Found Footage Friday: LAWLER~! DUNDEE~! FABS~! BACKLUND~! INOKI~! FUJINAMI~! IRON MIKE~! 87 NJPW 5x5~!

Antonio Inoki/Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Bob Backlund/Iron Mike Sharpe NJPW 5/18/85

MD: There was some bluster between Sharpe and Inoki, as a foreigner punching above his weight class by trying to call Inoki into a match was common for mid-80s NJPW, but this was really about Backlund and Fujinami. You'll get through this and you'll remember their rope running and chain wrestling to a degree, as they were pretty perfectly matched up against one another. You'll probably note the moment when Sharpe and Backlund took over and how Backlund was more aggressive than usual, sportsmanlike but still something of a de facto heel, which is interesting in 85. His running powerslam was especially great. What will stick with you the most - and really what you should watch this for - is the long short arm scissors sequence towards the end. You watch a hundred Backlund matches and half of them, at least, will be about him working towards picking someone up from a short arm scissors. But this was still really well worked, with the fans going up for every attempt and Fujinami believably maintaining control, even if he wasn't the world's heaviest guy. I really love Backlund's footwork and positioning here as he tries to work into the Gotch lift, which is more elaborate than what I remember out of WWF Title era. It feels like a huge deal when he finally muscles Fujinami onto the top rope. Of course, not long after, Sharpe gets kicked in the back of the head by Inoki, but what are you going to do? 

ER: I didn't plan on falling in love with Iron Mike Sharpe over the past year, but I think it's important to follow your heart wherever it might take you. My love of Iron Mike Sharpe has, up until this point, never ventured outside of the States. It hasn't really ventured that far outside of New York State, specifically. I love Sharpe most in his early 90s house and Raw appearances, when he's at his best combination of big bumping stooge and local institution. I've never seen a single Mike Sharpe match from Japan, so this is a very exciting find for me. And whatever my thoughts on the match, you have to love that at one time Sharpe was doing his near constant grunting and growling through a sold out Korakuen main event. Inoki actively avoids Backlund and Sharpe takes on a lot of dirty work, No No No No No'ing his way through an Inoki octopus and several ankle picks that left him defenseless. This was no cheating, stooging Sharpe, this was a guy who shook his head and yelled in submissions while hoping to land big swinging body blows and heavy kneelifts when able to stand. 

The one amusing piece of offense Sharpe got in on Inoki was while Inoki was bending his leg, and Sharpe fought free from the move by clasping both hands around Inoki's chin. Clasping onto Inoki's chin is at least tantamount to tugging on Superman's cape, so I call this a win. The fans were excited to see Backlund, and after this one week New Japan tour his visits would all be separated by periods of several years. Backlund and Fujinami had several singles matches against each other and had nice rhythm. Backlund's headscissors had a nice snap and I like how he bumped dropkicks sideways into the ropes. Their rhythm is most apparent during the short arm scissors sequence, with Backlund working through it with an on the nose promptness. He begins every scissor legged roll through lift attempt at near exact 80 second intervals, with each 80 second stretch containing different obstacles, all building to the successful lift. Sharpe was run over soon after, but I liked his and Backlund's excitingly simple finishing stretch of hard bodyslams. Imagine Bob Backlund and Mike Sharpe representing North America to the fine people of Japan, two weirdos who made a whole nation believe we all constantly make Popeye sounds.  

Elimination: Tatsumi Fujinami/Riki Choshu/Akira Maeda/Kiyoshi Kimura/Super Strong Machine vs. Seiji Sakaguchi/Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Nobuhiko Takada/George Takano/Keiji Mutoh NJPW 10/6/87

MD: This only really gets fifteen minutes bell to bell, which isn't *nearly* enough time for one of these, especially given who's in there. But it does give the match a sort of sprint feel, with a lot of quick action and a lot quick switches. Honestly, this almost felt like a Survivor Series version of a classic New Japan 5x5, only with more violence and harder strikes. It's also a lot more one sided than most of these that I've seen, which sort of makes sense when you realize the murderer's row of NJPW stars on the one side of the ring, and George Takano and Keiji Mutoh on the other. You could have stacked a couple more minutes at almost any point of this and it would have been good wrestling, but where I wish they did more was right at the end. You had Fujinami, Choshu, Maeda, and Kimura all on one side, with only Fujiwara on the other. Fujiwara survived for a bit but even he couldn't last long against those four. Given the numbers game and the lack of big stakes and big narratives, it ended up like the exception that allows for the rule on other elimination matches which all end up as one on one big drama affairs.

Jerry Lawler/Bill Dundee vs. The Fabulous Ones MCW 5/1/99

ER: I had never seen this, and it was so great. The ultimate crowd pleaser, in front of one of those great big Nashville Fairgrounds crowds. It wasn't a super common thing to see Lawler and Dundee tagging, but this crowd couldn't care less because it was WAY less common to see the Fabulous Ones.  They hadn't tagged for nearly 4 years at this point, and neither were what you'd call Active since that last tag. Lane was fully retired and Keirn mostly ran his wrestling school in Florida, occasionally (very occasionally) working. It probably also helped that Lane and Keirn showed up and actually looked good for their age. This wasn't a paunchy retirement tour, these were two guys in their late 40s who looked GOOD for their late 40s. The fans are loud for the Fabs the whole match, and Dundee and Lawler lean into it. Lawler took two great backdrops and would run squealing to Dundee on the apron, and Dundee stooged around for the Fabs, always getting caught with a Lane kick after gloating about something (the best was when he banana peeled after getting his legs swept by Lane while strutting). 

Stacy Carter starts passing a weapon back and forth to Lawler, and it rules. He hits a bunch of great short right uppercuts to Lane. Lawler keeps cutting Lane off from Keirn, and it just makes the fans chant louder for Steve and Stan. We even get an extra tease before Stan makes it over to Steve! I love when the hot tag doesn't come when it looks like it's going to come, and here Lawler knocks Lane into the ropes while Dundee runs all the way around the ring to knock him to the floor. The hot tag to Keirn is hot as expected, and the finish is a perfect fusion of 1999 Jerry Springer wrestling with classic Tennessee: Carter gets on the apron and starts a striptease, drawing all of the Fabs' attention, meanwhile Lawler and Dundee are gathering the high heels that she's thrown. It leads to the hilarious moment of Lawler getting brained by a high heel at the hands of Dundee, and immediately pinned. A heel Lawler/Dundee team against a babyface Fabs was the exact thing I needed, and I wish we had more heel Lawler from this era.

MD: Eric had watched this years ago but it's finally back up again thanks to Bryan Turner. He hit the high points really well, but I'd like to add an overall feeling I had for it. I think there was a certain freedom to Memphis in 1999 that may not have existed ten years earlier. It was always broad, of course, but it was always well aware of its broadness, well aware of what worked for the crowd, but still having to balance that with the understanding of how it was viewed by the rest of wrestling. That meant that even as they had the Bruise Brothers strut around or Kamala tromping through a back yard or the House of Gullen or Hector Guerrero and his chili powder, it never quite let itself go all the way over the top in the ring. They always wanted Lawler to be world champion somehow someday. By this point, though, the ship had sailed, the ambitions had shrunk, and it wasn't even about survival anymore. It was a cherry on top, and that let this match really sing and soar and go wildly over the top in being as Memphis as something could possibly be in all the best ways. It felt like this perfect cross-section of masters still being able to go at a high level and any semblance of forced legitimacy just totally gone from their antics. In short, it was a blast.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE JERRY LAWLER

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On Brand Segunda Caida: The Only Good Match from Heroes of Wrestling

Tully Blanchard vs. Stan Lane Heroes of Wrestling 10/10/99     Pt. 2

ER: You know what match is a sincerely great piece of pro wrestling? This match right here. Over the past few years we've uncovered some great new Tully matches on New Footage Fridays, and it really opened my eyes to just how much I overlooked Tully. It's not like his ability was ever a secret, but I think my brain always let Arn overshadow him. Arn Anderson is one of my all time favorites, but the years and every piece of new footage have been turning me into a Tully guy. This was the best match on the infamous Heroes of Wrestling PPV, and I'm not actually intending that to be any kind of backhand compliment. Now, it was the best match on Heroes of Wrestling because it was the only good match on Heroes of Wrestling, but this match would have stood out as a good wrestling match on any show. 

Stan Lane's promo to start set a great tone, an actual perfect heel promo, talking down the ring announcer ("I'm sure you're a local guy who wanted to impress his friends but...") and projecting his voice louder and louder as the fans boo louder, getting real heat by talking about how successful he's been since his days as a tag team legend. The promo goes to another level when he talks about his broadcasting success with WWF and ESPN, and then redoes his entire introduction in an incredible Bruce Buffer voice. If Stan Lane actually wanted to be a wrestler in the 90s/00s he could have been part of one of the greatest butterfly effects in mankind's history, as it would have made the existence of Mr. Kennedy completely obsolete. Randy Rosenbloom on commentary says "The women LOVE this guy! Kids, apparently, do not." Indeed, many children in the southeastern United States grew up without fathers thanks to Stan Lane.

Lane also runs down Blanchard during Blanchard's entrance ("This guy's preaching in tents and I'm on ESPN!") and it gives us a great start to the match proper, with Tully chasing Lane all around the ring and getting hit with an elbowdrop after Lane leads the chase back into the ring. Lane has a nice falling clothesline, and Tully fights back with a cool elbow to the back of Lane's head and a great low running dropkick. Blanchard takes a great bump on the floor off an atomic drop, flying into the ringpost on the recoil. Lane shows off some of his great heel karate, hitting a savate kick to the stomach and a nice cross chop. Lane actually has a ton of offense in this, a pretty huge moveset for a guy in his mid 40s who had barely wrestled for 5 years. He's got a good swinging neckbreaker, Russian legsweep, hotshot, and he knows how to make it flow together really well. He doesn't come off like a guy just doing moves he knows, he knows how to make his offense work really well within the match. Tully goes low and drags Lane out of the ring by the trunks, then puts on a figure 4 on the floor for some reason. Now, the finish was the only bad part of the match, but it was a real dry dick of a finish. Tully hits a side suplex and they both pin each other and no fan has ever reacted positively to that finish so everyone leaves upset and/or confused. It was a Bad Finish, but even with this finish it would have played high to the back row of any legends convention weekend, and that means something. 

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New Footage Friday: NWA GREAT AMERICAN BASH TOUR 7/10/87!!

Misty Blue vs. Kat Laroux 

PAS: Surprisingly fiery 3 minute women's match. Laroux comes in with a crutch (fishing rod?) and starts pounding on Blue with it. That sets the tone and it ends up being a nasty little brawl. Blue finishes her off with a superfly splash which is a big move in 1987, and then wears her out with the same crutch.

Chris Adams/Sting vs. Barbarian/Thunderfoot #1

PAS: Weird tag, as you have a bunch of biggish name and then Thunderfoot #1. The sections where the Barbarian was in with either Sting or Adams was pretty cool, and then you had the parts with Thunderfoot. Barbarian vs. Sting was an especially neat match up, I would have liked to have seen that be a feud at some point. Barbarian has to be one of the most underused wrestlers of the 80s and 90s.

Italian Stallion vs. Black Bart

PAS: This was another fun short match. Stallion was really good at what he did, undercard dancing babyface who is going to put up a fight. Bart isn't a guy I normally have a ton of time for, but he was good here too, nice clothesline, bumped well on a monkey flip and the second rope legdrop in a heck of a finisher.

Buddy Roberts vs. Jerry Jackson 

PAS: I am not sure who Jerry Jackson was, he had the feel of WCW's Tom Magee, a roided up guy who they put in with a veteran hand to see what they could do with him. The answer here was not much, there is a reason we never heard of this guy, he was really tentative with his movement, there is a point where he triple clutches before trying a knee drop, and the stuff he hit looked really bad. Magee at least had some highspots, this guy didn't even have that. Roberts is going to do his thing, he is as professional a guy as it gets, but nothing was going to be salvaged here.

MD: I really don't have a lot to say about the undercard. The best thing was the 3 minute Laroux vs Misty Blue sprint. The Sting/Adams tag had the two of them very over in the entrances and at the finish but not during the body of the match itself. I liked Barbarian skulking around the ring weirdly at the start and the clash of the titans opening bit with him and Sting was good but it suffered from too many tags later in the card so the couldn't give it heat. Plus Thunderfoot had no credibility. Stallion vs Bart was fine but I would have rather seen them added to the Sting tag to make it a six man, maybe? I don't know what the Buddy Roberts match was about. He gave way too much if he was the face there. 

Lightning Express vs. Rick Steiner/Eddie Gilbert

PAS: Fun if kind of oddly paced match. The Express take about 75% of it, with a short face in peril section which is mostly a Rick Steiner bearhug. Steiner does have a really nice lookin bearhug though, that is a rawbone strong dude to be squeezing your ribs. Quick hot tag and a finish. Felt like it needed a couple more minutes to really work, but Gilbert is a fun bumper and I enjoy Rick Steiner.

MD: This felt more like a TV match than a house show match. It really didn't have any room to breathe. It was a good match of its kind though. Eddie was maybe a bit too over in front of this crowd. He worked like a competent manager more than anything else, which made Steiner's athletic strongman work seemed all the more potent. I liked how they went the extra mile on the transition: Gilbert drew Armstrong out of his corner which distracted the ref and let Gilbert catch Horner with a knee from the outside coming off the ropes. If they did that spot today (EDIT: Or you know, elsewhere on the card in a match with less thought), they'd ignore the ref distraction and just let the knee happen in plain sight. Most of the heat was a Steiner bear hug with no real hope spots, so there wasn't much there, but the finish was nice and chaotic, if pared down like everything else.


Big Bubba Rogers vs. Jimmy Garvin

MD: Really enjoyable 4 minute match that felt like it could have been a taping dark match main event and the fans wouldn't complain too much. You got all of the hoopla of Garvin getting his entrance, super over as a face. Bubba coming out to the theme from Peter Gunn was so perfect. WWE should have licensed that for his 99 heel run. The match was basically two minutes of Garvin throwing these great punches up at Bubba, Bubba cutting him off, Garvin getting some low blows, Bubba cutting him off, and then after Garvin's last comeback, going into a BS DQ finish that you knew was coming. It was obvious by this point just how much Bubba got it, just in the way he paced things and how he would really milk the selling/bumping on the low blows, etc.

PAS: This was a bunch of fun, super babyface Garvin isn't someone I have seen a ton of, but man he was great. Loved the double strap drop on the suspenders and the energy he had. Bubba had to be 70 pounds heavier then he was during his Bossman days and he really used that girth menacingly, but still had really surprising agility.


Michael Hayes/Terry Gordy vs. MOD Squad 

MD: The first half of this didn't even feel like wrestlers going up against broomsticks. It felt like wrestlers working with the crowd with no opponents at all. Some of that was the handheld cropping which would cut out the Mods entirely. A lot of it was just Hayes (and to a lesser degree Gordy) hamming it up. When the Mods had a chance, they stooged and pinballed valiantly, but they almost didn't have to and this would have been exactly the same. Amusingly, they used the same knee to the back transition but they did it right in front of the ref. The back half of the match was actually a match, with the Mods looking fine in control and Hayes working well from underneath and really engaging the crowd. Amusingly, when you watch a whole card like this, it wasn't just the second knee to the back transition but the third "heel goes to the top" transition so far. But this was a perfectly fine look at the 87 babyface Freebirds doing their thing in front of a less familiar crowd.


Dr. Death Steve Williams vs. Dick Murdoch 

PAS: This was unsurprisingly excellent. Both guys come in with casts on their arms, so it is a battle of who can wreck the other guys arm the most. Williams does this really cool almost torture rack armbar where he hangs Murdoch over Dr. Death's back by his arm. Eddie Gilbert is at ringside for Murdoch and keeps cheap shotting Williams and allowing Murdoch to hit his arm with a cane. We had some great Murdoch stooging where Williams punched him, Murdoch fell into his arms, and Williams propped him up to punch him again. Finish was really cool too with Murdoch flying off the top rope directly into a Williams elbow, felt like a Misawa finish. I really liked how this built from a body part match into a bomb fest. A real hidden gem.

MD: The injury angle where Murdoch took out Doc's arm was in May. The TV match with Doc's comeback was in June. This was July and felt like a more refined version of the TV match that had less color and lower stakes. Doc had a cast that he wasn't supposed to use but that played into the finish. He was as dynamic as you'd expect, both in the way he worked over Murdoch's arm early in in his comeback attempts (even just trying to dart around the ring on his knees to get Murdoch after the initial shot to his arm). The counterpoint was that the early shine armwork was all sorts of loose and weird and nothing actually looked like it ought to hurt, but he was so enthusiastic and Murdoch sold so big that no one was really going to care. You get house show Murdoch in the stretch, which wasn't at all lazy, but was ridiculously over the top in the stooging about. But it's not 1985 or 1995 or whatever. It's 2020 and we're all stuck in our houses and stooging Dick Murdoch is the joy we all need.

Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton/Stan Lane) vs. Ron Garvin/Barry Windham

PAS: This incarnation of the MX was such a fun act, you had dancing Kung Fu Stan Lane, the always amazing Bobby Eaton, Cornette heat seeking on the outside and Big Bubba standing around looking menacing. Windham I though was kind of just there, but Garvin was a blast. He is a guy with some big exciting spots, and he knows how to time his headscissors or big punch for the maximum pop. I think I like the Lane MX more then the Condrey MX, Lane is such an amusing dipshit, his little dancing or strip mall karate adds so much character to the match. I loved him squaring up against Garvin's boxing stance, only to let discretion be the better part of valor, and bailing out.

MD: The difference between this match and comparable WWF Heel-in-peril matches from the same time is how many tricks they pull out. It's not just endless armwork control. It's one elaborate spot after the next and one gimmick after the next. They'll do a blind tag where Barry will get out of the way and Stan will have to leapfrog his own partner only to walk into a slam. Eaton will lose his pants and work for half a minute before realizing it. Bubba will get involved as part of the heel miscommunication that almost brought them to blows (the second of such spots; I'm surprised they didn't do one with Cornette too). Bobby will have the advantage over Garvin for a second but he'll come right back with a great headscissors takeover. When Stan finally takes over (and that takes about three steps, too - a missed elbow drop, a superkick to the gut, and Barry catching Stan's foot but Stan getting him with the other one), the Midnights start dancing victoriously. After all of that, they really needed another minute or two on top though. I love that Barry, even at his size, could still believably go through a smaller guys legs for the hot tag. He was like Dustin in that he could hide his height when he had to work from beneath. Garvin had the instinctive timing of a folk hero. He got more mileage out of pulling Eaton's pants down than most people would get with three minutes of elaborate rope running spots. For all of his eventual flaws, Hebner's timing and attitude in finding the hat in the middle of the ring really added something to the finish. Plus, the last person I was expecting to see during this match was Pat Roach! I'll take a short cut in the match for him.


Arn Anderson/Tully Blanchard/Ric Flair/Lex Luger vs. The Road Warriors/Dusty Rhodes/Nikita Koloff

PAS: What a delight this match was. Watching this you really see the charisma which is missing in today's wrestling. Is there anyone even as charismatic as Nikita in the WWE? Much less someone like Ric Flair or Dusty Rhodes. This match was all fireworks, big moments of the heels bumping, including Tully and Flair feeding into Animal press slams, and Flair taking an atmospheric high backdrop. There is a moment where Dusty tags in and he elbow smashes all four guys at once, so much fun to watch Dusty shuck, jive and jiggle. We get a couple of moments of heat on the faces, which leads to a couple of crazy hot tags. The crowd is on their feet for the entire match and it was really easy to get into the swing of things. Such a thrill to watch.

MD: Just an iconic match, with a hot crowd, where every interaction felt larger than life. The early image of the Horsemen on the turnbuckles and the faces standing tall in their corner will stick with me. Dusty in a circle with the heels launching bionic elbows and double punches is something they could get away with on a house show, but it's also the purest distillation of Dusty possible and I think it elated everyone in a two mile radius. The spot where Arn backs Animal towards a neutral corner so Tully can run up the apron and dive up the top only to get caught and set up an Arn elbow drop is one of the best possible transitions to heel control I've seen in ages, even if they didn't actually use it as such. The big problem with heel-in-peril, by the way, is that it doesn't have the same value as face-in-peril. There it's all build and payoff. There's much less value in a payoff which is the heels taking over, so all the build gets sort of squandered. There's value in a shine in general but usually only so much. Animal becomes vulnerable with the very next spot as he takes a bump out of the ring off a missed clothesline and then gets slammed, but there was really no reason not to let Arn's elbow drop be the move that turned the tide instead. That's all I'm saying. I did like Animal working from underneath as he kept going for the tag but was swarmed at from every angle due to the sheer number of heels. The second bit of heat on dusty was good too and built to a hot tag for Nikita and a that finish was nice and chaotic. You got exactly what you wanted out of this one.

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New Footage Friday: Great American Bash 7/16/88

Larry Zbyszko/Rip Morgan vs. Tim Horner/Bugsy McGraw

ER: Really dug Zbyszko in this one. With these raw footage shows it's always great to here more ring noises, and here we got Zbyszko shit talking Horner and yelling at Morgan to pull McGraw's hair. My favorite part of the match was when Larry tagged in and kicks Bugsy in the stomach, and then punches him three times right in the side of the head. I am becoming so much of a Larry guy. Rip Morgan works this like Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds, and it's pretty great. His heel crazy was a nice counterpoint to babyface Bugsy. And Morgan is good at being that stumbling type of bully who Horner can do all his graceful armdrags to. Horner is always a treat to watch, a real underrated babyface who should have been bigger. He just seems like a nice guy. I liked the fun simplicity of this.

MD: This never really had the depth for anything to set in. It felt like the cliff notes version of a match. I wonder if that was frustrating for them since there was so much repetition on this tour. I imagine they were just glad to get paid. Horner and Larry looked solid. McGraw was a poor man's Valiant by this point, but the shtick of him reacting to the Haka was obviously well worked out by this point. None of the hope spots or transitions or finished felt earned. Larry worked hard, bumping around the ring.

Ronnie Garvin vs. Itallion Stallion

ER: This was great. It goes about a minute, and heel Ronnie Garvin is now my favorite wrestler. I need to see all of the post NWA champ Garvin, because he was the smuggest asshole here and it was the best. Garvin does a fake towel toss to the crowd, and the crowd HATES him and it makes Italian Stallion a big babyface. Garvin sure doesn't let him do much with that though. This whole thing is Garvin faking an ankle injury off a leapfrog, really well, and the entire crowd getting louder and louder the longer he fakes it. It's classic, simple stuff, but Garvin is a much better actor than he's ever gotten credit for. The crowd knows exactly what's happening and they are desperately trying to warn this goof Italian Stallion that they've been forced into cheering by default. And of course, Garvin, after begging off and holding his ankle in agony, hops off and finishes off Stallion with one shot, sitting on his chest for the pinfall with the greatest grin. 1988 Ronnie Garvin is the best.

MD: One of my favorite sub 1-minute matches in forever. I'm not sure I've ever seen much of this short heel run and we were robbed of something long and meaningful. He was such a glorious dick, demanding to wrestle in one ring instead of the other, having Hart force Tony to announce him as the former world champion, almost immediately faking a knee injury, popping up for the fist of stone and then sitting on Stallion for the win. What a glorious jerk. Can you imagine him riding into 89 with this gimmick as a foil for guys like Sting and Steamboat?

PAS: Matt and Eric pretty much cover it, but man I want to third the greatness of Ronnie Garvin. His career is basically over four years after this match, but this version of Ronnie Garvin should have had another decade of just being a heel dipshit.

Dick Murdoch vs. Gary Royal

ER: The raw footage is a blessing for Dick Murdoch matches, as the way this match is shot is almost cinematic. This is Dick Murdoch in a John Cassavetes movie. He even looks like David Rowlands. The camera is in so tight on everything, and this honestly feels like the greatest footage ever filmed of Murdoch. And Murdoch is perfection. He holds headlocks, ignores Teddy Long, throws hard elbows across Royal's throat, throws punishing stomps from the apron, and the camera zooms in extra close every time Murdoch locks in a headlock and throws his greatest ever headlock punch. This cameraman knew what people wanted to see. Murdoch struts around the ring and ringside area so cockily, really taking his time to lay down a beating on Royal. I especially like him throwing Royal into the scaffolding that was set up at ringside; Royal took a couple great hard chest bumps right into it. Murdoch hits a gorgeous brainbuster, really holding that vertical suplex for a long time before dropping him, and that toothless grin he flashes during the pinfall is right up there with the greatest things I've ever seen in wresting. I would watch a match like this every time over a "great match".

MD: A great lost Murdoch squash. His interactions with Teddy Long here were just off the chart. We're blessed here by the lack of commentary, since you can hear all the jawing perfectly. He was a bit like a poked bear as Royal kept trying to take advantage early, and then when he came unleashed after Long admonishes him, he just used the entirety of the ring, including the scaffold and the apron to demolish the poor jerk. The delay before the brainbuster was the icing on the cake.

Rick Steiner vs. Jimmy Garvin

ER: What a fun 90 seconds of pro wrestling. The fans are louder for Jimmy Garvin than they are for maybe anyone so far on this card. Rick Steiner looks super formidable, really crashing into Garvin with a hard lariat and big punches to the head. When Garvin starts firing back the crowd really loses it. Kevin Sullivan gets involved, Steiner grabs Garvin for a powerslam, and Garvin gets the great small package surprise win. This was 90 seconds, but was a great use of 90 seconds.

MD: Good aggression from Steiner. Great punches from Garvin. This was ultimately nothing, but the way the crowd rallied behind Garvin and Precious was one of those things you wouldn't believe on paper. Garvin felt like the biggest babyface in the world here when he went to save Precious from Sullivan. You have to love this crowd.

The Rock n Roll Express vs. The Sheepherders

MD: This never quite settled down, but in a good way. Once they got past the initial goofiness with the flag things were pretty loose and chaotic. Morgan was a near constant presence and they weaved him in and out of the match believably enough. The Sheepherders had some memorable driving kneedrops and their usual ability to create an atmosphere of violence. The finish matched things well, coming out nowhere but feeling believable and triumphant.

ER: This ruled. I love how the Sheepherders match up against a team like the Rock n Rolls; Butch Miller especially always bumps around big for babyface offense (he had a fantastic bump from the ring to the apron to the floor here) and the Sheepherders work viciously enough that they come off like a threat. I love when the Rock n Rolls match the savagery of their opponents, and Ricky always comes off so tough against roughneck types. This felt like a real chaotic brawl, Rock n Rolls hitting crossbodies on both Sheepherders, Ricky taking a super fast bump to through the ropes to the hard floor, Butch hitting a great leaping fistdrop, everyone throwing punches. This is the kind of constant motion wrestling that I want.

Brad Armstrong vs. Al Perez

MD: I liked this but didn't love it. A lot of it was by the numbers, with the heel getting more and more frustrated at getting outwrestled until he took over by roughhousing, etc. Hope spots, comeback, the good type of heel manager finish with a leg grab. Like I said, a lot to like. For a cold match, the crowd was into it. Perez could be pretty emotive when he was getting clowned. He had some fun offense. Hart was very effective on the outside. The hope spots were really spirited, with Brad just flying across the ring at one point, and the comeback had a great revenge spot with a slam to the floor. There was just a disconnect when Perez was on offense. His stuff looked good but it didn't flow. There was a story they could have told following up on Brad's back and building to the hope spots and cut offs better and it just didn't happen. This would have been a great opening match on a more balanced card but without an underlying reason for the fans to care and even with the effort put in, it was more of a testament to the crowd than the match that this was still fairly over.

ER: This is the first match of the card that I wasn't super into. It just felt a little long, Al Perez threw on a chinlock for awhile, felt pretty time filler. There were some inspired moments, like Armstrong interacting with Hart on the floor and getting slammed into the scaffolding, or Armstrong's brief but fiery comeback down the stretch. But this match was a little too dry in the middle of a card that's been checking off all my boxes.

Midnight Express/Jim Cornette vs. The Fantastics

ER: The Midnights' gear is the stuff of wrestling miracles. Eaton is an Alabama crop top, kneepads over beat up jeans, a flat out gorgeous outfit for a bunkhouse match. Stan is dressed like a front row Malibu aerobics boy toy, tank top and pink/turquoise bike shorts and shag. Fantastics are both wearing tank tops, jeans, kneepads over jeans. It's the fucking code and everybody looks like the encyclopedia image for "What to Wear to a Fucking Bunkhouse Match". It's incredible. And this whole entire match is as great as it looks on paper. Bobby Eaton was god level here, it was the best in ring performance I've ever seen from Cornette, Stan Lane had meathead frustration bumping down to a science, and The Fantastics were throwing punches like the best fired up babyfaces. I think Bobby Fulton is underrated as hell, and his exchanges with Bobby were flat out pro wrestling punch master classes. You wanna punch? You watch the Bobby's. Throw Bobby Heenan and Bobby Blaze into that mix. Eaton vs. Fulton was awesome the whole match through, Eaton going from vicious puncher to man taking highest backdrop. When the match broke down they had a fantastic chairshot sequence, with Fulton bashing Bobby with a metal folding chair. As someone who great up with the weird wooden folding chairs of WWF, it's always shocking for me when I see metal chairshots to the head in the 80s. Fulton's shots to Eaton's head looked great, and Eaton would get his hand up while looking like he was getting totally obliterated by these shots. He take ones in the aisleway that the super hot crowd flips out for.

Now, James E. Cornette may have been the superstar of the match. As great as Nick Patrick looked in my absolute dream of a match against Jericho, Cornette looked here. This was the best in ring Cornette I have ever seen. He dropped an elbow on the floor, two picture perfect fistdrops, a great leaping elbowdrop, and some genuine top 20 all time punches. His punches were hot fire, and when it came time for him to bump for the Fantastics you know he flew into offense like he was Heenan. This was the kind of 15 minutes of wrestling that makes me love all of this so much.

The Road Warriors vs. Ivan Koloff/Russian Assassin #1

PAS: I am a scaffold match fan. I can just imagine how insane it must be to watch live, knowing you might see a murder. Ivan was especially great at teasing death, and Animal even tried a dropkick. Hawk and Russian Assassin spent most of the match brawling near the ends of the scaffold which had guardrails, which is kind of pussy. I don't need you to die, but at least tease me a bit.

MD: Not a ton to say here. As scaffold matches go, this was ok. The falls were bs, but are we really going to complain about that in 2019, especially knowing they had to work this match around the loop? In general, I was impressed with how well they moved around up there. A little can go a long way in a setting like this. The fans, again, were generous, happy with all of this, especially the half-baked falls. Great crowd.

ER: Yeah Scaffold matches are a gimmick match I absolutely adore. I couldn't imagine how much I'd be flipping out if I saw a scaffold match live. I would be standing the whole time with my mouth wide open. The Dundee/Koko 2/3 falls scaffold match was my #1 match of the 80s Memphis project. They come off so scary to me! Look at how narrow this damn thing is! Look at how HIGH this thing is! It is one of my all time favorite gimmicks and too many people undersell what a damn attraction a scaffold match can be. THIS crowd knew exactly how big a treat they were getting, and I was right there with them. It turns out Ivan Koloff is a master of scaffold matches. I need to know what other Koloff scaffold matches exist on tape, because I want to write about them. Koloff is the guy running around up there, he's the guy taking big bumps for Animal, he's the guy who takes a ridiculously high fall while swinging from the bottom of the scaffold, he's the one falling dangerously close to the edge; Koloff was 45 years old here. He's the oldest non-JJ Dillon guy on the card and he's in the running for craziest guy on the card. Animal tries throwing a dropkick and it doesn't totally hurt, but Koloff makes it special by getting bounced dangerously close to the edge butt first, and later Animal and Koloff both hang off the edges and the bottom in fun ways. Hawk and Assassin (who was Angel of Death) play it safer on the edge with a guardrail, but even that railing was rickety as hell so I was still feeling the danger. Scaffold matches are the ultimate gimmick attraction for me, and this didn't let me down at all.

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ALL TIME MOTY LIST Head to Head 1990: Onita/Goto v. Kurisu/Dragonmaster V. Midnight Express v. Steiner Brothers

Midnight Express v. The Steiner Brothers WCW 10/20/90

PAS: Someone uploaded a WCW Handheld from October 1990. While there are some really classic WCW stinkers on this card (Mike Rotunda v. JW Storm, Sting v. Black Scorpion), we do get an awesome chance to watch the Midnight Express, one of the greatest bumping and stooging teams of all time, take on the Steiners, one of the greatest offensive teams of all time. It is great to see all of the shtick the MX break out on a house show, Jimmy Cornette takes a bump off the apron and challenges the ref to a fight, the MX do a Brazos style dissension spot which included Cornette slapping Bobby. We move into a classic face in peril section, with the MX breaking out a ton of cool double teams and Cornette cheap shots. Rick Steiner is an all time great hot tag, he is so explosive and is so much fun to watch running wild. Finish was pretty cool with the Steiners hitting Steinerlines from the front and the back to pin Bobby, kind of wanted to see one of the insane Steiner finishes, but it was still decisive.

ER: Wow, pro wrestling is fucking great! This is a real classic and had it been on PPV it would still be talked about fondly today. And because of some true hero in New Jersey, we get to see it. And it's great. It's as great a match in execution as it looks on paper. And you really get the best of both worlds, with class house show stooging, with taped for a larger audience spots. It starts with a bunch of amusing spots with Lane complaining about non-existent tights pulls off hip tosses, gets into things with the ref, gets Cornette into things with the ref, watches as Cornette makes the worst "put up your dukes" pantomime and then falls into the ropes when the ref throws back, Lane gets into things with Bobby, which leads to Bobby taking a nasty apron bump when those weren't common, which leads to Cornette slapping Bobby, which leads to the crowd momentarily turning Bobby face as he grabs Cornette by the jacket to threaten him before making up. Really if this is the most we got from the match, all of us would have been satisfied as hell. Except we get a lot more.

When the Midnights are finally on the same page, Eaton tries to beat Scott with speed. Scott looks like an absolute monster and moves like Eaton, and when it looks like Eaton might get the duke after some leapfrogs Scott fakes him out and gets him in an electric chair, and Rick does a nasty bulldog off the top. Lane blasts Scott with a racket and throws some wicked stomps to Scott's ribs, Eaton bashes him with a chair, and then we get to see what a great FIP Scott was. Eaton is athletic as hell and had nasty offense that doesn't get enough credit. We all know he has great punches (and he shows off several varieties of them, and a guy in the crowd exclaims loudly after each one, and I love a man whose favorite part of a wrestling show is Eaton's punches), but watch him hit a shockingly forceful fist off the top, really leaping into it, and in my favorite spot of the match watch him shove Scott into the turnbuckles and blast him with one of the hardest lariats I've seen as he stumbles back out. Did you know Eaton threw one of the greatest western lariats? Because apparently he does. Scott gets some great flash comebacks, a sunset flip, and some beautiful big windup punches that looked like Rocky swinging for the fences. The ending is a bit sudden, but total dynamite: Scott hits the frankensteiner (a truly amazing spot) and Rick comes in with a huge Steinerline. Phil is right about Rick being a tremendous hot tag, it's something that really doesn't get talked about enough. And the end being so sudden is always believable with the Steiners, as they're clearly so powerful and explosive that they look like anything they do could be a finish.

Onita/Goto v. Kurisu/Dragonmaster review

Verdict: 

PAS: I loved this tag match, one of my favorite things in wrestling is to discover and watch hidden gems like this, and I have never heard anyone talk about this match before, especially cool because these two teams have only matched up a couple of times on tape. Still that FMW tag is such a perfect slice of violence, I have to go with it, it feels like picking the WCW tag would be recency bias.

ER: Damn this was great. Tag team wrestling done properly might be my absolute favorite wrestling (or fat guys, or punches, or guys pointing at their head, or elbow drops, or...) and this was white hot. There is definitely recency bias at play, as oftentimes the newest thing is going to feel like the coolest thing, but I loved this so much I'm having a hard time remembering how damn much I love that FMW tag, and how I've watched that tag like 4 times this year. This tag feels like it could have those legs, and I think with a slightly escalated finish I'd vote for this match in a heartbeat. This wasn't a blowout at all, this was a worthy, awesome challenger, but I gotta go FMW.

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SLL's All-Request Early Saturday Morning

Yeah, I didn't expect I would end up having things to do today, either. Sorry for the less than timely debut of SLL's All-Request Friday Night, wherein I review five matches as requested by YOU, the Segunda Caida reader. Next week's actually be up Friday night. Honest injun. If it's any consolation, at least this is only the second shittiest thing to happen in wrestling today. Now, onto the requests!

Kendall Windham & The Itallion Stallion vs. The Mod Squad (JCP, Summer 1987)
Requested by Victator

On the surface, this seems like an odd match to request, but when you dig a little deeper...it's still an odd match to request. Kendall is a guy I've liked more often than not, but still, this is a match with four guys who are pretty low on the pecking order in '87 Crockett. Then again, I've seen enough WWE Superstars to know that guys in that position can break out some great stuff when given the chance, and I went into this figuring I might see something like that. And well, I think I saw where it was supposed to happen, I'm just not convinced it actually did. This is a ten-minute time limit draw, and the idea as put forward on commentary by Tony Schiavone (who actually does a pretty solid job trying to get the match over...this match would've been great as a radio broadcast) is that these are four young guys who want to make a name for themselves, and the exposure they're getting on the Superstation means they'll be giving it their all to prove themselves to the fans and the top brass. But their all really isn't that much, and instead of coming off as guys ready to break through, they came off as guys who were still green or who had topped out at a low level. Match is laid out in a pretty traditional 80's US tag style: faces dominate the heels early, heels isolate one face and work him over, face fights back and gets the tag to the fresh man, house afire, breaking down in Center Stage. This isn't the worst version of that match I've ever seen. The Mod Squad are solid heel clubberers. Basher comes off of the apron and boots Stallion in the back after he had been thrown to the floor, which looked pretty cool, and I liked Spike's big overhand punches to Stallion's gut. They were fine in that part of the match. But it's hard not to think of the long list of teams that could've done it better. It's even harder not to think of the long list of teams that would've been more compelling than Windham and the Stallion, who were just deadly dull here. I mean, I don't mean to review the match I want to see instead of the match I am seeing, but formula's familiarity makes it hard not to think of all the times it's been done better. It's a great formula, but a formula doesn't do all the work for you. These guys didn't screw it up, but they definitely weren't afraid to coast on the formula, either.

Ricky Morton & Tommy Rich vs. The Midnight Express (NWA, 10/27/1990)
Requested by DylanWaco

Now this is how it's done. The Rock 'N' New Fabulous Ones high five each other at the top of the match, and then the MX and Cornette all high five each other, Stan Lane attempts (unsuccessfully) to high five referee Teddy Long, and then he and Bobby Eaton strut past each other to deliver a slick behind-the-back high five. The Midnight Express > you. Match proper starts with some basic exchanges between Eaton and Ricky Morton (who will wrestle practically the entire match for his team), before it starts breaking down when Eaton gets Morton in the corner and smacks him hard across the mouth. Irish whip into the opposite corner gets reversed, but Eaton tosses a mean back elbow when Morton charges in. Then we get a slick criss-cross sequence where Morton takes the upper hand and pulls out the circa 1990 hurricanrana, with Eaton tumbling into the face corner and taking a bionic elbow from Rich. The MX manage to control soon enough, though, and they are in full asskicker mode tonight. Lane gets a blind tag and catches Morton with essentially a really big snapmare off of a back body drop. This is also one of your better MX-era Lane performances, as signified by him following a superfluous springboard with the awesome clothesline takedown he did to George Takano nine years prior. Normally would complain about the superfluous springboard, but here, it felt like he was just doing it because he was an asshole, and it worked on that level. All of his redneck kung-fu stuff looked really good here as well. The MX double teaming is in full effect, including a drop toe hold followed by a nice Eaton elbow drop and a back body drop into what was basically a really big snapmare. But the real highlight here is Lane slamming Eaton on the entrance ramp, and then Eaton busting out the Rocket Launcher onto Morton on the ramp, which looked crazy as hell. Then Lane celebrates by cabbage patching in the ring. Seriously, he is like the dick of all dicks in this. It doesn't get the pin, though, so they wail on Morton some more, and Eaton hits the Alabama Jam, but asks the ref to count the knockout, which would probably look weird to some people, but the whole story of the match is that the MX are total jerks and that they are basically trying to kill Ricky Morton for the fun of it, so I can go along with that. But he makes it to his feet, and a whole lot of awesome punches get thrown before Morton blocks another Rocket Launcher with his knees and makes the rolling tag to Rich. He makes quick work of the Midnights, but Cornette and the racket come into play. It looks like it's curtains for or heroes, but then the Southern Boys hit the ring, both dressed as Jim Cornette, and Corny flips out, allowing Rich to grab the racket in the confusion and bop Stan Lane over the head with it for the win. I don't know where this ranks alongside the other classic R'n'Rs/MX encounters (and that is what this was, Rich was pretty much a non-entity here), but it was a great one, and not to be missed.

Mad Man Pondo vs. Super Ninja (UWF, 7/20/1991)
Requested by jaedmc

Damn, I did not realize how long Pondo has been at it. That's...that's a little sad, actually. Anyway, jaedmc requested this match because "not everything you watch should be good". Honestly, though, I didn't think this was a bad match. I mean, it wasn't good, and if nothing else, it's damn weird to see a professional wrestling match end with a guy shooting the half amateur-style and just keeping his opponent down for three. But Ninja - whoever he was - seemed pretty competent, and Pondo didn't really do anything outstandingly good or outstandingly bad. Aside from the finish, this match was unremarkable.

But who cares about the match when you have the commentary? We have Bruno Sammartino arbitrarily shitting on a Mad Man Pondo armdrag, a completely off his meds Captain Lou Albano, Vince Russo prototype Herb Abrams coming out to put himself over, and all three of them plus Craig DeGeorge struggling to call the nigh-unpronounceable name of "Pondo".

Tiger Jackson vs. Irish Leprechaun (WWC, 1980's)
Requested by Tim Evans

I woke up today to find that "Macho Man" Randy Savage, one of my personal favorite professional wrestlers of all time, was dead. Sadly, no one was on the ball enough to recommend a Savage match for me to review, but I can still honor his memory by reviewing a match featuring the Macho Midget himself, Tiger Jackson. It also features Irish Leprechaun (as opposed to Albanian Leprechaun?), who bears a more than striking resemblance to Hornswoggle, though I am told they are not the same person. I don't want to sound like a big racist or anything, but all these leprechauns look the same to me. Amusing comedy bit early on with Leprechaun trying to convince the ref that Jackson is pulling his beard, and Jackson eventually gets fed up and just does it. This is pretty lopsided in Jackson's favor, though Leprechaun gets to do a little bit of cool stuff on offense. Has a nasty headbutt, and he escapes a headscissors by standing up, pulling Jackson's legs off of him, and spinning him on his head like a top. But then Jackson gets the Leprechaun in a compromising position and...turns his feet around 180 degrees? And then the Leprechaun turns them back into place and scores the fluke win with a big splash! Eat that, Sid Vicious!

C.M. Punk vs. Chris Hero - 90 Minute Time Limit Best 2/3 Falls Match (IWA:M-S, 2/7/2003)
Requested by Wrestling_KO Mike

I've got a bit of multitasking to do as I write this, which means I probably shouldn't even be reviewing this match in the first place. But I've made dumber decisions than this and didn't back down from them, so this has no excuse. This match was pretty hyped back in the day because it's two indy darlings wrestling for 90 minutes. But it's also a match that's kinda been lost to time, and that few are interested in revisiting because...well, because it's two indy darlings wrestling for 90 minutes. Even at the time, I seem to recall the reception to this match being somewhat split. I, personally, liked it, but it's 2011, I'm kinda averse to indy darlings wrestling each other for 90 minutes, and it all begs the question, will I still like it? There's only one way to find out, and to make things easier on me, we're going to be doing this in five minute intervals, because passing judgment of all 90+ minutes of this in one go is just not going to happen, nor is me rewatching it immediately afterwords to make sure I got all the details right. Set the WABAC Machince for 2003, Sherman. We're going to Clarksville, Indiana....

C.M. Punk: "We might be here for a while."

Punk always carried himself like a star. We probably shouldn't be surprised that he became one. The opening minutes of the match see them take it to the mat, and the matwork is fine. I can't really complain about anything here so far. What I can say is that in 2003, I couldn't push a button and make a bajillion Negro Navarro matches instantly appear on my computer. If you were looking for quality matwork, your options were a little more limited then than they are now. If you were looking for quality matwork stateside, forget it. You had to wait three more years for Finlay to come out of retirement, or for the occasional Benoit/Regal match on Velocity. So this aspect of the match, while not bad by any stretch, probably isn't as big of a deal today as it was then.

Five minutes gone....

Next five minutes are pretty much the same story as the first. Can't complain, but can't say I'm blown away, either. But near the ten-minute mark, Hero had Punk in a seated hammerlock, and Punk turned his head back and nailed Hero with a short headbutt. Hero threw a nice one of his own in return, and now things are really starting to get interesting.

Ten minutes gone....

More headbutts from the hammerlock. Hero throws a hard chop, too. And then the pace starts to pick up a bit, as we get a few quick armdrag exchanges before Punk locks down Hero's arm. He does the move where he bars Hero's arm and then lifts him up vertically, which is pretty impressive looking on a guy as indy big as Hero.

Fifteen minutes gone....

If you're wondering how we could get fifteen minutes deep into this match when so little seems to be happening without me getting bored, I honestly don't have a definite answer. I think it might just be that they're milking everything they do for all it's worth. Whatever it is, it's surprisingly effective. This is the best five minutes of the match yet, as things go all Benoit/Regal with them still exchanging holds but also laying in some heinous chops and slaps and punches and headbutts while in the holds, including the requisite headbutt exchange while in a knucklelock. This is a blast. The minutes are just flying by.

Twenty minutes gone....

And we're back to simple, straightforward hold exchanges. Again, not bad, but after they kicked it into high gear the last five minutes, a little disappointing to see them dial it back in these. There is one really nice armdrag by Hero in this part, though.

Twenty-five minutes gone....

At least the hold exchanges are good. Hero works over Punk's arm really well, and then Punk turns it around with a rolling toehold. Hero escapes by almost Irish Leprechauning Punk's foot and turning it into an ankle lock.

Thirty-five minutes gone....

Yeah, I don't know where the other five minutes went, either, especially since the five minute intervals are being called out by Jim Fannin, and these last "five" didn't feel any longer than the five before it. The match takes another turn for the chippy here, as Hero attempts a German suplex, but Punk lands on his feet and stomps Hero's jaw in. That young Knockout Kid throws his first forearms of the night, as both guys start dropping bombs on one another.

Forty minutes gone....

Hero does a straightjacket choke cavernaria while biting Punk's nose.

Forty-five minutes gone....

Punk starts unloading on Hero. His urakens leave something to be desired, but otherwise it's pretty good. Then Hero comes back and uncorks the somewhat tubby man tornillo plancha, which ruled it.

Fifty minutes gone....

Fifty-three minutes in, and Punk finally scores the first fall of the match, and this is one of the more contentious parts of it. Punk goes for a shining wizard that was presumably supposed to take the fall, but overshoots it somewhat, and instead spins around and hits another kneelift to get the pin. On rewatch, the overshot isn't as bad as I remember. He doesn't hit it full on, but he gets enough of it that I don't think it really hurts the match that much. He fits two more full-on later in the match, they honestly don't look that much more devastating than the one he just grazed Hero with. What does hurt is that at this point in this match, this doesn't feel like something that merits a fall.

Fifty-five minutes gone....

It's around that both guys start to look a bit worn, and it's weird, because other than the simple fact that they've been wrestling a really damn long time, it doesn't feel like they've done a whole lot to each other. The entire first hour of this match is worked at a pretty even tempo. It has some highs and some lows, but it hasn't really built to anything. It made the first fall seem out of place, and it makes the current sense of desperation from both men seem somewhat unearned.

One hour gone....

Now they're earning it, as Hero takes over and gets some big nearfalls, including one off of the Hero's Welcome that had me briefly wondering if that was what tied up the match. Past the hour mark, they are developing a sense that Hero needs to score a fall soon, or he's going to fall too far behind Punk to overtake him.

Sixty-five minutes gone....

Punk breaks out the flying headscissors on the floor and an elbow suicida that lands him in the third row, but Hero comes back during a fight on the top rope and hits the Pepsi Plunge on Punk to take the second fall, and that genuinely did feel like a big moment, and a major dramatic turning point for the match.

Seventy minutes gone....

The finishing stretch begins in earnest, and what's interesting is that both guys are totally wiped out to the point that you buy the idea that any move could potentially win the match, even though you know without even looking at the results that this thing is going the full 90 minutes.

Seventy-five minutes gone....

I don't have anything really specific to say about this five minute block, so I guess this is as good a place to put this comment as any: this is a great match, but aside from the fact that the Punk/Hero feud was built around them having really long matches with each other, there is absolutely no reason the match needs to be this long. Not gonna knock the match for going this long, because this is the match I'm watching, and I'm reviewing the match I'm watching, not the one I want to watch. But 90 minutes is a long fucking time to spend watching a wrestling match, and there's nothing in this match that these guys couldn't have done in 30.

Eighty minutes gone....

Punk tenaciously works the sleeperhold, which seems like a really good idea in a match like this. Hero sells it really well, and then pays him back with a pair of backdrops and a snap Regalplex that knocked Punk even loopier than he already was.

Eighty-five minutes gone....

I've never run a marathon before, but I imagine that the end of one is kinda like the end of this match. It doesn't really matter what they're doing (though, for what it's worth, what they're doing is pretty good), it's just really cool and borderline miraculous that they even got to this point. And to a large extent, that was really the big appeal of this match - they could've done this in 30 or less and not lost anything, but they chose to do it in 90 just because they could, and that is pretty awesome. Hero hits a superbomb and crawls over to make the cover, draping one arm over Punk, but Punk does the same, and the ref counts the double pin as the time limit expires. But Ian Rotten comes out from the back and, in a rare moment of brevity, says fuck that shit and the match gets restarted.

Sudden death....

Both guys pull themselves to their feet, lay in some hard shots, and then Hero outmaneuvers Punk to lock in the Hangman's Clutch to finally put him away, and it feels like every bit as big of an accomplishment as they treat it as. I have seen many better matches than this, but it is still a great match, even with it's flaws, and on a meta level, what these guys pulled off here was unbelievable. I don't need to see anyone try to recreate it any time soon, but I'm glad it exists, and I'm glad that I've seen it.

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