Of all things... a look at Tony Garea

 

2/3 Falls: Tony Garea & Steve Travis vs Johnny Rodz & Jose Estrada, WWF 9/18/1982

My foray into Tony Garea begins with this illustrious combination! And wow this is just a straight forward great match. Right at the bell they go into a criss cross running which I imagine is a hot workrate beginning in 1982 WWF. There is nearly nothing beyond the absolute most basic of wrestling moves here, but everything is executed so believable and with conviction. Everyone here throws good punches, and whenever the babyfaces one up the heels e.g. by kipping out of an armlock, they punctuate it with a punch to the face. Rodz takes an awesomely big back body drop, faces have great dropkick, and there’s lots of leapfrogging. Garea hits a really beautiful handstand kneedrop at one point. Heels stooge around the ring and beg off lots, selling punches like shotgun blasts, and they pretty much never get any offense except when they leap into eye rakes or distract the referee. US wrestling really lost a lot when they moved away from face punching and begging off. They do a pretty brief heat segment and then it’s back to the faces clowning and wasting the heels fast. I really appreciate the departure from a typical long heat segment and they really continue to deliver the action. Finish to the first fall is just a basic splash and it was followed up with some cool work to the mid section in the second fall. GREAT transition when a knocked unconscious Johnny Rodz is blind tagged as he knocked Garea down and fell to his corner, Jose Estrada then coming down off the top rope with an attack to the neck. Johnny Rodz also hit a pretty nice thrust kick at one point. By the end they just keep delivering with the heels putting heat on the babyfaces and being met constantly with great looking punch combos. The first hot tag is just Garea coming in and punching back and forth with Travis. They do seem to meander a bit in the 3^rd fall but I appreciate Johnny Rodz saving things with a little swaggering to give things a chance to get back on track. And get back on track they did as they really went all out. Even doing some quite hot nearfalls throughout all the falls. The announcer were talking about how this is an all action match and it really doesn’t feel like an exaggeration. I especially enjoyed the spot where Garea leaped over one heel, causing said heel to dive head first into the other. It’s such a fun simplistic creative approach to things in this era. To be fair, Garea and Travis were so competent but bland in this match they might as well have been interchangeable, but they still did a good job, and Rodz and Estrada were pretty great. I really appreciate how none of them were really big stars yet they went out and had a great match in the middle of the card here. That’s the spirit. This was pretty much everything that modern wrestling is not, and for that I enjoyed the heck out of this.

This was the only appearance of Tony Garea among the top ranked matches of the DVDVR 80s WWF set, so I guess the DVDVR folks did not like Garea very much.

Rick Martel & Tony Garea vs Masa Saito & Mr. Fuji, WWWF 10/13/1981

This was a great tag sprint. You would usually not associate early 80s WWF with sprints but this was pretty much just that. Martel is a house of fire right away. Saito and Fuji are just great in this, bumping all over the place and setting themselves up. Martel does a ridiculously high leapfrog where Mr. Fuji barely goes down. The heat segment was just masterful as Fuji and Saito were constantly in and out and dominated the action without things getting boring. Garea is very much just a guy in this doing everything right, though the crowd rallied behind him in a big way when he powered out of Fujis nerve hold, and the leapfrog spots are fun still. Martel hits a jumping headscissor in his hot tag and that is just delightfully old school highflying babyface stuff. Salt throw finish looked just amazing. I also really enjoyed young Masa Saito looking quite unfuckwithable as he always does. Super super enjoyable tag that could be shown as textbook example in wrestling schools.

Tony Garea vs Larry Sharpe, WWWF 12/31/1977

This was some workmanship. Garea really looks so bland with his everybodies darling look but just his prison tattoos make him interesting. Sharpe has the blonde bowlcut and a Buddy Rose esque figure. This starts as a scientific match. There’s actually some quiet swift work and Garea busts out a handstand into a wristlock takeover that we’d associate with the fancier European technicians. At one point Sharpe works the old hammerlock pin and Garea does some cool bridging and twisting, even bridging over to reverse the pin on Sharpe. Garea knocks Sharpe over with a shoulderblock and a woman in the audience goes “Woooo! Woo!” Interesting transition where Garea goes for another and Sharpe sidesteps and misdirects him into the turnbuckle where Garea hurts his shoulder. Mostly technical action, but the crowd quickly starts rallying behind Garea. Sharpe does a bit of cheating and a cool thing where he falls while holding onto the wrist of Garea to attack the arm. Garea gets out of the armlock with a nifty drop toe hold (basic but you never see anyone do that anymore). His hot comeback is mostly hammering away at Sharpe with headlock punches. They wind down a bit as Garea keeps hanging on to headlocks as they go to a somewhat lukewarm 10 minute draw. To my surprise, the referee awards the win to Garea, which causes Sharpe to flip out and beat on him further, but Garea comes back hitting some beautiful dropkicks that send Sharpe to the outside of the ring as the crowd absolutely erupts and old ladies jump out of their seat with joy. For a 70s WWF match this wasn’t boring at all and it was very much textbook stuff that just plain works as evidenced by the crowd reactions.

Tony Garea vs Adrian Adonis, WWF 4/24/1982

Another scientific match! Hugely enjoyable stuff, however, the problem here is that Adonis is clearly trying to draw heat with his swaggering persona, but then he ends up looking way better at wrestling than Garea. Nothing wrong with old Tony Garea here, but Adonis pretty much smokes him with a beautiful firemans carry, beautiful drop toe hold, even flipping out of an attempted monkey flip. That is hard flip to pull off and seeing a chunky man like Adonis making it look smooth as butter is magical. Adonis keeps running into Gareas armdrag takeovers though, and he takes these cool bumps for shoulder blocks where he is turned around on the spot by the force of Garea charging into him and flops to his belly. Eventually, Adonis grabs a handful of hair and hits this really cool knee lift. The crowd is way behind Garea though as he makes a cool escape from Adonis abdominal stretch. They spill to the outside, with some surprisingly hard moves on the floor being uncorked as they brawl to a draw. A pretty sweet TV match although Adonis stood out head and shoulders above Garea and it made me want to see what would go down further between them.

Tony Garea & Larry Zbyszko vs Baron Mikel Scicluna & Tony Russo, WWWF 1978/8/19

Boy Larry Z looks like the goofiest man you’ve ever seen here with his hair combed to the side and his whispy mustache. Talk about being born to be an obnoxious heel. 70S WWWF has a lot names that are lost to history, but whose solidness stands the test of time in a way. Garea definitely is one such guy, and the same goes for Scicluna and Russo. Sciclona works a forearm choke and some hair pulls and then they go pretty much right to heat with the heels being all over the faces constantly. Tony Russo, a man built like an angry apple (all body and no arms or legs), has this great kneedrop where he landed right on the mans throat. I think that was about the only fancy thing the heels did. They were all kicks and punches, but they were solid kicks and punches. There are actually multiple heat sections and multiple babyface comebacks, most of which are fun, until a double down signals to actually go to the finish. One notices that after getting a hot tag, Zbyszko and Garea would usually just go for another armlock so the heels could cheapshot again and go back to heat. Gareas hiptosses and dropkicks look as good as you need hiptosses and dropkicks to be. He does show some fire, and the double Sunset flip finish is fun. 70S WWF was faster paced wrestling than you might think.

Bart Gunn Matches

 Bart Gunn & Johnny Ace vs. Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama, AJPW 6/9/1999

I imagine the 20 or so diehard traders of Japanese tapes who existed at this time scoffed at MOVEMENT, the team of Johnny Ace and Bart Gunn/Mike Barton. Even today some people scoff at Aces AJPW work, saying he was carried. But fuck that because Johnny Ace ruled and he was hanging and banging with Kobashi and Akiyama and post-Brawl 4 All Bart is such a great character and nothing to scoff at. The opening of this is really solid and full of cool little moments with real emphasis placed on solid moves like a Kobashi hitting a stalling vertical suplex on chunky Johnny Ace, or Barts really high jumping dropkick. The fun begins when Ace hits a surprise Ace Crusher to Akiyama on a chair outside the ring. We get a really solid control segment with Ace and Gunn really stretching Akiyamas rattled head and neck, building to Kobashi getting the hot tag only for Ace to catch him with a surprise Ace Crusher after an awesome sequence that was like a fast junior sequence except done by chunky heavyweights. They build to Akiyama getting another nice hot tag and it sets up this really awesome second half of the match with Ace busting out his awesome Ace Crushers left and right to crack people and Bart threatening to KO Kobashi with his dreaded punch. Bart looks absolutely massive so when he gets dropped on his neck with a half nelson suplex or Exploder it's double awesome. The nearfalls towards the end of this are real edge of the seat stuff, you get awesome moments like Gunn & Ace busting out a fucking Splash Mountain into a Neckbreaker, Akiyama getting absolutel spiked on Aces Cobra Clutch suplex, Kobashi being saved from a dangerous move at the last moment etc. Great shit and felt like MOVEMENT were putting it all together and working their absolute A-game to contain the power of BURNING.

Bart Gunn vs. Hardcore Holly, WWF 2/16/1999

The two sides of wrestling in 1999! This is Barts only WWF match besides the Butterbean fight in 1999, and he wouldn't come back until 2003 when he did 2 dark matches teaming with Jim Steele. This is a hardcore title match. While the hardcore title was mostly supposed to be comedic I guess, but these two work it without any humor at all, Holly hits hard as fuck, boots to the face and hard punches and they keep bringing out more and more  ridiculous props to smash over each others heads. Both guys take hard as fuck bumps on the steel ramp and then they just keep killing each other with the ring bell, a crate of bananas, water melons, a bag of flour etc. Finish has some guy in a weird mask doing a run in on Bart and throwing him off the stage with Bart taking this sick as fuck shoulder bump through a table. Brutal and comical stuff.

Scotty 2 Hotty Matches

Scotty 2 Hotty vs. Chavo Guerrero, Jr., WWF 7/22/2001

I really like Scotty 2 Hotty. He was slick, he had good worked punches, great timing and the dance moves are awesome. What more do you want a wrestler to have? Add in the fact that he was almost never given more than a few minutes in singles matches and you have a wrestler with a great portfolio of 3-4 minute TV sprints. And Chavo always busts his ass, so they have an awesome 6-7 minute match on this random HEAT episode. I really wish we could have gotten Chavo Jr. vs. Otani in their primes but Chavo Jr. vs. Scotty is the next best thing. Scotty looks great sliding underneath Chavo really fast, landing on his feet, hitting a great punch on the floor... Chavo always mixes so much high end shit into these short throwaway matches. In this case his springboard moves were awesome. They do a few great cutoffs and some big nearfalls, plus a classic Japanese big move finish. What more do you want?

Scotty 2 Hotty vs. Tajiri, WWF 7/2/2001

Tajiri is another short TV match king and this was basically a get-your-shit in 3 minute sprint with a few dandy moments. Scotty always does different cool things in his matches, talk about knowing how to keep your act fresh. In this case he hits some really fast elbow drops, a great spinning suplex, great superkick, big powerbomb counter, a slick re-entry flip into the ring etc. The finish was brilliant as Scotty gets ready to hit the Worm but Tajiri mists him in the face, in a clash of the coolest WWF moves of the early 2000s. It was like the 3 minute RAW match equivalent of Kobashi slipping out of the Emerald Frosion to hit the Burning Hammer.

Scotty 2 Hotty vs. Tajiri, WWF 1/29/2002

The rematch that also only goes 3 minutes! Man, can you imagine these two being given a proper stretched out 7 or 8 minute match?? This was a breathless sprint and there were some absolutely awesome slick spots. Obviously Tajiri is great with his kicks and smooth moves, but Scotty shows he can hang. Scotty has no problem working a knuckle lock and then dropkicking Tajiri right in the face, or working complicated reversal segments. The finish was absolutely awesome with both guys doing counter after counter, Tajiri having the slickest most awesome Tarantula set up you've ever seen etc. Amazing shit.

Scotty 2 Hotty vs. Dean Malenko, WWF 4/30/2000

Widely considered to be Scottys best match, probably because this one goes over 10 minutes and actually was on a PPV. Some commenters may argue that this was because of Dean, but really, Scotty is the heart and soul of this thing. He opens as a hóuse on fire throwing a wad of punches at Dean, working a fast segment with some cool counters before Dean starts cutting off his leg. Leg work was solid with Scotty making nice comebacks but if you've seen a few Scotty matches you know he was capable of more. The WORM after all the legwork was a bit iffy but what the hell, don't question the magic of something the crowd loved this much. Scottys fire is awesome and Dean just gives nothing. Really solid match with a great random finish.

Distillated HEAT

 Dean Malenko vs. Joe Legend, WWF 8/8/2000

This was when they tried to give Malenko some colour by giving him a ladys man gimmick. So he struts out with two hot ladies to grapple with Just Joe. This is one of those 5 minute HEAT matches where I assume both guys agreed that they wouldn't take any bumps so they just arm lock each other a bunch and it's awesome. Really eschews a traditional match structure and they do things like awkwardly kicking each other in the shoulder and just aggressively going for arm attacks. It was stuff you'd expect in an Otani match. Joe works the DOUBLE CHICKENWING and the commentators have no idea what to make of this. Malenko goes for a backdrop and Joe counters but instead of bumping him he just goes for a hammerlock. Joe has a fun spot where goes for a superkick and gets his leg caught on the top rope. The finish is Joe goes to hit Malenko with his belt (It's a title match baby!) and Malenko pins him with Fujinami leg pin. Completely inexplicable and cool.

Essa Rios vs. Billy Fives, WWF 4/10/2000

Rios didn't go far in WWF but he was an athletic machine, probably the most spectacular wrestler in the world at that point. Billy Fives is an indy random and for some guy who's not a luchador and only had this 1 match on WWF TV he bases well for Rios stuff. Rios does all this awesome stuff including superkicking Fives hard, nice punch combo, cool powerslam and hits a hard clothesline. Lita is with Rios so she whips out her awesome apron rana followed by the insane Rios flip dive. Rios actually gives this indy random some offense and Fives makes the most of it hitting a martial arts spin kick to Rios' ribs in the corner and a nearly rib crunching frog splash. Rios with the insanely gorgeous moonsault is always great.

Perry Saturn vs. Chad Collyer, WWF 9/18/2000

Just a 3 minute match, but Saturn in syndicated matches against indy scum is guaranteed entertainment. This had the structure of an indy juniors match sandwhiched into a 3 minute slot, starting with mat work to a little heat section before Saturn gives Collyer some offense and then finishes him off. Saturns matwork looks really good, really dragging Collyer around, the heat section is good as Saturn throws Collyer around with some hurty suplex and a brutal Aja Kong style corner gutbuster, all while playing to the crowd working his valet. Collyer hits a nice German on Saturn and eats a cool Death Valley Driver.

Scotty 2 Hotty vs. Essa Rios, WWF 5/15/2000

Nobody really talks about Scotty 2 Hotty as a great worker, but with his dance moves, cool athleticism, punches and Memphis-taught understanding of how to 'rassle, I sure wish there were more Scotty 2 Hottys around and less kickpadded genericos. Really fun 5 minute match centered around the face charisma of Scotty, with Lita again whipping out her awesome rana and Rios taking huge bumps including the gigantic missed moonsault into the ring. The psychology around the WORM is fun, as Scotty hits it to the crowds delight, Rios gets up immediately and get caught in another move and pinned.

2 Cold Scorpio Documentation Project #2

 2 Cold Scorpio & Vader vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Takashi Sugiura, NOAH 10/16/2001 - GREAT

Scorpio and Vader had a great dynamic as a team. Scorpio the more elegant wrestler, while Vader is just this hulking beast. As partners they act as foils for each other in a really unique way. This went a little under 7 minutes, but it was laid out nearly perfectly. Everything Vader does looks like he‘s just killing dudes, bashing guys heads in with his arms, body checks that look like they run you over. The crowd even buys a basic back suplex from him as a nearfall. Between Scorpio and Vader laying guys you get some fun character moments from both of them. Ikeda and Sugiura are mostly blown away but they get in some good hopespots. I liked the brief Ikeda/Scorpio section a lot. Ikeda was teeing off on Scorpio with stiff lariats until Scorpio was able to get in some beautiful (probably much less painfull but still hurty looking) kicks. Finish was fun too as Vader randomly seemed to hurt his leg. It may have been a shoot but probably not because Vader kept working matches the next couple days, but it gave the illusion that Sugiura might come back against the monster. The match ended early like a few NOAH matches did back in the day, to remind the crowd that things are important. Not the epic you might hope for when you see Ikeda and Vader and Scorpio in a match but it was healthy booking and the match was still really cool without burying Ikeda and young boy Sugiura.

2 Cold Scorpio & Vader vs. Jun Akiyama & Akitoshi Saito, NOAH 10/19/2001 - GREAT

Another match with a really great layout. Basically Vader is this ridiculously overpowered, but slightly banged up monster. You buy that he can KO people with a random punch or clothesline, or that a random leglock from him might dislocate someones leg. At the same time he‘s vulnerable and you think a random leg kick from Saito might make him give out. Akiyama and Saito try to zone in on Scorpio, he‘s not really the weak link, he‘s just the only one there that they have a chance in hell against. Scorpio feeds really well into their stuff and also sets up Vaders monster spots extremely well while hitting some graceful offense of his own. But the whole match was basically about Vader being an unstoppable force, while Akiyama and Saito still get close to turning the tide. I imagine it‘s pretty difficult to work a match like this and make it compelling but they succeeded here. Great stuff, early NOAH was the best.

2 Cold Scorpio vs. The Goon, WWF 12/2/1996 - FUN

This was Scorpios WWF debut using the terrible Flash Funk gimmick. Nowadays I imagine a guy with spectacular highspots making his debut would just eat the other guy up busting out all his stuff, but here the Goon controls a bit while Scorpio gradually does his stuff. The Goon who looks like some bush league indy dude in his hockey gear has some fun brawling, a nice bump through the ropes and a really nice posting. And Scorpio was pretty much the most spectacular guy in the world in 1996, really busting out complicated dives and rollups on a different level. And because of the match layout he gets over as more than a highspot machine. Fun match despite the unfortunate gimmick.

2 Cold Scorpio Documentation Project 

RIP Paul Orndorff

 

Paul Orndorff vs. Bob Orton Jr., WWF 5/25/1985

Pretty much an 80s US heavyweight workrate match. Fast pace, with unpredictable structure. Both guys throw a tons of great punches, and them putting over the momentum swings looked awesome and totally credible. Anybody Orndorff gets punched he‘s bowled across the ring and selling in such a way that you really buy a simple punch as a momentum changer. Orton Jr. Has the cast on his arm and there is some brief but vicious looking armwork from Orndorff. Fun spot where Orndorff counters a piledriver and Orton drops into a tree of woe. Some great looking punch combos to end it before Orndorff punches the referee. This looks like a great feud.

Paul Orndorff vs. Sgt. Slaughter, WWF 6/2/1984

Yeah this rules. Orndorff is super hated and the fans pelt the ring with garbage at his sight. Slaughter catches Orndorffs back to start but Orndorff starts beating him back down fast. As usual, Orndorffs bumping and offense were super on point. Slaughter is a bloody mess soon and Orndorff is all over him working his cut with any method he can find. Slaughter makes a big comeback – only to get launched into the turnbuckle chest first and tumbling outside. That would be a throwaway spot now but here it‘s sold like a huge deal and sets up another great heat segment. Orndorff landing a running knee to Slaughters cracked ribs and then limping was just great. That‘s how you put over that you‘re in a gritty dangerous fight. The ending makes you want to see more of these two tearing each other up but apparently this was their only televised singles. Travesty.

RIP The Patriot

  The Patriot vs. Bret Hart, WWF 9/7/1997

 This is a classic heel champ working around a cookie cutter babyface match with Hart doing an excellent job making everyone think The Patriot was gonna take the title. I am guessing the idea behind the masked Patriot was that he represents an everyman, and he has pretty fun everyman offense in armdrags and a really nice dropkick. The opening going was well laid out and the action solid, but inconsequential (some limb work that doesn't go anywhere). The heartpiece was the finishing stretch laid out around Patriot getting nearfalls with Bret hanging on by a threat and some shenanigans happening. I am sure those nearfalls stayed in peoples minds in 1997 and I loved the finish where the Patriot gets cocky enough to put Harts own move on him only for Bret to defeat him on a technicality.

The Patriot & Vader vs. Bret Hart & British Bulldog, WWF 10/5/1997

I don't remember Vader being this patriotic guy, but he is definitely somebody you want backing you up when the honor of your country is at stake. This was a flag match but there are pins and submissions, but we at least get the cool visuals of guys breaking their flags over each others heads. Vader is great here backing up the Patriot, coming in to take people out with big body checks and punches. He also has this insane moment where he goes for his moonsault and lands on his feet then beats the shit out of Davey Boy some more. The match could've used a better structure, Hart Foundation where making cutoffs and trying to isolate the faces but it never really came together for a proper FIP section, and what a weird thing for a match involving a character as southern fried as The Patriot to not be a southern tag,  but what we got was pretty fun.

The Patriot & Kenta Kobashi vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama, AJPW 11/22/1996

It's an AJPW pillars tag baby, so you get the usual cool strike exchanges plus the fun novelty of having The Patriot slotted into the format. You won't get neck chops or martial arts kicks from The Patriot but he is really fun doing his shoulderblocks and clotheslines and dropkicks with real Oomph behind them to fit into the match. I loved the constant teasing and countering of the Full Nelson Slam, and how they protected the move. Great finishing stretch with Patriot first working some pretty complex exchanges with Misawa and Akiyama before some baller nearfalls happen and The Patriot ends up falling victim to the usual Misawa helping out his junior partner shenanigans. You can totally tell when the crowd really catches on fire for this match and it's really fun to watch.