Matt D

This is one I probably wouldn't have ended up watching if it wasn't suggested to me. I like Onita. Even more than Onita himself, I like the idea of Onita: classically trained, Memphis-honed, charismatic, over the top, unchained spectacle, a creator of moments and possibilities. Spinks is not heavily on my radar. Past a year of watching Tuesday Night Fights on USA as an 11 year old, Boxing's never been my thing. I get the idea of a limited outsider with a faded but still viable name value and a very specific skillset. This was pure, beautiful simplicity. Spinks punches Onita. Onita falls. Onita bleeds. Onita gets back up. Spinks punches him again. Onita falls. Onita barely makes the count. This repeats and repeats and repeats until the crowd, their hearts moved by Onita's selling and his resilience, start chanting his name. Then, in desperation, he dives across the ring for a clothesline instead of eating another punch. It doesn't work the first time, but it does the second. This lets him turn the tide. Spinks had waited for the ten count, had let Onita get back up. He's a boxer. Onita's a wrestler. That means that he picks up Spinks to control the moment and keep the momentum. He uses the cage for a DDT (probably too over the top), hits him with some suplexes that Spinks takes bravely, and finishes him with two attempts at a submission. It's basic, it's primal, it gets Onita over as warrior. It keeps Spinks' heat since he lost mainly because he fought a wrestling match like a boxer. Spinks gets a payoff. Onita beats a legit fighter. The crowd goes home happy. Everyone wins. Wrestling is the best.

I reviewed it longform on SC (and I imagine Phil/Eric will follow suit soon): http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2018/03/ancient-andre-from-archives-andre-giant.html I have no idea why this came out now. I'm just glad it did. This is one of the earliest Andre matches we've seen and it's potentially his first title win. Van Buyten is a guy we just have bits and pieces of at disparate points of his career. We have him in Germany against Lasartesse and Dave Taylor and Terry Rudge in the mid-late 80s. We have him in one of my favorite comedy performances of all time in a 6 man against Andre in 1973 IWE. This is a straight up title match with him absolutely shining. After about eight minutes of ceremony, this gets going. It's actually structured unlike many Andre matches I've seen, but in a way that I really love. Van Buyten, the more experienced technician (champion even), who has dozens of tools in his arsenal, has to figure out how to deal with the problem of Andre. The problem of Andre in 1968 is different than in 1978 or 1988 when he was thicker, slower, easier to keep grounded once you got him down. Here he was all arms and legs, with incredible strength and incredible reach. Just twisting an ankle or stepping over for some sort of legvine was near impossible, and if Van Buyten somehow managed it, Andre would be within reach of the ropes almost no matter where he was in the ring. This played out in practice. There's a 30+ second segment at the start of Van Buyten trying desperately to get a leglock of some sort on. He does everything from attacking at the leg to trying to ride it down with all of his body weight, to no avail as Andre shrugs him off in the end. The sheer struggle of it was tremendous though. Ultimately, Van Buyten's able to use his speed and skill and sheer aggression and confidence to hold his own during this first third. He'll leap right into Andre just to get a front facelock on, will dive head first into Andre's torso just to buy some distance to lock in another cravat. He knows his only chance at long term survival is to keep these holds on; if Andre gets his hands on him, it's over. So he hangs on even as Andre tries to shrug him off, leading, at one point, to Andre taking a fly mare (an appropriate naming, as opposed to a snap mare, believe it or not), but Andre's just too big and too lanky and any movement around the ring takes him towards the ropes. The culmination of this is a pair of 'ranas, outright, real, true ones. One unfortunate development in wrestling over the last fifty or so years is that we've come to take so many spots for granted. Things are done for the sake of doing them and without the purpose or struggle that something newly developed might have. Here, to hit that first rana, Van Buyten has to twist his body back and forth. Absolutely nothing in this match is taken for granted. Everything Van Buyten does is fought for. Part of that was the fact that he was trying to do it to Andre, yes, but so much of it was just about the fact that this was a match from Frace in 1968. Times were different and the struggle was visceral. The middle of the match is Andre getting his hands on Van Buyten. Yes, it's a bear hug. Yes, it's an Andre bear hug, but it's like none you've ever seen. There is struggle here to go along with the selling, and Van Buyten has to sell this. Andre's winning the match and it's up to Van Buyten to keep himself over by both showing how hard he's fighting and also showing Andre to be the threat that he is. In the end, though, he tries to hip top his way out of the bearhug, which is a crazy thought, and Andre hangs on, causing both men to tumble to the mat. The finishing stretch is all about Van Buyten's skill and desperation against Andre's inevitable strength. Towards the end, as Van Buyten tries to charge at him once more, Andre lifts him up for a first press-slam into a gut buster. Then, remarkably, Van Buyten tries it again. When you're watching a match from an alien time and an alien place, in an alien style, with one wrestler you're only passingly familiar with, there's always a danger of reading too much or too little into the text. Here, though, I feel fairly sure of myself. Van Buyten all but jumped into the second press slam-gutbuster, without the struggle of the first or most of the rest of the match. This surprised me in the moment, until it became relatively clear that it was part of a broader gambit. At the moment of contact (knee to stomach), he arched his body, grabbing hold to Andre and rolling him over. It was a moment of true sacrifice, a desperate gambit late in the match to get the advantage back, to lock on one pin attempt or hold that might win the day, to fight the tide of Andre's gargantuan presence. It failed. Andre was too big, too lanky, and no matter where he was, just too close to the ropes. After a clean break, Van Buyten, selling the side, came up firing, a last ditch attempt at survival, firing off nasty forearm blows. Andre shrugged them off and lifted him for a third press slam-gutbuster. One slam later and it was over. This was great and we're lucky to have it. It's maddening to think what else might be locked up in a warehouse in France, but exciting as well. It's a testament to both men that they could have a match like this so early into Andre's run and it's also a testament to them that their interaction five years later in Japan was so wildly different and so differently entertaining. Hopefully more of these might slip out in the months to come.

It's about the illusion of real, about minimizing pain and actual violence and maximizing emotional and narrative effect, about getting as much value as possible for the smallest personal cost, while creating a suspension of disbelief in the audience and convincing people to invest their money, time, and hearts.

I don't have the language skills to do much with this, but someone (jetlag?) should look at what's available for ina.fr on the premium section and whether or not it's more readily out there. I realize this is sort of a "low hanging fruit" thing relatively but who knows, right? It looks like there are at least 3-4 large chunks (40 mins) from the 60s. http://www.ina.fr/premium/sport/autres-sports

Purgatory is being medically cleared but having to wrestle Lance Storm and only Lance Storm forever.

Reading back through that thread was interesting. I was hell bent on putting Bryan 30 or higher and he almost made my top 20.

The world is a vampire that steals my Houston wrestling footage.

Ok, quick shift. Jetlag, you're saved from the (perfectly good) midget match. shodate will not be with us at this point so laz, you're with Jetlag. You can watch this. Toss something Jetlag's way.

He's talked so much about watching tape and changing his style. I'll be curious to see if he really does that or not. What he was suggesting are things that would be more along the lines of what I like anyway.

Let's keep him far away from Luke Harper.

I have absolutely no idea what this is, but I'll watch it along with whatever joe sends me, to broaden my horizons and better myself as a human being. You're not obliged to watch this, but if I were to make you watch a match this week, it'd be this. A midget match, with a few midget spots (built to as if they were high spots and not just rote), but generally worked like 15-20 minute 70s NWA title match.

Joe, trying to hoist this match upon you again. enjoy.

Ok. Week 12. Sam didn't post anything so he's out until he indicates that he's back. SPS is on haitus. WingedEagle is taking a week off. I assume Migs is still off. JoeG is in and paired with me as a make-up. I tried harder than usual to get new pairings this time around. oldbirds, I'm assuming you're in. Let me know if not. Matt D joeg shodate laz siredgar HeadCheese Richeyedwards oldbirds Jmare007 Nintendo Logic dawho5 rah EDIT: jetlag laz (if you're both willing) Jetlag, you're the odd man out this week. So i'll double up if no one else wants to jump in.

(It was Wegmann's actually).

People at the supermarket were going on about how horrific it'd be if Jinder had to take Styles' place while I was checking out yesterday.

Everyone should check out the BattlArts match that DaWho had me watch, too. That's a hell of a ting. http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/21913-yuki-ishikawa-alexander-otsuka-munenori-sawa-vs-daisuke-ikeda-katsumi-usuda-super-tiger-ii-battlarts-072608/&do=findComment&comment=5836473 Ok, we reshuffle the deck tomorrow. I heard from JoeG last night so I'll resync with him and pull us out of the pool. Taking stock, Migs is going to take a week off (I assume), oldbirds wants to get in on this (I also assume). Anyone else that's taken time off want to jump back on? Anyone need a break. Let me know. I'm also going to try to reshuffle until Nintendo Logic has a new match up, just to keep things fresh.

This is very much where I am on this. It's all about the story. I'm not super-versed on BattlArts. I've just seen a few matches here and there. What stood out to me the most was the inevitability of what happened. Super Tiger's side came off like rudos here, much more apt to triple team or to go away from sportsmanship. So much made complete sense. It took a full breakdown with all of one side caught for the first fall to take place. Before that, it felt like one of those big NJPW multi-mans from the 80s where you were in danger anytime you got too close to the corner, except for here, the corner came to you. Then there was the 3-on-2 where the 3 kept breaking up any advantage from the 2 and it took suplexing everyone on the other side to be able to even the odds. After that it was Otsuka dominant and it was only when he got towards the corner and ate a cheapshot that they could get an advantage on him (and that's how they eventually got over on him). Finally we were back to that 2-on-1 where Ishikawa couldn't get a break until he was able to lock on a submission so quick that Ikeda couldn't make it in. Then it's finally the two exhausted warriors, neither of them able to lock in the holds of the first ten minutes and each one just throwing everything he had at the other. Buoying that were brutal strikes, incredible throws, matwork so crisp and quick that you wonder how they locked in the holds, so tricked out that it takes a half second to see who's hurting who (often times it's mutual), and with enough care and struggle that nothing looks easy or given. I thought I might be a little lost, but everything was primal. They started right from the get go with a tandem figure four and multiple stomps. This is a style (or a match in a stye) that absolutely embraced the bizarreness and outlandishness of pro wrestling, that was real within those confines. There was escalation but there was also an escalation of exhaustion. As the battle wore on, what was easy for them in the first few minutes became outright impossible. Great stuff.