Ron Starr vs. "Soulman" Rocky Johnson (8/6/88)

 

What was shown was good action but there was a clip in the middle as there was a commercial break.

 

Next we get Ricky Santana vs. El Profe JIP from 8/6/88.

 

WWC Tag Titles: Kendo Nagasaki & Mr. Pogo © vs. Bart & Brad Batten (8/6/88)

 

This is JIP but it looks like we didn't miss anything but a minute if that. Batten's are really good here as a team with fast tags and they have the champs on the ropes before we go to a break where when we come back we are in the middle of the FIP section. The rudos work over Brad hard even using the kendo stick but he would recover and Bart would get a sunset flip off the top rope on Kendo to win the titles. Fine for what it was.

 

Bart & Brad Batten vs. Don Kent & Random masked guy (August 1988)

 

This is JIP.

 

Rufus R. Jones vs. Tony Falk (August 1988)

 

Falk jumps Rufus at the bell but gets squashed at the end.

 

Next we get Pogo/Ricky Santana JIP with Santana being bloodied.

 

Then we get a Jimmy Valiant video from Memphis.

 

Next we get Ayala/Miguel Jr. JIP.

 

Ricky Santana vs. Angel Rivas (August 1988)

 

Spotlight match for Ricky.

 

Huracan Castillo Jr. & Miguel Perez Jr. vs. "Hangman" Bobby Jaggers & Dan Kroffat (August 1988)

 

Basic formula to start with the tecnicos tagging back and forth working over the heels especially on Jaggers' left arm. Kroffat would accidentally hit the ref with a clothesline and the rudos would use this chance to knock out their opponents and cut some of their hair until the Battens & Rufus ran them off. Extra material.

 

HOLY SHIT THE WWC AWARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and it's hosted by Gordon Solie & Boni Blackstone. This is a slam dunk extra.

The Caribbean Express/Jayhawks segment and the WWC awards are the notable segments here.

 

Pogo was paired off with Santana after Muta (dropped the Puerto Rico title to Ricky on 8/6/88) and Nagasaki left.

Ron Starr vs. "Soulman" Rocky Johnson The opening that proceeds this match is Hugo interviewing Ron Starr from an empty stadium and Starr looks like the sleaziest POS who ever lived. He is standing right next to Chicky and Ron outscums him by a wide margin. Ron Starr was fucking awesome in this match. He comes out with these sick knees, corners Rocky and then fucking wrecks him with a palm strike/forearm combo thing that looked brutal. Later he drags Rocky down and just scrapes his face against the mat, when Rocky tries to return the favor he forces him down with a Fujiwara armbar takedown of all things. There are lots of spots in this that were interesting spins on the norm and Starr was also great with his bumping here. This does have an edit right after a Rocky flurry and we miss how Ron goes back on offense. Almost exactly six minutes are shown and I would actually consider this for a nomination if I knew how much we were missing. If this is on youtube I am going to need some help from Boricua here on how much time we are missing. Either way this was a great performance from Starr against a very limited opponent.

 

There is something that might be a commercial on here with Miguel Perez, TNT in full ninja garb on a street surrounded by women dressed in gold get ups. Completely bizarre.

 

Ricky Santana v. El Profe JIP. who knows how much is missing because Santana is already in peril and I expect he would have gotten a solid shine segment here. Profe ends up doing a second rope double stomp, which actually looked really good and then this weird sweeping kick that was shockingly on point as well for a guy who is often panned for being a bad worker. Santana's selling is really good in this and he throws some great looking forearms for hope spots. Fucking Profe ends up being an offensive machine in this throwing unprofessional looking slams, weird variations of ab stretches, a really good butterfly suplex...I mean it is totally bizarro world to me. Santana gets too heated allowing Profe to load up his mask, but Profe ends up airballing on a headbutt and gets rolled up for the finish. Five and half minutes shown. If we had this in full I imagine it would be a nomination, but absent the front in shine, it was just a good piece of a match. Still shocking impressive stuff from Profe

 

The show clips of an angle with Perez/Castillo wearing masks and surprising the Jayhawks in a match on tv. This is done during a good Jayhawks promo. EXTRA

 

More with Ron Starr in the empty building with Hugo

 

Kendo Nagasaki & Mr. Pogo © vs. Bart & Brad Batten Kind of a crazy match to watch. I know I sound like a broken record at this point,but it is amazing to watch Pogo doing work rate exchanges and getting over quick for armdrags and things of that ilk. The face shine here is really extended, perhaps too long, but a lot of the double teams looked good and I really enjoyed the stooging and antics of the heels. Nagasaki aimlessly spinning around with his hand out stretched was far funnier to me than it should have been. There is an edit here so we miss how the FIP started which is too bad, because it was a pretty good segment. I kind of loved the distraction spot that allowed Kendo to bust out the the stick on his opponent (also him tossing it to Profe and it hitting Pogo in the head was funny) and Kendo's side slam and spinning piledriver looked great. This also had a good finish with a Batten splatting for a huge bump on a missed headbutt off the top, but Kendo leaning over to pick him up only for the other Batten to hit a sunset flip off the top. We have had worse matches than this make sets, so it feels like this should be nominated. The only question is how much we are missing, though over ten minutes are shown.

 

Turns out Starr's have been in/around Roberto Clemente Stadium as they show a picture of his statue in the next promo this time from the front of the building. Ron Starr is great in this segment. Possible EXTRA

 

Bart & Brad Batten vs. Don Kent & Random masked guy JIP. I was hoping this would exceed my expectations and be a nomination just so I could nominate a match with "random masked guy" in it. This wasn't a nomination, but was fun. The Batten's worked twin magic early, Kent got in some licks and then there was this great collision with the random masked dude and (I think) Bart. Cool drop down/diving dropkick finish too. Fun, brief, squashy match. Rufus R. Jones vs. Tony Falk This was worth seeing just to see Falk's frantic attack and the Rufus hulk up. Man alive I know people hate on Rufus but he was charismatic as hell. This is incredibly brief but kind of awesome for what it was.

 

Ricky Santana v. Mr. Pogo JIP. I have nominated one of their matches but this wasn't it. This started off with Santana already a blood mess, so again we miss the shine which is kind of key to these matches. Pogo biting the cut and making disgusting faces with his mouth covered in plasma is career foreshadowing if there ever was such a thing. Santana really is an underrated babyface as his selling in the Cobra Clutch and playing off the crowd was actually quite good and dramatic. Santana's comeback is real hot, as he knocks Pogo to the floor, hits a diving axe off the apron and then chases him off with a chair. Not enough here to make the set, but this could be an EXTRA

 

More random shit with wrestlers hanging out with the gals in gold. V

 

aliant video is okay

 

Miguel Perez Jr. v. Hercules Ayala JIP. This is from the place where they tape tv regularly which makes me suspect that not that much is missing. Perez is in control early but ends up trying to chase a fleeing Herc and gets bumped into the steel. Fucking Chicky is there in his white track suit and absolutely pastes Perez with a lariat on the floor that looked like it might have killed him. Then Perez ends up taking a sick posting after that. Perez gets back in the ring and makes a comeback, only for Chicky to try and interfere. This led to a brilliant finish with Perez going to slam Chicky and Herc clipping him and locking on the figure-four. Less than four minutes shown so I won't nominate it, but if this was complete, even at a minute or two longer, I would push for it. Awesome segment really.

 

Ricky Santana vs. Angel Rivas Decent squash. Fun to watch Santana do his thing as he has some good offense. Shame that he didn't get more chances as he was actually a very good worker.

 

Huracan Castillo Jr. & Miguel Perez Jr. vs. "Hangman" Bobby Jaggers & Dan Kroffat Buddy Rose is the best rope running wrestler ever, but Dan Kroffat is a not so distant second. I swear every time he ran the ropes in this something awesome happened, including a great body slam spot off a leapfrog (seriously this looked awesome), some huge bumps for Castillo on face plants and body drops, a cool sharp knee to the guts cut off and his really great looking leaping shoulder block. Then he fucking crushed the ref with a lariat on another spot of that sort. They beat down Perez and Castillo and cut there hair in the ring til the faces make the safe. I'm not even sure this match ever "ended" as the ref was on his ass on the floor for quite some time. This was short enough where it is more likely an extra than a match for the set, but I am nominating it anyhow because the angle was basically a part of the match itself.

 

Man the WWC Awards. Holy fuck Chicky Starr getting out of the limo in a tux is already the best thing in the history of wrestling and then you see Gordon and Blackstone at the podium and gets even better. Loved the faces wearing white tuxes, the Santana video, the glorious live performance song at the end. Extra. I loved this disc.

Hugo and the Starrs are actually at Hiram Bithorn Stadium, the site of that night's card. If they are near the Roberto Clemente statue in one of the later clips, it means they went outside the stadium and are standing near the Roberte Clemente Coliseum grounds. In case I have not mentioned it before, Hiram Bithorn Stadium and Roberto Clemente Coliseum are right next to each other in the same complex.

 

The Ron Starr vs. Rocky Johnson match is on Youtube. Unfortunately there is no indication of any time cues on the commentary, so I'm not sure how much was clipped. I do wonder the date of the match, the TV episode is some weeks after Brody's death.

 

For Ricky Santana vs. El Profe, just before El Profe goes for the foreign object there is a time call made by Eliud Gonzalez. I can barely make it out, but I think he says ten minutes have passed.

 

Is The Ninja Express vs. The Batten Twins match a TV studio match or from a stadium? If it's a stadium and is a title change, its from Aug 6 , 1988.

 

Is this the Battens vs. Kent/ Masked guy match?

If so, the masked guy is El Profe.

 

Is this one of the segments with the girls in gold?

These are Road to Aniversario 88 hype segments. The one in the link also features two local radio personalities from the radio station sponsoring the event.

 

Ron Starr's match later that night against Carlos Colon is a cage match.

 

One of my favorite bits during the WWC awards is that of all people it is Joe Pedicino who is the one trying to stop Hercules Ayala from continuing his attack before the faces make the save.

Ninja Express v. Batten Twins match is definitely from a stadium.

 

That is indeed the match in question, no clue why I didn't recognize El Profe, the singlet I guess.

 

That is definitely one of those segments with the gals.

 

Now I really want to see Ron Starr and Colon in the cage god damnit.

Check the List of WWC DVD/Tape Releases thread I posted. Supposedly there's this match listed on Romdam's site:

 

CARIBBEAN CLASSICS #5 (#0081)

2 hrs

VG-/VG

1. Miguel Perez + Hurricane Castillo vs Bobby Jaggers + Dan Kroffat

2. Carlos Colon vs Chicky Starr

3. Hercules Ayala vs TNT

- Gordon Solie hosts an award ceremony for WWC

4. Hercules Ayala vs ?

5. Rufus R Jones vs Mr Pogo

6. TNT vs Buddy Landel

7. Detroit Demolition vs ?

8. Miguel Perez + Hurricane Castillo vs ? + ?

9. Carlos Colon vs Ron Starr - cage match

 

There's may be other stuff in that thread that you guys may not have.

I'm fairly close to done with this batch of footage. Should be no later than Christmas and maybe as soon as Thanksgiving if I continue at my pace. After that I'm going to go back and look at that list to see what we are missing.