ohtani's jacket

Am I the only one? Yeaah. Am I sexual? Yeaah. Los Guapos' entrance continues to amuse me. We haven't seen fast paced lucha like this in a while. It was clipped to shit but it didn't prevent the workers from pulling out the stops. Zumbido was flying. I mean it. That dude achieved takeoff. Everyone else stepped it up a notch too. It was almost like a lucha workout. Worth watching for a different beat to most of the lucha we've seen this year.

Weird Increibles trios match that didn't make much sense until I realised it must have been part of a tournament. And yep, it was the final of tournament called the Carnaval Incrieble Trios torneo. The match was exceptonally short but the work from Casas and the Infernales was excellent. Can't wait for that feud to start.

There was so much bullshit in this match from Shocker and Scorpio being sent to the back to Máscara Año Dos Mil coming down to second Bestia and Scorpio slipping him the bottle that he used to smash Perro with. Covering Perro's head a towel led to the world's most obvious bladejob and all of the shit with the doctor took an eternity. When bloodied Perro made his comeback against Bestia the match hit the right note but there wasn't enough of that sort of work. Pierroth did an awesome job with the electrocution angle in the previous match but here the bullshit was too much. How many times did they cut to Perro's wife and kid? (I assume that's who they were.) The match wasn't exciting enough to justify that many cutaways. Too much smoke and mirrors and not enough blood and guts. The finish was brutal, though. It looked like it crushed Bestia's ribcage, Awesome stomp from old man Perro.

This was an excellent bout. It was obvious from the get-go that the rudos were going to turn on Villano and attack him simply because it was the third week that CMLL had been teasing the turn and that's generally the pattern: a couple of weeks of teasing it and then the turn. But it was extremely well executed with tensions rife from the beginning. You could tell that Pierroth, Fuerza, and Los Boricuas had concocted a contingency plan for dealing with Villano if he wouldn't play ball. The interplay between VIllano and Pierroth was fascinating to watch. I especially liked the part where Villano waved Pierroth off and grinned at the fans. And I loved Pierroth getting in the face of the commissioner. Pierroth had such a commanding presence. He was strong on the mic and everything he did seemed despicable. His in-ring work wasn't that great but he was saddled with Rayo who has been pretty poor in 2000 and really his worth here was being the mastermind behind the post-match angle. I thought they went to the well once too often with Villano refusing to attack the tecnicos. Surely, it would have made more sense if Atlantis had been the final tecnico that Villano refused to attack. But I loved Fuerza's DQ before turning on Villano.That had me hollering with delight. It was such a rudo thing to do. Fuck the match, Fuerza's sick of this shit. The post-match angle was like nothing I've seen in CMLL. The thing I liked about it the most is that Pierroth is not just working a Puerto Rico gimmick, he's bringing Puerto Rican style angles to Mexico. Villano sold the electrocution as though he was dead. He looked like a corpse. The doctor could have sold the gravity of the situation a bit more but it was a wild scene and made Pierroth look pretty hardcore. Plenty of rudos are braggarts but not many would go that far. Pierroth Jr. is a dangerous man and you have to wonder who cleared this with the stuffy CMLL suits. Aside from Pierroth being one of my five favorite things in Mexico, there was a lot of other things to enjoy here. We finally got to see the Casas we know and love strutting about the ring like a peacock. And any time you see him work with Fuerza you know you're in for a treat. The Villano vs. Atlantis exchanges were also good. For my money, some of the best stuff they did outside of the apuesta match. Even Rayo managed to produce his signature tope. The thing about most lucha, and wrestling in general for that matter, is that it's not very memorable. This was memorable even if it wasn't a fully fledged three fall classic. Easily the best thing to come out of Mexico so far this April.

This was all right. Anyone hoping for a classic title match will be disappointed. It was hard not to notice the influence from Casas and Wagner's recent Japan tours, iI don't like to see too much Japanese influence in lucha but it was inescapable at this point, Strangely, Wagner is more charismatic in Japan than he is in Mexico but he's not really top billing in CMLL. Panther was game early on but Tarzan Boy isn't a great opponent for him on the mat. Tarzan Boy looked like he put himself out of wrestling with that botch. Emilio didn't really add much here and it's always weird seeing him in alternate colours but the thing that really stopped me from loving this is that I don't really like tecnico Casas. Especially this Casas with his lack of swagger. Where's the cockiness that makes Casas great? The crowd was into him but he's going through this weird workman phase instead of outshining everyone on the card. I wonder when the real Casas will turn up.

lol at Los Guapos struggling to tear off their stripper pants. This was a standard beatdown but I won't complain about Bestia brawling with Perro. Tough night at the office for the tecnicos here. They were sprawled out all over the place at the end. Los Guapos give us a Jackie Fargo strut for good measure. Perro looked much better in Japan than he did here.

CMLL continues to drag out the Villano face turn. They've been during rudos tecnico this way since time immemorial. A bit of a nothing match but that was the point really as things quickly broke down on the rudo side. Fuerza tried to make this entertaining but I'm ready to cut to the chase. Let's see V3 turn.

I enjoyed this a lot more now that I'm more familiar with the Toryumon guys. The babyfaces here made a strong account of themselves. In fact, I thought it was probably the best term performance we've seen so far from the faces. Their performance was aided by a strong central narrative of Mochizuki being the one who's targeted throughout. He looked better than in any other match he's had thus far thanks in large part to Crazy Max who are excellent rudo workers. Sumo Fuji is one of the coolest guys in Japan during this period and CIMA is growing on me. I don't like that uppercut slap he does in the corner but he's pretty damn good at everything else. I did Makoto's glam rock vampire stylings too. Nice finish here and Crazy Max assaulting the cameraman afterward was great.

The Mae Young Classic has a nice ring to it. It should be the Mildred Burke classic but Mae Young sounds better.

I thought this was quite good. Possibly the best Toryumon match I've seen thus far. It had all the classic elements of a Lucha trios but with the pace of a Japanese Juniors match. It suffered from excess at times as many Japanese matches do but on the whole they hit the right rhythm. I thought Dragon Kid made a difference to the babyface side simply because of the highspots he was able to bring and the stylistic difference from his peers. Contrasting styles are important in trios matches and he added a high flying element that has been missing from most of these Toryumon tags. You can forgive any technical shortcomings he may have if he's having a positive impact in the flyer role.

McMahon vs. Austin still happens but loses some of its edge if Vince doesn't screw Michaels at some point, and let's be honest "Shawn screwed Shawn" doesn't have the same impact as "Bret screwed Bret." Screwing over the favorite of the coal miners and the lumberjacks is like screwing over the blue collar, working class demographic that Austin fed off. Who's going to care that Michaels was screwed over? 12-year-old girls? Screwing over DX Michaels isn't as effective as screwing over Bret in Canada. Bret drops the strap to Austin at WM 14. The match is possibly a classic but the Tyson involvement doesn't work as well without DX. People were surprised that Dude Love was Austin's first program after WM 14. I'm not so sure that program happens if Bret stays and if that program doesn't happen then the Mankind "socko" skits don't happen and Hell in the Cell doesn't happen and Foley probably doesn't become a main eventer. Or it's possible that Rock and the Nation of Domination feud with Bret and the Hart Foundation and Foley/Austin goes ahead. That would leave Hunter on the outer. pretty much trapped in the Owen situation. WCW would have been a mess with or without Michaels. I'm sure he would have cut a few memorable promos and given us a copious amount of groin chops. And wrestled high as a kite. Jericho still jumps. The Big Show still jumps. The Radicalz still jump. Bret has better matches than in 1998 and 1999 working in his WWF comfort zone but his style becomes outdated as he continues to slow down. I'm sure we get Bret vs. Undertaker again and Bret definitely makes a play for another WWF Championship run at some point. The big question is what happens when Austin has his surgery in '99. Does Vince fall back on Bret or pull the trigger on someone else? Is Bret really going to be happy working midcard feuds with the likes of Jericho? Was it Bret driving the car? Did he raise the briefcase? Was it Bret all along? Will Yokozuna be on RAW on Monday? Is Jake Roberts the Higher Power or Ted Dibiase? Will Flair jump to the WWF and become Vince's corporate champion? I think things worked out for the best in the end for the WWE but obviously not for the Hart family.

Cool story. Sounds like a real pilgrimage.

Pretty cool program cover:

There are handhelds of the entire card.

Sumo is a work.

This was another solid Toryumon match. I enjoyed the exchanges between Sumo Fuji and SAITO. That felt like a real lucha match-up in the middle of all that lucharesu. But again there were no standout performances. Crazy Max works well as a team but I wish one of them would take the lead. I guess you could argue that CIMA took the lead here but it wasn't clearly defined. If you think of vintage Infernales -- Satanico, MS-1 & Pirata Morgan -- they could each take the lead on any given night. Sawa and Fuji probably don't have the personalities to do that so hopefully CIMA starts calling the shots more. Or even better, from my perspective, Sumo Fuji in the El Signo role leading his Misioneros!

This was the first time in my life to see a Low Ki match, I kid you not. I guess it was more of a Low Ki segment than a Low Ki match. Overall, I thought it was a reasonably strong segment. I'm only familiar with New Jersey through television and movies but this sure felt like Jersey pro-wrestling. Montoya seemed like a Kevin Smith character but that may just be me talking out my arse. The match run a bit long and the post-match beatdown was a bit gratuitous for my liking but I did like that dude hanging himself upside down in the ropes while mocking Low Ki's victim. For a 30 minute segment, it kept my attention throughout so overall I'd call it successful booking. More Low Ki awaits, I'm sure.

The Legend of Survival Tobita! Finally, I'm watching this stuff after reading about it in the DVDVR all those years ago. For some reason, my version didn't have any sound but it's on YouTube if anyone has the same trouble. This was a lot of fun. The crowd alone were an interesting character study. Tobita lives to fight another day.

Throwback match. A nice piece of nostalgia but the magic wasn't there. They cut a slow pace and it seemed that only Fuchi and Kikuchi were keen to add any spark. The most impressive thing in the bout was the headscissors spot. That made me sit up and take notice. Can't say the rest of it made me pine for the 90s.

This was joined during a heat segment on Horiguchi. Not sure I'd call it a sprint. It looked like the back half of a regular six-man tag. Solid match. No standout performances to speak of. Crazy Max suffered a minor setback with the loss.

This was big, dumb, stupid wrestling. If you like big, dumb, stupid wrestling in front of a hot crowd then check this out. If you don't like big, dumb, stupid wrestling checkout now because it was the crowd that made this a spectacle and not the work.

What was shown here was excellent but I hated the way it was edited. It created a false rhythm and made it impossible to tell how spotty the bout was. It was cool seeing Mari take to Japan like a female Wagner, though. Not since Esther Moreno had there been a more natural fit for a luchadora in Japan. I'm sure this was better in full.

I was looking forward to this and it didn't disappoint. Regular LCO matches can be a chore to sit through but their big matches deliver in spades. I was reared on WWF cage matches so I don't have a problem with escape rules. The dramatic potential of escape rules is obvious even more so when you have a double escape stip. When you spin that around the classic Joshi trope of saving your partner you already have ready-made drama. Add to that the Death Match twist and you have a match that's as violent and bloody as the classic "pinfall or submission" cage matches. It really is the best of both worlds. Of course, there were weak spots here. Shimoda has never been the greatest brawler when she doesn't have a weapon in her hands and Maekawa's strikes showed plenty of daylight but it was overshadowed by the good. Watanabe showed a ton of heart and the comebacks were timed well throughout. Being trapped inside the cage meant that they weren't able to wander about the venue, which was a blessing, and the garbage elements felt more gritty even if they weren't quite on the level of the scummiest stuff you can imagine. They were a lot better than the rest of the garbage wave that was overtaking Joshi at this point. I wasn't thrilled with the finish after such a violent spectacle but Shimoda's gloating promo made up for it. Definitely a Joshi MOTYC. I think Aja vs. Kaoru still pips it but those are the two matches in the conversation thus far.

This was a solid rudos bout. I'm still waiting for a match that kickstarts my interest in this crew but I thought Crazy Max gave a strong team performance. Magnum Tokyo held up his end on the babyface side though his bladejob was more or less pointless given how much energy he had during the stretch run. Mochizuki added some fire with his kicks but I thought Tiger Mask was actively bad at times. That turnbuckle spot stuck out like a sore thumb. In fact, it was more like a poke in the eye. Fujita at least came across as a poor man's Yakushiji. Still, Crazy Max worked well together and complemented one another with their different styles. Sumo Fuji is a fun worker to watch. He's definitely on my short list of favourite guys to watch right now.

Decent match worked in an absolute vacuum. These guys are working hard at starting out with traditional wrestling and building to the garbage elements but I don't think the matches are escalating properly. The finishing stretch was a bit clunky too with too much of a disconnect between the finisher attempts and garbage spots. It felt like they were wandering about doing stuff instead of rushing headlong toward the draw. The lack of heat bothered me in a way that it doesn't when the work is more engaging and Kobayashi was awkward at times. Some of his stuff looked good but a lot of it was telegraphed due to his poor timing. Comically bad promo from Honma afterward. Made the whole thing seem like a B-match.