No Prom Date 14

It's prom season- got a date? Orlando Jordan does with a gallon of 1% milk....

1) William Regal v. Gangrel (Jakked, 11/08/00)- 3
Regal is much more subdued here than in his current run, nice suplex exchange early on but Gangrel doesn't bring much emotion to the tactical beating Regal dispenses within the next five minutes in a rather lackluster but technically proficient manner. Never liked that arm around the neck-breaker move, prefer the violent orgasm that is regal's running knee. A standing dropkick from Regal; clapped like a seal for that one

2) Angelico v. Negro Navarro (IWRG, 01/21/10)- 5
Negro is ancient submission sensei who looks like Telly Savalas and currently the faux boyfriend of wrestling podcast host Phil Schneider, Angelico looks like a younger Edge with 80% more talent. The beginning part is all testing each other out using wacky submission holds that they don't try to submit each other with, it's the strangest dick measuring contest i've ever seen. This goes on for a while, but the intensity never turns up until a really breathtaking sequence where they exchange locks but also start incorporating the ropes into what they are doing, using momentum and limb manipulation, like an Abu Dhabi specialist into the sequence, it really brings the rest of the match together in a neat way, i can't really recommend this though because it totally feels like they could have had this match in their gymnasium, didn't have many elements of a pro wrestling match at all.


3) Tommy Williams/ Puma/ Minoru Tanaka v. El Samurai/ Tiger Mask IV/ Taiji Ishimori (New Japan 03/05/05)- 4
Puma def. held his own here, with both Samurai and Tiger, liked how he blocked Sammy's patented reverse DDT. Tiger was fast but some of his kicks would have looked outrageous in a Power Rangers reboot titled Overrated Combat Warriors. This was unfortunately like a TV match, everyone got a few spots off but not a lot of coherent flow to it, Williams did one balls out Windham bump outside, other than that, he was just a name and a paycheck. Tanaka was just there, but managed to pull off his famous arm bar just a lot more slowly. Probably an opener

In Memoriam Section
4) Gene Kiniski v. Lou Thez (NWA Title, Atlanta, GA 04/16/1967)- 6
This was a long series of clips, in old reel footage with no sound but the action spoke for itself. You could see instances of Gene being carried by the much sounder Thez, but he held his own. Thez does so many amazing things in the ring, like this crazy jumping headscissors lock, sweet mat holds that he slips into like Charlie Sheen slips into a darkened Hollywood alley, and the famous Thez press. He sells like a mother on Gene's cheap shot boot. Would love to see the full match.

5) Kanyon v. Kane (WWF Smackdown Aug 2001)- 3
For the 4 minutes it was on, this was good, really good, Kanyon bumping like an absolute freak for everything Kane did, even trying to emulate Chris Hamrick with a faux version of his outside bump. Unfortunately this was amidst the Invasion angle so nothing good came out of that except Austin singing folk songs with Vince and Kurt and the occasional Tajiri match.