Found Footage Friday: TOR~! RENESTO~! PIRATA~! ESTRADA~! REYNA~! FUCHI~! KIKUCHI~!

Super Swedish Angel (Tor Johnson) vs. Tom Renesto NWA Los Angeles 1951

MD: Yes, Super Swedish Angel is Tor Johnson, that Tor Johnson, the Tor Johnson. This is the only full match we have of him. I've seen this one likened to being straight out of a B film itself, but it almost felt like 1950s Sports Entertainment to me somehow, even in a way a lot of the other gimmicks haven't seemed to be. I expected Johnson to be more monstrous or thuggish but he was over the top in that sort of writhing almost Baby Huey sort of way, arguing with the ref, pulling faces, yelling at the crowd, marching around the ring with his hands waving and his mouth open, selling more shock than actual pain. He won the first fall by having Renesto run right into him and then hitting a decent enough big splash. Renesto is that Tom Renesto, young and Bronco Tom or Cowboy Tom here. He worked the arm pretty well with some varied stuff in the second fall (winning it with a schoolboy trip off the ropes) and then the leg in the third. They actually did a double leglock spot like you'd see in UWF which was pretty funny in this setting. Also funny was Johnson's hide the object bit, as he hid it in his mouth and then got nailed in the stomch, forcing him to swallow it. You really don't see that every day and with a guy witht he size, shape, and mannerisms of Johnson, it was high comedy. He fought with the ref as well. These comedy bits were more the high spots around Renesto controlling with holds. It seemed pretty much inevitable, no matter how much Renestro controlled however. At any point, Johnson could just flex his stomach or get a knee up and once down, it was one big splash away from being the end. Interesting look overall and not exactly what I expected out of our Plan 9 star.

Pirata Morgan/Hombre Bala/Verdugo vs. Apolo Estrada/Rudy Reyna/Tony Reyna (Monterrey 1989)

MD: We've seen three or four Apolo Estrada matches and he's been great in all of them. Here, he was matched up with Pirata Morgan and it was everything I wanted it to be. Los Bucaneros (who, of course, all have eyepatches limiting their vision to match their leader and his exposed eye socket) ambush right from the start and Estrada bleeds right from the start and he basically keeps bleeding the whole way through. Morgan is one of the top rudos ever at directing traffic during a beatdown and they keep it moving. The tecnicos try to fire back but get liberally fouled and triple teamed for their trouble. Bucaneros end the primera with a killer triple dropkick to a seated Reyna and a lifting press down onto another one. Segunda has the comeback and it's tremendous because while the Reynas were disposing of Hombre Bala and Verdugo with some pretty great sweeping punches, Estrada, a bloody maniac, was attacking Morgan in the seats. They have an extended fistfight in the midst of all of it and it's one of the best things I've seen in all of this Monterrey footage, in part because it just keeps going and going. The tercera keeps the wild feel. Rudy Reyna is such a fun exotico-turned-tecnico, with spin kicks and spinning chops and a spin wheel kick; he's a whirling dervish, and Tony may have stumbled a bit but his strikes worked well enough for me. But this was all about Estrada, as iconically bloody as any luchador getting his pound of flesh until Morgan fouls him on the apron. That let the numbers game put away the tecnicos for the win. Estrada was a great local legend, a great brawler, a great bleeder, all the stuff we like around here.

Masanobu Fuchi vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi AJPW 9/4/1991

MD: Thanks to gus for giving us the heads up on this one. As I understand it, we had the finish pro-shot previously and maybe a handheld that we've never covered. I am a massive proponent of handhelds. What we do every week relies upon them. I can tell you a ton about Goro Tsurumi or Eigen and Okuma because of stuff that never made TV. It's essential to figuring out what was going on, but here, you gain so much from getting in close and seeing the reactions. Just seeing the mangled ears (I think Kikuchi's were worse than Fuchi's!) and the grimaces and frustration. These two made the absolute most of one another. That meant Kikuchi having an early wariness, but also a daring, willing to throw a forearm first, but always aware that Fuchi could catch him at any moment. It meant Fuchi slapping him in response, because how dare he really? Moreover, though, it meant Fuchi absolutely stretching him in the most grotesque way possible. He'd just contort the back and hook his hands together to pull a leg in a direction it shouldn't go, and then, when the hold couldn't be kept any longer, he'd shift ever so slightly into a new one that somehow looked worse. Fuchi was such a chameleon, able to work comedy, able to bully in a trios, able to have fire when need be, but rarely (in footage we have) did he really get to be just this tricked out in his holds and was a sight to see. 

And of course, Kikuchi, probably the best babyface of this era in All Japan (Sorry, Kobashi) fired back again and again and put so much emotion and desperation into every forearm, every waistlock to try to get a suplex, into the pair of Octopus holds that he finally locked in. The finishing stretch was exciting with Kikuchi hitting that German (basically the only throw/move in the match along those lines), and the two of them having some teasing roll ups, before Fuchi started hitting one enziguiri after another. Even then, one got ducked and there was a moment of hope before it was extinguished. That was the difference with these Jr. Heavyweight matches. In other hierarchy-driven matches, there could be hope and effort could be rewarded, but there was always a sense this title could change hands at any moment. Guys like Momota or Nakano held it just a year or two before. It gave everything just a bit of extra excitement. Glad to have this one clear, crisp, and in full.

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Found Footage Friday: CASAS~! PANTERITA~! PIRATA~! ASTRO~! SMILEY~! CARAS~! ARANDU~! SCORPIOS~! DEMON~! VERDUGO~!

Black Magic/Panterita del Ring/Centurion Negro vs. Negro Casas/Cien Caras/Arandu CMLL 1991

MD: Back to another wild trios here, another exciting match in this feud. There's such energy and almost elasticity whenever Casas and Panterita are in there. No one else moves like Casas. The way he hits the ropes almost seems to stretch reality itself, like he's always threatening to tumble off screen at any moment, like the ring itself would give way to him. It was true throughout but most especially as they were careening towards the finish of the tercera (Casas going for a 'rana and getting power bombed). The primera started with Panterita going right after Casas. It looked like there would be an immediate rudo advantage as Casas turned it around but Black Magic was there to toss him off the top and they rolled into exchanges.

This had to be pretty early into Smiley's sojourn into Mexico (in the pre-match interview, he pronounced Panterita's name wrong and couldn't remember Centurion Negro's name, not that he did much in this match) and he has raw size and presence but is still trying to figure out how to fit into a match like this. That's my takeaway at least. He has Casas, Arandu, and Caras to help him along but there are moments where he's coming back way before he's supposed to and I think there are spots here where he ends up getting goozled for his own good. They still were able to get a lot of use out of him though, like Arandu leaping back off the second rope only to get caught or Caras trying it on Smiley later only to get rolled up (the segunda finish). There were little bits of clipping here and there, maybe around fouls, but the long stretches of the beatdown and comeback were still satisfying. Casas was all over Panterita, tossing him into collapsing chairs, ripping the mask, trying to force his head into the space already occupied by the turnbuckle. They started the final exchanges with Casas tossing something in the air to distract him for a punch and set up the finishing stretch with Casas feigning getting fouled so his team could swarm in. I'm not getting sick of this pairing yet, that's for sure.

Panterita del Ring/Asterisco/Centurion Negro vs. Megatron/Scorpio/Scorpio Jr CMLL 1991

MD: Unfortunately, this was pretty clipped. We got a clear mat exchange between Megatron and Centurion Negro to start, which looked perfectly fine, and then bits and pieces of the beatdown and comeback and then the complete finishing stretch in the tercera. Therefore, I don't have anything intelligent to say about Asterisco (who I don't think was the Asterisco who feuded with Santito) for instance. I do want to stress how over Panterita was with this arena though. He had a cheering section; last match they had pom poms and here they had little flags. He had all the fire you'd want out of a local hero when fighting from underneath or making his comeback. He was probably matched with Scorpio, Sr. here but we didn't get to see much of that. It's a shame because Scorpio, Sr. feels like such a perfect wrestler for this blog given his size and overall scumminess. His nickname is apparently "El Rey Feo" (the Ugly King). Whenever he pops up in footage, I'm glad to see him. Anyway, this ended with things breaking down, the rudos controlling until the Scorpios had a mishap, and then a foul that the refs missed letting them win it anyway. This probably would have been pretty good, if somewhat slight, if we had gotten the whole thing.

Blue Demon Jr./Super Astro/Panterita del Ring vs. Arandu/Pirata Morgan/Verdugo Monterrey 1991 

MD: This is not actually new, but this video is in way more watchable form since it was cut up and misnamed before so we're going to cover it again. Here's the last review: 

(https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2012/08/just-call-me-pirata-morgan-im-sure-to.html)

It was epic then and it's epic now. While Panterita is in almost every match that have popped up in this dump and while I think it probably helps Ephesto's case over all to see these, and while seeing Casas off the beaten trail here has only spoken well of him too, Arandu is a guy who wasn't on anyone's radar and that really looks great in these matches: wild offense, big bumping, a lot of presence, fits right in with Estrada or Angel Blanco, Jr., or whoever. And here, he makes a great third Bucanero with Morgan and his brother. The story of this one was Arandu vs Super Astro and while everyone else played their part, it was some great contrast. Astro was willing to be lawndarted into hard objects and have his mask (and forehead) torn and chewed upon by Arandu and Arandu was more than happy to get chased around the arena and play into all of Astro's signature spots, including bumping out of the ring on the taunt spin.

My favorite moment in this was probably Demon dodging a punch so that Morgan hit Verdugo and then, when Morgan was selling his fist by shaking his hand in the air repeatedly, reaching his hand out to shake Morgan's, causing our one-eyed friend to freak out. The second was definitely Super Astro's final comeback where he burst into the ring and hit a DDT on Arandu that felt just as appropriate as punching him in the face due to how explosive it was. Even Blue Demon looked good in there, flying into hard objects for the rudos and hitting a nice Northern Lights Suplex. And Panterita fit right in on the tecnico side, hitting some of the more complex armdrags and vaults. Just a very complete match with blood, violence, comedy, big spots, something for everyone really.

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