shoe Posted May 11, 2016 Report Share Posted May 11, 2016 Lothario vs Patera I found this really interesting. I understand the booking of this since they are building to a Brody/Patera match so Lothario was the gatekeeper opponent. I thought the psychology of the match was smart. JJ Dillon cut a great promo before hand. All of Patera's movements were big and grand . He clearly new how to play to the cheap seats. Lothario used some mat work and punches to keep Patera at bay. Eventually, Patera would focus on the neck and back to set up the spinning neck breaker. Eventually, he hooks it and wins the 2nd fall. Lothario is unable to continue so Patera wins in 2 falls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickH Posted May 12, 2016 Report Share Posted May 12, 2016 Im curious about Paul Boesch vs George Harris III. By my results it took place in 1971. Could be interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khawk20 Posted May 12, 2016 Report Share Posted May 12, 2016 Im curious about Paul Boesch vs George Harris III. By my results it took place in 1971. Could be interesting. I'm pretty sure that one has been out there for a while, albeit in crappy quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceTharpe Posted May 14, 2016 Report Share Posted May 14, 2016 Mil Mascaras vs. Hacksaw Duggan - 2 out of 3 falls - online now - from June 18, 1982! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted May 14, 2016 Report Share Posted May 14, 2016 Quick comments. I liked Patera vs Lothario. The bearhug was a bit much maybe but I still think they worked it well. JJ was awesome in his role. He brought so much more to the table than Gary Hart in what we've seen. Patera is a perfect stooging heel to eat Lothario's punches. Good effective wrestling. It's the sort of thing we take for granted because it comes in a sea of matches. If it was the only thing to pop up, we'd value it a lot more. I actively liked Duggan vs Mil too. This is the card with Lucas vs Gino and Tully vs Morton on it so that's cool right there. 82 Duggan feels immediately special. He's just got this reckless heel energy to him. He bumps all over the ring for Mil's stuff with an off-beat charisma that's just electric. He's wild in the way you always hope Brody is (I had a weird Monty Brown vibe from him actually). It's a 12 minute 2/3 fall sprint, basically, but it's well worth watching. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted May 15, 2016 Report Share Posted May 15, 2016 Mil vs Duggan This is short for 3 falls but it blew away my expectation level. This was all action. You'd think this would be a styles clash, but it worked. I don't know if was because Duggan isn't a polished worker, or if Mil was just laying in receipts a lot of this was snug. It was easily the most credible I've seen Mil's offense. Duggan ate his dropkick right in the mush, his flying headbutt looked liked it ko'ed Duggan, and Mil's palm strikes looked stiff as hell. The story was speed and technique versus strength. Good stuff. 3* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted May 15, 2016 Report Share Posted May 15, 2016 Dynamic Duo vs Mil Mascaras/El Gran Apollo Another Dynamic Duo tag and another good match. I know Goc in his fantasy league was wanting to make El Gran Apollo his latin star of his promotion. So my thoughts on Apollo. He has a great look, solid charisma, his moveset was limited, needs work in his FIP work, needs to tighten up some of his work, has a good drop kick and forearm, and worked the apron well. Mil in Houston has bemuch better than I've seen in NY, Dallas and other areas besides Japan. I loved the Duo stooging for him and shining him up. I loved Mil's screwdriver to the ears of Tully trying to cauliflower them. Mil's reverse Dragon Sleeper made me pop. Apollo's FIP work in the 1st fall didn't show enough vulnerbility. I loved how Gino just beat Mil's ass in the 2nd fall. I liked how it continued in the 3rd fall. Mil's FIP work was done well. The hot tag to Apollo was really good along with the early teases. We get a good post match brawl with Ken Lucas where the ref reverses his decision and DQ's the Dynamic Duo. That was a crappy finish. 3 1/4* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted May 15, 2016 Report Share Posted May 15, 2016 I did warn you going in that the little I have seen from Apollo is that he didn't care much for selling. Your thoughts on him are pretty much the same as mine from the little bit of Florida and Puerto Rico I've seen. I still think with a great booker like myself he could have developed into a star. Hopefully I'll be able to re-subscribe to Classics soon and catch that match and all the other awesome stuff that's dropped over the last month or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted May 15, 2016 Report Share Posted May 15, 2016 The dynamic duo stuff has been right down your alley. I'm with both of you on Apolo. He's Hansen to Mil's Brody. Maybe even the other way around. It was still a fun match just for how the heels feed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted May 15, 2016 Report Share Posted May 15, 2016 This is the match where I first discovered that El Gran Apollo didn't really like to be shown as vulnerable. This is that "when kayfabe goes wrong" match that no one ever talks about. The ref has to just throw out the match because he and Barrabas are about to start having a real fight in the ring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted May 15, 2016 Report Share Posted May 15, 2016 That was too sad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted May 15, 2016 Report Share Posted May 15, 2016 We're almost to the end of the matches we know about. Bock vs Brody from the Race vs Halcon night is still on deck, as is Dusty vs Graham? Lewin vs Brody, Lewin vs Gino, Jake vs Humungous, The Valentine/Wahoo match, whatever that is (as well as some of the shared tape like Bruno vs Graham), and Stomper vs Casey, plus that Conway Jr/Sr vs Lewin/Hart, and a few more Gino matches from the previous set. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckScumm Posted May 15, 2016 Report Share Posted May 15, 2016 Not a lot to say about Johnson vs Gino. It was a great coming out party for early heel Gino and I bet Boesch was super proud of him. Brody vs Valentine (Buddy Roberts) was extremely interesting. The best way I can explain it would be like a lucha title match Brody (or to a lesser extent a NWA title match), in that he did a lot things on the level and there was more wrestling, even if it was more headlocks than anything else. It's a testament to Roberts how different he is as Dale Valentine but he really is a poor man's Johnny/Greg. Here, though, I think he was in a position to show a little more. This is a Brody I've rarely seen and I think he wrestled the match extremely appropriately, with a lot of the positives without many of the negatives you usually get from him. If we had a whole career of this guy acting this way, I could see him as more people's favorite. Let me put it this way, there's a moment early in the headlock sequence where it's pretty obvious Valentine is calling spots with him. The level of cooperation was there. They still had their limitations, both of them, but it was a lot better than I was expecting coming in and it frankly has me optimistic for other 78 Brody matches we've yet to get but might like the Wahoo, Dusty, and Bockwinkel ones (And even some more of the Rocky Johnson ones). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckScumm Posted May 15, 2016 Report Share Posted May 15, 2016 Not a lot to say about Johnson vs Gino. It was a great coming out party for early heel Gino and I bet Boesch was super proud of him. Brody vs Valentine (Buddy Roberts) was extremely interesting. The best way I can explain it would be like a lucha title match Brody (or to a lesser extent a NWA title match), in that he did a lot things on the level and there was more wrestling, even if it was more headlocks than anything else. It's a testament to Roberts how different he is as Dale Valentine but he really is a poor man's Johnny/Greg. Here, though, I think he was in a position to show a little more. This is a Brody I've rarely seen and I think he wrestled the match extremely appropriately, with a lot of the positives without many of the negatives you usually get from him. If we had a whole career of this guy acting this way, I could see him as more people's favorite. Let me put it this way, there's a moment early in the headlock sequence where it's pretty obvious Valentine is calling spots with him. The level of cooperation was there. They still had their limitations, both of them, but it was a lot better than I was expecting coming in and it frankly has me optimistic for other 78 Brody matches we've yet to get but might like the Wahoo, Dusty, and Bockwinkel ones (And even some more of the Rocky Johnson ones). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted May 18, 2016 Report Share Posted May 18, 2016 Looking forward to tonight's Mixed tag match with a young Sherri and Judy Martin. I won't get to it tomorrow though but Martin's one of my favorites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted May 18, 2016 Report Share Posted May 18, 2016 Mixed Tag This was a really fun undercard/special attraction match. Cheatam is a great heel name to boot. The shine was a lot of fun . They did some fun comedy. With the payoff being Casey stealing smooch from Martin. I thought the heat on Martel was done well. Martin did a good job working the arm. Martel has such an expressive face that you bought into her peril. When she tags out she's still selling the arm. I liked Cheatam attaxcking the woman , thought it would get more heat. Finish was pretty fun too. 2 1/2* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceTharpe Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 GINO HERNANDEZ vs. MARK LEWIN from May 16, 1980 - Gary Hart Hart Locked in a Cage - ONLINE NOW! Caution: Blood! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHawk Posted May 21, 2016 Report Share Posted May 21, 2016 I love how Bruce warns us about blood as if this group would be offended by it. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceTharpe Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 next time it will be: Caution - Double Juice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 I thought this was the second strongest Lewin singles match we've seen so far. He does well as a babyface against a stooging heel. Gino bumping around and eating his mysterious strikes from the orient and clubbering blows kept things moving. The blood took care of a lot of the heavy lifting when it came to Lewin selling. Some of his actual bumping was pretty rough (especially that one into the corner shoulder first) but they kept it sufficiently violent with the chairs. There are things I really like about Gino. He's more than willing to just cut someone off with a knee or strike when he's brawling but then he'll make sure to rake his opponent's eye not once before taking over. This was probably the best use of Hart we've seen up until now on Classics. I liked the mixed tag quite a bit too, for what it was. Sherri was very sympathetic. I wish we had seen Martin in control a bit more since she has great offense but she played her role well for what she was supposed to be doing. Entertaining stuff and Boesch is really fun on commentary in any sort of out of the norm situation like this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceTharpe Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 Spectacular Sunday Main Event Match ONLINE TODAY! JOSE LOTHARIO vs. KILLER KARL KRUPP - Two out of Three Falls! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted May 22, 2016 Report Share Posted May 22, 2016 There's a bunch of Krupp up and down the Houston cards, so it'll be good to see how he worked in that gimmick against someone as good as Lothario. I will say that if that's the March 24, 1978 card, and you have that one, well, that's an interesting card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted May 23, 2016 Report Share Posted May 23, 2016 Nope, this isn't 78. Can't find the result anywhere, so I'm not sure (but it makes for a mystery card, which could be fun, right?) The match itself wasn't so great for the first ten minutes. Nerve holds. Even Lothario can't do do a lot with nerve holds. Boesch is great at filling the time in these situations. There are two sorts of announcers, the ones who make the match more emotional resonant and the ones who make the matches more entertaining. Boesch is in the latter camp but I've come to really like him. Everything from the ten minute mark was pretty good though. Some dueling claws, some armwork to counter the claw, Krupp looking pretty effective as a heel, a nice comeback. The Supersock as a counter to a top rope move is a weird parallel to Sweet Chin Music in that same scenario. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoe Posted May 23, 2016 Report Share Posted May 23, 2016 Gino vs Lewin This has Gary Hart in a cage. Lewin is really effective as a brawling walking tall baby face. Gino is a perfect foil for him. Gino could bump and stooge and eat Lewin's offense. Early on Gino busts open Lewin. Gino did a good working it over. I thought Lewin's comeback was done with a lot of energy. Gino is busted open and Lewin works the cut. I loved the finish of the 3rd fall. The post match with the cage was a great way to get the heat back. 3 1/2* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceTharpe Posted May 23, 2016 Report Share Posted May 23, 2016 Exciting footage to be released today: Kerry Von Erich's first match in Houston! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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