ohtani's jacket

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.

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.

Hijo Del Santo/Octagon/El Mexicano/El Mariachi vs. Blue Panther/Fuerza Guerrera/Espanto Jr./Psicosis (AAA, 8/19/94) Moving onto the Panther vs. El Mariachi feud. I guess this is technically part of the Panther/Octagon feud since they're opposing captains. I hated those Panther/Octagon matches with a passion, and I'm in two minds about whether to revisit them. The rudos do all the nasty stuff to El Mariachi, and you get a decent look at both his face and Fuerza's face, if you're into that type of thing. There's a lot of talent in this match. It's not structured in a particularly interesting way, but there's a certain charm to its looseness. It's fun just watching great workers riffing. Panther, unsurprisingly, does nothing, and might as well have not even been in the match. My concern going forward is that Solar deliberately tries to work like a different wrestler under the Mariachi guise, but we'll have to see how that plays out.

It's just a loan word. We use English words all the time to describe things that have their own names in overseas wrestling territories. Other countries use their own terms to describe American wrestling. Do you get upset when the French refer to American wrestling as Catch?

Well, technically Relevos australianos are trios matches under captain's rules, but I don't think too many people pay attention to that stipulation. A three person team is a trio, and when they compete in a match with another trio, they have a trios match.

Blue Panther vs. Super Astro (AAA October 18th, 1992) The build up to this match wasn't anywhere near as good as the Azteca match, but this ended up being the better of the two titles matches. It was surprisingly slow for a AAA, and Super Astro, match, but the ringwork was fascinating. Panther was in his element here. Anyone who complains about lucha not having believable psychology, selling or transitions needs to study Panther's performance in this bout. Those terms are probably outdated in 2025, but Panther was basically on song here. I thought he was doing his goofy overselling on one spot until I realized that it was a theme throughout the bout. He had a tendency to sell having his head slammed into the canvas like he was Curt Hennig pinballing off a lariat, but it was centered around Super Astro's tope, and the payoffs were sublime. You kind of have to take an old-school approach to flat back bumps meaning as much as they do in this bout, but they are consistent with the narrative and I didn't have a problem with that particular part of the bout. The best thing about the bout is that it's competitive in a way that all title bouts should be. There is an outstanding nearfall in the tercera that has you mentally counting along with the ref, and even the match winning fall has a fantastic leverage moment. I have no problem with anyone calling this a 4 star lucha match. I thought it was one of the best Panther performances I've seen albeit in a different way from someone like Santo. If I'd never revisited this, I would have probably dismissed it in an offhand way. I do have some questions surrounding why Panther can be so brilliant in this match yet barely there in trios bouts, but I no longer have any doubts over his wrestling IQ.

Pantera Del Ring & Solar I & Súper Astro vs. Blue Panther & Ice Killer I & Jerry Estrada (AAA, 10/2/92) This was more of a spectacle than the previous match, but still not a great match. Panther and Astro worked a nice back and forth lucha exchange early on, but their brawling was fairly generic. Solar had some fantastic exchanges with Ice Killer, of all people. Folks always ask what Solar's best matches are. The truth is we don't really know whether Solar had great singles matches or not. What we do know is that if you watch sequences like Solar vs. Ice Killer, you get a picture of why people regard him as an outstanding worker. Monterrey star, Pantera Del Ring, has some decent exchanges with Estrada, but it's mostly Solar, and Astro and Panther, that carry this bout.

Do the clips!

If you didn't have to mortgage your soul to get anything out of the Archive, we'd have more 60s footage available. They keep changing the rules about who can access the stuff, too. For a while, they allowed private use, but now it's back to business use only. A few years back, you had to pay an exorbitant fee just to get them to search for a match. It's probably better now that they've digitalized a lot of the reels, but a single match generally costs hundreds of pounds to acquire. Who wants to pay that much for a match of unknown quality or length?

That's too bad. Makes you grateful for what we do have from the INA.