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Secret Santo in August 2022


Matt D

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JIM BREAKS vs YOUNG DAVID- WORLD OF SPORT- 1979ish: Holy fuck, this match is great.  Jim Breaks was the best heel on earth for a moment there.  He was weird- he was a chickenshit heel but he was also like the Super Destroyer- in that he didn't need to cheat to get the crowd to hate him,  He was just so intense and hateful while wrestling that you couldn't help but hate him.  Here, he wrestles circles around a very game future Davey Boy Smith.  Jesus Christ, can you imagine being 16 years old and having to go into the ring with JIM BREAKS?  "He's gonna REALLY fuck up your arm.  Just throw in an armdrag when it gets too much to take."  Breaks cheats a little just to show that he can when he really is just crippling the boy who can barely drive at this point.  Davey isn't really selling because I assume it would legit suck and hurt to be put through the ringer with Jim Breaks but he does have a lot of youthful babyface fire and it makes his comebacks- mostly arm drags- get the crowd into him.  I didn't really buy the finish because Bill Watts didn't book the UK in the late 70's.  Jim Breaks was so fucking good.

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@Matt D, from what I've gathered is that you like the Factory which means you like QT Marshall, and you also like Bryan Danielson.

 

With that basic info in mind, my thoughts went to this, the two doing battle in Puerto Rico.

 

To try to curate something for me, I've just got one thing to avoid.

I'm not on board with EVOLVE or anyone who came from EVOLVE and has that style. I watch the alumns when I'm watching AEW but I don't seek it out.

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@thee Reverend Axl Future

You've yet to do us the courtesy of laying out what kind of match you'd like to be given, but according to this interview you have the excellent taste to count Adrian Adonis among your influences. This may not be the best Adonis match I could find on YouTube (That would probably be Adonis & Murdoch vs The Briscoes) but footage of a full 20-minute bell to bell AWA match is a rare enough treasure, I think. Plus, you seem like the type to appreciate the sublime stooging of Jesse Ventura.

So: I present for your viewing pleasure: The East-West Connection vs The High Flyers

I look forward to reading your thoughts thereon.

 

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14 minutes ago, porksweats said:

@Matt D, from what I've gathered is that you like the Factory which means you like QT Marshall, and you also like Bryan Danielson.

 

With that basic info in mind, my thoughts went to this, the two doing battle in Puerto Rico.

 

To try to curate something for me, I've just got one thing to avoid.

I'm not on board with EVOLVE or anyone who came from EVOLVE and has that style. I watch the alumns when I'm watching AEW but I don't seek it out.

Happy to write this one up. I might even see if I can find some other random QT match pre-AEW to see how he's come along too.

I get the sense you've consumed a lot of stuff. I would believe that you've been here forever if I didn't know better. Here's something that's pretty rare though. I had it up at one point but you can't exactly keep NJPW tv up.

Pat Patterson vs Riki Choshu from October 1979 NJPW TV

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14uY2Q4kd8D48Fk6cmA9-zWV6FPcKuRp0/view?usp=sharing

If you want me to toss youtube for you I can but they'll take it down real quick. It comes in right at the start and you lose a couple of seconds on it as I didn't isolate it 100% perfectly, but it's just them locking up and Patterson moving him to the ropes.

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44 minutes ago, Matt D said:

Happy to write this one up. I might even see if I can find some other random QT match pre-AEW to see how he's come along too.

I get the sense you've consumed a lot of stuff. I would believe that you've been here forever if I didn't know better. Here's something that's pretty rare though. I had it up at one point but you can't exactly keep NJPW tv up.

Pat Patterson vs Riki Choshu from October 1979 NJPW TV

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14uY2Q4kd8D48Fk6cmA9-zWV6FPcKuRp0/view?usp=sharing

If you want me to toss youtube for you I can but they'll take it down real quick. It comes in right at the start and you lose a couple of seconds on it as I didn't isolate it 100% perfectly, but it's just them locking up and Patterson moving him to the ropes.

You wouldn't be right but you wouldn't be wrong on the me being around forever. I've lurked off and on for a few years now, also if you didn't (and the rest of the board didn't) know, I'm also gifapalooza over on twitter, and I know prior to joining I've had plenty of the gifs I've clipped shared over here. 

 

Review time:

I haven't really watched too much Patterson or Choshu so this will be a nice change up from what I'm normally putting on, when it comes to Vince's Stooges I'm more of a Gerald Brisco guy. Lost my mind at the 5 minute mark with Choshu rising out of the headlock and giving Patterson the rapid spin cycle on that airplane spin before the slam. That was like a cyclone. Choshu's Sharpshooter is a thing of beauty, also dug how Patterson pulled the tights to break out of it, but it sadly didn't turn into a pin attempt. Patterson's Figure Four reminds me of the Miz's Figure Four, take that for what you will (I like The Miz). My favorite part of the match was really the ending. Patterson with two knees from the top, the second to Choshu's side as he tried to dodge it? That's wrestling baby.

 

My takeaways here, I really like when people get put away with moves that don't hit the normal target, and I wonder if Choshu ever wrestled a Brisco.

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@Gordlowthat match looks fantastic - I will delve into it tomorrow. I got distracted on a magnet fishing adventure today so I did not get to post my parameters. I like territory stuff, and super solid opening matches, and veteran workers showing off their mat and crowd control, and crazy insane finishes & gimmicks & entrances & promo videos & interviews that should crumble beneath thee weight of their own absurdity but do not THEY RULE, and Mick Foley and Eddie Guerrero discovering that there is no limit (but there is, lads), and the way Vader and Muta move. and the precision of MDVachon's piledriver and his brother's back rakes, and Lou Albano doing anything, and CWF and ECW and Georgia and Southwest... My one criteria: it must be a match you love, one where if some negative naysaying nerd challenged you on it, you would stand proud and defend this match for any reasons at all, maybe you and Grandma watched it together back when or it featiures your two favorite workers of that era or you just saw it and it's all shinynew and thrilling - you gets it.

I'll be back...

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On 7/31/2022 at 7:48 PM, porksweats said:

@Matt D, from what I've gathered is that you like the Factory which means you like QT Marshall, and you also like Bryan Danielson.

 

With that basic info in mind, my thoughts went to this, the two doing battle in Puerto Rico.

 

To try to curate something for me, I've just got one thing to avoid.

I'm not on board with EVOLVE or anyone who came from EVOLVE and has that style. I watch the alumns when I'm watching AEW but I don't seek it out.

QT vs Danielson in PR:

This was during the period where Danielson had been temporarily fired from WWE, so he'd been on their TV and probably felt at least a little like a big deal for a promotion whose champion was 2010 QT. I kind of want to track down the Documentary on him but it's not on youtube. Cagematch says he's been going since 2004 but the first results are from 2009 so you kind of wonder. Obviously by this point he was good enough that a semi-major promotion was putting a belt on him. He came off as competent. Despite at spit right at the end and some cheating here or there he didn't carry himself with the same sort of easy, smarmy confidence he has now, over ten years later. He hit a nice dropkick, fed for Danielson when it was time to. He had some size and power still. I wouldn't say his control during the heat was super compelling even if he had a decent cut off or two and Danielson really put his all into his selling. Danielson didn't phone it in at all here, even if this was ~10 minutes. I was surprised to see Danielson block a suplex by getting a knee in while upsidedown which is something we see guys like Darby do all the time now but wasn't something you'd see a ton in 2010 (or 2015 even, so I wonder where that went in wrestling after this). The transition to comeback was just Danielson rushing in and getting some gut shots so that wasn't an all time comeback or anything even if he hit hard afterwards. Finish was PR wonky but I liked the character driven bit at the end with QT brandishing the belt and spitting at Danielson only to get locked into a hold with the belt under him so he couldn't use it; it meant that it was right there for Danielson to grasp after the tap which was a nice visual. It's made better on the idea that QT sort of stole the belt (as I understand it). Anyway this is just a match in a litany of Danielson matches, more of a novelty due to the location, time, and opponent than anything else, but it's still interesting to see what QT was doing at this point. It reminds me a little of Val Venis as Steel getting a big push in CMLL a few years before he was pushed as a national name in the States.

I decided to pick out another match along these lines. QT did a lot of things throughout the 2010s in ROH and other places but not necessarily against guys I wanted to see him but hey, here he is against 2015? 2017? Comoroto.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkaH39efsho&ab_channel=TheWorldFamousMonsterFactory

It was interesting. Comoroto was, in some ways, like execution and to some degree presence, more fully formed than I was expected, but past a little bit of selling and one hold, this was a 15 minute sprint where nothing resonated and they didn't let anything sink in. It was a fairly impressive sprint and a lot of Comoroto's shots were made to look good and both guys had a lot of "stuff" that they don't currently do now, but I'm not necessarily saying the match was better for it. The heel/face divides weren't particularly clear and QT came off as sort of a de facto face but in a Shane Douglas against another heel monster sort of way. Comoroto was more agile then, I think, but less assured in his movements. He could do more but also needed to do more because he didn't need to get away with less. You ended up with something with some good individual sequences but probably too many and then never really came together as well as you'd like. In trying to make the match feel like a big deal, they actually made it seem a little smaller than it might have been if they just took their foot off the gas and let people react and respond to what was happening before building to the next spot or sequence.

 

 

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@GordlowOK, as usual I overthought this, and was going for some '88 era NWA but why are so many videos just video game recreations? I got sad and frustrated, another aspect of thee Modern World that I do not comprehend. I tried for a deep cut of Brazo de Plata and got sucked into that lucha vortex (gee, he lost a lot of hair matches) and then I was getting crazy with some Tim Tall Tree (the Twisted Tonto) cratedigger trainspotter shite. Anyway, I went back to basics with this choice:

 

Clubbering, meaty men, juice, chairs - what's not to love? I saw some live shows from this era, and pretty much all I remember are these two, Nick Bockwinkel, Mr. Electicity Steven Regal, neutered Road Warriors and really hating Buck Zumhofe (ahead of my time) and babyface Sgt. Slaughter. Brody gets some disrespect on this here BBS, but this match is the definition of giving the people what they want. He was a spectacle, an event, chaos in apres ski boots, and he surely could stink up the joint when he didn't care but when he turned it on he was much more than the sum of his parts. Blackwell was one of the best working big men, or even the best in the time juuust before this, but man could he still go. Good commentary, fun promo, hothothot crowd -- I hope you dig this.

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On 7/31/2022 at 7:56 PM, Gordlow said:

@thee Reverend Axl Future

You've yet to do us the courtesy of laying out what kind of match you'd like to be given, but according to this interview you have the excellent taste to count Adrian Adonis among your influences. This may not be the best Adonis match I could find on YouTube (That would probably be Adonis & Murdoch vs The Briscoes) but footage of a full 20-minute bell to bell AWA match is a rare enough treasure, I think. Plus, you seem like the type to appreciate the sublime stooging of Jesse Ventura.

So: I present for your viewing pleasure: The East-West Connection vs The High Flyers

I look forward to reading your thoughts thereon.

 

Two-2-II of my favorite workers, Mr. Jesse The Body Ventura a guilty pleasure nevertheless and Golden Boy Adrian Adonis thee worker's worker, together striding like colossi across the dismal arctic rings of the AWA. I love this team however this passion pales in comparison to my adoration of thee mighty North South Connection, AA's next tag team with Dick Murdoch. Now, to be 100% truthful, and you know that yerluvinRev is always honest even when he lies, both the AWA and the WWWF (my home base fed at this time) were both quite crappy ringwork-wise during this here time period. Maybe because it's what I mostly grew up watching, but the match structure of the WWWF was more to my liking. The AWA had more actually wrestling and brawling featured regularly, as compared to NY's punchin' & kickin' heels, but there was something... lacking in the AWA for me. Maybe this match can illustrate this. This is a fine bout, nay, a festive one, a tag team clinic - two evenly matched teams but the champs are unable to outfox, out muscle or out-cheat the babyface challengers (don't listen to the drunk commentary, JV & AA are both younger than either of the High Flyers that's what a heel life will do for ya look at me). Anyway, my point is that the heel champs fight from underneath almost this whole match - there is no extended period of heat on Brunzell or Gagne, and that is (still to this day) a bit odd to me. Other AWA matches were like that, where they didn't want to let the heels dominate, very few superman comebacks or white hot tags. My observation, your take might differ.

ANYWAY, those High Flyers were the Rock & Roll Express that the Flyover States deserved, they were made for the Heartland, strictly whitebread. In my wise old eyes I can certainly appreciate the work of each man, no flys on them by any means and that Greg had a tough row to hoe what with his dad and looking all like a Kroger produce manager. Hey, we have "Scrap Iron" George Gadaski as our ref, a stalwart classic in any book. Mr. Adonis has high trunks and tall socks, like a real man should. Ventura's hair always fascinated me, and he did save Matilda at WMIII, never forget. Those ropes sure are loose (Oh, George!) but that just means to me that we are gonna be treated to the stellar ring twist bump spot from Thee Adorable One. A lot is made of the over the top DQ rule, such sticklers here. We get a few archetypal rassling holds like an Indian Deathlock, Octopus, Inverted Backbreaker and Stepover Toehold, I like that. The action does build until the ref can't take no mo' and calls it a draw. 

This is a match that I would show students of the game, either as a period piece for young historians of the territories, or rookies learning their craft. In fact a useful excercise is to duplicate a tag match like this one, to learn what the modern style is based on. The East West Connection soon dropped the belts and I have read that they were going to the WWF as a package but Jesse soon became unable to wrestle. However I recall it differently, that The Body came in as a single and Adonis went to Southwest and New Japan (where he started teaming with Murdoch on occasion). Cagematch seems to verify my memory somewhat. Thank for this match, thee EWC rules OK!

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6 hours ago, thee Reverend Axl Future said:

Anyway, my point is that the heel champs fight from underneath almost this whole match - there is no extended period of heat on Brunzell or Gagne, and that is (still to this day) a bit odd to me. Other AWA matches were like that, where they didn't want to let the heels dominate, very few superman comebacks or white hot tags. My observation, your take might differ.

Who were the first tag to actually do the extended period of heat?  I know first time I ever saw it was Gene and Ole Anderson, but it was pretty much to get Gene and Ole over as ass stompers, not to really get the crowd behind the sympathetic babyface.  Then Ricky Steamboat showed up.  It had to be before the Rock and Roll Express showed up and really formulated it.

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11 hours ago, thee Reverend Axl Future said:

@GordlowOK, as usual I overthought this, and was going for some '88 era NWA but why are so many videos just video game recreations? I got sad and frustrated, another aspect of thee Modern World that I do not comprehend. I tried for a deep cut of Brazo de Plata and got sucked into that lucha vortex (gee, he lost a lot of hair matches) and then I was getting crazy with some Tim Tall Tree (the Twisted Tonto) cratedigger trainspotter shite. Anyway, I went back to basics with this choice:

 

Clubbering, meaty men, juice, chairs - what's not to love? I saw some live shows from this era, and pretty much all I remember are these two, Nick Bockwinkel, Mr. Electicity Steven Regal, neutered Road Warriors and really hating Buck Zumhofe (ahead of my time) and babyface Sgt. Slaughter. Brody gets some disrespect on this here BBS, but this match is the definition of giving the people what they want. He was a spectacle, an event, chaos in apres ski boots, and he surely could stink up the joint when he didn't care but when he turned it on he was much more than the sum of his parts. Blackwell was one of the best working big men, or even the best in the time juuust before this, but man could he still go. Good commentary, fun promo, hothothot crowd -- I hope you dig this.

Oh. Hell. Yeah. 

I dig this. I dig this very much indeed.

I love watching Blackwell. In one of these Santos, Matt assigned us a "self-pick" week and I picked Blackwell & Bundy vs The Road Warriors, Blackwell vs Andre, and Blackwell vs Hansen. For myself. They were also good picks!

Furthermore, I started a thread on these here boards in the early days of The Plague called The Clubberin' Thread or It's Clubberin' Time! or some such. My Grail at that time was matches that consist purely, entirely, and completely of clubbering and nothing but clubbering. They are surprisingly difficult to find. 

This match comes oh so very very close to being the platonic ideal of Clubberin' Time. Sadly, Bruiser Brody throws a dropkick. In my opinion, dropkicks are not clubbering. (They are high flying). 

Also Crusher Jerry Blackwell slams Brody at the end,  just before the whole match breaks down into glorious, bloody chaos. But in my opinion one bodyslam is acceptable in a pure clubbering match. 

One dropkick, however, is not.

That being said: 

The dropkick led to the most delightful thing about this match, which is the colour commentator twice referring to the dropkick as a wrestling hold. 

I am no longer a professional pro wrestling television  personality, but in my opinion a dropkick is not a hold. (More of a move, I'd say. Or, a manoeuvre). 

The second time he said that, I laughed hard enough to wake up the neighbours. (It's just after midnight here). He just brings it up a second time, out of nowhere. Delightful.

It was also a pretty nice dropkick.

Second most delightful thing was the crowd popping like mad for a babyface run-in for the save... by King Kong Bundy! Face Bundy always feels like a glitch in the matrix to me.

In my opinion, Jerry Blackwell 's clubbering is superior to Bruiser Brody's clubbering. But Brody has enough physical presence to absolutely make "sympathetic babyface Crusher Jerry Blackwell" make sense. That is impressive.

He also sold more effectively than his reputation might suggest, once Blackwell's comeback began in earnest.

The opening promo really seems like the deal then was 100% that we are meant to hate Adnan Al-Kaissie completely and entirely because he is Arabian and we are meant to also hate Bruiser Brody because he's associating with an Arabian fellow. It was kinda hard not to get wrapped up entirely in just thinking about that. But then Brody busted Blackwell open as soon as the match started and I snapped out of it.

Also Al-Kaissie did heel stuff during the match, which I think is a better reason for us to hate him.

From the point where Brody rammed Blackwell's head into the ring post, this was exactly - exactly -what I was in the mood for.

Thank you, reverend!

And, I hear ya, w/r/t nimrods posting video game footage disguised as pro wrestling match footage. Grinds my gears, too. I'm thinking of having my craw removed, to keep stuff like that from getting stuck in it.

Edit: I believe this is the only match I have ever found that is literally 100% Nothin But Clubberin' 

It is awesome.

Edited by Gordlow
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Took a minute but here you go

 

Eddie Kingston vs. Hallowicked (Falls Count Anywhere)

This is pretty much Kingston-qua-Kingston. Give the man a feud, loosen the rules (or don't, he'll do that himself), give him someone that'll work stiff with him, and you'll have yourself a vicious match. Hallowicked more than steps up to the plate here with some nasty chops and headbutts equaling King's. There's an especially nasty moment where to go back on offense King just unloads with elbows to Hallowicked's kidneys which looks like it made him piss Hawaiian Punch for a couple days. Though there are strike exchanges there's no "look me in the eyes and wait" bullshit, they just keep going at each other. If I have any complaints it's the multiple kickouts. There are two nasty brainbusters, a (not great looking) Yakuza kick that the announcers sell like death, two enormous Saito suplexes, and even what looked like an Emerald Frosion from King but they keep kicking out. I get that it's a match based on Falls but maybe just loading up the offense into fewer of them would have worked better. Speaking of announcers we have Bryce Remsburg on commentary which is interesting considering he's reffing in AEW now. Also, King don't have a gut! His selling wasn't as elaborate as later on either but you can still see the germ of it here. 

Now I have some questions. This show was in the ECW Arena and I wonder how CHIKARA went over at that venue given the Philly Mutants. They don't seem to have a problem with this match at least. Also I have no idea what the backstory to this is or who Hallowicked might currently be. I guess he was in whatever that Ant army was or something? 

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Brody/Blackwell was fun. Did Brody not blade at all or did he go for it at the very end there? I was surprised to see Bundy just go for it immediately. For some reason at first I thought this was the awesome Blackwell/Hansen (with crew cut) match from AWA: 

Also, IIRC Dick Murdoch was referred to as an egg on sticks, or something like that... ham on sticks? Anyways that REALLY describes Jerry Blackwell's body type. A big potato with two pencils stuck in the bottom. 

Edited by Curt McGirt
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On 7/31/2022 at 6:40 PM, Octopus said:

I’ll throw you a match. Based off your name you like Nate Webb and ex-Con, Nick Gage. MDK!

 

I don't think i necessarily dislike DeathMatch Wrestling but i don't seek it out either. I know of Nick Gage, I'm familiar with his reputation I've only seen the matches with Jericho and Arquette but I've seen the Darkside of the Ring I like the guy and Nate Webb I remember from Wrestling Society X and from having Ween play him out at a GCW show a few years back but i can't tell you if i've seen him wrestle or not. This is from the 2005 Tournament of Death. This is wild and brutal as I think one could estimate match involving these two guys would be. Nick Gage is a fucking animal in the best sense he wastes no time fucking Nate Webb up with a powerbomb through a table, well head drops Nate head first on the table it was ugly so much so people in the crowd yelled "what the fuck Gage". Nate makes a come back hitting Nick with light tubes, he puts tubes down Nicks back and hits a spinning heel kick on Nick. Nick powerbombs Nate through a chair like bends the chair all the way back. There's blood and shattered glass everywhere the crowd is loving it i'm admiring the spectacle of it all. Nate hits a moonsault with light tubes the commentator coins the 'tubesault'. There's so many light tubes used they just hit each other with light tubes with no regard for the others well being. Oh the humanity!!!! A log cabin of light tubes is brought out to ringside, Nick calls for "that fucking the thing" to be put into the ring. There's a fight between both men on a ladder and Nick suplexes Nate through the log cabin of light tubes, some body sounds off an air horn Nick Gage covers Nate Webb for the 3 and wins. Nate Webb is a fucking crazy man, early in the match Nick set up all these light tubes around Nate who was in the corner then rammed a ladder into his gut and then the finish he's as crazy as Nick Gage is. There's testimonial after the match, Nick Gage with dried up blood covering his face is confident that he's gonna win the Tournament of Death this year. You can hear a weed whacker in the background and you know somebody is getting fucked up in that moment. Nate Webb with even more dried and no so dried blood covering his face but with the weed whacker still in the background takes solace in the fact that even though he lost he gave it his all and left it all out in the ring against Nick Gage. Know I enjoyed the match I did I wouldn't watch it every day but I liked the wild ride.

 

Edited by Web Conn
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Steiners vs Dragon Robes, suggested by @Curt McGirt

 

First thing I want to highlight is the beauty of the arena set up. Is that two entrance ramps opposite of each other? As a fan in the area, I can more likely see my heroes potentially walk by? I love this and could see this being something reattempted in the future. 

My former governor of course is wrong on who always starts up the match. You goofball. Speaking of goofballs, Terry Gordy should never try to start a match with a double leg takedown on a man in a singlet and headgear. It’ll never work.

I’m loving how this starts out. Rick will have the advantage on the body positioning and regularly re-maintaining control through lock ups. All while the young Scott is excitedly pacing back and forth on the apron. Apron character work, when done right, can add to a match. Gordy gets leg control but can’t successfully take the dogface down. So he pops him in the face. Three of the characters involved are now defined. Rick gains control by the wonders of grappling and tags in Scott. 

Scott and Gordy press up against each other. Just like with Rick, but now the goal is for completing a suplex instead of sheer body control. Terry gets his arms hooked under Scott’s and can gain an advantage to flip Steiner over him. What happens next is a great display of struggle. Scott stays with his arms clasped around Terry’s waste. A pin attempt is stopped with Steiner arching upward. Normally, the goal is to completely arch to a turning and standing position. But whether it is a botch or Gordy asserting dominance, we witness multiple attempts to rise and Gordy putting his weight downward. Pin attempts and back arching. Intentional or not, Scott comes across like a young Spider-Man struggling to lift debris and heavy steel beams off of himself. The full pages of sweating and pain, when this normally little moment happens it feels so much bigger and earned. And after all this, explosive Scott shifts his body and performs a tossing single leg takedown over his head. The crowd erupts. It wasn’t just the move but the fact that he fought to pull it off.

Then it happens. The sound of Jim Ross’s hog smashing against the bottom of the announcers table as Doctor Death tags in. Suplex guy vs Suplex guy. Amateur wrestler style circling each other and reaching in to try and find an opportunity to get the opponent to make a premature jump. There is an old tale of the Mongoose vs the Snake. The Mongoose continuously pummels and hopes to beat the head of the Snake mercilessly until victorious. The Snake attempts to dodge and weave waiting for the moment to strike with a venomous bite. These two mother fuckers are Snakes. Quickly circling each other, waiting for the moment to fuck the other up. Wrestling. Fuck yeah, wrestling. 

Two big dudes then do some awesome freestyle wrestling. “Jockeying for position” moans a sweaty Jim Ross as he continuously throws praise towards Steve Williams. I enjoy struggle. I recently watched  a few Daisuke Sekimoto matches. His fight is slow and pressing of ham and slapping of chests. This is a quicker fight of two goats raging their horns against each other to get the other off balance enough to achieve an opportunity for an explosive blow, all to the excitement of the Oklahoman farmer doing his best the hold onto his milk pale with his sweaty hands. Pretty evenly matched, even when Scott manages to get behind Williams, he is lifted up and neutralized until they both reach the ropes.

Stand off. The Death Doctor is irritated by how long the rope break release took so both teams in the ring in a standoff. Rick gets tagged in during the next grappling sequence and HOT DOG RICK EASILY BELLY TO BELLYS STEVE. Steve Williams rolls out the ring. Good guys in the ring posing (Rick Steiner is a dog) while the heels are outside being mad they were one upped. Jim Ross then uses this moment to again mention his affection of Steve and how we all need to pay attention to the strategy of Doctor Death. He talks about how Scott is an emotional young man and needs to watch out for the smarts and handsomeness of Williams. Even though it is Rick in the ring. Ross is full on late-90’s Lawler with his admiration of puppies. But it isn’t towards the actual dog (Rick) but the glistening hardened pecks of Doctor Death. 

I’m loving the freestyle wrestling style approach here. Both men are throwing their weight together quickly and trying get an advantage of the other. Rick is the clear superior fighter here, but Doc does a disrespectful hand push to Steiner’s face. Rick say, “nuh uh” and didn’t like that. By the power of rage, Rick Steiner’s grappling is now unstoppable. He over-powers Doc and pummels him. Rick is now punching! Williams meekly turns him over and gains a rest hold on Rick’s back. Forearms him in the face for good measure. They get up and Doc takes the moment to throw a big lariat.

In this Act we see how the characters are progressing through this battle. Up to this point, Rick is the top wrestler. Doc is just under him, but will get a tad disrespectful to get in his opponents head for an advantage. Scott is the young stud athlete that can toss you if you’re not careful and Terry will use his weight and punch your face. Dogface is in trouble and Terry is tagged in and likes punching faces. Gordy vs Rick in a slugfest, Gordy will win. He’s in control until a poor decision to lock up for a belly to belly attempt, Rick will win that battle. Hot tag to a feisty Scott. Beating them both up. Scott is in control until his youth leads him to trying too much too fast and a failed drop kick leads to a STF to slow him down. Doc tags in and beats the poor Steiner up. 

Steiner is the victim to tag team moves and a good old fashioned beating. Gordy/Death control segment until another classic hot tag. Now we get Rick Steiner’s revenge. Good wrestling is filled with storied parallel moments. Rick Steiner clotheslines Doc over the top rope and comes out ahead in a slugfest with Terry. Rick goes for the victory but the ref can’t count because he never saw the tag. Uhhhhh oh. Scott is still derped up and is getting beat up by Gordy in the outside. Wild fun as Rick and Terry are fighting and Doc charges Scott with a shoulder tackle to the knee. 

Ending segment is pretty sweet. Doc vs Scott. Williams presses Steiner above his head and catches him into a power slam. Scott kicks out. We’re getting a comeback. Rick is stopping Gordy from shenanigans but that catches the ref’s eye. Terry shenanigans stops a belly to belly and shoulder tackles Scott’s knee to stop a comeback. Williams gets the pin.

I’ll file this match under fun. I really enjoyed the wrestling style and would love to see more of them all go at it again. Exciting action and each character filled their role well. The story could have been more conscientious or tuned in, but I don’t know if that would automatically make it better. This seemed like a realistic bout and played out the way it should. Good guys lose but look strong, while the villains still come across like killers.

 

——

Awesome, thanks @Web Conn. I’ll try and watch that tomorrow or Sunday.

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On 8/3/2022 at 11:22 AM, Gordlow said:

Oh. Hell. Yeah. 

I dig this. I dig this very much indeed.

I love watching Blackwell. In one of these Santos, Matt assigned us a "self-pick" week and I picked Blackwell & Bundy vs The Road Warriors, Blackwell vs Andre, and Blackwell vs Hansen. For myself. They were also good picks!

Furthermore, I started a thread on these here boards in the early days of The Plague called The Clubberin' Thread or It's Clubberin' Time! or some such. My Grail at that time was matches that consist purely, entirely, and completely of clubbering and nothing but clubbering. They are surprisingly difficult to find. 

This match comes oh so very very close to being the platonic ideal of Clubberin' Time. Sadly, Bruiser Brody throws a dropkick. In my opinion, dropkicks are not clubbering. (They are high flying). 

Also Crusher Jerry Blackwell slams Brody at the end,  just before the whole match breaks down into glorious, bloody chaos. But in my opinion one bodyslam is acceptable in a pure clubbering match. 

One dropkick, however, is not.

That being said: 

The dropkick led to the most delightful thing about this match, which is the colour commentator twice referring to the dropkick as a wrestling hold. 

I am no longer a professional pro wrestling television  personality, but in my opinion a dropkick is not a hold. (More of a move, I'd say. Or, a manoeuvre). 

The second time he said that, I laughed hard enough to wake up the neighbours. (It's just after midnight here). He just brings it up a second time, out of nowhere. Delightful.

It was also a pretty nice dropkick.

Second most delightful thing was the crowd popping like mad for a babyface run-in for the save... by King Kong Bundy! Face Bundy always feels like a glitch in the matrix to me.

In my opinion, Jerry Blackwell 's clubbering is superior to Bruiser Brody's clubbering. But Brody has enough physical presence to absolutely make "sympathetic babyface Crusher Jerry Blackwell" make sense. That is impressive.

He also sold more effectively than his reputation might suggest, once Blackwell's comeback began in earnest.

The opening promo really seems like the deal then was 100% that we are meant to hate Adnan Al-Kaissie completely and entirely because he is Arabian and we are meant to also hate Bruiser Brody because he's associating with an Arabian fellow. It was kinda hard not to get wrapped up entirely in just thinking about that. But then Brody busted Blackwell open as soon as the match started and I snapped out of it.

Also Al-Kaissie did heel stuff during the match, which I think is a better reason for us to hate him.

From the point where Brody rammed Blackwell's head into the ring post, this was exactly - exactly -what I was in the mood for.

Thank you, reverend!

And, I hear ya, w/r/t nimrods posting video game footage disguised as pro wrestling match footage. Grinds my gears, too. I'm thinking of having my craw removed, to keep stuff like that from getting stuck in it.

Edit: I believe this is the only match I have ever found that is literally 100% Nothin But Clubberin' 

It is awesome.

Not to do too much log-rolling or booty-smooching, but your comments here are spot on, very good match analysis. I am glad you dug it.

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I can't tag anyone for some reason (and I cleared cookies and everything).

So let's hope everyone sees this.

Good job everyone for week 1. Week 2 is ready to go.

gordlow
Octopus

Matt D
thee Reverend Axl Future

Curt McGirt
SirSmellingtonofCascadia

DEAN
porksweats

RAF, don't give me a Brody match! Otherwise, I'm game. Let me think about what to give you a bit.

Web Conn, we've got an odd number and I'll probably start instituting trios rules for the last group next week but for now you're doubled up with me. I'll find something for you later today based on the past.

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@Curt McGirtMidnights/Fantastics is THE BEST tag matchup/series of feuds ever, IMO. They did it across Mid-South and in JCP, too. All the matches were fire. 

I've shown someone, can't remember whom, might have been you, an Eaton/Lane vs. Fantastics match from JCP. Just in case it was you, let's watch a random Mid-South tag match, this one with Eaton/Condrey as the Midnights. You can take your pick of them on YT, but I'll just give you one that's under twenty minutes. 

 

Edited by SirSmellingtonofCascadia
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@thee Reverend Axl Future

Ok, NOW I can tag. Great. Anyway, RAF, you get this recently uncovered match, taped in Norfolk in 86 for Japan TV, between Flair and Murdoch. It was online and then went down pretty quickly and pretty harshly but not before we grabbed it. We have basically no 80s Murdoch vs Flair singles matches except for this.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZkiGfIC4muVK95qUPwV0rsXx-K0dOQO0/view?usp=sharing

@Web Conn, you get this weird 2x2 War Games from NWA Anarchy

 

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@Matt Dgimme a couple days, I am working on a lecture I am giving before my film presentation at the local Psychotronic Film Society and I want to make it fancy for the kids. I wouldn't do you dirty, Brody-wise, pally. At least watch the one I picked for Gordlow, it's pretty!

And many thanks for proctoring this whole thing, Matt D, may the Boogie Woogie Man Jimmy Valiant do a dance on your soul and leave street magick beard hair all over, baby.

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On 7/31/2022 at 3:21 AM, Octopus said:

@Gordlow

 think I might be the opposite of the Gordained Minister in that I’m hoping for something epic. I get less time to derp and I’m hoping to be wowed by over-indulgence. I love a long match as long as there is a story there. 

.Classic Joshi goodness. I love Akira Hokuto but that’s all I know. I’ve watched a few zingers in the Wrestling Machine thread but really that’s it. I just don’t know where to start. Bull Nakano maybe? Dump don’t remember the last name maybe? Akira Hokuto vs Shinobu Kandori is possibly top 5 favorite match for me (I should make that list, hmmmm) so I know I would absolutely eat up that time period of fun. 

 

OK, @Mollusc, you more or less asked for this:

Epic? Check! 

Story? Oh hell yeah! Something for you to really sink your teeth into. (Do octopi have teeth? I think this one does).

Classic joshi? Double check!

Hokuto? Kandori? Nakano? Triple check!

And throw in Aja Kong!

 

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