RECKLESS YOUTH! beats the crap outta DEVON STORM! who beats the crap outta ACE DARLING! who... Temporary death of PENTAGON! MALENKOS! vs BRITISH BULLDOGS! and other stuff!
Howdy!
WELCOME TO DEATH VALLEY DRIVER VIDEO REVIEW #47! It was a strange week
of wrestling and a sad week also as the horrible news of Plum Mariko's
death was released. She was one of the good ones and will be missed.
Phil sent me a batch of stuff that I'm FINALLY getting to watch and
WRESTLING POWER 97 continues it's hot-streak of supplying an eclectic
blend of wrestling from all over the world and unleashing some of the
most fabulously goofy jokes on public access.:)
-WRESTLING POWER 97 (8/1/97,8/16/97)
Tim Noel's fabulous Wrestling Power 97 is a cable access wrestling show
that is basically a highlight show of the better talent of indie scene
mixed in with Japanese and Mexican stuff- a way to educate the rubes
like myself. Tim seems to be trying to lure in the LAADIIEES by
sporting the shorts that say, "Love me.":p The newly bethrothed
Punisher Tommy Rose is there with the ever-not-ready-for-primetime
comment after any given news story which ya ain't gonna get on the Big
Two or ECW. YEAH BROTHER! These two shows from the last two weeks (a
half-hour every two weeks) were two of the best they've done so far.
The one from the 8/1/97 is centered around the Steve Williams/Terry
Gordy vs Misawa/Kawada final from the Real World Tag Championship of 93
or 94, which is the stiffest thing ever on TV anywhere- to say the least
Channel 38. I forget how good Gordy was back then and it's good to see
it when Matt "Dave" Classic serves up a baby like this on his Mat
Classic segment. Hangman Tim and Dave do the overdubbed commentary
(just like Gordon Solie on those tapes you get at seedier video stores,
except a suplex is called a suplex on WP97.:)) inserting the youthful
enthusiasm of your basic very non-casual fan like these cats are. The
indie segment is a Billy Kidman vs Mike Youngblood bout from North
Carolina last month. Youngblood is a good young worker and it was more
of him than the known quantity that is Kidman in that this is basically
the last two minutes of the match. Kidman hits the Shooting Star Press
and the Tarheels fans go wild. More of these two already. AND LANCE
DIAMOND WILL BE BACK IN SEPTEMBER! AWESOME!!!!!!
The second episode is a TRULY fabulous treatment of a triangle match
from New Jack Wrestling from this month with Ace Darling vs Reckless
Youth vs Devon Storm for the New Jack Light Heavyweight title. This was
one of the better triangle matches you will see. It starts with the
soon-to-be-superstar Reckless Youth and Storm taking it to the mat.
Since this wasn't on RAW, Storm had time to actually do some wrestling
moves. Since this wasn't on Nitro, Storm got to show his expanded mat
moves as opposed to jobbing to the shithead Steiners. Reckless Youth is
quite the bomb, being even more impressive than when I saw him on the
ECWA tape that I yammered about a while back. This was a great five
minute segment with each hitting the hard-to-sell-correctly actual rana
and then hitting fantabulous head-scissors from varying angles. Darling
enters the fray around the five-minute mark with a somersault plancha on
the other two. In a surprise, they figured out a way for all three to
go at it non-stop without becoming an endless spotfest, which is what
one would expect from NorthEastern Highflying indie wrestlers if you
judge by the Big Two matches they have been wrangled into. What they did
was have one guy hit a highspot and let the victim sell while the third
person hits a move on the one who hit the highspot to begin with. This
made up the middle section which moved into the beginning of the end
which was basically double teams that broke up quickly into the
cutthroat fun that is a good triangle match. The ending was really
choice with Storm toprope-hurricanran-ing Darling onto the prone
Reckless for the pin and then Darling rolls up Storm in the flash pin at
the end. There is WHOLE lot to love in this match as it pays homage to
Lucha as much as it pays homage to anything else- very psychologically
sound and some of the moves were pretty breathtaking. The only downside
is that they felt the urge to use chairs in dopey ECW spots ("HEY! Hold
this chair while I do this here moonsault! Thanks!") ECW is a cancer to
NE highflyers; you don't need that crap to keep up a cool match, keep it
highflying and credible on the mat, which they more than did. Tim and
Dave supplied the highly informative commentary- sort of a Tenay
treatment without the need to compete against the Brain's next "funny"
comment. AW! HONEY HUSH! GET A HOLD A THIS!
-AAA 95; ALL JAPAN VARIOUS THINGS; NEW JAPAN HANDHELD 9/27/94.
I have an odd relationship with Phil. I send him everything I think is
good and he sends me everything he thinks is good and we yammer on the
phone about it. HEY! WOO-HOO! WHIP ASS! Boy-explain that to the wife
when the phone bill gets in! KIXCK ASS! Phil sent me this cool tape with
all this stuff on it, all varying from year to year and in length and
completeness of card. I had watched the Samurai TV start-up card and
spoke of it a while back but failed to mention three things that were on
that fat-ass tape- 1.)MEN'S TEIOH is sporting the SWANKEST, MACKINEST,
PHATest mink coat in existence at the Samurai Card MP 10-MAN lost best
match of 96, 2.) In the Japan 91 section of the tape- AKIRA TAUE has the
WORLD's FATTEST POMPADOUR and I think I wept...love's... easy...
tears... when I saw it, and 3.) the UD vs Naniwa match from the Samurai
debut was the best two minutes of wrestling you'll see. The eight
minutes after it were bad. Very bad.
The other tape that I hadn't hit on yet has all kind's of...
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... Swanky goodness. The best thing is the All Japan
match between the British Bulldogs (Dynamite with his back in tact and
Davey Boy not-quite a stiff yet) versus Joe and Dean Malenko from before
89- when Dynamite Kid's back went out. Me and Phil have a running joke
when we get something in like this- I'll say "Hey! Glenn sent me that
Kanemoto vs Liger match!" and he'll say, "Is it any good?" And we laugh
and laugh! BOY! Anyhoos... This is good! Joe Malenko is as good as his
brother, though they both exercised poor judgement in picking out cretin
tights (Black and gold with a lightning bolt? HUNH?!?) Dean and DBS are
in with each other WAY too much considering that I wanted to see
Dynamite vs Dean Malenko but Joe vs Dynamite is just great too. DBS is
feeling it as he and Dean do all kinds of cool acrobatic ground stuff
and the not-quite-totally roided out Smith is still pretty limber at
this point. Joe is kind of a more powerful, less spectacularly quick
version of his younger brother and he looks like the lost cool wrestler
of the 80's in this match. Dynamite was deeply into being an absolute
bastard by this point in his career that he and Dean don't go as well as
the elder, stiffer-working Malenko, so, in retrospect, the match-up to
watch was Dynamite vs Joe with Dean and DBS killing time in between.
Talk about guys who can take it to the mat- this is a fucking clinic.
Get a hold of this.
Also an ALL JAPAN oldies match was Ted Dibiase vs Bruiser Brodie from
before 87, when Mr Goodish was stabbed to death in Puerto Rico, thus
setting up the most tasteless angle in FMW history. This wasn't as good
as one would expect from such a heady pairing of DiBiase- arguably the
greatest American worker of his time- against Bruiser Brodie- arguably
the greatest worker of his time. This was WAY too much of a World Class
Brodie match with DiBiase playing the babyface that sells a whole lot
and Brodie playing the mindless psychotic heel. It has its moments but
is too basic of a story for these two to be telling, considering the
breadth and width of the combined body of work these two have behind
them at this point. I dunno- nothing too cool, no hot sequences, no
build-up to anything. I was expecting more.
From the AAA promotion in Mexico, I watched the match where Pentagon
dies in the ring- from an overadundance of recreational substances I
believe was the story that was circulating. I'm assuming that since
Pentagon was revived in the back that that was the reason that this
match saw the light of day or at least the light of Galavision. It
wasn't totally devoid of taste, in that there was no mention of LaParka
using an oriental spike or anything. The weird thing about this match
(other than the second best worker being temporarily dead) is that
LaParka, Fishman, Psicosis, Octagon and Ultimo Dragon continue despite
the fact that LaParka would HAVE to be totally freaked out, since he is
the one who delivers the backdrop and then notices that something is
very wrong with the former Negro Santo. Luchadores are pros beyond the
realm of pros There is, of course, four replays of it during and after
the match. Go Figure. Don't do drugs, kids.
The biggest part of the tape is a 1994 New Japan handheld that has a
one-day tournament for the IWGP Jr Heavyweight title. I don't know the
story on it. I'm trying to remember when Liger broke his leg becuase
that that would facilitate this baby. This deal was pretty great. The
highlight is the final between Chris Benoit and Norio Honaga and the
CHOICE match between Black "Eddy" Tiger and Benoit. Benoit and Guerrero
go at it like wrestling machines, hitting everything stiffer, faster and
clenaer than anybody in the world. People forget that Eddy Guerrero is
a great, great freakin wrestler and that his matches with Benoit are
some the best things you can see. The Honaga vs Benoit matches is the
trifecta of the tournament- as I believe it was called the
"Honaga-Pins-Your-Favorites" Junior Heavyweight Tournament- as Benoit is
a crazed bitch beating the crud out of everybody but Honaga getting to
pin everybody in the end (including a young cat named Shinjiro Ohtani).
Benoit was a different wrestler in 1994- stiffer but less sure of his
identity in the ring. He doesn't ever look like he is at ease with his
work like he is now, which is obvious when he is in with guys who can
work nowadays, in that he is much smoother and deliberate and doesn't
seem alooft to the crowd like he was back then. I dunno- Benoit is
improved past this point in everything but actual workrate- which has
been about the same when he is in with somebody who can go. HEY! I'll
be the nine zillionth person to say it- Benoit is the most complete
North American wrestler of our generation.
The matches between tourney matches were harrowing at times. EL
GIGANTE! ABE FREAKIN VAGODA! IT'S EL GIGANTE! Against Scott Norton.
Poor Scott had to sell El Gigante's shitty clawhold. What a dream! I
live in fear.....
NEXT WEEK: WRESTLING! WRESTLING! WRESTLING!
NANIWA~!
Dean Rasmussen, Who loved Plum Mariko since Dream Slam II.
