70s Joshi on Wednesday: Kumano! Ikeshita!

33. 1979.05.XX3 - Mami Kumano vs. Yumi Ikeshita

K: This is a spiritually satisfying match. A trope of more recent times that I both dislike and don’t really understand is when heels are pitted against each other in round robin tournaments, you expect them to not take the match seriously enough. Well, I’m sure the idea is to get themselves heat by not giving the fans a good show. They’ll just dawdle about barely even pretending to make an effort against each other. Sometimes there’ll be a creative twist on it, like the Taichi vs. Taka Michinoku match where they did as much offense as you could possibly imagine without ever touching each other. It’s not for me though. I also don’t think it really even works as intended. Any heat generated is dissipated by the time it’s over anyway.

This the earliest heel vs. heel match we have from AJW, where they take the opposite approach. If anything, the take these matches as an opportunity to unleash all these bottled up resentments they stored up for the other. Right from the bell they’re not just trying to win, but there’s a nastiness to all of it. These two are just not nice people at all. But fortunately for us, it’s entertaining, and who doesn’t want to see these two maim one another anyway.

I’m not sure about this thought, but if there’s a slight nuance to the alignments here, I’d say Ikeshita may be working very slightly more babyface. She has more of an earned comeback about 5 minutes in than Kumano ever does. It’s done with a surprising kip-up, and a bit later she goes for what looked like the beginning motion of Sliced Bread #2, but instead of the neckbreaker motion she just lands on her feet behind Mami and then quickly hits her with that signature twisting slam. There’s a flicker of the spectacular with some of Ikeshita’s offense that we never see from Kumano.

But I may be reading too much into that, as before long Ikeshita is also upping the ante in terms of pure viciousness when she gets hold of the microphone cable and strangles Kumano with it like she’s just trying to murder her. The match descends into both wrestlers mainly just trying to strangle and choke each other actually. It’s really ugly stuff that part of you feels like you’re a bit of a sicko for watching this. Especially when you’re not rooting for either of them. But also, I feel like I have to watch it not just out of enjoyment of seeing the heels get hurt, but I want to see how far they’ll go. How much they piss each other off. Seeing them competing over who can be the most vile also benefits future matches, coz even if we’re not rooting for anyone here, the memories of this will be in the back of our minds when we next see this evil pair up against wrestlers we do like. So even if the match is only in the good - not - great range, it achieves something beyond that.

***1/4

MD: This was a league match to help pick the six women for the Japan side. And it is the Black Pair exploding. And it’s great. We don’t know what we don’t know and we don’t have what we don’t have, but these two really do come off as the prototypes for every major joshi villain for the next decade. They’re screaming, merciless, violent, dynamic, interesting monsters. I’d say that Kumano was stronger and fiercer but Ikeshita was more athletic, but it didn’t really matter. They were more than the sum of their parts and their parts were pretty formidable.

This was a war; no quarter was given. Kumano rushes right in with nasty hairpulls and she escalates soon enough to these rigid neckbreakers where she just tries to twist Ikeshita’s head off. Kumano does damage on the outside first but Ikeshita spends the first chunk fighting back whenever she can, going for a leg or a face or whatever in reach. She finally fires back with a slingshot body press followed by these pendulum power slams, but Kumano’s right back with the seated senton off the top.

When things boil over, they really boil over, with Ikeshita destroying Kumano with nasty chairshots on the outside and Kumano having a fit in return, grabbing a chair and fighting her way back in with it. She was able to get her dangling hanging chokehold on the apron but when she went for it again Ikeshita’s familiarity won out and she was able to make both of them tumble. She missed a death stomp to the floor and they ended up choking each other almost to death with a microphone cord and beating each other with the microphone itself. It all devolved into a double countout, but it was some beautiful chaos while we had it.    

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 9/30 - 10/6

MD: Brief note to start. For those who came to the blog through Twitter, yes, I got DMCA'd to oblivion by TV Asahi. I had a few strikes already from when I was first figuring things out, having initially not thought that 40 year old Inoki gifs were going to be an issue, but I had straightened up and was being more careful. What ultimately did me in was a handheld (a fancam, someone's personal recording from a show that has since been disseminated through fan circles) of a 1983 match, which does not seem like something that would be at all claimable. But here we are. I've an e-mail out to them. I am not expecting much. I'll make a call by Thursday on what I'm doing next. I've seen both kindness and indignation from people and both are pushing me towards dusting off and picking back up anew by the end of the week, but we'll see. The good news is that we have a blog and they can't shut me up here. For now, if anyone wants to let people know this week's AEW reviews are up, posting a link couldn't hurt! Thanks. - Matt

(UPDATE: I am over at https://x.com/mattd_sc/ now)

AEW Dynamite 10/2/24

Bryan Danielson vs Kazuchika Okada

MD: Believe it or not, I have been accused over the years of reading too much into pro wrestling. I've heard first-hand or second-hand that "they were just listening to the crowd" and no great thought was put into sequence a or match b. The great thing about art is that those things don’t have to matter. You can read into it any number of ways no matter the author's intent. You can dig at subconscious strands and universal themes. You can connect dots that were never meant to be connected. Sometimes that gets you deep into the seas of lore, annoying everyone around you. Sometimes it means your expectations go through the roof when they really shouldn't, ultimately doing yourself and the wrestlers both a disservice.

Some wrestlers are so good and have such a track record that you can walk on air so long as you don't look down. Bryan Danielson is one of those wrestlers. And you know what? I'm going to take a nice casual stroll off a ledge here. Why? Well, look, it's possible that Danielson finds some way to triumph over Jon Moxley and they blow things off in December or even later. It's possible that he's lying to us and he doesn't need surgery. It's possible that he does but he recovers quickly and gets to make a special appearance for a match at one of the big shows early next year. Lots of things are possible. All that's for certain right now is that we have next week's tag and the match vs Moxley. That's it. Even this match was a bonus that felt like it came out of nowhere and existed outside of the Mox vs Danielson storyline. So I'm going to have a little bit of fun with it and will ask for just a bit of your patience.

Let's break down Danielson's reasons for wanting this match. He could attack Moxley at the end of a match, sure. But Moxley isn't just a serial killer or movie monster. He's not just an underhanded jerk who wants money. There's some ideology behind it all. We're only starting to see it. Part of it, however, was to take autonomy away from Danielson, to define his reign as he means to define the fate of the belt henceforth. Danielson, here, decided to push back against that in the most decadent way possible, by naming an opponent here so close to the PPV and having a rubber match against Okada.

The match ended up under Continental rules for the first twenty minutes alone, a way to protect Okada to a degree (as he would smartly retain his title) and put over the different aspect of the belt. And for much of those twenty minutes (after an initial title match feeling out process), Okada wrestled cautiously, defensively. What was interesting to me is that Danielson didn't press nearly as hard as I would have expected him to. It was only in the last minute or so that he pushed, leading to the nice fakeout of him hitting the Knee only for Okada to roll out of the ring as time expired.

Let's play with that. Why didn't he push? Maybe he didn't push because he didn't actually want the Continental Championship. He demanded the match, had his reasons for it, but likely didn't control the stipulations. He knew about the Continental Championship. He had been one of the driving forces behind the creation of the C2 last year. He knew that if he won the Championship, no matter what happened with the World Title and Moxley, he would be obliged to defend it in the grueling tournament later this year. It was never his intention to win the title. He respected the tournament, revered it even, and he wouldn't want to let the fans and the company down, but he also didn't necessarily want the weight of it hanging over him. That would take away his freedom to call his own shots and finish on his own terms. It's a little counter-intuitive and certainly nothing that the announcers picked up upon, but if you watch how he wrestled and how he didn't press, if you squint, you can kind of see it.

If he didn't want the Continental Title, what did he want? He wanted to draw Okada out. He didn't want the underhanded cheater, the coasting heel. He wanted a warrior. He wanted the person who faced him twice so far, not the version of Okada (entertaining as he might be) that we've seen in AEW so far. Okada simply wasn't giving him that for the first twenty minutes of the match; he was too focused on retaining his belt, through hook or crook. At the same time, Danielson couldn't let Okada overly goad him because Bryan DID want to keep his title, because retaining the World Title was the path to fighting Moxley. Therefore, he had to endure Okada's defensive strategy, take the damage that went along with it, and wait things out until he could have the battle he actually wanted. It was only in the last minute of the initial period that he got caught up in the moment and almost accidentally won the Continental Title.

So do I think that was the intent. Nope. Could you read it from the text as presented and the characters as we know them in their current storylines? Absolutely. Is it primarily due to the richness of Bryan Danielson's work that we can do so? Yes. Yes (Yes), it is. Am I going to leave this write up at that? Mostly, I'm around 900 words already, not that anyone's counting, and unlike the service you get from other writers/critics, I don't rate or rank anything. No stars. I'm not even ranking this vs the other two Danielson vs Okada matches. I get to leave it as is... except, I guess I have one more (Columbo-esque) question that I unfortunately can’t leave unasked.

Is what we were actually presented as good as the story that I laid out in the paragraphs above through gluing together some unlikely (but plausible!) and disparate (but existing) dots? Is the match still as good if what I just said wasn't true and if the more likely, more straightforward possibilities/intentions were instead the truth? No. Sorry. That urgency just wasn't there. Danielson didn't get goaded into mistakes made because he was urgent. Okada was wrestling one match. Danielson was wrestling another. It didn't come together in the way it should have.

Unless you squint. If you squint, well then it was a hell of a thing. If we have only two more full-time Danielson matches after this, well, just this once, I'm going to squint and it's okay if you do too.

ROH TV 10/3/24

Dustin Rhodes/Marshall Von Erich/Ross Von Erich vs Tony Nese/Ariya Daivari/Mark Sterling

MD: I wrote a few days ago (and then reposted it here) about how some of the old ways need to come back, and I meant it, and this match was reminiscent of Heenan teaming with his family in 83 AWA for very entertaining matches. And this, I think, was an entertaining match that was worked well. The problem is that Sterling just isn't credible. It's not his fault. He works hard, tries a number of different things, is sufficiently irritating and punchable. He even goes the extra mile with some very well crafted, clever social media videos. But those are only for people that seek them out, basically. 

The bigger issue is that his guys don't win, not even on ROH. On Dark, they won. Nese didn't get big wins over big wrestlers, but he came off as dangerous enough with the shot in the corner and the pumphandle pile driver. He's absolutely selfless in the ring, willing to be one of the rawest, truest heels in the company. Completely unlikable. Theoretically valuable because there's only a handful of people who are willing to stooge. (That's why I'm ok with Saraya sticking around - super solid stooging, even if maybe they should stop using her husband's theme song and think of the optics of everything a bit more. AEW doesn't have as many comparative advantages vs 2024 WWE as it did vs 2019 WWE as the latter was a trash fire, but one that remains is to be more moral and progressive). As noted, Sterling did just about everything right here, but it wasn't getting the reactions it should. The fans only woke up when Dustin worked the corner with big slaps on the turnbuckles. They use the Premier Athletes almost every week. There should really be some way to fix this, even if it's just making Woods seem like more of a protected threat within each match and the other guys be the ones who lose the offense. Like Gordy with the Freebirds maybe? I'm glad they gave Sterling an opportunity in his homestate but for a guy doing everything right in there, this all should have been more heated.

AEW Collision 10/5/24

Darby Allin vs Johnny TV

MD: This was one of Johnny's best matches in his run. I do get the sense that he probably needs the right dance partner. Having seen him in Lucha Underground and given the lack of heels on top, I was confused when WWE brought him back in as Miz's second banana, but I guess neither of us were entirely right there. His issue is more the dissolution of QTV than anything else. They spun it a bit on the idea that he and Taya are "TV-Ready" and maybe they could lean into that a bit more with the new TV deal. Taya's off with her burgeoning faction here and without the stable and without Taya, I'm not entirely sure what Johnny even is right now. 

The backstage Darby/Evil Uno interaction really set up their match and I didn't quite get that here. There were some mitigating factors. Darby was potentially just a little more cautious after being goaded into losing his title opportunity. That explained the early feeling out process and them starting with a test of strength maybe. Darby usually throws himself right at his opponent to start in the best of times. As the match went on, however, they starting showing some of the aggression (or maybe we should call it counter-aggression) that he should be inspiring in everyone he faces right now in the arms war against Moxley and his ideology. 

Things got pretty wild. The Russian Legsweep off the apron was not something you see every day. Likewise Johnny's spinning Splash Mountain Full Nelson Slam or whatever the heck that thing was. Just by his nature Darby opens up opportunities. And the Coffin Drop at the end was to a standing opponent (a Coffin Drop Press) which you never see end a match like this. So it got there, and you can argue away why it didn't start there. This was clearly put together for the challenge at the end though. And while that's ok, story after the fact isn't as good as story before, during, AND after the fact. 

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On Action, Progress, Meaning, and the Need to Rebalance the Scales

Ricochet and Ospreay wrestled last week. There was a lot to like in the match. They did a good job feigning competition even in the face of incessant counters. It was meant to be a crowd pleaser, something celebratory. It fulfilled that goal. It built to a double pin, a restart, and then it all getting snatched out from under them (and the fans) by Takeshita to set up the PPV match. That double pin though... In a year that Ospreay had kicked out of so many things (sometimes multiple times) and in a match where both wrestlers hit things both bigger and smaller, it felt like it came out of nowhere; it took everyone out of the moment, and not just because no one likes a double pin. It didn’t feel earned. It didn’t feel warranted. How could it in a world with finishes stretches so elaborate and moves meaning so little? How would anyone even know?

Pro wrestling is a weekly serialized narrative of a shared universe. It's a fairly unique artform, akin to comics and soap operas and not a whole lot else. It follows a certain set of rules and norms; deviations from these carry consequences. Everything that happens, in ring and out, has narrative value in the moment, but also over time. That's on the feud level, the match level, and the move level. There's a cost and benefit to everything that's done and they affect more than the exact point in which they happen.

It's almost impossible to talk about this because of the bad faith arguments that happen generationally and lead to immediate dismissal of the notion. We've all heard the stories about old timers that thought Flair and Steamboat or Shawn Michaels were doing too much (not Kurt Angle though, because they all wanted to leech off of his credibility). As wrestling has survived and had its ebbs and especially flows in popularity, it becomes very easy to dismiss any such talk as jealousy and laziness and a selfishness over their spots and their legacy, even as ignorance. It becomes impossible to even invite the idea that a rise in action and athleticism might have forced something meaningful and worthwhile to be lost as well.

There's also the notion of a chemical change, that the goal of wrestling today simply is different: it was never about whether it was real or not, not in the last forty years at least, not in most places. Instead, audiences once wanted to see (vicariously experience) a babyface triumph over (or at least punish) a heel in the same way they would go to movie where the good guy won in the end. Or maybe they bought tickets to see a simulated sporting event (face vs face title matches for instance) where the winner was the most important thing, all the better if it was a hometown hero. In those cases, the athleticism at play and the moves being executed were much more the means than the ultimate end. Today, as a big chunk of the audience watch to see (conventionally) great matches for the sake of great matches, that dynamic (means and ends) has flipped.

Greatness is subjective however. When it comes to art, the idea of progress is as well. More is not inherently better. Craft is not only found in increasing excess, in pushing the bounds of athleticism. That doesn't mean there isn't inherent value in the idea of "more." It's complicated. Ultimately, however, all such things should be tools to serve an overall aim, to give life to a vision, and this vision has to be bigger than any one sequence or any one match. It's hard not to watch an older match and be amazed how much a wrestler could get out of a punch, a look, a hold, how much it all resonated and stuck with fans.

Wrestling has always had great athletes. At any point in history (maybe up until now), wrestlers could do more than what they chose to do. Restraint was often not a matter of what could be done, but instead what should be done. So long as narrative value was preserved, fans would meet the wrestlers halfway, suspending their disbelief and allowing themselves to be moved this way or that. The skill came not in what was done, but in the how and in how both wrestlers reacted to it. The more they showed they cared, the more the fans would care.

Throughout wrestling history, so many of the leaps towards increased action were driven by smaller wrestlers who weren't allowed to get over through more conventional methods. You could say that they offered the audience an exciting alternative. Usually though, it came at a cost. There's the most obvious consequence, the strain on bodies. If the notion of "more" is accepted as progress, is taken as the goal, the only path forward is towards ever increasing excess. It's just not sustainable. 90s AJPW showed a specific proof of that in a very specific way.

More than that though, it changes the internal dynamic of how matches work. In order to get something like a punch or body slam over, so much is reliant upon the reaction, the selling. It's reliant upon the set up, the struggle to even hit such a thing. It's reliant upon the execution in the moment. It has to be set up well and be seen as worth hitting (or avoiding). It has to look to be hit well. It has to be sold as having impact. With flashier moves, none of this is nearly as necessary. To keep things moving, they're often set up as part of a fast counter sequence and recovered from quickly. In order to enable this, more often than not, the dynamic has to shift from simulated struggle with real impact to a far more visibly cooperative series of set-ups and a lack of clear consequence.

Therefore, not only are wrestlers required to do more, but everything they do now means less in the moment. That doesn't mean there isn't any value to action or to athleticism. It doesn't mean they should do the bare minimum, no matter how much craft I personally find in accomplishing as much as possible with as little as possible. It's more a case of building to it, of having another gear to go to, of utilizing it when it matters most: in individual matches, on a show, or over multiple shows, of getting the most value and meaning possible from not just the least but also the most as well. 

As things are now, it's a cycle. Fans are conditioned to expect more, to value each individual spot less, to reward those who do as much as possible. The art of wrestling, if it is nothing else, is about manipulation, about training reactions over time, about establishing values (and moves) and cashing them in to achieve a greater goal. Right now we're in the midst of a spiral, a race towards sensationalism where each generation of wrestler and fan will expect more and more as the base standard, while each individual action means less and less until the bottom falls out.

It doesn't mean it's too late to grab the reins and pull back. It'll take a concerted effort from the top down, even from the people who have been rewarded the most by this cycle, by this notion of "progress." They have the goodwill now, have the influence, have the leverage. They can take a half step back now and try to make everything resonate just a little more, and then once that works, even more still. They can build to sensational spots, sensational moments, sensational exchanges, but the key is to build to them, that there will be a sense of escalation within matches and shows and over time. They can rebalance the scales, replenish the value of the smallest, most intimate moments so that the wildest, most athletic ones can mean all the more. A greatness can be achieved that isn't disposable, that lasts with the audience for more than a day or a week or a month, maybe even forever.

It may not be what the fans claim to want right now, not what would get the most immediate short term reward, but it's very much what they need, what we need, an investment in the future of the artform, a way to stop the spiraling and guide it forward in a steady, controlled manner, where the wrestler, not the audience (and yes, not even the critic) charts the course with purpose in mind.

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FOUND FOOTAGE FRIDAY: OMNI '87~! OTTO~! STRONGBOW~!

Otto Wanz vs. Jay Strongbow Graz, Austria 7/7/79

MD: This is the earliest Otto Wanz footage I'm aware of. It's part of Richard Land's patreon drop for this month. It goes ~40 with 30 of that being actual wrestling and not round breaks. It has an absolutely remarkable crowd. Hopefully he has a bit more of 1979 Austria/Germany in that tape collection because I want to see more of these fans. They were singing and chanting early, but they were up for absolutely everything and did they ever love Otto.

This is also an incredibly rare look at heel Chief Jay Strongbow. Maybe surprisingly, he brought the goods. This was right in the midst of the Valentine feud where Valentine broke Strongbow's leg, and he came in off of that and was an absolute bastard here. Otto spent most of the match trying to fight fair while Strongbow would fire off on him in the corner and punch and tear at his wound. If Otto was able to fire back, he rolled on out to the floor and they repeated the cycle. 

While the fans went way over the top every time Otto fired back, he controlled just a bit too much of this. Strongbow might charge in before the bell and he'd find ways to get under Otto and the fans' skin but he needed to be on top just a little more in the middle rounds. That said, when Otto finally had enough and started hitting back on Strongbow's terms, ignoring the rules, the fans were in high heaven. This wasn't quite as good as the Studd match but it was still an accomplishment for them to be able to go that long and still get it mostly right. Primarily though, this was about atmosphere. Just an amazing crowd; hopefully we get to see them again.

JCP Omni 2/1/87

MD: Almost anyone reading this watched it in real time and knows how special it was. Yes, it was a short card full of "tournament lucha"-esque short matches because we don't have the main event (Flair vs Windham - 60 minutes) as that was on another card, but it was our first new Omni show in years and hopefully the start of a new trend.

Bill Dundee vs.  Dutch Mantel

MD: Dundee was the Central States champ here. Dutch controlled the center to start, was Dundee stooged around, eating a back body drop, complaining about a phantom hair pull, wanting time out. They had a great bit early where Dundee got an eye rake and went for Shoo Baby only for Dutch to get it back and Dundee to take a whip trip. Eventually Bill managed a low blow and took over on the arm for a bit. Mantel hit one of the many great punches in such a short match and they went towards the finish, with Dundee escaping a roll up and pulling the tights for the win. Starting a trend for the night everything looked great in this one.

Bob Armstrong vs. Jimmy Garvin

MD: 30 second crowd pleaser. I wouldn't have minded seeing what they'd do with a little bit of time but it wasn't meant to be. My favorite bit here was Garvin acting like he won after the fact (to no small amounts of heat too).

Arn Anderson vs. Brad Armstrong

MD: These weren't just matches for the sake of matches. This was shortly after Lex's debut and this show was another cog in the machine of getting him over as a key associate of the Four Horsemen, even if he wasn't wrestling on the card.  For something that's been locked in a vault for so long, the amount of care in the production is interesting. It's not just a single camera. They cut to JJ or cut to a reaction from Luger. This was meant to be shown. It just simply never was.

Obviously, Arn and Brad match up extremely well. There's a certain elaboration to the early sequences where they go around one more time than you'd expect or turn things in a way that feels just a little unpredictable while throwing everything they have into it. We had another quasi low blow to set up the heat, two matches in a row, this time off of an Arn inverted atomic drop out of the corner. One of the best things about this set up (more on this next match) was how well we could hear the wrestlers. Arn, after taking over, just says "Now, then..." and what came after the ellipse is his beatdown of Brad. They moved through it quickly with the spinebuster (being the most versatile move in wrestling) serving as a cutoff to a hope spot, before Bard caught Arn coming off the top. Finish had Lex intervene by pulling out the leg on a suplex. Just a small movement, nothing over the top, and then right back into his seat. A way to get him over as efficient and professional. Obviously it would have been nice to get a few more minutes of this but they made the best of the time they had.

Tully Blanchard vs. Wahoo McDaniel

MD: It's hard to go from modern wrestling to any of this, even for me who spends all of his time jumping around time and space. This match is the trickiest though. Everything looks so good and so credible. Every strike is a violent delight. It's almost shocking to see Wahoo chop away in the corner. It's so different from anything else you'd see today. There's nothing framed about it. It's not a product for TV. It's was there to capture every eye in the arena and somehow that translates better onto the screen than something perfectly posed for a hard cam.

Tully is so vocal here, blabbing on about how he's an honorable man, complaining about every perceived offense perpetrated by Wahoo. I imagine only the first few rows could even hear it but it was part of his full immersion into the moment. There was no going through the motions. He was living and breathing the part. It's magic watching him scramble out of the ring or try to dash his way back for a sneak attack only to get caught and have his limbs somehow fall over one another. Selling isn't even the word for how he takes Wahoo's stuff. His portrayal was so good that it warped reality and made the the lie more vibrant than any truth could possibly be. 

The finish was simple, straightforward, matter of fact. Wahoo had him down. JJ drew the ref. Lex casually rose, clocked Wahoo with the belt, and sat back down, crossing his arms. Nothing over the top. Everything subdued. Just a great way to establish Luger.

Elimination Tag: Ron Garvin/Robert Gibson vs. Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey/Bobby Eaton)

MD: Very fun seeing Garvin in there instead of Gibson for whatever reason. He was tagging with Windham regularly at the time, including feuding with the Midnights. You have to love Gibson in the shine. There was the spot where he leaped frogged over Eaton after Condrey had tagged in and you expect Condrey to be about to tag him, but Gibson just stops short and hits a bodyslam instead. Or Eaton feeding for Gibson when he was outside after tagging Garvin in. You'd half expect him to try to take Gibson off the apron with a cheapshot but he just gets nailed over and over. It plays with expectations just a little while feeling totally organic. Likewise, they played with them by having Garvin get his foot on the rope after the Bubba shot, something that followed two finishes where Lex had interfered in a similar way.

This morphed into a conventional tag for a bit with Garvin working from underneath. His comeback just being a shoulder block out of the corner was actually unconventional but fit him perfectly. The racket shot that took out Gibson was pretty nasty. Then, as Eaton was rolling Gibson out, Garvin rolled him up to even the sides. Maybe you would have wanted a second bit of heat to play on the numbers advantage instead but they were wrestling against the clock and these matches were so rare that almost any tweak must have felt new and fresh. They still had Condrey control for a bit until they cracked heads and went into the finish. Garvin went over after the miscommunication, but they made sure to get some heat back on him after the match.

Super Powers (Dusty Rhodes/Nikita Koloff) vs. Ivan Koloff/Vladimir Petrov

MD: Shame we miss out on the Dusty/Nikita entrance here. Non match as the Russians immediately use the chain. It's a little surprising how little the fans seemed to care. They were just happy about Nikita firing back and Dusty and Nikita having their hands raised. Not sustainable but it was early enough into the turn, maybe that was all that mattered. Just a crazy notion in 2024 that people would care so much about their guys winning that they'd accept a non-match like this. Different worlds. You can barely even compare them.

Road Warriors vs. Ragin' and Ravishin' 

MD: Definitely a show where maybe too many heels had the titles. Again, when the Roadies were proclaimed as the winners by DQ, the place went nuts, so maybe I'm wrong. Business doesn't stay good forever though. This was fun just to see Rude and Manny bounce off of the Warriors. When it was time for Hawk to get worked over, he balanced being a Frankenstein's Monster with being properly vulnerable extremely well. It's a tough line to walk but he walked it, things like popping up from the pile driver but only half way, just in his body language. It's tough to play sympathetic while remaining a entirely larger than life but he managed it and that just ramped things up for the hot tag.

ER: An hour of perfectly shot Omni footage shows up with little warning, incomplete but a gift nonetheless. I didn't expect the work to offer us any new insight into any of the workers as most of these undercard matches were short, but I am an easily persuaded man. I have the kind of simple brain that can watch one hour of wrestling from 1987 and come away with new opinions on workers that we have hundreds of hours of footage from. I'm going to say that it's because we got this footage in such sparkling HD, and more importantly some of the most crystal clear sound you will ever hear on a wrestling show. That might have been my favorite part of this gift, that there was no commentary so you didn't even have to turn your TV up too loud to hear details happening in the ring and the crowd that you would have otherwise never heard. I love any new handheld footage that we get. Handhelds might be my favorite kind of wrestling these past few years, giving us the experience of being in the crowd seeing pairings that otherwise never made TV. But this footage? This footage makes it feel like you're standing at ringside in 1987. You can hear so many little things, and the footage looks beautiful. There were 4,500 people in the Omni that night and due to the way they lit the place we can see maybe 30 of them. But we can hear what sounds like 10,000 of them. Wrestling is mic'd so terribly now that crowds are muted, commentary is king, and we realize that the crowds are muted because there just weren't instances of audience members trying to get themselves over in 1987. It was pure. 

When some woman screams out"Work on him, Dutch, work on him!" it's because she cannot stand Bill Dundee. Being here at ringside you can feel how badly these heels were hated, feel how adored every babyface was, and here in-ring insights that we've seen but never heard so clearly. When the ref admonishes Dundee for grabbing Dutch's hair, I've never heard Dundee say anything as hilarious as, "The hair? I don't want to touch his hair." Dutch Mantel did not give anyone a chance to not touch his hair. We get to hear better than ever before, every single Tully Blanchard dumb asshole flip out. Tully looks like Wings Hauser and screams at the ref over every non-infraction like a small-dicked high school assistant basketball coach. You've seen the body language of Tully being the biggest asshole in wrestling but you've never heard him like this. Every wrestler on this card is a wrestler with great body language, but getting such clear audio to pair with the body language is so special. It would have been great enough seeing Manny Fernandez and Rick Rude stumble and beg off from the Road Warriors, but things like hearing Manny screaming out NO! as Rude almost goes for a one-handed knucklelock with Hawk, or Manny screaming NOOOOOO! in a totally different way when he's getting press slammed for the second time. It gives such a new dimension to these workers and these matches. 

The two big tag matches on this show were as great as they looked on paper. Rick Rude was one of the hardest workers in history and my opinion on him goes up whenever we get new footage. I don't think I've ever seen a Rude match where he wasn't On the entire time, and seeing he and Manny both On against the Roadies is just great pro wrestling. Rude and Manny don't just bump all over the place, they're doing a constant physical routine against two of the most physical monsters of the era. Also, is Hawk one of the 100 greatest wrestlers of all time? If you had asked me 5 years ago I wouldn't have considered either Road Warrior for a Top 100, but Hawk was something else man. After going back and seeing how great "washed" 1998 Hawk was and seeing more and more footage from the decade before, it's clear that Hawk never needed Animal to be a real force in wrestling. This man had It. An unreal aura and some damn great in ring. I don't know how many better flying clotheslines I've seen than Hawk's in this tag. The clothesline off the middle or top buckle is one of the tougher clotheslines. You have to worry about your landing more than the impact of your clothesline, so they often land soft. Hawk's lands as hard as any of his running clotheslines and he follows it through all the way to the mat, like he was doing a flying STO. I think I've seen Daisuke Ikeda hit one better, but Hawk, man. I love this guy. 

This was a one hour presentation with nothing but highlights. The crack of Dutch's whip with this HD sound. Dennis Condrey making me ask aloud "wait was Dennis Condrey the better worker in the original Midnights?" The way Big Bubba held Robert Gibson for racket shots, and the perfect timing of Jim Cornette jumping to the apron to racket Gibson mid-headscissors. The way the Ragin Bull chopped Animal harder than either Road Warrior could hit. Lex Luger's two perfect pieces of interference to help Arn and Tully, remaining completely uninvolved in each match until the finish, sitting arms crossed and observing the matches like an indifferent-faced innocent boy, other than two quick moments of a grabbed ankle and a belt to Wahoo's face. The noise these people made for Nikita. This whole show was moment after moment after moment. And finally, we got to see them and hear them clearer than the folks in Atlanta that night. 

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El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: The Ghost Brings Chaos

Week 36:  The Ghost Brings Chaos

EB: TNT has once again been thwarted in his quest for the Universal title. It looks like there was a plan in place among the duo of TNT and Kim Duk to ensure each walked away with a title on September 8. While TNT was successful in helping Duk win the Caribbean title (more on this shortly), Duk was not successful in his attempt to help TNT win the Universal title. Thanks to noticing Duk just in time and also being in a position to use TNT as a shield, Carlos Colon was able to avoid being misted in the face. Instead , TNT took the brunt of the spray and was pinned. Does this mean that TNT has run out of chances at the Universal title? Carlos Colon probably thinks so, but we will have to see if TNT will let the matter go. 

The barbed wire match was not the only notable match to take place on the September 8 house show. Abdullah the Butcher made a quick return to Puerto Rico and went to a double countout with Giant Warrior. Roadblock made his debut appearance for CSP in a match against Mr. Pogo. The Super Medicos were finally able to regain the World tag team titles from Lance Idol & Rick Valentine. As mentioned already, Kim Duk defeated Invader #1 in a kendo stick on pole match to win the Caribbean title. Also on the card was the Caribbean Express defending their Caribbean tag titles against recent arrivals the Texas Hangmen. Let’s go to Estadio Juan Ramon Loubriel for that encounter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G20fgmIJZKI

EB:  You can tell this match is from September 8 since you have the coal miner’s pole attached to one of the corners. This is the Hangmen’s second week in and already they are challenging for gold. Your announce team is Hugo Savinovich and El Profe, so this must be from a Campeones airing. As the video starts, Hugo appears to be talking about the difficulty in telling the Hangmen apart and how that causes problems when figuring out who the legal man is. El Profe interrupts, basically seeing himself on screen and waxes poetic about how handsome he is. Hugo asks if he needs a moment and El Profe says he was only stating reality. Hugo asks him if his mother accepts the reality of who her son is and Profe says that he gives her an autographed photo of himself as her Mother's Day gift (much to her delight) and she has a wall filled with his pictures. Hugo marvels that mothers are such wonderful beings that they forgive their son's faults. El Profe counters with "Just like your mother", and from there Hugo says the match is about to start so let's focus on that. Castillo and one of the Hangmen start (it seems it is the one who has more hair sticking out from behind his mask). They lock up and back up to a corner where they exchange chops. El Profe starts putting over the Hangmen's size and that he only brings the cream of the crop to Puerto Rico. Hugo tries to figure out which Hangmen (Psycho or Killer) is in the ring, while Profe says that it doesn't matter which one's which, the important thing is that one's in and the other's outside. Hugo ends up indicating that Psycho is on the apron and Killer is in the ring.

Early in the match, Castillo uses his quickness to get a quick advantage. The Hangmen regroup and Profe rings the cowbell in support (Profe on commentary: "Who does the bell toll for, it tolls for Miguelito and Castillo. What a beautiful thought."). Hugo mentions that this Thursday they will be in Guanica and runs down the list of wrestlers scheduled. There is some confusion as to which Hangman should be in the ring, so the referee makes them tag again. Psycho and Castillo do a test of strength ,and Psycho gets the initial advantage. Profe starts saying that it is not that hard to tell them apart, one has blue eyes and the other has green eyes (Me: Good luck with that ref!). 

We go to a commercial break and are back with the Hangmen still in control, although with Miguelito in. Hugo says that the Hangmen have had a tough time putting away the Caribbean Express. Profe explains that it's his fault, he hasn't yet fully counseled the Hangmen about their opponents style, but he'll remedy that soon. At this point, the Hangman in the ring (Killer probably due to the hair) and Perez knock heads and both go down. Psycho is tagged in but misses a dive from the top and Miguelito makes the hot tag. Castillo cleans house on both rudos and then all four men are in the ring. Hugo mentions that this Friday they will be in Camuy. In addition there will also be  a concert at Camuy. Castillo comes off the top with a cross body for the pin, but the ref is busy getting Miguelito out of the ring. The other Hangman jumps off the top onto Castillo and they get the pinfall and the titles (Hugo: That's illegal!; El Profe: Illegal my foot! That was beautiful!). Hugo complains that there was cheating involved while Profe celebrates that they are the champs. Huracan and Miguelito proceed to attack the Hangmen after the match, mad about the outcome (El Profe complains that they are sore losers). The ref is trying to restore order as the Hangmen take control and proceed to hang Miguelito (El Profe: My guys may have gotten slightly out of control there, but I like what they're doing to Miguelito). The ref's has seen enough and proceeds to reverse the decision and award the match by DQ to the Caribbean Express. Thus, they remain the champs (El Profe: Why is the ref doing this! They attacked first!). The Caribbean Express retains the titles but Miguelito is down on the mat feeling the effects of being hanged for a while by the Texas Hangmen. 

MD: I wasn’t expecting the Hangmen to give so much early but then they were going to win. AWA was never a high heat territory and while I’m not as familiar with what it was like at the end, I imagine they had to give a lot there too. They took over on Perez and looked pretty effective in their control. I’ll eventually figure out how to tell them apart hopefully. Profe ringing the cowbell was a good part of the act. Castillo came in hot after the hot tag and knocked them around. Then we got the same sort of finish we’ve gotten so many times in the last year with a heel coming in off the top to break up a pin and switch things around. Post match they made good use of the bullrope with an insult to injury hanging though (and apparently reversing the decision to put over the severity of it all too). Not a bad way to get the new heels over immediately.

EB: As we move forward to September 15, it has become a bit more clear what TNT is focused on now, which is getting revenge on the person who he blames cost him the chance to win the Universal title. And that person is not Kim Duk. It is someone who had interfered previously to save the Universal title when it looked like TNT had Carlos Colon out with the Cobra Dinanita. That person is Invader #1. 

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

EB: Hugo presents the recent altercations between Invader #1 and TNT. The most recent incidents started on September 8, when Invader # 1 was defending the Caribbean title vs Kim Duk in a kendo stick on a pole match. Invader and Duk were playing tug of war with the kendo stick and Invader hit a dropkick to knock Duk down and gain control of the stick. Invader starts attacking Duk with the kendo stick as the crowd cheers on. Duk falls to the mat and Invader continues with kendo stick shots to Duk’s head, busting him open. Invader uses the kendo stick as a clothesline to knock Duk down again, but a second attempt misses Duk and Invader accidentally takes out the referee instead. Invader looks to hit Duk again but TNT has run out and jumped up on the ring apron. Invader takes a swing at TNT, who ducks the blow. Invader on the turnaround decides to hit Duk before he can attack but when.Invader goes for a second strike, TNT reaches out and grabs the stick. Invader is wide open and Duk hits two kicks that knock him down. Duk covers Invader as the ref recovers and TNT hightails it back to the dugout. The referee makes a three count and Kim Duk is the new Caribbean champion (so that part of the plan went as they wanted). We then go to the most recent TV tapings in Miramar (I’m guessing the 12th), where TNT was making some comments about Invader that caused him to rush out and attack TNT. Both men start fighting at ringside and take it into the ring. El Profe starts yelling for TNT to ‘finish off that imbecile, hit him, hit him!’ Invader and TNT continue fighting in the ring and TNT sends Invader into the ropes for a clothesline attempt that Invader ducks. On the rebound, Invader squares up and catches TNT with the heart punch. TNT gets to his feet for a second but then collapses from the blow’s effect  El Profe starts protesting and Invader yells that this is only the beginning. El Profe is then shown helping TNT to the back.

Later in the taping, TNT had recovered enough to make another appearance. It was during a match between Invader and Rick Valentine, where after Valentine tossed Invader to the outside, TNT ran out with a net and threw it over Invader. TNT teed off on the trapped Invader, as Valentine casually left the ring area. After hitting Invader several times, TNT put on the Cobra Dinamita with Invader still trapped in the net. TNT kept the hold on until Invader was put to sleep, while El Profe was running interference and trying to keep the ref away from interfering. TNT finally broke the hold and left with El Profe, leaving an unconscious Invader (still trapped in the net) unconscious on the floor. Since TNT had refused to wake Invader up, Victor Jovica and then Huracan Castillo come out to help wake Invader up from the hold’s effects. 

TNT and Invader are scheduled for a grudge match tonight and we get comments first from TNT and El Profe. Profe starts by saying ‘he who laughs last laughs best, and tonight Invader, TNT will laugh right in your face’.TNT agrees with El Profe and says ‘and what an ugly fish we caught, didn’t we’ as they both chuckle at the comment. TNT says that Invader hit him with the heart punch and he is still feeling it right now. But remember that when he put the Cobra Dinamita and that net on Invader, he left him sleeping like the dog that he is. Tonight it's a grudge match because TNT knows invader has a grudge with TNT, but TNT has an even bigger grudge with Invader, since Invader cost him the Universal title. TNT continues taking heaving breaths as he rants that the Universal title means a lot to him and that tonight he swears by his mother he will finish Invader. 

Next is Hugo is with Invader #1 and Hugo says that TNT has said that tonight he plans on taking Invader out. Invader calmly responds by saying that he thinks that TNT has filled the glass up to the very top, there are no more drops that the glass can take. Last week the fans saw how thanks to TNT he is no longer the Caribbean champion. The fans have also seen what happened at the TV taping, with the net, the Cobra Dinamita and the refusal to wake him up. Invader starts talking about what he has planned for tonight when the video cuts to the card rundown for that night’s show at Estadio Juan Ramon Loubriel. The scheduled card is as follows: Carlos Colon defends the Universal title against Kim Duk; Invader #1 vs TNT in a grudge match; Giant Warrior vs Roadblock; the Super Medicos defend their newly won World tag team titles against the former champions Lance Idol & Rick Valentine; The Caribbean Express defend the Caribbean tag titles against The Infernos; Invader #4 challenges Ron Starr for the World Junior title; and other great stars. We also get an ad for the September 19 TV taping at Miramar, with the following scheduled matches: a no DQ rematch between the teams of Invader #1 & Giant Warrior and TNT & Kim Duk; the Super Medicos vs Lance Idol & Rick Valentine; Miguelito Perez vs Roadblock; a rematch between Huracan Castillo Jr. and Ron Starr; and other bouts

MD: This looks like a great feud! At least we have this much to walk us through it. First, that Kim Duk vs Invader match had a super hot finish where they were fighting over the Kendo Stick. Invader got it and just clocked Kim Duk repeatedly until he accidentally got the ref with a cross check. Then TNT got involved and Duk got a lucky kick and won the title. That was followed by Invader ambushing TNT on an interview and them having a heated brawl and then more heated promos between the two. I wasn’t sure they’d be able to really transfer the feud over to Invader, especially since they ran the match once or twice after the full heel turn but this looked like it was really working. 

EB: We don’t have full results for September 15, but know that Carlos Colon retained the Universal title against Kim Duk, the Super Medicos retained the World tag titles against Lance Idol and Rick Valentine, the Caribbean Express retained their Caribbean tag titles, and Invader #4 defeated Ron Starr to win the World Jr. title. We have a tag match involving the World Junior title match participants from TV shortly after Invader #4 won the World Junior title, as the Invaders take on Ron Starr and El Exotico.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0ZNqkodlp8

EB: The ring introductions are made and Hugo Savinovich notes that Ron Starr has returned to wearing tights instead of the camo gear we have seen him have. Invader #4 and Exotico start off for their teams. They work a move sequence that ends with Invader #4 catapulting Exotico over. They repeat the sequence but this time Exotico is the one trying to catapult Invader#4. However, this does not work since Invader #4 stops short and stomps on the waiting Exotico. A dropkick sends Exotico back into the rudo corner and Ron Starr is tagged in. Invader #1 is also tagged in and we get the veterans squaring off. They work a nice grapple sequence off a side headlock and Invader #1 eventually hits a dropkick on Ron. Invader #1 again goes for the side headlock which leads to a pin counter and then a reversal, echoing the earlier sequence. Invader #1 gets an arm wringer on Starr and tags Invader #4. The Invaders proceed to work over Ron’s arm while making quick tags. Ron is able to take down invader #4 with a hiptoss and a punch exchange results in Invader #4 being backed into a corner. Hugo mentions that Invader #4 recently won the World Junior title from Ron Starr. Both men exchange several strikes and chops (with Starr even egging on Invader #4 to hit him), but Ron ends up taking Invader #4 down with a snapmare and tags in Exotico. The rudos remain in control as Exotico hits a nice clothesline, but he takes a moment to grandstand and only gets a two count. Ron is tagged back in and the rudos get a double clothesline on Invader #4. The resulting pin attempt is broken up by Invader #1. Ron hits a few knee strikes on Invader #4, then a hiptoss and a kneedrop for a pin attempt. Invader #1 breaks it up. Exotico is tagged in and he comes of the turnbuckle with a forearm smash to Inavder #4’s back. Exotico is briefly in control, but Invader #4 lands on his feet after a backdrop attempt and quickly tags in Invader #1, who cleans house on both rudos. All four men end up in the ring and the rudos get irish whipped into each other, resulting in Ron Starr being clotheslined out of the ring. Exotico then irish whips Invader #4 into a corner, but Invader #4 jumps on the turnbuckle and counters with a reverse flying body press that gets the three count. Ron Starr immediately leaves the ring area as the Invaders celebrate their victory.

MD: I don’t get putting the title on Invader 4 when they really need to be establishing Ron Starr as an anchor but I’ll see how it plays out in the margins, I get. This was a fun little five minute match, pretty complete for what it was. Exotico and Starr got bounced around by both Invaders to start. They were really highlighting Invader 4 here. Got a kick out of the verve Exotico put into things when he and Starr did finally take over on 4. Starr was more grounded and focused. Eventually some acrobatics got 4 to the corner and 1 came in hot en route to Exotico getting steamrolled by a press back off the ropes for the win. Good Invaders showcase overall. Exotico is not Mercenario material. They could have the Invaders challenge as a tag team whenever they needed.

EB: Invader #4’s reign as World Junior champion would be a short one, as Ron Starr would regain the title at the September 26 TV taping. However, this new reign by Ron Starr would also be a short one, as the World Junior title would end up back in the hands of Huracan Castillo Jr. on the October 6 house show. This would also signal the end of Ron Starr’s run in CSP in 1990. Ron has been a semi-regular presence in the territory since 1986, coming in for several months at a time and then leaving for a few months before returning. We’ll see if he resurfaces in the future but for now we bid farewell to one of the most underrated wrestlers of the 80s.  

Speaking of short title reigns, the World tag titles are also about to experience a quick change as well. The Super Medicos had regained the World tag titles on September 8 and defended them against the former champs on September 15. But at the September 19th TV tapings, the Super Medicos defended their titles against recent arrivals the Texas Hangmen and the match resulted in the World tag titles being held up. A rematch was signed for September 22 in Caguas. That September 22 card was basically rematched all around, beside the rematch for the held up World tag titles, the card also had Carlos Colon vs Kim Duk; Invader #1 vs TNT; Giant Warrior taking on Roadblock in a lumberjack match (I guess their previous match must have ended in a double countout); and Invader #4 vs Ron Starr. It is not listed in the results, but it is likely that Lance Idol and Rick Valentine had an unsuccessful shot at the Caribbean tag titles on that show. But if you are worried about Rick Valentine going without championship gold, do not fear. The next day (September 23) in Juana Diaz, Rick Valentine and his tag partner won the Caribbean tag titles from Perez and Castillo. I say tag partner because that person was not Lance Idol, who has left CSP. The Super Medicos would win the held up World tag titles that night in Caguas. 

One other match scheduled for September 22 was Sasha getting her chance to face Monster Ripper one on one. Sasha has been a big help to the Super Medicos and it seems that all that remains to really put this rivalry involving the Super Medicos, Idol & Valentine and their seconds is this loose end of Sasha getting her shot at Monster Ripper. But sometimes, when you least expect it, the ghosts from your past come back to haunt you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUxeKFnQVm8

Eric Embry has returned to Puerto Rico. It’s been four years since his run as one of the most hated rudos in CSP, and it has been about a year or so since he made his last appearance in the territory.  Hugo Savinovich narrates the recent events that have occurred as a result of this unwelcome return. A still image of Super Medico and Eric Embry is on screen as Hugo talks about who can forget the rivalry Embry and Super Medico had years ago, back when Eric Embry had Sasha as his valet and would be abusive towards her. This would result in Medico and Embry crossing paths back then and now this rivalry has gotten more intense. This time Embry has Rick Valentine and Monster Ripper on his side (so Embry is taking the place of Lance Idol) while Super Medico has his son and Sasha on his side. Hugo says to forget what happened between them is almost impossible, but Embry is a violent man and he has a specific type of violence around him. We go back to September 22 in Caguas, where Sasha is set to take on Monster Ripper. Without warning,  Eric Embry appeared out of nowhere, looking to reclaim Sasha as if she were his personal property. The clip from Caguas rolls as Hugo calls this a historic moment. Sasha is staring from the ring with a look of disbelief, and it turns out it is Eric Embry (looking scuzzy as ever) making gestures at Sasha as if to say you and me girl. Sasha goes outside, Embry moves in for a hug and Sasha just slaps Embry in the face (to the crowd’s approval). The match starts after that and we jump to later in the match as Sasha is taking advantage of a missed charge by Monster Ripper to get some offense in. All of a sudden, Eric Emrby makes his return to the ring area and ends up distracting Sasha with his presence on the ring apron. Ripper takes advantage of Sasha having her back turned and grabs Sasha from behind. Embry casually strolls into the ring and just straight up punches Sasha in the face. The ref calls for the DQ and Ripper gives Embry a hug. Sasha is out on the mat and before anything else can happen, the Super Medicos run out through the crowd and head straight to the ring. Embry and Ripper make their escape as the Medicos stare them down.

Back to Hugo in the studio who has some strong words about Embry: ‘Friends, Eric Embry really is a low life, he has no scruples, because can you even imagine going to a low of such magnitude as hitting a woman, hitting a lady. And especially in his case, where one can expect practically anything, I was left shocked, because even knowing how he is, to have done this and to be bragging about it is beyond.’ Hugo mentions that we know Super Medico is not going to let anything happen to Sasha, because he made some statements on a recent Castle of Fear segment. We go to a clip of that segment, where Super Medico and Sasha are with Monster Ripper. Sasha has an injured eye from Embry’s punch and Medico is doing all of the talking. ‘Look Monster Ripper, it’s not that Sasha is afraid of you, or that I’m here to defend her from you, it’s from your disciple Eric Embry. Because what he did last week to Sasha, hitting her with a punch, that is not something a man does. I have made it my goal that Eric Emrby will not touch her again.’ For her part, Monster Ripper looks a bit chagrined while Super Medico is giving his message.

Back to Hugo, where he states that Eric Embry has once again realized that Super Medico is once more in his way. He wants to get to Sasha and Super Medico is blocking him. So Embry has decided to injure Super Medico or come up with a way to hurt him more than physically. We go to Miramar on September 26, where it was supposed to be a tag match between the Super Medicos and Embry and Valentine. Embry shows up in street clothes and with a bandaged foot, he is claiming he is injured and cannot wrestle. Eliud Gonzalez is doing the ring intros and announces that the ref has indicated that Embry could not wrestle because he is injured. Super Medico #1 is getting ready to face Valentine in a singles match (and you can see that the Medicos are the reigning World tag team champions at this point in time since they are wearing the belts), but Ripper and Valentine start insisting that they want Super Medico #3 instead as the opponent. They get their way, and we cut to the end of the contest, where Super Medico #3 gets the win with a sunset flip. Valentine attacks Medico #3 from behind when he was having his hand raised, and Embry and Ripper emerge from the back. Embry’s foot is magically healed and the rudos proceed to attack Medico #3. Embry hits Medico #3 over the head with a boot, Embry continues attacking Medico #3 and you can see that Medico #3 is bleeding from the forehead through his mask. Medico #1 runs out to make the save but Valentine heads outside to cut Medico #1 off and hold him back from the ring. Embry continues the attack in the ring as Medico #1 is desperately trying to get Valentine off him and get in the ring. Medico #1 finally kicks Valentine away and gets in the ring, with Embry immediately hightailing it out of there. Medico #1 checks on his son, who has been left in bad shape in the ring.

We go to a promo from the rudo trio, and they have their recently won Caribbean tag titles with them. The more notable comments come from Eric Embry, where he makes it clear that this has only just begun because ‘that Puerto Rican dog Sasha’ belongs to him. The Super Medicos get their chance to respond, promising to avenge what they did to Super Medico #3. Medico #1 also reiterates that he is not going to let Embry get at Sasha, what he did by punching her was the lowest thing one can do. Embry is a parasite, and you squash parasites. This is not a rivalry, this is a war.

MD: Talk about heating up the territory. Between the Hangmen and the great stuff between Invader and TNT and this, everything feels hot. Embry coming out as a surprise, wanting the embrace, and getting slapped was a great moment but then things go way over the top as he hits Sasha as Ripper holds her. They followed it up by him faking an injury so that Valentine could have a singles match against Medico #3 only to run out perfectly fine once Valentine slipped on a banana peel and lost. High heat stuff. Lance Idol for Eric Embry is an all time trade in the promotion’s favor. Huge shot in the arm. 

EB: With all that has happened from Eric Embry’s return, it's not surprising that the Super Medicos would end up losing the World tag titles to the Texas Hangmen on September 29. Between the Hangmen’s tendency to play dirty, and the distraction Embry is likely causing to their focus, the Super Medicos are no longer the World tag team champions. But to the Medicos, their focus is now entirely on Eric Embry and his allies. You can bet that this feud between the Super Medicos and Embry & Valentine is only just beginning.

Elsewhere, we have had a couple of intense weeks of TNT fighting Invader #1, both in singles matches at the arenas and at the TV tapings in tag matches involving Kim Duk and Giant Warrior as their respective tag partners. We go to one of these tag matches from the end of September.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39bWWfptCYI

The video opens with Hugo Savinovich and El Profe, where they are about to show the main event of the program. But before getting to the match, Hugo starts talking about how in his opinion, this match will show that all is not well between TNT and Kim Duk. El Profe says that Hugo should not be sowing discord or dissent, but Hugo interrupts saying they went to blows. Profe said that things happen in the heat of the moment and when the adrenaline is flowing, but this does not mean that things are off. Everything's good, under control, TNT is happy and feels comfortable being with them. Hugo wants the fans to see for themselves what happened and El Profe starts complaining again as they go to the match. 

The match is in progress with TNT putting Invader in a sleeperhold. Hugo reminds the fans that this Thursday they will be in Guayanilla. As TNT keeps working the hold and Invader tries to fight out of it, Hugo reminds the kids watching that they should never attempt these holds, these are dangerous moves and can badly hurt someone if you are not trained in how to execute them properly. Invader gets to his feet and TNT sends Invader into the ropes. A clothesline and dynamite kick are ducked by Invader, and he hits a clothesline off the ropes that sends both men down. Invader slaps the mat and tags in Giant Warrior. TNT is overwhelmed by Warrior and Duk comes in to help, but to no avail. Warrior easily attacks both rudos as Hugo puts over the size difference between Warrior and his opponents. Warrior hits a clothesline on TNT and then one on Duk, which brings in Invader #1. All four men are in the ring, leading to the rudos being irish whipped into each other. Duk is knocked out of the ring and the ref tells Invader to go back to the ring apron. 

Meanwhile, TNT and Giant warrior are exchanging blows in the ring. As the ref is distracted with getting Invader #1 to his corner, TNT holds Warrior so that Duk can hit him with the kendo stick. Warrior ducks and TNT gets hit with the kendo stick instead. Duk throws the kendo stick in frustration, as Giant Warrior and Invader stand on their side of the ring and watch the rudos. TNT gets up and has some words with Duk, The two rudos start shoving and punching each other. El Profe quickly jumps into the ring to try to separate his guys, with little effect. El Profe on commentary starts asking if they could cut the video here but Hugo says no. A group of rudos rush the ring to separate TNT and Duk, as the tecnicos stay in the corner enjoying the breakdown between TNT and Kim Duk. The referee awards the win by DQ to Invader and Warrior. Meanwhile, Eric Embry and El Profe are holding TNT back while Monster Ripper and Rick Valentine are holding Kim Duk back. As El Profe tries to calm things down in the ring, on commentary Profe and Hugo are going back and forth on whether things are okay or not (El Profe says everything is smoothed over, Hugo keeps reiterating that it does not look that way to him). As the rudos continue talking things out, you can hear the crowd start making noise and trying to get them riled up again. El Profe says that everything is fine, they shook hands so all is good. Hugo harps on how long it took for them to get to shaking hands and wonders if TNT is satisfied with that apology. The segment ends with the rudos peacefully leaving the ring as Profe says that you can see TNT is satisfied and calm.TNT’s frustrations are really coming to a head for him. Duk has seemingly messed up a few times, although it does not seem to have been on purpose. Still, TNT has always had his hothead moments, and we will have to see if he can refocus or if things will spiral even more for him.

MD: All things must come to an end I suppose. This starts with Profe saying everything’s cool with the Sports Club and then we cut to this tag. Invader starts in a TNT sleeper fighting from underneath like only he can. Once Warrior gets in after the hot tag he’s got lots of clubbering and clotheslines. His best stuff is that straight down shot and it looks pretty good. I wish he’d move just a tiny bit faster and hit a tiny bit harder but I can kind of live with him, I guess. Against the right heels, he’s a novelty. TNT catches him in the throat though and holds him for a Kim Duk kendo shot. Giant Warrior uses his superior agility to move and Duk hits TNT and chaos ensues. I like the range of the bad guys that come out, including Monster Ripper, to try to calm things down.

EB: The month of October brings some returns to CSP. Kamala is back for a brief shot, where he is scheduled to face Giant Warrior on October 6. Also making a  brief return during October is Ricky Santana. While we don’t have much footage from this nearly part of October, we have  two videos highlighting these two wrestlers. First we have a TV match featuring Kamala taking on Invader #1.

Invader #1 vs. Kamala (forowwc.com) - maybe 1990?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv1I9ImBGuY

Kamala returns for a brief stop in CSP and faces an old nemesis in Invader #1. The match is joined in progress, with Kamala working an armlock on Invader #1. Hugo and Eliud Gonzalez are on commentary, with Eliud mentioning that Kamala has to keep Invader at some length in order to avoid the strong hits Invader can give. Hugo mentions that both men have given their all so far, and you can tell the match has been going on for a while already. Invader fights back to his feet but Kamala pushes him back into the corner and hits an overhand chop. Kamala slaps his belly and looks at the crowd, only to continue with chops on Invader in the corner. Kamala chokes Invader with his foot and continues with more chops and headbutt that knocks Invader back down in the corner. This part of the match has been all Kamala, who dances around the ring in celebration. More chops and a choke in the corner, but Invader starts showing signs of life by slapping his chest to fire himself up. Kamala goes back for more chops but Invader starts firing back with chops of his own, and knocks down Kamala with a dropkick. The crowd comes alive as Invader stomps on Kamala and keeps slapping his chest. Invader is now in control and rams Kamala’s head into the corner. A blow to Kamala’s chest knocks him down, but when Invader goes over to grab Kamala, he is hit with a punch to the midsection. Kamala takes the opening to toss Invader through the ropes to the outside. Kamala raises an arm in celebration, while Invader tries to get back into the ring, Kamala attacks Invader, stopping him on the apron and knocking Invader back to the floor. A second attempt results in Invader again being kicked to the floor, but on the third attempt Invader fakes Kamala out and dodges the kick. Invader then grabs Kamala’s extended leg and drags the Ugandan warrior to the outside. Invader starts attacking Kamala on the outside, but the referee starts his ring out cut and eventually both men are counted out. No winner but Invader slides back into the ring to play to the crowd and seems to have gotten a bit of a moral victory.

MD: If you’re going to bring in Kamala for a cup of coffee, having your #2 babyface fight from underneath against him and then take the fight to him is not a bad choice really. I think we try to measure our praise to some degree, but Invader was incredible here. It’s just five minutes with a hold to start, but the way he fights up, the way he fights back, the way he recoils against getting swept back under and pulls Kamala out. And most importantly, the way he recovers on the floor with the kids in the middle. It’s all time pro wrestling stuff. It’s five minutes. Click the link and see just how good he was at what he did.

EB: And while we don’t have any matches of Ricky Santana in his October return, we do have a music video highlighting him. In it we can appreciate that apparently the ladies dig Ricky Santana (with some unintentional comedy abounding). 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0m9kA8tBKo

MD: I see this and think that Santana would have had more utility on the babyface side in 90 than Singh or Styles or whatever. This is funny both for the premise of a bus full of girls chasing him down and for how many of said young ladies had “Colon” in their last name during the credits.

EB: CSP had a show on October 6 in Bayamon that featured Carlos Colon defeating Roadblock; Invader #4 defeating Kim Duk by DQ; Giant Warrior defeating Kamala by countout; the Super Medicos and Eric Embry & Rick Valentine going to  a no contest (a lot of heat there based on what has happened so far); Huracan Castillo Jr. winning the World Jr. title from Ron Starr;  Sasha defeating Monster Ripper by countout; and Mr. Pogo went to a time limit draw with Ricky Santana. The following week on October 13, Sasha was finally able to defeat Monster Ripper and in the process won the women’s World title.

We close out this installment by checking back in with the Texas Hangmen. In the span of one month, Psycho and Killer have made it known that they have no qualms with using their bullropes and live up to their names against the tecnicos. They have used the bullropes to win matches and have tried hanging their opponents when given the chance. They have also won the World tag team championship. Let’s go to a TV match at one of the October TV tapings, where they are facing the Invaders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubuZ3EXl5lc

The match is joined in  progress with the Hangmen working over Invader #4. Hugo on commentary mentions that the Hangmen have been dominating the tag division by using the strategy of isolating one member of the team and focusing on them, weakening that specific opponent and then causing their other opponent to have to go at it 2 against 1. Or the Hangmen just flat out attempt to injure their opponents (as we saw happen in the match vs the Caribbean Express).  One of the Hangmen (still not sure which is which yet) makes a charge at Invader #4 in the corner, but Invader #4 gets out of the way and makes the tag to Invader #1. The Hangmen also make a tag but Invader #1 hits a dropkick on both Psycho and Killer and takes the attack to both of them. All four wrestlers end up in the ring, with the Invaders attacking the Hangmen in opposite corners. The Invaders try to irish whip the Hangmen into each other, but one of the Hangmen counters, causing Invader #4 to collide with a Hangman instead. Invader #4 is knocked out of the ring and now it is Invader #1 against the two Hangmen. Invader #1 holds his own for a while but the odds overwhelm him and the Hangmen back Invader up against the ropes. As the Hangmen are hitting Invader #1, El Profe takes out a pair of handcuffs and holds onto Invader #1’s leg, as the Hangmen handcuff Invader to the ropes. Hugo complains that the ref has not seen that they are cheating with the handcuffs when all of a sudden El Profe runs across the floor to grab a chair. El Profe hands it to one of the Hangmen, who promptly uses the chair to smack Invader #1 on the head. With Invader #1 knocked down to the mat, the Hangmen turn their attention to Invader #4 (who had been recovering on the outside of the ring from the earlier collision). Invader #4 briefly holds off Psycho and Killer with some dropkicks, but a third attempt is dodged and Invader #4 is left open for attack. The Hangmen grab one of their nooses and and they pick up Invader #4 in an attempt to hang him. The Hangmen can’t get a good grip on Invader #4 on their first attempt, but they reset and get him up on the second try. Hugo is worried that this could seriously hurt Invader #4, He is not left hanging for too long though, as the Super Medicos and Giant Warrior rush out to chase the Hangmen and Profe away. The Medicos check on Invader #4 as Hugo mentions that it may be that Invader #4 slipping on the first attempt may have been enough to save him from suffering a serious injury there. Invader #4 still looks like he may be worse for the wear and the Hangmen lose the match by DQ (although I’m sure they don’t really care too much about that).

MD: What was interesting to me here was how the Hangmen physically responded to Invader #1 getting the hot tag and coming in. They fed a little, getting knocked around a bit or knocked off the apron or eating a double noggin-knocker but in general they just held firm and absorbed the blows for long enough for Profe to grab Invader’s leg. That’s very different than almost any other opponent who was going to have Invader come in hot on them and it made them seem all the more foreboding and dangerous. Hugo had made the point earlier that their style was to really beat down one opponent so it became a 2-on-1 and that’s how things played out for a chunk of the ending and post-match. I’m not sure how much of this was a conscious decision or not but it was striking in the moment.

EB: The Texas Hangmen have continued with their use of the bullropes and the attempted hanging of their opponents. El Ejercito de la Justicia is getting tired of this, and after being handcuffed to the ring ropes, Invader #1 wants another crack at the Texas Hangmen. His partner this time around is the Universal champion and leader of El Ejercito de la Justicia, none other than Carlos Colon. Let’s see if this super team can teach the Hangmen a lesson. Let’s go to the October 17 TV taping in Miramar. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5av8DfHy2G0

EB: The ultimate tecnico team of Carlos Colon and Invader #1 is facing the World tag champs the Texas Hangmen in a non-title match. Their objective is to teach the Hangmen a lesson after the continued abuse and dangerous attacks they have attempted. Your announce team is Hugo Savinovich and Eliud Gonzalez. The commentators talk about how dangerous the Hangmen are and that experience favors the tecnicos. It's the courage of the tecnicos versus the tag champs that do not hesitate to hurt their opponents. The match is in progress, with Invader having one of the Hangmen down on the mat with a hammerlock. Carlos switches in when the ref’s back is turned to continue with the hammerlock,  and when Carlos yanks the mask at around the 40 second mark, Hugo says that this is a sign that the faces are going to fight fire with fire and are looking to avenge some of the abuses the Hangmen have committed with other members of El Ejercito de la Justicia. Carlos works over the Hangman’s arm and the commentators again mention the difficulty in telling which one is Killer and which one is Psycho. Invader is tagged in and again puts on a hammerlock, but the Hangman hits a back elbow to break the hold. A rope running sequence ends with Invader hiptossing the Hangman. Back to working the arm and again the tecnicos do a switch when the other Hangman tries to get in the ring as we get a commercial break.

We return to the Hangmen taking control, as Carlos gets backed into the rudo corner and gets double teamed. The Hangmen keep Carlos near their corner, raking his eyes across the top rope and taking advantage of a ref distraction to choke him with the bullrope in their corner. When they use the bullrope to choke Carlos in the corner, Hugo mentions that they are experts at using the rope and they don't care if they get DQ'd for using it. It's not enough to win, they have to finish their opponents. The match continues like this for a while, with the Hangmen working Carlos over and Invader making the save a few times when some pin attempts were made. After taking the continued punishment for a while, the announcers mention that if it weren’t for Colon’s fortitude he would likely have been beaten already. Carlos is able to make a tag but the ref misses it and the Hangmen continue to work over Carlos. A miscommunication by the Hangmen leads to the hot tag and Invader comes in on fire. Almost immediately Carlos goes back in and all four wrestlers are fighting in the ring. Ona attempted Irish whip collision, Invader surprises a Hangman with a small package and the tecnicos get the win .

The Hangmen are furious about losing and proceed to jump Colon and Invader. Colon (who had been worked over for most of the match) gets hit with the bullrope and tossed over the top and to the floor. El Profe jumps into the ring and holds down Invader’s arms, while the ref gets tossed outside. The Hangmen then proceed to attack Invader, and with Profe's help, hold him down and wrap the noose around his neck. Carlos tries to get back in but is hit in the head with the bell on the bullrope. The ref's calling for the bell and also tries to go back in but Profe cuts him off (Hugo: Profe's going to be fined for that!). The fans are throwing some garbage at the rudos and the Hangmen proceed to hang Invader with Profe running interference in the ring.

Invader #4 is quickly out to help his brother, but is cut off by Rick Valentine. Valentine's not even fighting, he is just grabbing the desperate Invader #4 to prevent him from reaching the ring. Miguelito Perez tries to get to the ring, but he's cut off by Eric Embry. Ricky Santana is next to try to save Invader, but he's cut off by Kim Duk. Meanwhile, Profe's holding off the ref from getting into the ring as Hugo starts worrying that Invader's life may be in danger. Giant Warrior tries to help, but he's held off by Skywalker (Nitron / Tyler Mane, a recent arrival to the territory). Invader #4 is desperately trying to get in the ring but he's still being held back (this time by Embry). The ref El Vkingo tries to get in the ring with an umbrella, but Profe cuts him off and takes it from him. Profe proceeds to whack Invader #4 a couple of times with the umbrella to ward him off. Carlos also gets whacked with the umbrella.

Hugo's still going on about the direness of the situation when Sasha!?! runs out and jumps into the ring to help. The Hangmen push her down and Embry seizes his chance to get at Sasha (and taking advantage that the Super Medicos are not there). Embry drags Sasah out of the ring by her hair and proceeds to slap her across the face a few times. Now Hugo's horrified at what's going on in the ring and outside of the ring. Embry waves someone towards him and motions for that person come and join the fun by taking a shot at Sasha. It’s TNT, who casually walks up to Embry and Sasha and decks Embry. The crowd goes bananas! El Profe goes out to confront TNT and also gets decked. TNT gets inside the ring after kicking Profe away and promptly breaks up the hanging. The rudos bail as El Ejercito de la Justicia storms the ring. The tecnicos are checking on Invader #1 while TNT stands off by himself watching from a corner of the ring. The fans are going crazy and chanting TNT's name. Giant Warrior asks Sasha if she's okay. Hugo says that if TNT hadn't helped, he doesn't believe the tecnicos would have been able to reach Invader #1. TNT leaves as the tecnicos keep checking on Invader #1. Hugo says the situation is critical, an ambulance has been called. The paramedics arrive and Invader #4 fans air to his brother as the paramedics check on him. We leave with Invader 1 being put in a protective neck brace and on the stretcher. And on a personal note, this is the first big moment I remember from when I started watching full time back in the fall of 1990.

MD: I have to admit, on some level, because of how good the match was and how long the video clip was, I was a bit disappointed it only went seven. I thought they could have had Invader come in and then get swept under and work a second FIP and it could be an all timer. What I didn’t realize coming in (all of this is new to me!) is that we were getting an all time face turn at the end of it. 

The match itself was very good. Colon and Invader controlled early by focusing on the arm and using teamwork. Eventually Colon got bullied into the corner and double-teamed. The heat was a lot of choking with some bits of impact or double teaming due to Invader getting upset and drawing the ref. The finish came quick with a roll up out of nowhere after the hot tag but then things devolved into chaos.

We got another hanging, this time with Profe’s help on Invader. It lasted forever (with bottles flying in) as the Justice Army got cut off by heels (Embry/Valentine). Embry went so far as to target Sasha, and it remains shocking just how casually he’d lay shots in on her. He waved to the heel locker room, calling TNT out for some free shots on her but TNT had seen enough and fired off on Embry and the others to a massive pop. Finally, he saved Invader and lingered for a bit, only to leave without a word as they stretchered Invader out. If you’re going to turn TNT babyface again so soon, that’s certainly a way to do it. All time great babyface turn.

EB: Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, the return of La Pareja Increible!

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2024 Ongoing MOTY List: Hechicero vs. Danielson

 

2. Bryan Danielson vs. Hechicero AEW Collision 2/3/24

ER: One of the things I really love about AEW, is that a guy like Hechicero can unexpectedly show up 5 years into the whole thing and get placed directly into a match where he gets to spin off into his thing more than maybe any time since I called him Rey Hechicero. I don't think I ever stopped calling him Rey Hechicero. We wrote a ton about Hechicero in the 2010s. I was enough of a maniac to write up weekly episodes of more than one CMLL TV show, and Phil and I were adding Hechicero matches from all over Mexico to our 2014 MOTY List. It felt like I was writing about Hechicero literally every week, because I was. And now 10 years later, there's a fed that can bring him in and let him get a whole new bunch of people addicted the way he hooked us. Honestly, I don't know of a match where Hechicero does go off into his thing more than this one. This was the one big singles match in his entire AEW run (so far?) that was allowed to Deliver. This was the match the most people wanted to see, and it delivered in a way that even those who knew what Hechicero was capable of couldn't have anticipated. 

I didn't go into this match expecting anything, really, but I didn't expect it to be such a Hechicero match. This whole thing felt designed to make Hechicero a star which is pretty incredible. I don't think there are any actual plans to bring in and use Hechicero on a regular basis, and the idea of bringing a guy in who is Not Yours just to make him look like a superstar and then hang around to wrestle AEW Miz is a weird mainstream wrestling thing that never would have happened before AEW. This was not Hechicero working a Danielson match. This was Danielson trying to work a Danielson match but instead being constantly foiled and taken for a ride by Hechicero until barely escaping with a win. Danielson looked like a guy who knew he escaped with a win. That's cool as hell. 

I love how Hechicero had an answer for all of the Danielson stuff, as if during all these years of Danielson talking about wrestling Blue Panther, Hechicero was actually doing the same and preparing to wrestle Danielson. If he didn't have an answer for it, he calmly withstood it. He walked through kicks and backed him down while also working two steps ahead of him on the mat. When Danielson started realizing his shit wasn't working - maybe after Hechicero held onto Danielson's ankle during a surfboard escape and crept into his own rolling surfboard and then later surfboard wheeled him into a rear naked choke - Danielson just started punching him a lot, and even that didn't work. Hechicero just withstood, forcing Danielson to go to more punches and headbutts. The knot he tied Danielson up in after snaring him on a missed diving headbutt was getting so painful that it looked like a spot that was actually getting away from Danielson, like Hechicero came into the Rio Grande Valley and started shooting. 

Hechicero has such explosive violence on all of his impact spots. I don't know if Danielson has done a Busaiku knee as well as the Average Hechicero Running Knee. Hechicero mangling his way through Danielson with a flying knee as a means to hook a sleeperhold from the apron is as violent as Bill Dundee's best clotheslines yanked into a sleeper. The way that he keeps twisting Danielson into different llave stretches takes me right back to that space when I was getting fully into lucha 25 years ago and branching out into older and indy lucha. Bihari's Skayde video, seeing IWRG Negro Navarro, Solar matches; Hechicero always brings that feeling but combines it with Shocker's charisma and movement and impact. Shocker was one of those guys whose best years coincided with my favorite wrestling years, where I was tape trading more than ever and seeing more new things than ever. Hechicero has the physical spark of those best years of Shocker, while also feeling like at all times older man Negro Navarro. His final roll through three different submissions and two different pinning combinations, with his arms and legs moving for constantly better and contrasting positioning, was brilliant. It's the kind of fun twisting lucha that you'd find on a 4 minute YouTube video inappropriately scored by something off Tool's Lateralus. 

2024 MOTY MASTER LIST

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (and friends) 9/23 - 9/29 Part 2

AEW Collision Grand Slam 9/28/24

Claudio Castagnoli/PAC/Wheeler Yuta vs Private Party/Komander

MD: I'm going to pass on Moxley vs Allin. I just have more to say about the Collision matches. It was very good. It's wrestlers pressing each other to the limit. It's exactly what we need. I'm not going to cover too much of the actual happenings in this trios match either. Obviously, Claudio was an amazing base; PAC is really finding himself in this role, is reveling in it; Kassidy, Quen, and Komander saw their opportunity and fought from underneath and showed fire with a never-say-die attitude.

But really, this was all about the interplay of Yuta with his partners. This will play into the Jarrett vs Page match as well, but balancing complex characters in pro wrestling is hard. At the end of the day, it has to transfer to the ring and has to live in front of a crowd, an opinionated, reacting crowd. You can't control these reactions except for through craft and cunning. We're in an age of instant response where people will tweet about a new episode of scripted television, but that won't affect those shows in the moment. It doesn't impact the actual art as it's happening in the same way as wrestling where the crowd is part of the overall effect.

It means that if you lead with real complexity, you could get a split crowd when you don't want that at all. But if you can actually pull it off? Well, then you get something that only a tiny fraction of all pro wrestling ever has managed to deliver upon and that has almost always been a success.

Wheeler Yuta is the most interesting character in wrestling right now. By its inherent nature, this moment can’t last. He's going to make a decision one way or another. Then, maybe he'll be a heel, one who has to live with his decision and his actions and the constant peer pressure around him. He'll be the living, breathing definition of a young man trying to justify what he had done and what he had become, likely by throwing himself entirely into the dark vision that Jon Moxley presents. He could be a heatseeker, bolstered by his betrayal, getting under everyone's skin, made all the worse because deep down, everyone knows that he's just weak. Yes, there are some parallels to Jack Perry that they'll have to navigate but it's not quite the same.

Or he can lean hard into what the fans want right now, can master his rage and frustration and emotions and stand for something. He can be the light that continues to shine after Bryan Danielson has gone off into his retirement. He can be the nucleus for a new Super Generation Army, someone to actually be elevated into a star. He could be a Kobashi who represents the fans' love of wrestling and the spirit they all want to have inside of them. Remember, AJPW didn't push Misawa and company to the moon right after Tenryu left. They held steady on with hosses like Hansen, Doc, and Gordy on top until the younger talent was built up, into 1991. That paid off for years. Yuta can be built in the same way. He can press up against PAC, Claudio, Moxley again and again, getting just a little farther each time, until he finally overcomes. Is that something AEW wants? Do they want to sacrifice part of the now, maximizing the moment, in order to truly build people, to not just give them one big feud, one big moment, and then shunt them back down onto the card because they don't fit the Dynasty dynamic?

I don't know, but right now he's Schrodinger's Wrestler, trying to control his own emotions, with all of us unsure where he’ll land. Jon Moxley has given into his emotions. Bryan Danielson has conquered his own. Yuta is in flux. He's a trained killer with a good heart. It's so essential here to have Claudio and PAC clearly coded as heels in the ring, ones that believe in something, ones with a chip on their shoulder, ones with a point, but ones that are absolutely painting a crystal clear picture. The crowd knows exactly how to respond to them. They're the grounded stability that makes this sort of complexity possible. Claudio has an almost familial expectation for Yuta, simple and direct. PAC, finally at home in a way that maybe he never was with his last set of partners, in turn has an almost bestial glee at the idea of Yuta giving into the twisted spirit and joining them. Every cut to him snarling and smiling provides the exact color this storyline needs.

And Yuta walks the line like the star he could be, believable, compelling, engaging. He's an unlikely protagonist but wrestling is an unlikely business. The fans have cautiously let him into their heart, for in so many ways he represents them in the face of what’s happened. If a TV deal is just about to be signed, there's never a better time to take a risk. It could well be time to make a leap of faith and take a gamble on Yuta for the sake of the future, no matter which way he falls. After all, there isn’t currently a better story in wrestling.

Jeff Jarrett vs Hangman Page (Lumberjack Strap Match)

MD: And Hangman Page is the second most interesting character in wrestling. I think this needs less breaking down, but I do want to note a couple of things. Hangman won the match. After doing so, he slapped the mat like he was a fired-up babyface. Then he hung a guy. Before that came a low blow and the Deadeye. Before that came him basically fighting off nine people, including someone's wife and a giant, all with straps. Talk about being all over the place narratively. Or at least, it should have been on paper. But it worked on the strength of Hangman Page and Jeff Jarrett as performers, maybe with a little of Tony commentating based on what Page had just threatened to do to him too. That's super impressive (and incredibly compelling) when you think about it.
 
What I loved most about this one, however, was how they treated the gimmick. Maybe a straight up chain/dog collar/strap match between the two would have been more visceral and gripping, but since they decided to go this route (seemingly to transition Page towards the BBG; small concern there as they're not the same sort of constants that Claudio/PAC are playing - it could get messy), the way to do it was to treat the straps held by the lumberjacks like a big deal. They built to Page getting whalloped by basically everyone and they built to it smartly. That meant him getting pushed towards the apron early on and treating it like a huge thing, something to be avoided at all costs. He took it seriously with total earnestness. There was no inkling of irony. It reminded me of how Onita would get over the exploding cage early in those matches. If you build up a gimmick as something the wrestlers are wary of, then the fans are going to care about it too.

They were laser-focused and consistent with it. When they did play things as cute, for instance when Jarrett got tossed out to his cronies and they gave him a hug and pushed him back in, they immediately turned it by Page throwing him out the other side of the ring so that the heels over there could give him some shots. Therefore, when Page finally did hit the floor, him getting whipped as a huge deal. Remember, this was a show with a Texas Tornado tag and a Saraya's Rules hardcore match. They'd seen crazier things than even Satnam whipping someone, but none of it was built to like this. Just impressive stuff overall. If Hangman can keep some of these lessons close to his heart moving forward, the sky is the limit for him. I know a lot of people think he was always great, but this little bit of discipline, this little bit more of giving himself over to believing and getting the fans to believe, well, it can take him even further, further than he's ever been.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 9/23 - 9/29 Part 1

AEW Dynamite Grand Slam 9/25/24

Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinness

MD: Nigel McGuinness has long dreamed an impossible dream. His career did not end on his terms. He sat on the sidelines, first figuratively and then literally as a commentator, as his peers, many of them even a few years his junior, rose to levels of success that they could have only previously imagined. It could have been him. It should have been him. Not only was it not him, to earn a livelihood, he had to sit and watch every moment of it, to try to translate it for the layman. And worst of all was Bryan Danielson. He rose higher than all of the others, had lost it all as well, but had found some way to reclaim it whereas Nigel never rose and never reclaimed. Yet through perseverance and persistence, through a dogged single-mindedness that never wavered, Nigel both created and seized opportunity. There was no level he would not stoop to, no insult he might leave unsaid. Just as Jon Moxley had goaded Darby Allin, Nigel found his way to the matchmaker's ear and suggested to him a match that would be irresistible to any Ring of Honor fan, Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinness one last time, on the grand stage of Grand Slam, an unplanned, unexpected stop on the path of Danielson's final countdown. If Danielson wasn't cleared, Nigel would get an empty victory that would still fill his belly. If he was, then he was hurt and vulnerable, a prime victim. Either way, everything was coming up Nigel. This was one last chance to right the wrongs, to take everything that he deserved, to show the world that somewhere along the line, history itself had gotten off track. It was his dream.

And Bryan Danielson did not care. Not in the least. While Nigel was living his dream, Bryan Danielson was living his own personal nightmare. This was his final countdown. This was the end of the road. This was his last taste of glory. This was him defining his own destiny in every way that Nigel had never been allowed to. He was going to retire on his terms, champion until someone could take it from him, a true sportsman's exit, a true wrestler's final chapter. But instead, his friends, his brothers-in-arms, had decided to take matters into their own hands. They had betrayed him in the coldest of blood over a difference of vision, over promises unfulfilled and the sort of dissatisfaction over the state of the world that would only be felt by those who intended to remain in it. Danielson had one foot out the door. To Jon Moxley, Bryan Danielson could not be the change this world needed. He was already half checked out, already doing arts and crafts with his daughter in a cabin in the woods. Best to push him the rest of the way and make a statement to the world that needed changing in the process, to do something that mattered in a way that would make it matter the most.

What was Nigel McGuinness and all of his verbal barbs, and his boasts, and his Oasis theme, and the spiky hair he doesn't even have anymore, in the face of a betrayal of the heart? What was Nigel McGuinness in the face of what Jon Moxley was taking away from him, the chance to end his story in a way that would allow him to be the best father he could possibly be? Nothing. Nigel was dirt beneath Danielson's feet as he walked towards the end of the night and his first chance to get back at Moxley. He was a gnat to be swatted away. Nigel McGuinness had spent the last few years of his career seeing Bryan Danielson's face on every wrestler in every match he was providing commentary for. Bryan Danielson, however, could see nothing except for the road to Jon Moxley and revenge before him. In the entire match that would follow, save for one slap, Bryan Danielson did not see Nigel once.

And let's pause right there.

I'm not going to take you through the rest of the match. I'm sure you can find some really good accounts out there of the nuts and bolts of it, the easter eggs, the thought put into it. Despite what I just said, there was thought and care put into it and not just from Nigel. It was a match at least eleven years in the making, an anchor for one of AEW's biggest shows of the year, and it was put together as such.

That doesn't, however, mean that it was presented that way as seen through the lens of Bryan Danielson's performance. Not only is that a good thing, it's a great thing, a truly impressive and admirable thing, the exact sort of thing that AEW needs and everything that its detractors says it is not. This was an indy dream match, fan service to ROH devotees, a wonderful nostalgic box that could be checked, a gift! And it was unquestionably, undeniably, 100% an afterthought to the main story in the company, the title match of WrestleDream between Bryan Danielson and Jon Moxley, exactly as it should be.

That didn't lessen the emotions. It didn't stunt people's feeling in the moment. If you followed along online, people were absolutely into it. The people in the crowd were into it. The announcers, though scattered, were into it. But more importantly, everyone was exactly where they needed to be by the end of the night.

That's a pretty astounding balancing act when you think about it. This was the character (I won't speak on the person) Nigel McGuinness' dream, the culmination of a year of him mouthing off and years more of things in the margins. It built on a dozen prior matches, some borderline legendary. And it cashed in all of that to get over the look on Bryan Danielson's face and what was really on his mind. He never wavered, never blinked, never slowed down. He was a freight train out of control heading straight to Jon Moxley, tie in his hand. Sometimes that meant he made a mistake here. Maybe he charged in the wrong way. Maybe he fell wrong. He was looking past this in a way no wrestler had ever looked past a rival before. Nigel capitalized as you'd expect him to do. It didn't make a difference. Of course it didn't. Nigel mouthed off to the bitter end. Of course he did. Bryan marched on without looking back.

There is power in sacrifice. The more something matters, the more value it can provide when put on the altar of necessity. This mattered a lot. It mattered to longtime fans. It mattered to one of the key commentators of the company. It mattered to the crowd. It was a dream match, a miracle match. But in the grand scheme of things, what matters is the overall direction of the company, the big picture story, the brewing war between Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson, and how the resolution of that war will take the company into 2025. For AEW to truly succeed, hitting those wonderful nostalgic marks aren't enough, being the legacy of all wrestling, from the territories to WCW to Japan and Mexico and whatever else, that's not enough. Those all have to be means to some greater end, not the end itself. And there is a greater end in sight than Danielson vs Moxley, and this match was mercilessly, heartlessly, brilliantly sacrificed to that end. The notion of "Killing Your Darlings" is often misattributed to Faulkner or Chesterton, but the notion is clear enough. In the past, there's been reason to doubt whether or not AEW booking could ever do that given the love of wrestling that ingrained in the company and the nostalgic streak that runs throughout, but there couldn't be a clearer sign than this that it's willing to do what needs to be done no matter how hard it might be. Nigel's dream, though fulfilled on paper, ultimately died to glorify Bryan's nightmare. And both we and the company are better off for it.

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