Found Footage Friday: SANTO~! CASAS~! PANTHER~! BLACK MAN~! DANIELSON~! SHIRYU~!

El Hijo Del Santo/Black Man vs. Blue Panther/Negro Casas Tijuana 2/21/86

PAS: El Hijo Del Santo's youtube page has been a real treasure trove as of late, and he gives up a mid-80s match with young Santo, young Panther, young Casas and youngish Black Man. Totally new match with three of the 20 or so greatest wrestlers of all time in the bloom of their youth. What a blast. Like all great lucha matches of this era, it is all about build, we get some cool exchanges, I especially loved all of the freestyle mat rides by Santo on Panther, but it was all pretty great. It moves into bigger moments, including the rudos getting DQ for press slamming Santo onto Black Man, and beating on the technicos on the floor. We get a quick comeback after with Santo hitting a huge plancha tope onto Casas (after sending him flipping over back first to the floor) and Black Man hitting a flip dive onto Panther, and getting the count out. Such a treat, any new footage of any of these guys is a blessing and we got all four. 

MD: Obviously, it's unfortunate that this match came to light due to Black Man's death but it's a great discovery and way to honor him, even if we're especially excited that it has Casas, Panther, and Santo in it. There are a few clips in here but you basically get everything you'd want, a long stretch of Santo and Panther up front, some manic matwork by Casas with Black Man. Then two distinct rudo beatdowns, the first long and varied and the second mean, quick, and nasty, with two comebacks and big high spots at the end.

This was probably from 86 (and if the 2/21 date is right and who knows? it'd be right after Black Man lost his match to Panther), so it's very early as footage of Casas and Panther go and they at times seemed a little less polished than they'd eventually be, but also full of ideas and imagination, and absolutely themselves. I love how well they worked together in the initial beatdown, steady and in sync even if nothing was too over the top except for maybe Casas' running senton where he turned himself in half. We missed a bit of the comeback but Santo was as fiery as you'd hope for and there was a great moment where, after knocking Panther out of the ring, Casas, on the apron, clasped his hands together and prayer and leaped off backwards, bumping himself instead of taking whatever Santo was going to bring to him.

The second bit of heat was pretty great, as they double press slammed Santo over the top onto Black Man on the outside and then followed up with this cool bit where Panther lifted up Santo vertically and brought him down with a knee drop or a stomp. They repeated it in the ring as well. The comeback had some huge moments like Casas taking an absolutely wild bump over the top after getting knocked halfway across the ring and Santo hitting a huge dive from the top to the floor.

Shiryu/Pilota Suicida/Capitan Oro/Jalisco vs. Terry Boy/Lover Boy/Super Boy/Bobby Bradley Compton Lucha 11/5/93

MD: This got a ton of time and was full of action, with a hot and happy crowd full of kids ready to cheer for each tecnico. Opening had a rudo rush but it calmed down to exchanges, and constant feeding for the primera. Pretty much everyone looked good here on the tecnico side but I'd say Piloto Suicida looked the best and probably had the loudest chants too. Jalisco is always such a surprise in these matches as there's a hard to pin down verve to him, just a big energy as he peppers guys with shots. The rudos took over in the segunda and even given the time this had, it probably wasn't a long enough beatdown but it was a good one. Bradley and Terry Boy felt like they belonged, both with the appropriate swagger and ability to fight dirty. Then the tecera had some big brawling in the comeback followed a lot of quick switches and break-ups leading to the dives and the finish. Post match they brawled all over the place until the tecnicos finally cleared the ring. It probably all blurred together in the end, but left me and the crowd with a contented feeling that we got to see a pretty enjoyable, hard worked, highly competent match.

American Dragon vs. Johnny Storm ASW 2003

MD: This was a steep angle handheld from a fairly interesting venue in 2003. I think we might have had five minutes of this before? It's quite the ladder match actually, with both guys putting it all out there utilizing both the ladder and the interesting venue. All that and a pretty novel finish too. I liked the early crowd brawling, both for Storm being willing to bump big into the crowd and the way they slammed each other into walls and chairs and whatever they could find. When they made it back into the ring, Storm had a pretty clear agility advantage, so Danielson started a reasonable and sound period of focus on the leg. This began without the ladder in play but eventually he used it. Storm made a valiant effort, given the physical strain required of him, to sell that leg for most of the rest of the match. That didn't stop him from hitting both a revenge dropkick into the chair right between Danielson's legs and some big ladder assisted offense (and bumping) as he came back and they went down the stretch. There was a precious moment where Dragon crashed Storm into the ladder in hte corner from behind and then hit a dragon suplex as the ladder, moving Storm out of the way of a falling ladder at the last possible moment, a great visual. The finish had Storm unhook the belt, but Danielson kicked the the ladder out from him at the perfect moment and both Storm and belt went tumbling down. Danielson caught the latter (being the belt) and seems to have stolen it from that. You wouldn't want to see that finish twice but it worked the once. This was twenty years ago and before everything under the sun had been hit and hit again in matches like these. The ladder was rickety and the match didn't revolve around complex, highly choreographed spots. I don't think they could have had the same match five years before or five years later. It definitely captured a moment in time and captured it well.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: BWO v. Rocky/Sato

57. Dick Togo/Shiryu vs. Hikaru Sato/Rocky Kawamura Tokyo Gurentai 11/28

PAS: Togo and Shiryu come out in their BWO gear, which is a bizarre 90s gimmick to have remained relevant. Sato is a quasi shoot guy who hung around end of the road BattlArts and had a great match with Togo on his retirement tour, Rocky Kawamura is a bald guy doing a Rocky 3 gimmick, USA flag trunks and boxing gloves, it obviously limits what he can do in the ring, but he had some nice combos. The initial Shiryu v. Sato matwork was really slick, and KDX had a nice double flip dive, but most of the fun meat in this match was Togo v. Rocky. Being a wrestling genius Togo has a bunch of funs spots to work around a guy with boxing gloves, Dick starts out with a Inoki v. Ali sprawl, as he doesn't stand with Rocky, just lies on the mat kicking his thighs, fun callback to puro history. There final showdown though was awesome, with Dick throwing good looking pro-wrestling punches and Rocky landing big boxing combos. As an ex-golden gloves guy, I feel confident in critiquing Rocky's stance, way too flat footed, but I did like his lead right hook. Not a high end MOTY kind of thing, but I sure did enjoy it.

ER: A lot to unpack with this one. Have Shiryu/Togo literally just kept their BWO midriff tops for 20 years? Those are not new shirts. I know when I tried to get one 15+ years ago in college the prices were already ridiculous. It's not like you can just hop online and get a 20 yr old BWO shirt whenever you want to work some tiny indy on your comeback tour. Those have to be the same damn shirts. And while I'm thinking about a wrestler keeping a midriff top accessible for 20 years and feel my heart fill with joy, then I'm reminded of just how amazing Togo's old Sato mask is. That's a gorgeous, top 10 all time mask right there. Togo just does nothing wrong. And he continues that in his wrestling as he turns in another classic comeback performance. Shiryu looked especially great on the mat, loved the shots of him standing on Rocky's wrist and stomping his arm in gross ways. Sato is also fun although his partner Rocky is problematic. He's working a gimmick that would fit right into "classic" Chikara, and Tokyo Gurentai has a guy whose name is "Chikara" so indy bullshit has truly come full circle! And for a guy working his Rocky 3 gimmick and wearing large gloves, he sure does throw a lot of bad punches. His short rights were nice but all his KO blows were lame. His wind up punches and huge uppercuts all landed short or off their mark. You have Togo throwing picture perfect punches and here's a boxer landing a KO uppercut to the right boob. But he's a pliable broomstick and doesn't slow down the action at all, Dick can still be Dick. Togo hits a boss somersault senton dive, drops his mean fist drop, works some shockingly great sequences with a guy like Rocky, and this whole thing was very easy to smile all throughout.

2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Dick Togo is the L. Ron Hubbard of the Cupboard

Sato/Shiryu/Great Sasuke vs. Gran Naniwa/Super Delfin/Jinsei Shinzaki AJW 11/20/94 - GREAT

This was a MPRO signature match on the All Japan Women's Big Egg Universe, and was a nifty version of their signature pre-KDX trios match. This was clearly meant to be a pallet cleanser for a long AJW show, and was more comedy focused then the stuff they were doing on their own shows. Still this shtick is great shtick, and Naniwa and Delfin have great comic timing with each other. Probably goes a bit long to be truly high end, but the finish run was pretty exciting with great dives by everyone including two nutty Sato dives with one being a tope where he almost goes vertical.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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Dick Togo Get it Cross State With the Grace of Maria

Dick Togo/Men's Teioh/Shoichi Funaki/Shiryu/TAKA Michinoku vs. Gran Hamada/Masato Yakushiji/Super Delfin/Gran Naniwa/Tiger Mask 4 MPRO 10/10/96 - EPIC

This is the most legendary Michinoku Pro match, and it was interesting to watch it with new eyes. It goes almost without saying that it is a great match. All three sections of the match were just classic. The early section with everyone matching up was special, everyone looked good, but I always love watching Togo flying around with Yakushiji, they are special dance partners, the Rogers and Astaire of lucha. When we moved into the KDX beatdown section, it was great to watch timing those five had on their combo moves, and the slambam finish was the kind of fired up cocaine bender you want, TAKA'S spaceman moonsault went into the sixth row, and Togo floated on his senton like a dirigible of fat ending in a Hindenburg style explosion. However, I think the fact that it went 40 minutes I initially saw as a benefit, I think it is a bit of hindrance here, it felt a bit flabby, and I think I prefer the tighter 20 minute version of this match. Also because this was a showcase, it had a little less specific story then some of the other matches, when you focus on everyone, you kind of focus on no one. Still minor quibbles to an epic match.

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It's Only One God and It's Only One Crown and It's Only Dick Togo that Can Stand on this Mound

SATO/Shiryu vs. TAKA Michinoku/Super Delfin MPRO 9/20/94 - GREAT

Not the fluid lucharesu showcase you might expect from this lineup, instead we get a violent beatdown by the SATO and Shiryu.  They run out and blitz TAKA and Delfin, throwing them violently all around the arena SATO (our boy Dick) takes TAKA out to the lobby and chucks him into a concrete post, slams him on a ping pong table and chokes him with some guys umbrella. They take Delfin out completely with a spiked tombstone on the floor, leaving them to brutalize TAKA 2 on 1. There is a great comeback moment where TAKA dropkicks them to the floor and hits his spaceman plancha, he goes back in the ring to dive on Togo again, and Shiryu just wastes him with a larait to the back of the head. They beat the ref for the hell of it, and then Terry Boy comes in and they do some neck compressing triple teams, before leaving TAKA in a heap. Too one sided to be an EPIC match, but man was this an nasty beat down, SATO and Shiryu look like killers.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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It's Been a Minute So They Ask Dick Togo Where The Fire Went, Kitchen Clean But He Still Got The Pilot Lit

Dick Togo/Men's Teioh/ Shoichi Funaki/Shiryu vs. Great Sasuke/Gran Hamada/Gran Naniwa/ Masato Yakushiji MPRO 12/20/96 - GREAT 

PAS: One of the odder structured of this killer run of matches. Funaki comes in with a wrapped knee and the technicos go after it violently, making him a non entity early, eventually he gets taken to the back by his team mates. You don't usually see the rudo team gutting out a man down advantage, and the match isn't really worked any different because of that. The structural weirdness is the only thing keeping this out of the epic camp, as the actual work was amazing. We get big gobs of Togo v. Yakushiji and Togo v. Hamada which are two of the greatest match ups in history. Hamada hits the single greatest spinning DDT I have ever seen, and Yakushiji almost trumps him with an awesome swan dive Mysterio rana, of course Dick Togo is on the receiving end of both. Men't Teiho is throwing bombs too, splattering Naniwa with a rolling elbow and a Saito suplex, and Sasuke delivers another reckless Sabuish "dead by 30" performance. Finish is the traditional wild adrenaline ride, everyone of these matches is the car chase scene from To Live and Die In LA if it was in a ring in a high school gym in Northeast Japan. 

Dick Togo/Yoji Anjo vs. Tomohiro Ishii/Koichiro Kimura WJ 6/29/03 - FUN 

PAS: Really awesome looking match on paper, as the team of Togo and Anjo is a dream I didn't know I had. It didn't really live up to it's promise as it was more of an undercard tag with some nice moments, then a legendary match. Togo was wrestling more of a heavyweight style as the match was lots of clubbering elbows and such. Yoji was the standout as he was kicking folks in the throat and ended the match with an awesome running european uppercut. I might have to seek out more World Japan Togo/Anjo, I could see them against the SAT's being perversely entertaining. 

Dick Togo vs. Billy Ken Kid 2/11/10 - EPIC 

PAS: One of the best individual performances of Togo's career. I don't get much of a sense of BKK at all, he takes a beating, has a couple of nice highspots, but I get the sense you could grab a guy out of a CZW undercard juniors scramble, slot him in this match and it would have been as good. This was Togo's show, he violently demolishes his opponent early, strutting and smirking as he beats the piss out of the kid. It really reminded of the best of 2010 LA PARK, the way he made an extended one sided beating compelling. He takes a crazy modified Slaughter ringpost bump to put Ken on offense and takes about three other lunatic bumps at other points to transfer momentum. They build the interference spots nicely, so when BKK clears Togo's gang out you really get a sense of catharsis. Normally juniors matches with this many nearfalls lose me, but they built enough goodwill and drama with the first 20 minutes, that they earned the ending they had. Excellent match, one folks should check out if they haven't seen. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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Dick Togo's Birds Eye View Got Him Channeling His Vision, Turns One to Two Now the Kilo Has A Sibling

Dick Togo/Men's Teioh/Shiryu vs. Gran Hamada/Super Delfin/Great Sasuke MPRO 1/14/97 - EPIC 

PAS: This is it right here. We start out with a more violent vibe then the traditional six man. Sasuke starts the fun by spin kicking Shiryu right in the sternum really fucking hard. KDX responds by taking it to the streets, and folks are getting hung off balconies and chucked into concrete walls. They get back into the ring and we get some truly breathtaking lucha. One beautiful exchange after another, I think Hamada v. Togo stood out for for me (man the arm drag Hamda pulls out was life changing), but all of the matchups were great. It ebbed and flowed, as multiple times they went to the floor and threw each other into chairs, and then went back to flying and flipping. Finish run was great as KDX did their thing, just decimating Sasuke with multiple big moves, ending of course with the portly man with goatee floating through the air 

Dick Togo/Ikuto Hidaka vs. Christopher Daniels/Donovan Morgan ROH 9/21/02 - FUN 

PAS: This is from the ROH tag tournament, in one of the earliest ROH shows. Match started out slowish, with a long heel control section with Daniels and Morgan (who should have been Team Receding Hairline). This was a little dull, although solid, but there was a reason that Morgan didn't have a long ROH run. Pretty much everything after the Togo hot tag was pretty great stuff, as they built a really hot finish. Hidaka looked especially good here, as I loved his spinning DDT into the rope choke. Togo pretty much stuck to his signature stuff, it all looked good, but watching all of this Togo I can tell when he is mixing it up, and he wasn't here. Still good stuff, and definitely got the crowd amped up. 

Dick Togo/Jado/Gedo/Katsushi Takemura vs. Jushin Thunder Liger/El Samurai/Wataru Inoue/American Dragon NJPW 11/30/03 - GREAT 

PAS: This is an elimination match worked with the same rules as all of the awesome elimination tags on the NJ 80's set. This match was cruising along at a mid range level for the first half or so. We got to see a little of Danielson v. Togo which is the most on paper intriguing match up. Danielson was pretty much doing his 3rd generation Dynamite Kid shtick, which really isn't the most interesting use of him. I did really like the Gedo v. Dragon stuff, they had really good chemistry. Still the match didn't pick up until we get some eliminations, and Jushin Liger decides he wants to be Abdullah the Butcher. The heel team removes the ringpad, but predictably it backfires and Gedo gets cut open on the ring bolt. Liger just goes nuts at this point, biting Gedo's bloody head, jabbing him with a spike, all of a sudden this pleasant little juniors match has gotten NSFW. After those two get eliminated we get to see Togo run throw his cool shit with Inoue, although the finish felt a little hackneyed. Still Liger as the Sheik is never going to get too big a complaint out of me. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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Since Yeah Tall, Dick Togo was MJG With That 8-Ball

Dick Togo/Men's Teioh/Shiryu v.s Great Sasuke/Masato Yakushiji/Gran Hamada MRPO 10/19/96 - EPIC

Fuck it, Masato Yakushiji is the lost great junior of the 1990's. He is so great in this match as the whipping boy for the dastardly heels, taking a big beating and firing back with cool looking slickly executed offense. He and Togo are probably the best married opponents in MPRO, with Togo and Hamada right behind them, and we get big chunks of both here. Hamada's sky high rana eaten by Dick Togo is maybe the best looking paired offensive move in wrestling history, Hamada looks like a cartoon character getting shot out of a rocket and when he lands he whips Togo around like a tilt a whirl. Finish run was really exciting with the really cool MPRO thing of offensive moves coming out of weird corners. We even got a little crowd brawling to start the match with Sasuke taking awkward bumps through swinging doors. Though Shiryu was a little subdued, but otherwise this was as good as it gets.

Dick Togo/Ikuto Hidaka vs. Low-Ki/Spanky Z-1 2/19/04 - GREAT

Four guys with really cool spots, doing a bunch of really cool spots. For a guy who was so inspired by Japan, Ki never had a Puro match anywhere near the level of his best US Indy stuff, this didn't have much substance but was a pretty sweet junior sprint. Ki and Togo have a couple of early standoffs which were really great looking, I especially dug how Ki worked in the Santo headscissors. That felt like a singles match ROH should have run in 2004. Ki was a little over the top with his mugging and posing, which is something that he a did in Japan. Spanky is a guy who does everything well, nothing spectacularly. The big run finish was a big run finish, with everyone hitting their signature big spots, and finishing with a sweet firebird splash/frog splash one two punch.

Dick Togo vs. Hideyoshi Osaka Pro 6/28/09 - EPIC

This is the first real out of nowhere hidden gem I have unearthed for this project. I don't know much about Osaka Pro, and have never seen Hideyoshi before and really know nothing about him, but this was a damn good singles match. Hideyoshi is a bigger dude (for Japanese indy wrestling, he is probably 5'9 180) and he takes large parts of this match with nice power moves including a sweet looking powerslam, and nice jackhammer. Togo is great as a guy fighting from below. There is a part where he does these awesome wild missed swings, while Hideyoshi cockishly moves out of the way of. Finish run was pretty crazy with lots of interference from seconds, Hideyoshi's finisher is a crossface cobra clutch, and he gets some big near falls with it, especially after lifting his knees on a senton which was brutal. Togo uses a Billy Ken Kid chairshot to hit a tornado pedigree and the senton for the big win. which really felt like he came through a war.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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Dick Togo's Heating Up Like They Wrapped Him In Flannel, Selling Kilos From Your IPOD Nano

Sato/Great Sasuke/Shiryu vs. Super Delfin/Gran Naniwa/Jinsei Shinzaki MPRO 2/4/94 - EPIC 

PAS: Pretty much a perfectly executed MPRO formula six man. It has everything you expect, the intricate lucha armdrags and ranas, the signature comedy spots, the crazy dive train. When these guys get on this kind of roll, it really is something special. Man 1994 Sato (Togo) is one of the most athletic impressive wrestlers in history, the speed and agility he executes his stuff is incredible. He and Delfin match up to start the match, and their exchanges are at Gods Must Be Crazy speed. Sato also wins the dive train which is pretty impressive considering the company he keeps. We get Shiryu and Naniwa next, and they have a more mat based match up, with Shiryu ripping off some really quick amateur rides. It had been a long time since I have seen the Naniwa/Delfin MX arm wringer spot, but man do those guys execute it perfectly. Delfin is great as a cocky douche really getting into working over the arm, and Naniwa is also great as a guy sad and angry at always being a schlemiel. Outside of one awkward Shinzaki spot (and honestly he didn't bring a ton to this) this was textbook stuff, and exactly the kind of thing I fell in love with when I first saw it. 

Dick Togo/Great Sasuke/Nobutaka Moribe vs. Ikuto Hidaka/Minoru Fujita/Macho Pump MPRO 8/22/04 - GREAT 

PAS: Elimination cage match which was relatively uneventful except for a couple of huge moments. Your non FEC team was pretty vanilla and dull, Macho Pump especially is a guy who has never contributed positively to any wrestling match I have seen him in. Most of the action in the match was punch and kick stuff, and not done particularly well. The huge moments were pretty huge though. Fujita hits a nice looking Superfly splash off the cage, Sasuke is battling with Fujita on the top of the cage and basically takes a Shawn Micheals style HIC bump backwards off the cage, and Togo ends the match with a top of the cage senton which is a top five in wrestling history cage dive. Just amazing looking. Feels like what was memorable was memorable enough to recommend the match relatively highly. Dick Togo/Ikuto Hidaka v. Gedo/Jado Riki Pro 1/17/10-FUN 2010 Gedo and Jado both have weirdly oiled up muscled bodies and dark tans, they should find Chapparita Asari, have her grow a poof and work Jersey Shore gimmicks. Good stuff in this, both Gedo and Togo looked great. Togo did a couple of really tremendous moves, I love how he floats mid air with his in ring somersault senton. Gedo does all of the small things really well, punches, bumping and superkicks. Hidaka and Jado didn't bring much at all though, outside of a minute or so of solid Hidaka matwork. Crowd was completely dead, and parts of this fell flat, had a real undercard house show feel, like they were going through the motions. Worth watching for Togo and Gedo, but falls short of a strong recommendation. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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Dick Togo Conversates a Bit About Your DNA, and His Salmon Suit From the VMAs

Dick Togo/Shoichi Funaki/Danny Collins/Shiryu vs. Gran Hamada/Super Astro/Alexander Otsuka/Super Delfin MPRO 9/23/96 - GREAT 

PAS: What an awesome weirdo lineup, it was like someone took a bag of my favorite wrestlers, shook it up, and drew eight out at random. Your MPRO regulars were as great as usual, Shiryu was just blindingly fast at this point, his flip out of the german suplex looks like it is in 8X fast forward. Hamada wasn't featured, but man is his signature stuff beautiful, that high rana he hits is just crazy, how he can get such ups off of such stumpy legs is a mystery. Your special guest stars were all awesome. Collins is a stubby little pissed off British guy, he wrestle similar to Dynamite Kid at his best, all nasty knees to the face, uppercuts, suplexes and scowls. Otsuka is a little out of his element, but we got to him rock some sweet mat wrestling with Shiryu and chuck some folks with suplexes. If anyone is tailor made to be thrown into a 96 MPRO 8 man it is Super Astro, he is such a breathtaking wrestler, and watching him and Togo match up is a portly dream match. Two tiny pot bellied men moving with a totally unexpected grace and beauty. Stunning stuff. Dick Togo/Men's Teiho v. El Hijo Del Santo/Super Delfin MPRO-11/10/96-FUN Perfectly enjoyable professional wrestling, although ultimately disappointing. Santo v. Togo is such a tremendous on paper match up, but it never really kicked into the next gear. This was worked much more like a Puro tag, rather then the awesome lucha tag it should have been. There were a couple of nifty moments where Santo and Togo do some rope running and we get to see Santo rip off a headscissors and see Togo fly for them. Still Santo felt like a bit of an afterthought, and the match was mostly Delfin being worked over by KDX. Again I want to judge the match on what it was, not what it should have been, but it is hard considering how good it should have been. 

Dick Togo/Sonjay Dutt v. Alex Shelley/Masato Tanaka Z-1 3/15/05 - FUN 

PAS: Lots to like in this match, but enough to hate to drop it below great status. This is a TLC match and those are what they are. Match starts out looking like the weird bifurcated Santo/Onita matches from LA with Togo and Tanaka doing some nasty brawling on the floor, with Togo sprinklering blood out of his head, meanwhile in the ring Dutt and Shelly are running through their horseshit. Match gets better when Tanaka and Shelly double team Dutt smashing him through tables and such. Togo makes an awesome hot tag, with a bloody white towel wrapped around his head like zombie Lawrence of Arabia. He just explodes with an awesome run of offense ending with a phenomenal tope con hilo That was the high point of the match, as the rest is a bunch of prop bumps, some of them cool, some of them awkward. Hard to avoid getting drawn in at points, also hard to be drawn out. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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Dick Togo's Kilos Came, Gave You Bobby Brown Jaw

Dick Togo/Men's Teioh/Shiryu/Shoichi Funaki/TAKA Michinoku v. Great Sasuke/Gran Hamada/Naohiro Hoshikawa/Masato Yakushiji/Super Delfin Inoki Produce 12/1/96 - EPIC

This is one of the lesser know MPRO 10 man tags, but it was right there with all of them quality wise. The match took a bit to get rolling, as they worked more strikes then fast rope running exchanges. It gots kicking though when Togo and Yakushiji match up. They are really one of the most breathtaking pairings in wrestling history, the speed and precision with which they execute their ranas, armdrags and headscissors are without peer. Sasuke and Funaki have a couple of really fun shootstylish face offs too, which was unexpected, and Gran Hamada is Gran Hamada. The finish run was amazing, it reminded me of the last 25 minutes of Children of Men with mayhem and insanity exploding when you least expect it. Guys were hitting crazy dives with minimal set up, some thing insane would come out of the corner of your eye. Yakushiji won the death race with a tope over the ringside table, where he ended up completely vertical. You also had pretty perfectly timed pin break ups, as guys would be swooping in at the absolute last moment. Our man Dick gets the win with his unparalleled senton as he is suspended in air like a parade float only to land like boulder.

Dick Togo v. Steve Regal WWF 11/28/98 - FUN

An entertaining competitive squash which would have been perfect on a WCW Worldwide. Regal is vicious here really working over Togo's leg with a variety of nasty leg locks. He really had a Fuchish torturer vibe about him. I remember the Real Man's Man Regal as the pilled up nadir of his career, but looked pretty awesome, I have to see what else from that era is floating around the internet. Offense was suitably nasty, and bumped well for Togo's comebacks. Dick felt a little constricted here (man it is going to be tough to write these reviews without resorting to cheap jokes), he got a couple of runs, but I would have liked to see him go toe to toe with Regal a little more, they way someone like Psicosis or Villano IV would on the Pro, still he is an awesome Mario Mancini.

Dick Togo/TAKA Michinoku v. Madoka/Kota Ibushi K-Dojo 12/1/07 - GREAT

21st century juniors tag wrestling is very much not my thing, but this is about as good as this style gets. Togo and TAKA are in full on MX mode in the first part of this match. Working over the ladyboy Fantastics, cutting off the ring, poking them in the eyes, smirking and kicking ass. The really work over Madoka, and Togo is especially great at kicking the shit out of a guy in an entertaining way. Ibushi and Madoka take a beating well, and kick hard, so they were fine here. TAKA seems to have lost a little off his athletic fastball by 2007, but Togo is as fast, crisp and fluid as ever. The last ten minutes or so was the near fall fest that you would expect, it lacked the egregious kick outs which often kill a match like this for me , and they did some pretty cool shit. I especially liked the part of the match where TAKA tied up Madoka in a crossfaces and kept switching arms when he went for the ropes. Finish run could have used two minutes shaved off in the middle, and a bigger close, but it never lost me and I stayed entertained throughout.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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