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Super late to all of this, but seriously, what the fuck is wrong with Tommy Dreamer? I’ve never had a problem with vets going “this kids just play video games and go to their hotel rooms, I was getting hammered 5 nights a week”, that’s just part of their culture at the time. Being a victim shaming mark looking for reaffirmation from people a whole generation before him it’s something else. Guess he could’ve used RVD’s “never meet your heroes” advice. Perpetrators (Flair, and as EL-P pointed out, Lesnar) don’t see the downside of their actions, but defending that sort of thing with the certainty Dreamer does is just plain stupid.

Starts off with Anderson at his best, going from stooge to prick in a split second. Shine’s focused on Tully’s arm. Loved the amazing spot we’re Shawn saves Janetty from a double suplex by bridging and helping him avoid his fall. This is all about The Rockers dynamic style until Arn cuts off Michaels with a surprise (ilegal) clothesline on the outside. The Busters cut the ring in half in a very fun, methodic, no-nonsense way, showcasing their strength as a team with quick tags and sneaky cheating. Great hot tag tease when Michaels tries to jump over Blanchard. Anderson hits his beautiful spine buster for 2. Michaels finally makes the hot tag when Anderson tries to bride from a test of strength but Michaels gets his knees up. Marty with the hot tag until he goes for a suplex near the ropes on Tully and Anderson swipes the leg and holds on to tassle from the outside for the assisted 3 count. Throughly enjoyable, low-end great match. ****

This. A young woman lost her significant other of almost 20 years, father of their children in a horrible work related accident with evident negligence and people’s (including some of the Hart family) first concern that comes to mind is his legacy within the industry? To me, this is the definitive proof that pro wrestling is a bubble. Any creep can hide behind a phone or laptop to trash Martha Hart, but if the glimpses shown on a one-hour TV show are to be believed, she managed to rise two very level headed young adults who come across as genuinely good people on her own while turning horrible circumstances into philanthropy. Nothing but respect and admiration towards her.

Starts off with Bret catching cocky Ted off guard with some big moves, including an amazing Russian Leg Swep before DiBiase leaves the ring to regroup in frustration. Bret misses a crossbody on the ropes and DiBiase starts a beautiful heat segment, cramming so much in it; big moves, trash talk, pace changes and pinpoint strikes. Hart has simple but well timed hope spots in the form of a coupe of small packages. Hart is about to gain the upper hand by escaping a Sleepr Hold when DiBiase cuts him off with a hair pull. Virgil helps DiBiase by distracting the referee so he can apply a blatant choke. After a double clothesline, Ted gets caught going to the top rope and takes the Flair bump; a slugfest follows and Million Dollar Man is now begging Hart to stop. Bret hits the second rope elbow for a two count before missing a high knee and hitting the top turnbuckle in the process. DiBiase punishes that knee with a Spinning Toe Hold before Bret kicks him off sending him over the top rope and capitalizing with a Vaulting Body Press. The eventual punch exchange outside the ring leads to a double countout. Bret chases Virgil around, but instead of hitting him realizes Ted is sneaking on him and turns around to blast him. The heels retreat with their tails between their legs. This match had a little bit of everything in fun and entertaining story, don’t miss out on it. ****1/4

Speaking of Savage-Steamboat at WM III, as someone mentioned earlier, I can’t even begin to wrap my head around the fact that 33 years ago was (at least one of) the first famous instances in which every spot was carefully planned and laid out ahead of time. Sure, for everyone who’s been a fan long enough it’s obvious that most matches from that era and before had a mostly “on the fly nature” and crowd reading was an important aspect of working; all of which is virtually non existent today. Then there’s newly discovered footage out there, like the French catch stuff which I find fascinating, that makes me wonder how many of those intricate spots were carefully slotted in and memorized before hand and how much of what I’m seeing comes from a process based on feeling from the wrestlers themselves. One could argue that there’s pros and cons to both approaches and that they’re used to varying degrees depending on time, place and whoever is working. I’m rambling now, I’m just glad there’s such a wide variety of wrestling out there to enjoy.

This is was also the first thing that came to my mind. Also, Onita vs. Masashi Aoyagi from the first FMW show; although Inoki had been in many different style fights over the years, the pro wrestling feeling was always prevalent, in line with the heated bullshit finish style of 80s New Japan. The FMW match was different, just an atmosphere of hate and slow built even before the match starts that would serve as the blueprint for Hashimoto vs. Ogawa and those crossover fights well into the Inokism era. Elements of those athlete vs. entertainment, slowly built pre match, the match itself having and unpredictable feeling and being a sprint more often than not can still be seen thirty years later when Brock Lesnar feels motivated.

This felt like a collection of Brock’s moments alternating between brutal and sneaky heel, as he does masterfully most of the time. Angle’s worst tendencies are palpable with cringe worthy transitions. Overall, too disjointed to call any good but lots of suplexes. **1/4

As stated above, this was Bret in house show mode, filling time and trying to be compelling while not going full gear. This was entertaining enough, loved his Russian Leg Sweep and general stalling heel attitude, while making Booker shine on highspots. Crowd was into the finishing stretch, starting with the Figure 4, wich is a testiment of good work, since this didn’t try to accomplish much from the beginning. Nothing above mildly fun. ***

Casas comes in as UWA World Middleweight Champion, for a defense against arch rival from Arena Neza. Primera starts off with some nifty matwork, including Santo’s extended head scissors, before Negro drops him with a thirt-a-whirl slam and picks up the win with La Casita at about the 5 minute mark. Santo steadily evens up the segunda on some matwork, before hitting two bulldogs, some flashy tecnico armdrags and a Segadora kick before submitting Casas to the Camel Clutch. Santo starts the tercera in control, riding a Boston Crab, a Mecedora and a slowly burnt Tapatía spot which Negro escapes before he can apply it full on. Santo is relentless, chasing the damaged leg of the champ, synching in a Cavernaria and another Camel Clutch that Negro escapes by leaving the ring and stalling. Negro comes in catching Santo off guard with a couple of drop kicks. Again, Santo goes for a Tapatía but Casas escapes using the ropes this time. Santo hits a Tope Suicida and then my favorite signature spot of his, a Vertical Body Press to the outside with the signature splat. Santo tries a tope to the inside but Casas sidesteps him and locks a tight Sasorigatame for the submission win. Aesthetically pleasing touring match with arch rivals, wrestled with the mind set of pleasing the live crowd but lacking a bit of substance, still this two never seem to disappoint. ***1/2

A tríos match at the Sound Stage sounds like an amazing idea on paper. The Dangerous Alliance do an amazing rudo job by stoogin, stalling and being sneaky; for some reason I always thought Arn would be awesome in a lucha setting. Loved when he deflates just by the sight of facing Nikita in the ring. Like a good lucha match, Eaton, the stooogin partner, takes his place and proceeds to be out classed in every way. Arn, like a sneaky captain, only comes when Nikita has been controlled. Good ending to the first fall, when Zbyszko misseds a blind tag Nikita and gets pinned by a surprise Steamboat plancha. The second fall starts on a faces shine that includes simultaneous Figure Fours. The crowd is chanting along every Dustin punch until Eaton, that opportunistic bastard, takes advantage of a mistake and punishes his arm on the post outside the ring. Huge flying elbow by Eaton. Weird finish to the second fall when Dustin gets a hold of Paul E.’s phone by chance and nails Larry with it for the DQ. Crowd is engaged for the start of the third fall. Arn is such a stellar performer, switching from stooge (crotching himself on the top rope) and a bruiser (going after Steamboat’s nose, pinpoint knee drops and hitting a huge DDT) in the blink of an eye. Steamboat’s FIP section revolves around his taped nose (As if he needed a focused body part to generate sympathy). Nikita gets a mechanically awkward but otherwise effective hot tag and pins Arn Anderson after the Russian Sickle steaming from a Zbyszko mistake. Afterwards, Arn and Larry go nose to nose, teasing a breakup. This flew by, it had to with such a cast. Only thing missing were a few tope suicidas. ***3/4

This is IC vs. World Heavyweight Champion, escape only rules. Pat attacks the champion as he enters but gets rammed into the cage for good measure. Both men try to escape trough the door early in what feels like a scrap fight. Great visual of Patterson crawling halfway out the door and Backlund holding on to his leg. Pat chokes Backlund taking advantage of the no ref stipulation and goes for an escape, but Bob catches him while going over the cage and punishes him on top. At one point, only Patterson left leg remains inside the cage before Backlund drags him back in. Neither man is giving an inch as Pat goes for the door again. Patterson tries escaping over the opposite corner and as Bob catches him at top, nails him with a foreign object, continuing to use it after both men have fallen to the ground. Bob is busted open and at this point he’s using all his energy just to prevent Patterson from escaping. After a head on collision both men try to escape at the same time on different sides of he cage, Patterson realizing he’s gonna lose the race goes after the champ. Now the IC champs is busted open from a punch, before being thrown into the cage and eating a couple of fist drops. Backlund catches him with an atomic drop while trying to escape and tries to go over the cage himself afterwards. Patterson catches up with a set of brass knuckles but Bob fights him off as both men fall to the ground. The champ literally crawls to the door and kicks Patterson off him while falling backwards trough the door to win the match for an amazing pop. Sustained heat all over this and an amazing example of how WWF style works in MSG. ****1/2

This has more “workrate” than any Lawler in his prime match. I would’ve like a more Memphis minimal approach to it, but was throughly enjoyable even with the valid criticism of a part time wrestler/commentator taking most of the match from the WWE Champion. Cole’s commentating during the match is a prime example of how WWE announcers detract from a match instead of enhancing them. ***1/4

As the introductions take place, Rich jumps the barricade to antagonize and jaw at some fans. Funk attacks him from behind in the crowd as the bell rings. Wildfire is busted open within the first minute and gets a beatdown with a chair until a perfect timed haymaker completely reveses the roles in the match. Funk gets busted open with Rich in firm control. Fat, old Tommy Rich now DDT’s the ref Jim Molineaux. Rich add insult to injury by placing Funk in the spinning toe hold, but when he goes for it a second time, Terry reverses it and hits a knee for a low blow and snaps it in himself for the submission. Fun, over the hill southern battle in the right environment. ***1/4

JIP, in a non-title match. Starts off with Hall dominating the heel champs with headlocks and bear hugs, including catching Garvin in a huge back body drop. Not the most compelling faces on top segment, until Regal tosses Hennig over the top rope behind the referees back for one of his signature bumps. Curt sells his butt off for a nice heat segment, including ref distractions and pin point strikes from the heels. Hall gets the hot tag and after a few house cleaning power moves, pins Regal after Garvin accidentally hits him off the top rope. Fun and simple ***1/2

Love the sight of ballpark wrestling. Bockwinkel charges right from the bell and quickly gains firm control with a hammerlock in spite of Gagne’s best efforts to break it. After some chicken shit complaints from Bock, Verne turns the tide by controlling the arm as well and frustrating the champ, who proceeds to seek Heenan’s advice a few times. The fight breaks into strikes and Bock catches the leg to smash it into the ring post, going after it like a shark smelling blood. The knee gives out on Verne while trying for a body slam and the finishing stretch revolves around his hope spots and narrow escapes, like reversing a piledriver into a back body drop. He catches Bock into the sleeper hold for the win and the title. Afterwards, the babyface portion of the locker room swarms the ring to celebrate. Can’t go wrong with clear face/heel dynamics, ***1/2 (mostly due to clipping of the early parts, If I had to take a wild guess, I’d say about ***3/4-**** if we would’ve gotten the whole thing)

Strange dynamic here, as the challenger and crowd favorite took most of the match as if he was a defending heel champion, working a little subtle prick, proving a superior striker and more resourceful wrestler, cutting off Big Match John at every chance. Theoretical face champ Cena has an elbow injury to protect and uses his sheer strength in every hope spot but eventually becomes a war of attrition in which Bryan has mounted too much cumulative offense against him, and pins him after the Busaiku Knee Kick. A feather in the cap on the uniqueness of Daniel Bryan’s resume, Cena gave him so much and he delivered a performance much more compelling than the obvious “runty but worthy, sympathy challenger works from underneath when facing THE man”. Post match had me gutted live, but I’m not gonna complain here since in hindsight lead to amazing things. ****1/2

Mindless 90’s juniors match, bright spots on Sasuke’s execution but that’s about it. There’s much better ways to spend 15 minutes but it’s still fun to reminisce how this kind of match is what expanded the wresting horizon for many of us. Still, decisively mediocre, watch at your own risk or if your in the mood that style.

Some clipping to begin, we start off with Costello frustrating Bill until he catches him in a cobra clutch leading to a heat based around head punishment. After some missed tags by the ref and cut offs, the Kangaroos gain the upper hand on a hot tag. Kangaroos are controlling Bill’s arm and Heffernan shows fire on offense until he catches a low blow that halts the match. This leaves Costello effectively alone, falling victim to another heat segment based around his arm; when Heffernan gets the tag, he’s still feeling the effects from earlier, making him an easy victim of and argentine back breaker where the Millers’ pass him back and forth without him touching the ground; Costello makes the save by passing as a Miller and carrying him to their corner. After some house cleaning offense, Ed pulls the tope rope down for Heffernan to tumble to the outside and hits him with a knee drop from the apron leading to a count out. Fun southern tag, surprisingly modern for it’s age with both teams playing their parts well. ***1/2

Harley refuses a handshake to start the match. Murdoch quickly hits a punching flurry on the champ, strutting for a huge pop. Crowd is hot for Murdoch. A tumbling bump over the ropes leads to Harley in control back in the ring with some great punching and kicking. A groggy Murdoch counters a back body drop with the brainbuster for the signature “almost beats the champ” false finish for a nice pop. Harley counters a body slam for the pin. Post match Harley tries to attack Murdoch with the belt but eats a straight right instead. Too clipped to rate, but still a fun showcase of both men’s younger selfs and a peek into 70s Mid-Atlantic is always welcome.

Saulnier, a mini European version of Dean Malenko, with his game face from the start. Really unique camera work, feels like multiple Black Terry Jr.’s went to France in order to bring this to us. The presentation enhances the grittiness of Saulniers holds. This time, Le Prince takes a little longer to counter Saulnier’s arm work, but when he does it shows some real fire. Saulnier cuts him off by dominating the same right arm and the enclosed camera shots show the Prince wrenching in pain. 15 minutes in and this is all Saulnier, who now has decided to work a snug headlock to wear down our hero, Kevin Von Erichcito. I have no idea what’s going on with the paintings inserted like water marks with music every few minutes but I dig them, wish someone in lucha would steal the idea with some mariachi. Great spot when Saulnier grounds the Prince hard on a headlock after a criss cross; poor guy can’t catch a break, every time he gets a semblance of offense in, Saulnier goes back to the arms. Again, a shtick spot involving the referee that doesn’t detract from the match, used to relieve some tension, after which the Prince controls a hold for the first time with the crowd chanting solidly behind him. Saulnier does the lifting from and armlock spot to get rid of Le Prince but he doesn’t let go even after going over the ropes to the apron. Athleticism kicks in and both men go for quick pins resulting in near falls that get big crowd reactions, all this with a sense of desperation since the announcement of the impending time limit. A hard forearm sends the Prince out of the ring, who uses his high flying to get back to the ring and in a callback hits Saulnier with a stiff savate kick and a turnbuckle back flip off his chest. Both men exchange near falls and really stiff forearms as the time limit expires. Ringside interviews showcase both men’s demeanor, Le Prince’s baby face charisma and Saulnier’s quiet and methodical competitiveness even if you don’t understand a lick of French, like myself. Amazing match, flew by like a breeze, incredibly satisfying even for a draw. ****3/4

The lineup for this looks amazing on paper. Smooth opening from Blue Panther and Super Astro. Atlantis comes in and demands Charles but gets Fuerza instead. Emilio gets in, he has lost his hair recently and takes time to taunt Atlantis. Subtle chicken shit interference from Blue Panther leads to a stand off and Faron gets a shine on all the rudos, so does Atlantis. Primera ends on a hurricanrana and The Atlantida. Segunda starts off with a Super Astro shine and the rudos tease leaving for the locker room. Blue Panther makes everyone he touches look a million bucks, but what else is new?. Heat starts when Panther and Fuerza save their partner and start to double team every técnico that gets in the ring. After submitting the técnicos for the segunda the rudos keep the beatdown going into the start of the tercera. Gran Davis keeps the heat going by interfering in Super Astros comebacks, until Atlantis breaks trough and the técnico beatdown starts. Atlantis hip tosses Charles out of the ring for a fantastic bump followed by a tope suicida. Astro follows it by hitting a springboard version of his reverse tope to the outside on Panther, leaving Faraon tu submit Fuerza for the W. Impossible not the be at least good with so much talent in the ring. ****

Aoyagi enters to “Eye of the Tiger” of course and catches Kurisu with a spin kick before the bell and starts mauling him outside the ring. Masanobu finally gets some offense by backing into a corner and catching Aoyagi off guard with a slap, and some stiff shots. Kurisu starts working his chair magic but gets DQed when he pushes the referee trying to stop him from using it on Aoyagi caught in the tree of woe. After chair shoting some of the young boys, it’s Aoyagi himself who stops his rampage. The kind of stuff that makes you love unearthed handhelds, really fun.

This is tecnicos vs. tecnicos. The best matchup of the primera is unsurprisingly the Atlantis-Texano chain wrestling interactions. The first tease of tempers flaring happens when Muñeco and Angel Azteca tumble outside of the ring. Blue Demon is as green as green paint here, yikes. Texano finally heels it up by punishing Atlantis’ leg and finishes him off with a Chicken wing armlock for the primera. Segunda starts with everybody on good terms and Angel hits an amazing flying arm drag on future rival El Dandy. Texano all over Atlantis’ arm and shoulder and both his partners follow suit. Finish comes when Antlantis catches El Dandy in La Atlantida for the submission as his partners pin the other two de facto rudos. Tercera starts off with an amazing Dandy bump off a monkey flip and the pace quickens for everybody. Muñeco almost misses a suicide dive on a scary moment. The finish naturally involves Atlantis and Texano, it’s a little anticlimactic in the sense that Atlantis doesn’t get his full revenge, just gets caught in a chicken wing again and submits. The teases here led nowhere, the whole match felt like it never got out of second gear but hey, who’s gonna complain when there’s great bumping and moves all around? Fun, middle of the road match ***1/4

Houston debut for The Fabs, wearing amazing snake skin tights; Lane quickly establishes their chicken shit heel status by complaining to the ref, getting mad when out classed and showing off. Guerreros’ shine is based around arm offense that gets a little creative with the sound mechanics that the whole family is known for. Heat starts when Chavo gets caught in the wrong corner of the ring and receives double punches and kicks behind the referees back. The cut offs are mostly based on The Fabs provoking Hector and double teaming his brother as the referee stops him. Hector gets the hot tag and throws a few drop kicks that make me miss Eddie. Finish comes when Hector has Lane pinned but gets hit with a flying knee drop behind the refs back. Really fun, smooth and easy to follow, a great way to establish a new heel act. ***3/4

Starts off with a pretty standard a Guerreros’ shine, working over both heels arms and Gilbert specially bumping really good for them. Guerreros using sneaky tactics like switching and making the referee miss a Gilbert tag. Nightmare gets a warm tag and the heels turn it around by having Hector attacked outside the ring with a Hummperdink assist. Chavo gets the hot tag and the Guerreros gain the upper hand on a couple of double dropkicks. Finish comes when Chavo nails the Nightmare with a flying crossbody, gets a visual pinfall but Humperdink hops to the ring for the DQ. Mildly fun but ultimately uneventful. ***