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ohtani's jacket

DVDVR 80s Project
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Everything posted by ohtani's jacket

  1. ohtani's jacket
    Tanahashi's decision to work light is a conscious and deliberate thing. His forearm strikes are awful (except for in that recent Shibata match), but I think too much is made of his offensive struggles. Someone mentioned his dragon screw leg whip once, but he executes the move more effectively than Daniel Bryan as an example. He has his formula and it produces decent match after decent match and sometimes something great. He's a much better worker than Ishii. I don't expect to get much agreement on that, but Ishii is a fun albeit uber limited worker and can't produce matches of the scope of Tanahashi's broadways.
  2. ohtani's jacket
    Gilbert Leduc vs. Le Bourreau de Béthune This started off with some decent grappling and a lot better work than the Quasimodo bout, but soon descended into a methodical knockout of poor old Leduc. The Executioner's heel work wasn't particularly outstanding (at least in this match), but he looked like a fair worker. He had a tremendous physique for a guy his size and his upper body and torso were so big compared to his legs that he almost appeared like a caricature. Again there was a neat comic book aspect to this.
  3. ohtani's jacket
    I also liked this. Instead of trying to top what they've done before, they took a more minimalist approach and worked a great 20 minute bout. I wish more Joshi workers had adopted this approach. Then perhaps the style could have evolved in something different instead of rehashing the same match structure in the years since. It's true they didn't add anything to the matches they'd already had, but having not watched those matches in years the counters felt fresh. I am totally anti the use of tables in wrestling, but the way Toyota stopped on a dime for that springboard move was insanely impressive. Loved Aja throwing around Manami's dead weight on the suplexes and the final back fist was brutal.
  4. ohtani's jacket
    This was a lot of fun, but I guess that goes without saying. It seemed like a forerunner to the 12/16 tag with the grittier mat exchanges and the work having more of an edge to it. Kaientai appeared to be coming into their own here. Hoshikawa slotted in well as Loss mentioned and overall the pacing was excellent. I like that the heels don't isolate one guy and work him over FIP style. Instead, they just beat on everyone. Great breakneck pace with the finishing stretch. It feels like a crap shoot at the end, which is the best way to work spotfests. It's a pity they couldn't keep this up in '97.
  5. ohtani's jacket
    Nice to see this brought back. Current Favorite Wrestler to Watch: Probably Shiryu. He seems like the most lucha-esque of the old school Michinoku Pro crew. Last Fun Match You Saw: The MPro tag where Liger showed up. Wrestler You Want to See More of: Invader 1, Jerry Brisco and WWE Rey Mysterio Jr. Match You Are Looking Forward to Watching Soon the Most: A 1950s or 60s Wild Man of Borneo tag feat Lord Alfred Hayes Last Fun Interview/Promo You Saw: Probably the post match to the King Ben/Kilby title match. Last Interesting Thing You Read about Wrestling: Probably some British Wrestling history. Last Worthwhile Wrestling Podcast You Heard: I enjoyed the Titans WoS extra. Most Fun You've Had Watching Wrestling Lately: The MPro multi-man matches are a lot of fun.
  6. ohtani's jacket
    I think Sayama's last bout in England was Hanley on 4/18/81. He debut as Tiger Mask on 4/23/81. For some reason he was billed through to September on Joint Promotion cards. Perhaps they expected him to come back.
  7. ohtani's jacket
    Shoe, I prefer their bout from '74 as Jack seems like he's the one in control even when he's working from underneath. I will watch the '76 bout again at some point since you liked it so much, but it doesn't seem as though they matched up that well. Jumbo was never that good on the mat, at least not as good as Baba or Inoki, and seemed to mesh better with the bomb throwers like Robinson and Race.
  8. ohtani's jacket
    This was a blast. Liger did seem to be enjoying himself as much as you can tell whether a guy in a mask and body suit is enjoying himself. Taka was awesome in this, and I dug his showdown with Naniwa at the end even if they kind of blew a nearfall. I'm glad I watched this as it added to the fun of 1996 Michinoku Pro. Naniwa's koppu kick off the apron was a "whoah!" moment.
  9. ohtani's jacket
    If you want I can send you the supporting documents for the stuff I mentioned. This the only really contentious part: "In the late 1960s boxing entrepreneur Jarvis Astaire purchased the Hurst Park acquisitions and subsequently added Best, Wryton, Morrell and Beresford Promotions to his portfolio before selling them on to William Hill." It's possible that Astaire bought everything up before selling it to Hill, but Hill definitely took over Hurst Park because I found newspaper articles pertaining to it, and as I said Astaire appeared to still be in the wrestling game after '71. I wonder if the Wrestling Heritage lineage comes from the Simon Garfield book The Wrestling where Max Crabtree mentions the ownership history? It seems to me that Crabtree was given the book because business was bad under Marino.
  10. ohtani's jacket
    We have a new contender, Fatty Thomas "The Incredible Bulk." (Skip to the end.)
  11. ohtani's jacket
    As with 1980 we close out 1981 with some quality Big Daddy... Big Daddy/Sammy Lee vs. Le Grande Vladimir/Mel Stuart (1/13/81) This was the same Wolverhampton crowd that went mental for the Pat Patton/Bobby Barnes fight so this was going to be loud if nothing else. The Russian/Dutch/French/Hungarian Vladimir came out to Boney M's Rasputin. Daddy came out to a mash up of the Seekers and the local boys marching squad. This woman with an enormous bosom and no front teeth kept pulling the finger to the beat of We Shall Not Be Moved. Sayama was rocking his Game of Death body suit. I wonder what he made of all this. He rather amusing blew a ton of shit in this bout, but the women at ringside didn't care as they were out for blood. Another worthless tag and another heel buried. Stick a stake in him, Vlad is done.
  12. ohtani's jacket
    I found an obituary for Henry William Abbey that supports my idea: "After the war ended, he returned to Prudential until 1950, when he joined the new family business, Dale Martin Promotions, where he was known as ‘Billy Dale’. Dale Martin Promotions held an exclusive wrestling contract with ITV from 1955 to 1985, which had its best years when shown on World of Sport between 1965 and 1985, and they were closely involved in World Championship Boxing in the 1960s and 70s. Henry became a chartered secretary, merged Dale Martin Promotions with Hurst Park Syndicate and floated the new company in 1964. He was a director and company secretary of this company until it was taken over by the William Hill Organisation in 1971. He became a director and subsequently Deputy Managing Director of William Hill, and was also a director of numerous other sporting, leisure and finance companies within the same group. He travelled widely on business in Europe and the USA before retiring from William Hill in 1988, when it merged with Mecca."
  13. ohtani's jacket
    There's something iffy about that timeline. The Hurst Park Syndicate were managers of the Hurst Park Racecourse through to 1962 when they were forced to close the race course and the land was sold for a housing estate. The Syndicate was then taken over by a firm called Elysian investments who bought into Terry Downes and Sam Burns' betting shops the following year. Astaire was Downes' manager at the time I believe and had some sort of stake in the business. The Syndicate allowed Downes and Burns to keep operating the shops and sold out to William Hill in 1971. At the time Hurst Park still owned Dale Martin along with the betting business. William Hill kept Burns on, so if Astaire was involved with the wrestling (as it seems he was), it would appear it was during the time that Hurst Park and William Hill were owners. Kung Fu has an anecdote about being called into Astaire's office, which was well after Crabtree had become the promoter. Lincoln was supposed to have sold out in '65 or so, which suggests to me that Hurst Park bought up the promotions prior to selling up.
  14. ohtani's jacket
    1. Invader 1 -- classic brawler. The type you associate with Memphis, lucha, or indeed Puerto Rico. All the tools -- blood, punches, limited but effective offence -- but more importantly the timing. Blood, sweat and tears, staggered selling, great scope even to his studio bouts. 2. Marty Jones -- the comp I got of him recently reminded me that along with Breaks and Grey he was the best in a WoS ring. Was apparently a bit of an asshole who didn't like very many people and would swallow guys alive if he didn't think they were good enough, but man could he go. Tremendously talented offensive wrestler. Probably one of the best ever. And as Regal pointed out, created the style that Dynamite Kid and Sayama are always credited for along with Mark Rocco. 3. Bobby Barnes -- my look at 1981 WoS reminded me of what a great worker Barnes was. His submissions in the match I watched are amongst the best pro-style stuff I've ever seen. He simply stretches limbs in a way that looks like a Picasso painting. Great heel work too, arguably better than his classic exotico run where he was more deliberately aloof. 4. Shiryu -- absolutely my favourite of the MPro guys. Togo and TAKA were better workers, but Shiryu is the most 'lucha' of them are does the best mat sequences and dives. His topes are nuts. 5. Mano Negra -- after he unmasked, freed his mullet and grew a moustache, he became the Mexican Dave Finlay. So much fun to watch. So much so that his masked stuff is a major disappointment.
  15. ohtani's jacket
    There were three Faulkner/Breaks matches which aired on television in 1977. Only one of those re-aired on The Wrestling Channel. The other two are in the ITV vaults somewhere.
  16. ohtani's jacket
    My understanding was that when the Hurst Park syndicate bought everyone out in the 60s that the syndicate essentially was Joint Promotions and that they owned Dale Martin and the other promotions. I thought Joint was only an NWA style body from 1952 to 1964.
  17. ohtani's jacket
    FYI, the 1/15 trios is on Mexico #394 and the 1/22 title match is on Mexico #401. The trios title match is the one that was pimped at the time.
  18. ohtani's jacket
    There was a lot to like about this one as at times it more closely reassembled a lucha trios than anything I've seen from MPro, but it lost its shape a bit after the initial round of exchanges and the second half felt uneven. Good finishing stretch, though. Shiryu's dives were mental.
  19. ohtani's jacket
    I'm a big fan of Martin so I'll be following this one with interest.
  20. ohtani's jacket
    Jumbo vs. Brisco from '76 was a boring match. Jumbo controlled way too much of the bout and very little of what he did was interesting. Brisco ended up working heel, but there was no real hook there either. The best thing he did was walk up to Jumbo after making him submit and point in his face. The third fall should have been testier after that, but neither guy brought the edge that the bout required. Brisco didn't look great playing heel. There appears to be a gap between his selling ability and acting talent.
  21. ohtani's jacket
    All right, it's just what you've described doesn't sound very much like a title match.
  22. ohtani's jacket
    Are you sure you've got the right match here? They had a lead-in trios bout on 1/15 then a title match on 1/22.
  23. ohtani's jacket
    Watched a few minutes of Brisco vs. Johnny Valentine on some DVD that Mike Graham released. Brisco was the World champ at the time and Valentine the US champion. More great selling from Brisco. If somebody had told me a few days ago that Brisco was one of the best sellers in wrestling history it would have flown right over my head. This has been quite a revelation.
  24. ohtani's jacket
    Brisco/Inoki was another good match. Brisco is an excellent worker. His selling is fantastic and I love the way he mixes in those knee drops with his mat work. As predicted, I liked the shoot elements and Inoki is generally a lot more tolerable to me than he is you. I'm curious how you would compare Brisco to Robinson since Brisco doesn't really have the suplexes you love.
  25. ohtani's jacket
    The Baba rematch was also good. I liked how they worked a different sort of match only a few days apart. Match two felt like more of a fight. I liked the psychology behind the matwork and they did an excellent job of returning to their feet and working in their high spots. There seemed to be a nice working chemistry between the two. The first bout was the more well rounded of the two and I preferred it slightly more, but the second bout was a nice continuation of what they'd done in bout one.
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