Throw The Dice, Cold As Ice

Raven VS Dean Malenko - WCW 2/11/1998

JJZ: Threw this match on and didn't really know what to expect. Technically I always thought Raven was a little underrated and wanted to see if he'd be able to have a nice back and forth with Dean. That didn't happen at all! This was right in that ECW vein and both guys did a really nice job with a smash mouth match. I always enjoyed Raven's run in WCW. It was a good change of pace on the shows. I wouldn't call anything Malenko ever does sloppy so I will say that the execution of the moves were a little wild and more aggressive than normal. Even with the short run time the ending had me bitting a couple times. Just good TV overall. Enjoy homie.

CJD: Very fitting to watch this match right after the Raven documentary came out. I wouldn't be surprised if both of us watched this live with how dialed in we were in this era. And man this takes me back to how frustrating WCW was in this time period. Commentary a total trainwreck with Tenay trying desperately to keep it on the tracks. Enormously bloated roster shoehorned into every angle to try to justify having them all on the payroll. And buried beneath all of it, somehow still shining if you look hard enough, some shockingly good wrestling! These two worked so well together. And every time they pushed Malenko I was surprised how much he'd run with it, with consistently great crowd reactions. I do remember hating the "Raven loves pain" angle they were working at the time, although I could easily see that being his own invention. I'm curious if he ever mentioned it in any shoots. This match was not at all what I expected from you this week but it's such a fun detour. A perfect time capsule of the undercard of 1998 American TV pro wrestling, with all the highs and lows that came with it.

We'd Catch The Rainbow, Ride The Wind

Shinjiro Otani/El Samurai VS Black Tiger II/Dean Malenko - NJPW 9/24/1993

CJD: Huge shout out to the guys over at Segunda Caida for unearthing this fan cam on their Found Footage Fridays. Holy guacamole, you want to talk about white whales. This match speaks to our teenage tape trading fandom moby dick days. This was a dream come true. Now my bff, I'm warning you right away. There's some moments we miss out on, given the nature of how this was filmed. And there's some missed moments that are really heart breaking. I'm sorry in advance. But just remind yourself: we could so so easily live in a timeline where this match was lost to the sands of time. Yet here we are. I'm so glad this niche of a niche hobby brought me to this moment in time.

I'll say a few things about the actual match. After watching an all out war with Murakami where there was some filthy alley fighting legwork, it was fun to travel back to this heated technical clinic where Otani's still taking and giving and stuffing nasty leg picks and holds. And, god almighty, I love the energy that was in this arena. This crowd knew then what we know now. It's special that we got to bear witness to these kind of performers practicing their craft at this level with this kind of platform. I'm so glad you sent us on an Otani Odyssey!!!

JJZ: This match is a dream come true man. Like if we were booking a dream card from this era I would've booked this match. The fact it's a fan cam with a few hiccups makes it even more of a unicorn in my opinion. Hearing the crowd from this point of view is so cool and adds a little ambiance. Chris. Just watching all these guys hit their moves is like comfort food. I'm getting so much happiness from it. Watching this is reminding me why we hold these guys in such high regard.  It is funny though, because if we watched this match back in the day I wonder if we would have appreciated it. We were so knee deep in matches of these four back then. Finding something like this now though I know I don't take it for granted. Thank you my friend.

The Moonlight Coming

Shinjiro Otani VS Kazunari Murakami - Zero One 6/14/2001

JJZ: I'm pretty positive we've watched this together many many moons ago. I honestly just wanted to see some Otani. Shinjiro could be such a fucking prick that I knew this would be such a fun match to review. Both guys just throwing kicks and punches with bad intentions. Everything landing so hard that I would've believed for real some got knocked out. Just a wonderful stiff fight that I wouldn't disagree with anyone if they told me it was a shoot. I can't remember if they had a rematch or not? I would assume this built to a huge blow off but I couldn't find anything on YouTube. You followed this fued pretty close no?

CJD: They've had a bunch of matches I'm pretty sure! We watched some from years later, I don't think I've seen this one before though 😍

So if I'm not mistaken this is a rematch from a barnburner these two had on the very first Z1 show. That match gets talked about as an all-timer but in true PIF spirit, I think you've uncovered a real gem here John. This is such a beautiful spectacle. I love love loved Otani casually stepping on Murakami's leg and refusing to get off. And I'm loving this early Zero 1 kick we're on, I'd keep exploring these shows for months if they were easy to find online. This vision of pro wrestling speaks to me. I watched every minute of the post match promo having no idea what was being said. And not needing to.