Found Footage Friday: SUPER BOY~! LA PARKA~! SHOCKER~! DANIELSON~! MODEST~! MORGAN~! DANIELS~! CAPITAN~! JUVI~! DRAKE~!

ER: What an amazing surprise for me this week, when Phil found a YouTube channel that's been uploading West coast indies from the early 2000s, an era that is hardly represented online and was often never even released, and an era where my friends and I went to a lot of live West coast indy wrestling shows. We very easily found three different matches from three shows I attended in Spring-Summer 2002, none of which I've been able to see since watching them live. 2002 was a really great year to be a wrestling fan. I'm lucky to get the excuse to relive some wrestling memories experienced by a 21 year old college senior, half my lifetime ago. 

LA Park/Shocker vs Super Boy/Capitan de Oro FMLL 03/23/02

MD: This is about as 2002 DVDVR a match as you can get. Two fat guys that could go: base, bump, stooge, fly, and in Super Boy's case flip, against two of the very best and most stylized in the world in Park and Shocker. I've seen a bunch of Shocker from a few years earlier and plenty of old man Shocker but I've never quite found the rosetta stone match that shows me what drove him all the way to the top of the old 500s. This gives you a lot of little elements: a great strike, a great bump, the charisma and presence, the signature elbow drop, but the match as a whole is more fun than anything else. Park is at the height of his groin utilization, which is crowd-pleasing and opponent-infuriating and a fine enough sort of thing to do for this indy against these opponents in front of this crowd, but it's not quite the Park you'd hope for. That's not to say he doesn't hit a dive and doesn't take some stuff, and it's certainly not to say that it's not great when Super Boy is trying to match him step for step. It's fun when Super Boy and Capitan de Oro are working together. It's fun when they're basing for Shocker's stuff. It's fun when Park and Shocker hit some tandem stuff and the synchronous frog splashes at the end. There's never really any drama but there's not a moment where this isn't enjoyable nonetheless.

ER: I think Matt is really really underrating this match. This was the kind of big action match that played perfectly to the flea market audience, and watching it now I couldn't believe it was even better than I remembered. Honestly, it was way better than I remembered. This was at Franks & Sons indoor flea market, a flea market where I bought Homies figurines, Desert Storm trading cards, a new Vader WCW Toymakers action figure for $2, and several lucha tapes. We watched those tapes in my boy Jason's RV, which we drove down to LA to see a bunch of wrestling shows. We had a TV hooked up in the RV so we could play No Mercy and watch tapes, so the tapes I bought were: the La Parka vs. Hijo del Santo Super Libre show, the Nicho vs. Hijo del Santo mask vs. mask show, and the 2001 IWRG show with the Dr. Cerebro vs. Hijo del Santo mask vs. mask match. Man, Santo had a really great 2001 that we celebrated while parked at a Wal-Mart. While we were lingering around waiting for this show to start, my friend Devin pointed out "a dork in a La Parka mask" who had just walked in. Of course it was La Parka. He was wearing Sergio Valente jeans, a tucked in mint green polo, and his mask. He was the main draw that got us excited for this show. A king. 

But yeah, this is the kind of match you'd talk about several times on a 7 hour drive back from LA. I didn't even know this match was taped, and my handsome visage shows up really early in this, because Super Boy hit a big fatass tope that crushed the plastic chairs in front of me and landed him directly on my leg. My bright yellow Kawada shirt looks incredible. I am holding a digital camera that used floppy disks. Super Boy leans into me and I pat him on the chest, as commentary says that Super Boy landed in the lap of a lucky fan. A 20 years later reminder that I was once a Lucky Fan. Super Boy was a real marvel here. He was a more of a tape trading legend than anything, a cult star, but he moves, has the build, and has the timing of young Super Porky, with some of the greatest punches in lucha history. He's so awesome in all of this: hitting a big standing splash/standing moonsault combo, missing a big middle buckle moonsault, hitting a crazy late rotation swanton, cutting off Park by punching him in the face every time Park disrespectfully pelvic thrusts he or Oro, the previously mentioned tope into my lap, and he draws great flea market heat with a shirt removal that draws "Put it on!" chants. He looks like a total badass punching and slapping Park around through the whole match, any time Park started treating things as a joke. It all builds to Super Boy slapping the hell out of Park in the corner, then a great Park skeleton glove removal before he chopped the hell out of SB. 

La Parka was an absolute rock star, the kind of hard working, constantly entertaining house show performance that I've been lucky to see various versions of several times. His dancing is used to hilarious effect, tea bagging Oro to dance his way out of a sunset flip, backing Super Boy into the corner with sexually threatening humps, even break dancing! But the guy takes some Psicosis level bumps on a show held in a curtained off corner of a large warehouse. He takes his nasty upside down turnbuckle bump and takes a gross bump after getting crotched up top. He hits a big top rope splash and a gorgeous tornillo to cap off a fantastic dive train, while also throwing stiff strikes with Super Boy the whole match. It's a killer Park performance. Shocker and Oro have several standout moments of their own. Shocker was still so fast in 2002 and I thought he looked great here. I love his rolling elbowdrops and high headscissors armdrags, his flipping clothesline bump is a favorite, and his running boot looked BattlArts level. There's this awesome sequence of he and Super Boy going at it fast, peaked by Park throwing SB off the top with a nearly straight down arm drag, hitting a missile dropkick, and then crashing both of them through several plastic chairs with a tope con giro. Oro was going to get outshined by three mega stars, but he also hit some of the most high impact corner clotheslines I've ever seen, and he'd be a guy who would have really stood out on most shows I've attended. 

Trust me on this one, not the almost always reliable and usually trustworthy Matt. This match is a gem. Plus, how much of a treat is seeing a match again for the first time in 20 years, and it actually surpassing your memory? 

Michael Modest/Donovan Morgan vs. Juventud Guerrera/Tommy Drake Pro Wrestling Iron 5/31/02

MD: You come for Juvi but you stay for Michael Modest being a beast. He trained both Morgan and Drake and he was really laying things in on him at times. You did get an exchange between Morgan and Juvi and Juvi working the apron and having fun after the hot tag with Modest, but this was about Drake taking a beating. Modest had some pretty out there stuff, again because he probably needed it to stand out but he made it all look fairly grisly which is all the more impressive when you're doing headstand ranas in the corner or taking physics-defying head first bumps into the corner. For the most part, it was Morgan that had all of the over the top moves and while he hit them well and it was part of his deal in getting over, there wasn't that same urgency and aggression and chip on his shoulder that Modest had. Drake had a nice Russian Leg Sweep that he used a couple of times and some good scrapping when angry but some of the rest of his stuff looked a little loose. I don't think he had been wrestling for all that long at this point. The best part of this whole thing might have been early on where Drake wanted Morgan to charge off the ropes at him and Morgan just punched him in the face and cheesed a big smile. I don't think Juvi was super interested in taking most of this stuff but he was happy to come in now and again to hit some things. 

ER: I don't know if I've ever seen any Pro Wrestling Iron online before. I liked these guys. I briefly hosted a wrestling interview show at my college radio station, KSUN, that served as a Pro Wrestling Iron showcase: It was called The Iron Hour, and I interviewed Modest for the first show. Modest and Donovan Morgan were NOAH regulars at this point, which had lead to their bad split with APW. Infamous Sleaze Roland Alexander thought he should have a cut of their NOAH earnings and they split, taking several members of the roster with them (many of whom had been trained by Modest and/or Morgan). That caused Roland to go hard after Bryan Danielson and make him the new APW head trainer (which was a short, very fun era that we cover down in the match down below). Modest told me in that interview that Misawa respected workers who had their own school/promotion, so the PWI school was started partially to gain respect of the legend. It was also awesome that Modest took Misawa's advice so literally that he blew up the promotion after being the highest touted homegrown star who split with a large chunk of the roster. This is a good time to remember that Roland Alexander sent a wrestling school bill to the parents of a dead trainee, so Modest and Morgan laughing and leaving is a great thing. They also each had a 4 year strong run in NOAH, when it was my favorite fed in the world, and that rules.

This was another wrestling show we took the RV to. I'm not sure why we all hopped in the RV for this one, as the show was in Ukiah, a small town about 2 hours north of San Francisco. I grew up an hour north of SF, and Ukiah in 2022 is like my small town of Healdsburg was in 1992. It's the closest feeling to being in the midwest that you can get out here, but it's a charming place with some good diners and a great movie theater. Ukiah used to be an AWA town in the early 60s with Red Bastien as one of the top attractions, and I believe Shire promoted there in the 70s, but all small town stuff. Maybe we took the RV because we were bringing enough people that it made sense not to take two cars, but I'm not sure it made more sense to drive a huge gas guzzling RV. We probably just thought it would be fun to drive the RV up the gorgeous stretch of 101 (nothing but scenic views from Healdsburg to Ukiah) to the Ukiah fair. This show was held at the fair and I remember walking around the midway before and after the show. 2 Cold Scorpio was originally advertised for the main event but was replaced by Juvy. The posters all around the fairgrounds had him listed and pictured as Flash Funk, and I'd love to meet the hypothetical wrestling fan who would not have attended this show, but then saw they had the WWF space pimp from 5 years prior on the show and that forced their hand. The Vets Hall type building on a fairgrounds property is a classic wrestling venue, but one of my biggest memories of the show was how cold the building got as the night went on, and how loud the crickets got. If the temperature and some of the matches are leaving the crowd cold, and instead of silence you only have the loud sound of crickets? Tough optics. 

I don't remember a lot about this match, other than thinking Juvy didn't seem motivated to actually get in the ring for more than a couple minutes, and that my buddy Devin called Drake "Tommy Mistake", which got no reaction and lead to all of us clowning him for probably way too many months. Drake was Modest and Morgan's top student, and was a really new wrestler at this point (I'm not sure he even had 10 matches). He eventually went on one of the coolest NOAH tours ever. Seriously, look Tommy Drake up on cagematch and check his NOAH tour. In a promotion that ran tons of tags and trios, for some reason Drake got to work 8 singles matches on his 16 NOAH shows, ALL against different opponents. Japanese crowds got to see Tommy Drake singles matches against Morishima, Rikio, Ikeda, Taue, Honda, Inoue, Saito, and they got to see him BEAT Aoyagi. My new handheld white whale is going to be Tommy Drake, 20 matches into his career, pulling out a win against one of the toughest SOBS in a promotion of tough SOBs. 

The match lines up pretty much with my memory, even though I wouldn't have been able to tell you any details of the match before watching it again, if that makes sense. I remember the vibes. Modest and Morgan worked over Drake for most of the match, Juvy coming in twice and never doing too much more than very fast rope running. There were a lot of people in the crowd who wanted to see Juvy, but instead they saw a lot of Tommy Drake. And that's fine! Modest and Morgan were a good team and had a tight act by this point. Modest knew how to get a reaction from NOAH crowds and kept that shtick for his stateside gigs, looking like a cool jacked Jerry Tarkanian. There's no wrestler more responsible for getting me into local indy wrestling than Mike Modest, my favorite live wrestler of the era. He hit like a truck, and I loved that early spot where a couple shoulderblocks don't budge Drake, so he feints a third and then just throws an elbow smash. His rope flip rana (that later became far more famous as the Stratus-faction) is a move that shouldn't look good, but somehow Modest makes it look good. I liked how he used it successfully, then had it blocked to set up a Drake top rope clothesline, and then later used it to flip Donovan onto Drake. His torpedo bump into the turnbuckle was always one of the great signature bumps, one which he said he stole from Ray Stevens (even though we don't have any matches showing Stevens doing that bump). I loved his short elbowdrop and his kicks to Drake's back, and loved how Donovan worked him over with suplexes. Morgan's snap suplex -> fisherman's buster -> fisherman's neckbreaker is a cool combo and he snapped all of them off nicely. Juvy was exciting when he was in, but it was for maybe two total minutes of a 15 minute match, if we're being generous. 

Bryan Danielson vs. Christopher Daniels APW 7/6/02

MD: All of Danielson's stuff looked really good here. That's my biggest takeaway. This didn't go much longer than ten minutes, but everything looks great: the forearms, the step through/up and over out of the Greco-Roman knucklelock, the all time great missile dropkick, the front chancery suplex, the belly to back off the top. It's all smooth and impactful. Daniels gets credit too because he portrayed a chip on his shoulder in this one. It's hard to fault 2002 Daniels for all the STO/Downward Spiral/Complete Shot/inverted bulldog/etc. stuff. I don't think any of it works quite as well as the time he just grabs Danielson's head and tosses him down, but it was part of the appeal and part of what made him stand out at the time. I was on the wrong coast for this one, but I know 19-20 year old me watching NECW and Chaotic Wrestling and whatever other indy I had access to would have been all for everything he did. It was a little much at times, but less so in a ten minute match than it would have been in a twenty minute match. And hey, some of it, like the Blue Thunder Bomb was super impactful and really worked. The issue is that when everything a guy does is out of the norm and a little over the top, nothing ends up standing out too much. You end up with an overall impression of the guy with all the cool moves but it take you out of a match as much as it potentially adds to it.

ER: This show was at the Napa fairgrounds as part of the Napa county fair. I took a nice sunny afternoon drive out to Napa and stopped for an It's-It at a gas station on my way in, walked around the fair, then met up with friends for the show. All of the seating was in the grandstands, like we were about to watch a demolition derby, with the wrestlers all playing to our grandstand side and the dirt arena behind them. Justin Roberts did ring announcing and showed off his comedy chops to the crowd, getting booed for his novice and outdated Beavis & Butthead and Andy Kaufman impressions. His "Thank you very much" was tantamount to everyone thinking they can say "Here's Johnny" and have a Nicholson impression. The show was really fun, and unnecessarily stacked. The main event was a midgets match which was the only real draw on the show. This was a free admission show at the fair. You pay to get into the fair, but the wrestling was a free attraction. I remember noted deceased bag of shit Roland Alexander bragging repeatedly about drawing "several thousand people" to this APW show and bitch, most of those people just wanted to get a funnel cake and throw up on the fucking Gravitron. Like he thought a Super Dragon vs. Jardi Frantz hair vs. mask match was going to draw anything but some dork like me eating an ice cream. During that match I remember a lady getting up to leave, and a friend yelling out "You're going to miss the midgets!" and her replying "I'm obviously coming back for the midgets!" I don't think she was talking about making it back for the Tony Kozina match.

This was pretty much the exact kind of pro wrestling I wanted to see in 2002. This was the new style that Danielson was helping to pioneer and I was here for it, literally. Some of it hasn't aged well, but most of the things that haven't aged well are Christopher Daniels "I fall down with you" offense that became the basis for most of the worst Edge offense. It's a style we evolved from but damn if I don't still love a lot of this. Check out Danielson's amazing step over to Fujiwara, a sequence I don't think I've seen someone do so well, or at all. I thought he was swinging his leg over Daniels' head to set up a victory roll, and instead he just swings it straight over and drops down hard into that Fujiwara. Watching Danielson matches from 20 years ago gives the same gift as watching AJ Styles matches from Wildside, as you can see a lot of the physical movement is still similar (maybe a bit slower, but just slightly different) but a lot of the offense is completely different. At one point Danielson threw three right hand punches like I never remember seeing him throw punches before, then turns into an STO. Later, he hits this amazing missile dropkick where he ran up the turnbuckles and spun around in midair to hit the kick. I don't think any of the slick rope artists like Fenix, Freelance, or Gran Metalik could hit it any better. The crowd gets into this as they packed a lot of action and bumps into a tight runtime, and they got really loud when Danielson hit a big top rope headbutt, then got up and ran full steam into a huge spinning Blue Thunder Bomb. The top rope jumping back suplex was a great finish, and the match had a shocking amount of risk and hard bumps for something that was going to be absolutely blown out of the water reaction-wise 10 minutes later by two mildly trained midget wrestlers. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

American Dragon vs. Johnny Storm ASW 2003

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

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Found Footage Friday: LYONS~! SCHMIDT~! SUPER ASTRO~! SUPER BOY~! OGAWA~! SAWADA~! FUJITA~!

Billy Red Lyons vs. Hans Schmidt 11/13/59

MD: Schmidt was announced here as a replacement for Dick the Bruiser. We don't have a ton of Lyons footage in his prime and he was quite young here, on the way up. Davis says this was his biggest challenge yet. He was quick though, which seemed to light a fire under Schmidt too. By the five minute mark or so, they were both on their knees slugging it out with each other. Lyons held his own for fifteen minutes or so, but ended up counted out when an over-excited admirer wouldn't let go of him on the outside. Pretty clever count out spot that let Schmidt win while making Lyons look like he really had a shot.

Super Astro/Principe Joel/Jalisco vs. Super Boy/Fobia/Mano Negra Compton Lucha 6/5/95

MD: The primary pairing here was Super Astro vs Mano Negra and while Negra was high energy both in stalling and in his exchanges, the few glimpses of Super Astro vs Super Boy that we got made me wish that was the primary pairing instead. Jalisco stood out too as he had a certan swagger, even posture I would say, that made him stand out. He would take out all of the rudos with the same move and then the ref too for good measure. Super Boy had a great dive at the end (with Jalisco following up with a sort of elbow dropping dive) to set things up for Mano Negra vs Super Astro again. At that point, however, Joel turned heel and it ended as a pretty big rudo beatdown that probably built to some bigger match later on. The turn didn't really take away from the match as it felt like it came right at the end.

PAS: Very fun lucha trios filled with talented professional luchadores. The extra juice was getting to see bits of Super Astro and Super Boy two of the most electric exciting luchadores of all time. I love a fat highflyer and both of these guys were perfect example of melding chub and athleticism. Super Boy hits a crazy flipping senton to end a fall, and Astro is twinkle toed as ever. Finish was a bit of a dog's breakfast, but the stuff preceding it was a blast

Naoya Ogawa/Atsushi Sawada vs. Kazuyuki Fujita/Kendo Kashin IGF 4/11/15

MD: 8 minutes here and it's all action. The Fujita vs Sawada exchanges are great, just that right mix of intensity and flair and headbutts. Sawada really brings the energy whether it's his initial takedown or just scooting around the ring out of the way when Fujita gets the advantage. We don't get a ton of Kashin and Ogawa here, but the contributions are worthwhile, with Kashin trying to kill Sawada on the outside with some cloth around the neck and Ogawa giving in to Sawada's desire to get STO'd by his own partner so that he can hit a ridiculous and serene tandem DDT. I'd happily watch a 10 match Sawada vs Fujita series if such a thing existed.

PAS: This kind of hardhitting quasi-shoot puro stuff is right up my alley.  Fujita is such a rock headed dim bruiser and it is great to watch him bully Sawada and have Sawada fire back. Loved the flurry of strikes in the corner by Sawada, one of the advantages of wrestling Fujita is that you can hit him as hard as you can and it won't faze him a bit. Kashin and Ogawa are smaller players in this match, but Ogawa has such a great arrogant bruiser vibe, that he works great in this match as a foil. Taunting and bullying his partner until he had enough and just disposed of him. 

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Found Footage Friday: CMLL at the Olympic 5/28/94

Thanks to the great Roy Lucier we got a CMLL HandHeld from 1994!


Magneto/Benny Carranza/Sombra de Plata vs Terror Chicano/Crazy Boy/Renegado Estrada

PAS: Undercard no name lucha is the most watchable kind of anonymous wrestling. I haven't heard of any of these guys and wasn't inspired to deep dive on any of them, but we had some nice armdrag exchanges, a couple of solid C+ dives and a guy in Kiss makeup who took some nice monkey flips. Absolutely nothing to complain about. 

Louie Spicolli/Chavo Guerrero Jr/Mando Guerrero vs Bobby Bradley/Lover Boy/Torn Negro

MD: This was fun but got cut off short, though in a believable way given the build. The primera had a really solid pairing between Mando and Lover Boy where they took it to the mat and Mando didn't eat him up completely as he had a tendency to do. Tornado Negro spent the entire fall goading Chavito, who chased him around the arena, including spurring a big brawl where Mando accidentally took out someone in the crowd. In general, Bradley looked like he belonged, stooging big early and then just killing Chavo between the segunda and tercera with a pile driver and huge chop. If I read the results right, this was Spicoli pulling double duty as Los Mercanarios had led things off and he was game here, showing off some power and flair. It all got cut short after Mando big comeback when Chavo lost his cool again and pulled off Tornado Negro's mask. Mando made sure to get some extra attention post match trading blows with Lover Boy on their knees. It made sense, it probably fit into the overall card, but as a standalone I would have liked a real finishing sequence.

Los Mercenarios vs Los Toritos/Chamaco Rebelde

PAS: Mercenarios are Tim Patterson, Bill Anderson and Louis Spicolli. They had some nice looking bullying offense, one of them won the first fall with a nasty top rope Bret Hart forearm, another one had a great fist drop. The Technicos didn't really hold up their end of the bargain, they were really were ground bound and their punches looked weak. I am into the Mercnarios, and need to track down them against better opposition. 

Piloto Suicida/Jalisco/Hijo de Solitario vs Panico/Super Boy/Capitan Oro

PAS: This was a really fun undercard lucha match with the massive standouts being Super Boy and Suicida who were regular So-Cal dance partners. Super Boy should really have been a big star, but outside of some cool MPRO matches and a random couple of WCW matches he was mostly just an underground king. Super Boy hits a killer fatboy Superfly splash to win the first fall, has a very cool rope running exchange with Suicida in the second, and catches a wild Suicida dive in the third. Everyone else were fine workman like luchadores, but you could really tell Super Boy and Suicida were special 

Los Brazos vs Mocho Cota/Emilio Charles Jr/Bestia Salvaje

PAS: Welcome to the WON Hall of Fame Los Brazos. This was a great example of what these guys brought to the table, especially the incandescent Super Porky. The first fall was this killer rudo team trying and failing to solve the Porky problem, at one point Porky is carrying two rudos in his arm with one on his back, and he ended the fall with a wild falling senton, like a kid jumping back first on his bunk bed, except the bunk bed was three rudos. The fake heart attack is a classic Porky spot, and the rudos got a ton of heat for not stopping their attack even when Porky was getting CPR. I love the Brazos so much and every new match is a little gift

MD: Great showcase Brazos match against one of the best stooge rudo sides of all time in front of an amazingly game crowd. I wouldn't say they leaned into the heat quite as much as they could have but they were roaring for everything the Brazos hit. As much as I love Cota and as great as it is to see him go up against Porky, the standouts were probably Bestia and Oro who were just zooming around the ring. It was just spot after spot all enhanced by the rudos' reactions and the crowd's buzzing. What heat there was came after Cota dropkicked Porky in the chest and they brought out the EMTs, with the rudos attacking them anyway. Porky's sell where he was just stumbling around ringside crashing into chairs was amazingly tasteless in the best way. Eventually, he decided it was time to finish, so he rushed back to the ring and they had their comeback and the finishing sequence, which included a huge Brazo dive. I think there are only a handful of matches with this specific rudo side on tape so one more is a great addition and they couldn't be more perfect opponents for the Brazos.

Vampiro/Ultimo Dragon/Rayo de Jalisco Jr vs Black Magic/Negro Casas/Mano Negra

MD: Fairly good, by the books match, with a lot of Casas vs Dragon, at the height of Dragon's flipping prowess and plenty of Vampiro being Vampiro and Rayo being Rayo, but admittedly to the hot crowd's delight. I'll say this about them. They knew what to do here to get over. Vampiro especially had a sense of what he wanted to do and Smiley was game to help him. None of it looked all that pretty but it overall worked. Rayo, on the other hand, could just bounce about and flail his arms as people bumped around him and the fans would go wild, so what are you going to do? To be fair, he did hit a tope on Mano Negra at the end, but I think I summed up the rest well. No, the appeal here was Casas and Dragon. Sometimes it was a little too smooth, those one counts where they're already on their feet moving to the next thing, but for the most part, their exchanges were lightning fast in the best way, with Dragon defying both basic anatomy and physics in some of his escapes. When the rudos took over in the segunda, I liked how they used the open space around the ring to the fullest, but overall it wasn't super memorable and the comeback was Rayo having enough and deciding to just come in and interfere which had to follow Porky recovering from a heart attack, so maybe they should have thought it through more. The arch on Dragon's German Suplex to finish Casas was beautiful though and Casas was especially engaged and entertaining for all of the post match foolishness.

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New Footage Friday: WCW Festival de Lucha

ER: This is one of those shows that I've heard about for 20 years, one of those shows that someone on a message board would pretend to have a copy of, cause a stir, and of course never actually follow through on getting the footage to anyone. It's one of those shows where people just wanted to see it more and more because they thought they would never get to see it, which is the best kind of Hidden Gems gift. And, excitingly, Super Boy is now officially on the WWE Network. Blessed. We get the fantastic mission-front set with traditional dancing, great pueblo set, ring valets all in traditional garb, and what sounds like a loud crowd who is into this. I'm there with them.

TOMK: It’s about time this showed up. You would have thought they would do this in September as some sort of Hispanic Heritage Month deal…but I’m not complaining about October.

MD: I'm dealing with some shifting watching situations that make annotations tricky currently (as in, I watched this show on a commuter bus over a few days), so the comments I provide will be general. Hopefully, Phil and Eric have the heavy lifting here.

I'm not going to say "Nitro lucha" is my least favorite lucha but it's certainly not my favorite. So many things that I've learned to love about lucha libre just aren't present. My remembrance with them is that you didn't really get memorable captain feuding or character driven pair-offs or momentum shifts with builds to comebacks. Clearly defined segments. Dives as means to a bigger end instead of ends in and of themselves.

It was distilled one-fall Lucha with some of the wrong things distilled.

That said, this entire show was a blast. So much of that was due to the setting, the dancers, the fact that they really just embraced this stuff instead of having it off to the side as a sideshow. On this show, these guys felt like stars. Top to bottom, too. You had Disco Inferno main eventing for maybe the only time of his career up until that point, and he felt natural in that role. Jericho felt larger than life, like a Buddy Rose type figure, and almost all the more charismatic or memorable luchadors felt like big deals.

And that was most of them. The talent pool here was great. You had a lot of the usual suspects: Villano III and V, La Parka, Psicosis, Juvi, Halloween and Damien, Hector Garza, Super Calo, Konnan and Rey, and the WCW contingent with Finlay, Smiley, Swinger/Lane etc. but you also had guys that didn't really show up in WCW like Felino, Pirata Morgan, Texano, Rey, Sr., and freaking Super Boy. Maybe coolest of all (not as cool as Super Boy, but...) we had new Blitzkrieg matches, and a bunch of unique pairings that you just didn't think you'd get.

Everything basically worked, from Jimmy Hart's Boricua first family to Jericho's foreign legion, to the fact guys seemed to trade between being rudos and tecnicos depending on the match. There was some sense of overkill or a lack of agenting. For example, I really liked the Juventud Guerrera, Pirata Morgan & Psicopata vs. Hector Garza, Konnan & Rey Mysterio Jr. There was a pretty key story in there with a big fight for the top rope rana through the pairings and ultimately, a bigger fight for the Juvi driver, but in the next match on the taping, someone hit a top rope rana almost instantly, like it was nothing, and then I think a match later, someone hit a Juvi driver, of all things, just as a move. Even if these matches weren't all taped in the order they'd be filmed, that would have been a long term problem. That's not to say the matches didn't vary at all. Some had more thorough beatdowns (Especially the Damien/Halloween ones, I think), and others more comedy, but the general tenor of Nitro style lucha is "good action" and that's a lot of what this was.

Other random thoughts: Psicosis might have been the best masked rudo of his specific generation (guys born in the early 70s). He's so emotive, such a dick, able to play to the crowd, but also able to base so well and hit so much stuff. Juvi just really got it too. He integrated a lot more of US heel mannerisms and it was a good mix. I'm not super familiar with Salsero, but I'm amazed he didn't get himself more of a job out of this. He was playing a unique role and would have probably gotten over on a weekly basis in WCW as a clowning, joke-spot guy that could still go. Lots of clotheslines and DDTs on the show. It's a joy to watch the differences in the selling though: Blitzkrieg folds in half, Hector sails across the ring, and yeah, Disco makes sure to flail sell for quite a few seconds. There was at least one VIII decapitation of someone too. I thought Konnan worked surprisingly well in his trios match. I don't remember him working nearly that spritely in the late 90s. He also gave a lot for Disco who was giving his all. Heel Big Wiggle era Norman Smiley was a lot of fun and Jericho as a corner man made it all the better. I've seen rudo Rey Sr a few times lately (had mostly seen him as a tecnico) and he's just a great stooging pug base. I wanted to see Finlay, Blitzkrieg and Super Boy against literally everyone else on the show. I'm glad we had a few more matches than listed because it would have been a crime not to see Finlay in this setting.

I guess my biggest takeaway from it all is that I wish it had gone on for a while. 


Silver King/Venum/Kendo vs. Super Boy/Villano V/Felino

PAS: This would probably land in the lower half of WCW lucha trios, but it was still a ton of fun to see different guys work in this environment. Kendo's stuff fit in great in the sped up WCW lucha style, and his big tope looked awesome. Super Boy and Felino both looked great too, Felino was fully in his fastest luchador in the world prime, and Super Boy is an amazing short fat agile revelation. I have no idea why this didn't at least get them both WCWSN filler gigs. Venum Black looked not ready for prime time, he was tentative, and awkward, and even his big dive felt unsure.

TOMK: The EMLL announcers used to talk about Felino as one of fastest wrestlers in the world but you kind of forget how fast he could make an exchange look. Not sure if he’s actually “stop watch fast” or just knows how to make every move look sudden. It is a blast to watch Felino and Silver King working their fast exchanges. I think Super Boy and Silver King tried to do a ridiculous exchange near the end that had a 1/50 chance of working but if it did it would have blown every one’s mind and they were completely prepared for it possibly not working. Venum Black may have blown his leg on his dive near end.

ER: The Felino/King sections of this were really hot, and if this match just had their cool trips and ankle picks it would have been worth it. All of the Felino stuff was really great, and then you have Super Boy coming in and being the fast flippy fat guy who looks even more awesome taking falls, because his beautiful round belly looks great on the mat and his shirt always exposes it. It makes him look like when you'd KO King Hippo by punching him and making his pants fall off. Venum looked a step behind everyone but he did hit a wild dive at the end (which Tom thinks may have wrecked his leg). I have no clue what King and Super Boy were going for at the end, but it doesn't happen, and it was fun to see them pick up the pieces. I saw Super Boy work a flea market in the early 2000s, and he did a huge dive, crushed the two chairs in the row in front of me, and landed on my leg. It was great. 

ER: I am LOVING the Jimmy Hart Festival de First Family. What a great bunch of weird dudes, with American Wild Child mugging the whole time, Psicopata dragging around a blow up doll, and Pierroth yelling on the stick. I love Pierroth, and this late 90s period of Pierroth was really great. This was a stable I would have killed to see go up against the LWO. I'm just picturing Pierroth whipping everyone with his belt and hitting hard lariats on everyone. This is great.  

TOMK: Jimmy Hart comes out with his stable, Ricky Santana, Fidel Sierra, Pierroth, American Wild Child and Psicopata. Holy shit why couldn’t this have been a regular WCW stable. Pierroth gets the mic and explains that he is going to wear the Puerto Rican colors. And fuck it Pierroth really is the guy who I didn’t get at first but now when I see old footage absolutely can’t take my eyes off of him in a ring.

La Parka/Super Calo/Salsero vs. Halloween/Damien/El Mosco

PAS: Total fairgrounds lucha match, lots of classic shtick you can see at any small arena around Mexico, except performed by masters of the craft like Familia de Tijuana and Parka. Great stuff by Salsero too, who turned every move into a shake of the hip, and threw out a crazy top rope quebrada to the floor. Loved everyone missing an in ring dive, all of the stuff with the Kendo stick and Parka making the rudos dance to his tune. Usually WCW lucha wasn't this traditional, so it was a fun look into some stylistic differences between the matches.

TOMK: Salsero? Salsero? Of all the guys they brought in Salsero. I guess Salsero and Kendo come as package. But why would you want that package? For a little dancing followed by in ring tope and slapping rudos confusion comedy spots, Rayo is right there. This is mostly a match made by Halloween/Damien heel miscommunication spots and pretty much they are absolute kings of building a match around that.

ER: Damn this was fun. You show me this list of 6 names and Salsero would not be the guy I'd expect to be featured the most, but here we are. This whole match was full of schtick, and it was super welcome. And the pairings were all real fun, starting with Mosco and Calo. Mosco has a big high spinning heel kick, and later takes an amusing bump over the top off a Salsero dropkick. Salsero got to work a bunch of classic schtick, getting the rudos to attack each other (loved FdT ganging up on Mosco and Mosco swinging a chair at them), and boy did I not expect him hitting a gigantic top rope quebrada (to seemingly no reaction, on a show getting loud ass reactions from everything, that's weird). Halloween and Damien looked as good as usual, loved them getting outsmarted by La Parka at nearly every turn, and La Parka was so great at leaning into every single strike. I loved Parka's long  dance evasion from Halloween, ending in a perfectly timed mean slap from Halloween, and Parka was running so fast into Damien's corner boots, catching them right in the neck. This really got to unfold in a great way, and while it didn't hit anywhere near the peaks of WCW lucha sprints, it had a nice traditional charm that was felt throughout. 

  

Rey Mysterio Sr./Villano III/El Texano vs. Blitzkrieg/Piloto Suicida/Raul

PAS: Damn is Villano 3 a beast in this match, just a violent lucha machine, hard shots, great looking DDT, internal organ flattening senton, just a monster. Your tecnico team felt like a green tecnico team being carried by awesome rudos, and we had awesome rudos. I am surprised Blitzkrieg was as subdued as he was in this match, my memories of him were always just a lunatic breaking out crazy highspots, here he wasn't much crazier then Raul (whoever that was). Excited about the run in setting up a killer rudo battle later on the show.

TOMK: Who is Raul? Is that Zorro? Facially kind of looks it. I thought Zorro was a tad taller than that. Anyways this is a fucking Texano showcase match as he just beats the fuck out of everyone and throws himself around bumping and setting up face comebacks. Jimmy Hart’s team runs in at the end attacking both faces and heels and we get an awesome tease of Pierroth vs. Texano. Is Psicopata actually Mando at this point? He doesn’t really move like Mando…If WCW only had been willing to air this show we might have gotten a WCWSN main event Psicopata/Bad Street vs. Psycho/Killer and that would have turned everything around.

ER: Damn check out this Rey Mysterio Sr. showcase, what a brute who knew how to make green fliers looks formidable. He's someone who throws in extras, fills time nicely, a guy who needs to be spoken about in the same sentences as other era workrate lucha gods. I like how he throws in an extra spin while getting into position for a Piloto Suicida armdrag, and on the floor he eats a rana and purposely throws himself into the legs of the guardrail to make the bump look better. Oh but then you had his excellent rudo partners looking like all time asskickers. Villano III gets Blitzkrieg a WCW contract by crushing his ribs with a top rope senton, and Texano was the most explosive guy in the match throwing strikes as hard as his bumps. The thing falls apart in absolutely glorious fashion, I mean three tecnico dives that all miss in increasingly spectacular fashion, terrible catches and botched dives and the most incredibly ugly trainwreck you've seen. Raul (yeah who the hell IS Raul?) slips and dives head first straight into the floor, Piloto apparently pilots the plane on the cover of License to Ill, and Blitzkrieg takes a flip dive into nothing when Rey whiffs. I was so damn into this rudo team, but this ending was too funny. Post match Pierroth run-in made everybody in the match look like a lesser luchador though. It's unfair to people in the match to let Pierroth come in and beat the shit out of people as the last visual. 

Juventud Guerrera/Pirata Morgan/Psicosis vs. Rey Mysterio Jr./Hector Garza/Konnan

PAS: Juvy/Psicosis/Pirata Morgan is a absolute killer rudo team, and it is really cool to see all three of them have matchups with Rey Jr., all great exchanges worked at a high level. Konnan is also working super hard on this show. This was his big opportunity to headline a show, and he was delivering at the peak of his abilities (admittedly a low peak). Run in was fun, although weird they had run ins at two different matches.

TOMK: You forget how amazing Juventud was. Just the entire fucking package, has the crowd in the palm of his hand, able to do the workrate midcard lucha spotfest that was asked of everyone while also just slowing it down to get little things across. It is WCW, so of course they are going to do two matches with invading foreigner heel teams attacking Mexican faces and rudos for a finish. The heel stable of Finlay, Lenny Lane, Jericho, Kaz, Norman Smiley, Chavo and Johnny Swinger is bizarre but would have also liked to see that as a regular WCW stable. Well maybe not Swinger.

ER: Damn now look at THIS rudo team! This is definitely the high profile main event of episode 1, because that's a big time tecnico team too. Tecnicos were fine but this was a rudo bump showcase. Psicosis and Juvy are among the greatest most explosive bumpers of all time, and this was them compressed and burning bright. The way Juvy takes whip snap somersault bumps looks so great, he rolls up tight like Samus and just bounces off that mat. Psicosis bumps to the floor, onto his head, onto his stomach onto the floor, onto his head again, just dude being who he is. Even Pirata takes a totally preposterous somersault back bump to the floor after getting dropkicked off the apron; the bump felt completely disconnected from the dropkick, sending him the totally opposite direction of where he should have bumped, but the dude somersaulted to the floor so who gives a fuck. No padding on the floor, no logic to the bump, but Morgan is here taking a hard bump to the floor on this taping.

The run in was totally badass and I LOVE the invading foreigners stable!!! What a kick ass gang of everybody-but-Mexicans. They're wearing light wash jeans with cuts ranging from "dad" to "Kaz Hayashi's Jncos", black sleeveless crop tops, woven belts, just throwing stomps and beating ass. This is what the stunt doubles would have looked like if there had been a Backstreet Boys Movie. It's so perfect. You can already see the hierarchy of the stable, with Lane, Swinger, and Kaz being the underlings who would actually get their asses kicked in trios matches before either Finlay or Jericho came out to cheat for them to win. Also Tom isn't excited for Johnny Swinger? Swinger is a guy who ate some of the worst beatings on 1997 WCW TV, he's the perfect guy to be the lowest totem pole guy in a stable. Somebody needs to take the ugliest beatings while the top guys escape. I hate that I never got to see this stable until now, and not more.


Juventud Guerrera/Felino/El Mosco vs. Piloto Suicida/Salsero/Raul

TOMK: Is El Mosco really wearing “Live Drug Free” on the back of his tights?” Really?

ER: This was pretty messy, and probably the weakest of the show so far. Felino doesn't vibe really well with Piloto, Salsero breaks out a nice tope con giro and STILL gets no reaction (his dives are like the only ones that get met with silence, it's like people enjoy his shtick but then get mad when he breaks out actual impressive highflying), but this is 100% a showcase for Juventud. Juvy is a genuine frontrunner for best chops in wrestling history. That sentence is not hyperbole. Juvy's chops are the fastest and feel like the best representation of the term "knife edge". His chops absolutely slice and hit harder than the chops of men twice his size. He does have the curse of overly visible frustration when things go wrong, and things can go wrong with a green face team, but there is still gold here. Juvy hits a real hard missile dropkick and Piloto takes a nice classic rolling lucha bump through the ropes, Juvy drops a great springboard legdrop, hits his great spinning rana off the top, basically Juvy on offense could do no wrong. But we do get a real bizarre finish, as Juvy calls for the Juvy Driver, picks up Piloto Suicida, and then drops him twice in a row. Maybe it was supposed to look like Piloto was blocking it? He did eventually get a kinda roll up nearfall, but it just looked like Juvy kept blowing the spot. I really don't think that's what they were going for. 

Kaz Hayashi/Psicosis/Ron Rivera vs. La Parka/Blitzkrieg/Kendo

TOMK: Why is Kaz in this match? He’s in the Jericho outsider stable but just a regular rudo here? They only had one taping and still couldn't keep booking straight? Kaz really leans into all of Kendo’s stuff nicely and the two RPW guys work match up and know how to work their spots together. Parka is over and kind of weird to see him getting this much of a showcase in all these matches when I don’t think he ever got this much of a taste at any other time in WCW. Wait, they were aware that he was super charismatic and can carry a face team on charisma? They knew?

ER: Parks was given a WCW showcase in several ways that other luchadors were not. On the WCW/nWo Revenge game - the highest selling wrestling game on the Nintendo 64 - La Parka was one of only a few luchadors included in the game (Rey, Psicosis, Juvy, Chavo and Eddie if you count them as luchadors), which had a really large roster for video games at the time. And Parka was presented as separate from the "cruiser" luchadors, the only luchador other than Konnan who was lumped in with the heavyweights in the game (tantamount to guys like Barbarian, Stevie Ray, and Yuji Nagata). He was presented separately and as a potential breakout star, and they seemed to know it was a good idea to feature him more in matches and give him side angles to work his gimmick...and yet they seemingly had the coldest possible feet about pushing him as an actual singles star. It made no sense. They knew, but they didn't know. Highlights of this match were Kaz really making all of Kendo's headscissors look great, a great Blitzkrieg dive followed by a big twisting La Parka dive, and Blitzkrieg hitting a big phoenix splash for the win. Blitzkrieg was a cool part of wrestling 1999, and I love that we're getting a little more added to his story. He's a total cult fave, indy white guy shows up as an out of nowhere unknown in WCW one episode of Nitro, gets over immediately when he's treated like a peer by Misterio, and has maybe 30 matches total on tape. He was a nostalgic part of my teen wrestling fandom, and now we get like 10% more Blitzkrieg appearances than previously existed. That's awesome.

Rey Mysterio Sr./Villano III/Villano IV/El Texano vs. Pierroth Jr./Fidel Sierra/Ricky Santana/Psicopata

TOMK: There was some nice Pierroth and Fidel Sierra stuff, but this wasn’t going to live up to my expectations. I was also expecting a big Hart bump, and instead Hart was subdued. He felt like a watered down Andy Barrow.

PAS: I loved this, it was rudo vs rudo and kept up a really killer pace. Pierroth is rocking an amazing Soul Glo Jheri Curl and every time he throws a chop activator juice flies all over his opponent. Psicopata was all over the ring and the outside, stooging, flipping to the floor, bumping huge, total barrel of energy. Really different from a normal WCW lucha match, and I dug that difference.

ER: This lineup is far and away the match I am most excited about on the show. Tom is right that it couldn't possibly live up to my expectations, but damn did I think this was just great. This was our Pierroth showcase match of the evening, and this was an evening that benefitted from a Pierroth showcase match. He was throwing the best punches of the show, kicks to dicks, and the best non-Juvy chops. He came off like a total boss against a very badass team. We got a lot of simple brawling, and it was satisfying as hell. Villano III gets some nearfalls that the ref keeps missing, including a gorgeous small package off of a delayed vertical suplex, and we get an actual powder in the face spot for the finish!! Hell yeah! There was so much powder!!

Rey Mysterio Jr./Silver King/Hector Garza/Konnan vs. Chris Jericho/Norman Smiley/Johnny Swinger/Lenny Lane

TOMK: I think there may have been a good Black Magic vs. Silver King exchange but this was messy.

ER: My god who is the Festival de Lucha girl accompanying Rey? Jesus. And this foreigners stable is so much gold. I love every single stable at the Festival de Lucha tapings!! Every single stable in this 75 minutes has been something I want to watch weekly!

Felino/Psicosis/El Mosco vs. Super Calo/Blitzkrieg/Venum Black

TOMK: Venum Black’s leg is fucked and he comes into this match hobbling. The whole match is just super impressive to watch this guy work a match on one wheel. Should he have worked this match? Should an agent have put someone else in? Whatever. Super Calo does my favorite Super Calo thing where he eats a clothesline by landing on the top of his skull.

Fit Finlay/Kaz Hayashi/Norman Smiley/Johnny Swinger vs. La Parka/Hector Garza/Kendo/Raul

TOMK: I really liked this match. This is hidden gem that you didn’t know you wanted. Kaz’s offense looks great and he sells and bumps to make Raul look like a bad ass. Eats a real nasty piledriver from Raul. Parka gets extended exchanges with Finlay and a dance off and exchanges with Smiley and hits a tope that takes Swinger’s head off. Garza gets some cool stuff in opposite Smiley as well, Swinger and Kendo keep each other occupied, and it’s a cool finish.

PAS: This was really fun, so awesome to watch Finlay and Parka beat on each other. I can imagine an alternate universe where this show was successful and these two had the greatest Apuestas match in wrestling history. Jericho was really fun as a douche on the outside heat seeking. Parka and Smiley had a fun dance off too, honestly Parka is so great he can have dope exchanges with everyone on this roster.

Super Boy/Halloween/Damian 666 vs. Rey Misterio Jr./Piloto Suicida/Salsero

TOMK: This I liked too. A bunch of Halloween/Damien stooging, miscommunication stuff, and you get to see the California guys match up and showcase what they can do together. I really wish Rey vs. Halloween was a WCW series at any point cause it is a cool match up…plus there was an ESTRELLA!!!!

PAS: Really fun stuff, Super Boy has to have some of the biggest missed potential of anyone in the 90s, and it is cool that we get to see a little more of what he could do. Halloween and Damian 666 are such pros and they make everything the tecnicos do look great.

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New Footage Friday: French Catch, Super Boy, Rollerball,

Le Marquis/Black Shadow vs. Marcello Motta/Angelito French Catch 5/28/85

MD: All I want to talk about is the Marquis and his valet. Obviously, there was some old writ that somehow survived the Terror and Paris Commune that he was able to brandish showing that old landed gentry, of which he was one of the last, are lawfully allowed to utilize their valets in matches without any repercussion. This was some of the most acceptable and enjoyable constant cheating I've ever seen. They made an effort of distracting the ref a bit, including Motta being angry enough to hurt his own partner, but what made this sing was the total immersion. Every single time the Marquis entered or left the ring, the valet held the ropes. Every time the babyfaces got near the corner, he cheated. Every time the Marquis took a shot, he was there to dust him off. Occasionally the random mascot mocked him. It all led perfectly to the big dropkick spot that allowed enough space for the final pin. As for the work itself, it was good though maybe a notch down from some of the earlier French wrestling we've seen (though that still puts it pretty high). I liked all of the nasty side-mares. Angelito was pretty unique in look and movement but it all felt a little loose from him. I suppose the Marquis' act could get old if we had dozens of matches of his, but as this is pretty much all we have, it's gold in my book.

ER: These kind of matches are pure undistilled joy, and I always find myself loving the surroundings as much as the joyful ring work. Every shot of the crowd brings a smile to my face, and also makes me a little sad that this type of crowd is mostly gone. This looked like a crowd of families seeing a Saturday afternoon matinee. There were older couples and elderly couples, mothers there laughing with their children, a grumpy teen who was probably dragged there by a parent and was fighting the good times, and of course a giant blue furry mascot who apparently was just sitting in the crowd. He occasionally smacks Marquis' personal butler and the crowd appears to treat him like they would any other attendee. Everybody is in a sweater or an overcoat, and this seems like a crowd who would eat simple and deliciously prepared peasant food for dinner one night, which then gets turned into a stew the next night with wine, and in the meantime they're going to have a laugh while watching the acrobatic stylings of Angelito. And that's what I did! Angelito and Marquis were highly entertaining, with Marquis almost exclusively being a base for Angelito's breathtaking monkey flips, while being regularly toweled off by his butler. He and Angelito were quite a pair, and I did not get sick of those monkey flips, the way he would approach his opponent normally, then kick his body into the air so that he was nearly vertically upside down, before pendulum whipping downward to catch his feet on Marquis' or Shadow's thighs. They were amazing. He also had some cool counters, my favorite being Marquis catching him in a press slam, and Angelito immediately kicking his leg down to kick off Le Marquis' chest, landing on his feet and uppercutting him as punishment. I loved how Marquis' butler stood on the apron the entire match, and how that built to a big moment of Angelito drilling him with a picture perfect dropkick to knock him off (it should have been a bigger moment, but the butler oddly just sold it as if he had slipped off the apron and was getting back up to save face, not a guy who just had his sternum collapsed by a hard kick). This never veers into overt violence or intensity, it keeps its pace and is pretty to look at, and I am continually fascinated at these glimpses into the wrestling cultures of our worldwide friends.

PAS: I really enjoyed this although it lacked some of the mindblowing otherworldliness of some of the other French Catch. This was pretty formula wrestling match with a fun formula attack. Angeltio and the Marquis are a fun matched pair. With Angelito whipping off cool takedowns and monkey flips and the Marquies bringing his valet and a quality amount of horseshit to everything he does. I could have totally seen this turn into a six-man tag with the Mascot joining the babyface team. This French stuff is such a treat and we clearly need to find a Frenchman to invade the archives and get us more!!

Mark Rocco vs. Marty Jones All Star Wrestling 8/20/88

MD: Very cool that we got promos at the start of this, though Jones put Robert Gibson's lazy eye to shame. Rocco's hyperactive offensive bursts reminds me of the young Piper we've seen lately and now I lamented that there was never a scenario where those two could have teamed. This was really high end stuff, but it was almost too much so. They'd wrestled so many times that everything was a counter of a counter of a counter. The crowd was on board because they were familiar with them and it never felt choreographed; in a situation like that, I usually go for it. Here though, it was so metatextual, so over the top in the familiarity that some of the basic and primal stuff didn't entirely make it along for the ride. You ended up getting the blood and the DQ at the end but I felt like Jones had more reason to be angry a decade before. Here, familiarity seemed to breed contempt, not the hatred they needed to make the finish work. That's a nitpick but I still couldn't shake the feeling.

PAS: This didn't have the athleticism of the earlier matches, these guys both clearly had more wear on the tires. This had way more shortcuts then the WOS sport stuff we have from the 70s and 80s and I enjoyed the difference. Rocco tossing water into Jones eyes, removing the turnbuckle pad and Rocco bleeding by the end. Even the finish with the ref getting tossed around separates this from other stuff we have seen. It does feel a little more like two guys irritated with each other, then two guys who hated each other, and this kind of a brawl needed a bit more anger. I did love Jones wasting Rocco with the baseball slide dropkick, which is the moment it felt furious.

Rey Misterio Sr./Ultraman/Piloto Suicida vs Mercurio/Fobia/Super Boy FLL 2/15/95

MD: I came late in life to lucha libre, so obviously, I wasn't tapped into this vein like those who were part of the community twenty years (or more) ago. This, to me, feels like much more of a counter-culture scene than ECW. Maybe that's just hindsight but ECW was just a stylized, dirtied up version of what we always knew. This was something else entirely. At the base of it is just good lucha libre: majestic and valiant and scummy and tricked out, larger than life. They hit their spots cleanly and clearly. The primera exchanges were crisp and engaging. The segunda beatdown did a great job with crowd control, feeling organic instead of forced. There wasn't that moment of climax of a comeback. A lot of it happened between the segunda and tercera with a chairshot on the outside, but the finishing stretch hit all the marks, with a Estrella/Rana combo actually finishing the match instead of being a nearfall, which I'm not sure I've ever actually seen. Ultraman was quizzically over (he might not have been the guy I expected the crowd to go for the most) and he played into it well. How great must it have been to be a local during this period, right? The rest of the country was watching the Dungeon of Doom and Million Dollar Corporation and you got this.

PAS: Superboy is this total 90s cult figure, he would show up every year or so in Michinoku Pro as this short really fat incredibly graceful highflyer. He worked the WCW Lucha pilot which never went anywhere and then kind of faded away. So cool to see him in his So-Cal lucha home. The moment where he was working these incredible primera caida armdrag sequences with Rey Sr. were a true highlight. The opening sections off this were pretty great with all six guys getting a chance to shine. I thought the Segunda and Terecera lacked some of the Primera's focus, it was pretty aimless brawling leading into the Estralla finish of the third fall. The promise of that first fall never really delivered. That is a very lucha libre thing though, you will sometimes get this awesome individual fall in an otherwise pedestrian match, and those glimpses of brilliance are well worth it.

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Dick Togo is Clearing out the Pipes, Draino Brothers, The Whole Game Got Rollies in Rainbow Colors

SATO/Kendo/Piloto Suicida vs. Super Delfin/Super Boy/Gran Naniwa MPRO 7/94 - FUN 

PAS: This had about 10 minutes clipped, so it was hard to get a huge handle on what was going on. All six of these guys are really smooth wrestlers, and Superboy especially is an athletic marvel, as crazy agile as Dick Togo with 80 more pounds. Hadn't seen much of Piloto Suicida recently and all of his stuff looked great, as did Kendo. The stuff we saw was focused more on the comedy spots then a usual MPRO six-man. That maybe a side effect of the clipping, it may not have dominated as much in a longer match. For what I saw though, it overwhelmed the cool lucha. Finish run was sweet though especially the dive train, and Delfin murdering Pilota with his tornado DDT 

Dick Togo/Tigers Mask/Black Buffalo vs. Tsubasa/Asian Cougar/Billy Ken Kid Osaka Pro 4/29/09 - FUN

PAS: Worked like a traditional MPRO six man, although 2009 Osaka doesn't have the horses that 1996 MPRO had. Tsubasa, Cougar and Kid have nice spots, but their in between stuff didn't look great. This maybe the slimmest I have ever seen Togo, and while he doesn't have the fat boy heft anymore, he was getting freaky height and speed on everything he does. The rotation on his flips, the height on the senton just crazy looking. Asian Cougar isn't afraid to die on a senton on chairs to the floor, and Togo plants BKK with a Pepsi plunge which was pretty sweet. 

Dick Sato vs. Hip Hop Man 100% Lucha 3/9/08 - GREAT 

PAS: Totally awesome 7 minute TV match from Argentina of all places (THE MOTHERFUCKING INTERNET!!). They kick out the jams and go at a crazy pace the whole time. Hip Hop Man is a game dude, he had really pretty ranas and hits a crazy run the ropes flip dive. Togo is clearly trying to impress a new crowd, he breaks out all of his athletic stuff, and even hits a rolling senton off the apron to the floor, which I have never seen before. Pretty much a textbook debut in a new territory. I can totally see the crowd wanting to see more of this invader. This is the kind of thing which would have made an episode of Worldwide. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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