Re-Watching Jushin Thunder Liger (part 2)

Jushin Liger, Riki Choshu & Kengo Kimura v Bam Bam Bigelow, Owen Hart & Pat Tanaka (New Japan, 8/31/89)

I think a pretty underrated Liger quality is his ability to be a part of obscure match-ups and really thrive, or at the very least make an effort to make those match-ups work. I love Choshu and wouldn't put more than 30 wrestlers in history ahead of him, but he struggled sometimes to make matches with some foreign talent interesting, and I'm not talking about the semi-obscure names like Biff Wellington or, say, Pat Tanaka. With Liger, you could throw out 50 names, from Hulk Hogan to Hillbilly Jim and I'm at least interested in seeing how he approaches every one of those match-ups. One of my favourite New Japan matches of the entire 80s was a six-man tag from earlier on this tour, with Liger on the opposite side of Vader, Buzz Sawyer and Manny Fernandez and each match-up fucking ruled. Liger against Bam Bam Bigelow? Couldn't not be awesome. Liger and Owen Hart? Haven't seen their singles matches in forever but I bet they work well together. Liger and Pat Tanaka??? Take my money. And this was indeed at its best when Liger was in there. A Liger/Bam Bam match would've been great based on this and their exchange early on here was the highlight. Bigelow whips Liger into the ropes and Liger slides under his legs quicker than just about anybody I've ever seen do that spot. Bam Bam barely needed to lift his foot off the ground or spread his base to allow Liger space to fit through; it was seamless and rapid and when he did it successfully you couldn't help but concede that it was the correct decision to make in that moment. Liger drilling Bigelow SQUARE in the face with a koppu kick as Bam Bam turned around further solidified Liger's decision. Liger v Tanaka was brief but culminated with Liger dropping him with a quick flurry of palm strikes to the jaw. Owen looked kind of lost at points honestly, but he's three years into his career at this stage so it's hard to be overly critical. Liger, who'd only been wrestling a couple years longer, was much quicker and more assured and absolutely hammered Owen with a tope into the barricade. Depending on how deep this Jushin Liger rabbit hole I go I should re-watch one of their singles matches. Bigelow was a total blast on the Americans' side. Amazing energy, great bumps, greater headbutts. His exchange with Choshu at the very start was only slightly below his exchange with Liger and I guess I'll take back what I said about Choshu working with foreigners. Tanaka isn't involved a ton and you can guess what his primary role in the match is, but there was one amusing spot where he came in illegally and ran across to the opposite corner, thrust kicked Kimura as he was stepping through the ropes, then bolted all the way back to his own corner. Bigelow's flip bump over the top off a Choshu lariat looked spectacular, then Tanaka tried to one-up him with his signature inside-out bump off another lariat. 

Jushin Liger v Dr Wagner Jr. (New Japan, 2/6/99)

The problem with this match is that it lasted like two hours. Or it didn't but by the end it kind of felt like it had. It wasn't terrible or anything and it actually started great, with Wagner doing a backwards roll after giving Liger a clean break in the corner, seeking the crowd's recognition for his act of cordiality, only for Liger to blitz him with a running shotei. The first half and then some was basically Wagner working Liger's leg. It had some decent stuff but it was very...deliberate. Methodical, if you want to be generous, uninteresting if you don't. I did like how Liger was more vocal with his selling the longer it went, a little more desperate with each hold applied, but by the fifth figure-four I was sort of ready for it to be over. The back half wasn't mindblowing. I don't even think people would've been going nuts over it at the time if only the last 10 minutes had been shown on TV. Liger's leg never once came into play after he transitioned out of the heat segment either so I guess that's 15 minutes of my life I'll never get back. And at this point I'm not even stodgy about limbwork always needing to GO SOMEWHERE or whatever. This really did just feel like a perfect example of why some of the 90s New Japan juniors fell out of style, where everything before the finishing stretch felt disconnected, like the wrestlers knew it wasn't going on TV so they chose to sleepwalk their way through that segment of the match, turning something that could've been a tight 13 minutes into a tedious 25. I've also seen Liger shotei a man's nose all the way across his face and the ones he went to as an equaliser down the stretch were nothing to write home about. Wagner hitting the Michinoku Driver on the ramp was at least cool and I thought Liger milked about as much out of the 20 count as he realistically could. Too long for me overall but the less impatient sort might dig it. 

Re-Watching Jushin Thunder Liger (part 1 of possibly a few parts maybe?)

Jushin Liger was one of the first two or three wrestlers from Japan that I really dove into back when I decided to devote a quite frankly stupid amount of time to this nonsense of a hobby. There was a point in time where I'd have considered him a top 3-5 wrestler ever, maybe even number 1. Then as the years went by my tastes changed and I guess there was a part of me that got a little bored by him. When we did the PWO GWE poll in 2016 he was just outside my top 40; unthinkable 10 years earlier. I don't feel like he's someone I need to re-evaluate or whatever, because at the end of the day this is supposed to be fun and there's only enough time in the day to treat it as a PhD project. 

But over the last few years I've gone back and watched smatterings of him and you know what? That dude was awesome basically right out the gate. The '86 stuff with Fujiwara and Takada and the UWF boys while he was going by his government name? Ruled. Early masked Liger against Sano? Amazing. Peak Liger putting people like Sasuke, Kanemoto and Ohtani in their place? Great. Post-peak defending the New Japan turf against snarling goblin NOAH bastards like Kikuchi? Tremendous. He ultimately works a style that isn't always my favourite and some of the stuff I used to love doesn't do a ton for me nowadays, but that match against Ohara I wrote about the other day was killer and now I want to watch a bunch of Jushin Liger. 

We'll see where it takes us. 

Jushin Liger & Masa Chono v Shinya Hashimoto & Naoki Sano (New Japan, 1/6/90)

Any Liger v Sano we can get is a real treat so seeing that this handheld from a quarter-century ago even exists at all is a beautiful thing. Liger v Hashimoto is also one of those match-ups that looks amazing on paper and pretty much always delivers in execution, and this was some of their best stuff together, even on an untaped house show. Liger was fucking great in this. The match starts with him and Hashimoto going at each other with shoulderblocks. Liger manages to keep things at a stalemate on the first couple but probably realises that can't last very long, so on the third he zips past Hash for an extra run of the ropes and hits a diving shoulderblock that sends Hashimoto to a knee, then Liger follows up with a rolling kick right to the top of Hashimoto's head. You know Hashimoto will make him pay for that later, and you get giddy at the prospect and then it happens and you nod your head because this is why you watch the professional wrestling. The shoulderbreaker Hash hits on Liger was less shoulderbreaker and more tombstone, dropping Liger on the top of his head like he was trying to nail him to the mat by the horns on his mask. They had a martial arts stand-off mid-match with Liger taking up a sort of crane stance, ducking out the way of a couple Hashimoto roundhouse kicks that would've decapitated him. I haven't seen their February '94 match in probably 16 years and I'm hyped to check that out again. Sano hitting a bullet tope on Chono was a thing of beauty and there aren't many people who will torpedo a guy with a tope better than Sano. But then Chono just kind of decides he's going on offense again and they transition into a brief Sano in peril segment. Brief but awesome, as Chono holds Sano down and Liger crushes him with a double stomp to the guts off the top rope. I don't think Chono expected Liger to do that because he shoots him a look afterwards like "fuck sake steady on there, mate." I'd have been happy with either Liger/Sano or Liger/Hashimoto pairing taking us home and the Liger/Hashimoto we got kept pace with earlier. Hashimoto's running brainbuster thing was even wilder than the shoulderbreaker/tombstone monstrosity, then he throws his whole weight behind a wheel kick and that is a whole lot of weight being thrown, particularly from a man so prone to violent outbursts. I loved this. 

Jushin Liger & Takehiro Murahama v Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA (NOAH, 7/16/03)

I didn't think this was quite as good overall as Liger's run against the NOAH boys the previous year, though it was still a really good Liger performance. There was probably a bit too much Marufuji for me. The story seemed to be about him scoring the big win for his team and establishing himself as someone on semi-level footing with the horned one. He's by a significant margin the least interesting person in the match. I haven't watched any Marufuji in forever but his offence was still as flimsy as I remembered, though he did hit one spectacular dive. That springboard moonsault over the barricade always did look amazing. The general WIMPINESS of his offence stands out even more when you compare it to his partner's. I'm not even a KENTA fan but he'll absolutely kick the living shit out of someone and both he and Murahama did that often and to each other. It's also hard to take Marufuji seriously when you've got Liger on the other side ready to throttle someone before the bell even rings. I guess Marufuji was never really one to thrive on HATRED and such though so it's probably an unfair criticism. Maybe. But Liger had his hackles up during the intros and you knew someone was getting cracked in the temple with the palm of his hand. The first exchange with him and Marufuji has Marufuji leapfrogging and finessing his way around Liger, so Liger just stops running the ropes and takes his jaw off with a shotei. It makes so much sense you can only wonder why everyone doesn't do it. I liked the structure and layout overall, with each team having one guy play face-in-peril before it builds to the finish. The video file was like 35 minutes long so when they started trading nearfalls around the 20-minutes mark a part of me was looking for an excuse to dip out, but they never went overboard and I thought it hit that feeling of epic. Marufuji winning with the Shooting Star Press while Liger was out of commission on the floor was a cool finish, tbf. It looked like it really meant something to Marufuji too. 

Casas v Santo - the end of the road (for a little while...)

Negro Casas v El Hijo del Santo (Mask vs Hair) (CMLL, 9/19/87)

Not to labour a point, but this really is a singular match in lucha libre history; maybe all of wrestling history. An apuestas match with no blood that starts with several minutes of mat work and it's somehow more violent and visceral than 99% of apuestas matches ever? I suppose trying to rip your hated rival's blood-soaked mask off or cave their skull in with the ring post will communicate an adequate level of enmity. It's also very fun to watch if you're a bloodthirsty degenerate who enjoys that in your pro wrestling. On the other hand, these two trying to stomp each other's face into the ground repeatedly might've been even more effective in laying out their history. The Battlarts/FUTEN comparison is apt and obvious if you've seen any Battlarts/FUTEN, but there are also elements of the wildest Choshu brawls, the nastiest WAR potato-fests and even the pacing at times reminded me a little of the best 90s interpromotional joshi. Never for a second though did I forget that these two fucking despise each other. 

Casas was grinning like a dog eyeing a pork chop before the bell and while the opening was cagey, the first strike thrown in the whole match being a disgusting kick to Santo's knee really set the tone for everything that followed. It looked like Santo did not expect to be kicked side-on in the leg like that, half planted as it was, the knee almost buckling inwards underneath him. Santo responding with an armdrag that was really more of a judo throw, landing Casas high on his shoulder and neck, also provided some nice foreshadowing of how Santo would ultimately win out. The matwork had none of the grace and beauty of lucha grappling, instead it was rough and gritty and coarse and every time they went to the mat it felt like things were about to go off the rails. I don't even remember who started it now but before long they were throwing slaps and punches to the face, stomps to the head, kicking each other in the shoulder and liver and ear. I've seen Wanderlei try and volley a man's head off his shoulders and somehow it looked less TRUCULENT than some of the stomps Casas was throwing here. Maybe it's because those Wanderlei kicks were business, a largely impersonal endeavour in pursuit of victory, whereas these were steeped in murderous intent. The way he ran and jumped on Santo's knee as it was draped over the bottom rope was putrid, then when Santo grabbed that rope to break a half crab Casas just punted him in the wrist. The violence just escalated and escalated and there were a hundred different moments both subtle and not so subtle that you could mention. I think my favourite part of the whole match was when Santo grabbed Casas by the hair to apply a tapatia, yanking him back and forth with enough force that he wound up having to release it because he ripped a handful of Casas' hair out. Then Casas spun around into the mount and started headbutting Santo in the face while he held the eye holes in his mask. 

They almost do a reset of sorts with about 10 minutes to go, coming after Santo slides out the ring - or is kicked out the ring - and smashes Casas' face into the ring board before kneeing him in the head half a dozen times. When they make it back in after that they stand in opposite corners staring a hole in each other, and if they hadn't the measure of one other before that then they absolutely knew what the rest of the match was going to be. Santo's rocker dropper/shoulderbreaker thing was nuts and I like how that really set us up for the finish, even if Casas never sold it to a huge extent afterwards. Casas dropkicks Santo in the face while the latter is hung up in a tree of woe, then when Santo slips out of la Casita Casas decides he'll hang him up in the corner again, unperturbed and maybe even a little pleased that he needs to dish out some more punishment. You could see it in how he casually walked over and dropped an elbow to the back of Santo's head and I'm pretty sure he did it with a smile on his face. Of course Santo is who he is and avoids the second dropkick, Casas goes sliding out the ring, and Santo sits up and immediately crushes him with a plancha to the floor. His gradual comeback after that was almost All Japan-ish and brought to mind some of those Misawa comebacks where you knew deep down the other guy had missed his chance, even if he'd still get some licks in as he went down swinging. Santo brutally headbutting Casas in the face before hitting the corner senton was amazing, then when he couldn't hook the Caballo he transitioned into the nastiest cross armbreaker you ever did see. 

Before watching this again I went through everything between these two from the point where Santo turned rudo in November '96, through the three awesome trios matches in June '97, even both Santo/Felino matches from July since Casas was there in Felino's corner. There were elements of the feud from everything that came before it that they touched on here, like the powerbomb that Felino had used to put away Santo in trios and singles matches. Callbacks like that aren't really what I think of with lucha, but I guess it makes sense that they'd do it here since this is such an abnormal sort of match. There's really nothing else like it and I wouldn't argue with anyone who called it the best match there's ever been. 

Fujinami v Kabuki! Liger bringing FURY!

Tatsumi Fujinami v The Great Kabuki (New Japan, 2/5/93)

Old man Kabuki with his grey beard and red and black face paint is such a cool look. A VIBE, as the youth might say. When I'm old and demented or perhaps MORE old and demented then that's the look I aspire to on an everyday basis. Choshu was out before the bell raving about something or other so I half expected Kabuki to start this by misting Fujinami. Choshu always did have a sense for such things. This wasn't as crazy heated as the majority of WAR v New Japan but it did have a goodly number of Kabuki uppercuts and thrust kicks so how loudly can we complain? Fujinami decides he's had enough of getting peppered off of clean breaks and unloads with a barrage of body shots that leaves Kabuki slumped in the corner. He raised an arm with a roar afterwards and it was almost reminiscent of Jumbo across the way when he'd get fed up being elbowed in the face by Misawa. Fujinami's chinlocks were as tight as ever here and you could imagine Kabuki's true face turning even redder without the face paint. Fujinami locks in the dragon sleeper but someone in a WAR tracksuit - the best of all tracksuits - gets up on the apron to run distraction, a SCUFFLE ensues, and Fujinami turns around into a tidal wave of green mist. I was kind of worried when Fujinami went for the dragon suplex because it might've legit killed Kabuki at this stage. 

Jushin Liger v Michiyoshi Ohara (New Japan, 11/20/93)

We really were spoiled by the WAR/New Japan/Heisei Ishingun feud. The hit rate was insane and every night you'd have people elevating their game and bringing the heat, or in this case the thunder. In a lot of ways Liger is the perfect interpromotional feud wrestler. There are very few wrestlers who express searing contempt or even just mild annoyance like him and what is interpromotional wrestling built on if not searing contempt or even just mild annoyance. In the New Japan/NOAH feud I bought that he truly wanted to kill Kikuchi. If you play with fire you'll get burned and Liger is the perfect fire in that scenario. Ohara decided he wanted to play with fire here, for whatever stupid reason. He jumped Liger at the start and tried to rip his mask off, so when Liger made his comeback he tried to dent Ohara's skull with a rolling kick and launched him into the barricade. What was really awesome was the escalation of violence and how they used revenge spots. Liger smashes a chair over Ohara's head and piledrives him on exposed concrete, so later Ohara pays him back with the exact same. After that, Liger takes it a step further, rips up the mats and hits a powerbomb. They fight over a suplex while Liger is on the apron and Ohara is in the ring and I figured they wouldn't have Ohara take a suplex bump from the ring to the floor on a house show, but sure enough they make a fool of me and dial it up a notch into the bargain as Liger tries to break the poor guy's neck with a fucking brainbuster on the apron. Liger throws a couple disgusting dropkicks to the knee, one as he comes flying off the top rope, and I'm left shaking my head wondering why Ohara chose to start the match the way he did. That shotei at the end was as emphatic as you could get. I now want to go back and watch a million Liger matches. For a while there I'd forgotten how good he could be, maybe from 90s New Japan juniors fatigue or whatever, but this Liger is never shy of tremendous.

Savage v Tito! From the Spectrum!

Randy Savage v Tito Santana (No DQ) (WWF, 5/31/86)

I thought I'd seen every Savage v Santana match from this feud years ago. Thought I'd gone through all of it for a greatest WWF matches ever poll back in the faraway time of 2009. I guess I was wrong because I didn't remember this one at all, and I'm sure you're shocked to hear that it was awesome and I loved it. What an amazing feud.

Randy Savage was very good at the pro wrestling. I don't even know if I'd put this up there as one of his very best performances, which says a whole lot about his consistency, but it was still a performance that struck me as world class. There are a few words I'd use to describe him here - desperate, opportunistic, cowardly, reactionary, fevered. They all applied at various points, sometimes for different reasons, sometimes for the same reasons. The match started with him throwing Liz in the line of fire, then jumping Tito when he stopped to check on her. It was a pretty cowardly way to approach a fight. There were also times where he outright tried to scramble away from Tito only to be dragged back by the tights, although I guess some would call that smart rather than cowardly. His desperation jumped off the page on everything he did; every run of the ropes, every pin attempt, every punch, every axe handle off the top, every bump, every twitch, every movement. Sometimes he never created openings of his own as opposed to using Tito's momentum and fire against him. Tito was going hell for leather to win that belt back so he could push the envelope a bit without worrying about getting himself disqualified, but a few times he pushed it too far, let his heart and fists drive him rather than his head and Savage used it to his advantage. I've also said this a bunch of times about Savage over the years, but for someone who was notorious for planning everything in a match to the tiniest detail beforehand, there's almost never an occasion where I watch him and get the sense he knows what's about to happen next. Nothing comes off as rehearsed or pre-planned. He's almost the definition of reactionary, in response to not just his opponent but the environment, the world around him. There was a fan about five rows in with a sign that read "I WANT TO SLAM ELIZABETH" and I swear to god I expected Savage to drag the match those five rows deep just to take a swing at the guy. There's a level of immersion I get with Savage that I get with only a handful of other wrestlers in history. I don't want to turn this into a tirade against modern wrestling, but there are so many instances today of wrestlers trying to communicate desperation and urgency, despair, frustration, whatever, and just about all of it comes off as bad method acting. The shocked, bug-eyed staring when the opponent won't stay down, it's some of the worst stuff going and it seems to happen in every WWE match nowadays (and probably most AEW ones). No matter what Savage did in this match it never felt like he was performing or actively trying to communicate something. His urgency and desperation were a state of his being and not once did I see the gears turning, the strings moving, the acting out of whatever ropey screenplay had been written before they walked through the curtain. 

Savage's desperation is never more obvious than late in the match, bloodied up after being ran into the post, when he turns around and cracks the referee. I've seen him do that in a few of his matches with Santana and Steamboat, but I wasn't expecting it here and it was an amazing "to hell with this" moment. It was as pure an example as any of what a madman will do when his back's against the wall and his title's in jeopardy and Savage was as mad as they came. He couldn't escape by taking the disqualification here but it did save him from being counted out after the flying elbow, which as an aside looked fucking spectacular. The finish is the same as some of the other no DQ matches they'd ran around the horn, with the ref' coming to again just as Savage reverses a roll-up by grabbing the tights. Naturally everyone involved would've walked through that finish before the match, rehearsed the steps and the timing and everything else to get it just right. Yet every time I see it I fully believe it's what Randy Savage would've done in that moment. An incredible pro wrestler. 

Is Negro Casas still the GOAT? (yes of course Negro Casas is still the GOAT)

Negro Casas v Great Sasuke (CMLL, 7/7/96)

An unreal Casas performance. A lot of times I'll see matches between some of my favourite wrestlers from Mexico and my favourite wrestlers from Japan and I'll be less excited than I should be, just because stylistically they'll meet somewhere in the middle and maybe rein themselves in a little for the occasion. Sometimes there's just a styles clash and it doesn't really work in practice like you'd think it would on paper. I've seen Casas work New Japan where, for obvious reasons, he's not the Negro Casas you'd see in front of an Arena Mexico crowd who knows him inside out. You get 80% of Casas and 80% Casas is still great, but you know what 100% Casas looks like and why wouldn't you want that. I wondered if Sasuke would roll into Mexico City and scale back some of his wilder tendencies. I probably shouldn't have because he did not scale anything back and pretty much fit like a glove, working in front of this crowd like he would've in Korakuen Hall or any Michinoku Pro gymnasium. Stylistically the primera caida was closer to the sort of grappling you'd see in Japan than Mexico, but it was plenty rugged and Sasuke never pissed about sitting in holds just to be doing it. Whenever he had Casas grounded it looked like he was trying to finish him, really yanking on armbars and leaving Casas scrambling to the ropes, each time with a little more desperation. He more or less dominated that first fall and it set the table for Casas' response in the next two. His response of course was to be the biggest shithouse conman bastard imaginable. He knew he was up against it going into the segunda and straight away he dipped into his bag of horse shit, crying to the ref' about Sasuke's chinlocks being chokes, coughing and spluttering and pointing to his throat. The ref' starts to come around to the idea that maybe he really is being choked, Casas being a world class thespian and all that. As you can imagine, Sasuke gets more and more irritated that the ref's actually buying this. Sasuke is being seconded by Tiger Mask on the night so Casas hangs out the ropes over by that corner, whipping his head back and flying across the ring as if he's just been struck. Tiger Mask is FLUMMOXED and pleads innocence, but Casas does it again while the ref' checks on Sasuke and this time he slaps himself for the audial effect! Casas runs the ropes and trips himself into a face-first bump, Tiger Mask immediately backing away with his hands up. Then as the ref' goes to have a word Casas thumps Sasuke in the balls. As far as setups and payoffs go it was pretty much perfect and maybe the best low blow ever. Sasuke kicking out of TWO fouls was ludicrous but Casas did make him pay for it in the tercera with some brutal work on the leg, including dropping him into the fixed seats and repeatedly kicking one of those seats closed on Sasuke's knee. You make peace with Sasuke blowing off that leg work because you already knew he would anyway and also because his lunatic dives might play even better in Mexico than they do in Japan. This Arena Coliseo crowd isn't as attuned to Sasuke's madness so people don't clear out the way instantly. It means you get moments like Casas being dropkicked off the corner to the floor and almost killing a photographer and Sasuke flying outside with his Asai moonsault or crazy tiger kick, the ring close enough to the first row where you expect a spectator to be caught in the crossfire. How Sasuke never overshot the moonsault and put the toe of his boots through someone's face I'll never know. One of my favourite Casas spots is him going up top and getting unreasonably ahead of himself before missing whatever move he's about to hit, but this time it actually connected and it looked like Sasuke's lungs got popped like balloons. His cockiness still nearly costs him as Sasuke has been in enough car crashes before where you know he'll come back from anything, but Casas rights the ship in the end with a gorgeous, rapid fast casita. Casas was a phenomenon in this, a force of nature if you want to get all purple about it, as charismatic as any wrestler to ever live who took an already very good wrestler and wrestled them to a level nobody else could. The best to ever do it, doing it at a point where he might never have been better. 

Another day of Santo v Felino

El Hijo del Santo v Felino (CMLL, 7/25/97)

A very different match from the title bout earlier in the month, yet one no less great. I actually might've preferred this one by a hair. It wasn't quite a full blown brawl, but they go at each other hammer and tong from the very jump and everything has an amazing intensity to it. It started perfectly with Santo torpedoing himself at Felino with the corner tope, the former still in his ring jacket while the latter was yammering into the camera about whatever. Felino unfortunately kind of blows it off and goes on the offensive with his own senton off the apron, but it was early enough in the match where it didn't bother me too much. I'm repeating myself to a stupid degree at this point but by christ is rudo Hijo del Santo a fucking marvel. He has to be in the conversation as one of the best ever at flipping that switch and going for a guy's throat. I mean that in a figurative sense as well as a literal one, because here he had Felino in the corner with a boot across his throat and it looked like he was trying to remove his head from his shoulders. He hangs Felino off the apron by the creases in his boots and stomps him on the back of the head, kicks him in the liver, slaps the whiskers off his mask, it was phenomenal. I don't think he's ever leaned deeper into the camel clutch than he did to end the second caida and he threw Felino's head to the mat in disgust after it finished him. Loved how the powerbomb came into play yet again. It's been a thread running through the past six weeks' worth of exchanges between them and it almost did for Santo AGAIN here. Felino hit him with three variations, all of them looking pretty brutal, and Santo only managed to escape by being pinned close enough to the ropes to limply reach out and grab one. The dives towards the end are of course fitting of Santo v Felino, especially Santo's screwball tope over the top that blasts Felino into the first row. Like in the title match the finish might be a bit of a letdown, as you really want Santo ripping Felino's mask to turn into a blood-soaked revenge piece by the tiger man, but instead it leads to Casas storming the ring and punting Santo clean in the head. This was honestly insane, proper FUTEN level stuff and I cannot wait to revisit their September apuestas match for the first time in an eternity. 

A Fuerza Guerrera Masterpiece

Fuerza Guerrera v Pantera II (CMLL, 5/4/90)

I first watched this over 15 years ago now, at a time where I was very much learning to love Fuerza Guerrera, but had never seen him work a long title match with a heavy technical focus. It blew me away and became one of my favourite matches of the decade. Fast forward to today and Fuerza is one of my five favourite wrestlers of all time and shockingly enough this match holds up as being great. I've seen about as much Fuerza footage as I have from anybody to ever wrestle in Mexico, which is a whole lot of footage, and I don't know if there's a better example of Fuerza Guerrera, Technical Wizard. The crowd being sceptical initially is amusing, like the mere idea of Fuerza Guerrera reining in his bullshit for the purposes of a gentleman's contest is hilarious. He was almost CHAGRINED at that and you knew there would be several instances of him giving in to his true nature, but by and large he behaved himself. Some people just have that inherent, intrinsic need to cheat. A pathological liar will just do it no matter the situation. A natural shithouse will naturally shithouse and with Fuerza, even when he doesn't need to, at one point or another he will inevitably let that side of himself take the wheel. I don't think he can help it. There was never a moment where Pantera fouled him or even came close to it, but Fuerza sure tried to frame him for it more than once, rolling around frantically, pointing to his privates, the ref' disinterested at best and appalled at worst. Everybody in modern football - or soccer, if you will - rolls around like they've been shot or elbowed in the face or had their legs broken after any sort of moderate contact. Luis Suarez, who was unplayable at his best, would dive and roll around at least once a game when he obviously didn't need to. That's Fuerza Guerrera and like Suarez he would also definitely bite you in the shoulder. The primera caida was fantastic and full of the sort of lucha matwork you love as a cultured fan of the lucha libre yet scoff at if you're an uncultured philistine who is not a fan of the lucha libre. Fuerza didn't take kindly to being shown up and once or twice he was a bull in a china shop, Pantera using that recklessness to take the fall. Pantera was good enough overall, if a little slow getting properly into position for things as the match went on. That at least played into the story of the segunda with Fuerza showing why he's the champ, picking up steam as Pantera starts to lag. The tercera was an awesome deciding fall. It maybe went a touch too long but I couldn't say I was ever waiting for it to be over and if nothing else the length of it let them play up the exhaustion. Pantera would grab a preposterous hold and after a little while he'd be so spent that he could barely apply it properly, doing all he could just to keep Fuerza's arms or legs hooked, while Fuerza didn't have enough left to break free of even a half-applied submission. The finishing hold itself was a very fitting way to cap it off. Tremendous match and a real career highlight for Fuerza; the sort of thing you'd build a case for him being a top 5-10 Mexican wrestler ever off of. You wouldn't hear any argument from me. 

1990 CMLL Project

Revisiting 90s Joshi #56

Aja Kong v Meiko Satomura (GAEA, 4/24/98)

This is one of my favourite feuds in all of joshi so I'm surprised I'd never seen this instalment of it before. It's their first singles match together and of course had some of the elements that made their match a year later a classic, but a year can be a lifetime and Meiko was nowhere near ready to scale this mountain yet. The hierarchy gap was much more pronounced here and Aja was far swifter with her murderousness. But the Bulls needed to run into that Pistons brick wall a few times, needed to taste failure and be force-fed half a dozen elbows before realising what it would take to reach the PINNACLE and such. Success is earned, not given, as my great granny would always tell me. And Aja never gave her much but Meiko earned at least a little something to build on here. I loved her scrappiness above all. I seem to always mention how crazy it is that Satomura got so good so early, but it's worth repeating and every time I watch her in those formative years her persistence is captivating. It's impossible to watch her and not get behind her, even if you know in the end it likely won't matter, especially against someone this much higher up the food chain. You want to see her score those small victories though; see her finally take Aja down and lock in the armbar. She was determined to hook that thing and it usually failed, but the one time she succeeded had Aja scrambling to the ropes and it felt like a significant moment in a broader sense, like it'll stand her in good stead going forward. Her dedication to making everything feel important makes those moments stand out. Obviously Aja being awesome and knowing when to give and when to destroy helps too. She barely registered any elbow or forearm thrown her way and her expression rarely changed, unperturbed as she was. At one point, amid a barrage of forearms, she went to look out to the crowd like "who the fuck is this kid?" before changing her mind and dropping Meiko on the spot. Meiko hitting the death valley driver was an awesome moment and then Aja came back and showed her what a real death valley driver could be. Then she stood her up, patted her on the cheek for her efforts and took her head off with the backfist. For Satomura, maybe next time would be her time, or the time after that, or even the time after that. But not this time. 

Santo v Felino - a Different Sort of Title Match

El Hijo del Santo v Felino (CMLL, 7/4/97)

I've watched a lot of Santo recently and let me tell you, that guy was fucking stupendous. I guess I'd kind of forgotten just HOW good he was, but man, he was SO good. 1997 is maybe one of the three best wrestling years in history and he has as good a case as anybody for being the best in the world that year. This follows on from three trios matches the previous month. The first one I wrote about a few days ago, with Felino not actually being in the match but involving himself via shenanigans at the end. The rematch of that from a week later was even better and had Bestia Salvaje sitting front row causing a ruckus. Everybody beat the bejeezus out of each other and Bestia stuck his nose in allowing the rudos to pick up the win. The third match from 6/20 actually had Felino in it and this time Bestia's interference backfires, as Santo ends up hitting a tope straight into his face. It was a brilliant series of matches and set up a title match with some proper heat behind it. Bestia was cornering Santo here while Casas was cornering his brother so you knew that would come into play at some point too. As far as title matches go this followed a bit of a different path than you might expect. It was only two falls for a start, but it never felt disappointingly short. If anything it made you absolutely want to see a rematch, while at the same time continued building anticipation for that next Santo/Casas installment. The opening caida was a wonder, though. These two are a sensational pairing when they hit the mat and wrestle and as always with Santo when he's in there with Felino, everything he does has an extra layer of intensity to it. He'd grab Felino's leg and work through half a dozen holds, one Indian deathlock variation that I can't even explain, switching to something else every time Felino managed to find an answer. I've probably said it 20 times on here by now but for a guy who's typically known for his gracefulness there are very few wrestlers in lucha who can tear at a guy's limbs like Santo when he's compelled to. In one of the cool deviations from the norm we get a huge Santo tope in the primera. Felino had been a pain in his ass recently so he probably saw his opportunity and decided to waste him, no hanging around. Santo's achilles heel in this feud rears its ugly head again though and Felino picks up the fall with a powerbomb. People will sometimes say there's not enough STORY~ in lucha but that move had been a big part of those trios matches the previous month and the crowd responded like it mattered when Felino hit it here. The segunda is high energy the whole way and pretty quickly you realize it's not just going to be one of those short equalising falls. Even if the finish is screwy it adds yet more fuel to the eternal Casas/Santo fire, and any disappointment fades as soon as you see Casas walking away smirking. Why would anybody think they can out-bullshit the master?

Rudo Santo and Dr Wagner Jr. on the warpath

El Hijo del Santo, Dr Wagner Jr. & Scorpio Jr. v Negro Casas, La Fiera & Ultimo Dragon (CMLL, 6/6/97)

Now and then I'll forget that Santo/Casas might be the apex. Santo v Felino, Santo v Parka, Santo v Espanto, Santo v Panther, all awesome match ups. Casas v Panther, Casas v Dandy, Casas v Ultimo Dragon, Casas v Rush, also awesome match ups. But then I watch this and I'm like yeah, Santo v Casas is still the apex. You couldn't take your eyes off them during this and every second of them together was magic. I know that Rudo Santo had a shelf life but by god he puts absolutely everything into playing the role, particularly when Casas is on the other side of the ring. His aggression, intensity, viciousness, all of it here was phenomenal. The early pairings across the board were full of that and none more than his and Casas', then as soon as it goes south any semblance of sportsmanship goes out the window. He turned near feral and once again Casas bore the brunt of it, but it didn't stop him lashing out at Ultimo or Fiera as well. Ultimo got it in the primera when he came in and broke up a Santo submission by punting him in the back. You didn't need to see Santo's face to know he was peeved and he immediately got up and went for Ultimo. This wasn't New Japan or the WCW mid-card, this was the Son of El Santo in Arena Maxico. After things break down the rudo assault is inspired, including Wagner Jr. ramming Ultimo shoulder-first into the post enough times that he can't continue. Wagner Jr. was actually a tremendous wildman in this, running around causing chaos, cutting off tecnicos, instigating gang beatings, everything you want as Santo's maniacal henchman. Casas of course gets destroyed when it goes down to 3v2 and Santo body slamming him head first into a row of seats was incredible. Then as Casas is almost fully vertical with his head stuck in one seat Santo repeatedly slams it shut like the scene from Daredevil where Fisk crushes a guy's skull in a car door. Truly the apex of this great sport. Ultimo coming back out in the tercera like nothing had happened was kind of jarring until the post-match angle shows that it may not have been Ultimo Dragon after all and was in fact Felino in Ultimo's garb. Which is kind of cool and sets up at least one amazing Santo/Felino match down the line. 

A Sunday Rudo Spectacular

Fuerza Guerrera, Emilio Charles Jr. & Blue Panther v El Faraon, Super Astro & Atlantis (EMLL, 8/19/89)

Look at that rudo unit. You know that on any given day there's going to be some magic from all three and there were several moments per person here where I thought "that guy might've been the best wrestler in the world." The first caida is an all-time amazing rudo show; stooging, bumping, timing, shithousing the lot. Obviously the tecnicos are amazing playing off them. The Panther/Astro exchange to begin was sensational and as soon as Emilio bounced in to throw a cheapshot the tecnicos chased him up the ramp. They were ready to throttle him and Emilio was almost taken aback by the response, maybe feeling sorry for himself given his freshly shaved head from his recent apuestas loss. All three tecnicos were vocal about wanting him in the ring but Atlantis was loudest. When Fuerza jumps in and throws a kick shortly afterwards the tecnico response is far less vehement and there was almost perplexity as Emilio saw it. "Why am I a prick and he isn't?" Maybe with Fuerza you just expect it more. There was a moment where Fuerza gave Emilio a little pat on the head and Emilio turned to him with obvious irritation, but Fuerza was very Fuerza about it and couldn't see why Emilio might've been annoyed. Atlantis slaps Fuerza off the apron and Fuerza's pirouette before falling off was beyond words. Every 10 seconds the rudos were doing something great, basically. Super Astro was a magician in this and that little fella running people in circles will never get old. His springboard headbutt in the primera was incredible and then he went and topped it at the end, doing the apron-to-floor version, cracking Panther in the face with the latter getting hurled into the seats. He even did a stretcher job, getting carted out as Fuerza and Emilio were left staring at the ceiling. This was honestly one of the most fun trios matches I've ever seen. 

Wake up babe, a new Sangre Chicana match appeared on the internet!

Sangre Chicana v El Faraon (EMLL, 11/23/95)

I guess it's fitting that I finally watched this on the same day I saw that Springsteen was coming out with a new album full of previously unreleased tracks. I'd need to think long and hard about the answer to a hypothetical "which wrestler's entire career would you want to have available on tape?" question, but Sangre Chicana is about as good an answer as any. Things like this are a good indicator of why and any new Chicana footage is to be celebrated. He came out of nowhere at the start here and jumped Faraon, the latter getting absolutely nothing in the short primera. Chican revelled in it and Faraon's selling was amazing, really looking like a guy who'd been caught off guard and maybe concussed into the bargain. The ending to the fall was perfect Chicana, submitting Faraon with an octopus stretch and then, needlessly and unprompted, punching Faraon in the dick while the hold was still applied. As far as low blows go it was an easy 9.5/10. Faraon's comeback was full of the venom you'd expect and Chicana wanted none of it, continually backing off without outright turning and hightailing it. At points he knew he had to fight and when they started trading punched it was spectacular. The highlight was Chicana backtracking as Faraon stalked him down outside the ring, Chicana picking up a glass bottle and shattering it on the ring post to use as a weapon. Faraon's immediate and instinctual response was to pick up a piece of that glass and continue walking down Chicana and for a second there you wondered if he wouldn't actually try and stab him. I've seen Glasgow street fights where you'd bet the house on someone leaving in an ambulance and this was similar, the referee in a very precarious position trying to talk both of them off a ledge. By the tercera they're both bleeding and cracking each other with punches and if it ultimately led to a hair match you'd happily sell your soul for it to appear on the internet one day.  

Revisiting 90s Joshi #55

Akira Hokuto v KAORU (GAEA, 4/12/97)

This was only around 15 minutes and never really felt like the Big Time Epic I was expecting. I don't mean that as a criticism either. Even if I was EXPECTING Big Time Epic it wasn't exactly what I was HOPING for. It was much more of a gritty affair, very scrappy with a nice amount of viciousness to tide us over. I also have to use my wrestling-watching time sparingly these days so 15 minutes gave me a little extra time to figure out how to do my taxes for the first time since moving to the US so that was a cool or at least useful thing. KAORU starting like you might've expected Hokuto to once upon a time was great, blitzing her with a springboard dropkick while Hokuto's back was turned. But it's not the first time someone's tried jumping Hokuto before she's even taken her coat off and her comeback was savage. That comeback was maybe a wee bit easily earned initially, but her selling as the match progressed was really good and by the end it felt like one arm and one leg were hanging off. To hell with that though, she was nasty as fuck and made KAORU pay for her early insolence. There was lots of mean shit, like the disgusting armbars, finger-biting and dropping KAORU on her neck several times. At one point KAORU tried to hit a back suplex off the top and Hokuto just grabbed her by the head and threw her out the ring, totally reckless, then followed up with a wild senton. She might not be THE Dangerous Queen anymore but you'd be a fool to think she isn't still dangerous. KAORU was pretty great here and she's become a favourite of mine the last couple years. She was willing to give as good as she got and hit a couple sick bombs of her own. I think my favourite thing she did was her low dropkick to Hokuto's notoriously dodgy knee. This thing was putrid and the desperation of it made it even better. The finish itself might've been the nastiest move of the lot, which I guess is a good way to cap a match. I don't know if these two have another singles match together but they face off in a couple tags that year so I should go back and watch those too probably. 

Revisiting 00s US Indies #44

Nigel McGuinness v Austin Aries (ROH Rising Above, 12/29/07)

The Austin Aries hits keep on coming! I watched this over a decade ago and thought it was better than all but one of the Nigel/Danielson matches and this watch didn't change my mind. I'm not really a Nigel McGuinness fan but I thought he was great in this, even if some of it might've been circumstances beyond his control. Was his selling of being concussed and running on fumes at points terrific? Sure. Was he absolutely and legitimately concussed and running on fumes at points? You better believe it. Was some of the match an uncomfortable watch as a result? Well this is a post-Benoit world and we know what we know about concussions so it's hard not to feel at least a little icky about enjoying a match in which someone's clearly had their brain rattled. Nigel was already injured even before the concussion, coming in with a torn biceps from when he won the belt. He'd missed a few shows before this because of it so of course the ROH crowd were on his case. When Danielson was champ he wrestled hurt for like two months! What happened to putting your body on the line for the STRAP??? I'm not sure if they'd planned on eventually turning Nigel before this or he just went with the crowd reaction and played into it, but either way he was giving it back to a few fans at the intros. The opening few minutes are tentative, with Aries almost testing the waters by going for that taped up arm, not too aggressively but enough where you know he's willing to exploit it. And why wouldn't he, I guess? Then Nigel takes a powder to go at it again with a fan and Aries wastes him with a tope to the back. Nigel's head crashes into the guardrail and you can tell immediately that his lights are out, and a nasty cut opens up above his eye. For the next few minutes he's left staggering around, partly selling (probably?) but also not even close to being all the way there. It's maybe a wee bit hard to watch through current day eyes. Aries might've already been up on that CTE research way back in 2007 because he looked a bit tentative for a few minutes afterwards. The concern was probably legit and he wanted to kill some time to let Nigel recover, but regardless it worked for the pacing of the match and created a story of Nigel trying to keep his concussed head above water for the remainder, having to break his own momentum a few times and get himself right. The crowd do not give Nigel an ounce of sympathy during this and pretty soon Aries is like yeah sure maybe this guy is an asshole and starts throwing elbows to the head. The focus after that was Aries working over the cut and scrambled head of Nigel - which again, wee bit unsettling - while going after the arm when the opportunity arises. People continue to just eat this up and Nigel gets more and more belligerent (can you blame him?). When Aries tried the pop up dropkick out of a headscissors Nigel blocked it with his forearms, turning away while giving Aries the fingers - middle AND index like a proper Englishman. When Aries tried it again later Nigel blocked it the exact same way, this time giving him the middle finger with a bit more venom behind it. Aries just punted him in the face after that. Nigel had started using his new arm submission around this time so we get some duelling arm work in the back half and the crowd are invested in all of it. I'd forgotten about 99% of what actually happened in this as well so when Aries went for another tope later I wasn't sure if Nigel was enough of a lunatic to let himself be torpedoed into the guardrail again. The finishing stretch is BIG and there are some BUMPS and the transitions between everything are mostly on point. Aries takes a screwball flip bump off a lariat to the floor while he's seated across the top rope, then takes an even SCREWBALLER bump off the jawbreaker lariat at the end. I kind of hated that move after a while because, while the actual lariat part always looked good, the set up either ranged from daft to ridiculously contrived, mostly because he just wasn't quick enough to do the rebound part smoothly. Well Aries is the best I've ever seen at setting himself up for it and not making it obvious he's standing around hoping Nigel doesn't get tangled up in the ropes. Then he eats the lariat and basically spikes himself on his own head like a fucking stone cold psychopath. 

Revisiting 00s US Indies #43

ROH Manhattan Mayhem (5/7/05)

One thing I did not expect to want to do when I started going back through this stuff a few years ago (lockdown was a wild time), was sit down and watch a full Ring of Honour show. Full, in its entirety, from start to finish (in several sittings over the course of about five years). ROH holds fond memories for me and that '04-'07 peak will always have a special wee place in my heart, but my days of wanting to watch ANY 3-hour wrestling show in its entirety are really only reserved for 90s RINGS or WAR. But I watched the thing and it was not a terrible time whatsoever.  

Lacey's Angels v Dixie & Azrieal 

This was supposed to be a 3-way tag match where the losing team would be forced to disband. Quite a severe stipulation for a curtain-jerker, but this is ROH's debut in New York - even Jay-Z is in the building, apparently - so I guess we're pulling out all the stops. Before it starts the Carnage Crew run out and annihilate Dunn and Marcos and tell the crowd they can kiss their ass, then they spit on the Ring of Honor turnbuckle padding, then leave. So it becomes a regular tag match instead, though the stipulation remains. I'll be honest, it's been so long since I've watched anything involving any of these guys that I had no clue who was who for a while, and possibly still don't. Lacey's Angels are Izzy and Deranged and they come out to the ring wearing tuxedos (without Lacey, who has a business meeting with P. Diddy, which I'm sure she regrets deeply now), while Dixie and Azrieal are part of Special K, which is the stable/group/unit that Jay Lethal was once a part of (under the name Hydro). So there you go. Do with that information what you will. I figured this would be your standard sort of 2005 ROH opener fare, and it probably was in all honesty, but it totally did the trick in the same way any good opener from any promotion or any era should -- it got the crowd fired up and ended with an awkwardly brutal headscissors takeover-reverse rana thing that probably could've killed someone. Deranged was pretty amusing in this as a skinny maniac. He took some impressive bumps, did a bit of stooging, got into a shoving match with an even skinnier referee, hit his offence nicely, a real fun ten minutes' worth of work. Dixie - or maybe it was Azrieal; I know it was one of them - definitely comes from the Dynamite Kid line of stocky juniors who work very intense, as he slashes a thumb across his throat and shouts "IT'S OVER" before grabbing a rear waistlock on Deranged and rolling backwards into a camel clutch. That was done to set up a top rope double stomp that, unfortunately for our man Dixie, went horribly awry, as one of those other people involved in the match intervened and instead it was Dixie - or possibly Azrieal - who got double stomped on the back of the head. For a spot-a-thon opener this ticked pretty much all of the boxes. They did cool shit that looked like it might even hurt, they fit in an actual heat segment, the crowd were red hot and that finish was a proper finish. 

Colt Cabana v Nigel McGuinness 

I don't really have much use for either of these guys but for a WHIMSICAL lower midcard match this was fine, if maybe a little too cute at points. Cabana is very jovial and he's here to have a nice sporting contest. Nigel is less jovial but seems to be on board with the sporting contest. The Euro style matwork was all neat enough and they ran through it at a decent pace. Like, you can tell that both of them have been doing this for a while so even the more elaborate and tricky sequences come off smoothly. There's a bit of comedy in there, some light-hearted parity stuff, all-around acknowledgment of the other's prowess, but then Nigel visibly starts to get a little more frustrated. There are about six exchanges in a row where Nigel tries to tie Cabana down and Cabana escapes every time by literally crawling away, once while Nigel rode his back like Cabana was a Shetland pony. The next time Cabana tries to shoot in for a leg Nigel just boots him in the mouth, and in that moment we all live vicariously through Nigel McGuinness because who hasn't wanted to boot Colt Cabana in the mouth at least once? Things never get properly surly and the matwork stays pretty light right until the end, but I thought the finish was cool as an idea, even if they had to just up and redo it because they made an arse of it the first time. 

James Gibson v Black Tiger IV

This was fine. Black Tiger is Rocky Romero and I can't really say I've ever been arsed about anything involving Rocky Romero, but Gibson was on a hot streak in '05 and they both meshed pretty well. A lot of Tiger's offence in the first half of the match consisted of him grabbing a cravate and ramming Gibson's head into things, sometimes the turnbuckles, sometimes the ring post. That was pretty neat. I actually really dug the last few minutes, and the best part is that a move I thought was sort of stupid initially wound up being the thread that ran through the best bits. Tiger going to an ankle lock straight out of a tiger driver or something (I genuinely don't remember the move now) felt kind of silly initially, and I wouldn't even say I'm someone who's particularly tied to the idea that submission moves need a ton of limb-focused build up. Fujiwara never spent every match working the arm but when he grabbed that armbar you knew the people bought it. This just felt more along the lines of being flashy for the sake of being flashy. HOWEVER who really gives a shit anyway and Tiger kept going back to it and Gibson sold it really well and it had a by god payoff in the end so who are we to complain? Who has given us that right? A perfectly okay wrestling match, this was. 

Jimmy Jacobs & BJ Whitmer v Roderick Strong & Jack Evans 

I enjoyed this about as much as I possibly could've hoped for. There were some iffy moments, some bits of questionable selling, a few parts where something didn't come off great, but for the most part it was a pretty awesome blend of workrate and traditional tag. It followed a fairly linear shine-heat-finishing run template and each segment was strong on its own, and that finishing run never stuck around too long and ended with a man nearly impaling himself head first on the canvas so we certainly can't complain about an anti-climax. This was whimsical mini-Brody Jimmy Jacobs rather than stab you in the head with a railroad spike and drink your blood Jimmy Jacobs, but whimsical Jacobs is still fun and he'll bump wildly if called upon. His personality is infectious and nicely offsets the lack thereof brought by his partner. Whitmer isn't even someone I actively dislike, he's just one of the least interesting wrestlers ever. He was mostly here to hit cool offence and make it look good though, and in fairness it all had some impact behind it and I guess that's enough. Him and Strong also chopped each other hard so there's another thing that happened. The transition to Jacobs in peril was truly ludicrous, as Strong flips Evans off his shoulders into a moonsault double stomp while Jimmy is lying prone in the corner across the middle ropes. For a second you wonder how his spine wasn't mangled and I guess Gabe did as well because he shouted "DANGEROUSSSS!" and I can't even tell you the face I made. The doomsday contra code at the end was very ridiculous and Jack Evans is a screwball. What a fun wee match. 

Samoa Joe v Jay Lethal

I liked the story of this. They didn't necessarily thread it through a ton of the match, it was more backstory narrative that the commentators explained until I muted it when Gabe got to talking about something or other, but knowing what that backstory actually was accentuated some of the moments. Joe had taken Lethal under his wing a while back and taught him how to BE A MAN. Lethal is now ROH Pure Champion and wants to prove that he has not only BECOME A MAN but become his OWN man. So a play on teacher versus student when you boil it down. A few of the broader story points were fairly self-explanatory. Lethal has been Pure Champion for a couple months and is familiar with the rules and strictures of a Pure title match. Joe has never been in a Pure title match and takes a while to collar how best to operate within one. He gives up two rope breaks early because going to the ropes to break a hold is what he'd do in a regular match. Then he loses his third break by throwing two punches. The first warning is met with annoyance, probably at himself as much as the rule that you can't punch someone in a wrestling match. I liked the spot because it wasn't telegraphed for dramatic effect, he just threw one of his regular combos because he's been doing them for years. It was muscle memory as much as anything. Then he throws the second one and right away he knows he's fucked up, which was cool because it gave you the sense that he was absolutely taking Lethal seriously. As the match goes on it feels like Joe is the most likely to actually win, but Lethal understands the challenge a little better, and if nothing else can maybe manipulate Joe into shooting himself in the foot. Lethal beat Spanky on a previous show by using a rope-assisted submission (which Spanky couldn't break because he'd used up all his rope breaks). This time he locks in a choke while both guys are on the apron, using his legs to wrap the ropes and keep Joe pinned. So Joe bites the bullet and just hurls the both of them through a ringside table. The final transition was a little weak, with Joe kicking out of the dragon suplex and just reversing another attempt into his own string of offence, but the stretch run itself was pretty tight and they never went crazy so you take the good with the questionable. Maybe the best Jay Lethal match of them all. Do with that what you will. 

CM Punk v Jimmy Rave (Dog Collar Match) 

This was kind of long and drawn out as a match-angle segment, but the Punk/Rave feud has been fairly enjoyable on re-watch and I at least appreciated them keeping the match itself relatively short. Part of me was worried they'd go 30 so I was pleasantly surprised when they went like 14. Punk is obviously a huge Piper fan so you knew he'd have some gnarly stuff up his sleeve. Sure enough the point where Rave had the chain across Punk's mouth as he shoved his face into it with his boot was disgusting, but then he took it a step further and turned it into a chain-assisted curb stomp! It looked very brutal. They also didn't do anything overly flashy or INNOVATIVE and leaned into wrapping a chain around their fists and throwing punches, which of course I liked a lot. Punk taps a gusher and his blood-loss selling was pretty great, staggering across the ring to get at Nana only to be cut off when Rave yanks the chain up into his privates. This is building to a cage match in Chicago a week later so there's plenty of interference, I think in the end from every single person in the Embassy, so eventually the numbers catch up to Punk and Rave yet again stands victorious. I've watched this feud in smatterings over the past five years so it's not like much of it is fresh in the memory, but they've built Rave well over 2005 and overall it's been a really fun pairing. 

Austin Aries v Alex Shelley

Honestly, I keep waiting for the point where I'm over Austin Aries. I don't even really know why, maybe because he's a real-life shithead or whatever, but I always expect to go back and revisit something and think he maybe wasn't as good as I used to for a while there. He was my favourite guy in ROH when I was following in real time from around '05-08, then when I fell out of that loop he was someone I'd still check out from time to time if something caught my eye. When we did the PWO GWE project in 2016 he made my list (at #99) and then when I started going through this stuff again in 2020, everything with him in it held up great. Maybe at this point I should just embrace the fact he was kind of fucking awesome? I thought this was an excellent match and I thought Aries' performance was absolutely top banana. He was an offensive dynamo here. He's quite often an offensive dynamo, but what really impresses me isn't just that he a has LOT of offence. I mean he does have a lot of it and all of it looks great, with real snap and intensity and impact, but if you've bothered reading more than five entries of this stupid blog over the last 15 years then you'll probably gather that I don't really need a ton of varied offence in my pro wrestling to enjoy it. What I like most about Aries is how he uses all of that offence - his offensive REPERTOIRE, if you will - and builds compelling control segments and cut-offs and sure, at the end of the day some of it just looks badass as fuck. His work on Shelley's neck was tremendous - varied, targeted, focused, paced well, the lot. It was an awesome control segment and kind of brought to mind Eddie working over Rey in their Smackdown! match a month after this, albeit played to an audience that was looking for different things. The original transition was great, with Shelley being rocked and stood dazed by the ropes, Aries catching him with an amazing Randy Savage style clothesline, snapping Shelley's neck back over the ropes as Aries himself landed outside the ring. This was lightning quick, even faster than Savage and he LEAPT into this thing, almost making it a flying cutter/clothesline combo. He followed up with a brutal looking apron neckbreaker across the middle rope and to borrow another page from the Eddie Guerrero playbook, a hilo across the neck, rolling up and sprinting to the opposite ropes, hitting a flying kneedrop to the neck on the way back. The coolest part of the workover is that it actually felt organic, even when he was doing some complex stuff. It didn't look choreographed or mapped out to the letter. I guess you could call it innovative or whatever, but it was reactive rather than wanky and he did it in response to whatever the situation gave him. Those neckbreaker variations obviously looked great. The twisting one off the middle turnbuckle also made sense in the moment because it was a reaction to Shelley trying to superplex him. The snap neckbreaker onto his own knee is always a cool spot. He didn't just do it to be flashy though; it was used to cut Shelley off when he tried to run the ropes and build up momentum. His signature stuff was geared towards the neck as well, like the pendulum elbow while Shelley was on all fours, then later he grabbed him in a crossface and tried to twist his head around by fish hooking him (which would've fucking ruled no matter what). And then he has the brainbuster to set up the 450, so it all built back from his killshot. I liked this a ton. 

Samoa Joe & Jay Lethal v Low Ki & Homicide 

I watched both of the wild Joe/Lethal v Rottweilers matches from '05 about 12 years ago and thought they were just about the best tags to ever happen in an ROH ring. Unless the rematch from later in the year doesn't hold up then my opinion has not been SWAYED by the passage of time. This was a fantastic balls out sprint and the crowd were nuclear from the jump because it was impromptu. Homicide and Ki were a pair of maniac bastards here and tried to murder Jay Lethal several times. Lethal and Joe had already gone through their Pure Title WAR - skirmish at minimum - earlier in the show only to be jumped post-match by Ki and Homicide. So this is payback, but the promise of revenge can only carry you so far, as my great grandmother would always say, and pretty soon fatigue kicks in. When it does the Rottweilers isolate Lethal and get to the killing. Ki's tree of woe double stomp to Lethal's chest might be the craziest version of that move ever, and that includes the times he did it to Necro Butcher's face and willy. Joe coming in off the hot tag was molten but I love how even his adrenaline could only last so long. He ends up hanging between the ropes and Ki hits a double stomp to the back from the top rope with such force that he bounces himself all the way across to the opposite corner. It was like Joe was a trampoline. How they never honest to god killed Jay Lethal with that double stomp/Cop Killa combo is a mystery. A fucking absurdity of a thing, I'll tell you. These four should've had a dozen 10-minute matches that year.