Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Psicosis in ECW (and other Dream Matches!)

Not the headliner, but a great showcase of how Masa Fuchi puts some hilarious abuse on youngster Tsuyoshi Kikuchi in our final bout!

Welcome back to more Dream Matches! This week, I have another of Rey Mysterio’s famous ECW matches, as he takes on longtime nemesis Psicosis in late 1995! Watch these two more or less debut a whole new style to an American audience and leave NOTHING in the tank in a huge mass of moves and great heeling! Then it’s a fantastic “WTF?” match from ZERO-ONE as Shinya Hashimoto defends the NWA World Title (yes, that one) against NATHAN JONES! One of the legit WOAT wrestlers and Shinya… actually kind of carries him?! Come see! He does as good as maybe anyone ever!

Then it’s another in the massive series of Mitsuharu Misawa/Toshiaki Kawada/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Jumbo Tsuruta/Akira Taue/Masanabu Fuchi matches! This one features Misawa lying on the floor all match due to a nose injury, so see how “abusing Kikuchi” can turn into an entire match! Then watch Juventud Guerrera and “Hardwork” Bobby Walker fight on WCW Pro and show you just how hard it can be to mesh two diametrically-different styles!

BEST OF THREE FALLS MATCH:
REY MISTERIO, JR. vs. PSICOSIS:
(ECW, 10/17/1995)
* More or Rey in ECW! This is from Oct. 1995, which is at the razor’s edge of lucha becoming known to American fans. Psicosis, in white gear, is

FIRST FALL: Immediately the two reveal their insanity as Rey backflips off the top rope, slides Psicosis to the floor, then planchas him over the guardrail so they crash upside-down into the front row, then does a TOPE over the top that does the same thing! A lightning-fast hurricanrana off a whip gets Rey the first fall at (1:20). Psicosis, importantly, sells this like he’s completely wiped out, flopping around and dazed.

SECOND FALL: We start off super-fast again, Psicosis hitting the corner and Rey spinning around his body while Joey says “during the break, Bobby the Brain called with some Mexican jokes- I told him to stick ’em and have some respect!” YEAH! Nobody would ever mistake ECW for a show where offensive dialogue got uttered! Just ask Dances With Dudley! Rey gets a wheel kick as I’m pretty sure they messed up a spot but recovered so well the fans couldn’t tell. Rey hits a flying hurricanrana, then one off the APRON, sending Psi’s pretty white gear all over the filthy ECW Arena floor. Oh, that is NASTY. Psicosis goes for the DISINGENUOUS HANDSHAKE, complete with going to one knee with one hand behind his back like “COME ON!”, but slugs Rey when he tries to nope out of it and rams him into the corner a bunch while ripping on the crowd. A powerbomb gets two after a nonchalant cover. Weird chairshot on the floor (legs-first?) hits Rey’s ankles, and Psicosis hits a slingshot legdrop but javelins himself into the ringpost. Rey hits a cartwheel into a rana for two, but a Lionsault is caught and Psicosis tombstones him at (7:00) to take the fall.

THIRD FALL: Rey is out of it on the floor, so Psicosis baseball slides him and powerbombs him onto the railing/table, then throws him OVER the guardrail on a slam and hits a HUGE fuckin’ tope over the top rope AND the railing, which is exactly the kinda shit that gave him his name. Psicosis is well in control, but gets cocky and eats the Slaughter Bump against the ringpost and falls to the floor. Then Rey, crazy as ever, hits a giant springboard somersault cannonball and they get into a kickfight on the floor! This goes right to using chairs, Rey whipping one into Psi’s face repeatedly before wrapping it around him and shoving him into the post that way! And another! Rey takes his time and hits a flying hurricanrana, but didn’t float into a pinfall- “didn’t quite get all of it”, to use Monsoon parlance. You’re not gonna get Psicosis like THAT! Rey headscissors him to the floor and follows with a slingshot cannonball dive. But Psi recovers so fast he dumps Rey on a table and hits his MONSTER Senton Suicida to the floor through it! His costume absolutely riddled with typhus by this point, Psicosis sinks in the fans’ appreciation for that nutjob spot and rolls Mysterio in, hitting a powerbomb, chairshot, and somersault cannonball ONTO the chair on Mysterio. And I should HOPE that’s the three at (5:36).

An interesting cadence to this one, almost more like a typical lucha match but not quite. The first fall was over in barely a minute and was just a showcase of Rey’s agility, perfectly showing the fans what he was about. The second had some flash, but was mostly Psicosis acting like a dick to get the fans more into the STORY of the match- he was a great doofus at points, charging stuff, but knew to slow it down, act like a dick, and make obscene gestures to the fans. And this pays off later as they get increasingly hostile, Psicosis starts using a chair, and their angry scrap on the floor escalates into a chair-based beating and Psi getting his face and neck smashed against the post with it. I actually enjoyed this a lore more than the Rey/Juvi match, though it had a similar-ish point and similar moves- rather than JUST a spotfest, this came off like two dudes who hated each other and wanted to do as much damage as possible. The filthy on Psicosis’ outfit even helped sell the point of how gritty this was, as he was getting filthy and getting into ugly kickfights with Rey on the ground, not finding it merely acceptable to rana one another or two headscissors. Like this was a FIGHT- chairs swinging, a face going into the post with a chair wrapped around it, and then that monster senton. Movez AND Hate- you can sometimes do both! My favorite part about hte monster spots they threw out was that one actually led to the FINISH- sure Psicosis stacked on a bunch of big moves at once, but they didn’t do any big kickouts of a surefire pin- it was Psicosis making sure his opponent (who had 30 seconds to recover before being rolled into the ring) was dead.

Rating: **** (great lucha with an ECW tinge)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4xIelwDiiE

NWA WORLD TITLE:
SHINYA HASHIMOTO vs. NATHAN JONES:
(ZERO-ONE, 06.01.2002)
* Posted to the BOD just two days ago, this is a miraculous bout said to be Nathan’s best. As he was a completely awful wrestler, so bad that even at seven feet tall with THAT PHYSIQUE he washed out of a company run by Vince McMahon, it’d be impressive to even bring him past *1/4. But Hashimoto has just the right style to pull it off- unacrobatic, uncomplicated, and brutally-simple- his style, based around toughness and stiff strikes, is as good as any to match Nathan’s, which is about humiliating botches and falling on his ass. Jones is a MONSTROUS dude- like 6’10” and roided to shreds, but looking hairless and weird so he’s even more of an off-putting monster even in normal jeans. Hashimoto is Fat Japanese Elvis in black & red pants, as always. I guess we do national anthems for this- was that a ZERO-ONE thing (Hash’s vanity promotion) or an NWA Title thing?

They square off to start, Shinya hesitant and unwilling to overcommit. The stakes are clear immediately when he tests out a quick spinkick from far away, and Jones responds with his HUGE windmilling one (the one move he could almost do reliably) and shakes his finger at the veteran. Jones quickly hammers him down in the corner, Hashimoto looking defiant yet unable to do anything about it, then Jones no-sells some chest slaps and taunts him. Even simple things like slams and a leaping elbow look effective because of the size difference (stunning the crowd, who are used to Hash being the big dude in most fights), especially as Jones can knock Shinya down after only two chops. Jones brings him in the hard way and uses THE CLAW~~ absorbing every attempt to chop out of it. Hashimoto plays evasion but tries to grapple and gets hammered into nearly an Argentine backbreaker- Jones just hefting him up there and holding him like that. You gotta be a beefy dude to do THAT. Hashimoto actually has to resort to Junior-style tactics by bouncing off the top rope with his feet and windmilling into a mountain bomb with the momentum. So far, so good- great use of a limited opponent’s size to put him over. Nathan starts to get blown up judging by how hard he’s breathing, though, and eats some strikes before tumbling to the floor. Hashimoto whips him into the railing, but Nathan impresses by doing a no-hands leap striaght to the ring apron and hits Hash with a slingshot clothesline!

ah, there we go- time for a chinlock. After thirty seconds of that, Shinya fights out using technique but gets smacked around until a weird running shoulderblock (like, Hash is just standing there doing nothing) gets two. But a tiring Jones pulls Hashimoto up and eats a ton of those chest-kicks with some STINK on them (I mean I think I can see him slapping his thigh but the technique is impeccable and he’s sinking them in SNUG-like), but Jones fights out of a jujigatame attempt with raw power and gets a bearhug- Hash chops out of it, leaving Jones completely bagged. He’s unable to even throw a good clothesline now, just bouncing off Hashimoto, as they seem to be threading his bad cardio into the actual story of the match. Jones keeps trying clotheslines but a combination of Star Trek overhand chops and lariats keep him bouncing back, much to his surprise- it takes several before he finally drops Hash, but by this point the crowd’s a bit bored, I think. No pop for the kickout. Hasimoto fires back with a combo, dropkick (!) and DDT for two, then another two. Shinya drop-toeholds him and twists the knee for a really late-match stretching spot, then hits his knee and hip with some kicks to bend him over- and the Enzuigiri finishes at (13:07)! Kinda outta nowhere but he basically chopped down the tree, I guess.

This match was very interesting- Hashimoto sold it EXACTLY like you should against a monster who’s actually a big stiff and not very good. Sell the size difference and how incredibly strong and durable the guy is- those big clubbing punches looked bad but he’s SO BIG Hashimoto sells them anyways, being pounded down. He keeps it slow, making the beating look inevitable- like Jones is just methodically taking him apart. Because like most clever wrestlers, Hash knows that the more he sells this, the better he looks for powering through it and winning anyways. In this case, Jones is HUGE but has terrible cardio- less than ten minutes in he’s heaving against the ropes. But this is actually part of the STORY, as now his clotheslines and charges are easily weathered and countered by the much tinier Hashimoto’s own, which means he just had to outlast the giant, matching power for power until he was worn down. This kinda paid off near the end, though the random submission move RIGHT before the ending felt weird- like a theoretical part of the strategy to leave Jones open to a head-strike, but as it was the first headshot all match it was out of nowhere, never mind a late-match submission attempt. As it stands, it’s an impressive showcase for Hashimoto, and less so for Jones, who A) never hit his one big move, B) looked bad with almost all his stuff, and C) was too blown up to really SELL properly, either. Like late-stage Andre the Giant was more limited physically than Jones was, but you can find plenty of good Andre matches during the entirety of the ’80s.

Rating: ** (as Nathan Jones matches go, it’s miraculous to even push him this far. I feel like if he hadn’t gotten blown up, or they shaved 3-4 minutes off of it, it’d be even better)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9oZOG7NMRQ

JUMBO TSURUTA, MASANABU FUCHI & AKIRA TAUE vs. MITSUHARU MISAWA, TOSHIAKI KAWADA & TSUYOSHI KIKUCHI:
(All Japan, Oct. 15th 1991)
* It’s another one in the series! There’s one that doesn’t appear to be on YouTube that was apparently the best one (BOO!) but there’s this one (part four, astonishingly enough). This one has a different issue because Misawa has very recently suffered a big-time broken nose, and he comes to ringside with a tiny lil’ nose bandage. Well good thing the opposing side’s full of famously kind wrestlers who would never take advantage of such a thing. Fuchi, the world’s biggest asshole, cuts a promo taunting him to start with this hilarious look on his face, and now MISAWA GOES BERSERK! The most stoic wrestler I’ve ever seen completely loses it, hammering the other side and battering them around until JUMBO STRIKES!

So right out of the gate it’s Misawa/Jumbo amidst a sea of streamers and the fans are into it- Jumbo tries to go tot he nose but gets battered around with this look of pain and shock on his face, but manages a few sharp knees to the nose and Misawa goes down! He has to elbow Jumbo away and tags out, collapsing to the floor for a ridiculous amount of time to put over the… nose damage. This leaves Kawada to hit his repeater kicks on both Jumbo and then Taue, hitting a flying back elbow. Fuchi has a go, but gets caught in an abdominal stretch- a brilliant moment sees Jumbo free him… but Kawada simply slaps in on again and makes repeated pumps to spite Jumbo! A SPITEFUL abdominal stretch! Kikuchi adds a missile dropkick & leg lariat, but Fuchi escapes after a perfect plex. Jumbo’s in and… yeah, that’s a problem. Kikuchi = Weak and Jumbo is the Ace for a reason. Jumbo just easily pushes him to the ropes in lockups and clobbers him with dishonorable breaks, drawing heat, and ignores a dropkick completely and clobbers the kid, then gets Taue to do his dirty work beating him up on the outside. See, that’s BENEATH Jumbo. Kikuchi eats a methodical beating for ages, and Fuchi dicks it up by throwing cheap shots and throwing him balls-first onto the top ropes. Misawa finally recovers his precious nosie-nose and Kikuchi gets a great bit firing back against Jumbo’s beating. But he gets overwhelmed again and tied up, sending Kawada to the rescue. He beats up Taue and in comes Misawa for some offense, but Jumbo quickly tags in and PUNCH RIGHT TO THE NOSE haha! Jumbo grinds the wristbone into it and pops him again.

Seriously, what disrespect, haha. Just tying him up as much as possible to demonstrate the difference in strength.

Misawa elbows free and tags out like a wuss again, leaving Kawada to deal with the mess. Kawada ducks the Jumbo Lariat and wheel kicks him, sending him with that great “Jumbo stumble” to the corner and now that weasely fuck Fuchi eats some offense. But he manages to grab an ankle and ties Kikuchi up into this ridiculous knot. See, this is the issue- without Misawa it’s 3-on-2 and Kikuchi is too weak to take these guys on. Like he’s so puny that Jumbo here effortlessly ties him up in this elaborate Million-Dollar Dream/leglock knot because Kikuchi can’t so much as resist him. This is like shit the Steiners do to jobbers. Kawada boots Jumbo in the head for that one, drawing another greak reaction, so the disgusted Ace just fires Kikuchi to the floor so that toady Fuchi can lay the boots to him. haha now Fuchi just drags Kikuchi down for two, but Kawada hits the ring- Fuchi just drops his hold and flips him off, then scampers backwards like a heel in an old silent movie. Like you can just hear the Buster Keaton melodies going over this as he backpedals from a flurry of strikes. Jumbo strolls in to stand on Kikuchi and provokes young Kenta Kobashi on the floor. Jumbo wins a strike war against Kawada, who eats a knee and Taue’s chair to the gut. And then in comes Fuchi with a goddamn BOXING COMBO of body blows while Jumbo holds Kawada helpless hahahahah. Fuck YOU, Fuchi.

This actually sets up a bunch of work on Kawada’s stomach while Jumbo knocks Misawa off the apron, but Misawa starts stomping away on Jumbo’s head while he works Kawada over, drawing in TAUE to gouge his nose, but after a while Kawada finally nails him and Kikuchi comes in and the little guy is PISSED OFF as he just overwhelms Taue and mounts him for a barrage of punches! And when Fuchi interferes, Kikuchi batters HIM and he does this hilarious little dance in place to sell it, hopping from foot to foot. And he DROPKICKS JUMBO OFF THE APRON! Huge reaction for that as Kikuchi runs wild to pay off all this abuse. But after all that effort, he gets overzealous and charges right into a stun-gun from Taue, and Jumbo absolutely dominates him with a choke lift and tosses him with absolute contempt. Taue hits his Atomic Drop/Backdrop… for two! Kawada cheats to break things up and they hit a Rocket Launcher for two, but the Tauezigiri brings in Jumbo for the big boot and JUMBO LARIAT! Services for Mr. Kikuchi! But he kicks out at two! Powerbomb- Misawa’s in! Taue goes to the nose again, then Fuchi (who keeps blocking the break-ups, being the fastest guy on his team) dumps Kawada, and Jumbo is sick of this twerp’s shit- he hits a big Backdrop Suplex to Kikuchi and straddles him holding his arms down for the emphatic three (23:54). Jumbo’s team wins again!

Another very fun little AJPW tag match- a lot different than the others since the total lack of Misawa essentially turns it into “Bully the Weakling” with Kikuchi just getting KILLED out there. I’m shocked he managed to kick out of the Lariat. I can only imagine Misawa was legitimately injured because he comes off like the hugest weenie spending the entire match on the floor because his nose got hit a couple times. Like I can buy that it hurts, but COME ON. But Kikuchi finally getting sick of the abuse and kicking all three guys’ asses got over great, and he still got curbstomped and overwhelmed- he just doesn’t have the size to deal with Taue or Jumbo. It says something that they leave so much in the tank and leave out one of the best workers in the world and still have such an entertaining TV match with lots of fun spots. Fuchi’s act remains hilarious- I love him breaking up pins and blocking the same from the other guys, acting like a shit, then bouncing around like a doofus- his “scamper in place” sell is AMAZING and he should be so much more well-known by Western fans.

Rating: ***1/2 (another great showcase, especially for Fuchi)

JUVENTUD GUERRERA vs. “HARDWORK” BOBBY WALKER:
(WCW Pro, Nov. 1996)
* awwwwwwwwww YEAH- I was checking YouTube for Juventud’s WCW matches and I was NOT disappointed. How can you do better than “Hardwork” Bobby Walker jobbing out on a 1996 D-show? Poor Walker was a dude with no chance- a non-talent stuck at the bottom of a card with 357 dudes ahead of him. But hey- that was 2-3 solid years of work for him. Juvi’s in white & black with a very small-eyed mask from what I remember him in. Hardwork’s in some navy blue tights with his name on them. Dusty, Larry & Scott Hudson (I think?) are our hosts.

Dusty picks Luger and KONNAN to be in there at the end of the upcoming World War 3, stunning Larry. Hardwork (yes it’s one work) puts Juvi down a couple of times as the latter is clearly working heel, and closeups reveal that Walker has a completely smooth forehead save for a weird bit of raised wrinkles between the eyes, like Jaden Smith. Juvi reverses an armbar in a way that makes it clear Walker has NO idea what he’s supposed to be doing (I love Juvi cartwheeling by him and donking him on the head with his foot), stumbling around before powering Juventud back out. Walker no-sells some strikes but runs into a dropkick and… Juvi springboards in with a cannonball and HITS Walker, who doesn’t sell it and instead drops him down and holds his legs. Oh my. Bobby hits a theatrical bodyslam and goes up, so Juventud skips up to the second rope and sunset flips him off for a sunset bomb, scoring a really ugly pin at (2:52).

Just a terrible contest of clashing styles- Bobby obviously had no idea how to take any lucha-style stuff, and so they should NOT be trying lucha spots or catching springboarding dudes or whatever. Juvi should know better than to try that stuff with a green as grass rookie with no idea what he’s doing. Why, Walker only debuted in… *Googles*. NINETEEN EIGHTY-NINE!? What in the hell?! HOW IS HE THIS BAD?? In any case they had two totally opposite styles and Walker couldn’t handle Juventud’s stuff, and so nearly everything looked ugly. I actually think matches like this are why WCW effectively ended up with two kinds of luchadore contests: Lucha vs. Lucha with typical lucha spots, and Lucha vs. WCW Guy, where the luchadore was just a “kick & punch” guy and his only high-flying would be like… a single move off the top that either hit or missed and nothing else.

Rating: DUD (a fantastically bad match- business-exposing and informative of just how tricky it can be to merge styles)