ohtani's jacket

This was clipped for television, which made it feel more truncated than it would have at the arena, but even with the shredding it still delivered a number of things that I personally wanted to see. Firstly, it was an Arena Mexico showcase for two of my favorite workers, Fuerza Guerrera and El Signo. Secondly, it continued the beefs that Panther had with Olimpico, and to a lesser extent, Niebla. And thirdly, Good Light/Bad Night Niebla was Good Light Niebla here and had a fun stretch run with Fuerza after Panther took the high-risk option with a plancha. There was some weird situation going on with the trios titles at this time and they ended up being vacated. I would have been more than happy if they'd continued with this team of Panther, Fuerza and Signo. And if this Niebla would show up each week that would be a positive as well.

I'm looking forward to getting weekly installments of this feud. This wasn't the smoothest, most well-polished trios you'll see but it had just enough Satanico vs. Ultimo Guerrero to keep you happy and there were some nice dives toward the end.

I think it's fine if people like the matches. To me, the booking had begun to stagnate and the match-ups had become stale. All Japan had found success with Misawa as the champion ace and Kawada and Kobashi as challengers but they didn't know where they should go next. In retrospect, I think it was a mistake to have so many irons in the fire. As fans, we wanted to see the blowoff to the Misawa vs. Kawada rivalry but it doesn't seem as though Baba had much faith in Kawada as the ace of his promotion. It would have made more sense for Kobashi to emerge as Misawa's successor and then, later on, have Akiyama challenge Kobashi for that position. That's more or less what happened but it was messy and I think the 1998 booking reflects that. The great thing about All Japan was that you got singles matches all the time. In other promotions, big singles matches are rare but in All Japan they were a regular fixture. Unfortunately, no matter how good the workers are, it was difficult to keep those match-ups fresh. Since Baba didn't want to co-promote and cash in on dream matches (and I can't say I blame him given what happened to his competitor's business after the sheen came off interpromotional feuds), it was left to Misawa & Co. to figure out a way to make each match better than the one before. And I guess the natural thing to do is to make the matches longer and more dangerous. For a lot of us, the individual match-ups in 90s All Japan peak with a certain match (and the matches either side of that) and then they escalate to something beyond our interest. But that's perfectly natural. The same thing will happen with modern-day New Japan. It is hard to keep any kind of style or genre progressing. Styles die out and new movements take their place. It wasn't like All Japan was suddenly going to adopt shoot style or anything like that. The real issue is that they didn't have a lot of young talent coming through to carry the torch. If you look back on it now, it's clear that New Japan was still the best recruiter of young talent at the time even if no-one could foresee what their early 00s rookies would achieve in the future. A lot of people have written about this topic in much more depth than me, but there are also younger fans who maintained their interest in the All Japan workers through the NOAH years so nothing is ever cut and dry. If you like the matches that's a win for you.

Hadn't seen this in years. A good match -- a great match even - but it didn't have the emotional resonance for me that it may have for big time All Japan fans. I couldn't shake the fact that it was 1998, the promotion as a whole wasn't doing well, and here's Kobashi vs. Kawada for the gazillionth time with Kobashi going over in questionable fashion. Even if the match was good it felt like things were going wrong. This was very good. I don't think I'll ever get used to Nakamura's bizarre antics (and I'm someone who likes flamboyant showmen), but apart from his weird charisma, this was a well-orchestrated bout. I don't think there were any false notes in terms of it being overloaded or too move heavy. It was an interesting styles clash and an engrossing contest. This was a great match. I have no idea why this isn't spoken about alongside the other great All Japan tag matches. I loved the ending stretch with Jumbo beating the crap out of Tenryu and Hansen beating the crap out of Yatsu. Quite possibly one of the most underrated matches of all-time. To me, it was a Hansen match more than anything else. Just red hot and relentless. But it reiterated how great Jumbo vs. Tenryu was. One of the best feuds ever in my mind and this was another chapter. Great match. This may be blasphemous but I've enjoyed this modern day New Japan matches far more than the classic All Japan matches. Perhaps that's because the New Japan matches are fresher, I dunno. I thought this was dang near perfect. I mean, if you took Shibata and Okada before the bout and blocked out the best match they could possibly have given their respective talents, this was as close to the perfect match as you could possibly imagine. There were a few iffy parts (mostly involving strike exchanges) but nothing terribly upsetting. The question this raised for me was how good is Okada? I always thought he was a Rock level worker but he's been in an awfully high number of good matches. Is he a generational talent or not? Terrible promos at the start, shitty commentary, on-the-nose presentation, over-emoting, very good match. A bit cutesy during the finishing stretch but a very good match.

Decent trios match that is mostly built around Villano IV vs Silver King, which is the best match-up we could have gotten out of the bout. It's not a transcendently great match-up. It won't have you dreaming of those lost Villano/Silver King classics or anything like that. But it's a perfectly solid throughline. The rest of the match is scrappy and the finish is terrible but it's Monterrey. I liked the tempo. It was brisk despite the monkey business.

Time to check in on Low Ki again. I've been trying to find recommended Low Ki matches in these folders but it seems like he hasn't done anything to match the Homicide feud in a while. These two are obviously going to be important players throughout the rest of the decade so it's an interesting match to watch. Nothing revolutionary but they match up fairly well. Early Danielson reminds me a bit of early Owen Hart. A ton of athleticism but the character work isn't there yet. Low Ki wasn't as agro in this as he has been in other matches but I guess this was less spiteful and more about indy work rate.

This was okay. It was definitely laid out to make Silver King and Wagner look strong but not in a way that created any real jeopardy surrounding Kanemoto and Tanaka's titles. Not that I would care if Kanemoto and Tanaka's title reign was in jeopardy, but you never know. Sometimes you get suckered in.

Y'know, I'm not sure if I've ever seen this before. This was right around the time that I gave up on the WWF and I don't think I rented this PPV from the video store. This was better than I expected given that the Austin/Triple H angle is the worst thing this side of the Tarzan Boy rudo turn and Triple H vs. Austin strikes me as a bit of a "meh" match up. The first fall was really good. Austin was on top of his game in terms of the intensity that he brought to the match. The one thing that Austin did better than anyone else was wrestle like a pissed off sumbitch. A lot of guys cut promos about how pissed off they are and how they're gonna do this and that once they get a guy in the ring but few guys ever backed it up like Austin. The second fall was okay. It's been a while since I've watched Attitude Era main events so even though they rehashed a slew of spots from that style, it wasn't as boring to me as it would have been at the time. The cage match section was also decent. They probably went a bit longer than they needed to overall but I wouldn't call it bloated. The problem I had with the bout was Austin losing. After making me suffer through that shitty angle, surely Austin could have won the blowoff match and put this Helmsley shit to rest? That was annoying but the bout itself could have been so much worse. I actually thought they showed a ton of restraint in not overbooking the crap out of this. So, despite the result, I think I'd call this a success.

This was a fun little brawl. Definitely worth watching if you want to see two lower card guys given the opportunity to shine. You should be forewarned that there was a TON of Monterrey bullshit but that shouldn't come as a surprise if you're familiar with the territory. Not a breakout match or anything of that caliber but different from the norm in terms of showcasing two less recognized talents.

Not as lopsided as it looked on paper but not particularly good either. The highlight of the match was another classy performance from Blue Panther but there's enough of those on tape in 2001 to skip a match like this.

This was a mano a mano Super Libre bout. The first fall was a bit sloppy and the second fall was a standard comeback but the third fall was epic. It not only whet the appetite for an apuesta match, it was so good that it wouldn't have been out of place in a mask match. It's rare that you see a mano a mano bout where they go to these lengths but Cerebro's mask was so torn and so drenched in blood that he looked like Super Muneco. Santo, meanwhile. had this weird rip on the lower half of his mask that exposed his chin and a five o'clock shadow. It was kind of offputting but his performance in the tercera was world class. Depending on how the footage plays out, Santo may squeeze past Panther as the best worker in Mexico if the rest of his year holds up. I don't think Cerebro needed to drop his mask at this point in time but this mano a mano made me excited to see it. One of the better mano a mano bouts you'll see. That third fall was up there with anything I've seen from 2001 so far.

Nice bit of fluff that continued the beef between Rambo and Scorpio. I enjoyed the exchanges between Blue Panther and Niebla, which is saying something because Niebla is usually Blue Demon Jr-esque in his worthiness.

I don't have much to compare it to, but to me, Styles didn't have the offense or the necessary toughness to take the fight to Joe. I'm not an Akiyama fan so watching him chase guys doesn't do a lot for me, but this was solid in an All Japan kind of way. Kobashi sold well and the pop-ups and no sells didn't get silly until the finish, and even then it wasn't too outrageous. It didn't really strike me as one of the great All Japan matches but I guess this match-up is popular because of their NOAH years. I loved the beginning of this where Lesnar mauled Cena. I thought it was a bit contrived after the ref bump but I can understand that they couldn't work a faux MMA match for the entire bout. I didn't like Cena winning but his promo was kind of clever. I liked the way they wrote him out of the show with the injury. Fun match, and in some ways the very definition of pro-wrestling, but both guys have had better matches with other people. Funk's selling was off the charts, though. I thought he was dead when he was being strangled in the ropes. Cheap finish marred this but it was 80s All Japan so what can you do. This was the first time in my life to see Kenny Omega. What the fuck did I just watch? Most of you won't know who I'm talking about, but he reminded me of the old World of Sport comedy wrestler, Billy Torontos. I didn't have a horse in this, and it was overloaded with moves, but like most modern New Japan matches I still found myself invested in the stretch run. So, it was a decent enough match from my standpoint, but I was kind of confused about what made it stand out from all the other modern New Japan matches. 

This was a one fall singles match and was worked in a different style that you might expect from a best two-out-of-three falls singles match. They started off with the type of hot, blistering action you'd expect in the tercera caida, then they took it the mat before brawling outside the ring. After that, they fought tooth and nail to remove each other's masks before a prolonged period of submission holds and nearfall finishes. It almost felt like a regular match in reverse. It wasn't the classic I was looking for. In fact, it wasn't up there with the best matches of the first month and half, but I did find myself appreciating the intensity of what they were doing and I began pulling for Felino to win the bout, which is pretty good storytelling I guess. In some respects, it was an interesting deviation from the norm but my expectations for Panther matches are pretty high at this point. Worth watching but in the context of 2001 IWRG and not really the year as a whole.

Ciberneticos rarely disappoint and looking at the talent here there was no way this was going to be an exception. Sure enough, this filled with dream pairings and cool match-ups. It was a tad short because Felino and Panther were pulling double duty on the show, and it was only a 10-man cibernetico to begin with, but it was highly entertaining and a showcase of how good this gimmick is. I've never really thought about this before but because the cibernetico is rare compared the predominant form of lucha, i.e. the trios match, it may actually be the best gateway into lucha libre. You get lucha in its purest form but without the conventions that people struggle with. This actually ended up being a pretty good show from IWRG. CMLL had some great TV in February but IWRG may have crept ahead of them in the match department.

This was pretty good. The first fall was really good, and I started having thoughts that it might be a sleeper for my best matches of the year list. But then the fouling bullshit crept in and the next two falls weren't anywhere near as good. It's a shame really because Scorpio had been on a roll with these title matches and El Dandy had worked his way back to the top (the Negro Navarro was no accident, fwiw), but they didn't go all-in with the final two falls. Not a bad match in the context of a pretty interesting month for IWRG but talent-wise it should be on the list with other singles matches like Altantis vs Wagner, Santo vs Panther and Cerebro vs Felino.

This was better than I expected. Panther in 2000-01 has reached that level where he immediately makes matches better by his presence. I kind of understand now that when people talk about how great Blue Panther was, or is, a large part of that springs from this time period where he was clearly the best worker in Mexico. But the other guys were good too. I thought Bombero Infernal was really good and Super Parka brought his working shoes and was the best version of Super Parka that he can be. I'm a fan of the later IWRG period where it felt like its own promotion with its own identity, and its own heroes and villains, instead of an outpost for CMLL. But I do like the fact that 2000-01 IWRG was a place where a guy like Felino, who was doing nothing in CMLL, could feature in singles feuds. This turns into a bit of a mask pulling contest, which is never my favorite style of lucha. Too much fiddling about trying to undo each other's masks. But the body of the bout as more entertaining than it looked on paper.

Pretty average minis action. I think it's safe to say that from what we've seen of 2000-01 IWRG that it was a hotbed for minis action. It's not that often that you see a Tzuki match where he doesn't do anything spectacular. The IWRG mini division, such as it is, seems dominated by the journeymen rudos with not enough shine for the high flying tecnicos.

Well, Rambo has arrived in IWRG. That means we'll be seeing his feud with Villano III later in the year which I'm looking forward to revisiting. Unfortunately, that was the only really exciting thing in the bout despite a double bladejob from Dandy and Scorpio. Dandy vs Scorpio has potential but they never got out of second gear despite the blood. One of the weaker IWRG matches from this year.

I started watching the matches I haven't seen or am unfamiliar with. I thought this was too "on the nose" in terms of the commentary and the presentation. I can understand the desire to produce a modern class but stop referencing the fact and let the drama and the tension speak for itself. The match was good but it ran for too long, and as a one-off investment on my part I was disappointed that there wasn't a payoff to the storyline. It was probably a better match in context but it seems a bit early to hail it as a modern classic. Great crowd heat and one hell of a promo afterward, but the match itself isn't much of a blip on the historical radar. This was awesome whenever Samoa Joe was on offense. He was a beast. Styles, on the other hand, was pretty bad. I'm used to the New Japan Styles. This didn't feel like the same dude. Joe kept it interesting but the match didn't deliver the knockout punch needed to overcome my disconnect with Styles. I can't reiterate enough how beastly Joe was, though. Not bad. I was expecting this to be excessive and annoying but it was mostly a slow burner. It didn't really get out of hand until they started popping up from the finishers at the end, and by that stage, the bout was almost over. I can see why this has its fans. When you consider that this was a dome show, and that dome show main events aren't that easy to pull off, this deserves its place in the canon, so to speak.

A Mima Shimoda singles match may not be anyone's cup of tea but this wasn't bad. It was worked a more traditional way since Shimoda doesn't have a ton of offense. There was a lot of screeching and swearing, which may be offputting for some, but they stuck to the game plan and delivered a solid walk-through. It wasn't exactly inspiring in terms of Tamura's future trajectory in Joshi but there weren't a lot of holes in it.

This was a decent match but I wanted to see more of a statement from Hamada. You can tell while watching this how much easier it is to play the challenger role. Hyuga had a good match but she was wrestling the match she always wrestles because its a role she's been in for years. Hamada hadn't learned how to transition into the champion role yet. It's a hard thing to do and makes you appreciate all of the great champions in pro-wrestling. She worked hard and there was an element of the hunter becomes the hunted in the match layout but she was a bit too desperate and bit too relieved to get the final pin, so it was hard to have confidence in her as one of the new pillars of Joshi pro-wrestling. There were similar criticisms of Meiko Satomura at the time so perhaps Hamada's growing pains shouldn't come as a surprise.

Hey, Toryumon! It's been a while. Fuji was going by the name "Big Fuji" now and running folks over with bicycles. Not motorcycles, actual bicycles. This was a fun match against the plucky Saito. It was a competitive squash but Saito made the most of his minutes. Great to see Fuji knocking about now that the likes of Dick Togo aren't making tape.

Tick tock, tick tock, The Rock vs. Kurt Angle doesn't suck. This was streets better than Triple H vs. Angle. There was a pointless piece of interference from The Big Show and an unnecessary ref change, but apart from that, it was pure chemistry between the workers. Rock being a super over babyface clearly helped the dynamic here, but Angle did so many cool things here and was able to showcase his ability to a far greater extent than he could in the Hunter match. He looked like a much better worker than at the Rumble and I don't think it was because he had an extra month under his belt. Much like the Benoit matches, the Rock meshed surprisingly well with his opponent regardless of his technical acumen. This was a match that definitely enhanced my opinion of Rock as a worker.

This was a fun match between four capable workers. I enjoyed seeing Sakai hook up with this crew. The Satomura/Amano sections were definitely the best thing about the bout.