ohtani's jacket

This was the main event of the Arena Mexico Anniversary Show. I had high hopes for this but it was disappointing. The only real storyline was Ultimo Guerrero vs. Satanico, and they had run so many rudo contra rudo bouts during their feud that what was the point of having relevos increibles? Santo and Casas squared off but it wasn't vintage Santo vs. Casas, and Dr. Wagner and Emilio got stuck into each other but Emilio looks like he's running on fumes at this point. And the match didn't go the distance either. Instead of a showpiece, it was another wrinkle in the Infernales fallout, which was a letdown given the talent level.

It's that time of year again. The time where they bring Gigante Silva in for a few dates the way they used to do with Andre back in the day. This was all right. The Silva spots were predictable but harmless. The Villano brothers were solid. I really love that Villano punch spot. This could have been a lot worse.

This was a heck of a match. To have a match this good at Arena Coliseo was impressive, and a match with Tinieblas Jr to boot! This can only be described as "the Panther effect." In fact, it was so good that the folks who put together the TV show decided to run it wit hit and air it uninterrupted. It was basically a transplanted Arena Mexico match both in size and momentum swings. It felt bigger than a regular Coliseo match. Panther, Warrior and Violencia were slick. It doesn't matter who Panther fronts up with in 2001, when he's in a trios match he runs a tight ship. I'm not sure if TInieblas was meant to be in this match originally. It felt like there was a late scratch somewhere. But he did the best he could and at no point did the rudos make a concession for him. He even got in on the high flying. Olimpico vs Blue Panther is still kind of a thing but this was mostly about grand lucha action. Check this out. It's a sleeper.

I really liked their 12/18/78 match. Instead of wrestling to a stalemate on the mat, they worked a really physical, gritty match. Mr. Saito and Ueda ended up attacking both wrestlers and busting them open and the closing stanza was a bloody brawl. After the match, Inoki had a towel wrapped around his head and kept screaming into the mic for one more chance at Backlund's bout. I definitely think their '78 matches are superior to their '79 matches.

Satanico's hair is growing out. You know what that means. This was action-packed while it lasted. Ultimo and the Guapos did a number on Satanico & Co. to start with. They tore Black Warrior's mask off and mangled Shocker's leg after it got stuck in the front row chairs. Black Warrior went backstage to get a new mask and led the comeback for his team. It was frenetic stuff with Satanico throwing punch combos, Shocker hopping around on one leg and Black Warrior hitting a spectacular tope. Of course, the finish was cheap and involved fouling, but at least Shocker and Emilio got stuck into each other at the end. I was glad to see they hadn't dropped that storyline completely. This blazed across the screen in less than 10 minutes and was pretty eventful. Not a bad piece of TV to cap off the month.

This was unspectacular. Casas was quiet. I saw this as an opportunity for him to do something brilliant but he didn't have it. The only interesting thing this threw at us was Rayo vs. Ultimo and it was mostly stooging.

This only ran for about 13 minutes on TV but what a glorious 13 minutes. I mean look at these match-ups -- Fuerza Guerrera vs. Villano IV, Atlantis vs. Blue Panther and Villano III vs. El Signo. I'd be excited for a trios match with any of those match-ups let alone all three in the same bout. I have a hunch, an inkling, and a vague recollection that this leads to a Villano/Signo program, which is very good news for me but a step down from the main event picture that Villano has been involved in since unmasking. Not to worry, CMLL need something to reboot with after the huge payoffs on the March PPV and Villano vs. SIgno is right up my alley.

This was light entertainment but I enjoyed it. It was a lot more clever and humourous than Monterrey dick jokes. The highlight was the chemistry between Shocker and Porky but we also got flashes of Shocker vs. Atlantis, and boy do I wish they'd pull the trigger on that. Atlantis is having a great year. In fact, I'd argue that he's having a better year than 2000. I didn't love the build to the Villano mask match, and after the match they gave a big push to Villano while Atlantis went back to doing nothing. I often wonder how our perception of lucha workers would be different if they worked singles matches on a regular basis. There's a number of match-ups I've love to see Atlantis have in '01 but ultimately I have to be content with him crossing paths with guys in trios matches and hope that they square off. Still, if anyone thought he was a faded force by this point, they were wrong.

Okay, so I discovered that if I hide all the quotes then the edit function works again. Not sure why.

Hey, Recently, I've had trouble editing posts. The problem seems to occur especially with quotes. Once I edit the post once, I can't edit it again. I cannot delete the post either. Is anyone else having trouble with editing?

First up is their 11/30/79 match. I adored the beginning with both guys jostling for position. I imagine for some people it's like watching paint dry but it's exactly what I want from a heavyweight title match in this era. Inoki is ridiculously underrated when it comes to working holds. There are plenty of guys who were better mat workers but how many of them were heavyweights? When you look at it from that standpoint, Inoki is fairly skilled to me. Of course, it's the 70s so you can either view the mat work as either time killing or wearing each other down, but I prefer to view it as the contest within the contest and I enjoy the moments of oneupmanship. The stand-up portions of this were decent but because it was a title change they had to get screwy with the booking and there was a bunch of bullshit with Tiger Jeet Singh involved. The finish was anticlimactic considering it was meant to be a major title victory for Inoki but there seemed to an effort made to have Backlund save face instead of letting Inoki bask in the moment. This seemed somewhere in the middle of what they were capable of against each other.

So, one of the goals I've had in the back of my mind for quite some time now is to watch every match in this series. I may be the only person on this forum interested in this series, but I'm not the only one on earth judging by some recent uploads. Here's a quick recap of the matches I've seen so far:

BTW, This was an Arena Mexico bout so it fell under the EMLL banner.

Okay, so Brock beats the shit out of Reigns for a good 15 minutes. I mean, he absolutely pummels him. Then Brock gets cut and he's hurt. Suddenly, the match is back on an even keel. Okay. A bit contrived but that's what happens when you work a match that's as lopsided as this. Then Rollins runs out and cashes in his briefcase. So, now you not only have no payoff to the Reigns comeback, you have the unstoppable monster Brock punked by Rollins and the worst Wrestlemania finish since Hogan challenged Yokozuna. Wasn't a fan of this. This was LOOOONG but it was very good. I wouldn't call it great since they paced it to be broader than broadway but they delivered on the gimmick and the match felt like a big deal. This was really high. It's a violent spectacle for sure. It might even be a great match from a certain standpoint, though to be honest, it's the last match I'd recommend to someone if they wanted to see everything that is good and great about Joshi Puroresu. It's a great mauling but much like the Brock matches I think it misses that element of two great competitors going all the way. I can see people voting for it as an all-time great beatdown, I'm just surprised by how high it finished and how well it did compared to other Joshi matches.

God bless, Villano IV. In the midst of the usual Monterrey BS with great rudos taking the night off, and Super Parka doing his half-arsed rendition of La Parka's already annoying Monterrey act, there was Villano IV mistakenly treating this as a serious trios match and working great exchange after great exchange. I guess he didn't get the memo, or maybe it's the only way he knows how to work. Either way, he was the only guy who didn't sleepwalk his way through this one.

So much talent in this match but it was a complete sideshow. I think it broke some kind of record for most dick jokes in a lucha libre match. I can imagine a 2001 tape trader being excited about this match on paper and flabbergasted by the footage. But it shouldn't come as a surprise with Parka involved. His comedy is like a giant, gaping black hole for Monterrey match quality. And it sucks everything in. Even the great workers.

This was better minis action than your standard IWRG fare. They brought in two tecnicos that could go so there was a lot more action. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Cicloncito Ramirez as a worker. To me, he has the same effect on a match as Atlantis. When Atlantis was in his prime, you knew if there were three good rudos, you could partner Atlantis with just about anybody and he would shore up the tecnico side and make sure there were enough exciting sequences to make the trios match worthwhile. In this case, Ramirez had some nice partners but his presence was still the difference maker into terms of making this worthwhile, especially since El Torito and Sombrita would have slowed things down and picked on Tzuki if left to their own devices. Tzuki kicked ass in this, btw. Watching him brawl with the bigger sized rudos was so much fun.

This was a standard trios match but it was made exponentially better due to the presence of Blue Panther. One doubt I always had about Panther was his ability to be an effective trios worker but he's completely blown those doubts away during this 00-01 run of his. He's not just been effective. He's been special. Silver King was having a whale of a time being his partner in crime and was amped up himself. Sometimes all it takes is a couple of good performances to liven up a trios match and that's what Panther and Silver King gave us here. This was the set-up for Parka/Panther match a few days later. Sure wish we had that match.

This match dealt with the fallout from the XIX High Power match. It was a pretty standard trios match. Silver King, Black Metal and El Enterrador were a cool looking trio but Silver King was the only worker in the group. To his credit, he gave the best performance in the match and was the glue that kept it together. He had some neat exchanges with the tecnicos and was always busy. I always found SIlver King to be inconsistent, and he's generally not a name I get excited about when I see it come up on the match listings, but while this wasn't exactly a star turn, it did show he had potential to be the lead guy. Hopefully, we get to see more of him in that role now that Cerebro is a goody-two-shoes.

This was for some trophy called "XIX High Power." Not a bad match but there no amazing sequences and the quality varied depending on who was in the ring. All of the best workers were on the same side which didn't help.

It's time to see how well Cerebro can adjust to life as a tecnico and whether he can make an impact on IWRG from the other side of the locker room. This wasn't his debut as a tecnico. That was the week before in a match that seems better on paper -- Cerebro, Santo and Felino vs. Cirujano, Silver King and Fuerza Guerrera. This had some weak links in Kato Kung Lee and Kraken, but honestly speaking, it was a weak tecnico performance from Cerebro. I'm so used to seeing Cerebro dominate these types of matches with his presence that it was weird to see him shy away from the spotlight. At first, it seemed like he was still self-conscious about losing the mask, which is understandable. It can't be easy going out there and wrestling without a mask with everyone gawking at you. And you do have to learn how to emote differently when you don't wear a mask. But the main problem for me was that he was still in "Howdy Doody" mode, waving to the fans instead of putting all his emotion into getting even with Cirujano. C'mon, this guy (if it was this guy) attacked you after you unmasked. That has to be the ultimate act of disrespect in lucha libre and you're working the match like it's a Sunday house show? There was some fun stuff in this -- Cerebro vs Navarro, Suicida being Suicida -- but I was really disappointed by the Cerebro vs Cirujano exchanges and the "new" Cerebro in general.

Whoever did the on-screen graphics for ESPN seems to have been confused. It looks like it was Cirujano who was Cerebro's second, not Paramedico. And Cerebro and Cirujano do have a feud, after all, culminating in a title shot for Cerebro's welterweight belt.

All right, it's time for the mask vs mask match. Dr. Cerebro is one of my favourite gimmicks in Mexico around this time. Personally, I think it was too soon for him to lose his mask. I suppose if you're going to lose your mask, you might as well lose it to a legend of the business, however I do wonder if it would have been better for him to lose it to someone whom he was in a long, bitter rivalry instead of a star who came in and did a couple of dates. I guess that's all water under the bridge but I can't help but lament the fact that Cerebro lost. The first fall was interesting. Normally, you'd expect Cerebro to attack Santo on his way to the ring and ram his head into the ring post and bust him open. Instead, they worked a scientific fall. But it was a gritty, edgy fall with both guys working hard to get an opening. And they didn't rush it either. it was much better than the sloppy fall they worked in the mano a mano bout. Cerebro wound up taking the fall with one of those surreal submission holds that are only plausible in lucha. It was a tremendous confidence booster for Cerebro to take the opening fall and he took plenty of momentum into the second caida. For a moment, it almost seemed like an upset was possible. I didn't love Santo's transition back onto offense. It was a simple kick to the back to break a hold and a straight switch onto offense with too much spring in his step. I expect more from a worker of Santo's calibre. What I did like is how they didn't just end the fall with a quick camel clutch. Cerebro managed to counter the submission and fight his way back into the match. People often complain that the falls come too easily in lucha and for the most part that's a valid criticism. But there was nothing easy about this. Santo had to work for this one. The eventual combo that won him the fall was a huge step up from the easy out that the earlier camel clutch would've brought. The third fall was all right. It paled in comparison to the third fall from their mano a mano bout, which was some of the most dramatic wrestling we've seen all year. Both guys tried to deliver a big knock out blow and Santo made sure he got all his signature stuff in. Some of the transitions were soft and Cerebro veered away from his natural game by trying to do too much high flying stuff, but they were trying to deliver something spectacular (and thereby memorable) even in a tiny setting. The finish wasn't really signature Santo. I think it was meant to expose the folly of Cerebro trying to win with a top rope move. With a better tercera, this would have been a MOTYC for sure. As it stands, it's still in the upper echelon of lucha matches for 2001, and let's be honest, lucha is the only style that's really delivering at present. After the bout, Cerebro and Santo were full of praise for each other and then suddenly Cerebro's second bounced on him. That's something I don't think I've ever seen before -- a second who's so pissed at his man losing that he starts attacking him. I don't think anything came of this. I think it was just an angle to jumpstart a tecnico turn. But it was pretty cool. Paramedico was pissed. Cerebro had clearly let down the fraternity of evil medical staff.

This was an interesting match if for no other reason than it was a chance to see Kea work now that he was a "made man" of sorts. And you know what? I like him. Japanese wrestling is in such a slump at this point that at least Kea is a story and a guy you can follow. Smith brought his usual bag of submissions and joint manipulation and Kea stuck to his guns throughout. Mutoh was in Kea's corner, which to me is an ominous sign, but for now, I'm enjoying the Mossman push.

This was a clipped LCO bout. You can imagine how it played out. It wasn't bad actually as it was part of Yumi Fukawa's retirement show and everyone had their working boots on. Afterward, they kind of broke kayfabe and hugged each other. It was weird seeing LCO suddenly break out in smiles and embrace their opponents.