Found Footage Friday: 1975 CANADA~! SHEIK~! POFFOS~! VON ERICH~! STASIAK~! JAY YORK~! RED LYONS~!

Canadian Big Time Wrestling (Unaired Pilot) 1975

Gene Dubois (Dave McKigney) vs. Waldo Von Erich

MD:  Lord Layton is our commentator because that's what you do with retired Lords apparently. They led off with the national anthem. This is from London, Ontario. I don't know how much Dubois or Waldo Von Erich I've seen (you figure I would have at some point but I don't think I have), but this made me want to see a whole bunch more of both. Waldo had headgear on at first and slugged Dubois (wearing his jacket still) before the bell before taking it off. They really didn't look back from there. Dubois was a shaggy singlet wearing guy and came off like a world's best Brody in a lot of ways. At one point early, after eating a thrashing, he landed on his feet out of a back body drop and started to fire back. They really just threw themselves at each other the whole time, going in and out of the ring. Dubois caught Von Erich a few times, either pulling him out by the legs or landing him stomach first over the ropes on a corner whip. Finish was a let down as Waldo wouldn't let Dubois back in the ring and kept kicking at him again to draw the DQ, but this was a great start for this endeavor and I now need to see how much other footage we have of these two.

ER: I am a man who has watched a lot of wrestling in my life, and I don't think I've ever watched a Waldo von Erich match. That's probably not true, I've forgotten about 75% (more?) of the wrestling I've ever watched, but I figure that if I had seen him, then I would have remembered him as a shit kicking badass because man is this guy a shit kicking badass. Waldo crafted this match around a hypnotic blend of kicks to the ribs and body, and thumbs jabbed into throats. Wrestling needs thumbs jabbed into throats more than ever. That kind of sleight of hand simplicity isn't really a thing anymore and that's a bad thing. I don't know if I can ever respect any wrestler who does a flipping cutter more than a wrestler who does swift attacks to vulnerable body parts. Some 11 year old kid yelled "Go back to Germany!" while von Erich was kicking the shit out of Dubois' ribs and there's no 11 year old in the crowd that would have that kind of reaction to a flipping cutter. I love how Gene DuBois also went by Dave McKigney; two equally, specifically Canadian sounding names but names describing two completely different types of Canadian man. The finish was von Erich kicking Dubois in the ribs from the apron, knocking him to the floor repeatedly, until he gets DQ'd after the fifth or sixth time. How much of Waldo's 1976 All Japan tour do we have? I need to see it all. 

The Patriot vs. "The Alaskan" Jay York

MD: Patriot was from "the heart of America" and someone in the comments suggested it was Michael Farhat but I can't say. York was working singles for some reason and they went a different direction than the first match, keeping it on the mat. Some really good mat wrestling in here though, including York rolling across the Patriot to switch positions into a headlock. Eventually he got fed up and started clubbering and they went right home after that with York hitting a neckbreaker drop off the ropes out of nowhere. So far, I'd pick this show up if I was the network. 

ER: Holy shit Jay York. More people in wrestling and life need to look like Jay York. We've drummed the Jay Yorks out of wrestling and we're so much worse for it. I went to at least a hundred Giants games in the 80s and 90s. Good seats in the Candlestick right field pavilion were $6. Worse seats in the upper deck were $8, because you could smoke up there. Baseball's insane ticket prices drove away the Candlestick upper deck dirtbag in cut offs, no shirt, suntanned the way a guy got when he wore his faded black jeans outside with no shirt often, cig stuck to lip. Jay York looked like one of those dirtbags, only he's 6'5", and he's wrestling really well. 

Because why was Jay York this fucking slick on the mat? Why is this guy working fast Negro Navarro escapes and rolling wrist clutch advances? York escapes an armbar by rolling up Patriot's body into the cleanest damn headlock and he looked like 2x speed Jake the Snake. Jay York reads in no way like a guy who would be this good on the mat. I haven't seen a Jack Brisco match with matwork as well executed and interesting as York's. He throws short headlock punches and neck twisting leveraged snapmares. Every contact he makes looks good, authentic. He throws the best neckbreaker drop I've ever seen for his finish, turning one of wrestling's weakest clotheslines into a finisher clothesline. The key is York's fast drop, hitting the mat in a low quick ark like a reverse bulldog.  Where are men like Jay York now, and why aren't they wrestling? 

Cage Match: The Sheik vs. Tiger Jeet Singh

MD: Layton made sure to let everyone know how rare it was to see a cage match on TV. Singh was, I suppose, at least de facto babyface here mainly because people wanted to see the Sheik lose. Apparently in this one you could ONLY win by going through the door. Going over the top was illegal which is something I can't say I've heard before in an escape rules match like this. A few early shots in to the cage, a lot of scrambling for the door and cutting each other off. Sheik went to an object early as well. They both ended up trading the object back and forth. Lots of what you'd expect here with tossing and grinding against the cage. At one point, Sheik did try to escape over the top but got dragged back. Finish had Singh errantly punch the Sheik through the door and to the floor. I imagine people tuning into this would have gotten their money's worth here at least.  

ER: The best part of this match was one of the cage escape spots where Sheik is holding Singh's whole boot to keep him from getting out, hooking his hand into the top of the boot so he's shoving four fingers in with one hand and firmly gripping Singh's bridge with the other. It was showed close up and the struggle looked so real, which really stood out to me from Sheik's kind of phony old man brawling that I can never fully get into. 

North American Championship: Stan "The Man" Stasiak (c) vs. Ron Doner

MD: Fairly short one here. Stasiak ran into armdrags to start, including an assisted kip up where he got put right back down. He had big meaty shots that he took over with but they had a great bit where he missed the heart punch in the corner and had to sell his hand. He got caught up in the ropes and pummeled too but all it took was him taking over one last time and locking on for the heart punch to win it. Love the heart punch. This was fine for what it was but it wasn't meant to be much.

ER: All of the stuff I wrote about wanting to see wrestlers (and citizens) who look like Jay York up above, all of that could be said romantically about Stan Stasiak. I wish there was anywhere I could go to see a wrestler who looks like and wrestles like Stan Stasiak. Wrestlers should look like him, and have names that sound like his. He is a man who looks like one of the guys drinking beer with your dad after their strip mall office car club meeting. Stasiak has a body like Dennehy, head like Meatloaf, muttonchops of the truck driver who starts a fight with an outsider at a diner. Stasiak's heart punch is the greatest version of one of wrestling's great Lost Finishers. Loved the heart punch miss, putting over how he throws it hard enough to hurt his hand. The last guy I saw use a sincere heart punch was the late Bison Smith, early in his career when he was wrestling as Super Destroyer 2000. You know that wrestler I don't like on Beyond undercards who works a wink heavy heart punch finisher? I don't know if there is one, but, if there is, he sucks.  

World Tag Team Championship: The Poffos (Angelo & Lanny Poffo) w/ Saul Weingeroff (c) vs. "Irish" Mickey Doyle & Billy Red Lyons 

MD: There's a self-published Mickey Doyle biography out there and I'm tempted to get it. He was touted here as the fresh young star of the promotion, though I don't think he was quite as young as they were billing him. It's great to see Angelo and Lanny all the way back in 75. Lanny had to be 19 here tops and he was full of cartwheels and backflips as you'd imagine. He had a singlet over his tights and took the singlet off, which was silly.  

Honestly, this was a bit of a mess. It was almost refreshing to see how much of a mess as it was because you never see old matches that go over the rails quite like this. Lanny bumped and stooged all over the place, just flailing and flapping around. At one point he took a back body drop face first in the oddest way and he hit a pretty odd missile dropkick too. Angelo begged off and got bodyslammed what must have been six times to the point of it being very funny but not making much sense. Doyle's hair started springing every which way like it was Lanny's cartwheels. Lyons looked great ("rolling like a winner" as Layton put it), full of fire and solid looking shots but that was kind of beside the point.  The ultimate finish had Lanny and Doyle crash into each other and Angelo push Lanny on top of him from the outside. That brought Layton out to tell the ref what happened and get things overturned (because of that push!) and when Saul and Angelo complained, Layton said that he wasn't just a commentator but that he represented all of the people in the crowd, which was a unique way of putting it. Anyway, this was entertaining but definitely unmoored. 

ER: How weird is Lanny Poffo? Lanny is one of wrestling's all time weirdest guys and we should probably write more about him at Segunda Caida. What an off putting fucking weirdo. This unaired pilot was great fun, filled with guys tailor made for Michigan/Canadian fans. Then we get to the main event where a bleached blond weirdo who you would avoid in a supermarket sucks in his stomach in a threateningly sexual but gross way and you know exactly why this shit never aired. What a weird guy. I've never seen bleached blonde Lanny and it's horrifying. He looks like gay porn Lurch and cartwheels around, then stands in postures you never see a man stand in. Poffo bumps weirder than the World of Sport roster, falling in a way that seems inspired by nothing. Every bump he takes is weird, every move delivered as if by a ribbon dancer who had only heard about offense described verbally. His greatest weird guy bump is easily his back body drop. The first time you see it, it looks like an accident. By the time he's done three crazier ones, you just realize Lanny Poffo was a teenage genius. His back body drop is taken horizontally, flipping over his opponent like a log rolling off a cliff, not end over end. It's so much harder to get height on your bump that way, and yet here's Poffo taking increasingly higher versions. I need to see more first two years Lanny, but I think we can say that at one point, he might have been a more interesting and unique wrestler than his brother. That's an incredible revelation.

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New Footage Friday: The Sheik, Bull Curry, Mad Dog Vachon

The Sheik vs. Juan Humberto Texas Wrestling 12/14/54

MD:Very cool to see the Sheik in his earlier stages of development. We have a decent amount of footage of him but it's mostly from the 70s or later when the act and the man had both calcified. Here he was downright spry. Humberto was another heel, generally, I think, so this has some of the same issues that Curry vs Savich had. The fans seem fairly reluctant to get behind Humberto. It was sort of a tale of two matches. While Humberto's stuff was all pretty good, Shiek wasn't very interesting in taking any of it. On the other hand, when the Shiek was in control, he was unrelenting and wild. There was a definite sense of danger. He kept going for chairs or the microphone and would come in at odd angles. I think he ended up, in later years, as a wrestler who didn't end up feeding much or taking much and just judging from this match, that was probably the right decision.

PAS: I didn't love this, there were moments of wildness with the Sheik which were compelling (although unfortunately that coincided with the worst of the VQ), but much of the in-ring stuff was a little dull, and I didn't get much of a sense of Humberto at all. You can see the Sheik working on his act, and I would still like to see more of the Detroit stuff when he was a super over star, but I still haven't really enjoyed a Sheik match as much as him and Sabu almost burning themselves alive in FMW when he was super old.

Wild Bull Curry vs. Danny Savich Texas Wrestling 2/22/55

MD: Of the three matches, this was the one I was most interested in on paper. The 69 Curry vs Valentine match was one of the real highlights of the Houston footage, which is saying a lot. This was Curry a decade and a half younger. Some things are obvious from the get go. Curry is a hell of a puncher. We only have a few data points, but it's very striking just how much he accomplishes with his fists alone. In 69, he was an older, more sympathetic figure. This, as best as I can tell, was more heel vs heel, where you had a cheating, low-down heel vs a mangy, nasty heel. It meant that while the match was entertaining, the crowd were only going to get so far behind Curry. If this was part of a turn, it was effective. If this was to get over the difference between Curry and Savich and get Savich's second (and Texas Main Eventer, Duke Keomuka) over as cheaters, it was effective. Savich was apparently bleeding here but we didn't get a great look at that. The cheating felt novel, though I have no idea how many years they were doing this sort of thing. The ref didn't seem to have any idea how to handle it, as if a disqualification rule for interference by a manager just didn't exist. Curry generally fought off both guys whenever he was on the floor but he ultimately had his arm paralyzed by Keomuka which let Savich finish him off. The nature of the match sort of held it back, but I'd love to see more Curry. Against the right opponent, you can just tell he'd be great. The Diamond Drill Twist remains the best finisher of the 1950s.

PAS: I loved this. Minimalist punch out between a pair of ugly mean pricks is pretty much narrowcasted towards my interests. Curry looks like a hairier Abe Vagoda and is clearly an all time great punch and kick wrestler, a real variety of hard looking thudding shots, which Savich sells like he is being hit by sledgehammers. Savich gets opened up over the eye in a cut which looked like it was seeping into the hair in his eyebrow. Really cool finishes to all three falls, with Savich using his Diamond Drill Twist, which was a Stooges like neck twist, which Curry sold like he broke his neck. The second fall had Savich taking big bumps outside the ring and Curry King of the Mountaining on both Savich and Duke Keomuka. I loved the third fall finish with Keomuka locking in some sort of paralyzing nerve hold on the floor, which left Curry unable to move his arm and defend himself against hard clean shots to the jaw. The little glimpse we have of Texas Wrestling is great stuff, seems to be a promotion built around violent brawls, which is a real shift from the other 50s wrestling we have seen.

Mad Maurice Vachon vs. The Amazing Zuma Texas Wrestling 3/19/57

MD: I thought this was excellent. I wouldn't call Vachon a total package, but he was maybe 90% there and what he didn't have, some of the outright technical savvy you like to see in this era, he didn't even need. Zuma brought a ton to the table; he was full of charisma and had a lot of fun stuff including the 'rana flurry at the end. Lots of crazy quick throws too. What I loved the most about this though was how engaged both wrestlers were. Zuma was constantly talking and strutting and hovering in and out. Vachon reacted to everything, jawing (and scraping) with the ref, selling surprise after a kickout or if Zuma got a shot in, diving out of the ring in response to the Zuma cartwheel. We're talking Mark Henry levels of negative space usage here. This was constant motion (as opposed to constant moves) in the best way.

PAS: This was a lot of fun. Vachon was a really vicious bastard in this match, constantly crowding Zuma in the corner, pummeling him, ripping at his nose and eyes. Zuma was clearly the local version of Antonio Rocca, and he had a great looking dropkick, and some really awesome looking ranas to take the final pin. He did seem a little weird taking offense though, and at points seemed awkard just moving around the ring. Vachon was really great at pushing pace, and you could totally see why he would go on to be such a big star.

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All Japan Motherload - Ricky Steamboat vs. The Sheik - AJPW 6/11/81

ER: Best Sheik singles match ever? Okay, that can come off like I'm ranking the best brand of truck to get run over by. I'll rephrase it as "I watched an actual good Sheik match." This is actually one of my favorite Steamboat performances too. Now, I also don't really like Steamboat that much. I'm that guy. He's probably my least liked "undisputed great worker". He has been a part of plenty matches I liked - even loved (the Rude iron man is a favorite) but his work just doesn't speak to me. Here he showed an aggression that I wish was far more common in his matches. Sheik actually showed up looking like he wanted to work, bumping right out of the gate for a couple nice dropkicks. Steamboat grabs a nasty side headlock and works over Sheik for awhile, one of the more compelling headlocks you'll see in a match. Sheik put it over great, and before long we get to spike action with Steamboat immediately knocking it out of Sheik's hands and using it himself. Sheik gets busted open which leads to an awesome moment of Sheik choking Steamboat on the floor while bleeding onto Ricky's chest and face. Steamboat flips it and looks like a lunatic while strangling Sheik, even holding up Sheik's head to get more leverage on the choke. This whole thing was awesome, from two guys I normally don't care about. Plus, the youtube file calls him "Steambort" which has made me laugh at least 4 times.

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