ohtani's jacket

It seems strange that they were filming matches that didn't air on French television unless they were unused. I wonder if they had commentary. Do you think it was 30 original matches or repeats?

Where was Monaco getting the footage from?

This is such a fascinating match. Booking wise, it's almost like Bob Backlund taking on one of the Wild Samoans at the Spectrum, though Umaga is treated more like Kamala than one of the Samoans with that handler of his. There's no way that this match should be as good as it is, but I guess Cena felt like he had a point to prove. The match layout is simple but smart. Cena sells the ribs well. Cena blades well. The only thing he doesn't do well is throw a convincing right hand, but he does enough damage to hurt the monster that the victory feels earnt. It may be a candidate for Cena's best match, and a WWE MOTD contender, though if I were to quibble, they could have probably put Cena's title in more jeopardy town the stretch. Umaga should have probably got the spike on. Nice throwback match to how WWF champions used to be booked.

Faulkner always came across as a smart ass to me. Cheeky is a nice way of putting it. It was absolutely part of his persona, and therefore part of his gimmick. He used comedy to varying degrees, depending on the venue and the matchup, but could also work as a pissed off babyface or a serious technical wrestler. The type of comedy that Faulkner and McMichael did, in my opinion, breaks the fourth wall and is a wink and a nod to the most astute fans in the audience, though I suspect the majority of the audience simply found it amusing. It's a reminder that the taped matches were in essence house show bouts, and you often find comedy in house show bouts. I don't particularly like it when a face like Faulkner uses his technical skills to belittle or mock his opponent, even if the opponent is a heel. I find that type of behavior annoying. It makes me want to root for his opponent. I understand that the majority of the audience see it as the heel getting their comeuppance, or their just desserts, but I much prefer to see a guy like Faulkner become furious over a heel's tactics than act like a dick. I do think there is a distinction between a guy like Faulkner and someone like Kellett, who was always dropping punchlines into his work. I would much sooner watch a Kellett match than a Faulkner match, for what it's worth. I dislike a lot of the other comedy workers, though. Kellett is interesting because of how crusty he is, and his reputation for being a hard bastard, while hamming it up for the audience.

The cheeky vs. comedy thing.

If you can explain the gist of what they're saying, that would be great. I tried watching the video but they behave like a pair of twats.

Only you could extrapolate that much out of a midgets match.

Pretty sure that's not Dick Murdoch. Serge in the comments says he was a French wrestled named Alain Lesage.

You keep touting that Steve Wright theory like it's a) the empirical truth, and b) Steve Wright did anything special.

This was a fairly shitty performance from Atlantis, though to be fair he was kind of stuck in a role similar to Espanto Jr having to do the El Santo Negro gimmick. So, you have this black Atlantis trying to bully Mistico, who he's noticeably bigger than, while the real heat is on Black Warrior, who interferes at the end. To an extent, it didn't matter, since people just wanted to see Mistico's dives anyway, but the best thing Atlantis did the entire match was steal the trophy at the end. I was surprised that they showed Mistico's face as clearly as they did, too.

Blue Panther/Fishman/Fuerza Guerrera vs. El Mariachi/El Charro de Jalisco/El Mexicano (AAA, 10/22/94) This was mostly a boring, rudo-driven match but it had its moments in the tercera caida. I'm starting to hate Panther's bouncing, over-sell spot. I guess it's designed to draw a DQ from the rudo ref, but it comes across as goofy. I'd love to understand the rationale behind having matches with so much violence in them when the title match is going to be worked cleanly. Not only did Solar blade in this bout, but Panther licked the man's blood off his hand. They did have some exciting moments brawling, though, which showed that Solar had a bit of fire in him. I thought he sold the finish well, but again, why the blood?

Georges Cohen vs. Black Shadow (7/16/83) As the biggest Cohen fan I know, I was quite happy to see some new footage turn up. After watching this, I have no doubt that Cohen was one of the best workers in Europe during the early 80s, comparable to Zrno, Van Buyten, or any of the WoS guys. Structurally, it offered a little bit of everything -- flashy technical wrestling, brawling, face-in-peril, and a fired up babyface comeback. It reminded me of the classic matches of the 50s without the amazing crowds. I was somewhat sympathetic towards Black Shadow as I feel European babyfaces tend to be dicks in the way they humiliate the heels technically, especially heels that can actually wrestle like Shadow. However, Shadow crossed the line and took things too far. The brawling at the end is what I imagine most fans enjoyed seeing more so than the technical wrestling, as I imagine most fans just want to see a fight, but I liked the way they touched all of the bases here. This was very good for what it was.

Mil is the third biggest star in lucha history. His gimmick was created specifically for him to a wrestling and movie star at the same time, and is one of the most successful lucha gimmicks of all-time, but he was hand picked for the role and there was nothing generic about him regard to his physique or the gimmick itself. That fact that he got over as a babyface star in Japan is also anything but generic. A lot of luchadores have worked in Japan since but none of them have gotten over to the extent that Mil did, and that was with Mil using a different style than he did in Mexico. I get the point you're trying to make, but Mil is a poor example. I don't know if Herve worked in Mexico or not. I imagine that if he did, we'd have some record of it. I don't think his style of wrestling or the gimmicks he used specifically came from lucha.

Mascaas was many things, but generic masked babyface wasn't one of them.

El Mexicano/El Mariachi/El Charro vs. Blue Panther/Fuerza Guerrera/Psicosis (AAA, 10/14/94) El Mariachi, and Los Folkloricos, have some fancy new threads since the last time we saw them. I'm not sure what the rationale was behind repackaging two excellent tecnicos in Solar and Angel Azteca as Los Folkloricos other than the fact that Pena loved to come up with new gimmicks. Super Astro had already jumped to CMLL by this point, so we ween't going to see the continuation of that excellent trio. Panther and Mariachi had some excellent exchanges in this bout. Whether they would have been better as Solar vs. Panther exchanges is anyone's guess. Normally, I'd question Panther's role as the lead guy here, but when your partners are as flamboyant and charismatic as Fuerza and Psicosis, you can get away with taking a backseat. This match was a reminder of how great Fuerza was during his AAA run. He was the glue that held together this entertaining bout. This was so good even the screwy DQ finish didn't put a damper on it.