Kazuchika Okada vs Tommaso Ciampa (AEW Five Fingers and Friends 9/21-9/27)

AEW All Out 2026 9/26/26

Kazuchika Okada vs Tommaso Ciampa

MD: Hey everyone. I'm writing this very early Monday morning. I thought about just... not. Not writing. I've done this pretty close to every Monday for almost five years now. There was a match I wanted to cover. I thought maybe it'd help. Help me. Maybe (hopefully) help you by reading. Take your mind somewhere else. You've been living in the same timelines I have. Heartbroken wrestlers. Heartbroken fans. People we care about directly and indirectly. I thought about writing about PAC vs Andrade but that's like staring at the sun. 

I do want to say something quickly about PAC though. Maybe more later. If I was fifteen years younger fifteen years ago, he'd have been my favorite wrestler. Exactly what I wanted out of pro wrestling when I was younger. Innovation. Energy. Daring. Persistence. (Even his size would have appealed. I was a small kid). I wasn't though. I was older and at a crossroads and trying to figure all of this out. And for me, the balance was still off. I was moving in a totally different direction as a viewer and as someone who thought about pro wrestling. 

But then we got to his late 2014/early 2015 and Neville was simply undeniable. He worked subtle heel against Sami Zayn while still threading the needle and being as dynamic and spectacular as ever. He managed to hit all of the impressive, over the top offense against Kevin Owens, but accomplished it in a way that was full of animosity and intensity and real, true impact. It blew my mind. It made me stop, forced me to see things as less black and white, and however I was developing as a viewer, it broadened it. I'm not saying he's the only reason that I didn't stumble into that all too familiar reactionary closed-mindedness completely, but I think he was a big part of it. And he was just as undeniable as his career went on. He owned the road between being innovative, impressive, impactful, intense, and most importantly, immersive. When I hold wrestlers to standards along those lines, it's because I've seen it. PAC did it. And yes, not everyone can be PAC, but everyone can shoot for the moon because at least one wrestler proved that he could reach it, gravity be damned.

One of my favorite PAC matches of the last few years, and maybe one of my favorite AEW matches of the last few years in general, was the Dynasty 2024 match vs Okada. Okada was still fairly new to the company and the crowd wanted to cheer for him so badly, but the two of them, through skill and persistence and commitment, turned the crowd, and that is one of the most impressive, exciting things that pro wrestlers can ever do, especially in modern times. 

Fast forward to Saturday and here's Okada in a similar spot, with a similar, equally difficult task, maybe one that's even more so. The Chicago crowd was deflated. Of course they were. The Darby/Borden vs Fletcher/Knight match ended in ref stoppage after a spot went bad. That almost never happens in wrestling, certainly not on a PPV, and that it happened to someone as sympathetic as Steven in one of his first big matches. It put a chill through the crowd. Dani Luna and Persephone came out afterwards and they put on a valiant effort but there was so much working against them and while they moved the needle through their work (and some Britt Baker heatseeking), it wasn't enough.

It was up to Okada and Ciampa to bring the crowd back to life then.

And they built a match that did just that, a hell of a thing, an impressive edifice that was a combination of discipline, action, and one very secret weapon wearing a birthday hat.

I don't think it was at all a sure thing. Ciampa is a tricky presence in 2026. He straddles the line between face and heel, more of an entity than anything else, one driven by very human whims, desires, and needs.  Relatable but unstable. You can't have a roster like that but maybe you can have just one wrestler. On this night, even before that secret weapon showed up, he was the babyface. He had called out Okada, had invoked the idea of a dream match, had claimed to want the Rainmaker, Okada at his best, and then had attacked him backstage instead of putting up with his crap. Okada, International Belt back around his waist, was not about to meet him halfway. Okada didn't meet anyone anywhere. It's all beneath him.

They could have looked at the crowd, looked at the situation, and panicked. They could have rushed straight into action and never looked back. They didn't. The start of the match was perfectly measured. Patient, disciplined. It was allowed to build. 

Okada broke clean on the first lock up, patronizing Ciampa with the hand pat. Ciampa followed suit. That annoyed Okada who threw a cheapshot kick. He pulled Ciampa's beard on a headlock. Ciampa pulled Okada's hair on the headlock. Okada was offended again. He teased a handshake, which Ciampa would have accepted, but went for the middle finger instead. Ciampa swatted it away and they laid into each other. Okada went for an early Rainmaker. Ciampa ducked it and went for his running knee. A story of the match. One weapon against another. Okada scooted out and came back in, trying for another cheapshot kick. Ciampa turned it around, knocked him to the apron and hit a knee to send him to the floor. 

It was a great start to the match, establishing character, tone, foreshadowing where things might escalate down the stretch. We came out of this knowing exactly who Okada was, exactly who Ciampa was on this night, how they related to one another. It put over the big weapons as dangerous, as things worth hitting, worth avoiding, worth anticipating for the fans. 

On the floor, Callis called Ciampa classless. Maybe on another night, that wouldn't throw him, but on this night, with his family at ringside, he was trying to be something more. That distraction allowed Okada to hit a flapjack and take over. Okada leaned in, dismantling Ciampa in the corner, hitting some moves, taking his time. Ciampa fought back on the apron, but Okada cut him off with a big boot. Okada followed that up by going for the top rope elbow drop. Ciampa rushed up and bit him in the forehead, going for the Project Ciampa Air Raid Crash off the top. More on all of those puzzle pieces later. Okada was able to redirect him eye-first into the post, causing that to be an extended hope spot and cut off.

That's when the match took a turn. Okada brought Ciampa to the floor, out by where his family were sitting. His daughter was there in the front row. It's her eighth birthday. She's wearing a birthday hat. Her mother is next to her. Okada hit a draping DDT on the apron right in front of them and gave the biggest smile.

But of course, for someone as despicable a troll as Okada, that's not enough. It's never enough. He rolled back out, teased a taunting high five, and then gave the birthday girl a middle finger, horrifying the crowd. Time seemed to stop as she looked to her mother, received a nod, and gave him double middle fingers back. Okada sold it as if he had been shot as the crowd popped huge. And Ciampa was right there to take over, full of fire. As comeback transitions went, it was one of the most unique and memorable of the year.

The rest of the match was meticulously put together. No move was just given. During the opening stretch, Ciampa had gone for the Angel's Wings and he hit it now. They kept going for the rainmaker and the knee whenever they could, but it was a series of opportunistic, locked and unlocked moves: Ciampa's backstabber powerbomb, Okada's over the shoulder neckbreaker, German suplexes, another attempt at Project Ciampa, and so on. They teased a false finish where Callis distracted the ref, Okada went to use the hidden screwdriver, and Ciampa caught him, finally hitting the knee. 

What made it work is that it wasn't spammed moves. It wasn't moves done over and over. It was set up and payoff for each move, through struggles and countering.  Multiple options on the table at each point. While it was a lot overall and it was an exciting stretch, there was also a sort of twisted discipline to it. Because they had started so patiently and meticulously, now the match had somewhere to go, and it got there in the most exciting, plausible, dramatic fashion possible.

Okada survived the knee. Ciampa was able to block the rainmaker multiple times until Okada finally got his twisting slam and hit it. This was a placeholder match, something on the road to bigger things for Okada, most likely, something to fill out the card, but it ended up having a much more important role in the show. They had stirred the crowd early with deeply character-driven moments that were allowed to resonate. They took the crowd over the top with the family interaction. Then they kept up the energy with a hot finishing stretch (and again, resonant due to the way every move was foreshadowed, fought for, and earned). The show felt alive again. Really a hell of an accomplishment.

In retrospect, because everything worked so well and because heartstrings were being pulled, it's almost a shame that they didn't give Ciampa, his family, and the crowd that big moment. But it's pro wrestling and it should almost always leave you wanting more. It's something they can go back to one way or another. For now, what's important, is that due to the layout, the performances, and the professionalism, the match overachieved under the hardest circumstances. 

I just went back to watch it again so that I could write about it, and it brightened my day when I needed any brightness I could get. So it's overaccomplished expectations twice now.

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Found Footage Friday: BATTLARTS B-RULE TOURNAMENT~! KAMEN SHOOTER SUPER RIDER~! ISHIKAWA~! OTSUKA~!

Full Show 5/24/01 Part 1

Full Show 5/24/01 Part 2

ER: 45 minutes of 2001 BattlArts filmed on Super 8 at perverted voyeuristic angles showed up. I think it's a guy filming the BattlArts he's watching on his TV. You can hear him nose breathing. It makes some of the matwork look like a tape Nicolas Cage is watching in a dark room. 


Mohammed Yone vs. Kamen Shooter Super Rider

ER: I wasn't expecting Super Rider to tap Yone with an armbar in about a minute, but that's what happened. Not really any matwork, just some light standing grappling that never got to grappling, a fireman's carry, and some light scramble before a quick tap. 

MD: Look, I've been spending a LOT of time watching 1989-1990 Newborn UWF and not a lot of time watching 2001 BattlArts so I'm a little disoriented but this felt a lot like tournament lucha to me. Short, not entirely satisfying, all a set up for later payoff. It's a testament to how insane pro wrestling can be that you just have Kamen Shooter Super Rider with his antennae out there grappling and even winning like this, and he's just accepted as an entity that should be beating Yone and heading into round two. These are the truths of this world. Clearly, it didn't bother anyone there, not that we could really hear all that much past the breathing.

Ikuto Hidaka vs. junji.com

ER: This also goes a minute, but with a more satisfying finish. They feel each other out and lightly jockey for standing position, Junji going for legsweep takedowns but Hidaka holding his base, until Junji gets this nice sweep...that Hidaka basically suckered him into. As Hidaka is falling from the takedown he's already rolling up Junji's leg with a kneebar, which gets the tap. Junji did not make any attempt at a rope break even though they were practically under the ropes. Either I don't understand the rules or Junji.com's bubble burst. 

MD: That inner trip was really nice and you like to see it rewarded with the almost immediate tap that followed, sure. You can't say they weren't getting over the idea that a fight could end at any moment, especially with one bit shift of advantage. These aren't entirely satisfying though. 

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Katsumi Usuda 

ER: 10 perfect minutes of BattlArts without a single strike, just mat struggle and two guys who had to be shooting. A gentleman's game that felt like an honest honor battle from the 20s. Ishikawa and Usuda having a good old scrap with no tricks, with its own natural twists emerging from the grappling and submission attempts. The match is elevated by it being filmed by a guy filming his screen. It makes the match feel more dangerous, something happening behind closed doors. It's 10 minutes of wrestling someone taped onto the middle of a video store rental and eventually someone else rented that tape and had no idea what world they discovered. 

Ishikawa, in his tiny shiny tight black shorts and bright red pair Matflex, is the fucking hottest Ishikawa we have on tape. Ishikawa's ass in these shorts give his grounded headscissors new life. Fuck I forgot about goatee Ishikawa, was he hot or was he more of an IT guy who does BJJ? Doesn't matter, because this Ishikawa is hot and gets to show off more of his wrestling skill than he typically uses against a devil like Ikeda. I love how he forced Usuda to work hard for a triangle knowing he was going to use one of his rope breaks the second Usuda got there, using his 1-0 advantage to tire the boy out. It's so cool getting a look at these two shooting, to see Ishikawa crossing his calves while blocking a rear mount, filling in those tight shorts, ever thankful that our cameraman filming his film of a film zooms in on that ass. The 10 minute draw is disappointing, sure, but the fact Ishikawa was clearly strategizing this as a way to advance makes it so much cooler than your typical draws. This man knew he was in a tournament. 

MD: It's fine that the earlier matches went short because that meant this was allowed to have time, right? Ishikawa's a joy to watch, the way he controls distance, how he drops down to a knee to create a shock and try to force an opening, the way he all but rolls Usuda over to make him eat a rope break and how casually he snatches for the rope to get out of a hold without a worry in the world. He is a man completely in control of the situation, something made somehow all the more impressive by how Usuda was scrapping and scrambling at him. When he lets things go to time (both of them in shared leglocks) you get the sense it was almost strategic. He knew that he had the first escape point and would win and in a tournament setting a win was a win no matter how you got it.

Takeshi Ono vs. Alexander Otsuka

MD: Otsuka, less overtly but more sublimely than Super Rider, does give that air of the unusual, infinitely credible but wearing his gear that cuts out a piece of the back to make a superhero-like A. Ono is able to snatch a hold early to force a rope break, reminding people how things could end just like that if they had forgotten after the Ishikawa match. But then he didn't get much else. Otsuka was all over him. Ono would drive forward and Otsuka would just ride his momentum over and down. Ono would shoot low and Otsuka would withdraw for a second and then get on top of him. Ono was able to get a rope break there but shortly thereafter, it was all over. 

ER: It's weird watching an Otsuka match, waiting for the disgusting way he's going to inevitably suplex Ono, while knowing that this show isn't about suplexes and you were just getting heavy mat bully Otsuka. Ono didn't get to throw kicks and Otsuka didn't get to bounce Ono off his shoulder with precision, so it's a lot of Otsuka bullying Ono into holds. The finish is Otsuka laying his weight into Ono to force him to give up his back and go in for a choke, It never felt like Otsuka broke a sweat and Ono couldn't match size, but it benefitted from having the feel of Ono scrappily working up to someone in an afternoon spar.  

Kamen Shooter Super Rider vs. Ikuto Hidaka

MD: Well you can't say these two weren't fresh for this one. Hidaka got another nice rolling kneebar early and that seemed to be a wake-up call for Rider. He spent most of the rest of the fight as the aggressor maintain control but not being able to do much with it, lots of ball control, not a lot of shots on net, basically. But he kept the pressure on and eventually that led Hidaka to go for another one of those rolling kneebars. Rider was ready and caught him in a cross armbreaker and moving on to the finals (far deeper into this one than I would have expected). Unfortunately for him, the other side of the bracket was Otsuka vs Ishikawa.

ER: I love that someone out there was documenting themselves watching the biggest BattlArts night in Kamen Shooter Super Rider's career, the guy on paper who should have been eliminated in the first round with no fuss. I love the one night story of Super Rider. This really felt like Hidaka went in expecting Rider to be more of a pushover. Hidaka tried to lean on him and the more he tried that, the more Rider frustrated him and clowned him. Hidaka looked actually frustrated at some points, finding out Rider had much stronger takedown defense than expected. When Rider stood up out of a scrambling submission, leaving Hidaka on his back, I saw in Hidaka's eyes that he knew he wasn't going to win this one. I'm not saying this is like that house show where Brooklyn Brawler won a battle royal and got a long title match against Shawn Michaels because of it, but of all the names on this show he's the last I expected to go to the finals. Hidaka's face when Rider pulled the armbar said the same.  

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Alexander Otsuka

MD: I noticed the camera not being my friend here more than in the other matches. I think there were more photographers at ringside for this one which made it problematic. Also, the cameraman was probably overeager. Sometimes that gave things a nice chaotic feel as limbs were flailing about on the mat, but for the most part, it hindered.

Ishikawa came into this one so much differently than the last, much more conservative, much more focused on just containing Otsuka for as long as he could. Eventually that paid off as he got an ankle lock in the ropes and forced a break. Otsuka came out of that more aggressive, but things were even for a bit. After a reset, both men were grinning and smiling, having quite frankly the time of their lives with one another. Otsuka was able to ride that aggression to a rope break on a rear choke soon after, but Ishikawa went 2-1 with another ankle lock.

That set up the finish where, back in the middle, Ishikawa forced Otsuka to roll out of one position, only to trap him in an armbar the moment he did. As I was watching this go on and looking at the video time tick down, I definitely was getting worried for poor doomed Super Rider.

ER: Great scrap between two heavies, two big styles, shaved down into a bare bones struggle. This was a tough scrap with both men's most dangerous weapons sanded away by format. No Fujiwara tricks from Ishikawa, no tough unpreventable throws from Otsuka; instead we got what felt like a gentleman's wrestling match, a respectable scrap in front of a fire place, for themselves and no-one else. The 10 or so minutes passed like nothing and the action never stopped advancing or being met force to force. BattlArts had some daring and inventive shootstyle, some incredible drama. This style forced them to not rely on their spectacularness and flair for surprise comeback wins, and go more head to head in a quiet head to head. It's always engaging and a rare peak at two legends of the genre and era, working vigorously through the basics. 

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Kamen Shooter Super Rider

MD: By the time the bell rang, there was less than two and a half minutes left on the video. Super Rider came in hot, as he more or less had to, and he had a nominal advantage early, or at least didn't have a disadvantage, but Ishikawa deftly turned a cross armbreaker attempt against him and pried away a hand, getting it between his legs and locking in an armbar for the decisive win.

ER: Not even two minutes, but a genuinely hot two minutes with Ishikawa at his most Inoki. Super Rider shouldn't be here but here he is. Ishikawa has this gleeful sicko grin on his face for all of it, letting himself get into trouble before power bending Rider's arm over his thigh. It's a sick fight between a high ranked Fujiwara guy and a scrappy Sayama guy. Ishikawa cockily gives up his back and while I don't know how much trouble he was actually in when Super Rider pulled off a roll through armbar, but it was cool as hell. Ishikawa's confidence, with that ass, a whole evening with a legend just strengthening his career case. 

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80s Joshi on Wednesday: Mimi! Martin!

Addendum 

BONUS: Mimi Hagiwara vs Judy Martin (All Pacific Title) 8/8/83

K: Mimi Hagiwara gets carried on the shoulders of her seconds for her entrance like she's a monarch. She's even wearing a crown. In any other context you'd think she was working an arrogant heel gimmick with an entrance like that but she pulls off being a deserving princess.

Judy Martin on the other hand makes her entrance by complaining about not being the champion already in poor announcer Shiono's face. The match practically starts in front of his desk when the heroic Princess Mimi valiantly storms over to save the announcer in distress from the evil Judy. The Rocky Balboa punches are flying.

This is held back by the match feeling a bit disjointed sometimes. I don't think they really got things flowing properly until the spot where Judy has a chair, and then Mimi comes back into the ring with her own and they do the duelling chairs battle. If there was a theme it's Mimi subverting her visual presentation by acting kinda badass, but still very girly. The crowd being quite vocal in chanting for her as well.

Cool finish. Mimi looks like she's about to lock Judy Martin in a sharpshooter, but she doesn't spin around to apply it as a submission, she just stands there and pushes her shoulders down into a pin. I think the announcer called the hold a 'Venus' something. She wins a few other matches with this in 1983. Unfortunately this is the period where Mimi is being put out to pasture so she isn't getting any real feuds anymore, just random matches which don't seem intended to amount to much. This was quite good though.

***

MD: Very glad Kadaveri slipped this one on for me since it’s one more chance to see Mimi, and she’s up against Judy Martin who is my favorite Moolah disciple, the apex of Moolah-ism. Maybe most of all, I love the crowd interaction here. Mimi had a bunch of guys in red shirt (We’ll call them young but it might be debatable) who were waving things and chanting Mimi. This is the most anyone has been chanted for since Jackie retired really. And Judy was pissed at their existence. She sold the chants. At one point, she rushed out to steal a sign or banner or fan or whatever they had and destroy it (She had previously gone after the scroll for the title announcement). And then later when she took Mimi to the apron, they had learned their lesson and all ran away. 

I’ve seen people complain about the refs not doing anything when the heels cheated and interfered but there really is a sense that everyone is terrified of the heels and they have no recourse but to let them get away with things and run away from them. It adds to the atmosphere even if it does get old sometimes. Here, as Judy slammed Mimi into those vacated chairs, it did not. 

At the start of the match, Judy had complained on the mic and when Mimi came over to hit her, she choked Mimi with it. This was pretty back and forth overall with smart transitions (like Mimi going for a victory roll and Judy hitting an electric chair). Another time Mimi was throwing her great punches and Judy just got under her to heft her up, walk across the ring, and drop her. Mimi opened things up with a catapult and figure-four but then Judy smashed her with a chair on the outside. That led to a pretty nice chair battle, Judy getting her chair stuck in the corner, then getting rolled up, and ultimately the finishing stretch. Judy stretched with some neckbreaker drops, but Mimi reversed a whip, hit a belly to back, and won it with a pretty interesting pin in a Scorpion Deathlock set up position. I’m sure this has a lucha name but I’m not quite sure what. This was nice if bittersweet as we only have Mimi’s retirement match ahead of us.

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Tuesdays with Daddy: Week 4: w/Kwick Kick Lee (Maeda) vs. Walsh/Brannigan (5/11/82)

Week 4

Big Daddy/Kwick Kick Lee (Maeda) vs. Tony "Banger" Walsh/Crusher Brannigan 5/11/82

MD: Okay, I'm starting to see some patterns and starting to find my way through this four matches in. First up, Kwik Kick Lee was positioned as Sammy Lee (Sayama)'s brother and is, of course, Maeda, who has size to stand out here (and some good offense; he hit a great jumping knee). Brannigan is big and a sub for Skull Murphy. Walsh looks like a mustached character actor stooge. This is tied to the F.A Cup and the crowd is loud. 

Here's the deal. And people will hate this, but it's true. Big Daddy is Goldberg. Short matches. Super engaged. High energy in his own way. That's the thing. He leans into everything. People don't just bounce off of him, he leans forward. He really tosses himself into every whip, not a ton, maybe but enough. He puts oomph into everything even when he doesn't have to. And there's a ton of energy to the ping ponging off of him where he moves someone in and out of the corner, in and off the ropes. They're creating a lot of the motion, but he's acting as a catalyst to it, doing more than people remember or would imagine, I think. It's tangible. That's what registers with the crowd. He's quite often engaged, quite often showing he cares. He's excited when Lee scores a pinfall on his own (off a suplex), after coming back on his own, slapping him on his back and giving him a high five. 

And He's frustrated when Brannigan pulls back the corner pad. Here, there was a sense of danger. Lee lost a fall to Brannigan's spinebuster stampede into the corner followed by a running spinebuster slam, so when the turnbuckle pad came off, there was a real chance Maeda was going to lose. He had enough reach to get a tag on a second charge though and Daddy tossed Branigan in, hit a back body drop, and scored the win. Post match he hit his crushing waterwheel backdrop onto Walsh, and it's really a spectacular move. The other person does a lot of the work, but it's something ritualistic that people would want to see over and over. I want to see it over and over.

So yes, it's not apples to apples, but there's a real Goldberg appeal here. It's a different sort of intensity and anger and focus. It's a different sort of attraction with a different body shape. And I think there's more savvy to how Daddy connected to the crowd, more foresight, whereas with Goldberg it was primarily instinct, but some of this is scratching a similar primal itch with the crowd.

We will keep watching!

ER: Maybe our weakest actual match but a cool way to continue fleshing out our story. Daddy teaming with the babyface Japanese rookie, catching him up on customs mid-match, even tousling his hair like his partner is some hard kicking little rascal. Maeda is, that, and he also looks like the hands down handsomest man in the UK. This might be our most odd pairing of wrestling legends I've ever seen. Find me a weirder team of Style Legends whose represented styles and eras couldn't be further apart. The shootstyle god of controversy and the man as synonymous with British wrestling as Kleenex is to tissue. Find me the team of Hijo del Santo and Tiger Jeet Singh! 

I am wholly unfamiliar with Crusher Brannigan and Tony Walsh and their awful, awful gear. Tony "Banger" Walsh is in there looking like a non-wrestler, like David Manning was forced to team with a von Erich and is wearing a singlet over a polo shirt, on his Hamburglar shit. He throws strikes like a non-wrestler too, but I don't necessarily mean that as a pejorative. I kind of liked his forearms that were thrown off to the side like a glancing European uppercut; his elbowdrop is the same form as Regal's, it's just missing 80 lb of weight behind it. He looks like someone I'd like to see Daddy flatten in a real fight. 

Brannigan is one of those messy brawlers who looks like he belongs on the early 80s Germany footage Matt and I have been exposing to a dozen people. Same messy big guy body, just a looser uglier version of their heavyweight style. Crusher had some of the weakest headlock punches I've seen, and he wins the 2nd fall by kind of hitting Lee with a spinebuster, that's more him picking up a bearhug and falling on Lee, then holding him down. It's beautiful, because his messy spinebuster flop sets up an excellent 3rd fall. Brannigan undoes the turnbuckle pads before running Lee into them with that bearhug, missing a tag to Daddy. When Brannigan squishes Lee and turns around directly into his own messy body getting squished, that shitty singlet where the straps are joined by the horizontal jobber strap, you know why he's there. He's there to be bodied by a Daddy avalanche, then another, a messy body hitting the loosest ropes in town. He's there to be knocked backwards over the top by a closing speed Daddy belly bump. He's there to make sloppy contact. 

Daddy doesn't do a Jackhammer, but that waterwheel body splash feels like the 1982 British equivalent. I watched his waterwheel on Walsh a half dozen times, just watching the physics of it. The fall and impact is so satisfying, a roller coaster hitting the highest peak and beginning the descent. Big Daddy puts this guy through the mat. 

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Without The Shedding of Blood There is No Forgiveness For Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Sometimes you just want to watch some Fujiwara

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Nobutaka Araya/Shigeo Okumura vs Genichiro Tenryu/Kendo Nagasaki/Masaaki Mochizuki NEW NOW 4/4/99-GREAT

A real murderers row of Japanese indy sleaze kings in a show closing six man tag. One of the great things about both Fujiwara and Tenryu is that they are equally as comfortable in a huge big show main event, as they are in this kind of grime on the lens six-man tag. The highlight was obviously Tenryu and Fujiwara matching up, as they try to beat the brick off of each other including Fujiwara opening Tenryu up with headbutts and knuckle punches and Tenryu trying to shatter windpipes, some solid stuff from the other guys too, including young Mochizuki adding some highspots and flash. Match didn't really build to a big finish, and ended with a Nagasaki and Okumura show down, which wasn't exactly the creschedo I wanted. Still this was only the second time Fujiwara and Tenryu matched up, and they are two of the ten greatest wrestlers of all time, so a real treat to see.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Shinya Hashimoto/Kazuhiko Ogawasara Zero-One 8/4/02- EPIC

Just a entire tool bin of crowbars, reckless asskickers pushing the limits of violence with every shot. Ogawasara is a karate master who never adjusted his style to pro wrestling, while the other three are working a regular super stiff wrestling match, he was just axe kicking people and punching them in the ribs. Takiawa is such a fucker in this match, throwing these brutal reckless clotheslines, and Hashimoto gets more and more irritated with him, and just start to try to bisect his body with kicks to the ribs. He hit him like he was trying to break a bottle on a bow of a ship. Fujiwara and Hashimoto is an all time great match up with Fujiwara trying to find different ways to chip chunks off the oak tree in front of him, and Ogawasara vs. Fujiwara felt like an Inoki Different style fight in the middle of a tag match. Finish was a bit anti-climactic, with Hashimoto just point at Ogawasara to cut off Fujiwara, so he can break Takiawa into little pieces with a brainbuster, but this so delivered on it's promise of violence I have to give it the EPIC rating

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FUJIWARA

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE HASHIMOTO

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 9/14 - 9/20

AEW Collision 9/19/26

Darby Allin vs Myron Reed

MD: I don't think you understand how good Darby Allin really is.

Look, don't take offense at that. I don't think I'd fully grasped it and I've written up around a hundred of his matches. Through five years of doing this weekly, the tags with Sting, the TNT title runs, the World title run, the battles with Joe, and Mox, and Christian, and everyone else, I think I just didn't let myself see it all the way. 

I inherited Darby. Phil and Eric started this feature. I didn't come on until a couple of months later. I had been doing Found Footage Friday and French Catch Tuesday. I'd never really written about modern wrestling on Segunda Caida up until that point. They chose Eddie, Darby, Dustin, Bryan, Punk, as the 5 Fingers. I'm not sure I had ever even seen a Darby match before the Punk one. 

And there are truths I've brushed up against, sure, the idea that he can make people believe in a way that no one else in wrestling today can, that they believe in the pain he is going through, in how he pushes himself through it, that they believe in him. And yes, maybe it straddles a line in a post-kayfabe world, but if people believe everything else on the show is an act, they believe that he's really dying for them, and that if he does make it back (to hit his spot or mount his comeback) then he's really finding miraculous resolve to do so. 

I figured that part out a while ago. Some of it is a work, some of it less so, maybe, but it's held together by his selling. Even if he felt like he could jump up and run free after taking a big bump, he makes sure to milk every iota of sympathy, slowing down the match and leaning as hard as possible into consequence. This is accentuated by the fact that he is small, he does seem fragile, almost skeletal, and he's up there against wrestlers who are larger than life (even if life might not be as large as it once was), that are certainly larger than him. He uses his body as a weapon, a bludgeon, a pointy stick right into their eyes. If he's David fighting one Goliath after the next, his own body is the rock that he puts in the slingshot. Factor in his trainwreck bumps, his ability to be lawn darted across the ring (or out of the ring or off the apron or the guardrail or the stage), and it's a jarring combination of offense and offended that is like nothing else in the history of pro wrestling.

Hyperbole? Maybe. But that's where I've been lacking. Exactly where I've been lacking, and I'm someone who catches grief sometimes for overreaching with such praise. 

There are wrestlers today who can work an older, more measured style where mostly everything makes sense, is emotionally grounded, holds together, has consequence. There are wrestlers today who can do amazing things athletically, more amazing than anyone before them, hit amazing spots and dives and take amazing bumps, like nothing we've ever seen. And yes, there are a few scant wrestlers who are always on, that bring a level of intensity and commitment to character and performance, that they lose themselves in their wrestling, and in doing so they allow us to lose ourselves as well for a time. No strings.

Darby is, I think, just about the only one who is in the top, top category in all three of those things. I can't think of anyone else in that perfect Venn Diagram (maybe Athena, MAYBE, but as spectacular as she can occasionally be with her spots and athleticism, I'm not sure it's quite the same, and sometimes (sometimes) logic fails in the face of what she wants to do). 

More than that, no matter who he's facing, he forces them to follow these lines as well. He forces them to exist in a world where things make sense, where there is consequence to every action, where everything is more visceral and brutal and horrific and vivid. He covers up their tendency to put the means before the ends. He creates a world where viewers can lean hard into their suspension of disbelief, and any wrestler that goes up against him is now a denizen of that world. He makes whatever they bring to the table not just better, but realer, more vibrant, more wonderful, more magical. He's a skeleton key to a different world, not the world of the 1980s Crockett, not the world of Puerto Rico bloodbaths or 90s Japanese wars of pride and escalation, but something all his own, something that takes the excess of modern wrestling's endless firework shows and grounds it in a pulpy, gritty, stomach-clenching post-apocalyptic wasteland where you can't just think, can't just be above it all, can't just chant "This is Awesome", but instead have no choice but to feel. If you have a heart and you have a soul, then Darby Allin will crash right through them and make you live vicariously through him and make you feel alive.

He let Myron Reed be his best self here. Don't get me wrong. Reed is spectacular. Fireworks? He's got those. He checks so many boxes. But I've never seen a Myron Reed match that made me feel this way. I've never seen a Myron Reed performance that made me feel this way. 

They worked it like a title match to start, even if only for the first minute, feeling out, holds and counters (watch Darby's foot on the go behind or during the headlock; he has a wrestling background, but more than that, he can portray himself as someone with a wrestling background). It sped up almost immediately to quick pin attempts and Darby dropping right down into a headlock on a kip up attempt. Darby kept the advantage with a sky high step up armdrag, and then he rolled this way and that, teasing a dive, stretching his control of his own body, of the space between them, of the canvas of the wrestling ring in a way he only is able to do when facing an opponent closer to his size. Darby can dive across the ring to create space while having it not feel like a roll for a sake of a roll but instead meaningful, essential, laudable positioning. There's something about the fluidity, the physics, the way he takes an advantage that might have been harder otherwise that feels like a human game of chess.

He's won matches this year with quick Coffin Drops out of nowhere, and he went for that here, only to get knocked off the apron like only he can (a calculated risk gone wrong, a poor chess move but a chess move nonetheless). We've seen this a lot by now, but no two Darby bumps from the top off the apron to the floor are exactly the same. The control of his body even in the face of gravity seems impossible, but somehow he manages it. It's the perfect transition spot, the perfect spot to take the show to commercial. Here though, because of what Reed brought to the table, it was just the prelude. Darby maneuvered himself behind the ring post on the floor, normally a relatively safe spot, and Reed bounded right over the post taking him out, a good moment to take it to break made even better in the most spectacular way possible.

Reed controlled. Darby came back by using his own body as a back springboarded weapon, and took them back from break with a Superplex. From there, things were even, one big move (sold excruciatingly in the best way possible for a Saturday night TV match with a hierarchy difference) after the next. Reed hit his dangling Flatliner from the rail but missed the 450. Darby hit the Code Red and a torpedo of a suicide dive. Reed rolled out of the ring to avoid the Coffin Drop and when Darby went for another tope, Reed caught him with a cutter on the floor. This time Darby rolled to the apron, but that let Reed hit that huge, memorable cutter off the apron to the floor. Reed then set up a chair (and I'm not quite sure why because things went back towards the ring; there's almost always a method not just to Darby's madness in his matches, but to any other madness as well, but this felt a little dubious to me, even though the payoff was amazing). Regardless, we know how the chair ended, collapsed horrifically beneath Reed's flipping body as he tried for a dive and Darby moved. One of the craziest spots of the year to say the least. Darby rolled him in, hit the Coffin Drop and won. 

Let's call the chair here the exception that proves the rule. It felt a little opportunistic. Reed had used it to help himself up after the cutter. It took me out of the match a little, but just a little. Just a few extraneous words in a word problem, something you can sweep under the rug. You very often don't have to sweep anything anywhere while watching a Darby match, and certainly never for long (not long at all here), but Darby makes it easier to sweep something away than any other wrestler alive.

That's the point. Darby doesn't shy from the modern style. He embraces it. He embodies it. Always bigger. Always more. The sort of "Evolutionary" inevitability that some people invoke to when it comes to athleticism and action and fact-paced "workrate." Often slick or tricked out. But I'd argue (and even those that might disagree with me often would probably agree) that it's a different lane than the Ospreays and Omegas (both of which have their own separate lane really; so maybe it's more a different parallel highway going the same direction) of the world, maybe. Darby's is a path that is more focused on commitment, on a sort of brutal realism that doesn't wink, doesn't show strings, doesn't reveal the trick. It's more focused on consequence, on taking a beat after big spots before rushing to the next because the spots are so big and the trainwreck so disastrous that nothing else would even be plausible. He brute forces sense and sensibility into modern wrestling. 

And I honestly don't think there's a person alive, maybe myself included, that's done a good enough job giving him the credit he deserves for managing it. 

---------------------

ROH TV 9/17/26

Satnam Singh vs Matt Mako 

(1) Life isn't fair. No aspect of it, not even pro wrestling, is a meritocracy.

That said, life is full of opportunities and life is full of challenges. There are things you have control over and there are things you do not. Some people whine and complain over the things outside of their control. Some people face the challenges head on and make the most of every opportunity.

In a fair world, in a just world, Matt Mako would be the #1 contender for the ROH Pure Rules Title. He has the background, the skill, the constant push to make himself better and better, Just in the last few months, he's defeated Tim Bosby, Cheeseburger (who pushed Lee Moriarty to his limits), Tim Thatcher. And yes, he's been on the other side of the ring of Moriarty once or twice. One time, Moriarty went so far as to hire the Hurt Syndicate to tag with him, some might say in order to dodge Mako.

Yet, here he is in the WJCT Studios in Jacksonville, no ring entrance, looking across the ring to one-in-a-billion, a giant billed at over 7 feet tall and over 400 pounds, Satnam Singh.

Satnam is not Khali or El Gigante. He is toned, agile. They've been hiding him here, an attraction that is not allowed to attract, a force slowly being built up week after week with no apparent purpose but destruction.

(2) And he continues to hone his trade, continues to get better, continues to add new moves to a repertoire that would be fine if it was as simple as could be. He stalks around the ring with a fluidity that his predecessor giants couldn't have hoped for and he racks up wins quietly, an obvious contender to anything he'd want to challenge for, a mountain to be overcome.

To Mako, this is a challenge. He meets it not with resentment, not with malaise, not with fatalistic resignation. He meets it as an opportunity. He himself is trained, honed, a warrior used to battling all sizes, all shapes. The larger the opponent, the more chance there is to make a name for one's self. Fell Goliath and be remembered forever. There is glory in that. There is pride in that. It is undeniable.

After shaking hands, Mako comes in with a strategy. If you take a giant's legs out, he becomes a man, and put Matt Mako up against any man alive and he has at least a fighting chance to win. He starts laying kicks into those legs. It's what Inoki would do. It's what he did do against Andre and Ali both. A few shots to the legs makes Satnam cautious but that opens his stomach up for a spinning kick. Go for the most-vulnerable spots. Go for the softest spots. Make life fair.

The problem is this: one shot from Satnam is worth ten from anyone else.

(3) And Satnam gets his shot. One headbutt. Mako staggers back. Satnam whips him off the ropes. What Mako needs is distance, to avoid shots, to have time to plan is next attack. He rolls under Satnam's swinging arm, hits a dropkick to the shoulder. He can't let up so he charges right in. A half second too late. For a man his size, with his reach, a giant, Satnam is just too quick (It's not fair). He gets a foot up and Mako wipes out.

That gives Satnam the advantage and he uses it to play with his food, chopping Mako in one corner than the next, whipping him in. But Satnam isn't used to this level of oppontent. He's been trained up, but he's been trained to give the crowd a show since he can so easily run over most opponents.

Mako uses that space to make a strategic retreat to the floor. Satnam is no normal giant and he gives chase. Mako is ready and lays in some shots to the stomach. It's not enough. Satnam tries to whip him into the post, but Mako snatches it on the way around and propels himself into the ring.

Now he has the high ground. Satnam realizes it too. There's a moment of exasperation on his giant face. This is not like most of his matches. Mako is not like most of his opponents.

What's next is inevitable. Mako catches him with a dropkick to the knee on the way in. He lays in the kicks and drops Satnam to one knee.

(4) Mako charges in, having made Satnam just a man. But Satnam IS not just a giant on his knees, but a full-sized man in that space. Mako couldn't train for that, not really. There's no live experience for it, and from that kneeling position, Satnam hits a normal sized clothesline.

A surprise, but Mako can deal with surprises. Satnam follows up with a choke slam attempt, ready to end this. Mako turns it into a Cross Arm Breaker (his specialty). Satnam lifts him immediately up, but Mako shifts around him for a choke. Satnam tosses him off, but Mako is quick to lay in gut punches again when Satnam goes to grab him. He shoots those kicks to each leg. He manages some knees as Satnam staggers. He's hitting him from every angle, doing so admirably but he's unable to hone in on any one thing. There's just too much of Satnam and one shot could end it all.

And it does. Mako ducks Satnam's desperate clothesline but he runs right into a press up cutter, the sort of move no one Satnam's size would ever be expected to do, the sort that even Mako couldn't prepare for.

Still, the look on Satnam's face is telling. It was three and a half minutes, but it was a three and a half minute war. He hadn't been pushed like that before on ROH. Life isn't fair. It's not fair to face a giant, not for anyone, but maybe it's more fair for someone like Matt Mako than most. 

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Found Footage Friday: MONTERREY~! BLONDY~! PATTERSON~! ARANDU~! STUKA~! REYNA~! ROBOCOP~!

Stuka/Mogur/Estrella Dorada vs. Arandu/Fabuloso Blondy/Ricky Patterson Arena Coliseo Monterrey 1989

MD: Blondy and Patterson have the USA facepaint and are waving the flag. Arandu (being a caveman) has a valet, Laila with him which is not something I think I've seen in the other matches of his we've come across, but she is super active and adds a lot to the act. This was all about him feuding with Stuka while Blondy and Patterson caused havoc in the background. Laila held Stuka's leg from the outside allowing Arandu to get an immediate advantage, ripping the masking and biting the head. Patterson especially was all over the place, flaunting his size, making over the top pro wrestler faces right into the camera. Blondy had some great punches. Nothing really to say here about Estrella and Mogur, though.

Super hot comeback in the segunda as Stuka (his hair streaming out of the ripped mask, forehead bloody, the visor underneath which made for an iconic image) tossed Arandu out. Arandu moved as Stuka backflipped to his feet on the floor, but then he missed his superkick and hit Laila. That let Stuka get the fall. Tercera was brawling and revenge with Stuka lawn darting him into the fourth row. Finish was a play on the segunda with Laila holding Stuka on the apron and Arandu nailing her by accident. As the refs were distracted by that, he fouled Stuka for the win though. Very effective stuff to keep the feud going.

Black Man/Hara Kiri/Rudy Reyna vs. Babe Sharon/Milo Caballero/Talisman Jr.? Arena Coliseo Monterrey 1988/1989

MD: This is apparently not the usual Talisman, even though he has the gimmick; they said he was a new rudo making his debut. He was pretty game, including diving out of the ring feet first after Reyna dodged at one point. While Sharon (who came out like usual with the turban and cape) had some fun antics with Hara Kira (who had a good look and was married to Irma Aguilar apparently), the best primera exchange was Black Man and Milo. They were really going at it on the mat and with the quick switch up armdrags. Very fun stuff. Things got zany for the primera's finish with the rudos triple clubbering everyone like they were Choshu's army and the tecnicos coming in to fight off all three. It ended with two of them in leglocks and Reyna running over them until he goaded Milo to leap; he landed on his partners and Reyna sat on them.

Segunda started with another fun exchange between Black Man and Sharon (and then Black Man and everyone) before Talisman snuck in a foul on Hari Kiri and they started the beatdown, with a lot of teasing the tecnicos by bringing him over to tag. Sharon and Reyna were former partners and Sharon got the pin with energetic shoulder blocks and a running flip senton. Tercera was heated with the rudos keeping control with blatant fouls and triple teaming until Milo accidentally hit Talisman. Things broke down in and out of the ring from there. What stood out in the chaos was Reyna hitting a great punch on Talisman. But the tecnicos slipped on banana peels (including Black Man bounding into the ring only to get caught off a rana attempt by a Sharon power bomb) and the rudos snuck it out. The tape got a little wonky right at the moment of comeback which is a shame, but this was a very good look at these guys in a very complete match.

Robocop/Fox Man vs. Blue Fish/Imperio Negro Arena Coliseo Monterrey

MD: Sometimes you just need to watch a Robocop match, right? I've seen some Blue Fish in all the Monterrey that's been uploaded but I never feel like I've gotten a real sense of him. It's important to note that he was billed from the most "inhospitable" part of the ocean, and, if I've got this right, Imperio Negro was from the galactic abyss and is a representative of the intergalactic cursed empire. So, you know, a perfect enemy for Robocop.

Structurally, this was comfort food lucha. Initial exchanges. Second round for rope running. Tecnicos get the advantage and win the primera. Immediately into the rudo beatdown for the segunda. No real comeback here (save for one Blue Fish quebradora in the midst of...) but instead right into submissions that are broken up one after the other and the dive into the finish. Lots of pulling at Robocop's mask by Imperio early. Robocop seemed fairly bulky overall. Blue Fish slowed Fox Man down on their exchange and worked the mat. With the VQ it was a little tricky to see everything there but on the second exchange, Fox Man had a nice novel shoulder side straddle into an arm drag. Robocop hit a flip dive off the apron but we didn't really get to see it and finish had Blue Fish jam another quebradora, landing on his feet and putting a head into Fox Man's groin for the foul and the DQ. Ref hadn't been calling them on the rudos in the segunda so that was a bit of a surprise. Maybe the best part of this was the commentators going on about the plot of Robocop and how his gun never ran out of bullets, etc. Still, it was fun local undercard stuff.

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80s Joshi on Wednesday: Yamazki! Noriyo! (Jumping Bomb Angels Pre-explode!)

Volume 5 https://vkvideo.ru/video-230463180_456241257

2. Documentary 

K: I'm not sure if this was shown on an AJW TV episode or if it was part of some other show, it feels like it's aimed at people who aren't watching wrestling as it over-explains some things. Still this is a cool look at life for the AJW roster. Funnily enough most of the footage for this documentary was filmed backstage at the 6/17 show which we're missing the main event of.

I liked Jaguar's comment saying the way to succeed in pro-wrestling is to find something unique to you. 

Chigusa is quite charming in her brief interview, we get a brief glimpse of her selling the hell out of her knee in a match.

The text notes that Mimi is 27 here. I'll just note for anyone confused about AJW having a "retire at 25 rule" that I can't find any source from the company itself saying they had this rule, I think it's just fans/journalists making a general observation which over time got misunderstood as being a hard rule. The more accurate way of putting it is AJW wrestlers started young and, in a manner not dissimilar to the territories in the US, once they were considered to be getting stale the company would move them on. But AJW also had a monopoly on women's wrestling in this time, so that effectively meant no one could have a career more than 10 years, if that. But there was never a fixed age at which they "had" to retire.

MD: This is relatively lengthy and gives us a look at life on the road and in the dorm and the gym with lots of snippets of interviews. We’re lucky to have it. Some quick thoughts:
Matsumoto said that the TV execs said she looked too charming to be a villain.
Tarantula had already dislocated her knee multiple times though she didn’t want to quit, because there were more belts to get (she’d have less than a year yet).
Lots of ichibans in Ripper’s promo but she also said Mimi! Rimi! And I bet she rhymed the two of them a lot. 
On the other hand while the babyfaces were all working out they had a Mimi & Yokota shirt on.
They made sure that the masked heels had their masks on for the bus rides for the sake of this.
It was interesting the brief moment we saw them all putting up the ring. 
Mimi, at 27, was as much as 12 years older than some of them. I thought she’s been the best wrestler we’ve seen in the footage in late 82-early 83 (even more than Devil or Jaguar) and some of that is absolutely singular talents with her expressiveness and selling, but how much of that was also the experience advantage?

3. Itsuki Yamazaki vs. Noriyo Tateno (AJW Junior Title) 7/9/83 

K: Junior Title time. For those who recognise these two as the Jumping Bomb Angels, don't watch this match with that on your mind as not only is this before they become a tag team, they're actually in opposing factions at this point. Itsuki Yamazaki is a heel in Devil Masami's Devil Legion, and Noriyo Tateno is in Jaguar Yokota's Dynamic Jaguars.

One thing they do have in common though is they both debuted in 1981, so they're natural rivals.

I think this is easily the best match for this belt since the days Jaguar was wrestling for it. Noriyo impresses with a rolling attack at the start, which maybe doesn't achieve that much but make her look determined to win but it's still a cool way to start. I think she does a better job at putting her personality into things than Yamazaki, who is quite cold and aloof. Not the worst thing for a heel to be but sometimes it came across like she was less invested in winning than Noriyo was.

Noriyo has a couple of brilliant battling out of pins here where she's just forcing her shoulders up off the mat and hanging on for dear life when she gets a hold of an arm or something so she can keep herself lying on her front so Yamazaki can't pin her. The best one comes right after Yamazaki hits two of her jumping inverted DDTs (I don't know what to call this, Matt has already highlighted it).

The crowd is relatively quiet but they have a good enough match that there's a lot of loud chanting towards the end cheering on Noriyo. There's not a whole lot of structure but at least they peaked at the right time with the frantic pin attempts as the time limit is getting close to expiring.

**3/4

MD: These Junior matches are all about the last few minutes with them scrambling desperately for any pinfall possible. I don’t really have a great sense of Yamazaki but she felt quite evenly matched with Tateno. I’d call her the aggressor for a lot of this after she took things to the floor early. She had some good stuff and some stuff that was good just based on quantity, be it these float over layout reverse DDTs or a flurry of four dropkicks in a row towards the end. But she kept overdoing it and not putting Tateno away and you got the sense that she was almost gassing herself with all that offense which let Tateno come back. Tateno, down the stretch, had much more in the way of roll ups. I don’t know if it was the location or what, but we’ve gone a couple of years without young people in the crowd chanting and living and dying on a wrestler. There was a bit of that with Tateno, at least one chant. I think maybe she had more of that connection and maybe the crowds were shifting a bit? Anyway, neither did pin the arms down of the other (shoot or work) and this ended as a draw.

4. Devil Masami Sings 'Till I Burn Out'

MD: She sure does. Actually, what's great about this is that if you look at the lyrics, it almost plays out like a Disney Villain song. Go look for yourself. Link is above and the subtitles are there.
 

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Tuesdays with Daddy: Week 3: w/McDonald vs. Haystacks/Finlay (5/19/84)

Week 3

Big Daddy/Drew McDonald vs. Giant Haystacks/Fit Finlay 5/19/84

MD: Decided we needed to move ahead a bit as all 79 matches weren't fair. Here we have Finlay (with Princess Paula) and Haystacks and a fairly big Scot in McDonald. Interesting to note that Daddy was more interested in McDonald than he was Turpin. Paula slaps him before the match and Daddy's quick to comfort and calm him down. Likewise, after getting splashed off the top rope by Finlay and eating a regular big splash from Haystacks to lose the first fall, Daddy was quick to check on him. 

Otherwise, it's a little harder to gauge him here, because the best part of this was Finlay and McDonald. Headbutts from McDonald. Forearms and uppercuts from Finlay. Some great Finlay escapes, a headstand out of a headlock, and moving one leg over the other to escape a different hold. I'd say that Fit made more of the motion for Daddy too, crashing into the corner groin first, and bouncing off and eating back body drops and a toss over the top, which should have been a DQ but the ref just looked past it as not intentional. Fit was great on the apron too, getting up on the bottom rope and peering over, making himself more of a presence in a match with far larger wrestlers.

That said, on the one big Haystacks vs Daddy exchange, Daddy took a whip and really did run the ropes at full speed (surprising speed for him I'd say) only to crash into him. Even though Walton noted that Daddy couldn't do his "big boom stuff" against Haystacks, he still won the exchange as Haystacks was quick to retreat. Finish of the second fall was weird (and noted as "curious and unusual" by Walton) as Daddy came in hot after a tag and crash into Haystacks in the corner, knocking him into Finlay and out of the match. Then he made short work of Finlay too and both were counted out ending the match on a "Knockout," despite it really just evening up the falls. 

He moved a bit more gingerly here than in 79, but when it came time to burst against the ropes, he did. I think maybe there was a little less pomp and circumstances, a little less build to the exchanges here too. I'm not sure if that's because Finlay took up more of the air in the match or not though. Something for us to keep looking at as we continue on. I'm not sure if he was just in there with more larger than life, actualized characters and it was less his show because of that. I'm also not sure if that's not a testament to him that he didn't hog all the spotlight even if he won soundly, if weirdly, in the end.

ER: I guess I should have known that this would be a total Finlay Match that built to a couple Daddy/Haystacks interactions, and young David Finlay turned a humongous one match performance into a great four man showing. Finlay is incredible. What a wrestler. Every new Finlay match I've ever seen only assures his place among the greats. He does everything so well, and I loved every exchange he had with everybody here, including the lovely slapper (because she slaps people, I assume that's what all the YouTube comments about here mean as well) Princess Paula. The crowd of course wants to see Daddy and Haystacks, but Finlay is the one who knows how to fill the 90% of the match that is not that, and it's wonderful. His sequences with Daddy are some of my favorite Daddy sequences I've seen. His full contact shoulderblocks to Daddy and the large-in-any-other-match Drew McDonald are fearless and rugged. He slams into Daddy and doesn't budge him, and when he does it again he's knocked flat and fast to his back like Benoit bumping to give himself CTE. He hits so hard that I squealed with glee when he kipped up, floating to his feet like Mark Rocco, leading directly to Daddy throwing him far over the ropes to the floor, Finlay spilling up and out and over like Jerry Estrada. 

I am less familiar with McDonald, but loved all of Finlay's work with him. More tough, unflinching shoulderblocks, everything they do is rock solid. Finlay does a weightless headstand escape out of a tight side headlock and hits McDonald with one of the most brutal elbow strikes I've ever seen; an elbow held close to his body, smashed into the side of McDonald's head and jaw. Finlay executes everything perfectly, swiftly, and violently. He can grab an arm and wrench a very large McDonald around, and he leaps into McDonald's face with his entire forearm. Finlay does a cartwheel escape out of a headlock push off that would have looked like one of the more athletic things on a 90s Michinoku Pro show. When he's back to being knocked around by Daddy, he flies into the turnbuckles for Irish whips so hard that it's a miracle he didn't wind up like Tom Billington. One of the whips sends him in crotch first to the corner so hard that it knocks the turnbuckle pad off. But Finlay is smart about treating Irish whips from Daddy differently from others: later, when McDonald shoots him in, Finlay leaps into and off them into a flying elbow smash, like the most violent fighting move in a West Side Story number.

Big Daddy is clearly the worker of the two big men, but at Haystacks' size I'm just fascinated seeing him move around. I'm a fan of the rules where the same men who finish one fall have to start the next, seeing McDonald get squished to completion by a Haystacks standing splash (that was more just Haystacks falling forward onto him) then forced to compete with the man who did the squishing. Haystacks had these great big clubbing fists thrown laterally up and across McDonald's chest. Andre had a big arm strike to the chest like that and would do it the same way, toward the camera, making it look even larger than life. But while *I* surely wanted to see Finlay drilling large men with elbows and taking bumps larger than the era's biggest bumping juniors, the thrill is seeing the heavies collide. I loved the way Daddy and Haystacks threw each other off balance, the way they teetered into the ropes which felt equal parts theatrical and "large man trying desperately to keep his footing". While I could have predicted Finlay getting pitched high into the air with a back body drop (what kind of tough fool would charge screaming at Big Daddy!?), I 100% did not expected Haystacks getting bumped over the top to the floor. I didn't thin it was possible! It wasn't fast, it shouldn't and couldn't have been fast, but Daddy smashes into him and shoves him over backwards into a real impressive fall where...frankly I don't know how Haystacks' legs supported him. At his size it looks incredibly dangerous to hit concrete feet first at downward increasing speed, and of course that man's not getting back into the ring after that fall. 

Just another excellent Finlay match? Definitely, of course. But a Finlay match that expands on the work of three larger and larger and larger men, filled with constant intrigue because of the build.  

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 9/7 - 9/13 Part 2

The House Always Wins 4/9/21

Darby Allin vs The Butcher

MD: Let's just look at the story at play here. Let's just jump right into it. So much of what Andy Williams brought to the table as the Butcher was being exactly what pro wrestling needed in the moment and sometimes that's just being in the right place at the right time with the right commitment to the right character, a dedication to serve the moment and to let himself be a formidable mountain to conquer.

AEW's first, and for quite a while only house show. Darby Allin is your TNT champion. He's got a match against Matt Hardy on the upcoming Dynamite. Hardy currently had the Hardy Family Office which included The Butcher, Blade, and Bunny. He was Big Money Matt. The show started with a battle royal in order to decide who was going to face off against Darby for the title in the main event. Classic house show stuff.

The Battle Royal was full of Dark Order members. It had Hobbs and Starks, Page and Scorpio, the Gunns, Archer, and others. Butcher's in it, but you don't see him as much. Occasionally he'll be clobbering or clobbering someone here or there. It's not actually the dominant battle royal performance you usually would get out of him, but it doesn't need to be. There's some tomfoolery around one of the sides of the ring being a ramp that ends up eliminating quite a few people. Butcher does get one great elimination with a gourdbuster to the floor on Stu Grayson where Grayson's head lands on the apron on the way down. 

It came  down to the four biggest men, 10, Archer, Hobbs, and Butcher. A pretty well put together battle royal all things considered. I loved the finish of the Butcher Battle Royal with Daniel Garcia finding the strength to overcome the odds, loved it. I loved some specific moments too whether it was Eddie beelining for Claudio or Darius Martin's swinging 'rana using the turnbuckle on the floor, or basically all the Beast Mortos stuff, but it was set up with people cycling in and out. 

This was just a mass of humanity. Probably harder to manage, but I appreciated the effect of it overall. Even just a few years later, you have less battle royals that feel like this. You end up with the four big guys and Butcher was able to (as the one exception to what I just said, which is what made it work!) lay out on the floor after eating a spinebuster and then capitalize to win it, with a little help from his stablemates. 

Post-match, Hardy is proud of his man, and provides everyone with a villain speech. Butcher will win. When he does, he will be well compensated to hand the belt over to Hardy on Dynamite. And if he didn't win? Well, that was fine by Matt too, because he'd break Darby so much in the process that he'd be easy pickings on Wednesday. Butcher? He was fine with all of this. He liked the sound of "well compensated." He and Blade, more than almost any other wrestlers of the decade, were presented as mercenaries. For the Hurt Syndicate, it's a business, right? For Butcher and Blade, it was a way of life. That's how they were presented and Butcher leaned fully into it, no matter who he might have been when he took the monocle off. Total immersion.

That set the stage. This was a house show but everything fit perfectly into what was happening. Darby vs Butcher, on paper, wasn't a main event in any arena in the world. It just wasn't. That doesn't meant it wasn't an appealing match. It doesn't mean that it wasn't going to be a good one, but by tying things to the battle royal and then by grounding everything in a bigger story, the match became bigger than it would have been otherwise. It felt important, like a hidden chapter that only these fans were going to get to see. 

we like Darby Allin around here. At this point in 2021, I was barely familiar with him even if the site overall was. He's younger. Five years for Darby is like dog years for most people. He's more grizzled now, more like the skeleton whose image he embodies. He was younger then, came off as more vulnerable in some ways. You could see the bruises on him even before the match. You just took them for granted in a way that looking back now maybe you don't. Butcher had mutton chops and a skullet, bald or mostly bald on top. 

He was, of course, a mass of humanity, a big dude. Like I said, we like Darby. I like Darby. He's very interesting against an opponent like Knight or Ospreay or MJF, maybe bigger or stronger, but not too much so. Then it becomes a game of chess, of pushing an opponent to keep up with Darby and seeing what happens when they try. You put him against someone like this, or Samoa Joe, or even Claudio or Mark Davis, and it's an entirely different story. It becomes David vs Goliath, except for David is a crash test dummy who uses his own body as the rock in his slingshot. It's absolutely primal stuff.

One of my favorite things about Darby is that he almost always comes in with a strategy. He defines the start of a match in a way that plausibly allows him to bridge gaps. Here, unsurprisingly but still shockingly, he threw himself feet first at Butcher. When Butcher stumbled to the floor, he followed with a head-first dive. There was a particular desperate viciousness to Darby as he slammed Butcher into the rail repeatedly. Then he used that self-same head to roll Butcher over for a pin. It was a great way to put over the size difference and how difficult everything was, but also how determined Darby was.

The transition came quickly and brutally as Matt Hardy asserted himself on the apron. Darby took him out but that left him open for Butcher to use HIS own body, launching Darby through the ropes and to the floor. He followed that up by getting some immediate revenge with the guardrails, and it was clear sailing from there. The Butcher was going to work.

There was a little twist to all of his offense. He didn't just hit a vertical suplex; he got Darby up there and tossed him. He didn't just hit a flapjack or gutbuster but instead combined the two. And he fell forward on the power bomb, driving Darby down. Meanwhile, he played with his food, pushing at Darby's head, chopping him in the ropes. This let Darby stay in the match, get some hope, start to fire back, only to get cut off by Butcher's alarming quickness and overwhelming power. 

At one point Darby got his feet up on a corner charge and created some distance, but Butcher was there with basically a sliding cross chop straight to the face. Another time, Darby went to the fingers to create an opening to throw strikes and hit shotgun dropkicks, but Butcher caught him, put him first in the Cloverleaf, and then, of course, power bombed him out of it. Butcher struck from odd angles with great ferocity and it created a hell of a mood.

The damage had been done though. Darby took every opportunity, snatching Butcher's hand and slamming it into the post on the outside. Butcher showed just enough vulnerability that Darby was able to turn that little wedge into a massive opportunity. Before, when Darby tried to use his speed, Butcher had been able to catch him and cut him off. Now, a half step slow, reeling from his ailing hand, Butcher couldn't keep up and Darby darted around him. Even when he did get his hands on Darby, Darby could go right back to the hand, like he did in cutting off a Superplex. There was a last attempt by the Hardy Family Office to interfere, but by that point the tide had turned, and Darby was able to string together a few big moves in order to put Butcher down. 

It was a sub-ten minute match, but very smart in how they worked it. Darby had his one burst at the start but then immediately got swept under. Butcher then stretched with his brutal, interesting offense, adding insult to injury between moves but also, in doing so, allowing Darby to get in little moments of hope. They worked in the damage to the hand as a wedge for Darby to push through to even footing and then had him overcome even Blade's interference to valiantly win the day. Post-match, they beat down upon Darby to build to the following match until the locker room emptied out to make the save.
  
So despite this being a house show, despite this not being televised, it gave the fans something unique that fit perfectly into at least one of the storylines happening on TV. It gave the illusion of progression while not leaving out anyone who couldn't see it which is exactly what you want from a house show and more than most house shows in history have been able to provide. 

And what made it work as much as anything else? Just how good Andy Williams was at committing completely into his role, at playing into his strengths, at making the most out of his moments on top and being open and willing and equally committed to being vulnerable when it was time for Darby to come back. He was able to help make eight minutes feel more satisfying than 15 and help send everyone home happy. Even despite his relative role on the card, he fit right into the broader story they were telling and served the moment, the match, and the company overall. You ask me, that's pretty great pro wrestling and this was a really enjoyable piece of business. While I wish it'd be a hundred more times instead, I'm glad that we got to see Williams ply his trade (and letting the Butcher ply his) at least one last time.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 9/7 - 9/13 Part 1

AEW Dynamite (Rebel Heart) 9/9/26

Darby Allin/Steven Borden vs Josh Alexander/Mark Davis

MD: Brief programming note to start. I thought I'd drop this on Monday regardless of what aired Saturday night and I'd just catch up on that later in the week if I needed to but then we were told that The House Always Wins was being released on Sunday and I sit here Sunday morning rushing this one out since I know I'll want to cover something off of that. I'm also only one match in to catching up on Collision (Mox vs Bailey: good! with some great moments. Probably went a minute or two too long and too cute with the counters at the end but I'd argue it was right for that night and that crowd regardless) and there's both a priest match and what sounds like an emotional Battle Royal, so I don't know. Plus we (we being Eric, Phil, and JR, and all of us watching it) have DEAN~!!! Summer School today. My gut says I'm dropping a review all at once so it may take a little bit, and I will have a special guest for that. Tuesdays With Daddy, 80s Joshi, and Found Footage Friday should all drop. We're working on getting back to 91 Puerto Rico as well but real life has gotten in the way. We'll get there. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Bear with me on this one. I'm rushing it out.

ANYWAY, I've been watching a lot of 1990 NJPW lately. ALL 1990 NJPW that we have actually. I know it's challenging to find but I would suggest it. In 1989, Inoki left for politics, Sakaguchi retired with him, the heir apparent Fujnami went down with a brutal injury. They were bolstered by the Soviets as an attraction and the rise of Hashimoto (and to a lesser degree Chono) and the creation of Liger, and Muto (and to a lesser degree Sasaki) would be returning. But they needed a great hope, and that great hope was Koji Kitao. He was an already controversial sumo figure, but like Wajima in AJPW a couple of years before, brought great attention with his arrival.

They had him train with Brad Rheingans and Masa Saito for basically a year (with just a handful of matches in AWA as preparation) and then debuted him big at a huge show, with Bigelow (who is excellent at this sort of thing) to carry the load. In the months that followed, he'd be close to the top teaming with Choshu and Saito against guys like Vader, Bigelow, Larry Cameron, and Punisher Dice Morgan (Undertaker). They dressed him in Hogan's colors. They gave him the legdrop. Often times, they let him take the brunt of the match, eating a beating and coming back big to try to get the crowd behind him. 

And it was a disaster. Showcased like he was, with strikes that really didn't hold up relative to his peers despite his size, the crowd turned on him. They started chanting for Vader and Bigelow in a way that hadn't happened at all over the last few years. Choshu or Saito would try to get the crowd back into it but it was a failed experiment which then got even worse (even as maybe he was starting to turn the corner a little) due to his terrible backstage attitude. He'd be gone by summer.

At the same time, on the first or second match of the card, Osamu Matsuda was toiling away, facing off against guys like Black Cat, Nogami, Hata, or Iizuka. He'd start to pick up wins as the year went on, getting better as he went. He had the luxury of a slow and gradual growth, followed by an excursion in UWA where he could develop the El Samurai character so that when he returned, he could make an impact. 

Two different paths. Two wildly different results. 

And here, in the middle, seems to be Steven Borden. Obvious he has the genes. He certainly has the look, evoking Brandon Lee in the Crow more than his father as the Crow, fitting in perfectly with Darby despite being his own thing. But he's come into wrestling very late in life. They've had him work dark matches and indies, so the preparation is there, but they're starting him on TV right in an upper mid-card tag. No Punisher Dice Morgan here though. Alexander and Davis are seasoned and know their jobs.

They also treated him like an attraction on the apron. He came in to start, working a couple of simple sequences against Davis and highlighting his vertical leap on a leapfrog. There was a moment early where, after a collision, he ran up and hit an armdrag and it seemed wonky. Most wrestlers don't do that in that way. People come to them for an armdrag. But it almost felt like playing chess against a layperson. If they're just figuring it out, they might do something out of the norm that you'd never expect and it'd caught you off guard. 

Then Darby came in and got chop blocked by behind by Alexander, crumbling legs under him in a way only he could. One senton later and they were right into a face-in-peril. As Davis and Alexander made quick tags as if they were competing on who could toss Darby through the mat the most, and as they decided to do it together by lawn darting him across the ring, Borden stood on the apron. I'll admit I only focused on him when the camera focused on him, but whenever the camera did, he was high energy, chomping at the bit to get in there. 

Alexander and Davis tried to take him out from the apron once or twice but he was resilient and made sure he was there for Darby when the tag came. Then something magical happened. His comeback was simple and straightforward. Basic moves done with high energy. The crowd, this special Athens Georgia crowd, channeled the spirit of Georgia crowds of old. You know all of that Omni footage that has been released the last few years, that absolute treasure trove from even the faltering days of Georgia Championship Wrestling? Every time a babyface made a punch or hit a move, there'd be this beauty burst of sound from the crowd. An "Oooooh." And without prompting, without warning, they were doing it here for Borden. The most advanced thing he did was running up the stairs on the outside to hit a jumping clothesline, but the fans were treating it all like something special. By being so straightforward and basic (and maybe by reminding them of his dad) he stood out in a sea of complex moves and counters.

They went into a back-and-forth finishing stretch. Darby tried a go behind on Alexander and to flip into a stunner, but he got caught and German Suplexed. When Alexander tried to catch Borden on a floatover, however, his long legs let him take over, trapping Alexander in Death Drop position for the tandem Coffin Drop finisher. 

As TV debuts went, this felt special. It was partially the time and the place, partially how Borden was protected and highlighted, and partially, quite frankly, because there;s something special about him. He's not going to be a Kitao. That's clear. He's also not going to have the slow and careful opportunities of a Matsuda, however. He's here on TV, learning as he goes, already in the deep end, maybe not on top, maybe not the great hope, but now it's up to the company to give him a lifeboat and it's up to him to paddle. 

I'm excited to see him try though (and I'll be all the more excited when we finally start to hear Sting's 1990 theme Turbo Charged while he's doing it).

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Found Footage Friday: Hanover 86 Part 2

Hanover '86

9/8/86

Klaus Kauroff vs. John Quinn

MD: Time to hit the second half of the 4 hour 9/86 Germany tape with Bull Power (Vader) all over it. Anyway, this was down our alley, real 305 live stuff, a clash of the titans. So much of this were just the two of them crashing into one another or throwing meaty shots, testing one another, pressing advantages when they could. It was two out of three falls, which we don't usually see for a singles match but it meant that when one did get the best of the other with a rare shoulder tackle that worked or a body slam, it warranted a successful pin and worked within the match.The format gave it room to breathe and make those key moments mean so much even though in theory they were so simple and straightforward. 

Otto Wanz vs. Bull Power

MD: Speaking of titans clashing. It's interesting that these two matches were on the same card. It makes Kauroff vs Quinn sort of a like-minded undercard attraction, though this was going to have more fireworks. Overall, I don't think this was as strong or seasoned as Kauroff vs Quinn but it didn't disappoint either. Wanz knew exactly what he had in Leon even if Leon didn't quite know everything he was yet. Pre-match, Power did his usual attack while still in the trucker hat and windbreaker, wielding the flag. Unlike others, Wanz recovered quickly and took the flag to cross check him repeatedly to the fans' delight. Lots of delight in this one.

Wanz would get the better of him with skill and a bit of slickness, moving out of the way at a key moment, and meeting him head on. Power would take three charges (the last being a football three-point stance set up) to stagger Otto but he would stagger him, and he could always credibly take over with a few shots, especially as he pressed him into the corner. They'd keep going in circles with this, Power taking back over and Otto fighting from underneath. He never seemed in too much danger but Power could likewise take right back over whenever he had even the smallest opening. I'd call this more inconclusive and unsatisfying than anything else (even if not disappointing), as they left more for the future. Otto eventually hefted Power over the top and they brawled on the floor until things were thrown out.

Axel Dieter vs. Klaus Wallas

MD: Clipped as this is, it becomes a real simple exercise in Wallas being as big a jerk as humanly possible and Dieter eventually coming back and giving him what he deserves. Primal, straightforward, effective stuff. Wallas looked as good as I've seen him in this footage. He'd take Dieter to the ropes and punch him in the face. When Dieter charged in, he'd force a break in the corner and then punch him in the face again. Later on, he'd drape his knee right over Dieter's throat, that sort of thing. Then when it came time, Dieter hefted him over the top rope and caught him with a flurry of shots on his way in. Eventually, once he took enough, Wallas started to fight back and they went to the floor where things devolved into chaos. It's obvious by now but Dieter really knew what he was doing in there.

Steve Wright/Steve Casey vs. Col. Brody/Dave Morgan

MD: We only get part of this as it skips to the finish out of nowhere, but what we get really is great fun. There are moments of the heels working together or bullying the faces but most of this is Wright and Casey clowning them to high effect. It could be as simple as Casey smacking someone in the face out of nowhere or as complex as one heel being trapped in the ropes and the other being used as a battering ram and then, after the ref complains, summarily dropped to elated laughter from the crowd. You'd also get some fun wrestling like Wright and Morgan doing these fast headscissors reversals back and forth over and over again, or Wright doing all of his headstand and kip up tricks with Brody. But mostly it was stuff like Brody going for a dropdown and Wright dropping down beside him and saying "boo." But it really was great fun. Brody and Morgan were good sports but also engaged. When they shrugged off a double headlock charge, Brody pointed to the prone babyfaces in a sort of "Ha Ha. We finally got you!" sort of way. Of course, immediately thereafter things were turned around and the battering ram took place. We lose the big comeback and only get a glimpse of the finish but the individual bits were great.

9/10/86

Kid Burgess vs. Rasputin 2

MD: Fans really liked to get on Rasputin's case and he sold it well. Burgess had some fun counters early. Rasputin would get over on him twice and then he'd spin out and nail him with a headbutt. Or he'd escape from a full nelson and then just lay prone on the mat until Rasputin leaned in and got kicked. Rasputin finally got incensed and took over by cheating but Burgess dumped him over the top to get into it. Fun comeback with a lot of signature combos and dropkicks but he finally missed one and Rasputin slammed him for the win. Not sure if this was the first match on this card but the fans were definitely up for it.

Steve Wright vs. John Quinn

MD: If you have access to Richard Land's drive, this is worth a watch. A lot of these are, of course, but this gets time, has familiarity and animosity while still being light and fun, and both of these guys are tremendously talented. It's a long draw and while clipped we get more than the gist of it. Wright starts by doing a cartwheel and asking for a handshake and you can tell immediately Morgan has had more than enough of him in his life. Early on, he tosses Wright out in a big way (tapping his head after) and Wright comes back in and gets a sunset flip. You can't keep Wright down. He has all of his signature counters, the bounding and twisting and flipping, the kip up into a dropkick after getting knocked down, clever escapes from full nelsons and other holds. He also does something I've never seen before where, in a front facelock, he goes down to one knee than the other a few times before coming up and flipping Quinn's arm out of it.

There's a round where he controls the arm (including a very smooth short arm scissors) and a round where Morgan batters him around the ring getting revenge. And then Wright gets revenge for the revenge. There are a couple of very believable near-falls for the style down the stretch and the fans are chanting Stevie most of the way. Masters doing masterful things. That's what this one is.

Otto Wanz/Axel Dieter vs. Bull Power/Klaus Wallas

MD: This whole show has a sort of yellowish overtone to it, almost like AI, but AI could never replicate Otto Wanz crashing into Bull Power in the corner like this. They really built to that moment, with Dieter starting and holding his own against Power until he got hit by a Vader Attack in the ropes. Then Wallas worked him over so when Otto came in (and the crowd was overjoyed to see him get in) he was up against Wallas. Otto tagged out to Dieter before Power came in so it wasn't until Dieter could escape once again that they ended up facing off. It was worth the wait. Wallas had some great jerk expressions here, one of which was zoomed in, and Dieter knew EXACTLY what to do in his role, but this maybe didn't have enough Otto and Vader for me, all things considered, especially because the tape cuts off into some sort of wild scene we can barely make out (with a pinball table lit up in the corner) before the tape ends. This had to be a great show to attend live however. That much we can tell.

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80s Joshi on Wednesday: Jumbo! Yukari! Devil! Tarantula!

Volume 5

1. Devil Masami & Tarantula vs. Jumbo Hori & Yukari Omori (WWWA Tag Team Titles Best Of 3 Series, Match #3) 6/13/83 

K: The clip at the start was fun, but really there was no way an AJW-AꓭBA crossover was missing the cut. 

So here we are at the 3rd match of the best of 3 series for the tag titles. They did a good job of making the 2nd match feel different and a sequel to the first, and they pull it off again here even if in the end, it’s not very satisfying.

I thought the opening of the match was quite striking in its extreme minimalism. Devil Masami and Jumbo Hori square up to start things, look like they’re about to start grappling a few times but back out at the last second. Looking like they were trying to find an opening against the other but then seeing that one wasn’t there. Eventually Devil just decides she isn’t going to bother with this anymore and tags in Tarantula without any action at all having happened. They teased a Devil vs. Jumbo showdown but what we get is more of the usual Devil & Tarantula dirtily double-teaming an isolated opponent.

When Tarantula’s in she doesn’t just show off her cool rolling into a dropkick move, but has a roll into a headbutt in her arsenal now. The Dynamite Girls have more luck against her than Devil and have a gameplan of targeting her knee. This begins in the 1st fall and actually becomes more important as the match progresses (prolonged limbwork/selling not exactly being early 80s AJW’s strongpoint). 

Devil Masami appears to have been watching her Dynamite Kid tapes, as that falling headbutt off the top looked very familiar. I might have to do a Top 300 Devil Masami moves video to showcase how vast her arsenal is.

The 1st fall felt a bit basic and could have done with a bit more fight, but at least it gave them somewhere to go for the 2nd. Tarantula is selling the knee work from the 1st fall, hobbling a bit as she gets into the ring off the tag and when she’s hitting an Irish Whip. Again she’s taking the brunt of the Dynamite Girls’ offense, including Yukari Omori spinning her off the ropes and dropping her straight on her head. Might have been an accident but it fit the narrative of the match that she get a bit more vicious. They pay off the kneework by having the finish of the 2nd fall be Omori hitting a Vader Bomb directly onto Tarantula’s leg rather than across the chest as normal, and then she hits a big piledriver for the pin.

The 3rd fall is where things get really interesting. If you haven’t seen the 1/4/82 tag then firstly how dare you undermine this project by watching things out of order erm sorry I mean maybe it’d help if you at least went back and checked out our write ups? The big drama of the 3rd fall in that match was Omori’s partner being taken out injured, leaving Omori forced to defend the tag titles in a 2 vs. 1 situation against Devil & Tarantula. In a karmatic twist, tonight Tarantula goes down injured and has to be removed, and rather than forfeit the titles, Devil tries to fight 1 vs. 2 against the Dynamite Girls. Whether they were deliberately playing this as OMORI’S REVENGE or not I don’t know, but fans used to craft all kinds of long-term narratives over All Japan matches many years apart so I’m certainly allowed my turn here. It actually works that when they restart as a 1 vs. 2, Jumbo Hori actually plays by the rules. It’s only when Devil gets her in a Romero Special that Omori storms the ring to not only break it up, but to then do an attempted mob beatdown on Devil. The match then just completely breaks down as Omori just wants to take this opportunity to beat the hell out of Devil, until eventually Jumbo gets a vicious look on her face like she’s started to enjoy this and decides “ah screw it yeah let’s just kill Devil she deserves this.” 

A lot of heel wrestlers would struggle in this situation. How are you supposed to be the heel when you’re fighting in a handicap match and at least 1 of your opponents is flagrantly ignoring even the rules of handicap matches as she just wants to kick your ass in an unfair situation? I thought it was really impressive how Devil never really came across as sympathetic in any of this. Firstly, she gets help from the Devil Legion seconds on the outside, so it’s not that much of handicap. But even more, she still just acts evil. She’s an impressive fighter for sure, but it comes across like she’s channelling some unnatural demonic energy to even the odds. There’s a hell of a lot of headbutts being thrown and some choking and biting as well when they’re going crazy outside. Devil even manages to hit a big revenge piledriver on Omori (see end of 2nd fall) before the time limit expires, so we don’t get a finish. Very impressive Devil performance in difficult circumstances, but the match being quite strange makes it memorable at least.

By the next time we see them, these two teams will have had another title match which the Dynamite Girls win, but we don’t have that match unfortunately.

***1/2

MD: There’s a brief clip of the babyfaces taking a boat to the next show in Hokkaido before this. Not a ton to say about it except for you get glimpses of all of their personalities. They do a funny bit as it turns about food and Jaguar tells them all they have to train only for the interviewer saying that Jaguar was talking about food too secretly. They are very young. In engaging with the text, sometimes I overlook that too much. It’s remarkable they were able to do so much at their age. 

This was the third match of the series. It’s interesting, I’ll say that. Both teams work together extremely well by this point. There are some great tandem moves from Devil and Tarantula, double cross chop/headbutts or dropkicks, and of course the way that they just control the action if someone gets too close to the corner. They rode that to victory in the first fall pretty soundly, though not without taking things to the floor. There’s one table bump by Omori that’s brutal since the table gives out on her. Dynamite Girls have a dynamic (it’s true, sorry) sequence of moves to win the second fall after Jumbo catches Tarantula for her swinging bear hug slam. One bomb after the other, some literal. Just an amazing flow to it. They finish the sequence with a vicious Omori tombstone on Tarantula.

That brings the match to a halt as Tarantula can’t go on. Devil (and the Dynamite Girls) agree to go 2 vs 1 but Devil (after throwing headbutts at everyone like a whirlwind) immediately brings her minions into it so it’s not really 2 vs 1 at all. She starts throwing wild chairs too and the commission threatens to throw out the match. That leads to everyone bullying the ref and them restarting things for a by-the-rules 5 minute period. Devil hangs in there best she can (heavily protected) but even after a tombstone of her own she can’t get the pin before the time ends. This sets up one more match later on. That we don’t have but the Dynamite Girls win by TKO due to Tarantula’s hurt leg. They finally get the belts on them but this was an almost absurd way to protect the heels (Devil especially) throughout. That’s not to say the action wasn’t very good though even if it’s all anti-climactic since we don’t get to see the title change.

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Tuesdays with Daddy: Week 2: w/Jackie Turpin vs. Blackjack Mulligan/The Bulk (10/24/79)

Week 2 

Big Daddy/Jackie Turpin vs. Blackjack Mulligan/The Bulk 10/24/79 

MD: First look at a tag. Still in 79. This was untelevised and a couple of months before the other. We have a lot more tags than singles. Bulk was massive. At one point he was on the apron just using the ropes to carry the weight of his belly while he was standing there. 

I'm looking to see how he handles things on the apron, what he chooses to do in the ring, how much he has his partner do, etc. He got the fans cheering and chanting to start like the last match. Mulligan who was a bit like a hillbilly rasputin, more than the cowboy we know and love, shoved Turpin to start, so Daddy grabbed him and tossed him right into Bulk in the corner, a crowd pleasing spot. He kept things moving after that with a shoulder block and back body drop off the ropes. 

Turpin came in with dropkicks and really had answers for everything Mulligan did, right until he didn't and Mulligan started in with inside shots and choking him on the ropes. Daddy came right on in and tried to protect, including aggressively, but it just allowed for more cheapshots. He seemed more upset at the cheating than at the danger his partner was in, and he did seem to make it about himself, but I don't think that necessarily hurt the match since it rallied the fans. He came in again when Bulk got a cheapshot in from the outside and once again, though it was futile, after Mulligan hit a nice chancery suplex and Bulk finally got the tag in. Bulk made short work of Turpin with a corner avalanche and bearhug.

Second fall had Turpin roll right into the corner so Daddy could come in. Fans popped and for good reason. Bulk threw a bit of a fit and Daddy put his arms out to hype things up. They crashed into each other and Daddy showed some concern that he couldn't move Bulk. Again, this matters. It's a bit of selling you might not expect out of him and that you might not care about, but the fans cared and it made him overcoming things matter. Another crash before he hit the ropes and finally got Bulk down. Bulk was furious. Daddy stood in the corner in sumo position, dodged the impending charge, and hit a splash for the pin. Fans loved it. Bulk escaped the ring and things broke down with Turpin getting a quick pin on Mulligan to win the match. 

So yes, he did do a good job of making things about himself, but not necessarily in a way that hurt the match. Instead it built anticipation and helped keep the crowd in it. Why wouldn't Daddy be upset by the proceedings? If he cared, they cared, even if they cared more about the heels getting theirs than Turpin surviving maybe? He was responding well to what was happening at the start, making Mulligan pay for bullying Turpin, and at the end, really engaging with Bulk. Again, we'll have to see how this alters over time, but I'm still seeing a pretty savvy and talented wrestler here, whether that made for great matches or just ones that clearly satisfied the crowd. 

ER: I do not know who this Blackjack Mulligan is, but he is certainly not the man who did time in a federal prison with his son for counterfeiting. This Blackjack Mulligan looks nothing like that big cowboy, and everything like the Deadhead, Hoyt, who's worked at my town record store for my lifetime. Dale Martin's Mulligan is the guy who works at a pick 'n' pull, who doesn't care if your friends hit that one Buick with a bat. Most of this match is Mulligan and Turpin, two men I am unfamiliar with. Turpin is a boxer from a famous boxing family who doesn't do any kind of punch based offense. He has a precise dropkick to Mulligan's face, a stiff axe handle to the stomach that I've never seen look so good, and he looks like a small dancer, like dirtbag mustache Dynamite without so many person traumas. 

A lot of this is Turpin being cut off from Daddy. Mulligan throws kicks and punches like no other wrestler. Mulligan drops Turpin on the side of his head with a front choke suplex. Fatty Thomas has a stomach that literally rests on the middle rope as he's on the apron. His listed weight is something preposterous, like over 40 stone, and after seeing it on the middle rope I suppose it's possible he's actually 45 stone and his stomach was just hung up on the towel rack when he was on the scale. He doesn't seem like a wrestler, he just seems like the biggest fat guy they could find. ALL wrestling promoters should find new wrestlers by looking for the biggest fat guy they can find. When Fatty tags in, he instantly squishes Turpin in the corner and gets a quick tap with a smothering bearhug. With his mustache he looks like Oliver Hardy drawn out to absurd proportions. 

It all builds to the 2nd round inevitable showdown between Daddy and The Bulk, and when they run their bellies into each other I could have seen them do it a dozen times until one of them went down. That's not how Daddy works, Daddy. Daddy makes the most of poses before their first collision, and of course he knocks Fatty to his back. I didn't expect this whale of a man to get knocked to his back, but I expected it to look better. It was too safe. Daddy's splash to take the fall is merely the suggestion of what a standing splash may look like. I found it interesting how they mostly kept the skinny little guys away from the big fat guys. Mulligan got run into both Daddy and Bulk's bellies, Bulk submitted Turpin, but I would have expected one of the slender guys to get crushed. The fallout after the match felt like real drama that could have built to some kind of Fatty vs. Daddy blowoff. We wouldn't have been able to properly handle it.  

Week 1: Introduction - vs. Mr. X (12/22/79)

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