Loss

Talk about it here. EDIT: Video now deleted from YouTube

It’s about time I watched some Jim Londos, one of the biggest names in the history of American wrestling – on par with Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin. While this footage is also sped up, it’s in better condition and much easier to watch than Stetcher-Caddock. Londos is a spry guy who’s also short and stacked. He actually reminds me of Carl Greco. It’s interesting to see what type of stuff gets the biggest reaction – teased strikes, submission attempts and surprise counters. I suppose that’s not all that different from RINGS. Shikat gets Londos in a sweet short arm scissors takedown and Londos has some cool counters at his disposal. They also get a lot of mileage out of Londos’ short-arm scissors – they are able to work in and out of it multiple times, and they get over Londos’ ability to keep the hold on despite some nifty counter attempts. I don’t expect this to set anyone’s world on fire, but it’s really fun viewing and these guys are really good at earnestly working the mat. It really does look like proto-RINGS, with the biggest difference being that they do leave themselves more obviously open for counters. But you’d expect wrestling to evolve with time on that sort of thing, so that’s hardly a flaw. This footage is really just highlights, so it’s hard to discuss or really figure out the match layout. But it does appear to be worked on a steady plane – you don’t see drama building as it progresses as much as you do just see them working from a pretty big reserve of holds and exchanges. Londos gets in some palm strikes and then does a snapmare as a highspot, which may not seem very thrilling, but it was, because it reminds me how even transitional moves can be cool. I’d imagine most people had never seen one in 1930, and for those of us who consume way too much wrestling, it’s easy to forget just how much appeal even the most basic moves can have if they are presented in an interesting way. Remember what I said about the drama not really building to a crescendo? Yeah, scratch that. By the end of this, they are hitting a series of throws and takedowns that has the crowd popping like crazy, and suddenly this is Tamura vs Yamamoto before Tamura vs Yamamoto. I feel like on most of this old footage, because of all the edits, I’m not going to walk away with big takeaways regarding the match quality, but I can walk away with lasting impressions of the wrestlers involved. And Jim Londos is someone who I am eager to watch again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUINQAgH1j0

While clips of older matches certainly exist, I am fairly certain that this is the oldest match that exists on videotape where we get a significant portion of the match instead of a minute or less of highlights. It’s difficult to provide too much critique of this match not only because I have no grasp of the normal working style at the time, but also because the footage is grainy and shot from a distance. The match pre-dates the National Wrestling Alliance as we know it just as it predates the television-fueled wrestling boom of the 1950s, where the template was created for what pro wrestling looks like today. Like much older footage, it also appears to have been slightly sped up, and distinguishing the wrestlers from each other would be virtually impossible. I realize this isn’t really a review, but it’s difficult to review a match like this. I think the mere preservation of the footage is an accomplishment on its own, and it has immense value as a historical clip. How cool is it that we have footage of a match that is nearly 100 years old? I found a few brief clips of President Woodrow Wilson during this time period when searching YouTube, but nothing approaching 25 minutes of film. Hopefully, 100 years from now, it’s much easier for our wrestling fan successors to watch footage from this era.

Earl Caddock (c) vs Joe Stetcher World Heavyweight Championship January 30, 1920 New York, NY The World's Championship Wrestling Match Between Joe Stetcher And Earl Caddock Related

Could Cesaro even be considered hot now though? It would be more like getting rid of a hiccup. No, he's not, really. It's just that he's the closest thing to the other names listed.

It's interesting that these are the months that have over the last few years cooled off Nexus, CM Punk, Ryback, Daniel Bryan and Dean Ambrose. Who will be this year's victim? Cesaro?

Regardless of how good the show is or what the match outcomes are, it's par the course for WWE to get really boring or actively bad from September-December until they start building to Wrestlemania in January. They aren't exactly hot right now anyway, so hang on tight.

I think you're arguing that the Perfectplex doesn't look convincing enough. And Jingus is arguing that he doesn't think that's important because it was a move that was presented as credible for nearly 18 months before this, and that in wrestling, the presentation and booked consequences of moves is more important than how good they look aesthetically. Actually, Hogan did have the shining moment you like from him too, because I believe this was the first time anyone had ever kicked out of the move (unless Hogan or Warrior did it in their house show series earlier in the year). It was definitely the first on national television.

I could see Sting-Bray at Wrestlemania. That has no appeal to me, though.

Cesaro-Owens is kind of an unfortunate feud because Cesaro should win, but Owens needs to be rebuilt. There's nowhere to go but down when your first program out of the gate is with John Cena. I wish the card had been laid out in a way where both had the chance to win important matches, but Cesaro is the guy with the momentum right now. Amazing how fast things change. I don't even know that beating Cena in his first match means anything for him anymore.

Assuming Cena is physically up to it, I could see them putting him over this month and having him defend both titles and pull double duty as a short-term thing. It will drive the hardcores crazy, but it's a cool thing that has never been done before that would be fun to see as something fresh for a few weeks at least. I like the idea of booking him to defend both titles in two separate matches at Night of Champions.

Brock should beat Undertaker and they should never, ever face each other again. But I don't think that's how it's going to play out.

Dalton Castle is a babyface? I've only seen the Liger match, but the mocking spots (and the way the announcers spoke of him) made me sure he was a heel.

Paige is just such a force of personality. I wish she could let loose on regular TV.

This is spawned by a conversation tomk and I had on Twitter. Think of as many ECW-turned-York-Foundation new gimmick names as possible. For example: Robert Van Dam Christopher Chetti Rhinocerous Daniel Doring Maybe this could be in game form where the idea is to keep going back and forth. Anyone who has longer than a five-second delay has to do whatever you want the loser to have to do.

I would also infer from your list that you see the two best workers of the last 15 years as Danielson and Rey, which in many ways just *feels* right and probably is.

That's awesome to hear. It seems like most of the complete arena footage we've had for years post-dates JYD at his peak in stardom, so it's good to have a better look at that now.

Is Michael Hayes someone you would consider? Also, what about Dr. Death? I'm just curious where you think they stand.

Actually, what I was thinking of was Vince's worked MBA.

I'm just the messenger.

I want to clarify my question. Keeping the relationship strong with New Japan and improving certain things about the booking are fine and may help them some, but I mean my question more in a tactical way. What's a smaller company to do when a larger one is determined to lock them out of buildings and sign away their talent? Would babyfacing themselves to the viewing audience as David fighting Goliath do any good? I think it's a bigger question than "How does ROH improve their product?"

Up until a few months ago, NXT was seen as developmental, but they don't view it that way anymore. They have said as much. I think that's a bit short-sighted and I can't see how they can sustain it long-term, but there has been a major shift in thinking over the last few months. It seems like this is HHH's Bangor, Maine.