Ryan Navigates '90 - #38 (5/27 - 6/1)
You must never, EVER doubt El Dandy.
Good day!
We have a very match-heavy edition of the Navigation this go-round from a variety of promotions. We’ll get another heavyweight contest from New Japan, another installment of a heralded rivalry from Gran Hamada’s UWF, a mat classic for the World Middleweight title in EMLL, and we wrap it up with a couple of bouts from USWA Dallas.
Plus, we’ll get a feature on Jerry “The King” Lawler from a TV show so thoroughly forgotten that I can’t find any information about it on Jimmy Valiant’s internet.
MONDAY, MAY 28th
NJPW Crush The Super Heavy 1990, Night Three
Riki Choshu vs. Shinya Hashimoto - After Choshu dispatched Keiji Muto on 5/24, he looks to take out another of the Three Musketeers. Sadly, there’s no Choshu vs. Masahiro Chono match coming up this year to complete the set.
Fun fact: this is the only contest this issue that ISN’T a rematch of something I reviewed earlier in the series.
We have a fairly even start, with both guys trading cheap shots against the ropes after lockups. Choshu blocks a drop toehold with some grappling, then gets a couple of kicks after letting go. Hash fires back with BRUTAL kicks of his own to Choshu’s leg, then goes to work on the damaged limb. Choshu fights his way back up and lands some vicious kicks himself before grounding Hash with a figure four headscissors.
Hash escapes and just rains down the stiff kicks and headbutts. Choshu returns fire with headbutts, but Hashimoto kicks him into oblivion before hurling him to the floor. Back in, we hit the knucklelock, which is won by Choshu. Hashimoto lures Choshu into another one, but nails him with a spinning kick! Shinya pummels Riki with nasty kicks, then gets a kneeling lariat before lighting him up with chops.
However, Choshu catches a charging Hashimoto with an elbow smash, then starts blasting him with right hands and boots. Choshu foolishly tries a suplex, so Hash drills him with a DDT! Hashimoto follows up by repeatedly kicking Choshu’s soul out of his body.
Another DDT gets a close two-count, so Hash follows up with a second-rope elbow for another near-fall. Hashimoto hits yet another DDT, but Choshu comes back with a lariat out of nowhere! Choshu clubs him down with another pair of lariats for a near-fall, then it’s Scorpion Deathlock time!
Hashimoto breaks via the ropes, so Choshu just blasts him with a lariat to the back of the head! Hash collapses to the outside, then Choshu follows and hits him with a waterwheel drop onto the floor! Hash makes it to the apron, so Choshu drags him in via a sleeper, then hits him with a top-rope kneedrop. Choshu covers, but Hash is in the ropes. Back suplex from Choshu leads to another lariat, but Hash powers through with via the magic of FIGHTING SPIRIT!
Hashimoto intercepts another lariat attempt with a powerslam, then he catches Choshu with a spinning heel kick for the three!
***3/4 - This was a super-entertaining fight. It felt like a bit of a chess match in the opening portion, then they threw the board off the table and started hurling bombs at each other. Hashimoto delivered the intensity and brutality, and it was returned in kind by Choshu. The finish came completely out of nowhere, but I really liked it because it felt like Hash throwing a last-ditch Hail Mary that connected. To me, most strikes can believably end a match if they’re executed correctly, especially if it’s landed by someone like Hashimoto.
This didn’t have as engrossing a story as the Muto match, but I’ll never turn my nose up at a stiff slugfest with palpable desperation.
Post-match, respect is shown between competitors.
MAY 1990
We’re not sure when in May this took place, so we’ll look at it here.
Right now, we have a People Magazine television feature on Jerry “The King” Lawler. The segment starts off with Lawler wearing a mask for some reason and telling the peasants to kiss his royal feet.
We get clips of USWA action (Lawler vs. Chris Champion, Mike Awesome, Jeff Jarrett, etc.) while a female narrates. I can’t find a single iota of information about this show on the internet, so I don’t know about the personnel. She talks about guys wanting to win the USWA title so they can move on to bigger promotions, but nobody’s able to dethrone the King. Lawler talks about younger workers being more concerned about gimmicks and muscles rather than skill.
We get into Lawler being a Memphis icon, with someone on a radio show telling him he’s had a much more positive impact on that city than Elvis Presley. Alrighty, then. Lawler dreamed of creating art for Hallmark when he was younger as we’re shown some rather impressive drawings, including his typical caricatures and a black-and-white rendition of Frank Frazetta’s Death Dealer painting (famously used for Molly Hatchet’s debut album cover).
Lawler talks about the fans appreciating his insults because they get to be a part of the show. The narrator brings up the possibility of wrestling being staged, saying that Lawler wouldn’t answer the question, nor would any wrestler they reached out to. Well, the Connie Chung segment certainly found guys more than happy to answer that question.
Over clips of The King wrestling Jimmy Valiant, Lawler kayfabes by saying that he could have easily beaten him in 3-4 minutes, but he drags it out to entertain the fans.
We now get a rare appearance from Jerry’s wife, Paula. She says that she used to cheer on from ringside, but she now watches from a distance. Paula then relates a story of Lawler wrestling Plowboy Fraizer (Uncle Elmer in the WWF). She jumped up onto Plowboy’s back and clobbered him with her shoe, but Fraizer caught her and rammed her and Lawler’s heads together. Moments later, she woke up just in time to see Fraizer legdrop her!
Lawler runs down his various injuries, including needing groin surgery after getting crotched on the ringpost.
The narrator claims Lawler makes $300,000 a year from wrestling (really?), then says there’s no health care or pension plan. We explore the loneliness and ennui of being on the road, and there’s times where the thrill of being in the ring doesn’t make up for the bad feelings. At the end of the day, while he appreciates the fans, Lawler sometimes just wants them to leave him alone after the show.
That was a pretty interesting little piece. It does pull back the curtain, but only just enough to not completely break kayfabe like the Connie Chung segment. Lawler came off pretty well here, and the story that Paula told was entertaining. There’s also a bit of honesty about the negative aspects of the industry, some of which is still relevant today.
Some of the production was pretty strange, though. Seriously, what was up with the mask? All in all, this was quite the curiosity.
JUNE 1st
UWF Super Estrella ‘90, Night One
UWA World Light Heavyweight Championship: Gran Hamada (c) vs. Perro Aguayo - These guys had a rather fun 2/3 falls match on March 2nd, so I’m looking forward to this one. Unlike last time, we get full production with multiple cameras and commentary.
Aguayo boots Hamada down before the bell and just goes to town on him with strikes. The action spills to the floor, where Aguayo bashes Hamada with a chair before Hamada escapes back into the ring. Aguayo continues his dominance, absolutely belting Hamada with chops and escaping his submission attempts. Aguayo hits a powerslam for a one-count, but Hamada soon fights back with punches and a huge headbutt. He takes over with a chinlock, which he transitions into a double-armlock.
Hamada releases, and they exchange chops until Aguayo hits a short dropkick for two, then he lands a particularly spiteful senton for another near-fall. Hamada fights out of a double-armbar with a fireman’s carry, then things start to pick up with a leapfrog sequence that segues into a lucha exchange which results in Hamada monkeyflipping Aguayo. Hamada sends Aguayo to the floor with a dropkick, then follows up with a top rope plancha.
Back in, Hamada gets a rebound sunset flip for two, then sends Perro out for a tope suicida! Once we return to the ring, Hamada drops an elbow for a two-count, but Aguayo catches Hamada with a dropkick to counter a back body drop. Aguayo hits a side slam and a piledriver, each for two-counts, then lands another senton for a near-fall. Aguayo ensnares Hamada with a small package for two.
Aguayo lights Hamada up with some kicks before applying a high-angle Boston crab variant. Hamada makes the ropes, but Aguayo plants him with a Samoan drop for two, then a scoop powerslam for another close count. Hamada flips out of a back body drop attempt and lands a dropkick, but Aguayo backdrops him out of the ring, resulting in massive hangtime for Hamada on the bump.
Perro follows with a tope suicida, but Hamada ducks, causing him to hit his own cornerman! Hamada suplexes him back into the ring for two, then he hits Aguayo with a nice back suplex for another near-fall. However, Aguayo catches an up-and-over with an electric chairdrop for two, then he drills Hamada with a tombstone! Aguayo heads up for a senton, but Hamada dodges! Hamada tries a hurricanrana, but Perro catches him with a powerbomb for two. Aguayo tries a vertical suplex, but Hamada slips out and hits a bridging German suplex for three! The mariachi music pumping over the replay is pretty awesome.
***1/4 - I’d probably put this on par with their prior match. I enjoyed the aggression in Aguayo’s offense, Hamada’s comebacks and high-flying were well-done, and the execution was rock solid. The finish was a bit sudden and didn’t feel completely earned, though. This was very good overall, but I feel like there’s still a better match to be had.
Post-match, Aguayo tries to show sportsmanship, but his cornermen (El Signo, El Texano, & Negro Navarro) take exception and attack him! Hamada tries to intervene, but he gets beat down as well.
We clip to Aguayo and Hamada on the mic, likely challenging them to a tag match. The crowd chants for Perro as the segment ends.
EMLL Super Viernes
NWA World Middleweight Title: Angel Azteca (c) vs. El Dandy - Aside from the myriad trios matches featuring these two on opposite sides, we saw another one-on-one match between Dandy and Azteca on March 23rd. That one ended in a time-limit draw and was excellent.
PRIMERA CAIDA: We take things to the mat early, with myriad holds and counters. Azteca transitions out of a surfboard into a double-hammerlock, then into a pinning combo, but Dandy wrestles out and works over the leg with a toehold, holding on despite Azteca’s kicks. Angel wriggles free and moves into a chicken wing, but Dandy fights out. He pursues Azteca, but gets taken down, and holds are again exchanged. Dandy gets a wristlock, then snapmares his quarry and moves into a sleeper. This has all been super-crisp and lively so far.
Azteca escapes, but Dandy soon catches him with a spinning toehold, which turns into a standing leglock. Azteca gets a leglock of his own, but Dandy counters that into a chicken wing, which Azteca promptly escapes. Angel eventually works into a hammerlock, but Dandy counters that with a bodyslam, which Azteca sells like he just got slammed onto molten lava. Again, bodyslams are being made to look badass.
Dandy hits a running flip senton and goes to the sleeper, but Azteca counters with a Russian legsweep, which Dandy sells like death. He gets another one, but a third one is fought off, and Dandy bowls him over with a shoulderblock. Dandy goes for a side headlock, but Azteca counters with a headscissors. Dandy escapes and wrestles his way into a full nelson, which Azteca breaks like he was the British Bulldog and Dandy was the Warlord. However, Dandy secures the sleeper again immediately.
Angel falls back into a pinning combination, but Dandy kicks out and wriggles into a bridging pin of his own for two. Dandy wrestles Azteca back down with a crucifix pin for a near-fall, but Angel fights back with his own sleeperhold. Dandy fights to make the ropes, but ends up shifting his weight forward and sending Azteca to the floor instead. That’s an awesome escape.
Azteca re-enters and tries to pick the pace up with some acrobatics, but Dandy puts a stop to that with a lariat! Dandy applies a double-armlock, but Azteca fights out and gets a surfboard. Dandy escapes and goes for a pin, but Azteca bridges out, only to get hit with a belly-to-belly and a legdrop seconds later. Dandy tries a rolling crucifix pin, but Azteca kicks out, lands on top of him, and starts to work a lateral press for some two-counts. Dandy snatches Azteca’s arm out of that and applies a Fujiwara armbar, then lets go and hits a pair of kneeling back body drops, something I don’t think I’ve seen before.
Dandy tries a third one, but Azteca catches him with a hammerlock/legscissors combination for the submission and the 1-0 advantage! That first fall alone would have been a high-level bout, but we have a lot more match to go!
SEGUNDA CAIDA: This starts off fairly tentatively as neither guy wants to make a mistake. Dandy does wrestle Azteca down with a waistlock, then goes after the leg with a grounded anklelock, which transitions into a stretch muffler. Azteca escapes and gets a sunset flip for two, then he works that into a leg grapevine. Dandy escapes and locks in a sharpshooter, and it’s a REALLY good one. Angel powers out, but Dandy maintains control of the ankle and cinches in a legbar…which Azteca immediately counters into a pseudo-figure four!
Dandy tries to make the ropes a few times, but Azteca keeps pulling him back to the dead center of the ring and REALLY cranks on that hold. Finally giving up on the idea of a rope break, Dandy manages to counter the hold into an Indian deathlock.
Azteca tries for the ropes himself, but Dandy yanks him away and maintains the leg grapevine, but changes the upper part into a backslide position. That’s cold.
Azteca frees himself and grabs Dandy’s arms to reverse the pressure, but ends up collapsing. Dandy STILL has the leg grapevined and rolls over, but Azteca breaks free, and we’re back to a stalemate. Dandy’s favoring the leg slightly as things start to pick up in speed and acrobatics. Dandy rolls through a missed top rope dive, then snatches Azteca with a crucifix for the pin and the second fall!
TERCERA CAIDA: The crowd is very much into Dandy as he dodges an Azteca dropkick. He gets a rolling leglock, but Azteca stands up and holds Dandy’s shoulders for a couple of pin attempts, then rolls through for a leglock of his own! Angel does a few more front rolls with the leg capture, but Dandy won’t give up. Angel releases and hits a couple of Russian legsweeps, adapting the last one into a grounded octopus hold.
Dandy breaks out of it and tumbles to the floor for a brief respite. He rolls back in and catches an unsuspecting Azteca with a quick dropkick! That gets two, as does a backslide, then Dandy hits another rolling senton for another near-fall. However, Azteca comes back with a mousetrap for a close two, but Dandy retaliates with a top rop headbutt for another near-fall. Azteca catches Dandy with a slam and heads up for a moonsault, but Dandy dodges! Dandy locks in a Romero special, but his knee is too wrecked to hold onto it!
Azteca grabs at the limb for further punishment, but Dandy uses the leg and Angel’s momentum to whip him down to the canvas. Dandy uses the opening to hit a back suplex for two, but Azteca lands a nice vertical suplex for another two. Dandy lands a shoulderblock and charges at Azteca, who backdrops him out for a HUGE bump to the floor! Azteca follows up with a big tope to send Dandy 2-3 rows deep in the crowd!
Back in, Azteca alley-oops Dandy into the turnbuckle for two, then goes for a victory roll, but Dandy rolls back for a pin attempt of his own. Angel lands a splash, but they’re too close to the ropes, so Azteca settles for a grounded figure-four variant. Dandy reaches for the ropes, and Azteca loses the application of the hold in the process. Dandy eludes a dropkick and goes for a back suplex, but Azteca rolls through that with a front cradle for another very close two!
Seconds later, Dandy hits a quick drop toehold and applies La Magistral for the three and the title!
***** - Well, friends, we have our first fiver of the year…well, unless I upgrade the AJPW six-man from last time to the full monty. Don’t be surprised if I’ve already done that by the time you read this. I can be a waffly motherfucker.
This match was about as good a technical wrestling affair as you can ask for. There are times when mat wrestling is used to fill time during a match, but that was not the case here. These guys brought STELLAR mat-based grappling, creativity, and strategy. There were holds here that I really struggled to describe, and they actually looked painful in the context of a pro wrestling match. There was a buttery smoothness about a lot of it, yet it always felt like a struggle, which is an impressive feat.
Dandy and Angel traded holds, but it didn’t feel overly cooperative. It was about both guys using their scientific acumen to apply holds, transition into new ones to maintain the advantage, and use or create openings to escape or secure a counterhold. I was glued to the screen, completely wrapped up in seeing what they did next. This was a 35+ minute match with about 90% of it spent on the mat, and I never found it boring or dull. Plus, all of the action that didn’t take place on the mat truly stood out.
I loved that, after all that slick mat wrestling in the beginning, the first slams of the match were basic, but sold like major blows. There was also only one really big dive near the end of the match, but because of everything surrounding it, the impact was greatly magnified. The upshift in gear during the third fall was legitimately exciting.
I continue to be astounded by how truly brilliant Dandy was. I really dug his aggression, bumping, selling, and his implementation of the little things, like his goldbricking to lull Azteca into a false sense of security. Azteca wasn’t someone I was overly familiar with before this project, and I’m also highly impressed with what I’ve seen from him thus far.
Your mileage may vary depending on your preferred style of wrestling, but I was severely invested in this. If you consider yourself an aficionado of technical wrestling and haven’t seen this, please change that.
Post-match, Azteca refuses the post-match handshake and presumably challenges Dandy to a hair vs. mask match. Sadly, I don’t believe we have this one.
USWA Challenge (Dallas)
USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship: Jerry “The King” Lawler (c) vs. “Superstar” Bill Dundee - We didn’t get a full match earlier in the series, but we did see the finish for their match from February 23rd, where Lawler retained his title via nefarious means. Because they’re so inextricably linked, we even got a match during my 1995 series.
After the recent happenings, Dundee has Tessa in tow.
That is quite the lime green ensemble for The King.
Lawler snatches the mic and runs down the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Cowboys before promising to add another notch in Dundee’s loss column. He then calls Tessa a slut, prompting Dundee to rightfully chase him around the ring and slug him. Lawler milks the sell for a bit before coming back in, only to run into another right hand. Dundee backs Lawler into the corner and gets another quick blow, prompting more protests about the use of a closed fist.
Seconds later, Lawler turns the tables and fires off a bevy of fists against a cornered Superstar, but Dundee withstands the blows and pops him with a right. More punches from Dundee, then he locks in a sleeper, only for Lawler to collapse into the corner as USWA CHALLENGE ROLLS ON…
…and we’re back with Lawler having the upper hand, landing a second-rope fist drop for two. John Tatum (also wearing lime green) heads out to ringside to plead his case to Tessa while Superstar continues to get worked over. Lawler grabs the mic and tells Tessa that Tatum’s a REAL MAN for her, but he soon misses a fist drop. Dundee peppers Jerry with a series of punches, but Tatum tries to carry Tessa away!
Dundee intercepts him, but Lawler rolls him up, grabs a handful of tights, and gets the three to retain!
After the match, Dundee sprints after Tatum, freeing Tessa from his grip. He pounds away at Tatum until Lawler blasts him with a chair to the back. Lawler and Tatum both destroy Dundee with the chair until Chris Adams and Jeff Jarrett come to the rescue. They beat down the heels, though Tatum tried to go back and snatch Tessa at one point.
** - Not much of a match here as it was mostly the usual fare between these two until the soap opera kicked in. Even truncated Lawler/Dundee is still pretty fun, though.
USWA Texas Heavyweight Championship: “Maniac” Matt Borne (c) vs. Kerry Von Erich - Capping off The Great Cavalcade of Rematches is another entry in an outstanding feud. Their lumberjack match ended in controversy, so we look to settle matters inside of a steel cage.
We don’t have footage of it, but Percy Pringle had officially turned heel since the lumberjack match and is working with Borne. Because he’s been a pesky little shit, Pringle is suspended above the ring on a swing. They also put a live mic on him so you can hear him being scared out of his gourd.
I can’t say I’d blame him. I’d cake my pants too if I were swinging around up there with only some rope and God's will keeping me from cascading to the floor below. Kerry tugs on the rope to REALLY frighten the bejesus out of him.
Borne and Von Erich slug it out to start, with Kerry hitting his foe with a discus punch. Both guys trade blows until Borne goes after the eyes, while Pringle tries to lead the crowd in “GO MATT GO” chants. Maniac Matt slaps Von Erich around until Kerry comes back with another discus punch. Kerry applies THE IRON CLAW, and Borne tries to break it by exiting the ring, but Kerry holds on and pounds away at him on the floor. Borne gets rammed into the cage and starts bleeding for our amusement.
Kerry scrapes Borne’s flesh across the cage, then follows him back in for another Iron Claw, but Borne breaks it up with an uppercut to Kerry’s junk as USWA CHALLENGE ROLLS ON…
…and we’re back with Kerry fighting back with right hands. They brawl while on their knees, then trade mounted punches on the mat. Percy continues chirping at the fans and pleading for Borne to save him.
Kerry gets a discus punch for a two-count, then Borne ducks a clothesline and nails Von Erich with one of his own. Borne’s got a pretty good gusher going as there’s blood all over the him and the mat.
Percy produces a hidden chain while Kerry hits his own clothesline for another near-fall. Pringle lowers the chain with a rope, pulling it away whenever Kerry looks to grab it.
Referee Bronco Lubich gets bumped, so Borne grabs the chain…but Kerry snatches it from his grasp and blasts him with it! Kerry covers for the three and the title!
Post-match, Kerry calls for Percy to be lowered into the ring for some payback. Percy bribes the ref with $100 to keep him above the ring, but that tantalizing offer doesn’t work. Kerry finally gets his hands on Pringle, but before he can do anything, Borne assaults him with a loaded sock! Borne pounds away at him while Percy holds the cage door shut.
Moments later, Borne yanks one of the security guys into the cage for a beating. Referee Tony Falk gets the same treatment, but Kevin Von Erich comes in and successfully rescues his brother.
*** - I really liked the action here as it was another intense, hate-fueled brawl with a lot of juice from Borne. Unfortunately, too much of the focus of the match was on Percy. While some of the banter was entertaining, he was too much of a distraction for my taste.
However, the post-match beatdown was great, and Percy does play a pretty good chickenshit heel, so it evens out. I’m invested in seeing how this feud develops.
THE TUGBOAT TRIBUNE
As always, the news comes courtesy of Dave Meltzer and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
We have an update on the end of the Lex Luger vs. Ric Flair cage match from Capital Combat! You see, Luger was initially set to win the belt, but Ole Anderson took over the book and changed the finish so that Flair would go over. Luger, again getting the rug yanked out from under him, was reportedly very upset and refused to lose. That resulted in the clusterfuck DQ finish.
If this were true, I don’t necessarily blame Luger for getting pissed off. However, I really don’t see Luger having much of a reign since Sting was coming back not too long after this.
Norman the Lunatic has been taken off TV for a repackaging. He’ll be a truck driver upon his return.
Brian Pillman is also being taken off TV for a repackaging, or it could just be because Ole is punishing him for making too much money.
Brian was signed to a fairly hefty contract, and there’s a rather famous story where Ole demanded that Pillman take a pay cut, or end up jobbing in every opening match for the rest of his life. Pillman replied by saying he’d be perfectly happy to be the highest-paid curtain jerker in history.
It’s possible that this exchange was actually between Brian and Bill Watts in 1992 instead of Ole. I’ve seen accounts naming both guys over the years.
Also, since it’s a new month, here’s some wrestlers who were born in June 1990:
June 4th - John Silver, AEW’s resident Meat Man and Dark Order stalwart.
June 7th - Effy, US indie wrestler and promoter of the “Effy’s Big Gay Brunch” shows for Game Changer Wrestling (GCW), which spotlight 2SLGBTQIA+ wrestlers.
June 26th - Terra Calaway, retired wrestler and current activist who worked the US indies.
June 27th - Kimber Lee, retired wrestler who had stints in NXT, TNA, and the American indies.
NEXT TIME: The Steve Austin vs. Chris Adams and Jerry Lawler vs. Snowman feuds continue to escalate, the Bolsheviks explode, and the Horsemen take on the Road Warriors!
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