Subject: MITSUHARA MISAWA! and JUN AKIYAMA! wrestle like mofos! GREAT SASUKE! goes at it in an armory in Minnesota! MEIKO SATOMURA! kicks SONOKO KATO! right in the face! LA PARKA! does the WWO! SHOCKER!! BABEEE!! {{SHOCKER!!}} and other stuff from this here week o wrestling!
ALOHA~!
Welcome to DEATH VALLEY DRIVER VIDEO REVIEW #68!
This is the first of two supplemental clearinghouse posts that will set up the LuchaWhompaThon that will be gracing our lovely newsgroup and our lovely world wide web as soon as Phil gets the tapes to us and I watch the wads of Lucha that are laying around my TO BE WATCHED bin.. Phil- the lucky bastard- got FORTY-SIX FREAKIN HOURS OF LUCHA from Canadian Steve and now he doesn't have time to sleep, but wrote some stuff anyway as we zero in on ALL THE LUCHA IN THE WORLD 98!. But first a word from REVEREND RAY....
#$#$#$#$#$#$#$ PWA (PRO WRESTLING AMERICA) - 1/23/97 (Minnesapolis, MN):
-REV RAY!
Great Sasuke v. Lucious Lenny Lane :
This is in some public access sort of taping at a National Guard Armory. No really, I'm the Great Sasuke, former J Crown Champ, worked in the Tokyo Dome against Jushin Lyger.... then again, considering most of the arenas MPro works in, this about what Sasuke is used to. The ring is knee height off of the floor. Sasuke does about 5 moves, a few kick misses, 2 kicks and a tope con hilo and the announcers are already marking out beyond all belief. Lane juices after getting thrown into the chairs at ringside. The announcers throw the phrase "Whadda Manuever" a whole bunch. Sasuke controls the entire match until Lenny drops him in a hot shot on the top rope. Lenny distracts the ref as his manager Mortimer Plumtree works over Sasuke. Lenny gets in a somersault plancha. He goes for the psicosis turn around somersault senton, but misses. Sasuke with a flying side kick off the top. Asai moonsault into the crowd. Lenny low blows Sasuke, who returns the favor. Sasuke with an asai moonsault for an almost 3. A few near falls too close to the ropes. Sasuke tripped by Plumtree and Lenny with a near 3. Sasuke german for a two. Plumtree hits Sasuke to break up an octopus hold. Lenny gets caught on the top rope, Sasuke puts Lenny on his shoulder, Lenny pulls out the world's slowest rana and cradle to score the win... you heard it right. Lenny Lane scores the pin. Sasuke gets the mic and yells something in Japanese. Sharkey translates it to "Sasuke says he wants to comeback and challenge Lenny again". I think he really said "I JUST LOST TO LENNY FREAKIN' LANE! WHO'S NEXT? ALDO MONTOYA?" They set up an angle where two big guys come down to ringside and they say that they can be Sasuke's managers for the rematch.
@#@#@#@#@# EMLL TV 4/96-5/96
-dhr!
This is from the batch of Lucha Libre that Robert Bahari sent me. He and Steve have become the Canadian suppliers of Mexican SWANKness these days.
Guerrero de la Muerte/ Felino/ Arkangel vs Mr Niebla/ Super-Astro/ a Solar:
The rudos get the first caida which is a hard lesson to learn about Lucha- you gotta go through the rudos getting heat by doing absolutely nothing cool to get the heat for the when they put the technico over later. Usually you stick this in the second caida so you can get in all the Whomp Ass matwork during the first Caida. It's easy to say- that during this fall- Guerrerro De La Muerte is not giving Fuerza Guerrera a run for his money as best and most interesting rudo ever. He really gets a special place on my crap list for fucking up Mr Nieblas SWANKER THAN SWANK super-mettalic mask so early in the match. Wotta scumbum! Kick his ass Niebla! It's a pretty worthless first caida as the three rudos decide to do their Hermanos Dynamitas impersonation and I get to shiver in the proverbial Lucha corner. The second caida has Niebla sporting that Hayabusa look because all of his hair is sticking out of the top of his mask but luckily he tries to kick this match into gear by ACTUALLY kicking Guerrerro de la Muerte right in the ass. ALLRIGHT! Niebla RULES! This caida is kinda laid back except for the Super Astro's PHAT ASS cross-body and Quebrada tope and Mr Niebla's Ciclon Ramirez Old School Tope that beat my ass into the GROUND with it's manly goodness. The third caida is more of the mainline goodstuff with SuperAstro hitting the ULTRAFUNTABULOUS Assisted-Over-The-Toprope Tope Suicida which followed a superswank running rana. Arkangel doesn't kill himself and is totally wasted in this match as he falls victim to Niebla's cretinously AWESOME submission. Two wasted caidas and not enough in the real caida. Hell, Felino and Solar did nothing in this one. Actually, this is all to set up....
Guerrero de la Muerte/ Felino/ Arkangel vs Mr Niebla/ Super-Astro/ that same Solar {TWO!}: The Revenge of Jared-Syn!:
This is the cooler version of the previous match, though it dwells far too long on the Niebla/de la Muerte feud- as these two are still at odds- probably for Niebla making Guerrerro sell his idiot submission. This one is of the more classic style as they take it to the mat in the first caida. Super Astro makes me stand with mouth agape in sheer awe as he gets the TRES bizarro Crucifix-Cross-Armbreaker on Felino. Solar shows why he is one of the more underrated luchadores as he isn't afraid to make with some wild beautiful movement as he goes from quick roll-up to quick roll-up. This degenerates into a rudo fall but Arkangel is too compelling in this to make it as crappy as the last rudo caida these guys had. The second caida starts off with Niebla kicking de la Muerta's decrepit ass all over the ring for a while, but he does it with nothing more compelling than a Quebradora as Guerrerro shows that his rudo stock is falling by the minute with me. Arkangel and Solar tear it up
with Arkangel bumping like the sick little monkey that he is. Super Astro breaks loose AND NO MAN CAN HOLD HIM! Solar hits a rad Dos Caras roll-up, as Muerte is "killing" (YES!) any chance of Niebla of doing ANYTHING cool. The third caida, Super-Astro hits that Fat Ass running rana again. Guererro de la Muerta stinks it up- CIEN CARAS-STYLE!. Arkangel dies a horrible death to set up Super Astros fakee into a SWANK Diving Fatboy Senton. Muerta foules Niebla thus "murdering" (HAHAHAHA!) any chance I had of REALLY liking this match. Ehh. It was better than the previous match. An added bonus was the Kick-In-The-Wedding-Tackle-Cam that EMLL employed to make sure you knew exactly where the foule took place.
Boy! Right THERE, hunh?
Emilio Charles Jr/ Satanico/ Rey Bucanero Jr vs Silver King/ Dos Caras/ SHOCKER!:
First Caida: Silver King kicks ass wrestling technico since he has the larger than life offense that is required to rule as a face. Dos Caras and Satanico mix it up in a VERY old school way- I think you can see some of these cool holds on cave paintings in Alcupulco. Rey Buccanero shows his true rudo colors by killing himself like a sick little Arkangel with his super-modified Alcohol-feuled Funny Car of a Jerry Estrada bump. {SHOCKER!} rocks the fucking house by hitting the first caida Vertical Tope that kills the living Hell out of Emilio Charles. DURN! Second Caida: Dos Caras hits the World's Oldest Hurricanrana as Rey Bucanero >DIES AGAIN!< this time with a One-Handed Jerry bump. Third Caida: True LUCHA FREAKOUT as SHOCKER goes WILD~! Satanico gets his three cents in by getting a MUCH cooler version of the Rings Of Saturn that sets up Emilio Charles Love Machine Splash. The Rudos drop the Technicos like a bunch of punks. Silver King and Emilio Bust each other up post match and I as digging this the MOST! SHOCKER rules the gar-dang world! WHIP ASS!
Astro Rey Jr/ Mano Negro/ Arkangel vs Ringo Mendoza/ Solar I /Brazo de Oro:
This was a weird match! Very Danny Hodge/ Nelson Royal-esque. First Caida: Astro Rey and Solar take it to the mat in a very traditional fashion which I love to no end. Mano Negro fearlessly applies the Ob/gyn double ankle lock on Brazo do Oro that I NEVER want to see again. ...uhhhh. Disturbing.... Brazo is so ungood these days and his chunkiness taking it to the mat is not a thing of beauty. Mendoza hits a cool Octagon roll-up for the first caida duke. HEY! An all-mat caida. COOL!. Second Caida: This caida speeds up as they get into the drop-kick and armdrag section of the match with Mano Negro (of all people) hitting a pretty choice dropkick off the second turnbuckle. The rudos second caida and it's STILL ALL SCIENTIFIC and stuff. WHIP ASS! This is plenty odd. Third Caida: This caida goes back to the mat with it going all super old school- as if Sayama, Lizmark and Atlantis never happened. This is super cool. Astro Rey reverses a monkey flip sequence into a Boston Crab. SCIENTIFIC AS ALL HELL! GET SOME OF THIS!
!@!@!@!@!@!@ MICHINOKU PRO WRESTLING-on Samurai TV Aug 1997
(This tape actually has other matches like that Sasuke/SuperBoy Ladder and stuff from that Champ Forum that were already reviewed in DVDVR #51 , so Phil just reviewed the matches that were available only on the Samurai Special. We're like that. And shit.- dhr.)
-phil!
Super Boy v. Jinsei Shinzaki:
Shinzaki is the excalibur sword of wrestling, only the truly legendary can pull him to anything worth two shits. While Super Boy is real neat and fast and fat, he ain't Misawa or Bret Hart so him and Jinsei is going to suck, and suck it does. Super Boy tries hitting a neat tope and a moonsualt but then Shinzaki does some of the worlds most deliberate offense, and puts this baby to bed with his praying powerbomb. To summarize: Shinzaki stinks. Super Boy is fat.
Great Zebra v. Gas Mask Dog:
Great Zebra is this huge guy with a Zebra costume who kind of wrestles like Dick Murdoch on peyote. He basically beats the crap out of the Gas Mask guy, including a Plancha off the stage, which sounds cooler then it is, because the stage was only about five feet off the ground, but hey Great Zebra is huge so it was still kind of neat. He also does a super ridiculous move where he runs across the gym floor and does a big baseball slide into a kneebar which was hugely preposterous, he also does the neat AWA elbow. If this match was, say, Hugh Morris v. The Barbarian and it was exactly the same it would have sucked, but the Great Zebra has such an absurd outfit that it was a-okay with me.
Oriental/Great Sasuke/Noriro Hoshikawa/Tiger Mask v. Dick Togo/Men's Teiho/Shoichi Funaki/Hanzo Nakajima:
This was an elimination match which rocked the world as these kind of MPRO matches are wont to do. It started out with a great super fast mat series with Sasuke and Hanzo. Hanzo- who usually stinks up the joint- was as good as I have ever seen him in this bad boy, hitting some suplexes and doing a great spinning kick to the back of Sasuke's head. Dick Togo was the king- as usual- as he took the super green Oriental by the hand and led him through all of Oriental's high spots which Oriental kind of blew but Togo compensated and made look crisp, the youngster wins the craziest move award by hitting a killer rolling senton to the floor. They let this bad boy go 25 minutes without an elimination, and suprisingly let Oriental and Hoshikawa be the last two in. The end is king size with Hoshikawa being left alone with KDX and then Funaki sends away his gang and him and Hoshikawa rip it up shootstyle for a couple of minutes before KDX runs back in and finishes Hoshikawa off. Maybe the
best MPRO tag match of 1997 and worth getting your hands on a copy. DICKMANIA running wild!
%^%^%^%^%^% TERRY FUNK'S WRESTLEFEST on ECW Fan Cam 9-27-97
-REV. RAY!
The show opens with a 10 bell salute to Fritz Von Erich.
Roadkill v. W*ING Kanemura :
They flew in Kanemura for this?!??! Kanemura's moving pretty well, so I guess he's not injured yet. It's not a death match, so Kanemura gets to show that he can wrestle and do planchas and stuff other than get powerbombed on fire. Kanemura controls a bunch o the match, but Roadkill gets a fair about of offense. Kanemura shows off a neato Dick Togo-esque senton for the win. Pretty much a squash, but enjoyable at least.
Taz v. Chris Candido (ECW TV Title match) :
Candido announced as being managed Sunny but she doesn't come out. Losing points already :-) Actually a pretty good match. Taz and Chris work on the mat early on with Taz getting the upperhand, Candio gets in a powerbomb and controls for a while with some cheap shots. Taz pulls out an exploder and a chancery takedown. Candido gets control, hits a top rope rana. Chris goes for a suplex, Taz turns it into the Katahajime for a quick tap out.
Cooga (Jd') v. Shark Tsuchiya (FMW) :
Shark announced to come out first, but Cooga comes out... whoops. It's a shark match, to her credit, she doesn't do the Pogo slicing in the match, but she still sucks. Cooga does pull out a swinging DDT, a Kappou Kick and a Destiny Hammer style flying knee of the ropes. But it's Shark. Shark with the pin after a few clotheslines.
The Bushwhackers v. Chris & Mark Youngblood :
The Youngbloods are with their dad and an American Flag with a Native American on it. The 'Whackers were sort of acting facish when they came out, but the whackers attacked them at the bell and they start working heel. Not... Very... Good.... 10 minute match that finishes with 45 seconds left and I was feeling all of it. Luke pinned after Mark drop kicked Chris on top of him. You know, I thought Luke and Butch might be decent if they went back to working heel. I was wrong. Collect the New Zealand of Social Security boys....
Buh Buh Ray Dudley takes out Sandman prior to his match with Ballz Mahoney leading to...
Buh Buh Ray Dudley v. Ballz Mahoney :
The greatest technical match in wrestling history.... just kidding. A really... really blown spot were Ballz comes off the top rope for a flying chair shot and Buh Buh was supposed to drop kick the chair... but doesn't... Ballz with three cane shots to the head. Not... very... Good...
Shane Douglas v. Tommy Dreamer (ECW Title Match) :
It's not clear if this is a non-title match or not. They brawl around at the start, Shane gets in control and works on Dreamer's leg and builds towards using the figure four. Francine and Beaulah get in the ring and rake Tommy and Shane's eyes. Dreamer almost gets him with a abdominal stretch cradle. Dreamer with a 2 after a bad bulldog (with the camera angle, you can see shane's head never hits the mat). Dreamer goes for the DDT, Francine rakes his eyes, cat fight. Dreamer goes to DDT Francine, Shane clips him. Shane slams beaulah by her hair and gives her the belly to belly. Dreamer with roll up for 2. Death Valley Driver for 2. Belly to Belly for 2. DDT, but Francine jumps on dreamer and gets a piledriver. Shane with the Belly to belly for the 3. An eh match. Seen this match a whole bunch of times in different places. See Dreamer-Shane Finisher #2.
Mankind v. Sabu:
Sabu controls early and knocks Mankind out to the floor, hits a somersault plancha. Mankind hurts his leg, Sabu works it over. Sabu hits a chair launch leg lariat, goes for a second but gets elbowed. Sabu catches mankind on the ropes, hits a top rope rana. Mankind on the top rope, Sabu goes for a chair launch top rope rana, but Mankind hits him so Sabu crotches himself. Mankind runs him into the chair. Mankind misses a clothesline to the floor, they set a table spot which breaks when Mankind claws Bill Alfonso and Sabu cross bodies him so they go through the table. Sabu rips of Mankind's mask. Sabu with a triple jump moonsault for a 2. Chairshot off the second rope. Mankind gets punches down Sabu in the corner, running knee, Double arm DDT. He claws Sabu, Alfonso runs in and gets clawed... and so does the ref. Styles claims Sabu is DQed because it isn't an ECW match. They brawl to the back. Could have been much better considered who was in it.
The Headhunters/Jake Roberts v. Hayabusa/Masato Tanaka/Jinsei Shinzaki:
The fans don't really seem to know who to cheer for. They know Roberts so they cheer him. Jake is not wrestling with his smock... unfortunately. This match plods a long it's not very crisp or much chaining stuff together. Jake really looks out of it. Hunters work over Tanaka, One with a splash, the other with a top rope drop kick. Shinzaki saves Tanaka after a Tiger Driver. Roberts goes for the DDT but Hayabusa and Shinzaki with top rope chops to block it. Brawl around the ring. Hayabusa takes out one of the Headhunters with a 450 splash. A lack luster match. Seen better from all involved. I heard rumors of Page and Raven pushing for WCW to bring in Roberts, if he does come in I hope it's of the ring.
Terry Funk v. Bret Hart (WWF Title match) No DQ match :
Pre-match, Paul E. presents Terry with a title belt. Bret also does a tribute on the mic, and promises to give Terry an ass whipping as well. Pretty solid match, early they work technically with Bret stalling a lot. Bret gets in control by using brawling and working over Funk's leg. Bruce and yet another Hart brother taunt Funk while he's in a figure four. After working on the leg with some chair shots, Funk works on Bret's leg. Funk tries to set up a table spot, but Bret gets out of the way and Funk gets busted open. Bret gets Funk the in ring, Funk turns a sharp shooter attempt into a small package which Bret reverses. Funk gets the spinning toe hold on. Bret packages him, kick out at two. The finish comes with Funk back suplexing Bret, but Bret gets the shoulder up at two to retain the title. Post match, Bret and Terry shake hands. A solid match, one real highspot, but good.
&*&*&*&*& GAEA G-PANIC! (1/10/98, taped on 12/13/97 and 12/27/97)
-dhr!
Yamada vs Toshie Uematsu:
This was pretty lacklustre because Uematsu is mostly about highflying and Yamada is more about kicking her in the face really hard. These "big gals kicking the youngster's ass" matches are killing the fun of GAEA on these G-PANIC specials. You know who's gonna win, the selling is all fucked up and neither ever look to into the match unless it's Meiko Satomura because she's gonna force anybody she's in with to take an ass-stomping and dish one out. Which leads us to the slightly better....
KAORU/ Meiko Satomura vs Chigusa Nagayo/ Sonoko Kato:
KAORU and Chigusa do some wrestling and stuff with KAORU hitting a couple of shiny moonsaults. Chigusa no-sells a bunch of Satomura's offense early- which sucks, thus furthering the Chigusa/ better young wrestlers "Kawada selling the lameness of Baba's offense"- effect but in reverse. KAORU softens up the old-timer so Meiko makes with the crazed corner forearms- which any true wrestling fan loves- which works towards a Meiko Death Valley Driver on her mentor right on her Dump-Matsumoto-carved head. Eventually, Chigusa and Sonoko get the offense back and Chigusa does a couple Rolling Threes for the win. KAORU kinda mailed this in and she wasn't wearing the Silver Shiny Outfit so she couldn't even win me over in a Foule-Cam Intensive kinda way, so I wasn't into this one.
They show a bunch of highlights of a one night tourney and I was digging the two-minute Satomura/ Numao match. Numao goes all shootstyle on Meiko and Meiko sells the leg until she gets the Death Valley Driver on the usually underachieving Miss Numao. Sonoko Kato is starting to use the BUFF Blockbuster and kills Matsomodo with it. Meiko gets a wrist lock submission while Akira Kato has her in the Argentine Backbreaker which is a counter so cool that you will never see it in WCW. Of the full matches...
Meiko Satomura vs Sonoko Kato:
This was really great. Both these ladies kick like Rockettes on high-grade crank and Sonoko Kato starts this baby off by punting Meiko's adorable lil head across the ring and kicking her a whole bunch and then topping it off with the super-dickish knees to the head that HAD to cheese off lil Meiko- best wrestler of her generation. Then they take it to the mat as they play Race To The Cross-Arm Breaker. Satomura keeps Kato on the defensive- hitting an anklelock out of a Kato Cross Arm Breaker attempt and goes into a half-crab. Sonoko hits her first offensive transition with a rolling Samoan drop and punts Meiko's adorable little puddin head a while longer setting up her second rope leg-drop. Sonoko hits her big transition move with middle turnbuckle reverse flying forearm (a flying burrito if you will- except stiff as hell). After this they kick each other in the face at the same time REAL HARD. Like Ray Guy and Dave Jennings if they really hated each other. Satomura goes in for the kill with a big axe kick and goes for her Cross Arm Breaker that Sonoko counters into a roll-up for the pin. The ending is just SWANK. They talk a big batch of smack at the end that bodes well because these two truly kill each other when they are in with each other and I dig it that they are starting to hate each other and stuff. WHIP ASS!
Sonoko Kato vs Chikayo Nagashima:
Sonoko starts by kicking the holy fuck out our gal Chikayo- getting in the knees to the head and the second rope legdrop in early. Magashima turns it around with a toprope dropkick and unleashes her arsenal of high-flying moves- rolling up Kato in every way imaginable until Sonoko gets her in the corner and gets her in the Hulk Hogan Full Nelson (except better). Nagashima tries a toprope bodypress and Sonoko kicks all her ribs through her back as Chikayo lies in a crumpled heap. After all that, Chikayo delays the inevitable Dragon Sleeper but eventually the suddenly surly and beautiful Sonoko Kato gets the Dragon on her and that's all she wrote. This was good but Nagashima should have gotten more in. I guess they are trying to get Sonoko over as being more heelish or just more pissed at youngster who strayed from Chigusa (Uematsu to Yamada, Satomura to KAORU and, of course, Nagashima and Sugar with Mayumi Ozaki). I dug it.
Akira Hokuto/ KAORU/ Chikayo Nagashima vs Chigusa/ Yamada/ Sonoko Kato:
Everybody wants a piece of everybody else. KAORU and Yamada hate each other because KAORU thinks that Yamada cost GAEA the match against OZ Academy because Yamada spent the whole match trying to beat the shit out of Ozaki, leaving KAORU hurt and lone against Sugar who got the pin in the last episode because Yamada was too distracted to save her partner. KAORU has been bent out of shape ever since. Sonoko Kato wants to beat Chikayo Nagashima's ass because she is a member of OZ Academy and they hate each other's guts. Akira Hokuto and Chigusa are in the middle of all this trying to keep some semblance of order because the match is secondary to each of the four getting their shots in on their rivals. Got that? GAEA fucking RULES. Yamada and KAORU stare a bitchy stare at each other as KAORU refuses to get in the ring with Yamada and Yamada refuses to get out of the ring to let Sonoko at Chikayo. Soon all four are standing there staring at each other until Yamada smacks Kato on the head and says, "Get out of the ring little missy. I'm older than you.
I get to kick KAORU's ass before anybody does anything." Chikayo Nagashima finally locks up with Yamada which is the opening that KAORU needed to springboard dropkick Yamada in the KNEE from the blind-side in the first truly GREAT dickish moves of 1998. Yamada then beats the hell out of Nagashima for the cheap shot and for not being KAORU. KAORU gets in to save the little punkin and Yamada and KAORU start a 1970's apartment wrestling match as they start pulling each others hair out (not that I've...ever seen... Apartment.... Wrestling.... or anythin...uh....) . Chigusa pulls them apart and tells Hokuto to come in and let's start having an actual wrestling match proper and that's the story. BOY! THIS IS FUN!! GLOW was NEVER this GREAT! This is how you build a feud folks. All in the ring, all making logical sense and everybody beating the hell out of each other. KAORU whomped ass hard in this match when it got to the actual wrestling part- switching from high-flying to shootstyle at will, depending on the strength of whoever she was in with at the time. Yamada wasn't afraid to hit a Locomotion Backdrop Driver on KAORU that KAORU sold like a champ until she reverses Yamada's Reverse Gorie Driver to set up a BEE-YOO-TEE-FULL toprope quebrada. Yamada does a bunch of damage to KAORU's super-enchanting face by hitting a HIDEOUS running heel kick that set-up the Reverse Gorie Driver, but Hokuto and Chikayo make the save. Hokuto hits a missile dropkick thus giving KAORU the opening to hit her Excalibur (the real-deal Michonku Driver II. It's REAL hurty and stuff) AND GETS THE PIN! KAORU FUCKIN PINS YAMADA! I'm sorry. It's just that KAORU has NEVER had a big win in GAEA EVER for some reason, so I freaked out and partied. Postmatch, KAORU sets a new standard for surliness by STANDING ON YAMADA'S HEAD until they can pull her off . Nagashima and Kato also get into it and have to be pulled apart. GET ALL THIS! This was CHOICE.
!@!@!@!@!@!@ WWO Handhelds (8/8 and 8/10/97-Ron Rivera Version) :
-REV.RAY!
Felino/Perro Russo v. Rey Misterio Sr./Lizmark Sr. :
It's Cats and Dogs working together! Who'd a thunk it! Perro Russo recently did a tour with Michinoku Pro. Kind of a built guy, but not really much in terms of spectacular moves except maybe a somersault apron dive. They work the ole' spot with Felino trying to get Rey Sr. to shake his hand. Felino gets into a chopping match with Rey Sr., then tries to sell a foul after getting on the losing end of some chops. Tecnicos get the first fall with Liz ranaing Felino and Rey northern lights suplexing Perro. Rey Sr. suprises me by pulling out a swinging DDT and one off the ropes on Perro. His nephew musta sent him some MPro. Felino fouls Liz and gets the segunda caida. Perro pins Rey Sr. after a double underhook suplex. Final fall starts with off camera brawling. Rey Sr. pulls off a nice tope. Third falls ends with Rey Sr. putting Felino in an abdominal stretch, Liz hits Perro with a top rope drop kick and then he gets fouled. Technicos win by DQ. Post match, Felino gets into it with Rey Sr., who rips off his mask.
Astro Zomibe 2000/Leprechan Erin O'Grady v. Vicous Vic Grimes/American Wild Child :
This is pretty cool. Grimes is really the big man in the match. I'd say he's over 300 pounds and pretty much dwarfs everyone else in the match. I thought he'd probably stink up the match when I saw him walking to the ring, but Vic proved me wrong. Erin goes for a few of the typical weirdo lucha arm drags and Vic comes up with good power move counters to them. Vic pulls out a cool spot where he sets O'Grady up for a high angle powerbomb, but drops Erin and catches him with a diamond cutter. Vic also takes a buch of the head scissor bumps too, so- all in all- very respectable in the match. Vic also pulls out a press slam into a face first powerbomb drop which was also pretty sweet. American Wild Child spends a lot of the match drawing heat with the fans, who chant "Faggot" at him. He doesn't seems to do too much to draw a lasting impression in the match. Erin O'Grady pulls off a nice doctor bomb on American Wild Child. Erin seems to have a good mix of mat, flying and he bumps well. Erin pulled off a twisting head scissors on the floor that nearly sent Vic into the crowd. He also pulls a nice slingshot into a flying head scissor. Erin showed a bunch of neat-o cool stuff. I'd be interested in seeing him again. Astro Zombie Dos Mil seems to be mostly an air game. He showed off a nice bunch of top rope flying moves and pulled out a cool springboard drop kick. Post match, the fight continues on the floor and and I think the Promo boys run in and lay out O'grady. Overall. I'd heard of Vic and Erin and they impressed me. AZ2K looked pretty good and Wild Child wasn't Tenta or anything really horrible, so no complaints here.
Ultimo Dragoncito/Aztucia vs Espectrito/Jerrito Estrada :
Funny thing is, all the mini's, except maybe Espectrito are taller than Rey Jr. The heat for the match is good and Jerrito does a bit of working the crowd to get even more into it. The match cuts out for a bit, but when it comes back, Espectrito fouls Aztucia. Rudos take primera ciuada after Espectrito does some sort of small package on Aztucia, who kicks out of it at 2, but gets caught for 3 as Espectrico keeps it on. After Jerito tries to take some crazy bumps, Dragoncito pulls out a crazy tope which gets the fans to their feet. Aztucia misses a moonsault and Espectrito pins him after a senton. Post match, Damian 666 and the promo boys run in and beat up Dragoncito and Aztucia. Then mug for picts with Jerrito and Espectrito
Lizmark, Jr./Villano 4/ Super Calo vs Juventud Guerrera/ Ciclope/Mike Modest (Lumberjack Match) :
The Giant runs in and... oh wait, this is WWO, not WCW :-)
Modest and Wild Child, I think wrestle as "La Migra", or "The Immigration Service", and thus are bound to draw heat with the mostly mexican audience. While the Giant doesn't run in during the match, there is a run in on the camera by a kid's head. Man, that kid must have a huge melon, because it covers up the whole screen. The rudos keep running outside and the lumberjacks give them a bit of a beating and throw them back in. Villano IV does a couple of good looking DDT's. Hey, the head's back! You know, I can almost see the ringpost, how about showing us the back of your shirt! YEAH BABY! The Rudos win, probably with the help of the human wall in front of the camera.
Damian 666/Psicosis/La Parka . Silver King/Rey Misterio Sr./ Hector Garza :
Cool factor of the match is that Damian and Parka are on the same side and do a couple of comedy spots. Of course, I'd love to see these two in Japan where Damian pulls out his million and one impersonations. He does however, add DDP to his list. Garza armdrags Damian a few times, and Damian ends up crotching himself on the ropes each time he slides across the ring trying to draw a DQ for the foul. Silver King gets the crowd going with Psicosis by doing the "ole'" bit. Garza does the "Ole'" bit with Damian, hits him with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, Parka tries to jump him from behind, but when Garza turns to face him, Parka stops dead in his tracks and and gives him applause. Rey Sr. does a sequence where he dodges the rudo's slaps just in time so the rudos keep hitting each other and then their female valet, Miss Janet? Damian gets the cane and starts working over Silver King. They mix it up a bit, Ciclope runs in with the cane, Silver King gets it and works over the rudos. They do a spot starting with Rey Sr. missing a senton where a rudo attempts a high spot, misses, then a techinco goes, etc, with each one missing. They try to set up the lucha libre star, but Parka ducks King's rana attempt and breaks up the stars. the multiple dives to the floor missed. I can't really see it, but Parka chairs the ref to break up a count, Miss Janet runs in, someone runs in to attack her and I think Konnan runs in and DDT's someone. King pins I think Damian to get the win for the technicos.
Konan/Mil Mascaras/Mascara Sagrada vs Doink/Yokozuna/Fatu :
3 words... Not... Very... Good... When Konnan's probably the best worker in the ring.... oh my. Konnan's in full nWo outfit and working as a babyface. Whatever. Highlight of the match is Yokozuna's selling of a Konnan low blow. Techincos via a top rope body press. Post match Konnan challenges the Samoans to any kind of match and we're graced with a bunch of words you can never say on TV. To top it off, Konnan's in the ring, and "All Together Now" (aka the RAW Theme) plays in the background....
%^%^%^%^%^ ALL JAPAN TV (2/1/98)
-dhr!
GLENN! Being God-like and all, sent me this and the GAEA so I am once more drenched in puroresu goodness. Mmmmmmm....
Jun Akiyama vs Mitsuhara Misawa:
Well THIS was pretty freakin good. It starts off with Jumbo Akiyama hitting a High-knee and then he dropkicks Cactus Misawa off the top turnbuckle to the floor onto his Triple Crown winning head, killing Misawa. Dead. Thus returns Jun Akiyama to the world of GREAT wrestling matches, having come off a very quiet 1997. He does a number on the Greatest Wrestler In The World early-hitting a few Exploders to set up young Jun REALLY killing Misawa with a Tombstone Piledriver onto the floor. After the hot beginning, they go into some full-blown All Japan Restholds for a few minutes to lead to Akiyama running Misawa into the turnbuckle to Jumbo Knee the hell out of the young Mitsuhara and then runs him into the other corner to hit a Tiger Driver and a Misawa elbow. Misawa loses all semblance of Stoicism as he gets pissed at the young punk for stealing his moves and starts lighting into him. "Young PUNKS! Why in my day, Dick Beyer woulda..." After some restholds Misawa starts kicking him like a dog, which I was loving but Jun turns it around by hitting his Trifecta of Punkishness- Northern Lights Suplex into a Pedigree into a Toprope Flying Forearm into the back of the old man's head. Then Akiyama hits a Doctor Bomb into a Final COOP DE GRACIE Exploder! But Misawa escapes and knocks the hippy freak to the floor with a "Get-A-Haircut!" elbow. "Get a job, ya deadbeat! Kids today! Why I oughta... " Still woozy and seemingly channeling the spirit of Mosco de la Muerta, Misawa hits a utlimate Lucha Trifecta of his own- a FAT ASS tope, a quite dicklike senton and the SUPER PHAT ASS PISCADO to the floor on a prone Akiyama. "ARRIBA LA RAZA!" he said, I believe. Misawa drags Jun's corpse to the ring but can't get the pin for some reason (Rigor Mortis maybe?). Aki fights out a deadly Tiger Driver with a Dragon Screw and hits this weird Cheerleading Stunt Gone Horribly Wrong move into a Malenko reverse Powerbomb into the top turnbuckle. Misawa then says, "Ah CRAP! I gotta sells this neck-crushing stuff from Akiyama now TOO! First Kawada and Kobashi and now this guy! This job SUCKS!" Jun hits a series of Exploders and the crowd goes all insane as it looks like an upset is an outside possibility. Jun tries to go for a toprope Exploder but has to settle for a toprope Tiger Suplex and then hits a Murdockian Brain Buster, as one begins to realize that Akiyama is starting to put together Kanemoto-style finishing sequences which is a very good thing. Akiyams hits another big Exploder and Misawa does that irritating as shit All Japan No-sell/ Hit a move/ Sell the prior move crap that I never bought (but I guess the AJ audience buys it, But WHATEVER.) This sets up Misawa's Tiger Driver and the big Elbow. Misawa then hits his new finisher- a sort of Overhand Death Valley Driver that looked TRES nasty and the epic struggle is over. This freakin RULED. I didn't like the fact that Misawa's final transition was started with what I consider faulty selling despite the precedence for it in All Japan (I AM THE GOD!) and it sucks weinie that such a pivotal section starts with it. But that's a small point compared to the Massive ASS STOMPINGNESS of this match.
And the new ending theme music is JUST WAYYYYY to Kajagoogoo-esque for my tastes, dammit.
NEXT WEEK: The rest of the Glenn tape with LIGER! Vs OHTANI! GAEA! GAEA! GAEA! FMW (ZACH! I THINK!) ECW! NCW! You name it!
Dean Rasmussen, Juventudiac~!
You looked just like an Elvis from Hell
My heart is broke so I'm going to Hell
Bury me way down deep in Hell
I was too drunk , man, I wanna go to Hell
For the Love of Ivy; The GUN CLUB- world's greatest band.
