Chad's Boot Camp

[soup23]

I was looking over my tentative list today and here are the individuals which I have marked as "need to see more". Could someone kindly recommend 5-8 matches of each to get as comprehensive look of those wrestlers that a limiting look like that allows:

Andrei Kopylov

Bison Kimura

Buddy Rogers

Buddy Rose

Chicky Starr

Clive Myers

Invader I

Invader III

Jackie Sato

Lou Thesz

Minoru Tanaka

Ricky Santana

Terry Rudge

Steve Grey

Yumi Ikeshita

Zoltan Boscik

 

 

I will also lump the Dragon Gate nominees in here. I really do want to give a look to those nominated and have enjoyed some of the sampling of Dragon Gate I have done throughout the years (especially when it was still in its infancy stage) but also watch some of the highly pimped stuff that does well on the VOW year end poll and don't enjoy the match very much.

[Matt D]

Buddy's an interesting case since he has great matches but what'll propel him to the top ten is seeing him from week to week and how switches up his act and reacts to different, sometimes subpar opponents.

 

For instance,

 

vs King Parsons,

 

which leads into this singles:

 

 

and these two tag matches:

 

[BillThompson]

For Kopylov I am to assume you've seen the famous Han matches?

[Dylan Waco]

Invader 1

 

 

v. Hercules Ayala. This is one of, if not my favorite, studio matches of the 80s. It is better if you know the context of what is going on which was explained to me by El Boricua. I can pull that over here if necessary.

 

 

v. Muto. I like this not only because it's a great Invader 1 brawl, but because it's a great Invader 1 brawl v. a guy who is sort of a known comedy to American hardcore fans.

 

 

v. Ron Starr. Even with the clipping this is excellent, and one of the best matches from PR in the 80's. An all time great sell job/slow fire up job from Invader in this one.

 

I would also strongly argue strongly for watching the Eric Embry match if you haven't which is a great brawl, and the Al Perez Street Fight which is a real miracle match. To me the Kamala match is a brief match that illustrates how excellent Invader was working underneath, though it's more of an angle than a match. Him with anyone v. The Sheepherders or Hangmen is well worth watching too. I could go on, but I'll stop there.

[soup23]

For Kopylov I am to assume you've seen the famous Han matches?

 

I saw the ones from 91-93 that was in puropotsy piece on PTBN. For some reason, a lot of shoot style stuff has vanished from the media sites in the last few weeks.

[soup23]

 

 

I would also strongly argue strongly for watching the Eric Embry match if you haven't which is a great brawl, and the Al Perez Street Fight which is a real miracle match. To me the Kamala match is a brief match that illustrates how excellent Invader was working underneath, though it's more of an angle than a match. Him with anyone v. The Sheepherders or Hangmen is well worth watching too. I could go on, but I'll stop there.

 

Thanks for this. Will see about the Al Perez match but as Shoe can attest, I am a fan of his.

[Dylan Waco]

I don't like Perez at all either

[Childs]

For Buddy Rose, try:

 

vs. Lonnie Mayne 10/1/77

 

vs. Adrian Adonis 9/8/79

 

vs. Rick Martel, any of their 1980 matches

 

w. Wiskowski vs. Piper/Martel 8/2/80

 

vs. Matt Borne 6/12/82

 

vs. Backlund 8/30/82

 

vs. Curt Henning 5/28/83

 

w. Henning vs. Assassin/Dynamite Kid 9/3/83

 

I assume you've seen the tags vs. the Rockers. As Matt said, the real joy with Buddy is watching him come up with clever shit week after week as he carries Portland TV.

[Jetlag]

Zoltan Boscik:

 

vs. Robby Baron

vs. Jon Cortez

vs. Jim Breaks

vs. John Naylor

vs. Steve Grey

vs. Alan Sarjeant

 

Steve Grey:

 

vs. Clive Myers (2 or 3 of them)

vs. Mick McManus

vs. Jon Cortez

vs. Jim Breaks

vs. Johnny Saint

vs. Keith Haward

vs. Ken Joyce

 

Terry Rudge:

 

vs. Les Thornton

vs. Marty Jones

vs. Tom Tyrone

vs. Len Hurst

vs. Dalibar Singh

vs. Franz van Buyten

vs. Steve Regal (Hamburg, Germany)

[BillThompson]

 

For Kopylov I am to assume you've seen the famous Han matches?

 

I saw the ones from 91-93 that was in puropotsy piece on PTBN. For some reason, a lot of shoot style stuff has vanished from the media sites in the last few weeks.

 

 

It may be a Samurai TV thing.

[Tim Cooke]

 

For Kopylov I am to assume you've seen the famous Han matches?

 

I saw the ones from 91-93 that was in puropotsy piece on PTBN. For some reason, a lot of shoot style stuff has vanished from the media sites in the last few weeks.

RINGS went after anyone with their stuff on YT so my guess is it will be gone for a while. PM me if you need something specific

[GSR]

Grey matches that I enjoyed when I was watching things for this:

 

Steve Grey vs Clive Myers (10.08.75)

Steve Grey vs Johnny Saint (01.28.80)

Steve Grey vs Jon Cortez (07.27.81 - my WOS match of the 80s)

Steve Grey vs Keith Haward (02.05.85)

Steve Grey vs Richie Brooks (05.14.86)

[JazeUSA]

Im sure you've seen all the AWA Buddy Rose stuff

Buddy Rose vs. Roddy Piper (2/3 Falls) (Portland 5/12/79)

Buddy Rose vs. Rick Martel (2/3 falls) (Portland 4/26/80)

Buddy Rose & Hulk Hogan vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Yoshiaki Yatsu (NJ 5/12/82)

Buddy Rose vs. Curt Hennig (No DQ, 2/3 Falls) (Portland 7/3/82)

Buddy Rose vs. David Schultz (Cage Match) (Portland 8/21/82)

Buddy Rose vs. Bob Backlund (Philly 11/25/82)

Dusty Rhodes & Buddy Rose vs. Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami (NJ 1/6/84)

[ohtani's jacket]

Yumi Ikeshita is a tough one to make match recs for. You kind of have to just sample here. I can't remember which Black Pair tags are the best and even a noted singles match like Ikeshita vs. Hagiwara is clipped to shit, which I imagine will be frustrating for you. I love Yumi Ikeshita, but I'm not sure she is top 100 worthy unless you throw a bone to personal favourites.

[soup23]

Invader 1

 

 

v. Hercules Ayala. This is one of, if not my favorite, studio matches of the 80s. It is better if you know the context of what is going on which was explained to me by El Boricua. I can pull that over here if necessary.

 

 

v. Muto. I like this not only because it's a great Invader 1 brawl, but because it's a great Invader 1 brawl v. a guy who is sort of a known comedy to American hardcore fans.

 

 

 

 

I watched these two matches yesterday. The Ayala stuff is fun with him not seeing his original opponent as competition and getting Invader instead which the crowd was clamoring for by chanting his name when Hercules was running down the roster. The opening was probably my favorite part of this match with the variety of strikes in the back and forth and each one of them looking good. I thought Invader was on top for a bit too long in this and I had some fairly big problems in thinking Ayala was too lumbering when he did get on top and that his boots didn't look all that impressive. That goes to say that Invader's performance here put the match in the good range for me but I feel I am much lower on the overall match than Dylan.

 

vs. Muto I enjoyed more. Invader bleeding through his mask was an awesome visual and the stadium feels always add to my experience watching Puerto Rico. I did think this also went too long for what it was and featured to much choking of the cord by Muto but Muto is really good at doing these spectacle type matches sometimes and Invader was able to show his chops at selling and then dishing out some good strikes on the comeback. Really good match that would be in the ***1/2 range for me.

 

One thing I will say about this style of wrestling overall though is that lately I have been watching some IWA-MS. I think I have came to the conclusion with brawls and death matches that the hatred that both men convey along with the pace is what I value in a hardcore match. I also think the time of the match in hardcore match is very important as a match that wears out its welcome seems to drag much more in a brawl setting where the variety of moves will be more limited.

[Dylan Waco]

Ricky Santana

 

 

w/Rex King v. The Heartbreakers

 

 

w/Invader v. California Studs

 

Haven't watched these in a while but remember loving both, especially the Studs match.

 

I would also recommend the entire Bobby Jaggers series which I believe is on YouTube, and I still contend he had shockingly good matches with Mr. Pogo.

[Woof]

This Lou Thesz match versus Antonino Rocca is clipped, but at 10 mins it's a nice primer for Lou's basic heel schtick and bullying.

The second Rikidozan match is a better look at him long-form. This was the first Thesz match I watched and it made me want to seek out more. (FYI, the first 5 mins of the video is background fluff. The match starts at about 5:20.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeujxM289JY

Outside of that you really can't go wrong with any of the Chicago Film footage over on YouTube. Some nice long matches against the likes of Vern Gagne, Buddy Rogers, Eduoard Carpentier, and Hans Schmidt.

[soup23]

Watched Rambo Ron Starr vs. Invader I

 

One thing that has been slightly offputting in the Puerto Rico stuff only compared to other styles is I feel the babyfaces take too much of the match. I was worried about this in this particular match with the opening. Invader takes most of the first 6-7 minutes of the match and what he does is fine although the hammerlock wasn't too inspiring. On the surface, the chair shot that changes the complexion of the match seems like an oversell. Who was the lady that delivered it? It wasn't a particularly brutal chair shot. Having said that, Invader's selling was so marvelous it made me give it a complete pass. Him staggering up and Ron going down to pound on him some more was harrowing stuff. My favorite segment was him sitting in a chair and it collapsing and someone trying to assist him up to his feet only to be escorted away from the scene by the police. Once Invader is finally able to get back in, he hits some hail mary shots but the thing I liked about this match in comparison to some of the other PR stuff, is that the match was effectively over. Starr needed one knockout blow and he knows that and is bidding his time until he hits a DDT and wins in a pretty abrupt fashion that feels totally justified. Great match and the sell job by Invader was sublime.

[soup23]

Invader vs. Perez was a pretty awesome brawl. Only punches and kicks here but it went the perfect length and the teases of the stairwell bump with Invader upside down was especially visceral. I also enjoyed the finish as the stariwell plays into the finish as Perez just decides to bolt as he has had enough. Not much you can type out about a match about this but it was really entertaining as a hate filled brawl type match.

[InYourCase]

Chad, the two Dragon Gate guys I would really take a look at are Shingo Takagi and Masaaki Mochizuki.

 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k65e9UD8c7YZaEdDkxj

 

Here's my review for VOW, if you want it.

 

If you want more DG recs, let me know. I'd be more than happy to throw a few things your way.

[Ship Canal]

R.e Dragon Gate guys chad, I'm not even sure if Don Fuji is nominated, but even if he isn't, when you get more time I think you'll dig him. He's basically about as far away from the stereotype of a DG worker as possible, at least to my eyes. Just a salty pissed off fella who seemingly came out the womb middle aged and has no time for the frippery of these kids with their flippy doo antics.

[Ship Canal]

Also on the subject of Thesz if you want to get an idea of how he held up later in his career there's a Thesz/Gotch vs Inoki/Sakaguchi tag that goes long and is the first match on Ditch's chronological All Japan archive site. Its not a classic, but nor is it anything approaching bad. Its got some nice subtle heeling by Thesz as he plays the veteran who knows every trick in the book but he never veers over into a caricature, its more just stuff like stalling for time in holds and deliberately taking a while to get back into exchanges with the younger guys. He can still go and the year is like 1973 or something.