Phil Schneider

Rewatched Necro v. Super Dragon for my C+A Super Dragon, and it solidifies how great Necro was in his prime. The match has some of the craziest bumps in wrestling history, but was really build around Necro selling his injured hand, it was exactly the way a gritty club fighter would deal with a broken right hand in his big shot at top 20 fighter. He has to follow up the jab with something, so he is going to sell it anyway. There is a point at the end of the match where Necro unloads two big punches, but can't put as much on them as he wants because of the hand, so he just opens up his and starts slapping Dragon in the mouth.

I reviewed Necro v. Super D over at Segunda Caida Segunda Caida Also here is the PWO thread for that match, I would love to see Dylan and other folks who watched it comment over there PWO Thread

I remember losing my shit over this when I first saw it in 2006, and almost 10 years later it still holds up great. This had a really dream match feel, even more then most indy dream matches, you had the craziest brawler from the east coast traveling down to the west coast to take on their resident lunatic, and this match was worked like that kind of traveling kung-fu master battle. Dragon opens the match up by slugging Necro in the jaw with a forearm right at the bell and it goes from there. Weirdly for a match like this, this was built around Necro's masterful selling. Early in the match Dragon obliterates Necro's hand with a chair shot, and for the rest of the match Necro would still throw it, but it was the way a boxer with a broken right hand still has to follow up the jab. Every punch was sold with a wince, and sometimes Necro just hand to open his hand up and slap him. Both guys did a bunch of cool little things, I loved the way they threw chair shots, both guys would let go right before impact so the chair would go careening reckless into the body of their opponent. That lack of control really led to some hideous shots, including Necro taking a thrown steel chair right to the back of his head. I also liked how they adjusted to the blown table spot, they don't get frustrated or re-try it, Necro just rips out a piece of the table and waylays Super Dragon with it. This match had some of the grosser bumps in wrestling history, it is shocking that Necro is walking 10 years later, much less still wrestling. Super Dragon lands awkwardly on his tailbone on a backdrop, and gets Tiger Drivered on the stage, but of course 2006 Necro will not be outbumped. The finishing run was as violent and reckless as anything I have seen, Dragon is a guy who will take liberties, and this was even much for him, his leaping double stomp directly into the side of Necro's face was shocking, as was that finishing psycho driver. Harrowing stuff, and a stone cold classic of a match.

This is one of my favorite matchups in wrestling history, just two masters who brought out the best in each other. I had seen this match before in the 80s DVDVR Other Japan set, but that was a long time ago. Really enjoyed revisiting this. Fujiwara comes out super aggressive flying at Maeda with nasty jumping headbuts right in Maeda's dental work. Maeda responds with some nasty headkicks and the tone is set early. Fujiwara is so great at both taking and delivering body shots, they always look nasty when thrown, and he does a great job of trying to recover from getting hit in the liver himself. It slows down a bit with some matwork, Fujiwara gets locked in a bodyscissors and cranks the foot to get a near fall submission in a cool counter. This didn't have a super awesome finish like so many of the Fujiwara UWF matches, which puts it a slot below the other amazing matches between these two, but this was still great stuff, it is a bummer that this kind of wrestling is dead, because it is beautiful when done right.

We have had a couple of days without an update, is Bruce in a Turkey coma? Or is something else going on?

Decided to do a Complete and Accurate Jose Lothario over at Segunda Caida C+A Jose Lothario

Did we have any of the tourney previously?

Yeah, I love that match, fucking insane

Any update on Gino v. Lothario hair match?

It's the best

There is also the story of Necro brutalizing two ROH trainees in a Chikara King of Trios and Joe being the big brother looking for revenge. I love this match, but I think Necro v. Ki and Necro v. Super Dragon are even better, Necro is the greatest indy dream match wrestler of all time, they almost always delivered.

Since you are taking requests Bruce, anyway you have Hair vs. Hair Match: Jose Lothario d. Gino Hernandez it is from 11/10/78 and you have already uploaded Mr. Ichiban v. Wahoo from that show

Eric is doing a liveish blog over at Segunda Caida Liveish blog

The most prolific of the 50-60s French catch guys we have footage of, was one half of the stone classic Cesca v. Cantanzarro match which is as good as any wrestling from any era ever and in some great tags. Will make my list somewhere for sure

It is weird to think about it with Indy guys like Ki, but he has had a way longer elite career then a lot of older guys. Think about a guy like Savage, his run was maybe 1984-91 maybe? With an occasional cool thing after that, that is 8 years as a top wrestler. Windham was about 83-91. Ki had his first great matches in 1999 and had a stone cold classic with Rey in 2015, that is 16 years of great wrestling and there is no reason to think he is at the end of his career.

Gibert Cesca http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2014/05/la-complete-et-exacte-french-catch.html

Yeah I really loved that match too, OMG was a great bumper, he just flew for this one Hacksaw punch, just awesome stuff. I am working from home today, so I hope we get something cool

Another great Pierroth performance, Bix and I talked about this on the podcast

Pierroth came off like such a beast when I saw him live too, have you ever seen this match Pierroth was awesome in this

Interesting point, I certainly agree about the craft part of it, but execution means less and less to me as a wrestling fan as I get older. It is isn't nearly as easy to quantify aura as it is to point out a sloppy suplex, bad leg selling or an awkwardly set up spot, but that is the kind of thing that really sticks with me as I get older. I probably saw Danielson live 30 time or more over the years, and thinking back they all tend to mush together, while performances by his peers really stick with me. Doesn't mean that Homicide will go higher on a list then Danielson (Homicide probably won't make my list) but nothing Danielson ever did stuck with me as much as Homicide v. Corino

Hashimoto and Negro Casas are the two guys whose live experience help the most, the two most compelling guys I have ever seen live. Seeing Danielson live so much might hurt him a little bit, because he never had that larger then life feeling to me, great wrestler, great matches, but didn't have the same live aura as for example Low-Ki or Homicide did.