ohtani's jacket

This was exactly what you'd hope for from these two workers at the tail end of the year and at this stage of Hyuga's development. They worked the match-up perfectly -- Hyuga was bigger, more athletic, more dynamic while Bolshoi relied on her wits and ring smarts. There was the usual array of hybrid lucha-shoot style spots from Bolshoi and she utilized the shotei to great effect throughout the bout. Watching this I felt she was neck and neck with Super Delfin as far as juniors go and watching her use the shotei reminded me of what a poor year Liger has had in comparison. The match was tightly worked -- not an epic but competitive and a great vehicle to push Hyuga further ahead. And it was a compelling watch from beginning to end with very little in the way of fat or excess. If you like your Joshi to be a bit smarter then this was one of the better examples from 2000.

This started off with a special ceremony to make Rayo de Jalisco Jr.'s 25th anniversary in wrestling. His family came to the ring and he was presented with a plaque. Perro and Villano said some kind words and Rayo wiped a tear from his eye. Then a mariachi band came to the ring to perform a song for him. He held up a bouquet of flowers when suddenly a mariachi attacked him from behind with a guitar. Gawd Almighty King, that's Mascara Anos Dos Mil! Mascara Anos Dos Mil attacked Rayo with a damned guitar! This was some class A WWF. The Capos didn't give a shit about the match and were disqualified in straight falls. Perro bled as usual and everyone had the shit stomped out of them, Afterward, Universo got on the mic and taunted Aguayo. Damn you to hell, Universo Dos Mil!

This was short and sweet. Porky did some decent shtick for a change. I really liked the sequence where he almost fell on the fans and he did some great crying shtick as well. The Capos are kind of polished and not that great at the same time but I buy into them as rudos and I'm sure they can ratchet up their act if need be. I wasn't paying attention to the match listings and kept wondering why Tarzan Boy wasn't doing his rudo shit. Then the penny dropped.

Hold the phone, there's more CMLL from November. Trouble in paradise! Satanico still hates Tarzan Boy but his partners have a problem with him roughing up a fellow rudo. This leads to some heated altercations with Satanico going chest-to-chest with the Infernales. There's pushing and shoving and Satanico even threatens to join the tecnico side before pulling rank and ordering the Infernales to back off. Meanwhile, Santo hates Tarzan Boy too and makes no bones about it. He does the "I'm watching you" gesture to Tarzan Boy and Tarzan Boy responds by trolling the shit out of Santo with the same gesture. In between the fun and games is some excellent work between Santo & Casas and the Infernales which has me excited about the future of this feud. In the past, I've been critical of the Japanese influence on lucha around this time. It's clear watching this that Casas and Ultimo Guerrero, in particular, have been influenced by their stints in Japan and are looking to push the envelope on the type of action you usually see in a CMLL ring. I've eased up on my criticism of it being inauthentic. If the work is good then let them push it in a different direction. Here it complemented the story well as Santo and Casas were clearly working harder than the lying, cheating Tarzan Boy and I get the feeling that the divide between the old traditional ways and the new style of the Infernales will play a major part in the upcoming feud with Satanico. Which brings us to the finish and Satanico deliberately fouling when it seemed like the Infernales had the situation well in hand. You don't stir up a hornet's nest when it comes to Satanico, that's for sure. You could already see him steaming and plotting so it'll be interesting to see where this goes next. This was a solid quarter hour. Much better TV than the usual fare and hopefully gets CMLL back on track after a rough few months.

A few bits and bobs... Black Guzman vs. Mike Sharpe was a match from the Los Angeles territory's Wrestling Stars of the 60s show. Guzman was the brother of El Santo and one of the pioneers of the fast-paced aerial style that most people associate lucha with. He was also a successful headliner in the Texas territory in the 40s and 50s. He was well past his prime in this footage but looked like a feisty customer. Sharpe was one half of the Sharpe Brothers tag team whom most people are familiar with from their work in Japan against Rikidozan. The match was a short affair built around the size difference between Sharpe and Guzman. You can pretty much imagine how the bout went. I usually like Jules Strongbow but he kept annoying me with the bullshit he span about Guzman being a former matador. He even made up some bullshit story about how a bull gorged Guzman's leg and forced him to retire. Creative liberties I guess but it added to a certain staleness about the TV product from the 60s. When you watch this stuff it really does feel like there was a downturn in wrestling after the popularity it enjoyed in the 50s. Sonny Myers vs. Rudy Kay is a short bout from Chicago. The only notable thing about it is how much Russ Davis loves Rudy Kay. It seems like Kay was one of his favorite performers for some reason or another. He always gets excited when he commentates a Kay bout. Bobo Brazil vs. Duke Keomuka was the first time I've been able to get a handle on Keomuka. He was your typical stereotypical Japanese heel. Bobo Brazil is Bobo Brazil. Pretty much writes itself. Buffalo continues to be an uninteresting territory and 60s wrestling continues to be a massive step down from the peak 50s stuff. I wonder what the best US territory was in the 60s.

This was incredibly mediocre. The type of match that's a slog to get through. The only thing that piqued my interest was how bad Gigolo was. The rest of the match was just brutally boring.

There's that man Negro Navarro. This was several years before he adopted his bald, ass-kicker persona. He worked more of a classical style but it still neat seeing him work his maestro tricks. I liked a lot of the work in this, actually, despite it being slow and featuring too much stalling. Mike Segura did an excellent job of propping up the tecnico side, which is something I always look for in trios matches. It's easy to put together a solid rudo side but a good tecnico makes a world of difference, Segura came across like a young actor itching for a starring role. And he sure lived up to his "Suicida" moniker with that dive. Not only that, but I continue to have an almost irrational appreciation for the unmasked Hijo del Gladiador so that made three guys to track in this, which is a pretty good return on a trios match.

This was a solid trios match until the bullshit with Tarzan Boy began. Talk about the most drawn-out rudo turn in the history of lucha. The fact that it spans across three promotions makes it even more irritating. It seemed like a good idea during the first few weeks but Lord knows why they didn't pull the trigger on it during week three. It's this lack of narrative consistency that makes it difficult to sell people on lucha. It reminds me of the confusing Santo turn which dragged on for years. On the positive side, Panther looked sensational in his mat exchange with Hijo del Lizmark. It was all Panther on attack but it made you forget how bad of a worker Lizmark can be. I haven't revisited the Santo/Panther matches yet but given how good Panther has looked throughout the year, and the number of memorable pairings he's had, I think 2000 has to be in the running for his career year (on tape). He may end up walking away with my Lucha WOTY award and performances like this are the reason why.

We've seen this matchup before in 2000 so we pretty much knew what to expect. This was shorter than their last title fight and lasted around 15 minutes. So instead of lying around on the mat wrenching submission holds, the picked up the pace and worked a more fluid style. That didn't always look the prettiest when they were transitioning between holds since Villano IV wasn't the most nimble guy on his feet, but they built to the finish well and the deciding fall was brisk and exciting. At times it felt like two heavyweights working more of a lightweight style but it worked out okay. It probably could have done with a bit more drama but at least the rhythm and pacing were strong. And, as always, it was a welcome spotlight for Villano IV. Possibly the least of Scorpio's title defenses this year but still good, which tells you a lot about his title reign. I'm sure his dad had a lot to do with him having the belt but he's defended it with aplomb and it's hard to think of a better championship run during this lucha season.

I thought this was all right considering that a cage match isn't the most authentic gimmick in Mexico. Yes, the brawling was meandering but no more so than any Battle Royal in history. I found it charming in a way that they didn't really know how to milk the drama out of the escape rules. Even the final pair were fumbling in the dark when it came to basic escape match tropes. But the crowd appreciated it as something different and it wasn't awful by any stretch of the imagination. I'm probably giving them a huge pass but it was more interesting than your run-of-the-mill, slowgoing IWRG trios match.

This thread being resurrected inspired me to watch the first episode. It was kind of rough around the edges in terms of production values and match layout but enjoyable nonetheless. My favorite moment was Freddie Blassie bringing his "mother" Laura to Cyndi Lauper's Mother's Day Surprise.

I love how Los Capos look like Henry Fonda's men in Once Upon A Time in the West. Different names, same bullshit from Tarzan Boy. He blew his knee out or faked blowing his knee out which forced Emilio to carry him off. That left Perro at the mercy of the Capos who beat the crap out of him in the first steps toward the Perro vs. Universo apuesta match. And that's it for CMLL in November as far as the TV goes. A weak month for the company.

This was from the same TV episode that aired the Arena Coliseo torneo so it was heavily clipped. Wagner scored an emphatic pinfall over Santo and the bullshit with Tarzan Boy continued. Just turn already.

More clipping with just the finish shown. The title that the Stone brothers won was the revived CMLL Arena Coliseo Tag Team Championship, a secondary tag title meant to be competed for by the lower card guys. It fizzled out after a year or two but was revived again in 2008. The Stones held onto the title until they left the promotion in 2005.

Clipped but looked like solid undercard lucha.

This could have been better. I really wanted to get a look at Ultimo Guerrero vs. Casas but it turned into an "advance the storyline" match. Not only that but they cut out the second fall. When the best thing about a Casas singles match is Satanico blowing a gasket on the outside you know you've been jibbed.

Fishman was a rudo in the 70s and 80s as well. Angel Azteca and Panther have a title match the following month.

This was a fun match. It was worked in a tiny ring on one of the Toryumon's regular Kobe shows. M2K working over TARU wasn't the most interesting beatdown you'll see but it set up a wild finish with CIMA putting on a spectacular show for the fans in attendance. Post-match, M2K want a match with just Stalker and TARU at Korakuen, and I can't say I blame them after CIMA's impressive feats.

This looked like an interesting match on paper and was entertaining in patches. I really like the dynamic between Toyota and Kandori. They're a complete contrast from each other stylistically and in just about every other aspect as well. Kandori is constantly trying to intimidate Toyota but Toyota won't back down and that leads to some fabulous chemistry between the pair. Some of that was played as comedy here but there were also exchanges that reminded me of their awesome singles match from '98. The rest of the match was a bit of a trainwreck. Tateno's best days were well behind her and she pretty much served as a punching bag for Toyota to get all her shit in, and I don't think I'll ever become a Yumiko Hotta fan. When Kandori wasn't involved the match was straight Joshi. Toyota did her big dive off the balcony. I still haven't gotten used to Toyota doing 'extreme' spots like that. She messed up the finish 2 or 3 times as well. Hotta had to hastily improvise which was awkward since she was meant to be holding Kandori back in the corner. Toyota was trying to hit her Japanese Ocean Suplex on Tateno but seemed to be struggling with Tateno's weight. She got the pin in the end and the Kandori theatrics came to a close. Worth watching if you're interested in Kandori.

This was every bit as good as I remembered. I'm sick to death of LCO but when their matches are good they tend to be MOTYC level good. This was wild, chaotic, bloody and noisy. Honestly, it was one of the loudest crowds that Japan has had all year. Everything about this match was good but I do have some caveats --- the first is that I was raised on escape rules and I'm a fan of the gimmick, the second is that I am all-in on Kaoru Ito as All Japan Women's ace. Bearing those two things in mind, this was a glorious spectacle and probably the best women's match from the second half of the year. Folks can hate on Momoe if they want but she brawled her guts out here. She pretty much had no choice locked inside a cage with LCO but she was throwing headbutts and wreaking havoc and absolutely nailed her role of patrolling the outside and making sure none of the heels escaped. Ito cut deep as usual and had a crimson mask for much of the bout. I loved the way she threw herself back into the cage to save her partners and ended up trapped and alone. And the kicker was that she went one-on-one with the Judas, Maekawa. That the shittiest of turns could lead to a great match was nothing short of amazing. It may be one of the greatest turnarounds in wrestling history. The part where Watanabe interfered was as good a run-in as you'll see in any Crockett bout or any WWF booked match. It was pretty much perfect from an emotional point-of-view. And the double foot-stomp off the top of the rope is just sick. That is the most debilitating looking move you can imagine. When they carried Maekawa off at the end she looked like she was coughing up blood and nursing six broken ribs. The four girls celebrating after the bout was one of the better face celebrations you'll see too. When do you ever see four women looking so emotional and so badass at the same time? This was pretty much a symphony of chaotic, violence-filled Joshi with emotions running sky the entire time and the crowd right with them for the entire ride. I won't say much more since I'll end up overrating it in other people's eyes but it was considered the beginning of the short-lived AJW renaissance back in the day and holds up to this very day.

This turned into more of a Bolshoi appreciation match than a legitimately good pro-wrestling match but it was worth watching just to see Bolshoi work. She may be the best hybrid lucha-shoot style worker ever. I'm struggling to think of anyone who rivals her. I'm not a huge fan of hybrid styles but Bolshoi makes it work like few other workers and she's a joy to watch at all times. I've long admired her singles matches, and while this wasn't one of the better ones it was a welcome sight in the match listings. Miyazaki tried hard but she was a bit rough around the edges, She had the right attitude but ideally you want to see that attitude go hand in hand with execution and we didn't quite get enough of that. I'd love to see Bolshoi had a Super Delfin like run but I don't think JWP has the legs to make that sort of run especially when this was a match against a NEO talent.