R.I.W Wrestling Legend: Uncle Elmer

Welcome back to the Rotten Ink Arena. As you can tell, this “R.I.W Wrestling Legend” update has a theme as the bales of hay are being used as seats and the fried pig parts are at the snack bar and all the people in overalls are square dancing. It’s not the Arena’s normal look, but it’s a perfect atmosphere for tonight’s main event star as the one and only Uncle Elmer will be making his way to the ring and will show us all a good old hillbilly good time! So I am not sure about you, but I think I am going to go buy some fried pig parts as well as a Mountain Dew to drink and then will find our seats as this is clearly one of those themed events that you have to take part in as where else can one eat such a great cuisine? The house lights are going down and the music has started, so let’s get to our seats and see what Uncle Elmer has in store for us.

Uncle Elmer started his in ring pro career in 1960 and would mostly work the Southern territories as the Country Plowboy and would be booked strong as he stood over 6’10” and weighed almost 500 pounds! Early on he worked for many NWA promotions and would not only wrestle as Plowboy but would also wear a mask and a stripped uniform and call himself The Convict and would work as a heel. And during this journeyman routine he wrestled many big names like Bobo Brazil, Gentle Ben The Wrestling Bear and The Satan Medics before having a good run as The Convict for NWA Hollywood and tangling with names like Ernie Ladd, Mil Mascaras and Chief White Eagle. He found his next big run in 1976 working for NWA Mid-America where he would team with Jerry Lawler as Plowboy Frazier and would be used by Lawer as a hired muscle. He would first be a heel until he found out he was being used and would turn baby face and feud with Lawler. In 1977 he would start working for CWA still as Plowboy Frazier and would stick around until 1980 before having a run in GCW (Georgia Championship Wrestling) before returning to CWA in 1981. Once in CWA again he would work under many names like Stan Frazier, Plowboy Frazier as well as Kamala II, The Giant Rebel and The Lone Ranger with the latter having him dress as a out of shape mask wearing hero. He would stick around CWA up until 1985 and would have matches against names like Tom Prichard, The Rock N Roll Express, Jerry Lawler, The Phantom, Mr. Onita and Gypsy Joe to name a few. He even got to wrestle in Japan as The Convict character. But being a man of many gimmicks and being over with fans and a big attraction wrestler due to his size and weight, it was only a matter of time before New York came calling. But keep in mind during his run in the NWA territories, he would win many Tag Titles!

Starting in 1985 and now going by Uncle Elmer, he would work in the WWF as a member of the stable called The Hillbillies that included Hillbilly Jim, Cousin Luke and Cousin Junior and he would wrestle the company’s top heels, dance in the ring and even eat from a giant bucket that read “Uncle Elmer’s Fried Pig Parts” and was well loved by fans who could not get enough of this mountain of a man. He would work the house shows at the start and would get wins over names like Tiger Chung Lee, The Spoiler, Moondog Spot and even Big John Studd! He would make it to TV as well and would be featured in matches as well as segments including getting married on “Saturday Night’s Main Event II” that aired in 1985. And during the marriage angle he would be made fun of by Jesse Ventura and as well Roddy Piper and this would find Elmer on the loosing end of many of the matches. He would then go on to have a match against Adrian Adonis at “WrestleMania II” in a losing effort and shortly after he would have his final match for then in early 1986 against King Kong Bundy on “Saturday Night’s Main Event VI”. During his WWF run he would have matches against the likes of Greg Valentine, Brutus Beefcake, Rene Goulet, The Hart Foundation, Iron Sheik, Iron Mike Sharpe and Bon Orton Jr. to name a few. While in the WWF he was a super popular baby face whose good nature and big man brawling style made the fans cheer.

After leaving the WWF in 1986 Uncle Elmer would head back to Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) and would change his name to Giant Hillbilly Elmer and team with Jerry Lawler and would even win Tag Titles with him. He would stick around CWA until around 1988. While working in CWA he would be featured in some big matches but was not an upper-card draw as his health was starting to fade. He would however have matches against names like Austin Idol, The Red Demons, Bam Bam Bigelow and The Mod Squad. He would then start working for USWA after CWA and it merged and would stick around until 1989 before fully retiring from wrestling in 1991. And in the end of his career, he also had his own small promotion and would have a hand in training Bob Holly. Uncle Elmer who suffered from lots of health issues due to his weight as well as diabetes and on July 1, 1992 he would pas away from kidney failure at the age of 54. Over his career, Uncle Elmer would win many titles including the CWA World Heavyweight Title twice. He is not as of this updates posting put into the WWE Hall Of Fame.

Uncle Elmer is a wrestler I remember as a kid and was never a big fan of as I found him to be boring in the ring as he wrestled a very slow and sloppy big man style and besides Hillbilly Jim I just was not much into the whole mountain folk country boy gimmicks that took place in that time in the WWF. But I should say that I did however enjoy Uncle Elmer and his Hillbilly family’s antics as their simple nature made for cartoonish good times. And while I do still laugh about his Fried Pig Parts bucket of food, I still could never get past just how very below average he was in the ring and yet some how he was booked strong and was beating guys way more talented then him! And I get that his massive sized made him limited in the ring and that he was more of a character then a worker, I just could never imagine why he was a bigger mid-card worker for awhile in companies like the WWF. While I mostly know him as Uncle Elmer his work as Lone Ranger, Kamala II and even one of his many Plowboy names is just as silly and as limited in his move set showing that he never made a effort to try and get better over his many years in the business and never learned how to use his size to his advantage to at least have good matches. There is also lots of bad stories about Elmer that include him selling bootleg products to even treating some different race workers badly, and it was also said that many of his opponents hated working with him because he was to sloppy and hard to work with. And while I was never a fan, Uncle Elmer had his fans and was a memorable Superstar who helped make the 80’s WWF what we all know and love, as I mean come on he got married on TV and the fans ate it up!

We are now at the point of this review were we will be taking a look at the DVD set and review some of the matches on the discs like always between 4 to 8. I want to thank Coliseum Of Wrestling & Boxing for having this set in stock and also want to thank Uncle Elmer for his hard work in the world of wrestling. I also want to remind you that I will only be breaking down randomly select matches from this set and will be breaking down the match and will be rating the matches on a 5 Star rating system. I also only choose from Single matches, as I want to break down his matches that showcase his style. Here is what the stars mean ½ Means a really terrible match, * Means a bad match, ** Means a below average match, **1/2 Means a good average entertaining match, *** Means a good match, **** Means a great match, ***** Means an epic match. So if you are ready lets step into the ring with Uncle Elmer.

Best Of Uncle Elmer

Match 1: Uncle Elmer vs. King Kong Bundy

As soon as the bell rings the two lock up and neither get the advantage and they keep locking up and then breaking apart as Elmer flexes up. Bundy then hits the ropes and tries to shoulder tackle Elmer but it has no effect as he is just to heavy to move like that. Bundy tries again to hit the ropes and shoulder tackle him, but like before Elmer does not move. Bundy then racks the eyes of Elmer and this drops the big man and Bundy then starts pounding on him as well as chokes him…keeping Elmer on the mat. Bundy kicks Elmer in the face and the big country boy is hurt, he does try and make a comeback as he fires off some punches and his butt corner bumps but Bundy cuts it off after Elmer misses a corner splash. Bundy then hits a dropping elbow and gets the win via a three count. This is a hoss fight as Bundy does his best to work with the very massive, limited and slow Uncle Elmer who mostly just throws a few punches and hits his big butt bumps in the corner. Bundy’s elbow drop looks good and packs an impact and really Bundy carries the match and has to even work a slower move set than normal. The fans in attendance are kind of into the match as they pop for Elmer’s silly antics as well as his corner butt bumps, but over all they are not overly loud throughout. The match is what it is and if you like matches that are slow that pit two massive men against one another then this one is for you, for me it was just kind of around and an attraction match that was to showcase the power of Bundy and the size of Elmer.

Grade: **

Match 2: Uncle Elmer vs. A.J. Petruzzi

Before the match Uncle Elmer dances around the ring with Hillbilly Jim and the fans are eating it up, and once the bell rings A.J. hits the ring ropes and runs into Elmer and bounces off him. Elmer and A.J. then lock up and Elmer is able to turn the lock up into a headlock and he keeps the move on and works it. Elmer breaks the hold and bonk’s A.J. on top the head and also rams his head against his belly. Elmer then drops a leg drop and then goes for the pin and gets the three count and the win. This is pretty much a squash match and yet it was kind of entertaining as Elmer even with his limited moves as able to hit some moves that looked impactful like his leg drop and headlock and A.J. does a fantastic job of selling for his massive opponent. The fans seem to be into the match and on the side of Elmer. The bad in the match is Elmer’s hits and belly bump look very off and cartoonish in a cringe way. But while the match is not perfect it still did its job of entertaining me.

Grade: **

Match 3: Uncle Elmer vs. Bigfoot

When Elmer gets into the ring he chases Bigfoot out of it as the bell rings, Bigfoot gets back into the ring and they lock up and Elmer wins and knocks him to the ground. They next do a test of strength and Elmer shows he is the stronger of the two and even pulls Bigfoot into his belly and Foot ends up bumping. Elmer gets Bigfoot then into the corner and lands some big splashes, and Elmer even does a backdrop on Bigfoot. As Bigfoot is down on the mat Elmer drops a leg drop and gets the win via pin. This is another squash match that allows Uncle Elmer to use his power moves and brawling style to make quick work of Bigfoot who by the way is better known as Rip Morgan to wrestling fans. Elmer uses his size to hit moves like splashes, belly bump and leg drop. While Bigfoot gets no time to shine as he throughout the match just gets beat up and beat. This is a silly and goofy match that was used to promote and push Uncle Elmer and the fans really did get behind Elmer throughout it. I really think that they should have had Bigfoot join the Hillbilly Family as he would have fit in! Over all an ok match that is booked well to work around the limitations of Elmer.

Grade: **

Match 4: Uncle Elmer vs. Jerry Valiant

The Hillbilly Family come down to the ring and all dance around as the fans cheer, as the bell rings Jerry charges in and Elmer catches him and slams him to the mat and then goes for the pin and gets the win! This is 100% the definition of a squash match as Uncle Elmer gets the win in seconds and only hits one move a body slam in order to get the win, the fan in attendance loved this super quick match. The bodyslam while sloppy was effective from Elmer and we see nothing that Jerry brings to the table as he is able to do nothing. The fans love the quick win and the pop for his win making the match effective for the most part. This match did a great job of showing the power of Elmer as well as mask his limited in ring moves. Nothing special here but did its job for sure.

Grade: *1/2

Uncle Elmer was a massive man both in weight and height and because of this it made him very limited in the ring. He was like the second coming of Haystacks Calhoun when it came to his in ring work, but I feel Elmer did not have the personality of Haystacks who I think should have been part of the Hillbilly Family in WWF at the time as he could have been a cousin and the patriarch of the family. And with Uncle Elmer, you knew you were never going to get 3-5 Star matches out of him, but you did know that you would at least be entertained by his matches. Well this R.I.W Wrestling Legend update event is over and this also wraps WWF WrestleMania Month 2024 up so as we make our way to the exit doors, I would like to tell you that our next update will bring us back to the world of Horror Comic Books as well as Silent Horror Cinema as I will be talking about the 1925 film Wolf Blood: A Tale Of The Forest and the Blood Scream Comics adaptation of it! So until next time, read a comic or three, watch a wrestling match or two and as always support your local wrestlers! See you next update for a spooky good time with a Canadian Werewolf!

R.I.W Wrestling Legend: Chief White Owl

Welcome back to Rotten Ink. Once more we find ourselves at the Rotten Ink Arena for a very special “R.I.W Wrestling Legend” update event as our main event star is a true legend of the sport in Ohio and the Great Lake area and was the master of the Tomahawk Chop who war danced his way into the hearts of fans. I am of course talking about Chief White Owl! A part Native American wrestler who became a true icon in the eyes of fans and is long overdue to get his time to shine in the Rotten Ink Arena! So let’s grab some snacks and a drink and then find our seats as this is going to be a quick update that will showcase his talent and his wrestling story. As you can see, the house lights are dimming and that means it’s time for some wrestling action.

Chief White Owl started his pro wrestling career in 1956. While he worked smaller shows before this, around this time is when he started to make a name for himself in the sport. Working in the NWA Territories he mostly stuck around the Great Lakes area and really became a big draw in his home state of Ohio. Booked as a baby face, his war dance, Tomahawk Chop and brawling style made him a draw, as when fans seen his name on a card they attended. During the early days of his career he would wrestle such names as The Terror, The Iron Russians, The Volkoff Brothers and Sputnik Monroe. With in his early matches Chief White Owl found himself on the losing end, but quickly as his popularity with fans grew he found himself moving up the card. Throughout the 50’s he would work for Midwest Wrestling Association and this made him a true superstar in Ohio. But by the early 1960’s he would have a run for Pennsylvania based company Spectator Sports and would have some big matches against such names as The Destroyer, Gorilla Monsoon, Klondike Bill, Johnny Powers, Gypsy Joe and Baron Gattoni, to name a few. In 1965 Chief White Owl had a run in WWF (then WWWF) and would work for them until around late 1965 and would have matches against big names at the time like Waldo Von Erich, Arnold Skaaland, Johnny Rodz, Dr. Jerry Graham and The Golden Terror. After this The Chief would return working the NWA areas around Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania and by the late 60’s would even work matches in Canada. Throughout the early 1970’s Chief White Owl remained a big star on the indies and would also help put over the up and coming wrestlers, and by 1976 we would wind down his career before retiring in the early 80’s. During his wrestling run he would capture tag team gold alongside partner Luis Martinez around six times in the NWF promotion, would team with Wahoo McDaniel, get a win at Madison Square Garden and is another name that proved you could be a big star and a draw for companies and never needed a title belt to achieve his popularity. Sadly Chief White Owl would pass away from neglect from the nursing home he lived in in 2008 at the age of 72, gone and never forgotten as Chief White Owl was an icon of Pro Wrestling in Ohio. It’s also sad that he has not made it into the WWF Hall Of Fame yet, as I feel he should be.

Chief White Owl is a wrestler that I wish I would have gotten to see live, but sadly he was retired by the time I was old enough to go to events as it would have been awesome to watch him wrestle in the now-gone Hara Arena in Dayton, Ohio. I first found out about Chief White Owl from my friend Theresa who knew someone in his family and who told me the sad tale of his passing, and after reading about his legacy in wrestling and just how amazing of a person he was said to be, I needed to find and see some of his matches…and sadly, not many are around to be viewed. Seeing the matches and footage I can of White Owl made me a bigger fan, as I like his brawling style, his war dance always got a great pop from the fans, his appearance was awesome as his headdress made him standout and his Tomahawk Chop signature move was well done and looked like a proper finisher for that era of wrestling. When reading about Chief White Owl I also found out that Bobby Fulton of the tag team The Fantastic and fellow Ohioan grew up watching his matches and was a fan himself. On a serious note, it’s very sad when you hear the details of how Chief White Owl passed and those at the nursing home should be ashamed of themselves and be held accountable for what they did, and my thoughts are with his family as they still battle for justice and a change in the way America allows their nursing homes to be run. But while his end was heartbreaking, his legacy in wrestling will live on forever and his name will never fade.

We are now at the point of this review where we will be taking a look at the DVD set and review some of the matches on the discs, like always between 4 to 8. Sadly I only have one match to cover for this “R.I.W Wrestling Legend” update. I want to thank HyperDevil for having this set in stock and also want to thank Chief White Owl for his hard work in the world of wrestling. I also want to remind you that I will only be breaking down randomly select matches from this set and will be breaking down the match and will be rating the matches on a 5 Star rating system. I also only choose from single matches, as I want to break down his matches that showcase his style. Here is what the stars mean ½ means a really terrible match, * means a bad match, ** means a below average match, **1/2 means a good average entertaining match, *** means a good match, **** means a great match, ***** means an epic match. So if you are ready, let’s step into the ring with Chief White Owl.

Best Of Chief White Owl

Match 1: Chief White Owl vs. Steve Stanlee

As the bell rings, Steve is able to land a punch at the top of White Owl’s head dazing him for a second as Steve keeps his attack going landing punches and kicks. After a few moments White Owl lands one big punch that knocks Steve to the mat and White Owl is fired up as he does his war dance and lands a few punches that causes Steve to get out of the ring to stop the attack. Once back in the ring Steve is pushed up against the corner and White Owl hits a big chop, but soon Steve is able to get White Owl in a sleeper hold that is broke when White Owl gets to the ropes but takes a elbow to the back of his neck when Steve lets go. Steve then hits a series of kicks to the stomach of White Owl and then goes for his eyes, but White Owl fights back with a punch to the gut and a standing headlock that backs Steve into the ropes and tangles his arms in them and delivers a chop and even lands another as Steve escapes the ropes. The two exchange hits and holds and battle until the time limit, but the referee decides to give the win to Chief White Owl. This is a classic old school wrestling match filled with brawling punches, basic wrestling moves and signature moments that would pop the fans and while it would be considered bland by todays standards of in ring work this is a very good match for its era. Steve Stanlee does a fantastic job of selling for The Chief and does so many little heel moves that makes the fans just hate him, meanwhile Chief White Owl does his war dance, his tomahawk chops and uses his fired up temper to have the fan eating out of his hands. White Owl’s series of drop kicks look really great and he as well is great seller as he makes Steve as well look good in the ring as its clear the two had good chemistry. The time limit decision win that goes to The Chief was a little confusing, but the live fans seemed to dig it so I guess it worked. The pacing was well done and Steve Stanlee even was able to get in some silly heel comedy moments as well as cheating to help the pace along. Over all this was an entertaining old school match and shows why Chief White Owl was a well loved wrestler.

Grade: ***

The legend of Chief White Owl is still going strong to this day as his family, friends and fans keep his memory alive. And for those wondering, Chief White Owl’s real name was George Dahmer and his mother was part Native American. He was a natural as his gimmick. I really do wish more matches of his would come to the light of day as I would love to see more of his work as I like his fighting spirit as well as his hard hitting brawling style. Well as you can see, the update event is over and the house lights are back up and the cleanup crew is out so that is our cue to head on out of the arena, but before we part I would like to alert you that our next update will have us stay in the world of wrestling as we are still celebrating WWE WrestleMania Month and we will be spending some time with the one and only Uncle Elmer, who was the powerhouse of the Hillbilly Family that took 80’s WWF by storm. So until the next update event, read a comic or three, watch a wrestling match or two and as always support your local wrestlers. See you back here at the Rotten Ink Arena for the next update, and I wonder if the snack bar will have Friend Pig Parts in stock?

R.I.W Wrestling Legend: La Parka

Welcome back to Rotten Ink. As you can see, we find ourselves at the Rotten Ink Arena as it’s WWE WrestleMania month so that means we celebrate the legends of Pro Wrestling and Lucha Libre, and as you can see, today’s update event main event star is one that has packed the house as he has been a big draw in both Mexico and America as this “R.I.W Wrestling Legend” update is about the Chairman of WCW the one and only La Parka, a masked Luchador that has always been a favorite of mine and has been long over due as I need to cover more of my favorite masked wrestlers from South Of The Border. Starting off with La Parka for our celebration of the 2024 WrestleMania month was just the right choice. So let’s grab some nachos and a burger from the snack bar and find our seats as this is going to be one fun wrestling legend event.

Adolfo Tapia started in Pro Wrestling career in 1982 at the age of 16 and was trained by Alberto Mora and Raul Reyes. He would work for the indies in Mexico and would work under many names and masks including El Gringo, El Asesino De Tepito, Principe Island and Invasor Del Norte I and would even lose a bet match against El Hijo Del Santo, and he worked hard for years in the indies before being signed to AAA in 1992 and would become La Parka, the skeleton reaper, who was a rudo that got cheered almost instantly by fans who liked his style of brawling and high flying. And just like that, La Parka was a main event star and would have his first major feud against Lizmark and the pair would even fight for titles that they would exchange back and fourth. In 1994 La Parka would be in a six man tag match for the When World’s Collide PPV that had WCW and AAA coming together, in the match he would team with Blue Panther and Jerry Estrada in a loosing effort against Chris Benoit, 2 Cold Scorpio and Tito Santana. And from there La Parka would continue to be a huge draw for AAA and would even win and hold many of the company’s titles and his popularity with fans continued to rise. In 1995 he would even make an appearance at ECW and would team with Psychosis to take on Rey Mysterio Jr. and Konnan. But a big step in La Parka’s career was coming in 1996! During his first run in AAA, he would have big matches against many Lucha Libre Legends like Solar, Octagon, Super Astro, Lizmark Jr., Eddie Guerrero and Villano IV to name a few.

In 1996 WCW was expanding their Cruiser Weight Division and hired many Luchadors at this time including La Parka who quickly became a breakout star among the pack that was hired as his creepy mask and more silly and playful gimmick got him over with the American fans. La Parka was used as a mid-card draw and would find himself in matches against fellow cruiser weights as well as matches against bigger stars in order to put them over like Goldberg. La Parka would have a manager for a short time in Sonny Onoo and would also team with Psychosis at the time. This would be a short lived partnership but would find La Parka working on WCW PPV’s as well as their top three shows Nitro, Thunder and Saturday Night. La Parka would also gain more fans when he would be called “WCW Chairman Of The Board” as he would carry out a steel chair that he would play air guitar with as well as would dance on it. In 1998, he would become a member of the Latino World Order (LWO) a group of Hispanic wrestlers who came together under the leadership of Eddie Guerrero and would have members Juventud Guerrera, Psychosis, Silver King, El Dandy, Damien 666, Hector Garza and Villano IV & V, sadly this group would disband in 1999. Later in 1999 he would have a gimmick that would have him speaking in Spanish and would have a silly English dub would play over his interviews. This was toward the end of his WCW run as at this point, he was being booked more as a joke and sadly he seemed to be the butt of the jokes. He would leave WCW in 2000, but this run would be what helped put him into the mainstream for wrestling promotions worldwide. In WCW La Parka just never got the push he should have and always found himself on the lower card.

La Parka in 2000 would return to Mexico and work the indies as well as a few dates for CMLL before signing with them in 2003 to a full time contract…but with this came a lawsuit from AAA who claimed they owned the name La Parka, and while the original was in WCW, they had a LA Parka Jr. working events. When the original signed with AAA’s biggest rival, they took action and now he had to go by L.A. Park with Jr. now becoming La Parka. L.A. Park would work as a main event star in CMLL but for a short time he had to be kept off TV due to the legal issues with AAA, and oddly enough CMLL would only work L.A. Park in bursts and this allowed him to as well still work for the indies in Mexico. His biggest feud in CMLL at this time was against Dr. Wagner Jr. During this time L.A. Park would also work for Xtreme Latin American Wrestling starting in 2004 and would come back to them for a run from 2009-2010. And by 2008 L.A. Park would leave CMLL and after working the indies would find himself back in AAA for a three year run that would have him feud with La Parka over the name as he would say the other was an imposter. This run was well done and would have him take on such Luchadors as Heavy Metal, Cibernetico, Extreme Tiger, Jack Evans, El Zorro and Electroshock. L.A. Park would leave AAA in 2013 and would return for a very short run for CMLL in 2014-2015 all the while still working in the indies.

In 2018 L.A. Park would return to AAA and find himself once more at being one of the company’s top draws and is still working to this day for them as he has won some big matches and even was the one who took the mask of El Hijo Del Fantasma who is now known as Santos Escobar in WWE/NXT. And while he is getting older, his brawling style is still very much over with fans and is what helps make him remain as one of Mexico’s biggest wrestling stars around the world. In 2018 he also worked in MLW, an indie American company that he quickly became a main event star for them and would have feuds with such names as Sami Callihan, Mace Warner, Pentagon Jr., Rey Fenix and Ross & Marshall Von Erich. L.A. Park would be fired from MLW in 2022 when he and his son El Hijo De L.A. Park attacked some fellow wrestlers with chairs in a off the rails attack that left two fellow workers injured. While L.A. Park is starting to slow down in the ring he still remains an icon of Pro Wrestling and Lucha Libre and during his run has won many titles from all types of companies from AAA to CMLL and even WWA showing that he was a big draw for companies and they know it. Sadly as of this update L.A. Park is not in the WWE Hall Of Fame, but once he retires he should be!

La Parka is a Luchador that I have been a fan of since I first saw in him in WCW and from that moment on, I followed his career as well as even started to look into his past and that meant his work for AAA. In WCW the thing that separated La Parka from the other Luchadors is his spooky skeleton look as well as the fact he would dance around and play air guitar and would wrestle a more brawling lucha style and was a little bigger than the others and this did allow him to work matches against none cruiser weight stars and kind of look like a contender. And while he know goes by L.A. Park to me he will always be La Parka and that is no disrespect to La Parka II who sadly passed away in 2020 after complications to an injury that happened in the ring, as he was a fantastic worker as well, it’s just that I grew up with the WCW La Parka and I am so used to calling him that. Back in the days of WCW I use to play as La Parka in many of the video games like WCW/NOW Revenge for the N64 and WCW Thunder for the PSX and it’s a shame that he has not been in any of the modern WWE games as a legend as it would be great to play as him again in a game. I have also been lucky enough to see LA Parka wrestle live in WCW and it was awesome to see the live crowd cheer him as he made his entrance, and I was one of the fans cheering my head off! I also find that La Parka’s mask is one of the most iconic masks in Lucha Libre and his legacy in wrestling will live on after he retires thanks to his son who doing the Jr. gimmick and this is great as I hope generations to come will get to see just how great La Parka is who as of this posting is still going strong in Mexico. I also want to say that La Parka took the # 6 spot for my Top 60 Luchador Countdown that you can read HERE.

We are now at the point of this review were we will be taking a look at the DVD set and review some of the matches on the discs like always between 4 to 8. But because this is a set about a Luchador we will take a look at 10 matches. I want to thank Coliseum Of Wrestling & Boxing for having this set in stock and also want to thank La Parka for his hard work in the world of wrestling. I also want to remind you that I will only be breaking down randomly select matches from this set and will be breaking down the match and will be rating the matches on a 5 Star rating system. I also only choose from Single matches as I want to break down his matches that showcase his style. Here is what the stars mean ½ Means a really terrible match, * Means a bad match, ** Means a below average match, **1/2 Means a good average entertaining match, *** Means a good match, **** Means a great match, ***** Means an epic match. So if you are ready lets step into the ring with La Parka.

Best Of LA Parka

Match 1: La Parka vs. Chris Jericho

As the bell rings La Parka charges and misses a body bump that causes him to crash to the mat and Jericho goes for a side headlock that La Parka breaks out of and lands some big punches and chops, that is till Jericho throws him into the ropes and is dropped when La Parka hits a shoulder tackle and then does some karate movies to the air as the fans boo. Jericho is able to recover fast and hits a dropkick that knocks La Parka down to the mat, and when La Parka tries to make a comeback he is kicked in the face by Jericho who is now in charge of the matches pace for a second as La Parka uses the ropes and is able to keep Jericho on the defense as Parka hits big of the rope kicks and even gets a two count on Jericho. Parka hits a good power bomb and then starts working on the arm and neck of Jericho and once more gets a two count. Jericho gets a one count when he sneaks and rolls up Parka who is able to get to the ropes to stop the pin attempt. Parka unloads some more moves including a belly-to-belly suplex, but cannot keep Jericho down. After a little more of a beating Jericho has had enough and makes a comeback unloading hits and moves on Parka and beats him with a roll up that gets him the three count. This is a very competitive match between two of WCW’s top cruiserweights at the time and the two work really well together and make each other look very good in the ring, as both sell well for each other and allow each to showoff their speed and moves. It was great to see La Parka move fast in the match and his rope work is great stuff, and as always Chris Jericho looks great in his fast paced moves. And the rollup win is fitting for the pace of the match and still made La Parka look like a contender. The fans in attendance also seemed to be into the match and that was nice to see as it was clear both La Parka and Chris Jericho were semi new to the company and trying to make names for themselves. Over all a pretty fun and solid match that entertained me and I have to admit that I popped when La Parka did his martial arts spot.

Grade: ***

Match 2: La Parka vs. Ice Train

As soon as the bell rings La Parka attacks Ice Train from behind and starts working on the back of his knee trying to keep the big man down on the mat, but La Parka’s hits and kicks are having very little effect on Ice Train who is raging up and drops Parka with one big chop. Ice Train starts using his power moves to toss La Parka around and hits a big power slam that knocks Parka silly. Train then hits a leaping shoulder tackle and Parka is clearly in trouble that is until he is able to hit a head kick and a spinning kick off the top rope that knocks Train down and is able to only get a one count. And once more Train takes back over and lands another power slam on Parka and then flings him into the corner and delivers a splash. Parka makes a small comeback with a jawbreaker and some kicks and even knocks Train out of the ring and lands a dive onto him. Once back in the ring Train hits a massive clothesline another power slam and then his finisher The Train Wreck (a big splash) and gets the win via pin over La Parka. This match was clearly a match that was set to showcase Ice Train who WCW was building up as a massive Baby Face and they pretty much have him dominate the match and shrug off much of the moves of La Parka, and that’s a shame as La Parka was clearly the more skilled worker of the two as Ice Train could only hit power moves as he hits a power slam three times during this short match…as he was very limited in the ring and it was clear he was being pushed due to his massive muscles. La Parka does a great job of selling for Ice Train and makes the limited wrestler look a little better. Not much to say besides La Parka’s outside dive looked amazing and if trained a little longer Ice Train could have probably been a bigger name in the sport. Over all an average match that WCW used La Parka as enhancement talent for a wrestler who had a very short shelf life. And the only reason this match is getting two is cause the hard work La Parka put in to get a match out of Ice Train.

Grade: **

Match 3: La Parka vs. Juventud Guerrera

As the bell rings La Parka and Juventud start shoving each other and Parka tries to get Juventud into the corner but keeps missing his hits as the faster Luchador is able to dodge his hits and escape. And Juventud then slides around his opponent and then lands a jumping kick that knocks Parka to the mat. Juventud then tries to land a top rope body press but is caught by Parka who dances while holding him before setting him on the other corner to slap him across the face, this fires Juventud up who leaps from the rope and flying head scissors Parka who goes to the outside only for Juventud to dive over the ropes onto him. The fans are into this match as they have popped for both guys and are enjoying this fast paced cruiserweight match. Once back in the ring Juventud lands a missile drop kick and gets a two count on a pin attempt. Parka turns the tide of the match with a boot to Juventud’s face and then a big clothesline and then dives off the top rope onto Juventud and gets a two count. Parka keeps up the pressure hitting moves on Juventud as the fans just keep on cheering for the match, this time Juventud is outside the ring and Parka dives over the top rope and onto him. Once back into the ring Juventud takes back control of the match that is until Parka hits a top rope power bomb followed by a spinning body splash from the top rope and he is able to get the win via pin. This was such a great WCW Cruiserweight match that had both guys getting equal time to shine with the live fans being very much into the fast paced match. Both La Parka and Juventud did a great job of making each other look good, both sell well for each other and both are able to show off their highflying moves. Both of there outside dives also look fantastic and impactful adding to the story that’s being told in this match. La Parka looks strong and is able to get the win and even though he is the heel of the match fans cheer for his hard work. This is a very cool match and is why I loved the Cruiserweight Division in WCW!

Grade: ***

Match 4: La Parka vs. Ultimo Dragon

As soon as the bell rings Parka and Dragon run the ropes and each showcase their speed and land some flips and moves. Dragon gets Parka into the corner and lands some chops and keeps using his speed to takedown and trip up Parka. And when Parka tries to make a comeback Dragon unleashes a fury of fast kicks and lands a dropkick that knocks him out of the ring and then Dragon climbs the top rope and dives onto him. But outside the ring Sonny Ono the manager of La Parka attacks Dragon and this allows Parka to land some hits and moves and even get a two count after a power bomb on the Dragon. Parka stays in control of the match until he misses a corner splash and this allows Dragon to land a off the top rope Frankensteiner and then get La Parka in the Dragon Sleeper, but Sonny Ono distracts the referee and this allows La Parka to kick Dragon in the back of the head and then Ono botches as he by accident kicks La Parka and once more Dragon locks in the Dragon Sleeper and gets Parka to tap out and wins via submission. This is a very fun fast paced match that did a great job of showcasing why Ultimo Dragon is considered one of the best cruiserweights in the world and also shows La Parka as a threat for the mid-card titles. The speed and kicks of Dragon are very awesome to see and La Parka does a great job of selling and acting amazed by the feats of Dragon throughout the match, I also like that they make it appear as if La Parka just might win the match with the help of his manager. Over all a really fun and entertaining match as both guys have great chemistry in the ring and told a quick story.

Grade: ***

Match 5: La Parka vs. Glacier

La Parka starts the match waving a Mexican Flag on the top turnbuckle as the fans cheer, Parka then gets off the turnbuckle and makes fun of Glacier’s martial arts and the fans continue to cheer. Glacier has seen enough and the two exchange karate chops and Glacier’s strike hard and knock Parka to the mat, but Parka gets back up and lands some punches and then uses a shoulder tackle to go for a pin attempt and gets a one count and repeats these actions again. Glacier then hits a series of kicks that knocks Parka out of the ring and Glacier jumps over the ropes with a cross body. Once back in the ring Parka takes control of the match hitting some big moves and lands a big piledriver and then dances around before landing some more moves on Glacier including knocking him out of the ring and corkscrew diving onto him. Outside the ring Parka slams Glacier’s head into a chair and the two battle more outside the ring and even Parka crashes into the chair. Once back in the ring Glacier hits his Cryonic Kick finisher and gets the three count for the win. This is a pretty fun match as La Parka is on and is playing up to the live fans who clearly want him to get the win! La Parka goes a great job in the match and uses his speed and Lucha Libre moves to try and make the match exciting as Glacier mostly does his same “martial arts” style moves, but does pull off a very cool over the top rope dive. The match is very short and sadly in my opinion the wrong wrestler won, as clearly everyone in the arena wanted La Parka to get the victory and La Parka is way more skilled in the ring than his opponent. The two lacked chemistry in the ring but Parka did his best to get a fun match out of Glacier.

Grade: **1/2

Match 6: La Parka vs. Disco Inferno

As soon as the match starts La Parka throws a chair at Disco who in turn doges the charge Parka who crashes into the corner. The two exchange hits and Parka hits a power slam before getting up and mocking Inferno’s disco moves. Disco returns the favor and hits a power slam of his own, and Disco takes control of the match his hits and holds and La Parka fights back and even knocks Disco out of the ring and hits a corkscrew splash and the two brawl outside for a bit and Disco even drops Parka on the guardrail trying to hurt his opponent to secure the win. But once back in the ring Parka goes on the attack with some kicks and a chinlock and once Disco gets out of the hold Parka continues his attack thanks to his speed and hits some impactful moves, but is unable to get the pinfall over Disco. La Parka once more goes for a chinlock to slowdown the pace and to ware down Disco who gets out of the hold and starts unloading on Parka trying to take the match momentum, but the two end up just trading the momentum back and fourth with holds and hits but Disco with the help of a chair is able to hit his Chart Buster finisher and get the win via pin over La Parka. This is a pretty good match and for the most part is entertaining, with both guys getting times to shine in the match the only downside is that I feel that their styles did not mesh that well and caused for some moments that seem off. La Parka shows off his speed and some of his Lucha style, but does seem to slow down his moves and does less flips than he normally worked into his matches. Disco Inferno is also a very solid worker who I think often get overlooked for his work, but his style just did not click well with La Paraka’s and what we have here is a match that is good and entertaining but is just lacking something to take it to the next level. Both guys do well for selling for each other and that helps both guys look like a contender, the fans in the arena seem to be into the match as they do cheer for La Parka as clearly they are on his side and want to see him win. Also I should say that this was an odd choice as this was part of the WCW SuperBrawl VIII and is given around 12 minutes.

Grade: **1/2

Match 7: La Parka vs. Psychosis

As the bell rings Parka and Psychosis start to lock up and Parka takes a cheapshot and then lands a series of big chops and after some rope running Psychosis returns the favor of chops and then takes Parka down with some flying head scissors and Psychosis keeps his attack on La Parka even knocking him out of the ring and hitting him with a big dive. But La Parka is able to turn the tide when he is able to get back into the ring first and delivers a big kick to Psychosis who was entering the ring and now he deals out some hits and holds including a massive clothesline and a split legged moonsault. Every time Psychosis tries to make a comeback he is cut off my Parka who just deals out more of a beating. But La Parka makes a mistake by dancing on the top rope as this gives Psychosis time to recover and knock Parka down and racking him on the ropes and then deliver a Frankenstein to get a two count. Psychosis keeps up his attack with highflying moves in and outside the ring, and finally after La Parka makes a small comeback it’s Psychosis that gets the win via pin after hitting Parka with a guillotine leg drop. This was a pretty fun match against two of WCW’s best cruiserweights at the time and each man had their time to shine as well as show off their Lucha Libre moves. Psychosis was the faster of the two and is able to do more fancy rope work, but La Parka does hold his own and is able to play off the fans to draw them into the match. Neither guy is made to look like a jobber and while La Parka showboats and this helps lead to his lose it’s these moments that bring that extra entertainment to the match. La Parka’s split legged moonsault looked fantastic as did most of Psychosis’s dives. Over all this is just a great cruiserweight match that showcased why WCW had the best division in America at this time. Also I should say that Psychosis and La Parka have great in ring chemistry and that is why this matched worked so well for the WCW PPV Spring Stampede.

Grade: ***

Match 8: La Parka vs. Booker T

La Parka is a member of the L.W.O at this time and as soon as the bell rings he and Booker T size each other up and Parka makes a big mistake as he starts dancing to taunt Booker T who ends up making the masked wrestler eat a big clothesline and then tosses him out of the ring. But La Parka tricks Booker T when he makes his opponent come outside the ring to get him, and then jumps him before he can get back in with some punches and chops and keeps up the attack that is until Booker T once more drops him with a clothesline and then gets off a few punches before the two start trading hits and holds trying to get the upper hand over the other. And Booker T hits the Scissors Kick and is able to get a two count, but Parka is able to fight back and the two go to the outside and start slugging it out as the fans cheer. Once back in the ring La Parka brings in a steel chair and tries to use it but Booker T stops him who in turn tries to use the chair and is stopped by Parka. The match ends with Booker T winning the match via pin when he kicks the chair into the face of La Parka. The match is clearly one to showcase and build Booker T as a top star for WCW as he has more of the hard hitting moves and is in charge for most of this short match. The fans are clearly behind Booker T who hits some amazing kicks and does a pretty solid job of letting La Parka not look like an enhancement talent in the match by selling for his moves. La Parka does not get to showcase much of his high -lying moves in this match and pretty much just does a brawling style with kicks, chops and punches. This match is very short and while nothing super fantastic happens both wrestlers look good in the match and it’s clear that their styles clashed slightly but they were able to pull it together as both workers are outstanding talents. And I should also note that its shocking that no other member of the L.W.O didn’t come out and try and help La Parka win the match.

Grade: **1/2

Match 9: La Parka vs. Tank Abbott

As soon as the bell rings Tank punches Parka in the face and drops him, he then backs Parka into the corner and unloads a series of big punches as Parka tries to punch back it’s clear that he is being out striked by the former MMA fighter. Tank then throws some elbows and then picks Parka up and slams him hard to the mat. La Parka gets out of the ring and grabs a chair and as Tank comes out after him he smacks him on the head with the chair and Tank shrugs it off and rams Parka into the steel railing and then starts stomping on him. The referee has seen enough and throws out the match, but Tank takes a few more stomps on Parka and even attacks security before heading back to the locker room. This is a total squash match that has Tank Abbott who was just off working for the MMA company UFC totally destroying La Parka in a very quick match that has Tank dominating him. And Tanks punches and stomps look brutal as does his slam, and this was a great way to build Tank as the fans were behind him once they seen just how rough and brawling he was. I mean he shrugged off a chair shot to his head. Poor La Parka throws a few punches and gets off one chair shot and none of these even faze Tank, and while this match makes La Parka look weak it does a great job of building Tank and the brawl almost comes off real and that makes for one entertaining match! I also think the finish of the match being thrown out by the referee was the right way to end the match.

Grade: **1/2

Match 10: La Parka vs. Brad Armstrong

As the bell rings La Parka does his dance to taunt Armstrong who responds with a massive clotheslin then pulls off a series of arm drags and keeps the momentum going on his side as even if Parka tries to comeback Armstrong keeps having an answer for his moves. Parka is finally able to make his comeback with a power slam and then unleashes some hits and kicks on Armstrong before even landing a big missile drop kick that gets him a two count on a pin attempt. Parka then hits a corkscrew dive on a downed Armstrong and gets another two count. Armstrong is able to turn the tide of the match and gets off a series of big punches and La Parka during this bumps into the referee taking him out, but then Alex Wright and his bodyguard The Wall come into the match and as Alex attacks Brad Armstrong, The Wall attacks La Parka outside the ring and tosses him back in and Armstrong falls on top of Parka and the referee wakes up and makes the count giving Armstrong the victor over Parka via pin. This is a match that should have been fantastic but sadly is a quick match that is more of a way to build the feud between Alex Wright and Brad Armstrong and poor La Parka was just being used as enhancement to keep the feud growing. The one good thing about this short match is that La Parka does get to use some of his highflying attacks with his Missile Dropkick and Corkscrew Splash being well pulled off. Brad Armstrong does not get to showoff much of his highflying moves but does get to show off his more technical ones. It’s clear that these two would have had great chemistry in the match if they were given the chance to really work it before the interface. And the finish is a little odd as Alex Wright and The Wall end up helping their target win the match and almost seem happy to have done so. Over all it’s an ok short match that sadly ends very oddly and I wish that Parka and Armstrong had been able to have a full competitive match.

Grade: **1/2

La Parka has always been one of my favorite Luchadors, and along with the others that came to WCW in the 90’s is what made them the better federation for the longest time in my opinion, and to me seeing L.A. Park as he goes by now working in AAA has been awesome because at his age he is still working at the top of the card after all these years. Well as you can see, the “R.I.W Wrestling Legend” update has came to an end as the arena staff have just turned up the house lights and the clean up crew is coming out to clean up for the next event as this is just the first of three wrestling updates in honor of WWE WrestleMania. Our next one will be about the legend Chief White Owl! And as we make our way to the exit doors, I want to say that if you have never seen a La Parka match, make sure to look some up on YouTube or find one on the Grey Market as you will truly enjoy them if you like Lucha Libre. Well until next time, make sure to read a comic of three, watch a wrestling match or two and as always support your local indie wrestlers. See you next update as we will watch the master of the Tomahawk Chop in action.

R.I.W Wrestling Legend: The Texas Hangmen

Welcome back to Rotten Ink. As you can see, we find ourselves once more at the Rotten Ink Arena as we have another “R.I.W Wrestling Legend” update event planned and this one will feature a tag team that mostly made a name for themselves in Puerto Rico but did have a good run in the AWA and while they did not last that long as a team, they did capture some gold and built up a reputation of being a brawling, rough and tough masked menacing team…and this team is The Texas Hangmen and as you can see, they are the main event for this update. So let’s head to the snack bar and grab a drink and some chili to snack on and then find our seats as this will be a quick and hard hitting update event.

The Texas Hangmen was a masked outlaw cowboy team that started working together around 1988 in Windy City Wrestling under the names Hangman # 1 and Hangman # 2 and could not find their groove mostly losing to more established teams before leaving the company and finding their new home in the AWA that they started working for in 1989 and found some more traction and started going under the names Psycho and Killer. They worked matches against the likes of The Guerrero Brothers, The Tokyo Bullets and John Nord and Scott Norton. They were hated heels and fans loved to boo these brawling masked men who would challenge for the AWA Tag Titles but never could win them. The Hangmen would stay in AWA until around 1990 when they went out of business. The Texas Hangmen then traveled to Puerto Rico to work for WWC and would become a big team that feuded with many of the company’s top teams and stars from The Medics, The Invaders and even Carlos Colon. The Texas Hangmen would also capture the WWC Tag Titles twice during this run and would stick around until 1991 before returning to the states to work for USWA. Once in the USWA, they found themselves a top team for the company and would quickly capture the Tag Titles as they beat Jeff Jarrett and Eddie Gilbert (who was filling in for Jerry Lawler). But even being the Tag Team champions, Texas Hangman were being booked very oddly as they ended up losing to many of the companies top stars at the time like Bill Dundee and Steve Keirn. They would stick around USWA for a short time and would break up for a time and would get back together for one last run in WWC in 1997 that would have them win the company’s Tag Title and by the end of the year The Texas Hangmen were no more. While The Texas Hangmen never made it to the big companies like WCW and WWF, they did make their mark in AWA and WWC and would find their marks later when they disbanded. I should say a version of The Texas Hangmen had a small run in WCW as a jobber team.

Frank Vizi was the wrestler behind the mask of Psycho and he was trained by Tom Stone and started his Pro Wrestling career in 1984, and is known as Bull Pain, a wrestler who worked for ECW, WCW and JCW. He would end up retiring in 2012 and was a mid-card heel that fans loved to hate. Mike Morgan was Killer, and he started his Pro career in 1982 and was trained by Jake Milliman and Rocky Stone and would best be known as Mean Mike, a member of the WCW tag team Disorderly Conduct, and part of a similar team called Texas Hangmen that were a jobber team. He would as well retire in 2012. While The Texas Hangmen or even Disorderly Conduct are not household names, and Bull Pain is only with diehard ECW fans, these guys made their mark in the world of Wrestling and over their careers had captured titles as well as did a great job of entertaining fans all over the world. At this point The Texas Hangman are not in the WWE Hall Of Fame, and I doubt if they ever do make it.

In the late 80’s and early 90’s Tag Team wrestling was very big and teams like the Road Warriors, Demolition and The Powers Of Pain were the ones that brought fans into arena as they had a look of face paint, flashy gear and a badass wrestling style that made them feel like true tough guys and like they could snap their opponents’ necks. I feel like The Texas Hangmen are a team that traded the face paint for masks, as well traded in the apocalyptic fashion for western gear and used names like Killer and Psycho to show that they meant business. They also would bring out nooses to show that they truly were Hangmen as I can remember them getting a little heat from people when they used the nooses to hang and choke Invader # 1 and this single act is what made them big names in Puerto Rico and made them feared by fans as they came off as true madmen. Growing up I remember The Texas Hangman from the AWA and seeing them on ESPN and wondering why they were not working for WCW as their look and style would have fit right in and they could have had some great matches with the likes of Steiner Brothers, Road Warriors and even Doom. The crazy thing to think about is that as a team they only stayed together for a few years and when disbanding the team the each tried to make their own paths in the business, and while they both did find small amounts of success I would have liked to seen them stick together and try to make runs in WWF, ECW, CMLL, New Japan and WCW. They are also a team that I am pretty sure got their gimmick stolen as Texas Hangmen or teams with similar looks and names would pop up in small indie federations. Another very interesting thing about The Texas Hangmen is that their background as a team is very all over the place with many saying the started in AWA and others saying it was for the smaller indies before landing in AWA, but one thing is for sure they were a entertaining team that I would love to see have a match at Rock Star Pro Wrestling in Dayton, Ohio against a team like The Hooligans or even The Bad Dudes.

We are now at the point of this review were we will be taking a look at the DVD set and review some of the matches on the discs like always between 4 to 8. Sadly on a side note I could only review 3 full matches. I want to thank HyperDevil for having this set in stock and also want to thank The Texas Hangmen for their hard work in the world of wrestling. I also want to remind you that I will be breaking down the match and will be rating the matches on a 5 Star rating system. Here is what the stars mean ½ Means a really terrible match, * Means a bad match, ** Means a below average match, **1/2 Means a good average entertaining match, *** Means a good match, **** Means a great match, ***** Means an epic match. So if you are ready, let’s step into the ring with The Texas Hangmen.

Best Of The Texas Hangmen

Match 1: Texas Hangmen vs. Carlos Colon & T.N.T

The Texas Hangmen and Carlos and T.N.T start brawling before any of them even get in the ring and the fans are going crazy as they keep throwing punches all around as it’s clear that these teams have a hatred for each other. Carlos even rips one of the Hangman’s mask as he is trying to make the masked man bleed with big punches. T.N.T gets one of the Hangmen into the ring as Carlos rams the others head into a plate as the ring is set up in the middle of a baseball field, once they all get back to the ring the match becomes more of a normal tag match and Carlos and T.N.T take control of the match landing hits, holds and even using what looks like a fork on the heads of The Texas Hangmen. For a short time the Hangmen make a comeback but it quickly turns into both teams brawling and they take it outside the ring again and the match it thrown out as the two teams keep on fighting and even the locker room empties to try and break them up. This match is pretty much mostly a brawl with both team just exchanging punches and kicks in and outside the ring and the fans were really into this match as it was clear that they love Carlos Colon and T.N.T as for most of the match they are in charge. The match also has blood and The Texas Hangmen prove that they are brawlers and can take a beating and dish out a beating and still seem like contenders. The match ending in a brawl and being thrown out was very fitting as it was clear that fans would come back for a rematch between these two teams. Over all, while it’s nothing super special when it comes to moves, the story they tell in the ring as well as the chemistry between the two teams is good and that is what makes this match a great watch.

Grade: ***

Match 2: Texas Hangmen vs. Invader # 1 & T.N.T

As soon as the two teams get into the ring they start brawling, and Invader even takes one of the Hangmen out of the ring and uses a chair on him and is delivering big punches while in the ring T.N.T is beating up on the other Hangmen and these beating continues for a while even at one point T.N.T chokes one with a belt and Invader smashes the other over the head. The teams end up taking the brawl into the ring again and it turns into a normal tag match with each team exchanging holds and mostly punches back and fourth. The referee ends up getting knocked out, and The Texas Hangmen try and use their bull rope to hit Invader # 1 with but T.N.T saves him for a moment, but one of the Hangmen uses the rope to choke Invader who is in deep trouble. The match is thrown out as The Texas Hangmen leave the ring and head to the locker room as T.N.T and Invader # 1 pose for the rabid cheering fans. This is another brawling match that pretty much follows the same formula as the last match that is pretty much the baby face team brawling with the heel team all around the arena as the fans cheer and once they get it back into the ring the match goes back and fourth and in the end a brawl erupts and the match ends with a no contest. No big moves are thrown, the brawling looks great and the hanging spot looks good as his the reversal of the hanging. Over all just another brawl that is entertaining and both teams look good throughout the match. The fans in attendance are really into this match as well, and I am not sure but at one point I think a fan throws a smoke bomb around the ring…a wild match.

Grade: ***

Match 3: Texas Hangmen vs. Invader # 1 & Bronco # 1

The Texas Hangmen are the tag champions, and as they head to the ring, they taunt the fans who really hate these guys. Bronco # 1 has seen and heard enough and goes out after him and gets them both in the ring and Invader # 1 starts dealing out some punches. When the Hangmen roll out of the ring, they return only to taunt the fans some more. And every time the match is about to start and Invader # 1 gets any momentum the Hangmen roll out of the ring. Once the match really starts Invader and Bronco take the momentum and use fast tags to keep the match in their favor, Bronco even works over one of the Hangmen’s arm as the fans cheer, but shortly after The Hangmen take control of the match and use their brawling style to cause pain. The two teams then take turns going back and fourth with momentum and several times Invader # 1 tries to go for the pin but it’s always broken up by the other Hangman. But after a big punch Invader # 1 is finally able to get the win via pin and the fans go wild as they have just won the Tag Titles. This match starts off way to slow and I get that The Texas Hangmen were getting heart from their taunting and slowing down the action, but when watching at home it sadly comes off bland and uninteresting. But while it starts off not great, I think the match speeds up slightly and the tag team chemistry between Invader # 1 and Bronco # 1 was good as they did fast tags and used double team moves to keep their two monster heel opponents down. The Texas Hangmen are doing their normal brawling style, but also use lots of rest holds throughout the match. The finish is a little odd as well as such a simple move ends a title match. At times I also have to point out that when Bronco # 1 would do off the rope moves he seemed very awkward and stiff. But much to say besides it was an ok match between four skilled workers that the fans seemed to be into for the most part, I was entertained but was also slightly bored at times.

Grade: **1/2

The Texas Hangmen was a pretty cool tag team that worked all around the world and clearly was big draws as heels in Puerto Rico as the fans really did seem to hate them. And it really is a shame that they never got a full chance to show their talents in one of the two major companies WWF and WCW as I really do think they could have been a solid mid-card heel team that could have helped put over the companies top baby face teams as well as get win over some of the mid and lower card ones. Teams like The Texas Hangmen are a product of the past as you just don’t see teams like them on TV anymore. But as you can see, the matches are over and the house lights have came up and the cleaning crew are out so that’s our clue to leave and as we make out way to the exit doors I would like to tell you that our next update will take us away from the squared circle and back into the world of Western themed media as we will be talking about the iconic cowboy Red Ryder and his comic books as well as his B.B. Guns! So with that until next time read a comic or three, watch a wrestling match or two and as always support your local wrestlers. Oh and remember the phrase “You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out Kid” as Red Ryder and it go hand and hand.

R.I.W Wrestling Legend: Hillbilly Jim

The doors to the Rotten Ink Arena are open, and today’s “R.I.W Wrestling Legend” update is going to be a great one as our main event features a good old country boy who wore a horseshoe on a chain around his neck, would dance around the ring, was great friends with Hulk Hogan and Little Beaver, brought his family into wrestling, would promote the WWF Ice Cream bars, would sing his own iconic theme song and would also become a manager for a pair of hog farmers. And of course, I am talking about the one and only Hillbilly Jim, a true classic wrestler from the 1980’s WWF! So as you can see, they are serving some good old Kentucky Bar-Be-Que sandwiches and coleslaw at the snack bar so go grab yourself some as the matches are about to start.

Hillbilly Jim was trained by Bob Orton and started his pro career in 1975 and would work for Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) as a biker gimmick and went by Harley Davidson and teamed with Dirty Rhodes. He would stay with CWA as well as work for a few other NWA territories until around late 1984 when he would head to WWF and be Big Jim, a fan in the crowd who was a fan of champion Hulk Hogan, and decided that he wanted to be a wrestler and would be “trained” by the Hulkster after he turned down Roddy Piper who offered. And this is when Big Jim would become Hillybilly Jim, a goofy man from Mud Lick, Kentucky who was loved from the start by fans and would even have several tag team matches teaming with Hogan against the companies biggest heels. But Hillbilly Jim would get injured in early 1985 and this would cause him to bring in his family Uncle Elmer, Cousin Luke and Cousin Junior and become their manager while he heeled his messed up knee. Once he returned to in-ring action, he would team with his family members and sometimes Andre The Giant and have matches against the likes of Big John Studd and King Kong Bundy. His big feud at this time was with Mr. Fuji and while a major fan favorite, WWF would keep him out of the title shots as well as would not give him any serious storylines. His Family would seen also disappear from WWF, and he would find himself in a few big matches with one being Wrestlemania II and the other Survivor Series ’88, and while more of a comedy spot wrestler at this time, his fanbase kept growing as young and young at heart loved this dancing Hillbilly. By 1990 Hillbilly Jim’s push in WWF was coming to an end and even he lost a squash match to Earthquake at a Saturday Night’s Main Event, and by mid 1990, he would retire from full time in ring work. During his main WWF run he would have some big matches with names like Iron Sheik, Jesse Ventura, Roddy Piper, Adrian Adonis, Randy Savage and Dino Bravo to name a few. He also was part of the short lived cartoon “Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling” as well as did a ton of commercials for stuff like Chevy trucks.

While no longer wrestling, Hillbilly Jim would stick around and would even be a host on the show “WWF Prime Time Wrestling” until the show was cancelled in 1993. He would be gone for a while and would return in 1995 as a special guest referee and then would also become the manager of The Godwinns (Henry O. and Phineas I.) and that was until 1997 when the teamed turned heel and they fired Hillbilly Jim from being their manager. He would then show up in 2001 at WrestleMania X-Seven as he was in the Gimmick Battle Royal, and he lost. From here he would travel around the WWF Axxess and public appearances. And from here Hillbilly Jim would only show up from time to time and was even a cast member of the reality show “WWE Legend’s House” and was put into the WWE Hall Of Fame in 2018.

Growing up I can remember being a fan of Hillbilly Jim as were many of the kids at school as almost every kid I knew had the LJN figure of Hillbilly Jim. Being Hulk Hogan’s good friend, he was just a ready to cheer superstar who also was played off as a good hearted person and this made him a draw who never needed to win a title to become a legend and one of the most loved and remembered WWE Superstars. I can always remember that Hillbilly Jim was never an overly flashy wrestler nor did he have a look that set him apart from all the other Hillbilly gimmicks of the 80’s wrestling world, but what made him stand out from the pack was his massive size and just his over all character and attitude as he was always getting fans invested into his matches no matter how limited they were in spots. I also think its great that clearly Vince McMahon loved Hillbilly themed wrestlers as over the years he has created and booked so many, and I am wondering if that love came from the legend Haystacks Calhoun who his father use to book back in the Golden Age. It’s also clear that Hillbilly Jim would wear the horseshoe to pay respects to Haystacks, and as a kid I can always remember him kissing it for good luck. One thing that is crazy to think is that Hillbilly Jim’s career was not that long and that his WWF main run as a wrestler only lasted around six years and that he never even one a single belt during this time. And let’s be honest, out of the Hillbilly stable that was working in WWF in the 1980’s, Jim was the only one that had the talent and persona to pull it off and be remembered. To sum it up, growing up I liked Hillbilly Jim and even in these modern times and long removed from the ring he is remembered and well loved by fans, as he is generally a great person to his fans when they meet him in person.

We are now at the point of this review where we will be taking a look at the DVD set and review some of the matches on the discs like always between 4 to 8. I want to thank Coliseum Of Wrestling & Boxing for having this set in stock and also want to thank Hillbilly Jim for his hard work in the world of wrestling. I also want to remind you that I will only be breaking down randomly select matches from this set and will be breaking down the match and will be rating the matches on a 5 Star rating system. I also only chose from Single matches, as I want to break down his matches that showcase his style. Here is what the stars mean ½ Means a really terrible match, * Means a bad match, ** Means a below average match, **1/2 Means a good average entertaining match, *** Means a good match, **** Means a great match, ***** Means an epic match. So if you are ready let’s step into the ring with Hillbilly Jim.

Best Of Hillbilly Jim

Match 1: Hillbilly Jim vs. Jim Neidhart

As the bell rings, Hillbilly gets the crowd cheering and even tries to shake Neidhart’s hand, that the he rejects of course. And Neidhart soon learns that Hillbilly is just as strong as he is, and that these two are going to be evenly matched. And it’s a chop to the head that gets the crowd roaring and gets Hillbilly Jim in charge of the match for a second that is until Neidhart takes a cheap shot and the two powerhouses exchange hits and holds. Neidhart shows his power and drops Hillbilly throat first onto the ropes and this takes the breath out of him and allows Neidhart to beat up on him for a bit and even cheats and starts biting him on the face. Hillbilly Jim is able to make a comeback when he is able to big boot the face of Neidhart and then is able to even drop a powerful elbow on him and get a two count from it. Neidhart snaps and starts beating up Hillbilly Jim and also gets rough with the referee that gets him disqualified and gives the win to Hillbilly. After the bell rings Neidhart and Hillbilly keep fighting as the crowd erupts for the action. This is a great hoss fight that has two powerhouses beating the hell out of each other and telling a great story in the ring. Both men do not look weak in the match and both are shown to be super strong and their styles mesh well as both have a brawling mixed with classic style. I also like that both of these guys play off the fans and get them invested into the match and even add a dash of comedy to the match. Big Moves, Big Brawlers make for a fun match that is highly entertaining.

Grade: ***

Match 2: Hillbilly Jim vs. Boris Zhukov

Boris attacks Hillbilly Jim from behind and once for doing so Boris gets mule kicked and rolls out of the ring as Hillbilly gets the fans to cheer USA! The two trade punches and are trying to show that they are not going to go down as both want this win. Throughout the match Hillbilly keeps pulling off classic moves on Boris and the Russian is getting more and more frustrated and even when Boris goes on the attack Hillbilly is able to shrug it off and then starts working on Boris’s leg. And after a big boot to the face Hillbilly Jim is able to get the pin and the win. This match is entertaining and has Hillbilly Jim not only do some power moves but also does so classic movies in order to spice things up, he also adds a touch of comedy to the match and that helps bring the fans alive who really do love him and made him a big Superstar of his time. Boris Zhukov is a pure brawler heel in the match and does a great job off playing off the antics of Jim and while he looses the match and most of the time he is getting thrown around he don’t come off as a complete jobber. Over all the two have pretty good chemistry in the match and while it’s clearly an enhancement match it feels a little bigger then that.

Grade: **1/2

Match 3: Hillbilly Jim vs. One Man Gang

Before the bell rings, Hillbilly Jim has little person wrestler Little Beaver in his corner and they still One Man Gang’s manager Slick’s hat and once the bell rings Gang shows Hillbilly that he is the stronger of the two, but he also comes back to show that he is strong as well! And One Man Gang then goes for a massive headlock and his able to have the hold on for a while as every time Hillbilly is about to escape Gang pulls his hair and back into the lock. Finally Little Beaver has seen enough and comes in and punches Gang and the hold is broken, but this only buys Hillbilly a moment of rest as Gang is back on him with a test of strength that is draining his energy even more. And like before Little Beaver comes in and helps break up the move, Hillbilly makes a small comeback but soon is once more getting beaten up by Gang who is angered over the antics of Little Beaver. As the referee is distracted Slick as well now is cheating and landing cheap shots on the downed Hillbilly Jim. And after a few avalanche splashes and a falling elbow drop Gang goes for the pin, and once more Little Beaver enters the ring and breaks up the pin. Both men find themselves outside the ring fighting and with the help of Little Beaver One Man Gang is counted out and looses the match. After the match Gang beats up Hillbilly and then even big slashes Little Beaver. While this is a fun big man fight it’s also a very slow one as it has many long moments of rest holds and not a lot of even basic wrestling holds. While One Man Gang is shown to be the big threat and has Hillbilly Jim beaten down almost the whole match, it’s the comedy aspect of Little Beaver who keeps entering the ring and cheating right in front of the referee that will annoy almost an wrestling fan, in other words the over use Little Beaver in this already way to long match. While Gang looks good Hillbilly doesn’t, as he needs outside help to stay alive throughout the match. Over all a sluggish match with way to much interference from Little Beaver that brings the star rating down, but I do like in the end when Gang gets his revenge and crushes Little Beaver with a splash.

Grade: **

Match 4: Hillbilly Jim vs. Fuller Stevens

From the start Fuller Stevens tries to tackle Hillbilly Jim and learns that running into him is like hitting a brick wall as he crashes to the mat from the impact. Fuller then tries to body slam Hillbilly and cant, but Hillbilly slams him with ease. And from here on Hillbilly Jim toys with and beats up on Fuller Stevens who is angry that he looks like a total jobber. And after a big boot to the face Fuller falls to the mat and is pinned and this was a easy win for Hillbilly Jim! This is a total squash match as Fuller Stevens can not pull off one move and looks like a total jobber as he is thrown around, booted in the fast and then pinned without Jim even breaking a sweat. Not much to say besides Hillbilly Jim comes off looking great and strong as his opponent Fuller looks like a goof. And yes this match like most of Hillbilly Jim’s matches has a touch of humor.

Grade: **1/2

Hillbilly Jim was a perfect wrestler for the 80’s as he was a great sidekick to Hulk Hogan and was a wrestler that kids loved as he was a jolly mountain of a man who would dance around and do funny spots in his match. And while many of his matches was the same formula and even featured the same spots Hillbilly Jim is a true legend in and out of the sport. But as you can see the Rotten Ink Arena is closing down for the update so it’s our cue to head on out, but before we leave I would like to tell you that our next update will be our big Thanksgiving one and we will be having turkey with that B-Movie icon The Giant Gila Monster! So until next time, read a comic or three, watch a wrestling match or two and as always support your local wrestlers. See you next time for some Hot Rods and Big Creatures!

R.I.W Wrestling Legend: Kamala

Welcome back to the Rotten Ink Arena. As you can see, the Halloween decorations are hanging, the arena is packed to the rafters and the snack bar has candy corn, caramel apples and monster punch in stock as this “R.I.W Wrestling Legend” update will be all about our main event monster heel that was from the jungles of Uganda who gave the likes of Hulk Hogan, Kerry Von Erich, The Undertaker and Andre The Giant a run for their money throughout the 80’s and 90’s. A wrestler who was managed by the likes of Skandor Akbar, Freddie Blassie, Slick, Mr. Fuji, The Wizard and Kim Chee and by know I am sure you figured out that it’s Kamala we are talking about one of the best big men in the business and one heck of a monster heel who terrorized his opponents and fans alike as they were all unsure of what he was capable of! So let’s find our seats as this Halloween Countdown R.I.W event is in full swing, and let’s see what Kamala has in store for us this spooky holiday season.

Kamala started wrestling in 1978 and was trained by Bobo Brazil and Tim Hampton and would originally work under the name Sugar Bear Harris and would work the Southern territories and would also work in Germany and England and worked under names like Ugly Bear Harris, Big Jim Harris and The Mississippi Mauler. And in 1982 he would find himself in Continental Wrestling Association and here is were he would become Kamala a Ugandan headhunter and would be managed by JJ Dillon and would go after Jerry Lawler and his AWA Southern Heavyweight Title that he would win and hold for a small amount of time. Late 1982 he would leave Continental and would sign to Mid-South Wrestling and this time would be managed by Skandor Akbar and would be apart of the Devastation Inc. stable and would have a high profile match against Andre The Giant as well a Junkyard Dog. In Mid-South he would be one of the companies heel draws and would also scare younger fans as they thought he was going to get them as he played the Wildman part well and never broke character in public. In 1983 he would head to World Class Championship Wrestling in Texas and would even get a NWA World Heavyweight title shot against Harley Race and would have a long time feud with the Von Erich’s and would have big profile matches against Kerry, Kevin and David. And would even face The Great Kabuki at the David Von Erich Memorial Parade Of Champions in 1984. He would stay around in WCCW until 1985. But while a big heel and draw in WCCW he was still also working other territories and one being WWF were he would be built as a monster heel and would beat names like B. Brian Blair, Chief Jay Strongbow and Salvatore Bellomo and then would have a series of matches against Hulk Hogan for the WWF Heavyweight title! And after his run with Hogan he would have a feud with Andre The Giant and after a battle royal in late 1984 he would be done with the WWF for his first run. After WWF he would head to AWA and would be booked like always as a monster heel and would have matches against the likes of Sgt. Slaughter, Jerry Blackwell and Rick Martel. In 1985 Kamala would find himself working for Jim Crockett Promotions and would take on NWA United States Heavyweight Champion Magnum T.A., and from their he would have small runs in All Japan Pro Wrestling and International Wrestling from Canada.

In 1986 Kamala would return to WWF and would be managed by Kim Chee and The Wizard and once more was booked as a major monster heel and would once more go after Hulk Hogan for the WWF World Heavyweight title, and after not winning the title he would start a feud with Jake “The Snake” Roberts who found out Kamala had a fear of snakes. During 1987 The Wizard would sell Kamala’s contract to Mr. Fuji but shortly after this Kamala would leave the WWF once more. Starting in 1988 Kamala would once more work for WCCW and working with the Von Erich brothers and would stay until 1989 when the company would close for good. He would also head to All Japan again as well as would head to CMLL in Mexico and have big matches against Mil Mascaras, and would also work for other Japanese companies W*ING and Super World Of Sports. In 1990 he would work for USWA and once more would go after Jerry Lawler and this time would challenge him for the USWA Unified World Heavyweight title. Kamala would leave USWA in 1992 and would return to the WWF once more. Kamala would be managed by Kim Chee as well as Harvey Wippleman and would have big matehs against many of the companies top faces including Randy Savage, Ultimate Warrior, Bret Hart and Texas Tornado Kerry Von Erich. And would have many matches against The Undertaker and would even loose a Coffin Match to the dead man. In 1993 Kamala would turn baby face and would be managed by Reverend Slick who was trying to teach him the ways of the modern world and that kindness was the way. While a face he would have matches against the likes of Bam Bam Bigelow, Mr. Hughes, Kim Chee and Papa Shango. The WWF would start working Kamala mostly on house shows and then would let him go in late 1993. After this WWF run Kamala would go into semi-retirement and become a truck driver and would pick up Indie matches from time to time as well as matches for USWA and would even travel to India to tag with Dusty Wolfe to become the IAW Tag Team champs.

In 1995 Kamala was talked out of retirement and would head to WCW to become a member of the Hulk Hogan hating team “The Dungeon Of Doom” that would be lead by Kevin Sullivan and made up of wrestlers who’s sole purpose was to stop Hulkamania once and for all. Kamala would get wins in WCW over the likes of Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Chris Kanyon and after The Dungeon Of Doom would loose to Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage at Fall Brawl 1995 his small run with the company would be over. After leaving WCW Kamala would find himself back working Indies like USWA, JCW and would even work a few matches back in the WWF as at WWF WrestleMania X-7 in 2001 as apart of the gimmick battle royal and in 2005 on WWF Smackdown Kamala would have a match against Randy Orton. Kamala’s last match would be for JCW as he would team with The Weedman and he would retire from wrestling in 2010. After wrestling Kamala’s health would turn for the worse and he would battle complications from diabetes and would end up loosing his legs. Sadly in 2016 he would be one of many wrestlers on the class action lawsuit over head injuries that was thrown out in 2018 and hurt Kamala into getting into the WWF Hall Of Fame. In 2017 he had to have emergency surgery to clear fluid from around his heart and lungs and was even put on life support at the time, he would recover. Sadly on August 5, 2020 Kamala would pass away from Covid-19 and diabetes at the age of 70.

Kamala The Ugandan Giant is a wrestler that I have been a fan of sense I was a kid as he was a great big man wrestler who played his gimmick well and when he would pat his belly, groan and even made surprise faces he would make me mark out and even laugh at times when he would run away from things that scared him. Plus his matches against The Undertaker and Hulk Hogan always seemed larger then life and came off as big deal matches, and that’s one other thing I liked is when Kamala would face other similar themed wrestlers like Papa Shango, Andre The Giant, The Great Kabuki, Kendo Nagasaki, Bruiser Brody and George “The Animal” Steele to name a few. And one thing that I think people never gave Kamala credit for is the fact he was very agile for a man his size and was also pretty fast and would not tire as easy as many of the wrestling big men at the time. Plus he was a true journeyman of wrestling as he worked all over the world and for almost every big promotion from WWF to WCW and was a top draw and a star every territory he went and while he was a heel most of his career he could even pull off being a loved baby face. When I was younger I can remember classmates of mine who watched wrestling being scared of Kamala and talking about how he was a cannibal and a savage and to me that fear he struck them with showed that he was doing his job and was great at it. Kamala was also a wrestler who won very little titles during his run, but he never needed them in order to be a draw as his matches always seemed like an attraction and a belt around his waist was not needed. One thing that always annoyed me as well as a kid was all the Kamala knock-off wrestlers who would dress, act and even sometimes steal his name, and no matter how hard they tried none of them could hold a candle to the real Kamala. And while Kamala might be on the bad side of the WWF over joining that lawsuit, it’s a shame that they have not inducted him into their Hall Of Fame as he is one name that should have been in years ago. Say what you will, but for me Kamala The Ugandan Giant will always be one of my favorite wrestlers from the 80’s and was one heck of a heel who played his gimmick well and did his job putting butts in the seats and selling the tickets when his name was on the card.

We are now at the point of this review were we will be taking a look at the DVD set and review some of the matches on the discs like always between 4 to 8. I want to thank Coliseum Of Wrestling & Boxing for having this set in stock and also want to thank Kamala for his hard work in the world of wrestling. I also want to remind you that I will only be breaking down randomly select matches from this set and will be breaking down the match and will be rating the matches on a 5 Star rating system. I also only choose from Single matches, as I want to break down his matches that showcase his style. Here is what the stars mean ½ Means a really terrible match, * Means a bad match, ** Means a below average match, **1/2 Means a good average entertaining match, *** Means a good match, **** Means a great match, ***** Means an epic match. So if you are ready lets step into the ring with Kamala.

Best Of Kamala

Match 1: Kamala vs. El Silenico

As the bell rings Kamala goes after El Silenico and just starts hitting him with massive chops to the top of his masked head. Kamala then body slams him and just stays on him not allowing El Silenico to even try and make a comeback. Kamala knocks Silenico to the mat and delivers a series of big splashes to his back, crushing the masked man. He then goes for the pin and gets it. After the match Kamala goes after the mask of El Silenico and gets it off and takes it almost as if it was a trophy. This was a total squash match as El Silenico was there to get beat up by Kamala and in the end even get damasked. Kamala hits big power moves in the match with his chops and splashes being his trademark moves that seem to almost frighten the fans at ringside. El Silenico is a total jobber who does not even get one move off in the match and just gets beaten up and pinned. Over all a good squash match as it did its job to build Kamala up as a monster heel and a major threat to any baby face.

Grade: **1/2

Match 2: Kamala vs. King Cobra

As the bell rings Kamala charges Cobra who dodges his attack twice and even is able to land a dropkick that stumbles the big man. King Cobra tries to unload some punches on Kamala and he shakes it off and gets his hands on him and the beating starts. Kamala lands some of his big chops to the top of King Cobra’s skull hurting him and knocks him to the mat and starts choking him. And as Cobra’s on the mat Kamala lands a series of big splashes and goes for the pin and gets the three count and the win. While this is another quick squash match at least King Cobra tries to fight back and is able to land a few dropkicks that staggered Kamala and is even able to land a few punches even if they had no effect. Plus for enhancement talent you could see that King Cobra was a skilled worker even if he was paid to loose. Kamala like always comes off as a great monster heel as he hits big power moves and shrugs off the attack from his opponent. His splashes look like a finishing move and his aggressive in ring work really does make him a big threat. Over all a great quick squash match that helped build Kamala as a big star.

Grade: **1/2

Match 3: Kamala vs. Hulk Hogan

The start the match off running the ropes and bumping into each other in the middle of the ring and neither man budges, they do this a couple of times and its Kamala who ends up knocking down The Hulkster. The two lock up and Hogan does for a body slam but he is cut off by Kamala who clubs him in the back causing him to drop him and not land the slam and this allows Kamala to use his chops and clubbing hits to keep Hogan down. But Hogan is not down for long as he pops up from the mat and starts landing his big punches on Kamala, but when Hogan is distracted by Kamala’s manager he looses the momentum of the match as Kamala attacks him from behind and get a nerve hold on Hogan that takes him down to the mat. Kamala then breaks the hold and hits a big splash, and Hogan kicks out at one, Kamala keeps on attacking that is until Hogan starts Hulking Up and takes the fight to Kamala and lands a big boot, a body slam and the atomic leg drop! Hogan goes for the pin and gets the three count as well as the win. This is your normal 80’s Hulk Hogan wrestling a big monster heel match that has Hogan selling for the heel only to comeback from the beating and land his finishing move the leg drop and get the victory all the while the fans are loosing their minds as Hulk Hogan was the biggest thing in the world of wrestling. And that’s the thing while Hogan gets the win and at one point when he Hulks Up he no sells for Kamala he still makes the big man look great throughout the match and sells well for him. While the match is very paint by numbers and when I says it’s your normal Hogan match during this time I mean it. Best way to sum this match up is big moves, monster crow pops and Kamala getting a match with the world’s biggest superstar makes this a pretty good entertaining match.

Grade: ***

Match 4: Kamala vs. Yokozunna

This is a battle of two big men and when the bell rings the two charge and crash into each other with neither man moving, but Yoko is a little rocked as Kamala watches the big sumo wrestler rock on his feet, the two crash again and Yoko once more gets rocked and when he tries to hit Kamala he is able to dodge and kick Yoko in the gut. Kamala then uses his chops to attack Yoko who is still feeling the effects of the kick, but Yoko turns the tide when he uses a cheap shot to the throat of Kamala and then starts dealing out his own punishment and even knocks Kamala off his feet. Kamala is able to make a small comeback using his chops to Yoko’s head, but Yoko takes back over with a big splash in the corner and then lands the Banzai Drop and gets the pin and the win. This is a good match that was really just an enhancement match as Kamala was feed to Yokozuna who was the companies biggest heel at the time and it made sense to have him win the match as he was about to have a big match against Hulk Hogan and at this point Kamala was not being pushed at a big superstar. The match is pretty much just big man moves with both men selling for each other and making each other look good, and the fans are behind Kamala who was a baby face at the time. Yokozuna you can tell had respect for Kamala and he does a good job of not making this look like a squash match. And the Banzai Drop looks painful and Kamala sells the effects really good after the match. While the match is nothing special it does have a good pace and was a almost passing of the torch of monster heels. Also it was cool to see Mr. Fuji around as he was the manager of Yokozuna at this time and in the 80’s he managed Kamala.

Grade: **1/2

Match 5: Kamala vs. The Undertaker

As the bell rings Kamala rushes The Undertaker and it was a big mistake as Taker starts landing big shots on him causing him to fall back into the corner and starts choking him. The Undertaker then walks the rope “Old School” and works on the arm of Kamala and keeps up his attack, and at this point Kamala has not be able to get the match momentum going his way that is until he knocks Taker off the top rope. Kamala then starts landing some chops and punches of his own and knocks Undertaker out of the ring, Taker then goes after Kamala’s managers and this causes him to have to exit the ring to save them and Kamala starts beating up Taker around the ringside. Once back in the ring The Undertaker hits Kamala with a choke slam and a flying clothesline and just as he is about to get Kamala in the Tombstone Piledriver one of his managers Kim Chee jumps into the ring and strikes The Undertaker causing the match to be thrown out and The Undertaker wins by DQ. After the match Kamala attacks The Undertaker and hits him with big splashes and when The Undertaker sits up after the attack Kamala gets scared and runs away. This is a great match that features two of the WWF’s best monster style gimmicks against each other in a match that is big man paced and showcases the classic slow moving Undertaker style. And while the match is short under four minutes neither guy looks weak with both having moments to shine and each are able to hit some of their trademark moves. And the stuff after the match that has Kamala beating down The Undertaker and then being scared when the Dead Man sits up is classic Kamala stuff as he gets scared and runs away. While the matches end is a let down as it was a DQ I do understand why as they seen more life in the feud and wanted both men to come out with neither having a pin loss to the other. Great stuff if you are a fan of classic Undertaker matches and if you like the style of Kamala at this stage of his career, and keep in mind this match is not for everyone as it is very slow paced and is a typical big man match from the early 90’s, but I for one enjoyed it.

Grade: **1/2

Match 6: Kamala vs. Tito Santana

Kamala charges Tito as the bell rings but cannot catch him, as he is much faster and is able to dodge his attack, and even when Kamala is able to get his hands on him he is able to use his speed to get away. Tito is able to get Kamala in an arm bar and when the big man gets out of it Tito is able to land some big punches to his head and rocks him for a few moments and allows Tito to get the arm bar back on. Kamala breaks free and misses a big splash and this gives Tito a chance to once more lock in the arm bar. But Kamala is able to take the momentum of the match and starts using his chops to break down Tito and even locks in a massive bear hug that crushes the life out of Tito. Once out of the bear hug Tito tries to make a comeback but it is cut off by Kamala who uses a kick to the face to knock Tito down and then as he is going to big splash for the win he sees The Undertakers manager Paul Bearer wheel down a casket and this causes him to run away from the ring and get counted out, giving Tito the win. This match is filled with lots of rest holds as arm bars and a over long held bear hug brings down the pace of the match and it’s a shame as both super stars are way more skilled then what they show in this match. And the ending of Kamala getting counted out by running into the crowd to escape the casket also does not help the match that was already not that great due to all the rest holds. Kamala does well in the match but does not shine like he normally does, and while Tito Santana starts off with quick moves he quickly falls into using the arm bar for way to long multiple times. Not much to really say about this one besides it was kind of a letdown as I am a big fan of both superstars and they just did not have a good match, and more the most part the crowd as well seemed really dead for this one.

Grade: **

Match 7: Kamala vs. Great Kabuki

As the bell rings Kabuki spits the green mist into the air and Kamala looks unsure of what he has just seen, and as the two lock up its Kamala that gets the upper hand and starts hitting him with big chops. Kamala then grabs Kabuki by his neck and lifts him in the air chocking him and causes Kabuki to spew the green mist and this makes Kamala let him go. But Kamala stays on the attack but Kabuki is able to fight back with a spinning kick to his gut and then to the chin knocking the big man down. The two end up locking up in a test of strength that Kamala wins and turns it into a bear hug on Kabuki and holds the move on tight, and Kanuki is only able to escape when he chops the ears of Kamala at the same time. The two end up trading blows until Kamala once more goes for a nerve hold that takes Kabuki down to the mat. Kabuki is able to use his speed and kicks to escape and land some movies on Kamala hurting the big man. The two once more trade punches back and fourth and Kabuki is able to land a good kick to Kamala’s face rocking him and just then both wrestlers managers (Skandor Akbar and Gary Hart) enter the ring and the match is a double DQ. This was a really good match between two great “monster heel” wrestlers one who uses power moves and one who uses quickness and martial arts and their styles worked well together. Kamala uses his power to try and ground Kabuki and does a great job at keeping his kicks and green mist at bay. While Kabuki uses his kicks to rock and hurt his bigger opponent, and his quick kicks to Kamala’s face are awesome and look good. The crowd is clearly on the side of Kabuki for the match as they pop for some of his moves and in the end when he gets the last shot in the match. The downside is that the match does not have a winner as the managers entering the ring cause it to be thrown out and that stinks, as is the fact they have Gary Hart get a few kicks off on Kamala. A good match for sure that is ruined by a bad finish.

Grade: ***

Match 8: Kamala vs. Andre The Giant

Kamala attacks Andre right as he is entering the ring and is landing big chops to the giant’s skull, and Andre starts fighting back with big chops of his own across the chest of Kamala. Andre then hits a big headbutt that dazes Kamala who exits the ring and does not want to get back in with the angry giant, and when he finally gets back in the ring he second guesses himself and gets right back out. Kamala finally gets the courage and gets back in the ring only to be choked by Andre as well as clubbed on with his massive fists. Kamala once more flees the ring in pain, and when back in the ring Andre continues to beat up on Kamala even landing a big boot to his face. But Kamala is able to make a comeback when he starts landing his chops to the top of Andre’s skull once more knocking the giant into the ropes and causing him to get his arms tangled and this allows Kamala to really unload on him. Once free Andre uses the ropes to choke Kamala and give himself a moment to catch his breath. Andre once more starts beating up on Kamala who once more gets out of the ring and has to be forced back into the ring by his managers. Andre beats Kamala in a test of strength and then steeps on his toes with all his weight, Andre then gets Kamala into the corner and crushes him with his size and weight. Kamala is in trouble and his managers know it so they enter the ring and attack Andre and get Kamala disqualified and this gives Andre The Giant the win. This is a true battle of the Big Men and Andre being the biggest as he even makes Kamala look small! The match is your normal big man fight with no technical moves used and it was all big man brawling power moves that the two threw at each other. Both men look great in the match with Andre of course coming off the stronger of the two and he was being showcased as the man who made Kamala even afraid due to his massive size and power. Andre is slow moving in the match as Kamala is the one who does lots of the bumps and work in the match, and what is really surprising while they took lots of breaks in the Kamala out of the ring bits they did not over use rest holds. And while Andre is clearly the one being pushed in the match they do a great job of still making Kamala look strong and this is a time when a DQ finish is needed so neither man has to take a pin or submission loss. Over all a slow brawl that has two giant going to war with each other and is a good entertaining match that Kamala really does shine in by making Andre look even better in the ring.

Grade: ***

Kamala really was one of my favorite wrestlers growing up and was one that I knew I had to cover on one of these “R.I.W Wrestling Legend” updates as I had to share is story and matches with you readers and friends. As you can see, he was a wrestler who could work his gimmick and have some good to great matches with many of the times top wrestlers. But as you can see, the lights are going out and the clean up crew is coming out here at the Rotten Ink Arena and the staff knows that I could talk Kamala for many more paragraphs, but I won’t as I am sure they are wanting to leave and you guys as well have things to do, so as we make our way to the exit I would like to take a few moments to let you know that the next update will be another spooky themed one as our Countdown to Halloween continues with a look at a Horror Host that made his home in the basement of the Grand Ole Opry House and I am talking about Sir Cecil Creape! So until next time read a comic or three, watch a wrestling match or two and as always support your local wrestlers. So you next time for a spooky good time.

R.I.W Wrestling Legend: Yeti (AAA)

Welcome back to the Rotten Ink Arena. As you can see, the doors are open and this is a very special “R.I.W Wrestling Legend” update as this one is a part of our countdown to Halloween 2023 and the arena is filled with cool terrifying decorations and the snack bar has Baron Von Porkchop Pizza via the Pizza Bandit for sale. For those wondering it has bacon, salted peanuts, provolone cheese, apple butter sauce and candy corn on it! And today’s headliner is a Luchador who worked under many different gimmicks, several of them being Horror themed. The one we will be looking at is Yeti who worked for AAA in the early 90’s. And during the late 80’s and early 90’s Mexico was filled with amazing monster themed wrestlers who brought the fear as well as the action to the rings. Well a chill has filled the air and I can hear the music starting, so let’s grab a slice of pizza and a Witch’s Punch to drink and find our seats as this one is going to be a spooky good time.

Masakre started his pro wrestling career in 1983 and worked the indies in Mexico and very quickly would find himself working for CMLL and would also work under the name MS-2 and was paired with MS-1 and the two were a very popular team. He would then go on to join the group Los Infernales and with MS-1 and El Satanico and during this time as well he would win the Mexican National Tag Team Belts and would keep them until around 1988. The group would split and Masakre would feud with MS-1 and this would end in a hair vs. hair match and Masakre would lose, but this would lead him into join the group Los Intocables with Pierroth Jr. and Jaque Mate. And these three would win the CMLL World Trios Belts. For a brief time from 1993 to 1994 Masakre was the booker for CMLL, but things turned sour between he and the company and he would leave them by 1994. During his time in CMLL he would have some big matches against such names as Lizmark, Atlantis, El Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Villano III, Blue Demon Jr., El Texano, El Dandy, Konan and Vampiro to name a very few. Masakre built his name in CMLL and was considered a great worker and would be apart of very big and entertaining matches. And for those wondering Masarke would lose his mask in a match in the early 80’s to Kiss (who was based around the band Kiss).

In 1994 Masakre would head to AAA and would become the vampire Luchador named Drakula who was a feared Rudo who would team with the likes of El Hijo del Espectro, Karis La Momia and Quasimodo. And while Drakula was not a main eventer, he did work some matches with some big stars like El Hijo del Santo and La Parka. But in 1995 Drakula was no more and in his place was Yeti, a white furry suited monster and a masked Luchador who rampaged throughout AAA and was an odd attraction in Lucha Libre for the time as the fans did not know what to make of this superstar. Yeti would mostly be involved in trios matches and would not make his way to the main event or even title shots. The Yeti would stick around AAA until around 1997 and would find himself mostly on the losing end of matches. During his run Yeti would work matches against Perro Aguayo, Cibernetico, Tinieblas Jr., Super Calo, Heavy Metal and El Pantera. And just as fast as he came Yeti was gone and no one knows really what Masakre did for a few years but in 2000-2004 he would work as a evil clown gimmick called Coco Rosa for both AAA as well as the Indies in Mexico, and he is said to have worked as Yeti, MS-2 and Masakre in the indies around this time as well. But sadly in 2012 Masakre would pass away on April 12 at the age of 57 from cancer. While he was never the main star for CMLL or AAA, he was still a well respected Luchador who worked under many masks and gimmicks in order to entertain and along his journey in the ring he was able to at least capture some tag team titles.

Masakre was a wrestler that I knew more as Drakula as I can remember seeing some of his matches on grey market tapes as well as later on sites like YouTube and I truly enjoyed the monster themed Luchador. In fact I am also positive that I had seen him on a mix tape that had weird clips cut together from back in the early 2000’s. While I do think his work as Drakula is great and showcased his in-ring skill for me, his short time as Yeti is what stands out as the fuzzy bodysuit, the strange looking mask with blood red teeth makes you do a double take and wonder what this brawling monster was all about. And while it must have been really hard to work in that costume and mask, somehow Masakre made it work and was able to work the gimmick well. From what I have seen and read Yeti did not go over very well with the fans as well as his fellow Luchadors as many felt he was way to cartoonish and the gimmicks and costumes made for many limitations during the matches featuring them. Over the years many also have complained about the monster themed wrestlers being featured in the early days of AAA and did not understand why then owner and booker Antonio Pena would heavily feature them on the TV Shows, live events and “Pay Per View” events, and it’s simple as Horror was very big in Mexico at the time and Pena himself came from a legacy of Horror Themed Luchadors with he himself working as Espectro Jr. and his father being Ponzona and his uncle being the original Espectro. And what is cool also about Masakre is that he would change with time and would work as many different wrestlers both masked and unmasked and would also work for both CMLL and AAA and would be a part of Mexico’s Horror Luchador legacy.

We are now at the point of this review where we will be taking a look at the DVD set and review some of the matches on the discs like always between 4 to 8. Sadly I only have one match to cover for this “R.I.W Wrestling Legend” update. I want to thank B-Videos 101 for having this set in stock and also want to thank Yeti for his hard work in the world of wrestling. I also want to remind you that I will only be breaking down randomly select matches from this set and will be breaking down the match and will be rating the matches on a 5 Star rating system. I also only choose from Single matches, as I want to break down his matches that showcase his style. Here is what the stars mean ½ Means a really terrible match, * Means a bad match, ** Means a below average match, **1/2 Means a good average entertaining match, *** Means a good match, **** Means a great match, ***** Means an epic match. So if you are ready, let’s step into the ring with Yeti. Oh and I also need to alert you that this match is also a Six Man Tag Team match so it will be a little different than our normal R.I.W Wrestling Legend update.

Best Of Yeti

Match 1: Yeti & Karis la Momia & Espectro vs. Principe Zafiro & Torero & Ludxor

Before the bell even rings, Yeti and his teammates attack their opponents with Yeti going after Ludxor and even hits a spinning kick to his gut. Yeti then knocks Ludxor out of the ring and continues his attack outside with ramming his head into the steel post and then does it again as the fans are going wild as the Rudos keep up their attack. As the match goes on, Yeti attacks those who fall outside the ring and unleashes a series of hits on Principe Zafiro as his teammates watch the monster attack. Once back in the ring Principe Zafiro is attacked by Karis and Epesctro and a few moments later Yeti as they stomp him into the mat. The Yeti then gets back out of the ring and once more goes on the attack of Ludxor by ramming him into the railing as Karis tosses Torero into the fans, while in the ring Espectro keeps up his attack on Principe hitting a leaping leg drop to the back of his neck and knocking him hard to the mat. After a few moments all six men once more start brawling with each other with Yeti once more going after Ludxor and he and Karis even land a couple of double team moves on the injured Tecnico. And with that, the Rudos keep up their attack and for some reason it appears that the referee gives Ludxor and his teammates the first win and the Rudos just keep up their attack as Yeti just stands on Torero in the corner. And then Yeti once more exits the ring and goes after Ludxor even starts to choke him with a chair and places it around his neck and drags him around outside the ring and then once more starts ramming his head into the steel posts. The Yeti then joins Karis and Espectro in the ring and they all start beating up on Principe Zafiro but he is saved when Torero enters the ring and goes after Yeti and rams his head into the turnbuckle dazing the furry Rudo. But Karis saves him and once they toss Torero out of the ring they join Espectro once more in beating up Principe. All men once more are in the ring and Yeti hits a cannon ball on Ludxor, but this just fires him up as Ludxor then grabs a chair from outside the ring and bashes it over the head of the Yeti. In the end Espectro uses a chair in the ring on the head of Principe and the referees give the second win to the Tecnicos and they win the match, but the Rudos keep up the attack even after the bell. This six man tag match is crazy and is all over the place as its clearly a tornado tag as all six guys are battling all in and around the ring with our boy Yeti going crazy on Ludxor almost the whole match as he lands a few cannon balls, stomps, punches and chair attacks throughout it. It’s clear that he was not doing any truly high flying moves as he was more of a brawler then a flyer. The main workers of the match as Espectro and Principe Zafiro who work well together and work hard with Espectro doing some pretty cool moves. Yeti also takes a pretty stiff chair shot in this match that looks like it might have staggered him for a moment, but I have to give him credit as he fought on. While this match was chaos it was very entertaining and I feel that Yeti did a great job in the match as his brawling style was needed to make moves look impactful and to help toss and drag around his opponents, plus he was part of a couple double team moves that looked impressive over all a good solid match featuring mid-carders from AAA at that time. On a side note I would like to see some more matches featuring Principe Zafiro and maybe do an update on him.

Grade: **1/2

As you can see, Yeti was by no means a high flyer and while he would do some basic aerial moves, he was mostly a brawler who enjoyed beating his opponents up. And you had to feel for him in that suit as you know that he had to be burning up as most of those arenas he worked did not have air conditioning and the temperatures had to be super high. And with that it looks like Xmortis has turned on the house lights and Mr. X is bringing out the push broom so that is our sign that this event update has came to an end, and before we make our way out I would like to say that I hope in the future I am able to hunt down some more matches of the Yeti and will add them to this very update if I do and I would also like to tell you that our next update will bring us to the land of Horror Movies as we will be heading to Stanley Hotel and be chatting with Jack about axes, that’s right we will be talking about The Shinning! So until next time, read a comic or three, watch a wrestling match or two and as always support your local Wrestlers. See you next update as we kick off October 2023 right!

R.I.W. Wrestling Legend: Bobo Brazil

Welcome back to Rotten Ink as well as the Rotten Ink Arena. As you can see, it’s another sell out house as fans have come from all over the world to see this “R.I.W Wrestling Legend” in action as he is a trailblazer and one of the biggest African American Superstars in the world of wrestling, a man who paved the way for many who followed in his footsteps. Of course this wrestling icon is Bobo Brazil, a man who worked for decades and was a huge draw for every promotion he worked for. So let’s head to the snack bar and grab a beverage and some popcorn and find our seats as I think this update event is going to be a great one.

Bobo Brazil started his pro wrestling career in 1951 and was trained by Joe Savoldi and would spend time working in Canada for MLW and was a big star from the start as people paid to watch him. He was a baby face that all races got behind. But before this run in MLW, he did have a few matches in small territories starting in the late 1940’s. Bobo would travel around the NWA territories and would wind up working for such companies as AWA, MLW, NWA St. Louis, CSW, WWF and many more and every place he worked, he was a big draw and would be placed in high profile matches and even at this time when racial tensions were still a thing, Bobo was so good that white wrestlers wanted to get into the ring with him as they knew they would have a great match as well as a big gate which meant a good payday. During the 1950’s and 1960’s, he would have matches against such names as Firpo Zbyszko, Yukon Eric, Great Togo, Killer Kowalski, Gorgeous George, Lou Thesz, Hans Schmidt, Mike Sharpe, John Tolos, The Sheik, Ernie Ladd and so many more. And also during this time Bobo would cement himself as being a main eventer both as in singles and as a tag team worker. And during this time as well Bobo would start winning belts including the WWF United States Title and would become one of the biggest baby faces in wrestling as fans got behind him as he worked big matches. And he would spend much of the 1960’s in matches against and for The Sheik and his Big Time Wrestling (BTW) promotion. And in the late 60’s, he would find himself in matches in Japan against Giant Baba among many other top stars. From the start of his career Bobo was a natural and a true wrestling star.

In the 1970’s Bobo continued his success and continued being a journeyman working for the NWA Territories in America and Canada. At this time he would also wrestle in Japan but it was clear that Big Time Wrestling was his home base as he worked many top matches for the promotion. And in 1973 he had a small run in All Japan Pro Wrestling and also started taking more work in the WWF, all the while still having small runs in other promotions like the AWA, but during the 70’s he would also fully become a huge star in Japan as he would be brought over for many tours and always found himself in main and big attraction matches. And starting in the 1980’s he still working hard and traveling, and while he found himself losing  more matches, he still was always brought in as a main eventer and both fans and promoters respected his work. And in 1984 his last big run took place as he worked for the WWF and would have matches with such names as Roddy Pipper, Mr. Fuji, Greg Valentine, Big John Studd and Bob Orton. He would work for a few indies as well as once more would appear for WWF in 1987 as part of a Battle Royal at a house show that featured all legends including names like Killer Kowalski, Nick Bockwinkel, Chief Jay Strongbow and Sailor Art Thomas. Bobo Brazil would retire from wrestling in 1993 and in 1994 he would be inducted into the WWF Hall Of Fame. Bobo also ran a restaurant called “Bobo’s Grill” and it was in business for over 20 years, but sadly on January 20, 1998 Bobo passed away at the age of 73 after suffering a series of strokes. Even after his passing the legacy of Bobo Brazil lives on in the sport of wrestling and still to this day he is talked about fondly from fans and fellow workers.

Bobo Brazil is a true legend and icon in the world of Pro Wrestling and is a wrestler that I have been a fan of since I started watching wrestling as I can remember reading about him in the magazines as well as books and he always just seemed like a main event star even in his old age. And when you think about it, Bobo has wrestled almost every big name that worked in the 1960’s all the way to early 1990’s and worked in almost every big promotion going from the NWA-WWF and was a huge star in each and every one of them, and to be fair Bobo Brazil was really the first African American to win the NWA Heavyweight Title (before Ron Simmons who is credited as the first) as they did an angle that had Bobo win the title after an accidental low blow and he refused to win the belt that way and would lose in the rematch against Buddy Rogers. The thing about Bobo is that he was a great worker in the ring and his moves looked great and impactful and he turned a normal head butt into an opponent feared and crowd-popping move he would call the Coco Butt and when he would land them they looked like he was about to cave in the skull of the heel and truly the fans would cheer to see this. I would love for you readers to go and read more about Bobo and even look up some of his matches on YouTube as while I am proud of this update it does not fully do justice to this man’s career. And you cannot downplay how much of a positive impact he also had in the world of wrestling when it comes to African America superstars, and he really did break down race issues in the sport when he started. He was a trailblazer and a superstar that proved wrestling is for everyone no matter what their race, religious beliefs and gender is…in other words, wrestling is awesome.

We are now at the point of this review were we will be taking a look at the DVD set and review some of the matches on the discs like always between 4 to 8. I want to thank Coliseum Of Wrestling & Boxing for having this set in stock and also want to thank Bobo Brazil for his hard work in the world of wrestling. I also want to remind you that I will only be breaking down randomly select matches from this set and will be breaking down the match and will be rating the matches on a 5 Star rating system. I also only choose from Single matches, as I want to break down his matches that showcase his style. Here is what the stars mean ½ Means a really terrible match, * Means a bad match, ** Means a below average match, **1/2 Means a good average entertaining match, *** Means a good match, **** Means a great match, ***** Means an epic match. So if you are ready let’s step into the ring with Bobo Brazil.

Best Of Bobo Brazil

Match 1: Bobo Brazil vs. Moose Cholak

This is two out of three falls match and as the bell rings the two lock up and Bono shows that he is the stronger of the two as he backs him into the corner, but quickly Moose and Bobo end up trading punches and each get the upper hand as they just really start brawling. Finally Bobo takes Moose down and starts working on his face trying to crush it, but Moose is able to break free and land some big hits on his opponent before Bobo once more takes over and starts putting pressure on Moose’s face. But Moose then gets free and starts landing some head butts that rock Bobo who in turn lands one of his own. Moose is finally able to shoot in and take down Bobo and starts working on his leg, but when Bobo breaks the hold he returns the favor and works over the arm of Moose. But after going back and fourth Moose ends up getting the pin and the first fall after a big splash. As soon as the second round begins the two start throwing punches again and exchanging holds and after a back flip Bobo gets the second fall by pin. The third fall starts with Moose being aggressive and even getting a wrist lock on Bobo and then locks him in leg scissors keeping him on the mat and trying to drain his energy. But once Bobo is back up he starts beating the heck out of Moose and the two go back and fourth again trading holds and hits. But the third fall goes to a time limit draw making the whole match end in one as each man had one fall each. This was a pure hoss fight and had two big men just brawling and exchanging hits and holds as the live crowd loved every second and clearly they wanted Bobo Brazil to win the match. Both men looked good throughout the three falls and they both sold for each other well with them also playing the gimmick of Moose wearing headgear to protect himself from Bobo’s famous head butts. Very good old school match and Bobo looks great in the match and his Coco Butts are awesome and I think ending the match was a good idea as they could get more matches out of this feud.

Grade: ***

Match 2: Bobo Brazil vs. David Price

As the bell rings the two lock up and Bobo shows that he is stronger and backs David into the ropes and from there lands some chops and moves that keeps David injured and with no momentum. Bobo locks in a chin lock and David is clearly in trouble, but racks the eyes of Bobo and continues to do so to keep the stronger man blinded. David’s attack does not last long as Bobo regains the match and floors David with an elbow and a knee lift and then Bobo starts working over his arm and it’s clear that David is just no match for Bobo as every time he tries to make a comeback its cut off and Bobo just makes him pay for it landing big hits and powerful moves. But David will bot give up as Bobo hits two side suplexes and each time he kicks out of the pin attempt, but when Bobo hits the Coco Butt he is able to keep David down for the pin. This is pretty much a one sided match that shows the power and skill of Bobo Brazil who dominates most of the match and lands some big hits and even uses his Coco Butt to keep his opponent down, and while it is one sided for the most part it is nice to see Bobo sell and let David Price at least attempt to turn the tide several times throughout. And I had to pop when Bobo busted out his finisher the Coco Butt to put his opponent away. Over all a good TV Match that pitted a legend against a young enhancement talent.

Match: **1/2

Match 3: Bobo Brazil vs. Ric Flair

From the start Flair does not want to lock up with Bobo and when he finally does he is able to back Bobo into the corner, and does so again before Bobo has had enough and unloads some punches on Flair who tries to get away and finally Flair gets out of the ring in order to get his barring’s. Once back in the ring Flair finds himself in a headlock, Flair breaks the hold with a punch to the gut and then throws Bobo into the ropes but instead of getting the match going his way he ends up eating a dropkick from Bobo and gets placed in a headlock again. Flair breaks the hold this time by hitting Bobo in the gut and both men are hurt, Flair drops a knee on the head of Bobo and injuries himself and this allows Bobo to regain the momentum and even hits a Coco Butt knocking Flair out of the ring. Once back in Flair takes back over with some punches and then keeps Bobo on the mat working on his arm as the fans are starting to get mad as Flair keeps injuring his arm, and even hits a big standing suplex and is unable to get a pin. Flair then body slams Bobo and goes to the top rope and takes to long as Bobo is able to get up and toss Flair across the ring. Bobo then goes on a move and punches rampage trying to keep Flair down, and finally Bobo is able to get the three count and wins by pin. This match has some parts missing as you can tell its via the master tape, but for the most part its all there and is a good match between Bobo and Flair that does a great job of building up Bobo as a massive Baby Face and that Flair is a Heel who tries his best to cheat to win. Both wrestlers look great in the match and Flair hits all of his trademark moves and bumps and the live fans was very much into the match. And Flair’s selling for Bobo’s Coco Butt is top notch as he flops himself out of the ring. Over all a good match and I wish the master tape flaws were fixed but over all very cool match and shows just how big of a star Bobo Brazil was in wrestling as he gets a pinfall win over Ric Flair.

Grade: ***1/2

Match 4: Bobo Brazil vs. Killer Karl Kox

As soon as the bell rings Bobo goes right after Kox with punches and even some Coco Butts and then whips him into the turnbuckles knocking him silly, it’s clear that Bobo does not like Kox and wants to hurt him before bringing an end to the match. Kox roles out of the ring as his bell has been rung by the turnbuckles and he needs a break, and out of anger Kox starts throwing chairs into the ring. Once back in the ring Kox cheats and pokes Bobo in the eyes and lands some massive punches, but he makes a mistake when he rolls out of the ring to grab a chair that allows Bobo to recover and atomic drop Kox on the chair, Bobo then hits Kox over the head with the chair. Bobo then lands a series of Coco Butts on Kox who is out on his feet swing wildly at the air. Bobo then starts choking Kox on the top rope and unloading more big hits on him, but Kox makes a comeback and hits a brainbuster on Bobo but only gets a two count. The two exchange hits and finally Bobo snaps and pushes the referee and lands a series of big Coco Butts on Kox who is really dazed, and the match is ruled a DQ win for Killer Karl Kox. This match is a brawl and a grudge match as it’s clear that both of these men do not like each other and just want to destroy one another and break the rules, cheat and in the end Bobo’s anger even gets him to loose the match. Bobo looks great in the match and his moves look impactful and he does a great job of selling for his opponent as well, and I like that Bobo even uses a metal chair in the match to try and scramble the brain of his opponent. Killer Karl Kox is a heat magnet and the fans hate him and so want to see him get beat up and hate when he wins the match, and while he is a great worker the only thing that I was against is how many Coco Butts he would take before he would hit the mat as it was almost as if he was downplaying the move at times. Over all this was great match that was clearly just a big brawl between two big names in wrestling at the time with one being loved and the other being hated.

Grade: **1/2

Match 5: Bobo Brazil vs. Crusher Blackwell

As the bell rings Blackwell refuses to lock up and makes the referee get Bobo away from him as he goes to the ropes, but once they do lock up Bobo is shown to be the stronger of the two. But Blackwell cheats and get the upper hand and even starts choking Bobo behind the referee’s back, but even when caught Blackwell keeps up the attack of choking, punching and even biting Bobo while he is down and injured. And even when Bobo tries to get up he is hit back down with clubbing smashes from Blackwell who has dominated the match this far. But when Bobo gets fired up he goes on the attack and smashes and rams Blackwell’s face into the turnbuckle and keeps ripping at his nose. Bobo gets Blackwell to the mat after beating up on him and places him into a sleeper hold, and once he lets go Bobo goes for the pin and gets a 2.5 before Blackwell kicks out. Blackwell then cheats and hits Bobo with a foreign object and then once more hammers away at the now groggy Bobo as well goes back to chocking him. But Bobo makes a comeback and lands a Coco Butt that floors Blackwell and Bobo is able to get the win via pin. This is a pretty slow paced match as it is clear that Bobo was working around the limitations of Blackwell as this match is filled with rest holds and just brawling moves over and over again as far as the action goes. The match goes back and fourth with lots of clubbing style smashes going on before Bobo ends the thing with his famous Coco Butt that makes Blackwell fall over like a chopped down tree. Blackwell is a good heel in the match as he cheats several times and the fans seem to dislike him, even though honestly they seem a little more quiet in this match then your normal Madison Squared Garden fans and only really come alive when Bobo lands his finishing move and gets the win, I am guessing they just could not get behind this brawling slow paced match. Over all it was entertaining but is one of the more lackluster matches on this set.

Grade: **1/2

Match 6: Bobo Brazil vs. Doug Gilbert

Doug attacks Bobo before he can fully get into the ring and as the announcer is given names, but once the bell rings Bobo goes crazy and starts smashing Doug who he has now forced into the ropes by his face and even Doug’s attempt at a comeback falls short as he backs away from the charging Bobo who hits two Coco Butts that cause Doug to fall out of the ring and he gives up and walks to the back as he has had enough and gets counted out and Bobo wins the match. This is a very quick pretty much squash match that has heel Doug Gilbert attacking Bobo before the match and ends up paying for it with a one sided butt kicking before running out of the match and causing himself to loose. Bobo looks like a true superstar as he beats the heck out of Doug and the fans are cheering for him like crazy, and of course his Coco Butts as always look good. Doug Gilbert does not get much time to shine and comes off as a very low carder as he does one of the biggest chicken shit heel moves of all time and that’s running for the match he is loosing. Over all a fun squash match that does a good job of showing why Bobo was a superstar and a draw.

Grade: ** 1/2

Match 7: Bobo Brazil vs. Big John Studd

As Studd pushes Bobo into the corner he shows that he is the stronger of the two, but Bobo unleashes some punches and this backs Studd into the opposite corner. The two exchange punches and Bobo even rams Studd chest first into the turnbuckle a few times hurting the big man. Studd fights back and even locks in the bear hug, but Bobo reverses the hold and locks in his own bear hug before Studd breaks it with an eye rack. Bobo then turns up the heat and lands a Coco Butt that knocks Studd off his feet and causes him to even roll out of the ring to shake off the effects. Once back in Studd and Bobo once more exchange hits and holds with Bobo hitting two Coco Butts, but Studd ends the match when he drops an elbow on Bobo and gets this win via pin. This was a great big man fight as both hit big punches, do some powerful moves on one another to try and get the advantage and win the match. Big John Studd even works in his bear hug and sells really well for Bobo and both look really great in the match. Bobo has the fans on his side and they pop every time he makes a comeback and really erupt when he hits his classic head butts. The match is very much a powerbase match and is more slow in pace, but it had the big match feel and both guys worked really well together and I for one enjoyed it lots as both wrestlers I am fans of.

Grade: ***1/2

Bobo Brazil is one of the all time greats when in comes to Pro Wrestling and over the decades he still is remembered and talked about as he is just such a memorial in ring worker who just had a way of connecting with the fans. And again I will say make sure to check out his matches and while it’s a brawler slower paces style it just has such a charm as the live fans and his ability to draw people in just make the matches great. But as you can see the matches are over and the staff at the Rotten Ink Arena are starting to clean up so that’s our queue to make our way to the exit, and as we do so I should take this moment to alert you that our next update will be about a Horror Hostess that was the talk of Manayunk and the Daughter of Desire as of course I am talking about Stella Desire! And for this update I will be turning Rotten Ink over to Juliet! So until we meat again read a comic or three, watch a wrestling match or two and as always support your local wrestlers. This next update should be a spooky good time.

R.I.W Wrestling Legend: Corporal Kirchner

The doors of the Rotten Ink Arena are open as it’s time to celebrate July 4^th, the American holiday that allows us to celebrate our independence, and that is why the R.I.W has decided to hold this “R.I.W Wrestling Legend” holiday update event special! And of course the wrestler we will be taking a look at has to be an American Hero and that is why the real life military veteran and popular mid-card babyface Corporal Kirchner is in our main event! So as you can see, the snack bar is selling hotdogs and burgers and they have many beers on tap so let’s grab our seats and before the night’s fireworks let’s watch Corporal Kirchner enter the squared circle and do so for America.

Corporal Kirchner was trained by Verne Gagne and started his in ring career in 1980 and by 1984 was signed to WWF and worked under the name RT Reynolds. He was used as a jobber and enhancement talent and would be beat up by names like Jimmy Snuka and David Sammartino. By 1985 he would have a name change and be called The Axe and was still being used to put over bigger stars. But by late 1985 he would be Corporal Kirchner the military hero who loved America and would feud with heels that cheated and put down our nation, he was a true veteran and served in the Army when he was a young man. He also filled the void that Sgt. Slaughter left when he left the WWF and they needed a flag-waving hero and Corporal Kirchner was the man for the job as fans got behind him. To help build up Corporal Kirchner the WWF would shoot some vignettes and have him interviewed by Mean Gene Okerlund to get across his message and showcase his skills. They would also start having him wrestler matches against lower card heels like Steve Lombardi, Terry Gibbs and Mr. X but they would also put him over bigger named heels as well like Don Muraco, Moondog Spot and The Spoiler. He would however also take a few losses to Randy Savage at this time. His major feuds would be with Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff and this feud would see him loosing many of the matches as the feuds dragged on. He would have a series of Boot Camp matches against Volkoff and would come out on top. By 1986 Corporal Kirchner would start falling down the card and would be used as enhancement talent to put over the companies rising and established heels, as he was getting a bad reputation of being really stiff to work with in the ring. He would be involved in a match at WrestleMania II as he would beat Volkoff in a flag match and this being his biggest match during his WWF run. By 1987 the writing was on the wall as Corporal Kirchner would start pilling up the losses as he would be defeated by names like Rick Rude, Killer Khan, King Kong Bundy and Harley Race, and after failing a drug test he was suspended and Corporal Kirchner would not return to the company and just as fast as Corporal Kirchner came he was gone from the WWF.

After leaving WWF he would have a very small run in Stampede that would only be through 1987. And on a side note he also had a few matches for UWF in 1991. He then would start working in Japan and would have two short runs for New Japan Pro-Wrestling in 1989 and 1990 before landing in W*ING in 1992 and dropped being Corporal Kirchner and would become Leatherface who was inspired by the villain in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series and would become a Hardcore/Death Match wrestler and would have many bloody matches against such names as Jason The Terrible, Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, Mr. Pogo and Crash The Terminator. During his run in Japan Leatherface would get into a fight with a fan and this would cause him to be locked up in jail for six months as he hurt the man pretty bad, and W*ING would have wrestler Rick Patterson become Leatherface in order to keep the character alive as it was a big draw for them. And when returning Original Leatherface would team with the current Leatherface and would be called Leatherfaces and would wrestle in IWA Japan that is until late 1994 when he would leave the promotion after shooting on Shoji Nakamaki and Hiroshi Ono in a Double Hell Deathmatch when Original Leatherface placed a bed of nails on the neck of Ono and stomped on it and then powerbombed him then on the nails his time was up for the company. And in 1995 Leatherface would become Super Leather and would sign with FMW in Japan and this is were he would really make a name for himself in Hardcore Wrestling and would become a major draw for the promotion and would have high profile matches against many of the companies top stars like Mike Awesome, Mr. Pogo, Masato Tanaka, Hayabusa and Ricky Fuiji to name a few. Super Leather would work for FMW till around 1999 and still would make random appearances for them in 2001 and 2002. In the 2000’s once more going just as Leatherface he would take matches in American companies like JCW and XWF and his final major match came in 2009 for PWR as he would win over Joey Vengeance. Sadly Corporal Kirchner passed away on December 22, 2021 from a heart attack at the age of 64.

Growing up Corporal Kirchner was a wrestler I remember as he was on TV at the time of my youth and most kids I knew had the LJN figure of him, and that is the odd thing he was never a wrestler that was super popular with my friends who watched wrestling and yet we all had his figure…strange looking back at it now as every kid who had the WWF LJN figures I knew really did have him. Corporal Kirchner was clearly a wrestler that WWF at first had faith in as they booked him pretty strong and would give him some solid wins over mid-card and lower card heels, but you can tell when they soured on him and his losses started to pile up and he was given the jobber treatment. But even when being booked on the loosing end of matches it was clear that he was well loved by fans as he would get good cheers, and during the time it was clear that he was not only in the WWF to take the place of Sgt. Slaughter but also because the Rambo films was super popular at the time and Kirchner was the perfect choice to fill that role as he had not only the background but also the look. And while I liked Kirchner I was a fan of his when he turned into the brutal Leatherface as I was a big watcher of FMW that I would buy the DVD and VHS releases as well as had a few tapes from the grey market and Leatherface was one I always enjoyed and when I found out it was Kirchner behind the mask it made him even cooler as who would have ever thought that the Pro-American Hero was the same guy wearing the Leatherface mask and throwing opponents into barbwire. Plus for those of you who didn’t know Kirchner got into wrestling after meeting and befriending Hulk Hogan who was raising as a superstar at a gym and the two spent time chatting about the fame of being a pro wrestler and Kirchner was hooked and knew he wanted to become one. I also find it interesting that during his time in the WWF many of his opponents complained about Kirchner being to rough and stiff and with many of them not wanting to work with him is why he fell down the card, and is why he became enhancement talent much like many names before him…looking at you Outback Jack. And imagine what could have been for Kirchner if he would have stayed in WWF instead of quitting way back in 1987 and I think that when Sgt. Slaughter came back to WWF in 1990 the two would have had a small feud. But also kind of glad he did leave, as then the world of hardcore wrestling would not have had Leatherface! While Kirchner was never one of my favorites I did find him entertaining and a good babyface for the federation at the time when American heroes was a big theme in wrestling. Oh I should also note once he walked around from full time in ring work he became a truck driver.

We are now at the point of this review were we will be taking a look at the DVD set and review some of the matches on the discs like always between 4 to 8. I want to thank Coliseum Of Wrestling & Boxing for having this set in stock and also want to thank Corporal Kirchner for his hard work in the world of wrestling. I also want to remind you that I will only be breaking down randomly select matches from this set and will be breaking down the match and will be rating the matches on a 5 Star rating system. I also only choose from Single matches, as I want to break down his matches that showcase his style. Here is what the stars mean ½ Means a really terrible match, * Means a bad match, ** Means a below average match, **1/2 Means a good average entertaining match, *** Means a good match, **** Means a great match, ***** Means an epic match. So if you are ready lets step into the ring with Corporal Kirchner.

Best Of Corporal Kirchner

Match 1: Corporal Kirchner vs. Paul Orndorff

As the bell rings Kirchner and Orndorff lock up and its shown that while the two are strong it’s Orndorff who is the stronger as he keeps backing Kirchner into the ropes, and after doing so three times when the pair break apart Orndorff slaps Kirchner across the face. This fires up Kirchner who ends up pushing Orndorff against the ropes, and for doing so Kirchner takes a cheap shot as the referee breaks them up. And Orndorff then starts beating the hell out of Kirchner with hits, kicks, knees and moves all done super aggressive as the fans boo. Kirchner changes the tide with a hip toss and a series of dropkicks that even knocks Orndorff out of the ring. But Orndorff takes back over the match and delivers a powerful suplex as well as a knee to the head of the downed Kirchner, Orndorff places on a chin lock and when Kirchner tries to get out of the hold he is beatdown for making the attempt he is even thrown outside the ring and has his neck dropped on the railing. Once back in the ring Kirchner makes a small comeback but is pined when Orndorff hits him with a piledriver. This is a really good match as the top heel Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff does a great job of wrestling dirty, getting the fans fired up with boos and is able to showcase his strongman style in the ring all the while proving why he was one of the best heels at that time to step foot into a WWF ring. And while he comes off the true star and attraction of the match he does not bury Kirchner and does make him look strong in spots. It’s clear that Kirchner was being used as a upper card enhancement talent as he is able to get some great moves in before finally taking the loss. Orndorff’s piledriver is on point and in the 80’s he was the master of the move for me as the impact that his version just seemed always so brutal, I also have to say the series of dropkicks by Kirchner was also very well done and looked good. A solid match and both guys looked good and for the most part they had really good chemistry together.

Grade: ***

Match 2: Corporal Kirchner vs. Kamala

Before the bell rings Kirchner gets the fans cheering for him and America, and when the bell finally rings the two run the ropes and Kamala knocks Kirchner down on the mat and this happens twice. And every time Kirchner tries to attack he is taken down by Kamala who is using massive head butts, ripping at Kirchner’s face and even uses chops. Kirchner makes a comeback and uses his punches and headbutts to try and rock the Ugandan Giant. But after missing a dropkick Kirchner is crushed by Kamala who lands two big splashes and gets the pin victory. After the bell Kamala climbs to the top rope and lands a big splash that makes Kirchner twitch in pain, and he keeps splashing him over and over. This match was a squash one and while Kirchner tries to fight off Kamala he is easily taken down and defeated and then continues to get his butt kicked after the bell and is made to look like a total jobber. Kamala is clearly the main star of the match and uses chops and his splashes to win and as always Kamala looks like a monster heel threat. Kirchner at times over sells and even when landing moves he flip’s around and at time it looks silly. The fans are for Kirchner and they boo Kamala and this is a good quick match that is clearly a way to build him as one of the companies top heels. This is a good squash match that was super quick and did its job of telling its story.

Grade: **1/2

Match 3: Corporal Kirchner vs. King Harley Race

Kirchner makes his way to the ring waving the American Flag and getting the fans cheering for him and the nation he loves. But before the bell rings with his back turned Race attacks and unloads on him with punches, moves and well placed knees. Race continues just beating the hell out of Kirchner who tries to make a quick comeback landing some big hits, but Kirchner climbs to the top rope and tries to land a flying elbow drop and misses and this gives Race the chance to climb the top rope and hit a clothesline, Race then hits a cradle suplex and gets the three count and the win. This is another match that is clearly to put over the heel King Harley Race as the match is short and Harley is able to defeat Kirchner cleanly in the center of the ring, and while Kirchner is able to get some moves in it’s clear that he is the enhancement talent in the match. And while the fans are behind Kirchner its clear he is not near the upper card. And while he gets fired up and lands some great punches he does not really get to showcase much of his talent at all. Race however looks great and his moves are pulled off flawless and his aggressive nature really did make him look like a major heel threat to any baby face. Not much to say besides a good enhancement match for Race and a match that proved that Kirchner while liked by fans was not climbing the card.

Grade: **1/2

Match 4: Corporal Kirchner vs. Iron Sheik

As soon as the bell rings Kirchner takes the action to Iron Sheik and unloads on him as the fans go crazy. But when Nikolai Volkoff comes to ringside Kirchner gets distracted and this allows Iron Sheik to attack and take over the momentum of the match and when getting Kirchner down he even spits on him. Iron Sheik then gets Kirchner in a abdominal stretch and cranks it in, but Kirchner is able to break the hold and lands a knees but misses a dropping elbow. Iron Sheik then drapes Kirchner over the ropes and then jumps on him chocking him on the ropes, after being tossed out of the ring and beat up on a little more Kirchner tries to roll up Iron Sheik to get a pin but it fails. In the end after they both go back and fourth its Kirchner that gets the win by DQ when Volkoff enters the ring to stop a pin and they two beat Kirchner up. As the two beat up Kirchner more it’s the Killer Bees that run in and make the save. This is a good match between two brawling style wrestlers that allows both to go back and fourth and each come out of the match looking good with Iron Sheik looking like the heel that he is and Kirchner looking like the American hero that WWF was building him up to be. While none of the moves in the match are overly impressive they get the job done and they get the right pop from the fans. It was nice seeing Kirchner get the win as Iron Sheik had to cheat in order not to be pinned and this was the right move to help build the feud they were in. Over all I enjoyed this match even if it was by no means a Five Star match as the two told a story in the ring even if it was a sloppy brawl style.

Grade: **1/2

Match 5: Corporal Kirchner vs. Mike Miller

This match takes place in the indie’s and Kirchner is the heel in the match! The two start the match locking up and it ends in a stalemate as neither gain the momentum, they need walk around the ring sizing each other up looking for the right time to strike. And when he can Kirchner does his best to take a few cheap shots at Miller who is getting fired up. And they two then exchange arm drags and this makes the fans pop as Miller is clearly now frustrating Kirchner. And Miller then gets Kirchner into an arm bar that is only broke when Kirchner is able to get his foot on the ropes. The two then get moves and escape moves on each other with Kirchner missing a big elbow drop causing him to be in pain. During a test of strength it looks as if Kirchner will be getting the upper hand that is until he takes several kicks to the gut from Miller who then takes over the match, that is until Kirchner stalls again slowing down the pace and gives him time to take charge. After going back and fourth Kirchner charges Miller in the corner who moves and this causes Kirchner to hit hard the turnbuckle and Miller is able to backslide and get the pin over Kirchner. This match is just ok as I feel that while both Kirchner and Miller are trying to tell a story in the ring you can tell neither are given 100% and that the match is plagued with lots of stalling and rest holds. And while I found it to be kind of boring the fans in the crowd seemed to be into the match as Mike Miller was clearly a big face for the OWF an indie promotion and its puzzling as he did not offer much in this match besides very basic movies and a limited brawling style. Kirchner did not look good either as being the heel he stalled and used rest holds way to much and never pushed the pace of the match and just really helped make the match kind of boring. Not much more to say besides it was cool seeing Kirchner as a heel and that the match just did not bring the entertainment to me.

Grade: *1/2

Match 6: Corporal Kirchner vs. Ricky Santana

This is another match that has Kirchner as the heel and is for OWF again. When the bell rings Kirchner hits Ricky with a knee to the gut and this drops him causing him almost to fall out of the ring. But Ricky uses his speed to land some hip tosses and a dropkick and the fans start going crazy with cheers. Both guys start working over each others arms when finally Ricky is able to get Kirchner to the mat still working his arm and even driving knees into it causing pain and damage, and even when Kirchner gets out of the hold he is quickly put right back into it. But Kirchner truly escapes with a jawbreaker and starts unleasing a beating on Ricky as the crowd tries to cheer to give their fan favorite a boost. Kirchner hits a suplex and goes for the pin but Ricky kicks out, Ricky then hits a flying back elbow and takes the tide until Kirchner tosses him out of the ring. Ricky is able to then roll up Kirchner and get the pin and the win, but Kirchner beats up Ricky after the bell. This match started out entertaining as Ricky Santana used his speed to take on and down the brawling Kirchner, but sadly it travels the route of rest holds and the pace is slowed so down that it starts to drag. But when it once more gets on pace the match picks back up and is a good TV Match that has both guys trying to tell a story in the ring even though its very basic and the fans in attendance are eating it up. Ricky Santana is good and reminded me of a mix of Tito Santana and Marty Jannetty as his moves and speed reminded me of them, while he was not as good as those two he had potential. Kirchner is the total heel as he is rough, gives cheap shots and uses his brawling style to try and beat up Ricky. Again no move stands out in the match as its not a fantastic one it’s just an enjoyable one that is clearly building Kirchner as a top heel as he attacks and even bags up Ricky after the match. Over all not bad and if you like mid-card matches from the indies in the 80’s this one is for you.

Grade: **1/2

Match 7: Corporal Kirchner vs. Adrian Adonis

Kirchner is able to get Adonis in the corner after the two lock up and from there is able to showcase his power to Adonis even knocking him out of the ring. Once back in the ring Adonis tries to take the action to Kirchner, but its stopped as Kirchner once more starts beating up Adonis to the fans delight. Jimmy Hart who is the manager of Adonis keeps trying to distract Kirchner to buy his man some time to recover. Kirchner gets Adonis is a headlock, but Adonis gets out of the hold with a side suplex and with that Adonis climbs the ropes and with a splash landed he gets the win via pin. This is a very quick match and while Kirchner is in charge most of the match using his brawling style he is done in with a suplex and a splash showing at this time he was 100% being booked as enhancement talent as the match was clearly to put over Adonis who has a big match against Roddy Pipper shortly at WrestleMania III. The down side being is that Adonis did not look all that great as he mostly got beat up by Kirchner who was being very limited in the moves he was trying to pull off. Over all this was pretty much a squash match that was booked oddly and did a good job of at least showing that Kirchner was a fighter.

Grade: **

Match 8: Corporal Kirchner vs. J.T. Southern

This match takes place in OWF and once more Kirchner is the heel. The two start the match squaring up and Southern is able to take Kirchner down as the fans go crazy. And Kirchner keeps getting beat up and rolls out of the ring. Kirchner’s leg is hurting and when he gets back in the ring the two have a test of strength and Kirchner gets the upper hand with a cheap shot kick and goes for the pin that Southern kicks out and delivers a nut shot that crumples Kirchner to the mat as the fans cheer like crazy. Southern goes crazy and unloads big punches on Kirchner who is still down, and even as Kirchner tries to get away Southern just continues to unload on him. Kirchner begs for timeout but Southern keeps up his attack and stomps him in the corner and then locks him into a chin lock. Once out of the hold Kirchner is able to take over the momentum and even hits a powerful clothesline from behind. Kirchner hits a few power moves and goes for the pin, but each time Sothern kicks out and this frustrates him as he wants to end the match. But Southern is able to get a small package rollup and get the pin and win. After the bell Kirchner attacks Southern as he was angered over loosing. He also puts Southern in the body bag and drops a top rope knee on him. This is a fun mid-card match and both tell a pretty good story in the ring as both throughout the match look good and have their time to shine. J.T. Southern is the ultimate baby face as he plays to the fans, gets fired up and really takes it to the heel. While Southern does nothing to impressive move wise in the match he is so over with the fans that it helps draw you into the match and look past any limitations he has in the ring. He is also the typical Rock N Roll wrestler who is complete with long hair and tiger striped tights. Kirchner in the match is a total chicken shit heel who begs for mercy, tries to cheat and gets the fans worked up with his ego and smirks. Kirchner hits a few really great looking impact moves and I do like his gimmick of putting his opponents in military body bags after the match has ended. Over all this is a good match that was entertaining.

Grade: **1/2

Corporal Kirchner is a wrestler who went from an American Hero to a chainsaw-swinging madman based on a Horror Movie character. The thing with Corporal Kirchner is that when he was in the WWF he was a popular mid-carder that got the fans to chant for America and as well always did his best to bring down the heels that he had to face. He was in the military and this helped him seem legit in the character he was playing in the ring. Well as you can see, just across the street at the Rotten Ink Staduim they are going to be setting off fireworks soon for the holiday and I am sure were ever you are from the fireworks will be going off soon so I think its time to head on out, and with that I would like to thank you for spending apart of your 4^th of July with me here and I would also like to let you know that our next update will take us to the land of Monster Bash Convention and we will be taking a look at the 2010 remake of the George Romero film The Crazies! So until next time read a comic or three, watch a wrestling match or two and as always support your local wrestlers. See you next update for a crazy spooky good time!

R.I.W Wrestling Legend: Ox Baker

The doors of the Rotten Ink Arena are open, and this “R.I.W Wrestling Legend” update is one that comes with a warning as the main event star is a heel who struck fear into not only his opponents’ hearts but also the fans as he was the master of the heart punch, the one and only Ox Baker who was one of the meanest wrestlers in the business whose legend is still spoken about among the world of wrestling fans. I mean who else has the legacy of “killing” two of his opponents with his finishing move, and then went on to star in movies including one by director John Carpenter? So let’s get to the snack bar and grab some nachos and a drink and find our seats as this one is going to be one menacing event. Also make sure to watch out for a rogue Heart Punch as Ox Baker is a mean, mean man.

Ox Baker started his Pro Wrestling career in 1964 and was trained by Bob Geigel, Pat O’Connor and “Killer” Buddy Austin, and while he started out as a baby face he soon would be the world of wrestling’s most feared heels. Like all wrestlers of his time, he started working many of the NWA territories like World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) and Central States Wrestling (CSW) and would even find himself in title matches against the likes of Fritz Von Erich. With Ox standing 6’3” tall and weighing over 300 pounds, he got attention and started finding himself being a draw as fans wanted to see him in action. In 1967 Ox would find himself working for the WWF and would have big matches against such names as Smasher Sloan, Dr. Jerry Graham, Gorilla Monsoon, Toru Tanaka and Woody Farmer. Once his short run was done, he headed back to touring around and building his name bigger and bigger as most places he was being booked would have him win most of his matches. By 1968 he would find himself working in Canada for Stampede and would work matches against The Mongolian Stomper and would even win the NWA Calgary Canadian Heavyweight belt from him but he would lose the belt a few days later to Waldo Von Erich. Throughout the rest of the 60’s, he would travel around working matches in many promotions in America, Canada and Japan and would work matches against names like Bill Watts, Bulldog Brower, Rocky Johnson, Ivan Koloff, Terry Funk, Dick Murdoch, Cowboy Bob Ellis, Blackjack Lanza, Lou Thesz and Strong Kobayashi to name a few. He would also capture and lose the NWA North American Tag Team Belts during the late 60’s. Ox was becoming such a big attraction as his finishing move the Heart Punch was gaining fear as fans worried about their favorites being it by it.

The 1970’s continued for Ox as he would work Japan as well a run in the AWA, and in 1971 during a tag match Alberto Torres was teaming with Cowboy Bob Ellis and after taking a Heart Punch by Baker, Torres passed away three days later. 1972 his heart punch finisher once more was blamed for the death of wrestler Ray Gunkel who died in the locker room after the match and these two deaths added to his feared reputation. And during the early 70’s, Ox would also be collecting belts and while he would not hold many of them for long times he still was winning them. In 1974 while in Cleveland, Ohio a match between Ox Baker and Ernie Ladd caused a riot when Ox kept hitting Ladd with the heart punch after the bell rang, and fans got so mad that they went after Ox to save Ladd. Like before, Ox would spend the rest of the 1970’s as a journeyman wrestler working for promotions all over the world and along the way would still be winning belts as well as tormenting the fans with his wins over popular baby faces. During the 70’s he would have matches against such names as Andre The Giant, Sailor Art Thomas, Pampero Firpo, Pepper Gomez, Bobo Brazil, Dusty Rhodes, Ivan Putski, Giant Baba, Bob Backlund and Haystacks Calhoun.  Some of those were high profile feuds for Ox. During this decade he built himself as one of the world’s biggest heels, secured that he was a draw for promotions and made his finisher The Heart Punch the scariest finisher in the sport at the time.

Besides working for the NWA, in the 80s Ox Baker would also work for New Japan Pro Wrestling and would have matches with Antonio Inoki and Tatsumi Fujinami and would even team with Tiger Jeet Singh while in Japan. He also would have a blink and he was gone return to the WWF as he was managed by The Grand Wizard and after doing one TV taping he was gone. Throughout the 80’s he would work matches for the territories and would start winding down his full time in ring career by the end of the decade. And even as he was getting older, he still was a main event star and the fans by this point loved to hate him. In many promotions he was the kind of heel it was all right to cheer for. After working some matches with the AWA he would retire from in ring work in late 1988 and would go on to do commentary for companies as well as would open his own wrestling training school. Ox Baker would have a few matches in 2008 for UCW as he took on Moonshine McCoy and in 2013 once more he would wrestle this time for CCW and would even become the CCW Champion after winning a battle royal. In 2014 he would once more say he was retired and by late 2014 he sadly passed away from a heart attack at the age of 80. While gone from this Earth, his legacy of being one of the sports most feared and epic heels will live on forever.

When I was growing up, Ox Baker was always showcased as a very dangerous heel in all the wrestling magazines and books I was reading and it all came down to his finisher the Heart Punch! Plus I knew of him for his acting roles in such films as “Escape From New York” and can remember seeing clips of him on the game show “The Price Is Right” on grey market tapes, not to mention seeing some of his matches as a kid and hearing about his legacy made him seem truly like the meanest of all wrestling heels. Besides his massive size and his killer finishing move, his long mustache and the devil point eyebrows made him stand out and look super mean and even evil to a point. With his appearance and brawling style I think that is why he really is one of that era’s best heels as he really did standout from the others and fans really did believe that he was a bad man. And of course the deaths that his Heart Punch was connected to had nothing to do with the move and were really natural causes and an injury, but man these allegations really did help his legacy and made him a bigger star as fans did not know what to expect and he just seemed so dangerous. And I would say that Ox was smart for being a traveling Heel as it made him feel like an attraction when he came to town and would wrestler the territories main faces. And I do think that if he was younger in the 1980’s he would have made a great roster member for the WWF and could have been a big match heel for Hulk Hogan. And I also need to say it’s crazy that Ox Baker is not in the WWF Hall Of Fame as of this update’s posting.

We are now at the point of this review were we will be taking a look at the DVD set and review some of the matches on the discs like always between 4 to 8. I want to thank Coliseum Of Wrestling & Boxing for having this set in stock and also want to thank Wild Ox Baker for his hard work in the world of wrestling. I also want to remind you that I will only be breaking down randomly selected matches from this set and will be breaking down the match and will be rating the matches on a 5 Star rating system. I also only choose from single matches, as I want to break down his matches that showcase his style. Here is what the stars mean ½ Means a really terrible match, * Means a bad match, ** Means a below average match, **1/2 Means a good average entertaining match, *** Means a good match, **** Means a great match, ***** Means an epic match. So if you are ready, let’s step into the ring with Ox Baker.

Best Of Ox Baker

Match 1: Ox Baker vs. Blackie Guzman

Ox and Guzman lock up, and it’s clear that the power is with Ox as he backs his opponent into the ropes and breaks the hold clean, and the fans are behind Ox in the match from the start and Ox then starts working on the arm and shoulder of Guzman and really focuses on them with holds, smashes and locks keeping Guzman injured and his momentum down the whole time. And every time Guzman tries to make a comeback Ox cuts him off and keeps working on his shoulders. After smashing him a few times with clubbing forearms Ox tosses Guzman out of the ring, and once back in the ring Ox hits the Heart Punch and pins and wins the match. This is a one sided match and shows the mean streak as well as the power of Ox Baker as he works nerve holds and beats the hell out of the shoulder of Blackie Guzman before hitting him with the Heart Punch for an easy win. Poor Blackie Guzman tries to fight back but his attempts fall flat, as Ox does not even flinch and just keeps on beating him up! This is a squash match that is entertaining as seeing Ox hit the Heart Punch is cool to see as always.

Grade: **1/2

Match 2: Ox Baker vs. Rev. Tiny Hampton

Tiny is able to get the first hit off and this angers Ox who stalks him around the ring as Tiny tries to talk his way out of being attacked, but it does not work as Ox hits a kick and a forearm smash that causes Tiny to crash to the mat. Tiny gets some advise from his manager but it does not help as Ox continues to smash him into the mat and even chokes him on the ropes. But Tiny is able to even the match when he hits Ox in the throat a few times and the two end up exchanging punches back and fourth and like before Ox gets the advantage, that is until Tiny’s manger districts the referee and Tiny then throws powder into the eyes of Ox blinding him and allows him to unload on him. Once Ox is able to see better he fights back and beats down Tiny and even goes after his manager, and when Tiny goes out after him he is beaten up so bad that he gets counted out and Ox wins the match. When this match starts it looks as if it’s going to be a very easy and quick win for Ox Baker as he just beats the heck out of Tiny, but after powder to the eyes the match becomes a true contest. These two have great chemistry together as they are both brawling heels and both just use brute moves and punches to try and win. Ox does a great job of not only looking like a badass when its needed but also sells really well for Tiny throughout making him look like a contender. No grand moves are thrown in this bout as it really is just mostly smashing, punching and stomping it has a real hoss fight to it, and the fan in attendance are really into it as it’s clear they are behind Ox Baker the man the fans loved and hated at the same time. Over all a good entertaining match.

Grade: **1/2

Match 3: Ox Baker vs. Brusier Brody

The two lock up and move around the ring with finally Ox being able to back Brody into the ropes and lands a massive hit to his chest and then the two start trading hits and Ox keeps trying to choke Brody who does his best to not allow that. The two trade hit for hit and even both kick each other in the gut, but neither man is going down as this is truly a battle between two big men heels. Both men get the momentum on their side for brief moments but each cut each other off as the fans seem to be in awe of watching this brawling battle. Ox ends up getting Brody into a bear hug, but Brody breaks the hold and makes Ox pay by landing some smashing hits and tosses Ox out of the ring and goes out after him and once back in the ring Ox goes for the Heart Punch and misses and hits a steel chair hurting his hand and this allows Brody to hit Ox with the chair and get the win via pin. This is the match I was most looking forward to watching as this truly had the making of two brutal brawling masters slugging it out in the ring, and for the most part it lived up to what I wanted from it and that’s to be entertained and watching two big monster heels trading punches. Both guys look good in the match and both guys get their moments to shine as well as sell well for each other, and while 99% of the match is punches, kicks and forearm smashes and both heels stand toe to toe and just try and beat the hell out of each other. The fans are really into it and the finish of Ox missing his punch and then getting clobbered with a chair was a fitting ending for this hoss fight. Over all a good match that throws technic out the widow and just brings a hard hitting brawl to entertain.

Grade: ***

Match 4: Ox Baker vs. Hercules Ayala

The two big men lock up and this leads to Ox being able to get Hercules into an arm bar and keeps working it over and when breaking the hold he even uses the ropes in order to get the referee to hold back Hercules, as Ox is playing mind games with his opponent. Ox keeps up this attack the arm and play mind games for a while as the fans seem to be loosing interest in this tactic. They come alive when the two have a test of strength and Ox keeps cheating in order to get the leverage, that is till Hercules’s power kicks in and he takes Ox to the mat and delivers some big stomps and then gets him into the corner and lands some smashing forearms. Ox pokes Hercules in the eyes and this gives him a few minutes to catch his breath and land some hits, but Hercules bounces back fast and knocks him to the mat and this time drops some knees. The two end up exchanging hits and after failing to hit the Heart Punch three times, Ox is rolled up and Hercules gets the win via pin. This is a very odd match that is short, filled with lots of rest holds, at times both men seem to be moving in very slow motion, lots of miss cues, they lost the fans at the start but do bring them in at the end and is just kind of a bland match and that’s odd as I am a fan of both wrestlers. No real big moves are thrown in the match and it’s your basic brawling big man style, at one point a fan is so annoyed with the match that he gives Ox the middle finger! Not much to say about this one besides it was a letdown and that at times it seemed as if Ox was having some mobility issues.

Grade: *1/2

Match 5: Ox Baker vs. Austin Idol

Austin Idol starts the match on the microphone yelling at Ox Baker and as soon as the bell rings Ox is on Idol and rams his face into the turnbuckle a few times, but when Ox goes for an early Heart Punch and misses this gives Idol and chance to make a comeback with an atomic drop and Idol then goes for the figure four, but Kevin Sullivan and Mark Lewin enter the ring and break the hold and attack Idol and the referee throws out the match and gives the DQ win to Austin Idol. After the bell rings Ox even takes a towel and starts choking the referee with it as all hell breaks loose in the ring. This is a very quick match that does not have much moves, holds or punches and goes from a promo being cut on Ox to the two barely locking up to having outside interference make for a DQ ending that is very much disappointing as I would have liked to seen Idol and Ox have a big brawl. The match is not much of a match, but it is cool to see Austin Idol pick up Ox Baker for an atomic drop even if he is shaky and does not hold him up for long. And it was great seeing Ox Baker super aggressive as soon as the bell rang and even went for his finisher quick. A throwaway match that has some good brawling at the end even if Ox Baker is not in the end brawl.

Grade: *1/2

As you can see, Ox Barker was a big man wrestler who traveled the world and was a heel draw in every territory and for his time really was one of the scariest workers in the business. And really he was a wrestler from my childhood that was working that I remember and was a fan of do to his legacy in and out of the ring, and he was one that I would have loved to see wrestle live. And what is crazy is that Ox wrestled into his 80’s showing that wrestling was in his blood. But as you can see, the event is over and the fans are heading out, and that is our sign to also leave and while we make our way out let me tell you that our next update is going to be a fun epic one as we will be joining Indiana Jones on a epic adventure thanks to Marvel Comics! So until next time, read a comic or three, watch a wrestling match or two and as always make sure to support your local wrestlers. See you soon as this next one update really will be epic and action packed.