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Secret Santo Holiday Season 2020


Matt D

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On 12/27/2020 at 1:19 PM, moribund said:

It was that or just grab a random Nick Bockwinkel match so you could tout his greatness (no sarcasm intended at all). In fact, what the hell:

 

Slow going this week given the holidays and everything else, so I'm a little behind. I'll catch the Joshi match tomorrow probably. I did watch Savage vs Bock though. It's a pretty interesting match because Bock is a de facto face here. He'd team with Lawler later in the year and it was probably more clean-cut then, but here Savage was hot and on a rampage and a definite heel. He'd be an outright face against Hansen and Larry and others later on but the only other time he was in this sort of tweener role that we have footage of was a few years earlier against Al-Kaissie, and it goes against what you'd expect a bit, because he's just rugged and tough. Obviously Savage is a very different opponent than Randy. Bock plays King of the Mountain on him and Savage responds in turn by doing all of his top rope axe-handles and playing hide the object. What I really wish we had here were the promos setting this up. I don't THINK we have that episode of Memphis TV though we have the week after where Tux Newton gloats about it all. This is more historic and interesting given Bockwinkel's role than great but we're still lucky to have this.

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On 12/28/2020 at 3:54 PM, Octopus said:

 

@El Gran Gordi, this deep fried calamari will give you a fun one.

Dusty, Putsky, Andre vs Afa, Sika, & Samula.

This match is very very very very very similar to The Battle of Atlantic City, which @Matt Dgave me 3 or 4 weeks back. That match was from the late '70s WWWF and this match is from the early-80s WWF but both are (presumably) Main Event 6-Man tag matches featuring Andre on the face side, and watching both in close proximity gives an interesting opportunity to look at how long they apparently stuck to this (successful) formula. 

Here are the main similarities: 

-Andre spends most of the match on the apron watching his teammates bump and sell.

- When the heeling gets to be too much, Andre steps in. 

- The ref (Dick Woehrle in Atlanta, Dick Kroll here in MSG) is overly concerned with keeping Andre in his corner and as a result keeps missing the heels switching in and out without tagging.

- The ref completely misses a hot tag to Andre (in which Andre uses his long reach advantage) and once again sends him back to the corner.

- The above points comprise most of the story-telling in both matches, and in both cases it really riles up the crowd.

- Once the hot tag is finally made, Andre's House Afire rampage quickly gets cut off, teasing the crowd just a little bit more before the satisfying finish.

I've been watching a lot of AEW recently, and I enjoy how they always milk the hot tag, making it a giant struggle that gets cut off at least once and with the FIP usually doing a somersault or a dive into the tag to make it even more dramatic. It made me laugh here when Putski just punched his way out of the Samoan's corner and walked over to tag Andre in. Still popped the crowd, though.

I think the "heeling it up" stuff in The Battle of Atlantic City (mostly Scicluna using the "foreign object" that he keeps hidden in his tights) was a fair bit more interesting than in this match. The Samoans switched without tagging, did a little triple-teaming in the corner, and spent the bulk of the match working their not-exactly-scintillating Nerve Hold on Dusty's trapezius. I've been watching a lot of maximalist pro wrestling recently (G1 Climax and AEW, mostly) so the extremely minimalist style of this match made for a pretty fascinating contrast. There's an arm-wringer, an arm-wringer take-down, an arm bar, a snap mare out of the corner, and the final big high-spot where Samu goes for a cross-body on Andre off the second rope but gets caught by a boot on the way down. And there's Anre's sit-down splash for the finish. Otherwise, it's punches, kicks, head-butts, "karate" chops, and that damned Nerve Hold. On "work rate" terms, this is maybe a 1.5 star deal at best.

However, I really enjoyed it. There are a few laughs to be had here. Andre and Dusty exchange elaborate low tens but Dusty backs off when Andre goes for the butt-bump (then they do a call-back to that bit after the end of the match). Samu tries to whip Andre out of the corner but can't budge him. A goof in the crowd yells at Samu to "Get a hair cut!" 

The post-match gets pretty exciting as the Samoans storm the ring and Andre big boots all of them. The crowd goes crazy for that stuff, too. They are super hot from the hot tag until the camera cuts away from the post match. I can imagine anyone who was there live had a very good time and left the arena feeling like they just saw some awesome pro wrestling.

Also, what a collection of characters on that face team! The massive Giant, the rotund curly-haired Dream and the shockingly jacked-up Polish Power provide a nice overview of 80s wrestling body types. It's surprising to see Dusty working in New York this early. According to Wikipedia he worked there a lot from '77 through '83. It's easy to forget that  the yellow polka-dotted "Common Man" gimmick was not his first time working for the McMahons. He is all shtick here. I think that maybe Akeem the African Dream was not so much a parody of Rhodes as an exact copy of how he worked in New York. Putski looks almost too muscular to be able to move, like if you compressed all of Brian Cage's beef into a 5'7" package, but he does a fine job of bumping and selling. Andre is, of course, Andre. I'm always happy to watch more Andre.

Edited by El Gran Gordi
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On 12/30/2020 at 4:59 PM, Morganti said:

 

Couldn't find the match I wanted to subject everyone to... so we go further down the story arc.

 

Enjoy @Smelly McUgly

If this isn't your thing, lemme know and I will find something more your liking..

I think this should be for @AxB , bruh.

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OK, off Matt D two weeks ago, Fit Finlay vs Alex Wright:

The referee has a Kilt on, and appears to be sponsored by a Taxi firm or something. Moustache and Mullet Finlay is the definitive version, to me. Probably because that's the first version I remember. It is astonishing how many little tweaks he puts on the simplest things, to make them more meaningful. Just grabbing a headlock into a cravate off the first lockup, he doesn't just grab it and hold it, he cranks on it. Grunts with exertion whilst cranking on it, even. Makes it look like "This is me trying to hurt him", as opposed to most wrestlers do just sit in holds looking disinterested. Wright tries to shuck him out of a headlock by running the ropes, but Finlay says Screw that, I'm stronger, and holds on to the headlock, then switches to a twisted wristlock. Wright with the rolly flippy nip up to escape and get a single leg takedown, and he does standing leg snaps, which Finlay sells by frantically, desperately clawing to get to the ropes. And then berates the ref for not making Wright break quickly enough.

Alex Wright is taller than I remember him being. He's trying hard to be a flashy high flier guy (or what passed for being a High Flyer in this pre-2 Cold Wrestling universe) but his height advantage over Finlay suggests that the big Bully and skinny twink match story they're telling early might not be the natural one to tell. Although obviously Finlay's got more than a decade of experience on Alex, so him being the salty veteran makes sense. Steve Wright* (Alex's Dad) was actually quite the highflyer back in his day, a really originator of the flippy style, so I get why Alex feels he has to do that stuff, but he eventually got over better in WCW as a trenchcoat Goth dude than he did as a techno dancer who flips, so maybe he should have been working a proto-Tommy End style all along. Who can say? So Finlay is dominating the action, working a half crab that's sort of an STF without the facelock (so it's an ST, I suppose). But he leaves an opening and gets Hiptossed for a 2 count, which he is very much not happy about. Berating the ref, leaving the ring to threaten to kick the fans in the face, all that fun stuff. Wright throws Finlay into the corner (which he hits WAY HARDER than most wrestlers being thrown into the corner do) and then does the Tiger Mask corner run-up backflip off his chest, to set up a Dropkick. And Finlay basically stops the match so he can get angry at the fans... it's odd that he has this reputation as this Ultimate Workrate Wrestler, and here he is going out of his way to not do any wrestling for a bit, so he can include entertainment spots and engage the crowd. 

Finlay back in control and laying into Wright's back with elbows and forearms. He does do a Bodyslam and chuck him out over the top rope as well, which eventually leads the bald fan in the front row leaving his chair to check on... wait, that IS Steve Wright. The young Babyface has his Dad at ringside. And Steve did Wrestle Finlay a few times, back in the day. Finlay gets a Yellow Card for attacking outside the ring, which makes me wonder why it's only Germany that has the Yellow Card/ Red Card DQ system. Much of this match is "Fit Finlay presents How To Discipline Your Rookie", so it's a mostly one sided beatdown, with Wright's hope spots getting fewer, shorter, and further between as the match goes on. But he again throws in little things like messing with the top turnbuckle so the ref goes to put it back in place, allowing Fit to land a dirty (illegal under these rules) punch behind the ref's back. And then on Wright's comeback, he won't stop turnbuckle smashing Finlay into the exposed steel, so he gets a Yellow Card as well. It's a bit clipped. Wright is basing much of his offence around the Dropkick, and his Dropkick is actually not that great. I remember him having a much better one in WCW, so maybe he just wasn't fully developed at this point. He's not getting great height and his feet aren't together on impact, whereas later on he was two feet right in the face perfection at the same move. A tapout finish in 1993, interesting. I thought the shift from verbal submissions to tapouts came with Ken Shamrock in 1997, but Germany's ahead of the game on that one. Finlay attacks him after because of course he does, and Steve Wright runs in to make the save for his boy. They appear to be setting up Finlay vs Steve for a big show later. Who knows if that happened, I thought Steve was well retired by then. He gets on the mic and speaks German with a strong English accent, so that's OK then. Finlay is enough of a heel to not speak German in Germany.

All in all, this was a really solid veteran vs rookie match. If they had a rematch 5 or 6 years later in WCW, that would be interesting to see. Well, it wouldn't, because it would be three minutes long and they'd just talk about the NWO the whole time, but on principal, seeing a more equal type of thing where Alex was more established as a legit guy might be an intriguing proposition.

* He's another guy (like Rollerball Rocco) who had great matches with Tiger Mask 1, that were completely airbrushed from history by WWF/ Stampede marks insisting that Dynamite was Sayama's best and only noteworthy opponent.

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4 hours ago, Smelly McUgly said:

I think this should be for @AxB , bruh.

You sir are correct.  >.>

My thoughts on a banger of a match

Spoiler

 

The Faces come in hot and attack before the bell.

One of the midnights has on 2 Robes!

Mr Wrestling 2 and Magnum hold court in the middle of the ring and the bell sounds.!

Matt Classic's attire is obviously inspired by Mr Wrestling 2

The Midnights and Jim pow wow then finally the darker haired Midnight and Magnum square off!

Those hairstyles are epic, and some eye rakes get Magnum in the corner, who ducks a shot and we have the Midnights flustered!

Magnum is bringing the heat and II hits the breadbasket and taunts,  and we get a tag!

They Lock up and we get some shoulder blocks in the corner until its countered and II has the number of both midnights right now!

The Midnights are on the outside trying to regroup.
There is a dull roar of crowd noise, just a drone with peaks and screams and claps breaking through the noise.  The music producer in me is intrigued by the acoustics.

The midnights with another miscommunication spot and Magnum and II celebrate with some hand slappin.

III with some jaw jackin but the awareness of the Midnights is great.  He kinda reminds me of a skinnier Dusty with some of his moves and mannerisms.  Very total body in everything.

Even his bobbin in the arm hold adds oomph.  The speed section starts and we get a knee lift that launches Bobby? over the top 
rope!

For the remainder of this review, Bobby has on long pants, Denis has on trunks. If i am wrong I am wrong.

The crowd has come slightly unglued at the dissection of the Midnights at the hands of II!

We get a hug on the outside!, but it isn't as good as when the Best Friends do it.

Dennis massages Bobby, II takes offence but gets doubled as the match breaks down with everybody in the ring goin H-A-M!

Magnum has been on the outside for most of this match.  This has been II puttin a single handed mollywhoppin on the Midnights for damn near 10 minutes. It is an interesting match structure.  

Dennis begs off, suckers II and that leads to a  hottish tag to Magnum who is goin off!

The crowd wakes up again before the eye rake to cut off Magnum and tag in Bobby, who gets put in an arm wringer of sorts and they haven't done much in terms of moves or extended heat.

Magnum gets hit in the throat and the ref reads Dennis the riot act which lets Bobby get some heat on Magnum.  Big Knee drop and the crowd is tryna will Magnum to fight but now the Midnights are in control.

Workin the arm grounding Magnum and the quick tags of classic tag wrestling have started.  We can hear a voice "I would love to do that to someone" when Bobby Elbow drops Magnum's back/arm area.

II distracts the ref to allow for some rudo chicanery.
The Ref admonishes Jimmy and Dennis for said heel tactics as they grind on the arm of poor Magnum who taps out but in 1984 its to get the crowd to cheer.

"Do not throw anything" comes over the loudspeakers as the crowd gets feisty!~

HOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT TAG... Denied by Bobby and II is beside himself as Cornette gets some shots in while the ref is distracted.

HOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT Tag and II is in control of both Midnights with punches and kicks and a whip throws Dennis into Bobby.

Bobby touches the sky on a Back Body Drop then eats a Knee that would make Kenta proud before Jimmy with the Powder!
The Crowd is riotous.  The Midnights and Cornette are beating up everybody in the ring, including the ref!

The Ring bell is being worn out!  The Crowd wants the midnights dead.
And that is the match.

 

 

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5 hours ago, AxB said:

* He's another guy (like Rollerball Rocco) who had great matches with Tiger Mask 1, that were completely airbrushed from history by WWF/ Stampede marks insisting that Dynamite was Sayama's best and only noteworthy opponent.

I've never ever understood this ever since watching the New Japan '80s set, where most all the matches with him were dire, and seeing him in UWF against Fujiwara and tearing it up instead. And then him just getting better as he gained weight. 

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8 hours ago, AxB said:

 

* He's another guy (like Rollerball Rocco) who had great matches with Tiger Mask 1, that were completely airbrushed from history by WWF/ Stampede marks insisting that Dynamite was Sayama's best and only noteworthy opponent.

 

2 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

I've never ever understood this ever since watching the New Japan '80s set, where most all the matches with him were dire, and seeing him in UWF against Fujiwara and tearing it up instead. And then him just getting better as he gained weight. 

Do people really still hold that opinion? I know people definitely used to hold that opinion, because I myself used to... and I think it's easy to understand why that idea was once pretty common. 

Let me start here, when I was maybe 15, "camping" in a tent with my little brother in the backyard. My dad turning the transistor radio to the local FM rock station for us. Hearing "Spirit of Radio" and "Metal Gods" for the first time. I'd never heard anything close to that kind of music before. So heavy! So technical! Are there better songs? Heavier songs? More technical songs? Of course there are. Do those particular bands have better songs? Maybe. Probably. Do I care? No. Those songs will always always always rule, for me.

Cut to four or five years later. Backstage at the Vancouver All Star Wrestling tapings. Someone,  most likely Mauro Ranallo, puts on a VHS tape with a Dyno vs Tiger Mask match.  This was a (green) room full of local territorial wrestlers, guys like Diamond Timothy Flowers, and brother I tell you that none of us had ever seen anything like that before. So stiff! So fast-paced! So exciting! 

Are there better matches, faster matches, matches with bigger and crazier risks being taken, stiffer matches...? Well, duh. That's not really a question, is it?

At that time, though? No internet, no YouTube. You could maybe trade tapes if you knew someone who knew someone, or answered an ad in a mark rag like PWI. TM vs Dyno was, for a whole lot of fans, out first and for a long time our only exposure to Japanese Pro Wrestling. It had the effect that hearing Rush and Priest did on teen aged me: You had no idea stuff like that was even possible. It's always gonna be special for you.

Still, even I can see now, with so much footage instantly accessible, that Sayama has obviously had better matches.

Does that spoil my memories of how watching Tiger Mask vs Dynamite Kid made me feel back in 1985? Of course not.

Do I ever, these days, feel the need to argue that those were Sayama's best matches? Not at all. Why would I? It's obviously not the case. I'd assume that anyone arguing that these days is just defending their special memories from the past. 

Edited by El Gran Gordi
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It’s like Brody. Conventional wisdom even in an age of easy footage availability. Most people haven’t done the legwork for themselves. Without a social element to it like a project, it’s hard to take the time. The incentives just aren’t there for most people.

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On 12/27/2020 at 1:19 PM, moribund said:

The odds of me finding something you haven't already seen are absurdly long @Matt D, but here is my shot:

 

No idea if there's any historical context here. Back during GWE, I watched a bunch of Aja Kong, especially late 90s-early 00s (GAEA I think) Kong and one of my favorite things was to see how opponents dealt with the problem of her, the first few moves of the match, because one she got her hands on you, that was it. There was a sense of that here too, with Hokuto turning a handshake into an immediate Dragon Suplex, but she ran into a wall and that was that. Nakano spent the next few minutes leaning on her with holds, escalating, I thought maybe too early, to higher risk moves that'd eventually cost her. After that things were very sprint-like, very back and forth, move, move, move. That, in and of itself, wouldn't be an issue due to the short length of the match, but there were a number of times where I just didn't buy Hokuto locking in a throw on the much larger Nakano. Credit to Bull for going up and over so freely for her opponent and making her look good, but it was premature at times, as if they were going for a speedrun instead of actually hitting the marks well. It created excitement but at the cost of immersion. There was barely any way that Hokuto was going to get Nakano over in the best of circumstances, especially not if she hadn't locked the hands yet, etc. I imagine from Bull's perspective, this wasn't a big deal as she was going over and decisively at that, but it hurt the match. You can go fast, but make sure it still feels like a struggle and make sure that it never leaves the realm of believability. Still, I'm not about to say this wore out its welcome. I'm much more forgiving of a sprint that has a bit of storytelling at the start, some heel grinding to follow, and then goes all out for six or seven minutes instead of double that.

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Aereo vs. Villano III, mascara contra mascara en Lucha Juarez

Christ this one is gonna go long. I might as well keep track.

Spoiler

Anyway, primera caida starts out slow and totally even with both guys doing every rollup and hold that they know, all the traditionals like la Tapatia, the standing-on-your-head-and-slapping-the-other-guy move while their legs are locked, and Aereo finally gets III in the spinning Atlantida for the first fall. Which, coincidentally, was the move that Atlantis took his dad's mask with. The crowd seems to be responding well to both guys so I don't think this is gonna have a strict rudo vs. tecnico nature. Jr. especially seems to be playing to the crowd.

Clearly they're gonna pick this up as Aereo hits a tope con giro that knocks Jr. over the rail. And then Jr. almost immediately twists his leg jumping off the top. Uh oh. The docs come out and the second yanks on his leg, so he gets up... and was playing possum! Nice fakeout. Jr. hits a tope and they take some downtime as docs check on both of them and Jr. comes up with the red'n'pink mask. He kicks Aereo right in the head upon getting up, package piledriver and a senton where he basically planks on the way down for three. 

Villano is working full-on rudo now. He yanks at the mask and does a crude looking German off the top. It's weird that there's a full on couch sitting ringside that I guess was for the photographers. Jr. has now gone completely vicious and wears Aereo out with a chair, kicks his head into the post, and fucking DVD's him straight over the rail into the crowd. Then he takes a trash barrel -- not a can but a barrel -- that is full, empies it out, and chucks it at his head. Aereo gets powerbombed on it and it just rolls away! No movement aside from that, ouch. He gets his revenge by pasting Jr. with a chair that just hangs off his head after impact, then runs the ropes from one buckle to next to hit a rolling senton where he almost eats shit at the last second. 

We are now half an hour into this match and have another 45 to go?!?!

Jr's mask gets ripped and the blood falls on his chest. Then Aereo proves he is absolutely certifiable by climbing on to the top of this ringside structure on the four corners holding spotlights and does a FLIPPING SENTON onto the group down below. It had to be a 20-25 foot drop. I know there were seconds and fans down there but... shit. That's a human body. Jr. gets hit with yet another chair that stays on him and is thrown into a little fat kid who gets smashed against the rail, haha. Then he takes a powerbomb on the indestructible barrel that destructs. Jr. recovers and it feels like we're in the closing stretch. Boy is the ref slow. 

Here is where they completely lose me by going into the Epic Finish that every-fucking-body has to do anymore. Big moves after big move followed by kickout after kickout, attempted Atlantida again, a fucking strike exchange followed by another one on the apron, a fight over a beer bottle, a dive onto a bunch of chairs, and just to bring it back to Mexico, Rey Escorpion pulls Aereo outside so Jr. can escape the count while they're both trying to get back in the ring. Fuckin' hell guys. Really? I fast forward awhile and Jr. is crying on the mic saying he did it for his dad or something. 

Hoo boy. I haven't written that much about a match since New Japan was on AXS. To keep it short, totally enjoyable match, extreme crowd pleaser, that left me cold as hell because they decided to go Broadway. I'm sick of 30-60 minute matches. No more please.

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I would suggest checking out the six minute (!) clipped version that was originally posted, that way you probably get most of the crazy stuff. 

EDIT: Yeah you do, and some of the camera angles are better. However, just imagine every move in that last caida having a pinfall... yeah. That's what it's like. 

Edited by Curt McGirt
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On 12/27/2020 at 12:48 PM, Matt D said:

@moribund, thanks for the picks. I will watch and write-up one or both (I haven't seen the Bock one for a bit but I remember it being fairly short).

This is one of the best gateway CMLL trios matches that I've ever found.

A Beatdown (ambush) > Comeback > Reset-Pairings structure. With some of the biggest stars and a Atlantis (rudo) vs Mistico (tecnico) feud/pairing. You figure out this match and you'll be able to watch almost any Guerreros trios match of the last twenty years (and there are a lot and most of them range from harmless to enjoyable to great depending on the year). You're building to the comeback moment at the 9 minute mark or so, which is where the momentum/mandate of heaven shifts and then again to the final Mistico/Atlantis pairing at the end of the tercera (with the dives to clear the ring for them).

 

@Matt D thanks for this. Even without your Cliff Notes I was able to follow the match a lot more easily upon first viewing than the previous trios match (supplemented by looking up some rules about what constitutes winning a fall regarding captains and so forth in CMLL), but watching a second time your comments gave me good insight into how the match structure was playing out. The ironic thing is that during my first viewing I somehow (spoiler alert) TOTALLY missed the low blow to Mistico that led to the third fall and originally thought "That's it? Giant set up for the captains to face off in the deciding fall and it goes for one move? What the heck?"

Behold: User error on the part of the viewer. Especially because as soon as I recognized what had happened I was immediately concerned for Mistico: I've winced in the last 10-12 years from watching unprotected chair shots to the head, but I think this is the first time I've ever flinched and thought "Unprotected Low Bow." Ouch.

Loved the convoluted set up that led to the first fall: Of COURSE you can't un-entangle your arms from your partner when you are back-to-back... next thing you know people will start thinking that putting someone in a surfboard requires cooperation. Every plancha and tope is a thing of beauty, and the Rudos are appropriately crude and cowardly in turn. KeMonito turns up from... somewhere?... in between the first and second fall, only to be used as a foreign object by the Rudos. What a bunch of jerks.

In fact, the Rudo behavior leads directly to the one major nit I can't help picking. Atlantis takes a powder between falls two and three almost all the way to the back, only to be retrieved by Mistico and subjected to an absolutely beautiful cross body dive from elevation - that ultimately leads to nothing because it was in between falls. I wish that bit of amazing physicality had factored into the actual match in a more direct fashion. There were a lot of directorial/editing choices that I questioned, mostly missing moves while showing the crowd, but in the end none of them made me hate the match itself so they get a conditional pass.

All in all Matt was exactly correct: This is a great entry-point-match, and I'm glad I got to watch it.

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EDITED to put Nick in.

Ok, we're going to start hitting some doubles this week and next but many yet.

Octopus
Smelly McUgly

Curt McGirt
moribund

AxB
Six String Orchestra

Matt D
Morganti

El Gran Gordi
NikoBaltimore

I'm figuring we do at least 1-2 weeks more just to get us a bit deeper into January, but after that we'll see. So far it's been going pretty well.

Edited by Matt D
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On 12/27/2020 at 4:24 PM, AxB said:

@Smelly McUgly Here's a thing. New Year's Eve 1989, in Moscow Russia. NJPW Martial Arts Festival. Black Tiger vs Jushin Liger:

That's Marc Rocco as Black Tiger, not Eddy.

Black Tiger vs. Jushin Liger

I forgot that Rollerball Rocco passed this year. He is fantastic, one of my favorite things about UK/European wrestling in general, and honestly I don't know if I've seen him as Black Tiger (or if I have, that I knew for sure that it was him under the mask.

Jushin Liger is a top-ten or top-twelve guy for me all-time, my entrance into Japanese wrestling (along with Muta) as a kid because of his work in WCW. 

Tiger is such a bully in this from the jump and Liger is so charismatic as true to form. He's got to have the most bodily charisma of any wrestler ever. I can't think of who has more. Tiger starts the match with some clubbering - doesn't work. He switches to grinding down Liger and then immediately going off the top rope. The match honestly is paced very quickly in a way that would maybe harm a lesser match, but in this case doesn't purely because the workers are so fun to watch that the pacing kind of doesn't matter. It just feels like a fast-paced exhibition more than anything, and that's cool. 

Anyway, once Liger briefly the match with a baseball slide that sends Tiger into a table on the outside, the match settles back into Tiger trying to grind out a win on the mat and Liger firing up with big moves to turn the tide before Tiger does a jumping front facebuster or a back suplex that puts Liger back down. The match itself isn't much of anything in and of itself; it's merely a vehicle for these two to do crisp, entertaining spots and be aesthetically pleasing workers. That's fine; this is a fun little MOVEZ~ experience. 

On that note, the finishing run is fun - we get a sweet tombstone and a nice senton splash in the middle of a couple of big whiffs leading to an exchange that ends in a nasty sit-down powerbomb finish. Basically, if you have eleven minutes and you like watching guys do pretty-to-watch athletic stuff in the ring, I'd say this is worth your time. 

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Hello, @Octopus!

I wanted that Iceman King Parsons/Terry Taylor vs. Von Erichs match from 1988 that I remember seeing and enjoying once, but it's not anywhere that I could easily see, so I just looked at the King Parsons playlist on YouTube and picked something fun. 

These Sportatorium crowds are always so hot. IMO, Baltimore in the JCP/WCW days and Dallas in the World Class/Sportatorium days are the best crowds around. They could make anything fun just from being hot for all the shit they were watching.

I also have come to the conclusion that the six-man tag is the most perfect wrestling match type around. Anyway, this is a fun little diversion (I hope). 

Iceman King Parsons and the Von Erichs (Kevin and David) vs. The Fabulous Freebirds (Roberts, Gordy, and Hayes)

 

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2 hours ago, moribund said:

Lucha, World of Sport, anything European, US Indies, Japan outside of NJPW/AJPW/NOAH. 

Will early WCW and/or Mid-Atlantic stuff still work for you?

Sure! I'll try and find some weird Japan stuff... or just a WAR match. Or maybe dig up some CWA

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2 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

Sure! I'll try and find some weird Japan stuff... or just a WAR match. Or maybe dig up some CWA

Here you go @Curt McGirt. This isn't perfect by any means, but it does have Bobby Eaton being king-sized. What's that saying about a good sauce hiding a multitude of sins? Bobby Eaton is that sauce.

 

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Ok, @Morganti, You get Andre Bollet vs Iska Khan. Feel free to skip the first match and get to the 11 minute mark. This is a little bit longer (~35 minutes) but extremely entertaining. If you want something shorter, let me know. Andre Bollet was an absolute star and Khan was a real attraction.

That said, if you want something shorter, let me know.

(and if you want our write up, it's here: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2020/10/tuesday-is-french-catch-day-bollet-khan.html)

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9 hours ago, Matt D said:

Ok, we're going to start hitting some doubles this week and next but many yet. @NikoBaltimore, I kept you off for now. Let me know otherwise and we'll switch you into the trio at the bottom. 

Octopus
Smelly McUgly

Curt McGirt
moribund

AxB
Six String Orchestra

Matt D
Morganti
El Gran Gordi

So I give to Morganti, Morganti gives to Gordi, Gordi gives to me. 

I'm figuring we do at least 1-2 weeks more just to get us a bit deeper into January, but after that we'll see. So far it's been going pretty well.

Forgot to mention it before but I'm back in. 

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