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(Also Not March Madness): SECRET SANTO March 2020


Matt D

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So there are two branches of wrestling in Brazil. One is Titanes and the Serdan stuff is the other. There are some people on the ground trying to find more footage, but there's been no luck as of yet. There's not a lot else out there and nothing as crazy.

Ok, so everyone finish up for this week. Remember, no rolling tomorrow. We'll be doing self-picks instead. The idea is something you've meant to watch for a while but haven't gotten around to, so think about it today. I know mine. If anyone WANTS someone to pick for them, then I'm sure we'll be happy to find stuff. I know I owe one or two people a pick based on what's been asked for before and will get those tomorrow. 

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On 3/31/2020 at 8:56 PM, The Man Known as Dan said:

@AxB I decided to give you something from one of my favorite wrestlers. You haven’t seemed crazy about the 80’s stuff, so I thought I’d hit you up with some Tajiri

 

 

This is a real motherfucker of a match. It reminded me quite a bit of the Muta/ Hase series that gave the world the Muta scale of blood loss (although it's shorter than those epics), for a few reasons. One of which is, Corino bleeds like buggery, but also that it's not by any stretch a death match, or even really a brawl. Mostly it's a Wrestling match with brawling elements. And that it's not the main event, it's not for a title, it's not that payoff to a back and forth war... it's a mid card mild grudge match. They were both a part of a heel stable and Tajiri left/ was fired, so now they fight on PPV.

Tajiri had in ECW been theoretically a heel, but was turned face by the fans because he did loads of cool shit. Corino at this time was trying to break away from his early anti-hardcore/ coward ECW character and become more of a legit threat. And there's two ways to get someone over as tough. Either they give someone a hell of a brutal beating (like anyone who got over on the strength of squash matches), or someone gives them a brutal beating and they prove they're tough enough to take it (Tommy Dreamer in the caning angle would be the prototype... although in that case it didn't really work at the time, it's more of a retroactive thing. Teaming with Cactus and Funk and the "He's Hardcore" promo got Dreamer away from the 'pretty boy with the green suspenders' stigma.

So, onto the match. Corino does the classic heel opening of offering to not have the match if Tajiri gives up now, and peppers it with some racist insults (it was 2000; Racism was acceptable for heel heat then. Except for in front of audiences where being racist made you a huge babyface). Tajiri responds with a kick to the head, and away we go. No collar and elbow, we're straight into striking, but with more dodging than hitting. Tajiri nails a couple of chops in the corner, Corino responding with an Enzuigiri after some reversals. They do the Shawn Michaels reversal sequence (hip toss blocked, punch to stomach to bend them over, drape leg over head to go for Rocker Dropper, get backdropped but land on feet. That sequence. But you really need to get each step over as an established move before putting a counter to it in the sequence, don't you?), but not all of it so it makes more sense than Michaels' version and Corino winds up hitting a Ligerbomb out of it, and getting a two count. Corino hits chops with Tajiri in the ropes, but gets caught in a Tarantula hold. Corino rolls out to the ramp and seems to be walking out on the match, but when Tajiri follows Corino boots him and then sets up a Vertical Suplex on the ramp. Tajiri escapes, smashes a nightmarish kick across Corino's midsection, and then hooks him for a vertical suplex of his own... and then, IT happens. 'It' being a positively thunderous Vertical Drop Brainbuster on the entrance ramp. One swift kick tothe back of the neck, and Corino rolls off the ramp to the bare concrete floor, and Tajiri returns to the ring, apparently triumphant already.

There's a pool of blood on the floor as Corino gets up, but as he's been down on his hands and knees, not much of it is sticking to his face yet, so it doesn't look that bad. But it is that bad. It is indeed worse than that bad. Tajiri puts Corino in the Tree of Woe upside down in the corner, backs off and runs in with a baseball slide dropkick to the head, spritzing plasma onto the lens of the ringside camera. An dark oil slick has formed on the mat beneath Corino's skull and his blonde hair is now bright crimson. Tajiri smacks him with another couple of kicks, then tries to repeat the Tree of Woe dropkick with a steel chair added to the formula. Jack Victory grabs his foot to prevent that, buying Corino time to escape, and he nails Tajiri with a Superkick for a count of One. And the Oh Shit factor ramps up, as not only is Corino severely compromised and battered already (and we're only about five minutes in), but his offence is actually becoming less effective as the match rolls on. Tajiri pulls himself upright in the corner, so Corino tries a charging chair attack, only for Tajiri to get the feet up and boot the chair into Corino's face. A feat he immediately repeats via a jumping Dropkick. Corino rolls out to the apron by the ramp, and appears to be physically compromised to the point that he couldn't even run away, or even stand. Tajiri brings a table into the ring and sets it up near the ropes where Corino is. Dropkick to the edge of the table, driving the other edge into Corino's head!

Jack Victory attempts to come to Corino's aid on the ramp, but Tajiri steps from the table to the middle of the top rope and takes out both men with a flying double clothesline. Kneedrop to Victory's face takes him out of the equation, but when Tajiri charges his opponent, Corino counters with a Back Body Drop, sending Tajiri flying over the top rope and through the table! That gets Corino a two count, and he seems to have rallied somewhat. Taunting Perfectplex by Corino gets another two count. Short-arm Northern Lights Suplex is bridged for another two count. Victory slides another table into the ring, but in the time it takes Corino to unfold the table legs he's already deposited a few thick gobbets of blood on there, one of which drips down as he flips it over. This match is so hardcore even the tables are bleeding. Tajiri attacks with a kick, but Corino manages to whip him to the ropes and drop him with a Leg Lariat, which sends Tajiri rolling out to the floor. He soon returns to the ring though, and after some reversals Corino whips him to the ropes, applying an Abdominal Stretch on the rebound... or at least attempting to, as Tajiri easily reverses it into an Octopus Stretch. Jack Victory runs in to break it up and gets a face full of Green Mist for his trouble, but that allows Corino to escape and hit a Powerslam for a count of two. 

Corino nails Tajiri with a hell of a punch, but it turns into a strike exchange, and that's bad news for the American. A series of punches, chops, kicks and knees from Tajiri leave Corino slumped in a heap next to the table in the corner. Buzzsaw kick to the head would appear to be the death blow, but Tajiri decides to not let a table go to waste, laying Corino prone upon it and ascending the turnbuckles, before leaping off with a double stomp to the midsection, smashing Corino through the table to the mat. Tajiri covers and gets the inevitable three.

This was a really enjoyable match. Both competitors had clearly defined roles that they stayed true to, and it was paced perfectly. It has that feeling of being wall to wall action even though it really wasn't, because the pauses came where they were needed, where they fit. The big moments were given time to sink in and have meaning, rather than be rushed though and rendered meaningless, but there was never a time where you felt like nothing was happening. Even when nothing was actually happening, it felt like something was happening because something big had either just happened, or was about to happen.

At the same time, it is clearly an example of blood adding to a match. If the blood hadn't been there, or if it had been more of a trickle than a river, possibly the intensity of the occasion would have been lessened. Corino seeming dazed and dizzy and barely able to stand in the later stages, without the blood it would still have been believable because Tajiri's offence looks (and sounds) so believable, but the blood definitely lent credibility to the match story of "This man is doomed and now he is dying, and soon he will be dead".

The video is thirteen minutes and around ten of that is the match. They got a lot across in that ten minutes. Highly recommended. Thanks @The Man Known as Dan

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I'm fairly sure I won't be doing a full play by play, move for move review of my match. But I'm not saying what it is yet.

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Here's my selection for the self-pick:

1. I've never seen any AEW. None.
2. I've never seen any Darby Allin and the first two picks (Sabre and WALTER) aren't online.
3. I should probably see some current Cody. 

So this covers a few bases. 

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That's the rematch from January, isn't it? Might make sense to watch the first one from Fyter Fest as well. For context, like.

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1 hour ago, AxB said:

That's the rematch from January, isn't it? Might make sense to watch the first one from Fyter Fest as well. For context, like.

That seems a pretty far bridge. 

Shouldn't Schiavone or whoever tell me what I need to know?

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Yeah, but knowing something is not the same as being told something, is it?

Think of the Kawada vs Misawa matches. If you just watch the Ganso Bomb/ Arm Break one first without seeing what lead to it, much of what happens will be meaningless to you. And yet with context almost everything that happened in it was deeply meaningful.

I'm not saying Cody vs Darby is on that level (and they've only had two matches anyway). But it's something to consider.

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You're right. I'll play it by ear on this one though, just given time constraints and what I can easily find. In the meantime, if anyone thinks there's anything I should know, please drop that info in here.

@OctopusCinema

So, I'm happy to give you some Nick Bockwinkel matches. Obviously, if you have all the time in the world, the 60 minute match with Hennig is the masterpiece. That said, we don't all have that much time.

Here's what I wrote four years (and one month) ago as I tried to push him for GWE, with some matches underneath:

 

 

A Case for Bockwinkel:

There are so many things that Nick Bockwinkel did so well that it's hard to even know where to start. What I'd like to do, to begin, is list out his range, a number of roles that he was effective in playing, and that he was able to wrestle good to great matches (some all-timers) while achieving. This is in no order:

1. Bumping, stooging heel for aging legend (Vs Verne, Mad Dog, Crusher, Baron)

2. Bumping, stooging vulnerable champion for up and and coming Ace babyface (Vs Hogan)

3. Reluctantly cheered champion holding the line vs a foreign threat (Vs Al-Kassie)

4. Comedy kingpin with a bunch of goons vs Super-babyfaces (with Heenan family Vs. Andre and Hogan)

5. Heel champion Ace vs technical up and coming babyfaces (vs Rheingans)

6. Tag role of the same (With Stevens vs High Flyers)

7. Southern tag heel (w/Saito vs Gagnes or Hennigs, or High-flyers)

8. Confident heel champ vs established technical opponent (vs Martel)

9. Same as a heel challenger establishing said new babyface champ.

10. Vulnerable but dangerous heel champion against deadly brawler (vs Wahoo)

11. Travelling champ who underestimates local hero (vs Chavo)

12. Snobby outsider champ who DOESN'T underestimate local hero but has to have a number of varied matches with him without losing the title (vs Lawler)

13. Fiery babyface wanting revenge (crazy sprint vs Zbyszko)

14. John Wayne (vs Hansen)

15. Super technical in front of a Japanese audience (vs Funk and vs Robinson)

16. Aging, cagey veteran trying to survive against a young babyface slowly surpassing him (vs Hennig)

17. US Supermatch that has to end in a draw (vs. Flair)

18. Travelling heel champ stooging big for the local hero while staying credible (vs JYD)

19. Desperate heel up against monsters (the clips we have vs Andre or Ladd)

20. Very strong shorter match TV worker during the Showboat era (vs. Debeers)

And that's what we have from maybe 76-86, when he around 40 to just over 50. He spent decades of his career as a babyface. And there are more. I just picked twenty different in-ring functions that he had to do and had to do well, many of them calling upon different skills and talents, that involve someone actively wrestling differently. I could have given more examples of matches for almost every category too, with almost all of them being very good to great. That, to me is amazing. The only other people who would come close to this are #1 contenders, and almost all of those benefit from us having much more of their physical prime on tape or from working more broadly in multiple territories (though Bock, of course did. We just don't have a ton of that on tape; most of what we do is great).

He was able to accomplish this through deeply and thoroughly understanding pro wrestling and storytelling, through engaging the crowd, through knowing when to give and when to take, knowing how to maximize moments and momentum, to fully committing to his role at all times. He was incredible at portraying emotion in matches, jubilant when causing punishment and terrified when getting overwhelmed. He refused to let the crowd dictate what he was doing, but instead forced them into line with what was best for them and the match, adapting but never surrendering ("You're boring them Martel!" being my favorite single wrestling moment I've seen in the last five years, maybe?).

Everything had purpose. There are wrestlers, great wrestlers, who can string more-or-less unrelated chapters together so that their matches are better than the sum of their parts, so that they make a symbolic, thematic, more or less satisfying whole, but Bockwinkel was able to relate the chapters to one another so that he never had to do that. There wasn't that need for symbolism because the text stood on its own. It was finding the perfect moment to turn the babyface's offensive rush into a King of the Mountain heat segment, or how to start countering one bit of bodypart work with the opposite equivalent, and so on. There's no sixty minute match I've ever seen which tells so involved a story as Hennig vs Bockwinkel. I've never been satisfied with the idea that wrestling isn't a good medium for storytelling, because I've seen it. That match shows that it's possible, and not just over ten minutes but over sixty, and that it can be the most compelling thing in the world. He created stories that mattered to people, that resonated, that moved them, and he made it seem so flawless and so natural. There was so much variation, too. I can barely wrap my head around how he managed it.

And of course the fundamentals were there. He bumps around the ring like a pinball for Verne Gagne. His long-term limb selling is exceptional, and he had a way of selling fatigue from a long match in the finishing stretch like almost no one else. I believe that selling is the key to creating meaning in wrestling and it's hard not to watch his performances and think that he'd been through a war and that maybe, just maybe, he was going to lose that title (and if he did, the babyface would have EARNED it). His matwork was wonderful, holds and counters, perfect timing, great facial expressions and trash talk, and screaming in pain when he was on the wrong end of it. His strikes were snug. His offense was varied. He moved in and out of holds so well in the opening segment of a match; there was such flow to it. He cheated extremely well (and man was he a great southern tag heel), and as a babyface, he could both garner sympathy and swallow the heel alive with righteous fury. That's the thing. he's not just a smart worker. He's a total package. At age 45, he could still outFunk prime Funk, outFlair prime Flair and even, at times, outHansen prime Hansen. But, almost always, he only goes to that level when it makes sense to go there, when the value is there, when the needs of the match calls for it.

I don't think it's a big spoiler. He's my #1. There are amazing wrestlers on my list in the #2-9 spots, some of the most talented, skilled, brilliant, sound, varied people imaginable, with hundreds of great matches to prove their worth. I just can't imagine any of them in that #1 slot instead of Bockwinkel.

So part of what makes things tricky then is that there are so many matches of him in so many roles. 

That said, a couple of ones that cover a lot of ground. Here's a very complete traveling champ title defense:

This is my favorite of the Martel vs Bock series, with Bock as challenger:

Very fun Bock in a tag setting:

I'm not giving you Bock pinballing for guys but you can watch any of the Hogan or Verne matches for that. Also no super technical Bock but there's the 80 Robinson match for that. Finally, no babyface Bock but the Larry and Hansen matches aren't hard to find. There's one Larry sprint that is only a few minutes long but it's great. And of course any Bock vs Lawler.

Edited by Matt D
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Since I haven't been watching all the French catch (I admit, the length of these can be a bit intimidating. I can FF to the good stuff in a NOAH Broadway but I feel like I'm missing stuff if I do that here) this is my pick. However I'm gonna watch this one first as an appetizer: 

 

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Prince/Saulnier JIP is fast and furious. Both guys are in almost constant movement. Rope running, flying bodypresses and headscissors, constantly trying to pin each other off of armholds, and a bumbling ref that just won't get out of the way. Several times they fall or are thrown on top of him which he takes in stride and the commentator laughs at heartily. Unlike the other catch stuff this is all "hail fellow, well met" because it's apparently Face vs. Face so there's no viciousness or even any striking (beyond one spin kick that could be lifted out and inserted right into a fight scene in a Van Damme movie) until the very end when they start exchanging lifters and then the bell rings. No winner, so we get to settle this later on. 

Corne/Roinet is the flip side of that coin. These two guys do not like each other, as is apparent after one gives the other a lifter and he gets one in kind which is about the loudest European uppercut I've ever heard. They do this in between exchanging armholds and at some point Roinet gets rocked again and then for some reason starts holding his gut in pain, which is weird because that didn't appear to be where Corne struck him. After that we get an exchange of bearhugs and a nice headbutt to the damaged stomach. Finally he fights back and just starts clubbering Corne, stomping him on the ground, laying in big forearms to the back. But then Corne retaliates with a flurry of Euro uppercuts, a nice savate kick that sends Roinet flying out of the ring, then he throws him out on the other side and lays in even more uppercuts (each with a resounding *THWACK*) before finally catapulting him into the ropes and pinning him for the three. This is more my style, stiff work and some hostility. There is a begrudging handshake at the end that I don't really buy. I would've preferred them to slap each other first like they were New Japan juniors. 

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Yeah, everyone should see the longer Saulnier match but I would have given you something harder hitting, knowing your tastes. There are some really nasty heels and brutal babyfaces in this stuff. And some great heel vs heel type match-ups too. The Roinet match was almost the closest to a squash we've seen. It was competitive in that he never stopped trying but he got the crap beat out of him.

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I don't know that I have anything that I've been meaning to watch. I might just sit this week out until we're paired up again. I much prefer reviewing the stuff that other people specifically choose for me. 

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23 minutes ago, Smelly McUgly said:

I don't know that I have anything that I've been meaning to watch. I might just sit this week out until we're paired up again. I much prefer reviewing the stuff that other people specifically choose for me. 

Hey, since you were thinking of sitting out and love Jim Breaks, I've got some memorable villains for you.  Check out this Tony Oliver match that we just unearthed not long ago:

Or alternatively, if that's too long even though it goes short and if you've never seen any Mocho Cota, check out just how much of a malignant goblin he is here:

 

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Remember when we bet about Bayley not being ruined on the main roster and my natural optimism lost out to your grim realistic outlook? I saw Mocho Cota in a six-man tag where he was standout for his mugging and selling. 

I'll probably just watch the Mocho Cota match this week, then. 

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La Petit Prince vs. Michel Saulnier 10/4/69

Well this was totally different than just about anything I've ever seen before. The closest comparison I can make is a lucha maestros match that is nothing but matwork. In current wrestling a highspot is going to the top, doing a dive, doing a big move, here all the spots are escapes and reversals. And all of these escapes and reversals are some of the most elaborate, beautiful goddamn things you will ever see. Only towards the very end are there any strikes or rope running, instead everything is on the mat and completely tricked out, with both guys grinding in armholds and headlocks only for the other to come up with some wild way of gaining ground on the other, through a series of turns and flips and switches. It's about as pretty as the Renaissance paintings and harpsichord music that keeps showing up during the match. 

That said, if there's any complaint to be made (and some of the fans that jeered at times probably felt this way), it's that the match never really goes anywhere. It's built to be a broadway draw and that's what it is. Despite things starting to rev in the last minutes, with the ref getting involved again as one of them runs through his legs and he slowly stops a pin attempt (another similarity with lucha), it doesn't really take flight. There's intensity, but it's almost more of an exhibition of style and flash than the visceral nature of a fan throwing a lit cigarette at a wrestler or somebody getting mauled by a series of forearms, as is the case with other matches in this style. Despite that it is one hell of an exhibition and these guys pairing off against a team of heels would be amazing. 

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I read the match as them building and building and building to Petit getting to do all the acrobatics and rope running in the last ten minutes but people didn't seem to be on board with me on that.

We do have both the two of them together against another team and both guys against bases and heels, so that's to come. When we get to it. 

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Thanks @Matt D! I have seen the hour long Hennig match along with one Jumbo Tsuruta match. The rest is all new to me and I’ll leave a review here. Out of appreciation of the 3 matches here I’m aiming to do 3 more of the French Catch in that other thread. I saw there was another Andre Bollet match and now a Finlay one.

The GWE looked fun and too bad I wasn’t around for that. My friends and I do long lists projects of movies and albums culminating over a long night of beer and wings! So I’ve been digging over there and learned a lot. Hopefully if they do it again down the road I could do some posting over there for that. For fun I’ve been doing my own on my phone notes.

Edited by OctopusCinema
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On 4/5/2020 at 12:12 PM, AxB said:

Yeah, but knowing something is not the same as being told something, is it?

Think of the Kawada vs Misawa matches. If you just watch the Ganso Bomb/ Arm Break one first without seeing what lead to it, much of what happens will be meaningless to you. And yet with context almost everything that happened in it was deeply meaningful.

I'm not saying Cody vs Darby is on that level (and they've only had two matches anyway). But it's something to consider.


I'm glad I was talked into watching the initial match from the Fyter Fest, because I liked that a lot (and spoilers: a lot more than the other). That was much more of a grounded match where Cody doing some of the best, most credible work I've ever seen from him, as a base. It felt a lot like one of those Dean Malenko vs a smaller guy matches where Cody whipped out a bunch of offense that he might not be able to do against larger opponents. Darby made it all look incredible. Cody's come such a long way in the last few years. He's someone that really, truly understands pro wrestling as a fan and a student of the game and just gets what levers to pull to achieve certain results. Once you get that, it's no longer necessary to rush to the next spot. He lets things breathe, acts and reacts. Case in point was when he first found the bodybag and didn't know what to make of it. He could have portrayed being too cool for it or being outright dismissive, but he managed a sort of bewildered bemusement. This was all about showcasing Cody while making Darby strong just by his ability to stay in it and occasionally get one up on Cody. I don't think the fans ever got behind him though, not even after the missed coffin drop, which had to do with their connection with Cody or their desire to do dueling chants, and that hurt the match. I liked the way they slowly built up the hand-work, with Cody's selling (and yes, expressiveness, I know, I know) being spot on. I thought the timing on the finish could have been a little better, maybe with Cody hitting the Cross Rhodes a couple of seconds later. The headstand bump on it was great. I ended up liking this a lot.

I didn't like the 1/1 match nearly as much. I liked that they went for the pins early on after they were both unsatisfied by the finish in the first match. It was a lot more back and forth though. That worked early on when Cody was selling the shoulder but not as much in the stretch (but it was necessary to give Darby more since he was losing this one). I was worried when they did the bump in the corner through the ropes again since that was a big transition move in the first one and there, it almost seemed to surprise Cody; it's a sort of signature bump that generally defies physics and it'd be like Flair getting tossed off the ropes (but worse) if it happened too often. Here, Cody seemed to mean to do it and the bump was different, so that was good. I don't know if it's Cody or the camera angles or what, but I really don't like Darby's flip over stunner. His tope was amazing though; he went into it sideways, somehow. I also didn't love the Cody Cutter here. I much preferred the way he tossed around Darby in the first match. Darby Allin is a guy who should use that French Catch up and over leg armbar escape thing as he has a lot of fun tricked out arm-wringer stuff and this would take him over the top (literally). Honestly, he should be stealing a lot of the Catch stuff. Someone should share it with him. I think he could pull it off really well. It's not that this was bad, but it was a lot less focused than the first match. I did like the overall AEW atmosphere, the time announcements, the announcing (even JR for the most part when he wasn't asking if Darby liked pain; hell, it was nice to hear Tazz again, once). And yeah, it was great to see Arn.

My biggest takeaway is that I want to see the WALTER match from Darby and that I'm really glad Cody's come into his own so thoroughly. 

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So, I was ready to use this week as an opportunity to review some of that French footage, but Curt beat me to it and did a great job of it.

Then I thought about maybe catching up with some of those epic NJPW matches from 2012 through 2017, when I watched very little New Japan indeed. One of the guys I subscribe to on DailyMotion posted Styles vs Shinsuke, so that seemed like fate... except I just wasn't into watching that even though I enjoy both guys and I have learned to enjoy modern New Japan - I think my deal is that I simply get enough of the modern epic style with cutting edge moves by semi-keeping-up-with AEW.

Then I started thinking about the AWA. When I was in high school and for a while after that, we used to get AWA TV in Vancouver. Of course, being a teenager, I loved the Road Warriors. I also remember liking Scott Hall and Curt Hennig. The guy I really wanted to see more of, though, was Jerry "Crusher" Blackwell - whom I remember as a morbidly obese guy who moved like lightning, could do cartwheels and throw dropkicks (it's possible I'm misremembering about the cartwheels), and who reminded me of ( a bigger, faster, better version of) my pro wrestling friend "The Burger King" "Mean" Mike "Stoney" Edwards.

 

First: What is apparently some footage from Bizarro World. The crowd are 100 percent behind "Boom Boom" Bundy and Blackwell here. Hawk and Animal spend a huge chunk of the match stooging for their opponents and making sure Bundy and Blackwell look like real threats to take the tag titles. They establish right away that The Road Warriors cannot simply overpower these two behemoths. Bundy barely moves for their shoulder blocks and Animal strains his back trying to slam Blackwell. That being established, the Roadies go to work trying to wear down the big men. It's not exactly as exciting as Bryan trying to chop Morishima down... but it's a similar kind of psychology at work here. My gast is totally flabbered. 

They eventually drop Blackwell to his knees, but he Hulks up (!!!), starts no-selling, and makes the hot tag to Bundy. We get a bit of a pier 6 brawl going on, during which Bundy misses a charge in the corner leading to a flash pin by Animal. Precious Paul seemed to be trying to get up on the apron for that spot, but it didn't seem like he got there in time to interfere. 

A pretty amazing match, all things considered. Not at all what I was expecting. 

 

This is the JIP version. I understand the full match is out there somewhere but I couldn't find it. Still: No way I'm not going to review this!

Both men have put up 5000 bucks if their opponent can bodyslam them. Andre looks every bit of 7'4" and 500 pounds here. It's astonishing how he utterly dwarfs the enormous Blackwell. They work really, really well together, moving with remarkable fluidity for such massive men. The match tells a nice little story, and throws in some great spots as a bonus: The near-legendary spot in this match is Andre taking a huge backdrop from Blackwell. There is also an all-time great comedy spot where Andre is getting up off the mat and Blackwell is bouncing off the ropes to charge at him, but Blackwell just bounces right off of Andre's gigantic ass without Andre even realizing what's happening. And, there is an excellent dramatic spot and a real feat of strength where Blackwell hoists Andre up for a slam, but topples over backward under the weight. The crowd pops when Andre succeeds in slamming Blackwell, and then the action picks up... but Andre gets overexcited and tosses Blackwell over the top rope - which is an automatic DQ. 

Pretty nice booking, with Andre coming out on the losing end but five grand richer. Very entertaining match.

I'll do one more, a little later.

Edited by gordi
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Oh boy is this great! It's exactly what I have been most in the mood to watch the last few weeks: A violent, bloody, clubbering, hoss fight. It's also something close to the platonic ideal of a mid-1980s TV match. As we all know, back then the purpose of TV matches was to get the fans to go out and buy tickets to see the live shows. After watching this, I absolutely would have paid to see these guys fight again. 

They go straight into the clubbering, and just like with the Road Warriors (except way faster and more exciting) the AWA World Heavyweight Champion discovers that he can't simply overpower Blackwell. In fact, very early in the match, Blackwell rocks Hansen with stiff headbutts and hucks him straight into the ring post, busting him wide open. After a few more minutes of truly first-rate clubbering, and a great near-fall off of a Hansen slam attempt, Blackwell clamps on a nasty-looking bearhug. He really works the hold, and he and Hansen stumble and struggle around the ring. Bleeding like crazy, Hansen really looks to be in trouble. Blackwell drops Hansen to the mat and crushes him with a big splash. However, the ref is down, having been squashed in the corner by the two big struggling bulls. Blackwell goes to check on the ref while Hansen takes off one of his black cowboy boots. The champ waffles the challenger with his boot, busting Blackwell open. Hansen swings the boot at Blackwell's head again, and again. Another ref runs in to restore order, but Hansen attacks him. That allows Blackwell to grab the boot and chase Hansen from the ring.

After the match, a bloody, sweaty Hansen cuts a great little heel promo. I am sure this match drew a lot of fans to the arena!

Edited by gordi
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