ohtani's jacket

That's an awful finish. There is no way that failing to meet the count because your foot is trapped under the apron is as emphatic as winning by two falls or submissions, and its stretching the boundaries of the imagination to even call it a knockout. The matchmaker didn't want Dennison going over Kwango cleanly so we got a cheap finish that drew Dennison heat without Kwango looking weak. It also allows the matchmaker to book a return match in the future. It makes sense in the context of that week's wrestling but it's a crap viewing experience for the way we consume WoS in 2024. I did like the baby taunt with the towel and Dennison's facial hair. It may have been more of a Dennison heel showcase than I realized in 2014.

Are sure that's the right match? They have two matches on tape. My post was talking about their match from 1981 not their more highly regarded match from 1980.

It's in colour.

Masambula had a witchdoctor gimmick. The other singles match was from a 16mm film and isn't in circulation. I didn't have a copy at the time that I wrote that post.

This was another chapter in the rise of Mistico - a grimy apuestas match from Guadalajara. Anthrax and Ebola sound like charming fellows. They're a solid unit and serve as excellent foils for the tecnicos. This guys a decent amount of time and is full of exciting dives and tecnico heroics. All four men bleed buckets. Mistico is a blood stained mess in the tercera but still manages to wow the fans with his aerial skills. Nice to see an old-school bout like this with the tecnicos having to work hard for their victory.

This didn't get a very good rating from Meltzer, but it was Eddie's final PPV match which makes it required viewing. The parts where they wrestle are quite good. Eddie uses all sorts of tricks to try to get the big man off his feet and work on his injured back while Batista gets some decent moves in and even dabbles in a bit of defensive wrestling. What hurts the bout is the storyline of whether Eddie has reformed or not. As great as Eddie was at character work, the story elements feel forced. It doesn't help that they go to the well three times instead of having one big "will he or won't he?" moment after a hard fought championship bout. Every time Eddie thinks about cheating, the match comes to a halt and they have to reset again. It doesn't help that Taz and Cole suck at selling these types of angles, but it's something that would have played out better over a month's worth of Smackdown than in a main event. I do think they had the potential for a better match down the line, but sadly it wasn't to be.

This was the only match from No Mercy that Meltzer gave a decent rating but it's nothing special. I would have much rather seen Benoit have a singles match against Christian or Booker T. The most exciting part of the match may have been afterwards when Taz and Cole tried to one up each other by naming Houston wrestling legends. Booker T's wife chastised him after the bout.

They loaded the stipulations for this one. The loser had to leave RAW and the winner claimed the Money in the Bank briefcase. It's a ladder match, so it was no great shakes, but they brought the drama with plenty of Matt Hardy and Lita exchanges, including her crucifix hold in the ropes to allow Edge to win the match. Not great if you were rooting for Hardy after that Unforgiven match.

This was my first time to watch this match. How's that possible? I spent a lot of time watching other types of wrestling, or not watching wrestling at all, but it's a match I know by name and by rep. I'm glad I watched a bunch of 00s Joe and Kobashi before diving into it. I may not have lived it in the moment, but I get why this was such an exciting match up in 2005. Rarely do matches like this live up to the billing. I'm not sure if Kobashi knew what he was getting into when he agreed to travel to the States to wrestle this match, but as soon as he walks out through the curtain and the crowd chant his name, you can tell that he's amped. They work a great match for the setting. By the time it was over, I was left wondering whether it was the best match by a Japanese wrestler on American soil. At the least, you'd have to say it was the best match by a Japanese worker on US soil since Liger/Pillman. There's no point comparing it to Kobashi's best matches, or Joe's best fights in ROH, as this was a pure spectacle. This is a gift for anyone who's ever scanned through match listings looking for matchups between workers they like. It was a slam dunk as far as dream matches go.

This was really good. Not as good as their Wrestlemania classic but better than their rematch at Vengeance. There was an obvious comparison with Daniels vs. Styles from Bound for Glory. Daniels and Styles were probably better workers than Michaels and Angle, but the book was better here with the scored locked at 2-2 heading into the final minutes and a more realistic finish. People who have issues with Angle & Michaels matches will have issues this one too as Michaels once again displays his superhuman ability to not tap to Angle submissions. If you buy into it, throw back the popcorn as this one has entertainment aplenty.

We already knew that the INA doesn't have every match that was ever broadcast as there were 50s and 60s broadcasts missing from the archives.

Dick Murdoch vs Afa (WWF, 10/22/84) This was a fun match. Of course, it was Murdoch doing a bunch of entertaining shtick almost like a one man comedy act, but it got me wishing that Dick had done a bit more in the WWF so that we could call him a WWF guy. He worked New Japan a lot with the WWF guys, but if he'd just had a few runs against Backlund, or even against Hogan, I think he'd be right up there with Valentine and Slaughter.

This wasn't a bad match, but I don't think anybody really wants to see an Iron Man match where there are no pinfalls or submissions until the last moment. They could have just as easily worked with a 30 minute time limit. AJ getting a pin as the clock run out was too cutesy for my liking. The likelihood of being able to pull that off seems miniscule to say the least. They worked hard, but I think they would have been better served by better booking.

Great entrance from Joe. This wasn't a great match but it had to have been a thrill for Joe to wrestle Liger and at least Liger was treated better than that shit with Russo in WCW.

This wasn't the most exciting match in rhythm and pacing, but it gave the crowd some interesting wrinkles. First of all, they got to see Mistico and Perro team up, and actually work together, in what would have been a dreaming pairing for a lot of the audience members. They also got to see Atlantis working rudo, and a portion of the audience continued to boo him every time he was in the ring. The highlight of the match was Mistico and Wagner linking for a pair of dives.

It happened all the time in the UK as well with wrestlers being billed from the West Indies, Africa, Russia, different parts of Asia, and God knows where else. It was wrestling 101 in the 20th century.

Well, Rebel Ray Hunter was Australian.

St. Clair's year of birth is listed everywhere as 3/28/47 except for his English wiki page, which I presume is a mistake. The same Wrestling from Great Britain title is on other films I have from this era. IIRC, it is in color on the color films.

Clay Thomson vs. Tony St. Clair (8/18/67) This was a fine catchweight contest. I was glad for fxnj's sake that it went five rounds to a finish rather than finishing early. Fans of Clay Thomson are going to be excited by this one and he looks slick. Tony does well for a 20 year old, but this is all about Clay. Clay Thomson vs. Bert Royal must have been a heck of a bout from this era.

FWIW, I watched Bull Nakano interview Mach Fumiake and Mach confirmed all of the above. I'm hoping Bull interviews some more of these 70s wrestlers. She did one with Mariko Akagi that was quite good.

This almost hit the spot. Angle was a rampaging, roided-up psycho, which you love to see, and Cena was pretty good, but it quickly descended into storyline hell. This is the type of stuff they should save for television not the pay-per-view match. It didn't help that the show had featured two excellent matches in Michaels vs. Masters and Hardy vs. Edge, the latter featuring perfect booking. Not bad, but I want to see them go one-on-one without any distractions.

I really wanted to see SUWA and Joe go at it. It reminded me of fights you see on the train sometimes between old guys and younger dudes. This was fun, but not really what I look for in a Japanese match. I can understand the appeal, though, and I liked the part where SUWA attacked the guys trying to put the turnbuckle pad back on. I'm all aboard the KENTA train too, twenty years later.

This was fun, though vastly different from the types of short, athletic matches that they had in their primes. Ikeda was committed to playing the washed up prizefighter at this point. There were some cool spots. I thought Usuda could have gotten a few more licks in, bur this won't disappoint if you like post-prime Ikeda.

This was a fun match. It was almost like a minimalist version of BattlARTS that evolved from them getting older. Nowhere near as violent as the Ikeda match, but Ishikawa still got a punch in before the sleeper at the end.

This was okay. I didn't really buy into it as some kind of amazing technical match, and I agree that it lacked the urgency and drama you'd expect the type of match the commentators were trying to sell. I also couldn't figure out whether Danielson was working heel or face, not that I like his schtick either way. What I did love was the finishing stretch with Gibson fighting so hard to avoid Cattle Mutilation. Those types of exchanges I could appreciate more than the "Ladies and gentleman, James Gibson" schtick from earlier in the match.