I moved from Scotland to Texas for a new job a few months ago and I haven't had time to watch much of anything since then. I've tried to set aside an hour here and there over the last week to throw on some randomness and this is what I came up with. I might even have time next week to do the same.
This was Murdoch working a New Japan house show against a Russian grappler like it was in front of 3,000 people from Central Missouri in 1982, and I mean that in the best way possible. However many questions we may have about Dick Murdoch's background - and there are many - I don't think we'd ever conclude that he had one in MMA (or a singular martial art for that matter), so it's kind of amusing seeing him sell the cross-armbreaker like a regular pro wrestling armbar. I think the crowd cottoned onto it as well because there wasn't the same buzz when Berkovich grabbed it like there would've been if that was one of the natives in there. They knew this was a different sort of match, one maybe outside the stylistic box that they'd come to expect in 1989. Maybe a bit of a THROWBACK~, if you like. Berkovich goes after that arm a few times so Murdoch goes after the leg in response, which made for a nice enough dynamic over seven minutes. The build to the first time Murdoch connects with an elbow to the knee is perfect, then the reaction for him throwing his first punch to the face is even better. I wasn't even really paying attention to how he milked those moments, but he got tetchy with the other Russians in Berkovich's corner and he was always on the cusp on clocking someone and then he did. He knew how to get the exact response from the crowd that he wanted. I don't think they gave a shit that he didn't know jiu-jitsu.
Kazunari Murakami v Kensuke Sasaki (Big Mouth Loud, 3/22/06)
About as good as you'll get for three and a half minutes. This was Murakami making deranged faces while getting hit very hard. It wasn't your usual dick-swinging tough guy nonsense - Murakami absorbed the blows as well as he could, but he didn't shrug them off so he could hit back and then stand around just to be hit again in return. He took the shots and tried to fight through them because he's a psychopath, but Sasaki just clobbered him over and over until he couldn't stand up again. Sasaki didn't wait for Murakami to hit HIM. He just saw that Murakami wasn't going down and so he did what any other angry man built like a tree would do and he fuckin hit him again. Some of the Sasaki lariats were damn near decapitations and then he chopped Murakami in the back of the head and it was repulsive. Murakami punched Sasaki in the face like he punches everyone in the face, then the ref' got in his ear and Murakami had to argue because he couldn't help himself and Sasaki flattened him. Sometimes you only need three and a half minutes.
Young Bucks & Kenny Omega v Lucha Brothers & Pac (Ladder Match) (AEW Dynamite, 1/11/23)
I'm not really sure what possessed me to watch this. I don't like any of these guys and I can't stand four of them. There's pretty much nothing about watching a ladder match that excites me in the year 2024 and that's even with people I do like. And yet I watched it anyway and thought it was perfectly fine. At 17 minutes it never got totally stupid, they worked at a quick pace and ran through their moments one after another, but nothing felt overly contrived because they never really slowed down enough to set up anything too ridiculous. There was a hunner thousand superkicks but they all looked more like Chris Adams superkicks rather than Jey Uso superkicks so why not I guess. They mentioned on commentary that Omega was beat to shit and jetlagged to hell and I actually bought it because of how he worked, maybe to the point where those things were actually true? I mean, he's been legit dinged up for a while, right? I don't know, he obviously did some big time moves and flipped through a table and hit a fucking outrageous One Winged Angel off a propped up ladder, but I thought he sold the TOLL of everything well. Also loved him getting his fingers crushed between a ladder when Pac stepped on it, and he sold his ribs pretty well towards the end without being hammy about it. Matt Jackson hit a running Canadian Destroyer that might've been the most not-stupid Canadian Destroyer I've ever seen and the other one obliterated his hamstrings on a flip ladder bump and I think the Young Bucks are dreadful but credit where it's fuckin due and all that. Pac hitting Omega's fingers with a hammer was also hilarious. The BASTARD~. Pro wrestling, what a nonsense.
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