AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 3/2 - 3/8

AEW Dynamite 3/4/26

MJF vs Kevin Knight

MD: A few weeks back, I wrote up some thoughts on the idea of a “neo-kayfabe”, a sort of new and open social contract with crowds where they're convinced that it's in their best interest to let themselves go and play along during a pro wrestling show (reprinted way below). That doesn't mean that they don't truly get mad at the heel. People watching Game of Thrones absolutely got invested and mad at Cersei Lannister. It just means the second they walk through the gate and sit down at their seat, they realize that they get to actively boo at Cersei Lannister in a way that no one watching at home can. They get to be part of the show and let their anger out openly. The idea is to convince them that they're robbing themselves of a one-of-a-kind experience if they play it too cool or too "smart" and the real smartness is to actually be part of the show and serve the match as much as the wrestlers do, to truly be inside in a way that every smart fan in the history of pro wrestling has wanted to be.

In some ways it's defeatist, because as I said, while people really got upset at Cersei Lannister, they still realized it was a show. At its absolute best, pro wrestling really, truly infuriates a crowd and gets them to boo at the heel and cheer for the babyface having completely forgotten that it's just pro wrestling. 

But I see a crowd like this and I don't think we can chance it anymore. I'm not even sure the wrestlers should try. 

This crowd was absolutely infuriating. Imagine getting a chance to boo MJF, the most loathsome, wretched heel going today and cheer for Kevin Knight, one of the best, most dynamic, most engaging babyfaces. For the world title! Just on a random Wednesday. That crowd had no idea how good they had it.

I'm not going to try to guess why the El Paso crowd was aligned like it was. You can come up with lots of possibilities. Maybe they were more of a casual audience and less familiar with Knight. Maybe they were enamored by MJF's attitude or his relative star power. Or maybe some other things.

Regardless, Knight got a mixed reaction at best as he came out and was announced. On the other hand, they sang along to MJF's theme, chanted his name, including as he was announced, and even clapped him up early (more on that in a minute).

In the end, it matters to a degree why the crowd was so for him and against Knight because it's like a disease the wrestlers had to treat. But it only matters so much.

Why? 

Because they got them. They turned them. I'm not sure if they 100% turned them away from MJF but they turned them towards Knight enough to make the match work and to make the central story resonate and the finishing stretch sing.

But it took absolutely everything they had to do it.

That it worked was a testament to both wrestlers, and honestly, to the power of pro wrestling in general, to details mattering. The art of pro wrestling is to move hearts and minds, to manipulate people to a certain emotional reaction. 

Here MJF and Knight had to drag them there, kicking and screaming, had to force them there for their own good, but they got them there nonetheless.

Here's how they did it.

Most important of all, they had a purity of vision. Knight may have come in with a chip on his shoulder and an aggressive attitude, but the match had incredibly clear lines. MJF gave the crowd absolutely nothing to latch on to (to their discredit, they still managed to latch for a while; that says more about them than him). He was arrogant, dismissive, hypocritical, cowardly, opportunistic, cruel. There wasn’t an ounce of valor in anything he did. Meanwhile, Knight had to fight back against injury and adversity and through selling so strong that it informed his body language completely, it showed in everything he did. 

MJF was totally on right from the start. As he was being announced, he went over and shoved his hand in Knight’s face. That matters. It sets the tone. He hit an early armdrag and went to the camera proclaiming that yes, what he had just done was called “an armdrag” and then noted it to Knight, as if he was unaware. Knight subsequently armdragged MJF leaving Max to stare at him coldly, tasting just a little bit of immediate comeuppance. The fans weren’t going up for Knight here, not yet, not even after he armdragged MJF twice more. Max went for the eyes and that didn’t turn them either. 

Max went further. He shouted “Gotcha!” (as good at anyone today at being “vocal” to achieve an effect) as he scored an armdrag of his own only to have Knight roll through and end up with the advantage, locking in an armbar. What did the crowd do in return? They clapped up MJF to get out of it. 

After getting out of it, he used the ref as a stalking horse for a cheapshot. Every advantage was stolen, nothing earned. Purity and consistency of vision. It would matter over time. Max stopped here to yell at the crowd as if they had chastised him for what he had done. They hadn’t, but for him to get so mad at them anyway, mattered even more than the cheapshot itself. That’s what started the cracks to form. He didn’t wrestle as if he was in a vacuum. He didn’t hit his spots like spots alone were going to move those hearts and minds. It’s interactive theater and damn it if he wasn’t going to do everything he could to get them where they needed to be.

He’d do it even at the cost of his own character’s coolness and toughness and control. Especially at that cost, because that cost has huge benefits. Of course it does. Vulnerability is a strength for a heel and it’s only the self-conscious who don’t realize that and kneecap themselves. Knight took advantage of the distraction and stomped a mudhole in MJF in the corner before going for his first attempt at an arcing UFO splash from the top. Max moved and then nailed Knight with a knee to the gut off the ropes (Kitchen Sink, but even as much as I like Choshu, I do sort of hate that name). That set the stage for the rest of the match as Knight came up selling his ribs in a big way. 

Max made maybe his one creative misstep in the whole match next (and even that is arguable). He has a bit he does where he rope runs back and forth past a dazed opponent as if he was setting up for a big kinetic babyface attack only to slam his groin in their face and then lean over the ropes and play to the crowd. The idea is that it denies the crowd that big babyface moment in the crudest way possible. Here, maybe it would have made sense to deny this specific crowd even the crude moment as if they (and Knight) weren’t worth it and just shove him down with a foot and lean over the ropes instead. But then it’s hard to plan for a crowd quite this backwards.

Anyway, Max is generally supposed to get his comeuppance after that bit, and here he did. Knight came back hot, but Max grabbed the tights to redirect him. Nothing earned. Everything stolen. Knight, on the other hand, ribs hurting, fighting from underneath, earned every inch he got on his comebacks, even if Max, either through cheating or superior size, would keep putting him down. Yes, Max would arrogantly provide him with openings, but Knight had to take initiative and fight through the pain. For instance, Max tossed him face-first (Bret bump) into the corner twice and then played to the crowd again (it was starting to have some impact). On the third attempt Knight reversed the whip. Max tried to dodge the subsequent charge but that just allowed Knight to come flying off the second rope with a clothesline that got the fans buzzing a bit.

It was working. And what was it? It was the combination of MJF being as much of a jerk as possible, being as underhanded as could be, being consistently terrible to both Knight and the crowd, and Knight constantly selling the ribs, constantly getting stomped on, but constantly fighting back and hitting bigger and bigger spots with each comeback. Knight was doing something worth watching, something worth rooting for. Max was giving them absolutely nothing but ire and spite. Simple machines. The lever. Max was pushing down. Knight was pushing up. And they were moving the crowd.

By this point, they had only moved them to a more even vantage point. They were chanting This is Awesome (which is a chant for the crowd itself as much as the wrestlers). They were increasingly open to the idea of supporting Knight. They were more hesitant about the idea of supporting MJF. So Max and Kevin pushed even harder on the lever. Even though he was straining through every movement, Knight hit a series of dropkicks. Then, showing as much effort as if he was trying to lift Andre the Giant (with the ribs being the great weight, far more than Max), he slammed MJF, having made it seem like an accomplishment well worth celebrating. He hit a twisting splash and this time the fans counted along with the pinfall. Then, when he went for his second UFO attempt, Max rolled out of the ring. And look at that, they actively booed him.

And that set MJF up perfectly for Knight, still moving laboriously, and still as daring a babyface as could be despite that, to hit a huge dive over the top. He took a risk. He put it all out there. And then, finally, for the first time in the match, the fans went along with him. Huge pop.

It had taken ten minutes of laser-focused artistry, of the sort of singular pro wrestling vision that we’ve occasionally feared was lost to the world, but Max and Kevin got them. They turned the crowd. 

They would keep them for the rest of the match. Max continued in on the ribs. He continued to take cheapshots. He continued to play the coward to save his skin. Knight fought through the pain but found the strength to fight back and hit big spots. Eventually, he did hit that UFO only for Max to kick the ref into the ropes on the point of impact. The fans counted well past ten waiting for the ref to recover, fully invested in the outcome. 

On one final UFO attempt, Max would get his knees up allowing him to hit the Heatseeker and escape through the skin of his teeth with his belt. The crowd would have been elated by that result twenty minutes before. Thanks to the match they had just witnessed, however, they were anything but.

Ultimately, it’s unfortunate that this was the crowd that Max and Kevin got for their match. Look at how far they’d managed to move these people, a complete inversion from the opening bell. Imagine how much farther and how much higher they could have gotten if they weren’t dragged down by the weight they had to carry? 

Still, as an object lesson, I’m almost glad they were hampered and dragged down, because what a case study in how the art of pro wrestling, when 100% committed to by selfless, dedicated, talented, fearless wrestlers, can still still be just as powerful as it ever was. 

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I'm increasingly convinced that the future of pro wrestling is a reframed social contract with crowds, a transparent "neo-kayfabe" that convinces them it's in their best interest to leave irony behind and embrace a unique interactive theatrical experience. Some words on that.

(1) Kayfabe is dead. 

For the last fifteen years, the solution to that has been offering fans "great matches," the ability to brag at being part of something no one else got to see live, unique match-ups aiming to end up on best of the year lists, all within the trappings of the stagnant 21st century pro wrestling presentation.

It means you end up with crowds not engaged in the text but only in the subtext, frothing at the bit for their entitled opportunity to chant "This is Awesome" instead of actually responding with cheers and boos to what's unfolding before their eyes. 

This feeds on itself, the snake eating its own tail, matches being constructed more and more to get a score from the Russian Judges, with botches punished and elaborate counter sequences and outright action rewarded over constructions that try to take a crowd up and down and up again. Keeping them up as much as possible has become what matters most. Wrestling has become more navel-gazing and less universal, less about human themes and more about perfect plastic performances.

(2) Kayfabe isn't coming back.

And matches SHOULD still be good and valued, 100%. They're the point. Everything builds to them. The solution isn't some sort of Pavlovian corporate slop. 

The goal instead becomes more genuine emotion, more universal human themes.  

What is needed is the creation of a neo-kayfabe, a new social contract which incentivizes both fans and wrestlers (and promoters) towards the things that make pro wrestling unique and special. 

What wrestling can uniquely offer people is not gymnastics and athleticism, is not stunts and special effects, is not even blood and gore. They can get that in any number of other places.

It's the live interactive experience of witnessing all of those come together in a narrative that you, as an audience member, are a part of. Unlike movies or television or even plays, the second you cross the gate you become part of the fictional world. 

(3) That doesn't mean audiences are the stars of the show, but the best wrestling has them interacting with it. Their chants empower a babyface. Their boos get under the skin of a heel. There's no other fictional medium so interactive in the moment.

We're in an age of interactive live-streaming, where the appeal is that interaction, of the streamer noticing the chat and responding accordingly.

Wrestling should be marketed accordingly, as a bespoke live experience where the audience gets the unique privilege to play a role. It's not kayfabe. It's not pretending or throwing the wool over an audience's eyes. It's the audience realizing that in order to get something that no one else has, that no one else gets to experience or enjoy, it's their job to give in, to let go, and to play along with the show. 

They can leave the niceties of society behind, can troll a heel, can scream for a babyface to draw blood, can yell at a ref for missing cheating. It offers people a release they can't get anywhere else in life and that should be listed in the program, advertised as such.

(4) All of the spots and counters and reversals can still be there. Matches can still be conventionally great. In fact, everything can be better because it'll all have more meaning and grounding. The product can still be worked for a televised audience. A hot crowd makes televised wrestling better. It always has. 

And the best hot crowd is a crowd that reacts not after the fact, not with neutral chants, happy that both sides are having fun and are dying for their enjoyment, but in the moment, with each move and each punch. We've lost that "oooh" that came with every strike and there's no way to trick or fool or kayfabe people into bringing it back.

They have to be convinced that it's in their benefit to do so, that by doing so, by agreeing to be part of the show, they'll be experiencing something unique and special. 

And they will! It's all true. It's time to just outright admit it and to reframe and market pro wrestling in that way. It was unspoken in a time of kayfabe but it's pro wrestling's comparative advantage and it's time to treat it openly that way. That's how wrestling can grow.

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Death Valley Days: Road Report

ACTION Wrestling Death Valley Days: Road Report 2/28/26

MD: Usual disclaimer to start. This is Segunda Caida, of course. But I don't personally have a hand in these shows. It's all Phil, Eric, Matt G, and JR. I get no privileged info. Up until now at least, I don't suggest that they try to book Marco Corleone. While I'm proud of these guys for putting their money where their mouth is, my mouth is here. I wouldn't say what you're about to read is fully unbiased, but it does have a level of distance at least. That said, they're doing great. But they already have a Matt, and he could hit an Iconoclasm on me.  

It's also been great seeing so many people write about the show in general. Engage with pro wrestling, write about it, talk about your experiences. That's the spirit that drove DVDVR and this place and the internet needs more of it once again.

Ok, on with the show.

Darian Bengston vs Ryan Mooney

MD: Kicking things off and setting the tone, this was for the ACTION title, one of the two title matches on the card. Bengston is free-flowing, technical, engaging, dynamic, entertaining. He's constant motion, shifting from one hold and position to the next. 

It was up to Mooney to stop him cold as many ways as possible then. Sometimes that meant throwing himself headlong at Bengston, foot first off the ropes and with a body block from off the top. Sometimes it meant throwing Bengston all around the ring with tricked out offense. And yeah, sometimes, especially when things got particularly hairy and Bengston inched closer to the Makabe Lock, that meant biting. 

As things escalated, tricks that worked earlier in the match failed later on, like a hitter who had seen a pitcher a couple of times late in a game, and that was true first and foremost for the biting. Bengston was able to redirect Mooney's hand right into his own mouth, lock the legs, and flip over for the Makabe Lock. This was solid, smart, straightforward. Both men were stylized in their approaches but the match itself was grounded and easily accessible compared to what was to come.

Angus Legstrong vs Oldman Youngboy

MD: I made the choice to write about this all at once, because it, even more than the DEAN shows, is a single card and should be looked at as such. In some ways, this match is here to prep everyone for the BattlARTS match to come, but it's also to pull people out of their comfort zone. Bengston vs Mooney was very much in their comfort zone, something well executed and familiar.

This though? 

This probably took a lot of the crowd for a ride into Parts Unknown. Legstrong looks like a mostly bald Cliff Clavin, if he had the strongest legs in the world, which he immediately showed off. Youngboy returned the favor with a super impressive bridge. 

And then they were off to the races. Gritty grappling where nothing was given and everything was opportunistic. In theory, it was a bit like a CWF undercard match where Eddie Graham sent a couple of guys out to shoot. 

Back on their feet, neither getting a decided advantage (though Legstrong was able to get Youngboy to go for a rope break), they each utilized more of a professional wrestling flourish. Youngboy faked high and picked a leg with a roll; later on he'd hit a beautiful takedown scissoring Legstrong (ironically enough) with his legs. Legstrong, on the other hand, was able to get Youngboy in a vulnerable position and just paintbrushed him.

Maybe, just maybe, Oldboy was winning on points, but none of that mattered after Legstrong hit the first real bomb of the match, a literal one. Oldboy, on instinct, managed a kickout on the folding press, but Legstrong did his best SENKA impression and bullied Oldboy over for the pin. 

This was two men plying their trade, showing off their skill, presenting a vision of what pro wrestling can and should be that's very different than most of what we've gotten this century and it was very welcome to see.

Isaiah Broner vs Jake Shepherd

MD: Exactly what it should have been (which is something you can say about every match on the card, really). Two behemoths going at it. Jake Shepherd possesses real Jerry Blackwell energy in the best way. There's just something about how he moves. They just threw shots at each other to start and Broner got the better of him. Shepherd had this way of shaking his leg as he stumbled backwards. When you're a super heavyweight, every movement matters. It draws the eyes, it tugs at the imagination. By stumbling back like that, it put over Broner's shot in a massive way. 

Then he crashed right through him (which is no small feat). They ended up on the floor and Broner started to get the best of him again, but there was Shepherd out of nowhere with an unlikely kick. He had an answer. And then he punctuated it with an absolutely brutal splash on the floor. Much of the rest of the match was Broner trying to heft Shepherd up for what the commentators thought might be a Death Valley Driver. Eventually, after catching him on the ropes, he did get him up, and then he planted him with the craziest F5 you'll ever see. I could have watched these two throw massive shots at each other all night, but clearly in a clash this titanic, something had to give. Broner's always worth watching, no question; we knew that. But Shepherd is such a perfect DVDVR guy.

Kasey Owens vs Adrian Alanis

MD: Character should always drive action, but that's especially true when you're deviating from conventional narratives. This was heel vs heel, but it was completely driven by who these two were.

That meant Owens came out, turnbuckle in hand, causing a fit and demanding the ref to check Alanis. That let him slip the brass knuckles into the turnbuckle himself, presumably to use later. 

Once the action started however, it was more akin to goofus and gallant, if both were heels. Alanis had one poised piece of offense after another, posing in between. Owens, on the other hand had cheapshots and finger pulling. 

After Alanis nearly got the win with a Flosion and Owens finally hooked in the Chicken Wing, things completely devolved into one of the best and rarest forms of wrestling there is, a dirty rotten scoundrels scenario. A crutch ended up in the ring, then one chair after the other. Owens tried to use the turnbuckle. The ref was yelling at them. They were yelling at the ref. They were yelling at each other. Then they both went for the Eddy Guerrero chair fakeout at the same time and only came to when it was obvious the ref was going to throw the match. It was fun stuff and completely different than anything else on the card and most things you'll see on any card all year. 

Alanis felt a little more out of his element though, which allowed Owens to get the better of him. Instead of getting to use the knucks, he ensured that Alanis went head first into the turnbuckle. I'm not 100% sure about the actual physics of that, but the pro wrestling physics (which tend to be more moral than anything else) were spot on, and the slovenly trickster of yore beat the slicker athlete on this night.  

Slim J vs Tim Bosby

MD: Slim J looked like the most professional professional wrestler in the world here. This was sharp as you'd expect, one of the most imaginative, versatile babyfaces of the century, with some of the best, smartest instincts, against a dynamo of a athletic base with bomb after bomb after bomb for offense. 

Slim tried to pry off an arm early, and he'd have some success with that technique, but there was always the sense that Bosby was just too big and too much for it to slow him down enough. Even then, were it not for Hales getting involved, maybe it would have been. But Dylan did get in the way and that let Bosby start in on the back. 

Some of his offense looked like it broke Slim in half. Despite that, Slim would climb up and around, bound over, hit from every angle as he was want to do, but he couldn't turn the tide. A match like this, while being as pro wrestling as it possibly can be, also has a bit of that sports feel. Bosby had the ball and was driving on net again and again but no matter the pressure, Slim J didn't break. And once he got ball possession, he ran with it. 

Even then, it seemed like it all came to naught as Bosby finally planted him with an F5, something they had conditioned the crowd to be a match-ender earlier in the night in the Broner match. It led to a huge kickout here. Finally, after a couple of finishing stretch counters, Bosby hit a spinecrunching German and it looked like that might be it. It just wasn't that sort of night though. It was, instead, the sort of night where Slim leaned as hard as anyone possibly could into being an arch-babyface, hulked up, ripped the shirt, nailed Dylan off the apron, and wholly immune to even the idea of negative consequence of that distracted action, took Bosby up, over, and around for the pin. And for at least a few minutes, all was right in the world. 

You know what? Sometimes we need that. Sometimes we need pro wrestling to be that. Why the hell not here and now?

Toby Klein vs Nathan Mowery

MD: Variety is the spice of life, and if you ask these guys, blood is a viable spice. This would be the death match portion of the show. The great thing about using a VCR as a ranged weapon, like Klein did to start this before Mowery could even make it to the ring, is that then you can use the tape from the VHS itself as a garotte. It's economical when you think about it.

This was about as straightforward as could be. Two maniacs (said affectionately) jabbing jagged objects ranging from antlers to a handsaw into each other's forehead and then peppering the bloody remnants with punches. Occasionally you'd get a DDT. More likely you'd get a chair, or a door, or a light tube. 

If there was the overarching theme to the night, it was wrestlers giving it their all, not in the A for Effort sort of way, but instead in that these characters, these unique, twisted, brilliant, wonderful entities, were pressing up against each other in this overwhelming cacophony of violence, technique, and grit that would drown out all the petty, meager worries of the day. And that was completely at play here. These two were, in this moment, the very most of their class, of their type, and they battled each other with all the trappings of their chosen style. It just so happens that Mowry had the Reverend at his side and the means to set his elbow on fire. Past that? Could have gone either way.

Jamesen Shook vs Tank

MD: Speaking of characters (but then I could start literally every one of these matches like that; that's the strength of this card!)... Shook and Tank. 

For a guy with just a few years under his belt, Shook is markedly good at commanding a room. He's very entertaining, especially when he's taking stuff. He wrestled this match big even in a small room, and you need to wrestle big to stand out against Tank. 

Tank's got the mass, but he's a center of gravity not because of what he is but because of who he is. It's because of the timing, the gravitas, some of the best punches you could possibly see in 2026 (or 2016 or...), and the wisdom to know how to twist the act just a little depending on his opponent, like here with the eyepoke. Meanwhile, Shook was living up to his name, arms flailing at every shot.

Even so, there's over a thirty year age gap between these two, and you got the sense that Tank wanted to win this one through crook as much as hook, just to show that he was canny, that he was the master of whatever game you put in front of him. Thus the feigned knee injury. If he had just plowed through, maybe he could have won this thing, likely he could have, but he wanted to win it on his terms and that gave Shook exactly what he needed to get a roll up and slip away with his title for yet another day.

Karl Greco-Malenko vs Matt Mako

MD: So Greco-Malenko could be Timothy Olyphant's stunt double on Justified, and I mean that in the very best way. He doesn't need to be though, because he's already Karl Greco-Malenko, and that's more than enough.

Back during the DEAN~!!! 1 review here, I noted my own difficulties in writing about shoot style given that it tends to be so free-flowing and full of primarily intrinsic storytelling. I've watched a lot of Newborn UWF since then, and I've more or less come up with a framework to see me through.

You're looking for the contrasts. They say styles make fights, but it's really a combination of character, physical attributes, and preferences (you can call that styles, I guess). If you can map out all three through the action, you've got things managed.

Here, Mako was younger, stronger, faster. He wanted that armbar. Was he starstruck a bit? Hard to say. Greco-Malenko was savvy with plenty to prove. They both had hunger but it maybe manifested differently, and it's in that difference, as much as all the skill and technique between them, that a fight like this shines.

The sum of it felt fairly equal to me. Mako looked for his opportunities, was quicker to grapple, was more the aggressor. Greco-Malenko had answers for mostly everything; sometimes that was firing off palmstrikes, both when in a hold and not. Sometimes it was a clever reversal. There was one time where he avoided a rope break by spinning out into a leglock. That was the sort of escape that would have gotten a huge pop in Japan decades ago from educated fans who knew the skill needed to not just settle on grabbing the rope and the crowd here, to their credit, understood and reacted just as they should have. 

In the most whimsical part of the match (proof positive that just like when Tank went for the eyepoke or the double drop down chair spot between Alanis and Owens, humor can find its way into almost any situation if the wrestlers are talented enough and allow their humanity to shine through), Greco-Malenko turned things around into a floating bodyscissors with his hands outstretched like he was king of the world. 

In the end, Mako came close, very close, to prying that arm off and getting what he wanted, using a fakeout punch to score a huge takedown, but maybe he wanted it too badly and Greco-Malenko was able to pull out one last counter into a heel hook and seize victory. It was a triumphant return in every way for Greco-Malenko with Mako looking all the better for pushing the old master as far as he did.

Mad Dog Connelly vs Slade

MD: Six minutes. Six minutes bell to bell, almost exactly. Maybe off by five seconds, maybe. 

That could be the review, right? I could stop there. That they packed this much violence, animosity, and mayhem into just six minutes. For a complete match with a beginning middle and end, it might be second for second, the most ... well, let me leave hyperbole aside. 

This was hot iron clashing with cold iron. Mad Dog Connelly is, and I say this with great fondness and at a great distance, a maniac. He channels the gaping wounds of the world into rage, seeking vengeance for all the wrongs done by man and done upon man. Slade on the other hand is a stone cold sociopath, the sort of man that would gleefully inflict those wrongs in the first place. There are universes of torment to be found in the eyes of Mad Dog Connelly. Within Slade's? Nothing, nothing at all. 

And here they were, in the middle of the ring, two dynamically opposing forces throwing fists, throwing heads, throwing each other. When they were done wailing on one another in the ring, they went to the floor. There they entered into an unholy pact to bloody one another with the crash of bone on bone alone. Goal achieved, Mad Dog drank in the fruits of their collective effort.

Things boiled over. This wasn't six minutes due to curfew. This wasn't six minutes due to people wanting to go home. This wasn't six minutes due to another show starting on IWTV. This was six minutes because it couldn't possibly be seven. Something had to give, and after the gutwrench and after the choke slam, what gave was Slade's throat with the chain from the dog collar wrapped around it. Violent fiend that he may be, he's still only flesh and blood and bone and sinew after all. Of course, the bell wouldn't stop these two. Six minutes now, but the promise of more to come. I'd expect nothing less from such polar entities of wrath and spite.

MD: Which takes us to the end of the card. I leaned hard into the six minutes of Connelly vs Slade, but look too at the tight two hours that this show came in under. It had a little bit of everything, an ode to the sort of shows that were written about by those of the Death Valley Driver faithful two decades ago, and those that they obtained on tape. 

There was conventional wrestling, Slim J vs Bosby being a modern version of Tito Santana vs a Heenan Family member in its own way. There was like vs like, contrast vs contrast. A deathmatch, a shoot style classic, a hoss fight, title matches, an outright war. It ran the gamut, with the underlying unifying element being the competitiveness, the struggle, wrestlers giving it their all across different styles. 

And that's exactly what pro wrestling, in all of its variety and gripping wonder, is all about, right?

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Found Footage Friday: 1991 WWF TAPING~!

WWF London Ontario 2/16/91

MD: This is all new save for the Crush vs. Butch match, and therefore, we'll cover the rest.

Koko B. Ware vs. The Barbarian

MD: Early on, Lord Alfred talks about seeing a young, young Barbarian in Puerto Rico when he was wrestling there with Monsoon and I wish we had 70s Lord Alfred in Puerto Rico. Ah well.

This was very good, especially the early feeling out process. They framed each and every exchange well, Barbarian's early strength (holding him up in a one-handed choke, which you never seen), and then Koko chipping away at him with dropkicks, until he went sailing over the top and menaced the camera man. Back in the ring, Koko was able to fire back with shots to the face, but Barbarian hefted him over the top and then crushed him against the post on the outside and that was that. 

Pretty good face-in-peril with some nice hope spots (including a sunset flip in). The nerve hold could have been a little more active, maybe, but the crowd came up for Koko getting the elbows in on his comeback. That got cutoff but then Barbarian missed an elbow drop and Koko was back in it. They actually had me on a couple of the nearfalls even though intellectually, I knew there was no way Koko won this one. Barbarian won it with a hotshot out of nowhere, which really did feel like the ultimate match-ender for this time period. A guy ends up with his throat draped over the top and it's over.

ER: I was impressed with how well Koko overcame the size difference here. 1991 is some Peak Gas WWF (see how fucking jacked Bushwhacker Butch is in the match after this) and Barbarian looks immovable. Well, Koko moved him real well and threw babyface punches so good that they believably kept moving him. I love Koko, a great sympathetic babyface seller who knew how to take bumps that garner even more sympathy. His low fast backdrop to the floor made the bump look more tough and his selling once he was on the floor built it more. Barbarian will slam your spine into the ringpost but a great salesman like Koko will make it look truly backbreaking. Koko has two strong nearfalls: an inside cradle that was pulled off quick, and his missile dropkick which was done well enough that I bit on it as a finish. He took Barbarian's hotshot finish so exuberantly that the top rope practically touched the bottom. Frankie wasn't there to see the loss. 

Ted Dibiase vs. Jimmy Snuka

MD: Pretty interesting point in time and space here as Snuka actually got on the mic and brought out Virgil to Dibiase's horror. Virgil was super over as you can imagine. Once this got going, it didn't wear out its welcome. Dibiase got sneak attacked by Snuka while distracted and then everything he tried for the next couple of minutes backfired on him. Honestly, this is as good as I can remember seeing Snuka look in this run and so much of it is due to the set up. Dibiase did take over by getting a gutshot up to counter a double axe-handle, and they built to Dibiase trying to suplex him in and Virgil grabbing the leg to set up the upset. Dibiase got rocked by him post match. Very effective, crowd-pleasing stuff to help get over what they were doing with Virgil.

ER: Agree that this feels like the best 1991 Snuka, but a lot of that felt like the best 1991 Dibiase. This was a basic 1991 Offense WWF match that Dibiase was working like an All Japan match. He took extra, probably unnecessary, snap off every surface Snuka bounced him off. Dibiase made every connection an impact, dedicated to making every slam into a turnbuckle look brain scrambling. He could have gotten away with going lighter on the 2nd night of a week straight of house shows. Snuka had timing and Weird Buff Old Guy energy, using simple offense like clubbing hands, and "grabbing Dibiase to shove him into a thing". I can't recall when I've been so impressed by someone getting their head bounced off the ring apron. Jimmy Snuka was in his late 40s and moved older than that, but Dibiase made him feel like a fighter. 

The camera doesn't film his fistdrops from the best angle but he does three of them and we keep seeing each one from a slightly different too close angle, and by the third it felt like a cool look at the up close magic form of his fistdrop. He was a guy whose Ace Worker status dipped after we watched the Mid South footage, a guy who plays incredibly in the greatest matches of all time but doesn't hold up in the weekly TV. But I'm quite high on 90s Dibiase. He started working more like Arn Anderson and I thought he was great. I love '93 Dibiase. He stands out in unique ways from the other strong WWF heel workers from that year (Doink, Michaels, Headshrinkers, Yokozuna) and takes his impact bumping to All Japan and locks it in until his injury. Ted Dibiase is destined to become one of our wrestlers whose discourse constantly waffles between overrated and underrated until we die, but I think any unearthed 90s footage has only added to his case as a great worker. 

Gen. Adnan vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan

MD: I don't remember seeing a singles match between these two make tape during this run but I could be wrong. It's one of those things you'd see in house show results and wonder how they did it. Now we know. A lot of "Back to Iraq" chants by Duggan. Adnan snuck up on him with the turban, choked him, got slammed, and ate the three-point stance clothesline. Another crowd-pleaser but now we know what it'd look like at least.

ER: To think, looking like a reasonable facsimile to Saddam Hussein would get you a certain death gimmick as a decoy in one part of the world, while in another part it could net you a plum late career WWF gig. I have a ton of respect for Adnan Al-Kaissie's 90s WWF run. You're in your early 50s, haven't worked WWF since your 30s, and you happen to look like a dictator from the country you're from and don't have to get in actual shape for the gig. You get to have one minute matches on house shows where fans watch Saddam Hussein get no offense in on America (OR Canada!!) before quickly losing. It all ends with a main event PPV gig opposite Hulk Hogan. Also you get to wear incredible boots. It's one of wrestling's greatest gigs ever and should be celebrated as such. How many wrestlers get the chance to work in front of 20,000 people in a main event, ever, in their careers, let alone in their 50s? I wonder what his Summerslam paycheck looked like compared to Virgil's. 

Rick Martel vs. Jake Roberts

MD: Martel on the mic with just a few words about how everyone was jealous to ensure he wouldn't get any Canadian cheers. Jake had the blue and gold cobra crotch tights. Important everyone knows that. 

Very fun early. Martel ambushed but crashed into the post on a shoulder block attempt. Jake started on the arm, including lifting him up and holding him there for a second, and punches. Best part was when he faked high, causing Martel to duck, and then kneeled down to punch the model in the face. Big sell of the nose. Big pop. Jake really bathed in the DDT chants too, milking them.

Martel's control, after using the ref as a stalking horse, wasn't as interesting, but he had some good cut offs at least. Jake ended up trapped in the ropes as Martel went for Arrogance, but he got out while the ref was fighting with him and hit the DDT. He took forever, absolutely forever, to creep over and pin him. 

ER: It was truly stunning to watch how long Jake took to pin Martel after the DDT. They were both down so long that the ref started counting both down. I have no idea why Jake was down so long. He set up the DDT with a long stretch of being stuck in the ropes just like Andre, doing great physical work of stretching out his body as he tried to pull both arms out of the ropes. His physical work was so good, his selling for Martel so emotive, and his post DDT crawl was the slowest thing you have ever seen. 

Undertaker vs. Tugboat

MD: I don't have a lot to say about this but it's a great example of how the initial heel run Undertaker had total commitment to his character. He moved like a lurching zombie, ever creeping forward. It was a great act and has been rarely emulated. You could push him back but he'd keep coming in a way that was sort of unnerving. When they shoot to the audience for Superstars/Challenge matches and show scared kids, they were scared for a reason. And then, when least expected, like in the finish here, he'd do something extra quick or agile and it'd go from creeping doom to jump scare. Here it was vaulting over the top rope so he could climb up, take a few steps and hit an elbow drop to beat Tugboat. 

ER: Marvel at the front row of Very Canadian Men who all seemed amused/confused by the Undertaker. None of them understood what it was they were supposed to be seeing and silently stared accordingly. Imagine if zombie heel Undertaker actually worked like a heavyweight and hit like he was a big man. He could have been one of the scariest heels of all time. By the time he learned how to strike 15 years later he was incapable of ever being a heel. He had a kick to the ribs that was so light he may have confused people into thinking he was portraying a ghost who is incapable of making physical contact with our realm. His backward leap into the ringpost is a cool bump in theory but he doesn't know how to give it weight or impact. Tugboat is the one of the two who felt like a guy with potential. His powerslam has rotation that makes it feel big but a controlled landing that safely drops a 300 pound zombie. When Tugboat hit and then missed his leaping avalanche I was thinking how much more agile he was than Taker, but just then Taker leapt over the top rope to the apron and got to the top rope so fast that it was like I was watching a wrestler I'd never seen before. Taker's rope walk elbowdrop finisher was a cool piece of his arsenal that felt like a dead man falling off a roof. 

Brooklyn Brawler vs. Virgil

MD: One thing I appreciate about the Brawler's act is that they let him come out with Yankees gear. My guess is that if he came around today, he'd have Brawler written on his shirt instead. 

He did a good job of showing fear of Virgil early, which only helped him be over with the crowd. They had a nice bit of rope running with multiple leapfrogs too. In general, this went longer than it should have. Virgil took some big bumps including one through the ropes to the floor, but I do think this was set up to give him some ring time selling. The match was sacrificed to prep him for future matches which makes total sense. He won it with a power slam which is not a move you usually associate with him. 

ER: This era of Virgil's work was so weird. This match was smack dab between his babyface turn on Dibiase at the Rumble, and their big WrestleMania match next month. It is the only match Virgil worked in February. No matter your thoughts on Virgil's in ring, it is undeniable how well his babyface turn got over. Listen to the response he gets from the people of Ontario! This is a man they are rooting for! He hasn't wrestled as much as you might think for being on WWF TV for so many years, but he wrestles like a guy who is barely trained while also wrestling like a trained wrestler who is wrestling as an untrained wrestler. You see glimpses of a man who can't run the ropes, who throws clotheslines like he's only seen them portrayed in children's drawings, but also see a man who throws himself into big babyface bumps and knows how to use them to draw sympathy. His bump flying through the ropes with nothing slowing him down, back bump past the mats and onto the London Gardens floorboards, was the best bump on the show and kept his reaction peak. But he also took a "hard way" bump back into the ring that I thought was among the best of its kind. His powerslam looked terrible. 

Brawler is a worker I like more whenever I rewatch him. Any era. Virgil gets a great reaction for a bizarrely scarce post-turn match, but Brawler is great at keeping them interested in Virgil all match. What's the best Lombardi match? Is there a consensus? I think Tom once sold me on an Abe Knuckleball Schwartz/123 Kid match.  I don't think this one would be in the discussion for Best Lombardi match but it's a great showing and a professional handling of the green veteran Virgil. 

Hart Foundation vs. Power & Glory

MD: These two teams were very well matched. Bret started with Roma, lots of rope running ending with him catching him on a leapfrog and then hitting the inverted atomic drop/clothesline combo. Herc outpowered him but didn't outpower Anvil. He did catch Bret off the ropes and took over accordingly. They worked over Bret's back including some nice Roma backbreakers. We rarely get close up footage without commentary like this and you could hear how vocal Herc and Roma were in rooting for one another. To set up the hot tag, Bret climbed across the mat on his back using the ropes. Great stuff. Finish had Roma cut off the Hart Attack and Neidhart cut off the Powerplex and then everything spill out to the floor for a double countout. Post-match Harts ran P&G off but it mostly set up a second encounter. 

ER: This should have been better but there was a really great Bret/Roma match in the middle of a good enough tag match with a bad finish. I don't know if I've watched the Bret/Roma singles matches but now I'm going to, but if there are Hercules/Anvil matches I can probably skip them. This was two FTR teams that are better than FTR working a so so FTR match. I wonder what Bret's thoughts were about he and Anvil working over Herc's shoulder only for it to build to a Hercules gorilla press slam? That's the kind of backwards set up that Bret never wants to take part in, while feeling like a sequence Bret was mapping out. Bret matches don't build to the heel press slamming the babyface after getting his shoulder pummeled. 

Is P&G the best era of Paul Roma? Has to be. It's crazy they kept trying to make him a babyface. He looks so untrustworthy. He'd assault your girlfriend at a party while you were in the bathroom. Power & Glory Roma was fully in his element. The Bret/Roma stuff works so well because he's essentially working a heel Bret style, if Bret were a greasy forcible sexual assaulter. The snap was the same, the heel bumping was the yin to Bret's baby bumping yang. He's a great punch taker, a truly hateable piece of scum like Tully Blanchard who moves similar to Tully as well. I loved the work from everyone when Roma ad Hercules were tying Bret up in a bearhug; Bret's selling was compelling, Roma's bearhug was even better than Hercules', and Roma worked a false tag far better than you'd ever think from someone who teamed with Jim Powers. I don't remember the last time I saw a team work a modern false tag spot without also doing it with a I'm A Heel wink. Roma wasn't out for glory, he had business to take care of. 

The finish stunk, but there was a tremendous reveal while setting up the late match Hart Attack: The way it was filmed, you couldn't see where Roma was. He got knocked off the apron into the guardrail but his location couldn't be seen. As Bret started his run into the opposite ropes, he was expertly kept off camera to preserve the mystery behind whether Bret would hit it or whether Roma would make it back in time to grab his ankle. It was the latter, but until Bret went down it looked like he was gearing up to take Hercules' head off. 

Sgt. Slaughter vs. Ultimate Warrior

MD: I know we already had one or two of these Sarge w/Sherri matches but I haven't seen them for a bit so I couldn't tell you how similar this was. All I generally remember is Sarge bumping all over the place and Sherri dying at the end. This starts with her doing a saluting ceremony with Sarge on the floor after Warrior runs in, including putting the title up to her waist to taunt him, and it's good stuff. Warrior gets Sarge's helmet and goes nuts with it which is also good stuff. 

Warrior chases Sherri around including the usual 1991 high culture bits of them coming out from under the ring with him having undressed her. That lets Sarge take over though and there's a pretty long heat which is well done. Sherri works her ass off helping and cheering on Sarge, especially in a never-ending Camel Clutch. That's going to end with him shrugging Sarge off of course. What's surprising is that the cut off has Sarge getting his knees up. They really make Warrior work for the comeback, which makes it all the more frustrating when he shoves the ref for basically no reason once he does come back. Post-match, he continues to cause havoc including the press slam on Sherri. It's impressive how much they got out of this honestly. 

ER: Sherri was looking THIS hot on Canadian house shows!? That's the major takeaway from this match, which was such a "should have been better" match that I feel I was too quick to give Hart Foundation/Power & Glory that title. Sarge looked more washed than I remember - great bumps still, including his classic over the ringpost that I love so much - with sludgy offense where he looked afraid to fall over too fast. His stomps and some of his other offense looked like he was working a kid with progeria, not as gassed up freak sporting his dumbest haircut in a lifetime of dumb haircuts. Warrior comes as close as humanly possible to hitting a 50 yard head of steam Pounce on a ringside cameraman who sprinted out in front of him like a wild rabbit. Warrior was only going to do so much to avoid him and this guy came about 3 inches from being driven brutally into the guardrail. It would have been the highlight of this event. The Canadian crowd clearly had no idea how they were expected to react to Warrior assaulting Sherri both physically and sexually, but they rightly sat in uncomfortable silence while he hit his hardest offense of the match on her, dropping her from his gorilla press with a real flop, then actually stepping on her as he exited the ring. I wonder how many in attendance had actually seen a woman this hot before. A satin pink teddy with black thigh highs? Girl, Detroit is thataway. 

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El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Aniversario 1991

Week 59: Aniversario 1991

EB: It’s July 6, 1991 and we are at Estadio Juan Ramon Loubriel for Aniversario 1991. Ten matches are scheduled for tonight and we have seven of them available. We also have a clip of one of the remaining matches. Let’s start with that clip, as we go to a special from a few years later when WWC was recapping memories and highlights from each of the previous Aniversarios. In this case,this segment included a highlight from 1989, 1990 and 1991 (so a bit of a bonus from those years). The first two clips in this link are JYD vs. Paul Jones from Aniversario 89 in Mayaguez, followed by the Super Medicos vs Rouegaus from Aniversario 90 but this is also the west coast version. The third clip is the finishing stretch of Koko B Ware vs Galan Mendoza from Aniversario 91.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diy_XPLIv-I

The Koko vs Mendoza clips starts at around 3:26, where we see Mendoza drop an elbow on a prone Koko. Mendoza sends Koko into the ropes but Koko is able to counter with a kick to the head. However, Koko is a bit beat up and can’t immediately follow up on Mendoza. Koko starts getting a second wind and hits several clotheslines on Mendoza. A small package gets two for Koko. A Thesz press also gets two. Koko gets some standing punches in the corner, but the ref pulls Koko back and gives him a warning. This allows Mendoza to load up his glove behind the ref’s back. Mendoza sets up for his punch but the ref notices the glove and stops the punch from being thrown. Koko takes advantage to hook on a backslide and gets the pinfall on Mendoza to the crowd’s delight.

MD: We just get a couple of minutes of Koko vs Mendoza before the end. Not a ton of heat. Koko really was a fly-in from what we’ve seen. I’m curious how well Esteban, being a fan at the time, would have been aware of him, for instance. I imagine there was some fun stooging and antics early on but we don’t get them here, just the two slugging it out at the end and some nearfalls before the finish, which was Mendoza going for the glove, the ref stopping him, and Koko locking in a backslide for the win.

EB: As for the rest of the matches, we are missing the Caribbean title match between Super Medico #3 vs Rod Price and the revenge match of Bronco 1 vs. Skandor Akbar. This is the last weekend we will have Akbar and Price in Puerto Rico, so you can safely guess who won those matches.

MD: I need to go hunting through the Observer to see if I can find anything on Bronco vs Akbar and what Akbar’s big surprise was. That will haunt me.

EB: Let’s go to the seven matches we do have for the event which come from the VHS release of Aniversario 91. For this video release, the matches are in a different order than what they occurred in the event (the most obvious example is the Savinovich vs. Travis match being placed at the end of the video).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCkUn31Ixmw

A voice over announces “The time has come for Aniversario 91” as the Aniversario 91 theme music plays and Hugo steps into frame. Hugo thanks the viewer for purchasing or renting this videotape and promises that viewers will enjoy seven matches from this historic event. After mentioning the matches on the tape. Hugo gives a thank you to everyone who has made all of this possible and a reminder that this is not the only video release available so please make sure to ask your video rental store about them. Now let’s go to the matches.

Ricky Santana vs. Action Jackson (loser leaves town match)

We get the opening pyro and then Ricky Santana enters to ‘Gonna Make You Sweat (EverybodyDance Now)’. Look at the size of the crowd. Ricky is the World Junior champion but the title is not on the line as this is a loser leaves town match. It’s a match for which we have not seen the build in the footage we have available. I would not be surprised though if this stems from Ricky Sanana coming out to snatch the foreign object from Action Jackson when Jackson and Price had stolen the win from Invader and Ito (which caused the match to restart and then led to the rudos losing the match). Both men have had a good run in 1991 so far, but only one man will stay after this weekend. Action Jackson enters to “U Can’t Touch This”. Eliud Gonzales does the ring intros and makes sure to tell the fans that Ricky Sanatan has requested for fans to stop throwing stuff into the ring so he can concentrate on taking Action out (that’s one way to see if you can curb the object throwing). The announcers state that there has to be a winner in this match. 

The crowd is clearly behind Santana here as Ricky gets the better of Jackson with some punches. This leads to Jackson going outside a few times to try to regain control, only for Santana to quickly counter and get the better of him each time (including not falling for a handshake from Action). A test of strength finally gives Jackson some control, especially when he kicks down Ricky when it is being countered. Ricky finally kicks his way out of the test of strength and Action ends up on the outside again. The tide finally turns in Action's favor when he starts working over Santana's leg. This continues for a few minutes, with some hope spots by Santana thrown in. Action attempts a cover with his feet on the ropes, but the ref notices and throws Jackson off. Our first comment of the matches being out of order is that Hugo mentions that some of the residue in the ring is from the salt that was used in the Hugo vs. Travis match earlier in the show. Action continues working over the leg but is unable to put Ricky away. Santana eventually makes a comeback but his pin attempts are unsuccessful. Ricky goes up top but is caught by Action, who tries to slam Ricky off. However, Santana holds onto Jackson on the way down and locks in a small package to get the win. Action Jackson must leave Puerto Rico.

MD: This was good. You could feel the weight of the stakes, even if we didn’t really have the build relative to some of the other matches. Somewhere along the line, Jackson has become a very solid stooge. The first few minutes of the match was him getting out punched (nice punches too) or out slicked by Santana and then rushing out to the floor to stall and build up heat before coming back in. The fans responded accordingly. Jackson finally took over on the leg after Santana missed a big corner charge, starting with a spinning toe hold. They moved in and out of it with some hope spots, and it was fairly varied, though he just kind of held it a little too much maybe. Santana sold as he finally fired back and they had some good, believable nearfalls down the stretch including the ref catching Jackson with his feet way on the ropes. They ended it with Santana tossing Jackson off the top but rolling him up as Jackson tried to return the favor. I’m not sure there was much more to do with Jackson as a character, unless they were going to turn him babyface, but he had developed into a pretty good heel for the style of the territory by this point.

Miguelito Perez & Hurricane Castillo, Jr. vs. Samoan Swat Team

EB: The Caribbean Express is defending the Caribbean tag titles against the SST. Part of the Perez and Castillo music video set to "Indestructible” by The Four Tops is shown. This is to hammer home that these two are like brothers. Fatu and Castillo start out for their teams. Castillo gets a headlock and then is able to send Fatu out of the ring with some dropkicks. Fatu again does not fare well against Castillo, and a missed punch leads to him hitting Savage by mistake. This prompts tensions to flare for a moment among the SST but they hug it out. Fatu has a foreign object and uses it to knock down Castillo, and then plays hide the object by handing it off to his partner. Savage and Perez are tagged in and Perez gets an armbar on Savage. After having his arm briefly over, Savage escapes but gets dropkicked to the outside. Back in and the Express does some quick tags while working over Fatu’s arm. The foreign object comes into play again as it is used to hit Castillo and send him to the outside.

As Perez checks on Castillo, Hugo mentions what a way this is to close out Aniversario 1991 (so it appears this was the last match of the night). The SST continued to press their advantage against Castillo, with Savage attacking him on the outside. A power slam gets only two when Perez breaks up the pin attempt. Fatu is tagged in and they bait Perez into coming, allowing for some more double teaming behind the ref’s back. The SST continue working over Castillo for the next few minutes using some underhanded tactics like assisted abdominal stretches and another use of the foreign object. Castillo eventually makes the tag, Perez comes in to clean house and all four men end up in the ring. Castillo clotheslines Savage out of the ring, leaving Perez and Fatu. Perez tries a reverse somersault press off the turnbuckle, but Fatu ducks. Fatu then goes up top but Monster Ripper takes advantage of the ref being distracted and shakes the ropes, causing Fatu to crotch himself on the top turnbuckle. Perez (unclear if he saw Ripper’s interference) hits a superplex and gets the pin. The Caribbean Express have retained their titles.

MD: Another in the long line of good Puerto Rican tags. I’m not sure if it’s because Demolition was on the card or because they were playing up the dissonance angle, but SST weren’t quite as monstrous or bestial as they would have been a year or two earlier. They stooged early, including one hitting the other and then hugging and then the Express controlled on the arm for a while. When the SST took over, it was by hiding an object. They got heat on Perez and things were thrown in but not nearly as much as we’d seen before. They did a Decapitation which is funny for one thing to do while Demolition is on the card, but it was a lot of controlling on the arm too. Castillo barely got drawn in and the time he did it was right before Perez ducked a double clothesline to make the hot tag. Unfortunately, after Castillo came in hot, a resurgent Perez tried a double noggin knocker on Samoans, never a good idea, and it looked like Fatu was going to win with the top rope splash. He had a tendency of crocheting himself comedically here but this time it was Ripper who shook the ropes. That let Perez hit a superplex for the win. Definitely good but I could have used just a little more heat.

Invader #1 vs. Ronnie Garvin 

EB: Garvin makes his entrance with El Profe for what Hugo calls the second main event of the night. Invader is allowed to have his fist taped for this encounter and he has promised to lay out Garvin. Invader comes out to “Eye of the Tiger” as a voice over from him indicates that this will be the toughest match of his life. The story of this match is that both men are wary about each other’s punching ability, but Garvin in particular is avoiding the taped fist. Garvin is the first one to get some punches in with some body shots in the corner. Garvin attacks with some headbutts and chops, but the moment Invader counters out and squares up to punch, Garvin leans out of the ropes to force the ref to tell Invader to back off. Garvin controls the pace of the match and works over Invader with some chops and also focuses on Invader's neck. A sleeper causes Invader to fade but he manages to keep his arm up on the arm check. Invader gets out of the hold but again misses Garvin when he tries to square up for the taped fist punch. 

Garvin switches tactics and starts focusing on working over Invader's taped fist to try to neutralize the danger. He rams Invader's hand on the turnbuckle and then does the Garvin stomp but focuses on the taped hand. Some attempted pins are countered but Garvin continues focusing on working over Invader’s hand and arm. Garcin has Invader in a double hammerlock but Invader makes the ropes when one arm is released. Garvin wraps Invader's arm around the ropes and starts wrenching it as the ref tries to get Garvin to break. Garvin continues on the attack but Invader starts getting fired up and makes his comeback. A rope running sequence sees Invader leap frog over Garvin and then surprise him with the taped fist heart punch on the rebound. The pin is academic and Invader has laid out Ron Garvin. 

MD: This was the match I was looking forward to the most and yep, it was the sort of minimal, hyper-focused affair I was expecting. Garvin sold the IDEA of Invader’s taped fist huge, hiding in the ropes for the first couple of minutes and freaking out whenever Invader even clenched a fist at him. He, of course, turned it around and hit some cheapshots to the gut to take over, leading to working the head and neck and a chinlock until Invader started to get some hope.

Garvin cut him off and went right in on the hand. Some great handwork here as he used the Garvin Stomp on it repeatedly, not going around but going to the hand instead. Then he’d grind the arm in the rope and even bite at the bicep. It was all to no avail however, as Invader started to get strength from the crowd, using a walking hulk up until he was ready to fire back. He had to use the side of the arm and headbutts and slam Garvin’s head into the turnbuckles at first but after a leapfrog, he whipped around and managed the heart punch. Garvin sold it like death, maybe death three times even, and post match Invader waved his fingers, still selling. Past some blood, this is just what you’d want from these two at this point of their career. 

Monster Ripper vs. El Profe

EB: This is the first ever man vs woman match in Puerto Rico. El Profe comes out with a bouquet of flowers, it seems he wants to make peace with Ripper before anything turns ugly. Ripper comes out and we cut to both wrestlers ready to go in the ring. It seems Profe had been offering the flowers as a peace offering and Ripper did not accept them. The bell rings as Profe decides to blindside Ripper with the bouquet, using the flowers as a weapon to repeatedly smack Ripper in the face. Profe uses the stems as a weapon by jabbing them into Ripper’s throat and then follows up with a double foot stomp. Flowers are scattered about the ring as Profe continues on offense, pausing every now and then to gloat to the crowd. Another double foot stomp and Profe starts bopping and weaving in the ring as Ripper rolls out. It seems Hugo Savinovich is out there seconding ripper, while Billy Joe Travis is out there backing up Profe. Hugo helps Ripper up but Monster is unable to get back in the ring as Profe kicks her.

Ripper finally gets back in but Profe immediately jumps her and continues in control, making sure to pause to do a yawning pantomime to signal how easy this is for him. Ripper makes a brief comeback but Profe cuts it off and continues by slapping and punching Ripper in the face to further embarrass her. Profe gets a backdrop and senton, but instead of going for the pin he continues gloating to the crowd. He finally goes for the cover but only gets two. Before Ripper can come back, Profe rakes her eyes and hits a suplex.  Profe signals it's over and takes his time going up top. He misses a senton from the top and now Ripper has her opening. Ripper gets several blows in and briefly tries to go for Profe’s mask, but then resumes her attack.Ripper rams Profe's head into the corners and then runs off the ropes, but falls victim to Travis tripping her. Profe yells at Travis to get in there but the ref intercepts Travis. Profe attempts a slam on Ripper while this was going on and Hugo quickly reaches in to trip Profe up, causing Ripper to fall on top of Profe. The ref turns around, sees Ripper making the cover and makes the three count. Monster Ripper has defeated El Profe. But the victory celebration is short and Profe and Billy Joe attack both Ripper and Hugo. Blood is drawn as Travis throws Hugo head first into a ringpost as Profe attacks Ripper inside the ring. The attack stops when the Caribbean Express come out to make the save. This sets up a mixed tag match for the next day’s Aniversario card in Ponce. 

MD: This overachieved more than any match I’ve seen as part of this project. It was really great. Go watch it before reading anything I say. Okay, back? Good. Profe comes down smooth as can be, with his over the top music and a bouquet of flowers. I was wondering what was up with it at first but it’s obvious once Ripper comes down that he was going to give it to her, or that was the gimmick. Instead, he smashes her in the head with them and jabs the stems into her throat, which is a great visual and quite believable actually. After that he just absolutely unloads on her. He does these brutal double stomps and just lays into her. Huge heat. There’s trash flying in, lots of drinks so that whenever a bump happens, liquid splashes up off the mat. 

At one point she tries to fire up but Profe kicks her in the gut off the ropes. He eventually tosses her and Hugo, out there now (as was Travis) tries to get her ready to fight again. Profe catches her on the way in though. He suplexes her with ease. He hits a senton off the ropes and he’s great in his little mannerisms. He yawns. He does a tranquilo lean in the corner. Just really milking it, totally fearless of all the stuff flying in. He goes up to the top to put her away but misses the somersault senton. The place comes alive as she starts laying into him. Legdrops and back body drops and slamming him all around the ring. Travis, having been slinking around, catches her off the ropes though. That lets Profe take back over as the ref is admonishing Travis. Profe lifts her up again but Hugo comes in under the bottom rope and leans halfway across the ring to yank Profe’s legs for another huge pop as Ripper pins him for three. 

Post match, Profe lays into Ripper as Travis bloodies up Hugo. They’d have their reckoning later. Very smart, very well executed, super overachieving, high heat match. Honestly, sort of blew me away.

Dino Bravo vs. Carlos Colon

EB: It’s main even time as Dino Bravo challenges Carlos Colon for the Universal title. This match was set up by the attack Bravo perpetrated on Colon during the Noche de Campeones card on Mother’s Day weekend. Bravo throws Carlos off him on the initial lockup, establishing again that Bravo has the strength advantage. A second lockup leads to a break and Bravo fails in surprising Colon with a punch, instead Colon blocks and fires off several of his own. Bravo hides in the ropes to get Carlos to back off. The match surprisingly continues with some holds and counters, as Bravo works a headlock on the mat and then Carlos does some arm drags that send Bravo to the outside to regroup. Colon works over Dino’s arm once the latter is back in, which is a smart strategy to try to neutralize the full nelson. Bravo briefly gets some kicks in but Carlos counters with an arm drag, dropkick and a body press for two. Bravo against regroups on the outside.

The ref starts a count to force Bravo back in and Carlos immediately starts chopping Bravo in the corner. An Irish whip leads to a monkey flip attempt, but Bravo catches Colon and does an atomic drop. This allows Bravo to control the next several minutes with some Colon hope spots mixed in. Bravo uses kicks, a reverse chinlock and a toss to the outside to try to wear down Carlos. Bravo goes for a bearhug to continue wearing down Colon, who is brought down to his knees. The ref checks Colon's arm but Carlos responds on the third check. Carlos breaks out of the bearhug by poking Bravo in the eye. Carlos blocks a Bravo suplex and counters with a suplex of his own. Carlos starts his comeback, punctuated with a cartwheel. Colon sets up and is able to lock in the figure four, but Bravo refuses to give up. Bravo reverses the hold and now the worry is if Bravo will break Colon’s leg just like what happened with Polynesian Prince. Carlso holds on and is able to grab the ropes to force a break, but his leg may have suffered some damage. As Carlos tries to fire off some punches, Bravo responds by kicking Colon’s leg. This leads to a Bravo airplane spin which leaves Carlos dizzy. Bravo charges in with a clothesline but Colon is aware enough to dodge and instead Bravo decks the referee. Bravo locks in the full nelson but the ref is down. It looks like Carlos may be losing his title, but all of a sudden Ihvader runs into the ring, punches Bravo in the back with the taped fist and runs off. Bravo staggers into a corner as Colon tries to gather himself. Beravos makes a beeline towards Carlos, but Colon is able to grab Bravo in a small package and get the three count. Carlos has retained the Universal title but it’s definitely questionable how it came about. Carlos grabs the title belt and is still a bit staggered as he leaves the ring. Meanwhile, an irate Bravo gets some final kicks in on the departing Colon.

MD: Okay, first and foremost, this was fine. Totally okay match. Needed blood, sorry, but it did. Now I’m expecting a massive bloodbath between Hugo and Travis and will be disappointed if I don’t get it. That’s the only explanation. BUT in general, this was good. Bravo inherited a lot of heat on his way in from having Profe with him. It was very paint by numbers for the most part. He’d get a little move on Colon and then eat three or four. They’d repeat it. Colon controlled which defused some of the heat to be honest. Bravo finally got him in an inverted atomic drop and started to wear him down. The brunt of this was a long bearhug that was worked well until Bravo got tired. 

I do think the finishing stretch is worth mentioning. Colon came back and did the cartwheel and put on the figure-four. This is where watching the TV really added a ton. We had seen the segment where Bravo broke Polynesian Prince’s leg by turning it over. When he did it here, it felt like a huge deal. We’d also seen matches he won by setting up the full nelson with the airplane spin so him doing it here felt like a big deal too. He missed Colon and got the ref with a clothesline though, and then Invader ran in and whacked Bravo in the back of the head with the taped fist as he had the Full Nelson on. Colon rolled him up and won it. I feel like I might have missed something there. Obviously the Army sticks together and Profe has done lots of nefarious things, but it felt a little cheap for Invader to interfere at Aniversario in the title match when the heel hadn’t really done anything to warrant it for once. 

TNT & Giant Warrior vs. Demolition Smash & Crush

EB: This match should please Matt as Demolition make an appearance. Granted it is the Smash and Crush version, but we’ll take what we can get. Their opponents are TNT & Giant Warrior, with TNT asking Warrior to be his partner against Demolition. A bit surprising that this the spot for TNT on the card, but it is against a high profile import at least. Demolition starts off quick by jumping Warrior and TNT and focusing their attacks on TNT. It almost seems like we have gone straight to TNT in peril, but after a couple of minutes TNT finds an opening and uses his karate moves to regain control on both Smash and Crush. Giant Warrior comes in to help TNT and both Demos are cleared from the ring. TNT remains in control working over Smash, and then Warrior is tagged in as the tecnicos focus on working over Smash’s arm. The tecnico team remains in control until Demolition is able to lure Warrior into their corner and are able to take over.

Giant Warrior becomes the face in peril as Demolition work him over. Smash uses a neck twist to wear Warrior down as the crowd tries to rally him. Demolition keeps baiting TNT into the ring, allowing them opportunities to double team Warrior behind the referee’s back. In an impressive feat of strength, Crush gets Warrior up in a torture rack position before dropping down in a back breaker type move. TNT breaks up that pin attempt. Crush continues working over Warriors using his legs to hold Warriors in a body vice. Warrior tries but cannot quite reach for the tag. Warrior keeps resisting the hold and it looks like he might finally reach TNT’s tag but Smash jumps off the apron and runs over to yank TNT off the apron. Finally, Crush releases the vice hold and tags in Smash. Warrior counters a charge with boot and is able to make the tag to TNT. An offensive flurry from TNT takes care of both Demos, but his two pin attempts on Smash are broken up by Crush. Warrior returns to the ring as all four men start fighting. The tecnicos get the better of Demolition as the ref starts making motions for them to stop, and then we get a double disqualification finish due to continued fighting in the ring. Not the best finish. TNT hauls off and decks the ref for calling for the dq. The tecnicos continue attacking Demolition at ringside. 

MD: Obviously, I’m a huge Demolition fan, but that really means I’m a big Bill Eadie as Ax fan. He’s great at structuring matches and conducting traffic and knowing how to make babyfaces earn every inch and adapting his act for different heels. But with a crowd this hot (even if they seem a little burnt out at first) and this deep into the Smash/Crush run, even this version of Demolition had a lot to offer and they offered it here, giving Giant Warrior maybe his best match ever (and a lot of that came down to his connection to the crowd and selling).

They start in on TNT early, but he came back as they ran into all of his kicks. Then we ended up with a long heat on Giant Warrior, most of which had him pinned down in a body scissors but they made it compelling. Warrior was constantly fighting, reaching straining, and they had to do whatever they could to keep him there given his size and reach (including Smash trying to pull TNT off the apron). They really did a great job of building the pressure up until he was able to block getting rammed into the turnbuckle with his foot (though Smash undercut his foot in a cool little spot). Immediately thereafter Smash ran into his boot in the opposite corner and TNT came in hot. He hit the spin wheel kick but everything devolved and Quiñones called it off right before getting clobbered himself. So disappointing finish even if they had the satisfaction of the hot tag, but a pretty solid match overall before that.

Hugo Savonovich vs. Billy Joe Travis

EB: Our last match on the video release is Hugo Savinovich vs. Billy Joe Travis. Hugo is here defending his family’s honor from the insults Travis had been saying on television and has promised to bring his ‘walking hardware store’ out of retirement for the match. For those wondering, this is in reference to Hugo’s rudo days when he would have all manner of foreign objects hidden on him, thus the walking hardware store name for this arsenal. Hugo comes out to a nice ovation, pauses to take off his shirt on the outside and then charges into the ring. Travis tries to jump Hugo, but instead Hugo catches Travis and fights him off (punctuated by biting Travis in the face). Travis tries to offer his hand but Hugo continues attacking, pulling out a belt from his tights and just whipping Travis with it around ringside. Hugo starts choking Travis with the belt but Travis gets out of it with a low blow. Travis now has possession of the belt and whips Hugo with it. A punch knocks Hugo down to the ballfield dirt and Travis follows him with more punches. Eliud Gonzalez on commentary reminds us that anything goes here. 

Travis stomps a prone Hugo on the field, but Hugo fights back and hits a dropkick on Travis. Hugo reaches into his boot and pulls out a coat hanger as he chases Travis back into the ring. Travis is choked with the coat hanger. Hugo then pulls out a chain and wraps it around his fist but Travis is able to backdrop Hugo before a punch is landed. Travis grabs the chain but opts to use it more to hold Hugo in place for some punches and then a clothesline. Travis slams Hugo and decides to go to the top to deliver a chain assisted fist drop. As Travis gloats to the crowd, Hugo comes too and reaches into his tights. Travis jumps off the top but is met with a face full of salt from Hugo. Travis hits the mat, Hugo makes the cover and gets the three count. Hugo wants to get a couple of licks in after the bell but Travis is able to roll out. The crowd applauds as Hugo has his hand raised as the winner. With that, we are done with Aniversario 1991.

MD: This goes about six minutes and it definitely doesn’t wear out its welcome. It probably could have gone twice that with Travis controlling a lot more. But the crowd is way up the whole time. Hugo charges right in, biting Travis in the forehead (no blood!) and whipping him with his belt. Travis takes back over and just hits these great measured punches on the outside. He had been shadowboxing before Hugo came in and he’s just a great sleazy Memphis Heel.

He really only gets a few shots in (even if they’re spaced out well) before Hugo finds a wire and comes back, choking Travis with it. He hits a dropkick and then pulls out a chain and it builds to a big moment, but Travis back body drops him and takes it. He pockets it himself so he can slam Hugo. As he sets him up for the big fistdrop with the chain, Hugo finds some powder and tosses it right into his eyes to set Travis up for the pin. Everyone is overjoyed and we fade to black with Hugo whacking Travis with chain-assisted punches. 

We’re missing a couple of matches that were good or at least interesting on paper and there was a dubious finish or two in this one, but overall everything came together pretty well. Good crowd-pleasing Aniversario.

EB: Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, a big World tag title match takes place between two tecnico teams, an announced return of Steve Strong does not materialize and we get a Russian replacement instead, and the status quo changes for two wrestlers.

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80s Joshi on Wednesday: Masami! Tomoko!

Disc 2  

8. Devil Masami vs. Tomoko Kitamura (AJW Title Decision Match) 5/9/81

K: Tomoko Kitamura, in case you didn’t know, would later adopt the ringname Lioness Asuka. That her name is actually Tomoko is never really hidden from fans from what I can tell. In later years you can clearly hear wrestlers calling her by this name in on-set skits and stuff that aired on AJW TV regularly. 

As mentioned in a previous write-up, Kitamura is (still) the AJW Junior Champion, which she won in a decision match after Rimi Yokota vacated the belt. This match is for the AJW Title, which is the next belt up in the company’s hierarchy (which around this point, becomes well-defined) and, believe it or not, was also recently vacated by Rimi Yokota. It shows you how rapidly Yokota was pushed, and that it probably wasn’t all a long-term plan, that in the space of a few months she’s had to vacate lower-card belts she held because she’d become too strongly pushed to lose to anyone else who would be competing for them.

This is also - as far as I’m aware - Devil Masami’s first challenge for a singles belt that wasn’t the Junior’s Title. Her gradual improvement has been very noticeable watching all the footage, even athletically, she feels a bit more flexible and snappier with her movements than a year ago. But of course with Masami, her strongest attribute is how brilliantly expressive she is. You don’t need to understand a word of Japanese to just pay attention to Masami’s facial expressions and be engaged with what’s happening in the ring. As well as showing pain, she just looks sad when Tomoko’s got her in a hold she’s struggling to get out of. You see the fears moving in her brain when she stops to thinking of a new way to get herself out of this predicament after her previous idea didn’t work. She’ll look proper chuffed when one of her moves pays off, and she’s able to exact a bit of vindictive retaliation. Another nice touch is how she’ll make a brief pause, shout something, because hitting a move, like she’s signalling to he crowd to pay attention to what I’m about to do because it’s going to be something important in the match, without being so obvious about it that it suspension of disbelief gets killed. And she achieves all this without it ever getting too hammy, it’s the kind of thing I think Edge often tried to pull off, but he’d usually overdo it and just come across goofy. Even in this match, when she’s not fully put it together yet, and there’s a purposeless limitation on how great the match can be because of their position on the card and that’s how AJW did things, Masami looks like a special talent. She’s just so watchable. 

It may feel like I’m being harsh on Tomoko by having less to say about her, but that wouldn’t be entirely fair. She has a good performance here, even if she feels like she’s being carried in terms of who is driving the match narrative. But she hits all her spots well, her dropkicks are impressive and you can hear she’s getting the crowd behind her in her big comeback segment. She’s definitely more over than Chigusa is at this point if you compare crowd reactions in their matches against Masami. The famous clapping and screaming young female fans of this era usually aren’t that hot for anyone not the Beauty Pair, but they get pretty loud of Kitamura here, and a few of them look physically distraught when she loses in a questionable three count. I’ll note that the main event of this show (not on the set) was Rimi Yokota defending the WWWA Singles Title against Peggy Lee, and the crowd didn’t feel like they were getting behind Yokota as much as they were for Kitamura by the final minutes of this.

I’m probably going to be higher on this than most people. There weren’t many standout moments and it’s all quite basic wrestling, something about this style when done right just connects with me. There’s a gritty determination to win coming from both wrestlers in their battles on the match and over the shoulders with the various pin attempts, even if she’s a villain I still feel “oh that title means something” when Masami looks all emotional upon winning it. The selling was a bit better than normal, it’s mostly in the moment selling, but when nobody’s doing things like spending several minutes attacking a specific body part, there’s no need for anything more than that. 

The other bit of context for this is that Jackie Sato and Yumi Ikeshita are now both effectively retired. Jackie’s retirement ceremony will be a couple of weeks after this. So this match can also be read as an audition for moving up the card, someone has to fill those top babyface/heel spots, and the wrestler who moves up to fill them then has to have their previous spot filled by someone below them. It’s all quite interesting.

***1/4

MD: As best as I can tell this was the end of a Grand Prix for a chance to face Rimi, but I’m sure we’ll have more on this up above (and we did. It was for a secondary title I never heard of, unless it was the Hawaii/Pacific title's next evolution). Kitamura was the 1980 Rookie of the Year and the current Jr. champion and the future Lioness Asuka. Masami, of course, has a giant butterfly on her white gear despite being a Black Devil. 

More on Kitamura in a moment, but I find Masami fascinating to watch already. I mentioned previously how Hagiwara, a former actress, was incredible emotive in her selling. She was, but I’d say that she was conventionally emotive. Very good in all the ways one would look for and expect. Masami is emotive as well, but in unconventional ways. Her performances reach out and grasp you; they surprise you and draw you in. I had expected that when she was on offense, because she’s known for projecting a sort of malevolent glee; I’d go a step further and say that it’s almost languid at times, casual, as if she’s having a special conversation with the referee as she’s tearing apart her opponent. It’s true when she’s taking offense too though, the way her face seems to contort in both agony and near-disbelief that this is somehow happening to her. 

My big take on our first look at Kitamura was that she was very competent. She wrestled in a straightforward manner with lightning sharp focus. She won the early exchanges. Masami was able to turn things around using the ropes into a rowboat type move, but even then, Kitamura dragged her back to the mat. Mid-match she took over once again, now using dirty tactics, but Kitamura withstood them and was able to bring things back to even. It was only after things took a tumble to the outside and Masami started using foreign objects that she took over for good and was able to quickly drop her and get a, I would say, heavily contested win. It’s one thing to do these shoot pins and have wrestlers force one another’s shoulders to the mat, but we’ve seen a couple of matches now where they clearly were unable to keep them down, or even come close to keeping them down and the count continued anyway. It all feels very weird to me. Overall, this had a different feel to me as Kitamura brought something different to the table, maybe something a bit more straightforward while still being formidable nonetheless. 

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AEW (and NJPW) Five Fingers of Death 2/23 - 3/1

NJPW New Beginning USA 2/27/26

Athena vs Syuri

MD: There isn't a single universal theory of pro wrestling. But if there was just one word that could define it all, could push towards the ideal, one word that you could boil everything down to, it would be immersion. That's the goal. You don't want people to believe it's real. You want people to invest in the false reality of it. Now, maybe one way to get them to invest is by being as real as possible. That's a means, not an end though. Instead, it's about being as engrossing, as captivating, as fascinating as possible, while building a world the audience (in person and televised) can escape to, a place that they prefer to reality itself.

And to accomplish that, the one word becomes three. Commitment, consequence, consistency.

Which brings us to one of the most immersive wrestlers going today, or back to her. Back to Athena.

Here she was positioned as challenger to Syuri's IWGP Women's Championship. Her own ROH title was not on the line, nor was Syuri's NJPW Strong title. 

But despite her role as challenger, and despite the eventual outcome, and even despite Syuri's own athleticism and charisma, Athena commanded the room.

It is because she is entirely committed to her act. There are no strings. There is no net. When you watch her on the screen, she provides you with no reason to doubt who and what she is. There's no carefully set up collaborative spots, no hesitation before she leaps headlong into danger. And maybe most of all, there's no pausing to come up with a correct reaction, no remembering to hit her mark. She hits a move. A move hits her. There is instant reaction. For every action there is a reaction, and for her, it comes off like the most natural thing in the world no matter how over the top and dynamic she may be. 

She portrays a character that is erratic, vengeful, malicious, that writhes at every failure, that is infuriated by her opponent's every act of defiance, that is strong and athletic and entirely vulnerable in the most human ways. For as dominant as she is, for as much as she takes up the air in the room, she is a few pennies short of a dollar, is unhinged and unpredictable, and whatever poise and polish she shows, impressive as those things may be, do not hide cracks so big you could consider them fault lines, the sort that lead to continental drift.

There is strength in vulnerability. The greatest wrestlers have always known that. In vulnerability there can be found the most human elements of a character-driven performance. A wrestler who comes off as cool and untouchable, above it all, ironic, cannot tap into any of that same humanity. Athena, for all of her triumphs, so often evokes the most human of failings, all turned up to 11.

Everything went hard early here, both the wrestling and the character work. They crashed into each other on the lock up. Syuri broke clean against the ropes. Athena offered a (left) hand. Syuri looked to the crowd... Athena is eternally erratic. At some point in the match she's going to throw that magic elbow but would it come with the shake? Here the answer was yes, but Syuri was ready. She ducked and they went right back into a feeling out process worthy of a title match: mat wrestling, rope running, until Syuri locked her into a single underhook suplex and started in on the arm. 

That would be the great equalizer for Syuri in the match and the great opportunity for Athena, as a performer, to act and react and be as vulnerable as possible. While she sold for a bit after the initial submission attempt, it was just the start of a longer story. Instead they went to the floor. Syuri knocked her back but Athena was too strong, too fierce, too ready and hefted her up to mercilessly toss her into the guardrail.

This, before her arm deteriorated further, was Athena's time to shine on offense. She hit her running punch in the corner and followed it with one of the only front handsprings in pro wrestling history that undeniably increases momentum and impact instead of just being a piece of flair. She snatched Syuri in a front facelock and spun around with her. She even hit the magic forearm out of nowhere. But she couldn't put Syuri away.

Instead, emotional cracks started to show, a seething frustration, and that brief inner distraction opened the door for Syuri to come back and start to dismantle the arm with various submissions. It was still back and forth. Athena was able to roll Syuri up with a counter that sent her careening into the corner. She was able to stop things flat and flip her into the Koji Clutch, but the damage had been done. 

Athena's selling wasn't just when the holds were on or immediately after. It wasn't even between her own moves. It impacted everything she did, the entire way she moved. If she was going to head up to the top, she'd be a half step slow because she only had one arm to work with. When she tried to slingshot back in, she couldn't gather proper momentum and ended up caught into a DDT. It took everything she had to force Syuri up to counter a triangle with power bombs and the first two didn't have nearly the oomph to them that they normally would. It took three to escape. 

It's because she wasn't checking boxes and she wasn't selling for the sake of selling. Instead she was embodying a character in a specific situation. Her arm was injured and it was a quality she had to deal with in every single action and reaction. It was definitional. It limited the way her character could move; it opened up any number of narrative possibilities as she lashed out again and again, as she constantly showed desperation and frustration on her face and in how she interacted with the referee, the fans, and her own inner heart; and it provided the character of Syuri any number of plausible, compelling opportunities to mount a comeback or double down and do more damage to Athena.

In the end, Athena managed an almost miraculous counter into a modified tombstone but couldn't put the weight upon Syuri to fully keep her down. With one bullet left to fire, she went up to the top for the O-Face, but she was that half step slow given that she had to drag her arm beside her. Syuri was able to dodge, to strike, to put a diminished Athena out of her misery and get the win. 

Athena presents herself as an ouroboros of emotion and reaction, constantly boiling over, a powder keg always waiting to explode. It's what makes her maybe the most fascinating and engrossing wrestler to watch today. With some wrestlers you're afraid to look away because you might miss a move or an athletic feat, and that's true with Athena as well, but she takes it so much further. If you look away even for a moment, you will absolutely miss some expression or little (or big) movement or even just a flick of her eyes that carries with it madness and destruction. Everything matters. Everything is monumental. Of course the crowd is immersed. So far as 2020s wrestling goes, she is immersion personified.

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Found Footage Friday: Hanover 1981~! KENGO KIMURA VS BRET HART~?!

9/28/81 Hanover

Salvatore Bellomo vs. Pat Roach

MD: The great mystery to be solved in this footage, as much as anything else, is just why and how Sal Bellomo and Bob Dellaserra (UFO) were so over. Because they are the two most over guys in 1980 and 1981 Bremen, even over locals. And they're not people who are known to be THIS over anywhere else.

I think you actually can find part of the answer in this one. Roach obviously dominated this match. In the first round he overpowered Bellomo, ran through him, but Bellomo kept on it, dropping down and dodging so that he could dropkick Roach out. Yes, Roach came right back and chucked Bellomo out for revenge, but he had his little victories. In the second round, Roach pounded on him, but Bellomo kept at it, firing back, bouncing off the rope with a forearm, even staggering him at times. 

The match continued as such. Roach had a clear advantage, but Bellomo just wouldn't quit. He'd chip away, never for long, but just enough to let the crowd know he was worth investing in. Eventually he was able to get Roach into the corner and did the Van Buyten flying leap into a ten count punch and they went nuts for that. Then he drove Roach back with shot after shot and tossed him into the other corner. Roach took a wild bump over the top and on the way back in Bellomo slammed him and the place went nuts at the upset. Lightning in a bottle.

Mile Zrno vs. Manuel Lopez

MD: This was as good as you'd expect. First round was all Lopez with Zrno in a hammerlock and lots of different escape attempts. Zrno would go over the top but end up right back in it. He'd try again and get shrugged down to the mat. Second round had him returning favor with a cravat that he held on to until they went into teeter totter monkey flips. Zrno had a lot of fun bridges and Zrno did this great ripcord into a backbreaker. Then in the third round, they got in and out quickly, with some rope running, an arm drag slam by Lopez, some gut shots by Zrno, and then roll ups with Zrno winning it with a nice bridging cradle.

Axel Dieter/Klaus Karoff vs. Moose Morowski/Grand Vladimir

MD: Kauroff was super over. Dieter maybe over by association (and his own crowd pleasing stuff). The first half of the first fall, they really kept it paired up. Dieter was paired with Vladimir and would do bridging headcissors takeovers and a lot of mares and what not. Morowski and Kauroff would just do the clash of the titans stuff, with Kauroff often getting the better off him with these big whacks. A couple of times, Kauroff was able to drag him to the corner and take over but never for too long. At one point, after a comeback, Dieter tagged him in and the place was literally rocking, the camera shaking all over the place due to the fans stomping. Dieter and Kauroff took the first fall after a Dieter catapult onto Vladimir off the ropes and back onto his knees and then a body slam.

Second fall had a lot of quick tags from Dieter and Kauroff but the ref ended up distracted with Kauroff and Morowski finished Dieter off with a shoulder breaker. That led to the most real heat in the match in the third fall as they beat down Dieter. An errant kneelift from Vladimir brought Kauroff back in and the place started rocking again. Ultimately, I think Kauroff and Dieter lost it after Dieter back body dropped Vlad over the top but they cleared the ring and ended up standing tall in the end and the crowd was with them as they celebrated.

Kengo Kimura vs. Bret Hart

MD: I'm not saying 'this is why we go through the footage', because while this is an interesting match, it's not nearly as good any of the first three matches, but is it ever a novelty? Can you imagine this match in 1987? That's not my favorite Bret year or anything but he still has the SNME Savage match. But this is 1981 so a very different beast. Anyway, Bret's out to Racey's "Some Girls" like always. Kimura's out to "Japanese Boy" by Aneka. 

This was a pretty good first match on a NJPW or Mid-South card. Clean wrestling, aggressive, hold-based. Kimura ended the first round working the leg with some nice falling back deathlocks. Bret worked the arm a bit in the second and they did some rolls up. In the third they started chipper and went right to the rope running. The finish was a bit wonky as Kimura just ran through him with a strike. Perfectly fine wrestling here but pretty vanilla overall.

UFO vs. Jim Neidhart:

MD: I took a break after the Bret match and forgot who Neidhart was facing. Well the crowd reminded me quickly. "U-FO, U-FO, U-FO." over and over. Neidhart took a lot of this mainly by charging at UFO and slapping on chinlocks. When he missed and UFO got the better of him, the fans went up big for it, and UFO worked his way out of the chinlock again and again and it always worked but it wasn't the world's most interesting match, maybe. It ended just as you'd expect, with UFO dodging a corner charge for a roll up. Still, you can't say this wasn't effective and a good use of Neidhart's football credentials. Neidhart did have a lot of raw energy and charisma that would become more honed and stylized for good and ill later on.

------
10/10/81

Klaus Kauroff vs. Goro (Tsurumi) Tanaka

MD: The appeal here is that these two are bigger, or at least thicker, than a lot of wrestlers. They still had a ton of skill though. Both had some takeovers that were quite impressive, but made all the more so given the size. Kauroff had a headscissors (sort of bridging) takeover that I wasn't expecting and they really went over on some of the arm flips. The first round was mostly arm control but bookended with takeovers. The second they started to clash with big shots a bit more. There was one leapfrog where Kauroff was turned completely sideways as Tsurumi vaulted over him in a way I don't think I've seen before. Third fall had a bit of rope running and a quick slam. Fans liked both of these guys and it never boiled over but it was okay for a relatively short three round affair.

Achim Chall/Sal Bellomo vs. Karl Dauberger/Jim Neidhart

MD: Neidhart and Bellomo worked well together to start. Bellomo would dodge him while rope running and come back with a dropkick. He agreed to three point stance charges and got knocked around only to leapfrog one so Neidhart went flying. Fans loved it. Neidhart played reactive and prickly well already. Chall and Dauberger did a great bit out of a double knucklelock where they went up and down with it before Chall stepped over and did a spin kick. That caused Dauberger to lose his cool and then run right into a shot as he careened off the ropes. Then Neidhart went for a handshake (obviously a cheapshot set up) and Bellomo clowned him with a behind the back lure-in. So fun stuff in the early exchanges. 

They cycled into a few minuets of full nelsons after that, with Neidhart making a bit show of it. He'd escape Bellomo's and then let go of Bellomo to show his superiority. He got kicked in the face for his trouble. Then they did it with Chall, trading off until he escaped that way a few minutes later too. Bellomo came in hot but got tripped from the outside and pinned.

Second fall had them bullying Bellomo in the corner, but Dauberger got cocky and Chall returned the favor from the end of the first fall, tripping him so that Bellomo could pin him. Clever stuff. 

Third fall was a long, long heat on Chall, and it was good, if simple. A lot of front facelocks as he strained towards the corner with Neidhart either getting a shot in or coming in from the outside to pull the tights to yank him back. That'd draw Bellomo in and then allow for the double teaming. Eventually, against Dauberger, Chall made it and the place went nuts. Problem was that they were working towards a draw so there was still another five or six minutes of back and forth with some attempts to draw back into heat and some major bits of comeuppance before the bell rang as they were brawling. If this thing ended shortly after the hot tag it would have been a lot better. It still was one of the best performances out of Bret or Neidhart that we have on this tour.

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