Found Footage Friday: SASUKE~! SHINZAKI~! TOGO~! ORIHARA~! BATMAN~! POTRO~! HALCON~! WILD RED BERRY~!

The Great Sasuke/Shinzaki Jinsei/Hayate vs. Dick Togo/Masao Orihara/Macho Pump Michinoku Pro-Wrestling 5/17/04

 MD: It's been a while since I've seen any M-Pro but this was the right guys in the right match at the right time, mostly. Every some early brawling that made me worried about the camera angle (it's fine for the rest), they got in and out of the opening exchanges (Pump/Sasuke, Togo/Hayate, Orihara/Shinzaki) fairly quickly. The faces got to show their flair and signature stuff that would hold up today for the most part and Pump got to preen; he always looks better than I expect in these when it comes to power moves, asserting himself, and even strikes. Mainly though, what stood out, and of course this wasn't a surprise, was just how good Togo could look in one minute of snapping stuff off and basing like a rooted tree standing in the center of the ring.

They went into a long, long heat, with the hope spots either being based on the faces getting a tag or one of them trying to interfere. There was that gang mentality of heels in M-Pro and it's often full of varied and interesting offense but it could get a little exhausting. You almost need the heat to go as long as it did because that helps to justify the fireworks of the extended finishing stretch but they would have been better served by a double heat or just meatier hope spots and comebacks, or maybe even a more defined central storyline. They tease Orihara and Sasuke having a beef but it's never really played up. That's really more of a nitpick or just expressing something that would have taken this over the top, because what we did actually get here was very good. 

Batman/Potro/Milo Caballero vs. Halcon de Oro/Diluvio Negro/Mongol Chino CMLL 1991

MD: Just a bit clipped up (we lose how the rudos take over in the primera, for instance, which is annoying) and I'd say just a little unfocused as well, but overall a fun undercard match. I don't have a great sense of who Potro is but he's got fun gear in blue and white with colts (horses) all over it, and something going on with the eyes. He's pretty smooth in there, including a fun spot where he armdragged everyone, including the ref. I haven't discussed just how racist the Mongol Chino look is, yellow gear with a yellow mask with a black fu manchu Hogan style mustache and slanted eyebrows. So that's not great. His rapid fire uppercuts are though, if that helps? Halcon de Oro is a perfectly fine undercard director of traffic in a beatdown and he had a nice whirlybird over the shoulder drop to end the primera.

The underlying story was rudo miscommunication that led to them almost coming to blows a couple of times, especially between Halcon de Oro and Mongol Chino. It sort of took the place of a central pairing but instead of it paying off towards the end, they just went into a dive train in the tercera and then some fun tandem submissions ending with Milo sneaking in and pinning the rudos after they had turned over a 5 person submission. You almost never see that actually ending a match so it was a bit shocking and probably good to condition fans to the possibility overall, but it also made everything feel anti-climactic.

 

Wild Red Berry vs. Carlos Guzman Long Beach, CA 5/22/52

MD: I know I said I wasn't going to skip around but I really wanted to see more Berry after that last tag I saw. This was interesting for some of the names of holds as much as anything else. An Irish Whip was a Kansas Cyclone. When they did cross-cross rope running it was a "Razzle Dazzle" and Berry's standing Figure Four that he won the first fall with was a Gilligan Twist. When Berry feigned arm damage after a series of Guman dropkicks that ended the second fall, a "Robin Hook" was Guzman draping Berry's arm over the rope and kicking it. Towards the end of the match when Berry started on the leg, he leaped down on it while it was dangling on the ropes and this was called a "Cannonball." We don't always see those differences in old footage so it was interesting.

I love Berry's act. He comes to the ring in his robe, signing autographs for kids and even giving them candy. Then the second he gets to the ring, everyone boos him and he's miserable. He's quick to tap his head, to complain, to make a big deal about the pre-match rule discussion with the ref. When he wins a fall, he celebrates  to the full extent. He seemed to drag Guzman down to his level to the point where both of them were sneaking in shots to each other's nose or playing dirty on breaks.  He reminds me, more than anything else, of Jonathan Harris in Lost in Space. Basic civility is impossible when he's around. It means that the matches never rise to a level of technical skill that some people might want from the era, but they're very entertaining in almost every moment.

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Found Footage Friday: DRAPP~! BUSHMAN~! LONDOS~! RASPUTIN~! FIGHTING DUSAKS~! BERRY~! TOGO~!

Andre Drapp vs. The Bushman NWA Los Angeles 1/29/51

MD: Our good friend Charles over at Wrestling Playlists unearthed another hundred or so old matches that weren't in ready circulation. We'll get through them all eventually. The plan was to start chronologically from the posting, as I've been doing with Roy's Monterrery uploads because otherwise it can get confusing, but since one of the matches had our other old friend from the French Catch footage, Andre Drapp, I had to give it a look first.

The French Catch footage started in 57 so this is a younger Drapp. A lot can change in wrestling styles in six years, even back then presumably, but here, I think, so much of the differences were due to the setting. Drapp was presented as a well touted newcomer, with the Bushman as a bushy haired character with a deadly finishing hold we never actually got to see. Drapp used some of the hits (not the up and over out of a top wristlock or his shrugging shoulder blow that I think of him for but a surfboard that popped the commentator and most especially the rolling leg nelson which is probably my favorite single hold from the Catch footage). Each one was presented as something novel and different and interesting and impressive. 

None spanned much time in the match however. In France, each hold would be its own segment, lasting a minute or three or more. Here, they were in and out and onto the next thing, giving the local and the TV crowd a lot of movement and action as opposed to lengthy grueling, in and outs and reversals. It all felt a little dumbed down, exciting but with less substance. The Bushman mainly took back over with hairpulls and inside moves and got heat for it. Unfortunately in the second fall, Drapp went for a flying bodyscissors and collided his heel with Bushman's face in an accidental leg lariat opening him up and ending the match. It was a great clear look at someone we hold in high regard, just a few years earlier and in a very different setting though.

Jim Londos vs. Ivan Rasputin Clark Sports (Chicago) 9/13/50 

MD: Look, since I'm already cheating anyway, I want to watch the Jim Londos match. We had very little footage previously in circulation. So let's see what we have here. This leads with an interview with Londos, where he comes off as easy spoken and basically talks about the difference between wrestling in 1925 and 1950 (two hour matches with a lot of laying around in holds in 1925 apparently; a lot more action now because the people have a way of getting what they want. I leave it there without comment). 

This is a small sample size but I thought Londos came off as excellent here. The first five minutes was just great as they fought over side headlock takeovers, jamming one another to prevent going over. Entertaining and full of struggle at the same time. I imagine it might have been a Londos trademark, the wide stance to jam the takeover, but it felt novel to me here. And of course, if it was a trademark, it could rise to the level of ritual and be something the fans anticipated and looked forward to. Rasputin made it a little more over the top, using his bulk instead of his stance to jam Londos. It meant that when Londos did start to take him over with sort of a half biel, it meant all the more. 

Londos balanced the technique with more theatricality than I was expecting. It was escaping a leglock attempt and then running around Rasputin or diving out of the way causing him to tumble into the corner or out of the ring. He was a guy who obviously had adapted and was able to exist in both words in the way that reminded me of Thesz and the like. Rasputin on the other hand had to rely on inside moves, cheap punches and hairpulls. He had his size and just enough technique but he went dirty and got responses from the crowd for his trouble. Finish of the first fall was that old WWWF standby of Rasputin tumbling out and grabbing on to Londos from the apron to get counted out. Second fall was abrupt with Londos winning with a toehold. This was a pretty great look at Londos and what made him special at this stage of his career.

Emil Dusek & Ernie Dusek vs. Wild Red Berry & Great Togo NWA Los Angeles 8/13/51

MD: Ok, now starting with the first post. Togo was Kazuo Okamura, who was born in the States to Japanese parents, and who debuted in 1938. He was one of the first Japanese themed heels in the post-war era. Obviously the stuff with Togo is "of its times" in the worst way, with the commentator taking on an accent during his salt and bowing ceremony and all you'd expect. Berry's pre-match routine is superb, as he has a fan club of three ne'er-do-wells give him a new jacket and they all sing as the fans boo.

I get the sense that both teams are heels to a degree but that the Duseks are de facto faces because the fans really want to see Togo and Berry get punched; I could be wrong there. Ernie is punching for the last row with big meaty shots. When he does a twisting headlock back and forth in the second fall, it's the biggest thing in the world. Emil's a little more technical and subdued. I almost had a Terry and Dory vibe from them.

Berry is just wonderful here. Togo stooges and has some good combinations and the sort of nerve holds that you'd expect, but Berry is just over the top the whole way through. Amazing character, slimy and smarmy and cowardly. When he was on the apron and they had Togo in a hammerlock, that alligator arm just somehow couldn't reach for the tag. He even slipped and fell down once. When their backs were turned he was quick to rush in and attack though. You could see him fitting right in as a character on the Jack Benny Show or something. This was overall chaotic given the people involved and even the two refs could barely keep up.

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