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I would agree that her general 90's to early 2000s run is good but it kinda hits a brick wall once she gets giga-injured and starts only having super short sprints or slop-brawl main events where they just fill the whole thing with weapon spots. that Her early 90s super-jock run in JWP is outstanding though, if she'd kept that up the rest of the decade I feel like she would've been an almost undisputed top 3.

Warlord shines in his debut with Sherri The Ultimate Warrior is back and gearing a team up for Survivor Series. I know it's going to be one hell of a match with the Outlaws. Slick uses one of the best movie lines ever from Rocky 3. Can't wait for more OMG/Bad News brawls The Northern Invasion against Duggan and his hand picked patriots will be another SS clash This episode was filled with muscle as Billy Jack and P&G get wins Bad News and Nikolai cut some fired up promos The Ultimate Warrior returns to the ring with a dominant win over the Genius. The way you've been building, the SS is sure to be an awesome event!

Good day, wrestling fans! RVD has posted or re-posted Sabu matches in honor of his late friend. There's plenty of stuff that I'd never seen before or was hard to find or only on compilations etc. I'm going to focus on stuff from Japan since it's been awhile since I've seen Sabu in Japan. Let's do a triple jump dive right in! Atsushi Onita & Sambo Asako vs. Sabu & Horace Boulder (FMW 04/23/92) - I saw this back in 2018 but decided to watch the full handheld. I think my original take holds up: Sambo is a roley-poley (rollie-pollie??) or let's say dumpy fat guy. He's not the type of guy you want to go out to the bar with if you're intent on chatting up some birds. He's not much of a wrestler either but, damn he gets the job done No rope barb wire match here and we start seeing some the the death match staples but, remember this is 1992. Hot shotting Sabu on the wire, choking him with it & eventually tossing his ass into it- he gets tangled in it much like his Funker match from '97. If you're an ECW fan, this is the era when 'Bu got all the scars. Not to be outdone, Onita gets wrapped in the loose wire which is another innovation...of sorts. This is all pretty crazy. Mad Onita theatre at the end of this too! Terry Funk & Tarzan Goto vs The Sheik & Sabu (FMW 08/22/93) - Absolutely bananas fun match! It's really great match if you're a fan of these guys and this style. It is very chaotic yet Sabu & Goto did pro wrestling so its a wonderful mix of brawling, hard core spots, blood, a few moves...and it's a fantastic length even with the post match fighting. Definitely recommend it! Uncle Sheik ----- Sabu vs Hayabusa (FMW 08/28/94) - RVD has the edited down version but there's a full version out there. I watched that. Thanks to the super fan who spliced the commercial footage with the handheld footage! It's pretty fun stuff...basically both guys just doing really crazy spots. It's not much more than that to be frank. I think if they had a match in '97-98 then you might have had a very good to even great match. Here they were really trying to wow the crowd with crazy stuff. Reminds me of stuff Jack Evans, Ricochet and others would want to do. ----- Sabu vs Eddie Guerrero - Black Tiger II (NJPW 06/12/95) This was a great match! Eddie was just as crazy as Sabu and both guys bring the excitement here. Sabu doesn't get enough credit for his selling because most people don't know that he's not always hurt. Certainly there's times where he is but most of the times he's putting things over. This match, he does a great job selling his back after the culmination of moves. He starts selling it right after flipping out of a back body drop. Normally a wrestler will shoot back onto offense but he shows that the move took it's toll. He forces Eddie to slow down and let the match breathe between maneuvers (Eddie & Chris were moves, moves & more moves at their worst). Here by slowing down, we get denied the flurry until the final third & we are pumped for the excitement. Highly Recommended for fans of Sabu & Eddie especially. For more great reviews and pics check out my other blog Wrestling Dream Battles: wrestlingdreambattles.blogspot.com I'll be covering my longer year in review projects like New Japan '95 as well as wrestler & rivalry watch guides and more. Going through my watch list, there should be more Sabu in New Japan in the 1995 posts up now. Go check it out 😁 Back to the action! Abdullah The Butcher vs Sabu (Tokyo Pro 06/26/96) -They stab each other in the head with nails and they bleed.......and it was great! Just a blast to watch them stumble around Korakuen Hall. The fans are eating it up. Abby has his goons come out and start beating on Sabu then Ishikawa (with a heavenly mullet) saves the day. ------ Sabu vs 2 Cold Scorpio (10/18/96) Tokyo Pro. Holy crap! It was great. At about half their Cyberslam match this was pure gold...great punches, chair stuff, and the aerial moves. Sabu hit everything perfectly (in a Sabu kinda way) and Too Cold was on point. Plus he does the Macarena...what's not to love!? Sabu & Gary Albright vs Stan Hansen & Takao Omori (AJPW 11/24/96) - Whoa, didn't know about Gary & Sabu teaming. Actually didn't know about Sabu in All Japan. This was fun. Gary is suplexing everyone. Sabu & Gary are a fun team. I wonder if they worked any spots where he suplexed Sabu on someone. This is joined in progress but we get most of it. You're going to enjoy this. *Note Sabu does a botch but re-does it in his hurried, animal - energy way (making it twice as dangerous) and nails the move perfectly. Sabu & Rob Van Dam vs Stan Hansen & Takao Omori (AJPW 01/20/97) - A little clunky start with a young Omori in there but, this shaped up. Hansen got it back on track and sold for Sabu and this puppy was as right as rain. Fun action moves from RVD & Sabu. They were there to razzle dazzle. Omori was with the program and bumped. Post-1995 Stan the Man is great. He's not fully out of commission but he's not as limber. I just get that he's in pain and cranky in '95 and onwards. That translates well here. He can't keep up with the ECW guys kicks but he can hit hard still dammit! Really fun stuff, good under card match. Sabu & RVD vs Yoshinari Ogawa & Kintaro Shiga (AJPW 05/13/1997) - joined in progress..we get half but this is excellent stuff. Shiga & Ogawa work really, really well with Sabu and Rob. They are quick and athletic. They have a lower risk offense but still have their moves. Shiga, who I became a fan of when looking at NOAH 2001-02, impressed me here. This would have been a cool match to see in ECW...totally would have worked! Sabu & Rob Van Dam vs Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinari Ogawa (AJPW 06/06/97) - Oh this was pretty sweet! I wish it was a little bit longer. These two teams worked great together. I thought Ogawa was especially good again. I definitely would recommend it if you're at all interested. It's not going to blow your mind but, it's fun! I think the above match is better but then again that's got Shiga. But I'm taking anything away from this one. Watch both. Sabu & Rob Van Dam vs Hayabusa & Tommy Dreamer (ECW/FMW 12/12/98) (jip) - Um did Tommy Dreamer just do an Emerald Flowsion!? Innovator of violence indeed. Or at least right on the heels of Misawa here 😋 This was joined in progress and was clipped. We only get have but it is a ton of fun. Just a spot cornucopia from Sabu & RVD. I think Dreamer gets like 5 offensive moves. I'm not sure Hayabusa gets more. I wonder what we missed. I'm guessing there was either some botching or something. I'm not sure actually... this was for a commercial tape and this seems like a match you'd want most of. They jam packed those FMW tapes though. So 9 minutes was a lot when some matches would get like 3 minutes. Sabu vs Rob Van Dam (AJPW 03/03/01) - 12 out of 15 minutes were shown - man, I wish they had the full version. I have watched enough AJPW from this time to know better. I'm glad that we got 80% or so. Anyhow, this was very good stuff! This was what I envisioned Sabu vs Hayabusa to be. Tons of flashy, crazy moves BUT surprises too! Those surprises are what made the match. The video quality isn't awesome... very old school underwater early 2000's style 🙂 But if you're a fan of either guy then, you'll dig this one! BONUS!!! Sabu vs Too Cold Scorpio (ECW Hardcore Heaven 1994) - Oh yes, this is great. Both guys are in good shape and are doing all kinds of dangerous shit. All in all it's probably a spot fest but it does feel competitive and like they are trying to win a damn wrestling match. Additionally, I never felt like that they were just "showing off." I actually prefer this to their 1996 match (Cyberslam again?) since this was shorter than that & I felt the pace was better. Thank you Sabu!! and thanks for reading folks!

Originally airing 10/22/90 on HBO. The Warlord w/"Sensational" Sherri Martel defeats Brad Kramer with a shoulderblock from the second rope. Mean Genes gives the first Survivor Series report in which he reveals that The Ultimate Warrior will captain a team to take on all four members of the Texas Outlaws. Not only that but Wrrior has already found his first teammate in "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes! One Man Gang w/"The Doctor of Style" Slick defeats George Anderson with the "747". Split screen sees Slick tell Bad News Brown he should've never come back to the World Wrestling Federation. Promo time with Mooney! The entire Northern Invasion is here and they are telling Jim Duggan to find any three Americans he can do at Survivor Series they can show Canadian superiority once and for all. Billy Jack Haynes defeats Tommy Burton with a spinning Full Nelson. Power & Glory w/Sherri defeat Kevin Krueger & Mark Starr with the "Power-plex". More promos with Mooney! Bad news says he's tearing through every member of Black Diamond Entertainment until he gets his hands on Slick. Nikolai Volkoff says he's spent his whole life taking orders from Russians but no more. Next time he sees Zhukov, he's paying him back for all the damage Russia has done to Lithuania since occupying it decades ago. Non-title match. WWF Intercontinental Champion "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan defeats "Hollywood" Bob Holly with the Three Point lariat. Feature Match. The Ultimate Warrior defeats The Genius with a military press/big splash combo.

Roman Reigns vs Daniel Bryan - WWE Fastlane 2015 I forgot this was a Number One contenders match. I always hate these type of lopsided matches. Why should Roman put his Rumble win on the line against Bryan? Imagine if Bryan put his hair or beard on the line. The heat would have been so much higher. Of course you would have heeled Roman but also you kinda had to do this match after Rumble 2015 which I was at. I watched this live with my good buddy Nick and my gut back then was very good but not great and I thought the match was pretty overrated. Let’s see what I think ten years later. So when I watch these live I am usually with someone so I am not paying rapt attention. I freely admit I missed the story last time. I would put some of the onus on them as this is a very choppy, noisy match. I am inclined to like 1-3 major momentum shifts in a match with lengthy control segments. I think this match was specifically designed to avoid long control segments because of fear of heeling Roman. If there is so much action, you Cant achieve a steady state and the fans Cant grow restless and boo Roman. Now there are plenty of choppy matches I like there’s many different ways to skin a cat I am just pointing out the structure and why someone who is casually watching with his buddies might have missed the narrative. On this rewatch, I dug the narrative and the commentators really put it over. It was the technique and speed of Bryan against the power of Roman. Bryan does a side headlock Roman powers out and get his own. Bryan tries a surfboard. Power out. Bryan tries his finish sequence you know the one backflip off the turnbuckles and fly around. Nope Roman cuts it off. Bryan tries to knot up the knees and a leg lock. You guessed it power out. I’ll pause there. Great story but to borrow a phrase from Matt D I was missing the negative space work. Again I think they were so petrified of Roman getting booed, that he did no character work. He could have done dumb jock shit like Luger and Sting. Badass shit like Kobashi or Hashimoto. He just did nothing. I love a wrestler who changes strategies one of the major reasons Flair is my #2. Danielson never sold these strategies were not working. It was a very muted performance by both. The Liver Kick. I got pretty excited at this point. Something for us to sink our teeth into. We didn’t go with a traditional shine. We opted for an interesting narrative that was a bit dry but here we go. Roman sold this and the leg work pretty well. His selling was much better than character work on offense. Danielson picks up the pace with dropkicks in the corner. Then Roman Powerbombs him off the top as a counter to a Frakensteiner. Ugh. Heavy sigh. I try to stay in it. Calm myself down. Yes a little early for a hope spot of this magnitude but surely they will get back on the liver. Danielson counters a Roman top rope move. Suicide dives by Danielson. So much for the liver kick. Again it is a lot of noise down the stretch. Not in a Late State All Japan or NOAH way. It is not a fireworks display. It’s a lot of counters. No one can really get momentum. The characters are NOT selling urgency or desperation. That’s what is missing!!! This is why we write these bad boys. I needed to work through that. That’s what is missing URGENCY AND DESPERATION! They are NOT working fast from a tempo standpoint. This is a mid-tempo rocker. This is not like today where they wrestle like the motion smoothing is left on or we watching the stage blocking routine. It is not overtly cooperative. The spots are well-executed. They were working fast from a sense of not letting the crowd in. Not showing vulnerability. Roman sets up for the Spear. Danielson quashes that with a small package. Running Knee. 1-2-No! Good near fall they aren’t going overboard with bombs or near falls which I dig. Danielson does his Yes Kicks. ROMAN CATCHES THE FOOT GRABS BY THE THROAT AND DEATH STARES HIM! Thats the moment. That’s what I am talking about. Roman didnt do that shit at all during the match. If he did that all match we are talking a totally different experience. But if you do that, you have to pause and let the crowd in and let them react. That’s scary what if they boo or do nothing. But you got to do it anyways even if it is scary or uncomfortable. We get the Yes Lock for one last Danielson near fall. Roman bludgeons Danielson which kind of undoes all the hard work of not trying to heel him. Danielson goes for the knee but eats a Spear! They were in a tough spot, babyface vs babyface and where the babyface they wanted to be the Ace was not over as a babyface. There’s countless examples of how to make this dynamic work such as Bret vs Diesel at Rumble 95. I think the easiest solution would have been Danielson to play the subtle heel. If he didn’t go that route, sell the desperation and exasperation of trying everything but this powerhouse keeps overwhelming you. For Roman let us in, brutha, give me some dumb jock shit or Terminator Destroyer shit. It is interesting narrative, but the character work leaves it is at very good but not great. *** 1/2

Been thinking about this and looking into candidates as an exercise for myself I've ranked the candidates in each section on how I see their cases and I've added a little cut off for who I think should be in the Hall of Fame (as I wouldn't vote for the maximum number in every category) MODERN NORTH AMERICA 1) Cody Rhodes 2) C.M. Punk 3) Sabu 4) Samoa Joe 5) Jon Moxley 6) Bill Goldberg ___________________________________________________ 7) Mercedes Mone/Sasha Banks 8 Becky Lynch 9) Kevin Nash & Scott Hall 10) Mark & Jay Briscoe 11) Matt & Jeff Hardy 12) Seth Rollins 13) FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheleer) 14) Bill Dundee 15) Randy Orton 16) Rick & Scott Steiner 17) Edge/Adam Copeland 18) Trish Stratus 19) Drew McIntyre HISTORICAL NORTH AMERICA 1) Junkyard Dog 2) June Byers 3) Cowboy Bob Ellis 4) Mad Dog & Butcher Vachon 5) Wild Bull Curry _______________________________________________ 6) Ole Anderson 7) Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood 8 Archie "Mongolian Stomper" Gouldie 9) Sputnik Monroe. 10) Kevin & Kerry & David Von Erich 11) Dusty Rhodes & Dick Murdoch 12) Sweet Daddy Siki 13) Pampero Firpo 14) British Bulldogs (Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith) 15) Bob Armstrong 16) Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart) 17) Iron Sheik 18) Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson w/J.J. Dillon 19) Afa & Sika Anoa'i No comment on Black Gordman & Great Goliath as I just feel like I know almost nothing about their case JAPAN 1) Hayabusa ______________________________________ 2) Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada 3) Yoshihiro Takayama 4) Io Shirai/Iyo Sky 5) Meiko Satomura 6) Masaaki Mochizuki 7) Tiger Jeet Singh 8 Yoshiaki Fujiwara 9) Zack Sabre Jr. 10) Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan 11) Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi MEXICO 1) Gran Hamada 2) Dorrell Dixon 3) Mascarita Sagrada __________________________________________ 4) Sangre Chicana 5) Los Infernales (El Satanico & Pirata Morgan & MS 1) 6) Volador Jr. 7) Angel Blanco & Dr.Wagner 8 La Parka AAA 9) El Dandy 10) El Hijo del Santo & Octagon REST OF WORLD 1) Jose Tarres 2) Ted Boy Marino 3) Spyros Arion 4) George Gordienko ___________________________ 5) Gilbert Leduc 6) Billy Joyce 7) The Royal Brothers (Bert Royal & Vic Faulkner) 8 Killer Karl Kox 9) Les Kellett 10) Otto Wanz 11) Steve Grey 12) Dominic DeNucci 13) Adrian Street If my ballot were real I’d be very annoyed at having to leave Leduc out NON-WRESTLERS 1) Bobby Bruns (Japan) 2) Roy Welch (U.S. & Canada historical) 3) Morris Sigel (U.S. & Canada historical) 4) Ted Turner (U.S. & Canada modern) 5) Grand Wizard (U.S & Canada historical) 6) George Scott (U.S. & Canada historical) ____________________________________________________ 7) Jesse Ventura (U.S. & Canada historical) 8 Zane Bresloff (U.S.& Canada modern) 9) Jim Johnston (U.S. & Canada modern) 10) Mike Tenay (U.S. & Canada modern) 11) Gorilla Monsoon (U.S. & Canada historical) 12) Tony Schiavone (U.S. & Canada modern) 13) Bob Caudle (U.S. & Canada historical) 14) Dave Brown (U.S. & Canada modern) 15) Larry Matysik (U.S.& Canada historical) 16) James Melby (U.S. & Canada historical) 17) Bill Mercer (U.S. & Canada historical) 18) Kevin Sullivan (U.S. & Canada historical) 19) Joe Higuchi (Japan) 20) Koichi Yoshizawa (Japan) 21) Rossy Ogawa (Japan) 22) Stanley Weston (U.S. & Canada historical) 23) Reggie Parks (U.S. & Canada modern)

Great card for Halloween. Starts fun with Batman V Joker then getting steadily more violent as we get deeper in. Steiners V Road Warriors. it's finally on!

Batman (Ken Patera) vs Joker (Don Bass) (Just a silly opener to get the fans in the Halloween Spirit! Mask vs Signed Guitar POW vs Honky Tonk Man with Jimmy Hart How we got here The upstart POW recently pinned HTM in a match where POW seemed especially motivated. This seems to be a trend anytime that POW is near HTM as it seems very personal. After the loss, HTM was fuming as he believed he knows who is under the Mask and that he is going to be the one to show to everyone that POW is not who the fans think he is which is a former Prisoner of War and that his camouflaged masked is just a farce. To get the stipulation that if POW losses the match, he will have to take off his mask, HTM agreed to put his Elvis Pressley signed guitar on the line. Jeff Jarrett vs The Great Kabuki How did we get here: The Great Kabuki recently arrived in the USWA and has been spewing his green mist in the eyes of many of his victims and JJ took offense we he recently did it to Tim Horner. JJ, with some power in the USWA offices, was able to get this match signed. On thing of note, Kabuki, who doesn’t speak English has been in the USWA for a few weeks now and doesn’t have a manager so nobody knows what he is doing or thinking. All we know is that wins don’t seem to matter much as he seems intent on blinding his victim. USWA Southern Tag Team Title Match The Rock n Roll Express © vs The Dirty White Boys How we got here: No real storyline here. DWB’s have been on a bit of a win streak; outside of when the face the Road Warriors, so they appear next in line for the title shot. Tennessee Street Fight “Wildfire” Tommy Rich, JYD & The Boogie Woogie Man Jimmy Valiant vs Southern Justice (Tex Slazenger and ) & Wild Bill Irwin How we got here: Wildfire, JYD and Valiant recently had to rush to the ring to help the Southern Boys who were basically being hanged over the top rope by Southern Justice and their manager, Wild Bill Irwin. This is not the first time that Southern Justice has resorted to extreme violence against Steve Armstrong and Tracy Smothers but this time they put them out of action for a little while. Wildfire, JYD and Boogie Woogie Man gave one hell of a fired up promo about what they are going to do to Southern Justice. “Stunning” Steve Austin with Medusa vs Michael Wallstreet with Miss. Alexandra York How we got here: Week after week, Miss York and her computer have been spitting out information that with her computer skills and prepared scouting reports along with Michael Wallstreet’s money and wrestling ability, there wasn’t a man in the USWA that could beat Michael. Well this week, Stunning Steve interrupted their glowing promo and said that his doesn’t care what the computer says and that if Wallstreet had the guts, he would give him a good old fashion beating. Miss York quickly started typing on the computer and then we hear all kinds of crazy sounds coming out of the computer. Miss. York reads it… and shakes her head yes… and the match is on between two wrestlers who have never lost in the USWA. First Blood Match “The Anvil” Jim Neidhart vs “The Hammer” Greg Valentine with Jimmy Hart How we got here: When The Hammer and the Anvil recently lost the USWA Southern Tag Team Titles to the Rock n Roll Express when Jimmy Hart cracked the Anvil with the megaphone by accident, Hart blamed the Anvil. The Anvil turned on Hart after being berated. Valentine, siding with his manager attacked his tag team partner. So here we are and what better way to have a grudge match on Halloween then to make it a First Blood Match. USWA World Tag Team Title Match The Steiner Brothers © vs The Road Warriors How did we get here: While these two teams have not actually been in the same place at the same time, they have been after each other for months. The Road Warriors, while wrestling in a different promotion, took offense to the Steiners claiming to be the best tag team in the world. Animal and Hawk sent a video tape to the USWA basically calling out the Steiner brothers and their “ridiculous” claim. This video tape sent the Steiners off the deep end and wanting a piece of the Road Warriors. A few weeks later, we find out that the Road Warriors are in Japan where they sent another video to the USWA where they once against proclaimed their dominance. Enraged, the Steiners headed to Japan where they bashed a bunch of Japanese guys to the ground but they never found the Warriors who had come back to the USWA in search of the Steiners. So finally, tonight… these two mega teams will finally square off face to face. Lights Out – Non-Sanctioned-Non-Title- Texas Tornado- Country Whipping Match USWA Champion Bossman vs “The King” Jerry Lawler vs Randy “Macho Man” Savage How we got here: Randy Savage has recently taken offense to not getting World Title shots against Bossman which he believes are rightfully his as the USWA Southern Champion. He also believes that Bossman has gone out of his way to make sure Lawler gets the title shot and not him. Recently, we have seen Bossman attack Lawler in The King’s #1 contender matches against Savage. These attacks have caused numerous DQ’s on Savage as the ref deemed that it was Bossman helping Savage thus giving the King the win and the title shots. Savage claims that Bossman is only doing this to prevent him from beating Lawler and getting the title shots. Bossman, claims that the attacks are cause of a grudge he holds against Lawler, the former USWA World Champion who Bossman was originally hired to protect but Bossman felt that the King avoided giving him title shots even though he defeated everyone that Lawler beat. Seems like a bit of a circus but that only got worse recently as Macho Man came out wearing a mask during Lawler’s title match against Bossman in the Midsouth Coliseum. While it was the worst costume ever as it was obviously Randy Savage, this just made matter worse as Savage ripped the belt off the referee and starting whipping both the Bossman and the King. While Savage was fined and suspended for his actions, Lawler and the Bossman were fuming about being whipped and wanted revenge. So here we are… Bossman vs The King vs Macho Man with each allowed to bring a leather strap to the match and all three men will be in the ring at the same time. One thing is for certain… there will be welts as these three men hate each other. Forget babyfaces and heels in this one… each man is coming for the other two. USWA officials feared for the worst and refused to sanction this match but once the lights go down, the whipping will begin.

There are only photos of Javier in this but we get a definite taste of Victoria's style. Irish whipped to the mat, he is able to pick himself upright at arm's length, an ancestor of the British-style roll through. He gets a beautiful slide into a standing Fireman's Carry takedown on one of these whips. He gets the pin by upturning a long press. Later we see him get a face bar from behind a dona front somersault into a bridge to wrench on the opponent's neck. We see more of Ochoa's proto rollout of armlever (albeit in longshot) Ochoa takes on the headbutt king. Tarres. Most of this is already featured in the Leones de Navarra clip. clip but looks out for Victorio doing a toupie out of headscissors well before Gilbert Leduc hit the scene. More source footage for the Leones de Navarra mini docu. See Ochoa neatly kip up after being forearm smashes down by his opponent. He goes for and almost gets a legdive right across the ring, corner to corner. He rolls back from an arm at on the mat to get a ground dropkick. He also gets an Indian Deathlock and a double leg nelson pin attempt.

I've been rewatching the LeCroix Vs de Lonzac bout and Orig Williams says in the English commentary that Pouzade was not Eric's manager. just his tag partner (which further fits him being Domingo Valdez) and Miss Paris being the actual manageress. I'd quite like to see the tag match Caradec was complaining about in that promo.

You'd love the Americanised New School promotions in Britain - always telling the same old lie that British wrestling "Died" in 1981 and that they are The Great Renaissance. Then a few months later, they keel over while All Star just goes on and on for decades. One unanswered question about New Catch is how the flame was kept alive for the concept over the course of 1989 and 1990 between the two blocks of episodes filmed. There was hardly a lack of other new wrestling shows in Europe during the period - Catch Up on RTL, Reslo on S4C, ITV's Aberdeen taping on Grampian and STV (and later Granada) and of course the above return to FR3. Yet during this glut, New Catch found its way back.

Sad news. I always wondered why Mo never got another look by WWE. BTW, cool interview with Oscar: https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/oscar-men-on-a-mission/ (presumably conducted before Mo's death)

Is there somewhere to catch that match?

So anyway, the bout. There's about 5 min of studio preamble in a studio set with storage draws and various trophies, footballs and other bric-a-brac that make it look like a 1970s episode of British infants' TV show Play School. As Matt mentioned, the presenter goes on about the Good Old Days so presumably this is either a one-off or a first with possibilities (possibly squashed by New Catch resurfacing on Eurosport.) It's an unashamedly retro presentation like the 1990 Aberdeen ITV taping, the 1998 VDB video, Premier Promotions' merch table VHS tapes from Worthing Pier Pavillion (examples have been posted to the British thread) and perhaps most pertinently, the show in the tiny room from somewhere in Paris 2096 I posted clips from to this thread a couple of years ago. So yes, Matt. there is life after this for this sort of show. Except for the lack of cords halfway down the ropes, the ring looks like a late 70s/early 80s relic, exactly like the ones on La Dernière Manchette in fact with the red ropes and dull green mat. (If the INA ever does chroma recovery on its prints of late 60s/early 70s Channel 2 bouts. expect a lot of those rings to be that same colour combination.) The venue is a sports hall with basketball hoops and climbing bars in the background but happily the lighting rig is properly focussed on the ring. Yes, that's the same nice red sequin jacket LaMotta/Daniel is wearing as on New Catch. Michel has a nice spangly jacket too, in Cyan with matching trunks. Les Rocky's, as Méchants, are both in black. Curiously the fans give them a big pop. LaCroix is the youngest by far and very much the star turn despite his Mr Spock hairdo. He bumps around for the elderly Bons taking their side chancery throws, cross buttock throws etc. He leg throws Daniel (I must remember not to call him Tony LaMotta for this one) who spins out nicely- he hasn't lost it. Valdez does the same for Daniel. Hilariously the commentator calls a dropkick (saus chassé) a flying headscissors (Scisseaux Volees) ! Michel rolls nicely out of and up from Domingo's throws while Domingo takes a bump when the tables are turned. Michel does huracanranas - somebody has been watching Scott Steiner on WCW! At one point we see Michel go up in the air and it's in excessive close up so it looks like he's going for a reverse snapmare but he comes back down the way he went up and bulldogs Valdez down back into a side headlock on the mat. When Eric gets back, he is getting real heat, not like the cheer at the start. He flexes his biceps a lot. an odd thing for a Welterweight to do. LaCroix kicks out of a crosspress and lands Daniel on top of Monsieur L'Arbitre. The second time it happens, Daniel gets a public warning. Other than this, the referee stays away from trying to be the heel. Things slow down with Valdez in the ring, he gets an armbar in the guard and uses fouls to keep him there, eventually gets a bunch of Manchettes for his troubles. Eric carries on with the arm work on Daniel, he and Michel have a pretty good top wristlock battle. Michel and Domingo end up outside with the Spaniard giving a ringside fan a lapdance . The two brawl outside the ring. Eric headstands out of the headscissors on a second attempt and gives Daniel a hearty slap across the face. Michel makes the hot tag, throwing the heels around before scoring the opening fall with a sunset flip mm double leg nelson despite protests from Eric. Daniel does a promo while standing on the tag rope on the apron, just as Les Méchants are double legdiving Michel and kicking his knees in in stereo. Despite all this, Les Bons get a Deuxième Et Derniere Avertisement. They flirt with a DQ after making a pile of villains and ref. Michel goes for a finger Interlock but Eric snatches away like Adrian Street and pouts lie Ada too. LaCroix gets a GREAT equaliser with a long suplex. Fans give it The Bird (ouch my ears!). Michel gives a mid match promo calling it Epouvantable. Domingo kicks him in the back midway. We are past 30 mins of the clip and La Belle is only a few minutes long. Very French Catch and can aspect of match structure @ohtani's jacket complains about in the old reviews. Daniel gets a combination flying headscissors and flying headlock on both heels sending them both flying. He gets a great flying bodypress on Eric, beautifully filmed but it only gets a 2. A reverse leapfrog into front folding press finally does the job. Yup that's about 3 mins of belle. Daniel does another in ring. We get the credits over a soca track and match highlights before back to the studio and the presenter calling wrestlers Grandes Voltigeurs. (Great High Flyers.) Fast action packed bout but little in the way of chain sequences. Moves tend to be isolated spots unto themselves. I DEFINITELY feel LaCroix deserved better than putting over two old guys. Eurosport New Catch and the French Welterweight Championship gave him that opportunity and the chance to work with other rising stars like Yann Caradec and Jean Phillipe De Lonzac.

Hold your horses - I've just remembered EXACTLY who Eric Lacroix is! In which case I wonder if Domingo "No Relation To Princess Paula" Valdez is actually Theo Pouzade the manager from New Catch and he's just got comedy attachments to his moustache when in character as Pouzade? It still means at least 2, possibly 3 of these four guys were on New Catch at some stage in its existence. Incidentally, here's my review of Tony LaMotta Vs Marquis Jacky from New Catch season 1 in 1988 As the review mentions,Tony teamed with a pre-Flesh Gerard Hervé to take on the Golden Falcons. There's a review of that in the archive but you'll have to go look it up as it's less relevant to the point of this post.

I'm just so behind on whatever joshi I wanna watch. That Unagi Sayaka vs Minoru Suzuki match was a ride though. (see what I did ?). Heel surely is a one kind of a character. She certainly found a way to make her post-Stardom career interesting, to say the least.

Anyway. speaking of 1991: I'll have a good overview this later over dinner. I'm not doing the review now as this tablet needs putting on charge. I wouldn't swear to it but Les Rocky's Du Ring look more than a bit like Kato Bruce Lee/Kato Gypsy and Elliot Frederico Rocky Du Ring/Grims Rocker (with hair grown out - Grim was Spanish so if the one I think is him turns out to be Domingo Valdez then I'm convinced ). Tony LaMotta also appeared on New Catch -IIRC against Jacky Richard ( still a Marquis, not yet a Travesti Man.). So three of these four guys did New Catch anyway.

Okay, how about "Sampler" then? I seem to recall someone saying (possibly on here) that a few other Eurosport shows got the same treatment. It occurs to me that New Catch was always meant to in some way become an international deal, given all the CWA and British talent on board, either unknown to French audiences eg Eddie Kung Fu Hamill or dim memories eg Fit Finlay, last seen on French national TV eight years earlier claiming to be a Scotsman in a kilt.

The Disasters' title win was at a TV taping and eventually released on Coliseum Video (with the oddity of Jim Ross doing play-by-play of a match that took place almost 9 months before he was with the company). The Steiners' first title win was also at a TV taping but for whatever reason never got a release, even on the WWE Unreleased DVD set which showed the show-closing dark match of that taping. The Midnights' title win was basically an emergency switch because Arn & Tully gave their notice. I would imagine the plan was to run that program until Starrcade, or at least the December Clash.

It's not inconceivable at all. They'd just wrestled for the titles at Mania 10. The tag division was pretty much a wreck so it's not like there were other viable challengers to the Quebecers (they had to turn a heel team babyface for that to happen). There had been other quickie overseas title switches before and a number of house show title changes in the WWF the previous year. Plus the switches were acknowledged on television and in the magazine. Edit: Also, there was a card in-between the two title switches in Peterborough where MOM defeated the Quebecers to retain the belts. If it was an accident, why book a successful title defense before undoing it?

For whatever reasons I was thinking about the Canal + version of the WWF shows, which obviously would not have been on the English speaking channel anyway, so yeah. Yeah, it wasn't a preview at all. The first show on TF1 in November 1991 was sold as "the big comeback of catch on TF1". Which was of course a laughable idea. It was part of the Canal + strategy to import some american entertainment that had not been seen in France before. I dunno when they started airing the NBA, but it was a "big" deal (under quotation because Canal's paid audience was not that big, which is also one reason pro-wrestling never became big in France until the 2000's when it moved onto the TNT). They also imported the american talk-shows formats which really did not exist on French TV before, at all. So as far as Canal went, it was clearly part of a global strategy, where the modern TV entertainment was seen through an anglo-saxon, and very much americanized, lens. I think this is something that all private medias all over Europe went through to some degrees during the ending of the 80's and the 90's.

Yep, like David said, Sky (who already had a deal with WWF in the UK) co-owned Eurosport until May 1991 when TF1 replaced them as co-owners of the network. Back in that 1989-1991 period Eurosport was airing the syndicated WWF TV shows like Superstars of Wrestling and Prime Time Wrestling, but also showing some of the PPVs too. For example, I came across WrestleMania VI and VII airings (90-minute broadcasts, about a month and half to two months after the PPVs had taken place). Doesn't look like it was a preview - it looks like in 1991 it was already airing on Eurosport, before it aired on TF1.* The history of New Catch on TV goes like this: - October through December 1988 (part of "Minuit sport” on TF1, New Catch actually replaced AWA and was then replaced by WCCW) - September or October 1991 through May 1992 (New Catch on Eurosport) - November 1991 (part of “3ème mi-temps” on TF1, only four episodes) * I say it looks like, because I can't 100% confirm what was airing on Eurosport in September and October 1991. The September listings say "Wrestling". In October it's "Wrestling from Europe". First mention of "New Catch" on Eurosport is December 3, which coincidentally is the last TF1 date too. I guess it's possible some CWA stuff may have aired in September and October, but I think most likely it was New Catch and they just hadn't started listing it like that in the listings. ----------- Another thing that struck me while researching this is how many upstart European TV networks used wrestling as featured programming to establish themselves on the market. Sky Channel launches in the UK in 1984 - they immediately start airing WWF. Canal Plus launches in France in 1984 - within 9 months they start airing WWF. Eurosport launches in 1989 - within a few months they start airing WWF. DSF launches in Germany in 1993 - they start airing WCW and GLOW right away. Etc.

It got filmed though and was a big story in the Magazine. The Natural Disasters win and some of the Money Inc Vs Steiners back and forth were examples of the small house shows title changes. They printed photos of one match from the latter where there was no flash photography rig so it all looked very dull compared to usual WWF magazine photography. The same thing happened with the Midnight Express Vs Tully & Arn title change in JCP although there is a fancam of that.

Ah well, I've got a REAL one! 😄 There are two sections of interest to pro wrestling fans, the biographies and "Prensas de Lucha Libre Americana (American Wrestling holds). Plus also there's a group photo of thirties wrestlers in a ring and that shit of Javier Ochoa (although this was clearly him in later life so Spain had gone catch by then.)

Simple, it was co-owned by Sky until TF1 bought it and was on the same Astra satellite as part of the same package of satellite channels as Sky. It stayed on there after the buyout. As I think I mentioned, any household in the UK capable of getting WWF (other than the bits ITV screened on the specials 1987-1988 and the small hours 1988-1989) could get New Catch too. Whereas in France you already had Canal + for the WWF. Preview run for the new revamped channel. I equate that run with the Oct 1990 Joint Promotions ITV tapings in Aberdeen.