ohtani's jacket

Pretty generic match. Lots of boofy meatheads in this one. Nakanishi is awful. Match lost a lot of steam after Sasaki was eliminated. He injured his finger midway through the bout and kept checking on it. That was a bit distracting as it clearly wasn't part of the script. Chono and his cronies didn't hold much appeal for me and Liger's major contribution was a nutshot. Nakanishi is like the lovechild of Bill Goldberg and Lex Luger, the inbred product of serial steroid abusers. The worst guy getting a push in 2000 thus far.

This was a fun fight. It reminded me of Kingdom but there were also elements of UWF-i and the New Japan feud. Murahama was clearly dominant in the stand-up portions. Hoshikawa slowly figured out that he stood more of a chance by using his wrestling skills and there were some great near falls on the mat until the bell saved Murahama's bacon. He came out blazing in the 5th and deciding round and scored the knockout but both men looked good in the finish. Not the most polished or best shoot style you'll see but it ticked all the boxes in terms of excitement and drama.

Sasaki's unexpectedly good 2000 continues. I don't know about anyone else but when I think of Sasaki I don't think of sustained body part selling but that's what we got here. There were more than 10 minutes cut from the match so it probably didn't go at quite the clip that it seemed but I was still impressed with Sasaki's measured comeback. I didn't really like his pose before the finish and wondered where he got the energy from but that was a minor quibble in an otherwise rock-solid title match. Sasaki may be a top 5 guy in Japan at this point.

The Miller Brothers vs. Whipper Billy Watson & Bobo Brazil was a typical Buffalo match. Not a territory I'm particularly crazy about but it's consistent. You know what you're getting when four big men square off like this, especially when it's the Millers and Bobo Brazil: a bunch of roughhousing, underhanded tactics and retaliatory headbutts. For many people, that's what they paid to see. You could imagine the highlights of this match pieced together for some matinee newsreel with circus music and some corny commentary. To me, it's the most generic pro-wrestling possible but it may also be the most quintessential. In any event, it lacked the intensity that is needed to make a match like this stand out for me. II'll you a match that surprised me, though, and that was Jesse James vs. Al Costello of the Fabulous Kangaroos. At first, I thought: "ah, the Kangaroos are involved. This is going to be filled with cheating and shit." But right from the get-go, Costello was outstanding. He looked to impose himself physically rather through underhanded methods and showed a ton of wrestling skill that you'd never guess at if you were only familiar with his tag work. There were times when James would cop a right hand to the mouth from Costello and James gave him a bit of payback throughout but that made the bout seem like more of a fight than the Bobo stuff. They were working so hard on the mat that sometimes they punched one another. How cool is that? You've gotta love that sort of thing if you like bare-bones, minimalist wrestling. Great bout. One I'd recommend without hesitation. Watched a bunch of Londos footage. Londos was small but he had a low centre of gravity and was a beast in the ring. Most of the newsreel clips of him show the finishes to his bouts where he typically throws his opponent a couple of times before hitting an airplane spin or a bodyslam and pinning him with a full body press (none of this hook the leg malarky.) Londos' attacks are violent and intense. The best finishes are the ones where his opponent fights the body press but almost everyone succumbs in a fashion that makes it seem like Londos was your typical formulaic star. But longer footage like the match against Shikat shows what a talented wrestler he was and how intense he was during the smallest exchanges. The man had a huge engine and was constantly taking the fight to his opponent. Shikat is wonderfully European. You watch him and see a spiritual heir to Horst Hoffman or Volk Han. A wonderful piece of footage, though it did look like Shikat lay down for Londos at the end without trying to make it look good. Perhaps it was my imagination. There's another Blears match online. This time it's a technical showcase against Enrique Romero. Some really nice wrestling from his Lordship. It's too bad that the LA crowd seemed disinterested but Strongbow talked us through it at home and we got to see some nice holds from Blears.

Ray Mendoza and Villanos II, IV and V. Mendoza looks like a beast in the match we have against Fujinami. Perro Aguayo and Perro Aguayo Jr. Fuerza Guerrera and Juventud Guerrera (at least in the mid-90s) Alfonso Dantes and Apolo and Cesar Dantes Joe Blanchard and Tully Blanchard Warren Bockwinkel and Nick Bockwinkel Gino Garibaldi and Leo Garibaldi Dory Funk Sr. and Dory Jr. and Terry Funk Dr. Wagner Sr. and Dr. Wagner Jr. and Silver King Chavo Guerrero Sr. and Chavo Guerrero Jr. Fritz Von Erich and his kids Francis St. Clair Gregory and Tony and Roy St. Clair Roy "Bull" Davis and Skull Murphy (UK version) Jim Hussey and Mark Rocco Billy Riley and Ernie Riley

This was all right. I appreciated the strategy Tiger Mask used to grind Sasuke down but it was boring to watch and the botch off the facelock killed most of his momentum. I did like how Sasuke responded with the palm strikes and kicks and the choke submission. I suppose it was an interesting alternative to be nearfall happy or garbage happy, as was the trend at the time.

I didn't have a problem with him during the Smackdown Six era or the feud with Hardy. It was the Rated-RKO stuff that made him unbearable.

That part where the commentator started saying "Elbow. Elbow. Elbow. Elbow." was jarring. The commentary was pretty bad in general.

I just spent two matches in a row thinking about Ricky Morton and Mitsuharu Misawa's hair. I'm bucking the trend here. I am out of touch with the modern world but what's the difference between talking about wrestlers' hair and their ring attire? It's an image-driven industry and your hair is part of your gimmick or your look. I can't understand why people are getting sensitive about this one way or the other.

This was really good. So long as you're not expecting a classic you'll enjoy this. It helped that the Hiroshima crowd was so hot. You would have thought there was more on the line than Champion Carnival points the way they rallied behind Misawa. Mind you, Misawa has spent much of 2000 with his back to the canvas so maybe they had good reason to try to will him on. There was a lot of hard hitting action and stand and deliver stuff here. Well worth your time if you're on the fence about it. Misawa continues to perplex me in 2000 with his conditioning. He didn't look quite so wretched here but he's still not the Misawa I know and recognise. I'm glad he shaved that beard. I'm not a huge fan of that look. His hair was way too poofy, though. At least you can always rely on Kawada to look the same.

The Rock 'n' Roll Express as middle-aged heels was inspired. Gibson looked shady and Morton had a wild-eyed Ric Flair thing going on. Really old-school match. It could have easily taken place at Center Stage in 1985. Michaels sold well and the Rock 'n' Rolls worked the match like they'd turned countless times over the years.I guess they had a lot of experience on the receiving end but there was something innately sleazy about them that it fit like a glove. I mean, Christ, that hair style Ricky Morton. The only person who still had hair like that in 2000 was Rod Stewart.

Very good match. Really competitive. I especially liked Amano's ARSION flavoured submission work. I do think she was struggling with her identity a bit. Was she interested in being a Maekawa/AKINO style worker or something else? Hyuga always was a classy worker. She worked the classic Joshi style but instead of being completely Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! she mixed things up, added new elements to her game and thought things through a bit more. You can see here that she was thinking through the transitions more carefully than the usual Joshi go-to moves. Nice stuff.

This was another excellent juniors match. I love grumpy veteran Ohtani. Can we put to bed the narrative that his peak was short lived? I think it's more the case that we, the viewers, were exhausted on the 90s stuff and couldn't enjoy the 2000 stuff while it as happening. Nearly two decades on it all seems so fresh again. I love it anytime Wagner and Ohtani square off. That's such a great match-up. It feels like a simulated CAW match-up you'd make on one of those old console games. Casas vs. Ohtani was a treat as well. Casas has had an extremely quiet year thus far. It looks as though after Santo left CMLL, Bestia and Scorpio were shifted sideways in the Los Guapos stable but Casas was left with little to do. That will change in the coming years but for now, he's stuck in a holding pattern. I thought his work here was excellent and showed how fundamentally solid he is but for some reason he didn't show any of his natural charisma. I loved Ohtani gesturing for the belt at the end and talking shit. Go get that belt, son!

This was a decent match. It was hard fought, physical, and noisy! Honma must be a graduate of the Chono School for Grunt and Groan. Really noisy worker. It's rare that you see blood on the camera lens too.

Tajiri keeps getting his name misspelt! This was a good match albeit too short. Tajiri continues to throw his name in the hat for Best Wrestler in the World. It took a while at the end but I think I got an idea of what The Network was all about (e_e).

This was a real treat. How great was it seeing Perro Aguayo and Hamada reignite their age-old rivalry? Perro looked better here than in his CMLL matches. He seemed to relish working the stiffer Japanese style. Lots of fun exchanges in this. I got a kick out of watching Casas/Hamada and Ohtani/Wagner, and I thought Perro Jr. looked like an absolute dynamo anytime he stepped through the ropes. 2000 Wagner would have made a great full-time addition to CMLL but he was too busy making Japanese coin. Gotta love Perro's passion at the end. He looked every bit the senior citizen but had lost none of his fire. Great watch.

Okay, he was none-too-subtle about it though. Worked the match with a real chip on his shoulder.

A bit of debate on PWO2K! That's something that's been missing thus far. Naturally, I think both parties are wrong. There's nothing unique about Joshi matwork where one of the workers uses a single leg Boston crab. On the other hand, the bout isn't lousy. There are a ton of transitions. In fact, there are more transitions than you can wave a stick at. You can't complain about a Joshi match where they're able to transition with strike exchanges. The trouble is that Genki is supposed to be the dominant alpha female but it's Ran Yu Yu who consistently looks like the better worker. She outclassed Genki about a half a dozen times probably due to inexperience. It wasn't much of a surprise to me that Ran Yu Yu won because he looked so much more classier than Genki but I don't think that was the narrative they aimed for so I don't think they completely gelled here. Aja vs. KAORU is still my Joshi MOTY.

I thought this was an excellent bout. Nicely paced and well worked. Hidaka isn't your typical shoot style worker but he worked an effective hybrid style in a promotion that promoted and celebrated all types of wrestling and Usuda did a good job of guiding him through the match. It was a nice showcase for Usuda's talents which is cool if you're familiar with him and not just waiting for an unknown worker's charisma to reach out and grab you. Really good match. BattlARTS had a good month.

Shiga was hopelessly outclassed here but took the fight to Akiyama. Akiyama has entered that stage in his career where he's not about to take shit from anybody but I thought he was a bit too dickish here. Isn't he supposed to be the new golden boy? What's he doing beating on a scrub like this? It's the kind of performance you'd associate with Tenryu or Kawada not the future company ace. That said, it was extremely well executed and Akiyama looked world class the entire time he was out there. But world class ain't Ishikawa class and so far he is leading my race for Japanese WOTY.

This was a great BattlARTS match. It had a bit of everything as was their wont but it built beautifully from one exchange to the next. Murakami is a bit loose but that looseness means his exchanges are slightly less cooperative than the work between the other wrestlers which makes him seem dangerous. And of course, he has a similar attitude to the Kameda boxing family in terms of mouthing off. The Ishikawa vs. Murakami exchanges were fantastic. It's pretty much a privilege watching Ishikawa at this point. I can't sing his praises enough. What I loved about the Ishikawa vs. Murakami stuff was even though it was clearly worked it had the same dynamic as when Ishikawa fought in PRIDE. It was a pro-wrestling genius vs. a quasi-shooter and it was pretty grand. Otsuka looked GREAT in this. He was completely on point with everything he did. A huge improvement over his first few fights from the year. Everyone was locked in but I still want to single Otsuka out for praise. Finally, Sano. This was an outstanding performance from Santo. I often whinge about how Sano ditched his awesome shoot style work from PWFG after he hopped leagues but the thing about Sano is that he was constantly changing and metamorphosizing as a worker. More than any other worker I can think of, Sano never stopped tweaking his wrestling style. Here he delivered one of the broadest performances you could imagine from a worker. Think about it this way: you couldn't label it shoot style but you also couldn't label it juniors style. You couldn't call it lucha but there were elements he borrowed from Mexico. When he needed to be stiff with Murakami he was stiff. When he thought the match needed a highspot, he busted out a tope. It's a performance I can see being overlooked in '00 but I thought it was one of the top performances thus far. It's rare that I watch a 30 minute draw without feeling deflated but this great even as a draw.