FCF Wrestling Oppression and Aggression 2014

So, I was browsing Youtube for some wrestling to watch, and came across this full show from the promotion Fight Club Finland, which I thought might be an interesting watch. I had no idea what the Finnish wrestling scene was like, despite Mrs NotJayTabb being from Finland, so it was interesting to try something new. The Youtube link is included at the bottom for those who want to watch along

King Kong Karhula vs Johnny McMetal

“Johnny McMetal” sounds like an uninspired background character from a Bill & Ted film. Karhula appears to be your Finnish version of Rhino or Wild Boar. He shows some condescension towards McMetal after a few shows of power, so it was nice to see some real fire from McMetal on his fightback, hitting some decent punches from a mounted positon and a dive from the apron. Karhula takes over after shoving McMetal into a ringpost, and works him over with some basic offence. For a decent sized guy, his offence is a little milky, with a clothesline looking particularly poor. McMetal fires back with a full Nelson slam (barely getting any air on Karhula) and an odd top rope dropkick, where he goes down almost vertically like an arrow. Karhula bumps big for a DDT, before McMetal oddly bumps for a phantom boot to the head. He escapes a Karhula powerbomb and nails a Diamond Cutter for the win. This was kept simple, but it was effective.

Vili & Jake Luupaa vs Murskaaja Mieto & Ricky Vendetta

The Luupaas are faces, a pair of skinny, scrappy punk rock kids. Vili seems a little better, with some better executed offence. Dug his flip senton and cannonball into the corner. They use a few fun double-teams to keep the advantage over their bigger opponents, loved Vili hitting a bulldog across Jake’s knees. The heels cheat to take over, with Jake face-in-peril. The heel team is bulkier, so their offence looks pretty effective on a lightweight opponent. The heat section is pretty short, with Vili a fun hot tag, but he’s soon caught with a big powerbomb by Vendetta. Things break down, and it ends with Vendetta putting Jake in the Rings of Saturn for the win. Vendetta really worked the hold too, looked sufficiently vicious enough to earn the win. Enjoyed this.

Mikko Maestro vs Pyoveli Petrov

Odd one here. This is played off as speed (Maestro) vs strength (Petrov),with the early spots establishing this. The problem is that Petrov doesn’t seem particularly strong. He’s better built than Maestro, who is pretty lean, but I first have my doubts when he awkwardly bundles Maestro from the ring, then has trouble throwing him back in over the top rope. They build up nicely to a Maestro slam spot, as he twice fails to get Petrov up, but it doesn’t feel like Petrov is suitably big to be hard to slam. Like watching Cody Rhodes struggling to slam Wade Barrett. Petrov hits a Bossman Slam, barely getting Maestro off the ground. Maestro weakly escapes a bearhug, finally hits the slam and a legdrop, but the ref is distracted by Petrov’s manager. Maestro avoiding a shot with a foreign object and getting disqualified when he uses it himself right in front of the ref only makes him look like an idiot and makes Petrov look weak. Not good at all.

Heimo Ukonselka & Aurora vs Sly Sebastian & Sara Elektra

Heimo seems to be working a Viking gimmick, but the booking of this match really undercuts his gimmick. It’s booked as an intergender, rather than mixed, tag match, which means the men can wrestle the women. However, it soon becomes clear that they CAN’T actually have then men wrestling the women. Thus, every time Heimo is in the ring with the face-in-peril Elektra, he has to stand there looking tough, threaten to hit her, then get taken out by an Elektra attack to prompt Aurora back into the ring. Makes this big, tough, untamed barbarian look like a fool. That aside, I thought this was pretty fun. The faces worked well on offence, making some quick tags to work an early control, and hitting some fun double teams like Sebastian press-slamming Elektra over the top rope onto the heels. Sebastian also hits a tope that gets totally missed by the camera. Things do break down a bit towards the end where they all seem a bit confused, but Aurora quickly picks up the win with a Kryptonite Krunch on Elektra.

Valentine vs Conny Mejsel

Imagine former Tottenham midfielder Darren Caskey cosplaying as Tommy End, and you’ve essentially got Mejsel. Valentine is the champion, looks like Glacier in lovely pink trunks, and he cuts a pre-match promo, the gist of which seems to be saying his heel manager will be the referee for the match. Mejsel throws some terrible strikes to start and manages to nearly fall over doing a hiptoss, which sets a bad tone. They brawl outside the ring, and it stand out as they’re the only match to do this all show. Smart booking. Loved the ref taking a selfie of himself and Valentine over the downed Mejsel. The problem with having a heel ref is it makes the face look like an idiot if he keeps trying pins, which he does. Valentine looks good throughout here, his offence is crisp (dug the tilt-a-whirl into a crossface) and he does some nice heel stuff like grinding his crotch over a downed Mejsel. Mejsel tries a package piledriver, and Valentine wisely escapes it (no way I’d let a guy who falls over doing a hiptoss give me a package piledriver), though he does hit it later for another ref slow count. Valentine ends up winning after nailing Mejsel with brass knucks, and this ended up pretty decent, almost entirely thanks to Valentine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2R5b8JRhBY

Best of Mitsuharu Misawa Vol 1

Mitsuharu Misawa is one of those blind spots for me, one of those feted guys I can tell is good, but hasn't yet managed to click with me. In a bid to resolve this, I decided to pick up the first volume of IVP Videos' Best of Misawa series, with the idea that seeing where he came from might help make it all click for me. This disc includes some of his Tiger Mask II stuff and some clips of matches against the likes of Curt Hennig and Ted DiBiase. It also includes footage of him taking his mask off in a tag match to shed the Tiger Mask persona. The matches below are the full matches on the disc and honestly, things are starting to come together for me.

Tiger Mask II vs La Fiera

I know this is a Misawa comp, but this bout is all about the greatness of La Fiera. Before the bell, he’s all cocky, promising to rip off Tiger Mask’s mask, but when the bell rings and Mask unleashes a string of kicks, he’s cowering in the ropes. Fiera bumps big for Misawa here, and stooges wonderfully for him on the outside. I love the surprise in his yells as Mask takes him up for a slam. Tiger Mask has some nice fluid offence, but looks a little hesitant in other places, running the ropes quite gingerly. Fiera hits a lovely cross body to the floor to show his offensive chops too, followed by a great frog splash. He soon takes another big bump to the floor though, followed by a huge tope by Mask. Mask hits a springboard crossbody, and I adore the way Fiera is looking away until the last second when the crossbody hits, adds a sense of realism. He tries for a slap, but Tiger Mask ducks and hits the Tiger suplex for a win. Loved this.

Tiger Mask II vs Dynamite Kid

Dynamite is so jacked compared to Misawa here. He just looks like a beast in comparison. It’s hard to shake the notion that Dynamite is just toying with his opponent during the early matwork here, and even when Mask gets a run of offence, it doesn’t feel enough to take DK out. Dynamite had obviously had plenty of experience in fighting the original Tiger Mask, so when Misawa tries a tombstone here, Kid is able to reverse and hit his own quite easily. His power advantage means he’s able to easily plant Tiger with a back suplex from being headlocked. Tiger Mask crashes and burns on a pescado, and it feels like Dynamite could finish this at any time. However, he doesn’t and Misawa is able to hit him with a back suplex on the floor, which causes both to get counted out. This really helped Tiger Mask look tough in just surviving Dynamite here.

Tiger Mask II vs Jumbo Tsuruta

This is for the NWA International Heavyweight title, and Mask is significantly outsized by Jumbo. This necessitates his opening game plan, wearing Jumbo down with a headlock. Jumbo tries shinbreakers and firing Mask into the ropes, but he refuses to let go of the hold. Eventually, Jumbo decides the best way to break it is by folding Tiger Mask up with a big back suplex. A big knee gets 2, and it feels like this burst of offence makes Tiger Mask realise he needs to change tack. A pair of somewhat milky looking kicks send Jumbo to the floor, and Tiger Mask strikes, with two big dives to the outside. A German suplex gets 2 for Tiger Mask, but a frog splash hits only knees. Tiger goes for quick pin attempts, with roll ups and ranas, but gets caught on a second rana and levelled with a stun gun. Jumbo hits a backdrop suplex for two, and another for the win. Really fun cat-and-mouse match, with a really exciting end run once Tiger Mask went for broke.

Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jumbo Tsuruta

Curiosuly, this match wasn’t listed as being on this disc, which is odd as it’s the best match on here. Here, Misawa isn’t just trying to survive and get flash pins, he’s hitting shots as big as Jumbo. Here, Tsuruta goes on the offensive early with a big boot and clothesline, but gets sent to the floor, where Misawa follows him with a dropkick from the apron. Jumbo look shaken, and seems to change the pace, as they work holds on the mat, only with Misawa peppering a few slaps in on the breaks. Jumbo goes on the offensive again, but Misawa is able to stay in it, and you get a real sense of him trying to chop down this big tree, hitting missile dropkicks to down the big guy. Misawa gets stun gunned off a crossbody in a nice callback to the previous match, and I love how Jumbo’s size means even a simple kneedrop looks brutal. Jumbo hits a massive top rope leaping knee, but gets sent outside on a forearm strike and Misawa goes for broke, with a huge dive to the floor. Inside a bridging cradle gets a close 2 and the crowd really seem to believe Misawa can win. Has to be said, the crowd are HOT all match. Backdrop suplex attempt by Jumbo sees Misawa push off the top turnbuckle with his feet to land on top. Having endured 2 big lariats earlier, Misawa uses a flipping headbutt from the top to take out Jumbo’s arm, prompting Jumbo to hurl himself at the ropes for a big knee, but miss, and the end feels nigh. Jumbo uses on last effort to land on top on a Misawa backdrop suplex, but Misawa rolls through and cradles for the win. Just a massive war of attrition, felt like a real breakthrough victory for Misawa.

Mitsuharu Misawa vs Terry Gordy

After the sheer emotional rollercoaster of the last match, this feels a bit of a let down in comparison, good as it is. The early stages see Gordy grinding down Misawa on the mat, dropping knees on him. It takes Misawa ages to get started, and even when he busts Gordy open with an enzuigiri, he blows his advantage by trying to Tiger Driver him on the floor, which Gordy escapes. Gordy always seems to have something extra in his locker, like he’s prepared when a move doesn’t work. He tries to powerbomb Misawa on the floor, but when he’s clearly not getting him up, he pushes Misawa away and hits a big clothesline. He does this throughout the match, which allows him to press his advantage. When his Rock-level Sharpshooter gets broken by a rope break, he drags Misawa to the middle of the ring to apply it again. Misawa is worn down, and only being close to the ropes stops him being pinned by a powerbomb. Misawa hits some spinkicks and a sudden Tiger Driver for two, and rolls through a Gordy crossbody for another two, in a callback to his Jumbo victory. Misawa is finally in control and, though a German suplex only gets two, a huge forearm smash in enough to just about keep Gordy down for the win.

WWF Raw 07/02/1994

The Smoking Gunns vs Barry Horowitz & Reno Riggins

Decent little squash to start the night. Riggins and Horowitz are upper-tier jobbers, so they get a little offence to start, hammering Billy in their corner. I loved the Bart Gunn top rope crossbody off the tag which took out both opponents. The Gunns control with a few nice double-teams, nothing mindblowing, but good basic teamwork. They finish with Billy Gunn hitting a top rope elbow on Riggins as Bart held him in an Argentine backbreaker.

Owen Hart vs John Paul

Great work by Owen in this match, his first on Raw since the heel turn. He highlights his new found aggressiveness with some sharp back elbows and uppercuts, which distance him from his old persona. After a lovely backbreaker, he locks in the Sharpshooter for the win.

 

IRS vs Marty Jannetty

Quick tempo to start, as Marty sends IRS from the ring after getting attacked from behind. Jannetty takes a huge bump on the floor after getting sent into the ringpost, but seconds later hits a lazy sunset flip into the ring, with the post bump seemingly having no effect. The Quebeccers come out as we go to break, continuing the Jannetty/Johnny Polo beef, but have been sent to the back by the time we return. IRS makes sure to work in a lengthy abdominal stretch and that spot when he jumps off the top rope onto his opponent’s outstretched foot to make sure I don’t enjoy myself. Marty makes his comeback as a whole load of people come out to the ringside, as Polo is followed by Razor Ramon, who is followed in turn by a returning Quebeccers. This leads to a ref distraction where Polo pushes Marty as he leaps into the ring, and IRS wins. Jannetty and Razor clean house to lead to a tag title match in two weeks time

Thurman “Sparky” Plug vs Duane Gill

Poor old Bob Holly. He’s in an awkward position where he’s kinda portrayed as a high flyer, but he doesn’t do that many high flying moves, so he hits a lot of dropkicks and quick armdrags to show he has speed. I dug the spot where Gill tried to outsmart Plugg by springboarding himself out of the ring, only to meet a punch to the face on the ring apron. Plugg hits a nice powerslam and finishes with a top rope kneedrop (“he calls that the Overhead Cam”, a wretched finisher name)

Crush vs James Thornberg

Surprisingly fun. I loved it early when Thornberg hit two no-sold clotheslines, and Crush grabbed the third and yanked him to the mat for a Fujiwara armbar. Crush’s offence is ok, with a few nice kick combo’s thrown in, and he hits a legdrop for the win.