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Secret Santo - Winter 2022/3!


Matt D

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@Super Ape Please enjoy Jackie Sato versus Monster Ripper from April 1980.  I assume this is the first time they showed teenage girls crying over a wrestling match, which was perfected by the uber version of this, Dump versus Chigusa.

 

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For @Gordlow my dear sweet Secret Santo Week 1 buddy, going through your posts I saw that you really liked Joe/Darby and you were hyped for Jeff Cobb appearing on today's ROH show so why not mash the two together?

 

(A)PreW Darby vs Cobb up in Maine for Limitless Wrestling!

 

 

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For @John E. Dynamite Happy Secret Santo! Please enjoy Takako Inoue vs Dynamite Kansai from 1995. I picked this mostly because I know you like 90s Joshi and I think Takako Inoue is really underrated, largely because her generation of wrestlers is a GOAT herd.
 

 

Edited by Sammo~!
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@Sammo~!

We got Perro Aguayo vs. Nikozuna (Sam Fatu/Tama/Tonga Kid) in a bloody Hair vs. Hair match. The action doesn't start until seven minutes into the vid cause Perro's gotta cut a rah-rah patriot promo about it being September in Mexico and the match follows suit. Pure Megaface vs. Foreign Monster.

 

Edited by John E. Dynamite
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27 minutes ago, porksweats said:

 

For @Gordlow my dear sweet Secret Santo Week 1 buddy, going through your posts I saw that you really liked Joe/Darby and you were hyped for Jeff Cobb appearing on today's ROH show so why not mash the two together?

 

(A)PreW Darby vs Cobb up in Maine for Limitless Wrestling!

 

 

Yes! Right up my alley! Let's do an AEW before they were AEW exchange here!              

Did you know Arn and Regal were pro wrestlers before they were managers? I also make a "whatever happened to stunning Steve Austin?" joke.

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On 12/3/2022 at 4:45 PM, Execproducer said:

I'd like to jump into this. And I'm not setting parameters on what I receive.

I don't know how everyone else is @'ing and embedding. I can't do it on Chrome or Firefox. Lord help me, I even tried Edge, which is absolute shit. 

Anyway, I'm dealing out stuff from the same territories that I'm watching right now. Enjoy the infamous JYD and Mr. Olympia vs. Ted DiBiase and Matt Borne match for the Mid-South North American and tag titles; furthermore, the person who eats the pinfall is banned from competition in Mid-South for ninety days.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdsndr

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1 minute ago, SirSmellingtonofCascadia said:

I don't know how everyone else is @'ing and embedding. I can't do it on Chrome or Firefox. Lord help me, I even tried Edge, which is absolute shit. 

I have to disable "Safe Browsing" in Chrome to do any of that stuff. Literally just figured it out today, it's some https thing. I disabled it, posted, put it back on again.

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30 minutes ago, John E. Dynamite said:

I have to disable "Safe Browsing" in Chrome to do any of that stuff. Literally just figured it out today, it's some https thing. I disabled it, posted, put it back on again.

None of that worked, either. Nor did Incognito Mode. This board hates me. I'll stop clogging up the thread with my DVDVR woes, though. 

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55 minutes ago, SirSmellingtonofCascadia said:

Anyway, I'm dealing out stuff from the same territories that I'm watching right now. Enjoy the infamous JYD and Mr. Olympia vs. Ted DiBiase and Matt Borne match for the Mid-South North American and tag titles; furthermore, the person who eats the pinfall is banned from competition in Mid-South for ninety days.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdsndr

Thanks. Here is some early NOAH for you.

 

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18 hours ago, porksweats said:

 

For @Gordlow my dear sweet Secret Santo Week 1 buddy, going through your posts I saw that you really liked Joe/Darby and you were hyped for Jeff Cobb appearing on today's ROH show so why not mash the two together?

 

(A)PreW Darby vs Cobb up in Maine for Limitless Wrestling!

 

 

Aw, man! I LOVED this. 

Jeff Cobb is absolutely one of my favourite current pro wrestlers. The 80s and 90s were full of big strong wrestlers with enormous steroid-feuled bodybuilding and/or powerlifting muscles. Some of them had impressive offence. A precious few of them could sell and bump a little (like, for example, Butch Reed). But Jeff Cobb is probably functionally stronger than almost all of those roid monsters we grew up watching. He's freakishily strong. (Keith Lee and Claudio are, too). And he has amazing offense. And he apparently does not mind letting the other guy(s) in the ring look strong against him. He's really, really good at bumping and selling and making it look believable even when he's (almost literally) twice the size of the dude he's fighting.

Darby Allin is absolutely one of my favourite current professional wrestlers. I love the Morton/Kikuchi/Yamazaki/Xavier Woods tier of wrestlers whose speciality is bumping and selling and making the other dude look amazing and dangerous. I love the Mick Foley guys who take genuine risks to entertain us. I think Darby has studied all those guys. I think he really genuinely doesn't give a eff about his own well-being. He's the world's best bumper right now, which is REALLY saying something.

So... what would you expect, putting the freakishly powerful legit Olympian in there with the literary fearless ragdoll?

I expected exactly this. Cobb f'n RAGDOLLS Allin. But what I didn't expect was that Cobb also puts him over. Believably. This match might have been the match that MADE Darby, there in that particular indie promotion (in Maine?) Maybe without this match we wouldn't have Darby Allin the International TV Star to enjoy today. Certainly this had to be a big step for him on the road to where he is today. I got to watch Joe ragdoll Darby already this week, and Cobb ragdoll Dorada earlier today. And I also got to see Darby keep coming at a bigger stronger man and Cobb making a smaller dude look amazing TWICE this week. And it was awesome and delightful.

And this particular match was succinct, which I appreciate.

And it's only, like 4, 5 years ago but they both look SO YOUNG. But you can see the seeds of who they are now, it's already there and it's so cool to see it.

Thank you, Porky McSweaty!

 

Edited by Gordlow
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On 12/10/2022 at 4:22 PM, Execproducer said:

 

Jushin Thunder Liger and Minoru Tanaka vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi and Yoshinobu Kanemaru

Well, this starts with Liger hitting Kikuchi with a lariat on the ramp, so I'm in. I should say that other than Liger, I've seen Kanemaru and Tanaka maybe a few times before. I'm not well-versed in puro. This is clearly part of a heated feud, as guys jump each other, tangle with the ref, and refuse to break holds. Structurally, the match is sound, with the heels cutting off the faces. cheating whenever possible, and stuffing bursts of offense.  They try to generate some heat to generally decent levels of success, forcing Kikuchi to show his fighting spirit and paintbrushing him before he can get a hot tag, or hitting a Shattered Dreams on Kanemaru behind the ref's back. The heel stuff is pretty mean, definitely. It's really that the work in between the big heel cheating spots or the fiery babyface spots is dull. There's lots of really dull arm work on the part of Liger and Tanaka early on, and  the control stuff never really gets better from them. This match, in short, is better when it breaks down and becomes a tornado tag, and isn't super-compelling when it's a straight tag match.

I don't think it's bad, though! Some of the cheating spots are inspired, some of the babyface spots where they outwit the cheating heels are good, and I do think the hatred comes through very nicely. I suspect that this match would be better had I seen everything that led up to it because I get the sense that some of these spots (like the mask-ripping spot) might have been more meaningful to fans who had been paying close attention. 

I will say that some of it feels excessive. If one guy goes for rolling brainbusters and hits one, the next brainbuster should not be reversed by the opponent. A brainbuster should be a death move. Someone getting piledriven outside should be pretty much incapacitating for the rest of the match, too. I don't think Liger should have had to hold the guy back so his partner could eke out a submission on a valiant Kikuchi. Dude should have been out. I've headed back toward a certain amount of minimalism in my ringwork preferences, I guess. 

There is a giant brawl after this match is over and I'm curious about exactly what the deal is, but yeah. I do like that Tanaka just stands there in the middle of the brawl like fuck y'all, we just beat your boys' asses. I mean, come on. That's the coolest thing anyone could have done in the post-match scrap. Liger's out here taking swipes at booing fans, though, so that's a close second.

This was interesting, definitely, but it feels like a match that I also would have liked more had I understood the backstory. On the other hand, I was mostly entertained as-is. However, I wish I could have just seen these four brawl around the arena, as good as most of the cheating spots ended up being. More tornado tags, dammit!

 

 

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On 12/10/2022 at 2:58 PM, Gordlow said:

Yes! Right up my alley! Let's do an AEW before they were AEW exchange here!              

Did you know Arn and Regal were pro wrestlers before they were managers? I also make a "whatever happened to stunning Steve Austin?" joke.

Secret Santo Winter 22 Review #1!

 

First off Gordlow, you hit the right spot throwing me some WCW Regal, always happy to see the Good Lord in action. We open with a Colonel Parker promo, followed by a suited up Steamboat promo about his match coming up against Flair where Parker comes back out and interrupts saying Austin's got the match against Flair. Some facts before the match starts that I learned by looking up on Cagematch, this is the first televised time Steamboat and Arn ever teamed up, they apparently had a house show match against the Nasty Boys a week earlier than this. They'd team up only two more televised times so this is a unique pairing. Likewise the Austin/Regal pairing is novel, however they had previously teamed up for Regal subbing Pillman at Clash of the Champions #24, where the rag-tag combo lost the tag titles to Flair and Roma, so we've got some real heat brewing between the Horsemen and Austin at very least. Austin and Regal would team a few more times in 94 before also going their separate ways. 

But enough talk, it's time for the Main Event! Steamboat and Regal start this off, and it turns out that Regal's bigger than Steamboat? I don't think I expected that. Regal's got the initial advantage but Steamboat overcomes to take the lead here. Some back and forth til Arn gets tagged in. Arn's working the hell outta that headlock. Regal breaks free and goes for the tag to Austin who walks away! He comes back and finally gets in and now it's Arn/Austin. Austin's got some real stooge sells from Arn's punches and now we've got Steamboat back in. Austin works from underneath but isnt really given much, gets pushed back into the corner where Regal's back in. Regal's off the ropes and Steamboat jumps high to dodge but Regal holds tight and catches Ricky to flip for a Blackpool Crab but the Dragon holds strong, giving Regal a taste of his own medicine. Ref gets distracted, Austin comes in and they stomp out Steam. Austin tags in real quick, Steamboats getting beat down, Regal's back in, laying in some forearms. Irish whip to the corner and Steamboat goes to leap over but Regal snags him and throws him flat to the mat. Steamboat is dazed and falls out of the ring partially leaving him wide open to a shot from Squire William's umbrella and some more Austin stomps. Extended beatdown here with a glimmer of hope from Regal getting dropped but before Arn can tag back in, Stunning Steve's dumping Steamboat with a backdrop and mocking Steamboat to Arn. Beautiful cheating here with Regal adding leverage to Austin's Abdominal Stretch. He breaks again but goes to the wrong corner and there's Austin right on top, hitting a helluva spinebuster himself. Even more Steamboat beatings! The heels are just flagrantly breaking the rules doubleteaming Steamboat and Arn's had enough and pandemonium breaks out. Squire William tries for another umbrella shot to Steamboat who ducks and gives a hellacious chop of his own, putting down Dundee. Austin and Regal whip Arn to the ropes and Arn counters when he's on the bounceback, going for a sunset flip on Regal. Austin reaches out and holds Regal's hand to try to prevent it but from up high the Dragon soars with a crossbody to Austin, Steamboat still being the legal man and gets the win!

Thoughts: The Arn/Steamboat team didn't really do too much in terms of tandem offense but Regal/Austin definitely were more in step with each other. It was great once Arn finally made a stand at the end, even if he wasn't tagged in. The MVP of the match is Regal for sure but for all the names involved, it kind of underwhelmed me but 94 WCW is a weird place for all of those guys in their careers. If you were to mix up the teams here, I really wonder how a Regal/Arn pairing would've been.

 

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I love Regal versus a smaller opponent. He didn't do as much grinding down on Steamboat as he normally does, but stuff like the corner counter where he just catches Steamboat's legs and dumps him is great. I just wish we got more of him using his weight, laying on Steamboat, pushing a forearm across the face while he works a hold, and all that.

Regal's one of those dudes who absolutely knows how to use his size in a matchup like that. 

 

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On 12/10/2022 at 2:37 PM, Matt D said:

Ok, so we have TWELVE people. That's a lot of people. Some are new. That's great.

Remember, most important thing is to give your partner a match. If you think you won't check the board for a few days, well, try to sneak in on Saturday to do that much at least. Nothing over 30. Hear what your partner has to say. Don't worry about killing yourself on the review. Did you like it or not. What worked/what didn't? What stood out? What surprised you? Etc.

By the way, I'll take whatever. I watch enough wrestling along the lines of what I'm wanting to watch that it's pretty easy. I mean, don't give me Omega/Okada or anything. If you really need help and have the knowledge, post 87 Maeda, pre-AEW Darby Allin, the very best SHIMMER had to offer, CMLL from the last couple of years, but just surprise me really.

@Execproducer
@SirSmellingtonofCascadia
---
@The Natural
@Curt McGirt
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@porksweats
@Gordlow
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@Sammo~!
@John E. Dynamite
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@Super Ape
@DEAN
---
Matt D
@thee Reverend Axl Future

RAF,
Maniac Matt Borne in South Africa against a Otto Wanz-ian local hero.

 

 

On 12/11/2022 at 4:01 PM, Curt McGirt said:

@The Natural

Volk Han vs Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS 9-25-96) - video Dailymotion

Something a little outside your wheelhouse. FANTASTIC match.

Sorry for not replying sooner, having notification issues.

Cheers for the pick, @Curt McGirt.

For you, we have a Cactus Jack match in World Class Championship Wrestling so long before Mick Foley found fame in WCW, ECW and WWF. I've seen wrestlers most famous matches or a director's most popular movies which led me to go back and assess their previous. I'd never seen this match till looking for you, it was only added 4 months ago and I hope you like it!

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@Matt D, you are thee coolest. I wanted to watch some Buxx Belmar, so I am giving some BB to you. You're welcome, he is a gift from thee gutter that keeps on giving.

https://youtu.be/4i-NAJpsPcU

Buxx Belmar vs. 'Speedball' Mike Bailey - Scarred 4 Life 2017, IWS Hardcore, FrenchyCanuck flavor

(As with @SirSmellingtonofCascadia, I too suffer from the lack of features on this board mit der Chromes. Hey, SSoC, you can cut'n'paste those @ gimmicks)

This what RAF dislikes about this match: the dreary indy commentary, the lame-o crowd and the unimaginative match structure. The history and rivalry is there, but it never plays into the story or psychology, mes gars.  There is also much to get me all a-flutter, however. Both of these fellows really work their gimmicks, not just for spots, moves and shenanigans, but also in body language, expressions - zut alors, each man's moves and way of moving is unique to them. Buxx Belmar is le nouveau Chris Colt here, a crustypunk Moondog, and his stylized ringwork is so very distinctive, comparable to The Great Muta or Kamala or PCO - they all move, attack and sell in a manner that befits their gimmicks. I dig that. Speedball makes his 12yearold's countenance work for him, and his strikes have become quite believable. I will also point out how much the poor ref has to crouch when next to SBMB, and that the lack of hugging (another RAF fave, I am a people person) is made up for by a couple rare shrimping spots. Thanks for doing this (again), Mr. D. I will watch your match mañana.

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15 hours ago, thee Reverend Axl Future said:

@Matt D, you are thee coolest. I wanted to watch some Buxx Belmar, so I am giving some BB to you. You're welcome, he is a gift from thee gutter that keeps on giving.

https://youtu.be/4i-NAJpsPcU

Buxx Belmar vs. 'Speedball' Mike Bailey - Scarred 4 Life 2017, IWS Hardcore, FrenchyCanuck flavor

(As with @SirSmellingtonofCascadia, I too suffer from the lack of features on this board mit der Chromes. Hey, SSoC, you can cut'n'paste those @ gimmicks)

This what RAF dislikes about this match: the dreary indy commentary, the lame-o crowd and the unimaginative match structure. The history and rivalry is there, but it never plays into the story or psychology, mes gars.  There is also much to get me all a-flutter, however. Both of these fellows really work their gimmicks, not just for spots, moves and shenanigans, but also in body language, expressions - zut alors, each man's moves and way of moving is unique to them. Buxx Belmar is le nouveau Chris Colt here, a crustypunk Moondog, and his stylized ringwork is so very distinctive, comparable to The Great Muta or Kamala or PCO - they all move, attack and sell in a manner that befits their gimmicks. I dig that. Speedball makes his 12yearold's countenance work for him, and his strikes have become quite believable. I will also point out how much the poor ref has to crouch when next to SBMB, and that the lack of hugging (another RAF fave, I am a people person) is made up for by a couple rare shrimping spots. Thanks for doing this (again), Mr. D. I will watch your match mañana.

What to do with this?

Some background. Belmar is completely new to me. Chris Colt is, of course not. He's an interesting case, leaning hard into the sleaze and scum, giving himself up to the act but perhaps never entirely leaving the idea that it's an act behind. Which might or might not be an ok thing. More on that in a second. I first encounted Mike Bailey back during a March Madness a few years (five?) back and my big takeaways of him were that I liked Space Monkey more and that I would have liked to beat him up in Tekken.

Usually I watch a match and decide what I choose for the narrative to be. This is a rare case where I'm just not sure. There are three not dissimilar possibilities.

  1. Belmar is akin to Goldust or Oranage Cassidy or Adrian Street. Playing mind games. The pitty city, the tobaco water spray, the toesucking. It's all to throw Bailey off, and at first it works. They're familiar with one another, but perhaps not in their current fully actualized form. Belmar knows just how daring and dangerous Bailey is, how swift he is. He neutralizes a lot of his pro wrestling early by getting into his head and by forcing him into a space he doesn't want to engage. Bailey is a master of zen, one with his art, and he's able to lead with kicks and ultimately with grapples and dives. Belmar goes even deeper into the headgames in reverse, going to town on those toes really preventing the kicks and ultimately, out of nowhere hitting a super indy finisher to put him away; or
  2. Belmar is actually what he appears to be, and it's not about getting into Bailey's head. Instead, it's a country mouse and a city mouse, or a street bum mouse and a fake karate guy mouse and Belmar resents Bailey for his ascension and for his clean act and kung fu leanings, for what he was aspiring to be. Bailey maybe underestimates Belmar, looks past him, is frustrated by the idea of him, doesn't want to engage. He keeps him at foot's length out of a real disgust and eventually hits his stuff clean and fast and hard because he's a disciplined pro. By the end however, Belmar's unorthodox styles throws him off, not through mind games but just through the sheer unpredictability of it all and he's able to get one lucky move. Post match, he lets the world know that he underestimated Belmar and that the two of them could still somehow complement each other; or
  3. As the match progresses, something more acute and potent occurs. Bailey realizes how far he'd strayed from who he might had been, realizes that much of what he was aspiring too had value but was still somehow empty, somehow lacking, was unbalanced, that a zen and pristine sort of living, of mastering one's craft, left so much of life behind and meant that he was missing out on so much. As Belmar sucked upon his toes, he found himself captivated, found himself drawn down towards the alley himself. Only by knowing the darkness could one truly appreciate the light. So his steps began to stray and he walked into Belmar's finish and professed his need for him within his life post-match.

I'm pretty sure it was either one of those three or just a case of two guys working a gimmick without entirely figuring out the full consequence of whatever it is they were trying to say. You be the judge.

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On 12/10/2022 at 2:56 PM, Sammo~! said:

For @John E. Dynamite Happy Secret Santo! Please enjoy Takako Inoue vs Dynamite Kansai from 1995. I picked this mostly because I know you like 90s Joshi and I think Takako Inoue is really underrated, largely because her generation of wrestlers is a GOAT herd.
 

 

My first memories of joshi are probably Megumi Kudo and Combat Toyota matches on Kazaa. My second memories are a killer cheap Comcast On-Demand PPV from like 2004 that had a fuckin' ton of LCO in it (that shit ruled and I would buy the tapes right now if I saw em). My third memory was reading some long blog post about Takako Inoue. It's been the same story with her since day one - she's helplessly pretty, Double Inoues ruled, she could actually work, and her legacy was held back by being pretty good in an era of Hall of Famers. Seen a lot more tag matches of her than I have singles so this is appriciated. I tried to cut the entrances to save myself time but there’s no getting around the goofball glory of what Dynamite Kansai wears to the ring. She looks like an Ultraman villain getting into a fight with the back of a drying machine. It’s dazzling, and as goofy as it is it still gives you the idea that Kansai is taking this one seriously and Inoue is gonna die. But that’s not the case.

Because this is JWP and Inoue is the outsider, the expected face/heel dynamic is all backwards. They start with a real traditional shine-to-control-segment and it’s jarring to see Inoue being the one to grab submissions and lay in the stiff knees, but Takako is competent and Kansai was always a plus performer when it came to making faces at the camera. So yeah it’s a weird flow but they ride the waves well. Kansai’s attempted comebacks are stiff and nasty and hurty, Takako keeps regaining control with sneaky-but-not-heelish stuff, and the match starts to be about Takako being just a little bit tougher than Kansai reckoned and trying to stem the tide. I feel like that might be a pattern in a few other Takako singles matches…

Inoue’s strikes are pretty good, her knees especially, and it’s what she uses to keep herself looking like a credible threat. They’re also Kansai’s opportunity to regain control, because once they start trading strikes it’s an absolute wipeout. Inoue actually gets some heat on herself after an opportunistic powerbomb off the apron, loses it with a helplessly crummy Apron Nodawa Otoshi MDK (mighta been on Kansai for not wanting to bump for it), then gets it right back cause her flying knee to your head (Destiny Hammer? Takako Panic?) always looks REAL good and the crowd was smart enough to know it was coming. Seriously, it's a great move and I don't think anybody's stealing it these days. Get on that. After that gets a close two-count the crowd gets a lot more involved and allows them to hit a higher gear. The ref gets REALLY animated here, slappin the mat like Kobashi and rollin’ around like an alligator. Anyways after some nearfalls it’s the usual disgusting Kansai kick to the face and nobody kicks outta Splash Mountain.

The better match would almost certainly have been Kansai stomping the shit out of a resilient Inoue in an AJW ring. This came off as a spirited but hopeless attempt from a mandatory challenger who was looking for a fluke win. But that’s what they were working with here, and it was evident enough that they were having the match they wanted to have. Good fun if you want something a notch more casual than the epics of the era, a bit more scruffy what with JWP’s indy vibes.

Edited by John E. Dynamite
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On 12/10/2022 at 11:57 AM, John E. Dynamite said:

@Sammo~!

We got Perro Aguayo vs. Nikozuna (Sam Fatu/Tama/Tonga Kid) in a bloody Hair vs. Hair match. The action doesn't start until seven minutes into the vid cause Perro's gotta cut a rah-rah patriot promo about it being September in Mexico and the match follows suit. Pure Megaface vs. Foreign Monster.

 


Alright let's do this! Thanks to John E Dynamite for this one, this is right up my alley. 

I ended up watching Perro's opening promo. I don't speak Spanish but I just wanted to feel the emotion of the whole thing. Perro has the crowd in he palm of his hand right from the start, it's amazing. This guy was one of the most hated badguys in Mexico just ten years previous to this and he's out here shaking hands (literally) and kissing babies (figuratively). He's got the crowd completely whipped up and he hasn't even gotten into the ring yet. I think this Perro Aguayo guy might be pretty good at professional wrestling. Nikozuna is in the ring waving the Rising Sun flag, which is definitely a choice. The crowd are waving Mexican flags at a Samoan guy playing a Japanese guy. Truly wrestling is the international language. I actually had to look up if there was some kind of historical animosity between Japan and Mexico, there isn't really, Perro Aguayo is just that good. 

Perro jumpstarts the match and tries to get an early advantage but is immediately cut off with a claw to the eyes. Yokocito isn't quite the monster that his cousin Rodney is, but really who could be? He doesn't need to be a monster though when he can be a bully. Every time Perro tries to fight back he's immediately shut down with a cheap shot. Rake to the eyes. Chop to the throat. Headbutt. Nikozuna doesn't give a shit about September in Mexico and he knows no matter how good of a wrestler that Perro Aquayo is, you can't train your eyes or your throat (settle down). I'm not going to do a move-by-move breakdown because it's 90% stomps, headbutts, clubbing forearms etc. So let's talk about Perro Aguayo's selling. The dude is a total master. He's so wonderfully theatrical with everything he does. He'll take a chop to the throat or a headbutt and freeze in pain just long enough for the folks in the nosebleeds to understand what just happened before collapsing. The way he crawls on his belly, reaching out to the crowd, inviting their sympathy and begging for their support, is superb. He's a master of conveying emotion, somehow he's able to be entirely unsubtle and completely believable simultaneously. I love this, the crowd loves this. The first fall ends pretty quickly with a big leg drop. Second fall spills to the outside, mostly just an extension of the same beat down. Nikozuna sends Perro into the ringpost and the cameraman makes sure to get a big dirty closeup of Perro blading himself. Oops. Nikozuna is choking Perro with an electrical cord and the fans are throwing garbage at him. At one point a bloody Perro is sent into the guard rail and goes over into the crowd. Children are distraught, women are shrieking. This crowd rules. The ref jumps in to try and stop a murder gets shoved away for his trouble. Segunda Caida ends in a DQ. Perro Aguayo takes it. The third fall is over pretty quickly. Nikozuna introduces a chair, there is a struggle over it and Perro Aquayo manages to hit Nikozuna with one of the safest looking chair shots I've ever seen. Nikozuna's head is TOO HARD for mortal chairs, and he manages to regain control and drop the big leg once more, but instead of going for the pin off of the same move that gave him the first fall, he decides to go up to the top rope to do...something. A desperate Perro manages to find the last reserve of energy given to him BY THE PEOPLE. He's not going to let them down. He manages to get up to shake the ropes, Nikozuna gets crotched. One more chair shot for good measure and the monster goes down. Perro Aguayo goes up to the top and hits La Lanza. 1-2-3! The crowd goes nuts.

Post match was a bit deflating after such a fun match. A Guy In Jorts comes out to attack Perro Aguayo after the bell, and then Konnan, Heavy Metal, and Latin Lover come out for the save. Obviously the better ending would have been a triumphant Perro Aguayo celebrating in the ring while Nikozuna gets his head shaved, but here we are. This match was wonderful. The actual layout was a pretty by-the-books apuestas match: Heel takes the first fall easily, loses the second fall by taking things too far, then is hoisted by his own petard in the third. But that's ok. That rules. Formulas exist because they work, and I will watch Perro Aquayo sell for 20 minutes straight any day. My favorite wrestling matches are the ones with a very clear and very strong face/heel dynamic and this was perfect. 

Bonus Content: Whoever uploaded this match didn't clip the commercials so please enjoy this gif I made of mid-90s Mexican stage actors being less capable of conveying true human emotion than Perro Aguayo 

tenor.gif?itemid=27246392

Edited by Sammo~!
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On 12/10/2022 at 9:37 AM, Matt D said:

RAF,
Maniac Matt Borne in South Africa against a Otto Wanz-ian local hero.

 

OK, Mr. D - if my match choice perplexed you, well then brudda, I am totally flummoxed with this one, more questions than answers yaknowwhutImeanVerne? Matt Borne is thee very definition of a solid raw-boned worker, every inch a PNW stud and one of my faves BUT I ain't never heard of this Danie Voges. I had to do me some googling and wikipediaing and cagematching on this one (not too much, RAF digs a mystery) and the results were... spotty. Apparently MB did a South African tour in '95, but even given the cultural lag of US fashion influences, this has gotta be late '80s. CLUES: y'see the camera frequently cuts to 2 Boer betties in their best Hill's Angels mall nu wave outfits, as well as the video quality and very light degree of grizzle and world-weariness in TAFKA Doink's dark visage. Therefore, we are in some Lethal Weapon-era Sun City kinda shite here, I hope the tears on those Krugerrands nae keep you up at night, laddie. Ah, well.

As for Danie "The Hulk" (oy veh) Voges, he was active from 1982 to 1999, but here he is GREEN. I mean, grass can't describe it, goose shit neither - he is greener than Swamp Thing cuddling a leprechaun in a puddle of Mountain Dew slushie in field of kale in Emerald City. Borne audibly and visibly doesn't just call the match: he tells Voges what to do step by step. MB is patient, it must have been some payday, feeding and protecting this hapless Jo'burg baby. Old Afrikaaners serve drinks on trays, most of the men in the crowd look like Auric Goldfinger or a windburned farmer in an Ozploitation movie to my dull Amerikan eyes and the ring girl is so skinny,quoting the great Bo Diddley "she had to tie some knots in her legs to make some knees". The colors are white and ruddy and varicose. 

We got a UK style rounds system in play, and if you were not trained in that, it can be hard to keep your heat or tell a story. It hardly matters, as a fully competent 2nd gen Borne has to keep thing reeaal simple for the local hero here, who -to be honest- is over like heck. He makes Big Daddy look like a actual worker and Jack Veneno seem like Mitsuharu Misawa. Voges would later team with his half-brother Danie Brits as the Fighting Springboks in Puerto Rico for a short stay. In SA, he wrestled colorfully named opponents like The Mexican Mongol and Gypsy Roulette as well as US vets like Ox Baker, Black Bart, Bill Irwin and even a young Mark Calloway. DV placed #334 in the 1994 PWI 500. He appeared in the movie Prisoners Of The Lost Universe starring John Saxon (which is now on my Tubi queue). Thank you interWeb for the previous facts because there really wasn't much to talk about in this match. Nevertheless, I can still distill knowledge and learning from it. We can all learn the tolerance of a young Matt Bourne; if this was some late era bitter Reborne Again Tony, Voges would have gotten a mouthful of post-McMahon hydrocodone-fueled potatoes for his oafishness.  

Just when you think you got a handle on this rasslin' history thing, some wisenheimer like Matt D comes along and throws you a humbling curveball. Bive this thing a watch. It just as much a part of the wrestling mosiac as a ***** NJPW main event. Thank you, sir.

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Week 2. I haven't checked everyone's work, so hopefully everyone gave their partner something. It's ok if you didn't get to the review yet. It all seems quite festive so far, so great job everyone.

Here's the next roll. Looks like all different pairings than last time. Tagging is not working at a first shot. So try to tag your partner when you give them a thing. I'll try to tag anyone who hasn't given their partner a match in a couple of days just to be safe.

Super Ape
Execproducer
-----
Curt McGirt
Sammo~!
-----
DEAN
porksweats
----
Matt D
The Natural
-----
Gordlow
John E. Dynamite
-----
SirSmellingtonofCascadia
thee Reverend Axl Future

Paul, I'll give you something later on today.

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On 12/6/2022 at 1:04 PM, The Natural said:

I'm in ideally if the match is on YouTube. If not YouTube, Dailymotion. I've never taken part in any of these and I think I suck at match reviews but I'll do my best. I've seen very little of Nick Bockwinkel (sorry, @Matt D), Joshi (sorry) or the late great Mr. Brodie Lee away from WWE/AEW. Cheers!

I am cleverly getting around my tagging issues by quoting my partner here. You've invoked Bock's name so Bock you will receive. I thought about giving you the Zbyszko sprint because it's the easiest match to get through or the Morton Houston match since it has a lot of the key elements (Heenan, traveling champ Bock, a look at pre-RNR Morton as a spirited babyface), but I'm going to go with the Chavo match instead. Bock is tricky, because you do really need to watch a few matches to even start to really figure out what to look for, but as we don't have time for that, I'll give you some suggestions.

  • His entrance into matches. The comparison point will always be Flair, of course, but Bockwinkel tries to understand his opponents and doesn't give you something generic to start. The character will have either a gameplan or a way he's feeling that night. Here, Chavo is a local favorite, but not someone on Bock's radar and he feels this is beneath him and he's trying to show him up and embarrass him.
  • His reactions/expressions throughout the match. This is where he shines the most I think, how he engages within holds or when he's in a hold, how he reacts to things going his way or when things don't go his way. He's just living vibrantly in his matches in a way that's very organic and pulls the crowd/viewer in. He cares (elation, viciousness, desperation).
  • His physical selling as the match goes on. I'd argue that he's the best ever at selling his entire body in the last third of the match, getting over the weight of everything that's happening. There's real and deep consequence in Bockwinkel matches. Things matter. That's where a lot of the value comes from as well as he works holds and as big as he bumps and as much as he can go.

Just a few things to think about as you watch this.

 

Edited by Matt D
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