KB8

This might be the first time I've seen Bobby Jaggers wrestle. From a distance he looks a bit like a gruffer, late-career Buddy Rose. It's not how I pictured him from his commentary. Kroffat is peroxide blonde here and I don't think I've ever seen peroxide blonde Danny Kroffat before, either. This was short and everybody whipped each other with straps and Chris Youngblood was pump kicking guys in the teeth. I always assumed he was the worst of the Youngbloods, but he has a really nice pump kick. At one point he got thrown to the floor and yanked the strap to drag Kroffat out with him, and holy shit did Kroffat take a crazy bump outside. No hands, unprotected, face first to the concrete.

I liked this a bunch, even if the ending felt a bit abrupt. I really love how early days Muta moves around the ring. Maybe he's always moved like this, but it's been so long since I've watched any later-career Muta that I don't remember. I said it about him in the Invader I match, but how he conducts himself is just flat out cool. He has a real snap to his bumps and even the way he gets in and out of the ring has a sort of menacing elegance to it. He's solid enough on offence as well, but it's seeing how he reacts to things defensively, how he regroups and comes back for another go; that's where I get the most out of him. Invader III has brought lots of nice offence whenever he's shown up on this set and he was really good trading quick holds with Muta early, running the ropes at speed and hitting a great looking Super Astro-style headbutt. He doesn't really bother selling Muta's legwork from the middle of the match, but the crowd are super into the finishing run so I doubt THEY cared. At first I thought the finish might've been a referee flub because it looked like things were just starting to get hot, but either way this was good stuff.

Okay, so Invader v Mutoh (Super Black Ninja) is one of the few matches from Puerto Rico I'd seen before. Not this match specifically, but one of the stadium brawls (I think it was a Texas Death Match). This was more of a slow burner, but it built up to a hot finish. Young Mutoh had such a cool presence. The way he moves around and conducts himself, it has a hint of menace to it, like he's stalking you down. Plus he was super quick with his strikes, his dropkick had massive air, and he'd do things like his spazzed out elbow drop that just looked cool. We've heard plenty about him being lazy and all that, and I'm not really a fan of his, but early Muta could be pretty fun and he had a genuine aura. Invader was probably at his best during this on the back foot, which won't be too surprising because he's Invader and you want to watch Invader selling, but the early matwork was pretty solid as well. I'm looking forward to seeing these guys try to tear each other's throat out soon (I mean, hopefully).

This was way better than I thought it was going to be. I never knew Hugo had been a wrestler earlier in his career. It's really fun to hear him commentating on his own match, and he actually had some pretty good offence, sold well, and the crowd were all the way behind him. I don't know who El Profe is but he worked well in this, too. He hits a nasty double stomp, eats knees like a trooper off a top rope splash, and will bite Hugo's forehead when he needs to. I wouldn't be opposed to seeing more of these guys in the ring at all.

A step down from the last one, but more of the same. This time Muhammad is out and he's replaced by the Iron Sheik, but otherwise the teams are unchanged. Chicky was probably my favourite again. Him and Invader go after each other right away and then spend large parts of the match punting each other in the balls. Even when Chicky ends up handcuffed Invader will still wander over from time to time to low blow him. I'm not sure this is the best setting for Abby. I've loved him on this set, but I think in a match like this, where there's so much going on and it could be easy for a guy to rest on his laurels, he was mostly content to stand by the ropes and chop people in the throat or be punched in the head until his scar tissue opened up. There was plenty of stabbing in this as well and it wasn't even him doing it (it was Sheik, and it was some nasty stabbing). Dutch was pretty low key in both these matches. He threw some killer punches, but it felt like he spent most of the time handcuffed and out the way.

This is Puerto Rico's version of Wargames, except it's crazier than Wargames because it's Puerto Rico. Rudo unit consists of Abby, Chicky Starr, Kareem Muhammad, Hercules Ayala and the Grizzly Goon or something. There's a very good chance I'm wrong about that last one because I didn't recognise the guy, I might've misheard Hugo on commentary, and searching Grizzly Goon is yielding no answers of worth (help me out with this, Boricua!). But they're your rudos. Tecnico unit is Colon, Invader I, Bruiser Brody, TNT and Dutch Mantell, which was an awesome surprise. You fully expect this to be wild and crazy and that's exactly what it was. Chicky was probably my favourite guy in it. He took a bunch of great bumps off of being flung into the cage, he bled like crazy, and when things got a little too heavy he'd try and burst his way out the cage (it had a roof, so he couldn't). Maybe it's because there was so much going on and he wasn't the focus for large stretches, but this felt like a strong Brody showing. He seemed generous enough in exchanges, and there was one point where he just unloaded on Abby with the best punches he's ever thrown while the crowd went bonkers. I loved Colon and Invader's dual comeback at the end as well, Colon with his carved up forehead and Invader with his white mask stained blood red. This was pretty awesome.

This has a cool stip within the stip where the only way to win is by making the opponent submit to the figure four. Ayala was pretty fun again, especially in how he'd react to the barbed wire. It's his first time being in a barbed wire match, and right away you can tell he isn't at all comfortable being there. He backs into the ropes or the corner the way he would in any other match, but these ropes are covered in barbed wire. His reactions to this were pretty amusing, almost in a comedy bumping/stooging sort of way. We got lots of gruesome, nasty close-ups of barbed wire being dug into foreheads in this, but because everything was mic'd so much better we also got to hear the screams. It was pretty gnarly. There was one bit where Colon was using his feet to shove Ayala into the wire and it didn't take long for the cameraman to zoom in on the blood trickling down Ayala's back. I liked the finish a lot as well, with Colon playing Ayala's brass knucks game and locking in the figure four while Ayala futilely grabs the wire/ropes.

I actually watched this and wrote about it before Boricua (the second time) and grizzlyedwin came in and hit us with the awesome backstory. I felt like I had a decent handle of the backstory and all that already, but not to the extent I do after those recent posts. I'll probably end up watching it again with all that in mind, but my original thoughts were: Finally the blowoff. I don't think much went down here that wasn't picked up easily enough from how it was worked and the announcement of the time limit beforehand, but Boricua provided some extra context for us Puerto Rico novices anyway. Basically, Chicky doesn't have to beat Invader before the time limit, he just has to not GET beat. If he survives the 15 minutes, Invader has to retire. Invader has to actually win the match, obviously within the time limit, and if he does Chicky gets a haircut. There's your context. Honestly, I wanted to love this, but I didn't LOVE it love it. It was good and parts of it were awesome, but it didn't quite click all the way like I hoped. Chicky saying screw it to actually engaging in a proper contest and being content to run the clock down ruled. His self-satisfaction whenever he did something resembling an offensive maneuver, pointing to his imaginary watch to signify that time's running out, counting down with each passing minute as we get close to the time limit, constantly trying to scurry away when Invader was on top -- all of it was great. And the bit where he just crawled under the ring to hide was fucking amazing. I like how Invader started this in no real hurry even though he only had 15 minutes, being happy enough to punish Chicky initially, then realising he had to get it together as they were closing in on the expiration of time. Then he ran headfirst into the ring post and that put him in the position of having to fight back before it's too late. As a heavily story-driven match I thought the story they told was really good, but some of the ways they went about telling it fell a wee bit flat. The post-match was tremendous, though. This wasn't just a head-shaving. This was a head-, chest- and even moustache-shaving, and Chicky's tantrum would've made Emilio Charles proud.

Bunch of stuff I love has dropped in that bottom 100. Puts it into perspective how much good stuff there was throughout the decade. Things like Rockers v PoP, Eddy/Jericho v Faces of Fear, Tenryu v Muta, Michaels v Diesel (GFBE), Vader v The Boss, Eddy v Jericho from Fall Brawl, Fiera v Estrada and Vader v Dustin from the Clash are some of my favourite matches ever. I should probably watch Rude v Steamboat from Superbrawl again. I thought it was good, but definitely not outstanding. Maybe I was harsh and compared it to the Beach Blast match. It's been about six years since I watched it, tbf. This list is great, btw.

That is absolutely awesome. "He was a raving terror" is the PERFECT description of Terry in Puerto Rico. Perfect. You can just imagine him doing all of his crazy shit and Dory is following him around the place like "aw for fuck's sake, Terry, not this again!"

I forgot Dynamite was still working in '91. For the longest time I just assumed he'd packed it in after Survivor Series '88. He looks a bit rough here, with his thinning hair and Mike Miller moustache, like an ex-copper in a BBC drama who spends all his time down the boozer. He didn't work like he was completely broken down physically, though I imagine he would've been close to it. I actually liked him a lot in this. Most of his offence was headbutts and a jawbreaker (so still head-based offence), but I thought it was cool how he'd regularly sell his own head after delivering blows. I liked how Hansen sold for him as well. Gone were the days of Dynamite Kid v Tiger Mask being a money match-up, but the people still remembered and Hansen treated him like he'd been a big deal once upon a time. He never gave him TOO much, never bumped too big, but made it look like those headbutts were taking their toll and that Dynamite was still dangerous. I guess the match was kind of built around Hansen trying to grab Dynamite and beat on him in close quarters, while Dynamite tried to stay out of his reach, looking for openings to pick his shots. There was one bit where Hansen threw him to the floor and went straight out after him, but Dynamite was still fresh and instantly rolled back in. Hansen was unamused and had a kick out at the guardrail. For the follow up later, when Dynamite wasn't in any shape to roll back in, Hansen broke a chair over his back. Hansen remembered. Hansen always remembers. This was about eight minutes tops and I enjoyed it a bunch.

Funk was in total crackpot mode again here, him and Dory coming out to the ring to 'Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys' (fucking amazing), swinging his chaps and picking fights with fans, being absolutely HAMMERED with trash from all angles. His crazy Puerto Rico run is honest to god one of my favourite things ever in wrestling. He's just completely out of control any time he shows up and doesn't give a shit about anything. I don't think he could get away with it anywhere else. This feels like a pretty big dream match on paper, but other than Terry I didn't think anybody was particularly good in it. Hawk wasn't quite sandbagging folk, but he wasn't really in any mood to be selling. That actually led to a few cool bit where he got super pissed off and just started DRILLING Dory with chair shots. I mean Dory is lying there like a wee old homeless man and Hawk is trying to snuff him. The Roadies aren't too hip to Terry's shtick either and don't play off it very well. Terry will go upside down in the corner and Hawk will stand there waiting for something to happen, when Terry clearly wants Hawk to go over and MAKE something happen. Terry gets his clock cleaned and stumbles punch-drunkenly into the Roadies corner waiting to be dinged by Animal, but Animal doesn't really want to play ball so Terry has to go find someone else to play with. Post-match Hawk is swinging a chair around like a lunatic and there is no way I'd want to be anywhere near him while he does that. I'll take every second of Terry in Puerto Rico I can get, but this was pretty disappointing.

This probably could've done with being trimmed by five minutes or so, but it's easily the best Ayala performance so far, and one of the best Colon performances. Purely from a selling perspective I thought it was his best, actually. He's not as expressive a seller as Invader, being more about conveying gritty toughness than sympathy-garnering, but his blood loss selling in the back half of this was truly outstanding, and at times made the beating he was taking pretty harrowing. It's also the craziest blade job he's done. I mean dude is an absolute mess by the end of this, blood streaming out his forehead, his face and chest covered; it was horrifying. In the last few minutes he keeps trying to stand up and fight, but he's out on his feet and Ayala just keeps battering him with punches and stomps. The visual at the end with Colon lying there lifeless as Ayala punches him in the head was like something from a horror movie. He's already dead, just let it be over! I'm still not really sure how good Ayala is, but I get the sense he's at least someone who's easy to work with. He did a lot of nasty shit in this, including choking Colon with the edge of a table and then jumping on said table while it was placed over Colon's face. I also liked him using Colon's own tricks against him by going to the figure four, and that led to Colon breaking it by heeling Ayala in the balls, which is probably the best escape from a figure four I've seen. These two have a barbed wire match coming up and I'm looking forward to seeing how Colon exacts revenge, because if there's one thing about Colon it's that he'll exact revenge in the grizzliest ways possible.

I didn't care too much for this, but there was some clipping going on in there at points and that sort of took me out of it a bit. You'd have them going in one direction, then there'd be a jump in the tape, and the direction would shift pretty abruptly. I also thought it was worked a bit strangely in that they had a fairly hot opening, but then Fuyuki would make his comebacks and in the back half of the match they started working in nerve holds and armbars. Felt kind of arse backwards. I don't have a clue who El Rebelde is and a quick google search is proving fruitless. He was inoffensive enough, I guess, if not very compelling. Fuyuki got real good a couple years after this, but he wasn't at that level yet as a singles wrestler and it showed. If nothing else he was versatile, and it's neat to see him work in this setting. He certainly wasn't afraid to get thrown out and roll around in the dirt.

What chance have you got trying to follow Colon/Hansen? This was actually a pretty fun scrap, but I was still on a high after the last match. Monster Ripper is Bertha Faye of WWF fame and she managed to seem fairly imposing and dangerous in this. She drops big legdrops and sold Richter's stuff okay. Richter was giving off some Mayumi Ozaki vibes only not in insufferable ways. Some of her offence looked rough, but it was frantic and at points it felt like she was just trying to claw herself free of Ripper's GIRTH. I actually liked the finish as well, and because this is Puerto Rico I fully expected someone to get chucked down a stairwell post-match.

How great was Stan Hansen? It's not like his rep needed a boost or anything, but I think this series shows him in a light we never really got to see him in elsewhere, at least not to the same extent. When I think of Hansen I think of that whirlwind of redneck fury, the guy who shows up, wreaks havoc, then leaves. He did all that in Puerto Rico, but over the course of this feud he progressively started to show ass like I've never seen before. This is probably my favourite of his Puerto Rico performances, because he got to be both those guys: the Hansen we all know, but also the Hansen who was prepared to just cut and run. There's a discussion going on in another right now about selling in the broader sense of not just selling pain or how much something hurt, but selling a character, a wider situation -- a reaction from the wrestler that's supposed to convey an emotion and in turn elicit a reaction from the crowd/audience/viewer. Well, Hansen was amazing at all of that here. It might honestly be his best selling performance ever, in that broad, all-encompassing sense. First half of the match is more of a straight up brawl, with guys getting their face raked against the cage, forehead biting, bleeding, everything you'd come to expect from a cage match in Puerto Rico. Colon is just all over Hansen, jumping off the ropes with headbutts and punches, so Hansen punches him in the dick to take over. Like the last match he's only on top for a little while before Colon makes his comeback, but this time you get Hansen hitting a kind of desperation lariat to Colon's forehead, and afterwards both guys are left lying in a bloody heap. Then Colon goes after the leg, and the back half of this is just phenomenal. I've never seen a better build to the figure four. Everything Colon does is geared towards putting on that hold, while Hansen decides he's had quite enough of this and simply wants to be gone. Everything HE does is geared towards escaping. The best thing he can do now is get out of there before Colon breaks his leg. Colon is relentless and won't be denied. Hansen's offence is basically limited to pot shots to try and create some distance, but they're the stiffest fucking pot shots you'll see, whether it's a punch to the temple or a knee to the face. If he can't get out the door he'll try and scramble up and over the cage, and I really can't stress how amazing he was at putting across how desperately he wanted out of there. While selling the damage to his leg. Colon deserves credit for all of this as well, because if Hansen is gonna run for his life then the opponent better make it look like it's warranted, but man was Hansen unreal here. The bit where he takes off his boot and tries to bludgeon Colon with it was amazing on its own, but the fact he just tried to run out the door afterwards made it stick out all the more. It's Hansen. He just wellied somebody with a cowboy boot. And now he's running away?! That right there should tell you the kind of badass Colon is. Fucking hell this was great.

Another incredible match between two guys who can do no wrong together. One of the things I really love about this series - and there are many - is how they build upon previous matches in fairly obvious ways (they don't mess around with the "learned psychology"), while adding layers to the overarching story every time out. In their first match Hansen jumped Colon at the bell and went on a big run of offence, so in the second match Colon made sure it was he who got the early start. He learned quickly that you can't let Hansen get settled. It worked for him in the second match, so he does the same this time. Except this time he goes at him even harder. Hansen gets almost no respite in the first six/seven minutes and can't even take off his chaps. He fought much of the bullrope match on the back foot, but he's on defence for even more of this, practically fighting the whole second half from his back. I think it's time we talk about Colon's headbutts. He has some great headbutts. His punches can sometimes look a bit like they're with the heel of the hand, but his headbutts are always forehead square on forehead. There was one awesome bit during this early stretch where he dragged Hansen out the ring and just started battering his head off the stage. It was a real mauling, and a position we rarely see Hansen in. The transition to Hansen going on offence was really great. He takes Colon down with a double leg and tries to roll him up with the feet on the ropes, which is pretty crazy in and of itself because when the hell do we see Stan Hansen resorting to that inside ten minutes? but when the ref' calls him on it Stan just blatantly drops the knee on Colon's balls. What's also great about that is the fact it'll lead to a revenge ball shot later on, because this is Puerto Rico, and in Puerto Rico no good ball shot goes unpunished. Hansen's only on top for a little while before Colon takes over again, and this is where we get the next building block of the feud. They tried to kill each other with the cowbell in the last match, so now Colon thinks maybe if he breaks Hansen's leg he'll finally be rid of him. Both guys were really awesome during this stretch. It starts with Colon throwing a few kicks to the leg to sort of create some distance, then Hansen misses a high knee in the corner and a knee drop on the canvas, so Colon zeroes in on it and makes it his one point of attack for the rest of the match. Hansen's selling ruled. He's always dangerous because of who he is, but he's wounded with his back to the wall and that makes him even worse. At one point he disappears limping into the crowd, and as Colon goes out to look for him you hear a shriek from a pocket of fans as one of those non-foldable chairs comes flying at Colon. Another thing I really like about Colon is how tenacious he is. That's probably something WWE commentators have said about a thousand wrestlers over the last few years, but I can't imagine many of them capturing a sense of tenaciousness like Colon. He's a street brawler and he'll do whatever he needs to to survive, like biting Hansen's fingers or blatantly grabbing the ropes while applying the figure four. He's in there with Hansen after all; sometimes you need to take liberties. I thought the finish was a tiny bit flat, but the build to Colon finally putting Hansen in the figure four was great, coming a little closer each time with Hansen getting more desperate in fighting him off, and you knew the place would go apeshit when it was finally locked in. I might have four Hansen/Colon matches in my top 10 by the end of this.

I think Ron is incredibly impressive in the same way guys like Arn Anderson and even Terry Funk are, where they go from complete stooge with sort of comedic bumping to stone cold killer at the drop of a hat. He's done that in a few matches on the set. That six man tag with him, Chicky and Abdullah against Colon and the Invaders on disc 2 is probably the best example of it so far. And yeah, also brawls like an absolute motherfucker. He was really, really good.

Like the first Colon/TNT match, this was saddled with the unenviable task of trying to follow Colon/Hansen. This is also Invader working a straight wrestling match with armbars, arm wringers and standard babyface hope spots, which isn't quite the same as him bleeding and brawling and throwing guys down stairwells. It's not really fair to criticise something for not being what you wanted it to be, but it is what it is. Still, Invader is Invader and I'll take what I can get. I'm not sure who Jason actually is under the mask, but he moves okay for a big dude even if he's not the most compelling in control. His big cross body looked a bit Bray Wyatt-ish, at least. Chicky Starr running around ringside being a nuisance reminds me that we've got an Invader I/Chicky match coming up on the next disc. I bet it's good.

There was pretty much no way this could live up to the hype I had for it. I first heard about the Hansen/Colon series - specifically this and the cage match - a few years back, but I held off on watching it because I knew there would be a Puerto Rico set eventually. I'd never read an actual review of this match because I wanted to go in fresh when I finally got to see it, but it was hard to miss the general point that it was great. Then I saw the lead-in matches and the hype only grew. I'd built this up without ever having seen it. It was unfair, because it couldn't possibly live up to what I'd made of it in my head. But then it did. And it was god damn incredible. I don't remember ever seeing Hansen take this much of a drubbing. I know Colon is the boss and everything, but Hansen really gave him a ton, and Colon certainly made the most of it. I mean, if you're going to beat on Stan Hansen for extended periods of time then you better do it like you mean it, and Colon did it like he meant it. It felt like whatever Colon had tapped into was beyond anything Hansen ever expected. He knew Colon would bring it, just not like this. I don't think anybody expected him to dominate, but there were points where he did just that. Colon had an answer for everything, and Hansen was phenomenal playing off it. At one point he even grabbed the referee's leg to keep himself from being dragged out the ring, and as the ref' was on the mat trying to scramble away Colon took Hansen's head and rammed it into the ref's boot. There was one sequence in the match that encapsulated the whole story. Hansen had touched three turnbuckles and was about to touch the fourth, having dragged Colon around the ring with him to get this far. Colon, in the opposite corner, wraps his legs around the bottom rope and holds onto the bullrope for dear life. It turns into a tug of war, Hansen trying to push forward, Colon trying to drag him back, the crowd at total fucking melting point. This is probably where a friend of mine would drop a Dragonball Z reference about Goku doing the Spirit Bomb or something. I mean these people are just living and dying with every single thing Colon does. And he eventually succeeds. They all do, Colon and his people, by yanking Hansen back and staying alive in the match. The scene after it, with Colon lying in the corner utterly spent, Hansen cussing out the world with his blood-coated face, the crowd going bananas...that is the motherfucking pro wrestling. I also loved how this was a gimmick match where the gimmick carried tremendous weight. They punched each other and headbutted each other and bit and scratched and tried to gouge each other's eyes out, but they absolutely slabbered each other with that cowbell. If one guy got within rage of the other, they were getting dinged in the head. If the cowbell wasn't on hand, they were getting strangled with that bullrope. The rope wasn't just a means of keeping them tied together -- in those guys' hands it was a weapon, and it got used again and again. They actually reached a point towards the end where I thought the drama might've peaked and they wouldn't be able to get it back for the finish, but they shut my mouth with the finish they did do. It was perfect. Look at that crowd. That is drama. And this is my new #1.

How about Stan Hansen and Chicky Starr for a dream team you never dared dream of. Like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid if the Sundance Kid was a cheapshotting little weasel bastard (I mean, he might've been). Chicky was a really fun toady in this, relying on Hansen to bail him out at a couple points but never being above fouling someone when Hansen wasn't on hand to offer immediate assistance. It led to a great payback spot later when Colon double punted him in the balls, and really, nowhere else does revenge ball shots like Puerto Rico. Huracan Castillo Jr. is the guy I thought was the commissioner or something from the last Hansen match where Stan kicked the shit out of him. I don't know whether he actually is the commissioner or not, but I certainly never recognised him before as the same guy from Los Boricuas. He mostly works the apron, but towards the end he gets into it with Chicky and bites him in the forehead a bunch. I loved Colon's comeback in this, untangling himself from the tree of woe position and cartwheeling over to save Castillo from a Hansen/Chicky mauling. Hansen wrapping the bullrope around Colon's neck and hanging him over the top rope was pretty wild as well, and it all goes towards setting us up for the bullrope match.

"The possibilities with that Terry/Starr tandem are endless. Maybe Dory will be okay as well." That was what popped into my head when this match came up on the screen (I don't really comb through match lists for these 80s sets, preferring to go in blind so that when something like this shows up I get all giddy like a superdork). You see that team and on the opposite end you have three guys in masks, two of whom are wearing identical gear, and you can't help but expect to see Terry Funk lose the rag at some phantom babyface tag shtick. Ron Starr has been a waaaay more fun stooge than I ever would've imagined (you know, from those whole two Ron Starr matches I'd seen before watching this set), but he's not quite Funk. I expected him to be good, and he was, but this is Terry Funk in Puerto Rico so naturally I'm gonna be drawn to him first and foremost. And of course Terry was great. It's like being in Puerto Rico let him cut loose his chains and be as much of a screwball as possible. He wants a boxing match with Invader to start, and obviously he loses, but the sell and face-first bump he takes off Invader's right hook is just beyond words. They also do the bit where Invader rams Terry's head into the turnbuckle a bunch, then when he stops Terry keeps rocking back and forth, head bouncing off the turnbuckle, until big brother comes in set him right. Dory was fine enough, mostly as the recipient of the early babyface shine, taking a few really cool Ted DiBiase-ish bumps off Invader's double chop, but when you look at that heel unit he's not the guy you want in there the lion's share of the time. I would've liked to have seen a longer FIP spell and a proper finish, but I'll take absolutely everything I can get of Terry Funk working Puerto Rico. You'll hear no complaints from me that this made the set.

One thing about Colon that I haven't really seen brought up yet is his unselfishness as top dog/ace. You watch that Abby match where Colon slaughters him for twenty minutes in isolation and you might get the impression he would just guzzle guys, especially when you consider Abby's status, but that's very much an outlier. He could've easily taken more of this match given the fact Rivera is in his first year as a pro, but he was on a mission to make TNT look legit. This was one of those matches that started out okay and built and built and before you knew it you were watching something really damn good. TNT is still pretty raw around the edges, but for a guy who hasn't even had a full year of working under his belt he handled himself well. He has lots of energy and bumps big, especially off of backdrops, and he will absolutely take your head off with a superkick (he hit two in this as Colon was running off the ropes, and they both looked brutal). He also hits a lot of chops and uppercuts to the throat and he isn't above flat out choking a guy. Structurally he was in control for most of this, working the arm for a bit early on, then Colon would make sort of mini comebacks. But TNT would always find an answer, whether it was through shutting Colon down with a superkick or eventually going to the cobra clutch. When Colon hooked in the sleeper hold around midway through it looked like it was only a matter of time before he'd win, but TNT found an answer to it and worked his way back on top. When Colon cartwheeled and got the crowd going (and boy did they go) it looked like he'd finally go on that big run and put the match to bed, but again TNT managed to regain control. By the time it spills to the floor and they brawl to a no contest it feels like TNT has solidified himself as a genuine threat. He had plenty to do with that himself, but Colon really gave him a ton and went the extra mile to push him over the line.

This probably wasn't done any favours coming after some absolute corkers on the disc. It's hard to top Invader/Perez or Colon/Hansen, you know? That said, this wasn't trying to be either of those; it was a short TV match and if nothing else a fun look at TNT, the future Savio Vega. He was really game in this, threw some nice uppercuts to the throat and leveled Colon a couple times with big thrust kicks. He headbutts Colon at one point and I'm wondering if Colon has been doing a Fujiwara-ish hard head gimmick this whole time where it's pointless trying to headbutt him, because he just stares at TNT like he's a dummy before throwing a headbutt of his own. They're treating TNT's cobra clutch as quite the death kill here and it leads to the grizzly post-match visual of Colon lying KO'd and foaming at the mouth, which coincidentally is another Fujiwaraism.

A step below their first match, and I guess it kinda sort of maybe feels more like feud progression than a fully formed match, but fuck it. It's these two, and it was good, and it was very different from that first match. This time Colon jumps Hansen at the bell, and in one of the few occasions I can ever remember we get Stan Hansen very much on the back foot to start a match. Colon busts him open and throws his awesome headbutts while Hansen tries to rid himself of his chaps and jacket. It's this kind of thing that makes me think Hansen is the best to ever do it. If you've seen one Stan Hansen match then you've seen him beat the crap out of somebody. If you've seen several Stan Hansen matches then you've seen him beat the crap out of several somebodies. He might be the best ever at that particular aspect of pro wrestling. But his selling and ability to show vulnerability or, in those rare instances, even fear; those are the things that really put him over the top. I hadn't watched any Hansen outside All Japan in ages, and that was never an environment where you were likely to find Hansen outright begging off or borderline stooging. But he wasn't afraid to here, and Stan bastarding Hansen asking for a bit of reprieve made Colon seem like a badass in his own right. There was some dueling limb work in this, and it didn't last long or anything, but I liked how it came about. First Colon goes for a high knee in the corner and hits the turnbuckle, so Hansen jumps on this opening and goes after the leg for a little bit. He soon drops it in favour of throwing Colon into a fence and mushing his face into it, but it was cool while it lasted. Shortly after this Hansen tries to lariat Colon on the floor, but Colon moves and Hansen lariats the ring post, so Colon works the arm for a short spell, wrapping it around the post and bashing it off the dugout. That doesn't last long either, but both felt like examples where an opportunity presented itself for one guy to inflict some extra damage on his opponent, before eventually going back to the more attractive option of beating his head off something solid. Hansen kicking the shit out of the commissioner post-match ruled as well. I don't remember ever seeing him lariat somebody while they're on all fours, but he did it here and of course it must've sucked being on the receiving end of that.