ohtani's jacket

Hey, we won a test series in India in my lifetime. I think it translates to a pro-wrestling ring as well, though a lot of people appear to love Danielson's mat wrestling. I find Danielson's matwork to be post-modern, for want of a better work, compared to Brisco's classical style. I'm sure there's a comparison between Indian batsmen that can be made.

I'm gonna change tack for a bit as there's quite a few guys I'm interested in watching in AAA. Lizmark, Mascara Sagrada, Octagon vs. Jerry Estrada, La Parka, Satanico (AAA, 6/4/93) This was Satanico's debut in AAA. He got a nice little entrance. I thought Satanico vs. Lizmark would be the vocal point here, but Lizmark matched up with his rival Jerry Estrada instead (with Parka lurking in the background.) I didn't mind that since Lizmark and Estrada are a great matchup (probably my favorite Estrada matchup, tbh.) Satanico would up working with the gimmick wrestlers. Given Satanico doesn't have a great rep for his work against gimmick guys, I thought he was pretty damn good here. Granted, he was on debut, but never let it be said that Satanico wouldn't work with the gimmick guys when he wanted to. Lizmark was so great in 1993. A lot of the stuff he does is subtle and doesn't jump off the screen like Santo, but he was a great tecnico. This was entertaining for a match that ended up breaking down. Sagarada hit a great tope. I feel bad for all the shit I said about him back in the day. I should say ten Hail Marys or something. Satanico bullied the shit out of Octagon. Not sure if that was to get him over in his debut or to test the waters for a program. IIRC, they were booked against each other in CMLL (possibly by Pena), though I don't remember their Arena Coliseo match being particularly good.

This was a weak fatal four way full of superhuman comebacks and finisher spamming. The finish sucked too. Why booked this show? It reminded me of some of the weak triple threat matches Cena had when he was feuding with Angle and Michaels.

I don't know what a motte and bailey is, but the post above me said that Danielson was better at most things in wrestling. He wasn't better at wrestling than Brisco. That was my point.

Brisco was clearly the better wrestler. he was an NCAA champion. Danielson was a pro-wrestler. I wouldn't object if anyone thought Danielson was the better worker, though I don't think it's cut and dried. Danielson was obviously better at modern day wrestling, but I don't think he could have filled the shoes of Brisco in the 1970s. Brisco has footage issues, but the Florida clips suggest he was capable of wrestling heated matches. The Briscos were a great tag team and capable of working heel. Post-prime Brisco was solid, and he was much better in Japan than Danielson.

This couldn't match the buzz that their WrestleMania match generated but it wasn't from a lack of effort. The Smackdown bookers booked themselves into a corner by making this a Last Man Standing Match and then not having either man lay down for a 10 count. There was some slightly interesting stuff early on with Taker's bad elbow and Bastista's bandaged hamstring, but it didn't play into the finish. I did like Take's leg drop onto the announce table, and the way JBL jumped the barricade while Cole was sitting on top of it like a puppet. Again, they were out of synch on commentary. I never thought I'd pine for the days of Taz. The crowd seemed unimpressed with the finish. It was a unique visual, but I don't think anyone wanted to see a draw. Credit to Batista, though, for this feud having legs.

I think it goes without saying that Brisco was a far better wrestler.

I approached this match with a healthy dose of skepticism, but this was an excellent wrestling match. It had all the beats of a typical WWE main event yet it felt as though each beat was perfectly executed. Great selling from both guys. Michaels toned down his ham acting and delivered a performance that was on point. You know a match is good when instead of mentally checking off the spots you'd expect them to do, you find yourself engrossed in them instead.

Such a great worker. My dream is one day the vaults will open and dozens of new Cortez matches will emerge.

He made his in-ring debut in 1967, but didn't debut on television until 1980, which may or may not have been what i was referring to.

Larry Hamilton vs. Don Arnold (8/31/53) I'd previously only seen the final few minutes of this. This was as close to a complete version as television would allow. It seemed to have been broadcast in Portland since the TV commercials were endorsed by a Portland-based drug store. The commercials were for weight loss remedies, sleeping pills, and happy pills, and almost as interesting as the match itself. Good, clean match with some solid wrestling. A good example of a technical bout not wrestled by a Thesz or Gagne. Welsh tried to make a story out of Hamilton being frustrated but there was nothing to it. I guess Welsh was trying to explain away the boos the wrestlers received when they used the ropes to break a hold.

I thought Undertaker was excellent in this. He seemed spurred on by the fact that the crowd was behind him. Batista couldn't match Taker's intensity, but they turned things up a notch after Undertaker almost took out Lilian Garcia. Worked at a decent clip and never boring. Some good action down the stretch. The commentary was awful, though. JBL couldn't finish his sentences properly and Cole kept repeating the same inane talking points. JR and King would elevated this a notch.

All right, I'm finally in the mood to watch some wrestling again. Blue Panther vs. El Mariachi (AAA, 10/30/94) This was the best Panther vs. Mariachi match you could have hoped for. There was no mask ripping, no blood, no weak brawling. They downplayed any sort of heel/face dynamic, and Tirantes reffed a clean match. You could probably argue that if Solar had been wrestling as himself the mat exchanges would have been better. He went for more of a strength approach here, and there were a lot of exchanges done from a vertical base, but I didn't mind that as one look at Panther ought to tell you that he's a strong dude. The flat back bump played a huge role in this match. Mariachi was pretty much head dropped into submission by lucha standards. I thought he did a pretty good job of selling the bumps, especially on impact, but his dizzy spells were a bit off at times. That's a minor quibble, but it was noticeable that it wasn't something he was used to doing. A clean tercera was heaven sent. They didn't work as many near falls as you sometimes see in high stakes matches, but there was a solid progression to the finish. Probably Panther's best singles match in AAA. The Azteca match was more exciting, but the work here was better. It's a shame we didn't get more matches like this from Panther's AAA run, but lucha always leaves you wanting more.

Thank you!

Antonio Inoki was many, many things, but Miles Davis he was not. I get the analogy, but no. He did have one of the most larger than life careers in the history of pro-wrestling, though. The likes of which I doubt we'll see again.

FWIW, I helped send footage of Tony Borg to his family over a decade ago. They made a hidden video of Tony's reaction, which was delightful.

That's so cool.

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.