Bret Hart vs. Doug Somers

 

March 10th 1992 

World Wrestling Federation

WWF Wresting Challenge

Coast Coliseum Biloxi, Mississippi

There's probably not going to be a lot here since we're dealing with a 2 minute supplemental match. We can touch on Bret in '92 and get into some Somers (not likely he'll pop up again on here), but there's not much of a match here. This match was selected at random off of a 1992 Bret Hart compilation disc, and while I wish we ended up with something better, it could have been much worse, so I'll take it. 

1991 was a year of transition for Bret Hart in the WWF. The Hart Foundation disbanded after losing their WWF World Tag Team Championships to the Nasty Boys... What am I doing? This stuff has already been covered to death. Look, Bret was getting the singles push and would win the Intercontinental title from Mr. Perfect at SummerSlam that year. Yes, yes, great match. Moving on to January 17, 1992, when Bret dropped the title to the Mountie at a random house show in Springfield, Massachusetts. The story WWF went with was that Bret was sick and had a fever, and an audible had to be called. But there were also rumors that Bret was going to dip and debut at WCW's Clash of the Champions that following Tuesday with the title (WCW's revenge for Flair jumping with their title). But no, actually, WWF was going to move the IC title to Piper at some point anyway. Oh, then weirdly enough, Bret didn't realize his contract had rolled over, so in actuality, he couldn't give his notice. I don't know, man. It's pro wrestling. Bret would return to work quickly, but in his absence, the Mountie lost the Intercontinental Championship to Roddy Piper at that year's Royal Rumble. This led to the Piper and Hart feud that culminated in a match at WrestleMania VIII, which is probably my favorite WrestleMania match if I had to pick one. Before all of this, Bret would have to face his worst nightmare: DOUG SOMERS.

Doug Somers was one of those old-school guys who would go anywhere, work until there was no more work to be done, and move on. He wrestled in nearly every major territory in the United States you can think of: Texas, Portland, Mid-Atlantic, Florida, Tennessee—pretty much everywhere. But his roots lie in Minneapolis, and that's where he returned in 1986 for his most notable run. A majority of this run was spent teaming with Buddy Rose in a feud with the Midnight Rockers (Michaels and Jannetty). What started out as something on the undercard eventually grew into a program that would usually main event shows and is responsible for bringing notoriety to the Rockers team, especially since this was around the time AWA was airing on ESPN. The team with Rose disbanded, and Somers hung around AWA for a short while until the work dried up. He bounced around again, even doing a short tour with All Japan in 1989, until he landed a supplemental gig with WCW in '91, eventually making a daring, shocking, reality shattering jump to WWF in '92, where our match today takes place. 

WrestleMania VIII is right around the corner and Bret Hart makes his way down to the ring, with Somers already in there, huffing and puffing, ready to get his hands on the Hitman. In actuality, Somers is standing there like he's waiting for a self-checkout kiosk to be free at Target. Bret does his usual ritual of giving a random kid his sunglasses. I blink, and Bret now has Somers tapping out in the Sharpshooter. That's it. All the action before that was just basic in-ring warmup stuff while an ad for their next Boston Garden show played. Anyways... 

Bret would go on to face Roddy Piper at WrestleMania VIII and win back the Intercontinental Championship. For real, if anyone hasn't seen that match or anything from that feud, check it out. Low-key and focused promos, believable issues, and the match builds off all of it. He transitioned into a feud with Shawn Michaels, then won the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Flair, and that's pretty much his 1992. 

Somers wrapped up with WWF in the late summer of '92 and pretty much retired from a full-time schedule from there. He popped up on indies from time to time and tried suing WWE in 2011 over issues with his likeness, but the case was ultimately thrown out. In 2008, while working with an AWA revival indy, he participated in a tag team match teaming with Dennis Condrey against Tommy Rich and Chic Donovan—which, with those guys at the time, would have been a combined age of 226. Just thought that was funny. Somers died on May 16, 2017, at the age of 65. I'd recommend checking out the feud against the Midnight Rockers—there's some pretty good stuff.

The Midnight Rockers vs Buddy Rose & Doug Somers Feud

The Gladiator vs. Kenta Kobashi

 

December 4th 2002

Pro Wrestling NOAH

GHC Heavyweight Championship

NOAH Navigation, Uprising Spirit 2004

Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium Yokohama, Japan

After a messy departure from ECW, a stint in WCW during its dying days, and an unmemorable run in the WWF while recovering from knee surgery, Mike Awesome returned to Japan, working under the fan-favorite gimmick "The Gladiator" in Keiji Mutoh's All Japan in 2003. Over the next year, The Gladiator's role was primarily that of a large, meathead gatekeeper. The injury had really taken its toll, and every time he found himself in a prominent spot, there were questions regarding if he could pull off a good match or if the other guy could possibly carry him to one. Despite this, his size and whatever nostalgia remained from the FMW days were enough to keep his head above water. 

I'm not entirely sure how the transition from All Japan to NOAH happened—most likely a contract running out and Mike moving on—but during this transition, we get a match with him versus Masato Tanaka for a new (now defunct) title in ZERO-ONE, plus a small dip of the toe into HUSTLE. Gladiator's role in NOAH was more of the same: tagging with foreigners and gatekeeping. The match we'll talk about soon enough is the main focus of his NOAH run and gets more properly set up at the 11/21 Sendai show, where Gladiator powerbombed Kobashi through a table after the main event tag match. 

For Kenta Kobashi, this was towards the close of his 735-day GHC Heavyweight Championship run. If anyone were to tell me this was the greatest title run of all time, it'd be hard to disagree. That's why I'm telling anyone who reads this that this is the greatest title run in pro wrestling history. Okay, I'm not really going to claim it as such right now, but if that discussion were to take place, this run is one of the first that would need to be mentioned. Some of the holes in this reign lie around this period. The July 2004 Tokyo Dome show reared its head and put pressure on the top title, with original plans pointing towards a match between Kobashi and Bob Sapp. Plans change. 

The past year saw Kobashi bulldozing through most of the major stars, all while putting more wear and tear on his knees. With the Sapp match not going forward (thankfully, in retrospect), the Dome main event ended up being against Jun Akiyama in a match they were hoping to hold off on. Now, this could lead into a whole discussion about the prospects of Akiyama around this time, who seemingly was going to be the guy to lead the promotion after Kobashi and Misawa, but we'll save that for now. A look was taken at what they wished they had with Akiyama and what they already had with Kobashi. Bad knees and all, Kobashi was going to hold onto that title, but after spending what was saved in the back pocket, where does a promotion go from there? To a heatless match against Akira Taue in September, of course. 

This was followed by a bout against Akitoshi Saito, who had no chance of winning, in what was a solid match but didn’t really do much for anyone in the grand scheme of things. Now we're at the point where the large, imposing foreigner, The Gladiator, has his sights set on the GHC Champion. But... what is Kobashi looking at over there? Oh, of course, it’s a match against Minoru Suzuki in the Budokan. Yes, Gladiator will get his match, but in the back of everyone's mind, it's known that Kobashi has bigger fish to fry. The Suzuki match really does take priority over this match, as Kobashi invites Suzuki to sit ringside in Yokohama.

I think a reason Kobashi remained such a success in Japanese pro wrestling in the early 2000s is the fact that the guy stuck with working a classic pro wrestling style. Now, I'm not saying the sport can't evolve and everyone needs to work a 50 year old style, but Kobashi stuck with what makes pro wrestling work in a larger environment where MMA was taking over and many promotions were scrambling and altering their identities. There were even critics who bashed Kobashi for working an "unrealistic" style, merely based on him not conforming to a sweeping trend. Early 2000s NOAH is considered a bright spot during a time referred to as the Dark Ages, simply because the promotion and their top guy just did straightforward pro wrestling.

 And that's truly what Kobashi did here: a match where he gets the stuffing beat out of him just before he musters up enough momentum to pull off the win. Just something to convey that the champion can take a beating and still stay on top. Really simple pro wrestling. 

This was the second time these two met in a singles match, the first being in All Japan back in September 1999, where Kobashi was making his way to another shot at the Triple Crown. It's exciting to see two big guys get after it in the ring, but when not much is happening (like the early goings of this match), that excitement can just as easily lapse. The crowd was pretty dead when this started. Minoru Suzuki was, of course, sitting ringside, smiling and doing eyebrow shtick. Boy, was it hard not to daydream about the prospects of a Kobashi match against him. 

There's a bit of plodding, some exchanges outside the ring, and then quickly back into the ring for more plodding. Things heat up when the Gladiator brings Kobashi outside the ring again and starts working the back. The crowd finally comes alive when he brings out a table to presumably give Kobashi another taste of what happened in Sendai. I like being teased in matches, where the idea of something really dangerous is about to happen but the wrestlers, after struggling, back out of it. Just getting the picture in my head of something devastating happening is just as effective when done right. 

The Gladiator and Kobashi forgo the mental images and just do it. Kobashi goes through the table by way of an Awesome Bomb. We're now treated to Kobashi being put through the paces of whatever the Gladiator feels like doing to him. There's a cool sequence of Kobashi out on the entrance ramp eating a dive from the Gladiator and then being sent back into the ring by a Super Awesome Bomb. Gladiator is trying everything he can, including an Awesome Bomb from the top rope, but Kobashi stays alive. 

And like magic, at the height of the crowd's enthusiasm, Kobashi finds the momentum through a suplex, a lariat, and a surprise moonsault to win the match. I mean, that's what they call working a match, right? Kobashi got the crowd exactly how he wanted before taking it home. Kobashi's attention quickly pivots to Suzuki, and the two exchange words. Kobashi would beat Suzuki and then drop the title to Takeshi Rikio in March 2005. And, of course, this wouldn't be too long before his cancer diagnosis in 2006. 

Meanwhile, the Gladiator would do for one more tour in NOAH, just being a body in tag matches until his last show (the same one as the title change to Rikio). The Gladiator would be no more, but Mike Awesome would stick around just long enough for a hell of a one night stand.

Steve Corino vs. Kohei Sato

 

August 2nd 2002

Pro Wrestling ZERO-ONE

ZERO-ONE Fire Festival 2002 Night 4

Oita Prefectural Gymnasium Oita, Japan

The first incarnation of ZERO-ONE is an era marked by turbulence. It can be traced back to their first show where all three main guys from the promotion's inception—Shinya Hashimoto, Shinjiro Otani, and Tatsuhito Takaiwa—were all on the losing side of their matches. Antonio Inoki, NOAH, All Japan, and others were cooperative to support the new promotion but more so on their terms. The first few years were also met with overpriced foreign talent, political disputes between the owners of ZERO-ONE and Shingeki, the company who ran the PPV events, disappointing attendance figures, and a scramble to create new stars as the promotion began to fizzle out. 

If you're not familiar with ZERO-ONE (Zero1 way later on), it's really not as grim as I'm making it sound. Over the years, they've produced a lot of great matches and memorable moments due to their dynamic booking early on. I know I'm among the many who look forward to their New Year shows, which more often than not can produce the year's first 4-star or above match for a lot of fans. And then, of course, is the Fire Festival, which is the promotion's annual round-robin tournament, much like All Japan's Champion Carnival or New Japan's G1 Climax. The winner gets a sword!

Kohei Sato is a guy who started his pro wrestling career in ZERO-1 after a few years making a name for himself as a mixed martial artist. Sato reached the finals of the first Fire Festival by securing a tiebreaker win over Samoa Joe but ultimately lost to Shinjiro Otani. Although in 2001 there was an attempt to establish him, Sato didn't have much to do until he formed a tag team with Hirotaka Yokoi and mixed it up in the All Asia tag scene in 2003. Eventually, he was relied upon to be a draw for the promotion, putting him on the path to win the 2004 Fire Festival. He also had a brief run with the ZERO-ONE United States Heavyweight Championship later in 2004. 

Bringing our focus back to 2002, he entered this match against Steve Corino with only 2 points. He needed to beat Corino and Tetsuhiro Kuroda and for Hirotaka Yokoi to lose to Yuji Ishikawa (as Sato would have the tiebreaker win over Ishikawa) to make it to the finals. Well... that didn't happen.

Steve Corino lost the ECW World Heavyweight Championship to The Sandman in a Tables, Ladders, Chairs, and Canes Three-Way match with Justin Credible involved at ECW's Guilty as Charged 2001. He finished up with the promotion the same day and received a contract with WCW shortly after. However, this was in 2001, a year when ECW closed in April and WCW was purchased by WWF in March. Corino was released from his contract and began bouncing around the independents. 

In 2001, Corino finally surfaced in ZERO-ONE and remained essentially full-time until 2007. They had Mr. Wrestling 3 to cover his spot when needed. Returning to the 2002 Fire Festival, Corino entered the match against Sato with 4 points. He would need both Kuroda and Ishiwaka to lose their next matches to squeeze into the finals, but that also did not happen.

Evidently, this was a hot August day in Oita. A majority of the crowd waved their fans or whatever they had on hand throughout the evening, creating an interesting visual effect in the background. I've only heard about how hot it can get in these older buildings in Japan, and I imagine I'd look just as sweaty and miserable as Kohei Sato did as he made his way to the ring. Steve and a small Colby Corino were already in there ready to pose with their kendo sticks. Corino had been heavy-handed with the comedy in his previous tournament matches but keeps it brief here with a small bit with the young boy at ringside who couldn't properly hold his shirt or kendo stick.

What can I really say at this point? It was the third match on an eight-match show, and they got 10 minutes. Sato looked completely drained, possibly due to the heat, and anything he attempted to do looked like it required more effort than usual. The awful finish comes when the referee looks away for a split second, and Corino hits a low blow and then a running cutter for the pin. Before the low blow, the referee has his eyes on the guys, and the low blow comes right when he steps out of frame. I guess he pulls his eye contact away and has to have a young boy point and remind him there's a match going on. Just one of those things in pro wrestling you have to look past because it's pro wrestling if that makes sense. Think Irish Whips or something like that.

Both guys would still have slim chances to enter the final, but both would ultimately be eliminated on the 4th during the last night of block action. To be honest, I'm a little lost on how to wrap this one up, as I'm sure we'll see more from these guys in this project. So, I'm just going to link to some Steven Corino Zero-One related stories.

My Friend, Shinya Hashimoto

Riki Choshu Thigh Slap

Blood Generation (Jack Evans & Matt Sydal), BxB Hulk & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Muscle Outlaw'z (Kevin Steen, Magnitude Kishiwada, Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi)

 

November 23rd 2006

Dragon Gate Pro Wrestling

Open the Crown Gate

Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium Osaka, Japan

Sort of a weird thought before I get into this. I spent several minutes trying to decide whether or not I should type "Dragon Gate" or how it's stylized now, "Dragongate." They changed the name in 2019 for the 20th anniversary if anyone wasn't aware. I guess, since this project deals with the past, I'll stick with the two-word version. Sorry, it's late. 

Dragon Gate in 2006 saw the first Dream Gate champion with zero successful defenses in Ryo Saito and a new heel unit in Muscle Outlaw'z. Saito received a huge push at the beginning of 2005 and went on to win King of Gate later that year. Supposedly, Susumu Yokosuka was originally planned to defeat Magnitude Kishiwada for the Dream Gate at some point in 2006 but due to injury had to lose early, which ended up being against Saito at the 2/24 Korakuen Hall show. Sticking with the plan, Yokosuka would defeat Saito for the title nearly two months later.

 The origins of Muscle Outlaw'z also happen to be tied to Kishiwada's injury. Famously, Kishiwada announced before taking his leave that he had a friend coming in to fill his role in Blood Generation. That friend ended up being GAMMA making his DG debut on 3/21 and instantly found himself not getting along with Blood Generation leader CIMA. This led to CIMA expelling GAMMA from Blood Gen, but GAMMA departed with Blood Gen members Masato Yoshino, Naruki Doi, and Naoki Tanizaki by his side. A match to determine the rights to the Blood Generation name took place on 4/23 between GAMMA and Doi and remaining Blood Gen members CIMA and Don Fujii. Shingo Takagi was also technically still a part of Blood Gen but I guess didn't want any part of the quarrel. He'd be in Ring of Honor for a year shortly after this anyways so he probably couldn't be bothered to choose a side. GAMMA and Doi would end up winning but rejected the name and went with... Muscle Outlaw'z. 

Muscle Outlaw'z would last until May of 2008 and during that time had a pretty insane turn around rate for members. It not only served as a heel unit with members of the Dragon Gate roster but also welcomed a number of foreigners and guys from other domestic promotions. The GAMMA/CIMA feud would continue including a Hair vs. Hair match from the show our match today comes from. 

Blood Generation was weak, but by the next tour had been joined by Jack Evans who was a regular with Ring of Honor and started working DG pretty regularly as well, beginning with the King of Gate tour in 2005. Matt Sydal would also join the unit as Blood Gen was shifting to an "international" unit as CIMA put it. 

As only two titles were being defended on this show (one of which was the WAR Jr. title which was a couple of months before it'd be retired for 3 years) it makes sense to have a little unit warfare to pair with the CIMA v. GAMMA match. So we have Jack Evans and Matt Sydal of Blood Generation teamed up with BxB Hulk and Jushin Thunder Liger against the Muscle Outlaw'z team consisting of Magnitude Kishiwada (yeah, he came back, shrugged his shoulders, and fell into the ranks), Masato Yoshino, and Naruki Doi. 

The two names that probably stick out to most people are Liger and Steen. Liger wasn't a stranger to popping up in random places and would show up in DG a little. Enough to win the Open the Dream Gate championship in 2007. I suppose BxB Hulk made a call to Liger after teaming with him at Shin-Kiba 1st RING a couple of weeks prior. As for Kevin Steen, this was a few months before becoming a regular part of Ring of Honor although he'd done some work with the promotion before. Also, it wasn't his first time in Japan as he faced Takashi Sasaki at a Korakuen Hall Zero1 show in March 2005. Just watched a clipped version of that match. It was fine. Kind of wonder what a Fight Without Honor/Guerrilla Warfare/Fluorescent Lightube Tower Deathmatch would look like between them around 2007-2009. 

I remember the first time I watched this show and being beckoned into the fog of boredom by the first four matches. This 8-man spotfest was exactly what I needed to get back into the show before the final two matches. One thing of note is Kinta Tamaoka being the referee of the match. He had also joined Muscle Outlaw'z as their personal referee (he'd get fired in 2011 for using a "stimulant" in a bathroom) so that meant stopping Liger when he attempted to dive out of the ring, looking the other way when Doi exposes the turnbuckles, and other shenanigans in favor of the Outlaw'z. Evans spends the match doing insane stuff as he tended to do and at one point gets knocked down from the top turnbuckle by a random flying chair. It'll never get old watching Masato Yoshino hit the ring and picking up ridiculous speed while hitting the ropes. Hopefully, we get to more of that in the future of this project. Sydal kept up nicely with Yoshino countering a Sol Naciente into a pin attempt and the two of them continuing to roll each other up for near falls. The finish saw Yoshino hitting Sydal with the Torbellino but Yoshino accidentally getting powder to the face from Doi right after. Liger takes advantage and hits Yoshino with a brainbuster and Sydal follows up with a shooting star press for the pin. 

When it comes to telling the tale of good vs. evil in pro wrestling, Dragongate has been the leader in that department for the past 25 years. There really wasn't much going on here beyond some good guys fighting some bad guys, and sometimes that's all you need in pro wrestling.

Jim Duggan vs. Bruiser Kong

 

August 31 2004

International Wrestling Association Japan

IWA Japan 10th Anniversary 

Yoyogi National Gymnasium #2 Tokyo, Japan

I knew a match like this had to come at some point: something that leaves me simultaneously unmotivated and driven. Unmotivated in the sense that mostly everything surrounding this match is either bad, uninteresting, or depressing; therefore, I have little desire to write about it. Driven in the sense that I was desperately looking for anything else to do. The best thing I can do is get on with this one and quickly move on. 

IWA Japan had arguably peaked in 1995 with their famous Kawasaki Dream show featuring the King of the Deathmatch Tournament. Still, they would continue for another 19 years without the connections founder Víctor Quiñones had provided the promotion, who had left at the end of '95. By the early 2000s, it's been claimed things started to turn around with a TV deal with Samurai TV and the bringing in of Steve Williams. I remain skeptical of the extent of the benefits from those two things. While it helps any promotion to have a television presence, I can't determine when their show aired and how many people were watching. As for Williams, he obviously had value in Japan with his lengthy All Japan run, but finding paid attendance figures also hasn't been easy. 

By late August 2004, Williams' throat cancer had spread, forcing him to pull out of IWA Japan's 10th Anniversary show, at which he was apparently slated to win the IWA World Championship. Fortunately, the promotion had several past-their-prime wrestlers to fill in. Among them were Jim Duggan, Big Boss Man, and The Barbarian (working as Konga the Barbarian), all participating in a tournament to determine the IWA World Champion at the anniversary show. 

The match we have here is Jim Duggan against Bruiser Kong in the first round of said tournament.

 Duggan finished up with WCW in 2000 and spent a few years wandering the indies. In there somewhere, he had a stint with XWF (the missing variable in pro wrestling) while that promotion lasted. I pray to any higher power that I don't have any of those tapings. He came into IWA Japan along with the parade of broken-down guys for only seven shows. In fact, this is the second-to-last one. He would get one last run with WWE from 2006 to 2008, where he would look slightly more motivated. 

Jeff Bradley was originally an independent wrestler from Florida who got a spot as a jobber for WWF for a very brief amount of time. In May 1995, he worked two ECW house shows in Florida against Taz as the Evil Snake. Cagematch has it listed as "Evil Snack," which may be due to some of the site's translation hiccups, but honestly, I kind of like that name more. He'd be brought into ECW that summer as Dudley Dudley, the most pure Dudley, and jumpstart the Dudleys in a run that lasted until late October that year. He'd follow that up with runs in IPW (Florida), Big Japan, and a near decade spent going back to Puerto Rico for tours. 

We start off the match with a lockup. Kidding. This is a four-minute nothing match that acts, I guess, as a mini-brawl. Really just a complete waste of time. All but one of the matches in this tournament go under four minutes, the exception being The Barbarian defeating George Hines in four minutes AND twenty-three seconds. The only spot I remember from this is Kong slowly placing a plank of wood on Duggan. There was another brawl after the match just to serve as both guys' exit to the back. Duggan would go on to win the tournament and IWA World Championship in a final against Big Boss Man. Duggan's last match in IWA Japan was a title defense against Bruiser Kong in October 2004, successfully defending his title and never going on to lose it. 

Moving on.

El Hijo del Santo vs. Black Shadow Jr.

 

September 20th 1986

World Wrestling Association 

WWA World Lightweight Championship Two Out Of Three Falls Match

Olympic Auditorium Los Angeles, California

The WWA World Lightweight Championship is yet another title that seemingly materialized out of nowhere. Mano Negra is the first name shown associated with it, and according to luchawiki.org, it was "decided thru unknown means" in 1986. The belt is more likely familiar to most by association with the earlier matches between Rey Misterio Jr. and Juventud Guerrera. The record-keeping in Mexico, along with its affiliated promotions, had been subpar for an extended period. However, our bout today stands out as a solid starting point for anyone attempting to delve into the history of the title. 

In 1985, El Hijo del Santo's focus was on being the UWA World Light Champion, a title he had secured by defeating Negro Casas the year before. He engaged in a feud with Aristóteles, who managed to defeat Santo for the title in July. This rivalry intensified, leading to a mask vs. mask match two weeks later, which Santo ultimately won. Interestingly, Aristóteles' "brother" (whether this was true or not remains unclear), named Aristóteles II, later challenged Santo to a mask vs. mask match, with revenge on his mind (that or a nice payday) but ended up losing the confrontation. Throughout the year, Santo would also defend that title successfully against Espanto Jr on a few occasions. Off of those defenses, the two of them would transition into a feud that involved an excellent mask vs. mask match in August 1986. Espanto Jr. would eventually win the title from Santo and would lose in a mask vs. hair match against Santo in the summer of 1987. Between those two apuestas matches, we have Santo against Black Shadow Jr. for the vacant WWA World Lightweight Championship. 

Juan José Salazar Alanís started his pro wrestling career at the age of 13, and in a similar fashion to Santo, would wrestle on shows without his parents knowing. There's a great story about his mother discovering this and showing up at the show on luchawiki.org. In January 1985, Alanís would start working as Black Shadow Jr. after getting permission from the original Black Shadow. He'd eventually lose a mask vs. mask match against Santo in December 1991. 

It'll be hard to really assess this match since my copy of it is missing mostly everything in the second fall. Conducted a brief search in an attempt to find a match in its complete form, but unfortunately, no luck. So if anyone out there can help, that'd be great (unless I find out I have another copy or if it's just out there incomplete), but for now, I can talk about the first and third falls. 

We start off with some grappling on the mat. Shadow Jr. comes into this with 22 years of experience, and Santo with only four, but Santo is clearly several steps ahead. It also helps being a decade younger. There are a few pin attempts crossing over with the holds, but both guys stay on their toes by countering. Eventually, Shadow Jr. gets the upper hand and delivers some running bulldogs to Santo. Shadow Jr. dives and delivers a crossbody and puts Santo in a submission similar to a Romero Special but without raising up the opponent. You'll come to find throughout this project I'm terrible at naming some moves, which doesn't exactly help in the world of the written word. 

The second part of this match begins with Shadow Jr. taking control of Santo's arm and wrenching down when Santo is down. They both begin a battle of more submission and pin attempts. At some point, they begin to pick up the pace, and Shadow Jr. gets knocked to the floor. This is where my copy craps out, and it cuts to Santo's arm being raised for the second fall.

Going in with one fall each, the third section begins with a more picked-up pace. Both guys are hitting the ropes and evading each other until Santo gets knocked to the outside. Shadow Jr. takes advantage and hits a plancha suicida. Santo eventually stumbles back into the ring, clearly dazed, and turns to see where Shadow Jr. went. Shadow Jr. comes back in by flanking Santo with a dive from the opposite side of the ring. Shadow Jr. keeps up the momentum and hits the ropes, presumably to attack Santo; however, Santo dodges and sends Shadow Jr. crashing to the floor. Santo dives to the outside! Both men are down and slowly make their way back to the ring where Shadow Jr. revives faster and gets the upper hand. Shadow Jr. slams Santo and makes his way to the top rope in the corner before Santo pops up and stops him. Santo rolls Shadow Jr. over his shoulder for a slam off the top rope. Santo applies la de a caballo for the submission. 

Disappointed that I couldn't watch this match in its completion, but I suppose it was an interesting exercise for now, seeing a match just jump up in intensity without the crescendo you'd typically see. I wouldn't put this match first for showing off how good a young Santo was, but it is impressive to watch him shine a whole lot brighter than most people only four years in.

Tommy Rich vs. Jumbo Tsuruta

 

March 7th 1982

Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling

NWA Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling

Charlotte Coliseum Charlotte, North Carolina

Dale Lewis, a former Greco-Roman wrestling Olympian, started his pro wrestling career in 1961, being trained in the "pro style" by Verne Gagne and working the AWA territory. Throughout the decade, he worked in numerous places such as Texas, Australia, and California. In 1969, he settled in Florida for the next few years while still taking bookings elsewhere.

From late 1974 to 1980, he bounced around between Portland and British Columbia (still taking bookings elsewhere here and there) until finally wrapping up his career in October 1980. I feel like I learned a good bit about ol' Lewis here, although I was really only looking for one match of his. 

In October 1970, Dale Lewis entered NWA Hollywood and lost the NWA United National Championship in a two-out-of-three falls match against Pantera Negra. That match is accounted for by multiple sources. What I'm looking for is the apparent tournament held in St. Louis won by Lewis, allowing him to enter the Hollywood territory as a champion, as described by wrestling-titles.com. My working theory is that NWA Hollywood had created this title and simply decided to have Negra "win" it from Lewis as Negra was working the territory regularly, and the belt would be defended there often within the first few months of its life.

 Maybe the info is out there in a Tim Hornbaker book I've yet to read, which, if it is, then that's on me—my bad. The thing is, there's apparently another fake tournament attached to this title. In March 1971, Antonio Inoki defeated John Tolos for the title and defended it two times against Jack Brisco and Dick Murdoch later that year. However, on December 13th, 1971, Inoki was fired from the JWA and vacated the title. As a Wikipedia entry notes (I know not necessarily the most trustworthy source, but it's all I got), King Krow (Dan Kroffat) wins the championship in a "fictitious" tournament final against Sailor Thomas in January 1972. 

Again, just coming up empty when looking in several places for this tournament. Many of these results are incomplete or missing, so that doesn't help either. My theory this time around is essentially identical to the Lewis one, where Krow just happened to be coming into the territory for a short time and wanted someone to "win" it from him. The man to beat him was Seiji Sakaguchi. Well, Sakaguchi was at least the next champion, but I couldn't find any results of a title change, but the dates line up enough we'll just go with the idea that he beat Krow. It seemed as if NWA Hollywood wanted to wash their hands of the title as it was defended in JWA until that promotion's closure in April 1973, at least as far as I could tell, I should add. 

As mentioned earlier, Inoki was fired from JWA, and of course, New Japan Pro Wrestling was formed in January 1972. Also, Giant Baba splits from the JWA, and All Japan Pro Wrestling was established in October 1972. I trust that I didn't really need to remind anyone of those two points, but it's always better to be safe than sorry. Anyways, the problem for New Japan here is that Baba gets recognition from the NWA first, giving All Japan the upper hand on foreign stars. 

Additionally, with the perks of recognition comes the availability of championships. So, on August 28th, 1976, Jumbo Tsuruta defeated Jack Brisco in a two-out-of-three falls match for the revived NWA United National Championship. And wouldn't you know it, this match in some sources I found was described as a tournament final. Really? An actual tournament for this championship? As far as I can tell—absolutely not! First off, I can't find any result anywhere of Jack Brisco competing in even a championship contender match, let alone a tournament match, around this time. 

Another thing is that Tsuruta was supposedly scheduled for a match against Akihisa Takachiho (The Great Kabuki) to determine who was facing Brisco, but Takachiho apparently just said, "Nah. I'm all set, brother." This is about as far as I can go with this title. I mean, it'd be vacated three more times, and new champions would be determined via tournaments, and one of those was won by Ted DiBiase defeating Jerry Lawler... by forfeit. As of right now, I'm done with the deep dive. The most important aspect of this title is it being unified with the PWF World Heavyweight Championship and NWA International Heavyweight Championship to become the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship in April 1989. 

So let's transition back to 1982. More specifically, March 7th at the Charlotte Coliseum. This isn't "The Hive" but rather what is now called Bojangles Coliseum, and I've been there, and it smells of grease. Jumbo Tsuruta was in the midst of his fourth United National title reign. During Tsuruta's reigns, the United National matches were more aligned with a technical style, defending against the likes of Bill Robinson, Dick Slater, and Mil Mascaras. Meanwhile, "Wildfire" Tommy Rich was coming off a feud with the Masked Superstar and transitioning into a feud with Ron Bass in Georgia Championship Wrestling. A handful of the All Japan guys came over for a little over a week to work some NWA shows, presumably with the 2/28 tag tournament show at the Omni in Atlanta being the priority. 

So here we go, Rich vs. Tsuruta for the NWA United National Championship. This would be the first of three singles matches between these two, and after watching this one, I'm looking forward to hopefully getting around to the other two. This match wasn't great, but in its own way, it actually kind of rocked. Again, Tsuruta was working these "technical" style matches with this title at the time. A standard feeling-out process starts it off. A couple of whips into the ropes followed by some drops and leapfrogs. And then slap on a hold to slow it back down. Rinse and repeat that for a while. It wasn't until Tsuruta started laying in these uppercuts on Rich where I started to get invested. Rich responds by closing up his fist and threatening Jumbo to sock him while the ref is telling him to back off and unclench the fist. Meanwhile, the Charlotte crowd is clamoring for Rich to knock this guy out. Rich gives in and starts laying in a beating on Tsuruta, and the crowd goes nuts until the referee breaks it up. Tsuruta gains control and delivers a couple of backbreakers. They fall to their knees and start chopping and punching each other again! Rich gains momentum and hits the ropes for a dive into Tsuruta, but Tsuruta is there to catch him, and eventually, they both fall out to the floor. 

Both guys attempt to scramble back into the ring, but keep pulling each other out as one of the quickest ring out counts from the referee occurs, and the match ends in a double countout. But they don't care! They both get back in the ring, fists closed, shoving the referee out of the way. They want to FIGHT! The crowd is there with them too. Finally, they both concede that it's over and end things with a handshake but not without staring daggers into one another. 

Tommy Rich wasn't exactly Kenta Kobashi (or Tsuruta for that matter) when it comes to the bell-to-bell, but performances like this prove why he was such a beloved babyface. Hopefully, we can get around to the other two matches one day and maybe even fill out some more history of the United National title, even though I'm sort of dreading the prospect of more fake tournaments. Check this match out!