Found Footage Friday: RESURGENT DYNAMITE~! YOUNG ROCCO~! GYPSY JOE~! WOLFIE D~! THE LAND OF GIANTS~!

Mark Rocco vs. Terry Jowett WoS 5/24/73

MD: Amazing historical find by Allan here. This has to be the earliest Rocco we have, and maybe even by a couple of years, right? He was only around 22 here, already a three year pro. And it's fascinating to see what he was doing at this age and how he was presented. Jowett had ten years experience on him and Rocco, despite winning out in the end with a near tilt a whirl slam off the ropes, was the underdog and it was ultimately an upset. 

Along the way, there was a ton of entertaining spots, though maybe not the exhausting (in a good way, in small doses) Rocco trademark I'd expect. All the explosiveness and dynamism in how he hit stuff and took stuff but not consistent, if that makes sense. Jowett was a great counter to his antics, and I'm personally sympathetic to his hairline (Rocco's was shaggy and he already had the trademark mustache).

There was a rough around the edges feel to this, that would, in years to come, conform into Rocco's edge of your seat style. We come in during the third here (and leave two rounds later with the finish) and there are lots of quick and deep pin attempts. After one escape where Rocco just sort of stumbled out to the crowd's amusement, he was quick to go for a joking handshake, great instincts in not losing his focus and in keeping the crowd engaged, in making it seem like they were seeing a show instead of making one of their own out of what they were watching. 

Some of the comedy spots were great, whether it be Jowett booting Rocco on a drop down, or criss crossing his own limbs and rolling about so Rocco couldn't get an advantage, or my favorite, when Rocco started his hyperactive roperunning only for Jowett to run in place instead, making Rocco out to be the fool. Very funny stuff. 

Rocco would get dirtier as the match went on. Interesting, after he started clubbering for the first time and drew a public warning, Walton chastised him for it, not for the cheating itself, but because he didn't earn much from the warning. He only took over really when he dropped a knee (legal apparently) on Jowett's throat, and then only until the end of the round as he leaned in on the arm while he could. Lots of imagination in both his offense and his bounding and bumping (one time fliping all the way over and sailing between the ropes) and towards the end, he had these cobra clutch ripcords I can't remember seeing much otherwise. 

Really just a great historical snapshot of one of the most dynamic wrestlers of all time early into his development. One of my favorite finds this year. 

ER: Remember how much we, as an online contingent of pro wrestling writers and historians of Noticers used to criticize Rollerball Rocco? He was the British embodiment of the same criticisms we held towards Kurt Angle, the all flash-no substance, looks cool-means nothing type of wrestler who fell out of favor with us. I don't think we could have anticipated the Kurt Angle/Dean Malenko style of constant movement detached from meaning would become the predominant pro wrestling style in every company in the world, so much so that things have looped back around. Now, watching even the "worst" era of Mark Rocco indulgence gives me new respect for his style and ability. 

The first British wrestling I was exposed to was a Johnny Saint/Rollerball Rocco match and that match was at least a decade after this one, and it is an entirely different Rocco. It should be, he's incredibly young and only three years into his career. As Matt says, he is the underdog in the match and commentary frequently talks about him like a baby who they impressed made it even this deep into a wrestling match. But he does not wrestle like a stupid little baby, he wrestles like tough guy with a real cool command of physics. His snapmares play like violent offense, his timing is impeccable, and his strikes always looked damaging. He was adept at comedy (Matt mentioned the very funny rope running spot where he ran back and forth as Jowett mocked him like Bugs Bunny) and really the only inexperience I saw was how he didn't always seem to know what to do next, never capitalizing on snapmares and kind of waiting around for Jowett to stand back up (which is another hilarious Kurt Angle parallel). I thought that actually worked for his young mustachioed punk character as it made him look like he was big timing the veteran Jowett. Rocco's bumping for the finish was excellent, a real rewind worthy moment where he back bumps and then handsprings back through the ropes feet first and takes another pratfall on the floor, a comedy bump that looked like either the greatest lucha rudo comedy bump or the payoff to a John Cleese bit.    

The Land of Giants (Skywalker Nitron/Butch Masters) vs. New Bulldogs (Dynamite Kid/Johnny Smith) AJPW 12/1/90

MD: I'm pretty well suited to know what's new and what's not new from 89-91 AJPW or so, and I'm pretty certain this classics drop is new. We're going to cover it anyway because that's what we do, cover Land of Giants matches. We get about six minutes out of the nine here, with a clip in the middle that annoying means we lost the transition to heel offense, but you can imagine it for the most part. 

And honestly, I liked this a lot. I have issues with late era Dynamite but this was one of the best performances I've seen out of him from 89-90. The most important thing is that he needs opponents he can't just chew up and you can't chew these guys up. They're huge. This started with Smith vs Nitron and I thought they actually matched up well, too well. Some of that was Nitron not working big enough but some of it was Smith not working small enough. He wasn't acting like he was in there with a giant. Even though Masters worked bigger, he'd still do the same thing against him later. 

Dynamite knew how to get the most of them though. When he came in, he had some awesome looking stuff, a fistdrop from an angle that you don't usually see it, a headbutt followed right by a jawbreaker. He was punching up and he was valiant for doing so and he wanted everyone in the crowd to know it. We get the clip then and come back to Masters working over the back, and it's honestly one of the best sells for a bearhug I've seen in a long time. I've criticized Omega's selling of his diverticulitis lately because while it's probably accurate, real to how he feels, it comes off as hokey. Dynamite knew what back pain felt like; he was probably feeling it there depending on how much he had chosen to dull it that night, but he was able to project it to the back row in the best of ways. Nitron's bearhug wasn't quite as good but the effect was still the same. 

The comeback was pretty huge as Dynamite fired up to the top as Masters was inexplicably headed up there to put him away and they did a huge superplex. Smith came in and cleaned house. Finally Smith slammed Masters and Dynamite came off the top with the headbutt much to the crowd's delight and they won as simple as could be. Not sure what was in those lost three minutes (when we came back in Masters was beating on Dynamite on the floor) but the six we got were pretty good. 

ER: This was probably the most entertaining Land of Giants match I've seen, and it was because of a more interesting and risky Butch Masters performance than I expected, and a downright fantastic "late era" Dynamite performance. This whole thing was totally worth it just to see Dynamite as a sincerely scary looking man going hard as fuck after Masters. Dynamite's face is scarred, his body is stiff, but the man feels like a threat at all times. Johnny Smith was at his beefiest in this era, so it actually works when he's throwing down with Nitron and Masters, but this is Dynamite's match. Dynamite hits an incredible fistdrop on Masters, a lunging fist torpedoed into Masters' throat, so perfect that I watched it half a dozen times. I would have said this match was incredible if everything else in it looked like dogshit. After that fistdrop he throws Masters to the floor so hard that it turns into what has to be the biggest bump of his career. Dynamite is great at running face first into boots and was good at drawing sympathy as both Giants take him to The Land of Bearhugs, but the big shock is him hitting a superplex on Masters. I have no idea what Butch was going to do up there, but whatever it was I wasn't expecting him to get suplexed off. When Smith tags in, Masters leans all the way into a stiff missile dropkick to his upper chest and gets wrecked by a Smith clothesline that I think hit harder than all of us expected, especially Masters. 

The icing on the cake was Dynamite hitting a flat out disgusting diving headbutt, smashing his forehead into Masters' teeth. You can see a knot already starting to form on the right side of Dynamite's head and Masters lies on the mat holding his face. Dynamite looked and wrestling like a pilled up psychopath, in the best way. That headbutt was one of the meanest things I've ever seen in a wrestling ring. Smith sets Masters up over halfway across the ring and Dynamite wants him there. He does a shoot headbutt to a man's face and Masters has no idea what hit him. It is Dynamite's head whipped into the entire side and mouth of Butch Masters, like a soccer hooligan leaping off the bleachers. 

Wolfie D/Steven Dunn vs. Gypsy Joe/Danny D Evansville 9/20/00

MD: I don't know. Sometimes you just want to see Wolfie D (here in full Slash mode) go up against Gypsy Joe? And there was some of the early, with a feeling out process and then the first (shorter) of a double heat after Wolfie took Joe down with a hairpull. Pretty simple control stuff with Danny getting drawn in to allow for the blind switches. Joe eventually made a comeback off of a whip reversed and teased a stinkface maybe, because it was 2000 after all. No punches here though. That's important because those were saved to the end.

Danny got leaned on for most of the rest of the match, and it made sense because even though Dunn was a pro and Wolfie a pro's pro I'm not sure you wanted them stooging for this lanky guy with dubious agility all that much. But it was a joy to watch Wolfie just destroy someone and they worked him into a few solid hope spots, including out of a bodyscissored full nelson. When Joe did make it back in (on a hot tag which was earned but not quite maximized re: the timing) the punches came out and they went into a pretty quick roll up win. You never quite know what you're going to get with the Bryan Turner uploads until you get there but this was pretty well worked overall.

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Rocco vs. Jones '78

Rollerball Rocco vs. Marty Jones WOS 9/13/78

ER: A fun title vs. title match that I thought was a real great Rocco showcase. I know he gets his criticisms but I think most of those revolve around him shrugging off damage to get in cool spots, and those criticisms don't apply to him here. Rocco savagely goes after Jones' knee (and it's Jones who is the one who acts like that never happened), perfectly times the action to peak for Jones right at the end of each round, and then goes down in a blaze of glory in the 8th round. Rocco gets dirty early by tying Jones' leg in the ropes at the end of the 1st, and then starting the 2nd by kicking him right in that leg and then again in the knee. I really dug Rocco's legwork, hyperextending and rolling effortlessly into kneebars, at one point working almost a short arm scissors with Jones' leg. And I dug how he would shift his head and face while Jones tried to elbow him loose, or even better when Jones had his whole boot smooshing Rocco's face (great camera shot). 

I loved how the rounds would peak in Jones' favor, and Rocco would escape without much damage right at the bell, even cheapshotting Jones in the gut one of the times. And Rocco is very generous selling for Jones' eventual comebacks, going down fast on payback kicks to the leg, and the 8th and what turns out to be final round is all Rocco flying around the ring. He tries to jump Jones on the apron to start and it backfires, and then it's Rocco bouncing all around the ring. He eats a nice missile dropkick, takes his awesome upside down bump into the buckles (such a cool bump, flying in perfectly upside down without dropping vertically onto his head), getting monkey flipped into the ropes, and then ending the match taking one of the more spectacular bumps to the floor that I've ever seen. Rocco gets tossed far over the top and lands flat on his back, obviously getting counted out, old ladies in long coats watching watching this man splat out of the sky. If you need to show me a man incapable of beating a 10 count, Rocco's fall something I'd believe would do it. And yet it still had the same grace as any of his in ring spills.

MD: So, the bugbear with this one is Jones shrugging off the legwork in Round 5. Part of it, I can actually go for. I can buy the idea that Rocco gets Jones so angry that he just pushes past it. The problem is that he pushed past it three times in a minute span: the initial damage, the redirected bump over the top, and then the missed leap into the ring. It's doubly damning because a sort of redirection over-the-top bump is the finish to the entire match, one that prevents Rocco from getting back in. It's the thing that ends a title-vs-title match, and yes, it's a hell of a bump and a hell of a visual, but so was Jones' and it was shrugged off like it was nothing. If you're going to set up a finish like that, you don't do it by crapping on the very idea of it earlier in the match.

I agree with Eric that most of the usual Rocco criticisms don't apply here. There are times where he doesn't let things breathe, but they're because he hadn't taken enough damage yet or because he's harrowed by the count (and getting over the count IS important in this one for the reasons mentioned above). It's near comedic at times, though. He's the only person I've ever seen that hits elbow drops where he's already rolling back to his feet to do whatever's next. I much prefer him on offense, to be honest, because that alarcity really does benefit the break/up British rules. He's constantly ready to hit the next thing and not allow for even the slightest momentum shift. He's able to portray himself as a craven, underhanded villain as well as someone like Breaks with tantrums and matter-of-fact hairpulls, but is such a dervish of energy that he still comes off as distinct. He definitely wrestled this match exactly as he should have. 

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1971 Match of the Year

Tony & Roy St. Clair v. Vic Faulkner & Bert Royal World of Sport 1/12/71

ER: I really dug this, the whole vibe of everything, the (almost entirely) elderly crowd in their Sunday best, the pastiness of the athletes, the 8' long tag ropes; World of Sport can be magic. Up front I will say that I wish things ramped up a little bit. You could argue that the first five minutes were worked like the last five were worked like the middle five. But it seems like more of the context of the times than anything. That aside, the ringwork was excellent. Royal was a real mean fucker, Faulkner was showy and super skilled and looked like Gary Crosby, and while the Saints were a little more dry their talent is clear and I loved the way they showed constant annoyed amusement towards Faulkner, how he was getting under their skin but they were begrudgingly maintaining professionalism. The pace of this was super impressive as we get all sorts of rolling leg picks and awesome monkey flips, weird pins and killer tricks. The counters and reversals were terrific, and when they would wrench something in it would really land, like when Royal was locked into a headscissors and tried controlled thrashing to get out of it, and when that didn't work he kept trying to sneak a foot up to kick Roy off of him. Or when Faulkner was forcing Tony to do the splits by holding down his right leg and pushing Tony's left leg with his boots...and Tony merely stood up. Faulkner was great at rope feints and awesomely cartwheeling out of danger. All guys worked together marvelously (although I really don't like the aesthetics of all of these face sitting pin attempts...) and craft a ridiculously fun match using hardly any strikes. But Royal is the guy I need to see more of. You can see that violence behind his blue eyes.

PAS: This was a blue eye v. blue eye battle of technique and really a masterful exhibition of holds and counter holds. The Royal brothers reminded me a bit of the Funks, with Bert as the balding master of mat work, and Vic Faulkner as more of a wild out of control ball of energy. Faulkner runs the ropes with total abandon, he just flings himself as hard as he can, and always looks like he is going to fly into the fourth row. I also really enjoyed Faulkner as a trickster, he seemed to be always running some sort of wrestling con, like he will buy you a beer, smile tell you a great story, and then you realize your watch is missing. The Saints didn't have as much personality as the Royals but they were both tremendous counter wrestlers, it took to the  fifth step for anyone in this match to gain an advantage, the first four were always countered. This match stayed friendly, although I really enjoyed the moments of chippiness. Roy St. Clair has a great looking back elbow, and at one point Royal was wrenching the wrist like he was going to pop Tony's hand off. I would have liked to see this break down a little more, but for this type of scientific contest it is pretty unparalleled.

ALL TIME MOTY MASTER LIST

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All Time MOTY List HEAD to HEAD: Killer Karl Kox v. Dick Murdoch V. Marty Jones v. Mark Rocco

Marty Jones v. Mark Rocco World of Sport 6/30/76

ER: Cool match that exceeded all expectations. It gets a bunch of time and it ramps up real nicely. As the match goes on Rocco starts acting like more and more of a jerk, really riling up the fans by sneaking in cheapshots or slamming Jones into the ropes. The opening couple rounds have a bunch of  cool cravate reversals and wristlocks and hammerlocks, both guys wrenching stuff in nicely and tricking the other into reversals. We get some cool tricks and show off spots, really like both guys breaking out flashy handsprings out of snapmares, leading to Rocco getting blitzed by a dropkick after getting up from one. Both guys start picking away at limbs, looking for an opening. Jones yanks on Rocco's legs in cool ways, and Rocco is the one who starts going after Jones' arm, and the more he picks away at it the cooler Jones' subtle selling gets. I loved moments where they'd be separated, and you'd see Jones' left arm hanging more than his right, or little ways he would hold it closer to his body. Rocco keeps picking cheapshots and Jones resists, firing back instead with really nice dropkicks, and eventually flat out uppercutting Rocco with some awesome uppercuts. It did seem like they had Rocco dominate for too long to have such a relatively quick comeback win from Jones, but I suppose they were trying to express that Rocco tired himself out quicker by being an aggressive asshole. This was among my favorite Rocco matches I've seen. Later on he kind of became the WoS Kurt Angle, but here he was on point and vicious. This is a Rocco you could grow old with.

PAS: Really great escalation, as the match starts with some friendly grappling and really devolved into this vicious street fight. Rocco really showed great aggression going after the arm and Jones did a great job of selling the injuriy. Classic match of the virtuous babyface walking though hell to defeat a dastardly villain. I did think the ref got a little involved which hurt the flow of the match, I get that is the style, but having the ref in the faces of both wrestlers got annoying. I have no problem with the public warning system as a storytelling device, but here it was overshadowing the work in the match


Kox v. Murdoch review

Verdict:

ER: I wasn't really expecting this to be a close challenge, but it turned out to be fairly close. Kox/Murdoch gets the nod from me still, as two guys punching each other for 20 minutes is going to be tough for me to vote against, but this was a real blast, makes me want to see more 70s Rocco.

PAS: Yeah I liked this a bunch, but it didn't grab me anywhere near as much as KKK v. Dick

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Fire Fundraiser: Fit Finlay vs. Marty Jones

Fit Finlay vs. Marty Jones, World of Sport 11/84

Fellow SCer Matt D kindly and gently donated money to the cause, but then has such a good heart he asked me to watch and review a Finlay match. That's like buying a guy dinner or paying for his tank of gas. "Here's money for your friend, now YOU have to go watch FINLAY!" And it was awesome. Watching Finlay matches from 30 years ago is like watching old Negro Casas matches, in which you've grown accustomed to how great the elder versions of Finlay/Casas are, that you forget they were awesome in entirely different ways back then. They were super fast, bumped differently, moved differently, threw strikes differently, just different versions of the same awesome wrestlers. Finlay even has his John Oates permullet here so he and Casas even had the same old curly exotico hair. So yeah, "young" Finlay is a total treat. He bumps like mad, really fast and low, like he's aiming to hit the mat as quick as possible. He was always good at taking offense, but this was different. This was like Dynamite Kid with match structure. Marty Jones is a good hand. I think a lot of people use that term really low, tantamount to a guy being mediocre (while at the same time using mediocre as tantamount to bad), but I think being a good hand is impressive. Jones knows when to lay back and let Finlay be Finlay, knows when to step up and get the crowd into himself. He has great instincts and  knows his strengths, really seems like a guy who would be able to work with anybody (you know, like Finlay).

My favorite thing about this was the pinpoint strikes by both men. They did plenty of strike exchanges throughout, but none were mindless, and most were attacking specific body parts to then capitalize on different body parts. A Jones kick to the knee would buckle Finlay, allowing Jones to sweep Finlay's other leg. A Finlay front kick would drop Jones right into a Finlay elbow to the jaw. Both men threw gorgeous and violent elbows. They cut low, kept arms close to the body and exploded on follow through. At one point Jones hops on a buckle for momentum before launching his elbow low at Finlay's chin and sending him sprawling. Finlay bumped all over for him, a couple huge ones to the floor, a lightning fast one through the ropes after Jones' awesome dropkick (Jones may have a top 3 all time dropkick if you didn't know) that looks like Finlay got shot out of a cannon, super high backdrop bump, a flapjack bump that sent him down dangerously headfirst, just Finlay as wild Dynamite bumper. Finlay still does all my favorite "not letting a guy rest on his laurels" type stuff, constantly kicking and goading and smacking Jones while Jones is on the mat, little annoying mocking kicks to the cheek, temple, rib points; at one point Jones is on his hands and knees, and Finlay casually strolls up and kicks out Jones' left arm, the same way you'd kick out a kickstand on your bike. Holy shit. We also get Finlay's leaping knee to the head established as a near fatal move, with him taking an early fall by blindsiding Jones with one. And it was truly a beautiful flying knee strike. Finlay is a dick the whole time, really playing smart with his use of public warnings. Weighing the damage you can do to make it worth a public warning is smart business. If you can do something illegal that does more damage than something legal, it's kinda worth it as long as you don't care what the fans think about you (which Finlay clearly does not). The World of Sport fans themselves are glorious, women in their cable knit sweaters, men in their sweater vests. The whole lot is just so impossibly British and it's really my favorite thing about territorial era wrestling, that feeling of being part of a community while watching it.

Anyway Finlay abuses his public warnings and even risks doing things that could easily get him warned, like headbutting Jones immediately at the end of a fall trying to do things behind the ref's back. Finlay also does some hilarious things to goad Jones into snapping, like always dilly dallying at the start of each round, making sure to kiss Princess Paula while Jones is just waiting to gallantly fight.  Eventually it does lead to Jones snapping and getting TWO public warnings (though Finlay gets himself DQ'd right after, which is a rather LAME way for a match this awesome to end). These two matched up really great, which is not a shock as both guys match effortlessly up with most wrestlers, and really the only downside of the match was that it was JIP in the 4th fall (couldn't find a full version) and had that lame DQ title change ending. But this was all great pro wrestling. There are dozens of things I didn't even mention, as literally every exchange looked great and many of them had notable moments. It would have been a full novelization had I gone into more detail.

Thanks again to Matt for not only his donation, but for FORCING me to watch one of my all time favorite pro wrestlers.

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Fire Fundraiser: Jim Breaks vs. Zoltan Boscik

Jim Breaks vs. Zoltan Boscik, World of Sport 3/8/75

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

This was a request from the lovely Matt D, who is forced under threat of punishment to only write about lucha libre, therefore leaving him woefully unable to document trippy Hungarian wrestlers from the 70s. I have never seen Zoltan before, but Breaks is a guy who any fan of wrestling should be familiar with as he's obviously the most well rounded and amusing of all the World of Sports guys. Breaks is kind of like if Michael Palin decided to get into wrestling instead of acting. He works a lot of great schtick, knows how to stooge better than all but a select few, yet also has awesome mat skills to go with his great character. He's great in his little moments of cheating, even better in his moments of frustration. Breaks getting worked up is always a great thing, complaining to the ref about imaginary cheating, acting like his shoelace is untied when it clearly isn't, sneaking in cheapshots (his short knees while holding a hammerlock was perfect). Breaks knows how to perfectly engage the crowd while locking on nasty cravates, knows how to feed into all of Boscik's fun armdrags and takedowns. I love Boscik's kip ups out of snapmares, and Breaks' increasing frustration at them. At one point he rattles off 4 or 5 snapmares and Boscik keeps flipping through all of them and it's glorious. All of the mat stuff is great here, and this kind of stuff is almost too hypnotic to me. I can just watch their awesome knucklelock struggles in an endless loop, locking on really painful knucklelocks, finding awesome ways to enter and exit those knucklelocks, looping legs over arms to shift leverage, wrists being bent awkwardly, fingers being manipulated, dickish snapmares into the ropes. All of it is great, all of it flies by too fast  (especially for a 6 round match). And it all caps off with a brutal Breaks Special. God the Breaks Special always makes me cringe, and the camerawork here was perfect, really showing him slowly bending Boscik's wrist allllllll the way back and under, into the Breaks Special. All of this was great.

Thanks for the suggestion/request, Matt! The others are coming up soon!


I am still raising funds for my co-worker Jan. I originally offered to match everybody's contributions, but at this point I believe I'll be matching contributions x2, or x3, maybe more!! And that includes EXISTING contributions. I want to try and get as much as possible to her, and while the fires are finally contained the suffering will continue for a long time. If you've contributed already, thank you. If you can't contribute or don't feel like it, I have zero ill will whatsoever towards you and hope you at least enjoy the writing that has resulted from the cause :)

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Saturday Night Digging in the Crates

We take a visit to the the British Isle for a hidden asskicking gem from one of my favorites Terry Rudge





Terry Rudge v. Lenny Hurst,  WOS 10/31/85

PAS: Man do I love Terry Rudge, he is clearly in the genus of guys like Regal and Finlay who are some of my all time favorites, he brings the mastery of simple holds and sickening violence of those guys, and adds some 70's/80's grime. Hurst was listed from the Bahamas and was more of a flashy good guy, he had a nice headscissors take over and dropkick and a bunch of nifty ways to work in and out of a Santo headscissors. The first couple of rounds were simple but excellent, basically working in and out of top wristlocks. Rudge can make a wristlock look like a vicious submission, both by the nasty way he puts it on, and the pain and sense of urgency he shows when it is placed on him. Hurst surprisingly is the first guy to throw hands, but he regrets it as Rudge unloads his uppercuts and the amazing Rudge signature bit of nastiness where he traps his opponent arm with a front hammerlock and uses his other arm to pummel the guy with forearms. It looks like he is beating out an especially dusty rug. By the end of it I wouldn't be surprised if Hurst organs had the consistency of Ice Cream left in a hot car trunk. Don't love a draw finish, but loved everything else.

ER: Two-thirds of the match is worked in some kind of lock-up, which a lot of guys couldn't make very compelling but totally worked for these two. Rudge is such a smug badass, he's like a cool Roger Ward villain. Whenever he'd cockily turn his back on Hurst it felt like a mannerism that Minoru Suzuki stole and turned into his whole character. I loved his use of hand/thumb work as a dick heel move, and I loved the way the crowd identified the small joint manipulation as utterly classless. I'm a sucker for brawny jerks stomping on hands, and Rudge always brings that. I can't believe his brutal trapped-arm shoulder block/forearm spot hasn't been stolen and made to look worse by some indy goober. I dug Hurst here in all this, nice valiant babyface who refused to play dirty (but was tempted and had to resist the urge at one point to do a Three Stooges style eyepoke). Fun stuff.

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