ohtani's jacket

Thesz vs. Ray Gunkel was a classic while it lasted. The amount of energy and effort expended in the opening fall was amazing to watch. It may be the greatest opening fall in the history of NWA Heavyweight title matches. I recall a debate with dear old Professor Von Kramer about whether Thesz did anything different on the mat from later NWA champs. I've never seen matwork with the intensity of Gunkel vs. Thesz from any other NWA champ. Unfortunately, the amount of energy they expended was a signal that this wasn't going to last the distance and sure enough after Thesz jackknifed Gunkel to win the second fall, Gunkel was unable to continue the bout. Which was a shame really because it deserved a third fall. One of the things I love about Thesz is when he gets frustrated and starts needling his opponent. Supreme wrestler that he is, he's not above using questionable tactics to break his opponent's concentration and regain the upper hand. It reminds me of the All Black rugby legend Colin Meads, who played at the same time that Thesz was champ and wasn't above taking the law into his own hands when dealing with opposing players. It's awesome whenever Lou starts using the heel of the hand and other little tricks. He does it against Gunkel in the second fall and it's almost a mark of respect for how well Gunkel wrestled in the first fall. I love the edge that it brings to his bouts especially in longer bouts. He's also surprisingly good at selling. He's not iconically great or anything like that but he knows how to sell well in a wrestling sense as opposed to more theatrical types like Flair or Buddy Rose. Right now I would put Thesz on a Rushmore with Londos.

The best thing about this match was that it furthered a feud. Trios matches that further a feud tend to have stronger narratives than your typical trios match. In this case, the feud in question was Ciclon Ramirez vs. Dr. Cerebro, a feud that began when Ramirez shoved Cerebro at the end of the Ultimo Vampiro title fight. Ramirez was tremendous in this as the sleazy washed up vet in a tiny televised indy fed still having a point to prove against the rudo champion. I don't know if this ever materialised into a singles match but their exchanges here were as good as anything in the Atlantis/Villano or Satanico/Tarzan Boy feuds for my money. Ramirez gave a throwback performance to his younger days where he was every bit as slick as masked tecnicos like Solar or Atlantis and Cerebro gave as good a Wagner impersonation as you could imagine. Everyone else was good in their roles as second and third string parts w/ Black Dragon providing the dive of the night. Classic old-school trios wrestling.

This was one of the better title matches of the year. Not that the bar for title matches has been set particularly high but at least they made an effort to work a meaningful match where both wrestlers were striving to win. Vampiro was awkward at times but always on the same page as Cerebro and they did a good job of building the match from the ground up concentrating on matwork early on and paying it off with dives later on. They milked about as much drama out of the bout as they could get in a small arena and stayed faithful to a lot of the staples of title match wrestling. Cerebro felt superior to Vampiro, and there were hints of a carry, which you don't want to see in a title match where both workers are giving it their all, but that was a minor quibble given the effort on display. Some nice dives, accumulated fatigue, and classic submission holds make this well worth watching. And Cerebro is great as a quasi-Dr. Wagner.

When I first came to Japan 11 years ago, I rented many of these tapes from Champion. If you think the shows looked low budget you ought to have seen the packaging on the VHS tapes. The early handheld stuff is tough to watch but the commercial tapes and TV are fine. I actually think LLPW is the great unknown as very few people have watched their output outside of the interpromotional matches.

Cosign.

Nice to see the proud tradition of Star Wars gimmicks continue. This was a match that never got going. There were some nice exchanges but the match was flat and fairly monotone. The Japanese rudos were bland which didn't help matters. Wouldn't go out of my way to watch this.

This was a fun match. There was a lot more rudo work than I was expecting and that made the tecnico work at the end all the more satisfying. I was looking forward to seeing Mike Segura, who was a super talented worker, but he only got one chance to shine here and it was kind of an awkward spot. I loved the dissension between the rudo team and the two teams fighting at the end. Cicion Ramirez had a strange career and is perhaps the oddest guy to see pop up on tape in 2000.

Finally, we get to see the Infernales back in action. They gel almost as well as the original incarnations. I particularly liked the part where the Villanos and Niebla made their comeback and the Infernales took those sprawling bumps. Unfortunately, the third fall is clipped and the match ends with a whimper but if they were testing the waters for a feud between these teams then this whet the appetite.

This was a good brawl. We've seen better brawls from IWRG over the years but this was definitely the best bout Villano III had been in since the electrocution angle. Blood was a major factor here as you had the rare sight of just about everyone in the match blading. It's funny because when you think of modern lucha you think of the lack of blood but that wasn't the case here. In many ways this was the perfect buildup match as they made a statement with all the blood but held back just enough for the singles matches. Well executed, as you'd expect from these pros.

Chest Bernard vs. Tarzan White was a typical 50s heel vs. face bout with plenty of rule bending. Some nice comedy spots from Bernard but fairly run of the mill. Angelo Poffo vs. The Mighty Atlas seems like it would be Matt D's favourite 50s match. They don't seem to do much of anything but got tremendous heat for it. What followed was a run of Atlas matches. Bill Melby & Billy Darnell vs. The Mighty Atlas and Bob Orton was notable for the fact that it was in colour. If you've watched a ton of older footage you owe it to yourself to watch a match in colour even if the tones are too dark. The coolest thing about the match is Melby working toe holds where he teases poking the guy in his eye with his own foot. Atlas did a strongman exhibition where he snapped a 3/4 inch rope in half with his leg strength. Then I watched him have a long match with Chief Lone Eagle. Lone Eagle worked like a dumb savage who had a "squaw" who beat a "tom tom" drum to motivate her man. They cut a decent pace but Davis was over the top with his mock "brave" imitation. Rose Roman & Lorraine Johnson vs. Shirley Strimple & Ramona TeSelle was the first gal tag match I've seen and it surprised the shit out of me. Instead of being the usual rule bending affair they worked a straight up tag match that showcased how gals could wrestle too. Davis commented that TeSelle behaved like Katherine Hepburn which I dug but the focus on wrestling instead of the heel/face dynamic made this match stand out to me.

If you ignore all the bullshit at the end, this was a tremendous main event match-up. The Rock and Triple H wrestling for an hour sounds like the most unappealing thing ever but they managed to defy all expectations and produce an engaging bout. There weren't a lot of holds used but the pacing was good and there were enough shifts in momentum to keep things interesting, As soon as Triple H went up big the drama kicked into high gear. Whoever laid this out had a real sense of the occasion and the final quarter was full of exciting moments. Even WWE tropes like the chair shot and going through the announcer's table came at just the right time. Everything was perfect up until the bullshit at the end. They couldn't really help themselves, I suppose. Ever Shawn was going to superkick Hunter and cost him the bout or there was going to be interference. It's the nature of the beast, especially if its the heel going over, but they'd done so well on their own you that the bookers could have spared us from the run-ins. In spite of the mess at the end, it was another great main event from 2000 and holds up to this very day.

It's always a pleasure to watch Yoshida work and this was no exception. She did some cool shit on the mat with Aja which isn't something you see in most Aja matches. I love how she struggles to lock her fingers around Aja's large torso. Yoshida was always great at those sort of touches. It's a shame she didn't get the submission from that chokehold. That would have been cool.

This was a significant match back in the day much like the Owen Tribute match had been the year before. People really wanted to see Regal have a good match and while it got overhyped in some quarters it is every bit as good as your typical Regal vs. Benoit match. If it had gone another 10 minutes it may have been something special but Regal proved to himself that he could still wrestle and that paved the way for his career rebirth.

My Low Ki exploration continues... This was an excellent bout. Great intensity to everything they did. Those collar and elbow pin attempts at the beginning were fantastic. How often do you see two workers put much effort into a standard tie up? That set the bar high but they never let up. What followed was one intense spot after another. There was some awkwardness at times but they kept battering each other. It was a testament to the bout that the "Good Gawd Almighty" spots truly felt like "Good Gawd Almighty" spots. The finish was fitting as well. One of the few times a match broke down and I thought "Well, that makes sense." I'm looking forward to exploring more of this stuff.

Speaking as the complete opposite of you, digging harder to find the stuff you like can also be satisfying. My tastes are ever changing, ever evolving and ever-narrowing but that doesn't mean that I'm never happy. It just means I have to wade through more matches to get to the stuff that excites me. If I couldn't find anything I like then there would be a problem and I would probably stop watching.

I'm happy he lived to a ripe old age and that he got to hear from a younger generation how much they appreciated his work. He was always such a gentlemen when he'd appear on a podcast and completely down to earth. He may have been a performer on Memphis television but he had no gimmick other than being himself. He had a wonderful voice and thankfully his work will always be there for people to enjoy.

I was underwhelmed by this. Kansai tried to do her old style but she not only struggled physically, she also lacked the presence and the aura to perform that way anymore. Compare her with Aja and the difference is striking. She also perfected her style with the 4/97 Fukuoka title match and bouts like these are just her rehashing the plot.

Is there a consensus about the classic matches from Mexico? There are only 8 posts in the Atlantis/Panther thread and half of them are favorable. Some people compare the match disfavorably to Azteca/Dandy, which was a popular match at the time but went on to have its own detractors later on. I wouldn't put too much stock into what people are jotting down on a particular given night. A match will either stand the test of time or it won't. Unfortunately, Panther vs. Atlantis isn't an important enough match for people to revise their opinions on it every decade or so.

I have this image of Billy Gorgan sitting in his private lair hoarding Gino Hernandez matches.

This was classic New Japan booking with the home stars made to look better than the indy juniors but Fuji had a whale of a time out there and CIMA kept on making a name for himself. The dynamic between CIMA and Kanemoto was well staged with the brash youth irritating the shit out of the surly veteran. I thought Liger wasn't necessary on the Crazy Max team. It was meant to even the odds but Crazy Max had superior teamwork to the New Japan juniors and would have done better with their full complement. Once Fuji stopped trying to front one-on-one they started making some serious inroads but the home side were always the favourite to win this one. One thing that seems clear is that New Japan juniors wrestling didn't fall off a cliff after 1997. It may not have reached the dizzying heights of the 1990s but 17 years on it's perfectly watchable and what may have seemed like a step down in quality at the time now provides interesting wrinkles like Ohtani still being a good juniors worker through to 2000 and Kanemoto having a personality that folks were never really aware of before.

Togo looking like a contender for best in the biz. Super Delfin still in his prime. What a talented and underrated worker he was. Nice juniors action. Everything flowed well and it was one satisfying spot after another. Togo and Delfin were excellent at their craft.

This was pretty good but there's always something lacking when Japanese wrestlers do trios matches. Togo ruled but that's no revelation.

This was phenomenal while it lasted. How good were Delfin's takedowns? If it had gone a few more rounds it would have made my top 10 for the year.

In some cases, I think it's hazy who did the actual booking. I'm fairly certain, for example, that promoters like Baba had other people do the booking. Baba was responsible for the style of wrestling, the promotion's philosophies, and the bigger picture stuff, but I'm sure he had other people doing the booking. Pena's talent was creating gimmicks. He was Russo-like in the sense that his best period as a booker was a mixed product where you had the conservative Juan Herrera pushing the traditional EMLL style and Pena rocking the boat with his new ideas. He was a visionary in terms of his ideas about having EMLL return to television and marketing new stars but his actual booking wasn't that strong. Early on, he relied on shock finishes that went against the grain of traditional lucha and pushing new talent over established veterans, which rubbed the veterans up the wrong way. In AAA, he booked some outstanding programs during the boom period but also a ton of rubbish. I also think it's debatable whether he created a star in AAA that was as successful as Konnan, Octagon or Mascara Sagrada. And it wasn't for lack of trying either.