ohtani's jacket

Antonio Inoki vs. Akira Maeda (5/27/83) This is a match I've always wanted to see as it was Maeda's first real shot against Inoki. Nothing earth shattering, but Inoki let Maeda get in a few good licks. As usual, Inoki vs. native was a thousand times better than Inoki vs. a foreigner. If Maeda had stayed in New Japan we might have seen some bigger matches between these two so it was an interesting window into what might have been. Maeda gets a bad rap for his pre-UWF work, IMO. For a young heavyweight, I find him to be pretty solid both in Europe and Japan. Maybe a bit too much of the ol' bland, black tights, no personality for some, but he looked like a promising talent.

Hollywood Blondes vs. Antonio Inoki & Seji Sakaguchi (10/2/75) This was an interesting styles clash. The Blondes wanted to work their bread and butter US heel style but of course Inoki wanted to keep things on the mat. I thought the Blondes did a decent job of adapting to a mat-based style. Eventually, they got to cut loose and there was all of the blood, violence and mayhem that you'd expect from American heels. Inoki was well-versed in that sort of thing so it worked fairly well, but as usual with his tags, the rhythm and pacing was uneven and the falls felt long and loosely connected. Antonio Inoki vs. Mr. X (2/6/79) Inoki mixed martial arts fights had jumped the shark at this point. Beyond awful. Antonio Inoki vs. Seji Sakaguchi (4/21/78) This was epic. These two were such a good match-up. I don't think I'm crazy for saying that. Sakaguchi didn't have a dazzling persona or a ton of charisma but I'll be damned if he wasn't a better worker than he was ever given credit for. He was a really great foil for Inoki as the number two native.

Mile Zrno vs Klaus Kauroff (Hannover 11/9/91) This was fun. Kauroff was a short, bald-headed, barrel-chested powder keg who could really go. For a while, he was able to keep Zrno grounded and made Mile look pretty meek and ineffective, but then Zrno beat the shit out of him and he wasn't able to continue anymore. Mile has that mean streak in him, doesn't he?

Owen Hart vs. Danny Boy Collins (handheld 11/2/91) This was a good match. It was worked in more of an international juniors style than the classic British wrestling style, but as I've argued many times in the past, British wrestling was steering toward a more global style in the early 90s, and had no choice really given the wrestling climate at the time. Owen did all the things you'd expect 1991 Owen to do. Even though it was the rounds system, I thought he did a good job of pacing it as a normal match. The early rounds were competitive and hard fought, and the match escalated well. Worth watching if you've exhausted all your World of Sport options. It made me want to revisit the Marty Jones match, which I was never very fond of because I was sold on Grey vs. Myers as the epitome of the British style with Owen being a fish out of water. But perhaps it looks better through the lens of a late period WoS match.

Al Hayes vs. Guy Robin (aired 3/22/57) This was a decent match. I wouldn't regard Hayes as one of the finer British technicians, but he was popular at the time and a regular at the Royal Albert Hall so it was interesting to see him in action. The only other footage we have of him from this early is the tag match from Paul Lincoln Promotions. Lincoln promoted a style of wrestling that had a real US influence with lots of colorful gimmicks. Hayes played the blue eye lead against this cast of characters, and you can kind of see elements of that in this match. As is so often the case, it was the heel that captured the imagination. We've seen Robin once before in the Bob ALPRA footage. He looked like a savvy performer. I liked the way he progressed from comedy spots to serious heel heat. I definitely want to see the rest of his footage since talented undercard performers are always a treat.

Eddy Wiecz (Edouard Carpentier) & Eddy Koparanian vs. Andre Bollet & Georges Gueret (aired 2/23/56) This was tremendous. Carpentier is a guy I've had mixed feelings about, but he was in his element here against guys who knew how to bump and sell for his offense. Bollet was incredible in this match. The first thing you notice about him from the Andre match is how quick and athletic he is. Then you start to notice the bag of tricks -- the counters, the selling, and the theatrics. He came across as a master. In the Andre match, I compared him to Mick McManus, but I've seen McManus matches from the 60s and Bollet looks even better here. I felt like I was watching Arn Anderson at times and that's about the highest compliment you can pay a wrestler. Gueret also looked like a talented performer and I enjoyed all of the heel antics in this bout. But it was the babyfaces that made this match. I've seen a lot of 50s matches where the heel cheats, the babyface retaliates, the heel cheats, the babyface retaliates. What I liked about this match was that the babyfaces were clearly the better, stronger team and it was all the heels could do to keep up with them. That was refreshing considering how good these heels were stooging. This was a great addition to the canon.

Kader Hassouni/Claude Rocca vs. Bernard Caclard/Albert Sanniez (aired 3/20/76) This was an absolute gem of a match. European tag wrestling hasn't given me many reasons to be a fan of it but this match was a glimpse into what might be possible with the right heel team. Caclard and Sanniez were super slick as the lightweight heel team with the matching trunks. Caclard came across as a vicious little shit while Sanniez matched technique with divine bumping and selling. Rocca and Hassouni were vanilla by comparison, but they fulfilled their core role which was to retaliate to the heel tactics. I loved Sanniez jawing with the fan in the crowd and the older guy getting annoyed with the fan for carrying on with it. And Caclard attacking Delaporte was gold. I am sure there were a lot of matches like this in the halls in England with the Hells Angels (Bobby Barnes and Adrian Street) or Sid Cooper and Alan Dennison but never made ITV in this form. If I was recommending a list of the very best Euro matches of the 70s, this would make the list for sure.

Andre the Giant (Jean Ferre) vs. Andre Bollet (12/68) This was another look at Andre as a young heavyweight star. His opponent, Andre Bollet, was a big name in French wrestling and resembled a French Mick McManus. It was a fairly predictable bout and not that exciting but it was interesting to see Andre work a standard heel vs face heavyweight bout and none of that monster heel freak show stuff. Like all matches of this ilk, the best parts where when Andre started get riled at the shots Bollet was dishing out. Andre had to hold back a bit since he was meant to be the face, but Bollet looked like he could be dynamite against the right opponent. Apparently, there are only four full length Andre matches in the INA archives but there is footage of him against the likes of Jack de Lasartesse which hopefully surfaces.

Lino Di Santo vs Jack Van Dooren (aired 1/11/57) I enjoyed this. When I went through the British style, I developed a real soft spot for the heavyweights. This had a ceiling since it was JIP but it was good while it lasted. It was a classic Euro bout where they can't better each other with technique so they start with the rough stuff. They didn't flesh it out like the Corn bout but it was clearly a go-to style even in the 50s. Di Santo is a guy we've seen before in the match with the young Horst Hoffman. So far he seems like a bit of a journeyman, but he was definitely solid. They way they wrapped it up kind of made you realize why it was a lower card match that was JIP but it was neat and tidy. Jacky Corn vs. Luis El Gayo (aired 1/11/57) I think this is the first footage we have of Corn. He was a prominent name in the 50s and 60s catch broadcasts. I'm pretty sure he was a middleweight (at least at this stage of his career.) This was faster paced than the heavyweight match with a lot of tosses and the odd wrist lock or head scissors. The Spaniard wrestler, El Gayo, was a lot of fun, especially when he started getting heat for himself. Corn was good but it's always hard to identify with the baby faces in this type of footage. It was clearly a showcase for him but he didn't exactly set the world on fire. The match was a lot of fun when it broke down and the forearm smash contest was well worked. I really liked the escalation in the final minutes.

New Zealand deserves some joy against England this year but I suspect the result will be a draw.

Well, if Harley Race can die there's no hope for the rest of us.

I grew up in New Zealand. WWF Superstars began airing in 1988. We got to see the PPVs on television but we never got to see Saturday Night's Main Event aside from the clips that aired on Superstars. We were several months behind and were bombarded with spoilers in the TV guide, a trashy tabloid named "The Truth," the WWF magazine and the Apter mags. The video stores had a lot of random tapes with non-WWF stuff, and we also knew about the existence of other territories from the Apter magazines but I remember the territorial stuff seeming a bit bush league to me as a kid. The only guys who caught my imagination were guys like Sting or the Road Warriors because of their get-ups and face paint. The WWF aired until 1991. It was taken off the air because it was too violent and too many kids were copying the moves. The video shops still ordered the tapes but it was out of sight, out of mind for me. Worldwide began airing on Satellite TV in 1994 and eventually other WWF and WCW syndicated shows began to air as the mid-90s boom took over. Eventually, we had one-hour edited versions of Nitro and RAW, but on the whole, I think our wrestling experience was unique in that it really revolved around PPVs and magazines. I can't imagine too many fans who grew up with spoilers the way we did whether it was in the magazines, on the syndicated shows or later on the internet. We were such a small market, and so far behind when I was a kid (maybe six months or more), that you would literally tune into Worldwide to try to figure out the results of the PPV matches they had spent weeks building to. I used to really love it when they recapped the entire PPV with highlights because we couldn't get WCW tapes from the video store until 1997.

This was the semi-final of the ARS tournament. Quite a good match considering it was one-night tournament wrestling. GAMI scored the upset that they didn't portray it as a major shock. Instead, it was presented as something GAMI was capable of if she wrestled at her best. In the quarters, Hamada squared of against Yagi, one of my personal favorites, and that was also quite good. So not a bad night for Hamada work-wise despite bowing out early.

I liked this match. It didn't pretend to be anything different than what it was. You had Kim Duk, who was older than dirt and had stolen Rambo's gimmick from IWRG, and a perpetually grumpy Tenryu vs. two midcard guys who are suddenly more important to the company than before because of the departures. I haven't enjoyed too many things about Japanese wrestling in 2001 but I am enjoying Taiyo Kea's sudden rise. it's fun watching Smith get a bigger role too. Both guys were up for the challenge and good enough workers to make it work. If you like Tenryu, he was in vintage form here. He spent most of the bout being snarly and throwing punch combos.

Tournament final from the Toryumon show. This was given plenty of time but never really captured the imagination. There was a crappy reset at the beginning which didn't amuse me much. The upshot of the tourney was that Mochizuki proved he was the chief dog in Toryumon. Magnum was crying and pleading with CIMA after all. It was very emotional and poorly acted.

This was the other tournament semi from the Toryumon show. Fairly standard stuff but they made sure SUWA got enough licks in to look credible.

This was a pretty cool match. It was a tournament semi so it was quicker and spottier than usual but it felt decisive.

I liked this a lot. The premise was no different from an LCO match but it was interesting to watch Sakai scratch and claw her way back into the match. I thought she gave a tough, gritty performance. The match would have been better if The Bloody had been more expressive but I was impressed with Sakai's fight back.

One thing that's been missing from 2001 has been a steady stream of Osaka Pro on our screens. Minoru Tanaka has never been a favorite of mine, and this was very much a Minoru Tanaka bout, but at least it was a chance to see Murahama have a solid match and for that I'm grateful. Some nice moments here and there. A couple of nice "near falls" off submissions. It was a short match but they managed to main what I would call a "competitive pace" without too much back and forth. Murahama didn't really shine but it's hard to do that as the outsider. At least it was a good match. I'll take that in 2001.

I can't quite figure out which is worse, NOAH or Zero-One. What I do know is that Ogawa and Murakami have to be two of the most overrated workers in the history of Japanese wrestling. Japanese wrestling is in such a funk it's not funny.

I was expecting far more from this. Wildly disappointing.

I haven't come across the Piper or Patterson match. I haven't watched a Singh match yet but I'm sure my curiosity will get the better of me. Antonio Inoki vs. "The Monster Man" Everett Eddie (8/8/77) This was supposedly one of Inoki's better mixed fights. I suppose that's because it was mostly stand-up fighting with a lot of action and movement. Inoki won after an awkward-looking powerbomb and a leg drop. It amuses me that this headlined Budokan. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Killer Khan (3/26/83) If you've ever wanted to see Fujinami and Killer Khan have a long, hard-fought match, look no further. This was worth it just to see Khan work the mat with Fujinami. The long grueling battle afterward was the icing on the cake. Antonio Inoki vs. Hiro Matsuda (12/16/78) This was either going to be mind-numbingly boring or fascinating. The latter prevailed and we got some really good work out of this, including one of the best arm breaker sequences I've seen in a long time. Saito and Ueda kept lurking about threatening to derail it, and they ran out of steam toward the end, but it was pretty much everything you could have hoped for from a unique encounter like this. Antonio Inoki vs. Tatsumi Fujinami (3/19/83) This was never going to live up to the expectations in my head but it was hard fought and intense. Antonio Inoki vs. Seji Sakaguchi vs. Killer Karl Krupp (5/8/74) This was a three-way tournament final. Sakaguchi vs. Krupp was nothing special but set the tone for the carnage that would follow. Inoki's mutton chops were phenomenal in 1974. Inoki and Sakaguchi had amazing chemistry together. I bet that's something you didn't know. I might even go on record and call Sakaguchi Inoki's best native opponent. Krupp returns to bust Sakaguchi open and we get Krupp vs. Inoki, the Fritz vs. Baba of New Japan. It's not quite as good as their match from the following year but it's better than 90% of the Inoki vs. foreign dreck.

All Japan Women's has been up and down in terms of match quality but I thought this was a good bout. It didn't break any new ground in terms of the rivalries. Everybody on Hotta's team still hates everybody on Ito's team and vice versa, but aside from some of the usual Korakuen Hall tropes like crowd brawling this was a solid grudge match.

This was all right. I like the idea of crafty old Misawa trying to get by on his wiles except for the fact that he's still being presented as the top guy. That's pretty stupid given the fact that he doesn't have the same eye for detail that he did in his prime and his body keeps betraying the fact that he's broken down. Akiyama should be about to take him in these matches. To be honest, it makes him look bad that he still lays down for the boss. Remember that young rebellious guy who wouldn't lay down for the top guys anymore? The guy who threw away his mask and turned into a gigantic star overnight. Wrestling wasn't as hot in the early 00s as it had been a decade earlier but Akiyama needed some type of springboard to tell everyone he'd arrived and this wasn't gonna do it. I hated the reset, btw. That was lame. In the end, the result maintained the status quo, which I don't think was particularly helpful for these lean times but I'd probably have a gripe with Akiyama even if he'd won so I'm probably just bitching for the sake of it.

Slow and methodical, but a decent bout overall. I keep waiting for a superstar performance from Akiyama to justify some of the praise he gets at times. And, honestly speaking, I would have for him to snatch the mantle as the best worker in Japan and run with it because he has youth on his side. But I just don't see it. A guy I used to really love was Masakatsu Funaki. To me, he was poised to take over the mantle as the best shoot style worker in Japan and a major star in the business if he hadn't gotten into MMA, and in my mind, he still was a huge star. He had fire and charisma and the type of edge you need to be a big-time star. When I look at Akiyama, all of that seems missing. I keep telling myself that I'll turn the corner on Akiyama but it's hard to see where and when. But I'm keeping an open mind about it.