Iron Sharpening Iron. Steel Testing Steel. Stevens vs Strong.

Erick Stevens vs Roderick Strong DPW 10/19/25

Oh, the stories pro wrestling can tell.

Erick Stevens was done. He was out. He'd moved on. He was living his life. He was happy. 

But maybe wrestling wasn't done with him. He saw the state of things. Saw everything going right and everything going wrong. 

He saw a hole in the scene, something missing, maybe even a wound that needed healing. Not in himself, but in wrestling itself. 

Which didn't mean there wasn't something in him too. He didn't want a contract. He didn't want fame, fortune, or glory. He knew how it all worked by now. He had his life.

But he had his pride too.

Now, you may stop and say to me that pride is a sin, but there's no sin in this world that can't drive a pro wrestler to greatness (Gluttony? Sloth? We live in a world full of great Super Porky and Orange Cassidy battles).

So he trained, he planned, he picked his moment. 

Deadlock Pro was full of old friends and new foes, a perfect place to test himself. There was no better way to start than with Violence is Forever against Tankman, Kozone and Lo. It wasn't a hero's welcome but it was a warrior's return and that suited him fine. It was a victory. 

He leveraged that victory into a first round match against Kozone at the Carolina Classic, title opportunities on the line, but maybe that was flying too close to the sun for he came up short.

Stevens, a grizzled vet, a journeyman, had a sailor's attitude. He manned the cannons, sent out volleys. Only by shooting his shot would he know where he stood, know what alterations were needed to hit true. 

He needed iron to sharpen iron, steel to test himself against. Like the protagonist of a tall tale, he needed to run against a train to prove himself, to better himself, to prepare himself for whatever would come next, and there's no train that's been running this whole time quite like his old partner Roderick Strong.

Strong never stopped. Strong never looked back. Strong thundered forward. Strong was as good as he ever was and that meant he was as good as anyone. 

As favors went, this promised to be a violent, painful, brutal one. 

And thankfully for us, it was.

They hit the mat hard to start, gritty, intense chain wrestling, counters for counters, neither getting an early advantage. When Strong pressed him into the corner and hit a chop, Stevens fired right back out. Stevens may have knocked Strong down first with a shoulder tackle but Roddy scored the first real points, shifting gears and hitting a leg lariat in return. Stevens answered back quickly, propelling Strong up and over to the apron, knocking him off, and then following it all with an explosive early dive.

That seemed to awaken something in Strong though. He had landed on the apron awkwardly, and in recovery showed a little sign of a limp. Strong spends his weeks up against the best in the world. He's married to a member of the Death Riders. The only instinct he has is that of a killer. His life's work is the dismantling of spines, the world's worst chiropractor and one of its best wrestlers.

At even the first sign of vulnerability, those instincts took over. He stunned Stevens with a diving kick to the outside and got in behind him. He nestled his head under the arm, lifted him up in belly-to-back position and dropped him into a Billy Robinson backbreaker right onto the steel guardrail. 

The Messiah of the Backbreaker had delivered his message to the world once again, and on this night it was even more gruesome and apocalyptic than usual.

And it was everything Stevens had asked for. He was prepared for this, though maybe not for its exact manifestation. Maybe that hadn't been the exact literal sort of steel he'd requested, but it had been close enough.

So as Strong ground him down with holds, Stevens started to inch his way back. He chopped out of the corner. He hit a stunner counter. He fired up with jabs as the fans clapped him up. He rose up out of a chinlock and slammed Strong back into the corner. He fought his way out of the best headlock you'll see all year. Each and every time, Strong cut him off and dragged him back down into pain and darkness, but Stevens kept inching his way back towards the light.

All that inching? It bought him space. It wasn't enough for Strong to grind him down anymore. He had to punish him for his hubris, for his transgressions, for his pride, for the fact he just wouldn't stay down, and therefore Strong started to throw strikes as well. With striking came recoiling. With recoiling came space. With space came opportunity and with one dodge and one spin, Stevens dropped Strong with a jawjacking forearm of his own.

At the nine and a half minute mark, Stevens was fighting even, and by the ten minute mark, he'd seized the first real advantage of the match, careening into Strong in the corner, having become his own version of a runaway train. Stevens pressed that advantage for a minute or two, but when he couldn't put Strong away quickly, he stepped back and beckoned him up. Strong had tried to grind Stevens down but Stevens needed to beat Strong on his feet if he was going to beat him at all. On commentary, Caprice Coleman called it a mistake, but it wasn't a mistake at all. It was the whole point. Stevens needed all the steel he could get; he wasn't done hammering himself up against it yet.

Strong took back over almost immediately. Of course he did. He hefted Stevens up for a superplex. And that? That was just what Stevens needed. Something snapped inside of him, not breaking like so many of Strong's opponents before him, but snapping right into place instead. He found the strength inside himself to burst up, to rush forward, to hit a flurry of offense at a different level than anything else we'd seen out of him during this comeback run. 

It was exactly what he needed. While it didn't put Strong away, it made Strong force things to as immediate an end as possible, an End of Heartache hit almost out of nowhere. 

Stevens had lost the match, but he had gained everything he had been looking for in summoning so dangerous an opponent. 

And what a pro wrestling story these fifteen minutes were to get us to so fascinating and unusual a place. 

Deadlock was maybe the only place such a story could have been told and as I write this, it's going on indefinite hiatus soon. 

But the story was told, and in its telling, Stevens showed everyone that this chapter of his story was just beginning. I'm not sure where the next page is going to take him, but wherever it is I'm excited to see what's next.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 11/3 - 11/9

AEW Dynamite 11/5/25

Athena/Mercedes Mone vs Willow Nightingale/Harley Cameron

MD: Mercedes Mone is a star. Athena makes her shine all the brighter.

I'm quite high on Mercedes for much that she does. I think her reactions in the moment are believable. Her matches are ambitious in many ways. She has an incredible work ethic. As an ace, she's tremendous at treating each and every opponent differently; I loved seeing her switching up her taunts and crowd interactions for Olympia's strength for instance. 

That said, there is often a rehearsed feel to her matches. It's a perfectionist's bent, a practice makes perfect sort of feel that's impossible to escape. While the matches feel alive in the moment, sometimes the overall effect is a little plastic, a little blunted. It's more DDP than Randy Savage. That's fine. 98 DDP was great. But it's not transcendent.

Athena, endlessly reactive, endlessly electric, as dynamic as any wrestler in the world, helps Mercedes transcend herself and become her own personal Randy Savage.

They worked so well together here and it felt natural as could be, a meshing of two disparate but tangential egos, two parallel characters, two parallel paths to a flawed sort of kayfabe greatness. You could see it right from the get go when Mercedes pulled a seething Athena to fawn over the belts and how it transitioned right to the two of them almost immediately switching gears with Mercedes seething behind Harley as she entered the ring and Athena posing with her big Yaaaaaay! after their successful initial ambush of the babyfaces. 

The structure was double heat, but Harley carried both face-in-perils. That fit the hierarchy very well. It allowed Harley to gain sympathy, allowed Willow to come in like a wrecking ball after the first hot tag, and allowed Athena and Mercedes to look like the very best in the world as they took over with a tandem backstabber out of nowhere, the wild Athena dive through Mercedes' legs, and an absolutely perfect but still chaotically organic double team move where Athena basically hit Mercedes with the MoneMaker but right onto Harley. 

That unique no shine/double heat structure let them utilize a Willow blind tag (instead of a conventionally hot one) after the break and allowed for things to break down a little early without it feeling unearned or unbalanced. The finish, with Statlander coming out to disrupt Billie and the belt and distract Athena (who had just hit one of her super impressive strength spots), furthered the Full Gear title match and set up a few matches in the future including Athena vs Harley for the ROH title. 

My big takeaway, however, is that while I understand Athena and Mercedes going out like this (they were almost too big to continue on in the tournament and this furthered other storylines) the pairing, either feuding or teaming, is just too good not to go back to sooner than not. 

It's pro wrestling. You need your stars shining as brightly as possible as much as possible, and Athena burns brightly enough to be the perfect spotlight for Mercedes Mone.

Samoa Joe/Powerhouse Hobbs/Katsuyori Shibata vs Eddie Kingston/HOOK/Hangman Adam Page

MD: Keep your eye on Eddie Kingston.

I came across an obituary of Gene Wilder a week or two ago. In it, the writer noted it was a known secret in the acting industry that actors that wished to "better themselves would do well to watch a movie with Gene Wilder in it and pay particular attention to him in a scene when someone else is speaking, someone else has the focus. He was always acting in those moments too, reacting or listening in perfect character and supporting the scene with his presence. A lot of good actors are good when they have something to do. Gene Wilder was good all the time."

I had immediately connected that to Negro Casas actually, and the work he did in trios matches when he wasn't the main focus of a feud.

But then I saw this match and it clicked here as well.

Eddie's not even in this feud. Eddie is HOOK's plus-one. But he managed to do something that was absolutely a contradiction here: he not only stole the show, but he then took what he stole and donated it back to his partners. 

Here's the key: he's constantly, consistently both engaged and engaging. Someone can be the one but not the other and it goes both ways. I love watching Ultimate Warrior on the apron in tags, but he's not necessarily responding to what's happening in the moment and adding to the overall match. There are also plenty of guys able to put their arm out for a tag but not also able to use it to draw you into the match. And Eddie draws you right in while making it about what's going on in the ring and not about himself. 

Some of that is his strength as a storytelling but I honestly believe so much of it is his foundation as a fan. He remembers caring. Hell, he watches certain matches over and over and over again because he still cares. He cares as much as anyone reading this and as much as the person writing this and he's able to channel that feeling into what he was doing here. 

That meant he showed his disgust when Samoa Joe started the match by dodging Hook and tagging out to Shibata, that he sold chops as if they were hurting him, and that when Hook was trying to fight back (and after Hook hit the suplex that threw his back out the rest of the way), he'd lean halfway into the ring to try to will him over to the corner.

And when it was time for him to get in there, he did exactly what he should. That meant getting beaten on by Samoa Joe in the corner, his comeback chops ineffectual. It meant being able to fire back against Shibata but cutting himself off due to the fact he's still working his way back to full strength. It meant that when it was time to mount a comeback, he climbed that hill and almost, almost worked with Hangman to hit a tandem Uraken/Buckshot (we need to see that at some point, TK, just saying; you've teased it now and let the heels rob us of it so you have to pay it off). 

And then after Hobbs crushed Hangman at the top of the stage, he found the inner strength to fight back against all the odds one last time. That's the only shame here. If this match had five more minutes, it could have been not just a double heat, but a triple heat, with Hook making that first tag to Eddie, with Eddie coming back after a 3-on-2 beating, and then with Eddie having to crawl back after Hangman got taken out, lasting just long enough in that All Japan Trios style for Hook to recover, even if it would all end in brave but futile heartbreak. 

But that's still out there on the table for another day. What we got was the best supporting player in all of wrestling pouring his heart out for yet another one of his award winning roles (not that he'd ever admit it, but those who watch closely... we know). 

Don't believe me? Next time you get a chance, just keep your eye on Eddie Kingston. You'll see it too.

Darby Allin vs Daniel Garcia

MD: Styles make fights. Contrast makes the world go round. Character drives action. 

Three sentences. Three true statements. You put them together and you get this match. While Darby is accomplished on the mat, he's no Daniel Garcia. While Garcia has a chip on his shoulder, has been training with Moxley and has been fighting full of grit, he's no Darby Allin. The difference between these two drove this one. In the ring, whether it be in the early feeling out process or trying holds down the stretch, Garcia had an advantage. When things hit the floor or got dirty, Darby tended to have an advantage. 

But Garcia was going to blink first again and again, because he had more to prove, because he couldn't get out of his own way (that's the character bit). That meant teasing the dance after choking Darby with the turnbuckle connector protector. It meant trying for an additional suplex (or neckbreaker) after hitting a superplex. It most especially meant mocking Sting when he had the Scorpion on, which ultimately cost him the match. 

There was a third character in this one as well ( and I don't mean PAC who set up a nice nearfall countout), the ring itself. They could have done this straightforward, eye gouges, ear biting, armbars and headscissors, but they chose to go inventive with it instead. After using the turnbuckle protector, Darby stuck Dany's arm in side the ringpost. Garcia's big transition to heel offense was trapping Darby in the apron. The stairs were used liberally. Garcia hooked Darby's chain to the corner. Pretty clever stuff all around which added to the chaotic nature of the match while keeping it character-driven and laser-focused on the contrast between the two. 

Three sentences that point to true north for almost every match and Darby and Garcia followed the map to their destination here.

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2024 Ongoing MOTY List: The First Darby/Claudio Singles

 

8. Darby Allin vs. Claudio Castagnoli AEW Dynamite 11/20/24

ER: I finally got around to watching the Darby/Claudio Falls Count Anywhere match from a couple months ago and thought it was good. It made me go back and revisit their first ever singles match. Also I had written this review of that first singles match almost a year ago and never posted it so it felt like a good time to finally put it up. I"m not gonna rewrite it with a comparison to the Falls Count Anywhere match, I'll let my review from a year ago stand. Maybe next year I'll write about the Falls Count Anywhere and that review will compare them. This first match of two natural opponents was my favorite Darby singles match of last year, with plenty of contenders. Here's why I thought that: 

It's good to run occasional matches where Darby Allin doesn't make any or is simply unable to make any real inroads. It's easy to get used to Darby Always Comes Back mindset that you need to interrupt things with a good steamrolling every now and again. Darby is smart in his match layouts and is good at presenting some (some, key) of his big wins as lucky scrapes or opportunistic escapes. He also knows that to make those wins work, there need to be matches where he receives no luck, no unforced opponent errors, and no opportunities. Claudio, as a Darby opponent, feels so obvious an opponent that it feels like I've written variations on their matches for years. It's my favorite unkillable crash test dummy facing a man with unmatched strength, and the whole story of the match is feats of strength delivered to the world's greatest facilitator of those feats until he can no longer stand. That's a great story, I love that story, these two feel like the most capable of making the most of that story, then they go and do exactly that and it's as good as it's supposed to be. 

They are the most natural pairing in the world so I am surprised this is their very first singles match. I do this a lot with Darby and Danielson. It's so easy to picture how their matches with everyone will go that my memory just checks them off and moves on to thinking about Best Breakout Jerry Flynn matches. This match goes how we want it to go, with the right amount of surprise. Darby's comebacks are so legendary that he can work an All Downhill From Here match for 85% of a match and know that it's the right amount of time to still buy into a Darby win at any moment. He's never out of it until the 3. 

This match is the best spiritual update of 1995 Malenko/Guerrero matches, or the 1996 Malenko/Misterio matches. This is an evolution for good. It's no a secret I don't like Malenko/Guerrero as opponents. I might dislike the Malenko/Misterio match structure even more. But, I understand why that style of match is represented more than any other style in our modern match type 30 years later. I don't like that fact, but it means we have look for the ones who understand the restraints and the possibilities of the style. In 1995/1996 it looked like a fresh breath of unseen air, today it's house style. It's here. 

Rey/Malenko had a Going Long house show style where Malenko would ground Rey for 85% of a match and "peak" the short bursts into a big finish. Often, their matches never peaked to their big finish, and were instead long collections of go nowhere submissions and Rey ping ponging between 100% incapacitated to 80% unleashed with little in between. Darby right now is actually better at selling for sympathy than 1995/1996 Rey Misterio Jr., and that makes Darby's one-sided matches more compelling. Rey later got better than Darby at selling but right now Darby is having years in contention with Rey's best years. 

Rey was great at memorable short bursts in those Malenko matches, but Darby makes much better use of his time. He makes his 2 minutes of control and 13 minutes of pain mean something during all of those minutes. Doing so, he gives yet another good wrestler their best showcase of the year. Claudio has been a great TV worker for a long time now and can suffer from the Sameness that comes with that. Year after year TV work against many of the same guys within the same style can get repetitive. Even the best TV workers can lapse into familiarity, and it's not uncommon for them to go through peaks and valley years. Darby Allin has been able to work outside of that while always wrestling like Darby Allin, and Claudio is a guy who I think benefits from being broken just outside of his formula. He is capable of spectacular feats but doesn't go spectacular as often as he used to. Darby Allin is made for the spectacular. 

I want to see Claudio catch a Coffin Drop and throw him. I want to see Claudio walk up the ring steps while holding a vertical suplex, getting him back into the ring by way of caber toss. I want to see Misawa level elbows and Finlay level neck twisting, and I want to see Darby take one of those bumps into the turnbuckles where he finds the least safe way to take a biel. The kind where his back manages to hit the buckles in two different bad spots. Claudio is great at dealing body damage and Darby's matches are always highlights of his body being damaged. On the bigger matches, we build to head damage and this match got greater when the side of Darby's head got swung into the ring steps about as hard as someone can get their head swung into metal. The way Darby sells it, by vigorously rubbing the new heat on the side of his head, is so blindingly accurate that he's either the most gifted seller of our time or he is just a man suffering head trauma in the middle of the week after being swung into metal. 

There's a press slam from an announce table to the unbreaking timekeeper's table that bounces Darby off his hip, and the table skirt wraps around him like a bodybag. It's the kind of crazy heightened spot Darby pushes his opponents to, everyone elevated to something bigger. Claudio's strength, Darby's death wish, and one table that wasn't expecting to be used that way. I loved the finish, where Darby heroically beat the 10 count and died instantly by lariat, no threat at all to kickout while Claudio palmed his entire face. Darby's threat can only be temporarily neutralized. He will return to inspire newer punishments. 

2024 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Found Footage Friday: HANOVER 1981~! BRET~! ROACH~! MOROWSKI~! DIETER~! ZRNO~! STREET~!

Hanover 9/9/1981 

Moose Morowski vs. Axel Dieter

MD: Another batch of Richard Land found footage behind his patreon. Really great long draw here. I can't say enough good stuff about this one. Morowski ambushed right before the first bell and didn't look back for maybe fifteen minutes. Big shots, some big bombs like a shoulder breaker, tossing Dieter out, etc. The ref would try to intervene and Morowski first ripped his shirt and then tore it off completely. And later on, when he got a new one, he did some damage to that too. 

Dieter would get escalating bits of hope, arching Morowski over the top, blocking a posting and returning fire, eventually even outpunching him once, but he only really came back into it when Morowski tried charging in once again and he got his feet up. From there was a round or two of really glorious comeback. At one point he was so fiery he got carded for trying to use a chair. Then they worked towards the draw by throwing blows on their feet and knees til the bell rang. Morowski has maybe the only acceptable recoil shot in history as he uses it as a subtle little thing. Then after the match they slugged it out some more. Anyway, draws are almost never satisfying but this one was about as close as you can get. Great stuff. 

ER: This is one of the best matches we've seen out of these 1981 Hanover shows. This was excellent. Morowski is one of those wrestlers I don't think I even knew about a decade ago, and now he's a guy whose name always stands out on cards like this. He's a big burly Harley Race type who likes to slug it out, and that's what he does here. He ambushes Dieter (and the referee) and punches and claws his way through most of the match. Dieter is great at being the babyface who the crowd stays behind, repeatedly getting to his feet only to be punched to his back by Moose. Moose throws a variety of great punches, sometimes just using big swinging arms to knock Dieter around, other times throwing targeted left-rights to Dieter's chin. He hits a piledriver, a shoulderbreaker, and he wants at Dieter so bad that he gets into multiple collar and elbow tie ups with the ref, eventually ripping his shirt so much that the ref just removes it and works shirtless with the boys. That rules. When the ref gets a new shirt after the 2nd fall, the literal first thing Morowski does is rip the new shirt off him, and that rules even more. 

Dieter's survives Morowski's onslaught and Morowski gets tired out and then the real fun begins. The crowd gets louder than ever for Axel and Dieter starts landing more shots. Morowski isn't completely down, and can still land punches that knock Dieter down, but he is certainly exhausted and has to cheat even more to keep Dieter down. Morowski is landing several unanswered punches at the round bell, stomping his face, and they fight to the bell. I don't know that this match would have even benefitted from a definitive finish. Dieter standing alone in the ring after surviving cheap shot after cheap shot after cheap shot and coming out the other side more loved than ever. What a great showing from both, but more evidence of how cool a worker Moose Morowski was. I don't know where he stands in terms of territory draws or reputation among other peak workers, but he was completely off my personal radar even while we were diving into the thick of the 80s sets and more 70s footage became available. He's someone who everyone needs to see, and this match is as great a place as any to start. 

Pat Roach vs. Bret Hart

MD: Yes, this is a match that happened. I wish it was 93 Bret vs. 81 Roach but what can you do? This played out pretty much exactly like you'd expect. Almost exactly. There was about a round and a half of Roach beating Bret around the ring with mares and clubbers and running him into the turnbuckle. Bret got a bit of hope with a sunset flip or backslide only to get beaten down. Bret finally came back with some big shots and dropkicks only to eat the turnbuckle face first (as early as 81!) and then he got demolished by a big side backbreaker and press-slam gutbuster. Good effort and the crowd (generally always hot) was behind him, but this was more or less a mauling.

ER: I thought this was excellent, and I'm not sure it would have been better with a 1991 Bret. I loved the structure of this and felt it worked so perfectly with Young Bret, who was an absolute bump machine and ran into all of Roach's believably stiff work. Bret in 1991 would have worked this closer to equal and relied more on the big man's misses to capitalize on. Now, I love his 1991 work with Berzerker and Barbarian so put Roach in that framework and the match would be excellent. But I don't think Roach could bump as big as Barbarian and definitely couldn't bump as big as Nord, so Roach as the domineering grappler kicking a young worker in the bread basket and snapping his neck with cravat snapmares works really well. Bret was already such a polished bumper in 1981 and his work looked just as honest as it would a decade later. Roach had a lot of cool ways to slam Bret to the mat and Bret made such good use of his small comebacks and two nearfalls that I thought his backslide was legitimately the finish. Bret firing back with one big elbow smash surprised me and seemed to surprise Roach, and I came away extremely impressed by how well his flat back bumps (and huge face first bump running into the buckles) felt like responses to the exact offense Roach was giving him. His feel for everything felt so much more advanced than other early Bret I've seen. This was a must watch for me. 

Micha Nador/Gran Vladimir vs. Steve Wright/Kengo Kimura

MD: Steve Wright/Kengo Kimura is the most Lethal Lottery team I can imagine really. Of course this is a fairly young Kimura, just like Bret was fairly young in the previous match. I haven't seen much of Nador but early on he's in there, like Vladimir, to base for all of Wright's shtick, the cartwheels and bowing and a long cravat where he hung on through slams to the crowd's delight. Kimura got to join in a bit with some karate type strikes and some real fire stomping in the corner. The heels were able to beat down Wright for a bit and then Kimura, but never for too long. Wright came back with a body press mid match but when he tried to do it later, he got blocked by Nador grabbing his feet from the outside and forcing him down into a Vladimir pin which was a unique finish at least. This didn't wear out its welcome.

9/22/81

Manuel Lopez vs. Adrian Street

MD: Street was, of course, at the height of his power here in early 80s Germany, with the fans laughing again and again at every antic. He gave more here than in the last few matches we've seen him in, playing it just a bit more bumbling, where things either backfired or worked despite it all. He still got to get over on Lopez quite a bit, either rolling around like a top or poking him on the nose or just leaping into his arms and both of them sailing over because of it, but he was actually a little subdued relative to the other matches I've seen and Lopez controlled more. Maybe it was more grounded because of that but it wasn't the can't miss spectacle of the others. Still worth watching of course, but more as part of a card than something that is absolutely transcendent. 

Achaim Chall vs. Gran Vladimir

MD: These two had been wrestling off and on since the 60s. This started pretty low key, with some mares and holds out of a lockup. But Vladimir got under the fans' skin and someone threw a hat into the ring at him. At that point, Vladimir put it on and marched around the ring until Chall grabbed it, pulled it over his face and hit a jumping double knee before tossing it back out. You never know what you're going to find in these. Lots of fun bits with the ref as things went on too. Chall got frustrated as he got in his way and grabbed him, and then chopped him later, and finally, when he got in the way of the charge towards Vlad (who was tied up in the ropes), went careening into him, into Vlad, as the ref was blowing his whistle. He got carded for this but it wasn't the match.

Vlad ended up controlling for a while and he did vary up holds, but it wasn't with the same sort of brutal and vicious charm as Morowski. But the fans were very happy whenever Chall was in control and went up for all of his hope spots. He was in the midst of a comeback when the time ran out and this ended up as a draw.

Sal Bellomo vs. John Quinn

MD: I get such a kick of Quinn coming out to The Mighty Quinn. It's got a sort of chorus unlike almost any other pro wrestling theme you can imagine. I feel like it'd be super over today for instance. This was okay, they took it up and down. Quinn, despite a size advantage, would take over with hairpulls, eyerakes, and using the ref as a stalking horse in the corner. Bellomo would fire back. Eventually, Quinn tossed him and Bellomo grabbed him on the way back in and they brawled on the floor a bit. Finish had things picking up with rope running, but Bellomo ran into a foot and then a back elbow. 

9/6/81

Mile Zrno vs. Gran Vladimir

MD: Zrno is so much fun to watch. In some ways, the comparison point is Steve Wright, but where Wright has more flair and pomp to his counters, with Zrno, it's more about leverage and positioning. But nothing Vladimir puts him in works and it's all entertaining to see him get out of one thing after the next. There's a great bit where Zrno ties Vlad up in the ropes and in order to get the ref out of the way, he undoes the turnbuckle pad. The ref has to run to redo it and then Zrno charges in. Vlad does take over with clubbers eventually, but Zrno catches him with a knee off the ropes and then wins it with a body press. Very fun.

ER: Fantastic. This solidifies Vladimir as a great opponent for small fliers and acrobats, a role he seems to relish more than his work against other heavies. Against other heavyweights he can work like a spry Baron von Raschke, bumping like a tall man of size and nothing beyond, but against a fire starter like Zrno he's bumping constantly, feeding far quicker than I expected. It's not just Vlad going over for armdrags, it's that he knows how to bump and feed for all of Zrno's complicated unique unrelenting juniors offense and it feels like Akira Taue taking way too much Marufuji offense in the way he makes it look like none of this offense should work and this big man just keeps falling over. Now, Marufuji's offense was the shittiest offense on a roster of 40 men and Zrno's offense is revolutionary and moves like nobody else, but Vlad takes it the same way I would imagine Taue credibly selling really bad juniors offense. The stumble, the look of "this man shouldn't be taking most of this", the way it looks like he's not so much taking the moves as trying not to take the moves, like it's an issue of balance. 

Special note must be made about the incredible work of the referee trying to wrangle this confusing mess, specifically when he gets roped into a bump over the top to the floor when Vladimir is trapped in the ropes like Andre. Zrno is hitting crossbodies while Vlad is trapped, the ref is trying to untie him, and Zrno comes in hot with another crossbody, and the momentum send the ref over the top with it like a man getting hit with a wave while leaning out of a boat. I thought this match was great and worked in a way that I was not expecting. A match doesn't have to surprise me for me to like it, but I do like surprises. 

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El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: O Bronco, Where Art Thou?

Week 52: O Bronco, Where Art Thou?

EB: Carlos Colon finally got his revenge against Dick Murdoch by defeating him in the barbed wire match and even got some payback on a caged in Joe Don Smith. It looks like Colon is ready to move on to his next opponent but we will have to see who that will be. The match against Dick Murdoch was not the only instance of Colon getting involved in events on the April 6 card in Carolina, as he played a role in the Scott Hall vs. Giant Warrior match. We’ll cover what happened and what it looks to be setting, although  I suspect that a sudden departure may have resulted in plans changing. This will all lead to one more match for Carlos against Dick Murdoch on the April 21 show in Bayamon.

There were other happenings on that April 6 house show. The World Junior title was held up after match between defending champion Mr. Pogo and Ricky Santana. They will have a rematch for the held up title on April 13. Invader #1 and Bronco#1 retained theirWorld tag  titles against the California Studs via dq in a match where the Studs almost won the titles via chicanery. They will also have a rematch scheduled for April 13. Finally, TNT faced King Kong in  a match demanded by TNT after Kong had debuted by attacking TNT at a TV taping. TNT felt the wrath of Kong’s splash after Akbar’s interference. TNT will get another crack at King Kong on April 13 but with a stipulation. Let’s go to the April 13 Campeones episode so we can catch up with all the latest developments in CSP. 

Campeones 4/13/91

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

Hugo and Profe welcome us to the program (every Saturday at 4pm on TeleOnce),with Profe having his back turned to start so he could turn around and pose when introduced. Hugo makes a comment that the viewers ask him about why he tolerates Profe’s antics and insults (Profe: ‘They’re not insults, they’re truths and realities.’)’, but Hugo says that ultimately Profe is someone that knows about wrestling and that’s why he's here. Profe can’t pass up the opportunity to applaud that comment and say it's a privilege to have him here. They run down the action we’ll see on today’s program, including two matches from last week in Carolina. Hugo takes a moment to thank the fans that were in attendance last week, saying it’s on behalf of everyone at Capitol TV (Profe says to leave him out of that thank you) for a wonderful experience last week in Carolina, it is becoming  a hotbed for wrestling action.

Hugo mentions we’ll see later an incident that happened last week involving Scott Hall, Action Jackso, Giant Warrior and Carlos Colon, as well as what happened last Wednesday in Miramar. Tonight they are back in Carolina and we have a World tag title rematch, with Hugo mentioning the Studs almost stole the titles last week. Profe corrects Hugo that the Studs almost won the titles last week and tonight they will get it done. Hugo also mentioned that tonight TNT will face King Kong in a rematch with the stipulation that Skandor Akbar is barred from ringside due to his constant interference. Profe thinks this is unfair and even stupid on TNT’s part, because now Akbar won’t be there to keep Kong under control.  With that, let’s go to our first match.

Action Jackson vs. Kim Duk

We go to April 6 in Carolina as Kim Duk faces ActionJackson. El Profe is at ringside for Action and there is still resentment between Kim Duk and El Profe over how their partnership ended. Profe on commentary mentions that the reason Duk is being cast in movies with certain celebrities is because of how ugly looking Duk is. Hugo mentions that Duk and Toru Tanaka (who had previously had a run in Puerto Rico) have been doing well in getting movie roles and talks up a recent movie Duk was in. In the ring, Duk and Action Jackson have locked up a couple of times with not much interaction, leading to them facing off and Duk slapping Action in the face. Action sells the blow and retreats to the outside. Jackson gets some words of advice from Profe and goes back in, but again comes up on the short end of the exchange and goes back outside. Action is back in and eventually is able to gain control of the match, knocking Duk down and locking on a chinlock. Duk goes to the eyes to break the hold and works over Action with several blows. A butterfly suplex gets a two count. Kim gets the cobra clutch but gets distracted by El Profe and decides to leave the ring to chase after Profe. Action tries to ambush Duk from behind, but Duk catches him and throws Action back in the ring. The crowd gets loud as Duk hits several kicks on Action, and it looks like he has the match in hand. However, Profe trips Duk when he rebounds off the ropes and Duk hits his head on the mat. Action hits an elbow drop and gets the three count for the win (with Profe sort of reaching in to hold Duk’s leg down for good measure). 

MD: This was actually a pretty good one. Jackson was growing his hair back and had the Zubaz on and did a good job stooging and feeding, creating a lot of motion for Duk. Some of the holds in the middle around the commercial break weren’t the most compelling things in the world, but I liked Duk’s comeback where he had a butterfly suplex and some nice kicks he doesn’t usually do. Jackson’s punches were pretty lively too. Finish had Profe get involved while Duk had the cobra on and Duk menacing him on the outside. Jackson recovered but Duk had his number until Profe grabbed the leg. They sort of missed him holding it down at the end but it was fine. Now Duk has a singles match upcoming with Profe and can finally get even with him.

EB: Afterwards we get a promo from Kim Duk in the studio, he has a match tonight with El Profe and Duk wants revenge. Back to Hugo and Profe, where Hugo needles Profe about the match with Duk tonight. Profe angrily responds that nothing will happen because he is too smart and then just changes the subject to talk about what happened with Scott Hall and Giant Warrior. We go to the video, with Warrior reversing an Irish whip attempt on Hall and Hall colliding with the referee in the corner. Warrior knocks Hall down and starts stomping his foot to set up the big boot. At ringside, Profe starts frantically waving his arm as if to signal someone to come in. It’s Action Jackson, who Warrior intercepts on the apron and is able to fight off. However, Hall has recovered and knees Warrior in the back. In an impressive feat of strength Hall gets Giant Warrior up in the crucifix and hits it. Hall covers, but before the ref can complete the count, Carlos Colon yanks referee Victor Quiñonez out of the ring. Hall is unaware of what happened and starts slapping the mat angrily, waiting for the count. Hall stands up and sees Colon talking with the ref, and the ref calls for the bell. Warrior is declared the winner by disqualification. 

We then go to this past Wednesday in Miramar, where Scott Hall and Carlos Colon were squaring off. Profe trips up Carlos and Hall gets the brief advantage. Carlos makes a comeback and starts punching a downed Hall. Action Jackson runs in and jumps Carlos from behind, locking in the cobra clutch. Profe celebrities and then he and Hall run interference to make sure the ref and anyone who comes in can’t help Carlos out of the hold. Eventually, Giant Warrior makes his way out and gets the better of Hall, By this point though, Carlos is out from the cobra clutch and Action Jackson goes over to help Hall with Giant Warrior. The rudos bust Wariro open and Action actually bites on Warrior’s forehead a couple of times for good measure. We get some more help from the back in the form of Kim Duk, TNT and Invader and they run the rudos from the ring, but the damage is done. Warrior is down bleeding heavily and Carlos is out from the cobra clutch, with TNT having to wake Carlos up from the hold. As a result of this incident, tonight we have a tag match between Carlos Colon & Giant warrior and Scott Hall & Action Jackson. 

We get promos from both teams about tonight’s match, where you get the combination of Hall’s hand gestures and Action’s mouth running while Profe translates. Carlos and Warrior (with a bandaged forehead) promise that they will get even tonight against these dangerous individuals. Tonight the odds are even. The segment finishes with a card rundown for tonight in Carolina: Carlos Colon & Giant Warrior vs. Scott Hall & Action Jackson; TNT vs.King Kong with Skandor Akbar barred from ringside; World tag title rematch as Invader #1 & Bronco #1 defend against the California Studs; Ricky Santna vs Mr. Pogo for the held up World Junior title; Super Medico #3 vs. Motor City Madman; Invader #4 vs.  Doug Gilbert; and Kim Duk vs. El Profe in a lights out match. Also, don’t miss the TV taping in Miramar on Wednesday,where we'll have TNT & Invader #1 vs the California Studs, Kim Duk vs. King Kong, and Ricky Santana vs. Action Jackson. 

MD: We come in right at the end of Hall vs Warrior with the ref getting squashed in the corner on a whip reversal (Hall doing the squashing; it looked good). Warrior loads up the boot after the fact but Jackson comes in to interfere. Then Hall actually gets Warrior up in the crucifix (Razor’s Edge) which was pretty impressive. Colon rushes out to tell the ref what happened and while he holds his own against Hall, Jackson is able to get the Cobra on him. Then they bloody Warrior up two on one. Pretty effective angle and we haven’t seen a ton of Colon teaming with Warrior so that feels novel, as does the Jackson/Hall team. They might just get one or two matches out of this but it was very effective to set it up.

King Kong vs. Tito Carrion & El Corsario

EB: Up next is a handicap match where King Kong takes on Tito Carrion and El Corsario. Kong just steamrolls over both guys, and wins the match with a big splash on Carrion (who gets stretchered out afterwards). Profe on commentary says that this is what awaits TNT tonight. After the match, we get a promo from Akbar and Kong, with Akbar  warning TNT that if he's not going to be at ringside then Kong will be uncontrolled. TNT follows by saying that things will be different from last week with Akbar not allowed at ringside, He dares Kong to hit him again with that splash like he did last week, Kong may be big but he is a coward. Tonight Kong will face a very angry Puerto Rican who is coming to fight. We close out this segment with some very brief comments from Super Medico #3 where he says he is not afraid of Motor City Madman. 

MD: We’ve seen our share of handicap matches with monsters, and this was a little on the iffy side with Kong stumbling at times, but he recovered well. His clubbers looked good, especially the downward elbow strike and that powerslam was particularly nasty as the ring had absolutely no give. TNT’s promo was sufficiently intense. I’m not convinced this feud has legs but it’d be good for a few weeks at least.

Miguelito Perez & Huracan Castillo Jr. vs. Gran Mendoza & Doug Gilbert 

EB: Our main event is joined in progress, as the Caribbean Express is facing Galan Mendoza and his new tag partner Doug Gilbert. Mendoza and Gilbert are in control, working over Huracan Castillo. This is a rematch of sorts for Mendoza and the Caribbean Express, with Doug Gilbert now in the mix. Most of the match clip shown is Mendoza and Gilbert working over Castillo for several minutes until the hot tag is made to Migueliro. Perez cleans house and then all four men end up fighting in the ring. The finish comes when Perez gets a roll up on Mendoza, but the ref is busy sending Castillo out of the ring. Gilbert hits Perez, allowing Mendoza an opening to load up his glove and then deck Perez for the pinfall win. It looks like this new team may be in line for a Caribbean tag title shot in the future.

Hugo and Profe close the show with Hugo running down tonight’s card and Profe interjecting every now and then about the beating he will give Kim Duk tonight.

MD: I love that there’s this weird direct like from Rick Valentine teaming with Lance Idol all the way to Mendoza and Gilbert here, and it probably continues onwards too. These two work together well, cutting off the ring, drawing in Perez as they work on Castillo. Mendoza has one nice hot shot cut off. Perez does get the hot tag and they feed for the comeback. The finish with an extended distraction leading to Mendoza using the loaded glove and slipping the object back to Ripper maybe takes a little long, but they’re putting these two over strong immediately.

EB: We have two matches from the April 13 house show that we will cover in this installment. The first is the TNT vs. King Kong match with Gen. Skandor Akbar barred from ringside.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cl6nMQkE4Q

The video opens with Hugo saying that King Kong had quite the unexpected surprise when he faced TNT. We cut to TNT making his entrance in full mask and gi, clapping his hands and playing to the crowd. TNT gets into the ring and is immediately jumped by King Kong, with not even an opportunity for TNT to get any of his entrance attire off. The ring intros are made as Kong continues attacking TNT, Irish whipping him into a corner and following up with a corner splash. TNT goes down and Kong hits his big splash. The ref counts three and Kong has won. Almost immediately, someone rushes into the ring to attack Kong, it's TNT! It seems TNT sent someone dressed as him to the ring and that was who Kong pinned. TNT attacks Kong, whips him into a corner and follows up with a spin kick that sends TNT himself over the turnbuckle to the outside from the momentum. Kong is staggered but still hasn't gone down though, so TNT goes back in and dropkicks Kong. That blow knocks Kong down and Kong proceeds to roll out of the ring and leave. The crowd cheers as TNT checks on his friend and then starts doing karate poses for the crowd and to taunt Kong. As TNT checks again on his friend, Kong is angrily pacing back and forth outside of the ring. Just as Kong tries to get back in the ring, Akbar arrives to call Kong off. TNT’s ploy worked but his friend got the worst of the plan as he gets stretchered out.

MD: Sometimes these Puerto Rico angles trail the US ones by nine months. Here you had someone dressed like TNT come out and get absolutely destroyed, and I bought it for a minute too even the pin (like a twist on the fake Sting angle from Halloween Havoc 90), but it was a friend of TNT apparently and it let TNT come out and drive Kong from the ring. It came at a big cost to his friend though. Given how shocking it felt when the fake TNT had gotten ambushed and squashed in the gi, I almost wonder if they shouldn’t have legitimately done that and then gave TNT a mountain to climb. Still, this was an interesting take on things.

EB: The second match from the April 13 show is the World tag team title rematch between Invader #1 & Bronco #1 and the California Studs. And a lot went down there, so much that we have a whole episode of Campeones dedicated to airing this match and showing what went down. The version of the TV episode we have is edited to the show intro,  the match, the show close and one Gen. Akbar with Kong promo where Akbar talks about Kong challenging TNT for the TV title tomorrow in Bayamon. We’ll cover the match as aired on the Camepones episode from April 20, but this match also had a release on one of the commercial tapes. We'll post that link after the episode rundown for anyone who wants to watch that version. So let’s go to the craziness that happened in Carolina.

Campeones 4/20/91

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

EB: Hugo and Profe welcome us to another episode of Campeones, with Hugo mentioning that this week they have quite the match to show, an exclusive airing of one of last week’s main events in its entirety. It’s a match that has been the talk of the fans due to what happened, it is the World tag title rematch where Invader and Bronco were supposed to defend their titles against the California Studs. Profe says that this is a chance for the fans to see the quality of the California Studs, how bravely they fought last week, and a chance to see what kind of cowards and trash Invader and Bronco are. Hugo interrupts and says that before Profe continues his insults they want to explain what happened. Bronco, who usually comes in from his native Dominican Republic to wrestle here, had not yet arrived in Carolina, Twice the California Studs had gone to the ring for the match and both times Invader requested more time to allow Bronco to get to the arena. Profe interrupts to make a bad joke about what happened (he heard that the raft they were on had gotten stuck and since they were Dominicans they stopped to see if the tire had gone flat). Hugo clears up that it was a flight delay and since Bronco had not yet arrived by the third time they went to the ring, the ref was about to declare the California Studs the new World tag team champions by forfeit. That is the point where we will pick up the action in a bit.

But before that, Hugo wants to talk about tonight’s show in Humacao and tomorrow's big show in Bayamon at Estadio Juan Ramon Loubriel. The main event for tonight is Carlos Colon and TNT vs. King Kong & Dick Murdoch. Tomorrow's show in Bayamon will start at 4:30pm, with the main event being Carlos Colon vs. Dick Murdoch. This will be Colon’s chane to finally pay back every rotten thing Murdoch has done while in Puerto Rico and Murdoch’s lackey Joe Don Smith will  be handcuffed to Ricky Santana. One additional note that will come up during the match on commentary but that I will make note of here, apparently we have a new Caribbean champion (Scott Hall has departed for WCW). We’ll talk more about who the new champion is next time. And with that, let’s go to the exclusive airing of last week’s World tag title match. 

Invader/Bronco vs California Studs (Brian Lee/Tony Anthony)

The video begins with referee El Vikingo mid-speech, where he is explaining that the Studs and Akbar have been here on time and it’s not their fault that Bronco is not here. Vikingo tells Invader that he will have to wrestle one of them one on one or do something else, but the titles will go to the Studs if there is no team to face them. Invader thinks for a moment and says that he came here to wrestle, so he is going to go back to the locker room and find someone to team up with him right now. The ref allows this, so Invader goes to the back and comes out with Ricky Santana. Profe has a laughing fit at it being Ricky Santana and Hugo explains that if Ricky had not agreed to team up with Invader, the titles would have been automatically forfeited to the California Studs. Profe complains that the belts should have been awarded to the Studs anyway since the champs are Invader and Bronco. Hugo explains the rule regarding this, saying in the event one of the two champions is not present, the other partner is allowed at any moment before the bell is rung and the ref declares the default win for the challengers to find a substitute partner. However, this is with the understanding that if the champion and substitute partner lose the match, they lose the titles. If the champion and substitute partner win, then it opens the door for the challengers to get a rematch since they did not face the actual champion team in the loss. Profe complains that even if the rules say that, he doesn't think that it's right to not award the Studs the titles here. 

As the match is about to get underway, Hugo thanks the CSP promoters for allowing them to air this match in its entirety and also warns that this a very violent and bloody match so parents please exercise your judgement. Hugo makes note that Ricky has already wrestled earlier and had won the World Junior title against Mr. Pogo, but is wrestling again here helping out Invader. Gen. Akbar is with the Studs, enjoying the view from a seat at ringside. The first several minutes of the match have Invader and Ricky in control and getting the better of the California Studs. Profe complains a couple of times of what he feels is the unfairness of not awarding the titles to Lee and Anthony, while Hugo puts over Santana helping out Invader even though he wrestled earlier. The Studs take over when Lee catches Santana with a kick to the head and they proceed to work over Ricky. Things take a turn when Lee throws Ricky to the outside and, with the ref distracted, Tony Anthony throws Ricky head first into the ringpost. Ricky is busted open. Invader checks on Ricky and it is clear Santana is out of it. Invader is told to get back to his side of the ring and, with the ref again distracted, Brian Lee throws Ricky head first into the post again.Invader comes over once more and helps Ricky back into the ring.

Ricky is in trouble as the Studs work over his cut. The Studs continue beating up Ricky for the next few minutes, with Invader breaking up the pin attempt but not able to help Santana further. The Studs are content to just mercilessly go after Santana's bleeding head. Finally, the tide turns when Anthony misses a top rope maneuver (either a headbutt or slash) and Ricky staggers about and barely makes the tag to Invader. Ricky falls to the outside and is out on the arena flor. Invader comes in a house a’fire as the crowd cheers. Invader holds his own for a minute or two, but the two on one disadvantage catches up with him. The ref moves to get Brian Lee out of the ring, and Akbar passes an object to Anthony that he uses to punch Invader in the head. Invader has been busted open and what follows are several minutes of Invader bleeding heavily as he tries to survive against the two on one disadvantage. Invader’s face is a body mask as he keeps surviving the pin attempts and desperately tries to make a tag to someone who is not there (Santana is still passed out on the floor). Just when it seems the Studs will inevitably win the tag titles, the crowd starts reacting. Bronco has arrived at the arena and has emerged from the locker room in a suit and carrying his bag. Bronco drops everything he’s carrying and runs full sprint to the ring and takes his position in the tecnico corner. He takes off his jacket and shirt. El Profe goes off on commentary for the ref allowing Bronco to enter the match as it had already been started with Ricky Santana as the official competitor. Hug says what else is one to do when you see your tag partner in this situation. The ref seems to be allowing Bronco to stay on the apron. Invader keeps surviving and Bronco keeps cheering and yelling for the tag. While this is going on, we see some tecnicos come out to where Ricky Santana is and help carry him back to the locker room. Finally, Invader is able to make a tag to Bronco and the crowd erupts as Bronco cleans house on the Studs. Profe is again irate about Bronco being allowed in the match. Akbar trips up Bronco and ref calls for the bell. The Studs proceed to spike pildrive Bronco onto a chair. Lee gets a chair shot on the downed Bronco but Kim Duk and TNT run in to stop any further damage. Invader is down and covered in blood. Bronco is down from the spike piledriver on the chair. Santana has already been carried off. The ring mat is a mess from Santana and Invader’s blood. They show Invader and Bronco being stretchered out after the match, with Profe bragging about how three of the tecnicos were carried out. 

We close the show with Hug mentioning that there will be no flight delays this time as Bronco is already here. Tomorrow is the rematch and we get some final words from Bronco and Invader (with a band aid on his head). Bronco says that tomorrow it might feel like a hurricane will hit the Studs, they may be coming for the titles but Invader and him are coming for the Studs’ heads. Invader says he’s recovered the blood he lost last week and swears by his mother that they will remain the World tag team champions.  

MD: Esteban’s done a great job of explaining how we got here and you have to love all the details at play. They really focused so hard on covering every angle, from what would happen if the substitute team won to just thanking the promotion for letting them air the full match on an exceptional basis. In some ways they weren’t giving away the actual match since Santana was there instead of Bronco so the harm was actually limited. They cared so much in making it seem real and genuine by covering all these bases and it creates so much more of an immersive environment than what we see now on a weekly basis. It was a side effect of not raising questions in the eyes of the fans, but that’s what it took to create such a rich tapestry. 

Honestly, this was just a tremendous piece of business, up there with anything we’ve seen so far in this journey. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but it was a bit of shine to start and obviously Anthony and Lee were very good at feeding into things, making it seem like they were about to take advantage only to get caught. Santana ran into a boot however, and they opened him up on the outside on the post and really worked over the wound. Remember, he’d already faced Pogo earlier in the night. He eventually starts to really fire up, but gets cut off, only to finally dodge a flying second rope clothesline and make the tag.

Invader comes in super hot, really like only he could, but Anthony hits him with a hidden object and he bleeds massive. His work here is some of the best I’ve ever seen. Not an exaggeration. Santana is out on the floor and he tries to fire back and just goes corner to corner reaching his hand out for a tag. It’s just almost heartbreaking stuff, amazing work. This goes on and on with him getting opportunities but with no hope as he’s just bleeding out. Then, from the back, in a suit(!) comes Bronco. He rushes up on the apron and pulls off his shirt and barely, by the skin of his teeth, Invader’s able to make a tag. Bronco comes in even hotter than Invader and the crowd goes nuts. Obviously the match has devolved into chaos at this point, and Akbar grabs his legs. The Studs piledrive Bronco onto a chair but the babyfaces come out of the back to run them off as Invader and Bronco (and maybe Santana) get stretchered out. Absolutely classic stuff right here. 

EB: As mentioned, here is the commercial tape release of the match with Ricky Santana and Dick Slater on commentary. The video quality is clearer but it does cut off the pre match and post match stretcher  jobs we get in the TV episode version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkxooWE_3L0

Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, the next challenger to the Universal title is announced as a former champion is on his way back to Puerto Rico. Also, TNT suffers one big splash too many, a new and unexpected Caribbean champion, and a big Noche de Campeones event is announced for Mother’s Day weekend. 

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13:57 of Pro Wrestling Noir: Robert Martyr vs. Liiza Hall

Robert Martyr vs Liiza Hall DUSK Pro: Eternal 11/2/25

13:57. That's how long this match is, including entrances and post-match. 13:57. That's how long it takes, even in 2025, to create something real and tangible, something uncomfortable that makes you feel, something full of pride and hubris, tragic cruelty, heart, grit, determination. That's how long it takes to make you wince, to fume, to sigh in relief. 

And that's how long it's going to take for you to go and watch Robert Martyr vs. Liiza Hall from DUSK Pro: Eternal 11/2/25. It's on YouTube. It's free. I linked it above. Here's the link again. Go watch it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxevgDZ9SjA

Back? Alright, let's talk through it.

I'm not super familiar with Hall. I am fairly familiar with Martyr. What you need to know for this is that he's got a chip on his shoulder. He's got something to prove, and why? Because he feels like he's already proved it. He's been to Japan! Did you know he's been to Japan? He's more than happy to tell you. He came back from Japan and he's here, facing Hall, in front of this crowd, like she's his equal? 

He stormed to the ring as if this was all beneath him. That was a man that's trying to prove he has nothing to prove. 

The problem was, he wanted it too badly, he needed it too badly. Maybe he and Hall were equally matched, equally skilled, but she was able to keep her head better, and exchange after exchange, she outwrestled him.

But hey, no problem, right? Martyr's a shit stirrer. He's a disrupter. He'd get to her, get under her skin. He'd complain to the ref, would pull her hair, would ruffle it, would take her off her game. He'd beat her at the technical game by beating her at the mental game, proving to everyone, her most at all, that he had nothing to prove.

That means you can only imagine what was going through his head as her slap went crashing across his face, as she took him over with a flying mare, as she lightly paintbrushed the back of his head with her foot.

Let's take a beat here. Look, I don't watch a ton of intergender matches. I'm off watching 91 Puerto Rico or 80 AJW or French Catch or whatever. But, my feeling on it is that it's just like any other sort of wrestling. You never want wrestlers to feel exactly the same as they face each other. Contrast makes the world go round. It's in the differences between the wrestlers, physically, personality-wise, stylistically, that the inherent storytelling in pro wrestling shines through. 

What I'm trying to say is that intergender matches shouldn't shy from the fact the wrestlers are different. That doesn't mean the woman involved can't be bigger, stronger, more technically sound, faster, whatever. That's all part of the contrast at play. There just has to be contrast and it has to be acknowledged and made the most of. It's a strength, not something to brush under the table.

Okay, where were we?

Martyr had gotten paintbrushed on the back of the head. He had gotten outwrestled. Moreover, he got psyched out. They were playing chicken and he blinked first. 

In the face of this, with his esteem bruised, his self of identity dangling on a thread, he cracked, he snapped, he crossed a line. He exploded across the ring with a shotgun dropkick causing Hall to crumble into the corner, following it up with stomps until the ref was able to pull him back, leaving him scrambling back to his feet seething.

It, and the brutality that would follow, was a two-fold affront. First it went against the unspoken code they were wrestling by. Up until this point, this was about who was better, who could hang best. It was about technical skill and mental acumen. This broke all codes and convention. 

But yeah, more than that, and the elephant in the room, it was horrific. It was violent. It was striking. This wasn't some idle, measured limbwork. This was a man out of control, digging a hole deeper and deeper, tearing apart his competitor, who happened to be a woman. 

There was nothing entertaining here. This wasn't that sort of match. This wasn't the story they were trying to tell. This was a man brought down to his lowest point in the face of a humiliation that was worse in his mind than in reality itself. He stared at his own reflection and knew the man looking back at him didn't live up to his own sense of self. It was a man lashing out at everything in sight, lashing out at the world. It was made all the worse because of all of the human frustration and grief that Martyr was able to draw upon.

But that's only half the story. This is pro wrestling. This is fiction. And there were two competitors here. Hall was left stricken, battered, shocked. Martyr came back again and again to berate her, blame her, continue the punishment. By hitting bottom, he was dragging her to a sort of bottom as well.

So, pain and despair in her eyes, she looked out to the crowd and seemed to ask them if it was worth it, if there was any point to it all, if she shouldn't just quit.

Driven by their response, she found the strength in herself to carry on, to drag herself back, to force Martyr to face his own actions and his own responsibility for them. She forced him to look her in the eye.

And she started to fight back, flimsy kicks at first, but more and more, his own resolve bending in the face of what he'd done, in the fact she refused to quit despite it all, those cracks within him grew all the deeper. 

It built and it built until she caught a foot, twisted an ankle, and climbed the rest of her way to equal footing. 

As she regained her strength, Martyr came more and more undone, literally, symbolically, tearing off his wrist tape as if he was left naked to the world. 

And Hall, not sinking to his level but instead rising far above him, defeated him not through matching his brutality, but by taking everything full circle and forcing him back to the mat, outwrestling him one last time.

It was deeply unpleasant pro wrestling, a nasty look at the dark underbelly of humanity, a sort of wrestling noir, but it was one that paved a path to overcoming adversity, to finding inner strength in darkness, taking fate into one's own hands, securing one's own agency. It was wrestling that tried to say something, that tried to be something more than just a series of spots and holds, that tried to create a feeling. 

And in my mind it succeeded.

13:57 to make you feel something, where the excess was not found in headdrops or dives, not in elaborate counter sequences, but instead in a gut punch to the heart and a driven, valiant comeback. I wouldn't want other wrestling matches to try to repeat this exact same story; that would be wrong lesson to take from it. But I would like to see other matches try to do something as challenging in a package so compact. Wrestling can use a whole lot more of that. 

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80s Joshi on Wednesday: Jackie! Ripper!

5a. Jackie Sato vs. Monster Ripper (WWWA Singles Title) - 3/15/80

K: This is another match I left off the proper set after giving it some thought. It's certainly a big match. But it's a big match AJW didn't plan on having until a few weeks before, it was supposed to be Jackie Sato vs. Tomi Aoyama, but Tomi was injured and had to pull out. So rather than Jackie facing the heir apparent, she's back facing an old foe from the previous year without much of a build (especially if you haven't seen the 1979 matches).

It's also because we got a rematch at a bigger show on 8/8/80, but there's no footage available of that one, so this is left without much connective tissue to anything else on the set.

But it's still worth watching just as a good match. We start off hot with Jackie hitting a fast proto-slingblade right at the bell to fire everyone up. After then it's a bit of a mixed bag. There's some interesting moments in how they're exchanging holds while keeping the crowd relatively subdued (I mean there's still quite a lot of shrieking, but by Jackie Sato title match standards it's subdued). I liked how Jackie reversed being in a from-behind sleeper position by going between Monster's legs to get into a reverse-sunset kind of counter, which Monster countered into a bodyscissors and actually went for a pin with it. But the moments in between these little exchanges were a bit wanting, they felt like resets and Monster wasn't as physically imposing as I'd like her to be. 

It does get better when she shifts more into using her strength and size advantage. The big spot that gets us really going again is when Jackie manages to overcome Monster smothering her by back body drop style lifting her over the top rope to the floor to huge cheers. They did a good job of milking that moment and Monster looking all outraged and flummoxed on the outside helped get over that this was a potential turning point. Monster storms back into the ring but has been thrown off her gameplan now and Jackie is able to hit her with a bunch of moves, until I swear it looked like Jackie was going for a Diamond Cutter but Monster was too strong and kept on her feet. We get a cool brief image of Jackie on the ground and Monster towering over her, kinda symbolising how much of a mountain Jackie still has left to climb.

Alright so here we go. It feels like we're starting to move into a higher gear as Jackie gets back to keep fighting, and things move closer to being evenly-matched. Monster hits Jackie with 2 of her big hipdrops from the top, and another regular one, but doesn't go for a pin. This felt a bit off to me when that move has been established as a match winner. Instead she throws Jackie out of the ring and then the Black Pair (who'd done nothing to this point) beat up Jackie on the outside and just before she's able to get back in the ring, they hold her back in time for her to lose by 20 count. You can lose titles in AJW on a countout so Monster is the new champion. 

It did get the desired response from the crowd to be honest, but I couldn't get into that, it just felt like too much of a bullshit finish that didn't play off anything that happened beforehand at all. Monster looked like she was winning without outside interference anyway, so I don't get why she even did that. It's like she chose to win by bullshit because she didn't want to just beat Jackie fairly.

The scenes of the crowd crying and shrieking are impressive. They certainly delivered drama even if the match had glaring flaws.

*** 

MD: To me, there’s a clear difference in the crowd here relative to Jackie’s matches over the last six months or so. There had been a tick-up for the Tomi match, maybe, but this is night and day. There’s constant screaming, constant shots of worried or elated young women. Just from what we’ve been able to see, the difference is Ripper. She was a threat to be overcome, a true monster. A monster heel. The US contingent with Moolah were irritants with their heel ref and numbers. The Black Pair were competent and dangerous and violent. But Ripper was a Monster, protected and treated like one, and she was truly something for Jackie to overcome. And the crowd felt that, lived and breathed it.

This wasn’t the Jackie of the previous year though, nor was it the Ripper. They were both advanced in their work and their roles. Ripper felt a little more deliberate and focused, less raw. She made a lot out of the early feeling out, using one hand to combat Jackie’s two in a test of strength, that sort of thing. Meanwhile, Jackie felt like she had more agency, could meet Ripper more as an equal. Yes, there was the vault over ambush at the start, but even just holding her own. Ripper didn’t open the match up until five or six minutes in. That wasn’t because Ripper was diminished. It’s because Jackie had grown into a larger than life ace. 

Ripper did open the match up by hefting Jackie up into a fireman’s carry and just pushing her off into a forward drop. She controlled for a while until Jackie could return the favor in a big moment. Again, there are more parallel spots in 1980 than in 1979. Twice could be a coincidence, but this is three matches we’ve seen it in so far. Jackie had another one where she got Ripper up and over the top.

This was somewhat clipped as Jackie was going for an Octopus and we come back with Ripper fighting out of a cravat (nice struggle there). Unfortunately, and why this probably didn’t make the set, the finish is pretty lame for the setting, with Ripper getting Jackie out and then everyone fighting on the floor to draw the countout and the title change. It protected Jackie while allowing the title change and a subsequent chase. I assume that Tomi’s injury was legitimate and not a work but this sets up a few matches and probably did business. It was a lame finish in the moment though. 

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (And Friends) 10/27 - 11/2

AEW Dynamite 10/29/25

Jon Moxley vs Kyle O'Reilly

MD: I covered their last match last week and people seemed to enjoy it. Part of me wanted to go super stylized once again. 

Kyle O'Reilly was a man who lost it all. 

After failing to defeat Jon Moxley for a world title opportunity in 2022, he underwent neck surgery. He still does not have full strength in his arm. There was a time immediately thereafter when he never knew if he'd be able to hold his newborn.

But what he lost in strength he gained in focus, redoubling his efforts to train and to let technique push him back towards victory. Along the way, he found friends and lost them again, Paragon only barely forming before Adam Cole ended up on the shelf, possibly indefinitely. But he's a man who rolls with the punches, and with a smile on his face, he found the fun-loving whimsy still within him that was necessary to be the heart and soul of the Conglomeration. 

So on and so forth. I'd write about how this time, after scoring one of the biggest victories of his career but having been robbed of an even greater one by Jon Moxley's cowardice, he marched down to the ring with a more serious expression, how he had one more chance to snatch glory long past a point that anyone thought he'd still be in contention for it. 

But then he hit the ring and Moxley, after taking a few shots from Marina to warm him up, followed him in, and I saw the match and now that's just not what I want to write. 

I think that was a great way to remind everyone of the greatness of the first match, but here, it's worth really delving in to the storytelling at play.

Look, we take it for granted. In 2025, just as often as not, maybe more often than not, the logic is flipped. Wrestlers think up big spots and then they work the match around them. They work backwards from the special effects instead of crafting a story worthy of those fireworks and then inserting them in.

This was the very opposite of that.

What I wrote above and what I wrote last week... those things aren't just fluff. They're not just stylized dramatizations. They distill characters. Characters have motivations, hopes, fears, things that drive them. In a perfect world of fiction, these things then intersect with their attributes, physical and skill both, and impacted by environment, then underpin every single action and reaction. This should be the bare minimum in any fictional narrative but all too often in wrestling, it's an afterthought at best or ignored or shoehorned completely in order to try to pop people with something cool or with endless excess.

Not here. 

You could see it from the initial exchange. Character drove the strategic approach of both wrestlers. O'Reilly rolled to try to pick a leg right from the start. Moxley backed off and then tried to bully his way into holds, combining technique with aggression. O'Reilly had an answer to everything, in part because his technique was superior and in part because Moxley was out of control. Mox would go to the eyes, to the nose, to the ear, to anything soft to try to squeeze out an advantage, but O'Reilly was ready for it. In countering those underhanded tactics, he got a little hot though, could maybe feel Moxley's desperation and he charged in with a knee in the ropes that Moxley was then able to use to heft him up and over the top, truly taking over for the first time.

You can continue to follow these threads. Moxley attacked the hand first, worried about O'Reilly's cross arm breaker. But he couldn't help rubbing it in, couldn't help grinding down, couldn't help stomping away. That gave O'Reilly an opening to snatch the leg and starting to work upon it. Moxley, panicking, went right back to the eye and then, not just wanting to win but needing to main, shifted to the neck, the same neck that had been damaged out of their match back in 2022. But O'Reilly knew he had him rattled and he met him standing with strikes getting a seeming advantage but really falling into Moxley's trap, a pile driver.

It's all right there in the text, all shaped by the context, driven by the subtext. Moxley had his back against the wall, respected his opponent, hated his opponent, wanted to stick it to the fans. He'd not just run him to the stairs to slam his head in but would carefully bring him over in a full nelson. He'd lose the advantage by focusing too much on the fans and charging shoulder first into the post, allowing O'Reilly to utilize a dragon screw leg whip. He was cruel and careful one moment and entirely erratic the next. When he was in the ankle lock this time, he was staring at Aubrey Edwards and everyone had to wonder if he'd slug her too.

And O'Reilly balanced the opportunistic counters of a level-headed practitioner with a man with so much left to prove. He occasionally overshot but never so much that he couldn't recover. Moxley would catch his foot when he tried to stand even with him and throw punches and kicks, but he'd be able to spin out and hit something else. When Moxley went for the Gotch Pile Driver, he kept a cool head and turned it into a triangle. This match was his moment, and while he never stopped knowing it, he refused to let it shake him.

Watch this again. At every moment, it was character driving the action, character informing the reactions, character creating outcomes. 

That took them all the way to the finish. This time, back in the ankle lock, Moxley doesn't attack the ref. He dives towards the ropes instead. That throws O'Reilly off but they both end up on the floor. After one or two rotations, O'Reilly locks in a floating guillotine. The count ticks up and Kyle, lost in the moment (his moment), loses sight of the bigger picture. Aubrey counts them out, Moxley survives again even in symbolic defeat, Shafir turns out to be the one to attack Aubrey, and the tension builds in a very organic way for Blood and Guts where Moxley will not be able to escape. 

It's all right there, and in truth, it shouldn't be worth me having to lean so hard into. In a perfect world, I wouldn't have to. If every match operated like this, like so much of other fiction does, then we could take this for granted. But matches aren't like this. This is an outlier. This is special, and the only reason I even could dramatize it and stylize it like I did last week is because they put so much into it. We should expect more. We should expect this. But until we get it match in and match out, we should raise this sort of pro wrestling onto the pedestal it deserves.    

Darby Allin/Orange Cassidy vs Wheeler Yuta/Daniel Garcia

MD: Just a couple of paragraphs about this since Darby is someone we write about and I really enjoyed this match. It was there to further the Death Riders vs Darby/Conglomeration story. On paper, you wouldn't necessarily want this to be a tornado tag, even if it does suit Darby, but the four way for the tag title shot was going to follow it, and the two matches needed to feel different. 

With a tornado tag you usually get a spot-first approach as mentioned above. Here, the characters were really driving it, Darby's intensity, Cassidy's mind-games, Garcia's chip on his shoulder, Yuta just being an irritating menace. Garcia's particularly great at showing (selling) how Cassidy going to the pockets gets to him, but he also got drawn in by Darby teasing with the skateboard. Character-driven spots. My favorite bit might have been when Cassidy leaped over the rail to stymie a Garcia whip only for Yuta to nail him from off-screen (both for Yuta's trademark appearance from off camera to cheapshot, and because of Garcia's reaction). That led to Darby diving onto all of them. Or it might have been how, after jamming Cassidy's skull onto the guardrail with a brainbuster, Yuta shoved Darby off the top and Garcia and Yuta both jawed with the fans, drawing real, true, honest, genuine heat in 2025 by being as obnoxious and proud and unlikable as possible. Yuta going under the ring and only finding his middle finger to piss off the crowd would be a not distant third.

They built to a big comeback (set up by Cassidy putting his hands in his pockets while the two were on the outside) and them paying off what they had set up earlier (including, literally, a table). I hadn't expected Garcia and Yuta to lean into each other like this. It felt like they were heading towards immediate dissension. Bowens/Caster and Takeshita/Okada are already in that lane though, so it can always come later though. For now, this is a (death) ride worth enjoying.

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Found Footage Friday: BRAZOS~! CASAS~! COTA~! WAGNER~! SATANICO~! GARZA~! PANTERA~! CARAS~! FIERA~!

Bronco/Máscara Mágica/Pantera vs. Astro Rey Jr./Guerrero De La Muerte/Mocho Cota CMLL 2/23/96

MD: Roy's uploaded a bunch recently and we'll hit some of it. I'm not going to say no to new Mocho Cota, even 1996 Mocho Cota. He's a step slow, but what he does with that step is still great. He'll bump to the floor off a dropkick and then careen towards a little kid, halting at the last moment and menacing him with his missing fingers. What a guy. He also fed into rudo miscommunication as you'd imagine, so they kept things brisk, moving, and fun. According to Rob, this was a couple of weeks before Pantera jumped to AAA. He was matched up with Guerrero here early and looked good the whole way through, especially down the stretch where he got to stand tall at the end with the last pairing, post-dives, hit a great dive of his own, and then come back in to win the thing, which is honestly not a structure you usually see. He also drove the comeback, so he was certainly being featured. Mascara Magica was paired with Cota and they did ok, even if you got the sense that maybe he was still trying to figure it out a bit. You take Pantera and Cota out of this one and it wouldn't be as engaging (even if they did wildly different things) but as is, I enjoyed it.

Los Brazos vs. Negro Casas/Dr Wagner Jr./Rambo CMLL 3/15/96

MD: Apparently Brazo de Plata and Negro Casas really wanted to work with each other on this night, because they put on one hell of a show. Porky's fist was laser focused to Casas' face and it was great. Just the most brutal, mean-spirited, single-minded punches you'll see, no matter if Casas was standing, on the ground, in the ropes. And of course, Casas would just slide back into the ring at full speed only to get walloped again. They had an early exchange too where Casas did a reverse leg sweep and then Porky did the same in return. Great stuff. Porky had his shoulders bandaged and that made him a target overall. They primera had a great bit where the rudos, two at a time, tossed one Brazo after the next off the top rope. Then they tried Porky with all three and got squashed and pinned. Perfect comic build and timing. The segunda had them really hone in on Porky's shoulder, double teaming him and forcing hum to the floor. The remaining Brazos held their own for a bit, but Rambo pulled out an object and bloodied El Brazo and it became an inconclusive mauling. This was great while it lasted though.

ER: You go into this excited to see whatever happens between Super Porky and Negro Casas and then all of the Porky/Casas interactions turn out to be even better than you expected. The whole thing is great but everything that Porky and Casas do - especially to each other - is better than you expect and that means it's all time great. There is one especially great exchange between them that is like extravagant lucha morphing into shootstyle. No, this isn't UWFi, but damn when Porky gets swept and ankle picks Casas on his way down I flipped. Porky aimed carefully guided punches at Casas's face a dozen different times and Casas kept falling for them in bigger and bigger ways. Porky would knock Casas down and lean his weight on him and throw punches from half mount. It all builds to one of the most incredible ways to end a caida, when the rudos press slam El Brazo and Oro off the top turnbuckle. Two men handled them, but all hands were required on deck to press Porky. They all backed him into the corner and Porky started throwing potato shots at everyone, flat footed lefts and rights. Casas gets hit so square that he banana peels all the way to the opposite corner. When all three rudos finally get underneath Porky to slam him, they wind up crushed underneath. 

The segunda shows Porky as one of wrestling's great Targets. Rambo and Casas target his taped up shoulder. Injured Porky is one of my favorite salesmen in wrestling, his movements feel so suddenly real but delivered by the incomparable physique of Porky. He has one of the most sympathetic faces in wrestling (and here he doesn't even cry!) and the way he plops on his butt and kicks his legs while Negro and Rambo and stomping and kicking him is like a giant baby getting stomped out. 

Rambo is always great in matches like this. He's great during bumping for tecnicos (loved him hopping on his back across the ring after a Brazo de Oro quebradora) and then becomes the most violent rudo during the segunda. His wrapped fist shot to Oro was so good it held up in slo motion, and when he gigs El Brazo he really gets the blood flowing. Rambo knows several ways to open a cut, slamming Brazo's face into his boot in the corner as blood gets all over it, then starts kneeing him directly in the cut repeatedly. I wish the DQ had happened in the tercera so we got the full set of falls, but this was great stuff.   

Dos Caras/Héctor Garza/La Fiera vs. Bestia Salvaje/Dr Wagner Jr./Satánico CMLL 4/3/96

MD: The primera here was a super fun two minutes. First Caras and Fiera mowed through Bestia and Satanico with double teams, including a Hart Attack of sorts on Satanico. Then Wagner got the better of them with a flying double clothesline and Garza flew around for him before hitting a clutch roll up. From there, they did one of those multiman submissions where the third guy kneels on the shoulders of the person/people being stretched. You almost never see the tecnicos doing that and Garza paid for his hubris with Wagner pulling him off so he took a nasty bump into the ropes and then got posted, but the tecnicos still took the caida. 

The segunda started with in and out exchanges, with Wagner getting the best of Fiera and then everyone basing for Garza (who had to make frequent comebacks admittedly). They went around with it until Wagner ended up dangling from the ropes on a great bump/stooge spot, before the rudos finally took over. Wagner finished Garza off with both a superplex and a top rope splash, one after the other, doing it all himself (well, Satanico held Garza down at the end, not that it was needed). The beatdown that followed was short and nasty, with Satanico driving his foot into Garza's groin as the other rudos held him and chewing on his fingers. He meandered too close into the tecnico corner and they turned it around for some final exchanges, some rudo miscommunication, and then a triumphant tecnico victory including Wagner walking around forever with Caras on his shoulder holding an armbar before they finally rolled forward. As fun as you'd expect with guys this talented. 

ER: This had a great ramshackle feel to it. Tight rudo team who all had different ways of bumping cool in a large flat CMLL ring. It's a powerhouse rudo team with three workers who were all cool in different ways in 1996. Wagner got to show off his power, Bestia got to show off his speed and his grace while being built like Vincent Pastoricito, Satanico got to show off his cunning and sadistic leadership. But where they're at their best, is coming together to assault sweet young Héctor Garza. I don't know why Garza's magic didn't work in the United States. You watch his work in Mexico before his US run and his tecnico connection to crowds is so obvious, and it's just not there in WCW or WWF. His babyface presence and charisma mostly vanished on US TV. 

He was brought in to both WWF and WCW with plans on making him one of the pushed ones among his niche, but both bailed on him quickly. In WWF he was a two month foreign babyface firebrand, a busted experiment that stumbled so the later-that-year Taka Michinoku foreign babyface firebrand push. He was given the big solo in all the early WCW trios matches but never connected as even a top 5 luchador babyface with any WCW crowds. The charisma always instantly returned in Mexico and it's evident here. Any time the rudos focus on Garza the match becomes laser focused and Important. He is a tecnico muse to each rudo and inspires them to increased punishment. Satanico and Wagner seem like they take joy in assaulting Garza and I think Garza connects the way he does with Mexico crowds because some felt that sadistic joy and either felt he deserved it for being too pretty while other felt he was too pretty to deserve it. Wagner's top rope superplex and Superfly splash on on him was a real highlight, some real Welcome to the Big Leagues moment, and Garza in Mexico was still great at being the victim of those moments several years into his career. 

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El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: The King of Kong

Week 50: The King of Kong

EB: It was supposed to settle the feud. A cage with a roof and a lock on the door to ensure no interference. Finally, we would settle things once and for all between Carlos Colon and Dick  Murdoch. But it seems that Murdoch had a plan, as Joe Don Smith was able to pass Murdoch a piece of barbed wire through a hole in the fencing. Murdoch proceeded to attack and cut up not just Carlos Colon with the barbed wire, but also attack and cut up referee El Vikingo as well. The match had no definitive winner and it seems Murdoch’s actions are under review by the WWC committee due to his attack on the referee. While that matter is under review, one more match has been signed between Colon and Murdoch. It is scheduled for April 6 in Carolina and it has a few stipulations attached. Due to the attack with the barbed wire, the match will be a barbed wire match. In addition, to ensure that Joe DonSmith cannot interfere in any way, he will be locked inside a small cage that will be suspended above the ring. Will this finally settle this feud? 

Another long running feud that has apparently reached its climax is the one between Action Jackson and TNT. This feud was restarted in January when the Original TNT made his return to Puerto Rico and continued even after TNT had claimed the sole rights to the TNT name. After three months, TNT has been able to defeat ActionJackson and regain the TV title. But it seems that Action is getting a title rematch at the upcoming TV taping, so we will have to see if this finally settles the issue. Let’s go to the April 6 episode of Campeones to find out once and for all if the rivalry between TNT and ActionJackson can finally be put to rest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGCLcUayh-0

Hugo and Profe welcome the viewers to another episode of Campeones on TeleOnce. They run down who will be inaction on today’s program (including a name we have not heard of before), when Hugo mentions that we will go to what happened last Wednesday at the TV taping when Action Jackson was facing the new TV champion TNT. We cut to TNT having Action in the Cobra Dinamita when a huge masked guy climbs into the ring and attacks TNT from behind. This man is known as King Kong and he is the latest acquisition of Gen. Skandor Akbar. Kong attacks TNT, finishing the attack with a splash off the top turnbuckle. It looks like the TNT has finally gotten past action Jackson and already has someone new targeting him. Kong continues stomping on TNT until reinforcements arrive to make the save. 

Back to Hugo and Profe, and Profe is gushing about how impressive and wonderful King Kong’s first impression was. Hugo says that because of this attack, tonight’s card in Carolina is undergoing a change. Instead of facing Motor City Madman, TNT will now be facing King Kong. Hugo also says that TNT wants to send his apologies to the fans for not being able to appear on the Thursday and Friday shows due to the attack (with El Profe interjecting ‘and tonight's as well!’), but Hugo says TNT says he will be there tonight. Also tonight, a huge main event as the Universal title will be defended in a barbed wire match and Joe Don Smith will be suspended 15 feet above the ring in a small cage to prevent him from interfering. Last week, it was Joe Don who passed the barbed wire to Dick Murdsoch that was promptly used to hurt both the referee and Carlos Colon. Hugo says that the WWC is reviewing all of these things DickMurdoch has done and may be deciding soon what actions to take against this individual. Profe is looking forward to seeing Carlos Colon torn apart by the barbed wire and Dick Murdoch as the new Universal champion.Hugo says we will have video of what happened last week as well as some special interviews, but these seem to be edited off the version of this episode we have available. Hugo finishes by promoting the merchandise available for fans to purchase tonight and also plugs an amateur boxing tournament that was happening that night as well in Miramar (where they tape their TV). Again, please remember to buy your tickets at the box office, protect your money.

MD: As best as I can figure here, this King Kong is actually Awesome Kong and not King Kong II who is the King Kong that teamed with Awesome Kong as part of the Colossal Kongs. Got it? Regardless, this was pretty effective overall. He had good presence in framing the moment after TNT crashed into him off the ropes and moved pretty well heading up to the top for a splash.

EB: Our first match is Huracan Castillo vs Rick Valentine, an offshoot of the Caribbean tag title change from a couple of weeks back. Valentine blindsides Castillo before Huracan can take off his ring jacket. Valentine controls for a couple of minutes before Castillo comes back and finishes Valentine off with a body press. Short match as Valentine is finishing up his year long run.

MD: I think this week might be just about it for ol’ Kerry Brown in Puerto Rico at least this time around. You have to admire the run that he had. This was a pretty compact affair where he attacked Castillo before he got his jacket off and they skipped the shine to go straight to the heat. Valentine was focused and effective and had a nice neckbreaker. Castillo came back with energy and jumping knees and won it clean without any real drama with a body press. Professional stuff at least.

EB: The California Studs have done very well in their run so far and have moved into position to challenge for the World tag team titles.They were not successful last week, but Akbar, Lee and Anthony cut a promo on facing Bronco and Invader tonight in a rematch. Akbar promises the gold will be theirs tonight. Bronco and Invader respond by saying it won’t be easy, with Bronco saying you have to go it there willing to fight, willing to die, willing to kill if they want to get these World tag titles.Invader puts over the quality of the Studs and they will be ready when that bell rings. 

MD: Still amusing to see how the choreography is off. Akbar starts speaking and sticks the mic in Lee’s face but they all have to wait for the voice over to be done. Lee talks and does the “tell ‘em, big man” for Anthony (which is funny in its own right) and then they have to wait again. I do like how this is where Devastation Inc. ended up between World Class and Global. Invader and Bronco don’t necessarily seem as hot about this program as Studs do. Anthony’s talking about how they left the babyfaces laying in their blood and Invader’s talking more about conditioning and competition. 

EB: We saw him debut earlier in the program by attacking TNT, but here is our first look at King Kong in a match. His opponent is Jerry Mercado and it goes as well as you would expect for poor Mercado. Hugo on commentary says that he's heard that this King Kong weighs 450 pounds and Kong makes quick work of Jerry. A big splash gets the three count and poor Jerry is stretched out after the match. Akbar has found quite the big gun here.

MD: Kong has the cool barbarian robe deal, so that’s a plus. He does a kick (just an okay kick), then a DDT of all things and the splash you’d expect and I reiterate that he’s moving around int here pretty well. That’s the whole match. They stretcher Mercado out after the fact. There’s every sense that the top guys (Colon, Invader, etc.) could do something with him but I’d wonder what he and Giant Warrior could do with each other.

EB: Profe is with Scott Hall and they talk about Hall’s match tonight against Giant Warrior. It is for the Caribbean title and Hall says it will take more than face paint, arm ribbons and some screaming fans to beat the blond outlaw. Warrior responds by reminding Hall that he beat Hall in the bullrope match and that he is looking forward to winning that Caribbean title.

MD: We have to be running out of time on Hall too but at least we get to see him do all of his hand gestures while Profe talks. Warrior won a recent bullrope match so now he gets a shot at the Caribbean title.

EB: Our main event is a match that took place recently between the California Studs and the team of Giant Warrior and Ricky Santana. Anthony and Santana start off by exchanging punches, followed by Santana getting the better of Anthony on a corner whip. The crossbody by Santana is broken up by Lee and all four men are in the ring. Warrior and Ricky send the Studs out with a double team (Warrior holds santana while Ricky kicks the Studs). The Studs regroup and Brian Lee is tagged in. The match continues with Ricky in control by using his speed to counter Lee and Anthony. It gets to the point where Lee has to rub Anthony’s shoulders to psych him up. A blind tag to Lee finally allows the Studs to take control when Ricky is blindsided by a Lee clothesline. Lee distracts the referee by taunting Giant Warrior and drawing him into the ring, allowing Tony Anthony to attack Ricky on the arena floor. The Studs keep Santana isolated but a couple of missed moves by Anthony allows the tag to be made. Warrior briefly cleans house on the Studs. All four men are in the ring and it leads to Santana getting a small package on Anthony that is reversed by Lee. The Studs get the win. Hugo complains that they stole that win and then starts doing one last hard sell for tonight’s show as the video cuts.

MD: The Studs really fit in well. If I had my choice, maybe there’d be more contrast between Lee and Anthony but it’s also a lot of fun to see Lee stooging so huge. He ran a sequence with Santana early here where he won on shoulder tackles but then lost on speed and it was full of him flexing, pinballing, stalling, stooging, escaping outside of the ring and it was great stuff. Warrior had a nice big where he lifted up Santana to kick everyone too. Heat was on Santana after a nice blind tag transition (Anthony leapfrogged him and he ran right into a clothesline) and they built well to the hot tag to Warrior. Finish had Santana get a roll up as the ref was distracted and Lee pushing them over so Anthony could win. You could put the Studs against any two guys in the territory and it’d probably be good.

EB: We now go to the west coast version of Super Estrellas from the same day.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MQ1Q-wa60g

The version we have starts with a Rick Valentine vs Giant Warrior match already in progress. Valentine jumped Warrior before Warrior was able to get his ring jacket off. Sound strategy but Warrior is able to shake Valentine off and gets the win while still wearing his ring jacket. And that should be it for Rick Valentine in CSP.

MD: Similar to the Castillo match in Valentine attacks before the ring jacket comes off. It doesn’t go quite as well for him as Warrior is just too big. They go back and forth a bit but Valentine runs into a boot and maybe this is it for him?

EB: We get a series of interviews regarding matches for tomorrow’s house show in Quebradillas. Monster Ripper is facing Sasha in a non-title match. Ripper reminds everyone that she is the champ and that she won't let Sasha beat her to get a title shot. Sasha is garbage, a worm and she will prove it tomorrow. Sasha responds by urging the fans to support her tomorrow as she looks to get another title shot and bring the title to Puerto Rico.

Ricky Santnaa is facing Gran Mendoza tomorrow and the topic is that controversial glove that Mendoza uses. Ricky sends a hello to the fans in Quebradillas and Hugo says that the ladies are especially looking forward to seeing Ricky tomorrow.

MD: Not a lot to say about these. Ripper’s got the belt. Sasha wants the belt. She wants to give it back to the people of Puerto Rico. And Santana has to contend with Gran Mendoza and his loaded glove. We’ll hear from him later.

EB: Up next is Dick Murdoch taking on Kim Duk. Duk threatens Murdoch with the kendo stick while trying to enter the ring, with Murdoch begging off. Murdoch snatches the kendo stick from the ref when he is trying to put it away, but is not able to use it before the ref takes it back. Murdoch then tries to jump Duk when he has his back turned for the salt ceremony, but Duk catches Murdoch and wards him off with the threat of salt being thrown. As the match goes on, Hug takes a moment to explain what happened the previous weekend during the cage match between Carlos Colon and Dick Murdoch. Joe Don Smith slid a piece of barbed wire through the cage fencing to Dick Murdoch, which Murdoch used to attack and cut up not just Carlos Colon but the referee as well. Hugo says the incident is being evaluated by the WWC committee and we have to see what decision they reach regarding this disgusting and unprofessional action. In the ring, Murdoch takes control due to some dirty tactics and controls most of the match with punches and elbows. Duk eventually starts punching back and goes off on Murdoch for the last couple of minutes (with some great stooging and begging off from Murdoch). Duk gets the cobra clutch on Murdoch and it looks like he may have Murdoch down, but Joe Don Smith jumps in for the dq. Duk chases Smith but Murdoch attacks from behind and they briefly double team Duk. Murdoch then wraps a cord around Duk’s throat and chokes him out. Duk wins by dq but Murdoch has left him down.

MD: Murdoch, as always, is great to watch. He had antics at the start with the kendo stick. His hands were going all over the place throughout. He controlled most of it and all of his offense looked great, but when Duk was ready for his comeback, he took everything and made it look ten times better and a hundred times more entertaining than usual. He ended up in the cobra clutch but Joe Don (in full baseball gear) broke it up for the DQ with them double teaming Duk and leaving him laying after the fact. 

EB: El Galan Mendoza is next with Monster Ripper and Mendoza claims he is making his return (dude, you’ve been around since January). He is facing Ricky Santana tomorrow. Hugo brings up his glove and Mendoza is aghast that Hugo would say such a thing about any illegal use. They are followed by Akbar and the California Studs, their opponents tomorrow are TNT & Kim Duk, who close this section with comments of their own.

MD: Mendoza, on his own with Ripper, as much as I think he’s a solid talent, is kind of punching above his weight here. It is nice to see Duk and TNT together after all they’ve been through since Duk was brought in as heel TNT’s karate associate.

EB: We next get the King Kong vs Jerry Mercado match we had on Campeones. King Kong will be in action tomorrow in Quebradillas against Miguelito Perez. 

MD: This is the same match from the other show. Akbar is always respectful of Perez, Sr. but he really wonders what Perez Jr. is thinking going up against Kong.

EB: Dick Murdoch is bragging about taking Joe Don to his ranch in Texas and putting him to work. Then he has some words for Giant Warrior, who he is facing tomorrow in Quebradillas. Afterwards, Giant Warrior says that Murdoch is a tough man but he will not back down.

MD: Murdoch has fun confusing the town of Quebradillas with a food. He does a good job of putting Giant Warrior over as dangerous but also indicating it won’t matter a bit.

EB: We have the El Bronco music video that was done when he debuted back in December 1990..

MD: This is not at all important but considering how much Bronco’s valet is featured in this video I wonder why she’s never around. It could also be an old video from when he was coming in the first time?

EB: We have another series of promos for tomorrow’s card, as Action Jackson is facing Bronco tomorrow and he mocks Bronco's dancing. Bronco promises he will not be made a fool off tomorrow, and Miguelito Perez promises to do his best for the fans tomorrow against a guy that is big.  

MD: Jackson’s really funny because he’ll toss it over to Profe and then just keep talking as Profe talks over him with the mic and it’s certainly memorable if not particularly effective. 

EB: The California Studs are facing the team of Super Medico #3 and Invader #4. The tecnicos do well early on but Invader #4 falls prey to a Tony Anthony punch and then Lee proceeds to take over once tagged in. They work over Invader #4, but eventually the hot tag is made. All four men are in and the tecnicos are briefly in control again until Medico #3 misses a charge and is clotheslined on the top rope. This allows Brian Lee the opening to hit his flying kneedrop and get the pin. 

MD: They have the match bookended by the Studs video. Medico III and Invader IV is actually a pretty smart team now that Invader I is with Bronco and Medico I had to hang it up. Invader IV is pretty spry and agile and Medico III has some size and his dad’s striking (though not quite as good). I get the sense they don’t run with this pairing for long though. Here they were there to put over the Studs. More good stooging and controlling the ring (with some Akbar interference). Finish had Invader IV make the hot tag but Lee able to redirect Medico’s throat over the top rope and then he hit the bombs away knee from the top clean to get the pin. Studs train keeps on rolling. 

EB: Our final match for the episode is Doug Gilbert taking on Ricky Santana. The first half of the match has a focus of both wrestlers working over each other's arms, with Gilbert then controlling the middle portion with some chinlocks. Ricky comes back and they end up taking a not smoothly executed tumble over the top rope to the outside. They start fighting as the ref counts them both out. Hugo then closes the show. 

MD: This wasn’t a lot to write home about. The early bits where Gilbert controlled the arm by pulling the hair repeatedly were done well, but a lot of the middle chunk were chinlocks where he wasn’t as active as he could have been. He’s not exactly a force, just sort of a heel presence on the midcard, and they ended up protecting both of these guys with a double countout.    

Carlos Colon vs Dick Murdoch barbed wire match from April 6 in Carolina

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fSbbbCKVsY

EB: We finally have a match from the Carlos Colon and Dick Murdoch feud. This is a barbed wire match where Joe Din Smith will be suspended in a cage above the ring so he can't interfere. We begin with Joe Don already above the ring in a cage as Colon and Murdoch are facing off. Colon is able to back Murdoch up into a corner and it seems Murdoch's tights have gotten caught on the barbed wire Murdoch asks referee Victor Quiñonez to help remove the barbed wire from his butt.Colon and Murdoch start exchanging punches again (although Murdoch takes a moment to sell the pain of being pricked in the buttock by the barbed wire) and Murdoch is the first one to try to shove his opponent's face into the wire. Carlos fights Murdoch off and avoids going into the wire. Murdoch flips off Colon. They continue exchanging blows and we get a camera shot where we can see Joe Don hanging above the ring. Murdoch manages to knock Carlos down and starts signalling to Joe Don. It seems they have a plan and it involves Joe Don lowering a blackboard with some instructions written on it. Joe Don has hidden some wire cutters near the ring and the blackboard is telling Murdoch where they are at. Murdoch heads to a corner and finds the wire cutters, and puts them to use by cutting off a piece of barbed wire.  Murdoch then uses the piece of wire to choke Carlos. It is no dq so the ref can only watch and see if Carlos gives up. Murdoch headbutts the ref for good measure to ensure he doesn’t intervene and stop the choking with the wire. Carlos is able to break out of the choke by foul kicking Murdoch and then proceeds to give him a taste of his own medicine by choking Murdoch with the wire. The ref finally is able to toss out the wire and Carlos scrapes Murdoch's head on the barber wire. 

Murdoch is bleeding and Carlos continues the attack by working over the cut. However, Murdoch cuts that off with a foul blow of his own. Murdoch rams Colon’s head into the wire and is in control as Joe Don uses the blackboard to send down this message of encouragement: ‘You're winning!’.Carlos is now bleeding and is sent back first into the barbed wire. Murdoch continues punching (with taped fists) and Carlos catches his arm on the wire. Murdoch continues working over Colon’s forehead but eventually Carlos makes a comeback.Carlos sends Murdoch into the wire a couple of times and we see Joe Don banging on the cage in frustration. Murdoch rakes Colon’s eyes to stop the attack. Murdoch gets a piledriver for a two count and then signals to Joe Don for something. Joe Don lowers some brass knuckles, but Carlos intercepts them. Carlos wallops Murdoch with the knuckles and gets the pinfall win. The crowd cheers as Colon has his hand raised. Carlos wants to continue attacking Murdoch but the ref waves him off. We still have Joe Don above the ring in the cage, looking defeated. 

We cut to when Joe Don’s cage is being lowered, and Carlos goes back into the ring. He decks Murdoch with a punch that sends Murdoch head first into the bottom of the small cage. Murdoch is knocked out and Joe Don is trapped in the cage with an angry Carlos Colon waiting for him. Carlos rolls out of the ring to wait for the cage to be lowered, while Joe Don starts begging for them to lift the cage back up. Carlos has the knuckles and is yelling for them to lower that cage. The ref opens the cage door as we see Murdoch slowly roll out of the ring, still a bit out of it. Carlos stalks Murdoch who then motions to Colon and points at Joe Don in the ring to try to get Colon off his back. It works as Carlos gets in the ring and unleashes some frustration on Joe Don. Murdoch does eventually come back in to get Colon to back  off, but Joe Don took quite a few lumps. Carlos has gotten some measure of payback on both Murdoch and Joe Don.  .  

MD: We’re lucky to have this one. Joe Don Smith was elevated over the ring in a small cage. It’s more or less what you’d want from a barbed wire match but with that Dick Murdoch twist. It started with his trunks getting caught on the wire and it didn’t really look back. He controlled after a low blow but then Colon came back after one. Meanwhile, Murdoch’s idea for the match, which was wonderful in practice, was to use a small blackboard to trade instructions back and forth with Smith. It was pretty comedic in practice. Super entertaining. At one point, he sent down a note saying how great a job Murdoch was doing. 

I think early on he got Murdoch some wire cutters so he could cut off a part of the wire to use to choke Colon. Of course Colon got it himself later. After the cartwheel, Colon used headbutts and they all seemed to twist Murdoch about and send him headlong into the wire. He bled big. Finish had Murdoch get a pile driver and then, confident, ask Smith for knucks. Colon got them and won the match. Post-match was all about Colon getting his hands on Smith and to set it up, as the cage was being lowered, they pulled off one of the greatest stooge bumps I’ve ever seen, as Murdoch missed a shot and got nailed right into the lowered cage, getting KOed. That let Colon unload on Smith before Murdoch could recover and pull him away. This was really a blast. Maybe it needed just a bit more of Colon getting ripped apart but otherwise, it was great stuff.

EB: Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, TNT seeks payback against the massive King Kong, Galan Mendoza gets a new tag partner, and the California Studs paint the town red (well, the ring at least).  

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