[1951-01-05-Kohler Chicago] Buddy Rogers vs Cyclone Anaya

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

 

[Moonsault Marvin]

The Chicago Film Archives mislabeled the name on this one. His name is Cyclone Anaya not Ayana.

 

This is a two out of three falls match. Anaya starts out working the arm, but Rogers escapes. Rogers takes control with a side mare into a headlock. Anaya takes back over with working the arm, but Rogers is able to pick him up and teases slamming him out of the ring, which he stops with the referee's warning. Anaya next works on the legs and does a hold on the mat where he splits the legs apart. After Rogers counters, Anaya goes to the headlock. They do some rope bouncing and Rogers gets a flying headscissors.

 

Rogers puts on a clinic for working the hammerlock. He rams the knee and then bends the wrist to add more pain. Anaya eventually wins the fall when Rogers quickly submits to the cobra twist.

 

In the second fall, Rogers goes to variations on the body scissors and really wrenches Anaya's head. He then uses a cool looking hold, the leg nelson. Rogers begins to use some heel tactics by giving Anaya a forearm when he was against the ropes and later slaps him in the face. Rogers is able to win the fall after a dropkick to the chin, some snapmares, and a piledriver.

 

Anaya cannot continue after the piledriver, so Rogers wins the match. Rogers shows good sportsmanship, as he helps Anaya up at the end.

 

Rogers continues to be impressive in these matches, as he really knows how to work the variations of the holds on the mat, so it never gets boring.

[alexoblivion]

Not out of this world or anything, but entertaining. Buddy was unselfish; having no problem looking vulnerable throughout the match, and doing the things we’ve grown accustomed to put over that vulnerability; such as backing into the corner from the ground or rolling to the outside. I don’t really have a lot of praise for Anaya, but he wasn’t detrimental or anything, and was very smooth. I liked Buddy working holds, as he does so with a physicality and viciousness to maintain position, in particular that hammerlock with the wrist manipulation was great. A third fall would have been nice, but I do like how they put over how dangerous Rogers’ piledriver is with Anaya being unable to continue.

[donsem43]

This was the first time I've seen a pre-70's match in full and it was pretty entertaining. Rogers really looked like a star in the way that he carried himself and all of the little things he would do to add character to the match. Enjoyed how Anaya worked holds, he always seemed like he was trying to get as much leverage as possible when he applied something.

[conker8]

You should watch the Buddy Rogers vs Lou Thesz next.

As you notice, his piledriver is really put over here and that plays in the next match.

[Superstar Sleeze]

"Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers vs Cyclone Anaya - Chicago Wrestling 1/5/51 Two Out of Three Falls

After a Baba/Kiniski was looking for something different. "Nature Boy Buddy "I am Repugnant" Rogers" - Russ Davis making his presence early and often. Ouija boards existed in 1951?!?! He uses the term "Hornswoggle". 

First Fall: Entertaining bout, great application of holds, lots of struggle, good movement. Anaya worked the top wristlock a lot early. Buddy opted for the headlock using side headlock takedowns. Loved how hard it was for Anaya to apply the headscissors. Anaya was really good at arm dragging from the collar-elbow tieup position. Good split leg from Anaya, Rogers picks him up like a sack of potatoes and gets out of it. Nice move by Rogers at one point to evade an Anaya move by grabbing the ropes and little Peacock strut there, put a smile on my face. Rogers is tempted to bodyslam Anaya over the top rope, but thinks better of it, Russ lets us know that would've cost him. Buddy takes Anaya down with an ugly ass headscissors, but Buddy makes up for it with a stupendous hammerlock. Buddy works a helluva hammerlock as we close in on the 15 minute mark when Anaya makes the ropes. Nature Boy rips Anaya over with two of the most ferocious snap mares you will ever see, but into all the chaos, Anaya grabs an abdominal stretch and makes the heavy favorite submit to win the first fall. Anaya 1-0. 

Second Fall: Is very strong, really good stuff. You can see Rogers is more offensive here being down a fall. He blocks multiple takedowns from Anaya. Anaya goes back to the well immediately going for the abdominal stretch, but Roger immediately takes him down and works a wristlock. Anaya tries to work an arm drag takedown from a collar-elbow and Rogers just deadweights him and clamps on a tight bodyscissors. Great work in the bodyscissor morphs into a crucifix. Anaya ties him in a stepover toehold looking for a pin, it looks like he might have in a standing figure-4 but Russ accurately predicts that Rogers will trip and regain control and that is what happens as he moves into a calf-slicer. Cyclone starts to pick up the pace with some shoulder blocks and Rogers powders. Roger throws a couple cheapshots up against the ropes. Russ points out that these are the first roughhousing tactics we have seen thus far. Rogers slaps Anaya. Anaya is pissed starts to punch Rogers in a headlock. Anaya looks to be running away with this when Rogers NAILS a dropkick and a beauty. Two vicious snapmares and a brutal piledriver take the fall for the Nature Boy! Tied 1-1! Bravo!

Third Fall: Anaya cannot respond to start the third fall so Rogers takes the fall by TKO. Tremendous finish! Really puts over the piledriver! Love it!

Really enjoyed the matwork in this. Rugged, forceful and organic. Loved the Rogers block of the arm-drag directly into a bodyscissors. Really stood out to me. Rogers felt like a big time star. Anaya seemed like a solid babyface mechanic. Rogers' snapmares were terrific. The piledriver finish was tremendous. ***3/4

[CurtainJerker]

Ouija boards existed in the late 1800s.

Anyway, Rogers was better than Cyclone in this match. Although the matwork and wear-down holds were indeed rugged, organic, and real, the bulk of the match wasn't exciting to me. Had to wait for the end of the first and second fall to get into the hot action.

I felt the match stalled at times when both men went back on their feet. However Rogers is the master strategist so at least the match felt like he was trying to win.

Interesting that The Nature Boy is concerned about Cyclone's health at the end of the match.

Probably the worst of the existing Rogers matches out there, but still a good performance and sampling of his style. Just a little tedious for my tastes, but at least he was working very hard with the hold variations, and there were a few highspots and bumps eventually.