New Footage Friday: COLON! INVADER! BEAU JAMES! HARRISON! ICP! FUNK! LAWLER! BROWN! KASH!

Beau James vs. Ricky Harrison SSW 4/17/98

MD: To me, this felt a little like Beau's magnum opus, the match he had in his head fifteen or twenty years before and now got to play out. It was high stakes and heavily built to, for the title, the crowd, and loser leaves for six months. This felt big, with the first half almost worked like a NWA title match and then the middle and back half more full of heat and comeback and Memphis style ga-ga. As such, it filled a lot of time, but never really wore out its welcome, even when we were on the third ref getting bumped. Because it had enough room to breathe and enough room to have a lot of fulfilling substance, and a clear resolution with the babyface getting over and the heel getting his comeuppance, it all worked. It's when that stuff comes in place of a real match and in denial of that resolution that you feel less than satisfied. I do think I wanted to see this go up an extra gear with a bit more brawling and hate, and there were a couple of logical fallacies, like Beau having a hidden object with him for the whole match and not going for it until it came time for the heel ref to get bumped. It would have made more sense to introduce that earlier. All in all, though, I think it's a pretty big achievement to pull off a match like this in a satisfying way, both in the early substance and the later style.

PAS: Big match Beau is always worth watching, he really knows how to make something a moment. As someone who idolized Lawler he often had the Loser Leave Town stip as a big show gimmick. Here he was working heel against Ricky Harrison and they brought in Brian Hildebrand to ref the match. I really enjoyed the wrestling section at the beginning, James kept Harrison grounded with some punishing mat wrestling, crossfaces, knee work and short right hands, he even hits this sick flying drop toe hold. Harrison has a nice punch and good timing and that is what you need for a match like this. The second half of the match ladles on the shtick a lot, two ref bumps and a heel ref. I could have used a little less frosting, for the match to entirely work on me, but it certainly worked on the crowd and James had clearly gotten them to ready to see him sent on his way. Got me excited to start up a Beau James LLT mini C+A. 

Jerry Lawler/Kid Kash/Monty Brown vs. Terry Funk/Insane Clown Posse  JCW 7/17/04 - FUN

ER: I really wish we got a classic heatseeking promo from Lawler to start this. He's opposite ICP AT the Gathering of the Juggalos. You're not going to be the face in that spot. He should have absolutely nuked this crowd, the heat would have gotten molten so easily. But, he probably didn't feel like being doused in high fructose corn syrup and washing Faygo out of his hair two days later. Funk gets in the ring and grabs the mic, says "I only have one thing to say" and then tells a 2 minute joke about a chicken's asshole. According to the video camera, the match started at exactly 4:20, which I refuse to believe was an accident. The match was plenty fun, with almost all of the heat aimed directly a Kid Kash's valet getting called a man in several different ways by the crowd. 

Kash looked great bumping around for ICP, and ICP themselves were shockingly exactly what the crowd wanted to see. ICP had both clearly improved since their WCW run, too, which helps. Violent J actually impressed me several times, and kind of made me want to do a Violent J mid 2000s deep dive? Is that stupid? J knows how to stumble around in between punches shockingly well, staggers convincingly, and always made it right back to his mark. His punches are decent too, and he throws a great eye rake (and back rake!). He even took great bump getting tossed to the floor, clearing the ropes and taking a huge back bump. Violent J would have made a 500 in 2004, and that's awesome. Shaggy threw a nice brainbuster on Kash, did a cool guillotine legdrop off the apron to the floor, and won the match with a big guillotine legdrop.

Funk and Lawler were going to be the highlights here. Lawler stalled a lot when he first tagged in against Funk, which could have been a good move to get heat, but it just kind of quieted the crowd down and slowed down what had been a nice pace. Once they got going it was obviously good, but Lawler was fun against everyone here. It's weird (and great) seeing him throw all of his great punches against ICP, see him hitting big roundhouses in a setting like this, but Funk/Lawler is the legendary pairing. This might also be one of Lawler's better uses of the Stunner, my least favorite Lawler spot. The context of the spot is important, as once he introduced the Stunner to his moveset he was mostly working babyface on indy shows. Here he was the heel, and it works much better as a heel heat spot than as a cheap pop; later, Funk gives him a Stunner and Lawler shows that he takes a Stunner better than almost anyone I've seen. He dropped down in a perfect plane and made it look like Funk's shoulder really did jam into his throat.  Funk's punches look good, Lawler takes a nice backdrop bump, but then starts throwing nothing but great combos on Terry. Our cameraman zoomed in at a perfect spot, right when Lawler is pressing his fist against Funk's nose to measure his shot, then drawing his fist back and bringing it smashing back in that same spot. He piledrives Funk on the floor, then hits a beauty back in the ring. The match went 20 and could have accomplished everything in 15, but obviously you'll want to watch them work in this environment no matter what.

MD: This was something. The non-wrestling stuff bits were as fascinating to watch as the wrestling bits. Lawler seemed pretty appreciative to be in front of that crowd, though he still managed to get heat once the match got going. Funk did everything under the sun to get over in this setting, and for the most part he did, because he's Terry Funk. Kash was generally there to feed for the Posse. Violent J really wanted to get his stuff in, which makes sense, I guess. Monty Brown was generally there to be a spoiler. The crowd seemed most interesting in throwing stuff at the valet. Ultimately, it was all probably what it should have been with this crowd. I don't mind dipping into a match like this but I'm glad I don't live there.

PAS: This felt like a match full of stars in front of a hot crowd. ICP aren't great, but they are perfectly competent and are Bruno in the Garden level over in whatever farm this show was at. Everyone else in this match are superstars at this kind of big match tag. Monty Brown didn't have a long career, but feels like a force of nature. Lawler vs. Funk was great, that punch Lawler lined up was an all-timer, and I loved the piledrivers Lawler hit. Funk was pretty physically diminished, but was still Terry Funk. It is crazy to think we are farther away from this match now than this match was from Funk vs. Flair or Lawler vs. Dundee. It feels like time has sped up.  

Carlos Colon vs. Invader 1 WWC 7/27/13

MD: 67 year old Invader 1 vs 65 year old Carlos Colon here. Carlos still had his instincts and timing though he had slowed down, certainly. The jumping jack for his comeback was more of a hop. His shots all looked good though, and the age only made his selling more poignant. His big bump was running into a boot in the corner which looked great. Invader, on the other hand, was pretty spry, working with a mask but without a shirt. He went over the rail, took some chairshots, and ran well. He's also maybe the greatest seller in pro wrestling history, so him eating Colon's shots and recoiling around ringside was still pretty compelling. There was some grisly choking with a chair and the low blows you'd expect out of old man Invader 1, but it maybe wasn't quite as grisly as you'd want. This was to set up an Anniversario mixed match with Stacy Colon and Tigresa and Stacy took a pretty huge post-match beating to set it up. Definitely effective for what it was and a great showing for two mid-late 60s year olds.