ohtani's jacket

This was an excellent match. It was easily the best that Tarzan Boy has looked all year and better than anything he produced in the Satanico feud. Ordinarily, there would be the potential for him to look pretty lame doing a Hulk up but in this instance, it felt like he'd finally had enough of all the shit he'd endured. I don't know if this is a step beyond his maligned pretty boy phase or not, but he looked like a real gladiador here and that's something I would never have imagined heading into the bout. And how smart was Shocker? The counter to win the opening fall, the sneak attack after Tarzan Boy was celebrating his dive... everything that Shocker did felt measured like he was in perfect control of the bout. I honestly felt like it was a "next level up" performance from him. Some of the footage was lost at the beginning of the third fall and the editing was poor with the editor preferring to focus on crowd reactions than highspots. It may be the only time I've seen an editor cut away from a highspot to show the crowd. I didn't love the finish either but it was fairly typical for Monterrey. I thought Tarzan Boy could have won clean for an even bigger pop but it was still a career match for him and a breakout performance if he manages things right.

The Pancrase guys left because they didn't want to work pro-wrestling matches. And the BattlARTS guys left because there was a problem with Fujiwara's sponsor and not Fujiwara himself. PWFG was a promotion of little significance. It was founded because Fujiwara didn't belong to any of the factions within the UWF and instead wanted to create a promotion for his students. It didn't operate any differently from any other small indy during the time period. It had backing from Super Megane and provided talent for their shows. After that dried up, there was a working agreement with New Japan. As a small-time promoter, he deserves credit for building the promotion back up after he was left with only Yuki Ishikawa,

This was house show lucha but they drew good heat. The crowds in Monterrey are much bigger than later on, I suppose because the big names are still working there week in, week out. The best thing about the meandering house show style is that it allows more time for character work, and Shocker, in particular, gets to shine with his rudo shtick. The finish is anticlimactic as the crowd is geared toward a dive train but instead Casas does this weird choke hold on Shocker and Scorpio sneaks in a foul to steal the bout. Now let's talk about Casas. There is not a single moment in this bout that you'd describe as vintage Casas. The most notable thing about him right now is that he's sporting a beard. It's hard to see but you can spot it at the end when they show him reacting to the rudos celebrating. I hope this puts to bed this notion people have that Casas is the best worker in Mexico year in, year out. He clearly has his down periods the same as any other wrestler. He'll have another run in 2001 but for now, there's no way that he makes the top 10.

Lucha house show wrestling if ever I saw it. Only worth watching if you want to see the heat between Santo and Blue Panther continue to build.

I remember a buddy of mine sending me this match back in the day. I can safely say that I like it more now than I did then. The first fall almost feels like the birth of the maestros match. I don't think that was their intention. They were probably working the same way that they always did but there were so many old-school ideas that it felt like a maestros match even if it wasn't. I loved the contrast between the hardnosed, no-nonsense Villano IV and Pimpi. Their mat exchanges were some of the best all year and the other pairings weren't far behind. The second and third fall disintigrated into a scrappy brawl but the dynamic between Pimpi and the Villanos remained strong and Villano III had his ribs worked over to dramatic effect. I love Pimpi's flailing strikes that look like slaps, and watching Panther mix it up with the Villanos had me flashing forward to the mask match. Worth watching for Pimpi alone.

This was a slow burner that had a nice tercera caida. There was plenty of chemistry between the teams and Shocker vs. Villano III is shaping up nicely. 2000 was clearly an important year in the career of Villano III and arguably the most relevant he had been in the lucha scene since the very early 90s. He continued to have the fire in his belly here whether it was grievances with the ref or his rage at having his knee worked over. but what was nice to see was his wrestling skills in the early exchanges with Shocker, especially when they butt heads during the test of strength. One thing that struck me truly the lively tercera caida was that even though this was far removed from the golden era of trios team, 2000 has at least four solid trios teams in the Villanos, Los Guapos, Los Capos and the Infernales. We're lucky that IWRG had this ESPN deal at the time to show us some longer form trios bouts. The other thing I liked about this was the kids getting in the ring at the end. That used to be a staple of lucha libre but it's something you don't see a lot of these days. Check out the kid trying to take bumps and some of the others jumping off the top rope and trying to run the ropes. That coupled with the autograph signing at the start makes this seem like retro lucha libre.

Now, this was a treat. It's always a bonus to get a Villano IV singles match and this is possibly the best match of his on tape. It could have easily been the main event from one of those early 90s UWA television tapings and was definitely worked in the same style. Scorpio Jr. isn't the type of guy you associate with matwork. He's more of the roided-up power wrestler type. In fact, on paper, this match read like a lucha version of Arn Anderson vs. Lex Luger. But Scorpio' matwork was surprisingly effective. He kept things simple and used his strength to good advantage. Another thing that stood out was the bodywork. Lucha workers are often criticized for not targeting a body part and not using fundamental psychology in their matches, but here there was a strong focus on Scorpio's neck and Villano's leg. In fact, the psychology was so focused that Scorpio came out of the bout looking like a cerebral assassin. The Triple H of Mexico, if you will. Villano brought his usual brand of technical brawling and the pair put on an excellent show, One of the best lucha matches of the year for sure.

This was another classic, old-school trios match. I thought it was some of the best trios wrestling of the year -- not from the standpoint that it was a MOTYC because, frankly, trios wrestling doesn't produce a lot of MOTYCs but because of the traditional structure. There was the rudo beatdown, the tecnico comeback, and the back and forth finale. There was brawling, blood, and dives all in the same bout and even comedy spots. The tecnicos looked fabulous during their comeback and the dives were better than anything we've seen all year, and this was all within the context of a bout which really only served to set up some wager matches. That's classic trios wrestling -- you run 3 or 4 of these on television and set up the big singles matches. All of the best apuesta feuds have had these lead-in matches and they add to the bouts immensely. Whether we get a payoff to all this is uncertain but it's fun to watch the storylines develop particularly in a style of wrestling that can be short on story at times. The Shocker vs. Villano feud harkened back to the days where guys would work all over the country and have different feuds in different regions and Ciclon vs. Bombero & Cerebro continues to be an unheralded surprise. I thought Ciclon looked bad in the late 90s IWRG I've seen from him but he is kicking ass during this stretch and it was fun seeing him buddy up with the dude who took his mask. And didn't Felino look like he finally had something to do?

This was traditional trios wrestling with a lot of classic elements to it. The heat seems to have moved away from Ciclon vs. Cerebro toward Ciclon vs. Bombero Infernal but it was cool to see them work a classic lead-in match with their beef being at the forefront of the match. Ciclon looks like a middle-aged frontman from some band that was big in the 80s but his sleazy look fits the surroundings and I was impressed by his swank tecnico work. There was a time when he could have been the next Atlantis, IMO. That obviously didn't happen but his dives remain a thing of beauty and I definitely want to see him put that greasy hair on the line.

I'm talking about the really early handhelds with Smiley Mami and Dirty Yamato. I think it's fairly obvious that Harley Saito didn't have the goods to be a star. Her calling card was underrated midcard worker and she was very good in that role. Yamazaki was excellent in both AJW and JWP. She was a great worker that ought to be discussed more. It's too bad that she retired prior to the inter-promotional era but she'd already had a 10 year career at that point and was one of the pioneers in defying the retirement age. Jackie Sato wasn't the founder of JWP. It was formed by an entertainment group that wanted to cash in on the success of the Crush Girls. Jackie and Nancy Kumi were lured toward the new startup but it wasn't like Chigusa founding GAEA.

June Beyers vs. Penny Banner was one tough wrestling match. If you had asked me a few years back what I imagined women's wrestling was like in the 1950s I would have said catfighting and hair pulling. But these women could wrestle. And not only that, they worked at a faster pace than the men and took bigger bumps. For some reason, Russ Davis was extremely dismissive of "gal wrestling" but it's been some of the more enlightening footage from the Chicago region. Next up was Angelo Poffo vs. Maurice Roberre. Poffo isn't really a favourite of mine but he did more wrestling here than usual even if it was mostly grinding away at a hold. Roberre showed some nice agility for a big man and looked like he had more to give. I'll keep an eye out for him in other matches. Finally, Lorraine Johnson vs. Shirley Strimple was another hard-fought women's bout. The women's matches may not be the glamour pieces of the Chicago collection but they're consistently good and some of the best footage from the Archives. Both women's wrestling and midget wrestling have been a revelation for me thus far. It seems Kohler was intent on presenting both styles as serious wrestling and not a sideshow. There's still a fair share of xenophobia in the promotion and a lot of casual racism but the girls and he midgets shatter any stereotypes you may have of 1950s wrestling.

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.