ohtani's jacket

This was the second eliminator cibernetico for the Leyenda de Plata. I didn't find it as engaging as the first eliminator. There wasn't a lot of high level talent in the match, and for the first time I found Atlantis' rudo act kind of boring. Ultimo Dragon did better than expected, but even with editing the match plodding along in fits and starts. There were a lot of miscues from Mistico and Sagrada, including a suplex from Sagrada that appeared to knock Maximo out cold. Things appeared to heat up towards the end when Mistico eliminated Mephisto and squared off against Atlantis but a terrible finish ruined that matchup. Santo run in to make the save at the end, which was the highlight of the bout. I'm looking forward to watching their match again after so many years, but I'm kind of dreading CMLL's circus bullshit.

This was edited in a way that made it seem like non-stop action. The cuts were a bit haphazard at times, but it came across as an enjoyable highlights package. Jado had a solid run in this as a nondescript Takaiwa style junior working an ass kicker role in a lucha cibernetico. Santo did a bunch of signature spots, but he did them in a way that made him seem like he was one of the best workers in the world. I really liked his amazing side belly-to-belly suplex off the top that eliminated Averno. That was such an unexpected badass elimination in this type of match. It came down to Santo vs. Casas in the end. It had been a while since Arena Mexico had seen them square off, so there was plenty of excitement in the air. It wasn't vintage Santo vs. Casas, but not bad. The only problem with it was that they booked an extra fall that Santo won in only 13 seconds. They should have gone longer than that. Not sure whose bright idea that was.

I was saddened to hear about the passing of Brain Goldbelt Maxine. 86 is a fair old knock, though.

Johnny Smith vs. Chris Benoit (CWA 8/1/91) This is a decent match. Smith works as a de facto heel, which is odd since there's nothing really heelish about him. He's announced as "The Dynamite Kid." Not sure if they were trying to fob him off as the real thing. Benoit puts in a solid shift as the babyface.

Different week, same match. They're not even bothering to flip the script at this point. Universo snaps and piledrivers poor Damian, but it just leads to the same apuestas challenges, etc.

More of the same. They brawl a little, one side gets disqualified and there's a beatdown followed by promos about hair matches. This feud is dragging on forever.

That's from a decade later. Verdu did end up working in Germany a fair bit in the later part of his career, but as I said, Der Henker was a pre-existing gimmick and we've seen different wrestlers don the mask gimmicks before.

I don't think Crusher Verdu is Der Henker, fwiw. Der Henker was a gimmick that had been used by Goldstein. I have no idea who is under the mask, but he has a far better build than Verdu.

The parts where they row out to the ring or where they swim back to poolside?

Someone liked this match-up enough to book a return bout. This was more of an angle than a match with Perros de Mal delivering a beating to Universo. The first bout was better.

This was more of a straight forward trios match than the brawls we've seen from the rudos in recent weeks. We get a glimpse of Perro vs. Ultimo, but they don't have instant chemistry. Some decent action in the tercera.

I still think there isn't enough footage available to make any definitive conclusions about the influence that Wright had on German wrestling. If he had an immediate impact, you'd expect to see it in the CWA footage. It seems like a stretch to give him too much credit for whatever happened post-CWA. That said, I can't remember whether non-heavyweights were involved in the German tournaments prior to 1980.

Regarding the match itself, it's a good bout but they could have done more with the third fall. For a battle of the idols, it would have been nice if they'd raised the stakes a bit.

Maybe Bob hates swimming pool matches as well.

None of these matches contradict what I said about Wright. I'm not sure whether you can claim that Wright "revolutionized" German wrestling without more footage from the 60s and 70s. The work in that Zrno match is nice, but it's Zrno. One of the greats. Can't expect that from a Koshinaka bout.

It's self-evident.

Swimming pool matches are the worst. There is no defense for them. Case closed.

The problem is that Steve Wright never wrestled the way you describe. I can't think of any examples of Wright having a classic wrestling match in the CWA. At some point, his style evolved from the Wonder Kid style you see in World of Sport to the Bull Blitzer style that he used when he faced Marty in '86. Whether he's working heel or face, it's the Bull Blitzer stuff that you mostly see in these CWA matches with the occasional nod to his Wonder Kid past. Personally, I prefer his Bull Blitzer style work to the Wonder Kid stuff just like I prefer Terry Rudge to a stylist like Johnny Saint, but that's not really a preference for brawling over technical wrestling. I simply think Wright is better suited to being an asskicker than a stylist at that phase of his career. In the CWA, they had to work with whatever opponent they were booked against. I'm sure you'll agree that it was fairly random. Shiro Koshinka wasn't going to be doing European holds. Japanese matwork is fundamentally different from European matwork and II doubt they would have meshed well. They could have tried, but I doubt the results would have been noteworthy. Working heel is an easier option. A cheap option, perhaps, but you've seen the heat that Bull Power got. That heat is the end goal for most professional wrestlers. You can lament that it's not a technical wrestling match, or you can accept it for what it is and look for positives. Personally, I don't think you're going to find too many strong technical bouts from CWA -- certainly not that often and definitely not in full. The strength of the Koshinaka bout was a strong narrative and a great character performance from Wright, two things that were evident in the best World of Sport matches and are universal things not American things. It's the type of match that would have run in the Halls in England and would have garnered a positive reaction. TV being so sanitized often creates a false impression of what wrestling was really like in the Halls. I would take a great technical match over a brawl any day. I am not a particularly big fan of brawling. I would rather watch a lucha title match over an apuestas match, for example, but I like a good brawl when I see one. Backlund vs. Khan has potential on paper, but I believe it wasn't that well executed. I haven't gotten around to watching it yet. Again, not a match where you'd want to see them mat wrestle. Brawling was a huge part of Backlund's shtick, and he was pretty adept at it.

A lot of dead weight in this match, but it was worth watching for the Altantis vs. Wagner exchanges. Talk about your great rivalries with no payoff. If I could rewrite lucha history, I'd book a Wagner vs. Atlantis mask match with Atlantis taking the Doctor's mask. It probably wouldn't rival Atlantis vs. Villano -- a match, which in my opinion, signals the end of classic lucha -- but I like their trios work far more than the Atlantis/Villano matches.

Fun match, though I'd be lying if I said I didn't expect a bit more from a match involving Santo, Casas. Halloween and Damian. The rudo side was a bit of a let down but the tecnico action great. El Hijo del Santo makes everything better. Exciting finish too.

This was pretty wild by CMLL standards, which isn't saying much but I can understand why these matches were popular with fans who weren't in the Mistico camp. There's a lot of posing and the occasional flare up, and it ends in controversial fashion with your standard promo afterwards. That leads to a beat down and the wrestlers being escorted away by CMLL security. It's a fun spectacle in spite of everyone doing their best to avoid working a match. I've always had a soft spot for Perro vs. Universo. I just like Universo in general. Pierroth vs. Halloween and Damian was fun as well even if Pierroth can barely walk at this point.

I enjoyed the episode a lot. At the beginning it sounded as though you were reading from your blog post a bit too directly, but you became more relaxed later on in the podcast. Definitely inspired me to watch the match again.

Shiro Koshinaka vs. Steve Wright (8/20/90) I thought this was an excellent match. I am a long time hater of Shiro Koshinaka, but this match and his excellent apuestas bout with Satanico have convinced me that he was one of the better touring Japanese workers of his era. He basically worked as a heel here, but it created a platform for Wright to work a hugely compelling performance from underneath. You won't find many better Wright performances than this. You can find matches with great brawling or exhibition style Euro work, but very few matches with a compelling narrative. There isn't a ton of matwork, but what matwork there is comes across as a do or die struggle. I wouldn't have expected a match with Koshinaka in it to be one of the better German catch bouts from the early 90s, but it makes sense given the makeup of competitors in these tent shows.

Always fun to see these guys. Yeah, you wish they'd get more time to let the match breathe, but beggars can't be choosers when it comes to these guys making TV.

This was slower than your typical CMLL television match. Unfortunately, that didn't make it any better than average. It was mostly built around Tarzan Boy vs. Lizmark Jr, which was only mildly interesting. Casas wore pants, which was off-putting. I hope the door is shut on the narrative about him being one of the best in the world for each year of his prime. It's not his fault that CMLL isn't doing anything with him, but he's not exactly stealing the show in matches like these. This was a crowd pleaser in the sense that they did a few house show style spots, and the tecnicos won, but there's nothing to really sink your teeth into here.