Posted February 21, 201114 yr comment_5465790 Rick Martel vs. Roger Teriault (Spring 1986) This is a taped match from International TV in Montreal. Martel looks good here. Next we get another great Terry Funk video from his ranch where he brandishes a shotgun. Then we get clips of a Baba/Rusher match from Budokan. Barry Windham vs. "Stretcher" Jack Hart (Barry Horowitz) (Spring 1986) This is a TV match from Florida. Boris Zuhkov vs. Nacho Berrera (Spring 1986) Squash from AWA TV. Then we get promos by Colon & Sheeps about the anniversary shows. Carlos Colon vs. Mike Jackson (Summer 1984) This is from a JCP TV taping. Abdullah the Butcher & King Tonga vs. Gino Dellaserra & Pierre Martel (February 1983) This is basically a squash as Gino got killed here. Carlos Colon & The Invader vs. Los Mercenarios (Cuban & Iranian Assassins) (February 1983) Rare TV match for Colon. This was a competitive match with Colon using the figure-four to win. Okay for what it was. Barrabas vs. Caesar Pabon (February 1983) Squash. El Gran Apollo vs. Dick Steinborn (February 1983) Nice little match here with Apollo coming out on top. Steinborn was really good as the grizzled veteran. Crazy Luke Graham vs. Jose Miguel Perez (February 1983) Graham wins easily. King Tonga vs. Gino Dellaserra (February 1983) Gino has better luck here in a singles match with Tonga but the result would be the same from the earlier tag match as Tonga still wins. Tonga using the shennomake and WWC putting up a blue dot to censor the move was hilarious. Scorpio & Mr. Tempest vs. John Bonello & Keith Larsen (February 1983) Okay match with the rudos winning. Buddy Landell vs. Angel Diaz (February 1983) Squash.
June 30, 201312 yr comment_5549473 The first show is the build up to the Universal title tournament at Aniversario 86. All of those Terry Funk promos are great. Abdullah and Tonga is quite the scary team. Steinborn had a good run in the late 70'sand early 80's, both as a face and a heel. One of the more memorable angles he did was dressing up as El Santo and presenting an award to Carlos, only to sneak attack him and reveal it was Steinborn.
October 26, 201311 yr comment_5568961 The Funk promo is fucking awesome and I would argue for it's inclusion as it was all about setting up for a WWC tourney anyhow. EXTRA Everything else early on doesn't really fit as it's stuff from other territories, though I suppose the Herders and Colon promos might be worth an EXTRA Abdullah the Butcher & King Tonga vs. Gino Dellaserra & Pierre Martel On paper I kind of hoped this would be a wild brawl, with Pierre and Abddy pairing off to cut each other. Instead this ended up being a mauling by the heel team on Gino. I will say that I really enjoyed this for what it was, which was a fun Tonga performance and Abby hitting a couple of nasty big spots. Carlos Colon & The Invader vs. Los Mercenarios (Cuban & Iranian Assassins) Cool to see Carlos in a regular studio match for the first time. Even better was the fact that Colon was totally in workrate/studio mode as he did this awesome babyface corner evasion spot which led to a couple of really great looking head scissors and a dropkick. Cuban Assassin to his credit took some awesome bumps for all of this as well. I am used to Colon's athleticism and Invader's babyface routine too, but Colon as really working almost like a 1995 babyface Shawn Michaels here which really impressed me. Then he actually ends up being the FIP in the match. The heels offense was nothing outstanding, but I did like that they isolated him and colon ran through there double teams for some good bumps, with Invader having to save him from multiple pins. Solid double finish with the faces subs too. I can't seriously argue this as a nomination because it was a glorified squash and the heels didn't get enough, but I really could see a case for this as an EXTRA Barrabas vs. Caesar Pabon Fuck yes it is the Dennis Stamp of Puerto Rico, Barrabas! This starts out as just sort of there and then Barrabas lights this dude up with some chops and knees him hard as fuck in the kidneys. Seriously it looked like a shoot kidney assault. Pabon came back with a half hearted offensive run and Barrabas was bumping like a motherfucker for his shit. Then Barrabas crushed him with a piledriver which looked awesome, unfortunately the asshole Pabon sold it poorly, although there was a pretty cool follow up spot, before Barrabas had enough of his dumb bullshit again and clubbed him in the throat. The finishing neckbreaker was underwhelming, but I really do love Barrabas. El Gran Apollo vs. Dick Steinborn Kris is right, Steinborn is pretty awesome. Like Barrabas he's a guy I want to get on the set one way or the other, but I'm not sure it's going to happen as a match to be ranked. He is really great at changing speeds, getting over the damage of basic holds and doing little things like using his leg for leverage on offense or letting Apollo dangerously wreck him with a body slam of all things. I was really impressed with the timing of the highspots in this, as like the Apollo/Landell match this didn't have a ton of them, but they all seemed designed for maximum effect and looked great. I also liked Steinborn's strategy of evading runs but going out to the floor or jumping in between the ropes every time he was at a disadvantage. He took some rally strong theatrical bumps in this and did a good job selling the flash pin too. This only goes about seven minutes, but I enjoyed it enough where I think it at least deserves consideration for the set. Crazy Luke Graham vs. Jose Miguel Perez Luke Graham is almost Ox Baker level "fuck this" and this sucked. There is a really spirited promo with Hugo and Tonga and Budro posing after this that is pretty awesome. Maybe an EXTRA King Tonga vs. Gino Dellaserra Man Tonga was a quick motherfucker with some of his kicks back then. Loved Tonga's rolling arm bar and there is this great moment in this where Gino goes for a dropkick and Tonga brushes it off and then goes insane with strikes and then the CENSORED choke. Enjoyable pseudo-squash here. Scorpio & Mr. Tempest vs. John Bonello & Keith Larsen Holy fuck there is one spot in this that made this worth watching as Scorpio tossed Larsen through the air at his corner onto the knee of Tempest. He didn't drop him, the motherfucker heaved him through the air onto another guys knee. Completely ridiculous spot. The rest of this was solid enough, albeit uneventful, but that one spot made this well worth my time. Budro squash was entertaining and vicious as all hell like all good Buddy squashes. I mean a super entertaining ass kicking, including a face rubbing the mat, maybe the best belly to belly in the history of wrestling and Landell heaving this scrub wildly through the ropes after he dared to get a near fall on a crossbody. Then Buddy just viciously knees him in the face every time he tries to get in the ring and gorilla presses him for the pin as Hugo goes nuts with glee. Man Buddy was good as fuck back then. I actually loved this disc.
