ohtani's jacket

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

Is he a good comic book writer? EDIT: Okay, I misread the Alan Moore analogy. Looks like this Thor thing is his first gig.

This was another good match. If you're looking for a great match you'll be disappointed as once you shave a star rating off what PUNQ, Lorefice or Meltzer may have given the match what you're really looking at is supplementary material. How much you enjoy the extra footage depends on whether you like the players. In this case, I thought Hasegawa was better than in any of the other matches she's appeared in and the other three were slightly more workmanlike. The main takeaway I got from the bout was that it was teamwork oriented as opposed to narrative driven. I don't think Aja working with a junior partner was a big deal. There were elements of Hasegawa playing the underdog, but she was expected to hold her own bust lip and all. Aja didn't dominate to any great extent and really it was a strong two-on-two contest without a tremendous amount of psychology. The aspects that infuriated MJH didn't bother me, but again I was watching it without crowd noise. The stretch run was standard, but not in a dull way. Toyota gave another solid performance. We all know her flaws, but I think the amount of time they're on display is greatly exaggerated. She's a performer more than 'wrestler', but a very good one. I also liked Yamada here. It never dawned on me that she was being repetitive. If she was, it's because the falls are too long. They cram far too much into each fall (especially the opening falls), which turns the falls into mini-matches at times and makes them individually too dense. But they stick to their guns and I admire that. It was their working style and they didn't think twice about it. The trouble is (was) that it's very hard to top and that seems to be coming through in the comments here.

This wasn't as bad as I was expecting based on some of the initial comments. The problem with it wasn't the length as such, but the pressing need for each fall to seem important. I would have ended the second fall several beats earlier to prevent the burnout people experienced in the final stanza. After such a tremendous struggle from Mita to win the fall, it's energy sapping to turn around and wrestle another fall. A shorter second fall gives you some breathing room and lets you add more of that struggle to the deciding fall instead of blowing it on the equalizing fall. The third fall never quite matched the drama of Mita trying to level the scores so there was an imbalance there. But there weren't any glaring execution problems and I thought the pacing was excellent for such a long match. I watched the match while listening to a record, which is a new habit of mine that creates an artificial rhythm to the matches but prevents me from getting bored. I was blissfully oblivious to whether they lost the crowd and happy that they worked at a decent clip.

Barry Douglas vs. Steve McHoy (10/11/82) Well now, this was a solid shift from Barry Douglas, carrying the latest young heavyweight heart throb to a very watchable match. Workmanlike stuff from Douglas, probably one of his best matches on tape. Who says an old dog can't surprise you every once in a while? McHoy also looked good here and looks to be another of those poor sods who came along too late. Pete Roberts vs. Skull Murphy (10/11/82) This was a decent bout, but a bit disappointing compared to what Jones was able to get out of Murphy. I was actually hoping this would be a bit of a sleeper, but it wasn't to be. Walton deserves props for namedropping Hulk Hogan in 1982, although in his over enthusiasm he said Hogan was in the new Sylvester Malone movie. Not quite as impressive as namedropping UWA promoter Francisco Flores in the Curtis/Saint bout, but a fun addition to the list of random names brought up on World of Sport. Alan Dennison vs. Black Jack Mulligan (11/3/82) This was really good. Larry Coulton was a straight up jobber, but he wasn't going down without a fight here. This was a delightfully niggly bout with plenty of testy exchanges between the two. Coulton used the closed fist and Dennison threw him about the ring by the beard. Memorable bout. I wish Coulton had gotten to show his talent more often instead of being the designated job guy. Bobby Barnes vs. Kid Chocolate (11/3/82) Barnes looked like a clown here. Seriously, he looked like he'd pinched a pair of Doink's tights. The tints in his hair looked a cross between a French poodle and a pensioner. How on earth the great Bobby Barnes descended into this mire is anybody's guess. At least his work wasn't bad. Kid Chocolate as usual took an age to fire, but once he did he headbutted Barnes into oblivion. God, I love Barnes' submission finisher. I think I like it more than the Breaks Special. Chocolate injured his arm in the ropes and Barnes was merciless. If only he didn't look like a clown. John Elijah vs. Bill Bromley (2/17/82) I've never seen an opponent make John Elijah look like a midget, but at 6'5" and 19st 2lbs, "Big Bertha" Big Bill Bromley was the man to do it. He absolutely dwarfed Elijah. Elijah was able to wrestle knots around him though, but not before carrying him to something fun and decent. Another neat carry job. Now we cross to Wales for some Reslo. The interesting thing about 80s Reslo is that you got to see a lot of the wrestlers who were no longer on World of Sport because they were part of Dixon's crew. The ring set-up is pretty much the same as WoS, but the matches aren't as good. They tend to last only four rounds and are always joined in progress after the first. The commentary is in Welsh, so I tend to play an lp while I watch. Rollerball Rocco vs. Kung Fu (Unknown location, taped 1984) If you ever want to see a Rocco vs. Kung Fu bout where Rocco does none of his signature bumps or all-action style and Kung Fu does none of his usual spots then this is the bout for you. I'm sure the British public missed seeing Rocco on television, but they weren't missing anything by not seeing this. Strangely subdued match. Johnny Saint vs. Johnny Palance (Denbigh, taped 1984) Johnny Palance was a guy whom Joint weren't interested in, but whom Dixon gave a lot of work. He was good value here and bore more than a passing resemblance to the Jack Palance. How cool is that? Saint looked extremely smooth in this. I swear catchweights were his true calling. Every time he wrestles catchweight it's better than his standard lightweight fare. Mike Jordan vs. Johnny Saint (Unknown location, taped 1984) This is what I mean by the standard lightweight fare. Admittedly, I've never been much of a fan of Mike Jordan, but this is nowhere near as good as Saint trying to wrestle a bigger man. Too much trickery and tomfoolery. Robbie Brookside vs. Terry Rudge (Llantrissant 2/6/91) Robbie Brookside, that hair... It was bigger than he was. I suppose in modern terms Robbie Brookside was like a talented indy guy who can't get signed by the WWE. He was pretty good for a guy who broke into the business so late. Rudge was older than dirt here, but still throwing forearm smashes like a motherfucker. Brookside could only take his shit for so long before retaliating and we got some nice exchanges before the ref ruined all the fun and threw the bout out. Fun to see Terry again.

I thought this was the best Joshi tag I've watched of late for the precise reason that they weren't trying to have a classic. Joshi is just as guitly of the self-conscious epic as any other style. In fact, you could probably argue it was a trailblazer given what bloated beasts some of its bouts were. Here they managed to avoid a lot of the big match trappings by having a smaller arching bout that didn't have quite the same number of peaks that those epics aim for. Usually that would seem like a criticism, but I thought the workers were extremely focused here on securing the pinfalls, and there was a strong central narrative involving Kyoko's back injury and the necessity of Takako stepping up if the Double Inoues were to win. Toyota and Yamada more or less played their part and not much else, but as a long time Inoues fan I didn't mind the spotlight being on them. And no matter how sloppy Takako was in the stretch run, I sill got a kick out of this and was satisfied seeing those girls win.

This was a decent match. I don't agree that it was go-go-go as it was quite a slow paced match. I liked the early going, but wasn't entirely convinced by Plum working from the top. I actually thought her height was a bit of an issue in this as she seemed too small to be a credible threat to Manami. I did like her contribution to the stretch run, though, from the gorgeous german to the clever submission attempts. Her size admittedly made Manami's offence look killer, especially her planchas. Ultimately, they were at different levels in the hierarchy and that was plain as day in the finish, but not a bad day's work for either woman.

This wasn't overly special. I was hoping for a match in the same vein as the Ito or Kandori bouts, but Hasegawa didn't have the same skill set as those workers. Outside of her throws and kicking game there wasn't a whole lot to her. Her early submission work only looked good because of Toyota's flexibility and she was erratic in the way she switched holds. Toyota by contrast was much more focused with her submission work. Everything she did looked nastier and more painful, highlighting the difference in class between the two wrestlers. I'm not sure why Hasegawa is so popular on this site as I don't find her that compelling. There's plenty of girls who try hard in Joshi and a great many of them are charismatic. I suppose Hasegawa's wrestling style was a point of difference from other young underdogs, but I thought she was still quite raw here. On the plus side, I enjoyed the stretch run and some of Hasegawa's counters were nifty. I can see the argument for this being a "reigned in" Toyota performance, but Toyota often worked small scale league matches this way so it wasn't a change of pace as far as I was concerned. I liked the way Toyota sold the loss. One of her more underrated qualities is her post and pre-match selling. She often gets overshadowed by the larger personalities in Joshi, but she was a fine actress in her own right.

I re-watched the other trios I mentioned, which was El Dandy/Pierroth Jr./Vampiro Casanova vs. La Fiera/El Supremo/Black Magic, 11/6/92, and the first caida is great not only for Fiera whipping the shit out of Dandy with the chain and trying to choke the life from him, but also the beatdown on Vampiro after he tries to play hero and the general working over of Pierroth, including El Supremo's swank suplex. The match does get progressively worse, though, the more Vampiro gets involved on offence, and the finish is lame with Fiera avoiding the match-up with Dandy and getting himself DQ'ed on purpose. May have been better with someone else filling in for Vampiro, but Fiera playing the chickenshit act wasn't worthy of this great feud.

The great under appreciated feud continues -- http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/blog/8/entry-436-the-fiera-vs-dandy-feud-2/

Atlantis/El Dandy/Pierroth Jr. vs. Sangre Chicana/La Fiera/Gran Markus Jr., CMLL 11/20/92 Pierroth's a cowboy! There was another weird CMLL vignette to begin this where Pierroth, dressed in jeans, a leather jacket and cowboy hat, saddled up his seed and rode through some mountain country. He looked a bit like the Marlboro Man, but I think his horse riding skills were meant to seem more impressive than they did. The vignette ended with Pierroth laying his horse down on its side and standing on top of it to pose. Not sure the horse enjoyed that. But enough about that. I'm sure the only "horse" Fiera cared about was either horse-powered or horse tranquilizer. This was the go home show before the hair match and Fiera had carnage on his mind. The beginnings to these matches are straight out of Monterrey. There was another one uploaded where Fiera choked the shit out of Dandy with his chain, but after a sleazy start the match got progressively worse and I decided not to review it. This time Fiera held nothing back and Dandy bled like a martyr. Fiera channeled his inner Pirata Morgan by biting Dandy's forehead and feeding on the cut. Unfortunately, the backdrop to this was a bit too workmanlike with Chicana and Gran Markus Jr. not really being as frenzied as I would have liked, but the image of Fiera holding Dandy by that plentiful hair and posing while Dandy bled and bled is the kind of lucha sleaze you don't see much of anymore. The second caida began with Pierroth being stalked on the outside by both Chicana and Fiera, and I kind of wondered how the horse vignette was meant to tie into all this. The camera cut without warning to Gran Markus Jr working Atlantis over, and he did this really cool spot where he picked Atlantis up by the tights and the back of his mask and threw him into the ground just like throwing out the garbage. That's the way all technicos should be dealt with. Markus was really warming to his task with a vicious looking uppercut to the jaw, a posting for Atlantis, and a knee to the back for good measure. Meanwhile, Dandy had his hands cupped together and was collecting the blood. That's gross, but you've got to love Chicana pointing and laughing at Dandy as he stumbled past all the while with a big boot across Pierroth's throat. The technicos were really taking a beating at this point. Atlantis was desperately trying to pull Dandy away, but Fiera chopped him out of the way and sent Dandy hurling into some chairs. And Chicana laid the boot into Pierroth. Now there's a match-up I would've liked to have seen, Pierroth vs. Chicana. Ah lucha, where the best match-ups never happen. The table was set for a really good technico comeback here with Dandy stumbling about from blood loss and Pierroth and Atlantis trying to shoo the doctor away. Even with the beloved grainy footage you could see Dandy was a crimson smudge. Fiera pulled Dandy into the ring by the hair while he was still trying to walk it off, and while the rudos held Dandy, he spat in Fiera's eye. Chicana punched him in the side and Markus pulled his head back by the hair while Fiera wiped the blood and spit from his face. Dandy buckled down onto both knees and the Stations of the Cross type allusions were pretty obvious here. Or maybe I've been listening to too much metal lately. Atlantis and Pierroth tried to orchestrate the comeback with Atlantis hitting the most gorgeous looking dropkick, but Fiera swiped away a second attempt and nailed Atlantis with his spinning high kick and dropped to the outside where he headbutted Dandy. That summed the match up really as Fiera was just relentless in trying to beat the shit out of his adversary. Finally the ring cleared of the other four, and Dandy got his one-on-one showdown with Fiera. He'd lost too much blood though, and Fiera easily cut off his attacks. He then gave Dandy a kick in the balls, feigned that Dandy had done the same to him and got the technico side disqualified. As far as low blow finishes go, Fiera not giving a fuck was pretty cool. He'd proven his point by beating the shit out of Dandy and cheating to win just rubbed more salt into the wound. The stage was set for the hair match and Dandy had plenty of it to lose. Stayed tuned for next time when we bring you the exciting conclusion to Dandy v Fiera...

People who dislike Joshi should avoid this match-up like the plague as these were two of the biggest proponents of the action at all costs mentality. People who do like Joshi ought to appreciate the effort, commitment and intensity here. It's not a perfect match -- there's no way that a match involving these two isn't going to be flawed in some way -- but in sheer terms of the competition between two wrestlers and the will power and desire it takes to win, this was a far more compelling match to me than the majority of Toyota's matches during this time period. It's repetitive and scraggly at times, and there's every chance I could watch it tomorrow and not like it as much, but I would put it on my personal hit list for 1990s Toyota.

I've seen the 2005 match once before, but it was so long ago that I can't remember much about it. I also remember loving the '06 match against Finlay and the Orton match.

One time I asked one of Santana's acquaintance's if I could talk to Santana at some point. I wasn't really expecting any actual reply or if I did get one, wasn't expecting anything soon. Literally one day after I asked, I get a call from a New Jersey area-code, and it's Santana himself. I wish everyday people I know where that good at returning phone calls. You can't leave the story there! What does one talk about when Tito Santana calls them up?

Rey's 2004 bouts were considerably better than his 2003 work. The Eddie Guerrero bout was the best match he'd had since the end of the Smackdown Six era and his best singles showing in the WWE to date. That was partially because Eddie did such a great job working over his shoulder injury, but Mysterio's selling was also brilliant. To me that was a legit four star match. The Chavo bout was good, but I got a bit tired of Mysterio hitting a move and selling the knee. I know people applaud that type of sustained selling, but the repetition and the fact that he kept hitting the same leg based offence bugged me and wasn't as clever as it seemed. I also hated the finish, which should have at least tied into the narrative. The Jamie Noble bout was really good. I thought it was Rey's second best match of the year and definitely a feather in the cap of those who think Rey's the best television worker ever given he had a stellar match tucked away on Velocity. The Angle matches weren't as good as the original ones, though the more stripped back style of the first one was interesting. And while he seemed to have ironed out some of the kinks with Tajiri, they still failed to knock one out of the park. Nevertheless, if those are your weaker matches of the yesr, you had a good year.

I watched the 2/15/95 Toyota/Hotta vs. Kyoko/Takako tag where whoever gets the pin earns the right to challenge Aja at the Queendom show. Quite an interesting dynamic as Toyota and Hotta end up coming to blows whereas Takako works tirelessly to win the title shot for her partner. The finish is ridiculous though. Hotta takes a bump to the floor and Toyota is supposed to pin Kyoko with a move off the top rope, but she botches it completely and they do a reset in the opposite corner by which time Hotta has recovered and is standing on the apron wondering what the fuck is going on. She doesn't know quite what to do, so she just watches Toyota pin Kyoko and grab the title shot.

I'm not into Rey's WWE work because of crap like this. So no, I wouldn't feel the same way I don't think, because Rey just doesn't need any cutesy trademark spot. He's a great worker. He's spent years being a great worker without doing stuff like this. The Rock on the other hand got over because of his catchphrases and cutesy spots like the People's Elbow. That's part of his character. The 619 is just another WWE corporate/trademarked stamp on a worker who doesn't need it to either work or get over. That's why it annoys me so much. So it's not the spot but WWE's repackaging of workers that bothers you? Because I was going to ask how you would feel if someone didn't want to watch Flair's output because of his turnbuckle spot or Andre because of the spot where he gets caught in the ropes.

This was underwhelming, and I say that as a fan of both women. If it had been on one of those 1993 inter-promotional shows it might have been okay, but as a title match it was both unremarkable and unworthy. The finishing stretch couldn't have been any more predictable if they'd tried,and Toyota winning wasn't realistic given the limited damage Kansai had taken. Nowhere near special enough for what should have been a major match, and poorly booked all round.

Mick McManus vs. Alan Dennison (10/7/81) These two had met on television numerous times over the years, though Walton did nothing to play up their history. Quite a clash of the egos with no quarter given in that respect. In 1981 this was never going to be a great match, but Walton could have done more to put it over as two perennial television powerhouses squaring off. The fact that he didn't is a sign that *someone* thought this sort of match-up should be put out to pasture. Two things stick out about McManus in the early 80s, one being how weak his tricks look compared to the mid-70s (which wasn't even his pomp) and the other being how bad his hair looked. The whole McManus image wasn't really there anymore. Johnny Saint vs. Jan Curtis (2/17/82) This was horrendous. Who booked this for the Albert Hall? It lasted one round, saw Curtis take a fall to the outside twice, and ended with Curtis unable to continue. He looked pensive throughout and nothing like the worker I saw take on Cooper. This was an absolute dud and by default the worst Johnny Saint match on tape. Sid Cooper & Bobby Barnes vs. Pat Patton & Steve Logan (5/11/82) Barnes and Cooper make for a great tag team. This was another decent tag match. It seems that British tag wrestling improved immensely in the early 80s. This even had a FIP feel to it with the heels working over both Patton and Logan. Of course they don't go all the way with it like a Southern tag would, but it was nice to have some structure to a WoS tag and Barnes vs. Patton is one of the more under-the-radar match-ups. After praising the structure, the finish was unnatural to me as a long time wrestling fan as Logan stood on the apron doing nothing while Barnes scored the winning fall. It's just weird not seeing a save in that situation. I think it was this match where all the kids ran to ringside at the end and gave the heels the fingers. You could hear them shouting "ya fuckin' wankers!" as Walton signed off. A night out for the entire family. John Naylor vs. King Ben (11/3/82) Only a few minutes of this aired, which I'm guess was the way it was edited for television as it seems to happen an awful lot with Naylor footage. What was shown was excellent. Along with the Kilby bout, this was another example of Ben looking good, which not surprisingly coincides with him taking his wrestling seriously instead of all the tomfoolery. It may have also been another example of a wrestler whom Ben didn't get along with as it a bit frosty at times, but that frostiness added another layer of tension to the bout and gave it an edge that the lighter weight matches seldom have. Sid Cooper vs. Pat Patton (8/11/82) Disappointing. The TV lights went off at the start and they wrestled the match with partial lighting until the technicians were able to get the lights back on. That seemed to put them off (naturally), but when the lights came back on and everyone in the hall could see again, they quickly went to the injury finish instead of giving folks something to cheer about. I was hoping for much more from this. Ray Steele vs. Kwik Kick Lee (8/11/82) This was okay. Maeda was obviously a whole lot better at working Japanese style holds than he was Lord Mountevans rules, but he gave it a go. He was quite a bit heavier than Steele and sweated heavily under the television lights so it wasn't the smoothest match you'll see between heavyweights, but the stand-up parts were good. Walton was frustrated that there wasn't enough action, but this was all right despite its awkwardness. Jim Breaks vs. Tom Thumb (8/11/82) You can probably guess why Neil Evans was called "Tom Thumb." He was billed at 5′ 0″ and 9 st, but was a tough little blighter. This was his television debut and he was lucky enough to be up against Jim Breaks, who almost always put over new talent. This wasn't exactly a Breaks classic, but his facial expressions were fantastic and it was a fun bout while it lasted. Breaks was one of the smallest guys around, but Thumb looked tiny even in comparison to Jimmy. He was constantly on the move though, trying to gain an advantage with his speed and quickness. Very fun gimmick. He couldn't escape the Jim Breaks Special though. No siree. Vic Faulkner vs. Mick McMichael (10/11/82) This was pure comedy with Faulkner and McMichael pulling out a gag on each and every hold. For the life of me, I can't remember Mick McMichael ever doing comedy to quite this extent. Maybe he should have worked this way all the time as it was a step up from his usual nondescript bouts. Another thing they did here was mic the ring so you could clearly hear every word the wrestlers and the ref were saying. That made a big difference compared to say those Conneely matches. After a boatload of comedy the bout ended on a serious note as McMichael gravely injured his larynx. Faulkner didn't want to take the decision and all I could think was "no-one gives a shit whether you take the decision Faulkner." Not my favourite workers these two.

If you were into Rey's WWE stuff more perhaps you'd feel the same way about the 619 that you do the People's Elbow. I actually think there are other things Rey does that are less plausible like when he head scissors a guy into the steel corner post, but that would probably work a treat if it were Psicosis in AAA where the conventions are different.

To me it's nowhere near as bad as the Five Knuckle Shuffle, the People's Elbiw, the Worm or the Stinkface as he doesn't have to stop to signal if. As a move, it's better than the Bronco buster.

Really? Ross wouldn't play off Ventura at all. I much prefered Tony and Jesse.

The 619 takes up about 5 seconds of a Rey match. It's usually the set-up for the West Coast Pop. I don't see how it's the focal point of his matches.