Some 2001 lucha

Dr Wagner Jr. v Atlantis (CMLL, 1/19/01)

This would've been worth watching for the pre-match skit alone, with a nurse in the miniest of mini skirts delivering a wrapped portrait of Atlantis to the good doctor, who coincidentally happens to be in scrubs in his own office. Maybe it was a busy day at the practice. Clearly it ruffled Wagner's feathers because he's a terror right from the start. He's also rocking the SWANK white mask with black zebra stripes. As far as mano a mano bouts go, this might've been the closest one to an apuestas match that didn't actually have anything wagered. If you're doing a mano a mano (or apuesas, for that matter) like this with no blood then you need to highlight the violence in other ways, and these two highlighted - nay, DEMONSTRATED - the violence by laying it in and delivering everything like it was designed to hurt like a bastard. Nothing was given freely and a lot of it was paced like you were watching two guys trying to press any advantage they might have. Atlantis' comeback matched the beating put upon him earlier, they tore at masks, someone got tope'd into the third row and the finishing stretch was about as good a blend of lucha and New Japan bombfest as you could get. Maybe a top 3 Wagner singles match ever. 

Negro Casas & El Hijo del Santo v Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Bucanero (CMLL, 11/2/01)

It's been ages since I've watched any Guerreros del Infierno; even longer since I've watched them in a 2v2 tag. That's not at all my favourite match type in lucha, but this was properly good stuff and the fact it was a title match gave everything a sense of gravity. The primera was really strong and I thought Ultimo and Rey hung with the legends about as well as could be expected during exchanges. Those exchanges weren't the flashiest, but there was struggle and it looked like Santo and Casas had to work for everything. And then we did get some flash with one truly beautiful Santo armdrag, another thing I hadn't really seen in a while. As the match went on it felt like Santo and Casas were starting to pull away, that mix of skill and experience that Bucanero and UG didn't have yet, but it was the rudos who took the first fall. Even if they didn't have the edge in experience they did have brute strength and I loved Guerrero reversing La Casita into a deadlift powerbomb. The tercera feels appropriately big and if you were a Guerreros del Infierno fan, there was that nagging sense that the old heads were on the up the deeper it went. Santo's stuff was gorgeous all the way through but I really loved the setup to him hitting the corner tope, which was as much Bucanero staggering around on the floor, getting into position organically, and then taking the thing on the back of the head like a screwball, flying a good dozen feet up the ramp. And Casas hooking the deep Casita to put a bow on things felt like the right finish. That brute strength will only take you so far, I guess. 

Revisiting 00s US Indies #40

Super Dragon v Rising Son (Revolution Pro, 1/5/01)

I thought this had some great moments and a few broader elements that were really good, without the match quite reaching great as a whole. When I opened the video and saw 30 minutes I got worried, but they thankfully never went the half hour and capped it at around 23-24 minutes. By and large I thought they filled the time well and there was never really a point where it felt like they were reaching for stuff to do. I'd never even heard of Rising Son before. He's a skinny flier type, very Blitzkrieg-ish, wearing a mask like Sunfire from the X-Men. According to cagematch he'd been wrestling less than a couple years at this point and sadly died in 2010, at the age of 33. I liked his performance in this. Most of his flying looked slick and the few things that didn't come off great were covered for pretty well, including one flip kick in the corner that whiffed badly and Super Dragon played it off as a Liger applauding Sasuke moment. The reverse rana was a bit ugly, but ugly in a nasty way as Dragon landed all awkwardly on the side of his head. This is actually one of the earliest Super Dragon matches I've seen. He was a little more jovial than I'm used to seeing him, less of a crowbarring unprofessional psychopath. The audience was comprised of some kids, one little girl in particular who was just mesmerised by Rising Son springboarding into the ring, so he worked more like a territory mainstay babyface. He still unleashed some brutality, though. A few of his chops about ripped the t-shirt off Rising Son's chest and there was one spot where he thumped the kid's head off a wall. He also took a couple insane bumps. The first was a legit Mick Foley flat back bump off the apron that looked very disgusting. The venue they're wrestling in is narrow and the ring is flanked on two sides by wall, close enough that you could reach out and touch it from inside the ring. Rising Son is in the corner and Dragon charges for a shoulder to the midsection, Son moves and Dragon just hurls himself through the ropes and smashes into the wall. It was bonkers. In the back half I thought the pacing was generally good and I liked how they played up Rising Son's strategy. Son was persistent in going for the cross armbreaker, cycling back to it even after running through some of his riskier dives, Dragon was really good in selling how much it bothered him, but in the end the less experienced guy deviated from it at the wrong time and Super Dragon put him on his head. 

The North-South Connection! Backlund! One Killer Bee!

Dick Murdoch & Adrian Adonis v Bob Backlund & B. Brian Blair (WWF, 7/7/84)

What an awesome Murdoch and Adonis performance. Bumping, selling, stooging, feeding, offence, heat-garnering, cutting the ring off - just a real tour de force (if you will allow me the snootiness) of heel tag work. B. Brian Blair had been wrestling for about seven years by this point but still felt kind of white meat. Maybe this was his first go around in a venue this size. Either way the North-South Connection decided they were going to make him look like a superstar and get armdragged and bodyslammed all over the shop. After watching this I had to revisit another couple North-South matches from the WWF run and Adonis was fucking incredible in all of them. Like right up there as one of the best in the world even with the small sample size. I loved some of the little details he added to things, like when Blair had him in a headlock and Adonis dragged him over to the heel corner by his kneepad. He was also in full bump machine mode, maybe a little too dialled up for some folks but dialled up bump machines aren't something I'll really complain about. He takes a couple huge corner bumps, one where he goes upside down at impressive speed, another where he yeets himself into the post off a corner shoulderblock. There's one sequence towards the end where Blair is cleaning house and Adonis goes up top, Blair whips Murdoch into him, the collision leads to Adonis almost being backdropped off the turnbuckles by his own partner, Murdoch gets nailed, Adonis gets punched into the ropes where he flips backwards and gets tangled up, Murdoch then gets thrown across the ring into him, turns around and gets dropped with a punch and hit with a kneedrop, then he holds his face spinning on the mat like a wind-up toy while Adonis untangles himself and gets popped again. It was phenomenal. A little earlier Adonis had been knocked off the apron and Murdoch crawled over to the make the tag, holding his face with one hand, blindly reaching out with the other, then as Adonis managed to get back to the corner Blair yanked Murdoch away, Adonis reaching a little too far and falling arse over elbow into the ring. Just awesome heel horse shit from two of the best. When they eventually settle into a couple heat segments they cut the ring off spectacularly. Every time they tag out the person exiting the ring will hang around a few seconds extra just to hold the opponent in place. Sometimes that'll be Murdoch dropping on all fours to create a barricade so Adonis can measure a shot, other times it'll be one of them hanging onto an arm or leg to prevent retreat. They run the ref' ragged while choking Blair with the tag rope, run distraction so they can throw cheapshots, and one woman with gigantic hair flips Murdoch the bird and shouts "fuck you," which I can't imagine is a first for Murdoch all thing considered. The stuff with Backlund here was sort of weird. Were the WWF purposely trying to make him look like a goofball? He was getting Cena-like reactions with pockets of the Spectrum crowd tearing into him, and the camera even focused on a couple SLANDEROUS signs. One said "Bob Backlund is a chicken hawk" and another, in full block capitals, "BACKLUND IS A GEEK". He mostly sticks to the apron for the first half but any time he comes in the reception is less than favourable. At one point he walked in unprompted and picked up a piece of thrown garbage, got rid of it like a good spot, and was audibly booed. I think someone even threw something else at him personally. He's a good hot tag though, and a strong face in peril later. I love a good sunset flip and his sunset flip was GREAT, really thrusting his hips into it and using the leverage to drag Adonis into the pin, no lying on the mat while Adonis has to wave his arms around like he's struggling against nothing. He also has one of the best cat 'n' mouse scrambles I've ever seen, where he's crawling around trying to get away from the heels so he can scoot over for the tag, they're trying to grab him, and at no point did the actual grabbing part come easy for them because Backlund looked like he was determined to go over and make that tag. The last couple minutes felt like an actual finishing run, albeit a short one. It had drama, babyfaces trying to get the win, heels scrambling, and then an awesome, emphatic finish. The North-South absolutely fucking folded Blair with that Doomsday Device. Really an out of nowhere tremendous match. 

Sittin' in a Truck Stop with His Cowboy Boots and His Guitar, Eddie's Been Livin' on a Tip Box that was Meant for Cigars

Eddie Guerrero v Chris Benoit (RAW, 3/12/01) - GOOD

You might not be surprised to hear that this was a good wrestling match. They got eight minutes to play with and eight minutes for two very good wrestlers to have a wrestling match will usually result in something okay. Bar exactly one move that didn't come off great, everything they did looked good. It was crisp and snug and quick and clean. Benoit's triple Germans looked gorgeous and Eddie hit a precursor to the Three Amigos with a couple brainbusters. His pop-up rana was sublime. There just wasn't much of a hook to anything. The main reason the match is happening is because there's dissention within a group that hadn't actually been presented as a group for the better part of a year, but there isn't a whole lot that separates what they're doing from what they did in some of the other good wrestling matches they had together. So you watch it and you nod approvingly at the Very Good Wrestling on display, but you probably forget much of what happened a few days down the line. And to be honest, that's perfectly fine. A very good wrestling match. 

Eddie Guerrero v Edge (Summerslam, 8/25/02) - EPIC

I haven't watched these matches in a long time and Edge is one of my least favourite Eddie opponents, so I wasn't all that hyped about seeing them again. 2002 Edge is especially not enjoyable. Well I guess it's nice to be surprised sometimes because I thought this was an awesome 11 minutes. The bulk of it is focused on Eddie working Edge's arm and shoulder, which is great because Eddie is top banana at working an arm and 2002 Edge selling an arm injury is immeasurably better than 2002 Edge hitting various facebusters and electric chairs and Edge-O-Matics. Eddie really is one of the all-time best at zeroing in on a body part, mixing it up with submissions, strikes, impact moves, the lot. It started initially with Edge missing a spear through the ropes and taking a tumble to the floor, Eddie realising the shoulder might be tweaked and painting a bullseye on it straight away, whipping him into the ring steps with Edge taking a nice bump, even opening up a cut on the shoulder. Eddie just rips the hell out of the shoulder on a Fujiwara armbar, hits a nasty looking shoulder-first DDT, another one later where he jumps off the top rope, and to his credit Edge sold all of it nicely. I don't think he wound up changing much of his offence from what he'd usually do, but he made a point of showing that he couldn't hit stuff with impunity and it was always there for Eddie to use as a cut off. That led to an amazing spot down the stretch where, after some fighting on the top turnbuckle, Eddie hit a fucking frog splash to the arm while Edge tried to crawl away. For match one in a feud I wasn't excited about revisiting, they've done a hell of a job in making me look forward to a rematch. 

Complete & Accurate Guerrero Brothers

Blue Panther Friday

Blue Panther v El Hijo del Santo (CMLL Japan, 1/28/01)

I expected this to be one of those touring Rey v Psicosis/Santo v Casas affairs. Play the greatest hits, run through the sequences we could run through in our sleep, give the crowd a wee window into what the real thing might look like. Sometimes, if you've already seen what the real thing looks like, seen Rey v Psicosis or Santo v Casas in their natural habitat, the greatest hits version can be a touch disappointing. This didn't feel like a greatest hits version, wasn't something they could run through in their sleep and nothing about it was disappointing. Rey v Psicosis in WAR is a fun exhibition but this was never worked like an exhibition. The struggle over everything was raw and visceral, and even if it wasn't as good overall as their Monterrey match the previous year (not much is, tbf) it might've at least been grittier. We saw that grittiness from how they fought over holds, the way Panther tried to lock in the sharpshooter while Santo grabbed hold of his foot and refused to be turned. Later, Panther was determined not to be hooked in the came clutch, so Santo repeatedly elbowed him in the head Bryan Danielson style. This was about as vicious as we've seen Santo outside of an apuesta setting and at a couple points he just started volleying Panther in the spine. The early matwork was tenacious, even RUGGED as Raekwon The Chef might suggest, and I'd kind of forgotten that Blue Panther was one of the best wrestlers in the world around this point. I mean Santo was too, but I'd never forgotten that. Watching Panther in this setting reinforced how good he was, though. The crowd weren't the loudest but that allowed us to hear Panther grunt and strain and shit-talk his way through the match. It was a super fun audial performance, which is a bit of an undervalued thing in wrestling. True to their setting we got some fun crowd brawling with people ducking for cover, their belongings and a thousand chairs being scattered. That's not a staple of the Santo v Panther, more of a cool wrinkle that the audience would be familiar with from the wrestling they more frequently attend, and it gave us a couple nice revenge spots with both guys getting a chair wellied over their head and/or neck. Santo was also rolling out all of his dives and the people responded accordingly, plus we got some awesome flying headbutts to add some more nastiness to the beauty. And that final headbutt was a corker, even if the setup was a bit ropey. This was great. 

Blue Panther, Fuerza Guerrera & El Signo v Atlantis, Villano III & Villano IV (CMLL, 4/20/01)

It isn't always easy to work a three-fall 12-minute trios and not leave it feeling abbreviated to some degree. A little less than it could be, a few minutes short of something truly special, particularly with a line-up like that. And maybe this would've been better with 10 more minutes, but the 12 we got were awesome fun. Signo was a real hoot, throwing amazing old man potato shots, headbutting Villlano III in the sternum, doing proper nasty shit like kicking Atlantis right in the hamstring. He was a ferocious little goblin. Him and V3 wound up being the main pairing by virtue of the fact they punched each other to bits the most and that led one phenomenal punch flurry from Villano in the tercera. Panther was full of energy and that chemistry with Atlantis was briefly rekindled, first with a great exchange in the primera, then at the end of that fall when Panther went to hit a tope only to turn around and run straight into La Atlantida. Fear not though, for the tope that he did hit in the tercera was magnificent. 

Ishikawa and Ikeda! Take it to the limit!

Yuki Ishikawa v Daisuke Ikeda (Battlarts, 4/15/97)

Basically an extended (long) version of one of the best match ups ever. With 30 minutes there's a little more downtime than usual, but they use that to put across the exhaustion, to sell the toll of it all, and given what these two are wont to do to each other you have a pretty good idea of how hefty a toll that is. If anything could pass as yer war of attrition it's this. One thing they captured as well as any match ever was the struggle. Every single thing was fought for, more so than in any of their other matches. They both operated at points with a sort of hesitancy, maybe because Ikeda came into the match with taped up ribs and they were playing that up, or maybe just because they knew they were going long and tried to preserve some energy. Whatever the case it worked in putting over how dangerous they knew the other was. At its core it's elite striker v elite grappler, which has really always been the core of Ikeda v Ishikawa, the former a wrecking ball with taped fists and the latter a shoe-leather tough submission machine. But as usual there'd be examples of Ishikawa showing that he can smash someone's face in - some brutal jumping high knees while Ikeda was gasping for air in the ropes - and Ikeda reeling off submissions when he needed to - a sort of straight-legged Boston crab where Ishikawa's ankles were criss-crossed. In true Battlarts fashion some of the strikes were repulsive and in ALSO true Battlarts fashion the selling to match was incredible. Ikeda threw several punches and forearm lariats that sounded like shotgun blasts, hit a grotesque early roundhouse kick, a punt to the head late on while Ishikawa was nearly horizontal, and one spin kick under the chin that was right up there with the very wildest of Battlarts strikes. Ishikawa's dead-eyed stare of the latter was unbelievable, then after absorbing all this punishment he'd get up grinning, which in itself is sort of disturbing. Imagine seeing that across the ring from you? Even a buzz saw the likes of Ikeda must've been questioning some life choices. Ishikawa's refusal to give an inch creates openings alone and of course he'll twist arms and legs at putrid angles. I also loved how he would take subtle shots at the ribs when he really needed to. Nothing overt and he wasn't specifically targeting them, but he wasn't above throwing a dart at the bullseye. Late in the match Ikeda full force boots him in the skull (hideous) and tries to kick him into a coma while Ishikawa is lying on the mat, so Ishikawa lunges into a takedown, they're throwing phone booth shots in the corner, and when Ishikawa manages to stand up he just jumps on Ikeda's stomach. 

Lawler v The Macho Man!

Jerry Lawler v Randy Savage (Cage Match) (Memphis, 12/12/83)

I had this as the 12th best Memphis match of the 80s. Lawler is a top 10 all-time candidate and Savage is one of my five favourite wrestlers ever, so it was strange that I was such a low voter on their most highly-regarded match together (the '85 Loser Leaves Town). I should re-watch that, but either way this was Lawler v Savage in a cage and if you're familiar with either guy then it brings about what you'd expect it to bring. Lawler unloading with a punch flurry to the body early was great. You could just feel how sick to death he was of this wildman from an outlaw promotion in Kentucky. He wanted rid of him and there was no fucking around, no slow start here. Savage going to the headlock felt almost like containment, seeing if that slow starter thing was actually true. If you've seen enough 80s stipulation matches then you've come to terms with many of them still having the rules of regular matches enforced to some degree, even the ones that are advertised as no holds barred, but Savage doing hide the object shtick in a cage match is still amusing. It also ruled, because both these guys are god tier foreign object shtick workers. I don't even know if an actual object was present or they just worked the hell out of the IDEA of it, but I sure bought Savage jamming something in Lawler's eyes, just like I bought Lawler catching it when he eventually punched it out of Savage's hand. Savage was a nutter and seeing him hit double axe handles off the top to the concrete in 1983 is madness. I had no memory of him hitting the elbow off the top of the fucking cage either, and he landed awkwardly enough that I wondered if he didn't crack a hip. Lawler going up afterwards before taking a look at that rickety cage and settling for the fist drop off the top rope instead was the move of a much more stable individual. It also feels trite to mention the punches, but by christ were these some glorious punches. Savage hit one jab flurry that was as good as any I've ever seen and Lawler's uppercut from his knees was spectacular. I loved the Lawler comeback. Savage has him trapped between the ring and the cage, ramming him head-first into the big wooden beams holding the thing together, then Lawler responds to the crowd and starts to block, eventually turning it around, strap down, dragging Savage back in the ring to put and end to things. For all the great stuff there were some weird moments as well. A couple big transitions were really abrupt, including the one that led to the elbow off the cage. Lawler had Savage on the deck throwing punches, then Savage just sort of got up, hit a snapmare, and Lawler had to lie there selling a fairly routine move so Savage could climb mesh and wood held together by chicken wire. There was another moment like that later, where I guess Savage decided he wanted to bump into the cage now and Lawler had to awkwardly play along. Those parts stick out considering the strength of the stuff around it. I don't know if Savage was into microplanning his matches this far back but maybe he was just determined to stick to schedule. I also did not know Jos LeDuc could climb a cage that quickly. Impressive for a man his size. Who doesn't love a schmozz finish in a cage match? 

Lawler v The Superstar!

Jerry Lawler v Bill Dundee (Loser Leaves Town) (Memphis, 6/6/83)

I'll get this out the way first. The clipping absolutely does my head in. Clipping in every match is a bummer, but this is particularly infuriating because it feels so haphazard. These weren't strategically placed commercial breaks, or inserted in a way that was designed to make it look like we never missed anything (joshi promotions seemed to be the master at this, for whatever that's worth). I think we get four cuts in the first five minutes and each time we come back there's a difference in how the two of them are selling, so we know something of substance just happened. It always feels like those cuts mess with the pacing, worse than it does in most matches, never mind any as obviously incredible as this one. And the fact it IS incredible makes it worse. It's something I've never been able to shake and it kills me that we don't have the full picture of this match, even if we only miss about seven minutes in the end. 

But setting aside that thing that isn't even the wrestlers' fault, this was of course a fucking tremendous bitta the pro wrestling. The early stages nailed that proper big fight feel, a perfect blend of aggression and hesitancy befitting the stakes. Lance calls it the biggest match in the history of the Mid-South Coliseum, and you believe him, for who are you to doubt the dulcet tones of Lance Russell? Those first few strikes were great. Lawler tags Dundee with a quick backpedalling shot that puts him on his arse, Dundee checking his teeth while looking at Lawler with unveiled contempt. Lawler tags him again coming out the corner, so Dundee responds with two of the greatest bulldogs ever seen. Lawler takes the first one right on his face and Dundee had that headlock in tight enough that I'm not sure Lawler could've shaken him even if he'd legitimately tried. Lawler's reversal of the third one leads to a reset of sorts, with Dundee having to regroup and plot another course. Even with those bastard jump cuts the opening minutes had a few resets like that, where Dundee had to peel back before approaching things from a different angle. 

And Dundee really was the story here. It's one of his all-time best performances, a man who would not stop. He was all over Lawler like a rash and the King of the Mountain segment is one of the best ever. Lawler takes a wild bump to the floor, one that you think is only going to be teased when he grabs hold of the ropes, until Dundee kicks him in the gut and Lawler flies back off the apron. The camera shooting it from the opposite side of the ring made it look like Lawler was heaved off a cliff. Dundee then batters him - literally - from one side of the ring to the other, Lawler repeatedly trying to climb back into the thing only for Dundee to ram him into the post or kick him in the eye. Lawler's table bump off the apron is a corker and the visual of him lying on the concrete with one side of his face covered in blood was incredible. But that was where Dundee fucked up. He was relentless up until then. He should've pressed the advantage, picked clean the carcass when Lawler was ripe for it, but instead he either settled for the count out or figured he'd finish things when Lawler crawled back in. Instead Lawler had time to recover for once and when he dropped that strap you wondered if Dundee hadn't undone all of his good work. The last time I watched this I thought the comeback came off a little sudden, but this time that 9-count before he made it back into the ring felt like just the right amount of distance needed to make it work. Dundee going for broke only to get decapitated by the greatest uppercut ever thrown and piledriven to hell was a fitting way to cap it. You have the King dead to rights you don't let him off the hook.

There's a line that strength and conditioning coaches use about doing the basics right. You see all of these crazy Instagram workouts and lunatics like Joel Seedman talking about eccentric isometrics and there's this thing called plyogility and this all got very off topic and none of you give a shit about any of it but basically, the simple stuff that athletes have been doing for eons will generally yield you better results than a lot of the cool shit on social media. This was all about the basics and those basics looking absolutely great. You knew the punches would be amazing because obviously the punches would be amazing, and these were possibly the greatest punches ever thrown, but all the other stuff looked equally amazing. Missed moves like Dundee's elbow drop early, or Lawler's missed ledgrop off the top. The way they clashed together running the ropes. Even the way they'd kick out on pin attempts, Dundee at one point getting thrown clean out the ring. Everything they did, every move, every strike, every miss carried weight and was sold like a man's livelihood was on the line. Treat something like it matters, sell it like it matters, people will buy it like it matters. Look at the reaction for the finish and tell me it didn't. 

Some rookie Yoshida and some peak Yoshida

Mariko Yoshida & Yumiko Hotta v Bison Kimura & Madusa Miceli (AJW, 11/14/90)

This might be the earliest Yoshida I've ever seen. She'd been wrestling all of one year at this point and most of the offence she gets is set up by Hotta, though Hotta herself is far from the fully-formed sadistic crowbar she would become. That was evident from the punch exchange between her and Madusa where it was Madusa who was throwing the potatoes; big windmill shots like the Ultimate Warrior, but pretty stiff with one connecting especially hard. Yoshida has her arm worked over briefly and it was decent stuff, particularly from Kimura who would keylock the arm and swing her around, snapmare her with the arm still keylocked, etc. Madusa acted like a real shit head and it was pretty amusing, if a bit hammy. She never had NATURAL shit head down yet so some of it came off a little try hard. It bit her a couple times as she celebrated nothing of note and left herself open to getting dropkicked or hit by one of the very many running clotheslines that were thrown. A bit of wimpy finish, but no matter. For about 13 minutes this was more than fine. 

Mariko Yoshida v Yuu Yamagata (ARSION, 12/8/01)

Here's a revelation for you - Yoshida was very different in 2001 than she was in 1990. This was peak Yoshida, oozing confidence and working at a ridiculously high level, really just one of the best wrestlers ever. Her silver Spider-Man 2099 getup was also A+. I'm sorry but I do not have a clue who Yuu Yamagata is. Apparently she's a rookie. I can believe that because Yoshida smashed her to bits. Yoshida stretching a rookie with submissions is something you expect and she really tortured the poor girl. What's unexpected is the way she was also throwing hand grenades, backing Yuu into the corner and unloading with a huge punch flurry, these big sweeping haymakers right on the button. You maybe don't think of Yoshida as a great striker, or at least that's not the first thing you think of with her, but she sure had some great strikes here. I liked how she sold for Yuu as well. There was dismissiveness when Yuu tried a feeble backslide, annoyance when she tried it again and got a two count, frustration when she refused to be hooked in some preposterous hold, then even a pinch of concern when Yuu managed to hook something of her own. In the end the kid had to submit, but she gave an okay account of herself all told. If it turns out to be my only Yuu Yamagata singles match I will cherish it dearly. 

Frame Me, Don't Create Me. Soon as I Wake, Man, I'm Back to Mid-South

Ric Flair v Jake Roberts (11/24/85)

It's been a long minute since I last watched this. I first went through the 80s Mid-South set in the late 00s so it's going on about 14 years now (12 since I started the re-watch project), which is...man. That was ages ago. My memory of this was that it was great and very different for a Flair match. It all started in the best way possible, with Flair mocking Jake's scraggly hair metal stoner t-shirt and his baggy pants, looking down his substantial nose at a man he clearly deems unfit to be in there with the champion of the world. Jake putting him in his place with the DDT was sensational and really the perfect response to a jackass like that. Flair sells the thing for about five minutes, face down barely moving while Jake is desperate for the bell to ring. You can hear him pleading with Fergie to start the match and the crowd are itching for it, because they know Flair is fucked. Flair threatens to take his ball and go home so Fergie gets on the house mic and tells him to come back, then puts on the count while Roberts tries to speed him up. It was hard to hear properly but I'd guess Fergie said he'd award Roberts the belt via count out if Flair decided to walk (you'd never see referees afforded such authority today, let me tell you). Eventually Flair comes back, the bell rings, and everyone in attendance is rabid for that next DDT. The perfect way to set up a match. And look, it was good. But it was more of a Flair match than I remembered, even if I was half expecting that to be the case. I think the only person I've seen consistently drag Flair out of his comfort zone is Randy Savage, and while Roberts doesn't achieve that to the same level, he did almost force Flair to change tack a little. Or rather the DDT did, the extent to which it was over with the crowd, even if it was mostly in a foreshadowing sense. I don't remember many other Flair opponents having a signature move so red hot that matches had to be shaped at least to some degree around the threat of it. Maybe Luger's Torture Rack? Jake still wound up doing some shit he never would do against any opponent other than Flair, but on the other hand the DDT is a move Flair had never encountered before so the backdrop of it was at least unique. It added a sense of danger to something like Roberts grabbing a front facelock, so Flair would need to immediately drop to the mat and scramble to the ropes. I like that Flair got a little extra vicious for a few minutes midway through. I say it all the time now but my favourite Flair is cornered animal Flair who'll just light you up. He took over by hitting a diving headbutt to Jake's balls and I really wish he never got rid of those nasty double stomps, because these looked like they could make Roberts puke. Ultimately he was back to the begging off before long, but it was nice while it lasted. And fair play, the finish was great. Jake had hit the running knee a couple times already and Flair bumped huge for both, then he goes for a third, Flair moves and Jake's momentum takes him upside down in the corner. Flair smells blood and goes for the figure four, Jake yanks him into a cradle, Flair manages to turn it over and by luck is close enough to the ropes for a little extra leverage. I wish they'd played up the DDT a little more overtly, but what can you do. This was pretty good. 

Mid-South Project

Revisiting 00s US Indies #39

Necro Butcher v Mitch Page (IWA: MS, 5/26/01)

I wonder about the turns these men took in their lives; the roads that led them to a match like this. Or really to the sort of wrestling Necro Butcher did on the regular. Throw in his fellow deathmatch specialists (I realise you may want to use that term loosely) while we're at it and I assume Mitch Page can be counted among that number. Obviously there had been deathmatches long before these guys started wrestling, but Necro made his debut in 1998, a couple years before the real indie boom. You look at his contemporaries, guys like Low Ki, Danielson, Punk, Hero, even someone like BJ Whitmer who debuted two years after Necro. These were guys who paid a goodly amount of money for 90s All Japan tapes. You know, I assume. They traded tapes and watched the New Japan juniors and maybe Battlarts and probably some joshi and heyday World of Sport. You know, probably. You can tell who gravitated towards that stuff because they outright emulated a lot of it (Whitmer was basically a walking All Japan youtube package). You can also tell who gravitated towards FMW and the King of the Deathmatch and blood and piss and mutilation. Necro Butcher might be kind of garbage as a human being but as a pro wrestling entity he's endlessly fascinating. My good man elliott from PWO called him the modern indie version of Buzz Sawyer and that feels very accurate. Like with Sawyer, I legit don't remember seeing a single Necro Butcher match that I didn't find him compelling in. And to be honest I don't know if this match was any good or not, but I was sort of mesmerised by Necro's performance in it. There are about 40 people in attendance, in this tarped-off venue that looks like the setting of a deep web snuff film, and Necro hits a somersault senton off the top rope into Mitch Page and several non-foldable chairs. It's met with the meekest of applause. Necro holds a wad of light tubes to Page's forehead, then uses his own head to smash those tubes over Page's. One nearby fan hands him a broom. "Do something with this, dancing monkey." Page mostly stumbles around being hit or stabbed in the head with various weapons - many of which brought by the fans - shambling from spot to spot, every now and then lending a hand in setting up whatever nonsense they're going to put themselves through next. Necro takes a scoop slam on a blanket of chairs and light tubes, then another, shirtless, on a pile of broken glass. One kid holding a cheese grater nodded approvingly. By the end Necro's back is a bloody canvas and in one of the goofier but also crazier Necro Butcher spots he douses his leg in gasoline, sets it on fire and hits a top rope legdrop. "Ten minutes gone by," intones our ring announcer. "Ten minutes." Page valiantly fights back and responds to being hit with a flaming legdrop by setting his own head on fire and giving Necro a diving headbutt. You might hate this wrestling match. If you gravitate towards 90s All Japan then I would suggest it's a probability more than a possibility. But then you have your tape collection and All Japan Classics and there is no space on King's Road for the likes of the Necro Butcher anyhow. 

The best WWF four-way (dance)?

Eddie Guerrero v Chris Jericho v Chris Benoit v X-Pac (No Way Out, 2/25/01) - EPIC

I had no recollection of this being anything at all. Must've been about 18 years since I last watched it. The four-way dance is not a match type I have much interest in so I'm not sure what compelled me to give this another go. But I'm glad I did because I thought it nailed the good stuff and kept the stupid shit that comes with the gimmick to a minimum, and might even be the best four-way in WWF history (your mileage will vary on how high that bar sits). In a match like this you want them to limit how much time one or more person is left standing around waiting for the others to do their thing. This had very little of that and any it did have at least felt earned, minus one spell where Eddie and X-Pac were on the floor so we could have an extended Benoit/Jericho segment. Those two felt like the key pairing of the match though, so it sort of had to happen and what they actually did together was a good use of the time. Everyone cycled through their stuff and it felt organic and it's hard to ask for much more. 

Eddie and Benoit are a unit heading in and I did not know the Radicalz were a thing again in 2001, but JR refers to them as such. Did they just...put them back together after a year? Eddie had the Chyna angle that was pretty fun for a wee while before it was used as a vehicle to push Chyna and not strap the proverbial rocket to Guerrero. Benoit was in main event programmes throughout 2000 with the Rock. Did they run out of ideas and tell them to go bring Saturn and Malenko out of storage until they came up with something else? Their partnership works fine initially, but you know it'll deteriorate with the sweet nectar of VICTORY in the air. As expected they go from double teams and working as a unit to leathering each other. The Intercontinental title will do that to a man. The cracks started to appear first with Eddie going up top to put the exclamation on a double team, noticing upon climbing the turnbuckles that Benoit had put the Crossface on X-Pac. To be fair to Benoit (although you absolutely do not gotta be fair to him), he only put it on as retaliation when X-Pac started firing back, something X-Pac had the time to do in the first place because Eddie was busy shit-talking someone in the crowd. The second instance of friction, the straw that ultimately broke the camel's back, was when Benoit hit a perfect - I mean PERFECT - German on Jericho and Eddie casually kicked one of his bridging legs from beneath him. After that it was every man for himself. 

Waltman was in a weird space in 2001. He'd been in a weird space since about 1999, really. The X-Pac character already feels like a relic of a bygone era here, like when Tommy Rich showed up in ECW as a blowjob babyface despite looking like a melted candle, doing all of his 1983 babyface shtick like he was in the Omni wrestling in front of Wholesome American Families and not the ECW arena full of drunken maniacs who want to see people get thrown off balconies. At least Tommy reinvented himself as a grotesque bastard working for the Italian mob. X-Pac, on the other hand, just started hanging around with bald Aldo Montoya. Anyhow this was a fun X-Pac performance and probably the last great WWF match he was involved in. 

I'm not really someone who's bothered about perfect execution on wrestling moves, but I'll say one thing, basically every move in this was executed amazingly. It had the impact that'd make you buy it actually hurting, all of it was done with real snap, no daylight anywhere. Benoit was shredding people with chops, clubbing them about the ears and even his shoulder blocks looked mean, how he'd just completely mow folk down by running into them full force. I feel kind of icky talking about the guy but he certainly nailed the feeling of intense. He wasn't the only one though; Eddie's rana and sliding neckbreaker were gorgeous, X-Pac's kicks were great - honest to god he about took Benoit's whole melon off with a wheel kick - and I don't remember Jericho doing anything hilariously sloppy even one time. No contrived setups, no sequences that obviously bled into the next, all of it feeling as off the cuff as you could realistically expect. Plus we got a nice finish that felt like someone capitalised on a moment and I bought everyone else being too hurt to do anything about it. What an awesomely pleasant surprise. 

Complete & Accurate Guerrero Brothers

Blue-eyed Alfred Hayes! At 29 years of age!

Al Hayes v Guy Robin (French Catch, 3/22/57)

Well it is a trip seeing a young sprightly Alfred Hayes, not yet the Lord he would become some decades later. He works this as a tall handsome babyface with effortless technique, escaping holds with enough nonchalance that he might as well have been smoking a cigar at the same time. It wasn't arrogance, he didn't do it to show up his opponent, he just had the finesse to make it all look easy. In contrast, Guy Robin is a short balding little fella, and while skilled, didn't have the chops to make it look effortless. None of it came easy and at the root of it he was a cheapshot artist, aggressive and craven in equal measure. He was the perfect foil for Hayes, a menace who will literally jump all over you and pepper you with forearms, stomps, punches to the kidneys, eye rakes, nose rakes, whatever he can get away with and plenty he shouldn't. The commentator found all of this endlessly amusing, properly losing it a few times when Robin was shown up. At one point they engaged in a knuckle lock and Robin threw a little slap at Hayes' temple, not the most painful strike, probably more of a comedy bit than anything else, but you knew Hayes would tag him back and when he did the commentator let out a squeal. It was kind of infectious. The longer it goes the less amusing Robin's tactics become, throwing meaner punches behind the ref's back, taking Hayes down with these shoulderbreaker things and stomping on his neck, basking in how much this was pissing people off. Hayes had never complained throughout the match, never once had a word with the referee, always went about his business and put Robin in his place without rising to the bait. When Robin pushed him too far and Hayes got up to his knees blowing steam the place erupted, and holy fuck did Hayes obliterate the wee bastard with those uppercuts. These were honestly some of the best uppercuts I've ever seen, then he'd snapmare Robin over and twist the boot in his face like he was putting out a cigarette. After one particular uppercut Robin was left staring at the ceiling, nose bloodied, and you knew HE knew he should've stuck to playing the goofball. I did think the heat started to peter out a little towards the end and Robin maybe went back and forth with Hayes a couple times too many after the comeback, but Hayes certainly put him away emphatically so I can't knock the finish. This was great. 

It is a day for obscure match ups!

The Hart Foundation v Dick Slater & Corporal Kirschner (WWF, 12/26/86)

How long did Slater actually spend in the WWF for this run? For such a notable territory-era wrestler I don't think I've read a single word about him in the WWF, and until a few years ago I had no clue myself that he showed up there in 1986. Actually, hang on, the cagematch check would tell me he spent...a whole fuckin year there?! From about June of '86 to June of '87. I don't think he was on a single big show and mostly seemed to be in lower card matches against Jimmy Jack Funk, Hercules and the likes, but still. It's a year I have no memory of at all. It's wild to me that he was running around New York draped in a confederate flag calling himself The Rebel while being presented as a babyface. He felt like one of the most out of place wrestlers you could find on a WWF card, a man displaced from his natural habitat, dropped into a universe in which he didn't belong. But hey, Dick Slater v Bret Hart is a cool anomaly of a thing, an interesting match up that couldn't have happened more than once or twice. If you were wondering who might have the advantage in quickness here, Heenan opines that the Hart Foundation "have more speed than a corporal in a pair of army boots...and some hick." This had a kind of weird structure, one that wasn't very WWF of the time. WWF tags get dinged for being too heel in peril but this had very little of that at all, with almost no babyface shine to speak of. Instead they ran two shorter FIP segments, one on each of the babyfaces, though before that we did get an amusing sequence where Slater chased Bret all around ringside that ended with Bret getting accidentally punched into the barricade by his own partner and Anvil taking an atomic drop on the floor. Kirschner is not good and doesn't really have a middle gear of selling. He went from being on offence to selling death after a punch or two, then every move the Hart Foundation hit him with after that was sold with the same degree of death. Bret looked like the best guy in the match by a significant margin but wasn't enough to really drag this to something more than decent. A nice enough bit of randomness, not a whole lot more. 

The Great Sasuke v Takeshi Ono (Battlarts, 5/10/01)

If you were to ask me, in a perfect world, how a match between Takeshi Ono and the Great Sasuke might go, I'd say something like, "Ono tries to give Sasuke another dose of brain damage while Sasuke has to take Great Sasuke risks to fight off the shooter." And well, that was more or less what we got. Could it have done with more Ono kicking the crap out of him? Sure. Could Sasuke have upped the ridiculousness of one or two of his highspots? Attempted something that may have dislocated a pelvis or separated several vertebrae? Of course. BUT...it was pretty close to that perfect world version of Takeshi Ono versus the Great Sasuke. You knew this would be fun from the way Ono was fidgeting and tutting during the little pre-title match photo ops, rolling his eyes like a skinny disinterested Takada, ready to be done with the pleasantries. He offers up a handshake at the start and Sasuke creeps forward like someone trying to trap a tarantula in a mug, clearly hesitant. Sasuke reluctantly accepts, Ono immediately tries to roundhouse him like we all knew he would, but Sasuke had it scouted all along and strikes first! And that was about all the advantage he ever had. There were a bunch of cool moments that told the story of the match. Ono dominated the stand-up and striking as you would expect, throwing punches to the ear and neck and face, kicking Sasuke in the knee and liver and head. Ono dominated the grappling as you would also expect, basically trying to keep things as close to Battlarts as possible. So Sasuke had to take those risks to level the field. Ono reversing an in-ring springboard by punching him in the back of the head was sublime, then later Sasuke went for the Asai moonsault and did his little kick from the apron to knock Ono back, but Ono grabbed the foot and turned it into a kneebar on the apron. Sasuke's first big inroad was late in the match when he hit a fucking corckscrew headbutt thing off the top rope while Ono was flat on the apron. My favourite part of the match was something subtle, though. Sasuke again tries a springboard and this time Ono yanks him into a rear naked choke, securing Sasuke in place with a bodyscissors. Sasuke manages to grab one of Ono's feet and just starts twisting it in some approximation of a heel hook, anything that might force a break. It actually works and Ono lets go of the choke, but rather than pressing his own advantage Sasuke releases Ono's foot and immediately grabs the ropes instead. He wanted zero part of being on the mat with Ono and would rather seek the shelter of the ropes than gamble on the efficacy of his own hold. Maybe he wasn't quite as brain damaged as we all thought this whole time. What a fun wee match. 

One-Night Stand in Mid-South, Final Leg on a Southern Run. Pretty Little Thing Waitin' to See Me. Well, a Man’s Work Ain't Never Done

Butch Reed v Dick Slater (11/22/85)

This was rompin' stompin' Hacksaw Reed, out for revenge after Slater tried to cash in Ric Flair's bounty and put Reed out of professional wrestling. I kind of forgot how great a puncher Reed was. He throws a number of awesome punches in this, big haymakers, short jabs, huge winding uppercuts, an amazing fist drop, just great stuff. When I started writing this I promised I wouldn't mention Terry Funk, because I think I've mentioned Funk every time I've ever written about Dick Slater on this stupid blog, but I can't not talk about Slater doing the Terry Funk ping pong bit in the corner as Reed punches him up and down. Slater taking over by just sort of punching Reed in the neck one time was a bit of a sudden transition, but Reed was still wearing the neck brace from the previous bounty angle so I guess it makes sense. I mean I've never had a broken neck or indeed any neck injury serious enough to warrant a brace, but if I had then I suppose a large southern man punching me in the neck would be enough to halt me in my tracks with some degree of certainty. What was more jarring was how Slater moved away from targeting the neck to going for the figure-four, which itself wound up being a short detour. The home stretch is pretty damn big, though. Reed hits his awesome gorilla press slam, one where he really had to fight to get Slater up over his head, then Slater hits a gusher off a head dive into the turnbuckle bolt, and Reed even bites the cut and spits the blood skyward! Reed kicking out of the piledriver was a great call back to the earlier neck work and a massive moment in itself, then Reed reverses another piledriver into a pin for the victory. There'd been a couple ref' bumps leading up the piledriver reversal and my first thought was Dusty Finish, but I liked how both Tommy Gilbert and Karl Fergie raised Reed's hand to eliminate all doubt. 

Mid-South Project

Gilbert Leduc! The Headsman of Bethune! A very different sort of French Catch!

Gilbert Leduc v Le Bourreau de Bethune (French Catch, 2/5/59)

Well this was very different to everything I've watched so far. It's my first look at Gilbert Leduc, a guy who pops up frequently in this footage. It's also my first look at the Headsman of Bethune! And apparently my last because he doesn't seem to show up again after this. Le Bourreau is a tall stocky guy in a mask, barrel-chested, thick of forearm, an imposing figure that almost dwarfs Leduc (who was 5'10", so hardly a smout). This wasn't an outright squash, but by the end it felt like Leduc had been demolished. Leduc would try and work some wristlocks and armbars, all really swank stuff that has me excited to check out more of him in a regular match. But the Headsman was having very little of it at the best of times and absolutely none of it at the worst of them. He would power out of those armbars and get back to a base unscathed, then when it looked like Leduc might have one sunk in good le Bourreau would just cheat and rip away the advantage. The best example of the latter came when le Bourreau grabbed a handful of Leduc's hair, the sort of blatant cheating I haven't really seen in this footage so far, and the crowd jeers and hisses immediately. It was amazing heatseeking, the way they built to the moment where it looked like Leduc might've put a crack in the armour. Early on Leduc spun out of a headscissor, literally by spinning on his head, possibly a signature spot judging by a) the way the crowd reacted, and b) the way he tried to do it several more times throughout the match. The problem was that he managed it that first time and never again. Whenever he did try it later le Bourreau would just clamp him in place and Leduc would end up cranking his own neck, his body spinning one way while his head went nowhere. Le Bourreau absolutely killing him with a gorilla press slam gutbuster was wild as fuck. You can imagine Rush doing it today and it looking devastating, imagine seeing this thing in fucking 1959! Leduc's selling going into the second fall was perfect, and le Bourreau hitting the same gutbuster for the two straight falls victory must've been astonishing for those in attendance. It's a shame that this is all the Bourreau we have, because seeing someone potentially conquer him would've been amazing.

A Superbowl Sunday fulla Captain Redneck

Dick Murdoch & Stan Hansen v Killer Khan & Tiger Toguchi (New Japan, 11/20/81)

The West Texas Wranglers! The Waxahachie-Borger Connection! Is the 12-year tag team we would've gotten if the world was a just place. Murdoch in the waistcoat and cowboy hat pre-match! There's a kind of "two ships passing in the night" feeling with Murdoch and Hansen, considering Murdoch had just jumped to New Japan from All Japan and Hansen would jump the other way in a matter of weeks. I don't think I've ever seen them actually match up either. It probably would've been good maybe. This was mostly standard stuff from all involved, but pretty much every interaction is fun and unique. Murdoch and Toguchi had a really nice under the radar WAR-style potatofest a couple months prior and they pick up some of that here, albeit briefly. Murdoch/Khan is a hoot just for Murdoch selling Khan's chops and wild shrieking. At one point Murdoch shouts "knee, Stan!" and Hansen, from the corner, raises a knee for Murdoch to ram Khan into. A well-oiled machine. Redneck chemistry in action. Toguchi mostly got clobbered as you'd expect but when it's Hansen and Murdoch doing the clobbering you know it works. The lariat off the apron also worked. Or at least it worked for us, the gentle spectators. Toguchi may have a different view. I also have no idea if Borger is even in west Texas. 

Dick Murdoch & Masked Superstar v Al Perez & Brett Sawyer (Mid-South TV, 1/25/86)

Nice heated TV tag. A couple short heat segments, a red hot studio crowd, Perez and Sawyer being the canvas for Murdoch to display his art. He had some amazing slow motion pratfalls, followed by close-ups of him checking for teeth in a mouth that's already missing several of them. Perez and Sawyer brought plenty of energy and that was about all I was asking for. Perez bumps Murdoch around with some nice headscissor takeovers, then goes for one too close to the heel corner and Superstar grabs Perez while he's up on Murdoch's shoulders and splats him off the turnbuckle. Murdoch deciding he's had enough and braining Sawyer with a chair at the end was very great. He was top 5 in the world that year. Maybe top 3. 

Dick Murdoch v Nikita Koloff (World Championship Wrestling, 1/16/88)

A good old fashioned donnybrook! How do I have no memory of Cornette bringing in Murdoch as a hired gun for the Midnight Express? This was around the point where Dusty and Nikita were a team and Murdoch's main goal is to take out his old partner, but tonight he gets the chance to take a run at his old partner's new partner. Murdoch was amazing from the start here, being backed into the corner by Nikita and slinking almost to the floor like a coward as Nikita threatened to hammer him. I know some folk get irked by Murdoch acting the fool basically every time out, edging a little too far towards comedy when the situation may not call for it, but I thought he was perfect here, with his stooging, his cartoony selling on things without going full goofball, and when it was time to get vicious you better believe he got vicious. There was a bit of both early on where he was slamming Nikita into the corner, really whipping his neck back against the turnbuckles, then when Nikita reverses it and pays him in kind Murdoch's sell of the buckle shots is incredible, looking at Nikita wide-eyed for some mercy. When Murdoch takes over he works the arm, cranking a mean armbar, draping it over the apron and dropping his elbow into the bicep, straightening it out on the mat and standing on the hand so he can freely stomp the shoulder joint. It was some real scowling Ole Anderson shit, simple but unquestionably nasty. At one point he also just up and bit Nikita in the face! Nikita spends most of this on the defensive but he fires back with a few big strikes as hope spots. Of course Murdoch sells them all amazingly, getting caught with a big boot, staggering backwards holding his jaw in place, buckling over and falling face first as slowly as physics will allow, butt sticking up in the air. The last five minutes are a scramble to the finish with Murdoch trying to put Nikita away and win the TV title before time expires. Usually you'd have your babyface fighting the clock late, but this time Nikita accidentally clocks Tommy Young with a Sickle and in the aftermath Cornette whacks him with the tennis racket. So it's babyface champ trying to survive against the odds rather than babyface champ pushing for the victory. Eventually the Midnights come to ringside, then Dusty and Windham arrive to cheer on Nikita, and the last minute with Nikita hanging on for dear life, surviving piledrivers and neckbreakers and everything else Murdoch throws at him, felt like the biggest thing in the world. Really a testament to how they built everything and especially the performance of Murdoch. Maybe if he hit that brainbuster five seconds earlier he'd have gotten a 17-month reign with the belt and Turner would've won the war before it really started. 

Our first look at Ami Sola. Our second look at Jo Labat

Ami Sola v Jo Labat (French Catch, 2/11/58)

This was a change of pace from some of the more flashy stuff I've been watching lately. Not that I NEEDED a change of pace or anything, but it's nice to see a bit of extra grit and meanness from a pair of guys not quite built for zipping around at ridiculous speed. Labat I've seen before, against the incomparable Inca Peruano. In that match he spent most of his time trying to knock Peruano's head off while not letting his temper get the better of him. So we know he can slabber someone if it comes to that. Sola is new and surprise surprise he looks very good. The matwork here was full of struggle, holds really being grinded, then as it went deep we got some nasty joint-manipulation for good measure. There was one spell where Labat secured Sola's arm and looked like he was trying to unscrew his whole fucking hand at the wrist joint, Sola continually tried to manipulate his position for a way out, and eventually managed it by hooking Labat's head in a vice-like headscissor. Down the stretch they started throwing the uppercuts like we all hoped they would and one or two sounded like shotgun blasts. At one point Labat nearly upkicked Sola's nose through his brain as well. There have been some brilliant finishes in these matches and Labat reversing a flying headscissors into a powerbomb was quite something. The powerbomb part didn't look all that pretty and it was probably more of a cradle of sorts, but we are one and all Tenryu fans around these parts so an ugly powerbomb is not something we'll get pissy at. 

Mantopoulos! Catanzaro!

Vassilios Mantopoulos v Billy Catanzaro (French Catch, 1/29/67)

Man get the fuck out of here. Every day I watch someone new from this stuff and I'm left gobsmacked at how ridiculously good they are. This was my first look at Vassilios Mantopoulos and wouldn't you believe it but here's another guy who looks like one of the best to ever fucking do it. Catanzaro I'd seen before. Like for most people, it was the Catanzaro/Cesca match that was my intro to all of this after it just showed up on the internet one day and everybody was like "this is one of the best matches there's ever been." I don't remember a lot about that specific match now, but it was awesome and I'll go out on a limb and say Catanzaro was good in it. But Mantopoulos is new and I already want to watch every match he's ever been in. Much of this was built around him working Catanzaro's arm, going back to it time and again in a hundred different ways, working some of the smoothest and quickest holds and float-overs you'll ever see, a pocket rocket of a showman. Catanzaro was a wonderful base for all of it, the perfect stooge into the bargain. For whatever reason he reminded me a little of Bockwinkel, maybe from the way he'd move, maybe from his reactions to things, maybe just from how he'd grab an armbar and punt Mantopoulos in the spine. If one thing held this back from being a real upper tier match it was a lack of Catanzaro properly putting a beating on Mantopoulos, even if they flirted with it briefly. Initially Cartanzaro takes over with a couple amazing tilt-a-whirl backbreakers and stomps to Mantopoulos' back. It looks like he's about to go on a run, but then on his third backbreaker attempt Mantopoulos reverses it (it looked sensational, obviously) and is quickly back on offence. I don't mind Mantopoulos working from above for the majority, he's so good that I wouldn't have minded another 15 minutes on top of the 30 minutes we got, just of Mantopoulos running circles around Catanzaro, but it still would've been cool to see our man Billy let loose a bit. Towards the end Catanzaro takes one amazing comedy bump onto the announcer's table (after the announcer sticks a microphone in his face as Catanzaro is sprawled on the apron), then takes a head dive through the ropes on the other side and we soon make peace with the fact we get half an hour of Billy Catanzaro acting the fool. 

More French guys I've never heard of being amazing

Ischa Israel v Jean Corne (French Catch, 1/15/65)

As far as babyface exhibition matches go, this was about as nifty as you'll get. I mean that is not the type of wrestling match I have much time for in my old age. When I think about my least favourite matches of my favourite wrestler ever, it would be the ones against Dean Malenko where a lot of what they're doing is built of mutual respect for their athletic prowess. The longer and more contrived or choreographed a sequence the less likely I am to stay engaged, no matter how impressive the actual athleticism is (and I was a gymnast so I am practically an AUTHORITY on athleticism). This was just the right kind of exhibition, the right kind of respect on display. Corne and Israel have teamed together in the past (going by the footage list anyway) so I guess a competitive yet friendly contest is to be expected. There's probably a World of Sport comparison that someone who's seen more World of Sport than me can point to. Your "gateway" match, if you like. Anyhow, this was about 16 minutes of slick exchanges, some light-hearted humour, some cool wrinkles on moves you thought you'd seen all the wrinkles of, and a satisfying finish. And I will watch at least one more Jean Corner match just to see if he does that backslide again. 

Michel Saulnier v Jean Rabut (French Catch, 6/20/65)

Or maybe this is the French Catch gateway. I thought this was incredible and just about the perfect "pure" wrestling match imaginable. Some of the exchanges were breath-taking, from minute 1 to minute 28, some of the smoothest tumbling and matwork you'll ever see. The way these guys work in and out of holds is remarkable. The speed, the precision, the ELEGANCY, by christ! It was another clean contest for the most part, but this was by no means an exhibition. It was for a title and that gave it an edge, one that on another night might've been sharp enough to cut. I loved how they built the idea of tetchiness as the match went on. After each exchange that went to a stalemate they'd give each other a pat on the shoulder, an agreement that this last gambit had gone as far as it could, that they would extricate themselves from the ropes or the corner or wherever else they'd tumbled to, that they'd stand up and take another run at it from neutral ground. For about 10 minutes it went along smoothly like that, then after one exchange Rabut slapped Saulnier's shoulder a little harder than before, Saulnier gave him a look without actually retaliating, and as he backed away into the middle for the next go-around Rabut stared at him like "you're kind of a little prick, aren't you?" The hand-slapping to gain an advantage on lock-ups was done with a little extra aggressiveness over time and you knew it would only be so long before one of them lashed out. When it eventually happened, firstly with Rabut throwing a forearm, there was always a receipt. I loved Rabut hitting a sternum headbutt as Saulnier ran the ropes, waving an arm after it like he was all but done with the niceties. Then Saulnier paid him in kind with a headbutt of his own, tit for tat like everything else they'd done. It never quite boiled over and part of me wishes it had, but the other part would tell me to shut the fuck up because every time they went back to the rope-running or holds it was tremendous. One of the best matches of the decade. 

Today we watch Inca Peruano

Inca Peruano v Jo Labat (French Catch, 9/5/58)

My first foray into Inca Peruano. I've purposely tried to avoid reading specifics about this stuff so I can go in as fresh as possible, but Peruano is a name that's popped up a bunch when trying to piece together a roadmap of where to go with all of it and everything written on him is glowing. Also someone compared his performance in the '57 Joachim La Barba match to 1997 Eddie Guerrero so of course I'm going to be hyped for that. I haven't watched that match yet but I think I'm sold already. We're JIP here to them tumbling and diving around the ring, both of them rolling through on attempted throws leading to a stalemate. Peruano tries to take Labat down with a drop toe hold, Labat doesn't budge, so they talk a little shit before getting back to their feet. The pacing of everything after that was kind of strange. It was niggly as fuck and borderline uncooperative at points, so it led to a number of resets where they'd stare a hole through each other. I think I liked it, though. I couldn't get much of a handle on Labat as a wrestler other than the obvious "this guy is another really good wrestler from 1950s France," but it was pretty easy to get a sense of Inca Peruano. He was grabbing holds and throwing nasty throat punches, kidney punches, yanking Labat by the hair, always feigning at least some sort of innocence, just an awesome rudo performance. Labat would get visibly annoyed and blast him with uppercuts, then Peruano would slink to the ropes, and whenever Labat would follow - which he usually did because I guess he couldn't help himself - Peruano would pull him in close and snap the ropes into Labat's neck or throat. When he wasn't being a vicious dirty prick Peruano was doing all sorts of tricky movements. He grabbed Labat in a knuckle lock at one point, used that to spin Labat around 180 degrees, then Peruano flipped into an awesome cradle/sunset flip for a nearfall. Some of the ways they'll build to quick finishes in these matches is a little reminiscent of lucha, where one guy will string together a sequence that you know the other guy isn't walking away from, and when Peruano started ripping Labat's shoulder and grabbed that disgusting armbar you knew it was over. That was as emphatic as any finish so far. 

Inca Peruano v Guy Mercier (French Catch, 12/19/62)

This is JIP even deeper than the previous match, with only about seven minutes shown. What a seven minutes, though. Right as we come in Peruano is hitting headscissor takeovers, a couple in a row, then on the third one Mercier blocks it and turns it into a giant swing, Peruano's legs still trapping Mercier's head. I don't think I've ever seen it done like that before. Peruano has a couple jaw-dropping bumps into the ropes here, the first coming out of an upkick that has him backflipping over the fucking ropes and landing in the signature Adrian Adonis rope tangle. Later he gets half whipped, half flipped across the ring and does the full Cactus Jack upside down tumble where his head is trapped in the ropes. Not many people will take that bump anyway, but of everyone I've seen do it (Foley, Headshrinker Samu, Peruano...I think that's it) Peruano goes into it about about a hundred times quicker. I'm not sure if this had a double pin or Mercier got a shoulder up in the end, but either way I liked the surfboard stretch used at the finish. Holy smokes Peruano is a fun watch. 

Iska Khan v Tony Oliver! Franz van Buyten and my new favourite wrestler!

Iska Khan v Jim Oliver (French Catch, 2/1/57)

This is the earliest of the French footage I've watched yet, and as is the case with much of the 50s stuff, it's difficult to believe it's the sort of thing that was actually happening in the 1950s. Some of this was sensational, namely the parts where they were just walloping fuck out each other. Khan was chopping Oliver in the neck and collar bone and throat and Oliver was punching and elbowing Khan in the face and liver. Khan's overhand chops were Hashimoto 30 years before Hashimoto and Oliver's forearms were right out the Big Japan meathead playbook. These were amazing strike exchanges, not just for the strikes and how good those looked, but the way they were all sold, the raggedness of everything, the way they made those exchanges look uncooperative, like things were on the verge of breaking down. That's not always easy to do when one guy is throwing big exaggerated Mongolian chops, but they absolutely nailed it. Some of the grappling wasn't quite as engaging as the best stuff I've seen so far, though it has to be said that Iska Khan made that nerve hold look lethal and if nothing else I appreciated how dogged he was in going back to it. It was also fun to see the babyface using that move and how the crowd popped big for it every time. Oliver's on-the-ropes selling was really awesome, eating those strikes and getting bounced around the ring, yet always retaining that sense of being able to land a killer blow at any point. And even if the finish wasn't a desperation shot it sure did look killer.  

Franz van Buyten v Robert Gastel (French Catch, 7/5/71)

It's been a minute since I've watched any Franz van Buyten; a guy I really ought to do a proper deep dive on. Gastel is yet another one of these French guys I'd never seen nor heard of before but is apparently amazing and I love him like my own father already. All I can find on him is that he was known as The Bull of Batignolles, and to be honest what else do you really NEED to know? He must be in his 50s here, balding, stocky, lumpy, ugly. A real treasure. He reminded me a little of Dick Murdoch in the way he'd bump and sell, sometimes a wee bit cartoony, a wee bit stoogey, but at the same time he'd work a hold like a bastard and you knew underneath it all he could go. Plus he was a little Murdochian in the face, if Murdoch had a sloped forehead and a hairline that started halfway back. The early parts of this were about Gastel working the hell out of a top wrist lock. Van Buyten would try and shake him, try and rolling headscissor his way out, but Gastel was a pitbull and would yank him back into holds. Then when van Buyten did start making headway Gastel got to throwing potatoes. His punches weren't quite full punches, more like clubs with the wrist that were still close enough to punches that you question their legality. Well the punches to the face were that; the punches to the body were very definitely punches and van Buyten must've woken up bruised from hip to armpit. Van Buyten's comebacks were great and I loved the spot where he just leapt on Gastel's shoulders in the corner and unloaded with strikes. The longer it went the more the old battler struggled to keep up, while van Buyten looked like an absolute stud. I guess both these guys deserve the deep dive treatment. 

Modesto Aledo! Teddy Boy!

Modesto Aledo v Teddy Boy (French Catch, 10/13/60)

This was unbelievable. Modesto Aledo is a Spanish lightweight who later in his career wrestled under a mask as Kamikaze, apparently one of the greatest gimmicks in Spanish Catch history. I have seen approximately zero wrestling from Spain but I'll take the word of whoever wrote the one article I read as gospel. Teddy Boy I know nothing about. He has an amazing leather jacket with his name across the back of it, is kitted out in baggy jeans pre-match and has the aloof swagger of a man who's seen some shit and probably caused most of it. The first half of this was an Aledo whirlwind. He was all over Teddy Boy with snug headscissors and one of the tightest headlocks you'll see, getting flung off the ropes before immediately leaping back into it while Teddy tries to knead the shape back into his ears. You could see Teddy getting riled up, maybe losing his composure a little, that cool indifference starting to crack. That he started needling Aledo with pot shots wasn't very surprising. Aledo was visibly rocked and Teddy was like a dog with a bone, stomping him in the spine while the ref' was trying to put on the count, hitting a brutal looking double knee lift right to Aledo's face, just giving him no respite while the crowd were getting more and more irritated. Then he grabs Aledo in a waistlock and fucking lobs him clean overhead to the floor! Twice! This was some of the wildest shit. Aledo took these bumps like a complete screwball, smashing his shoulders and neck off the apron on the way down, being helped back into the ring by spectators only to get heaved that second time, to the exact same outcome. When Teddy goes for it a third time Aledo blocks it and you're thinking we're in for some sweet revenge. Except Teddy just punches him in the guts and fucking launches him again! Three of the most insane bumps ever, 30+ years before Mick Foley upped what we THOUGHT was the bar for insane bumps. Aledo's comeback is everything you want and he goes right for the throat. He smashes Teddy in the nose with elbows, looks to the crowd, soaks in the roar and does it again. Teddy's nose is bloodied and by the end they're beating the brakes off each other, Aledo scooting under Teddy's legs and drilling him in the face with an upkick. The finish is amazing, with Aledo charging in and Teddy using that momentum to throw him out AGAIN, and as the crowd help him back in Teddy is there to quickly press slam him and make the cover. It makes no sense that this is what wrestling could even be in 1960. What a match. 

Le Petit Prince!

Le Petit Prince v Bobby Genele (French Catch, 5/22/66)

The Little Prince! Or the Small Prince, maybe! I've seen two Petit Prince matches now and on both occasions he's looked like one of the most spectacular wrestlers ever. Sometimes you don't need a four-hour comp tape of someone to know, you know? This was like Tiger Mask or Rey Jr in their pomp, where they were just doing stuff that nobody else was really capable of. Except Prince was doing it in fucking 1966 with even more speed. Imagine how mind-bending Rey Misterio Jr. on fast forward would be and that is Le Petit Prince. This seems to be the earliest Prince footage we have so I'm guessing he wasn't very deep into his career. His performance was a little more about the flash here. I don't know why it reminded me of a young Atlantis, but it did and I was getting some Atlantis v Satanico from '84 vibes, a young tecnico still finding himself against a rudo who would outright jump on his head if given the chance. I thought Genele was an excellent base for Prince and he sure got surly when he needed to. Initially that entailed him keeping Prince grounded with nasty wrist locks and armbars, then it evolved into kicking the wee fella in the chest and eventually stomping his ears into the canvas. Prince would try and take him over with big snapmares and Genele would just hold onto the ropes, refusing to be shown up by a gymnast. In the back half of the match Prince had had enough and started to retaliate, sometimes by clubbing Genele in the head while perched up on his shoulders. There was also the sense that Prince's evasiveness would win out no matter how rugged Genele got. At one point Prince flipped or spun or SPRUNG out of a hold and Genele tried to clothesline him clean in the face, so Prince turned into it and took him over with an armdrag, the sort of counter that looks wholly necessary on Prince's part, one not telegraphed or half-arsed even remotely on Genele's. It built to both of them getting bounced out the ring and when Prince gathered momentum on the rope running sequence there was an inevitability about what was coming. This was awesome stuff. 

I haven't watched any Horst Hoffmann in a while

I think there might only be about 10 Horst Hoffmann matches on tape. I think I might have seen all of them.

Horst Hoffmann v Lino Di Santo (French Catch, 10/5/61)

I haven't even scratched the surface of the French Catch stuff. The only two matches from that treasure trove I'd watched before this were bonkers great, and while this wasn't at that level I did get halfway through and wonder if I shouldn't just watch the entire lot of it right now. This is the earliest Hoffmann footage we've ever gotten. Everything we had before was from the mid-to-late-70s, right at the tail end of his career. This was a mere four years into it and he was already a machine, not quite fully formed but well on his way. He was like a young Scott Steiner, chucking Di Santo around with ease, a couple of his fallaway slams looking absolutely killer. Di Santo worked this like an ageing veteran, although I have no idea if he actually was and in fact I know not a thing about him if we're speaking freely. Some of his holds were awesome, a bunch of cool wristlock variations, one that he transitioned into a mean backbreaker, then a couple regular backbreakers straight out the Bret Hart playbook (or Bret Hart's backbreakers were straight out the Lino Di Santo playbook, as it were). When they got to trading strikes Hoffmann would nuke Di Santo and there was one knee to the chest that was outrageous. Di Santo hangs in there for the draw in the end, but you kind of get the impression that with a little more seasoning Hoffmann would be putting this to bed before any expiration of time. It's a real shame that we don't have any more Hoffmann footage from Europe. Maybe one day...

Horst Hoffmann v Jumbo Tsuruta (All Japan, 12/9/75)

This was much less fun. 70s Jumbo doesn't do a whole lot for me and my interest in his matches hinge almost entirely on the opponent. So I watched this for the Hoffmann and the Hoffmann was indeed fun, but Jumbo at this stage was no Lino Di Santo and all of the grappling was pretty rudimentary. Hoffmann did some cool stuff, I just don't think Jumbo was the sort to play off it in the most interesting ways. The idea that older wrestling = less exciting is a silly one that evidently isn't accurate, but if you'd asked me 15 years ago when that notion was one I still had in my head to guess which of these two matches was from 1961, I'd have said this one without a second thought. France was really ahead of the game with this shit. 

Well Tenryu's Been Spending All His Money on Weed and Pills, Trying to Write a Song that'll Pay the Bills

Genichiro Tenryu v Mitsuya Nagai (All Japan, 3/23/01) - GREAT

Just about the perfect 3-minute match. I've called Tenryu the king of many things over the years and probably the king of this thing I'm about to call him king of, but he really is the king of the sub-5-minute blitz against your faux MMA dickheads. I can't imagine Tenryu and Nagai had ever really crossed paths up to this point. Even for a guy who'd been everywhere, from All Japan to New Japan to the WWF to FMW and every moderately-sized indie promotion in the country including his own, the only shoot style fed Tenryu rocked up to was dying days UWFi and at that point Nagai was still rolling around in RINGS with a full head of hair. So I guess it's understandable that Tenryu might not be familiar with his opponent on the night. When Nagai offers up a handshake Tenryu sort of laughs at him, looks at the referee like "who is this yahoo?" then turns around and slaps the jaw off him. While Tenryu may not be familiar with Nagai, WE at Whiskey & Wrestling headquarters (it is only I) and all of you reading this blog (it is only six of you) are familiar with Nagai and so we know his response will be swift and brutal. One thing Nagai is always going to bring is nasty kicks, and I love how Tenryu tries to show defiance, tries to shrug them off while being visibly rocked with every roundhouse to a creaking ribcage. It was a man in his 50s trying to show fighting spirit like the young muscly guys, but that sort of thing doesn't come easy to a man with that much mileage on the clock. The moment where he drills Nagai with a punch just before getting booted in the sternum again was truly impeccable. 

Genichiro Tenryu v Masa Fuchi (All Japan, 2/22/04) - GOOD

This was Tenryu against an opponent who all objective reasoning would tell us is older than him, yet is in actual fact, somehow, four years his junior. Fuchi looks older, works older, and Fuchi sure felt like the old man in this match. Tenryu grabs him in a guillotine choke at one point and refuses to release it, so some of the ring boys get a little overzealous and Akira Hokuto, who for whatever reason is accompanying Tenryu on the night, wallops all of them with a kendo stick. When Tenryu finally lets go of the choke Fuchi rolls to the floor and stares dead-eyed at the ceiling. I loved how Fuchi played this, like he was completely out of it, all oxygen deprived to his brain, and I loved even more how Tenryu gave him zero sympathy and in fact kicked the shit out of him instead. Fuchi would stumble around and throw a useless slap and Tenryu would welt him up with chops. By the end Fuchi's chest was red raw and you wonder how that brainbuster never killed the wee fella. 

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