ohtani's jacket

Some of the action in this was good, but the storyline of Kyoko and Toyota not getting along was stupid. Why would anybody care that Kyoko and Toyota don't get along? That's a story that would mean something if it were say Hokuto and Toyota in the 1993 TLTB, but not at this stage of their careers. It came across as stroppy and was a distraction from the match. The first fall was one of the most ridiculous pinfall decisions ever and Kyoko's harlequin look was naff.

Toyota didn't stand a chance here. It was as though her reward for winning the Japan Grand Prix was a firm reality check. it was interesting that they went for a realistic approach here instead of Bull putting over Toyota's challenge, but I guess they were still building Bull up as a monster. This period was a transition for everyone. In retrospect it's amazing that Toyota developed so quickly. She has real difficulty with sunset flip moves in 1990, but you wouldn't know it in 1991. She was also terribly shy in her pre-match promo. Bull was a bit forced and awkward as well.

I don't think Hokuto blew off her injury here. She was still favouring her knee in the stretch run, struggling to get back to her feet, and staggering about. It may not have been in proportion to the amount she sold while she was in Toyota's holds, but she was still selling the injury after the bout was over. They needed to get their shit in because there were only five minutes left. If submissions were more common in Joshi they could have worked toward one, but since they're not they had to go for falls. Considering most submission wrestling in Joshi is either time wasting or one wrestler rubbing it in another's face that they have dominant position, I thought the matwork was better than usual. The holds were nasty and Toyota was stretched even more than in previous matches where her flexibility has been noted. It's just that Joshi is a style where they struggle to transition from the mat to standing exchanges or running between the ropes, so it feels like there are distinct parts to the match -- the mat section, the outside the ring section, the submission section, the finishing stretch, etc. -- without Matt D's infamous connecting tissue. But it was an excellent effort for workers their age and better than the Hotta match. Toyota's style closely resembled her trainer Jaguar Yokota, which is not surprising given her level of experience. I often get the impression that people cultivate a "ditzy" image of her as someone who forgets to sell things, but it seems to me that the change in her wrestling style was calculated, deliberate and effective. The Toyota you see here would have ended up as Suzuka Minami with slightly more histrionics if she hadn't developed her action at all costs style. I see her as a worker who created her own stardom, and as a work in progress this gets a big tick.

I don't know if offend is the right word, but I'd stop watching any promotion if the product didn't interest me. The only time I've been loyal to a promotion was during the Monday Night Wars. It's not like sports where I'm loyal to a particular team. It's more like comic books where if a creative run ends I'll drop the book and find something else.

Okay, I thought you were confusing him with the commentator you use for the intro. The guy in the pic is Akira Fukuzawa.

It was fun seeing the kind of transitions/counters Toyota did before refining her act, but to echo the sentiments of others, this was no MOTYC. There were a lot of holes in the stretch run, not the least of which was the ref telling Hotta her shoulder wasn't down on the Japanese Ocean Suplex, but I won't hold it against them since they were still kids. Hell, Toyota was only 19. The start was definitely better than the finish and Toyota's dive at the beginning was probably the highlight.

Wrong commentator!

Staying in Wales for a bit: Caswell Martin vs. Max Regan (Unknown location, taped 1984) This was scarcely more than an exhibition match for Martin. I can't find a single bit of information about Regan, in fact I'm not even sure if that's his proper name as the Welsh commentator sounded like he was saying 'Reger,' but you know you're enhancement talent when you're knocked out by a dropkick. Wayne Bridges vs. John Kowalski (Unknown location, taped 1983) The champ arrives. For some reason, Bridges was doing his heel act here. The same one he did in that three match series against Pete Roberts. Kowalski scored a legitimate pinfall from a backslide and went to shake the champ's hand, and Bridges whipped him pillar to post and attacked him while he was down. There's your champion right there. It was better than the usual generic Bridges match, I guess. The highlight was Kowalski's beer belly sharecropper comeback. Jim Moser vs. Steve McHoy (Unknown location, taped 1983) This didn't reach any great heights as Moser was a modest worker who didn't crave the limelight with his matches, but it was another chance for McHoy to show his wares. I've been impressed with McHoy thus far. Watching him you know he doesn't stand a chance with the business turning to shit, but he was part of a group of young heavyweight talent who could have been the next generation of St. Clair's and Veidor's if times hadn't changed. The talent was there but not the stage. Interestingly, it seems to me that there were much better heavyweight prospects in wrestling at this time than lightweights. That may be my bias against the "boy apprentices," or the fact that a Steve McHoy was closer to being a Tony St. Clair than anybody ever could to being a Steve Grey or a Jim Breaks, but guys like Steve McHoy and Tom Tyrone were solid newcomers in this era. Johnny Saint vs. Chic Cullen (Unknown location, taped 1983) Now this was a good match. Some of you may remember that I was really into Cullen until a string of disappointing matches. Where had all the good matches gone? Turns out they were in Reslo. Not surprisingly, this is closer to the beginning of the 80s and Cullen's debut than the period from '85 to '86 where things began to stagnate. It's the same pattern as Alan Kilby or King Ben where the earlier the match the more likely it is to be good. This was also an example of the "good" Johnny Saint, again not surprisingly given it's catchweight. He really is a thousand times better when his holds are legit and not simply for show. Cullen looked fantastic here and this reminded me of old times in terms of my viewing. Rollerball Rocco vs. Tony St Clair (Caernarfon, taped 1982) This was the first Reslo match that had the kind of heat you'd see in an English hall. There were all manner of people getting upset from grown men to their mothers and the local school kids, and in the thick of it all was Rollerball. He really had a knack for getting under people's skin. There wasn't much to this -- Rocco stomped a hole in St. Clair, Tony used his size and reach to send Rocco flying about, and the pair of them ended up on the outside a half a dozen times -- but these two always had good chemistry together and Rocco had 'em eating out of his palm. Chic Cullen vs. Keith Haward (Caernarfon, taped 1982) This was awesome to watch. Cullen and Haward dueling with each other on the mat? Yes, thank you. The only thing that really stopped this from being a recommended bout was how neatly cropped it felt for Reslo's television hour. Still, this was a treat. It wasn't as slick as the Saint bout, but again it was brilliant seeing Cullen in a contest.

This was a workrate driven tag as you'd expect with Toyota vs. Fukuoka being the main match-up. Toyota worked heel, but she did this annoying shtick where she'd no sell Fukuoka's throws then overpower her with the same moves. I hate that sort of heel work. She'd do a similar thing in matches where she'd lie in a submission hold and act like it wasn't hurting. To me that's infinitely more annoying than her running around on a bad leg. The dives were a mess in this in terms of their orchestration, but the two moves that put Toyota away were fantastic looking. I liked Ito in this despite the fact I didn't think it was right for her to be playing the kid sister act after the breakout year she had in '97, but ultimately it wasn't a very good performance from Toyota and it needed to be for the match to be special.

I'm not sure how only being on the two biggest smartphone platforms is an issue here? They website only lists a handful of phones that it's incompatible with for some reason, which happens with all sorts of Android apps for a number of reasons. Also, Android phone apps are built to scale to Android tablets. Actually, I checked again and it's mostly basic phones that aren't supported, though for some reason it isn't very compatible with LG phones.

In fairness to Dave, I don't think he actually said there was a bunch of stuff that had never been seen. He said there was a Choshu/Takano vs. Tenryu/Misawa match that had never been shown on TV. Then he listed a bunch of random stuff he'd found, but I don't think he's implying that Super J Cup or Skydiving J are new. Regarding Japanese mobiles, at present it's only available on Android or iPhone. There's a long list on the website of smartphones that it can't be streamed on. It seems the only tablet it's available for is iPad. That should give you an idea of how far behind Japan is when it comes to these type of services. They're still in their infancy here.

I don't know what the others are using, but in Japan the only real debit card available is Visa.

There's a lot of stuff on there that they've had pulled from YouTube. That's the only real advantage to it that I can see other than the live events.

Well, you can use a debit card then. In Japanese the only payment options are by credit card or through your mobile, but I guess they treat debit cards like a credit card.

It takes credit cards only.

Isn't the arm angle in that match because Kandori puts her in the armbar after her mic spot?

I doubt there will be any support for Roku or PS3 when barely anyone in Japan uses set top boxes. People are more likely to watch it on their mobile than through their TV. These types of streaming services barely have a foothold in the Japanese market. People still go to video rental stores here. I don't really think this service is comparable to the WWE Network. The WWE Network was a significant shift away from the PPV model, but in Japan there is the potential for more subscribers through this site than PPV buys through the existing pay TV platforms. Pay TV platforms in Japan have such small subscriber numbers that the internet is a much better option. Parv will be curious to note there is a Brisco vs. Inoki match from '75 listed.

It's easy to navigate even without google translate.

This was a lot of fun. I remember checking this out after the Yearbook initially dropped and being somewhat cold on it, but after going through the '96 stuff this means more than simply seeing Teoh and Funaki work in isolation. What a learning curve those bastards had been on and here they were the Gene and Ole Anderson of Japanese juniors. I don't need limbwork in my wrestling, but this was an example of it being done well. The finish I thought was fabulous. I don't know if you could book that better. Sterling, sterling effort.

This was a good match all things considered. Kyoko is probably my least favourite singles match-up for Toyota and was grossly overweight here, but as a greatest hits, end of the 90s match this was fun. Everything prior to the stretch run was inconsequential, but nothing was drawn out and the match was an extremely easy watch. Kyoko's weight added starch to some of her moves, but the loss of athleticism was sad to see when you consider the girl from '91-93.

I really shouldn't be teaching people this sort of thing, but Kazama belongs to an entire genre of Japanese porn -- http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Jukujo

I'd only recommend watching this if you haven't seen Joshi in a while as it's the most generic match you could expect from these teams and watching them face the exact same jeopardy as always is boring. The performances aren't bad per se; they're just the same as ever.

He just doesn't work, he's financially set for life. He'd get bored of that after a while. It seems like he's already looking for a creative outlet with this Marvel gig, and since he feels his wrestling career was a failure he'd probably like to succeed at something else.

What's going to happen once he realises the comic book business is full of all sorts of bullshit too? I wonder what sort of job this guy is really cut out for.

You're the one who made the claim! These are Vince's worst years: 1994 - 1995 : $87,352,000 : -$4,431,000 1995 - 1996 : $85,815,000 : $3,319,000 1996 - 1997 : $81,863,000 : $6,505,000