ohtani's jacket

This was a fun match. Ogawa isn't cut from the same cloth as wrestlers I typically like but he does a good job using the tools at his disposal. He made a pest of himself throughout and brought something different to the table with his rule-bending. I liked the part where they got into an elbow exchange and Ogawa got a reminder of who's boss. The finish was a little anti-climatic but the match was good. Post prime Misawa continues to fascinate.

This morning I was reading a story about a woman who stole babies and sold them to rich families. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11880172 It says that Ric Flair was one of the babies she abducted. Is this a true story?

This was all right. Won't make you forget Bret vs. Waltman in a hurry. Decent TV segment but the match was unspectacular and was basically storyline progression. Nothing special.

Here's a suitable match for Father's Day. I liked how this started out as a fun exhibition with Hamada getting cheeky taking on Mary, which Ayako scolded him for afterward, then turned serious as they ratcheted up the exchanges. Interesting dynamic between the fathers and daughters too with Mary constantly worried about her papa and Ayako bossing hers around. The Apaches looked like they were well immersed in the family business. Gran Apache was a great worker and I was sorry to hear about his recent passing. QEPD.

I'm not terribly fond of three-way matches so you can imagine what I thought of a garbage three-way. A lot of blood spilled over nothing in this match. The angle att the end was poorly done. Sandman's "shock" appearances are some of the worst I've seen. His music is too slow and he takes too long to make his way to the ring. Watching him labor his way to the ring like a drunken Sting and cane the shit out of everybody is hard to swallow. The Network outnumbers him and has an eternity to prepare for his arrival. They should beat the shit out of him every time. Van Dam's entrance was even worse. You're in a hardcore promotion and you come to the ring on your friends' shoulders like a buddy moment in a B-grade action flick? Whoever was doing the music forgot to turn it off when Callis began cutting his promo. Way too much of a WCW vs. NWO feel to this angle. I guess no-one told Hayman that angle was hot in '96-97, or maybe Heyman has always carried a torch for The Dangerous Alliance. The only original thing about the Network angle is that Rhino is allowed to swear. It's pro-wrestling the way you've never heard it. I kind of like Rhino in this setting. He looks like a man-beast and his finisher is appropriately named. You can tell he'll be neutered in the WWF but he works well in this setting.

This was more of the same from Crazy Max. That's not necessarily a bad thing mind you, but the babyfaces didn't mount any challenge whatsoever. Dragon Kid needed to shine for this to be anything special but he was largely anonymous. Hopefully, they address the heel/face balance soon.

Thanks for the heads up on this. Technically not a great match but it was fascinating to see that the tenets of pro-wrestling that Funk demonstrated so well in the 80s were something he had developed years before. Probably the most interesting moment to me was when he led the crowd in a hand clap when he tried his alternate finisher. That was proto-sports entertainment right there.

This was a nice match. Shame about the venue though. It looked like they were wrestling in the Japanese version of a Vegas banquet hall instead of in front of a proper wrestling crowd. Ran Ran Yu was a talented pro. She excellent in JWP as a youngster (before the name change) and was able to kick on as a worker despite plying her trade in some lean years for Joshi puroresu. Mad respect for her forging out an 18-year career in the business, especially the years spent freelancing.I liked her armwork in this and the stiff shots she gave Tsubasa. Definitely one to follow in the coming months.

Fun match between two underrated Joshi pros. Yagi's career was littered with three-star matches like this. She had a spectacular all round game and demonstrated it again here. Asari rising from the ashes of Joshi's late 90s fall is impressive. She's managed to make herself seem relevant in a down period for Joshi puroresu. Full credit to Chapparita Asari.

This was all right. It was set up by the commentators as a contrast in styles between the more orthodox Sano and the flashier CIMA. Sano, the 16-year vet, was portrayed as being from the Showa generation while CIMA was presented as the younger generation Heisei wrestler. And that was pretty much how they wrestled. But there wasn't a lot of passion in it from Sano and the match was lopsided when it came to who wanted it more. The fact that it was a young upstart heel wanting it more than the vet was an interesting twist but there wasn't enough fight from Sano to make this terribly compelling. And it was even less interesting outside of the tournament context. I think Sano went from being underrated to a tad bit overrated in our circle.

According to SuperLuchas, they tagged together in Guadalajara -- 3/7/65 El Santo & Lou Thesz vs. Benny Gallant & Karloff Lagarde. Thesz had two more matches on the same tour: Black Shadow & Lou Thesz vs. Benny Gallant & Rene Guajardo, 3/5/65 Blue Demon & Lou Thesz vs. Espanto I & Espanto II, 3/12/65 He also defended the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in Guadalajara on 5/23/54. The challenger was Gori Guerrero.

Thesz worked in Mexico as both a wrestler and a referee. His most famous bout was against Canek on 8/27/78 which drew a huge gate at the Palacio de los Deportes. Santo wrestled in the semi-main in a UWA Welterweight title match that led to a hair vs. mask match between them the following month. The card was billed as “Homenaje al Santo Enmascarado de Plata y Legendario Lou Thesz.” Thesz had been awarded the UWA World Heavyweight Championship in 1977 and had successfully defended it against Dr. Wagner and Mil Mascaras, the latter another huge sellout at the Palacio los Deportes. Thesz had a huge rep in Mexico as a world famous international wrestling star and Canek's victory over Thesz paved the way for him to become the top drawing heavyweight of the 1980s. Since Thesz and Santo were in different weight classes, I assume the only time they could have met in the ring was in a tag match or trios.

This was awesome. Another monster destroyed. Marvelously entertaining.

What a boring ass fight. I enjoy Kobashi but only to a point. I don't need to see him take on the world and certainly not uninteresting opponents like Omori. All Japan was obviously an excellent wrestling promotion but it had its systems and could feel formulaic at times. This felt more formulaic than inspired but Omori was a fairly big albatross. Match came alive at the end but you expect that in a Japanee match. I can see people having a completely different perspective on this based on what Kobashi was able to drag Omori too but I'm far less tolerant of wrestling that doesn't interest me than most fair-minded folks around here.

This was all right. I thought Smith looked more like Owen Hart or Chris Benoit working the European style than anything authentically British except for one or two holds. I guess I imagined something different when I read this was worked in the British style. There was more matwork than your average All Japan bout and Kobashi did some neat armwork but this was mostly a physical All Japan encounter with a bit of matwork instead of irish-whipping each other into the guard rails. Smith tried to take the fight to Kobashi in the second half of the bout but he was fighting a losing battle on that front. Korakuen Hall was a wee bit quiet on this night which didn't help inspire Smith. The finishing stretch was fairly standard but I didn't like the finish at all. Smith came off as fairly weak opposition if his German was so soft that Kobashi could counter like that. Not a bad match but I don't think it was a remarkable advertisement for Kobashi as a worker.

I thought this was excellent. If you compare it to their epic matches like 1/97 you'll be disappointed but to be frank they were past the point of being able to work those matches. This was an excellent match in the context of April 2000 and the first four months of the year. It was a Carnival bout so it wouldn't have made sense to work a match that was as outstanding as a Triple Crown bout or a Carnival final. That said, the bout was still hugely competitive. Misawa looked a healthier here than he did earlier in the year. Perhaps he had some nagging injuries to start the season. The commentator made note of how "slow starter" Misawa took a more aggressive approach than usual and used a few moves rarely seen from him and throughout the match there were further signs of the power shift from 90s Ace Misawa to the current Triple Crown champion. Misawa's selling was exquisite as usual and the finishing stretch made Kobashi look like a giant of the modern game. Not only did he withstand Misawa's usual barrage of offensive, he countered with immense strength and powerful offense. Sasaki has been good in 2000 -- great even -- but Kobashi is separating himself from the pack here with Misawa stepping down from the Ace role and Hashimoto being treated like shit.

This wasn't a match, it was a month full of RAW and Smackdown finishes rolled into one. Quite possibly the most over-booked match of all-time. It was entertaining in terms of its twists and turns but it wasn't a match. It was TV booking dressed up as a match.

This entire angle was well-booked and well-executed. Say what you want about Triple H but he did an excellent job with this material. He'll never be confused for one of the great promos in wrestling but he showed a tremendous amount of range in these two segments and his delivery was extremely polished compared to a lot of WWE talent. Hebner was surprisingly good too for a guy who was rarely called upon to act. He actually seemed like the most natural one out there especially with the McMahions hamming it up. Jericho's delivery has always been pretty hokey. He tries to cut promos like Mick Foley but Foley knew how to ratchet up the intensity and make his promos spinetingling. Compare the difference between Jericho getting his title shot and Foley getting his Hell in the Cell stip. Foley's in a different ballpark when it comes to promos. But this was still an entertaining angle and a great piece of WWF TV. It's hard to write TV that's this good all the time, so you have to appreciate the efforts of the writers here.

Hashimoto was still the man but this was a weak fight. It was a crappy hybrid match and I couldn't find any redeeming features in it. I hated Hashimoto's performance. I couldn't believe that The Man had to take short cuts against such a crappy pro-wrestler. Yeah, it was his swan song and yeah he ate four STOs but nobody wanted to see their hero go down like that. There are so many Hashimoto matches I feel like watching to wash the taste out of my mouth from this shit.

This was a decent fight. The thing I like about this project is that it encourages you to watch matches you'd never dream of watching like Kanemoto vs. Frye. From that perspective I enjoyed it, but the big moments weren't exciting enough to garner the heat that Kanemoto was looking for. The difference between this and your average RINGS fight was stark in terms of the counters and crowd reaction. They probably could have worked a little harder to make it seem like Kanemoto had a chance at the upset. I liked Frye's promo afterward, though.

What happens if Flair signs with Vince in '88? We don't get the Steamboat matches, the feud with Funk or the Luger series. We also don't get any WWF matches better than the ones DiBiase had from '88 to '90, or Savage or Tito or Hennig or Hart. In other words, we lose.

Inoki would have found some way to keep New Japan afloat, he was that big a bullshitter. Fujinami would have spent a few years in UWF or AJPW and then come back to challenge Inoki. Inoki would have had to try to pull a few foreigner draws to compensate for the lack of natives but he would have managed it. Fujinami in UWF is more interesting than AJPW if you enjoy grappling. If you like standard pro-wrestling then AJPW is your ticket. There's a chance they would have had him tag with Jumbo and Tenryu vs. Choshu and Co. That makes sense given the lack of strength on the babyface side against Choshu's army.

Sounds like fun. I am sure common sense will dictate. Roman Reigns is not as good as Steve Austin. He is like an ideal version of Kevin Nash. That has its merits but I am sure you will rate Austin higher in the cold light of day.

Finally got to see my boy Chief Don Eagle have a feature length main event. Some clipping here and there but we got the lion's share of a one hour draw with Dangerous Danny McShain. As you would expect with a one hour draw there was a lot of time spent in hammerlocks and similar holds with McShain using a lot of punches and inside moves. But despite there being a lot of down time, the match was fluid and enjoyable to watch. McShain was a great heel and Eagle more than held up his head on the babyface side. It took a long time for Eagle to do the war dance but when he did it was a good 'un. Back to Chicago now. Great Karpozilos vs. Great Yamato was better than I expected. Karpozilos was a short Greek wrestler with huge muscles and Yamato was another of the 50s Japanese heels. As with other Japanese heel workers, they didn't spend a lot of time on the mat as most of the "action" took place in the clinch. Yamato was a decent worker but it's hard to tell with these Japanese American workers as they're playing to type. I think I've seen Angelo Poffo vs. Jerry Christie before. It's easy to lose track of what you've seen across these 50s YouTube channels especially when there are multiple versions of the same films. The crowd got right behind Christie in this fight so Poffo must have done something right. Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting... the midgets. Actually, Ivan the Terrible was a dwarf and Tiny Roe was a midget. They worked a fairly straight forward match and avoided many of the comedy trappings of midget matches. Instead, Russ Davis mostly took digs at the Russians. Not bad. The match that is.

This was a great trios match. Emotional vignette to begin with followed by a heated brawl that never let up. Villano vs. Pierroth was amazing. I hope we get more of them in the future as they were awesome together. Villano was like a man possessed and looked better than he has all year. The DDT on the outside was cool and I loved him giving Pierroth a taste of his own garbage. These are the type of matches that rudos usually dominate but Villano and Perro are harder edge tecnicos and former rudos. They're not about to put up with shit from anyone even if it means getting disqualified. In fact, the takeaway from the bout was that Villano hadn't lost any of his rudo instincts. If anything he was sharper than ever. The commentator called Villano vs. Pierroth rudo vs. rudo so it's unclear whether Villano is a full blown face yet but I want more of this feud. Also impressive were Atlantis and Shocker. Shocker looked like a million bucks here and Atlantis was on point. Whenever some doubts Atlantis, I always think back to matches like this where he flips the switch. He was hitting his shit like a knife through butter. But the real story was VIllano's breakout performance as a maskless wrestler. Working maskless isn't an easy thing for luchadores to do and not everyone succeeds at it, but you can tell how much of a legend Villano was when you see him own a match like this. And it was cool seeing Perro in his corner. God, the wars those two had been in together. With Satanico off TV, Villano is now lording it over CMLL. More Pierroth vs. Villano, please!