ohtani's jacket

There is a lot of talk about this match being a punishment for this, that, and the other thing. Whatever the case, it certainly didn't hurt either man. I'm not gonna lie. I was feeling the 45 minutes. It was slow going at times. I didn't care for Cena's mind games and shitty acting at the beginning. It builds into a fairly exciting match, however, especially once Michaels hurts his back. What it proved was two-fold -- t showed that Cena could hang in a long, standard wrestling match, and that Michaels, as annoying as he could be at times, was capable of excellence during his comeback. Michaels had worked some good matches since his return, especially some of his TV carry jobs, but this match was on a different level. A level he had probably only reached with Angle, and possibly Benoit. I kind of liked their WrestleMania match more, but this is clearly the one that folks remember.

Octagon, Perro Aguayo Sr., Rayo de Jalisco Jr. vs. Mascara Ano 2000, Satanico, Universo 2000 (AAA, 6/25/93) I either didn't know, couldn't remember, or didn't care, that Rayo Jr wrestled in AAA during 1993. He got a big entrance here so it must have been his TV debut. The match went pretty much to script: the rudos attacked the tecnico they hated most, the tecnicos fought back, MA2k and Satnico got into an argument, and Satanico walked out on his partners. Both Perro and Rayo teased taking Universo's mask, Satanico did some fun stooging for the tecnicos (probably an underrated part of his game), and there was enough backstory between the competitors to keep the audience engaged. Never reached any great heights, but far from dull.

El Hijo Del Santo, Octagon, Perro Aguayo Sr vs. Fuerza Guerrera, Mascara Ano 2000, Satanico (AAA, 6/18/93) Satanico continued to beat on Octagon here. This time with a little help from Octagon's old nemesis Guerrera. It was weird seeing a young(er) Mascara Ano 2000. It may be my imagination but he seemed bigger than the MA2K I'm used to. Perro looked older than dirt even in 1992. Santo didn't do much here, but Octagon finally fought back against Satanico, and I've gotta say, I don't know how good a singles match between them would have been, but I've really enjoyed their interactions. There was a fun sequence between Fuerza and Perro too. That's a matchup I can't remember seeing before, not that I've watched a lot of matches with Perro and Fuerza together. We also got some brief interactions between Santo and Satanico. As far as I know, we have one record of a singles match between them from 1991, and not a ton of interaction between them prior to this match. I'm not sure why they were kept apart aside from the whole CMLL/UWA thing, but a singles match between them done right has to be up there as far as dream matches go. The actual story here, however, was a falling out between MA2K and his partners, which led to a lengthy program between MA2K and Satanico. Of course it will take a couple of matches yet until the feud explodes. Unfortunately, Santo is replaced by Rayo, but we'll see what Satanico cooks up.

You guys are giving 1996 WWF way more credit than I'm prepared to.

This was my first time watching a Briscoes brothers tag match. They were far more old-school and fundamentally sound than I was expecting, though they still managed to pepper the finishing stretch with high impact moves. I didn't particularly care for Shelley and Sabin's heel shtick here, but I did like the slow build here, and I thought they displayed excellent teamwork. The finishing stretch was a lot, but the saves were good and there were some cool double teams. Can't really complain about epic finishing stretches after being reared on 90s puro. Not sure where this falls among the better tag matches of the year, but overall a nice introduction to the Briscoes.

This was okay. It was very much a TV match dressed up as a PPV match, but it had some decent mat wrestling at the beginning. It seemed like they were pushing MVP as the next big thing, which makes sense since they needed someone to replace Angle, but he wasn't wholly convincing as a breakout star. Apparently, he won Most Improved in the WON awards, so I guess he's one to watch. I was surprised that he didn't go over here.

Lizmark, Mascara Sagrada, Octagon vs. Jerry Estrada, La Parka, Satanico (AAA, 6/11/93) Super libre revancha that doesn't get particularly violent. I realize now that this was part of the build to a Lizmark vs. Estrada title match, so no Lizmark vs .Satanico. Lizmark did force Satanico to submit at the end of the first caida, so a bit of foreshadowing there. Satanico vs. Octagon has been highly entertaining, and Lizmark and Estrada are always good. Not a lot for Parka or Sagrada to do in this, at least not a lot that made TV. The others carried the show, though. It didn't take long for Satanico to remind me why he's my all-time favorite rudo.

This was really good. Great to see my boy Low Ki plying his craft like this. Not the typical sort of Low Ki match I'd seek out as it was a classic big man vs little man match, but man was Low Ki's selling great. Hernandez was 100% convincing in his role as the bruiser, but it was the precision and detail that Low Ki put into the bout that drew me in. Talk about a textbook takedown of a big man. Rey Mysterio would have been proud to work this bout.

This was supposed to happen on the previous week's RAW, but they ran out of time because of Michaels vs. Cena going 60 minutes. It had the added wrinkle of being the night after Backlash where Edge had screwed Orton over in the fatal fourway match. Always neat to see a heel vs. heel match. This had a lot going for it, but was truncated for television time. Meltzer gave it **** 1/4 stars, but I felt it needed breathing space between the big spots to justify a rating that high. Not bad, though, given it was free and everything. I also didn't hate Edge and Orton being on my screen, which the internet would suggest I should.

Yeah, Steamboat in the WWF in 1996 wouldn't have ended happily. His retirement basically coincided with the end of his style of wrestling. He may have been able to extend things in 1995, but honestly, he would have been better in the indies post 1994, similar to how the Rock 'n' Roll Express were better whenever they popped up in the indies than in the big two. If Smokey Mountain had continued that may have been an option. Heyman would have surely brought him into ECW. They basically used everyone in the Monday Night Wars, so there's a chance he would have featured alongside Luger & Co. as the defender of WCW, but we all know how that was booked. If he made it to the Invasion, he probably would have fared better in 2000s WWE than mid-90s WWF.

Hey, we won a test series in India in my lifetime. I think it translates to a pro-wrestling ring as well, though a lot of people appear to love Danielson's mat wrestling. I find Danielson's matwork to be post-modern, for want of a better work, compared to Brisco's classical style. I'm sure there's a comparison between Indian batsmen that can be made.

I'm gonna change tack for a bit as there's quite a few guys I'm interested in watching in AAA. Lizmark, Mascara Sagrada, Octagon vs. Jerry Estrada, La Parka, Satanico (AAA, 6/4/93) This was Satanico's debut in AAA. He got a nice little entrance. I thought Satanico vs. Lizmark would be the vocal point here, but Lizmark matched up with his rival Jerry Estrada instead (with Parka lurking in the background.) I didn't mind that since Lizmark and Estrada are a great matchup (probably my favorite Estrada matchup, tbh.) Satanico would up working with the gimmick wrestlers. Given Satanico doesn't have a great rep for his work against gimmick guys, I thought he was pretty damn good here. Granted, he was on debut, but never let it be said that Satanico wouldn't work with the gimmick guys when he wanted to. Lizmark was so great in 1993. A lot of the stuff he does is subtle and doesn't jump off the screen like Santo, but he was a great tecnico. This was entertaining for a match that ended up breaking down. Sagarada hit a great tope. I feel bad for all the shit I said about him back in the day. I should say ten Hail Marys or something. Satanico bullied the shit out of Octagon. Not sure if that was to get him over in his debut or to test the waters for a program. IIRC, they were booked against each other in CMLL (possibly by Pena), though I don't remember their Arena Coliseo match being particularly good.

This was a weak fatal four way full of superhuman comebacks and finisher spamming. The finish sucked too. Why booked this show? It reminded me of some of the weak triple threat matches Cena had when he was feuding with Angle and Michaels.

I don't know what a motte and bailey is, but the post above me said that Danielson was better at most things in wrestling. He wasn't better at wrestling than Brisco. That was my point.

Brisco was clearly the better wrestler. he was an NCAA champion. Danielson was a pro-wrestler. I wouldn't object if anyone thought Danielson was the better worker, though I don't think it's cut and dried. Danielson was obviously better at modern day wrestling, but I don't think he could have filled the shoes of Brisco in the 1970s. Brisco has footage issues, but the Florida clips suggest he was capable of wrestling heated matches. The Briscos were a great tag team and capable of working heel. Post-prime Brisco was solid, and he was much better in Japan than Danielson.

This couldn't match the buzz that their WrestleMania match generated but it wasn't from a lack of effort. The Smackdown bookers booked themselves into a corner by making this a Last Man Standing Match and then not having either man lay down for a 10 count. There was some slightly interesting stuff early on with Taker's bad elbow and Bastista's bandaged hamstring, but it didn't play into the finish. I did like Take's leg drop onto the announce table, and the way JBL jumped the barricade while Cole was sitting on top of it like a puppet. Again, they were out of synch on commentary. I never thought I'd pine for the days of Taz. The crowd seemed unimpressed with the finish. It was a unique visual, but I don't think anyone wanted to see a draw. Credit to Batista, though, for this feud having legs.

I think it goes without saying that Brisco was a far better wrestler.

I approached this match with a healthy dose of skepticism, but this was an excellent wrestling match. It had all the beats of a typical WWE main event yet it felt as though each beat was perfectly executed. Great selling from both guys. Michaels toned down his ham acting and delivered a performance that was on point. You know a match is good when instead of mentally checking off the spots you'd expect them to do, you find yourself engrossed in them instead.

Such a great worker. My dream is one day the vaults will open and dozens of new Cortez matches will emerge.

He made his in-ring debut in 1967, but didn't debut on television until 1980, which may or may not have been what i was referring to.

Larry Hamilton vs. Don Arnold (8/31/53) I'd previously only seen the final few minutes of this. This was as close to a complete version as television would allow. It seemed to have been broadcast in Portland since the TV commercials were endorsed by a Portland-based drug store. The commercials were for weight loss remedies, sleeping pills, and happy pills, and almost as interesting as the match itself. Good, clean match with some solid wrestling. A good example of a technical bout not wrestled by a Thesz or Gagne. Welsh tried to make a story out of Hamilton being frustrated but there was nothing to it. I guess Welsh was trying to explain away the boos the wrestlers received when they used the ropes to break a hold.

I thought Undertaker was excellent in this. He seemed spurred on by the fact that the crowd was behind him. Batista couldn't match Taker's intensity, but they turned things up a notch after Undertaker almost took out Lilian Garcia. Worked at a decent clip and never boring. Some good action down the stretch. The commentary was awful, though. JBL couldn't finish his sentences properly and Cole kept repeating the same inane talking points. JR and King would elevated this a notch.

All right, I'm finally in the mood to watch some wrestling again. Blue Panther vs. El Mariachi (AAA, 10/30/94) This was the best Panther vs. Mariachi match you could have hoped for. There was no mask ripping, no blood, no weak brawling. They downplayed any sort of heel/face dynamic, and Tirantes reffed a clean match. You could probably argue that if Solar had been wrestling as himself the mat exchanges would have been better. He went for more of a strength approach here, and there were a lot of exchanges done from a vertical base, but I didn't mind that as one look at Panther ought to tell you that he's a strong dude. The flat back bump played a huge role in this match. Mariachi was pretty much head dropped into submission by lucha standards. I thought he did a pretty good job of selling the bumps, especially on impact, but his dizzy spells were a bit off at times. That's a minor quibble, but it was noticeable that it wasn't something he was used to doing. A clean tercera was heaven sent. They didn't work as many near falls as you sometimes see in high stakes matches, but there was a solid progression to the finish. Probably Panther's best singles match in AAA. The Azteca match was more exciting, but the work here was better. It's a shame we didn't get more matches like this from Panther's AAA run, but lucha always leaves you wanting more.

Thank you!

Antonio Inoki was many, many things, but Miles Davis he was not. I get the analogy, but no. He did have one of the most larger than life careers in the history of pro-wrestling, though. The likes of which I doubt we'll see again.