ohtani's jacket

That Baba vs. Fritz match from '75 may be the most minimalist bout I've seen. It's built entirely around Baba's chop vs. Fritz' claw, and features two refs at ringside doing synchronized counting, one in red and the other in blue, which is odd enough in itself. But it's a pretty good bout, especially due to Fritz' cut, which leads to a lot of blood smeared chops. Fritz took a fair old beating. I wasn't expecting him to actually stay down, but he did, and Baba was declared the winner. Or outlasted him, as the case may be. Would have liked to have seen the stomach claw applied on Baba during the bout instead of post-match. That would have made for the one dramatic note the bout needed to make it less conceptual, but it was an interesting bout nonetheless.

He's more kinetic than anyone in the era he worked. He wrestles like he's on speed. The thing is, it's not entirely a work. Apparently, he was a terror to work with. Regal talks about thumbs to the eye and all sorts of accidental injuries from working Rocco's breakneck style.

Fritz vs. Baba was a fun match, but I don't think any of Fritz' kids had the look and build to be a heel the way Fritz was, and it as far easier to get over as a German heel in the 60s than it was the 80s. The exception was David, who was the overly aggressive as a babyface and would have made a great heel. Incidentally, does Fritz have the most gravelly voice ever? It sounds like he swallowed a cement mixer. I swear they used after effects on it.

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Isao Takagi (1/28/90) I'm not sure if this was the bout Jetlag was referring to, but I figure it must be since after Tenryu recovered from Takagi's initial attempt at creating a surprise upset, he dishes out a pretty Tenryu-esque beating. As with other bouts this length, Tenryu gave his opponent a ton of offence rather than drawing out his squash of said wrestler. Whether that's a good thing or not, I'm not sure. He grabbed for the chair here ,but at least he used it with some conviction. Takagi didn't look great on attack, which kind of defied the purpose of the bout, but at least this showed that Tenryu's crankiness was brewing as early as 1990.

I watched those matches last year or the year before. I enjoyed the series overall, but the law of diminishing returns began to apply. I guess I could watch them again with a view to how much Tenryu contributed.

The thing I love most about that McHoy match was that it was supposed to be Rocco vs. Kung Fu at the Royal Albet Hall, which was pretty much Dale Martin's equivalent of running the Garden. They even ran an angle for it on TV, which they hardly ever did. Then Kung Fu left them high and dry and Rocco has a catch weight with a guy nobody had even heard of and tears the place down. That really changed my opinion of Rocco. The Kung Fu bout that finally came about I'm Reslo is outstanding as well and a bout you should check out. Let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to rip.

Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Killer Khan & Riki Choshu (8/2/85) This was an absolute mess of a bout structurally, but it did put over the fact that just about anything could happen when Ishingun were involved. Jumbo just got destroyed here. He was bleeding heavily, had damage to his knee and elbow and was laid out about as badly as a Japanese ace is ever laid out. I surprised to see him put over Ishingun to that extent then he turned around and submitted to Hansen at the end of the month .August of '85 was a rough month for Jumbo Tsuruta. Those were some heavy looking kneedrops from Killer Khan. That had to have been at least 120 kg coming down on Jumbo's elbow and knee. Early on, Jumbo was doing his "my pace" bullshit while everyone else was looking to sprint, and everything after that was a chaotic blend of Riki Choshu's strong style and Killer Khan's more American flavoured brawling, but you can't really quibble with the beating Jumbo took. These matches are having less and less to do with Tenryu, however, so I think I'll wrap things up shortly.

He hit a backdrop suplex, a butterfly suplex and a gut wrench suplex in succession before turning another butterfly suplex atttempt into a submission. Are you telling me those throws wouldn't win a fall in a regular two out of three falls contest?

Terry Funk vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (4/4/80) Some boring headlock work from Jumbo to start with. For a guy who was an Olympian, Jumbo sure doesn't show much on the mat. Part of that was the house style, and part of it was the fact that the old-school mentality saw the side headlock as a solid base to work from. Jumbo looked really awkward transitioning from the headlock to the rope running. Way too early for an airplane spin, and Jumbo's back drop suplex? For a style that's often held up as the pinnacle of logic in wrestling, it sure could be spotty at times. Jumbo rips through a bunch of offence that would finish most falls in a bout during this era then slaps on a submission that wouldn't. Jumbo dicks around for a bit and then they don't show the strikes that let Terry transition back onto offence. They sounded good, though. Terry manages to somehow sell, set up a hold, fight through Jumbo's counter attempts, sell a bit more, signal to the crowd his intention, and out class Jumbo all at the same time. In defence of both guys, they just announced that 20 minutes had passed and we'd only seen 3/4 of that. Terry working Jumbo's foot in anticipation of the spinning toe hold was way more compelling than anything Tsuruta had done so far, and the escape was the highlight of the match to date. Now here's where it gets cool from a theoretical standpoint: the chop battle was cool, but Terry's selling would be ridiculed if it were any other worker. I didn't mind the circling jog from Jumbo's initial strike as it was reminiscent of Fujiwara, but the theatrical bump to the outside was over the top. How Terry survived two piledrivers, three elbow drops and a backbreaker in this era, I'll never know. Maybe he was on something. Terry's selling is unquestionably great. It looks like he's sucking in a breath every time he hits a move and when he headbutts Jumbo he sells the impact each and every time. The dropkick on the outside is a great moment and Terry sells the excursion beautifully. When he goes for a second one and misses it, everyone from the commentator to the crowd are in tune with the moment. And to be fair, from there they do their best to make the final minutes exciting. The duel brainbusters would be death in other eras and don'r really transition well into a punching exchange, but the crowd bite on a sunset flip attempt and Funk's double arm suplex. Some weird convulsive selling by Jumbo yet he has the stamina to reverse another double arm suplex into a backslide. The bell rings and they scrap a bit. The post-match is cool as they look like they could go another 10 rounds, which they probably could since no-one landed a decisive blow. Do I think this was an all-time classic? No. Do I think this was a great bout? Nope. Do I think it was an effective league bout? Yep. *** at tops.

Buddy Rogers vs. Pat O'Connor (6/30/61) Finally got around to watching this nearly two years after I started the thread. This had a heck of a lot more action than I was expecting. The first fall in particular was frenetic by the standards I was expecting. I loved the psychology of Rogers taking the first fall completely against the run of play. I would have liked to have seen him press his advantage a bit more during the second fall, but I'm not that familiar with him as a worker and don't know how much offence he had. O'Connor completely dominated the bout offensively .I'm not sure if that's because Rogers was going over, or because Rogers was the bumping, stooging type with little in the way of serious offence, but it as notable that he took the title on another mistake from O'Connor. I'm guessing that was Rogers' style and that dominant babyface champions were common back then. There was too much dissonance between the psychology in the first fall and the rest of the bout for me to view it as an all-time classic, and I would have liked to have seen a proper heat segment on O'Connor instead of Rogers backpedaling the entire match, but there was never a dull moment and it was a thoroughly entertaining bout in terms of the pace they set and the action that was delivered. Great promo by Rogers afterward.

THE ARTHUR PSYCHO HOUR Ep 24 Can't believe I've watched 24 hours of this stuff. Kung Fu vs. Johnny Palance (Unknown location, taped 1985) It's everyone's favourite Jack Palance look-alike. He wrestled a smart match from his point of view, looking to keep Kung Fu grounded and prevent him from running the ropes too much. But it wasn't very exciting for the audience, most of whom wanted to see Kung Fu fly about. Kung Fu never really cut loose, and the match never went anywhere as a result. John Quinn vs. Steve Taylor (Unknown location, taped 1983) John Quinn was a smart worker. He knew exactly how a big man should work both on offence and when selling, and was able to blur the lines between all-in wrestling and freestyle rules thanks to his extensive experience in UK rings. Probably the last of the great visiting wrestlers. He was hurt a bit by being off TV as he had such a great television gimmick, but pacing Steve Taylor through a decent contest showed his ring work had gotten even better in All-Star. Mal Sanders, Lucky Gordon & Steve Peacock vs. Clive Myers, Mick McMichael & Young David (2/2/81) British workers were hopeless at six-man tags, but this is one of the better ones I've seen. That surprised me as it didn't look that good on paper. McMichael played the veteran ring general and threw his weight around a lot; Gordon and Peacock did an excellent job stooging for the athleticism of Myers and Young David; and blue-eye Sanders not wanting to be on the same team as the heels made for an interesting wrinkle. At just over 10 minutes it didn't outstay its welcome and was a lot snappier than these Davis Cup-like six-mans usually are. Thumbs up all round. Shaun South vs. Patrick Lopez (Merthyr, taped 2/4/92) South gave rugby man Lopez the "up yours" to start with. Plenty of stalling again, but South was having none of that and spent most of the bout beating the snot out of Lopez. For some reason there was a chain and handcuffs hanging over the turnbuckle since that's a good place to leave them, and after a brief comeback from Lopez, South thought "stuff the purse" and got himself DQ'd for using the chain then bodyslamming Lopez on it. Needless to say, not much of a match.

Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs. Stan Hansen & Ted Dibiase (8/31/85) This was a solid match. It was a bit heatless at first due to Ted not being a known quantity, but as soon as Jumbo began charging about the crowd came to life. Really clever finish to have Hansen and Dibiase target the arm damage caused by Jumbo clotheslining Ted. Ripping off the elbow protector and targeting the arm made for some great visuals, and to my great surprise they went all the way with it w/ Jumbo actually submitting from the damage that had been inflicted. He took forever to submit, and I was worried that Tenryu would break it up or Hansen would grow frustrated and get himself DQ'ed, but he finally submitted. It was a few beats too long, but guys almost never submit in Japan, and that sort of situation is almost always a "nearfall," so to speak, or a teased finish, so it was cool to see it actually come off and end a match. Certainly made it more memorable than it would have been with a count out or DQ.

I said long tag matches.

I haven't been checking the match times so some of the matches may be longer or shorter than they seem, but to me the matches where Tenryu tagged with Kawada were far more enjoyable than the more important tag league or championship bouts because they had a tighter narrative structure. It may be an issue of scope rather than length, and hierarchy has a part to play in it too as it's easier to work traditional narratives when there's a junior partner involved, but I'd classify 25 minutes plus as going long in this style. The way I see it, because the matches don't have a Southern style FIP structure, and mat work is practically non-existent by this point, it's difficult to fill in the opening portions. There's a lot of back and forth until it's time to hit the stretch run, but the moves they use would be reserved for the finishing stretch in most Southern style tags. That invariably leads to a game of "can you top this?" which becomes repetitive after a while. The benefit of a shorter match is that you can shorten the opening stanzas and get to the stretch run sooner. The only way to really make a longer match compelling is to have a killer hook, but nine times out of ten the hook is one of the wrestlers violently attacking the other and you can't throw those shock tactics out in every match. You could maybe argue that All Japan tags have a slow build to a hot finishing stretch, but I'd argue with the 'build' part. I haven't watched 6/9/95 and 12/6/96 in donkey's years, but I don't remember liking them any less the last time I saw them. I have no use whatsoever for the hour long matches they were having in the 90s, though. An hour long tag is an abomination as far as I'm concerned. They shouldn't happen, ever. I don't have a favourite AJPW tag off the top of my head. As for whether it was always the case, if you encouraged me to watch a long ass Baba/Jumbo vs. Funks tag, I can't imagine that being enticing.

The All Japan style, though to be fair it's a criticism that could be extended to most Japanese promotions. Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu (8/30/88) Rare to see the same match-up two nights in a row. I thought this had a much better beginning, focusing initially on the animosity between Jumbo and Tenryu and then on Tenryu and Hara trying to re-injure Jumbo's knee from the night before. You could possibly argue that Jumbo blew off the knee work a bit, but I thought he brought a high level of intensity to the bout and was involved in a number of clever payback spots. The transitions were really good and usually involved some form of stiff lariat or uppercut shot, and I also thought the nearfalls were effectively spaced both off the Yatsu german and the Tenryu powerbomb. Even more impressive was the fact that Tenryu using a table to attack Jumbo with, and Jumbo retaliating by throwing him over the barricade and using some plunder of his own, came across as being "in the moment" and not the forced momentum lifter it often is in these bouts. The match seemed to flow better, and I wasn't aware of how much time had elapsed when the ring announcer called 10 minutes then 20 minutes. There was a problem, however, with the phantom three count that occurred around the 25 minute mark. I didn't bother checking, but I suspect it was botched somehow. Sometimes that type of confusion can add to the drama, but here it took the wind out of their sails a bit. I also thought they leant a bit too heavily on the All Japan trope of partners saving each other from being pinned; to the extent that Hara wouldn't leave the friggin' ring. I was getting annoyed at Wada for not forcing him back to his corner, and I wasn't sure how I felt about the sandwich pin at the end. The sympathy for Tenryu was amazing, and man did Jumbo suplex him out of his boots. It was interesting to see Hara do the Kobashi spot from 6/9/95 and throw himself over his partner, but the sandwich pin felt a bit bush league. That's the kind of finish you'd expect to see in a comedy match or some squash match, not in a world title match. Other than that it was an excellent match and clearly better than the night before. No surprise then that it finished lower in the DVDVR voting than 8/29.

Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu (8/29/88) The first half of this seemed pointless to me. There was no direction, no narrative, and no real flow to it. Neither side seized the momentum, there was no discernible strategy, and no hook. It wasn't until Jumbo injured his knee that the match took any shape and that was almost 20 minutes into the bout. The stretch run was a mess as well. Guys kept tagging in and out instead of the obvious trope of Jumbo being cut off from Yatsu. They ran with it at first, then Jumbo tagged in Yatsu, and he had an incredibly awkward exchange with Hara. That killed the momentum so they switched back to Jumbo in jeopardy with Yatsu taken out on the outside with a power bomb Tenryu was unable to execute properly. Jumbo couldn't find his partner when he crawled back to his corner, but instead of a pay off, he went on the offensive for the remainder of the finishing stretch. Tenryu clipped Jumbo's knee to finish the bout, but they went with a small package reversal which is an ugly visual for guys as cumbersome as this. It worked in the sense that both guys were desperate and had thrown everything they had at each other, but wasn't a satisfactory pay off for the only point of story the bout had. This had the heat you'd expect from an All Japan tag, but not the crescendo. Hara's hair was amazing, though, and he it was weird seeing him mobile and actually trying to wrestle. Yatsu was weak, though. Often it felt like he and Jumbo were wrestling different matches given the contrast each time they tagged in. Tenryu wasn't really clear in what he was doing either. Long tags have never been this style's forte, IMO.

Wow, I had no idea about that.

Baby Jesus just cried.

I don't think so. There were three Jones vs. Rocco matches that aired on The Wrestling Channel. One from '76 and two from '78. Two were available online and the third I had to custom order. I can rip the third one for you if you like.

'74? What match is that?

I hate to be a killjoy, but it's probably in that giant warehouse where they keep all the props from previous PPVs.

This was a nice rib. Unfortunately, I don't think there's enough van Buyten on tape for him to make it, but a great worker. I'd have him in my top 10 Euro guys for the 80s without hesitation.

THE ARTHUR PSYCHO HOUR Ep 23 Kevin Conneely vs. Carl Jason (Aberystwyth, taped 1983) One of the strangest things about this Reslo footage is seeing Irish comedy worker Kevin Conneely appear on TV a good six or seven years after he was last on World of Sport. Apparently, he jumped to All-Star at some point; and since most of Dixon's guys worked for Reslo at some point or another, here he is. He was more or less the Irish version of Les Kellett and cracked jokes the entire bout long. Allegedly, he was tough as nails and a legit shooter, but you'd never know it watching his bouts as he didn't have that hard edge that Kellett possessed. I don't think the Welsh crowd got his humour as much as the English halls did, or perhaps they didn't enjoy it as much. I can't imagine it came across that well on commentary either, as Walton was always on hand to explain some banter Conneely was having with the audience whereas the Reslo commentary was in Welsh. Anyway, Conneely's bouts were rarely as good as Kellett's; and while I enjoyed Carl Jason in his bout with Jackie Robinson, he was the butt of Conneely's jokes here and it's difficult to shine in that sort of role. Giant Haystacks vs. Rory Campbell (11/25/87) Giant Haystacks vs. Rory Campbell (10/20/90) A pair of Haystacks matches. Rory Campbell was 6'4 and 16 or 17 stone but looked about half the size of Haystacks, who was being billed as 45 stone at this point. The first match was Campbell's television and the crowd had no idea who he was. Haystacks threw him about for a bit in a heatless bout before getting on the mic and screaming; "I told you, no more Mr. Nice Guy!" I didn't realise he'd been playing nice. The second bout was filmed in Aberdeen, Scotland after wrestling had gone off the air, and featured dubbed in Walton commentary that Arthur Psycho quipped sounded like he was covering snooker. All the crowd wanted was for Scotsman Rory Campbell to knock Haystacks on his arse, but the fucker wouldn't go down for anything, not even in Aberdeen. That was bullshit, I thought. Steve Taylor vs. Beau Jack Rowlands (Merthyr, taped 1983) Steve Taylor was the brother of Dave Taylor, but very much the Ross Hart of the family. Okay, maybe not that bad, but this went a good 15 minutes and I can't remember him doing anything special. There wasn't a single hold or move that looked snug or was especially well executed, and Reslo didn't shy away from using injury finishes either, which made this seem like an even bigger waste of time. You really want the brother of Dave Taylor to be some lost great worker, but it ain't happening folks.

Breaks at 11 is really high considering you haven't fully dived into his work.

Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada (9/3/89 TV) Highly enjoyable bout. It was full of just about every All Japan trope you could imagine, but they were well executed, and in essence I suppose the reason they became tropes is because they worked so well. Tenryu vs. Jumbo really is one of the all-time great in-ring feuds. I'm leaning toward it being Tenryu's best rivalry, even better than his work with Hashimoto. This is the perfect bout to watch if you want something easily digestible as opposed to that all-out effort at an epic I watched the other day. Giant Baba, Rusher Kimura & Masa Fuchi vs. Genichiro Tenryu, Toshiaki Kawada & Ricky Fuyuki (9/24/89 TV) This was part of month long celebrations for Baba's 30th anniversary. I believe it was commemorated at the 9/2 Budokan show and again at this Korakuen Hall show. Then they celebrated it again the following year. Baba made his debut on 9/30/60, so at first I thought they were using the Asian custom of counting the first year as 1, but Inoki made his debut on the same day and held his anniversary celebrations in 1990. Baba held an anniversary show on the same day as Inoki, so either he was trying to save face, fucked up the previous year, or was milking it for more money. Anyway, since it was his anniversary, the commentary was dominated by useless facts about Baba -- favourite foods, favourite drinks, etc. Seventeen minutes had gone by without much excitement then Tenryu picked up a chair and attacked Fuchi for no real reason. I guess he thought he needed to make something happen, but the random chair spot was a bad habit of his. The stretch run had its moments, but wasn't worth sitting through the full match for. Would have been better as a clipped TV match. Baba looked better than in the tag match, but I can't take Rusher Kimura seriously when he looks like a dude who should be preparing my dinner. Tenryu worked hard, but Footloose didn't look great and Fuchi was underwhelming.