ohtani's jacket

Here we go! I'm psyched. Satanico's Phantom of the Opera entrance was amazing. Just when you thought the lucha GOAT couldn't get any greater he produces one of the finer Arena Mexico entrances in living memory. Tarzan Boy has lipstick kisses on his torso and upper body. He stops to give us the Rick Martel view of his six pack and I wonder if his valet gave him a kiss on the pecker for good luck. That seems to be the implication. Tarzan Boy seems like he's on a hiding to nothing in the intros. He's busy posing while Satanico is limbering up. And sure enough, Satanico wrestles a perfect fall in the primera caida. Olimpico launching himself at Bucanero was another amazing moment. It's rare that you see seconds fight like that and never as wild and out of control as that was. In true CMLL fashion, I didn't realise that Bucanero had tripped Tarzan Boy until the replay. In real time it looked like Tarzan Boy had slipped and that the rudo crowd were riding him. Olimpico's reaction was awesome. I loved the way Satanico's head jerked when he saw the fight break out. The rudo fans got on Tarzan Boy's case during this match. You can't really blame them since it was at the cathedral where Satanico had fought so many wars. The smaller, less vocal tecnico contingent popped for him. Satanico was amazing in this match. Every time the camera was on him he was selling beautifully or doing something great, and always in the right measure. Such a masterful performer. To lose that way in such amateur fashion was galling. Watch Satanico during the post-match. He is filthy with himself. While he's getting his head shaved you can see him replaying the finish in his mind and working through what he should have done differently. I thought this was tremendous. It was never going to be like Satanico vs. Dandy or that AAA match against Morgan. That was Satanico versus fellow all-time greats. For a match against a young talent like Tarzan Boy this exceeded my expectations. Folks have been arguing that there wasn't enough blood and that Satanico didn't suffer any sort of retribution, but losing hurt more than any cut ever could. It was the ultimate humiliation especially given how dominant he'd been in the feud. I actually thought it was a brilliant payoff to the beatings he gave Tarzan Boy night after night. I don't think it elevated Tarzan Boy in any way but it was beautiful and poetic and Satanico sold it like only he can. Another one for the Satanico GOAT scrapbook. Tremendous.

I don't know what lit a fire under Panther but he is officially the second best rudo in the company. I think it was April and May that Panther had his classic matches with Santo in Monterrey and it's clear now that he was enjoying a rich vein of form heading into those appearances. I loved every second of Panther vs. Ringo regardless of how decrepit Ringo may have looked. I also liked the Casas vs. Black Warrior build. CMLL has a habit of phasing guys down the card after long programs. and after feuding with Bestia and Scorpio for what seemed like an eternity, Casas didn't seem like he had much to do in January. Here they gave him something to do and it was the best he's looked so far. This was edited to shit but still enjoyable. That may be the new barometer of a good CMLL match.

This was the first match from February that felt like it was on par with the January stuff and I don't think it's a coincidence that it takes place at Arena Coliseo. Coliseo seems tailor-made for the Satanico v. Tarzan Boy feud. You sense that it loses something in Arena Mexico kind of like playing a larger venue vs. a smaller, more intimate one. Here you've got fans holding Tarzan Boy signs whereas I'm not sure he's that over Arena Mexico. And Satanico looks king-sized this smaller setting. He looks like he's on a different plane from everyone else. No one can match the ferocity with which he attacks Tarzan Boy. Villano III looks like hes moving in slow motion by comparison and even Fuerza couldn't keep up with Satanico's intensity. The only thing that comes close is Panther licking Olimpico's blood and showing off his kill to the audience. Tarzan Boy is pretty low rent but I liked the fire on his comeback here and I thought the injury storyline off the missed plancha was a nice twist after he'd finally shown some fire. Satanico stomping the ankle was wonderful as was the finger biting. Atlantis vs. Villano can't really hold a candle to the Satanico/Tarzan Boy ringwork, though I did like their punch exchange. I'm sure the mask match is still a classic, but Villano comes across as slower and less vicious than Satanico and Atlantis comes across some squeaky clean do-gooder who can't understand why the Villanos are picking on him. Acting was never his forte, but you've got to be prepared to fight fire with fire in an apuesta match and I don't really get that feeling from him. Which makes me suspect that the mask vs. mask match may be closer to a pure lucha match than a brawl, but we'll see. It's been a long time since I watched it.

This was another match butchered in the edit. This was extra frustrating as we never got a proper look at Pimpenela in CMLL. Instead they clipped the Black Warrior vs. Felino exchanges together even though it wasn't a feud. After an exciting January this company is starting to nosedive.

All things in good times. It's such a big project that it's best not to burn yourself out.

This was so badly clipped in the first two falls that it was hard to get any idea of how the match was flowing. The third caida was slightly better, but the switcheroo made the entire thing seem like an angle, which it was, really. If you ask me, the build to Atlantis vs. Villano has been less than perfect.

I believe this is the first 2000 match from Arena Mexico and oddly it's an atomicos match. God only knows how long this lasted but it as clipped to shit on the TV broadcast. There was enough shown to demonstrate how much better Satanico was at brawling with his partner than Shocker was, for example, and a lot that you could study about his rudo performance. But ultimately it was another asskicking for Tarzan Boy, who hasn't done enough to fight back in this feud, and a disconnect with the other participants in the atomicos. Not that strong a match in my view.

I liked the booking here with Olimpico's DQ victory in the tournament final setting up a mano a mano bout. And I liked the continued viciousness from Panther who has never looked better as a rudo. I also liked the idea of giving Olimpico a huge victory over Panther even if he held the ropes to do it. But you'd think they would have shown more than they did on the TV broadcast. The clipping in February is worse than January.

Not content with two blood feuds, CMLL decide to add a third. This is some old school booking from CMLL. It reminds me of the early 80s when they'd have an apuesta match nearly every week. This was a bit different as it was being booked toward a mano a mano and not a mask vs. mask match, but you wouldn't know from the bloodshed, Olympic bled buckets and Panther's mask was so badly ripped at the end that you could see his face years ahead of his unmasking. I'm often critical of Panther as a rudo, but I thought he was excellent here. When you think of Panther, you don't think of a worker who licks another man's blood from his fingers or parades his bloodied foe for others to see, but that was the Panther we got here and it was quite a surprise. The match was short because it was a one night tournament and lucha tournament matches are notoriously short, but it packed a fair-sized punch for such a short match.

I didn't want to watch this match, but I figured that if so much of my viewing was centered around veterans thus far that I ought to give these guys a chance. And to give the devils their due it wasn't that bad a match. I don't think it was a great match by any means, but it was more than solid when you consider they could have easily stank the joint out. Personally, I hated Mutoh's hair in this, which kept bugging me throughout, but he lay down a marker for the 00s and we'll see if his celebrated 2001-02 run holds up.

Hey guys, I don't listen to a lot of podcasts but I listened to this. It was cool hearing you guys shoot the breeze about the project. I know Loss has been trying to start something like this for a while and with Chad as his running partner I'm sure it will have the legs. For what it's worth, I thought Cactus vs. Hunter was the Match of the Month and Satanico the Wrestler of the Month.

This was a fun match. I don't have time to watch all the Tajiri matches that were included but he definitely looks like one of the better US based wrestlers thus far. I have picked up on the thigh slapping, though. I can't remember who mentioned that in the thigh slapping thread but once you pick up on it forever dogs you. I was also a bit disheartened to see him reuse the same taunt from the Super Crazy match but those are only small gripes.

I liked this a lot. It was a fairly standard Joshi tag, but I didn't mind that so much since at least it was traditional. All Japan Women's roster had thinned out at this point and it was clear that there wasn't going to be any uptick in business with the likes of Maekawa and Watanabe being pushed (notice how immediately more exciting things are when a charismatic team like LCO show up to challenge the new champs post-match), but there was a brief revival in AJW's in-ring product around this time and I thought all four women put a strong foot forward in terms of ring work. On the message boards there were some pretty savage arguments vis-a-vis GAEA vs. AJW. I wonder which side PWO2K will take. Everyone nailed their role in this. Miho was super earnest. Toyota was like a mother wolf. Maekawa was pesky and unlikeable. And Watanabe looked like she was measuring herself against Toyota the entire time. The second crowd brawling spot was the only time I felt like groaning. Aside from that it was engaging, especially considering the length.

More tables. There was some criticism tonight about too many props in the dunk contest. How about too many tables in wrestling at the turn of the century? This was decent enough, but I thought it was weak compared to Tajiri vs. Super Crazy. It didn't help that the heat wasn't that great to start with and that the cameraman kept missing Jeff Hardy's spots. (Seriously, it was weird seeing Hardy literally fly into the frame.) The finish was well done, but there seemed to be some confusion over whether Bubba taking a chairshot and falling through the table counted as an "offensive move" and even after Hardy's nuts spot the timekeeper was late ringing the bell.

This is an underrated period of Manami Toyota's career. I thought she looked just as good here as any of her 90s contemporaries, male or female. The trouble was that she was wrestling Yumiko Hotta, whom I simply do not like. And that made for a mostly boring bout.

This was an excellent match. I'm not a huge fan of workers using tables in matches but at least Tajiri did something novel with one. I can't remember seeing anyone skim chairs across a table before. That's gotta be more difficult than it looked. Tajiri was pretty cool in this. I liked the way he mocked Crazy, although it was a weak transition for Crazy's comeback. Crazy probably could have sold more during his fightback but the action was exciting. I liked the dives a lot and Tajiri maiming Crazy with the ring wrench. The finish was cool too even if it was a table spot. I was skeptical about whether I'd enjoy this but they won me over.

I wasn't going to watch this since I was like "eh, it's Cactus Jack and Triple H, I've seen that one." But I was glad that I did. This is your match of the month right here and the first real MOYTC. Foley has always been good at laying his matches out, so it didn't surprise me that this was put together well. The only doubt I had in the early stages was whether Foley was going to do anything sadistic enough to live up to Ross' claims about him being the sickest, most sadistic individual he had ever witnessed (or something to that effect.) The barbwire baseball bat, thumbtacks and chair shots managed to dispel any doubts that this would be the real Cactus Jack and not some watered down version. I'm not a vampire and I'm not much into garbage wrestling but when that's all the commentators keep talking about then you better hope the workers deliver. It wasn't a great call from JR, but the King was more tolerable than I expected and in the end their commentary synced with the match when Ross said both men gave everything they had. I think the surprising thing was Helmsley's performance. He sold his ass off for Foley and his crimson mask was straight off the cover of an Apter mag. Whether you think of the guy, he has a career match like this you can stick in your pipe and smoke. And I'm with Childs, I popped for Mick kicking out of the pedigree like it was in real time. Hell of a flashback. Great match.

Man, you guys weren't kidding about this one. From Arn's promo to Buffer's introductions and the locker room clearing out, this felt like something special. I didn't expect to hear Bobby, Tony and Tenay on commentary, but they treated this seriously and made it seem like vintage Monday Nigjt Wars WCW. Sid was great working from underneath. The finish sucked worse than a screw job, but this was without doubt one of the best matches of the month.

I'm not 100% sold on CIMA yet. People have been praising him for working like an American heel, but the last thing I want is a Japanese wrestler to work like an American heel. I don't really want him or her to work like a Mexican heel either. I don't know if there's such a thing as an authentic Japanese heel outside of US 50s footage, but I'll keep watching to see if he makes this decade his own as has been suggested. Fujita was okay in this, but quasi shoot style is starting to annoy me. This was a bit too long but struck some sweet notes during the finishing stretch.

My hope when I got around to the Toryumon stuff was that it would be the 00s version of '94-97 Michinoku Pro. Almost immediately, I realized I'm not as familiar with the Toryumon workers as I am the Michinoku crew and that it's going to take time to get acquainted with this fed. I think the last time I watched Toryumon was when it was en vogue in the DVDVR. So this was a starting point for me. There were parts I liked and parts I didn't, and no one exchange that I would call spectacular, but there was promise and where there's promise there's hope. I'll keep watching the Toryumon.

I'm a non-believer when it comes to Akiyama. He just doesn't have the tools that I admire in a wrestler. I reserve the right to change that opinion in a year or two, but for now I thought the only positive he showed here was some solid selling. He had a couple of pretty dropkicks, but his dropkick was pretty from his rookie year on. He executed the finish well. But as for going toe-to-toe with Takayama and making you think it's a war? Not the worker to do it.

This was a nice brawl but I'm not sure I would call it a devastating loss. Nine times out of ten, you'd expect Kawada and Taue to win in the same amount of time it took No Fear to score the upset. But this time they lost. And while Kawada refused to make any excuses after the match, he was coming off an injury layoff and there was an element of rustiness to not only his performance but Kawada and Taue's teamwork. But it wasn't the end of the world. The promotion was trying to elevate midcard guys at the time. The timing of the upset was kind of odd considering No Fear had been jobbed out in the 1999 RWTL, but it wasn't a deathblow for Kawada and Taue. Come June they would stand triumphant with their record setting sixth title reign. So, I don't think this match marked the end. Not by a long shot.

I remember chatting with a Japanese rock guitarist about the result of this match in between sets. That seems like a lifetime ago and really drove home how old these matches are. Sometimes they don't feel like they're that old because they're from 2000 and not the 80s or 90s, but this is pretty ancient stuff. It was also one of those predictable ass Vader matches where you can guess what he's going to do right before he does it. Vader in Japan sounds like something that should be totally awesome but for some reason it's never clicked for me. I'm not really sure whether that's down to Vader or the Japanese workers. It may be because I'm more of a fan of shoot style and traditional strong style than this type of wrestling, though I have been reacquainting myself with All Japan through Loss' projects and to me this felt unworthy of a Triple Crown match.

Man did these guys look old. Misawa looked fucking terrible. I liked this, but then I tend to like long matches filled with matwork. Has there ever been a match where a guy focused on a single body part for as long as Hase did here? If you're a psychology freak then this is your wet dream. I can see the length being a problem for folks, and it is a pretty boring tactic, especially for the crowd, but I thought Misawa's selling was masterful. Yeah, he could have fought back more and yeah he used the elbow after it had been worked on for so long, but what choice did he have? He was a wreck. He had a slugger's chance so long as he could throw an elbow, but Jesus, look at him. The last Misawa match I saw before this was from 1992 and before that some classic matches he had against Kawada in '93 and Kobashi in '95. Five years after the Kobashi match and he looks like a wreck. And he wasn't even 40 yet. It was obvious that his injuries were preventing him from working out and that his cardio was shit. He was almost as slow as Hansen in that '99 RWTL final, so to my mind it was the elbow or bust. Misawa's elbow is an interesting conversation in itself. During the course of these Yearbooks, etc., we've seen the full spectrum of Misawa's elbow from the perfectly timed single elbow knockouts to the superman elbows found in this match. It's interesting to me that he could use the match so poetically at times and so excessively at others. It makes me wonder who laid out the differing extremes. But I really did think his selling was masterful even if he was too crook to get up off his back. Though, to be fair, Misawa always did like that visual of being laid out on the mat. I guess he thought it was the best way to portray helplessness or vulnerability. Another point that I think was already raised was that after inflicting so much damage on Misawa and jobbing the way he did, Hase was pretty much neutered by the finish, but that was a consequence of him being a part-timer and couldn't be helped. At least he gave it a shot. This was interesting enough to be my Match of the Month so far even if I enjoyed the Satanico vs. Tarzan Boy build more as a whole.

This was good while they were punching each other but slow going when they worked holds. The layout was simple and the near falls generic, which wouldn't have been so bad if the transitions hadn't been working in and out of a resthold. Wouldn't make it anywhere near my list of the best Tenryu matches.