ohtani's jacket

Tony St. Clair vs. Dave Taylor (Wien '90) What was with Dave Taylor and the tassels around his arms? I think it was related to a gimmick he had in Reslo. It's weird and does nothing for him. Speaking of doing nothing for him, Tony St. Clair had a sickening mullet in 1990. Just ghastly. If you were hoping to see Taylor and St. Clair carry on the proud tradition of British heavyweight wrestling, you'll be sorely disappointed. This was a comedy match without any laughs. The ref in Wien gets involved too much. It's the same thing in every match. And that damn whistle. Tony St. Clair vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (Graz '95) This was better than expected. Our boy St. Clair could wrestle. He does some nice defensive work in this match against Takayama. Tony St. Clair vs. Fit Finlay (Boxing match, Bremen '96) Tony St. Clair vs. Fit Finlay (Chain match, Bremen '96) Weak, half-arsed gimmick matches. This was 1996, the same year Finlay had his amazing feud with Steve Regal. How can these be so bad? Am I the only one who watches bad Finlay matches? Or am I the only one who thinks these are shite?

Mile Zrno vs. Charley Verhulst (Graz,12/7/1980) This is delightful while it lasts, but it's too short. I would have liked a fleshed out 25 minute match between these two. They put on a wonderful exhibition of European style wrestling, however. Mile Zrno vs. Takayuki Iizuka (Bremen '91) This was pretty good considering Iizuka was a fish out of water and didn't know how to work the European style. Zrno was such a beautiful wrestler. He never ceases to amaze me. Some of the stuff he did in this match was gorgeous. This was actually quite testy with a lot of shoving and glaring. I'd love to see a return bout between these two.

Actually, I think he was 14 when he started.

Is that the stuff he wrote as a kid with the Curt Swan pencils? That stuff is good. My daughter is super into Kimetsu no Yaiba at the moment like most Japanese kids. We have been watching the anime together on Netflix. Today I bought her the first volume of the manga. It's the first time she's really been into a manga or anime of any sort. I remember I was the same age when my father bought me my first proper comics. It was at the airport and I got a copy of Uncanny X-Men and Amazing Spider-Man. Needless to say, I was glad to follow in my father's footsteps.

I have nothing against modern wrestling. I may end up watching it in 20 years time.

Bestia Salvaje is so great. He comes into this territory after being kind of static in CMLL and pops the building with this electric Dandy feud. And man did he light a fire under Dandy. I always thought it was the Navarro feud that led to Dandy's revival, but evidently it Bestia who kick started it. The pair have past history, but it's the simple action of beating the shit out of each other that really gets the crowd going. Tracking Bestia in this match isn't hard since the cameraman gravitates towards him, but keep an eye on the things he does. If he were still alive, he could be in a YouTube ad offering his own master classic in how to work a building. This is a good example of how a hot through line can make a trios matches significantly better. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say Bestia vs. Dandy was the best thing in lucha in July 2001. Hopefully, they don't botch it.

Blue Demon jumps Panther before he gets to the ring and takes the first fall in under a minute. That may sound kind of lame but it leads to a neat revenge fall where Panther won't let go of his armbar. Panther targets the arm for awhile in the third fall, but they drop it in favour of some back and forth pinfall attempts. Then they ruin everything with a DQ finish. If you remember, I said I'd give this match a shot given how good Panther's 2000-2001 run has been. Is it a lost classic? No. An unheralded great match? Nope. It's not a match I would put on Panther's resume from this era, and not a particularly great performance from him, but coupled with the build up it's a decent TV match. I should have known better than to expect a decent finish, but however good the match was up until that point, it was cut off at the legs with that screwy finish. It reminded me a bit of some of Panther's AAA matches where he wasn't given the chance to have a great match because of the booking. That's a missed opportunity, but fortunately Dandy is starting to heat up which gives me something else to look forward to.

This was also an exciting match. The quality of IWRG TV can vary from one week to the next, but this was a fun episode. This had solid rudo work, and Super Astro, who has been somewhat quiet in recent weeks, delivered something closer to a vintage performance. He did a big dive at the end that left him shook up.

The build up for Panther/Demon continues. There was a lot of mask ripping in the first fall and the third fall. I don't really get apuesta builds for non-apuesta matches, but I liked the tecnico comeback here. It was the most exciting thing I've seen from IWRG in a while. It was so good that Blue Demon felt the urge to hit Panther with a pair of topes. What made it extra exciting was Dandy and Bestia slapping the crap out of each other. This was the first time in a while that I've really gotten into Dandy and it's no surprise that Bestia brought that out. He remains, to this day, a underrated worker.

Mile Zrno vs. Steve Wright (Graz 1980) This had poor VQ but it was fascinating to watch because it was a young Zrno, who we've really only seen in Japan, against a Steve Wright who wasn't far removed from his World of Sport days. It was interesting to see them do some of the spots that crop up in later German/Austrian matches (staples, I suppose), and it was also apparent that short, inconsequential bouts were the norm. But it has nice exchanges, and it's a chance to see Zrno and Wright in their physical prime.

You seem to have this notion that all works are a lie. I stumbled upon Morton's podcast, and at the beginning of the show the host wanted Morton to give his opinion about Cornette saying Becky Lynch shouldn't have left a million dollar payday to have a baby (or something to that effect.) Morton refused to condemn Cornette, and they quickly moved to some of the most hilarious shilling you'll ever hear (good ol' Ricky), but back to the point about Cornette. Cornette may or may not believe what he says bout Lynch, but the way he says it is deliberately provocative. He's stirring shit up the same way he did when he was a manager. 90% of the people who download his podcast, download it to hear him give some rant about the business. And every time he does, he's working those folks. That doesn't mean he's lying. It means he's coaxing folks to download the next podcast. Morton's comments were about more than him liking a match. It doesn't matter whether he liked the match or not. The gist of Morton's statement was that wrestling is better than it's ever been. Apparently, this is all very exciting because Ricky Morton said it and Cornette is going to blow a gasket when he finds out. Experience has told us not to trust wrestlers. That is what we have been taught time and time again. But we're supposed to give Ricky Morton the benefit of the doubt here because he said the right things. And next week we'll go back to not giving wrestlers credit for the things they say. Whatever's convenient. But to answer your question, yes he could have thought it was a great match. He could also be angling for a gig with AEW, but the important thing is that Ricky Morton said modern wrestling is great.

Yes, because nobody has ever angled for anything ever... Jim Cornette works people with his podcast the same way he he worked people as a manager all those years ago. That doesn't mean that Jim Cornette isn't everything that everybody says he is, but he still works folks. Ricky Morton refuses to criticize Jim Cornette for comments that Cornette makes on his podcast because Morton and Cornette are friends, and Morton understands that part of it is a work. Morton himself is still part of the business, still running a school, still working the independent circuit, and recently worked for the company he's praising. Morton likes to tell tall tales about the territory days and his involvement in the business. Morton also claims he invented the shoot angle and the worked shoot feud. Morton is like most old-school wrestlers in every way, shape and form, but one day he has a moment of clarity and declares wrestling better than ever. Which wouldn't mean anything except that a chunk of online fans get their kicks from being offended by Cornette. The same way we used to love reading Herb Kunze. And in ten years, said fans will be on the Cornette side of the fence and bitching and moaning about the next generation of wrestlers. The point is that there is BS on both sides. Cornette may be an easy dig, but rolling out Morton as some kind of ironic rebuttal to Cornette's rants is ridiculous considering they'd turn the whole thing into an angle if they thought there was money in it.

I don't agree or disagree with Morton. I just find it amusing that an old-time wrestler who tells the same bullshit stories that all old-timer wrestlers tell is somehow more credible than the rest because he put over a match on Twitter. When he tells some bullshit story in a shoot, we greet it with skepticism, but when he calls a modern match a Rembrandt we applaud? Give me a break.

Ricky Morton is the same as any other wrestler, but because he said something you want to hear suddenly we should believe him?

Ricky Morton runs a wrestling school and works on the independent circuit. What do you expect him to say?

Let's take what the old timers say with a grain of salt... until they say something we agree with!

Ricky knows which side his bread is buttered on.

Cheri Bibi vs. Paul Debusne (aired 8/16/58) This wasn't as good as the Jacky Corn match, but you can still mark it down in the "good" column for Cheri Bibi matches. Debusne is the guy they looked to put in the ring against boxers, so of course the part where they started throwing manchettes is exciting. The build up to that? Not quite on the same level. It didn't help that there was some weird distortion with the film that made the wrestlers appear bigger than they really were every time they were in the middle of the frame. Debusne looked like he was working hard as he was sweating profusely, but he didn't have the skills of a Jacky Corn to keep things interesting, and it wasn't until the finishing stretch that I bought into this. Heck of a finish, though. Wild stuff.

The main purpose of this match was to set up the Blue Panther vs. Blue Demon singles match. Now ordinarily, I would complain about Blue Demon Jr as the choice for Panther's singles opponent, and there could have been better picks (Dandy and Panther get into it at the end, which is mouthwatering, BUT, Panther is having such a great run that I am curious to see how the bout holds up. It's not a match with a rep, but the Panther vs. Santo match from CMLL Japan didn't have a rep either and that was fantastic. I'm not going to get my hopes up, but I do want to give it a shot. And I've managed to talk myself into looking forward to it. This match was pretty much a table setter for the singles match to come, but it's always fun to see Panther matches where he is the head honcho.

Not sure. It's not something I've noticed before. In this case, the commentator declares Chaisne the winner of the premiere manche and signs off for the night. You can see the wrestlers standing in their corners waiting for the bell.

This was a return match of sorts with Cerebro wearing a type of karate outfit made out of one of his old masks. Presumably to make fun of Kato Kung Lee, whom he is kind of feuding with, but not really. Again, it's a fall-out-of-bed trios for these guys, and a waste of Cerebro's talents, but I should know by now that luchadores can't be in electric feuds every month of the year.

Casas and Santo get a shot at the Infernales' titles. The most notable thing about this bout for me was how good Casas was. When I think of Casas, I tend to think of the facial expressions and the crowd manipulation, and those moments of genius that only Casas can produce. But he was also a good worker on a technical level. He may not have been the best wrestler in Mexico per se, but he knew how to work, and he was excellent at adapting to changing trends. I don't really think of Ultimo Guerrero and Rey Bucanero as classic luchadores. They strike me as among the first wave of modern luchadores. They certainly used a lot more moves than their predecessors did. Other workers came along who took the modern style further, but in 2001 it feels as though the Infernales are at the forefront of the push towards a more modern style. Satanico was old-school as fuck, but was able to mesh with the Infernales because of their ongoing storyline. Santo and Casas, on the other hand, were able to work with them seamlessly. You can see Casas switch gears here compared to his regular fall-out-bed trios performances from '00-01. He had a lot of experience working in Japan and it's clear that the CMLL Japan shows have an influence on how the Infernales want to work. They don't abandon the lucha style completing since they're playing to an Arena Mexico crowd, but they definitely have their working boots on. The trouble is that the booking is screwy. I should have smelled the Dusty finish coming as soon as I put the bout on (I wonder who you are, Mexican Dusty?), but it was a disappointment all the same. I really hope we get a clean, satisfying payoff to a lucha match some time soon.

Return match that gets screwy when Tarzan Boy does a run in. Again, promises a lot but doesn't quite click. They really need to let these teams wrestle and forget about the cute finishes.

This didn't set the world on fire, but I was happy to see Los Guerreros de Infierno working with someone else for a change. And of course, it gives Casas something to do. There were enough flashes of goodness to suggest they could have a great match if they pulled it all together.

My pick would be the 10/97 minis trio. My favorite trios are the Atlantis/Angel Azteca/Javier Cruz vs. Satanico/Dandy/Emilio Charles Jr matches from May 1990 as those were the matches that got me hooked on lucha. I think one is regarded as being better than the other, but I love them both.