Week 35: Sasha, Portrait of a Valet
EB: The month of August saw some notable departures from CSP, but we also had the debut of Giant Warrior and the returns of Monster Ripper and Sasha. We've previously mentioned Ripper’s run in 1986 and 87 against Wendi Richter and we most recently saw her at Aniversario 90 against Candi Divine. Monster Ripper has come back as the reigning Women’s World champion and as the manager of the new World tag team champions. Due to Ripper’s recent involvement in the World tag title matches between Idol & Valentine and the Super Medicos, the former champions have called upon an old friend to help even things out against Monster Ripper. Sasha has returned to CSP and we really haven’t covered who she is or what her connection is to Super Medico. The story of Sasha goes back to late 1985, when Eric Embry was one of the most hated rudos in Puerto Rico. Embry had only been in Puerto Rico a few months and had already made waves by defeating Super Medico for the Puerto Rico title, attacked Miguel Perez Sr. which resulted in Miguel Perez Jr. making his debut to avenge his father, and had even gotten into an altercation with show host Hugo Savinovich which resulted in hugo coming out of retirement to take on Embry. Throughout all this Embry expressed his disdain for Puerto Rico and for Puerto Ricans, and in an act of rubbing this disdain in the fans’ faces, Embry debuted a valet that was pretty much subservient to him. A Puerto Rican woman by the name of Sasha. Let’s go to a clip that showcases the Eric Embry and Sasha dynamic, it’s a promo from when Embry was feuding with Hugo Savinovich from around November of 85. Because of the animosity between them, Embry was refusing to have Hugo interview him and was sending in his promos separately (which had to be subtitled since there was no one there to translate).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48a2YTEtEFM
The Fabulous Eric Embry talks about what is going to happen to Hugo Savinovich next time they meet. You can tell Embry has a bit of a condescending tone and mispronounces Hugo’s name throughout. Embry is the reigning Puerto Rican champion, a fact that he loves to rub in the fans’ faces and he also has Sasha with him. The whole point of having Sasha with him is to show off how a Puerto Rrican woman is at his beck and call. Here Sasha spends the promo stroking Embry's hair while standing behind him. It’s clear where Sasha’s loyalties lie.
MD: Sasha’s behind him here, petting his hair, and he cuts just a nice, relaxed, subdued promo. No yelling. No shouting. Calm, cool, collected. Confident, with the accent coming through strong. It was more effective than if he was boasting and frothing at the mouth and Sasha behind him helped create the mood.
EB: Sasha would second Embry during his matches, helping him cheat, steal wins, or even causing a DQ to help save Embry’s title. Sasha was the bane of the tecnicos that would face Embry. An example is when Invader #3 was feuding with Embry over the World Junior title and one of the matches near the end of the feud featured Sasha being put in a cage so she wouldn’t interfere. Sasha would continue helping Embry out when he went into the tag ranks in a team with The Crushe (aka Rip Morgan) and they feuded against the Rock n Roll RPMs. The RPMs, mirroring the current situation with the Medicos and Monster Ripper, brought in Wendi Richter to help counter Sasha. This led to the two seconds having a feud of their own.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hwI21NbzJY
This match is from a home video release CSP did of Wendi Richter’s matches that included several wraparound segments where Hugo Savinovich interviewed his then wife Wendi Richter. Wendi is on the beach with her championship belt, with Hugo asking her about becoming Women’s champion for a third time. Wendi talks about becoming champion for the NWF and also WWC (mentioning that she defeated Monster Ripper in the tournament final as a clip of the match is shown). As for the match with Sasha, looking at the results this likely is from April 5, 1986. The match starts with Sasha and Eric Embry in the ring, Embry has a bandaged head from an earlier match he and The Crusher had against the Rock n Roll RPMs. Wendi Richter makes her entrance and Embry and Sasha leave the ring when Richter steps through the ropes. Hugo is providing English commentary for the video release but you can faintly hear Joaquin Padin’s Spanish narration beneath Hugo's commentary track. If I heard correctly, Padin mentions that this is Sasha’s debut as a wrestler. Richter tries to charge at Sasha a few times while Sasha and Embry are walking outside of the ring, with Sasha not wanting to get in the ring.
The referee Tomas Marin rings the bell and signals for Sasha to get in the ring, but she and Embry refuse since they want Richter to wait in her corner instead of being ready to charge at Sasha as she has done already a few times. The ref starts his count and Sasha is still hesitant about getting in the ring. Finally, Richter is able to grab Sasha on one of her charges and drags Sasha into the ring by the hair. Richter hits a series of snapmares while holding Sasha’s hair, but Sasha is able to roll out of the ring after the third one. Sasha is upset on the outside and Embry comes over to try to calm her down and offer advice. Richter takes the opportunity to kick Embry in the back of the head. Richter points at Embry and yells, causing Embry to wave Sasha in. Sasha gets on the apron but jumps back to the floor the moment Richter charges in to grab her. They do this once more but Sasha gets in the ring on the third try, although hiding behind the ref. As the ref tries to hold Richter back to allow Sasha to get in the ring cleanly, Sasha reaches through the ref’s legs and trips up Richter. Sasha immediately starts attacking Richter’s right leg, getting several punches in and trying to get a spinning toe hold on Wendi. Richter is able to kick Sasha off her and catapults Sasha over when she bounces back off the ropes. Sasha immediately rolls out of the ring again into Embry’s embrace, as Richter works the crowd. Sasha keeps stalling on the outside as Richter again charges and tries to grab at Sasha. When Sasha gets in the ring, Wendi immediately puts her in a side headlock that she wrenches on a few times and then takes her down to the mat still in the hold. Sasha counters with a headscissors but Richter breaks out of the headscissors and goes back to the headlock in a standing position.
Richter takes Sasha down again and keeps working the headlock ,despite Sasha’s best effort to break out of it by yanking Wendi’s hair. Back on their feet, Richter keeps attacking Sasha but a trip by Embry gives Sasha an opening. Sasha starts pulling Wendi’s hair but Richter fights back with some punches. Sasha is knocked down twice from two of Richter’s blows, and is knocked down a third time via a clothesline. It looks like Richter has the match in hand, which causes Embry to jump on the apron. Wendi punches Embry to the floor and continues with the advantage on Sasha, trying for a pinfall. Sasha is able to get Richter off her at the two count. Sasha tries what she can to fend Wendi off (including hair pulls and an eye poke) but Richter hits a slam and goes to the middle turnbuckle for a splash attempt.
However, Embry pushes Richter off the turnbuckle in front of the ref and thai causes a disqualification. Embry gets into the ring to cheer Sasha on as she attacks Richter, but the RPMs (also with bandaged heads) come in to attack Embry and save Wendi. Sasha rolls out of the ring as soon as the RPMs show up. The RPMs grab Embry so Richter can get some hits in on him. The Crusher (also with a bandaged head, which makes me want to see the match they had earlier on the show) comes in to help Embry and all four men start fighting in the ring and then outside. Richter goes outside as well to cheer the RPMs on, but Sasha blindsides Richter with a hit to the head from one of Sasha’s boots. The rudos leave ringside as the RPMs check on Wendi. The video ends with Richter having her arm raised and Wendi yelling and pointing in the direction the rudos left, indicating that this was not over.
MD: Interesting to see where Wendi was a year after Mania. She came off as a star here but was never a great promo. The RPMs were used very well in Puerto Rico and she fit in well with them on paper at least. Sasha stalled huge here to high effect and then fed and stooged when she got in there. They did a little bit of chain wrestling but only a little before Wendi took over again and Embry helped her cheat to get over. It wouldn’t last long as Wendi was quick to come back. Embry actively interfered to draw the DQ and the post match brawl between the teams. It’s funny how they were a year behind just like in 90 (then it was Robocop and Zeus and face vs face on the big show).
EB: Sasha’s feud with Wendi Richter would involve a mixed trios match with their respective tag team allies, a street fight and it would end in a cage match. The turning point for Sasha’s run came when Super Medico was once again feuding with Eric Embry in an attempt to win back the Puerto Rico title he had lost in August of 85. We go to a match from May 17, 1986 in Caguas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR7gc7V9tf0
This match is from a Clasicos segment that aired many years later, with El Profe doing the introduction and narration for the clip. The match is joined in progress, as Embry attempts to suplex Super Medico but the attempt is blocked and Medico counters with a small package for a two count. Embry kicks Medico to cut off any offense and jumps off the middle rope with a forearm to Medico's back. You can see Sasha at ringside, pacing about as she watches her man Embry in action. Embry controls the next moments of the match, hitting several stomps, punches, a snapmare and a falling headbutt on Medico. A pinfall attempt is broken by Medico getting his foot on the rope. Embry continues with the attack but Medico gets to his feet and slowly starts firing back with punches of his own. Embry starts staggering from the blows but quickly rakes the eyes to stop Medico. A punch from Embry sends Medico through the ropes to the outside. Medico takes a bit to collect himself and tries to get back in the ring. However, Sasha has jumped up on the ring apron on the opposite side of the ring, drawing the ref’s attention and allowing Embry the opening to choke Medico on the top rope. As Sasha finishes her distraction, Embry knees Medico on the head and knocks him back to the floor. The ref comes over and sees Medico on the outside holding his head in pain, and asks Embry what happened (which Embry lies about).
Embry goes out to attack Medico on the floor and grabs one of the many pieces of debris that is laying on the ground. He briefly jams the object into Medico’s forehead before getting back in the ring. El Profe so far has been providing some background info besides commentating for the match, and in a funny moment gives a shout out to the security guard that briefly walks past the camera (apparently Sicariote is his name and he was still working security at the time this segment aired). Embry goes back out and tosses Medico back into the ring as El Profe starts talking about the first time he met Eric Embry back in 1981 while they were in Calgary. Embry comes off the top with an ax handle to Medico’s back and attempts a pin. Medico kicks out and Embry gets a clothesline of the middle rope that sets up a series of falling headbutts that only get a two count.
The match turns to Medico’s favor when he catches Embry coming off the top with a punch to the midsection. Medico follows up with a couple of kicks to the midsection, which then allows him to go off on a punching tear against Embry (including the ‘maquinita de golpes’). Medico comes off the middle rope with a punch that sends Embry tumbling over. Embry tries to crawl out of the ring but Medico is able to grab Embry’s tights before he makes it out. A brief tug of war ensues between Sasha trying to yank Embry outside by the arms and Medico trying to yank Embry back by the trunks (Embry’s butt gets exposed during this, causing Profe to make a remark about how pale Embry’s buns are). Another punch from the middle turnbuckle knocks Embry down and Medico goes for a cover, Sasha gets involved by putting Embry’s foot on the ropes, causing the count to be broken. Medico continues just throwing punches at Embry, who gets increasingly staggered and close to falling down. Medico grabs Embry by the front of the trunks to keep him standing up and continues with the punching. Another pin attempt is foiled by Sasha again placing Embry’s foot on the ropes. Medico responds by basically squashing Embry’s leg as it hangs on the rope. A rope running sequence results in Medico colliding with the referee after an Embry leapfrog and then both Embry and Medico knocking heads. With everyone down in the ring, Sasha hurries into the ring, grabs an object from her boot and places it in Embry’s hand before exiting the ring. Both wrestlers slowly get to their feet and Embry decks Medico with the loaded punch. Embry makes the cover and the ref makes the three count.
Embry starts celebrating his victory when the crowd starts making noise. It seems that commissioner Huracan Castillo Sr. is heading towards the ring. Sasha briefly tries to stop the commissioner but promptly steps aside. Castillo picks up the foreign object Embry had left laying on the mat and explains to the ref what Embry had done. Embry protests but the referee restarts the match. Castillo briefly gets into an argument with Sasha outside of the ring before leaving and the match continues. Medico gets a sunset flip that Embry gets out of. Medico gets a small package that Embry also quickly kicks out of. Sasha gets up on the ring apron holding a chair and Embry moves towards her in order to ram Medico’s head against the chair. Instead. Medico pushes Embry’s head into the chair, knocking him out and allowing Medico to get the pinfall. Super Medico has regained the Puerto Rico title. Sasha worriedly checks on her main squeeze in the ring as Super Medico celebrates on the floor and is awarded the title belt.
MD: Yes, twist my arm and have me watch 1986 Eric Embry vs Super Medico. This was really good. I know we’re focused on Sasha here, but this was really good. Embry underhandedly took over and started beating Medico around the ring. A bit of hidden object and a lot of leaping off the top with axe handles or flying clotheslines. Eventually, it backfires as Medico gets him in the gut and the comeback is top notch. Great punches, some off the top, with Embry bumping all over the place for him. At one point Sasha drapes his foot over the top to break up a pin and Medico just leaps on the leg and continues on. Finish is a ref bump and the two of them crashing into one another so Sasha can hand Embry an object but it all backfires in the end. This was introduced (years later) by a maskless Profe and that was a surprising sight to see.
EB: As you can probably guess, Embry blamed Sasha for what happened in the match and kicked her to the curb.I’m not sure exactly how it went down b+ut it would not surprise me if there was a physical altercation and Super Medico ended up getting involved to save Sasha. Embry would end up bringing in Vivian St. John as his new second and would disparage Sasha when he spoke about his former valet. For her part, Sasha was not going to sit back quietly. We go to a TV match that occurred a few weeks after the previous one, likely from around early June of 1986. By this point in their feud, Embry had stolen one of Medico’s masks and was wearing it as an insult to Medico.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTrNybpWEN0
We are at one of the TV tapings in Rio Piedras and Embry (wearing a Medico mask and accompanied by Vivian St. John) is scheduled to face Victor Cancel, but Super Medico is in the ring and he wants Cancel to give him the chance to wrestle Embry now. Cancel accepts and Medico immediately goes after Embry. Medico is very aggressive with his punches, grabbing Embry’s jacket to tear it off and flinging Embry around. Medico continues with his punches as Chicky Starr is complaining about all of this on commentary. Sasha makes her way to ringside, cheering on Medico (and causing Chicky to make more comments about how Sasha is ungrateful and will get hers). The punches continue and Medico attempts to reclaim the stolen mask, but Embry pokes Medico’s eyes to stop him. Embry attacks back, firing off a Medico style punching sequence as a way to mock Medico. However, Medico is able to block one of the punches and counters with his own flurry, knocking down Embry. Medico goes for a cover but Embry gets his foot on the rope. The match continues with Medico and then Embry getting the advantage, with Embry at one point trying to take Medico’s mask off. Medico hits a few punches after walking across the top rope to get into position. Embry regains control and hits several falling headbutts and attempts a pin. Sasha countries cheering on Medico at ringside as the match continues.
Eventually, Embry ends up accidentally colliding with the ref and Vivian St. John takes the opportunity to hit Medico on the head with a chair (basically doing right what Sasha had screwed up in Embry’s opinion). Embry covers but there is no ref to count. Sasha takes the opportunity to get in the ring and hit an ax handle on Embry’s back, allowing Medico the chance to cover Embry. During all this, St. John is busy trying to revive the ref, unaware of what Sasha had done or that Medico is now the one doing the covering. The ref is revived and makes the three count, making Super Medico the winner of this impromptu match. St. John charges at Sasha and the two start scuffling on the floor, as the fans rush to surround them to watch and cheer on Sasha. Some wrestlers try to separate the women, with Killer Karl Krupp having to carry St, John off in order to stop the fight.
MD: I can just watch these two punch each other all day. This was really good as well. The fans were hot for Medico getting a chance for revenge but Embry took over at times as Medico was focused on the mask. His comeback even had a little bit of rope walking as he tried to get at Embry with his fists (it was organic rope walking since it built up momentum to get at him which is something I've maybe never seen before). Eventually the ref bump came (more of that with Embry maybe?) and St. John used a chair only for Sasha to come in to nail Embry. Very long drawn out pin to build up the drama before the ref could recover and count the three. Good stuff with the seconds brawling after the fact.
EB: The feud between Medico and Embry climaxed in a mask vs hair match where Embry almost stole the win and thus Medico’s mask, However, due to Invader #1 coming down to tell the ref that Embry had cheated (and the fact that the commissioner was at ringside and saw what happened as well), the match was restarted, Medico kept his mask and Embry lost his hair. Embry would leave Puerto Rico a couple of weeks after this but Sasha got a chance for some final payback on Vivian St. John.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuZLu7xrItU
This is a couple of weeks after the Medico and Embry mask vs hair match. Hugo is on commentary and makes note of the size difference between the two competitors. The crowd is firmly behind Sasha but it looks to be a tough challenge. Sasha starts off hot with some armlock throws, but St. John uses her size to stop Sasha and starts working over Sasha's throat on the mat. Hugo keeps putting over Sasha’s heart and that the crowd is firmly behind her. St, John eventually breaks the chokehold and Sasha is able to come back by working over St. John's arm. Vivian breaks the armbar by raking Sasha’s eyes and proceeds to throw Sasha through the ropes to the outside. Sasha tries to get in the ring but St. John kicks her back out. Sasha is able to get in the ring and backs Vivian into the ropes, firing off several blows and then attempting a pin after a snapmare. Sasha gets a monkey flip on St, John, causing Vivian to bail to the outside as Sasha gets fired up in the ring. Hugo compliments Sasha for not backing down at all despite the size difference. Sasha dares Vivian to get back in the ring but St. John remains stalling on the outside. Sasha grabs St, John on the apron and flips her into the ring. Sasha continues with the aggressive attack, focusing on St. John’s leg. Vivian is able to stop Sasha with some forearm blows and tries a cover after a slam but it only gets two. A second slam attempt is countered by Sasha into a roll up. The ref counts three and Sasha has won the match. The crowd cheers as Sasha celebrates her win.
MD: St. John had a size and reach advantage, a big one, but Sasha was fiery and had the crowd behind her. St. John would goozle her to start, and then toss her out, but Sasha would get revenge and tossed her out and then back in. It was pretty good (if messy) when they were scrapping. Eventually Sasha got a roll up out of nowhere for the win. Not definitive but still a big moral one considering the size difference.
EB: Sasha would continue making appearances as a tecnico through the beginning of 1987, but it has now been a while since she has been active in CSP. The Super Medicos have called upon her to help them out against Monster Ripper, Rick Valentine and Lance Idol, and Sasha has gladly returned to counter Monster Ripper. We will have to see how effective her presence at ringside will be for the Super Medicos in their quest to regain the World tag team titles.
Getting back to our current 1990 journey, we had a house show on August 25 that was headlined by Carlos Colon vs TNT in a cage. It is once again a case of having the lineup for the show but not having footage or definitive results. Based on the title histories, we know that Colon retained the Universal title in the cage and that the only title to change hands that night was Ron Starr winning the World Junior title from Huracan Castillo Jr.
MD: I think in the journey so far, other than maybe Chicky having it, the Jr. title hasn’t been a huge focus, but it’s a good way to focus on Starr as a singles without dislodging Colon or Invader on top.
EB: We have reached September and it looks like we are heading towards the climax of the Carlos Colon and TNT rivalry. There is a tag match scheduled for September 1 featuring Colon and Invader #1 taking on TNT and Kim Duk (suggesting that Invader and Duk got involved in the cage match the previous week). However, it has also been announced that there will be one more match between Colon and TNT on September 8. The Universal title will once more be on the line, this time in a barbed wire match.
Let’s go the lineups for Sept 1 and Sept 8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THWWpHnDn7s
The card lineups featured are as follows:
Saturday September 1 in Caguas has Carlos Colon & Invader #1 vs. TNT & Kim Duk; Rematch for the World Tag Titles: Rick Valentine & Lance Idol w/Monster Ripper defend against. Super Medicos #1 & #3 w/Sasha; Miguelito Perez vs. Mr. Pogo; Rematch for the Junior Heavyweight Title: Ron Starr defends against Huracan Castillo Jr.; Invader #4 & Super Medico #4 vs. The Texas Hangmen w/El Profe; and other great super stars.
Thursday September 6 in Luquillo has Carlos Colon vs. his arch rival Abdullah the Butcher; Invader #1 vs. TNT; Giant Warrior vs. Kim Duk; Carl Styles vs. Mr. Pogo; Miguelito Perez & Huracan Castillo Jr. vs. Rick Valentine & Lance Idol w/Monster Ripper; and the Super Medicos vs. the Texas Hangmen.
And on Saturday September 8 they will be at Estadio Juan Ramon Loubriel in Bayamon where there will be a Universal Title match with the ring surrounded by Barbed Wire as Carlos Colon defends against TNT; a No DQ Rematch for the Caribbean Title as Invader #1 defends against Kim Duk; Giant Warrior vs. Abdullah the Butcher; Miguelito Perez & Huracan Castillo Jr. vs. the Texas Hangmen; and other great matches.
MD: Good card on Sept 1. Even with Burke gone, this is pretty solid. They finally do the tag with Invader and Colon vs TNT/Duk. The Continental Dream vs Medicos feud is still churning. Starr now defends against Castillo. Pogo’s finally in and up against Perez. And they team.. Actually I’m not sure which Super Medico with Invader 4 against the incoming Hangmen. The Sept 6 card shuffles things about with Abby back in to face Colon and TNT vs Invader, with Perez/Castillo vs Continental Dream and the Medicos against the Hangmen, so things might be moving along.
EB: As we can see from the lineups, we have the returns of Mr. Pogo, Abdullah the Butcher, Invader #4 (who we really haven’t seen since Aniversario, he may have been injured or on tour) and an appearance from Super Medico #4. We also have the debut of a new tag team by the name of the Texas Hangmen. They have been brought in by El Profe and they may prove to be trouble for the tecnicos (already they are facing the top tecnico teams in their first few weeks here). As part of the hype for their debut, there was a music video highlighting the Texas Hangmen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=javo6gxu60s
The Hangmen were introduced to the CSP audience via this music video, their names are Psycho and Killer. The video includes clips from a squash match and the Hangmen pose menacingly in their masks and holding up their nooses. At the end Psycho and Killer basically say they are coming for the tag belts. We shall see how their run goes.
MD: I can’t say I was wildly moved by Valentine and Idol’s arrival, Idol’s goofy promos notwithstanding, but I am very happy to see the Hangmen show up. I’ve seen almost none of their run. This is a music video with a song specifically made for them. One of the comments says it might be Richard Lee behind it. Beats me. But it has big builds to the words Powerslam and Clothesline and the video shows them hitting those things in time as they destroy people. Plus a lot of fondling their hangman ropes. These guys are Mean Mike and Bull Pain, of course, and we’ll see if I can start telling one from the other as we go.
EB: The September 1 Superestrellas show featured a main event match that featured the team of TNT and Kim Duk taking on Carl Styles and Gama Singh. Styles has had his issues with El Profe and TNT and Duk are focused on their big tag match later that night. Let’s go to that match.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJYx5Oeb7eY
Duk and Singh start off for their teams and we have Eliud Gonzalez and Hector Moyano on commentary. The tecnicos get the early advantage by working over Duk’s arm and tagging in and out. After enduring the attack on the arm, Duk is able to push Carl Styles back into the rudo corner and tag in TNT. The rudos do a double team maneuver and TNT continues with some strikes on Styles. Duk is tagged back in and Styles is hit with a double chop. Duk hits some more chops and Carl fires back with some punches. Duk quickly cuts off Carl’s attack and continues with an illegal thrust to the throat. TNT is tagged back in and hits a spin kick on Styles. A pin attempt is quickly broken up by Singh. The rudos continue in control throughout the middle portion of the match, with Styles eventually backing TNT up towards the tecnico corner and tagging in Singh. Gama lands several punches on TNT, which draws in Duk and in turn causes Styles to also come into the ring. All four men are now in. The tecnicos back the rudos into opposite corners and attempt to ram TNT and Duk into eahc other. The rudos are able to avoid colliding and instead end up in position to hit stereo Dynamite kicks on the tecnicos. From there it becomes academic as TNT kicks Styles out of the ring and Duk makes a cover on Singh., As the ref counts, TNT goes to pose over Duk and the rudos get the win. Duk and TNT get some kicks on Singh after the match as El Profe encourages them on. It looks like Duk and TNT are ready for tonight’s tag match and their respective title matches the next week.They and El Profe look to be very much in sync.
The match is followed by the show’s ending, where Hugo hypes that Saturday's house show card and says that we will also see the official Puerto Rico debut of the Texas Hangmen tonight. Hugo mentions that they are a dangerous team.
MD: Styles is definitely just a guy now. And it’s ok. He looks kind of tiny next to Kim Duk for instance. I think they could have used another heel instead but maybe they hadn’t anticipated some of the exits. They control on Duk’s arm early but once the heels take over, they work well together, mainly beating Styles down (he takes everything fine). Styles and Singh mount a comeback but get cut off after TNT and Duk catch each other on whips mid ring and hit perfectly in sync Dynamite Kicks.
EB: We don’t have results for September 1 but can assume that the Texas Hangmen won their debut match. It also looks like something that happened during the main event tag match as the Caribbean title match between Invader #1 and Kim Duk has been made a kendo tick on a pole match. Also, it looks like we have reached the end of Carl Styles and Gama Singh’s runs in Puerto Rico. Styles had the feud with El Profe in this second run, while Gama was basically filling out the roster as a veteran with some name recognition.
ER: We will discuss most of the fallout from the September 8 card next time, but we will end this installment with part of the main event. It has been two months since Carlos Colon and TNT faced off at Aniversario 90 (and even before then we had all of the drama surrounding TNT’s decision to challenge). They are facing off one more time for the Universal title in a barbed wire match.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-RArb_tw9I
This clip is from a Clasicos airing many years later, so once again we do not have the original commentary for this clip. The match is joined in progress as both Carlos and TNT are bloody messes. Carlos is in the midst of raking TNT’s face into the barbed wire. Carlos lets go and TNT stumbles backwards, giving Carlos the opening to continue attacking TNT. A punch knocks TNT down and he ends up moving underneath the rope. TNT gets up but now he is stuck in between the ring ropes and the barbed wire, not a good place to be. Carlos follows and starts hitting TNT, causing TNT to bump into the barbed wire on the recoil from the blows. Carlos continues attacking TNT, including pushing him with his leg against the barbed wire when TNT collapses to the apron. Colon is not giving TNT any mercy or breathing room. TNT is able to roll back into the ring and counters some Colon punches with a Dynamite kick. TNT is able to follow up with a spin kick, but both men are now down on the mat, the damage incurred so far taking its toll on them. Both wrestlers start exchanging blows while on their knees and TNT is able to grab Carlos by the head and get him near the wire. Carlos stops the attempt by TNT and instead rams TNT’s head into the wire. TNT starts hitting Carlos with punches, but Colon counters by attacking TNT’s leg. As they exchange blows, Colon shoves TNt backwards into the barbed wire and hits a kick to TNT’s leg that knocks him down. Carlos starts focusing more of his attacks on TNT’s leg, it's clear he is setting up for the figure four. TNT kicks Colon away and Carlos ends up hitting the barbed wire front first.
TNT goes on the attack with several punches to Colon’s head, and is able to force Colon’s head into the wire. TNT backs Colon into the corner and proceeds to wrap Colon’s left arm around one of the wires (and for some reason that made me a bit squamish compared to the forehead rams). Colon fights back and gets out of the corner but TNT is able to lock in the Cobra Dinamita. Carlos fights to get out of the hold by grabbing the ropes, but there is the issue that he may also end up grabbing the wire if he is not careful. TNT keeps yanking Colon away from the ropes but Carlos is able to back TNT into the barbed wire in order to break the hold. Again TNT slaps on the Cobra Dinamita and keeps pulling Colon away from the ropes when Carlos is able to grab them. TNT keeps Colon in the middle of the ring and Carlos starts fading from the effects of the hold. The ref checks Colon’s arm but he is able to respond and elbows his way out of the cobra. TNT gets the hold on a third time and Colon again falls to his knees. Carlos tries to break the hold by grabbing the ropes and ends up grabbing the barbed wire a couple of times as well ,but TNT yanks him away each time. Both men are down on the mat as TNT has the hold locked in and again it looks like Carlos is in serious trouble.
Carlos kicks his legs out and is able to get back to a standing position, where he breaks the cobra with a reverse foul kick on TNT. The ref starts counting both men down as they struggle to recover and stand up. TNT makes the first charge but misses and hits the corner. Carlos starts going on the atack, knocking TNT down with a kneelift. Carlos starts getting fired up as he works over TNT’s leg. Colon attempts to put on the figure four but TNT counters with a small package that gets two. Carlos sends TNT into the ropes, hits him with a punch to the midsection, and then kicks TNT’s leg a few times to knock him down again. This time Carlos immediately goes for the figure four and hooks it on. TNT tries reversing it but Colon rolls back into position. TNT gets near the ropes and grabs them, and the ref breaks the hold (which seems a bit uneven since he didn’t have his hand long on the rope before forcing the break, similar to Colon’s attempt to break the cobra that did not result in the ref calling for the break). Colon continues with his attack and ends up putting TNT into a sleeperhold. TNT struggles to get loose but ends up on his knees near the ropes. Colon keeps the sleeper applied and all of a sudden Kim Duk (with a bandaged head) appears at ringside and sprays green mist at Carlos. However, since TNT was in the sleeper, Colon uses TNT to block the mist from getting to him. Basically, Duk ended up spraying TNT by accident. Carlos immediately covers the blinded TNT and gets the pinfall win. Carlos Colon has retained the Universal title and it may be that this issue with TNT has finally been settled.
MD: This was excellent. We come in JIP with them bloody and Colon batting TNT between the rope and the barbed wire with punches. TNT gets out and hits some big kicks and they go back and forth into the wire. Eventually, TNT gets the Cobra on and even survives getting pushed back into the wire again and again; it takes a low blow from Colon to break the hold. Colon starts on the leg and gets the figure four but TNT survives that as well. Eventually, Colon locks in the sleeper and it’s only because Kim Duk misses him and hits TNT with the green mist that Colon gets the pin. Really good stuff for the ten minutes we have here.
EB: Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, a ghost from the past reappears. Also, we find out what TNT’s next move is, several titles feel like they are in a game of hot potato, and the Texas Hangmen send a message to the tecnico locker room.
Phil Schneider, Eric Ritz, Matt D, Sebastian, and other friends write about pro wrestling. Follow us @segundacaida
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