping on the mat with Adnan, just chucking Calypso head first into the corner like he was a sack of potatoes, hitting this amazing standing kick around the side of Adnan to the back of his head, cutting off the corner so Yoshimura could deliver damage from the outside, throwing these blistering chops, and, after a hot tag, just chopping high and low and stomping the life out of people. There are so many reasons to love 80s and even mid-late 70s Baba, but you couldn't look away from him here. I still can't get over those kicks that seemed to go all the way around Adnan's body to hit him in the head. Points to him, by the way, for really phoning in the Native American gimmick with the laziest dancing and whooping you'd ever see. He did look great on the mat with Baba though, so he gets credit for that.

ER: Of course we all wish this wasn't clipped, but who could complain about a fresh 9 minute look at a young, whip fast, and jacked thicc Shohei Baba, as well as a great look at how damn good Adnan Al-Kassie and Ciclon Negro were in an era where we couldn't see them. Baba is the draw here, both for us and the fans who, during the pre-match introductions, can be seen literally standing and open-mouth gawking at the presence of Baba, who was almost surely the largest human anybody in the building had ever seen. If they had seen a man that large, somewhere, they had certainly never seen him move like this. It kicks so much ass seeing Baba run through Baba spots I know and love, only 3x as fast and with the impact of Stan Hansen. Look at him run the ropes with Calypso! Look at the fucking boot he throws at White Wolf's face! He's like if Yoshihiro Takayama had a few more inches. Calypso/Ciclon Negro is a guy who always had the rep of a great, respected worker, but most of the footage we have of him is from his late 40s/early 50s. Seeing him in his early 30s makes him look like a guy who would be one of my all time favorites, were I my father's age. He had an excellent style of bumping, athletic but appropriately tuned to the offense he was taking, a real immediacy to his work, a big bumper but with weight. Also, check that spot where Yoshimura moves out of the way and Calypso punches White Wolf in the face, off the apron, and then stands there looking and feeling like a real boob. 

El Hijo del Santo vs. El Ninja 12/13/85

MD: Wild structure on this. Primera was an ambush and a comeback attempt and a cutoff. Segunda had the comeback (that we missed the prime moment of) and a double count out after a dive. Tercera had a lot of the back and forth submissions and drama. And then the final extra fall, due to the count out, was basically some more beatdown and a roll up out of nowhere instead of a real comeback. The fans were up for all of it though.

And, just like the structure wasn't calcified into a more familiar form, neither was Santito. He sure as hell had selling of nerve holds down. I'm not sure I've ever seen it done better. Interestingly, the tercera ended with his flipping senton and rush across the ring; instead of hitting a tope, he hit a reverse body press off the top instead. He also had some pretty fun tricked out submission and pin attempts before that, including this neat Rings of Saturn number and a flexible attempt to get a full nelson with one of his legs. Ninja was fine here. He was a journeyman and understood the weight of the match. He made the kicks and nerve holds work, had some interesting stuff of his own during the hold exchanges, and was happy to escalate to choking with a towel in that final fall. It was clipped up so we missed some of the primera and that big moment of comeback; I had thought we were going to get another one at the end but they went with a flash pin instead. Still, it was a very interesting look at a relatively young Santo.

PAS: So cool that this just showed up. I do a semi-regular YouTube search for "Hijo Del Santo" as he is probably the greatest wrestler who has footage on tape that just might pop up on YouTube some day. This is one of the earliest Santo matches and Ninja wasn't the Monterey wrestler, but a re-gimmicked 60s luchador taking a mask loss payday. He had some nice wrestling martial arts stuff (more Stan Lane than Akira Maeda) , but was otherwise pretty much an opponent for Santo to work stuff out on. Great looking tope was probably the highlight, with Ninja getting sent into seats, and I did like the rolling senton into almost a diving RKO from the other side of the ring. More a cool look into an underseen period than a great match, but man was I happy it showed up. 

TKG: New Santo match shows up and it moves to the front of the queue. You add that it’s an 80s, mask match and yeah…plus I originally thought the Ninja was going to be a Garza relative.

First fall is clipped, but Ninja works like an 80s karate wrestler. He may have more different kinds of kicks than most 80s karate offense guys. I especially liked the kick he did in third fall set up by a Yoga tree pose style calf stretch. Kicks ranged between Stan Lane loose and Kabuki stiff. Left match wishing there was a Stan Lane v Ninja match and Kabuki v Santito one.

Like Kabuki, when Ninja wasn’t kicking he was putting on a nerve hold and Santo awesome selling it. In the 80s most people sold a nerve hold by trying to fight to power out. Santo sold it like he had a crystal ball and had seen shootstyle matches, and sprawled for ropes every time Ninja put the nerve hold on him.

We don’t get Santo’s transition to offense in second fall but we get all of Santo’s beautiful offense. And a double count out finish.

Don’t really get this, as Dandy v Emilio Charles draw meant both guys shaved head…and at one point there was interview with Rafael Maya where he talked about similar draw finishes. It feels like Ninja won two falls straight but whatever. Third fall had some real cool tight ras de lona pins and surfboard near falls.

And fourth was mostly brawling and felt abbreviated. The ‘unusual booking’ instead of leading to hotter final fall made the fourth feel really anticlimactic. Still hot crowd, great third fall and a bunch of neat little things.

Doug Gilbert/Bill Dundee vs. New South (Kory Williams/Ashley Hudson) NWA Nashville 4/14/01

MD: Best part of this was probably Williams and Hudson goofing around on the mic before hand and Gilbert and Dundee putting them in their place. The match tried to have its cake and eat it too. It was a "Climb the pole" deal with Hudson's boomerang atop it, and the winner being whoever got it first. Usually it's about getting to actually use the boomerang and this cuts off before we see if that happens. Moreover, there was a bat hanging around the ring early too so that almost felt like it defeated the purpose of it. And finally, despite the pole gimmick, they stuck with standard tag rules, though they seemed confused about what corner they were supposed to be in and New South made a tag in the ring at one point. It made no sense that the partner on the outside didn't just go for the Boomerang at certain points.

That said, the actual work was ok. These guys knew what they were doing for the most part. That meant a lot of Gilbert taking punches and making them look good and throwing punches that naturally looked good; likewise with Dundee's jabs. Williams was more than happy to stagger around the ring selling. It never boiled over, unfortunately, and there were probably way too many low blows. Old(er) man Dundee could get away with that and make it charming but I'm not sure about the rest of them. This needed more heat and a deal where Hudson got the boomerang but Gilbert got it from him and opened them up post match, something like that.

ER: During the pre-match mic work, Doug Gilbert gets the mic to counter Kory Williams' jabs and tells the New South that "at least everyone in this building knows who we are", and after a 5 second pause one of the commentators just says "GAY". That's when I knew we were diving into the good stuff. And I thought this was good! I enjoyed it more than Matt (and Tom, who watched it earlier in the week and opted out of writing about it). This delivered because it had guys up on the top rope who probably shouldn't be on the top rope, and by people I mean Doug Gilbert, who made the match by kicking Kory Williams in the balls while both were standing on the top rope. It's also important that the pole was so tall that the boomerang hanging from it is never even in frame until Hudson grabs it and it's perfect, because every pole match needs a preposterously tall pole that most participants would be unable to climb given unfettered access to it. We got one great Dundee tease where he showed that he still had crazy climbing strength into his late 50s, and the rest of the match he spent punching New South around the ring while Kory Williams staggered and flopped around. This was right around 8 minutes long and had four different ball shots, and I wish that the video had ended with Hudson climbing up the pole completely off the screen, no boomerang ever shown, all of us left wondering just how tall that pole actually was. At least they didn't show the top of the pole, so we are still empowered to dream. 

 

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Found Footage Friday: DOUBLE DOG COLLAR CAGE MATCH~! ADNAN IN IRAQ~! GUERREROS~! CHICANA~! LA FAMILIA MARKUS~!

Adnan Al Qaisi vs. Ian Campbell Iraq 1970

MD: Long 2/3 falls match that ends 1-0 for Adnan at the time limit (either 45 or 60 depending on clipping). This had been out there in parts but is newly clipped together in a welcome effort. You get a real sense of the imperial pageantry here, officials and a band and parade feel, even though the same footage of a few fans (out of the very many) is interspersed now and again. Let me put it this way. Campbell knew what was good for him here, knew what was safe and what wasn't. They weren't going for heat. They were using this as a showcase for Adnan's technical superiority. As such, it was a pretty effective dog and pony show.

Campbell had a size and strength advantage, but Adnan had an answer for every hold. Towards the last fifteen minutes, the answers were a little harder to find and Campbell could press harder with a full nelson or chinlock, but even those ended quickly enough by prying off an arm or pulling out a leg. In return, Campbell could use his strength to escape Adnan's stuff, but he'd find his way back in sooner than not. It meant that individual exchanges could be interesting, but that the total picture was a bit toothless. At times they'd break out into strikes. This first happened around the ten minute mark as Campbell was starting to register some of the damage to his arm. He had a great little bit where he trapped the arm behind his opponent's back with a hammerlock and tossed in a nasty forearm, but even there, Adnan fired back with a flurry and a jumping elbow smash soon enough. They repeated this a few minutes later and that's when Adnan got his one fall.

Considering the locale and the one repeated shot from the crowd of someone sweating profusely, it was probably sweltering there and Campbell was a big, hairy guy, but they kept a pretty good, competitive pace throughout. They'd go from a handshake to mean shots and back to a handshake so things were never going to come close to boiling over, but as they got towards the end of the time limit, Adnan increased his intensity, using leg kicks and just tossing Campbell out over the top repeatedly. That made it seem something of a moral victory for Campbell that he was able to survive to the bell (whistle?) even if he was a fall down. It was wrestling as celebratory propaganda, but as such it was fairly fascinating to watch, just maybe not 50 minutes worth of fascination.

Sangre Chicana/Gran Markus Sr./Gran Markus Jr vs. Chavo Guerrero/Hector Guerrero/Mando Guerrero CMLL 9/18/87 

MD:  Roy's back posting, always a good thing. This was from the 54th CMLL Anniversary show and at the very least hasn't been streaming online for quite a while, if ever. The bits in between falls are clipped out so it moves at a fast pace. The announcer also gets Mando and Hector confused for a good part of this and almost psyched me out, but no one moves quite like Mando. Primarily, it's another Sangre Chicana match in his prime, so that's exciting, but he's more of a dodgy chickenshit here, throwing shots now and again but mostly on the run. He gets slammed onto the floor right as this ends, so that's some comeuppance but it's more about everyone else. Markus, Sr., maskless, has a sort of enjoyable weighty swagger to himself. This is the guy we saw in so much of the Houston footage, just older. Jr. on the other hand, is younger than what I'm used to and a bit more spry. This opens up with fun in-and-out matwork between him and Chavo. Chavo's in the most but Hector has a nice snap belly to back and the end of the primera is a combo of that belly to back and an axe handle off the ropes. And of course, Mando is a ridiculous beast like always, full of contorted, tricked out offense: takedowns and monkey flips and bounding around the ring. There's a lot more to the opening feeling out stuff than the beatdown or the comeback, but both are spirited enough. If this led to some sort of Chicana vs Hector or Mando match, I would have liked to see that too.

Bart Sawyer/Steven Dunn vs. Ashley Hudson/Flash Flanagan (Double Dog Collar Cage Match) MCW 1997

MD: Very timely Bryan Turner upload here, though not timely enough to make Phil's list as an honorable mention. Sawyer was attached to Hudson and Dunn was attached to Flanagan. Babyfaces dominated early. There were a bunch of chairs in there, both wedged in the corners and just free floating and Dunn used them liberally. That led to free flowing blood. They'd switch advantage for a bit. Very few big setpieces here and just a lot of violence. That said, both Sawyer and Hudson did fistdrops off the turnbuckles with the chain wrapped around their hands onto the other. My most vivid memory of the match itself was probably Sawyer choking Hudson with the chain as Dunn stomped on his groin. There was a lot of that sort of thing here, but plenty of cage shots, chair shots, and chain shots too. It all built to a ref bump and Dunn accidentally clocking Sawyer. That's when things got really fun. Sawyer stared at Dunn, slowly took off the dog collar, snatched the key from the ref, and went to leave the cage. Dunn tried to stop him and ate a kick and a DDT for his troubles and Sawyer locked the cage back up on the way out, taking the key as the fans shouted 'traitor' at him. Hudson and Flanagan made short work out of Dunn after that, finishing it with a leg drop off the cage from Flanagan. Then, as Prentice (I think) taunted everyone on the house mic about how this was his New Year's present for everyone and not to worry because "It's just Steven Dunn", they absolutely dismantled him after the bell. No one could help since the heels had the key. Finally, Sawyer came back in to finish him off. Good match and a truly great post match angle.

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More 80s Christmas AWA! On Heenan! On Martel! On Blackwell and Gagne!

Rick Martel vs. Bobby Heenan AWA 12/25/82

ER: Network puts up new hunky Rick Martel, Rachel is going to be interested in seeing new hunky Rick Martel. Every time we see some early 80s Martel she just exclaims "He's such a good babyface!" This is, I believe, the only wrestler she has said this about. I don't even think she's seen much of The Model era, or how she would even handle heel Rick Martel. Oddly, I think she's seen the '91 Rumble, but Martel lasts so long that it's basically like a babyface Rumble performance, working against the odds. But it is undeniably true that Martel is a fantastic babyface, super expressive and knows how to make things feel like a big deal. Heenan here really comes off like a big deal. He's practically Fit Finlay in how well every single shot lands, and how nicely he takes every Martel shot. He even moves similarly to Fit. Heenan comes off like a total badass, just look how he kicks at Martel from the apron to keep him on the floor or throws winging double chops off Irish whips. Heenan was so good here that it's crazy to me he was only a part timer a couple years later.  Heenan blinds Martel early in the match and Martel is weirdly a guy who is really great at dramatically selling blindness. It's an odd thing to be good at but something everybody clearly knew or they wouldn't have had him still working it into matches a decade later. Martel is great on the defensive in this, but also great on offense. He fired back blindly against Heenan, tossing him with backdrops when Heenan would get close, firing back with great punches (that knock Heenan into the ropes Andre style), kicking at his legs in the ropes (nasty kicks to inner leg), and broke out a textbook sunset flip. The finish was awesome as Heenan gets dropkicked in the back and flies chest first into the middle turnbuckle, made the bump look real violent and worthy of a finish.

Rick Martel vs. Superstar Billy Graham AWA 12/25/83

ER: This was really fun, just a bunch of simple knucklelock exchanges and a nicely worked bearhug by Graham, which is more than enough to frame a nice babyface Martel performance. I like a good bearhug and post-WWF Superstar can still squeeze. I thought he was good at cutting off Martel, especially with a nicely timed throat thrust (a "tae kwon do chop") when Martel was starting to fire back. Maybe Graham's stuff wouldn't have looked as good without someone as expressive as Martel selling it, but the combo worked. Finish is at least a good bullshit finish, as Martel starts making strides and Graham just decides to launch him over the top to the floor for the DQ. Martel took the match finishing bump like a champ.

Jerry Blackwell/Ken Patera/Mr. Saito/Sheik Adnan Al-Kassie vs. Greg Gagne/Jim Brunzell/Ray Stevens/Baron von Raschke AWA 12/25/83

ER: Hell yes, inject this kind of classic multi man action right between my toes. It's JIP 5 minutes but that still gives us 11 minutes of party. The heels all cut off Gagne from his boys, showing how effectively a simple formula can work 35 years later. The heels all took turns distracting the ref to keep Gagne from getting to hot tags and allow double teams, Saito sneaking in with leaping elbows off the middle rope, Patera coming in with a nice cut off shot while Blackwell is busying the good guys, Adnan sneaking in shots, Blackwell hitting a nice falling elbow and later missing a splash, all simple but effective stuff. The whole babyface side is excellent on the apron, keeping everything fired up, Stevens running in to try and do justice, Baron getting to goose step around to thunderous cheers on the hot tag, but Gagne again had an excellent babyface performance and even got to hit this ridiculous double stomp off the middle rope right off Blackwell's belly. This kind of match is like tasty popcorn in a movie, just can't stop eating it.

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New Footage Friday: Hogan, Bockwinkle, High Flyers, Blackwell, Hennig, Tito

The Network delivered a tidal wave of AWA this week, with a lot of new stuff, including a real gem.

High Flyers vs. Jerry Blackwell/Sheik Adnan Al-Kassie AWA 12/25/81

MD: This was basic and straightforward but just so well executed. Shine/Heat/Comeback/cheating heel finish. It's JIP so we lose some of the shine. If there was double heat on this, that'd probably where it would have been. It's hard to say. You get a complete picture here though. It's striking just how much stuff Gagne has a ton of stuff. If you need someone to control a heel's arm (even one as big as Blackwell), Greg's the guy to go with. Brunzell is more fiery than you'd think working the apron. The Flyers do feel like a big deal here, but that's not surprising. They always somehow do. All of this felt iconic, pure, distilled AWA.

PAS: Really solid main event tag team match. Blackwell and Adnan are a bruiser tag team, Kasie almost seems like too much of a bad ass to work as a heel manager. Blackwell has fists like hams, and a demolishing fat guy elbow. Greg was a great in this, I loved his wild punch combos to Blackwells body to make space for the hot tag, and he had some nice looking offense, including some nasty shots to the Shiek's knee. I totally buy a sneaky Blackwell splash ending anyone, that is a fat dude right there.

ER: I love Blackwell so much. He's the fattest version of Haley Joel Osment and is a guy I'll watch in anything. It feels like we've gotten a ton of fresh Blackwell in the past couple years, from Japan handhelds to stuff like this. And it's all great, I love how he moves, you get to see awesome elbowdrops and big fat guy bumps and painful avalanches and great missed splats on splashes, and after the match he lands an absolute curb stomp of a running stomp. Guy comes off like a total killer. Greg Gagne is a guy I like that really got a bum rap for years. He's a great babyface and always brings good determination, his blow up fired up punches are great and he's a good face in peril. I now get excited when new Greg Gagne footage shows up. Brunzell is a durable guy with a fantastic dropkick who can hang with bigger guys, and Adnan does amusing older guy heel stomps and reactions and backrakes. Plus we get some great regional folksiness on commentary, my favorite being "Greg Gagne just folded like a carpenter's rule." You picture James Stewart saying something like that in "Fools' Parade" and it sounds right. This is the kind of pro wrestling I like to watch.

Tito Santana/Hulk Hogan vs. Bobby Duncum/Ken Patera AWA 12/25/82

MD: There's a lot to really enjoy here. Hogan is an absolute bully, going out of his ways to poke Patera in the eyes when he doesn't have to, all of that. The fans love it. Santana works as rudo as I've ever seen him, faking the tags and cheating left and right. Tito Santana! Hogan's a bad influence. Patera really shines in this one. There's just real star power there. Everything he does has extra oomph and energy. It's patently ridiculous that this ends not in a double DQ but in Hogan getting DQ'd because he was getting in the way of the heels cheating. It might have been to set up Patera/Duncum as contenders but it just felt like punishing the fans for no reason.

PAS: Really fun to watch the two babyface icons of my early wrestling fandom team up. Hogan and Tito have barrels of charisma and I really enjoyed all of the babyface scheming early. Tito is a really good face in peril, and Hogan is an all time hot tag. Tito breaks out a Gibson leglock and takes a great semi flip bump on Duncum's lariat. I loved we got a couple of big Heenan bumps and didn't mind the double DQ as it had the kind of Katie Bar the Door finish you got a ton of in the 80s. This was a nostalgic match, so I dug the nostalgic finish.

Nick Bockwinkel vs. Mad Dog Vachon AWA 12/25/83

MD: Just watch Bockwinkel rush in for the attack. Always a game plan. Always a purpose. Mad Dog wasn't going to do any topes in 1983, but his stuff looked nasty and credible. He'd bite your nose off if you weren't careful. Or, in this case, he'd fishhook your mouth and all but suplex you with it. Bockwinkel stooges and feeds and makes this feel like a right and proper main event for an end of the year show. This had a pretty goofy Dusty finish but the pop on Mad Dog getting the apparent win is huge. It's a testament both to the AWA crowds and to Bockwinkel that you could put almost anyone up and down the roster in there, from Brunzell to Rheinghans to the Baron to Robinson and the crowd completely believed that the title change could happen and that they might witness history.

PAS: I really enjoyed this, classic wrestling trope of over as fuck babyface taking out a sneaky heel champ. The Crusher is accompanying Vachon as a counter to Heenan, and has an unlit cigar in his mouth and another two in his pocket. Vachon tears Bockwinkle up, bumping him all over the ring, with Bockwinkle only getting brief moments of offense, when he can sneak in a cheap shot. Vachon really comes off as a vicious tough guy and Bockwinkle sells his ass off. The ending was super dumb as the ref just stops counting to DQ Bockwinkle before Heenan does anything. We do get some fun postmatch with Heenan taking a classic insane Heenan bump to the floor, but I can see why this kind of booking BS eventually doomed the fed.

Nick Bockwinkel vs. Curt Hennig AWA 12/25/84

MD: Nick Bockwinkel vs Curt Hennig is one of the greatest feuds in wrestling history. Maybe before I'd say it was one of the greatest feuds of the 80s. Before we didn't have this match. It slots in so perfectly and it's one of those things that I don't know how we, as wrestling fans, ever lived without.

This was during the period where Martel, not Bockwinkel, was champion, where Hennig was coming into his own as a singles mid-carder and occasional contender. Remember, just two years earlier he was reffing the Christmas show. It would still be a couple of years, and the tag run where he was to make Scott Hall a star, before they'd feud in earnest. This match was full of sparks that would ignite years later.

People praise Bockwinkel for a lot of things, for his promos, for his matwork, for his bumps, for his presentation as the perfect heel champion, and I love all of those things. What I love the most, however, is that he is always absolutely in the moment. He is entirely in to every moment, not as a performer hitting spots, but as a method actor who's completely dropped into what he's doing. It's the little things. There's a moment early on after he took over with an unclean lock up off the ropes where Hennig bumps out of the corner, selling. Bockwinkel does this tiny, enthused pump of his arm. It's the smallest thing but there's not another wrestler out of a hundred that would have chosen to show that emotion in that moment and it is absolutely everything when it comes to immersion. Bockwinkel believes. You believe.

This shifts to a great King of the Mountain and subsequent revenge from a fiery Hennig after that (the transition being wholly logical and warranted as Bockwinkel decided to play to the crowd and mime having the belt once more; everything always makes sense with Nick Bockwinkel). From here it's back and forth with Bockwinkel able to bully his way to advantages and Hennig selling the damage tremendously. Ultimately, after a second sunset flip hope spot (one that Bockwinkel struggled on much more than the first), Nick goes after the leg, locking in a string of figure-fours until the Hennig, toughing it out, somehow rolls him up for the pin and the win. Post-match, Bockwinkel is behind himself and beats Hennig to a pulp, coming back in again and again with no one able to stop him. You can't watch this and not think about what would happen two years later when a frustrated Hennig would turn heel on Bockwinkel. This was great on its own it's all part of an even greater whole and it's a whole that we've got an clearer picture of today.

PAS: Getting a new Bockwinkel vs. Hennig is like getting a new Santo vs. Casas or Dundee vs. Lawler, another chance to see a legendary match up, with all time greats who are always going to give something different. It was neat to see this version of the rivalry with Bockwinkle so dominant and Hennig still a young boy. Bockwinkle is so vicious and dismissive, tossing Hennig to the floor,  and really kicking the shit out of him when Hennig tries to get back in, it is the ultimate in dismissiveness. This kid doesn't even belong in the ring with me, and I refuse to treat him like an equal. It is what makes the reversal of fortune so satisfying, with Hennig constantly knocking Bock to the floor. The figure fours looked great, and I loved how Bock snapped after Hennig gets the sneak pin. Brutal onslaught, and Bockwinkle does really come off unhinged, like he can see all of his glory slipping away and was going to hold on tight with both hands.

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