ohtani's jacket

Negro Casas/Emilio Charles Jr./Mano Negra vs. El Brazo/Ultimo Dragon/Oro, CMLL 3/19/93 Negro Casas could do no wrong at this point. It never really occurred to me that 1993 might be the best year of his career. It was such a dark time for the company that you tend to ignore everything that happened, but in terms of physical prime coinciding with in-ring ability, the period from when he entered the company in 1992 through to an as yet undefined point in 1993 represents the best I've seen from Casas. One glance at the team sheets should reveal whom he was feuding with here. At first you're like, "I don't want to see Casas feuding with some overrated 90s junior who nobody likes anymore," and then you realise that Ultimo wasn't that bad in Mexico (certainly not by tecnico standards) and that they actually had pretty good chemistry together. It's not as cool a follow-up feud to Dandy vs. Casas as Dandy/Bestia, which was a match-up of two evenly matched guys who brought a level of physicality to their matches similar to the Regal/Benoit/Finlay triumvirate, but it works so much better than you'd expect it to on paper. I'm slowly accepting it as one of Casas' career best feuds, even if it seems a bit unluchalike that a non straight lucha match-up would rank so highly. But enough apologising; Casas abused poor Ultimo in this match with that kicking game I've talked so much about. I find Casas' kicking game fascinating. I'm not sure it's all that good really, but the fact that he uses it so much against a striker like Ultimo is a great piece of character work/psychology. It's part gamesmanship, part arrogance. It's a straight taunt -- goading Ultimo by saying "I can match your strengths and pick apart your game plan" -- but at the same time he gets his fingers burnt (or perhaps more aptly his toes) by getting caught up in these offensive storms where Ultimo starts launching Street Fighter combos at him. Pissed off Ultimo is not really a known characteristic of Ultimo Dragon in so far as people have broken down the characteristics of El Ultimo Dragon, but Casas pushes those buttons. Casas was straddling the whole "rudo who's so popular he gets cheered like a tecnico" thing at Arena Mexico while still acting like a complete prick. I don't know who Casas was addressing when he boxed the ropes in this match (it may have been the tecnico ref), but it was divine. Absolutely divine. Has anyone ever seen a guy box the ropes like that before? And that's just some riff Casas was messing around. He took things too far in this bout by repeatedly stomping at Ultimo's head while Charles and Negra held him in a martyr-like pose, and the big tecnico ref finally called him out for excessive rudoism, but Casas didn't give a shit and retaliated with some of the coolest mask ripping I've seen. Do you know how hard it is to make mask ripping seem cool? Not only did he (mercifully) rip the thing with a single tug; he delivered a tailor made Matt D GIF in the process. You could feel the Ultimo comeback coming like the wind changing before a storm and the birds and animals acting all freaked, but that's pro-wrestling 101: setup and payoff. Ultimo was bleeding, which is pretty rare for him, and he gave Casas a hiding. I've seen a lot of the spots before in other Casas vs. Ultimo matches, but it's still cool whenever Ultimo stops being courteous and busts out the high end Japanese offence that Casas doesn't have a shit show of blocking. I love the short arm clothesline spot they do. That was the death blow right here. The other guys were secondary to the Casas/Ultimo fury, though Emilio did bust out a balls-to-the-wall tope on El Brazo. He was surprisingly subdued otherwise. Negra wasn't really good during this run until he dropped the hood, and it wasn't the type of match where Oro was going to shine. But you can still watch this to track Casas and watch an all-time great at his absolute peak.

How come nobody ever holds Wrestlemania VI against Jesse? That was a sell out moment if ever there was one.

Honey Boy Zimba vs. Ray Thunder (9/26/78) Bit of a nothing clip with Zimba getting the win against the run of play. Bronco Wells vs. Ed Wensor (3/8/78) Despite this being a catchweight contest, it was still a battle between fatties. Pretty good bout for a match between two unheralded types. Nothing mind blowing, but a much better watch than I would have anticipated. Mike Marino vs. Sandy Scott (10/4/77) This was a typical Joint heel turn with Scott suddenly acting out of character and using all sorts of underhanded tactics. I don't know if there was a kayfabe explanation given in the magazines or in the programs sold at the halls, but there was never any motivation given on television. Walton would simply start lamenting that wrestler X hadn't been the wrestler we know of late and how much of a shame it was because X could be such a good wrestler if he simply followed the rules. Marino never had much time for bullshit and didn't put up with Scott's shit. Peter Wilson vs. Gary Wensor (10/4/77) This was miles better than Wilson's 80s work. How many miles better? I dunno, maybe the distance from the earth to the sun. From memory, this was both men's television debuts and they were keen to impress with a well worked bout. Even Walton was into it, and he'd call a spade a spade if he didn't think a wrestler's television debut was up to scratch. This Wilson had the potential to be a decent worker. I wonder what happened. Mike Bennett vs. Alan Dennison (4/23/79) Wow, this was much better than your typical Dennison bout. The grappling was actually really compelling and Bennett put in an outstanding performance for his age and experience level. I really need to watch more Mike Bennett. Unfortunately, the latter half of the match was clipped. Still a good bout, mind. Brian Maxine vs. Ray Thunder (2/28/79) Maxine as a babyface is one of the worst turns ever. Who the hell wanted to see Maxine as a face? It was just wrong on so many levels. Johnny Czeslaw vs. Ray Thunder (4/24/79) This was Czeslaw's last appearance on TV and he didn't look good. Walton tried to paint it as though he was off-colour or having a bad day, but knowing what we do about his health, it's possible that he wasn't in the best of shape. Thunder looked awful here, which I'd attribute to Czeslaw not being able to make him look good. Billy Torontos vs. Black Jack Mulligan (1/9/79) Mulligan was such a pro. He never failed to make his opponent look a million bucks even a comedy worker like Torontos. I think he's by far the biggest and best bumper in World of Sport history and possibly ahead of the times with the bumps he took. Nothing bout, but I have a ton of respect for Mulligan. John Naylor vs. Leon Fortuna (4/17/75) This was an exciting bout mostly because the wrestlers got excited and kept fighting on the ropes. It was the final of a World of Sport Trophy tournament and the winner had the trophy presented to him by none other than Walton himself, who made a rare on screen appearance. Ridiculously smooth. Walton was the man. I wish we knew more about the "other" side of Walton -- the smoking, the drinking, the DJ'ing and soft porn producing. John Naylor vs. Johnny England (1/31/79) This was decent enough, I suppose. Late 70s Johnny England reminds me of Sid Vicious or some other punk rocker. He comes across a right little shit. John Cox vs. Ivan Penzecoff (11/7/74) Not sure if I've seen this before or why it was on the disc since it doesn't seem that I ordered it, but this was pretty good up until the finish. Cox was a big boy. Walton claims he was already 17 stone at age 18. Later on, he'd become a grizzled, hard as fuck veteran, but he was a young guy here and pretty much a huge slab for Penzecoff to work with. Instead of putting over the other guy as is often the case with Penzecoff playing the foil, he got to concentrate on his own shtick and gave an entertaining performance. The finish was a lousy DQ -- a finish that always seemed to happen when Colbeck was reffing -- but I enjoyed the majority of this bout.

Albert Falaux/Bob Elandon vs. Rene Cabellec/Gilbert Puydebat This was a bit confusing at times. It wasn't clear whether Elandon was a heel or simply prone to losing his cool. He'd start using inside moves on his opponents, and it seemed like there was going to be a problem between him and Falaux, but nothing came of it. 60s matches have really long opening falls. That ensures you get plenty of action, but it also makes the matches somewhat rhythmless, making it hard to get sucked into the bout. French babyfaces are also hard to get a grip on. They have excellent technique, but the lack of context makes them seem bland. Even the ones we have an increasing amount of footage of such as Chemoul and Cesca have failed to make an impression on me. I do love the style, though.

Bob ALPRA has a blog connected to his channel. There are some results in English, but nothing comprehensive.

The post war economic boom meant there was a growing population. The companies had a much larger workforce and there were a higher number of students than there are today. I don't know if rugby itself was more popular, but with jobs for life and so on, there was more loyalty to your company. These days you get a couple of thousand employees from each side going to games where in the past you'd get tens of thousands. The max at university games these days is probably 40,000. Rugby in Japan is this weird beast where there's few real fans who follow say a high school prospect through to the pros. It's fragmented between high school, uni and company teams. Anyway, if Wales knock the Wallabies out in the pool stages I will celebrate like my endless drunken repeats of Ireland's call on YouTube when they beat Australia at Eden Park.

Rugby was a lot more popular in the 70s and 80s, particularly at university level. They used to draw upwards of 70,000 to the big university matches. But then football took off and rugby decreased in popularity. Company rugby has always been semi-pro, as the corporations would employ a guy to play rugby and give him a day job in the company. There were foreign guys over here making coin before professionalism too, though nothing like the money that's thrown around these days. The companies don't make any profit from rugby. The entire thing is based on an archaic post-war law that insisted company's have sports teams and promote worker health, etc. I don't know if Hara jumping to pro-wrestling was a big story, but given that both rugby and erestling had a higher profile at the time than they do now, it was probably in the news.

Most of the info is in French. You kind of have to piece it together.

On a Williams scale of 1-10, this thread is about a 1. Honestly, I think the Kawada picture and those three initials are like a red rag to a bull right now.

The Sight and Sound voters know what's canon and which films were on previous lists. The previous results are highly influential. Regardless, it sounds as though you're referring to sincerity rather than accuracy. I can't remember where I voted for Jumbo last time. I think it was top 10, maybe even top 5. I'm moved on from Jumbo since then and would probably drop him down into the top 30 somewhere if I were to vote. If I were being disingenuous it would be closer to top 50, but I don't think dropping him down 20 places is insincere. I don't find him relevant at this point in time and haven't overly enjoyed the last few matches I watched. Just sticking with Japanese male wrestlers, I think Yoshiaki Fujiwara is better in every single way. I would have a hard time separating Jumbo and Fujinami these days. Tamura was a superior athlete and wrestler. Misawa was more of a genius. Hashimoto is more soul stirring. Tenryu I've never really gotten into the way others have, but Choshu grew on me a lot with the 80s sets. Jumbo's getting bumped down anyway you look at it. I really only like '89-91 Jumbo these days.

How boring is this? Shows no forward thinking since 2006. Is the point of GWE to be accurate or novel? How about challenging assumptions? From my experience, getting involved in debates over this type of thing doesn't go anywhere good. But I feel the need to defend Parv here. He challenged the assumptions about Dory at this board. He has challenged assumptions about Flair at this board. He has even challenged his own assumptions about the U.S. indy guys. He's not someone I think we can accuse of digging his head in the sand when he thinks he is right about something. Also, I'd be interested in reading a real answer to the question he posed. An original, creative, thought provoking list is better than an accurate list. An accurate list implies that there is an established cannon and a hierarchy and order that should be followed. I would rather see a list that's eclectic and exciting and reflects the depth and breadth of people's viewing experience. The beauty of the first list was that it was a capsule of what people from different various different sites thought at the time; an amalgamation, or really culmination, of the thinking at that time. Hopefully, the next list will be too, but in order for it to be progressive, and to reflect how thinking has changed in the past decade, there needs to be more discourse. That idea that Tenryu is better than Jumbo is a great idea; well worth exploring and discussing, and indeed having a spirited debate about. The fact that it doesn't fit into some sort of Sight and Sound concept and is more an idea from one of those alternative lists that are put out to prove how stodgy and unoriginal S&S is, doesn't make it any less invigorating of a topic idea. It may not end up being accurate, but it's a whole lot more interesting than having a predetermined one and two.

How boring is this? Shows no forward thinking since 2006. Is the point of GWE to be accurate or novel? How about challenging assumptions?

How boring is this? Shows no forward thinking since 2006.

Must have missed that when it was uploaded. Couderc getting into fights with people never gets old. Neither does Lassartesse dropping the knee.

Something interesting I saw in the record store today:

The last record Cubs has of Casas and Dandy working together is in 2007. They worked against other a bit in IWRG. Apparently, they had a title match at an IWRG taping in 2003.

Bruno Asquini/Gilbert Leduc vs. Les Blousons Noirs (Claude Gessat/Marcel Mannevau) (5/6/67) Another fun Les Blousons Noirs bout. Not overly spectacular, but once again ahead of the game compared with British tag wrestling. This had quite a modern feel to it as Leduc went down with a knee injury, which the Blousons Noirs took full advantage of, leaving the big man Bruno Asquini to fend for himself two against one. There was no stretcher, so the catch folk made do by carrying Leduc away. In a modern day bout, the Blousons Noirs would take Asquini apart while the commentator screamed "good gawd almighty!", but Asquini fared fairly well and it wasn't overly dramatic. Then Batman hit the ring and started tagging with him. Who's Batman, you ask? He's a guy in a Batman outfit, that's who. Minus the cape and mask, unfortunately, but he has the bat signal on his chest. The match was either incomplete or Alpra chose not to show the ending, but it wasn't a match where I desperately wanted to see the finish. Albert Falaux vs. Guy Robin (1953) Brief clip of a cool looking bout between lightweights. Falaux went to the '48 Olympics and was apparently the last Olympian to turn pro. The ref is René Ben Chemoul's father.

Jon Cortez vs. Johnny England (11/25/85) This was from Screensport Wrestling, which was a satellite TV show produced by All-Star Wrestling in the mid-80s. They'd show bouts from the States and mix them in with some local ASW tapings. They tried hard to distinguish themselves from ITV Wrestling by having an edgier, American flavour to their product. There was a lot of handheld camera work with documentary-style head shots of people in the crowd and different angles than you'd get on ITV. The wrestlers scrapped instead of wrestling Mountevans rules while the commentators screamed all sorts of gibberish like "Jon Cortez is the King of Chaos!" One of them was fixated on Jon Cortez' moustache and kept doing a Charles Bronson impersonation. It was all a bit amateurish really. They even invited people to write in if they wanted VHS or Beta Max copies of their shows, which would have been great for collectors but came across as amateur. After the fight, the wrestlers almost got into a pull apart brawl during the post match interviews when Cortez kept claiming that England's body was a deformity. The interviewer then cut to a request from Robin or Robert Smith from Stoke-on-Trent who asked to see the Slaughter/Sheik Boot Camp match. At least Screensport was good for something. Jon Cortez vs. Jackie Robinson (1/18/86) Ridiculously clipped to the point where it seemed like someone just wanted to play with their video editing software. Picked up a few handhelds: Jim Breaks vs. Mal Sanders (11/21/90) You can probably guess that 1990 Jim Breaks wasn't going to be terribly good, but there was some novelty in seeing a balding, pudgy Breaks take on a completely bald Superstar Sanders. British house show fare as is house show-y as anywhere in the world and this was mostly Breaks jawing with pensioners. Chic Cullen vs. Terry Rudge (11/21/90) This had its moments of asskickery from Rudge, but he wasn't quite the same in the 90s as he was in even the late 80s in Germany. Partly, it was because he was doing a bit of house show heel shtick that I don't need from my Rudge, but it was for the paying customers so I can't complain too much. Lord Steven Regal vs. Robbie Brookside (date unknown) This was from some time in the mid-90s after Regal had gone to WCW. Not a very interesting match. Mostly Lord Regal shtick. They had a much better match in 1990 which you can find on YouTube. Terry Rudge vs. Robbie Brookside (Hamburg 9/14/90) Good when Rudge is delivering a stomping on Brookside, but average otherwise. I guess I can't really get into Brookside.

I could listen to Ventura talk about just about anything.

For me the last great Breaks match was the superb carry of Danny Boy Collins in '84, but I freely admit I hold Breaks to pretty high standards. I don't think he ever got bad per se, as I recently watched an early 90s handheld of him, but I prefer Breaks when he has a serious edge to him as opposed to out and out shtick.

Fiera had a feud with Chicana in June where he turned tecnico. Casas was a rudo, but they were teasing a baby face turn. It was an ongoing storyline that summer with Casas throwingl in the towel during the Felino/Ciclon bout, tagging with Dandy and having an intervention session with Rivera. He turned tecnico for a few weeks in 1994 and 1995 before finally switching in 1996. .

Watching a match is a 20 minute investment. Constructing a post is more immediately satisfying and much more interactive. Not to mention the fact that the depth and breadth of what people discuss is greater than the matches themselves.

Didn't they start that at Wrestlemania X?

Here are some miscellaneous matches I ordered. A few of them turned out to be pretty damn good. Alan Kilby vs. Saxon Brooks (5/28/83) Saxon Brooks was a heavyweight prospect with a judo background who'd been on television once before. Nothing really came of him in terms of his on-screen career, but he couldn't have asked for a better carry from Kilby. Walton was a bit critical of Brooks, continually pointing out how deliberate he was with his moves and how telegraphed they looked. Brooks looked awkward coming off the ropes, and I think it bugged Walton a bit. I kind of liked him, though. He had that amateur-turned-pro charm to him where all he really knew how to do was adapt his judo background to the ring. Some of his throws were a bit rough looking as he didn't really know how to cooperate yet, but he gave Kilby a workout and I honestly thought this was one of the better Kilby matches on tape. Dave Finlay vs. Johnny Kincaid (9/3/85) Man, I always thought Kincaid was washed up by this point, but this was awesome. He was super aggressive and Finlay responded by working stiff. Great contest. I usually hate the Princess Paula shtick with Finlay playing the whipped husband, but I kind of liked it here. Paula gave him a dressing down after he dropped a fall and wouldn't give him the kiss he needed to wrestle, so he took his frustrations out on Kincaid by beating the shit out of him and Kincaid responded in kind. Weird narrative if you think about it for too long, but it was a cracking match and hands down one of the better Princess Paula era matches. I need to rewatch the Kincaid/Marty Jones match, as I always thought Kincaid wasn't much chop past '78-79. Ray Steele vs. Black Salem (1/9/86) Black Salem, jeez what a name. He was the dark skinned West Indian wrestler Jamaica George. Some kind in the crowd kept making mildly racist jokes. I say mildly as I couldn't quite make them out but they had something to do with the difference in skin colour. This was a good bout, but Steele won two-zip and was on top for 90% of the bout. At times it was like he was riding him amateur style. It was weird that George didn't get a fall, but I've always wanted Walton to bust out a West Indian cricket reference on commentary and here we got two -- Viv Richards and Joel Garner. Very few of you will know how awesome the West Indian cricket team were in the 70s and 80s, but trust me that was a mark out moment. Pat Roach vs. Johnny Kincaid (12/11/85) Johnny Kincaid, don't call it a comeback! Fuck this was awesome. Kincaid just took it to Roach and put him in a grovet that made him squeal like a pig. Never seen anything like it. Roach's selling was sublime. The finish was the best "falling to make the count" finish ever as the first chance Roach got free from the grovet he sent Kincaid flying. Roach never really worked like a big man in the sense that he didn't take advantage of his size (at least during his elder statesman phase), but tick him off and he was like a bear with a sore head, or neck as the case may be. For a throwaway tournament bout, this was badass. Jim Breaks vs. Kung Fu (9/3/86) For some reason I still don't fully understand, Breaks and Kung Fu made an appearance for Dale Martin in '86. Jim hadn't been on ITV since '84, and Walton was naturally happy to see him back, but the magic was gone and this was a hockey, shtick-ridden bout. The crowd enjoyed getting on Jimmy's case, and Walton even got in the act by providing a back story as to why Breaks didn't like him (he informed the ref that Breaks was holding the trunks one day), but it wasn't an enjoyable experience for me and was very All-Star-ish. Tom Tyrone vs. Lee Bronson (8/4/87) Speaking of All-Star, here was Tom Tyrone going nowhere fast on one of their shows. All-Star may have been great for charismatic workers like Rocco, but guys for who wrestling was their bread and butter, these short, meaningless bouts sucked the life out of them. Dave Taylor vs. Johnny South (3/16/88) This, on the other hand, was an All-Star bout that ruled. South was one of the best veteran workers on the circuit and a real asskicker. Taylor loved a good fight and these two were happy as muck beating the crap out of each other. This is the kind of match that dropped a young Steve Regal's jaw. Taylor fans need to see this. Pat Roach vs. Caswell Martin (10/26/88) This was the last match to air on ITV. I had this romantic notion that it would be the last piece of footage I watched, but with all the random shit popping up on YouTube I went ahead and watched it. Damn good match, actually. Miles better than I was expecting. It looked like they went out there with the intention of putting on a good show, not only to eulogise 33 years of wrestling on ITV (though that was certainly part of it), but to encourage people to continue going out and watching wrestling in their local halls. Indeed, Walton put a plug in for the ongoing house shows as they braced for the final round. Roach was years removed from his best, but dialed back the clock here, and Martin was one of the few guys who still looked in peak physical condition right up until the end. I enjoyed this immensely. Dave Finlay & Skull Murphy vs. Honey Boy Zimba & Lenny Hurst (6/13/83) I think I officially love the Riot Squad. There's not much competition, but they may be the best tag team I've seen in British wrestling. Certainly, one of the few who understood how to work the French style of heel tag work. McManus and Logan were also very good, but Finlay and Murphy were more athletic. There was an inordinate amount of headbutts from Zimba in this bout, but the heels pinballed about and made it work. Entertaining bout.

10/1/93