Darby v Page

Darby Allin v Ethan Page (Coffin Match) (AEW Dynamite, 7/14/21) 

This was tremendous and one of my favourite things I've watched from 2021. As far as plunderfests go it was about as good as it gets without going stupidly overboard, and I say that having watched a decent bunch of AEW plunderfests over the last couple weeks and finding at least something to enjoy about all of them (except the Adam Cole one). I don't know if I've ever actually seen Ethan Page before. He was a pretty fun meathead in this, had some neat strength spots where he got to chuck Darby around, and I liked him doing goofy shit like serenading a bolt hook before trying to wring Darby's neck with it. Still, this was Darby's match and that boy is outrageous. He took several ludicrous bumps, two of which being fully batshit and at least a 9.5/10 on the Darby Bump Scale. He also jumped off a balcony and when Page caught him I half expected him to chuck Darby down the nearby staircase. Which is really a theme with Darby. There are often moments in his matches where he'll be in a situation in which something bonkers could happen, and with most wrestlers you wouldn't even really consider it being a thing, but with him you stop and go "wait...he wouldn't, would he?" And there are times where the crazy thing that pops into your head doesn't happen and you breathe a sigh of relief, but then there are others where it does happen and there are only like four people in wrestling who would actually do it. Basically it means every Darby match has a real sense of danger and unpredictability. This had two of those moments that hit me, the first being the catch off the balcony dive, which did not result in near death but probably would have if this were Puerto Rico. The second was the avalanche bomb on the steps, which they actually went through with and how Allin is still walking at all right now is a miracle. Darby is just as reckless with his own body when making his comeback, hitting the amazing tope where he hurls himself into Page like someone shot him out a catapult. The revenge spot with the bolt hook was amazing as well, literally fish hooking Page's cheek with this big giant bastard bit of metal. The Sting/Scorpio involvement worked great, I thought. Sting is old but has the presence and is just BIGGER (or at least taller) than most of the roster, so he looks imposing marching to the ring to even the odds after Scorpio pops out the coffin. Him and Sky had some compelling crowd brawling, then Darby and Page did the same, and modern crowd brawling isn't always something I enjoy so it's cool that four of them managed to grab me with it. Darby getting launched around the place probably helped. Him and Jimmy Jacobs would've made some magic in 2007 ROH throwing each other down staircases and stabbing each other with railroad spikes. Loved the finish with Darby hitting the skateboard double stomp, and then the COFFIN Coffin Drop was insanity. I audibly said "fuck off" when he climbed the turnbuckles and figured he surely wouldn't and then he did. Darby might be the best undersized babyface working opposite a bigger heel in wrestling right now.

Some Full Gear 2021

This was one of only two PPVs I checked out in any capacity last year. My interest in American wrestling was as low as it had ever been, between starting a new job and doing a PhD I barely had time to watch stuff I did have interest in, and for the first time since maybe the year 2000 I didn't even bother watching Wrestlemania within a couple days of it happening. I didn't watch everything on this show, or if I did then I didn't pay attention to everything. I think I had the Adam Cole thing on as background noise while I dicked about with Excel formulas. I knew nothing about the context of any match and I'm pretty sure I hadn't even realised Rusev and Miro were one and the same until I saw this. I was mostly interested in four matches -- Darby/MJF because I liked Darby, Danielson/Miro because I liked Danielson, Punk/Kingston because surely that had to be good, and Page/Omega because Page has great entrance music and he was cutting about on a horse for a minute there. I liked all four to varying degrees, or at least liked that Page won the belt in the main event, and I'll watch three of the four matches again. I'd be shocked if they all don't land a little better this time as well.

Darby Allin v MJF

I thought this was great the first time and even better on a re-watch. There were a couple things I could've maybe done without and I guess they could've shaved off a few minutes, but as a whole they knocked this bastard out the park. My gripes with it aren't even major ones, really. More than anything else they took me out of it a bit when they went back to the roll-ups and trading inside cradles during the finishing run. It felt like Flair doing a headlock takeover as a setup to the bridge-into-backslide bit that he'd usually do late in matches, I guess because it was a thing he liked to do so why not. It's jarring and always feels out of place. On the other hand they at least had an excuse to go to the headlock in the first place, as half the story coming in was that MJF was adamant he could beat Darby outright with a headlock takeover. Still, it didn't last very long and they reeled me back in pretty quickly. It was more Savage v Steamboat than Flair v Terry Taylor. Prolly. The second thing isn't even much of a gripe to be honest, and I could probably convince myself that I actively liked it. If one half of the story was built around MJF wanting to beat Darby with a headlock, the other half was built around him throwing shit at Darby's dead uncle. They leaned more into the former than the latter, so they started with an extended chain wrestling sequence and not Darby trying to stab Friedman in the face with a chisel, which would've been my personal preference. Either way it started with an MFJ headlock takeover, so you have your narrative consistency and all that, but what really grabbed me was the thing that'll usually have the opposite effect. The headlock led into an extended parity exchange, and by extended I mean probably the longest one that I've seen. I don't even like Dean Malenko/Eddie Guerrero exchanges when fucking Eddie Guerrero is doing them so most other people have no shot, but I'll be damned if this wasn't the apex of Malenko/Guerrero indie parity stalemates. They hit everything clean as a whistle and the degree of difficulty on some stuff was fairly high, and hey, if you're Darby and some schmuck is saying he could beat you with a headlock then why not go and prove him wrong straight out the gate? Darby Allin can WRESTLE. Storytelling! Everything else was tremendous. Straight after the opening exchange MJF cracks Darby with a sucker punch, then takes it to the floor and we get one of the top drawer Darby Allin topes. Darby's tope is great for a few reasons and one of them is how it requires less setup than most. He just hits it quicker, so the recipient has to spend less time standing there waiting for it. This one had the recipient adding his own spin, as MJF started jawing with a fat boy in the crowd and never even saw it coming. Of course Darby crushed him dead with it too. Darby was out of his mind and the missed Coffin Drop on the apron pretty much writes its own story after that, but MJF's work on the back was inspired. Some of those backbreakers were perfect and the powerbomb on the knee was an absurdity of a thing. That's a spot that doesn't look good all that often, but Darby is a maniac and this looked like something that would paralyze you. As soon as it happens MJF sells his own knee, and it makes sense because obviously a move like that is a double-edged sword. I thought everything around that knee from there on out ruled. He sold it great in that each time he used it as part of an offensive move or Darby chop blocked it, the longer it took for him to recover. He wasn't hobbling around on one leg right away, it was still functional to begin with but by the end he was having to drag himself back to one foot with the ring ropes. All the huge bumps towards the end looked great - the tombstone on the apron (where MJF sold the knee again), the Coffin Drop on the floor, the crazy Hijo del Santo powerbomb thing, everything getting major reactions. I thought the finish with the skateboard had just the right amount of theatre without being stupid and in the end MJF did what he said he'd do; he just needed some Memphis courage to get him over the line. Really an awesome match, and up there as one of the best PPV openers you'll get. 

Bryan Danielson v Miro 

I liked this way more second time around. Watching it in November I was actually a wee bit disappointed, as it was the first time I'd checked out Danielson in AEW and I no idea what Miro was supposed to be. Context helps, shockingly enough. This is the first time in his AEW run that Danielson has been shut down with such relative ease. Miro would absorb shots and literally chuck him across the ring and Danielson's persistence didn't seem to matter. Miro had the engine so you couldn't even see Danielson adopting the Morishima strategy. It was a really fun Miro performance and I guess this is about the highest I've ever been on him. Presumably he was legit injured here (has he made an appearance since?) because Danielson never went after the bandaged up leg, though he did try and chip away at the other leg even if it never got much traction. By the end it felt like Danielson was just trying to survive in the hopes that his ridiculous skill could carve out an advantage, and I obviously loved Miro doing an Ultimate Warrior and asking his gods for guidance when Danielson escaped the Game Over. I even enjoyed Miro raising his arms like a big old grizzly bear and telling Danielson to kick him. That stuff is usually bull pucky but this reminded me of one of your big Dutch judokas coming into RINGS and telling Maeda to stop hitting like a child. Miro's history of neck problems is documented enough that eating an ugly DDT from the top rope was a plausible death shot, and after that it's hard to shake a guy who has you locked in a guillotine when you've lost feeling in your arms and legs. 

CM Punk v Eddie Kingston 

Phenomenal on first watch, more phenomenal on second watch. It's another one that lands even better after seeing the build up (which was short, but that in-ring segment was incredible and they really didn't need a whole lot more after that). This was basically a street fight from the jump, but not a pro wrestling street fight with your kendo sticks and ladders; a street fight between two guys who want to punch a hole in the other's face, which is really the best kind of street fight, the kind that spills from a bar or a supermarket or boxing gym into the middle of the road. Eddie walloping Punk with the back fist as Remsburg tries to separate them was an amazing way to start it, and Punk's lights on but nobody's home selling was spectacular. When he flips Eddie the bird before even standing back up you have a pretty good idea of what this is going to be like. I thought both guys were tremendous, for similar reasons in the broad strokes sense - selling, timing, all of that - but also for how they took pretty different character paths as the match went along. This might've been the first time Punk got audibly booed since coming into AEW, and I guess it's a look at how things might go whenever the Page feud really picks up. Both of them were babyfaces and Kingston has about as much of a die hard following as Punk at this point, but even if Punk expected the crowd to be split going in he obviously rolled with some of the punches here. It was noticeable in his other matches as well, where he was clearly going with the flow and tapping into what the crowd were after. In the Sydal match it was playing up the body slam, and there was no way he could've expected that crowd to be rabid enough for a fucking body slam that he planned it beforehand. It was improv and it was brilliant. When he jumped on a near-lifeless Kingston and started clubbing him about the head I don't think he expected the crowd to side so completely with Eddie, especially considering they never showed much displeasure earlier when Kingston was trying to rip Punk's ear off or bite a chunk out his head. That moment in particular didn't seem to precipitate a change in Punk weather vane, because there were points earlier where he leaned into the idea that he wasn't the hero in this tale, but if nothing else it was a culmination of things. Those things being the tease of the five-knuckle shuffle, the pause and grin as he acknowledged the boos while blood streamed down his face, and my favourite bit, the three amigos while the crowd chanted Eddie. The latter might've been something they did plan, as the PPV fell on the anniversary of Eddie Guerrero's death, but he knew those Eddie chants were for Kingston and he decided to do the Guerrero spot THEN and I don't think anybody needs to worry about him getting heat whenever they properly turn him heel. Kingston was phenomenal again. There's a realness about Eddie that almost no other wrestler can capture. He's raw in a way that not even Punk is, and after the Players' Tribune article he's relatable in a way that almost nobody is. Not necessarily in the sense that most of us can relate to wrestling on indie shows for fifteen bucks a night, more that we can relate to the broader struggle and sentiment that he conveyed so perfectly in that article. It's difficult not to want that man to succeed, and Punk WAS kind of a dickhead to him on Dynamite. Eddie captured every bit of that rawness in his performance and the crowd were going to live and die with him. Plus he tapped into that lunatic vein of his and tried to send Punk to the hospital, which at the end of the day is what we came for. Wiping Punk's blood over his own face like war paint, the mocking GTS call followed by the "what a jack off" gesture (legitimately one of the greatest moments in the history of our sport, btw), his unbelievable selling, just everything he did from the second he walked onto the ramp. This also might've had the best Frye/Takayama spot since the actual Don Frye and Yoshihiro Takayama were whomping each other in the face and I pray to the old gods and the new that we get this match up again in 2022. An incredible bitta wrestling. 

Kingston and Dragon Bring the Heat

Bryan Danielson v Eddie Kingston (AEW Rampage, 10/29/21)

Mother a god what a wrestling match. Kingston might be - if you'll excuse the hilarious punnery for one second - the king of working 90s All Japan in American wrestling, really because he doesn't do all of the excessive shit that most of the wrestlers who grew up watching 90s All Japan tapes decided to incorporate into their matches years later. But fuck a commentary on 90s All Japan because this was way less like that and way more like WAR on crank. And if you're going to crib from 90s Japanese wrestling promotions and work some approximation of them in modern AEW then there are none I would want to see more than the Wrestle and Romance. They only did two promos in the lead up to this, one of them on youtube that I'd never have known about had I not stumbled upon it by accident. In those segments Danielson was almost condescending towards Kingston, complimenting him on being tough as nails and a brilliant wrestler, but doing it with the back of his hand by saying that Eddie could be so much more if he'd ever actually work for anything. Kingston was not about to listen to that shit and brought up how he's beaten addiction, fought depression and worked for everything he's ever had in life. We know it to be true as well, and between that and Eddie's general ability to garner sympathy and support just for being who he is, it felt like this crowd maybe wanted him to put Danielson in his place a little. 

Danielson was great in this and it was a performance that might not have been as special 15 years ago. He could've worked it more or less the same, but in 2007 he was the king of ROH, whereas in 2021 he's a legitimate pro wrestling superstar. He's been everywhere by now and it felt like he almost let Kingston take the reins. He was a man who had nothing else he needed to prove and really the perfect foil. But Kingston was transcendent. He marched out to the ring focused and not once did he take his eyes off the prize. Every single thing he did felt like it had a purpose, whether it was going after Danielson's neck or blitzing him with strikes, he was relentless. He went to the backdrop suplex more than once and every time it felt like a game-changer, especially the one on the floor, though my favourite was the 1-2 where he suplexed him into the turnbuckle first, kept hold of him and followed up with a regular version. Some of the strikes were ungodly. He caught Danielson leaping off the apron by cracking him with a punch and it looked extra spectacular because there aren't very many prominent punchers in  AEW. The chops left Danielson's chest looking like a chewed up hamburger, just a purple mess of exploded blood vessels, then there was the backfist that Danielson sold like it caved his entire face in. All of Danielson's strikes kept pace -- the forearms, the elbows, his own chops and of course the kicks to every part of Kingston's person, from kneecap to shoulder blade to cranium. There was one amazing bit where Danielson was lying crumpled in the corner and he flipped Eddie the bird, but Eddie's only acknowledgement of it was to slap the hand away and melt him with another chop. A man who's so often driven by emotion was all business, and if Danielson had gotten under his skin during the interviews he wasn't getting under his skin in the ring. 

There were tonnes of brilliant little moments from them both and Kingston had some incredible bits of selling, like where he'd go dead-eyed after a head kick, sell a leg kick that might've grazed him yet was no less awkward (like an early kick that clipped his knee, which will hurt like a bastard in any situation), or how he'd bite his own fingers to distract from Danielson trying to rip his arm out. Then there's the amazing finish. Danielson trying to hook the taped up arm in the Fujiwara armbar had Kingston as flustered as he'd been all match, then the fade to black middle finger as the triangle dims his lights was perfection. Indignant to the end. Never ever question Eddie Kingston's heart. 

Seventeen stars. 

Some Dynamite and Rampage (4/27 & 4/29)

Serena Deeb v Hikaru Shida (Philly Street Fight) (AEW Dynamite, 4/27/22)

Hot damn give me all the Serena Deeb. This wasn't quite as good as the match from last October, but it had many of the same qualities, including the primary quality of Serena Deeb being fucking awesome. She spent most of this working the leg again and Shida didn't really give a shit about selling it after a while, but Deeb was not for letting this thing go and Shida was either tapping or leaving in an ambulance. At one point she used the apron cover to wrap the leg and keep Shida pinned in the place, then she wellied her with a chair across the kneecap. They leaned into the street fight stip just enough that it never teetered into propfest territory, and all of the stuff they did do looked like it had bad intentions behind it. The kendo stick shots were filthy, none of them clean, most of them landing at awkward angles where you know they're waking up tomorrow pulling bamboo splinters from various parts of their body. Deeb has that nasty streak in her where she'll find - or make - a way to claw herself back into a fight, and this time she threw half a kilo of powder in Shida's eyes when it seemed like the latter was ready to go on a run. Shida blindly swinging the kendo stick was amusing and again Deeb took a wild shot right in the kidneys. I loved Shida bumbling and stumbling out the ring and grabbing a water bottle from a fan to clear the powder out her eyes. It was sort of goofy, sure, but you knew that with clarity came payback, and if nothing else I was interested in seeing how Deeb would shut her down again. Blocking the rolling knee with the chair was an amazing last-ditch cut-off, then she went bonkers by repeatedly smashing it down onto the same chair and that was even more amazing. I was truly hyped when she won as well and would not have expected to be this invested in a Serena Deeb match only a few days ago. I don't even know who the women's champion in AEW is but I'm hopeful and excited about seeing how Deeb will try to main them whenever the time comes. 

Darby Allin v Swerve Strickland (AEW Rampage, 4/29/22)

Nice, fun wee 10 minutes. I love Darby and knew that well enough already, but I've dug Strickland quite a bit from the few times I've watched him in AEW as well, so I was looking forward to this. Darby is certifiable and nobody in their right mind is taking bumps like this in the opening match of a B show. The suplex off the apron was right out the Shawn Michaels at Summerslam '95 playbook and he leaned into Strickland's big strikes like a maniac, the pump kick to the side of the head and the bonkers tope into the knee. Swerve is clearly an incredible athlete and moves like a cat, flipping Eddy Gordo style into a headscissors, doing a clean headspring off the fucking ring apron after clearing the top rope, really impressive stuff. I really liked the early chain wrestling as well. It was slick more than it was gritty, but something like the headlock reversal to the armdrag could come off as overly cooperative if done with less speed than it was here. I'm okay with the finish in theory even if doing it after the wild suplex was strange timing. I guess the Ricky Starks distraction gave Allin some time to recover, though. I'm not sure what Darby does next and having him be involved in a Team Taz thing is probably too much of a re-tread, but I can get behind a potential Starks/Swerve match that I assume they're working towards. 

The Serena Deeb Show

Serena Deeb v Hikaru Shida (AEW Dynamite, 10/27/21)

Well this was an awesome surprise. I haven't seen Serena Deeb in over ten years, probably since the Straight Edge Society days. I didn't even know she was in AEW - or wrestling at all - until someone suggested I watch some Serena Deeb matches. She's only 35 yet works like a 15 year veteran and I guess that's because she is. I don't remember if she was any good in WWE or not, but let me tell you she looked badass as a motherfucker here and this is easily the best AEW women's match I've watched so far. The bulk of it was built around Deeb going after Shida's leg, and while Shida never sold it like she's Macho Man Randy Savage or whatever she was at least passable. Deeb was like a Rottweiler. She was taking this poor girl's leg home with her no matter what and I loved how she had a hundred nasty ways of inflicting damage. The ring post figure-four was of course the highlight, as a ring post figure-four will tend to be, but this had extra bonus points for how Deeb used the steps to rest on while she applied it. And then there was the EXTRA extra bonus point from wearing pink and black ring attire, which Tony suggests might be a deliberate nod to the Hitman. Her roll-through half crab was super slick and worked as a legit nearfall, she hit one dragon screw thing that was more of a pull than a screw and looked like it could've detached Shida's kneecap, another dragon screw variation that I would describe as a swinging neckbreaker to the leg, a mean toehold where she tried to rotate Shida's foot a whole 180 degrees like she was opening a big jar of pickles, it was all great stuff. She was also smart about getting into position for Shida's more elaborate signature moves. I'd never seen a Shida match before and she's probably decent enough, but she seemed to be trying a few things that required a very specific setup, and Deeb set herself up for and/or reversed those things in interesting ways. I bit on about six different potential finishes down the stretch and I loved Deeb going to the eye poke and inside cradle, which I thought for certain was ending it. Judging by how many moves the commentators were name-dropping during the post-match beatdown I guess they both left a bunch of stuff on the table for future encounters (including the nasty submission that Deeb used to empty the referee's locker room), so that's pretty cool. Maybe I'll just watch ALL of the Serena Deeb? 

There's Only One Natural

Bryan Danielson v Dustin Rhodes (AEW Dynamite, 10/23/21)

I think I preferred Dustin/Punk by a little, but holy shit was this excellent. The Punk match is an interesting comparison, and I suppose an obvious one if you're a Dustin Rhodes fan. They're both kind of Dustin Rhodes dream matches, against guys who even a year ago you figured he'd probably missed the chance to stretch out with. Danielson is barely three years younger than Punk, but what made Punk/Dustin so cool is that Punk looked and worked like a man in his forties (meant in the best way possible). Danielson does not wrestle like a man in his forties. Danielson isn't trying to work his way back to his best before challenging for a title, or trying to gradually wrestle loose any ring rust. Danielson moves like he's always moved, like he's at the peak of his powers the same way he was in 2004 or 2013 or whenever else you want to argue he was at the peak of his powers. Even if Dustin is evergreen he's nowhere near his physical peak, and he wears his years and previous retirements less well than Danielson wears that distant memory of a sabbatical. What it meant was that this almost felt like a case of Dustin's ring awareness and positioning against Danielson's relentlessness. It was cool to see how Danielson would combat that size difference as well. At points he'd chop - sometimes literally - Dustin down to size, throwing kicks to the knee to set up kicks to the midsection to set up kicks to the head. In contrast, lots of Dustin's offence came through smart counters where he visibly drew Danielson in. The sidestepped tope, the powerslam where he let Danielson hit the ropes so he picked up his own momentum, the clothesline after dropping Danielson across the top rope, the lariat to counter the running knee. I'm not sure he ever put together much of an offensive run, but he picked his spots and they were all big ones. Danielson was a swarm, though. He would only be slowed, never stopped. I thought Dustin's selling in a broad sense was sensational, not so much in terms of limb selling or selling of a specific move or whatever, but of the accumulation of everything, the fight he was in and the weight of it on him -- the fuckin MAGNITUDE of it all if we can be melodramatic for a second. From the very beginning he was taking his time, not rushing into anything. Even after catching Danielson with an armdrag he was slow getting to his feet, while Danielson was already up and set and probably could've shot in to push the tempo if he really wanted to. When Danielson was peppering Dustin with shots early on it felt like a mismatch, where you figured Dustin would need to do something soon or he'd be overrun, then Danielson lowered his head a split second too early and Dustin almost savoured the moment before dropping down and hitting the big uppercut. It's just that the longer it went the greater the toll on him. After the superplex it looked like he tried to float over into a cover Barry Windham style but couldn't quite manage it, and Danielson was up first again, groggy as he was. Dustin unzipping the vest after he'd had enough of being kicked up and down the place was the perfect Lawler dropping the strap moment, though maybe you wondered if that was about all he had left. That ring positioning comes into play when Danielson has him in an armbar and Dustin can use those long legs to force the rope break, but then Danielson seizes the moment by throwing himself at Dustin and clinging to him like a limpet with the guillotine. I now wait patiently for Dustin v Eddie Kingston. 

The American Dragon is Still Very Decent

Bryan Danielson v Minoru Suzuki (AEW Rampage - The Buy In, 10/15/21)

This was pretty good in about the stupidest way possible. Suzuki's whole bit was long in the tooth for me a while back and every time I've watched him over the last few years the less I really care about it, but he's settled into a touring formula that really works for him (and the vast majority of his audiences). If nothing else I like wrestlers making stupid faces, so there's that too. You can tell this is the type of match Danielson left WWE to have and I'm not sure he threw more than five strikes there that landed harder than the lightest one here. Look, I'm over the modern strike exchange. "You hit me while I stand here and then I'll hit you while you stand there, and we'll both do it as hard as possible" is not in the least bit compelling to me at this point. Yes, I am a miserable grouch. But I guess Danielson's history of having his brains scrambled gave this an edge that most modern strike exchanges don't really have, and from a character standpoint I buy him engaging in this sort of sadism just to prove a point. From a character standpoint you obviously buy Suzuki engaging in it. "It's their character!" is an argument you can use to explain away all sorts of dumb shit in wrestling, but this is literally Minoru Suzuki now. He's a crackpot and for better or worse it's what he does. They certainly took the jaw off each other and Danielson's sell of that first big forearm was phenomenal, so I suppose rote 2020s strike exchanges is something else I can add to the list of things Bryan Danielson will make tolerable in the year 2022. When they got to the grappling I loved it. Clearly Danielson's stylistic preference is to work some approximation of modern New Japan, but this was a reminder of how amazing he'd be at working UWF or Battlarts or even 2010s IWRG matches (Battlarts might be too high on the scrambled brains scale). All of the struggles over holds, the joint manipulation, the way they milked escapes, these were two guys who knew they could stretch out without needing to hold the other's hand. I'll also say that this never felt like it went 20 minutes, which is impressive because I've seen similar matches go 12 and could swear they went 30. 

Bryan Danielson v Bobby Fish (AEW Dynamite, 10/16/21)

A very different affair. It was really good and for the most part I thought Danielson was great in it. Fish was a mean wee bastard and went after the leg in pretty nasty ways, as seems to be his wont in AEW. Danielson didn't sell it HUGE and a few years ago I'd have wanted him to really draw attention to it, if for no reason other than him being really good at that sort of thing. But that part wasn't what impressed me anyway; it was that this match took place not but 24 hours after Danielson and Suzuki obliterated each other and Danielson wasn't about to let you forget that he was banged up. He started much slower than he had in every other match before this, could never quite get anything going, then in an awesome bit on the floor he tried to hoist Fish onto his shoulders to roll him back in the ring and was visibly struggling to even manage it. This was a guy who'd played 120 minutes against a team of bastards the night before, who'd been kicked up and down the pitch, who was now being thrown into a high-intensity training session the next day even though the sport scientist pleaded with the head coach to rest him and the head coach wouldn't listen so the sport scientist was the one copping all the shit as usual and you could tell Danielson was struggling. When he manages to get a foothold he does it by going after Fish's leg and we get some nice revenge spots of him wrapping it around the post. Finish is tremendous. They're both fighting over the kneebar close to the ropes, both down-kicking each other in the face, then Danielson reels off about five and Fish has to cover up before he loses all his teeth through his wee gumshield. Danielson gets up, drags him away from the ropes, and sinks into a truly vile heel hook that about dislocates Fish's patella on the way down. Just an amazing "enough of this shit" moment from a guy who plainly had had enough. 

Kingston v Garcia

Eddie Kingston v Daniel Garcia (AEW Rampage, 22/4/22)

This was the business. Kingston might be one of my three favourite guys in the company and Garcia might be one of my five favourite, despite me having seen all of about three matches with him in it. Eddie was a surly menace and I thought Garcia going after his stomach was an awesome bit of work. The transition spot on the ring steps was great and I like how Eddie took it right in the hip bone, then Garcia was dropping knees to the gut and ribcage, throwing strikes to the midsection to cut Kingston off, just going after him like he was trying to make deep inhalation an arduous process. There was one part where Eddie got to the ropes off a submission and Garcia milked the full five count before releasing, but Kingston kept selling the hold the whole time, shouting "get him off me!" through gritted teeth. Usually when someone gets to the ropes they'll just sort of stop selling the pain from the hold they're in, like the ropes themselves provide a mythical healing quality that leaves one impervious to pain, even if the applicant of the hold hasn't actually released it straight away. Kingston felt every second of this though, and his attention to vulnerability endears him even further to us all. He was also the most scrappy imaginable, how he'd throw strikes from his knees or back, sometimes just chopping Garcia in the thigh because it was there to be chopped and he couldn't reach his chest. A bit of it rubbed off on Garcia, who at one point fought fire with fire and started biting Kingston in the forehead (to which Kingston responded by trying to bite his ear off). They worked some hierarchy into the strike exchanges and I dug how Kingston sold one chop like it about caved his chest in, before inevitably caving in Garcia's because that young laddie is not about to be out-chopping Eddie Kingston at this juncture in their lives. 

CM Grapplin' Punk

CM Punk v Daniel Garcia (AEW Rampage, 10/8/21)

What a great wee bout. If you'd told me six months ago that CM Punk would end up being my favourite wrestler in the world in the year 2022 I would have respectfully told you that you were on a nonsense. But it's almost absurd how giddy I, a grown man, get for CM Punk right now. He is ridiculously fun and I thought he was sensational in this. Just a total chef's kiss of a performance, one that was loaded with little moments that resonate completely with a dipshit who geeks out for the sort of stuff I geek out for. If Punk had just been home sitting on his arse for the last seven years this would've had a cool young shooter stepping to the veteran dynamic, but since he went and messed around in an octagon for a minute there it had an even cooler young shooter stepping to the veteran shooter dynamic (even if his MMA record would suggest Punk was never much of a shooter). There were lots of neat moments that highlighted the experience gap, and I thought Tazz and Jericho were both great on commentary at pointing them out. Things like Garcia taking a few seconds to bask in gaining an advantage rather than actually following up on it, which allowed Punk to sidestep a corner dropkick, or when Garcia threw on the Sharpshooter but didn't drag Punk away from the ropes before it, which we see the reverse of later when Punk makes sure to pull Garcia into a favourable position before applying the Anaconda Vice. Garcia worked like a dude with a chip on his shoulder and Punk doing "these kids today don't know anything about respect" is a hoot, particularly when you think about CM Punk at Daniel Garcia's age. There was a great bit where Garcia was trying to grab something on the mat, maybe a kneebar or an armbar, each time Punk would try to sit up and Garcia would dismissively facepalm him back to the mat, and by the third time he did it you could see that Punk was going to box his ears in. That he wound up doing it with Mongolian chops was as random as it was awesome. Everything with the leg ruled and I thought Punk's selling was brilliant in an understated sort of way. He wasn't big and dramatic with it but you never forgot it was bothering him, and more than a couple times he had to switch up his attack to account for it. I watched this last night and I wish I could remember a few more specifics, but there were a couple moments that I know I thought were awesome. Also Garcia busted out the ring post figure-four and that right away is cause for celebration. Loved the Pepsi Twist, loved the big dive in how ungraceful it looked ("I need to hit three people here so why do a fancy flip when I can just throw myself on top of them as awkwardly as possible?") and loved the finish. Subbing out the GTS for the piledriver so it meant he wouldn't need to hit anyone in the skull with a bad knee was a great touch, and I like that the Vice is treated as a match-winner that doesn't need any build. 

Is 2020s CM Punk PEAK CM Punk?

CM Punk v Dustin Rhodes (AEW Dynamite, 4/20/22)

It's kind of nuts how this never happened until now. They were together in WWE for a decent while, yet I don't think they ever actually matched up. Still I'm not sure it would've been as good before, which is maybe a little crazy in and of itself considering Punk has only wrestled about 15 matches in eight years. It started fairly respectful, a pair of grizzled vets squaring off for the first time, two guys who clearly like the idea of wrestling each other. I mean you know Punk would've been giddy as fuck for something like Dustin v Bunkhouse Buck when he was 16. They even did maybe the slowest parity stand-off in AEW history, and any time a parity stand-off spot doesn't feel dumb you know you're in for something special. They introduce the first part of the duelling limb work early when Dustin goes after Punk's arm, then Dustin spills to the floor with a matured blend of his missed crossbody bump. Dustin's leg selling is awesome from then on out, just the right balance of expressive yet restrained, where you know it's a real problem but he isn't oscillating from crushed to bits in a bear trap to fuck it I can do this rope running exchange I'll be fine. The match also gets a bit more tetchy as it goes, and we get the first glimpse of it with Dustin kicking at Punk's arm to create some distance and Punk looking at the camera like "he should not have done that." Punk gets frustrated when he can't put Dustin away and ups the surliness with the stomp and headbutt to the verrrrry low abdomen, then he even does a mocking little Goldust pose. Dustin would try and make inroads by going for Punk's arm again and some of the body part selling was outstanding. I loved not just how those injured body parts would prevent them from hitting certain moves, but how targeting the knee or arm would always provide advantages for whoever chose to take them at the time. There was a great sequence in particular where Dustin is on the apron and Punk kicks the leg away (and Dustin takes a nasty back bump on the hardest part of the ring), then Dustin comes back with a drop-down arm-wringer and Punk goes shoulder-first into the apron. Dustin does the 10 count punches in the corner and flips Punk the double bird, I'm guessing because he saw that little Goldust bit earlier (would assume Punk is now blocked on all social media platforms), but then when he jumps down he jars the knee again and Punk immediately capitalises. By the time they're slapping each other across the face while locked in the figure-four you know you're no longer watching a mere gentleman's contest. And it's rare that you get a satisfying payoff to a match built around limb work so obviously I thought the finish was great. This is an interesting comparison to the early Punk matches, at least in terms of his demeanour and mood. In the Darby match he looked ecstatic to be back, even if he had some ring rust. Now he's got some of the old attitude back and I guess has his eyes on the cowboy fella. This also might be the most CM Punk working as Bret Hart match yet, judging by that twitter video of Bret v Goldust, and CM Punk working as Bret Hart is just about the coolest thing going right now. And that's really not something I thought I would be saying in the year 2022. 

Some Stuff from AEW All Out '21

Miro v Eddie Kingston 

This was badass as fuck. By god what an Eddie Kingston performance. Excalibur basically says it outright on commentary anyway, but this was clearly Kingston doing 90s All Japan, just not in the corny way with him hitting yer big Orange Crush Bombs and Burning Hammers. He wears his influences on his sleeve right next to his heart and this was him doing Kawada if Kawada one day decided he wanted to EMOTE like Kobashi. The strikes, the selling, the comebacks - those that failed and those that were successful - were all magic, had perfect timing and he had pretty much everyone on strings the whole match. Lots of amazing little moments from him as well, like when Miro booted him in the face and Kingston started blinking away tears like his nose was broken. The little delayed staggers after getting rocked, the struggle over moves, just great. I'm honestly neither here nor there on Miro and I don't recall ever having much of a stance on him one way or the other, but this was as surly as I've ever seen him and he was basically the perfect foil for a man who would die on his sword. Thought the finish with the exposed turnbuckle stuff and desperation low blow came off great. Kingston honest to god might be better now than he was 15 years ago.

Young Bucks v Lucha Brothers (Cage Match)

Well this was certainly something. Look, you know it'll never totally be my jam, but for some reason I want to persevere with the stuff I generally don't like because I'm actually really enjoying everything else. And this was what it was. I am not the audience they're trying to appeal to and it feels like the audience they ARE trying to appeal to went home thrilled, so fair fucks to them for collaring that corner of the market. The second half I mostly quite liked, in fact. I mean it was a tag team cage match from 2021 and not 1981 so I was probably never going to LOVE it, but I already knew that so at least I wasn't likely to be disappointed. First half was more or less a series of one team doing a bunch of cool things followed by the other team doing the same, and there were no real transitions and it was sort of obvious that they were bouncing momentum back and forth because that's how they'd rehearsed the exchanges, but the stuff they were actually doing was mostly impressive. Like, I was a gymnast in my prime and fancied myself as quite a good one but I'll be fucked if I could pull off most of this shit so they have my deepest respect that I'm sure all four of them covet. But, you know, just like...do a proper transition maybe once or something. In the second half they dropped the pace and I thought it was way better for it, but then of course I would think that because I'm old and set in my ways. I'll level with you, I kind of loved the stupid thumbtack shoe. Then Penta got his Arena Mexico on and bled like fuck and Fenix had his mask all torn up and obviously that will resonate with a thing such as I. Revenge shots came off well and I dug Matt gettin' some colour to even things up. Fenix with the dive off the cage was loony toon but then the twenty superkick bit was maybe the worst thing I've ever seen and I once saw a man get kicked in the head by a horse but then the finish felt like a fucking gigantic moment and so we take the good with the dooky, as my grandmother would say. I enjoyed some of this, even if I wouldn't say I enjoyed it in totality.

CM Punk v Darby Allin

This is the sort of thing that probably isn't a five star match in the traditional sense, but for what I figure they were going for and the circumstances under which they wrestled it, I thought it was pretty much perfect. And even in the traditional sense of "is this a great wrestling match?" I honestly thought it was superb. Like, one of the three or four best matches I've watched so far. Both guys ruled. What I like most about what I've seen in this Punk run so far is that, even though he's one of the guys most responsible for the predominant wrestling style in America right now, he wrestles very differently from just about everyone else in the company. Most of the AEW roster wrestle some stylistic approximation - or evolution? - of what 2005 CM Punk was doing, but 2021/22 CM Punk had been retired for seven years and had a whole bunch of miles on the clock even before then, and he wrestled this match like a 40-something-year-old from 1995, forget 2005. He slowed down the pace because how the hell was he supposed to know if he had the engine to go long on a PPV yet, especially against a maniac like Allin? A fuckin abdominal stretch?! In 2021 AEW? Awesome. Then there were the little things that he's always been good at, like when he threw Darby into the corner so hard that he landed face down on the mat himself (and Darby's ring post bump is GOAT tier). The grin when he realised Darby's spine might be mangled, then immediately going for the bow and arrow. There were points as well where Darby would string together some offence and Punk would sort of huddle in the corner like "boy they were not hitting this hard in 2014 WWE, not even Ryback who didn't know how not to." I don't know if it was intentional or not but even the way he took that flip Stunner from Darby made him look like a guy who wasn't used to eating flip Stunners from tiny wildmen, how he landed almost flat on his stomach rather than how everyone else I've seen take it would. That's a 2021 move and Punk's still going off 2014 fumes. I guess that's pretty META~, but what is AEW if not meta and I really wouldn't be surprised if he did it on purpose. Know yer audience and all that. The GTS has also never looked better and the first one was all Darby leaning face-first into and falling dead weight through the ropes, but I loved Punk reacting like he really would've preferred for the wee fella to have landed in the ring so he could've put a cap on this thing. I'm hyped to watch Danielson stretch out and be the American Dragon again, but I think I'm more excited about watching Punk work as the one-time indie revolutionary who's been dropped into a future he's almost out of place in despite helping create it to begin with.

The American Dragon v The Best Bout Machine

Kenny Omega v Bryan Danielson (AEW Dynamite, 9/22/21)

I thought this was shockingly great, and I know there'll be some people reading that thinking I sound ridiculous. "How could you be shocked that this was great? Unless by SHOCKINGLY you mean you thought it was twelve stars rather than seven or whatever we're at now." I mean maybe it shouldn't shock me, but I know what I like and by all accounts this didn't sound like it would be that. So maybe it was the low-ish expectations. Either way I'll be fucked if I wasn't into it basically all the way through. It's probably the most I've ever enjoyed Omega - and I really mean ever - and I thought he more than held up his end. Most people will see the suggestion that he might not have as ludicrous, but if you're asking me if I'd rather watch them work a Bryan Danielson match or a Kenny Omega match then I'm picking the former all day, and there are a whole bunch of people I'd rather see opposite Bryan Danielson in a Bryan Danielson match than Kenny Omega. Actually I don't even think it was a Bryan Danielson match - in the way I'd usually think of a Bryan Danielson match - or at least it wasn't by the end. But none of that was what shocked me anyway. I've seen scrubs look good in a Bryan Danielson match or just generally against Bryan Danielson and Omega is better than, like, Delirious or someone. Prolly. The most shocking part is that I enjoyed Omega during the Bryan Danielson bits AND the Kenny Omega bits, and Kenny Omega Dream Match Epic is not something I'm desperate to watch at this stage of the game. To be honest, judging by the reaction for the first lock-up they could've worked any match and they'd have had people on strings, but they knew their audience to a tee and in the end gave them what they came to see, and they came to see Dream Match Epic. 

All of the early build was great. They laced into each other and both of them had welts on chests, bruises on foreheads, scrapes on elbows, burns on backs, all the signs of something in which a pair of guys smashed each other to bits. It might've only been the idea or just the CONCEPT of Bryan Danielson getting to stretch out and be Bryan Danielson again that got me, but when he was bending Omega's wrist and stomping it into the mat it really did feel like the shackles had been cast off. Omega was a fun shithead through all of it and when it was his turn to dish out some damage he did it like he meant it. If the first half was the Bryan Danielson part of the match and the second half was the Kenny Omega part then I at least thought they segued from one to the other pretty seamlessly. I don't even remember a point where I thought "okay now we're in Omega's lane," but if it happened with the stuff on the ramp then they sure picked a hell of a transition for it. The Snapdragon was nuts but goodness christ that V-Trigger was fucking bonkers. He about launched himself from halfway up the ramp, downhill, and it looked like he fully caved in Danielson's temple. Just an unreal spot that I rewound half a dozen times. Danielson's selling after that was predictably amazing and I really loved Omega juuuust about accepting the count out only for his ego to take over and opt for the decisive victory instead. You know a man who calls himself the Best Bout Machine is meta enough that he'd realise a count out would cost him at least half a star. The buckle bomb was absolutely ludicrous and I thought he was for yeeting Danielson clean over the post. The biggest compliment I can pay to the last 10 minutes is that there were probably transitions that I'd usually find ropey, or kickouts that I'd usually find silly, or STUFF that I'd usually find excessive, but they really had me hooked and I was fully immersed in the moment. Like, I had a music teacher in high school who would say that music was both the best and worst thing that ever happened to her. It was her career, her life, her passion and the thing she enjoyed more than anything else in the world. But it sort of ruined a bunch of other things for her, like movies and television, because she'd be watching something and all she could think about was the musical score, the chords, all that other stuff that I don't understand because I am not and have never been a musician. Well pro wrestling is not my life or my career, but it is my passion, watching and talking and writing about it, and it's hard for me to just "turn off my brain" when it's there in front of me now because I can't help but think of all the nerdy carry on like selling and transitions and whatever else knocks about our heads as doofus wrestling fans on the internet. And as corny as it sounds, I just kind of...switched off for a while and didn't give a shit about any of that. It wasn't intentional, wasn't something I consciously made a decision to do, I just didn't think about it. For that to happen when watching one guy I think is great but have no real personal affinity for and another guy I quite often actively dread watching, that's kind of cool as fuck. Three and a half stars. 

A Great Chuck Taylor Match!

Santana & Ortiz v Chuck Taylor & Trent (Parking Lot Brawl) (AEW Dynamite, 9/16/20)

This is another match that my dear beloved internet wrestling friends told me I would probably like. I have no use whatsoever for Chuck Taylor, haven't watched anything involving Trent Baretta in about 10 years, and I'm pretty sure the only time I've seen Santana and Ortiz was during that stadium match where one of them tried to drown Matt Hardy in a swimming pool. I also didn't have a clue about the feud leading up to this point (something about Trent's ma or whatever), so I was sort of apathetic going in, and yet in the end I thought it was stupid great. Like, easily the most I've ever enjoyed Chuck Taylor, and I guess Trent Baretta and the LAX into the bargain (the latter through lack of exposure more than anything). There was pretty much no nonsense in this and I appreciated that they just went for violence straight out the gate. At one point the Best Friends had Ortiz under the hood of a car and they were hitting somersault sentons, and the way Ortiz's leg was sticking out it looked like they were trying to stuff a cadaver in - fittingly enough - the trunk of a car. Basically everything looked brutal, from the overt lunacy like Trent getting powerbombed on the roof of one of the cars, to the more subtle nastiness like Santana getting his forehead split open by being thrown into a wing mirror. Trent was actually a maniac in this, taking a face-first slingshot into the bottom of a truck, blading his arm after spearing someone through a door, sliding down a windshield leaving bloody streaks, then taking a truly ludicrous double powerbomb through that windshield where his back got cut to pieces. There was even a bit where he smashed a plank of wood over Ortiz's back and a piece of it flew up and hit him in the eye. When you're having one of those days you're just having one of those days. The Chuck Taylor wheelie bin suplex is also is one of the only times I've seen a spot involving a wheelie bin in a wrestling match that felt properly brutal. I don't know what the deal is with Orange Cassidy appearing out the trunk at the end. Probably some daft shit that I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on and say fit with the feud, but I feel like the less I think about Orange Cassidy the easier my life is. That said, if you're going to do a comedy spot in a match that had been fully about the violence up until then, they at least reeled it back in when Cassidy immediately smashed Santana in the ear with a chain-wrapped fist. And the Strong Zero through the wood in the truck bed felt like a suitable finish to a match even containing this much wildness. Parking lot brawls are sort of a rarity, great ones even more so, but this one might be the best ever. Which is staggering considering William Regal v Fit Finlay and John Cena v Eddie Guerrero were things that happened, and neither of those had Chuck Taylor in them. 

Whiskey & Wrestling Gets All Elite

I don't think I've written a single word about AEW on this thing up until now. To be fair, I've watched about as many minutes of AEW as I have written words about it, so that'll be why. But my brother has a subscription to that Fite TV thing and in a very cool turn of events I can simply steal it from him and have access to basically every bit of AEW television. There are plenty of wrestlers in AEW that I don't really care about and those are the folk I won't watch much of as I jump into this, but there also now plenty of wrestlers I do care about and I'll watch stuff and write about some of it. I might even try my hand at some of those wrestlers I don't usually like and we'll see what's what. Eventually my plan is to basically pick up from the All Out PPV last September (Punk's debut match) and go through stuff chronologically until the present day. I imagine that idea will be dropped before its completion, but it's at least useful to have goals in life. Before then I've just been jumping around catching up with stuff that either sounds interesting or that other people who have similar preferences have talked up. It's mostly the Darby Allin stuff. 

Jon Moxley v Darby Allin (AEW Dynamite, 11/20/19) 

This is one I've been meaning to watch for a while now (about two and a half years, I guess). I think basically every person I regularly talk to about wrestling who has a decent idea of what I like has told me I would enjoy this, and sure enough they were very correct. This is actually one of my favourite Moxley performances and I thought he looked - if you'll excuse the pun - dynamite. Thought he managed to look vulnerable enough while still coming across as tough, gave Allin plenty and got surly as a bastard when necessary. Allin catching him with the surprise tope at the beginning ruled and nobody has a better tope in current day American wrestling than Darby Allin. Every tope in WWE these days looks full on dog muck because guys are obviously told to lead with their hands, so it looks like a diving shove and it quite frankly spits in the face of Ciclon Ramirez and Sangre Chicana who would tope someone with the crown of the head directly into somewhere between chest and chin and send the recipient several rows deep and into a pensioner's lap. Darby does not lead with his hands and just torpedoes folk at a hunner miles an hour, as it should be. At another point he flies off the top with a crossbody and I love that he just bounced clean off Moxley, who braced for contact and went full Colossus in metal form. Also loved Darby biting and stomping on Moxley's fingers, a couple times as a sort of desperation cut off spot to prevent Moxley from almost certainly dropping him on his skull. When Moxley put Allin in the body bag Darby brought to the ring I got a wee bit worried because I thought for sure he was going to powerbomb him or some nonsense, and even for a fella who routinely takes bumps with his hands literally tied behind his back a body bag powerbomb seemed more dangerous than it was worth. Ultimately he didn't do anything of the sort and I figured Darby was escaping without taking a potential crippling, but then Moxley went and absolutely fucking obliterated him with one of the wildest top rope DDTs I've ever seen. Darby is certifiable and this was great.

It's a Seedy WAR Midcard Extravaganza

Koki Kitahara v Hiromichi Fuyuki (WAR, 4/2/95)

Very much the sort of mangy close-quarters potatofest you want from these two. Kitahara is bandaged up around the midsection and fights an uphill battle against Fuyuki and his minions in their red pyjamas, like Hogan stepping against the entire Heenan Family. Within a minute blood is trickling from Kitahara's forehead, a result of them grabbing each other by the hair and throwing headbutts. It spills to the floor and Fuyuki whomps Kitahara with a chair so hard that I guess the latter bit his own tongue, because he crawls back in the ring bleeding from both forehead and mouth. Fuyuki was a shrieking menace and threw brutal lariats, coconut headbutts and vicious slaps. When Kitahara was pushed past breaking point he would retaliate in the nastiest ways possible, the best example being the wildest spin kick I think I've ever seen. It landed flush on Fuyuki's face and it sounded like someone had waffled him with a cricket bat. Towards the end the bottom ring rope gets taken apart and used as a weapon, then Gedo sprays half a can of deodorant in Kitahara's face from about four inches away and I can't believe Kitahara never puked. The seedy WAR midcard extravaganza truly cannot be beaten. 

The 2002 Eddie Guerrero Return Tour Continues

Eddie Guerrero & Chris Benoit v The Rock & Edge (Smackdown!, 8/1/02)

Kind of a weird layout here, with two decently long FIP segments and very little babyface control, then a short finishing run after the second hot tag. You'd think Rock would at least get to go on a bit of a tear out the gate, but instead they basically went straight into a heat segment on him. Eddie and Benoit work very INTENSELY and even if it's sort of trite or played out as a talking point about Benoit, he really did bring an almost unmatched INTENSITY to everything he did. I don't really want to talk about Chris Benoit though, so instead I will take that intensity talking point and apply it to the context of Eddie Guerrero being INTENSE. Tazz on commentary mentions this as well and it really is very noticeable. He definitely came back from that sabbatical with no intention of ever being saddled in an angle where he takes Chyna to the prom ever again. A very angry man. The heat segment on Edge was probably the better of the two peril sections, a little more focused with Eddie and Benoit working over the lower back. My favourite part of this was Eddie crushing him with a hilo to the spine as Edge was struggling to get to his hands and knees. Edge's spear looked much better in 2002 than it did when he started using it as an actual finisher. Maybe I'll like that Edge/Eddie no DQ match more now than I did the last time. This was good stuff. 

Territory Road Trip: Midnights and the Rider

Midnight Express v The James Boys (World Championship Wrestling, 5/3/86)

I've written a decent amount of words on this here nonsense blog about 1986 Jim Crockett Promotions. I've written about five-minute throwaway studio bouts, long showcase arena bouts, and most of what falls in between. I'm sure I've mentioned at least once that Crockett's booking in '86, at least through the first five months of the year and you can extend that start point back into the last quarter of '85, is about as well-booked as you can get for a wrestling promotion. They had a stacked roster with some of the all-time best in the ring and all-time best on THE STICK~ (many who were both) and basically every feud up and down the card felt meaningful. Pez Whatley felt like the biggest bastard on the planet because he cut Jimmy Valiant's ponytail and I can't remember ever thinking about Pez Whatley for more than six seconds any other time. At the top of the card you had a revolving door of guys you could slot into main events, basically all of whom being involved in multiple feuds and conflicts without it ever feeling contrived or confusing. By this point in the year Flair was feuding with Dusty, who was feuding with Tully, who still had beef with Magnum TA, who was in a war with the Russians, who were embroiled in another war with the Road Warriors, who were after the Midnight Express, who were still locked in their eternal feud with the Rock n Roll Express, who were out for revenge on Flair because the Horsemen tried to deform Ricky Morton. Then a few weeks earlier the Midnights got a bug up their butt about Dusty and Magnum, who were going by America's Team. The latter wanted a title shot and Cornette was having none of it because they weren't a REAL team and they hadn't beaten anybody. Things then got nuclear at the end of April, when the MX battered Dusty with Cornette's tennis racket on TV, and when Baby Doll tried to intervene Cornette walloped her as well. It got insane heat and Cornette ranting like a maniac afterwards while Dusty cradled Baby Doll in his arms was near riot material. 

Which brings us to this bit of top drawer wrestling telly. Baby Doll speaks with Schiavone before the match about how she's doing well and that she got involved last week out of instinct. Cornette is about as contrite as you'd expect. "I'm disappointed your injuries prevented you from running in the Kentucky Derby this weekend." The Midnights have a match scheduled against some team called the James Boys, whoever the hell they are, so Cornette says it'll be a fine tune-up match. And if Dusty and Magnum ever want a title shot, they still need to actually BEAT someone. The Midnights are in the ring ready to go and the Allman Brothers' 'Midnight Rider' starts playing over the studio speakers. To begin with Cornette looks around like "what is this shit, just hurry up already," while some folks in the crowd clap along. And then two guys in black masks, cowboy hats and trench coats hit the ring and everyone and their granny knows what's up. Everybody involved in this was amazing, from the four guys in the ring to Cornette on the floor to Schiavone at the desk. It might be my favourite Tony Schiavone call ever. Every week on World Championship Wrestling Tony has to endure Cornette's whining and insults and general horse shit. Every single week, yet he's a professional and like water off a duck's back he gets on with it, the perfect wrestling straight man. The Rock n Roll Express are teeny boppers, the Road Warriors and stupid, Dusty's fat and Magnum's a hillbilly. Jim Crockett Sr has a vendetta against the Midnight Express. Bob Caudle's an alcoholic. Tony never rises to any of it. But you could tell he was loving this and I thought it was brilliant how he called the match as if he DIDN'T know who was under those masks. Cornette is beside himself, running from the ring to the desk and back again, ranting and raving the whole time. "That's Dusty Rhodes and Magnum TA, you gotta be an idiot! Ray Charles could see it!" Magnum is wearing a vest with bazookas for arms and his blond curls sticking out under the mask, Dusty could be covered head to toe and you'd know it was him because he just radiates Dusty, but Schiavone just plays it off like they're a pair of ham n eggers. "Wow, these James Boys can really wrestle." I think he even refers to them as Frank and Jesse James which sends Cornette off the deep end. And the actual work inside the ring ruled too. You can usually gauge the seriousness of a situation by how quickly Dennis Condrey removes his little bowtie and he did not wrestle one second of this studio match bowtie'd up. Eaton bumps like a headcase and takes an atomic drop straight into a Dusty elbow on the floor, which he then flip bumps off of. The MX eventually take over on Magnum when Eaton just goes fuck it and jumps off the top rope with an axe handle. When they string together some offence - and it's great offence, properly vicious and they don't give Magnum a second to breathe - Cornette shouts about how they tried to hornswoggle the Midnight Express but now it's them who are doing the hornswoggling. We don't get much of a build to the finish as Dusty just sort of comes in and America's Team hit stereo belly-to-bellies, but it's hard to ask for much more from a match-slash-angle and the pop for the pin is incredible. Baby Doll coming back out ready to bullwhip Cornette into oblivion was also phenomenal and then Schiavone seems none the wiser as to the identity of Frank James despite him having maybe the most distinctive voice in the history of wrestling. This whole thing was twelve stars, and if I watched it live and they advertised an America's Team v Midnight Express match in my area they would've had my money in an instant. 

Spent a Lotta Summer Nights in the Back of That Field, Every Inch of Mid-South Seen These Four Wheels

Buzz Sawyer & Dick Slater v The Fantastics (10/27/85)

On paper there's very little chance of this not being good. It's been over a decade since I last watched most of this stuff (apparently I started this project eleven years ago this month. I refuse to believe that) and I didn't remember a thing about this match, but they had a match on TV a day earlier that was really nifty and sure enough this fucking ruled. I think Sawyer and Slater were only together as a team for a short while, which is pretty unfortunate because they were an awesome pair of bruisers here. Buzz was having one of those nights where you bought him flying off the rails any minute. During the Fantastics' entrance he was covering his ears and rocking back and forth, the shrieks from the audience's female population and the droning of ZZ Top's 'Sharp Dressed Man' clearly setting him on edge. The early shine segment was strong as you'd expect, but things got really good when Buzz and Slater took over. The transition was great, with Rogers going for a sunset flip on Slater, Slater countering by just dropping on top of Rogers and drilling him in the mouth. Sawyer works a great side headlock, grinding his chin across the neck and head of Rogers, really cranking back and forth on the hold, then we get an incredible rope running sequence where Tommy crashes and dies off a missed crossbody. The surlier Sawyer and Slater get the more agitated Fulton becomes, the easier it is to then goad him into the ring, to draw the attention of the referee, so the more opportunities arise for Sawyer, Slater and even Dark Journey to pile in on Rogers. Slater really squeezed as much heat out of that hot tag as he could, waiting until Rogers was just about able to reach Fulton only to drag him back by the trunks, then a second time, then a third, so when Fulton actually got the tag the crowd was set to blow the roof off (we assume anyway. This was one of those matches where we had no crowd audio and instead it was Joel Watts doing commentary from his bedroom or whatever). Rogers fucking wastes Slater with an amazing dropkick during the scramble at the end, and then the finish with Sawyer and Slater hitting a Hart Attack was great. A very badass tag, in a great year for tag wrestling in the US. 

Ric Flair v Butch Reed (11/9/85)

This was an excellent bitta TV. It was Watts' take on Harley Race hiring bounty hunters to cripple Flair, only with Flair now in the Harley role and Reed in the Flair role. Amusingly enough, Dick Slater was the one collecting the bounty in both instances and I could absolutely see Slater as some roaming hitman terrorising the south for whoever pays the most handsomely. Originally this was supposed to be Flair versus Al Perez in a non-title match, but Reed comes out before it and calls Flair a lowlife back-jumper (for the bounty thing). He challenges Flair instead and even turns his back so Flair can jump him again. Flair says all of this is beneath him but then of course goes to back-jump Reed, only to walk into a right hand. It leads to a nice studio bout, around seven minutes so obviously they cut out the fluff from the longer arena matches. Flair is mostly on the back foot and having to throw pot shots where he can, quick chops, knees to the gut, kicks from his back, even his awesome double stomp that I'll once again maintain he should've kept as part of his regular moveset. All of Reed's power offence looked great and his big shoulder tackle at the end felt like something that would put a World Champion on their back for a 10-count. Reed barely has time to celebrate the victory as Slater immediately hits the ring and, like he did to his current employer only a couple years earlier, sets about putting Reed on the shelf. I guess nothing highlights the fickleness of the pro wrestling game more than the Champion of the World helping a man who once tried to break his neck to now try and break the neck of another. 

Mid-South Project

Territory Road Trip: There's a Snake in Mid-South

Jake Roberts v Brad Armstrong (Mid-South, 4/16/85)

I'm not sure this is a great match. I thought it was comfortably a good one, just not sure it's a great one, and I'm not even sure it's a great Jake performance. But I know it was a mesmerising one. He was an incredible scumbag here. Brad Armstrong is a rock solid wrestler at his worst, who will bring lots of energy as a babyface even if he's sort of meat and potatoes in the overall sense. He's easy to root for, or at least the way he works is easy to root for, if you know what I mean. That wasn't enough for Jake though, who decided that if there was a ceiling on how much a crowd might want to get behind Brad Armstrong then there would be no ceiling on how much they might want to hate Jake the Snake Roberts. They didn't do anything particularly unique to start out. Jake would grab an armbar and yank Armstrong to the mat with the hair, the ref' would question him about it as the crowd got on his case, but Jake would obviously deny it, gesturing innocently like "Me?! Really?!" He basically treated Armstrong like a scrub and the longer it went the longer it felt like he didn't actually NEED to do all this cheating, he just...wanted to. It was a thing he enjoyed. He would drag Armstrong to the mat and muss up his hair, shouting "Braaaaad. Braaaaaaaaaad" in his ear, just bullying this kid in front of everyone. Armstrong fired back with a couple shots, but they mostly just annoyed Jake and Armstrong was always a bit too nice to do what needed to be done. At a certain point you almost have to fight fire with fire, even if it runs contrary to how you live your life as an upstanding American, and it looked like Brad just wasn't about that no matter how far he was pushed. Even then I don't think anybody in that building was more sick of Jake's shit than the ref'. This was probably as wound up as I've ever seen a referee, and that includes every match where Earl Hebnar loses the plot and nearly has a heart attack. Jake terrorised this poor guy about as much as he terrorised Brad Armstrong, though this was wholly psychological. The longer it went the more Jake cheated, and because the referee never actually saw most of it he was powerless to do anything, which enraged him even more. Then Jake would blatantly cheat right in front of him, like when he'd have Brad in an armbar and start pulling his ARMPIT hair. The ref' would scream in Jake's face and Jake would just grin and stare at him, unblinking. It was kind of disconcerting. Jake does slimeball as well as anyone but this was more sinister, like '91 WWF where he set upon a man with a king cobra. As someone who was an antagonistic wee bastard as a child I've seen the look of many a school teacher who's wanted to physically strike me, and I can tell you right now that this referee wanted to lay one on Jake's chin. It made the big payback spot about halfway in doubly awesome. After one too many hair pulls Brad had finally had enough, so he kipped up and dragged Jake to the mat by the hair, and when Jake got up in disbelief Armstrong punched him clean out the ring. Jake then pulled a rope out of his pocket, but as he slinked back in the ring everyone knew he had something in his hand, including the ref' who jumped all over him and actually managed to take it away! A victory for the little fella! In the end it didn't really matter. He had to raise Jake's hand anyway, because the DDT was inevitable, but referees in every profession take a hammering on the daily and for a change you maybe felt some sympathy for this one. 

Jake Roberts & Nord the Barbarian v Dirty White Boys (Mid-South, 6/30/85)

This was a very different look at Jake. If you needed any proof that he was a changed man, our referee from the last match was in charge again here and not once did it look like he wanted to take a shotgun to the Snake. I actually don't know if Jake had even turned full babyface yet, but he and big Nord were working as such and Jake was so over by this point that it would've been impossible to keep him heel anyway. And this was a decent tag, in a year where Mid-South had about a thousand decent tags and on a show that featured an awesome RnRs v Midnights tag. You probably won't remember it months down the line, but you can't really go wrong either. Jake played face in peril for a while and he was really good at it. He milked the hell out of those near tags and Barbarian is always fun on the apron getting more and more agitated. Denton looked badass in this. All of his cutoffs looked sharp, he sailed face first into the mat off a missed headbutt, and he sold wanting absolutely no part of the DDT by not even letting Jake grab a hold of him. Usually Jake would at least make enough contact to set the move up before the would-be recipient would bold, but Denton wasn't inclined to let it even get that far. Maybe he thought Jake was out there SHOOTIN'. Better to be safe than sorry. 

Territory Road Trip: Tully v Garvin!

Tully Blanchard v Ron Garvin (Worldwide, 5/3/86)

An absolute corker of a match. One of the biggest compliments I could give it, bearing in mind that I no longer have the patience to sit and watch most matches that go any longer than about twelve minutes, is that this never felt like it went over half an hour. A lot of that is down to the pace they cut, which was electric right from the start. Garvin comes in with a busted hand, sustained in the first place by Tully and Arn when they wrapped it around a ring post and clobbered it with a cowboy boot. It takes away the punch, his biggest weapon, so he has to pull out everything else in his arsenal. He was relentless and gave Tully no breathing room at all. I thought his selling of the hand was pretty much perfect. It's not just how he would sell the physical pain, like when Tully would take a swipe at it or later when it was actively being worked over. All of that was great, but there were the more subtle touches as well, like when he wouldn't be able to hook the leg on a cover, or when he'd use his forearm instead to grind Tully's face into the mat, and those instances were what really drew me in. He threw one or two strikes with the hand - a couple overhand chops, no punches - and immediately regretted it, so he had to switch it up and use forearms, elbows, kicks and headbutts, pretty much anything else he could think of. The headbutts were amazing, especially the first one early on where he caught Tully going for a kick, held that leg there as Tully tried to throw punches off the standing leg, then just whomped him with a jumping headbutt. The Garvin Stomp was also a phenomenal moment and even David Crockett getting all weird on commentary couldn't detract from it. I can see why people might think Garvin's offence was a bit haphazard overall, or that there was no escalation to it, but to me it absolutely worked and he came across as a guy doing everything he could think of because he couldn't do the one thing he usually would. Tully was incredible as well. His runs on offence were few and far between, but he was vicious when he got the chance to be and tough as a bastard working from below. I think this more than even the cage match with Magnum is the perfect representation of Tully. He's a weasel and a cheat, but when it gets right down to it that boy will scrape and claw and bite and do whatever else needs doing to keep his belt. He took an almighty shit-kicking and refused to stay down. When there was an opening he would jump on it - quite often literally - and even if he couldn't sustain those advantages you never felt like he was out of the fight. At points he would resort to just grabbing one of Garvin's legs and twisting it around the bottom rope, I guess because he happened to be close to it and it would hurt so why would you not do that? He'd leap from his knees and try to headbutt Garvin in the guts. Then JJ got involved like you knew he would and the brief run of hand work was tremendous. There was one bit where he went for a sunset flip from the apron and Garvin held onto the ropes with both hands, then eventually had to let go with the right and Tully practically yanked his trunks clean off just to drag him into the pin. It almost summed up the match: Garvin fighting uphill with one good hand, against a guy who wouldn't go away no matter what. The finish is one of my favourite Dusty Finishes. Tommy Young gets bumped and JJ sneaks Tully a roll of quarters, but at the same time Dusty tapes up Garvin's hand for that one big shot. Both get up and throw a punch at the same time, Garvin is half a second quicker, Tully gets dropped. Coins everywhere. And of course JJ is apoplectic after Garvin gets the pin, pointing to the taped fist and the coins all over the mat. Decision reversed, Garvin dejected, Tully oblivious, a cockroach surviving yet another nuke. Just an awesome match from start to finish. I guess if I had a criticism then I'd have liked for Tully to work the hand a bit longer, but it's really a minor quibble when you consider how much of the match he spent getting smashed to bits. 

She Said She's Going Back to Mid-South; New York is Way too Cold

Dick Murdoch v Butch Reed (10/14/85)

I wish we had a thousand versions of this match-up, or at least a baker's dozen. We have two hundred Flair/Kerry matches, even a mere REGULAR dozen of Murdoch/Reed shouldn't be too much to ask for. The September match might be the best US match of the decade and I thought that the first time I saw it thirteen years ago, but I remembered a whole lot less about this one other than it going over half an hour. I think it's a step down from September, but not by a lot and of course it ruled like fuck. It was also very different from the first match, when they quite easily could've worked the same contest with a rejigged finish. The first fifteen minutes are for Reed's TV title while anything after that is for Murdoch's North American belt, which is a cool sort of wrinkle. TV title or not, those first 15 minutes were pretty much a masterclass in building to a punch. Not a big highspot, no piledriver, no brainbuster, just a punch. They're still face v face so work clean early, even if you know Murdoch is the most likely to drag things off the rails if it comes to it (like the September match). Reed works the arm and it's decent enough, plus Murdoch is always interesting working from below. They half tease things breaking down, both of them looking like they're about to throw a fist at one or two points, but it never comes to that and they do in fact keep it clean. Reed just keeps grinding him down with the hammerlock and armbar and Murdoch is frustrated, then we get the first moment of chicanery from Murdoch as he backs Reed into the corner, waits for the ref' to try and break them up, and shoves him away so he can throw a forearm that, while legal in and of itself, was at the very least unsporting. I like that Reed under most circumstances would've retaliated, but here seemed intent on seeing out that first fifteen minutes to make sure the TV title was safe. So he keeps himself in check and goes back to the arm despite Murdoch getting more surly, even resorting to throwing VERY questionable pot shots from the headlock. When the fifteen minutes are up Reed's title is safe and Murdoch is clearly annoyed, but now it's all about the North American title. And Reed hasn't forgotten about those little pot shots or that sneaky forearm. They both hit the ropes, Murdoch clears Reed with a leapfrog, then upon landing turns around into an absolute bastard of a haymaker. They'd built that one shot up from the start, feeding the crowd opportunities for Reed to take it earlier but holding back, Murdoch going from obviously legal elbows to questionable forearms to sly rabbit punches. The crowd knew it was coming at some point, and when it connected it resonated perfectly. Murdoch sold it like it took the whole jaw off him as well, losing a giant wad of spit or maybe a row of teeth before falling through the ropes and stumbling around on the floor. It was one punch but it felt like a blast from a cannon. The second half is tremendous; really just a brilliant fifteen minutes of duelling limb work, starting with Murdoch going after Reed's leg. He throws some of the best stomps ever, right to the kneecap, the side of the knee, the back of it, then pretty much everywhere else on Reed's head and body. That has him on top for a while until Reed goes back to the arm from earlier, which sets up a finishing run of both picking apart a limb. The way they sold exhaustion along with the body part damage down the stretch is some of the best you'll see. I also like how this never degenerated into a brawl like the September match did. It never turned into a fist fight and, barring Murdoch repaying Reed with a carbon copy haymaker of his own, I can't even remember any instances of them punching each other in the back half of the match. Reed's lightning bolt right at the midpoint suggested it would go that route, but it largely stayed on the straight and narrow. Good first half, exceptional second half, and Reed hoisting the belt up in the air at the end while all the black kids in attendance rush to the front row was fucking biblical. That's yer pro wrestling right there. 

Mid-South Project

Territory Road Trip: The Second, Third and Fourth Best Guerrero Brothers

Chavo & Hector Guerrero v Rip Oliver & The Grappler (NWA Battle of the Belts, 9/2/85)

I'm always psyched about new Guerreros footage, not just because they were an awesome tag team, but because any Hector Guerrero is a treat that I can't not be thankful for. This isn't even "new" in the sense that it was recently unearthed or whatever. It opened a pretty famous card and as far as I'm aware that full show has been out there forever. But other than the Flair/Wahoo match I'd never seen anything from it, nor did I know until last night that there was a lengthy Guerreros tag right there jerking the curtain. And this was pretty damn great. It got lots of time to build and they clearly put some thought into what they were going to do in each segment. The Guerreros always throw in some neat - dare I say INNOVATIVE? - stuff and I loved their play on the "babyfaces get whipped into each other" spot. Just before the point of contact they decelerate, then push off one another as they roll backwards and flip up to a standing position. When Oliver and the Grappler try the same immediately afterwards they are much less graceful, and the Guerreros catch them prior to the backwards roll and jump into the row boat sequence using the heels' legs as oars. Hector has a long stint in peril and Oliver and the Grappler were a really fun pair of bruisers. At one point they did a king of the mountain segment with Chavo getting more and more irritated, but every time he lost his head Hector would get thrown into a table or the barricade or sent flying across the floor while hanging off the edge of a chair. They even get a few minutes after the hot tag to take it home, and I liked how Chavo never just ducked out the way of the loaded boot shot, but actively pulled Oliver into its path as he leaped to safety. The Guerreros. What a wrestling family. 

Hector & Mando Guerrero v Badd Company (AWA, 5/14/88)

Well this was like two thirds of a stone cold classic. A few more minutes during the heat segment, maybe a bit less time spent on the babyface shine, a proper finish, we're easily looking at a five and one quarter star affair. Pre-match DDP asks the Guerreros where the nearest Taco Bell is, so Hector grabs his bullwhip and threatens to bring some ruckus. A man who's had to endure that sort of shit more than once. When the match actually starts, Mando does a goofy Karate Kid crane pose in front of Tanaka and Tanaka looks at him like "c'mon man, really?" A man who's had to endure that sort of shit more than once. I actually like how Tanaka played it up like he was almost disconcerted by it. "Okay mate, you can stop now, I've seen it before, we all think you're hilarious." Except Mando kept doing it and then even Hector started and Tanaka must've figured there was something not right with these two. The Guerreros were just a hoot running up the score here, and the crowd went from being sort of apathetic towards them to losing their minds for all of the cool stuff they were doing. They work Tanaka's arm for a while and run a bunch of fun double teams and miscommunication spots, cleaning house to a standing ovation while Mando does a mini spin-a-roonie in the middle of the ring (a mini-roonie!). One or two of the spots didn't come off perfectly, but it's hard to ding guys for trying something different rather than going through the motions. Trongard and Nelson are going wild for all of it on commentary as well, culminating with Mando hitting a bonkers dive from the top rope to the concrete, wiping out both Diamonds (Paul and Dallas Page). What held it back most was the TV time limit, so we never got much of a heat segment despite Tanaka leading into it with his impeccable leaping forearm. Hopefully there's a longer match between them because this could be a killer pairing. 

Territory Road Trip: Texas When I Die

Kevin Von Erich v Chris Adams (No DQ, Gino Hernandez in a Cage) (WCCW, 9/2/85)

Imagine how much hair was torn out by health and safety boards across the country in the 1970s and 80s whenever they caught wind of a "person locked in a cage" match at one of the stupid pro wrestling shows. Some poor bastard locked in a too-small cage thirty feet in the air, hoisted up there in the first place by six people pulling on a rope, the rope then held in place with a fisherman's knot anchored around a stack of chairs partially bolted to the floor. Gino couldn't even stand fully upright in this particular cage, had to ask the small handful of people in charge of raising him to the ceiling to hold on for a second so he could say something on the house mic, then the thing never stopped swaying around when it was actually up in the air. I'm pretty sure people were still sitting directly underneath it, like a cage with a person in it hanging over their heads was just an everyday thing. This was the lead in to the double hair match between the Von Erichs and Dynamic Duo, so of course the heat was nuclear and everyone was completely fucking rabid. It actually started out a little cleaner than you'd think. The intensity was high, but Kevin never went straight for the throat and instead worked the body scissors. And Kevin Von Erich has a great body scissors, the way he'll lift the recipient up and drop them back down hard, really squeeze as hard as possible. Before long it spills to the floor and the last few minutes are manic. Adams was really awesome at desperately fighting out of what Kevin threw at him, and then being vicious in response. Kevin would try for a piledriver and Adams would smash him in the ears by bringing his knees together, then he started choking Kevin with the microphone chord and jabbing the whole microphone into his throat. Adams was not the least bit interested in enduring the claw for the fourteen-thousandth time since he's been in Texas, but Kevin wasn't for giving it up and I loved the bit where he basically dragged Adams into the middle of the ring with the claw hand. You knew Gino would get involved at some point, and it's Texas and there's a Von Erich in there so you probably knew it would backfire, and the finish and post-match scene was insanity. Gino gets his SWANK suit torn to pieces but he and Adams manage to stuff Kevin in the cage (which was lowered to the ring through no small amount of effort by referees and Kevin himself), then Gino whips out scissors and tries to cut Kevin's hair! The fight over the scissors after Kerry hits the ring is borderline terrifying and I'm kind of surprised nobody wound up stabbed. I remember the hair match being awesome so I'll maybe watch it again later. Maybe. 

Michael Hayes v Buddy Roberts (WCCW, 5/13/88)

Remember there was a time when Michael Hayes was not only NOT considered the best Freebird, but actively considered the WORST Freebird? What a ridiculous world we lived in. The DVDVR Texas set was quite the eye-opener for me, as prior to that I had always considered Gordy to be the best wrestler of the Freebirds by a distance, while Hayes was the promo guy (an incredible promo guy, but still). I have been wrong many times in my long and foolish life and I was very wrong about Michael P.S. Hayes. Because Hayes was the godking of the ten-minute bar fight, the rabid cage match or strap match, where he would try and claw someone's eyes out when it became apparent that he couldn't weasel his way out of a fight. He was a cornered animal and hell mend whoever did the cornering (usually a Von Erich). By '88 he was a full blown babyface, and I can't recall how that came about but by Christ this was an amazing babyface Michael Hayes performance. His babyface energy was off the charts here and people were bonkers for him. It would be hard to imagine these two being running buddies five years earlier; hard to imagine a point in time where these Texas crowds were going ballistic for Hayes being the one getting his clock cleaned. He threw some awesome punch combos while Buddy pinballed all over the shop for him, including a sequence early where Hayes popped him off the apron and Roberts landed on the announcer's table. Hayes stomps a mudhole in Roberts in the corner like the herald of Stone Cold and then moonwalks into the middle of the ring and I think someone fainted in the crowd. They brawl around the floor and Hayes clobbers Buddy in the back of the head with a chair and you almost cover your eyes knowing what you know about CTE in the year 2022. This was about seven minutes all in, and I loved it when I watched it 10+ years ago and I'm glad it was as great as I remembered. 

Territory Road Trip: Wildfire!

Tommy Rich & Bill Dundee v Bounty Hunters (Memphis, 2/2/81)

This was peak Memphis. Pre-match the Bounty Hunters (Dave and Jerry Novak, managed by 'Cashbox' Jimmy Kent, whom I honestly have zero recollection of) jump Rich and Dundee on their way to the ring, and Kent slabbers Dundee with a shoe and Dundee is carted away covered in blood. You probably know where this is going. Rich and Dundee are the tag champs and if the match doesn't go ahead they need to forfeit the belts, and obviously Rich says to hell with that and decides to go it alone. Rich was so awesome in this, sticking and moving, always making sure he couldn't be cornered by the Bounty Hunters, throwing quick shots (amazing punches), regrouping, throwing more quick shots (amazing punches), never being static long enough to be caught, a couple times roping the two Bounty Hunters into elbowing each other or having one of them monkey flip the other. He even loaded up his elbow pad with a foreign object and the people were a million percent behind him elbowing a hole in Jerry Novak's forehead and drinking the blood. There was also one bit where he threw four consecutive fist drops that were some of the greatest fist drops you've ever seen. When the numbers game ends up proving too much for him he bleeds everywhere (of course he does) and sells the blood loss amazingly, then Dundee sprints out with a bandaged up head and the last minute is bonkers. Unfortunately the finish is clipped out, but if I know Memphis like I know Memphis then I can only assume we saw what LED to the finish (Dundee getting slabbered with a shoe again), even if we don't get to see the actual pinfall. This ruled. 

Tommy Rich & Steve Armstrong v The Nightmares (Continental, 6/22/85)

Continental is a real blind spot for me. I could probably count on one hand the number of matches I've seen from when it actually became Continental Championship Wrestling, and not too many more from when it was still Southeastern. The TV set up in the Boutwell Auditorium (in Birmingham, Alabama; "deep in the heart of Dixie," as Gordon Solie puts it) has a similar sort of aesthetic to some of the early AAA shows. So there's a thing for you. Anyway this was a real blast. Basically every time I watch the Nightmares they're a hoot and I probably come out of every one of those matches thinking I should watch all the Nightmares footage I can get. This was another awesome pinballing heel performance from them. I don't know whether it was Nightmare #1 or Nightmare #2 (nor do I know which one was which between Davis and Wayne) but one of them takes an absolutely incredible over the top corner bump where they smack their head off the apron on the way down, and it was done with such grace that I can only assume it's a signature spot and I guarantee I'd pop for it every time (though maybe not enough of a signature spot that I've seen them do it before, because I don't think I have). When they finally take over you know they run some phantom tag shenanigans as Rich and Armstrong and the crowd gets irate. Steve Armstrong may not be the most accomplished of the Armstrong family but he does have a superb dropkick, which he threw several of here. There's a follow-up match to this with Johnny Rich joining Tommy so perhaps I should watch that soon. 

Territory Road Trip: Attempted Murder on Turner Broadcasting!

Ric Flair & Sting v The Great Muta & Dick Slater (WCW Clash of the Champions VIII, 9/12/89)

I needed to forget about that Flair/Reed match from the other day so naturally I decided to watch another Ric Flair match. I guess in a lot of ways the '89 run revitalised him, having the Steamboat series and then the babyface turn. I think Flair's even said himself that Funk lit a fire under him. And judging by this it was a fucking inferno because man what a tremendous Flair performance. Maybe it's because he got to work like this so infrequently, touring heel NWA champ as he had been for nearly the entire decade, but when Flair is fired up like he was here it almost makes me wish the NWA business model was a little closer to Vince's and they had Flair tour the country against not the local babyfaces but the local dirtbags and bastards. Because babyface Flair could be sensational, boys. He brought a gigaton of energy to this and never stopped the whole match. I suppose that was his approach to wrestling anyway, heel or face. Keep things moving, always be doing something, don't give the people a chance to get bored, all of that. Whether you enjoy that approach or not is another thing, but it sure translated perfectly here. He was always active on the apron, never let you forget this was a hate feud even if the main source of his hatred wasn't present (Funk was "injured" so Slater was drafted in as a replacement and...come on, that just writes itself), never allowed the heels to let their guard down. When he wasn't wooing and high-fiving Sting he was bursting into the ring unprompted to shred folk with chops, then he went face in peril and that was just as good - maybe even better, honestly - and I guess it's easy to forget how great a tag wrestler Flair was. Early on he gets knocked to the floor and Muta catches him with a plancha, then Sting catches Muta with a plancha, then Slater jumps Sting, then Flair starts throwing chops and punching noses and the crowd just erupts. When Sting takes a turn being beat on there's an amazing moment where Slater and Muta have him on the floor over by their corner, so Flair runs all the way around and goes bonkers on them. A phenomenal performance all round. Under normal circumstances the non-finish would've been a bit of a bummer, but I'd suggest these are not normal circumstances and you don't really care about the non-finish when Funk shows up with his arm in a cast, the sleeve torn off his suit jacket, and tries to literally suffocate Flair with a plastic bag. The Flair/Funk feud was something else.