elliott

Abby starts off by blasting Colon with a 2x4. Colon is instantly busted open. OHHHH. They’re brawling all over the ringside area with Abby beating the crap out of a bloody Carlos. Finally Colon makes a big comeback using a trashcan and they finally get in the ring and Colon gets to biting Abby to try and bust him open but you can’t get that close to Abby for too long. He pulls out his fork and stabs at Carlos. Abby appears to be stabbing inside Carlos’ mouth which is the most horrifying thing ever. And yep, blood is pouring out of Carlos’ mouth. GROSS. Abby is all over Carlos with the fork. Stabbing him in the foreheard and stomach and even raking harshly across Colon’s head with it and going after his eyes. This is brutal. Just as it gets to be too much, Carlos makes his big comeback. Chicky gets in the ring and Abby throws powder in Colon’s face and NOW the ref DQ’s him which is hilarious because the Abby was blatantly stabbing Colon in the face.

Hey Tommy Rich in Puerto Rico I wonder if he’ll bleed. This is awesome right away with Abdullah on the ground on the baseball field and Rich just wailing away on him. Abby is already covered in bloody and Rich is enormous. Hugo just said “Tommy usually behaves like a gentlemen. At least I think he does under normal circumstances.” 10,000 stars. Rich gets, presumably, a beer can and is bashing Abby with it. There’s a terrific shot of Abby trying to crawl back in the ring and Rich is just destroying him with punches. Great punch off the 2nd rope and Abby sells it by having a seizure. Next Rich hits a Bret Hart 2nd rope elbow as the crowd goes bonkers. He even hits it off the top rope damn! Abby is completely dazed. Finally Abby has had enough and starts to work towards sneaking some sort of foreign object, I think a fork, into Rich’s face and or eyes as we go to commercial. We come back and Rich is stumbling around foul territory with Abby stalking him and finally stabbing him again and Rich is busted wide open. Rich tries to fight back but keeps getting stabbed in the face. Ref finally sees it and calls for a DQ. Rich fights back with his great punches and Rich gets the fork or whatever and gets his revenge to my and the crowd’s delight. Post match brawl is great. This is exactly what you want and expect this to be. Crowd is great. Tommy Rich baby! Oh. Abby may have peed his pants at some point.

Slow start with both guys feeling each other out, locking up, not doing anything. Back and forth arm wringrs leads to some sweet chops from TNT and another back and forth hip toss segment leads to Muta bailing out. This goes to commercial with the match at really a stalemate thus far. Muta is on top when we come back and immediately gets TNT in a sleeper. TNT is great selling the sleeper stumbling around and slowly going out before coming too and making a terrific comeback. Really odd looking spot where TNT charges full speed at Muta after whipping him in the corner and Muta looks like he’s supposed to come out of the corner with a lariat only he doesn’t do it fast enough and it just looks awkward. They go right to the finish with Muta missing a moonsault, TNT blasting him with a superkick for the win and Muta literally beating TNT to his feet after the 3. This was forgettable.

I love Invader’s music. This starts with an epic lockup with lockup with both guys trying to push each other into the wire. This comes back from commercial with Invader inbetween the ropes and the wire with Starr shredding at his head. Well then. Starr continues attacking Invader’s now bleeding forehead with nasty punches and chops and more barbed wire attacks. This is pretty brutal and finally Invader gets out of the wire and starts to make a comeback. 3 big punches, a kick to the balls and Starr eats the wire. Starr is busted open immediately and Invader starts working over the cut with punches and headbutts of his own. This was short, brutal and heated. Not in the same universe as their very best match but a worthy addition to a hidden gem of an 80s rivalry.

Fun schtick to start with the heels refusing to participate and bailing out whenever possible. Muta ends up getting isolated first and we get some fun babyface shine stuff. El Profe is tremendous working the apron doing the most Fuerza Guerrera style spots possible. Profe is just awesome working the apron as a heel while the babyfaces take turns side headlocking Muta in the ring. Babyfaces are just taking Muta to task as they go into the commercial break. Heels take over when Profe gets in a big punch from apron on Castillo. Profe struts around and antagonizes the fans and Perez as Muta chokes Castilllo in the corner. I can’t put over enough how great Profe is in this. He’s Jim Cornette and Dennis Condrey to Muta’s poor man’s Eaton. Muta does the single worst backslide attempt in wrestling history that kinda has to be seen to be believed. Other than that, I had a blast watching this. It is your total standard southern tag and fucking awesome. The opening babyface section, the heel section and the hot tag/work to finish are all really good. El Profe is amazing. GREAT finish with a huge pop from the crowd. WOW I did not expect this to be this good. I’m delighted.

TV match with the usual hot as shit crowd. Fun little spot to start where Ayala punches Invader and Invader blasts him right back. Ayala backs off looking around and Invader does a little finger shake inbetween making fists and shaking them at Ayala which is awesome. I did a terrible job describing it, but you’ll know it when you see it and roll your eyes at the lengths I’ve gone to describe it. They follow it up with another really fun spot where they’re squared off and circling each other with Ayala throwing jabs, Invader blocking them and hitting his own. Finally Ayala throw s a big punch, Invader ducks and blasts him with one to the delight of all. Ayala spills out to regain composure and comes back in and quickly takes over. He’s blasting away with Invader before taking the big kick to the balls. Ayala is able to quickly come back though. I enjoy the sort of false heel in control segment in PR. Heels start to take over, babyface kicks to the balls to fend them off, heels manages to come back and take over. Ayala is sorta growing on me I think as he slaps on a nerve hold lol. Amazing running kick to the balls by Invader as part of his comeback. Match gets thrown out when Chicky Starr runs in to save Ayala during Invader’s comeback. Your classic heels gang up on babyface and other babyfaces run out right as the heels are about to take things to far. This was all super basic stuff from the match to the post match angle but I really enjoyed all of it.

I love this building they tape TV in. There are a bunch of kids in their baseball uniforms in the crowd, which is cool. This is your standard southern tag with the babyfaces opening up hot making the Starr’s look bad, then they cut off the babyface (somehow, the transition happens during the commercial) and beat him down building to a hot tag and work to the finish. Nothing earth shattering but the finishing run is awesome and I love the angle at the end with the Starr’s throwing a phenomenal tantrum in the ring. Probably the most memorable of these really fun tv tag matches because of the post match antics by the Starrs. I dug this because I’m a sucker for southern style tag wrestling.

From the 10/5/95 WON

Regal is a great pick. I thought about Bret for a moment but his disappointing tag work really holds him back to the 2nd or 3rd tier for something like a best all around sort of discussion.

I also selfishly hope for a dispersal draft so I can move up a tier, carry 44 wrestlers and run a UWFi tag team division.

I'm also on my phone bc I'm walking to the store and it just hit me. I should have said Bill Dundee. For reasons Edit Ok, I'm back. So Dundee is a great pick for many of the same reasons all the other people have been named. Great in singles and in tags. He's probably the best studio wrestler ever and had awesome arena matches too. I think he's probably underrated as a mat wrestler because he is really extremely skilled on the mat. Awesome as a heel or a face. Great gimmick match wrestler. Great working angles and skits and all the wonderful Memphisy shit. Yeah, Dundee definitely belongs in the conversation.

Kinda always and kinda never all at the same time but more always than never if you ask me. edit: What Micro said.

Thinking about just in ring performances and going 2 guys in Mexico & 2 guys in Japan: 1. Tatsumi Fujinami 2. Alexander Otsuka 3. Negro Casas 4. El Dandy The lucha picks are the obvious lucha picks. I picked those two over Satanico because as well rounded as Satanico is in the ring, he's not as dynamic offensively as Dandy & Casas. He's as good if not better than those two in terms of brawling and matwork (and is definitely a better trios worker imo) but flying is a big enough part of Lucha Libre that picking someone who didn't do any top rope moves or dives to the outside would be weird I think. Casas & Dandy were great at any role though. Fujinami probably the most obvious pick ever for something like this. From Junior to Heavyweight in singles or tags, against luchadores, traditional japanese wrestler, shoot stylists, british wrestlers, american wrestlers, small guys, big guys, in blood feuds, in title matches, whatever situation you can come up with, Fujinami was amazing from the late 70s-89. Just a master. Alexander Otsuka is my off the wall pick but its for many of the same reasons as Fujinami. Otsuka could just do any and everything you could ask in the ring. He could blend shoot style mat work with head droppy bombs combined with dives outside of the ring and giant swings and while it might be unexpected, you don't get the sense that its out of place. Honorable mention to Jushin Liger who lost his spot so I could talk about Otsuka Ok twist my arm Lucha Mt Rushmore: 1. Negro Casas 2. El Dandy 3. El Satanico 4. Pirata Morgan Japan Mt Rushmore: 1. Tatsumi Fujinami 2. Jushin Liger 3. Alexander Otsuka 4. Akira Hokuto I'd consider her for a "worldwide" Mt Rushmore that inherently penalizes the wrestlers who speak languages I don't understand. Hokuto's promo's are so good I literally don't even need to understand them to know they are great) From a US point of view where you're taking promos, angles, in ring versatility etc into account... 1. Terry Funk 2. Jerry Lawler 3. Ric Flair Those 3 are your Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln picks. I'm kinda struggling with Teddy. There are several names I'm thinking about for the last spot including Dusty, Arn, Buddy Rose and Bockwinkel. Bockwinkel & Rose feel like the "safest" picks because they're in the company of Funk, Lawler, Flair in terms of in ring ability and I'd actually argue both are more well rounded in-ring performers than Lawler & Flair. However, while I think Bock & Rose are very good-great in terms of mic work, angles, presence whatever, I wouldn't consider them near the level of those 3. Dusty and Arn are obviously tippy top picks for outside of the ring stuff. And while I do love Arn as a wrestler, I wouldn't put him next to those 3. So I'm gonna say fuck it. 4. Macho Man Randy Savage. Macho was a great wrestler. Terrific as a heel or face, working technical matches, working brawls, great matches with great workers, shitty workers, great long matches, great short matches, tags, singles, elimination matches, Rumbles, incredible spots, obscenely underrated at heel ass showing schtick (even before Liz). You wanna talk about presence? Its fucking Macho Man. I LOVE his insane cocaine fueled promos. I think Macho was a hugely compelling individual and I'd rather go with my heart than my brain so Macho over that nerd Bockwinkel.

Hopefully someone will take it over, but personally I'm hoping for a dispersal draft because Tenryu & Kawada would look awfully good on my roster

Tim, who else would you vote for from Mexico?

People are going to love Chicky Starr if they don't already. He reminds me a lot of Michael Hayes and Tully Blanchard. Take the best qualities of those two guys and combine them. You get Chicky Starr.

UWFi News: -We’re getting word that Kiyoshi Tamura may have been “encouraged” to shoot on Kitao by UWFi officials in the main event of the company’s 9/23/95 show at Sumo Hall. In the first round of what was scheduled to be a 5 round fight, the wrestlers stopped cooperating with each other (if they ever were) which led Tamura choking Kitao until he was unconscious in the middle of the ring. After he came to, Kitao stormed to the back and confronted Tamura who ended up almost choking Kitao out a second time in the dressing room in front of a group of reporters and cameramen who just happened to be there. Lucky for them. Not so lucky for Kitao who was shown on the cover of all the newspapers with the smaller Tamura on top of Kitao and several UWFi wrestlers (including Takada, Vader, Takayama and Fujiwara even) struggling to pull Tamura off. Whatever credibility Kitao had left has pretty much been destroyed as Tamura is practically half the size of Kitao and showed him up twice in a matter of minutes. UWFi announced that Kitao had been fired for unprofessional behavior. The sent out a press release that Tamura beat Kitao fair and square in the ring and he simply defended himself when attacked again backstage and they can’t punish a fighter for using their martial arts to protect themselves when they’re being assaulted. UWFi is apparently banking on the fact that they promote their wrestling as “real wrestling” to say that Tamura didn’t do anything wrong. He simply had his fight and beat Kitao, and whatever happened backstage was Kitao acting unprofessionally and Tamura protecting himself. According to sources who would know, before officially firing Kitao, UWFi fined him more than he was paid to work the show. So Kitao paid UWFi to kill his legacy and then fire him. Unbelievable. -In other UWFi news, company officials are working with members of the Japanese Government to discuss allowing Dr Death Steve Williams to return to the country. -There has been no update on the whereabouts of Akira Maeda. Maybe he’s Lost in Cleveland with Cactus Jack and Carmen Sandiego UWFi did announce their next two shows will take place October 14th in Osaka Japan at Castle Hall and November 4th in Tokyo at the legendary Budokan Hall; Home of All Japan and some of the best matches to ever take place. The Castle Hall show is being promoted as a “#1 Contenders” Showdown as Kiyoshi Tamura, fresh off his Kitao fight, will face Vader in the main event to determine to the #1 contender for the UWFi Heavyweight Title. These two had a match in June of last year that was a short but very good match and this has the potential to be a great match that should draw very well with Tamura being the talk of the business lately. Also announced for this show is a battle of Yoshiaki Fujiwara trainees Yuki Ishikawa and Alexander Otsuka battling to become the #1 contender for the UWFi Light Heavyweight Title. Ishikawa was one of the most talked about wrestlers in the company after his 2 matches at the Light Heavyweight Title Tournament after having great matches against Otsuka and Sakuraba. Also announced is the return of Victor Zangiev to UWFi. Zangiev was the best worker of the Soviet athletes used at the first Tokyo Dome show in 1989. Zangiev has wrestled in UWFi on and off for the past several years. He will take on longtime UWFi wrestler Yoji Anjoh. Apparently Shinya Hashimoto, Yoshihiro Takayama, Steve Regal and Fit Finlay will also be on the show. We hope to have the full card in next week’s issue.

To truly represent 1995, he shouldn't get that tape till December.

Talk about a dream match. OH Invader II. Took me a second. Colon comes out with the Invaders and there’s some tension with the Starr cousins to say the least and Colon ends up cutting a promo. Wild brawl to start. Invader I immediately kicks Ron in the balls and II seems inspired to get Chicky as well. Awesome Invader II punches and a fucking brutal forearm just nails Ron. Chicky comes in and the schtick goes up to 11. Invader I tags in and his slapping sequence on Chicky is AMAZING. Back from a commercial break and Chicky tags out. Damnit. Ron comes in and its more schtick and fucking awesome until he takes an Invader II kick to the balls and Ron as to tag out to Chicky. EVEN MORE great babyface bullshit making the heels look like idiots. The Starrs are finally able to take over when Invader I puts his head down to early on a backdrop. Great stuff as Ron turns I’s mask around so he can’t see and they just beat the shit out of him. I’v selling is, guess what, great. Finally he just rips the mask off and the crowd goes crazy as he makes a hot tag. Phenomenal. So now we get a crazy brawl with Invader I dragging Chicky around outside the ring posting him. Back from commercial and the Invader’s are double teaming a bloody Chicky in the ring. Rambo Ron is outside the ring bleeding. Ron gets I outside the ring and brings a chair into this. DQ as Ron brings the chair in the ring. Invader I is lying in a pool of blood outside the ring and the Starrs are taking Invader II apart. Carlos runs in and eats chair as well. This is AWESOME. Starr’s are killing people. Colon blades right away. Invader has not moved. They’re trying to break all of Invader II’s bones as he’s just lying there motionless getting hit in the ribs and arms and legs with a chair. Fans are throwing shit. Babyfaces are totally taken apart by Team Starr and are left laying. Infinity stars.

Crazy brawl to start. This is trippy as fuck at first because the video is so dark and Muta is wearing the all black gi so it looks like Perez is fighting a shadow. Crowd is hot as fuck. Great dropkick by Perez. I like the way Muta sells walking around with his arms up. Great punches by Perez. This is a lot of fun early on. After getting his butt kicked, Muta makes a comeback kicking Perez on a backdrop attempt. Muta starts in with his great chops and this spills outside right away. Perez gets the upperhand again but Muta cuts him off back in the ring. Muta continues to command the match and starts hitting some cool stuff like an Atomic Drop and Leg Drop in addition to his usual chops and kicks. Awesome rolling bridging pin attempt thingiy by Muta. He mixes some real flash shit in between nerve holds and sleepers. Perez makes his comeback off a lowblow which is such an awesome standard comeback spot. Perez hits a beautiful powerslam and back suplex. Really fun match.

Real fun babyface shine opens this up before the heels take over leading to the commercial break and a beatdown on Chris Youngblood. A couple of really nice hope spots before finally getting the hot tag which leads to all 8 men in the ring fighting each other. Great double dropkick by RnR’s on Kroffat. This was too short to be anything special or memorable at 8 minutes but is another fun match.

I love this.

Through 4 1/2 discs this is my top very tentative Top 10 (2 & 3 might need to be switched already):