Secret Santo in August 2022

[Curt McGirt]

So Gordi dressed up in a thong for Halloween once upon a time in Osaka. 

That is something one would not expect to type today

[porksweats]

@Curt McGirt, here's your match. I read that you like current Joshi, modern indies and texas wrestling, so I found something that combines all three.

 

 

Now there is no wrestler from Japan in this match but I know that Vaquer is currently over in Ice Ribbon so I think that counts for this.

 

[porksweats]

2 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

@porksweats since I've got this saved to watch later I'll just have you watch it too. Segunda boys dug it up and the participants mean it has to be seen. 

Tarzan Goto vs. Masashi Aoyagi, FMW 9/29/97

SANTO REVIEW~!~!~!

We are now in week 3, still staying in Japan! A week of NJPW and two straight of FMW alright. I haven't seen much Aoyagi but I did see his match against Backlund on the WWF 94 Japan tour and that was rad. Goto I've seen more of but I haven't seen much of later FMW, I'm more into the opening years. Aoyagi makes the initial charge here, but Goto holds him off against the ropes. Quickly moves outside, Aoyagi tossed in the crowd and Goto just HAMMERS with a chairshot to the dome, Aoyagi got his hands up but that didn't do much. Another chairshot, moving to the far side of the ring to fight, and we're back in with Mashashi adorned in blood. Now he's got some bloodlust taking control, Aoyagi gives some big kicks to Goto's chest and it's a whole new ballgame. For the next couple of minutes, Goto is getting hit every which way, getting his leg kicked out from under him, spin kick to the face, you name it. The time is 12:30 and Goto sidesteps Aoyagi's rolling wheel which finally brings into play the barbed wire, after Aoyagi gets up from missing the attack, he's tossed into the corner entangling in the wire, only to follow up with getting hit with the other board when he finally frees himself. We're back outside, dude directly in front of the camera has his back to us and he's got a very stylish coffee boss shirt on. I want one of these guys.

After a brief interlude of the fight we can't see, we're back in the ring with Goto's yellow tights being very stained with Aoyagi's blood, as his leg. Aoyagi is a zombie now, and now has the barbed wire tossed at him again. What a hellacious beating this is and he reverses Goto's whip to the corner and Tarzan GoThrough the Board! Oh it's sick. Now he's getting his chest caved in with kicks, yeah this has picked right the fuck up. Good lord, Goto catches the wheel kick and just drives him to the mat with a backdrop. Just more violence,  both men are 50% red from the waist up. Goto grabs two chairs and makes a makeshift table with the board, and powerbombs the soul out of Aoyagi and snags the win. Show of respect after, nice little match that amped it up at the end.

 

Takeaways: Aoyagi's got sick kicks. Goto is a safe watch go to. Gotta find Coffee Boss.

[SirSmUgly]

@OctopusOoh, you want rounds in your matches? You want longer stuff that is closer to epic? I think I can do that!

 

This match has a little bit of everything. Do you like loaded baked potatoes? This is a loaded baked potato, but wrestling instead of food. 

 

Bonus: We get to watch more Jimmy Breaks!

 

[Curt McGirt]

@porksweats that list was actually stuff that I need to see more of, but it works both ways haha

[Gordi the former AEW fan]

6 hours ago, porksweats said:

 We're back outside, dude directly in front of the camera has his back to us and he's got a very stylish coffee boss shirt on. I want one of these guys.

Gotta find Coffee Boss.

It's even better than you think. Suntory Boss is the best canned coffee in Japan, which is really saying something. And their amazing ad campaign features none other than Tommy Lee F'n Jones!

8 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

So Gordi dressed up in a thong for Halloween once upon a time in Osaka. 

 

Technically, a fundoshi is not a thong. Practically, however... yeah, pretty much. 

@DEAN I never knew Adam Firestorm all that well but he was really close to some of my closest friends in Vancouver. It does my heart good to see one of his matches posted here. Thank you.

@Octopus, I am really looking forward to reading your take on that tag match! I'm also looking forward to reading the latest take from @thee Reverend Axl Future now that he's thrown down the SMRT gaunlet on himself.I

Basically, I am all stoked up for Secret Santo this week!

@Matt D gave me some French Catch! Oh. Hell. Yeah!

The character work in both of these matches is so good and so smart. The good guys are so sportsmanlike, UNTIL THEY HAVE HAD ENOUGH of the bad guys, who are both bigger, stronger, unpleasant cheaters. Anyone with an open mind coming into this blind should immediately be able to figure out everyone's role, because the roles are so clear and so well-executed. It is truly excellent professional wrestling.

Le Batman doesn't wear a bat-mask, somewhat disappointingly. He appears to have a bat logo on his singlet, but even though this match is from 1974 the footage is in gloriously washed-out black and white so it's hard to be sure. He is the slightest bit podgier than in the presumably much older match I have seen before, and he doesn't do cartwheels and other athletic stuff here. Not sure if it is because he is older here or because it better fits this particular match-up. He is a spectacular bumper. Adrian Adonis tier. He plays to the crowd like Hulk Hogan, with the "should I punch this guy?" gesture once HE HAS FINALLY HAD ENOUGH of Klondike Bill's shenanigans .

Klondike Bill is a real giant fat man. He's built like Mr. Creosote from Meaning of Life. The link Matt provided, in addition to clarifying that this is not the Klondike Bill who was trained by Stu Hart, is full of testimonials about this big man's ability to work long matches. And indeed this giant can move and even bump big when the moment calls for it. The match goes 20 minutes and those minutes just fly by. Klondike can really move, but mostly he lumbers, as a wise and deliberate choice, belly-bucking Le Batman around the ring and yeeting him about with one arm. It takes seven hard kicks to knock the giant off his feet, but he can hurl Batman across the ring with a single swipe of his mighty paw. Batman has to crank and crank and crank on the leg to get a takedown, and it's absolut like felling a giant tree. Wonderful! 

Despite his massive size advantage, Bill keeps pulling hair and otherwise cheating. Eventually, even the ref HAS HAD ENOUGH of that and he leaps on Klondike's giant back, only to get belly-bucked and splashed, leading to the DQ. Supremely entertaining stuff.

Le Petit Prince is athletic like Rey (Mysterio or Fenix, take your pick) or Dante (Martin) and uses that athleticism to do spectacular arm drags and short arm scissors and so on. I really hope that clips of him going viral leads to a couple of athletic young wrestlers copying his style. Again, supremely entertaining.

He and Noced have that special ring chemistry that I brought up discussing the Tajiri vs Super Crazy match that Octopus gave me last week. If Prince is Rey or Dante, Noced is a French junior heavyweight Mox or Kingston. He just batters Le Petit One mercilessly until Prince HAS HAD ENOUGH and fires back with some hard punches of his own.

So simple, so perfect.

 

[Octopus]

BULL NAKANO & AJA KONG vs AKIRA HOKUTO & SHINOBU KANDORI, gifted by little Gordphan Annie

I’m in the awkward sport of writing actually a day after watching. On little sleep, pretty busy and tired, but knowing the next few days will also take time. Also, the watching of the match was a little stop and go. Having things to take care of, etc etc. But I have the benefit of the match itself slowly swirling in my head. Both the moves themselves, the rhythms of the stiff beatings, and underlying storytelling that seemed present throughout. It reminds me of when I watched Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Enjoyed but the impact felt was a prolonged raising tide seeping into my frontal lobe. I had water and now I have tea. I had match and now I have desire. Desire for more of these cast of characters. Their journey to and from this point. Luckily I have seen Hokuto vs Kandori in what is in my (I don’t have a list but will ponder on this) five favorite matches of all time. I’ve watched different YouTube videos highlighting the rise of Bull Nakano and read up on the badassery of Aja Kong. But this match pushed me into the zone I was in when I first discovered the Criterion Collection section at the Eden Prairie Barnes & Noble. I’m ready for more. I shall slowly piece through this journey when I’m done Secret Santoing.

I’ve rambled on my love of struggle. How I admire most when muscly dudes are gasping and grappling for position. Pushing and pulling for an opening to strike. But struggle doesn’t have to be represented in a slow battle. It can shine and excel a maximalist war. Everything these women threw at each other and every bomb dropped felt earned. This is wrestling. Even the larger bullies stumbling back and out of breath towards the end. I can show anyone this proudly and not have to nervously explain the clear cooperation of a big move or a play along walking the ropes segment. I can show them this and they’ll just say “fuck”.

Hokuto may very well be the greatest of all time. I’d have to deep dive her career to compare highs and lows but when she peaks Hokuto is the greatest. She is the center of this tale and overcoming her pride and hubris is the heart of the story. Akira’s distain towards her partner, Shinobu Kandori, is so clearly represented by HER SLAPPING THE SHIT OUT OF HER FOR A TAG. Not so subtle but done so excellently that even without knowing their history, you can put it together. Throughout the match, Hokuto is getting pummeled and in moments of comebacks she appears to prideful to make the hot tag for help and wants to battle on her own. It isn’t until Hokuto and Kandori stop slapping for tags and start working together that they can take in these monsters. Even then it is a struggle.

Maybe Bull Nakano is the greatest ever? Her presence as a dominant force is unmatched. Everything she does looks like it could (and it would) kill me. 

Kandori is a legitimate badass. She takes a beating in this, but her ability to take down her much larger opponents with an arm bar is visually spectacular. Among these characters she is an equal to monsters, which says a lot.

Aja Kong’s piledrivers are scary. Gosh!

I guess I won’t do story points if this led to that. Because this had waves of energy like a great basketball game. I love that when the tides turn towards the smaller opponents make their comeback it is not a swift tide turning win but still treated like an up and down game that is still being fought. If I was a serious star rating guy I’d for sure give this a 5. In a lot of ways it is perfect. I did some light reading on this match as well and it sounds like it is filled with references to previous encounters which is a big reason why I love main event All Japan 90’s men. Great multi-match storytelling is always a plus for me. I have a lot of future blogs I’d love to derp. David travels to King’s Road, Octopus and the GOATs of Lucha, and now the Joshi Journey. 

All hail, @Gordlow! @SirSmellingtonofCascadia, your review will be the end of the week, likely.

[Curt McGirt]

Dulce Tormenta vs. Stephanie Vaquer vs. Reina Dorada, Jb Promotions

Boy howdy this wasn't good. I don't even have much to say. It was an ice cold three-way (yuck) comprised of half speed lucha spots set in an industrial shed somewhere in Houston. I guess Vaquer and Dorada were partners because all they did was team up on Dulce, so this is really a handicap match instead of a 3-way. As mentioned everything is pulled off just slower than it should and Dulce has an embarrassing part where she keeps slipping on the ropes. There are also some egregious post-strike thigh and hand slaps. The pair take pretty much the entire match until slipping on the proverbial banana peel. Very underwhelming. Not only that but there is only a hard cam and at two different points the women move entirely out of frame and we don't get to see what's going on outside. 

I guess I wouldn't mind seeing Reina Dorada again though, for... reasons. Two in particular. Sorry @porksweats I guess I hit the Whammy on this one, or you did.

[porksweats]

3 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Dulce Tormenta vs. Stephanie Vaquer vs. Reina Dorada, Jb Promotions

Boy howdy this wasn't good. I don't even have much to say. It was an ice cold three-way (yuck) comprised of half speed lucha spots set in an industrial shed somewhere in Houston. I guess Vaquer and Dorada were partners because all they did was team up on Dulce, so this is really a handicap match instead of a 3-way. As mentioned everything is pulled off just slower than it should and Dulce has an embarrassing part where she keeps slipping on the ropes. There are also some egregious post-strike thigh and hand slaps. The pair take pretty much the entire match until slipping on the proverbial banana peel. Very underwhelming. Not only that but there is only a hard cam and at two different points the women move entirely out of frame and we don't get to see what's going on outside. 

I guess I wouldn't mind seeing Reina Dorada again though, for... reasons. Two in particular. Sorry @porksweats I guess I hit the Whammy on this one, or you did.

I sent it sight-unseen as I how I read your asks as things you had seen plenty of but liked rather than what you wanted to see.

Take this as a consolation prize.

 

[Matt D]

On 8/14/2022 at 11:29 AM, Gordlow said:

 

And I have been saving this for you (or Dean) since the links got in sent to me. I'm sure we have talked at least briefly about Otoko Sakari, Alexander Otsuka's sex addict comedy wrestling character, who I once dressed as for the Osaka Pro Halloween party. Whichever of you or Dean I got first was getting this one, something I am all but sure you have never seen, from a series of shows promoted by my special friend Kyusei Ninja Ranmaru in 2020. I recommend watching with captions on. Or maybe not...

It's a really short match, but definitely gets across the essence of Otoko Sakari. Which,really, everyone should experience at least once. Even though it's really pretty awful.

And, he is "fighting" someone you're familiar with from AEW!

Pacing myself here. I'll have the other match for later on. First of all, I'm glad you liked the French footage. I always look out for things to have in my back pocket in case I do draw you and that stood out as a perfect 1-2 punch out of the admittedly daunting French footage. I had no idea what to make of Bill coming in and I wish we had thirty more matches with him. We don't.

So, here's what you gave me. Let me talk about Shida for a minute. I've been watching AEW for about a year and of that, I think she's been away or out for 5/12th of that, but I've gotten a pretty good look at her. I know that i go on about the random tags and trios with the women that AEW runs almost every week. They really harken back to the old Survivor Series appeal to me, the notion of pro wrestlers getting to be characters that move outside of their normal comfort bases. In AEW, that's a thing to. We know how Max Caster and Anthony Bowens are going to interact with one another every week. After a span of a few weeks, you knew how they'd interact with the Gunn Club too. You know how Butcher will interact with Blade or Kassidy with Quen or TRENT? with Chuck, etc. But when one of these random matches happen, Anna Jay had to stand net to Ruby Soho or Skye Blue. And that's a moment where the wrestlers have to do something that's natural and unplanned, something organic that speaks to who they are. Some of them take the advantage more than others. The wonderful stuff is seeing Marina Shafir take tea from Emi Sakura in the middle of the match, because while she's a badass assassin, she's also a shittalker on the outside who has bully tendencies that give her some real character. Likewise when, let's say Diamante is doing the clap for the We Will Rock You stuff. You obviously get that with guys too, whether it's Angelico grooving to Private Party's music or whatever, but there are just more random female trios matches. What's my point here? It's that I love Shida's energy when she's paired with Ruby Soho and her music or, like this week, with ThunderStorm. You can just see, in that little moment, how much she gets it. How much she gets Pro Wrestling and the appeal and how to make that moment feel special and how to have it feel special herself. How to be a character and a person living in that moment. She's likewise great at channeling a crowd and a crowd's energy.

And she was great here, in living and breathing in this strange moment that she found herself in. One of my big deals that I talk a lot about is commitment. The lifeblood of pro wrestling is selling, and selling is all about expressing that what is going on in the ring matters. If you care, the fans will care. If you treat what's going on as real and meaningful, it will be portrayed and accepted as real and meaningful. It's about creating emotional stakes, and she does that here in her struggle. If she just fell right into the comedy buttocks immediately, it would have been a funny spot but wouldn't have resonated. Instead, you felt her struggle trying to resist, trying to fight back, trying to escape. When it finally happened, it wasn't just a comedy spot but an actual transition where she lost the offense and had to fight from underneath, quite literally. They built consequence and then paid it off, just like in a blood feud or a title match. Here, the goals were different, to amuse for instance, and the tools were different, Shida's strikes and weapon shot and agility and Sakari's toxic and gross assault, but they used those tools to build a narrative like you'd use any other tools. And it came down to athleticism, timing, reactions, build and payoff of meaning, to make it work. There are more conventional matches, with dozens more high spots or even quality struggle-filled chain wrestling that would emotionally resonate with someone far, far less than this, because of how it was worked and how it was layed out. They created a living, breathing world that was consistent within itself, where they could move pieces about to craft a narrative that was satisfying to an audience and made them feel something, with drama and humor and struggle and an ultimate moment of comeuppance. And all it took was losing themselves completely to what they were doing, selflessly subsuming themselves into the character and world at play, and being absolutely fearless in their reactions. No small thing, right? Anything less and it wouldn't have worked. But they put their all into it, so it did. That's great pro wrestling. Which means this, even this, is unquestionably, undeniably, and in its own way wonderfully great pro wrestling too.

[DEAN]

Actually, @thee Reverend Axl Future, THIS is the match you should watch- Lioness Asuka and Kyoko Inoue beating the living fuck out of each other in 1998.  I forgot how fucking great and INSANE this match is.

 

[thee Reverend Axl Future]

OK- DeanoMachino StronglikedeCappuchino - @DEAN see how my insomnia-induced procrastination can work for me, IMA WATCH ALL THE MATCHES YOU DOLE OUT LIKE SHEKELS SCATTERED BEFORE THEE ROYAL CHARIOT AND I AM THE SUMERIAN SERF, cuz I'm a greedy miser. My ChromeBook is so overloaded, like 700 tabs, it's a-crawling baby, who has the time to open all that? Anyhoo, here you go, old pal old chum as B. Bunny (Bugs, not Bad, kiddos) used to say. 

I was searching for some Incredibly Strange Wrestling to present to ye, as I am again on my mental kick of thee futility of a History of Rassling, it should not could not get written, there's too much and kay fabe has made this like the most arcane of Arabic alchemys, but you know some Clever Dick is going to try but you're gonna need some Borgesian Aleph and/or the spirits of Jack Pfefer, Toots Mondt and Jim Barnett to even try and it'll still be wrong. So where does stuff like ISW figure in, you could use the punk analogy but is more complicated than that. Will Johnny Legend (a CPF of RAF) get his dues? Will more pages be written on AJ Styles than Capt. Lou Albano? Beautiful Beauregard and Chris Colt were more influential than 99% of any of those PWG workers and I stand by that. Anyway, I got this here match, but I think it's from J.R. Benson's YT channel, and that jagoff ripped me off for tapes ever so long ago, and my lack of Buddha Nature prevents me from using any of his matches from there on here so we get this. State of 1995 indies going on, I guess, the rest of the card looks pretty dire (The Navajo Kid v. RJ Rodriguez, Bobby Bradley v. The Wild Renegade, Johnny Paine v. Little Haystacks, Judge Dread v. Gary Key, The Thug v. Cincinnati Red, SWAT v. Cincinnati Red, RJ Rodriguez & The Wild Renegade, The Junkyard Dog v. The Thug, The Volcano Kid & Tonga Kid v. Rajun Raven & The Samurai Warrior, Virgil v. Larry Power) But Terry Funk, Aton bless Terry Funk, the man is amazing, a gotdang National Treasure, a grizzled Texas Poet Laureate of thee Mat, nuff said. And did someone really use Al Naafiysh (The Soul) by Hashim for Sabu's entrance music???!?!? WHO?! It works! I owe them a hug. Enjoy.

Edited August 18, 2022 by thee Reverend Axl Future
i fix stuff

[Gordi the former AEW fan]

On 8/17/2022 at 2:45 AM, Matt D said:

Pacing myself here. I'll have the other match for later on. First of all, I'm glad you liked the French footage. I always look out for things to have in my back pocket in case I do draw you and that stood out as a perfect 1-2 punch out of the admittedly daunting French footage. I had no idea what to make of Bill coming in and I wish we had thirty more matches with him. We don't.

So, here's what you gave me. Let me talk about Shida for a minute. I've been watching AEW for about a year and of that, I think she's been away or out for 5/12th of that, but I've gotten a pretty good look at her. I know that i go on about the random tags and trios with the women that AEW runs almost every week. They really harken back to the old Survivor Series appeal to me, the notion of pro wrestlers getting to be characters that move outside of their normal comfort bases. In AEW, that's a thing to. We know how Max Caster and Anthony Bowens are going to interact with one another every week. After a span of a few weeks, you knew how they'd interact with the Gunn Club too. You know how Butcher will interact with Blade or Kassidy with Quen or TRENT? with Chuck, etc. But when one of these random matches happen, Anna Jay had to stand net to Ruby Soho or Skye Blue. And that's a moment where the wrestlers have to do something that's natural and unplanned, something organic that speaks to who they are. Some of them take the advantage more than others. The wonderful stuff is seeing Marina Shafir take tea from Emi Sakura in the middle of the match, because while she's a badass assassin, she's also a shittalker on the outside who has bully tendencies that give her some real character. Likewise when, let's say Diamante is doing the clap for the We Will Rock You stuff. You obviously get that with guys too, whether it's Angelico grooving to Private Party's music or whatever, but there are just more random female trios matches. What's my point here? It's that I love Shida's energy when she's paired with Ruby Soho and her music or, like this week, with ThunderStorm. You can just see, in that little moment, how much she gets it. How much she gets Pro Wrestling and the appeal and how to make that moment feel special and how to have it feel special herself. How to be a character and a person living in that moment. She's likewise great at channeling a crowd and a crowd's energy.

And she was great here, in living and breathing in this strange moment that she found herself in. One of my big deals that I talk a lot about is commitment. The lifeblood of pro wrestling is selling, and selling is all about expressing that what is going on in the ring matters. If you care, the fans will care. If you treat what's going on as real and meaningful, it will be portrayed and accepted as real and meaningful. It's about creating emotional stakes, and she does that here in her struggle. If she just fell right into the comedy buttocks immediately, it would have been a funny spot but wouldn't have resonated. Instead, you felt her struggle trying to resist, trying to fight back, trying to escape. When it finally happened, it wasn't just a comedy spot but an actual transition where she lost the offense and had to fight from underneath, quite literally. They built consequence and then paid it off, just like in a blood feud or a title match. Here, the goals were different, to amuse for instance, and the tools were different, Shida's strikes and weapon shot and agility and Sakari's toxic and gross assault, but they used those tools to build a narrative like you'd use any other tools. And it came down to athleticism, timing, reactions, build and payoff of meaning, to make it work. There are more conventional matches, with dozens more high spots or even quality struggle-filled chain wrestling that would emotionally resonate with someone far, far less than this, because of how it was worked and how it was layed out. They created a living, breathing world that was consistent within itself, where they could move pieces about to craft a narrative that was satisfying to an audience and made them feel something, with drama and humor and struggle and an ultimate moment of comeuppance. And all it took was losing themselves completely to what they were doing, selflessly subsuming themselves into the character and world at play, and being absolutely fearless in their reactions. No small thing, right? Anything less and it wouldn't have worked. But they put their all into it, so it did. That's great pro wrestling. Which means this, even this, is unquestionably, undeniably, and in its own way wonderfully great pro wrestling too.

This review straight up fills my heart with joy. The total commitment to a ridiculous bit, played out in front of an audience that is loving it, is indeed - in my opinion, also - great pro wrestling. It's what made my beloved Osaka Pro so beautiful. It was Ranmaru's bread and butter. It's amazing and also insane that Alexander Otsuka, one of the toughest men and best pro wrestlers  I have ever met - which is really saying something - and from all accounts a genuinely decent human being, should commit fully to this particular character. It's a joy to share it with someone who gets it.

If someone else watches that match and is completely put off by it, I would absolutely understand. Absolutely. But there is an art and a fearlessness to it, certainly, and thank you for seeing it.

 

A thing I forgot to mention w/r/t Klondike Bill:

For sure, assuming he saw him wrestle, Bill had an influence on Andre the Giant. Not immediately. But seeds were planted that bore sweet sweet fruit much further down the line. In particular, Klondike just hurls himself into that spot that to me is the "Andre gets tangled in the ropes" spot. My heart also leapt, to see that.

[SirSmUgly]

La Petit Prince vs Michael Saulnier

Hey, it's some French catch! I have seen a little of this as it's been uncovered. It's incredible to get footage of wrestling from the '50s and '60s in general, much less in France. 

I feel like it's faux-intellectual to mention Barthes in conjunction with this particular exercise, but I admit to thinking of his critical evaluation of wrestling because I wanted to see what he saw in this specific cultural variety of pro wrestling. 

Then I got a match that was really the '50s French version of a WERKRATE~ match. This is not to say that it's bad. I prefer this sort of counter/working holds type of workrate to the "do everything really fast and add unnecessary flips" idea of workrate that permeates modern wrestling. But man, these dudes work really fast. I do think it verges on "performance" rather than "athletic contest in which two competitors are trying to win a fight," and ultimately, I much prefer the latter.

It's a good match to have watched because it compares to the UWF worked-shoot stuff that definitely felt like a legit fight, you could actually put this match and those matches at opposite end points on a line, actually, and I think it clarifies what I really want out of my pro graps nowadays. 

Unfortunately, I didn't get the release of emotion that Barthes got from his pro wrestling outing. But the flips and counters were pretty! 

Edited August 19, 2022 by SirSmellingtonofCascadia

[DEAN]

TERRY FUNK vs SABU- NWC- LAS VEGAS- 3/15/1995:  1995 was the year that me and my friend Cliff drove to Philadelphia to see ECW and especially to see Sabu, sight unseen, because this was right before I could start trading tapes and could see guys I heard about.  It was, of course, the ECW show where Sabu was double booked and opted to actually get paid by New Japan so he didn't show up because he was in JAPAN and Heyman buried him and was very unsettling.  But there was also a little known guy named Eddie Guerrero who debuted, so it was worth the drive.  I had not seen Terry Funk since his white hot run in WCW is 1989, where I saw him at the Richmond Coliseum stand up all crazy with a poncho on in front of two children and made them start crying.  I remember the father saying,  "He oughtn't do that."    I remember Sabu being the craziest motherfucker I had ever seen.  Then I got introduced to Lucha Libre and saw where he was coming from.  Funk in 1989 was awesome because he had just come back from semi-retirement and was no longer the NWA champion-styled wrestler that I remember seeing on film when Mid-Atlantic would show important matches that happened against a Brisco or Harley Race, not in the Carolinas and definitely not in Virginia.  He was a crazy fucking brawler now and he was completely awesome.  This version morphed into the ECW version of Funk and that is what we get budding in this match.  This starts off on the floor and all you can see is the back of the heads of the fine wrestling fans of Las Vegas.  And then one notices that this is a Russian Chain match.  Funk is fucking great in this because he wrestles like he wrestled in Puerto Rico against Rick Martell; Martell and, here, Sabu, didn't even need to be in the building because Funk is a hurricane of wrestling expressiveness.  Funk jumping off the apron to the floor onto Sabu is crazy looking NOW.  Imagine how it looked 27 years ago.  Man, my first daughter would be born a year and half after this match takes place.  She's getting married Saturday.  TO SABU!  No, not really.  She's marrying a decent young man from Roanoke.  Funk hits a fucking MOONSAULT during a Russian Chain match! At age 53.  What a freakish athlete.  I love that Sabu doesn't really do any high flying but just beats on Funk and allows Funk to bleed and flail around and generally be a total agent of chaos.  Sabu ties Funk to a table with the chain and moonsaults through the table and Funk.  Remember that this is just five years after Funk piledrove Flair through a table in a spot that appeared to be attempted manslaughter.  Funk staggers around, selling the lunacy of the table spot, headbutting Sabu to stop the tagging of the fourth turnbuckle.  Funk punched the ref after the ref is bumped and misses one of the turnbuckle tags by Funk.  After the visual victory, Sabu ties up Funk's legs and touches all four corners, causing Funk to punch the ref and punch Sabu and grab his branding iron and stick it in Sabu's eye.  Then Funk starts throwing chairs into the ring.  Terry Funk being a complete maniac is the one of the best Terry Funks.  The best Terry Funk is the Terry Funk that wrestled Stan Hansen in Japan, but he aged well into a middle aged lunatic who could carry a match by being a whirling dervish of wildness. 1995 was a great year to get on the internet and get WAAAY into wrestling.

 

[Curt McGirt]

Sabu and RVD having whatever relationships they have to their respective valets makes me happy that any kind of fuckup can find (I cannot stress this enough since I have no idea as to their actual feelings towards each other, possible) love. Shit, all four parties could possibly be like "well, we've been through it long enough, you'll do." 

This is of course me hopefully projecting

Edited August 19, 2022 by Curt McGirt

[Matt D]

On 8/14/2022 at 11:29 AM, Gordlow said:

And since it is a short match, the optional extra is a much, much different intergender match also featuring familiar names from All Elite:

I wonder about this screenshot as a way to get extra hits, Beyond. I wonder.

A couple of things to start. First, I really like this venue. It's where they filled the seasons of Uncharted Territory before they went south. I've never been and I haven't been back to MA for at least six years now, but I am from there, and there's a good chance our overly enthusiastic pal Marty Sleaze is hanging out there as he hits these shows sometimes. Moreover, it's almost certain that my pal from high school Jimmy James is filming. He does a lot of the filming for that location and a lot of things for ITWV in general. He was a couple of years younger than me and the son of a math teacher who once made my sister cry and I almost charged into the classroom on and I once got him in a cross-legged Boston Crab during band practice one day. Unrelated, but there you go. And of course Rich Palladino is the ring announcer. No one I know personally, but he was the announcer for all of the Chaotic Wrestling shows I went to (and I went to many) in 2001-2002 during college. So that always brings back memories.

As for the match itself, I'll lead with the criticism. They went too fast and did too much so nothing really got to sink in. A lot of what they were doing was good but it's a fairly long match where a lot happens. Yuta especially takes a pretty huge beating, a vulnerable, cowardly champ. He has a great transition to offense where he takes out Willow's legs on the ropes as she's hanging over to try to reach him, and the match would have probably been better served by him taking just a little more of it. But the big problem was that they were really rushing to the next spot. That said, when it came to execution and presence, Willow seemed quite far along, for this being a couple of years ago. I am not a huge execution guy relative to other elements of wrestling, but one area which does matter to me is people's facial expressions. Not just jokingly about missile dropkicks either. It goes back to engagement. Can you see in their eyes, on their face, in their heart, that they're in the moment, or are they really just focused on hitting Spot A and setting up Spot B. Willow is one of the only people in wrestling that can hit a senton with a huge smile on her face. Maybe that's her. Maybe that's her character. It doesn't matter because it's hugely impactful. Likewise, when she didn't get the win after the moonsault and the smile faded, that was more believable and meaningful than other overwrought acting because you know her as a character and knows the joy she usually channels. That was maybe the only moment that did sink in. I would have liked Yuta to hit one more big move at the end too, before the submission, if only because Willow had taken so much of the match and she had been portrayed as having a size and strength advantage. She had taken a lot less damage throughout but it still only took a couple of moves to take her down.

In closing, I'm very curious what a 2022 (or 2023) Yuta heel run would look like now that he's able to channel so much more aggression and violence, even as a face.

[thee Reverend Axl Future]

Le amuse bouche: From Big Daddy "one day they're making wrestling drawings and now I'm buying IKEA furniture for the dorm"  @DEAN, we get this hoary slice of the Indys, The Black Dragon & Dr Luther VS American Dragon & Adam Firestorm from Portland circa 2002, Canada vs. U-S-A/NZ, baby. I feel like this in time period, the indies started coalescing around a few big stars who worked their butts off and traveled all around; the best workers could get booked in a variety of promotions.  Instead of being big fish in small territories, they could choose to treat it all as one big scene. The interWebs and the tape trading was doing this, right? The quality and mentality of these top unsigned workers had it do with this change as well, of course, but things were moving away from that hot Monday Night Wars boom period where little promotions & promoters were aping the main feds and there were plenty of cast-off superstar vets floating around between contracts. Now,  newer styles emerge and combine , very diverse to be sure, but both inclusive (with influences from rassling all around the world) and navel-gazing (a self referential, almost "meta" mode with less psychology and story-telling but lotsa action and danger and moves and obvious effort (y'know, for the kids)). Indy for indy's sake, people were not learning from the previous era's vets anymore and maybe these young Turks didn't necessarily know if they were going to get signed to New York or Atlanta or even Philly but you could make a living if you were hungry and talented enough...

At any rate, despite my riffing intro, this is quite the classic tag match, especially in the beginning. I always liked Dr. Luther - sure, he's no DC Drake but that's a high bar in RAF's book. I am really digging his constant grimace. The Black Dragon always was a gem when he would pop up on tapes, but he didn't really leave Canada. AD is of course DB and/or BD and is a mothertruckin' prodigy here in the dawn of his career. Adam F rocks the late '90s look and I am pleased to see him here too. I can't tell fersure if this match is laid out so basically that they could call it in the ring (doubtful) or if it was meticulously discussed and rehashed in the lockerroom (probably). At any rate, everybody here is competent enough to make to look fresh and spontaneous.

I dunno if I have ever seen anything from this NWA affiliate before, at least not a whole card/event/TV show. Great low budget local look and some awesome sponsors (where are my commercials?!). The white set w/black drapes, Mean Gene-lite interviewer and especially the camerawork really made this special. I become fascinated by the comically oversized kickpads of Dr. Luther, who is also wearing his own merch. Most everybody is hitting some nice solid-looking moves and loud bumps. It was too short, I bet with another 15 minutes we coulda seen a festive hot tag. One quibble i had was that although folks were selling (as much as you could in a quick fast match), when they were they still hit their moves really big. This is a strong-style taint that always bugs me: usually when you are selling, if you come back with a big maneuver it should be difficult and even distressful to hit. American Dragon gets it. We are also treated to bookend heel promos. This was fun, a bracing slice of  UHF TV match goodness.

(thank you, Tom & Gloria)

((pt. 2, The Electric Quickening tomorrow...)

[Matt D]

Week 4! My gut says that we'll do one more after this, because after that the randomization will really be running into dupes, but I think we're still clear and easy this week. I've got tagging issues again, so hopefully everyone sees this.

thee Reverend Axl Future
SirSmellingtonofCascadia

Matt D
DEAN

porksweats
Octopus

gordlow
Curt McGirt

DEAN, give me a bit and I'll find something for you.

[Gordi the former AEW fan]

@Curt McGirt

Here's a match I really really liked that I think might also be right up your alley. You know, the alley behind the intersection of Blood Bath Boulevard and Shoot Style Street. You might have bumped into each other there.

Mox and Biff just beating on e another to a pulp, at Bloodsport.

 

Edited August 21, 2022 by Gordlow

[Curt McGirt]

Ah, very familiar with this one; I'll knock out a review briefly. (If you feel like throwing me something I haven't seen I'm down to look at that too.)

Here's a blast from the past for you. I remember liking this one a lot; it was one of the last matches I downloaded back when I lived with rent-free internet and downloaded everything in sight (after that ended I was in the puro wilderness for quite awhile, besides NJ on AXS). It was the first time I had seen or heard of Kenou. I was watching this for my boy Hayato Jr. Fujita, who is apparently back in the fold according to reports. Somebody still needs to put up the Yoshitsune M-Pro title match with him that I was looking for, btw...

 

[Matt D]

@DEANI give you Panamanian Lucha with the best low blow ever and a riot:

 

[DEAN]

Hey @Matt Dhave you seen this?  Possibly the greatest pro wrestling match ever.

EDIT:  I'm sorry.  I meant THIS ONE.

 

[porksweats]

For you @Octopus, this might've been the easiest rec yet since you said you liked Akira Hokuto

 

 

Debbie Malenko might be my favorite Joshi Gaijin of all time.

 

[Curt McGirt]

JON MOXLEY vs. BIFF BUSICK, GCW Bloodsport 2022

Incredible match. This is exactly what I've wanted from all the Bloodsport matches I've seen: A harrowing, withering battle with vicious strikes and holds and someone dying on their shield in the face of intense pressure. Busick had just washed out of WWE as Oney Lorcan (which you have to give him credit, they could have named him something similarly awkward but he outdid them when given the choice) and he had something to prove here against one of the faces on the Mt. Rushmore of AEW. Moxley was never going to give or accept any quarter so they just go at it viciously. Biff seems somewhat outclassed and takes a lot of abuse but when he manages to wriggle into offense it's just as heavy-handed. The tables go fully in Moxley's favor after a knee trembler ostensibly busts him open and he comes up gushing with blood; surely Mox saw that and said "okay I'll put the blade back tonight, he's got me beat". If I have any complaints it's that Biff deserved to even the sides a bit more but he takes the full brunt of Jon's arsenal and dies with his middle fingers in the air. How the guy doesn't have an Elite job yet must be a personal decision. 

That's the third time I've watched that match, FWIW.