Phil Schneider

This match starts with possibly the coolest entrance in wrestling history as Flair lands on the field of a baseball stadium in a helicopter and steps out to Also Sprach Zarathustra. Morton has a face mask and is looking for revenge as Flair and the Horseman mangled his face and broke his nose. The whole match is based around working the face, Morton goes after Flair's face, landing these awesome downward punches to the giant nose, and lots of eye rakes and cage face rakes. When Flair gets the advantage he rips off Morton's mask and bloodies him up. Super nasty way for a pair of hearthrobs to work, only one will be pretty at the end of this match. The whole feud was based around Flair being pissed that Morton was draining off the teen rats, so a match where both guys were trying disfigure each other works perfectly. Morton has awesome looking punches, and this was some of the best Flair punching I can remember, there was some Lawler level exchanges in this match, including one with both guys standing on the top rope which ends with Flair doing a top rope Flair flop, which is an awesome 80's high spot. Violent brawler Flair is the best and this was maybe the most vicious he has ever been. Finish was a bit cheap shotish, although you know Flair was going to sneak his way to a win. Loved this, so crazy it sat in a box for so many years.

Well the world is going to hell, but at least we waltzing on the deck of the Titanic to the sounds of new 80s Brazos matches. This was a great quality pro-shot Juarez show, which hopefully means that more stuff like this exists. This was the earliest Eddie match I can remember, although he is more of an afterthought to the El Brazo v. Rocky Star feud. That is probably the least interesting on paper focus of any of these six guys, although it is still great stuff. Both Rocky and El Brazo bleed buckets,and El Brazo takes some nasty post bumps, El Brazo was clearly a world class 80s bleeder. This was the most serious I have seen the Brazo's work, as they were straight violent rudos including flipping off the crowd and brutalizing the babyfaces. There was some fleeting moments of Super Porky agility including a punishing superfly splash and a dive off of the ring apron. More of a cool discovery then an all time great match, but what a cool discovery.

God bless youtube as this tasty slice of lucha libre violence just shows up one day. I didn't even know Emilio Charles Jr. was in Los Destructores and here he is trying to open up El Brazo's head like a difficult coconut. Destructores lose the first fall by DQ by removing Oro's mask, and as he goes to the back, they take a 3 on 2 advantage on the Brazo's and really beat them badly. Brazo is leaking like Reince Preibus, and they tie Plata in the corner and work his ample belly like a heavy bag. Emilio Charles is so great to watch here, the other Destructores are great, but he is on another level, just an amazing explosive brawler. Loved Porky in this too, he may be one of my favorite high flyers ever, he is such a hippo that to watch him fly around is so incongruous, and he knows how to land everything with such force. My favorite kind of holy grail, a match I had no idea existed, which shows up like a surprise present.

Wild bloody brawl with the Boricua Four Horsemen trying to murder each other. The match starts with Cide (in old school Natural Born Killaz jumpsuit) and Ki (in his Hitman suit) coming out and getting jumped in the aisle by the Hit Squad. We have a bit of really great crowd brawling, including Homicide busting open Maff with Harley Race style knuckle punches (the camera really focused on Maff and Cide, but in the corner of your eye you could see Ki and Mack brutalizing each other, I really wish I had the alternate view as well). Homicide takes a big bump into the stairs and stays down, while Hit Squad throws Ki into the cage and double teams him. Joker comes out from the back and takes Cide's place in the cage match (not sure if this was an improv, or a planned spot to work around a previous injury). The in the cage parts of the match were really great too, with Ki taking a huge thrown belly to belly bump into the side of the cage and doing some crazy Kung Fu avoidance spots. Finish of this was nutso Maff spears Joker through the cage door nearly killing them both, Cide runs back out to start brawling with Kyle the Beast and they bump the cage causing Ki to crotch himself on the top. Then Maff climbs back into the cage and DHS hits a double splash off the top rope smushing Ki like a wine grape. Best match I have seen these two teams have, and a total under the radar MOTY candidate.

Takeshi Ishikawa was the hidden MVP of WAR that guy was totally awesome in everything he did

Man remember when Japanese Indy wrestlers looked like tubby asskickers instead of thai lady boys? This was a pretty spectacular WAR style main event. Lots of hard hitting violence with everyone looking great. Go especially was awesome here, as kind of a poor man’s Fujiwara, dumping people with suplexes and landing nasty headbutts. We get a couple of very cool Yatsu v. Fujiwara exchanges which sort of had that wrestler vs. jujitsu feel you get in MMA sometimes. The Fujiwara team isolated Itakura for a while and layed in a nasty asskicking. At one point Fujiwara was in the mount and was punching him really hard in the temples and ears. We also got duel Fujiwara and Ryuma Go headbutts to the sides of the dudes head. Finish was fun too, with everyone hitting big moves and Go getting the dragon sleeper tap out. Exactly as good as it looks on paper.

I am not sure if Tim Noel still sells stuff but I know he recorded all the big ECWA shows

Lawler had a great standing drop kick too. One he was still breaking out into his 50s

Recently I really enjoyed Donny Dollars v. Cool J from CWF Mid-Atlantic https://youtu.be/OII226FXos4?list=PLMIr13_npmhVaKO0II0V6XmeXaVi2bl8V Check the gif of the finish https://twitter.com/thecubsfan/status/877024478198464514

This is about as good an Abyss match as you are going to have. Ki bumps huge for all of Abyss's spots, kicks the big guy pretty hard and they have a bunch of amusing horseshit, plus where are in and out in under 7 minutes. Abyss is the hired gun of the Killer Cult faction in AAW and cost Ki the AAW title in our reigning match of the year. Here the story of the match is the manager paying for his sins. First Ki just wipes him out with a diving through the ropes dropkick. Then they have a fun finish with Ki hurling a handful of thumbtacks into Abyss's eyes, the blinded Abyss chokeslams his manager into the tacks and gets rolled up for the pin. Kind of a waste of Ki (so many more intriguing matchups with the talent booked on the show) but I dug it.

What a sleaze soaked pleasure this match was, the wrestling equivalent of eating a giant roadhouse bacon cheeseburger. Goto is a treasure in this, I can't believe I ever used to diss this dude. He basically works this as a fat grotesque Tenryu as he beats the bricks off of Motegi with chair edges, meaty punches right to the nose and thick headbuts. Motegi bleeds a ton and was pretty great as a fired up babyface, by far the best I have seen him look. Nakano and Miyake were really fun as the secondary dudes too, they would tag in and slap the shit out of who ever was in the ring. I really miss this kind of dirtbag Puro indy, now all Japanese indies seem to be about telling jokes, there was nothing funny about this match at all.

" If a karateka vs. Garbage wrestler match that turns into attempted murder sounds good to you this is your match." This sounds very good to me

This is one of my all time favorite wrestling feuds, they ran it in multiple federations, with big violent gimmick matches, CZW, ROH, IWA-MS. This wasn't building on any big feud in IWA-MS, they were just booked on the same card, so they decided to try to kill each other. This might be the apex of indy wrestling weapons brawls. It had all of the huge violent spots you want to watch in slow motion along with an almost Funk v. Lawler or Magnum v. Tully level of close fight brawling. Both guys kept ripping at each others eyes, not an a wrestling eye rake way, but in a blind a guy in a barfight way. Both guys recklessly chuck weapons at each other, not really concerned with how they land, Hero just hurls a chair from the floor into the ring and it hits Eddie right in the back of the head. At some point Kingston gets his nose broken awkwardly and is leaking blood, not a clean break either, but the kind of break which will disturb his sleep for life. There is just a total disregard for the guy they are in the ring with, the constant cursing and shit talking makes this seem like a fight to the death, Kingston is yelling "You better kill me motherfucker", while Hero is calling Kingston a punk bitch and piece of shit. I have said it before, and I am sure I will say it again, Kingston is one of the great brawling sellers in wrestling history, you really feel like he is guy in an alley trying to escape with his life, and he can get up after huge spots because of how good he is at conveying their effect on him. After fighting through some really hellacious blows, Kingston is able to hit a backfist and wastes Hero with three backdrop drivers, including on the guard rail, for a match with some huge and violent spots, this felt like a finish. Great stuff, career match for Kingston and possibly Hero's best as well.

I really enjoy Baszler, she came over from UFC with a really fun asshole charisma, she was working more straight heel then in the AIW match I really loved and she reminded me of a distaff Minoru Suzuki. She has also clearly improved a bunch as she has a bunch of cool moves I haven't seen before, there was an awesome top rope gutwrench chained into another gutwrench and a great falcon arrow right into a choke, she also isn't pulling her stuff anymore as there was a nasty headkick, and some really killer bodyshots. I also liked her selling Shirai worked over her back and there were moments where she couldn't fully execute a Kimura because her back seized up. Shirai was fun too, she has a bunch of cool highspots, and it felt a little like a better version of Sabu v. Taz. I did think the finish was a bit abrupt, as Shirai just kind of ran through some big moves and pinned her, but outside of that I really dug it.

It is still my top match, what tops it for you?

So no updates for a couple of weeks, I wonder if this is done.

Shank is one of my favorite gimmicks in wrestling history. He was a guy working a babyface convict gimmick where he would threaten to rape and murder his opponents. He set up this match by laying in wait outside of Timbers family's house and discussing how his grandmothers body would never be found. The Cell Block match is a cage set up in the unpaved parking lot outside the Wildside arena, no ring, just a cage on dirt. This is a match I have wanted to see since it happened, so I was amped that I unearthed a copy. The match has amazing opening, Timber is in the cage screaming for Shank to get in there, and Shank appears from out of a hole with sod placed over it and jumps Timber from behind. The punches and kicks in this really felt like a pair of guys fighting over weight time in a yard. Shank really stomps like his trying to mush someones head. They also both land some really brain damaging unprotected chair shots. Finish was kind of silly, but nutso, Shank pries Timber's axehandle into the top of the cage and uses it a platform to hit an moonsault where he hits his knee into Timber's temple. Shank then just squeezes his way out of a hole in the cage, before he is jumped by Terry Knight and Jeff G. Bailey. This wasn't long, but really violent feeling, and Shank rising from underground like a raised vampire was one my favorite freakshow spots ever.

This is a Gulf of Mexico match, where the only way you can win the match is to throw your opponent into the Gulf of Mexico. This was a really fun brawl with Chavo looking totally awesome, he opens the match by taking a huge bump to the floor and is great both brawling and bumping throughout. Early WWE Punk was really hit and miss, but this is one of his better matches. They brawl out into the street, a sedan slams it's breaks on only to have Punk hurled onto the hood. They also smash the windshield of a truck and Chavo scares away some guys fishing and hurls the tackle box at Punk. The current looked really strong every time they showed it, which really added to the danger of the match, this wasn't chucking someone into a swimming pool, the loser really could get swept under. Great hidden gem of a match, and a fun way to spend 10 minutes.

Eric and I reviewed the pretty great Gulf of Mexico match between CM Punk and Chavo Jr. http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/05/unicorn-gimmick-matches-gulf-of-mexico.html

I reviewed the pretty boss Dungeon match between Owen Hart and Ken Shamrock http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/05/unicorn-gimmick-matches-dungeon-match.html

Man I want to watch good matches, why are you guys nominating the worst of Russo?

Nope there were three HHH v. Godwin, Bischoff v. Austin and Santino v. Chavo and Vicky Still that could be a good one, HHH v. Godwin is the only one that mattered

I started a new feature on Segunda Caida where I am reviewing Unicorn Gimmick Matches, fun gimmick matches which only got run once. I opened it up with the nutso Cellblock match from Wildside between Shank and Timber the Lumberjack. http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/04/unicorn-gimmick-matches-cell-block-match.html Any other suggestions?

Man they are really cockteasing us with this Jan 81 card Tank Patton v. Putski? Just give us Terry v. Wahoo already

Good point! Narcissistic bullies with long admitted histories of touching people inappropriately have no place in the hallowed halls of wrestling. Good for you for taking a stand!!