The Holy Grail

So I guess I gave up after a while, I wrote as much as I could for as long as I could and then time got the better of me and the day job took hold and I didn't have the energy to write for a while.

Then something happened. This blog chronicled me falling back in love with wrestling. I had access again thanks to TNA Impact Wrestling, Wrestle Talk TV, Rudo Reels, IVP Videos, Chikara, Ice Ribbon, Reina, Sendai Girls and all the promotions I could watch for free and or cheap. There seemed to be a conversation going on. Just a small one, but a conversation, maybe I was right maybe the time was now. That all my heroes had not been forgotten and that feeling of excitement I had when I turned on the TV on a Saturday afternoon was not gone forever.

Then came the work and the lack of time and everything else. This week though I have been invigorated by a few things. First and most importantly there is a bunch of people looking for the Holy Grail. As Greg Lambert puts it; The Holy Grail is to return British Wrestling to the days of Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks, to be part of the zeitgeist, to have that cultural cache (he wrote a book about  it, you can buy it here ).

The next step in this evolution of thought was a television development. TNA's British Bootcamp. The first national syndicated show in a very long time that features British Wrestlers. Maybe not about British Wrestling, which is no bad thing. The product today does not resemble the product of old, but that link is brought together by the appearance of one my heroes Mark Rocco. The next step was to start talking and sharing ideas and I found some cool people to do it with here. In a couple of days I was posting regularly on TNA Fan Forum and shared this blog with them they liked it enough to encourage me to write more so here I am. I will probably rattle off some more about the good old days, but for now I am looking to the future. If you want to talk about it more you can find me on Twitter under my nom de revolution of Sheriff Lonestar.

The basic gist of all this my 700 or so readers (damn that numbers small I need a decent url), is that we are in search of the Holy Grail, not just me but every right minded fan in this country. We are all going to keep looking, blogging, writing, tweeting and making TV shows about it until its is actually happening. Till then it has been a wonderful couple of days feeling like your part of something, even the tiniest, tiniest part.

End things with a banner that is what I always say;

Oh when the Saint . . .

So it’s been a while; this partly due to my commitments at Bomcast, and partly due to my diligence in watching lots of lovely DVD’s from the fine people at Rudo Reels and Smart Mark Video. These things of course feed into one another. So when I left you all hanging I was going to break down how All Star became dominant and left Joint in its wake. My watching of Smart Mark DVD’s has led me into re-watching a lot of Johnny Saint. His performance at Chikara’s Chikarasaurus Rex last year (at the age of 71 I may add) was incredible. This was partly down to a red hot crowd in Reading, Pennsylvania who adored his match with Johnny Kidd, but also the incredibly knowledgeable and respectful fans of South Philly. They always loved their wrestling. They just liked their blood and guts as well. And so it was that in a place where Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho and Rey Misterio broke the US market wide open for pure wrestlers Johnny Saint and Johnny Kidd reinvigorated their somewhat dormant careers, with the help of Mike Quakenbush and Colt Cobana . So where does this fit in with how All Star broke the Saturday afternoon mould? Take a look at this.



This is late eighties and classic All Star presentation; a catch weight contest between two of the top drawing cards in the country. Something Joint would never have done. Brian Dixon ensured that the TV was there to support the live gate not replace it. He built feuds in the arenas from feuds he had going for him on TV. The episodic cliff hanger format that was pioneered by Bill Watts presented with an original twist. The pre-match interview favoured Dave Finlay, always ahead of his time. The subtle and down played reply by Johnny Saint belies an incredible voice that if you listen to his Art of Wrestling Podcast is both insightful, funny and warm. What really paid of though is what happens between the ropes. The short format three minute rounds, championship style, kind of cuts into the flow, but the bell goes and we have the classic roles of heel and face played out. Dave’s stall and taunt tactics give a nice pace to the match, his minimalist style goes against the grain of Johnny’s all action outings. The Sandman (a technical wizard if ever there was one) once recounted how Dave, then working as a road agent for WWE, didn’t like a match because someone had taken to many bumps. He then proceeded to have a one bump match to prove his point. Everything makes sense.



And of course with Dave being full on heel, Johnny can relax and go on being viciously effective full on face, something the Philly fans did not see. Note the torque on the whip at 1:26. Of course Dave has not really evolved his style much in the ring over the years. He has just got more vicious. His chilling promo for his Ring of Honor match with Roderick Strong at Border Wars attests to which basically boiled down to “Finlay’s coming” attests to that. Paula of course always attracted white hot heat from the crowd, but its Dave who seals the deal in the ring; the bemused heel chasing ghosts and of course when you get frustrated resort to punches. Punching was so looked down up on and was almost an instant DQ in the British ring because rules still mattered. Throwing a punch was enough to get major heat and Dave’s perfect hidden deliveries. So the story goes on; the heel gets mad so the face gets even madder. This is Johnny’s downfall as he slips into the Celtic Cross.



Round four brings us back to action Johnny sells the Celtic Cross very believably, as with much of everything he did; his usual matches against smaller opponents where usually affairs of escape and defence, he had plenty of chances to seal the submissions and pin falls so when he really got hit with something big he looked perfect. Moderation is the key after all. The escape and release style resurfaces as Johnny hits his second wind. Simplicity is the key as Johnny takes down Dave Finlay with a School boy. As Kent Walton rightly says “all done with speed”, in fact the only thing missing from Chikarasaurous Rex was Kent Walton’s commentary; however he was mentioned in passing. I would have dearly loved to have heard him commentate on the singles match. The other issue of this time was camera presentation. The low camera shot from the side of the ring was something new, but it also helped impact of each moved to be presented in a much more hard hitting way. What is also amazing is that the one big bump of the match happens so late. These two men had the crowd oohing and ahhing without leaving their feet that often. This says a lot for their ability. Doing the most with minimal effort, this had an impact on their careers in that both are wrestling to a very high level twenty five years later. There is a somewhat anti climatic ending to the bout which manages to achieve a lot and could only happen in a British ring. Dave keeps his heat as a heel and his dominance as a larger man; Johnny retains his heat as a face by losing in less than perfect circumstances. Everyone’s a winner. Certainly All Star fans where. Joint fan’s not so much. They had to deal with this.



Which would you rather watch? I shall at this point give a shameless plug to those folks at Rudo Reels, not for any other reason other than they are supportive of wrestling, offer great value and give incredible service. I strongly recommend their download service which can build your collection cheaply and effectively. A word of warning though it’s addictive. I’d start with their excellent Luche Libre sampler which has some mid nineties classics and shows the growth of AAA, EMLL and the careers of Rey Misterio, Psycosis and La Parka and is free. Have a good week, till next week.

FA Cup Final Day

Welcome back to the blog that's had well 16 hits so far. Well gotta start somewhere.

Today we head out to down to Walthamstow (and 1972) for a a double title day, one the FA Cup, but first the things that really matter. The British Light-Weight title and belt, to be fought over ten, five minute rounds, with two falls, submission, a knock-out or a disqualification to decide the winner. On your left in the blue corner, from Bradford a very young looking defending champion, Jimmy "Crybaby" Breaks. Interestingly never announced as such, his ring name was earned for his reputation of throwing a strop when things where not going his way. In the red corner from Manchester, the challenger Mr. Johnny Saint. Saint in his trademark terrible 70's hair cut which thankfully morphed into a short back and sides by his iconic 80's run. This matched the footballers who where to do battle later on in the day after this pre-taped title match aired.

Cup final day throughout the 1970's and into the '80's was without a doubt and event of epic televisual proportions. Cup final specials abounded, but it was important to wrestling; for one day of the year it would be bumped out of its usual 4pm slot, and secondly it would have the biggest possible audience. Quite frankly cause there was naff all else on. 3 Channels, two showing football, not only football but THE SAME GAME. Enough to make you heave, anything is light relief after or before that. So, over to Kent.


 

   
The fact this wasn't the main event blows my mind. As Walton points out later in the commentary Joint Promotions tended not to put title matches on TV, quite sensibly that would hurt the live gate. With closed circuit TV not available yet, no TV equipment of their own to film it (everything was brought in), and no way of disseminating the title matches to their audience in a fee paying manner they had to protect their best stuff. Of course that would also take investment, something British wrestling promoters wouldn't get the hang of for another 40 years.

There is the obligatory title defence hand shake (everyone did this face or heel) and we are off. Breaks does slowly build up to the whining, cheating and cry baby tactics but up till then its what the good people of Walthamstow had come to see a good classical contest. 

At 2.50 in this clip we start to see what Breaks was all about; arms submissions. The Crybaby character was all well and good for selling tickets but it couldn't work in the ring without something vicious to back it up. Jim wanted to win and he wanted to win with the Breaks special, a modified folding arm lever that looked supremely vicious. The only people who have seen tried copying it since are long time rivals in the well trod "stealing the finisher" gimmick of Saint himself later in this match and Steve Grey. Most recently Bryan Danielson attempted it on Johnny Saint at the King of Trios in 2009 yes folks 2009. Johnny Saint has been wrestling that long, and still is. At 72.

Anyways back to the match. Things are going swimmingly for Jim. He starts controlling before losing his grasp on the escapology specialist. The story of this match was quite similar throughout the seventies for a heel champion. He loses cleanly and in humiliating fashion to a well fancied challenger and so has to give up the title shot at some point. The championship advantage of course did not occur under Mount-Evans rules, the belt changed hands on DQ or CO, so it made draw finishes much more useful. Both guys where protected and future rematches would be down the line. But more on the finish later.

Jim Breaks was by this time into his third reign as British Lightweight Champ. As he held it a record ten times we can safely call it "his" belt. A quick flick through the title reigns shows an interesting trend; he always dropped it to wrestlers who where on their way up to different things. The two most notable names on that list being Johnny Saint, soon to be worlds lightweight champion on the retirement of George Kidd and The Dynamite Kid himself on his way to being arguably the greatest British wrestler of all time.




As a fan the one thing I couldn't stand about Breaks was his constant chatter with ringside fans. It drives you up the wall, just as it should of course. The stress in the commentary is the 2-0 win for Saint in the none title bout, this gave a real idea that he could knock off the champ, and the advantage of presenting wrestling as a real sport. Something Ring of Honor do better than anyone at the moment. The momentum then is with the challenger, at 5.35 the temper starts to fray and so we get the tantrum with a well placed handkerchief from a well meaning fan that couldn't have been more appreciated by Jim I'm sure.

From a title perspective Breaks' long and continuous reigns matched a slate of champions from the wrong side of the tracks each promoted differently so as to make sure they meant something different to each division. Breaks was the sneak thief heel who got away with it. By contrast the fans would at least respect Mark "Rollerball" Rocco even if they knew he cheated, but he could go with the best in a straight wrestling style to.All of the champions where top notch for match quality as Saint proves, at 9.45 even Breaks comes out of character with a wry smile to applaud the acrobatics.




Clip three brings the first and what turns out to be the only fall of the match. What happens next is what really stands out for a match of this era. Baring in mind this match was shown on a Saturday morning with the kids off from school, there is a fair amount of blood. First there is the vicious side of Breaks trying to exact revenge on the Saint nose. Then Saint's retaliation for the big pop as Breaks has his nose broken again and bleeds profusely before Breaks snaps and heads out to hurt Breaks with the big bump to the floor. What is remarkable is that both these bleeds appear to be blade jobs.  

The finish of course protects the champion and would lead to another title show down the line for the unfortunate Saint who was 1-0 up when there was a TKO. A nice shot though from the crowd at Jimmy's unprotected skull. The Mutoh Scale was not in effect back then but this wasn't to bad in comparison what my Dad called the "Billy Howes Effect" which was how much Billy Howes could make Kendo Nagasaki bleed on a National TV.
   
So there you have it grapple fans, the title picture in 1971, but Johnny Saint was going to move onto bigger and better things. If you can't have Great Britain why not go for the world?

Oh yeah Leeds United beat Arsenal 1-0. Given the Leeds (inventive but violent) and Arsenal (boring and violent) sides of the time it was safe to say this wouldn't be the only blood on a May Saturday afternoon.

Have a good time, till the next time.