ohtani's jacket

So I watched the 7/93 Kobashi match for the first time in donkey years. It's kind of interesting watching it as the next chapter in the feud rather than in anticipation of one of the best All Japan matches of the 90s and one of the greatest matches of all-time. It's not quite as special as the work a lot of the same sequences they'd done previously, but I got behind Kobashi more than I would have if I'd watched it in isolation. People sometimes argue that Kawada should have gone over in his 6/94 match with Misawa, and I kind of thought that ignoring the lay of the land in 1993, the way they laid this out, Kobashi maybe should've gone over. I'm not sure he got much closer here than he did in the 4/93 Carnival match. Kobashi going over seemed like the next logical step in the way they worked the matches even if it didn't fit the booking. On the other hand, I'm not a fan of Kobashi doing the moonsault and that seemed his undoing here so thems the breaks. I think I'll rewatch the '94 CC match and see if I like it more in context.

Or Wrestlemania VIII... Who in the world is gonna protect your nose?

The 4/93 Kobashi handheld rocked pretty hard. Kobashi took it to Hansen's lariat arm at the start and was battering the shit out of Stan for a good while, but that damn lariat. Kobashi must have had nightmares about it. Still, getting closer...

The 7/92 Kobashi match is another worthy entry into their feud. Unlike the '91 match where he's damn near KO'd at the start, Kobashi fights every inch of the way to assert control. There's a tremendous struggle early on for Kobashi to gain dominant position from a side headlock, which is paid off beautifully later on when he comes close to actual submission from the same position. Hansen really showed his versatility in this match showing he could just as easily work "hurt" as he could from a commanding position. One thing that struck my mind during the bout was how unique Kobashi vs. Hansen is in terms of one guy wanting to pin the other. There's no title chase, no personal vendetta, just one guy trying to prove he can pin another. Another thing that occurred to me is that Hansen doesn't really get the credit he deserves for having better matches with the younger generation than Jumbo regardless of the hepatitis. Great stretch run here. I can't say I've encountered "crying Kobashi" against Hansen. That damn lariat must have driven him nuts, though.

I'm sure a big Benoit fan, if any still exist, could expand on Benoit's range. Charisma, or lack thereof, is pretty subjective. There are people who say Volk Han didn't have charisma or show much personality in the ring, but a Volk fan wouldn't agree.

I will certainly spare a thought for you and your family.

There didn't seem to be much subtle about vein popping, red-faced Benoit late in his career.

This isn't a dig at you, and I can understand that line of thinking, but why is it okay for Japanese wrestlers to show little or no personality but not North American wrestlers? I get shifting between different mindsets when it comes to styles, but it seems a bit unfair.

I think the only other apuesta match we have from his prime is the one against Masakre from '92, but I don't know if it's online. The Vampiro match is terrible.

THE ARTHUR PSYCHO HOUR Ep 42 Ron Marino vs. Pete LaPaque (6/5/85) This was more like it from LaPaque. Marino was a friend of LaPaque's whom he'd introduced to the business in the early 60s and had been a popular independent wrestler before Max Crabtree signed him up for Joint. He appeared on TV a few times in the late 70s but despite wrestling most nights of the week he preferred to keep his full-time job as a joiner and never had a big TV presence. In fact, he was replacing the billed Chris Bowles here. The two friends put on a decent showing. It was slow paced at times but solid stuff. LaPaque was definitely better in tags at this point as he wasn't the fittest guy around, but he knew all the tricks of the trade and got good heat for a match that wasn't exactly screaming out for it. Blondie Barratt & Bobby Barnes vs. Johnny Kidd & Robbie Brookside (8/30/86) This was another Screensport match from under the big top, which was apparently part of the Stoke-on-Trent National Garden Festival, an interesting initiative where large areas of derelict land in British industrial areas were "culturally regenerated." And what better way to regenerate them than with wrestling! I had to drown out the commentators after the first one said "the referee will need as many eyes as a centipede has legs" and the other said "this terrible twosome have the formula for fear." I swear only Stan Lee could get away with saying that and even then only in print. So, I stuck on a David Ruffin album from 1980. Ruffin was well past his prime in 1980, but he had such an amazing voice that just about any record of his is worth listening to. It was a pretty good record, I thought, though completely incompatible with wrestling. Good thing I've learnt to multi-task while watching wrestling. The match itself wasn't as good as the Ruffin record, but the heels were entertaining. Barratt is a fun heel and worthy of future exploration. Barnes' best days were behind him, but he still knew how to piss off a crowd. The crowd here knew no boundaries and some woman even shoved her kid in the ring to dispute a pinfall. Barnes was attacked three times on the outside, and they ended the bout with a fun promo. One area where Dixon had it all over Crabtree was heels. Dale Martin really struggled to create strong drawing heels after the majority jumped ship to All-Star whereas heels ruled the roost in Dixon-land. Mick McMichael vs. Battlestar (1/19/83) This was kind of disappointing. Whenever I saw this in listings I always thought it would be some God awful gimmick like Max Moon, but it was just Barry Douglas in a lucha mask. Beau Jack Rowlands vs. Johnny Kincaid (7/31/85) Kincaid was such a beast in his 80s run. I really need to revisit his retirement match with Marty Jones again and see how good it was regardless of his bung hip.

This seems too low. Was an easy ****, IMO.

The 9/91 Kobashi bout is a lot of fun. Novel start with Joe saying he hit the Western lariat before the bell and Stan being all pissed at him. Great selling from Kobashi and a well timed comeback. Nice variety from Hansen during his control segments, switching action in and out of the ring with more fluidity than you sometimes get in an All Japan match. Nicely laid out finishing stretch with the teased ring outs, making me wonder who the equivalent of an All Japan road agent was. Great pump fake finish. Kobashi looked great in this. Self-assured, confident. The only false note was getting a bit too animated in the lead-up to the finishing stretch. I can understand the adrenaline kicking in and everything, but after being put through the ringer I think it's better to sell like you're in a daze than jacked up on adrenaline. Was pretty minor, though.

The 9/91 Kobashi bout is a lot of fun. Novel start with Joe saying he hit the Western lariat before the bell and Stan being all pissed at him. Great selling from Kobashi and a well timed comeback. Nice variety from Hansen during his control segments, switching action in and out of the ring with more fluidity than you sometimes get in an All Japan match. Nicely laid out finishing stretch with the teased ring outs, making me wonder who the equivalent of an All Japan road agent was. Great pump fake finish. Kobashi looked great in this. Self-assured, confident. The only false note was getting a bit too animated in the lead-up to the finishing stretch. I can understand the adrenaline kicking in and everything, but after being put through the ringer I think it's better to sell like you're in a daze than jacked up on adrenaline. Was pretty minor, though.

Watching the 3/92 Hansen vs. Kobashi match it seems clear to me that Kobashi was the best match-up with Hansen among the so-called "four pillars" even if smart fans like myself don't necessarily want it to be. I mean, Misawa to me was the best of the four, which is rarefied air. Kawada, for many of us, was an internet darling on the level of Benoit, and Taue of late has gotten praise as a "smart" worker with a more innate understanding of psychology than his peers. (And to think we just used to argue that he was better in 1990-94 than given credit for.) But for some reason, Kobashi vs. Hansen is the best match-up perhaps because of the flexibility of how Kobashi lined up offensively, or perhaps for reasons we can't ascertain. In any event, Kobashi's offense seems to rock Hansen harder.

I watched a 1975 Funks vs. Jumbo/Baba tag with the express intent of judging whether Jumbo was one of the "best in the world" in 1975. Then I started wondering how you can prove or disprove that sort of statement. You can't really, so instead I decided to focus on how good I thought Jumbo was with only a couple of years under his belt. The impression I got was that his execution was far smoother than most second or third year guys, but he wasn't overly confident in what he was doing and not the one calling the action. There wasn't much wrong with what he did mechanically, but he didn't strike me as great yet. You can always tell a less experienced worker/rookie by the way they're trying to follow the bout and Jumbo was still trying to follow and respond to the others here. On the other hand, he was better than the majority of wrestlers with the same level of experience. He just wasn't great. The match itself was okay. The Baba/Jumbo dynamic doesn't do much for me despite understanding it fairly well and the aggression from the Funks was fairly timid.

I felt like watching some Hokuto since I hadn't seen her perform in ages. So I decided to check out the 1/93 LLPW vs. AJW tag, which could have been WAR-like in its presentation if they'd just bothered to stop for five seconds every now and again. So many good workers, so little breathing room. The post-match dress down of LCO and Hokuto/Kandori posturing was easier to get a bearing on than who was working whom and why they were suddenly squaring off. I often talk about needing to be in the groove to watch certain styles, but this may have been too fast for an old-timer like me.

Less than 10 minutes of the 4/93 Hansen/Taue match aired on TV, but it was still pretty rad. The only problem with this match-up is that it's just not conceivable that Taue can beat Hansen as he's clearly the inferior worker. It's no surprise then that he beat him the following year because of the rib injury.

If you look at the rspw awards, Benoit was voted the best non-American worker in the world for 1994 and 1995. For the Observer awards, he finished third in the Most Outstanding Wrestler category in 1994 and first in the Best Technical Wrestler category. In 1995, he finished fourth in the MOW category and was again voted the Best Technical Wrestler. Eddie was actually 5th in the Wrestler of the Year voting for the 1995 WON awards, second in the Most Outstanding Wrestler category, and third in the Best Technical Wrestler category. In 1994, Los Gringos Locos were big winners in both the rspw and WON awards. Objectively speaking, regardless of personal taste, both guys were considered top 30 in the world in the '94-95 period.

If it's top 30, then I don't see how you can realistically have Arn as top 30 in the world from 1986-96, for example. Arn's peak was pretty clearly 1991-92 and in those years he'd have a realistic chance of being top 30 in the world. I know you don't like the Manny/Rude team, but it seems inconsistent to me that you shorten Rude's peak (and, tbh, Arn's '93 is no better than Rude's) while giving Arn a full 10 years. Then there's guys like Ole Anderson, who I kind of doubt was ever a top 30 guy. Guys like Eddie and Benoit's peak seem to start latter than general consensus while other guys are hindered by footage issues, but Baba from '69-79 seemed odd to me because we have footage of him from earlier than 1969. The '69 thing in itself seems little more than probable to me unless you watch as much footage as you can from '69.

Gordy and Williams' WCW run seems divisive on this site. I remember digging it when I went through WCW, but haven't watched it in ages.

The length of peak category seems a mess to me. I think you'd be better off redefining it as the number of years they were a good or great worker, because there's no way that some of these guys were "best in the world" for as long as you state (if at all) unless you have a broad definition of best in the world. How do you define best in the world? Top 10? Top 20? The way you've set it up dozens upon dozens of guys can be classified as best in the world at any one time. One other thing, if you put Breaks through this, there's no way he can finish in your top 10. Are you going to make exceptions or will this affect your actual rankings?

Go back and read the stuff Scott Keith used to write about 1992-93 WCW, which was more or less parroting what he'd read on rspw.

THE ARTHUR PSYCHO HOUR Ep 41 Greg Valentine & Pete Collins vs. Tally Ho Kaye & Sid Cooper (10/31/85) "Farmer's Boy" Greg Valentine and "The College Boy" Pete Collins, who came up with these names? They sound like Buster Keaton films. Pete Collins was the older brother of Danny Boy Collins, and as Arthur Psycho astutely pointed out, the one who was going to drop the falls for his team while Crabtree's son continued to rack up the pinfalls. Cooper and Kaye were responsible for breaking in new talent and were trusted ring generals in the Crabtree set-up. Even as late as '85 they were effective at drawing heat for newcomers and guiding them through a simple match, but the bouts were such fizzers when the heels won. There wasn't much reason why Cooper & Kaye should win this. If Valentine had gone over too many of the veteran heels since bursting onto the scene then they shouldn't have booked the bout. Poor old College Boy came across as the weak link as Valentine had won a knockout tag tournament with his brother only months before. Sid Cooper vs. Chris Bowles (2/5/85) Cooper put former British welterweight judo champion Bowles over clean as a sheet. In days gone by that would have meant something, but it had zero impact here. Pete LaPaque vs. Bobby Bold Eagle (7/27/87) I love me some Pete LaPaque, but this was one of the dullest bouts I've seen. UK promoters never got over Billy Two-Rivers and would bring in pretty much anybody they could get with a Native American gimmick even if they weren't that good. Eagle hadn't been on TV since 1981 and was never going to get any heat. Walton sounded like he wanted to end it all. I've never heard him sound so depressed. He was even screwing up his syntax. At one point he talked about the tragic car accident that claimed the life of Tommy Lorne "as well as Pete LaPaque." Sounded like he needed a stiff drink. Magnificent Maurice vs. Steve Logan (1/19/83) This was Maurice's reappearance on TV after playing a bleach blonde exotico alongside Beautiful Bobby Barnes. He'd shaved his head, grown a "Mexican tache" (a Waltonism), and gotten a number of tattoos on his chest and arms. If I knew more about gay subculture, I'd be able to tell you the kind of look he had adopted, but he basically looked like a bald Rick Rude or gay sailor. This was actually one of the better Maurice bouts I've seen as 19 year-old Steve Logan sold the shit out of everything he dished out. Maurice was able to work from a standing base and keep on top of his opponent, which he was far more comfortable with than wrestling. I can't remember too many British workers selling the way Logan did here. He got his back worked over and was screaming the entire time. It was almost like watching a Joshi bout. But he was extremely focused on each move, and you could see the cogs turning in his head the way you so often can with rookies. There was only the vaguest hint of Maurice's exotico past, but he had tremendous swagger, and I was enjoying this until Logan botched his comeback sequence and the bout fell apart at the seams. Still better than a lot of Maurice's Brody stuff, though. Jackie Turpin vs. Lucky Gordon (10/16/85) Short three session contest. I'm beginning to appreciate Lucky Gordon in his JTTS role. Here he got to shine a bit more because Turpin had fallen even further down the pecking order than Gordon. Some great facials and nice timing on his moves. Turpin also provided some nice moments even if the promoters had given up on him. Too bad the time keeper and ring announcer were all at sea. They couldn't keep a handle on how many public warnings had been issued and who won the bout, and Crabtree was grinning like a dipshit after awarding the bout to Gordon by mistake. Given how much Walton hated mistakes, he must have had his hackles up over that one.

Since I liked the Taue/Hansen match so much, I decided to watch some of their other work. I enjoyed their 1992 Triple Crown match. It's a clear attempt at a back and forth title match, and by those standards it doesn't live up to other matches of its type, but as a Hansen/Taue match it's perfectly satisfying. I like watching Hansen match up with a legitimate heavyweight and again Taue brought an element of sumo brawling that I dug. Taue was probably a bit too limited to work the type of match Hansen laid out for him here, and at times it felt like Hansen was over compensating for Taue's lack of precision, but when they got the basic hoss stuff right it clicked. There was one clanger that threatened to wipe out everything they'd done when Taue botched a bulldog, but they got back on an even keel and Hansen put together a decent finishing sequence. Not a match I'd recommend unless you're interested in Taue/Hansen, but an interesting study case if you are.

I'd recommend the two Leilani Kai matches, as well as the Hokuto match. Some of this stuff may have disappeared from YT recently.