Found Footage Friday: Universal Pro Wrestling 1992~!

Bulldog KT (Gedo)/Pat Tanaka/Villano IV vs. Coolie SZ (Jado)/Lightning Kid/Jerry Lynn Universal Pro 8/18/92

MD: It's important you know that Lynn and co. come out to Don't Cry by Asia. Also that Pat Tanaka is a huge jerk in this match and I'm all for it. They did a lot in 20+ minutes over three falls. It was fun to see Villano work with Lynn (bounding fast exchanges) and Kid (hitting him really, really hard and then taking all of Waltman's karate bs). The heels worked together well, lots of setting a babyface up for a double team or single shot. There were some nice pushes by Tanaka, on a suplex to give it extra oomph and then to set up the finish by basically shoving a victory rolling Lynn and Villano out of the ring. Gedo and Jado generally worked together but their stuff looked practiced, solid, and usually pretty mean. After coming back from a relatively long, cycled beatdown, Lynn broke up a hold on Kid and they hit a tandem missile dropkick/Northern Lights. Second fall had some funnier stuff from Lynn as he tossed Tanaka into the corner and Tanaka twisted twice on the way and then got down on his hands and knees and dog barked Gedo out of the ring. But it came back together for the fireworks down the stretch. 

ER: I was pretty blown away by this, a frenetically based long three falls match where every guy is working fast and hitting harder. Everyone had standout moments, with Jerry Lynn being the guy who blew me away the most. Lynn looked ready to work any promotion in the world, breezing into Japan and working smoking hot dodging and tumbling sequences with Villano IV, throwing perfect snug execution on everything he attempted. His offense makes extravagant bumps look necessary. When he hits a dropkick to Villano IV, it makes sense that it sends him flying out of the ring; when he blasts Pat Tanaka with a clothesline, he swings it so hard that it makes Tanaka's inside out flip bump seem like the natural way to get eaten by that clothesline. Everything Lynn did was crisp, established the pacing of the match, and followed through to logical match building conclusions. When I say I was blown away, I mean it. Jerry Lynn is a guy who I view as a known quantity. We've all seen many JL matches, we all know he's talented, the industry respects him, he's worked everywhere, etc. But seeing Lynn here is like seeing him for the first time, seeing things he was capable of that never defined his style. Lynn really could do it all...but I don't know how often I've seen him doing It better than he does here. 

The thing is, everyone kind of comes off that way. Jado and Gedo as beefed up Mr. Perfect Singlet Boys is the most interesting version of them in the 90s. I love the wave of T&C Surf Designs inspired Japanese indy wrestlers of the late 80s/early 90s, from the surf punks surrounding the ring in the most violent late 80s FMW Different Style bouts, to these two beefy Malibu boys in their mullets and surf suits. It's unfathomable to me that 1992 Jado and Gedo had great clotheslines, but video doesn't lie. Jado throws a top rope clothesline as hard as Ikeda ever threw, and that's arguably the toughest clothesline to throw well. Gedo blows up Jado with a clothesline that would get Tenryu's attention, and it's a wildly more interesting version of themselves than all their bad juniors wrestling the rest of the decade. 

If Pat Tanaka was a real jerk - he was! - then Villano IV might have been an outright sadist. This man was in his late 20s and a physical danger. If I praised Lynn's execution, then V4 deserves the same praise. Everything he does has such force behind it. He has these cool kneedrops, where he starts from a kneeling position and drives a knee into his opponent's temple, and I'm not sure I've ever seen legdrops thrown with more force. I didn't think you could get such impact from a standing legdrop, but Villano made them look like real finishers. 

But the thing that really stood out in a match filled with standouts, was Villano IV and Lightning Kid starting off the third fall with a literal shoot fight on the floor. I couldn't tell why it escalated, but they clearly start throwing increasingly harder and harder shots during a routine sequence. I don't know the exact moment it turned unprofessional, but Villano knocked Kid to the floor and Kid came up throwing elbows meant to crack jaws, and Villano recognized the intent behind those elbows immediately and landed five straight punches to Kid's face and head. This all happened within 15 seconds, where a hard Villano club to the back turned into a Kid shoot elbow, and suddenly Kid was fleeing while wisely shielding his face as Villano finds every uncovered part and lands every punch he throws. No idea what happened, but there's no mistaking those punches for worked, and whatever might have happened didn't affect Kid's big comeback in the tercera, which played as great retribution. Villano IV stood in for spin kicks and cooperated to make it look like a strong comeback, taking all of his kicks and making the decision to not punch him directly in the face, again. 

Gran Hamada/Panterita del Ring vs. Shu el Guerrero/Scorpio Jr. Universal Pro 8/18/92

MD: Shu and Scorpio come out to Simply Irresistible. Good for them. Anyway, I struggle a little with matches like this. There's just not a ton to say. There were 12+ minutes of bits/spots to start, and they were good! A lot of them were really good. But do I just list them? There wasn't a lot of rhyme or reason to them. There was a little bit of progression with early matwork, but after that, it was off into bit-land. Yes, Shu based well. Yes, Scorpio had some moments of stooging, including a great one where Pandrita was able to roll through on something, drive him out, and force him to walk down the ramp hands up in retreat so there was no dive. There was a great bit where Shu swiped away a Panterita dropkick and slapped his chest repeatedly only to end up in the corner for a knee driving headscissors takeover. Hamada in general looked like a million bucks. Then they had a few minutes of beatdown which was, again good (really liked a catapult where Shu choked Hamada down onto Scorpio's knees), and a comeback with a strike exchange and some big dives, before Shu scored a clutch powerbomb and a pretty swank tied up pin. Definitely good action. A lot of character and personality. Super entertaining. I'm sure DEAN would have been able to write the hell out of this. But all I can do is bear witness.

Kendo/Great Sasuke vs. Rocky Santana/Super Delfin Universal Pro 8/18/92

MD: This was the main event, 2/3 falls. By the way, the first match on the show, that we don't have, is Black Magic vs Rey Bucanero. Though it's 92 Bucanero so he was like 12. Ah well. Kendo comes out with a soccer type shirt with himself on it. The fans are immediately behind him.

The initial Kendo vs. Santana and Sasuke vs. Delfin exchanges (two times) are a lot of fun. Nice tricked out back and forth with Kendo and Santana where they both hit the mat hard and Sasuke being insanely flexible against Delfin. Some nice comedic bits in there as well, like Santana getting skidded out and Kendo sliding out to invite him back in and Santana faceplanting a few times. It's mostly friendly though Delfin takes (and misses) a swipe at one point. The fall ends with the pairings getting switched up and Sasuke flying off the top on both Santana and Delfin leading to a funny bit where they toss Kendo off and Sasuke tosses him back on until he finally sits on all of them for the pin.

Second fall switches the pairings for real, with Delfin falling for all of Kendo's tricks and Santana feeding for Sasuke. The rudos take over though and run a beatdown on one than the other than the first again. They tease a comeback but Delfin gets a tornado DDT and locks up Kendo for the pin. After that, Kendo gets rolled out of the ring hurt, and I thought this was going to turn into a different sort of match. It lets the de facto rudos control for a bit but Kendo just comes back in pissed a few minutes later and he gets into the most ridiculous kneeling strike exchange with Santana that I've ever seen. They whack each other, then fall over backwards then get counted and pop back up and do it some more. It goes on for quite a while and it is a crowd pleaser. After that, they pop right into dives with Sasuke knocking everyone out with the Space Flying Tiger Drop to get the countout win. Definitely fun. Might have been interesting to see it take a more grisly turn but that's not what they were doing here. 

ER: I love these proto-MPro matches where you can see the style almost fully gestated, the lightheartedness with the stiffness, the innovative movement with the strong lucha inspiration. I love Rocky Santana within this world. He understood the kind of regional lucha comedy that would crossover well to Japanese Indies, while also working stiff enough to capture the attention of the rest of the crowd. They laughed when Santana charged into the ring and tripped on the bottom rope, face planting into the ring and crying to the ref for support. When he did the exact same thing in the second fall, they ate it up, fully understanding his vibe. He bases as well as Hamada and moves the same, but he'll also break down and start punching people. The whole match building to a long stretch where Kendo and Santana kneel in front of each other and do several minutes of stiff punches, comedy punches, and exhausted punches, is brilliant. We've all seen enough "two men throwing strikes with no defense" at this point, but it's crazy how many innovative versions of that exist on small lucha shows and Japanese Indies. This exchange starts normal...until the strikes start becoming unexpected, sometimes silly, sometimes mean, thrown in a totally unpredictable rhythm. It looked like Kendo and Santana were playing some kind of memory game that nobody else knew the rules to, and this memory game involved being punched in the jaw, ear, and neck. I've never seen an exchange like it, one that had multiple goals and just kept going until everyone in the building was on board. That's wrestling, baby. 

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Found Footage Friday: PUNK~! LOD~! DANDY~! SILVER KING~! SHU~! PANTHER~! SUPER PARKA~!

IWRG Retro 7/27/00

El Dandy/Silver King/Black Dragon vs. Shu el Guerrero/Mosco de la Merced/Hijo del Diablo

MD: VQ is tough with a lot of freezing but you can tell what's going on and the talent is so much here that you want to see it through. No real signature pairings here. I'd say that this was driven by the talent, energy, and star power on the tecnico side and structured accordingly. That meant in the primera, each tecnico got a chance to lean into rudo miscommunication and entertainingly fight them all off at once. There are things you'd note, like Silver King sliding across the ring or Dandy's punch or Black Dragon's crave dive at the end of the caida, but it was all good.

Rudos took over in the segunda after they teased pairings and they did the bit where they flip their opponents over and toss them into a kick in the corner. This could have probably used a couple more minutes, for once they hit the tecera, it was a quick reset and into in and out submissions and break-ups and really overall chaos with things breaking down. Finish had Dragon roll forward into a tapitia which you don't see often and Dandy hitting a jumping DDT for the win. Rudos did their job but this really was the tecnicos show, and even with the freezing, it was a good show.

ER: It's a shame this has so many freezes and bits of missing action because everything we get is really great. Everybody got their own moments to cook and I love a trios like this where everyone tries to take over the show the longer it goes. Mosco de la Merced and Hijo del Diablo were the real standouts to me but every brought something big. Silver King is so good at pushing pace and guys like Mosco and Diablo rise to that pace and it makes their bumps even crazier. The Segunda opening with King and Diablo really cooked, Diablo early on looking like the one guy in the match who was going to hang back and let everyone else handle things, building to him stooging and bumping as big as anyone. Mosco took at least four big bumps and worked comedy into half of them, including a great bit where he kept removing pieces of clothing while ramping up for a one on one confrontation, whipping his shirt and bandana into the crowd and firing up by almost removing his pants. Black Dragon is a guy who I literally only remember because of his incredible tope over/past the ringpost into the corner, which he hits beautifully here after pulling off a super smooth rana. His tope is one of the great lucha topes in history, one of those spots like Super Calo's slingshot senton that makes a luchador's career seem bigger than it really was. Shu el Guerrero is a total tank of a luchador, or dream build Valiente, but Mosco and Diablo handle all the toughest basing and catches. Shu's best bit of basing is sliding across the entire ring for a frankly breathtaking Dandy headscissors, Dandy getting full glorious extension and not tucking early, really making it look like he flung Shu 10 feet with his ankles and leverage. It would have been great to have the full uncut action (and crowd noise, and the actual screen presentation instead of the annoying TV screen aesthetic) but there's no denying the action we did see. 

Blue Panther vs. Super Parka

MD: WWA Title match. Parka's the champ. It's worked like a title match with just a bit of the dancing/histrionics from Parka, which he tends to pay for whenever he does. I liked the primera a lot. Nothing too tricked out but they kept close body contact for a lot of it in a way you don't always see in lucha matwork. It was all up tight and combative. Parka had advantage for a lot of it working over the arm. When they got moving towards the end of the caida, you had no idea who would get the ultimate advantage but Parka took it with a snap 'rana. 

Segunda was super short, but Panther won it with the old French Catch standard waistlock into a leg nelson (no roll). Not something you see every day, even from him. Then the tercera had all the bells and whistles and drama. Parka took out Panther's leg early and worked it over. Panther sold big on his comeback attempts. There was another 'rana for a nearfall and a long Cavernaria. Parka hit this amazing tope sending both of them over the barricade. Then Panther went for a submission and then pinned themselves. Only a couple of spotty moments VQ wise with the freezing, thankfully, as this was a very good title match to be unearthed. 

CM Punk/Doug Delicious vs. Legion of Doom WWE 5/13/03

MD: As WWE Vault stuff goes, this is better than something we already had, worse than if they had given it to us in full, and especially worse than giving us Omni shows or something. But it has its novelty and we should cover it, clipped as it is. Punk explaining that he had been on the banned list for doing a hammerlock DDT the night before gives his performance here color. Obviously, just in general facing the Road Warriors in this setting, he's going to do everything he could to stand out and bump and feed and stooge for them.

Since he was in hot water, however, he really went above and beyond, on from the get go. The fans absolutely loved seeing the LOD as a surprise and popped huge for them as Punk covered his head in shock in the ring. They cut out a lot of the stuff with Delicious and only give us Punk but I don't really mind that too much. He screamed as he went over for Animal's power slam and went sailing for the belly-to-belly throw. Hawk was totally on too, hitting his shoulder first post-bump to the floor. He even ate a Punk snap suplex. This isn't the first or hundredth thing I would have wanted, especially not clipped, but I was still smiling despite myself as I watched it, so I'll certainly take this sort of thing over nothing. 

ER: I was not actually expecting this to be really good but I have a feeling the full uncut match was actually quite good. I'm a big fan of 1998 LOD even though history says they were totally washed. Well, they were pretty washed, but Washed Legends is one of my favorite kinds of wrestler. 1998 Hawk was a particular favorite of mine. He wasn't lifting much anymore so he wasn't working as a power wrestler, so he just leaned into being a puncher with a couple of surprising big bumps. Hawk was a great puncher and a guy with great bumps, so it really felt like a super vulnerable version of the Road Warrior Hawk, boiled down to his most basics; still dangerous, now beatable. I loved it. It's a shame they were stuck feuding with DOA for most of the year during their final real run. I have a feeling that some good Hawk stuff was cut from this tag in cutting the Doug Delicious work, and that's a shame. I don't know much about Doug Delicious so maybe they were right to cut most of his work out of this, but I sure stood at attention when he lit Hawk the hell up with chops on the floor. I cannot imagine someone chopping either Road Warrior the way Doug was chopping Hawk in 1986 but this is 2003. That's the kind of things that makes vulnerable legends so compelling. They're on the way down and now fucking Doug Delicious is doing things that would have gotten greater men killed. 

Punk was great in this, reminded me again of why I liked him so much during this era. He bumped huge for everything the LOD did and even sold their entrance music. He fed really well for them both and I was pretty shocked at the amount of offense he got. The snap suplex on Hawk was a real surprise, but I liked how he worked the match as a guy who really belonged in the ring with the Road Warriors and not just a stooge who just lied on the mat in between moves. He set up Hawk's ringpost bump perfectly, moving out of the way at the last second so it made it look like an actual miss and not a set up bump, and Hawk spills past the apron to the floor as well as any of those times a missed western lariat sent Stan Hansen tumbling to the floor. I thought Animal looked good here too, taking on the bulk of the match (well, at least the way the match was edited) and I thought his movement looked strong. That leaping elbowdrop was fire and they each seemed real pumped at the crowd's loud reaction and chanting for them. WWE always hated the idea of bringing back older legends to work undercards but I wish we had years of All Japan old men matches on the undercards of house shows, it would have been incredible. They only viewed people on what they could potentially add to the top of the card but any time they brought back an older name and just plopped them in the third match it worked perfectly. I needed more runs like the Tatanka or, well, Road Warrior Animal mid-2000s Smackdown run. 

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Found Footage Friday: Lucha Calm before the Lucha Storm: ECLIPSE~! FLASH~! ARQUEROS~! TEMERARIOS~! TERRY~! SKAYDE~! AND FRIENDS~!

Flash I vs. Eclipse 1990s Arena Coliseo Guadalajara

MD: We're sitting on Roy's recent uploads but I'd like to get a better sense of the big picture on them before we figure out how to tackle them. In the meantime, Rob found some things looking around and they're worth covering.

This, for instance, is a lost mask match and they really threw themselves into it given that it was just one fall. Flash had recently gone rudo, as best as I can tell, and he took it to Eclipse immediately, tearing the mask and ripping at his face. Eclipse came back fairly early into a solid beatdown with a quebradora and the rest of the match was pretty hot with finishes. The struggle on holds was particularly good since there was no room for error. They weren't giving one another much of anything. If Eclipse hesitated for a moment, Flash would fight his way away. Flash had an overall advantage due to a rudo ref (Mario), looking the other way for Flash's second to interfere and slow-counting.

Eclipse probably won on points. He was able to lock in more holds, to target Flash's leg a bit, and whenever Flash had an advantage, he found a way to come back. He had a spectacular springboard moonsault into the ring that was stymied by the worst slow count of the match. The finish was controversial as Flash caught Eclipse with an electric chair back off the top and an immediate double underhook submission but Eclipse claimed not to have tapped out. These were two guys who knew they had the spotlight and leaned hard into it.

Los Arqueros (Danny Boy/Lasser/Robin Hood) vs. Los Temerarios (Black Terry/Jose Luis Feliciano/Shu El Guerrero) Mexican National Trios Titles UWA 1/21/90

MD: Once upon a time, I tried to get the Shu el Guerrero vs Robin Hood mask match. I failed. But Rob found this and we're glad for it.It has no sound, has some clips, and is pretty grainy (and yeah, I'm not always the best at telling Danny Boy and Lasser apart), but it's a lot of fun.

Primera had very strong pairings, a lot of competitive matwork with clever escapes. I wouldn't say that was quite the same with Shu and Robin Hood. They were still competitive but there was more oomph and less flash to it all. The refs sure liked to raise their hands after every exchange, but in my head canon, Shu won the fall for his side by dropkicking Robin Hood into submission. The segunda sped things up which benefitted the tecnicos. Picture perfect placement in basing by Los Temerarios helped though. They went back to the mat with different pairings for a lengthy tercera. Lots of really tricked out high drama stuff before everything broke down for the tandem moves, dives, and and exciting sides evening finish that brought it back to Shu and Robin Hood. They hit big stuff and leaped from high places on one another before a clutch pin out of nowhere (a clutch clutch) to end it. Just a very complete, very straightforward title match worked more or less clean but with clear animosity. Still, it'd be nice to see that mask match.

PAS: So cool that lucha like this keeps showing up. This is a classic trios match from 33 years ago which gives us a long chance to look at some cool wrestlers who we don't have a ton of footage of. Shu feels like a guy who might have a Navarro/Panther reputation if we had more available. He is built like a mailbox and is great at basing and putting on cool submissions. Robin Hood is another member of the Alvarado family (Brazos) and they have awesome wrestlers on ever branch of that family tree. This feels like the first match of series and I really want to see the next match which probably got chippier, still amazing that we got a chance to watch this.

Skayde/Vortize/Aztlan/Kanon vs. Black Terry/Dragon Celestial/Emperador Azteca/Fulgor I IWRG 2/26/14

MD: We have so much lucha ahead of us in the weeks to come, but a match like this reminds me so crisply and so clearly why I love it so much. It's structured in such a serene way. The primera has the initial exchanges: matwork, gamesmanship, the individual characters clashing against one another, building to a big moment of action. It gave us a tease of the captains (Terry and Skayde) against each other but just that. It gave us a little bit of animosity but never boiled over.

Then the segunda went from measured exchanges to quicker (and different) pairings, rope running, flowing action, still with clear resets. We actually get one dive at the end, again a tease for the tercera, and an abrupt finish. Then in the tercera, there are meaningful punctuated moments that are broken up as wrestlers flow into the match one after the other, all building to finding some way to get to Skayde vs Black Terry. They have a pointed exchange but even that's just a tease as it leads to the final dives to clear the ring for a finish that pushes things off for matches to come. So this match could exist in a format that was standard but with specifics that met the moment and the wrestlers therein. It's not even my favorite form of lucha, which is much more focused on beatdowns and revenge after that beautiful, built to, reacted to moment of comeback. But it's still wonderful and still has so much of the anticipation and payoff and aristry.

As for specific pairings, I really liked Aztlan and Dragon Celestial in the primera and Skayde and Dragon in the segunda. I'd love to see more of that second match up. There was a nice bit of chippiness throughout, especially when Terry was in there, but for Emperador Azteca and Kanon too. I'm not sure I had a sense of the overall direction of the feud but, this type of lucha is so universal that you can jump in and enjoy yourself.

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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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New Footage Friday: New AAA 4/30/95!

PAS: Roy Lucier continues to do yeoman's work uncovering lost classic stuff, including this AAA show which wasn't in circulation.

AAA 4/30/95

Mascarita Sagrada/Ninjita vs. Los Espectritos (Espectrito I/Espectrito II) 

MD: Fun, long minis match. I'm generally a stickler for the standards in lucha, 2 out of 3 falls matches, both parties getting pinned in tag matches, etc., but I probably would make exceptions for minis matches. This was standard structure and I'm not sure it helped things. The timing on the pinfalls didn't do anyone favors. The finish, instead of being dramatic with Mascarita Sagrada sneaking in a pin, had to be extended to Ninjita getting pulled back in by MS post-dive for the countout. Plus it was all more back and forth without that serene lucha moment of comeback (I could see them saving that for later in the card). Little things. That said, the match still worked, and a lot of that was due to the credibility of both sides. The Espectritos (especially I) were great bullies, great bases, able to take back over at a moment's notice or sneak in a well-timed bit of interference to keep the advantage. There was a power bomb in there where Espectrito I just picked up MS like he was nothing at all. And the tecnicos could believably take back over at a moment's notice, turning literally any physical contact into an arm drag just like that. For the first half of this we had a bunch of Ninjita when you really wanted MS in there, but halfway through the segunda we got what we wanted and he was spectacular. This took up most of the first quarter of the two-hour show and I can't imagine anyone complaining about too much it.

PAS: This was cool stuff, you don't normally see minis get this much time, and the Espectritos have plenty of stuff to fill that time. They just toss Mascarita Sagrada around like he is a wrestling buddy, Espectrios are both little people, but it looks like Rey vs. The Big Show when they are in there with Mascarita. Both technicos of course are armdragging and ranaing machines. Most mini's matches of this era have a pretty high baseline, and this doesn't push it pass that level but no shame in that. 

Aguila de Acero/Super Calo/Winners vs Los Diabolicos (Angel Mortal/Marabunta/Mr. Condor) 

MD: Fairly complete trios match here. I was definitely higher on the Diabolicos than the tecnicos. They were a well oiled machine, both feeding early in the primera and especially during the beatdown in the segunda. Some timing issues from the tecnicos, not getting up on the ropes at the right time, coming into the ring too early during the beatdown and having to stand around, Aguila de Acero coming into the ring too late for the fast count finish which meant the submission lasted way too long. I didn't mind the finish otherwise. When you're looking at this as a card instead of a bunch of individual matches, you need to switch things up and while it got over Pepe Casas more than any of the wrestlers, it's obvious the fans were pretty happy by it. Also, there were a couple of good dives to set it up and a nice tangible feeling of mild dread when post-dives, it ended up two on one for Calo.

Los Power Raiders (Power Raider Azul/Power Raider Blanco/Power Raider Negro/Power Raider Rojo/Power Raider Verde) vs. Heavy Metal/Juventud Guerrera/Karloff Lagarde Jr./Perro Silva/Picudo 

MD: Yeah, this was a mess. You knew it'd be a mess coming in but it wasn't as fun of a mess as I was hoping. The rudo side controlled most of the match, with little hope spots peppered in and there was a lot of talent there but they just didn't mesh. A long beatdown is fine, good even, if the rudos are on the same page and if they keep things moving and interesting. Here they kept Verde in there for way too long and there were a bunch of moments where Juvi just seemed at a loss. He was teaming with Lagarde and he'd hop up on the second rope to do something, and Lagarde would take things in another direction and he'd just have to hop back off. That sort of thing. The focus of the finish was on Perro Silva and Rojo but given the rules of the match, they were absent for most of it. I'm not saying there's not a situation where that could work but I don't think this was it. When things were moving, this was fine, but if this was going to be chaos anyway, I'd actually want more and not less.

La Parka vs. Jerry Estrada - FUN

PAS: This had been out there on a AAA yearbook, but I hadn't seen it before so I figured I would write it up. This was mostly a Tirantes match, which is about my least favorite kind of lucha. Most of the match was focused on Tirantes slow counting for Parka and fast counting for Estrada.  We did get three crazy Parka dives, an almost Sabuish flip dive off the top, a great tope, and a big plancha. Estrada hits a crazy tope into the second row, so we did get a lot of good even with all of the Tirantes. 

El Hijo del Santo/Octagon/Perro Aguayo/Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Blue Panther/Psicosis/Scorpio Jr/Shu El Guerrero

MD: The good stuff. As always, when you get this level of talent and experience and charisma in the ring, it really can't go wrong. Even Perro, who was more physically limited at this point, is such a character, so hard hitting, so spirited and fun that you just can't look away. He's such a folk hero, out there slapping hands on the way to the ring, and then mentoring Rey later. Rey's amazing, of course. What stands out the most to me is how comfortable and willing he is in his role. There's no sense at all of a Napoleon Complex. He doesn't veer in the least, leaning into all of his strengths and vulnerabilities (which are, of course, narrative strengths). Panther hammed it up against Octagon and showed flashes later, like hitting the double stomp or a huge slap on Perro as insult to injury. He was so broad and versatile in the 90s and doesn't get a lot of credit for that anymore relative to his maestro rep. Santo was smooth as could be. Shu was a great bully and Scorpio a perfectl y acceptable stooge, and even Octagon didn't bug me much. Of course, Psicosis was the guy I really wanted to see and he didn't disappoint. Just the perfect mix of basing (feeding and catching Rey) and attitude (shadow boxing on the apron) and flash (amazing twisting senton to end the segunda). It doesn't have a real finish but since it has an awesome and brutal surprise angle, it's hard to be too upset about that.

PAS: Just a murderer's row of legendary all time great luchadores (and Octagon, although he is fine here). I really loved the first fall, with tremendous exchange after tremendous exchange, including some great Rey vs. Psicosis stuff, ending with one of my favorite Star finishes ever, with Perro running around stomping all of the guys in the star. Rudo beatdown in the second and beginning of the third fall was nifty if a bit formless, and we get a wild finish run with tons of crazy dives, and constant switching of the camera from one bit of mayhem to another. Santo/Negro angle at the end was really cool, and pretty unexpected. Too bad Santo's family put a kibosh on the gimmick, because what potential that had. 

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New Footage Friday: Dandy, Shu, Takada, Kobyashi, Armstrongs and Horsemen

Bob Armstrong/Brad Armstrong vs. Tully Blanchard/Lex Luger NWA 4/11/87

PAS: This is pro-shot, with commentary uncut from the 1987 Crockett Cup. Really fun match structure with a long heel in peril section opening up with the Armstrongs working over Tully. You get a bunch of a close call missed tags, and cheating, much like you would if Tully was a face. Here though Tully is so loathsome that the crowd is enjoying watching him get screwed. Tully was so awesome here, I loved his fake test of strength, wild cheap shot swing, and he was great getting hoisted on his own petard. Really dug the Bullet of course, he has a ton of 70s babyface flourishes, knowing just how to egg on the crowd as he twists a wrist or throws a punch. His K-RATAY hot tag near the end of the match was class stuff. Loved JJ cheating too, what a smarmy prick he was, one of my all time favorite guys on the outside. He has the charisma of an ex-congressman turned pharmaceutical lobbyist.

MD: So we had this from out in the crowd with far worse VQ and we had a five minute clipped version that was on the official Crockett Cup video. This is pro-shot, with Tony announcing, and complete with great VQ, so we're covering it.

Generally, I'm wary of tag matches that lean too heavily towards heel-in-peril, but there are a number of things going on here that serve as mitigating factors. For one, this was part of a two day tag tournament, so there needed to be some variation in style and tone between the matches. Them doing a fun, face-heavy quarterfinal match here meant that they could lean further into the heat in other matches. Frankly, the crowd probably should have been burnt out and that they weren't was a real testament to the match. A lot of it is about the participants and the execution though. Bob and Brad are the folksy trickster family come up from the mountains, pure Americana. There's a charm to them that you wouldn't see in your mid-80s WWF face tag teams doing a lot of the same things. Tully is the king of stooges, who tries to cheat first and then deserves everything he gets. Luger's just oafish enough to fall for their tricks on the apron. JJ's always gold as the stuffy manager getting more and more infuriated and flustered on the outside. Of course, the heels are going over, not just here but in the next match too, so they don't need to be protected as much, while the guys coming in from outside in Bob and Brad likely do.

The execution being great helps. Tully is constantly trying to worm his way to the corner. There's nothing valiant about his fighting (even if it's still a little tough). Bob's 100% committed, charming in his cheating and crowd interaction. Brad's picture perfect, always exactly where he should be, including with a great shoulder spear cut off to a Tully tag attempt. When Luger finally gets in and shows off his strength, Brad shines with finesse in dodging and weaving and firing back, and the crowd comes unglued when Tully tries to take advantage only to eat a lightning quick missile dropkick. The heat is brief but the transition is good (JJ pulling down the ropes), Brad fights well from underneath, with a hot tag and awesome JJ-assisted double clothesline for the screwy finish.

Not brand new, not my ideal tag structure, but crystal clear VQ for a charming match with everyone playing their parts and a hot crowd. I'll take this over a Kane OVW match anyday.

Kuniaki Kobyashi/Norio Honaga vs. Nobuhiko Takada/Kazuo Yamazaki NJPW 3/19/88

PAS: Really heated interpromotional battle with Yamazaki and Kobyashi especially trying to rip and tear at each other. It opens with a stare down between both guys, leading to a Yamazki high kick and some very sharp ground and pound leading to both partners and a bunch of seconds separating both guys. Very well done subtle worked shoot, no wrestling reason to have seconds run in, so it conveyed the possible unprofessionalism without shouting it from the rafters. Takada then tags in and slaps on a kneebar, sometimes that guy is a dunce. Match has a bunch of those mini explosions between Yamazaki and Kobyashi, and by the end you really want to see those guys unload on each other (they don't appear to have a singles match after this, so sort of a weird tease which went nowhere).

MD: Going through these NJPW handhelds is a archaeological experience. As most of these matches have not been watched by the community as a whole, there's no telling what you'll get. We came across this one because it was adjacent to a Fujiwara tag vs Ron Starr and Scott Hall. Unfortunately, we only had a minute or two of that. In finding the match, however, I stumbled into this.

A house show/handheld match with three or four intercessions from the seconds in order to keep competitors apart raises red flags immediately. This was a boiling pot of a match, one that in another setting might have frustrated me because it never quite boiled over, even after Yamazaki and Kobyashi finally got their hands on one another. As an unearthed handheld though, the anticipation is palatable and satisfying. It's a shame we don't have another match full of payoff though.

El Dandy vs. Shu El Guerrero IWA Japan 6/23/94

PAS: Rob Bihari continues his killer upload streak with this IWA Japan HH from 1994. El Dandy is an all time great, and like most luchadores has a pretty limited number of on tape singles matches. Shu El Guerrero is a guy who worked most of his career in the UWA so his tape footprint is pretty small, very cool that this showed up. It is more of a nifty discovery then a great match however. It feels like Dandy and Shu trying to work a Puro Juniors match then importing a lucha match. The opening matwork could have used some more llave, I have seen both guys work maestros matches and they can be electric, this was more armbar/kneebar stuff and sort of dull. There were some very cool suplexes by Dandy, and a nice tope, but I wanted this to be more. Still who would have thought this was something we would ever get to see?

MD: Hyper-competent mat-driven exhibition lucha in Japan with guys we're always glad to get more footage of. I don't think we have more than a handful of Shu singles matches. I question the logic of working ten minutes of primera caida title match matwork in front of a crowd that's come to see Yukihiro Kanemura and Shoji Nakamaki in a barbed wire barricade chain match, but (I pause here wondering if Phil will let me get away with the "who am I to doubt" line? I decide against it) the crowd was quiet but appreciative, especially once the pace picked up towards the end.

ER: I didn't actually know before this that Dandy had worked Japan, so it's cool seeing him in that environment, even if this environment felt pretty icy. And this never felt like more than an exhibition of moves, but it was a 21 minute exhibition of moves and both guys showed a pretty deep offense pool. But moves - no matter how nice - done deep in the vacuum of space, and I'm pretty sure Matt is right about people watching these two do a series of sunset flip variations while silently waiting for barbed wire. Also, the crowd had just watched a Joe Gomez match. I can't think of many WCW workers I care less about than Gomez. But IWA and those other early 90s death feds were always a cool variety bag, you'd get young American indy goofs, a couple old American guys, shamed native guys ousted from their original fed, just a cool mix. On paper if you knew you were watching a card with Dandy, Dick Murdoch, Headhunters, and a barbed wire chain match, you'd probably be pretty stoked.

But the crowd was silent until towards the end, and as great as some of the stuff looked here there really wasn't much of an interesting story to the match. It was pretty much Dandy breaking out a bunch of great looking pin attempt rollups, and Shu doing his cast canon of power offense. There were a couple clunky moments and a re-done spot, but also a lot of truly great looking stuff. The main problem with the match was that they essentially worked the same level the whole match, which is impressive, but you need peaks and valleys. This was move trading without much rhyme or reason given to moves after the kickouts. Dandy hits 7 or 8 awesome roll up variations, including one of the absolute fastest wheelbarrow rollups I've ever seen (I rewound that spot three times) and the smoothest possible crucifix roll through, but he was doing them from beginning to end with all of them getting the same exact 2 count until one got a 3. Dandy hits a fantastic lawn dart dive over the top, and I absolutely loved a spot with Shu doing a big surfboard and Dandy upside down in the surfboard reaching out both of his hands for the ropes. Shu always comes off as heavy and impossibly solid, like a guy who doesn't look cut but looks like he's made out of stone, like Masa Saito, and alot of his power offense lands with a big thud. Dandy was young and lithe here and his roll ups are among my favorite of any wrestler. They are always so economical and look entirely physically sound, love how snug he keeps his legs to his opponent, love the aesthetics of his legs locking perfectly into place over his opponent's arms. Really I can only think of Hijo Del Santo as someone with tighter roll-ups, but Dandy's could be better. So we get 16 minutes of a 21 minute match, and if you had seen some of this in GIF form I bet it looked like a banger, and while it was never boring at all, it just didn't play out. Still couldn't be happier that it got uploaded.

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MLJ: Black Terry Boot Camp 4: El Signo & Negro Navarro vs Black Terry & Shu el Guerrero

2009-08-20 @ Arena Naucalpan
El Signo & Negro Navarro vs Black Terry & Shu el Guerrero

One rule that I've kept to pretty firmly in this project is that I never start with the best stuff. It ends up making everything else feel sort of like a let down. That was the case here. This ended up on the Complete and Accurate List as Great, and I'd aim it more towards Fun myself. The most glaring flaw, relative to the Traumas/Cerebros matches, is obviously that Signo and Shu just can't go like they used to. Even with that, this could have been great, but it had some structural problems that it down.

There were definitely pockets of greatness though, and they were pockets driven by Navarro and Terry. Once again, Navarro comes out larger than life. Terry is incredibly smooth in how he puts holds, even complicated ones on, the way he makes everything look effective and hurt, the way he sells everything to make it look better than it should. Navarro on the other hand is really quite clunk. If he's dropping down on a limb to set up a hold, he's a good number of degrees out of position and there's more friction than there should be, a near stumble. It comes off as intentional, effective, and really, downright brutal though. It's like forcing a square peg in a round hole, with the hole suffering for Navarro's insistence. There's such purpose to it and the end result is grisly enough that it adds to the match instead of subtracting from it, which is something I'm not sure I ever thought possible, let alone had seen before. He's going to twist people into a knot and if he has to plow through a limb or two in order to do so, all the better. I actively felt bad for Shu when the two of them were matched up because I couldn't suspend my disbelief that he was capable of doing anything at all to Navarro.

Terry was definitely great in the match, despite some of the things going on around him. There's a short heat segment in the segunda that did more to hurt the match than to help it. They worked over Terry's arm, which on paper should have been good, but it was worked like a Southern tag, with false tags and what not. All the weight of the heat was on the refs ignoring the tags instead of on the heels using misdirection, however, so it was a waste of Terry's selling ability and Shu's fat-guy-with-a-mask frustrated charisma. The comeback wasn't that impressive either; it felt deferred. Shu did his stuff with Navarro, eliminating him, then Terry matched up against Signo and they had a great little brawl. Signo held his own with some headbutts and shots in the corner, but it was Terry driving things, bloody and with the sort of fiery comeback you'd want. It just came too late. They spilled outside and it led to a DQ when Navarro got involved. So it was a good exchange, just in the wrong place. It was magic whenever he was in there with Navarro, too. My absolute favorite bit was how he sold Navarro's punches with this wobbly head motion.

In the end, this was fun. It could have been better with a bit more discipline and without some of the heel ref bs that never got paid off anyway. I think, if nothing else, it put into perspective to me how good the other matches were, but also just how good Navarro and Terry were in 2009 relative to their temporal peers.

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Everything Black Terry Does is Done with a Southern Accent, Where He Comes From

Black Terry/Jose Luis Feliciano/Shu El Guerrero v. El Signo/Negro Navarro/Black Power Lucha Lucha 2000 9/28/02-GREAT

One fall bloody brawl which was a ton of fun. No preface as all six guys go right after each other punching, stomping and biting at foreheads. Shu's mask gets ripped to shreds and he is just pouring blood. I haven't seen much of Black Power before, but he was an impressive tank of dude, really thick chested and could brawl. We got some great Navarro v. Terry as they had a couple of toe to toe exchanges which were really impressive. Terry was brilliant here, looked like the best guy in the ring, he had real impressive hand speed, and would throw some very cool combinations. Finish felt a bit flat for such a crazy brawl, as it just kind of ended, and I would have liked more a crescendo. Still a totally awesome discovery, good looking out to Rob for digging this up.

Black Terry/El Signo/Negro Navarro v. Solar/Super Astro/Ultraman Monterey 3/2/10-EPIC

One of the better maestro exhibitions they have done in recent years. Focus was on our traditional Navarro v. Solar match up which is always great. This one had some especially sweet leglocks. Navarro puts on this awesome tapitia Indian Deathlock combo which I had never seen before. The build from that matwork to some really intense throws and slams. Super Astro is one of my all time favorite wrestlers, and he still has some freaky agility and speed for a fat old man. He matches up with Signo who has had a bit of a resurgent 2010. Black Terry and Ultraman are paired and their stuff looks good, but it is probably the least of the match ups, Ultraman is the least of the six at this point, and doesn't bring a ton to the table if he isn't throwing hands. FInish had a really fun breakdown with Super Astro and Ultraman throwing sick topes, and Solar getting the submission with a very cool rolling keylock.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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Where the Miles are Marked in the Blood and Gold I'll Meet Black Terry Further on up the Road

Black Terry/Shu El Guerrero/Jose Luis Feliciano/El Texano/Ricky Boy v. Robin Hood/Los Ninja Turtles UWF 9/12/91-GREAT

This was just a totally entertaining match. This was 2/3 falls unlike a lot of Hamada UWF matches, so we got a nice long extended match. Very similar to the classic MPRO 10 man tags in the mid 90's, with a group of flashy technicos working fast and crazy spots with big bumping skilled rudos. All of the rudos looked really good, Terry works a couple of nice fast exchanges with Turtles, and we get to see a little asskicking as well. Robin Hood was a total standout on the technico side, he did similar spots to the Turtles, but everything was a little faster, a little slicker and with a little more height. I am a big Alverado family fan and he is definitely a guy I need to see more of. This is the kind of match pretty much everyone who likes wrestling would dig, if you are looking to dip your toe into lucha, this is pretty much perfect.

Black Terry/Pirata Morgan/Tóxico v. Brazo de Plata/Chico Che/Suicida IWRG 10/22/09-GREAT

TKG: Man! Man, this was the good stuff! So I was kind of expecting this to be guys doing a match of nothing but comedy spots and charisma but not expecting anything near this good. We saw Brazo de Plata live around the same time and he was enormous, I didn’t expect him to be able to leave his feet let alone do the flying take down of two heels spot or eating a ridiculous slam from Pirata (where Porky looks to go up rotate so he looks like he is falling head first and then follow through to land on back). Plata is a guy who knows how to work comedy but also knows how to work in and out of that comedy. Chico Che hurt himself in the ropes on a dive in the first fall, which leads to Black Terry spending the second fall blading him and working him over on the floor. Third fall is built around Chico Che bleeding like a stuck pig and fighting three on ones trying to get the tag. Lots of near tag spots with the refs missing the tag and lots of heels cutting off ring till Chico Che can get off his in ring shoulder tackle tope and every one goes at it. Really elaborate finish that makes you want to see a revancha.

PAS: Yeah this was a totally great match. Chico Che has a huge shit eating grin during the opening Porky dance, you can tell this is a dream come true for him. We start with some really slick Black Terry v. Suicida matwork. They are a pair of guys who have worked against each other for years, and they clearly have their stuff down pat. This is by far the best Toxico has ever looked, he is a guy who clearly spent a ton on his gear, but nothing on his training, but he looks perfectly mediocre brawling, and beat Suicida with a sick looking lifted flatliner. Third fall is truly awesome as Porky and Pirata start brawling, and Chico Che continues to be one of the best sympathy sellers in the world.

Black Terry/Dr. Cerebro v. Gringo Loco/El Hijo Del Diablo IWRG 2/7/10-EPIC

PAS: I am not usually a fan of lucha cage matches, but this wasn't worked like a normal lucha cage match. This was Slaughter/Kernodle v. Steamboat/Youngblood, four guys locked in a cage trying to beat each other to death. All four guys bleed a ton. Loco breaks out the cactus again, and they were really used like barbed wire boards, as people were taking nasty back bumps on them. Loco escapes first and comes back with a steel chair and all of the guys eat some nasty chair shots. The match ends up with Diablo and Terry, Diablo hits a martinete on a chair which is a finish to match.

TKG: I like lucha cage matches more than Phil. Once they get down to few enough people, I like the dynamic where participants are forced to choose between the loyalties to allies and the need for self preservation. At their best I also like the change in strategy from first ten minutes where participants are not allowed to escape and that ten minute mark where they can make a run for it. I thought they played into that really well here. The first ten minutes had Dr Cerebro working at (RIP) King of the Cage Rusher Kimura speed. He would stoically eat stuff and attack opponent with real slow deliberateness. No fast exchanges or speedy explosiveness. Just deliberately walking over and blasting guys. The ten minutes end and the race is on. He shifts up in speed but he can’t move at his normal full speed as he’s selling damage of first ten minutes. Sense that you are watching beat down marathoner trying to pick up speed to race for the finish line. I have watched a ton of lucha cage matches and this is the most I can ever remember that ten minute mark announcement and the shifts that result from it contributing to building the drama. Once guys finally do escape and it comes down to Terry and Hijo del Diablo, all the various attempts at outside interference are done really well and just raise the tension of the whole thing. But when it comes down to it, what matters is the final battle between Black Terry v Hijo Del Pirata. Everything else contributes to the drama but these guys needed to deliver, and fuck do they deliver.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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At Black Terry's Feet They Will Cast Their Golden Crowns

Black Terry/Shu El Guererro v. Kendo/Blackman UWF 3/2/90 - GREAT

PAS: This was exactly what you want from a fourth from the top tag. Kendo and Blackman have some really fun spots, and both rudos bump and stooge like champs. Kendo is a guy with out a ton of substance, but has some serious flash. Black Terry is such an asskicker, there is a section where they trap Blackman in the corner and you have some black on black violence so bad that someone should call Bill Cosby.

TKG: Kendo is super super fast here. He isn’t as good as guy eating opponent’s offense as he is as guy running through his own spots. But majority of match was spent with the rudos eating stuff and getting outwitted, so not much of a problem. Kendo does a spectacular dropkick where he spreads his legs and simultaneously knocks both Terry and Shu out of ring. It looks like no one has tightened the ropes and Shu does a nice job protecting Blackman from dieing on his top rope arm drag. Shu grabs at Blackman’s legs and makes it look like he’s trying to prevent Blackman from hitting his spot, while actually holding Blackman up.


Black Terry/Asesino Negro Jr./Dr. Mortus v. Ave Fenix/Kid Tiger/Star Boy IWRG 7/12/07-FUN

The rudo team in this was a lot of fun. Dr. Mortus and Asesino Negro Jr. are both big fat dudes, and both are good at fat rudo spots (similar to Samot and Maldito Jr. in 2010), both of them bumped pretty good too. Terry had more of a minor role, hitting some fun cheap shots. Technicos really didn't contribute much to the match though, Kid Tiger and Ave Fenix were both pretty green, and there were points where they were clearly out of place or flubbing spots. Not a bad match, but not a memorable one either.


Dr. Cerebro/Black Terry/El Hijo Del Signo v. Pantera/El Hijo Del Pantera/Zatura IWRG 2/11/10-GREAT

PAS: Really great match which was a step below epic. We get a long opening mat section (which we are getting in a ton of lucha matches lately, not just in IWRG, WELCOME BACK LUCHA MAT WRESTLING! FUCK YEAH!) with some really beautiful stuff being done by Cerebro and Zatura. Then it breaks down into pretty damn great brawling. What was really strange is that your technicos were acting really dickish. Terry and Cerebro are coming off this bloody feud defending Mexico, and the Technicos are smacking Terry on his bad neck and trying to bite open wounds. Terry does an amazing job as a wounded Rottweiler, still dangerous and violent, but there is both a hurt paw and hurt pride. Hijo Del Pantera is not ready for this kind of match, he hit his signature spots fine, but this required more, and he didn't really have it. Signo was better, he took an insane bump into the chairs for example, but this match needed Cerebro Negro and Freelance.

TKG: I liked Hijo del Pantera and Hijo del Signo in this. In the past I’ve thought of Hijo Del Pantera as a guy who is ill prepared for the push he’s getting. But he actually worked fine here and this was the sharpest his brawling has looked. I actually liked the dynamic where you had those two almost always working against each other. It almost had the feel of Japanese tags where rookie or junior teams with heavyweight. I mean neither of these guys are (or will ever be) Kikuchi or Fuchi but I liked the way that role worked in the match, thought there exchanges all were nice and thought the final Hijo del Pantera submission on Hijo del Signo looked awesome. Phil has mentioned the Zatura v Cerebro mat exchanges which were super tough looking, but the opening Pantera v Terry matwork was also a blast as Terry continued to sell the neck and head (from martinete on chair in last match) throughout the matwork…and you had this neat story of when is Pantera going to decide to exploit that injury.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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HAMADA UWF #2 3/2/90

Shoji Akiyoshi v. Masonari Murakawa

PAS: Young Sasuke is basically getting squashed at this point, as young Jado stiffs and beats him quickly. I think the story with Sasuke is that he was trust fund rich kid, and he is getting beaten on like a trust fund kid trying to break into wrestling.

TKG: I thought Sasuke bought a gold statue of himself. That’s a kind of tacky Tony Montana move…not really the type of thing you do if you’re actually born to wealth. Really Sasuke is a pretty tacky guy lots of ways. It’s possible that over the course of his career he concussed the class out of himself. No concussion here but did feel like Jado was taking him to the grocery store: “Learn to loose like common people”.

Monkey Magic Watika v. Black Aidoman

PAS: This wasn’t as good as baby Gedo v. baby Jado from the previous show, as baby Delfin just isn’t as good at this point. There is some fun bumping by Aidoman, and his offense looked good. Seems weird because I don’t remember Gedo being this good 3 years later.

TKG: This had feeling like they were given too much time and they tried too much but yeah Gedo surprises. The early section with Delfin throwing non contact dropkicks which Gedo bumped huge for was kind of ugly. But I had a real sense of Gedo as guy controling and putting a match together.

Bison Kimura v. Xochi Hamada

TKG: Is it really a joshi match if there are no neckbridges and no screaming? I mean there may have been one pin where Hamada neck bridged out, and Hamada did scream when Kimura bit her foot. But essentially this was worked like Leilani Kai vs. Starla Sexton at the state fair. They wouldn’t be given this much time at the state fair. Promoter might tell them to go long while he waits for Austin Idol to show up. This was given too much time and Hamada started blowing lots of stuff.

PAS: The ropes were really loose and I think Hamada blowing stuff can partly be attributed to the shitty ropes. Kimura was fun beating on Hamada, I especially liked her stomps. Still this wasn’t much of a match and was a thousand minutes long.

Shu El Guererro/Black Terry v. Kendo/Blackman

PAS: This was exactly what you want from a fourth from the top tag. Kendo and Blackman have some really fun spots, and both rudos bump and stooge like champs. Kendo is a guy with out a ton of substance, but has some serious flash. Black Terry is such an asskicker, there is a section where they trap Blackman in the corner and you have some black on black violence so bad that someone should call Bill Cosby.

TKG: Kendo is super super fast here. He isn’t as good as guy eating opponent’s offense as he is as guy running through his own spots. But majority of match was spent with the rudos eating stuff and getting outwitted, so not much of a problem. Kendo does a spectacular dropkick where he spreads his legs and simultaneously knocks both Terry and Shu out of ring. It looks like no one has tightened the ropes and Shu does a nice job protecting Blackman from dying on his top rope arm drag. Shu grabs at Blackman’s legs and makes it look like he’s trying to prevent Blackman from hitting his spot, while actually holding Blackman up.

Super Astro/Lizmark v. Jose Luis Feliciano/Espanto Jr.

TKG: Aw fuck Super Astro is the most spectacular wrestler in the world. This starts with some Super Astro going through his signature stuff with Espanto Jr while Lizmark matches up with Feliciano. They switch up half way into match and Super Astro matches up with Feliciano while Lizmark gets paired with Espanto Jr. When they switch pairings you really don’t want to see the Lizmark/Espanto Jr sections as they are a mess. But this is all about Super Astro. They still haven’t tightened the ropes which are sub foxy boxing loose at this point and you realize the degree to which Super Astro can just launch himself from standing position and doesn’t need the ropes to do most of his big spots. Lizmark is really handicapped. Super Astro doesn’t do his fake (the 619 inspiration) but just hits one beautiful back tope and flip after another.

PAS: Lizmark still hits all of his spots, they just look super dangerous because he looks like he is going to land wrong, but they all come off. Espanto Jr. isn’t very good, there is a point where he breaks out an insane looking tombstone, which was completely out of place in this match, and which Lizmark doesn’t really sell. Tom is right about Super Astro. He is incredible and he does a tope rope dive into a tope which is breathtaking. Feliciano was pretty great too, as he took everything really well, and had amazing clotheslines for a luchadore.

Negro Casas v. Yoshihiro Asai

PAS: Casas is a complete pleasure to watch in everything he does. At this point Asai was an over green babyface with some nice spots, kind of like a paunchier Mistico. Casas does a better job carrying Asai here, then anyone ever has carrying Mistico. The opening matwork was especially impressive considering that really isn’t what Casas is known for, or really what Asai is either. The finish felt a little abrupt, and they definitely want to make me see the hair match they challenged for.

TKG: This wasn’t nearly as heated as their sections in the trios match from the last show. Still pretty fun. Negro keeps getting taken to the floor and then bailing before Asai can dive. Eventually he gets stuck and Asai hits this nutty over the top rope flying forearm. Casas hits a top turnbuckle dive too. But this is mostly kept in ring and on the mat.

Gran Hamada v. Perro Aguayo

PAS: Man alive was this fun, Aguayo just exudes asskicker more then anyone else his size in wrestling history. He totally beats the shit out of Hamada here, throwing rows of chairs on him, hitting him with bottles, busting him open. Meanwhile Hamada is getting in some really great babyface comebacks. Aguayo goes over super strong winning two straight falls and just destroying Hamada in the second fall. His double stomp off the top is the end all be all of double stomps.

TKG: The brawling in the crowd was just awesome. I mean I have seen enough joshi that I should be immune to “wrestler gets tossed headfirst into row of chairs” spots. But Hamada gets tossed headfirst into row of chairs and the force of the toss flips him over that row and he takes another bump on the next row. Aguayo then just picks up the chairs wallops Hamada with the row and then tosses the row of chairs at the fans. Hamada leans into everything and there really is no need to lean into Aguayo’s boots to the face. He doesn’t need help making it look like he’s knocking his opponents face off.

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