ohtani's jacket

This was a decent end to a one-night tournament but not a memorable match. There wasn't a single moment that stood out, not even the finishing stretch where Sasaki put Kawada away, and if you're familiar with Kawada's career you'll know that he was involved in some of the most memorable finishing stretches of all-time. The match lacked the atmosphere and electricity of their first meeting, and while they didn't rush things, they never really paused to let the magnitude of the bout sink in. The bout was competitive without being intense and hard fought without being taxing. In other words, it wasn't next level, which in most cases is what fans like me are looking for.

This was decent enough for what it was. The chances of it being great were slim to none but it was interesting to see Kawada in this setting again. I thought he sold too much but in a way that illustrated the contrasting philosophies of New Japan vs. All Japan. I wasn't entirely convinced that he did enough to put Tenzan away but they would've outstayed their welcome if they'd gone any longer. Some interesting parallels to Tenryu's forays into New Japan but Kawada didn't have the charisma that Tenryu possessed which meant it wasn't as electric.

Hotta's crew vs Ito's crew. This was supposed to be a frenetic, all-action match but it wasn't as exciting as you'd imagine. Ordinarily, they'd maximize the emotional conflict in a bout like this but this felt lazy. There was plenty of beef between the wrestlers but I wasn't feeling any of it. AJW is off to a bit of a rough start in '01.

While I'm unlikely to ever join any revisionist school of thought about Yumiko Hotta, this was much better than I expected. Toyota brought her usual level of intensity which Hotta countered with an extremely clear and focused performance. Of course, there were all of the flaws that people usually pinpoint in Toyota matches, but they avoided the cardinal sin of wrestling (being boring.) The fact that they'd come up together and were the kind added gravity to the bout, but in all honesty, they built the match from the ground up and didn't really try too much or over-extended themselves. There was a natural style contrast, perhaps not as dramatic as Toyota vs. Kandori, but evident all the same and I really liked Hotta's use of the shotei as a similar weapon to Aja's uraken. There wasn't a huge amount at stake but they could have had a much more boring bout where they took a long tour around Korakuen and incorporated the garbage wrestling was so en vogue in 2000. I was grateful that they kept this simple and pleasantly surprised by the result.

I found a few more Kace matches online. The first was a title defense against Jim Hady. Kace worked from underneath and showed a lot of ass, so I guess the information that the commentator gave me in the Kramer bout wasn't very reliable. Even though he worked from below, he was extremely active and left a big imprint on the bout. It was a nice minor league touring champ performance. This match was also notable for Fred Kohler appearing on camera. Finally, we got to see what the old boy looked like. Next up was a TV bout from the WWA territory. This was from the late 60s and Kace was a journeyman at this stage. He took on Blackjack Lanza in a bout that was really only notable for a young Bobby Heenan being in Lanza's corner, and boy did Bobby have amazing hair, but Kace had a firm grasp of his role and delivered a solid performance against a guy who wasn't all that sharp in the ring. The last match was a mauling from Bobo Brazil. It's not that uncommon to see Bobo dominate and give little or nothing to his opponent but I was impressed with the way Kace sold. He had a ton of cool tricks and was constantly moving and trying something. Even though Bobo wiped the canvas with him, this cemented his position as a quality performer as he managed to make Bobo's holds interesting. I knew there was a little Dick Murdoch to this guy and he proved it here.

Giant Baba vs. Fritz Von Erich (12/19/69) Good ol' Fritz sure brings out the best in Baba. This was a nasty little fight that pitted Fritz' claw against Baba's chops to the face and throat. There wasn't a moment's peace for the referee as it threatened to get out of control right from the referee's instructions. And it was Fritz vs. Baba, so it ended with an epic claw struggle, a mad glint in Fritz' eye, and a Baba bladejob. Fritz really was the master of the DQ finish.

Giant Baba/Antonio Inoki vs. Gene Kiniski/Johnny Valentine (2/1/72) This is indeed the Johnny Valentine show, and he's great in it as the Segunda boys said. It's actually a bit disconcerting the first time you see him in close-up as he looks so much like Greg. Valentine and Kiniski put a solid heel shift here. It was easily the best foreign heel stuff I've seen Kiniski do. He picked his spots well and didn't get in the way of Valentine. Baba and Inoki were serviceable but by no means spectacular. They were serviceable in the same way that the Misawa/Kawada tag team was serviceable against foreign heel teams in the early 90s. The bout was highlighted by Baba and Valentine going toe-to-toe but you got the impression that Baba wasn't using his size to full effect. It was as though he wanted to be treated as a normal athlete. The Japanese team could have shown a bit more fire in general, I thought. The structure was too choppy for it to a classic and it ran out of steam toward the end but that is often the case with these overly long JWA bouts that sacrifice rhythm and pacing for length. Valentine was awesome, though. A must-see if you're interested in the man.

A new Lord James Blears match has surfaced pitting Dave Levin Blears against Tony Morelli and Angelo Cistoldi. It's a tag match so there's not much in the way of technical wrestling. Blears does a decent job as a fired up babyface brawler but that's not really a role that you want to see Blears in any more than you'd want to see Steve Regal do the same thing in 1993, to make an obvious comparison. Also uploaded recently is an interesting Antonio Rocca showcase against Brother Frank Jares. This is filmed and edited to be pretty much all Rocca but they certainly made Rocca's offense seem cool. Jares bumps for Rocca well and they ramp up the sound effects to make the hits sound nastier. Better than most Rocca bouts even if it does come across as staged. Little Beaver vs. irish Jackie is your typical midgets match. Some stooging, a bit of comedy, the occasional flurry of activity. It's tailormade for the audience and gets a good reaction. Beaver looked good when he went on the offensive. Dick the Bruiser vs. Bil Melby is a solid affair. I'm pretty convinced that early Afflis is the best possible version of Dick the Bruiser. The only thing that would convince me otherwise is if he had a really hot feud somewhere. The bout doesn't really go anywhere since the ref has to constantly break things up, but you shouldn't expect anything different from a Dick the Bruiser bout. I enjoyed Johnny Kace vs. George Kramer. Kace was a Mid-West star who reminded me of Dick Murdoch. Kramer was your average blue-eyed technician. Together they put on an enjoyable bout trying to outfox each other. From the sounds of things, Kace gave Kramer a bit more than he usually did on his television appearances. The reason I plow through this stuff is to find good workers like Kace so I enjoyed this gem. Lastly, a few clips of Ricki Starr doing his act, a worker from the 30s named Joe Savoldi, and some footage of Londos. I'm not sure if I've seen the Londos footage before (it's hard to remember which clips you've seen when it's bits and pieces of a bout), but he's one of the all-time greats as far as I'm concerned.

I was kind of dreading this when I saw that the file length was 48 minutes. The last thing I want to do at this stage of my life is to watch a 50-minute LCO match. Needless to say, this didn't break any new ground. It was energetic but choppy. It didn't seem to flow very well and I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd see everything a million times before. The finish saw Maekawa and Hotta interfere, which was incredibly lame. LCO won in straight falls to reclaim their titles but it was a cheap and hollow victory. Hotta vs Ito was set up as the next big thing but it was piss poor stuff. Recommendation to avoid unless you like title matches that end with a whimper.

Y'know, Kaoru Ito did an even better job as champion than I remember. She did nothing to discredit the belt and was able to carry on the proud lineage of the WWWA title by fulfilling the role of The Woman in AJW. I have nothing but respect for the way she carried herself during her rise to the top even if it was during a disastrous period for the company. Etsuko Mita may not have been the most credible of title contenders -- indeed, she feels like she belongs at the All-Pacific level rather than challenging for the world title -- but the pair had history through their tag team wars and the Grand Prix final and Mita is an underrated worker who deserves a bit of the spotlight every now and again. As you can imagine, this bout was built around Mita's DVDVR vs. Ito's powerbomb/foot stomp combo. There was cool shit like you'd expect, and annoying shit like you'd expect. It never reached any great heights since Ito was the new champion and on top of her game, and Mita had no chance of toppling her reign, but it was a decent way to start the new year albeit without the emotional highs of the November cage match.

This started off as straight midcard fare that allowed us to see more of Pimpi in his prime and turned into an apuesta feud between Diluvio and Silver Star. For some reason which escaped me in Spanish, the ref was heavily involved in the feud. More involved than any ref I can remember from a lucha libre bout (and that includes a ton of rudo refs.) Mind you, this was the same ref that did a plancha from the top turnbuckle in the main event, so who knows what was going on. I don't know if I'll ever see a payoff to this but I was a witness to it.

This started off as a Parka match, which was pretty much its own thing at this stage, and morphed into a beef between Wagner and his rudo partners. In the middle of all that was some good stuff -- Parka and Wagner brawling, Dandy squaring off with Safari, and a nice finishing stretch between Parka and Psicosis -- but it was mostly a repetitive loop of Wagner and Psicosis interfering with each other's holds. Wagner vs. Psicosis showed plenty of promise but if you've watched enough lucha you'll know that it pays to be skeptical. There's no guarantee that they'll follow it up so don't get your hopes up. It was interesting to see Psicosis back in a lucha setting after his US run. He was a good worker, but nowhere near as charismatic as he was with the mask. No matter how hard he tried, he wasn't really "Psicosis." An interesting case of how larger than life most Pena gimmicks were.

Well, I was wrong when I said Felino vs. Cerebro wouldn't go anywhere. I guess I should have looked ahead because here they are in a title match. I took a long break from watching this stuff so they may have been feuding at the end of the year as well. This was an excellent title match. In fact, if it wasn't for that amazing Atlantis vs. Wagner mano a mano bout it would have easily been the MOTM for January. The first fall is 9 minutes of matwork, and even though Cerebro is clearly Felino's superior on the mat, it's still an outstanding portion of matwork. The segunda caida is a classic revenge fall with Cerebro hitting a terrific tope that is one of the more realistic looking dives you'll see in a lucha bout. He follows that up with an awesome submission/pin combo that every wrestler should copy. I love how the ref is in two minds over whether to count it as a pinfall or submission but gives him a five count to release it. The third fall isn't as epic as some title matches but it doesn't beat around the bush either. You know you're getting a finish and the ending is totally satisfying. Great stuff.

This was a fairly meaningless Monterrey bout. It had some nice stuff in it and managed to keep its shape until the end instead of breaking down in the tercera caida, but the finish was a schmoz that rendered the bout pointless. Panther was great and for my money the best worker in Mexico at this point. I particularly liked his work with Astuto. You can tell a lot about a luchador by the way they work with chance opponents like Astuto and Panther really let him shine in the opening fall. Niebla and his duck arse continue to annoy but Olimpico and Bucanero were decent.

More Felino vs. Cerebro action. This time rudo dominated brawling. You know this isn't going anywhere but you can always dream. Not the best match of its ilk but there's some fun comedy between Wagner and Porky, and late in the tercera you get what you really want, which is Dandy vs. Wagner.

I am surprised that nobody mentioned Wrestlemania X. I have always had a soft spot for that Wrestlemania as it was right when I got back into wrestling, but the Owen vs. Bret build on top of the Bret/Luger/Yokozuna build, Shawn vs. Razor, and even Crush vs. Macho Man, is pretty good considering how depleted the roster was compared to previous years.

This was a typical Monterrey bout. There was plenty of good action in the beginning but it turned into a clusterfuck at the end. That was largely due to the Tarzan Boy "is he or isn't he a rudo?" shit, which is easily the worst angle in wrestling at this point. It also had dubbed over commentary that sounded like it was recorded in somebody's living room and no crowd noise, which was jarring at times. I do appreciate Tarzan Boy's abilities as a worker even if I hate the angle that he's involved with, and he had a number of good exchanges with Dandy, who is continuing to work his way back into wrestling shape. There were some cool Dandy/Niebla exchanges in this, which isn't a match-up that immediately springs to mind when you think of Dandy's dance partners. Dandy, at this point, will never return to world class but he is falling back into the "very good" category which is good enough. Pimpi was Pimpi and everybody else chipped in here and there. The match ended up breaking down when Tarzan Boy and Safari got in each other's grill but the action was decent while it lasted.

This was a decent looking match on paper but can never be sure with these IWRG matches. A lot of times they end up treading water even at these TV tapings. This was a brisk match that enough quality moments to make the bout worthwhile. The best match-up was Felino vs. Cerebro, which came across as one of those lost match-ups that would have made an amazing feud. Of course, you could say that about a number of match-ups involving Dr. Cerebro, which speaks to the quality of the worker and his gimmick. They got enough time on the mat here to appease me. We also got the chance to see Negro Navarro, although he didn't hit his full stride in this bout.

Merry Christmas, everyone

Amazing worker from the time he was a teenager. I wish he had stayed in England and followed the path set by Marty Jones and Dave Finlay but I guess he was too good not to travel overseas. The Marty Jones WoS match is still my favorite Dynamite Kid bout.

One of the great European heels. Another guy who enriched my wrestling experience. Hopefully, we get more footage of him in the years to come.

Uh oh, now Emilio is teasing a rudo turn. You know what that means, another drawn out story match. But it's all right. Watching Emilio on the apron is entertaining and the crowd is super hot. The rudo fan who always comes to the shows with the glove and cowbell fucking loves it when Emilio lies down for Bestia. Imagine if he'd been an NWO fan. He would have lost his shit over the Fingerpoke of Doom. Santo and Casas are really good at playing aggrieved tecnicos and manage to work a hot comeback in a match that's 100% angle. Emilio doesn't fuck around like Tarzan Boy and turns rudo in no time but Shocker isn't ready to accept him yet. Loved watching Bestia play the middleman. I'll never tire of watching him slap the shit of people either. What a great worker that guy was. He was a stud when he was young and wily as fuck during his W.C. Fields days.

CMLL continues to move in mysterious ways. They drew out the Satanico/Tarzan Boy shit for months but they threw Wagner and Atlantis into a mano a mano bout after a week. Not that I'm complaining since this was the best mano a mano bout I've ever seen. To be honest, it was a better match-up than Villano vs. Atlantis for the simple reason that Villano was a decade or more removed from his prime whereas Wagner was bang smack in the middle of his. Of course, Villano vs. Atlantis culminated in one of the greatest apuesta matches of all time and we already know that Wagner and Atlantis aren't going to have a mask match, but I dare say that Wagner and Atlantis were aware of that too because instead of holding something back for a potential payday down the line, they delivered the greatest cock tease that you could possibly imagine. Honestly speaking, the action was just as good as an apuesta match. The hairs on the back of your neck were tingling just like they would be in an apuesta bout. The crowd was electric and super hot. Just an incredible match. And the vignette of Wagner as an actual doctor to start the match was priceless.

Stone the crows, we got to see this in full. That meant we got to see the early matwork and watch the match actually build. And it was a good thing too as they decided to create a beef out of nowhere between Wagner and Atlantis. Like any great beef, there was some wonderful supporting work from Satanico and Rivera and Shocker and Niebla, but all eyes were on the two guys tearing each other's masks. You read a lot of talk about Atlantis as a worker. Regardless of how you feel about him, this was inspired Atlantis. He looked fantastic and his work with Wagner was inspired. It's to his credit that as a tecnico he knew how to work a beef without coming across like a dick. And of course, Wagner was a larger than life rudo in every sense of the term. If you're going to watch any CMLL TV match from this era this is the one to watch as they gave them carte blanche without the shitty TV editing.

Finally, Tarzan Boy is a rudo and officially affiliated with the Infernales. The match is story driven but it makes for good TV. You've got to love the confidence with which Tarzan Boy slaps the shit out of Casas, and I liked their standoff prior to the Satanico run in. As usual, the booking is confusing with the Infernales standing around trying to reason with Satanico while he attacks Tarzan Boy's leg. You would have thought that all ties had been severed between them when Ultimo Guerrero and Satanico had their bust-up in December, but I guess Satanico is still officially a rudo, blah, blah blah.