Blue Panther vs. Super Astro, Mexican National Middleweight Championship, AAA 10/9/92
I've always thought this match was a disappointment and still do. The matwork in the first caida is nothing special and actually pretty weak by lucha title match standards. When you consider that it's a Blue Panther title match it's even more frustrating. Worse still is the second caida. I'm sure we've all made concessions for a weak caida in the past, but a soft fall is not what you'd expect from an oft-c
Virus vs. Stuka Jr., Arena Coliseo de Guadalajara, 8/30/11
Wow, after crying out for CMLL to give Virus more time to work they finally went and did it. Thank you, CMLL.
This was a wonderfully old-school match. The matwork was short and not much more than a feeling out process, but the rope exchanges and transitions were classic lucha and the slower, more deliberate pace had a strong resonance with me. The match didn't have a big arc, but in this particular case the simplity of the mat
La Fiera v. Jerry Estrada, chain match, Monterrey, early 90s
This is the first time I can remember seeing a chain match in lucha. I've got to say it's one of the better borrowed gimmicks I've seen in Mexican wrestling. The thing I liked about this most was how random the match-up was. One of the great things about lucha is that when you think of a chain match in Monterrey, there's probably a hundred different match-ups it would suit, but you look at the billing -- Jerry Estrada and La Fiera
Blue Panther vs. Negro Casas, CMLL 4/24/11
Neither of these guys rank among my favourite lucha libre vets but this was an excellent mano a mano bout. I think it's fair to say that mano a mano bouts don't have the grandest of traditions in lucha libre. Historically, they remind me of studio matches from the territories system where the purpose was to further an angle or tease an arena match. For the most part, they were an excuse for both guys to spill a little blood before a wager match whi
On Sunday, December 18th, 2011 World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) held their "Tables, Ladders & Chairs" (TLC) Pay-Per-View (PPV). At the conclusion of that evening, at the 11 o'clock hour, both C.M. Punk & Daniel Bryan were the respective World Champions in the largest professional wrestling promotion in the world.
I could not care less.
Today, Monday the 19th, that does not seem to be the popular opinion while browsing various wrestling related websites and message forums. So
I'm thirty years old and I have a crush on AJ Lee. I now use an avatar of her on both DVDVR and here. I have no shame!
WWE Survivor Series was entertaining. No complaints. RAW the following night, however, not so much. Which this time of the year that is not usually a problem as I can just change the TV over to Monday Night Football. However that was the Patriots at home against the Chiefs, so it was a shit-kicking.
As a whole, this is as least interested in professional wrestl
Villano III vs. Rambo, mask vs. mask, 10/25/87
This was awesome. I don't know how much of it exists on tape since it was a Cronicas y leyendas de la lucha libre hatchet job that I watched, but I presume it's the whole thing since it's a handheld shot from ringside. Whatever the case, it was every bit as bloody and violent as the pictures suggest:
And everything you'd expect from a Rambo vs. Villano mask match. In fact, having watched their later hair matches it's pretty much th
WWE, to me, is in the biggest slump that I can remember for as long as I have been watching. There are so many things that irk me about the current product, that I struggle to even watch the free shows anymore. I missed RAW last week. Usually, if I miss a show, it leads to me downloading it afterward to check it out. Instead, I just read a recap and felt that that was good enough. I have not watched Smackdown in a couple of weeks, despite liking some things about it (RE: Mark Henry) recently. Wh
El Canek vs. Don Corleone, UWA World Heavyweight Championship, 2/14/82
This was okay, but I was expecting something different. I guess I was anticipating some sort of non-existent Ray Mendoza mat game from Canek, but it was pretty much your run-of-the-mill Canek match from this era. Canek was a guy who could do a lot of things athletically, but he was a bit of a boring prick really. The highlight here was Don Corelone, who had a great build for pro-wrestling and moved really beautifully. He
The last couple of weeks here on PWO, we have seen several threads talking about who was the best at working in various decades. This, in turn, led to me having a conversation in person with one of my friends about it. That conversation then spawned into a lot of listing names and trying to back-up each selection with examples of why they were great. We were better at eliminating names than being able to defend them and bump them up, for one reason or another. It probably had a lot to do with ou
In an effort to go in a new direction, I'm just going to list the things that I liked about this RAW. Sure, they might be small, little things, but I think it's better than just being completely hateful and writing paragraph after paragraph about all the shit that sucked. If you want to read that, you can read pretty much any message forum following that show.
THINGS I LIKED:
- The disarray to start the show, the slow pan showing to an empty commentary table.
- Natalya's dress.
I want to believe that this is good news. I want to believe that this means things will change for Impact Wrestling (although I do think that lately they have done some pretty good stuff, namely the Bobby Roode build). I want to believe that this means TNA will have a more steady, logical, and fun directiion. Most importantly, they need continuity. However, due to pessimism and a less than stellar track record, I can not give TNA the benefit of the doubt. So I will have to take a "wait-and-see"
At Hell in a Cell (the previous night), The Miz & R-Truth did a run-in after the WWE title main event. This is a black & white picture of the aftermath. It is also the reason why I cared to watch RAW at all...and I'm glad that I did!
From reading around various websites today, the feelings on RAW last night seem to be.. mixed. I, however, liked the majority of what I saw. Namely the closing angle with everyone walking out on C.O.O. Triple H & the awesome 12-man tag team match (w
Oct. 03, 2011
* Mark Henry is the best thing in all of U.S. wrestling in 2011. I hated him running away from Orton & his chair after the match though. Nice to know that a Hell in a Cell match can not end a feud!
I'm not sure why no one here seems to use the blog feature anymore, but I wanted to jot some of my random wrestling thoughts lately down. This will be pretty unorganized and focus a lot on current WWE or TNA. Although I'll occasionally hit a nostalgia trip and mention so
Atlantis vs. La Fiera, NWA World Middleweight Championship, 4/3/92
It's weird watching a match where one of the participants gets stabbed to death years later but that's wrestling I guess. I'm not going to eulogise La Fiera too much, but he was part of that generation of luchadores who debut in the late 70s and ushered in a more contemporary style of lucha libre. By the time the 90s rolled around, his body was already showing the effects of that new working style, but he managed to make the
Haven't checked in on my favourite mat worker for a while. This may come as a shock, but he's still wrestling Solar.
Negro Navarro vs. Solar, Ultimo Dragon Produce, 7/19/10
Negro Navarro vs. Solar, AAA Arena Neza, 1/8/11
It was interesting watching these back-to-back. The Korakuen Hall bout was their typical touring match which we've seen them do in Japan before, while the match from Nezahualcoyotl was a lucha libre title match for the belt Navarro holds. On the surface, it seems lik
Pierrothito vs. Demus 3:16, CMLL 8/24/10
I can't be the only one who didn't know that Pequeño Damián 666 changed his name to Demus 3:16, can I?
This was the final of a "Bicentenial tournament" to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Mexican independence and the 18th anniversary of CMLL's Mini-Estrella division, with the winner earning a shot in the regular CMLL weight classes much like Virus did many years ago. The finalists were determined with torneo cibernetico elimination matches,
Comando Negro vs. Pollo, mask vs. mask, IWRG 12/26/10
This is the fantastic mask vs. mask match from Boxing Day between Comando Negro and a guy in a chicken suit. Just an outstanding rudo performance from Comando Negro -- everything you'd want from a rudo beating up a guy in a chicken suit. I really can't overstate how perfectly this worked. First you had Comando Negro completely and utterly outclassing his opponent, stepping out of the way on the best missed dive I've seen in ages. Then yo
Chico Che vs. Comando Negro, hair vs. mask, IWRG 12/9/10
Chico Che had a fantastic year in 2010. Last year it was Trauma II getting all the plaudits as most improved; this year it has to be Che. He started off as something of a fatboy novelty I suppose, but this match confirms what a good worker he's become. Usually, I'd fire off a bit of hyperbole about how much better he is than everyone else for the hell of it, but the message I want to get across is that he's a guy who everyone should b
Big bomb throwing. This is a week all about big bomb throwing.
Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Mr. Gannosuke (FMW, 4/21/1998)
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlcOdRRml8U
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADY6cZJ-U4Q
This is just a great bomb throwing festival between two guys with a long standing blood feud, who aren’t interested in dancing around, but instead a match where both guys are just playing for a KO from pretty much moment #1.
Shinzaki is a guy that a lot of the t
MATCH OF THE WEEK (Which also happens to be on YouTube, hey ho):
Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Rusher Kimura – 2 out of 3 falls (All Japan Pro Wrestling, 3/28/1976)
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmO5pJT8dZw
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqJDZb2hbnk...feature=related
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk5kRUC3WXQ...feature=related
Hopefully a few things that I want to pull out of my own collection to talk about are on YouTube as well. Luckily this was, and it looks like
I love professional wrestling.
In the end that’s what it all boils down to for all of us into this crazy mixed up world, and I can’t think of a better statement to open this blog with. A lot of us have at one point or another taken a hiatus and yet we’ve come back, for one reason or another. But those four opening words hold true, at least to certain eras, or wrestlers, or matches, or crazy promos. And so I’m back to try this thing they call being a wrestling fan one more time.
The las
El Hijo Del Santo, Octagon, Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Blue Panther, Fuerza Guerrera, Psicosis (AAA 6/30/95)
Perhaps it's just me, but I've always considered Santo/Octagon/Mysterio Jr vs. Blue Panther/Psicosis/Fuerza Guerrera to be the premier trios match-up from this era of AAA. I guess it's because their 3/16/95 match was one of the first tapes that was recommended to me when I was starting out. I can still remember the enjoyment I got from that early taste of lucha libre; and while I've seen m
