ohtani's jacket

The 6/14 Hashimoto/Ohara vs.Tenryu/Ishikawa match is another fun handheld. It was basically designed to ratchet up the heat between Hashimoto and Tenryu, which was this festering boil of animosity. Hashimoto lifted his intensity to the next level and I thought it was the best he's looked to date. The other two were punching bags and mostly ignored as Tenryu and Hashimoto kept having a go at each other even when they weren't in the ring together, but they played their roles effectively. Tenryu squaring Ohara up after the bout and punching him for no good reason was a dick move out of the top drawer. His mannerisms in this were great, as you'd expect from a Tenryu match that was all about heat.

John Cena vs. Kevin Owens (5/31/15) I ended up watching this three times, and I've got to say it was much better without commentary. I can't stand the way the WWE commentators step on each other's toes all the time and Layfield peeved me off by claiming that Magic and Bird were already in the NBA while Dr J was playing for the ABA. Also that NBA Countdown style panel the Network has where the wrestler's mimic the same intonation as those ESPN crews is hokey as shit. This was the first time for me to see Owens wrestler so I had absolutely no basis of comparison. At first I thought he was weak on the mic, but his understated delivery grew on me and I dig his accent. The early beat down stuff was pretty generic. It wasn't bad, but there was no hook and it didn't relate to the rest of the match. As soon as Cena mounted his comeback it turned into a back and forward finishers battle with not much in the way of a middle (more of a bridge from the early wear down stuff to the kick outs and near falls.) Owens didn't really brawl as such, but the commentators kept putting over his fighting gimmick so I thought he could have been a bit more aggressive. Cena has some of the worst transitions of any major wrestler I can think of. I don't get how a guy who works such a choreographed style can have such terrible transitions. He also has poor punches, awful moves (like the springboard stunner and that shoulder tackle thing), can't sell very well and has poor pacing and sense of building from one section of a match to another, but it's those transitions that get me. The shuffle step he took after the missed moonsault was the most glaring, but there were two or three other transitions where he "wrote him a letter" as Kent Walton would say. And that's on top of the audible spot calling. I did like the finishing stretch and I thought Cena's first lariat was the best part of the match (especially on the replay), but the finish was weak. I get that they wanted it to be flukey, but I'm a firm believer in escalating near falls and ending a match on the right beat and that wasn't the right beat. In fact, the counter of the superplex probably would have been a better finish even though it didn't involve what I suppose is meant to be Owens' signature move. Or they could have just gone a few more beats instead of having it come after a string of hotter moves. Some of Owens' hybrid Dick Togo/Vader moveset is cool, and I guess his performance was better than Cena's as I don't think Cena was all that good in this bout. Overall, the bout was okay as the first match in a three match mini-program, though at the risk of upsetting people even more, it seems to me that people add a lot more to the narrative than the wrestlers or commentators provide as this really felt like a fair simply May to July mini feud and not overly important in the career of John Cena. But maybe it takes a further turn with Cena's reaction to the loss. I'd go about ** 3/4 stars on this.

I don't know how they rate as Match of the Year contenders, but here are the World of Sport matches I liked: Kung Fu vs. Mick McManus (4/21/76) Zoltan Boscik vs. Steve Grey (aired 5/8/76) Steve Veidor vs. Gwyn Davies (5/26/76) Mark Rocco vs. Marty Jones (6/30/76) Terry Rudge vs. Marty Jones (11/30/76) Zoltan Boscik vs. Alan Sarjeant (12/29/76)

It's fair to say that I like lucha matwork. My only problem with lucha matwork is that there isn't more of it. Lucha matwork is a style of matwork much like European style matwork, shoot style, submission wrestling, amateur wrestling, NWA heavyweight mat wrestling, good old regular pro-wrestling matwork, and so on. It's possible to like one style more than another, or like one style of mat wrestling and not another. I know you're finicky about what you like in your matwork (or should I say particular) and firm in your convictions, but when you're dealing with a particular strand of matwork, you have to appreciate that there are inbuilt expectations that may differ from you'd personally like to see. When I watch lucha matwork, I want to see different things from different workers. I want to see some guys work tough gritty mat contests and some guys work surrealist masterpieces that don't look like anything else in pro-wrestling. The very best guys can do both. Matwork that may look lame to you meets my expectations. Dandy vs. Azteca met a lot of people's expectations. Most people have praised it for its execution and enjoyed whatever tropes it contains; but really the point isn't whether you like the trope or not, it's whether the trope was well executed in the first place. If you time code the limbwork you're talking about on YouTube, I will check it and decide whether I think it's poor or not; but I don't think you can say just because you've watched a lot of pro-wrestling that everything about the match is obvious or apparent. The only way you can learn about a style is by watching as much of that style as possible, making assumptions and getting things wrong and learning through those mistakes. Writing things off on the basis that it didn't look like something familiar to you is unfortunate. Writing things off because they don't stack up to other examples is unfortunate. Like the Dandy/Satanico, Tully/Magnum thing... why should Dandy hate Satanico as much as Magnum hated Tully? There is no basis for such a comparison. Anyway, no-one is going to as you to invest anymore time in lucha than you would jazz at this stage, but telling a lucha fan that Dandy/Azteca is crap is like telling a jazz fan that a great jazz lp is crap. Do you have the grounds to really say so? Generally, people ignore what they're not interested in. Writing off an entire genre in a more verbose way -- while a natural thing for many of us to do -- is an annoying thing for its fans if it doesn't seem like you really made an effort to understand it. Especially, a genre that has always suffered from stereotypes and lazy criticisms. Maybe I'm being overly protective of my beloved lucha, but matwork that doesn't look like it hurts etc is a craw in any true lucha fan's side. But please time code it because it may not actually look good.

Only one person said anything about your views on Dandy/Azteca and that was me. Subjectivity isn't an excuse for unfounded criticisms.

That may have been the case pre-network, but I cannot see how MITB 2015 was one of the biggest shows of the year.

It's a glorified In Your House. Not in the present day where every PPV/special event is pushed as important. Two weeks after the last special event? Cena sure learns new moves quickly. Maybe that was the narrative behind the botch. He hasn't had time to master the all-important Code Red yet.

It's a glorified In Your House.

Why is this one particular guy forcing John Cena to change his game plan? Because he beat him? Is this supposed to have been built to in a meaningful way? In a year's time when people are complaining about the way they company have handled Owens and the whole thing is a flash in the pan are people still going to say it as a strong narrative? Maybe it's good TV on a week-to-week basis. I don't know. I was kind of asking for an explanation how it's different from Cena vs. Wyatt or Cena vs. Rusev, since you'd think (or hope) that Cena having to bust out new moves would be a bit more memorable than a string of B show matches, but I'm not pretending to be in the loop.

He's an indy guy who went through development, isn't he? Money in the Bank is a B-show.

Why does Cena need to bust out a new move to handle a repackaged Indy guy on a WWE B show? I don't get it. It's like fan fiction or something. Shouldn't that kind of thing happen on a bigger show or am I hopelessly out of touch? Or he just used a different move and people are overreacting from all corners?

THE ARTHUR PSYCHO HOUR Ep 10 Dave Finlay vs. Masakatsu Funaki (Caernarfon, taped 3/14/89) Y'know who I'm sick of? Dave "Fit" Finlay, that's who. Just wrestle the man, Finlay. Now Masakatsu Funaki was the man in my eyes, but here he was doing all sorts of flippy juniors shit. Even so, he trounced Finlay with his athleticism here. Maybe pre-Paula Finlay could have hung with Funaki, but not the sluggish four-leaf clover version. Boston Blackie & Robbie Brookside vs. Giant Haystacks & Johnny South (Denbigh, taped 1988) For some reason, Johnny South was going by the name Shaun at this point. Fun match if for no other reason than the Welsh fans giving South the fingers when he spilled out to the floor and the local kids being simultaneously in awe of Haystacks and riding their luck with their shit talking. Haystacks in Wales is this mini-novelty like Andre in Japan. The faces plugged into a Haystacks match pretty well and South was a decent workhorse. Plenty of worse Reslo bouts than this. Dave Taylor vs. Tony St. Clair (Corwen, taped 4/5/89) Again these two locked up in a manner reminiscent of the very best of British heavyweight wrestling and the last vestige of everything that was great about the style. And again Reslo edited it down into what amounted to a highlights package; but even in the form it was shown in, this was one for the Greatest Hits package, and Taylor working the way you want to see Dave Taylor work in a British heavyweight setting. I don't think anyone's keeping check at home, but if you are, all St. Clair vs. Taylor matches are worth watching for interest's sake if nothing else. Ritchie Brooks vs. Mongolian Mauler (Corwen, taped 4/7/90) Just looking at the name Mongolian Mauler tells me I would have been better off skipping this one, but I wanna give everyone at least one chance. Still, unless you're Killer Khan nothing good comes from a name like the Mongolian Mauler. Especially against Richie "the Yanks can take our TV spot, but they'll never outgrow our mullets" Brooks. Sandy Scott vs. Steve Adonis (8/24/88) Steve Adonis was a new blonde sensation from the US who attracted a lot of attention from an admiring Kent Walton. In fact, you might say that Walton was as fixated on Adonis as those YouTubers who are into wrestling men. I recently got sent some samples of original ITV stuff a guy had bought from the broadcaster and you get the lead-in to all of the tapings. Walton can be heard on camera making a snarky remark about some Christmas cards members of the audience had given him or he had received in the post or something. I always wondered if there was a dark side to Kent where he secretly had contempt for the audience. Anyway, Sandy Scott had borrowed Bobby Eaton's wardrobe for this and that was about the best thing about is late period worthlessness.

This was more pragmatic than their first encounter, but although it was less sloppy, it took a long time for the hook to come. It wasn't until Choshu hit the superplex and followed it up with the diving knee to the head that I really got into this and that was late in the match. The stretch run had plenty of bombs, but Tenryu's execution on his enzuiguri, powerbomb and diving back elbow was poor. I've really enjoyed Tenryu in these matches, but he keeps flubbing those big moments. The powerbomb he can kind of get away with because of fatigue and Choshu's weight, and he was still selling the head knock from earlier, but Choshu's execution down the stretch was markedly better and that's crucial in a match like this where it's two big lugs duking it out. Choshu didn't really give him that much, either. It looked as though Tenryu was going to reopen the cut at once stage, but I guess Choshu didn't feel like bleeding. He didn't rub Tenryu out, but he was owed a win and set about collecting. It was pretty emphatic considering the build, but that's politics for you I suppose.

This was more pragmatic than their first encounter, but although it was less sloppy, it took a long time for the hook to come. It wasn't until Choshu hit the superplex and followed it up with the diving knee to the head that I really got into this and that was late in the match. The stretch run had plenty of bombs, but Tenryu's execution on his enzuiguri, powerbomb and diving back elbow drop was poor. I've really enjoyed Tenryu in these matches, but he keeps flubbing those big moments. The powerbomb he can kind of get away with because of fatigue and Choshu's weight, and he was still selling the head knock from earlier, but Choshu's execution down the stretch was markedly better and that's crucial in a match like this where it's two big lugs duking it out. Choshu didn't really give him that much, either. It looked as though Tenryu was going to reopen the cut at once stage, but I guess Choshu didn't feel like bleeding. He didn't rub Tenryu out, but he was owed a win and set about collecting. It was pretty emphatic considering the build, but that's politics for you I suppose.

Okay, this was about as awesome as it possibly could be. Tenryu and Hashimoto squared off exactly as you would expect and their exchanges gradually build from violent stares to nose busting strikes. I love the way Tenryu busts a guy open by just kicking away at an eye or a nose. The fact that both Choshu *and* Hashimoto ended up bleeding here was beautiful. The hot tag to Hashimoto where he unloaded on Tenryu was beautiful. And Tenryu beating on Choshu mercilessly while Hashimoto got the pin on Ishikawa was beautiful. Tenryu going after Hashimoto after the bell, shitty talking them on the mic and throwing the microphone at Choshu's face made this a hell of a lead-in to the Choshu rematch. This was another case where Tenryu seemed overwhelmed by the odds (Hashimoto and Choshu?), but didn't give a shit. I liked this a lot as a lead-in bout.

This was fairly simple, but you expect that from a house show match. There were some resoundingly big chopping sounds throughout, and the fans were into the finishing stretch in a big way, but nothing special otherwise. This was a classic 5 on 5 New Japan tag, albeit 2/3 falls instead of elimination, and the first match that looked comparable with the contemporary style in Japan at the time as seen in high end All Japan and Joshi tags. I guess it's a conservative opinion but I preferred this to the faux Memphis brawls they were having in 1992. I also liked the booking of Choshu in this even if it stopped the bout from being an outright classic. Tenryu's side looked hopeless outmatched during the intros. Again it was though he'd brought his poker buddies to the fight; or gotten a few of the dads together to help their sons take on the school from the next district. Hara, in particular, looks like he was right at home behind the BBQ grill before Tenryu enlisted him to take up the fight. WAR punches above their weight in this and it's cool to watch. Okay, this was about as awesome as it possibly could be. Tenryu and Hashimoto squared off exactly as you would expect and their exchanges gradually build from violent stares to nose busting strikes. I love the way Tenryu busts a guy open by just kicking away at an eye or a nose. The fact that both Choshu *and* Hashimoto ended up bleeding here was beautiful. The hot tag to Hashimoto where he unloaded on Tenryu was beautiful. And Tenryu beating on Choshu mercilessly while Hashimoto got the pin on Ishikawa was beautiful. Tenryu going after Hashimoto after the bell, shitty talking them on the mic and throwing the microphone at Choshu's face made this a hell of a lead-in to the Choshu rematch. This was another case where Tenryu seemed overwhelmed by the odds (Hashimoto and Choshu?), but didn't give a shit. I liked this a lot as a lead-in bout.

Wild Man of Borneo & Steve Haggerty vs. Ray Hunter & Al Hayes (Paul Lincoln Promotions 1960s) This was a transfer of an old 8mm Walton Films print presumably from the mid-60s. Unfortunately, whoever did the transfer didn't match the frame rate and the playback is slow. Nevertheless, it's a valuable piece of footage that shows not only the Wild Man of Borneo on tape, but also a look at a young Alfred Hayes and a spry Max Ward. People who think Bárbaro Cavernario does a good job of playing a caveman really ought to check out the Wild Man as he's pretty much the Captain Caveman of caveman gimmick wrestlers. He was a lot smaller than I expected (probably a middleweight by the looks of it) and pretty quick. His offence was obviously designed to match his character, but I liked his rolling bumps. Part of his gimmick was that no-one had ever seen his face so he wrestled with his hair covering his eyes and every time he'd bump you'd get this tiny glimpse of his face, which was neat. Hayes didn't show a heck of a lot of fire as a blue eye, but the tag structure was fortunately better than a lot of the World of Sport stuff. Not as good as the catch matches from the same era, but much clearer tag psychology and a fun bout. There's a short silent version on YouTube, but I have a longer sound version.

Have you seen this, TIm? It degenerates into a cheap brawl like a lot of Tijuana/Monterrey stuff, and Katana is a ridiculous gimmick for Leon Chino, but the first Santo vs. Espanto exchange is quality.

I've seen a few matches of him as a kid. Too young to pass any judgement on.

People keep mentioning how it took Michaels a while to click as a singles wrestler, but both Austin and the guys he worked with are forever mentioning how he was like a chicken with its head cut off for much of the 90s.

Depends what you classify as their start, I guess.

Apparently, Onita was working in the construction industry as a labourer before he got the JWP gig. I think he also had a stint as a delivery man. Shinma Sr wasn't directly involved with the management of Hamada's UWF, but his finger prints were all over it. If you combine JWP, FMW and Hamada's UWF, you'd get Shinma's vision for what his second UWF would have been like. The original JWP's history is quite interesting.

There's a bit of info in the Observer recap forum. WON 11/28/88 WON 12/12/88

They say people die in threes, but Christopher Lee, Dusty Rhodes and Ornette Coleman is one foul swoop. Maybe I'll play some Dusty Rhodes promos over the top of Dracula while listening to some jazz.

The origins of Hamada's UWF are a bit complicated. Hamada had been working as a referee and trainer for the original JWP The promotion was on the bones of its ass and management had begun working with Hisashi Shinma to transition the group from a women's wrestling group to something similar to the original UWF with a mixed roster and different styles of wrestling. Onita was working for the promotion as a sales rep to pay back some debt on a failed business venture, and they ran an angle which was supposed to lead to a Hamada vs. Onita fight, but the crowd reacted negatively and I believe the JWP girls opposed the idea as well. Onita left and formed FMW while Hamada worked with Shinma's son, an advertising industry guy, to found the UWF. I believe the name is in reference to pop's breakaway promotion, which Hamada worked for as its leading lightweight star. Hamada's UWF started the careers of Ultimo Dragon, Gado and Jado, and all of the M-Pro guys. The latter spun off and created M-Pro in 1993 while the former jumped to WAR.