The Single File #20
Posted: 08/31/01

There's been a lot of talk recently that Reckless Youth will have to retire shortly. Seems that Mr. Youth tore one of the discs in his lower back, and any future bookings (including his appearance in the APW King of the Indies tournament) appear to be in jeopardy. If the name Reckless Youth sounds familiar, it should-he's wrestled in literally dozens of independent promotions across the country, and was always pegged as a guy who was going to go far in either WCW or the WWF. But for one reason or another, he never made it out of the minor leagues. The closest he came was working for WWF satellite league Memphis Championship Wrestling in 2000, where he had a brief feud with William Regal (when Regal was prepping for his return to the WWF). Reckless always was one of my favorite indy workers, and it'll be a damn shame if he never breaks through in this business.

But speaking of damn shames, that brings us to American Dragon, whose story parallels Reckless' in a lot of ways. Dragon was trained by Shawn Michaels, and worked in Michaels' TWA promotion before transferring to MCW. You've probably heard of Dragon as well (1), as his ringwork has earned unanimous praise. But sadly, Dragon was a casualty of cutbacks, as he recently lost his WWF developmental deal (as detailed in the infamous "I Hate This Business" piece).

If Reckless Youth really is calling it quits, then I wanted to do one of his matches, and finally decided on his bout against Dragon from this year's Super 8 tournament. Reckless and Dragon have both had better matches in their careers, but this might just be Reckless' last great match. Plus it was also the first time I saw American Dragon, and he had me marking out like a little kid.

Reckless Youth vs. American Dragon
When: 2/24/01
Where: St. Matthew's Parish, Wilmington, DE

Backstory: You know how there's 70 million indy cruiser tournaments these days? Well, the East Coast Wrestling Association started the whole thing with their Super 8 tournament in 1997. The tournament takes eight (presumably super) indie wrestlers and has a one night tournament. Past participants include Matt and Jeff Hardy, Billy Kidman, Christopher Daniels, Steve Bradley, and Crowbar. Reckless appeared in the '97 and '98 editions, but lost both of his first round matches. Youth finally got his first Super 8 win this year when he beat Mike Sullivan in the opening round, while American Dragon defeated fellow Michaels trainee Spanky in his first round matchup, leaving us with a Dragon/Reckless semi-final bout. Reckless and Dragon did meet once in MCW, as Youth failed in an attempt to wrest the MCW Light Heavyweight belt from Dragon on 9/6/00. 

The Match: American Dragon comes out first-he's just your standard guy in red track pants. Now, maybe it's just me, but if you're name contains the word "Dragon," you should wear a Gi to the ring or breathe fire or at least write "Dragon" on your butt. Reckless is out next. He's got a sleeveless T-shirt and shorts, and really doesn't look all that reckless. More like an upscale Raven. He points to something in the crowd, but I can't see what.

The bell sounds and we immediately get a "Dragon" chant from the crowd. The two tentatively circle each other and then do the double knuckle tie-up. Dragon manages to trip Youth with his right leg and forces him down to the mat for a quick 2 count. Youth manages to force his shoulder up, but Dragon pushes him to the mat for another 2 count. Youth, realizing he's in a bad spot, manages to wrap his legs around Dragon's head, then spins on his own head, taking Dragon to the mat. Both men get to their feet and we've got a standoff.

Another tie-up, and this time Dragon applies a hammerlock. Reckless tries to reach back and grab Dragon's head, but no go, so he shifts position to reverse the hold and the two fight for the advantage. Dragon finally grabs at Youth's leg and trips him up, then applies a funky standing ankle lock. Dragon drops a elbow on the leg, then transitions into the Jushin Liger "rocking horse" surfboard (2).

Dragon releases that hold and applies a camel clutch, but Youth manages to get to his feet, trip up Dragon, and quickly slap on an STF. Youth quickly segues into a wristlock, but Dragon breaks out of the hold, snapmares Youth over, and tries a headlock. But Reckless escapes almost immediately and goes back to the wristlock. Dragon again escapes and snapmares Youth over, but this time instead of going for a submission hold, he instead kicks Reckless right in the back. See, he realizes Reckless escaped when he tried a submission move last time, so he's better off trying to neutralize him with kicks. Stuff like that makes me mark out.

Reckless shrugs off the kick and pelts Dragon with a forearm to the face. He tries an Irish Whip, but Dragon reverses, slaps Youth's hand away, snapmares him over, and again punts him right in the back. But Youth again shrugs the kick off and nails Dragon with a forearm. Youth tries an Irish Whip, but Dragon reverses it. Dragon looks like he was about to try a clothesline, but Youth slides between Dragon's legs. So Dragon sends Youth into the ropes again and tries a side slam, but Youth turns it into a satellite headscissors. Youth gives himself a hand, as does the crowd.

Reckless tries sending Dragon into the corner, but Dragon reverses. Dragon charges and tries a monkey flip, but Reckless catches him, puts him on the top rope, climbs up beside him, and nails a super facebuter (3)! Anyway, Dragon gets to his feet and tries a clothesline that gets ducked by Reckless. So Dragon charges and gets backdropped out to the floor in a nasty looking bump. Reckless tries a baseball slide, but Dragon sidesteps him and nails some forearms. He tries sending Youth into the post, but Reckless reverses, sending Dragon shoulder first into the steel. Youth then tosses Dragon back into the ring.

Youth lays in some forearms and punches, then tries a scoop slam, but Dragon escapes and manages a go-behind on Youth. Youth tries to elbow out before he gets German Suplexed, but Dragon ducks the elbow attempt and hits a Northern Lights Suplex, then floats over and gets to a vertical base, something I had never seen before. Dragon completes the sequence by hitting a bridging fallaway slam (4) for a 2 count. Mark out moment #2.

"Dragon" chant as Dragon gets to his feet. He picks up Reckless and lays in a HARD chop. Reckless tries to shrug it off, but gets kicked in the gut and knocked into the corner by Dragon. Dragon follows up with a running boot to the face, followed by another running boot as Reckless stumbles out of the corner. Youth actually shakes off the effects of the boot and dares Dragon to hit him again. Dragon does just that, planting Reckless with another running boot, and this time Youth stays on the mat. Dragon nails Reckless with a kick, and Youth wisely rolls outside. The crowd chants "Youth" as the ref starts counting, and Dragon soon tires of waiting and exits the ring to pursue Reckless. Amazingly, this doesn't backfire, as Dragon dumps Youth back in the ring and nails another stiff chop. Dragon tries to send Youth into the ropes, but Reckless reverses. Youth tries a clothesline, but Dragon ducks and manages a go behind. Reckless counters with a mule kick, not to the groin, but to the left knee of Dragon. Youth follows that up with a vicious running dropkick to Dragon's knee. See, Reckless is taking out Dragon's legs, and thus eliminating a large portion of Dragon's offense.

Youth administers the last rites, then nails Dragon with a dropkick to the face as he tries to get to his feet. Youth picks up Dragon and tries a cross corner whip, but Dragon reverses and follows up with a running forearm. As Reckless stumbles out of the corner, Dragon hits the ropes and nails another running forearm. Dragon tries a third running forearm, but Reckless counters with some great chain wrestling and turns it into a British Fall (5). 

Both men stay on the mat selling fatigue. Reckless pounds the mat to get crowd support. Both men finally get their feet, and Dragon tries a spinning forearm, but Reckless blocks it and hits this freaked out fireman's carry into a pinning position for a 2 count. Both men get to their feet, and this time Reckless tries a clothesline, but Dragon blocks it and goes for a Dragon Suplex, but Reckless drops to the mat and rolls Dragon up for another 2 count. Dragon gets to his feet and tries another clothesline, but Reckless ducks and manages a go-behind. Dragon manages to reverse that and tries the Dragon Suplex again, but Reckless blocks it again. So Dragon lets go and clocks Youth with a spinning forearm, and this time nails the Dragon Suplex. But it only gets 2, and Dragon is in disbelief. Dragon goes to pick up Reckless, who hits a surprise forearm shot. Dragon tries a clothesline, but Reckless ducks and nails a Backdrop Suplex that deposits Dragon right on his cranium. Now Youth seems to think he's Stan Hansen, as he hits the ropes and NUKES Dragon with a clothesline that nearly turns him inside out. Youth covers, but this time it's Dragon who makes the surprise kickout at 2, and this time Youth is in disbelief. Crowd is really going nuts here, and starts another "Dragon" chant.

Youth points to the corner and makes the motion that he's going for his Frog Splash finisher. He climbs to the top, but Dragon manages to get to his feet and lay in some chops while Youth is on the top rope. Dragon climbs up and tries a superplex, but Reckless blocks it. So Dragon climbs up beside Reckless, then they both jump off and Dragon hits this nasty looking super armbreaker. Dragon follows up with the Dragon Lock (6), and Reckless has no choice but to tap out (8:52).

Match really needed another 5-10 minutes, but was super while it lasted. Keep in mind that this was a light heavyweight match, and featured no dives or high risk moves, but was still engrossing. I was really impressed with Dragon-he brings a stiffness and understanding of psychology and how to make a match flow that's rarely seen in the indies. Reckless' no-selling was a little annoying, but it really didn't detract from the match. Great stuff all around.

Fallout: Dragon advanced in the tourney, but lost in the finals to Lo-Ki. I'm not sure what he's up to these days. [TCF: Last I heard, he was back in Washington and working part time with ECCW.] Reckless went on to work in CZW in a quick feud against Minoru Fujita before injuring his back. With any luck, Reckless will heal up while Dragon can work in Japan where he'll be fully appreciated. I know it doesn't look like either guy will have a particularly happy ending, but that's the nature of the beast called Professional Wrestling.

You've probably noticed that we hit the big 2-0 of the Single File. This edition officially wraps up "Season" 2 of TSF. Season 1 ran from 1-11, and 2 from 12-20, for reasons that escape even me. Here's what's been covered in issues 1-20 (numbers in parentheses indicate which edition of the Single File the federation in question appeared in)

Federations that have appeared twice: WWF (2,5)

Federations that have appeared once: AAA (11), All Japan (9), Big Japan (10), Canadian Rocky Mountain Wrestling (19), CMLL (3), CZW (15), ECW (14), ECWA (20), FMW (13), Michinoku Pro (4), NWA (7), Osaka Pro (16), Pro Wrestling NOAH (1), Revolution Pro (12), SMW (8), Toryumon (18), WAR (17), and WCW (6).

I'm still debating whether or not the Sasuke/Tokyo match was in Michinoku Pro or Toryumon, but since it was on a Toryumon tape, I'll call it that. The WAR match was the Liger/Dragon J-Cup match, but WAR hosted the event, so it's a WAR match. Otherwise, I've hit pretty much everything. New Japan's probably the biggest omission, and maybe Battlarts and a few indies like Ohio Valley.

Wrestlers that have appeared twice: Mitsuharu Misawa (1,9), Rick Steiner (2,6), Scott Steiner (2,6), and Sid Vicious (6,7).

Wrestlers that have appeared once: Akira Taue (1), American Dragon (20), André the Giant (5), Arn Anderson (6), Art Barr (11), Ax (6), Barry Whindam (6), Bret Hart (2), Brian Pillman (6), Brian XL (15), Bryan "Nightstalker" Clarke (7), CIMA (4), Chris Devine (15), Chris Jericho (19), Christopher "Curry Man" Daniels (4), Dick Togo (16), Eddie Guerrero (11), Excalibur (12), Great Sasuke (18), Haku (5), Hayabusa (13), Hijo Del Santo (11), Ikuto Hidaka (14), Jimmy Del Ray (8), Jody Fliesh (4), Joel Maximo (15), Jose Maximo (15), Jushin Liger (17), Kenta Kobashi (1), Jun Akiyama (1), Lance Storm (19), Magnum Tokyo (18), Masato Tanaka (13), Mike Awesome (13), Minoru Fujita (4), Octagon (11), Owen Hart (2), Quiet Storm (15), Reckless Youth (20), Red (15), Ric Flair (6), Ricky Marvin (3), Ricky Morton (8), Rising Son (12), Robert Gibson (8), Sangre Azteca (3), Shadow Winger (10), Shiryu 2 (4), Smash (5), Sting (6), Super Calo (15), Super Crazy (15), Super Delfin (16), Super Dragon (12), Superboy (4), Tajiri (14), Terry Funk (13), Tom Pritchard (8), Tomoaki Honma (10), Ultimo Dragon (17), Ultrataro Jr. (12), and Vader (9). 

Noticeable absentees include Steve Austin, Chris Benoit, Toshiaki Kawada, and Shawn Michaels. Benoit and Kawada appearances are in the works, and Michaels and Austin should show up somewhere down the road. And I'm as shocked as you are that Sid has already shown up twice. In my defense, Sid's appeared in #6 as part of an 8 man tag and really did nothing, and when he popped up in #7, it was because his match with Brian "Nightstalker" Clarke is largely considered one of the worst ever. But hey, maybe I should do Sid/Shawn from Survivor Series '96 and make Sid the first 3-peater.

Anyway, there will be some changes coming in Season 3, mainly an emphasis on heavyweight matches. I've done a lot of juniors/cruiser bouts recently, mainly because I love the style, and when you cover indy and Puro matches, you are going to run into those kind of matches. But I really don't want this to turn into "Your Lucharesu Fix," so I'll be mixing things up in the months to come.

Unfortunately, it'll be a little while before you see #21. Things are getting quite busy at work (I won't bore you with the details, but trust me, my job really is boring), so it'll be a few weeks before I can get back to the important business of recapping the Sport of Kings. But don't worry, you won't be totally shut out of TSF goodness. As you may or may not be aware, TSF started over at slash/wrestling, then moved over to TCF.com starting with #4 (which is why 1-3 are missing in the archives. Well, over the next few weeks, we're going to run 1-3 here for the first time, which should tide you over 'til I get back. 

I'll be back eventually, so go read the other great things around this site and I'll check ya soon.

Joe Gagne
bwo@telegram.infi.net

Endnotes:
(1) Not to be confused with Revolution Pro's Super Dragon. Hey, there's a match I wanna see.
(2) Part of the fun of watching Dragon is picking out which spots he cribbed from Japanese workers.
(3) They both jump off the top, with Reckless driving Dragon's face into his (Reckless') knee when they hit the mat. 
(4) Think of a sideways Fisherman's Suplex.
(5) A scoop slam into an Inverted DDT. Popularized by Johnny Smith of All-Japan.
(6) I don't know if called the Dragon Lock, but I think that's a cool name. Anyway, with Reckless face-down on the mat, Dragon butterflies Reckless' arms, then rolls forward and bridges

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