Resident Evil

Btw, if you're going to compare TM to an action star or movies, it's Bruce Lee who you have to compare him to as this is easily the most accomodating fit. And for teh record, Stallone is my fav action star Edit -- Man, I am tired. I forgot to mention Bruce Lee is one of my all time favs too. Jackie Chan is awesome as well. Recent times, it would be Tony Jaa

No I didn't. I couldn't talk about Seagal if I wanted to since I'm not as familiar with his movies as I am with other action stars. Speaking of which, it's be fun to write a piece about the manly action stars of yesterday, the wimpy stars of tioday, Japanese bishonen and their effect on the men and women of today. Not average and never will be. Don't want to be. I have my faults, I have my strenths. I hate the thought of being a sheep but man alive, I am glad I am who I am. For the record, storytelling is about building tension, releasing ti and than buildin it again. S.L.L, I've seen you get things completely wrong before about weightraining and wrestling. Anyway, everything I wrote is the truth. Like it or not, it's a lot of the reason why Sayama was and is so popular withe the TM persona. Ironcially, if you can't understad why TM was so popular with the general population than it's you who is against the rest of humanity. K, I gotta get back to work now. Forgive spelling, Me in rush.

There isn't a wrestling fan in the States that doesn't, at least a little, want to be involved in what's going on. Past a heel specifically taunting members of the crowd or a babyface asking the crowd if they want "one more" of a move, I don't think there's anything that involves them so directly as the ten-count punches in the corner. This is maybe the worse move in the history of wrestling. When I first started watching the WWF, I thought it was the thing that exposed wrestling the most. This and its brother the 10 repeated head slams into the turnbuckle. Yes, it gets crowd participation but man is it horrible. There have only ever been a few people in the history of wrestling who have done great stuff with this move. I was so happy when I discovered Japanese wrestling and realised among other stupid typical North American wrestling cliches they didn't do this. I don't know but I gather the reason it is not used in the WWE anymore is because people in power realised it was pretty corny and the negatives outweighed the postives so thankfully it is gone. Good riddance and good for the WWE. Keep it is as minimal as poeple or at least only let people who can do it actually do it. Punches to the face aren't intense enough for you? A lot of the time no. The punches in the corner spot almost never looked good as far a believablity goes. Only a couple of people I have ever seen have made this spot great. A lot of times people don't put enough heart into it either. I also find it very annoying that the heels would always get caught by the move and never the faces. I also hate it when people use too many punches and make them meaningless in a wrestling match..

I don't really think you can compare TM to Valiant in that way. Sure, the goals of each were to do the best job they can in the ring for themselves and the fans but they went about it in different ways. And I would also say that if Valiant made you love him, than he wasn't horrible in the ring for you. I This reminds me that Tiger Mask would be like Goldberg during his undefeated run who is another wrestler I feel was tremendously underrated at the time. There are a lot of smiliarities there in how they engrossed the crowd through their stand out wrestling, match construction and how that helped build their aura, undefeated streak and becoming one with their gimmick through their big time stand out physical talents. K, To elaborate a little bit on tis. I don't usually like to make general statements over a wrestler's work over a period of time because each match is different and I'd rather take a look at each match instead of a whole bunch because I am not a fan of blanket statements. That being said, Sayama knew how to blend with the charactor. His matches were in an era where people were less concerned about smark analysis and more about the atheltic compettitive exhibition that was being displayed what Sayama did worked. Getting lost in the moment. You look at TM and he is a larger than life superhero from the very well known manga and TV series(s). He stands out right away due to his costume and his mask so you automatically know he's gotta be special. You are expecting this. Than you watch him wrestle and in an era (and he would still be able to do this today if he teleported in time) he blows you away. Completely blows you out of the water. I have talked a few times about how wrestlers who are so good and better than the rest of the roster that often you have a hard time buying them losing in the ring. See Eddie Guerrero or Chris Benoit. You will see them lose and think a guy who works that hard and that well would never go down that easy. Tiger Mask was in that category. In the junior class, you could never ever buy someone beating him because when wrestling is looked at a kayfabe sense ("and this was much easier to do in Japan at the time) it just doesn't make sense for him to lose. Sayama knew though to reach the next level though in invinciblity perception he would have to add on to that and he did. If you watch his matches you will see him at times do the dancing bit around the ring. PURE BLEEPING GENIUS. Right away, it tells his opponent and the fans that he is unorthodox, dangerous, confident, capable of anyhting and at any time. Than as his opponent will try to come in he will purposely miss a spin kick (I'm not sure what you call it) giving off the impressions that I just mentioned. Than a scared DK since we're talking about DK vs TM will smartly point and complain to the reff about how unfair it is. About how unfair this freak of nature is. Than we look at some of the move selection. The spot where he has opponent in his turnbuckle and than runs up his opponent and flips backwards to land on his feet (and I mark out every single time for it) also falls into this catergory. Bonus points if his confused opponent shows desparation which I have sseen DK do which only feeds into TM's aura. Than you look at the SPEED which is of upmost importance as well. When you combine all sorts of stuff like this along with all the other jaw droping stuff he does it makes for the viewer thinking he is watching the best wrestler that ever lived. As a booker you have to run with it and not look back. If you don't, you're insane. Also, if you look at Tiger Mask's matches from an overall kayfabe sense, the construction in them never fails to give off the impression that his opponents have trouble with him and he is the better wrestler. And truly, it can not be any other way for the most part because he was on such an obvioulsy higher level. Everything here is all important in building up the perception he gives to the audience. So you go with the exception of one DQ loss have Sayama have an invincibility streak. Now we see this unbelievably incredible superstar who everyone buys into defeat everyone. With his talent and his proven undefeated track record he is now a legend. Everyone is wondering who can beat him. It is extremely compelling (and helps make 4/21/83 the match it is). Everything just blends together to make Sayama da man. No wait, DA TIGER MASK. Now people even play Tekken games partly due to him. As far as Goldberg goes, I liked the construction of his squash matches and thought they helped pop the crowd which in turn helped Goldberg be the mega star he was. If the squash matches were more random, than Goldberg wouldn't be quite as popular. Same thing with Tiger Mask. Goldberg also worked with his charisma, his physical talents, the short match squashes and his undefeted streak to help build his perception and popularity. He blended everything together well just like TM did.

There isn't a wrestling fan in the States that doesn't, at least a little, want to be involved in what's going on. Past a heel specifically taunting members of the crowd or a babyface asking the crowd if they want "one more" of a move, I don't think there's anything that involves them so directly as the ten-count punches in the corner. This is maybe the worse move in the history of wrestling. When I first started watching the WWF, I thought it was the thing that exposed wrestling the most. This and its brother the 10 repeated head slams into the turnbuckle. Yes, it gets crowd participation but man is it horrible. There have only ever been a few people in the history of wrestling who have done great stuff with this move. I was so happy when I discovered Japanese wrestling and realised among other stupid typical North American wrestling cliches they didn't do this. I don't know but I gather the reason it is not used in the WWE anymore is because people in power realised it was pretty corny and the negatives outweighed the postives so thankfully it is gone. Good riddance and good for the WWE. Keep it is as minimal as poeple or at least only let people who can do it actually do it.

I don't really think you can compare TM to Valiant in that way. Sure, the goals of each were to do the best job they can in the ring for themselves and the fans but they went about it in different ways. And I would also say that if Valiant made you love him, than he wasn't horrible in the ring for you. I This reminds me that Tiger Mask would be like Goldberg during his undefeated run who is another wrestler I feel was tremendously underrated at the time. There are a lot of smiliarities there in how they engrossed the crowd through their stand out wrestling, match construction and how that helped build their aura, undefeated streak and becoming one with their gimmick through their big time stand out physical talents.

I don't agree with this. The higher the number people hear that an event took place in, the more likely they are to go and the more likely they are to get excited abouit the product. Is it the only variable a fan decides on before he goes to a sporting event? No, of course not but it is part of the equation for everyone knowingly or not knowingly even for people "who don't care" about how many people their favourite teams draw to games. It does increase attendance. How much is anybody's guess but it helps build a successful atmosphere which helps everyhting. On the other side of the coin, hearing about bad attendance will hurt a sports team's attendance.

Thank you OJ. Everybody here is underestimating him just like his matches. As far as the importance of the animated character vs Sayama himself into what helped to make Sayama with the mask so over -- They both did. Sayama worked with the TM charactor better than anyone in puroresu history (and I'm not insulting any of the other Tiger Masks, they just had such a high mountain to climb) in order to make it work. Through not only his wrestling but his body language and aura as well. They blended together like peanut butter and jam.

I remember a Brad Armstrong vs Flair match from around this time period. I think I watched it on the Canadian show Pro Wrestling Plus with Ed Whalen. Armstrong had "Candyman" on his tights. I remember really enjoying the match. Armstrong had another great match against Benoit in 96. I will vouch for Armstrong in Japan. Armstrong is a hard working, intense wrestler so that work ethic definitely helped him in Japan.

I remember watching this back in 93 and years later stating about how it may have been my fav Windham match of the year. It's the match that really made me keep an eye on Regal because after this it was obvious he had some strong wrestling skills that stood him out from the pack. I also loved the match Windham against Johnny B. Badd - Computer Challenge -- specifically the ending stretch and the ending.

Didn't Maria get groped a couple years ago at some live event? I remember reading about it and how shook up she was. I don't blame them either. Especially after going to FCW events and seeing how some of the fans treat AJ Lee. When I went to WWE a month back in Philly, it wasn't like this at all. I was on the rail and high-fived Nattie and Beth Phoenix (her tag partner) high-fived people along the other aisle rail. Maybe NYC fans are just bigger pervs... I realize there is a "Rob Naylor looks like a child" joke in here somewhere, lol. But the divas def "worked the guardrails" at the show I was at. Plain and simple, It's because you're a ladies man Rob.

People know Tiger Mask's name big time over in Japan. I have been told this by more than a couple of people who would know. But Wow, justabsolutely wow. So much anti Tiger bias pouring into some of these statements with DFA's post taking the cake. I was really enjoying talking about the animated show too. This is as about as fascinating as the time when the board had a hard time coming to grips with and not being able to accept the point of sex is to reproduce one's seed into another human being. Or the reactions to JDW's porn watching habits.

I saw some highlights of this over at DVDVR a little while ago. It looks like another insane and creative Japanese production. I'm curious on how much of it is humour and how much is drama?= And thanks for confirming how super over Tiger Mask is in Japan. Like I mentioned earlier, he is regarded as one of the biggest names in puroresu history. I once asked a guy from Italy about Tiger Mask's anime anpopularity in Italy because in my research I had noticed they had DVDs of it. Well as luck would have it, I ran into more talk about its popularity today. It truely was insanely popular over there. Voted most popular cartoon in the history of Italy and was responsible for NJPW getting airtime over there which led to NJPW touring.

Are there any fansubs around or just straight Japanese? It is straight Japanese the last time I checked. I only ever saw a sub of part of an episode of the second show in the 80s. However, the original show as well as other Japanese animation was televised in Italy back in the day and from what I have seen it is very close to the Japanese show so if one understands Italian they could watch it that way. It was a hit in Italy and they have DVDs of it over there. This is the best Tiger Mask site I ever saw as it gives summaries of every episode and all the charactors in it. Lots of cool pictures too. http://www4.airnet.ne.jp/pancra/tigre/

Words can't describe how much I love the original 1969 Tiger Mask anime. Any wrestling fan owes it to themselves to watch it. I can't say enough great things about it. Some of the best fights (Be forewarned, they make FMW or BJW look tame) I have ever seen put to movie and/or TV. Ahead of its time for the wrestling. Way ahead. They manage to just mix fantasy and real life reality into this animated blend which works so well and helps to elevate the product .... which reminds me the NWA, Giant Baba, Inoki and others are all freaking in this. Any sort of fantasy wrestling personality that you would expect or even dream of and than even more is in here. By far, the best wrestling show I have ever seen though I haven't seen them all.

That is good that you don't drink. I don't either. But yeah all kidding aside, eat as healthy as possible and exercise. Cliche sure, but cliches are cliches for a reason. We as society get bye on less than stellar habits for our bodies and because they still work enough to get bye we just keep on doing it without thinking of the true consequences.

The one match Dylan and I agree on as far as quality goes Fantastic match

Add whole organic, non pesticide raw foods instead. Yeah those pesticides on the fruit I eat are totally what's making me yawn at meetings! K, you want to mock a legit point after someone helps you out???? Time for a reality check. If you are lacking energy and yawning at meetings it is most likely due to the same cause that inflicts all of North America. Poor diet, sleep which I personally lack and lack of quality exercise. And a signifigant part of the poor diet equation is the pesticides and whatever else on the food which is helping to spread disease. It's not something to be mocked. It's reality. Remember, In life, exercise is king and nutrition is queen. Put them together and you have a kingdom. You want vitality, you want energy in life? Follow Jack LaLanne's motto. I assume since you have a family company, you work closely with your parents. The same parents you mentioned recently here that you have to protect from reading youtube comments (Do you do that with PWO too since they're often worse?) Guess what? They'd be effected a lot more by their son taking drugs and having a bad diet than reading youtube comments. You want to protect them? Than be a freaking man and set a good example by not using/and or adding drugs, eating the best possible diet you can and exercising.

Add whole organic, non pesticide raw foods instead.

The mat felt like cement in this match.

Incredible match. I remember being really impressed by this one. Highly reccomended. Camcorder version? Cool I thiught I watched this from one of the NJPW classics or history tapes. I can't remember.

I think it has to be understood that selling and or noselling does not effect everyone the same way. The exact same moment in a match could be classified in all sorts of different ways as far as selling/ no selling /partial selling goes. Selling is an individual thing on how it effects somebody. Maybe S.L.L. will pop in here with some sort of guidelines post but even than the guidelines are different for each person.

This is a terrific match. I know DW doesn't like it as much as I do but I was super into this one back in 93. Bagwell was underrated back in the early days but I beleive that is becoming more common knowledge now.

The no selling tombstones talking point is something that I strongly disagree with. Selling as some would put it does not have to mean staying down on the mat or floor for X amount of time before getting on to the next part of the match (And I will still fight in defense of the Kobashi vs Williams 93 ending by saying that not only was that not bad selling but it was FANTASTIC selling at the end by Kobashi). If you watch the end of the match closely. you will not see two nobody wrestlers hit non impact tombstones on each other, get up and act as if nothing ever happened, do some jumping jacks and than give autographs to the crowd. I have seen this happen before and it doesn't come off as believable as it does here. What you do see is the two toughest top of the line juniors having the kayfabe and nonkayfabe for that matter match of their lives in an epic feeling bout. A bout where even the two combatants don't even know how far they can take themselves. DK is pushing the legendary *undefeated TM to the limit and this tombstone trading spot right here is an excellent culmination of a match series that shows that. It is to this point the climax of their storied rivalry. We all know DK's tombstone was legit risky. TM's tombstones never looked like were they fun either. As far as legit looking tombostones good you can actually legit tell that these too tombstones connected. That is beyond insanity. That should invest a viewer into the match right there alone. I've said this before but once a wrestling fan starts thinking "They didn't sell like I wanted them to there" instead of thinking "Man alive, TM and DK are two of the baddest hombres that ever lived, how are they going to muster the strength to get up form that?" and getting lost in the moment than it is time to take a step back and at least try to allow yourself to think that way. Otherwise, the magic is gone. And that's one of the dangers of too much message boad posting and reading. Anyway, back on topic about the selling -- when I first saw this I thought it was extremely well done selling (actually, I wasn't thinking about selling but my brain registered how much the tombstones took out of them right away) and I still do to this day. DK in particular sells fatigue during this spot as well as anyone you will ever see. Look at this body language and try to deny it. I will take that type of selling a MILLION times over some mathamatical stay down X amount of time formula every day of the week.

And it's interesting to watch the crowd in that. I really do like the MSG match between the two BUT imo and I don't mean this in an insulting way that is the worse match of the whole entire series. Still, it left people marking out of their minds for these two guys who they weren't familiar with. It's totally written on their faces. I don't think it is possible for anyone to truly understand or put themselves in those shoes and give a total accurate, fair represntation of what they're watching, myself included. Now take matches that are as least as five times as good (no exaggeration) as the MSG match in Japan and see how an observer at the time will take to it. I looooved Cujo. Awesome movie. As far as the Japanese fans looking back on the series, I am not too sure on what they think. Of course, NJPW was bigger than life than and the stars from that time I hear are more fondly and often remembered. In fact, Tiger Mask I once heard was top 5 or actually I think it was top 3 biggest NJPW names in history. DK, just from watching NJPW over the years left a big impact as well seemingly on the wrestling world. Of course, he really stood out as a main rival of TM, a very strong personality and he was a foreigner. NJPW constantly mentions him over the years on commentary and to this day want to duplicate him -- See Richards who NJPW wants as DK and who is doing a terrific job in Japan these days --. You see stuff in interviews (a podcast I think) like with Lo -Ki where NJPW told him they wanted to replicate DK and IIRC (stupid memory) his feud with TM. As far as backlash against TM/DK there has always been some to be honost. For the people who view wrestling as JDW does -- they're not going to like some of the structure of the matches. Someone like Childs I can see not taking to it as much. There is also a backlash among some fans over time to certain types of matches. But from what I've seen in other places, there is also still great love for the series. It is my belief that while the structure at times can bother some of the more hardcore fans that same structure is perfectly fine with others and in cases like mine I actually like it a lot.