ohtani's jacket

It did get a lot of praise in the Yearbook thread. But it needs wider acknowledgement.

Here we go, the end of the road as far as it goes with Ditch's hosting. I kicked back and enjoyed this with a beer. Why don't people talk about this more? Everyone talks about the 8/93 bout, but you never hear anything about this. The commentator made a big deal out of it being a special non-title match at first, which was kind of annoying, but everything from the stomach kick onward was amazing. Tenryu going into the tsupari attack and drawing a little blood hard way and Hashimoto countering with the enzuigiri over the top of Tiger Hattori's head was amazing. The crowd picked up on the lift in intensity and responded with a huge chant. From that point on, the match was on a knife's edge. When Hashimoto countered with that gut wrench suplex, I may as well have been there in the building in 1994. I'm so glad I watched this so close to the anniversary of Hashimoto's death. Even if this was non-title, after two losses to Tenryu it validated Hashimoto's claim to the ace position and the emotion was palpable after the pin and during the post-match promo. The stretch run was the stuff of dreams and the selling was sublime. Nearfalls and delayed selling can be manipulative when you don't bite on them and there's nothing at stake for you, but with a bit of lubricant and the desire to be drawn in they are as fresh as the day this was wrestled. Maybe I'd feel different about this if I wasn't half-cut, but I can't understand why this isn't talked about more in terms of blowoffs.

Here we go, the end of the road as far as it goes with Ditch's hosting. I kicked back and enjoyed this with a beer. Why don't people talk about this more? Everyone talks about the 8/93 bout, but you never hear anything about this. The commentator made a big deal out of it being a special non-title match at first, which was kind of annoying, but everything from the stomach kick onward was amazing. Tenryu going into the tsupari attack and drawing a little blood hard way and Hashimoto countering with the enzuigiri over the top of Tiger Hattori's head was amazing. The crowd picked up on the lift in intensity and responded with a huge chant. From that point on, the match was on a knife's edge. When Hashimoto countered with that gut wrench suplex, I may as well have been there in the building in 1994. I'm so glad I watched this so close to the anniversary of Hashimoto's death. Even if this was non-title, after two losses to Tenryu it validated Hashimoto's claim to the ace position and the emotion was palpable after the pin and during the post-match promo. The stretch run was the stuff of dreams and the selling was sublime. Nearfalls and delayed selling can be manipulative when you don't bite on them and there's nothing at stake for you, but with a bit of lubricant and the desire to be drawn in they are as fresh as the day this was wrestled. Maybe I'd feel different about this if I wasn't half-cut, but I can't understand why this isn't talked about more in terms of blowoffs.

This was probably the weakest of the matches I've watched so far. It wasn't terrible or anything, but if ever there was a match where guys where trying to hit each other as hard as possible without trying to hurt one another than this was it. Kind of pointless to see them fight after watching them go to war~! so often.

I don't get where this higher highs thing is coming from. Feuding with Casas was arguably the high point of Santo's career. Santo was formulaic -- his trios match performances were almost always the same, his apuesta matches were almost always the same and his title matches were almost always the same. His execution was exquisite, and a lot of his signature stuff is breathtaking no matter how many times you've seen it, but with a guy like Santo the highs people are talking about depend a lot on his opponent. Santo is the constant, but the highs come from Brazo de Oro being in there or Espanto Jr. Casas, in his prime, had a hell of rivalry with Ultimo Dragon, and we know how maligned Ultimo is around here. Casas was more creative and the better performer. Santo wrestled behind a mask while Casas was a brilliant actor and highly expressive, so I won't compare their selling other to say that Santo sold extremely well for a masked wrestler. Santo was the better brawler and bleeder. They're about even on the mat (neither are hugely impressive in that regard, IMO.) Casas was legitimately the best guy in Mexico in '92-93 in a promotion that was falling apart whereas there's no period where Santo is clearly the best guy in the country. I have long suspected that Santo's best work was his early 90s UWA stuff, but we only have a small sampling of it. What Casas was doing in CMLL was more impressive to me because the UWA and later AAA were stacked with talent. For longevity, Casas has had the longer TV career and adapted over time to avoid being culled. Santo often looks good when he shows up on tape, but it's the same formula from the past thirty years. I'd take Casas because you know you're getting a more exciting, outrageous performance that could peak at the level of genius whereas with Santo it's more predictable.

THE ARTHUR PSYCHO HOUR Ep 12 Big Daddy & Scott Valentine vs. Dau Dihiryn (Count Von Zuppi & Dr Death) (Newcastle Emlyn, taped 2/5/92) This is the sort of match I ought to skipping, but I felt like I had to watch Daddy weasel his way up North for his one and only appearance on Reslo TV. Rather amazingly, he was 62 years old here. 62 years old! He brought along one of his brother's kids to tag with him and tried to do the whole BD entrance, but it felt flat without "We Shall Not Be Moved" and a fair amount of the crowd thought he was a tosser. Jimmy Ocean vs. Gary Clwyd (Merthyr, taped 2/4/92) Jimmy Ocean is the kind of guy whom I think a lot of folks around here would like. He didn't have a ton of skill, but that didn't stop him from trying to squeeze every last drop out of his gimmick. A weedy little guy, he kind of took Bobby Barnes' post-peroxide blonde gimmick of garish mismatched colours and a Rick Rude moustache and turned it into the story of an ostentatious little man who thinks he's a much better wrestler than he truly is. He had a female valet here and they did a low rent version of Paula and FInlay that was better than Paula and Finlay. ButchReedMark's mate, Glywd, looked a bit green at times and was out of position a lot, but it didn't take away from the fun of Ocean and his skinny valet. Giant Haystacks/King Kong Kirk vs. Marty Jones/Steve Logan (6/24/87) Haystacks matches are generally better than Daddy matches. We established that a long time ago. They could be fairly underwhelming, though. This never really took any shape and the best thing about it was how feral Haystacks was looking. He got on the mic at the end and screamed for them to bring him men not babies. Skull Murphy & Dave Taylor vs. Boston Blackie & Orig Williams (Pontardawe, taped 4/4/89) Orig Williams & Gary Clwyd vs. Skull Murphy & Robbie Hagan (Llantrissant, taped 2/6/91) A couple of Orig Williams tags. I haven't watched that much Williams. As the promoter/focus of the promotion, you desperately want him to be a capable worker in the Colon mold, but I'm not seeing it. I dunno what his rep was like when he was younger, but his brawling wasn't up to scratch here.

Remy Bayle/Dan Abriot vs. Victor Castilla/Pancho Zapata (11/28/65) This followed the pattern of most of the 60s foreign heels vs. French babies tag matches; and while 40 minutes of the heels beating down the babyfaces and the babyfaces retaliating and being beat down again may wear on some, Castilla and Zapata were really effing good at beating people up. Castilla was the same guy who worked as Quasimodo though apparently he was playing himself here. I guess there's no clear timeline on this stuff. That deformity, or whatever it was on the back of his skull, was truly disgusting/awesome. Zapata was fucking awesome. He had really short legs and came across like a mdiget Terry Rudge. I thought he was spectacular in this. Match kind of petered out because of the length, but so much great brawling in this. I really want to see more Zapata.

This was decent enough. Hashimoto vs. Tenryu is such a natural rivalry that you want to watch every match where they square off and their interactions here didn't disappoint. The match was mostly about Chono taking a massive amount of punishment and then submitting to the WAR Special to further put that submission over. I don't know if it's because of the matches Ditch chose to host, but my real gripe at this point is that the New Japan feud has no direction. Other than that, it's impossible to get sick of Tenryu punting people in the face. This was a good match that became electric once Fujinami bladed. Like I said, it's impossible to get sick of those kicks Tenryu does to the face and head area. They're almost like little jabs, and they bust Fujinami open here in glorious style. The match gets red hot after that. Kido is awesome as the old guy with a killer arm bar, and the part where he lashes out at Tenryu and does it from the apron is one of several brilliant moments. Mostly this match is about Fujinami unleashing his rage though. The finish is terribly flat, but we're left with an image of a bleeding Dragon screaming into the night. With a better finish this would have been an easy four stars. Hara continues to resemble one of Tenryu's ex-marine buddies. I'm surprised they didn't work a match where he goes full-on FIP, tells Tenryu to leave him behind, and Tenryu goes all platoon on everybody.

The Tiger Dalibar Singh match from South Africa, the Terry Rudge match and the first Brookside fancam are worth watching. His '93-94 WCW work is largely better.

Alain Lesage vs. Batistou I don't know if the well has run dry on French catch uploads, but this was certainly the worst one yet. It was wrestled in the provinces and had a bunch of women in traditional garb performing some sort of folk dance. Lesage was doing some sort of woodcutter gimmick. That might have been cool if this had been burly, but it was mostly bullshit. The ref was overly theatrical and the match broke down into terrible ref spots at the end. Batistou looked like he might be fun in a more rough and tumble bout, but Lesage couldn't do shit, and the folks in the country deserved better I thought.

Beefcake was pretty good during that run. Easily the peak of his career.

There's not a lot about Hase that I like. I don't really like his look, I don't like his selling and mannerisms, and I don't like his moveset. He's not a guy whom I actively dislike, but he's not exactly an ideal opponent for Tenryu and I think that came through at times during this bout. Having said that, as a professional wrestler you can't always spend your time wrestling guys you match up well with. Sometimes you've got to take on opponents outside your bubble. I liked pretty much everything Tenryu did here on defence and attack, although after commenting on how easy it is to ignore his execution, he went ahead and did one of the worst sunset flip attempts on record. God it was bad. The bout in general was a mix of good looking stuff and questionable offensive choices. I'm still not sure what that running body press thing was that Hase did and why he didn't just do a baseball slide, and the counter to his Golden Arm Bomber was a flat moment. On the plus side, the Scorpion Deathlock was great and the Golden Arm Bomber he hit was a fantastic moment. The punch drunk selling and refusing to stay down is the kind of thing that would get shat on if it happened in a New Japan ring today, and you could say the same thing about the chop exchanges no matter how hard they were. The finish was unique. It's the kind of finish you wish you'd see more of because it was a different point of attack from the usual finishers, but at the same time the crowd didn't get it, which makes it clear why workers use signature finishers in the first place. Still, as a hardcore it was cool.

There's not a lot about Hase that I like. I don't really like his look, I don't like his selling and mannerisms, and I don't like his moveset. He's not a guy whom I actively dislike, but he's not exactly an ideal opponent for Tenryu, and I think that came through at times during this bout. Having said that, as a professional wrestler you can't always spend your time wrestling guys you match up well with; sometimes you've got to take on opponents outside your bubble. I liked pretty much everything Tenryu did here on defence and attack; although after commenting on how easy it is to ignore his execution, he went ahead and did one of the worst sunset flip attempts on record. God, it was bad. The bout in general was a mix of good looking stuff and questionable offensive choices. I'm still not sure what that running body press thing was that Hase did and why he didn't just do a baseball slide, and the counter to his Golden Arm Bomber was a flat moment as well. On the plus side, the Scorpion Deathlock was great and the Golden Arm Bomber he hit was a fantastic moment. The punch drunk selling and refusing to stay down is the kind of thing that would get shat on if it happened in a New Japan ring today, and you could say the same thing about the chop exchanges no matter how hard they were. The finish was unique. It's the kind of finish you wish we'd see more of because it was a different point of attack from the usual finishers, but at the same time the crowd didn't get it, which makes it clear why workers use signature finishers in the first place. Still, as a hardcore it was cool.

THE ARTHUR PSYCHO HOUR Ep 11 Robbie Brookside vs. Danny Collins (Corwen, taped 4/5/89) These two were the great workrate hopes of the late 80s and I'm happy to say that they delivered a bout here to quell even the most cynical of viewers. Anybody who's followed me in these threads know that I come pretty close to despising Danny Boy Collins, but he was excellent here. The best he's looked outside of the match he had as a teenager where Breaks carried him to a legit masterpiece. Brookside was cursed with not really having the look to succeed. He didn't have the frame to pack on muscle like his buddy Regal and he had kind of an angular face, but he was a good worker. I've seen enough of him now to be confident in saying that. This impressed me a lot as I was predisposed towards thinking this would be weak, but both guys looked great. Pete LaPaque & Tommy Lorne vs. Ritchie Brooks & Jeff Kerry (7/31/85) Blondie Barratt & Tally Ho Kaye vs. Danny Collins & Greg Valentine (7/31/85) Danny Collins & Greg Valentine vs. Pete LaPaque & Tommy Lorne (7/31/85) The Rockers team of Peter LaPaque and Tommy Lorne were so cool. Give them a full 20 minutes and I'm sure they would have been able to put on a classic during this time frame. Tommy Lorne, in particular, was the closest thing British wrestling had to a proper US territorial heel in 1985. This was a tag tournament, which usually isn't the greatest TV, but in this case was super fun because of Lorne and LaPaque. Barratt and Tally Ho Kaye also played their part in a match where Collins and Valentine looked fantastic as the hot young babyface team hitting high impact moves against the gobby heel team. Collins again looked great, which isn't something you'll hear me say a lot about Danny Boy Collins, and the miscommunication between Kaye and Barratt was highly amusing. The finale was building to a great crescendo when they went with a cheap finish where the heels walked out on the match, but at least we heard some of their complaining about having a rematch with a fair ref. All told, this was a winning episode of TV. Johnny South vs. Fuji Yamada (Denbigh, taped 3/15/89) This was slightly better than Yamada's other Reslo bouts, but still nothing special. Johnny was calling himself Shaun South here for some reason. The crowd thought more of Yamada/Liger than I did. Robbie Brookside vs. Lee Thomas (Merthyr, taped 2/4/92) I thought Lee Thomas was going to be the Scottish wrestler from Dundee, but it was some young guy using the same name. Match was neither here nor there, which if you know me means not worth watching.

This was worked differently from how you'd expect heading into the bout. It threatened to erupt into a violent brawl, but Hashimoto went into the bout looking to keep a check on his emotions and for the most part this was worked like a slow burning marque fight. I had mixed feelings toward the bout. Hashimoto's strategy was interesting, but the fight was more cerebral than visceral. At certain points, it felt manipulative in terms of the selling and dramatisation. There'd be a bomb and a nearfall and then that slow, theatrical selling that's meant to be high drama but comes across as a Parv-like pregnant pause. But the crowd did bite on a couple of kick outs and the shot of a dozen or more fans punching the air was a cool visual. All's well that ends well and the final minutes delivered. I thought they could have delivered something better, but there were enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. One thing I've found is the more Tenryu you watch, the more you ignore his execution.

This was worked differently from how you'd expect heading into the bout. It threatened to erupt into a violent brawl, but Hashimoto went into the bout looking to keep a check on his emotions and for the most part this was worked like a slow burning marque fight. I had mixed feelings toward the bout. Hashimoto's strategy was interesting, but the fight was more cerebral than visceral. At certain points, it felt manipulative in terms of the selling and dramatisation. There'd be a bomb and a nearfall and then that slow, theatrical selling that's meant to be high drama but comes across as a Parv-like pregnant pause. But the crowd did bite on a couple of kick outs and the shot of a dozen or more fans punching the air was a cool visual. All's well that ends well and the final minutes delivered. I thought they could have delivered something better, but there were enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. One thing I've found is the more Tenryu you watch, the more you ignore his execution.

Wrestlers as nations is tough, but I'm totally seeing the All Blacks vs. Wallabies in NJPW/WAR. Too bad there isn't a Wallaby as cool as Tenryu.

This was okay. The crowd were amped for Hashimoto vs. Tenryu and every time we got that match-up it was rad, but the rest of the match wasn't very interesting. There was a loose narrative of the New Japan crew being too distracted by Tenryu while the WAR guys focused on wearing down Chono, but it was Chono so who really cares. Fujinami got in a couple of neat shots at Tenryu. I don't know if he was re-energised by this feud or not, but he didn't look that bad to me. He just looked like an older Tatsumi Fujinami. He worked a style that looked worse the older he got, and I guess you could argue that he should have reinvented himself; but while he was no longer one of the best in the world and not the kind of guy I'd want to see in a singles match, he's better than a lot of the New Japan guys in this feud. Tenryu was again pretty cool even if he didn't contribute that much. Also watched Liger/Fujinami vs. Tenryu/Kitahara (NJ 8/3/93). There's some value in watching Liger vs. Tenryu, but not much. Fujinami is again pretty feisty as though he's trying to reassert some natural superiority he felt over Tenryu in the 80s. Kitahara showed up dressed like it was a street fight (dunno if he regularly wore street clothes.) His bumping and selling sucked, but he was a vicious little shit on offence. The WAR guys are so rag tag, but the dynamic works well. Match was pretty short. Liger was shown a bit of a respect, but wasn't up to the level of the heavyweights and ultimately I don't think it was a good idea to have him in matches like these.

Doxa is a cool word. Pity it's only really a doxa among about six people and certainly not among people who dropped out of the hardcore scene. I'd probably go back and forward on whom the God of shoot style is. It's either Fujiwara or Han. Since Fujiwara came first he's more of a pioneer, which I guess makes Volk the shoot style Jesus. Either way, you should be praying at the altar. And btw, crappy foreigners and poor worked shoots is still more realistic than UWF-i. And UWF-i wasn't hot because of its in-ring product. Don't lend credibility to the farce!

This is kind of tough. For the All Blacks, what's the pro-wrestling equivalent of team that win everything then choke/get screwed on the big shows*? * Unless it's at home.

He still worked in the UK. He just wasn't on TV that much. In the 70s, he used to work the German tournaments and globe-trot a bit, but by the late 80s I think he was mainly traveling between the UK and Japan. After '86, his UK dates dropped off a bit, which I assume was a combination of UK wrestling being in the shitter and getting regular tours w/ Baba. I'm curious as to why you ask.

Literally no one has said Duncan was as good or better offensively than Bird or that he was a better passer (what?). What has been pointed to a bunch is this... 1997-98 NBA All-Defensive (2nd) 1998-99 NBA All-Defensive (1st) 1999-00 NBA All-Defensive (1st) 2000-01 NBA All-Defensive (1st) 2001-02 NBA All-Defensive (1st) 2002-03 NBA All-Defensive (1st) 2003-04 NBA All-Defensive (2nd) 2004-05 NBA All-Defensive (1st) 2005-06 NBA All-Defensive (2nd) 2006-07 NBA All-Defensive (1st) 2007-08 NBA All-Defensive (1st) 2008-09 NBA All-Defensive (2nd) 2009-10 NBA All-Defensive (2nd) 2012-13 NBA All-Defensive (2nd) 2014-15 NBA All-Defensive (2nd) You're ignoring that other half of the game. I get the argument for Duncan. My gut feeling is that if it boils down to who I'd rather have on a team the answer would be Bird. If you're talking about longevity, the arguments make sense for Duncan. I wouldn't necessarily agree that longevity means Duncan had the better career, but many would argue that he has. Certainly a case can be put forward that Duncan was the more all-round skilled player. I get all that. What I don't get, or rather never got, was the feeling that Duncan (even in his prime) was one of the five greatest players ever. Maybe over the course of his career, but it wasn't something it seemed as though we were witnessing in the early 00s. The rest of the argument was to do with this notion that Duncan led an otherwise lottery-bound Spurs team to a 60 win season and an NBA title, which I think is silly because after the re-signed him they build the team around him to be a title contender. That team doesn't really exist without Duncan. Also, I don't think Duncan dominated those playoffs to the degree that you can say he carried a team of nobodies to an NBA title. As I said, they relied on outside shooting, and while it was streaky, they got it from a number of different players. And I'm not talking Paxson or Kerr shooting the game winner either. We're talking about entire runs (in some cases rallying for a deficit) and in several cases an entire quarter. If his team had been so shit, that doesn't happen and Duncan doesn't win the title. That, to me, is as true as the Spurs not winning the title if Duncan had gone to Orlando. It's possible that the 2003 Spurs could have been part of a three peat. The more I think about it, the more crazy it is that they're being presented as a team of scrubs.

No, they wouldn't have won 60 games without Duncan, but they also may not have won 60 games without Pops shifting Parker to the starting point guard position the previous season, bringing in Kevin Willis, Steve Kerr, Speedy Claxton and Ginobili to strengthen the bench, and moving Stephen Jackson off the injured reserve list to cover for Steve Smith's dodgy knees. They also increased Malik Rose's role to account for Robinson's health. Of course, Duncan carried the load on both ends of the court, but he was helped by Parker, who was able to push the ball up the floor, get out in transition, make open jumpers and create more space for his big men. Even in his early seasons, where both his shooting and playmaking were erratic and Pops was forever on his case, he energised the team, and I would argue he was the second best player on the team during the 2003 regular season. I wouldn't call him the second most talented. Stephen Jackson was regarded by some within the organisation as the most talented player on the roster, and although Parker had some brilliant games in the playoffs, he also had moments where Pops pulled him for Speedy Claxton. There were also the Kidd rumours hanging over him in the Finals series and it was pretty clear he was upset with how hard Pops was riding him. Nevertheless, Parker had an impact on that team as did Ginobili becoming a major part of the rotation. It was the 2003 playoffs where he really came to prominence after his early injury set-back. I don't think it was incredible that the 2003 San Antonio Spurs won the NBA title. I think Duncan was incredible against the Lakers (with some help from Robert Horry) and after they got over that hump there was every chance they would win the title. They had some luck in the form of Dirk's injury, and also Webber tearing his ACL when the Kings were considered one of the favourites, but incredible? My point about the Spurs needing fourth quarter heroics from the likes of Jackson and Kerr is that as good a player as Duncan was/is, he wasn't the type like a Jordan or a Bird that could take over in those clutch situations. I can imagine Bird taking a large number of shots in those fourth quarters. Duncan was a different type of player with a different type of skill set. I don't think he was good offensively as Bird. I don't think he was the passer that Bird was. Were they the team with the least amount of help to win a star player an NBA championship? Nobody viewed them that way at the time. They were meant to be in a transition phase from the Duncan/Robinson era to the Duncan era, which later became the Big Three era, and they overachieved in that respect, but if they were as weak as claimed they would have faded back into the pack. How do they compare to the '75 Warriors?

Look at that 2003 team again. There's not a lot of help there. http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/SAS/2003.html We can presume that Bird could have carried a group of scrubs like that but there's no real evidence of it. With Duncan there is. Look at that team. I came across this great quote a couple of days ago actually about the 2003 team. “Stephen Jackson’s our second-best player. And the Nets cut him.” (Chicago Tribune) -Anonymous Spurs staffer on Duncan's 2003 MVP case. So I would reject the idea that he couldn't carry teams. Longevity is the key thing though. I admitted peak Bird is better than peak Duncan. I watched every single Spurs game of that 2003 post-season and they struggled for what was a 60 win team. It took them six games to close out each series. Duncan was double teamed a lot and often went scoreless for long stretches. In the close out game against Phoenix, Ginobili and Jackson took over in the fourth quarter. In the Western Conference finals it was that famous shooting display from Steve Kerr. Game 3 of the Finals it was Parker and Ginobili. Kerr again in Game 5. Robert Horry in Game 5 against the Lakers Duncan was huge against the Lakers and had some monster games at other times in the playoffs, but it's easy to look at a roster and say Steve Kerr 10 games, 2.2 ppg in the playoffs when in fact he was pivotal in two playoff victories, or to say that Parker and Ginobili weren't instrumental because they were better players later on. Or undervaluing their sixth man, Malik Rose, because he never won a Sixth Man of the Year award or anything of that nature. Even the Admiral had that huge double-double in the title clinching game. Duncan was the star, but it was a hodge-podge team that relied on a second scoring option from somewhere and everybody chipping in. With Bird, I could envision him taking over down the stretch more often than Duncan did. Perhaps that's an unfair comparison because Bird was clearly more of a shooter than Duncan, but it's who I'd opt for if I could switch players. I have a hard time believing Bird wouldn't have torched the 2003 Nets.

It really depends. A lot of it has to do with expectations. If I bother to watch the pre-match videos (and to be honest, a lot of the time I don't) then I expect to see a pay off, but if I'm going in cold I guess I would focus on the work. These days I watch most wrestling without the commentary or crowd noise because I want to kill two birds with one stone in regard to listening to a record and watching a match and because the WWE commentary makes the matches worse for me. So, oftentimes the narrative is whatever I pick up for the selling or the match layout. In the case of all that Mysterio I watched, a lot of the times I was enjoying the work for the work's sake instead of paying attention to what the narrative was per se. When it comes to the lead in to a lucha apuesta match or the WAR vs. NJPW feud watching the matches in chronological order definitely creates narrative expectations. The reason I listened to Owens/Cena with sound and watched the matches a couple of times each was because we were told the narrative was solid and also to make sure I wasn't dismissing them out of hand. Obviously, someone who's watching week-to-week is going to have a better understanding of the build than a guy who watched the highlights package, but I still think the narrative ought to be pretty straight forward so that anybody watching can get it. And really it's the way they delivered on the narrative that I didn't like. I don't get why they had a rematch two weeks after the first fight and I don't get why Cena went over. I'm aware of the sales hit on merchandise, but surely that match was begging for Owens to win even if it was by DQ or something. Cena winning killed the issue dead even if Owens pulled a Terry Funk in the post match. I can't imagine Liger beating Sano two weeks after their first bout, or Flair pinning Steamboat two weeks later, or Jumbo getting his win back over Misawa after a fortnight.