El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Kong Smash

Week 53: Kong Smash

EB: We had quite the tag match on April 13 between Invader #1 & Ricky Santana against the California Studs. We also have a big card coming up on April 21. But we are not yet done with the TV episodes from the April 20 weekend. While the Campeones episode focused on airing the World tag title match from April 13, the west coast version of Super Estrellas de la Lucha Libre took a different approach to what it was promoting. There’s a big card coming up on Mother’s Day weekend, with a Noche de Campeones scheduled for May 11 in the San Juan Metro area and a Tarde de Campeones scheduled for May 12 in the west coast region of the island. This episode of Super Estrellas is devoted entirely to promoting the May 12 card currently scheduled for San German. Let’s go to the episode, where Hugo is in the middle of announcing that, in a  bit of a surprise, there is a new Caribbean champion (Scott Hall has lost the title and has left Puerto Rico). The new champion…Super Medico #3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43PuLOBV5Ok

The version of the episode that we have begins with Hugo already in the middle of announcing the Caribbean title change that happened. Hug mentions that the new champ does not want to talk about the title right now, instead he is concentrating on training and making sure the title win does not go to his head. We are proud of this positive attitude and congratulations once again the new Caribbean champion Super Medico #3. Hugo then runs down what we will have on today’s program, the main event will be a match from last week where Ricky Santana faced Mr. Pogo for the WorldJunior title (if you were wondering what Ricky did before agreeing to team up with Invader against the California Studs, this would be that match). 

Hugo then shares the big announcement, for Mother’s Day they will be having a big card to celebrate. It will be an afternoon of champions in San German (they are holding a night of champions that Saturday as well). Special prices due to it being Mother’s Day weekend ($5 adults and $2 children). Hugo runs down the card so far: Carlos Colon vs Ron Garvin for the Universal title; Invader & Bronco vs the California Studs for the World tag titles; TNT vs King Kong for the TV title; Monster Ripper vs Amarlyris for the Women’s title; Giant Warrior vs Action Jackson; Super Medico #3 vs.Wild Bill Braddock; and Mascarita Sagrada & Octagncito vs Espectrito & El Pequeño Cobarde. Fair warning, the card will experience some changes in the coming weeks as we get closer to the date. Hugo plugs the VHS tapes and merchandise available for purchase and now to the action. 

Invader #4 vs. El Condor

We have Invader #4 vs El Condor (a rookie Ray Gonzalez). Eliud Gonzalez and Hugo talk up El Condor, that he works hard and it seems that some of the lady fans are asking about him. He has his work cut out for him against the more experienced Invader #4. Condor is given a bit of shine during the middle portion of the match, but this is mainly Invader #4 in control throughout. Invader #4 comes off the top with a body press for the pin.

MD: This is definitely a match that happened in Puerto Rico in 1991. It was fine. Condor is Ray Gonzalez and he’s treated as a bit more competent than a lot of the other enhancement type guys. Plus Invader IV isn’t quite as high on the food chain. He does get to clown him quite a bit with armdrags and what not though. Invader won it with his leap back body press. 

EB: Monster Ripper will be defending her title against Amarylis, who you may remember as Bronco’s second when he first arrived in Puerto Rico. Ripper says it is ridiculous to think Amarylis has any chance of beating her. Amarylis is like Sasha, pure trash. 

Next is the California Studs and Gen. Akbar talking about the scheduled World tag title match for Mother's Day weekend. This promo is a bit muted considering the bloodbath from the previous week but it looks like they have plans for this feud to go on quite a bit longer. But spoiler alert, this will be the last we will see of the California Studs.

MD: Hey, it looks like we finally get Amaryllis, Princess of the Ring, who we’ve seen in those Bronco music videos. She’s going to be challenging Ripper who finally gets to move on from Sasha.

Now it’s Big Brian and Tough Tony. Lots of talk about Mother’s day here. Of course Hugo loved to mention his own mom when Tony Anthony said he was going to buy her flowers too. Lee said that it’d be a good last dinner for Invader and Bronco before they put them out of their misery.

EB: El Profe rounds out this segment of interviews, he is here representing Ron Garvin. Profe says that he has the ideal man to challenge for the Universal title, someone who is a former champ and who previously humiliated and defeated Carlos Colon. 

MD: Profe says he’s always wanted a world champion in his stable and that Garvin, coming right from the WWF, is the guy to get it for him. I’m looking forward to seeing what Garvin can do here certainly.

Wild Bill Braddock vs. El Corsario

EB: Up next is our first look at Wild Bill Braddock, a man who looks like if B Brian Blair decided to emulate Hulk Hogan while wearing arm tassels. Braddock's opponent is El Corsario and this is a quick match to highlight Braddock. There are a couple of instances where Braddock decides to lift up Corsario before the three count, with the eventual pin coming after a powerslam.

MD: I couldn’t tell you one Braddock match I’ve seen before this. He was a late era WCCW/USWA Texas guy. He’s competent here. Lots of pulling Corsario up. Corsario takes a nice clothesline where he goes slowly feet over head in the selling. Braddock wins this with a power slam. Seems like he could be a capable enough midcard heel. It looks like he’ll be facing Medico III moving forward.

EB: Carlos Colon is standing in front of the Puerto Rican flag to talk about his upcoming Universal title defense against Ron Garvin. There is history between them, they had a couple of matches back in 1988, each of them won one. Carlos is happy that San German has been selected as the site for the Mother's Day show and feels that the best gift he can give all of the Puerto Rican mothers is a convincing victory over Ron Garvin. Carlos admits that Garvin has been the opponent that has given him the most trouble, but he has been studying tapes and feels confident he'll be able to win on Mother’s Day. 

MD: Colon puts over Garvin as a dangerous opponent and says he’s been watching tape, but that the biggest gift he can give to all the mothers will be defeating him soundly. I wish Mothers’ Day had been a bigger deal in other territories. All of these promos are fun.

EB: Invader and Bronco want to give the mothers the satisfaction of them giving a beating to the California Studs.

MD: Once again, Bronco promises to beat up people for all the mothers.

Super Medico #3 vs. El Dragon

EB: Some generic comments from Super Medico #3 about his scheduled match with Wild Bill Braddock. We then go to a match where Super Medico #3 takes on El Dragon. On commentary they hype up Medico’s victory over Scot Hall for the Caribbean title. Showcase match for Medico #3, he picks up the win with a bridge into a pin. We then get some comments from Bill Braddock about his upcoming match against Super Medico #3.

MD: Medico is coming along. I’m curious why they didn’t keep pushing Perez as a singles since it looked like that was the direction. Estrada, Jr. really does still seem like a work in progress in his promo and in the enhancement match. Dragon got more here than either Condor or Corsario earlier. Medico won it with a belly to back after a nice go behind. He lost the bridge but got it back in a commanding way. Braddock then cut a promo where he was basically new to the island, had no idea who Medico even was, touting his own body instead.

EB: Akbar and King Kong interview, where Akbar promises that TNT will be finished once for all as he wants the TV title in Devastation Inc. King Kong just growls throughout. 

MD: Hugo really loves saying King Kong. Kong likes to do all the funny hand motions and thumping of his chest when Akbar is speaking, let alone Hugo. Anyway, TNT is a glutton for punishment and Kong is coming for the TV title.

EB: Profe and Action Jackson are next and you can still hear King Kong growling off in the distance as they start their interview. Action is facing Giant Warrior, a feud that started recently when Action got involved in Warrior’s match against Scott Hall. We then get a card rundown for the Mother’s Day card they’ve been hyping all episode.

MD: Not much to say as this is setting up a Giant Warrior match; they do such a good job of building EVERY match. Jackson’s a fun interview and it’s a shame they had him be fake TNT for so long.

King Kong vs. Armandito Salgado

EB: King Kong is facing Armandito Salgado and it is a quick match as Kong hits the splash. Salgado is stretched out afterwards and they keep putting over how dangerous Kong’s splash is.

MD: It feels like we missed out on a King Kong music video here. We just see his head moving this way and that with the tooth necklace super imposed over him. He makes real short work of Salgado but it’s effective. Post splash, Salgado got stretchered out.

EB: TNT is here and calls Akbar a ‘camello’ (camel) and promises that King Kong will have to fight tooth and nail to get the TV title. 

MD: I may have missed it but I don’t think TNT said he was going to beat up King Kong for all the mothers.

Ricky Santana vs. Mr. Pogo - From April 13

EB: This week's main event is Ricky Santana vs. Mr. Pogo for the World Junior title. The title was held up on April 6 and this is the rematch from April 13. This would be the match Ricky Santana wrestled earlier on the card before teaming up with Invader to take on the California Studs. Ricky and Pogo are not strangers to each other, Pogo was Rický's first feud when he arrived in Puerto Rico in late summer of 1988. Ricky controls the first minutes of the match, in spite of Pogo trying to slow down Ricky’s momentum at different points. A corner charge by Ricky is countered with a reverse kick and now it is Pogo’s turn to dish out punishment with kicks and a nerve hold. Pogo gets a pretty lengthy control segment but Santana refuses to be put away. Ricky fights out of a sleeper and starts his comeback, but Pogo is able to cut him off. Pogo is still unable to put Ricky away despite several pin attempts. Pogo sends Ricky into the ropes and Santana counters with a Thesz press that leads to a pin. Ricky Santana has won the World Junior title. 

MD: If this does come before the tag from last week, then it makes the tag even better, because this was a long, pretty complete match where Santana takes a lot of punishment and gets a sort of banana peel win, even though he had been mounting a comeback. Pogo isn’t what he had been a few years ago and him as Jr. Champ is pretty dubious but the kicks are still pretty good and he could lean on someone. 

Some fun stuff early where Pogo tries to get Santana to shake or bow and Santana does bow but catches the foot as Pogo tries to cheapshot him. Pogo takes over with a kick out of the corner and hits another good one off the ropes. Past that it’s a lot of nerve holds and grounded punches and what not. Santana gets some hope but keeps getting cut off, til he finally does come back and win with a Thesz Press out of nowhere. If this is before that tag, it, along with the pre-match creates more of an overall whole for those fans that day.

EB: We close the show with the Dick Murdoch music video, and I’m convinced that this was likely a stopgap with Scott Hall's departure (it felt like the barbed wire match was the feud ending). Hugo then closes the show by talking about the Mother’s Day card that will happen in a  few weeks.

MD: I’m a little surprised Murdoch is still here now that the Colon feud is over but it’s not like he couldn’t be plugged in against any of the babyfaces. You could do a Murdoch/TNT feud that would be pretty hot I’m sure, for instance. Anyway, all of this looks great and I wish we had these matches in full.

EB: We have video for one of the matches from the April 21 house show, it is the TV title match between TNT and King Kong. This feud has only been going on for a few weeks but it has escalated ever since King Kong made his surprise debut by attacking TNT. In turn, TNT duped Kong with an impostor TNT to avoid getting jumped at the start of their rematch (although TNT’s friend really got a bum deal there). Let’s see how the third match between them goes.

TNT vs. King Kong  - April 21

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chjIK4stC50

This is from a later home video release so the commentary is not from the time this match happened. TNT decides to attack first this time and starts striking Kong as soon as he enters the ring. TNT controls the first minute or so but runs into a Kong boot in the corner. Kong then controls most of the match with his size advantage, throwing his weight around to squash TNT and using some chinlocks and bearhugs. The tide turns in TNT’s favor when he rolls out of the way of a Kong charge into the corner. A brief comeback is cut short when TNT attempts a sunset flip but can’t get Kong over. Instead, Kong just does a vertical splash on TNT which gets a two count. With TNT still down from that vertical splash, Kong goes to the top turnbuckle and jumps off with a big splash. Kong decides to go up again and hits a second top rope splash and gets the three count. We have a new TV champ but one has to wonder how TNT is doing after those top rope splashes. 

MD: They were certainly going all in on Kong here. This was for TNT’s title and they filled ten minutes pretty well, all things considered. TNT was able to outstrike him early, but Kong just crushed him in the corner over and over again. Some of the holds weren’t the most compelling ever, but at one point TNT tried to hulk up only to get cut off which you didn’t see every day. The comeback was really good with TNT flying in with a big boot followed up by the spin wheel kick, but he couldn’t put Kong away. Kong was able to turn the tide and crush him with these massive top rope splashes to actually take the belt. Very Memphis actually, with the monster of the week getting a run like this.

EB: We don’t have any TV from the April 27 weekend, but before heading into May, there are a couple of notable developments to make note of. TNT suffered an injury from the Kong top rope splashes and will be out of action for a bit. Some of TNT’s friends want to avenge his injury and Kim Duk is the first to step up. He will face King Kong at the April 27 house show in Caguas. Also, we’re not sure exactly how the rivalry ended up, but unfortunately the California Studs are gone. Skandor Akbar has brought in a team to face Invader and Bronco in the meantime, but there is another one waiting in the wings that will be coming in for Mother’s Day weekend. And with a series of injuries and departures, the already announced Mother’s Day house shows are undergoing some changes. Let’s go to the May 4 west coast episode of Super Estrellas and hear the latest developments. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MYLxV-Lb2E

Hugo welcomes the viewers and runs down what we'll see on today's program, including Invader and Bronco taking on Gen.Akbar's newest team the State Patrol (James Earl Wright and Dudley Do Right). Hugo then talks about the changes to the May 12 Mother’s Day card. The first change is the venue, due to air conditioning being installed at the venue in San German, the card will now take place in Mayaguez. Hugo runs down the updated card and among the changes we now have Invader & Bronco facing the Samoan Swat Team, Giant Warrior challenging new TV champion King Kong, and Monster Ripper will now defend her Women’s title against Candi Divine (Amaralyris suffered an ankle injury). This Friday they will be in Yauco with a main event of Carlos Colon vs. King Kong, Invader & Bronco vs Action Jackson & El Profe in a lumberjack match, Giant Warrior vs. Rod Price, Caribbean Express vs Samoan Swat Team, Ricky Santana vs Wild Bill Braddock, and Kim Duk vs Billy Joe Travis.

MD: Hugo has a lot to say here. Esteban will cover all this but here’s what stood out. First, the State Patrol are in (making me think the Studs are out?) and… it’s James Earl Wright and Dudley Do Right? I am not making this up. It’d be awesome if they had Wright teaming with the Mountie here, but I don’t think that’s what’s happening. Second, they were building to a big show (Afternoon of Champions) but had to move the venue because the air conditioning was broken! Right now the card is Colon vs Garvin, Bronco/Invader vs Samoan Swat Team, King Kong vs Giant Warrior (replacing TNT), Monster Ripper vs Candi Devine (as Amaryllis already had an ankle injury), plus a minis match, Super Medico vs Action Jackson (with Kim Duk as ref! What a run for that guy), and Santana vs Brad Anderson and Duk vs Braddock to round it out. We’ll see if that holds up.

Super Medico #3 vs. Action Jackson 

EB: We go to Action Jackson and El Profe in the ring during this past week’s TV taping in Cataño. Action and Profe are demanding for Action to wrestle Super Medico #3, arguing that Action beat him last week in Caguas and thus he should get a Caribbean title shot right now. We go to the clip of the match from April 27 in Caguas between Super Medico #3 and Action Jackson, The ref accidentally gets bumped by Jackson after being kicked by Medico #3, leading to Medico #3 taking down Action with a flying headbutt. However,  the ref takes too long to come too and Action kicks out. Action then surprises Medico #3 with an inside cradle for the win. Back to Cataño and Medico #3 has accepted the challenge. We’re getting a Caribbean title match right now.

It’s a bit of a seesaw battle with Medico #3 controlling to start, Action taking over after raking the eyes, and then Medico #3 coming back after countering a corner charge We get another ref bump, this time when Action ducks a flying body press from Medico #3 and instead Medico takes out the ref. Medico #3 gets a roll up but the ref is not up. Profe gets in the ring and headbutts Medico #3 with a loaded mask (the camera clearly showed Profe loading up the mask before getting into the ring). Action makes the cover and the ref counts to three. The ref awards the title to Action Jackson, who leaves the ring with Profe. Hugo and Eliud Gonzalez are saying that they robbed Medico #3 of his title, when we see Kim Duk make his way to the ring. Duk explains to the ref what happened, and we see the ref disappear into the rudo locker room. All of a sudden, the ref runs out with the Caribbean title and holds up Medico #3’s arm as the winner. Looks like the ref found the foreign object. Super Medico #3 grabs the microphone and throws out a challenge to Action Jackson, he’s willing to have another match with Jackson but only if Kim Duk is the special guest referee.

MD: They show us the finish (and Jackson berating Medico before the match) of one match where Medico lost due to a ref bump. Then we get the brunt of a second match where Medico looks better than I’d seen him in the previous show, fiery. I think he just needed a proper opponent and setting. Here he plows through Jackson’s attempts to takeover with eye rakes but plows into the ref with a blind leap off the turnbuckles. That lets Jackson cheat (Profe loads his mask and nails Medico) and steal the belt. Duk comes out and contests and the ref overturns the decision, going so far as to run to the rudo locker room to get it back, and of course all of this sets up Duk as special ref. Interestingly, they apologize later for not having Medico in the studio to talk about all this but Hugo hypes up how upset he is and also his hard matches recently with Brad Anderson as he has one more upcoming.

EB: Ron Garvin joins us by telephone to talk about his Universal title match with Carlos Colon on Mother’s Day weekend. Garvin has been Universal champion before and says he is a bit better and younger than Carlos Colon. Garvin makes sure to wish a happy Mother’s Day to all of the mothers. We then go to Hugo and Carlos Colon, with Carlos mentioning that he wants all of the fans there to support him since Garvin is a dangerous opponent. Carlos has lost to Garvin before and is looking to make sure that result does not repeat itself on Mother’s Day. Hugo then asks Carlos about his match on Friday vs King Kong, with Carlos saying that he has to be careful with Kong, we saw how he put TNT on the shelf for who knows how long and he has to be careful the same doesn’t happen to him. Carlos told TNT he’s hoping to get some payback for him this Friday. 

Hugo then talks over a still photo of Super Medico #3 where he confirms that the Caribbean title match with Kim Duk as special guest ref is set for Mother’s Day weekend. After a card rundown for the May 12 house show, we join in progress a 1988 match between Invader #3 and Ron Garvin. This is to showcase Garvin ahead of his upcoming Universal title challenge and Garvin gets the win with his hand of stone punch.

MD: We have few results for Garvin in 91 but he had one WCW match in March against Rick Steiner in Knoxville apparently and did some for South Atlantic in the margins as well. So I’m not quite sure why he couldn’t be there. Maybe he just didn’t want to be. Lots of “Let me tell yous” in this phone interview. He says he’s leaner, meaner, and younger than Colon, and a better lover, fisherman, etc, which was kind of funny. Weirdly, Hugo doesn’t translate it. Colon gives a hard sell for the Mother’s Day show saying he needs all the fans there to support him. Then he talks about an upcoming spot show against Kong where he’d get revenge for TNT. 

The old footage is joined in progress, with Garvin choking Invader IIi repeatedly, feeding a bit on a comeback, and ducking under to set up the hands of steel to finish him off. It got the point across.

EB: Action Jackson and El Profe offer their comments about the upcoming match with Kim Duk as special guest referee. They sound pretty confident that neither Medico #3 or Kim Duk will be a problem.

MD: Not much to say here. Jackson isn’t worried about beating Medico and he says some pretty bad things about Duk.

King Kong vs. Kim Duk - From April 27?

EB: Skandor Akbar and King Kong are here to talk about the TV title defense against Giant Warrior on Mother's Day and about Kong’s match this Friday against Carlos Colon. Akbar is pretty confident as well that his man will come away with the duke.

We then  go to April 27 in Caguas, where Kim Duk is facing King Kong in an attempt to avenge TNT’s injury. Because of the injury to TNT, the top rope splash has been banned. Duk makes a valiant go of it, but Kong is able to knock him down and hit a slash for the three count. 

MD: Big news here is that the top rope Super Kong Splash is banned. Akbar says he’s going to destroy everyone anyway. The match was short with Duk’s strikes keeping Kong on the ropes as he tried to get revenge for TNT. All it took was one clothesline out of nowhere to drop Duk for a splash off the ropes. They had built Kong up on the idea that he could crash into you at any point and that would basically be it.

Brad Anderson vs. El Corsario

EB: Brad Anderson is here to send some words to Ricky Santana, his opponent for Mother’s Day weekend. Brad is the latest challenger for the World Junior title. We also get a look at Brad Anderson in the ring, as he faces El Corsario. Brad looks a bit like a pirate with that headgear. Anderson gets to showcase his stuff, albeit with a couple of rough spots where it looks like he and Corsario were not on the same page as to how the bump should be taken. A hard spinebuster slam gets the win for Brad Anderson. 

MD: Brad Anderson, Ole’s kid (and Zan Panzer), looks more like a lost Hennig family member here. They build him up as a family member of Gene, Ole, Flair. He actually has some neat variations. He hits a gourdbuster where Corsario seems to almost take it on the back of his head and then does a spinebuster slam instead of a spinebuster to win. He really did sort of come off as an Anderson for the 90s.

EB: We get a  repeat airing of the Giant Warrior music video where he walks around Old San Juan and with some weird action scenes interspersed throughout. . 

MD: Things you need to know: This started with a weird motorcycle for some reason. We got more of Giant Warrior’s glowing heart. It ended with Giant Warrior wielding a stylized gun and pointing it at a screen followed by footage of a car blowing up.

EB: Hugo is visiting a recovering TNT at his home. TNT (with ski mask) wants to thank the fans for all of the well wishes and says that he is happy that all of the tests have come out negative. He promises that he will be back in the not too distant future and warns King Kong that TNT will avenge this. 

MD: They always do such a good job with these though it’s funny for TNT to be hanging out at home in a ninja mask. Anyway, no permanent damage and he’d be back soon.

El Bronco #1 & Invader #1 vs. State Patrol

EB: Our main event is Invader #1 & Bronco #1 taking on Akbar’s latest team of the State Patrol. James Earl Wright starts off for the Patrol, while Bronco starts off for the champs. The tecnicos control the first half of the match, until Invader gets backed into the rudo corner. Dudley Do Right and Wright work over Invader for the next few minutes, but ultimately Invader makes a comeback and gets the tag to Bronco, who gets the win for his team with his Bronco DDT. 

Hugo closes the show by plugging the May 12 Mother’s Day show and this Friday’s show in Yauco.

MD: So friend of the blog and all wrestling fans everywhere, Kris Zellner, thinks that Dudley is Mike Servich who had runs in South Atlantic and Georgia All Star, and he knows better than me about this stuff so I believe him. This was a pretty slight one overall. They controlled on Wright’s arm. The Patrol was able to isolate Invader in the corner for a bit. Dudley looked ok in there overall stooging and clubbing well. Finish had Bronco getting the hot tag and then hitting his face first DDT out of nowhere.

EB: Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, we continue celebrating the mothers of Puerto Rico. First we get the final TV episodes setting up the Noche de Campeones event. The Saman Swat Team debuts, Profe is working with Monster Ripper, and the final hype for Mother’s Day. Then, we get four matches from the May 11 Noche de Campeones card that was aired live on WAPA as a gift to the mothers of Puerto Rico. Will we have any title changes? And how does Ron Garvin’s return to Puerto Rico go? 

Read more!

New Footage Friday: HASH! STATE PATROL! BLUE PANTHER! RAY GONZALEZ! JUNJI HIRATA!

Blue Panther/Blackman/Valente Fernandez vs. Lobo Rubio/Ricky Boy/El Indomito UWA 90

MD: This was a nice surprise. It had a buzzing crowd, a pretty perfect crowd-pleasing primera with a lot of fun match-ups where everything had zing, a little bit of heat, and then a comeback with a memorable finish you won't forget anytime soon. Valente is not a guy I'm super familiar with but past his tendency to meander in the wrong place at the wrong time, I thought he had great fire. He threw himself into everything he did. Panther managed to fit a lot into a short period of time, primarily some tricked out holds and this great front facelock drop that he should have been using up and down a few years later when he was a beloved hero against Art Barr. He also threw an axe kick of sorts which was pretty nasty whatever he was going for. The exoticos were good foils in there but didn't necessarily stand out. The finish was wild with Valente getting lawn darted out of the ring, his head disappearing behind a desk at the edge of the crowd.

PAS: Total standout Fernandez performance. He is a guy with a really great kip-up, and he found a bunch of ways to mix in his kip-up, plus he takes a fucking insane bump at the finish getting hurled over the top rope and smashing the back of his head on the concrete. Honestly a top ten lucha bump to the floor, which is a tough list to crack. This is mostly fast moving Panther, which isn't as cool as hard mat wrestling Panther, but still pretty cool. Matt mentioned his combo DDT/Facebuster move, which was cool, something he did a lot in this match, and something I have never seen him do before or since. Really strange, you don't normally see someone break out a signature spot for just one six man tag match in 1990. The rudos were solidly in place to eat the technicos spots which is what they should be there to do. Nifty match with an absolute all time highlight.

State Patrol vs. Ray Gonzalez/Ricky Santana WWC 8/24/91

MD: We've gotten so much Puerto Rico in the last month that it's almost overwhelming. Reviewing the State Patrol in strange places is our oeuvre though. This was really just a glimpse of a TV match but it was good for what it was and it's too bad we don't have more of them there. Puerto Rico could make giants out of the meek. Look at how great the Rock'n'Roll RPMs were there. This was well balanced, with an opening that didn't outlast its welcome, a good hot tag even if I don't know what Parker was going for and a finishing stretch with a good cutoff and a very satisfying ending. Next time I see a State Patrol match I want to pay more attention to Wright on the apron because he was really good here.

PAS: This was fine. It didn't really have the insanity you want from a Puerto Rican match, it was basically the third or fourth best match on an episode of WCW Worldwide. Decent hot tag, solidish heat segment, fun finish. Utterly forgettable stuff, but kind of cool to see the State Patrol on tour.

ER: Puerto Rico is fairly unrepresented on match lists, and so it's always a favorite thing of mine to find out which workers from the States would occasionally show up there. I've watched the existing Rougeaus PR match at least a half dozen times, and probably watched the Jamie Dundee match at least four. The Puerto Rico that shows up is pretty patchy, as it's not like we're getting full runs from any of those guys (and I assume they didn't fly down there just to work one match). But we've been getting more and more PR uploads and it looks like we're slowly filling in some gaps. State Patrol were never presented as a strong tag team on US TV. They did a couple All Japan tours and were weirdly dominant on one of them, getting a bunch of TV matches and winning all of them. It would be like Well Dunn or Disorderly Conduct going on an AJ tour and beating everyone's asses (Well Dunn/Southern Rockers kind of did this, and it was weird). I think the State Patrol gimmick would work even better today, the kind of gimmick that would make them faces or heels depending on what town they were in. House show in Missouri? Babyfaces. House show in Oakland? Heels. There has been a rotating group of at least 2-4 guys working a Border Patrol gimmick in the Bay Area dating back 25+ years. But seeing State Patrol working anywhere but America always strikes me as funny. I'm not sure if Adam-12 played in syndication in Puerto Rico, but it's safe to say that Buddy Lee and James Earl would have been heels by virtue of their whiteness anyway.

The match itself is essentially like most State Patrol WCW matches. When I was younger I thought Buddy Lee was the better half of the team, but I've been moved firmly into the James Earl camp the past few years (seems that's been a lifelong trend with me, originally liking Edge in '98 before quickly moving over to Christian, Jeff before moving over to Matt, Enos before moving over to Bloom, basically I never should have trusted my initial childhood/teen instincts about any tag team, ever). This is all armdrags, dropkicks, and punches, and that's fine. Buddy Lee looked a little off in this, stutter stepping a couple of armdrags and going for a weird move off the top where he just landed on Ricky Santana's knees (Santana was lying and facing the turnbuckles, meaning Parker was jumping directly on him like a mirror, so I have no idea what move I was supposed to think he was even doing). But James Earl was a real stud here, stooging for Gonzalez and Santana, getting infuriated from the apron (watch him take a silly leaping bump to the infield after getting knocked . I loved the spot where Santana was knocking back and forth between them with punches and back elbows, loved teen superstar Ray Gonzalez's little mustache, and loved the "WCW putting over their new Latin tag team" vibe of this match. It's like they saw what State Patrol were doing in Georgia and were like "yeah that will work here!" I can't wait for a Disorderly Conduct match to pop up in this Puerto Rico footage. It will happen.


Shinya Hashimoto/Kensuke Sasaki/Tadao Yasuda/Yuji Nagata/Junji Hirata vs. Shiro Koshinaka/Kengo Kimura/Kuniaki Kobayashi/Michiyoshi Ohara/Akitoshi Saito NJPW 2/11/96

PAS: New Japan 10 man elimination tags have been some of the most consistently excellent match styles in wrestling. This was sort of a lower end version of that but had some really fun moments.  I think some of the steam was out of the Heisei Ishingun feud at this point, but that crew has some fun dudes on it. Anytime you get to see Hashimoto rip shit is going to be cool, and I really enjoyed him coming in a clubbing guys, only to get blindsided by Koshinaka's rock hard tailbone. This had some of the problems that are endemic in elimination matches, where guys get eliminated by weak sauce stuff to keep it moving, but for a longish match it kept me pretty engaged.

MD: Very fun house show ten man elimination that doesn't rise to the level of the classics, with Nagata especially getting a ton of time to shine. They built him up early by having him survive a spike piledriver and have to fight hard out of the corner and then went in on him really hard after Hashimoto and Sasaki were eliminated. After he survived eating a wayward Hirata diving headbutt that was supposed to be a save and the subsequent Kobayashi fisherman's suplex, the fans really got behind him (though he'd fall soon after). Lots of good spots and sequences including a top rope double stomp train in the corner and a pretty elaborate set up for Hashimoto getting eliminated. While Hash was suitably larger than life in this setting, and Koshinaka his usual jerk self with butt butts coming from every direction, the match survived the two of them getting eliminated. The balance was a little off in general as can be the case with big elimination matches (the weight of some moves mattering less or more than they should), but they hit the underlying story well enough with enough peaks that it's hard to care too much.

ER: This was great fun, with a structure that is pretty hard to mess up. It was a little sloppier and loose than these things tend to be, but I like that loose atmosphere in a setting that can be stuffy. These matches always wind up having some unexpected heroes, or big contributions from unexpected sources. I really liked Yasuda here. He's a big lummox with a Mr. Potato Head, but he got given some cool moments to shine. He looked mammoth compared to everyone else, hit his nice big boot, big avalanche, great butterfly suplex, basically got to do his big spots before getting out of there. The double stomp train was awesome, and structured perfectly. They saved the two big dudes for last, so as I'm watching it I'm saying outloud "Oh yeah Hashimoto is doing it!! Wait YASUDA is doing it!?" Junji Hirata looked like a total beast, and he's a guy who ALWAYS looks like a total beast and should be talked about more when we have "what guys are total beasts?" conversations. He throws a ton of great clotheslines here, no sold a nut shot from Ohara (who threw out a couple nut shots here) and it's pretty clear from watching him that this was the guy that Kensuke Sasaki became a few years later. When I looked at these 10 guys I was not expecting Koshinaka and Hashimoto to disappear so early, but I love when these matches let others shine. They gave the stage to Yuji and he's the whipping boy for the first half and then gets to come out on first on the second, throwing exploders and overhead suplexes, his kappo kick is perfect, just lighting up anyone who tests him. Saito was a disappointment, felt like half of his kicks missed, and missed at the worst time. The finish run of a 30 minute match is not the time to be pulling kicks, but Saito whiffed on three straight and the crowd got noticeably restless. Really took the air out of what should have been a fun finish. Still, this was a 30 minute match that did not feel at all like 30 minutes, and there was far too much good to let Saito's iffy kicks mess it up.

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New Footage Friday: Moondogs, Aoyagi, Mr. Fuji, State Patrol, Can Ams, Matsunaga

Moondogs/Mr. Fuji vs. Pedro Morales/Ivan Putski/Tony Garea WWF Kuwait 1983

ER: I loved this! I loved it so much I wound up watching it twice, back to back. That is the first time that has ever happened with any match involving Garea, Putski, Fuji, etc. But here it is and it's totally great. These Kuwait shows seem like an absolute blast from the wrestlers' perspective, as every old gag gets a gigantic reaction. The crowd responds huge to every single thing they're supposed to respond to, so we get a simple match with a ton of heat and rabid excitement for the simplest exchanges. Fuji is fantastic in this playing a great stooge. He gets his salt knocked out of his hands by Putski, pinballs around so he can get punched by all the faces a couple times, does some funny misdirection, scrambles on his knees to tag out, all the exact things this crowd wants to see. The faces don't need to do much, the fans are reacting to Fuji and the Moondogs (if that doesn't sound like a cool as hell Hanna-Barbera crime solving show I don't know what does) reacting to the faces. Putski has a lot of energy and the crowd rightfully reacts huge to all of his headlock punches, and I cannot imagine what they even thought of the round hairy Moondogs. Garea comes in and does a lot that one headlock that you've seen Garea do, but soon you got Rex holding him in a long as hell bearhug, building to that tag, and Kuwait warms my heart by getting so damn into this bearhug. It's beautiful. We get the Moondogs cutting off the ring and it's satisfying as hell, because you know the roof blows off the place when Garea finally tags in Putski. It wraps pretty quickly after this (all of the Kuwait matches we have end very suddenly on things that weren't typical finishers), but honestly they could have kept this up for 30 minutes. This was simple, insanely effective wrestling, and instantly became my favorite match I've seen of several of these guys.

PAS: Pretty fun to watch the crowd go absolutely bananas for really simple wrestling. Every time Putski throws hands they totally lose there shit. Moondogs and Fuji are fine as foils, and everything was executed well (outside of the finish which looked botched) This exact same match wouldn't work well in the Boston Garden, but in front of a crowd that hadn't seen all the shortcuts before it was a total blast.


Ryuma Go/Masahiko Takasugi vs. Masashi Aoyagi/Mitsuhiro Matsunaga Pioneer Senshi 1990

PAS: This is exactly what you want it to be. Go throws the prematch flowers at Aoyagi and gets met with a big spin kick and we are off. It feels ragged and unprofessional like the best Karate Gi matches do. Go bleeds early and Aoyagi bleeds in the middle of the match, and blood all over a Gi is still one of the coolest visuals in wrestling. The Go/Takasugi team is perfectly willing to deliver dangerous looking stomps to the back of the head. Really fun to watch young lion Matsunaga working as a Aoyagi dojo boy, what a weird career he had.

ER: I dug this, as I am going to do with a loosely constructed karate gi guys vs. trad pro wrestlers match. It took a little while to really get percolating, overcame some stumbliness from Matsunaga, and blossomed into a great mix of blood and shoot throws and unprofessional kicks. Go and Takasugi were the owners and headliners of Pioneer, and I love when a couple of karate goons kick the tar out of authority. I didn't really see how Aoyagi got busted open, but it's a real gusher, sending rivers down his chest and covering his face, and around this time Aoyagi and Matsunaga start really taking things out on Go. I really liked the Aoyagi/Matsunaga dynamic, with Matsunaga throwing off balance kicks and kind of getting in over his head, occasionally getting his leg worked over or picked up and slammed hard, with Aoyagi always coming in to save him by kicking Go or Takasugi in the head, and Go especially takes the messy end of these kicks. I love those moments in Aoyagi matches where he violently kicks someone to the floor, always landing one of his hardest kicks in the match and then shoving someone unceremoniously to the ground with both feet.


State Patrol vs. The Can Am Express AJPW 6/4/91

ER: This was a good match, but not as great as the match I had built up in my head. This didn't quite have the cohesion or build that the greatest AJ tag discoveries have, and doesn't seem to ramp up as much as it should. It's a 18 minute match that feels more like they were pacing out 27 minutes, so we somehow get a ton of action while also feeling that we got things cut short. We don't have a lot of State Patrol in All Japan even though they did several tours. They were a team I always loved in WCW and feel like part of a whole wave of WCW guys who got overshadowed at the time by people who liked Benoit, Regal, and Malenko, even though undercard guys like Buddy Lee Parker or Gambler or even Vincent were working similar, or complementary styles at the same time to much less acclaim. So here's the State Patrol against one of the thee tape trading teams of the 90s. Kroffat/Furnas were an incredible on paper team who didn't always deliver their on paper potential, but always had a high floor due to the unique athletics of both men.

Tom Magee is a guy getting talked about a lot now, which is funny for several reasons, one of which (that I haven't seen discussed) is that Tom Magee's ceiling was Doug Furnas. We have 10-15 years of Furnas footage out there that was hot at the time but nobody cares about now, where you can see every positive Magee trait executed by a guy who was as good as he was gonna get. Furnas got effortless height on leapfrogs and could snap off a few press slams like it was nothing. Tom Magee was never going to be Hogan and it's foolish if anybody ever actually said that. It's unfair and stupid when current baseball prospects get compared to Mike Trout. There is zero chance of that happening. But Doug Furnas was cool and he's the best possible Magee. State Patrol are two guys who can work stiff and dish back, and so are the Can Ams, so at minimum you knew you were gonna get a couple hard forearm shots, a couple tough suplexes, and a couple nice double teams. We got it all and it was good.

James Earl Wright is a fun guy who got even less exposure than Buddy Lee Parker, as he never had that "Power Plant Trainer" fame like Buddy Lee. But Wright was damn good and threw himself into offense really well (always taking high backdrops and fast suplex bumps) but also committing to his own offense. He throws low fast clotheslines and I love the State Patrol's forearm/German suplex spot. Both guys do nice elbow drops which is a favorite move of mine that has been slowly phased out without anybody noticing the past decade. Kroffat throws a mean sidekick and fastest possible snap suplex, Furnas hits hard pivot belly to bellys, we get a cool misdirection into the finish with State Patrol hitting a top rope shoulderblock to each other when Kroffat flips out of a suplex, and the crowd did keep getting louder. But I think these teams have even better in them, so I'm left merely smiling that I got to see them fight at all.

PAS: I actually think Eric is underrating this, which is surprising because this is the sort of thing I would expect him to overrate. This was just a tightly worked powerhouse tag match, the kind of thing you might expect from a great Stieners match. State Patrol landed everything with a thud, especially great work from James Earl Wright, who was throwing heat, great looking lefty lariats, big elbow drops, nice forearms. That forearm/German suplex double team was completely awesome and should be stolen by a half a dozen indy wrestling teams right now. Loved watch Furnas stretch out and show off, and his Frankenstiener finish looked about as good as that move has ever looked.

MD: This is from a stacked show, stacked enough that I thought about pressing us to review the whole thing. Instead, we'll fill in gaps with the five, or so, key matches over the next year. The context matters. On the one hand, yes, this is part of the AJPW handhelds, and part of a great show in specific. On the other hand, this is the State Patrol. I don't think it could ever live up to what was in Eric's head, unfortunately.

This is a really cool Worldwide main event about five years before its time and with twice the room to breathe. All the little things worked well. Kroffat and Wright had an especially good bit of matwork. The State Patrol moved in and out of the ring really well, just somehow always in the right place at the right time against two opponents they probably hadn't faced off against too often. They cut off the ring well, allowing for a very effective face-in-peril run for Furnas.

We knew a lot of that already though. What the match has as well are some crazy State Patrol double teams (that German/forearm looked great), rapid fire elbow drops, Buddy Lee Parker rope-walking successfully, and some fairly complex bits of positioning on tandem spots. Where I'm with Eric is that I was left wanting more.

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Pro 4/13/96

A request from the wonderful and dependable Cubs Fan, a mere hours before the most exciting baseball game of his last decade is about to commence (I'm pulling for the Cubs, buddy).


1. State Patrol vs. Fire & Ice

This was really fun, and according to Chris Cruise the debut of Fire & Ice!! Historic!! Parker is a guy who won't back down and he jumps Train and immediately stiffs him up. It doesn't last long as Train gives Buddy a massive backdrop and a lariat right into Parker's throat, then Norton tags in and steamrolls him with a shoulderblock. State Patrol get to double team him for a bit, choking him out on the ropes and clubbing him, until Norton does a cool double vertical suplex on them. Finish is Norton hitting his nasty shoulderbreaker on Parker followed up with a huge standing splash from Train. Really fun tag.

2. V.K. Wallstreet vs. Cobra

This was maybe the most offense I've ever seen Cobra get. He throws a nice dropkick, some decent-ish punches, threw a really nice high arc powerslam. A lot of guys threw pretty nice powerslams during this era WCW. But Cobra really was a guy who seemed green for several years. I once saw somebody selling a "Super J" comp tape from their tapelist. I assumed initially that it was some Super J Tourney Comp, but no, it was legitimately a Jeff Farmer comp, just during the time he went by Super J. That is probably the weirdest comp tape I've ever seen.

3. Giant vs. Butch Long & Not THEE Manny Fernandez

Manny Fernandez is announced as Vern Henderson here. I always feel for jobbers when they get their name announced wrong. But an onscreen graphic to boot? Ouch. So Manny and Long didn't actually get any offense here. I'll give you time to collect yourselves. Giant threw a nice corner clothesline, and (recurring theme!) a big powerslam. Cool spot where Manny was trying a single leg on Giant, Long flew in with a crossbody that got caught, Giant did a huge kneelift to Manny and then a fallaway slam on Long. This maybe went 90 seconds.

4. Men at Work vs. Brad & Steve Armstrong

This was awesome. It's a fun example of WCW syndicated hierarchy, as there are still matches that surprise me with who's going over. I didn't see Norton going over One Man Gang, and here it was more of a toss-up. Armstrongs don't win a lot, neither do Men at Work. Armstrongs won this one, but ask yourself if the result wouldn't have been different if it were Scott and Steve instead of Brad and Steve. Steve/Scott seems like a team that could feasibly lose to Men at Work. But man this was good. Starr and Brad had glorious slicked down tightly curled mullets, you got a shit ton of dropkicks (and Brad is a guy with a great dropkick), Kanyon showed off a beautiful piece of underrated pro wrestling by nailing Brad with a big right hand coming out of an arm wringer (think about it, picture a guy doing an arm wringer, twisting up and under, only to be met with a right hand on the other side. You love it.), Steve continues the TREND by hitting a big rotating powerslam on Starr  (seriously, EVERYbody did a powerslam and it's the best), Kanyon predicts indie wrestling 15 years into the future by hitting a urunage onto his own knee, and that early match urunage leads to a great finish where Brad scouts it, reverses it later when Kanyon goes for it and slips right out the back into a dynamite Russian legsweep. This was just wonderful classic tag wrestling.

5. Lex Luger vs. Vern Henderson

Henderson is a fun old roided guy who pops up a couple times of year in WCW. He always tries, attempts offense he probably shouldn't, and takes at least one big bump a match. I always smile when Vern pops up. Luger is a little more controlling here than he was against Ice Train, but he still gives Vern a lot. Vern breaks out a neat little floatover armdrag that you wouldn't expect him to, and as advertised gets tossed to the floor and takes a big back bump without getting slowed down by the ropes. His punches are bad and Zbyszko calls out how awful his hammerlock is. "Luger must just be letting him put that thing on to be kind!" Luger hits a powerslam (THEME!) and runs nicely into Vern's corner boot. But then it's torture rack time. Fun little match. Luger was like Bill Dundee in terms of 1996 WCW studio taping mastery.

6. Barbarian vs. Konnan

Woof. What a waste of Barbarian. Let me be the first person to talk about how awful a wrestler Konnan was. At this point he had been given the US title, yet still clearly had no idea how to take offense. He had no idea how to fall, and many times came off like a totally untrained wrestler. At one point Barbarian hits a lariat and Konnan puts his arms at his side and just tips over. Later he spun around twice before hitting a kick to the stomach. I can't actually figure out a way to type what he did, to properly convey how misguided it looked. Barbarian was in the ropes, Konnan right in front of him, in place, just spun around clockwise - twice - on his feet, and at the end of the second spin just threw his leg out, so it was like a sidekick to the stomach. Barbarian sold it properly, like a confused man who kind of got flicked in the nuts by a good friend. Just holding his stomach and looking up at Konnan, confused. Later Konnan has problems getting up on a powerbomb (didn't seem like he intentionally sandbagged Barb, just looked like he was clueless) so Barb muscled him up and planted him anyway. The finish is Klassic Klueless Konnan, as Barbarian goes for another powerbomb, Konnan is supposed to do a rana, but Konnan instead manages to completely brain himself, just awkwardly dropping right onto his own head and neck. Barb tries gallantly to roll through it, and Konnan ends up sitting on Barbarian's chest holding his own head for the pin. A true champion.


Have you had enough 1996 syndicated WCW, Cubs? Well there's gonna be more! After all, you were my first donor, gotta give the people what they want!


***I'm probably sounding like a skipping record (like my Metal Health LP that awesomely skips during the first chorus of "Cum on Feel the Noize", so it just gets stuck perfectly on Kevin DuBrow yelling "Mooore moooore moooore") at this point but I'm still trying to raise money for my friend and coworker whose home burned down, completely disappearing every single one of her possessions. The donations have slowed but no matter, I still have plenty of neat requests to fulfill and WILL be continuing to fulfill them! I'm matching EVERY contribution and will continue writing above and beyond for those who donate. You donate $1? That's awesome. Whatever you can do, and then you get to make a request. This means SO MUCH to me and you all are making me so happy***

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My Favorite Wrestling: WCW Pro 3/30/96

1. State Patrol vs. Harlem Heat

Awwwww yeah this is what I'm talking about! Harlem Heat have aged pretty horribly in retrospect, but State Patrol are one of the great lost teams of the 90s. Buddy Lee will take and deliver a beating and Harlem Heat will deliver an awkward 1996 beating. Both guys in HH were really sloppy around this time, and while that can derail other matches it kind of added to it here. At one point Stevie Ray gives Buddy Lee an accidental shoot brainbuster. It was supposed to be a suplex that Parker reverses into a crossbody, but Ray just drops him straight down. Ouch. How much of State Patrol's AJPW tours made tape? Also why did they make James Earl Wright's name so close to a famous murderer's name? Was Joe Wilkes Boothe tossed around, too?

2. Giant vs. Southern Posse

Always get stoked for some Southern Posse, or as I assume they were known backstage, "Sonny Trout and the ugly one". I always get unrealistically excited for a Southern Posse match, but I'm not sure if they're actually any good. They both look scuzzy, the announcers never know their names so they always just call each guy "southern posse" ("The Giant with a big slam on southern posse!"), one of them got a HJ at a Molly Hatchett concert*, just something about them I always get excited about. Rachel was stunned at how slim the Giant was.

3. Mark Starr vs. Ric Flair

I miss these kind of syndicated matches, where Flair would show tons of ass and give guys like Mark Starr 70/30, and then cheat to beat fucking Mark Starr. All the fanny-packed women in the crowd get all riled up and it's always an enjoyable 4 minutes. It's also odd thinking that current Mark Starr probably is living better than current Ric Flair from a quality-of-life perspective. Starr is likely at a nearby lake having some beers and doing some wakeboarding as I type this, whereas Flair is a sad, melty mess not being able to cover his tab at Q104's Summerfest.

4. Lifeguard Steve Collins vs. Bunkhouse Buck

I'll level with you, I have never heard of Lifeguard Steve Collins. You know who else hasn't heard of him? Bunkhouse Buck, so he proceeds to kick the shit out of Lifeguard Steve Collins for getting into his ring. Collins is some sort of Baywatch gimmick, wearing real awkward red swim shorts that are loose and pulled up real high. Fuller and Buck cheat like assholes and Buck was a beast here, with great punches and stomps. Great moment when Buck steps aside from a Collins dropkick, then bounces off the ropes and just lambasts with an amazing dropkick. And then, he gets the pin fall after just stomping on Collins' face. Collins was on his back, Buck bounced off the ropes, slowed down and just stomped his face --> pinfall. Then after the match Buck and Parker beat Collins with his red floatation device and choked him some more. It was all I wanted and more.

5. Hugh Morrus vs. Scott Armstrong

These Hugh Morrus squashes just aren't that good. Armstrong is going to be one of the unsung heroes of syndicated WCW. But there's not much to do to make Morrus matches fun. If you would have asked for a 8 word guess on how the match went, it would have been "Armstrong bumps big, Morrus misses moonsault, pins anyway." It would have been right.

6. Robert Eaton/Dave Taylor vs. American Males

Not the ideal opponents, but you can put Eaton and Taylor into the ring with two sacks of leaves and I'd still be entertained by Eaton's punches and Taylor's throws. And those things ruled here. Taylor had a powerslam that might have been one of the most amazing things I've seen in a ring. It was a powerslam that went straight up overhead from a dead lift and ended with a float over. It was downright Karelinesque. I don't think there was anything Riggs could have done to prevent it, either. If he was fighting it with every fiber of his being, he was getting slammed. Also, I'm going to say it: Bobby Eaton knows how to fake punch a man better than almost any other man. You heard it here first.

*probably

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