She Followed Tenryu from Tulsa to Tucson, Just Like the Dust when the Wind Blows, He's Gone

Genichiro Tenryu, Jumbo Tsuruta & Takashi Ishikawa v Riki Choshu, Yoshiaki Yatsu & Isamu Teranishi (All Japan, 1/6/85) - GOOD

This was the first time Jumbo and Choshu had been on opposite sides of a match and naturally the crowd was amped for it. They didn't match up a ton, probably because they were saving that for a bit further down the line, so it was Choshu/Tenryu that felt like the money pairing. Many words have been written on the internet about how Choshu rolled into All Japan and transformed the house style, about how Tenryu caught on immediately and let himself be swept up by the intensity and violence that Choshu brought. It took Jumbo a bit longer and in the end he got there, but Tenryu was a duck to water when it came to these exchanges and everything he did here had an edge to it. Sometimes it was a dismissive edge, like when he'd shut down Yatsu and just drop him in the corner at Choshu's feet. Sometimes his edge was sharpened to antagonise, like when he'd point at Choshu before clobbering Teranhishi with a lariat. And then sometimes he was just angry at the world for letting Choshu live in it, which he took out on whoever was in front of him, often by elbowing them really hard in the face. Some of that rubbed off on Ishikawa and he wasn't content to just make up the numbers. As soon as he saw Tenryu get in Choshu's face he wanted to do the same, hooking Teranishi in the sasori-gatame and pointing right at Choshu. Obviously Choshu took umbrage and Ishikawa paid for it. These matches won't have the same lengthy and epic finishing stretches as your All Japan six-mans from a decade later, but the last couple minutes are red hot and even if a count out might never be a wholly satisfying finish you can't help but marvel at Jumbo trying to decapitate Choshu with a blindside lariat before it. 

Complete & Accurate Tenryu

The King and The Superstar - The '86 Iteration

Jerry Lawler v Bill Dundee (Loser Leaves Town) (Memphis, 7/14/86)

Once again, these two simply do not miss. I've now written about every big Lawler/Dundee stipulations match from the 80s, a few tags where they're on opposite sides, a hair match from the 70s, and every one of them is tremendous. I don't mean good, I mean tremendous. Every match. The three 80s loser leaves town matches might be the best trio of singles matches between two wrestlers ever and this one might be the biggest straight up slugfest of them all. 

The '83 match was more of a slow burner, had a bit more of a tentative start, which made sense as it was their first big singles match in six years and I think their first with the loser leaves town stipulation. There was a caginess to it. The December '85 match was a Dundee mauling as a one-eyed Lawler just tried to keep his head above water. Between that and this they'd been on opposite sides of tag matches and Lawler had managed to exact some revenge, but not to the point where he'd rid himself of Dundee completely. So there was no caginess to this, no slow burn, no feeling out. It started with a quick Dundee jab, a look of indignation from Lawler who responded with a hook that put Dundee down, met with a return look of indignation, then after that zero hesitancy, both just throwing punches, dragging each other to the mat and rolling around. Dundee punches Lawler in the plums while they're on the mat and takes over, mostly with the punches which of course were spectacular. By god the punches. I know it's trite but holy fuck man. Throughout the match they threaded in callbacks to previous points of the feud and the first one was when Dundee went after that eye he nearly blinded in December, throwing punches and digging a finger in there, a real vicious wee bastard. 

Lawler has his first mini-comeback while he's on his knee taking punches, firing back without dropping the strap, going for a quick piledriver because he knows sending Dundee packing is more important than eking out a slow revenge. Dundee is close to the ropes and gets a foot over, which makes sense as it was basically Lawler's first real offence of the match. We get more cool throwbacks to previous moments in the feud with the tables out on the floor. First Lawler smashes Dundee's mouth into one of the ring stanchions before giving him a running bulldog on an upright table. But then he tries it again and Dundee reverses it, cutting Lawler open. Dundee goes back on the offensive for an extended run after that and even decides to go after Lawler's arm, which is another reference to their first match the previous December when he picked it apart for about 10 minutes. Dundee's punch as he flies off the top is a perfect spot and as good as any punch you'll ever see, standing out even in a match full of punches as good as any you'll ever see. 

Everything after Lawler's PROPER comeback is just incredible, god-tier stuff. Lawler on his knees asking for Dundee to hit him again and again, Dundee obliging even though he knows what's coming, it was magic. If you've been following along with Charles from PWO's Wrestling Playlists newsletter then you would've gotten to his gigantic preview of 1986 over the weekend there. In that piece Charles talks about how no promotor knew how to promote for their territory better than Jerry Jarrett. Well watching this you get the impression no wrestlers knew how to WRESTLE for their territory better than Lawler and Dundee. They had every person in that building exactly where they wanted them. When Lawler rips the strap down and lets loose Dundee tells him to keep throwing, responding with his own shots, absorbing but refusing to go down, leading to maybe the greatest punch exchange in wrestling history that Lawler caps off with a running fist drop. The scope of that sentence when you consider all of the punch exchanges these two have had is massive, but it might really be their best. Lance obviously calls it perfectly and people are going nuts and the selling and aggression and every other thing is off the charts and once again why can nobody work a strike exchange like this today? How can you watch this and tell me your rote New Japan forearms are actually good? Ah fuck it. Dundee might be 4 foot nothing but he'll fight until he's drawn his last and even kicks out of the piledriver. The general selling of exhaustion towards the end is amazing. Both lace into each other at the same time with punches, both go down, then Dundee makes a comeback by taking his boot off and clobbering Lawler in the head for a huge nearfall. Dundee then punting Lawler in the balls was an absolutely spectacular "fuck off and die already" moment. 

The finish is great. Dundee comes off the top for an axe handle and when Lawler moves you think he's going to put him away, but he can't properly capitalise because HE'S on his last legs and Dundee lays him out with another punch. Dundee goes up top again so this time Lawler just throws himself at the ropes, Dundee topples off and Lawler puts him away with a JUMPING piledriver. An emphatic, resounding exclamation on a classic. 

I've had this pairing as my pick for the best match up in US wrestling history - maybe wrestling history, period - for like 15 years and this re-watch solidified that. An unreal match and honestly, I wouldn't spend much time arguing with anyone who said this was their best together. And I think their December '85 loser leaves town match is the best match in US history, so that is not a low bar. Wonderful pro wrestling, brothers and sisters. 

Brody rumbles into Memphis

Jerry Lawler v Bruiser Brody (Memphis, 5/20/85)

You kind of take what you can get with Brody. You know he's not going to bump if he doesn't feel like it, and that's not always an issue because you don't NEED to bump around like a maniac and if you're Bruiser Brody you probably shouldn't anyway. Special occasions and all that. Prolly. But he's not really compelling as a seller or at showing any vulnerability so sometimes it can get rough unless you're Abdullah the Butcher and stab him repeatedly in the head with a fork. Here he did a lot of dead-eyed staring when taking punches, sometimes falling - perhaps TUMBLING - to the mat before immediately sitting up again; that thing he would often do in lieu of taking an actual bump. Half a bump, maybe. Lawler is the sort of person who'll work around that while simultaneously towards Brody's strengths, so he'll throw a punch and shake his own hand out like Brody's skull is made of brick. This is no mere ordinary man shrugging off the King's best shots. Lawler is smart enough to play up Brody's singularity as an attraction. He'll take a whipping too, then when he drops the strap Brody absorbs Lawler's punch flurry like a drunk man doing a vision test. Which was actually fine because in the end he does take that flat back bump and maybe he was building to that all along. Maybe we just got WORKED this whole time. Brody will also be more than happy to bleed when called upon so he won't shy away from being thrown head-first into a table. The finish was whatever but then Brody stealing Lawler's crown and walking away with it like a trophy afterwards was pretty great. 

A bit of 50s Verne Gagne. And Billy Goelz!

Verne Gagne v Billy Goelz (Chicago, 6/21/50)

My initial thought after watching this was, "I wish people still worked like this today." Then after four seconds of consideration my next thought was that I don't actually watch enough of today's wrestling to know whether or not people DON'T work like this. It at least FEELS like what these two were doing is something mostly lost to time. I started thinking about when wrestling in the US shifted away from what this was towards what it became in the 70s and then the 80s and then every decade after that. I always used to hear about how wrestling was much slower in the 50s and I guess that might be true if you ignore what they were doing in France, but this was nothing like the sort of thing I would've expected when I first started reading about wrestling on the internet however long ago. I know wrestling moved towards having more high-impact moves and general ACTION~ as it went along, but there was and is still matwork and grappling and working of holds in US wrestling. By the 80s there was pretty much no matwork like this, though. Even your most go-go-go Flair matches didn't have half as much energy from the perspective of actually working holds. They didn't even do a lot here -- Gagne largely worked around a headlock while Goelz went after Venre's arm with a few different holds. The difference was the intensity and aggression with which they approached all of it. There was no slapping on an armbar and sitting in it, no ponderous side headlocks where the person on the receiving end was content to lay there for a minute or two. You'd maybe call the pacing of that "deliberate," and there's lots of 70s and 80s matwork where they work deliberately and I can enjoy it, but the pacing of this was almost frenzied and the difference is stark. Gagne's headlock work was some of the best I've ever seen. It was damn near torturous, like he was trying to squeeze Goelz's brains out his nose. He was grinding the headlock with his right arm then did a standing switch to apply it with his left and it looked like the fucking thing was in fast forward. There was absolutely zero daylight between temple and forearm on this headlock. Goelz is tremendous and I feel like if we had a bunch of his footage we'd be raving about him as an all-timer. He was ferocious going after Gagne's arm. At one point he took him down with an armbar then floated over into a gorgeous hammerlock. He wrenched the absolute fuck out of that thing as well, repeatedly, like he was trying to yank the arm clean out the socket, and you know Gagne had to sleep on his other side that night. When Gagne kept wringing Goelz's head with the headlock Billy just dropped to the mat and curled up like a turtle. There was another moment where he managed to pop out of the headlock by sort of jumping and throwing himself backwards and I love how he sold being discombobulated as he tried to get up to his feet quickly. Really the struggle over everything was sensational and somewhere along the line that sort of thing got lost in the States. The rope running parts ruled too, with rapid fast leapfrog attempts and dropkicks, sometimes connecting at full speed, while sometimes one would try a leapfrog while the other would just charge into them as they were in mid-air. An awesome 20-minute draw that feels like it would've been the first half of a classic 40-minute war. 

Smile Brighter than them Arkansas Diamonds, Dreams Bigger than a Mid-South Horizon

Butch Reed v Buzz Sawyer (Dog Collar Match) (12/31/85)

In a world where Roddy Piper and Greg Valentine didn't try to mutilate each other with a chain this might be the best dog collar match in wrestling history. It's easily one of the best matches under 10 minutes there's ever been. I don't remember there being a specific issue between these two leading up to this, but Sawyer wants the dog collar stipulation so Reed obliges on the basis that there'll be no disqualifications. Sawyer howls like the mad dog he is as they're being hooked together by the chain and you can tell Reed was staring a hole through him the entire time. Sawyer regrets his hubris immediately as Reed just knocks lumps out him for about five minutes solid. It was a phenomenal five-minute stretch and I almost wanted to watch it twice. Reed throws some of the best chain-wrapped punches ever, just absolutely clobbering Sawyer under the jaw. His chain whippings don't have the same rampant disregard for flesh as Piper and Valentine's did but you forget that pretty quickly when he grabs a length of chain and starts grinding it back and forth across the cut on Sawyer's forehead. Sawyer squeals like a pig and you'd maybe feel sorry for him if he wasn't a HOODLUM. Also he asked for this. Reed roars and raises his arms to the sky like a wild animal driven to find this side of himself and it was biblical. Sawyer is feral at points fighting from below, biting Reed in the thigh and swinging lengths of chain blindly. Reed was almost shocked when Sawyer tried to take a chunk out his leg, looked at the bite mark, then at Sawyer, then kicked him in the face. When Sawyer finally comes back with a chain-wrapped fist of his own he drags Reed outside and busts him open, a man who knows his way around a dog collar match better than anyone. I don't remember if he bit the cut although I'll strongly assume he did as this is Buzz Sawyer but what he absolutely did do was try and whip Reed in the face with the chain. Reed was lucky he moved out the way or he might've been DISFIGURED or at the very least in some distress. Reed sawing the chain across Sawyer's MOUTH was fucking nuts and then the finish is even crazier. Sawyer is the master of this sort of match and sometimes that's because he knows exactly the right shortcuts to take. This time he unhooked his own collar and tied it to the bottom rope, then as Reed went to undo it Sawyer grabbed him in a bulldog and ran him across the ring, letting the chain still attached to Reed's neck snap him back as it went taut. Truly brutal stuff and a finish that's stuck with me since I first saw this over 15 years ago. One of my favourite matches ever and if not for Dick Murdoch and Jim Duggan it might've been both men's career match. 

Mid-South Project

The Kids are in Town for a Funeral, so Pack the Car and Dry Your Eyes. I Know They got Plenty of Young Blood Left in 'em, and Plenty Nights Under Mid-South Skies

Dick Murdoch v Ted DiBiase (12/31/85)

This ruled in many of the same ways as the Houston match a few days earlier, sometimes almost beat for beat, but was also different enough to stand and rule on its own. They start things out like they did in the first match, with Murdoch jumping DiBiase at the bell and DiBiase turning the tables by hitting a powerslam while Murdoch is still in his ring jacket. That's always going to be an awesome way to start a match though so who's going to complain about seeing it twice? Murdoch was sensational in that first match and he was sensational in this. I think his work on DiBiase's neck was even more vicious here. Some of the stomps were godly and those kneedrops right to the base of DiBiase's skull were some of the best you'll ever see. When DiBiase came back and built momentum you maybe wondered if they'd drop the neck work, but then in the back half Murdoch used the chair again, just like he did a few days earlier, and smashed the thing into DiBiase's neck. Murdoch wanted that brainbuster and you bought that everything he did leading up to it was designed to put DiBiase out for good. DiBiase always has great whip on his bumps - maybe too great considering his neck was shot to hell by the end - and his bump off Murdoch's slingshot over the top rope was tremendous. He took that thing like Murdoch was trying to rip his head clean off. When he wasn't being a sadist Murdoch was begging off and cowering from DiBiase's wrath, on one occasion outright running away when DiBiase started to make a comeback. That led to an amazing transition as DiBiase chased him outside the ring and over the barricade, but as Murdoch hopped back over he caught DiBiase with a right hook to the jaw. From there he smashed DiBiase into ring apron and the rail and a ringside table while Tommy Gilbert was apoplectic. Murdoch might've been the best wrestler in the world in 1985. 

Mid-South Project

Ohtani v Murakami II

Shinjiro Ohtani v Kazunari Murakami (Zero-1, 6/14/01)

A feud like this is pretty much always going to have a shelf life, a point where returns on such rabid heat start to diminish, but it's hard all the same to imagine a world with about 32 Ohtani/Murakami matches not ruling. This was awesome for many of the same reasons as their first match while adding a couple new wrinkles to go with it. Ohtani came out swinging wildly again, throwing all sorts of ugly punches and flailing arms like a man who maybe KNOWS how to fight but was never TAUGHT how to fight. In the first match that got him nowhere and I think he knew this one would end there too, so he pretty quickly changed tack and dropkicked Murakami in the knee. For all of Ohtani's aggression in the first match he never really tried to turn it into a wrestling match, but this time he did and after the dropkick he immediately went to a half crab. Ohtani is a really fun shithouse, riling Murakami as he rolls to the floor scowling and clutching at his leg. When he throws his gumshield at Ohtani you know he's about to go off on one and sure enough he gets in the ring and totally fucking wastes Ohtani with a left hook. This was honest to god one of the wildest bastard punches you'll see and then it was Ohtani's turn to roll around on the floor. When Ohtani spots his opening - Murakami jostling with the referee about who knows what - he comes back in and dropkicks Murakami in the head, quickly going on the offensive with suplexes. He hit at least one suplex in their first match and it clearly wasn't enough, so he goes to the well a few more times here. Murakami takes a German suplex as ugly and awkwardly as anyone and then Ohtani grabs him for a dragon suplex and you're legitimately worried when you consider the idea that if Murakami never learned how to work a punch then he almost certainly wasn't arsed about learning how to land on his neck. And then Ohtani spikes him on his neck. Ohtani takes his time after this to let the moment sink in and you wonder if he STILL hasn't learned from all those hard lessons against Liger and Samurai and Ultimo Dragon in his impertinent youth. When you have the advantage, press it. But he didn't and he just gave Murakami his chance to recover. By that point Murakami must've decided he no longer cared about the winning and losing of a contest. When he ripped his own gloves off and stood up like a snarling menace you had a good idea where it was going, and yet even that didn't prepare you for the bare knuckle fist he threw at Ohtani's face. Murakami walks away unperturbed about being disqualified, while Ohtani comes to with all the confused irritability and desire to pick fights with anyone in sight of a man deeply concussed. This really is the perfect 10-minute pairing. 

Piper had a Vision Last Night, Night Diving in Monterrey, that Water on His Skin, it Washed His Shame Away

Roddy Piper v Paul Orndorff (WWF, 7/27/85) - EPIC

There aren't many better atmospheres than a Philly Spectrum crowd going mental. Piper tended to have that effect on them at the best of times so stick him in there with someone who wants to maul him as much as he wants to maul them and you've got something nuclear. This was like six minutes bell to bell and fucking ruled. Piper was amazing in here, just absolutely in his element as a wildman. He was a rabid animal whose fight or flight instinct was constantly in flux. When he was begging off it was laced with a sort of manic aggression, backing up on the mat pleading with Orndorff as the latter dropped a knee, then on the second attempt Piper just lunged at him. At several points he seemed to realise there would be no quarter given even if his natural tendency was to ask for some, so he just dropped the idea of even trying and started throwing punches. His stooging was incredible as always but even then, in those moments he stood dazed and wobbly, you wondered if he was going to fall over or spring at Orndorff's throat. When he got cut open it made him more dangerous still, like the sight of his own blood triggered something even deeper. There were parts where they'd just grab each other and roll around trying to bite each other's face and then they'd end up outside and Piper would swing a chair or a microphone and Orndorff would yeet him into the ring post. Piper threw a damn near Tenryu punt to the face and later Orndorff drilled him with one of the best kneelifts ever. In the end the referee tried to put out a fire with his bare hands and of course the silly idiot got burned, but the post-match pull-apart fucking ruled and just as it looked like Piper'd had enough he turned on his heels and ran back for another go. These two rule together. 

Complete & Accurate Hot Rod

Fujiwara v Super Tiger - The Third Instalment

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Super Tiger (UWF, 1/16/85)

I'll tell you what, if our man Super Tiger was more aggressive in their second match than he was in their first, he only went and upped it another notch a month later. He was borderline savage at points here, or maybe not even borderline. There was even less hesitancy when it came to kicking Fujiwara up and down the place. It was almost reminiscent of Ishikawa/Ikeda, where Ikeda knew full well that Ishikawa would open himself up to be annihilated every time out and so Ikeda tried to volley his head into the fourteenth row with no remorse. "It's fine, he knows this isn't a monkey show." Tiger still doesn't want much to do with the mat and he'll demonstrate that with urgency. Urgent in that he'll try and kneedrop Fujiwara to death at every opportunity. I said it about the December match and it's even more true in this one -- these are some of the most brutal kneedrops ever, first to the head, the body, then to the legs when he started going after those. He'd mix in leg kicks with the kneedrops and a couple times he'd just fully jump with both kneecaps right into Fujiwara's thighs. Really brutal stuff and Fujiwara was having to cover up on the mat like he was near death, a staple of Super Tiger v Fujiwara at large. Obviously when it goes to the mat Fujiwara can control things and he was super aggressive at points as well. You can always draw comparisons with their first match to see how the rivalry has progressed, how with familiarity they'll approach certain openings differently even if their general methodology is the same. In their first match Fujiwara would be more patient and grind Tiger down. There was still some of that here, because he knew he had things in control so why rush, but once or twice he really snapped into something and forced Sayama to the ropes. A sign of GROWTH for our Tiger comes when he actually manages to wriggle free of a kimura attempt and get back to his feet, then when that happens he does what you'd fully expect him to do and try to kick Fujiwara's head off. Fujiwara again would back into the corner when Sayama started reeling off combos, doing what Fujiwara would always do against strikers, trying to draw them in before pouncing, maybe catching a leg when the opponent gets overzealous and then he'd turn it into a kneebar or whatever. It's a high risk, high reward strategy and sometimes you're going to get roundhouse kicked in the skull, but the moments where he managed to flip it were amazing, throwing awesome punch combos to the body and cracking Sayama with headbutts. The piledriver makes an appearance again as a huge weapon for Fujiwara, like it did in their first match. Towards the end I thought they were actually going to do a stoppage with Tiger kicking and kneedropping Fujiwara into a corpse-like state, basically a rerun of the December match, but this time Fujiwara comes back, manages to take Sayama to the mat, then patiently sets up his play before just about snapping his arm with a rapid kimura. 

A couple '85 Devil Masami matches

Devil Masami v Lioness Asuka (AJW, 3/15/85)

This was really good stuff and possibly the best I've seen Lioness Asuka look in a singles match. Or at least the closest she's come to nailing what I personally enjoy from her. They cut a hell of a pace, but it never felt rushed, it built well, had a great sense of escalation and even at 15 minutes I thought everything had just the right time to settle. At this point Devil is pretty easily my favourite 80s joshi wrestler and part of that is how she injects so much aggression and intensity into everything she does. I guess by now the talking point about her having some of the best facial expressions ever is a tired one, but it's true and the way she puts across specific things and communicates specific emotions is really cool. She got hit with one quick backdrop here, pretty out of the blue from Lioness who'd been on the defensive before, and Devil's expression upon impact told us she was not expecting to get hit by that and also that it very clearly hurt like a bastard. The early grappling portion had a real grittiness to it and they established early that Lioness wanted to hit the giant swing. She was determined to hit that thing. They also established that Devil had no interest in being swung in any fashion and would immediately hook Asuka's leg or fight like crazy to break free. When it became clear Lioness wasn't for swinging her she'd try and turn it into a crab or sasori-gatame and Devil would fight that with just as much urgency. As it progressed you could tell that Lioness was able to make inroads with her striking and I loved that sometimes Masami would just grab her by the throat and wrestle her to the mat in response. If it works it works, right? By the end Lioness' strategy was all about those kicks to set up the giant swing while Devil's was to compress Lioness' spine with piledriver variations. Some of Devil's selling for those roundhouse kicks really was sublime. I should watch Devil/Chigusa for the first time in about 15 years again soon.

Devil Masami v Noriyo Tateno (AJW, 4/25/85)

Really fun big dog on campus performance from Devil. She mostly bullied Tateno for the full 11 minutes here but she did it with a bunch of great looking stuff and worked super aggressively again. She was just ragdolling Tateno early, ripping her into holds and squeezing the life out of her with a bodyscissors, whipping her head around into nasty neck cranks, doing everything with a scowl. Tateno didn't get a lot and her openings were fleeting but she was SPUNKY when she needed to be. At points Devil would drag her out to the floor and throw her or slam her across tables. One of Tateno's squad either tried to interject eventually or she just stood close enough to the action that Devil could grab her, but either way grab her she did and the girl got whipped clean into Tateno. That same girl later had the audacity to jump into the ring and she and Tateno went about double-teaming Devil. Or they tried to. Devil took them both outside and chucked them into rows of seats and slammed them both across a table. In the end Tateno and her wee buddy managed to keep Devil out the ring long enough for the ref' to count them both out, which Devil was naturally incensed about but Tateno treated it as a victory of sorts. There was a cool dichotomy post-match between Devil and Dump and her gang of louts, as Devil accepted Tateno's handshake and acknowledged her as a worthy challenger, even raising her hand in a nice show of respect. She might've been all over Tateno from the start but it was just business. If that had been Dump and Tateno tried to shake her hand at the end Dump would've stabbed her with a pencil. Once upon a time Devil might've as well, but she was above such things at this stage of the game.

Murakami and Ohtani VIOLENCE!!

Shinjiro Ohtani v Kazunari Murakami (Zero-1, 3/2/01)

Murakami is pretty much a singular entity in the history of wrestling. I know you have people like Ogawa and I guess a smattering of MMA-turned-pro wrestling folk cut from the same cloth, but Murakami has a purely psychotic energy that nobody else quite matches. He's more unpredictable than Ogawa, maybe less imposing than Fujita but certainly more reckless. I've never bought Shibata as being fully deranged whereas Murakami is never anything but. He's menacing just walking from the locker room to the ring and any man with a full and unblemished hairline who chooses to shave his head completely bald is not to be trifled with so there's a sort of uneasy anticipation that spreads through the crowd when he takes his hood off. And then Ohtani storms out and just goes fully at him with zero hesitation. I mean, you kind of need to. The last thing you want to do with Murakami is give him an opening so why not try and shut that door right from the start? Ohtani's running dropkick while Murakami was curled up in the corner was truly brutal and I love how exasperated the ref' was the whole match. He had no chance of keeping a lid on this and if you had even the tiniest hope that he might it was shattered as soon as Murakami stood up sneering. From there it was wild punches and forearms and chaos. Ohtani had two borderline KO sells and both were warranted and actually may not have been selling at all because you know there'll be a point in every match where Murakami conveniently forgets how to work a strike. Ohtani's German suplex wasn't quite desperation but you felt like he needed to do something like that or else he might get steamrolled. Still, this is Murakami and Ohtani didn't take advantage. When Ohtani got knocked loopy that last time and Murakami pounced you kind of knew it was inevitable. If someone like Murakami had to step over you to win he'd tread on your throat just to be sure, or in this instance he'd wrap his arms around it and squeeze. Ohtani's crew jumps into the ring at the end, maybe contemplating whether or not they want that particular fight, while Murakami gives the ref' a kick and lingers a few seconds, completely alone, entirely unfazed, just to see if anybody bites. It turns out nobody wanted that particular fight after all. 

The very best Fujiwara v Super Tiger?

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Super Tiger (UWF, 12/5/84)

I'm not going to once again beat the dead horse and talk about how this is a grappler versus striker affair. What I WILL do, however, is suggest that this might be the very best grappler versus striker affair there's ever been. There's really nothing complicated about this. It continues where their first match left off in September, with Fujiwara dominating on the mat and Tiger wanting to keep everything on the feet. The progression here is that at some point in the past three months Sayama decided he was going to try and kill Fujiwara and if he couldn't keep things standing then Fujiwara being on the ground was good enough. You can still kick a man to death while he lies in the foetal position after all and Sayama tried to do that many times. The match from September was tremendous but it was still the first match in the series and felt like it. Amazing table-setting, the sort of thing necessary to set up what they'd do in future, but you knew they had another gear in them and it made you eager to see it. The other gear was the violence and Sayama went from being somewhat hesitant to somewhat murderous. This was as much a precursor to Battlarts or FUTEN as anything. The kneedrops were truly disgusting, there were Wanderlei kicks to the back of Fujiwara's head and neck, kicks to the liver and just about anywhere else that was exposed. Obviously Fujiwara's selling was immaculate, both while lying on the ground at death's door but also while standing and absorbing blows. There'll often be moments in a Fujiwara match against a striker where he gets rocked and backs into the corner, partly for a reprieve, partly to draw the opponent in. He did that again here and ripped off a string of body shots, then later when he had Sayama reeling he brained him with a headbutt. There was one roundhouse kick from Tiger that nearly took Fujiwara's head off and the way Fujiwara sold it was perfect. They must've also had the ring mic'd up differently than normal here because at various points you could hear the struggle on the mat, usually from Sayama trying to fight off Fujiwara. The choking and spluttering as Fujiwara tried to sink in a choke was ghastly and for a minute or two after that Sayama tried to keep as much distance as possible. The look of relief at the end when the ref' finally called for the bell was telling. It wasn't so much a victory as opposed to a case of survival. 

Bury Tenryu Where the Wind don't Blow, Where the Dust Won't Cover Him, Where the Tall Grass Grows

Genichiro Tenryu & Billy Robinson v Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta (All Japan, 7/30/81) - GREAT

This was pretty damn top, maybe the first GREAT match of Tenryu's career, even if he was more of a cog in the machine rather than the driving force of it. He was lowest on the totem pole here but certainly played his part and a lot of quality moments came about through his involvement. A decade later he'd have come in and kicked someone in the eye, repeatedly at that. In '81 it was a forearm to the chest and he didn't go overboard with it, maybe only one or two occasions where he interjected himself, but it still lit some fires when they needed to be lit. I thought everyone did a really good job making things feel important. When big moves were hit there was often a concerted effort from the person who took it to try and reposition themselves closer to the ropes, obviously so they could break any pin attempt without having to exert the energy required to kick out. As the match went on they sold the toll of everything and by the end even repositioning themselves on the mat was a major struggle. There was one stretch where Robinson took a big string of offence and managed to survive by being close to those ropes, but even by the fourth move he took it was borderline luck that he'd found himself close enough to limply grab the bottom rope and save himself. The Tenryu/Baba pairing might've been my favourite, especially in the first fall. Baba wasn't for giving anything freely and made Tenryu work for it, a couple times shutting him down emphatically with a chop or a boot. Tenryu tried a back suplex at one point and Baba just went dead weight and Tenryu nearly found himself squashed in the corner. It made the finish to that first fall all the more satisfying when Tenryu came bursting out the corner with the sumo palm thrusts, pushing Baba all the way to the opposite corner, then hitting a big slam and middle rope elbow before tagging in Robinson to put the exclamation on things with the backbreaker. The second fall started with Tenryu and Robinson sticking with Baba's lower back, throwing headbutts and forearms and Tenryu's cool diving elbow, but they moved past that pretty quickly and Baba just kind of tagged out and we can't help but dock a match three stars as a result. Tenryu and Jumbo got a little tetchy towards the end, not to the point where they were knocking lumps out each other like they would a few years later, but enough where Jumbo still tried to crack Tenryu's face open with a dropkick. A fucking spectacular dropkick at that and I guess I forgot how pretty Jumbo's dropkick looked back when he was still a little thinner. Tenryu tried to fight back with the sumo palm flurry and Jumbo would shut him down, Tenryu would try it again and Jumbo would shut it down a little more forcefully, then Tenryu went at it a third time and Jumbo used his edge in experience to sling Tenryu over the ropes. You can forgive the subsequent count out finish as it led to a cool little mini brawl in which Baba paid Tenryu back for that scoop slam earlier by piledriving him on the concrete. 

Complete & Accurate Tenryu

Yoshida and Aja! Two pensioners in a junkyard!

Mariko Yoshida & Aja Kong v Ayako Hamada & AKINO (ARSION, 2/18/00)

How many teams have a better balance of grace and brutality than Yoshida and Aja? A team that can beat you in a dozen different ways, from ripping your arm off to caving your face in, choking you to the point of unconsciousness, suplexing you through the mat, even several combinations of those things. Hamada and AKINO had to bring all the fire and underdog fury they could and even then it might not be enough. They tried a few different strategies, each almost in response to whatever the situation presented them. They tried to take Aja's arm out briefly but it never stuck, although the double stomp off the top to Aja's extended arm was sick. They tried to isolate Yoshida but Aja was a menace and Yoshida isn't the easiest to keep a hold of anyway. What they had was heart and if they were going down then they weren't going down without a fight. Yoshida and AKINO had a stunning match a year earlier where Yoshida was as ferocious as she'd ever been and at times it felt like all AKINO could do was delay the inevitable. She's a year more experienced here, a year more assured, and she wasn't for giving any quarter in that opening exchange with the Spider Queen. Hamada was pretty spectacular by this point in her career, everything she did full of snap and she also had a couple stellar exchanges with Yoshida. The dynamic with Kong is great as well as Aja will just try and brutalise her while Hamada refuses to step back. Towards the end Hamada and AKINO create another strategic opening and try to submit Yoshida with the ankle lock, Yoshida doing what she did better than anyone and scrambling to the ropes right as you think she's about to tap. She sells that the ankle is never quite right in those closing minutes, sometimes with a subtle stumble to remind you. The Yoshida/AKINO pairing takes centre stage towards the end, with AKINO frantically going for that ankle lock again while Yoshida twists the poor lass into all sorts of hideous shapes. But before that was the moment of the match, when AKINO used a kneeling Hamada as a launch pad to hurl herself at Aja who was atop the turnbuckles, only for Aja to fucking destroy her with a slap in mid-air.

Black Terry v Mr Condor (Zona 23, 12/5/21)

You can never really be sure about such statements, but this at least FEELS like it has to be the best blood-soaked fist fight between two men in their 60s in a dusty junkyard you'll ever see. I don't have a clue about the backstory here and I haven't seen a Black Terry match in about eight years. I assume he and Condor hate each other to death because they're immediately punching each other in the face and the camera is almost uncomfortably close. You can see the blows land and you see both of them grimace and grit teeth with every blow. When my grandfather was in his 60s he worked nightshift driving busses. One night a couple of scumbags decided to rob the depot and beat the shit out of my grandfather in the process. He grew up in the same mining town I grew up in, only he actually worked those mines back when they still existed. He was a hardy old fool, though not really a fighter. As a kid it never even occurred to me that a man in his 60s would do anything in a fight with two 20-somethings with pipes and baseball bats OTHER than get the shit kicked out of himself. Most men half his age wouldn't win that fight. And yet I watch this and can't help but figure Black Terry would've dragged those two men kicking and screaming to a point of deep regret. Condor absolutely would've thrown one of them through a bus window. And here they were dishing that out on each other. Two pensioners probably don't need to be putting themselves through this but if you're a sicko it's hard to complain when someone catches it on film. Some of the shots were brutal, the sound almost shocking. Terry was bleeding profusely after a few minutes and Condor was walloping chairs off his head and ramming him face first into the hood of a car with 300,000 miles on the clock ready for demolition. Condor had cut Terry open in the first place by stabbing him in the head with a broken beer bottle and of course the cameraman was just about close enough for us to see the skin split. Right before it the camera panned out to a view of the crowd so we didn't see Condor actually smash the bottle, but we did hear it and the sound made me actively sit up. When he smashed another one later in response to being punched several times I half expected him to legitimately slash Terry. And then Terry picked up and smashed a bottle of his own, both of them at a standstill with broken bottle in hand, and I couldn't help but laugh at what I was watching. It was damn near maniacal, that laugh. When they both dropped the bottles and went back to the pugilistic art of cracking each other with fists you thought maybe a bridge of respect had been built, and that from there on out they'd go at it clean, yet every bit as messy as two guys punching each other in the eye would be. Then Condor picked up a fucking car windshield and smashed the thing over Terry's head and I guess making assumptions is a fool's game. 

Vader v Sid!

Vader v Sycho Sid (WWF In Your House 11: Buried Alive)

Fun big boy HOSS fight and definitely one of the best Sid matches we have (I guess your mileage will vary on the height of that particular bar). I know by late 1996 Sid would've been chopped many times by Flair and probably clobbered by a few Scott Steiner clotheslines, but I doubt he'd have experienced anything like Vader's soup bone punches. Vader really wellied him with those shots and Sid's own punches were not very good so I think Vader decided to hit him even harder. In disgust, perhaps. There was one clothesline that practically landed across the jaw and it sounds like a gunshot. Sid climbs the turnbuckles and leaps off with a crossbody and Vader catches him like Sid is a mere child. McMahon is a real fuddy duddy on commentary, constantly trying to course-correct every time Michaels and Lawler start shit-talking each other in between making comment about how BIG the guys in the ring are. They were having fun with it too but I guess Vince figured he needed to keep Michaels on a leash lest he says something outrageous. You know Lawler would've coaxed it out of him too. It's like when my mum used to take me to see my grandparents on my dad's side. They were very religious Irish Catholics and I was a terror of a child who was cursing like a sailor by about the age of four and every time we went there my ma left affronted. Sid slamming Vader with that much ease was a hell of a spot and for a second there they actually had me buying that he was going to powerbomb the big fella. 

The Hacksaw and the Headhunter (part 2)

Jim Duggan v Kamala (Houston, 6/28/85)

Some STUFF has happened since we left this feud the other day. Akbar threw a fireball in Duggan's face at an event in Oklahoma, so from that point forward Duggan has been on a mission for revenge. They brawled to a no contest at a show in Tulsa, where after the match Duggan grabbed the house mic and said, "From the bottom of my heart, the next time I'm in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I'm gonna GET that son of a bitch." The place fell dead silent as soon as Duggan started speaking and it erupted at the proclamation. And you believed him too. 100% you believed him. As a match this only lasted a few minutes, but as an overall package including the post-match pull-apart it was like 10 minutes of awesome Jim Duggan brawling. Duggan's eye is a mess from having a fireball thrown in it not long ago and of course Kamala goes after it the first change he gets, stabbing that eye with Akbar's whip and digging the handle of it right in there. The transition out of Duggan's early flurry ruled, with Akbar hucking powder in his eyes as he has Kamala in the mounted corner punches, coming out of nowhere to the extent that Boesch on commentary and at least one ringside security guy thought a fan had thrown something. Duggan's determination to rip Akbar's head off is his undoing at multiple points and by the end half the locker room can't restrain him or Kamala. Duggan leaping off the turnbuckles with an axe handle as a dozen shirtless guys in jeans get blown away like kids in a swimming pool hit by a cannonball was truly exceptional. 

The Hacksaw and the Headhunter (part 1)

I haven't watched a damn thing in months. It's been busy. And then I went back to Scotland in November and spent entirely too much time in the pub but now I'm back in Texas with a proper routine again and I want to watch everything we have from the Duggan/Kamala feud from '85. 

Jim Duggan & Butch Reed v Kamala & Hercules Hernandez (Mid-South, 2/10/85)

Kamala is rocking the SWANK green skirt/loincloth thing that I don’t remember seeing before. Reed and Duggan are definitely the two best pro wrestling Hacksaws ever prolly so this is quite the dream team. It’s been damn near two decades since the DVDVR Mid-South set came out so I think we’re mostly all hip to the fact that Jim Duggan was fucking awesome and one of the best brawlers ever, but I think we can also talk more about how good he is as an apron worker. That’s a quality we tend to talk more about these days in general, maybe because we’ve been watching wrestling for so long that we need new angles from which to approach our analysis of this nonsense hobby, and Duggan absolutely belongs in that conversation of great apron-workers. There’s an authenticity about him firing the crowd up, marching up and down the apron leading a “GO REED GO!” chant, reaching out for the tag that inevitably gets cut off, deflating along with everyone in the crowd in that moment, then finally coming in blazing hot to clean house. There's a Dustyish quality about Duggan, every bit as authentic and REAL as the Dream but rougher and grittier, the sort who'd stand by the wall with a beer and tap his feet to the music, more low key than Dusty who'd weave and flow with the music in the middle of the floor, the full focus of everyone. What did Duggan's old man do for a living? Hacksaw may not have been the son of a plumber but you could absolutely buy him as the son of a mechanic. You’d run through walls for him because you know he’d run through walls for you. I don't know if there's ever been a wrestler more perfect for their environment than Duggan in Mid-South. There was one sequence towards the end where he was laying into Kamala and Hercules with lefts and rights while the crowd went bonkers and it was incredible. Kamala also wasn’t fully clued in on the rules of a tag match yet and went for his own partner when Hercules tried to tag him in with a slap to the back. I forgot that Hercules was a pretty athletic guy at this stage too, with some real nice snap to his bumps and fun stooging. Only a couple years later he’d be juiced to the point where merely turning his head looked troublesome and then by 1992 he was practically cadaverous.

Butch Reed & Terry Taylor v Kamala & Ted DiBiase (Mid-South, 3/10/85)

This was supposed to be Reed and Duggan again but the heels must’ve laid out Duggan before the match, so Terry Taylor subs in. Kamala was a real hoot in this, leaning even further into his unfamiliarity with cooperation and the strictures of a tag match and such. He’d be pacing up and down the apron muttering to himself and slapping his belly and sporadically he’d start climbing the turnbuckles ready to jump off, Akbar and Friday trying to coax him down. DiBiase would get progressively more exasperated at this and when he’d extend a hand to tag out Kamala would just walk away again, oblivious to it all. When DiBiase took matters into his own hands and tagged himself out a bit too forcefully Kamala immediately waylaid him. There was a great spot where DiBiase had Taylor in the heel corner while Kamala had gone AWOL again, then Taylor started firing back, but as he turned to bolt over to his own corner Kamala had come in the ring somewhere else and shut him down with a thrust kick, the camera swinging around to catch it like a jump scare. Kamala’s running splash looked great as always and I loved his falling palm thrusts to the throat as a cutoff. The finish also ruled, with DiBiase loading the glove and clocking Kamala by accident, Kamala obviously swinging on him in response, Reed and Taylor capitalising on the mayhem.

Jim Duggan v Kamala (Mid-South, 4/15/85)

I watched a couple Duggan/Kamala singles matches years ago and at its best it’s a match up full of mayhem. This was an earlier iteration of it, before Akbar tried to blind Duggan with a fireball, so it wasn’t as chaotic as some of their later matches. It was maybe even a little subdued, although the crowd not being as nuclear hot as most Mid-South crowds around this time might’ve contributed to the feeling of that. They packed a decent amount into eight minutes and you could tell they weren’t ready to go all out on it anyway, Duggan always being thwarted by Akbar’s bullshit before he could really turn loose. The ref’ bump finish with Duggan eating a chair shot keeps things ticking along as well.

We'll come back for part 2 in a couple days. Perhaps. 

Juvi and Rey Bring the Thunder!

Rey Misterio Jr. v Juventud Guerrera (WCW Thunder, 1/15/98)

What a Juvi performance. It's actually been ages since I've watched any masked Juventud and even longer since I've watched any in WCW, but this was him working hyper aggressive and I guess I forgot how fun this pairing actually is. After an early Rey flurry and a plancha, Juvi takes over and basically doesn't relent for the whole eight minutes that follows. The transition was bonkers, with Rey getting catapulted to the floor and Juvi crushing him with a tope suicida, practically landing fully vertical and headbutting Rey in the face. We one and all choose to replay it half a dozen times. Juvi is an offensive machine from here, hitting a huge brainbuster, a legdrop from inside the ring to the floor, a HUGER powerbomb, cutting Rey off in really nasty and interesting ways. My favourite part might've been his Masato Tanaka-style sliding elbow outside the ring as Rey tried to sit up. Both of them even got surly as a bastard with the striking, everything was paced well, it had a nice story of Juvi being one step ahead of Rey, and then the finish was great with Rey just being too dynamic to be shut down completely. This was just about a perfect 10-minute B Show title match. I hope they fly in Michael Buffer for the rematch.

Flair v Kerry! In Hawaii!

Ric Flair v Kerry Von Erich (Polynesian Pro, 2/13/85)

I think it was Charles/Loss from PWO who said years ago that we never give ourselves enough distance from Flair to properly miss him. Like, I'll go years without watching a wrestler and then I'll throw on a match of theirs out the blue and pretty quickly I'll be like "Oh. That's why I loved that person." Other than a brief period about a decade ago I've never really given myself enough time away from Flair to appreciate what I'd potentially miss about him. What Flair does have though, is a bunch of match-ups against individual wrestlers that I won't watch for years. I've never gone eight years without watching a Ric Flair match but I did go eight years without watching a Flair v Steamboat match. Flair v Kerry is a pairing that's produced a couple matches I love, but on the other hand after I last watched one of their matches I felt like I could go a lifetime without needing to see them wrestle again. Well I guess life is too short to be making such definitive statements and I hadn't seen this in like 12 years so last night I fired it up. I think I'd still have their 8/82 match as my #1 Flair v Kerry match but this was pretty damn great. Nothing they did was a major shift from past encounters and structurally it was fairly predictable for a long Flair title defence, but having a good idea of what you're getting isn't necessarily a bad thing and they did throw in a couple interesting wrinkles in the back half. I loved the opening few minutes, though again they did nothing out of the ordinary. Flair didn't start out as a sportsman exactly, but he was fairly reserved and mostly working clean. Then Kerry gets the better of a few exchanges and Flair starts to unravel like you knew he would. Even if those early exchanges aren't mind-blowing it's all decent stuff, just rock solid NWA matwork where they move in and out of holds, coming up for air to tease Flair throwing a few punches out of frustration, only to rethink that strategy when Kerry shows everyone he'll throw a few back. This was a really fun Kerry performance in general. He worked with a real air of confidence early and at least felt like the sort of challenger you'd buy winning the belt, not least because he'd done it before. He never spent a ton of time working from below, but when he was on the defensive he was really good there too, especially with his big expressive selling and bumping. It's actually a shame that we never got more Flair working on top, which is something I find myself saying pretty often about him as champ. The stretch here where he took over was great stuff and he was damn near feral for a minute there, throwing nasty body shots, knees to the gut, working over Kerry's midsection while peppering in some great looking uppercuts and chops. They both used the sleeper hold to some major heat with Kerry's coming as a bit of a revenge spot, then Flair lands on his head off a mistimed Flair Flip in the corner and you're thinking "he's absolutely going to just get up and have Kerry whip him across the other side so he can do it again" and sure enough that's exactly what happened. I liked how Kerry briefly managed to apply the Claw to the head but other than that Flair avoided it the whole match, so Kerry switched things up a bit and flung on the STOMACH~ Claw instead. The commentator is aghast when Flair misses the kneedrop and Kerry puts him in the figure-four; the first time our good man whoever he is has seen that. To be fair it leads to a nice bit of legwork and YOU can never complain about Kerry giving Flair the Iron Claw to the knee, which quite frankly rules like fuck. In a legitimately shocking turn of events Flair doesn't even get the chance to go after Kerry's leg later. Not one single figure-four attempt. No shinbreaker, nothing. I thought for sure we'd see it and we didn't and that was pretty cool. In a roundabout way it protected him at least a little. Sure he escaped by the skin of his teeth in the end, but he looked tough as a bastard doing it and he never even went to his ultimate weapon. About 45 minutes of this aired and I can say that it never felt like I was sitting watching a 45-minute match. Which is about the highest praise I can give something at this stage of the game. Maybe I'll watch another Flair v Kerry match at some point in the next six years.

Galactica! Dump shenanigans! Brody and Abby in the cage! Forks 'n' scissors!

Crush Gals v Lola Gonzalez & La Galactica (AJW, 10/6/84)

I thought this was okay, although admittedly it's not entirely my thing. If you're a fan of the rampant Dump-ish interference stuff and the associated chaos then I can get why someone would love it, but for the most part I've probably seen about all I need to see of that particular brand of nonsense by now. I'm not huge on the Crush Gals as a team either. Or Asuka in general and I much prefer bulkier 90s Chigusa. But they were perfectly solid in their roles here and of course the crowd were a million percent mental for them. Just sheer lunacy from word one. You'd think a genuine murder was afoot when Dump stabbed Asuka in the head with those scissors and then Asuka came up bloodied like a scene from a horror film and everyone went even more ballistic after that. Lola and Galactica were awesome as usual. Both were taking reckless bumps off the top rope where you could buy them crushing Asuka or Chigusa had the moves they attempted actually connected, plus they were cheapshotting and biting and scratching and pretty much everything else they shouldn't have been doing but were never actively deterred from because these 80s joshi refs will let EVERYTHING go. To be fair at least they're consistent with it. If I'm Dump and I can waltz in the ring and stab someone with scissors with impunity then why the hell wouldn't I? The Crush Gals' comeback was scorching as well, I'll give them that. 

Bruiser Brody v Abdullah the Butcher (Cage Match) (WCCW, 10/12/84)

I had some fairly high hopes for this. Unfortunately they weren't quite met and I much preferred the match from a couple months earlier, but there was some decent stuff here all the same. I actually think the stipulation hurt it. Usually with a cage match, you put two bloodthirsty maniacs in there and you're likely to see some gnarly shit. We never really got anything gnarly though and the best thing about the August match was that they were free to roam around and pick up a chair or a microphone or fight amongst the crowd and whatever. They could also play off Gary Hart around ringside. The cage restricted or outright eliminated all of that and these are not the men to be CONFINED. At least not unless Abby is being handcuffed to that cage and hit with a plank until he starts convulsing and you wonder if this isn't all a bit disturbing. Also Fritz as the guest ref' kind of took some of the focus off of Brody, which is partly understandable as it's Dallas and Fritz is the original Von Erich and of course he's not going to slink into the background. But Abdullah's act works better when the ref' doesn't actually catch him stabbing someone with a fork, let alone take the fork and stab Abdullah with it. Honestly, Brody kind of felt like an afterthought in the end, practically crawling bloodied and battered over Abdullah's carcass after Fritz had slaughtered the poor fella. I'm guessing Brody had burned most of his bridges in America by this point to agree to that.

The Bruiser and the Butcher

Bruiser Brody v Abdullah the Butcher (WCCW, 8/4/86)

I've watched a lot of Brody the last few days. Or like five matches, so a handful. A smattering, if you will. I don't really know why because I'm not a Brody fan and initially I only watched him v Dick Murdoch, brought about by our man Matt D posting a clip on twitter, entirely for the stuff with Murdoch getting hit with a wooden table. But Brody's performance was interesting in that match because there were parts where I thought he came across as an awesome menace and other parts where I thought he was sort of deplorable and infuriating for many of the reasons people have thought Brody deplorable and infuriating over the years. And "half menacing, half annoying" was largely my takeaway from the other Brody matches I watched, which has been consistent with my view of Brody forever now.

But this was the Brody you, I, WE wanted all along. I mean, probably. Maybe it's because he didn't have as much STROKE in Dallas, maybe it's because he liked Abdullah, maybe it's because he was in a particularly generous mood, but this was about as giving a performance as you'll see from Brody and I don't remember him ever looking more vulnerable. When he hit the ring to begin with he was all over Abdullah. Abby even took a quick flat back bump off a kneelift and I wondered if we weren't going to get Brody gobbling him up. But then Abby fought back quickly and nothing about Brody's selling was half-baked or hesitant. There was no flailing arms in lieu of taking any actual bumps when the time was right to take them, no goofy cross-eyed staring before shrugging everything off and going back on offence. Abby blocked one kick to the gut and gave Brody a palm thrust to the throat and Brody sold the thing like death. You knew when Abby was bleeding within 45 seconds that Brody would do the same later, and sure enough he got stabbed in the head and bled profusely. The most shocking part of all was when Abby had him practically tied to the ropes by the hair, like when Satanico would tie a scrub like Octagon by the tassels on his mask, throwing headbutts and punches and jabs with a fork while the referee was distracted, and Brody just...didn't retaliate. He couldn't. I'd never seen him in that position before and it was kind of shocking. Obviously Abdullah ruled as well, shambling around like a grotesque wretch, licking Brody's blood off his hands, stabbing him with a spike whenever he got the chance. Both guys played off each other great. 

And all of the smoke and mirrors was phenomenal. That term sometimes gets bandied about as a bit of a criticism, like how I've seen it used to describe something like Rock/Hogan. "They barely did anything, it was all atmosphere!" Or how Rick Rude v the Ultimate Warrior wasn't ACTUALLY good wrestling, it was just the layout! Nonsense, basically. It's make-believe fighting, the whole premise is smoke and mirrors. And to be honest the smoke and mirrors I'm talking about in this instance is probably along the same lines, but what everyone involved did here was the kind of smoke and mirrors I'd think of when talking about a magic show. Illusion and all that. Slight of hand, draw attention to one thing while something else is going on. Obvious stuff like Gary Hart standing on the apron so Abdullah can jab Brody in the head with a spike. The tried and true professional WRESTLING magic, if maybe not the kind you'd see at a kid's birthday party (well, hopefully). Sometimes the people being duped by the smoke and mirrors were in on the act all along, like David Manning, who was run ragged by Hart and Abdullah while doing his damnedest to spot any foul play. At one point he practically scaled Abby's back to see OVER him because Abby positioned himself in such a way where Manning couldn't see AROUND him. The curtain has been drawn back now, we all know that Manning knew what was going on, but he sold it in a way that the crowd bought the opposite being true. Mark Lawrence was so good on commentary, continually feeding the idea that Hart was a master manipulator and instigating the carnage caused by this morbidly obese man with a fork stuffed in his pants. Hart himself was of course amazing. Manning checked Abby before the bell for any foreign objects and the crowd wanted him to check Hart as well. Manning might've done it too if Brody hadn't stormed the ring and started a fight. After a few minutes it was Hart who passed the spike to Abdullah and when Manning knew something was up, Hart was more than happy to take off his jacket and ask to be patted down. The crowd were livid and the setup and payoff to that moment was perfect. When the match breaks down like you know it was always going to they brawl up to a big semi-enclosed area, disappearing behind this one pair of boards. Hart then slides the boards together and stands in front of them so Manning can't follow the wrestlers. He obviously figures Abdullah has more tricks up his sleeve (or down his pants) and based on how the rest of the match has gone the crowd probably think so too. Then one of the panels gets blown back, Hart goes flying as it crashes into him, and from behind it comes Brody wielding a plank while Abdullah backpedals as furiously as a man in his physical state can backpedal. Set up and paid off perfectly. Magic, innit?

The last couple minutes are awesome chaos. I fully expected Brody to go bonkers with the 2x4 and exact some sweet revenge, really milk the beatdown on Abdullah to the point where we all forget that he'd been mollywhopped for a while there. And to begin with he does, clobbering Abdullah in the head with a plank of wood while Abby lies helpless like a puddle of goo. Then Gary Hart gets involved again and absolutely hammers Brody with a chair. I'm guessing Brody liked Hart as much as he liked Abdullah because I don't think I've seen someone hit Brody with anything like this in my life. Abdullah takes the 2x4 and smashes Brody in the head with it over and over, Hart keeping at bay any enhancement talent who scramble out to make the save. He outright launched a chair at someone's head and Brody ends up being dragged to safety by referees, a blood-soaked mess of hair and fur boots. If I've ever seen Brody carried out the ring like a carcass before then I've surely forgotten it because once again I was practically in shock. Bruiser Brody, beaten and battered, unable to leave a fight by his own accord. 

This all builds to a cage match a couple months later at the big Cottonbowl Extravaganza. I think there's another match between them before then as well and I can only assume Brody gets to annihilate Abdullah somewhere along the line, but either way this was one of the best Brody performances I've ever seen. I got the menacing caveman, the brawler, the madman who'll pick up a microphone as a weapon and stalk down his prey, but also the sort of vulnerability that put his opponent over huge. It actually has me excited about how he'll get his payback - payback that he never got here because the bigger picture called for him to delay the taking of it. 

It really is magic when they do it right. 

El Samurai meets the THUNDER

Jushin Liger v El Samurai (New Japan, 4/30/92)

I don't know what Samurai was thinking. I don't know why he decided to approach this match with such impertinence. Don't know why he ever thought it would be a good idea to test Liger like this, to poke the bear so brazenly and expect not to get ripped apart. Or maybe he knew the latter was a very real possibility but still backed himself to weather the storm and take it home before it ever happened. A bold strategy, you have to say. Fair play to the man. Either way this is one of those New Japan matches that I imagine the majority of folk with any interest in Japanese wrestling has at least heard of. It's a match that had been heralded in tape-trading circles for years, one of the first I made a point of hunting down, and it still seems to be famous enough today that younger folk will know of it. So you've either seen it or you've read about it and you probably know how Samurai went at Liger from the start. It's still quite the shock when he spits on him before the bell, wholly unnecessary as a response to a handshake. When Liger never retaliated immediately you almost hoped Samurai would back away from that ledge, accept the olive branch and go about business with a little more decorum. He never and at least for a few minutes there he might've had Liger in some real danger. He rips the mask, smashes a glass bottle over Liger's head, hits a tombstone on the floor, really goes for the throat. It wasn't as heated a beatdown as when Sano did it a couple years earlier and Liger keeps the BLADE~ away this time, but it was all compelling enough. I do wish Liger tried to fight back once or twice though, maybe have Samurai cut him off just to build anticipation for the proper comeback. Or maybe the comeback being what it was landed more emphatically. Even through the mask you could tell Liger had reached breaking point and Samurai poked that bear once too often. The first palm thrust felt like a fucking sledgehammer and after that it was a demolition. My favourite Liger is pissed off Liger and this was one of the best fuck around and find out Liger performances ever. He brutalises Samurai and gets payback for the mask, practically ripping Samurai's off entirely, to the point where Sammy wrestles the rest of the match with it hanging by a thread like a little neckerchief, face completely exposed. He didn't forget the tombstone on the floor either and if he'd gone a step further and glassed Samurai into the bargain we'd be calling this a seven-star affair. I'd have liked for them to make things a little more contested in the body of the match rather than having one extended beatdown, but it's hard to complain too loudly when the beatdown was as resounding as this. At the time I was desperate to check this out for the big moves and highspots, and some of those moves and highspots are still spectacular 30+ years later, but what holds everything together is the animosity and the story of Liger putting another pretender in his place. Even the section in the final third where they kind of traded submission attempts was fine because at least on Liger's part it looked like he was trying to rip Samurai's arm out. In the end Samurai was one in a long line of challengers who came at the king, and like all of those before him he could do naught but miss.

Revisiting Choshu v Fujinami (part 1 maybe)

Riki Choshu v Tatsumi Fujinami (New Japan, 4/3/83)

This series as a whole reminds me a little of the amazing Fujinami/Hashimoto match from 1998, where it's Fujinami's skill and technique matched up against the ferocity of Hashimoto. '83 Choshu and  '98 Hash aren't necessarily the perfect comparison and there are certainly differences across both match-ups, but Choshu was a force of nature around this point and he was maybe never more explosive. Just the way he moves, the way he'll burst into life at any moment, it's sort of mesmerising. The start was about as perfect a way to grab you as you could get, with Choshu trying to waylay Fujinami and Fujinami, knowing he wasn't getting out the way of it, deciding to take a piece of Choshu with him. It's one of the best double clothesline spots ever. I really liked the pacing of the first two thirds, though I could see some folk struggling with it. The grappling is rough and none of it comes easy, even if sometimes the pace slows to a bit of a crawl. It's not particularly flashy, but even the simplest movements are done with real intent and it's all very gripping. Plus when the tempo did drop it felt to me like they were biding time, maybe using that to recuperate a little, because whenever they burst back into life again it was frantic. Throughout all of this we got the TETCHINESS, with both of them throwing slaps out of rope breaks or stalemates, real derisory shit from two guys who do not like each other. When things ramp up in the final third it gets awesome and that stretch run was nuclear. I loved how Choshu's first hammer blow almost came about because Fujinami fell back on his strengths - because why wouldn't he, I guess? - when he grabbed the headlock as containment, only for Choshu to rip off the backdrop. I hadn't watched this series since the DVDVR 80s set 15 years ago so I had no memory of how any of the matches ended. When it went to the floor I figured they were absolutely going to the count out, but then they took it back in and Fujinami hitting the German suplex had me biting huge. Fujinami sells the leg with a bit of subtlety after that, stemming from Choshu's work on it earlier, and maybe in the end that loss of mobility is his undoing because he can't escape getting obliterated with one more lariat. I had this as their second best match together and to the surprise of no one it held up great. 

Riki Choshu v Tatsumi Fujinami (New Japan, 4/21/83)

Honestly, I might've liked this one even better! Choshu comes in as the champ this time, Fujinami with his knee bandaged up from whatever happened to it a few weeks earlier, but Choshu is Choshu and champion or not he'll still go for the throat straight out the gate. This time, in a nice twist from before, Fujinami precipitates it as the one who throws the first cheapshot; a slap across the face while the ref' is checking Choshu's boots. Of course Choshu is apoplectic and tries to decapitate Fujinami immediately, but this time, rather than matching it with his own lariat, Fujinami ducks and floors Choshu with a dropkick. If Fujinami is the thinking man's wrestler then he knew exactly how to wave the red cape in Choshu's face. Fujinami goes right to the figure-four leglock from there, probably as a means of keeping Choshu's energy in check, probably as a bit of payback for his own busted leg. I loved the hesitancy and general selling from Choshu after he can finally cause a break, trying to keep his distance from Fujinami who makes no bones about wanting to go after that leg again. Choshu is also not above kicking Fujinami in the knee and in the least shocking turn of events imaginable tries to do just that on more than one occasion. That leg probably writes Choshu's strategy for him and I liked how this time around he wanted the sasori-gatame more than anything. In the last match he was brute force, full steam ahead, but this time it felt like he was using the lariat to set up the submission attempt. When he finally manages to apply it Fujinami refuses to quit so in true Choshu fashion he decides to just body slam him on the guardrail. He already beat Fujinami clean before, why would be balk at a count-out this time around? These guys are pretty much made for each other. 

Have I never written about a Ric Flair v Harley Race match in 14 and a half years???

Ric Flair v Harley Race (Central States, 7/19/84)

Ordinarily I wouldn't bother talking about this as we only get 10 minutes of a match that goes at least 20, but the half we got was so good I thought it was worth it. I'm sure you and all wrestlers involved are just thrilled. The pre-match was also worth talking about as the Missing Link absolutely murders Harley Race with headbutts. I don't even know how many Missing Link matches I've watched in my life but based on this alone it feels like I need to watch everything. These headbutts were tremendous, then he climbed the ropes and threw a chair clean off Harley's face! It was ridiculous and Race was a maniac for taking the thing fully with no hands up for protection. Full chair right in the face. Flair comes out after that to pick the bones clean, as cocksure as you'd expect from him in that situation. They're in Kansas City so Race was already going to be the hometown babyface, but after the pre-match mauling? After Flair basically strutting over the carcass? The place goes from hot to molten and then there's a jump cut and we miss 10 minutes but NO MATTER (a little matter) as everything after that is fantastic. From the point we pick up the action Flair has just been posted on the floor and very shortly after that he's a mess. Even in the dimly lit arena you can see the blood flowing. I've been sort of jaded by Harley after however many years of hearing he was an all-timer, especially having gone through so much of his stuff from Japan that does nothing for me, but this was a fantastic babyface performance from him. He was the local hero, but unlike most locals Flair rocks into town to wrestle, Harley was the eight-time champion of the world so the chances of him winning just felt higher. It seemed like Flair sold everything with a little more desperation into the bargain. Harley had already beaten him more than once after all. Where Flair's selling was frantic and exaggerated, Harley's was much more understated and he sold the toll of that blood-loss amazingly, dazed and struggling as he was. Both guys are very much from the school of "keep things movin!" and sometimes that'll work for you, sometimes it won't. If you're one of the dozen people reading this then I imagine you've seen enough from both to have your own stance on that particular philosophy. Harley's take on it doesn't always work for me because it can feel like he's running through offence with not a lot of escalation, but this time everything was reined in a bit and it never felt like as much STUFF was going on. They still cut a strong pace and Flair was getting bumped around the whole time, bloodied and fighting for his life - or title, which is practically the same thing - but it all clicked and there was logical progression and really they just bled and knocked lumps out each other which is also great. If the Missing Link stole the show pre-match with his headbutts then Race tried to reclaim it during it, especially with his falling headbutts and MORE especially with one off the middle rope. There was an amusing spot where Flair went up top to get thrown off, Race didn't bite on it, so Flair jumped off anyway and got caught with a gut shot. Rather than leaving it there Flair went fuck it and decided to do it again 10 seconds later and this time Harley obliged. I guess Flair's the one with the big belt now so he gets to steer that ship whether Harley wants it or not. After some awesome last legs punch exchanges and brawling Race hits another big headbutt off the second rope, the place in raptures, but the Missing Link comes back out headbutts the ref'! Race clearing house was molten hot and honestly I'm not sure I've ever seen him look better, even this late into his career. This was way different from the usual Flair/Race match thanks to the role reversal and it worked a treat. I just wish we had the full thing. Or dare I say another Flair/Harley match like this, as the 59 we have on tape already apparently isn't enough. 

Mantopoulos v Rouxel!

Vasilios Mantopoulos v Jaques Rouxel (French Catch, 6/29/67)

Mantopoulos is one of my favourite guys in all of the French footage. I guess the easy comparison would be Le Petit Prince and some of that is probably warranted, but Mantopoulos has a little more shtick to his game, a little more Johnny Saint than Rey Jr. Still absolutely spectacular, still as graceful as just about anyone you'll ever see, but WHIMSICAL in a way those other guys aren't. Right away he was twisting and spinning out of headlocks and yoinking Rouxel into a headscissors, rolling through on snapmares before planting Rouxel with his own. You knew after about 40 seconds that Rouxel wouldn't be able to stomach it for long and pretty soon he started using his size to take liberties. When he cut loose he tried to stomp Mantopoulos into the mat, these big exaggerated stomps to the chest and neck and head. They were great, great stomps. Then when that wasn't enough he clobbered Mantopoulos onto the apron and then clobbered him again and Mantopoulos went flying into the crowd! Mantopoulos never lost his cool though, and instead would sort of goad Rouxel into attempting a hammerlock before getting spun around and armdragged all over the place. Just like you knew Rouxel would eventually play dirty, you knew that sooner or later Mantopoulos would use enough of the speed and trickery that Rouxel wouldn't be able to shithouse his way to a viable response. When they started running the ropes and Mantopoulos was leapfrogging and pirouetting away from every charge I figured it was only a matter of time before Rouxel ran himself into a wall. In the end it wasn't Rouxel's own momentum that Mantopoulos used against him; instead it was his size as he waited until Rouxel had to pause and just tied his arms to his legs.