ohtani's jacket

It was from the Royal Albert Hall so it would have been promoted by Dale Martin Promotions under the Joint Promotions banner. Joint Promotions was made up of six different promotions, some of which were owned by the group and some of which were affiliated -- http://prowrestling.wikia.com/wiki/Joint_Promotions. Joint owned Dale Martin and for all intents and purposes they were the same thing. In order to save confusion, I usually refer to WoS as Joint Promotions, but there are a lot of people (especially the wrestlers) who refer to it as Dale Martin. Perhaps John will chime in with how he thinks the matches should be labeled.

I listened to the opening 15 minutes or so. A couple of things: * The matches when they originally aired on World of Sport were usually joined in progress. The Wrestling Channel was sent the master tapes from ITV so when you're watching that footage you're generally seeing a longer version of the match than would have aired on TV. A lot of that footage begins with the MC introductions before Walton even starts talking. The reason the bouts went long at the tapings (and in the halls) is because there were only half a dozen or less matches on each show so they had to fill out the cards. * Myself and others rather lazily refer to all of the wrestling on ITV as Joint Promotions when it fact most of the television was from Dale Martin. If you're really interested you can usually see the name of the promoter on the turnbuckle. The reason for the business model Parv is talking about is because you not only had the Joint Promotions group but a bunch of independent promoters as well. Joint Promotions ran multiple shows in multiple towns on the same day and you also had a bunch of other promotions crammed into the same territory so to speak. * It's not that difficult to follow the different weight classes. Wrestlers moved up and down the classes but Walton was always on hand to explain. Each division basically consisted of a World, European and British champion although some of the World and European titles weren't defended in Britain. The World champion was obviously positioned as the top wrestler in their weight class with the European and British champions being the next tier down. The titles were important particularly in getting workers over in the magazines and the programs (which were a huge part of the business), but you can't really follow the title picture by watching random matches on YouTube. What would usually happen is that there would be a series of three matches where the challenger would win the first match, have a rematch where if they won they earned a title shot and then a third match where they got their shot at the belt. Sometimes these matches aired on television, sometimes they didn't. * The matches didn't always have rounds. Often they would have no rounds time limit bouts. One fall bouts were also common. Tag matches always had a time limit. * There were numerous heels. Heel vs. face matches is one of the most common staples of WoS. It wasn't all "another pure contest for the grapple fans" fare. A card would be made up of all sorts of bouts. There are ref bumps, weapon use, blood, angles, guys coming to ringside and distracting a rival and just about any other pro-wrestling trope you can think of. Not as much as in US wrestling because that was heathen all-in wrestling, but the halls had gimmick matches all the time such as chain matches etc. There wasn't a huge amount of continuity to the TV as it was mostly a taped houseshow, but there were ongoing storylines, feuds and rivalries and the TV built to the money matches.

I'll have to check that out later. One of my favourite unheralded guys, Johnny South, against Chris Adams' running partner Ringo Rigby; The indestructible Skull Murphy, one of the better bruisers in the industry during the 1980s:

There's something to be said for the fact that he's probably not as good a worker as people think technically speaking, but I don't really see why anyone would care otherwise. Fans only care about the output not the input.

RINGS basically couldn't draw after Maeda retired so they tried going a different route. Unfortunately, Tamura just wasn't a draw. They brought in a lot of quality foreign fighters but PRIDE snapped them up. They lost their TV deal with WOWOW and that was it.

Casas and Ultimo wrestled each other in a trios match on the 19th -- http://www.thecubsfan.com/cmll/tvshow/cmll/1993.php

I love Angle. I don't know if it's a guilty pleasure or I legitimately think he's good, but I dig him a lot. He's a machine and his intensity is off the charts. There's no way I can dislike an excessively fired up jock. I do wonder if my love for him goes back to the countless hours I spent playing RAW vs. Smackdown story mode. I remember really liking the Benoit/Angle Rumble match as a result.

That's a very good answer, but to me it comes across better on paper than it does in the matches. There's not really that many extended sequences where they focus on the psychology you're detailing. It's mostly one pair squaring off another another. Hamada's work is good, but quite a few of the guys are better. Of course you could probably say the same about his UWA work too, but he was lightning quick in those days.

FACE VS FACE CLASHES Cena vs Lashley - Great American Bash 2007 This was a good match. I liked this a lot. Lashley's selling left a bit to be desired, but his takedowns were rad and I liked a lot of his other offence. Cena's comeback attempts sucked as usual, but his counters were excellent. The FU off the top rope to end it was shitty looking and JR's commentary was like an old dog that needs to be taken out back, but those were minor quibbles. I like Cena a lot more in straight up wrestling bouts. *** 1/2

Is it just me or is Hamada's contribution to those Michinoku Pro tags wildly overstated? They could have replaced him with someone else and the matches would have been just as good. Even his best performance in the 12/16 tag is overshadowed by Yakushiji. I prefer his UWA trios work.

This was much feistier than These Days. Everything they did had an extra edge to it, and I thought leading with forearm strikes instead of irish whips was brilliant. I agree with Zenjo that it's less seminal, but the finishing stretch was flat out great and ranks alongside any multi-man tag finish I can recall. The crowd was amazing as well. That ovation at the end was outstanding. Great match.

Fujiwara was the carniest motherfucker of all-time and would regularly make jokes during shoot style bouts.

Time to polish off 1981: Rollerball Rocco vs. Joel De Fremery (8/26/81) Sound issues made this difficult to follow, but perhaps the least remarkable World Title bout from any promotion in the 80s. The French worker De Fremery didn't show me anything and Rocco didn't even put on the "Rocco Show." Joint Promotions would often bring over a guy from a continent for vacant World Title bouts, presumably to add some legitimacy to their global pretensions, but this would have been so much better if the top two heavy-middleweights had met. Mick McMichael vs. Steve Peacock (2/2/81) Peacock looked good here. Not Jim Breaks good or anything, but Johnny England good. I wouldn't mind seeing a long six rounder if he has one, but he's a guy who slipped through The Wrestling Channel cracks. McMichael remains an enigma. So many matches, so many years on television, and no connection at all. Tom Tyrone vs. Peter Stewart (2/24/81) This had funky sound issues that sounded like a Pink Floyd recording at first but soon got on my nerves. So I put on a New Wave of British Heavy Metal record to accompany this; one of my more recent booms inspired by Regal's appearance on Austin's podcast, Triple H's entrance at Wrestlemania 22, and a German guy I met outside an alcohol vending machine. I figure a lot of the wrestlers were into this shit at the time, so why not? Tyrone was young and babyfaced, but put up a decent fight against the Iron Duke. Stewart cleaned his clock in the end, but Tyrone moved another rung up the hierarchy. Peter Stewart vs. Johnny South (12/30/80) I may be the only person on the planet who gets excited over Peter Stewart vs. Johnny South. This was an adrenaline kick. Most people's idea of World of Sport is Johnny Saint rolling himself into a ball or some shit, but this is my kind of fix. Stewart had South in the Japanese stranglehold and you could see South had a mouthful of blood. Later on it seemed like South gave him a receipt but all in the spirit of tough as guts professional wrestling. These guys could have easily been card carrying members in the Rudge/Singh/Roach/Steele club. The finish was great as Stewart knocked South the fuck out while selling as though he'd fractured his forearm. Bad ass. Le Grand Vladimir vs. John Cox (12/30/80) The Burnley crowd were well up for this and gave Cox probably the most support he ever received. Naturally, he was the sacrificial lamb, but not before a decent clubbing at the hands of Vladimir. Walton made a right hash out of explaining Vladimir's background: Russian but born to French and Polish parents and residing most of his life in Paris. In the end he fobbed him off as Prussian and span some bullshit about how he'd won countless German tournaments. Vladimir was never a great worker, but he knew how to get heat and could have had a better run in the UK if the money had been better. Instead, they brought him in for the World Heavyweight Title Eliminator series they ran at the Royal Albert Hall, which was this sort of gauntlet thing that Wayne Bridges was involved in on the monthly shows and jobbed him to Daddy on TV. Wayne Bridges vs. Lee Bronson (4/29/81) I was ready to spit venom at this when Bronson dropped the first fall in the opening round, but it turned into a pretty decent bout. For once we got to see Bridges show some of his technical ability instead of working whatever lump they put in front of him. I'm still not convinced he had the prowess of the heavyweights who were always in and out of the country and off TV for months at a time, but this was better than the usual Bridges fare. Somewhat on the short side, but I managed to get my teeth sunk in. I can kind of understand why they stopped pushing Bronson as the new young hope with that hair loss. King Kong Kirk vs. Tom Tyrone (6/24/81) This went longer than it needed to, but Kirk gave Tyrone plenty of the bout while still using him to set up a bout with the visiting Rick Hunter, who I believe was splitting his time between the AWA and the Pacific Northwest at the time (Joint billed him as being from Portland.) The grotesque nature of Kirk continues to captivate me. He had this blotch on the side of his head that I couldn't decide was a birth mark, a patch of hair or a birth mark with something growing out of it. And he had this shit on his face that was either parts he hadn't shaved or pieces of toilet paper. Fucking weird.

One thing I forgot to mention about Marino is that when he gets on the mic it totally kills the Italian immigrant gimmick he had. Alan Kilby vs. King Ben (8/7/86) This looked much better than their June bout but was clipped to shit for television broadcast. Alan Kilby vs. Barry Douglas (2/27/85) Just the final two rounds. The action was decent if unspectacular. There weren't any standout performances from this last bit of Alan Kilby, which is disappointing, but like a lot of guys he went all right in the early 80s when Joint was still good then laboured in the waning years as it crapped out. Even so, his performances in these matches really wasn't anything special and I may have to concede that he has a smaller number of good matches than thought and perhaps not a premier worker.

I'm pretty sure Michaels has had as many well regarded matches in the WWF as Davey Boy and Owen. Shawn Michaels fans can breath easy there.

Okay. I get it.

It's really not a matter of caring for Brody himself. It's a matter of "Do I want to actively seek out matches from a guy who most probably murdered a guy and get enjoyment out of his work ?" My personnal answer is no. Like I said, it's a case by case matter, as I know of (and understand) people who can't watch a Benoit match anymore, while I've been able to (in a broader context, again). Now if you're talking about caring about the victim, indeed I have no emotional link to Brody at all while I was a fan of Woman. Plus, I am very sensitive to the issue of violence against women, so in all logic I should have had more issues watching Benoit. Like I said, my own personal question here is "Do I want to willingly search for some new entertainment from a guy who killed ?". The key points are *willingly* and *new* to me. At this point, I'd rather not. I respect what you're saying, but by airing your thoughts aren't you implying that the rest of us should agree with you and feel guilty for enjoying Invader bouts?

When you're watching two guys pretend to have a fight it's not hard to watch it in a detached way where you only care about the performance and not what happened in real life. I never watch an Invader match and think "wow, I'm looking at the face of a killer. " If I really think about it, I view most murder cases in the same detached way. It's simply a matter of switching off. What I find a little strange is that people don't give two shits about Brody until his killer is brought up. Suddenly caring about him as a human being because if the way he died is understandable I suppose, but people sure as he'll don't have a lot of sympathy for him otherwise.

Mike Marino vs. Alan Kilby (2/11/81) Marino was apparently 58 when he died, but he looked like he was in his 60s here. He was wearing a blue t-shirt underneath an amateur singlet, I suppose because he was conscious of his upper body. McManus did a similar thing in his final years. On the other hand, he had leukemia at the time so who knows what he was going through. Despite his ill health and advancing age, he was still an impressive mat wrestler, which meant the competitive part of this was good; but it was sullied by an injury finish that saw Kilby lose despite being up a fall. The point of the finish was for Marino to get on the mic and offer Kilby a rematch (and shot at his title); yet another shitty finish to a career full of them due to how protected he was. The rematch never eventuated due to an injury to Marino and he died in August, so this marks his final television appearance.

You should move that to the PR thread for posterity.

This was another fun match. It didn't have the charm of the These Days match but the elimination rules imposed a bit more structure to the bout. Having said that, Kaientai will never be confused with being the Infernales when it comes to double teaming spots and the eliminations weren't as spectacular as they might have been. A point of comparison might be the CMLL ciberneticos from the following year and there is no comparison really. I did like Naniwa's stand at the end though. He was the perfect guy to go it alone against the remaining heels.

That Invader/Hercules Ayala studio match was such a blast. Invader is a legit awesome brawler, but I loved the shots Ayala was laying in. Totally underrated big man. WWC had the most pimping commissioner. This thread is the ticket for an awesome match of the day.

ANTI-CENA CROWDS Cena vs Triple H - Wrestlemania 22 Let's see, Money in the Bank is a classic and one of the greatest WWE matches of all-time, I never want to see another Edge/Cena match so long as I live, and I can do without seeing a Rob Van Dam match. I think I'm getting to the point where my interest in Cena depends on who his opponent is, and that's a big determiner in how I rate a worker. So Triple H it is. His entrance is sublime. How wonderfully self-indulgent. Cena comes across as a dipshit by comparison. I liked the early work in this. I don't have much of a problem with Triple H's work; it's basic stuff but inoffensive. It's the finishing stretches where things get cliched. The ref bump, the weapon shot, the kicking out of the FU and taking an age to tap to the STFU. It was like he was having a running battle with JR over who could roll out the more tired, cliched shtick. I think Ross won with the football talk. Cena didn't really own this match, which is a reoccurring theme for me. But it wasn't bad. About *** 1/4

Quasimodo in a German tournament is a baaad idea. I can't imagine him doing the same shtick in the same tent for nights on end.

Dave Finlay/Rocky Moran vs. Owen/Ross Hart (aired 3/31/84) For some reason watching an 18 year old Owen Hart is stranger to me than seeing a teenage Davey Boy or Dynamite Kid. Walton kept calling the Harts the "Ross" family. Moran seemed so timid in this. He did a decent job of carrying young Owen "Ross," albeit with some rather unsubtle whispering in the ear on each posting, but where was the great heel that shone so brightly against Chic Cullen? Finlay was nothing special in this and the bout suffered as a result. Fit Finlay/Rocky Moran vs. Clive Myers/Kung Fu (11/4/87) It's setting the bar pretty low, but this wasn't a bad bout for 1987. Finlay was in full on mullet mode, which meant his antics were over the top and he was more interested in heat than he was in grappling, but he was one of the biggest stars on the circuit at this point and it came through loud and clear in the crowd response. Myers and Kung Fu were past their best but could still provide crowd pleasing spots, and it went the entire 20 minutes with no cuts. Moran was again invisible in terms of presence. His pairing with Finlay has been uber disappointing. This was a bout for All-Star so the camera work was a bit more funky and they had a ring announcer that was the British version of Mike Mcguirk. Worth watching if you're a completist.