Found Footage Friday: SANTO~! CASAS~! PANTHER~! BLACK MAN~! DANIELSON~! SHIRYU~!

El Hijo Del Santo/Black Man vs. Blue Panther/Negro Casas Tijuana 2/21/86

PAS: El Hijo Del Santo's youtube page has been a real treasure trove as of late, and he gives up a mid-80s match with young Santo, young Panther, young Casas and youngish Black Man. Totally new match with three of the 20 or so greatest wrestlers of all time in the bloom of their youth. What a blast. Like all great lucha matches of this era, it is all about build, we get some cool exchanges, I especially loved all of the freestyle mat rides by Santo on Panther, but it was all pretty great. It moves into bigger moments, including the rudos getting DQ for press slamming Santo onto Black Man, and beating on the technicos on the floor. We get a quick comeback after with Santo hitting a huge plancha tope onto Casas (after sending him flipping over back first to the floor) and Black Man hitting a flip dive onto Panther, and getting the count out. Such a treat, any new footage of any of these guys is a blessing and we got all four. 

MD: Obviously, it's unfortunate that this match came to light due to Black Man's death but it's a great discovery and way to honor him, even if we're especially excited that it has Casas, Panther, and Santo in it. There are a few clips in here but you basically get everything you'd want, a long stretch of Santo and Panther up front, some manic matwork by Casas with Black Man. Then two distinct rudo beatdowns, the first long and varied and the second mean, quick, and nasty, with two comebacks and big high spots at the end.

This was probably from 86 (and if the 2/21 date is right and who knows? it'd be right after Black Man lost his match to Panther), so it's very early as footage of Casas and Panther go and they at times seemed a little less polished than they'd eventually be, but also full of ideas and imagination, and absolutely themselves. I love how well they worked together in the initial beatdown, steady and in sync even if nothing was too over the top except for maybe Casas' running senton where he turned himself in half. We missed a bit of the comeback but Santo was as fiery as you'd hope for and there was a great moment where, after knocking Panther out of the ring, Casas, on the apron, clasped his hands together and prayer and leaped off backwards, bumping himself instead of taking whatever Santo was going to bring to him.

The second bit of heat was pretty great, as they double press slammed Santo over the top onto Black Man on the outside and then followed up with this cool bit where Panther lifted up Santo vertically and brought him down with a knee drop or a stomp. They repeated it in the ring as well. The comeback had some huge moments like Casas taking an absolutely wild bump over the top after getting knocked halfway across the ring and Santo hitting a huge dive from the top to the floor.

Shiryu/Pilota Suicida/Capitan Oro/Jalisco vs. Terry Boy/Lover Boy/Super Boy/Bobby Bradley Compton Lucha 11/5/93

MD: This got a ton of time and was full of action, with a hot and happy crowd full of kids ready to cheer for each tecnico. Opening had a rudo rush but it calmed down to exchanges, and constant feeding for the primera. Pretty much everyone looked good here on the tecnico side but I'd say Piloto Suicida looked the best and probably had the loudest chants too. Jalisco is always such a surprise in these matches as there's a hard to pin down verve to him, just a big energy as he peppers guys with shots. The rudos took over in the segunda and even given the time this had, it probably wasn't a long enough beatdown but it was a good one. Bradley and Terry Boy felt like they belonged, both with the appropriate swagger and ability to fight dirty. Then the tecera had some big brawling in the comeback followed a lot of quick switches and break-ups leading to the dives and the finish. Post match they brawled all over the place until the tecnicos finally cleared the ring. It probably all blurred together in the end, but left me and the crowd with a contented feeling that we got to see a pretty enjoyable, hard worked, highly competent match.

American Dragon vs. Johnny Storm ASW 2003

MD: This was a steep angle handheld from a fairly interesting venue in 2003. I think we might have had five minutes of this before? It's quite the ladder match actually, with both guys putting it all out there utilizing both the ladder and the interesting venue. All that and a pretty novel finish too. I liked the early crowd brawling, both for Storm being willing to bump big into the crowd and the way they slammed each other into walls and chairs and whatever they could find. When they made it back into the ring, Storm had a pretty clear agility advantage, so Danielson started a reasonable and sound period of focus on the leg. This began without the ladder in play but eventually he used it. Storm made a valiant effort, given the physical strain required of him, to sell that leg for most of the rest of the match. That didn't stop him from hitting both a revenge dropkick into the chair right between Danielson's legs and some big ladder assisted offense (and bumping) as he came back and they went down the stretch. There was a precious moment where Dragon crashed Storm into the ladder in hte corner from behind and then hit a dragon suplex as the ladder, moving Storm out of the way of a falling ladder at the last possible moment, a great visual. The finish had Storm unhook the belt, but Danielson kicked the the ladder out from him at the perfect moment and both Storm and belt went tumbling down. Danielson caught the latter (being the belt) and seems to have stolen it from that. You wouldn't want to see that finish twice but it worked the once. This was twenty years ago and before everything under the sun had been hit and hit again in matches like these. The ladder was rickety and the match didn't revolve around complex, highly choreographed spots. I don't think they could have had the same match five years before or five years later. It definitely captured a moment in time and captured it well.