Found Footage Friday: SAVAGE~! THUNDERBOLT~! FABS~! VOLS~! CHAIN WAR FROM BRAZIL~!

Randy Savage vs. Thunderbolt Patterson ICW 1983

MD: Bryan Turner's posting great stuff from the late 90s and early 00s, but he had an episode of ICW TV here that we seem to not have had and from 83 that episode had footage of a Randy Savage vs Thunderbolt Patterson match that Patterson commentated over. This isn't complete by any means. We get about five minutes of action, but it's still gold. A couple of minutes of that is Randy choking Patterson over the ropes and just staying on him. Patterson starts to come back and Savage is just great feeding into his shots and creating the motion for him. From there, it's typical thought out Randy stuff with Patterson jamming him on a suplex and then a pile driver and getting near falls. Patterson's description of how to stop a pile driver ("spread my legs and shake my stuff") is awesome. Savage heels it up by trying to get himself intentionally DQed by tossing the ref around but the ref is on to him and tries to keep it going until Randy just tosses him out of the ring. From there Patterson gets the DQ win and a phantom pin after an atomic drop and has to clock the ref too with him commentating that he shouldn't have done it but he hasn't had many opportunities in life and it was just a great piece of territory TV overall that we hadn't had before and a great look at what made both 83 Savage, on the way up, and 83 Patterson, on the way down, special.

Mr. Argentina vs. Aquiles Brazil 1980s?

MD: This is found, not new, but we've never covered it before. Depending on who you talk to, it's a pretty legendary match in Brazil, but it previously was online with worse VQ and in three parts. It's been put up a couple of times in one complete whole this year and everyone should watch it. It's a chain match in the country's traditional round system, which is kind of wild when you think about it. They take off the chain at the end of each round and then put it back on afterwards. We lose part of the last round and everything ends as a chaotic brawl after a draw, as well it should, and maybe that clip/finish keeps it from being an all time bit of footage, but it's unique and wild and very distinct. Argentina, despite any country-to-country animosity you might expect is the clear babyface, though the fans seem to at least respect Aquiles' guts as he absorbs blows in the back half.

Round one was Aquiles trying to use the chain as a weapon and Argentina out wrestling him. Round two started with Aquiles catching him with a choke with the chain and then nailing him with a haymaker with it wrapped around his head, changing the trajectory of the match. Everything's bloody from there as Argentina gets beaten around the ring throughout round two and after a brief respite, Round 3, where Aquiles uses the chain to tear apart his leg. Round 4 is the comeback and it's wild as Argentina refuses to get chained and just rushes in with big babyface offense. The chain's not part of the match after this, even with the round system, as things are just too heated. He drives Aquiles' face into the post opening him up huge and it's just a gloriously bloody mess through the final rounds. Violent, heated, bloody wrestling is universal and we're always glad to see another country's offering. This one stands well aside its counterparts from around the world.

PAS: Way of the Blade 2 contender for sure. I love the look of this match, wrestling is best when it feels like there is a film of grease over the whole thing. Hard violent shots, tons of blood and Argentina looking like an all time great babyface. His Round 4 comeback is top tier stuff, great looking headscissors, big right hands, just drives the crowd wild. When he opens up Aquiles on the post it is just toe to toe violent stuff from there out, reminded me of a great Perro Aguayo lucha match. Highest reccomendation!!

TN Vols (Reno Riggins/Steven Dunn) vs. Fabulous Ones MCW 1999

MD: This was the build up to the Lawler/Dundee vs Fabs tags we reviewed a few weeks back. My guess is that it's late April, early May of 99 as Cagematch has Lawler/Dundee working the Fabs in Memphis in April of 99 and the announcing mentions a big show on May 4. It starts off very much face vs face and it ends that way in the post-match, but the Fabs go de facto heel hard and without remorse to give the thing some structure down throughout. It's a bit of a shame as it was shaping up to hold up well against some of the better face team vs face team matches I can think of, like Martel/Santana vs High Flyers, with some solid opening exchanges and holds and overall oneupmanship. Around the first commercial they take over on Dunn and after that it becomes a lot of drawing the ref's attention, missed tags, cutting off the ring (especially after hope spots), and the occasional snuck in cheapshot. It's all effective stuff though I don't think the fans really wanted to boo the Fabs given how they were overall presented. You got the sense their heart wasn't in it even if they were entirely professional and merciless about it. Dunn made for a strong face-in-peril, believably going for the tag and believably getting cut off at the last second. The comeback was a bit stilted, probably due to time constraints, as after he jumped across the ring with a great hot tag, he was almost immediately back in there to lock in a sleeper when all the heels in the back came out to ambush him. The Fabs made the save with a chair and that was that. Strong TV southern tag but I kind of wonder what it might have looked like if they had been bold enough to try to wrestle it face vs face the whole way through. 

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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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Found Footage Friday: LAWLER~! KEIRN~! HOGAN~! PATERA~! WRESTLING FROM RAINBO~!

Jerry Lawler vs. Steve Keirn IWA 3/24/90 

MD: Nice little lost TV match here, with Lawler defending the Unified Title and Keirn the PWF title. It's exactly what you'd expect from heel Lawler from this period. Stooging, hiding an object that may or may not existed. Obviously, it's masterful if not particularly groundbreaking or complex. The timing is perfect. The crowd is up for it. Keirn knows how to play against it and make the most of it and make himself look as good as possible. The finish put over Keirn without giving him the more prestigious belt and theoretically built to some sort of gimmick match where the fans have every reason to believe he has every shot at it. As a bonus, there were some fun moments on commentary between weirdly mustachless Lee Marshall and DDP who is surprisingly anti-Lawler in this one.

Hulk Hogan vs. Ken Patera WWF 3/15/85

MD: Clipped but new with a pretty unique point of view, both backstage and down the ramp trailing Hogan to start and then at ringside looking up, like a far less talented Black Terry, Jr. Except for it's Hogan and Patera in 1985 in Miami. You get a lot of the match and a few pretty interesting things, like Hogan hitting a school year trip on Patera out of the corner, followed up by a JYD style headbutt on all fours or some of Patera's great expressions as he reacts to the crowd and stooges. It looked like the heat (of which we only saw bits and pieces) consisted of a front facelock, a chinlock, and later on a bearhug, but Hogan's drenched, exhausted selling is a lot of what got the crowd so into his comebacks. Here, he won by getting a leg up in the corner on a charge and then hitting the legdrop. We saw some signs of him staring down some of Patera's shots earlier on but less of an actual hulk up towards the finish. What we definitely see, however, is the sheer elation of the fans when he wins. Nice close up look of a Hogan that hadn't yet become complacent. 

Don Arnold vs. Ed Francis Wrestling from Rainbo 10/30/52

MD: We get the last seven minutes of this. It's interesting to compare and contrast this presentation with the Russ Davis Chicago footage we're more used to. Arnold had taken the first fall and we're JIP into the second. Arnold's leg and arm manipulation is top notch as is Francis' subsequent selling and stooging. Francis milking the clean break and the handshake before sneaking in a gut punch and taking over with over the shoulder eye gauging is timeless (and well-timed) heeling. The bumps out to the floor that follow are pretty nasty and Francis makes Arnold's shoulder block look great before they go into the airplane spin and the finish. I don't think we have a ton of Ed Francis outside of being an old man in Hawaii so this was good to see.

Bobby Ford/Robert Rouche vs. Ali Pasha/Tommy O'Toole Wrestling from Rainbo 10/30/52

MD: This joins late in the first round (which went twenty minutes or so) with Pasha vs Rouche and Pasha leaning on Rouche. Apparently Pasha had a deal where he used his beard to scrape people's eyes. He wins it fairly quickly with a cobra clutch that Griffith actually calls as a "cobra hold" which is pretty crazy to have already been named in 1952. Second fall had a lot of jockeying over a hammerlock between Ford and O'Toole with Ford carrying the advantage and both sides pulling hair liberally. When Pasha and Roche made it in, Roche got his revenge with mares and dropkicks and a quick pin. Third fall had O'Toole and Pasha leaning on first Rouche and then Ford (who had done some heroic apron work). O'Toole could really sneak in the inside shots and he won the thing with a 1952 Oklahoma Stampede. For a match that went 40 minutes, it probably needed a bit more of a finishing stretch but the work was all good.

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RIP Bobby Eaton Pt. 1

It has been a rough couple of weeks for wrestling deaths, and the great Bobby Eaton had a great career and great life. There is so much tremendous footage available, so we are going to be doing several posts over the next week.

Bobby Eaton vs. Koko Ware CWA 12/6/80

MD: I think this was actually December 1980, deep into the year without Lawler, which is a time in Memphis I always have a lot of fondness for, just due to the outlandishness of having guys like Ellering and Eaton king. This is pure Memphis, as Valiant's out to destroy poor Koko's TV (again; he's de facto lead heel having just insulted Tommy Rich's mother) and Koko can't do anything about it since he has to fight for his life against King Eaton. He would have been an underdog in any situation, but he's got extra fire and extra anger as the TV gets destroyed by the announce position almost immediately, and it's up to Eaton to bully him and lean on him and really keep the offense going in order to keep Koko down. The containment works exactly as intended and when Koko ducks a shot and starts to fire back the studio goes nuts building to a bigger prize when Koko actually gets his hands on Hart. If I have my timing right on this, they were in the midst of Tojo/Valiant vs Rich/Koko main events with Eaton vs Tony Charles in the mid card and this was a great example of entertaining TV that served a lot of purposes and gave the fans a legitimate thrill and pop despite being entirely inconclusive and setting up the live shows to come. Exactly what studio wrestling should be and Eaton played his part perfectly. 

PAS: These two formed a legendary but under footaged tag team a couple of years after this match, and it was cool to watch them work a studio fight. One thing that really struck me about this match was Eaton's athletic explosiveness. Bobby Eaton didn't look like an elite athlete, but man was his motor high and his attacks kinetic. Just the speed and force he hit a simple elbow drop, just great. Fun business with Handsome Jimmy smashing the big ass 1980's vacuum tube TV too.

ER: 21 year old Bobby Eaton is a treat. He's like an athletic brother of Francis in Pee Wee's Big Adventure, making chubby faced sneers while working a long mid-match headlock. But the 21 year old also hit really hard shoulderblocks and threw his headlock punches with a confident sass. Koko plays this like kind of a cooler black Bob Backlund, sticking his butt out to sell Eaton's already hot punches. Drop downs and leap frogs are quick and honest, and Eaton hits one of the most gorgeous highlight reel elbowdrops. He runs off the ropes and leaps from the three point line, landing perfectly horizontal with his elbow across Koko's collarbones. Jimmy Hart is an incredible manager and not only was his voice great from ringside, but his physical involvement at the finish was really tough stuff. Hart had a feel of a guy getting into a public fight and immediately getting in over his head, like a too tough talking small town pharmacist. 10 minutes of Memphis stacks up consistently with the best wrestling ever. 

Bobby Eaton vs. Abdullah The Butcher WCW 9/28/91

PAS: This was an incredible four minutes. Abby jumps Eaton before the bell while he is hugging some kids and smashes him with a kendo stick, posts him, throws him into chairs and lights him up with chair shots. They brawl to the back, and right when you think this is 90 seconds, they pop back out from the curtain with Eaton pasting Abby with those right hands, he tees off with a chair on Abby, and looks like he is going to finish him off with an Alabama Jam until Catcus runs out and jumps him. Eaton gets thrown off the ring apron into the guard rail, and gets double teamed until Rick Steiner runs out for the save. Totally wild stuff, with Eaton almost working as a Steve Austin babyface. Loved it. 

ER: Here's a great match to show someone who would be interested in seeing in how much can be accomplished in pro wrestling in just 4 minutes. This hardly ever gets to be a real match, the bells rings before 4 minutes have even passed, and yet I guarantee every fan in attendance went home talking about this match. Abdullah jumps Eaton during his entrance and really beats him, including throwing him like a comic book villain through some chairs, then beating him down on the floor with a chair. He completely overwhelms Eaton, kicking his ass back through the curtains. Magic happens once they cross that curtain threshold, as Eaton comes out firing, punching Abby back to ringside and runs halfway around the ring to find his own damn chair. You get a real joyous bloodlust crowd reaction when Eaton charges back with his chair, and he absolutely pastes Abby with 4 or 5 chairshots that looked as violent as any Attitude era shots. Cactus runs in when Abby gets in too much trouble, and he rocket launches Eaton off the apron ribs first into the guardrail. This was incredibly entertaining, Abby looked humongous and dangerous, Eaton looked like the kind of babyface everyone would want to root for, Rick Steiner looked like a fearless top babyface. It was the best of everything. 

Bad Attitude (Bobby Eaton/Steve Keirn) vs. Ricky Steamboat/Arn Anderson WCW 5/1/94

MD: There's a moment midway through this match, just after the heels took over with a blind switch, where Eaton hits an elbow drop off the top rope on Anderson. It lands well and looks impactful, because of course it does, but afterwards, Eaton does something odd. He stumbles off to the side and bounces off the second rope before he recovers to keep the beating going. You're left wondering why he made that specific decision. Was it to sell the beating he had taken so far? Was it to get over the damage that he was willing to do to himself and how dangerous and powerful the elbow drop was? Was it to justify with a move so back, even so early in the beatdown, didn't immediately put Anderson away. I don't know. It could have meant any of that or all of it, but fifty other wrestlers doing an elbow off the top in that moment wouldn't have done it. Eaton did and it added to the match because it felt totally natural and it felt meaningful. It made everything that was going on somehow more tangible and real; it wasn't rote and you didn't expect it and it made you wonder, but in a way that drew you more into the match instead of taking you out of it. That's what Bobby Eaton did. 

If it was to sell the early beating he took, that would have certainly been warranted, because he fit a lot of pain and stooging into a three minute period, bumping up and over the rail, including a press from Anderson off the apron into it. None of the bumps were particularly huge but he sold them in such a skittish, almost tragic way that they meant far more than far bigger ones than most others would take. We're eulogizing Bobby here, for good reason, but a quick note on Arn: he always says he wasn't a great babyface because he didn't have "tools," and here I think tools are shorthand for dropkicks and the sort. He always had the makings for a standing tall Bill Watts/Dusty Rhodes style babyface though and that's fully at play here. He had amazing timing on hope spots (which makes sense as he was always so good at his cutoffs) and could garner sympathy as he dragged himself around the ring during a beating, and when you had great strikes and a lightning fast KO move like the spinebuster, you didn't need to be throwing about flying back elbows. Though, of course, it helps when you're across the ring from someone like Bobby Eaton.

PAS: 1994 WCW is a bit of a blind spot for me, I don't really remember seeing very many Bad Attitude matches before, but this "pals of Stan Lane" version of the Fabs is really great. Keirn had turned into a real creepy looking guy at this point, and had really good heel facial expressions. He hit this awesome looking flying forearm for his high spot and was great at the nuts and bolts parts of being a heel. I enjoyed babyface Arn, loved the Spinebuster as a babyface move here, and he and Steamboat make a really effective pair. Of course Bobby was electric, with big bumps and great looking small bumps, cool twists on formulas, and a real speedy energy for a guy who was also great at going slow. 

ER: Bad Attitude were a really great proto Southern Comfort, with a wild eyed Keirn sporting a craziest era Billy Bob Thornton shaved head mullet as Eaton plays the more strait-laced southern pro. And you get to see these complementary souther pros take apart a FIP Arn for 8 minutes, and it's great. Eaton takes some big leaps, getting rocket launched by Arn from the apron to the guardrail, and later landing a perfect top rope elbowdrop on Arn. He and Keirn cut Arn off from Steamboat really effectively, with Keirn coming off like a cool closed fist punching tough guy and Eaton knowing exactly how to play all the timing spots, when to distract Steamboat, when to direct Arn back into the wrong corner. Steamboat's hot tag is really the only down part of the match, with Steamboat coming in with lesser Kofi Kingston offense, karate chops that are the weakest looking strikes in the match, and a standing splash that's pulled so much it's like a dad fake wrestling with his toddler. We only got half a year of Bad Attitude, but it was a real great combination of two legendary tag wrestlers who gelled immediately. 

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Mess of Masa Saito

We needed more then one RIP post for this legendary asskicker (we have some cool HH's we are reviewing for New Footage Friday too) so I thought I would dig around the internet and review a couple of his cooler oddball moments.

Mr. Saito/Mr. Sato vs. Mike Graham/Steve Keirn Florida 7/18/78

This is a studio match, which starts with Saito and Sato (a paintless Great Kabuki) jumping Porkchop Cash and Bubba Douglas before the bell. Graham and Keirn come out to make the save and  Paul Bosch (who I guess was vacationing from Houston) starts an impromptu match. Really energetic quick scrap, with Saito and Sato really being a high workrate heel team and Masao Hattori running around like a Japanese Jimmy Hart. Graham puts on a figure four on Sato on the floor and they have a double count out. Post match they jump Graham and Keirn and then attack and beat the crap out of Hiro Matsuda who was doing guest commentary. Sato, Saito and Hattori come off as such a disruptive force, just tearing through the whole roster, I would love to see more of them as an act. 

Masa Saito vs. Bill Dundee Southeastern 6/20/81

Awesome short TV match. Dundee is the greatest studio wrestler of all time, he is a master of finding five different cool variation on a short match. This was about three minutes of super agressive takedowns and scrambling. This is the most Olympic I had ever seen Saito look, as he was just shooting in and throwing Dundee, including a spectacular looking dragon screw (earliest time I can ever remember that move) and a great head and neck throw. Dundee meanwhile was super fast in escaping and using his speed to get advantages. Jimmy Golden was seconding Saito waving around a handful of cash, and Ron Fuller runs out and pops him leading to money flying everywhere. Really would have liked to see what these two could do in a longer match, but this was a fun taste. 

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What Happened to Berzerker? We Can't Look Away! The New Look is Mesmerizing...

23. Berzerker vs. Bob Smedley - Prime Time Wrestling 10/1/91

Smedley is Bobby Blaze, using a name that is more amusing, and decidedly less "1991" than Blaze. We were an American Gladiator loving people in 1991. Names like Blaze made sense and felt safe to us. He leans nicely into kicks and snaps back from them on the bump. This could have been a really fun competitive match just a few years later. This was not that.

24. Berzerker vs. Eric Freedom - Superstars 10/21/91

Freedom looks EXACTLY like Todd Pettengill, when Pettengill had a mullet. He also has bushy armpit hair. IMPORTANT: He is the smallest wrestler that Berzerker has faced thus far. He is similar in size to Scott Taylor, but I think Freedom is smaller. Freedom ain't free, though, and Berzerker stiffs him up. Freedom bumps like a maniac, looking and bumping similar to this era Sean Waltman. After getting whipped hard into the buckles and bumping great off it, Lord Alfred cackles about how he's probably paralyzed. He keeps laughing. He's laughing really hard, at his own comment that Eric Freedom is paralyzed. Berzeker mixes up his move order a little bit, dropping Freedom with the falling slam, immediately hitting the big legdrop, then following right up with the kneedrop. I dug the combo. Freedom takes a great rolling bump after getting tossed to the floor. Supposedly this guy still works, wouldn't mind seeing some of this 90s work.

25. Berzerker vs. Bret Hart - MSG 10/28/91

They had another match a year later that was really disappointing, really short, and maybe the least giving Bret Hart match of the 90s. Hart worked competitive matches with every single member of the roster so it was a bummer to see such a non-match against Berzerker. Thankfully I found this one from MSG, which was fleshed out and really good. It goes a bit differently than I expected, with Hart starting out going toe to toe and really throwing everything at Berzerker. Berzerker's three bumps to the floor all came consecutively, with Hart sending him to the floor with a dropkick, clothesline and then an atomic drop. Berzerker would bump over the top, then immediately rush back into the ring and get knocked over again. It was great. His 4th time rushing into the ring he just dives at Bret and catches him with a headbutt to the stomach. And from there we get the Berzerker control segment which I've really come to enjoy. He throws lots of clubbing forearms, big slams, big boots, a perfect piledriver, and he smartly gives Bret hope spots off of his own missed offense. 

He misses a big kneedrop that allows Bret to land a couple shots, and later he misses a weird and ambitious dropkick from the middle rope, while Bret Hart is lying down. He clearly wasn't going for a leg drop, it was like he wanted to dropkick Bret's face from the middle rope. When Bret does come back it's good, as we get a couple convincing roll ups, Berzerker doing his awesome splits bump off leg kicks so Bret can set up the Sharpshooter (it's a really fun bump, but this was easily the most logical use of it since it tied directly to the sharpshooter), plus a real logical escape from the sharpshooter that seemed like it never happened: Hart went to turn him, and Berzerker just punched him in the face from his back. I really liked the finish, with Berzerker going for a clothesline and Hart landing a snug crucifix for a flash pin, with Berzerker getting up and flipping out postmatch. This is probably the best overall Berzerker match we've seen, and likely the best we'll get. Bret knew how to keep things tight, so instead of the bloated-but-fun 16 minute Bulldog match we get a more snug and satisfying 11 minute version of that. Really good stuff.

26. Berzerker vs. Fred Morgan - November 1991

Oh, Fred Morgan, you're the worst. I cannot explain why I laughed so hard at the way Morgan bumped for the opening club to his back, just dropping to the mat in a belly flop; or, how hard I laughed at how he bumped the next chop, just rigidly dropping to his back and lying motionless. Morgan just seems clueless, with his egg shaped torso in red and blue singlet/tights. He runs nose and mouth into a big boot, and tumbles all the way into the entrance way after getting tossed to the floor, but the guy just looks like the biggest hump. He won't ever get a rematch.

27. Berzerker vs. Russ Greenberg - Wrestling Challenge 11/12/91

I wonder why Greenberg never got more of a shot with WWF. He worked tons of jobber matches in 1991, and had a nice physique. Nice physique and tan is typically enough to get you a shot in early 90s WWF. Here he has bubblegum colored trunks, and admirably goes for a different strategy against Berzerker: He charges him! He runs in trying to lock up! I mean, Berzerker just pump kicks him in the chest. But at least he tried something! Berzerker mixes things up here, swinging Greenberg around in a front headlock, hitting a chokeslam (that Greenberg doesn't get up for) and hitting his awesome missile shoulderblock (that he should use more, as it looks great when it hits AND when it misses). After flubbing the chokeslam I didn't expect much out of the toss to the floor, but Greenberg got launched. Good for him. Still, wonder why he never got a shot. IMPORTANT: Greenberg should have at MINIMUM been brought into 1998 WCW when Jericho kept using that as a nickname for Goldberg. Jericho promising to beat Greenberg at Fall Brawl, and then beating Russ Greenberg, would have been a pointlessly fun moment.

28. Berzerker vs. Tito Santana - Superstars 11/13/91

Strange match, as Tito takes probably 70% of it, and overpowers Berzerker on several occasions. That's not what I was expecting at all. The first couple minutes see them lock up a few times, with Santana backing up Berzerker each time. On the fourth lock up Santana rushes in and Berzerker just drops to his knees, headbutting Santana in the dick. Awesome spot. But weird that the 320 lb guy had to use his speed and smarts to get the duke on Tito Santana. Santana overpowering Berzerker kind of continues throughout the match, with Santana reversing a couple of Irish whips. It's weird. Berzerker doesn't bump like crazy for Santana, the way he has for other stars. Santana does run into a big boot nicely though. Fuji tries to cheat to win by hooking Tito's ankle with the cane, and it genuinely doesn't seem like Tito expects the spot. He's running the ropes and Fuji hooks him, and Santana trips so hard that it yanks the cane out of Fuji's hands. Berzerker gets DQ'd, Tito beats him with the cane, and this was just a weird, unsatisfying match. Neither guy really wanted to take control, Tito works better as comeback babyface.

29. Berzerker, Skinner, Hercules & Col. Mustafa vs. Jim Duggan, Tito Santana, Sgt. Slaughter & Texas Tornado - WWF Survivor Series 11/27/91

I hadn't seen this match in years, probably since I rented the tape from the video store, so I first turned to the foremost authority on WWF star ratings, Scott Keith. Not only did he describe 6 of the participants as "jobbers" (odd, since Berzerker had only lost one match at this point and Duggan was always protected), but also called Slaughter a traitor and Von Erich a "suicidal drug addict". That's some level 7 edgelord shit right there. He didn't like the match, guys. But let me be the first to say, that Scott Keith may not be correct. 

First, pre match we get a wonderful gift, of Berzerker really being the only person enforcing his gimmick on the building, and the other wrestlers. All the heels come out together, but all the faces get individual entrances, and they kept cutting back to wide shots of the ring during these entrances, and Berzerker was just Hussing around, stomping all around the ring, figure 8ing around his teammates and his opponents; Just stomping and hussing and everybody in the ring was completely ignoring it. It's like when a guy hits a HR to break a slump, and the whole dugout ignores him. It was amazing. Gorilla has a great line before the bell, "I have little doubt in my mind who's coming out on top in this match." Fair statement. Skinner slaps Santana hard to start, then bumps fast for him, really selling a shove and going down to a snap headlock takedown. It also makes me laugh hard seeing Skinner do leapfrog/dropdown spots, for whatever reason. Skinner cuts low on a missed back elbow, and then bails so Santana misses a big crossbody, really crash and burned. Berzerker tags in and ridiculously goes for some sort of double stomp/leg drop on Tito, that misses. Kerry comes in and throws some bad punches that Berzerker no sells, and then Berzerker misses a dropkick. Berzerker missing offense is so much damn fun. I even dig the Hercules/Duggan shoulderblock and stompy punch exchange. Iron Sheik was pretty toast at this point (he even tags in and goes straight to a chinlock, come on) but he threw a cool double chop to Duggan's throat that someone should steal. 

Berzerker's apron work is tremendous, just hiking the length of the apron, back and forth, wandering into the wrong corner, occupying himself by untying a turnbuckle pad while Sheik is eliminated. THINK OF HOW SMART THAT IS!! Herc and Skinner just stood 8 feet away not saving Sheik from elimination, Berzerker meanwhile became the only heel I've seen logically kayfabe occupy himself during a pinfall, that didn't involve selling an injury. Amazing spot that was completely missed. Berzerker is really pulling his kicks this match, which is odd. But now that turnbuckle pad comes into play as he runs Slaughter into it. Man that undoing the pad stuff was so amazing in its placement in the match. I'm never going to get over this. Brilliant. Killer run where Berzerker brings back the splits bump off a Slaughter leg kick, then takes two insanely fast bumps over the top to the floor, really awesome bumps. The first is Duggan clotheslining him over the top, and Berzerker lands on his feet, charges right back in, and eats an insanely high backdrop bump to the floor on the other side. Santana has a nice hot tag opposite Hercules, even hits a kind of superman punch for the pin. Skinner eats a pin off a Slaughter blind tag roll up, and Berzerker is the last heel. He immediately charges in but misses a dropkick. The bumps on this guy! That turnbuckle pad comes back AGAIN when Slaughter gets revenge on him for it. Slaughter whips him into Duggan's clothesline to end it, with Berzerker taking a huge bump off the 3 point lariat. For a total throwaway, this was a really fun match, with Berzerker clearly working harder than anyone in the match. Not a great match, but a great performance by him.

30. Berzerker vs. Kerry Von Erich - MSG 11/30/91

Weird short match with a botched finish (though not by either of the wrestlers). It only goes about 3 minutes, and is really good for those 3 minutes. Until the stupid finish I was thinking it had potential to be his best match so far, which is impressive with the Valentine and Hart matches. He hits a stiff boot on Kerry, gets clotheslined over the top and the backdropped over the other side, just like the Survivor Series match, then suckers KVE into a missed corner charge and yanks him to the floor. Berzerker gets his head bounced off the steps, and the a couple seconds later the bell rings. Fans boo, Vince has no clue what happened on commentary, the count out win is announced; but Berzerker was only on the floor 7 or 8 seconds, and the ref didn't even seem like he was counting. It felt like someone accidentally rang the bell and Finkel improvised. Really disappointing. (Match is around the 13 minute mark of the link)

31. Berzerker vs. Scott Baizo - Superstars 12/4/91

So this match tricked me, as the file had a 6 minute running time, but it turns out 4 minutes of that is interviews with Virgil, Repo Man and High Energy. So you come for the hilarious jobber name of Scott Baizo (I hope he at some point teamed up with another man, maybe a man working an Indian gimmick, named Chaw-Chee, and that their tag team name was Charles & Charge, and that 25 years later he became a shameless shit pile with the same asshole haircut he had when he was relevant, decades before) and you stay for the disgusting match finishing bump. Yes this is a Berzerker squash, with him hitting the flying shoulderblock, a nasty kneedrop to the chest, his big boots with opponent tied up in the ropes, and then the finish which is him throwing Baizo over the ropes to the floor, practically past the ringside mats. Gross fall. Berzerker pillages on.

32. Berzerker vs. Barbarian - December 1991

Before the match Berzerker throws a high kick at the black ring announcer I don't recognize, who goes scrambling out of the way, and I already love this. Two giant dudes beating each other while wearing fur loincloths and boots. This match. HAD. TO. HAPPEN. It's like a Manowar album shoot gone horribly, tragically wrong. This starts off great with Berzerker throwing an impossibly stiff thud of a chop and Barbarian hitting him in the throat. We get more of Berzerker's super fast rope running, his big flying shoulderblock, and awesome missed flying shoulderblock into the corner, a couple big boots from both men (Barbarian's landing right under the chin), Barbarian clearly showing Berzerker he wasn't going to gas out and could work just as fast, big clubbing arms, and two crazy looking dudes shouting at each other after a count out.

More Berzerker tomorrow!!

COMPLETE & ACCURATE BERZERKER!

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