Reel in Place

The whole playlist is here , for your continuous viewing pleasure.   Terry Funk vs Stan Hansen - September 11, 1982 This is the precursor to a much more famous match, but that match doesn't break down into Funk and Hansen beating up referees, so how good could that match even be.  Rick Martel vs Terry Funk - September 20, 1986 More of me trying to get into Rick Martel. This is fine, but Terry Funk is the real star, trying to fight an entire baseball stadium. Terry Funk vs Eddie Guerrero - May 20, 1989 Terry Funk in 1989 WCW is one of the best years a wrestler ever had. Two matches with Flair, one with Steamboat, the Halloween Havoc tag, and then these wild B and C show matches with the likes of Cougar Jay and this one with Eddie Guerrero.  Alex Shelley vs Lee Moriarty - November 2, 2019 AIW uploaded this match a couple days ago. It leans a little bit toward a WHAT WILL IT TAKE indie match, but if you squint real hard at specific camera angles, you can see me in ...

The whole playlist is here , for your continuous viewing pleasure.  Wahoo McDaniel vs Johnny Valentine - August 30, 1974 Last week had the Johnny Valentine vs Bull Curry match, and that was incredible, so I tried to find some more Johnny Valentine. There isn't much, a couple clips and some short matches, but this 16mm film of the big screen, chopped up into bits, is about as good as it is going to get. Wahoo throws 7 different kind of chops that seem like they would break you in half.   Ernie Ladd vs Tito Torres & Sylvano Sousa - January 7, 1977 More Ernie Ladd, this time mostly yelling at Vince McMahon. Bob Backlund vs Adrian Adonis - January 18, 1982 Some people will try to tell you Bob Backlund is boring and that he was bad. Those people are not your friends, cut those people out of your life.  Super Dragon vs Rising Son - January 5, 2001 These early RevPro shows are this sort of wild amalgam of matches from a Japanese comp tape, where they're doing a mix...

The whole playlist is  here , for your continuous viewing pleasure.  Bull Curry vs Johnny Valentine - June 20, 1969 Here is a comprehensive list of the best things in wrestling: cool suplexes, wild dives, shoot punches to the head. The second fall of this match is mostly Curry punching Valentine in the head a bunch, it is incredible.   Nick Bockwinkel vs Ricky Morton - July 2, 1982 Bock rules, 1982 Ricky Morton does a real bad figure four leg lock.  Jumbo Tsuruta vs Genichiro Tenryu - April 20, 1989 This is the first match of the Tenryu/Jumbo series. The second match is one of the greatest matches of all time, but this one is great too. The botched powerbomb at the end is brutal.   Tatsuo Nakano vs Masakatsu Funaki - July 24, 1989 The opening strike exchanges here are great, and Nakano getting beat up is always worth watching. Naoki Sano vs Rick Martel - December 12, 1992 I've been trying to watch more Martel, there was a match with him and Choshu on an ear...

The whole playlist is here , for your continuous viewing pleasure.  Gran Hamada vs Baby Face - April 3, 1980 1980 New Japan is a wild place where you've got Inoki and his nonsense on the top of the card, and then Fujinami, Dynamite Kid, Tiger Mask, Gran Hamada and company having these wild matches on the undercard. Gran Hamada has a great dive in this match that's worth checking out.  Ernie Ladd vs Tom Jones - January 2, 1981 I've been watching WWWF All Star Wrestling lately, mostly on in the background while I'm doing something else, and it can't be overstated how much life Ernie Ladd brings to the shows. He's just the coolest motherfucker alive, especially compared to Bob Backlund, Dino Bravo, and the rest of the late 70's WWWF crew. I'm not sure he was ever a great wrestler in the ring, but it doesn't really matter, and the double leg drop is great.  Hijo del Santo vs Brazo de Oro - January 13, 1991   As I've been working my way through all t...

The whole playlist is here , for your continuous viewing pleasure.  ' Tiger Mask II vs La Fiera - August 26, 1984 Tiger Mask Misawa, and really every iteration of Tiger Mask, is polarizing. I'm not crazy about this run, but I don't think it's actively bad, either. In general, I am just sort of generally disappointed in most of the stuff, but there's also usually something cool. The tope in this match rules, but La Fiera is the real star here. Dick Murdoch vs Ray Gonzalez - November 17, 1991 A random TV match between a declining Dick Murdoch and a young Ray Gonzalez, where Murdoch may or may not break Gonzalez's orbital bone, and may or may not keep punching him in the head, while he bleeds buckets. Alexander Otsuka vs Takeshi Ono - March 9, 1996 Someone once described Alexander Otsuka as "Kurt Angle if he was good."   This is from the first Battlarts show, where Es are optional, but suplexes aren't. Low Ki vs Necro Butcher - A...

The whole playlist is here , for your continuous viewing pleasure. Mark Rocco vs Fuji Yamada - June 13, 1987 Maskless Liger comes to the ring with a sword, Mark Rocco comes to the ring looking like he read a book about how Japanese people dress. The match is good, though. Ronnie Garvin vs Russ Tyler - June 1, 1988 I've watched a ton of Crockett this year. A good chunk of it is just guys bleeding 7 seconds after the bell rings and matches that are too long, but Ron Garvin slaps the shit out of people, like 2020 Kazuyuki Fujita without the postmodern staring contest. Octagon vs Fuerza Guerrera - November 3, 1991 I write this every week, but I don't know anything about Lucha. So, whatever I say may, and probably will, be wrong. Octagon has never impressed me, I haven't seen a ton, but he seems to just be there most of the time. Fuerza seems pretty good. This match is great though, the best performance I've ever seen from Octagon. Vader vs Dan Bobish...

The whole playlist is  here , for your continuous viewing pleasure.   Riki Choshu vs Rick Martel -  October 19, 1985 I'm trying to watch more Rick Martel. I know him from his WWF stuff, which is whatever. He's a pretty great tag team wrestler in the 80s, but by the 90s he's very much ok, and that includes his brief run in WCW, which is one of the most overrated runs in wrestling history. I haven't seen much of his AWA stuff, and none of his stuff in Portland, but this AWA title defense against Choshu is awesome. Jumping Bomb Angels vs Glamour Girls - Novermber 24, 1987 Wrestlemania III aired on FS1 the other day. Steamboat/Savage is great, but this is the best match in 1987 WWF. Vader vs Naoki Sano - October 4, 1993 I'm ambivalent about Vader in UWFi. Some of it is great, the Tamura match and the first Takada match. Some of it is disappointing, the Albright match and the last Takada match are both kinda stinkers. But this match here, this one...