ohtani's jacket

When did Grey wrestle Fujinami?

Those Thin Man movies are a lot of fun. I'm sure there was an 1800s equivalent of "you know it's fake, right?"

I'm sure by now most people are aware of the existence of the Arthur Psycho channel on YouTube. He's uploaded a lot of stuff I didn't bother getting; stuff that wasn't worth paying for. Thanks to him I can continue my obsessive compulsive cataloguing of British and European wrestling; but since there's a fair bit to get through, I'm going to watch it one hour at a time. Let me present: THE ARTHUR PSYCHO HOUR Ep 1 Dave Taylor vs. Steve Regal (Machynlleth, taped 2/5/91) This was all right, I suppose, but far down the list of good matches from both men. I've never been that high on WCW Sat Night style matches and this wasn't a particularly great entry into the genre. Tony St. Clair vs. Steve Regal (Caernarfon, taped 1988) I'd seen this before, but it was worth revisiting. It's kind of an interesting match-up as St. Clair was in no way the type of heavyweight Regal aspired to be. He was always flashy and athletic and a lot looser than your standard Regal influences; but he was a wily vet at this stage, and a guy who kept ploughing along long after the UK scene turned to shit. Not a great match as Regal didn't really lay his shit in, but an interesting look at where Regal was at in '88. Rollerball Rocco vs. Danny Boy Collins (Caernarfon, taped 4/6/90) Rocco was nearing the end here. He looked considerably older.. and fatter.. but still worked the same frenetic, all-action style that differentiated him from so many of his peers. The guy didn't possess an off switch and was a maniac in the ring. Collins I've never been a fan of, but I've mostly seen teenage Collins and have no idea what he was like as a man. This wasn't a good place to start as late 80s-early 90s Reslo is as bad as the latter years of ITV, but it looks like I'll have plenty more opportunity to delve into Collins. Dave Taylor vs. Tony St Clair (Denbigh, taped 1988) This was the pick of the all-Reslo hour. It was joined in progress, but the action was immediately better than in any other bout. The difference was in the way they contested each hold in the old-school WoS style as opposed to the short all-action format Reslo developed when the TV switched to one fall bouts. I'm not sure if St. Clair knew Taylor's father, but that may have been a factor. Post-83 Reslo bouts are only good when they're hard hitting and this one delivered. Cool finish too. Rollerball Rocco vs. Fuji Yamada (Caernarfon, taped 1987) This was a juniors bout and didn't resemble anything remotely European. It was all right as far as short bouts go, but do you really want Doobie in your funk? Not what I signed up for.

Gagne/Robinson was an excellent match. Gagne was very much a wrestler's wrestler, but far be it from me to complain about wrestling for wrestling's sake. I'd watch him again against the right opponent.

Federer was a brat too, although that was in his junior days. I am not sure the Lendl comparison works; Lendl was stoic and impassive, while Djokovic is highly emotional and wears his heart on his sleeve. And not in a dour, unpleasant way like Murray either. I don't really mean it as a direct comparison as Lendl was even more unpopular than Djokovic. Lendl muscled in on Connors and McEnroe in the same way Djokovic muscled in on Nadal and Federer. Djokovic has never really been accepted as the third guy. He doesn't have a marketable playing style and his back story isn't saleable. A lot of people remember what happened between him and the fans at the US Open and he's never really been a crowd favourite because of it. He's arguably the most sophisticated of the three w/ Federer being more interested in fashion and celebrities than anything else and Nadal basically living with his family and unable to speak English well; and he's probably the most articulate of the three as well. He's just not very interesting to a general public who don't care about his homeland or his story. But mostly I think people can't get their head around him disrupting the Nadal/Federer narrative.

I ended up watching the entire Finlay feud. It was a bit more story driven than I would have liked with the PPV matches in particular doing more to advance the storyline than deliver a great match. I found it odd that the TV bouts had more substance than their PPV work. It was almost as though they were the wrong way around. The match Jimmy listed is good -- from memory, their second best behind their 3/06 bout -- but I'm leaning towards Finlay not being that good a match-up for Rey, which kind of disappoints me. Maybe it's because of my expectations. One thing I've been impressed with as Rey's WWE work continues to unfold is his striking. He really developed a strong kick-punch game over time. The return match against Chavo at SummerSlam was their usual by-the-numbers bout, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the MVP stuff. It was sloppy at times and MVP was a little rough around the edges, but I liked the attitude he brought and it as refreshing to see Rey matched up against a different guy.

The finish -- and by finish I mean literally the finishing move -- was posted in another video he uploaded. So this is complete.

Bob ALPRA has posted a full length version of this with improved video quality. Teddy Boy was in actual fact Aldophe Sevre, who died a few days ago. I don't know where I got the name Jean-Claude Bourson from. I can't find the page I sourced it from. Anyway, forgetting my ignorance, the full length bout is a typical heel vs. babyface tag from the era with a thirty minute opening fall followed by a quick sub-10 minute concluding fall. Le Boulch comes across as a slightly better worker in a Hombre Bala journeyman type way, but Sevre is the younger guy who actually fits the Teddy Boy gimmick. Lots of the cheating and retaliatory brawling you would have seen from other matches that ALPRA has posted. At one stage, a fan is holding Sevre back so Sevre takes a swing at him. The pair start scrapping and the police get involved. It's mental how close the action is to the fans given how many fights there are. Fun match, but not really essential unless you're a completest. Sevre played the gimmick well, but 60s catch has a list of quality heels the length of my arm and he didn't quite rate as high as some of the others.

Rene Ben Chemoul vs. Gilbert Cesca Remember how I said French babyfaces where bland and difficult to get a grip on? Of course this masterpiece would be the next match I watch. This was the 60s French version of that 1980 Saint vs. Grey match, or whatever the 1960s British equivalent was. It started off with a heavyweight coming out and posing while wearing some Roman tunic, which I thought was an odd curtain raiser for a pair of 75-80 kilo guys, but once they got down to wrestling it was fantastic athletic, dramatic stuff. This is gateway drug stuff, but for some reason ALPRA left off the finish. He promised to upload it soon, but he's been known to take a while.

Some handhelds: Steve Grey vs. Jon Ritchie (4/13/88) Decent bout. Ritchie took the first fall and Grey systematically destroyed him over the following rounds. If there were more analysis of Grey on the internet, I suspect one of the match types people would cotton onto is Grey taking an opponent apart. It was similar to how he handled Wiseman during his title shot. It's an interesting wrinkle since it's not the first thing you think of when you think of Grey. Steve Grey vs. Sid Cooper (7/15/92) Cooper was a thousand years old here. He looked like a wrestling grandpa. Grey was defending his World Lightweight title, but it was clear from the beginning that this was going to be a bunch of shenanigans. Cooper jawed with the crowd, who were a bunch of yokels, and had a running gag going with the ref and the crowd that was like watching a children's puppet show. Good on Cooper for continuing to wrestle, turkey legs and all, but the only good part was when he nicked a pensioner's cap and used it to beat Grey. Steve Grey vs. Johnny Kidd (2/10/93) Better title defence, naturally. Grey showed he could still go even in 1993. Kidd was one of those unfortunate types who came along too late, but he still managed to forge out a career was a wrestler and that should be respected regardless of the declining scene. This is one of his better matches on tape and would have looked great on TV. Steve Grey vs. Masakazu Fukada (Walthamstow, 1998) Grey must have been pushing 50 at this stage. I don't know Masakazu Fukada from a bar of soap, but this was a short one fall contest that proved Grey would have been good in just about any environment including Japan. It wasn't a tremendously exciting bout, but Steve looked comfortable working a more Japanese mat based style. I don't a lot of time for "fish out of water" wrestling such as British guys working Japan, but it would have been interesting to see him tour there.

I don't think he's as bad as people are making out, but he tries too hard. Modern WWE focuses heavily on reaction shots not only for angles but also during matches, so you can hardly fault him for trying, but he's a ham all the same. I don't think charisma is the issue -- he's one of my favourite Rey opponents because of his heel charisma -- he's just a poor actor in an era where they try to make matches cinematic. Usually, when we comment on a wrestler's charisma, selling or facial expressions, they're things that catch our eye while a match is going on, but the WWE sets out to intentionally create these moments. I imagine it's hard to go out there and try to pull a facial expression when you know you're in close-up than it is to simply go out there and react to shit.

Partly it's because he was such a prat when he was younger, but he's a lot like Lendl in the 80s. Tennis fans never really warmed to Lendl. If Dimitrov can break through, he'll be the next darling.

Fujiwara is tough... Maybe Sidney Moncrief?

I love British stooging where there's a body part the heel doesn't like being worked over like Breaks' nose or McManus' ears. Every rudo worth their salt has a few stooge spots up their sleeve. Some of them more obvious like Emilio or Fuerza, but guys like Satanico and Casas also had stooge routines.

The Barry-Owen comparison was more about their promos. Jordan has got to be Hogan, right? Biggest star in league history, fake media image, no respect for teammates or the boys in the back, scandal plagued, bald... Jordan was vastly more successful with his outside business ventures, mind you, and his only heel turn as such was as a GM or in his HOF acceptance speech.

Kareem is clearly Jumbo Tsuruta. Both star rookies; both aces for number two organisations; neither able to draw by themselves. Both enjoyed success by buying into a fast break offence and both became grumpy captains. Jumbo was even a hit with the ladies when he was younger. Oh, and they were both accused of being boring. Come to think of it, Jerry West is a bit like Kawada. Never able to win the big one; forever jobbing to the team in green and white; both struggling with inner demons. Finally got over the hump with the help of a 7 footer, but when they won the crown it was a fizzer. OK, Taue as Wilt is a bit of a stretch. This is fun! Rick Barry is a heel Owen Hart. Negro Casas is Isiah Thomas. Rey Mysterio started off as Nate Archibald then morphed into Russell Westbrook when he got on the PEDs.

They did work in Dallas. There's just no record of them doing so after they sold the Amarillo territory. Terry wrestled Fritz at Texas Stadium in 1976, for example.

http://www.infinitecore.ca/superstar/index.php?threadid=563

I am the wrong guy to ask as I only dabble in WWE, but from that list Christian is the only one I would be bothered watching. I'd sooner watch Piper than the other three. Jericho is one of my least favourite workers.

I also thought Piper's WWF work was a revelation. I don't think he's a great worker, but he was consistently good throughout the 80s. I would put him at the same level as a guy like Cien Caras.

I thought it was good, but very much a houseshow match. I will probably write about it soon.

So, I made my way through Rey's 2006. The Henry matches were pretty good. I thought Rey's selling was great and Henry did an excellent job working from on top, but there were a lot of cookie cutter big man/little man spots that bugged me. I really like Orton as a Rey Mysterio opponent. He's such a prick towards Rey. A lot of guys are a prick towards Rey, but Orton seemed to take real delight in it. If he wasn't such a hammy actor, I'd rather that April match as one of Mysterio's best in the WWE. JBL also brought tremendous intensity to his feud with Mysterio. I don't think they delivered a classic, but the dynamic was great. Not sure if it was a great booking decision at the time, but for my own purposes they were matches I enjoyed. The Angle matches from '06 were fine. Angle pops up way too quickly on offensive switches, but aside from that I love his intensity and relentless offence. He's Scott Steiner with an Olympic medal, but I don't give a shit. There are times when he just kills Rey on offence. He's a machine like Keith Haward. The Sabu match was the worst thing I've seen in ages. I ought to have prefaced that by saying I haven't watched much wrestling lately, but it was absolutely terrible. The Chavo falls count anywhere match wasn't great either, but at least they filmed it in a novel way. I enjoyed the Finlay matches, though not as much as the JBL/Orton dynamic. For some reason, the most famous Finlay match isn't online, which is a shame as I always considered that a top five Rey-in-the-WWE bout. Anyway, a pretty good year for Rey. I like him a lot as a worker, though he's a bit samey in terms of how he's booked. I wonder if he had more small guy vs. small guy bouts like the Noble one that I'm overlooking. I don't really buy him as a high volume great match guy (he has the same number of great matches as anyone else, imo), but he's a consistently good television worker. The best ever? I dunno. I like Tully's studio work better and Steve Grey is probably my pick but then again he was on TV as many times per year as Mysterio was in a single month, so there's an over-exposure issue for sure. Rey's good, though. Don't mean to ruffle any feathers.

I'm specifically referring to "I do believe that Hulkamania will live forever," though now I do a google search I see it's a much discussed thing.

That Satanico/Chicana match from '83 was completely new. I'm looking at Lynch's match list now and I can't find either of the last two Casas matches I reviewed. It seems he has a different source for some of the TV.