ohtani's jacket

Oh c'mon, this has to be good, doesn't it? In typical lucha fashion, I'm confused about what's going on. Weren't Silver King and El Dandy tecnicos the last time we saw them in IWRG and weren't the Villanos rudos? Ah well, it doesn't matter. One good thing about the year 2000 is the amount of Villanos trios matches there are after years of them being in the wilderness after the UWA folded. The first fall is an extended beatdown. It's longer than your average beatdown -- more of a measured beatdown than a vicious one. Nothing remarkable happens but it's controlled and they keep a steady pace. Dandy is much better here than in Monterrey. The VIllanos don't work hard enough for their comeback but offensively they're a polished unit. The third fall was all right but it wasn't until Wagner and Villano III squared off that the stakes felt right and then the foul bullshit happened. Provided this is leading somewhere this gets a pass as a first chapter but it wasn't great on its own.

So promising on paper, so disappointing in execution. This was butchered in the edit and worked in a weak style for the Arena Mexico crowd. I can only imagine a long-form version of this in a smaller arena that produces a MOTYC. Panther vs. Villano III was tantalizingly good as was Villano vs. Wagner. But let me tell you, I love me some Doc Wagner Jr. but you're more likely to see a clean finish in a Hogan match. Really disappointing.

The Perro retirement tour rolls through Naucalpan and the fans end up being treated to his best performance all year. This was an excellent match. I adore the Villanos' style of matwork so I thoroughly enjoyed the opening caida even if none of the matchups were outstanding. It was fun watching Perro on the mat. He was slow but you could see that the muscle memory was still there and the brain was ticking over. I bet there were nights when he was younger where he was a fierce competitor on the mat despite not being as technically gifted as other luchadores. I also enjoyed watching Villano III jostle with Mascara Sagrada and his giant duck arse. It's been a huge year for Villano III but we haven't seen much of him on the mat so this was a pleasant change. The tecnico comeback was short and on point with Perro's stomp firing things up. I liked the mark of respect between Perro and V3 but my favorite part of the match was when Villano's brothers threw respect out the window and punked Perro. Hey, in the words of one former All Blacks captain: "We're not playing tiddlywinks." The Villanos brought out the fire in Perro and the tercera was a fun romp before the result was reversed on a crowd call. Perro spoke for too long at the end and was cut off by the music at one point. He was speaking from the heart but you could tell he was already a bit doddery. It was a nice moment, though.

I haven't been following the AAA minis so I didn't have a lot riding on this but I thought it was below average. Tsuky looked awesome when he was on the attack but the tecnicos didn't get enough offense.

I'm all for more Cerebro vs. Ramirez, I just wish it was leading to a big singles match. Their work here was good although the early blood didn't factor into the bout enough.

Despite its length, this was a cracking little trios match. I liked the fact that we got some continuity in Satanico exacting his revenge for the Puebla hair loss and I also liked seeing that Tarzan Boy's improvement wasn't some flash in the pan. Once again he looked like a legitimately good tecnico. It's always fun watching Ringo Mendoza dial back the clock and equally fun watching the Infernales roll. This was spirited stuff.

A lot of big names in this but nothing terribly exciting happens. The Dandy vs. Antifaz beef continues to be underwhelming. That's mostly because Dandy is a boring rudo. There is one exchange with Antifaz where Shocker and Wagner take over the beatdown and the contrast between that pair and Dandy when it comes to rudoism is startling. I have no idea why Dandy is so listless but he blows in this feud.

Emotions are running high tonight on CMLL RAW. Which of these four men will walk out of a sold-out Arena Mexico with their head unshaven? This was pretty much what you'd expect from these four guys brawling inside a cage. The escape rules slowed things down at times but they tried to add some pep to things with Los Capos attacking Perro after he'd escaped and Pierroth turning on Mascara Ano 2000 (there's no honor among thieves in the first place), but the match was inescapably long (BOOM! How's your boy's puns?!) and ultimately it wasn't much of a payoff to the Villano/Pierroth beef. The finish saw a one-armed Villano with a cut arm beat a distracted M2K who was stewing over Pierroth's turn. Villano got a big apuesta win at Arena Mexico five months after dropping his mask and I liked the subtle acting from M2K at the end. I especially liked the part where he pointed at Pierroth before the Capos beatdown. Can't wait for that feud going forward. Cien Caras' mustache was awesome as well.

This was a nice showcase for the hard working Infernales pair but I thought it lacked rhythm. Tag matches used to be the predominant form of lucha before trios matches became the norm. These days they're something of a lost art. The first fall was a standard rudo fall but the second fall had a weak comeback and the third fall didn't swing back and forth like a third fall ought to. I didn't help that there was zero chemistry between the tecnicos and that Niebla was having one of his off nights but they really should have shortened the second fall and had more near falls in the third. The beginning of the tercera was a muddled collection of spots and even the dive train was awkward. I also thought it made little sense for the match to continue, so to speak, only for the rudo to go over cleanly. The booking at the end only made sense to me if Niebla was going to pull off the win. The Infernales continue to put in the work and climb the ladder but this wasn't a match I'll remember as being particularly great.

What a great rudo team. That's the type of team I'd put together if I had the book. You could tell this was a big show as the work was stiffer than usual and guys were selling so hard they almost blew a gasket. The highlight was seeing Wagner and Casas go at it. They may have faced each other in Japan but I can't remember them ever having a clash like this at Arena Mexico. Casas was in fine form and Wagner once again showed his immense talent. He looked as though he could rule the lucha world if promoters weren't afraid to give him the keys. Satanico and Porky did Satanico and Porky things and Lizmark Jr. coped all right. Satanico was fresh off another hair loss to Tarzan Boy (this time at Arena Puebla) which must have been a blow to his ego. He was brimming with confidence, though, as you'd expect from the great one. The finish promised to be throw down between Casas and Wagner but soon it became obvious that neither was going to job cleanly. Despite the cop out at the end this ticked all the boxes for a bit of entertainment to fill out the card.

If your image of lucha libre is based on Santo, Blue Demon, and classical masked luchadores from movie posters and lucha mags then you'll appreciate the grandeur of this match. If 2000 has proven anything it's that there's something to be said for the power of the mask match. This was probably the second best CMLL match of the year. The battle royal was perfunctory but the Cibernetico was outstanding. Panther vs. Solar was amazing. Superlatives don't do it justice. They put on two of the most breathtaking exchanges in the history of Ciberneticos let alone in the year to date. I may forget the details of this match in the years to come but I won't forget that Solar and Panther were amazing. But they weren't the only ones that pulled out the stops. Almost everyone was on point here and the final pairing put on a fight worthy of an apuesta match. Hijo del Gladiator has never been a guy who's left much of an impression on me but when his time came to drop the match he followed the time-honored tradition of busting his ass. In many ways, this was the complete opposite of Atlantis vs. Villano, which was a long apuesta feud. This was a sudden stipulation match. But the power of the wager was the same and produced another piece of magic in 2000.

Very pleased to see Blue Panther back on my television. Very pleased to see Pimpi back on my television. Solid midcard fare with a strong ring general leading the way and some risque comedy from Pimpi to top things off. The tecnicos were better than expected but needed to hit their spots more cleanly for this to have an extra snap to it. Not bad, though.

The 2000 juniors division continues to spiteful and hard-hitting thanks in large part to Ohtani and Kanemoto's penchant for being spiteful and hard-hitting. The young lions looked good here. I can't imagine it's easy to go out there and put on a match like this when you're inexperienced but the vets kept things humming and Ohtani got the crowd fired up for Makabe.

Weird since Tanahashi and Shibata as young lion especially with how built Tanahashi was. They were pretty good by young lion standards, and Ohtani continues to be one of the best workers in Japan. He gets no credit for this period of his career and that's something which needs to be rectified.

I'm not sure where I stand on Nagata as a worker but this was a gripping match. Any match that has you interested in the result has done its job in hooking you. But a match where you already know the result and still get hooked is extra special. The work doesn't have to be great -- a hook isn't always about how good the work is -- but something either in the atmosphere or the dramatic tension has to reach out and grab you and that was the case with the nearfalls here and the work down the stretch. The work wouldn't have meant much if there wasn't so much at stake but the planets aligned here and produced probably the best men's match of the month. it certainly felt that way to me,

I have no idea how edited this was or how concussed Psicosis was but I thought it was a pretty decent TV bout despite the commentary shilling of it being a classic and unforgettable TV. Drown out that noise and the action is fairly good like a souped-up version of their house show match. Tajiri is slap happy but it gets a reaction from the crowd despite how much contact is with the thigh. Decent stuff but perhaps not the rehash of the Super Crazy feud that punters may have wanted.

I had no idea this match-up ever happened but I can't say I'm too familiar with Psicosis' indy career post unmasking, or ECW for that matter. This was very much a house show fancam but it was cool nonetheless. It was clear from the outset that they weren't reaching for any great heights but they had the crowd heat to carry them through a decent first contest.

Time to check in on the two poster boys of Japanese wrestling. This was worked in a minimalistic way and was closer to a Champion Carnival bout than a Budokan main event. That was okay but I think Strong Style has these guys beat when it comes to that type of wrestling. And to be honest, it wasn't a particularly memorable way to launch the voyage. You'd think they'd want to kick off with a bang but they seemed to be warming the table for matches yet to come. Lots of big shows happening in August so far but no big matches.

This was exactly what you'd expect from a Sasaki vs. Nakanishi G-1 Final. It was big, it was dumb, and it was goofy. But it was also oddly compelling and well on its way to being another surprising Sasaki performance when it suddenly ended. I was just getting into it and "snap" the bout was finished. At least they hooked me, though. Credit to Nakanishi. He may wrestle like a bit of a neanderthal but he was the best version of himself that he could be here. And he did a fantastic job of selling his disappointment afterward. As far as matches go, this was a near hit.

This was weak sauce. It reminded me of what a turn off this feud was at the time. it was clear that they were trying but after feuding with Triple H and The Rock, respectively, it would have taken the match of their lives to conceal the disappointment of being shuffled sideways. This feud along with Benoit vs. Angle were the nails in the coffin of my WWF fandom. I quit too soon in retrospect because the Smackdown Six era was closer to what I wanted to see from Benoit and Co. in the WWF but this was a reminder of why I was so frustrated with their early work.

I liked the pay-per-view match these two had to a large degree so when I saw Chad write that they had a strong match I had to give it a whirl. These two match up about a thousand times better than I would expect. Maybe Rock was a better worker than I give him credit for. I liked the match they had even with the screwy no-DQ stuff. It's a shame they transitioned back to Benoit vs. Jericho instead of a PPV rematch but I guess they figured Rock/Benoit II wouldn't generate buys.

This was cool it felt like the first important match between these teams and the first great Toryumon trios match. The intensity was high throughout but I really liked the finish with Crazy Max desperate to get the win, protecting the pinfall from interference but forgetting about the ref. The "ring out," as it's so colloquially called in Japan, was teased a couple of times and when it finally happened it seemed like a great way of signaling that the war was far from over. I liked the mad scramble that CIMA made to beat the count and the way Mochizuki celebrated when he dragged him from the apron kicking and screaming. Kudos to Fuji as well for adding another feather to his cap as an effective FIP and Taru for being the big time power offense.

This was really nice. Togo is a bad ass motherfucker and one of the best workers in Japan and Delfin is by far the best lightweight face in Japan in 2000. You put them together and you have great chemistry. But it was also a really well laid out juniors match with strong contributions from the other workers, particularly Black Buffalo who I think is an underrated talent. In this match alone he showed he could hit the mat, work power spots, work double teams, lucha exchanges, counters, reversals, you name it. The commentators referred to his all-round game which made me focus a bit more on him than usual. He really is quite a talented worker. I love his buffalo poses as well. If you're going to call yourself Black Buffalo why not do buffalo poses? Osaka Pro is in such a sweet little groove and this was another smoothly executed juniors bout. Never in my wildest dreams would I have expected Osaka Pro to be the leading juniors company in 2000 though I'm sure many would argue that Toryumon holds that distinction. Personally, I have enjoyed the Osaka Pro matches work more but we'll see if Toryumon can do anything to change that. .

I wasn't expecting much from this but it turned out to be a decent display. Never underestimate Masato Yakushuiji. He may not look the way you imagine a pro-wrestler should but he was blessed with amazing speed and quickness. The match didn't play to Murahama's strengths so it was less interesting than some of the work he's done with other Osaka Pro talent but it was reasonably fluid nonetheless.

This was great while it lasted and for my money didn't need to be longer to make an impact. Even though this was part of Murahama's trial series it felt like it was less about him and more about Togo. And what a badass Dick was throughout. He bullied his way to victory here and the part where he walked through the chair shot and delivered a powerbomb was a cool moment as was the flex afterward.